come and knock off his fetters, and loose his bands, and proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison doors to them that are bound; and lets them out to the free air, that they may fly. If you be a mounting soul, you will know something, more or less, of this; you have found yourself in the iron cage, in the devil's claws, and you bave found the Lord turning you from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God; at least, you can say in some measure, "Once I was blind, now I see;" once I was bound, and now I am set at liberty.

2. If you be mounting up on eagle's wings, then you will have something of an eagle's appetite: "Where the carcase is thither will the eagles be gathered together. The eagle, it is said, doth very greedily devour her prey; and if you be a true eagle, you will eat greedily of the flesh and blood of the Son of God. It is not a little of this heavenly carcase that satisfies the believing eagle. He must feed upon it greedily, and daily; yea, and live upon it constantly: "The life that he lives is by the faith of the Son of God.”

3. If you be mounting up on eagle's wings, then you have got something of an eagle's heart; the eagle is a noble kind of creature, disdaining to prey upon mean birds. We have a common Latin proverb: Aquila non captat muscas. [That is, The eagle doth not catch flies.] It preys only upon creatures worthy of it. So, the noble, generous soul of the mounting believer will not stoop to those things that are inferior to him or unworthy of him. No kingdom will please him, but the kingdom of heaven; no heritage, but the heritage of Jacob; no rock, but the Rock of Ages; no portion, but a portion in the Son of Jesse.

4. If you be mounting up on eagle's wings, then you will be daily casting off your old feathers; such as the old feather of self-righteousness. You will never allow yourself to mount up with the wing of your own righteousness. You will know that the devil clipt old Adam's wings; yea that by the fall he brake his wings, and that never one since the fall could mount up to heaven on the wing of this oldcovenant righteousness, unless it was the double eagle, if I may so express it, the God-man in two natures, and one person, who came to bring in everlasting righteousness. Under this great wing, do all the little eagles flock, as the hen's chickens do under her wings, desiring to be found in Christ, "Not having their own own righteousness which is

of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith." (Phil. iii. 9. And as they will be casting the old feather of their own selfrighteousness, so the old feather of self-conceit. O the mounting believer thinks little of himself; so little, that he thinks nothing of himself. If nothing could be divided, he is less than nothing in his own sight; and if nothing could be disparaged, he is worse than nothing. He is the least of saints, and the chief of sinners, as Paul was in his own eyes; he casts down all his attainments, all his enjoyments, all his qualifications, all duties at Christ's feet as nothing; that so he may have nothing to be a weight to keep him from mounting up. In a word, he casts off the old feathers of sin and corruption daily; also enmity, unbelief, hypocrisy, carnality; he seeks to have these works of the devil destroyed wholly. It is said, that there is an antipathy between eagles and serpents; so there is a continual antipathy between the believing eagle and the old serpent, and all the serpent's brood are abominable to him.

5. If you be mounting up on eagle's wings then you will be clothed with the sun; the sun will be big in your eye. The mounting eagle gets a view of the sun; and the higher it mounts, the bigger doth the sun appear. If you be a mounting Christian, you have got above the clouds of darkness and unbelief now and then, and got a view of the Sun of righteousness; and he hath been so big in your eye, as to darken the glory of all created objects; yea, so big in your eye, that you have seen him to be all in all; to be the all of the covenant, the all of the sacraments, the all of the gospel. You have seen him to be all things, and above all things, and better than all things. You have seen him to be heaven itself, yea, more than heaven, yea, more than ten thousand heavens. You have seen all things to be in him; election, redemption, justification, sanctification, grace, glory, and all. O Sirs, "To you that believe, he is precious," and a pearl of great price.

6. If you be mounting up on wings as eagles, you will be clothed with the sun, and you will have the moon of this world under your feet. (Rev. xii. 1.) The mounting eagle: being above the clouds, sees the sun big above and the earth little below; and the higher it mounts, the less will the earth appear. O the mounting believer thinks little of the world. If we were as high as the stars, we would not

assembly and church of the first-born, to the innumerable company of angels, to God the judge of all, and to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant; yea, then he is mounted up a pillar in the temple of his God.

6. The believer will mount up at the day of judgment as with eagle's wings; then will he flee up to meet Christ in the air: "Then we which are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord." (1 Thes. iv. 17.) You see, then, when the believer mounts up.

IV. The fourth thing is, to speak to the manner how the believer mounts up, He mounts up with wings as an eagle. In whatever respects the eagle mounts up, the same way doth the believer.

.

1. The eagle mounts up freely and naturally; God gives it a mounting nature: "Doth the eagle mount up at thy command?" says the Lord to Job. (xxxix. 27.) Nay, it is by the instinct which the Lord hath given it; so that it is natural to it. Thus the believer mounts up naturally after God hath given him the new heart; it is natural to him to be mounting towards God. When the hypocrite mounts, he is forced up contrary to his natural tendency, as it were, like a stone cast up into the air; it is not natural to it to fly up, but rather to fall down; but the believer mounts up naturally and freely.

