bafe kind of luft it be, it is a rebel I cannot get maf tered or commanded; yea, it is a rebel against thy crown and government: Behold, this great Magiftrate, this glorious King, will give orders to ftone it to death; yea, he will order fo many words of pow→ er, at this occafion, and perhaps fo many words and exertions of power at another occafion, like so many mighty ftones thrown by his powerful arm at the rebel, till at last it be ftoned to death. O Sirs, are you coming to this powerful King, by believing that he hath power to crush all your rebellious lufts? If you be truly believing his power, furely the power of fin will fall before the faith of his power, like Dagon before the ark; for no Dagon-luft can ftand before the ark of his ftrength. The more you believe his power, the lefs power will fin have; and little power may it have this day.

Are you under the power of pollution and filthinefs; heart or hand-pollution, and filthinefs of the fleth or of the fpirit, and can hardly believe his will to fave and cleanfe you? yet, is there any grain of faith in you with refpect to his power, faying with the leper, Mat. viii. 2. "Lord, if thou wilt, thou canft make me clean: Jefus anfwered, I WILL, be thou clean:" d. If you truly believe my power, you have no reason to doubt of my will I had never given you grace to believe that I have power to make you clean, if I had no will to make you clean: therefore, doft thou believe my power? then you poffefs my good-will; I will, be thou clean.. Let your faith, then, act more ftrongly than to fay, If he will, he can: but if you believe he can, you may be fure he will cleanfe you; for, though he will not do all that he can do, yet he will do all that he enables you to believe he can do unto your foul, when your faith is founded upon his promife, fuch as that, Ezek. xxxvi. 25. "I will fprinkle you with clean water; from all your filthinefs, and from all your idols will I cleanfe you." Are you faying, Lord, I believe, help my unbelief;" I believe thou canft make me clean, even ME? According to that promife, then he is faying, "I will,

"I will, be thou clean," even THOU. There is a particular ME in faith's acting towards a powerful Jefus ; and a particular THOU in God's dealing with that foul. It comes to clofe reafoning betwixt the poor finner and the powerful Saviour, as if there were none but these two speaking together face to face, and mouth to mouth; yea, and heart to heart; thou and me.It comes to clofe reafoning; and this ME in faith makes it the hardest thing in the world, and yet the fweeteft thing in the world, to believe that Chrift hath all power in heaven and earth, and that for me, for me, for me, and my everlasting falvation; for justifying, fanctifying, and cleanfing of me. Do you believe that he hath power to fave and cleanfe you in particular? Why, man, according to your faith, fo fhall it be unto you.

What fhall I fay, O finner, O enemy, O rebel! will you fubmit to him, by believing that he hath all power in heaven and earth! Who can harden himfelf against God, and profper? As it is a dangerous thing to ftand out against fuch a powerful Prince; fo, I am fure, you could not ftand out a moment longif you cordially believed that he hath all power in heaven and earth given unto him. O Sirs, if you be lieved this doctrine, with application, namely, "That "all power is delegated to, and refides in the perfon

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of Chrift," and that fo as he hath power to fave THEE in particular, then falvation were begun. O then, pút honour upon this powerful King of kings, and Prince of princes, by believing his power for your good and benefit.-Art thou under the power of heart-hardness and ftupidity? Yet, O will you put honour upon his power, by believing that he hath power to heal thy backfliding, even THINE, and it shall be done?-Art thou under the power of innumerable heart-plagues, infomuch, that none in the world hath fuch a plagued heart, and that no power under heaven can heal you? O will you come to this powerful One, and put honour upon his power, by believing that he is an able phyfician, to heal you, and you in particular. If there be any faith here prefent, to glorify his power,

