SERMON VIII.

TEXT.

Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises."-Romans ix. 4.

Ir behoves the minister to search the law and the testimony to prove who they are. "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him, and he will shew them his covenant," Psalm xxv. 14. It is evident that those who keep the secret will abide in the covenant, and walk in his command.

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So it is evident that at the fulness of times, Israel will return unto him, and he will make a new covenant with them. 'Behold, the days come saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah," Jer. xxxi. 31. So it is evident that he did not make his covenant at his first coming, for they refused him; but at his second coming he gathers them to fulfil his covenant. "Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts," 2 Cor. i. 22. This also proves the text, that those who seek to the law and service of God will obtain the

promises. "He that hath received his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true," John iii. 33.

"Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads," Rev. vii. 3.

This proves that a remnant of Israel was to be saved from among the Gentiles. This shews who are Israelites and to whom pertaineth the adoption, which is alluded to in the text. And I will make them one nation in the land, upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all," Ezek. xxxvii.

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"And the Lord shall be king over all the earth; in that day shall there be one Lord and his name one," Zech. xiv. 9. "If ye abide in me and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you." John xv. 7. This proves who is the vine and who are the branches thereof, which were not to be destroyed: they not being of the vine that withered. Ezek. xvii. 9. 'He took also of the seed of the land, and planted it in a fruitful field; he placed it by great waters; and set it as a willow tree. And it grew, and became a spreading vine of low stature, whose branches turned toward him, and the roots thereof were under him: so it became a vine, and brought forth branches and shot forth sprigs," Ezekiel xvii. 5, 6.

"I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing," John xv. 5. The house of Israel being the branches, which are not of this world. (John viii. 23.)

The seed of the land being the seed of the woman in its purity; and when the man of sin is separated from the son of man, her seed then grows as the willow tree, and are true Israelites, in whom there is no guile; and pertain unto the adoption, and the covenant, and the fulness of the law, of which the fulfilling of righteousness is the end.

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"And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it ; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein," Isaiah xxxv. 8. For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterwards have spoken of another day. There remaineth therefore a rest for the people of God," Hebrews iv. 8, 9.

The keys of the kingdom of heaven were given unto Peter in the fifth thousand years, that one day was as a thousand years; And after that I looked, and, behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened," Rev. xv. 5.

It being the sixth thousand years, wherein man receiveth the keys, so that he openeth and entereth in.‡

They whose bodies are not washed and salted, as every meat-offering that the child. ren of Israel offered, was with salt, after the inwards were washed, being figurative of the washing of man's body, by the word, being salted with fire, the Spirit of God, it be ing the baptism of fire. "I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance; but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire."

† Into immortality.
Into the Spirit.

"I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it," Rev. iii. 8.

“And he said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables," Mark iv. 11.

And he giveth them that ask the fulness of his Spirit, which gathereth them out of all nations; that they who des pised the law may turn to the law and the gospel; and they that despised the gospel may receive it with the law, and dwell in the Spirit. To the law and to the testimony; if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them," Isaiah viii. 20;

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FIRST:-"Who are Israelites ? "

They are those who petition God, by a morning and evening sacrifice, to take away the root, branch, and seed of evil from their bodies.

And though the woman purified her seed from the tares of which her body was conceived, by the refiner which God had placed within her, yet she purifies not her own body, but it remaineth with the man until it be taken away: "Only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way," (2 Thess. ii. 7.)

So that all that proceed from them are marred, and death was pronounced on them; but the sixth thousand years being come, of which the sixth day was typical, man will be created in the image of God. (Genesis, i. 26.)

"And I looked, and, lo, a lamb stood on the mount Zion, and with him an hundred and forty and four thousand, having their father's name written in their foreheads, redeemed from the earth.* These are they who were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they who follow the lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the first fruits unto God," (Rev. xiv. 1, 3, 4.)

Secondly:"To whom pertaineth the adoption." Men being defiled by the tares which Satan by man sowed in the garden or field of the woman, which she handed to the man, are called men of sin, "Ye are of your father the devil," John viii. 44. But those who receive his Spirit which he has sent to testify of him, and ask for that evil to be taken away, and for the fulness of the Spirit to rest upon them, when they receive it they are then the adopted: and they are

§ Without the immortal Spirit.
*The corrupt earth.
†The daughters of the harlot,

Israelites to whom the adoption pertaineth, and until they receive the Spirit which adopts them, they continue praying for it.

"For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life," 2 Cor. v. 4.

The adoption which is the taking away of the evil, and the clothing of the body with the Spirit, is the beginning of the redemption of the body, which is called the partial redemption; but the full redemption is the Spirit being put within - them, with their spirits; their bodies then being the temple of the living God. It causing them to inherit substance. (Prov. viii. 21.) And these, which are the one hundred forty and four thousand, of all the tribes of Israel, are two selected out of each of a hundred forty and four thousand families* of the descendants of the twelve tribes of Israel; fulfilling the words of Jeremiah: "I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion," Jer. iii. 14.

The one of a city being Jesus the seed of the woman, purified by the refiner from that of which her body was conceived; He not being begotten of man, so he had no evil in him, and the two of a family, being the man and the woman, separated from the man of sin, and the mother of harlots, when the evil is removed from them their bodies will be like unto his, in their mortal lives.

Thirdly:" And the glory." They being as Jesus, shewing the three different lights as he did; first, the glory of a star, which was at his birth. Second, as the glory of the moon, when he was baptized. Third, as the glory of the sun, which was after his resurrection.

There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars for one star differeth from another star in glory," 1 Cor. xv. 41.

"For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren," Romans viii. 29. But they whose bodies die and are raised incorruptible, are not conformed to the image of the Son, but that of the angels, (Matt. xxii. 30.) "And he said unto them, Ye are from beneath ;+

*Being the families of the new Creation.

†The first-born without sin, he being "The beginning of the creation of God," Rev. iii. 14.

The grave.

5*

I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world," John viii. 23.

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But to those who are to be conformed to the image of his Son, he saith, To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame and am set down with my Father in his throne," Rev. iii. 21. "But to which of the angels said he at any time, Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool?" Hebrews i. 13. Fourthly:- -"And the covenants." Israel is commanded to remember the covenant which God made with Adam before he took of the evil, which is this: "Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die," Gen. ii. 16, 17; which is the covenant of the immortality of the natural body, which he broke.

"For this is my covenant unto them when I shall take away their sins," Romans xi. 27.

"A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and will give you an heart of flesh," Ezekiel xxxvi. 26.

Fifthly:" And the giving of the law."

"What advan

tage then hath the Jew, or what profit is there of circumcision? Much every way: chiefly because that unto them were committed the oracles of God," Rom. iii. 1, 2. Shewing that to them pertains the giving of the law.

"For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. "For circumcision verily profiteth, if thou keep the law." Rom. ii. 13, 25.

"Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers." Romans xv. 8.

"For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things," Hebrews x. 1.

"He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination." Prov. xxviii. 9.

"Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill." Matt. v.

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"The law and the prophets were until John; since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man press