Εικόνες σελίδας
PDF
Ηλεκτρ. έκδοση

mafters; of clients to an advocate to plead their caufe. It is a gathering of drowning men to an ark, to fave their lives; and a gathering of patients to a physician, to heal their difeafes. Lord, fays the gathered foul, my difeafe is mortal and incurable; I will die of this difeafe, if thou do not heal me. Well, fays Chrift, "This ficknefs is not unto death;" I can cure the difeafe of death itfelf, fpiritual death. Lord, fays another, my disease is a lingering difeafe, it is an halt and lamenefs, that I cannot fo much as come to the phyfician for healing, and I am like to go halting to the grave, under a certain fore that no-body knows of. Is that your difeafe, woman? mind that word, Micah vi. 4. "I will heal her that halteth :" and be encouraged ftill to be about the phyfician's hands.

2. From fenfitives; this gathering of the people to Shiloh is reprefented in fcripture in the following refpects. This gathering to Shiloh is like the gathering of fheep to a fhepherd; "Ye were as fheep without a fhepherd, but now are ye returned to the fhepherd and bishop of your fouls. Other fheep I have, that are not of this fold, fays Chrift; these alfo I muft bring."-He muft gather them, and they must be gathered, according to his promife, Ezek. xxxiv. 11, 12. Ifa. xl. 11. O wandering fheep, here is the fold.-It is like the gathering of doves to their windows; Ifa. Ix. 8. "Who are thefe that fly as a cloud, as doves to their windows?" The wounds of Chrift, the holes of the Rock of ages, the promises fealed with his blood, and all his offices, are the windows; and to gather to him, is to fly to thefe windows; and make your neft in the rock.--It is like the gathering of fishes into a net; Mat. xiii. 47. The kingdom of beaven, or the gospel, is likened unto a net caft into the fea, gathering of every kind. O when the gofpel-net is fpread, do not fwim away: it may be, your thoughts are fwimming in the air, when they fhould be gathered about the mouth of the net.——— Sometimes it is likened to the gathering of chickens under the wings of a hen; Mat. xxiii. 37. Luke xiii. 34. O Jerufalem, Jerufalem, how often would I have gathered you, as a ben gathereth her chickens under her wings,

but

but ye would not! O the wings of his grace, the wings of his righteoufnefs, the wings of his merit, the wings of his mercy are ftretched! If we will not be gathered, the filly chickens will witness against us; for they gather at the cluck of the hen under her wings. Again, it is like the gathering of eagles to their prey; Mat. xxiv. 28. "Where the carcafe is, thither will the eagles be gathered together." Whither fhould the eagles go, but to the prey? And, whither should the foul go, but to Chrift, who hath the words of eternal life? Chrift's flesh and blood is the carcafe, which, like hungry eagles, we should be gathering unto; for his flesh is meat indeed, and his blood is drink indeed.

3. From vegetables; this gathering of the people to Shiloh is reprefented, in the following refpects. It is like the gathering of wheat into a barn; Mat. iii. 12. "He will gather the wheat into his garner." Mat. xiii. 30. "Gather the wheat into my barn." God will not lofe a grain of his wheat; he will not only gather it to the barn to be kept, but the granary to be purified.— It is like the gathering of grafts into a branch; “I am the vine, ye are the branches: he that abideth in me, and I in him, the fame bringeth forth much fruit,” John xv. 5. When God gathers fouls to himself, he takes a branch of the old Adam, cuts it off from the old ftock, and ingrafts it into Chrift, from whom, as the everlasting root, it derives all fap of grace, all the fruits of righteousness. It is like the gathering of plants into a garden or vineyard; "The vineyard of the Lord of hofts is the house of Ifrael, and the men of Judah his pleafant plant," Ifa. v. 7. And thefe, whom he effectually gathers into his garden, are called, "Trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified." To be gathered unto Chrift, is to be planted in his house. It is like the gathering of fruit into a basket, or of flowers and lilies for pleafure and entertainment; "My beloved is gone down to his garden to gather lilies," Song vi. 2. Having gathered them into his garden, and planted them, and fuffered them to grow, through his grace, till they be ripe, he gathers them

