perish. You did not believe it; you do not believe it. What is the consequence? You do not repent; you do not pray for grace to repent: you are not deeply concerned; because you are in an impenitent state. But if you believed that you would perish without repentance, why then, unless you were mad, you would instantly begin to pray to God with all the intensity and earnestness possible, to Jesus, who is exalted a Prince and a Saviour, to give you repentance, and with it remission of sins. Then again, we preach to you remission of sins; that you need not bear the guilt of your sins; that God has placed that guilt upon the Lamb which he himself has appointed, the sin-offering which he has accepted: and we say to you perpetually, "Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world." We keep strictly to the characteristic peculiarities of Christianity. Still how many never yet tried to behold the Lamb of God: never yet proved that their sin might be taken away. Now what is this? Why it is rejecting the message; that is what it is. O some of you, at the last great day-the thought is enough to crush one-will wish you had never heard this Gospel; that you had lived in some poor heathen land, and never had been in a Christian country. You will say then, "I heard these things, but I did not believe them, I did not act upon them; and now it is all over with them."

And this leads us to the last point, namely, that THEY WHO RECEIVE THIS MESSAGE, AND THEY WHO REJECT IT, SHALL BOTH KNOW AT LAST THAT IT CAME FROM THE LORD. They who receive it, knew it long before. O, my brethren, those of you who, through God's mercy, and the blood of the Saviour, and through the labours of his servants in this place, have received the truth in love, and are now walking in the way to heaven, you have no more doubt that Christianity is a Divine revelation than you have of your own existence. A person might as well endeavour to persuade you, that the sun never shines by day, nor the moon by night, as to try to persuade you that the Bible is not a direct revelation from God. The indwelling Spirit of the living God testifies with your spirits that these things are true.

But take the case of those who reject the Gospel. O, my brethren, they find out also that it was all true. Shall I take the greatest and most terrific instance that can possibly be given of the enemies of God owning the truth of God? It is this-" The devils also believe and tremble." O, my brethren, what a thought is this, that at the last great day, many who have rejected the Gospel will find it to be true." They shall know that there hath been a prophet among them; they shall know that the good Prophet himself descended from heaven, coming into this our lower world, to teach, and to love, and to suffer, and to die; to deliver instruction, and to set an example, and to make an atoning sacrifice. God save us from all Socinian damnable error, that would merely exhibit Christ as a pattern, and reject him as an atoning sacrifice for sin; that would reject his true and proper divinity and Godhead. O, yes, and if I have a scorner here (but I rejoice to think that some young men who used sadly to disturb our congregation, and caused us much pain, have learned better, and, through grace, we have found it true, that those who came tɔ scoff remained to pray)-if I have a scorner here, let me tell him this:Well, young man, you may mock at these instructions; but you will find it all to be true bye and by. Now I appeal from the present to the future. You know there is a

story in history of a poor woman who considered herself aggrieved, and applied to Philip, king of Macedon. She found him in a state of intoxication: "I appeal," said she, " from Philip, under the influence of wine, to Philip, sober and able to judge." And so I say to-night (and it is the last thing I wish to say to-night), if the world with its allurements, and the things of time and sense, with their fornications; if these things enchant and ensnare you now, and intoxicate your spirit, I appeal from that state to the hour when you shall turn your pale face to the wall, when friends, and kindred, and medical men shall whisper, "It will soon be all over:" then you shall find, as true as that there is a God, that the Bible is a divine revelation, that the things which we said to you, concerning which you thought us too much in earnest (great God! too much in earnest in speaking of thee, and for the souls of men! O we cannot be too much in earnest) are all perfectly true. O we ought to preach as men that believe the things about which we preach. I appeal, then, in respect to those of you who reject these things, from the present state to the future; from the present time to the hour of your death, and the morning of the resurrection.

THE VICARIOUS SACRIFICE OF CHRIST.

"THERE is one God, and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus;" now observe-" who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time." Not that it was not testified in a degree under the Law; for Jehovah had said by the prophets, that Messiah should be for salvation to the ends of the earth; a light to lighten the Gentiles, as well as the glory of Israel. But it was more plainly, more extensively testified under the evangelical dispensation. The great sum and substance of the whole is, that Christ died for all that Christ tasted death for every man—that he is the propitiation, not for the Jews only, but for the sins of the whole world. The substance of the Gospel is this" God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life." These expressions, and others which are found scattered in various parts of the Book of God, appear to clothe the Mediator and his work with a more abundant honour as they evince that he is able to save all mankind, and that there is a worth in his mediation, and in his work, adequate to have met the wants and moral circumstances of the entire population of the globe. I respect all good men; I value the exhibition of their solid sense, and when that sense flows out in theological discussion: but I must call no man master on earth; and I cannot help thinking that some very excellent divines, under the idea, and doubtless with the best intentions of honouring the supremacy and sovereignty of God have spoken in language somewhat unwarrantable on the vicarious sacrifice of Christ. They have represented that as equal in value only to the number of those who were to be redeemed, and have stated that Christ never shed one single drop of his blood in vain. Christ's sacrifice was the sacrifice of God as well as of man. "Feed the church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood." What a solemn and striking and comprehensive expression is that. It intimates that Christ, when he gave himself a ransom for sinners, displayed a sacrifice of infinite value, able to save the whole mass of mankind if they had received the advantage. This appears to clothe the person and the work of Christ with a dignity and grandeur which in the other case seems merged and almost lost. Christ died for all, for his sacrifice was a ransom that would have redeemed all.-REV. J. CLAYTON.

