be not difmayed, for I am thy God: I will help thee, yea, I will ftrengthen thee, yea, I will uphold thee with the righthand of my righteoufnefs." Accordingly, when faith views the prefence of a reconciled God in Chrift, it contemns and defpifes the most threatening dangers, Pfal. xxiii. 4. Yea, though I pafs through the valley of the fhadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me."

IV. The fourth thing was, to inquire into the grounds and reafons of this difpenfation, why doth Chrift break up the way to his people? why doth he come up upon the field in their quarrel?

Anf. ft, Because they were gifted to him of the Father, as a heritage and poffeffion, Pfal. ii. John xvii. "Thine they were, and thou gavest them me." Now Chrift makes very much of his Father's gift, they are beloved of him for his Father's fake; and for the fake of his Father who gave him them, he will break up the way before them.

2dly, Becaufe they are the purchase of his blood, he has bought them from the hand of juftice, at a dear rate. The bleffed Breaker was broken in their quarrel," He was wounded for their tranfgreffions, and bruifed for their iniquity;" and therefore it is no wonder that he comes up in their caufe, and opens the way to them through the armies of hell.

3dly, Becaufe his faithfulness is engaged to lead them in their way through all the difficulties of their pilgrimage, "I will bring the blind by a way they knew not," &c. "I will never leave thee, I will never forfake thee; I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will fave thy chil dren."

4thly, Because he is to give an account of them unto his Father, who gave them to him. The day comes, when Chrift will deliver up the kingdom to the Father, that God may be all in all." When the prefent administration of Chrift, as Mediator, comes to an end, Chrift will gather all his elect together," and fay, "Here am I, and the children whom thou haft given me." Now, that he may make a faithful account of them, he will break up their way before them.

5thly, Chrift breaks up their way, because they cannot break up their own way; " While we were yet without ftrength, in due time Chrift died." Believers are a feeble folk, infufficient of themselves to think or do any thing of themselves: Now, the Lord loves to perfect ftrength in their weakness, and out of weakness to make ftrong, for he is a strength to the poor, and a ftrength to the needy, in their diftrefs."

6thly, He breaks their way, and comes up before them, beVOL. III.

3 L

caufa

cause they trust in him as their Leader and Commander; and he will not betray their trust: no, he will answer the expectation of the poor: "This poor man cried, and the Lord heard. They looked unto him, and were lightened."

"

7thly, He comes up before them as a mighty Breaker, that he may ftill the enemy and the avenger;" that he may get amends of Satan for difturbing the creation of God, difordering his works, ftriking at his Father's image, and making an attempt upon man, whom he had planted as his viceroy in this lower world. Therefore, immediately after the fall, the Lord tells that enemy, that he would bruife his head, break him, and all his works in pieces, and fo avenge our quarrel upon that ufurping enemy; "The day of vengeance (fays he) is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come."

8thly, He comes up as a Breaker in their quarrel, because of the near and dear relation that he has come under unto them. He is their Redeemer, and will he not come up in the quarrel of his ranfomed ones? He is their everlasting Father, and will he not come up before his children, his feed that the Lord hath given him? Yea, for "like as a Father pitieth his children, fo the Lord pitieth them that fear him.' their Shepherd, and will he not break the way to his flock to follow him? Yea furely, for he leadeth "Jofeph as a flock:He shall gather the lamba with his arm, he will carry them in his bofom; and fhall gently lead thofe that are with young." He is their Husband and Bridegroom, and will he not take the way through all oppofition of hell for his beloved bride, whom he hath betrothed to himself for ever? He is their King, Captain, and General, and will he not appear in the quarrel of his foldiers, and head them in their march to glory? Yea, their King fball pafs before them. Thus much for opening the words in a doctrinal way.

MICAH

MICAH ii. 13.-The Breaker is come up before them; they have broken up, and have paffed through the gate, and are gone out by it, and their King shall pass before them, and the Lord (or Jehovah) on the head of them.

V.

THE SECOND SERMON ON THIS TEXT.

AVING difcuffed the doctrinal part in a former dif course, I now proceed to the Application.

And the firft ufe fhall be of Information.

From what has been faid we may fee,

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I. Whence is it that the true church of Chrift is " terrible as an army with banners." Why, the Breaker is in the midft of her, and comes up before her: When Jehovah is on her head, the cannot mifs to be a terror to the gates of hell, and all its auxiliaries. You have a paffage to this purpose, in Pfal. lxxvi. 1. 2. compared with verfes 3. 5. 6. 7. "In Judah is God known; his name is great in Ifrael. In Salem alfo is his tabernacle, and his dwelling-place in Zion. There brake he the arrows of the bow, the fhield and the fword, and the battle. Selah. The ftout-hearted are spoiled, they have lept their fleep; and none of the men of might have found their hands: At thy rebuke, O God of Jacob, both the chariot and horfe are caft into a dead fleep. Thou, even thou, art to be feared; and who may stand in thy fight when once thou art angry?"

