your.

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"loved," remitting our sins, and receiving us to faHe hath also shown us the true and the right way, enabling, as well as directing, us to walk therein. Grace, without truth, can only mock us; truth, without grace, can only affright us. But when grace hath brought us to him, truth will keep us with him; and through grace we shall accomplish what truth requireth at our hands. "Surely his salvation is nigh "them that fear him, that glory may dwell in our "land. Mercy and truth are met together, righteousness and peace have kissed each other." With wonder, gratitude, and joy, therefore, let us reflect upon the honour done us by the Word being MADE FLESH. Our nature is exalted to the throne of God; there is a MAN in heaven! The disciples beheld Christ's glory in the days of his humiliation; but eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive the glory with which God hath now invested "that body which "it hath pleased him to make his own; that body "wherewith he hath saved the world; that body "which hath been and is the root of eternal life, the

instrument wherewith Deity worketh, the sacrifice "which taketh away sin, the price which hath ran"somed souls from death, the leader of the whole army of bodies that shall rise again. For though "it had a beginning from us, yet God hath given it "vital efficacy. Heaven hath endowed it with celes"tial power, that virtue which it hath from above,

t Psal. lxxxv. 9, 10.

"in regard whereof, all the angels in heaven adore "it"."

And if "no man ever yet hated his own flesh," can God hate the flesh, which, by being taken into one person with the WORD, is united to the Godhead? Can the Father hate Him, of whom he more than once declared from heaven, "This is my be"loved Son, in whom I am well pleased?"-" And we are members of His body, of HIS flesh, and of "HIS bones. It is a great mystery," saith the apostle, "but I speak concerning Christ and the "church"."

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When man had offended, he fled from his Maker, and dared no more to approach the divine presence. But now that the WORD incarnate hath published his general invitation-"O thou that hearest the prayer, "" unto thee shall all flesh come!"

If the Son of God became the Son of man, why should it seem a thing incredible, that the sons of men should become the sons of God? " Beloved,

σε

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now are we the sons of God; and it doth not yet

appear what we shall be; but we know that when "Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall we "also appear with him in glory; for we shall see him " as he is"."

Delight we, then, to talk (and, since the incarnation of the WORD, why should we not delight to talk?) of the dignity of human nature? Let us be careful to act up to it. To a Christian the advice of the philosopher comes with redoubled force; "Reverence

"yourself."-Consider, to whom you are related, by whom you have been begotten again to a lively hope of an unfading inheritance. The stock, from which you are sprung, is noble, it is royal, it is divine. Disgrace it not by base and unworthy actions. Your inheritance is with the saints in light; have no fellowship with the works of darkness. Let your education be suitable to your birth, your conduct answerable to your expectations". The infirmities and dishonours to which mortality is and must be subject, need not discompose and afflict you. Be not dismayed at the approach of pain and sickness; let not the coffin and the shroud terrify you. For though "all flesh be as grass, and all the goodliness of man "as the flower of grass;" though "the grass wither"eth, the flower fadeth," kindly admonishing you to prepare for an autumn and a winter, when the spring of youth and the summer of manhood shall be past and gone; yet "the WORD of God abideth for ever." And this is the WORD, which hath been "made flesh, " and dwelt among us ;" this is the WORD to which your nature is in Christ united; "this is the WORD, "which by the Gospel is preached unto you;" whose glory there displayed, "as the glory of the only begotten of the Father," you may now behold; and

z Utile esse civitatibus dicit Varro, ut se viri fortes, etiamsi falsum sit, Diis genitos esse credant, ut eo modo humanus animus velut divinæ stirpis fiduciam gérens, res magnas age grediendas præsumat audacias, et agat vehementius. Augustin. de Civit. Dei, lib. iii. p. 49. See Leland, Advant. and Necess. of Rev. i. 182.

who, by his "grace" preceding, and his "truth" accompanying, will lead you to a glory, the excellence of which, enjoyment only can enable you to comprehend.

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DISCOURSE VIII.

THE CASE OF THE JEWS.

JOHN, I. 11.

His own received him not.

THAT the eternal Son of God should condescend, in human form, to visit his people, as their Saviour and Redeemer, is an event, which may well be allowed to excite our admiration. But how does our astonishment rise, when we are informed, that his people refused to receive so gracious a visitant!

The unbeliever, who is continually prying into every corner of ancient and modern history, for arguments to countenance him in his unbelief, seizes, we may be sure, with avidity, on this prominent and marvellous circumstance, and labours to make his advantage of it; affecting to conclude, that the incredulity of the Jew, can only be accounted for, by supposing a deficiency in the evidence laid before him. And the believer, though satisfied that the mission of Jesus stands incontestably proved, will yet often find himself perplexed, when he reflecteth, how strange an occurrence it is, that a people, selected from all others, to be the peculium of the Most High; by his mighty hand and stretched-out arm rescued from