think, more than sufficient to induce us to regard all those with execration, who would tear us from communion with this Jesus, who procures us advantages so inestimable. I do not speak only of heretics, and heresiarchs; I do not speak of persecutors and executioners; I speak of the world, I speak of the maxims of the world, I speak of indolence, effeminacy, seducing pleasures, tempters far more formidable than all executioners, persecutors, heretics, and heresiarchs. Who of them all, shall separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord? Lord! to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life, Rom. viii. 35, 39. John vi. 68. To God, Father, Son, and holy Spirit, be honor and glory for ever. Amen.

SERMON V.

THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST.

Rev. v. 11, 12, 13, 14.

And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne, and the living creatures,* and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousand of thousands;

Saying, with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing.

And every creature, which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I, saying, Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and

ever.

And the four living creatures said, Amen. And the four and twenty elders fell down, and worshipped him that liveth for ever and ever.

LTHOUGH Atheism and Superstition are weapons, which have been too successfully employed by the devil against the truth, yet are they not his most formidable arms, nor the most difficult to be resisted. It was an excess of stupidity, which formed superstition; and it was an excess of corruption, that forged atheism: but a very little knowledge, and a very little integrity sufficiently preserve us from both. Superstition is so

* Beasts, in our translation.-Animaux-animals-living creatures; more agreeably to the apostle's Zaa, as well as to Ezek. i. 4, 5, &c. to which St. John seems to allude. Ka sidov, xai idoy . εν τω μετά ως ομοίωμα τεσσαρων ΖΩΩΝ. Septuag

diametrically opposite to reason, that one is shocked at seeing earth, water, fire, air, minerals, passions, maladies, death, men, beasts, devils themselves placed by idolaters on the throne of the sovereign, and elevated to supreme honors. Far from feeling a propensity to imitate a conduct so monstrous, we should hardly believe it, were it not attested by the unanimous testimonies of historians and travellers; did we not still see in the monuments of antiquity, such altars, such deities, such worshippers; and did not the christian world, in an age of light and knowledge, madly prove too faithful a guarantee of what animated the heathen world, in ages of darkness and ignorance. The system of atheism is so loose, and its consequences so dreadful and odious, that only such as are determined to lose themselves can be lost in this way. Whether a Creator exist is a question decided, wherever there is a creature. Without us, within us, in our souls, in our bodies, every where, we meet with proofs of a first cause. An infinite being follows us, and surrounds us; O Lord, thou compassest my path, and my lying down, thou hast beset me behind and before. Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence Psal. cxxxix. 1, 3, 7.

But there is another class of arguments against our mysteries, which at first present themselves to the mind under a very different aspect. There is a system of error, which, far from appearing to have ignorance for its principle like superstition, or corruption like atheism, seems to proceed from the bosom of truth and virtue, and if I may be allowed to say so, to have been extracted from the very substance of reason and religion. I speak of that system, which tends to degrade the Saviour of the world from his divinity, and to rank him with sim

ple creatures. There is in appearance a distance so immense, between an infant born in a stable, and the Father of Eternity, Isa. ix. 6. between that Jesus, who conversed with men, and that God, who upholds all things by the word of his power, Heb. i. 3. between him, who being crucified, expired on a cross, and him, who, sitting on the sovereign throne, receives supreme honors: that it is not at all astonishing, if human reason judge. these objects in appearance contradictory. This system seems also founded on virtue, even on the most noble and transcendent virtue, on zeal and fervency. It aims in appearance at supporting those excellencies, of which God is most jealous, his divinity, his unity, his essence. It aims at preventing idolatry. Accordingly, they, who defend this system, profess to follow the most illustrious scripture-models. They are the Phineasses, and Eleazars, who draw their swords only to maintain the glory of Jehovah. They are the Pauls, whose spirits are stirred by seeing the idolatry of Athens, Acts xvii. 16. They are the Elijahs, who are moved with jealousy for the Lord of hosts, 1 Kings 19, 10.

But, if the partisans of error are so zealous and fervent, should the ministers of the truth languish in luke-warmness and indolence? If the divinity of the Son of God be attacked with weapons so formidable, should not we oppose them with weapons more forcible, and more formidable still? We also are stirred in our turn, we also in our turn are moved with jealousy for the Lord of hosts, and we consecrate our ministry to-day to the glory of that God-man, whose ministers we are. In order to prove the doctrine of his divinity, we will not refer you to the philosophers of the age, their knowledge is incapable of attaining the sublimity of this mys