to pass, will have great effects. building, but it fhall be built.

and truth.

Zion, as yet, is only

3 That the animofities and difputes which prevail among Christians fhall cease. The obfervation of a late ingenious writer, which, it is to be feared, he was confirmed in by his own experience, is too much founded in truth. We have just religion enough "to make us hate one another." The fpirit of party, prejudice, bigotry, and intereft, a zeal for fystems, forms, modes, and denominations, furnish men with plaufible pretences for indulging their unfanctified paffions, and deceive them into an opinion, that while they are gratifying their pride and felf-will, they are only labouring to promote the cause of God Hence often the feuds which obtain among religious people are purfued with greater violence, and to greater lengths, and are productive of more mischievous confequences, than the quarrels of drunkards. The lovers of peace, who refuse to take a part in these contentions, but rather weep over them in fecret, are cenfured and despised as neutrals and cowards, by the angry combatants on all fides, while the world defpifes and laughs at them all. was not fo in the beginning, nor will it be to always. The hour is coming, when believers fhall be united in love, fhall agree in all that is efféntial to a life of faith and holinefs, and fhail live in the exercise of forbearance and tenderness towards each other, if, in fome points of smaller importance, they cannot think exactly alike; which poffibly may be the cafe in the best times, in the prefent imperfect state of human nature. Ephraim then fhall no more envy Judah, nor Judah vex Ephraim *.

It

4. That it will be a time of general peace. At prefent, the kingdoms, which, by their profeffion, fhould be fubjects of the Prince of Peace, are perpetually disturbing,' invading, and destroying each

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• If. xi. 13.

other,

other. They live in habits of mutual fear and jealouty, and maintain great armies on all fides; that each nation may be prepared, if occafion offers, to ftrike the first blow. War is followed as a trade, and cultivated as a fcience; and they who, with the greateft diligence and fuccefs, fpread devaftation and ruin far and wide, and deluge the earth with human blood, acquire the title of heroes and conquerors. Can there be a stronger confirmation of what we read in fcripture concerning the depravity of man? Can we conceive an employment more fuited to gratify the malignity of Satan and the powers of darkness, if they were permitted to appear and act amongst us in human fhapes? Could fuch enormities poffibly obtain, if the mild and merciful spirit of the gospel generally prevailed? But it fhall prevail at last, and then the nations fhall learn war no more *.

How tranfporting the thought! that a time fhall yet arrive, when the love of God and man, of truth and righteousness, fhall obtain through the earth. The evils (and these are the greatest evils of human Pife) which men bring upon themfelves, and upon each other, by their wickednefs, fhall ceafe; and we may believe that the evils in the natural world will be greatly abated. Sin will no longer call down the tokens of God's displeasure, by fuch public calamities as hurricanes, earthquakes, peftilence, and famine. And if some natural evils, as pain and fickness, should remain, fubmiffion to the will of God, and the compaffion and tenderness of men towards the afflicted, will render them tolerable.

If this profpect be defirable to us, furely it will be the object of our prayers. The Lord will do great things, but he will be enquired of by his people for the performance.

But to many perfons the extenfion of dominion and commerce appears much more defirable. The glory and

extent

extent of the British government has been eagerly purfued; and the late diminution of our national grandeur and influence has been much laid to heart; while the glory of the Redeemer's kingdom, and the converfion of the Heathens, are confidered by the Politicians and Merchants of the earth, as trivial concerns, unworthy of their notice, or rather as obstacles to the views of ambition and avarice. But it is faid of MESSIAH, and of his church, The nation and kingdom that will not ferve thee fhall perish *. The word of God may be flighted, but it cannot be annulled; and it is more a fubject for lamentation than wonder, that our national profperity fhould decline, when we are indifferent, yea, adverse to that cause which the great Go vernor of the world has engaged to promote and establifh.

* If. lx. 12.

SER.

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326

SERMON

XXXVIII.

King of Kings, and Lord of Lords.

REV. xix. 16.

[And he hath on his vesture, and on his thigh, a name writen], KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.

HE defcription of the administration and glory of the Redeemer's kingdom, in defiance of all oppofition, concludes the fecond part of the Meffiah. Three different paffages from this book are felected to form a grand chorus, of which his title in this verfe is the clofe; a title which has been fometimes vainly ufurped by proud worms of the earth. Eastern monarchs, in particular, have affected to ftyle themselves King of kings, and Lord of lords. In the fcriptural language, men, whether high or low, rich or poor, one with another, are compared to worms and potfherds of the earth; but they are by nature io ftrongly infected by pride, that they cannot invent titles of honour anfwerable to the idea they have of their own importance, without intrenching upon the divine prerogative. Thus fovereignty, majefty, holinefs, and grace, and other attributes which properly belong to God alone, are parcelled out among the Great. But let the great and the mighty know, that wherein they speak proudly, MESSIAH is above them. The whole verfe (of which the latter claufe only is in the Oratorio) offers two points to our meditations.

I. How he is represented as wearing his title. It is written, or infcribed, upon his vefture dipped in blood, and upon his thigh; either upon that part of

his

his vesture which covers his thigh, or upon the upper part of his vesture, and upon his thigh likewife.

II. The title itself, King of kings, and Lord of lords. Whatever power the kings and lords among mankind poffefs, is derived from him, and absolutely fubject to his controul.

I. The manner in which he wears his name or title. It is written upon his vefture, and upon his thigh.

1. This name being written upon his vesture, denotes the manifeftation and the ground of his authority. It is written upon his outward garment, to be read, known, and acknowledged by all beholders. And it is upon his bloody garment, upon the vesture ftained with his own blood, and the blood of his enemies; which intimates to us, that his government is founded upon the fuccefs of his great undertaking. In the paffage from whence this verfe is felected, there are three names attributed to MESSIAH. He has a name which no one knows but himself *, agree. able to what he declared when upon earth. No man, outs, no one (neither man nor angel) knoweth the Son, but the Father; this refers to his eternal power and Godhead. A fecond name, The Word of God +, denotes the mystery of the divine perfonality. The name in my text imports his glory, as the Mediator between God and man, in our nature, which, when he refumed it from the grave, became the feat of all power and authority; which power we are now taught to confider, not merely as the power of God, to whom it effentially belongs, but as the power of God exercifed in and by that Man who died upon the cross for our fins. In confequence of his obedience unto death, he received a name which is above every name. This infcription his own people read by the eye of faith in the prefent life, and it infpires them with confidence and joy, under the many tribulations they pafs through in the courfe of their profeffion

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