heart";" implying, that David's heart was in a better state than his brother's, whom Samuel would have chosen. But this is not our case; we are in nowise better by nature than they whom GOD does not choose. You will find good and worthy men, benevolent, charitable, upright men, among those who have never been baptized. God hath chosen all of us to salvation, not for our righteousness, but for His great mercies. He has brought us to worship HIM in sacred places where His saints have worshipped for many hundred years. He has given us the aid of His ministers, and His Sacraments, and His Holy Scriptures, and the Ancient Creed. To others, Scripture is a sealed book, though they hold it in their hands; but to us it is in good measure an open book, through God's mercy, if we but use our advantages, if we have but spiritual eyes and ears, to read and hear it faithfully. To others, the Sacraments and other rites are but dead ordinances, carnal ceremonies, which profit not, like those of the Jewish Law, outward forms, beggarly elements, as they themselves often confess; but to us, if we have faith, they are full of grace and power. Thus all we have been chosen by Gop's grace unto salvation, in a special way, in which many others around us have not been chosen, as GoD passed over David's seven brethren, and chose him.

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2. Observe, too, GoD chose him, whose occupation was that of a shepherd; for He chooses not the great men of the world. He passes by the rich and noble; HE chooses "the poor, rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which He hath promised to them that love HIM "," as St. James says. David was a shepherd. The Angel appeared to the shepherds as they kept watch over their sheep at night. The most solitary, the most unlearned, GOD hears, GoD looks upon, GoD visits, God blesses, God brings to glory, if he is but "rich in faith." Many of you are not great in this world, my brethren, many of you are poor; but the greatest king upon earth, even Solomon in all his glory, might well exchange places with you, if you are God's children; for then you are greater than the greatest of kings. Our SAVIOUR said, that even the lilies of the field were more gloriously arrayed than

21 Sam. xvi. 7.

3 James ii. 5.

Solomon; for the lily is a living thing, the work of God; and all the glories of a king, his purple robe, and his jewelled crown, all this is but the dead work of man; and the lowest and humblest work of GOD is far better, and more glorious than the highest work of man. But if this be true, even of God's lower works, what shall be said of His higher ? If even the lilies of the field, which are cut down and cast into the oven, are more glorious than this world's greatest glory, what shall be said of God's nobler works in the soul of man? what shall be said of the dispensation of the Spirit which "exceeds in glory?" of that new creation of the soul, whereby He makes us His children, who by birth were children of Adam, and slaves of the devil, gives us a new and heavenly nature, implants His HOLY SPIRIT within us, and washes away all our sins? This is the portion of the Christian, high or low; and all glories of this world fade away before it; king and subject, man of war and keeper of sheep, are all on a level in the kingdom of CHRIST; for they one and all receive those far exceeding and eternal blessings, which make this world's distinctions, though they remain distinctions just as before, yet so little, so unimportant, in comparison of the "glory that excelleth," that it is not worth while thinking about them. One person is a king and rules, another is a subject and obeys; but if both are Christians, both have in common a gift so great, that in the sight of it, the difference between ruling and obeying is as nothing. All Christians are kings in GoD's sight; they are kings in His unseen kingdom, in His spiritual world, in the Communion of Saints. They seem like other men, but they have crowns on their heads, and glorious robes around them, and Angels to wait on them, though our bodily eyes see it not. Such are all Christians, high and low; all Christians who remain in that state in which Holy Baptism placed them. Baptism placed you in this blessed state. God did not wait till you should do some good thing before He blessed you. No! He knew you could do no good thing of yourselves. So He came to you first; He loved you before you loved HIM; He gave you a work which HE first made you able to do. He placed you in a new and heavenly state, in which, while you remain, you are safe. HE said not to you, "Obey ME, and I will give you a kingdom;" but "Lo I give you a kingdom freely and first of all; now obey

ME henceforth, for you can, and you shall remain in it;" not

Obey ME, and I will then give you the HOLY SPIRIT as a reward;" but "I give you that great gift in order that you may obey ME." HE first gives, and then commands; He tells us to obey HIM, not to gain His favour, but in order not to lose it. We are by nature diseased and helpless. We cannot please HIM; we cannot move hand or foot; HE says not to us, "Get well first, and I will receive you;" but He begins a cure in us, and receives us, and then says, "Take care not to go back; take care of yourselves; beware of a relapse; keep out of danger." Such then is your state, my brethren, unless you have fallen from CHRIST. If you are living in His faith and fear, you are kings— kings in Gon's unseen and spiritual kingdom; and that, though like David, you are but keeping sheep, or driving cattle, or, again, working with your hands, or serving in a family, or at any other lowly labour. GOD seeth not as man seeth, HE hath chosen you.

