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they are now issued from the press. He is well aware that his sentiments respecting the nature of the Redeemer's kingdom, as an economy entirely spiritual and heavenly-the impossibility of amalgamating it with national establishments of Christianity-and its hostility to every scheme of church-government devised by the wit or wisdom of man-cannot fail to expose him to the contemptuous sneer and indignant frown of high-churchmen of every class, whether Papist, Episcopalian, or Presbyterian; but treatment such as that will neither surprise nor move him. His appeal is to the Law and the Testimony, to the writings of the Evangelists and Apostles, which he considers to be the alone rule of religion since Christ left the earth. By that unerring standard he is desirous, that whatever he has advanced may be tried; and, as imperfection is the lot of man, whatever he may have said that is at variance with it, on being apprised thereof, he shall be most ready to expunge.

May HE who is head over all things to the Church, and who is the only legitimate Head, condescend to smile on this humble effort to expose the wicked devices of men in all ages, in adulterating his religion, usurping his authority, changing his laws, and rendering his precepts void, by their own traditions,— May he make it instrumental in freeing the minds of his own disciples from the doctrines and commandments of men, and leading them to distinguish between Christianity and its numerous corruptions, thus enabling them to separate the chaff from the wheat, and to his name be all the praise !

Critchill Place, Hoxton,

March 25th, 1831.

PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE.

SECTION I.

A VIEW OF THE CHARACTER OF CHRIST, THE SAVIOUR OF THE WORLD.

THE truth of the Gospel history, and, consequently, the divine origin of Christianity, are so intimately connected with the character of the Lord Jesus Christ, that an attempt to exhibit that character in its true light seems necessary to lay a proper foundation for a history of his church or kingdom in the world. The materials for such an enquiry are to be found in the writings of the four Evangelists, the Acts of the Apostles, and the apostolic Epistles, which collectively form the book of the New Testament; from this source alone our information must be derived, and the present attempt will be restricted to a simple statement of what these inspired writers have left upon record regarding this most important subject, accompanied by such remarks and reflections as appear adapted to present it to the reader in a just point of view.

I enter upon this task by observing that the appearance of the Messiah in this world, and the setting up of his kingdom, formed a prominent article in the writings of the ancient prophets.* Accordingly the Jewish nation, who had in those writings the means of calculating the time of his advent, were anxiously expecting his appearance about the period of 4000 years from the date of the creation; and, if history may be credited, even the heathens had a notion about that time-a notion probably

* Ps. ii. 8, and xxii. 27, and Ixxii. passim, and lxxxix. 19-36.; Is. ix. 6, 7, and xi. 1-9; Dan. ii. 44, and vii. 14.

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derived from the Jewish Scriptures--that a prince of unparalleled glory was about to make his appearance on the theatre of this world and found a kind of universal monarchy.*

The evangelists who have narrated the life and actions of Jesus of Nazareth have particularly specified the time of his birth, as being under the reign of the Roman emperor Augustus, and when Herod the Great was king of Judæa. At this period the Roman empire comprehended the greatest part of the then known world; and Judæa, once so renowned as the country over which David and Solomon had reigned, was then subject to the Roman arms. The place and circumstances of the birth of Jesus are particularly specified by his historians. He was not born according to the ordinary laws of generation; for his introduction into the world was by miracle. He was conceived, by the power of the Holy Spirit, in the womb of a virgin; and this is assigned as a reason why "that holy thing which was born of her was to be called the SON OF GOD." His birth took place at Bethlehem, in the land of Judæa,§ and was announced by an angel from heaven to a company of shepherds who were watching their flocks by night, around whom a ray of celestial splendour shone, and it was announced with circumstances of peculiar interest to the human race. "Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people: for unto you is born this day, in the city of David, a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord." "And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men."|| Such were the circumstances of his Nativity; we shall next enquire what account the inspired writers give us of his character.

