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11. It is a moveable or portable lamp, like the tabernacle of old, and “the pillar of fire” and of cloud, which moved from one place to another. God has not, in all the word, bound himself to fix his gospel-lamp so in any nation or congregation, as never to take it away from them, and give it to others. No, Christ plainly tells the Jews, that the gospel of his kingdom was to be taken from them, and to be given to another people bringing forth the fruits thereof." The same, we see, Christ tells the church of Ephesus, that he would take away his candlestick from them, except they repented, reformed, and did their first works, &c.

Thus I have given you some account of the lamp which God has ordained for his Anointed.

III. The third general head laid down in the method was, to speak of the ordination of this Lamp.

Remember, sirs, it is God's authority in any ordinance of his, that gives it value, efficacy, and validity; just as the stamp of the king upon the coin makes it to pass current. Nothing will pass current in the church of Christ, with his loyal subjects, that does not bear the stamp of the authority of the King of Zion. What is the reason that the subjects of Christ, who desire to be faithful to him at this day, run away from the generality of pretended ministers? Why, it is because they do not carry the King's commission; they run unsent; they do not hear the voice of Christ in them; they do not see them coming in by the door of the fold; and therefore they will not follow them. Why do we Protestants reject the doctrines of the Romish church, their mass, breviaries, and idolatries? Why, it is because they do not bear the stamp of God's authority. And for the same reason we reject Episcopal and Independent government, and the superstition and ceremonies of the English church; it is because they are only the inventions of men, and have no authority from God; and therefore we cannot expect his blessing to accompany them. And, on the other hand, why do we sprinkle water in baptism " in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ?" Why do we eat and drink at the table of the Lord a little simple bread and wine, which to carnal reason are inconsistent things? Why do we preach the gospel, which to the wise of this world is foolishness? Why do we pray, and praise, and go about other duties? It is because they are commanded and

ordained of God. The gospel is a lamp of God's ordaining; and therefore it is “the power of God unto salvation, mighty through God to the pulling down of strong-holds," &c.

The weakest and most insignificant things, when appointed

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of God are the only means that will produce the desired effects. What made the sound of ram's horns to overthrow the walls of Jericho? What made the waters of Jordan more effectual for curing Naaman's leprosy, or spittle and dust mixed together effectual for opening the eyes of the blind man? Just this. These were the means of God's appointment; and therefore his own power went along with them. So here the gospel, and a gospel ministry, however contemptible and insignificant in the eyes of the world they may appear; yet, being a lamp of God's ordination, therefore his power is to be looked for by it for the salvation of souls. " It hath pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.” By these means it is that sinners are gathered to the blessed Shiloh.

To let you see how much God is concerned about this lamp of the everlasting gospel, I shall tell you of several things that God has ordained about it.

1. He has ordained the places and parts of the world where it shall be set up and shine. He

gave

his statutes unto Jacob, and his testimonies unto Israel; he dealt not so with any nation.” If you ask me, Why doth God send the gospel to Scotland, and not to many rich and populous nations who sit in darkness? Why, the reason of it is, “ Even so, O Father, for so it hath seemed good in thy sight.” Hence Paul, viewing the severity of God in taking the gospel from the Jews, and sending it to the Gentiles, cries out, [Gr. wbu.Jos, &c.] “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!” Rom. xi. 33.

2. As he ordained the place where the lamp shall be set up, so he ordained how long it shall shine, before it be lifted to another part of the earth. He ordained how long it should shine among the Jews, namely, until Christ came. He ordained how long it should shine in the churches of Asia, before he came and removed his candlestick. He has ordained when, and how long, the gospel shall continue in Scotland ; and there is but too just ground to fear, that God is about to take away his kingdom from us also, and to give it to the American world, who are receiving it with joy and gladness. He has also ordained how long the gospel and a faithful ministry shall stay in any parish or congregation.

3. He has ordained whạt souls or persons shall be converted, edified, or built up, by the gospel: when he sends it to any nation or congregation of Zion, (that is, the place where the gospel-lamp is set up.) “ it shall be said this man and that man was born there," &c. The election of grace shall obtain, when others are hardened. 66 To the one it is the sa

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vour of life unto life, and to others the savour of death unto death.” He will order a beam of this lamp to shine into one heart, in hearing the gospel, when it passes by twenty, thirty, a hundred, or a thousand, who lie as fair as to the external means as others.

4. He ordains by what instrument or minister the gospellamp shall be brought to a people or particular person. Paul is ordained for the Gentiles, Peter for the Jews, and every one of the apostles and other ministers, led by the ruling hand of the sovereign Lord, to labour in this, or that, or the other spot of his vineyard; for the stars are all in his right hand; and he ordains them to shine in this or the other orb of his church; and, whenever he pleases, he removes them from one place to another of his church militant, where he has any work for them; or else, when their work is ended upon earth, he removes them to the church triumphant, where they that have “turned many to righteousness, shall shine like the brightness of the firmament, and like the stars for ever and ever.”

5. He ordains what fruit and success a minister with his lamp shall have, what number of souls shall be edified, and who shall be hardened and blinded by his light. It is not always the greatest and brightest ministers that are most successful; for Christ and his apostles, when lifting up the lamp amongst the Jews, were put to complain, “ We have laboured in vain,” &c.

