eous."

Offered through him, as the appointed way to the Father, our prayers cannot be frustrated nor lost.

The same thought may help to make us watchful. If we have an habitual persuasion that our virtue and salvation are anxiously desired by our Lord, we cannot fail to be more anxious for them ourselves, and to watch for them diligently. If Peter had borne humbly in mind his Master's words, Simon, I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not," he would have been earnestly on his guard, and not have fallen. But he forgot it, and his faith failed. So may ours fail, if we will not secure it by the grateful recollection of what is still done in our behalf.

We may find this persuasion of particular worth to us in times of temptation, sorrow, and spiritual despondency. When we deeply feel our weakness and insufficiency, when the world is dark, and our hearts are gloomy, and peace seems departed, then we may find in this doctrine a soothing and strengthening power. We lean upon the compassion of one, who was in all points tempted as we are,' and was "made perfect through suffering." We feel secure of sympathy from Him who suffered for us in his humiliation, and does not forget us now that he is exalted; and while we meditate and pray, the cloud is gradually removed, and we are restored to the brightness and calmness of spiritual peace.

SERMON IX.

CHRIST THE JUDGE OF THE WORLD.

JOHN V. 22.

FOR THE FATHER JUDGETH NO MAN, BUT HATH COMMITTED ALL JUDGMENT TO THE SON

OUR knowledge of the character and dispensations of God is derived from two sources — - his works and his word; each of them addressed to and interpreted by our understanding. His works by which we mean the whole constitution of nature, so far as exposed to the view and investigation of man-offer the most convincing proofs of the existence, perfections, and agency of the omnipresent Spirit, and afford instructions, to a certain extent, clear and unquestionable, concerning his will and purposes. This is the religion of nature. His word contains the religion of revelation; a more complete discovery of his perfections and government, and comprising information respecting his designs and law, of which his works teach nothing. Especially in what regards the final purposes of God respecting the human race, and the mode in which they shall be accomplished, revelation unfolds what reason could never have gathered from nature. That there is a God, and that he rules the universe, "all Nature cries aloud through all her works."

"That he

delights in virtue," is also evinced by the law written on the heart. But of the great purpose of the present administration, of the final issue of this state of things, and the destiny which awaits man at the close of his mortal career, nothing is taught with certainty, and little can be even distinctly conjectured, from the intimations of nature around us, or the working of reason within us. What is known upon these points is derived from revelation. There we learn distinctly the objects of our existence, the intentions of our Maker concerning us, the means of securing his favor, the certainty of another life, and the true way to avoid its misery and insure its bliss. The important mysteries of the divine administration are laid before us open -" even that mystery which was kept secret since the world began, but is now made manifest by the writings of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God.”

These Scriptures especially teach-what the works of God could never tell us by what agency and through whose intervention the eternal benefits of divine grace are offered and secured to man. They alone unfold the offices of the Mediator between God and men, who brings the instructions and promises of a new covenant, and announces the peculiar relations and duties thence arising. All this, however, although not recorded in the volume of nature, is yet consistent with whatever that volume teaches. pensing of grace by Jesus Christ is an arrangement of the divine will altogether analogous to the other dispensations of God. It is conformable to all that we discern of the uniform and general procedure of Providence. Every thing in the universe is conducted through the ministration of subordinate agents. God bestows existence, and supports it, not by his own direct action, but through intermediate agency. He guides and rules, dispenses favor and mani

The dis

fests displeasure, by the operation of second causes, interposed between himself and his children. All things are his ministers and messengers to his offspring, in which and through which he is manifested, and they are his ministers and messengers to one another. It is one vast and unbroken system of mediation, ministration.

In perfect conformity to this, when he would establish among men the way of salvation, and bring them to everlasting life, he sent to them a Mediator, who should execute all which might be necessary to fulfil the purposes of the new dispensation, and be the head and prince of God's spiritual kingdom.

In order to the complete accomplishment of this extensive work, the Scriptures inform us that the authority of Judge is given to him; that he, who oversees and guides the whole progress of the great spiritual kingdom among men, and is in God's stead to carry it forward to its consummation, is also to be the final distributer of its awards. To this effect our text contains an express assertion—"The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment to the Son." This is repeated further on "He hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man." The same is implied in several of our Lord's parables, and especially in that which describes him as coming in the clouds, with the angels and glory of his Father, "to separate the evil from the good, as a shepherd divides the sheep from the goats." The apostle Paul says, "We must all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ." In his address to the Athenians, he stated, in express terms, "that God has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness, by that Man whom he hath ordained." Peter also, addressing Cornelius, "testified, that it is he who is ordained of God to be the judge of quick

and dead;" an expression which he repeats in his first epistle, and which Paul uses in his second epistle to Timothy.*

These passages decide what is the doctrine of the New Testament on this point. It has been the acknowledged doctrine of the church in all its divisions. It may have been understood in senses somewhat various, but in some sense it has been universally received.

Nothing can be more interesting to the human soul, than the solemnities of judgment. Nothing can be better worthy our habitual reflections, than the fact that there will be a righteous retribution when life shall have closed. All that pertains to that judgment, and to him who shall administer it, must be matter of deepest and most affecting interest. No one, who suffers himself to think at all, can think of it with indifference. I therefore ask attention to the remarks suggested by our text, concerning the nature of the office which Christ thus holds, the authority by which he exercises it, the reasons of his appointment to it, and the duties which are consequently imposed upon us.

1. The nature of this office.

The passages already cited teach that it is to be executed at the final consummation of all things, when the issues of this probation shall be made known, and every man shall receive "according to the deeds done in the body." At that time, it is the Son of man, who shall sit on the throne of the kingdom, and welcome the righteous to the joy of their Lord, and deliver the unprofitable to outer darkness.

The inquiry is here suggested, whether we are to understand that this shall be strictly the act of the Savior, present in his own person; or whether we are to suppose it intended only to represent that the doctrines and laws of his

* 1 Pet. iv. 5. 2 Tim. iv. 1.