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righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore and share the blessings of his reign, as well God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with as talk of them, we must be like him. His the oil of gladness above thy fellows."* Jere- subjects are his children; and none will be miah describeth him as righteous himself, and finally owned by him as such, who bear not as making others so: "The days come, saith impressed upon them the similitude of their Jehovah, that I will raise unto David a righte- Father. ous Branch and a King shall reign and pros- Salvation is the next sign and token per, and shall execute judgment and justice which Zechariah hath given us, whereby to in the earth. And this is his name whereby know the King of Zion: "He is just, and he shall be called, JEHOVAH OUR RIGHTEOUS- having salvation." He was to execute that NESS." + And, indeed, we seldom find the part of the regal office, which consisteth in ! kingdom of Christ mentioned, but righteous- rescuing a people from their oppressors. ness is immediately mentioned as the first- Whoever reads the history of Israel, finds it fruits of it. Righteousness, the Artræa of the contain an account of many saviours, raised ancients, left the earth at the fall of Adam, up, at sundry times, for this purpose. Such and returned again to visit and to bless it, at were Moses, Barack, Gideon, Samson, and the birth of Christ. He was conceived with- many more in the ages after them. out stain, lived without sin, and died without one of these was "He that should come." guilt. He conversed in the world, yet con- They, like the legal priests, were not suftracted none of its pollution, but, like his fered to continue, by reason of death;" the glorious emblem the light, passed through all church was still taught to "look for anthings undefiled. His bitterest enemies, Jews other " and a more glorious Saviour, in the and Gentiles, joined to attest his uprightness. latter days; the prophecies were full of the "Have thou nothing to do with that just great salvation which he should effect; so man," said the wife of Pilate. Pilate him- great, that, in comparison of it, former deself, upon the strictest examination, declared, liverances were not to be mentioned, unless "I find no fault in this man."§ Judas, who as shadows and faint resemblances of that had every possible opportunity of knowing grand and complete one. At the time apthe character of his master, cried out, in an pointed, Jesus of Nazareth appeared in this agony of despair, "I have betrayed the in-character, and brought his credentials with nocent blood; " and the Roman centurion, him, the authenticity of which was fairly who watched at the cross, gave in his evi- allowed by a master in Israel: "No man dence, "Certainly, this was a righteous man." can do these miracles that thou doest, exThe kingdom which he came to establish was cept God were with him." At the birth a kingdom of righteousness. He called men of Christ, an herald from heaven proclaimed. from the ways of sin by his sermons, he al-him to the shepherds by this style and title: lured them from its pleasures by his example," Behold, I bring you good tidings of great he cleansed them from its guilt by his blood, joy, which shall be to all people; for unto and rescued them from its power by his Spi- you is born this day, in the city of David, a rit. Where the Gospel came, idolatry gave SAVIOUR." And if tidings of salvation are - place to true piety; every holy and amiable not tidings of joy, what tidings can be such? temper was planted and flourished in the The greater the salvation, the greater ought hearts of the regenerate; and to be a Chris- to be the joy. And what is the deliverance tian, was to be every thing that was honest, of a single people from a temporal adverand just, and good. Thus did Jesus of Nazar- sary, when compared with the salvation of eth answer his title of "the Just One," and evince himself to be the true "Melchisedec," or "King of Righteousness." The Jews chose not to be the subjects of such a King, and declared, they" would not have this man to reign over them." Therefore the kingdom of God was taken from them, and given to a people bringing forth the fruits thereof. Be while we celebrate the advent of our King, not to forget this part of his character; and let us rest assured, that if we would be his subjects, as well as pass for such,

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the whole world from the oppression of the spiritual enemy; from sin, and sickness, and sorrow, and pain, and death, and hell? This was the salvation which Jesus undertook to effect; and his miracles declared him equal to the mighty task. He forgave sin, he healed sickness, he dispelled sorrow, he removed pain, he raised the dead, he cast out devils. Had not the prophet reason to cry out, Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem; behold, thy King, behold, thy righteous Saviour cometh unto thee!" But the daughter of Zion would have shut her gates against this righteous Saviour; the daughter of Jerusalem renounced her part

