while the eternal bliss of heaven shall endure. And O! how hard, my dear youth, must be that human heart, how lost to every worthy sentiment, how base, how vile, which feels nothing, glows not, melts not, moves not with one pulse of gratitude and love, when this unutterable goodness, kindness, and compassion of the Saviour, is made the subject of contemplation! Is such the state of any heart in this assembly? If it be, how great must be the change wrought upon it, before it can be reconciled to God! May every such heart be shocked, and humbled, and tremble, at its vileness; may it be broken and bleed, that it may at length be healed by the application of the atoning blood of Christ. Amen.

LECTURE XX.

WHO IS THE REDEEMER OF GOD'S ELECT?

HOW DID CHRIST THE SON OF GOD BECOME MAN?

We now proceed to consider the 21st and 22d answers of our Catechism.

"The only Redeemer of God's elect is the Lord Jesus Christ, who being the eternal Son of God, became man, and so was, and continues to be, God and man, in two distinct natures, and one person for ever. Christ the Son of God, became man, by taking to himself a true body and a reasonable soul, being conceived, by the power of the Holy Ghost, in the womb of the Virgin Mary, and born of her, yet without sin."

In discussing these answers it will, I think, afford as proper a method as any other, and the easiest to be remembered, if we take certain separate portions of the answers severally, and where necessary, connect those of the first with those of the second. In pursuance of this method, let us

I. Consider that the only Redeemer of God's elect is the Lord Jesus Christ.

You ought to know that the words Jesus Christ, although now used as a common appellation, were not given arbitrarily. They are, and were intended to be descriptive of the character of our blessed Redeemer. Jesus, or Joshua, (for they are the same name in the original of the Scriptures,) denotes a Saviour, in the most peculiar and extensive sense of the term. Thus it was said, "thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins." The term Christ, in Greek, is exactly of the same import with Messiah in Hebrew. Each word, in its proper language, signifies anointed, or the anointed one. When therefore Peter said, "Thou art the Christ of God," it was the same as if he had said, thou art the anointed of God. Among the ancient

Jews, kings, prophets and priests, were set apart to their office by anointing them with oil. Now Christ as mediator, united all these characters in himself, and is represented as set apart to them by the designation of God. So that the words Jesus Christ mean the Saviour, anointed, or set apart to that office, by God. Jesus Christ is "the only Redeemer of God's elect." The Jews are yet looking for a Messiah to come. They will not allow that Jesus Christ was the true Messiah. But this is only a proof of their judicial blindness and hardness of heart; and is indeed the strongest proof that could possibly be given. For the character, actions and sufferings of our Saviour, are so exactly delineated and described by their own inspired prophets, that they are driven to the most unworthy shifts and evasions, to avoid admitting and allowing it. The prophecy in the 53d chapter of Isaiah, is more like a history than a prediction: so much so indeed, that some of the early enemies of Christianity, insisted that it must have been forged, after the events to which it manifestly refers had taken place. But its reception all along by the Jews themselves, shows that the infidel objection is false; and thus one class of unbelievers is made to answer and confound another.

The prophecy of Daniel points so exactly to the time in which Jesus Christ did appear, that there could be no mistaking it as the epoch of the Messiah's advent. And it is a fact, as well ascertained as any in ancient history, that the whole Jewish nation, and even some among the neighbouring nations, were in full and earnest expectation of the Messiah at that very time. At that very time accordingly, the true and only Messiah, Jesus Christ, the anointed Saviour, did actually appear; and the expectation of another by the unhappy Jews, must for ever be vain. But it is comfortable to think that their delusion will come to an end; and that when the fulness of the Gentiles shall be brought in, they too shall yet acknowledge and obtain salvation by that Jesus whom their fathers crucified, and whom they have so long and so wickVOL. I.-20

edly rejected and blasphemed. "There is salvation. in no other, for there is no other name under haven, given among men, whereby we must be saved."

In the answers we consider, Jesus Christ is called "The Lord." He is so called to denote his true and unquestionable Deity. It cannot be denied that our Lord is, in the Old Testament, called Jehovah, one of the peculiar names of the Deity, for which the Jews had the highest veneration. In a prophecy of Isaiah, which all Christians do and must apply to Christ, because it is expressly quoted and applied to him by John his forerunner, it is said, "Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight." In the original it is, "prepare the way of Jehovah." This naturally introduces another portion of the answers before us, namely, That the Lord Jesus Christ was "the eternal Son of God."

When I discoursed to you on the doctrine of the Trinity, I gave what I consider as demonstrative Scripture evidence, of the proper Deity of each person in the Godhead: and I have just now mentioned incidentally, what is, by itself, a clear Scripture proof of the proper Deity of Christ, the second person in the adorable Trinity. We shall not therefore resume this subject, with a view to consider it extensively. I shall only make a few remarks on the eternal Sonship of Christ. All the most ancient creeds, or symbols of the Christian church, notice this point. The Apostles' creed, the Nicene creed, the Athanasian creed, the creed of the Synod of Chalcedon, all either allude to it, or distinctly affirm and inculcate it. They distinguish carefully the Sonship of Christ, from all ideas of creation. They represent him as the Son of God by a peculiar and mysterious relation; and affirm that he is of the same essence and eternity with the Father. This seems to be the Scripture doctrine, although some modern divines, not in the least disposed to deny the divinity of Christ, have maintained that the appellation Son of God, is given to him only with respect to his mediatorial office. But as we are baptized in the name of the Son as well as of the Father

and Holy Ghost, it seems to follow that his Sonship is equally natural and necessary with the paternity of the Father, and the personality of the Holy Ghost. In a word, the Sonship and personality of Christ are the same, eternal in existence, and constituting the second hypostasis in the undivided essence of the glorious Trinity.

This adorable Being, the Son of God, the Catechism affirms "became man;" that is, the second person in the Trinity assumed human nature into a perfect union with his own. This is technically called the hypostatic union. And after all the profane and foolish cavils which have been raised in regard to this subject, what is there in it which, however mysterious, is not easy of belief? To explain the mode or manner of it, we are indeed to make no attempt; and as little can they who cavil at it, and say they will believe nothing which they cannot comprehend, as little can they explain how their own souls are connected with their bodies, and are operated upon by them. And surely, if we cannot explain a union which exists in our own nature, it is not wonderful that we cannot explain one which exists in the nature of our infinite Saviour. What a monstrous arrogance is it to affirm, that the Son of God could not draw our nature into such a union with his own as to be one with it, one person and yet both natures distinctly preserved? There is certainly nothing here that is self-contradictory, nothing that is not plainly competent to infinite wisdom and power. Yes, and this union must be regarded as a glorious and unquestionable fact, on which our salvation rests.

The necessity which existed for the union of the divine with the human nature, in the economy of our redemption, shall be considered after we have attended briefly to the manner in which the human nature of our Lord was prepared, so to speak, for his assumption.

The Catechism says "The Son of God became man, by taking to himself a true body and a reasonable soul, being conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost,