manner calling you to work, fetting up his ftandard, and is about to cover a table for his labourers? will you be idle fpectators, while Chrift is to be facramentally crucified before your eyes? will you be idle here, where the Lord is in a fpecial manner calling you to fearch and try yourfelves? If you will ftand here ide, it will be a new item, in great letters, in the accounts of the defpifers of Chrift, and flighters of the power of godlinefs in Yarrow *. I may once more inquire,

V. WHY ftand ye idle in the day? The day brings with it a call to work, though indeed it is the time when the wild beafts enter into their dens, and lie at their ease, Pfal. cii. 22. 23. But better to be a beaft, than to be like a beaft; they that fleep, fleep in the night; but what shall we fay of them that cannot be got awakened, even in the day?

1. Then why are ye idle, when ye have a day to work in? No wonder our forefathers were idle, when they were wrapt up in the midnight darkness of Paganism and Popery; but though it was night with them, it is day with us; the fun of the gofpel is arifen above our horizon, it has been long up, and will ye be idle in the day? God has not only fet up the candle of confcience within you, but has made the fun of the gofpel to arife and shine without you, to call you to work, and to let you fee to work: Tit. ii. 11. 12. “For the grace of God, that bringeth falvation, hath appeared to all men, teaching us, that, denying ungodline fs and worldly lufts, we should live foberly, righteoufly, and godly, in this present world." Such a day idled away will make a dreadful night!

*The place where this difcourfe was delivered.

2. Why are you idle, when you have but a day to work in? John, ix. 4. "The night cometh, when no man can work." It is to-day, if ye will hear his voice. The time of your life, and the feafon of grace, is but a day, and that day will foon be over; there is no working in the grave, Ecclef. ix. 1 The candle but to fnuff cannot be lighted again, and time once gone can never be recalled; God will not turn night to day, to let the fluggard fee to work, who turned his day to night. Now, when you have but a day, will you. idle it away? Ye will, it may be, count it rather by years yet to come; but fure I am, the Spirit of God never learned you that way of accounting: James, iv. 14. "Whereas ye know not what fhall be on the morrow; for what is your life? it is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanifheth away." Pfal. xxxix. 5. "Behold, thou haft made my days as an hand-breadth, and mine age is as nothing before thee."-I fhall only inquire,

VI. WHY are ye idle all the day? Will no lefs than all the day ferve? May not the time paft fuffice? Is it not high time now at length to awake?

Is it not the eleventh hour with many of you ? and the youngest here knows not but they may be in the last hour of their day. And are ye not afraid your glass run out ere your work be done? Sure it looks very like the very laft hour of this church and nation's day: we have had a long day, but now may we say, Jer. vi. 4. "Woe unto us, for the day goeth away, for the fhadows of the evening are ftretched out." We are threatened with a dreadful eclipfe of gofpel-light, and a dark night, and we may well conclude as to many of

us,

us, that our eyes will never fee the breaking of the day again.

As the practical improvement of this fubject, I fhall only call on you to ponder seriously in your mind, the important inquiries addressed to you; to pofe your confciences closely with them as in the fight of God, to profit by the instructive lessons afforded from them;-and, in fhort, that you study a being diligent in bufinefs, fervent in spirit, always ferving the Lord.

CHRIST'S

UR Lord Jefus Chrift having, before his

O death, as a Prophet, revealed his Father's

mind, and taught the doctrine of falvation, confirmed the fame by many miracles; and having in his death, as a Prieft, offered up himself a facrifice to atone for the fins of his people, and fo brought in an everlasting righteoufnefs; appears here after his refurrection, as a King, ordering the affairs of his own kingdom, which is his church. And, ft, He afferts his power, his fupremacy, and Headfhip, ver. 18. given unto him as Mediator. 2dly, He gives a commiffion to his apoftles, and in them to their fucceffors in the work of the miniftry, to raife up unto him a kingdom out of the kingdoms of the earth, to proclaim his laws among them,

and

*Delivered before the Synod of Merfe and Tiviotdale, April 1712.

to enjoin an obedience to thefe laws in his name, and to take men folemnly engaged thereto, verses 19. and 20. Then, in the words of the text, by promife, he fecures their encouragement, for the due discharge of their duty, in the words under confideration: And lo, I am with you alway.-In thefe words, confider,

1. The parties to whom this encouragement does belong: You, That is, (1.) The apostles, to whom these words were immediately directed: (2.) Ordinary minifters, fucceeding to them in the ordinary work of the miniftry, teaching and baptifing, as is clear from the words, in which Christ promifeth to be with them to the end of the world; whereas the formal office of the apostleship was extraordinary, and foon expired. Their miffion was immediate; their infpection univerfal and unconfined; they had an infallible directive power: Jo. xvi. 13. "When he the Spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth:" They had the gift of miracles and tongues, and were eye-witneffes of Chrift: 1 Cor. ix. I. "Am I not an apoftle? have I not feen Jefus Chrift our Lord?" So that to allow any to be their fucceffors in the formal office of the apostleship, as fome Prelatists would have the bishops, is to contradict the plain teftimony of the fcriptures, and of our fenfes; but the authoritative difpenfation of the word, and adminiftration of the facraments, with the appendant power of difcipline and government, which were the fubftance of the apoftolic office, are continued, and will be in the paftoral office to the end of the world; and to thefe is Chrift's prefence promifed, not excluding fuch as receive and embrace Christ's word preached by them.-Confider,

2. How, and in what cafe, they may lay claim to this promised prefence; that is, in the faithful VOL. I. adherence

Y