Page images
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors]

there is no need of laborious watchfulness in that world, where there is no flesh and blood to hang heavy upon the spirit; but the sanctified powers of the soul are all life, and immortal vigour. There is 'no want of the sun-beams' to make their day-light, or to irradiate that city; the glory of God enlightens it' with divine splendors, and the Lamb is the light thereof:' No inhabitant can sleep under such an united blaze of grace and glory: No faintings of nature, no languors or weariness' are found in all that vital climate; every citizen is for ever awake and busy under the beams of that glorious day; zeal, and love, and joy, are the springs of their eternal activity, and there is no night there.'

DISCOURSE IV.

CHRIST ADMIRED

AND

GLORIFIED IN HIS SAINTS.

2 EP. THESSAL. i. 10.

When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and admired in all them that believe.

HOW mean and contemptible soever our Lord Jesus Christ might appear heretofore on earth, yet there is a day coming when he shall make a glorious figure in the sight of men and angels. How little soever the saints may be esteemed in our day, and look poor and despicable in an ungodly world, yet there is an hour approaching when they shall be glorious beyond all imagination, and Christ himself shall be glorified in them. In that day shall the Lord our Saviour be the object of adoration and wonder, not only among those of the sons of men that have believed on him, but before all the intellectual creation, and that upon the account of his grace manifested in believers.

The natural enquiry that arises here is this, 'What particular instances of the grace of Christ in his saints, shall be the matter of our admiration, and his glory in that day?'

To this I shall propose an answer under the follow

ing particulars.

First, It is a matter of pleasing wonder, 'that persons of all characters should have been united in one faith, and persuaded to trust in the same Saviour, and embrace the same salvation;' for some of all sorts shall stand in that blessed Assembly. Then it shall be a fruitful spring of wonder and glory, that men of various nations and ages, of different tempers, capacities, and interests, of contrary educations, and contrary prejudices, should believe one gospel, and trust in one Deliverer, from hell and death: That the sprightly, the studious and the stupid, the wise and the foolish, should relish and rejoice in the same sublime truths, not only concerning the true God, but also concerning Jesus the Redeemer; that the Barbarian and the Roman, the Greek and the Jew, should approve and receive the same doctrines of salvation, that they should come into the same sentiments in the matters of religion, and live upon them as their only hope.,

Astonishing spectacle! When the dark and savage inhabitants of Africa, and our fore-fathers, the rugged and warlike Britons, from the ends of the earth,' shall appear in that assembly, with some of the polite nations of Greece and Rome, and each of them shall glory in having been taught to renounce the gods of their ancestors, and the demons which they once worshipped, and shall rejoice in Jesus the king of Israel, and in Jehovah the everlasting God.

The conversion of the Gentile world to Christianity, is a matter of glorious wonder, and shall appear to be so in that great day: That those who had been educated to believe many gods, or no god at all; should renounce atheism and idolatry, and adore the true God only; and those that were taught to sacrifice to idols, and to atone for their own sins with the blood of beasts, should trust in one sacrifice, and the atoning blood of the Son of God. Here shall stand a believing atheist, and there a converted idolater, as monuments of the Almighty power of his grace.

There shall shine also in that assembly, here and there a prince, and a philosopher, though not many wise, not many noble, not many mighty are called ;' and they shall be matter of wonder and glory; that princes who love no controul, should bow their sceptres and their souls, to the royalty and godhead of the poor man of Nazareth: That the heathen philosophers, who had been used only to yield to reason, should submit their understandings to divine revelation, even when it has something above the powers and discoveries of reason in it.

It shall raise our holy wonder too when we shall behold some of the Jewish Priests and Pharisees, who became converts to the Christian faith, adorning the triumph of that day. The Jewish Pharisees who expected a glorious temporal prince for their Mes siah, that they should at last own the son of a carpenter for their Teacher, their Saviour and their King; that they should veil the pride of their souls, and acknowledge a parcel of poor fishermen for his chief

[ocr errors]

ministers of state, and receive them as ambassadors to the world. That those who thought they were righteous, and boasted in it, should renounce their boastings and their righteousnesses, and learn to expect salvation and life for themselves, from the death and righteousness of another: That they who once called the cross of Christ folly and weakness,' should come to see the wisdom and power of God' in a crucified man, and believe him who hung upon a tree as an accursed creature, to be Emmanuel, God with us, 'God manifest in the flesh,' and the Saviour of mankind.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

Surely shall men and angels say in that day, these were the effects of an Almighty power, it was the work of God the Saviour, and it is marvellous in our eyes.' With united voices shall all the saints confess, "flesh and blood has not revealed this unto us, but the spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ, and of God the Father. We had perished in our folly, but Christ has been made wisdom to us; we were in dark. ness and lay under the shadow of death, but Christ has given us light. light." 1 Cor. i. 30. Ephes. v. 14. Come, all ye saints of these latter ages upon whom the end of the world is come, raise your heads with me and look far backwards, even to the beginning of time and the days of Adam; for the believers of all ages, as well as of all nations, shall appear together in that day, and acknowledge Jesus the Saviour: According to the brighter or darker discoveries of the age in which they lived, he has been the common object of their faith. Ever since he was called the

« PreviousContinue »