grace and mercy of God, who still waits upon us to see, whether we will reform our lives, and amend our doings, without recourse being had to those penal measures, and afflicting dispensations with which he scourges, as with the rod, those who grieve not for their sins, and turn not from their backslidings. If we have not yet been scourged with the pestilence, let us offer praise and thanksgiving for the mercy and patience of Gon, and let each of us say, "I will bless the Lord, who hath kept mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling." Let us exercise ourselves much in prayer and communion with GOD, and let it form a prominent feature in our petitions, that the Almighty would still continue to save and secure us from this sore and impending evil; for none but GOD can prevent its approach and preserve us from its infection. It is not the purity of the air-it is not the cleanliness of the streets-it is not the sober habits of the people nor the vigilant care of the magistrates -it is not the senatory measures of the wise and cautious-no; it is GoD alone, who can protect and preserve us from this noisome distemper and disease. What was the feeling of David on this subject? the appropriate religious impression on his mind? That, my brethren, which I would that you should cherish and entertain under this, as under every other visitation sent from above. I will say of the Lord, "He is my refuge and my fortress my GOD; in him will I trust. Surely he will deliver thee from the snare of the fowler and from the noisome pestilence." True piety has GoD always in the thought, and ascribes every thing to him alone. But it is not only from the stroke of this disease that he can preserve us. Such is the sympathy between the mind and the body, that what strongly agitates the former, often deranges and disorganizes the latter; and of all the emotions, that of fear is often found most powerfully to paralyse and enfeeble the corporeal powers. Here also the mercy of the Most High shines out most beautifully-and from this enervating emotion GoD too is the refuge and preserver of his peo ple! What mountains of difficulty cannot a firm trust in him level?" He shall defend thee under his wings, and thou shalt be safe under his feathers;" and then follows this consolitary passage, "Thou shalt not be afraid of any terror by night, nor for the arrow that flieth by day-nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the sickness that destroyeth in noon day!" As prayer is the ship in which are chartered and conveyed all the rich blessings of heaven to us; so it is also the shield by which all evil things are warded off, and kept at a distance from us. Hence our blessed Lord directed us to say to GoD in our prayers, in that most beautiful and comprehensive form of sound words, his own most perfect prayer, “ Deliver us from evil.” GOD can do many things in mercy as he pleases; but still his pleasure is to do these things in a way of prayer; "I will do those things, saith God, but yet I will be sought unto for to do them;" and we read that when Israel sought the Lord in their trouble, he was found of them. The whole of the Scriptures indeed abound with passages of the like import, and therefore, in all our maladies and troubles, let us have recourse to prayer, as that which will most effectually afford to the mind relief, and be the best fence to protect your persons, your families and relations from “the arrow that flieth by day, and the pestilence that walketh in darkness." And the most effectually to protect and fortify yourselves within this fence, impreg nable if raised by the hand of piety and sincerity, avoid all those sins by which the plague is occasioned and the Almighty moved to afflict individuals and nations with this most apalling and desolating scourge. Avoid them, lest the fierce anger of the Lord shall be enkindled and that shall be realized which is recorded of his wrath in the book of Numbers. I the Lord have said I will surely do it unto all this evil congregation, that are gathered together against me; in this wilderness they shall be consumed!" And it is then added, "Even those died by the plague before the Lord.” AT MARGARET-STREET CHAPEL, CAVENDISH-SQUARE, SUNDAY EVENING, SEPT. 15, 1830. John, xvi. 28-32. “I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father. His disciples said unto him, Lo, now, speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb. Now are we sure that thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee, by this we believe that thou camest forth from God. Jesus answered them, Do ye now believe? Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me." THE difficulties which pressed on the minds of the disciples, and which by these words of our Blessed Lord are cleared up to them, were these: first, what our Lord meant by the "little while" in which they should not see him; and next, what he meant by the terms in which his departure from them was expressed, "because I go to the Father." These were the difficulties which they felt, and which they had discussed amongst themselves; but which, as it would seem, they were reluctant to make known to their Lord, either ashamed of their own ignorance, or disinclined at this solemn season to trouble him with needless enquiries. Jesus, however, who knew what was in man, and needed not to be informed of what was passing in their minds, anticipates their enquiries, and resolves their difficulties he