The sound of Solomon's fame reached the country of the Sabeans, and brought the queen of the south, who came because of the name of the Lord; and the Sabeans, men of stature, were in future to come over to Christ's standard. The sound of the slaughter of the Assyrian army brought the Babylonish ambassadors to Hezekiah, to know the wonder that was done in the land. And from thence came the wise men when Christ's star appeared in the east; and since that a church,. according to Peter, was elected together at Babylon. A famine drives Naomi from Bethlehem, and she carries the sound of God's fame into the country of Moab; and the unlawful match of one of her sons shall bring Ruth near to Naomi, and altogether shall bring her to God. The Syrians, unprovoked, shall invade Israel, and carry captive a little maid, who had no hand at all in the war; and she shall be the means of bringing her leprous master to Elisha; and God heals him, and he disclaims all gods but the God of Israel. A famine shall drive Elijah to a widow of Zidon; and Elisha's continual walks by Shunam shall attract the eyes and heart of the Shunamite to entertain him, because he was a man of God. So a multitude out of every nation should be at Jerusalem on the day of pentecost, and all of them should hear the word in the language wherein they were born; and when these returned they sent out the sound and others reflected it from them. The Æthiopian eunuch shall come to Jerusalem to wor

ship he knew not what, and return just as he came; but, while reading the prophecies of Isaiah, knowing nothing about them, the Holy Ghost orders Philip to join himself to his chariot, and explain the meaning; at which the Holy Spirit enters him, and he goes on his way rejoicing. Here Ethiopia also stretches out her hands unto God. Austin goes with a guilty conscience from Carthage to Rome, and there he gets worse and worse, and falls into desperate heresies; from thence he moves to Milan, where he shall hear the truth as it is in Christ. God bears his elect from the womb, and to hoary hairs he carries and does deliver them, though they never know any thing about it till he makes darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. There is a train of circumstances working together in behalf of every chosen vessel. Their parents shall be obliged to move here or there, where this or that elect one is to be brought forth; or this and that chosen seed shall be bound out apprentice, or be put to service, or go to work somewhere or somehow, so that the sound shall reach the ears of them who are to be called. And this sound, when it first comes, shall hang on their minds, and vibrate in their ears, till it either excites their curiosity, or brings uneasiness upon them; and under either of these they will go, as they often say, and hear for themselves; and, when they come, they have no more knowledge of what they hear than a blind man has of colours; it is some

thing that they cannot get at, and it is something they cannot condemn, and therefore they sometimes determine to go again, but they know not for what; and thus they play upon the hook till they cannot get away, and it is the determination of their unknown God that they never shall. Time would fail me to tell how many have been caught in the gospel net by the different reports that people have heard of me; some have been informed that I have been a coalheaver, and that I have had no classical education; and they, being fully persuaded that no man can preach without it, have come, and God hath given them more knowledge under the foolishness of my preaching than ever they got under Grecian wisdom. The reproach and implacable malice that some eminent preachers, and their whole flocks of professors, have loaded me with, has contributed not a little toward this good work of bringing God's elect to Jesus Christ. For not a few, like the prodigal son in a far country, have, in the chains of their sins, joined themselves to citizens of this country, citizens of Jerusalem that now is; and they have been sent into their fields to feed swine, by preaching they knew not what; and others have been sent to carry a few shillings and a few prayers to convert the sick, to attend prayer-meetings and spouting societies, to speak in workhouses, and to pray by criminals in gaols and persons under sentence of death and at the gallows-this I take in the general to be feeding

swine; and not a little of this work is going on now among us. And not a few of this sort have, as the prodigal did, experienced a famine afterwards in their own souls; and they found that the husks that they carried to others would not keep themselves from starving; and in their want they have run from place to place to get food, but all in vain; and at last have ventured themselves, though not without the most confirmed prejudice, nor without much fear and trembling, to hear the rank Antinomian; and to their astonishment they have found what they never expected; and they have been as agreeably undeceived as the Samaritans were when they turned their backs upon Simon Magus, and adhered to Philip. These, and many more concurring providences, work together to bring God's chosen to hear the gospel, and by the gospel to receive the Holy Ghost; and by the Holy Ghost to be regenerated and renewed, and under his regenerating operations to be conformed to the image of Christ.

Unto Shiloh shall the gathering together of the people be; but, "No man," says Christ, "can come to me except the Father, which hath sent me, draw him," John vi. 44. Hence God works in his providence, and by the law, to bring his elect to Jesus, and Jesus receives all that the Father draws to him; thus, "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work."

I shall now proceed to the confirmation of this

image of Christ, and of bringing eternal life to light in the soul, which is the joint work of the Father and the Son; "For, as the Father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom he will," John v. 21. And it is as plain that all God's elect are to be taugh both by the Father and by the Son. "It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man, therefore, that hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me." And it is plain, from the word of God, that we learn one lesson of the Father, and another of the Son, and eternal life attends the teaching of them both; "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent," John xvii. 3. God teacheth us first out of the law, by the which is the knowledge of sin, and the knowledge of spiritual death and wrath. This teaching is intended to discover the old man to us, and the image of the earthly head which we bear, and the dead state in which we all by nature lie, and in which we are children of wrath, even as others. I have before observed, that every one that hath heard and learned of the Father cometh to Christ; and God's teaching is sure to make us feel our need of him. Hence David says, "Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O Lord, and teachest him out of thy law; that thou mayest give him rest from the days of adversity, until the pit be digged up for the wicked," Psalm xciv. 12, 13., In the