and prize of the high calling of God; he comes even to the end of his faith and hope, the falvation of his foul, in the full and immediate enjoyment of God for evermore. This year diftance and darknefs ends, and everlafting light begins, no more clouds of defertion to overcaft his fky through eternity, now the Lord fhall be his everlasting light, and his God his glory; the Lord God and the Lamb are the light of that place. This year the believer quits the by-table of ordinances, word, and facraments in the church militant, and fits down at the high table with Abraham, Ifaac, and Jacob; yea, he drinks of the fruit of the vine new with Chrift in the kingdom of heaven. In a word, this year all the believer's fobs, and tears, and forrows end, and he begins his fongs and triumphs: "The ranfomed of the Lord fhall come to Zion with fongs, and everlasting joy upon their heads: they fhall obtain joy and gladness, and forrow and fighing fhall flee away." But then, fecondly, for the other period of this year, viz. the refurrection, great things are done by the Redeemer for his ranfomed and redeemed ones; take these few among many others. fhall 1. This year the Redeemer tranflates the feat of his empire from the highest heavens to these clouds that are above our leads: "Behold he cometh with clouds; and every eye fee him." O with what royal fplendour and magnificence will he appear when he defcends from heaven with a fhout, with the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God, when his white throne will be furrounded with ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thoufands! This year the visible frame of nature is to be unhinged, and this earth, which has been a theatre of fo much fin, is to be burnt: "The day of the Lord cometh, wherein the heavens fhall pass away with a great noife, and the elements (hall melt with fervent heat, the earth alfo, and the works that are therein, shall be burnt up," 2 Pet. iii. 10. And ver. 12. "Looking for, and haftening unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire fhall be diffolved, and the elements fhall melt with fervent heat." Oh with what awful folemnity will the fecond coming of the great Redeemer be attended! This year God is to fend out his reapers to reap the field of this world, I mean, the holy angels: and they will reap fo clean, that they will not leave one foul that ever fprung of Adam behind them; no, no, they will be all gathered together to the tribunal. 2. This year death and the grave are to render the prey which they have devoured; the fea will give up its dead, and the earth will give up its dead. Thy head, believer, this year year is to be lifted up out of the prifon of the grave; God will open his cabinet, and bring forth his jewels in the view of men and angels, every one of them fhining like the fun in the kingdom of their Father; infomuch that Chrift will be admired in his very faints and members: when they are purged from the drofs of fin and mortality, they will shine like the brightness of the firmament, and like the ftars for ever and ever; our vile bodies fhall be made like unto Chrift's glorious body. This year this mortal is to put on immortality, and death fhall be fwallowed up in victory. This year Chrift's scattered jewels and members will all be gathered together unto him; he will call to the earth from the rifing of the fun to the going down thereof, faying, "Gather my faints together unto me, thofe that have made a covenant with me by facrifice." And O what a bright constellation will they make, when they fhall be all feen ftanding at the right hand of Chrift in white raiment, with the triple crown of glory, joy, and righteousness, upon their heads, being an innumerable company which no man can number! 3. This year the upright are to have dominion over the ' wicked. The tables will be turned, and the fcene of this world will be quite altered, and turned upfide down; the wicked proud, who refufed or difdained to fet the poor believer with the dogs of their flocks, will be standing at the bar like a company of trembling pannels waiting for their fentence, when the poor believer that was contemned by them will be fitting upon the bench with Chrift as his affeffor, applauding him in all his judicial proceedings. "Know ye not that the faints fhall judge the world? yea, Know ye not that the faints fhall judge angels?" Then fhall that fcripture receive its full accomplishment, Pfal. cxlix. 5-9. 4. This year Chrift will confefs his redeemed ones before his Father, and before his angels, who confeffed and owned him before men, faying, "Lo, I and the children whom thou haft given me." And not only will he acknowledge, but he will acquit them of all the charges and accufations that were laid against them by the devil and the world, their fins fhall be "blotted out, when this time of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord." 5. This year the marriage of the Lamb is to be confummate with the moft triumphant folemnity, fo as the very arches of heaven will echo and refound, while the redeemed are crying one to another, "Let us be glad and rejoice, for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his bride hath made herself ready." Then shall that word receive its full accomplishment, Pfal. xlv. 14. 15. "She fhall be brought unto the King in raiment of needle-work: the virgins her companions that follow her fhall be brought unto thee. With gladness and rejoicing fhall they be brought they fhall enter into the King's palace," and take poffeflion of thefe thrones that were prepared for them before the foundation of the world, and fo they fhall spend this endlefs year in following the Lamb, and finging," Salvation to our God that fits upon the throne, and to the Lamb for ever and ever." Thus I have given you an account of the long year of the redeemed, which is from everlafting to everlasting in its feveral periods, and fome hints of the transactions of each period; but the ten thousandth part cannot be told of what has been done, and is yet to be done in them, for the redeemed of the Lord. I proceed now to, IV. The fourth thing upon this firft branch of the doctrine, namely, to prove that the year of the redeemed, is the joy of the Redeemer's heart. I fhall not ftay upon this, it being fo clear in the text, you fee with what a great deal of pleasure and fatisfaction he speaks of it, The day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come. The year of purposed redemption was his joy, fo he declares, Prov. viii. when he was fet up from everlasting, he rejoiced in the habitable parts of the earth, and his delights were with the fons of men." Again, the