the Lord, enjoy an ineffable happiness, yet they are in a state of separation from the bodies to which the Creator at first united them; while this separation continues, death is not entirely conquered, this separation is one of the trophies of death. The time of triumphing over the enemy is not yet come; but it will arrive in due time, and when soul and body are again united, we shall exclaim with joy, O death! where is thy sting? O grave! where is thy victory?

ver. 55.

Let not the infidel insult the believer here, let him not treat us as visionaries, because we pretend to vanquish death, while we are vanquished by it. Our prerogatives are real, they are infinitely substantial, and there is an immense difference between those fears, which an idea of death excites in a man, whom sin has enslaved, and those which it excites in the soul of a Christian. The one, the man, I mean, whom sin enslaves, fears death, because he considers it as the end of all his felicity, and the beginning of those punishments to which the justice of God condemns him. The other, I mean the Christian, fears death, because it is an evil: but he desires it, because it is the last of those evils, which he is under a necessity of suffering before he arrives at his chief good. He fears death; he fears the remedies, sometimes less supportable than the maladies to which they are opposed; he dreads the last adieus; the violent struggles, the dying agonies; and all the other forerunners of death. Sometimes he recoils at the first approaches of an enemy so formidable, and sometimes he is tempted to say, 'O my Father! if it be possible, let this cup pass from me,' Matt. xxvi 39.

our transport and triumph. The happier the condition of the glorified saints should be, the more miserable would it be to apprehend an end of it. Shortness of duration is one grand character of vanity inseparable from the blessings of this life. They will make thee happy, thou! whose portion is in this life, they will make thee happy, I grant: but thy happiness will be only for a short time, and this is the character that imbitters them. Forget thyself, idolatrous mother! forget thyself with that infant in thine arms, who is thine idol: but death will shortly tear thee from the child, or the child from thee. Slave to voluptuousness! intoxicate thy soul with pleasure: but presently death will destroy the senses that transmit it to thy heart.

But to feel ourselves supremely happy, and to know that we shall be for ever so; to enjoy the company of angels, and to know that we shall for ever enjoy it; to see the Redeemer of mankind, and to know that we shall behold him for ever; to enjoy the presence of God, and to be sure that we shall ever enjoy it; to incorporate cur existence with that of the Being, who necessarily exists, and our life with that of the immortal God; to anticipate thus, in every indivisible moment of eternity, the felicity that shall be enjoyed in every instant of an eternal duration (if we may consider eternal duration as consisting of a succession of moments), this is supreme felicity, this is one of the greatest privileges of that liberty which Jesus Christ bestows on us

The different ideas, that we have given, are, I think, more than sufficient to induce us to regard all those with execration, who would tear us from communion with this Jesus, who procures us advantages so inesti But presently, penetrating through all the mable. I do not speak only of heretics, and terrible circumstances of dying, and disco-heresiarchs; I do not speak of persecutors vering what follows, he remembers, that death is the fixed point, where all the promises of the gospel meet, the centre of all the hopes of the children of God. Filled with faith in these promises, the soul desires what it just now feared, and flies to meet the enemy that approaches it.

But Jesus Christ renders annihilation, which was the object of our sinful desires, the object of our fears, or rather, as I said before, he makes that eternal existence, which we must enjoy after death, the ground of

and executioners; I speak of the world, I speak of the maxims of the world, I speak of indolence, effeminacy, seducing pleasures, tempters far more formidable than all executioners, persecutors, heretics, and heresiarchs. Who' of them all, shall separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord? Lord! to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life,' Rom. viii. 35. 39; John vi. 68. To God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, be honour and glory for ever. Amen.

SERMON XXXI.

THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST.

REV. v. 11-14.

And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne, and the living creatures,* and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands; 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 arc 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 for ever and ever. And the four living creatures said, Amen. And the four and twenty elders fell down, and worshipped him that liveth for ever and ever.

