flames of persecution uninjured, and drew from that which was designed to consume it, the strongest proofs of its perpetual endurance, and the fullest assurance of its ultimate universal triumph. And though the ordeal of conflict through which it was obliged to pass was protracted as well as severe, still it rose superior to its foes, and prospered in the face of every obstacle, till at length, after a period of nearly four centuries, the struggle terminated in the national expulsion of Paganism, and establishment of Christianity.

But now came the period of a yet severer, though less appalling trial of the enduring character of the Gospel. The world, which is prone to extremes, having at length ceased to frown upon its operations, began forthwith, as a matter of policy, to caress it, and exalt its abettors. By a decree of Constantine the Great, who became professedly a convert to its doctrines, it was proclaimed the religion of Rome in the room of idolatry At the magic command of an earthly potentate, it thus arose from the obscurity of`a persecuted system, into all the magnitude, and splendour, and power of a civil establishment—a legalised religion; and its profession, which had hitherto been regarded as the summit of disloyalty and an object of disgust, was at once transformed into an act of obedience and a punctilio of fashion. Behold Christianity now sitting mistress of the civilised nations! the title of Defender of her Faith assumed by every prince, and her badge, the cross, worn by every subject! Was not this the hour of her predicted triumph? Had she not now become the glory of the whole earth? Were not the nations of this world now converted to the nations of our God and His Christ?

Need I tell you, my friends, that not this, but the very reverse of this was the case; that the religion which thus for ages reigned over the nations, and held in fellest subjection, the consciences of men, was not the religion of Jesus, as it professed to be, but a system of the darkest

ignorance, the most unmeaning superstition, and the lowest vice, which wore its name and arrogated its authority? Thus, assuredly, it was. While Europe was professedly Christian, Christianity was almost entirely expelled from its boundaries, and supplanted by a monstrous erection of human device. The moment that the church became allied to the nations of this world-the moment that it stooped to receive the blandishments of those who, had it better fitted their purpose, would have strangled it to death-that moment it became unsound in its constitution, and its growth, thenceforward, though easier and more rapid, was of that spurious kind which results from disease, and is bluff in proportion as it is extensive.

The almost universal prevalence of Popery previous to the Reformation, was this diseased state of the church in its highest inveteracy, and most alarming aspect. Having been for ages sinking under the fever of corruptiou, it had now reached the crisis, and all but finally mastered by the malady, presented one vast putrid mass, in which the remaining embers of vitality were buried among the predominating symptoms of apparent dissolution. “Where now, O Lord of Hosts," might the desponding saint have exclaimed, "is the promise that thy word shall endure for ever— r-that the kingdom of thy Son shall remain while the sun and moon do last? Shall Christianity thus perish from the earth, and Satan be permitted to obtain an undivided sway over mankind? Wilt thou not arise and have mercy upon Zion?"

God, you know, my friends, did arise. At this moment of awful extremity, when the religion of Christ, which had braved alike the slaughter of the sword, and the burning agonies of the faggot, seemed expiring under the smothering pressure of universal adulation and caress, and when the eyes of Satan and his associates were turned towards it with intensest anxiety, eager to behold its final extinction; at this perilous moment, the hand of Omnipotence came forth to its aid, and,

by its vivifying touch, woke it to newness of life. Thus raised as from the dead, it gradually assumed its wonted health and vigour, and, bursting from all restraint, stood forth once more the rational, the pure, the noble Christianity of the Bible. The hour of revival-of Reformation to the church had at length arrived, and that truth, that "word of the Lord," which had for ages lain concealed beneath the darkness of Popery, now came forth in its native lustre-set at defiance alike the proffered bribes, and the threatened inflictions of its foes, and, by the force of its reanimated powers, shook to the centre the stupendous pyramid of ignorance and error beneath which it had been buried.

