with each other. Their union is that which constitutes his essential character as the Christ, and that which gives to our faith its strongest and surest hold upon the mind. When he said, that "the Father had given "him authority to execute judgment because "he was the Son of man," it was not because he was a mere man, and nothing more; but because He only, of the Persons in the Godhead, took upon him the nature of man. Still, therefore, it is God who will judge the world, though he will judge it by that MAN whom he hath ordained. The judgment delegated to him as Son of man will be executed by Divine power, because he is also Son of God: and when he shall come to judge the quick and dead, He will come in the glory of the Father, with his angels, to reward every man according to his works.

Let not occasion, then, be taken to think less seriously of the awful day that is approaching, as if we were to be judged by merely such an one as ourselves. Every representation of him in his judicial character sets forth his infinite power, holiness, and justice, no less than his mercy and goodness. The Baptist described him as one "whose "fan is in his hand, and who will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into

"the garner, but will burn up the chaff with "unquenchable fire":" and he himself pourtrays his own character in the parable of "the householder and reapers,” in similar terms. He will "bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and make manifest the "counsels of the heart." The books "shall "be opened, and the dead judged out of "those things that are written in the books, "according to their works"." Here is enough to arouse the careless and impenitent to a sense of danger, notwithstanding the consolation and encouragement which every humble and sincere penitent may derive from the assurance that he will be judged by One who "knoweth our frame, and remembereth that 66 we are dust." It will therefore be our wisdom and our duty to contemplate Him as that omniscient Being, "unto whom all hearts are 66 open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid." Nor let it be forgotten, that if as Son of man he is touched with a feeling of our infirmities and of the dangers that beset us; He is also so much more sure to discern whether or not these are deceitfully pleaded in extenuation of our guilt. Ever, then, let it be borne in mind that the dispensation of the Gospel, though full of mercy and

66

u Matt. iii. 12.

x 1 Cor. iv. 5.

y Rev. xx. 12.

benevolence, and originating in the most perfect love to mankind, is nevertheless a system of holiness, purity, and truth. It is "the 66 power of God unto salvation unto every "one that believeth'," and whose faith is productive of its proper fruits. But whatever delusive expectations we may be disposed to cherish," the hope of the hypocrite shall " perish "." For the "the grace of God, that bringeth salvation, hath appeared unto all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live so

66

66

66

66

berly, righteously, and godly in this pre"sent world; looking for that blessed hope, "and the glorious appearing of the great God "and our Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave "himself for us, that he might redeem us " from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works b."

66

"Now unto him that is able to keep you "from falling, and to present you faultless "before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Sa"viour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, now and ever. Amen.”

66

66

z Rom. i. 16.

a Job viii. 13.

b Titus ii. 14.

c Jude 24.

SERMON XX.

HEBREWS vii. 25.

Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.

THERE is none of the sacred writers who has treated the subject of the Christian dispensation so systematically as St. Paul has done; nor is there any of St. Paul's writings in which the comparison between that and the Jewish economy is so fully drawn out as in his Epistle to the Hebrews.

The general design of this Epistle is, to shew that the ritual Law of Moses was a typical or figurative service, introductory to the Gospel; that its institutions were, for the most part, no otherwise efficacious than as connected with that Redeemer whom they foreshewed; that to him they bore testimony, and in him were fulfilled; and that this purpose having been accomplished, they ceased, and gave way to that better covenant which