5. Confider, that mountains are no hinderances; he comes fkipping on the mountains and leaping on the hills. There is a mountain of darkness in your mind; a mountain of obftinacy in your wills; a mountain of carnality and earthlinefs in your affections; mountains of guilt lying on your confciences; and mountains of objections, doubts, and fears, in your hearts; but all thefe are nothing to him. Therefore, O take his word for it, Lo, I come! and fay, Behold, he cometh! Skipping on the mountains. He can come over them all with one

leap, with one fkip.

6. Confider, that it is his joyful voice, both in the Old and New Teftament, Lo, I come! He was glad to come in the flesh of old, and he is as glad to come in the Spirit now, according to his promife: and, O Sirs, will you not gladly welcome him? O! is he faying fo gladly, Lo, I come? What are you faying, poor foul? If you cannot fay, The voice of my Beloved! then, O will you fay, It is the voice of the Father's Beloved, who has faid, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleafed?" And if you welcome him, as the Father's Beloved, you are quite fafe. If you cannot fay, Behold be cometh just now; yet, will you fay, "He that fhall come will come ;" and wait upon him in his own way? He waits to be gracious; and he is a God of judgment; "Bleffed are all they that wait for him."-Again, if you cannot fay, Lebold be cometh to my obfervation; yet will you fay, Even fo, come Lord Jefus, come quickly?" And thus pray for his coming gracioufly and mercifully; "Come, Lord Jefus ;" come to merciful judgment against all my lufts, and prepare me for thy general judgment. Come in the Spirit. Come in power and great glory at this occafion. O he comes fkipping and leaping! Let your heart leap within you at the thoughts of it.

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66

OBJECT. "But I do not feel; I do not fee his "coming."

ANSW. "Bleffed are they that believe, and have not feen." If you do not fee and feel, yet do you not hear him fay, Lo, I come? Faith comes by hearing, and not

by

by feeing while you hear his word, you hear his feet. upon the mountains: therefore, against hope believe in hope, faying, Lord, I believe; help mine unbelief :” It is the voice of my Beloved! behold, he cometh!

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Well, Sirs, What think you, will he not come to the feaft? Have we no reafon to think that he will come? Yea, I think we have.-Why, it is a time of need among his poor people; and his throne of grace is erected for a time of need: therefore we are called to come boldly to it, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. It is a time of trouble and distress, and he is a prefent help in time of trouble; and a refuge for the oppreffed.-It is a time wherein many of his people are in a wilderness of darkness and defpondency; and he has faid, "I will bring her to the wilderness, and there will I fpeak comfortably to her;" or, in to her heart.-It is a time wherein many of his people, from all corners, and I hope, many praying people, are met about his hand; and he has faid, "Where two or three are met together, in my name, there will I be in the midst of them."-It is a time wherein fome of his fervants, and many of his people are like outcafts in the church, defpifed and caft out by the judicatories; and he hath spoken in his'word of gathering the outcafts of Ifrael, Zeph. iii. a8. Ifa. lvi. 8. Pfal. cxlvii. 2. "The Lord doth build up Jerufalem; he gathereth together the outcasts of Ifrael." Why then, fhall we not expect his coming, when, at the fame time, he is faying, Lo, I come?May faith's joyful echo in our hearts fay, The voice of my Beloved! bebold, be cometh!

SERMON

SERMON

XCI.

The TIME of NEED, a TIME of LOVE. *

EZEK. xvi. 8.

Now, when I paffed by thee, and looked upon thee; bebold, thy time was a time of love.

MY Y friends, if you have been believing communicants this day, your Lord has been giving you a love fealt. But now, fince the table is drawn, and the feaft feems to be over, left you reckon his love withdrawn alfo, I am come upon the back of the feaf, to give you a love-letter, written with his own hand, and directed to you, that you may lay it up in the cabinet of your hearts, and never either forget nor jealous his love at any time, which he hath shown to you at this, or fome other time of your need. The words of the letter are, Now, when I paffed by thee, and looked upon thee; bebold, thy time was a time of

love.

The most remarkable event that befel the Jewish church of old, as to its outward condition, was the fhadow of the fpiritual mercies, defigned for the true Zion of God; and therefore, I am to fpeak of the bleffings whereof this is an emblem; it is a New-teftament mercy in Old-teftament drefs. Under this fhadow is hid the most fubftantial fpiritual bleffings.

*This fubject was handled in five fermons. The first was preached on the Sabbath evening immediately after the celebration of the facracrament of the Lord's fupper at Dunfermline, July 14. 1734. The other four were delivered after the folemnity.

In the words we may obferve the four following par-, ticulars.

1. A miferable time afcribed to the finner, called, Thy time.

2. A merciful time afcribed to the Saviour, called, The time of love.

3. The happy conjunction or meeting, between that miferable time, and this merciful time, Thy time was a time of love, and wherein I fhewed my love.

The ftrangeness and wonderfulness of this conjunction, BEHOLD! thy time was a time of love. It is matter of astonishment, and worthy of a note of admiration.

I referve the explication of thefe particulars to the profecution of the following doctrine.

OBSERV. That it is matter of wonder and admiration, that God fhould fhow his love to finners, at fuch a remarkable juncture, that their time of need and mifery, appears to be his time of love and mercy. Bebold, thy time was a time of love.

The method I would incline to handle this fubject in, under the divine favour, fhall be the following.

I. We fhall speak a little of the SINNER's time of need and mifery, as it is defcribed in the con

text.

II. Of God's time of love, as it is here alfo reprefented and fhadowed forth.

III. Make it evident, that he fhows his love at fuch a remarkable juncture, as makes it appear, their time of need is his time of love.

IV. Show that this is matter of wonder and admiration.

V. Deduce fome inferences for application of the whole.

I. We are to fpeak a little of the time of need and mifery, as here pointed out in the context.

1. The time of need here pointed out is, when we are in a polluted flate; reprefented by the infant caft out of the womb; "I faw thee polluted in thine own blood, neither washed with water, nor falted, nor fwaddled,” ver. 4. When grace and mercy take hold of a finner, it is even when living in the puddle and filthy mire of original and actual pollution: the understanding polluted with darkness, the will with enmity, and the affections with carnality and fenfuality.

2. The time of need is when we are in an helpless, naked and deftitute ftate, having no eye to pity, or have compaffion upon us; "No eye pitied thee to do any of these things unto thee, to have compaffion upon thee," ver. 5. Grace and mercy ftep in with help when we can contribute no help to ourselves: when all refuge fails, and all help is gone, furely it is a time of need.

3. The time of need here mentioned is, when we are in a loathfome ftate; in an unpleasant ftate, as new-born children wallowing in their blood; "Thou waft caft out to the loathing of thy perfon," ver. 5. Grace then beheld with an eye of love and pity, even when we are loathfome to beholders.

4. The time of need is when we are in extreme hazard, upon the very brink and precipiece of utter ruin, juft chocked with our own blood. ready to die and expire, being expofed, and caft out to the open fields, ver. 5. And what was it but a field of blood, a field of danger, a field of death? And what is this time of need, but the time of death, wherein we are dead in fin, and dead in law which is plainly fuppofed, ver. 6, " I faid to thee, when thou waft in thy blood, Live;" intimating, that the time of need was a time of spiritual death, and obnoxious to eternal death, upon the brink of hell and damnation.--This is the time of need here reprefented.

II. The next thing I would touch at alfo, is GOD's time of love, as here fhadowed forth; that extremity is his opportunity; that time of need is the time of his fhowing his love. And what this time of love is,

may