lands, and most inveterately prejudiced against the truth of his gospel. How mighty was his hand, how illustriously outstretched his arm, when he made a path through the surges of the ocean, drove the torrent of Jordan backwards, and fetched rivers of waters from the flinty rock! Far more mighty will be its operations, when he shall remove the seemingly insurmountable obstructions to the general restoration of the Jews, shall throw all their religious apprehensions into a new channel, and cause tears of penitential sor. row to start from their stony eyes, confessions of unfeigned faith to issue from their blaspheming lips. Yet thus it will assuredly be. In the volume of the divine book it is written, They shall look on him whom they have pierced, and mourn." They shall adore as the Messiah, the once despised Galilean, and fix all their hopes of final felicity on that very Person whom their 'fathers slew and hanged on a tree.' Amazing revolution in the religious world! Yet this, together with the destruction of antichrist, and the illumination of the benighted Gentiles, may pass for small incidents, compared with those stupendous events which will dignify and signalize the closing scene of affairs. Then shall the Lord Jesus be manifested in unspeakable glory, and exert such acts of omnipotence as will be the terror of hell, the joy of heaven, the wonder of eternity. Then will he put an end to time, and bid the springs of nature cease to operate. Then shall his tremendous trumpet rend the universal vault, and pierce the dormitories of the dead. Then will he 'shake the earth out of its place,' and before his majestic presence the heavens shall flee away.' Then shall not How grand is the idea when David prays, Bow thy heavens, O Lord, and come down; touch the mountains, and they shall smoke. Much grander is the image when he says, "The springs of waters were seen, and the foundations of the world were discovered, at thy chiding, O Lord, at the blast of the breath of thy displeasure,' Transcendently and inimitably grand is this de scription, though given us by the most plain and artless writer in the world, "I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat on it, from whose face the heavens and the earth fled away, and there was no place found for them.' Rev.xx. 11. a nation only, but multitudes, multitudes of nations be born in a day; yea, rather, in an hour, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. All that are asleep in the beds of death, even those who, perishing in tempests, are sunk to the bottom of the ocean; or, swallowed up by earthquakes, are buried at the centre. of the globe; all shall hear his voice, and hearing shall awake, and awaking shall come forth: every human body, though ages have revolved since it gave up the ghost, though worms have devoured the flesh, and dissolution mouldered the bones; though its parts have been grinded by the teeth of beasts, or consumed by the rage of fire, dissipated in viewless winds, or scattered over the boundless globe, lost to our senses, and lost even to our imagination; yet will every human body then be restored, its limbs reassembled, and not In Virgil's admired representation, Jupiter hurls his thunder and a mountain falls at the stroke: Ille flagranti Aut Atho, aut Rhodopen, aut alta Ceraunia telo Georg. 1. 331. Dejicit. In Homer's more terror-striking plece, Neptune shakes the wide-extended earth; the mountains tremble to their centre; the ocean heaves its billows; and cities reel on their foundations: Αυταρ ένερθε Ποσειδάων ετίναξε Γαιαν απειρεσίην, ορέων τ' αιπεινα κάρηνα, Here the Son of the eternal God appears only, and all nature is alarmed; nor heaven nor earth can keep their standing: they flee away, like the frighted roe. How grovelling are the loftiest flights of the Grecian and Roman muse, compared with this magnificence and elevation of the prophetic spirit! Let us consider the passage a little more aitentively. Volet hæc sub luce videri.' Masterly performances, the more closely they are examined, the more highly they charm. It is not said, a few herds of the forest, a few kings, or armies, or nations; but the whole system of created things. It is not said they were thrown into great commotions, but they fled entirely away; not, they started from their foundations, but they fell into dissolution; not they removed to a distant place, but there was found no place for them;' they ceased to exist; they were no more. And all this, not at the strict command of the Lord Jesus, not at his awful menace, or before his fiery indignation, but at the bare presence of his majesty, sitting with serene but adorable dignity on his throne. If this is not the true sublime in its utmost scope, force, and beauty, I must confess I never saw it, nor ever expect to see it. Isa. ix. 8. an atom wanting, its frame rebuilt and never be de molished more. Then shall the unnumbered myriads of departed spirits return from their separate abodes, and, commissioned by Him who is the resurrection and the life,' reanimate each his organized system. Then shall Satan and his accomplices, those execrable and horrid criminals, be dragged from their dungeons of dark ness, and receive their doom at the Redeemer's tribunal. Then will misery and happiness, both consum. mate and both everlasting, be awarded by the Saviour's sentence. Then will he consign over the ungodly world, and the rebellious angels, to the flames of hell, and to agonies of despair. Then will he invest the righteous with the inheritance of heaven, and instate them in the fulness of joy. His