cording to the best of my knowledge and belief, I have a similar confidence as to my beloved brethren in the ministry, who have united in preaching this course of Lectures. I believe, unworthy as we are of such grace, that we are all the servants of our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

It is for this reason that I am grieved at the advantage which has been taken of the very kind invitation of my much beloved and highly-respected friend and fellow-servant in the Gospel, the Minister of this Church. He, with the benevolent design of affording to those persons, whom, we all conscientiously believe, have embraced the most dangerous errors, the opportunity of hearing the truth, and thus saving their souls from death, invited those who hold what are commonly termed Unitarian sentiments, to attend the delivery of these Lectures. This Christian regard for their best, their everlasting interests, has been made use of to attempt to change this Gospel ordinance into a mere discussion of two opposite parties; and thus to give to this all-important declaration of "the truth as it is in Jesus," the air of a trial of skill, and human talent, and superior learning, rather than that which these services, in this hallowed place, were intended to be—namely, to use, in the mild and gentle spirit of Christian affection, one of the divinely-appointed means of grace, to impart to those who, we believe, have set up a god of their own, the knowledge of the true God, and Jesus Christ whom he has sent. For I would desire all who are present, to bear in mind, that the preaching of the Gospel widely differs from an ordinary discussion, carried on between two parties, either viva voce or in writing. The preaching of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is a divinely-appointed ordinance— one of those means of grace in which God puts forth his Almighty power: as the Apostle declares,-" After that,

in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God, by the foolishness of preaching, to save them that believe."* It pleased God to accompany the outward preaching of the Word with the inward power of the Holy Spirit; and, without this power, even an angel would preach in vain. For it is expressly declared, that "no man can say that Jesus is Lord but by the Holy Ghost." It is His shining into the soul,-His giving the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ; oh, that He would now grant this light to every one present! It is this alone which will enable any person cordially to say to our blessed Saviour Jesus Christ, "My Lord and my God." I would, therefore, request you, my beloved friends, to view these discourses in their true light. Regard them not as mere strivings for the mastery, but look beyond the instruments to that gracious. God who appoints the ordinance. And, that He may of his abundant mercy, bless the present discourse to the enlightening every soul in error, and for the confirming of the faith of all who truly believe, let me entreat you, my beloved Christian friends and brethren, to lift up your hearts to God, in silent but earnest prayer, for the aid of his Holy Spirit, by him so to glorify his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, that "every knee may bow to him, and every tongue confess that He is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Oh Thou, who in the economy of our salvation, hast undertaken to glorify the Lord Jesus-thou who art the Spirit of Truth, the Comforter, God the Holy Ghost, do thou now vouchsafe thy aid, for His name's sake! Amen.

The subject for our consideration this evening is this:

THE PROPER DEITY OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, PROVED FROM PROPHECIES, TYPES, AND JEWISH ORDI

NANCES.

You mark the words, my friends,-the proper Deity of our Lord Jesus Christ. For there are those who, when closely pressed by the plain declarations of the Word of God, from an unwillingness to be classed among Deists or Infidels, will admit the Divinity, as they term it, of Jesus Christ, but who still deny his Deity and Godhead. Thus retaining their errors, though to the unwary they seem to have renounced them. But this must ever be borne in mind, that there is, in fact, no such thing as an inferior Deity. They are mere human inventions,-the so-called gods of them who "professing themselves to be wise, became fools." It is Jehovah alone who can say, "I am, and there is none beside me;" I alone am the eternal, self-existent God. All other beings are entirely dependent upon Him. It is He alone who can "lift up his hand to heaven and say, I live for ever."* Call them what you will, good men, angels, archangels, or beings superior to the highest order of angels, as our blessed Saviour is by some said to be, still, if any one of these names is all that you admit our Lord to be, “you cast him down from his excellency," + you rob him of that which he thought it no robbery to claim, EQUALITY WITH GOD; one in nature, one in essence, one in Almighty power, sufficiency and eternal existence with Jehovah-from everlasting to everlasting, God over all, blessed for evermore.‡

This is that we are to understand by the proper Deity of our Lord Jesus Christ. As to the mode in which the three persons of the ever-blessed Trinity subsists in the unity of the Godhead, or how "the Word,"* he who "was in the beginning with God and is God," subsists in union with the Man Christ Jesus, "perfect God and perfect Man, of a reasonable soul, and human flesh subsisting; equal to the Father, as touching his Godhead, and inferior to the Father, as touching his manhood," we presume not to say. Secret things belong to the Lord. When every one must acknowledge his ignorance of the first step in this mysterious subject, namely,—his ignorance of the nature of the Divine essence, for him to disbelieve the inspired declarations of the God of Truth, because he cannot explain the mode in which this divine essence subsists, would be any thing but sound wisdom. Sincere Christians rest their faith upon the plain and simple fact, that the Lord Jehovah has, in his Inspired Word, again and again made known his subsistence in the Person of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and also the proper Deity and Godhead, as well as the proper Manhood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

No inequality we know,
Essentially the same,

The utmost glory we allow,

To each most hallowed name.

No Deity subordinate,

For us hath shed his blood.

We feel so wretched is our state,
That none could save but God.

This, my friends, is the truth which we hold, with all the faithful followers of the Lamb: the proper Deity and Godhead of our Lord Jesus Christ. I say, of our Lord JESUS Christ; for it is necessary to define our terms. It

* John i. 1.

will be recollected, that when the angel announced to Joseph the birth of our blessed Lord, he said, "Fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a Son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins."-You notice this. "His name shall be called Jesus, for, he shall save his people from their sins." Not IN their sins, but FROM their sins. That is to say, He shall deliver them not only from the guilt and punishment of transgression, but from all its evils, its defilement and pollution, and finally, from its existence. For sin has a two-fold evil, it not only brings the sinner under the sentence of death pronounced upon it by the Almighty, but it assaults and pollutes the soul. It brings man into a state similar to a criminal condemned to death for breaking the laws of his country, and at the same time subject to a painful and most loathsome disease. In such circumstances, if a kind and benevolent person were to procure his pardon, it would only be giving him partial relief. This would change his outward condition as a condemned criminal, but the loathsome state of his frame, as a diseased invalid, would still remain. Was he released from prison, his malady would still accompany him. A complete deliverer, therefore, must not only obtain his pardon, but heal his disease; restore him to health, as well as deliver him from confinement.

This, my beloved friends, is the reason why-“ He whom our souls adore," was called Jesus, that being a true friend, a complete Saviour, he should save his people, not only from the curse of a broken law, but from all the misery connected with sin; either with its open acts of transgression, or with its indwelling in the heart. I mention this to prevent misconception. Judging with