fully convinced that the whole creation is but as clay in the hand of the great Potter, and that He possesses not only an uncontrollable but an undeniable right to dispose of his creatures as he pleases; and that none can be justified in saying to God, What doest thou? because His councils and His conduct can receive no assistance from us, and are necessarily worthy of Himself. Here He considers both angels and men entirely on a level together; and God is at liberty to form His own purpose concerning them, without rendering a reason for making a difference. When man views himself in this mirror, and remembers that "all nations before God are as nothing, and that they are accounted to him less than nothing and vanity," he covers his face before the Most High, and is ashamed that a thing of nought should indulge a dishonourable thought of absolute independence and Infinite blessedness. Here he considers the Sovereign will of God in its various exercise towards the children of men, and is humbled in the dust with wonder and admiration at the grace bestowed upon him whereby he is made a child of God, when he might have been left to the obstinacy of his own depraved understanding. He loves to dwell on this view of Divine truth-on all the beauties of it, as far as it is discovered to him-until he shrinks into nothing before the Eternal Majesty; and which fills his soul with wonder, love, and praise, in the contemplation that he should be distinguished as a member of Christ's mystical body, and that he should be protected through all the future changes of his life, and shall ultimately be brought safely and honourably to the kingdom prepared for him.

* Is. xl. 17.

When he looks at himself as a sinner, he sits down in reverent silence. He has no question to put on the wisdom of God in His dealings with the children of men, or in the permission of evil; here he bows with submission and humble adoration. He feels himself a transgressor of the holy law of God, and confesses the mournful fact, without reserve and without excuse. He is convinced of the justice of the Lawgiver, and therefore approves the whole of His conduct in taking vengeance. Instead of thinking hard of God because any perish in their sin, he wonders that any are saved, but particularly himself. He is satisfied, that had it been the will of God to have left him to himself, there would have been no injustice; because, as a creature, he had no claim on the Divine Saviour, and, as a sinner, he stood obnoxious to His righteous displeasure.

Considering himself as a sinner saved, the grace of God is the burthen of his song. A deep abiding sense of his unworthiness and sinfulness being always present with him, the merits of Christ and His righteousness are his constant trust and plea, which bring peace to his bosom, and steadfastness in his life and conversation, while he walks on the way to the Kingdom of Heaven. Gratitude arises in his breast from a conviction of guilt and unworthiness, in proportion to the perception of the nature and magnitude of the blessings received: he looks to the blood of sprinkling, to be cleansed and pardoned. Every appearance of sin in himself excites his grief, and makes him long to be with his Saviour, that he may see it and feel it again no more for ever. He anticipates the period when he shall behold the glory of his Lord, and be like Him, and cast his crown at His feet.

CHAPTER VI.

The testimony Christ has given of Himself as existing in the adorable Trinity illustrated, and his unalterable love to his Church established by proofs of his Divine Sovereignty and Foreknowledge.

I have considered human nature as delineated in the word of God, and the knowledge of salvation by the teaching of the Holy Spirit. I would now, as I proposed, call the attention of the Church of Christ to the contemplation of that very blessed testimony the Lord hath incidentally given of Himself, in relation to that peculiar mode of being, by which He is distinguished from all His creatures, in a Trinity of Persons, and which merits the closest attention of all the Lord's people. It is strikingly observable from the Scriptures, that Jehovah therein maintains His own sole glory, in possession of all Divine Attributes which constitute Godhead; that He speaks of Himself as existing in a Trinity of Persons in the unity of the Divine Essence. Let the reader not fail to observe this, and let him notice again and again, and within the compass of only three verses in the prophecy of Isaiah, three times in the plural number: "Let them, saith the Lord,”—alluding to idols, and the followers of idols,-"let them show us what shall happen. Let them show former things, that We may consider, and that we may know."* Oh, how gracious was it in God—and I pray the Christian disciple above all things to notice His grace in the act-that while putting to confusion the whole host of infidels, whether

Isa. xli. 22.

blasphemers of the Bible, or blasphemers of either of the PERSONS in the Godhead-for as far as blasphemy is concerned, they are all alike under the same delusionthat the Lord hath adopted so blessed a method of preserving his people in the "faith once delivered to the saints!" The US and the WE, in the above proclamation, decidedly prove this fundamental article of our most holy faith. And let the reader not fail to connect with it the many other scriptures to the same amount. For it is the same us which said at the creation, "Let us make man in OUR image, after OUR likeness."* The same US which, concerning the tower of Babel, said, "Let us go down." The same us which our prophet heard in that vision, when he saw the glory of Christ, and heard the Holy Ghost speak, when he said, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" For that this was Christ's glory, John the Evangelist declared. And that the Holy Ghost was the Almighty Creator, the Apostle Paul testified. And it was the same US, which the Prophet Hosea hath recorded concerning the Lord's manifestation of Himself to the Patriarch Jacob at Bethel, where it is said, "That he spake with Us, even the LORD GOD OF HOSTS; the Lord is his memorial." And, to mention no more, the same of whom the Son of God himself spake, when He said, in promising the unceasing presence of his Father, Himself, and the Holy Ghost, with his people, "WE will come and make OUR abode; and the Holy Ghost shall abide with you for ever." I would here ask, what can give comfort to the souls of the Lord's people, but the goings forth of the Lord to his people, in his Trinity of

Persons, in acts of personal communion with the saints of God in Christ Jesus? From whence hath the Church her very being, and her well-being? Is it not from the HOLY THREE in ONE, which bear record in heaven? Was not the Church in Christ, chosen in Christ, by God the Father, before the foundation of the world? And did not Christ then betroth the Church to himself for ever? And did not God the Holy Ghost anoint both Christ and his people, by which, the head was called Christ, that is, the Anointed, and the Church had grace given to her in Christ before the world began? And if from this foundation, this ocean of blessedness, the Church hath her being and well-being, from whence but from the same source can the Church derive health and salvation, to her continuing in that being, either in relation to the life that now is, or that which is to come?

What a world of attention is shown in the Scriptures by the Holy Three in One, to comfort the Church with assurances of the unalterable love, and grace, and favour, which Jehovah hath towards His Church, in those councils and covenant transactions which are there related, going forth for the blessing of the Church! The Bible is full of them, either in rehearsing of what was then said, or since done. We meet with those Divine discourses from the very opening of the Scriptures: "Let us make man.' 66 Behold, the man is become as one of us." "Let US go down." And the personal acts of each in the Godheadas if to define PERSON, and yet convey conviction to the people of God that the works of the Trinity are undivided

-are so plainly set forth in many parts of the Old Testament, but more particularly in the New, that, like the