417 / 674
DISC.
tV.1
IN
HIS SAÌNTS.
397
in faith,
not
having received the promises,
but
having
seen them afar
off;
and were
persuaded
of
them,
and
embraced
them,
Heb.
xi.
13.
They
died
in
the
hope
of
this
salvation,
and
they shall arise
in
the
blessed
pos-
session
of
it.
Behold
Abraham appearing there, the father
of
the
faithful, who
"
saw
the day
of
Christ,
and rejoiced
,to_
see it,"
John
viii.
56. who
trusted
in
his Son
Jesus
two
thousand years
before he
was
born.:
His elder
family,
the pious Jews,
surround
him
there, and
we, his
younger
children among the
gentiles, shall
stand
with him as
the
followers
of
his
faith, who
trust
in
the same
Jesus, al-
most
two
thousand
years
after
he
is
dead.
How shall
we
both
rejoice to
see this
brightest
day
of
the
Son
of
man,
and congratulate each other's faith,
while
our
eyes
meet
and centre
in him,
and
our
souls
triumph
in
the
sight,
love, and
enjoyment
of
him, in whom we
have believed
How admirable and
divinely
glorious shall
our Lord him-
self
appear,
on
whom
every
eye
is
fixed
with
unuttera-
ble
delight,
in whom
the faith
of distant
countries and
ages
is
centered and reconciled,
and
in
whom
"
all_
the
nations of the earth
appear
to
be blessed,"
according
to
the ancient
word
of
promise,
Gen.
xii.
3.
and
xviii.
18.
Secondly,
It
is
a
further
occasion
of
pleasing wonder,
"That,
so
many
wicked,
obstinate
wills
of
men,
and
so
many perverse
of
èctions should
be bowed down,
and
submit
themselves to
The
holy
rules of the
gospel."
This
is
another
instance
of
the grace
of
Christ,
and
shall
be
the subject of our joyful admiration.
Every
son
and
daughter of
Adam,
by
nature,
is
averse to God,
inclined
to
sin,
a
child
of
disobedience and death,
Elite.
ii.
(2,
;.
There
is
a
new
miracle wrought
by
Christ
in every
in-
stance
of
converting
grace,
and
he
shall
have
the glory
of
them all
in
that
day.
It
is
a
first
resurrection
from
the dead,
it
is
a
new
creation, and the almighty power
shall
then
be
publicly
adored.
Then
one shall
say,
"
I
was
a
sensual
sinner,
drenched
in
liquor
and unclean
lusts, and
wicked
in all
the forms
of
lewdness
and
intemperance:
"The
grace
of
God
my
Saviour,
appeared
to
me,
and taught
me
to deny worldly
lusts," Tit.
ii.. 11,
le.,
which
I
once thought
I
could
never
have
parted
with.
I
loved
my
sins as my
life,
but
he has
persuaded and
constrained
me
to
cut
off a right-
hand,and