True, Christ personal is there, but Christ mystical is not there yet. There is a ravishing sight in the wilderness, if you could see it. There is a march sounded in the wilderness, and Christ's camp is lifted, and the fair army is upon their march to Immanuel's land, and they are so far advanced in their march, that their Forerunner, the General, and the van have already got over Jordan, and the rear is coming up with displayed banners, and they will be there too ere long. What means the sleeping world, that they do not see how they are left behind, that they do not hear the General's voice, saying, come away with me.

5. Our Lord is very desirous of your company by the way, yes, and to have you away with him for altogether. Come, enlist yourselves ye natives of the mountains, and leave the lions' dens. Come up ye stragglers, keep up your ranks. Our Lord loves to have you direct at his back, so as you may receive the word of command and encouragement, that is always going through the army. Is there any poor fool broken off and skulking among the lions' dens? He is crying to you come away. Is there any poor soul fallen back and hiding itself in some hole, as ashamed to look their Captain in the face, or to shew their head among the fair company? To such he says come away; come away forward, onward, homeward. Yes, home, for he will have you home. "Father I will, says he, that they also whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me."

6. Our Lord displays his glory to you in the gospel, to win your hearts and get you away with him. Come, says he, with me, with me. As if he had said, will you look to me, that will cure the madness and frenzy into which a look of the bewitching world hath cast you. "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none else." As when the sun appears, the stars hide their heads, and have no beauty by reason of that which excelleth; so the glory of the Son of God, discerned by faith, will make all the glory of the world like a small candle before the sun, going out with smoke.

7. Our Lord offers you, not only better in hope, but better in hand than the world can give you. Come with me. Do not complain that he would pluck you off the breasts, it is only to pluck you off the dry the foulsome breasts of the world, to set you upon better; "That ye may suck and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolation; that ye may milk out and be delighted with the abundance of her glory."

He knows the frame of our hearts, they must always have something to feed upon, and that they will never part with the world,

but for something that is better. "Shake thyself from the dust; arise and sit down, O Jerusalem: loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion." You shall be with him, with him at home, that is heaven. With him in the way, that is heaven on the earth. Communion with him. Habitual communion in fellowship with him in his righteousness, death, Spirit, purchase. Actual communion in the communications of his grace and manifestations of himself.

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8. If you will come away, you shall go as he goes, you shall together. Go as he goes in point of duty. Esteem all things as he does. Let his choice be your choice. Rejoice in those things in which he rejoices; and be grieved for what grieves his Spirit. Love what he loves, and hate what he hates. Can two walk together except they be agreed? And you shall go as he goes in point of privilege. You shall have your lot with him. Always take his side, whoever oppose him, and you shall share in all the advantages which his friends shall have of the world here or hereafter. Wherever the world may drive you, he will be with you.

9. He will lead you and support you through the whole of the way. You are now in the fields of the world, and there will be difficult steps in your way to the city; these will not be easily discerned, but come with him, he will keep you from stumbling on the dark mountains. And "I will bring, says he, the blind by a way which they knew not; I will lead them in paths which they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them." He will bear you up and bear you through with all the weight of your guilt, duties, and afflictions, for you must come with him leaning as the Bride upon the Bridegroom.

Lastly, He will be all to you in all. Leave all the world and come with me, for all, as the espoused bride goes with her husband. Whatever comfort, pleasure, and delight you drew out of the muddy streams, you may now draw in a far superior manner from the fountain. Thus it shall be your duty and privilege too, to live as people of another world. "For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ." To maintain a heavenly frame, will make your whole conversation heavenly. To be frequent and fervent in duties, will lead you to fellowship with him in providences and ordinances. And that will make a pleasant sight. "Who is this that cometh out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all powders of the merchant?"

Uses of Improvement.

Hearken, O sinners! to this call, which Christ gives to his church. Come away with him, you that are espoused to him, and even you that are not so, but are in the visible church, where he seeks his Bride. Come away to him, come with him from out of this world and the lions' dens. Take your parting look of the mountains of vanity, and come away. For motives,

1. Consider that these mountains are certainly to be laid waste. A fire will devour them as Sodom. "The earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up with fire." Christ calls all for whom he has a kindness to make haste from these mountains, as Lot did out of Sodom, and this is a certain evidence that they are devoted to destruction. Therefore come away and look not back. And if his own were once freely out, then the pillars are removed and this weary world falls into the fire.

Motive 2.-Is it not the place of lions' dens? How then can you be safe in it. Has not the great roaring lion his den in it? And does he not go about catching his prey in every part of it? 1 Pet. v. 8. Is it not full of wicked men who are young lions? May not the yellings which you hear in their blasphemies against God and religion, their roarings against the church and the work of God, and the devouring work which they frequently make upon their fellow creatures, may not all these make it a weary land in your eyes.

