an universal sovereign, whose power never fails, and whose wisdom and goodness never change, the prospect clears up on every side. A ray from the great source of light seems to illuminate the whole creation. Good men discover a parent and a friend. They attain a fortress in every danger; a refuge amidst all storms; a dwelling place in all generations. They are no longer afraid of evil tidings. Their heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord.

THOUGH these reasonings, from the unchanging tenor of divine government, cannot but afford much comfort to good men, their satisfaction, however, becomes still more complete, when they consider the explicit promises which are given them in the word of God. The immutability of the divine purpose assures them most perfectly of those promises being fulfilled in due time, how adverse soever circumstances may at present appear to their accomplishment. The strength of Israel is not a man that he should lie, nor the son of man that he should repent. Hath he said it, and shall he not do it? Hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? Men have the command only of the present time. When that is suffered to pass, changes may befall, either in their own state, or in the situation of things around them, which shall defeat their best intentions in our behalf, and render all their promises fruitless. Hence, even setting aside the danger of human inconstancy, the confidence which we can repose on any earthly protector is extremely imperfect. Man, in his highest glory, is but a reed floating on the stream of time, and forced to follow every new direction of the current. But God is the rock of ages. All time is equally in his hands. Intervening accidents cannot embarrass him; nor any unforeseen obstacle retard the performance of his most distant promise. One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years are as one day. There is no vicissitude in the human state in which good men cannot take sanctuary with him as a sure and abiding friend; the safe conductor of their pilgrimage here, as well as the eternal rest of their souls hereafter. All their patrons may desert them, and all their friends may die; but the Lord still lives, who is their rock; and the most high God, who is their Redeemer. He hath promised that he will not leave them when they are old, nor forsake them when their strength faileth; and that even when their hearts shall faint, and their flesh fail, he will be the strength of their heart, and their portion for ever. His immutability is not only the ground of trust in him during their own abode on earth, but gives them the satisfaction of looking forward to the same wise and good administration as continued to the end of time. When departing hence, and bidding adieu to life, with all its changeful scenes, they can with comfort and peace leave their family, their friends, and their dearest concerns, in the hands of that God who reigneth forever, and whose countenance shall al

ways behold the upright with the same complacency. My days are like a shadow that declineth, and I am withered like the grass. But thou, oh Lord, shalt endure for ever; and thy remembrance to all generations. The children of thy servants shall continue; and their seed shall be established before thee.* SUCH are the benefits which good men may derive from meditating on God as without variableness or shadow of turning. It inspires them with sentiments of devout, humble, and grateful adoration. It points out to them the unvarying tenor of conduct which they ought to hold; checks their fickleness and inconstancy; and amidst all distresses and fears, affords them comfort. The immutability of God is the surest basis on which their hopes can be built. It is indeed the pillar on which the whole universe rests.-On such serious and solemn meditations let our thoughts often dwell, in order to correct that folly and levity which are so apt to take possession of the human heart. And if our minds be overawed, and even depressed with so high a view of the divine nature, let them be relieved by the reflection, that to this unchangeable God we are permitted to look up, through a gracious Mediator, who, though possessed of divine perfection, is not unconscious of human distress and frailty.

SERMON XX.

ON THE COMPASSION OF CHRIST.

[Preached at the Celebration of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper.]

We have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.-HEBREWS, iv. 15.

WHEN we compare the counsels of Providence with the plans of men, we find a like difference obtain, as in the works of nature compared with those of art. The works of art may, at first view, appear the most finished and beautiful; but when the eye is assisted to pry into their contexture, the nicest workmanship is discerned to be rough and blemished. Whereas the works of nature gain by the most accurate examination; and those which on a superficial survey appear defective or rude, the more intimately they are inspected, discover the more exact construction and consummate beauty. In the same manner, the systems of worldly policy, though at first they seem plausible and profound, soon betray in their progress, the narrowness of the human understanding; while those dispensations of Providence, which appeared to furnish objections either against the goodness or the wisdom of Heaven, have, upon a more extensive view of their consequences, frequently afforded the most striking proofs of both.

God manifested in the flesh, was to the Jews a stumblingblock, and to the Greeks foolishness. It contradicted every prepossession which their confined ideas of religion and philosophy led them to entertain. If a superior Being was to interpose for the restoration of a degenerate world, they concluded that he would certainly appear in celestial majesty. But the thoughts of God are not as the thoughts of men. The divine wisdom saw it to be fit that the Saviour of mankind should in all things be made like unto those whom he came to save. By living as a man among men, he dispensed instruction in the most winning manner. He added to instruction the grace and the force of his own exam

ple He accommodated that example to the most trying and difficult situations of human life; and, by suffering a painful death, he both taught men how to suffer and die; and, in that nature which had offended, he offered a solemn expiation to God for human guilt.

