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4. There is one argument more in the words, which I shall bnt name, and I have done. " Let them feed," saith he, " in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old." Bashan and Gilead were places of very fruitful pasture. Whence the children of Reuben and Gad de- sired Moses that they might have their possession in Gilead, and in the kingdom of Bashan; " Because," say they, "it is a place for cattle, and thy servants have much cattle." It was a fruitful place, where their flocks were well fed and nourished.
Where lies the argument here ? It is fetched from former experi- ences of what God had done, — it is from God's faithfulness, grounded upon former experience. " We have seen what God can do, how he hath brought his people out of straits, and carried them through diffi- culties, and delivered them out of troubles, and fed them in Bashan, and in the land of Gilead;" — which is made an argument that he would feed them so again.
I might press this argument farther, but I shall offer nothing more at present ; and I think what I have said is not unseasonable. We have seen the state of things laid before us ; — that we have a rule of faith what to pray for in such a day,- — That God would " feed his people." We have showed you what is contained therein, and have gone over briefly those arguments that may be pleaded with God in such a case, reserving the time and season unto his own sovereignty.
SERMON XXIII.1
A CHRISTIAN, GOD'S TEMPLE.
" For ye are the temple t>f the living God ; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, aftd ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty."— 2 Cor. vi. 16-18.
There are three things in these words:—
First. The privilege of believers, especially as they are the church of God : They " are the temple of the living God, as God hath said."
Secondly. The duty which, by virtue of that privilege, is incumbent on all believers: "Wherefore," saith he, "come out from among them, and be ye separate, and touch not the unclean thing."
Thirdly. A promise made unto the due performance of the duty by virtue of that privilege : " And I will receive you, and will be a 1 This sermon was preached March 27, 1674.
286 A CHRISTIAN, GOD'S TEMPLE.
Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty."
You may well think I shall not speak at large to these things. I intend only so far to touch upon them, as just to lead me to what I think is the present sin of this nation, and what are the causes of the judgments upon it.
In verse 16, believers are said to be dedicated, consecrated, and made holy to God, as his peculiar lot and portion. And then the use of it is to show the twofold sin for which judgment cometh upon this nation. The first is, That the nation deals not with them as God's consecrated lot and portion; that is the sin of the nation. The second is, That they behave not themselves as God's consecrated lot and portion ; that is the sin of the people of God.
I shall spend some time in confirming my foundation. You have it, with the ground of it, Rev. v. 9, where the church speaks to Christ, " Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation ; and hast made us unto our God kings and priests." Before the purchase of them by Christ, they lay in the common lot of mankind ; they were in the people, and tongues, and kindreds, and nations of the earth. Christ makes a purchase of them. He did not die to redeem all, but to redeem some out of all the kindreds, and nations, and tongues under heaven. Upon Christ's making a purchase of them, they are no more their own. " Ye are bought with a price," saith the apostle ; "ye are not your own." Whose, then, are they? They are Christ's, Rom. xiv. 9, " For this cause he both died and rose again, and re- vived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living;" that is, of the whole church, alive and dead, that they might be his. He took them all into his disposal. And what did he do with them? When they were absolutely his own, and in his power to dispose of them as he saw good, he dedicates them to God. " He makes us kings and priests unto God," saith he. Christ might have disposed of his purchase another way; but this course he took, — he dedicates them unto God. Kings and priests were so, as I shall show you after- ward. The apostle Peter tells us the same of all believers, 1 Pet. ii. 9, " But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar" or purchased " people." The same is expressed again, Tit. ii. 14, and in sundry other places, which I shall not insist upon. But there is one expression of it which must be taken notice of ; and that is, where they are called the " first-fruits unto God," James i. 18, " Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures." And Rev. xiv. the expression occurs again,1 " These are they which were not