year of purchafed redemption was his joy: as he longed to come into the world, in order to redeem finners, so when he was actually come, he longed for the day when he should finish it by his death upon the crofs: "I have a baptifm to be bap tifed with, and how am I ftraitened till it be accomplished!" Again, the day of exhibit and revealed redemption is his joy. With what pleasure doth he send out his heralds to proclaim his falvation unto the ends of the earth! It was among the laft charges that he gave his apottles before he afcended, " Go ye into all the world, and preach the gofpel unto every creafure." The day of applied redemption in converfion and effectual calling is his joy, therefore called "the day of the gladnefs of his heart." The heart of the Father of the prodigal was glad when his fon came home; there is joy in heaven at the converfion of a finner. And then the day of confummate redemption, with what joy doth he receive the foul upon the back of death into these nianfions of glory that he has prepared for it in heaven! "I will come and receive you to myfelf, that where I am, there ye may be alfo." Chrift ftands ready, as it were, to keep the foul of the believer in his hand and arms whenever it is diflodged from the body. And then the day of confummate redemption both in foul and body at the refurrection refurrection is his joy, for he will defcend from heaven with a fhout of joy and triumph, and he will call all the members of his body to rejoice with him: If. xxvi. 19. "Thy dead men fhall live, together with my dead body fhall they arife: awake and fing, ye that fleep in the duft; and thy dew shall be as the dew of herbs, and the earth fhall caft out her dead." Thus you fee that the year of the redeemed, and every period thereof, is the joy of the Redeemer. I should now proceed to the fecond branch of the doctrine, but I fhall at prefent only fhut up what has been said with a word of ufe in thefe few following inferences. 1. See hence that God is love, as he is defcribed by the apostle, 1 John iv. 16. O Sirs, the great design of the gospel, and of the whole revelation of God, and of his will therein, is to afford you fuch views of the love of God, as may kill your enmity against him. Now, will you but take a view of this wonderful train that Infinite Wisdom has laid for your happinefs through all these five periods that I have named, and fee if this be not a just description, that he is love itself. What but infinite love purpofed our redemption, when we were in our blood? What but love could purchase it with the price of the blood of God? What but love could bring forth the Redeemer and his whole purchafe, and make a free gift and offer of him to us in the gofpel? What but infinite love could give the Spirit to apply it, by uniting us to Christ who were joined to our idols? What but infinite love would be at pains to carry on the good work till it be perfected in the day of Chrift? May not the views of all thefe together make us ftand ftill, like men at their wits end, and cry, "O the heighth, the depth, the breadth, and length of the love of God, which paffeth knowledge!" 2. See hence, that "truly God is good to Ifrael." Is he not good to them, when the year of their redemption, both purchased and perfected, is the very joy of his heart: O well may we fet to our feal unto that record that God gives of himfelf, Pfal. cxix 68. "Thou art good, and doft good." His goodness is fo great, that it cannot be conceived or exprefled; hence is that of David, Pfal. xxxi. 19. "O how great is thy goodness which thou haft laid up for them that fear thee: which thou haft wrought for them that trust in thee, before the fons of men! Eye hath not feen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." 3. See hence what monsters of ingratitude they are, who reproach and blafpheme our glorious Redeemer, and derogate from his divine glory and excellency, as if he were not the fupreme, fupreme, felf-exiftent, independent God, but only an inferior dependent being. None that ever knew him in a faving manner, or that have had his redemption applied by the Spirit unto their fouls, could fpeak fo lightly of him. We may leave it to the devils and fallen angels to blafpheme him, on whom his day of vengeance falls; but for any of Adam's family, or yet more, for any in the church of God, and that profefs to be among the redeemed, is fuch ingratitude as words are wanting to exprefs. If the Son of God had taken upon him the nature of angels, and paffed by the feed of Abraham; if he had been their Redeemer, as he is their avenger, would ever any of them have fpoken a misbeholden word of him, or disparaged his glory? No, no, their blafphemies would have been turned into hallelujahs. What a fhame and unaccountable thing is it then, that any of the pofterity of Adam, or much more. mafters in Ifrael, whofe province it is to commend and honour him, that they should rife up and blafpheme that worthy name by which we are called, as if he were an inferior kind of deity, and not the fupreme God! The fecond ufe of the doctrine may be of Trial. O Sirs, what year is it with you yet? You are all under the year of revealed and publifhed redemption, but that will not prove you to be among the redeemed of the Lord. The great question is, Whether the year of applied redemption be come to you, yea or not? You heard what things are commonly done in the year of applied redemption; try whether they be done upon your fouls in particular. Has the hail-ftorm from mount Sinai fwept away the refuge of lies? Has the water fo overflowed your hiding-place, that you was shut up to the faith? you found no place in heaven or in earth to hide you in, but in him who is "a hiding-place from the wind, and a covert from the tempeft, as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great fock in a weary land?"This year the dead aré raifed unto life; and therefore I afk, Has the Spirit of life which is in Chrift Jefus entered into thy foul? If so, then thou wilt not find, thy life in thy hand, as the hypocrite, but thou wilt find thy life to be in thy head, and be ready to fay, I am dead, and my life is hid with Chrift in God. Again, this year the blind eyes are opened; and therefore I afk, Haft thou received thy fight? Can you fay with the poor man, "How he opened mine eyes I know not; but this I know, once I was blind, but now I fee ?" I fee fuch form and comelinefs in Chrift, that he is in mine eye "more glorious and excellent than all the mountains of prey." Again, this year the kingdom of God is reared up in the foul; and therefore I afk, Who bears the principal fway within? Who fits on the throne |