2. Have you got a difcovery of a God in Chrift, the glorious captain of falvation, in whom alone your help and falvation lies, and who alone can put out these nations before you? Hath the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Chrift been given to you, so as to reveal Chrift in you, and fo as you have fometime or other got Chrift in you the hope of glory, Chrift in you the hope of victory? Have you feen Chrift, as a victorious conqueror, triumphing over all the nations of spiritual enemies, travelling in the greatness of his ftrength, treading the wine-prefs alone, when of all the people there was none with him, ftaining all his raiment with the blood of the enemy, and trampling them in his fury? as this is elegantly reprefented, Ifa. Ixiii. at the beginning. Have you feen Help laid upon one that is mighty, one whofe name is JESUS and JEHOVAH both? JEHOVAH is his name, in the firft word of our text; and his name is called JESUS, because be faves his people from their fins. As many discoveries as you have got of the glory of Chrift as the captain of falvation, fo many marks of victory But this mark excludes all that begun have you. never got their eyes opened to fee any form or comelinefs in Chrift, or any beauty wherefore they fhould defire him; and hence the beauty and glory of a prefent world bulks more in their eyes.

3. Hath the discovery of the glory of the conloofed heart from all other lords and queror your lovers, and knit your heart unto him as the Lord your God, the Lord your captain, the Lord your righteoufnefs, the Lord your ftrength, the Lord your falvation? The Lord thy God will put out the nations before thee. Now the heart-drawing difcovery of Chrift, knitting the foul to him, is a

great

great matter; for thus the believer is united to Chrift by faith, and the relation conftituted, fo as he is the Lord thy God, thy head. Indeed a faving discovery of God in Chrift, natively brings this along with it: If thou fee not God in Chrift, thou cannot see him to be thy God, but rather thy enemy; but to fee him in Christ, is to fee him thy God, and thy friend For they that fee him in Chrift, they fee him in whom he is well pleased; and to fee God well-pleased in him, is to fee God as thy God. This appropriation then is imported in the very nature of faith, according to the measure of it; and the ground of this believing appropriation is the word of promife, I will be thy God, which is the great fundamental promise; and the proper eccho of faith is, Amen, I will take it on thy word, that thou wilt be my God, Zech. xiii. laft. I will fay, it is my people; and they fhall fay, the Lord is my God. There the fpirit of God declares what shall be the language of faith, when it acts like faith indeed, The Lord is my God. But fay you, can every believer fay, The Lord is my God? My friends, I never thought that every believer could fay fo, nor that any believer in the world could always fay fo; but as every believer is not always believing, fo I speak of what faith fays when it is acting, and what the believer fays when he is believing, not when he is doubting and misbelieving: Neither do I think that every act of faith is faying exprefly, He is my God; but every appropriating act of faith fays this upon the matter, and every heart-engaging view of a God in Chrift hath a My God wrapt up in the bofom of it, whether he dare fay it exprefly or not; for in Chrift they fee him to be a wellpleafed God, and a friend. You know, saving Hh 2 faith

faith is thy receiving and refting on Chrift for falvation, as he is offered to thee, to thee in the gospelpromife: And this receiving is no other thing than believing, John i. 12. and fo it is a taking him on his word for falvation to thee, as a captain to thee. Take away this particular application, and it is no faith at all, and conftitutes no union to him, no reJation to him as the Lord thy God. I ask then, if the discovery of the glory of Chrift hath knit your heart to him as the glorious captain of falvation, fo as you have taken on with him? Then thou art intitled to the complete victory: The Lord thy God will put out these nations before thee. This mark excludes all thofe that never closed with Chrift by a particular believing, but fatisfy themselves with a general faith, and may be called but general believers; they have no particular words on which they have been caufed to hope, and no particular faith applying Chrift to themselves. Such feem not yet to have entred the field of battle, nor closed with the captain.

4. Hath the Lord begun to put out the nations before you? Hath he begun to exert his power, by fubduing your lufts? Did you never know the day wherein Satan fell like lightning, as it were, from heaven; when the ftrong man and his goods, that were at eafe, were caft out of his habitation? How

was it with you in the day of believing, in the day when the Lord your God manifested himself, and appeared as a mighty conqueror to you? Got you not all your lufts and corruptions, as it were, drowned in the blood of the lamb, fo as you thought you fhould never fee them again? You know, believer, that was a falfe thought, but yet it was a glad thought to you, to think you would never be under the feet

of

of your corruptions again, and you would never difhonour the Lord as you had done, however fometime or other you have found the Lord pulling down the strong holds of unbelief, atheism and enmity, and giving you the necks of your enemies. This looks like a good work begun, a battle begun, and a breach made upon the rule and dominion of fin. This mark excludes all thofe, in whom fin ftill reigns, and in whom the glorious captain hath never so much as begun to give a blow to the

enemy.

5. If you be a foldier on your march to the heavenly Canaan, then I afk you, if you be of any confiderable standing in the Lord's way, have you not had many a bloody battle with the nations, and many a fearful onfet by the enemy, attacking you with main force, and perhaps taking you captive, yea, and bringing you into captivity to the law of fin that is in your members? Rom. vii. 23. Have you not found your enemies returning with fuch power and prevalency, that you was ready to think that you had loft all ground that ever you had got, and loft all the victories that ever you gained, the Canaanites prevailing against you? Iniquities prevail against me, fays David. You will think this is an odd mark; for, fays the believer, it is the prevalency of fin that makes me fear I am not an Ifraelite bound for Canaan. But, ftay a little till I further clear it: This mark excludes all those, in whom fin and lufts have not the power of prevalency only, but the power of dominion. Queft. What is the difference between the power of prevalency, and the power of dominion. Anfw. The power of dominion is a regal power, there fin is king; but the power of prevalency is a tyrannical power, there Hh 3

it

it is only a tyrant, whofe authority is rejected: The power of dominion is a monarchial power, where fin rules alone; but the power of prevalency only is where another power is alfo, there are two armies on the field: The power of dominion is uncontroulable, the man fins without controul; but the power of prevalency is a refifted power, where it meets with refiftance unto blood: The power of dominion is an abfolute power; but the power of prevalency is a limited one, with respect to fome particulars only: The power of dominion is an habitual power; but the power of prevalency is occafional only: And, in a word, the power of dominion is an entire power; but the power of prevalency is a broken power, the head of it is broken, and the back of it is broken, tho' it prevail. Now, to find the prevalency of the enemy, is not inconfiftent with the believer's militant ftate, which fuppofes manifold inroads and incurfions of the Canaanites upon him. And indeed they are not capable. to feel the joy of the victory, who never feel the ftrength of the battle; fin reigns in the wicked, and hath too peaceable dominion with them; iniquity cannot be faid to prevail against them, but rather it prevails with them; it goes well enough with them, both before and after their finning. But O, fays David and the believer, Iniquity prevails against me; it is against my heart, against my will, against my defire, against my defign, against my refolution, against my hope, against my faith, against my tears, against my prayers.

6. If you be foldiers on your march to the heavenly Canaan, then I would afk, whether or not you find the power of the glorious captain as neceffary for your deliverance, upon every new af

fault