beginning. For though it be high time that you fhould in good earneft attend to these things, bleffed be God it is not yet too late. He is a righteous and a gracious Saviour; feek him as fuch, and he will fpeak peace to you alfo. His fure promife is recorded for your encouragement, Him that cometh unte me I will in no wife cast out

*

132

SERMON XII.

Effects of Meffiah's Appearance.

ISAIAH XXXV. 5, 6.

Then the eyes of the blind fhall be opened, and the ears of the deaf fhall be unstopped: Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb fing.

OW beautiful and magnificent is the imagery

H by which the prophet, in this chapter, re

prefents the effects of MESSIAH's appearance! The fcene, proposed to our view, is a barren and defolate wilderness. But when he, who in the beginning faid, Let there be light, and there was light, condefcends to vifit this wildernefs, the face of nature is fuddenly changed by his prefence. Fountains and ftreams of water burft forth in the burning defert, the foil becomes fruitful, clothed with verdure, and adorned with flowers. The towering cedars, which were the glory of Lebanon, and the richest pastures, which were the excellency of Carmel, prefent themfelves to the eye, where, a little before, all was uncomfortable and dreary. How is it, that fo few of those who value themfelves upon their taste, and who profefs to be admirers of paftoral poetry in par ticular, are ftruck with the elegance and beauty of this description? Alas, we can only afcribe their indifference to the depravity of the human heart. They would, furely, have admired this picture, could they have met with it in any of their favourite authors; but defcriptive paintings in this style, so exquifitely combining grandeur with fimplicity, are

only

only to be found in the Bible, a book which their unhappy prejudices and paffions too often lead them to depreciate and neglect. But they who have a fcriptural and fpiritual tafte, not only admire this paffage as a defcription of a pleafing change in outward nature, but confider it as a juft and expreffive representation of a more important, a moral change, of which they have themselves been, in a measure, the happy fubjects. The barren wilderness reminds them of the state of mankind by the fall, and of their own hearts, before MESSIAH, the Sun of righteousness, arose upon them with healing, with light, power, and comfort, in his beams. In that memorable hour, old things paffed away, and all things became new. The Lord, by fhining into their hearts, and fhewing them his glory in the perfon of Chrift, hast created for them a new heaven and a new earth. The works of God around them in his creation and providence affume a different appearance. Before, they lived without him in the world; but now, they fee his hand wherever they look, they hear his voice in every event; for now the principles of his grace are planted in their fouls, and they are no longer barren nor unfruitful, but are filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jefus Chrift to his praife*.

The verfes which I have read exhibit the effects. of MESSIAH's power and goodness, by another image equally pleafing. Not only the wilderness, but the inhabitants of the wildernefs partake of the virtue of the great Redeemer. He finds them in circumstances of distress, which he only can relieve. But when he comes, the blind receive their fight, the deaf hear, the lame walk, and the dumb have voices given them to refound his praife. These mighty works, in their literal sense, marked his character, and confirmed his claims, when he was upon earth; and to these he himself appealed, in proof of his being the promised

• Phil. i, 11p.

promised Saviour whom the prophets had foretold, and that no other was to be expected *.

But the words have a still more fublime and important fenfe. As the great Physician, he cured all manner of bodily difeafes and infirmities. But this was not the principal defign for which he came into the world. The maladies to which fin has fubjected the body, are but emblems of the more dreadful evils which it has brought upon the foul. He came to open the eyes of the mind; to make the obftinate will attentive and obedient to the voice of God; to invigorate our benumbed and paralytic faculties, that we may be active and cheerful in his fervice; and to open our lips, that our mouths may shew forth his praife. I have a good hope that I may warrantably say, This day is this fcripture fulfilled in your ears t. Some of you who were once darkness, are now light in the Lord.

Thefe different effects are produced by one fimple, but powerful, operation. While Lazarus lay in the grave, all his natural powers were inactive. But when the voice of the Son of God reftored him to life ‡, he was, of course, immediately enabled to fee, to hear, to move, and to speak. Thus, while we were fpiritually dead, we were neceffarily blind, deaf, dumb, and motionlefs, with refpect to all the objects and faculties of that life of God in the foul, which is the perfection and honour of our nature. When we are made partakers of this life, by a new and heavenly birth, then our fpiritual fenfes are brought into exercife: 1hen the eyes of the blind are opened, to fee the beauty and glory of divine truths; we hear the voice of God, we feel a liberty to walk and act in his fervice, and our tongues are taught to praife him. Here are four chief effects of a work of grace upon the heart, which diftinguish believers from the reft of mankind.

* Matt. xi. 3.-6.

And

+ Luke iv. 21. ‡ John xi, 43.

And these effects are all to be afcribed to MESSIAH. For they are all wrought by the agency of his Holy Spirit. The gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit, which are abfolutely neceffary, as well for the perpetuating of his gospel from age to age, as for making it efficacious and fuccefsful, are bestowed upon finners wholly upon the account of his mediation. It was, when he afcended on high and led captivity captive, that he procured these bleflings for rebellious men, that the Lord God might dwell among them. And it was only for his fake, and on the account of what he was to accomplish in the fulness of time, as intimated in the promise of the feed of the woman appointed to break the ferpent's head, that there were any gracious communications afforded to fallen man, from the first entrance of fin into the world. But now the Redeemer's great work is fulfilled, his falvation is more openly revealed and applied by the publication of the gofpel, with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, and finners hear the voice of God and live. Then all the changes prefigured and predicted in my text take place, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field.

1. They were once blind, but now they fee. The religion of true believers is not the effect of imagination and blind impulse, but is derived from a folid knowledge, which will bear the ftricteft fcrutiny, and is the reasonable fervice of an enlightened understanding. They fee God; their apprehenfions of him are, in some meafure, anfwerable to his greatnefs and his goodness, and inspire them with reverence and love. Their conceptions of other things in which they are most nearly interested, are agreeable to the truth. Sin appears to them hateful in itself, as well as mifchievous in its confequences; and holiness, not only neceffary by the ordination of God, but defirable for its own fake, as effentially belonging to the

true

Pfal. lxviii. 18.