The qualifications of

the good Shepherd.

B. C. cir. 587.

OL. XLVIII. 2. Tarquinii Prisci, R. Roman.,

eir. annum 30.

after them.

7 Therefore, ye shepherds, hear the word of the LORD;

8 As I live, saith the Lord GOD, surely because my flock became a prey, and my flock m became meat to every beast of the field, because there was no shepherd, neither did my shepherds search for my flock," but the shepherds fed themselves, and fed not my flock; 9 Therefore, O-ye shepherds, hear the word of the LORD;

sheep, and seek them out.

BC. cir. 387.

A. M. cir. 3417.

QI. XLVIII.2. Tarquinii Prisci, R. Roman.,

cir. annum 30.

12 As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day.. 13 And I will bring them out from the people, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land, and feed them upon the mountains of Israel by

11 For thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold,

m. Ver. 5, 6.- -n Ver. 2, 10.- Chap. iii. 18; Heb. xiii. 17. p Ver. 2, 8.- Heb. According to the seeking, Chap. xxx. 3; them, and scattered the whole flock. Now, the true shepherd, the pastor of God's choosing, knows

1. How to keep the healthy in health; and cause them to grow in grace, and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ.

2. How to nourish, feed, and care for the convalescent, that they may be brought into a state of spiritual soundness.

3. How to reprove, instruct, and awaken those who are still under the full power of the disease of sin.

4. How to find out and remove the cause of all that spiritual weakness of which he sees some slowly dying.

5. How to deal with those who have fallen into some scandalous sin, and restore them from their fall.

6. How to find out and turn aside the sore temptation or cruel usage by which some have been driven away.

7. How to seek and bring back to the fold those who have strayed into strange pastures, and have had their souls perverted by erroneous doctrines; and knows also how, by a godly discipline, to preserve him in the flock, and keep the flock honourably together.

8. How to oppose, confound, and expel the grievous wolf, who has got among the flock, and is scattering them from each other, and from God. He knows how to preach, explain, and defend the truth. He is well acquainted with the weapons he is to use, and the spirit in which he is to employ them.

In a word, the true shepherd gives up his life to the sheep; spends and is spent for the glory of God; and gives up his life for the sheep, in defence of them, and in labouring for their welfare. And while he is thus employed, it is the duty of the flock to feed and clothe him; and see that neither he nor his family lack the necessaries and conveniencies of life. The

15 I will feed my flock, and I will cause Joel iì. 2.- -s Isa. lxv. 9, 10; Jer. xxiii. 3; chap. xxviii. 25; xxxvi. 24; xxxvii. 21, 22.- Psa. xxiii. 2. Jer. xxxiii. 12. labourer is worthy of his meat. He who does not labour, or, because of his ignorance of God and salvation, cannot labour, in the word and doctrine, deserves neither meat nor drink; and if he exact that by law, which he has not honestly earned by a proper discharge of the pastoral function, let him read this chapter, and learn from it what a fearful account he shall have to give to the chief Shepherd at the great day; and what a dreadful punishment shall be inflicted on him, when the blood of the souls lost through his neglect or inefficiency is visited upon him! See the notes on chap. iii. 17, &c.

Verse 7. Therefore,ye shepherds, (ye bad and wicked shepherds,) hear the word of the Lord] In the preceding character of the good shepherd the reader will find, by reversing the particulars, the character of a bad shepherd; and therefore I may be excused from entering into farther detail.

Verse 10. I will-cause them to cease from feeding the flock] God, in this country, unpriested a whole hierarchy who fed not the flock, but ruled them with force and cruelty; and he raised up a new set of shepherds better qualified, both by sound doctrine and learning, to feed the flock. Let these be faithful, lest God cause them to cease, and raise up other feeders.

Verse 12. Cloudy and dark day.] Times of general distress and persecution; in such times the shepherd should be especially watchful.

Verse 13. I will-feed them upon the mountains] When I bring back the people from their captivity, I will raise up to them a holy and diligent priesthood, who shall in all places give them sound instruction. But this, and some of the following promises, belong to the Christian Church, as we shall find below.

