religion is supported, to the importance of each of its parts! What consolation to see that this truth, Jesus Christ is risen, this truth which gives us the assurance that God has accepted the sacrifice of his Son, that the work of our salvation is accomplished, that access to the throne of grace is opened to us, that the disorders introduced by sin are repaired! What consolation to see that a truth of such high importance is so completely ascertained, and that so many presumptions, so many proofs, so many demonstrations concur in establishing it!

What satisfaction is it, thus to transport ourselves, in thought, into the apostolic ages, there to contemplate the wonders of redemption! For this is the effect which study produces, of those exquisitely conclusive and irresistible proofs, which demonstrate the truth of this great event: it transports us into the apostolic ages: it enables us to behold with the mind's eye, what we cannot behold with the eyes of the body. After having thus torn up incredulity by the roots, with what an extasy of holy delight may the Christian approach the table of the Lord, with full conviction of soul, and say to him with Thomas: "My Lord and my God. The heart-affect"ing persuasion I have of what thy love has done for me, "elevates, penetrates, overwhelms me. It will render easy "to me the most painful proofs which it may please thee to

prescribe to my gratitude. My Lord and my God, my "Lord and my God, I regret all the time I have devoted to "the world, and its pleasures: henceforward I will think of "thee, and thee only: I will live to thee, and thee only.

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Accept the dedication which I now make. Bear with the "weakness in which it is made: approve the sincerity with "which I this day come to break off the remaining attach"ments which fetter me down to the world; and to bind "closer those of my communion with thee, the only worthy object of love and desire."

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How blessed shall we be, my beloved brethren, in thus penetrating through the obscurity of the past! Blessed are they who have not seen, and yet have believed.

2. But let us likewise penetrate through the darkness of futurity. Let hope supply to us the want of possession. How shall it, henceforth, be possible for us to entertain suspicion against the faithfulness of God's promises? Behold on that table, what God is capable of doing in our behalf. Behold by what miracles of love-O miracles of the love of God, we want language to express thee, as we want ideas to VOL. VI.

conceive

conceive thee! but behold on that table, behold by what miracles of love he has prevailed to make us the rich present of his own Son, to expose him, for our sakes, to all that series of suffering, which has been the subject of our meditation during the weeks which commemorate the passion.

Is it possible for us to believe, that a God so gracious and so compassionate could have created us to render us for ever miserable? Is it possible to believe that a God so great, and so munificent should limit his bounty toward us, to the good things granted us here below, to that air which we breathe, to the light which illuminates this world, to the aliments which sustain these bodies? Nay, is it possible for us to believe that he should permit us to remain long in this world, exposed to so many public and private calamities: to war, to famine, to mortality, to the pestilence, to sickness, to death? Away with suspicions so injurious to the goodness of our God. He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Rom. viii. 32. Let us indulge ourselves in feasting on the deliciousness of this hope: let us not destroy the relish of it, by wallowing in the pleasures of sense: let us habituate ourselves to pursue happiness, in a conviction of the felicity prepared for us in another world.

This hope, it is true, replenished as it is with such unspeakable sweetness, is not without a mixture of bitterness. It is a hard thing to bé enabled to form such transporting ideas of a felicity placed still so far beyond our reach. Hope deferred maketh the heart sick, Prov. xiii. 12. But we shall not be suffered to languish long. For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry, Heb. x. 37. Yet a few short moments more, and our great deliverer, Death, will come to our relief. Let us not stand aghast at his approach. It is not becoming in Christians, who cannot attain the perfection of happiness till after death, to be still afraid of dying. Let us, on the contrary, anticipate the hour of death, by the exercise of a holy ardor and zeal. Let us look for it with a submissive impatience: Having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ, which is far better, Phil. i. 23. than any thing we can possibly enjoy in this valley of tears. He who testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly : let us cry out, in return, "Amen. Even so, come, Lord "Jesus, Rev. xxii. 20. Come, Redeemer of my soul: I "adore thee amidst the clouds in which thou concealest thy"self; but vouchsafe to scatter them. After I have enjoy

"ed

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"ed the felicity of believing, without having seen, let me "likewise have the felicity of seeing and believing. Let me "see with mine eyes him whom my soul loveth : let me contemplate that sacred side, from whence issue so many streams of life for the wretched posterity of Adam: let me admire that sacred body which is the redemption of a lost world let me embrace that Jesus, who gave him "self for me; and let me behold him, never, never to lose sight of him more." God, of his infinite mercy, grant us all this grace. To him be glory for ever. Amen.

SERMON VI.

THE BELIEVER EXALTED TOGETHER WITH

JESUS CHRIST.

EPHESIANS ii. 4, 5, 6.

God who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved) and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

N studying the history of the lives of those eminent saints of God, whose memory scripture hath transmitted to us, we can with difficulty refrain from deploring, the extreme difference which God has been pleased to make between their privileges and ours. Nay we are sometimes disposed to flatter ourselves, that if these privileges had been equal, our attainments in virtue might have made a nearer approach to those which have rendered them so respectable in the church. Who would not surmount the difficulties of the most painful career, if he were to enjoy, like Moses, intimate communications with Deity; if his eyes were strengthened to behold that awful majesty which God displayed on mount Sinai? Who could retain the slightest shadow of incredulity, and who would not be animated to carry the gospel of Christ to the uttermost boundaries of the globe, had he, like Thomas, seen the Lord Jesus after his resurrection; had Jesus Christ said to him, as he said to that apostle: Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither

thy