PREFACE.

AMONG the many interesting subjects to find place in these Village Sermons, this forms one most evidently important, namely, to have true scriptural appréhensions of the person of our most glorious Christ. For it is only in the spiritual knowledge of his person, on Scripture ground, and under divine teaching, that the church can have any true spiritual apprehension of the unity of the divine essence in his trinity of persons, and of the great events included in that high administration, in Christ becoming the Surety and Sponsor for the redemption of his church and people. But when we are supernaturally taught who Christ is, we then discover from the same divine unction, (1 John ii. 20.) and according to his own divine statement, that in knowing him, "we know the Father," and in seeing him, "we see the Father." (John xiv. 7-9.) And by such spiritual insight in divine things we are graciously brought unto "all riches, of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." (Coloss. ii. 2, 3.)

The sermon here brought before the cottager hath for its object these leading designs, namely, to speak both of the person, and of the glory of Christ in his salvation. Let us enter upon the perusal of it in prayer; that being brought under divine teaching, "we may know the things which are freely given to us of God; and not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual." (1 Cor. ii. 12, 13.)

O Lord God! the great and glorious God! "glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders!" vouchsafe to testify thy divine presence, in the unity of thy GODHEAD, and trinity of persons, that our souls at this time may have true spiritual apprehension of "the love of God our Father, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the communion of the Holy Ghost." About to contemplate the glo

rious person of our most glorious Christ, and the greatness of his glory in salvation, we entreat our God to go before us, and to follow us, while attending on this divine Scripture, that our "meditation of Him may be sweet." Lord! unveil his beauties, his glories, his mightiness, his suitableness, his all-sufficiency, to our view, and make every heart of thy redeemed present in love with him and his great salvation! until, like the children in the temple under divine influence, our spirits are constrained to say, as they said, "Hosanna to the Son of David! blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord! hosanna in the highest!" And we implore grace from the Giver of all grace, that we may, each for himself, have such a personal apprehension of our oneness and union with Christ as to behold our interest in Christ; that in all he did and wrought and suffered in the infinite work of salvation, he did the whole, not as a private person, but as the public Head and Representative of his body the church. Blessed and Almighty Teacher! whose divine acts in the covenant of grace are to glorify Christ, and to take of his and shew unto his people; give such an unction at this time of his complete and finished salvation in our minds and consciences, as may bear our spirits up above sin and all the consequences of it; and cause us to participate with one of old, and to say as he did: "Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ!" Amen.

SERMON VII.

THE GREATNESS OF CHRIST'S GLORY, IN THE WORK OF SALVATION; AND THE EVERLASTING BLESSEDNESS OF HIS PERSON.

PSALM xxi. 5, 6.

His glory is great in thy salvation : honour and majesty hast thou laid upon him. For thou hast made him most blessed for ever !

THE charter of grace carrieth one most prominent distinction of character, in marking more or less every book, every chapter, through the Bible, both of the Old Testament and the New, with the adorable name of our most glorious Christ. For as the divine glory, (in the final event of every administration through all the departments of nature, providence and grace,) is manifested in Him as the visible Jehovah, so the close of all will centre in his Almighty person. The Holy Ghost hath stated this by his servant the apostle, in that comprehensive Scripture; for speaking of the good pleasure of Jehovah in his trinity of persons, which he hath purposed in himself, he adds: “that in the dispensation of the fulness of times, he might gather together in one, all things in Christ; both which are in heaven, and which are on earth, even in Him.” This mighty Him! Emmanuel! "God manifest in the flesh!" (Eph. i. 10. 1.Tim. iii. 16.)

Indeed, it is one of the most plain and obvious truths in the whole volume of Scripture, namely, that God's glory is, and must be, the first and ultimate end of all things. For God's glory is himself; his essence, his nature, his very being. The attributes

and perfections of Jehovah, in his trinity of persons and unity of essence, are not as so many emanations issuing from God, such as distinguish the actions of creatures, and which in them are so many effects, flowing from some cause. Not so in reference to the divine nature: his attributes are himself. The divine glory in the divine perfections is eternally the same, and would have been the same, whether the Lord had gone forth in acts of creation, or had not. What a divine distinction of character is here! Hence we read, that when it pleased Jehovah to call into being creatures, whether angels or men, and raise up worlds demonstrative of his Almighty power, the ascription of praise ran in these words: "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, and honour, and power; for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are, and were created." (Rev. iv. 11.)

But when from the world of nature the Lord leads us on to the contemplation of the world of grace, we rise into a higher contemplation of the divine glory, in discovering the manifestations Jehovah hath made of himself in his trinity of persons, in the display of this glorious attribute of grace. Grace itself is one among the many of Jehovah's incommunicable perfections, or, (as was said before of glory) is God himself. But if God will (as that God hath to our unspeakable joy) make a manifestation of this divine attribute, to the creatures whom he hath chosen as the objects and subjects of his love; it shall be done in a way and manner which shall illustrate his own glory. Yea, the Lord hath prepared and appointed a whole eternity for the display of it, and which is not too long for the purpose in duration; that "in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace, in his kindness towards us through Christ Jesus." (Eph. ii. 7.)

And what tends to endear it a thousand times more to the highly favoured objects of his love is, in that it is made known through a nature like our own, for it is all in the person of our most glorious Christ; and it is accompanied with this most precious of all distinctions, in that it is said to be "to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the Beloved!" (Eph. i. 6.)

But we must not stop here. The method Jehovah hath been pleased to adopt for the fullest display of grace, in our being accepted in the Beloved, is not confined to our being freed from sin, and all the tremendous consequences of sin induced by the Adam-fall transgression: grace comes from and riseth to, an infinitely higher Source, from the manifestation made of it to the church in Christ before sin, or Satan, and when there was no world, and will continue in its blissful operations when all worlds are done away. That was the greatest instance of grace, when One of the sacred persons in the GODHEAD took into union with himself that holy portion of our nature whereby our union with Christ, and communion with Christ, hath foundation, for all the gifts of grace here, and glory hereafter. And I detain you to pause over the marvellous subject, and to consider with me, the vast and incalculable blessedness of it. For this was for objects infinitely above our deliverance from sin; for this glorious purpose in Christ was before there was either sin or transgression in our nature; it had, among other inconceivable blessings, to bring up the church from the moment of her being chosen in Christ, into a capability of holiness in Christ. For as that portion of our nature which the Son of God took into union with himself, was "holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens;" so the church in her first being in Christ, and before