God, who feeds the ravens, and clothes the lilies, and how much more will he feed and clothe you, ye of little faith! As all things are of him, fo the bread of life and the garment of falvation alfo.-O let the bound and fettered foul have hope in him; for, liberty is of God ; "The Lord loofeth the prifoners;" and God hath anointed Chrift with the Spirit, to proclaim liberty to the captives. Let the bewildered foul here, that hath loft its way in this dark and cloudy time, conceive hope in him; for light and leading is of God, who hath promised to lead the blind in a way they know not, and in paths which they have not trode.

May not the barren and fruitless fouls conceive hope here? Fruitfulnefs is of God, who hath faid, "Instead of the thorn, fhall come up the fir-tree; and instead of the brier, fhall come up the myrtle-tree; and it fhall be to the Lord for a name, for an everlafting fign that fhall not be cut off."-May not the withered foul conceive hope here? For a bleffed watering is of God, who fays, he will pour waters on the thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground.O! let the backfliding and backfalling foul conceive hope here; for recovery and restoration is of God, who fays, I will heal their backflidings. I have feen his ways, and will heal him, and restore comforts to him and his mourners." O! let even the gracelefs fouls, that have any fenfe of their graceless state, see a door of hope here; for grace is of God, who is the God of all grace.-Let dead finners, dead fouls, dead hearts here, in the name of the living God, rife and hear the good news, that life is of God, who is the God that quickens the dead, and calls the things that are not, as though they were. All things are of God.

But, perhaps, fome may fay, What ground have I to expect thefe things? Though they be of God, yet perhaps not for me. Why, because he is a reconciled God in Chrift. But what ground have I to think that he is reconciled to me? If the word of reconciliation be fent to you, upon that ground you may believe that he is reconciled to you. Now, he hath committed to us the word of reconciliation, and charged us to preach the gofpel of reconciliation to every creature, to every foul a

mong

mong you and he that hath obliged us to proclaim to you how he is reconciled in Chrift, and hath all things to give in and through him, he obliges you to believe, that he is reconciled to you. He commands you to

believe in the name of his Son Chrift. This is his commandment, that through him you believe him to be a reconciled God to you; and if he were not fo, he would not fend this word of reconciliation to you, and pray you to be reconciled to him, who is reconciled to you. It is to you, finners, to you rebels, that this word of reconciliation comes; and therefore, you may be quite fure, that as All things are of God, as a reconciled God in Chrift: fo the good news are to you. He hath all things ready for you that you need.

QUEST. But how can this be, feeing he hath not a fecret purpose of reconciliation to ALL, and therefore, perhaps, not to me?

ANSW. Oh! what a malicious devil is tempting thy unbelieving heart to look to what God defigns, before you look to what he declares; to look to his purpose, before you look to his promife! How can you fee his purpose, but in the glafs of his promife? How can you know his heart, but by his word? But in the glafs of his promife you may fee his purpofe of grace to you; for, "The promife is to you :" and in his word of reconciliation you may see his reconciled heart toward you; for, "To you is the word of falvation fent:" to you is the word of reconciliation fent. And if thou, man, woman, canst believe that this kind word is to thee, and thee in particular; then thou fhalt fee that this kind heart is towards thee, and thee particularly.

QUEST. But is not God appearing at this day, as an angry God? How fhall we conceive him to be reconciled, and believe his word of reconciliation, when we are compaffed with fo many tokens of his anger and indignation?

ANSW. God is, out of Chrift, reconciled to none of Adam's race: but God is in Chrift reconciling the world to himself. Out of Chrift his anger will burn to the lowest hell. And why is he appearing in anger at this day; but because men will not believe that he is recon

ciled in Chrift? He is angry at your unbelief, and the unbelief of the generation, who, through an evil heart of unbelief, depart from the living God, and from his truths and caufe: therefore, his anger burns against it, because they reject the word of reconciliation: but as, in Chrift, he fays, Fury is not in me;" fo the only way of efcaping his wrath is, to conceive right and kindly thoughts of God, as a God in Chrift; believing in Jefus, and beholding with wonder, that he is a kind God to him and us, giving all things to us; for, All things are of him. Nothing difpleafes God fo much, as that we will not believe his kindness manifefted in his word to us, but by unbelief, make him a liar, and fo.ourfelves blafphemers of him,

