sum of human happiness, by multiplying the materials of useful contemplation, are long held in reverence by a grateful posterity. The Christian delights still more to think of patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and martyrs, "the long cloud of witnesses," who have conferred such essential benefits upon the world, whose memorial is recorded in the history of the church, and whose names are written in the Lamb's book of Life.

But what are these compared with the name of Christ? Shadows all! Our text calls off our attention from inferior forms of excellence to the contemplation of the great reality -that ONE BEING, in whose presence nothing earthly can retain its brightness, and who stands unapproached and alone, alike in the transcendent perfections of his nature, and in the priceless benefits he has conferred. The name of Jesus is a name above every name, above every name on earth, and every name among the powers and principalities of the heavenly world. It were an impious mockery to weigh his name against theirs, or any other name against his, except for the purpose of pouring merited contempt upon the vaunted excellence of the creature, in comparison with that which is divine. All other greatness is dependent and derived, that of Jesus is essential and inherent. All human worth is marked by some imperfection, often seen in contrast with the very excellence by which the man is most distinguished; but in Jesus everything is consummate and complete. In men, the most admired qualities are separate, divided, and diffused, the most eminent individuals being distinguished by some single attribute, as Abraham for his faith, Moses for his meekness, Elijah for his zeal; but in Christ, that pure orb of unsullied light, all excellencies combine, as in their proper centre, and their natiye home. Among men, the higher qualities of character appear but seldom, and at best are brief and transitory, requiring auxiliary support, and liable to yield to the lightest breath of temptation; but in Him they are permanent, self-sustained, and changeless,

"the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever." This unlimited perfection had been an object of grateful contemplation in itself, but it derives additional importance from the fact, that it is uniformly represented as essential to the accomplishment of his mission as the Saviour of the world. "For such an high priest became us, who was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens." *

To these introductory remarks, we are obviously led by the connexion of the text, in which it will be seen, that the Apostle commends to the Hebrews the character and course of those who had sustained office among them. "Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God, whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation"-literally, those who had gone before them, as leaders, teachers, or guides, and who had probably left the ministry of the church at Jerusalem, for the enjoyment of the rest of heaven. Theodoret, in a critical note upon the passage observes, that St. Paul "intends the saints who were dead, Stephen the proto-martyr, James the brother of John, and James called the Just, with many others who were taken off by the Jewish rage. Consider these and attentively observing their example, imitate their faith." The expression, "the end of their conversation," is explained by De Dieu to mean, "the drift and scope of it, which is Christ, his honour and glory-or the issue of it in a happy death;" and the Ethiopic version renders it, "considering their last manner of living, and their exit out of the world."

But the Apostle, as his manner was, turns at once from these inferior examples, and directs the attention of the church to the great Master himself. He would have the disciples as nothing, that the Saviour might be all in all. Here, as in the following chapter, he permits a momentary glance at the elders of the ancient church, but would have our

Hebrews vii. 26.

supreme regard concentrated upon the Author and Finisher of our faith, "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and for ever."

We propose to follow this example to-night, and the text has been chosen from its evident adaptation to the occasion of this service. In closing the religious engagements of twenty-eight years in this place, it is my desire that as my ministry began with Christ, so it should end with him. I have never yet made personal views and considerations the matter of discourse from this pulpit, and it is too late, or too early, to begin now. By a singular coincidence, this was one of the first texts to which your attention was called, when I preached among you before my ordination, a circumstance. which I did not recollect when I fixed on the text for the present solemnity. Our subject is, THE UNCHANGEABLENESS OF CHRIST, considered as the ground of hope and comfort to the Church, under every Economy of Religion. And in order to contemplate with advantage the different aspects of this truth, we propose to consider the immutability of Christ, in relation to

I. THE ESSENTIAL DIGNITY OF HIS NATURE:

II. THE RELATIONS AND OFFICES WHICH HE SUSTAINS IN THE ECONOMY OF REDEMPTION:

III. THE ENDURING NATURE OF THE TRUTHS OF HIS WORD, AND THE FIXED PRINCIPLES OF HIS MORAL ADMINISTRATION.

IV.

THE EXERCISE OF HIS COMPASSION AND LOVE TO THE SUBJECTS OF HIS SPIRITUAL KINGDOM.

Consider the unchangeableness of Christ,

I. IN RELATION TO THE ESSENTIAL DIGNITY OF HIS NATURE.

We must all have felt how delightful it is, in the midst of a world of change, to turn from the feebleness and instability of the creature to the fulness and all-sufficiency of the Creator. From the beginning there has been one Being, into whose character no element of change can enter; whose purposes, formed and executed with infinite prescience and

power, no sublety can baffle, and no opposition withstand. This mighty being, the Lord of worlds, the author of mind, the awful yet lovely prototype of all truth and good, who was before all creation, and shall continue when worlds shall cease to be, we denominate, by an easy but comprehensive periphrasis, GoD," the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise."

Whatever be the intellectual difficulty of framing to ourselves the full conception of such a being, every sound reasoner must be aware that the difficulty would be immeasurably greater on the negative supposition, since the bare imagination that God was not, would involve a chaos of absurdities. With the visible creation before us, we should have to suppose a succession of beings without an author, and an infinite series of effects without a cause. We should have to imagine the strange contrariety of marks of design without a designer, evidences of action without an agent, and mental operations, most wonderful and complicated, without an originating mind. Man would be without a father, the universe without a centre, and the entire moral creation without a government or a law. Who does not perceive the absurdity of these suppositions? So overwhelming is the evidence upon this great topic, that the highest authority has pronounced that man "a fool," who only "says in his heart there is no God." And the inspired apostle represents the visible frame of things as so demonstrative of the being and perfection of the Deity, as to leave a man intellectually without excuse, who does not argue from them his ETERNAL POWER AND GOD-HEAD.*

But, "behold, I shew you a mystery." This attribute of Immutability is here and elsewhere ascribed to CHRIST, and stands associated with the entire scripture testimony, which declares his true and proper divinity. This constitutes an important part of the great mystery of godliness, wherein, for

• Rom. i. 20.

mediatorial ends, the human nature is described as having been brought into immediate union with the divine; so that the wonderful person thus constituted, being an equal sharer in the properties and attributes of both natures, is indeed "Immanuel, God with us,"-" of the seed of David, after the flesh," but, in his essential nature, "over all God blessed for ever." Apart from this doctrine, which we receive upon the evidence that sustains the volume of inspiration, we should consider the Bible as one perplexed enigma, incapable of solution upon any known principles of criticism or interpretation; but this being understood and admitted, the record becomes perfectly consistent with itself. Apart from it, I could attach no consistent meaning to the language of the text, which implies the possession of changeless and unlimited perfection. To see the full import of the language employed, as bearing upon the doctrine of the divine nature of our blessed Lord, it will be needful to examine the force of the terms, and to view them in connexion with some other scriptures confirmatory of the same truth.

1. Consider the force of the terms employed, and especially as they would be understood by Jewish readers. "The same yesterday, to-day, and for ever." These words are to be considered in connexion with the scope and object of the entire epistle, in which the writer is to be regarded as a Jew writing to Jews. He does not, as in other epistles, mention his own name, nor does he put any thing upon his apostolical authority, but appeals to principles clearly recognized by his Hebrew brethren, and quotes texts and prophecies from the old Testament, which were undeniably understood by them as relating to their own Messiah, and these he shows to have been fulfilled in Jesus Christ.*

The expression, "yesterday," as employed by the Hebrews, is used to denote indefinite past time, and when it is thus placed in conjunction with the other words of the text,

See Dr. Mc. Knight's Preface to Hebrews.