3. You that have a mind to be in the house of God, to be brought into his favour now, and into his presence hereafter; you must mind Christ Jesus, make use of him, for he is set over the house of God; you must enter by him, or you can never come into this house. If you enter not by him that is the door, ye are but thieves and robbers, and will be punished for your trespass, rather than commendably entertained. Now, how shameful is the practice of a great many in this particu lar? There are many that do think they are in God's house already, as far as God's house is to be entered into by men on earth, and they hope they shall be in God's house above for ever; whereas in the mean time they have no acquaintance with Jesus Christ, and no employment for him. See now how men mistake. There are some that think they are born in God's house, and therefore they shall be well, because they are born of godly parents. There is no man born in God's house, no man born in God's inward house; a great many are born in the outer courts. There is no man born to good purpose, unless he be born again. There is no man born in God's house; though I acknowledge, that there is an external fœderal right which the children of believers may have.

Some think they are in God's house by education; they have light and knowledge, and have been instructed in the ways and things of God from their youth and childhood: and by the fruits of these, they begin to imagine that surely they are in God's house, There are some that go yet further, and they think they are entered into the house of God by their profession, by their professed subjection to the gospel of Christ; and I acknowledge, that where this is sincerely done, it goes a great way: but that is not a man's entering into this spiritual house, but a man's declaring that he is in it already, and that he desires to be trained up in it. Unless you have a particular exercise in the employing Christ to introduce you into God's presence; unless you have particular experience, that Christ hath taken you by the hand, and hath brought you in, you have little to say for your being Christ's. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the only man that can introduce a man into God's presence; and O how sweetly can he do it! When we speak, we must consider that we frame our words with reve

rence. Our Lord Jesus, in presenting a sinner to his Father, says in a manner, « Father, here is a poor one that thou hast "given me, and that I have redeemed; he has been wander❝ing from me, and I have pursued, and overtaken, and found, " and brought him home, and now I present him unto thee; હે Father, welcome this lost sheep." O, when our Lord as it were takes a sinner in his own hand, and presents him to his Father as a returning sheep, as the apostle saith, You were sometimes gone astray, but are now returned to the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls, 1 Peter ii. 25. how sweet, how great, and how sure is the welcome!

SERMON XXI.

HEBREWS X. 21.

And having an High Priest over the house of God.

YOU have heard again and again, that the scope of the apostle, and of the Spirit of God that guided him in this context, is to encourage believers in approaching to God, by several great discoveries of Jesus Christ, and of the great provision

made in him for them.

1. That the entrance to the holiest is made by his blood. 2. That the way that leads unto the holiest of all, is through the vail of his flesh.

3. That he is a High Priest to introduce us, and to bring us unto God. From this third argument of encouragement that is contained in this verse, I proposed three things to be spoke to.

1. What that office is that the apostle here holds forth Christ to be in; he is a High Priest, a great one; the word here is only in the original a great priest, our translators have rendered it an high priest; the same apostle in chap. iv. 14. calls him a great High Priest.

2. I have spoke something of Christ's charge, whereabout it lies. It is, saith the apostle, over, or upon, or in the house

of God. What this house of God, and what Christ's power and authority in it, and over it is, I spake to you last day. The house of God, is all the matters of God, and all the people of God, and all things wherein God deals with us. He deals with us by Christ; and in all matters wherein we deal with God, we must deal with him by Christ. The highpriest under the law, was a kind of mediator betwixt God and men. The immediate approaches unto Israel's God, were not to be made by the people immediately, but by the high-priest; and the answers of peace were to be returned by him, when he came forth from the holiest of all.

This I shall dismiss with a word or two more of application; and that is, Since believers are the house of God, they that are such should mind their duty. A great duty lies on them by this name, that they are of the house of God.

I will name a few things that are plainly contained in it, and may be strongly urged from it. I speak now to them that are true believers, that are Christ's special charge.

