ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the king of Glory shall come in. The inhabitants of heaven, astonished to hear a voice of joy and gladness from the region of sin and sorrow, ask from within-who is this king of Glory, that thus claims admittance, and by what right does he claim it? To which we reply-The Lord strong and mighty, even the Lord mighty in battle, who has overcome the sharpness of death, and opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers. Therefore we say, and in transport, without any fear of enthusiasm, we repeat it-Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the king of Glory shall come in. The words thus explained, what remains but that we apply them to ourselves, for the direction to our practice? And to this indeed every thing else is but introductory; for though we understood all mysteries, i. e. could explain the spiritual things of the Bible from one end to the other, and have not love, which proves itself by keeping the commandments, and as it can work no ill to any one, but all the good in its power, fulfilleth the law, if we have not this love, which only §edifieth, even divine knowledge will puff us up, and we shall think ourselves every thing, while we really are nothing. The end and design of preaching is, to save souls, by converting them from the error of their ways, not to get a character by declaiming. Woe be to that man, that makes the Bible a scaffold, for his vanity to climb after this grass that groweth on the house-tops; of which at the great harvest of the resurrection, the mower filleth not his hands, neither he that bindeth up the sheaves his bosom. Woe be to him, that makes to himself idols of the jewels of the sanctuary, and secretly seeks to be worshipped by them. Men he may impose upon: but he who has**eyes like a flame of fire, and feet like unto fine brass, will in a moment see through the vain deceit, and stamp him and his idols to powder. The only true praise of a sermon is, that some evil was forsaken, or some good done, upon the hearing of it; this will stand the fire, that shall consume the applauses of the world as stubble, and appear at the great day, so that he that soweth, and he that reapeth, may rejoice together for ever, in heaven. But those desirous of having this effect wrought in them, must attend a sermon, as the ordinance of the most high, to draw captive sinners from their chains of misery and iron in the dungeon of corrup tion, and people heaven with glorified saints. They must not come to church to entertain themselves as critics only, with accurately marking out the infirmities of the preacher, for scorn and derision, or with the insatiable *Athenian curiosity of hearing some new thing-when, alas, there is nothing new to be heard. Nothing but the old commandment which was from the beginning-Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. The end of the law yesterday, the fulness of the Gospel to-day, and the glory of his people for ever; the world's Almighty Creator, all-wise Governor, all-merciful Redeemer, and omniscient Judge. We are not wooers for ourselves, but suitors to him, and have nothing to do, but to direct men to him, who §forgiveth all their sins, healeth all their infirmities, fills their hearts with grace, and crowns their heads with glory. This was the office of the blessed saint we are now commemorating. And to every man that has taken, or will take upon him the office of the ministry, to the end of the world, the voice of St. John, beheaded for the noble testimony he bore in a corrupt corrupt court, yet crieth, through the long dark night of sin, in the wilderness of a desolate church. From the tombs of the dead, slain by the pestilence of infidelity, that walketh in the darkness of ignorance, and the lethargy of worldly cares and pleasures, that destroyeth in the noonday of knowledge, and the sunshine of the Gospel.-From the tombs of the dead, I say, even now he calls-(and would to God he was heard !) thus addressing himself to us, who are alive "You, who succeed me in the office of preparing a way in the hearts and affections of men, for the reception of the meek and humble Spirit of a suffering Redeemer, in faith and obedience, that he may walk among them, and be their God, must employ all your time and thoughts in considering and weighing well the properest methods to be taken, that this work of Jehovah may prosper in your hands. You are fallen into an age, when the way to heaven is strangely overgrown with the thorns and briers of the wilderness, and obscured by the corrupt traditions and imaginations of men. Your business is, to clear them away by wholesome discipline, to cast up again the high way by sound doctrine, and point it out by a conspicuous example to those under your care. For such is the temper of the times, that any who feel their wants, and * hunger and thirst after the righteousness the same Gospel of repentance from dead which is by faith, though pronounced blessed works, and faith in the living God, the Saby him who is to judge them and their revi- viour of all that believe, you will as certainlers, are more likely to be told by the world, ly be attended with the same power from (and would I could not say by some, whose above, to enable you to go on and prosper, profession it is to. renounce the world!) that until every mountain and hill be made low they are in an