By Rev. EBENEZER ERSKINE.
(Continued from page 423.)
QUESTION 3. I ask, what have you tasted in the galleries? for, as you heard, galleries are for feasting and entertainment of friends. Now, did the King say to you, or is He yet saying it, Eat, O friends, drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved? Did He make you to eat of the fatness of His House, and to drink of the rivers of His pleasures? If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious, then I am sure you will as new-born babes, desire, and thirst after, the sincere milk of the Word: You will be saying, Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples; let me have more and more of this delicious fare. If you have been feasted with the King in the galleries, the world and all the pleasures of it, will be as nothing in your eye, in comparison of Christ and the intimations of His love. O, says David, when his soul was satisfied as with marrow and fatness, Thy loving-kindness is better than life, and all the comforts of life; they are but dung and loss when laid in the balance with Him. If you have been feasting in the galleries, you will be desirous that others may share of the meal you have gotten; and, with David, be ready to say, O taste and see that God is good. You will proclaim the praises of His goodness, as you have occasion, to them that fear Him: Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what He hath done for my soul. And readily it will be the desire of your soul to abide in His presence, and to dwell, as it were, in the galleries of ordinances. O it is good for us to be here! let us build tabernacles here, said Peter, on the mount of transfiguration. That will be the language of thy soul, Psalm xxvii. 4. One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord, all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His Temple. So much for a use of trial. Use third may be in a short word directed to two or three sorts of persons. 1. To you who know nothing of this doctrine, never met with the King in the galleries. 2. To you who have had a comfortable meeting with Him. 3. To these who, perhaps, are complaining, “I sought Him, but I found Him not.” First, To you who never yet knew what it was to have a meeting with Zion’s King in the galleries of gospel ordinances; and, perhaps, Gallio-like, you care for none of these things. To you, I shall only say, 1. Your condition is truly sad and lamentable, beyond expression or imagination. You are aliens to Israel’s common-wealth, strangers to the covenant of promise, without God, without Christ, and without hope in the world. You are in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity; under the curse of God, and condemnation of the law, and absolute power of Satan, who rules in the children of disobedience. You are lying within the sea-mark of God’s wrath; and if you die in this condition, you will drink the dregs of the cup of His indignation through all eternity. 2. If you have in this case adventured to the galleries of a communion table, you have run a very dreadful risk. You have adventured to the King’s presence without His warrant, and without the wedding-garment of imputed righteousness, or of inherent holiness; and therefore have run the risk of being bound, hand and foot, and cast into outer darkness: you have been eating and drinking judgment to your own souls, and are guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. And, therefore, 3. For the Lord’s sake, let me beseech you to repent of your wickedness. Flee out of your lost and miserable condition, flee to the horns of the altar. We declare to you, that there is yet hope in Israel concerning you. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon. Isaiah iv. 7. Secondly, A second sort of persons are those who have this day had a meeting with Zion’s King in the galleries of ordinances. I shall only offer a word of exhortation to you, and of advice. 1. A word of exhortation. Have you met with the King in the galleries? O then be exhorted to hold Him, and bind Him in the galleries; take Him with you from the more open and solemn galleries of public ordinances, unto the more private and secret galleries of prayer, meditation, conference and the like: follow the spouse’s practice when she found Him; she held Him, and would not let Him go, until she had brought Him into her mother’s house, and into the chamber of her that conceived her. To engage you to hold Him, take these motives. Motive 1. Consider His invaluable worth and excellency. The tongues of angels, let be of men, do but falter and stammer when they speak of Him. His worth is best known by the character He gives of Himself in His Word. View Him absolutely in Himself; He is the only begotten of the Father, the mighty God, the Prince of peace. View Him comparatively; He is fairer than the children of men, as the apple-tree among the trees of the wood; the standard-bearer among ten thousand. View Him relatively; He is thy Head, thy Husband, thy Friend, thy Father, thy Elder Brother, thy Surety, Shepherd, and Redeemer; and, in a word, He is all and in all. And should not this make you hold Him? Motive 2. Consider that thy happiness, believer, lies in the enjoyment of Him. What is it, do ye think, Sirs, that constitutes the happiness of heaven through eternity? It is Christ’s presence, a Mediator, the King of Zion, manifesting His heart-charming beauty unto saints and angels through eternity. And what is it that raises the poor soul to the very suburbs of glory while in the wilderness? It is Christ manifesting Himself in a sensible way to the soul: O this, this is it that fills the soul with joy unspeakable and full of glory! The advantages that do attend His presence with the soul, are great and glorious. A cabinet of counsel attends His presence: He brings light with Him; and no wonder, for He is the Sun of righteousness: the vail and face of the covering is rent when Christ comes, and darkness is turned into light. His presence has a mighty influence upon the believer’s work in the wilderness; the believer then rides upon the high places of Jacob; he runs swiftly like the chariots of Amminadib. His presence inspires with courage and strength; it makes the feeble soul as David, and David as the angel of God; it gives power to the faint, and increases strength to them that no might. The soldier fights with courage when his captain is at hand. The poor believer is not afraid to encounter the king of terrors himself, when he is holding Christ in the arms of faith: Psalm xxiii. 4. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for Thou art with me, Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me. So let this encourage you to hold Him. Motive 3. Consider at what a dear rate this privilege was purchased for thee. Before Christ could pay thy soul a visit in the galleries, He behoved to swim a river and ocean of blood, to tread the wine-press of His Father’s wrath. Justice had rolled insuperable mountains in His way, and these mountains He must pass, and make as a plain, before He could shew Himself in the galleries to thy soul.
(To be continued.)