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"hairs of your head are numbered." There is a hedge of protection† around you, which none can break through without his permission; nor will he permit you to be touched, except when he designs to make a teniporary and seeming evil conducive to your real and permanent advantage.

2. It should affect us with an admiring and thankful sense of his condescension. "Lord, what is man, that "thou shouldest be so mindful of him?" "He humbles "himself to behold the things that are in heavent." But he stoops still lower. He affords his attention and favour to sinful men. His eye is always upon his people, his ear open to their prayers. Not a sigh or falling tear escapes his notice. He pities them, as a father pities his children; he proportions their trials to their strength, or their strength to their trials, and so adjusts his dispensations to their state, that they never suffer unnecessarily, nor in vain.

3. How great is the dignity and privilege of true believers. Is the man congratulated or envied whom the king delighteth to honour? Believers are more frequently despised than envied in this world. But they may congratulate one another. The King of kings is their friend. They have honours and pleasures which the world knows nothing of. Their titles are high, they are the "sons and the daughters of the Lord Al"mighty§." Their possessions are great, for "all things are theirs." They are assured of what is best for them in this life, and of life eternal hereafter. They are now nearly related to the King of kings, and shall ere long be acknowledged and owned by him, before

*Matth. x. 30. § 2 Cor. vi. 18. VOL. IV.

† Job. i. 10.

1 Cor. iii. 21.

3 K

+ Psal. cxiii. 6.

assembled worlds. They who now account the proud happy, will be astonished and confounded when they shall see the righteous, whom they once undervalued, "shine forth like the sun in the kingdom of God."

4. We may lastly infer the extreme folly and danger of those who persist in their rebellion and opposition against this King of kings, and Lord of lords. Though he exercises much patience and long-suffering towards them for a season, the hour is approaching when his wrath will burn like fire. It is written, and must be fulfilled," the wicked shall be turned into hell, and all "the nations that forget God*." Oh! the solemnities of that great day, when the frame of nature shall be dissolved, when the Judge shall appear, the books be opened, and all mankind shall be summoned to his tribunal! Will not you yet tremble and bow before him ye careless ones, while he is seated upon a throne of grace, and while the door of mercy stands open? Once more I call, I warn, I charge you, to repent, and believe the Gospel. If to-day you will hear his voice, it is not yet too late. But who can answer for to-morrow? Perhaps "this night your soul may be required "of yout." Are you prepared for the summons? If not seize the present opportunity. Attend to the "one "thing needful." Seek his face, that your soul may live. If not, remember that you are warned; your blood will be upon your own head. We have delivered our message, and if you finally reject it, you must answer for yourselves to him whose message it is.

* Psal. ix. 17.

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+ Luke xii. 20.

PART III.

SERMON XXXIX.

JOB'S FAITH AND EXPECTATION.

JOB XIX. 25, 26.

I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand in the latter day upon the earth. And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.

CHRISTIANITY, that is, the religion of which MES

SIAH is the author and object, the foundation, life, and glory, though not altogether as old as the creation, is nearly so. It is coeval with the first promise and intimation of mercy given to fallen man. When Adam by transgression had violated the order and law of his creation, his religion, that is, the right disposition of his heart towards God, was at an end. Sin deprived him at once of faith and hope, of love and joy. He no longer desired, he no longer could bear, the presence of his offended Maker. He vainly sought to avoid it; and when compelled to answer, though he could not deny his guilt, instead of making an ingenuous confession, he attempted to fix the blame upon the woman, or rather indeed upon the Lord himself, who had provided her for him. But mercy, undeserved and undesired, relieved him from a state in which he was already

become obdurate and desperate. A promise was given him of "the seed of the woman*," which virtually contained, as the seed contains the future plant, the substance of all the subsequent promises which were fulfilled by the incarnation of the Son of God, and by all that he did, or suffered, or obtained for sinners, in the character of Mediator. For a sinner can have no comfortable intercourse with the holy God, but through a Mediator. Therefore the apostle observes of the patriarchs and servants of God, under the Old Testament, "These all died in faitht." We can say nothing higher than this of the apostles and martyrs under the New Testament. They died, not trusting in themselves that they were righteous, not rejoicing in the works of their own hands, but they died, like the thief upon the cross, in faith, resting all their hope upon him who, by his obedience unto death, "is the end of the law for 66 righteousness, unto every one that believeth." We have greater advantages, in point of light and liberty, than those of old. The prophecies concerning MESSIAH, which, at the time of delivery, were obscure, are to us infallibly interpreted by their accomplishment. And we know that the great atonement, typically pointed out by their sacrifices, has been actually made; that the Lamb of God has, by the one offering of himself, put away sin. But as to the ground and substance, their faith and hope were the same with ours. "Abra

"ham rejoiced to see the day of Christ§;" and aged Jacob soon after he had said, "I have waited for thy sal

vation, O Lord," died with the same composure and willingness as Simon did, who saw it with his own eyes.

* Gen. iii. 15.

Rom. x. 4.

† Heb. xi. 13.
§ John viii. 36.

Job, who was perhaps contemporary with Jacob, who at least is, with great probability, thought to have lived before Moses, gives us in this passage a strong and clear testimony of his faith. And it forms a beautiful and well-chosen introduction to the third part of the Messiah, the principal subject of which is, the present privileges and future prospects of those who believe in the Saviour's name.

The learned are far from being agreed, either in the translation, or in the explanation, of this text. The words worms and body being printed in Italics in our version, will apprize the attentive English reader, that there are no words answerable to them in the Hebrew. If you omit these words, something will be evidently wanting to make a complete sense. This want different writers have supplied, according to their different judgments; and from hence chiefly has arisen the variety of versions and interpretations. But it would be very improper for me, in this place, to take up your time, and to draw off your attention, from the great concerns which should fill our minds when we meet in the house of God, by giving you a detail of controversies and criticisms, which, after all, are much more uncertain than important. We need not dispute whether Job, in this passage, professes his assurance of the incarnation of MESSIAH, or of his resurrection, or of his final appearance to judge the world; or whether he is only declaring his own personal faith and hope in him. These several senses are not so discordant, that if we determine for one, we must exclude the rest. I shall content myself with the words as I find them. And I hope that, if we should miss some of the precise ideas which Job might have when he spoke, we shall not greatly mistake his

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