then shall " the prince of this world be utterly cast out." Then shall Dagon fall before the ark in every quarter of the universe : and all the slaves of sin and Satan be brought " into the glorious liberty of the sons of God." Then shall the jubilee trumpet sound in everyplace: " the preaching of deli- verance to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound," will then be accompanied with such power from on high, that it shall be to all, what the trumpet of the archangel shall be in the day of judgment, an effectual call, " as life from the dead ; " so that all flesh shall see the salva- tion of God."]
With this deliverance will be seen,
II. Its never-failing attendant —
In no place under heaven, but in Zion, is holiness found. The semblance of it may be seen in many places ; its reality nowhere. Let us understand what holiness is —
[It is not a conformity to external rights, nor a practice of mere heathen virtues ; but a real conformity of heart and life to the revealed will of God. It is the image of God upon the soul ; and an exhibition of it in the whole of our spirit and conduct. It is " the mind that was in Christ Jesus," and a " walking in all things as he walked" ]
This, from the time that deliverance is vouchsafed to Zion, shall be found there —
[It was the great design of our Deliverer to produce it in his Church : he " gave himself for us, to redeem us from all iniquity :" and " he is called Jesus," not so much because he saves his people from destruction, as " because he saves them from their sins." Holiness is the characteristic mark whereby the people whom he has delivered are to be distin- guished : they are " purified unto Christ, a peculiar people zealous of good works." Whoever professes to have expe- rienced his deliverance, without being truly and universally " righteous, even as Christ himself is righteous," is declared by God himself to be " a liarc." Believers are " his epistles" to the world, that they who will not look into the book of revelation, may see in them a living exhibition of his will. In every department of the divine life, the heavenliness of their minds, the sweetness of their spirit, and the blamelessness of their lives, they " shine as lights in a dark world :" the efful- gence indeed is not equally bright in all : there are stars of a
c 1 John ii. 4. and iii. 3, 6 — 10.