The spiritual David,

A. M. cir. 3417.

B. C. cir. 587.

Ol. XLVIII. 2. Tarquinii Prisci, R. Roman.,

GOD.

16 I will seek that which was eir annum 30. lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick but I will destroy the fat and the strong; I will feed them with judgment. 17 And as for you, O my flock, thus saith the Lord GOD: y Behold, I judge between cattle and cattle, between the rams and the • he-goats.

18 Seemeth it a small thing unto you to have eaten up the good pasture, but ye must tread down with your feet the residue of your pastures? and to have drunk of the deep waters, but ye must foul the residue with your feet?

19 And as for my flock, they eat that which ye have trodden with your feet; and they

v See ver. 4; Isa. xl. 11; Mic. iv. 6; Matt. xviii. 11; Mark ii. 17; Luke v. 32.wlsa. x. 16; Amos iv. 1. -x Jer. x. 24. y Chap. xx. 37, 38; ver. 20, 22; Zech. x. 3; Matt. xxv. 32, 33. Heb. small cattle of lambs and kids.- Heb. great he-goals.

Verse 16. I will destroy the fat and the strong] I will destroy those cruel and imperious shepherds who abuse their authority, and tyrannize over the flock.

Verse 17. And as for you, O my flock] After having spoken to the shepherds, he now addresses the flock.

I judge between cattle and cattle] Between false and true professors; between them that have only the form and them that have the power of godliness; between the backslider in heart and the upright man.'

Verse 18. Have eaten up the good pasture] Arrogate to yourselves all the promises of God, and will hardly permit the simple believer to claim or possess any token of God's favour.

4

Ye must foul the residue with your feet?] Ye abuse God's mercies; you consume much upon yourselves, and ye spoil more, on which the poor would have been glad to feed. There are some who would rather give food to their sporting dogs than to the poor around them, who are ready to starve, and who would be glad of the crumbs that fall from the table of those masters! Verse 20, I will judge between the fat cattle and between the lean cattle.] Between the rich and the poor; those who fare sumptuously every day and those who have not the necessaries of life.

saith the

B. C. cir. 587. OL. XLVIII. 2. Tarquinii Prisci, R. Roman,

20 Therefore thus Lord God unto them; cir. annum 30. I, even I, will judge between the fat cattle and between the lean cattle.

21 Because ye have thrust with side and with shoulder, and pushed all the diseased with your horns, till ye have scattered them abroad;

22 Therefore will I save my flock, and they shall no more be a prey; and I will judge between cattle and cattle.

ر

tían ministers must derive their authority to teach, and their grace to teach effectually.

By the kind providence of God it appears that he has not permitted any apostolic-succession to be preserved, lest the members of his Church should seek that in an uninterrupted succession which must be found in the HEAD alone. The papists or Roman Catholics, who boast of an uninterrupted succession, which is a mere fable that never was and never can be proved, have raised up another head, the POPE: And I appeal to themselves, in the fear of God, whether they do not in heart and in speech trace up all their authority to him, and only compliment Christ as having appointed Peter to be the first bishop of Rome, (which is an utter falsity, for he was never appointed to such an office there, nor ever held such an office in that city, nor, in their sense, any where else ;) and they hold also that the popes of Rome are not so much Peter's successors as God's vicars; and thus both God and Peter are nearly lost sight of in their papal enumerations. With them the authority of the Church is all in all; the authority of Christ is seldom mentioned.

Verse 24. I the Lord will be their God, and my Servant David a Prince] Here we find God and his Christ are all in all in his Church, and Jesus is still PRINCE among them; and to him the call and qualifications of all genuine pastors belong, and from him

called uninterrupted succession, that every Christian minister may seek and receive credentials from himself. Here is the grand reason why the uninterrupted succession cannot be made out. And here is the proof also that the Church that pretends to it, and builds

The final overthrow of

Ol. XLVIII. 2. Tarquinii Prisci, R. Roman,

eir. annum 30.

b

д

C

e

4 I will lay thy cities waste, and thou shalt be desolate, and thou shalt know that I am the LORD.

h

5 Because thou hast had a perpetual hatred, and hast shed the blood of the children of Israel, by the force of the sword in the time of their calamity,.' in the time that their iniquity had an end:

6 Therefore, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, I will prepare thee unto blood, and blood shall pursue thee sith thou hast not hated blood, even blood shall pursue thee.

