down on the right hand of the majesty on high; became head over all things, governs all things; and intercedes with his Father for ever; for the benefit of Christians. To save and bless them is, in a sense, his professional employment throughout eternity.

How different is the conduct of evil men towards the very same persons! In the eyes of these men, Christians are objects of contempt and hatred; and in their customary language are styled superstitious, enthusiasts, hypocrites, fanatics, and bigots. Men of the same character mocked and crucified Christ; their followers have ever since exhibited the same spirit; at times in the same, at other times in different manners; but in all its exhibitions the spirit has been the same.

Reason would naturally ask, when contemplating this subject, What evil have Christians done, to merit this treatment? Have they injured these enemies? Have they injured the public? Are they not as industrious, as peaceable, as just, as sincere, as kind, as useful, as other men? Do they not, as parents, children, friends, neighbours, magistrates, and citizens, perform the duties of life as faithfully, as those who are not Christians? Do they transgress the laws, oppose the government, or disturb the peace, of society, more than their enemies themselves? If they are guilty of such crimes, it can undoubtedly be proved; it ought to be proved; and they ought, accordingly, to be condemned and punished. To this no fair objection can be made even by Christians themselves.

But how far from these dictates of reason has been all the conduct of their adversaries? Have they even attempted any proof of this nature? Have not their accusations been general and indefinite, like the outcry raised against Paul and his companions: These, that have turned the world upside down, have come hither also: the mere exclamations of undiscriminating malevolence; not the specific charges of sober conviction.

To this malevolence what an endless train of men, women, and children; of men, covered with the hoary locks of age, of children, scarcely escaped from the cradle; have been offered up on the altar of persecution! What multitudes by the ancient Heathen, what multitudes by the idolatrous Apostates from Christianity; what multitudes by the Infidels, of modern times!

Where law and government have prevented these atrocities, how many private and personal injuries, how many sneers, and taunts, how many stings of gall and bitterness, has Christianity been obliged to endure! How many aspersions have been cast on their doctrines, designs, and characters, merely to load them with shame! How frequently are their best intentions misconstrued, and their most benevolent labours perverted, in this very land, originally peopled by Christians, and consecrated to religion: this land converted by Christians from a wilderness into a habitation of industry, peace, civilization, and happiness: to change which from a howling wilderness into an asylum of persecuted piety, Christians

encountered the perils of the Ocean, and the sufferings of the desert; sustained all the horrors of savage war, and all the evils of famine, disease, and death. In this very land, how many enemies have arisen up to the Church of God, among the descendants of these very Christians, and among the brethren of those who are persecuted! They know not, perhaps, that their curses are directed to the fathers who begat them, or that their eye is evil towards the mothers who bore them; nor mistrust, that their scorn is pointed against the source, whence, under God, they have derived every enjoyment, and every hope.

Against this source of blessings, the religion of Christians, they are more malignant, than even against Christians themselves. The Bible is hated more than those who believe it; the doctrines and duties of Christianity more than its professors. What are those duties? They are all summed up in those two great precepts, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy neighbour as thyself; and in the means of producing obedience to these precepts in the soul of man. What is there in these precepts, which can be the object of vindicable hatred? Who will stand up, and say; who will say in the recesses of his own heart; "It is an odious and contemptible thing to love God; to obey his voice; to believe in his Son; to shun the anger of God; to escape from endless sin and misery; and to attain everlasting virtue and happiness;" Or is it, in the view of common sense, wise to choose the anger of God rather than his favour, a depraved character rather than a virtuous one, the company of apostates and fiends rather than of saints and angels, and hell rather than heaven?

Is it odious, is it contemptible, is it ridiculous, does it deserve obloquy and persecution, to love our neighbour as ourselves; to exhibit universal kindness; to deal justly; to speak truth; to fulfil promises; to relieve the distressed; to obey laws; to reverence magistrates; to resist temptation; to be sober, chaste, and temperate; and to follow all things, which are honest, pure, lovely, and of good report?

Is it, on the contrary, honourable; is it praiseworthy; does it merit esteem and reward; to be impious, profane, and blasphemous; to be infidels; to have a seared conscience; to possess a hard heart; to be unjust, unkind, and unfaithful; to be false, perjured, and seditious; to be light-minded, lewd, and gluttonous?

Is not the true reason of all this hostility to Christians, the plain superiority of their character to that of their enemies? Does not the hatred arise from their consciousness of this superiority; from the impatience which they feel, whenever they behold it; from the wounds, which neighbouring excellence always inflicts? Do they not feel, that good men cast a shade upon their character; reprove them, at least by the silent and powerful voice of their own virtue; serve as a second conscience, to hold out their sin before their eyes; and alarm their hearts with a secret and irresistible sense of

future danger? Do not wicked men say in their hearts, as they said at the time when the Wisdom of Solomon was written: Therefore let us lie in wait for the righteous, because he is not for our turn; and he is clean contrary to our doings. He upbraideth us with our offending the law; and objecteth to our infamy the transgressings of our education. He professeth to have the knowledge of God; and calleth himself the child of the Lord. He was made to reprove our thoughts. He is grievous unto us, even to behold: for his life is not like other men's; his ways are of another fashion. We are esteemed of him as counterfeits; he abstaineth from our ways as from filthiness; he pronounceth the end of the just to be blessed; and maketh his boast, that God is his Father. Let us see, if his words be true; and let us prove what shall happen in the end of him. Let us examine him with despitefulness, and torture, that we may know his meekness, and prove his patience. Let us condemn him with a shameful death: for by his own saying he shall be respected. Apply this description; and you will find it as exact, and just, as if it had been written yesterday, and intended to mark out, in the most definite manner, the loose and profligate of our own land.

