which, although they alone have the truest and the highest pleasure in them, yet, to thy carnal mind are tasteless and unsavoury? There is scarcely any thing so light and childish, that thou wilt not more willingly and liberally bestow thy retired thoughts on, than upon those excellent, incomparable delights. Oh! the foolish heart of Man! When it may seem deep and serious, how often is it at Domitian's exercise in his study, catching flies!

Men account little of the wandering of their hearts, and yet truly, that is most of all to be considered; for from thence are the issues of life, Prov. iv. 23. It is the heart that hath forgotten God, and is roving after vanity: this causes all the errors of men's words and actions. A wandering heart makes wandering eyes, feet, and tongue: it is the leading wanderer, that misleads all the rest. And as we are here called straying sheep, so, within the heart itself of each of us, there is as it were a whole wandering flock, a multitude of fictions, (Gen. viii. 21,) ungodly devices. The word that signifies the evil of the thought in Hebrew, here from ¬ is taken from that which signifies feeding of a flock, and it likewise signifies wandering; and so these meet in our thoughts, they are a great flock and a wandering flock. This is the natural freedom of our thoughts; they are free to wander from God and Heaven, and to carry us to perdition. And we are guilty of many pollutions this way, which we never acted. Men are less sensible of heart-wickedness, if it break not forth; but the heart is far more active in sin than any of the senses, or the whole body. The motion of spirits is far swifter than that of bodies. The mind can make a greater progress in any of these wanderings in one hour, than the body is able to follow in many days.

When the body is tied to attendance in the exercises wherein we are employed, yet, know you not ?-it is so much the worse if you do not know, and feel it, and bewail it,-know you not, I say, that the heart can take its liberty, and leave you nothing but a carcass? This the unrenewed heart doth continually. They come and sit before me as my people, but their heart is

after their covetousness. Ezek. xxxiii. 31. It hath another way to go, another God to wait on.

But are now returned.] Whatsoever are the several ways of our straying, all our wandering originates in the aversion of the heart from God, whence of necessity follows a continual unsettledness and disquiet. The mind, as a wave of the sea, tossed to and fro with the wind, tumbles from one sin and vanity to another, and finds no rest; or, as a sick person tosses from one side to another, and from one part of his bed to another, and perhaps changes his bed, in hope of ease, but still it is further off, thus is the soul in all its wanderings. But shift and change as it will, no rest shall it find until it come to this returning, Jer. ii. 36. Why gaddest thou about so much to change thy way? Thou shalt be ashamed of Egypt as thou wast of Assyria? Nothing but sorrow and shame, till you change all those ways for this one. Return, O Israel, says the Lord, if thou wilt return, return unto Me. It is not changing one of your own ways for another, that will profit you; but in returning to Me is your salvation.

Seeing we find in our own experience, besides the woful end of our wanderings, the present perplexity and disquiet of them, why are we not persuaded to this, to give up with them all? Return unto thy rest, O my soul, says David, Psalm cxvi. 7: this were our wisdom.

But is not that God in whom we expect rest, incensed against us for our wandering? and is He not, being offended, a consuming fire? True, but this is the way to find acceptance and peace, and satisfying comforts in returning: come first to this Shepherd of souls, Jesus Christ, and by Him, come unto the Father. No man comes unto the Father, says he, but by me. This is via regia, the high and right way of returning unto God John x. 11. I am the good shepherd; and ver. 9, I am the door: by Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved. But if he miss this Door, he shall miss salvation too. Ye are returned, says the Apostle, unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.

There be three things necessary to restore us to our happiness, whence we have departed in our wanderings: 1. To take away the guiltiness of those former wanderings. 2. To reduce us into the way again. 3. To keep and lead us in it.

Now all these are performable only by this great Shepherd. 1. He did satisfy for the offence of our wanderings, and so remove our guiltiness. He himself, the Shepherd, became a sacrifice for His flock, a sheep or spotless lamb. So Isa. liii. 6, We like sheep have gone astray, and immediately after the mention of our straying, it is added, The Lord laid, or, made meet on him, the iniquity of us all, of all our strayings; and ver. 7, He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter. He who is our Shepherd, the same is the Lamb for sacrifice. So our Apostle, (ch. i.) We are redeemed, not by silver and gold, but by the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. So, John x. 11. He is the good Shepherd that lays down his life for his sheep. Men think not on this; many of them who have some thoughts of returning and amendment, think not that there is a satisfaction due for past wanderings; and therefore they pass by Christ, and consider not the necessity of returning to Him, and by him to the Father.