7 Thus will I make Mount Seir "most desolate, and cut off from it him that passeth out and him that returneth.

Chap. vi. 2.- b Deut. ij. 5.12; Amos i. 11; Obad. 10, &c.olation and desolation; so ver. 7. Obad. 10. Or, hatred of old; ed out the children. Heb. hands. xxi. 25, 29; Dan. ix. 24; Obad. 11. desolation and desolation; ver. 3.

A. M. cir. 3417. B. C. cir. 587.

Ol. XLVIII, 2.

Tarquinii Prisci, R. Roman.,

cir. annum 30.

9 I will make thee perpetual desolations, and thy cities shall not return: and ye shall know that I am the LORD.

10 Because thou hast said, These two nations and these two countries shall be mine, and we will possess it; whereas "the LORD was there:

S

V

t

11. Therefore, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, I will even do, according to thine anger, and according to thine envy which thou hast used out of thy hatred against them; and I will make myself known among them, when I have judged thee.

12 And thou shalt know that I am the LORD, and that I have heard all thy blasphemies which thou hast spoken against the mountains of Israel, saying, They are laid desolate, they are given us 13 Thus

x to consume.

with your mouth ye have boasted

NOTES ON CHAP. XXXV. Verse 2. Set thy face against Mount Seir] That is, against the Edomites. This prophecy was probably delivered about the time of the preceding, and before the destruction of Idumea by Nebuchadnezzar, which took place about five years after.

Calmet supposes that two destructions of Idumea are here foretold; one by Nebuchadnezzar, and the other by the Jews after their return from their captivity.

Verse 3. Most desolate.] Literally, "A desolation and a wilderness."

Verse 5. A perpetual hatred] The Edomites were the descendants of Esau; the Israelites, the descendants of Jacob. Both these were brothers; and between them there was contention even in the womb, and they lived generally in a state of enmity. Their descendants kept up the ancient feud: but the Edomites were implacable; they had not only a rooted but perpetual enmity to the Israelites, harassing and distressing them by all possible means; and they seized the opportunity, when the Israelites were most harassed by other enemies, to make inroads upon them, and cut them off wherever they found them.

To afflict the afflicted is cruel. This is scarcely of man, bad as he is. He must be possessed by the malignant spirit of the devil, when he wounds the wounded, insults over the miseries of the afflicted, and

seeks opportunities to add affliction to those who are already under the rod of God.

Verse 6. Blood shall pursue thee] Thou lovest blood, and thou shalt have blood. It is said that Cyrus and two hundred thousand men were slain in an ambush by Thomyris, queen of the Scythians, and that she cut off his head, and threw it into a vessel filled with blood, with this severe sarcasm :

Satia te sanguine quem sitisti, Cyre. "O Cyrus, now satisfy thyself with blood." Hence, the figure :

“Sarcasmus, with this biting taunt doth kill :

Cyrus, thy thirst was blood, now, drink thy fill.”. Verse 9. Perpetual desolations] Thou shalt have perpetual desolation for thy perpetual hatred.

Verse 10. These two nations] Israel and Judah. The Idumeans thought of conquering and possessing both; and they would have succeeded, but only the Lord was there; and this spoiled their projects, and blasted their hopes.

Verse 12. They are laid desolate, they are given us to consume.] They exulted in seeing Judea overrun; and they rejoiced in the prospect of completing the ruin, when the Chaldeans had withdrawn from the land.

Verse 13. Thus with your mouth ye have boasted against me] Ye have said you would enter into those lands, and take them for your inheritance; though yo