Besides these ends, so worthy of God, which were accomplished by the incarnation of Christ, another, of high importance, is suggested in the text. Human life is to good men, as well as to others, a state of suffering and distress. To supply them with proper consolation and encouragement during such a state, was one great purpose of the undertaking of Christ. With this view he assumed the office of their high priest, or mediator with God; and the encouragement which this office affords them, will be proportioned to their assured belief, first of his power, and next of his compassion. His power is set forth in the verse preceding the text, and the proper argument is founded upon it.- -Seeing that we have a great high priest who is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. But though it be encouraging to know that our high priest is the Son of God, and that he is passed into the heavens, yet these facts alone are not sufficient to render him the full object of our confidence. For, as the apostle afterwards observes, it belongs to the character of a high priest to be taken from among men, that he may have compassion on the ignorant and them that are out of the way, seeing that he himself is compassed with infirmity. In order then to satisfy us of our high priest's possessing also the qualifications of mercy and compassion, we are told that he is touched with the feeling of our infirmities, and was in all points tempted like as we are. The force of this consideration I purpose now to illustrate. I shall first explain the facts which are stated in the text, and then show how from these our Saviour's compassion is to be inferred, and in what manner it may be accommodated to the consolation and hope of good men amidst various exigencies of life.

THE assertion in the text of Christ's being touched with the feeling of our infirmities, plainly implies that he had full experience both of the external distresses, and of the internal sorrows of human nature. Assuming a body such as ours, he subjected himself to all the natural consequences of corporeal frailty. He did not choose for himself an easy and opulent condition, in order to glide through the world with the least molestation. He did not suit his mission to the upper ranks of mankind chiefly, by assimilating his state to theirs; but, born in meanness and bred up to labour, he submitted to the inconveniences of that poor and toilsome life which falls to the share of the most numerous part of the human race. Whatever is severe in the disregard of relations or the ingoatitude of friends, in the scorn of the

us.

proud or the insults of the mean, in the virulence of reproach or the sharpness of pain, was undergone by Christ. life was short, he familiarized himself in it with a wide compass Though his of human woe; and there is almost no distressful situation to which we can be reduced, but what he has experienced before There is not the least reason to imagine that the eminence of his nature raised him above the sensations of trouble and grief. Had this been the case he would have been a sufferer in appearance only, not in reality; there would have been no merit in his patience, or in the resignation which he expressed. On the contrary it appears, from many circumstances, that the sensibility of his nature was tender and exquisite. He affected none of that hard indifference in which some ancient philosophers vainly glorified. He felt as a man, and he sympathised with the feelings of others. On different occasions we are informed that he was troubled in spirit, that he groaned, and that he wept. The relation of his agony in the garden of Gethsemane exhibits a striking picture of the sensations of innocent nature oppressed with anguish. It discovers all the conflict between the dread of suffering on the one hand, and the sense of duty on the other; the man struggling for a while with human weakness, and in the end recollected in virtue, and rising superior to the objects of dismay which were then in his view. Father! if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt. Thy will be done. Thus was our Saviour touched with the feeling of our infirmities. He was a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief

It is added in the text, that he was in all points tempted like as we are. To be tempted is, in the language of Scripture to undergo such trials of virtue as are accompanied with difficulty and conflict. Though our Lord was not liable to any temptations from depravity of nature, yet he was perpetually exposed to such as arise from situations the most adverse to virtue. His whole life was in this respect a course of temptation; that is, a severe trial of his constancy by every discouragement. He suffered repeated provocations both from friends and foes. endeavours to do good were requited with the most obstinate and His perverse opposition. Sometimes by the solicitations of ignorant multitudes he was tempted to accept the proffers of worldly greatness. Oftener, by the insults of multitudes, more blind and brutal, he was tempted to desert an office which exposed him to so much misery. Together with the world, the powers of darkness also combined their efforts against him. We are informed that he was led into the wilderness, and amidst the horrors of a wild and dreary solitude, was tempted of the devil. The great adversary of mankind seems to have been permitted to exert unusual proofs of his power and malice, on purpose that the trial