the Son;" (1 John i, 3.) in which fellowship eternal life must necessarily consist, since in another place he explains the same end in these words, "But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ; and that, believing, ye might have life through his name." (John xx, 31.) But from the meaning of the same Apostle, it appears, that this fellowship has an union antecedent to itself: These are his words, "If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father." (1 John ii, 24.) What! Shall the union between Christ and his Church cease at a period when he shall place before his glorious sight his spouse sanctified to himself by his own blood? Far be the idea from us! For the union, which had commenced here on earth, will then at length be consummated and perfected.

If any one entertain doubts concerning the vision of Christ, let him listen to Christ in this declaration :-"He that loveth me shall be loved of my Father; and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him." (John xiv, 21.) Will he thus disclose himself in this world only? Let us again hear Christ, when he intercedes with the Father for the faithful: "Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world." (John xvii, 24.) Christ, therefore, promises to his followers the sight of his glory, as something salutary to them; and his Father is entreated to grant this favour. The same truth is confirmed by John, when he says, "Then we shall see him as he is." (1 John iii, 2.) This passage may without any impropriety be understood of Christ, and yet not to the exclusion of God the Father. But what do we more distinctly desire than that Christ may become, what it is said he will be," the light" that shall enlighten the celestial city, and in whose light "the nations shall walk?" (Rev. xxi. 23, 24.)

Although the fruition of Christ is sufficiently established by the same passages as those by which the sight of him is confirmed, yet we will ratify it by two or three others. Since eternal felicity is called by the name of "the supper of the Lamb," and is emphatically described by this term "the marriage of the Lamb," I think it is taught with adequate clearness in these expressions, that happiness consists in the fruition or enjoyment of the Lamb. But the Apostle, in his Apocalypse,

has ascribed both these epithets to Christ by saying, "Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him, for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready :" (Rev. xix, 7.) and a little afterwards he says, "Blessed are they which are called to the marriage-supper of the Lamb." (verse 9.) It remains for us to treat on the glory of Christ, which is inculcated in these numerous passages of scripture in which it is stated, that "he sits with the Father on his throne," and is adored and glorified both by Angels and by men in heaven.

Having finished the proof of those expressions the truth of which we engaged to demonstrate, we will now proceed to fulfil our promise of explanation, and to shew that all and each of these benefits descend to us in a peculiar and more excellent manner, from Evangelical Theology, than they could have done from that which is Legal, if by it we could really have been made alive.

2. And, that we may in the first place dispatch the subject of UNION, let the brief remarks respecting marriage which we have just made, be brought again to our remembrance. For that word more appropriately honours this union, and adorns it with a double and remarkable privilege; one part of which consists of a deeper combination, the other of a more glorious title. The scripture speaks thus of the deeper combination; "And they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church!" (Ephes. v. 81, 32.) It will therefore be a connubial tie that will unite Christ with the church. The espousals of the church on earth are contracted by the agency of the brides-men of Christ, who are the Prophets, the Apostles, and their successors, and particularly the Holy Ghost, who is in this affair a Mediator and Arbitrator. The consummation will then follow, when Christ will introduce his spouse into his bride-chamber. From such an union as this, there arises, not only a communion of blessings, but a previous communion of the persons themselves; from which the possession of blessings is likewise assigned, by a more glorious title, to her who is united in the bonds of marriage. The Church comes into a participation not only of the blessings of Christ, but also of his title. For, being the wife of the King, she enjoys it as a right due to her to be called QUEEN; which dignified appellation the scripture does not withhold from her. "Upon thy right hand stands the Queen in gold of Ophir :" (Psalm xlv. 9.) "There are three-score queens, and

four-score concubines, and virgins without number. My dove, my undefiled is but one; she is the only one of her mother, she is the choice one of her that bare her. The daughters saw her, and blessed her; yea, the queens and the concubines, and they praised her." (Sol. Song vi. 8, 9.) The Church could not have been eligible to the high honour of such an union, unless Christ had been made "her beloved, her brother, sucking the breasts of the same mother." (Cant. viii. 1.) But there would have been no necessity for this union, "if righteousness and salvation had come to us by the law." That was therefore a happy necessity, which, out of compassion to the emergency of our wretched condition, the Divine condescension improved to our benefit, and filled with such a plenitude of dignity! But the manner of this our union with Christ is no small addition to that union which is about to take place between us and God the Father. This will be evident to any one who considers what and how great is the bond of mutual union between Christ and the Father.

3. If we turn our attention to sight or vision, we shall meet with two remarkable characters which are peculiar to Evangelical Theology.