then

then, I can affure you, the power of the Lord is prefent to heal.-Art thou under the power of the devil, and his temptations and fiery darts? What is the matter? Here is relief; only look to a powerful Lord, that came to bruife the head of the ferpent, and deftroy the works of the devil. Put honour upon his power, by believing that he is able to fuccour them that are tempted, and to fuccour you, and you are fafe; for, the God of peace, and the God of power, will bruife Satan under your feet fhortly.-Are you under the power of unbelief and impenitency, and the want of all grace and good? O come to him, and glorify his power, by believing that he is able to make you believe: by believing that he is the powerful author of faith, and that "He is exalted, by the right-hand of God, to be a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance unto Ifrael, and remiffion of fins ;" and that when "He afcended up on high, he received gifts for men, even for the rebellious, that God the Lord might dwell among them :" gifts for men, even for you, and you in particular. If thou couldft believe, thou fhouldft fee the glory of God; and you believe his power, you fee his power and glory in the fanctuary.-Are you under the power of inability to believe his power, and inability to help yourself, and credit his power with application to yourself? Yet still, however strange the call may feem, it is not I but He who hath all power in heaven and earth, that calls and commands you to believe in his name, and to glorify his power, by believing that God hath laid help upon One that is mighty. Though the hand of faith be not only weak, but withered; yet it is he that hath all power that fays, Stretch forth the withered hand, and take hold of his firength: for his power and ftrength is laid to your hand in the promise; My grace fhall be fufficient for thee; and my ftrength fhall be made perfect in thy weaknefs." His power is laid to your hand in this word of faith that we preach; fo that you need not afcend to heaven for it, or defcend to the deep; nay, the word is nigh, and Chrift in the word: there his power is offered to your faith.-Again, Are you under the power of unwillingness, to believe his power for your falvation,

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under the power of enmity and unwillingness to be faved by his power? Let me afk you, Whether this power of unwillingness and enmity be eafy or uneafy and weighty to you? If you be eafy, and living eafily under the power of enmity against Chrift, then, it feems, you are eafy and content though he put forth his power in your everlasting ruin: for one of the two muft take place, the power of Chrift is to be put forth either in the converfion and falvation, or in the everlafling deftruction and confufion of every one that hears this gofpel.Why, fay you, If he be fo powerful, able, and willing to fave, then let him exert his power; I am easy whatever he do. What are you content to want this powerful Jefus to fave you from fin now, and from hell hereafter! Then I take witnefs against you, that if he put not forth his faving power upon you before you go into eternity, you fhall be inexcufable at the great day, when you stand before his awful tribunal: he will be juft in pronouncing that dreadful doom against you, Depart from me, ye curfed!" and you fhall have nothing to fay for your defence, but that your ruin is of yourfelf; and his damning power, fhall be juft and righteously exerted against you, becaufe you did not care for his faving power. But if your enmity and unwillingness to believe his faving power, and lay hold upon it, be unealy and weighty to you, then there is hope in Ifrael concerning you; for his power to deftroy the power of enmity, is put in a promise for you to believe and grip unto; "Thy people fhall be willing in the day of thy power," Pfalm cx. 3. Therefore, O glorify his power, by believing that he hath power to bow your will, and break your enmity; and if you believe this with any pleasure and contentment, I can tell you, the day of power is partly come already, the day of believing is the day of power. In a word, are you under the power of death, dead really, under the power of fpiritual death; dead legally, under the power of the condemning fentence of God's law, that binds you over to eternal death? Yet, fo long as you have yet a natural life, a life of common fenfe and reason, though you cannot believe by the power of natural reafon

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no more than Lazarus could come forth out of the grave by his own natural power, when he was dead and itinking there; yet, because the power of God works upon the natural faculties, in the day of power, therefore, may I fpeak to the dead, in the name of him that hath all power in heaven and earth, over the dead and the living both, and who fays, "The hour cometh, and now is, when the dead fhall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear fhall live:" O dead finner, hear and believe what he fays, John xi. 25. "I am the refurrection and the life; he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet fhall he live." O finner, though you be dead, not only in a dead frame, but in a dead flate, fay not, What need you enjoin me to believe? What can I do, who am dead? Why the queftion is not what you can do, but what he can do that calls you; and it is not I that call you to believe, but he that hath all power in heaven and earth, and that can make you believe. Therefore, though you be dead and rotten in the grave of fin and fecurity, yet he that is the refurrection and the life fays, "Lazarus, come forth, come forth: Awake thou that fleepeft, and arife from the dead, and Chrift fhall give thee light," Eph. v. 14. Oh! is there none here who are hearing the voice of the Son of God? The voice of a mortal man hath no quickening power to make you believe, but if the voice of the Son of God be heard, faith comes by hearing of it: hearing him, and believing in him, go together;

Verily, verily, I fay unto you, He that hears my words, and believes on him that fent me, hath everlafting life, and fhall not enter into condemnation,” John v. 24. If you have heard his voice, then you believe his power; and if you truly believe that all power is delegated to, and refides in the perfon of Chrift, and that as Mediator he hath power to fave you, then your falvation is begun : "He that believeth fhall be faved:"

Now, my friends, a powerful Prince and Saviour hath been offered to you in the word, to be received by believing; hath there been no power here to make you believe his power? Where there is no power, VOL. IV! there

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