2. The eagle mounts up highly; she flies higher than other birds; she makes her nest on high, on some inaccessible rock; not like the ostrich, that leaves her eggs in the sand, as some leave their souls here on earth. But these spiritual eagle believers, these heavenly birds, they fly high, even to the Rock of Ages; and hence their daily desire is, "Lead me to the Rock that is higher than I."

3. The eagle mounts up strongly, vehemently, and violently; it is a strong bird, and when it hath got the prey, it flies with violence. Thus doth the believer mount up. "For the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force." With such earnestness and intentness doth he mount up towards heaven, that no difficulty in the way shall hinder him.

4. The eagle mounts up swiftly and suddenly. This follows upon the other; for its strength and violence in flying infers celerity. So doth the believer, under the lively

influences of the Spirit. O how quick is his motion! "Or ever he is aware, his soul makes him like the chariots of Aminadab." It is a speedy flight that the believer makes towards Christ; he mounts swiftly.

5. The eagle mounts up gradually; though its flight be strong and swift, yet it is gradual; it comes not to the utmost extent of its motion but by degrees. So the believer mounts gradually; he goes from strength to strength, till he appear before God in Zion. (Ps. lxxxiv. 7.) He flies still higher and higher; and so the object of his aim draws nearer and nearer to him, while he comes to more and more knowledge of God, and more and more communion with him, till faith and hope land in vision and fruition.

6. The eagle mounts up frequently and daily; and in respect of its mounting disposition, constantly. So it is with the believer, he is always mounting; he hath still a mounting disposition, and he is constantly endeavouring to be actually mounting. The carnal professor never mounts up but about the time of a communion, or the time of some sore affliction or conviction, and whenever these seasons are over, he goes as fast down as he went up; but it is the believer's trade of life to be mounting on week days as well as on Sabbath days, and on ordinary Sabbaths as well as communion Sabbaths.

V. The next thing is, To show the reasons why the believer, who hath his strength renewed, mounts up on wings like an eagle.

1. Because he hath an eagle's nature. I said before, that the believer mounts up naturally. Why? Because he hath an eagle's nature. It is the natural disposition of the eagle to fly upwards. So the believer hath a disposition to mount up to God, he being a new creature: "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature." (2 Cor. v. 17.) new nature ascends to heaven, from whence it descended. The old nature goes always downward, but the new nature mounts upwards. If you want the new nature, you want the mounting disposition.

This

2. He mounts up on wings like an eagle, because he hath an eagle's eye. So the believer; he can see that invisible Sun, which no natural eye can attain to: "The poor in spirit and pure in heart shall see God." (Mat. v. 3, 8.) "The natural man receiveth not the things of the

see the earth; the higher we fly to heaven, the more doth the nothingness of the earth appear to us. The believer sometimes mounts up so high, that he flies out of sight; the world is out of sight of him, and out of his sight and mind also; when he is on the mount of communion with God, glad would he be that he might never come down to the world again, as Peter on the mount of transfiguration, "It is good for us to be here."

3rdly. This doctrine may be applied for Exhortation, which I shall form in a short address. 1. In a word of terror to the soul that never mounted. 2. A word of comfort to the mounting soul. 3. A word of counsel to the hovering soul.

in

1. A word of terror to you that never mounted up to heaven towards Christ. Alas! what shall we say to you? You are not like eagles, but like filthy black ravens, that do not mount heaven-ward, nor look upon the sun, but wander to and fro upon the earth, as Noah's raven did, and feed upon dunghills and sordid things. You cannot fly to heaven, but flutter upon the earth. But if you do not mount up to heaven, the curse of God will come upon you; all the curses mentioned. (Deut. xxvii. 15-20.) You will be "cursed in your basket, and in your store; cursed in your out-goings and in-comings." The curse of God will be your house : "The curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked;" (Prov. iii. 33;) that is, the man that doth not mount up to Christ by faith, nor mount up in the ways of God. The curse of God will be in your prayers and duties: "The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord." Your sacrifice will be cursed to you; the word you hear will be a curse to you; it will be a savour and seal of death, and not of life to you. (2 Cor. ii. 16.) The sacrament of the Lord's supper will be cursed to you; for there you eat and drink damnation to yourself. If you never mounted by faith, and yet went to a communion-table, you have been eating and drinking God's curse, which you will never vomit up again, unless you mount up to Christ with the wing of faith. What shall I say? If you do not mount, Christ himself will be cursed to you: "We preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the Greeks foolishness." If you do not mount you will stumble into hell; and Christ himself will be a stumbling-block over which you will fall and break your neck, and perish for