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of David. It is a fore matter, and looks ominous, when the real friends of the tabernacle come to be divided among them; felves. Although we be commanded to feparate from tabernacle-deftroyers, yet we are not any where commanded to feparate from tabernacle-builders, who "keep the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless," and are, according to their sphere and fituation, endeavouring to promote the public caufe of David our King, and oppofing his enemies. "He that is not against us, is with us.' Let us study to be with all those that are with Chrift, or upon his fide, and his covenanted cause in the land; but efpecially with those that stand as it were in the front of the battle, and against whom the ftrength of the enemy is levelled.

7. Pray and wrestle much at a throne of grace, that God may come and work the work himself; for "except the Lord build the house, the builders build in vain." O pray, that the cloud of his prefence may rest upon the tabernacle; that his Spirit may be poured out from on high upon king, nobles, gentry, commons, minifters, and people; and then the building of the tabernacle will go on apace.

us.

8. Laftly, Let every one attempt, through grace, the reformation of his own heart and life, and to have a walk like those who believe that the God of the tabernacle is in the midft of Ifrael were obliged to guard against all moral and ceremonial uncleanneffes, becaufe " the holy One of Ifrael was in the midst of them;" fo let us ftudy to act and walk, as in the fight of that God who fearches Jerufalem as with lighted candles. Be ye holy, as he that hath called you is holy." The untender walk of profeffors is a reproach to the God of the tabernacle, and caufes the enemy to blafpheme. Let the laws of the tabernacle, particularly thefe of the moral law as a rule of obedience, be a light unto your feet, and a lamp unto your paths. And as many as walk according to this rule, peace shall be on them, and mercy, and upon all the Ifrael of God."

VOL. II.

3 H

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THE ANNALS OF REDEEMING LOVE, WITH THE REDEEMER'S VENGEANCE UPON THE GRAND ENEMY OF THE REDEEMED.

BEING SEVERAL SERMONS

PREACHED AT SACRAMENTAL AND OTHER OCCASIONS.

Is, lxiii. 4.-For the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come.

THE FIRST SERMON ON THIS TEXT.

gain time, I wave the connection, and juft come to the words themfelves, which I take up as a material repetition of the first promife, Gen. iii. 15. The feed of the woman fhall bruife the head of the ferpent:" which words are an exprefs threatening of wrath and vengeance unto the old ferpent and his feed, but at the fame time, a promise of falvation implied unto the woman and her feed. It is as if the Lord had faid unto Satan, Thou haft indeed ruined Adam and his pofterity at one ftroke; but remember I will be avenged on thee for what thou haft done; in the fulness of time I am to take on the human nature, and, in and by that nature which thou haft ruined, I will bruife thy head, and ruin thy kingdom. So fays the Lord here, "The day of vengeance is in mine heart," &c. As if he had faid, I cannot forget the old quarrel I have with Saran for ruining the woman and her feed, it is ftill fresh in my view, I will furely purfue it to the deftruction of Satan, and the redemption of my people. So, then you may take up the words in these few particulars.

1. We have here the name or defignation of God's remnant of mankind-finners, they are called his redeemed, my redeemed: they are mine by election, mine by my Father's donation, mine by the purchase of my blood, and they are to be mine by conqueft; their redemption plainly fuppofes them to be in bondage unto fin and Satan. It is obfervable, that they are called The redeemed of the Lord, though the price of their redemption was not yet paid; many hundreds of years did in

tervene

tervene before the actual payment of the ranfom, and yet it is spoken of as a thing done, because it was a thing already acted in the purpose of the Father, and in the promife of the Son from all eternity: for the fame reafon Chrift is called "a Lamb flain from the foundation of the world."

2. In the words we may notice the deep refentment that the glorious Redeemer has of the quarrel of the redeemed; The day of vengeance, fays he, is in my heart. Perhaps indeed there may be here a reference immediately to the vengeance that God was to inflict by Cyrus upon the Babylonian empire, for the hard ufage Ifrael had received from them during their feventy years captivity; but ultimately it has a refpect unto the vengeance the Son of God was to take in the fulness of time upon Satan, that destroyer of mankind; he fpeaks here in the capacity of our kinfman. According to the tenor of the law of Mofes, the nearest of kin was to be the avenger of his kinfman's blood: fo Chrift here as our Goel, our brother, our elder brother, bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh, efpoufes our quarrel against the enemy, and deftroys the deftroyer: The day of vengeance is in my heart, it is in my heart, that is to fay, I have purposed it, I have promised it, and the refolution is firmly feated in my foul, and the very thought of it is a pleasure and delight to me, "Thy law is within my heart," Pfal. xl. 8.

