good fight, to finish our course, and keep the faith;" that for us, also, through the same Redeemer, and in consequence of redempin him, there be laid may C6 up a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, may give us in that day; and not to us only, but to all that love his appearing." Amen! Amen!

SERMON XV.

PREACHED ON THE OCCASION OF THE DEATH OF THE

REV. PEARD DICKINSON;

ON SUNDAY, MAY 30, 1802, AT THE NEW CHAPEL,
CITY-ROAD.

The hope of Israel, and the Saviour thereof in time of trouble. Jeremiah xiv. 8.1

1. IT is at the request of our departed friend, on the occasion of whose decease I am now to address you, that I call your attention to this striking and consolatory character of Jehovah, the only living and true God. It was our brother's wish that the Saviour of fallen and wretched man should be exalted, when his Funeral Discourse was delivered, and not the " poor worm," as his expression was to me the last time I saw him, "who was about to be com mitted to the dust." He therefore made choice of a portion of holy writ to be discoursed from on that occasion, the subject of which is the virtues of the Redeemer rather than the endowments of the redeemed; and he particularly requested me, whom he wished to perform this last office for him, to occupy your attention by the former rather than the latter of these subjects. And I shall make it my care so far to comply with his desire, as to dwell chiefly on those virtues of our Redeeming God, and to refer what I shall advance concerning the endowments of his servant, to the glory of his grace, whose free gifts these endowments were.

2. In desiring that God, or rather that God in Christ, should be exhibited to the view of your faith, as the hope of Israel, and the Saviour thereof in time of trouble, our deceased friend was influenced by his own experience, as well as by a regard to your spiritual profit. He had for many years made Jehovah his hope,

and in the midst of great and long-continued trouble, arising from most severe and complicated affliction, had proved him to be his Saviour. And it was his sincere and fervent desire that the Redeemer of lost mankind might be to you what he had been to him. Well did he know that man is a fallen creature, that he is "born to trouble as the sparks fly upward," that trials and afflictions await all the posterity of Adam, that "we have here no continuing city" that while in the present world, we are only "saved by hope," that is, that our complete and final salvation is only expected, and not fully enjoyed, and that there is no solid ground of hope for any of the human race, as to another life, nor any firm support under the troubles of this, but the power and love of this Redeemer and Saviour; the refuge and strength and very present help of his Israel in trouble. He regretted, therefore, that this hope of Israel, and Saviour thereof in trouble," should, as the next words express it, be so much a stranger in our land," and, to so many, even of the serious professors of Christianity, as "a wayfaring man, that turneth aside to tarry for a night," and, he greatly desired that all ministers of the gospel would endeavour to publish and make him known, more and more, to the bewildered, lost, and miserable children of men, especially in these characters in which they so much want him. Permit me, therefore, in obedience to his last request, to engage your meditations on these subjects, while I inquire,

t

I. Who are the true Israel of God, and,

II. In what sense, and in what way, Jehovah is their hope, and their Saviour in time of trouble. I shall also make some application of the doctrines advanced, and show you how they were verified in the experience and character of our departed brother, of whose life and death I shall give you a short account.

And, 1st. we are to inquire who are the true Israel of God?

1. 1. The word Israel, as is well known, means a prince of, or a prince with God, and is the title which was given by God himself to the patriarch Jacob, in honour and commendation of his humiliation, his faith, and his importunity and perseverance in prayer, when, in a season of sore trouble, he wrestled with the Angel of the divine presence, that is, with the Son of God, and

prevailed for a blessing. To this event, the prophet Hosea refers when he says, "He (i. e. Jacob) took his brother by the heel in the womb, and his strength he had power with God; yea, he had power over the Angel, and prevailed: he wept and made supplication unto him; he found him in Bethel-even Jehovah, God of hosts;-Jehovah is his memorial," Hosea xii. 3, 5. In this passage, it is observable that the same person is styled, Jehovah God, and yet an Angel or Messenger, and therefore could only be the Word or Son of God, who although he was "before Abraham," "before all things," and "from everlasting," was, nevertheless, frequently the Father's Messenger to mankind, whose nature he was afterward to assume, and especially a Messenger to that family whose seed he was in a peculiar sense to be. From this time, as you will recollect, Jacob was frequently termed Israel, and from him, his descendants were generally called by that name, although most of them were very far from imitating him in genuine humility, lively faith, or fervent prayer.

were, in a very peculiar sense, "The eternal God," as Moses underneath them were the ever

2. The privileges of this people were very great. To them," as St. Paul has observed, "pertained the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises: theirs were the fathers, and of them, as concerning the flesh, the Messiah was to come, who is over all, God, blessed for ever." Rom. ix. 4. 5. They had been redeemed from Egyptian bondage with a mighty hand, had been taken visibly and externally into covenant with God, as his people, had his oracles and ordinances among them, and under his protection and care. observes, was their refuge, and lasting Arms: He rode upon the heavens in their help, and in his excellency on the sky: He thrust out or destroyed their enemy from before them," so that they dwelt "in safety alone;" ." "The fountain of Jacob was upon a land of corn and wine, also his heavens dropped down dew." They inhabited a land of brooks of water, of fountains, and depths that sprung out of valleys and hills; a land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig-trees, and pomegranates, a land of oil-olive, and honey; a land wherein they eat bread without scarceness, and lacked nothing; whose stones were iron, and out of whose hills they might dig brass," Deut. viii. 7-9. Here they "possessed great and goodly cities which they builded not, and houses full of all good things which they filled not, wells which they digged not, and vineyards and olive-trees which they planted not.” And there was no nation so great who had God so nigh unto