takes pains to correct their too sanguine expectations of immediate deliverance from the yoke under which VOL. VI. they were, and of the instant establishment of his kingdom: he enlarges on the nature and the privileges of their condition in the intermediate period of his absence and leads them to look beyond the "little while" of trouble, to the joyful period when he shall again appear to them to bless them and then, in the opening words of the text, he most explicitly and unequivocally declares the meaning of what he had said concerning his departure: "I came forth from the Father, and am come into world : again, I leave the world and go to the Father." His disciples appear immediately to have been struck with the plain and explicit character of this declaration. His disciples said unto him, Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb "— no dark saying. "Now are we sure that thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee: by this we believe that thou camest forth from God." R stand him correctly: "Jesus answered them, Do ye now believe? Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me." It would seem very astonishing to us, if we were not in some measure acquainted, by experience, with the deceitfulness of the human heart, and with the power of remaining sin, even in the people of God, it would seem very astonishing to us that the disciples should have expressed themselves as if there had been, even up to this time, some lurking unbelief in their hearts respecting Jesus as the Messiah. "Now are we sure that thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee: by this we believe that thou camest forth from God." We know, 'undoubtedly, that long before this, Saint Peter had witnessed a good confession; and we cannot doubt but that, at least, it was acquiesced Two things seemed to have struck | Lord intimates that they now underthe minds of the disciples, and produced a deep impression; first, that without the slightest intimation from them, Jesus should have been aware of the difficulty which they felt and of the conversation which they had had among themselves; and, secondly, they were struck with the clear and explicit way in which he now explained himself. He had not before spoken so plainly on this point. He had, indeed, told them of his death, and of his resurrection; and in this very discourse he had told them he was going to leave them: but where he was going, and the way, they knew not as yet now he explains it in language which they could not possibly mistake. Before, perhaps, it is possible they might have put some figurative and enigmatical meaning on the saying that he went to the Father; but now, by referring to his entrance into the world, and placing his departure in a parallel with that, there could be no mistake; two meanings could not now be assigned to his words; as he came from the Father, so now he went to the Father.in by the rest of the apostles; alI must notice here, in passing, the strong confirmation which these words afford to the interpretation we have before given to the expression, "a little 'while," as being the time of his ses"sion at the right hand of the Father the time between his ascension and his second coming. Let it be remembered that this was the great difficulty of the disciples; and now, when he had spoken these words, (which have no reference whatever to the few hours which he lay in the grave, but which wholly relate to his ascension into heaven), they express themselves perfectly satisfied; they now assur-be more full and explicit than this edly understood that the "little while" "of his ascension should be the time from his going to the Father to his coming again. And the reply of our though, unquestionably, the honor of the confession, and its peculiar reward, belong to Saint Peter 'alone. "Thou art the Christ, the son of the living God." This confession is as full as it well could be: for in the question which our Lord asked, he spoke of himself as man: "whom do men say that I the son of man am?” The reply, therefore, involved three things; that he was the son of man-that he was also the son of God and that this glorious person, uniting both persons, was the true Messiah. Nothing, therefore, could confession made by Saint Peter, some time previous to the period when the words of the text were spoken. And yet we find from the Secondly. HIS DISCIPLES' CONVICTION RESULTING FROM THAT DECLARATION. text, that the disciples still had retained lurking doubts in their minds, until now, that Jesus at once evincing a miraculous acquaintance with the Thirdly. OUR LORD'S WARNING TO thoughts of their hearts, and expressly THEM AND CONSOLATION TO HIMSELF. declaring from whence he came, and First, let us observe OUR LORD's whither be went, their minds were EXPLICIT DECLARATION, I came impressed with conviction, and they forth from the Father, and am come could no longer withhold the cordial into the world: again, I leave the expression of their faith; not know-world, and go unto the Father.' ing, alas! what they were soon to be taught by bitter experience, that a faith resting on merely external evidence was easily shaken, and indeed relinquished, in the season of trial. Of this our blessed Lord immediately warns them. He calls on them to examine more closely the foundation on which the faith rested. He more than implies a suspicion of its firmness, and forewarns them that the time was at hand when they would forsake him in the