singing, ye mountains, O forest, and every tree therein : for the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and glorified himself in Israel"." Only let the Gospel descend as dew upon any place, and " the wilderness will be glad, and the desert will rejoice, and blossom as the rosex :" for " the Lord will comfort Zion ; he will comfort all her waste places ; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord : joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody y."
I forbear to speak of other sorrows, and of the consolation which the Gospel will administer under them ; because there is no sorrow whatever, which, in weight or poignancy, can be compared with that which a sense of guilt creates in the soul : and, if the supports of the Gospel are so effectual under that, we may well suppose that all minor sorrows shall flee before it, even as the mists before the noon-day sun.
I would observe therefore next, that the Gospel is sufficient for our sanctijication. Never was any thing found to change the heart of man but the Gospel. Let any one call to mind the labours of the ancient philosophers, and inquire whether any one ever prevailed so far as to sanctify the hearts, of many, shall I say? nay, of one single individual? No; never, from the foundation of the world, did philoso- phy effect this, in one single instance. But, when the Gospel was preached, what effects were produced in every place ! The passions of men were subdued; their lusts were mortified; their habits were changed ; their dispositions were made altogether new ; and those who had borne in every feature a semblance of their father, the devil, were " transformed into the image of their God, in righteousness and true holi- ness." This was nothing but what the voice of pro- phecy had long before announced : " As the rain cometh down, and the snow, from heaven, and re- turneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and
u Isai. xliv. 23. x Isai. xxxv. I. y Isai. li. 3.