aetained and solicited. If the thoughts of men are ambitious, their characters are ambitious; if the thoughts of men are avaricious, their characters will be avaricious. The heart is determined by the thoughts; as is their thoughts, so is their character; the thoughts form the passions, the passions form the actions, the actions form the man. The thoughts are marked with an infinity of views and complexions, but it depends upon ourselves what thoughts we choose. The government of the thoughts is the government of the inward regions. A prince may possess the largest dominions and yet be the victim of his thoughts.

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XI.

SUPREME LOVE TO GOD.

WE may remark the influence these sentiments have in supporting the mind under the decays of nature and sickness. There is then frequently a diminution of strength and energy; a general lassitude spreads over the whole frame; the mind is employed in counting the lingering minutes, and chiding the slow pace of time; once to die, and after death the judgment. Revelation rivets these sentiments upon the mind; all these clouds are scattered when the sentiment of the Psalmist can be adopted; it will calm the mind; it will have a twofold influence: it reconciles the man to leave this world, and brightens the prospect of futu rity. We may remark farther on this sublime topic, the supreme love of God-Whom have I in heaven but Thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire besides Thee, is adapted to every season of life. To youth, on account of your forwardness to presume; your excess and impetuosity it will restrain; it will give a right direction to all your pursuits; it will guard your bodies from shameful vices and diseases, and preserve your mind from remorse. The love of God takes away the relish of sin; your afflictions will work together for good: thus your youth will be lively, holy, and innocent; and at last you will be conducted to the right hand of God

XII.
INFIDELITY.

LET us seriously consider where else we can find any balm for the wounded and distressed conscience; where can we find peace but in Jesus Christ? what other way hath been opened to the Father? No man cometh to the Father but by Me. Do you wish to live beyond the grave? cleave to Christianity. Would you go to those infidel philosophers who have desecrated heaven VOL. IV.--4 N

to make way for their impious speculations? There is nothing in their nomenclature, nothing in their jargon, that can express eternal life; they have read, or heard of a millennium, and they have fancied a general diffusion of knowledge, science, and vir tue, a thousand years hence; they have heard of the spirits of just men made perfect, and they have dreamed of the perfectibility of man in the present world. Will ye also go away, who have made some sacrifices for religion? What joy can you substitute instead of the gospel? Have they obtained any greater elevation in knowledge and virtue? Are they better fathers? better husbands better members of society? Lord, to whom should we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.

XIII.

ARGUMENTS FOR THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST.

I SHALL take occasion to speak of the dignity of Jesus Christ, and specify some of those arguments to fortify the mind in favour of the divinity of Jesus Christ. The arguments may be reduced to three classes.

I. The representations in Scripture of his personal intrinsic dignity.

The Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that is made. And, in order to put it beyond a doubt, the apostle adds, The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. Great is the mystery of godliness, God manifest in the flesh. Again, Isaiah relates, in his 6th chapter, that he saw the Lord sitting upon his throne, high, and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. This was fulfilled in the ministry of our Lord; for the evangelist says, These things said Isaiah, when he saw his glory and spake of Him. The glory that he saw, therefore, was the glory of Jesus Christ. Also, in the 40th chapter of Isaiah, Prepare ye the way of the Lord (or the Jehovah, as it should be), make straight in the desert a highway for our God. To prepare the way for God, therefore, was to prepare the way of Jesus Christ. Agreeably to this is the conjugal relation of God with the children of Israel: Thy maker is thine husband, the Lord of Hosts is his name. Jesus Christ was the bridegroom of the Church; for it is said, He that hath the bride is the bridegroom. Now, unless the word of God is designed to mislead and perplex, Jesus Christ is certainly the husband of the Church. Again, it is written, Moses was faithful as a servant; but Jesus Christ, as a son over his own house: and though He was a son, yet learned He obedience, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Let all the angels of God worship Him. But he was not one of them, for to which of the angels said he at any time, Sit thou on My right hand until I make thine enemies my footstool?

There are but three orders of intelligent beings that we meet with in Scripture: God, angels, and men. What place, then, can be assigned to him? The privileges are great which are conferred upon us, even that of eternal life. The Apostle Paul reasons thus, from the greater to the less: If God spared not his own Son, but freely gave him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that he chose to give eternal life in connexion with such a greater blessing; therefore, the benignity that bestowed the one will bestow the other.

II. The works and offices which are ascribed to Jesus Christ. 1. The work of creation. For by him all things are created, by him, and for him, in heaven and in earth. It is useless to say this means the "Christian dispensation" only, for the Christian dispensation is not all things in heaven and in earth. Surely, then, that power which stretches over the world must be Divine. Supposing Jesus Christ was only superior to the angels, then the worlds were made by an inferior being; and this is contrary to every principle of natural, as well as revealed, religion. The Apostle Paul says, For the invisible things of God are clearly seen, being understood by the things which are made, even his eternal power and Godhead.