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and portion in such salvation. She had set | sages, that Messiah was to be an humble her heart upon being great in this world, and a suffering character. The types and whereas Christ came to make her so in an- the prophecies are as positive for his humiother. And whenever Christians shall re- liation, as they are for his exaltation; nor semble Jews in the turn of their affections, could any one person accomplish them all, whenever they shall regard religion only as without being equally remarkable for lowlia means of aggrandizing themselves upon ness and meekness, glory and honor. The earth, in their hearts they will entertain the modern Jews, sensible of this, have framed same notion of the salvation of Jesus, and to themselves two Messiahs; one, Ben Jothe same contempt for it, that the Jews seph, of the tribe of Ephraim, designed to But let the sufferings of Jerusalem be poor and contemptible, and to undergo warn us, that we share not in her guilt, lest indignities; the other, Ben David, of the we share also in her punishment, and come tribe of Judah, who is to be victorious, to into the same condemnation. We acknow- conquer all the earth before them, and to ledge for our Saviour the person whom Is- live for ever in temporal grandeur. This rael rejected. Let us not mistake the na- idle dream, contrary to the tenor of the ture of his salvation. "He shall be called whole Old Testament, and unknown to their JESUS," saith the angel to his holy mother, expositors before Christ came, shows us, "for he shall save his people from their that blindness hath happened to Israel, not SINS."* for want of light, but because they have shut their eyes against it till they cannot now open them to behold the brightness of its shining, to view Jesus of Nazareth as the end of their law, and the accomplishment of their prophecies. To an unprejudiced person, acquainted with that law and those prophecies, the sight of the lowly. Jesus entering Jerusalem in great humility, and in still greater, bowing his head and expiring on Mount Calvary, is a no less striking evidence of his being the Messiah, than his glorious resurrection from the dead, and triumphant ascension into heaven. The Scriptures must needs be fulfilled, in one respect, as well as the other. Thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and thus it behoved him to humble himself, in order to his suffering. Through pride Adam fell, and therefore by lowliness must Christ be exalted. "An haughty spirit goeth before a fall; but before honor is humility."*

As the salvation to be wrought by King Messiah was to be so different from that wrought by all other kings and conquerors, different likewise was to be, his appearance and demeanor: "Behold, thy King cometh unto thee; he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding on an ass." This is demonstration against the Jews, that how great soever, in the end, the external glory of Messiah is to be (and neither they nor we can set that too high,) yet he was once to visit his people in great humility; he was to appear at his first advent, in a state of humiliation. The nature of his undertaking required it, and their own law and prophets are clear and express upon the subject. Though God, he was to become man : "A virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and they shall call his name IMMANUEL, which is, being interpreted, GOD WITH US." He was to be "a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;"" a man without form or comeliness," without the glare of outward splendor to recommend him; "his visage," on the contrary, by suffering affliction, was to be "marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men."§ was to keep the law, and to die for sin "Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest notburnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required. Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me; I delight to do thy will, O my God; yea, thy law is within my heart." || "He made his soul an offering for sin; he was cut off out of the land of the living; he made his grave with the rich." If words can render anything plain, it is plain from these pas-ture; that his kingdom was not of this world? "If my kingdom were of this

• Mat. i. 21.

Isa. liii.

He

Isa. vii. 14; Matt. i. 23. § Isa. lii. 14.

Psal. xl. 6; Heb. x. 5. ¶ Isa. liii.

mon.

In this state of meekness and lowliness, was Christ to gain a complete victory over the enemies of man's salvation. The warfare was new, and it is no wonder that the weapons employed in it should be uncomOther warriors prepare their horses and their chariots, their bows, their spears, and their shields. But Messiah disarms his followers, in order that they may overcome. For thus our prophet goes on; "And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow shall be cut off: and he shall speak peace unto the heathen." Could a plainer declaration have been made that the conquests of Messiah were not to be of a secular na

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world," saith he himself, "then would my happy and heavenly is the kingdom of Messervants fight." "" # But, lo, he taketh from siah, where thou art to be found! Who them the weapons of war. Was there a would not wish to see, who would not labor shield or sword seen among the thousands to promote, the full accomplishment of the of the Israel of God? No shield, but that last clause of the prophecy we have been of faith; no sword, but that of the Spirit. considering, in the extension of this kingdom Like their great Leader, they encountered and dominion of Christ "from sea to sea, their adversaries with patience, and over- and from the river to the ends of the earth;" came by suffering. So far was the advent that so all the nations of the world might of Christ from carrying with it any appear-remember themselves, and turn to the Lord ance of war, that the nations at the time lay Jesus, as many did at the first preaching of hushed in the tranquillity of an universal his Gospel! And let the daughter of Zion peace. "He spake peace to the heathen," lead the way, restored to her pre-eminence as well as to his own people the Jews. The among the churches. We will not envy waves of this troublesome world ceased to her the honor, as she formerly envied us toss themselves, and a delightful calm seem- Gentiles, but rather rejoice and shout with ed to forebode the approach of those halcyon her, in the day when she shall be led to.acdays, when the Prince of Peace should make knowledge her King; the King of Rightehis abode amongst us; like the stillness of ousness, Salvation, and Peace; the once that hallowed night, on which the angelic lowly, but now highly exalted, Jesus of choir descended, to sing "Peace on earth;" Nazareth; who, as at this time, came to peace with God, by the pardon of sin; peace visit us in great humility, and shall come with ourselves, by the answer of a clear again, at the appointed hour, to judge the conscience; peace with one another, by world; when we shall behold him, glorious as mutual charity. O divine peace, how love- Jerusalem herself can wish, riding upon the ly and how pleasant dost thou appear! How heavens in power and majesty unutterable, amidst the acclamations of saints and angels.

