entered into the world; "Broad is the way that leadeth unto deftruction, and many there be that go in thereat," Matth. vii. 13. Now, is it not your intereft to take warning from the ruin of fo many?

2. Confider, That you must inevitably go the fame way, I mean, perish in the deluge, except you enter into the Ark; "For there is none other name under heaven, given amongst men, whereby we must be saved, but by the name of Jefus Christ," Acts iv. 12. It is not your broken planks of a profeffion of religion, hope in the general mercy of God, your civility, morality, legal righteoufnefs, that will do; God's wrath will ftave all these broken planks in pieces: and therefore repair to the ARK Jefus Chrift.

3. There is a a fixed day, a time fet for your entering into the New Teftament Ark, which if it be let flip, there will be no entrance into the Ark, but you fhall infallibly perish in the deluge. "He that lives for ever, has fworn with his hand. lifted up to heaven," that there shall be no more entrance into the Ark. Queft. What is the fixed time? Anfw. It is the day of grace, the day of life, the day of falvation; if that pafs, you are gone for ever: and therefore, "To-day, if you will hear his voice," Pfal. xcv. and Heb. iii.

4. The Ark is prepared of God for you, and that at an infinite expence. God has provided a Saviour, Pfal. lxxxix. 19. "Help is laid upon one that is mighty, John iii. 16. "God fo loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that who. foever believes in him, fhould not perifh." The Ark is finished, and perfected, and made ready for you: "All things are ready," Matth. xxii. 4.

5. The Ark is at hand, it is near to us, If. xlvi. at the close, Behold, "I bring near my righteoufnefs, it fhall not be far off, and my falvation shall not tarry; and I will place falvation in Zion," &c. "The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is the word of faith which we preach," Rom. x. 8.

6. The Ark is ordained for men and women of our ftamp, I mean men and women of the human nature: And therefore the call is "to men and the fons of men," Prov viii. 4. Christ is a Saviour, not for the fallen angels, but for us: "Unto us is this child born," If. ix. 6. he "is made of God unto us, wisdom, and righteoufnefs, and fanctification, and redemption," 1 Cor. i. 30.

7. Many have already entered, and are faved; an innume rable company," which no man can number," Rev. vii. 8. The doors of the Ark are caft wide open to you alfo, to

gether

gether with a promife of fafety, "Whosoever believeth fhall not perish, but fhall have everlasting life," John iii. 16.

9. The great God commands you to enter into the Ark, 1 John iii. 23. "This is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jefus Christ."

I conclude with a word to believers who have fled into the Ark.

(1.) By way of comfort.

1. God is with you in the Ark, "For God is in Christ," 2 Cor. v. 19. and he will never leave you, Heb. xii. 5.

2. "Your life is hid with Chrift in God," Col. iii. 3. “Becaufe I live, ye fhall live also," John xiv. 19.

3. You are freed from condemnation. The law cannot curfe you; though man may, yet God will not curse you, Rom. viii. I.

4. The waters of affliction fhall not overwhelm you, If. xliii. 2. 3.; the waves they may dash, but they will turn into foam like the waves of the fea.

5. Death and the grave cannot harm you, "For you are ranfomed from the power of both," Hof. xiii. 14.

(2.) A word of counsel to you that are in the Ark.

1. Blefs God that provided the Ark.

2. Bless God that brought you into it.

3. Rejoice and glory in the Lord, triumph in him.

4. Live upon Chrift, and the provifion you find in the Ark. 5. Walk worthy of the Lord, unto all well-pleafing, Col.

i. 10.

THE PLANT OF RENOWN.

EZEK. xxxiv. 29.And I will raife up for them a Plant of Renown.

THE FIRST SERMON ON THIS TEXT.

IF F we caft our eyes back upon the foregoing part of this chapter, we fhall find a very melancholy fcene cafting up; we shall find the flock and heritage of God scattered, robbed, and peeled, by the civil and ecclefiaftical rulers that were in being at that day; a day much like to the day where

in we live; the ruin of the church of Chrift, in all ages and periods of the world, has been owing to combinations betwixt corrupt churchmen and corrupt ftatefmen. And fo you will find it in the preceding part of this chapter; there is a high charge brought in against the shepherds of Ifrael, and a terrible and awful threatening denounced by the great and chief Shepherd against them, for the bad treatment that the flock of Chrift had met with in their hands. However the sheep of Chrift may be fleeced, fcattered, and fpoiled, yet the Lord looks on them: And many great and precious promises are made for their encouragement in that evil day; you may read them at your own leifure, for I must not stay upon them just now: But among all the rest of the promises that are made, Chrift is the Chief, Chrift is the To-look of the church, whatever trouble fhe be in. In the 7th chaper of Ifaiah, the church had a trembling heart, God's Ifrael was fhaken as ever you faw the leaves of the wood fhaken by the wind, by reafon of two kings combining against them: well, the Lord tells them, a virgin fhall conceive and bear a fon, and shall call his name IMMANUEL: But might the church fay, what is that to us? what encouragement doth this afford in the prefent diftrefs? Why, the Mefliah is to come of the tribe of Judah, and the family of David; and therefore that tribe and family must be preferved, in order to the accomplishment of that promife. Whatever diftance of time, fuppofe hundreds or thousands of years may intervene before the actual coming of the Meffiah, yet the promife of his coming, as it is the ground of your faith for eternal falvation, fo it is a fecurity for the prefent, that the enemy fhall not prevail to the total ruin of Judah, and the royal family of David. In all the diftreffes of the church, Chrift is always prefented to her in the promise, as the object of her faith, and the ground of her confolation; and accordingly they looked to him in the promifes, and were lightened, and their faces were not ashamed. He is here promifed under the notion of David; he is promifed under the notion of God's Servant; and in the words of the text, he is promised as a renowned Plant, that was to rife in the fulness of time: And ble fled be God he has sprung up, and is in heaven already, and has overtopt all his enemies, and all his enemies fhall be his footftool.

