SERMON XV.

THE FAITHFUL GOD.

DEUT. vii. 9.

The faithful God.

THE church of God, which hath been accustomed to meet me in this place, will anticipate both my text and sermon, before that I mention either. It hath been my plan, as many of you know, for several years in succession, to enter on the subject of my preaching in the new year, with making proclamation of God's faithfulness. It was the saying of the good old king Hezekiah as we read Isaiah xxxviii. 18, 19. assign ing this substantial reason, when speaking to the Lord: "For the grave (said he) cannot praise thee, death cannot celebrate thee; the living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day! the father to the children shall make known thy truth." This was proclaimed then, and it is proclaimed now; and in the contemplation of the dying and the dead, during the revolution of the past year, who is there that will pause a moment to make known the faithfulness of God? You will give me credit for speaking the truth, when I say, that in all the circumstances of my eventful life, during the past year, not one thing hath failed on the part of God's faithfulness, amidst all the faithlessness which hath appeared in mine.:

And I am as fully persuaded that there is not a single redeemed and regenerated child of God in this place; no, neither one among the whole redeemed

and regenerated family now upon earth, whom the Lord hath called with an holy calling, to make him more and more out of love with himself, and to endear to him more and more the person, and fulness, and suitability of Christ, but what is resting this knowledge and this confidence on " the faithful God." And if we look back to the ages that are past, in the several generations of the church, the same meets us under all. What a beautiful and affectionate appeal on this subject Joshua, the man of God, made at the close of his ministry, as we read Joshua xxiii. 14. He had gathered all the tribes of Israel together, to receive his dying testimony concerning the Lord's faithfulness and love to Israel; and in the close of his animated address, he said: "Behold, I am this day going the way of all the earth; and ye know in all your hearts and in all your souls, that not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spake concerning you; all are come to pass as it is this day."

What a lovely sight of a dying saint, a dying servant of the Lord, blessing the Lord, and in his name blessing the Lord's people: all which, and infinitely more, is contained in the bosom of my text"the faithful God."

We shall enter upon the beauties of it with more advantage, under the divine teaching, if we look for a moment at the occasion which gave birth to it. The holy army was now arrived at the banks of Edrei, a small town on this side Jordan, situated in the front of the country of Bashan, and only one stage, one remove more, before the people were to pass over Jordan. Here therefore, Moses, the man of God, halted at this memorable spot, and addressed them finally and fully on their wonderful history, in the divine love amidst their continued rebellion. I need not bring before you even the outlines of this marvellous

grace on the part of God; and the awful history of their rebellion, on the part of man; you have the event related before you through the whole book of Deuteronomy. My text limits me to the consideration of the faithfulness of God, amidst all the worthlessness of man. First, Jehovah proclaims who he is in his trinity of persons, Israel's God; "Know, therefore that the Lord thy God he is God;" and then he adds this divine feature of character, "the faithful God." I pray you to observe the striking manner of expression; not only the Lord, that is Jehovah as he is in himself, in the unity of his divine essence and trinity of persons, but as he is in his covenant engagements to his people, "the Lord thy God." First, you

observe the Lord reveals himself as having in an especial manner become Israel's God, and then he proclaims his faithfulness to Israel: and what endears the whole in the most tender and affectionate manner is, that he bids his people to know it; and it was to be the distinguishing mark by which the Lord's people were to be separated from the world. "They shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they shall know me from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord." (Jer. xxxi. 34. Heb. viii. 11.)

What I propose in the farther prosecution of the subject, as the Lord shall be pleased to favour, is in the first place to consider, according to the Scripture statement, what the church is taught of this Almighty God, as he is in himself, "the Lord." To this will then very properly succeed what he is in this gracious revelation of character to his people, "the Lord thy God." And lastly, the certainty of his faithfulness, "the faithful God." The Lord confirm his word to your hearts and mine, that we may feel and enjoy the blessedness of this whole Scripture; and know as

Moses said, that "the Lord he is God, our God, and the faithful God to a thousand generations."

I begin the subject as I proposed, with the first of those propositions, namely, what this Almighty God (according to the statement of Scripture) is in himself. Now for the better apprehension of this sublime subject, under the influence of that "holy unction from the Holy One, by which we know all things," (1 John ii. 20.) it is highly observable, that Moses began his sermon with this proclamation, "Hear, O Israel! the Lord our God is one Lord!" (Deut. vi. 4.) an observation unnecessary for the man of God to have made, had the expression meant no more than to say, one is one; but as Moses added the Lord thy God, here he plainly and clearly revealed a plurality of persons in the GODHEAD. For 'with whom was this covenant made of being Israel's God, but in and with the persons of the GODHEAD, God himself? Nothing out of God could be competent to form a part in this covenant; and therefore Moses, in this scripture, proclaimed at once the unity of the divine essence, and the trinity of persons.

And, brethren, let me deal faithfully and plainly with you on this glorious doctrine of the Holy Trinity; it is this which lays at the bottom of all our mercies; hence we find the glorious name of Jehovah, which, as far as our apprehension of the incommunicable name can extend, implies self-existence,independence, underived being, and possessing all divine attributes and perfections; and all equally applied to each and to every one of the persons in Jehovah; and this, and no other, is the holy Trinity. For on the bare supposition of any inequality in the "holy Three which bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and which Three are One," (1 John v. 7.) there is at once confusion in the divine order, and the faith of God's church hath

nothing certain to rest upon. We meet with numberless passages in the Bible which, for want of reading them through the medium of the holy Trinity, perplex even the regenerate children of God; but taking the datum of all revelation from this sure and unerring source, the holy Trinity, this explains all. For on the supposition that there never had been a church (and who shall say what millions of ages ran out, in which the holy Three lived in mutual enjoyment, and holiness, and blessedness with each other, in an eternity which never had beginning, before that Jehovah in his trinity of persons went forth in acts. of creation,) numbers of those things spoken of in Scripture, which have reference only to the church, would never have been known. But whether Jehovah had or had not called into being the church, the unity of the divine essence, in his trinity of persons would have been as it hath been from all eternity, the same. Hence, therefore, the scriptural and spiritual knowledge of Jehovah in his trinity of persons, and the perfect equality of each in the posessession and exercise of all divine perfections, is the foundation of all the superstructure of revelation. Until the Lord made me personally acquainted with the oneness in essence and being of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; and that each and all, though constituting but one and the same GODHEAD, were selfexistent and underived; I was like the dove of Noah out of the ark, unable to find a place to rest my foot upon: but when the Lord gave me the spirit of wisdom and revelation, in the knowledge of the eternity and sovereignty of God the Son, as equal with God the Father, and God the Holy Ghost, all difficulties vanished. The incarnation and humblings of Christ in our flesh, excited no surprise, for his Headship and Suretyship to his church explained all; and the in-dwelling GODHEAD, in his human nature, gave