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more real pleasure than that which flows from communion with Jesus Christ.

But when you shall find yourselves, like Simeon, in a state of universal dereliction; but when you shall behold nothing around you save unavailing solicitudes, save ineffectual medicines, save fruitless tears, then you will know what the religion of Jesus Christ is; then, my brethren, you will taste the delight of being a Christian; then you will feel all the powerful attraction of that peace which is mentioned in the text: "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation."

May these ideas of the Christian religion attach us inviolably unto it. Let us, with Simeon, embrace the Saviour of the world; let us, with the wise men of the East, present unto him our gold and frankincense, and myrrh or rather, let us present unto him hearts penetrated with admiration, with gratitude, with love. Yes, divine Infant, desire of all nations, glory of Israel, Saviour of mankind! divine Infant, whom so many oracles have predicted, whom so many prophets have announced, whom so many types have represented, and whose radiant day so many kings and prophets were desirous to behold: my faith pierces through all those veils which overspread and conceal thee: I behold, in the person of a creature feeble and humbled, my God, and my Redeemer: I contemplate thee not only as born a few days ago at Bethlehem of Judah, but subsisting "before the mountains were brought forth, before the earth was formed, even from everlasting to everlasting,"

Psalm xc. 2. I behold thee not only lying in a manger, wrapped in swaddling clothes, but I behold thee seated on a throne of glory, highly exalted, having a name that is above every name, adored by angels and seraphims, encircled with rays of divinity.

Every power of my understanding shall henceforth be devoted to the knowledge of thee it shall be my constant endeavour to please thee, my supreme delight to possess thee; and it shall be my noblest ambition to prostrate myself one day before thy throne, and to sing with the innumerable multitudes of the redeemed of every nation, and people, and tongue Unto him who sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, be honour and glory, and power, for ever and ever. Amen.

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SERMON II.

Christ's Valedictory Address to his Disciples.

JOHN XIV. XV. xvi.

* Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me, &c.

WE begin, this morning, with explaining to you

the texts which refer to our blessed Saviour's passion. If the knowledge of the Christian be all reducible to this, to know Jesus Christ, and him crucified, 1 Cor. ii. 2. it is impossible to fix your eyes too frequently on the mysteries of the cross. Very few discourses, accordingly, are addressed to you, in which these great objects are not brought forward to view. Nay, more; it is the pleasure of this church, that, at certain stated seasons, the doctrine of the cross, to the exclusion of every other, should be the subject of our preaching that all the circumstances attending it should be detailed, and every view of it displayed. But whatever powers may be applied to the execution of this work, it cannot possibly be accomplished within the space of a few weeks. We have especially had to lament that our Saviour's last address to his disciples should be omitted. I mean the dis

* Those who wish to derive benefit from the following discourse, must previously peruse, with attention, the xiv. xv. änd xvi. chapters of John's gospel.

VOL. VI.

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course which he addressed to them, a little while before he retired into the garden of Gethsemane, and which St. John has preserved to us in the xiv. xv. and xvi. chapters of his gospel. This part of the history of the passion is, unqestionably, one of the most tender and most interesting. We propose to make it pass in review before you this day, as far as the bounds prescribed to us will permit.

Were it proper to make the place where I stand a vehicle for communications of this kind, I am ready ingenuously to acknowledge, that a particular circumstance determined my choice on this occasion. A few days only have elapsed since I was called to be witness of the dying agonies of a valuable minister,* whom Providence has just removed from the superintendance of a neighbouring church. God was pleased to visit him for some months past, if we may presume to speak so, with a temptation, more than is common to man, 1 Cor. x. 13. but he granted him a fortitude more than human to support it. I was filled with astonishment at the violence of his sufferings; and still more at the patience with which he endured them: I could not help expressing a wish to know, what particular article of religion had contributed the most to produce in him that prodigy of resolution: Have you ever paid a closer attention, my dear brother, said he to me, "to the last address of Jesus Christ to his disciples? My God, exclaimed he, what charity! what tenderness! but above all, what an inexhaustible source of consolation in the extremity of distress!" His words filled me with astonishment: my thoughts were immediately turned to

* Mr. Begnon, pastor of the church at Leyden.

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