wisdom, truth, and love: this is his glory, and this glory is revealed and displayed in Christ. He is glorious in his works of crea tion and providence, but these do not fully exhibit his character. But in the Lamb upon the throne shines his glory, full-orbed. And all in heaven, and all in earth, who behold it, take up the song of Moses and the Lamb, "Who is like unto thee, O Lord! Who is like unto thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders!-Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty! just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints!" Exod. xv. 11; Rev. xv. 3.

and dependent character? Then surely the scripture would have a direct tendency to promote idolatry. Far be the thought from us! The scripture teaches us the knowledge of the true God, and the worship due to him. Therefore Messiah, the Lamb that was slain, is the true God, the proper and immediate object of the worship of angels and of men.

Let us therefore take up a lamentation for those who slight the glorious Redeemer, and refuse him the honour due to his name. Their mistake should excite, not our anger er scorn, but our pity and prayers. Are there any such amongst us! Alas, my fel low-sinners, you know not what you do! Alas! you know him not, nor do you know yourselves. I am well aware that a thousand arguments of mine will not persuade you; but I can simply tell you what would soon make you at least desirous of adopting our sentiments upon this subject. If he who has that power over the heart which I have been speaking of, was pleased to give you this moment a sense of the holiness and authority of God, and of your conduct towards him as his creatures, your strongest objections to the high honours we attribute to the Saviour would this moment fall to the ground, and you would be immediately convinced, that eitner Jesus Christ is the true

7. Blessing. He is the author of all blessings, of all the happiness and good which his people receive, and he is the deserved object of their universal praise. The different senses in which we use the word blessing, taken together, may express that intercourse or communion which is between the head and the mystical members of his body. He blesses them effectually with the light of his countenance, with liberty, grace, and peace. He blesses them daily. His mercies are renewed to them every morning. He will bless them eternally. Blessed are the people who have this Lord for their God. They can make him no suitable returns, yet in their way they bless him. They admire, adore, and praise him. They call upon all the powers of their souls to bless him. They proclaim his good-God and eternal life, or that you must perish. ness, and that he is worthy to receive the ascription of power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. In proportion to their attainments in this delightful exercise of worship, love, and gratitude, they enjoy a heaven upon earth; and to stand before him continually, to behold his glory, to live under the unclouded beams of his favour, and to be able to bless and praise him as they ought, without weariness, abatement, interruption, or end, is what they mean when they speak of the heaven they hope for hereafter. Such is the blessedness of those who have already died in the Lord. They see his face, they drink of the rivers of pleasure which are at his right hand, they cast down their crowns before him, and say, thou art worthy.-Let us not be slothful, leb. vi. 12,) but followers of them who, through faith and patience, have finished their course, and are entered into the joy of their Lord.

Of all this glory and honour the scripture declares the Lamb that was slain to be worthy. Wisdom, riches, and strength, are his. His power is infinite, his authority supreme. He is the author and giver of all good. He has life in himself, and he is the life of all that live; the Lord and Head of the church and of the universe. Can language express, or can heart conceive, a higher ascription and acknowledgment than this? Can all this be due to a creature? to one of a derived

You would no longer expect mercy but in a way perfectly consonant with the righteousness and truth of God declared in his word, and with the honour and purity of his moral government. This would lead you to perceive the necessit of an atonement, and the insufficiency of any atonement but that which the Lamb of God has made by the sacrifice of himself, (Heb. ix. 26,) and that the efficacy even of his mediation depends upon his di vine character. The scriptural doctrines of the depravity of man, the malignity of sin the eternal power and Godhead of the Saviour, the necessity and efficacy of his media tion, and the inevitable, extreme, and endless misery of those who finally reject him, are so closely connected, that if the first be rightly understood, it will open the mind to the reception of the rest. But till the first be known and felt, the importance and certainty of the others will be suspected, if not openly denied.

