Son is joined with that of the Father and the Holy Spirit; and if Christ was not by nature God, there could not be a greater indignity cast on the character of the Deity than to join with the name of the Most High God the name of a creature, however exalted. In the 45th Psalm as quoted by St. Paul and applied to Christ, it is said—" And unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever." The truth of the proper Deity or Godhead of the Lord Jesus Christ has always been, and always will be a stumbling block to mere unenlightened reason; and it always has and always will meet with violent opposition from men, who taking the character of wise men and philosophers, are exactly upon an equality with the unbelieving among the Jews, who were offended because he claimed the character of God. The doctrine, however, I conceive essential to our everlasting welfare, and this is the reason why I have dwelt on it thus long at present. It was its peculiar importance and the danger of being seduced from its belief, that drew from the Apostle Paul the following caution— "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, for in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." And again, our Saviour says in prayer to the Father, and it is a most remarkable expression-" Glorify me, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was." And to use but one more quotation-"Jesus Christ-the same yesterday, to-day and for ever." As the only begotten Son of God, co-equal, co-eternal with the Father, he is represented as speaking to the Church of Thyatira-"These things saith the Son of God;" and then we have a description similar in character to those in which he addressed himself to the other

Church, though differing in its specific description"These things saith the Son of God, who hath eyes like unto a flaming fire, and his feet like fine brass." These terms, you are well aware, must be expressive of something in the character and work of Christ. Thus when he says, "who hath eyes like a flaming fire," it denotes his omniscience; that his knowledge is piercing, penetrating, and perfect; that he has a perfect insight into all persons and all things, and searcheth the very reins and the heart. This is still another form of expression which plainly intimates the perfect Deity of Christ, for whose eye save that of God can pierce to the reading even of the very thoughts and intents of the heart? Omniscience is an attribute of God alone, and it is a most sublime as well as a most terrific idea, "that all things are open to the eyes of him with whom we have to do." The object of our Saviour's describing himself to the Church of Thyatira as having eyes like unto flaming' fire, was to keep their minds steadily impressed with the idea, that he saw all their movements; that he penetrated into all their motives; that he saw just as plainly what was evil as what was good; and that they could not conceal from him the evil which at that very time existed among them in their unrighteous toleration of what was abominable in his sight, and what would cause them, if they did not repent, to be consumed in the fiery flame of his righteous indignation. When he represents himself as having felt like unto fine brass, it is meant to be emblematic of the stability, the awfulness, and the terror of his providential dealings; for when the term, feet, are used in this kind of Scripture emblematic language, it is not only connected with

the act of walking, but with that of stamping or crushing. Thus when the image in Daniel is spoken of with the feet of brass, after the representation of most powerful desolation it is said, and he stamped the residue with his feet. When we take the meaning of the original expression in the text, it gives us a still more sublime idea of what is meant by our Saviour. The term, fine brass, in the original means that famous metal formerly called aurichalcum, which is represented to have been of the colour of amber, and more precious than gold. Several of the learned suppose it to have been a composition of gold, silver, and brass, and the same as the famous Corinthian brass, which was of these materials; for Pliny says, that when the Consul Lucius Mummius took and burnt the city of Corinth, many statues of these different metals being melted in the great heat ran together, and formed this celebrated composition, called Corinthian brass. Dr. Clarke supposes that the original may mean no more than copper melted with the capis calaminaris, which converts it into brass; and he says that the flame which proceeds from this metal during the operation is the most intensely vivid and insufferable that can be imagined. He therefore supposes the force of the emblematic language to represent this insufferable brightness.-His feet as fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace. Taking all these ideas, the introductory description of our Lord would admit of this paraphrase. These things says the only begotton and eternal Son of God; I am omnipresent, and have eyes that can pierce like fire into the very deepest recesses of the heart. I can see all your movements and all your motives; and my judgments are

steady, and permanent, and terrific; with feet like brass, I can break in pieces and trample on all that despise me and set me at nought; and the movements of my providential dealings and my righteous judgments will be as terrible for brightness as they are for their stability and firmness. They will dazzle and confound as well as destroy.

This I believe to be the meaning of the description, and its peculiar applicability to the state of things in the Church of Thyatira will be very clearly seen, when we come to speak of the censure and the threat. At present, our attention must be directed to another branch of our subject.

After the introductory description of our Saviour, we have

II. A very strong commendation-"I know thy works, and thy charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience, and thy works, and the last to be more than the first."

When works are spoken of with commendation, let it ever be remembered, that those works are meant which grow from a holy principle of love to God. It is a truth of holy writ, that every action of an unconverted man is considered as sinful in the

sight of God. Now, brethren, I know perfectly well that there is scarcely a doctrine of the Scriptures which I could have announced against which the carnal heart will array itself with more violent and more determined opposition than this; for when you attack what men are pleased to consider as their goodness, you are laying the axe at the foundation of that upon which the generality are building their hopes of heaven; and you may therefore expect to

meet with resistance. What! every act of an unconverted man sinful! Impossible; unreasonable; how can this be? Brethren, it is not my province to show how these can be, though this were abundantly easy, if the scope of my discourse allowed it. I can say to every individual who may venture to disbelieve it, that thus saith the Lord-Whatever is not of faith, is sin. Now, if the brightest moral action which you ever have or you ever can perform does not spring from a principle of faith, as it regards the aspect in which it places you in the sight of God, it is nothing; and this state of things grows from the very nature of the Gospel dispensation. The Gospel directs you to the Lord Jesus Christ alone for salvation, and it is essential to its full success, that every possibility of boasting should be cut off. If an individual in an unconverted and unbelieving condition could do that which of its own nature would be pleasing in the sight of God, why then men might be their own saviours, and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ would be made of none effect. But God has set his seal upon the falsehood of all hopes which grow from any such source, and declares that while an individual is unbelieving and unconverted, he looks upon him with abhorrence, and in nothing that he does can he please God: for God is angry with the wicked every day, and even his ploughing, saith Scripture, is sin. These are very offensive things, brethren, and will not suit the appetite of any of you who are confessedly without religion, and yet think on the whole that God will be pleased. Your condition I apprehend peculiarly dangerous, because in such false opinions there is a remarkable tenacity; and it is a most humbling