thine enemies thy footstool. And the Apostle (Col. iii. 24) speaks clearly to the sense of this mutual relation between Christ and his disciples, as follows: Knowing that of the LORD ye shall receive the reward of your inheritance, for ye serve the LORD Christ.

As the benefit and consequence of proving the Godhead of Christ, was of the greatest importance for all Christians to understand, in that this knowledge gives infinite weight and merit to all that he hath done and suffered; and, further, assures us of his power to do all that we can need, to secure our eternal salvation: so, the constant acknowledgment that he is in the truest sense our LORD, will always remind us of his just right to our best services, as our immediate Head and Master, whence we derive our very name of Christians: for, as Jesus Christ has been shown to be God, together with the Father; and as by him God created the world; so has he, naturally, the same original right of dominion with him, and is LORD of all his creatures: which right the Apostle defends in these words (Eph. iv. 5), There is one LORD, one faith, one baptism; and in 1 Cor. viii. 6, he saith, There is one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him; which leads us directly to the consideration of the most important sense in which we acknowledge Christ to be qur Lord; and that is, on account of what he

hath done for us. This I shall make the first division of the subject, upon which I mean to speak to you at present; which, when clearly stated and seriously attended to, will naturally introduce the obligation of our service to him, upon a principle that alone can qualify any good work; and it will also form a proper conclusion of what may be necessary to observe upon this portion of the second article of the Creed.

1. Now, by Christ's coming into the world, and dying for us, he redeemed us from death, and so became OUR LORD, by virtue of that purchase which he thereby made for us. Indeed Christ began in one respect to be our Lord before his death, as is evident from John, xiii. 3, where it is said, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from God, and went to God, arose from supper, and delivered that astonishing and exemplary lesson of humility, which is so very necessary to prove us his true disciples. And when he had closed the ceremony, he confirms his title to their obedience to him, by saying, Ye call me Master and Lord, and ye say well, for so I am; and he deduces, at the same time, this valuable memorial from what he had just been doing, Let not the disciple be above his LORD; for I have given you an example, by this single act of humility, how you must conduct yourselves as Christians, in your general beha

viour towards one another, and your brethren at large. Again, Again, his authority is further established, by the publishing of his Gospel; lowering the value of the ceremoniul law, and setting out the conditions of life and death to mankind; for, in Matthew, ix. 2-6, he asserts his power to forgive sins, before his death: Son, be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee: which he expressly declares, that they might know that the Son of man had power on earth to forgive sins. However, the full exercise of his dominion was not entered upon till after his resurrection; for to this end, saith the Apostle (Rom. xiv. 9), Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be the LORD both of the dead and the living. And he declares himself, to his Apostles, (in Matthew, xxviii. 18), All power is given unto me, in heaven and earth.

Having said sufficient as to the authority of Christ's title, a very few words will convince us how long he will continue in this last respect to be our Lord; and this will be for ever-for of his kingdom (saith the Evangelist St. Luke, i. 32, 33) there will be no end. But so far as the nature of a great part of his authority over his church on earth, is proper only to its present state, and will finally close at the day of judgment; so, consequently, all further exercise of this particular authority will cease with it. Christ, as Mediator between God and man, must reign

till he has put all his enemies under his feetthat is, till sin, death, the devil, and all wicked men, shall be destroyed; and all his faithful servants delivered from their power. And when this is done, he will then deliver up this authority to God, even the Father. Nevertheless, as God-man, he will make good the prophecy of Daniel, by reigning over his purified followers and saints to all eternity in heaven: for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.

Surely a stronger mark cannot be given, both of Christ's love and power, and how much God loveth his creatures, than that he hath sent his Son to destroy death, and him that brought death into the world, that is, the devil, or sin, which is the only cause of death; and moreover has promised us the inheritance of heaven, if we are not so dead to our own best interests, as to neglect to profit by the means he has appointed to that end.

Let us now inquire what Christ has further done for us, which entitles him to be our LORD in the dearest sense-and inestimable truly is the work! He hath reconciled God to his creatures by enabling them to become, in a degree, what they were at first created; that is, in the image and likeness of their heavenly Father, by renewing in them a sense of their best happiness,

and a will turned to him, which our first parents perverted by inclining it to the love of this outward world. They preferred a vain knowledge of the things made, to a due obedience to the great Creator of them: by which they lost that purity of nature in which they were first formed; and till that nature derived to them by their offence, received a new capacity of improvement, God could not possibly be reconciled to them, or take any pleasure in them; for light and darkness cannot dwell together. The chief blessing, then, which Christ from first to last hath procured for us is the grace of the Holy Spirit, to build us up again to the likeness of upright creatures, that we may be capable of partaking of the divine nature, in such measure at least, as to constitute the utmost happiness a finite being can receive. The very word reconciled, implies the positive necessity of our turning to God again; for he cannot, in the nature of things, be pleased with or conciliatad to any will that is turned from him; because what does not desire nor seek the object of all good, which is himself, must be evil. He was pleased or satisfied with his creatures, when he first made them, because he saw that they were good; as every thing must be, that is made in his likeness. But when, by the abuse of that will, which was the trial of their obedience, they lost that image, which could alone preserve them.