us, 1 Cor. ix. 27. It is requisite also that devils should be subject to us, through Christ's name, Luke x. 17. It must be soul-distressing work to preach salvation from the tyranny of Satan, while the preacher is led captive by him at his will; but we have some such living contradictions. If Satan reign in us, we must not pretend to pull this cockatrice out of his den; if we put our hand there, he will ask us that old, taunting, insolent question, though coupled with an honest confesssion, "Jesus I know, but who are ye?" Acts xix. 14, 15. That soul must be weaned from the love of sin, and refreshed with the breasts of divine consolation, that plays on the hole of the asp, Isaiah xi. 8. A preacher who reigns over the world by faith, can with comfort preach that faith which overcometh it: this world is like fire and water, excellent subjects, but terrible sovereigns. If the Lord crown my son with lovingkindness and tender mercy, he will be able to preach sovereign mercy to others; and the love of Christ will constrain him to it; and the seal of God communicated to souls by our preaching faith, is a crown put on our labours, and a soul-satisfying proof of our being ministers of the Spirit; and we may call such sealed souls our joy and crown in the Lord, Phil. iv. 1.

"And Moses took the anointing oil." A type of the Holy Ghost; which is the promise of the Father, received by Jesus without measure, and shed abroad, in a measure, in every believing heart.

"And anointed the tabernacle, and all that was therein." This anointing was typical of the oil of gladness, that first anointed Christ to his kingly and priestly office; and all believers who are in him, the true Temple of God, and in which God dwells, are anointed with the same oil; yea, every vessel of mercy, from the bowls to the flagons, to sanctify them, Isaiah xxii. 24.

"And he sprinkled the altar seven times," Lev. viii. 11. This altar was a type of the divinity of Christ, which sanctified the humanity, and stamped infinite dignity on all he did; though he was born of a woman, and born under the law, yet he thought it no robbery to be equal with God the Father, Phil. ii. 6. The humanity being united to the Godhead of Christ, made his obedience sufficient to honour the law, and to be a divine and everlasting righteousness to justify us poor sinners. It was through the eternal Spirit he offered himself to God; and his humanity being offered on the altar of his divinity, his blood was sufficient to appease the wrath of God, and purge us from sin, Heb. ix. 14. The altar was sprinkled seven times with oil, to shew that the seven Spirits of God, or all the sevenfold gifts of the Holy Ghost, were upon Christ, Rev. i. 4; Isaiah xi. 2. This blessed Jesus was sanctified and sent into the world by God the Father, who anointed God the Son with God the Holy Ghost; and by his own blood Christ sanctified himself, and that for our sakes, that we might be sanctified through the truth: and we

must, as ministers, sanctify this Lord God of hosts in our hearts, and let him be our fear, and let him be our dread, Isaiah viii. 13. We are said to sanctify him, when we preach him as the Holy One of Israel, by the Holy Ghost, and judge him holy in all his ways. We are said to justify him, when we preach him as the only righteousness of every true believer, and judge him righteous in all his sovereign acts of mercy and judgment. And we are said to glorify him by the Spirit when we worship him, acknowledge ourselves indebted to his grace and providence for all that we have and are; as also when we fear him as a sovereign, honour him as the everlasting Father, and love him as a friend; and give all the glory of our salvation to him.

"And he poured of the anointing oil upon Aaron's head." Before the apostles were to go forth to teach all nations, they were to be endued with power from on high; they were to wait for the promise of the Father; and on the day of Pentecost our divine mediator poured that sacred unction on them all. "Ye have an unction," says John. "Now he that hath anointed us is God," says Paul; and has the Lord anointed thee, my son? Thou mayest burn with a false zeal, and. shine with a false light, but wilt never burn with love to Christ, until this oil burn in thee. Begin not to build till thou hast got materials from heaven; all daubers with untempered mortar, however high imagination may carry the building, will surely leave it ridiculous, as the Babel-builders did,

and cause many to mock, saying, "This man began to build, and was not able to finish;" and the reason is, because he began at his own expense. Thou mayest sound an alarm from Sinai, and apparently alarm many by crying fire, and then trump them all to sleep again, as Lot did his sons. Up, up, get you out,' is not sufficient; Lot was led out by the arm of Omnipotence, and we must preach the arm of the Lord. No man can preach the law lawfully till he is made a partaker of the Holy Ghost. The law is spiritual, and what does a carnal man know of a spiritual law? I know it is common among Arminians to say, Up, and be doing; arise, and shake yourselves from the dust;' as if they were the resurrection and the life, and could command the dead. However, Peter went another way to work; he told sinners, such as he had, he gave them; he lent them his hand of faith, and told them Jesus made them whole; he declared the faith of Jesus gave them their soundTo cry, Up, and be doing,' to souls twice dead, is setting people to work without victuals or tools; and how such will perform their task every true believer knoweth, because he hath tried his strength, but never found the strength of God's grace made perfect in him till he had spent his own strength, and become nothing but weakness, Deut. xxxii. 36. These gentlemen, when they get into Moses' chair, are little better than Pharaoh's taskmasters, bind grievous burdens on others, but will not lend a finger to help them up with the load;

ness.

and I know some of those burden-bearers are ready to cry out with Cain, it is too heavy for me to bear. If the Spirit of God doth not lead a man into truth, he must err; and every time an erroneous man takes a passage from God's book, he is guilty of a breach of God's command; "thou shalt not steal," Jer. xxiii. 30. False preachers multiply curses to themselves; every such preacher, who wilfully perverts any plain text of Scripture, or doctrine in it, to support an error, is cursed for removing his neighbour's landmark; and he that makes not Christ the door of entrance, the way also, and the end, brings another curse on his own head, for causing the blind to go out of his way; and all these curses shall come on him who takes away the plain meaning of God's word, if grace prevent not, yea, all the plagues in the book, Rev. xxii. 19.

If my son be anointed with the unction of God the Holy Ghost, he will leave a sweet savour of Christ behind him in every place; therefore be ye filled with the Spirit, and, as the scripture hath said, out of thy belly shall flow rivers of living water. All divinity got by study and kept up by reading commentators, without the Spirit, is a well without water; but, if the Spirit be in thee, he shall be a well of water springing up into eternal life. Thou mayest wade in these holy waters until thy ancle bones receive strength; then thou wilt be able to walk by faith: it makes the lame man leap as an hart, Isaiah xxxv. 6, 7. It will spring up