when the Holy Ghoft leads us into all truth, "he brings "all things to our remembrance, whatsoever Christ hath faid "unto us; and he speaks not of himself, but glorifies Chrift:" fo that they that are under his influence are fubjected to the authority of Chrift in his word, and receive his word as it is his. Some again receive the things that Chrift fays, on account of the authority of man; and many hear not the voice of Chrift, but the voice of prevailing custom, and the traditions of their fathers; and the voice of the world, the voice of the genera lity of the wife and learned, or the voice of the godly, goes farther with the most part than the voice of Jesus Christ in his word: for where they find Chrift faying any thing in his word, and none faying with him, they cannot hear him. So far as his difciples give way to these things, fo far their fubjection to him appears not.

They that are fubject to Christ's authority in his word, and entertain his voice, as the rule of their faith and obedience, fears and hopes, fhew a regard to all that he says, all that he teftifies, commands, promises, or threatens. The least thing he fays has weight with them; and what he is moft in faying, they are most in hearing. They regard all his commandments; and are not as the Pharifees, exceedingly zealous in the least things, which they ought alfo to do, and paffing over " the weightier "matters of the law." They do not cut and carve upon the words and commandments of Jefus Chrift, to fhun what may endamage their worldly intereft, and to receive only what they may keep without difficulty and hazard, and what they blindly judge abfolutely neceffary unto their falvation, or per haps what they find abfolutely necessary to maintain their credit among the party of Christians that they have to do with.

Chrift's fubjects "delight in the law" of their " Lord after "the inward man," and fo they hear his voice without conftraint; but there is another law in their members" conti. nually "warring against the law of their minds;" so that it is no wonder if this their hearing of Chrift's voice be very much marred: yet fo far as they are of the truth, he is unto them the only Lord of their faith, of their confcience, of fin and duty, of their fear and of their hope. Thus " every one "that is of the truth hears his voice."

3. Chrift's fubjects keep his fayings, and do the things that he fays; and fo they hear his voice. They believe his teftimony, they tremble at his word of threatening, they hope in his word of promife, and they obferve and do what he commands,

He

He is highly offended with them that call him "Lord, and "do not the things that he fays." Luke vi. 46. "Why "call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I "fay?" Men may be so far under the influence of his Spirit, as to be thereby enabled to call him "Lord," 1 Cor. xii. 3. and fo be joined with his people in the profeffion; and yet not do the things that he fays: therefore they are called "branches in him, not bearing fruit," John xv. 2. These may be, as far as man's eye fees, doing what he fays, and fo be accounted his fubjects: yet they are not doing the very things he says, but the appearance of them: They do not obey him in that faith which worketh by love, and which is the evidence of things not feen, the substance of things ho ped for; and fo, not having root in themselves, they wither, and bring forth no fruit to perfection. But every one that is of the truth, in the least measure, does, according to that measure, obey the commandments of Jesus Christ.

His fubjects are not yet wholly of the truth. There remains a corrupt principle of unbelief and enmity in their fouls, while they are in this world, from which the truth in them meets with continual oppofition, as it does also from the temptations of Satan and of the world; "fo that when they "would do good, evil is prefent with them; and they can"not do the things that they would; yea, the evil that they "would not, that they do," Rom. vii. 19.-24. Gal. v. 17. Therefore all that obedience is very much to be suspected, that meets with no oppofition from within a man's felf; and it is no wonder to fee a Pharifee going on without difficulty, and very smoothly, in his obedience of the letter, while they that are of the truth, and according to their measure hearing Chrift's voice, find the greateft reafon in themselves to cry out, "O wretched man!" and, through the power of temptation, and of the flesh, fall many times, even in the course of their external obedience; which is the reason for Chrift's inftitution of difcipline in the churches of the faints, for the honour of his name, and of his truth in the world: "And "the righteous falleth feven times, and rifeth up again; but "the wicked fhall fall into mifchief." Yet the Pharifee is walking only after the flesh; he has not the Spirit of Jefus, nor the truth, to make head against it; and he is alive without the law; therefore he goes on fmoothly in his carnal felfish obedience: but they that are of the truth, notwithstanding of all their efcapes and ftumblings, are the only perfons in the world that move a step in the way of Christ's commandments.

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commandments. They only are hearty in this obedience, and fpiritual, doing the very truth of the things that Chrift requires; they only do the things that he says, because he says them, and are honestly aiming at the glory of his name in the doing of them, and at perfection, in obedience to all his commandments without exception; none but they are truly "denying themselves, taking up their crofs, and following "Chrift;" and they only fin not against that law whereby the children of God and the children of the devil are ma nifeft.

