tertained the latter opinion, some said that he was Elias, some John the Baptist, and others Jeremias, or one of the prophets. The faith of the apostles was in danger of being shaken by this diversity of opinion for nothing is more directly calculated to make deep impressions upon a rational mind, than a variety of opinions. They not unfrequently drive men into a state of uncertainty, which produces doubts, and finally ends in skepticism. At this critical time, Jesus Christ comes to the relief of his apostles, and requires their opinion on a question which divided all Judea, for the purpose of establishing them in the true faith. Peter, who, on all occasions, appears to be the most forward, answers for the whole apostolic college. Jesus Christ confirmed the truth of the opinion which had been expressed by Peter, and declares that he had received it by a revelation from heaven. He then assured his apostles that the rock, which had been confessed by Peter, should become the foundation of his church, and that the gates of hell should never prevail against it.

I. In addressing you from the words which we have selected as a foundation of the following remarks, we propose to take them up in the order they lay before us. And, in the first place, it is, he declared that, Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

The doctrine of the divine Unity, is the first article of all natural and revealed religion. The works of nature not only declare the existence of a first cause, but they also bear testimony, by the unity of design, and harmony of plan, which is observable in their whole course, that this first cause is one. The Scriptures of truth are also plain and explicit on this point. They testify that there is but one living and true God, the Creator of all worlds, and source of all blessedness. They also testify that this living God is the Father, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. But unto us there is but one God the Father, of whom are all things. They fur thermore assert that Jesus Christ is the Son of this one living and true God.

The term, Son of God, is an ambiguous phrase, and used by the inspired penmen as expressive of very different ideas. It is applied to both angels and men, because they were created by God. As a Creator, God stands in the relation of a father to them; hence the propriety of calling them sons of God. Christians are said to be the sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus, because they have been regenerated by a divine influence, and born into the family of God. But Jesus Christ is spoken of in the holy Scriptures as the Son of God, in quite a different sense from that in which all others are called the sons of God. He is said to be God's only Son, his own Son, his beloved Son, his begotten Son, his only begotten Son. The phrase Son of God, when applied to Christ, may not always signify the same thing, but it most generally refers to the dignity of his person. The reasoning of the apostle, in the commencement of the first chap

ter of the epistles to the Hebrews, proceeds upon this principle. His design is to show, that Jesus Christ is superior to angels. This he does by proving him to be the Son of God. He commences by observing that God, who, at sundry times and in divers manners, spake in time past to the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, by whom also he made the worlds; who being the brightness of the Father's glory, and express image of his person-being made so much better than the angels, as he hath obtained a more excellent name than they. Here Christ is called the Son of God, and this Son is said to be made superior to angels. The apostle evidently uses the term Son in this verse, to express the dignity of the person of Jesus Christ; and by this Sonship he has by an inheritance obtained a more excellent name than the angels.

II. We are furthermore taught in the text, that, in the second place, This Son of God is the Christ, the promised Messiah. Thou art the Christ, the very person promised from the foundation of the world. Thou art the seed of the woman-the seed of Abraham-the seed of David according to the flesh-the long expected Messiah of the Jews.

The term Christ, for the most part, refers to the divine mission of our blessed Lord, and not to the dignity of his person. Christ in the Greek, and Messiah in the Hebrew, are synonymous terms, and literally signify one who is anointed. When Jesus is called the Christ, or the Messiah, we are to understand that he is a divinely commissioned and inspired messenger of God to the world, whom God has sent to reveal his mind and will to his rebellious subjects; to set an example of piety and rectitude for them to imitate; and to recover them to a virtuous and holy life.

III. It is further stated in our text, that, in the third place, This Christ is the foundation on which the church is built.—Upon this rock will I build my church.

It is maintained by the church of Rome, that Christ in this passage intended to point out Peter as the foundation of the church, but this is a mistake. Jesus Christ is the foundation, and the only foundation of the Christian religion, 1 Cor. iii, 11. Christ had previously given to Peter the name of Cephas, which, in the Syriac language, is of the same import with Peter in the Greek: they both mean a stone. Now, says our Lord, thou hast acknowledged me to be the Christ, and I acknowledge thee to be justly and deservedly named Peter, and on this rock, myself, I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Christ here declares himself to be the foundation, and recognizes Peter as a suitable stone to incorporate into the building. This is the true sense of the passage.

When Christ calls himself the foundation, it is not of his abstract person that he is speaking, but of his Messiahship. Christians are greatly divided in their opinions respecting the person of Christ;

some maintaining that Jesus Christ in his person is properly God, others contend that he is a mere man; while others have taken what is called the middle ground, that which we assumed in the first part of this discourse. Much confusion has arisen among these contending parties, and many uncharitable censures have been thrown out against those who confine supreme deity to the Father. They have been frequently charged with denying the Lord that bought them, and the only foundation of the sinner's hope. But this mistake has arisen from not paying a due regard to the express language of Scripture. However dignified Jesus may be in his person, it is not of his abstract person that he or his apostles speak when they call him the foundation; but of him as the Christ, the anointed of God. Upon this rock will I build my church; this shows that the church is built on him as the Messiah. Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. The apostles here teach us that all who believe Jesus to be the Christ, are Christians; consequently are on the foundation. Again, That if thou shalt confess, says the apostle' with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in thy heart that God raised him up from the dead, thou shalt be saved. The resurrection of Jesus proved him to be the Christ, and as such, he is Lord of all. These, and many other passages which might be quoted if necessary, sufficiently prove that Jesus as the Messiah is the foundation God has laid in Zion for the hope of the guilty. All Christians fully believe that Jesus is the Christ, and as such cordially embrace him. This necessarily includes his divinity; that is, the divinity of his mission and office, his divine authority and powers, the divinity of his doctrine and works, and the divine gifts and blessings that came through him. As a divinely commissioned, divinely empowered messenger, who spoke the words of God to men, he is the foundation.

