The fountain opened, or, The great gospel privilege of having Christ exhibited to sinful…The fountain opened, or, The great gospel priviledge of having Christ exhibited to sinfull…

5. That God hath appointed men, who are called by him unto it, to be the ordinary dispensers •• this Gospel. He could indeed have done it immediately by his Spirit, or he could have employed the Glorious Angels in this Affair, wh• would have accounted it an honour thus •• minister for the heirs of Salvation: but he hath Chosen this way in his wisdom, as that which is best accommodated for us, and that wherein he will gain the greater glory to himself, according to, 2 Cor. 4 7. We have this treasure is ⟨p. 53⟩earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. It was for this end that Jesus Christ gave such gifts to men when he ascended, as Eph. 4. 10 &c. For the perfecting of the Saints, &c. And the Apostle gives us to understand, that ordinarily there is no other way for us to come to faith in Christ, and obtain Salvation by him, Rom. 10. 14, 15. How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a Preacher?

6. That these cannot distinguish between those that are given to Christ, and others. They are not acquainted with the secret counsels of God concerning men in particular; they find men equally lying in the rubbish of the Apostasy, and have not been admitted to look into the Lambs Book of Life, and there to read whose names stand upon record, so as to apply themselves to them and to no other. Those whom God hath purposed to show his special Grace upon, are alike with others in their natural estate, being children of wrath as they, Eph. 2. 3