beholding God in his glory. Instead of wandering in the benighted regions of fancy or conjecture, we behold a God whom we can know, whom we can serve and love.

4. The doctrine of the divinity of Christ exceedingly elevates and exalts our holy religion. This thought I shall not pursue far, in this place, as it may be resumed, in a different form. At the head of Christianity, that religion which brings us to a knowledge of God, which points out all our duties to him and our fellow-men, which is our only support under the severe trials of life, and our only hope for the time to come, is CHRIST. He is its author, its foundation, and its end. He is the root and offspring of David, the bright and morning star. In proportion, then, to the importance, the properties, the dignity, of his character, must be the worth of that religion which came from him. When we see its author to be both Lord and Christ, him that is worshipped by all the angels round the throne, whom the winds and seas obey, who controuls disease and holds life and death in his hands, who will reign over all the redeemed forever and ever; who shall not reverence his holy gospel, trembling at its terrors, hoping in the greatness of its grace, rejoicing in the security of its promises?

SERMON X.

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

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, &c.

WE now proceed to consider, briefly, some of the consequences which result, unavoidably, from a denial of the divinity of the Saviour. This part of the subject could, easily, and perhaps profitably, be extended to a considerable length. But it is necessary for us to be as concise as may be. A few things will be noticed.

1. It is obvious to remark that such a sentiment brings down, exceedingly, the character of Christ. Whatever he may be supposed to be, whether a man, or an angel, or one greater than an angel, or the highest of all beings created or derived from God, he is infinitely below the divine being. In either of these characters, he ceases to be self-existent, to be eternal, or almighty, he ceases to be a proper object of worship, he is no longer able to pardon or save a sinner. Indeed, it can make no essential difference what character you ascribe to him, if he be not truly God. In either case he can possess nothing but a delegated authority, none but a derived power. Whether in

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heaven or in earth, he is not essentially different, in his nature, from Gabriel, or from Moses and Elijah. You have taken him from the throne, where Stephen saw him and worshipped him with his dying breath, and placed him in the rank of created beings, creatures of yes. terday.

When Mary, the faithful disciple, went to the sepulchre to find the body of her Saviour, she looked in and saw two angels where the body of Jesus had been lying, but saw no man. The angels said to her, "Woman, why weep'est thou? She saith unto them, Because they 'have taken away my Lord, and I know not 'where they have laid him." No wonder she wept. Her Lord, her hope, her all, was gone. We also may say, to those who would divest the Lord Jesus of his divinity, They have taken away my Lord. As a Saviour, faithful and true, he is gone. We may add, 'we know not 'where they have laid him,' for they have not provided us, and they cannot provide us, with another. Behold the Lord Jesus, at the bar of Pilate, or suspended on the hill of Calvary, or agonizing for a lost world in the garden of Gethsemane, or sitting on the throne of final judgment, and you look with comparative indifference, if he be not our Lord and our God.

2. The denial of Christ's divinity tends, in a great degree, to diminish the worth of the holy scriptures, and to destroy our confidence in their perfection and divine authority. It

will hardly be denied, by any considerate person who has attended to this subject, that an impartial stranger, who never saw the Bible, and never heard of this question, if brought to read the sacred volume with attention, would be convinced that the doctrine of the divinity of Christ is there clearly taught. All unlearned readers, and all who had not their opinions and prejudices on this subject previously fixed, would perceive this doctrine fully and abundantly inculcated in the word of God. This is the more evident from the fact that all who oppose the doctrine always resort to criticism, to laboured explanation, and minute construction, to maintain their sentiment.

All who oppose the doctrine of the Trinity, so far as I know, attempt to alter the common reading of the Bible. The first objection, usually, is to the translation. That our version does not correspond with the original. This argument, however, soon fails, as it is well known that our translation is uncommonly correct, and the meaning of the original can be easily ascertained.

Driven from this ground, they make a bolder advance, and assert that the sacred text is corrupted, that we do not have it in its original purity, as written by the inspired prophets and apostles. They affirm that various passages have been added, and ought now to be expunged from the sacred volume. That, in some instances, words and sentences are omitted,

and ought now to be inserted, to render the text correct. Some Unitarians go still further, and contend that a part only of the sa-. cred volume is to be considered as of divine authority. That a portion of it is the word of God, as spoken by him, and much of the residue is to be viewed, merely, as correct history. And that many of the remarks and opinions of the inspired writers are to be estimated as human authority, and not as the testimony of God. Others hold that the New Testament is to be considered as containing the christian system; while the Old Testament is, principally, limited to the Jewish dispensation, and is not, to us, a standard of divine truth.

While I pass over these absurd and corrupt opinions, I mean not to admit that they cannot, any and all of them, be fully answered; and shown, upon the true principles of argument and sound criticism, to be untrue. It is easy to prove, by the most conclusive reasoning, that the whole of the Bible is the word of God, and is now of divine authority to us and to all men. And it has been before shown, in these discourses, that the watchful providence of God has preserved his word from mutilation and change.

These errors and practices have now been noticed to show the tendency and effect of the denial of a divine Saviour. We need not wonder that those who get into this course are carried to such lengths. When a person once