they can be supposed to perish, viz. either by the hands of their enemies, or through their own internal weakness. But against both of these they have all the security that the faithfulness and power of Immanuel can give them. Underneath them are the everlasting arms, Deut. xxxiii. 27. I will put my fear in their hearts, says he, that they shall not depart from me, Jer. xxxii. 40. The most formidable of their enemies, or rather those under whom all the rest take their station, are, Satan, the world, sin, death, and the grave. But all these Immanuel hath conquered in his person, and therefore over his friends they shall not triumph. As for the first, he spoiled principalities and powers, and made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in himself, Col. ii. 15. Respecting the second, he expressly says, "In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world," John xvi. ult. Concerning the third, the scripture teaches, that the strength of sin is the law, 1 Cor. xv. 56. but that sin shall not have dominion over the friends of Christ, they not being under the law, but under grace, Rom vi. 14. Touching the two last, Immanuel's promise stands recorded, Hos. xiii. 14. "I will ransom them from the power of the grave, I will redeem them from death: O! death, I will be thy plagues; O! grave, I will be thy destruction; repentance shall be hid from mine eyes." In the faith of this, the friends of Christ may adopt the apostle's words, and sing, “ O! death, where is thy sting? and where thy victory, grave?", 1 Cor. xv. 55. Sure as he felt the sting of death, they never shall. Sure as he burst the bands of the grave, they also shall. He died, Rom. viii. 34. they shall only sleep in him, 1 Thess. iv. 14. Because he liveth, they shall live also, John xiv. 19. Over the devil, the world, sin, death, and the grave, they shall obtain a complete and an eternal victory through Christ, 1 Cor. xv. 57. They shall not only be conquerors, but more than conquerors through him that loved them, Rom. viii. 37. In conclusion of this particular, permit me to repeat his own emphatic words, John x. 28, 29, 30,

"I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand My Father who gave them me, is greater than all: and none is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one.'

8thly. What was said concerning Christ, may strike terror into his enemies. The salvation of his people is not more certain, than is their utter destruction. That God in whose form he is, and with whom he is altogether equal, has engaged to make his enemies his footstool, Psalm cx. i. He has said, "I will beat down his foes before his face, and plague them that hate him," Psalm lxxxix. 23. If his soul delight daily in his Son, Prov. viii. 30. Isa, xlii. 1. O! how must his holy indignation burn against all those who have no pleasure in him! If he have ever a place in his bosom, and a seat upon his throne, what must be the end of those who will have none of him? Sure as the Son glorified the Father, the Father will glorify him. Enemies may now take counsel against the Lord, and against his anointed, saying, "Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. But he that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. Yet a little, and he shall speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure," Psalm ii. 2-5. After all his other messengers, he sent unto men his Son, saying, "They will reverence my Son," Matt. xxi. 37. But if instead of revering, they ridicule him, what can be expected, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment, and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries? The sword of justice shall be awakened the second time, so to speak, and smiting through the loins of his enemies, it shall be bathed in their blood. It was awoke against the Surety, but against his despisers, it shall awake to sleep no more: no more to return into its scabbard. Nay, the Son himself, though me diator by office, will appear as in person against his ir reconcilable enemies. Having refused to bow to the sceptre of his grace, they shall be broken with his iron

rod: he shall dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel, Psalm ii. 2. The great day of his wrath is hastening on, and who shall be able to stand! He will come with clouds, and every eye shall see him, and they also who pierced him; and all the kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him, Rev. i. 7. Those who reproached him as an impostor, who ridiculed his atonement, and thought him to be only a man, shall all be made to know that he is God, God the Judge. They trode him under foot, and counted the blood of the testament wherewith he was consecrated an unholy thing. But ah! what a turning of the tables at the final judgment! Then he will tread them in his anger, trample them in his fury, and as with their blood stain all his raiment, Isa. Ixiii. 3. Now the day of his grace is despised; but that of his vengeance shall quickly come. Now he prays sinners to be reconciled unto God; but then as a lion he shall roar against his ene mies and prevail. Now he entreats sinners to come unto him, and they will not. Then he will command them to depart from him, and they shall. For from heaven he shall be revealed with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 Thess. i. 8.

