that was made. Behold the execution of the eternal plan. The defign is copied to an iota. It is the incommunicable prerogative of Deity to create. He who creates cannot be himself a creature. By the WORD were all things made, the WORD therefore could not have been made. What God did by the Word of his power he did by himfelf; and " through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God." Mark the univerfality of this creative energy; All things were made by Him. The apostle makes a fplendid enumeration of thofe all things, in his epiftle to the Coloffians, ch. t. v. 16." For by Him were all things created that are in heaven, and that are in earth, vifible and invifible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things were created by him and for him." Wherever therefore there is created existence, there is omnipotent, omniprefent, creating and fuftaining virtue, and there can be but One Omnipotent. Omniprefent. "Angels" are faid to "excel in ftrength," but that ftrength is imparted, and it is exerted or retrained by a will not their own; they "do His commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word." Man is ble of doing great things, but his power is limited to the modification of materials provided to his hand. Chriftians are indeed faid to be" labourers together with God," and "workers. together with him ;" it is the highest glory of human nature : but this labouring and working is not in aid to feebleness, it goes not to the production of what had no previous being; it fimply implies the adoption of the fame views with God, and. the imitation of his works of goodnefs and mercy.. The united powers of angels and men are unequal to the formation of a fingle atom, for, to the afcription of the creation of univerfal nature to the Word, John fubjoins his exclufive title to the character of Creator: it is a glory which he will not give to any other; "without him was not any thing made that was made." He fpake, and it was done; he commanded and it food faft.' "God faid, Let there be light, and there was light." And who but God could thus fpeak, thus produce?

In Him was life. In the vegetable world life is a ftate of expanfion, a progress of fructification, a power of reproduction, but all iffuing in the decay and diffolution of the parent germ. A grain of wheat in order to vitality must itself confume. "That which thou foweft is not quickened, except it die." It has not therefore life in itself. It was the divine mandate which first generated, and which ftill fupports the wonderful procefs. God faid, Let the earth bring forth grafs, the herb yielding feed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit, whofe feed was

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in itself, upon the earth, after his kind: and it was fo: and God faw that it was good." From the fame fountain of life proceeded animal nature: "All theep and oxen, yea and the beafts of the field: the towl of the air, and the fifh of the fea, and whatfoever paffeth through the paths of the feas." A higher fpecies of life iffues from the felf fame fource. The Lord God formed man of the duft of the ground, and breathed into his noftrils the breath of life; and man became a living foul." In all thefe gradations we behold a vital principle, but that principle derived, ftanding in need of continual fupplies, and haftening to extinction. Here we are prefented with life underived, needing no external fupport, inextinguishable. "In Him" fupereminently" was life" a life of which man is in a peculiar fenfe partaker: and the life was the light of men.

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"The light of the body is the eye;" and a precious gift it is. Truly the light is fweet, and a pleafant thing it is for the eyes to behold the fun." But the faculty of vision, as well as fome others, is bestowed in a higher degree of acuteness on certain of the animal creation, than upon man. He however poffeffes a light denied to the beafts that perish. "There is a fpirit in man; and the infpiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding." "The fpirit of man is the candle of the Lord," by which he is diftinguished from, and exalted far above the beafts of the earth and the fowls of heaven. And this" light of men" is the gift of Him who " has life in himfelf." "He that planted the ear, fhall he not hear? He that formed the eye, fhall he not fee? He that teacheth man knowl. edge, fhall not he know ?"

And the light fhineth in darkness. Material light neceffarily difpels darkness; when the fun rifes the fhadows flee away. But mental darkness refifts the cleareft light. The great fource of intellectual day has shined through every age and upon every land; but every age and every land have exhibited men grovelling in the dark, wilfully fhutting their eyes, and then denying the existence of light. The hiftory of mankind is a melancholy demonftration of this," and this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil, for every one that doth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, left his deeds fhould be reproved." It is a corrupted heart that diflubs and misleads the intellect. "If, therefore," O man, "the light that is in thee be darknefs, how great is that darknefs!" On whom does this cenfure fall? On the ruder nations, and the groffer periods of ignorance and barbarifin?

Yes.

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Yes, and likewife on periods of illumination and refinement, on nations who, in the pride of their heart, appropriated all wifdom to themselves, and ftigmatized the reft of mankind. with the name of Barbarian: it falls on the boafted ages of Alexander and of Auguftus, on learned Athens and imperial Rome. Of them it is that the apostle Paul thus writes: When they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Profeffing themselves to be wife, they became fools: and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beafts, and creeping things. Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and ferved the creature more than the Creator.". This accounts for that earnestness of exhortation employed by the fame apoftle in his epiftle to the Ephefians: "This I fay, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, having the underftanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart who, being paft feeling, have given themselves over unto lafcivioufnefs, to work all uncleannefs with greedi nefs." Thus though the Light of the world thone, and still fhineth, the darkness comprehended it not. On whom does the cenfure fall? On pagans of ages paft, and on pagans now "walking in darkness, and dwelling in the land of the fhadow of death;" on unbelieving Jews and the blinded pofterity of Ishmael? Alas! "darkness ftill covers earth" of lands denominated Chriftian, "and grofs darkness the people" who bear that venerable name. What grievous ignorance have we to deplore! what impudent infidelity, what abounding iniquity, what horrid profanation of the name, of the day, of the book of God! Sun of righteousness, arife" on thele finful lands "with healing in thy wings," "deliver us from the power of darkness," that we may be "light in the Lord."

