While we are in these leprous tabernacles of clay, my dear friends, our vision is so dim and obscure, that "we see but as through a glass darkly," the bright resplendent "morning star," whose "light is like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper-stone, clear as crystal."* We cannot fix the corporeal eye with a steady gaze upon the material sun in the firmament, without the intervention of some substance, capable of mitigating the overpowering strength of its beams, and of rendering them less dazzling. How then could sinful dust and ashes behold, with the intellectual eye, "the Sun of Righteousness," the blessed and only Potentate, the self-existent Jehovah, who "dwells in light which no man can approach unto," + excepting through the medium of a nature like its own? Our glorious Christ, who condescended to become our Elder Brother, "stands behind our wall of flesh, he looketh forth at the windows, showing himself through the lattice." And, because the eternal Son of God condescended to become incarnate, in order to bring Zion into a state of holiness and immortal bliss, shall we, by our vain and sinful speculations, defile that precious blood, which divine love and wisdom has appointed, for the "sprinkling, and cleansing of many nations," § and presumptuously rush forward, to examine with uncircumcised minds, + 1 Tim. vi. 15, 16. § Isai. lii. 15. * Rev. xxi. 11. the glorious armour of heavenly workmanship, in which the God of Jeshurun fought our battles ? Surely, it must be obvious to all who know the plague of their own hearts, and the spirituality of the law, which condemns the thought of foolishness as sin, and makes an unlawful desire as culpable as a guilty action, that the doctrine of our glorious Immanuel's peccability, strikes at the very root of the atonement! The blood of the fountain which was opened in the house of our spiritual David, must be infinitely more pure, in a physical as well as in a moral sense, than that which runs in our own veins, or we are filthy still, and shall be filthy for ever! It is in vain to reserve a salvo for the conscience, by asserting that he did no sin; but kept himself holy by the power of the Spirit.The blood of fallen flesh, which you have been taught to believe that the divine Saviour clothed himself in, must have been impure, however inert sin might have been in his nature, and motionless the law of the members! "Whoso breaketh an hedge, a serpent shall bite him." The essential holiness, and impeccability of our pre-eminent Surety and Substitute, is "a wall of fire round about Zion," and whoever yields that rich and precious truth, which is pregnant with so much strength and consolation to the believer, makes a breach in the bulwarks of the holy city, through Eccl. x. 8. + Zech. ii. 5. which "that old dragon, called the Devil and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world,"* can enter, and make dreadful havock among the flock; spoiling the pastures, and defiling the pure streams of the water of life. May the omnipotent Jehovah-Jesus, whose mercy and love are equal to his transcendent purity, extend that sovereign grace to thousands of the disciples of Irvingism, which was exerted in favour of the redeemed thief on the cross, when in the last hour, he was snatched out of the jaws of the lion, and, carried by our glorious Champion into Paradise, as a trophy of victory! That is the sum and substance of my desire for you, my dear friends, for then all covenant blessings will follow. Let but the God of Jeshurun arise for your deliverance, and one touch of his holy arm, will dispel the charms and delusions of the devil, and he will destroy, with the breath of his mouth, that cobweb-veil, which the deceiver has spread over you! Holy, glorious Immanuel, the light and salvation of thy spiritual Israel! Let not this public testimony, concerning thy divine impeccable human nature, which Satan has dared to misrepresent and defile, 66 return void." It is sent forth in simple reliance upon thy blessing, and in the humble confidence, that thou wilt vouchsafe to destroy the strong holds of the enemy with it, in the bosoms of Rev. xii. 9. some of thy deluded people. "Not by might, nor by power, but by thy Spirit, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Hosts!"* Gather thy remnant out of this terrible labyrinth, and "put them together as the sheep of Bozrah, as the flock in the midst of their fold." Oh, that as "the breaker thou wouldst come and place thyself at their head; " that Zion might hear a "great noise by reason of the multitude of men.”+ Bring them out of all the intricate mazes of error into which they have been seduced, and teach them to recognize thy voice, that they may not again "follow a stranger." Gird their loins with heavenly truth in its purity and simplicity, that henceforth they may not mistake darkness for light, and bitter for sweet, but may they be enabled to detect the malignant treachery and blackness of Satan, under all his white, "angel of light" drapery. Destroy all "refuges of lies," extinguish every spark of man's kindling, and give all erring souls, such deep views of thy transcendent purity, and their own utter corruption and depravity, as shall lead them to cling to thee with selfabhorrence, imploring thee to clothe them with the beautiful garments of thy immaculate righteousness, and to bestow upon them the true faith that works by love, that they may triumph over the bosom foe, and all spiritual wickedness in high places! Holy, glorious Father, who hast loved the ran* Zech. iv. 6. + Mic. ii. 12, 13. ‡ John, x. 4, 5. somed church of Immanuel with an everlasting love, and hast undertaken to prepare every branch of the immortal vine, for transplantation into the eternal regions of joy unspeakable and full of glory! root out of our hearts every plant which thou hast not planted; and cause the "fir-tree to spring up instead of the thorn, the myrtle instead of the brier: and waters to break out in the wilderness, and streams in the desert, that the parched ground may become a pool, the thirsty land springs of water; and that there may be "grass, with reeds and rushes, in the habitation of dragons.” * Holy Comforter, and glorifier of our JehovahJesus! every name written in the Lamb's book of life is known unto thee! Reveal to those who are entangled in Satan's net, the infinite beauties, glories, and perfections of Immanuel's spotless humanity, and the ineffable dignity and majesty of his Deity; and convince their minds that it was his impeccability alone, which enabled him to cast all Zion's sins into the unfathomable ocean of divine love! Constrain them, by thy mighty power, to renounce all false conceptions of their incarnate God, and to lay hold of the true immaculate Head, from which all holiness and spiritual nourishment is ministered to his members. Sprinkle them with the precious blood and pure water that flowed from his wounded side, and cleanse them from all their * Isai. lv. 13; xxxv. 6, 7. |