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in the worst sense;

no city to dwell in.

wanderers in a solitary way, finding They are hungry and thirsty too in

this wilderness, and their soul fainting in them; till Jesus leads them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation.*

Of this gathering of the people to Christ, and by him and his gracious Spirit, the Scriptures are full. It was one of the outward signs of this blessed Shiloh's appearing, that to him should the gathering of the people be.‡ But, in the inward sense, he gathered them, from the very foundation of the world. He always had a people, created and ordained for his praise, as his first-born or heirs among the nations, as his first-fruits and portion from a spared world. These he hath ever been gathering like wheat into his garner; and when he hath gathered the whole, according to their appointed times,§ the chaff and stubble will he burn with unquenchable fire.

He selected the nation of the Jews, by whom he preached this very thing. Their ancients were among an idolatrous heathen; and they themselves were commanded ever to confess, that a Syrian ready to perish was their father. The selection was of the Lord's free

*Ps. cvii. 3, &c.

+ Isa. xl. 11. xliii. 5. lvi. 8. Jer. xxii. 8. et al.

Gen. xlix. 10. § The times of God's people are all in his hand. There is no such false or foolish principle, as chance, with him. It is to be regretted, therefore, that Eccl. ix. 11, is so perversely rendered, as it is. The wise man is showing, that nothing succeeds according to human abilities, but that the fit season, and the concatenation of opportune circumstances are put together (as beams in a building) for all men; i, e. by a special and particular providence.

Deut. vii. 5

choice.

choice. The motives were all in himself; unless their misery, unrighteousness, weakness, and repugnance, could be thought inducements to his love. They were once not a people; but, by his own power and providence, became the people of the Lord. The selection of the Jews proves, that all was of his own free grace; and the calling of the Gentiles, that not even believers have any claim or right for their own posterity.

Blessed be their Saviour, he doth collect his redeemed from among the heathen; and with loving-kindness and mercy he gathers them. They are by nature amongst the multitude, in no respect differing from others. Equally lost, equally undone and depraved, they neither seek his favour, nor know it. Rather, they oppose it with every corruption of their bodies and souls; till the sceptre of his love, reached out to their very hearts, induces them to feel and acknowledge his kind constraint. This free favour converts and renews the mind, makes the once unwilling to be willingness' itself, and, by imparting a spiritual faculty to receive spiritual light, then sweetly "on the sightless eye-ball pours the day." Henceforward, they humbly admire the goodness which could stoop so low, and the mercy which could rescue them so unworthy. "Why am I chosen (will one of these say) and others, not worse than myself, (if so bad) relinquished to perish! why do I taste and rejoice in the loving kindness of the Lord: while some of these, wiser, fairer, and apparently far more respectable, than I am, are permitted to live and die in the state of nature and ruin! -Lord, I can give, and I dare to give, no other account for this, but what my Saviour himself hath been pleased

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to give before me; even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight.-How unsearchable are thy judgements, and thy ways past finding out!"

He not only gathers his people, by his own free choice, but with his own holy arm. No power, but that which is almighty, could restore the rebellious, and thus make the very heart of the revolted to be willing. He changes while he gathers. He not only alters the station or place, but the condition and spirit of his gathered ones. They are brought into the fellowship of his own Spirit, and have his own blessed mind established within them. They are admitted to an indissoluble union with him as their head, and, by that union, have also a vital and heartfelt communion with those that are truly saints, as his members and their own.

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What the Lord Christ gathers with so much toil and at so great a price, he keeps with concern and with safety. His gathered therefore are BOUND in the bundle of life with JEHOVAH their ALEHIM:† the everlasting essence of life is their life, and secures it with his own by a perpetual covenant. This is a bond, which shall never be broken. This is a source, which can never fail. The more it is drawn, the fuller and faster it flows.

They are gathered by grace for nothing less than immortal glory. The end of the work is answerable to the design and grandeur of the worker. He acts like himself in a sovereign and almighty way; and he crowns all he does with an unutterable majesty and splendor. Who is like unto thee, O Lord! thou hast done wonderful things! thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth!

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Their very dust shall be gathered, however dispersed, when he shall summon the world to judgement. The same power, which created and consequently which marked out and placed every atom in the universe, can with equal ease (speaking after the manner of men) collect them when scattered, and restore them to their pristine situation. He sees and knows and comprehends all the minute and the almost infinitely innumerable particles, combined or distributed through his whole creation, with more accuracy and attention, than the first created intellect in heaven can know or consider any one thing. Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world; nor can any of his creatures either increase or expunge an atom, or even vary its place or use, without his permission.

Fear not, then, thou poor and despised believer, who art prone to think, that thou art so little worthy of the divine attention, and so insignificant in the world, as almost to be forgotten by thy God. Fear not: the gracious ASAPH, the spiritual gatherer of his redeemed, will both seek and search thee out. He knows more of thee, and of thy ways, than thou canst know of thyself, or of them. Thou art an object in his eye more distinguished, than the kings and emperors, as such, of this fallen world. An hair of thine head falleth not to the ground without thy father's knowledge: how much less the least of the concerns of thy precious soul! Use not then the old complaint, Jehovah hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me, without acknowledging at the same time the old consolation; can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb ?

x 3

womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee (saith the Lord): Behold; I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before

me.*

When the great spiritual harvest shall be gathered in, or "the number of God's elect be accomplished;" then shall the end come; and the world, having answered the great design of the builder, like a useless scaffold, shall be taken down for the fuel of destruction. Then shall the holy city, the new Jerusalem, (which will in that day be completely in unity with itself) come down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband: and then shall the great voice be heard out of heaven, saying, Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away.→ Thus hath the Alpha and Omega said, the beginning and the end, the leader and the consummator of all things.t

Isa. xlix. 15, 16.

+ Rev. xxi. 3-6.

HEALED.

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