3. Is there any among us all, to whom it has not been a place of lions' dens? Let your conscience speak, and say, has it not been in many instances an unkind world to you? How often has it touched you in the sore heel, and given you a blow where you were least able to bear it? How often have lions and leopards as it were started out upon you from places where you expected nothing but to have been in ease and safety. And will you yet hug the serpent, and dandle that which has so often bruised your bones. Do it no longer, but come away with Christ. For,

4. In the enjoyment of Christ, you will not be grieved with disappointments as you have been from the world. Worldly things are fairest afar off, greater in expectation than in enjoyment. But the enjoyment of Christ will far surpass your most elevated expectation. "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." The treasure of the gospel will endure through all the ages of eternity. How often have you put out your hand to take up what you needed from the world, and behold you have had no

thing. Every disappointment from the world with which you meet, says for Christ, come away.

5. He will not reward your love with hatred as the world has done a thousand times. "I love them, says he, that love me, and those that seek me early shall find me." Have you not heartily stretched yourself down on the deceitful mountains, and ere you were aware, a serpent has bit you, and sent you away wounded? Have you not found your greatest cross one way or another in your greatest comfort, either in the possession of it, or in the loss of it? Have you not, where you pressed hardest for sweet, wrung out blood, instead of milk, and striking at the rocky mountains for water, all you have got was fire flashing in your faces.

6. You will get a surer hold of Christ, than ever you could get of the world. "And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me." How oft have you thought yourselves sure of the creature, but you have been deceived? You have dreamed, and behold you were full, but awakening you found yourself empty. All worldly things are uncertain in life, and at death they will leave you altogether. None of them will go with you to the other world.

7. Christ is altogether lovely, and this the world never was to you, nor to any of Adam's sons. Did you ever lie down on any place of the deceitful mountains, but there was a thorn under you? Got you ever that good thing yet but it had a want? The fairest rose has its prickles. And thorns and briers come up by the side of the sweetest earthly comforts.

8. If you will come away from the world with Christ, you will need care the less what weather blow upon the mountains. Shaking storms use to be there, and for as fair as it is now, you know not how soon the storm may rise, and the lions and leopards be let loose. Wo to the natives then, the inhabiters of the world, that have all their stock on the mountains. But if you be on your way with Christ, he will take care of you, and be the blast as bitter as it will, it will be on your back, and speed you on your way.

Lastly, He will fill and satisfy the desires of your hearts, which the world never could and never shall. Open thy mouth, says he, wide, and I will fill it. All things which grow on the mountains, are but husks to the soul. And if you had the whole world at your beck, it would leave you with a breast full of unsatisfied desires. Come then restless creature. Come and rest in Jesus Christ. Comply with the call now. You will wish you had done it at death, when you are driven out of the world, and at the judgment

when driven from Christ. He is now willing to receive the worst of you into his blessed train. "Behold, says he, I stand at the door and knock if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. Amen.

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Ettrick, July 22, 1716.

[Being the first Sabbath after dispensing the Lord's Supper.]

CAUTIONS AGAINST QUENCHING THE SPIRIT.

SERMON X.

1 THESSALONIANS V. 19.

Quench not the Spirit.

It may be reasonably thought, that it was not without some design, that God sent us the solemn ordinance, which we observed last Sabbath; and that the Spirit of the Lord was not idle among us, while the arrows of the word were flying in such numbers, along with the sacrament. Surely several were touched in one way or another. And if these things were rightly managed they might come to a good account. But alas! some as they get touches of the Spirit lightly without seeking, so they let them go as lightly. Others are at pains to earn something, and when got they put into a bag with holes. But whoever would have any lasting good in religion would do well to hearken to this exhortation. Quench not the Spirit. In these words, there is, 1. A holy fire supposed to be kindled in the souls of men. In Matthew iii. 11. John said of Jesus, he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire. Here the Spirit is compared to fire, and in other places to water. This is not meant of the person of the Spirit who cannot be quenched, but of his gifts, operations, and motions, which are often quenched. It is thus expressed because the injury redounds to the Spirit himself.

Quench it not. Do More is understood.

2. Our duty with respect to this holy fire. not put it out or weaken it in the soul. Cherish the Spirit, give fuel to this sacred fire, maintain and keep it in, and blow it up. Be concerned kindly to entertain the operations, and motions of the Spirit.

Doctrine. It is the duty of all to take heed that they quench not the holy fire of the Spirit kindled in the soul, but that they nourish