ALTHOUGH Atheism and Superstition But there is another class of arguments are weapons, which have been too successfully against our mysteries, which at first present employed by the devil against the truth, yet themselves to the mind under a very differare they not his most formidable arms, nor ent aspect. There is a system of error, which, the most difficult to be resisted. It was an far from appearing to have ignorance for its excess of stupidity which formed supersti- principle like superstition, or corruption like tion; and it was an excess of corruption, that atheism, seems to proceed from the bosom forged atheism: but a very little knowledge, of truth and virtue, and if I may be allowed and a very little integrity sufficiently pre- to say so, to have been extracted from the serve us from both. Superstition is so dia- very substance of reason and religion. I metrically opposite to reason, that one is speak of that system, which tends to degrade shocked at seeing earth, water, fire, air, mi- the Saviour of the world from his divinity, nerals, passions, maladies, death, men, beasts, and to rank him with simple creatures. devils themselves placed by idolaters on the There is in appearance a distance so immense, throne of the sovereign, and elevated to su- between an infant born in a stable, and the preme honours. Far from feeling a propen-Father of Eternity,' Isa. ix. 6, between sity to imitate a conduct so monstrous, we that Jesus, who conversed with men, and should hardly believe it, were it not attested that God, who upholds all things by the by the unanimous testimonies of historians word of his power,' Heb i. 3, between him, and travellers: did we not still see in the mo- who being crucified, expired on a cross, and numents of antiquity, such altars, such dei- him, who, sitting on the sovereign throne, ties, such worshippers: and did not the receives supreme honours; that it is not at all Christian world, in an age of light and know- astonishing, if human reason judge these obledge, madly prove too faithful a guarantee jects in appearance contradictory. This of what animated the heathen world, in ages system seems also founded on virtue, even on of darkness and ignorance. The system of the most noble and transcendant virtue, on atheism is so loose, and its consequences so zeal and fervency. It aims in appearance at dreadful and odious, that only such as are supporting those excellencies, of which God determined to lose themselves can be lost in is most jealous, his divinity, his unity his esthis way. Whether a Creator exist is a sence. It aims at preventing idolatry. Acquestion decided, wherever there is a crea- cordingly, they who defend this system, proture. Without us, within us, in our souls, fess to follow the most illustrious Scripture in our bodies, every where, we meet with models. They are the Phineasses, and Eleproofs of a first cause. An infinite being fol- azars, who draw their swords only to mainlows us, and surrounds us; 'O Lord, thou tain the glory of Jehovah. They are the compassest my path, and my lying down, Pauls, whose spirits are stirred by seeing thou hast beset me behind and before. Whi- the idolatry of Athens,' Acts xvii. 16. They ther shall I go from thy Spirit? or whither are the Elijahs, who are moved with jeashall I flee from thy presence? Ps. cxxxix. lousy for the Lord of hosts,' 1 Kings xix. 10. 1. 3. 7.

But, if the partisans of error are so zealous and fervent, should the ministers of truth languish in lukewarmness and indolence? If the divinity of the Son of God be attacked with weapons so formidable, should not we oppose them with weapons more forcible, and

orthodoxy of which is best established, and least suspected.

more formidable still? We also are stirred in | our turn, we also in our turn are 'moved with jealousy' for the Lord of hosts, and we con- I. Jesus Christ is supremely adorable, and secrate our ministry to-day to the glory of supremely adored by beings the most worthy that God-man, whose ministers we are. In of our emulation; this is our first proposition. order to prove the doctrine of his divinity we We join the term supreme to the term adorawill not refer you to the philosophers of the tion, in order to avoid an equivocation, of age, their knowledge is incapable of attaining which this proposition is susceptible. The the sublimity of this mystery; we will not Scripture does not distinguish, as some dieven ask you to hear your own teachers, the vines with so little reason do, many sorts of truth passing through their lips loses some- religious adorations. We do not find there times its force; they are the elders, they are the distinction of the worship of Latria, from the angels, they are the thousands, the ten the worship of Dulia: but religious adoration thousand times ten thousands,' Dan. vii. 10, is distinguished from civil adoration. Thus before the throne of God, who render to Je we are told in the nineteenth chapter of Gesus Christ supreme honours. We preach to nesis, ver. 1, that Lot, seeing two angels, you no other divinity than their divinity. rose up to meet them, and bowed himself We prescribe to you no other worship than with his face toward the ground,' it is in the their worship. No! no! celestial intelligen- Hebrew, he adored them. We have number. ces! Ye angels that excel in strength; less examples of the same kind. To remove ye, who do the commandments of God; ye this equivocation, to show that we mean suministers that do his pleasure,' Psa. ciii. 20, preme adoration, we have affirmed, that Jesus 21, we do not come to-day to set up altar Christ is supremely adorable, and supremely against altar, earth against heaven. The ex- adored. But wherein does this supreme adotreme distance, which your perfections put ration consist? The understanding of this between you and us, and which renders the article, and in general of this whole discourse, purity of your worship so far superior to ours, depends on a clear notion of supreme worship. does not change the nature of our homage. We will make it as plain as we can. SuWe come to mix our incense with that which preme adoration supposes three dispositions you incessantly burn before our Jesus, who is in him who renders it, and it supposes accordthe object of your adoration and praise. Be-ingly three excellencies in him to whom it is hold, Lord Jesus! behold to-day creatures prostrating themselves upon earth before thy throne, like those who are in heaven. Hear the harmonious concert, accept our united voices, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches, wisdom and strength, honour and glory and blessing, Blessing and honour, glory and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever. May every one of us fall down, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever. Amen.'

