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ofit of his fight." But then it would be remembered, that although thefe fits, fears, and ftaggerings, be in the believer, they are not in his faith, yea, his faith is oppofite unto these doubts and fears, and is ftill fighting against them, "Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith: Fear not, only believe." And in as far as faith gets the mastery over these doubts and fears, fo far will he have of this confidence, as to his own particular claim. Let faith get up its head, and it will speak its own particular leed *, "Abba, Father, doubtless thou art our Father, and our Redeemer, and thy name is from everlasting." Thus you fee what this flight is.

II. The fecond thing in the method, is to fpeak a little to the manner of the foul's flight unto Chrift. And this is held out here in the text, under a twofold metaphor: 1ft, They fly as a cloud. 2dly, They fly as doves to their windows.

ift, They are here faid to fly as a cloud: Take this in the particulars following.

1. This points to the multitude of thefe that fhould be converted to the faith of Christ, under the New Teftament difpenfation: For we find a cloud is fometimes expreffive of a multitude, Heb. xii. 1. "Seeing we are compaffed about with fo great a cloud of witneffes," i. e. fuch a great multitude of them, let us lay afide every weight, &c. So here, Who are thefe that fly as a cloud? It fays, that as there are innumerable drops of rain, or particles of mift and vapours in a cloud; fo under the New Teftament, there would be vaft numbers and innumerable multitudes, that would take a flight by faith, unto Christ, Rev. vii. We shall find, according to the calculation there made, that under the Old Teftament they could be summed up; and they are reckoned in whole, out of all the tribes of Ifrael, to be "a hundred and forty-four thousand." But when he comes to speak of the converts among other nations, they are called "an innumerable company which no man can number," ver. 9. This was what the prophet Ifaiah forefaw in the verfe immediately preceding my text; and likewife, chap. liv. 1. "Sing, O barren, thou that didft not bear, break forth into finging, and cry aloud thou that didft not travail with child for more are the children of the defolate, than the children of the married wife, faith the Lord." O what a cloud of faints have gone away to heaven fince the gospel came to be preached among the Gentiles? And what a cloud of them have gone to heaven out of Scotland, fince about two hundred years after the death of Chrift, when the gofpel came first to be preached among us? It is a fad matter that there VOL. III.

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fhould be fo few in this generation, in comparison of what was in former days, when the Spirit was poured out from on high! though, bleffed be God, there is a pretty good number, though few, few, in refpect of these that are pofting to hell.

2. They fly as a cloud. It may fignify the unanimity of thefe converts; they take all one way, like a cloud flying along the heavens; they are all joined unto one Head Chrift Jesus; they are all knit together in one bond of Christian love; they are all acted by the fame Spirit of God and of glory resting on them; they are all clothed with the fame robes of imputed and inherent righteoufnefs; they have all one character, they are all heirs of the fame inheritance, and they all travel in the fame road, the " strait and narrow way that leads `unto everlafting life."

3. The cloud flees upon the wings of the wind, and what airth foever the wind carries them, thither do they go. So! all believers are acted, moved, and carried on in their course, by the wind of the influences of the Spirit. When the wind blows, then the clouds accelerate their motion. Juft fo is it with the believer: If the Spirit be fufpended, they lie like a fhip wind-bound, they cannot move; but whenever the gale of the heavenly wind blows, then they run the way of God's commandments; hence is that prayer of the fpoufe, Cant. iv. laft," Awake, O north wind, and come, thou fouth; blow upon my garden, that the fpices thereof may flow out." It was by a guft of this heavenly wind, that the church was made to cry, "Ere ever I was aware, my foul made me as the chariots of Amminadib," &c.

4. They fly as a cloud. It fays, that there is much of the fovereignty of God, and of the irrefiftability of his grace, in the flight of a finner unto Chrift. The clouds are faid to be God's chariots, and God's chariot cannot be stopped or hindered in its motion, "Who can hinder the motion of the cloud along the heavens?" No, not all the powers of hell and earth can hinder it So the work of divine grace in bringing a finner out of a state of nature into grace; it is the fruit of adorable fovereignty, and he will go on with his work, let devils and men rage, and corruption within do their uttermost to mar and hinder his procedure. "I will take away the ftony heart, and I will give the heart of flesh. And who hath refifted his will?" His own arm, that brought about falvation, in a way of purchafe, until he could fay, "It is finifhed," will alfo carry it on in a way of powerful application; "Thy people fhall be willing in the day of thy power: all that the Father giveth me, fhall come to me." The work cannot be let which he

takes

takes in hand, for the Lord "is a rock, and his work is per-fect."

5. Who are thefe that fly as a cloud? It implies, that God's work of grace is of a fecret and mysterious nature. It is usual in fcripture to exprefs dark and myfterious difpenfations by a cloud," clouds and darknefs were round about him," i. e. his difpenfations were myfterious. So here, Who are these that Ay as a cloud? i. e. it is wonderful and myfterious to see how the Lord brings the finner to take a flight into Christ by faith; God's way in this is a great deep that cannot be fearched out: Hence is that of Chrift to Nicodemus, John iii. 8. "The wind bloweth where it lifteth, and thou heareft the found thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth," &c.

6. The clouds are exhaled out of the earth by the heat of the fun, and raifed up above the earth, and mount up towards heaven. Just fo, by the warm influences of divine grace, (which are the beams of the Sun of righteousness) the finner that is lying in the horrible pit, and in a miry clay, and licking up the duft of the earth, is elevate and raised God-ward, and heaven-ward, and made to feek things that are above, If. xl. 31. "They mount with wings as eagles:" Heb. xi. 14. "They feek a better country, that is an heavenly."

