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thee to walk in my ftatutes:" Is he thus engaged? Then let faith keep a faft grip of his engagement; and when faith is like to lofe the grip, remember, that he who hath engaged for every thing that concerns you, hath engaged for faith too, having promifed to keep your faith that it fail not, and to keep you by his power thro' faith unto falvation. Therefore, in the want of faith, lock to his engagement for it; and in the weakness of faith, look to his engagement to firengthen it; and in the trial of faith, look to his engagement to fupport it. Let not your faith depend upon your faith, but your faith and dependance be wholly on Chrift, for all that you need with refp &t to work and warfare, duty or dif ficulty, foul or body, grace or glory, time or eternity; then will God put your name and Chrift's together, fay. ing, "Who is this that engaged his heart to approach

unto me ?"

SERMON

SERMON XXIX,---XXXIII.

THE SAVING SIGHT; OR, A VIEW OF GOD IN CHRIST*.

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JOHN xiv. 6.

-He that bath feen me, bath feen the Father.

My dear friends, the great, glorious, and invifible God hath been, this day, condefcending to make himself vifible to us, notwithstanding of the great diftance betwixt him and us. There is a threefold diftance that mars our fight; there is a natural distance, that hinders the fight of the natural understanding; there is a local diftance, that mars bodily fight; and there is a moral diflance, that impedes fpiritual fight; all these, in certain refpects, takes place here.-In refpect of the infinite being of God, there is an infinite natural diftance betwixt him and us, who are but finite creatures, infomuch that we cannot fee him.-In refpect of the manhood of Chrift, now afcended into heaven, there is a vaft local distance betwixt him and us, that puts him out of our view, who are on the earth.-In refpect of the infinite holinefs of God, there is an infinite moral diftance betwixt him and us, that we cannot perceive him through the dark clouds of fin and corruption ahat over-caft our fouls. But fuch is the condefcending mercy of our God, that he is pleased to come near to us in fuch ways as tend to remove these impediments

*This piece appears to be the fubftance of four fermons. The first was preached on the Sabbath-evening, immediately after the celebration of the Lord's Supper, at Dunfermline, May 21ft, 1727; and the reft, at the fame place, after the folemnity.

out

out of the way of our feeing of him; and therefore, that the infinite natural diftance betwixt him and us may not impede our feeing of him, he is pleased to come near to us in a natural way; I mean, by affuming our nature, that we may fee him there; and that the vaft local distance betwixt God, Chrift, and us, may not interrupt our feeing of him, he is pleafed to come near in a facramental way, that we may fee him myftically and facramentally there; and that the moral dif tance betwixt him and us, may not impede our feeing of him, he comes near in a fpiritual way, by his Spirit and grace, enlightening the eyes of finners, and fcattering the clouds of fin and corruption.

My friends, it is our infinite mercy, that we have other ways of feeing God, than the blinded nations that want the gofpel. The way in which they may fee God, fo as to leave them inexcufable, is common to them and us both. It is now fome more than five thoufand years fince the great and invifible God erected the pillars of heaven, and earth, that the invisible things of him, from the creation of the world, might be clearly seen and understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, Rom. i. 20.; but because no finner can, in this glass, get a faving fight of God, hẻ hath been pleased to fet other glaffes before our eyes. It is now more than feventeen hundred years fince the fame invifible God, in the perfon of the eternal Word, came down in the likenefs of flesh and blood, that his glory might be made visible to us through the glafs and vail of our nature; "The word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory," John i. 14. But after his work on earth was finished, by his doing, dying, and rifing again, he afcended into heaven, far out of our view; therefore the fame invifible and eternal God, in fuch a wonderful and ftupenduous manner, does farther obfcure his glory, to make it evident to our dull apprehenfion, and visible even to our earthly fenfes, that he hath, this day, come down in the like nefs of bread and wine, that he might accommodate himself both to our nature and neceffities; and that being thus, though spiritually, yet facramentally and vi

fibly prefent, we might fee and apprehend his invifible glory, love, grace, and mercy, under thefe vifible elemenis, infomuch, that henceforth we need not be at a lofs to refolve that feeming contradiction and wonderful myltéry, namely, that the infinite mercy of God in Chrift is fo deep, that no thought can fathom it, and yet so obvious, that every eye may fee it, nor at a lofs to read Mofes' riddle, Heb. xi. 27. for now it is easy, especially to the believer, whofe faith is the evidence of things not seen, to explain how one may fee him that is invisible.

