only hath immortality-to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen." 1 Tim. vi. 15, 16. When we consider his astonishing love to sinners, the rich blessings he confers on them, and the high rank to which he raises them, he is justly entitled to their gratitude and praise. He is the seed through which the promise of blessing all nations should be fulfilled; the seed which they should call blessed.

6. RECEIVING his laws and ordinances, and obeying him in observing them.

IT has already been observed that, in virtue of his being vested with all power in heaven and in earth, he is the immediate legislator to the church. All her ordinances bear the sanction of his authority, as her So-. vereign Lord; and to him she owes subjection in the observation of them.

IN observing his ordinances she acknowledges his right to enact them, and to bind her to obey them. She receives them as expressive of his will, and yields obedience to them, preferring his will to her own, or to the will of any creature. She ought highly to respect and esteem his authority, and prove her esteem by doing all that he requires. Such respect to the ordinances of the church's Lord, and to his authority in them, did Peter and John boldly avow in the presence of the council at Jerusalem, which commanded them not to speak, nor teach in the name of Jesus. Their reply "Whether it be right in the sight of God, to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye." Acts iv. 19.

was,

By the authority of the church's Lord all proselytes were to be baptized in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. The dispensing of this ordinance is a very solemn part of divine worship. There

can be no doubt about the character in which the ever-blessed three are invoked in it. It is a gospel institution, and a seal of the covenant of grace. These persons are to be viewed according to the characters they sustain in that covenant. In these they are acknowledged, obeyed and worshipped. A profession of the faith, worship, and obedience of the gospel, is made, and an engagement entered into to obey the three-one-God, the author of the gospel. The Mediator must then be worshipped, and obeyed, in this ordinance, in the same character in which he instituted it, and in which he is exhibited in it. The sacrament of the supper is also a solemn part of gospel worship. The Redeemer is its Author. It exhibits him as the crucified Surety of his people, as the object of their faith, love, and esteem. It is with him as her head and Lord that the church is to hold intercourse in the ordinance. In obedience to his authority she is to observe it. To eat his flesh and drink his blood is nothing else than trusting in him as her Saviour, and receiving from him all the blessings of Salvation.

7. CONFESSION of sin and application for pardon. All sin is committed against God, being a transgression of his law, and a contempt of his authority; consequently he alone can pardon it, and to him confession must be made for that end. Confession is an acknowledgement of the authority of God over the creature as lawgiver and moral governor; and of his right to judge and punish the transgressor. It is an act of worship, and is one of the ways by which we, in an eminent manner, glorify God. This is evident from Joshua's charge to Achan; "My son, give, I pray thee, glory to the Lord God of Israel, and make confession unto him." Josh. vii. 19. In applying to him for pardon, we acknow

ledge that we are wholly at his disposal, that he may either pardon or punish us, and display either his justice or mercy as he shall judge proper. "Against thee, thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight; that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and and clear when thou judgest." Psalm li. 4. By confession we magnify his justice, though he should punish us, and by imploring pardon we extol his mercy. "According to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions."

BUT the Mediator has the power of forgiving sin, and we find confession made to him with prayer for pardon. He was authorised by the Father to do so. "Him hath God exalted with his own right hand to be a prince and Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins." Acts v. 31. The same thing is implied in the charge which God gave to Israel Exod. xxiii. 20, 21. "Behold, I send an angel before thee-Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not: for he will not pardon your transgressions: for my name is in him." By the name of God here not only his Deity is meant but also that supreme authority with which he is invested as God's vicegerent, to whom all judgment is committed, to try judicially, and to pardon or punish. If Israel would hear his voice, listen to his counsels, and submit to his laws, he would pardon them; but if they refused, he would punish them. Agreeably to this, when the Scribes and Pharisees charged Jesus with blasphemy, because, in curing a paralytic, he said, "Thy sins are forgiven thee, he told them that the Son of man had power on earth to forgive sins." Luke v. 21, 24. The palsy was the effect of sin. Pardon was conferred, the cause was removed, and the effect ceased.

In consequence of this confession is made to him, pardon solicited, and conferred. When he had put

Moses in a hole of the rock, and proclaimed the name of the LORD, The LORD God, merciful and graciousforgiving iniquity, &c. Moses immediately proceeds to improve the favourable opportunity to take a proof of his word, in obtaining pardon for the people, "Let my Lord, I pray thee, go amongst us (for it is a stiff necked people) and pardon our iniquity and our sin." Exod. xxxiv. When the people began to murmur at the report of the spies, he threatened to exterminate them; Moses interposed for them, expostulated with him, and reminded him of what he had said in Horeb, when he proclaimed his name, as longsuffering, of great mercy, forgiving iniquity, &c. and then proceeds to supplicate pardon. " Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people, according to the greatness of thy mercy, and as thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt, even until now. And the LORD said, I have pardoned according to thy word." Num. xiv. 18-20.

THAT the church's Lord is the divine person in these passages needs no proof, since he delivered the law from mount Sinai, conversed frequently with Moses, and always acted as the Angel of God's presence in conducting that people unto the land of promise. In bestowing pardon, he represented God, and acted for him, as in all other cases, because all judgment was committed to him.

I SHALL now proceed to make some inferences from the subject which has been discussed, and shall refer to both of the preceding discourses on this text.

1. THE enemies of the church, by their opposition to her interest, place themselves in very dangerous circumstances. Both the page of history, and our Tt

own experience tell us, that smaller states and kingdoms have procured their own ruin, by intermeddling with the interests of those that were much more powerful. The same thing has taken place in respect to the church. Though weak herself, she is the peculiar object of her Lord's attachment, who is the almighty. She is redeemed by his blood, and regenerated by his Spirit; she is the object of his choice, written upon his heart, and engraven upon the palms of his hands. Hę abides continually with her, and accurately observes every aggression of her enemies, and faithfully records. every insult and every injury she receives.

THE church has no greater or more dangerous enemies than corrupt and unfaithful teachers, who do violence to the law, corrupt and prostitute her ordinances, neglect to feed the flock, to gather in such as have strayed, and to warn faithfully of approaching danger. Their chief object is to eat the fat out of the flock, and to clothe themselves with the wool. By these means precious souls are neglected and eternally ruined; their blood will, of course, be required at the watchmen's hands. "Woe to the idol shepherd that leaveth the flock! the sword shall be upon his right arm, and upon his right eye: his arm shall be clean dried up, and his right eye shall be utterly darkened." Zech. xi. 17.

THE nations and powers of the earth have, for the most part, been her enemies. They have infringed her rights, robbed her of her valuable privileges, prostituted her to base purposes after having corrupted her, brought her low by cruel oppression, and deluged the earth with her blood. Many faithful witnesses have been slain in the European kingdoms, so that the earth has been saturated with their blood. Their souls un.