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among all the rest of the promises that are made Christ is the chief; Christ is the To-look of the church, whatever trouble she be in. In the 7th chapter of Isaiah, the church had a trembling heart, God's Israel was shaken as ever you saw the leave 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 call his name Immanuel." But, might not the church say, what is that to us? What encouragement doth this afford in the present 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 that promise. Whatever distance of time, suppose hundreds or thousands of years, may intervene before the actual coming of the Messiah; yet the promise of his coming, as it is the ground of your faith for eternal salvation, see it 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 ground of her consolation; and accordingly, “They looked to him," in the promise, “and were lightened; and their faces were not ashamed." He is here promised under the notion of God's Servant: and, in the words of the text, he is promised as a Renowned Plant, that was to rise in the fulness of time. And, blessed be God, he has sprung up, and is in heaven already, and has overtopt all his enemies, and all his enemies shall be his foot-stool. First, Here then, you have a comfortable promise of the Messiah; here, again, you may notice the promiser: I, I will raise up, &c. It is a great
