would compel us, by a perversion of phraseology, of figure, and of sense, to read, "God is thy throne;" converting the great and dreadful God into a symbol of authority in one of his own creatures. The scriptures, it seems, may utter contradictions or impiety, but the divinity of the Son they shall not attest. The crown however, which flourishes on his head,' is not to be torn away; nor the anchor of our hope to be wrested from us, by the rude hand of licentious criticism.

I cannot find, in the lively oracles, a single distinctive mark of deity which is not applied, without reserve limitation, to the only begotten Son. All things that the Father hath are bis. Who is that mysterious WORD that was in the bginning, with God? Whe is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, the first and the last, the Almighty?: Who is he that knows what is in man, because he searches the deep and dark recesses of the heart? Who is or the Omnipresent, that has promised, Wherever two or three are gathered together in my name, there am in the midst of them? the light of whose countenance is, at the same moment, the joy of heaven. and the salvation of earth who is incircled by the Seraphim on high, and walks in the midst of the golden candlesticks. who is in this assembly; in all the assemblies of his people in every work shipping family: in every closet of prayer: in every holy heart. Whose bands, have stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth? Wha hath replenished them with inhabitants, and gar. nished them with beauty; having created all things that are in both, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities or pow ers?? By Wham do all things consist? Who is the governor among the nations, having on his vesture and on his thigh a name written King of Kings and Lord of Lords. hom is it the Father's will that

'all men should honor, even as they honor himself?" Whom has he commanded his angels to worship? whom to obey? Before whom do the devils tremble? Who is qualified to redeem millions of sinners' from the wrath to come,' and preserve them, by his grace, to his everlasting kingdom? Who raiseth the dead, in trespasses and sins,? having life in himself, to quicken whom he will,' at whose voice shall all that are in their graves come forth; and death and hell' surrender their numerous and forgotten captives? Who shall weigh, in the balance of Judgment, the destinies of angels and men? dispose of the thrones of paradise? and bestow eternal life? Shall I submit to the decision of reason? Shall I ask a response from heaven? Shall I summon the devils from their

chains of darkness? The response from heaven sounds in my ears; reason approves, and the devils confess---This, O Christians, is none other than the GREAT GOD our SAVIOUR!

Indeed my brethren, the doctrine of our Lord's divinity is not, as a fact, more interesting to our faith, than, as a principle, it is essential to our hope. If he were not the true God,' he could not be eternal life. When pressed down by guilt and languishing for happiness, I look around for a deliverer such as my conscience and my heart and the word of God assure me I need, insult not my agony by directing me to a creature---to a man, a mere man like myself! A creature! a man! My Redeemer owns my person. My immortal spirit is his property. When I come to die, I must commit it into his hands. My. soul! My infinitely precious soul committed to a mere man! become the property of a mere man! I would not thus, entrust my body to the highest angel in heaven. It is only the Father of spirits,' that can have property in spirits, and be their refuge in the hour of transition from the present to the approaching world. In short the divinity of Jesus, is in the

system of grace, the sun to which all its parts are subordinate, and all their stations refer---which binds them in sacred concord; and imparts to them their radiance, and life, and vigor. Take from it this central luminary, and the glory is departed---Its holy harmonies are broken--. The elements rush to chaos ---The light of salvation is extinguished for ever!

But it is not the deity of the Son, simply consisidered, to which the text confines our attention. We are in the

Second place to contemplate it as subsisting in a personal union with the human nature.

Long before this epistle was written had he by himself purged our sins, and sat down at the right hand of majesty on high.' It is, therefore, as God manifested in the flesh;' as my own brother, while he is the express image of the Father's person,' as the Mediator of the new covenant, that he is seated on the throne. Of this throne, to which the pretensions of a creature were mad and blasphemous, the majesty is, indeed, maintained by his divine power; but the foundation is laid in his Meditorial character. I need not prove to this audience, that all his gracious offices and all his redeeming work originated in the love and the election of his Father. Obedient to that will, which fully accorded with his own, he came. down from heaven; tabernacled in our clay; was ! a man of sorrows and acquainted with griefs;' submitted to the contradictions of sinners;' the temptations of the old Serpent, and the wrath of an avenging God. In the merit of his obedience which threw a lustre round the divine law; and in the atonement of his death by which he offered himself a sacrifice without spot unto God,' repairing the injuries of man's rebellion, expiating sin through the blood of his cross; and conciliating its pardon with infinite. purity, and unalterable truth; summarily, in his performing those conditions on which was suspended all

God's mercy to man, and all man's enjoyment of God, in these stupendous works of righteousness' are we to look for the cause of his present glory. He humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross; wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.' Exalted' thus, to be a Prince and a Saviour,' he fills heaven with his beauty, and obtains from its blest inhabitants the purest and most reverential praise. Worthy,' cry the ming led voices of his angels and his redeemed, worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing.'Worthy' again cry his redeemed, in a song which belongs not to the angels, but in which with holy ecstacy, we will join, worthy art thou, for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood.'

Delightful, brethren, transcendently delightful were it to dwell upon this theme. But we must refrain and having taken a transient glance at our Redeemer's personal glory, let us turn to the

II. View which the text exhibits-the view of his sovereign rule-Thy THRONE, O God is forever and ever.

The mediatorial kingdom of Christ Jesus, directed and upheld by his divinity, is now the object of our contemplation. To advance Jehovah's glory in the salvation of men, is the purpose of its erection. Tho? earth is the scene and human life the limit, of those great operations by which they are interested in its mercies, and prepared for its consummation; its principles, its provisions, its issues are eternal. When It rises up before us in all its grandeur of design, col

lecting and conducting to the heavens of God, millions of immortals in comparison with the least of whom the destruction of the material universe were a thing of naught, whatever the carnal mind calls vast and magnificent, shrinks away into nothing.

But it is not so much the general nature of Messiah's kingdom on which I am to insist, as its stability, its administration, and the prospects which they open to the church of God.

Messiah's throne is not one of those airy fabricks which are reared by vanity and overthrown by Time: it is fixed of old it is stable and cannot be shaken, for

(1.) It is the throne of Gop. He who sitteth on it is the Omnipotent. Universal being is in his hand. Revolution, force, fear, as applied to his kingdom, are words without meaning. Rise up in rebellion, if thou hast courage. Associate with thee the whole mass of infernal power. Begin with the ruin of whateve is fair and good in this little globe---Pass from hence to pluck the Sun out of his place--and roll the volume of dessolation through the starry world ...What hast thou done unto him? It is the puny menace of a worm against Him whose frown is per dition. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh.'

(2.) With the stability which Messiah's Godhead communicates to his throne, let us connect the stabi lity resulting from his Father's covenant.

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His throne is founded not merely in strength, but in right. God hath laid the government upon the shoul der of his holy child Jesus, and set him upon mount Zion as his king forever. He has promised, and sworn to build up his throne to all generations;' to 'make it endure as the days of heaven ;' to beat down his foes before his face,' and plague them that hate him. But my faithfulness' adds he, and my mercy shall be with him, and in my name shall his horn be exalted. Hath he said it? And will he not do it?