John, xviii. 36.

DISCOURSE VI

THE KING OF GLORY.

REVELATION, 1. 7.

Behold, he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him, and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even So, Amen.

Ir is the peculiar supputation of the Christian church, as a pious writer well observes, to begin the year, and to commence the annual course of her services, at this time of Advent, herein differing froin all other accounts of time whatsoever. The reason of which seems plainly to be this, because in the numbering her days and measuring her seasons, she does not so much regard the sun in the firmament, as the great Sun of Righteousness, her Lord and Saviour who is in heaven. She considers herself as “redeemed from the earth; " and therefore no longer confined to calculations of the world, or obliged to direct herself by the courses

VOL. II.

5

of the material luminaries. It is her employment to make known to her children the time of salvation, called in Scripture, "the year of the redeemed;" and this year was introduced by the everlasting day-spring from on high visiting her; whereby she became, what the Spirit styles her, in the Revelation, "a city that has no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it, for the Lord God and the Lamb are the light and glory thereof."

The lessons and services, therefore, for the first four Sundays in her liturgical year, propose to our meditations the twofold advent of our Lord Jesus Christ, teaching us

ing him, and the effect it shall produce: "Every eye shall see him; and they also that pierced him; and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him."

that it was he who was to come, and did | II. The circumstance of the world's beholdcome, to redeem the world; and that it is he, also, who shall come again to be our judge. These two advents involve in them, and comprehend between them, the whole counsel of God for the redemption of mankind, by the coming of Christ in the flesh, with the final issue of that counsel in respect of each invidual, to be manifested at his coming to judgment.

III. The faith and hope of the church, dis-
played by her wishing and praying for
his manifestation, notwithstanding all the
terrors that are to attend it:
"Even so,

Amen."

The end proposed by the church, in set- First, then, we are to consider Christ's adting these two appearances of Christ toge- vent to judgment. There is something wonther before us at this time, is, to beget inderfully awful and affecting in the short our minds proper dispositions to celebrate the one, and expect the other; that so, with joy and thankfulness, we may now "go to Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us," even the Son of God come to visit us in great humility! and thence, with faith unfeigned, and hope immoveable, ascend in heart and mind to meet the same Son of God in the air, coming in glorious majesty, to judge the quick and dead.

description the text gives us of it. The beautiful manner, particularly, in which it is introduced, is worthy of notice. St. John, having occasion to mention his dear Lord and Master, at whose command he wrote this epistle to the churches, fired and transported at the glorious name, runs on with amazing rapidity, enumerating the blessings of the redemption which is by him; and having carried him from his cross to his throne, and ascribed all glory to him sitting upon it, imAnd certainly, if anything can lead men mediately he sees him in the clouds, and to repentance, and turn the hearts of the breaks forth in the words of the text. The disobedient to the wisdom of that Just One, whole passage runs thus: "John to the seven the wisdom which maketh wise unto salva-churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto tion, through faith in Christ Jesus, it must you, and peace from him which is, and which be the united considerations of his mercy and his justice his infinite mercy during the day of grace, when all sins, that can be repented of, are forgiven unto men; his inexorable justice at the day of retribution, when he shall infallibly render unto every man according as his work shall be. And perhaps there is no better method of stirring up our wills to procure an interest, or of discovering the interest we already possess, in the love of Christ, than by viewing in their proper colors the terrors of his judgment, as they will show themselves to the astonished world at that awful hour of his second advent; when the mask put upon false principles and evil actions shall drop off, and all things be estimated by the measures of Christianity, and the standard of the Gospel of Jesus.

The words of the divine and well-beloved John now read, are, it is presumed, not improper for this purpose, as they evidently fall in with the design of our church at this season, and speak the same language with her Advent services-" Behold, he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him; and they also that pierced him; and all the kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen."