3. In the words we have the stated time for the deliverance of the redeemed; it is called a day in the beginning of the verfe, and a year at the end of it. A day and a year are one thing with the Lord; yea, a thousand years are as one day, and one day as a thoufand years with him, being from everlafting to everlafting God, without any variableness or shadow of turning only this perhaps may be in it, the time of mercy to the redeemed may be called a year, and the time of vengeance a day, because justice is his ftrange work, his ftrange act, and therefore dispatches it in a little time, makes short work with it; but mercy is a work wherein he delights, and therefore he protracts, and draws it out unto a far greater length; "his mercy is from everlasting to everlafting upon them that fear him." Whatever be in this, yet the period of time here pointed at, by the day of vengeance, and the year of the redeemed, is efpecially the fulness of time, when God fent forth his Son made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of fons.

4. We may notice the Redeemer's pleasure and fatisfaction with the view of all this, he fpeaks of it with a particular air of joy and triumph: The day of vengeance is in mine heart, and

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the year of my redeemed is come. He, as it were, anticipates the fcene, and acts it over in his own heart before the time be fully come, he relishes it in his own mind, and rejoices in it, as come already, because now it was near at hand. Thus you fee, that this text has a twofold aspect; it has a favourable and kindly afpect upon the redeemed of the Lord; but it has a frowning and terrible afpect upon the serpent and his feed.

OBSERVE, "That as the year of the redeemed is the joy of the great Redeemer; fo he has the ftated time for avenging their quarrel in his heart." The day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come.

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Method (through divine affiftance) shall be this

I. To speak a little of the great Redeemer.

II. Of the redeemed.

III. Of the year of the redeemed.

IV. Inquire on whom their quarrel is to. be avenged.
V. Of the day of vengeance and the execution of it.

VI. Make it appear, that all this was, and ftill is, the joy of the Redeemer's heart.

VII. Apply the whole.

I. The first thing is, to speak a little of the great and glorious Redeemer. And here I fhall only anfwer, in fhort, two or three queftions that may be afked anent him. And,

1. It may be asked, as the church doth in the 1ft verfe, "Who is this that cometh from Edom and Bozrah, to avenge our quarrel, and fet us free from the hand of our enemies?" It is fit, in this day of blafphemy and reproach in our valley of vifion, to tell you, that our Goel, the avenger of our blood, is none other than "God manifested in the flesh;" and every one that ever faw him, will be ready to cry out with Thomas, "My Lord, and my God." Who is he? fay you. Sirs, I tell you, that he is the great God: Tit. ii. 13. "Looking for that bleffed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God, and our Saviour Jefus Chrift." He is the true God: 1 John v. 20. "He hath given us an understanding to know him that is true and we are in him that is true, that is, in his Son Jefus Chrift. This is the true God, and eternal life." He is God over all, bleffed for evermore, Rom. ix. 5. He is the eternal God; for "his goings forth were of old, from everlafting." He is the omniprefent God, who fills heaven and earth; for though he be afcended to heaven, and is to continue there, as to his human nature, till the time of the reftitution of all things, yet he is fill here on earth, and every where as

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to his divine : "Lo (fays he) I am with you unto the end of the world." He is the omnifcient God, "I am he that fearcheth the heart and the reins;" and he needeth not that any should testify of man, for he knoweth what is in man. He is the independent and self existent God, for he is the first, and he also is the laft, Rev. i. 17. "He is before all things, and by him all things confift; he is the beginning, and in all things he must have the pre-eminence, Col. i. 17. 18. He is the immutable and unchangeable God, without any variablenefs or fhadow of turning; "The heavens fhall wax old as a garment; and as a vefture he shall change them, and they fhall be changed: but he is the fame, and of his years there is no end," Heb. i. 12. Heb. xiii. 8. "Jefus Chrift the fame yesterday, and to day, and for ever." He is the very fame God, numerically one with the Father: "I and my Father are one. There are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Spirit : and these three are one:" the fame in substance, equal in power and glory. Now this is our Redeemer, "This is our friend, O daughters of Jerufalem;" this is he that "speaks in righteousness, mighty to fave." O Sirs, fee if ye can call him Lord in a way of believing, by the holy Spirit; for every tongue must confefs that Jefus Chrift is the Lord, to the glory of God the Father; however others may blafpheme him, as if he were only an inferior deity, let us ever think and speak honourably of him; for "he is thy Lord, and worship thou him ;" and all men must honour him, as they honour the Father.

2. If it be asked again, what is the birth and pedigree of this Redeemer? from whom is he defcended? I answer, "Who can declare his generation ?" View him in his divine nature, "He is the only begotten of the Father; the brightness of his Father's glory, and the exprefs image of his perfon;" and fo like his Father, that he who hath feen him, hath feen the Father alfo. But as for the manner of his eternal generation who can declare it? It will remain an inexplicable mystery, till the day of glory declare it. View him as to his human nature, he is the promised feed of the woman; the feed of Abraham, in whom all the nations of the earth are blessed; he is fprung of ancient kings, in the royal family of David; in him David's family did terminate, in him David's throne and kingdom is to be perpetuate for ever. But if you still afk, How was he generate as man? I anfwer, even as to this, "Who can declare his generation?" This alfo is a mystery; for, like Melchizedek his type, he is without father as to his human, and without a mother as to his divine nature. All that we can tell you about this, is only, that he was conceived by

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