2. Let us seek to participate the blessings accruing from it —
[Though we are not properly affected with our spiritual bondage, because we are in love with our chains, yet is it far more terrible than any to which our bodies can be subject. Now we are well assured, that if heavy tasks were daily im- posed on us, and we were constantly beaten for not executing what it was not in our power to perform, we should not un- frequently pour out our complaints before God, and cry to him to avenge our cause". What stupor then has seized us, that, in a situation incomparably more lamentable, we do not em- brace deliverance when it is offered ? Let us not be satisfied with captivity, when Christ is " proclaiming liberty to the cap- tives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound x."
i Heb. xii. 18—21. r Heb. xii. 22—24. with Rom. viii. 15. s This Sermon was preached on Christmas-day. * Ps. lxxii. IS, 19. " Exod. v. 14—16. * Isai. lxi. 1
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Let us not " thrust him away from usy," when he is come to visit us : but let us welcome him into our hearts, as well as into the world, and never rest till " we know him in the power of his resurrection, in the fellowship of his sufferings, and in a conformity to him" both in holiness and in glory2.]
y Acts vii. 27, 39. z Phil. hi. 10.
Luke i. 78, 79. Through the tender mercy of our God, the day-spring from on high hath visited us, to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.
OUR Saviour's birth, though in many respects peculiarly low and abject, was attended with some circumstances not unworthy the occasion. We might mention his miraculous conception, the acclamations of angels, &c. &c. ; but we shall only advert to the account given in the context of his Forerunner, who was prophesied of by Isaiah ; named by the angel before his conception in the womb ; born in a preter- natural way; celebrated by several to whom the spirit of prophecy was given after it had been with- drawn from Israel three hundred years, commissioned to prepare men for the reception of the Saviour, and to publish the tidings in the text —
From them we shall be led to contemplate,
I. The advent of our Lord —
Our Lord is here represented under the image of the Sun —
[This is a metaphor by which he has been designated throughout all the Holy Scriptures. Balaam spoke of him as " a Star that should come out of Jacoba :" Isaiah, as " a great light which the Gentiles who were walking in darkness should be- holdb:" Malachi, as "the Sun of Righteousness that should arise on the world with healing in his wings c." In the New Testament also he is declared to be " the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the worldA" Our Lord
a Numb. xxiv. 17. b Isai. ix. 2. with Matt. iv. 16.
c Mai. iv. 2. d John i. 9.
1470. J our saviour's incarnation. 229
himself also assumes that character ; " I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of lifee." Even in heaven itself does he sustain the same character; for " the Lamb is the light thereof f." Moreover, what the sun is to the material world, that is he to us. He is the Author of all light, natural g, intellectual11, spiritual1: and, as the face of nature withers or revives, ac- cording as the influence of the sun upon it is increased or diminished, so the souls of men continue dead or are quickened, according as the Sun of Righteousness withholds or imparts his invigorating rays ]