the way of Christ's coming into the world. But christians have been very unbelieving in respect to their return. Their unbelief of that remote event has become proverbial. If we hear any one say that such or such event will not take place till the Jews come, we understand him to mean that such an event never will come to pass. Such unbelief of the plain and numerous predictions of the conversion and restoration of the Jews, has led Christian nations to despise and abuse that ancient and once venerable nation. This feeling and conduct is a species of infidelity, highly reproachful to those who profess to believe the Bible, in which there are such great and precious promises in favor of God's peculiar people. It is true, they deserve to be despised and neglected, for their despising and neglecting the heathen so long, and viewing themselves as the only nation worthy of the notice and favor of God. Even the apostles, at first, supposed the gospel was sent exclusively to the Jews, and that salvation was of the Jews only. But this is no excuse for Gentile christians, who neglect, despise and abuse them almost every where. But, 6. Since God has plainly told us that he intends to deliver them from their low and depressed state, and carry them back to their native land, and put them into the possession of all the privileges and blessings of the gospel, we ought to desire and do all we can to bring about that great and happy event. We believe that the gospel makes no distinction between Jew and Gentile, and that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved. It appears from what has been said, that their conversion and restoration will be a rich and extensive blessing to the world, and like life from the dead to us, as well as to them. It is, therefore, a most important and desirable event. Paul viewed it in this light. "Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved." He says again, " I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins. As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes; but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers' sakes. For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief; even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy." We are much indebted to the Jews, who prepared the way for the coming, incarnation, and atoning death of Christ, and for spreading the gospel far and wide by the apostles, who were descendants of the Hebrews, the seed of Abraham. We have received unspeakable benefits from their being for a while cast away, and are promised still greater benefits from their predicted restoration. We ought sincerely to desire this great and glorious event, and to unite in our exertions with those who are forming societies and using means to bring it to pass. The Christian nations at the present day seem to have a greater tenderness for the Turks than for the Jews, and are unwilling to disturb them, for the sake of delivering the Jews from their despotic and cruel hands. But this is probably a work which they ought to do, and are destined to do. There is no ground to expect the restoration of the Jews, without the aid and assistance of the Christian world. And if the Jews are to be restored before the commencement of the Millennium, it is time for christians to be awake, and alive to the great and arduous work they have to do, and to prepare themselves for it. And they will not prepare themselves for it, until they attend to, and believe the divine predictions concerning God's peculiar, chosen and beloved people, who are groaning for deliverance from the cruelty and oppression of an ungrateful and unbelieving world. Finally, This subject teaches us the indispensable obligation we are under to believe, and love, and obey the sacred oracles, which the Jews so long preserved, and at length conveyed to us Gentiles, who were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world. The apostle asks, "What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision?" He replies, " Much, every way: chiefly because that unto them were committed the oracles of God." These we have more fully and completely in our hands, than the Jews ever had. By these we are highly favored above the Jews, who have only the Old Testament in their hands; and above all the pagan world, who are totally destitute of divine revelation, and perishing for the lack of knowledge. Our obligations to embrace the gospel are as great as the blessings which are promised to all who do embrace it. Those who disbelieve and reject the gospel, not only forfeit all the blessings it offers to their choice, but expose themselves to an aggravated condemnation, for resisting the light and force of divine truth, which renders them far more guilty than the unenlightened heathen. So our Saviour said to them who heard and rejected the gospel he preached: "Wo unto thee, Chorazin: Wo unto thee, Bethsaida; for if the mighty works which were done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment than for you." SERMON XXIV. SAINTS DESIRE TO SEE THE BEAUTY OF THE LORD. ONE thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple. - PSALM XXVII. 