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mercy, and wisdom of God in the death and blood of the Lamb of God. Here we may see the justice of God satisfied for the sin of man, by a sacrifice of infinite value, the anger of God turned away, and God declaring himself to be a God of peace through the blood of his eternal Son. Here we see the head of the old serpent bruised, that “ leviathan slain, and given to be meat to those who inhabit the wilderness" of this world. Oh meat indeed, and drink indeed! Here we may see

a new and living way opened and consecrated,” that we may

66 enter into the holiest” with full assurance of acceptance, &c.

7. The gospel-lamp discovers a mystery in the resurrection of Christ from the dead. There is more of God, and of his infinite power and wisdom, in the resurrection of Christ, than if all Adam's posterity were raised out of their graves in the twinkling of an eye. Christ is said, by his resurrection to be “ declared to be the Son of God, with power,” Rom. i. 4. And that power of the Father, by which he was raised, had an “exceeding greatness" in it, and was a "mighty power," Eph. i. 19. The load of sin and wrath that lay upon the grave of our Surety, would have sunk all the angels in heaven, and men upon earth, to the lowest hell; yet Christ, by his divine power, rises from under this load, and so bears away our iniquities, and leaves them buried in his grave behind him, and death itself swallowed up in victory, &c.

8. The gospel-lamp lets us see a mystery in his ascension into hea ven, the most glorious solemnity that ever the inhabitants of the spiritual world saw, which made them all cry out, and shout, “God is gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet,” &c. This world saw little solemnity in Christ's returning to heaven after he had finished the great work of man's redemption. But, oh! angels and glorified saints, who were then arrived at heaven, they saw his chariots of state attending him.

« The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels: the Lord is among them as in Sinai, in the holy place. Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive: thou hast received gifts for men,” Psal. Ixviii. 17, 18.

9. The gospel-lamp lets us see a mystery in his appearance for us in heaven; how he appears there as our Representative and High Priest within the veil, with much incense offering up the prayers of all saints, &c.; how he states him

, self as our Advocate with the Father, to plead our cause, and to transact our business for us, and to repel all complaints given in against us by the accuser of the brethren. “He is able to save to the uttermost, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for us," Heb. vii. 25. “ And if any man sin, we

have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” He appears for us before the bar, not as a suppliant, but as one having authority: “ Father,” says the Advocate, “I will that they also whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me,” John xvii. 24.

10. By the gospel-lamp there is a discovery made of a new and better covenant established in Christ as a second Adam, than that which was made with the first Adam, even a covenant of grace and promise; which being confirmed by the death of Christ, is now set out in its last and best edition, namely, as a testamentary deed. Every thing in and about this covenant is wonderful and mysterious. The Trinity transacted in it with Christ as a second Adam from eternity: “I have made a covenant with my chosen; I have sworn unto David my servant,” Psal. Ixxxix. 3. The gradual manifestation of this covenant to us, and the variety of dispensations that it has undergone under the Old and new Testament, and yet still the same covenant. The absolute freedom of this covenant to us, no conditions or qualifications required on our part to interest us in it, the proper condition of it being already fulfilled in the obedience and death of Christ, it comes out to us absolutely free, “I will be their God. I will sprinkle them with clean water, and they shall be clean. I will take away the heart of stone,” &c. The way in which a sinner is brought within the bonds of this covenant is only owing to the gospel-lamp or light, namely, by faith, not of the operation of man, but of the operation of God in a day of power. He just makes the sinner willing to be saved - without money and without price,” upon the footing of free grace reigning in and through an imputed righteous

ness, &c.

11. By the gospel-lamp we come to know the mystery of regeneration, or the new birth; which so startled and confounded Nicodemus, a teacher in Israel, that he babbles and speaks stark nonsense, when Christ proposes it to him. “ Can a man,” says he, “ be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born ?" John iii. 4. The case is just the same with a great many men in our day, who set up for wits. They are ready to brand the doctrine of conversion and regeneration with the character of enthusiasm: but let such remember, that the God of truth has said it, with a verily, terily, except they know and feel it on their own souls, they “ cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven."

12. The gospel-lamp discovers the way of justification for an ungodly sinner, by an imputed righteousness. This disco

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very is wholly supernatural, which the apostle Paul valued so highly, and gloried so much in, that when compared with the knowledge hereof, he reckoned every thing else as so much dross and dung, &c.

13. The mystery of sanctification is discovered by the gospel-lamp; how Christ is made of God to us sanctification ; and how, by the great and precious promises, we are made partakers of the divine nature; and by beholding the glory of the Lord in the glass of the gospel, we are changed into the same image; how the heart is purified by faith in Christ, our old man crucified in him, and the body of sin destroyed, &c.

