under the New Teftament, Heb. x. 19. Having, brethren, boldness, to enter into the holieft by the blood of Jefus.' And as priests unto God, ye fhall live upon God's altar, and the great facrifice of Chrift's death; ye fhall" eat his flesh, and drink his blood, which is meat indeed, and drink indeed." (5.) By obeying the voice of the Angel, ye fhall be preferred to be fecretaries of ftate unto the great King." Unto you it fhall be given to know the mysteries of the kingdom," which is not given unto others: The fecret of the Lord is with them that fear him, and unto them he will fhew his covenant." The Angel of God's prefence, if ye obey his voice, he will thew you the path of life, through which you fhall go in and out, and find pafture. And when he is to bring defolating ftrokes on a land or church, he will readily give you fome warning and intimation of it. When God has a mind to lay Sodom in afhes, he fays, "Shall I hide from Abraham the thing that I do? When he has a mind to deftroy the old world, he intimates it to righteous Noah, while he conceals it from the rest of the world; for " he being warned of God of things not feen as yet, prepared an ark for the faving of his houfe." And is not this a high dignity and honour conferred on them that obey the voice of the Angel? John xv. 15. "All things that I have heard of my Father, I have made known unto you."

(6.) By obeying the voice of the Angel, ye come to be members of a royal fociety and corporation, and that even in this life. Heb. xii. 22-24. we read there of a fociety confifting of "God the Judge of all, Jefus the Mediator of the new covenant, an innumerable company of angels, the general affembly and church of the firft-born, and the fpirits of juft men made perfect." Oh! what an honourable fraternity is here! Yet that moment ye obey the voice of the Angel, ye come to have your names enrolled and registrate in this fociety, and may claim and plead all the immunities and privileges thereof.

(7.) Obey the voice of the Angel, and ye shall be honoured to have a dominion over death. Death hath dominion over other men: but they that obey the voice of the Angel, by believing in his name, have dominion over death, and may infult it with a holy triumph, faying "O death, where is thy fting? O grave, where is thy victory?" It is a ftrange word the apoftle has, 1 Cor. iii. at the clofe: the apostle is there making an inventory of the believer's jointure, and among other things he adds this article, Death is yours. 2. d. I have taken this laft enemy, of which you are afraid, a captive; I have bound him in chains, taken away his fting, and delivered

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him over into your hand. 2. d. Come fet the foot of faith upon his neck, tread upon this lion and fcorpion, for he cannot hurt you; yea, I deliver him up to you as a fervant, yea, as a friend, to help you home to my company and fellowship. It is indeed hard to convince a believer, efpecially under the fpirit of bondage, of the friendship of death. But I may compare the believer, in this cafe, unto Mofes: when Mofes faw his rod turned into a ferpent, he was afraid, and fled from it; but when God commanded him to take hold of it, he found, that, instead of hurting him, it was a harmless thing, and did him and the children of Ifrael much fervice: fo death to a believer, at firft fight, is like the rod turned to a ferpent, it af frights him; but whenever it is handled by faith, at the command of the Angel, inftead of being hurt, it is advantageous: To die is gain. As Mofes's rod divided the waters, and made paffage for Ifrael through the deeps into Canaan; fo death, in the hand of faith, it opens the way to the pron: fed land of glory. Death, to a believer, is like a meifenger arresting a man for debt, after the debt is paid by his cautioner. Death, as God's meffenger, arrefts the believer, and carries him into the judgement-feat; but no fooner does the man compear there, but immediately Chrift, the great Advocate in the midst of the throne, produces his discharge, and the debtbook of juftice cancelled and crofs-fcored by his own blood. Thus hall it fare with the man at death, that obeys the Angel. (3.) Obey the voice of the Angel that has his Father's name in him, and he will put honour upon you at the refur rection. He will raife you up at the last day; and this vile body of yours, that is fuck a clog to your fpirits, it fhall be made like unto the glorious body of Chrift. Ye fhall be affeffors with him in judgement: "Know ye not that the faints hall judge the world?" Ye fhall fit upon thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Ifrael: "To him that overcometh will I give to fit with me upon my throne, even as I also overcame, and am fet down with my Father upon his throne." Perhaps now the wicked never ceafe from troubling you one way or another; thou art haraffed by them in thy name, in thy means; thou endures the trial of cruel mockings for obeying the voice of the Angel, as if thou wert only a hypocrite, and one that affected fingularity; but be not difcouraged; this blafst will blow over, the day of thy complete redemption draweth near, and in the morning of that day the upright fhall have domi nion over them; when they fhall be crying to the rocks and mountains to cover them, thou shalt be ftanding at the right hand of Chrift, fhining like the brightnefs of the firmament, yea, like the fun in the kingdom of thy Father.

(9.) When the laft judgement is over, if thou obey and follow the voice of the Angel, thou shalt enter the King's palace; with gladness and mirth on every fide fhalt thou be brought into it. Oh! when the great Judge has difpatched the wicked, and all the nations that forget God, into hell, with the devil and his angels, he will return to the proper feat of his empire, and all his ranfomed on every hand of him, with fongs and everlasting joy upon their head, every one ftudying to outdo another in warbling out the Redeemer's praises, " O wor thy is the Lamb that was flain, to receive power, and riches, and wifdom, and ftrength, and honour, and glory, and bleffing, and dominion. And fo fhall they be for ever with the Lord."