circumstances of his deepest trial and sorrow; that they would leave him in solitude without any acquaintance to cheer him when he most needed it, and yet that he would not be alone, because the Father was with him; yea, though even He would withdraw from him all sensible manifestations of His presence, although as regarded his senses, even the Father would be withdrawn, he would yet be able to say in the exercise of faith," my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Even though in respect of sensible manifestation he forsook him, yet he was so assured in unwavering faith of his favorable presence, as to be able with his last words to commit his spirit into his Father's hands: "into thy hand I commit my spirit: thou hast redeemed me, O Lord God of truth." In this saying our Lord spoke what we may term a summary of the Christian faith-God manifest in the flesh; and then, having been so manifested, received up into glory; this is the summary of the Christian faith. The pre-existence of Christ, you will observe, is here expressly asserted; and I know not how a Socinian, who denies it, and yet professes to believe this to be the word of God, can honestly interpret this passage. Such a man may be honest with regard to the things of the world, but he cannot be honest with the truth of God. There are two senses in which Christ pre-existed, and of which, therefore, it might be said that he came forth from the Father: first, inasmuch as he is one with the Father in the eternal Godhead-the eternal son, begotten of the Father before the worlds were; the distinction between the person of the Father and the person of the son being this: that the One is the underived fountain of Deity, and the other the eternal derivation of Deity-God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God. Secondly, Christ came forth from the Father as the Messiah, as one who had voluntarily undertaken the salvation of men, and who had been eternally chosen and appointed to that office; thus becoming the head of a redeemcd creation, and thus coming into the world to purchase the church with Let me now, then, in further discoursing on these words, briefly touch on these three, principal points. First, OUR LORD'S EXPLICIT DE- his own blood: even as Saint Paul CLARATION. speaks of him, in Colossians, i. 15, as "the image of the invisible God, the first-born of every creature: for by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him and he is before all things, and by him all things consist." Not, in truth, that he had any created existence before he was actually born of the virgin, but that in the purpose of God, and in the counsels of the Father, he was so regarded. It is in this sense then, as I conconceive, that he speaks of himself in the text as coming from the Father: and the expression implies that he came forth with the Father's authority as one appointed and sent of him for the redemption of the world. 'Being one with the Father he knew his whole mind, he could display his whole character. It is the greatest comfort and assurance to us, there'fore, to have this explicit declaration from the lips of Christ himself: as if he had said, “I am no mere man, having an origin in Adam's polluted race; I came forth from GOD:" as he had been predicted of "The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. When there were no depths, I was 'brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, 'before the hills I was brought forth: while as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world. When he prepared the heavens, I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depth: when he established the clouds above: when he strengthened the fountains of the deep: when he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment: when he appointed the foundations of the earth: then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him, rejoicing in the habitable parts of his earth; and my delights was with the sons of men." And This seemingly contradictory language, ascribing an existence (as you will observe) to the Lord Jesus Christ before all worlds, and, at the same time, asserting that he found his delights with the sons of men-this contradictory language can only be met by Him who comprehended within himself the apparent contradiction of Creator and creature. In this part of our blessed Lord's declaration, then, we find the assurance that in knowing Christ we know God. oh, what a blessed truth is that! To know that in trusting Christ we trust GOD that in viewing his perfect character, beaming forth as it did through all the perfection of manhood, we see the very mind and intention of GOD towards us-that in trusting Christ we trust one invested with the authority of GoD—and that in resting our whole expectation on him, we know that it is on one who is pledged by covenant enjoyment to fulfil his work. I came forth from the Father, pledged unto the Father to fulfil the work of redeeming men, and of purchasing my church." The concluding part of our Lord's declaration intimates that his work was now completed, that he had accomplished the errand on which he came, and that he had ascended up where he was before: "Again I leave the world, and go unto the Father." This explicit assertion would tend to give a point to all he had said in the previous discourse, which was directed to his continuing care over his church, and to his power to do his people good. It would stamp a reality on all |