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obedience. The gospel secures a pleasing change in our spirit and temper immediately, as it makes us glow with affection to its glorious subject, its adorable Author. This justifies us in saying

Talk they of morals? O thou bleeding Love!
Thou Teacher of true morals to mankind!

The grand morality is love of Thee!

The gospel teaches us to aim to please God, as well as to show to the world that we are travelers to a heavenly city, within whose gates nothing that defileth, or is defiled, can ever enter.

4. The gospel presents us with a perfect pattern of all that is excellent. It sets before us Jesus the Son of God, whose immaculate purity heaven and earth can attest. In him, indeed, all the rays of moral excellence meet as in one point; and we not only view in him the brightness of the Father's glory and the express image of his person, but we behold human nature adorned and dignified, by a lively combination of all the virtues of which it is capable. And after the gospel has exhibited to us the holy Jesus, it says to us, "Let the same mind be in you which was also in him." Yea, by its heavenly power, it assimilates us to his image; it changes us into his likeness; it forms us upon a divine model; for we all with open face beholding, in the glass of the gospel, the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Oh, blessed influence of the glorious gospel!

5. The enjoyment of its consolations gives strength to obey its precepts. If you ask here, Does the gospel influence the temper and conduct? we can tell you that it takes you to Christ's banqueting house, where his banner over you is love; it places you at his table, where you

hear him say, "Eat, O friends, drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved!" and where you are abundantly satis fied with his presence, and drink of the wine of the king. dom. Sentiments of gratitude are then excited in your mind to the Founder of the feast; you feel thankful to him, and you rise from your seat animated by his favor, and sensible of his love. You evidence that you are not nly refreshed by his bounty, but determined to execute his commands; and when you have enjoyed the most, you say, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do ?" So much life and vigor are imparted to our minds by a firm belief of the glad tidings of the gospel, that no duty appears too hard for us to discharge, no trial too heavy to bear; but our triumphant exclamation is, "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me!" Hence follows a cheerful acquiescence in the duties we owe to one another, to God, and to the world.

Our tempers, by those frequent and solemn interviews with which we are indulged, become spiritual, heavenly, and divine; admiring spectators see that we have been with Jesus like Enoch, we walk with God, and, like him, shall be wafted away to the world of purity and peace.

And are these the triumphs of the gospel? Does it in. deed produce so divine a change in the moral world? Then surely it is worthy of its Author; of him " for whom are all things, and by whom are all things." Is it any disgrace to the wisdom that devised it, or the love that gave it to the nations? No: for in the gospel God has declared the glory of all his perfections, and particularly does his holiness shine in it with radiant lustre.

Is it the tendency of the gospel to refine and exalt the character; to make the temper and conduct such as God requires? Then who would not long for its general diffu

sion? Who would not exclaim with ardor, "Fly abroad, thou mighty gospel?" Who would not love those noble institutions which have in view its wider circulation, and which God has honored for the conveyance of its blessings to the children of men?

But oh are there not many who profess to love the gospel, and to feel its power, who are filled with envy, malice, and all uncharitableness! Yes, there are! But O thou blessed Jesus, are these thy disciples! Most glorious gospel! are these the men in whose hearts thy truths have made a deep impression? The Saviour and the gospel alike disown them; and, "Depart from me, I never knew you," will hereafter be uttered to them by God the Judge of all.

I dare not persuade myself to leave this pulpit without asking my hearers, What has the gospel done for you? In the presence of God and all his holy angels, I would put this question to you, and leave you with all solemnity to consult God and your own consciences on the subject. But O, do remember that you may hear the gospel; you may avow your attachment to it; you may liberally support its interests, and yet die after all without experiencing its blessings, and have a neglected gospel rise up in judgment against you to aggravate your condemnation.

Here, however, allow me to turn from man to God; suffer me to express my wishes for all who compose this congregation; and, looking around you, permit me to say to the God of purity and the God of the gospel, "Sanctify them all through thy truth-thy word is truth."*

*This Sermon was preached at the Anniversary of Hoxton College.

SERMON XVIII.

CHRIST AT EMMAUS.

"And they said one to another, did not our hearts burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the Scriptures ?"-LUKE XXIV. 32.

THE Connection of this text shows us, that after the death and resurrection of the great Messiah, two of the disconsolate disciples, who knew not that he was raised from the dead, went to a village called Emmaus; that on their way thither they conversed, as was likely they would do, upon the wonderful events that had lately transpired in Jerusalem, and spake of him they loved. His person-his actions-his sermons-his prophecies-and, above all, his most extraordinary exit occupied their solemn attention, and afforded a subject for the most interesting discourse. Whilst they were thus engaged in conversing about him, with whom they had before been familiar, and from whom they had learned most excellent lessons, a third came up and joined them; this indeed was Jesus of Nazareth, who had been raised from the dead by the glory of the Father. But he chose, for wise ends, to conceal himself from them, and to cause that their eyes should be holden, that they should not know him, appearing to them as a stranger de

sirous of knowing the subject of their conversation, and the cause of their grief, and to sympathize with them under their sorrow-weeping with them that wept. They intimated to him their wonder that he, even supposing that he were but a stranger in Jerusalem, should be unacquainted with the things which were come to pass there in those days; then proceeding to tell him how Jesus, a prophet, mighty in deed and word before God and the people, was condemned to death and crucified; giving him to understand at the same time, that the hopes they had entertained of him. were most sanguine, for they trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel; and, finally, they informed him of some peculiar phenomena that had been witnessed by certain women of their acquaintance at his sepul chre, where his body could not be seen, though they saw a vision of angels, who said that he was alive. The courteous and mild fellow traveler then began to speak and detain them with delightful converse; for he showed them "that Christ ought to suffer these things, and then to enter into his glory." He spread before them the mysteries of the inspired page, and showed how they were illustrated in the life and death of their best friend. Sooner than they thought they arrived at their journey's end, where he made as though he would have gone further; but they prevailed on him, by their great importunity, to go in and tarry with them with them he took bread, blessed it, break it, and gave unto them-then first their eyes were opened to behold him as the same Jesus who was crucified, and to discover in him the lovely features of their Lord who had done all things well-when, lo! he vanished out of their sight, and was seen no more. After which, we may reasonably suppose to have taken place a solemn silence;

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