gin Mary. We may judge, therefore, what pain and grief he felt, while reftrained from uttering that good matter," of which his heart was fo full, that when at length God faw fit to remove the mound, it burst forth at once in an impetuous and irresistible torrent of thankfgiving; 1. Bleffed be the Lord God of Ifrael, for he hath visited and redeemed his people*. It was no new thing for "the God "of Ifrael" to "vifit and redeem "his people." He had often done it, when they were in affliction and. captivity. But fo to vitit and redeem, was not all that he intended to do for his chofen. Through things * Luke i. 68, &c. temporal temporal he was defirous that they fhould look at things eternal, and carry on their views from a bodily to a fpiritual Redemption, in which all his counfels terminated; a Redemption to be effected by his Vifiting mankind, dwelling among them in at tabernacle of flesh, and in that tabernacle offering up the true propitiatory facrifice; a Redemption that should extend to Gentiles as well as Jews, and of both make one People, a new Ifrael, of which he thould be the Lord God, for evermore. How gracious this Vifitation! How aftonishing this. Redemption! Bleffed be the Lord "God of Ifrael, for he hath vifited: and redeemed his people," 2. And hath raifed up an horn of falvation for us, in the houfe of his fercant David. Iu "throne*." And to this agree the words of the angel, at the annuntiation, "The Lord God fhall give unto "him the throne of his father David, "and he shall reign for ever and ever over the house of Jacob, and of his kingdom there fhall be no endt." 3. As he promised by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been fince the world began― In a matter of fo great confequence as man's redemption, God left not the world without information, from the beginning: fo that wherever we find ignorance, it must be charged to the account of man, as having re * Pfalm cxxxii. 11. Acts ii, 30. jected, A jected, and not to that of his Maker, às having denied the neceffary means of inftruction. We fee the Chriftian church now fupported, in her belief of Meffiah's fecond advent, on which all her hopes are fixed by the difcourfes of the Apoftles, as the ancient church was supported in her belief of his first advent, by tlie difcourfes of the Prophets. There is no more difficulty in one cafe, than in the other. The ancients lived in faith, and fo do we. They died in faith, "not having received the promifes," and fo muft we: for though fome promifes are fulfilled, yet others are not, nor can be, in this world. Our knowledge is not the lefs certain, nor our faith, built upon it, the less firm, because we have not exact and ade quate quate notions of the manner of Chrift's coming, the circumftances of the laft judgment, and the glory that is to follow. The Facts are fufficiently predicted; for an idea of the Mode we must be contented to wait, till faith fall give place to fight. And let the fame obfervation be applied to the Patriarchs and Ifraelites. 4. That we should be faved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us. The Enemies and the Salvation, here intended by Zacharias, are, without doubt, fpiritual. Such a fal- vation, therefore, from fuch enemies, God" promifed by the mouth of his "holy prophets which have been "fince the world began." When he |