I fhall offer fome confiderations, for preffing home this exhortation upon the people.

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1. Confider, that Shiloh is come to the people, that the people may come to him; for this is what I mean, by gathering to him, namely, a coming to him by faith: and this faith, you know, is a receiving and refting upon him alone for falvation, as he is offered in the gofpel. Now, fince he cannot be received, but in and by the gofpel-offer, the word of grace, the word of promife in the gofpel; therefore to receive him, is to believe in him, John i. 12. As it is by unbelief that we depart from him, Hb. iii. 12. "Take heed, brethren, left there be in any you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God:" fo it is by believing in him, that we gather to him: and to believe in him, is to credit the record, that God hath given of his Son; "And this is the record, that God hath given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son: he that does not thus believe, hath made God a liar," 1 John v. 10, 11. To come to him by faith, then, is to close with him in the gofpelrecord, and upon the divine teftimony; to have a divine perfuafion of the truth and goodness of the gofpel-meffage, with particular application to yourfelf, faying, O here is "a faithful faying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Jefus Chrift came to fave finners, of whom I am the chief,” 1 Tim. i. 15. and fo it is just a taking him at his word, and taking his word of grace, his word of honour for your falvation, according to the gofpel-offer of him. If you be faying, then, that you cannot come to him by faith; it may be very true, for indeed you cannot come, till be draw you, John vi. 44. You cannot believe, till the Spirit of grace mix in with this word of grace; but do you know what you are faying, when you fay you cannot come to him by faith, though the word of grace came to you in particular, to be believed by you? You are faying, in effect, that God is a liar; I cannot take his word for it: I cannot believe that he is fpeaking to me: or that he means any good to me. "To you is the word of this falvation fent," fays the gofpel: "No, fays "unbelief, never a word of that is true, with refpect "to me: let them apply it to whom it is fent, but I

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"cannot

"cannot think it is to the like of me." Wretch ! you are calling the God of truth a liar: Oh! blaf phemy! If it were not to you, your unbelief would not be your fin; but of all fins it is the moft damning, as well as the prolific womb that genders other fins. However, Shiloh is come to yon, that you may come to him; "He came to his own, and his own [viz. the Jews,] received him not :" intimating, that the defign of the work, and defign of his coming, was that they might come to him, receive him, and gather to him. And now he is come to you, Gentiles; he is come to the people and fhall the people reject him too? He is come to us in the flesh, by taking on our nature; he is come to us in the gofpel, the gofpel-offer, the goffelpromife, the gofpel-invitation; and though he fhould never come any other way, yet it flates your obligation, and lays a foundation for your coming to him; and if you reject him, you are as inexcufable, as the Jews that rejected him were.

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2. Confider whom it is you will be gathered to, when gathered unto Shiloh: Surely, they that know his name, will put their truft in him, and fo gather to him. Pfal. xxiv. 9, 10. "Lift up your heads, O ye gates, that the King of glory may come in.” Oh! who would not caft open the gates of their hearts to receive fuch an honourable gueft! Oh! if you knew what a glorious one Chrift is, you could not find in you heart to reject and defpife him: he is not a man fimply, or an angel, but a God-man, the Lord of men and angels. It is not poffible to tell what glory is in him, for God is in him; "Great is the myftery of godlinefs, God manifefted in the fleth," 1 Tim. iii. 16. A Ged-head dwelling in our flesh, is the world's wonder: it is fuch a myftery, that the world cannot receive it; but this is the gospel that we preach, "That God is in Chrift reconciling the world to himfelf," 2 Cor. v. 19. O think, what of God is in Chrift! (1.) The authority of God is in him; My name is in bim, Exodus xxiii. 21. this is the proper name, Shiloh, the Sent, the Authorifed, and Sealed of the Father, John vi. 27. He came in his Father's name, as well as his own, to feek and fave loft finners.

As the authority of God, fo, (2.) The wifdom and power of God is in him: "We preach Chrift crucified,the wifdom of God, and the power of God," 1 Cor. i.23,24. All the treasures of divine wisdom, and all the magazine of divine power are in him. And not only fo, but again, (3.) The Spirit of God is in him; "I have put my Spirit upon him, that he may bring forth judgment to the Gentiles," Ifa. lxii. 1. He hath not only the Spirit of wisdom, to contrive for the beft; and the Spirit of power, to fave to the uttermoft; but alfo the Spirit of grace, to confer upon the people: and fhall not the gathering of the people be to him? O! what of God is in him! (4.) The righteoufnefs of God is in him; and his righteoufnefs is the righteoufnefs of God, which is revealed to you in this gofpel, from faith to faith, Rom. i. 17. (5.) The love of God is in him, for divine love is wrapt up in this garment of flesh and blood; "In this was manifefted the love of God towards us, because God fent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him," 1 John iv. 9. (6.) The mercy of God is in him. Oh! poor finner, when you come to your dying moments, readily God's mercy will be your cry; but in vain will you feek God's mercy, to the prejudice of God's juftice; and behold, juftice and mercy meet together, and kifs one-another, only in Chrift: mercy will vent no otherwife, but in Chrift, in whom alone God is well-pleased, and by whom his juftice is fatisfied. What fhall I fay? (7.) The falvation of God is in him, Acts iv. 12. "Neither is there falvation in any other; for there is no name given under heaven among men whereby we can be faved, but the name of Jefus." Yea, (8.) The fulness of God is in him: "For it hath pleased the Father, that in him should all fulness dwell," Col. i. 19. and accordingly, Col. ii. 9. "In him dwells all the fulness of the God-head bodily." None of God's attributes or excellencies are out of him; "He is the brightness of the Father's glory, and the exprefs image of his perfon *." There is enough here to provoke all the world to gather to him.

