in the day of his power. The Jewish teachers, by their traditions and will-worship, had given an apparent obliquity to the straight and perfect rule of the law of God, and deformed the beauties of holinefs, binding heavy burdens, and grievous to be borne, upon the confcience; but he vindicated the law from their corrupt gloffes, and made the path of obedience plain, practicable, and pleafant.

Thus the glory of the Lord was revealed. Not to every eye; many, prejudiced by his outward appearance, and by the low miftaken views the Jews indulged of the office and kingdom of MESSIAH, whom they expected, could fee no form or excellence in him, that they should defire him; but his difciples could fay, We beheld his glory*. He spake with authority. His word was power. He controlled the elements, he raised the dead. He knew, and revealed, and judged the thoughts of mens hearts. He forgave fin, and thus exercised the rights and difplayed the perfections of divine foyereignty in his own perfon. But the prophecy looks forward to future times. After his afcenfion he filled his apoftles and difciples with light and power, and fent them forth in all directions to proclaim his love and grace to a finful world. Then the glory of the Lord was revealed, and fpread from one kingdom to another people. We ftill wait for the full accomplishment of this promife, and expect a time when the whole earth fhall be filled with his glory: For the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. It is to the power of his word that we owe the continuance of day and night, and the regular return of the feafons of the year. But thefe appointments are only for a limited term; the hour is coming, when the frame of nature fhall be diffolved. Heaven and earth fhell país away; but not a jot or tittle of what he hath declared

* John i. 14.

declared concerning his kingdom of grace fhall fail,

till the whole be fulfilled.

Those of you who have heard the Meffiah will do well to recollect, whether you were affected by fuch thoughts as these while this paffage was performed; or whether you were only captivated by the mufic, and paid no more regard to the words than if they had no meaning. They are, however, the great truths of God. May they engage your ferious attention, now they are thus fet before you!

SER

SERMON I

The Shaking of the Heavens and the Earth..

HAGGAI ii. 6, 7.

Thus faith the Lord of hofts, Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the fea, and the dry land: And I will shake all nations, and the defire of all nations fball come, and I will fill this house with glory, faith the Lord of bofts.

G

OD fhook the earth when he proclaimed his law to Ifrael from Sinai. The defcription, though very fimple, prefents to our thoughts a fcene unfpeakably majeftic, grand, and awful.

The

mountain, was in flames at the top, and trembled to its bafis. Dark clouds, thunderings, and lightnings filled the air. The hearts of the people, of the whole people, trembled likewife; and even Mofes himself faid, I exccedingly fear and quake. Then, as the apoftle, referring to this paffage, obferves, The voice of the Lord hook the earth +, But the prophet here speaks of another, a greater, a more important, and extensive concuffion. Yet once a little while, and I will shake`not the earth only, but the heavens.

If we really believe that the fcriptures are true, that the prophecies were delivered by holy men, who fpake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit, and that they shall all be certainly fulfilled; how ftudious fhould we be to attain a right understanding of paffages and events, in which we are fo nearly interested, that our hearts may be duly affected

by

• Exod. xix. 16.-19.

+ Heb. xii. 26.

by them? But, alas! experience and observation ftrongly confirm the remark of the poet,

Men are but children of a larger growth.

If you put a telescope into the hands of a child, he will probably admire the outside, especially if it be finely ornamented. But the ufe of it, in giving a more diftinct view of diftant objects, is what the child has no conception of. The mufic of the Meffiah is but an ornament of the words, which have a very weighty fenfe. This fenfe no mufic can explain, and when rightly understood, will have fuch an effect as no mufic can produce. That the mufic of the Metab has a great effect in its own kind, I can easily believe. The ancients, to describe the power of the mufic of Orpheus, pretend, that when he played upon his harp, the wild beasts thronged around him to liten, and feemed to forget their natural fiercenefs. Such expreffions are figurative, and defigned to intimate, that by his addrefs and inftructions, he civilized men of fierce and favage - difpofitions. But if we were to allow the account to be true in the literal fense, I should still suppose that the wild beasts were affected by his music only while they heard it, and that it did not actually change their natures, and render lions and tigers gentle as lambs, from that time forward. Thus I can allow, that they who heard the Messiah might be greatly impreffed during the performance; but when it was ended, I fuppofe they would retain the very fame difpofitions they had before it began. And many, I fear, were no more affected by this fublime declaration of the Lord's defign to fhake the heavens and the earth, than they would have been, if the fame mufic had been fet to the words of a common ballad.

The Jews, when they returned from captivity, and

C 3

undertook

undertook to rebuild the temple of the Lord, met with many difcouragements. They were disturbed by the oppofition and arts of their enemies, who at one time fo far prevailed, as to compel them, for - a feafon, to intermit the work. And when the foundation of the temple was laid, the joy of those who hoped foon to see the folemn worship of God restored, was damped by the grief of others, who remembered the magnificence of the first temple, and wept to think how far the second temple would come short of it *. In thefe circumstances, the prophets Haggai and Zechariah were fent to animate the people by a promise, that inferior as the fecond temple might appear, compared with that which Solomon built, the glory of the latter houfe fhould be greater than the glory of the former +. Had this depended upon a profufion of filver and gold, the Lord could have provided it; for the filver is mine, and the gold is mine, faith the Lord of hofts. But the glory spoken of was of a different kind. The prefence of MESSIAH in the fecond temple, would render it far more honourable and glorious, though lefs pompous, than the temple of Solomon; and would be attended with greater confequences, than even the manifeftation of the God of Ifrael on Mount Sinai. Then he only fhook the earth; but under the second temple, he would shake the heavens and the earth, the fea and the dry land, to introduce the kingdom of MESSIAH.

We may confider from the words,.

I. A character of MESSIAH: The Defire of all

nations.

II. The effects of his appearance: Shaking the heavens and the earth.

III. His filling the house with glory. This close of ver. 7. is not in the paffage fet to mufic, but as it

is

Hag. ii. 3.

† Ezra iii. 12, 13.