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[0:00] On the help of God, I would direct you to the 33rd chapter of Isaiah and the 20th verse.

[0:13] Look upon Zion, the city of our solemnities. Verse, thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down.

[0:33] Not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken.

[0:51] The prophet here calls attention to the infinite and eternal difference between the world that lies in wickedness and its things and the city of our solemnity and its things.

[1:22] I say deliberately the infinite and eternal difference, very solemn.

[1:35] A mercy if we have been made to differ first from what we once were and consequently to differ infinitely and eternally from the world that lies in wickedness.

[2:05] Look upon Zion, the city of our solemnities. Look outside of that city and you will see the great Babylon, a city of vanities, a city of darkness, dimness, anguish, sorrow, sin, cruelty, bloodshedding, death and destruction.

[2:39] That's all there is outside of this city of our solemnities. Our friends here do not intend today to celebrate the erection of a building, but rather would, as enabled, look upon Zion under her solemnities.

[3:13] And the great solemnity of Zion is this, that God is in the midst of her.

[3:32] The Lord hath chosen Zion. Here will I dwell, says he, for I have desired it. And it is a city of solemnities too, because in Zion and in Zion only, are enacted and accomplished all the eternal purposes of Jehovah in the work of the Holy Ghost in sinners' hearts.

[4:11] And therefore these solemnities are the things of God in all their entirety, different in their nature from anything outside of Zion.

[4:26] During the 121 years that the church here has been formed, although this building, the opening of this chapel is 100 years, if we are enabled to consider the solemnities of the things of God, respecting the work of salvation in sinners' hearts.

[5:05] That, I take it, is what our friends here would recognize. For myself, I would rather attend a recognition service after 30 or 40 or 50 years that a people have been together than I would when they begin, because there is something to recognize.

[5:35] Look upon Zion, the city of our solemnities. It is only faith that can make the distinction between the things of God and the things that are natural, between things that are seen and things that are unseen.

[6:03] We need the eye of faith, those eyes that are spoken of in the 17th verse. Thine eyes shall see the King in his beauty.

[6:20] They shall behold the land that is very far off, and this is included in the solemnities of Zion. Look upon Zion.

[6:36] Look upon Zion. We are in the world. We have to look upon it in our duties.

[6:48] We have our responsibilities. For all to be gathered by the Spirit into the sanctuary of God, and as it were, to be shut in, and for the world to be shut out, and for the Lord in mercy to send out his light and his truth, and the blessed Spirit to take of the things of Jesus and reveal them to us and bring them into our hearts, so as that they become the substance of things hoped for, the very evidence of things not seen, is to look upon Zion, the city of our sacred things.

[7:44] We heard this afternoon about Zion. It is the city of the living God.

[7:59] It isn't every congregation, not every religious body, that constitutes the church of Christ. It is a people gathered by the Holy Spirit, people in whose individual hearts and experiences the Holy Ghost has, in his mighty work, convinced them of their sins, turned men to destruction, given them to feel their exposed position and their defenselessness, to realize their utter and complete ruin, so that there will be a seeking for a shelter, a looking for some refuge unto which to flee.

[9:06] I have wondered sometimes about young people, and in my own little experience, going back to those early days, when I trust the Lord created in my heart an aching void, nothing good for that, the world couldn't feel it.

[9:36] In thinking of it at times, this seems to express the whole of my religion, then, I want God.

[9:48] Oh, that I knew where I might find Him. That secret work going on in the hearts of people, usually in those days, you don't know much about people or causes or things.

[10:07] There is a sweet simplicity in it, and you begin to see, somewhat like the church in Solomon's song, tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou causest thy flocks to rest at noon.

[10:32] Well, this work of grace going on in the soul, and the Lord leading His people about, they seek a place, and the Lord gathers them into a congregation, and carries that work on through His appointed means, sends to them a living ministry, makes His servants by the Holy Ghost interpreters, guides, as it is said in the Hebrews, remember those that have the rule for that are guides over you.

[11:13] And this constitutes Zion, and to him shall the gathering of the people be.

