Zacharias is taken. Behold him, with joy accepting the fac red task of paying a grateful tribute of praife to God, and of affifting the prayers of the people without, with the com-" manded perfume of the altar of incenfe. Behold him entering within the veil, under the mixed emotions of godly fear, and exalted delight, to worship that God who once refided there in fenfible glory, but from which the glory had long departed. All is folitude and filence; the unextinguished light that burne continually before Jehovah lends its flame to fet on fire the incense, when lo, the luftre of material fire is loft in the brighter glory of the great Archangel, and the folemn filence is brokem by the melodious accents ofa celeftial voice. Gabriel who, five hundred and forty years before, announced to the prophet Daniel the commencement of the determined weeks which fhould precede the Meffiah's day, now announces to Zachariah their confummation. He opens the fealed book of prophecy, and to his aftonishment informs him that the promifed coming of Elias, with which the ancient canon clofed, was near at hand; that this great prophet should appear in the perfon of a fon of his own, whom God by a fpecial difpenfation of his providence was raising up to fulfil the Scriptures, to turn many of the children of Ifrael to the Lord their God, "to go before the Saviour in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the difobedient to the wif dom of the juft, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord." How is the pride of Kings levelled to the dust before an appearance like this! How many princes and potentates have arisen, and fallen, and funk into oblivion fince Gabriel last visited the earth! How have the kingdoms of this world been fhaken during the courfe of five centuries! How often has the feat of empire changed, and the globe changed its inhabitants! but the heavenly meffenger enjoys unfading luftre and undiminished ftrength. The purpose of the Eternal has been proceeding all the while, and the convulfions and contention of the nations have been working the righteoufnefs of God, and preparing the way for the kingdom of peace and love. The appearance of an angel, however, though fent on an errand of mercy, though delivering a meffage of grace from on high, is an object of terror to frail mortality. When ZachArias faw him he was troubled, and tear fell upon him ;" and if the upright and blamelefs man tremble at the prefence of an angel," where fhall the ungodly and the finner appear," when "the Lord himself fhall be revealed from heaven in flaming Ere, taking vengeance on all them that know not God and o 66 bey bey not the gofpel !" The triumph of goodnefs is the glory of a really fuperior being. The Angel that " ftands in the prefence of God," exults not, in the confufion of a frail mortal, but faid to him" fear not, Zacharias." The infolence of fuperiority, and the delight of outfhining, of dazzling, of diftreffing an inferior, are the characteristics of a little foul, of fome angels falfely fo called; thofe who are truly fuch condefcendingly fink to the level of those who are beneath them, or af fectionately raise the humble up to their own. In the prefence of God all diftinctions vanish; Gabriel and Zacharias' are fellow creatures, fellow fervants, fellow dependants; the inferior being makes himfelf known by his timidity, the fuperior by his benevolence and love : this marks the difference, the affecting difference which purity and guilt have made. The flaming minifter addreffes the attendant on the earthly fanctuary, with all the familiarity and eafe of ancient friendship; the defires of his heart, the fubject of his prayers are well known to him; he has all along been the fympathizing, though unfeen, unknown witnefs of his anxieties and diftreffes, and he effeems it an honour and a happiness to be employed as the meffenger of glad tidings to a pious, fuffering human being. Zacharias had long ago ceafed from expecting, had ceafed from praying for the building up of his own house, but he waited for the confolation of Ifrael, he continued inftant in prayer for the rebuilding of the tabernacle of David which was fallen down, and lo, God at length beftows, as he did upon Solomon, not only the bleffing which he asked, but that alfo which he asked not; namely, a fon to fupport the honour of his own name, and the promise of the Son that fhould be born, the Child that fhould be given, in whom all the families of the earth fhould be bleffed. The injunctions of the law refpecting Nazarites are repeated and applied to the prefent cafe, and the future greatness and importance of this" ́ miraculous child, in the scale of Providence, are foretold; and Zacharias has the fatisfaction of hearing that he was to be the father of him who fhould be the accomplishment of ancient prophecies, "The voice crying in the wilderness," the finger to point out to mankind" the Lamb of God, which taketh away the fin of the world." Terror gives way by degrees to feelings of a different kind, and, with the glory of the heavenly vifion before his eyes, with the faith of father Abraham, in fimilar circumstances, as an encouragement to his own, and with the manifold inftan ces ces which the history of his own country afforded of fimilar interpofition, he converfes with flesh and blood, he ftaggers at the promise through unbelief, and for a moment forgets that with God all things are poffible. The angel vouchfafes to explain himself to the unbeliever; his incredulity fhall not fruftrate the purpose of Heaven, nor even divert into a different channel the mercy which he doubted; but his frailty fhall not go wholly unpunifhed, he fhall be wounded in thofe faculties which he had fo ill employed as the avenues to his mind, the tongue which dared to exprefs the language of doubt and sufpicion must undergo a temporary filence, the ear which would not admit the communications of an Archangel, shall be shut for a feafon against the delights of focial intercourfe, and the fign which he unwifely demanded fhall bear upon it a mark of difpleafure. Striking mixture of goodness and severity, of goodness unbounded, and severity reftrained! Striking view of the fupreme power poffeffed and exercifed by the great Lord of Nature, over all our powers and poffeffions. He who beftowed the gift of fpeech on man can withdraw it in a moment: pr confound it so as to be no longer a medium of communication between mankind; He ean confer it on the dumb afs to reprove "the madness of the prophet;" or inftantaneoully communicate it, in all its different forms, to the ignorant and illiterate, for the inftruction and falvation of the various nations of the earth. Let a gift fo precious never be vilely profaned as an organ of falsehood, pride, luft, or profanity. The words of the Angel all meet their accomplishment in their feafon. The pretended oracles of paganifin were conftrained to veil their prophetic enunciations in terms of myflery and obfcurity; they fpake with timidity and caution; they clothed their refponfes and mandates in general and ambiguous expreflions, which fuperftition might interpret what way foever it would; and which any event might be wrested to juftify and fupport; but the lively oracles of God are minute, diftinct, intelligible and pointed; he who runs may read them; they clothe predictions with fuch an exa&inels of circumftance; they appeal to events fo near at hand, fo obvious to investigation, that it is impoffible to mistake one thing for another,to confound one with another. Zacharias's dumbnefs, the feafon of his being attacked with it, the unexpected, miraculous pregnancy of Elizabeth, the birth of the child according to the time of life, the fudden refloration of the Father's hearing and speech, at the very moment predicted, were all matters of public notoriety; every one fingular in itself, the whole taken in connexion fo G fingular, fingular, as to mark the intereft which eternal Providence took in an event, at first sight, of no great general importance, but in its effects and confequences involving the fate of nations, the everlasting deftination of worlds. What! all this ftate and magnificence; the trumpet of prophecy refounding, the prince of Angels defcending, to proclaim the advent of merely a man with raiment of camels* hair, with a leathern girdle about his loins! The Ruler of the Universe, be affured, is not fo lavish of extraordinary displays of his power and wifdom. If the true God appear, it is on an occafion worthy of a God. And if this be the preparation made for the appearance of the fervant, what ftate fhall precede the entrance of the Sovereign? Gabriel, I foresee has another message to bring, a multitude of the heavenly hoft is on the wing, to announce a greater than John Baptift, even Him of whom John Baptist himself fays, "There ftandeth one among you, whom ye know not; He it is who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoes' latchet I am not worthy to unloofe." This folemn preparation for the manifeftation of God in the flesh, if God permit, will be the fubject of the next Lecture. I now conclude with the following reflection : 66 66 1. Angels, we perceive, take a lively, an affectionate, and a compaffionate intereft in the affairs of men. Are they not all miniftering fpirits, fent forth to minifter for them who fhall be heirs of falvation ?" The "little ones" of Chrift's family, the little in age and ftature, the little in condition, must not be defpifed," for I fay unto you," are his emphatic words, “ that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven :" and "There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one finner that repenteth." What condescension on the part of beings fo highly exalted! What a protection provided for the feeble! What encouragement proposed to the penitent! "The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them." Pleafing, awful thought! The hoft of heaven guards my path and my bed, watches over my lying down and rifing up; but their eyes are continually upon me, I am" compassed about with a great cloud of witneffes," they bear teftimony to what I am, whither I go, how I am employed. Is the eye of a child a guard to virtue? What holy circumfpection and watchfulnels, then, what earneftness and perfeverance in well doing, what abhorrence of that which is evil, ought the infpection of an angel, ought the all-feeing eye of God to produce?" He fhall hall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways;""keep," therefore, "thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the iffues of life." 2. From a preparation thus folemn and magnificent, what are we not to expect? Four thousand years have been employed in making it; a proceffion of patriarchs, of prophets, of fages, of priests, of potentates, has paffed or before in uninterrupted fucceffion; angels have defcended from heaven : Surely He who thus cometh is the Son of God. "When he bringeth in the first begotten into the world, He faith," And let all the angels of God worthip Him :" And unto the Son He faith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever; a fceptre of righteoufnefs is the fceptre of thy kingdom :" for " Thou, Lord, in the beginning, haft laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands." "His name fhall endure for ever: his name fhall be continued as long as the fun and men fhall be bleffed in him: all nations fhall call him bleffed. Bleffed be the Lord God, the God of Ifrael, who only doth wondrous things: And bleffed be his glorious name for ever and ever; and let the whole earth be filled with his glory. Amen, and amen." 3. Though predicted events are ftrictly conformable to the word of prophecy, they nevertheless, in many cafes, contradict, disappoint and far exceed human expectation. The prophets themselves had not always a diftinct and complete perception of the object which they were commiffioned to hold up to the eyes of the world. Thofe" holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghoft." The agents employed in the accomplishment of promife and prediction, little understood the part which they acted. They thought of nothing lefs; they intended nothing lefs. They were unconfcious inftruments in the hand of God to execute a purpose, which had they known they would have friven to defeat. "The heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing. The Kings of the earth fet themfelves, and the rulers take counfel together, against the Lord, and against his anointed-He that fitteth in the heavens fhall laugh: The Lord fhall have them in derifion." Were "Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Ifrael, gathered together" to promote the cause of Chriftianity? No, they meant to deftroy it. But" of a truth," Lord, they were constrained" to do whatfoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done." Happy are they who, with Gabriel and the other flaming minifters who ftand before God, are the confcious, the volun tary, |