4. DAVID was a man of war from his youth; and during the greater part of his reign, his duty called him to head his armies, and lead them forth against his enemies, who were almost perpetually invading his kingdom. And though he was willing to follow the voice of God in his providence, yet he sincerely regretted his necessary absence from the house of God. Every revolving Sabbath renewed and increased his strong desires after the precious privileges and enjoyments of the sanctuary. And he was led, on some sacred day of rest, to compose this psalm, in which he expresses the pious feelings of his heart, and his ardent wishes to meet God in the place where he recorded his name, and displayed the moral excellences of his character. "One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple." It was his sincere desire that his business might always admit of his being in the house of God every Sabbath; and he determined, as far as possible, to order his secular concerns so, that he might constantly attend the services of the sanctuary. For he says he viewed this the greatest privilege on earth. "One thing have I desired;" that is, I have desired one thing above all others; and that is, to enjoy without interruption, the public worship of God in his house. This he desired above all things, because it gave him the best opportunity of beholding the beauty of the Lord, and of knowing his mind and will revealed in his word. All good men feel as the king of Israel felt, and desire to behold the beauty of the Lord, as he displays it in the assembly of his saints, who have a spiritual discerning of spiritual things. This is the plain truth suggested to our present consideration; that good men desire to see the beauty of the Lord. It is proposed, I. To show in what the beauty of the Lord consists; I. Let us consider in what the beauty of the Lord consists. We call nothing beautiful but what is pleasing; and we call nothing pleasing in a moral agent, but what is morally excellent, or truly virtuous. The beauty of the Lord, therefore, must signify that, in his moral character, which is pleasing to a virtuous and benevolent heart. His beauty is the beauty of holiness. There is no moral excellence in his necessary existence, independence, omnipresence, omnipotence, or omniscience. These natural atributes, separately considered, are neither morally good, nor morally evil; and are either lovely or hateful, according to the heart that governs them. Under the influence of a malevolent heart, they would be infinitely odious and detestable; but under the influence of a benevolent heart, they are great and amiable perfections. The moral beauty and excellence of the Deity lies altogether in his heart, which is purely and perfectly benevolent. God is love; which constitutes his supreme beauty, and comprises all that is virtuous and morally excellent in his nature. Pure, disinterested, universal benevolence, forms the most beautiful and amiable character conceivable. We cannot conceive of any greater excellence in God than a heart full of perfect goodness; and such goodness, the scripture assures us, fills and governs his vast, all comprehensive mind. "There is none good but one, that is God." He is good, and doeth good. "The Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works." When Moses besought him to show him his glory, and he granted his petition, he did nothing more than to cause all his goodness to pass before him. All his goodness comprehends all his moral perfections. His holiness, his justice, and his mercy and grace, are only so many branches of his universal goodness. In a word, every thing that is beautiful, amiable and praise-worthy in the Supreme Being, consists in the infinitude of his goodness. I now proceed to show, II. That good men are capable of seeing this moral beauty of the divine character. Sinners can see every thing in God but this moral beauty. To this they are totally blind. "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." The more fully and clearly the moral beauty of the Lord is displayed before the minds of sinners, the more they hate and oppose it. None, therefore, but real christians, or those who have been born again, and become partakers of the divine nature, are capable of seeing the moral beauty of that pure love, which forms the moral glory and excellence of the Deity. But all who are holy as God is holy, can discern the beauty of his holiness. The apostle speaking in the name of christians says, "God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." When he renews the hearts of men, or sheds abroad his love in them, he gives them a spiritual discerning of spiritual things, and causes them to discern the supreme excellence of his moral character. This the apostle John declares in the most explicit terms. He says, "He that loveth not knoweth not God." But on the other hand, he asserts that "love is of God, and every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God." And again he says, "God is love: and he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him." These declarations are agreeable to reason, as well as to the feelings of all real christians. For seeing the beauty of any object, and loving that object, are precisely the same thing. After the heart perceives the amiableness of any object, there is nothing more implied in loving it. So when any man perceives the divine character to be lovely, there is nothing more necessary in order to love it. Of course, all who love God do actually see his moral beauty and excellence. This will more clearly appear, if we consider it in another point of view. Those who love God, have the same kind of love that God has and exercises towards them and all holy creatures. They are holy as God is holy, and feel as God feels. Being benevolent, they discover the beauty of benevolence wherever it is displayed by the kind Parent of the universe. And as he has infinitely more benevolence than all other beings, so he appears infinitely more amiable and beautiful than any other being in the universe. They see him to be just such a being as they desire him to be. They do not desire the least alteration in one of his perfections. They are pleased to see him as holy, as just, as good, and as gracious as he is, and as wise and powerful as he is to do all his pleasure. They see God as he sees himself, glorious in holiness, and of consequence, glorious in all his other attributes, which are under the influence of his perfectly benevolent heart. They see supreme beauty and excellence in his power and wisdom, in his justice and sovereignty, in his mercy and grace, as they are continually exercised for the highest good of the universe. This leads me to show, |