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tion to the character of God, and the character of Christ, as given in the holy scriptures. By keeping in mind that there is one God, in three persons, infinite and incomprehensible, that Christ is God and man, a Mediator and an eternal Redeemer, it will be found easy to understand the various testimonies of divine truth respecting God and salvation.

On the other hand, suppose Christ to be a created or finite being, and the abundant declarations of the word of God, respecting his divinity, are wholly inexplicable, unintelligible, and absurd. In that case, the words of our text, with numerous others of a similar character, must be wholly unmeaning and useless.

If the passages of scripture, which we have endeavoured to explain in this discourse, have not been explained correctly, in regard to their main object, the sacred writers must be left with palpable contradictions. If Christ has said "My Father is greater than I,—I can of 'mine own self do nothing:" he has also said "I and my Father are one,-I do the works of my Father,-All power in heaven and in 'earth is given unto me." If we receive the Bible as the word of God, these different declarations must be reconciled. By the divinity and humanity of Christ this can be done; and I cannot perceive that it can be in any other way.

Or if any would attempt to adduce these variant assertions against the character of Christ,

let it be remembered that they were never considered contradictory while he was upon earth, since, no such charge, that we can learn, was ever brought against him. This, we may be sure, his enemies would not have omitted, could the charge have been sustained.

The blessing at the close of the Epistle to the Romans has been adduced to show that Jesus Christ is not a proper object of worship. "To God only wise, be glory through Jesus 'Christ forever." Look at the conclusion of the next Epistle, and you will find the solemn benediction, "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you." One is praise to God; the other is a prayer to Christ. Does the great Apostle, in these different passages, contradict himself? It must be so, if the first ascription implies that Christ Jesus may not be worshipped. But this we shall not believe of the apostle Paul, in a case so plain and express.

Oh let us, like Mary, sit at the feet of Christ, and receive the words of his holy truth, as he gives them, not obtruding our own fancies or presumptuous desires, and we shall find the truth of God plain and easy. Christ's yoke is easy and his burden is light. "Blessed is 'he that readeth, and they that hear the words ' of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein; for the time is at hand."

SERMON IX.

JOHN I. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

In the beginning was the Word, &c.

WE now come to the last division of our subject, which is,

THIRDLY, TO consider some of the consequences which naturally result from the doctrine of the divinity of Christ, as well as some of those which necessarily flow from the opposite sentiment. And

1. The first of these which will be mentioned is that the great doctrine of Atonement is hereby illustrated and established. Whatever attempts have been made to argue and explain upon this subject, it is always found that the atonement must depend on the divine character of the Saviour. This truth has, indeed, very commonly, been admitted by those who deny the doctrine of the Trinity, and they do not hold to an Atonement, in that sense in which we consider it to be taught in the word of God. They say that God can dispense with the execution of the penalties of his own law, by his own sovereign act, and that he can be in no need of any thing of the nature of a reparation, of any thing to

make satisfaction for the violations of his own righteous justice. They say, generally, that Christ Jesus died in obedience to his Father's will; that God so ordered events in his holy providence that the enemies of Jesus rose against him to put him to death; and he, seeing this, made no attempt to escape from their malicious rage, but freely submitted to the evil thus brought upon him. And that his death manifested his obedience to the divine will, and, at the same time, gave the fullest proof of his sincerity and confidence in the doctrines which he taught, being ready to die for their confirmation. In short, that he died just like a martyr. The martyrs have died willingly in obedience to the holy appointments of God, and for the confirmation of that truth which they have loved, believed, and taught.

Šome go a little farther, and say they conclude, from the testimony of the scriptures, that there must be something in the death of Christ, connected, in some way or other, with the salvation of the believer. Leaving it in that perfectly undefined, uncertain manner, destitute of any positive affirmation, which admits of its being any thing or nothing.-You may as well say that there is no truth in the scriptures, as to give them that doubtful cast which makes them speak no intelligible or determinate truth. But such is the natural result of all attempts to understand the work of the Mediator, when you take away his divinity.

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There is something plausible in the asser tion that God must have a right to dispense. with the penalties of his own law, and can be in no need of a satisfaction, and cannot be supposed to require a sacrifice in order to the pardon of the transgressor. That, from a sovereign act of mere goodness, he may pardon and save whom he will. But such is not the nature of the divine dealings, such is not the character of God, as exhibited in his word. In the administration of the divine government, there is always a fitness, a reasonableness, in the various dispensations, which commend themselves to the understanding, to the conscience, of all intelligent and moral beings. It is evidently the purpose of God to afford rational creatures some further evidence of the wisdom and rectitude of his dealings, than would arise from a mere implicit confidence in his perfections. One may say that God will do right, and it becomes us to bow in submission before his holy wisdom. But how much more consoling is the thought, and how does it exalt his wisdom and grace, to believe that he will have all intelligent beings to see and be convinced of the wisdom of all his dispensations!

Look at the history of the flood. The wickedness of man was great on the earth, and God says "I will destoy man, whom I have 'created, from the face of the earth;-yet his 'days shall be an hundred and twenty years." He directed Noah to build the ark, and to be,

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