I gift of the Holy Spirit. He faid to his forrowing difciples, It is expedient for you that I go away; for if go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will fend him unto you Soon after his afcenfion, this promife was fulfilled. The difciples were filled with the Holy Spirit +; and the people who had flain the Lord, were pricked to the heart, repented of their fin, received faith in him whom they had pierced, and experienced joy and peace in believing. That the gofpel is preached upon earth by a fucceffion of minifters called and furnished for that fervice, and that the gofpel, when preached, is not rejected by all, as it is by many, is wholly to be afcribed to the agency of the Holy Spirit, whofe office and covenant-engagement it is, to convince the world of fin, of righteousness, and of judgment ‡, and to glorify MESSIAH. He opens the eyes of the understanding, subdues the stubborn will, foftens, or rather removes the heart of stone, and gives a feeling tender heart, a heart of flesh. Then the rebels relent and fue for mercy; then they obtain faith, repentance, remiffion, a full and free falvation, and all the gifts which MESSIAH has received for them. IV. His ultimate defign in favour of rebellious men, the great final caufe of his mediation, and particularly of his bestowing on them the gift of the Holy Spirit, is, that the Lord God may dwell among them. Man was created in the image of God, who formed him for himself. But he finned, and was forfaken. God withdrew his light and love from him, and man funk into darknefs and mifery. Sin and Satan took poffeffion of the heart, which was originally defigned to be the temple of the living God. But the Lord had a merciful purpofe, to return in a way worthy of his perfections. Without him, the fouls of men, and the whole human race, as to their proper happiness, are like what the earth would * John xvi. 7. † Acts. ii. 4, 37. John xvi. 9, II, would be without the fun, dark, cold, fruitlefs, and comfortless. But the knowledge of MESSIAH, like the fun, enlightens the world and the heart. When in the day of his power, by the revelation of his light and love, he destroys the dominion of fin, and difpoffeffes Satan, he reclaims his own, and takes poffeffion for himself. The heart, fprinkled with the blood of Jefus, and anointed with the holy unction, becomes a confecrated temple of the Holy Ghoft. This perfuafion, though now by many, who have not renounced the name of Christian, deemed the effence of enthusiasm, was once thought effential to Christianity; fo that the apostle speaks of it as an obvious incontrovertible fact, with which no true Chriftian could be unacquainted. Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghoft * ? A. gain, he speaks of Chrift dwelling in the heart +. Chrift in you the hope of glory t And in another place, Ye are the temple of the living God, as God hath faid, I will dwell in them, and walk in them || : agreeably to his promise by the prophets. He liveth in them, as the principle of their life, wisdom, and power; therefore the apoftle fays, 1 live; yet not I, but Chrift liveth in me §. There is a mutual indwelling between the Lord and his people: they in him as the branch in the vine; and he in them as the fap in the branch: He in them as in his temples; they in him as in their strong tower of defence. And from hence we infer the duration of their life of grace, that it fhall continue and fpring up into everlasting life; fince it is properly not their own, but his; and fince he has faid, Because I live, ye fhall live alfo. He dwells likewife among his people in their collective capacity. His whole church, comprising all the members of his myftical body, built upon the foundation of the apofiles and prophets, form a building fitly 2 Cor. vi. 19. + Eph. iii. 17. Col. i. 27. He fitly framed together, a palace, a holy temple for the Lord the great King. He dwelleth likewife in every particular fociety who walk by his rule, and adorn the profeffion of his truth by a converfation becoming the gofpel. He is a wall of fire round about them, and a glory in the midst of them. When they meet together in his name, he is there. walks in the midst of the golden candlesticks. It is his prefence that gives life and efficacy to all his ordinances, and communicates a power to his word, by which the minds of his worshipping people are enlightened, ftrengthened, healed, and comforted. Here he manifefts himself to them, as he does not unto the world; and they can adopt the words of the Pfalmift, A day in thy courts