welcomed to the soulg. Our bondage to sin and Satan is reversed; so that nothing shall ever lead us captive, provided we assert our liberty, and claim our privilege11: being made free by Christ, we shall be free indeed \ And, notwithstanding we have sold out heavenly inheritance, and alienated it for a thing of nought, yet are we called to take possession of it : we are restored to our father's house ; we are brought again into the family of saints and angels ; and, with our title to heaven, have the enjoyment of it renewed k. Now too are we com- manded to rest from all the works of the law, and from all the works of the flesh ; and, every one of us, to subsist from day to day upon the bounties of divine grace \ As we sowed them not, so neither are we to reap them as our own, but to receive them on the same footing as the poorest and meanest of the human race ; all of us being alike pensioners on the divine bounty. Nor are we to lay up in store of what God gives us; but every day to gather our daily bread. To all these blessings is added that of divine instruction : as we are taught how to improve our leisure, so are eyes given us to see, and ears to hear, and hearts to understand™: and henceforth it is to be our daily labour to " grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." Such are the blessings bestowed by the Gospel ; nor can any unworthiness in us deprive us of them, provided we thankfully accept them as the purchase of Christ's blood, and the gifts of his grace11.] Infer,
1. In what way it is that sinners are to be con- verted to God —
[The priest might have expostulated with the Jewish debtors or bond-slaves on the folly of their past conduct ; but it was the sound of the trumpet alone that could bring them to liberty. So we may represent to sinners the evil of their past ways, and denounce against them the judgments threatened in the word of God ; but it is the sweet voice of the Gospel alone that will enable them to throw off their yoke, and lead them to the enjoyment of eternal glory. This is told us by the prophet ; who, speaking of the conversion of the world in the latter day, says, " In that day the great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come who were ready to perish, and shall worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem0." O
e Acts x. 43. h Rom. vi. 14. 5 John viii. 36.
* Eph. ii. 19. l Heb. iv. 10. Gal. ii. 20. m 1 John ii. 20.
n For most congregations it would be more edifying to pass over briefly what was common to' the sabbatical years, and to insist only on the blessings peculiar to the year of Jubilee, namely, deliverance from bondage, and restoration to one's inheritance.
0 Isai. xxvii. 13.
141.1 TnE JUBILEE A TYPE OF THE GOSPEL. in'.]
that this were duly considered by all who go forth as the Lord's ambassadors ! It is not to preach a scanty morality that we are called ; but to publish the glad tidings of a full and free salvation ; a salvation founded in the blood of Christ, and suited to those who are weeping for their sins. Behold then, " this is the accepted time ; this is the day of salvation :" now the trumpet sounds in our ears ; let us all arise, and bless our Deliverer ; and improve the privileges so richly bestowed upon us. Then, when the last trumpet shall sound, and the time, which God has fixed for the redemption of his purchased possession, " shall be fully come," we shall be claimed by him as his property, his portion, his inheritance for ever.]