Thus resuscitated, Christianity now rapidly advanced. In Germany, Sweden, Denmark, the British Isle, and several other European States, it soon obtained, not only a footing, but even the ascendancy. It still, as is well known, keeps its ground, and marches on apace. And thus will it continue to do, till, by its inherent power and the aid of heaven, it has levelled with the ground every opposing system, and reared upon the ruins of its foes its own inimitable structure. No weapon that is formed against it shall ever prosper. Bigotry may whet her sword and sock the earth with sacred gore; infidelity may either assume, as now it does, its blandest form, and endeavour by insidious sophistry to sap the stately pillars of truth, or wax frantic, and hurl against them its boldest calumnies; and professing Christians, instigated by views of carnal policy, or feelings of mistaken zeal, may devise measures for the advancement of their cause, which, in principle and operation, are of directly an opposite tendency-these evils may, we say, continue to operate against the interests of the Gospel, but the Gospel, strong in itself, and omnipotent in its Author, will finally outbrave them all, and remain to the latest generation, unshaken as is the mountain by the tem pests which beat upon its brow.

III. I now observe, in the Third place, that while the Gospel, as we have seen, will neither be withdrawn by its Author, nor destroyed by its foes, it will not remain a mere nominal institution, but will abide for ever in the full efficiency of its power-in its perfect adequacy as the means of accomplishing that for which it is designed.

Its design, I need scarcely state, is, by procuring pardon for guilty man, and effecting the renovation of his moral nature, to prepare him for enjoying the Society and fruition of the celestial Paradise; to make him meet, in a judicial and moral point of view, "to be a partaker of the inheritance of the saints in light." And for accomplishing this, it is fully adequate, for it is "the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth." Constructed on the nicest principles of justice, as well as based on the broad foundation of infinite benevolence, it at once secures the honour of the Supreme Ruler, and affords the means of mercy to those who have violated His law, and become embued with feelings of hostility to His administration. The atonement of Christ, which is its principal doctrine, forms its highest excellence, and is the secret and source of all its judicial power. It is this which makes "mercy and truth meet together, righteousness and peace kiss each other "—which harmonizes all the perfections of Deity in the salvation of our race, and renders the Gospel the means of "glory to God in the highest," as well as of" peace on earth, and good will toward men." And while it is thus judicially powerful, it is no less so in a moral point of view. Even its direct inherent tendency is to moralize to suppress vice and exalt virtue. But that by which it chiefly secures the purity of those who receive it, is the sanctifying operation of the Divine Spirit, whose agency it reveals, and the necessity of which it enforces as essential to salvation. Thus doubly infinite-infinite in the substitutionary worth it provides, and the purifying power it conveys, the Gospel stands forth an all-sufficient system of

salvation, adequate both to remove our guilt and abolish our depravity, and thus to fit us for admission into that region of untainted purity and unruffled bliss, where nothing that is impure can ever enter, and where God shall wipe away all tears from every eye.

This, we say, is the original design of the Gospel, and, wherever it has been permitted fairly to operate, this has proved its invariable result. In every age it has formed the ground of peace, and the highway to eternal glory. All who have availed themselves of its provisions, have "passed from death unto life," felt themselves moving in an atmosphere of purer enjoyment, and risen at death to the full fruition of celestial bliss. At this moment there is an innumerable company of disembodied spirits surrounding the throne of the Eternal, who owe their exaltation to the elevated sphere of action and beatitude they occupy, to a cordial reception of its offers, and a willing submission to its power. "These are they," said the Elder, in describing to John the throng of heaven which he beheld in vision-" these are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb: therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple." Their elevation and glory, you observe, are ascribed to the atoning sacrifice of Christ; they are yonder, amid the joys of Paradise, as the trophies of the Gospel-as the living evidences that it is not a nerveless system, but "the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth."

And what the Gospel was it still is-time has not abated its energy. It is as efficient as the means of mercy now, as it was when originally announced, or when, by the personal ministry of its Author, it first shone forth in the full effulgence of its meridian splendour. Holding on a career of perpetual youth and safety, it stands exempt alike from the infirmities of old age and the derangements of accident.

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