1. As to the nature of the provision to which sinners are invited, it is represented under the similitude of a _feast_; prepared in the counsels of the Trinity before all worlds, and exhibited in the fulness of time, when Messiah, the bread of life, came down from heaven, and “gave himself a ransom for many.” A feast, where all is of God’s providing; and in which, although the entertainment cost an immense sum, and infinitely surpasseth all the delicacies of nature, yet all is offered “without money and without price.” Isa. lv. 1. A _great_ feast, because of the _dignity_ of him who prepared it, the rich _provision_ made in it by the hand of munificent grace, and the _multitudes_ that in all ages have been fed from this exhaustless store. It is called in the context a _supper_; and the period in which the invitation was given is called _supper-time_; perhaps in allusion to the period of our Lord’s incarnation, and of the promulgation of the gospel, which happened in the eve of time, and is therefore styled by prophets and apostles “the last days,” Acts, ii. 17. Heb. i. 2, or last dispensation: not, that the blessings of redemption were _confined_ to that period, or commenced only with the manifestation of Christ in the flesh. Abraham rejoiced to see his day; and he saw it, and was glad. John, viii. 56. And the gospel was preached to him, when Jehovah said, “In thee shall all nations of the earth be blessed.” Gal. iii. 8. The promise made to our first parents after the fall was a virtual exhibition of the gospel feast; and the whole economy of Moses, with all its rites, types, and oblations, but “a shadow of good things to come,” of which Christ is the substance. Heb. x. 1. Israel in the wilderness “ate the same spiritual meat, and did all drink the same spiritual drink. For, they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them: and that rock was Christ.” 1 Cor. x. 3, 4. The prophets were raised up at different periods, to unfold the blessings contained in the original promise to preach Christ, and predict his “sufferings and the glory that was to follow.” For, “to him give all the prophets witness,” Acts, x. 43: so that, from the beginning of time, in the family of Adam, the days of the patriarchs, and prophets, and the dispensation of Moses, the same truth was revealed that afterwards shone forth with superior lustre under the gospel dispensation; and believers then feasted by faith on that Paschal Lamb, that was at last actually offered up to take away the sin of the world. But it was not till after a period of four thousand years had elapsed, that the longings of the church of God were indulged with that “feast of fat things,” Isa. xxv. 6, now exhibited in the gospel. As there is but one sun to illuminate both hemispheres, and his rays are sent forth in all directions; so there is but one Sun of Righteousness to both dispensations; and both are illuminated, though