thee and juftice; for "he brought in everlasting righteouf nefs; he magnified the law" as a covenant; "he was made fin for us," for this very end," that we might be made the righteousness of God in him."

2. When thou art molested with a body of fin and death, I mean the workings of indwelling corruption, then truft your bleffed Kinfman, that by the law of the Spirit of life which is in him, he may make you free from the law of fin and death. He is "made of God unto us fanctification; and our old man is crucified with him, that the body of fin may be deftroyed, that henceforth we might not ferve fin." Atheism, enmity, unbelief, carnality, and other heart-evils under which thou art groaning, are his enemies as well as the enemies of thy foul; and therefore he will wound the head of thefe his enemies; all his enemies fhall perish, into smoke fhall they consume away; he will wafte, weaken, and wither that body of fin under which thou art groaning.

3. When thou art haraffed with the fiery darts of Satan, tempting thee, perhaps, to the fame fins of Atheism, distrust, and felf-murder, unto which he had the impudence to tempt Chrift himself when here upon earth, this is a feason in which thou shouldft truft thy Friend, Kinfman, and Avenger. And to encourage thee to truft him in that cafe, remember that the day of vengeance is in his heart, his vengeance is in a peculiar manner pointed against that enemy; and therefore he will be fure to join the poor foul that is groaning under his oppreffion, and crying to him for relief; and befides, he ftands engaged by promife, that "he will not fuffer thee to be tempt ed above what thou art able to bear, but with the temptation will provide a way to efcape. He ftands at the right hand of the poor; he is the ftrength of the poor and needy in their dif trefs, when the blast of the terrible ones is like a ftorm against the wall."

4. Art thou wrapt up among the dark and thick clouds of defertion? This is a proper feason of truft in thy Kinsman: If. 1. 10. "Who is this among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his fervant, that walketh in darkness and hath no light? let him trust in the name of the Lord, and ftay upon his God." Faith and truft is then especially to be exercised, when fenfe and reafon can perceive nothing but anger and frowns; "for here we walk by faith, and not by fight and faith is the fubftance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not feen." And to encourage thy truft in him in fuch a cafe, look to his promife, in which he has faid, that "though he forfake thee for a fmall moment, yet he will

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return with everlafting kindness. Weeping endureth for a night, but joy cometh in the morning."

5. When thou art enjoying the fweet and fenfible manifestations of his love, that is a time for trusting, as well as when under desertion and hidings. Never is the believer in more danger, than when his fenfe is gratified with a fill of the marrow and fatnefs, and wine of his Father's houfe. Indeed sense is fweet, yea, it is the fuburbs of heaven; but, I fay, the believer is never more in danger, like Paul, of being lifted up above measure, than when admitted unto the greatest sensible nearness; it is hard to carry a full cup with an even hand : and therefore, I fay, a time of fpecial fenfible nearness is a time proper for faith and truft in the Lord, that he may help to the right improvement of thefe vifits of his love. And indeed this is one great defign of all the fenfible glowings of divine love, as well as of the difplays that are made thereof in the gofpel-revelation, that the fons of men may be encouraged and engaged to "put their truft under the fhadow of his wings," Pfal. xxxvi. 7.

6. When we are meeting with difappointments in the world, as to these things in which we were expecting fatisfaction, that is a proper feason for this duty of trufting in Christ your glorious Kinfman. When friends turn falfe and perfidious, it should teach us to truft in that Friend that sticks closer than a brother. So did David, when father and mother forfook him, then he trufted that the Lord would take him up; fo Pfal. cxlii. 4. 5. "I looked on my right hand, and beheld, but there was no man that would know me; refuge failed me; no man cared for my foul. I cried unto thee, O Lord, I faid, Thou art my refuge, and my portion in the land of the living." When our worldly fubftance is withering, and our earthly poffeffions ta. ken from us, either by force or fraud, that is a proper time of trufting our kind Kinfman and Avenger: Hab. iii. 17. 18. "Although the fig-tree fhall not bloffom, neither fhall fruit. be in the vines, the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields fhall yield no meat, the flock fhall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the ftalls: yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my falvation." Sirs, God on purpose breaks our earthly comforts and cifterns in pieces, that by faith we may be brought to folace ourselves in him alone as an upmaking heritage for ever, faying with David, "My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the ftrength of my heart and my portion for ever." Job, when he is swept naked of all he had in the world, cries out confidently, "I know that my Redeemer liveth :" and "Though he fhould kill me, yet will I trust in him." I might tell you of many other fea

fons

O fay the word, and fay it with your hearts and tongues, "I am the Lord's: I am his, and he is mine: This is my beloved, and this is my Friend and Kipfman, O daughters of Jerufalem."

Now, because we must deal with you as rational agents; therefore I will offer you fome confiderations to gain your confent to marry our bleffed Kinfman.

Motive 1. Confider that it was for this end that he became our Kinsman, and took on our nature, that he might come under a nearer relation to us, even to betroth us to himself in the relation of a spouse and bride. Under the law the Jews were bound to marry one of their own tribe; fo the Son of God, that he might wed fo with us, he became of the fame tribe and family with us, took upon him the feed of Abraham, and not the nature of angels. The distance between the divine and human nature was so great, that there could be no marriage relation between God and man till the distance be removed, and the two natures be brought into a nearer union one with another. Well, to make way for this, the divine and human natures are joined in a perfonal union, God is manifefted in the flesh: so that if you do not marry your Kinfman and Redeemer, you do what you can to defeat the defign of his incarnation, and do your worst, to baffle that glorious plot, the very mafter-piece of Infinite Wisdom and Love. O let the confideration of his ftupendous condefcenfion in becoming of our tribe, nature, and family, win your

consent to him.