“Who hath believed our report ? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed ? We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced,” &c. So much for the third thing proposed, namely, concerning God's ordination of this lamp.

IV. The fourth thing in the method was, to give the reasons why God has ordained this lamp for his Anointed. And,

1. In the first place, it is ordained for the honour of God's Anointed; for it is the will of God, “That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son, honoureth not the Father which hath sent him," John v. 23. He will have him highly exalted both on earth and in heaven.

2. God has ordained this lamp for his Anointed, that his name may be remembered through all nations, and to all generations. God has ordained that his name shall endure for ever, that his name shall last like the sun.

When Paul got his commission, the Lord tells him, that he was to carry his name among the Gentiles, and kings," Acts ix. 15. It is by the gospel-lamp, that the church causes his name to be remembered to all generations.

3. He has ordained the gospel-lamp for his Anointed, that the gathering of the people may be to the blessed Shiloh, according to the ancient prediction of Jacob upon his deathbed: “The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come, and unto him shall the gathering of the people be," Gen. xlix. 10. The perfume of the name of God's Anointed has such a drawing and gathering virtue with it, that whenever sinners get the smell of it about their hearts, they “fly as a cloud, and as doves unto their windows.”—Other reasons might be added; but I do not insist farther upon the doctrinal part. I proceed now to,

V. The fifth thing in the method, which was the Application.

Use first shall be in two or three inferences at present.

Inf. 1. See how dear Christ is in his Father's eye, how warmly and affectionately he speaks of him here, and every where in scripture. He, as it were, glories in him and in his relation to him before all the world. Oh! says he, he, is mine Anointed ; he is my servant; he is mine elect; he is my fellow, and inine equal. Why does God speak so affectionately of him to a world of lost sinners, but that they may fall in love with him, and say as he says, by an applying faith, as the spouse does,

My beloved is mine, and I am his? This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem ?" or, as Thomas, “My Lord, and my God?":

Inf. 2. See, from what has been said, the amazing love of God towards lost sinners of the tribe and family of Adam, in giving and sending the Son of his love to be our Mediator and Ředeemer, and in his anointing and fitting him for the service of our redemption with an unmeasurable measure of the Holy Ghost: and then in ordaining the lamp of the gospel, for displaying his glory and excellency through all the world, and to every creature. Does not this argue strange love that God has to lost man? “God so loved the world, that he

gave his only begotten Son," &c. Oh sirs, admire the height and breadth, and length and depth of this love.

Inf. 3. See hence the melancholy and deplorable condition of those who want the lamp of the gospel, or who have provoked God to lift his lamp, and to leave them in darkness. Solomon tells us, that " where no vision is," that is, where the gospel-lamp is not," the people perish.” “

Their destruction is unavoidable, seeing they want the only means of salvation, there being "no name given under heaven among men whereby to be saved, but by the name of Jesus.” Thus the apostle argues. It is only they that“call upon the name of the Lord that shall be saved. But how shall they call on him in whom

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they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? and how shall they preach except they be sent?" Rom. x. 14, 15. By all which the apostle seems plainly to make it appear, that the salvation of sinners is impossible, without the lamp of gospel-light to show them the way to it. This should stir our bowels on the behalf of the blinded nations who inhabit the dark places of the earth, which are full of the babitations of horrid cruelty, where poor souls are just slaughtered and butchered by the roaring lion for want of the gos

pel, &c.

of men.

Inf. 4. See hence what reason we have to “ contend earnestly for the faith once delivered unto the saints,” and to be“ valiant for the truth.” Why, if the gospel-lamp be taken away out of the land, we are unchurched, and left among the dark places of the earth, and our “ house is left unto us desolate.” What would this earth be, if that great luminary, the sun, were taken out of the heavens? We would be stumbling and breaking our necks upon every thing in our way; it would be a most doleful and melancholy habitation. But far better want the sun out of the firmament, than the gospellamp out of the land. Strong efforts have been used by hell and earth in all ages, to put out the lamp of God's Anointed, that his soul-captivating glory might not be seen by the sons

This is, and has been, the design of all the errors that were ever broached since the Christian church and the gospel-lamp were set up in the world. The Arian heresy is designed to darken the glory of his supreme Deity. The Socinian error agrees with the Arians, and also overclouds, or rather obliterates, his satisfaction. The Arminian error darkens the freedom and efficacy of his grace, by exalting the freedom of man's will in his depraved state. Papists and legalists, of whatever denomination, impugn and disparage his everlasting righteousness, by substituting something of their own legal workings, doings, or personal qualifications, in the room of it. And now-a-days, the idol of self-love is substituted in the room of the glory of God, &c. All these, and the like errors, are just like so many damps or mists cast out of hell, through the malice and subtlety of the old serpent, in order to darken and obscure the lamp of gospel-light, that men may not perceive the glory, fulness, and suitableness of Christ, and so believe in him, to the salvation of their souls. However, through the overruling hand of God, these mists and clouds have only served in the issue to make the gospellamp, and the glory of God's Anointed, to shine with the greater lustre; like the clouds in the air, which you observe have just now overcast the sun in the firmament; they ob