2. Jesus Christ is represented as an all-sufficient and effectual Saviour, not as revealing only, but actually bestowing the blessing. The prophets, my brethren, never challenged others to put confidence in them; but Jesus Christ is placed in Scripture as the object of trust: I know in whom I have believed; and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. Agreeably to this, the protomartyr Stephen said, Lord Jesus, into thy hand I commit my spirit.

3. The universal judgment is put into the hand of Jesus Christ. There is no kind of glory, and honour, and dominion, that can be put into the hand of God but what is placed in his; and amid the convulsions of a devouring world, He has described himself as saying, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom; and to the wicked, Depart, ye cursed. To judge any individual must employ a knowledge of his heart. Is Jesus Christ destitute of this prerogative? No; for he says, That all the churches may know that I am he that searcheth the heart and trieth the reins of the children of men, and will give unto every man according to his works. Observe, not only that he will search the heart, but I do search the heart. To suppose that it is only an occasional assumption of power, is to suppose a child in this assembly to be capable of exercising the abilities of Sir Isaac Newton.

III. The worship that was actually paid to Jesus Christ. To all that call upon the name of Christ: Stephen died calling upon Christ. Now, to call upon the name of God in the Old as well as New Testament, is used to express worship or adoration. I know no other way of charging the Romish Church with

idolatry, but because they call upon the names of persons departed. In the Revelation a magnificent description is given by the Apostle John, when Jesus Christ said, I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore ; and have the keys of hell and of death. And though the Apostle John had lain in his bosom, he fell at his feet as dead. The idea of divinity would naturally attach itself to his mind, in Rev., v., 12: Saying, with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I, saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the LAMB forever and ever. And the four beasts said, Amen. And the four-and-twenty elders fell down and worshipped him that liveth forever and ever. Who can this be that the angels are represented as terminating the silence of heaven by breaking forth in his praises? If the worship of Jesus Christ is, then, idolatry (as our opponents charge us with), we may rest perfectly satisfied, for we see that it has infected heav en itself. Pliny, a heathen historian, tells us, "that Christians met and worshipped Jesus Christ as God." This has been the prevailing opinion of the first ages, and, consequently, the idola try (as it is called) of Jesus Christ has been the most extensive of all idolatries. Is it likely, my brethren, that he should come into the world to destroy all other idolatries to erect himself in their room? He that was the light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world; either he would have refused the worship, or have guarded his followers against it. Let it be remembered, that the persons who have denied the divinity of Jesus Christ have distinguished themselves by impugning the authority of inspiration, lest, through these conflicting elements, a fire should spring that would destroy the whole of their system; like poor Sisyphus, they have no other way of rolling the stone but by de stroying its weight.

On the whole, we learn the great importance of this doctrineof atonement, which has formed the great boundary between the religion of Jesus Christ and the religion of Nature. Those who have entered into infidelity have entered it by this avenue-THE REJECTION OF THE ATONEMENT.

Religion requires the sacrifice of the pleasures of sense, of the boasts of virtue, and, last of all, the pride of reason. In order to exercise our humility by receiving the Scriptures upon his word as little children, let us bring every thing to this standard; lay aside every pretension to reason, where revelation is concerned, and become fools, that we may learn Christ.

XIV.
DISSENT.

THERE was nothing that appeared to Mr. Hall's mind more unaccountable than the circumstance of some few of his early friends and associates conforming to the Church of England, and departing from the pale of dissent. His remarks upon them in the private and social circle were very strong, notwithstanding the esteem he had for their general character and amiable dispositions. He would never admit the possibility of such a change, but from the influence of sinister motives, or being thrown into peculiar local associations and habits of life. So that, next to the safety of the soul in conversion of the heart to God, was his anxiety that all his friends should be consistent Dissenters, contending for the purity and simplicity of the Christian faith and worship; unawed and uninfluenced by civil authority or acts of Parliament, not to receive the traditions of men for the ordinances of God. "The kingdom of Jesus Christ," he would say, "is not of this world, it is within you; it is a spiritual dominion of the heart, a subjection of all the powers of the mind to the sole authority of one Lawgiver.

"The present hierarchy of the Church of England is not formed after the model of the Scriptures, and assumes a power and authority unknown in the first and purest ages of Christianity, inverting the order of the apostolic churches.

"When the Apostle Paul wrote to the Church at Philippi," Mr. Hall observed, "he first addresses the church, then the bishops and deacons. To all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons. The body of the common people, in primitive times, decided on all weighty matters that arose in the Church. It is evident, from this salutation, that the term bishops and deacons comprehended all the teachers at that time in the Church, and that the distinction arose afterward between the bishops, or pastors, and deacons; for, certainly, if there had been any other order, they would not have been overlooked or neglected by the apostle in his epistles to the churches."

A gentleman having left the Dissenters, and conformed to the Establishment, Mr. Hall was informed that this friend denied the primitive custom of the Church choosing its own officers and ministers. "Sir," he said, "he cannot deny this without flying in the face of all antiquity; for not only the Scriptures, but the early fathers, tear united testimony to the fact of the power and authority emanating from the common people."

In 1818, Mr Hall, in writing to a friend, says, "As it (Episcopacy) subsists at present among us, I am sorry to say I can