illustration? An affectionate and fond father has one, two, three, or more sons; they came forth from his own loins, but they turn out to be very refractory, very rebellious; they forsake the parental roof; they plunge into all manner of sin; they tarnish, defile, and destroy their clothes; they are ragged, tattered, filthy, poverty-struck, hungry, undone, miserable miscreants. But I ask this one question-Are they not his sons after all? Does all that alter their sonship? I appeal to you, fathers, about it; I know what a father's feelings are. After all, are they not your sons? They were your sons before they knew it; they were your sons while you were training them; and they are your sons now. They are children, however vicious and vile; and you yourself cannot alter the relation, and would not if you could. Carry this illustration to our covenant God and Father; "O Jehovah, Thou art my God!" I have been a rebellious profligate; I have spoilt all the clothes that were given me in primeval innocency; I am tattered, ragged, filthy, polluted, corrupted, forlorn, wandering, vile, undone, and miserable. But I am my Father's still; and just as the prodigal son, when he had spent all his substance in riotous living, did not say, "I will arise and go to that gentleman," but "I will arise and go to my father; " I will follow his example. That is the point I am contending for; and I tell you again and again, that ignorance, and neglect of this, is the cause of all the heresies that abound in the present day. Well, what did the prodigal find when he went to his father, wretched, ragged, miserable, hungry, half-starved, forlorn as he was? Did his father, as soon as he saw him, say, "Take that wretch out of my sight; I will never own him?" No! instead of this, his father, when he saw him, "ran and fell on his neck, and kissed him." There is the affection; there is the paternal feeling; there is the affinity; and neither sin, death, nor hell could ever destroy it. "O God, Thou art my Father; I will praise Thee, and exalt Thee as such." It can never be destroyed. I may have this body destroyed: sickness, and death, and age will destroy it soon, and good riddance; "then I shall awake in Thy likeness.' But nothing can ever destroy this affinity. He was my Father before all worlds; He will be my Father as long as I live; and He will be my Father to all eternity. Oh, that this fundamental principle were more dwelt upon!

Well, then, mark how this affinity is exhibited in the person of God the Son. Why He is the personification of His Church. While He is the brightness of His Father's glory, and the express image of His person, co-equal and co-eternal with the Father in His essential Deity, yet was He "in all things made like unto His brethren;" and He will ever acknowledge the affinity. He is the very "Brother born for adversity "the very Brother who takes all the adversity of the Church upon Himself, and sympathizes with every member thereof in all their adversities; so that He is "bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh." "He took not on Him the nature of angels;" He never owned affinity with them; they are His servants, and they are spoken of throughout the sacred volume as such-high intelligencies, suited to their work of "ministering to the heirs of salvation." But He passed them by. He "took not on Him the nature of angels, but the seed of Abraham." Mark! not the seed of Adam-not the seed of human nature, in its general mass, but the seed in the covenant line, "the seed of Abraham; "and was in all things made like unto His brethren, yet without sin." I beseech you to mark here, how the ancient affinity

is exhibited. God and His Church, in union and relationship from everlasting, according to covenant-God and His Church exhibited in union on earth, when the God-man, Christ Jesus, traversed the land of Judea. In Him, who was "despised and rejected of men," I behold all the Church embodied, and all the fulness of Godhead dwelling bodily in Him. Never was such an exhibition of infinite wisdom, love and power, condescension and glory, as in the person of God incarnate, the person of God manifest in the flesh. "The word was made flesh, and dwelt among us. I will exalt Thee, O my God; I will exalt Thee, precious, precious Jehovah Jesus, dwelling in the bosom of the Father from all eternity, and yet coming forth from thence to take my poor nature in a body prepared for Thee, sinless and perfect as Thy Godhead, to save my soul. Now can we cease from praising Him? Is it possible to refrain from exalting Him on this grand fundamental principle made known to our view?

I should like to dwell longer upon this, but I cannot. Pass on just to mark, that this glorious reality is revealed to the hearts of God's people personally by God the Holy Ghost. God the Father adopting me as His son, God the Son uniting Himself with my nature as elder Brother, and God the Holy Ghost coming forth as the Spirit of adoption, because I am a son, to enable me to cry, "Abba, Father." Beloved, if we could go no further than this, we could leave all the cold critics to criticise upon their sciences, and their philosophy, and their disputed points, and their little technicalities. Let them have them all; cold enough they are. Let you and me come to these three points, and bring them home personally, beloved; for if I may say a word to my brethren in the ministry, once for all tell your hearers, without flinching, as soon as you know it, but not before, Jehovah the Father loved me, and adopted me as His child from everlasting; Jehovah the Son assumed my nature, to exhibit the union, the relationship, the affinity, before the world; and became "bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh;" and in order to render the affinity the more conspicuous, after He had taken my nature He gave me His, and put life Divine in my soul. And then tell them, that God the Holy Ghost has revealed all this to you by His invincible power and operations, of which He never repents. "He is of one mind, and none can turn Him." Oh, how I wish I had strength to do justice to such a subject as this! It is more than enough for man, and especially for a worn-out man. than enough for angels; they desire to look into it, but they cannot comprehend it. It is more than enough for glorified spirits; they are occupied to all eternity in celebrating it. "O Jehovah, Thou art my God!"

