and imperfection. It is sufficient, if he vouch- | my planting, the work of my hands, that I safes to dwell with them by his Spirit. Much may be glorified. A little one shall become less are temporal dominion and wealth ne-a thousand, and a small one a strong nation: cessary to the prosperity and honour of his spiritual kingdom. But what then are we encouraged to expect, beyond what has been hitherto known, with regard to this point? Let us consult the scriptures, which alone can guide and determine our inquiry. I will select some express passages, a few out of many which might be adduced, but sufficient, I hope, by the rules of sober interpretation, to lead us to a satisfactory answer.

They were soon afterwards exterminated countries and islands lately discovered in the from their land, their constitution, both of southren hemisphere, are left, as they were church and state, utterly subverted; and found, in gross ignorance. The exertions of they remain to this day, in a dispersed state, our navigators to supply them with sheep which renders their observance of the law and cows, and useful implements, from Euimpracticable. rope, were humane and laudable. But it does not appear that the least attempt was made to impart to them the knowledge of our holy religion. The only missionary they have from us (if he be yet living,) is the much-spoken-of Omiah. This man was brought to England, almost from the Antipodes; he spent some time amongst us, and was then sent back to tell his country men what he had seen and heard. But if he gave a faithful account of our customs, morals, and religion, so far as they fell within the circle of his own observations, the relation would certainly be little to our honour, and I am afraid much to their hurt. In brief, a large part of Europe, almost the whole of the other three continents, with the islands in the Eastern and Southern Oceans, are destitute of the true gospel. But there is a time approaching, called the fulness of the Gentiles, when the Redeemer's glory shall dawn and shine upon all nations. And though we cannot see when or how this happy change shall be effected, yet in the Lord's hour, mountains shall sink into plains. Nor is it more improbable to us now, than it would have seemed to an inhabitant of Rome in the time of Julius Cæsar, that the island of Great Britain should one day be distinguished by all those privileges which the Providence of God has since bestowed upon it.

It seems equally plain, that these prophecies have not yet been fulfilled to the christian church. The greater part of the earth, to this day, is unacquainted with the name of Jesus. And the general face of Christendom, whether in Popish or in Protestant countries, exhibits little more of the spirit and character of the gospel, than is to be found among the Heathens. If christianity be compatible with pride or baseness, with avarice or profusion, with malice and envy, with scepticism in principle and licentiousness of conduct, then christians abound; but if humility, integrity, benevolence, and a spiritual mind, are essential to a christian; if we judge by the criterion which our Lord himself appointed, and account only those his disciples who live in the exercise of mutual love, it is to be feared that they are but few, even in the places which are most favoured with the light of the gospel. But can the scriptures be broken? Can the promises of the Lord fail? By no means. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but not one jot or tittle of his word shall fail of accomplishment.

It is not necessary to suppose that every individual of mankind shall be savingly con verted to the Lord in this future day of his power; but I apprehend the current language of the prophecies warrants us to hope, that the prayers and desires of the church shall, in some future period, be signally answered, in the following respects.

1. That the gospel shall visit the nations which are at present involved in darkness. The Heathen are given to Messiah for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession. At present (as I have formerly observed, Ser. xxxii.) if the whole of Christendom were inhabited by real Christians, they would bear but a small proportion to the rest of mankind. Large countries in Europe, Asia, and Africa, where the gospel was once known, have been for many ages involved in Mahommedan darkness. The scattered remnants of the Greek church in Turkey are so miserably depraved and ignorant, that they scarcely deserve to be mentioned as an exception. The rest of Asia knows little of christianity, unless they have learnt it in the eastern parts from the cruelty and tyranny of men who bear the name of christians. The like may be said of America, excepting the northern provinces of our late dominion there. For the zeal of the Spanjards and Portuguese has produced few other effects than rapine, slavery, and deluges of human blood. The interior parts, both of Africa and America are unknown. The

