the promises of God, and especially the menaced punishment of sin, Christianity places as its foundation, the principle of FAITH IN GOD; and exhibits for the establishment of that faith, a series of uncontrolled miracles, of clearly accomplished prophecies, of unquestioned facts, attesting a divine supernatural interposition. It also brings forward illustrious witnesses, who have by exertions the most disinterested, and sufferings the most severe, confirmed the great facts to which revelation appeals, and have even at the certain loss of life "set to their seal, that God is true."* And it holds out as the great object of this faith, Jesus Christ, and him crucified-crucified that he might bear the punishment due to human guilt, and manifest the divine detestation of those crimes, to atone for which he bled; while, by submitting to suffer for fallen man, he not only magnified unspeakably the divine mercy, but "he also magnified the law, and made it honorable, and thus has brought in an everlasting righteousness."† Thus the Christian is taught to regard vice with abhorrence, his redemption from it with joy, and his Redeemer with gratitude. He feels that the divine displeasure attends sin, to a degree, of which he could otherwise have no conception; and he receives, with infinitely increased emotion, a pardon bestowed upon such terms. He feels that "he is no longer his own, but that he is bought with a price;"‡ that the most strenuous exertions of all his powers in his gracious Redeemer's service, should his existence be protracted for thousands of thousands of ages, were a return utterly inadequate for "that boundless love," which led the Son of God to die for us, that we might "live together with him."§ Thus does the contemplation of our Redeemer's sufferings, and of the bright evidence by which his divinity is attested, re-establish that faith, by the departure from which man fell from God, and forfeited the joys of Paradise. Another fatal source of the guilt and degradation of man was found in his pride-he was seduced by that presumptuous impiety which aspired to be "as gods, knowing good and evil."T * John iii. 33. Vid. on this, the admirable passage in Mr. Wilberforce's "View of Christianity," which treats of looking unto Jesus, iv. 6. † Compare Isa. xlii. 21. with Dan. ix. 24. #1 Cor. vi. 20, vii. 23. || Vide supra, 367. ¶ Gen. iii. 5. This destructive propensity Christianity also directly encounters and corrects. By opening to us a full view of the moral frailty, corruption, and depravity of our nature, it tends to inspire a salutary humility and self-distrust, convinces us of our weakness and our danger, excites caution and vigilance, warns us to fly from temptation, and avoid every approach to criminality, and keeps alive that tenderness of conscience, which feels and obeys the first check of self-suspicion, and shrinks with alarm and horror from the first sting of self-reproach. In addition to this MORAL humility, which forms the surest safeguard of virtue in this state of trial, the Gospel inculcates the equally important principle of INTELLECTUAL humility in religion. It makes us feel our ignorance as well as our weakness; our folly and blindness as well as our depravity and guilt; it leads us to contemplate with reverence the whole scheme of redemption, formed in the eternal counsel of God; commencing its effective progress immediately on the fall of man; proceeding through the various ages of the world, embracing all nations and empires, the bounds of which are assigned, and the duration and influence of which are regulated with reference to this grand scheme. We see it employing a countless multitude of agents, Jews and Christians, patriarchs and prophets, apostles and martyrs; and in a different, but equally essential manner, Egyptians and Assyrians, Greeks and Romans; a Pharaoh and a Nebuchadnezzar, a Herod and a Pontius Pilate, a Cyrus, a Titus, and a Constantine-all, however dispersed and unconnected, however unconscious or reluctant, concurring to carry on this unspeakably important and extensive plan of divine economy; in which are engaged the highest beings in heaven, as well as on earth. For the celestial ministers are employed to carry it into effect, and are anxiously interested in its event; even now the angels desire to look into it," while all the Persons of the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, are engaged in this mysterious work of love to man. 66 Who does not see that human faculties are too narrow to grasp so vast a scheme? Who does not feel himself bound to repress all intellectual presumption, and humble the pride of reason, in contemplating such a system? Who does not feel how serious should be the attention, how deep the humility, with which he should listen to those, to whom "this grace is given, to preach among men, the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who hath created all things by Jesus Christ, to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places, might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God."