In these words we may observe, I. Christ's Advent to judgment, with the manner of it: "Behold, he cometh with

clouds."

was,and which is to come; and from the seven spirits which are before his throne; and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten from the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; unto him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

"The cor

Behold, he cometh!". It is evident likewise, at first sight, how well this sudden and abrupt introduction is calculated to awaken our attention to what follows: ruptible body, alas! presseth down the soul that museth on many things," and especially when it museth on the things of eternity. Multitudes lie asleep in their sins, amused with delusive dreams; dead to their true views and interests, as a corpse sleeping in the dust is dead to the views and interests of this life. Therefore the Holy Spirit, about to make proclamation of Christ's second advent, first sounds a trumpet in Sion, and an alarm in the holy mountain, and ushers it in with an emphatical-Behold! which, like the voice of that wakeful bird that gives the first notice of the approach of the morning, and as a prelude to the archangel's trump, which is to give notice of the approach of the last morning that shall ever rise upon the world, is designed to awaken a careless and indolent generation out of its lethargy, importing the same in this place,

with those other frequent calls of the apostles | came to preach the day of salvation, cometh and prophets "Awake, thou that sleepest, and again to proclaim the day of vengeance. He arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee who was led as a lamb to the slaughter, leads light." "Arise, shine, for thy light is coming, his ten thousands to the prey, as the lion of and the glory of the Lord is rising upon thee" the tribe of Judah. He who cried not, nor "Behold, he cometh!" And is not this a lifted up his voice against his enemies upon sight most worthy of our attention? Is it earth, thunders with the glorious voice of his not very meet, right, and our bounden duty, excellency against them from heaven. He that we should open the eyes of our faith, who never brake a bruised reed, rules the nawhich the bewitching cup of pleasure and tions with a rod of iron, and breaks them in vanity, mingled by a deceitful world for our pieces like a potter's vessel. He who quenched destruction, has charmed to sleep? that we not the smoking flax, extinguishes the great should "lift up our heads, and look up, to see lights of the world; darkens the sun, and our redemption drawing nigh" For draw turns the moon into blood; commands the nigh it will, and it does, whether we con- stars from their stations, and the dead from sider it or not. Every evening takes a day their graves; shakes the powers of heaven, from the world's duration. The portion of and the foundations of the earth, and all hearts the wicked is so much less, and the time of that are not fixed on him. their punishment so much approached; the The trumpet sounds, and he is coming. sufferings of the patient so much diminished, The everlasting gates of heaven, which lifted and their hopes of deliverance so much in- up their heads for the King of Glory to enter creased. Nay, every clock that strikes, bids in, are again lifted up; and behold the prous recollect that the promise of Christ has cession that comes forth of them, descending then received an additional force: "Behold, to this lower world, as it is described by one I come quickly, and my reward is with me, who saw it in vision: "I saw heaven opened, to give to every man according as his work and behold a white horse, and he that sat shall be." The precise day and hour know-upon him was called faithful and true," the eth no man. Though probably as it was at accomplisher of all his promises; "and in his first advent, so likewise will it be at his second. The faithful servants, who are watching for the return of their Lord, and "looking for redemption in Jerusalem," will be able by the books of the Scriptures, and the signs of the times, to tell when the day is approaching. But what avails a curious disquisition upon the exact period of the world's dissolution? What is likely to be the fate of those malefactors, who, instead of preparing for their trial, spend the small portion of time allotted them, in disputing with each other concerning the hour in which the trumpet shall sound, and the Judge make his entry? In this, above all other cases "blessed is the man that feareth always." "Blessed is that servant, who, whether his master cometh at the second watch, or whether he cometh at the third watch," is ready to receive him and exhibit his accounts. Blessed, in short, is he, and he only, who hears continually these words of the beloved John: "Behold, he cometh." He cometh, indeed! But how changed! how different his appearance from what it was! How shall we be able to conceive of it as it deserves, to raise our thoughts from the voice of the tender babe in the manger, bewailing our sins that brought him thither, to the voice of the Son of God, from which the heavens and the earth shall fly away, and no place be found for them any more for ever! Yet so it is.-Behold, he who came in swaddling clothes, cometh with clouds. He who

righteousness he doth judge" the world, "and
make war" against all that oppose him. "His
eyes were as a flame of fire," discerning and
destroying the counsels of his adversaries;
"and on his head were many crowns;
"all
the kingdoms of this world were become his;
"and he had a name written that no one
knew, but he himself," the ineffable name of
the divine essence. "And he was clothed
with a vesture dipt in blood," the garment of
vengeance. "And his name," by which he
is known to men, " is called THE WORD OF
GOD. And the armies which are in heaven
followed him upon white horses," attending
him in his glory, "clothed in fine linen,
white and clean," which is the righteousness
of saints. "And out of his mouth goeth a
sharp sword," namely, his holy word, "that
with it he should smite the nations. And he
shall rule them," that have rejected the golden
sceptre of mercy," with a rod of iron. And
he treadeth the wine-press of the fierceness
and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath
on his vesture and on his thigh a name writ-
ten, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”

When Joshua, at the head of the armies of Israel, surrounded Jericho, at the sound of the trumpet the walls fell flat. When the divine Joshua, at the head of the armies of the true Israel of God, the church triumphant, surrounds this city of destruction, can the event be otherwise? Assuredly it cannot. The strength, beauty, and glory of the world

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