and salvation, to an expiring world, never pause, never look or wish for rest, till their Master's welcome voice shall call them from their field of labor to everlasting repose; to that world where those, who, as burning or shining lights, have turned many to righteousness, shall shine as the stars, and as the brightness of the firmament forever and ever.

A few words to the assembly, and I have done. Is it true, my hearers, that the gospel, which you have often heard, is the glorious glad tidings of the blessed God? Then in every one by whom it is truly believed, it will infallibly excite holy joy,. admiration and praise; for every report which is thus believed must produce effects corresponding to its nature and import. If you hear and believe mournful tidings, they will occasion grief. If you hear and believe joyful tidings, they will no less certainly occasion joy. If you hear and believe an account of any glorious enterprise, or splendid act of liberality, it will call forth admiration and applause. If then you really believe the glorious glad tidings of God, you must and will rejoice, you will admire and bless the Author. Has the gospel, then, produced these effects upon you? Do you know what it is to be filled with joy and peace in believing? Can you, do you unite with the inhabitants of heaven, in ascribing to Christ all that heaven. can give? In a word, do you feel that the gospel is glorious. glad tidings of great joy? and is it the language of your hearts, Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift? If not, it is most certain that you never believed the gospel; for the apostle assures us, that it does work effectually in all that believe; and we have already seen that it has, in all ages, filled the hearts of believers with joy, and their lips with praise. And if you believe not the gospel, how awful is your responsibility, your criminality, and your danger! In your view, the Sun of righteousness has no beams. You see nothing lovely in that Saviour, whom all good beings, on earth and in heaven, love with the most ardent affection. Surely then you are wrong, or they are. Either they must be deceived, or you must be blind. In your breasts the most delightful tidings, that ever vibrated on mortal ears, excite no joy. To you the glorious gospel of the blessed God, that gospel which is the wisdom of God unto salvation, that gospel whence flows all the happiness that ever will be tasted by man, on earth or in heaven, and which will,

through eternity, excite the admiration and the praises of angels, appears little better than foolishness. In vain, as it respects yourselves, have prophets prophesied; in vain have apostles preached; in vain have martyrs sealed the truth with their blood; in vain have angels descended from heaven with messages of love; in vain has the Son of God expired in agonies on the accursed tree; in vain has the Holy Spirit been sent to strive with sinners; in vain has a revelation of all these wonders been given. You still refuse to believe, and by your unbelief "practically charge the God of truth with falsehood; for, says the apostle, he that believeth not God, hath made him a liar, because he hath not believed the record which God gave of his Son. Unhappy men! To you the awful words of the apostle apply, in all their force: If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost. On you the dreadful sentence falls: He that believeth not, shall be condemned. Your character and doom are described in the declaration: He who believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.

"Woe to the wretch, who never felt

The inward pangs of pious grief;
But adds to all his crying guilt

The stubborn sin of unbelief.

"The law condemns the rebel dead;
Under the wrath of God he lies;
He seals the curse on his own head,
And with a double vengeance dies."

And will you die under the weight of this double vengeance? Will you go to the regions of despair, from a world, which has been moistened by a Saviour's atoning blood? from a world which has resounded with the glad tidings of pardon, peace, and salvation? O, do not, I beseech you in God's name, and for Christ's sake, do not be infatuated; do not madly reject the glad tidings. Once more I proclaim them in your ears. Once more I declare unto you, that it is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken! for unto you, to each one of you, is the word of this salvation sent.

SERMON LI.

THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST.

Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God. JoHN xx. 28.

WHAT think ye of Christ? is a question, which ought to be proposed to all who bear the Christian name, and to which every one should be ready to give a clear and explicit answer; especially at the present day, when so many seem disposed to think wrong, or not to think at all, on this interesting subject. Whether the perilous times, foretold by the apostle, have arrived, when men shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, I shall not undertake to determine; but it must be evident to every one, that professed Christians entertain not only different, but contrary opinions, respecting the character of our blessed Saviour, and the object of his mission; and it is equally evident that, while we thus think differently on these subjects we cannot all think right. Some represent the Saviour as truly and essentially God; others consider him only as a creature, more or less highly exalted; while not a few reduce him to a mere weak and helpless mortal, whose death was intended, not to make an atonement for the sins of the world, but to attest the truth of his instructions, and afford an example of patience and resignation.

