Rev. Ebenezer Erskine

“ Death is a terror to many, O if you be shadowed against the awful terrors of death and God's vengeance, get in under this shadow, and you are safe.
8. This Plant is renowned for his stature. He is a high Plant, he is a tall Plant: you see the heavens above you, but they are but creeping things in comparison of him; for this glorious Plant is, The high and lofty One that inhabits eternity. You can never see his height; your eye will look high, and your thought will reach higher, but neither your eye nor thought will reach unto him ”

“ How closely connected in the history of man, are these three periods of a general meeting together The house of prayer———the house appointed for all living———and the house not made with hands eternal in the heavens.———May we never separate these ideas from each other, but retain them in a sacred and profitable union! So shall our worshipping assemblies on earth be representative of the general assembly and church of the first-born, which are written in heaven. ”

“ Why, that glory shines in our Immanuel, in the very brightness of it, Heb. i. 3. “He is the brightness of the Father's glory, and the express image of his person." Now, sirs, if ever your eyes were opened by the Spirit of God, to take up the glory of this Plant, his glory has just dazzled your very, eyes! You that never saw any glory in him, you never saw him to this very day: Pray that the light of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ, may yet shine into your hearts. It would make a heartsome Sacrament, if this Plant were displayed in his glory among us. ”

“ Here is wisdom for fools; here is justification for the condemned soul; here is sanctification for the polluted soul, and clothing for the naked; riches for the poor, bread for the hungry, drink for the thirsty. All manner of fruit is here, and we are trying, sirs, to shake the Tree of Life among you; and blessed be God, they may be gathered: 0 sirs! they are dropping among you; O gather, gather, for salvation is in every word that drops from him; for his words are the words of eternal life. But, in the 6. Place, this blessed Plant is renowned for his scent and pleasant savour. ”

“ He is "Jesus Christ, the same to-day, yesterday and forever." The best of men, will fail us when we trust them; they will run like splinters into our hands when we lean upon them: But, sirs, you will find Christ always the same, to-day, yesterday and forever. ”

“ What is the design of us ministers, but to cast abroad his scent, and it is by this we win souls; and they that cast out and drop the Plant of Renown out of their sermons, no wonder their sermons stink, and they shall stink to eternity, that throw Christ out of their Sermons. The great business of ministers is to cast forth the scent of Christ to the people. ”

“ How many immortal souls are now gathering together to perform the all-important work of prayer and praise———to hear the word of God to feed upon the bread of life! They are leaving their respective dwellings, and will soon be united together in the house of prayer. ”

“ The earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, just as the waters cover the sea." He will not only fill the earth, but the whole heavens throughout eternity! O but he is a broad Plant, that will extend himself both to heaven and earth! And this shall serve for the second thing proposed, namely, To show that this Plant is indeed a most Renowned Plant.
The third thing I proposed in the prosecution of this doctrine, was, concerning the raising or up bringing of this Plant. You see it is no other than the Great God, that raised up this Plant. ”

“ Who can rightly appreciate the value of such hours as these ?———hours spent in learning the way of holy pleasantness, and the paths of heavenly peace hours devoted to the service of God, and of souls; in warning the sinner to flee from wrath to come; in teaching the ignorant how to live and die; in preaching the gospel to the poor; in healing the broken-hearted; in declaring "deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind.” "Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound; they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Our nature was highly honoured at first, but it soon sunk below the beast that perisheth; but the second Adam took our nature upon him, and raised it to a higher dignity than the very angels; for to which of the angels did this honour appertain, to be united to the eternal Son of God? So that, I say this Plant of Renown is raised up for 'mankind sinners, not for angel-kind sinners; and every mankind-sinner that hears tell of him, they should lay claim to him, as in Isaiah, ix. ”

“ He is despised und rejected of men. But then,
Thirdly, Another thing I would have you to remark, is, That however contemptible this Plant is, Renown is in the eyes of a blind world, yet he is the tallest Plant in all God's Lebanon, there is not the like of him in it, “He is fairer than the children of men;" and, “He is as the apple-tree among the trees of the wood," If ever you saw him, you will be ready to say so too, and with David, Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is some upon the earth that I desire besides thee." ”

“ 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 ”

“ And once more, at the judgment-seat of Christ, shall the rich and poor meet together, that "every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad." ”

“ As those fields, Hills, and lanes, are now covered with men, women, and children, in various directions, drawing nearer to each other, and to the object of their journey's end; even so, "many shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God." ”

“ Thirdly, We have the production of this Plant, I will raise him up! Hell will endeavour to keep him down; the Devil and his Angels will endeavour to smother him, when he sets his head above ground: So we find Satan sends Herod, and Herod sends the Bloody Dragoons to murder him, when he came into the world: But let hell do its utmost, as it hath done in all ages, and is doing this day, to smother that plant, up it will be ”

“ Receive my spirit," was the prayer of Stephen to Jesus Christ, to receive his departing soul; and. brethren, I think you will feel in a dying hour, that your departing soul needs a Divine Saviour. You have one in Jesus Christ. You may call upon him then, even as now. His ear will not be heavy. though yours may, when death is sealing up your faculties. His eye will not have lost its power of gazing affectionately on you, when yours is becoming dim and closed. His hand will not be shortened, in the hour when yours will have become tremulous and feeble. ”

“ And then, when you come to die, it will only be, to do once more, what you have so often done in former days, -again to commend your soul very humbly, believingly, and affectionately, under the faithful care of Jesus Christ. ”

“ But lift up the hand, the heart, the eye, the soul, in prayer to him then, and you will find him a very near and present help in that your time of trouble.
Brethren, a Christian should die praying. Other men die in different ways, according to their character and temper. ”

“ Here the rich and poor met together," in mutual acknowledgement that "the Lord is the maker of them all," and that all are alike dependent creatures, looking up to one common Father to supply their wants, both temporal and spiritual.———Again, likewise, shall they meet together in the grave, that undistinguishing receptacle of the opulent and the needy. ”