66 66 never truly acted under a fenfe of ability to believe, but under a fense of utter inability; and therefore, if you can fay, Though I find my own weakness and inability to believe, yet I think, by this revelation of Chrift, made to me, God hath made me willing, that "Chrift, who hath all things in his hand, fhould be all "things to me, and do all things for me; willing, with a thousand good wills, that he fhould put all things "that are evil out of me, and put all things that are 66 good within me; and willing that he fhould be all things that relate to wisdom, and illuminate all things "that relate to holiness and fan&tification; and all things "that relate to happiness and complete redemption." Is it fo with you? Then you have got a heart to join hand with him that hath all things in his hand; and you may gladly go to a communion-table, and get the bargain fealed between him and you; and you may boaft and glory in your all-fufficient Head and Hufband, whom God hath furnifhed in this manner. The Father loveth the Son, and bath given all things into his band. SER SERMON LXXXII. The LAW of GOD's Houfe. * EZEK. xliii. 12. This is the law of the boufe; upon the top of the mountain, the whole limit thereof round about shall be most boly: bebold, this is the law of the house. IT T is moft fuitable and neceffary, that these who have been making a folemn profeffion of their being of the houfhold of faith; who have been eating and drinking in God's houfe, as fellow-citizens with the faints, and of the houfhold of God, fhould know the order and law of the house: and, therefore, I lay before you a fhort fum of it, very emphatically here expreffed; This is the law of the boufe; upon the top of the mountain, the whole limit thereof round about shall be most boly: bebold, this is the law of the boufe. In the beginning of this chapter, we have an account of the glory of God filling the temple, particularly ver. 5. and then a promife of God's continuing his presence in his church, ver. 7, 8. to the purging them from their idolatry, corruption, and defilement, which here they are put in mind of, for their conviction and humiliation. From ver. 10. and downward, we have Ifrael exhorted to faith and repentance; "Shew the house to the house of Ifrael, that they may be afhamed of their iniquity." The temple was a token of God's kindness, and fymbol of * This fermon was preached on the Sabbath evening, immediately after the celebration of the facrament of the Lord's fupper, at Dunfermline, July 16th, 1732. his prefence, as well as a type of Chrift the true temple, and of the New-teftament church. And when he enjoins to fhew the houfe to the houfe of Ifrael, that they may be afhamed, we may remark, that the way wherein a gracious God fhames people for their fin, is to fhow them his kindness and gracious prefence: thus he puts them out of countenance, and fets them a-blushing, ch. xvi.63. "That thou mayit remember and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more because of thy fhame, when I am pacified towards thee, for all that thou haft done, faith the Lord God."-Again, ver. 11. "If they be afhamed of all that they have done, then fhow them the form of the house, and the fashion thereof, and the goings out thereof, and the comings in thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and all the laws$ thereof: and write it in their fight, that they may keep the whole form thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and do them." When his kindness makes them afhamed of their fin, then he fhows them more and more of his kindness, and grants them more and more of his gracious prefence. In the clofe of ver. 11. "Write it in their fight, that they keep the whole form thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and do them." Here remark, that the privileges of God's houfe and people do not fuperfede their duty, but bind them more fweetly and strictly thereunto; and therefore, obedience is here enjoined, and thereupon here is the rule laid down, This is the law of the boufe; upon the top of the mountain, the whole limit thereof round about shall be moft boly: behold, this is the law of the house. In which words we may notice the four following particulars. 1. What is the matter of the law of God's house, namely, holinefs; that all the inhabitants be holy: for, "Holinefs becometh God's houfe for ever." 2. The degree of that holiness which becometh his house, viz. that it be moft boly; the perfection of holinefs is required. 3. Notice the extent thereof, from the top of the mountain, the whole limit thereof round about. Formerly, only the fanctuary was moft holy; but now in the gospel times, to which this prophecy hath a reference, the whole mount of the houfe fhall be fo, and the whole limit thereof; all the courts, all the chambers, and every part of the house, fhall be as the most holy place. 4. The double affurance given us concerning this ordinance of God's houfe, This is the law of the boufe; and again, Behold, this is the law of the house. By the moft boly in the text, we are to understand, either the privilege of the houfe of God in the gospeltimes, namely, that all believers in Christ have access unto the holy of holies, and boldnefs to enter into the holieft, Heb. x. 19.: they being all spiritual priests, a royal priesthood, they have accefs, not in the virtue of the blood of bulls and goats, but in the virtue of the blood of Jefus; and with this advantage also, above the high-prieft under the law, that, wherever we are, we have accefs through. Chrift to the Father: or, by the moft boly, we are to understand the duty of the church of God, or children of his houfe, that they be moft holy; and indeed the former privilege lays the ftrongeft foundation for, and brings them under the ftricteft obligation to, the duty. According to the view we have here of the most boly, accordingly we are to understand what is to be meant by the law of the boufe. If by most boly, we understand the privilege of access to the most holy place; then, by the law of the boufe, we are to understand the law of grace, the law of faith, the gofpel, or God's act of grace towards us, expreffed in the promife. Again, if by the moft boly, we understand the quality. of the church, and the duty of all the children of the house, that they be moft holy; then, by the law of the boufe, we are to understand the precept of the moral law as a rule of holinefs, duty, and obedience toward God. Both these, I. fuppofe, may be included; and the former as the means of the latter. Gofpel-privileges making way for gofpel-holinefs, according to the order of the covenant of grace, in oppofition to that of works, where Do, and Live, made duty go before the privilege; whereas here, Live, and Do, makes the privilege the foun foundation of duty, and the ftrong basis on which all gofpel-holinefs flands. By the top of the mountain, and the whole limit thereof round about, we are to understand the univerfality of this holiness, and the extent both of that privilege of admiffion to the holy place, and of that obligation upon the privileged to be a holy people. OBSERV. "That univerfal holinefs is fo much the "eftablished law of God's houfe, that the whole family, being privileged with accefs to the most holy place, are thereupon under the strongest obligation to be the most holy people.” The proof of this doctrine I refer to the profecution of it in the following method, as the Lord may affift. I. I would fpeak a little of the boufe of God. II. Hint at the nature of that holinefs that is peculiar to the houfe of God. III. Show that this is the law of the boufe; and why it is faid to be fo, again and again. IV. Touch at the extent of this holiness required by the law of God's houfe, upon the top of the mountain, the whole limit thereof round about. V. Confider a little the privilege of accefs to the most holy place. VI. Show that this privilege obliges the whole to be the most holy people. And then, VII. Make Application of the whole in feveral Ufes. I. I am firft to fpeak a little of the boufe of God. The church is the houfe of God; "If a man know not how to rule his own houfe, how fhall he take care of the church of God?" 1 Tim. iii. 5. And it is fo called on feveral accounts: 1. God is the builder of it; "He that built all things is God," Heb. iii. 4. The church is as glorious a piece of work as the building of heaven and earth; yea, more glorious. It is the work of glorious Omnipotence, to make life out of death; he makes thefe that were dead in fins to be living ftones, 1 Pet. ii. 5. "What fhall one anfwer the meffengers of the nations? That the Lord hath found |