you into the knowledge of your own hearts, and into the mysteries of my kingdom, that you fhould be hid in obfcurity; or conceal that wisdom, knowledge, and understanding, that I have given you. No: I shall shortly raise up many churches; and, as fo many candlesticks, I fhall place you as fo many candles on them, that you may give light unto all that are of my houshold.

Let your light fo fhine before men. All that I have faid to you, in fecret, proclaim upon the housetop. I have made manifeft the counfels of your heart; and by your miniftry the thoughts of many hearts fhall be revealed: they fhall fee, as in a glass, their loft eftate, their fins in their true colours, their need of a despised Saviour; and they fhall fee him as the only way to the Father. It is the Spirit that speaketh in you; and I, who am your everlasting light, your God, and your glory, will shine in you, and shine out by you. "Let your light fo fhine

"before men"

That they may fee your good works. The office of a Bishop, or a Paftor, is a good work. Magnify your office, and make full proof of your ministry. Evangelizing fouls by my unctuous Spirit, is a good work on them; and communicating grace to their 'hearts, is a good work in them. Freely ye have received-freely give. Heal the fick, and caft out devils; which are good deeds done to impotent folks. Converted fouls fhall be the fruit of your ministry. "I have

C

"I have chofen you, and ordained you, that your "fhould go and bring forth fruit; and your fruit "fhall remain." It fhall remain to the world's end: "For when the Son of Man cometh, he fhall"find faith on the earth." The Pharifees fay, and do not; but you must do, and not fay. "Let them "SEE your good works." Sound not your own trumpet, as the hypocrites do: a good workman. will have trumpeters enough.

And glorify your Father which is in heaven. By proclaiming his eternal and matchlefs love in the gift of his Son; by making known his fecret purpofes, grace, and good-will to men; by celebrating his high praises, and by provoking others to love him, and to do the fame; by afcribing all falvation. to him; by faith in him, love to him, and by thanking him, bleffing him, worshipping him, praising. him, and adoring him; and by a life, walk, and converfation, that is honourable to him, and wellbecoming you as the children of fuch a benign Parent.

Hitherto the Saviour has been speaking to his difciples and faithful followers; which appears evident by the many bleffings that he pronounced on them, whose bleffings never fly at random. Nor can it be fuppofed that he would call Scribes, Pharifees, and hypocrites, the light of the world, and the falt of the earth; for fuch are rather the fcum and the dregs of it. All that has been faid is ap

plicable,

plicable to the children of God, and to none else. Now come in the words of my text; in which the Saviour feems to direct his difcourfe to the multitude, who had been hearing doctrines which they never heard before, and might wonder that they heard nothing about the Law: therefore, the Saviour feems to address this to them, but not to the exclufion of his faithful followers→→→→→

Think not that I am come to destroy the Law. I am not come to pull down it's fanction, or it's authority. I am not come to fet it afide, repeal it's force, abolish it, make it void, or blot it out, (in any of the following fenfes.) Were I to do this, mine Elect would have no fchoolmafter, the bond-fervant would have no rule, the finner no tranfgreffion, the Judge no fentence, and the ungodly no damnation.

Firft, The Law fhall ever ftand as a schoolmafter to mine Elect, to fhew them, and make them feel their need of me. They fhall learn of the Father, and believe Mofes's writings too; and then they shall come unto me, and believe my words. They fhall come to God, the Judge of all in the Law; and then to the Mediator of the New Covenant, revealed in the Gospel. They fhall hear my Father's voice in the fecret place of thunder; and then, with their face wrapt in their mantle, they fhall hear the voice of the Turtle: and fo go from death to life, from Sinai to Zion, from wrath to come to Grace revealed. The Law fhall kill them, and I will quicken them;

the Law fhall wound them, and I will heal them; the Law fhall divorce them, and I will marry them. The yoke of the Law fhall make my yoke defirable. This fhall be the good and lawful ufe of the Law; and this ufe of it fhall never be set aside, made void, done away, or abolished.

Secondly, The Law, written by the finger of God, and the copy of it on the hearts of Heathens, shall ever remain in full force, as the only and eternal rule of life and righteousness, to all the reprobate, to every bond-child, vain-jangler, proud doer, felfrighteous, felf-fufficient, and independent Pharifee. "Whatsoever the Law faith, let it be what it will, "it fhall fay it to them that are under the Law." All that work for life there, the reward fhall not be reckoned of Grace, but of debt, Rom. iv. 4. The Master will exact of the fervant a perfect task, a perpetual course of unerring, unfinning obedience. As a juft and immutable creditor, God will demand the total fum of all the fpotlefs and perfect works that the Law requires. The reward shall never be reckoned of Grace, but of debt. No Surety, or Mediator, fhall be found in the Old Covenant. The bond-flave that rejects my Grace, shall pay his own debt; and, if he fails but in one point, he shall find the ftrength of fin to be the Law: it fhall bind him. over, and deliver him to the Judge; " and he fhall be caft into prifon. And verily I fay unto you, "he fhall never come out thence till he hath paid

"the

go

down into filence

"the very last mite." They that cannot hope for thy truth. If God fpares not his innocent Son in his furety-undertaking, will he spare the guilty? No; he will not fpare in the day of vengeance. If the Law curfes the Darling of Heaven for ftanding in the finner's fhoes, fhall the enemy of God and all righteousness escape? If God awakes his fword against his own Fellow, fhall it not be bathed in wrath, and come down to judgment on the people of his curfe? Ifa. xxxiv. 5. The Law, as the Mafter's will, and the bond-fervant's rule, fhall never be done away.

"not that I am come to deftroy the Law."

"Think

Thirdly, The Law is the great Creditor's handwriting, his covenant, and his teftimony, which contains all that he ordains his bond fervants to do; and, as an hand-writing, it fhall exhibit the penal debt of endless fuffering, which the finner owes to Divine Juftice for the numberless breaches of every precept of it. As a broken covenant, it fhall bind them over; and, as the Mafter's teftimony, it fhall ever teftify their numberlefs tranfgreffions, and be a witness against them. Their worm shall not die; and the wrath that is kindled in the fiery Law fhall burn to the lowest hell, as a fire that never fhall be quenched. To the enemies of my Grace, who die in their fins, this hand-writing fhall never be blotted out, (Coloff. ii. 4.) but exhibit, as a cloud, their tranfgreffions, and as a thick cloud their crimfon C 3

fins.