THE PERIOD, PURPOSE, AND SIGNS OF CHRIST'S FUTURE ADVENT.

REV. 8. ROBINS, A.M.

CHRIST CHAPEL, NORTH BANK, REGENT'S PARK, DECEMBER 6, 1835.

"And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud, with power and great glory." LUKE, xxi. 27.

Ir is a very interesting and a very important topic upon which our church at this time fastens our consideration. We are bidden to contemplate the advent of the Lord Jesus Christ; we have to speak concerning his second coming to this earth and we cannot but bring into contrast the former and the latter coming.

He came at first clothed with all the infirmities of our nature, and having bound upon himself the burden of all conceivable suffering: he came as a stranger to his own world, and could scarcely find a lodging place there; with no heart to bid him welcome, and none to shew him kindness. He shall come hereafter in his glorious majesty; still characterized indeed as "the Son of man," keeping our nature in the closest relationship, and the most intimate brotherhood with his divine nature; coming attended with a glorious retinue having all the splendours of his acknowledged monarchy. He came at first as the messenger of mercy, as the missionary of heaven's love to the guilty and the outcast: he came to entreat and to plead with men, that they would not ruin themselves, that they would not outstand their day of mercy and of grace. So tender was his heart, and so deep was his affection for mankind, that he could weep over them when he saw them in all the determination of their obstinacy. But when he cometh again, it will be not to plead, but to judge: it will be to administer all the rigid and exact principles of his established dominion. It will be the consummation of his power; it will be his enthronement on that empire unto which the Father hath from everlasting appointed him. It will not be the time when he shall abandon the reins of government, lay down his sceptre, and put away his diadem; but when being subject still unto the supreme will, carrying out all the economies of his administration for the glory of the Eternal one, he will yet keep unto himself the headship of his dominion, and administer it as the Mediator for ever and ever. Now this is a matter in which his people are closely and intimately concerned. They shall sit down with him on his throne as he is sat down with his Father upon his throne. He will not cast them off from him: he will not sever the bond of connexion that has bound them together; but he will still keep them; he will exercise his kingly and his pastoral office; he will still hold them in the closest and most intimate relationship: and therefore the beginning of nis own manifested glory will be the commencement of glory unto them.

It is a matter, then, beloved, not alien from our own condition, not a thing of remote speculation, not a matter upon which we may or may not fasten our contemplation as we will, but it is one of those things which God hath opened in his own word, and which he hath bidden his people to consider for their own comfort's sake. For a long time hath the Church been in her widowed state; but the heavenly bridegroom shall come, and he shall take her unto himself, and he shall change her robes of mourning for garments of praise. There has been a long seed time of tears; but there will be a glorious day of harvest and that day will be the period of the coming of Jesus.

Now in taking this as the subject of our evening's meditation, we desire to present to you these two points: first, the period and the purposes of Christ's future advent; and secondly, the signs by which it shall be preceded.

Now as to the first division of our subject, THE PERIOD AND PURPOSES OF CHRIST'S FUTURE ADVENT. There was a plain prediction that he should come at the siege of Jerusalem: but this is not the second advent unto which the expectation of the Church is directed. The coming of the Lord was not then personal: he did not come himself, and in his own proper form, to bring those judgments upon the rebellious city which he himself had foretold unto them. There is some difficulty in the interpretation of the twenty-fourth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, but we think that this difficulty will in a great degree vanish, if we consider, that the main topic throughout the whole of our Lord's discourse is, his future and final coming-that second advent to judgment on which the thoughts of the whole Church are continually fastened; and that whatsoever things he said concerning the events to transpire at the conquest of Jerusalem, are only to be received as secondary topics. We are quite sure of this, that the whole prophecy did not receive its accomplishment when the plough-share was driven over the site of the walls of the beloved city. We find in Matt. xxiv. 29, "Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then"—that is, after the accomplishment of these things enumerated in the twenty-ninth verse the approach of the Son of man shall be apparent. But by the parallel passage, namely, Luke, xxi. we find that these very events themselves, which are to usher in the coming of the Son of man, are themselves to be preceded by another event, namely the conversion of the Gentiles. "They shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory." Thus you see, the events enumerated in Matthew, xxiv. as preceding the sign of the Son of man in heaven, are themselves to be preceded by another event, not yet come to pass, namely, the conversion of the Gentiles. We are sure therefore that there must have been some ulterior reference in the prediction contained in this former chapter, since