278 Of COMMUNION with they muff dye? Can any but with extream honour; think of that dreadful appearance, that he made unto them of old upon mount Si- nai; until Mofes himfeif who was their Mediator, faid Iexceedingly fear and quake, Heb. xii. 21. and all the people faid, Let not God fpeak with us, Iea/i we die, Exod. 20. 19. Nay, though men have apprehen- lions of the goodnefs and kindnefs of God, yet upon any difcovery of his glory, how do they tremble and are filled with dread and af- tonilhment? Hath it not been fo with the choiceft of his faints, Hab, iii. 16. Ifa. vi. 5. Job xlii. 5, 6. whence then, fhould we take to our felves this boldnefs to walk with God? This the apollle will inform us, Heb. x. up. it is by the blood ofJefus; fo Eyhef. iii. I2. In him we have boldnefs, and accefs with confidence, not ftandinga far off, like the people. at the giving of the law, but drawing nigh to God with boldnefs ; and that upon this account. The dread and terrour of God entered by fin. Adam had not the leaft thought of hiding him- felf until he had finned. The guilt of fin being on the confcience, and this being a common notion left in the hearts of all, that God is a moft righteous revenger thereof; this fills men with dread and honour at an apprehenfion of his prefence, fearing that he is come to call their fins to remembrance. Now the Lord Jefus by the Sacri- fice and the attonement that he hath made, bath taken away this .con fcience of fin ; that is, a dread of revenge from God, upon the . ac- count of the guilt thereof. He hath removed the flaying fword of the law, and on that account gives us great boldnefs with God ; difco- vering him tinto us now, no longer as a revenging judge, but as -a. tender, merciful, and reconciled father, moreover, whereas there is- on us by nature a fpirit of bondage, filling us with innumerable torment- ing fears, he takes it away, and gives us the fpirit of adoption, where- by we cry, Abbe, Father, and behave our felves with confidence and gracious boldnefs as children, for where the fpirit of God is, there is liberty, 2 Cor. iii. 17. that is, a freedom from all that dread and ter- rout, which the adminiftration of the law brought with it. Now as there is no fin that God will more feverely revenge than any bold- nefs that man takes with him out of Chrift, fo there is no grace . more acceptable to him than that boldnefs, which he is pleafed to af ford us in the blood of Jefus. There is then, [6.] But one thing more to add, and that is, that two cannot walk together, unlefs they have the faine defign in hand, and aim at the fame end; titis alfo in a word, is given us in the Lord Jefus. The end of God is the advancement of his own glory, none can aim at this end, but only in the Lord Jefus. The fum of all is, that the whole wifdom of our walking with God, is hid in Chrift, and from him only to be obtained, as bath been manifeft by an enumeration of particulars. And fo have I brought my firft demonftration' of what I intended unto a clofe, and manifefted that all true wifdom and knowledge is laid up in, and laid out by the Lord- Jefus; and this by an Induc- tion of the chief particular heads of thofe things, wherein confelfedly our wifdom doth confift, I have but one more to add, and therein I Ihall be brief. (2.) Then I fay; this truth will be further manifefted by the confi- deration of the tnfufficiency and vanity of any thing elfe, that may lay claim, or pretend to a title to wifdom. There
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