And then, because there can be no feast, where there is the greatest enemy in force and power, he swallows up death in victory. Death keeps us in fear all our lifetime. That that swalloweth up all kings and monarchs, the terror of the world, death, shall be and is swallowed up by our head, Christ, and shall be swallowed up by us in \actory. In the mean time we are subject to many sorrows which cause tears ; for tears are but drops that issue from that cloud of sorrow ; and sorrow we have always in this world, either from sins or miseries, or sympathy in tears of that kind. Well, the time will come that tears shall be wiped away, and the cause of tears ; all sorrow for our own sins, for our own misery', and for sympathizing with the times wherein we live. Our time shall be hereafter at the day of resurrection, when all tears shall be wiped from our eyes. God will per- form that oliice of a mother to wipe the children's eyes, or of a nurse to take away all cause of grief whatsoever, else it cannot be a perfect feast.
Aye, but there ai-e* reproaches cast upon religion and religious persons ! It goeth under a veil of reproach, and the best things are not seen in their own colours ; nor the worst things ; they go under vizards here.
But the time will come that the rebukes of his people shall be taken away. The good things, as they are best, so shall they bo known to be so ; and sin, and base courses, as they are bad, and as they are from hell, so they * Misprinted ' is.'— G
4G0 THE MAKRIAGE FEAST [SeRMON III.
shall be known to be. Everything shall appear in its own colours ; things shall not go masked any longer. And what is the seal of all this ? The seal of it is, ' The mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.' Truth itself hath spoken it, and therefore it must needs be. Jehovah, that can give a being to all things, he hath said it.
We have heard why the church is called a mountain. He will destroy, or swallow up,* as the word may signify, the face of covering, or the cover- ing of the face ; the veil which is the covering of the face, and particularly expressed in that term always ; the veil that is spread over all nations.
God will take away the spiritual veil that covers the souls of his people, that is between them and diving truths. It hath allusion to that of Exod. xxxiv. 34, 35, about Moses when he came from the mount. He had a veil, for the people could not behold him. He had a glory put upon his face, that they could not look upon him with a direct eye, and therefore he was fain to put a veil upon his face, to shew that the Jews could not see, as Paul interprets it, 2 Cor. iii. 15, 'To this day,' saith he, ' when Moses is read, there is a veil put upon their hearts.' They could not see that ' the law was a school- master to bring to Christ,' Gal. iii. 24, the ceremonial law and the moral law. God had a blessed end, by the curse of it, to bring them to Christ. They rested in the veil, their sight was terminated in the veil, they could not see through to the end and scope of it. Nevertheless, when they shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away.
1. From the words, consider first of all, that naturaUy there is a veil of ignormicc upon the soul.
2. Secondly, God doth take aicay his\ veil; and God by his Spiiit only can do it.
3. Thirdly, that this is only in his church. And where this veil of ignor- ance is taken off, there is feasting with God and spiritual joy, and delight in the best order ; and where it is I taken off there is none of it.
First of all, by nature, there is a veil of covenng over all men's spirits. To understand this better, let us unfold the terms of veil a little. There is a veil either upon the things themselves that are to be seen, or upon the soul which should behold them.
(1.) The veil of things themselves is when they be hidden altogether, or in part ; when we know part, and are ignorant of part. And this veil upon the things ariseth from the weak apprehension of them ; when they are not represented in clear expressions, but in obscurity of words or t]rpes ; when we see them only in types or obscure phrases, which hideth sometime the sight of the thing itself. The manner of speech sometimes easteth a veil on things ; for our Saviour Christ spake in parables, which were like the cloud, dark on the one. side, light on the other, dark towards the Egyptians, light towards the Israelites. So some expressions of Scripture have a light side, that only the godly see, and a dark side, that other men, good wits, as natural men, see not.
(2.) Again, there is a veil upon the soul and upon the sight. If the things bevelled, or the sight veiled, there is no sight. Now the soul is veiled when we be ignorant and unbelieving ; when we are ignorant of what is spoken and revealed, or when we know the terms of it, and yet believe it not.