It is more

II. Let us go on to glance at the wonders that are acknowledged. It is quite enough to make us sing away our lives to get at the affinity; but if we once look at some of the wonders that are done, surely our song of praise will become somewhat louder. I intended, in the order I had laid out, to dwell a little largely upon some of the things (which, however, I will only just name) among God's wonders. I will only select three out of myriads: —— His vicarious work, the extension of the precious, glorious Redeemer's kingdom, and the deliverance of precious souls individually by conversion to God. The vicarious work. Where am I to begin? I know there are beings upon earth that are presumptuous enough-I had almost said blasphemous enough-to call them

selves vicars. There is no vicar but Christ. If the Pope of Rome is a vicar, he is a vicar of the devil; and all who assume the name of vicar, in any shape whatever, imitate and ape the Pope of Rome, and go as far as they can towards him. The term "vicar" only belongs to Christ. He is His Father's Vicar-His Representative; and His work is vicarious. His obedience, His victories, His miracles, His sufferings, His death, all vicarious, under the Father's appointment, and for the interest of His elect Church. I know people do not like this way of putting things; they want them more general. Do not tell me about the generals-give me the peculiars. I know the affinity of which I have been speaking was at the bottom of all Christ's undertakings-of all His work-of all He did-of all He suffered-of all He is demanding now as our Advocate on high, as the Representative of His Father in His law's demands; even as He said when on earth, "I have not allowed one jot or tittle of the word to pass away." He is His Father's Representative and Vicar. "Not one jot or tittle of Thy law have I allowed to pass away, till all be fulfilled." If it was not left there, all the population of heaven must go to hell under the curse. But no! He is a Vicar. Our precious Christ is the Vicar. You know they are accustomed in our days to make vicars of the vilest scoundrels, that are a disgrace to society; but not so with our precious Christ. He is the Vicar who, when His Father's law was to be honoured, knowing that no human being could honour it, said, "I will honour it myself; I will go to the very end of it." A perfect and sinless obedience did He yield as a Vicar-the Father's Representative. When the curse was to be borne as a Vicar, He becomes the Representative of His people— He was "made a curse for us"-He bore the curse-cancelled the curse-took away the curse. And do keep your eye upon the appellation that I have given upon this official character-that of “Vicar ”— .because you must not for a moment allow that Jesus atoned for sin in a vague and general sense, as some people, in their canting hypocrisy, tell us that there was efficacy enough in His blood for the whole world. Do not tell me about such nonsense-I despise it. But was it ever intended? Was He the Vicar for the whole world? You may tell me that I have enough money in my pocket to pay all the creditors in Camberwell; it is another thing whether I intend to do it; it is another thing whether I will give a bond to do it. Now my precious Christ, in His vicarious character, has quite merit enough-righteousness enough— obedience enough-power enough, to save all the world; but has He bound Himself so to do? Is He a Vicar for that purpose? I trow not. He is Vicar only for the family whom the Father loved from everlasting, and entrusted to His care; He is a Vicar for them; and, as a Vicar, He must satisfy all the demands of law and justice, and the Divine attributes of Deity, and must meet the exigencies, the miseries, the guilt, the sin, the ruin, the pollution, the death, the damnation, that lay upon the whole Church in her ruined nature. And He put it all away. It is a wonderful work-is it not? I do not wonder that the prophet should say, that His works are wonderful. This is the wonderful work, that Jehovah Jesus should put Himself in a position of responsibility-irrevocable responsibility-to put away the iniquities of all His Church, make an atonement for all their transgressions, bring in an everlasting righteousness, and save them in Himself with an everlasting salvation. "I will exalt Him" for His wonderful work.