It is much to be lamented, that, even among them that have more than the common profeffion of Chriftian religion, and that have learned fome way to call Christ Lord, there ap. pears at this day fo little doing of the things that Chrift says, fo much conformity to a prefent world, and fo little conformity to Jefus Chrift, fo little felf-denial, and patient bearing the cross after him, fo little good-will and forgiveness to enemies, and fo very little brotherly love, and charity, and mercy to the poor: and thefe are fad evidences that the truth, as it is in Chrift, has either very little poffeffion in our hearts, or that it is not in us, and that we receive not the love of it. Though there be many that renounce the grofs profaneness of the publicans and harlots, and the loose principles of the Sadducees, and have learned "to pray long, and "even to faft," and that have a fair fhew of giving alms, fo as to maintain their credit; yet the truth of Christ's doctrine, about the impoffibility of ferving God and Mammon, laying up for ourselves "treasures in heaven, and not on earth, that "our hearts may be where our treafure is," and about feeking "firft the kingdom of God, and taking no thought for

to-morrow," and about "giving to the poor," Matth, vi. Luke xvi. is fully as ridiculous to them unto this day, as it was at first to the Pharifees: Luke xvi. 14. 15. "And "the Pharifees alfo, who were covetous, heard all these "things, and they derided him. And he faid unto them, "Ye are they which juftify yourselves before men; but God "knoweth your hearts for that which is highly efteemed "amongst men, is abomination in the fight of God."

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But Chrift's fheep hear his voice, and he knows them, and they follow him, and he gives unto them "eternal life, and "they shall never perish, neither fhall any pluck them out of "his hand."

SECT.

WE come now to confider the connection betwixt being of the truth, and hearing Chrift's voice. And this may be fome way cleared to us in confidering these following things.

1. Chrift's title to rule over us, his authority and right to command us, is manifeft in this truth concerning his righteousness revealed in the gofpel. Therefore, when he ap pears in the midst of the throne, as head over all things to the church, and takes the book to loose it, and to order and difpofe of all things about the church, Rev. v. we find the redeemed brought in acknowledging him worthy "to take "the book, and to open the feals." And why? "For," fay they," thou waft flain, and haft redeemed us to God by "thy blood." The Lord's authority over Ifrael, and his right to command them, was manifest in his redeeming them from the Egyptian bondage; and much more is his authority and right to govern his people manifeft in the eternal redemption he has now wrought for them, which is the subject of this truth of which they are. He is the good fhepherd that laid down his life for the sheep, and has taken it again for them; fo they are his own, and they hear his voice, and follow him. They that know him in this truth, will be obli. ged to own, with Thomas, that he is " their Lord, and their "God;" and to reckon, "that they are not their own, but bought with a price; and therefore bound to glorify him " in their bodies and fpirits, which are his." For a man to be of this truth, and yet not fubject to, nor acknowledge the authority of Chrift the Redeemer, is as great an inconfistency as can be thought of.

2. The things he fays are all fuitable unto this truth, and all his commandments are according to it: "Therefore they "that are of this truth must hear his voice." This truth is evidently set forth in all the institutions of the gospel, which he commands his people to obferve, and in all the NewTeftament worship. The preaching of the gofpel is the preaching of Chrift crucified. Baptism is the washing away of our fins in the blood of Christ, the answer of a good conscience toward God by the refurrection of Jefus Chrift, and our being buried with him unto death, that like as he was raised up from the dead, we should walk in newness of life; and as many as are baptized into Jefus Chrift, are baptized into

his death. The Lord's fupper evidently sets forth his body broken for us, his blood fhed for the remiffion of fins; and the communion of his difciples in a gofpel-church in parta. king together, as one body, of that one bread and cup, is the communion of the body and blood of Jefus Chrift; and "therein we fhew forth his death till he come." The Christian fabbath is our joyful reft in that work finished by him who is now entered into his reft.

What are our prayers, if they be not our calling on the name of the Lord our righteousness, and asking the Father in his name? And what are our praises, if they be not afcriptions of glory to the Lamb that was flain, and thanksgivings unto the Father by him? And what is all the New-Teftament worship, if it be not our drawing near to the Father by one Spirit through him, "who has reconciled us to God in one "body by the cross," and our coming into the holiest by his blood, and through the vail of his flesh? The assemblies of his people in the churches, are their gathering together unto him, and in his name, "who is the Lord their righteouf"nels, to see the glory and feel the power of his cross." The government of a gofpel church is a reprefentation of the authority of the great fhepherd of the theep, that was brought again from the dead, by the blood of the everlasting covenant, unto his fheep: for it is the feeding of his fheep. And the life of the difcipline is their agreeing to call on the name of the Lord their righteoufnefs, and to afk in his name, that he may do what they thus do in his name. Thus this truth is written upon the inftitutions of the gospel. Further, all the obedience that Chrift requireth of us, is according to this truth; fo that it is a "walking in the truth," 2 John 4. Christ hath fhewed us in this truth what is good, in anfwer to that perplexing question, "What fhall I give for the fin "of my foul? and wherewithal fhall I come before God?" And what he requires of us is very agreeable to that good: He calls us "to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk "humbly with our God," Mic. vi. 6. 7. 8. He becomes our God only in and by this truth; and when he calls us to do justly, and love mercy, it is most agreeable to the reve. lation of his mercy and justice in this truth: and whereas, in fhewing us this good, he ftains the pride of all our glory, and glorifies himself exceedingly in our falvation by that fa crifice of his own providing; it is every way agreeable to this, that we "should walk humbly with our God." All our obedience to Chrift is our conformity unto the image and

glory