The angel Gabriel, who was sent from God to announce his conception in the womb of the Virgin, declared his character to be that of the Son of God-the Son of the Highest; and this title Jesus adopted as his own. John the Baptist, his illustrious forerunner, who invariably ascribed to him divine honours, terms him "the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father." The evangelist John also thus speaks of him: "In the beginning was THE WORD, and the Word was with God, and the Word

* Suetonius, in Vita Vespas. ch. i. Luke ii. 1; Matt. ii. 1. + Luke i. 35.

Tacit. Hist. lib. v. cap. 13.
§ Matt. ii. 1.

Luke ii. 10-14.

VIEW OF THE CHARACTER OF CHRIST.

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"And

was God: the same was in the beginning with God.". the Word was made flesh (or became incarnate) and tabernacled among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father-full of grace and truth."* This was Emmanuel, God with us-God manifest in flesh-the brightness of the Father's glory, and the express image of his person-the appointed heir of all things, by whom the worlds were made, and who upholdeth all things by the word of his power-and, though found in fashion as a man, he was nevertheless "the image of the invisible God:"+ so that he could say, "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.”+

These Scripture testimonies, taken in their plain and obvious sense, give us the most exalted views of his character, and imply that he is an eternally divine person-by nature equal with the Father; that he came into the world to save sinners, and for that purpose assumed human nature into personal union with the divine.§ Thus his incarnation answered one of the grandest purposes that is conceivable, and was altogether agreeable to the declared end of his manifestation, which was to save his people from their sins. For "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."¶ His own account of his mission into this world is that "the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and give his life a ransom for many."** He said he came as "the good shepherd, to give his life for the sheep :"++ and this he declared was a voluntary act of his own-for that no man took his life from him, but he "laid it down of himself," in obedience to the will of his heavenly Father, who sanctified him and sent him into the world for that specific end. Moreover, we find him declaring that his blood was "shed for many, for the remission of sins"-and that his obedience was so well pleasing to his heavenly Father, whose righteous servant he condescended to become, that he both loved him for it, and raised him from the dead, and rewarded him with the highest glory in the heavens.§§ This is the sum of the doctrine of his mediation, which the apostle thus states to the Romans:

Joh. i. 1, 14. + Matt. i. 23.; 1 Tim. iii. 16; Heb. i. 2, 3; Phil. ii. 6-8; Col. i. 15. Joh. xiv. 9. § Heb. ii. 14. || Matt. i. 21. ¶ John iii. 16. ** Matt. xx. 28. tt Joh. x. 11. Ver. 17, 18. §§ Matt. xxvi. 28; Joh. x. 17.

"He was delivered for our offences and raised again for our justification."* And again, to the Corinthians, "God was in (or by) Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing unto men their trespasses, and he hath made him to be a sin-offering for us, though he knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." In this way we are taught that his death answered not only to the one transgression of the first man, whereby all his posterity were made sinners, but also to the many offences of those for whom he died: for "as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous”—and thus "Grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ the Lord."‡

The offices which he is represented as sustaining in the economy of grace are those of prophet, priest, and king. Moses, the Jewish lawgiver, had said, "the Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet, from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me: unto him ye shall hearken."§ Subsequent writers spoke largely of his priestly character; in which respect, and in that of king also, he was typified by Melchizedek, in the days of Abraham, who was both priest of the Most High God and at the same time king of Salem. Numerous are the predictions, relating to both his priestly and kingly character, that are to be found in the book of Psalms and the writings of the prophets, to some of which reference is made below, but they are too numerous to be quoted in this place and I shall now proceed to offer a few observations on the character of this sublime Being, who visited the earth for the benefit of our guilty race.

We have already seen that the evangelists and apostles represent him as uniting the divine and human natures in his one individual person, which eminently qualified him for the all-important duties of a mediator betwixt God and man. His relation to the Deity, as the Eternal Word, and his intimacy with the former, gave him the means of being fully acquainted with the nature and attributes of the Father-he knew his gracious designs and perfectly understood his will in all respects. He was "the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom," or secret councils,

*Rom. iv. 24, 25.
§ Deut. xviii. 15.

† 2 Cor. v. 19.

Rom. vi. 19, 21.
Gen. xiv. 18; Ps. cx. 4; Heb. vii. 1.

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