Every thing, excepting God, has had its beginning. The world has had a beginning, and the world will come to an end. Angels have had a beginning, but they are created of the same nature as the souls of men, and they are immortal, they shall have no end. God alone, the great God, the Supreme Being -God, He whom language cannot adequately describe, nor thought conceive-God, concerning whom humility is our best praise, and silence our best eloquence.-He alone is eternal. He alone had no beginning, and He will have no end. Millions of years, and millions of ages elapsed, before the world was created; and millions of ages will pass on, for ever and for ever, after the world has been destroyed; and this continued existence constitutes eternity, and this eternity is the attribute of God alone. There is one expression of Scripture which describes this notion of eternity better than any other. It is that, where the inspired writer says of the Almighty, from everlasting to everlasting thou art God 12; that is, during that portion of eternity which preceded the creation of the world, and during that portion of eternity which shall follow the destruction of the world; even "from everlasting to everlasting thou art God." He does not merely say He shall be God for ever; but He has been, as well as shall be, God for ever. Now the very same expression is used to describe the eternal existence of Christ. Thou Bethlehem

12 Psal. xc. 2.

Ephratah, says the Prophet, out of thee shall the Ruler of Israel come, whose goings forth have been from everlasting 13; or, as the original expresses it, from the days of eternity. We infer, therefore, from this, as well as from other passages of Scripture, which, for the sake of brevity, I omit, that Christ possesses eternity, the principal attribute of Deity; and therefore that His nature is divine. We are all willing to acknowledge that God the Father is eternal; but so long as God the Father existed, or shall exist, so long also His glory existed, and shall exist; and so long also, therefore, the brightness of His glory existed, and shall exist, and that brightness of His glory is Christ. So long as the Person of the Father existed and shall exist, so long also the express image of His Person existed, and shall exist; and that express image of His Person is Christ. He is, and was, and ever shall be, one with God, in a manner, to us incomprehensible ; but not, therefore, to be disbelieved.

Neither must we be contented with supposing that the existence of Christ, in this His own eternity, is merely a passive or quiescent existence. His nature is yet further proved to be divine, by His possessing that other power, which can belong only to an eternal Being, the power of creating, and the power of preserving the world. When the period came in which the one eternal Deity would create the world, Christ the eternal Son became the Creator of the heavens and of the earth 14. Thou, Lord, in the be"Appendix, Note I.

13 Mic. v. 2.

ginning hast laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of thy hands; and though they shall perish, thine eternity continueth. They shall perish, but thou remainest; they all shall wax old as doth a garment, but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail15. And as He created, so also He preserves the world; for by Him all things consist 16. It is CHRIST'S WORLD, in which all rational beings exist; for in Him, as well as by Him, were all these things created". Such are the declarations of the Scriptures respecting the nature of Christ, and that universe of material existences, and of spiritual existences-worlds, and angels, and men-whatever, or whoever it may be, which has been called forth into being by Him; and all these constitute His kingdom, which He possesses as the eternal God; and of this kingdom it is not possible there can be an end; for the subjects of this kingdom are not created for annihilation, but for immortality and glory. As God the Father cannot remove, and cannot destroy His own dominion-as the kingdom of Deity can never come to an end, though ten thousand material worlds like this on which we live, were to be created and destroyed-as Deity will exist for ever, and immortal beings will exist for ever-so also are the dominion of Christ, and the kingdom of Christ, so identified with that same kingdom of " paternal Deity," that they can never come to an end.

Christ is eternal, and His king

15 Psal. cii. 2.

16 Col. i, 17.

17 Col. i. 16.

dom is eternal; and that kingdom is the government of heaven and of earth, which He possesses, and which He has possessed for ever, as the eternal and unchangeable God-or, to use the language of inspiration, He is Christ over all, God blessed for ever 18. Of this dominion, the dominion of Christ as the one eternal God, there can be, and there shall be, no end.

Having thus explained to you from the scriptural doctrine of the nature of Christ, the meaning of that kingdom which shall have no end-we are now to consider what that kingdom of Christ is, of which cometh an end, and which He shall deliver up to the Father; and in order to do this, we must review that system, or plan, of redemption, which is revealed to us, in the pages of Scripture.

I have related to you the glory and the eternity of Christ-and if the declarations of the Scriptures had not been so express-if we had not been so accustomed to believe these declarations from infancy, we should either not believe now, or we should be overwhelmed with delight and with astonishment, with gratitude and with love, at the wonderful scheme of redemption which the Scriptures reveal to mankind. That scheme or system is briefly this soon after the world was created, some of the intellectual beings whom God had formed, perverted that freedom of their will, in which they had hitherto stood in goodness and

18 Rom. ix. 5.

happiness, and committed evil. If they had not been formed free to act and free to fall, as well as free to continue in their duty; they had been as mere machines, incapable of pleasing and of serving God. So it was, that some of these intellectual, though fallen beings, which belong to an invisible state, tempted the first parents of mankind, who had not long been placed upon the earth which we now inhabit, to offend against their God. I am unable to relate the mysterious connexion which appears to exist between this world, and the other worlds which God has created; but those persons are much mistaken who would suppose that man is of small importance in the universe of God: for our first parents had no sooner committed their offence against the law of God, by means of the temptation of a being of an invisible state;-no sooner, I say, had they fallen, but the eternal Son of God, the divine Being, of whom we have spoken, condescended to become the King of a new and peculiar kingdom, in which we are assured that the inhabitants of another state are interested; for these things the angels desire to look into 19. Christ then condescended to become the author of eternal salvation to all who would obey Him, and believe on Him and He further condescended so to rule over the affairs of mankind, and so to govern that universal Church, which consists of all believers, in all ages, and in all nations, that He shall at

19 1 Pet. i. 12.