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pel, both doctrine and ordinances, to one single man, "whose breath is in his nostrils," and all whose "thoughts perish in that very day" when "his breath goeth forth and he returneth to his earth." The fatal consequences of placing so much confidence in guides' have been felt by a great number of Christian churches. During their lives it is the sound sleep of free inquiry, and at their deaths it is not unfrequently the dissolution of a whole assembly. The Lord saith, "Cease from man whose breath is in his nostrils; for wherein is he to be accounted of?" But what do we say? When a teacher dies, we assemble the people, lament the loss, magnify the man, and, to comfort the church, preach from such a text as this, "Elisha died, and the Moabites invaded the land at the coming in of the year:" that is, while Elisha lived your doctrines and ordinances were safe, and if the enemy attacked you, he defended you but now Elisha is dead, errors will invade the church, and none but a future Elisha can preserve you? What is this but to keep Christians in a perpetual state of infancy? How different is this from the spirit of him who said, "Would to God, that all the Lord's people were prophets!" How different from the language of one of the "friends of the bridegroom," who free from envy, said, "He must increase, but I must decrease?" How unlike is this to the voice of him who said, "I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that he would grant you to be filled with all the fulness of God!" How far from the spirit of the master of us all, who said, "Forbid not," in answer to John, who told him, "We forbad one," "Forbid not," forbid not one: "for he that is not against us, is for us.

My brethren, what objection can any good man have against seeing poor plain people assemble, and interpret Scripture to one another! A great blessing sometimes attends it, for Christian knowledge soon shows itself in practice, and the dress of the seedsman adds nothing to the strength of the seed. The words of Christ are "spirit and life," and it is delightful to see how freely sometimes a little instruction grows. When our Lord had taught the woman of Samaria that he was the

"Messiah," away she went, leaving her pitcher, to inform the men of her city. They presently came, and the Lord made this reflection to his disciples. Said he, It is a usual saying, that there are "four months" between seed-time and harvest, and it is true; but see what encouragement you have to scatter truth in the world. I only just now told one woman that I was the Christ; she hath told others, and many of the Samaritans have heard and believed. Here is seed-time and

harvest together. "Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields;" see the Samaritans coming to hear me themselves, the fields "are white already to harvest; he that soweth, and he that reapeth may rejoice together." Thus is the prophecy fulfilled, "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes, him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt." May God bless these instructions! To him be honour and glory forever. Amen.

DISCOURSE XVII.

NO MAN MAY PUNISH CHRIST'S ENEMIES BUT HIMSELF.

[AT LINTON.]

ISAIAH lxiii. 1-6.

Who is this that cometh from Edom with dyed garments from Bozrah? this that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save. Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the wine-fat? I have trodden the wine-press alone, and of the people there was none with me: for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury, and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment. For the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come. And I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold: therefore mine own arm brought salvation unto me, and my fury it upheld me. And I will tread down the people in mine anger, and make them drunk in my fury, and I will bring down their strength to the earth.

ALL the time I have been reading the text, I have felt the happiness of my situation. How delicious it is to be a member of a Christian church that well understands the doctrine of religious liberty, where a man may think what he pleases, and speak what he thinks; where the fear of man" that "bringeth a snare" is

neither the law of the teacher, nor of the hearers; where " my liberty of conscience is not judged by another man's conscience." Such a situation renders life delightful, and seems to me preferable to a station of slavery in the court of a prince. There complaisance says to a prince, "Happy are these thy servants!" And in such a court as that of Solomon, civility speaks truth: but it is not in the courts of princes in general, it is in the church of Christ, that true happiness, the happiness of being perfectly free is enjoyed. Where conscience and conference are free, the place is indifferent, accomdations are indifferent, every thing else is indifferent, and the heart of each beholder exclaims, "How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel!" Thy "king shall be higher than Agag, and his kingdom shall be exalted. Blessed is he that blesseth thee, and cursed is he that curseth thee."

I speak thus, because I am going to interpret the text, not in the sense usually received, of Christ making atonement for sin; but in what appears to me the true sense, Christ in the character of a JUDGE punishing the enemies of himself and his church.

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That the person spoken of by the prophet is Christ, cannot be doubted, for the prophecy is quoted in the New Testament, and applied to him. "The word of God was clothed in a vesture dipped in blood, and he treadeth the wine-press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God." Long after the death of Christ the apostle John applied this prophecy to a future event, and expressly says, in this character" He doth judge.' It is of the day of judgment therefore, that we are to understand this prophecy, and to this all the prophecy agrees; the glorious person is a conqueror, not a sufferer. The blood on his apparel, "staining his raiment," is the blood of enemies, not his own. It is he that "smites the nations," and "tramples them in his fury" it is not God smiting him. It is like the day of judgment, "the year of his redeemed:" but it differs from the time of his death, which, though it was a day of vengeance to the Jews, was not the day of vengeance to Edomites, and to "all men both free and bond, both

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small and great," as this is said to be. and" there was 66 none to help :" he day of judgment, for "the Father hath committed all judgment to the Son." If Jesus Christ is said by the prophet to "wonder" that "there was none to help" him, it must be expounded by the circumstances of the Jews, who, though they were commanded to punish idolaters, yet often suffered them to escape, of which we have many instances in Scripture. The prophet then conveys reproof and instruction to his countrymen in the prophecy, and did as much as to say, You have been commanded to destroy idolatry, and to punish idolaters: but you resemble Saul, who for base reasons spared Agag; you like Ahab let men go," whom God appointed to utter destruction;" you make covenants with these people, swear by their idols, and incorporate their superstitions with the worship of a jealous God; it might have been expected you would have acted otherwise; but do not flatter yourselves, neither they nor you shall go unpunished, "mine own arm shall uphold me." The apostle John, who wrote after this economy of things was dissolved, takes no notice of this part of the prophecy: but on the contrary observes, that the judge was followed by "armies in heaven upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean," represented in this manner to denote their innocence; they had shed no human blood, they were "white and clean," and the judge was the only person whose " vesture was dipt in blood."

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Whatever you think of the text, you will allow the doctrine which I am going to teach, that is, that no man may punish Christ's enemies but himself. Confine what I affirm to the subject of which I speak. By the enemies of Christ I mean mere enemies to Christianity, who ought not to be persecuted for being so; for the "son of man came not to destroy men's lives, but to save them :" but we do not mean to say that Christian magistrates ought not to punish such as are enemies to the just civil laws of society. In this case rigour to a few is mercy to a multitude: but if the consciences of Christians were accountable to the magistrate, the few would

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