honour his dear Son, and magnify the riches of his grace in glory by him. The devil himself is wounded by his sword, bound by his chain, and trampled under his feet; as you read, "The Lord with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan, the crooked serpent, even leviathan, that piercing serpent, and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea," Isa. xxvii. 1. He bound him with his chain, Rev. xx. 1; he trod upon the lion and adder, and the young lion he trampled under feet, Psalm xci. 13. Therefore cleave thou to Christ, and let his whole revealed mind and will be thy rule. Moses and his legal works, Elijah and his fiery zeal, willingly withdrew, as good servants ought, from the mount while the disciples were with Jesus, Matt. xvii. 8. And, when you hear men pointing the hardened and impenitent sinner to the blood of Christ, and sending happy souls to Moses' law for a rule and a yoke, regard not every Lo here, and Lo there;' but go to Christ for both your rule and your yoke. If thou art a believer, go not to Sinai, but cleave to another mount, as Isaiah tells you in his vision; "And it shall come to pass in the last days [mark that], that the mountain of the Lord's house [that is Christ, compare with Dan. ii. 35;] shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go, and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths. For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem," Isa. ii. 2, 3. There is your rule, Christian, the law and the word; see that thou go not to Moses for a yoke; but "stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, and be not again entangled with the yoke of bondage," Gal. v. 1. And take your yoke and rule from your only master and ruler, as he commands us: "Come unto me, all ye that labour [under the legal yoke], and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest; take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls; for my yoke is easy, and my burden light." When you hear men telling you that they know of no other rule than the decalogue, nor of any other assured hope of salvation than that those who endure to the end shall be saved, tell them to take their Bibles and look again. A heart-felt union kept up by faith, prayer, and watchfulness, is the only way to be fruitful. If thou sufferest thyself to be beguiled out of this, and art led to Moses, thou wilt soon get the yoke of bondage on thy neck; and when that is fixed by legal preaching thy heart will get hard; thy spirit will get narrow and contracted, 2 Cor. vi. 12; thou wilt be racked with cruel jealousy; inwardly galled at the happiness, prosperity, or success of another; and wilt then be prating about the merit of good works, while thy own soul is secretly led captive ferred the same name on those of his household. Thus they apply to the family of Christ what their pharisaical fathers of old applied to the Master. May the Father of all mercies, and God of all comfort, keep us by his mighty power through faith to salvation; and enable us to give the world an account of the root in us by the fruits produced by us! Thus God shall get the glory, and we the blessing, Amen. END OF THE THIRD VOLUME. |
