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6 PalntPlant [sic], and a renowned Plant but more of this afterwards. But then, 3dly, We have the production of this Plant, I will raise him up. He will endeavour to keep him down, the devil and his angels will endeavour to smother him, when he sets his head above ground! So we find Satan sends Herod, and Herod sends the bloody dragoons to murder him when he came into the world; but let hell do its utmost, as it hath done in all ages, and in doing this day, to smother that Plant, up it will be. I will raise him up, and therefore he shall prosper. But then, again, 4th, we may notice here, for whom, or for what end, and for whose use and benefit it is. I will raise up for them a plant of renown. Who these are you will see, by casting your eye on the former part of the chapter, it is for the Lord’s flock, his oppressed heritage, that are borne down by wicked rulers, civil and ecclesiastic. I will raise up for them a Plant of renown, and he will be their deliverer.

The doctrine that naturally arises from this first clause of the verse, is in short this, “That Christ is a Plant of renown, of God’s raising up, for the benefit and advantage of his people, or, for their comfort and relief, in all their distresses.”

Now, in discoursing this doctrine, if time and strength would allow, I might premise,