"fufficient for a burnt offering. All nations before him ate "as nothing, and they are counted to him less 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 verfe 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 Baptist as the forerunner of Chrift in all the Evangelifts. For that he was Chrift's forerunner is allowed; therefore the God fo il. luftriously delineated in the language already quoted, is nome 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 Chrift, one would be ready to think fully fufficient to determine the controversy respecting 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 ofhofts." And the prophet has orders to proclaim this confolation in the most 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 "bringest good tidings to Jerufalem, lift up thy voice with "ftrength, 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 fervant; he will affume hu manity and his arm will rule for him; he travelleth in the greatness of his ftrength 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 crofs, defpifed the fhame, and is fet down at the "ight 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 shall gather the lambs "with his arms, and carry them in his bofom, and shall gen"tly lead thofe that are with young." Remarkable it is that the bleffed Jefus is reprefented in the fcriptures to his people under every figure and image that expreffes friendship, kindnefs, condefcenfion, care, tenderness and love, What a group of them is before us; tho' his arm is ftrong and he is the mighty God, he condescends 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, seem above all others to attract his most affectionate care. He gathers them in his tender arms and carries them in his warm and compaffionate bosom.

Many doctrines of high and ufeful importanee arife from this fubject, but the only one we can confider at present 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 distinguished 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 second apoftacy, Adam and Eve, and their children, belonged to the church. And the fhort history we have of the flock of Chrift 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 appertained 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 fill 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 alfo admitted into it? So throughout the whole Mofaic economy and Jewish dispen fation, children pertained to the church, and were ever refpected as lambs of the flock. So our Lord himfelf, after whofe 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 apoftles also taught that the children of the faints are holy, and to be diftinguished from the unclean pofterity of the heathen tribes, and that the promifes made to believers extended likewife to their chil dren.

Some have arifen of late, who practically declare, that Christ's flock has no lambs in it, and that children pertain not to the church; accordingly they take little care of the inftruction of their own, and expend little pains for their falvation, but are zealous above measure in beguiling away the sheep of other flocks, troubling and perverting the church of Christ. They compafs fea and land to make profelytes. Beware of fuch left they delude you to your own ruin and to the ruin of your children. One of their leading marks is, "They creep "into houses, and lead captive filly women." And the most of the profelytes which they glean, are of this complexion. Let them alone, for to their mafter they ftand or fall. Let it ever be our business to provide wholesome food for the flock, and after the example of the good fhepherd extend the tenderest care and most affectionate regard to the lambs thereof, affording strong meat to those who are full grown and with milk nourishing the bodies. The exclufion of lambs from the flock, contains in it fomething unnatural and cruel; it expofes them to calamity and death; fo the exclufion of children from the church is not only unfcriptural, but it is unreasonable and inhuman. It is placing them in the fituation of heathen, few of whom are ever converted. Obfervation assures us that it is a rare thing for any out of the visible church to be brought to a faving closure with Chrift. It is the practice of some barbarous nations, to expofe or deftroy many of their children, that they may not be encumbrances on, or burthenfome to their families; fo people who exclude their children from the visible church, however it may be done through ignorance in fome, and wickedness in others, eminently expofes them, like other heathen, to everlafting deftruction. Would it not be deemed barbarous and cruel to fee parents exclude their little children from their families, and afford them neither food nor raiment ; it is equally fo with a church, which ought to be the family of Christ to thrust out their children. Will good parents nurse their little ones with care and tenderness, watch over, protet

and guard them, fo the flock ought to take care of its lambs, and the church of its children. Were churches careful, faithful and chriftian on this head, widely different would the children and youth be from what they are. It is owing to the negligence of parents and churches, that there are so many wicked and graceless in the land.

At present the state, condition, ftanding privileges and bleffings of the lambs fhall be omitted, and we will attend to the character, nature and marks of the fheep of Chrift's flock. Peter was commanded by our Lord to feed both his sheep and his lambs. And this ought to be the conduct of every true minister of the gofpel. I have already delivered a series of difcourfes to the children and youth, the lambs of this depart ment of the flock. We fhall now confider the nature and

character of the fheep.

First, they are all of one kind or fort, of one fpecies and quality. However diftinguished by nation, tribe, family or language; however distant in time from each other, or separated by place, they are all partakers of the fame nature, of the fame kind, and have the fame general marks; they are sheep. This is the term by which the chief fhepherd has been pleased to defignate and diftinguish them from all others. No animal but itself poffeffes the nature of a fheep. All others are fpecifi cally different from it. In like manner Chrift's fheep are all of one kind, and each individual has the fame nature. One may be weak and another ftrong, one poor and infirm, and other alert and lively, one ragged and torn, another fat anwell cloathed, one is difeafed and fickly, and another in full vigor and health, yet however different in appearance and circumstances, they are all fheep and of the fame kind; they are not effentially or specifically different from each other.

Secondly, fheep will not lie down in filthy waters, nor wallow