76 SERMON The Morning Light. ISAIAH Ix. 1.-3. VII. Arife, fhine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is rifen upon thee. For behold the darkness fball cover the earth, and grofs darkness the people: but the Lord fhall arife upon thee, and his glory fhall be feen upon thee: and the Gentiles fball come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rifing. NE ftrong internal proof that the Bible is a divine revelation, may be drawn from the fubject-matter; and particularly that it is the book, and the only book, which teaches us to think highly and honourably of God. I fay, the only book, for there is no right knowledge of God where the Bible is not known. What is the Jupiter of Homer, compared with the God of Ifrael, as he is reprefented to us by his fervants the prophets? And if the Heathen philofophers, in fome detached passages, have fentiments not altogether unworthy of him, history honeftly tells us how they obtained them. They travelled, and they are generally faid to have travelled into Phoenicia or Egypt, to the confines of that people who alone thought rightly of God, because to them only he had made himself known by a revelation. If fuch a defcription as we have in the fortieth chapter of Isaiah, from the twelfth verse to the end, had been known only of late years, recovered, we will fuppofe, out of the ruins of Herculaneum, there is little doubt but it would have engaged engaged the attention and admiration of the learned world. For the most admired writings of antiquity, upon a candid comparison, are unfpeakably inferior to it. The inimitable fublimity of the prophets is natural, just, and unforced, and flows from the grandeur of their subjects, because they were influenced by him who alone can speak worthily of himself. A fong fo vaft, a theme fo high, Calls for the voice that tun'd the sky. With them, the whole compafs of the creation is but as duft upon the balance, in refpect of the great. Creator. His purpose is fate, his voice is power. He speaks, and it is done. Thus he called the univerfe into being; and thus, as the great Lord and Proprietor of all, he ftill maintains and governs it, directing the frame of nature, and every particular event and contingence, to the promoting of his own glory, the laft and highest end of all his works. The principal of thefe is, the exhibition of his perfections in the person of his Son. The prophecies we have already confidered announce this event, with a gradual increase of clearness and precifion, as the period of accomplishment is fuppofed to draw nigh. We lately heard the command to proclaim his approach from the hills and the tops of the mountains. Here the prophet begins to contemplate the effects of his actual appearance. The earth is confidered as involved in a state of grofs darkness; but the fun, the Sun of Righteousness is about to arife, and to fill it, by his beams, with light, life, and glory. These effects, indeed, will not extend to all, for many will love darkness rather than light. But he will not fhine in vain. There will be a people prepared to receive him, and to rejoice in his light. They fhall arife as from fleep, as from the grave, and his light reflected upon them fhall cause them to fhine likewise. Darkness shall still cover those who reject him; yea, their darkness will be increased. But the glory of the Lord fhall be feen upon all who believe, and their numbers, from age to age, fhall be enlarged. Nations fhall come to him, and kings fhall be fubfervient to the spreading of his kingdom. Such is the fcope of the paffage before us. I fhall briefly consider a few of the leading particulars contained in it. I. As the fun is the fource of light to the natural world, fo is MESSIAH to the moral and fpiritual world. Light, and its oppofite, darknefs, are figuratively used in Scripture. The latter is applied to a state of ignorance, fin, and mifery, as in the following texts. He that walketh in darkness, knoweth not whither he goeth *. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth. Caft ye the unprofitable fervant into outer darkness, there fhall be weeping and gnafhing of teeth. The former, therefore, fignifies true knowledge, holiness, and happiness. Ye were fometime darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light. When I fit in darkness, the Lord jhall be a light unto me. Light is fown for the righteous, and joy for the upright in heart. I felect but one inftance of each kind; an attentive reader of the fcripture will meet with many exprefions of a Jike import. But there is likewife an intermediate itate. Light advancing from the early dawn to the perfect day. This twilight, no lefs than day-light, is from the fun. Such was the fate of the OldTeftament church. MESSIAH was the fource of their knowledge, hope, and joy; but he was (if I may fo fpeak) below the horizon, as to them.Though believers, under that difpenfation, were a people faved of the Lord, they were trained up under types and shadows, were influenced by a fpirit of comparative Matth. xxv. 30. comparative bondage and diftance, like children under age, and rather longed for, than actually poffeffed the gracious liberty which the children of God enjoy under the gofpel. But the fun arofe, and the fhadows vanished, when the Son of God incarnate dwelt and converfed with men, honoured his temple with his perfonal prefence, and fuperfeded all the Levitical facrifices, by the one offering of himself upon the cross. The law was given by Mofes, but grace and truth came by Jefus Chrift. But more efpecially we date the beginning of his vifible kingdom, from the day of Pentecoft, which followed his afcenfion. Then he fignally bestowed the gifts, which, as Mediator, he had received for men, and by the power of his Holy Spirit, authorised and qualified his fervants to go forth and preach falvation in his name. Then the partition-wall between Jew and Gentile was taken away, and his righteousnes was openly fhown in the fight of the Heathen. Abraham, Mofes, Elijah, and other fervants of God, had been highly favoured and highly honoured; but we are affured by our Lord himself, that none born of woman had been greater than John his fore-runner--and yet he added, the least in the kingdom of beaven, that is, in the New-Teftament or gofpet church, is greater than be*. The apoftles were happy in the peculiar privilege of attending on his perfon; yet he told them, It is expedient for you that 1 go away t. There were ftill greater privileges depending upon the influence of the promifed Comforter, who was to abide with the church for ever. By the power of this Holy Spirit, the Lord is now prefent with all his minifters and people in every place, whether retired in fecret from the view of men, or affembled together in his name ; and though the great events upon which their hopes are E 4 founded, * Matt. xi. I xviii. 20. + John xvi. 7. Matt. vi. 6. xviii. 23. founded, his life, paffion, death, refurrection, and afcenfion, took place long ago, he fo realizes the declaration of them in his word to their hearts, that they are no lefs affured of what they read, than the apoítles, who faw him with their own eyes. Thus the gofpel-ftate is a difpenfation of light. The Sun is rifen with life and healing in his beams, and they who have the eyes of their understanding opened, enjoy a bright and marvellous day. They fee, admire, adore, rejoice, and love. II. The fubjects of MESSIAH's kingdom, the li ving members of his church, are fo irradiated by him, that they shine likewise, as the moon fhines, but with a borrowed light, derived from the fun. Beholding, in this glass, the glory of the Lord, they are changed into the fame image from glory to glory according to the meafure and growth of their faith. Two points may be obferved under this head. * > 1. The fact, that they do thus fhine. Though they were once darknefs, they are now light t. A dark, ignorant, wicked, felfifh Chriftian, is a contradiction in terms. There may be fuch, there are too many fuch, amongst those who make profeffion of the name of Chrift; but they who truly know him waik in the light, as he is in the light. They have knowledge, a good understanding . Perhaps the greater part of real Chriftians have little acquaintance with the literature and fcience of the world; their moral capacities may be weak, and not improved by education; they may be in the esteem of men, as they are in their own, but babes; yet they know more than the wifeft philofophers who are deftitute of the grace of God. They know themfelves, they know the Lord, they know the evil of fin, and the way of falvation; what their proper happiness confifts in, and how it is to be obtained. They have learned to endure affliction, to forgive injuries, and to overcome evil with good. They have 2 Cor. iii. 18. + Eph. v. 8. Pfal. cx. 10. |