Though the doctrines I have enumerated are, in these sceptical days, too generally disputed and contradicted, I am fully confident that it is impossible to demonstrate them to be false. Upon the lowest supposition, therefore, they possibly may be true; and the consequences depending upon them, if they should be found true at last, are so vastly momentous, that even the peradventure, the possibility of their truth, renders them deserving of your most serious consideration. Trifle

with yourselves no longer. If they be truths, they are the truths of God. Upon the same authority stands the truth of that gracious promise that he will give his Holy Spirit to them that ask him. Let me entreat you to make the experiment. This is the proper point to begin with. Instead of indulging reasonings and speculations, humble yourselves before the Lord, and pray for the light and influence which he has said he will afford to them who are willing to be taught. Read the scripture with deliberation, and do not labour to fortify yourselves against conviction. Break off from those practices, which your own consciences admonish you cannot be pleasing to him who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. Then shall you know if you will sincerely follow on to know the Lord, Hos. vi. 3. But if not, if you will, in a spirit of levity, presume to decide upon points which you will not allow yourselves seriously to examine, should you at last perish in your obstinacy and unbelief, your ruin will be of yourselves. You have been faithfully warned, and we shall be clear of your blood.

SERMON L.

THE UNIVERSAL CHORUS.

(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 for ever and ever!-Rev. v. 13.

But if, by indulging their speculations on the creation of the world, the causes of the deluge, and similar subjects, their employment has been no better than weaving spider's webs, the result of their reasoning on morals has been much worse. Here they have with industry hatched cockatrice eggs; (Isa. lix. 5;) and their labours have been not only fallacious, but mischievous. Their metaphysical researches, while they refuse the guidance of revelation, if pursued to their just consequences, will always lead into the labyrinths of scepticism, weaken the sense of moral obligation, rob the mind of the most powerful motives of right conduct, and of the only consolations which can afford it solid support in an hour of trouble. One insuperable difficulty which they will undertake to solve, though it does not properly lie in their way, is concerning the origin of evil. That evil is in the world, is felt and confessed universally. The gospel points out an effectual method of deliverance from it; but alas, the simple and infallible remedy is neglected, and men weary themselves with vain inquiries,

And find no end, in wandering mazes lost.

The more they reason, the more they involve themselves in uncertainty and error, till at last they make lies their refuge, and adopt, with implicit credulity, as so many undoubted axioms, opinions, which are equally dishonourable to God, and contradictory to truth and experience, 2 Thess. ii. 11. Thus much is certain, that by the occasion of evil, the character of God is manifested with superior glory to the view of angels and men, who are in a state of holiness and allegiance, and a higher accent is thereby given to their praises; for now his justice and his mercy, which could not have been otherwise known, are revealed in the strongest light; and the redemption of sinners affords the brightest display of his wisdom and love.

Ali

MEN have generally agreed to dignify their presumptuous and arrogant disquisitions on the works and ways of God with the name of wisdom, though the principles upon which they proceed, and the conclusions which they draw from them, are for the most part evident proofs of their depravity and folly. Instead 'The redeemed are represented as taking of admiring the effects of his wisdom and the first part in this sublime song, verses 8power in the creation, they have rashly en- 10. The angels join in the chorus, verses deavoured to investigate the manner of its 11, 12, which now becomes universal. production. A variety of hypotheses have the angels, all the saints upon the earth, in been invented to account for the formation of the state of the dead, or hades, whether the world, and to state the laws by which the their bodies are buried under the earth, or in frame of nature is governed; and these dif- the sea, with one heart, aim and voice, unite ferent and inconsistent accounts have been in worship and praise. In the preceding defended with a magisterial tone of certain- verse, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and ty, and an air of demonstration, by their re- power, are ascribed unto the I amb; but here spective authors, as though they had been the ascription is unto Him that sitteth upon bystanders and spectators when God spoke the throne, and unto the Lamb. I shall not all things into being, and produced o der out add to what I have already observed to you of confusion by the word of his power. from the words of the doxology. A few reThey have, however, been much more success-marks, which offer from this verse taken in ful in showing the absurdity of the schemes connection with the former, will bring me to proposed by others, than in reconciling their a conclusion of the whole subject. And on! own to the sober dictates of plain common for a coal of fire from the heavenly altar to warm your hearts and mine, that our love,

sense.

VOL. II.

3 C

deemed them to God by his blood. They know by happy experience, that his promise, to be in the midst of those who assemble in his name, is truth. Their worship is not a mere bodily service, a lifeless form, a round of observances, which neither warm the heart, nor influence the conduct; but they are instructed, comforted, and strengthened, by waiting upon God. Their spiritual senses are exercised; they behold his glory in the glass of the gospel, they hear his voice, they feel an impression of his power and presence, they taste his goodness, and the virtue of that name, which is as ointment poured forth, perfumes their tempers and conversa

tion.

