DISC. IX.] FdITI4 BUILT ON KNOWLEDCË. 25 audience when we address ourselves to the great and dreadful God ; for we are but his creatures, who have sinned against him, buthe is the only begotten Son. We may well stand at a distance, and tremble, for we are rebels; but he is perfect in his loyalty and obedience. We are defiled, but he is pure and unspotted ; we might expect thunder and destruction from the Almighty, for the Lord abhors all sin. For such guilty wretches to come before the face of God, though with groans and tears, would but set our rebellion and guilt before his eyes, awaken his wrath, and put him in mind ofdeserved vengeance ; but when Christ appears as a petitioner, he is approved and heard : For he is the Son of his love, he is all holiness: No man can come to the Father but by him ; John xiv. 6. Therefore we dare nottrust our- selves in meaner hands. He is able to keep what is com mitted to him unto the great day, and to save them to the uttermost that come to God by him; seeing he ever lives to make intercessionfor them; and is such an high priest as the Son 'o, f God, holy, harmless, and undefiled; Heb. vii. 25, 26. He pleads for aliens and strangers, in the virtue of his sonship ; for criminals, in the efficacy bf his obedience ; and wejoyfully commit ourselves poor sinful and perishing strangers and criminals, to him, to be introduced into the Father's presence, because he has the most powerful influence, and the strongest interest in heaven. 6. He lives for ever; Rev. i. 18. I am he that liveth, and was dead, and behold I livefor evermore. Amen. He therefore that hath known death by experience, and now stands firmly possessed of eternal life, is the most proper person that I can trust with all my concerns, my flesh and spirit, for life and death, for time and eternity. Should I presume to make myselfmy own keeper, yet my utmost care could pretend to reach no further than the term of this life ; for whither I go in death is all dark- ness to me, if I had not known Christ and his gospel, who has " brought life and immortality to light;" Tim. i. 10. And notwithstanding all those discoveries of the fu ture state, I am still incapable of providing for myself in the invisible world. My soul and body are then sepa- rated, and I cannot keep them together, nor take care of R 3
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