wisdom prescribes. Let us submit to the authority of God, who speaks to us in his holy Scriptures. If the tenet of the incarnation is calculated to humble the presumption of the human mind, it is surely eminently calculated on the other hand to impress us with a feeling sense of the infinite goodness of God, and of the whole extent and measure of his mercy towards us.

We will proceed to view it in this light; and may the consideration penetrate our hearts with love and gratitude to a Saviour, to whom we owe such unspeakable obligations!

"In this was manifested the love of God towards us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him."* My brethren, what interest could the Supreme Being take in the salvation of his sinful creatures? He could have left us to perish, and we deserved to be abandoned. His justice was warranted in punishing guilty criminals. By suffering our race to rush on to perdition, he would merely have left rebellious creatures to themselves; who had abused the faculties he had given them, and thereby rendered them. selves unworthy of his grace and support. Instead, however, of treating us with this merited rigour, with infinite compassion he beholds the dismal fate of a perishing world, and adopts the most astonishing measure to restore its wretched inhabitants to his favour-a measure calculated to touch and soften every heart not harder than adamant. He destines his own Son to be our deliverer, and sends him down upon earth for this purpose. He makes him like one of us, and appoints him to be a substitute to suffer for our offences. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life."+ My brethren, was ever love truly like this, or so likely to kindle in every human bosom the raptures of extatic gratitude and

attachment? "The word was made flesh"-"he who was in the form of God, took the form of a servant." For us he descends to the lowest state of degradation. For us he becomes man, passes his days in wretchedness, and expires on a cross. Could our benevolent Redeemer exhibit a stronger proof of his love? What more could he do to bring back our wandering hearts to his service? "For when we were without strength," says the Apostle,* "in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die; but God commendeth his love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." If, after this, says he, "any man love not the Lord Jesus, let him be anathema maranatha.”

Let us, then, my brethren, bend all our forces, let us solicit with importunity and sincerity for necessary graces from above, in order to correspond with the great end for which Christ was made flesh. He expects and requires our gratitude, as the best earnest of our love and services. "He came to destroy the works of the devil." He came to wean us from every sinful practice, and to elevate us to a state of genuine holiness. "His grace, which bringeth salvation to all men, hath appeared, teaching us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present world." My brethren, let me intreat you to reflect seriously, and to conclude what must be the fate of those who wilfully neglect this great salvation. Stir up in your minds the solemn and salutary conviction, that by neglecting the positive duties of religion, and by sinful indulgences, men must necessarily contract a degree of guilt, and of liability to punishment, exactly proportionable to the cogency of the motives, with which they have been favoured to lead them to virtue and happiness. "He that despised Moses' law," says St. Paul to the Hebrews,‡ "died without

* Rom. v. 7, &c.

+ Titus ii. 12.

x. 28, 29.

mercy, under two or three witnesses. Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the spirit of grace." May God avert from us all, such a dreadful condemnation. May he enable us to live always conformably to his gracious designs, which he has manifested for effecting our sanctification in this world, and our salvation in the next, through Jesus Christ our blessed Lord and Saviour, to whom, &c. &c.

SERMON II.

THE NATIVITY.

FOR UNTO US A CHILD IS BORN, UNTO US A SON IS GIVEN: AND THE GOVERNMENT SHALL BE UPON HIS SHOULDER, AND HIS NAME SHALL BE CALLED WONDERFUL, COUNSELLOR, THE MIGHTY GOD, THE EVERLASTING FATHER, THE PRINCE OF PEACE.-Isaiah ix. 6.

THE event which we are this day called upon to commemorate, is altogether wonderful. The fulness of time is arrived. Prophesies are accomplished. Promises are fulfilled.

The expectations of the Church are realized. The desire of all nations is come: and with the shepherds of Bethlehem, we have contemplated "the babe wrapt in swadling clothes, and lying in a manger." A new star has graced his birth. Wise men have travelled from the East to do him homage. And a multitude of the heavenly host have praised God, and said, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will towards men." Thus, heaven and earth have borne witness to the importance of this But the testimony borne to Him in the text, is most glorious and conclusive, and the return of this day renders it peculiarly seasonable and interesting. Let us then indulge ourselves in a few reflections on his incarnation, his empire, and his name, naturally flowing from the words of the text.

event.

And, in the first place, his coming in the flesh is expressly noticed in these words, "Unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given"-concerning which words we may begin, by observing, that they seem to speak

of a present event, which, at the time they were uttered, could only be prophetic; but it is related here as an historical event. The Church, at that time, could have only expected this blessing; but it is mentioned, nevertheless, as actually enjoyed-a child is born, a Son is given; because, to purpose and to execute, to promise and to bestow, are the same thing with God. One day with the Lord "is as a thousand years, and a thousand years are as one day." The divisions of time, which mark out to mortals the present and the future, are nothing to him, whose being excludes all past and to come, and who says of himself, "I am is my name, and this is my memorial in all generations." But for whom is this blessing designed? Who are authorized to say, Unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given? The persons to whom he was immediately sent, were "the lost sheep of the house of Israel." He "came first unto his own, and his own received him not." This, however, was not universally the case. There were some, "who were looking for redemption in Jerusalem." Simeon, Anna, and others, eagerly embraced him as the consolation of Israel. Some, by his preaching and miracles, also believed in him. Moreover, all his first followers, and his twelve Apostles, were Jews. Since that time, an awful blindness has happened to this singular people: and even to this day, when Moses is read, the "veil is upon their heart: nevertheless, when it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, there shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob."

But he was to be a more general blessing. "It is a light thing," says God, "that thou shouldst be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel. I will also give thee a light for the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth." And hence it was, that the angel said to the shepherds, "Behold I bring you good tidings of great joy,