1. You that are the house of God by faith in Christ Jesus, know humbly and remember frequently your great debt unto our Lord Jesus. I do not believe that ever there was a believer on earth, that had that sense that the greatness of the matter calls for, that sense of thankfulness for the marvellous change that grace makes when it plucks us out of nature, and brings us into Christ, that the case requires. To be translated from the power of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear Son, as the apostle's phrase is, Col. i. 12, 13. is a just ground of great thanksgiving. Every one by nature is not only in the house of the devil, that is bad enough; but every one by nature is the devil's house; that is a great deal worse: it is a great deal worse to have him dwelling in us, than to have us dwelling with him: Ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, Eph. ii. 2. Is it not wonderful grace, that our Lord Jesus Christ will make that heart to be the temple of the Holy Ghost, that was, till he entered, the habitation of the devil, and under the power of sin, and dominion of Satan! For sin, and

Satan the father of sin, are perpetually inseparable. If a man be sin's captive, he is the devil's, and taken captive by him at his will, as the apostle's phrase is. Therefore you that have this change wrought in you, that are made the house of God, and are brought under the charge of our Lord Jesus, should humbly and heartily own his great goodness in this dispensation.

us.

2. You should know where your standing is, what foundation you stand upon. All grace comes from Christ Jesus; and the end of his giving of grace is, that he may be more improved and used by his people; for all the saving graces of the Spirit of God, are but like so many various tools and instruments, by which the new creature acts towards its original. Now, here is a woful course of a great many; when Christ bestows his grace, grace many a time is put in his own room; when he makes his grace to dwell in us, we are apt to forget that our standing is in himself alone, that created, and infused, and dispensed the grace that is lodged in As we are made vessels of grace, we are as feeble as ever; no dispensation of grace was ever given in this world for that end; and if it be used for that end, it is grossly abused. That a believer should live the less dependent upon Jesus Christ, is a snare that you have great need all of you to take good heed of, and beware of. Remember that you do not live, and that you do not stand by the grace that is in you, but only by the grace that is in him. Our strength stands in the fountain: Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. A believer thinks himself exceeding weak, when he can see nothing of Christ's grace in himself; but that is a great mistake; that man is exceeding weak indeed, that can see no grace in Christ Jesus; that man is fallen wofully. How excellently does the apostle speak of it, 2 Cor. xii. 9, 10. Most gladly therefore will I glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For when I am weak, then am I strong. It is best with me when I am nothing. What a mighty word is that, Though I be nothing, ver. 11.!

3. You that are made the house of God, the charge of this great High Priest, mind the perfection of your state, press towards that. Though believers are the house of God

now, and he dwells in them, yet there is another house and another sort of dwelling, that they do expect and should long for. All dispensations of grace unto the children of God, are not only given in order to prepare them for glory, but in order to enable them to press further to the obtaining of the glory of God. Wherefore receive ye one another, as Christ also received us, to the glory of God, Rom. xv. 7. As soon as Christ's call has reached the heart of a poor sinner, immediately he should be thinking within himself, What is that I am called to? I am called to heaven, I am called to march towards heaven, and I have Christ, and the Spirit, and promise, and all dispensations of grace as seals and earnests of that great profession. There are some things, Sirs, that are needful to make a lovely Christian, and I am afraid, that we may go far, and search long before we can find any of them; but we hope some such there are. A lovely Christian is a man whose root is deep in Christ, rooted and built up in him, Col. ii. 7. People will not perceive it, until many sad experiences make them to feel it; there are many things amiss with many Christians, and they are full of complaints; they do not fully ponder this, that the root is not deep enough, they have not taken deep root in Christ Jesus. Again, a lovely Christian is one whose fruit abounds: That your fruit may abound through him. Abide in me, and I in you, says our Lord, so shall you bear much fruit. Herein is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit, so shall ye be my disciples, John xv. 8.; and several places in the same chapter. The third property of a lovely Christian is, that his leaf is green, his profession fair, and clean, and not withered. It is said of the happy man in the first psalm, His leaf fadeth not; he is well planted, and he brings forth much fruit in season. Alas! fruit is in a great measure gone, and the beauty of the leaves of our profession is in a great measure withdrawn also. How few can speak David's words, Psal. lii. 8. But I am like

green olive-tree in the house of God. The loveliness of our profession tends to our Lord's praise, and our fruitfulness therein not only to his praise, but to our advantage. The last thing in a beautiful Christian is, that I may allude to the word of the prophet Daniel to Nebuchadnezzar, that his