[11:25] And here, the prophet says, look upon it. It's a great responsibility, as I feel it, to look upon a congregation of people when we realize the solemnity of the things of God.

[11:41] Moses felt it when the Lord chose him to lead the people through the wilderness to the promised land. And Moses said unto the Lord, consider that this nation is thy people, Lord.

[12:01] He realized the heavy responsibility of having the charge of those people whom the Lord went to redeem for a people for himself.

[12:15] This people have I formed for myself. They shall show forth my praise, and to be entrusted in the ministry with guiding a people ministerially in their soul experience through the word of God through this wilderness is a very serious business.

[12:36] I thought of that. Consider that this nation is thy people, Lord. And then you will remember also that David in making preparation for the temple said this, the house is not for man, the palace is not for man, but for the Lord God.

[13:08] A sense of responsibility because of the majesty and glory and eternity of God and his eternal things and the immortal souls of the people.

[13:23] and these constitute the solemnities of Zion. Solomon had a sense of this view of the solemnities in the dedication of the temple.

[13:39] It seems almost as though he had a sudden sense of the infinity of God. Then he exclaimed, will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth, will he?

[13:59] Blessed be his name he does in Emmanuel God with us and he dwells in Zion. And what is spoken of Zion is true of every individual citizen of Zion, every individual pilgrim.

[14:20] Does he say concerning Zion here will I dwell forever for I have desired it? He says equally to every one of his dear people and says it manifestly and experimentally when the appointed time comes.

[14:45] Oh, how great it is. God says, as our brother said this morning, this afternoon, how great it would be if one sinner was blessed.

[14:59] If it should be the appointed time for the Holy Spirit to deposit in some heart the incorruptible seed of eternal life.

[15:10] But when that is done, then for substance, this same blessed Lord says concerning that certain person in the pew, here in this sinner's heart will I dwell forever, for I have desired it.

[15:30] Look upon Zion, the city of our solemn so that the church of God is not a human institution.

[15:48] True, it consists of human souls, and yet as we heard this afternoon, the constitution of the church is not human in this sense that there are living stones, to whom coming as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious, ye also as lively stones, are built up.

[16:29] And so in consequence of the sovereign love and sovereign will of God in the covenant, this must and shall take place.

[16:43] They shall ask their way to Zion with their faces with the Lord, saying, come, let us join ourselves unto the Lord in a perpetual covenant that shall not be broken.

[17:01] O blessed sacred place that is made up of a congregation so gathered by the Holy Ghost.

[17:12] And this is certain that where it is so, it is in consequence of those same individuals having been gathered together in the sovereign electing love of the Father and given to his dear Son in the covenant of grace.

[17:33] These are the solemnities of Zion. O blessed soul in whom they are accomplished.

[17:46] Awful beyond contemplation to be outside of this city. Amen. look upon Zion.

[18:01] And thinking of the purpose of our meeting here today, I have thought of what may have been accomplished during this hundred years by the Holy Ghost through the appointed means of grace.

[18:27] This is a solemn thought that that company of people that attended here at the opening services, not one is living today, and we shall soon be gone.

[18:47] It is a solemn consideration but there is this blessedness in it that in the wisdom and goodness and grace of God that which is in the creature all change and decay and death is swallowed up in the solemnities of Zion.

[19:17] why the gospel constitutes these solemnities, the gospel is the gospel of his grace, it is a kingdom and the kingdom of grace is greater than the kingdom of sin and Satan.

[19:46] All the blessings of the gospel which flow as streams from the river of God and make glad the city of God, those streams are everlasting, eternal streams, they partake of the same properties as the river, the fullness, God himself.

[20:09] oh, how blessed this is. Everything in the gospel is living, eternal, immutable, divine.

[20:29] and that fills the church. The apostle concludes that wonderful chapter, the first to the Ephesians by speaking of a fullness, the fullness of Christ, which is the fullness of the church.

[20:53] In a very real sense, all the fullness that dwells in the Lord Jesus bodily, the fullness of the Godhead is emptied into the church, into the experience, an experience of salvation in the hearts of his people.

[21:15] That fullness that it pleased the Father should dwell in his incarnate Son was not a fullness that he needed for himself, for as God, he was infinite.

[21:28] But it was a communicative fullness, a fullness of life, of grace, of a heavenly light, a fullness of mercy, of power, a fullness of divine merit, a fullness of righteousness and sanctification.

[21:49] And that is emptied in the solemnities of Zion and to poor needy sinners, destitute sinners, as we heard this afternoon.

[22:02] He will regard the prayer of the destitute. I know I haven't the grace or ability to speak of these solemnities, but it may be some of you feel it.

[22:17] simpleπο sending words to live of the kind.

[22:30] shall see the king of this city oh blessed kingdom the kingdom of grace when you behold by faith the eternal God when you see in these solemnities of Zion the person and the work and sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ and if we have eyes to see them there will be this there will be a connection between those solemnities the provisions that God has made and has promised to bless in Zion a connection between those solemnities and their own cases it is a very serious thing it comes to my mind I thought of it before a very serious thing to live in a religion which is detached if we have a detached religion it proves that we have no faith no eyes to see no light and you may sit under the truth for 40 years and be detached it's very solemn to be a detached hearer or to be a detached preacher solemn in the extreme to pray detached prayers no contact but oh if with the eye of faith you so look upon the solemnities of Zion your eyes having been opened you being delivered from the power of darkness and translated into the kingdom of God's dear son there will be a living affinity in your soul to the things of the gospel and there's this looking upon the city of our solemnities some of you may be exercised and fear that because you have been brought up as strict baptists and always attended the truth that that is the beginning and end of your religion just traditional well I believe that it is safe for me to say this that one evidence that your religion is not traditional would be this can you remember this change when hearing became accompanied with seeing the things you heard for speaking from my own little experience it is a point in my experience that is outstanding the gospel the solemnities of Zion the truth that you hear begins by the Holy Spirit to take a form in your understanding and when you thus see by the eye of faith what you hear there will be a going out after it because there will be that connection as between hunger and food need and supply as between one pursued and fleeing for refuge as between a condemned sinner and a divine saviour and it will take a form as it is in the Corinthians but we all with open face beholding as in a grasp the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory now I consider that that is a sacred description of looking upon Zion the city of our solemnities and beholding therein the glory of the Lord in the whole of the work of grace his glory in his infinite condescension the glory of his divine immutable love and you will see this also in the the solemnities of Zion as the

[27:45] John traces it back to his blessed source this or rather the Lord Jesus by John this is the will of him that sent me that of all those that he hath given me I should lose nothing but should raise it up again at the last day and this is the will of him that sent me that who so see it the sun oh what a sight thine eye shall behold the king in his beauty this is the will of him that sent me that who so see it the sun by the eye of faith behold his glory have some understanding of what is in him and believe it in him should not perish but have everlasting life and I'll raise him up again at the last day connects these solemnities of Zion with the resurrection because the secret and blessedness of it and the mystery is union eternal union with the

[29:09] Lord Jesus look upon Zion the city of our solemnities there's nothing like them there's no people like the Lord's people happy aren't thou O Israel who is like unto thee oh happy people I'm sure they're happy but I have felt not only when in the pulpit but I remember many years ago sitting in Hanover gallery one August bank holiday and seeing the chapel filled with people and I believe then in my little way I looked upon the solemnities of Zion and I trust that my faith saw some of the things that I heard but this inquiry was in my heart when thou my righteous judge shall come to call thy ransomed people home shall I among them stand and all the solemnities of the work of the

[30:42] Lord Jesus solemnities because it was through sin everything that the Lord Jesus condescended to become and accomplish was on account of sin for this purpose was the son of God manifest that he might destroy the works of the devil and it will be no light matter we shall look upon the solemnities of Zion when we see sin and when we see the love of God God so loved and when we consider what fills that soul God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoso believeth in him should not perish I say there will be a connection with this work of the

