the word of promife, bearing his own teftimony in the heart, that the blood of Chrift cleanseth from all fin. He draws the foul to believe this as an everlafting truth; and in our believing it, the Lord fpeaks peace to the heart, and by this means the believer is raised up from under the burden of his fin and guilt. Hereupon the Lord fings this fweet fong of his redeeming, pardoning grace. A bleeding Saviour is a reviving fight to a broken-hearted finner. A purple Saviour cleanseth a scarlet crimfon finner; a Saviour full of boundless grace, bottomlefs mercy, everlasting love; this is just such an one as the foul wants. When this well of falvation is revealed and difcovered, the joy of the Lord becomes our strength. It is then a day of triumph, conqueft, and joy. The foul is everlastingly conquered by the love of Chrift. The will is, with a kind of omnipotent sweetness, drawn to the Saviour. It is the day of the efpoufals of the foul to Jefus; and it is the day of gladness of heart to the victorious Redeemer. A fong is fung in the church of Chrift upon this occafion; yea, God rejoiceth in this joy, In that day fing ye unto her a vineyard of red wine. The church is compared to a vineyard of red wine, because fhe is redeemed from fin, Satan, death, and hell, by the blood of Chrift: alfo, because of those bloody perfecutions which from time to time it has been exposed unto: principally, because of the precious fruits it brings forth to the praise and glory of God; all of which are the effects of her feeding upon the doctrine of a crucified Redeemer. In the church of Chrift is found the wine which cheereth the

heart of God and man. God's love, which is the ocean from whence all fpiritual bleffings flow, and which like wine, refreshes, comforts, ftrengthens, exhilarates, and emboldens his people, fills their hearts with joy, their mouths with praise, their fouls with delight in him as their everlasting portion and inheritance; likewife pardon, peace, cleanfing, and healing through the ftripes and blood of Chrift, make the church like a vineyard of red wine, their thoughts being at times wholly intent upon their Saviour's fufferings: fo that looking upon their Jefus as crucified, who is their head, and is like Carmel; and the hair of their head (the thoughts of their hearts, upon his bloody fweat in the garden, his ftrong crying and tears upon the cross) like purple, being deeply fteeped in meditation upon their beloved and in his bloody fufferings; thus in the fight of God they are as a vineyard of red wine-red in the blood of their Lord's atoning facrifice, in which they are everlastingly pure, and by which they draw nigh unto God; yea, they rejoice in him through our Lord Jesus Christ, having received his atonement, and refted their fouls upon it. Also the facrifice of Chrift, remembered by them in the ordinance of the Lord's fupper, may be faid to refresh the heart of God and man, as it is by the offering of his foul and body in union with his Deity, that juftice is fatisfied and wrath appeased; and by the remembrance of it, the hearts of God's people are comforted and refreshed. From hence we observe, there is matter for real joy; Chrift's vineyard, the church, is ever before him, and it is ever his delight:

he dwelleth in his people for ever. God rejoiceth over his people to do them good: and they rejoice in him with exceeding great joy, the cause of which is, that the Lord is their portion and inheritance, and is become their falvation, their fhield, and exceeding great reward.

This brings me fecondly, to take notice of God's protecting care towards his church, which is expreffed under the fimilitude of a vine-dreffer, taking care to water and protect his vineyard. I the Lord do keep it; I will water it every moment. As a church is compared to a vine and a vineyard, fo the Lord is represented as the husbandman, or vine-dreffer; and his care is manifefted by his preferving and watering his people with the dews and fhowers of heavenly grace and divine influences. What are the people of God, in themselves confidered? Nothing but flesh and deformity; though, as confidered in Christ, they are beautiful and glorious; in themselves, they are finful; yea, in themselves, they are emptinefs, vanity, and mifery: fo that they require the Lord's conftant care. They would be continually falling into fin and mifery, if not protected and preserved by the Lord himself; who, out of the riches of his own grace, becomes their keeper, and will be their guide even unto death. We fhall endeavour to confider, as the Lord may be gracioufly pleased to direct and affift, under this fecond particular head of our prefent discourse, first, how the Lord is the keeper of his people; and, fecondly, how he waters their fouls every moment.

First, the church of Chrift, which for its value, excellency, and precioufnefs in his fight, is ftyled a vineyard of red wine, is the peculiar property, care, and charge of the Lord of hofts; he is the keeper of it; he preferves and defends it from evil. What is here faid, and which seems to be spoken, and may be underflood of the church of God collectively confidered, is also true as it refpects every individual member of our Lord's real and myftical body. They are all and every one of them the objects of everlasting love, veffels of mercy, the purchase of Chrift's most precious blood: in his fight they are perfectly comely through his comeliness put upon them; a garden of delight which the Lord hath bleffed; an orchard of pomegranates with pleasant fruits; a vineyard of red wine. The eye of the Lord is ever upon them, towards them, and around them for good. Agreeably to what Elihu fays to Job: He withdraweth not his eyes from the righteous; but with kings are they on the throne ; yea, he doth establish them for ever, and they are exalted: which gives us a beautiful account of God's grace and providence exercised by him on his people. His eyes of providence are upon them to fupply their temporal wants, and to protect and defend them from their enemies, and they are never off them: fo the eyes of his love, grace, and mercy. JEHOVAH, the Father, always viewed them in his Son, and ever beheld them righteous in him, through his righteoufness imputed unto them; and looked upon them with delight and pleasure: and always fo views them. They are fet as a feal upon the heart of Chrift, engraven on

his hands, and are ever before him, and in his view. His eyes are upon them from the beginning of the year to the end of it; yea, from one eternity to another; were fet upon them from everlasting: and

are upon them in time; at the time of converfion, to quicken and call them by grace; and afterwards they continue upon them under all. their afflictions, temptations, and defertions, and will ever remain on them, and never be withdrawn. Nothing can separate believers from the love of God which is in Chrift Jefus our Lord. They are equal to kings on thrones; they are fo accounted of by the Lord, being made by him kings and priefts; yea, he doth establish them for ever, as righteous perfons in Christ's righteousness, which is an everlasting one; and they fhall never come into condemnation; for they are established in the love of God, in the covenant of grace, in the hands of Chrift, in a state of grace now, and they fhall be confirmed in a ftate of happiness to all eternity. And they are exalted, being raised as beggars from the dunghill, to fit among princes, even among the princes of God's people; and they will one day be exalted and placed at Chrift's right hand, they will fit down with him for ever in his throne, and reign with him for ever and ever. The Lord himself is their keeper, and they are well kept by him it implies that he is with them-in the midst of them; that he furrounds them, protects and provides for them. So run the gracious declarations of God's grace and protecting care towards his beloved people in the charter of grace: I the Lord will