and of the universe.

Can language express, or

can heart conceive, a higher ascription and acknowledgment than this? Can all this be due to a creature, to one of a derived and dependant character? Then, surely the scripture would have a direct tendency to promote idolatry. Far be the thought from us! The scripture teaches us the knowledge of the true God, and the worship due to him. Therefore, MESSIAH, the Lamb that was slain, is the true God, the proper and immediate object of the worship of angels, and of men.

Let us, therefore, take up a lamentation for those, who slight the glorious Redeemer, and refuse him the honour due to his name. Their mistake should excite, not our anger or scorn, but our pity and prayers. Are there any such amongst us? Alas, my fellow-sinners, you know not what you do! Alas, you know him not, nor do you know yourselves. I am well aware that a thousand arguments of mine will not persuade you. But I can simply tell you, what would soon make you, at least, desirous, of adopting our sentiments upon this subject. If he, who has that power over the heart which I have been speaking of, was pleased to give you, this moment, a sense of the holiness and authority of God, and of your conduct towards him, as his creatures; your strongest objections to the high honours we attribute to the Saviour, would, this moment, fall to the ground. And you would be immediately convinced, that either Jesus Christ is the true God and eternal life, or that you must perish. You would no longer expect mercy, but in a

ernment.

way perfectly consonant with the righteousness and truth of God, declared in his word, and with the honour and purity of his moral govThis would lead you to perceive the necessity of an atonement, and the insufficiency of any atonement, but that, which the Lamb of God had made by the sacrifice of himself*; and that the efficacy even of his mediation depends upon his divine character. The scriptural doctrines, of the depravity of man, the malignity of sin, the eternal power and Godhead of the Saviour, the necessity and efficacy of his mediation, and the inevitable, extreme, and endless misery, of those who finally reject him, are so closely connected, that if the first be rightly understood, it will open the mind to the reception of the rest. But till the first be known and felt, the importance and certainty of the others will be suspected, if not openly denied.

Though the doctrines I have enumerated, are, in these sceptical days, too generally disputed and contradicted, I am fully confident, that it is impossible to demonstrate them to be false. Upon the lowest supposition, therefore, they possibly may be true; and the consequences, depending upon them, if they should be found true at last, are so vastly momentous, that even the peradventure, the possibility of their truth, render them deserving of your most serious consideration. Trifle with yourselves no longer. If they be truths, they are the truths of God. Upon the same authority stands the truth of that gracious promise, that he will give his holy Spirit to

*Heb. ix. 26.

them that ask him. Let me entreat you to make the experiment. This is the proper point to begin with. Instead of indulging reasonings and speculations, humble yourselves before the Lord, and pray for the light and influence, which, he has said, he will afford to them who are willing to be taught. Read the scripture with deliberation, and do not labour to fortify yourselves against conviction. Break off from those practices, which your own consciences admonish you, cannot be pleasing to him, who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. Then shall you know, if you will sincerely follow on to know the Lord*. But if not, if you will, in a spirit of levity, presume to decide upon points, which you will not allow yourselves seriously to examine, should you, at last, perish in your obstinacy and unbelief, your ruin will be of yourselves. You have been faithfully warned, and we shall be clear of your blood.

* Hos. vi. 3.

THE UNIVERSAL CHORUS.

REV. v. 13.

[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 honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever.

MEN, have generally agreed, to dignify their presumptuous and arrogant disquisitions on the works and ways of God, with the name of wisdom; though the principles upon which they proceed, and the conclusions which they draw from them, are, for the most part, evident proofs of their depravity and folly. Instead of admiring the effects of his wisdom and power in the creation, they have rashly endeavoured to investigate the manner of its production. A variety of hypotheses have been invented, to account for the formation of the world, and to state the laws by which the frame of nature is governed; and these different and inconsistent accounts, have been defended, with a magisterial tone of certainty, and an air of demonstra

tion, by their respective authors, as though they had been by-standers and spectators, when God spoke all things into being, and produced order out of confusion, by the word of his power. They have, however, been much more successful in shewing the absurdity of the schemes proposed by others, than in reconciling their own, to the sober dictates of plain common sense.

But, if by indulging their speculations on the creation of the world, the causes of the deluge, and similar subjects, their employment has been no better than weaving spider's webs; the result of their reasoning on morals, has been much worse. Here they have, with much industry, hatched cockatrice eggs; and their labours have been not only fallacious, but mischievous. Their metaphysical researches, while they refuse the guidance of revelation, if pursued to their just consequences, will always lead into the labyrinths of scepticism, weaken the sense of moral obligation, rob the mind of the most powerful motives of right conduct, and of the only consolations, which, can affort it solid support, in an hour of trouble. One insuperable difficulty which they will undertake to solve, though it does not properly lie in their way, is concerning the origin of evil. That evil is in the world, is felt and confessed universally. The gospel points out an effectual method of deliverance from it; but, alas, the simple and infallible remedy is neglected, and men weary themselves with vain enquiries,

* Isa. lix. 5.