2. That this gospel shall prevail not in word only, but in power. Even where the name of Christ is professed, but little of the power of it is at present known. The superstition and false worship generally prevalent within the pale of the Roman and Greek churches, may be mentioned without offence to Protestants. But the bulk of the Protestant countries are equally overspread with scepticism and wickedness. Few comparatively, among Protestants, are friendly to that gospel which the apostles preached; and much fewer are they who are influenced by it. Perhaps no nation is favoured with greater advantages for knowing the truth than our nation, nor any city more favoured than this city. I doubt not but there are persons now living, who would have been thought eminent christians, if they had lived in the first and happiest age of the church; and I trust their number is greater than we are aware of. The Lord has a hidden people, little known to the world or to each other. But if we judge by the standard of truth, we must acknowledge that the power of religious profession is very low. How little does it appear in the lives, tempers, and pursuits of the most who hear the gospel; but the time will come when christians shall again be

nown by their integrity, spiritual-mindedness, and benevolence, and by all the fruits of righteousness, which are, by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. The fall of mystical Babylon, and of Antichrist, in its various forms, and the calling of the Jews, are events which are positively foretold, and which, when they come to pass, will have great effects. Zion, as yet, is only building, but it shall be built.

powers of darkness, if they were permitted to appear and act amongst us in human shapes? Could such enormities possibly obtain, if the mild and merciful spirit of the gospel generally prevailed? but it shall prevail at last, and then the nations shall learn war no more, Isa. ii. 4.

How transporting the thought! that a time shall yet arrive, when the love of God and man, of truth and righteousness, shall obtain through the earth. The evils (and these are the greatest evils of human life) which men bring upon themselves, and upon each other, by their wickedness, shall cease; and we may believe that the evils in the natural world will be greatly abated. Sin will no longer call down the tokens of God's displeasure, by such public calamities as hurricanes, earthquakes, pestilence and fainine. And if some natural evils, as pain and sickness, should remain, submission to the will of God, and the compassion and tenderness of men towards the afflicted, will render them tolerable.

If this prospect be desirable to us, surely it will be the object of our prayers. The Lord will do great things, but he will be inquired of by his people for the performance.

3. That the animosities and disputes which prevail among christians shall cease. The observations of a late ingenious writer, which, it is to be feared, he was confirmed in by his own experience, is too much founded in truth:-"We have just religion enough to nake us hate one another." The spirit of party, prejudice, and bigotry, and interest, a zeal for systems, forms, modes, and denominations furnish men with plausible pretences for indulging their unsanctified passions, and deceive them into an opinion, that while they are gratifying their pride and self-will, they are only labouring to promote the cause of God and truth. Hence often the feuds which obtain among religious people are pursued with greater violence, and to greater lengths, and are productive of more mischievous consequences, than the quarrels of drunkards. But to many persons the extension of doThe lovers of peace, who refuse to take a part minion and commerce appears much more in these contentions, but rather weep over desirable. The glory and extent of the Brithem in secret, are censured and despised as tish government has been eagerly pursued, neutrals and cowards, by the angry combat- and the late diminution of our national granants on all sides, while the world despises deur and influence has been much laid to and laughs at them all. It was not so in the heart; while the glory of the Redeemer's beginning, nor will it be so always. The kingdom, and the conversion of the Heathens, hour is coming, when believers shall be united are considered by the politicians and merin love, shall agree in all that is essential to a chants of the earth, as trivial concerns, unlife of faith and holiness, and shall live in the worthy of their notice, or rather as obstacles exercise of forbearance and tenderness to-to the views of ambition and avarice. wards each other, if in some points of smaller importance, they cannot think exactly alike; which possibly may be the case in the best times, in the present imperfect state of human nature. Ephraim shall then no more envy Judah, nor Judah vex Ephraim, Isa. xi.

13.

4. That it will be a time of general peace. At present the kingdoms, which, by their profession, should be subjects of the Prince of Peace, are perpetually disturbing, invading, and destroying each other. They live in habits of mutual fear and jealousy, and maintain great armies on all sides; that each nation may be prepared, if occasion offers, to strike the first blow. War is followed as a trade, and cultivated as a science; and they who, with the greatest diligence and success, spread devastation and ruin far and wide, and deluge the earth with human blood, acquire the title of heroes and conquerors. Can there be a stronger confirmation of what we read in scripture concerning the depravity of man? Can we conceive an employment more suited to gratify the malignity of Satan and the

But it

is said of Messiah, and of his church, The nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish, Isa. lx. 12. The word of God may be slighted, but it cannot be annulled; and it is more a subject for lamentation than wonder, that our national prosperity should decline, when we are indifferent, yea, adverse to that cause which the great Governor of the world has engaged to promote and establish.

SERMON XXXVIII.

KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.

(And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh, a name written,) KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS. Rev. xix. 16.