Thus I have endeavoured to fulfil that commiffion among you, If. iii. 10. 11. "Go fay to the wicked, It fhall be ill with him; for the reward of his hands fhall be given him; but fay to the righteous, it fhall be well with him; for they fhall eat the fruit of their doings," in obeying the voice of the Angel. So that life or death is before you: if you obey the voice of the Angel, your fouls fhall live, and live in honour with the Lord, in time and through eternity; but if ye will not obey the voice of the Angel, but go on to provoke him, he will not pardon your tranfgreffions, but will purfue the quarrel of your difobedience to his voice unto the lowest hell, and through an endless eternity. So much for the fourth thing in this use, which was to offer fome confiderations to excite you to obey the voice of Christ.

EXOD. xxiii. 21.-Obey his voice: for my name is in him.

THE ELEVENTH SERMON ON THIS TEXT.

BEFO

EFORE I go on to the fifth thing in this ufe, there are two or three things in the context, particularly ver. 20. which I would improve by way of motive, to excite you yet further to obey the voice of the Angel of God's prefence. "Behold, I fend an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared." The words were indeed immediately directed to Ifrael according to the flesh, with relation to their safe conduct through

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the howling wilderness to the earthly Canaan; but typically and ultimately they pointed at Ifrael according to the fpirit under the New Teftament, and Chrift leading them through the wilderness of this world, till they come to the promised reft of glory on the other fide of the Jordan of death and as it was the intereft of Ifrael to hearken to his voice, and obey it, if ever they expected to enter the earthly Canaan; fo in like manner it is the duty and intereft of all gofpel-hearers, to hear and obey his voice, as ever they defire or expect to enter the threshold of glory.

And there are thefe few particulars here, which I would have you to confider.

1. Hear the voice of the Angel, for he is God's fend: "Behold, I fend mine Angel before thee," &c. Oh Sirs! fhall not the fent of God get a hearing among the children of men? If but the king of Britain fhould fend a meffenger, a herald, to the inhabitants of this city, I trow every one, young and old, would prick up their ears to hear, and a speedy answer would be given unto his commands: much more if he fhould fend the prince-royal with his commands. Well, Sirs, here is a fend from the King eternal and immortal, in whose hand is the breath of all living; and he has fent not Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, or any of the created Angels, but he has fent his Son, his only Son, the Son of his bofom, the Son of his delights, who is "the brightnefs of his Father's glory, and the exprefs image of his perfon ;" and he has "fent him into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be faved." Oh then shall we not hear and obey his voice?

2. Confider what a wonder it is, that ever he fent him upon the business he is come about. This is intimate in the word behold: "Behold, I send an Angel before thy face." We find this title of admiration commonly prefixed unto all the advertisements given to folk concerning the coming of Chrift: If. xlii. 1. "Behold my fervant whom I uphold," &c. Zech. ix. 9. "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; fhout, O daughter of Jerufalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee," &c. Mal. iii. 1. "The meffenger of the covenant, whom ye feek, and whom ye delight in, behold, he fhall come, faith the Lord of hofts." And whenever he appears actually upon the ftage, the angels cry to the fhepherds, Luke ii." Behold, we bring you glad tidings of great joy." Oh! Sirs, it is the greatest wonder that ever God wrought, even the chief of the ways of God, that ever he fent his Son in the nature of man upon the errand of our redemption, and that at the price of his own. blood and death: "Behold, he comes with dyed garments,

treading

treading the wine prefs alone, fpeaking in righteousness, migh ty to fave;" and yet fhall he not get a hearing when he is come ?

3. Confider, that as the Captain of the Lord's hoft is he come, as he told Joshua: "Behold, I send an Angel before thee." You have a promife of him much to the fame purpose, If. Iv. 4. " Behold, I have given him for a witnefs to the people, for a leader and commander to the people ;" and Mic, ii. at the clofe, The breaker is come up before them, their King fhall pafs before them, and the Lord on the head of them." Oh! Sirs, we have many enemies that lie in our way to glory, through the howling wildernefs; "we wreftle not only with flesh and blood, but with principalities and powers, and the rulers of the darkness of this world, with fpiritual wickedneffes in high places:" Well, here God has fent his own Son, as the Captain of our falvation, to fight all our battles, and açcordingly to open our way to glory, "He spoiled principalities and powers on the crofs ;" and whenever that routed enemy, the old ferpent, whofe head he has bruised, begins to make an attack upon his foldiers, he is ay ready to fuccour and affift, and to make their bow to abide in its ftrength, he is always ftanding at the right hand of the poor traveller to glory, ready to uphold him with the right hand of his righteoufnefs. Now, fhall not foldiers, fighting their way to glory, obey the voice of their Captain, and fuch an one?

4. Hear and obey his voice, for he is Ifrael's keeper: "I fend mine Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way." How foon would Ifrael, in the howling wilderness, been confumed, if he had not been a keeper and watchman unto them? He kept them from being swallowed up by the nations round them, by ftriking a terror upon their fpirits; he kept them from being devoured by the wild beafts of the wilderness, by laying a reftraint upon them; he kept them from being con fumed with the heat of the fun, by fpreading a canopy of a cloud over the camp; he kept them from the injury of the night by raising a pillar of fire in the midst of them; he kept them from ftarving with hunger, by making the heavens to rain down manna about their tents; he kept them from perishing with drought, by making the rock, i. e. the waters of the rock, to follow them through all the turns of their way, Thus he kept Ifrael in their way. And all this was but a shadow of what he is unto us now under the New Teftament, if we but faw him by the eye of faith; hence is that promife, with refpect to the church under the New Teftament, If. iv. 5. 6, "The Lord fhall create upon every dwelling-place of mount Zion, and upon her affemblies, a cloud and fmoke by day, and

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