is supremely adorable, and supremely adored. Christians, what idea do you form of this doctrine ? Do we think, we have done all, that this doctrine engages us to do, when we have signalized our zeal by affirming and defending it? Shall we be of that number of extravagant people, who, having established the truth with warmth, sometimes with wrath (placing their passion to the account of religion) imagine, they have thereby acquired a right of refusing to Jesus Christ that unlimited obedience, which so directly follows the doctrine of his divinity? The sacred authors, whom we have foldowed in proving this doctrine, draw very different consequences from it. They use it to inflame our love for a God, who so loved the world as to give his only begotten Son, John iii. 16. They use it to elevate us to the sublimest hopes, declaring it impossible for him who gave his own Son, not to give us all things freely with him, Rom. iii. 31. They use it to enforce every virtue, particularly humility, a virtue essential to a Christian: and, when order requires it, to sacrifice the titles of noble, sovereign, potentate, monarch, after the example of this Godinan, who being in the form of God, and counting it no robbery to be equal with God, humbled himself, Phil. ii. 6. They use it to exalt the Evangelical dispensation above the Mosaical economy, and by the superiority of the former to prove, that piety should be carried to a more eminent degree now than formerly; for God, who spake to the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken to us by his Son, Heb. i. I. They use it to prove, that the condition of a wicked Christian would be infinitely worse after this life than that of a wicked Jew; for if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward, how shall we escape, if

we neglect so great a salvation, which at first began to be spoken by the Lord? chap. ii. 2. He that despised Moses's law died without mercy, under two or three witnesses. Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be counted worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God? chap. x. 28, 29. They use it to describe the despair of those, who shall see him come in divine pomp, whom they once despised under the vail of mortal flesh, for they that pierced him shall see him, and the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bond-man, and every free-man, shall hide themselves in the dens, and in the rocks of the mountains, and shall say to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb. For the great day of his wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand? Rev. i. 7. and vi. 15, &c.

Our second reflection is on that multitude of intelligences, which continually wait around the throne of God. Hear what Daniel says, Thousand thousands ministered unto him, ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him, chap. vii. 10. Hear what Micaiah says, I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing by him, on his right hand and on his left, 1 Kings xxii. 19. Hear what the Psalmist says, The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels, Psal. lxviii. 17. Hear what St. Luke says, There was a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, chap. ii. 13. Hear what Jesus Christ says, Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels? Matt. xxvi. 53. Hear what our text says, The number of them was ten

thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands. My brethren, one of the most dangerous temptations, to which a believer is exposed in this world, is that of seeing himself despised. He sometimes, like Elias, thinks himself alone on the Lord's side, 1 Kings xix. 10. Like Joshua, he is sometimes obliged to say of his duty, Choose you whom you will serve: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord, chap. xxiv. 15. The church is yet a little flock, Luke xii. 32. and although we cannot say of the external profession of religion as St. Paul says, Ye see your calling, my brethren, that not many mighty, not many wise, not many noble are called, 1 Cor. i. 26. yet it may be too truly said of the reality and essence of christianity. No, we have not many noble. They are called noble in the world, who have, or who pretend to have, some antient titles, and who are often ashamed of those, whom Jesus Christ has ennobled, associated into his family, made partakers of the divine nature, and changed from glory to glory by his Spirit, 2 Pet. i. 4. We have very few of these nobles. No, we have not many mighty, 2 Cor, iii. 18. They are called mighty in the world, who have the art of surmounting every obstacle in the path that leads to fortune, who, in spite of a world of opposers, have the art of arriving at the pinnacle of worldly grandeur, and make the difficulties opposed to their designs the means of succeeding. These people generally entertain a contemptible idea of such as are concentered in virtue, who use it both as a buckler and sword to conquer flesh and blood, the prince of the power of the air, and his formidable legions, Eph. ii. 2. We have but few such might ones as these. No, we have not many wise. They are called wise in this world, who by the impenetrable secrets of a profound policy find new

ways of supporting the state, and of deriving from public prosperity a fund to maintain their own pomp. Those are usually despised, who possess that fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of wisdom, of that wisdom, among them that are perfect, Prov. i. 7. 1 Cor. ii. 6. which we are taught in the gospel. We have very few of these wise men. What then! have falshood and vice more partisans than virtue and truth? What then! shall we have less approbation in submitting to God than in submitting to the devil? Far from us be an idea so puerile! Let us cease to consider this little handful of men, who surround us, as if they made up the universality of intelligences: and this earth, this point, this atom, as if it were the immensity of space. Let us open our eyes. Let our text produce the same effect in us to day as Elisha's voice once produced in his servant. All on a sudden they were surrounded with soldiers, armies, and chariots, sent by the Syrian king to carry off Elisha. The servant is frighted; Alas my master ! says he, what shall we do? Fear not, answers Elisha, they, that be with us, are more than they, that be with them. And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And what does he see? He sees the mountain full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha, 1 Kings vi. 15, &c. Believers, ye, who think yourselves alone on the Lord's side, ye who tremble at the sight of the formidable troops, which the enemy of your salvation has sent against you, ye, who cry, What shall we do? Fear not, they, that are with us, are more than they, that are with them.

.. O Lord, open their eyes that they may see. See christians! see whether ye be alone. See these ten thousand times ten thousands, that stand before him. See these heavenly hosts, which sur

round his throne on the right hand and on the left. See the twenty thousand chariots. See the legions of angels and elders, whose numbers are twenty thousand times ten thousand,* Rev. ix. 16 These are your companions, these your approvers, these your defenders.

5. But what are the delights of these intelligences? You have heard my brethren, (and this is our third reflection,) their felicity, their delights consist in rendering supreme honors to God. And I beheld and heard the voice of many angels, round about the throne, saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb, that was slain, to receive power and riches, and wisdom and strength. A reflection ve ry proper to humble and confound us, whose taste is so vitiated and depraved. I am aware, that nothing is less subject to our decisions than taste. I am aware, that what is delicious to one is disgustful to another, and, as it would be stupid to expect a sublime spirit should take pleasure in the gross occupations of a mechanic, so it would be unjust to expect that a mechanic should be pleased with the noble speculations of a sublime genius. I know, the difference between us and these intelligences is such as not to allow our pleasures to be of the same kind. But, after all, is this difference so great as to make such a disproportion in our delights? Do we not aspire to divine happiness as well as they? And if the flesh, which covers that spiritual substance, that animates us, places us so far beneath them, is not the honor, which this flesh has received by the incarnation of the Word, who took not on him the nature of angels but the seed of Abraham, Heb. ii. 16. is not this more than enough to remove the

*Rev. ix. 16. Two hundred thousand thousand. Vingt mille fois dix mille. De myriades myriadum. Indefinite intelligendum, more Hebræo, pro ingenti numero.