III. Though the Lamb is worthy of all blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, there is a distinct ascription of praise to Him that sitteth upon the throne.

proudly reject it, and yet admit the Bibl
be a divine revelation, are involved in diff
ties from which all their sagacity and learning
cannot free them. In vain they labour by
singular interpretations, by the minutiae of
criticism, and by an appeal to various readings
and ancient versions, which, in a few passages,
differ from the copies more generally received

in vain they endeavour by these refinements to relieve themselves, when pressed by the obvious and natural sense of a thousand texts, which confirm the faith and hope of plain christians. The gospel is designed for the poor. But the poor and unlearned would be at a great disadvantage, if the scripture could not be rightly understood without the assistance of such learning and such criticism as we often see pressed into the service. But the Holy Spirit graciously leads those who pray for his teaching, into such views of this high subject as are sufficient to comfort their hearts, and to animate their obedience. The faith of those who are taught of God, is exercised in their approaches to him under two different modifications. Both are scriptural, and therefore both are safe, and witnessed to by his gracious acceptance and blessing.

The scripture, which alone can teach us to form right conceptions of God, and to worship him acceptably, guides us in a medium, between opposite errors and mistakes. Too many persons, ignorant of their own state as sinners, and of the awful majesty and holiness of the Most High, presume to think of him, to speak of him, and in their way, to speak to 1. They come to God by Christ. They him, without being aware of the necessity of have access through him, Eph. ii. 18. Una Mediator. But they who are without Christ, worthy to speak for themselves, they bow their who is the only door and way to the Father, knees in his name, Phil. ii. 10. Christians are without God, atheists in the world, Eph. are sufficiently distinguished and described by ii. 12. There is a mistake likewise on the saying, They come to God by him, Heb. vii. other hand, when, though the Deity of the 25. They come to God, they cannot live Saviour be acknowledged, yet what we are without him in the world, as they once did. taught of the ineffable distinction in the God- They are now conscious of wants and desires, head is not duly attended to. It is written, which only God can satisfy; but they are con"In the beginning,-the Word was God," scious likewise that they are sinners, and thereJohn i. 1. It is likewise written, "The Word fore they durst not approach him, if they had was with God." This latter expression un- not the invitation of his promise, and an asdoubtedly has a meaning which though per-surance of an Advocate with the Father, 1 fectly consistent, is not coincident with the John ii. 2. former. The truth contained in it is propos- 2. They come to God in Christ. He is ed, not to our curiosity as a subject of specu- the great Temple, in whom all fulness dwells lation, but to our faith. I do not attempt to (Col. i. 19; ii. 9;) and they are not afraid explain it. But, what God expressly declares, of idolatry, when they worship and honour we are bound, upon the principles of right the Son even as the Father. This distinct reason, to believe. For he is Truth, and can- application to God, in the person of the Son not deceive us. "There are three that bear of his love, perhaps becomes more frequent record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and and familiar as they advance in the knowledge the Holy Ghost," 1 John v. 7. These three of their Lord and Saviour, 2 Peter iii. 18. are frequently spoken of in the scripture-to They who seek to him for deliverance from each of them a distinct part in the economy of sin and misery, at first, I believe, chiefly consalvation is ascribed; to each of them the per-sider him as the Advocate and High Priest, fections and honours of Deity are attributed. who, by the virtue of his atonement, and the Yet there are not three Gods, but one. Con- prevalence of his intercession, is able to save sequently these three are one God. This to the uttermost. But when the apostle disdoctrine may be above our comprehension, tributes Christians, according to their growth but cannot be contrary to our reason, if it be in grace, into the state of babes, young men, contained in a revelation from God. If it be and fathers (1 John ii. 4,) he speaks of a more simply received upon the authority of the re-distinct and appropriate knowledge of him vealer, it approves itself to be true, for it is found to be a key to the whole scripture, which renders the general sense and scope everywhere consistent and plain. They who

who is from the beginning, as the peculiar privilege and distinguishing attainment of the fathers. He speaks of him who is from the beginning, so often that we can be at no

