the house must fall, and great will be the fall of it. Nor a whit better will the hope of the hypocrite prove, whose religion was only a mask, intended to conceal his beloved sins; the all-searching eye of Christ will penetrate through the thickest disguise, and the holy judge will say, "Depart from me, I never knew thee, thou worker of iniquity." Almighty God! undeceive these mistaken and presumptuous men! deliver them from their fond delusions! destroy their false hopes; and bring them, as humble penitents, to thy feet, that they may obtain forgiving mercy, receive thy sanctifying Spirit, and thus acquire "a good hope through grace!"

Christian! examine thy hope. Is it a good hope? Is the object of it good? Yes; it is being with Christ; and what can be conceived of so good as that? Is the foundation of thy hope good? Look well to that. Is it Jesus alone? He is our hope. This is a sure foundation, a tried stone. He that believeth on him shall not be ashamed. Inquire further. Is the effect of thy hope good? What influence hath it on thy heart and life? Does it purify thee? Does it make thee thankful? Does it make thee active in duty-firm in temptation-patient in afflictions? These are its proper effects, and where these are found, they are solid evidences of the genuine nature of religious hope.

This hope, so useful and comfortable in life, displays its full value in the article of death. "The righteous hath hope in his death." Then this good hope is worth a thousand thousand worlds. How many believers, in all ages, have experienced its cordial support, when flesh and heart were failing. They could, with perfect composure and satisfaction, commit their departing spirit into the faithful hands of Jesus, saying, "I know whom I have believed;" and when the poor diseased body was about to become a lifeless lump of clay, a wretched mass of corruption, they could say, each one for himself, "I believe in the resurrection of the body." Christ has said, "I will raise it up at the last day." He has promised it, and he will perform it. I quit this "vile body," in hope of "the manifestation of the Son of God," when it shall be freed from the bondage of corruption; when Jesus, in

the great day of his triumph, shall change this vile body, and shall make it like unto his own most glorious body: for them that sleep in Jesus shall God bring with him. In sure and certain hope of this complete and everlasting salvation, I resign both soul and body into thy faithful hands. Amen.

Such is "the good hope through grace, which a real Christian is warranted to entertain; which he glorifies God by entertaining; and which it should be his daily prayer and endeavour to entertain." To this purpose the apostle exhorts the Hebrews (chap. vi. 11.) "We desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence, to the full assurance of hope to the end,"-intimating, that a full and complete hope of eternal life is attainable; and that, ordinarily, it is to be expected only by the diligent Christian, who abounds (ver. 10.) in the labours of love, shewed to the name of Jesus by ministering to his saints. Relying only on Jesus; living daily on his fulness; aiming continually at his glory; may we abound in this good hope more and more, even to the end of life; till we "inheret the promises"-till hope be exchanged for the full fruition of all those unspeakable glories, which God hath prepared for them that love him.

"How oft have sin and Satan strove

To rend my soul from thee, my God!
But everlasting is thy love,

And Jesus seals it with his blood.

Amidst temptations, sharp and long,
My soul to this dear refuge flies;
Hope is my anchor, firm and strong,
While tempests blow and billows rise.

The Gospel bears my spirits up;
A faithful and unchanging God
Lays the foundation for my hope,
In oaths, and promises, and blood."

WATTS.

THIS

SERMON LXIV.

LOOKING UNTO JESUS.

Hebrews xii. 2. Looking unto Jesus.

HIS short sentence comprises the principal business of the Christian life; for if we are Christians indeed, "the life which we now live in the flesh, we live by the faith of the Son of God," and the proper exercise of faith is "looking to Jesus."

St. Paul introduces these words for the purpose of encouraging the Hebrew believers in their Christian course. Having, in the former chapter, illustrated the offects of faith by many historical examples, he proceeds to make a practical application of the whole. He would have them consider the ancient worthies, who lived and died in faith, as a numerous cloud of witnesses, spectators of their exertions in the same race; and, while thus engaged in pressing forwards towards the goal, to keep their eye upon Christ-looking to Jesus-looking off from sin, and self, and the world; from every thing that would retard or dishearten, he would have them keep their eye intent upon the suffering Saviour, who is both "the author and the finisher of faith."