(1) In the first place, the glory of God, as if accumulated and concentrated together into one body, will be presented to our view in Christ Jesus; which glory would otherwise have been dispersed throughout the most spacious courts of "heaven immense;" much in the same manner as the light, which had been created on the first day and equally spread through the whole hemisphere, was on the fourth day collected, compacted together, and assembled into one body, and offered to the eyes as a most conspicuous and shining object. In reference to this, it is said in the Apocalypse, that the heavenly Jerusalem "had no need of the sun, neither of the moon; for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb will be the future light thereof," (Rev. xxi, 23.) as a vehicle by which this most delightful glory may diffuse itself into immensity.

(2) We shall then not only contemplate, in God himself, the most excellent properties of his nature, but shall also perceive that all of them have been employed in and devoted to the procuration of this good for us, which we now possess in hope, but which we shall in reality then possess by means of this union and open vision.

The excellence therefore of this vision far exceeds that which could have been by the law; and from this source arises

a fruition of greater abundance and more delicious sweetness. For as the light in the sun is brighter than that in the stars, so is the sight of the sun, when the human eye is capable of bearing it, more grateful and acceptable, and the enjoyment of it is far more pleasant, than a sight of the twinkling beams of "all the marshall'd host of night." From such a view of the Divine attributes, the most delicious sweetness of fruition will seem to be doubled. For the first delight will arise from the contemplation of properties so excellent; the other from the consideration of that immeasurable condescension, by which it has pleased God to unfold all those his properties, and the whole of those blessings which he possesses in the exhaustless and immeasurable treasury of his riches; and to give this explanation, that he may procure salvation for man and may impart it to his most miserable creature. This will then be seen in as strong a light, as if the whole of that which is essentially God appeared to exist for the sake of man alone, and for his sole benefit. There is also the addition of this peculiarity concerning it : "Jesus Christ shall change our vile body, [the body of our humiliation,] that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body: (Phil. iii. 21.) and as we have borne the image of the earthy [Adam], we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.” (1 Cor. xv, 49.) Hence it is, that all things are said to be made new in Christ Jesus; (2 Cor. v. 17,) and we are described in the scriptures as "looking, according to his promise, for new heavens and a new earth, (2 Peter iii, 13,) and a new name written on a white stone, (Rev. ii, 17,) the new name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is the new Jerusalem, (Rev. iii, 12,) and they shall sing a new song to God and his Christ for ever." (Rev. v, 9.)

Who does not now see, how greatly the felicity prepared for us by Christ, and offered to us through Evangelical Theology excels that which would have come to us by "the righteousness of the law," if indeed it had been possible for us to fulfil it? We should in that case have been similar to the elect angels; but now we shall be their superiors, if I be permitted to make such a declaration, to the praise of Christ and our God, in this celebrated Hall, and before an assembly among whom we have some of those most blessed Spirits themselves as spectators. They now enjoy union with God and Christ, and will probably be more closely united to both of them at the time of the "restitution of all things." But there will be nothing between the two parties similar to that CONJUGAL BOND Vol. I.

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which unites us, and in which we may be permitted to glory. -They will behold God himself "face to face," and will contemplate the most eminent properties of his nature; but they will see some among those properties devoted to the purpose of man's salvation, which God has not unfolded for their benefit, because that was not necessary; and which he would not have unfolded, even if it had been necessary. These things they will see, but they will not be moved by envy; it will rather be a subject of admiration and wonder to them, that God, the Creator of both orders, conferred on man, (who was inferior to them in nature,) that dignity which he had of old denied to the spirits that partook with themselves of the same nature. They will behold Christ, that most brilliant and shining light of the city of the living God, of which they also are inhabitants and, from this very circumstance their happiness will be rendered more illustrious through Christ. Christ" took not on him the nature of Angels, but the seed of Abraham;" (Heb. ii, 16.) to whom also, in that assumed nature, they will present adoration and honour, at the command of God, when he introduces his First-begotten into the world to come. Of that future world, and of its blessings, they also will be partakers: but "it is not put in subjection to them," (Heb. ii, 5,) but to CHRIST and his BRETHREN, who are partakers of the same nature, and are sanctified by himself. A malignant spirit, yet of the same order as the angels, had hurled against God the crimes of falsehood and envy. But we see how signally God in Christ has repelled both these accusations from himself, and from the salvation which he has procured. The falsehood intimated an unwillingness on the part of God that man should be reconciled to him, except by the intervention of the death of his Son His envy was excited, because God had raised man, not only to the angelical happiness, (to which even that 'impure one would have attained had "he kept his first estate,") but to a state of blessedness far superior to that of Angels.

That I may not be yet more prolix, I leave it as a subject of reflexion to the devoted piety of your private meditations, most accomplished auditors, to estimate the vast and amazing greatness of the glory of God which has here manifested itself, and to calculate the glory due from us to him for such transcendant goodness.

In the mean time, let all of us, however great our number, consider with a devout and attentive mind, what duty is required of us by this doctrine, which having received its mani