ture murmurs, religion itself seems to totter and shake: but, fear not; your faith, your faith will support you. Faith will discover those eternal relations into which you are going to enter; the celestial armies, that will soon be your companions; the blessed angels, who wait to receive your souls, and to be your convoy home. Faith will shew you that in the tomb of Jesus Christ which will sanctify yours; it will remind you of that blessed death, which renders yours precious in the sight of God; it will assist your souls to glance into eternity; it will open the gates of heaven to you; it will enable you to behold, without murmuring, the earth sinking away from your feet; it will change your deathbeds into triumphal chariots, and it will make you exclaim, amidst all the mournful objects that surround you, O grave, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting? 1 Cor. xv. 55.

My brethren, our most vehement desires, our private studies, our public labours, our vows, our wishes, and our prayers, we consecrate to prepare you for that great day. "For this cause, I bow my knees "unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that he "would grant you, according to the riches of his "glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit "in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your "hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and ground"ed in love, may be able to comprehend with all "saints, what is the breadth, and length, and depth, “and height; and to know the love of Christ, which "passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all

"the fulness of God. Now, unto him that is able "to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask

or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus, throughout all ages, world without end." Amen. Eph. iii. 14, 16, 21.

SERMON III.

The Birth of Jesus Christ.

ISAIAH ix. 6, 7.

Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called, Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice, from henceforth, even for ever.

I Anticipate the festival which the goodness, or ra

ther the magnificence of God, invites you to celebrate on Wednesday next. All nature seems to take part in the memorable event, which on that day we shall commemorate, I mean the birth of the Saviour of the world. Herod turns pale on his throne; the devils tremble in hell; the wise men of the East suspend all their speculations, and observe no sign in the firmament, except that which conducts them to the place where lies the incarnate Word, God manifest in the flesh, 1 Tim. iii. 16. an angel from heaven is the herald of the astonishing event, and tells the shepherds, Behold I bring you good tidings of

great joy, which shall be to all people, for unto you is born this day, in the city of David, a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord, Luke ii. 10, 11. the multitude of the heavenly host eagerly descend to congratulate men on the Word's assumption of mortal flesh, on his dwelling among men, in order to enable them to "behold his glory, the glory of the only begotten "of the Father, full of grace and truth," John i. 14.; they make the air resound with these acclamations, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will towards men," Luke ii. 14.

What think ye? Does this festival require no preparation of you? Do you imagine, that you shall celebrate it as you ought, if you content yourselves with attending on a few discourses, during which, perhaps, while you are present in body, you may be absent in spirit; or with laying aside your temporal cares, and your most turbulent passions, at the church-gates, in order to take them up again as soon as divine service ends? The king Messiah is about to make his triumphant entry among you. With what pomp do the children of this world, who are wise, and, we may add, magnificent in their generation, Luke xvi. 8. celebrate the entries of their princes? They strew the roads with flowers, they raise triumphal arches, they express their joy in shouts of victory, and in songs of praise. Come, then, my brethren, let us to-day prepare the way of the Lord, and make his paths strait, Matt. iii. 3.; let us be joyful together before the Lord, let us make a joyful noise before the Lord the King, for he cometh to judge the earth: Psal. xcviii. 6, 9.; or, to speak in