2. He brings them back into the way of life: Ye are returned. But think not it is by their own knowledge and skill, that they discover their error, and find cut the right path, or that by their own strength they return into it. No, if we would contest grammaticisms, the word here, is passive: ye are returned, reduced, or caused to return. But this truth hangs not on so weak notions as are often used, either for or against it. In that prophecy, Ezek. xxxiv. 16, God says, I will seek and bring again, &c. And, Psalm xxiii. 3, David says, He restoreth or returneth my soul. And that this is the work of this Shepherd, the Lord Jesus, God-man, is clearly and frequently taught in the Gospel. He came for this very end: it was His errand and business in the world, to seek and to save that which was lost. And thus it is represented in the parable, Luke xv. 4, 5: he goes after that which is lost, until he find it, and then, having

found it, doth not only shew it the way, and say to it, Return, and so leave it to come after, but he lays it on his shoulder, and brings it home; and notwithstanding all his pains, instead of complaining against it for wandering, he rejoices in that he hath found and recovered it: he lays it on his shoulder rejoicing. And in this, there is as much of the resemblance as in any other thing. Lost man can no more return unsought, than a sheep that wandereth, which is observed of all creatures to have least of that skill. Men may have some confused thoughts of returning, but to know the way and to come, unless they be sought out, they are unable. This is David's suit, though acquainted with the fold, I have gone astray like a lost sheep: Lord, seek thy servant. Psalm cxix. ult. This did our great and good Shepherd, through those difficult ways He was to pass for finding us, wherein He not only hazarded, but really laid down his life; and those shoulders which did bear the iniquity of our wanderings, by expiation, upon the same doth He bear and bring us back from it by effectual conversion.

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3. He keeps and leads us on in that way into which he hath restored us. He leaves us not again to try our own skill, whether we can walk to heaven alone, being set into the path of it, but He still conducts us in it by his own hand, and that is the cause of our persisting in it, and attaining the blessed end of it. He restoreth my soul, says the Psalmist, Psalm xxiii. 2; and that is not all he adds, He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake. Those paths are the green pastures meant, and the still waters that he speaks of. And thus we may judge whether we are of his flock. Are we led in the paths of righteousness? Do we delight ourselves in Him, and in his ways? Are they the proper refreshment of our souls? Do we find His word sweet unto our taste? Are we taken with the green pastures in it, and the crystal streams of consolations that glide through it? Can we discern His voice, and does it draw our hearts, so that we follow it? John x. 27.

The Shepherd and Bishop.] It was the style of Kings, to

be called Shepherds; and is the dignity of the Ministers of the Gospel, to have both these names. But this great Shepherd and Bishop, is peculiarly worthy of these names, as ́supreme: He alone is the universal Shepherd and Bishop, and none but an antichrist, who makes himself as Christ, killing and destroying the flock, will assume this title which belongs only to the Lord, the great Owner of His flock. He himself is their great Shepherd and Bishop. All shepherds and bishops who are truly such, have their function and place from Him; they hold of Him, and follow His rule and example, in their inspection of the flock. It were the happiness of kingdoms, if magistrates and kings would set Him, His love, and meekness, and equity, before their eyes in their government. And all those who are properly His bishops, are under especial obligations to study this pattern, to warm their affections to the flock, and to excite a tender care of their salvation, by looking on this Arch-bishop and Arch-shepherd, (as our Apostle calls Him,) and in their measure, to follow his footsteps, spending their life and strength in seeking the good of His sheep, considering that they are subordinately shepherds of souls, that is, in dispensing spiritual things; so far the title is communicable.

The Lord Jesus is supremely and singularly such: they under Him are shepherds of souls, because their diligence concerns the soul, which excludes not the body in spiritual respects, as it is capable of things spiritual and eternal, by its union with the soul. But Christ is sovereign Shepherd of souls above all, and singular, in that He not only teaches them the doctrine of salvation, but purchased salvation for them, and inasmuch as He reaches the soul powerfully, which ministers by their own power cannot do. He lays hold on it, and restores, and leads it, and causes it to walk in His ways. In this sense it agrees to Him alone, as supreme, in the incommunicable sense.

And from His guidance, power, and love, flows all the comfort of his flock. When they consider their own folly and

VOL. II.

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