of Israel: Let Reason, so fond of prying into the councils of Gop, and of reconciling the decisions of them by its own assumed rule of right, assign any other cause, independent of Christ's. divinity, which may reasonably account for the unexampled punishment of the Jewish nation. They did not object to Him as the son of Joseph and Mary; they did perceive Him to be a prophet mighty in word and deed; their reason could not disavow the evidence of their senses, but it refused to go farther, and through want of faith, they ignorantly crucified the Lord of Glory. Was this ignorance, though plaeded by a compassionate Saviour in behalf of his murderers, admitted in extenuation of their guilt or punishment? No. They had renounced their part and portion in his salvation; they had called down his blood upon themselves and their children; and during the space of eighteen hundred years, (and till they look on Him whom they pierced, will it continue to be so) has their imprecation been dreadfully visited upon them and their posterity.

We shall not, I trust, be now called upon to prove the necessity of belief in the doctrine of

T

the Incarnation.

The evidence upon which the Jew was tried and sentenced, is the same in substance as that submitted to the Christian, and the preaching of the Gospel only confirmed the sufficiency and promises of prior revelation. The advent of our blessed Lord was the great demonstration of prophetic truth; and the future expectations which grow out of it as articles of faith, are only strengthened by the authority, the title, and office of the beloved Son of God. Take away the divinity of Christ, the Jew has yet his Messiah to come, and the Christian no redeeming Saviour; the Lord of Glory was not crucified, and the death upon the cross offers no atonement. But every revelation of God's will to man has invariably looked to this merciful and ultimate object; every dispensation under which he has lived, till all was perfected in a Redeemer, was built on the same foundation, and were so many different supports to the wall of partition which was finally to be removed, when all nations were to be called to Christ, and the ends of the earth to be in his possession.

Once more let it be observed, that a manifestation of the Divine will, which must presuppose a sufficiency of evidence, and a capacity to comprehend it, pledges both the veracity and omnipotence of GOD to the full completion of his word. In our whole prospect of the human race, from the creation to the present day, have we ever seen it fail of performing the thing it had uttered? Its authority, its sanctions, and its promises may have been derided, or disbelieved, but they have been dreadfully vindicated, and the visitations of his providence have ever tended to confirm that Almighty selfappeal-Have I said, and shall I not do itHave I spoken, and shall I not bring it to pass. Our hope, therefore, must ever be proportioned to the measure of our faith; our religion can only begin, but never end, in the school of Reason. She holds not the invisible chain that connects matter and spirit; she can put on no heavenly wings, nor carry the transported soul beyond the boundaries of its earthly prison; nay, sometimes, (though given us as an advocate for religion) has she erected herself into a judge, and only competent to examine the evi

dence, has dared to discredit the integrity of the witness. Thus by misapplying her strength has Reason proved her weakness, and supplied human testimony to the divine assertion-that faith will never stand in the wisdom of man, but in the power of God.

To proceed with any farther discussion, or to enter into the provinces of reason and faith, in order to define the limits of their separate dominions, would be to question the ability, or to repeat the arguments of some of the ablest defenders of the Christian doctrines. In the language of one of them be it then sufficient to observe, that "to make us better men, upon "hope grounded on his mercies, is the most "beneficial purpose, for which we can conceive "it possible for GOD to reveal himself, and

66

to this purpose we find a revelation made, "wherein that providence which extends to us, "is declared; and if the strongest external tes

-66

timony bear witness that God has revealed

himself, and that reason be incapable of producing any evidence to the contrary, the credibility of GOD is a ground whereon to “build our faith, in whatsoever He shall relate

66

"of his own incomprehensible majesty. More

66

66

over, as finite intellect can have no standard "whereby to measure the conduct of an infinite "Being, and no right or means of judging of "the consistency of any act declared to be his, to dispute is to rebell. There lies no appeal "from God's credibility, from his truth to his "inscrutable nature, We must acquiesce in "that which He has said. It must be-It is 66 true."

With such dispositions, and with such dispositions only, shall we be taught in the stable of Bethlehem. By carrying back this part of the divine œconomy to the original promise in the garden of Eden, will the Christian church, now the daughter of Sion, only know how to rejoice in Gop her Saviour; will she only learn to glorify GOD for his mercy, to appreciate the value, and to hail the consummation of those · heavenly tidings-Arise, shine for thy light is coming, and the glory of the Lord is rising upon thee. It is the eye of faith that must discover beneath the swaddling clothes the robe of immortality; it is the eye of faith that must discern to what a height GoD intends to build up