9thly and Lastly. Permit me to put a close to all that has been said, by tendering a few directions, which under divine influence may be useful at such a time as this.

1st. Be serious in your enquiries after truth. Truth is in herself a reality, standing in opposition to fiction and to falsehood. She is therefore to be sought with seriousness. Such as scorn, shall never find her. For what have fools to do with celestial truth? If mathematical truth demand a painful investigation: if, to contemplative minds, moral truth be the object of enquiry: if historical truth engage the minds of many, with what assiduity should we seek after the knowledge of evangelical? When inen never seek after her, no marvel they continue strangers to her. When the scorner, says with haughty Pilate, What is truth? it is but just

he remain in his ignorance. If the sufferings and the glory of Christ are things into which the angels desire to look, 1 Pet. i. 12. shall we despise them as unworthy of our notice?

2dly. In your enquiry after truth, study the holy scriptures. They are the field where lie the precious pearls. And therefore such as never set foot on the one, cannot expect to be enriched with the other. It is by revelation only that we can come to the knowledge of evangelic truth. Let us therefore acquaint ourselves with the inspired volumes. To them let us daily go, that we may hear what the God of truth has said. To these wells of salvation let us often come, that thence we may draw the living water.

3dly. To the reading of the scriptures, let us add fervent prayer to the Father of Lights that he may send his Holy Spirit, to lead us to the knowledge of the truth. Let us never look into the scriptures without looking up to him whose word they are, crying with the Psalmist, " Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law," Psalm cxix. 18. To think that reading, without prayer, may suffice to lead unto truth, is to trust on ourselves. There must be a divine agency on our minds, else we shall never see the truth so as to love it. Unless taught of God, we cannot know the truth as it is in Jesus. He who has wrote the truth to us by means of men, must also write it in us with his own hand.

4thly. Walk according to your light, as you would wish to have it increased. Being faithful in a little, is the high way to be entrusted with more. The ulti

mate end of light is to direct, and so is it with evange lic truth. To know the truth, and not to walk in it, is a fearful abuse, which God will not fail to avenge. The secret of the Lord is with them only who fear him. If any man, says Christ, will do his will who sent me, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself, John vii. 17.

5thly. Hold fast the truth which you have learned. Having bought it, so to speak, sell it not, for its price

is above rubies. Be not soon shaken in mind by the subtile disputes of men. Plain scripture may bear you up against a thousand subtilties. Be not moved with mockers. They can laugh who cannot reason. The higher that the winds of error blow, cleave more closely to the truth. Hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown, Rev. iii. 11. Struggle for every truth as the high priest would have done for the stones of his breastplate. The attempt of some miscreant to have torn one of these out of its place, would not have been more unhallowed than that of those, who would rob you of the truth revealed in the glorious gospel.

6thly. Beware of every thing which may have the remotest tendency to confirm enemies in their prejudices against the truth. All the New Testament writers, whether historical or epistolary, set us a notable example as to this. They do not launch out into provoking language against the heathens with whom they were surrounded. How pitiable to see numbers of disputants, who throw much more mire and dirt upon one another, than light upon the subject concerning which they profess to contend. It is not in wrath, but in meekness, that we should deal with those who oppose themselves, 2 Tim. ii. 25.

7thly and Lastly. Shun, however, all unnecessary familiarity with them. It is sacred to a proverb, that a companion of fools shall be destroyed, Prov. xiii. 20. To be discreet is one thing, familiar another. By forming an unnecessary connection with the enemies of truth, we are ready to blunt the edge of our zeal, to learn of them their way, and to bring our own character under suspicion.

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Now unto him, who being in the form of God, and thought it no robbery to be altogether equal with God, nevertheless took upon him the form of a servant, to him be glory and dominion, for ever and ever. Amen.

FINIS.