Here then you have a comfortable promife of the Messiah; where again you may notice, 1ft, The Promifer, (I), I will vaife up, &c. It is a great (1) indeed, it is JEHOVAH in the perion of the Father, it was he that in a peculiar manner fent him; "God fo loved the world, that he gave his only begot ten Son, that whofoever believeth in him thould not perish,

but

bu have everlafting life. In the fulness of time he fent forth his Son "made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of fons." God promifed to fend him, and accordingly he has actually fulfilled his promife. Again, 2dly, We may notice the bleffing promised, and that is, a Plant of renown: Chrift gets a great many metaphorical names and defcriptions in fcripture; fometimes he is called a Rofe, sometimes he is called a Sun, and sometimes he is called a Door, fometimes he is called the Tree of life; fometimes he is called one thing, and fometimes another, and he is content to be called any thing to make himself known to us; and here he is called a Plant, and a renowned Plant; but more of this afterwards. But then, 3dly, We have the production of this Plant, I will raise him up. Hell will endeavour to keep him down, the devil and his angels will endeavour to fmother him when he fets his head above ground. So we find Satan fends Herod, and Herod fends the bloody dragoons to murder him when he came into the world. But let hell do its utmost, as it hath done in all ages, and is doing this day to fmother that Plant, up it will be; I will raise him up; and therefore he fhall profper. But then again,, 4thly, We may notice here for whom, or for what end, for whofe ufe and benefit it is; I will raife up (for them) a Plant of renown. Who these are, you will fee by cafting your eye on the former part of the chapter, it is for the Lord's flock, his oppreffed heritage, that are born down by wicked rulers, civil and ecclefiaftic, I will raife up for them a Plant of renown, and he will be their Deli

verer.

The doctrine that naturally arifes from this firft claufe of the verfe is in fhort this,

"That Chrift is a Plant of renown, of God's railing up, for the benefit and advantage of his people, or for their comfort and relief in all their diftreffes; he is a renowned Plant of God's railing up."

Now, in difcourfing this doctrine, if time and strength would allow, I might,

1. Premife a few things concerning this bleffed Plant.
II. I might inquire why he is called a Plant of renown?
III. Speak a little to the raifing up of this Plant.
IV. Shew you for whom he is raifed up. And,
V. Shew for what end he is raifed up. And then,
Laftly, Apply.
VOL. III.

X x

I. As

I. As to the firft of thefe, namely, to premife a few things concerning this blessed Plant.,

ift, I would have you to know, what is here attributed and afcribed to Chrift, is not to be understood abfolutely of him as God, but-officially, as he is Mediator and Redeemer. Confidering him abfolutely as God, this cannot be properly faid of him that he was raised up; for he is God co-equal and co-effential with the Father: but viewing him as Mediator, he is a Plant, as it were, of God's training. You will fee from the context, all that is faid of Christ has a respect to him as Mediator, that he was to be God's Servant, to do his work; in that confideration, he is here called a Plant, and a Plant of renown: Hence Zacharias, when speaking of him, has a phrafe much to the fame purpofe; "He hath raifed up a Horn of falvation for us in the house of his fervant David.”

Again, 2dly, Another thing I would have you to remark is, that this Plant is but fmall and little in the eyes of a blind world. He was little looked upon when he sprung up in his incarnation, and when he was here in a ftate of humiliation : Men looked upon him as a root fprung up,out of a dry ground, they faw no comelinefs in him why he fhould be defired; and to this day, though he be in a ftate of exaltation at the right hand of God, yet he is little thought of, and looked upon by the generality of mankind, and the hearers of the gofpel; "He is defpifed and rejected of men."

But then, 3dly, Another thing I would have you to remark is, that however contemptible this Plant of renown is in the eyes of a blind world, yet he is the talleft plant in all God's Lebanon: There is not the like of him in it; he is fairer than the children of men, and he is as the apple-tree among the trees of the wood; if ever you faw him, ye will be ready to fay fo too, "Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon the earth that I defire befides thee."

Ag.in, 4thly, Another thing I remark is, that this bleffed Plant of renown was cut down in his death, and fprung up gloriously in his refurrection. The fword of divine justice hewed down this plant upon Mount Calvary, but within three days he fprung up again more glorious, and more beautiful and amiable than ever, and he was "declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by his refurrection from the dead.”

Leftly, would have you to remark, that all the little plants. in the garden are ingrafted in this Plant of renown; "I am the vine, ye are the branches: he that abideth in me, and I in him, the fame bringeth forth much fruit: for without me

ye