ner,

The evangelift having difplayed the glory of the WORD, as the fource of all being, whether material, animal or intelligent, adverts to the miffion of John Baptift, his immediate forerun"the voice crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the defert a high-way for our God" the finger pointing to " the Lamb of God which taketh away the fin of the world." Paying all due honour to that "burning and fhining light" which came in the fpirit and power of Elias, he reprefents him as merely the harbinger of

the

the LIGHT, the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. John Baptift came for a witness, and he faithfully delivered his teftimony: "He that cometh after me is preferred before me; for he was before me-whose fhoes' latchet I am not worthy to unloofe: He muft increase, but I muft decrease," as the morning ftar "hides his diminished head" when the great orb of day appears.

"Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God," but " the world by wifdom knew not God." He was in the world through the whole extent of its duration, as the all-upholding Word, the all-regulating power, but the men of the world, even the wife and prident" difcerned him not, acknowledged him not, adored him not. "The fulness of time" at length came. The Scriptures were fulfilled; the day which" Abraham rejoiced to fee" began to dawn; the "Star out of Jacob" arofe. Surely man will fall down and worship him. They furely, at least, "to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the fervice of God, and the promifes, whofe are the fathers, and of whom, as concerning the flesh, Chrift came," they furely will flock to "the brightnefs of his rifing." This is a reasonable expectation, but it was not realized. The melancholy fat is, He came unto his own, and his own received him not, and the prediction is verified by the event; When we fhall fee him, there is no beauty that we should defire him: He is defpited and rejected of men"they hid their faces from him; he was defpifed, and they efteemed him not."

This carries us forward, with our evangelift, to the great,. the eventful day when the WORD was made flesh and dwelt among us. The Scripture term, flesh, it is well known means man, human nature, the human race. Thus in defcribing the univerfality of human degeneracy it is faid, "Ali flesh had corrupted their ways." Thus, in confidence of divine protection, the Plalit exultingly exclaims, "I will not fear what flesh can do unto me." And the Prophet, viewing the redemption of mankind as co-extenfive with mortality, while he declares that all fish is grafs," triumphs in the thought that "all flesh fhould fee the falvation of God." To thefe, inru-. merable inftances might be adduced to prove that the Evangelift, when he fays" the Word was made flesh" means to convey this idea, that the WORD, all-creating, all-vivifying, all-illuminating, affumed humanity, " was in the world," tabernacled "was among men, emitted a fenfible glory, "as of the only begotten

6.

D

of

"Verily he took not

of the Father, full of grace and truth." on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the feed of Abraham"-" as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he alfo himfelt likewife took part of the fame"-" in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren". "for which caule he is not afhamed to call them brethren."

And thus, Men and Brethren we perceive one and the fame. animating principle calling worlds into existence, peopling them with angels and men, communicating intelligence, exercifing unbounded empire-and making himself of no reputation, in the form of a lervant, in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man, humbling himself to a mean eftate, to the fuffering of reproach and contempt, becoming

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obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." To what meannefs of condition ought not we his difciples, therefore, cheerfully to fubmit?" For our fakes he became poor," and fhall we be ashamed of honeft poverty? Did he go by the rame of " the carpenter's fon," and dare a Chriftian oftentatiously to display the heraldry of his ancestors, or to blush at what the world calls low birth?" He hath not despised, nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, nor hid his face from him when he cried," and can one called by his name turn a deaf ear to the cry of distress, or hide his face from a poor brother? We cannot like him say "Let there be light" "Lazarus come forth;" we cannot like him walk on water or filence the wind; we cannot like him give eyes to the blind, or speech to the dumb. But we may with him be "meek and lowly inheart," merciful and compaffionate, forbearing and forgiving: we can go abou doing good, and miniftering to the neceffitous. We cannot attain to the height of his divine excellence and perfection, but we may with him defcend to the lowlieft offices of beneficence and condefcenfior! we may learn of him to overcome evil with good,'

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On the other hand, to what height of elevation may not the Chriftian afpire? Let not the idea of temporal elevation feduce you. Think not of" the kingdoms of this world and the glory of them," which perifh with the ufing. Chrift's" kingdom is not of this world." Let not the blind ambition of the fons of Zebedee fuggeft a dream of right and left hand places by the fide of an earthly throne. Be it your fludy and ambition to "have this mind in you which also was in Chrift Jefus." Let the avarice of the worldly mind accumulate bag upon bag, add house to house, field to field, but let a nobler avarice excite you, the difciples of the bleffed Jefus, to" add to your faith, virtue; and to virtue, knowledge; and to knowledge, temper

ance;