enthusiastic way, and in dan- before you. ger of being too good, than to have their wants satisfied, and themselves enabled to grow up in grace. more likely to be informed, that they need no Saviour, than to be directed to one. Overwhelmed in sorrow for their sins, they will, for that very reason, be persecuted by the world, always ready to serve the members as it served the head, to add affliction to the distressed, and grieve him that is already vexed at the heart. These children of Christ you must look for, take them out of the pit of sorrow, and the dust of death, and set them up upon the rock that is higher than they. Thus † bind up the broken hearted, comfort them that mourn, preach Christ to the contrite sinner, and rest not, till every valley under your care be exalted in faith and hope. * But, alas, this is not the hardest part of your work. There can be no greater pleasure than to give instruction in righteousness, and there are but few, in comparison, so disposed to receive it. The age has set up reason against the doctrines of Christ, sense against his commandments, and imagination against both. This has introduced, in matters of faith, either a professed infidelity, or a sceptical lukewarmness; in those of practice, either a shameless profligacy, or a pharisaical hypocrisy, and confidence in exteriors; while the little wit there is left is employed in inventing reasons why people should continue just as they are, and ridiculing those who believe, that broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be that find it, and act accordingly. All these reasonings, lusts, and imaginations are to be cast down, and every thought, passion, and fancy to be brought into subjection to the law of Christ, by the powerful Spirit of the word. To do this, will be judged, of course, by worldly men, a romantic undertaking. But remember, it was done once, when the world was composed of ignorant, blaspheming heathens, and carnal, self-conceited Jews. And if the Gospel has not the same effect now, which it had then, it can only be, because it is not preached and practised now, as it was then. When you the followers, like me the forerunner of the blessed Jesus, come from your retirements mortified and dead to the world, and worldly passions and tempers, and preach f Is. Ixi. 1, 2. * Ps. Ixi. 2. Matt. vii. 13. When this is once done, and those passions and prejudices that intercepted the view of heaven subsided, the mind, guided by that grace which God always gives to the humble, will easily be able to judge of the way that leads thither. How easy is it to convince a man the Gospel is true, when neither his pride nor his lust require that it should be false? If our Gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, whose eyes the God of this world has blinded, that they will not see. How quietly will a man hear, and readily assent to an argument, while it only relates to others, which when it comes to be turned upon himself, not all the demonstration in the world can make him see the force of. The devil generally misleads the judgment, by first bribing the affections. When these are brought low like a weaned child, when the heart can humble itself under a home application, and to a-§ Thou art the man-answer at once, I have sinned against the Lord, how easily may you bring back such a lamb from the wilderness of error, and place it in the high way of truth? How readily does every warped inclination or opinion, when the weight of original corruption by pride and lust is taken off, return to its right position, and point straight towards heaven. Though sometimes forced out of its direction, by the violence of temptation, repentance soon brings it back to its beloved north, where lieth the city of the great king, on whom evermore fixed, it ¶ works out its salvation with fear and trembling: still with an holy confidence trusting in that God, who having displayed his almighty power in bringing every mountain of pride and hill of passion low in the heart, will certainly, by the same power, make and keep every thing crooked and erroneous in it straight and true. The way of the Lord thus far prepared in the desert, you have only to take care, that no obstructions or stumbling blocks are left, to stay the progress of a soul ready to ** run with delight the way of God's commandments. And this requires constant attendance, and unwearied diligence; for the world, the flesh, and the devil are continually throwing temptations and objections in that way, to make it rough and uneven, that the Christian may stumble and fall. And as there is joy in heaven over one sinner that repents and rises, so if ever there is joy in hell, it is over a Christian that apostatizes, and falls. Now if the not removing the stumbling blocks be of so dreadful consequence, what will the portion of those ministers be, who shall add to the number, either by not preaching the Gospel of Christ, and reviling those that do, or else by letting their practice give the lie to their doctrine, and their lives be a standing answer to their sermons? Woe unto that man (says our Lord) that shall offend, or put a stumbling block in the way of, one of these little ones; it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea. Why? Because the millstone of sin will sink him, like lead, in the lake of fire and brimstone. On the contrary, what glory awaits him, who goes before his