396 'CHRIST ADMIRED AND GLORIFIED [DISC. Iv. learn to expect salvation and life for themselves, from the death and righteousness of another : That they, who once called the cross of Christ, folly and weakness, should come to see the wisdom and power of God in a crucified man, and believe him who hung upon a tree, as an accursed creature, to be Emanuel, God with us, God manifest in the flesh, and the Saviour of mankind, Mat. i. 23. 1 Tim. iii. 16. Surely, shall men and angels say in that day, " These were the effects of an almighty power, it was the work of God the Saviour, and it is marvellous in our eyes. With united voices shall all the saints confess, " Flesh and blood has not revealed this unto us, but the Spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ;" and of God the Father. We had perished in our folly, but Christ has been made wisdom to us; we were in dark- ness, and lay under the shadowof death, but Christ bas givenus light," 1 Cor. i. 30. Eph. v. 14. Come, all ye saints of these latter ages, " upon whom the end of the world is come," raise your heads with me, and look far backwards, even to the beginning of time, and the days of Adam ; for the believers of all ages, as- well as of all nations, shall appear together in that day, and acknowledge Jesus, the Saviour: According to the brighter or darker discoveries of the age in_ which they lived, he has been the common object of their faith. Ever since he was called the " seed of the woman," Gen. iii, 15. till the time of his appearance in the flesh, all the chosen of God have lived upon his grace, though mul- titudes of them never knew his name. It is true, the greater part of that illustrious company, on the right- hand of Christ, lived since the time of his incarnation, "'for the great multitude which no man could number," is derived from the gentile nations, Rev. vii. 9. Yet the ancient patriarchs, with the Jewish prophets and saints, shall make a splendid appearance there: " One hundred and forty-four thousand are sealed among the tribes of Israel," ver. 4. These of old embraced the gospel in types and shadows; but now their eyes behold Christ Jesus, the substance and the truth. In the days of their flesh, they read his name in dark lines, and looked througtl,lhe long glass of prophecy to distant ages, and a Saviour to come, and now behold, they find complete and certain salvation and glory in him. " These all died
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