THE BURNING BRAND EXTRICATED.

ZECH. iii. 2.

Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?

WHAT strong language is this, to describe the salva

rtion of a sinner by the immediate arm of the Lord Redemer! It was applied to Joshua the high priest; but is equally true of all the patriarchs, prophets, ministers, and people of God, who, by nature, as burning brands, experience the power of God in their deliverance, and then are prepared to serve and honour their adored Deliverer. While, therefore, I shall attempt to explain this interesting passage of Scripture, may God youchsafe to accompany our efforts with his blessing.

1. Our attention is first called to reflect on that well known element which constitutes the most material figure in the text. FIRE is a Scripture emblem of the anger of an holy and just God. Thus saith the Lord, Afire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn to the lowest hell. Our God is a consuming fire. It is solemnly declared, His hand shall find out all his enemies, and shall make them as a fiery oven in the time of his anger. The perpe tuity of this fire our Lord hath declared, by its being

What a fearful thing is it to fall into the hand of the living God! Here it may be asked, "How can this awful description consist with the character of the ever blessed God? Can his wrath burn like fire against the creatures he hath formed?" It is just. The cause of his indignation is sin. We have transgressed his holy, just, and good law. Therefore it is said, Before him went a fiery law. When God appeared to Moses on the mount, to deliver to him the two tables of the law, it was in awful fire, smoke, thunder, and lightning. Awful indeed! Were it not that sin is as hardening as it is polluting, these solemn truths would make the most abandoned sinner's heart tremble!

unquenchable, and enduring for ever and ever.

2. We next cast our eye on the sinner in his sins, the brand burning in the fire. A BRAND is a piece of wood, or branch of a tree, which once possessed the powers of vegetable life. It is therefore a fit emblem of man, who, by union with Adam, our first parent and representative, possessed the excellence of moral life. But, by sin the human race are cut down, and each individual by nature and by practice are justly deserving the wrath of God, and are as brands in the midst of the burning. By sin came death, in all its possible forms. By one man's disobedience many were made sinners. of human crime, and every conscious breast must feel a fountain of corruption within itself, impelling to every act of disobedience. The justice of God cannot but pursue the transgressors of his law; and the Almighty hath declared, Wickedness burneth as the fire; it shall devour the briers and thorns, and shall kindle in the thickets of the forest; and they shall mount up like the lifting up of smoke. Through the wrath of the Lord of hosts is the land darkened, and the people shall be as the fuel

This is the source

the fire. This is a subject which should create in each of us the most solemn sensibility. If we observe human nature as under the special eye of God in this life, we shall find that sin and punishment are companions. Sinful man, like a brand in the fire, is consuming his time in vanity, and his mental powers in folly. But there are sins of intemperance, with others of too vile a nature to be named, which have a direct tendency, gradually to consume the body and destroy the soul of both young and old. Such persons consume so fast, that, according to David, they live not out half their days. Alas! how many parents and families have felt the severity of dis› obedience and wickedness in their near connections, and have witnessed their ruin by following them to an untimely grave! I could pursue this subject further, and by, the aid of God's unerring word, realize their still more awful state; but enough I hope has been said to awaken your attention, and aid your consciousness of the direful effects of sinning against so good and holy a God. However, justice to my subject, as well as matter of fact, lead me to review my text, and

3. To show you a very affecting instance of the sinner's state. See, the brand lies dormant in the fire, burning and consuming, without power to extricate itself! Just so is sinful man; insensible of guilt, and without inclination or ability to change his unhappy state. Proud nature may arise and attempt to contradict this fact, but it is too positive to be denied. How strongly is this truth declared by Isaiah! Let favour be shown to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness: in the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly, and will not be hold the majesty of the Lord. Lord, when thy hand is lifted up, they will not see. This is a just description of

the will and ability of fallen nature; and, to such as are disposed to dispute it, I will only say, if man has power to repel the force of his corrupt propensities, and deliver himself from the demerit of his offences, why does he not accomplish it? Why not escape from the awful burning? Why let practice so glaringly contradict avowed sentiment? But such declamation of thoughtless sinners does but prove more forcibly the impossibility of man to save himself; or, as a brand, to escape from the burning flame. What then shall we do? Glory be to the riches of mercy! that which is impossible with man, is possible with God. This leads me, with great pleasure, to review my text again, and

4. To explain to you the conversion of a sinner as a brand plucked from the fire. The AGENT in this great work is Jesus, the Son of God. We are delivered from wrath through him. There is none other name by whom we can be saved, but by the name of Jesus Christ. His ability to pluck a sinner as a brand from the burning, not only arises from the divinity of his Person, but from his having paid down to justice the price of his infinitely precious blood, as the ransom of his people. I may, therefore, with confidence say, Jesus having purchased his people, who, by nature, are children of wrath, even as others, has a legal right to deliver them from their wretchedness, and pluck them as brands from the burning. Glory be to this Almighty Saviour for the plenitude of his redemption, and for the exertions of his converting grace!-To pluck is a word which expresses an instantaneous exertion, implying danger in the sinner who is rescued from destruction, and power and good will in the blessed Saviour. It equally signifies a change of place and state. The sinner is delivered from the ha

bit, the love, and the practice of sin; from beneath the curse of the law, and his desert of the fire of hell; for the purpose of enjoying the pardon, peace, and felicity of faith, in the Lord Jesus. Of such deliverances, how many are recorded in the Bible? You will instantly recollect Mary Magdalene, the Jailor, and Saul of Tarsus. Nor can you omit the singular instance of the Thief' upon the cross, who, evidently, was a brand plucked from the fire. Happy will it be for you if your breast can witness so great a deliverance for yourselves; each advancing as a testimony of the power and love of Jesus, exclaiming with sacred ardour, "Jesus hath plucked me as a brand from the burning." If so, you can, with sen sibility, accompany me in a

5. Lesson of instruction which our text can afford. A brand extricated from the fire, is yet flaming and smoking. This is perfectly consonant to the sensibility of a converted sinner. He yet feels the power and guilt of sin. His mind is conscious of extreme ignorance of God, Christ, and eternity; and is, if I may so say, covered as with the smoke of hell. Saul of Tarsus was no sooner plucked as a brand from the burning of his persecution and guilt, than he cried, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? Peter exclaimed on his conversion, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O`Lord. Every one called by grace knows and feels the wretched state to which sin re-duced them; they are taught to lament the many years they had been consuming their time, their bodies, and their souls in a course of iniquity. Their great inquiry is, How shall a sinner, as a burning, smoking brand, be quenched; and the guilty conscience possess pardon and peace with God? Let me hope this sensibility is possessed by some of you. I assure you, until you feel yourselves