: sin. It is impossible for me to tell you the whole of this great article of your belief now. This is indeed a great blessing to us all and if you learned nothing more than this by coming to church-if you learned no more than "this saying, worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners" -you would have the strongest inducement possible to seek for instruction within these holy walls. Do you not, my friends, feel in your hearts-do you not know well, alas! too well, that you are all sinners in the sight of God, that you, as is the case with every one, have frequently done that which you ought not to have done-and left undone what you ought to have done. And is not this enough to make God Almighty angry with you? Yes! my friends, he has cause to be angry with us all: but for the sake of Jesus Christ he forgives us all. He sent his own dear Son to be sacrificed for the sins of the whole world. And that Son, Jesus Christ, poured out his blood to cleanse us from all sin. "In him we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sin." We all lay under a curse; he has redeemed, he has bought us from it. We were all liable to hell-fire-he has redeemed, he has bought us from it. The price, which he paid, was his own blood. Such is your redemption -not to be made free from your owners, but to be made free from sin, and from the power of the devil, from a slavery more galling and oppressive than any you ever knew, or do know. And now, my brethren, I must end this discourse, praying you to think seriously of what I have said: and may the Lord enable you to be "fruitful in every good work, and to walk worthy of him unto all pleasing." And now to God, &c. LECTURE XXXIX. ST. MATTHEW Xviii. 1. At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? THERE is not one among you, who does not believe that there is a God. You may forget him-you may think of him but seldom-you may not know what he is; but you do yet know that he is-that he exists, that there is a God.-Suppose that, in walking along the road, any of you, who had never seen a gold or silver watch before, were to find one. You took it up. If you were able to read, you would discover, that it told the hour of the day— you would see a minute hand and an hour 2 you hand, which shewed the minute and the hour. You would open it-you would see wheels, and springs, and other things, which made the minute and the hour hands do what you found them do—that is, tell the hour and the minute. Would you think that the watch made itself? Would you not know, that somebody must have made it? Now it is the same thing with the world live in. You see the sun, the moon, the stars-you see yourselves-a great many animals, such as beasts and birds and creeping things. Could they have made themselves? Certainly not. He who made them is God. And the God, who made so many and so great things, must be a great and mighty God. His power, his strength must be wonderful. He must see all things, he must hear all things, he must know all things. You must remember too, that God cannot have a body, such as we have. He is a Spirit-a great, a powerful Spirit. You cannot think too highly of Him. He is above our thoughts, and beyond, far beyond all that we can conceive or know. All this you may believe, (and I doubt not, nay, am certain, that you do believe it,) and yet not be Christians. In order to be Christians, you are not only to believe in God, the Father, who hath made the world: you are to believe in Jesus Christ, i. e. in God the Son, who hath redeemed or saved you and all mankind. Heathens believe in God-Christians believe both in God and "in Jesus Christ, whom God hath sent." They know that he is the only-begotten of the Father-that in him God is well pleased, that God sent him into the world not to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. And to know Jesus Christ-to know him fully and to obey him well,-will make you good and happy here, and happy hereafter, to all eternity, for ever and for ever. Now, when I used to teach you before, I thought it best to teach you what Jesus |