Oh, this is a precious theme! and I should like to dwell longer upon

it; but we go on to glance at the wonderful work of the advancement of His kingdom. One thousand eight hundred and forty-nine years have rolled away since He "finished transgression, and made an end of sin, and brought in an everlasting righteousness," and ascended to that glory where He was before; and all that time His living Church has been advancing in a wonderful way. Sometimes she has advanced through rivers of blood; sometimes she has advanced through blazing fires; sometimes she has advanced through horrid prisons, banishments, and tortures: but His Church has always been advancing. Look at the diabolical murders committed in the valleys of Piedmont, for instance, as well as in other parts of the world, upon the persons and bodies of the living Church. Satan himself could never exceed such diabolical wickedness; and yet, amidst them all, the Church has been advancing. "The blood of the martyrs" has been "the seed of the Church; conversion work has been going on; and wherever God has an elect vessel of mercy upon earth-I do not ask whether it is in an Infidel family, in a Popish family, or in a mock-Protestant family— wherever that elect vessel of mercy is, Jehovah will find him out, take possession of his soul, and distinguish him from the world, if all hell is in arms to oppose him. Tell me no more about your contingencies; tell me no more about the ridiculous, carnal nonsense of souls perishing for lack of knowledge, and lack of exertion of mortals, and so on; it is really too contemptible to drop from one's lips, except altogether to reprobate it. I know that my precious Master's statement must be carried out " All that the Father gave me shall come to me."-" No, no-they cannot come." Aye, but they shall come."-"No, nowe will not let them come.' "They shall come."—" No, no-they are the lawful prey of the powers of darkness!" "They shall come to me." I pray you, ask if all the powers of hell can after that "shall come?" I am as certain as I am of my own existence, that all whom the Father hath given Him shall come to Him; because He has said So. I want no other authority. It is nothing to me to ask how, or why, or when they shall come, or even who they are, except as God fires my heart with an anxious concern to be an instrument in bringing them. But I cannot take a sinner out of the devil's hand, and make a saint of him. God alone can do it; and when He comes forth with an uplifted hand, and smites the sinner's conscience, and says, "Shall come," let the sinner run away if he can. "But He may lose him again." "No, no; none shall pluck them out of my hand." The sinner's first coming did not depend upon himself, and I am sure his staying will not. "None shall ever pluck them out of my hand; "— No, nor will I ever cast one out. "Him that cometh unto me I will in nowise cast out." Precious Lord! Can I fail to exalt Thee? I hope I shall cease to breathe, before I cease to exalt Him. For He is "my God; I will exalt Him, for He has done wonderful things."

I cannot really pass over this point without exalting Him, and calling upon you to help me to exalt Him, for the wonderful things He has done here. If you look back upon the thirty years bygone-praise His name for it!-it is no common thing for one man to be preserved for thirty years in one undeviating line of proclaiming God's truth, and with uninterrupted success. Praise His name! It is a prodigy of wonderful things this; and while I survey them, I want you to help me to praise His name for doing such wonderful things here. If I look over our church book-if I carry my thoughts back to our first day of

organization as a Christian Church, and think of the hundreds and hundreds, I may say the many hundreds that I have known to have been called out of nature's darkness into marvellous light during those thirty years, by the mere instrumentality of a poor fellow-worm, numbers already in glory, and numbers more on their way, respecting whom it will be said of this sacred spot, "This and that man was born there," can I cease to praise Him, can I cease to exalt Him? And oh how blessed the fact-you must allow me here to give a little scope to my feelings-oh how blessed the fact, that I can fairly challenge every hearer I am favoured with, whether there has ever been a single deviation from truth, whether there has ever been a single sentence uttered in their hearing, which was not in accordance with the first sermon preached, and with the principles we first avowed?-I say more, with the principles of the Bible! "I will exalt Him." You must know, that a poor fellow-worm, feeble as yourselves, might have changed his sentiments half-a-dozen, or half-a-hundred times, if left to himself. “I will exalt Him," because He has kept one poor worm stubbornly, obstinately, amidst all the persecutions to which he has been subjected. adhering to the precious truth of God. You are not strangers—allow this deviation on our anniversary morning-you are not strangers to the fact, that the man who will avow the truth of God as unflinchingly as I have been enabled to do, is always looked at by the great body of divines as a wild beast-he is considered at least a strange and a dangerous being. Very well, I am sure I do not court their acquaintance. I did for some years, when I first came to London, and wept many a flood of tears that they should have behaved so unbrotherly; but when I found out what it was for, preaching the truth of God, I said, "Well, I will wear it as a bright ornament around my neck;" and that sweet Scripture dropped on my spirit with power Divine, in my withdrawing and retiring from the reproaches and insults to which I was subjected, "Let them come to thee, but go not thou to them:" and God helping me, I will abide by that text as long as I live. Well do I know, by blessed heartfelt experience, the rich enjoyment of every doctrine I have uttered, and until I can cease to enjoy them, I cannot cease to proclaim them; and if God should favour me with stronger language than I have ever yet been able to use, I will call it forth to the utmost extent of my power.

Moreover, the discipline which we have been taught of God has been so signally honoured, that I cannot help considering it as a part of the machinery which God has employed for the advancement of His kingdom here. If we had submitted to those abominable uproars called church meetings, invented by the devil (and he is generally the chairman at them) our peace had been gone many years ago; it would not have lasted a third part of the time that it has lasted. But, blessed be God, we have derived our discipline, as well as our doctrine, from the word of God. We studied only the precious statements of the Book of God, and consequently the official characters appointed have kept to their official work; and I certainly bless God for the officers with which He has surrounded me, and the manner in which they have carried on the work entrusted to them, as well as upholding me in my office. I verily believe that the discipline we have pursued so tenaciously, and which I would rather die a martyr to than have infringed upon, has been an instrument in the hand of God for preserving our harmony and love. Shall I cease to exalt and praise