Mot. 2. Take a view of our Kinsman's greatness and excellency. What shall I fay of him? Words fail us, yea, thought and imagination fail us, when we begin either to think or fpeak of his excellency, who is a courtier of your affections. We would not know how to speak a word about him, if he had not by his Spirit in his word furnished us with proper expreffions of his glory. And indeed the words by which our ideas of him are to be formed, are such as raise our finite minds unto ecftafy, when viewed in a way of believing. O who is he, or what is he?"Who can declare his generation?" His very name is so great and glorious, that no man can frame to pronounce it aright but by the Holy Spirit. O Sirs, will you refuse to be married to your Maker and Redeemer, whose name is, "The Lord of hofts, The mighty God, The everlafting Father, The Prince of peace, The brightness of the Father's glory, The bright and morning Star," in whofe prefence all the flars of created glory, whether in heaven or in earth, do hide their heads and disappear, as if they were afha med to be feen befide him? Your Kinfman, who waits for

your confent, for beauty is fo excellent, that he is "fairer than the children of men, his countenance is like Lebanon, and as the fun fhining in his ftrength." For wifdom he is so eminent, that he is "the wisdom of God in a mystery, and all the treafures of wisdom and knowledge are hid in him." For ftrength, he is "the man of God's right hand; whom he made ftrong for himself; he is the power of God, as well as the wisdom of God;" his arm brings falvation to finners in the room of the powers of hell. For birth and pedigree, he is God's " first-born, made higher than the kings of the earth;" he is, as to his divine nature," the only begotten of the Father," the only reprefentative of his Father's family, and all the glory of his Fa~ ther's house hangs upon him; and as to his human nature, you will fee from his genealogy, Matth. i. that he is "the offspring of ancient kings," of the royal family of David. For honour, he is equally honourable with the Father, and he "thinks it no robbery to be equal with God;" he is the honourable head of all principality and power, might and dominion, and of every name that can be named, whether in this world, or that which is to come. For riches, he is "the heir of all things;" the riches of Solomon were but chaff and drofs in comparison of that gold tried in the fire, that he will bestow in abundance upon his bride. For conftancy in love, he "refts in his love, and changes not ;" his name is I AM, "without any variableness or shadow of turning." For life, he is immortal: other husbands die, and leave their wives melancholy widows; but, O Sirs, your Kinsman lives for ever: "As the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself." It is true, he was once dead, and buried; but being the Lord of life and death, it was not poffible that the bars of the grave could detain him; no, no, though he was dead, yet now he is alive, and lives for evermore: death fhall never break the marriage-knot between him and you; for he conveys immortality and life to his bride that moment the gives her confent to him, "He that believeth in the Son of God, hath everlafting life." Thus you fee what a glorious, honourable, and excellent perfon our Kinsman, the Avenger of our blood, is, who offers to be married to you. O Sirs, who would not match with him, who would not reckon it their greatest honour to be brought under a marriage-relation to him?

Mot. 3. To encourage your confent to marry your Kinfman, the Avenger of your blood, confider what he will do for you, and to you, if you will marry him; he will restore to you what he took not away, and will do that for you which the law could VOL. II.

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fons of trufting in the Lord Jefus; but I prevented myself as to this in the use of confolation, and therefore fhall not stay upon this head at present.

Thus I have endeavoured to give you fome account of the nature of this truft in the Lord Jefus that I call you to, I have given you fome warrants and encouragements to it, and told you of fome feafons when more especially this truft is to be exercifed; I fhall fhut up this exhortation, by offering you a few helps to it, and I name only the few following.

1. Be perfuaded of the ruin and mifery you have brought upon yourselves by fin, how you are enflaved to Satan, laid open to the curfe of the law, and wrath of God, and every moment in danger of eternal damnation. Till folk be convinced and awakened, they never in good earneft flee to the Redeemer, and the hope that is fet before them.

2. Be perfuaded of your Kinsman's good-will toward your relief, believe his oath, Ezek. xxxiii. 11. “As I live, faith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live." We will never trust a man unless we be perfuaded of his good-will toward us. Now, Sirs, will you but confider what has been said of Chrift in the doctrinal part, how he spent his own blood and life in avenging your quarrel, and fee if you can doubt of his goodwill to men upon their trusting in him.

3. Be perfuaded of his ability to do your bufinefs. Al though we be perfuaded of a man's kindness, yet if he be weak and impatent, his weakness and inability weakens our truft, confidence, and expectation of relief from him. But now our bleffed Avenger, he is none other than "the mighty God, able to fave to the uttermoft, all that come unto God through him."

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Be perfuaded of his veracity and faithfulness in his mife of help; for if we have a jealousy of a man's faithfulness and honesty, it breaks our truft in him. Now, thy Kinsman, believer, he is "the Amen, the faithful and true witness; faithfulness is the girdle of his loins, and truth is the girdle of his reins." And his faithfulnefs appears in these things, he thinks before he fpeaks, all his promifes are the refults of his eternal purpose, his promife is the very picture of his thoughts, he doth not think one thing and fay another; he cannot forget his promife, no he is ever mindful of his covenant, and therefore it is falfe that he hath forgotten to be gracious, as he promised: he cannot alter his mind as men do, they grant fecurities and then recal them, because they change their minds; but not fo here, he never yet brake his word, he is ay better than his word, but never brake it. By