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before in this little work; and it is by the faith of him that we come to enjoy the firstfruits, pledges, earnests, and foretastes, of all these heavenly joys, pleasures, and dainties. And this I have shewn at large.

"I will make thy gates carbuncles." Christ crucified is the door of hope; hope enters by him, and centres in God. He is the door of faith to the Gentiles; the Gentiles find access to God's favour by the faith of him. He is the door of mercy; the sure mercies of David are in him. He is the door of the sheep; we cannot enter into his fold, nor feed in green pastures, but by faith in him. He is the gate of life, by which we pass from the shadow of death, and from the gates of death. He is the gate of righteousness, by which we enter into a state of justification; and he is the gate of truth, by which we enter into liberty, and find freedom of access to God. He is the strait gate, which is attended with so much opposition from men and devils at the entrance; he is the vail through which we pass into the holy of holies. In short, he is the house of God, and the gate of heaven, Gen. xxviii. 17; I say, he is the house that God has provided for us: "Be thou my strong rock, for an house of defence to save me;" and he is the gate that leads to glory; for we have boldness to enter into the holiest of all by the blood of Jesus, Heb. x. 19. But I must come to the last clause of my text, "I will make thy gates carbuncles,"

"And all thy borders of pleasant stones." The word, border, sometimes signifies the boundary of a country, as appears from what follows: "Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea; and he shall be for a haven of ships: and his border shall be unto Zidon." Again: But Sihon would not suffer Israel to pass through his border, Num. xxi. 23. All that is meant by these passages is the skirts, extremities, or boundaries, of a country. But sometimes it signifies the limits, suburbs, or liberties, of a city: "But if the slayer shall at any time come without the border of the city of his refuge, whither he was fled; and the revenger of blood find him without the borders of the city of his refuge, and the revenger of blood kill the slayer; he shall not be guilty of blood." Sometimes border signifies no more than the bounds of a man's landed property: "And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died, being an hundred and ten years old. And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnath-serah." Again: "Thou shalt set bounds unto the people round about, saying, Take heed to yourselves that ye go not up into the mount, or touch the border of it; whosoever toucheth the mount shall surely be put to death." By all these places it appears that the border is the boundary of any sacred spot, inheritance, or country, and of the liberties of a city. But, then, what is Zion's border? All her borders are to be made of pleasant stones. We shall find a little light upon this subject in Ezekiel. "Moreover, when ye shall

divide by lot the land for inheritance, ye shall offer an oblation unto the Lord, an holy portion of the land: the length shall be the length of five and twenty thousand reeds, and the breadth shall be ten thousand. This shall be holy in all the borders thereof round about. Of this there shall be for the sanctuary five hundred in length, with five hundred in breadth, square round about; and fifty cubits round about for the suburbs thereof. And of this measure shalt thou measure the length of five and twenty thousand, and the breadth of ten thousand: and in it shall be the sanctuary and the most holy place. The holy portion of the land shall be for the priests," Ezek. xlv. 1—4. Here is, first, an holy portion of the land. This spiritually signifies God's people, called fallow ground, which God ploughs up; good ground, which receives the good seed sowed by the Son of man; the dry ground, which God waters; God's husbandry, which he keeps, called Eden, and the garden of the Lord. This ground is to be holy in all its borders; the Spirit of God and his grace is to be poured out to make it so: "I will pour water on him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring." It is this water that makes this land and all its borders holy. One part of this land is to be for the sanctuary; that is, Christ shall dwell with his people, and he shall be to them for a sanctuary. And this land is to be for the priests, and for the houses of the priests..

God hath made all his children kings and priests unto himself; and in this holy portion of the Lord's land they are to labour and live; and all the borders of it are to be holy; that is, God will water with his Spirit and grace every part thereof. And in this holy land there is to be a place for the city: And ye shall appoint the possession of the city five thousand broad, and five and twenty thousand long. You will have a full description of this city in Ezekiel's last chapter. And round this city fifty cubits for the suburbs thereof. Now as this city is the church, the bride, the Lamb's wife, what can the suburbs of it be but the elect of God waiting at the gates, watching at the posts of these doors; souls not yet renewed, not yet laid upon the foundation, not yet built up in faith, not yet perfected in love? These are the suburbs and the borders of the city: I will make all thy borders of pleasant stones. The saints are called the stones of a crown. And it is well known that the stones of a crown are neither all of a sort, nor all of a size. The best sight that I ever had of this sort of stones was in the king's crown, and in the prince's diadem, both in the Tower. The sardonyx, the chrysolite, and the chrysoprasus, do not appear to shine so bright as the diamond, the sapphire, or the ruby; yet there is a shining lustre in them all; for if God dwells with the broken and the contrite heart, and with them that tremble at his word, there must be a glory upon them; and this light of glory shines upon them, even when they sit in darkness, and in the

shadow of death; and such souls see it too; yea, they see a great light. But once more, and I have done. The border of the church does signify the glories of the heavenly country, as appears by what follows: "Thus saith the Lord, A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping; Rachel weeping for her children, refused to be comforted because they were not. Thus saith the Lord, Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears: for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the Lord: and they shall come again from the land of the enemy. And there is hope in thine end, saith the Lord, that thy children shall come again to their own border." This prophecy was fulfilled when Herod slew the children in Bethlehem. Now, the Lord comforts the daughters of Rachel with a promise of rewarding their work in suckling these infants. God tells them that there is hope in their end, and that these children that were not alive, but dead, on which account they refused to be comforted, should come again: "They shall come again from the land of the enemy." That enemy is death, and the land of the enemy is the grave; and so it follows: "And there is hope in thine end, saith the Lord, that thy children shall come again to their own border." Now, what border can these dead children come again to but to the thousand years reign in the new earth, and to the border of the heavenly country above? where the saints, in white linen, will outshine the diamond; and, having their vile bodies changed and washed

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