*The above particulars may be feen fomewhat more fully illuftrated, Vol. III. pag. 165, 166, 167.

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3. Con

3. Confider what you must be gathered to, if you be not gathered to Shiloh.

(1.) If you be not gathered to Chrift, you will be gathered to your idols and lufts and have you not provoked God too much already, by gathering towards that airth May not the time paft fuffice you to have wrought the will of the Gentiles? Will you prefer a bafe luft to bleffed Jefus? a luft that would damn you, to a Jefus that would fave you! Again,

(2.) If you be not gathered to Chrift, the beft airth you can pretend to go to, is to be gathered to the Law as your hufband: and, Oh! is a broken covenant of works a better bargain, think you, than Chrift? Nay, nay; "As many as are of the works of the law, are under the curfe," Gal. iii. 1o.; that is, as many as think to be juflified and accepted of God by their obedience to the command of the law, they are under the threatening and curfe of the law; for, "Curfed is every one that continues not in all things written in the book of the law to do them :" and hereby, you are a debtor to the whole law, Gal. v. 3.; and, becaufe you cannot pay the debt of obedience to the command, you muft ly under the debt of fatisfaction to the curfe: and therefore under the heavy curfe and condemnation of the law is your foul gathered, while you are out of Chrift. Yea,

(3.) If you be not gathered to Chrift, you must be gathered to the devil: for there is no medium, either Christ or the devil must be your master: if Chrift be not entertained, you entertain the devil in his room. And do you confider what fort of gueft he is? He is a gueft that will blind you; for, he is the god of this world that blinds the minds of them that believe not. He is a gueft that will blast you, and blast every word to you that you hear, or elfe run away with it, that you may never get good of it; for he catches away the very feed that is fown in the heart, Mat. xiii. 19.-He is a gueft that will deceive you, by perfuading you that you have either been gathered to Chrift already, and that you are a good enough believer, or elfe that it is time enough for you to be gathered to Chrift.-And so he is, in a word, a gueft that will deftroy you, and devour

you

you, as well as delude you; for, "The devil goes about like a roaring lion, feeking whom he may devour." And as now he is your tempter, fo afterwards he will be your tormentor. Therefore, again,

(4.) Let me tell you, if you be not gathered to Shiloh, you must be gathered to hell: for, "He that believeth not, fhall be damned," Mark xvi. 16. And it is not the minifter that fays it, it is the fay and affirmation of the God of truth; and if his fay be not enough, know he hath fworn, as well as faid it, Hebrews iii. 18. He fwears in his wrath, that you fhall not enter into his reft. And to whom does he fwear thus in his wrath? Even to them that believe not. Alas! there is no little wrath abiding that foul against whom God fwears in his wrath; it will be wrath proportioned to the worth of that blood of Chrift, which you do trample under your feet. Oh! "How fhall you efcape, if you neglect fo great falvation?" Let not the devil perfuade you, that all these things are but fancies; for, when death's cold fweat begins to break upon you, you will find them to be fad realities, if you be not gathered unto Shiloh.-And therefore, again,

4. Confider what things are a-gathering, that fhould haften your gathering in to Shiloh. Clouds are gathering faft in our fky; a cloud of wickedness, a cloud of error, a cloud of wrath, a cloud of death.

(1.) A cloud of wickednefs is gathering; nay, this cloud is already gathered to fuch a blackness, that we cannot fay, "The iniquity of the Amorite is not yet full;" or that the iniquity of Britain and Ireland is not yet full; nay, our covenant-breaking, covenant-burning, covenant-burying, fin and defe&tion, befide all other evils, have made our cup full, fome time ago: but it feems God hath a mind our cup fhould run over, that fo his cup of judgments may run alfo: for a cloud of wickednefs is gathering more and more.

(2.) Clouds of error are gathering alfo; a black cloud efpecially of Arianifm, which threatens the deftruction of the very foundation of Chriftianity; And if the foundation shake, what fhall the righteous do? Of