tles were admitted as witnesses. The transfiguration of our Saviour's body may also have been intended as a type or emblem of that incorruptible and spiritual frame with which the just shall be invested at the general resurrection. It is needless, surely, to state how much the perfection of his character established his claim to be a teacher of righteousness. His cruel and ignominious death, while it attested, beyond contradiction, the sincerity of his pretensions, and sealed the veracity of his character, also, by furnishing the main ground on which rested the pardon of sin, abolished sacrifices for ever, and afforded a certain pledge of the clemency of God towards all who, embracing his religion, manifested the truth of their profession by repentance and amendment. His resurrection constituted the grand evidence of his divine mission, and gave an encouraging anticipation of the resurrection of his followers. His sojourning forty days on earth after that event, enabled his apostles, and “more than five hundred brethren, of whom he was seen at once,' completely to ascertain the identity of his person, and to bear testimony to this grand proof of his mission. This circumstance may also be considered as an emblem of his "coming a second time, to judge the quick and the dead." His ascension into heaven affords the certainty of his

b

1 Cor. xv. 6.

b 2 Tim. iv. 1. Heb. ix. 28.

followers "obtaining the end of their faith, even the salvation of their souls," and that place which he is gone "to prepare for them, that where he is, there they may be also."

His present power at the right hand of God constitutes him head over all things to the church, by showing him "placed above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." This glorious and permanent exaltation establishes his power to protect and defend the real interests of his church, and of every individual member of it, to extend its limits, and to insure its final triumph. The effusion of the Holy Ghost on the apostles, the gift of tongues, and other miraculous powers, including the prophetic endowments with which they were furnished, were so necessary to qualify them for their most important of ministries, that, without them, they could not have discharged it; and as these were indispensable qualifications for their office, so their astonishing success evinces the reality of their possessing them.

a 1 Pet. i. 9.

b John xiv. 3.

d Eph. i. 20. Heb. xii. 2. Eph. i. 21.

c Mark xvi. 19. Phil. ii. 10, 11.

Thus, the memorable facts above stated, as recorded in the New Testament, are both closely connected with each other, and supply a solid foundation for the doctrines which are built on them. These doctrines I proceed now briefly to

state.

CHAP. II.

OF THE DOCTRINES OF CHRISTIANITY.

THE fundamental doctrine of Christianity, as well as of Judaism and of natural religion, is, that there is only one God, the creator of heaven and earth, a being of infinite perfection, the supreme governor of the world, who exercises a constant, wise, and beneficent providence, and is the sole object of religious regard and worship; that he has prescribed to his intelligent and moral creatures, laws adapted to their respective constitutions and faculties; that he exacts their obedience to these; that he will judge them according to the rules of unalterable justice; and that their happiness or misery will depend on their conformity to these rules, or on their departure from them. But, to the dictates

both of natural religion and of the Jewish dispensation, the religion of Christ has superadded several most important informations concerning the character and proceedings of the Deity in regard to the human race. The religion of nature discovers the unity and attributes of God merely as the Creator, the Governor, and the Judge of the world, and as exacting from rational creatures complete obedience to his laws. But it cannot make, and never has attempted to make, any provision for the pardon and recovery of sinners, any farther than the general notions of the divine clemency might lead to expect. Nor has it ever afforded accurate and definite notions of that moral rectitude which could lay claim to the divine favour, or been able to prescribe to man a just and comprehensive standard of duty in his present condition and circumstances. Accordingly, all the most enlightened heathen moralists take for granted, that their conceptions of` the virtuous character are adequate and complete, and suppose that whosoever exhibited these realized in conduct, was certain to obtain the favour of the Deity, and the highest felicity of human nature. But their most magnificent descriptions of virtue evince their very inadequate conceptions of it in some of its essential ingredients, and consequently the lofty, but hollow ground on which they seemed to stand, was incapable of bearing the solid structure of true re

ligion. To say nothing more, they had no just ideas of duty towards God himself, and entertained no notion of the necessity of an economy

of

grace for fallen and degenerate man. Under the Mosaical dispensation the Deity is most gloriously described, and his attributes are exhibited with the most wonderful sublimity of conception, and the most impressive energy of language. Still, under that dispensation, he appears rather in the character of a just and tremendous judge, exacting strict obedience to his statutes, and rewarding or punishing according to its fulfilment or neglect, than in that of a merciful and affectionate father. "Cursed is every one," saith the apostle, quoting Deut. xxvii. 26, "that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them." The Mosaical law, it is true, prescribes various modes of expiating offences of a ritual and ceremonial nature. But, to use again the words of the same apostle, "the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, could never, with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually, make the comers thereunto perfect;" that is, could have no effect to deliver from the guilt and punishment of moral depravity. Indeed, as it is stated in this very passage, the chief excellence and ef

a Gal. iii. 10.