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full of odours, which are the prayers of faints. And they fung a new fong, faying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the feals thereof for thou waft flain, and haft redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and haft made us unto our God kings and priefts and we fhall reign on the earth. And I beheld, and I heard a voice of many angels round about the throne, and the beafts, and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thoufands; faying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was flain, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and ftrength, and honour, and glory, and bleffing. And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and fuch as are in the fea, and all that are in them, heard I, faying, Bleffing, and honour, and glory, and power be unto him that fitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lanıb for ever and ever. And the four

beafts faid, Amen. And the four and twenty elders fell down and worshipped him that liveth for ever and ever.

IMPROVEMENT.

And upon taking a retrofpective view of the fubject, the following reflections naturally prefent themselves to our confideration.

I. The wisdom and goodness of God in affording mankind fuch clear, and abundant evidence, refpecting the nature, and object, of religious worship. No doubt, the divine prefcience, knowing well the fierce oppofition that the great enemy of God and man, would make to the scheme of redemption,

founded

founded on the perfon and meritorious attonement of Jefus Chrift, has, of confequence, taken every poffible method, to guard men against the danger of fplitting on this rock. The old ferpent, well knowing that as there is not another name given under heaven, whereby we can be faved, but the name of Jefus Chrift, fo, could he once get men to doubt of the neceffity, much more to reafon against this grand device of heaven, his end, in their perdition, is completely attained. To prevent this dreadful confequence, how explicit, how copious, and how does the facred volume abound in afcriptions of titles, the most exalted and lofty; in honours, fupreme, and divine, as applied to the Son of God! And as it is of the laft confequence for us to know, whom, and how, we are to worship; where to place unfhaken confidence, and into whofe hands to repofe our immortal fpirits, fo, the Holy Ghoft directly leads us to Jefus, made of God unto us, wisdom, righteousness, fanctification, and redemption.

II. The unreasonableness, and danger, that attend a ftated oppofition to the Divinity of Jefus Chrift. We have seen, that the incomprehenfibility of this Doctrine, ought to be no obstacle in the way of our faith, and obedience; fince God himself has been pleased to reveal to us, what he would have us to believe, refpecting his nature, and perfections. The vaftnefs of the divine procedure, in all his ways, cannot be comprehended by finite minds. For, who can by Jearching, find out God? Who can find out the Almighty, unto perfection? And because the laws of nature, in the formation, and confiftency of the univerfe, do not fall within the reach of the investigation of men, are they warranted, on that account, to fcorn to pay homage, to the fupreme Being? Or, ought they to refufe to fow, and reap, and purfue

the

the useful arts of life, because they are unacquainted with the nature of vegetation, or with the fimple, or combined forces, of the mechanic Powers? Such arrogance is ftrongly reprehended, in the magnificent language of the Deity himself. Where waft thou, when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare if thou haft understanding? Who laid the measures thereof, if thou knoweft? Or who stretched the line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations thereof faftened? Or who laid the corner ftone thereof? When the morning stars fang together, and all the Sons of God fhouted for joy a. If Chrift, whofe counfels fhall ftand faft, declared, upon this rock, will I build my church, and the gates of hell fhall not prevail again? it; and all Proteftants, interpret this as refpecting either the perfon of Chrift, or Peter's illuftrious confeffion of his Divinity, Thou art Chrift, the Son of the living God b, which indeed amount to the fame thing; I fay, if this was the determination of Him, who is now the Saviour, and will be the Judge, of the world, how friendly, yet how juft, is the remonftrance of the infpired Pfalmift, Why do the people imagine a van thing? The kings of the earth fet themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord, and againft his anointed: He that fitteth in the heavens ball laugh: Jehovah fhall hold them in derifion c.

Hear how God reasonably expects that homage, veneration and love for his Son, which he fo juftly deferves, Having yet therefore one Son, his well beloved, be fent him alfo last unto them, saying, They will reverence my Son d.

If noble descent, magnificent titles, glorious and numerous attendants, endless treasures, fplendid and heroic deeds, accompanied with magnanimity, benevolence, fweetness, and condefcenfion, fet off a character, and draw univerfal admiration and esteem; and

F

Job xxxviii. 4, 5, 6, b Matt. xvi. 16.

Pfal. ii. I, 2. d Mark xii. 6%

and when all thefe, in an infinite degree, centre in the Son of God, how natural, how reasonable is it, for God to expect that mankind will give him that reverence that his divine character deferves: If the warrior, who overthrew invading foes, and stemmed the hoftile irruption with his blood: if the patriot, who checked civil and religious flavery, and established liberty upon a firm and permanent bafis, jufly obtained veneration, and deathlefs fame, from their grateful and exulting country; how much, how infinitely more, does Jefus merit from nien, who, when the face of covering (the fignal for condemnation) was caft over all people a, defcended from his imperial throne, placed himself at the bar, in room of the criminal, bound the covering of condemnation over his own face, and gave a fignal to juftice, to lead him, bathed in his own blood, to a crofs! Might not angels, and all the hofts of heaven, be dumb with astonishment, and ftruck with horror, at beholding the tranfaction! And, not the leaft caufe of their wonder, that the fuffering Saviour might thus, in an honourable way, fprinkle many nations, and place them on thrones, as living and eternal monuments of his love, and trophies of his crofs. Here truly fhine

"Love, without end, and without measure, grace !"

PARADISE LOST.

To excite pity, Pilate brought Jefus forth, wearing the crown of thorns, and faid, behold the man! At that moment God was fetting him forth as a propitiation. Do fome, hoftile to his divinity, cry out, away with him! We want no fuch propitiation; we need none.-Well, but in the language of the irrefolute judge, Why, what evil bath he done b?

a Ifa. xxv. 7.

And

In the vaft country of Louifiana, in America, a miffionary had been fent for the converfion of the Indians; but fome of the moft ferocious

And for which of all his good deeds do you oppofe him? For thy good deeds, Jefus of Nazareth, for thy amiable example, and excellent morality, we owe Thee the higheft obligations; but divine adoration we cannot, and will not give Thee. Still, is it not the will of the Majefty of heaven, that all men honour the Son, even as they honour the Father? But a difciple of Arius objects, "Can any man think "to please the Son of God, by giving that to him "which he never claimed, or could claim? What "will they anfwer at the great day, fhould God charge them with not obferving that declaration "of his, I will not give my glory to another a."

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We humbly anfwer, that we understood that his glory was not to be given to creatures; and therefore we had given it to none but his own Son, and his Holy Spirit, whom we believed not to be creatures, nor other Gods, and whom himself had given his glory to, by commanding all men to be baptized in their names, equally with his own; and ordering, particularly, that all men should honour the Son, &c. If we have inadvertently, from a confideration of the great and glorious things Chrift has done for us, ard from the overflowings of our hearts, carried our gratitude too far, for him, whom the Father. principally delighteth to honour, and towards whom an ingenuous, and well-difpofed mind, can hardly

ever

tribes furrounded him, and were just about to put him to a cruel death. Having a small looking glafs, which he had artfully concealed beneath his clothes, and had it placed on his breaft, he, in a plaintive tone,. remonftrated with them, on the cruelty and ingratitude of their killing a man, who had them all in his heart: The aftonifhed favages, each in their turn, beholding his own figure in the glafs, a piece of art they never had feen before, converted their rage into admiration and efteem, for a man who thus had them all on his heart.

I need not tell mankind, how nearly,

placed to the heart of Jefus Chrift.

See CHARLVOIX TRAVELS. their best interest have been

a See a Vindication of Dr Clarke's Scripture Doctrine, &c.

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