THE

DIVINITY, ETERNITY, AND OMNIPOTENCE

Of Christ;

A SERMON

PREACHED IN THE PARISH CHURCH OF KINTBURY,

BERKS,

ON SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 17th, 1837,

5

IN AID OF THE SUNDAY AND DAY SCHOOLS.

BY

THE REV. FULWAR WILLIAM FOWLE,

PERPETUAL CURATE OF AMESBURY, AND RECTOR OF ALLINGTON, WILTS.

SOLD ALSO BY RIVINGTONS AND CO., LONDON.

Price One Shilling.

BODLE

ΤΟ

THE REV. FULWAR CRAVEN FOWLE, M.A.,

VICAR OF KINTBURY, BERKS:

AND ΤΟ THOSE OTHER KIND FRIENDS,

BEFORE WHOM IT WAS PREACHED,

AND AT WHOSE REQUEST IT IS NOW PUBLISHED,

THE FOLLOWING SERMON

IS RESPECTFULLY,

AND AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED.

SERMON.

REV. i. 8.

"I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty."

I MUST bespeak your particular indulgence, dear Friends, on the present occasion. I am weak, and unworthy to treat upon high, and lofty, and holy subjects, and yet I have chosen the highest, and the loftiest, and the holiest upon which the tongue can speak, or the mind of man can dwell. But my encouragement is that God sometimes chooses "the foolish things of the world," and "the weak things of the world," to effect His gracious purposes, that it may be manifest that the work is His alone, and that "he who glorieth, may glory in the Lord."

I am here, Brethren, this day, to plead on behalf of little children, amid the scenes of my own childhood, and in the Village of my Early home. To request your assistance to train them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. To intreat you to implant in their tender minds those moral and religious principles, upon which must depend their respectability,

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their usefulness, their comfort, their well-being in this life, and their hopes of everlasting happiness in another. To urge upon you to give them an Education which, to answer any purpose of salvation, must be immovably grounded on the love of God, and the knowledge of their Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Such an Education alone can hope for the Divine blessing upon it, and “ Except the Lord build the house, their labour is but lost that build it."

Let us, my Brethren, in the first place, for the mutual and general and common comfort of us all, as the foundation of every hope, joy, and consolation, whether in this life or that which is to come, inquire who this Almighty Being is of whom we are presuming to speak,—in the words of the late pious Prelate, Bishop Heber,

“Wonders in all His ways, unseen, unknown,

Who treads the wine-press of the world alone❞—

Or, as He is, in all the sublimity of language, described by Himself in the text.-The " Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty."

Who, then, is this, who thus declares His Divinity, His Eternity, and His Omnipotence? Some of you would probably reply to me, "It is God." Certainly it is God. But is it God the Father, God the Son, or God the Holy Ghost? You may consider it to be a question of little importance, or too mysterious to be inquired into. My Brethren, it is of the first

importance, and there is no mystery whatever attached to it. The preceding verses of the chapter declare to us who He is. They tell us that Jesus Christ made a revelation of things which should come to pass to his servant John. This Holy Apostle first delivers to the churches a benediction of "grace and peace" from the Father, "and from Jesus Christ who loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood." Then having ascribed to Him "glory and dominion for ever and ever," he suddenly breaks forth into the rapturous exclamation, "Behold! He cometh with clouds; and every Eye shall see Him, and they also which pierced Him; and all the kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him." Immediately after which this crucified Saviour is Himself introduced, declaring in His own person, as though He were already come in the Majesty of His Glory to judge the quick and the dead, "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty." And it is very necessary, Brethren, to come to a right and full understanding of this, and ten thousand similar passages in the Bible, or we never can arrive at that deep reverence, that profound veneration, that lively and heart-felt gratitude to the Redeemer, which it is the whole purpose of the Bible to inspire. From the beginning to the end, from the first chapter of Genesis to the last of Revelation, He is the soul which animates the Sacred Volume; it has no life without Him. "I WAS," He says, "for it was I who created the world, yea, before the foundations of it were laid, I WAS." "I AM, for I watch over it by my Providence; I am its Re