I do beg of you, to cherish it with all possible warmth in your affection; that He who gives the grace, gives also the disposition to accept .the grace. He both prepares the blessing, and prepares the heart to receive the blessing. I am sought of them that asked not for me (is the language of mercy) I am found of them that sought me not. I said behold me behold me unto a nation that was not called by my

Had any preparation been needful, who less prepared than Matthew or Zaccheus or the woman of Samaria? Had any merit been required, who so unlikely to find acceptance as the Apostle Paul? Doth not indeed, every example of the kind, we meet with in scripture, tend but to prove, that it is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth but of God that sheweth mercy?

Happy will it be if while you are thus waiting on God in the appointed ways of his grace, that very sweet scripture be fulfilled in your experience; Therefore doth the Lord wait that he may be gracious unto you and therefore will he be exalted that he may have mercy upon you: for the Lord is a God of judgment blessed are all they that wait for him. § And

And for you brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, as you cannot but be truly sensible, that your first call to God, was not the result of your own merit; so I trust you are equally convinced, that neither is your present continuance in grace, the effect of your own goodness. Had the Lord laid judgment to the line and righteousness to the plummet ; or been extreme to mark what is done amiss, either before, or since, he hath manifested himself towards you, where would have been your portion?

You know full well, I am persuaded, the meaning of that blessed scripture, and can enter into an heart-felt enjoyment of it. Whe hath saved us and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. To you I would only beg to make this one observation. While you are ever ready to ascribe all to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made you accepted in the beloved; never lose sight of that comfortable assurance, that whom the Lord hath called, them he also justifieth, and whom he justifieth them he also glorified.

I add no more, but the affectionate words of the Apostle: To them that are sanctified by God the Father and preserved in Christ Jesus and called: mercy unto you and peace and love be multiplied. ‡

Jude 1. 2.

Sermon 4.

THE SHILOH COME, AND THE GATHERING OF THE PEOPLE UNTO HIM, PROVED.

Genesis, 49th Chap. 10th Verse.

The Sceptre shall not depart from Judah nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh come and unto him shall the gathering of the People be.

MONG the many evidences, which God

the Holy Ghost hath caused to be left on record, of his gracious superintendance, over his Church, and people, from the earliest ages; that is by no means the least considerable, which ariseth out of the spirit of prophecy. An Apostle tells us, and with a plainness of language not to be mistaken, that prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of old spake as they were moved, by the Holy Ghost.

L

2 Peter 1. 21.

And

And from the same unquestionable authority we learn, that what those saints of God delivered, in reference either to the Person, or Offices, of the Lord Jesus,, it was the spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified before hand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.

It would form indeed a very interesting subject, to trace the marks, of the Spirit's impressions, on the minds of his servants the Prophets, in the multiform instances of it, with which the scriptures abound, in the early ages. And which might very easily be done, in only taking comparative views, of the predictions they delivered, with their accomplishment. But such a service, however gratifying, would not come within the limits of a single sermon. Elsewhere, I have more largely prosecuted, the pleasing study, and shewn, that during the whole period of the Church's history, before the incarnation of the Lord Jesus, the Holy Ghost, was neither an inattentive, nor inactive Spectator, to its best interests. The same great object, of glorifying the Lord Jesus, occupied the divine mind. Hence, the ministry of the Holy Ghost, was as much called forth, from the earliest period, in awakening the faith, and expectation, of the Saints of God, to the coming of the Redeemer;

1 Peter 1. 11. § See 2nd. Sermon on the Deity
and operations of the Holy Ghost.

as

as his grace is now exercised, since redemption work hath been finished, in taking of the things of Jesus to shew unto them.

The text is an instance of the exercise of his divine power, upon the mind of the Patriarch Jacob, in one of the most illustrious, and glorious prophecies, the scriptures of the old testament affords.

The Patriarch well knowing that the promised blessing of redemption, in the covenant-engagements of JEHOVAH, was deposited with him, and his seed; finding the hour of nature's dissolution approaching, convened his household together, that he might communicate to them, the great events, connected with this covenantpromise of God, made to Abraham his father, which would befall them in the latter days.

No doubt, the Patriarch felt the divine influence on his mind, at this interesting interview, with his children; and though the natural feelings of the Parent frequently mingled the affectionate expressions of a dying Father, with those of an higher nature; yet he was conscious, the principle points he had to deliver to them, were in the spirit of prophecy.