like doves to their windows, and like dew from the womb of the morning. 12. Again, The day of the believers death is a notable day of Chrift, for then it is that he comes with the keys of hell and death in his hand, to usher the poor foul into the house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens; the houfe of nany manfions; according to his promife, "I will come again and receive you to myfelf, that where I am, there ye may be alfo." Laftly, The Day of his fecond coming will be a notable day, for then he will come without fin to the falvation of all that believe in him. Of this day Christ speaks, when he says, "Look up, and lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh." That day he will defcend from heaven with a fhout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; when the earth will caft forth the dead, and the fea will give up the dead which are in it; and a feparation will be made for ever between the sheep and the goats; the wheat and the chaff. Oh, the awful folemnity of that day of Chrift! when the heavens, being on fire, "fhall be diffolved, the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth, and the works that are therein, fhall be burnt up." Thus I have given you fome notable days of Chrift. I fhall not pofitively determine which of thofe days Abraham had in his view, when he faw the day of Chrift: perhaps all of them together: but efpecially the day of his incarnation, death, refurrection, afcenfion, and manifeftation by the word and spirit, for the falvation of fouls. adly, I come to give you fome of the qualities of the day of Christ. 1. then, You fee in the text, that it is a day of joy and gladnels; Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he faw it, and was glad; and no wonder, for he is the confolation of Ifrael, and gives the oil of joy for mourning. Whenever the day of Chrift breaks on a poor foul, though formerly it had beca fitting in the region and fhadow of death, it lays afide its fackcloth, and girds itself with gladnefs; fo foon as ever he appears, "the fhadows of death are turned into the morning." And it cannot mifs to be a day of gladness; for, 2. It is a day of light; and truly light is fweet: the darknets of unbelief, the darkness of ignorance, the darkness of error, the darknefs of defpondency, evanishes, when the day of Chrift breaks, juft as the clouds and darkness of the night evanishes at the appearance of the fun. And no wonder, for he is the "Light of the world; the Sun of righteousness; the bright and the morning Star, given for a light to enlighten the Gentiles, and the glory of his people Ifrael." 3. His day is a day of life from the dead. Death fpiritual and eternal, as well as death temporal, had been the heritage of all the race of Adam, if Chrift had not come; but when he comes, he brings life to a loft world. When he comes in a day of converfion, the foul is "quickened, which was dead in trefpaffes and fins." And after the dark night of defertion, when he returns to pay a new vifit, by the refreshing influences of his Spirit, it is "like life from the dead: I will be as the dew to Ifrael:" And what then? "They fhall revive as the corn." When he comes in the power of his Spirit, the dead "are made to hear the voice of the Son of God." When he comes at the last day, it will be a day of reviving to the bodies of his faints; for he will cry, "Awake and fing, ye that dwell in duft: thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth fhall caft out the dead." 4. The day of Chrift is a day of vengeance upon fin, Satan, and the world. Our glorious Immanuel, with a view to the day of his appearing in the flesh, and in the power of h ́s word and Spirit, for the ruin of Satan's kingdom, cries," The day of vengeance is in mine heart:" and accordingly when he comes, he takes vengeance on the old ferpent, fpo is principa is ties and powers; and for this end is he manifefter, and’manifefted in the gospel, and manifested faving'y to the foul," to deftroy the works of the devil." 5. The day of Christ is a day of jubilee: it is a year of releafe. Numb. xxv. 10. Deut. xv. 2. where the fastes som the prifon gates, and cries to the prifoners to come for, and to them that are in darkness, few yourdives, 11 x.xy Whenever he comes, and makes dag breik somn a publ though formerly it was bound that 'n vol ser nome whenever he comes, I fay, the buå di unbelief drop off, the lane man made to exp God, but that he loved s," near to the foul, Le caufas a c heart towards himself, while he talked with us by 7 word to a poor foul, or call it by its name, as he did to Mary, immediately. the poor foul will fall under the bonds of his love, and be ready to cry, as fhe did, Rabboni, my Mafter; or with Thomas, My Lord, and my God. 7. The day of Chrift is a day of peace, it is prophefied, that," in his day, the very mountains should bring peace to the people," Pfal. Ixxii. 3. That "men fhould beat their fwords into ploughhares, and their fpears into pruning hooks," If. ii. 4. His name is the Prince of peace: and peace on earth, and good-will towards men, was proclaimed by the angels, whenever he fet his foot in this lower world; and whenever he comes and vifits a poor foul, he brings in peace with him, and a "peace that paffeth all understanding." It is peace like a river: It is righteoufnefs like the waves of the fea. "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: of the increase of his government and peace there fhall be no end.” 8. It is a day of falvation: He is given for falvation to all the ends of the earth. When he comes into the world he proclaims, "I that speak in righteoufnefs, mighty to fave." The day of his death was the day of purchafed falvation. The day of the gospel is the day of proclaimed falvation. This is the day of falvation, this the accepted time: "To-day, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts." The day of converfion is the day of applied falvation; Luke xix. 9. “This day is falvation come to this houfe." And the day of death, and of his fecond coming, is the day of completed and perfected falvation. 