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Shepherd against them, for the bad treatment hat the flock of Christ had met with in their hands: however the sheep of Christ may be fleeced and scattered, and spoiled, yet the Lord looks on them, and many great and precious promises are made for their encouragement in that evil day, you may read them at your own leisure; for I must not stay upon them just now. But among all the rest of the promises that are made, Christ is the chief, Christ is the tea-lock of the church, whatever trouble she is in. In Isa, vii. the church had a trembling heart, God's Israel was shaken as ever you saw the leaves of the wood shaken by the wind, by reason of two kings combining against them! Well the Lord tells them, a Virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son, and shall call his name Immanuel. But, might the church say, what is that to us? What encouragement doth it afford in this distress! Why, the Messiah is to come of the tribe of Judah, and the family of David, and therefore that tribe and family must be preserved, in order to the accomplishment of the promise; whatever distance of time suppose hundreds or thousands of years, man intervene before the actual coming of the Mesiah; yet the promise of his coming, as it is the ground of your faith for eternal salvation, so is a security for the present, that the enemy shall not prevail, to the total ruin of Judah and the royal family of David. In all the distresses of the church, Christ is always presented to her, in the promise, as the object of her faith, and the
