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SERMON XXVI.

THE ASCENSION OF MESSIAH TO GLORY:

PSALM XXIV. 7-10.

Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory fhall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, ye gates, even lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory fhall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of bofts; he is the King of glory.

T

HE inftitutions of the Levitical law,

were a fhadow or sketch of good things to come. They exhibited a faint and general outline of the mediation and glory of MESSIAH. They may be compared to the delicate engravings on a feal, the beauty and proportions of which, cannot be plainly

VOL. II.

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dif

difcerned without the affiftance of a glafs. The gospel answers to fuch a glass. Beheld thro' this medium, the miniature delineations of the law, which to the eye of unaffifted unhumbled reason, appear confused and infignificant; difplay a precifion of arrangement in the parts, and an importance of defign in the whole, worthy the wisdom of their great Author.

From the fimilarity of the fubject of this pfalm and the fixty-eighth, it is, at least, probable, that they were both compofed upon the fame occafion, the removal of the ark of the Lord, from its laft ftationary refidence, to its fixed abode in Zion. When the king, the priests, the fingers, and the harpers, all affifted in the proceffion, attended by a great concourse of the people. The language of the latter part of the pfalm is evidently alAnd we may conceive, that when the ark approached the tabernacle, the priefts and Levites who accompanied it, demanded admittance for it in thefe words, Lift up O your heads, ye gates, &c. and were answered by those who were waiting within to receive it, Who is the King of glory? To which

ternate.

queftion

queftion the proper reply is made, The Lord of Hofts, He is the King of glory.

This, if taken according to the letter of the hiftory, was a grand and folemn tranfaction. But it was at the fame time, a type of an event unspeakably more glorious. They who know that the Scriptures of the Old Teftament testify of Christ, that it is he of whom Mofes in the Law, David in the Pfalms, and all the fucceeding prophets did. write, will I think, agree in confidering this paffage as referring to his afcenfion in the nature in which he fuffered, into the true holy place in the heavens, as the reprefentative and high priest of his people; when, after having by his own-felf purged our fins, he fat down at the right-hand of the Majesty on high. Then having spoiled principalities and powers, he triumphed over them openly, tho' not in the view of mortal eyes. He lifted up his hands, and blessed his apostles, and while in this attitude he was parted from them *. He afcended gently and gradually, and they, admiring and adoring, beheld him with fixed attention, till a cloud concealed him from their fight †. The pomp and

* Luke xxiv. 51.

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+ Acts i. 9.

triumph

triumph of his afcenfion were displayed in the invifible world. But this defcription, accommodated to our apprehenfions, is given, to affift the faith of his people; that their hearts may be comforted, their meditations enlarged, and that in the exercise of grateful love, they may follow him in their thoughts, afcend with him into the heavenly places, and rejoice in his glory.

We conceive of him, therefore, from this fublime paffage, as afcending to his Father and our Father; to his God and our God; accompanied with a train of worshipping angels, who demand admittance for MESSIAH the Saviour and friend of finners, as the King of glory. The queftion is asked, who is he that claims this honour? An answer is given, afferting his character, his victories, and the justice of his claims-The Lord of hofts, the Lord ftrong in battle, he is the King of glory.

The principal points which offer to our confidertion, are,

I. His title the Lord of hofts.

II. His victories, implied in the expreffion, The Lord strong and mighty in battle.

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