3. Our inability to return, or to bring ourselves into the right way again. It is like a sheep, not like a swine or a dog; these creatures will find the way home again, but a sheep is irrecoverably lost without the shepherd's diligence and care : Jer. 1. 6, ' My ])eople have been lost sheep, their shepherds have caused them to go astray ; they have turned them away on the mountains, they have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their resting-place.' The farther they go the farther they will be from the flock, and m a very sad condition. It holdeth good too here ; for we do not know the way back again to God. Austin saith, I could wander by myself, and could not return by myself. And God saith as much, Hosea xiii. 9, ' 0 Israel, thou hast destroj^ed thyself, but in me is thy help.' That is done in a moment which we cannot help to all eternity. Our destruction is from ourselves, but our reparation from God. The good shepherd bringeth home the lost sheep upon his shoulders, Luke xv. 5.
4. It noteth our readiness to follow evil example. A sheep is animal sequax, they run one after another, and one straggler draweth away the whole flock : Eph. ii. 2, 3, * Wherein in times past ye walked, according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, that now worketh in the children of dis- obedience : among whom also we had our conversation in times past, in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath even as others.' There is Satan, corrupt examples, and evil inclinations, the world and the flesh, all concurring to ruin man. We easily swim with the stream and current of others' examj)les, and do as they do ; and even so men take and do a great deal of hurt by evil examples. Thus sins are pro- })agated, and we live by imitation ; like sheep, we draw others out of the pasture together with ourselves. Sheep go by troops, and so do men follow the multitude to do evil ; and what is common passeth into our practice without observance.
5. The danger of straying sheep, which when out of the pasture, are often in harm's way, and exposed to a thousand dangers : Jer. 1. 6, 7, ' My people have been like lost sheep ; all that have found them have devoured them.' So are we in danger to be preyed upon by the roaring lion, and the dogs and wolves that are abroad. In our sinful estate we are as sheep whom no man taketh up, being out of God's protection, and so a ready prey for Satan. See how pathetically
302 A PRACTICAL EXPOSITION UPON [IsA. LIII. 6.
the proplict descrlbeth the misery of Israel : Hosca iv. 16, 'Now the Lord will feed them as a hunb in a large place/ Oh, consider what it is for a poor solitary lamb to wander through the mountains, where, it may be, some hungry lion and ravenous wolf looketh for such a prey. Even so it is with straying men, their judgment sleepeth not ; it may be the next hour they will be delivered over to destruction : Kom. iii. 16, ' Destruction and misery is in their way, and the way of peace they have not known.'
Use 1. Is to show us the necessity of a Redeemer. All are included under a necessity of looking after a remedy ; if all be sick, they must all seek to the physician or j)erish. And therefore it concerneth every one to see what they have done for the saving of their lost souls. ' All the world is become guilty before God,' as the ajxxstle saith, Rom. iii. 19. Guilty you are, l)ut have you sued out 3'our discharge ? By nature you lost the glory of God, but are you changed into the image and likeness of Christ from glory to glory ? You were polluted in your first birth, but are you born again of water and the Spirit? Are you saved by being washed in the laver of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he hath shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour ? You are sinners by practice, but are you washed in the blood of the Lamb, and reconciled to God ? You have gone astray, but is the case altered with you ? 1 Peter ii. 25, ' For ye were as sheep going astray, but are now returned unto the shepherd and bishop of your souls.' Do you use Christ as a mediator' to seek the favour of God by him? Do you put yourselves into his hands as your Shepherd, and resign and give up yourselves to be governed by him as your bishop and overseer ? As the misery involveth all, so doth the care and necessity of looking after a remedy concern all. In the first Adam Ave contracted guilt, and became liable to the wrath of God ; in the second, we have righteousness, which is a pledge of God's favour. In the first Adam we lost the image of God ; by the second, we are made i)artakers of the divine nature. In the first, we lost paradise; but by the second, are restored to a better para- dise, heaven itself.