an attentive reader of the Scripture will meet with many expressions of a like import. But there is likewise an intermediate state, light advancing from the early dawn to the perfect day. This twilight, no less than day-light, is from the sun. Old Testament Church. their knowledge, hope, and joy; but he was, (if I may so speak,) below the horizon, as to them.-Though believers, under that dispensation, were a people saved of the Lord, they were trained up under types and shadows, were influenced by a spirit of comparative bondage and distance, like children under age, and rather longed for, than actually possessed, the gracious liberty which the children of God enjoy under the Gospel. But the sun arose, and the shadows vanished, when the Son of God incarnate dwelt and conversed with men, honoured his temple with -his personal presence, and superseded all the Levitical sacrifices, by the one offering of himself upon the cross. "The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth "came by Jesus Christ." But more especially we date the beginning of his visible kingdom from the day of Pentecost, which followed his ascension. Then he signally bestowed the gifts which, as Mediator, he had received for men, and by the power of his Holy Spirit, authorized and qualified his servants to go forth and preach salvation in his name. Then the partition-wall between Jew and Gentile was taken away, "and his righteousness "was openly shown in the sight of the Heathen." Abraham, Moses, Elijah, and other servants, of God, had been highly favoured and highly honoured; but we are assured 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 heaven," that is, in Such was the state of the MESSIAH was the source of the New Testament or Gospel church, "is greater than "he." The apostles were happy in the peculiar privilege of attending on his person; yet he told thein, "It is expedient for you that I go away." There were still greater privileges depending upon the influence of the promised Comforter, who was to abide with the church for ever. By the power of his Holy Spirit, the Lord is now present with all his ministers and people in every place, whether retired in secret from the view of men, or assembled together in his name‡; and though the great events upon which their hopes are founded, his life, passion, death, resurrection, and ascension, took place long ago, he so realizes the declaration of them in his word to their hearts, that they are no less assured of what they read, than the apostles who saw him with their own eyes. Thus the Gospel-state is a dispensation of light. The Sun is risen with life and healing in his beams, and they who have the eyes of their understanding opened, enjoy a bright and marvellous day. They see, admire, adore, rejoice, and love.. II. The subjects of MESSIAH's kingdom, the living members of his church, are so irradiated by him, that they shine likewise; as the moon shines, but with a borrowed light derived from the sun. "Beholding, "in this glass, the glory of the Lord, they are changed " into the same image from glory to glory§," according to the measure and growth of their faith. Two points may be observed under this head. 1. The fact; that they do thus shine. Though they were once darkness, they are now light||. A dark, ignorant, wicked, selfish Christian, is a contradiction in Matth. vi. 6. ; xviii. 20. * Matth. xi. 11. § 2 Cor. iii. 18. ↑ John xvi. 7. terms. There may be such, there are too many such, amongst those who make profession of the name of Christ; but they who truly know him, "walk in the light, as he is in the light." They have knowledge, "a good understanding." Perhaps the greater part of real Christians have little acquaintance with the literature and science 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 wisest philosophers who are destitute of the grace of God. They know themselves, they know the Lord, they know the evil of sin, and the way of salvation; what their proper happiness consists 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 attained a just sense of the vanity of the world, and the importance of eternity. They are instructed to be contented and useful in their stations, to discharge their duties in relative life with propriety, and to meet death with comfort. In all these particulars, many who have dazzling talents, and are celebrated for abilities and endowments, are miserably at a loss. True believers are conformed to the spirit and temper of their Saviour, and therefore are different and distinguished from the world around them. And they have, at least, the beginnings of true peace and solid happiness, in communion with him whom they serve. 2. The cause. They shine wholly by his light. If their own words may be taken, the proof of this is easy. They are free to confess that they are only wise by his wisdom, strong by his power working in them, *Psal. cxi. 10. and that without him they "have not sufficiency to "think a good thought*." Experience has taught them that they cannot stand unless he upholds them, nor watch unless he watcheth with them, nor be safe or happy a single day, without fresh communications from him. But this their experience and acknowledgment, is the express and current doctrine of Scripture. There is a real, though mystical, union between Christ and his people. "He is the vinet," they the branches: he is their head, they the members of his body. They dwell in him by faith, he dwells in them by his Spirit. He is their root and their life; all their springs are in him, and it is out of his "fulness that they receivet.' Therefore the apostle says, "I live, yet not I, but "Christ liveth in me." "I can do all things through "Christ strengthening me." And our Lord himself, who comforted Paul with that promise, "My grace is "sufficient for thee," apprised all his followers of their entire dependence upon him, by saying, "Without me “ye ye can do nothing**." The language of the Old Testament is to the same purport, "they looked unto him, "and were enlightenedtt." "In the Lord Jehovah I "have righteousness and strength‡‡." "He giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might he in"creaseth strength." Thus things are constituted and conducted, "that no flesh should glory in his presence, but that he who glorieth may glory in the Lord." III. They who wilfully refuse and turn from this light, do thereby involve themselves in double darkness, and become more infatuated and wicked than those to whom the light has not been proposed. Their evils, likewise, are more aggravated than they would have been if the light had not visited them. Thus our Lord, MESSIAH, Speaks of the Jews; "If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin; but now they have no cloak for their sin." And again, "For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see, and that they which see might be "made blindt." He came to make the ignorant wise unto salvation; but they who, from a proud conceit of their own wisdom and sufficiency, disdain his instruction, being left to themselves, gave abundant evidence that the light they boast of is but gross and palpable darkness. The grossest errors, the greatest obduracy of heart, the most extreme profaneness of spirit, and the most abominable wickedness in practice, may be expected, and will certainly be found, where the Gospel is despised. It is evident, that the morality which is so highly admired by the Christian world, and set in opposition to the Gospel of Christ, is much leaner, and more scanty, than the morality of the Heathens. I speak of the idea only; for neither have the Heathens of old, nor of the present day, acted up to their own rules. But I do not hesitate to affirm, that none of our modren moralists who have disowned the Gospel revelation, have given us a system of morality equal to that of Tully the Pagan. Many of the Heathens acknowledged the desirableness and necessity of revelation; though infidels, born in a Christian land, think it a high mark of their wisdom to despise it; and avowed atheists, that is, men † John ix. 39. John xv. 22, |