* How powerful is the tendency of such a system as this, to inspire the most profound reverence and humility in the investi. gation of religious truth; to teach man to bow before the divine wisdom, and acquiesce in the divine dispensations; to teach him the folly of that arrogant presumption, which will not admit it possible, that there should be anything mysterious to the human mind in the nature of the Godhead, anything unfathomable to human sagacity in the extent and progress of the divine economy; and which therefore rejects the most authentic revelations because mysterious, and will not submit to the proposed terms of salvation by Christ, because to discover the precise mode and the exact extent of that salvation, baffles all human research. The true Christian, aware of the short-sightedness of man, and the inscrutable infinity of God, is humble, teachable, not affecting to be wise above what is written, or anxious to penetrate beyond the limits of that knowledge, which ascertains his duty and guides him to happiness. He receives with joy the glad tidings of salvation which the gospel brings, and patiently waits for that "glorious appearance of the great God and our Saviour Christ," which will remove every doubt, solve every difficulty, and display to an adoring world the full extent of the justice and the mercy, the power and the wisdom of the Divinity. Thus indispensable is the firm expectation of the coming of Christ to judge the world, in order to vindicate the ways of God to man. And equally indispensable is its influence, to counteract and subdue every vicious propensity of human nature, and give to every virtuous and religious principle, invigoration and support. Thus, indeed, the hope of Christ's appearance is a holy and a blessed hope. * Ephes. iii. 8, 9, 10. Man fell from innocence by fixing his desires and affections on present and sensual gratifications, and thence undervaluing and abandoning the interests of futurity. The conviction of a future judgment once impressed upon the heart, the eternal world resumes its due preponderance, and the transitory and perishable objects of human desire sink into insignificance; while sensuality stands forward in its baseness and its guilt, stripped of the mask with which pleasure and fashion had concealed its foul deformity. What a counterbalance to every temptation is it to look forward to the appearance of the Son of God in his glory, coming with the holy angels in the clouds of heaven, to judge all men according to their works! Never should we forget, that even our very thoughts are open to the all-searching Judge. Every depraved desire, every malignant passion, if deliberately retained and cherished in the soul, (though it should find no opportunity of breaking into outward action,) will swell the record of our guilt. Every act of mercy we might have done and neglected to do, will be registered against us. What peculiar care to purify ourselves from all iniquity, what zeal in all good works, should this awful thought inspire! In truth, the expectation of this awful hour addresses itself to every feeling of the human heart; and if allowed to produce its due impression, would engage them all on the side of piety and virtue. Are affection and gratitude the generous principles which most powerfully attract and impel us--we shall remember the unequalled love of him, who became a man of "sorrows and acquainted with grief," and suffered an agonizing death upon the cross, to redeem us from iniquity. Surely, "greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." And if we desire to prove our love, our gratitude to this our suffering Redeemer, he has himself declared how we are to prove it-"if ye love me, keep my commandments; and this is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you."* If a noble ambition rises within our souls to emulate the most illustrious virtue, let us look to that Jesus, who "left us an example, that we should follow his steps, who did • John xiv. 15; xv. 12, 13. no evil, neither was guile found in his mouth; who, when he was reviled, reviled not again, when he suffered, he threatened not, but committed himself to him who judgeth righteously."* "As we have therefore received Christ, so let us walk in him,† that when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming." If we desire to share his glory, we must have his image restored in our souls. "When he appeareth," saith the apostle, "we know we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." But they who wish to enjoy this glorious communion with God, this resemblance to the moral perfections, this participation in the happiness of their Redeemer, which the blessed hope of his appearance inspires, must remember, that "he who hath this hope," (saith the beloved apostle,) "purifieth himself, even as he is pure."§ And now, on re-considering the views which this blessed hope of our Redeemer's appearance supplies, and the happiness which it promises to all his faithful followers; how much more exalted and glorious are they, than any to which human nature before the fall could have aspired, on the terms of the original covenant of life on this earth continuing as long as man preserved unsinning obedience! How much less desirable than such a hope was an immortality even of the joys of paradise in this inferior world, with faculties limited to our present sphere of existence, and a society consisting of beings merely like ourselves! How much more exalted and glorious is the state of those blessed spirits, who, after having passed through the severer trials, and being formed by the corrective discipline of this world, as it has existed since the fall, after having had their souls by the EVERPRESENT ASSISTANCE OF DIVINE GRACE purified through repentance, established in faith, and expanded by charity, are prepared for admission, with the great company of "just men made perfect, into the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all." "And they shall be before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on § 1 John iii. 2, 3. || Vide supra, Discourses vii. and viii. + 1 John ii. 28. ¶ Heb. xii. 22, 23. |