This gofpel facrament, we have been celebrating, is a glafs, wherein we fee Chrift; Chrift is a glafs, wherein we fee God: if our eyes, therefore, have been opened, by the Spirit of God, we have feen a great fight this day. May I ask you, then, where you have been, and what you have feen about this folemnity? Have you been at Jerufalem, and feen the King's face? If you have seen the facramental elements, I afk, what have you feen there? If you faw no more but bread and wine, furely you have been blind; for, Christ was there evidently fet forth crucified before you.But, if you have feen Christ there, then I afk again, What have you feen? It may be you do not know what you have feen; for, as you, that have got no fight of Chrift, are at a greater lofs than you are capable to know and understand; becaufe, having miffed a fight of Chrift, you have miffed a fight of God, and feen nothing worth the feeing: fo you that have got a faving fight of Chrift, you have got a greater fight than readily you are aware of. Perhaps you have feen Chrift, and yet, with Philip here in the text, do not know that you have feen the Father. Perhaps God hath been in this place, and you knew it not; but if you have got a fight of Chrift, and yet do not know how much, and how far you have seen, or whether it be the true Christ you have feen, then be informed of this matter out of his own bleffed lips, "He that hath feen me, hath feen the Father." O! what an happy folemnity might we fay this hath been, if it could be faid of a multitude here, as it was faid of the nobles

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of Ifrael, Exod. xxiv. 11. They faw God, and did eat and drink;" or, that their eyes have feen the King, the Lord of hofts! I doubt not but there are many here came to Dunfermline, with a defign that they might fee the King in his beauty, at this facramental occafion, and to fee the glory of God. Well, the brightest glafs that ever God's glory was feen in, hath been, and is yet fet before you. The great facramental fight is, in a spiritual manner, as well as with bodily eyes, to fee the facramental elements, fo as in the elements to fee Christ, and in Chrift to fee the Father: and though, the facramental table be drawn, yet, while Chrift is prefented to you in this gofpe!, the glafs is not yet withdrawn. You have a new occafion to fee him again; and not only to fee him, but alfo to fee whether you have feen him formerly, yea, or not; and to fee what you have feen in him; for, "He that hath feen me, hath feen the Father."

Having, before this folemnity, fpoken to the preceding part of the verfe, and fo to the connection of this text with the context, I have the lefs ado this way; only, Chrift having, ver. 6, 7. difcovered himfelf as the only way to the Father, and as the Father's great reprefentative, infomuch, that as there is no coming to the Father, but by him, nor feeing of the Father, but in him; fo there is none that come to him, can mifs the Father, or fail of winning to the Father by him; and none that look to him, can lofe a fight of the Father in him; notwithstanding this fweet doctrine, Philip having faid,, "Shew us the Father," ver. 8. the Lord Jefus here fpeaks to him both by way of reproof and inftruction; he meekly reproves him, faying, "Have I been fo long with thee, and yet haft thou not known me, Philip?" that you fhould talk fo ignorantly, after I have taught you fo plainly, that, in knowing me, you know the Father; but our Lord, who is fuch a meek reprover, is alfo an indefatigable inftructor; and therefore again he kindly inftructs him in the words of the text, faying, "He that hath feen me, hath feen the Father." As it is an ignorant, fo it is a needlefs petition for you, Philip, to afk of me, faying, "Shew us the Father," fince I have told

you

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