III. on, cleared, fenced and guarded, and fur- LECT. nished with every thing that could render it complete and keep it in its perfection. Inftead of good fruit it produced wild grapes, as bad as if it had been left without cultivation. For this, its hedge was to be taken away, and it was to be eaten up; that is, the heathens round about it were to be let in upon it to devour it, and it was to be trodden down: no rain was to fall upon it; the bleffing of divine grace from heaven was to be with-held; and thorns and briars, all forts of wicked people, under the figure of every worthless, troublesome and accurfed plant, were to prevail in it. In the 80th pfalm, the spoiling of the church is lamented under the fame image. It is described as a vine brought out of Egypt by the hand of God, to be rooted in Canaan; from whence the heathens were cast out to make room for it, as the ground is cleared of ftones and rubbish for a new plantation. But for its unfruitfulness, the boar out of the wood laid III. LECT. it wafte, and the wild beaft of the field devoured it. Such ever was and ever will be the fate of the church: when it be comes degenerate, and unworthy of the hand that planted it, the world is let in upon it; who are as eager to plunder, lay it waste, and trample it down, as the fwine to root up the ground and destroy a plantation. In the new teftament, the members of the church are confidered more particularly as branches of Chrift: I am the true vine, fays he, and my father is the husbandman: as the branches of the vine are dreffed, fo are the members of Chrift under the discipline of God: correction is as neceffary to them as the pruning knife to the vine; and as the branches bear no fruit but as they belong to the tree, fo can no member of the church bring forth any fruit but by abiding in Chrift; for without him we can do nothing. The unprofitable branch, that bears no fruit, is taken away from the tree, to be burned; and the fruitless Chriftian muft expect to be caft caft forth in like manner, and then thered up for the fire. The offices of men are applied to the fame purpose as their occupations. God is pleased to take upon himself the office of a shepherd, and his people are related to him as a flock. Two of the pfalms are compofed upon this plan; expreffing the reliance of believers on the paftoral care of God, and their joy and thankfulness to him for admitting them to fuch an honourable relation: The Lord is my shepberd, therefore can I lack nothing: he fall feed me in a green pasture, and lead me forth befide the waters of comfort. Such is the language of the 23d pfalm. The 100th pfalm is an invitation to a folemn act of thanksgiving, with fongs and instruments of mufic in the temple. The people of all nations being admitted into the flock of Ifrael as the sheep of God's pasture, ought to affemble within the fold of his church, for the public celebration of his truth and mercy. The obligation is particular and fpecial upon Chriftians, F 3 fince LECT. fince our Lord appeared perfonally to men III. in this character; verifying that prediction of the prophet; he shall feed his flock like a shepherd, he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bofom. To every act of care and kindness proper to a fhepherd did he condefcend: he took the little children up in his arms, and blessed them; he went about feeking the loft sheep of the house of Ifrael; he collected together and ordered the fold of his church; he has appointed other fhepherds under him to take the charge of his flock, and is with them as the chief bepherd to the end of the world, when he shall still appear and act in the fame character, feparating the sheep from the goats in the day of judgment. All the natural relations fubfifting amongst mankind are applied to illustrate their fpiritual interefts. God is our heavenly Father, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named: the Church is the daughter of God; the spouse of Christ, and the mother of us all. Christ is the first III. firft-born, and all chriftians are brethren LECT. in him; conftituting together what is d called the household of faith, as diftinguished from the world of unbelievers. The Jew and Gentile are two brethen, the fons of their father; the Jew the elder, the Gentile the younger, whofe apoftacy and repentance are both described in the history of the prodigal son. The union betwixt Chrift and the Church is confidered as a marriage, fignified and foreshewn by the first facred union of Adam and Eve in paradise. The followers and friends of Chrift are now waiting in expectation of being called forth to meet this bridegroom, and join in the glorious proceffion that fhall afcend, under the conduct of a train of angels, to meet the Lord in the air, when he fhall return from the wedding with which expectation they are to keep their loins girded up, and their lights burning, Woe be unto the foolish, whose lamps fhall be gone out when the cry shall be raised at midnight, : |