infants like a wet nurse; as it is written, "I have fed you with milk, and not with meat, for hitherto ye were not able to bear it," 1 Cor. iii. 2. Young Christians, being called growing calves, are said to desire the sincere milk of God's word, that they may grow thereby, 1 Peter ii. 2. Hence a tender minister, holding forth the sweet nourishment of the gospel, may be compared to a good COW. Ministers, because of their hard labour in the gospel yoke, are sometimes compared to oxen; and, in their character of nurses who feed with milk, why not to cows also? Read Isaiah vii. 21. The bear sometimes in scripture signifies a wicked ruler over the poor people, Prov. xxviii. 15. However, some such have been called by grace. Kings have been made nursing fathers, and queens nursing mothers, Isaiah xlix. 23. And their nurseries have been brought to lie down becalmed and composed in gospel rest and quietude. "And the lion shall eat straw like the ox." I am inclined to think this lion represents a sinner whom the gospel has left in his unregenerate state, unhumbled, because he is set forth as feeding, not lying down; and his food is straw, not the green pastures of Christ's sheep, Psalm xxiii. 2. Feeding on straw is no better than the prodigal's husks, which I take to be the doctrines of men. Secondly. It may denote a false teacher, who feeds on the apostasy of hypocrites, who are the refuse of the Lord's floor, straw and stubble being the fuel of an harvest; so hypocrites are the straw and stubble which God's threshing instruments beat off, Isaiah xli. 15; and which the fan generally scatters, Mat. iii. 12; and which the day of wrath will consume as straw or stubble, Mal. iv. 1. However, the lion and his straw, the serpent and his dust, are all coupled together in the word of God. "The lion shall eat straw like the bullock, and dust shall be the serpent's meat," Isa. lxv. 25. Having briefly paraphrased down to my text, I will arrange my thoughts under the following heads: 1. Describe the gamester; a child. 2. His breast; he being a sucking child. First, Whose child is this, that dares to put its hand on the hole of the asp? I answer, It is God's child: no child can play with safety at this hole but a child of God. The next inquiry will be, How do we become children of God? I answer, first, by eternal election; and therefore we are called a chosen generation, 1 Pet. ii. 9. ye Secondly, By pre-adoption. "And, because are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father." Thirdly, By regeneration, God, who from ever lasting willed our adoption in Christ, begets us by his word, under the prolific operations of his Spirit operating and working with it. "Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth," James i. 18. The word comes to the elect, not as the word of man; "not in word only, but also in power, in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance," 1 Thess. i. 5. When this is the case, the word, under the operation of the Spirit, becomes a spiritual embryo; or, as Peter terms it, an incorruptible seed; "being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever." Under the quickening influences of the word. and Spirit the sinner is brought to a spiritual sense of his state; he feels the severity of the law, the terrors of God, and the fears of death. These generally entangle the quickened sinner more or less. The ever blessed and glorious Trinity are jointly concerned in this work of quickening the sinner. God gave us life in Christ Jesus; Christ is the resurrection and the life; and the Holy Ghost appears the Spirit of life, and quickens us to feel our need of the bread of God that came down from heaven; as you see in the parable of the prodigal son, who cried out, I perish with hunger, and yet was convinced there was enough of the bread of life in his father's house. Thus God gave us life in Christ Jesus, and the Spirit quickens us to feel the need of it, and in time leads us to feed on it. The word of God does not quicken unless the Spirit attend it. Some hold the truth in unrighteousness, and the gospel comes to some in word only; but, when Jesus speaks to the sinner's heart, the Spirit of God applies the word, and life and power are felt. “The words that I speak unto you they are spirit, and they are life." It is true the Psalmist says, "This is my comfort in my affliction, for thy word hath quickened me;" yet he owns the Spirit of God as the life of that word, as appears by his prayer, “ Take not thy holy Spirit from me.” Under this powerful sensation the will is humbled, and sweetly inclined to choose the better part. "Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power." The soul longs for reconciliation with his offended God; and the word of God at times gives a little encouragement to faith and hope; but fresh discoveries of sin, attended with Satan's temptations, encourage doubts, fears, and unbelief. Thus the soul labours between feeble faith and unbelief, languid hope and slavish fear. This is the travail of the soul that is quickened, and drawing near his delivery; as it is written, "A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but, as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world. And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice," John xvi. 21, 22. Under this spiritual travail the soul is kept in spiritual activity: every power is in motion after God, though it has such a burden of imaginary and real evils to wade through. "I commune with mine own heart, and my spirit made diligent search." The world, with its trifles, is detested, and the one thing needful will be uppermost. The trouble of his mind crucifies him to popularity, and secret retirement best suits the frame of his heart: this keeps him from his old companions; the word of God becomes his hourly study and meditation; and a saving knowledge of God is the ultimate desire of his soul. "Through desire a man, having separated himself, seeketh and intermeddleth with all wisdom." At times a light sweetly shines on the word, and then hope perceptibly rises in the mind; but, when these rays are withdrawn, fear sinks the soul again. Thus light and darkness, hope and fear, faith and unbelief, struggle together as with a woman in hard labour; as it is written, "Lord, in trouble have they visited thee; they poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them. Like as a woman with child, that draweth near the time of her delivery, is in pain, and crieth out in her pangs; so have we been in thy sight, O Lord," Isaiah xxvi. 16, 17. At times this labour abates, and an insensible frame takes place; benumbing ease stupifies the |