flock, removing all obstructions both in doctrine and practice, and makes all the rough places, in either, plain and even, for them to follow him. In such a church, and every soul that composes it, the Glory of the Lord will indeed be revealed, and the fruits produced will demonstrate him present, to all flesh, by his gracious influences. When the flowers appear on the earth, when the lily unfolds its chaste and spotless purity, and the humble violet is perceived only by its fragrancy, when the whole wilderness rejoices and blossoms like the rose, we are sure it has seen the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God. When the fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell, we know that summer is nigh, and the light of life acting upon us from his tabernacle in heaven, where he dwells in majesty inaccessible. From thence, yet a little while (and God only knows how little while!) and he comes down into his garden planted in the wilderness, to see the fruits produced, and pass final sentence on every tree, plant, and flower in it; to transplant the good into the paradise in heaven, and burn up the bad with unquenchable fire. He who had a way made for him to go from earth to heaven, shall have a way made for him to return from heaven to earth; he who has walked amongst us in his humble and suffering Spirit under grace, shall* ride upon his horses and chariots of salvation hereafter in glory. My voice gave notice of his coming, as a Saviour, in the wilderness of Judea; the trumpet shall proclaim his entrance as a judge in the wilderness of the world; where, for the last time, shall be heard from the mouth of the archangel, who shall then take my officePrepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a high way for our God; every valley, that has been depressed on earth, shall be exalted in heaven, and every mountain and hill, that have been exalted on earth, shall be made low in hell; the things made crooked by the fall shall be finally made straight, and the rough places all plain, in the sight of men and angels; and the glory of Jehovah shall be revealed from heaven, a flaming and consuming fire to his enemies, but a mild and gracious light to his friends; and all flesh shall see it together. Behold, he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him. The mouth of Jehovah hath spoken it, and therefore it will be done" And thou, O Lord Jesu Christ, who at thy first coming didst send thy messenger to prepare thy way before thee, grant that the ministers and stewards of thy mysteries may so prepare and make ready thy way, by turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, that at thy second coming to judge the world, we may be found an acceptable people in thy sight, to whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit, be ascribed, as is most due, all blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, now and for evermore. DISCOURSE LXXVIII. THE ALMIGHTY GLORIFIED IN JUDGMENT. REV. XI. 13, 14. And the same hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand; and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven. The second woe is past, and behold, the third woe cometh quickly. that endureth unto the end shall be saved. For these reasons I humbly trust it will be neither unseasonable, nor superfluous, to employ our meditations a little longer on the awful events that have of late astonished the world, that so, in the mouth of several witnesses, the great truth they are intended to teach may be established. Especially, as there seems now to hang a cloud over this nation, ready to break upon it in a storm, unless pierced and scattered by the prayers sent forth from penitent and faithful hearts. While we are musing on such events as these, the fire of devotion will burn, and then we shall speak with our tongues, we shall beseech the Lord to be gracious unto his land, and turn away captivity from Jacob. It is an heavy charge brought against some in the Psalms, that they regarded not in their minds the works of the Lord, neither considered the operations of his hands; and the punishment denounced against them for it is as heavy-Therefore shall he break them down, and not build them up. The contrary to this the sweet Psalmist exemplified in his own practice-I meditate (says he) on all thy works, and I muse on the works of thy hands. And when he had thus meditated, his delight was to tell of them in the gates of the daughter of Zion. Of all God's works he loved to discourse, but never did he pour forth more edifying strains, than when in order to choose and keep in the way of truth, the judgments of the Almighty were laid before him, when he remembered thine everlasting judgments, Far be it from me presumptuously to atO Lord, and received comfort. For it is the tempt prying into the archives of heaven, or priviledge of a Christian soul to draw the endeavor to ascertain the particular event water of life from the flinty rock, on the out- prophesied of in the words of the text. A side of which others fall, and are broken; to practical application of them to ourselves extract the sweetness of divine consolation will be of much more benefit and advantage, from an herb, which the world finds bitter as than a chronological disquisition. It is suffiwormwood. But if we would do this, our cient for our present purpose, that they desthoughts must settle and dwell on