this I fpoke formerly; therefore, I fhall only fay, when these clouds of wickednefs and error, are gathering to a prodigious blacknefs of darknefs, it is a time to be gathering to Shiloh, who is the way and the truth: the way to walk in, in oppofition to the way of wickednefs; and the truth to be believed, in oppofition to all the paths of error. But, moreover, thefe black clouds bode more a-coming. (3.) There is a cloud of wrath gathering over Britain; a cloud of judgment and calamity is gathering over Scotland, and hath been gathering thefe many years bygone, efpecially fince the time that Scotland was incorporate with her neighbour: a cloud of wrath hath been gathering over us, both as a church and nation; what drops have fallen out of that cloud, to the rending and dividing of our church, and to the finking and impoverishing of our ftate; what clouds of diforder and confufion are hovering over our head, is too well known: but the Lord knows what will be the end of these things, more dreadful fhowers of temporal judgments are in all appearance haftening on and, Oh! is it not time to be gathering to Shiloh, the only place of foul-fafety? They that are in him have the leefide of the bufh, and are in abfolute fafety, whatever way the wind blows. But though you fhould efcape the cloud of national judgments, yet there is a cloud of perfonal affliction gathering, be it ficknefs on your body, or the like: is it not beft to be under covert before the fhower comes on? Or, if you fhould efcape that, yet, (4) Certainly there is a cloud of death gathering and coming upon you, as faft as days, and hours, and moments fly away; and if your bodies be gathered to grave before your fouls be gathered to Shiloh, you the will be miferable as long as God fhall be blessed; that is, for ever and ever. You may make a fhift to live as merrily as you can now; but, "What will you do in the day of vifitation?" Ifa. x. 3. What will you do when the king of terrors is gathering his forces against you, and when you fhall be gathered before God's awful tribunal to hear and receive that direful and alarming fentence pronounced against you, "Depart from me ye curfed, into everlafting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels!" 5. Confider how long he hath been offering to ga ther you. And how oft, O finner, would he have gathered you, as a hen does her chickens under her wings, but ye would not? How long? even all day long; Rom. x. 21. "All day long have I ftretched forth my hands unto a difobedient and gain-faying people." God hath been ftretching out his arm to take hold of you, even the arm of his grace in the gofpel-offer and invitation, and you are not laid hold upon to this day. All the day long that the gofpel-fun hath been fhining have I been ftretching out my arms, fays God; for God counts the time how long he waits upon you; he reckons up the time how long you let him ftand knocking at the door of your heart: he counts every hour's refusal, and every year's refufal, though it be forty years; "Forty years long was I grieved with this generation." God hath been calling on fome of you, ten, twenty, thirty, forty years; and, it may be, to gray hairs, but he counts the time how long: he hath been pursuing you with his grace, while you have been catching feathers in the wind; delighting yourfelves in nothing but vanity; yea, lying vanity, forfaking your own mercy; as perfons that have neither care for heaven, nor a fear of hell. What if the time be now come, wherein he is faying, I will wait no longer; "Ephraim is joined to his idols, let him alone;" if this very call be flighted, "My Spirit fhall ftrive no more with you;" I have long fought your kindness, and you refufed it; I offered my kindnefs, and you thought nothing of it; "I would have gathered you, and ye would not " The caufe of your damnation then, if you perifh, is not in God, but in you: it is not in his act of reprobation, but in your act of rebellion and wicked will. You are a gainfaying and rebellious people against the God that ftretched forth his hands towards you: fay not then, what ails God at me? but rather, what ails your wicked nature at God? Ok! Oh! may conquering grace at length come!--But again, 6. Confider what relation Chrift ftands in to the people, that the gathering of the people may be to him: not only is Shiloh come in our nature, but he is come in the capacity of a Shiloh; that is, the Sent of God, under fuch manifold relations to the people as may engage the hearts of the people. Since the text makes him the Sent of God, let us fee what he is fent for, and whether the people have any concern therein. He is fent to be the Saviour of the people; "To you is born in the city of David, a Saviour, which is Chrift the Lord," Luke ii. 11. "This is indeed the Chrift, the Saviour of the world," John iv. 24. Is he fent to be the Saviour of the people; and fhall not the gathering of the people be to him?