9. The day of Chrift is an everlafting day, a durable day, in which the fun fhall never go down. Indeed, in the day of Chrift the fun may be eclipsed, but it fhall never fet with refpect to a poor foul, whom he has vifited with diftinguishing love. No, the day of grace is but the beginning of the day of glory. "The Lord fhall be unto thee an everlafting light, and thy God thy glory." So much for the qualities of the day of Chrift. 3dly, I would tell you of fome wonderful and furprising fights that are to to be feen, and fome great works that are done in the day of Chrift. You have a cluster of the great works that are done in the day of Chrift, Dan. ix. from verfe 24th to the end of the chapter. 1. A ftop is put to the mighty torrent of fin, that had been overflowing the face of the world, like a mighty deluge. We are told, verfe 24th, that the Melliah fhall finifh tranfgreflion. The The word in the margin is, He fhall reftrain tranfgreffion. Ignorance, atheifm, infidelity, and all manner of wickednefs, had overflown Jews and Gentiles; as the apoftle fhews, Rom. i. ii. and iii. Now, by the coming of Chrift à Hop was put unto this flood of fin: for, by the preaching of Chrift crucified, the Jewish errors and fuperftitions, and the idolatries and abominations of the Gentile world, are overthrown; and the kingdom of Satan falls down before him, through the nations of the earth, Pfal. cxiv. 3. 7. "The fea, fled, Jordan was driven back; at the prefence of the Lord; at the prefence of the God of Jacob." 2. In the day of the Melliah, tranfgreffion is ended, verse 24.; or, as it reads in the margin, it is fealed up, hid, or covered, out of the fight of God. By fin there is a feparation between God and us. Well, Chrift comes to make an end of it: To take it out of the way, that fo there might be a meeting betwixt God and us again; and he feals it up: He covers it with his blood, fo as, though it be fought for, yet it shall never be found: and O, is not this a great work done in the day of Christ. 3. In the day of Chrift, verfe 24. there is reconciliation made for iniquity; "For God was in Chrift, reconciling the world unto himfelf, not imputing their trefpaffes unto them," 2 Cor. v. 19. Rom. v. 10. "When we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son." No fooner had man finned, but red war commenced between God and man, Pfal. vii. 2. God is angry with the wicked, and their hearts are enmity against God. And the war had lafted through eternity, if Chrift had not come and "made peace by the blood of his crofs." 4. In the day of Christ, everlasting righteousness is brought in, verfe 24. By the fin of Adam, and the breach of the first covenant, righteoufrefs before God was gone quite out of the world. There was indeed fomething, and that very little, of a moral righteoufnefs to be found in or among fome of the heathens; but, as one fays, All their fhining virtues were but fplended fins. There was nothing of a law-righteousness to be found among all the race of mankind; nothing that could answer the law in its fpirituality: hence fay the pfalmist, and the apostle, "there is none righteous, no, not one." now, Christ brings in an everlafling righteoufaefs into the world, by his obedience unto the death. He "magnifies the law, and makes its honourable; and the Lord is well pleased for his righteoufuefs fake," Rom. viii. 3. 4. But 5. In the day of Christ the vifion and the prophecy is feal VOL. III. 3 G ed ed up: That is, the canon of the fcripture is completed: with an awful advertisement to the world, to take care, that none add to, or diminish and take from, the words of the book; under the pain of the wrath of God, Rev. xxii. 18. 19. There you fee with what an awful folemnity the vifion and prophecy is fealed: Read, “For I teftify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, if any man fhall add unto these things, God fhall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man fhall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God fhall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book." 6. In the day of the Meffiah the most holy is anointed; that is Chrift himself, who is the holy One of God, A&s iv. 27. "The holy One of Ifrael is anointed with the oil of glad nefs above his fellows." And Chrift may be called the moft holy, with allufion unto the place in the temple of Jerufalem, called the "Holy of holies;" wherein was the Shechina, the vifible appearance of the divine prefence, from between the cherubims, Exod. xxv. 22. He is our New Teftament Holy of Holies, into which, as kings and priefts unto God, we are allowed to enter, and paritcipate of his anointing; I mean, of the Spirit of Chrift. 7. In his days the covenant is confirmed with many, verfe 25. By his death and blood, the covenant of grace and all the promises of it are to ratified and confirmed, that we, without fear of vicious intromiffion, may intermeddle with the bleffings thereof, as goods difponed by a teftamentary deed, Heb. ix. 16. 17. “Where a teftament is, there must alfo, of neceffity, be the death of the teftator. For a testament is of force after men are dead; otherwife it is of no strength at all whilft the teflator liveth." 8. He has made the facrifice and oblation to cease, verfe 27. that is, he has put an end to thefe typical facrifices that were of divine appointment, during the ftanding of the Old Teftament œconomy, the facrifice of his own death having come in the room of all thefe. Befides thefe mentioned by Daniel, I will tell you of fome other great and wonderful things, that are done in the days of the great Meffiah: And O, let all the world wonder at them! 1. In his day the glory of heaven is brought down to earth! And what a wonder is here! Chrift is the bright nefs of the Father's glory: and to be fure the brightness of the Father's |