to " rejoice, and be exceeding glad;" and are assured that "great is their reward in heaven." And, finally, we

*

learn that works of faith and benevolence which the saints themselves shall have forgotten will be remembered and acknowledged by the righteous Judge. "O Israel, thou shalt not be forgotten of me." They who do God's work, though they cannot deserve, shall infallibly receive, God's wages; wages, not of debt, but of grace. "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord."

Hebrews vi. 10; Matthew x. 42; Galatians vi. 7, 8; Matthew v. 12; XXV. 23, 34-40.

SERMON XXVI.

THE BLESSINGS OF THE GOSPEL.

PREACHED AT WALTHAM-STREET CHAPEL, HULL, AND ELSEWHERE, ON BEHALF OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS ΤΟ THE HEATHEN.

ISATAII XXV. 6-8.

AND IN THIS MOUNTAIN SHALL THE LORD OF HOSTS MAKE UNTO ALL PEOPLE A FEAST OF FAT THINGS, A FEAST OF WINES ON THE LEES, OF FAT THINGS FULL OF MARROW, OF WINES ON THE LEES WELL REFINED. AND HE WILL DESTROY IN THIS MOUNTAIN THE FACE OF THE COVERING CAST OVER ALL PEOPLE, AND THE VAIL THAT IS SPREAD OVER ALL NATIONS. HE WILL SWALLOW UP DEATH IN VICTORY; AND THE LORD GOD WILL WIPE AWAY TEARS FROM OFF ALL FACES; AND THE REBUKE OF HIS PEOPLE SHALL HE TAKE AWAY FROM OFF ALL THE EARTH: FOR THE LORD HATH SPOKEN IT.

THIS text may have referred, primarily, to the deliverance of the prophet's countrymen from Sennacherib's invasion, or to the blessings connected with their restoration from the Babylonish captivity, or to the prosperity which they enjoyed during the triumphs of the Maccabees. But in these events it had, at most, a very partial fulfilment. Like many other passages of this sublime book, it relates principally to the evangelical dispensation. It began to receive its proper accomplishment when that dispensation was fully opened at the day of Pentecost, so that the law of Messiah went forth out of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. Wherever the Gospel comes in its truth and power, we may boldly say, "This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.'

In that increasing diffusion of our holy religion which it is our felicity to witness, it is daily obtaining its progressive verification. In those final and universal triumphs of Christianity which by our Missionary institutions we are desirous to accelerate, there shall be a still more glorious performance of the things which are here told us from the Lord. And when the mystery of God shall be finished, and the mediatorial work and conquests of the Redeemer completed; when death and hell shall be cast into the lake of fire, and the warfare of the church on earth shall be succeeded by the everlasting rest and blessedness of the heavenly state; then the text shall be perfectly accomplished. Then-as St. Paul, who quotes a part of this passage in his First Epistle to the Corinthians, has expressly affirmed-shall be brought to pass, in all their glorious plenitude of meaning, the sayings that are here written.

It were superfluous, I am persuaded, to enter into any more elaborate proof of the suitableness of the text to the purpose of the present solemnities. What the spirit of prophecy has here recorded is the testimony of Jesus, and of His salvation ; the subject presented to our view being THE BLESSINGS OF THE GOSPEL OF THE SON of God. Those blessings are described in their general nature, in their unrivalled excellence, and in their universal extent. Each of these particulars it shall be my endeavour to illustrate. May God grant us His all-sufficient help!

I. The blessings of the Gospel are here described in their general nature,—as including instruction for the ignorant, consolation for the sorrowful, and life for the dead.

The Gospel is the appointed means of conveying instruction to the ignorant for, by its instrumentality, we are told, that God "will destroy the face of the covering" (that is, the covering of the face) "cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations." It makes provision not only for their illumination and consequent holiness, but for their

happiness too for it comes to "wipe away tears from off all faces," and to diffuse universal peace and blessedness. And it completes its glorious triumphs over the apostasy and degradation of our race, by holding out to the hopes, and ultimately accomplishing in the experience, of all who embrace it, a conquest over death itself, and the fruition of life everlasting for, by the same means, God "will swallow up death in victory."

In order to have just views either of the nature, the necessity, or the value of the blessings thus provided, we must turn our attention to the general state of man without the Gospel; which is, as the text plainly implies, a state of darkness, and misery, and death.

1. The natural state of fallen man is a state of moral darkness. A vail is upon his face, by which those things which make for his peace, and essentially affect his well-being, are hidden from his eyes.

(1.) There is the vail of native ignorance. The first man was created in a state of perfect purity. While he abode in that state, he had uninterrupted fellowship with his Maker; and, walking in closest communion with the only wise God, he could not but be wise. From the fountain of light he received all that knowledge which was necessary to duty and to happiness. But no sooner did he become a sinner, than his sin separated between him and God. Now the light of the Lord was withdrawn, and he was involved in darkness that might be felt. This darkness, indeed, was afterwards graciously removed in part from the mind of Adam, when he became the subject of mercy. But we are naturally the children of his flesh, not of his faith and piety; and that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and nothing better than flesh. It is "the new

"which is "renewed in knowledge," after the image of the Maker. The old man, the merely natural man, is the subject of total and absolute ignorance, as it respects God and eternity. He knows not, till he is Divinely instructed, whence he came, or whither he is going. He cannot tell, if left

to himself, either his origin or his destiny. He is born like the wild ass's colt. He is altogther "sensual, having not the Spirit," and cannot know those things of the Spirit of God which are only spiritually discerned. Hence, ever since the fall, darkness has covered the earth, and gross darkness the minds of the people.

(2.) It must, however, be thankfully remembered, that the restoring grace which freely visited Adam has also visited all his posterity. "The true light," by various external notices or internal discoveries, "lighteth every man that cometh into the world." Hence no man is in darkness merely and solely because of the vail of native ignorance. That vail would have been effectually penetrated, were not the influences of the great Sun of Righteousness resisted by the yet thicker vail of moral corruption. Awful as is the ignorance resulting from Adam's sin, not a single individual of his numerous progeny is authorized to cast a stone at him on that account. Not one of us can fairly reproach his great sire for being the author of so much misery to the race. For we have all personally trodden in his steps, and each descendant has repeated for himself the foolish choice and fatal disobedience of the first man. It would be an unwarrantable presumption to compliment ourselves with the idea, that, had we been placed in his circumstances, we should have been less frail than he. For, now that we are actually restored by sovereign goodness to all the knowledge and moral power requisite to constitute a state of righteous probation, we have, in point of fact, sinned against the light, and by our own act and deed superadded the darkness of personal corruption to that of native ignorance. Sin has exactly the same tendency in each particular case, as in the case of Adam. It provokes God to withhold the light of life, and to take away His Holy Spirit from us. It darkens the understanding by its deceitfulness, as well as hardens the heart by its malignity. It tends to extinguish that candle of the Lord which shines in the conscience, and to render useless and unavailing those other means which God has