V.

themselves, and a delightful calm feemed DISC. to forebode the approach of those halcyon days, when the Prince of Peace should make his abode amongst us; like the stillnefs of that hallowed night, on which the angelic choir defcended, to fing "Peace "on earth;" peace with God, by the pardon of fin; peace with ourselves, by the anfwer of a clear confcience; peace with one another, by mutual charity. O divine Peace, how lovely and how pleasant doft thou appear! How happy and heavenly is the kingdom of Meffiah, where thou art to be found! Who would not wish to see, who would not labour to promote the full accomplishment of the last claufe of the prophecy we have been confidering, in the extenfion of this kingdom and dominion of Chrift" from fea to fea, "and from the river to the ends of the "earth ;” that fo all the nations of the world might remember themselves, and turn to the Lord Jefus, as many did at the first preaching of his Gofpel. daughter of Zion lead the

And let the

way, reftored

to

V.

[DISC. to her pre-eminence among the churches. We will not envy her the honour, as she formerly envied us Gentiles, but rather rejoice and fhout with her, in the day when fhe fhall be led to acknowlege her King; the King of Righteousness, Salvation, and Peace; the once lowly, but now highly exalted Jefus of Nazareth; who, as at this time, came to vifit us in great humility, and shall come again, at the appointed hour, to judge the world; when we fhall behold him, glorious as Jerufalem herself can wish, riding upon the heavens in power and majefty unutterable, amidst the acclamations of faints and angels,

DISCOURSE VI.

THE KING OF GLORY.

REVELATIONS I. 7.

Behold, he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall fee him, and they also that pierced him; and all the kindreds of the earth fhall-wail because of him. Even fo, Amen.

It is the of well
IT

T is the peculiar fupputation of the DISC.

Christian church, as a pious writer well VI. obferves, to begin the year, and to commence the annual courfe of her fervices, at this time of Advent, herein differing from all other accounts of time whatfo

DISC. ever. The reafon of which feems plainly
VI. to be this, because in the numbering her

days and measuring her feafons, fhe does
not fo much regard the fun in the firma-
ment, as the great Sun of Righteousness,
her Lord and Saviour who is in heaven.
She confiders herself as "redeemed from
"the earth;" and therefore no longer con-
fined to the calculations of the world, or
obliged to direct herself by the courses of
the material luminaries. It is her employ-
ment to make known to her children the
time of falvation, called in Scripture," the
66 year
of the redeemed;" and this year
was introduced by the everlafting day-fpring
from on high vifiting her; whereby the
became, what the Spirit ftyles her, in the
Revelation, "a city that has no need of
"the fun, neither of the moon to shine in
"it, for the Lord God and the Lamb are
"the light and the glory thereof."

The leffons and fervices therefore for the four first Sundays in her liturgical year propose to our meditations the twofold Advent

of

VI.

of our Lord Jefus Chrift, teaching us that DISC. it is he who was to come, and did come, to redeem the world; and that it is he alfo, who fhall come again, to be our judge. These two Advents involve in them and comprehend between them the whole counsel of God for the redemption of mankind, by the coming of Chrift in the flesh, with the final iffue of that counfel in respect of each individual, to be manifested at his coming to judgment.

The end propofed by the church, in setting these two appearances of Chrift together before us, at this time, is, to beget in our minds proper difpofitions to celebrate the one, and expect the other; that fo, with joy and thankfulness, we may now

go to Bethlehem, and fee this thing "which is come to pafs, which the Lord "hath made known unto us," even the Son of God come to vifit us in great humility; and thence, with faith unfeigned, and hope immovable, afcend in heart and mind to meet the fame Son of God in the

VOL. I.

L

air,