soul, in the ordinances of his appointment, word, sacraments, prayer, or meditation; when the soul is made to say, "I sat down under his shadow with great delight. He brought me to the banqueting-house, and his banner over me was love." 11. Again, The day of his appearing in the power of his Spirit, in the dispensation of the everlasting gospel, when he goes forth with his bow, and with his sword, "conquering and to conquer;" "pulling down the strong-holds of Satan;"" destroying the works of the devil," and rearing up his [own] kingdom; reviving and reforming his churches: and sinners flocking in to him, "like doves to their windows," and "like dew from the womb of the morning."

12. Again, The day of the believer's death is a notable day of Christ; for then it is that he comes with the keys of hell and death in his hand, to usher the poor soul into the "house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens;" the "house of many mansions;" according to his promise, "I will come again and receive you to myself; that where I am, there ye may be also."

Lastly, The day of his second coming will be a notable day; for then he "will come without sin to the salvation" 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 "descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God;" and "the earth will cast forth the dead, and the sea will give up the dead which are in it ;" and a separation will be made for ever between the sheep and the goats; the wheat and the chaff. Oh, the awful solemnity of that day of Christ! when "the heavens, being on fire, shall be dissolved, the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth, and the works that are therein, shall be burnt up." Thus I have given you some notable days of Christ. I shall not positively determine which of these days Abraham had in his view, when he saw the day of Christ: perhaps all of them together: but especially the day of his incarnation, death, resurrection, ascension, and manifestation by the word and Spirit, for the salvation of souls.

2dly, I come to give you some of the qualities of the day of Christ.

1. Then, You see in the text, that it is a day of joy and gladness; Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad; and no wonder, for he is the consolation of Israel, and "gives the oil of joy for mourning." Whenever the day of Christ breaks on a poor soul, though formerly it had been sitting in the region and shadow of death, it lays aside its sackcloth, and girds itself with gladness; so soon as ever he

appears, "the shadows of death are turned into the morning." And it cannot miss to be a day of gladness; for,

2. It is a day of light; and "truly light is sweet :" the darkness of unbelief, the darkness of ignorance, the darkness of error, the darkness of despondency, vanishes, when the day of Christ breaks, just as the clouds and darkness of the night vanish at the appearance of the sun. 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 Israel."

3. His day is a day of life from the dead. Death spiritual and eternal, as well as death temporal, had been the heritage of all the race of Adam, if Christ had not come; but when he comes, he brings life to a lost world. When he comes in the day of conversion, the soul is "quickened, which was dead in trespasses and sins." And after the dark night of desertion, when he returns to pay a new visit, by the refreshing influences of his Spirit, it is "like life from the dead:" "I will be as the dew to Israel:" And what then? "They shall 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 saints; for he will cry, "Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out her dead."

4. The day of Christ is a day of vengeance upon sin, Satan, and the world. Our glorious Immanuel, with a view to the day of his appearing in the flesh, and in the power of his 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 serpent, "spoils principalities and powers;" and "for this end is he manifested," and manifested in the gospel, and manifested savingly to the soul, "to destroy the works of the devil."

5. The day of Christ is a day of jubilee: it is a "year of release." Numb. xxv. 10; Deut. xv. 2; in which he causes the prison gates to be opened, and cries "to the prisoners, Come forth; and to them that are in darkness, Show yourselves," Is. xlix. 9. Whenever he comes, and makes daybreak upon a poor soul, though formerly it was bound that it could not move; yet, whenever he comes, I say, the bonds of sin, ignorance, and unbelief drop off, "the lame man is made to leap like a hart, and the tongue of the dumb to sing."

6. It is a day of love, Ezek. xvi. 8: "When I passed by thee, thy time was the time of love." By his appearing in the flesh, and his manifestation in the gospel, the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man have indeed appeared

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in a surprising way. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us," 1 John iv. 10. Whenever he draws near to the soul, he causes a kindly glowing and warming of heart towards himself; "Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?" Luke xxiv. 32. If he but speak a word to a poor soul, or call it by its name, as he did to Mary, immediately the poor soul will fall under the bonds of his love, and be ready to cry, as she did, Rabboni, my Master; or with Thomas, My Lord, and my God.

day of Christ, Daniel ix., from verse 24th to the end of the chapter.

