is mighty, he will fave, he will rejoice over thee with joy." Who would not be a real christian, one of Chrift's sheep, in preference to the higheft happiness this world can raife its fa. vorites to? Confider the preferablenefs of the poorest and meaneft believer, to the greateft, highest and moft dignified finner.

Thirdly, how awful and melancholy is the fituation of those who have no interest in the care, protection and love of this good fhepherd? Are there not many who have the greatest reafon to be affured that this is their true ftate? Pray, my dear hearers, confider the danger and terriblenefs of your fituation. You run the risk every moment of finking into the horrible pit of eternal deftruction. Your life is a vapour, and you live by the mere forbearance and fufferance of that God, who is angry with you every day. Confider what you will do if death fhould arrest you while you are in this condition. The thought is painful and dreadful, and it had been good for you had never been born.

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Wherefore, awake, arife, flee to the arms of the good fhepherd; efcape for your lives to the city of refuge, to the hope fet before you in the gofpel, ere it be forever too late. Remember the Lord will thake this earth to pieces, and the elements will melt with fervent heat. "Wherefore give all dili"gence to make your calling and election fure."

SERMON XXIV.

Some Marks of Chrift's Flock.

Ifaiah, xl. 11. He fhall feed his flock like a fhepherd, he fhall gather the lambs with his arms, and carry them in his bosom, and fhall gently lead thofe that are with young.

THE descriptions of Jehovah contained in this chapter, are inimitably grand and majeftic. They have never been equalled by any pencil, and it is impoffible they fhould be exceeded. How inimitable is the following painting ?-With what bold ftrokes, with what energy and life, with what force. of expreffion, does it exhibit and display the exceeding greatnefs and incomparable majesty of the Moft High. "Who "hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and "meted out heaven with a fpan, comprehended the duft of "the earth in a meafure, weighed the mountains in fcales and "the hills in a balance ?-Behold the nations are as a drop of a "bucket, and are counted as the fmall duft of the balance : "behold he taketh up the ifles as a very little thing. And "Labanon is not fufficient to burn, and the beafts thereof

"fufficient for a burnt offering. All nations before him are "as nothing, and they are counted to him lefs than nothing "and vanity." If this language does not defcribe divinity, felf-exiftent and independent; inconceiveable omnipotence, and ineffable glory, it is abfolutely impoffible, it fhould be painted in any language whatever.

This chapter is, in the New Teftament, immediately and directly applied to Jefus Chrift. In the third verse we have thefe expreffions. "The voice of him that crieth in the "wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight "in the defert an highway for our God;" even that God whofe picture has been drawn in glowing colours and with a daring pencil. Now this is applied to John the Baptift as the forerunner of Chrift in all the Evangelifts. For that he was Chrift's forerunner is allowed; therefore the 'God fo ilJuftriously delineated in the language already quoted, is none other than the Lord Jefus ; of confequence Jefus Chrift is true, effential and uncreated God. So exprefs an application, of what is here fpoken, to Christ, one would be ready to think fully fufficient to determine the controverfy refpecting his proper Godhead, with all thofe who believed in divine revela. tion; and divine authority alone can decide in a matter of this nature.

The chapter opens with the most joyful tidings, that there is peace on earth and good will towards the children of men. "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, faith the Lord of hofts." And the prophet has orders to proclaim this confolation in the moft public manner. "O thou, that bringeft good tidings to "Zion, get ye up into the high mountain," a place from whence thou mayeft be extenfively heared. "O thou that

bringeft good tidings to Jerufalem, lift up thy voice with "trength, lift it up, be not afraid; fay unto the cities of Ju

dah, behold your God. For the Lord God will come with

"a ftrong hand, and his arm will rule for him." This God will come and become flesh and dwell among us; he will come and take on him the form of a servant; he will affume humanity and his arm will rule for him; he travelleth in the greatness of his strength through the work of redemption; his reward is with him and his work before him. His divinity fupports him under the fufferings of his humanity; the former gives infinite virtue and efficacy to the latter. His reward fhall be glorious, "For feeing the travel of his foul he fhall "be fatisfied. For the joy that was fet before him, he endu"red the cross, despised the shame, and is fet down at the " right hand of the throne of God”

This fame perfon who is drawn in all the majefty of the Sovereign Jehovah is exhibited to our view in the text in one of the most harmlefs, gentle and inviting characters. "He "fhall feed his flock like a fhepherd, he fhall gather the lambs "with his arms, and carry them in his befom, and shall gen"tly lead thofe that are with young." Remarkable it is that the blessed Jefus is represented in the fcriptures to his people under every figure and image that expreffes friendship, kindnefs, condcfcenfion, care, tenderness and love. What a group of them is before us; tho' his arm is ftrong and he is the mighty God, he condefcends in all the carefulness of friendship to provide for his people. Yea, the public, the weak and the young are the objects of his peculiar attention. The infants, the children of his church, feem above all others to attract his most affectionate care. He gathers them in his tender arms and carries them in his warm and compaffionate bofom.

Many doctrines of high and useful importance arife from this subject, but the only one we can confider at prefent is, the nature and character of Chrift's flock upon earth.

That Chrift Jefus has a church, a flock in the world, will be

readily granted by all the believers of divine revelation. This flock confits of believing parents and their feed, who are often ftiled theep and lambs. He has had fuch a number in every age fince the fall, and will have fuch a number through. out all future generations. They are his flock in an eminent manner, and diftinguifhed from the world, ever fince Cain departed from it, and went out from the prefence of the Lord. Till this unhappy period, which feemed like a fecond apoftacy, Adam and Eve, and their children, belonged to church. And the fhort hiftory we have of the flock of Christ before the flood, tho' a long term of more than fixteen hundred years, evidently holds forth, that the children of the antideluvian faints pertained to the fame. Why are the children of Seth, Enos, Enoch, Methufalah &c. fo particularly mentioned, but that the fons and daughters born unto them ap pertained to the church? After the deluge, when Ham and his fon were guilty of an outragious wickednefs, fell under the curfe of their father and their God, another apoftacy from religion took place, and they and their pofterity were loft; yet the church ftill continued in the other fons of Noah and their children, till the calling of Abraham, to whom was revealed a new and more clear difpenfation of the covenant of grace. And did Abraham revive and fet up the church a new, and were not his infant offspring alio admitted into it? So throughout the whole Mofaic economy and Jewish dispen fation, children pertained to the church, and were ever refSo our Lord himself, after whofe pected as lambs of the flock. death the church was to be extended to the gentile nations, commanded little children to be brought unto him and declared of fuch is the kingdom of God. The apostles alfo taught that the children of the faints are holy, and to be distinguished from the unclean pofterity of the heathen tribes, and that the promifes made to believers extended likewife their chil dren.