It is then in relation to the doctrine of our Saviour's divinity, and in relation to this doctrine only, that we are going to consider the words of our text. They might indeed occasion discussions of another kind. We might inquire frst, who are the twenty-four elders? Perhaps the Old Testament ministers are meant, in allusion to the twenty-four classes of priests, into which David divided them. We might farther ask who are the four living creatures? Perhaps they are emblems of the four evangelists. We might propose questions on the occasion of this Bong, on the number, ministry, and perfections of the intelligences mentioned in the text: but all our reflections on these articles would be uncertain and uninteresting. As I said before, we will confine ourselves to one single subject, and on three propositions we will ground the doctrine of the divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I. Jesus Christ is supremely adorable, and supremely adored by beings the most worthy of our imitation.

II. It implies a contradiction to suppose, that God communicates the honours of supreme adoration to a simple creature.

III. Our ideas on this article are perfectly conformable to the ideas of those ages, the

rendered.

1. Supreme adoration supposes an eminence of perfections in him, to whom it is rendered, it supposes also an homage of mind relative to that eminence in him who renders it. Adoration is a disposition of our minds, by which we acknowledge, that God excels all other beings, how great, how noble, how sublime soever they may be. We acknowledge, that he has no superior, no equal. We acknowledge him to be supremely wise, supremely powerful, supremely happy; in one word, we acknowledge, that he possesses all conceivable perfections without bounds, in the most elevated manner, and in exclusion of every other being. In this sense it is said, 'Our God is one Lord; he only is wise; he only hath immortality,' Deut. vi. 4; Jude 25, and 1 Tim. vi. 15.

2. Supreme adoration supposes, that he to whom it is rendered, is supremely amiable, supremely communicative, supremely good. Goodness is a perfection. It is comprised in the idea which we have already given of the adorable Being: but we consider it separately; because in the foregoing article, we considered the divinity without any relation to our happiness, whereas now we consider him in his relation to our felicity; for it is the goodness of God, which relates God to us: it is that, which in some sort reduces to our size, and moves towards us all those other attributes, the immensity of which absorbs us, the glory of which confounds us. Adoration supposes in him who renders it an adherence of heart, by which he cleaves to God as to his supreme good. It is an effusion of soul, which makes the worshipper consider him as the source of all the advantages which he now enjoys, and of all the advantages which he can ever enjoy. It makes him per

vanish; for he is the true light, who light-, eth every man that cometh into the world,' John i. 9. If we are reconciled to God, it was he who made our peace; for we have redemption through his blood,' Eph. i. 7, 'it pleased the Father by him to reconcile all things unto himself, and by the blood of his cross to unite things in heaven, and things on earth,' Col. i. 19, 20. If we have received the Comforter, it was he who sent him; for, says he, I tell you the truth, it is ex pedient for you that I go away, for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you, but if I depart, I will send him unto you,' John xvi. 7. If, after this life, our souls be carried into the bosom of God, it will be by his adorable hands; ' Lord Jesus,' said one of his exemplary servants, receive my spirit,' Acts vii. 59. If our bodies rise from their graves, if they be recalled to life, after they have been reduced to ashes, he alone will reanimate them; for he is the resurrection and the life, he that believeth in him, though he were dead, yet shall he live, and whosoever liveth and believeth in him shall never die,' John xi. 25, 26.

