riod he prepared for us a kingdom. Jesus Christ, in the fulness of time, came and executed this plan. He assumed our flesh. He lived among us. He suffered. He died. I have glorified thee upon the earth. I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do, ver. 4.

The apostles succeeded their Master. And these holy men, with that heroic courage which the idea of a commission so honorable inspires into generous minds, braved and surmounted all the difficultics which opposed their progress. They trod upon the lion and adder: the young lion and dragon they trampled under feet, Ps. xci. 13. Power was giv en them to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, Luke x. 19, They took as a model in their course, (it is an idea of the Psalmist) that glorious orb of day, whose going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it, Ps. xix. 6 Yes, verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world Rom. x. 18. They rose superior to the powers of sense and nature: they subdued the passions which have naturally the greatest influence over the heart of man: they knew no man after the flesh, 2 Cor. v. 16. They carried on their souls the impress of their Saviour's virtues, as they bare his marks imprinted on their bodies.

The ministers of Jesus Christ assume the place of the apostles: they have one and the same vocation: they are called to the same work: they have to teach the same truths; the same vices to reprove; the same maxims to establish; the same threatenings to denounce; the same consolations to administer; the same felicy and the same glory to promise. Who is sufficient for these things? 2 Cor. ii. 16. But we are upheld by you, all-powerful intercession of Jesus Christ with his Father! From

your energy it is that we obtain, in our retirements, that attention, that composure, that concentration of thought of which we stand in need, in order to penetrate into those lively oracles which it is our duty to announce to this people. From your powerful energy it is we obtain that clearness, that fervor, that courage, that elevation of spirit of which we stand in need in this chair of verity, to exalt us above the malignant censure of a murmuring multitude, ever disposed to find fault with those who preach the truth. To you we must stand for ever indebted for the success of our ministry, and for the hope we entertain that this people, to whom we minister in holy things, shall one day be our joy and our crown, 1 Thess. ii. 19.

III. Thus are we led forward, my brethren, to the third division of our discourse, in which you are most particularly interested. It is truely delightful to behold the Author and Finisher of our faith united, in a manner so intimate, with diety. It is delightful to behold those apostles, whose writings are in our hands, and whose doctrine is the rule of our faith, intimately united to Jesus Christ as he is with God. There is, however, something behind still more particular and more consolatory. All these different relations, of Jesus Christ with God, of the apostles with Jesus Christ have been formed only in the view of producing others, and these affect you. Attend to the interest which you have in the prayer of Jesus Christ: neither pray I for these alone but for them also which shall believe on me through their word: that they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in.me, and I in thee; that they also may be one in us, ver. 20, 21.

Awake to a sense of the dignity of your high calling. Contemplate the unbounded extent of

your privileges. Behold to what a height of glory you are encouraged to aspire, and what unspeakable benefits you already derive from the religion of the blessed Jesus! Already you possess with God, as doth Jesus Christ, a unity of ideas, and you partake, in some sense, of his infallibility, by subjecting your faith to his divine oracles, and by seeing, if I may use the expression, by seeing with his eyes. Already you have with God, as Jesus Christ hath, a unity of will, by the reception of his laws, and by exerting all your powers that his will may be done on earth as it is done in heaven. Already you enjoy with God, as doth Jesus Christ, a unity of dominion. "All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death," I Cor. iii. 21, 22. "You are already partakers of a divine nature," 2 Pet. i. 4. "You are already transformed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the spirit of the Lord," 2 Cor. iii. 18.

But how is this union still marred and interrupted! How imperfect still this participation of the divine nature, and this transformation into the same image! Let this be to us, my brethren, a source of humiliation, but not of dejection. A more glorious state of things is to succeed the present it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know, that when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is, 1 John iii. 2. A new influx of light with which the soul shall be replenished; a new influx of divine love, with which the heart shall be inflamed; a new influx of felicity and delight, with which the immortal nature shall be inundated, are going, ere long, to place in its brighest point of view, all the sublimity, all the excellency of our condition: Father, I pray not for my disciples alone, but for

them also who shall believe in me through their word: that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee; that they also may be one in us.

But how is it possible for the miserable posterity of Adam; how is it possible for wretched creatures born in sin; how is it possible for frail mortals, a compound of dust and ashes, that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, which are crushed before the moth, Job. iv. 19. how is it possible for beings so mean, so degraded, to become one with God, as Jesus Christ is one with him?

Away, Christians, away with every shade of incredulity. Nothing is too great for this prayer to procure. There is nothing that God can deny to this dying Intercessor. Let the mind be filled to its utmost capacity, with all that is vast and af fecting in the sacrifice which Jesus Christ was about to present to his Father. Consider that God is love, 1 John iv. 16. And what could the God who is love refuse to the Redeemer of the world, at the moment when he was going to devote himself, with such ardor of affection, for the salvation of mankind. Behold him, the Redeemer of a lost world, behold him ready to affix the seal to the great work which God had committed to him: behold him prepared to be led, as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep, dumb before her shearers, Isa. liii. 7. behold him prepared to undergo that punishment, the bare idea of which makes nature shudder behold him prepared to enter into the deep mire where there is no standing, of which the prophets speak, Psa. Ixix. 2. and all this out of that love, and all this from that principle of charity which glowed in his compassionate breast.

At that moment of love, at that moment which.

embraces all eternity-pardon me the expression, my friends, and condemn me not, if in a subject which has nothing human, I am constrained to employ modes of speech which are not in common use among men-at that moment which embraces a whole eternity, when charity was carried as far as it could go, this Redeemer presents himfelf before the God of love, and asks of him, that in virtue of this sacrifice of love, which he was going to offer up, all the faithful, this people, you, my dearly beloved brethren, you might be crowned with the felicity and with the glory, with which he himself was going to be crowned; but to which love would have rendered him insensible, had he not promised himself to communicate them, one day, to men, the objects of his tenderest affection.

O mysteries of redemption, how far you transcend all expression, all thought! Ye angels of light, who live in the bosom of glory, turn aside your eyes from beholding wonders which dazzle the heaven of heavens: bend lowly over the mystical ark, and search it to the bottom. And you, for whom all these wonders are wrought, children of fallen Adam, bow down in gratitude and adoration, and measure, if you can, the dimensions, the length, the breath, the height, the depth, of that abyss, which passeth knowledge, Eph. iii. 18, 19.

My brethren, there is an air of credulity and superstition in what passes between a dying person, and a minister who is endeavoring to fortify him against the fears of death. The minister has the appearance of an impostor, and the dying person of a visionary. We promise to a man extended on a sick bed, to a man who is in a few days to be shut up in a tomb, and to become a prey to worms, we promise him an eternal abode, and rivers of pleasures: we assure him that he is the favorite of