In a word, to shut up this head by the light of the gospellamp, we may see in through the veil of death and mortality, and behold" life and immortality brought to light :” “ For," says the apostle, we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen, are eternal.” By the gospel-lamp, and the eye of an enlightened understanding, we may see the Jordan of death divided, and a passage opened for the Israel of God into the promised land of glory, where we shall be for ever with the Lord. By this lamp we may look to the end of time, and see Christ coming to judge the world. He will “ descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God. Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him; and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming in the which all that are in their graves shall hear the voice of the Son of man, and shall come forth,” &c. By this gospel-lamp we may see that sleep in their graves raised up” again, “ some to the resurrection of eternal life, and others to the resurrection of everlasting damnation;" some are seen like condemned prisoners, brought out of jail to the place of execution, and whenever they see the Judge upon his white throne, they cry to "the rocks and mountains to fall on them,” to hide them from his angry face; whilst others are beheld lifting up their heads, because the day of their redemption is come, and crying to one another, “Let us be glad and rejoice; for the marriage of the Lamb is come,” Rev. xix. 7. By this lamp we may see the righteous like so many suns shining in the kingdom of their Father, with robes made white in the blood of the Lamb, crying, “ Salvation to our God that sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb for ever and ever."

Thus, I have told you of some great and glorious discove

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ries that are made by the light of the lamp of the everlasting gospel. I come now, Thirdly, To give you a few of its properties and qualities.

1. Then, It is a divine lamp, a lamp of God's making and preparing; hence the gospel is called “ the gospel of the blessed God.” It comes down from the Father of lights. All scripture is given by inspiration of God; hence we are to receive it with a divine faith, &c.

2. It is a dazzling lamp. There are such things in the gospel, or discoveries made by it, as dazzle the

eyes

of men. Some are totally struck blind with it: "For judgment, I am,” says Christ, “come into this world: that they which see not might see; and that they which see” (or imagine they see) "might be made blind,” John ix. 39. As for real believers, when gospel light shines into their hearts, and discovers the method of salvation through Christ, they fall to wondering at every thing they behold, crying, the depth of love, grace, and wisdom !"--" Without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness, God manifest in the flesh!” But why do I speak of man? The clear-sighted angels cover their faces with their wings at the brightness of that glory that shines in the person and mediation of Christ; “which things the angels desire to look into;" and one cries to another, and says, “ Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory,” Is. vi. 3. I say, it is a dazzling lamp; and, like light, it is of a piercing and penctrating nature. Both the law and gospel-light of the word

. are penetrating; " For the word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart,” Heb. iv. 12. It shines in through the head, down into the heart, and, like the candle of the Lord, pierces into the belly or bottom of the soul.

3. The light of this lamp is of an assimilating nature. “ But we all with open face,” says the apostle, “bcholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” It purifies the soul, and makes it holy: “Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you,” John XV. 3.

4. It is a glorious lamp; hence called “the glorious gospel of the blessed God.” The author of it is the God of glory; the object of it is Christ the brightness of the Father's glory; and the end of it is the glory of all God's attributes in the everlasting salvation of the lost sinner, &c.

5. It is a most pleasant lamp; truly the light of it is sweet; when it shines into the heart, it fills the soul with the light of knowledge, the light of joy and comfort; the consolations of it are strong, and fill the soul with “joy unspeakable, and full of glory," &c.

6. It is the most profitable lamp that ever the world saw, because it shows to us the path of life, and leads the soul into an immense treasure of soul-riches, that makes the man up for an endless eternity, even the unsearchable riches of Christ, &c.

7. It is an infallible lamp. We have a great deal of newlights got up in our day, which like ignis fatuus, or wild fire, lead men into the bogs and pits of Deism, Arminianism, Quakerism, and other errors in which men are “ drowned in perdition.” But here is a sure light, which we may follow with full assurance of faith. It is the “sure word of prophecy, to which ye do well that ye take heed.”—" The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.”—“ And as many as walk according to" the light of this lamp, “ peace shall be upon them, and upon the Israel of God," &c.

8. It is an ancient lamp, as you heard. It has been shining in the orbs of the church militant since it was first lighted in paradise. And this lamp, instead of waxing dim, as other lamps do, has shone brighter and brighter in every gradual dispensation of it. Hence,

9. It is a lasting and durable lamp. It will shine to the world's end, let men and devils do their utmost to have it smothered and extinguished. All that men have done hitherto with the design to put out the lamp, through the hand of God overruling their wrath and corruption, has only served to snuff the lamp, as you snuff the candle to make it give better light. “ As we have heard, so have we seen this in the city of the living God.”

10. It is a common lamp to all men. You know the sun in the firmament is a common lamp to this lower world; every body, rich and poor, has the privilege of the light of the sun, and pays naught for it. Just so the lamp of the gospel, the light of the Sun of Righteousness, Jesus Christ him. self

, who is "the light of the world, and the day-spring from on high,” is a common good to all mankind, that will but take the benefit of his light; they shall pay nothing for it. That the gospel is a common good to mankind, is dent from the words of the angel at his birth: “ Behold,” says he, "I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. It is also very plain from the commission Christ gives to his ministers to "go into all the world, and preach the gospel unto every creature" under heaven.

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