ture better understood, and its object more clearly exhibited. It was more confined to individuality as it respects the race from whom it should originate, and more universal in its application respecting them on whom its blessing should be conferred. Being now confirmed by an oath, it was irrevocable; being confined to a certain race, it became unalienable; and being promised to the whole human race, it became the property and birthright of every creature. Promised at the fall, and renewed at the call of Abraham; confirmed by oaths, and typified by sacrifices; remembered in all ordinances, and sealed in human flesh; the immutable promise of Jehovah of a Saviour that should deliver us from death, and emancipate us from misery, became more and more clearly revealed to man by inspired patriarchs and prophets, as the time grew near when these hopes, raised by God, should be realized, and our fears be for ever composed. Successive generations produced successive witnesses of this great truth, confirming the promises already made, and the expectations already raised. The light which the Almighty vouchsafed for the elucidation of this subject, was perpetually increasing; fresh discoveries were continually made, perplexities unraveled, and difficulties removed. The stream of knowledge, like that of fame, became continually increasing; though small in its beginning it acquired strength from flowing, being supplied

with fresh resources, which never failed, till from a rivulet it became a mighty river, which no force could impede or artifice diminish.

As the knowledge of this great promise increased, and its nature became revealed, the fame of it received a correspondent extension; till at the consummation of it, like the waters in Ezekiel's vision, it seems to have overspread the whole earth. The child of a promise yet unfulfilled, became the child of Providence. The utmost care of the Almighty was exerted in bringing to birth the accomplishment of that promise, which his infinite mind had. from eternity conceived, and his lips had confirmed with an oath. In order to accomplish the promise made to Abraham of raising up from his seed one in whom all the families of the earth should be blessed, he preserved the race of the father of the faithful a distinct and separate people. porated, but never united with the body politic of the Egyptians; numbered among the subjects of Pharaoh, and yet ever distinct; the seed of Abraham, though oppressed by their enemies, increased by the Providence of God, and were at length redeemed with a mighty hand and stretched out arm by that God, who was mindful of the covenant that he made with Abraham, and the oath which he sware unto Jacob.

Incor

The covenant was again renewed; the promise. again confirmed; circumcision, the seal of the pro

mise, was once more established. The nature of the Messiah, and the offices which he was to bear, became gradually revealed and taught under the types and shadows of the Jewish law. Prophets were raised up prophecying beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory which should follow. God at sundry times and in divers manners, made known his will to the Jewish people, and revealed the nature and character of the promised Messiah, and of the kingdom over which he should reign. These holy men were but harbingers; they were only forerunners of the great Messiah; they were but messengers whom the kings of the East are accustomed to send to make ready for their arrival. They were permitted only to smooth the way, to exalt valleys, bring down mountains, and make rough places smooth; to make ready a high way for the great king of the east, a high way for their God and their Messiah, who was to rule the nations with a rod of iron, and dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel. The knowledge which the prophets communicated, was only like the twilight, the ushering in of the morning; it was the gradual and faint light that precedes the sun, and which warns us of its approach and announces its arrival, The light which these prophets communicated, was originally received from the Sun of righteousness; who now arose himself upon the horizon with healing on his wings, whose appearance its beams had

already predicted. God had hitherto addressed the world by prophets, but now he has addressed us by his Son. The time was now fully come; the promise is at length fulfilled; Jesus is born the Saviour of the world; the Almighty addresses us through the Son of his love.

In treating this text we will point out,

I. The nature and person of Christ.

II. The object of his mission.

First, then, the nature and person of Christ.

The person here introduced to our consideration is no less than the Son of God, begotten of God by an eternal and incomprehensible generation. He was in the bosom of the Father from all eternity, reflecting all the glory of the Godhead; for in him was the whole divinity of Jehovah embodied. He is represented in my text as being "the brightness. of his glory and the express image of his person."

The sun is the glory of the firmament, giving light and life to every thing. Upon him depend all animal and vegetable existence; its piercing beams fecundate the bosom of the earth. In his absence the image of death appears; sleep steals upon the animal and even vegetable kingdom, and all is hushed into a repose. At his appearance nature awakes from her slumbers, and clothes herself with the garments of mirth. Around him likewise move in mystic dance the planets of the night, acknowledging him as the author of their

2

light and as their governor, who, with his invisible chains holds them in sway from escaping from his dominion.

This is but a faint illustration of the glory of the Son of God, who in the heaven of heavens, with more than solar brightness, skines glorious; the glory of whose countenance, as we learn from the Apocalypse, is" as the sun when he shineth in his strength." In the empyreal heavens "the Lamb. is the light thereof;" for all heaven is lighted with the brightness of his glory. It has no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God, which is embodied in Christ, is the light thereof; " and the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it." From the brightness of his glory all the angelic hosts and saints above receive their borrowed lustre, like the planets rejoicing in a glory which is another's and not their own. Round about him, seated on his throne, moves the company of heaven, rejoicing in his brightness; while on either side is heard "the voice of many angels round about the throne, and the beasts and the elders, the number of which is ten thousand times ten thousand and thousand of thousands, saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches,

b Rev. xxi. 23.

Rev. xxi. 24.