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But the superior excellence of the Gospel may be still further seen, in the place which it occupies in the sublime arrangements of God for the accomplishment of his eternal purposes. You will observe that the apostle speaks of the Gospel dispensation as "these last days." Called the last days, because occurring at the close of the Jewish hierarchy, but more particularly, because not to be succeeded by any further institutions of grace. This is the last and better covenant. Everything which preceded it was instituted with reference to it, and was only preparatory to its introduction. The Gospel is the complete embodiment of all the purposes of God with Without it, all former dispensations are perfectly idle and unmeaning. What was the significance of the promises and covenants made with the patriarchs, if they did not centre in the New Testament institutions? What were all the bloody rites and ordinances of the Mosaic economy, without the great sacrifice of Calvary? What the meaning of all those rapturous prophetic visions, if the kingdom of the Messiah were stricken from the annals of time? Nay, the Savior's cross is the great centre of all religious institutions, and upon which they all depend for their significance and efficacy. It is this which draws a chain of unity through all the pious observances from Adam down to his remotest generations. Everything preceding it, slowly but securely paved the way for its erection; and upon the blood-stained brow of Calvary were converged all the hopes and interests of the entire family of man. With the cross, all is harmonious and consistent; without it, all is dark and indefinable. Without the cross, the patriarch kneeling before his rude altar, and the successors of Aaron brightening the incense flame amid the blazing grandeur of the Holy of holies, is all meaningless and holy trifling. Without the cross, the enrapturing songs of Israel's inspired bards, and the visions of the exultings of the redeemed in their final rest, are all the senseless reveries of fevered brains!

The Gospel of Christ then is to be looked upon as the finishing matter, which gives significance and virtue to all other dispensations. It is the grand keystone of the wide arch which spans from eternity to eternity. Adam's eyes and hopes were centred on it, and the eyes and hopes of all the pious who lived before the Savior's coming. And from the remotest ages of time to come, every devout human worshiper will look back to it as his only depend

ance for the enjoyment of the favor of the Almighty. It is the sole link which unites man to the throne of God. And by thus taking into consideration the importance of the place which it occupies, we cannot but ascribe to the Gospel a surpassing excellence and glory. The institutions of the ancients only compare with it, as the light of the moon compares with the brightness of the noonday sun- —as the dim twilight of morning with the full blaze of a perfect day. God's communications to the fathers served them only as the star of Bethlehem did the Eastern Magi; they merely led the way to the Savior. But the Gospel places us at once at his feet, and within the hearing of all his heavenly instructions. And though we have no law graven by the hand of Deity on tables of stone; we have it written on the more imperishable tables of the heart and of the mind. Though we have no such a temple as rendered Jerusalem the praise of the whole earth; we have one built up of "living stones," which wears a radiance far brighter than golden spires and gilded domes, where penitents find an ark, and wandering prodigals a joyful welcome and a peaceful home. Though we have no Shekinah hovering in visible grandeur over the mercy seat; yet we have the Spirit of the Eternal ever brooding over each ransomed soul, and creating in every christian's breast a little heaven!

Such, my hearers, is the superior excellence of the Gospel of Christ, and of the dispensation of it under which we live. What a blessed privilege is ours! I fear that we have not yet learned duly to appreciate it. I fear that we do not sufficiently prize our spiritual advantages, nor properly estimate our freedom from those long nights of gloom and burdensome ritual exactions which passed over former generations. Let us then carefully lay to heart these few reflections, and henceforth endeavor to be more grateful to God for the marvelous light and liberty he has made it our privilege to enjoy. And may our gratitude not be only a dead letter, or something which remains housed up in the heart and never reaching the surface; but a gratitude which leads to activity, and which speaks out in works of charity, honesty, and practical godliness.

Let us carefully remember too, that increase of privilege always brings with it an increase of responsibility. The Scriptural rule is, to whom much is given, of him much will be required. As our

advantages are great, a corresponding degree of holiness will be exacted in our lives and conduct. See to it then that all our superior blessings be well improved. And in the great day of final reckoning, may it be the portion of us all to be hailed by him that sits upon the throne as "faithful stewards of the manifold grace of God."

LECTURE II.

THE DEITY OF JESUS CHRIST.

Heb. i. 3. Who, being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his perand upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.

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ATHEISM and superstition are weapons in the hands of Satan, which have only been too successfully used against the christian religion. But these are not his most formidable arms, nor are they the most difficult to be resisted. There are other and more deceitful instruments at his command, much more subtle in their operations and threatening much greater mischief. There is in the world a system of error, which seems to be extracted from the very essence of reason and religion, and to proceed from the very bosom of truth and virtue. A system which, under the mask of piety and lofty pretensions to learning, would secretly undermine the very foundations of Christianity, and drain the very life-blood of our holy religion, I speak now of that system of Divinity which is characterized by its low views of the mediatorial work, and which tends to degrade the Savior from his proper and eternal Deity to the rank of simple creatures. The text comes in direct conflict with such views. It contains a brief but magnificent account of the infinite majesty of the great Redeemer's character; "Who, being the brightness of his (Father's) glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high."

These words obviously teach the Divine nature of Jesus Christ. This will be the more clearly perceived by some explanation of the phraseology employed by the apostle. And in speaking of Christ's Divine nature, the expression is to be understood in a higher sense than where it is declared that believers are "partakers of a Divine nature." This is predicated of believers, because they are constituted in a likeness to God, and because they are admitted to a blessedness resembling that of God. But when we ascribe a Divine

nature to Jesus Christ, we mean by it, that he is of the same essence and existence with the Deity.

The text represents the Savior to be "the brightness of his Father's glory." The conception is highly sublime, and the allusion peculiarly happy. The relation of Christ to God the Father is compared to the relation which exists between the outbeaming light of the sun, and that inherent brightness from which these rays are sent forth. Socinians affirm, that the Son of God was created being, and that all his dignity and authority were delegated. We concede that the Father gives existence to Christ, just as the sun gives existence to its rays; yet, that existence is so entirely the nature of the essence from which it proceeds, as of necessity to be co-existent with it. The sun can no more exist without shining, than its light can exist without the essence from which it proceeds.. Precisely so is it in regard to the relation of Christ and the Father. There is such a complete oneness in the two, as to be inseparable. A God cannot exist in the dark retirement of his own being without being manifested; nor can there be any manifestation without the Son, who is the outbeaming of the Divinity.

To call Christ a created being, implies a time when he did not exist. The figure of the text, however, admits no such a supposition. The sun and its rays are co-eval. It was no sooner made than it shone. This is in accordance with its nature; nor is it possible for it ever to cease shining until its nature is changed, or it is itself destroyed. Thus it is in the relation between Christ and God. They are co-equal and co-existent. One is the outbeaming of the other-the brightness of the other's glory. The Father is not the Son, nor the Son the Father; no more than the rays of the sun constitute the sun itself. Yet, there is such a unity of essence and existence, and they are so intimately and inseparably connected, that both partake of the same Divine eternal nature.

The apostle further declares Christ to be the express image of his Father's person;" or as in a parallel passage: "the form of God." These expressions embody nearly the same idea. The allusion is to that of a child bearing a perfect resemblance to its parent, or that of wax retaining the perfect image or impress of the seal applied to it. In the same way Christ bears the perfect resemblance of his Father. All the lineaments and characteristics of

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