7. The clouds, when raised up by the heat of the fun, they are kept up by the mighty power of God. So, believers being brought into a state of grace, they are kept in it "by the power of God, through faith unto falvation." It is he that preferves them in that state; hence believers are called the preferved in Jefus Chrift. And as the clouds are in the hand of the Lord, fo are all his faints, Deut. xxxiii. 3. "All his faints are in thy hand;" John x. 28. "No man fhall pluck them out of my hand;" ver. 29. " My Father, who gave them me, is greater than all, and none is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand," &c.

8. Although the clouds have a louring and dark afpect to the eye, yet they have a blefling in them; they fift down rain. upon the earth, which contributes unto its fertility. So God's work of grace on the foul, although it have a dark aspect at the beginning; yet there is a blefling in it in the event, a bleffing to the foul when it is landed in Chrift; and believers, however ill the world like them, yet they are a bleffing unto the world, and contribute to its prefervation and fruitfulness. The clouds, you know, pour down rain upon the earth: fo believers wherever they come, they study to drop the knowledge of Chrift; for the lips of the righteous feed many: hence is that of the propher, Micah v. 7." The remnant of Jacob fhall

be

be in the midst of many people, as a dew from the Lord, as the showers upon the grafs, that tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for the fons of men." And thus you see why they are faid to fly as a cloud.

2dly, They are faid to fly as doves to their windows. Take the fimilitude in the following particulars.

1. The dove, you know, is a timorous creature, it is foon frighted. So believers are timorous of fin, timorous of offending the majesty of God; and therefore they are commonly defcribed to be fuch as fear the name of the Lord. They are afraid of Satan, that roaring lion, as the doves are afraid of the birds of prey, which would devour and tear them; they are afraid of the fnares of the world, and occafions of fin; and therefore they hate the very garments spotted by the flesh.

2. The wings of the dove are its only weapons, it cannot fight, and therefore it flies from the enemy to its windows. So the flight of faith to Chrift is the only fafety of a believer. Hence they are faid to fly "for refuge to the hope fet before them." And when the poor believer is toffed with the tempefts of affliction, temptation, defertion, perfecution, and the workings of a body of fin and death, he is ready to say with David, Pfal. Iv. 6. "O that I had wings like a dove, for then would I fly away and be at reft."

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3. The wings of the dove are very beautiful, they are said to be covered with filver, and her feathers with yellow gold." So the flight of faith unto Chrift is pleafant and delightful unto Chrift. He declares himself to be just ravished with it, Cant. iv. 9. "Thou haft ravifhed my heart, my fifter, my fpoufe, thou haft ravished my heart with one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy neck." When the difciples returned from preaching the gospel among the cities of Ifrael, and told Chrift of many that believed, it is faid, he rejoiced in Spirit, &c. It is the pleasure of Chrift's heart to have finners flocking in under the fhadow of his wings, and there is joy in hea ven, when but one foul flees unto him by faith.

4. The dove is a mournful creature, the remnant of Ifrael are faid to be like doves in the valley, mourning every one for his iniquities. The flight of faith to Chrift is penitential, and with weeping for the offence the foul hath done to a God of love. The eye of faith is a weeping eye, Zech. xii. 10. They fhall look upon me whom they have pierced, and mourn," &c.

5. The dove is a simple creature, without art or cunning; we read of the dove's fimplicity, and of the ferpent's fubtilty. So faith is accompanied with a great deal of fimplicity, it is the Gingle eye that fills the whole body with light; and believers,

when

when they betake themselves to Chrift, they lay afide the wif dom and policy of the flesh. Whenever Paul became a believer, he confulted no more with flesh and blood; they study with fimplicity and godly fincerity (not with fleshly wifdom) to have their conversation in the world. Alas! there is little of this at this day, among minifters and profeffors: little of it among judicatures, where all affairs are managed with carnal. policy and wisdom, for pleafing men, efpecially great men, whatever become of Chrift's little ones.

6. The dove is a cleanly creature, and delights much in clean waters and clean places. And fo it imports that the flight of faith to Chrift, is of a purifying and fanctifying nature. When the foul flies to him, it flies to him to be cleanfed from fin, both in the guilt and filth of it. And when the principle of faith is implanted in the foul, it is ay working and wreftling against fin, wherever it finds it, particularly in the heart; and like the living fpring in the well, it is continually working until the mud and filth of fin is wrought out, Acts xv. purifying their hearts by faith.

7. The dove is a focial creature, it loves to be in company with its own kind; hence commonly you fhall fee them flying in flocks. So believers fly and flock together: They do not love to fly with the vulture, the hawk, or the raven, but with their own fraternity. The faints love to be in one another's company; they that fear the Lord affociate together, they fpake often one to another, Mal. iii. 6.

8. The flight of the dove is fwift: and what is fwifter than the wings of faith and love, whereby the believer in a moment will mount from earth to heaven?" and enter within the vail, where the Forerunner is for us entered," &c.

9. The dove is a very innocent and harmleis creature, it doth injury to none of the other birds; fo believers ftudy to "be harmless and blamelefs, the fons of God without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverfe generation." This much for the fecond thing, namely, The manner of the flight, &c.

III. The third thing in the method was, to offer a few thoughts anent the windows to which the believer flies.

And there are thefe few things I offer on this head.

1, That God has provided a houfe for his doves; for windows belong to a house. And what fort of a house, God in his infinite wifdom and love has provided, you may fee, Prov. ix. 1. 2. "Wisdom hath builded her houfe, the hath hewen out her feven pillars." God took up houfe with man at his creation, but that boufe fell with the fall of Adam, and the breach

of

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