Father's glory must be the brightest and most glorious thing in heaven: yet this is brought down to the earth, and feen by men upon earth, John i. 14. "The word was made flesh, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father!" Sirs, whatever you think of this; yet I can tell you, that this is the admiration of angels; fee how they fall a wondering at it, If. vi. 3. The feraphims, while they are beholding the glory of God, in the face or perfon of Chrift, they are fo ftricken with wonder, that they cry, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hofts!" And obferve what is added in the close of the verfe. "The whole earth is full of his glory!" The feraphims do not fay, The whole heavens are full of his glory; for that is no wonder to them, "feeing there can in no wise enter into heaven any thing that defileth :" But that the whole earth fhould be filled with the glory of an incar nate Deity; that he should come down from heaven, and manifeft his glory to a loft world, full of fin and mifery, through a vail of flesh, is what the inhabitants of heaven are stricken with wonder at. O Sirs! "The tabernacle of God is with men!" In the days of the Meffiah, the glory of heaven is brought down to earth; and is not this a great thing done, in the Meffiah's days?

2. In the days of Chrift, "the temple of God is opened, and the ark of his testament is to be seen," Rev. xi. last verse. O Sirs! We who live in the days of Christ, have a far better and more glorious temple than ever the church of Ifrael had, even when their material temple was in its greatest fplendour: Chrift is the temple! and Oh, God is in his holy temple; yea, the fulness of the Godhead dwells in him bodily! And the temple is opened in the difpenfation of the everlasting gofpel; and we have free accefs into this temple; every bar and impediment that stood in our way of communion with God is now removed; and we have "boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jefus, by a new and living way which he hath confecrated for us, through the vail, that is to fay, his flesh," Heb. x. 19. 20. And here is to be feen the ark of his teftament; the ark was a cheft, wherein the two tables of the law were kept, written upon ftone. Well, Chrift is the true Ark, in whom the law is kept, and kept for ever. The honour, beauty, and glory of it is main tained and preserved by Chrift; for he has made it honourable, and magnified it by his obedience unto the death. Oh, is not this a great thing done in the days of the Meffiah!

3. In his day paradife is opened; and the new Jerufalem

is brought down from God out of heaven, Rev. xx. 16. We loft an earthly paradife by the fin of the first Adam, but we regain a heavenly paradife by the righteousness of the second Adam. Yea the new Jerufalem is fent down; all the glory of heaven and of a happy eternity are wrapt up in a word of grace; in a covenant of grace, and brought down to us, that we by faith may poffefs them.

4. A bridge is laid over the infinite gulph of natural and moral diflance, between God and man, and the gulph of di vine wrath, that cut off our communication with heaven! And by this bridge, a free paffage and communication is opened, between God and man; by the bridge of the human nature united to the divine, offered in a facrifice to juftice, we may pals and repafs, or "go in and out, and find pafture. The juft fuffered for the unjuft, that he might bring us to God." He is the way to the Father, and there is no coming to the Father but by Chrift. This is the ladder that Jacob faw, paffing between heaven and earth, and the angels afcending and defcending upon it. It is upon the footing of the mediation of the Son of God, that the "angels are miniftering spirits, fent forth to minifter for them who are the heirs of falvation."

5. In the day of the great Meffiah, a throne of grace is reared, and proclamations iffued out to all the ends of the earth, to come unto it with boldness, for "mercy and grace to help in time of need," Heb. iv. 16. If. lv. 1. "Ho, every one that thirfteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money, come, buy and eat, yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price." O Sirs, is it not a happinefs to live in fuch halcyon days, that whatever we need, we have it for the afling? For now, fince the tribunal of justice is fprinkled by the blood of the Lamb, and turned to a mercy-feat, it is nothing but afk and have, with the King that fits on the throne: "Afk, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye ye thall find; knock, and it fhall be opened unto you. For this is the confidence that we have towards him, that if we afk any thing according to his will, he heareth us." So forward and liberal is he, that he even prevents us with his mer cy, before we afk it of him: "Before they call, I will anfwer; and whiles they are yet fpeaking, I will hear." And again, "Hitherto have ye afked nothing; afk, and ye fhall receive, that your joy may be full."

6. In the days of the Meffiah the true manna is rained upon the children of Ifrael, in the wilderness of this world. It was a real and continued miracle that God wrought for Ifrael,

in the wilderness, when, instead of feeding them with the product of the earth, he made the heavens to rain down bread among them, about their tent doors, till they came to the promifed land. But, O Sirs, this was but a faint fhadow of the miraculous way that God takes of feeding our fouls, while travelling through the wilderness of this world, unto the promifed reft that is above: "My Father (fays Christ) giveth you the true bread from heaven." And what is that true bread? It is the flesh and blood of his eternal Son: "This is meat indeed, and drink indeed and except we eat the flesh, and drink the blood of the Son of man, we have no life in us." This true manna is rained down upon us, in the dispensation of the everlasting gofpel. The preaching of an incarnate and crucified Redeemer, brings Chrift and his falvation as near to us as ever the manna was brought to Ifrael, when it fell about their tent doors: yea, we have it in our hands; we have it in our mouths: we have it in our hearts; in the word of faith which we preach.

7. In this day the myftical brafen Serpent is lifted up upon the pole of the everlasting gospel, that poor finners, who are dying of the fting and poifon of the old ferpent, may be healed by looking unto it. John iii. 14. 15. "As Mofes lifted up the ferpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up; that whofoever believeth in him, fhould not perish, but have eternal life."