My design in the present discourse is, to show that believers in Christ are to have a constant and uniform regard to him, in the whole of their Christian walk; and that this is productive of the most solid advantages. In order to this, I shall show, that,

I. Jesus Christ, and him crucified, is the principal object presented to us in the word of God.

II. A constant regard to him, as there revealed, is the first and chief business of the Christian.

III. I shall point out some of the rich advantages which the believer obtains by so doing.

I. Jesus Christ, and him crucified, is the principal object presented to us in the word of God.

The whole Scripture, the Old as well as the New Testament, may be called "the word of Christ," which is to

"dwell in us richly." Jesus Christ is the substance of the predictions, promises, and ordinances of the most ancient times. We are expressly told, that "Moses wrote of him;" that the law had "a shadow of good things to come; and that "the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." The prophets, priests, and kings of old, were types or emblems of Christ, in his mediatorial offices. Their numerous sacrifices and offerings prefigured that one great sacrifice which he made of himself on the cross by which he "put away sin," and "brought in everlasting righteousness." And the more enlightened of the Old Testament saints looked forward to the advent of Christ with faith and delight. Abraham eagerly desired to see "his day; and he saw it, and was glad." Moses prayed, "I beseech thee show me thy glory," and was gratified with a view of it. He had such knowledge of the expected Saviour, that "he esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt." Isaiah had a vision of the Lord of Hosts," in the temple; and the New Testament assures us, that it was "the glory of Christ" which he saw. The Spirit of Christ, inspiring the prophets "testified before hand, the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow ;" and our Lord, when reasoning with two of his disciples after his resurrection, referred to their writings, “and beginning at Moses and all the prophets (and the psalms) he expounded unto them, in all the Scriptures, the things concerning himself."

It is still more evident that Jesus Christ is the substance of the Gospel, for it is "the Gospel of Christ." Preaching the Gospel was originally the same as "preaching. Christ," or "preaching the Cross." Jesus Christ was not the occasional subject of the primitive ministry (as of some modern divines, two or three times a year, at particular festivals) but "daily, in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ." And one of these preachers declares his resolution to preach nothing else. "I am determined," said he to the Corinthians "not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified;" as if he had said, "When I came to your great and polite city, where many are fond VOL. II.

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of refined speculations, I was resolved not to change my usual method of preaching; I would appear to know, and employ myself in making known, nothing among you but Jesus, as the Messiah; even that crucified person, against whom so many scandals are propagated; for I know that though the preaching of the cross be foolishness to them that perish, it is the power of God to them which are saved: I therefore preach and glory in nothing but the cross of Christ."

1

As the apostles made Christ the subject of their discourses, so was he the substance of that knowledge by which the primitive Christians were distinguished. This is intimated in Eph. iv. 20. where the apostle urges them to distinguish themselves from the unconverted gentiles by the holiness of their behaviour, as they were so much distinguished from them by their evangelical knowledge. The heathen were sunk in sensuality and profligacy, but, saith he" ye have not so learned Christ—seeing ye have heard him, and have been instructed in him, as the truth is in Jesus." This passage shows that Jesus Christ was both the author and the subject of their religious knowledge; the sum of their learning was "the truth as it is in Jesus:" their teacher was "Christ" himself, by his word and Spirit; and the genuine effect of such learning was, that holiness of character which distinguished them from all persons who were ignorant of the Gospel.

Jesus Christ is so eminently the grand object presented to us in the word, that the doctrine of justification by faith in him, is called, in Gal. iii. 1. the truth. St. Paul, reproving the Galatians for their instability, says, " foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?" False teachers, it appears, had perverted their minds as to the great point, the justification of a sinner by Christ alone, and not by the works of the law; and this he calls "the truth," because it is the leading, the fundamental truth of the Gospel; and he blames them for departing from it, because they had been properly instructed by the apostles; the Gospel had been faithfully preached to them; and what was it?" Jesus Christ had been evidently set forth"