—He is fent to be the Deliverer of the people ; "There is come out of Zion the Deliverer, that fhall turn away ungodlinefs from Jacob,” Poni. xi. 26. Oh! fhall he come to -- deliver the people, and none of the people come to be de- large large audience be influenced to become willing and loyal fubjects of this glorious and immortal King? Will none match with him?-He is fent to be the Friend and Favourer of the people; hence called a Friend of publicans and finners; not a friend to their fins, but fuch a friend to their fouls, as to fave them from their fins.-He is fent to be the Juftifier of the people; the Juftifier of them that believe in Jefus: yea, hence, he is faid to justify the ungodly; for he came, not to be a condemner, but a juftifier; "God fent not his Son to the world, to condemn the world, but that the world thro' him might be faved," John iii. 17. Oh! fhall not guilty people come to him to be juftified from all things, from which they could not be juftified by the law of Mofes ?-He is fent to be the Shepherd and Bishop of the people, that the. people may return unto him, as the Shepherd and Bishop of their fouls, 1 Pet. ii. 25.-He is fent to be the Phyfician of the people; hence, his name is JEHOVAH-ROPHI; "The Lord that healeth thee. And as many as touched him were healed. The whole need not a phyfician, but they that are fick." And, who are they that need not his healing? Therefore, let the gathering of the people that need healing be to him. He is fent to be the Witnefs, the Leader, and Commander of the people ; hold, I have given him for a Witnefs, a Leader, and Commander of the people," Ifa. lv. 4.; and all that the gathering of the people may be to him. He is fent to be a Counsellor, a Father, and a Prince of the people ; To us a child is born, to us a fon is given, and his name fhall be called, Wonderful, Counfellor, the mighty God, the everlafting Father, the Prince of peace; and the government fhall be upon his fhoulders," Ifa. ix. 6.-He is fent to be the Builder of the people, and the Foundation-ftone, upon which the people fhould build; "Even he fhall build the temple of the Lord, and he fhall bear the glory," Zech. vi. 13. "Behold, I lay in Zion, for a foundation, a ftone, a tried ftone, a precious corner ftone, a fure foundation," Ifa. xxviii. 16.; and all that the gathering of the people may be to him.-He is fent to be the Bleffer of the people, that the people may gather "Be gather to him for a bleffing; "God having raised up his Son Jefus, hath fent him to blefs you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities," Acts iii. 26.-He hath fent him to blefs the people; and God's bleffing will light on all them that gather to him for a bleffing; "Men fhall be bleft in him, and all nations shall call him bleffed," Pfal. lxxii. 17.—He is fent to be the Standardbearer of the people; "He is the Chief, the Standardbearer among ten thoufand," Song v. 10.; hence he is called the Enfign of the people, and to it fhall the Gentiles feek, Ifa. xi. 10. Ought not then the gathering of the people to be to their Standard-bearer and Enfign?He is fent to be the Burden-bearer of the people: behold the burden of your fins is laid upon him; "The Lord hath laid upon him the iniquities of us all," Ifa. liii. 6.8. [or, made them to MEET bim,] he hath gathered together all the fins of the people, and laid them on his back, that the gathering of the people may be to him, as the Lamb of God, that takes away the fins of the world. As the burden of our fins, fo the burden of our forrows is laid upon him; "Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our forrows," Ifaiah liii. 4. The burden of our wounds, and bruifes, and ftripes, was laid upon him; "He was wounded for our fins, and bruised for our iniquities, the chaftifement of our peace was laid upon him, and by his ftripes we are healed," ver. 5.-All the wounds that we should have got with the fword of God's wrath, and all the ftripes that should have been laid upon our backs to eternity, were gathered together, and laid upon Chrift's back. And why was the burden of all the fins and forrows of the people laid upon him, but that the gathering of the people might be to him, as the Burden-bearer of the people?- -What fhall I fay? He is fent, not only to be all relations, but all things to the people?—He is fent to be the Covenant of the people; I will give thee for a Covenant of the people," Ifa. Ixvi. 6.-He is fent to be the Glory of the people; "A Light to lighten the Gentiles, and the Glory of his people Ifrael." He is fent to be the Hope of the people; "He is our Hope," fays the apoftle; and, "The Lord fhall be the Hope of his people," Joel iii. 16.- He |