SERMONS.. 413 



and timely deliverance out of them. Wings, in 

 the common notion of the world, signify speed, 



and activity ; to rri? -ur^ovoiocg Kal Izritpocvsixg o^u,* as 



Theodoret speaks : God's speedy and efficacious 

 Providence, and appearance in time of need to 

 deliver his people. It is, therefore, that we give 

 the winds wings, and the angels too ; as being the 

 swift messengers of God, the nimble Mercuries of 

 Heaven. It is therefore, too, that when God ap- 

 pears seasonably to deliver his afflicted people, he 

 is said in the Psalmf to mount a Cherub, and to 

 fly, or to come flying to them upon the wings of 

 the wind, or to carry them ofl* into safety on the 

 wings of an eagle. Birds do not only cover their 

 young ones under their wings within the nest : if 

 the seat prove dangerous, they take them up, too, 

 on their wings, and carry them ofl" to a safer sta- 

 tion. 



Ye have seen what I have done for you, (saith 

 God to the Jewish nation,) f how I bare you upon 

 eagles' wings, and brought you to myself. As if 

 he had said. When you were in actual bondage, I 

 rescued you; not only brooded you under my 

 wings in Egypt, and preserved you by my Provi- 

 dence, while you were yet in the egg; but I 

 hatched you, as it were, even in the iron furnaces 

 of Memphis, into political life, and national being; 

 and then brought you out safely, openly, trium- 

 phantly, (as the eagle doth her young,) and 



* In ^ 17. 8. & 18. 10. t Psm. xviii. 10. X Ex. xix. 4. 



