to be Lord both of the dead and living, ver. 6, 10, 12. and this majestic language, which would be blasphemy in the mouth of a simple creature, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God, ver. 11.

Finally, That Jesus Christ acquired that supremacy by his sufferings and death, in virtue of which all true Christians render him the homage of adoration, the apostle establisheth, if possible, still more clearly. This appears by the words just now cited, to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living, ver. 8, 11. To the same purpose the apostle speaks in the epistle to the Philippians, "He became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name, which is above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father," This is the sovereignty which Jesus Christ acquired by dying for the church.

But the most remarkable, and at the same time the most difficult article on this subject, is this. These texts, which seem to establish the divinity of Christ in a manner so clear, furnish the greatest objection that hath ever been proposed against it. True, say the enemies of this doctrine, Jesus Christ is God, since the scripture commands us to worship him. But his divinity is an acquired divinity; since that supremacy, which entitles him to adoration as God,

is not an essential, but an acquired supremacy. Now, that this supremacy is acquired is indubitable, since the texts that have been cited, expressly declare, that it is a fruit of his sufferings and death. We have two arguments to offer in reply.

1. If it were demonstrated, that the supremacy established in the forecited texts was only acquired, and not essential, it would not therefore follow, that Jesus Christ had no other supremacy belonging to him in common with the Father and the Holy Spir it. We are commanded to worship Jesus Christ, not only because he died for us, but also because he is eternal and almighty, the author of all beings that exist and because he hath all the perfections of Deity; as we can prove by other passages, not necessary to be repeated here.

2. Nothing hinders that the true God, who, as the true God, merits our adoration, should require every day new rights over us, in virtue of which we have new motives of rendering those homages to him, which, we acknowledge he always infinitely merited. Always when God bestows a new blessing, he acquireth a new right. What was Jacob's opinion, when he made this vow? If God will be with me, and will keep me in the way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my father's house in peace: then shall the Lord be my God, Gen. xxviii. 20, &c. Did the patriarch mean, that he had no other reason for regarding the Lord as his God than this favour, which he asked of him? No such thing. He meant, that to a great many reasons, which bound him to devote himself to

God, the favour which he asked would add a new one. It would be easy to produce a long list of examples of this kind. At present the application of this one shall suffice. Jesus Christ, who, as supreme God hath natural rights over us, hath also acquired rights, because he hath deigned to clothe himself with our flesh, in which he died to redeem us. None of us is his own, we are all his, not only because he is our Creator, but because he is also our Redeemer. He hath a supremacy over us peculiar to himself, and distinct from that, which he hath in common with the Father and the holy Spirit.

To return then, to our principal subject, from which this long digression hath diverted us. This Jesus, who is the supreme head of the church; this Jesus, to whom all the members of the church are subject; willeth that we should tolerate, and he himself hath tolerated those, who, having in other cases an upright conscience, and a sincere intention of submitting their reason to all his decisions, and their hearts to all his commands, cannot clearly see, that Christian liberty includes a freedom from the observation of certain feasts, and from the distinction of certain foods. If the sovereign of the church toler rate them, who err in this manner, by what right do you, who are only simple subjects, undertake to condemn them? "Who art thou, that judgest another man's servant? to his own master he standeth or fall eth. For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and, whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore or die, we are the

Lord's. Let us not therefore judge one another any Let us, who are strong, bear the infirmities

more.

of the weak."

This is the design of St. Paul in the words of my text, in some of the preceding, and in some of the following verses. Can we proceed without remarking, or without lamenting, the blindness of those Christians, who, by their intolerance to their brethren, seem to have chosen for their model those members of the church of Rome, who violate the rights of toleration in the most cruel manner? We are not speaking of those sanguinary men, who aim at illuminating people's minds with the light of fires, and faggots, which they kindle against all who reject their systems. Our tears, and our blood, have not assuaged their rage, how can we then think to appease it by our exhortations? Let us not solicit the wrath of heaven against these persecutors of the church; let us leave to the souls of them, who were slain for the word of God, to cry, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them, that dwell on the earth? Rev. vi. 10.

But, ye intestine divisions! Thou spirit of faction! Ye theological wars! how long will ye be let loose among us? Is it possible, that Christians, who bear the name of reformed, Christians united by the bond of their faith in the belief of the same doctrines, and, if I may be allowed to speak so, Christians united by the very efforts of their enemies to destroy them; can they violate, after all, those laws of toleration, which they have so often prescribed to others, and against the violation of which they have remonstra

ted with so much wisdom and success? Can they convoke ecclesiastical assemblies, can they draw up canons, can they denounce excommunications and anathemas against those, who retaining with themselves the leading truths of Christianity and of the reformation, think differently on points of simple speculation, on questions purely metaphysical, and, if I may speak the whole, on matters so abstruse, that they are alike indeterminable by them, who exclude members from the communion of Jesus Christ, and by those who are excluded? O ye sons of the reformation! how long will you counteract your own principles! how long will you take pleasure in increasing the number of those, who breathe only your destruction, and move only to destroy you! O ye subjects of the sovereign of the church! how long will you encroach on the rights of your sovereign, dare to condemn those whom he absolves, and to reject those, whom his generous benevolence tolerates! "Who art thou, that judgest another man's servant? for none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. For, whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and, whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore or die, we are the Lord's."

What we have said shall suffice for the subject, which occasioned the maxim in the text. The remaining time I devote to the consideration of the general sense of this maxim. It lays before us the condition, the engagements, the inclination, and the felicity of a Christian. What is the felicity of a Christian, what is his inclination, what are his en