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tary, the joyful agents under, and together with God, in promoting the great work of Salvation.

4. Let not man, then, prefume to make his own underftanding the measure of revealed truth, or of divine condu&t. "Who hath directed the fpirit of the Lord, or Who being his counsellor hath taught him ?" It ill. becomes a creature confcious to himfelf of fo much weakness, of fo much ignorance, of fuch liableness to error, to erect himfelt into an infallible judge. Search the Scriptures," but with reverence, with humility, with a defire to be inftruéted, not cenforiously, felf-fufficiently, not to wreft Scripture in favour of a preconceived opinion, or long-eftablifhed dogma. Study the ways. of Providence; but dare not to interpret them according as paflion or prejudice may dictate. "Thy way," O God, is in the fea, and thy path in the great waters, and thy footsteps are not known." Scripture is the best interpreter of Scripture, and Providence of Providence; and" if any man will do his will, he fhall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God.” Practical conformity to the divine will is preferable to the higheft attainments in knowledge, and it is the most direct road to farther difcovery.

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5. Superior beings are now an object of terror, and it is confcious guilt in man which clothes them with that terror. They are our friends, they take delight in miniftering to our neceffities, they cherish the gracious affections of elder to younger brethren, yet the apparition is formidable even to a Zacharias. But there is no fear in love; for perfect love cafteth out fear because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love." To that glorious perfection the Chriftian is encouraged to afpire. We fhrink from the idea of a vifit from a departed friend arifing out of the grave, but we look with hope and defire to the day when we fhall be added "to the general affembly and church of the firft-born, which are written in heaven-and to the spirits of just men made per. fect." The vifion of one angel, in our prefent ftate of depreffion, ftrikes the mind with awe; but we hope to come an innumerable company of angels ;" nay "to God the judge of all," for we come through" Jefus the Mediator of the new covenant, and the blood of sprinkling, that fpeaketh better things than that of Abel." "Now we fee through a glais, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then fhall I know even as alfo I am known,"

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LECTURE

LECTURE V.

LUKE, I. 26-33.

And in the fixth month the angel Gabriel was fent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth. To a virgin efpoufed to a man, whose name was Jofeph, of the houfs of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. And the angel came in unto her, and faid, hail, thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee: Bleffed art thou among women. And when fhe faw him fhe was troubled at his faying, and caft in her mind what manner of falutation this fhould be. And the angel faid unto her, fear not, Mary: For thou hast found favor with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a fon, and fhalt call his name Jefus. He shall be great, and fhall be called the Son of the Higheft: And the Lord God fhall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there fhall be no end.

Ε EVERY thing in nature, we have is revelation

VERY thing in nature, we have obferved, is revelation and discovery, and yet all is my ftery inexplicable. Every flower of the field, every pebble in the brook, every leaf on the tree, every grain of fand on the fea fhore, is a world in miniature, poffeffed of qualities which a little child is capable of obferving and of comprehending; yet at the fame time containing hidden treasures which no Solomon can find out unto perfection. One object overwhelms us with its magnitude, the minuteness of another mocks our research. The Creator here, involving himself in clouds and darkness, eludes our purfuit; there, arrayed in "light inacceffible, and full of glory," He forbids our approach. In all the ways and works of God there is a fimplicity level to the meanet underftanding, and a complexness which confounds the moft acute and enlarged. It all nature and Providence present this ftrange mixture, is it any wander if we find it in the work of redemption? That grand æra, called in fcripture "the fulness of time," was now come; even the time for accomplishing ancient predictions and promifes; for difplaying and fulfilling the purpofe of the Eternal in the falvation of mankind, by him to whom all the prophets give witnefs, and in whom all the promifes are yea and amen.

In order to introduce him with more than royal ftate, God fhook the heavens and the earth, the fea and the dry land; the gentiles preffed toward the appearing of this great light of the world, and kings to the brightness of his rifing. To prepare the way of the Lord, throne was fhaken after throne, empire (wallowed up empire. Alexander carried his all-conquering arms into the remoteft regions of the eaft, Cefar extended his conquefts as far as to France and Britain in the weft; and Augus tus gave peace to a troubled world. We are now led to attend to the minuter circumstances of this all-important event.

We perceive from the beginning what we are never permitted to lofe fight of to the end, a magnificence that dazzles, connected with a plainnefs and fimplicity which intereft and attract the heart; declaring at once the Son of God, and the Son of man: Him whom angels worship, and whom the poorest of mankind confider as one of their kinfmen. Obferve the exactnels of arrangement in every part of the plan of Providence. Time is settled to a moment, place to a point. No defign of heaven can be accelerated or retarded, changed or fruftrated. God faid unto the ferpent, in the day that man by tranfgreffion fell, "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy feed and her feed; it fhall bruife thy head, and thou fhalt bruife his heel;" and it is not an unmeaning, lifelefs fentence, filling up space in the facred page. Lo, it awakens into animation and energy, not one tittle of it fhall fail.

