ledged, he must be considered incapable of change or diminution. None of the creatures made by him can have ability to check or to limit him time and space, relations of what he has made cannot control him: he is therefore present in every part of space, enduring through all portions of time. Vice is imperfection, the offspring of imperfect knowledge, the effect of shortsightedness which blinds, or delusion which misleads: now infinite wisdom cannot err, and cannot be deceived. God must always perceive what is right, and he is above all temptation to do wrong: his goodness therefore is infinite and the extent of its operations knows no bounds. But beyond general demonstrations of attributes indefinite and perfections to the most ample extent, human reason cannot be relied on. When the Heathen "knew him, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful: they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image like to corruptible man, and to birds and four-footed beasts, and creeping things." This was the worship of the philosophic and the polished nations of antiquity: a Christian congregation then will seek elsewhere a knowledge of the true God: and in the Revelation by Moses it will learn, that "the Lord their God, is one Lord,"+ in the words of the Lord Jesus it will learn, that "God is a Spirit."

*Romans i. 21-23. † Deut. vi. 4. John iv. 24.

Over the Heathen world Polytheism was their Creed, and Idolatry their best service: but God's revealed world requires that you "shall have no other Gods before him :"* and Christ has desired your worship of him to be "in spirit and in truth." While you declare then, my brethren, your belief in his existence and in his attributes, think not that you are but reciting a mere proposition of speculative truth, inoperative and inconsequential: you are to worship him whom you believe-to fear him whom you profess. Your conviction is to be of the heart, and your lives are to testify it. Every secret of that heart he knowsat every act of that life he is present. He “is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed." Be ye holy, he says, "for I the Lord your God am holy:"|| "the Righteous Lord loveth Righteousness,"§ but him who worketh wickedness doth his soul abhor.

The second paragraph of the Creed declares your belief in the second person of the Holy Trinity. Of the several articles respecting him, the proofs are to be sought in the Holy Scriptures: these alone inform us concerning his nature, his offices, his acts and even his existence. That we should have the same faith in him as we have in God the Father, is evident from his words in St. John's

* Exodus xx. 3. † John iv. 24. 1 Samuel ii. 3.
|| Leveticus xix. 2. § Psalm xi. 7.

*

Gospel, "Ye believe in God, believe also in me; for the same word, "believe," cannot have two different meanings in the two different parts of this sentence, without any intimation of the change: and he who came down from Heaven to make known the things he had heard of the Father, he who came forth from the Father when he was to come into the world, and who when he was to leave the world was to go to the Father, he has given us this command. He who was the pattern of humility, who was pre-eminently meek and lowly of heart, would not arrogate glory to which he was not entitled, and yet he has required that all men should "honor the Son, even as they honor the Father." And to those who embrace his faith, he has promised a reward which God alone can bestow, that "he who believeth on him shall have everlasting life." The first words of the second paragraph connected with the former are, I believe, as in God Almighty, so in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord:" and these words specify his name, Jesus," his offices under the term, "Christ," his relation to God the Father, "his only Son," and his relation to us, "our Lord."

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The word, Jesus, in the Hebrew language signifies Saviour or deliverer, being the same with Joshua, whose leading the children of

* John xiv. 1. † John v. 23. ‡ John vi. 47.

Israel out of the wilderness was a type of the deliverance by him of Nazareth, who saved the world, his people from their sins. That name and the reason for it, the Angel assigned when he said to Joseph, "And thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins."* The word, Christ, signifies anointed; denoting thus, that Jesus possessed those offices and honors to which, in the Eastern nations, anointing with oil made a part of the form of induction. These were among the Jews the offices of Prophet, Priest, and King, to which Jesus was "anointed with the Holy Ghost and with power." As a "Prophet," he foretold events which no human penetration could have foreseen, his own death and resurrection, the descent of the Holy Ghost on the Apostles, the destruction of Jerusalem, and the miraculous success by means (to the eyes of man) so inadequate, of his Gospel, putting down idolatry, that had every. where been established so long, under the authority of the state, and in the habits of the nations. As a Prophet also, a messenger sent to communicate the commands, and to explain the purposes of God to his people, he was the bearer of the Covenant of mercy, sent, as he announced himself in the Temple, "to heal the broken hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovery of sight to the * Matthew i. 21. † Acts x. 38.

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blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord."* In the Priestly character, he made that greatest of all sacrifices, the sacrifice of himself; he continues to make intercession for the sins of the people, he gives the blessing to those who come to God by him, and is the Mediator of the New Covenant of God with man. Seeing that we have a great High Priest that is passed into the Heavens, let us hold fast our profession, says the Apostle, “provoking. one another to love and to good works." As well as Priest, he is after the order of Melchisedec, King also: "unto us," says the Prophet Isaiah, "a child is born, unto us a Son is given, and the Government shall be upon his shoulder." Greater than Moses, to whom the people of the Lord were bound in allegiance to obey his law, the Christian world are bound to obey him, who is the King immortal, invisible, in the Heavens, whom the Angels are commanded to worship. He is the Son of God, whom the heavenly messenger announced as such to the Virgin; marked out by the Prophecy of David, as interpreted in the Epistle to the Hebrews, thou art my beloved Son, this day have I begotten thee. He is heir to his Father's power: he is the Lord over his Father's house. He is our Isaiah lx. 1-2. † Hebrews x. 24.

* Luke iv. 18-19.

Isaiah ix. 6,