these judg-cribe a judgment, and the effect of it. ments. We must not content ourselves with a judgment God has now caused to be heard the transient glance of awakened curiosity from heaven. The earth has trembled, and only, but deeply meditate and muse on them, is hardly yet still. For this same hour, or till being led to deposit the burden of our sins period of the world's duration, there has inby repentance, and lay fast hold on the merits deed been a great earthquake, great, in degree, of the Redeemer by faith, we likewise receive and extent, beyond anything we have ever the Spirit of comfort, and are filled with joy known. Not a tenth, but the whole large, in the Holy Ghost. The humiliation of a rich, and populous city of Lisbon, the queen day is a good beginning; but it is only a be- of traffick and merchandize, is fallen: no ginning. And if we suffer sense to gain the trace left of her once sumptuous palaces, no ascendant of faith, and end as soon as we path-way in her once spacious streets. There have begun, a relapse will be worse than the are slain of men nearer seventy thousand than disease, and we shall forfeit our hope in him seven, all destroyed and taken away suddenwho has said, not he that beginneth, but he ly at a stroke. The remnant are driven out Such into the fields, in a most wretched, miserable, I. Considering what the SS. teach concerning the author and cause of earthquakes. And first, as to the author of them. They do not come by chance, or nature. For as to chance, there is no such thing. *Not a sparrow (says the Truth himself) falls to the ground without your father, or is forgotten before God." If there was any such thing, it would be in the casting of a lot, but † the whole disposal thereof is of the Lord. As to nature, no doubt there are second causes made use of in this, as in other judgments ; and if the Scripture account of the construction of the earth was accurately examined, philosophers might give a rational and defensible account of them and their agency, which at present they seem pretty much at a loss to do. But the question to be asked by every one, that is not far gone in the atheism of the times, is, who created these second causes by his power, and directs them by his wisdom, to produce such effects, at such times, in such places, and for such purposes? Even he, And now, when we enter into our closets, ‡ known unto whom are all his works from and shut the doors upon the dissipation and distraction of a thoughtless world, what do we imagine all this is for? For us to read over the account, at a leisure hour, and wonder how it should happen? Surely no-To us, and to all dwellers upon earth has the Almighty God spoken in thunder, and storm, and earthquake, and called the world to repentance, from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same, that when his † judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world may learn righteousness, while yet the time of trial lasts, e'er he appears out of Zion in perfect glory, and calls the heaven from above, as well as the earth from beneath, that he may judge all his people. But my brethren, who among us can abide the day of coming, or who dares say he can stand when he appeareth? The earth, we see, fails before him, and trembles at the look of him, when through the cloud of judgment the fire of his wrath shows itself; the sea and the waves swell and roar at his presence. ||"The mountains see him (though man does not) they see him and tremble; ¶ the waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee, and were afraid, the overflowing of the water passed by; the deep uttered his voice, and lifted up his hands on high." O may the remnant of men, and the great cities of the world, be so affrighted, with a saving fear, as to give glory to the God of heaven! The proper way to do this, I shall endeavor to point out in the following discourse, after the beginning of the world, and who disposed every event from that time to the consummation, to answer the designs of his wisdom, and perform the part allotted it in his great and stupendous plan, which composed the song of the Psalmist, of § mercy and judgment. To talk otherwise, is to deny the whole Scripture, from the first chapter of Genesis, which declares God created the world, to the last in Revelations, which declares he shall destroy it. "Is there any evil in the city (says the prophet || Amos) and the Lord hath not done it?" "I form the light (says he in the prophet ¶ Isaiah) and create darkness; I make peace, and create evil; I the Lord do all these things." Depression, as well as promotion, comes neither from the east, nor from the west, nor any other point of the compass; neither from chance, nor fortune, nor any other imagination; but" in the hand of the Lord there is a cup," he reaches it, and pours it out. That person must never have opened a Bible, to any purpose, in his life, who does not see and know, that famine, pestilence, war, and every other calamity, are but so many scourges in the hand of God. But to keep close to the point in hand, I shall prove at large from the SS. that earthquakes are so, by going over the accounts of those there recorded. The first of which is that terrible earthquake at the flood, when the waters of the great deep beneath, rising and swelling, burst their way through the earth that stands upon them, and shook and broke the whole to |