Surely, if any thing can teach men to hate sin, and to love their Almighty Benefactor, it must be this amazing, this unutterable mercy. Who can contemplate the Son of God leaving the glories of heaven and the bosom of his Father, taking the form of a servanttaking not only the likeness but the nature and the guilt of man—enduring the punishment of man-bearing on his own devoted head the iniquity of us all ;who, I say, can contemplate this astonishing mystery without the most fervent gratitude, the most devout affections, the most anxious desire to make a suitable return? What expedient could be found so admirably suited to win back the hearts of those who had been alienated from the love of God, and at the same time to remove that despondency which must for ever have prevented any effort to return? Here, indeed, is a plan of salvation which glorifies all the attributes of God— his wisdom-his truth-his righteousness-his loveand which revives the hopes and excites the love of man. If this will not engage us to obedience, surely every other expedient must be vain. No fear of punishment, no hope of reward, will act upon those whom the love of Christ, thus dying for them, does not constrain to live no longer unto themselves, but unto him who died for them, and rose again.

Yet it is of this blessed hope, of this most powerful motive to obedience, that the Socinians would deprive us. And what have they to substitute? What assurance can they present to pacify the terrors of the brokenhearted sinner to pour balm into his wounded conscience-to give him the certainty of being at peace

with God, and animate him in endeavours to regain his favour? They have nothing to offer but a description of the Divine benevolence, such as tarnishes his glory as a just and righteous Governor-such as makes sin appear of little danger—such as presents but feeble excitements to gratitude and self-dedication to his service. By denying the Godhead of our Saviour, they diminish, beyond expression, our sense of obligation to him. His amazing condescension and humility—his tenderness, his love, his infinite merit also, which presents the only valid claim that we can urge to the Divine favour-all these are withdrawn; and for what? not that the truth of God may be supported, and the declarations of his word believed, but that the suggestions of human reason may be exalted above the testimony of revelation, and that the clearest declarations of Scripture may be explained away.

Let us, my brethren, beware, lest, being led away by the error of the wicked, we fall from our own stedfastness; let us resolve to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints; let us glorify our God and Saviour, who loved us, and gave himself for us.

It will little avail, however, to maintain the most orthodox opinions on this most important subject, unless we prove, by our abhorrence of sin, our devotedness to God, and our benevolence to man, that the truths of which our understandings have been convinced, are, through the power of Almighty grace, indelibly engraven on our hearts. Let it, then, be apparent that the blood of Christ has not only availed to take away from us the guilt of sin, but the love of sin. Let the remembrance of

the infinite price paid for our redemption engage us to devote ourselves without reserve to Him who hath loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost we should continually ascribe, &c.

THE ROMISH CHURCH NOT CATHOLIC

THE POPE NOT THE HEAD.

COLOSS. ii. 18, 19.

"Let no man beguile you of your reward in . . . . not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God."

FALSEHOOD is by no means in all cases the denial, it is more commonly the perversion or misapplication, of truth. Hence, indeed, results its greatest power to injure, because its resemblance to truth gives it currency, and when the error is detected, it causes the truth itself to be undervalued.

We shall see the force of these remarks, if we consider the mischief done to religion by a misapplication on the one hand, and a disregard on the other, of the doctrine inculcated by the text. The Apostle, in the chapter from which it is taken, has admonished the Colossians"not to be spoiled through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ." In the verses before us he warns them against the superstitious worship of angels, and other errors arising from being "vainly puffed up by a fleshly mind." This would prevent them

from holding fast by the Head of the spiritual body, our Lord Jesus Christ; and the result would be the loss of that heavenly nourishment, which, flowing from him into all his members, causes them, whilst closely knit together, to increase with the increase of God.

We may deduce from this (especially when we compare it with other similar passages*), that the Church is but one body, and can have but one Head; that, to derive advantage from the Head, we must be knit together with the other members of the body; and that if we are separated from this union, we lose the increase we might obtain, and are in danger of forfeiting our reward. That Christ is "the Head of the body, the Church," is distinctly asserted both in the foregoing and present chapters, as well as in the Epistles to the Corinthians, Ephesians, and many other places. That if separated from Christ we can do nothing good, he himself most distinctly declares. (John, xv. 5.) It follows, therefore, that whosoever, by heresy or schism, is detached from the body of Christ, incurs serious evil in the present life, and is exposed to eternal ruin in the next. These great and important truths have been grossly perverted by the Church of Rome, and have in consequence been too little regarded by many, who, not content with renouncing her errors, have also forsaken the primitive form of discipline and worship, which, though she had corrupted, she had not wholly destroyed.

It will be the main object of this discourse to shew the fallacy of those arguments by which the Church of

* Rom. xii. 5; 1 Cor. xii. 12, 13; Ephes. ii. 16-22, iv. 4—6, 15.