the more impure, as Job says, ch. ix. ver. 30, 31. If I wash myself with snow-water, and make myself ever so clean, yet shalt Thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me. Therefore, Prayer is the great resource of a soul under a sense of uncleanness, begging a new creation, for such it is indeed: Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me ;-following God with this suit, and resolving to follow Him till he grant it: for we well know He is able, and may say, Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean.

This fire hath two effects: it works purity and activity; it takes away sin, and puts in spirit and life for obedience. And here, Thy sin is purged, and then says he, ver. 8, Here am I: send me. And the former is effectual towards the latter: the more the soul is cleansed, the more alive and able it is made for service. The purging out of those sickly humours makes it more vigorous and able; whereas they abounding, clog the spirits, and make the vital operations heavy and weak, A soul well cleansed from the love of sin, and the world, and self, is in a healthful temper, and goes nimbly to any work. Outward discouragements and difficulties are then nothing. A feverish distemper within hinders and makes one lazy and unwieldy, unwilling and unable to labour: but that well purged and cured, he cares less for the hot weather without; strength of nature endures that more easily. Oh, how sweet to be thus actuated by love, a pure intention and desire of doing God service, and of bringing Him in glory! Other motives, or the mixtures of them, are base; and though God may make use sometimes of such, yet he sees within, and knows what spring makes the wheels go, and he gives them their reward here, somewhat possibly of that they seek, success, and credit, and a name; but the after-reward of faithful servants they need not look for in that work: for they receive their reward, and can they expect more? Many a Here am I, comes from other incentives than an altar coal; and so they may burn and shine a while, but they soon consume and die out in a snuff: the

heavenly altar-fire alone keeps in, and returns to Heaven where it was kindled.

There is many a hot, furious march under the semblance and name of zeal for God, that loves to be seen; as Jehu, 2 Kings x. 16. Come with me, and see my zeal for the Lord. Such persons may flatter themselves into that conceit in the heat of action, to think it is for God, while he sees through it, and judges it as it is, zeal for self and their own interest; and He gives them, accordingly, some hireling journeyman's wages, and then turns them off. But oh, where the heart is purely actuated by a desire of His glory, and seeks nothing else, for such remains that blessed word, Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into thy Master's joy.

This, then, is to be sought for by ministers and eminent servants in public affairs, yea by all that offer any service to God, a readiness from love. Something of this there is in all who are truly His, though held down in many, and almost smothered with rubbish; and in these there is some mixture of flesh drawing back. The spirit is ready, but the flesh is weak, and a load to it, hindering its working; and this strife is often found as a horse to an unskilful rider, at once pricked with the spur and checked with the bridle. But where this spirit of love is, it doth prevail, and wastes that opposition daily, and groweth in strength, becomes more quick and ready, more freed from self, and more actuated by the will of God; attaining somewhat further in that conformity with Heaven, where shall be no will striving, but His alone; where those gloriously bright spirits stand ready for all commands, who excel in strength, and employ it all to do His commandments. Psal. ciii. 20. And the more like them we be here, the more lively hope have we to be shortly with them, and to be wholly as they are.

Ver. 8. Also, I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I: send me.

THIS inquiry imports not a doubtful deliberation in God, but a purpose to send. He is represented as a king, advising with himself or his council. And this is by some conceived as an intimation of the mystery of the Trinity, as Gen. i. 26, And God said, Let us make man in our own image.—Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? But were there not ready, millions of these winged messengers? What need, then, of such a word? True; angels were ready, but a man was sought. God, vouchsafing to send an embassy to men, will send one that might speak their language to them, and might stay and treat with them in a familiar, friendly way, an ambassador in ordinary, to lie still and treat with them. And in this condescension much wisdom and love appear. He will take men, subject to the like infirmities and pollutions with the people, as the Prophet here acknowledges, but one purged from these pollutions, made holy; though not perfectly, yet eminently holy. This is very suitable, were not men invincibly obstinate, more suitable than that God should send by angels, that one of themselves should come and deal with men for God, and bear witness of His graciousness and readiness forgive, so as to give himself for an instance of it, and say, "I have found Him so." And they being changed and sanctified, shew really that the thing may be done; that it is feasible to sanctify a sinner; and so, sinful men appear to be fitter for this service than embodied angels.

I said, Here am I: send me.] What a blessed change was wrought on Paul when cast to the ground! His own will was broken all to pieces, and now he is only for His service, whose name he so hated, and whose servants he persecuted. Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? Acts ix. 6. These are the very words and characters of a true convert. And thus, the soul turned to Christ may in some cases doubt what is His will, but that once resolved, there is no deliberation whether

to do it or not. He says not, If the service be honourable or profitable, that is, carrying worldly credit or profit in it, then will I do it; no, but whatever it is, if it be Thine, and Thou appoint me to it, Here am I. And this makes the meanest work of his station excellent.

Then said I, here am I.] A strange change in the Prophet; even but now an undone man, and here presently a ready messenger, and so turned to an angel. Something of this, most find who are truly called to this high work of delivering messages from God: sometimes a sense of pollution benumbs and strikes them dead, and anon again they feel the flame of love kindled by that coal, quickening them to such a readiness, and such free offers of themselves to service, as, to those who understand not the reason of it, would seem presumptuous forwardness. And there may be in some minds, at one and the same time, a strange mixture and counterworking of these two together; a sense of unfitness and unworthiness drawing back, and yet, the strength of love driving forward, thinking thus, How can I, who am so filthy, so vile, speak of God? Yet hath he shewn me mercy? How then can I be silent?

Send me.] Moses's reluctance, this same Prophet would have vented too, before the touch of the coal, while he said, Wo is me, I m undone, or struck down, as the word may signify; he cannot speak with such unholy lips of so holy a God. Isaiah cries out of polluted lips, as Moses complained of stammering lips. And this is fit to precede; first, a sense of extreme inability and unworthiness, and then, upon a change and call, ready obedience. A man once undone and dead, and then recovered, is the only fit messenger for God. In such a one, love overcomes all difficulties both without and within, and in his work no constraint is he feeling but that of love; and where that is, no other will be needed. The sweet, allpowerful constraint of love will send thee all-cheerful, though it were through fire or water: no water can quench it, nor fire out-burn it; it burns hotter than any other kindled against it. After the touch of that coal, no forbearing. So Jer. xx. 9.

But His word was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, I could not stay. Feed the flock of God which is among you, says St. Peter, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind. 1 Pet. v. 2. Yet the Prophet says, Send me. Though he had so ardent a desire and readiness to go, yet he will not go unsent, but humbly offers himself, and waits both for his commission and instructions: and how awful are they!

LECTURE III.

Ver. 9. And He said, Go and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not.

10. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.

His message, you see, is most sad, and so he is put to it, put to the trial of his obedience, as men usually are according to the degree of their fitness. Nothing is more sweet to a messenger than to have good news to carry. Oh, it is a blessed sweet thing to convert souls! But how heavy to harden them by preaching! Yet thus it is to many at some times, and almost generally to all. Certainly, before this, much had been heard and despised: they had been hardening their own hearts, and now they shall have enough of it; their very sin shall be their plague, a plague of all others the most terrible, yet, as was said above, there are times of the height of this plague, as of others, and this was one of those times of its raging mortality. The Prophet did nothing but preach, and yet they were stupified by it. And indeed, wherever the word does not soften and quicken, it hardens and kills; and the more lively the ministry of the word is where it works this effect, the more deeply doth it work it.

This was verified on the Jews: though then God's own people,