word is fate; immutability seals, and eternity executes, whatever he de crees. And has this Jesus, so glorious, so majestic, so adorable, has He vouchsafed to take our nature, and be come our righteousness? Was He made under the law? did He fulfil all its demands? give perfect satisfaction to the penal, and yield perfect obedience to the preceptive? on purpose that the merit of all might be made over to us? Astonishing condescension! Ineffable grace! What thanks are due to such infinitely rich goodness! What a remedy is here for the impotence and guilt of fallen man! What a sure foundation of hope, and what an abundant source of joy, to every one that believeth! It is declared by the oracle of God, that'such an High-priest became us,' was absolutely necessary for our obnoxious and ruined condition, 'who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens.* It appears, I flatter myself, from the letter already in your hand, that Christ fully answered the former character; and from this epistle I hope it will appear, that he is the very person described in the latter clause. Estimate now, my dear friend, estimate if you can, the glory and excellency of this sublime Person; then may *Heb. vii. 26. you learn how to state the worth of his righteousness, and the degree of affiance suited to his merits; rather, you will perceive that his spotless birth, his perfectly obedient life, his exquisitely bitter death, are a satisfac tion of unknown dignity; precious, far beyond all the graces of men, and all the duties of angels; able to save to the uttermost all that rely on them, and come unto God through them. * Consonant to this are the sentiments of that penetrating critic and profound scholar, Dr. Lightfoot, who treating of our Saviour's obedience, says, ' Add to all this the dignity of his person who performed this obedience, that he was God as well as man, and his obedience infinite: such as in its validity subdued Satan, and in its all-sufficiency satisfied the justice of God.' After which our celebrated author makes this important and delightful improvement: Think, Christian, what a stock of obedience and righteousness here is for thee to answer and satisfy for thy disobedience and unrighteousness, if thou become a child of the covenant. Here is enough for every soul that comes to him, be they never so many. Like the widow's oil in the book of Kings, there is enough and enough again, as long as any vessel is brought to receive it.'t We need not wonder that Gentiles, who are ignorant of the Redeemer; that Jews, who treat him with contemptuous scorn; that professors of religion, who deny his eternal Godhead, place little, if any confidence in his righteousness. But it is strange that Christians, who know the Saviour, who acknowledge his divinity, and believe him to be exalted above all blessing and praise, it is exceedingly strange that they do not rejoice in him, make their boast of him, and say, with a becoming disdain of every other dependence, 'Get ye hence!' Such an assemblage of divine perfections must warrant, must demand, the most undivided, and the most unbounded confidence. There never was, no, not in all This is expressed by the sacred historian with an energy which no translation can equal: την τιμην του τετιμημένου αν ετιμήσαντο από υιών Ισραηλ. Matt. xxvii. 9 + Lightfoot's Works, vol. ii. p. 1258. Isa. xxx. 22. ages, nor in all worlds, any thing greater or richer, more dignified, or exalted, than the obedience of our Lord; nay, it is impossible to imagine what could be so suited to our wants, so proper for our reliance, or so sure to answer, more than answer all our expectations. Remember what the apostle affirms, and you will not wonder at my assertion: In him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.' How comprehensive and exalted is this description! It collects into a point all the rays of majesty and honour: it expresses in a sentence, I say, not whatever this pen has written, but whatever of dignity and excellence the Bible itself contains-the Godhead, the very nature and essence of the Deitythe fulness of the Godhead, unerring wisdom, almighty power, and whatever the great Jehovah challenges as his own-all the fulness, every adorable attribute, in the most ample measure, and in the highest degree; all this dwells, not visits occasionally, but statedly, invariably, eternally resides; dwells in Christ Jesus bodily, with a union inconceivably close and intimate, insomuch that the Godhead inhabiting, and the manhood inhabited, make but one and the same person. Therefore, adds the sacred disputant, ye are complete in Him." Never was any conclusion more weighty in itself, or founded on more solid principles. Ye are not only pardoned, but reconciled; and not only reconciled, but justified; nay, ye are, and what can be said or desired more? ye are complete; and not barely before men or angels, but before infinite purity and omniscience itself. Ye are made (amazing and charming truth!) the righteousness of God't in this wonderful Saviour. What a fountain is this, or rather what a sea of fathomless depth, to obliterate all sias, and supply all wants! What a mirror of God's stupendous grace, and ever-to-be-adored loving-kindness! Here let our meditations fix, and here let all our expectations centre. From this, not from any thing of our own, let us derive our peace, our joy, our supreme complacency. Into this subject we can never dive too deeply: of this subject we can never think too magnifi. cently. The righteousness of Christ is the master-pillar Col. ii. 9, 10, † 2 Cor, v. 21. |