Now it is, I think, abundantly evident, that of these opinions some must be essentially and fatally wrong. I am aware, indeed, that some deny this, and contend that all may be essentially right, though they differ in some points of little consequence; and that it is no matter what a man believes, provided he be sincere in his belief, and his external conduct be good. But the character of our Saviour is not one of these points of little consequence, concerning which men may differ in opinion, and yet be right in the main. On the contrary, it is the very sum and essence of the gospel scheme of salvation, and if we are not right on this point, we are right in nothing. The divinity and atonement of our Saviour, are truths of such momentous importance, that either they who assert, or those who deny them must be guilty of a damnable heresy, if there be any such thing. This will, I trust, appear evident, from a moment's consid

eration.

If Christ be not truly and essentially God, then they who worship him as such, are guilty of gross and abominable idolatry, in giving that glory and honor to a creature, which is due to the Creator alone; and how a gross idolater can be a good Christian, it is difficult to conceive. On the contrary, we are told that he who denieth the Son, denieth the Father also; that he who believeth not the record which God gave of his Son, hath made him a liar; and that he who doth not honor the Son, honoreth not the Father. Now if Christ be God, then those who deny it, deny God the Father; they make him a liar, and they do not honor him as God; and how they can do all this, and yet be Christians, it is not so easy to determine.

You see, therefore, that the doctrine of our Saviour's divinity is not a mere speculative or metaphysical doctrine, which may be admitted or rejected without any ill consequences; but it is a doctrine which involves consequences of the utmost importance, and of which either the opposers or the favorers must be essentially in the wrong.

Nor is it any breach of charity to say this. Charity has nothing to do with doctrines. It does not require us to represent truth and falsehood as equally right, or to suppose that every road will conduct men to heaven, as well as the strait and narrow path pointed out by our Saviour. But it requires us to love and pity and pray for those whom we think to be wrong, that

God may bring them to the acknowledgement of the truth. It does not require us to think, that the hearts of all men are naturally good, when the word of God plainly asserts the contrary. It does not require us to think those to be right, who differ from us in opinion, for this would imply a belief that we are wrong; but it requires that we should by no means revile, despise, or persecute them on account of their erroneous opinions, but be equally ready to do kind offices to them, as to those who adopt our own sentiments. In a word, it requires us to separate the person from the fault, to hate the sin, while we love and pity the sinner; to shun and condemn the ways of error, but be kind and friendly to those who stray therein. He who does this, and he alone, possesses that charity which the gospel requires. In the passage which has now been read, as the subject of this discourse, we find Thomas, one of the apostles, addressing our blessed Saviour as his Lord and his God. To justify those who follow his example in this respect, and to enable them to give a reason of the hope that is in them with meekness and fear, I shall endeavor to show, in the following discourse, that Jesus Christ is truly Lord and God, as well as man; or, in other words, that he possessed a truly divine, as well as human na

ture.

Since this is a subject altogether beyond the limited sphere of our rational powers, it would never have been discovered, nor can it now be proved, but by a revelation from God to man. To the revelation, therefore, which God has given us, must we resort for arguments, to prove the proposition we are considering; and if we find it there revealed, we are bound to receive it, though. it may be involved in mysteries which we cannot comprehend.

Our first argument in favor of our Saviour's proper divinity. will be drawn from those passages which intimate or assert a plurality of persons in the Godhead; of which there are several in the Old Testament. When God was about to create man we find him saying, Let us make man in our own image. When man fell, God said, The man is become as one of us. When he resolved to confound the builders of Babel, he said, Let us go down, etc. Now it is impossible satisfactorily to account for this mode of expression, without supposing that there are more persons than one in the Godhead, and this supposition is rendered highly probable by various other passages, which plainly imply