520 BAXTER'S FAREWELL SERMON. promise of his coming ?" 2 Pet. iii. 4. Yet believers consider, " That a day is with the Lord as a thousand year, and a thou- sand years but as a day ; and that the Lord is not slack of his promise, but long- suffering;" ver. 8, 9. "He will not leave ùs comfortless, but will come unto us;" John xiv. 18. "The patient expectation of the just shall not be forgotten, nor in vain;" Psalm ix. 7, 8. " Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to rec- ompense tribulation to them that trouble. you ; and to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord ,Jesus shall be revealed fromheaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire. taking ven- geance on them that know not God, arid that obey riot the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; who shall 'be punished with everlasting destruction, from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power ; when he shall come to be glorified in his Saints, and admired in all them that believe in that day ;" 2 These. 2. And he will return also to the seemingly forsaken flocks of his disciples: he bath his times of trial, when the shepherds being smitten the sheep are scattered; and hebath his times of gathering the scattered ones again together, and "giving them pastors after his own heart, that shall feed them with knowledge and under- standing;" Jer. iii. 14, 15. And shall say, " What is the chaff unto the wheat ; " Jer. xxiii. 28. When we cry, " Woe is me for my hurt; my wound is grievous! " We must also say, "Tru- ly this is a grief, and I must - bear it ; my tabernacle is spoiled, and all my cords are broken ; my children are gone forth of me, and they are not; there is none to stretch forth my tent any more, and to set up my curtains ; for the pastorsare become brutish, and have not sought the Lord. O Lord, correct me, but with judg- ment, not in thine anger, lest thou bring me to nothing; " Jer. x. 19-21. 24. "Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard; they have trodden my portionunder foot, they have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness ; and being desolate it mourneth to me: the wholeland is made desolate, because no man layeth it to heart; " Jer. xii. 10, 11. " But woe be unto the pastors that de- stroy and scatter the sheepof my pasture, saith the Lord. There- fore, thus saith the Lord, against the pastorsthat feed my people, Ye have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them ; behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, and I will gather the remnant of my flock. And I will set up shepherds over them which shall feed them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking, saith the Lord; " Ezek. xxxiv. !' Woe'to the shepherds of Israel that feed themselves; should not the shepherds feed the flocks? Ye eat the fat, and clothe you with the wool; ye kill them that are fed, but ye feed not the flocks. The diseased have ye not strengthen-
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