blood.” By earth is meant the people of God, as creatures; hence the promise, “He shall smite earth with his rod:” this is done when the word comes home with power to the heart.—Again, “O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord—Give ear, O heavens, hear, O earth the words of my mouth—I will hear the heavens; they shall hear the earth; and the earth shall hear the corn, the wine, and the oil;”—which is a gracious promise of assurance, taken in these threes declarations, “Yea I have loved thee, I have redeemed thee, I have called thee.” The idea of these bodies being so brittle, makes Infidels, Pharisees, and Hypocrites tremble—but the believer rejoices in the sweet thought, that this house cannot last very long, that it will soon be dissolved or taken down by death; then he will bid a lasting adieu to sin, his greatest grief. What a contrast between the child of God and the man of the world!—while the latter mournfully exclaims on his dying bed, with a wretched old Cardinal, “Farewell, a long farewell to all my greatness!” the believer can look on this world, and say, Farewell, a long farewell to all my littleness.—But this earthen pitcher, these bodies, are the vessels of mercy, afore prepared unto glory, and ordained for it. These earthen pitchers were redeemed from actual as well as original guilt, by our Redeemer, our kinsman. These vessels, although broke to pieces by death, will be raised glorious bodies, fit to hold all the glory our God has in reversion for it—when they will be formed like the glorious body of Jesus—from the loins upward, to the loins downward, of the colour of amber, and be for ever with the Lord. The body will be now for the Lord, and the Lord for the body—the Apostle calls them the temples of the Holy-Ghost, because he has taken possession of their souls—by his gracious inhabitation he has made them new creatures, a new creation, a new, a hidden man of the heart. This was shadowed forth by the light, or lamp in the pitcher. God is light; and this new man is the seed, or child of light: this was not formed by piece-meal, but done at once. When God comes to his temple his train is sure to fill it—his train of divine excellencies—so that when the Spirit takes the sinner’s heart, he brings all his graces with him; and these are called light, marvellous light—Christ formed in the heart the hope of glory, and the salvation of the soul in the pardon of sin, is called a lamp; this is the lamp the wise virgins took, while the foolish ones took the Law—the one went out in obscure darkness, and left them under the curse! while the other shone brighter to perfect day.—The word of God is compared to light—this makes us wise to salvation, as it opens to us what we, as poor sinners want—the knowledge of God reconciled and well pleased with us in Christ—Thus “the entrance of thy word giveth light, it giveth understanding to the simple.” The light of God’s countenance upon the soul is a precious lamp