to

to himself, and picks them one by one, to put them in his bofom. But again,

4. From inanimate things, this gathering of the people to Chrift is reprefented, in the following refpects. It is a gathering of veffels to an harbour; for, before the foul be brought in to Chrift, it is like a fhip tossed in the tempeft, and tumbling in the fwelling waves, like the ship in which the difciples were, when the fea was tempeftuous, and Chrift came walking on the fea towards them: but when they are gathered in to Christ, then they are at anchor in a fafe harbour:" Which hope we have, as an anchor fure and ftedfaft, entering within the vail, whither the Forerunner is for us entered," Heb. vi. 19. It is a piercing, entering anchor; for, as an anchor will not hold a fhip firm and fast, if it only ly on the ground, and do not pierce deep into it; fo faith will not establish the heart, if it do not enter into Christ, as it were, and pierce the vail? But when once it enters here, then the foul is at a fafe harbour, and a fure anchor both.-Again, this gathering of the people to Shiloh is like the gathering of ftones to a building; "To whom coming, as to a living ftone, difallowed indeed of men, but chofen of God and precious; ye alfo, as lively ftones, are built up a spiritual houfe," 1 Pet. ii. 4. We are by nature hard ftones, fenfelefs ftones, ftupid, inflexible, dull, heavy ftones, having an heart of stone, Ezek. xxxvi. 29.; but God can, even of these stones, raise up children to Abraham, Mat. iii. 8. Luke iii. 9. And what does God condefcend to do, when he comes to gather finners? Behold, he comes to gather ftones! and he fends us that are minifters out to gather ftones. It was a fin for the man to gather fticks on the Sabbath-day; but it would be no fin, but a good Sabbath's work for us, if we were gathering ftones this day, to bring them to the chief corner Stone, the fure Foundation, as Chrift is called, 1 Pet. ii. 6. Ifa. xxviii. 16. “This is the stone which the builders rejected; but the fame is become the head of the corner," Pfal. cxviii: 22. What we tranflate the chief corner Stone, fome tranflate it the bigbest, and fome the lowest stone: but it is beft to reconcile both, and make him both the highest and loweft, reaching from the

first to the laft; because his name is Alpha and Omega, the first and the laft: and because he is the ftone that reaches from earth to heaven, from the church militant to the church triumphant; he is the corner stone to bring both fides of the building together, Jews and Gentiles into one temple: and, " Another foundation can no man lay," fays the apoftle, "than that is laid, which is Chrift;" to this foundation fhould the ftones be gathered. Solomon fays, Eccl. iii. 9. "There is a time to caft away ftones, and a time to gather ftones together." In allufion to this, may I fay, What fort of time is this! It hath long been a time of cafting away ftones, many are like caftaway ftones in the field, or defert of nature, hard and dead ftones; they never gather to the living temple, by all the gathering means and ordinances that ever they enjoyed: they look like ftones ready to be caft away to hell, to be fuel for God's wrath; becaufe the fire of love and grace, manifefted in the gospel, could never melt them. Oh! it hath been thus a time of cafting away ftones: when it is not a gathering time, it is a rejecting time. But, O fhall we now expect a time of gathering ftones together! O cry for a day of power, a gathering day, a gathering time to Scotland again; a gathering time to yourfelves, even God's hand of power, for gathering ftones together to Chrift the foundation; and fo for gathering the people

to Shiloh!

IV. The Fourth thing propofed was, to fpeak of the manner of this gathering to Shiloh. That which I intend under this head, diftinct from the former is, to en. quire, 1. Into the means of this gathering: qualities thereof.

2. The

First, As to the means thereof, or by what means the gathering to Shiloh is brought about. By what means fay you, does God gather the people, or are the people gathered to Chrift? We have warrant from fcripture to speak of these fix gathering means.

1. A gathering hedge and inclofure; I mean, the hedge of providence, by which he gathers people occafionally, as fheep within an inclosure are gathered toge.

ther,

ther, that they may not get leave to ftray. This is the thorny hedge of affliction, whereby the Lord flops the finful career of thefe, whom he hath aimed to gather in to himself; Bebold I will bedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall that he fhall not find her paths, Hofea ii. 6. Thus Manaffeh was catched among the thorns, 2 Chron. xxxiii. 11. And to this purpofe, fays David, "It was good for me that I was afflicted; for before I was afflicted, I went aftray," Pfal. cxix. 67. Thus fome affliction or other many times is made ufe of, as the occafional mean of gathering ftraying fouls to Chrift, or fome alarming providence, as that which Paul met with, Acts ix. and the jaylor, Acts xvi. when the foundation of the prifon was fhaken with an earth-quake. But this leads me to another mean.

2. There is a gathering ftorm and tempeft, with thunder and lightening from mount Sinai, whereby an earthquake is raifed in the confcience, or rather an heartquake in the foul. By this mean of law-terrors and convictions, according to the measure wherein it is difpenfed, he gathers the people preparatively, as by the former occafionally. This difpenfation is called a tempeft, Heb. xii. 18. accompanied with blacknefs and darknefs, and burning fire. And as a blowing ftorm, or beating tempest, makes a man chearfully to betake himself to a houfe for fhelter; fo the ftorm of legal conviction and humiliation makes people willing to gather unto Shiloh. Hence the law is faid to be our fchoolmafter to SCHOOL us to Christ, as the word there fignifies, Gal. iii. 24. "By the law is the knowledge of fin," and the conviction of wrath; and while the ftorm of law-threatenings, lawcurfes, law-vengeance is beating and battering on the foul, it is glad to cry out, "What shall I do to be faved?" And where fhall I go to be fheltered? Under this dif penfation, there are two things that the foul fees, when the law comes with force, namely, the fpirituality of the command, and the feverity of the threatening. The fpirituality of the precept difcovered makes the man cry, Oh! I am unclean, unclean! The feverity of the threatening difcovered makes him cry out, Oh! I am undone, undone! O the infinite holinefs of God in VOL. IV.

[ocr errors]

the

« ΠροηγούμενηΣυνέχεια »