3. The Lord is a faithful God; what bargain he makes, he will keep. Has he promised you a great reward? Ye may depend upon it, He is not a man that he should lye, or the Son of man, that he should repent. If he make himself known to you by the name of God almighty, as he did to Abraham, Ifaac, and Jacob, fee Exod. vi. 3. to make them believe that what he promised he was able to perform, I affure you, he will not fail to make himself known to you alfo, as Jehovah God, that gives a being to his promife; as he did to Mofes, when he called him to fee the accomplishment of the promises made to Abraham, in the deliverance of his people out of Egypt. But, being fatisfied that the master is worthy beyond compare,

II. Question will follow, Will he accept of us for fervants? A queftion truly not impertinent after the former anfwer; for it is no wonder tho' any that knows God, or knows himfelf, doubt whether he shall be admitted a fervant of the Lord: and they that never faw any difficulty here, we fear not to tell them, that they serve an ill master to this very day, even the God of this world, the Spirit that works in the children of difobedience. But to the question we fay,

I. The Lord has taken some servants, and owned them as fuch, even out of the race of fallen man. We hear him fpeak of his fervant Abraham, his fervant Mofes, and David; and that is encouragement to thee: men they were, finful men they were, and even the father of the faithful, Abraham, was an idolater.

2. The Lord wants neither work nor wages for you: the work he gives his fervants is even to fhew forth his glory; and this is enough to employ innumerable millions more than have any

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being.

Part III. being. And hence it is, that his fervants many times find the work too great for them, and there. fore call in all the creatures to praife the Lord. So we find the pfalmift calling upon fire, hail, fnow, vapours, etc. to praife the Lord, Pfalm cxlviii. and he concludes the book of Pfalms thus, Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord. Praife ye the Lord, Pfa. cl. 6. Nor is there fcarcity of wages as he has work for you, fo his treafures are inexhauftible; there is no want of any good thing to them that fear him, for in him dwells all fulness.

3. We have this more to fay for your encouragement, he will not caft at or reject you because ye are finners. Hear what fuch an one, a finner, a great finner, has to speak to this purpose, 1 Tim. i. 12. I thank Chrift Jefus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the miniftry; who was before a blafphemer, and a perfecutor, and injurious. See a finner made a fervant, and one of the first rank make a prime minister.

4. We have this further to anfwer, he calls you to his fervice; be then of good courage, arife, for the mafter calls thee. Matth. xi. 29. Take my yoke upon you, fays our Lord; there's an invitation: the encouragement follows, And ye fhall find reft to your fouls and the reafon is fubjoined, For my yoke is eafy, and my burden light.

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III. Ye may next enquire, Upon what terms? I fee he will admit, but, may be, the terms`are too high. Nay, this shall not hinder, if ye have a mind; for there is nothing more engaging and reafonable than they are. And I fhall fhortly lay before you thefe fix particulars, as the terms whereon he will admit you. And,

1. Ye must renounce your old mafters. Ye cannot ferve two masters; and therefore, if ye chufe the Lord, ye must abandon the gods whom your fathers ferved on the other fide the flood, and the gods of the Canaanites, among whom ye dwell, that is, in plain terms, ye must not serve Satan, ye must not serve divers lufts, ye must not ferve the world, ye muft not ferve men; all other mafters you must fo: fake, for ye cannot ferve God and Mammon. And fure this is no hard condition, but what every fervant muft lay his account with; and none have reason to do it with fo much chearfulness, as they 'who quit fin.

2. Ye must be reconciled to him upon the gofpel terms. A mafter will not admit his enemy to his family as a fervant; who would keep in his houfe one that has a form'd defign to ruin him? Reasonable it is then to the highest degree, that, before ye be admitted to the family, ye lay down the enmity that your hearts are naturally full of against God, and be reconciled upon the terms. prescribed in the gospel, which are comprized by the apostle to the Philippians in two words, Having no confidence in the flesh, and rejoicing in Christ Jefus which are indeed equivalent to other two words made ufe of by our Lord, Deny himself, and follow me. If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and follow me. For what he adds about taking up the cross, is included in the latter word, follow me. And of the fame force are the first two words mentioned, Phil. iii. 3. We are the circumcifion, which worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jefus, and have no confidence in the flesh. Here fhortly are the gofpel terms as to acceptance with God, and juftification before him; there must be no confidence in the

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the flesh, no expectation thence. But what is that, the flesh, will ye fay, on which we are not to reft, in which we are to have no confidence? I will tell you fome things called fo by the apostle, in the following verfes of that third to the Philippians.

(1.) He calls church privileges fo, external pri vileges. Circumcifed the eighth day; that is to fay, it is not enough that a man was baptized, that he got his communion, that he is a hearer of preachings, and the like.

(2.) Church membership. Of the stock of Ifrael. A man may be a Chriftian, and sprung of godly progenitors, and go to ruin. There are many who may cry, Father Abraham, may be of his feed, and yet go to the pit themselves, for all that. Again,

(3.) It is not enough to be a member of the pureft church on earth: this is flesh alfo. Paul was not of one of the tribes that degenerated; but of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews. A man may not only be a Christian, but

proteftant, not only a proteftant, but a presbyterian; but if he lean to either, he is no fervant of God, were he in principle never fo ftanch to both; it is flesh, and must not be trusted to.

(4.) To be of the stricteft party of the pureft church, is not to be trufted to; it is not enough that ye are one of the stricteft amongst the prefbyterians, even one whom the world accounts a puritan. Paul was of the pureft church then on carth, and one of the pureft and strictest party, concerning the law a Pharifee.

(5.) He was not only of the ftrictest par ty, but he excelled moft of them, concerning zeal perfecuting the church. It is not enough to

be

be really of the ftricteft party, and even to outrun moft of the ftricteft in duty.

(6.) He was not one that was concerned only for religion, and the honour of his profeffion, but he was blameless concerning the righteoufnefs of the law. His religion led him to respect all God's commands; and his practice came fo near to his principles, that no-body could lay any thing to his charge; great attainments, but he counts them all flesh, and they are fo, upon a triple account they are things, moft of them performed by man who is flesh; they are tainted all of them with fin, which is the work of the flesh; they are done in a fubferviency to a carnal defign, oppofite to the fpiritual defign of the gofpel: fo that by flesh is to be understood whatever is done by man, or whatever is tainted with corruption, and that even after, as well as before converfion; for the apostle excludes from any share in his dependence for juftification, even attainments after converfion, while he fays, What things were gain to me, that is, while a Pharifee, thofe I counted lofs for Chrift; and then he fubjoins, Yea doubtless, and I count all things but lofs. The first expreffion, What things were gain, was too narrow, because it comprehends only what he had before; and therefore he adds this more comprehenfive one to fupply that, all things and that is the fame with his own righteoufnefs, which he would not be found in, in the following verfes. In one word, to have no confidence in the flesh, is to trust in nothing that can be called our own, becaufe done by us, that can be called flesh, as tainted with fin, and done by finful man. It is not that we are not to prize church privileges, nay, certainly it is a great advantage, to partake of ordinances, to be of the pur

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