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that fear him"-"I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him." Sometimes he appropriates the tenderness of the mother: and we read "As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you." At other times, he descends lower; and borrows from the animal, and especially the feathered, tribes: and we read-" He shall cover thee with his feathers; and under his wings shalt thou trust"-"How often would I have gathered thee, as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings; and ye would not"-"As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings: so the Lord alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him."

Observe a Divine agency-The Lord led him. The allusion is to the Jews: and the meaning is, that God conducted them in their journeyings to Canaan. They were very numerous: but the aggregate of them all, was to him like an infant. "I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt." "He led them by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation." "He led them about, he instructed them, he kept them as the apple of his eye."

See, also, the exclusive application of this work"The Lord alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him." The idols of the Heathen were acknowledged to be limited in their powers. None of them could do every thing-there were therefore lords many, and gods many. There was a god for every exigency: a god for the sea-a god for the winds a god for the field-a god for the gardena god for marriage-and a god for war-and so of the rest. But, said the Church, "Our God is in the heavens; he hath done whatsoever he pleased." And He himself said, "O Israel! the Lord thy God is one Lord." He wrought out every deliverance for them. He conferred every blessing upon themand, having done the work without any helper,

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he deserved all the praise; and assigns this, as a reason, why they should not divide their regards between him and any other. "I removed his shoulder from the burden: his hands were delivered from the pots. Thou calledst in trouble, and I delivered thee; I answered thee in the secret place of thunder; I proved thee at the waters of Meribah. Selah. Hear, O my people, and I will testify unto thee: O Israel, if thou wilt hearken unto me—there shall no strange god be in thee, neither shalt thou worship any strange god."

Here is also a resemblance of the manner in which it was performed-" So the Lord alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him." How? "As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings."

All this is not to be confined to the Jews-There is also a spiritual Israel, whom they were intended to prefigure; the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. And such a people he now has for his Name; and he is leading them; leading them alone, without any one to divide with him the work, or share with him the glory. And how does he this ? Let us not torture the image; but let us improve it. Three things are here ascribed to the mothereagle-not in providing for her young; for this is not the subject in question-but in educating them; in teaching them to fly. She stirreth up her nest. She fluttereth over her young. She spreadeth abroad her wings, and taketh them, and beareth them on her wings. And all this is applicable to God, in his dealings with us, and preparing us to seek those things that are above.

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Nov. 13.-" As an eagle stirreth up her nest."
Deut. xxxii. 11.

SHE sees the eaglets nestling, blinking, and dozing; and she wishes them to fly-Arise, says she-but they refuse-She then stirs up the nest shakes it; turns out the inside; separates, scatters the parts. That is, she either destroys the nest, or makes it so uncomfortable, that the young ones move out upon the neighbouring boughs, where they are in a posture for flight. God does the same with us-He stirs up our nest.

First. As to our outward condition in the world. This was the case with the Jews. Egypt had been their abode; where, in the infancy of their state, they were lodged like birds in a nest; and though it was an impure one, and much straitened and confined them, they evinced no care to leave it. And it is easy to see, that if they had been well treated, and enjoyed the smiles of the government, and the former advantages of Goshen; Moses might have called long enough before they would have come out. But there arose another king, that knew not Joseph, who evil entreated them, and made their lives bitter by reason of cruel bondage. Their burdens were intolerable; their tasks impracticable; their complaints were turned into insults; their daughters were for slaves, and their sons for slaughter-And now they sigh for deliverance; and are willing to go forth, even into a wilderness, at the Divine call-Thus God stirred up their nest. Manasseh was the son of good Hezekiah: but every pious principle of his education had been corrupted by power, wealth, and pleasure. He became proverbial for wickedness; and would have gone on till he had filled up the measure of his iniquity-But God stirred up his nest. "When he was in afflic tion, he besought the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers,

and prayed unto him: and he was intreated of him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord he was God." What brought the Prodigal to his senses, and made him think of home? A mighty famine in the land--he began to be in want. How many, now living, can say, "It is good for me that I have been afflicted: before I was afflicted I went astray, but now have I kept thy word!" You had health: but sickness invaded your frame; and you have been made to possess months of vanity, and have had wearisome nights appointed for you. You prospered in business: but your purposes were broken off; your schemes failed; you were put back in life, and compelled to begin the world afresh. You had a wife of your bosom: but the Lord took away the desire of your eyes with a stroke. You had a favourite child, on whom you placed many a flattering expectation: but at an early grave you sighed, "Thou destroyest the hope of man"--and now, at your meals, you see David's seat is empty-and you often retire, and sigh, "Childhood and youth are vanity." And what is all this, but his stirring up your nest? and, by a sad, but salutary necessity, constraining you to turn from time to eternity; from the creature to Himself, the supreme good? And what a mercy, if you can now say

"Now to the shining realms above,

"I stretch my hands, and glance mine eyes: "O for the pinions of a dove,

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"To bear me to the upper skies!

There, from the bosom of my God,
"Oceans of endless pleasure roll:

"There would I fix my last abode,

"And drown the sorrows of the soul."

Secondly. As to our self-righteous confidence and security. We have naturally a good opinion of ourselves; and the Enemy of souls loves to cherish it.

He therefore keeps his palace and his goods in peace. He dreads a stir in the conscience. He knows that we must be humbled, before we are exalted; wounded, before we can be healed; and be emptied of self, before we can be filled with all the fulness of God. This state of mind must therefore be disturbed and destroyed, before any thing like genuine religion can commence. And what does God? By the conviction of sin, like a general at the head of an army, he enters the soul-and the man no more says, Peace, peace-his hopes are fled-he is reduced to self-despair-and his only cry is, "What must I do to be saved?" His worldly friends are alarmed for him but they who know what is the way of the Spirit, rejoice-not that he is made sorry; but that he new sorrows after a godly sort. And the subject change himself, may mistake the nature and design of the operation; and conclude that he is going to be destroyed. But if the Lord had a mind to kill him, he would not have shewn him such things as these. Thus it was with Paul. See how his nest was feathered with self-righteousness; and see how it was stirred up-"I was alive without the law once but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died." "For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God."

Thirdly. As to our departure from life. We are not to remain here always; and it is no little difficulty to break up our attachment to the present state; and to make us willing to leave it. But see how this is done.-After a number of years, we have a feeling persuasion, that this is not our rest; that creatures are broken reeds; that the earth is a vale of tears; that the world is vanity and vexation of spirit; and having looked through every scene here, we wish for another and a nobler region of existence. Then, too, our powers begin to fail us. Pains and infirmities grow upon us. Our decaying senses shut us out by degrees from former

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