is better than a thoufand. To his prefence they owe their peace and increase, their union and protection. And if he withdraws, Ichabod may be written upon their folemn affemblies +; for even his own appointments can afford them neither profit nor pleasure, unless they are animated by his glory. Their graces languish, their harmony is interrupted, frifes and diffenfions take place, evil roots of bitternes fpring up to trouble and defile them t; men arife from among themselves, speaking perverse things, and fierce wolves break in, not fparing the flock, if the good Shepherd fufpends his influence and prefence. I trust he dwells and walks in the midst of us. He is here as an obferver, and as a gracious benefactor. He fees who draw near him with their lips, while their hearts are far from him; and he likewise takes notice of them that fear and love him, and who efteem the light of his countenance to be better than life. The high and lofty One who inhabiteth eternity, who dwelleth in the high and holy place, dwelleth likewife with thofe that are of a contrite and humble fpirit §, to revive and blefs them. Zech. ii. 5, 10. + 1 Sam. iv. 21. SER Heb. xii. 15. 41 SERMON XXX. The Publication of the Gofpel. PSALM lxviii. 11. The Lord gave the word, great was the company of those that published it. [Or, of the preachers.] ERHAPS no one Pfalm has given greater exer PERHAPS kill and the patience of commenta tors and critics, than the fixty-eighth. I fuppofe the difficulties do not properly belong to the Pfalm, but arife from our ignorance of various circumstances to which the Pfalmift alludes; which probably were at that time generally known and understood. The firft verfe is the fame with the ftated form of benediction which was used whenever the ark of the Lord fet forward while Ifrael fojourned in the wilderness * : which confirms the prevailing opinion, that the Pfalm was primarily defigned as an act of thanksgiving, to accompany the removal of the ark to Zion by David. The feventh and eight verfes are repeated, with little variation, from the fong of Deborah +. The leading fcope of the whole appears to be, firft, a recapitulation of God's gracious dealing with Ifrael, and of the great things he had done for them, from the time he delivered them from their bondage in Egypt; and then, a tranfition, in the spirit of prophecy, to the far greater things he would do for his people, under and by the gofpel difpenfation, in confequence of MESSIAH's exaltation to receive gifts for rebellious men. This verfe, though the particular occafion is not specified, probably refers to fome feafon of deli Numb. x. 35 t Judges v. 4, 5. verance liverance or victory, when the women, according to the custom of the nation, affembled to praise the Lord, with timbrels, fongs, and dances*. The fongs and refponfes of Miriam and her companions, and of the women who welcomed Saul and David after the defeat of the Philiftine +, I have formerly mentioned as inftances ‡. The word which is rendered, Those who publifhed or preached, being expreffed with a femine termination, leads the mind to this fenfe. But we are not neceffarily confined to it; for the word rendered preacher in the book of Ecclefiaftes, is likewife in the feminine form, though we are fure the perfon intended by it was Solomon. However, this paffage is properly introduced in The Meffiah, and in its proper place, immediately after the view given of our Saviour's triumphant afcenfion, as it leads us to confider the first visible effect of that great event: for foon afterwards, when the day of Pentecoft was fully come, the Lord gave the word. The Holy Spirit, the precious gift, which Jefus had received for rebellious men, defcended with vifible emblems, and a powerful energy, and infpired and qualified his disciples for the great work of establishing and spreading his spiritual kingdom. From that hour, great was the number of the preachers, and great was the fuccefs and efficacy of their miffion. So that in a few years the gofpel fpread like the light, from Jerufalem, through all Judea and Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth. And he who faid, Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world §, has, by the fame Spirit, perpetuated his word, and a fucceffion of preachers, to our time; and has promised to perpetuate and work by the fame means, till time fhall be no more. My text, therefore, if not a direct prophecy of the publication of the gofpel, is at least a fit motto to a discourse • Exod. xv. +1 Sam. xviii. 6, 7. Ser. VI. page 66. |