by faithful appeals to the conscience, and affectionate warnings and invitations addressed to the heart. The minister that girds himself for the contest in the name of Christ, that relies on his grace, preaches his doctrine, and employs the means of his appointment, may anticipate a triumph. The hand of the Lord shall be with him.' Satan shall fall like lightning from heaven. The hosts of sin shall be discomfited. The sinner shall be born anew. His heart shall admit the Saviour; and his humble faith, holy tempers, and conscientious conduct, shall be the trophies of the conquest.

HOW SUPERIOR IS THIS TRIUMPH TO EVERY OTHER! In human conflicts, although we may bless the hand of Providence for the benefits which a victory may ultimately effect, we cannot but contemplate the circumstances connected with the event itself, with regret and sorrow. In order to be really pleased with it, we must overlook, if possible, all the public and private misery which war scatters around, and fix the mind on its remote consequences-the peace and security and repose which it may tend to establish. But in the triumphs of the Gospel, not only is the end glorious, but the means likewise. They are calculated to bless man. Every struggle towards the conquest, is a step in the overthrow of sin and misery, and the establishment of holiness and peace. The tri

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umph is not in a mournful and perhaps ambiguous cause, but in the cause of God himself, and for the victories of his grace. It is not to enlarge the limits of a temporal empire, but to spread the spiritual kingdom of Jesus Christ. It is not a proud, gaudy, ostentatious display of standards and captives and trophies and spoils, but a secret and internal victory, by which sinners are saved, passions are overcome, sin and hell are vanquished, and God is glorified. It is not to gratify the pride of a haughty soldier, inflamed with the lust of conquest, and in a procession in which captive kings are insulted and dragged in chains; but for the honour of Christ our heavenly Lord, and in which the slaves of sin are rescued, the prison-doors are thrown open, and men, being made heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ, are exalted and honoured by the service of the Gospel, and are prepared for heavenly triumphs and endless exultation.

But this leads me to consider,

II. THE SPECIAL BLESSINGS WHICH THE CHRISTIAN MINISTER COMMUNICATES-and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place.

There is always a proportion in the Holy Scripture, between the description, and the importance of the thing described. No triumph,

no glorying is spoken of, except the occasion justly demands it. The language of transport in the text, accordingly indicates the grandeur of the main benefit conferred. In this triumph God maketh manifest the savour of Christ's knowledge in every place. This, was before intimated, when it was said that the triumph was in Christ; but it now requires our more particular regard. The allusion is to the custom in the Roman procession of strewing the streets with flowers and causing the altars to smoke with incense, whilst immediately before the victorious general a long train of attendants marched carrying perfumes, which exhaled a sweet and powerful fragrance on every side., Thus, wherever the spiritual triumph of the Apostle advanced, the knowledge of Christ, like a reviving odour, was diffused around, and men were refreshed and quickened and invigorated.

THE KNOWLEDGE OF CHRIST is the leading blessing which the Gospel confers. Other truths may indeed be necessary as introductory to it, or consequent upon it; but Christ, as the Saviour of sinners, is the first and last object of divine revelation, the basis and the substance of Christian doctrine.

All that we are taught of man's first apostacy, his accountableness, guilt, and condemnation, the obligation and holiness of the divine law, the infinite purity of God, the evil

of the heart, and the wickedness of the lives of men, is essential to the production of true humility and genuine repentance :-this is not in itself the knowledge of Christ; but it usually precedes it. In like manner, the instructions, warnings, and admonitions necessary for the true believer-all that relates to the immutable force of the precepts of the moral law, the necessity of holy obedience, and the connexion of the motives of the Gospel with a practical and willing subjection to its precepts; all that regards the dangers, trials, and temptations of the Christian life; the duties of diligence, vigilance, prayer, meekness, and charity,-is indispensable to a correct view of the doctrine of salvation. These topics also are not, strictly speaking, the knowledge of Christ, but they are essentially connected with it and follow upon it. Again, the work and person of the Holy Ghost, the necessity of regeneration, the nature of communion with God, the excellency of the Scriptures, the nearness of death, the value of the soul, the importance of employing our talents, the doctrine of providence, the solemnities of a future judgment, are all vital parts of the Gospel, and, like the others which I have mentioned, are necessary to a right reception and use of the proper knowledge of Christ.

The knowledge of Christ, strictly taken, more immediately regards the divine person and

grace of Jesus Christ, his glory as the eternal, incommunicable Word, his incarnation for our redemption, his obedience, sufferings, and death, the atonement and propitiation which he made to God by his vicarious sacrifice, his resurrection, ascension, and session at the right hand of the Father, his mediatorial kingdom and glory as the heir of all things, and the head of the Church; the new covenant in his blood; the free and full offers of its blessings to the greatest sinners; faith in his promises; pardon, justification, and acceptance through his merits and righteousness, reconciliation and adoption into the family of God thereby, union with Christ by his Spirit, love to his name, the imitation of his holy example, the supports of his grace, the expectation of his second coming, and his presenting the Christian at last spotless before the throne of God these are some of the chief particulars of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord. These, when connected with the topics which precede them and those which follow upon them, form the truth as it is in Jesus. These are the characteristic features of Christianity. They are the peculiar blessings which the victory of the Apostle communicated. The divine Mediator is the principal figure in the vast and magnif cent picture. All the other figures are subor dinate, and must not assume the first place.