The flames lighted her apartments; and the blood of the martyrs cemented the walls of her temple, and contributed to its strength and beauty. See page 5.

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Vol. 5.

F 2

"FEAR not, little flock," said Christ to his followers, "for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." In this promise he secured the existence of a church on earth, and its ultimate triumph; and at the same time made certain, to each individual of the true church militant, a participation in those triumphs. Christ did set up a kingdom among that little band of early believers, and he never has abandoned that kingdom since; and never will, till it has widened from sea to sea, and from pole to pole. While, then, we adopt as our watchword, The Church Safe, let us inquire what assurances we have of this reviving and glorious truth.

I. We have abundant assurance of the future existence and increase of the church, in the firmness and stability of the divine operations. I now refer not merely to the unchangeableness of God, which will lead him to pursue for ever that plan which his infinite wisdom devised; for that plan lies concealed from us; but to that uniform and steady course with which he has pursued every enterprise which his hands have begun. That he is of the same mind, and that none can turn him, is a thought full of comfort; but that he has finished every work which he took in hand, is a fact, which intelligences have witnessed, and one on which we may found our richest expectations.

The worlds which he begun to build, he finished. Not one was left half formed and motionless. Each he placed in its orbit, gave it light, and laws, and impulse. And ever since this first developement of the divine stability, the wheels of Providence have rolled on with steady and settled course. What Omnipotence began, whether to create or to destroy, he rested not till he had accomplished.

When he had become incensed with our world, and purposed its desolation, with what a firm and steady step did he go on to achieve his purpose. Noah builds the ark, and God prepares the fountains, which, at his word, burst from their intrenchments to drown an impious generation.

How have suns kept their stations, and planets rolled in their orbits, by the steady pressure of the hand of God; in their revolutions measuring out the years of their own duration, and by their velocity urging on the amazing moment, when they shall meet in dread concussion, and perish in the contact. How fixed their periods, their risings, their eclipses, their changes, and their transits. And while they roll, how uniform is the return of spring, summer, autumn, and winter. How certain every law of matter, gravitation, attraction, reflection, &c. The very comet, so long considered lawless, how is it curbed and reined in its eccentric orbit, and never yet had power or permission to burn a single world.

How sure is the fulfilment of prophecy! Ages intervening, cannot shake the certainty of its accomplishment. Jesus bleeds on Calvary four thousand years subsequently to the promise which that event accomplishes. Cyrus is named in the page of prophecy more than two hundred years before his birth, and at the destined moment becomes the Lord's shepherd, collects the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and builds Jerusalem. The Jews, as prophets three thousand years ago foretold, are yet in exile. The weeping prophet, now at rest, still sees the family he loved peeled and scattered, and the soil that drank his tears cursed for their sins; and confident that God is true, waits impatient the certain, but distant year, of their redemption.

Wretches that dare his power, God will not disturb his plan to punish. The old world flourished one hundred and twenty years after heaven had cursed that guilty race. Sodom was a fertile valley long after the cry of its enormities had entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. The Amorites were allowed five hundred years to fill up the measure of their iniquity, after God had pledged their land to Abram, although Israel wore away the intervening years in bondage. Many a murderer has been overtaken by the hand of justice half a century past the time of the bloody deed. God will punish all the workers of iniquity, but he waits till the appointed moment. Like the lion in the forest, he comes upon his enemies, conscious of his strength, with steady but dreadful steps. In his movements there is neither frenzy, passion, nor haste. While his judgments linger, his enemies ask, "Where is the pro

mise of his coming?" But let them know, that he has appeared, and discomfited many; and the inference is, that they must perish too. Whatever God begins, he finishes: no unseen embarrassment can turn his eye from his original purpose. Whether we can trace his footsteps or not, he moves on to the accomplishment of his purpose with undeviating course. Every event, in aspect bright or dark, promotes the ultimate increase and establishment of his church. Or shall this be the only enterprise to which his wisdom, his power, or his grace, is inadequate? In this solitary instance shall he begin to build and not be able to finish? What would be thought of him in hell, if the mystical temple should never receive its top-stone! Its fires may go out, the worm may die, or some infernal genius bridge the gulf. Heaven, too, loses all confidence in its King.

Thus, before we examine the history of the church, or read the promises, if we believe that God has ever had a church, we have the strongest possible presumptive evidence, that he will watch her interests, will feed the fires upon her altars, will bring her sons from far, and her daughters from the ends of the earth, and will never leave her nor forsake her.

II. Our expectations brighten when we see what God has done for his church. My first argument went to show, that if God had only laid the corner-stone of this heavenly building, it would rise and be finished. We are now to view the building half erected, and from what has been done, argue the certainty of its completion. The church has been under the fostering care of Heaven too long to be abandoned now.

. Let us retrace for a moment a few pages of its history. and we shall see, that when the church was low, he raised it; when it was in danger, he saved it. Amid all the moral desolations of the old world, the church never became extinct. And he at length held the winds in his fist, and barred the fountains of the deep, till Noah could build the ark, and the church be housed from the storm.

How wonderful were his interpositions when the church was embodied in the family of Abraham. In redeeming it from Egyptian bondage, how did he open upon that guilty land all the embrasures of heaven, till they thrust out his people. And he conducted them to Canaan by the same

masterly hand. The sea divided, and Jordan rolled back its waters; the rock became a pool, and the heavens rained them bread, till they drank at the fountains, and ate the fruits of the land of promise. Their garments lasted forty years; and the angel Jehovah, in a cloud of light, led them through the labyrinths and dangers of the desert.

When the church diminished, and her prospects clouded over, he raised up reformers. Such were Samuel, and David, and Hezekiah, and Josiah, and Daniel, and Ezra, and Nehemiah: such were all the prophets. Each in his turn became a master-builder, and the temple rose.

Again on the introduction of the Gospel dispensation, under the ministry of Christ and his apostles, how did her prospects brighten. In three thousand hearts, under a single sermon, commenced the process of sanctification. The very cross proved an engine to erect her pillars; the flames lighted her apartments; and the blood of the martyrs cemented the walls of her temple, and contributed to its strength and beauty. Every dying groan alarmed the prince of hell, and shook the pillars of his dreary domain.

But the church again sunk, and hell presumed that her ruin would be soon achieved, when the sixteenth century lifted upon her the dawn of hope. In Luther, Calvin, Melancthon, and Zuinglius, her interests found able advocates. They appeared at the very juncture when the sinking church needed their courage and their prayers. Like some mighty constellation, which burst from the east at the hour of midnight, they appeared when moral darkness was almost total, and like that of Egypt could seem to be felt. By their aid the church emerged from the wilderness. By their courage her grand enemy was made to tremble on his ghostly tribunal. The power of the Pope had then outgrown the strength of every civil arm. Every monarch in Europe was at his feet. Till Luther rose, there was no power to cope with him. There was a true church, but she had no champion. The followers of Jesus paid for the privilege of discipleship with their blood. He who dared to be guided by his own conscience, committed an offence that could not be pardoned. The heavenly minded saw no relief but in death, and thirsted for the honour of a martyrdom, that would place them in a world where conscience might be free. But God appeared and redeemed