THE description of the administration and glory of the Redeemer's kingdom, in defiance of all opposition, concludes the second part of the Messiah. Three different passages from this book are selected to form a

God cannot be tempted with evil, neither | both sides and the final event, that I think tempteth he any man, (James i. 13,) and the they who do not perceive a superintending scripture is to be interpreted consistently Providence conducting the whole affair, as a with itself. It would be absurd to ascribe preparation to still greater and more imdarkness or ice to the agency of the sun, portant revolutions, must be quite at a loss to though both inevitably follow, if the light and account for what has already happened, upon heat of the sun be withdrawn to a certain de- any principles of human policy or foresight. gree. A degree of heat is necessary to keep water in that state of fiuidity which we commonly suppose essential to its nature; but it is rather essential to the nature of water to harden into ice, if it be deprived of the heat which is necessary to preserve it in a fluid state; and the hardest metals will melt and flow like water, if heat be proportionably increased. Thus it is with the heart of fallen man. In whatever degree it is soft and impressive, capable of feeling and tenderness, we must attribute it to the secret influence of the Father and Fountain of light; and if he is pleased to withdraw his influence, nothing more is needful to its complete induration.

3. That he is King of kings, and Governor among the nations, is farther evident from the preservation of his people; for the world is against them, and they have no protector but him. The wrath of man, like the waves of the sea, has bounds prescribed to it which it cannot pass. So far as he is pleased to over-rule it to his own praise, he will permit it to operate, but the remainder, that is not subservient to the accomplishment of his purpose, he will restrain, Psalm lxxvi. 10. But he works so secretly, though powerfully, by the agency of second causes, that only they who are enlightened by his word and Spirit can perceive his interference. He permitted Ahithophel to give that counsel to Absalom, which, though wicked, was, in the political sense of the word, prudent; that is, it was the probable method of putting David into the power of his rebellious son. David had prayed that the Lord would turn Ahithophel's counsel into foolishness, 2 Sam. xv. 31. Had the Lord instantly deprived Ahithophel of his reason, this prayer would have been more visibly, but not more effectually answered, than by the counter-advice of Hushai, which though rash and extravagant, being suited to gratify the vanity and folly of Absalom, (2 Sam. xvii.

2. The kings of the earth are continually disturbing the world with their schemes of ambition. They expect to carry every thing before them, and have seldom any higher end in view than the gratification of their own passions. But in all they do they are but servants of this great King and Lord, and fulfil his purposes, as the instruments he employs to inflict prescribed punishment upon transgressors against him, or to open a way for the spread of his gospel. Thus, under the OldTestament dispensation (for he was King from everlasting,) the successes of Sennacherib and Nebuchadnezzar, and the exalta-14,) rendered the other abortive. Sometimes tion of Cyrus were entirely owing to their being employed by him, as an axe or a saw in the hand of the workman, Isa. x. 15. And they acted under a limited commission, beyond which they could not go. They had one thing in view, He had another; and when his design was accomplished, we hear of them no more. Time would not suffice, were I to adduce the many striking instances of the like kind which offer to observation from the perusal of modern history. It is well known, with respect to that great event, the Reformation from Popery in the sixteenth century, and especially in our own land, that many of the principal persons who contributed to its establishment hated it in their hearts. But their ambition, appetites, and worldly policy engaged them in such measures, as the King of kings over-ruled to produce consequences which they neither intended nor could foresee, and which, when they did apprehend, they would have prevented if they could, but it was too late. Future writers, I doubt not, will make the like reflection upon the American war, in the origin and progress of which there was such an evident disproportion between the apparent causes and the effects produced by them, between the first designs and expectations of the principal actors on

the enemies of his church divide and wrangle among themselves, and then one party, to mortify and oppose the other, will protect those whom otherwise they wish to destroy. Thus Paul escaped from the malice of the Jewish council, by the sudden disagreement which arose between the Pharisees and Sadducees, (Acts xxiii. 7,) though they came together equally determined to destroy him. At other times, kings and statesmen act so inconsistently with their professed aims, and take steps so directly calculated to prevent what they wish to obtain, or to bring upon themselves what they mean to avoid, that we can only say they are infatuated. A very small compliance seemed likely to have secured the affection of the twelve tribes to Rehoboam. We are ready to wonder that he could not be prevailed on to speak mildly to the people for one day, with a view of engaging them to be his servants for ever. But when we read that the cause was from the Lord, (1 Kings xii. 15,) and that, in this way, his purpose of separating the kingdoms of Israel and Judah was effected, the wonder ceases. Very observable, likewise, was the coincidence of circumstances which preserved the Jews in Persia from the destructive de signs of their adversary Haman, the king