But let Christians remember, that these things will not always be. The time will come; it will soon come; when their enemies, however numerous, proud, and prosperous, will, like sheep, be laid in the grave. Death shall feed on them; and the worm shall cover them. Their beauty shall consume away; and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning. Then shall all the just be far from oppression; for they shall not fear; and from terror; for it shall not come near them. God shall redeem them from the power of the grave; and shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. Then shall it be seen, that their light affliction, in the present world, was but for a moment, and that its real and happy efficacy was no other, than to work for them a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.

SERMON LIX.

CHARACTER OF CHRIST, AS A KING.

EPHESIANS 1. 20-22.-Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places; Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come. And hath put all things under his feet; and gave him to be the head over all things to the Church.

I HAVE now in a series of sermons examined the character of Christ, as the prophet, and high priest, of mankind. Under his prophetical character I have considered his preaching, by himself, and by his Apostles; the Things, taught by both; the Manner, in which they were taught; and their consequences. Under his Priesthood I have considered his personal holiness; his atonement; and his In

tercession.

I shall now, according to the original scheme mentioned when I began to discuss the mediation of Christ, proceed to consider his character as a King.

That this character is given to Christ in the Scriptures, in instances almost literally innumerable, is perfectly well known to every reader of the Bible. In the second Psalm, there is a solemn annunciation of the Kingly office of Christ to the world. It is introduced with these words: I have set, or as in the Hebrew, have anointed, My King on my holy hill of Zion. Unto us, says Isaiah. a child is born; unto us a Son is given; and the Government shall be upon his shoulders; and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the Father of the everlasting age, the Prince of peace; and of the increase of his Government, and of his peace, there shall be no end: Upon the throne of David, and upon his Kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment, and with justice, from henceforth, even for ever. The Lord hath sworn, says David, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedek. Melchisedek was both a King and a priest. The priesthood of Christ, therefore, was a royal priesthood; or the priesthood of a person who was, at the same time, a King: Like Melchisedek, a King of righteousness, and a King of peace. Thy throne, O God, says David, is for ever and ever; and the sceptre of thy Kingdom is a sceptre of righteousness. He shall reign, says Gabriel, when predicting his birth to Mary, He shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of his Kingdom there shall be no end. His name, says St. John, is called the Word of God; and he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written; King of kings and Lord of lords.

VOL. II.

31

In the text we are presented with several interesting particulars concerning the Kingly office of Christ, which shall now be the subject of our consideration.

We are taught in this passage,

I. That God hath exalted Christ to this Dominion:

II. The Extent of this Dominion :

III. That this Dominion was given, and assumed, for the benefit of the Church.

1. We are taught that God hath exalted Christ to this Dominion. This doctrine is repeatedly taught in the text, in the following expressions. He set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places. He hath put all things under his feet. He gave him to be head over all things. In these expressions the exaltation of Christ to the dominion and dignity, ascribed to him in the text, is as unequivocally attributed to the Father, as it can be in human language. Of course, their plain import must be acknowledged by every Christian. I insist on this doctrine of the text; I have insisted on it, particularly, because it has been made by Unitarians an argument against the Divinity of Christ. "If," they say, "Christ is a Divine person; whence is it, that we hear so many things, said in the Scriptures concerning his exaltation; and particularly of his exaltation by the Father? If Christ is God; how is it possible, that he should be in any sense exalted? But, should we, contrary to plain probability, suppose him to have undergone voluntarily an apparent humiliation; can he, who is truly God, be indebted to any other, than himself, for a restoration to his former dignity and greatness? To be exalted at all, necessarily involves a preceding state of inferiority, particularly, to the state, to which he is exalted; and, certainly, of inferiority to the proper state and character of Jehovah. He, who has all power, knowledge, wisdom, and greatness, cannot have more; and, therefore, can in no sense be exalted. To be exalted by another person, also, involves dependence on that person: and a dependent being cannot be God."

As this, in my view, is the most plausible argument against the Divinity of Christ; and that, which has had more weight in my own mind, than any other; though, I believe, less relied on, and less insisted on, by Unitarians, than some others; I shall consider it with particular attention.

As a preface to the answer, which I intend to this objection, I observe, that the argument, contained in it, is in my own view conclusive; and, if applied to the subject without any error, must be admitted in its full force. The error of those, who use it, lies in the application, made of it to Christ. That exaltation involves a state of preceding inferiority, is, I apprehend, intuitively certain ; and that he, who is exalted by another, must be a dependent being; dependent on him, by whom he is exalted; cannot be denied. Let us see how far this argument is applicable to Christ; and how far it will conclude against his Deity.