[31:47] Lord Jesus and your own case and you'll be after it you might feel that inward mysterious yet mighty power of faith as you sit under the gospel fleeing as it were from the very pew to that refuge that is set before you in the gospel no sinner take refuge in Jesus though hell should pursue I can say this that if by the spirit hell is pursuing you and you are fleeing to that refuge you'll never go to hell hell is behind you the refuge is before you and you will see it in the blessed gospel look upon

[32:53] Zion the city of our solemnity God do glory do you do you sometimes behold them as in a glass and behold the glory of God in everything in Zion this glory is great in salvation it's a wonderful thing that the glory of the infinite God can be in the salvation of sinners but that glory is not in the first place because they are saved but that great glory of God in salvation is this that in the person of his dear son all the divine perfections the character the honor and the glory of God is vindicated and yet sinners saved the city of our solemnity have you that in your heart which receives the

[34:08] Lord Jesus in the gospel not in your head as a notion not to have Christ as an idea but for him by the spirit to dwell in your heart to receive him to receive him in his word to receive him it may be in this degree you receive him under a sense of the need of him I believe this is true that there is a stage of experience when his dear people receive him as to realize that there is none else can do them any good you long for him to receive you you have a full assurance that his precious blood if it would be but be applied to your conscience would have infinite merit to remove all guilt to pardon every sin you believe that his righteousness is such that if imputed would cover you from every folly every fault and you labor labor to enter in oh sweet labor living labor the evidence of the life of

[35:45] God in the soul look upon Zion with a living look with a look of faith with a look of desire and deep need the time will come when the Holy Ghost will bring into your soul what you see what you long for though the vision tarry wait for it it will surely come it will not tarry well I take it that it is these solemnities of Zion that have been going on more or less here since the church was formed that the people here desire to humbly acknowledge the Lord is great in Zion oh that he might be great in our hearts and what about the end oh my friends we we open the service with this observation the infinite and eternal difference between the world and its things and

[37:08] Zion and its solemnities and there will be this difference when we come to die the world will go out of all that they desired and will leave all that they have possessed and go out into utter darkness but oh if you have been brought in time to look upon Zion and to partake of her blessings when you come to die you will enter into the fullness of what you have been after be eternally satisfied you join with the psalmist and say I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness oh my friends it is beyond their imagination every spiritual desire fulfilled the sweetness of the streams here you will know that sacred experience of drawing your bliss immediately from him oh you will see the solemnities of the heavenly zion if you have through grace been made a citizen of zion here there are no more strangers or foreigners but fellow citizens of the saints and of the household of god what is to be compared with it i say again look outside of the church of god and what is it but midnight darkness and death look upon zion the city of error a solemnity sacred things i can't express them but i believe i feel them do you i wonder how many of us could truly say as before god that you would rather have the lord jesus revealed in your heart as the hope of glory than you would possess the whole of luke you might say well that is speaking extravagantly for you've never known what it is to be offered the whole of lute well when you come to these solemnities they are those things which are unseen and are eternal i know a world thing might come to you after the service and say man you come i'll show you my estate i've got something you can take hold of you've got nothing but what you think about well one could very properly say to such pour a little paraffin oil on all your possessions put a match to them and come and show me them in another two hours the best that will ever be able to be said about the possessions of this world is this earth to earth ashes to ashes dust to dust but here it says thine eyes shall see

[41:24] Jerusalem a quiet habitation a tabernacle that shall not be taken down and why not because it is an eternal building built by the eternal God sinners made partakers of eternal life saved by invincible grace redeemed with an eternal redemption the eternal God is thy refuge ever underneath are the everlasting arms but we must leave it oh how one fails in trying to speak of the solemnities of Zion but may they fill us by the spirit and if they do we shall know this this is the victory that overcometh the world even our faith and if faith looks upon the blessedness the solemnities the sacred things of

[42:28] Zion it will eclipse the world and thus get the victory technologies through and ah trip the f nut then sunday top in power to Jesus' name. Let angels cross straight forth, bring forth the royal diamond, and crown him Lord of all. 1740, June 178.

[43:21] Let angels cross straight forth, bring forth the royal, royal, and crown him, crown him, crown him, crown him, crown him, crown him.