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- ift. Defcribe the fervant of the Lord in contradictinction from those who call themselves fo, or are by others falfely fo called.

2dly. Shew you, first in the negative, and then in the pofitive, what is not, and what is meant by the word STRIVE, in the text; or defcribe lawful and unlawful ftrife.

3dly. Shew you his gentleness, and how all forts of men will try it more or less.

4thly. Defcribe his aptnefs, or aptitude to teach, and the unaptnefs of pretenders to that work, with the reafons for it.

5thly. Treat of his patience, and describe those who are faid to wear it out.

6thly. Define the spiritual meekness in my text, and wherein it differs from the candour of hypocrites, and

7thly, and lastly. The perfons with whom this meekness is to be ufed, namely, thofe that oppose themselves.

ift. I am to defcribe the Lord's fervant in contradiftinction from those who call themselves fo, or are by others falfely fo called. All are not the Lord's fervants who call him mafter; Judas called him fo, and yet was a devil, and at laft the devil his mafter entered into him, and let all men see whose servant he was; he was not without candour to himself, nor the appearance of good works; he reproved the Saviour, and poor Mary alfo, the first for permitting, and the latter for

making waste of the funeral ointment; pretended great love to the poor, but he aimed at nothing but money, therefore the fearcher of all hearts gratified him with bearing the bag, or keeping the common stock; which he did, not as the Lord's fervant, to relieve the poor followers, and defray the travelling expences of the Lord's retinue, but to act the part of a thief, make a private purfe for himself, ftarve the family of God, and fell the mafter of the houfhold for thirty pieces of filver, in order to get a stock in hand, independent of Providence, and to prevent the perilous adventure of going out to preach without purfe or fcrip.

2dly. They are not all the Lord's fervants who call him by that name. Many will fay unto him in the great day, Lord! Lord! who will never be admitted into the family. It is true, no man can call Jefus Lord, or his Lord, that is, with the teftimony of a good confcience, but by the Holy Ghoft: Yet the root of all evil, the love of money, has led the devil's fervants to call him fo, while fcripture and confcience have given them the lie. to their face. Balaam faid unto Balack's fervant, If Balack would give me his houfe full of filver and gold, I cannot go beyond the word of the Lord my God to do more or lefs, Numb. xxii. 18. Yet his will and inclination lead him to tempt the Almighty with a feven times fevenfold facrifice; and 'tis well known, that he would have fold himself to the devil, and the heritage of heaven also, for

an independence; or elfe, why did he so often go to feek for inchantments, if he did not approve of the devil's fervice, feek the devil's aid, and depend on his arm for wifdom, for fupport, and direction? It was with a fhew of much candour for Balack and the incestuous offspring of Lot, that he was brought to acknowledge that God was not man that be fhould lie as himself could, nor the fon of man that he should repent of bleffing Ifrael, as himself could heartily repent for labouring fo long for fo little profit.

It is true, he knew fomething of the holy law of God, and of God's hatred to fin, by the advice that he gave to Balack, in order to fet a trap for Ifrael, to entangle them in fin, and awake the wrath of God against them, as it is written, Behold thefe caufed the children of Ifrael through the council of Balaam to commit trefpafs against the Lord in the matter of Peor, and there was a plague among the congregation, Numb. xxxi. 16. Nor was Balaam without fome glimpfe of the Saviour; the poor afs upon which he rode had feen the angel of the covenant and the flaming fword of justice drawn against her rider, which is more than one half of our prefent evangelifts (falfely fo called) have feen; who, like the foolish prophets, follow their own spirit and have seen nothing, Ezek. xiii. 3. Balaam had perceived his eyes to be opened-he had feen the fword of justice in the vifions of God-fell into a trance at the fight of it-faw the ftar of Jacob-the deftruc.

deftruction of Moab-the damnation of Ama leck-the victory of Ifrael-the glorious death of the righteous, and defired that his laft end might be like theirs. But his candour for Moab, and his love for independency fwallowed up all; be counfelled Balack to caft a tumbling block before the children of Ifrael, and in his heart, he loved the wages of unrighteousness; which ended his candour and love to independency by the fword of Ifrael, and brought him to the company of those inchanters, whose inchantments he had fo often fought, both by prayer and facrifice.

3dly. A man may have a minifterial gift, which may be much admired, and much followed, and whatever use it may be of to the church, in order to purge the floor, and blow away the chaff from the wheat, or draw away the hypocrites from the upright, yet we know, those that run before they are sent shall not profit the people at all, Jer. xxiii. 32. they are called wells, but there is no drawing water out of them, for they are called wells without water; they are called clouds, on the account of their pompous and popular appearance, but there is no water for them that are thirsty, nor floods for the dry ground, for they are clouds without rain: they are called musical inftruments, none give more found than they do, but no quickening power attends their noife, for they are faid to be inftruments without life-giving found, fo that no fpiritual foldier

I

knows

knows what is piped or harped, and as the found is uncertain, who can prepare for the battle? they are called stars, as the feven angels of the feven churches are, but no veffel of mercy can fteer his course by them; they know nothing of the day ftar, or of the morning ftar, nor of him that maketh the feven flars and Orion, and turns the fhadow of death into the morning; but they are called wandering ftars, compared to glutinous. vapours, exhaled from the bogs of the earth by the rays of the fun, and caft down with their false rays, by the nightly damps of the atmosphere.

They are called lamps, which serve to light others, but always go out themselves about midnight, or before the morning appears, which will be the midnight cry of all hypocrites, and no wonder, when there is no oil in their vessels; and if they have no oil for themselves, there is no likelihood of poor men, who fall among the thieves, namely, Satan, fin, and death; there is no oil in these veffels to pour into the wounds of a bleeding confcience, no new wine in thefe old bottles for those that are of an heavy heart; their own lamps are gone out, nor is there any of the oil of joy, which is to be given in exchange for mourning, much lefs can the garments of praise be brought forth in exchange for the fpirit of heaviness.

Whatever use these gifts may be of to alarm infenfible confciences, or purge the church of

God

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