judgments, and protecting by his mercy, the The sound is gone

honour due unto his name.

forth into all nations, thy salvation is near; and like the shepherds of old, we, upon whom the glory of the Lord has shone, are now travelling onwards in faith to see this thing which is come to pass; to learn the mystery which the Lord hath made known to us, of God in Christ reconciling the world to himself, of 'Christ in the Father, and the Father in Him. It is the Lord, who in the garden gave comfort to the guilty progenitors in whom we fell; it is the Angel of the old covenant whom we are now going meet, as the messenger of the new; it is the JEHOVAH of Israel, as we trust to prove, whom we are approaching to worship as the incarnate Son of God; it is the Lord of Hosts, whom we are to welcome as the Prince of Peace, and who, at the head of his faithful Israel, redeemed out of all kindreds, tongues, and nations, is again to appear as their everlasting Deliverer, the King of Glory; it is, in short, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and today, and for ever, who came to visit us in great humility; not the son of Joseph and Mary, but

He, whom all the Angels of GOD were to worship; not a Prophet sent from GOD, but the everlasting Counsellor; not a pre-existent spirit descended from Heaven to proclaim the truths of the Gospel, but the eternal Mediator, for ever promised to, and for ever looked for, by the faithful; in whom they waited for that glorious consummation foretold in him, behold thy salvation cometh; in whom they expected that great and atoning Saviour, whose consoling voice had uttered, Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.

The evidences of this important truth we mean to make, during the ensuing Sundays of Advent, the subject of our meditation; to concentrate every name by which our Redeemer has been called, every appellation by which He has been known to his people; every relation in which He stands to them, in that comprehensive and endearing one, the Lord our rightcousness. That these evidences may be found, and that they will be produced against the scoffers of his word and the debasers of his character, we have many an apostolic affirmamation, many a declaration of inspired history,

What is the language of St. Peter? Repent ye, therefore, says he, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come, from the presence of the Lord. And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you, whom the heaven must receive, until the time of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of his prophets, since the world began. In the same strain, and with the same decision as to the nature and object of faith, the Apostle also, in this Epistle to the Hebrews, sets forth the efficacy of it as a principle of religious action, and illustrates it in many cases of pure, unshaken, suffering, and triumphant faith, from Abel (the son of Adam) to the time of the Maccabees. And after a continued series of facts, deduced in regular order, both before the law and under the law, concludes with this direct assurance-All having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise, God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us might not be made perfect; that is, they relied on the promise, but this promise was given only in, and thro' the seed, that was to come, which seed, the Apostle says, was Christ.

We shall not now detail proofs which may appear more forcible and more satisfactory in their collective form, under the different dispensations of Almighty love; but I should very imperfectly discharge the duties of a christian pastor, if, whilst endeavouring to raise your conceptions to the Author of your faith, I should forbear impressing on your hearts, its necessary and correspondent consequences. If our blessed Lord was announced to our first parents; if from time to time, through the long series of the Mosaic and prophetic days, the opening beams of this Sun of Righteousness broke through the cloud under which they were obscured, lighting up the countenances, and gladdening the hearts, of those who were called the servants of God; what ought a Christian to feel at the full manifestation of his Redeemer's glory? Witness as he is made to all these miracles of mercy, well might the Apostle exclaim, how shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation? Christ has, indeed, shone forth a light to them who sat in darkness; has been announced as a Saviour for sinners-but for penitent and believing sinners. The terms of his covenant are, Repent and

be forgiven. It was the language of the Evangelical prophet; it was the Baptist's preparatory injunction; it was our Lord's original lesson, Repent, the kingdom of heaven is at hand; it was (as we have before observed) the Holy Apostle St. Peter's opening of his ministry, Repent ye, and be converted. This was to be the issue of early predictions, of patriarchal promises, of Mosaic rites, of prophetic warnings, of christian miracles. The design and end of all this splendid apparatus was, that repentance, and remission of sins, should be preached to all nations. Let it not also be forgotten by a Christian people, that blest as they are with peculiar privileges, they are loaded with more than common responsibility. Why were Chorazim, and Bethsaida, and Capernaum, threatened with a doom more dreadful than that even of Sodom and Gomorrah? but because, though so many mighty works had been done among them, they repented not; because they were blind to Him, whom we profess to see; because they disregarded Him, whom we profess to adore.

Let us all, then, lay these things seriously to heart; let us all ask ourselves that most impor