Well then, Sirs, before you adventure to come to a communion-table, let me exhort you to come to the Chrift of God: for, as All things are of God; fo, in the name of this great and glorious God, I come to offer you the beft of all things that are of God: and, I hope, you fhall not think the worfe of him that he is the Chrift of God, and the best thing that God hath to give you: nay, fhall it not recommend him to your heart, that as, in his perfon, he is the Son of God; fo, in his office, he is the Sent of God, and that his righteousness is the righteoufnefs of God; that his blood is the blood of God; that his wifdom is the wifdom of God; and his power is the power of God; and that all things he hath are the things of God; and that he is made of God all things that you want for time and eternity, even wifdom, righteousness, fanctification, and redemption? If Chrift, and all things that he hath, as our Redeemer, were not of God, he could not be profitable to us for bringing us to God; we could not fee God in him, we could not meet with God in him, we could not have communion with God in him but he, being wholly of God, when we come to him, we come to God in him. O Sirs, by receiving him, the profit is infinitely great; you receive God himself, the eternal God: and, by rejecting him, the peril is infinitely great; you reject the eternal God. By coming to Jefus, and receiving him, you fhall have all that God hath to give; for God hath given him all

that

that he hath. As Abraham's fervant faid, in courting a wife for Ifaac, "My mafter hath a fon, and unto him hath he given all that he hath," Gen. xxiv. 36.; so may not we, as fervants of God, court a bride for our Master, by telling you, that he is his only begotten Son, and to him hath he given all that he hath? For, "The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand;" even all things that can make you happy in life and death, and through eternity. O! will you go with this man, this God-man? Is there no heart here faying, It is a bargain? None to fay, Content, we will go? All things are ready, in Chrift's hand, to be given you. Pardon and grace, and "All things are ready, come to the marriage." The marriage-fupper is alfo ready for you, if the marriage-confent be given.

God cannot but make you welcome to come to Chrift, and to give him your heart, to whom he hath given his all. O then come, not only for your own falvation's fake, but alfo for the fake of God's glory. The dif honours you have done to God by your fin are not fo great, as the honour you put upon God by coming to Chrift, believing that all things whatfoever the Father hath given him are of God.

In fhort, my dear friends, I cannot use a stronger argument, to excite you to come to Jefus by faith, than this, which yet you may reckon a ftrange argument, namely, that as All things are of God, fo all things relating to faith, and coming to Jefus, are of God. The object of faith is of God; Jefus Chrift is the Chrift of God. The grace of faith, and the act of faith is of God; for, "Faith is the gift of God." The call to faith and believing is of God; for, "This is his commandment, that ye believe in his Son Jefus Chrift." The will to believe is of God, who worketh in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure; and who says, "Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power." And, indeed, you can have no encouragement to believe, if this believing were not of God; nor would there be any faith here to-day, if it were not of God, the giver and the worker of it by his Spirit; "This is the work of God, that ye fhould believe on him whom he hath fent," John vi. 29. Men naturally

magnify

magnify their own works, even when they are most ferious about eternal happiness, faying, "What fhall we do that we may inherit eternal life?" But, O Sirs, will none here be content that God magnify his work, and be content to inherit eternal life by his work? Now, this is the work of God, that ye believe on Christ. It is the work of God, both as it is of his approbation, and as it is of his operation.

The work that Chrift had to do for us, Sirs, was the Father's work and was it the worfe or the better that his work was the work of God? Of God's approbation, and of God's operation, who fays, " Behold my fervant, whom I uphold," in that fervice? And would it ever have been done by him, if it had not been the work of God? Even so, "This is the work of God, that you believe" is it the worse for you, that it is wholly the work of God? Would there be any hope that ever it fhould be done, if it were not so ?

O then, poor finner, that haft nothing about thee but fin, and guilt, and deadnefs, and diforder, let all thy objections against believing in Jefus be hushed to filence in the view of this truth, that, as All things are of God, fo faith and believing itself is the work of God. You cannot believe, fay you, for you have no power, no will, no grace, no fufficiency of yourself. True; but then are you content that God have the glory of this great name of his, that all things are of him, and that your whole falvation, from the beginning to the end, be of him, and that the pride of nature be dafhed down for ever in the cordial acknowledgement that nothing is of you, and that the God of power and grace be exalted for ever in the cordial acknowledgement that all things are of him? Then, a way is paved for your believing in Jefus, and working this work of God, in imitation of Chrift, who was content to run his errand at his Father's expences, and do his great work on God's charges; willing it fhould be reckoned nothing else, but his Father's work; yea, that it fhould be wholly the work of God. Upon this condition and confideration, he joyfully fet about it, and effectually went through with it: even fo, here is the work of God, that

ye