loss to determine whom he intends by the expression. He applies it to him who was in the beginning with God (John i. 1,) and whom ne and the other apostles had heard, had seen with their eyes, and touched with their hands, 1 John i. 1-3. An eminent divine* points out some special seasons in the Christian life, in which he thinks the peculiar pressures of the soul may obtain the most sensible and immediate relief, by direct application to the Saviour. But there are some believers who find themselves almost continually in one or other of the situations which he marks as occasional. However this may be, I am ready to take it for granted, that they who really and cordially believe the Deity of Christ, do at least at some seasons, and upon some occasions, expressly direct their prayers to him. If precedents be required to warrant this practice, the New Testament will furnish them in abundance. I shall select but a few. The apostle Paul bowed his knees to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus; but he often prayed to the Lord Jesus; He prayed to him in the temple (Acts xxii. 17-21.) and when he obtained that answer, My grace is sufficient for thee," 2 Cor. xii. 9. To him the prayer of the apostles and disciples was addressed previous to the lot which was to determine a successor to Judas, Acts i. 24. And to him Stephen committed his departing spirit (Acts vii. 59,) an act of trust and worship of the highest kind, and at the most solemn season. In short, it is a strange inconsistence, if any, who acknowledge his Deity, question the propriety of praying to him. What is it, more or less, than to question the propriety of praying to God?

66

IV. This solemn worship and praise is referred ultimately to him who sitteth upon the throne to the great and glorious God, thus known and manifested in, and by, and with the Lamb that was slain.

ministration and government over them will be changed. They will then have no more sins to confess; there will be no more dangers requiring the care and tenderness of a Shepherd, no enemies to be controlled, and the ordinances and means of grace, accommo dated to their wants and weakness, while in this world, will be no longer necessary. But Messiah, the Lamb that was slain, will ever be the head and Lord of the creation, the medium of communication of the light and love of God to his people, and God in him, the ob ject of their eternal adoration and praise.

Then the grand, ultimate, final cause of all the manifestations of God will be completely obtained. The glory of the great Creator and Lawgiver, the splendour of all his perfections will for ever shine, without a vail or cloud, and with a brightness which could not have been known by creatures, had not the entrance of evil given occasion for a display of his wisdom and love, in over-ruling it to the praise of his glorious grace.

Thus, according to the measure of my ability and experience, I have endeavoured to point out to you the meaning and importance of the well chosen series of scriptural passages, which are set to music in the Oratorio of the Messiah. Great is the Lord Messiah, and greatly to be praised! I have attempted to set before you a sketch of what the scripture teaches us concerning his person, undertakings, and success, the misery of those whom he came to save, the happiness to which he raises them, and the wonderful plan and progress of redeeming love. But who is sufficient for these things? Alas! how small a portion of his ways are we able to trace! But I would be thankful, that the desire of attempting this great subject was put into my heart, and that having obtained help of God, I have been preserved and enabled to finish my design. Imperfect as my execution of it has been, I cannot doubt that the various topics I have been led to insist on are the great truths of God. For what is properly my own, the defects and weaknesses which mix with my best services, I entreat his forgiveness, and request your candour. But I do not hesitate to say, that the substance of what I have advanced deserves and demands your most serious attention.

The mediatorial kingdom of Christ will have a period. He will reign as Mediator, till he has subdued all enemies under his feet, and perfected his whole work. Then his kingdom in this sense will cease; he will deliver it up to the Father, that God may be all in all, 1 Cor. xv. 29. This passage is difficult, that is, the subject is too great for our faculties in their present state of imperfection fully to comprehend; for the difficulties It is probable, that those of my hearers who we meet with in scripture are more properly admire this Oratorio, and are often present to be ascribed to our ignorance. The Son, as when it is performed, may think me harsh man, is even now subject to the Father: and and singular in my opinion, that of all our God is undoubtedly all in all, at present, and musical compositions this is the most improfrom everlasting to everlasting. But his king-per for a public entertainment. But while dom here is to be taken figuratively for the subjects of his kingdom, his people, whom he received as a trust and a treasure. These he will deliver up, and the form of his ad

* Dr. Owen, in his Christologia.

it continues to be equally acceptable whether performed in a church or in the theatre, and while the greater part of the performers and of the audience are the same at both places, I can rate it no higher than as one of the many fashionable amusements which mark