1. A stop is put to the mighty torrent of sin, that had been overflowing the face of the world, like a mighty deluge. We are told, verse 24th, that the Messiah “shall finish transgression.” The word in the margin is, He shall restrain transgression. Ignorance, atheism, infidelity, and all manner of wickedness, had overflown Jews and Gentiles; as the apostle shows, Rom. i., ii., and iii. Now, by the coming of Christ a stop was put to this flood of sin: for, by the preaching of Christ crucified, the Jewish errors and superstitions, 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, Psal. cxiv. 3, 7: “The sea, fled, Jordan was driven back; at the presence of the Lord; at the presence

of the God of Jacob.” 2. In the day of the Messiah, transgression is ended, verse 24; or, as it reads in the margin, it is sealed up, hid, or covered, out of the sight of God. By sin there is a separation between God and us. Well, Christ comes to make an end of it: to take it out of the way, that so there might be a meeting betwixt God and us again; and he seals it up. He covers

; it with his blood; so as, though it be sought for, yet it shall never be found : and 0, is not this a great work done in the day of Christ.

3. In the day of Christ, verse 24, there is “reconciliation made for iniquity;" " For God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses 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 sooner had man sinned, but red war commenced between God and man, Psal. vii. 2. “God is angry with the wicked,” and their hearts are “enmity against God.” And the war had lasted through eternity, if Christ had not come and "made peace by the blood of his cross."

4. In the day of Christ, “everlasting righteousness is brought in,” verse 24. By the sin of Adam, and the breach of the first covenant, righteousness before God was gone quite out of the world. There was, indeed, something, and that very little, of a moral righteousness to be found in or among some of the heathens; but, as one says, “ All their shining virtues were but splendid sins.' There was nothing of a law-righteousness to be found among all the race of mankind; nothing that could answer the law in its spirituality: hence say the psalmist, and the apostle, “ There is none righteous, no, not one.” But now, Christ " brings in an everlasting righteousness" into the world, by his obedience unto

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the death. He “ magnifies the law, and makes its honoura. ble; and the Lord is well pleased for his righteousness' sake," Rom. viii. 3, 4.

5. In the day of Christ the vision and the prophecy are sealed up: that is, the canon of the scripture 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 see with what an awful solemnity the vision and prophecy is sealed.-Read, “ For 1 testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall 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 Messiah the most holy is anointed; that is Christ himself, who is the holy One of God, Acts iv. 27. “ The holy one of Israel is anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows.” And Christ may be called the most holy, with allusion to the place in the temple of Jerusalem, called the “Holy of holies;" in which was the Shekinah, the visible appearance of the divine presence, from between the cherubim, Exod. xxv. 22. He is our New Testament Holy of Holies, into which, as kings and priests unto

od, we are allowed to enter, and participate of his anointing; I mean, of the Spirit of Christ.

7. In his days the covenant is confirmed with many, verse 25. By his death and blood, the covenant of grace and, all the promises of it are so ratified and confirmed, that we, with

, , out fear of vicious [intrusion,] may intermeddle with the blessings of it, as goods disponed by a testamentary deed, Heb. ix. 16, 17: " Where a testament is, there must also, of necessity, be the death of the testator. For a testament is of force after men are dead; otherwise it is of no strength at all, while the testator liveth.”

8. He has - made the sacrifice and oblation to cease," verse 27; that is, he has put an end to those typical sacrifices which were of divine appointment, during the standing of the Old Testament economy, the sacrifice of his own death having come in the room of all these. Besides those mentioned by Daniel, I will tell you

of some other great and wonderful things, that are done in the days of the great Messiah: And 0, let all the world wonder at them!

1. In his day the glory of heaven is brought down to earth!