THE GREAT ADVENT:

A SERMON

PREACHED IN THE

PARISH CHURCH OF ST. MARY WOOLNOTH,

ON APRIL 23, 1789,

The Day of General Thanksgiving for the King's happy Recovery.

He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him. With long life will I satisfy him, and show him my salvation.-PSALM, xci. 15, 16.

temporis illius

Me consolor imagine;

Festis quum populus me reducem choris

Faustisque excipiet vocibus, et Dei,

Pompa cum celebri, me comitabitur

VOL. V.

Augusta ad penetralia.

BUCHANAN, Psalm, xlii.

[FIRST PRINTED IN 1789.]

то THE READER.

The manifest interposition of Almighty God in favour of these kingdoms, has seldom, if ever, been more signally displayed, or more generally acknowledged by persons of every rank, party, or description, than in the late memorable and important event of the King's happy recovery. If so interesting a subject should give occasion to the publication of more thanksgiving sermons than usual, it will likewise suggest a sufficient apology for them. Considered as testimonies of loyalty to the King, and of gratitude to Him by whom kings reign, they can scarcely be too numerous.

THE GREAT ADVENT.

1 THESSALONIANS, iv. 16, 17.

For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

OUR beloved King is now on his way, amidst the acclamations of an affectionate people, to St. Paul's Cathedral: there he will, this day, make his public acknowledgment to God, who heard his prayer in the time of his trouble. It will be a joyful sight to thousands; and, perhaps, there is not a person in this assembly who has not felt a desire to be one of the spectators. But I am glad to meet you here. Many of you, I doubt not, earnestly and repeatedly prayed for the recovery of our gracious Sovereign; and you judge with me, that the most proper expression of our gratitude and joy, is to unite in rendering praise to God upon the very spot where we have often presented our united prayers. And I infer from the largeness of the congregation, that few who statedly worship with us are now absent; those excepted, who, residing in or near the line of procession, could not attend with propriety, nor perhaps with safety.

If He, in whose name we are met, shall be pleased (as his word encourages us to hope) to favour us with the influence of his Holy Spirit, and to enable us, in the exercise of that faith which gives sub

sistence and evidence to things as yet future and unseen, to realize the subject of my text to our minds; we shall have no reason to regret our coming together upon this occasion.

The immediate design of the apostle in these words, is to comfort believers under a trial, which some of you perhaps feel at this hour, and to which any of us may be called sooner than we are aware, the removal of our christian friends or relatives, with whom we have often taken sweet counsel, to a better world. Such a stroke, whenever it takes place, will awaken painful sensations, which he who knows our frame does not condemn. The tendency of the Gospel is to moderate and regulate, but not to stifle or eradicate, the feelings of humanity. We may sorrow, but provision is made that we should not sorrow like those who have no hope: "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord."* It is but a temporary separation; we shall see them again to unspeakable advantage; "for, if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them that sleep "in Jesus shall God bring with him." The change of expression here is observable; "Jesus died." Death, to him, was death indeed; death in all its horrors; but he died for his people, to disarm death of its sting, to throw a light upon the dark passage to the grave, and to open the kingdom of heaven to all believers. For now, they "that believe in him "shall never die." He so dispels their fears, and enlivens their hopes, that to them death is no more than a sleep; they sleep in Jesus, and are blessed. And when He, "who is their life, shall "appear," as he certainly will, and every eye shall see him, "they also shall appear with him in

66

Rev. xiv. 13.

↑ John, xi. 26.

"glory,"*

For the Lord himself shall descend “from heaven with the voice of the archangel and "the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall "rise first."

But I think I am warranted to consider the text in a more general view, and to accommodate it to the happy event which demands our especial thankfulness and praise on this day. Let our thoughts rise from the King's splendid, though solemn, procession to St. Paul's, to contemplate that great advent of the King of kings, the idea of which filled and fired the apostle's thoughts. "Behold, he cometh in the clouds."† He cometh in his own glory, in the glory of his Father, with all his angels, and with all his saints! ‡

If I attempt to illustrate the procession (so to speak) of that great day, for which all other days were made, by the most striking circumstances of the present day, it will, indeed, be comparing great things with small. In some respects, comparison will utterly fail, and I must have recourse to contrast. For what proportion can there be between finite and infinite, between the most important concerns of time, and those of eternity?

Let us, however, aim to fix our feeble conceptions upon the Personage whose approach is here announced; upon the manner of his coming; upon his train of attendants; and upon the final event of his appearance, with which the scene will close.

"The Lord Himself shall descend." At another time, if both houses of parliament, the judges, the foreign ministers, the principal part of the nobility and persons of distinction in the nation, were to assemble in St. Paul's, their presence would form a