agonised, put to death. And as Man he rose again from the dead.

When he appeared for the first time to his assembled disciples, after his Resurrection, "They were terrified, and affrighted, and supposed they had seen a Spirit. And he said unto them, Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have." Thus he convinced his disciples that he was the same Jesus whom they had known before, whose hands and whose feet had been pierced with nails, and his side with a spear. That his body was the same, he convinced them by shewing the hole of the spear, and the print of the nails, and making them handle him, and see that it was, as before his death, the same real body of flesh and blood. And that the same human soul, which had been separated from that body on the cross, was now re-united to it, he proved at this, and every subsequent interview he had with his disciples, by the same meekness and lowliness of heart, the same familiar acquaintance with their minutest circumstances, the

9 Luke, xxiv. 37-39.

same feeling allowance for their infirmities, the same humane attention to their particular wants, and, in short, by many infallible proofs, during the forty days he was seen of them, after his passion, speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.1

Thus we see that, during these forty days, Christ, who was always the same perfect God, was also the same perfect Man he had been before his Passion. In that same nature, with a human body and a human soul, he ascended up into heaven, in the sight of his Apostles. In that same nature he now reigneth in glory, and will continue to reign, with the peculiar sway belonging to his mediatorial office, till he hath put all things under his feet, and finished the judgment committed to him by the Father, at the general resurrection, on his coming again. "Then cometh the end, when we shall have delivered up the kingdom"-that peculiar kingdom, the whole object of whose establishment will then have been accomplished" to God, even the Father;" and thenceforth reign in the unity of the Godhead, without any peculiar jurisdiction, "that God may be all in all."

"Seeing, then, that we have a great high-priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an High-priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us, therefore, come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." If any one let go this "anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast," because he cannot comprehend the manner in which God and Man is one Christ, the same person must, in con- . sistency, renounce all claim to superiority above the natural idiot, or the beasts that perish; for I defy him to explain, or even to conceive, how he can be possessed of intellectual faculties, which are unknown to the idiot or the brute. We, my brethren, who know our ignorance of the nature of our own bodies, and still more of our souls, and, most of all, of the Divine Essence, will not be guilty of the presumptuous folly of passing judgment respecting their possible modes of co-existence. We, who believe in the omnipotence of God, have no difficulty in accounting for the existence

3 Heb. iv. 14-16.

of thousands of facts which surpass our comprehension. And the same solution will satisfy every reasonable man, with respect to that most incomprehensible of all facts, viz. That our Lord Jesus Christ is God and Man, perfect God, and perfect Man; equal to the Father, as touching his Godhead, and inferior to the Father, as touching his Manhood. (c)

Nor let it be imagined that this is a mere speculative doctrine, the belief or disbelief of which cannot affect a man's moral character, nor, consequently, his expectations in a future state. No doctrine which God has vouchsafed to reveal to us, can be disbelieved, without destroying the foundation of all true morality; without denying the truth and wisdom, and braving the power of the Most High. The primary use of every doctrine of revealed religion, is to teach the proud spirit of man to bow before the throne of God, with that entire submission of heart and mind, of will and understanding, which the clearest dictates of reason and common sense prescribe, and without which there can be no true obedience, no true morality, no genuine hope of pardon and acceptance with God.

And as the doctrine of the Divinity, Humiliation and Exaltation of the Son of God, is thus, in

claiming our belief, a test of the spirit of obedience, so is it, when believed, a most certain guide to the true nature of Christian obedience, and a most powerful motive to pursue it. The character of the second Adam, as traced in the words of our text, is throughout a most striking contrast to that of the first Adam and his rebellious descendants. "The first Adam was of the earth, earthy;" yet, low and impotent as he was, he dared to commit the impious robbery of aspiring to be equal with God. "The second Adam was the Lord from heaven." In him it was no robbery to be equal with God; yet he voluntarily emptied himself of his glory; and took upon himself the form of a servant; the likeness, and fashion, and nature of a man. And the whole course of his life was equally at variance with the general conduct of the children of this world. They begin by being disobedient to parents; or, if they yield an external obedience, rebel in their hearts, sighing for the age when they may shake off all restraint, and become, as it is expressed, their own masters, that is, the slaves of their own unbridled desires. Jesus, on the contrary, the Son of God, disdained not the character of the carpenter's son; he meekly submitted to Joseph and Mary; and we have strong