truth; who gave himself a ransom for all; tasted death for every man ; "died the just for the unjust to bring us to God; both suffered, died and rose again that he might be Lord both of the living and the dead." The birth, life, actions, death, and resurrection of Christ, was a testimony or commendation of God's love to us. Christ has taught mankind how to live; with what resignation to die, and above ALL, to hope for immortality beyond all death.

Oh! glorious event, the coming of the Saviour. Hadst thou not come, thou mighty Messiah, we might this very evening have been employed very differently from what we are at present. Instead of worshiping in this splendid and convenient house, filled with a flood of light, decorated with the green boughs of peace and prosperity, we might have been sacrificing to grim vindictive idols, in some lonely druidical cave in the depths of the waste-howling wilderness, involved in natural darkness and a spiritual gloom far more terrific. Instead of listening with delight to the harmonious strains of sacred music, hymning the praise of the bountiful Father of creation, our ears might have been pained by the screeches of expiring infants sacrificed to Moloch, the imaginary god of vengeance; or we might have been dragging the wheels of Juggurnaut, or have been assisting at the immolation of some devoted widow, throwing herself in phrenzied madness upon the funeral pile to be consumed alive.

The coming of Christ has been the means already of changing, in an astonishing manner, the religious and moral condition of a part of the world. Science and civilization have ever followed the footsteps of true christianity. The christian religion has in itself an enlightning and reforming principle; hence we find that the christian world, although at present exceedingly imperfect, having acquired scarcely

more than the bare rudiments of christianity, it yet, nevertheless, stands on commanding ground when compared with any part of the Mahometan or Pagan world.

We would ask the sceptic, what think ye? has not good resulted, or is likely to result, from the mission of Christ? Was Jesus born in vain ? or was it mockery in the angels who sung on that auspicious occasion, "peace on earth and good will towards men." Has christianity been a curse to the world? Let candor answer these questions. But think not to charge upon the back of the christian religion the crimes, the folly and madness of false professors, who have in too many instances assumed the name of religion to cloak their iniquitous designs. True christianity gives no sanction to bigotry and persecution. And christians, of all orders, let us never forget that it is through Christ alone that we have any hope of immortality. "Lord, in us there is no merit ;" we can do nothing by any exercise of our powers to merit or gain possession of immortality. Eternal life is a gift; it is infinitely above us; "high as heaven." Why then do we hope for that glorious state? It is only because Christ hath risen from the dead, and has "brought life and immortality to light" for you-for me-for all.Behold our great high priest, he enters by his resurrection the holiest of the holies! We who stand in the outer porch of time hear the "golden bells" of salvation ringing upon his garment of immortality. Let us all then give a mighty shout, as the worshipers did at the temple on mount Moriah, and say with them, "as our high priest lives, we shall live also."

Lift then your voices in triumph on high,
The Saviour hath risen and man shall not die.

SERMON IV.

A WARNING TO FLEE FROM BABYLON. TEXT.-Rev. xviii. 4. "And I heard another voice from heaven saying, come out of her my people that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues."

THIS awful warning voice is a call to come out of mystical Babylon, which is emphatically styled in the apocalypse the mother of the abominations of the earth.

From the manner in which Babylon is spoken of in the book of Revelations, it is evident that the name is used in a figurative sense to denote, not a literal city, but an inconsistent and contradictory system of religion. As to the meaning of the word Babylon, and the sense in which it is used, it may be necessary to make the following remarks: 1st. Babylon and Babel are words of the same import, and both literally signify uproar and confusion, and hence are very apt terms by which to denote the christian church in its apostate state. This seems to be the very situation in which the church has lain for many centuries past. It has lain in an apostate condition ever since the Emperor Constantine established the christian religion (as it was called) by law, and brought about an unnatural and incestuous union between church and state.

By this mode of understanding and applying the term Babylon, we are able to bring the subject down to modern times and events.

2d. The apostate church, with its false systems of divinity, absurd practices and inconsistent and unscriptural doctrines, is the mystical Babylon of the Apocalypse. This has been for ages the real Babel, or confusion of the earth! This is the city which the revelator, in his seventeenth chapter, speaks of as being filled with violence and blood. The revelator speaks of this city under the figure of "the woman" whom he saw drunk with the blood of innumerable martyrs Rev. xvii. 6. On her forehead was written "mystery, Babylon," &c.

3d. It seems, therefore, that the foundations of the city, or anti-christian church, were first established by aid of the civil power of the Roman empire. Since that time the city has become eminent for its extensive trade in every sort of spiritual fraud, so that the city has in many instances become RICH and opulent, like that ancient BABYLON, styled by the prophet "the glory of Chaldea's excellency." 4th. The merchants and sailors mentioned in the sixth chapter from whence the text is selected, are priests and other ecclesiastics who have grown rich in temporal wealth by dealing in the spurious spiritual merchandize of the mystical city.

5th. In the chapter we find that the "kings of the earth" (verse 9th) have had unlawful connexion with this Babylonish harlot. This strikingly represents how that ambitious politicians are prone to avail themselves of the popu lar religion of the times to monopolize power and enable them to riot in splendor on the miseries of the people.

6th. The fall of the city is spoken of in the chapter, and that event will, it seems, be matter of Joy to all the truly faithful; and at the same time, a subject of GRIEF and disappointment to the "kings and merchants" who have been made by her so rich and opulent.

From these general remarks you will see how we understand the Babylon of the apocalypse. It denotes the church, in its apostate state, with all its erroneous doctrines and practices. "In her was found the blood of prophets and saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth: Rev. xviii. 24.

There is another city mentioned by the revelator, viz :NEW JERUSALEM, a glorious type of the gospel system of grace. These two cities are, in every particular, perfect contrasts to each other-one being the true city and the other the false. Now as the New Jerusalem is described as having twelve foundations, a wall and twelve gates, all being of precious materials, so also I shall consider that Babylon has twelve false foundations, a wall and twelve deceptive gates.

Having prepared the way, we proceed to a division of the subject as follows:

1st. The foundations, wall and gates of Babylon.

2d. The trade, wealth and commerce of the city. 3d. The "sins" of which the place has been guilty. 4th. Her threatened "plagues."

5th. The warning to come out.

I. The foundations, wall and gates. The foundations are twelve unreasonable and unscriptural doctrines which we shall briefly enumerate as follows:

1st. The doctrine of original imputed sin. The scriptures oppose the doctrine :-"The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father": Ezekiel. "Every man shall bear his own burden: Paul. "He that DOETH wrong shall receive for the wrong he hath done :" Paul. Reason teaches us also that sin is of a personal nature, and cannot, like debts and possessions, descend to posterity by inheritance.