that all men should honour the Son even as they honour the Father, John v. 22, 23. He hath received a name above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,' Phil. ii. 9, 10. The four and twenty elders fell down, and worshipped him who liveth for ever and ever. All the particular acts of adoration, which are reputed acts of idolatry when rendered to any but God, are rendered to Jesus Christ by the express di rection of the holy Scriptures. Prayer, that prayer, of which it is said, 'how shall they call on him in whom they have not believ ed? Rom x. 14, prayer is addressed to Jesus Christ; they stoned Stephen praying and saying, Lord Jesus receive my spirit,' Acts vii. 59.* Confidence, that confidence, of which it is said, 'Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm,' Jer. xvii. 5, that confidence is an homage rendered to Jesus Christ; 'Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed,' Rom. x. 11. Baptism, that baptism, which is commanded to be administered in the name of the Father, that baptism is an homage rendered to Jesus Christ, it is administered in his 3. Finally, the Scripture attributes to Je-name, 'Go teach all nations, baptizing them sus Christ the third ground of adoration, in the name of the Father, and of the Son,' that is, empire over all creatures. This lays Matt xxviii. 19. Swearing, that swearing, a foundation for the third homage of the of which it is said, 'Thou shalt fear the Lord worshipper, I mean devotedness of life. I thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by saw in the night visions,' said the prophet his name,' Deut. vi. 13, that swearing is an Daniel, and Behold! one, like the Son of homage rendered to Jesus Christ; I say man, came with the clouds of heaven, and the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience came to the Ancient of Days, and they also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost,' brought him near before him. And there Rom. ix. I. Benediction, that blessing, of was given him dominion, and glory, and a which it is said, The Lord bless thee and kingdom, that all people, nations, and lan- keep thee,' Num. vi. 24, that benediction is guages, should serve him: his dominion is an homage rendered to Jesus Christ. Grace an everlasting dominion, which shall not be to you, and peace from God our Father, pass away, and his kingdom that which shall and the Lord Jesus Christ,' Rom. i. 7. In not be destroyed,' chap. vii. 13, &c. The fine, supreme praise, that praise of which it Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son, is said, To the only wise God be honour this day have I begotten thee, ask of me and glory,' 1 Tim. 17, is an homage paid to and I shall give thee the heathen for thine Jesus Christ. And I beheld,' says our text, inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the 'and I heard the voice of many angels round earth for thy possession; Thou shalt break about the throne, and the living creatures, them with a rod of irom, thou shalt dash and the elders, saying with a loud voice, them in pieces like a potter's vessel,' Ps. ii. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to re7-9. Gird thy sword upon thy_thigh, O ceive power, and riches, and wisdom, and most Mighty with thy glory and with thy strength, to the Lamb be honour and glory, majesty. Thine arrows are sharp in the and blessing for ever.' Weigh that expresheart of the king's enemies, the people fall sion which God uses to give the greater uuder thee. Thy throne, O God, is for weight to his command of worshipping him ever and ever: and the sceptre of thy king-only; 'before my face,t Thou shalt have no dom is a right sceptre,' Ps. xlv. 3. 5. 6. The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool. The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion, rule thou in the midst of thine enemies,' Ps. cx. 1, 2. The question of right then is sufficiently proved.

The question of fact immediately follows. As Jesus Christ is supremely ado-able, so he is supremely adored by intelligences, whom we ought to imitate. This adoration is recommended by Scripture; the very Scripture that forbids us to adore any but God, prescribes the adoration of Jesus Christ. Let all the angels of God worship Him,' Heb. i. 6. The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment to the Son,

other gods before my face, Exod. xx. 3. God would have this always inculcated among the ancient people, that he was among them in a peculiar manner, that he was their head and general, that he marched in the front of their camp, and conducted all their host he meant by this declaration, to retain them in his service, and to make them comprehend how provoking it would be to him, should they render divine honours in his presence to any besides himself. But here the elders, the angels, the

* Ils lapidoient Etienne, priant, et disant, Seigneur Jesus, &c. perfectly agreeable to St. Luke's in our text is inserted properly. ΕΠΙΚΑΛΟΥΜΕΝΟΝ και λεγοντα. The word God

Mr. S. quotes according to the Hebrew text of Exod. xx. 3.