make them "kings and priests unto God, and his Father for ever and ever."

"This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord." Such is their privileged Condition in time and in eternity. Such is the safety of their present state. Such is the glory of their future prospects. Blessed, my Brethren, are the people, who are in such a state. Blessed are the people, who have such prospects. The world may misunderstand and inisrepresent them: it may undervalue and despise them it may deride and persecute them. But they are really and substantially blessed beyond all the reach and power of the world to destroy or to injure them. "The Lord is their Shepherd; therefore they shall lack nothing." He now He now "guides them with his counsel, and he will hereafter receive them to glory."

Let us now proceed to consider the light which this passage throws,

II. On the Peculiar Character of the Lord's People.

The Lord's People are a peculiar people; peculiar not only in their privileges, but also in their Character. And this is a point, to which close attention must be paid, for it is only as we answer to their Character, that we can have any real pretensions to their privileges.",

In what light then does the text represent

the Lord" not a self-willed and stiff-necked people; not a perverse, a proud, and a rebellious people; but a people meek, humble, and teachable, willing to hear, and to be instructed, to listen and to obey; not a people who obstinately follow the devices and desires of their own hearts; but a people, who incline their ear unto wisdom, and apply their heart unto understanding. The Lord describes the ungodly as persons, who "set at nought all His counsel, and will have none of His reproof." But the righteous are those who value His reproofs, and are meekly guided by His counsel. Let us however go farther into particulars. Let us enquire how the Lord counsels His people, and what counsel He gives to them.

The Lord counsels His people by His word, and by His ministers. It was thus that He counselled His people of old time. He sent to them His Prophets to reveal to them His will, and to demand their obedience. He sent to them His Apostles to proclaim His truths, and to require submission. He now sends His ministers to awaken, to admonish, and instruct His people. He gives to them the Scriptures, "which are profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness." And who then are His people, but those who listen to His

*Proverbs, i. 25.

ministers, and obey His word; who prize the Scriptures, and use the means of instruction, and the ordinances of His house; "the blessed people," (as David calls them,)" who know the joyful sound;" and who with him find "the testimonies of the Lord to be their delight, and their counsellors ?" But these are not the only means by which the Lord guides his people. He counsels them also by His Spirit.

As it is His Spirit by which He strives withi the ungodly, and convinces the world of sin, so it is His Spirit, by which He secretly directs, instructs, and inclines the minds of His faithful people. He inspires them with good counsels, and holy resolutions. He shews them what He would have them to do; and excites and disposes them to fulfil the same. And who then are His people but those who submit to His Spirit, and obey His godly motions, who value His instructions, and desire to be taught of Him; who pray for larger communications of His grace, and long more effectually to experience His power and influence on their souls?

And what is the counsel which the Lord thus gives to His people? By His ministers, by His scriptures, by His Spirit. He gives to them the same advice. He counsels them to come to Him, and to seek refuge under the

righteousness, to separate themselves from the ungodly; and to take up their cross and follow Him. He counsels them to "buy of Him gold tried in the fire that they may be rich, and white raiment that they may be clothed, and to anoint their eyes with eyesalve that they may see." He counsels them by faith to receive Him as their only and allsufficient Saviour, to hear Him as their Prophet, to rely on Him as their Priest, to obey Him as their King; to admit Him into their hearts, and to serve and glorify Him in their lives.

And who then (to repeat our former question), who are the people of the Lord, but those who follow these counsels, and comply with this advice; who do indeed come to the Saviour, believe in, and obey Him; who open their hearts to Him, and walk by faith in Him; who, feeling their own guilt and weakness, rely on His merits, mercies, and promises; while they seek to adorn His doctrine in all things, and to "shew forth the praises of Him, who hath called them out of darkness into his marvellous light."

From this view of the peculiar Character of the Lord's people, as set forth in the text, we may next advert to the representation which it gives,

III. Of their happy Experience.

By their happy Experience I mean their ap

plication to themselves, of the blessings and privileges of true religion, and their feelings of peace and joy resulting from it. It is this self-application, which forms the very life and soul of religion. Without it the most comfortable and glorious truths become only cold and barren propositions, in which we feel no interest, and to which we listen without suitable profit or emotion. It was not in this way that David contemplated the truth in the text. He did not regard it as a barren speculation, in which he had no personal concern. He applied it; he appropriated it to himself. He did not merely state that the Lord will guide his people with His counsel, and will afterwards receive them to glory; but immediately addressing himself to the Lord, as one of his people, he says, "thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterwards receive me to glory." He saw, he felt, he avowed his own personal interest in the blessings, which belong to the people of God. Assured, on reflection, of his title to their peculiar Character, he asserted with holy confidence and triumphant joy his claim to their privileged Condition. Yes, I was so foolish

as to distrust thy care of me, to question thy love, to doubt thy faithfulness and 'truth. I was tempted to think that thou 'art not good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart. I was almost persuaded