heaven; if it had stopped short Jacob might have said, ah! the ladder is within a little way of heaven, but does not quite reach it; if I climb up to the top I shall not get there after all; but the top reached to heaven, to point out the divi-. nity and exaltation of the Son of God; such a Saviour became us who was God, God over all, blessed for evermore: and therefore the Arian scheme is most uncomfortable and destructive ; to talk of Christ as a Saviour that is not God, is no Christ at all. I would turn Deist to-morrow if I did not know that Christ was God; but cursed is the man that builds his faith upon an arm of flesh. If Christ is God, the Arians and Socinians, by their own principles, are undone for ever; but Jesus Christ is very God, and very man, begotten (and not made) of the Father: God, of his infinite mercy, write his divinity deep in our hearts!

Come

The bottom of the ladder reached to the earth; this points out to us the humiliation of the blessed Lord: for us men he came down from heaven; we pray to and for a descending God. All the sufferings which our Lord voluntarily exposed himself to, were that he might become a ladder for you and I to climb up to heaven by、 down from the cross, say they, and we will believe thee; if he had, what would have become of us? did they believe on him when he was dead, buried, and risen again? no. Some people say, if Christ was here, O dear we should love him; just as much as they did when he came down before. If he had come down from the cross, they would have hung him up again: O that you and I might make his cross a step to glory!

B b

As the top of the ladder pointed out his exaltation, the bottom his humiliation, the two sidesof the ladder being joined together, point out the union of the Deity and manhood in the person of Christ; and that as this ladder had steps to it, so blessed be God, Jesus Christ has found out a way whereby we may go, step after step, to glory. The first step is the righteousness of Christ, the active and passive obedience of the Redeemer; no setting one foot upon this ladder without coming out of ourselves, and relying wholly upon a better righteousness than our own. Again, all the other steps are the graces of the blessed Spirit; therefore, you need not be afraid of our destroying inward holiness, by preaching the doctrine of the imputation of Christ's righteousness, that one is the foundation, the other the superstructure; to talk of my having the righteousness of Christ imputed to my soul, without my having the holiness of Christ imparted to it, and bringing forth the fruits of the Spirit as an evidence of it, is only deceiving ourselves. I would never preach upon imputed righteousness, without speaking of inward holiness, for if you don't take a great deal of care, you will unawares, under a pretence of exalting Christ, run into Antinomianism, depths that Calvin never went into; probably, you will imbitter others Spirits that don't agree with you, and at the same time hurt the fruits of the Spirit: may God give you clear heads, and at the same time warm hearts.

On the ladder Jacob saw the angels of God ascending and descending; what is that for? to show that they are ministring spirits, sent forth to minister to them that shall be heirs of salvation; therefore we find them attending upon

Christ. We do not hear much of them after the canon of scripture was closed, but as soon as ever Christ was born, the angels sang, till then we never hear of their singing below, as far as I can judge, since the creation; then the sons of God shouted for joy; but when Eve reached out her hand to pluck the fatal apple, and gave to Adam, earth groaned, and the angels hung, as it were, their harps upon the willows; but when Christ, the second Adam, was born, the angels sang at midnight, Glory to Gotl in the highest. I pray to God we may all die singing that anthem, and sing it to all eternity. After his temptations, they came and ministred to him, as some think, food for his body, and wished him joy and comfort in his soul; and in his agonies in the garden, an angel strengthened him. After his resurrection two appeared again, one at the head and another at the foot of his sepulchre, to let those that looked into the sepulchre know, that they would not only wait upon the head but the foot; and the angels are glad to wait upon the meanest of the children of God. When our Lord departed, a cloud received him out of their sight, which probably was a cloud of angels: having led his disciples out of the city, he blessed them, and then away he went to heaven: may that blessing rest upon you and your children! This intimates that God makes use of angels to attend his people, especially when they are departing into eternity: perhaps, part of our entertainment in heaven will be, to hear the angels declare how many millions of times they have assisted and helped us. Our Lord says, angels do there behold the face of the Father of his little ones; and therefore I love to talk to the lambs of the flock, and why should I

not talk to them whom angels think it their honor to guard; and if it was not for this, how would any children escape the dangers they are exposed to in their tender age? it is owing to the particu lar providence of God, that any one child is brought to manhood; therefore I can't help admiring that part of the Litany, in which we pray, that God would take care not only of the grown people, but of children also: God take care of yours both in body and soul.

But what gave the greatest comfort to Jacob was, that the Lord was on the top of the ladder, which I do not know whether it would have been so, if Jacob had not seen God there. It comforts me, I assure you, to think, that whenever God. shall call for me, I shall be carried by angels into Abraham's bosom; and I have often thought that whenever that time comes, that blessed, long longed-for moment comes, as soon as ever they have called upon me, my first question will be to them, where is my dear master? where is Jesus? where is that dear Emanuel, who has loved me with an everlasting love, and has called me by his grace, and have sent you to fetch me home to see his face? but I believe you and I shall have no occasion to ask where he is, for he will come to meet us, he will stand at the top of his ladder to take his pilgrims in; so God was at the top of the ladder, pray mind that. He appears not sitting, as he is often represented in heaven, but standing; as much as to say, here, here, Jacob, thy brother wants to kill thee; here thou art come out without a servant, art lying upon a hard bed, but here I am ready in order to preserve thee; I stand above, and I see thy weariness, I see the fatigue and hardships thou hast yet to undergo,

though thou dost not see it thyself; thou hast thrown thyself upon my providence and protection, and I will give thee the word of a God that I will stand by thee; the Lord stood above: if he had said nothing, that would have been enough to have shewn his readiness to help.

But God speaks, behold: well might this be ushered in with the word behold; a ladder set on the earth, and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it; and, above all, behold God speaking from it! what doth he say? I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father. Oh! happy they that can say, the Lord God of my father; happy you that have got fathers and mothers in heaven. I remember, about twenty-five years ago as I was travelling from Bristol, I met with a man on the road, and being desirous to know whether he was serious or not, I began to put in a word for Christ, (and God forbid I should travel with any body a quarter of an hour with. out speaking of Christ to them) he told me what a wicked creature he had been; but, sir, says he, in the midst of my wickedness people used to tell me, you have got a good many prayers upon the file for you, your godly father and mother have prayed very often for you; and it was the pleasure of God he was wrought upon, and brought to Christ. Lay in a good stock for your children, get a good many prayers in for them, they may be answered when you are dead and gone. I am the God of Abraham thy father, not thy grandfather ; to put him in mind what an honor God would put upon him, to make him as it were the father of the church. Though you have many instructors, says Paul, you have but one Father: and the God of Isaac, the land whereon thou liest,