8. In the day of the Meffiah, the wells of falvation are opened. "Waters break up in the wilderness, and streams in the defart." It was prophefied, If. xii. 3. (of the day of Chrift) "With joy fhall ye draw water out of the wells of falvation:" And I would fain hope, that, even in this place, and upon this occafion, that promife has been fulfilled to not a few. The Rock has followed them, and been like rivers of waters in a dry place to their fouls; pafling through the valley of Baca, they found it a well, the rain alfo came down and filled the pools of ordinances; according to that promife, Pfal. Ixxii. 6. "He shall come down like rain upon the town grafs, as showers that water the earth."

9. In his day, beggars are taken from the dunghill and fet among princes. This is what is foretold by the prophet David, upon the humiliation of the mofl high God, Pfal. cxiii. 7. 8. "He raiseth up the poor out of the duft, and lifteth the needy out of the dunghill, that he may fet him with princes, even with the princes of his people." O what a furprifing fcene is it, when Chrift the Prince of the kings of the earth comes, in a day of power, and takes the poor foul, lying in the dung

of a natural state, wrapt up in fin and mifery, decks it with his own beauty, makes it like "the king's daughter all glorious within," and verifies that word upon it, Pfal. xlv. 9. "Upon thy right hand did ftand the queen in gold of Ophir?" The poor foul even blushes to think of its preferment, of what it is come to, when it looks "unto the Rock whence it was hewn."

10. In the day of the Meffiah "the barren woman is made to keep house, and to be a joyful mother of children," Pfal. cxiii. 9. The poor Gentile world was a poor barren woman during the Old Testament dispensation; but Oh! now, in the day of the Meffiah, the keeps houfe; or, as it is in the Hebrew, fhe dwells in a houfe;' fhe is brought in under the roof of the house of mercy, which shall be built up for ever. And he is made a joyful mother of children: hence is that call given to the church of God among the Gentiles, under the New Testament, If. liv. 1. " Sing, Ŏ barren, thou that didft not bear, break forth into finging, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child; for more are the children of the defolate, than the children of the married wife, faith the Lord :" The converts unto the Christian faith under the New Teftament, among the Gentile nations, are far more numerous than the converts that were made to him among the Jews, under the Old Teftament. Rev. vii. 4-9. There is there mention made only of twelve thoufand out of every tribe; but among the rest of the nations and languages of the world, there is an innumerable company which no man can number, clothed with the white robes of the imputed and implanted righteoufnefs of Chrift, crying, "Salvation to our God that fitteth on the throne, and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever."

11. In the day of the Meffiah, not only is the head of the old ferpent bruifed, but death, the king of terrors, is vanquished, and his destroying or flinging power is removed! The death of Chrift was the death of death; his burial and refurrection was the deftruction of the grave, Hof. xiii. 14. "I will ranfom them from the power of the grave." Our glo rious Redeemer having fpoiled death and the grave, he pro claims the victory, faying, "I am he that liveth, and was dead; and behold I am alive for evermore, and have the keys of hell and of death," Rev. i. 17.

Thus much for the first thing, namely, the day of Christ.

II. The fecond thing in the method was, to fpeak a little of faith's view, or fight of the day of Chrift.-For clearing of this I would have you to know,

, That

1, That it could not be a fenfible corporeal fight of the day of Chrift that Abraham had, like that of Simeon, when he" took him up in his arms and bieffed God, faying, Lord, now lettest thou thy fervant depart in peace, according to thy word, for mine eyes have feen thy falvation." For in Abraham's time Chrift was not yet come in the flesh, nor dead: He came not for many hundreds of years after Abraham's days. And therefore,

2dly, It must needs be a fight of his day by faith, which "is the evidence of things not feen, and the substance of things hoped for." Faith is frequently expreffed in fcripture under the notion of feeing, or believing in Chrift, John vi. 40. "He that feeth the Son, and believeth on him, hath everlasting life." If. xlv. 22. "Look unto me, and be ye faved, all the ends of the earth;" and in many other places. What the eye of the body is unto the vifible frame of nature, that is faith unto the new world of a gofpel revelation; for as it is by the natural eye that we behold the heavens and the earth, fun, moon, and ftars, and all other material objects, and the glory of God in them; fo it is by faith that we take up the new heavens and the new earth, of which Chrift is the glorious Sun of righteoufnefs; hence is that of the apostle, 2 Cor. iii. 18. All we beholding as in a glafs the glory of the Lord, are changed into the fame image."

Now Abraham's fight of Chrift, and of the day of Christ, I conceive it carries thefe things following in it.

1. it plainly fuppofes, that Abraham had a revelation of Chrift, and of what was to be done in his day, revealed to him in the promife, Gen. xxii. 18. "In thy feed fhall all the nations of the earth be blefled:" He had it revealed to him in his type Melchifedec; and in that remarkable trial of his faith, in offering up his fon Ifaac. Sirs, without a revelation of Chrift, faith could never take him up. The revelation of Chrift is to the eye of faith just what the light of the fun is to the eye of the body; take away the light, a man cannot fee any thing that is about him; fo take away the revelation of the word, we can never fee Chrift, or the things of Christ. Hence the word is called "a light fhining in a dark place"until the day dawn. So then, Abraham, feeing the day of Chrift, fuppofes he had a revelation of Christ. But, O Sirs, there is a vaft difference between the revelation that Abraham had of Chrift, and that which we now enjoy under the New Teftament! There is as great an odds as there is between break of day and the fun thining in his meridian height and light. But what a fhame is it to us, that there should be fuch a difference between his faith and our faith? Though the dif