2dly, See hence whence it is, that God's Jerufalem proves a burdensome stone, and they that hurt her, do it to their own coft in the iffue. Why, the Breaker comes up, and appears in the quarrel, in his own time. Some bold strokes are given at this day at the carved work of God's temple, invafions made upon the fundamental rights and privileges of the church, and of God's people particularly, in choofing their own paftors; patrons and corrupt clergymen, and their followers, are peeling and fpoiling the fpoufe of Chrift, and "taking away her vail from her." But wait a little, till the Breaker come up, till Jehovah enter the field, and then we will fee breach for breach. I read you a word for this, If xli, ‍11. 12. 13. 16. "Behold, all they that were incensed

against thee fhall be ashamed and confounded; they shall be as nothing, and they that strive with thee fhall perish. Thou fhalt seek them and fhalt not find them, even them that contended with thee; they that war against thee fhall be as nothing, and as a thing of nought. For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, faying unto thee, Fear not, I will help thee."

3dly, See hence whence it is that the true church of God at any time falls into the hand of the enemy, though Jehovah be her Head, her Patron, and Protector: Why, the mystery of it lies here, the fins away her Breaker, by not following him in the road that he has broken up to her. Chrift hath travelled the road, he hath fhewed us the way both as to doc trine, difcipline, worship, and government: Now, when a vi fible church doth not follow him, but will needs, like Ifrael, follow other leaders, and walk after the commandments of men, and manage the affairs of Chrift's kingdom, according to the plan of worldly politics, whereby the kingdoms of this world are ru'ed and governed; in that cafe, fhe does not fol low her King, the practically difowns Jehovah for her Head, and thereupon fhe is difmantled of her walls of falvation, her chariots and horsemen are gone, and in that cafe, the "boar out of the wood doth wafte her, and the wild beast of the field devours her." The church of Chrift can never thrive but by treading the footsteps of Chrift, the Breaker, that has gone up before us, he having "left an example, that we fhould follow his steps *."

4thly, See hence the most effectual way to ftop the courfe of defction that we have been going into for a confiderable tract of time, when religion is very low and languishing; when a corrupt party, or a church are prevailing; " when error like a gangrene is prevailing, and the foundations going out of course," what is the beft method in that cafe to ftop the enemy that comes in like a flood? Why, in that cafe, we fhould call the mighty Breaker, that he may come back again to us, for whenever he appears, then the enemy that comes in like a flood is driven back, Pfal. cxiv. 3. 4. "The fea flies, Jordan is driven back, the mountains fkip like rams, and the little hills like lambs." Yea, ver. 7. the very "earth falls atrembling at the prefence of the God of Jacob." Ver. 11. "He turns the rock into ftanding water, and the flint into a fountain of waters."

5thly, See hence whence it is that "the righteous holds

his

* See more on this fubject in my father's Synodical fermon, from Pfal. exviii. "The Stone which the Builders refused, the fame is become the Head of the Corner."

his way, and waxes ftronger and ftronger," notwithstanding of his having the powers of hell, the world, and indwelling corruption, to wrestle with. Why, here is the reafon of it, the Breaker is gone up before him, he hath opened his way, he hath Jehovah on his head, as the Captain of his falvation: and hence it is, that "though the archers fhoot at him, and grieve him, yet his bow abideth in its strength, and the arms of his hands are made ftrong, by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob."

Ufe fecond of this doctrine is of Trial.

Is it fo that the glorious Redeemer is the Breaker up of the way to glory, and that he comes up as a mighty Champion to fight their battles against the powers of hell and earth? Then, Sirs, may we not cry on this occafion? "Who is on the Lord's fide?" Are you for this Breaker, or are you against him? The whole race of Adam are divided between Chrift and the devil, they must either be of the feed of the woman, or the feed of the ferpent; it will not prove you to be on the Lord's fide that you are called Chriftians, for many that bear that name were never anointed with his Spirit, and "if any man have not the Spirit of Chrift, he is none of his :" It will not prove you to be on his fide, that you have been admitted to a communion table; for many will plead on the day of accounts, Lord, Lord, we have eaten and drunken in thy prefence;" yea, foine will be capable to say more, namely, that they "have prophefied in his name, and done many wonderful works in his name;" and yet he will utterly difown them, faying, "Depart from me, ye that work iniquity, I never knew you" And therefore you need fome other things to diftinguish you from others, or to prove that you are on the fide of this mighty Breaker, who came up before the armies of Ifrael.

Queft. How fhall I know whether I be on his fide, or against him? In answer unto this question, I fhall go no further for marks than the text itself.

ift, Then, I ask you for trial, have you broken up from your natural bondage and captivity? Every finner is, by nature, a captive, a prifoner in chains, held faft in the "gall of bitterness, and under the bond of iniquity." Now, Chrift having purchafed liberty with his blood, he comes in a gospeldifpenfation, and "proclaims liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prifon to them that are bound:" Now, the queftion that I afk is, Whether has the Lord ever, by the power of his Spirit, determined you to break up, and fhake off your fpiritual fetters? Has the chain of fpiritual darknef been broken by the light of the Lord fhining into your hearts