sovereignty in providence and grace-in a word, his being trained to that peculiar kind of life which springs from gratitude and love, and produces the fruits of all good works-this mighty change, by the power of the Holy Ghost, is the grand operation attributed to that divine person in the Christian system.

5. The doctrines of THE SACRAMENTS AND THE OTHER MEANS OF GRACE AND INSTRUCTION may, perhaps, not appear, at first, of sufficient importance to accompany the prodigious discoveries of the preceding topics; and yet, so far as man is concerned, they are so essential to a right reception of the peculiar truths of Revelation, as to demand a brief notice. For the immense blessings of redemption are not merely revealed, but a subordinate system of means is connected with them. Baptism and the Lord's Supper are appointed visibly to represent and seal; and convey, in some measure, to those who receive them rightly, the grace of God and his consolations of pardon and peace of conscience; as well as to be a bond of union and a badge of mutual faith amongst Christians. The spiritual repose of the sabbath; the ordinances of public prayer and preaching; the study of the Holy Scriptures; the labours of an order of men appointed for the religious instruction of mankind, are all means of grace-the use of which means, connected with exertion on our part in every branch of practical Christianity, with watchfulness, resistance against temptation, and continual private prayer and self-examination, brings down Christianity to the immediate conscience and duty of man, whose reasonable and accountable nature is thus consulted, in the midst of the glories of the redemption which would seem to overwhelm it.

6. THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD AND THE LAST SOLEMN JUDGMENT, with a consequent state of endless happiness or misery, close the summarytruths these, familiar to us from our infancy, and often

admitted by the Deist, and even claimed by him as the dictate of natural religion; and yet which reason never could discover of herself-never clear from distracting doubt-never establish upon just principles -never prevent from being lost in vague and superstitious fables. Revelation alone settles the question -asserts the resurrection of the body-makes known the final judgment-declares the person of the Judge -prescribes the rules on which his decision will proceed-gives a specimen of the conduct of that last assize and pronounces the endless punishment of the ungodly, and the everlasting felicity of the righ

teous.

What discoveries these!that this world is only the preparation for another-that man's life here is only the first stage of his long and immeasurable journey-that all our actions have consequences unutterably momentous-that a final judgment will arrange all the inequalities of the present initiatory statethat all the parts of the divine proceedings, now incompletely revealed, will be harmoniously displayed before all the assembled intelligences of the universe --that fallen angels and men will be judged in righteousness, (conscience being the chief witness,) and be allotted to the several states of happiness or misery for which they are severally fitted, as well as judicially and most justly assigned by the voice of the omnipotent Judge. What a scene! What consequences!

When our Lord uttered that one sentence, "The hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation," 13 - he pronounced a doctrine, which for clearness, for importance, for new and decisive authority, for influence upon the conduct of man, is un

13 John v. 28, 29.

paralleled by all that philosophy or natural reason ever taught.

Such is Christianity in her main doctrines. Let us then proceed to point out,

II. The particulars in which their DIVINE GLORY AND EXCELLENCY MAY, IN CERTAIN RESPECTS, BE PERCEIVED. We observe, then, that,

1. These doctrines ALL EMANATE FROM THE CHARACTER OF GOD AS DRAWN IN THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. They flow from that assemblage of glorious attributes-from that infinite holiness and goodness which the Revelation ascribes to the one living and true God. All the heathen deities are corrupt, and the corrupters of their followers. The character of their gods is ignoble, vile, contemptible; their vices and follies weigh down their religion, degrade all their ceremonies, infect the elements of their worship.

The heathens sustained their superstitions as well as they could, notwithstanding the character of their deities. Conscience, tradition, political ends, served to bear up the mass of superincumbent absurdity and vice. In Christianity, all depends and rests with its whole weight, on the infinite holiness and goodness of the Almighty Jehovah. It is the character of our God from which all our doctrines emanate; the guilt of man is what this ineffable purity teaches as an inevitable consequence; the mighty work of redemption agrees with the unspeakable love and benevolence of his moral attributes; the gift of his own Son, and the mission of the Spirit, when revealed, are seen exactly to become the divine compassion and grace.

Man has ever been found to bear a resemblance to the object of his worship. In Christianity, the one true God surpasses in purity all his creatures, is the infinitely excellent object of love and imitation, and draws man upwards to holiness and obedience.

This holiness of God penetrates every part of the

religion, sustains it, gives birth to its details, demands and renders necessary its provisions, and constitutes its excellency and glory. It is this which is the spring of all the virtues of Christian worshippers. The more the attributes and works of God-his sovereignty, his law, his providence, his gift of a Saviour, his promise of the Holy Spirit, his declarations of a future judgment—are considered, the better and holier men become. The glory of the Lord is the sum and end of every thing; the first source and final cause of all purity and all joy.

2. There is, in the next place, a SIMPLICITY in the doctrines of Christianity which forms a part of their excellence. They may be summed up in three plain and obvious points: the corruption of man; the reconciliation of man to God; and the restoration of man to his original purity and dignity;-points so simple, that human nature, in all ages, acknowledged them in her feeble manner, or rather guessed at and desired them. The fall she could not but perceive and feel at all times; a way of atonement by sacrifice she ever wished for, but wished for in vain; a source of strength and consolation she breathed after, but knew not whence it must flow. Revelation comes in. Its doctrines are found to embrace the very points after which nature fruitlessly panted. Thus simple is her system—the fall and the recovery of man embrace every thing.

And not only so; these doctrines rest on a very few prominent facts, which are first established, and then employed for the purpose of instructing us in the doctrines. The corruption and guilt of man is a doctrine resting on the fact of the transgression of our first parents. The incarnation, from which the doctrines of justification and sanctification are consequences or uses, is a fact. The existence and operations of the Holy Spirit are facts of practical and universal application in every age.

This simplicity of the Christian system is in remarkable contrast with the confusion and complication of the theories of men, which, resting on no positive facts, are vague and unsubstantial. Like the works of creation, Christianity exhibits an artless simplicity in the few and prominent facts on which it is built; so totally different from the clumsy and artificial productions of man.

3. But there is at the same time A SURPASSING GRANDEUR AND SUBLIMITY in these doctrines, which that very simplicity the more illustrates. It is simple, indeed, as referring to a few points, and resting on certain facts; but these points are so infinitely im¬ portant to man, and these facts are so grand and stupendous, that it is impossible for the human mind. fully to grasp them, even when revealed. All is stupendous in redemption; the divine persons engaged in contriving and executing it; the length of time during which it was preparing; the gradual announcement of it for four thousand years; the glory and difficulty of the Saviour's enterprize in accomplishing it; the mysterious union of Deity and humanity in his person; the force and number of the enemies overcome, especially his conquest over the malice and power of the great spiritual adversary; the blessings which his redemption procured; the eternal consequences dependent on its acceptance or rejection; the holy angels, the messengers and ministers of it, and the eager inquirers into its manifold wisdom-all give it a greatness and excellency becoming the infinite majesty of the divine Author of our religion. Every thing is little, mean, limited, uninteresting, worthless, compared with THE EXCELLENCY OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF CHRIST JESUS

14

14 The Revelation makes known the existence and agency of angels; both of those who fell, and of those who kept their first innocency.