When the apostle speaks of Christ as the foundation, this necessarily includes the doctrine he revealed and taught. All that Christ is to us, he is by the gospel. The name Christ is sometimes used when his doctrine, the whole of what came by him, is meant ; as the name of Moses is used in some places in the New Testament, when not the person of Moses, but his law is intended. When we build on Christ as the foundation, we must receive his doctrine, and practice his precepts. It will avail us nothing to call Jesus Lord, Lord, and not do the things he says. Except we take up our cross daily, and follow him, we cannot be his disciples.

We will now notice more particularly of what Christ is the foundation; and,.

1. He is the foundation of our faith as Christians. The word of faith, which we believe, was revealed by him; he is both the author and the finisher of it. This word is the gospel, which contains all that is necessary, both for the faith and practice of a Christian. No doctrine ought to be received as a Christian doctrine, but what is plainly taught in the New Testament. No practice ought

to be enforced and observed, which is not required in the gospel. All that is here revealed is important, and ought to be heartily embraced by every disciple of Jesus. He left nothing optional with his followers; it is the duty of all to seek to know his will and do it. The gospel is the standard to which the various religious opinions are to be brought, the test by which they are to be tried. Whatever is found to be in opposition to the express declaration of the gospel should be rejected as anti-christian, notwithstanding it may be held in high repute by many of the professed disciples of Jesus. Whatever is clearly revealed we are bound to receive solely on his authority. It ought to be sufficient for any disciple of Jesus to know, that such a doctrine is revealed by him. Those most assuredly build on this foundation, who can express the sentiments they believe, the doctrine they preach, in the express language of Scripture; and language that is frequently repeated in the New Testa

ment.

2. Christ is the foundation of all our Christian privileges. Though they all flow from the love of God, our Heavenly Father, as the original fountain, and are his free gifts, yet they come to us by Jesus Christ, through his labor and sufferings. We partake and enjoy all the blessings of the gospel through faith in him. By faith we have access to God by Christ, through whom also we receive rich communications from the Father of mercies. These sentiments are clearly expressed in the gospel. This is life eternal that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. But after the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his own mercy, he saved us by the washing of regeneration, and the renewing of the Holy Ghost; which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; that, being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. No Christians admit more freely than we, that all the blessings of the new covenant come to us through Jesus Christ; and in this respect, he may emphatically be called the foundation of them; for it is by union with him that we are made partakers of the divine nature, and attain to that mind which was in Christ. He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit or disposition with him.

3. He is the foundation of our redemption, or deliverance from sin. God raised up Jesus, and exalted him at his own right hand, to give repentance unto Israel, and remission of sins. Though salvation is by the free grace of God, it was revealed and communicated by Jesus Christ, and confirmed to us by his death. He is the instrumental cause of our salvation, and is able to save to the uttermost all that come to God by him. Let all the house of Israel assuredly know, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye, have crucified, both Lord and Christ.

4. Christ is the foundation of evangelical righteousness; of that righteousness which is required of the Christian. He gave the

rule of it; it consists in obedience to his precepts, and a conformity to his gospel. It was illustrated in his life and conversation, and in him was exhibited its pattern in a most striking likeness. He furnished all the motives; and by furnishing the motives, gave strength to attain to evangelical righteousness. It can only be produced by the light and influence of the gospel.

5. He is the foundation of our consolation and joy. The Christian religion is calculated to produce a greater joy than can possibly flow from any other source. Thou hast put gladness into my heart, more than in the time that their corn and wine increaseth. We rejoice, says the apostle, with joy unspeakable and full of glory. But this consolation was in Christ-these transports of joy were in him; the Christian has no confidence in the flesh. The witness of the Spirit, its sealing influence, its sanctifying effects, are all calculated to produce a high degree of joy in the heart of the Christian. But this spirit comes to us by Christ; our consolation and joy flow from the promises of God, which are in him yea, and in him amen. All the bright prospects of a state of future glory and blessedness, which fill the Christian with everlasting joy, were opened before us by Jesus Christ.

6. He is the foundation of our hope. Without Christ there can be no well grounded hope of future glory. It is he who has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, who hath begotten us again to a lively hope through his resurrection from the dead. It is Christ in the Christian, the hope of glory. Without him we should be without the assured hope of eternal life.

7. Christ is the foundation of the Christian church in distinction from all human authority. He is the only Master of Christians, who alone has authority to dictate to them what they are to believe, and what they must practice. The New Testament is the law of the kingdom. As the subjects of Christ, we are under the strongest obligation to believe what is there taught, and practice what is there required. The subjects of this kingdom are all upon a level, and have no authority over one another, but are all to be subject to the great head, the Lord Jesus Christ. All creeds and confessions of faith, all the decisions of councils, are but the opinions of fallible and erring men, and who are to be regarded as such. They do not come to us sanctioned by any divine authority, they have no claim to implicit faith. They ought never to be regarded as terms of communion, or grounds of fellowship. Those churches that build Christian fellowship upon a confession of faith, as something distinct from the Scriptures, at most, are building upon a fallible exposition, an exposition of no authority. Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are ye? We recognize the authority of Christ and his apostles, but we know no other divine authority in the gospel age: we know of no men who are authorized to interpret the Scriptures, and require of others implicit faith in their decision. Christ, including the system of faith revealed by him, is the only