3. Next, observe God chose David by means of the Prophet Samuel. He did not think it enough to choose him silently, but He called him by a voice. And, in like manner, when GOD calls us, He does so openly. He sent His minister, the Prophet Samuel, to David; and HE sends His ministers to us. He said to Samuel, "Fill thy horn with oil, and go, and I will send thee to Jesse the Bethlehemite; for I have provided ME a king among his sons." GOD was looking out for a king, and sent Samuel to David. And so, in like manner, GoD is looking out now for kings to fill thrones in His Son's eternal kingdom, and to sit at His right hand and His left; and HE sends His ministers to those whom He hath from eternity chosen. He does not say to them, "Fill thy horn with oil," but "Fill thy font with water;" for as He chose David by pouring oil upon his head, so does HE choose us by baptism. So far, then, God chooses now as HE did then, by an outward sign. Samuel was told to do then, what CHRIST'S ministers are told to do now. The one chose David by means of oil, and the other choose Christians by means of water. In this, however, there is a difference. Samuel could but choose one. He was not allowed to choose more than one; him, namely, whom GoD pointed out: but now CHRIST'S ministers (blessed be His name!) may choose and baptize all whom they meet with; there is no restriction, no narrowness; they

need not wait to be told whom to choose.

CHRIST says,

Compel them to come in." Again, the Prophet says, "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters." Now every one by nature thirsteth; every soul born into the world is in a spiritual sickness, in a wasting fever of mind; he has no rest, no ease, no peace, no true happiness. Till he is made partaker of CHRIST he is hopeless and miserable. CHRIST then, in His mercy, having died for all, gives His ministers leave to apply His saving death to all whom they can find. Not one or two, but thousands upon thousands are gifted with His high blessings. Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed David "in the midst of his brethren." And so CHRIST's ministers take water, and baptize; yet not merely one out of a family, but all; for God's mercies are poured as wide as the sun's light in the heavens, they enlighten all they fall upon.

4. When Samuel had anointed David, observe what followed. "Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brethren; and the SPIRIT of the LORD came upon David from that day forward." And so, also, when CHRIST's ministers baptize, the SPIRIT of the LORD comes upon the child baptized henceforth; nay, dwells in him, for the Christian's gift is far greater even than David's. GOD'S SPIRIT did but come upon David, and visit him from time to time; but He vouchsafes to dwell within the Christian, so as to make his heart and body His temple. Now what was there in the oil, which Samuel used, to produce so great an effect? nothing at all. Oil has no power in manner the Prophet

itself; but God gave it a power. In like Elisha told Naaman the Syrian to bathe in Jordan, and so he was healed of his leprosy. Naaman said, What is Jordan more than other rivers? how can Jordan heal? It could not heal, except that God's power made it heal. Did not our SAVIOUR feed five thousand persons with a few loaves and fishes? how could that be? by His power. How could water become wine? by His power. And so now, that same Divine power, which made water wine, multiplied the bread, gave water power to heal an incurable disease, and made oil the means of gifting David with the HOLY SPIRIT, that power now also makes the water of Baptism a means of grace and glory. The water is like other water; we see no difference by the eye; we use it, we throw it

away; but God is with it. GOD is with it, as with the oil which Samuel brought. Water is something more than water in its effects in the hand of a Minister, with the words of grace; it does, what by nature it cannot do; it is heavenly water, not earthly.

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5. Further, I would have you observe this. Though David received the gift of GOD'S HOLY SPIRIT, yet nothing came of it all at once. He still seemed like any other man. He went back to the sheep. Then Saul sent for him to play to him on the harp; and then he went back to the sheep again. Except that he had strength given him to kill a lion and a bear which came against his flock, he did no great thing. The SPIRIT of the LORD had come upon him, yet it did not at once make him a prophet or a king. All was to come in good time, not at once. So it is with Christian Baptism. Nothing shows, for some time, that the SPIRIT of GOD is come into, and dwells in the child baptized; it looks like any other child, it is pained, it frets, is weak, is wayward, like any other child; for "the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh at the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart." And HE who seeth the heart," seeth in the child the presence of the SPIRIT, "the mind of the SPIRIT" "which maketh intercession for the Saints." GOD the HOLY GHOST leads on the heirs of grace marvellously. You recollect when our SAVIOUR was baptized, "immediately the SPIRIT of GOD led HIм into the wilderness." What happened one way in our SAVIOUR'S course, happens in ours also. Sooner or later that work of GoD is manifested, which was at first secret. David went up to see his brothers, who were in the battle; he had no idea that he was going to fight the giant Goliath; and so it is now, children are baptized before they know what is to happen to them. They sport and play as if there was no sorrow in the world, and no high destinies on themselves; they are heirs of the kingdom without knowing it; but GOD is with those whom He has chosen, and in His own time and way He fashions His Saints for His everlasting kingdom: in His own perfect and adorable counsels He brings these forward to fight with Goliath.

6. Lastly, then, let us inquire who is our Goliath ? who is it we have to contend with? The answer is plain; the devil is our Goliath: we have to fight Satan, who is far more fearful and