A

SERMON

Preached before the

Incorporated SOCIETY

FOR THE

Propagation of the Gospel in
Foreign Parts;

At the Parish-Church of

St. Mary-le-Bow,

On Friday the 20th of February, 1729.
Being the Day of their Anniversary Meeting.

By ZACHARY PEARCE, D.D.
Vicar of St. Martin's in the Fields, and Cbaplain
in Ordinary to His Majefty.

LONDON: •

Printed by J. DoWNING, in Bartholomew-Clofe,
near Weft-Smithfield, M.DCC.XXX.

::

At the Anniversary Meeting of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts.

T

GREED, That the Thanks of

A the SOCIETY be given to the

Reverend Dr. Pearce, for his Ser

mon Preached this Day before the SOCIETY: And that he be defired to Print the fame.

David Humphreys,
Secretary.

Libz. Bates 6-18

52398

3

ISAIAH xlix 6.

It is a light Thing, that thou
fbouldeft be my Servant to raise
up the Tribes of Jacob, and to
reftore the Preferved of Ifrael :
I will also give thee for a Light
to the Gentiles, that thou mayeft
Salvation unto the End

be

my

of the Earth.

HESE Words are a Part of a very remarkable Prophecy, concerning fome Deliverance and Salvation to be effected, not for the Jews only, but for the Gentiles, for no less than all the Nations of the Earth and Expreffions of the like Import A 2

are

are frequently met with in almost all the
Prophetical Books, tho' no one of the
Prophets enters fo often into this great
Subject, and dwells fo long upon it, as
Isaiah is obferved to do.

ALL Chriftians, and generally all Jews, acknowledge, that the Prophecies of this Sort relate to the Kingdom of the Mef fiah; the only Point in Difpute between them is, Whether the Kingdóm thus foretold, was to be a Temporal, or a Spiritual one.

AND it must be confeffed, that the Prophets often defcribe the Messiah, under the Character of a Ruler, a Prince, and a King: David and Isaiah do this more remarkably than the reft; and it is not to be wondred at, that they dealt much in fuch high-founding Titles, fince the one was himfelf a King, and the other of the Royal Houfe of Judah.

BUT till the Prophets don't forget to let us fee by evident Marks what fort of King the Meffiah was to be, and what the Nature of that Deliverance or Salvation, which he was to bring about.

Ifa. xi. 9. IN his Reign, the Earth was to be full of the Knowledge of the Lord; all

Na

་

9.

33.

Nations were to speak a pure Lan-Zeph. iii. guage, that they might all call upon the Name of the Lord, to ferve him with one Confent: Religion therefore was to be one great End of the Meffiah's Dominion; a Religion to be fpread univerfally over the World, which the Jewish Religion, in the Nature of it, could not be: A New Covenant was to be made Jer. xxxi. with the House of Ifrael, and for that purpofe a Law was was to go forth out of Isa. ii. 2. Sion, and the Word of the Lord from Ferufalem. Nor was this Law, like that which was given in the Wilderness, a Ceremonial one, but it was to be put in their inward Parts, and written in Fer. xxxi. their Hearts: the Confequence of which 33. was to be, that the former or Jewish Religion was no longer to take Place; for out of the Gentiles Men were to be ta-isa. lxvi. ken for Priefts and for Levites, contrary to 21. the Mofaick Inftitution: and, what was ftill more inconfiftent with the established Worship of the Jews or their Profelytes, under this New Law, in every Place Malachi i. Incense was to be offered up unto the Lord, and a pure Offering: the general Effect of all which was to be, that their Ini-Jer. xxxi.

II.

34.