this time the advent of your Messiah, from whom you will derive all spiritual blessings : behold, I am he : and, if you will come unto me, you shall receive more than tongue can utter, or imagination conceive.
We say not that these things amount to a proof of the point in question : but we suggest them for your consideration, and leave you to form your own judgment upon them.]
2. The duty of his people —
[Here we can speak with more decision. No one who knows the figurative nature of the Jewish ritual can doubt, but that this feast was designed to teach us, that " we are strangers here, and sojourners, as all our fathers wereV When fixed in our habitations and enjoying every comfort of life, we are apt to think that this is our home : the language of our hearts is, " Soul, take thine ease; eat, drink, and be merry." But " this is not our rest." We are here only in a wilderness ; and we must in the spirit of our minds resemble the patriarchs of old, " who, though in the land of promise, dwelt in tabernacles, declaring that here they had no continuing city, but that they sought another country, that is, an heavenly1." This is to be the character of all the Lord's people"1, who, " though in the world, are not of the world," and who " are looking for a city that hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God" ]
Application —
[It may be asked, What is all this to us ? I answer, Read what the prophet says, and you will have more satisfactoiy in- formation than you are aware of". Beyond all doubt he is speaking of those who live under the Gospel : and the repeated injunctions which he gives relative to our observance of this feast, are a strong confirmation, that there was in it a myste- rious and most important meaning. I call upon you then to keep this feast, to keep it with holy joy unto the Lord. Think of the incarnation of our blessed Lord ! What a stupendous mystery! God, even the most high God, leaving his blest abodes, and sojourning here in a tabernacle of clay! Is not this worthy to be commemorated? Does it not demand our
most ardent praise ? ■ Think of the harvest of blessings
which we obtain through him ! Our corn and wine and oil are but shadows of that heavenly food which is prepared for us, and on which, if it be not our own fault, we are feeding from day to day. Let earthly things then not engross your affections, but lead you to seek those which are spiritual and eternal0 And whether your temporal comforts be
* Ps. xxxix. 12. > Heb. xi. 9, 13, 14, 16. m 1 Pet. ii. 11.
n Zech. xiv. 16—19. ° Col. in. 2.