what every awakened soul principally desires; that being "delivered out of the hand of our enemies, we may serve him in holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life." Wherefore, the sum of this unspeakable mercy is this-that once in the fulness of time, the great Redeemer hath appeared, "to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself;" and to them that look to him, he "will appear a second time without sin unto salvation."

Behold, then, the Babe of Bethlehem, and view in him. the Judge of all mankind. "Behold he cometh with clouds and every eye shall see him; but who may abide the day of his coming, and who shall stand when he appeareth.' Happy they who have loved and followed him, in the regeneration. "He will receive them to himself, that, where he is, there they may be also."

3*

SERMON III.

THE UNCHANGEABLENESS OF CHRIST.

JESUS CHRIST, THE SAME YESTERDAY, TO-DAY, AND FOR EVER. Heb. xiii. 8.

NOTHING has done more harm to the cause of Christiani-、 ty, or furnished stronger materials of objection to the opposer of its faith and doctrines, than representing it as of late original; as a scheme of religion entirely new, and never revealed to mankind till about four thousand years after the Creation. Hence, it has happened, that, amidst the variety of religious systems, each claiming a divine original, the infidel has classed the Christian with other impostures of the day; or, allowing the rational and practical influence of religion in general, as derived from God's universal law of nature, has presumed to confine it within the ceremonies, or to make it favour the pretensions of this or that particular church or nation. And hence, also, many who profess, and call themselves Christians,-from neglecting to investigate the evidence of the covenant which was from everlasting, and only ratified at the advent of that Saviour, who, from the very fall of man, stood forth his intercessor,-impeach the unity of God's all-merciful design; darken the prospect of universal redemption; abridge the promised benefits of the Gospel, and shut, on preceding ages, those gates of mercy which they yet consider as open to themselves. By those, however, who diligently search

the Scriptures, and thence deduce their belief, a very dif ferent doctrine will be maintained. By extending the atone. ment of the common Redeemer, to ages that are past, they exalt the dignity, they enlarge the efficacy of the great Propitiation for our sins. By contending for a retrospect to the doctrines and sanctions of Christianity, they conse quently maintain that the Light of Life has dispelled that ignorance which must otherwise have enveloped the world for more than two-thirds of the time of its existence,-they unite the promise with the performance, the prophecy with the completion, the anticipation with the event. They be hold the ancient Patriarchs and Prophets, contemplating the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow,they do not barely affirm that God bore testimony to his proposed redemption, but that through his Holy Spirit that testimony was received; that he gave faith, (without which it is impossible to please God,) to justify, and hope to console his chosen servants, till the appointed manifestation of the Great Author and Finisher of that faith, should be made to the subjects of that universal redemption. In this do all the Prophets agree, and the sum and substance of the Apostle's reasoning upon the text before us is, that the faith which he exhorts the Hebrew believers to keep whole and undefiled, has been one and the same in all ages of the Church; that it was no variable thing, either in itself or in its effects, but immutable as the Divine Mediator, whose religion it is. "Remember them," says St. Paul, "which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God, whose faith follow,-considering the end of their conversation,-Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and for ever." That is, the one redeeming Saviour, of whom the promise, the performance, and the perpetual administration of the Holy Spirit, conspire to testify in due proportion to the past, the present, and the ages that are to come. For on the Patriarch, the true Israelite, and the faithful Christian, one light has invariably shone, though

with different lustre; and the God of mercy and love bade sinful man look forward to his covenanted restoration, from the promise in the garden of Eden, to the confirmation of every assurance," when the hour of his judgment is come." My endeavour will be to establish this important truth; and the course of our inquiry will necessarily carry us through a wide field of discussion, too wide, indeed, for a single discourse. I trust, however, in the extensive survey, to be able to discover the path of life; and should we, from our Christian eminence, look down upon the subsisting traces of the Patriarchal and Jewish churches, all pursuing the same road, all leading to the same end ;-should we, in the wildest digressions of heathen mythology, by adopting the discoveries of a Bryant, a Sir Wm. Jones, and a Maurice, be able to measure back the wandering footsteps of idolatry to the very departure from the true faith, and to pick out from the tenets and precepts of pagan philosophy, authentic vouchers of the existing hope and promise, of a Redeemer mighty to save," we shall then not only behold the glorious, but the uniform design of the Gospel institution. We shall show forth a Saviour's love, upholding fallen man, and recovering his faded dignity. We shall exhibit Christianity, as it is,―the triumph of grace over sin and death, the fruit of the seed that was to bruise the serpent's head. We shall welcome, with more abundant gratitude the glad tidings of joy, which ushered in a Saviour's birth,-who came to ratify man's primeval assurance of pardon,-to complete his promised restoration to his forfeited inheritance,-to confirm his justification unto holi. ness, and his resurrection unto life eternal.

My brethren, the farther inquiries of this nature are extended, the more firmly will our Christian faith be established; and each step, as we advance, affording some characteristic evidence of the Apostle's assertion, we shall be conducted along the ways of God's righteous providence,every where collecting arms for the Christian warrior to