To accomplish it behold Gabriel is again on the wing; but not armed with a flaming sword to guard the way of the tree of life, but bearing the olive branch, and the meffage of peace, announcing a new and living way into the holieft of all, into the paradife of God. If there be joy in heaven over one finner that repenteth, what was the joy of heaven on that day when the great archangel received his commiffion to revifit the earth, to convey the glad tidings of great joy. The celestial bands adoring proftrate themselves before the eternal throne; contemplating this new creation of God, the morning ftars fing together, and all the fons of God fhout for joy. These things they have for ages and generations been looking into, the great mystery of godliness, God made manifeft in the flesh : they enjoy the exalted delight of beholding it unfolded, and the time, the fet time, to favour a perifhing world arrived. Gabriel has received his inftructions; he flies with transport, fuch as angels feel, to execute the will fupreme; the flaming portal flies open; myriads of pure fpirits celebrate his descent with fongs of praife. And whither does he bend his flight? To learned Athens or imperial Rome? To give understanding

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to the prudent, or to hold the balance of power? No: but to bring to nought the understanding of the prudent, to humble the mighty and confound the proud. He is fent to a country favoured indeed of nature and renowned in ftory, but funk in the scale of nations, the skeleton of ancient grandeur, and to a district of that defpifed country proverbially contemptible, and to one of the leaft of the cities of that region, and to one of the poorest and meaneft of the inhabitants of that city-to a virgin indeed of royal extraction, but fallen into indigence, betrothed to an obfcure mechanic, a ftranger in a ftrange place. It is thus that God choofeth" the foolifh things of the world to confound the wife, and the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty, and base things of the world, and things which are defpifed, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things which are."

The deftinations of the Almighty ftamp a dignity and importance on perfons, places, and things which they poffeffed not before; to be employed of him is the higheft dignity which the creature can acquire; to minifter to him, in miniftering to the objects of his compaffion or of his love, is the glory and joy of angels and archangels. Galilee and Nazareth now poffels an eminence unknown to the moft illuftrious kingdoms. and the proude ft capitals. He maketh his angels Spirits, but we difcern, and reason, and converfe through the medium of fenle. Men cannot rife to the level of angels, but angels are permitted, for wife and gracious purposes, to defcend to the level of men, to affume an organized body, to convey their ideas in the accents of the human voice. But can this be a degradation of their fuperior nature? No : it is its glory and perfection. To defcend to those who are below us, to afpire after greater refemblance to those who are above us, in this confifts the real excellency of a created being. We cannot imitate angels in their intelligence and elevation, but in their condefcenfion and humility we may, and we ought.

What a contraft have we here, between the rank of the mefsenger and of the perfon to whom the meffage is addreffed! But the presence and purpose of God level all diftin&tions. Mary, the mother of our Lord, rifes, and Gabriel finks, for the Son of God himself, the Lord of angels, is about to "take upon him the form of a fervant." The evangelifts are minutely particular in detailing the circumflances which concur red to impress the characters of truth and importance on this event. This fpirit of prophecy had lately and unexpectedly been revived in the perfons of Simeon and of Anna, and of others who were waiting for the confolation of Ifrael. The extraordinary

extraordinary cafe of Zacharias and Elizabeth, which was well known to all who attended the worship of the temple, muft have excited the public attention and expectation. This is followed, fix months after, by a cafe ftill more extraordinary, more out of the courle of nature, and of ftill higher moment, and of equal notoriety. Opportunity was thereby afforded to the fufpicious and incredulous to inquire and examine; that inquiry muft lead to the discovery of a cloud of witneffes, lying dormant in books univerfally held facred, but neglected, mifunderflood and mifapplied: life and fubftance, meaning and luftre, are in a moment given to them by well known and undeniable facts. No appearance of art or induftry is dif cernable, but a fimple, eafy, natural transition from one thing. to another. The appearances, indeed, are out of the ordinary course of nature; but they are narrated as mere ordinary things; and the defcent of an archangel, and his fpeech and demeanour, are defcribed with no more parade of words, no more labour of thought, than the fpringing of an ear of corn, or the fall of a fparrow to the ground.

This majeftic, dignified ease marks the prefence of a God, with whom nothing can be extraordinary or miraculous; who exhibits perfons and events as they really are, whether men will hear or whether they will forbear. The angel reprefents none but objects of the highest interest and importance. He announces the approach of a great prince, who fhould afcend the throne of David, who was to exercife unbounded authority, and enjoy everlasting dominion; who fhould be diftinguished by the state and title of the Son of the Higheft; and that this extraordinary perfonage fhould be introduced upon the grand theatre by the Almighty's creating a new thing upon the earth. "The Holy Ghoft fhall come upon thee, and the power of the Higheft fhall overfhadow thee; therefore alfo that holy thing which fhall be born of thee fhall be called the Son of God.". The fingularity of this wonderful conception and birth was greatly heightened by having been prefigured and foretold at fundry times, and in divers manners; fuch as the preternatural birth of Ifaac, of Jacob, of Sampfon, of John Baptift, and the exprefs and pointed prediction of Ifaiah, "the Lord himself fhall give you a fign, behold, a virgin fhall conceive and bear a fon, and fhall call his name Emanuel," God with us. All thefe hold up'to us, through a fucceffion of ages, the fubftance of the firft threatening to the ferpent, which was at the fame time the firft promise of grace to mankind was made, that He,in whom all the families of the earth fhould be bleffed, and who fhould bruife the ferpent's head, fhould be in a proper and peculiar fenfe the feed of the woman. Aftonishing and inftructive

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