Son of the love of God is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of every creature," who ranks before all persons, and in all things must have the pre-eminence.

Justice to Scripture, however, requires us to detain you a moment on the particular sense of the text. You know those Jews who are called Pharisees in the verse before the text. Every body knows, and every body abhors these hypocrites, whose ignorance and hypocrisy were always in opposition to the wisdom and sincerity of Jesus Christ. Who can help detesting a false and hungry hireling, who makes a long prayer, uttered with a sad face in long robes, "a pretence for devouring widows' houses?" Jesus Christ wept over other sinners, but he denounced judgments against these, because though they were wilfully ignorant, yet they pretended to teach, and though they were extremely wicked, yet they set themselves up for examples of piety to others. "Wo unto you, blind guides! How can ye escape the damnation of hell?" It was to a company of these men that Jesus Christ addressed the text, "What think ye of Christ? Whose son is he?" Their prophets had taught them to expect a Christ, that is, one appointed of God to officiate among them in his stead, to administer justice, to bestow mercy, and to make them great, and good, and happy. They had even named the tribe and family of which he should be born, and for this purpose had preserved histories of the succession of families, which histories are called in Scripture genealogies. The Jews had always been very careful of these histories, for all Israel were reckoned by genealogies, and those of the reigning family were kept by prophets and seers. You have one of these in the first of Matthew, and another in the third of Luke. It was extremely proper in our Saviour to put this question, "Whose son is Christ?" to his company, both as Jews who understood genealogies, and as Pharisees who pretended to more understanding than other men, and who were also keepers of those useful records, so proper to make out a title, or to detect an impostor. There, in a list of men, be ginning with Adam and ending with himself, stood "the name of Jesus, the name above every name, at which

every knee should bow." "Call his name JESUS," said an angel from heaven, "for he shall save his people from their sins."

To be first in some catalogues is a disgrace; to be first in some others is no honour; but to be the chief where all are excellent is a high degree of merit. What a dreadful thing it is for a man to be chief in the profession and practice of any sin; how shameful to be the chief of drunkards, the chief swearer, the chief liar in a parish! A sort of schoolmaster of vice, to ruin all the young people in a parish by teaching them the maxims of a drinking-house, and by showing them how to put the rules in practice. Brutal pride! Infernal ambition! The pride of "Beelzebub the chief of devils !" Even where it is no shame to be chief, yet it may be no honour. It is a very silly vanity that bewitches some men; they must be first, first of any thing, but they must be first! Would to God, my brethren, we had a sound understanding to direct our ambition! The ambition of a man directed by the understanding of a child, always forms a very ridiculous character, and makes the man of six foot high, at forty years of age, glory in being the mighty monarch of sixteen little boys at school.

A sound understanding would direct us to excel, and to know, allow, and admire the excellencies of others. It was the wish of the apostle Paul, that Christians of his time might not come behind in any gift. He wished they might excel in such honest trades as they professed, for so we are to understand the fourteenth verse of the last chapter of Titus. To be the chief singer in a christian society, to be the chief speaker, to sit chief among our neighbours in wisdom, integrity, courage, and tenderness of heart for the afflicted, are honours to which you should all aspire. To this thousands have aspired, and if Jesus Christ occupy the first seat among the excellent of the earth, it is because that seat is due to his merit. "He, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God; but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became

obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.”

Would you know what the writers of Scripture "think of Christ, whose son he is?" They all wait to answer your reasonable inquiry. They describe him as chief in dignity of nature... first among the prophets... principal in sacred history...higher in power, perfection, and honour, than the highest of mankind; "fairer than the children of men, the head of all principality and power."

When we speak of the nature of Jesus Christ, and ascribe dignity to it, we do not mean to intrude into those things which we have not seen, vainly puffed up by a fleshly mind. The Scripture is not a book of philosophy, intended to instruct us in the specific nature, construction, and properties of persons and things. The doctrines of the Gospel are reports to be believed on the credit of the speaker; and in all cases where the report includes any thing beyond our comprehension, it is our wisdom to be modest in regard to that particular article. The Scripture calls Jesus Christ God and man, and we believe him to be God and man in one person. "The word, which was made flesh and dwelt among us, was with God, and was God. Had more been necessary, more would have been added. This is enough to justify all the homage, which men and angels pay to Jesus Christ; for to which of the angels said God at any time what our Lord told the Pharisees, a little after our text, God had said to him, "Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool." To angels he saith, "Let all the angels of God worship him; but unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever, a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom." On this account "David in spirit called his Son Lord;" and, on this account, "the redeemed of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation, with ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands of angels,

and every creature, which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and in the sea, say with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches, wisdom and strength, and honour and blessing glory be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb forever and ever." This is the person, who asks you in the text, "What think ye of Christ?" The proper answer is, we form no rash conjectures concerning questions of the schools, which perhaps we have no capacity, and certainly no information from Scripture to enable us to determine; but we think, agreeably to the declarations of him who thoroughly knew the nature of Jesus Christ, that he is "Lord of all, far above all principality and power, and might and deminion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come." We think "that all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father."

When I am given to understand that this eminent person, who was in "glory with the Father before the world was," intended to quit "the bosom of the Father," to honour this world with a visit, and to execute a public office in it, I cast about in my mind to find out what charge is proper to employ a mind so exalted. Where will he reside, or what will he do? Will he dwell in the country, and instruct mankind in the art of husbandry? Will he honour artists and manufacturers with his advice and improvements? Will he teach the sailor how to pass and re-pass with safety the boisterous waves of the sea? Will he head an army, and perfect mankind in the dreadful art of slaughter? Will he improve commerce, or will he exemplify in his own person the character of a king? Childish as all this may appear, this was the employment which the sensual Jews expected their Christ to perform, and such performances would have gratified their senseless love of dominion and wealth. Jesus Christ had nobler views, and better works than these to perform in this world. His wise mind penetrated into the nature and duration of man, and his generous heart undertook an office, which was to end in the highest glory to God, and the best estab

lished peace among men. He was to rise like the "sun with healing in his wings," lest the just judgments of God should come and smite the earth, all stained with crimes and human blood, with a curse.

To this most important service the love of God appointed this Son of David; and as men were set apart to officiate among the Jews by the ceremony of anointing with oil, God was pleased to describe Jesus by the name of Christ, or Messiah, that is the anointed, the person set apart and appointed to be the Saviour of the world. So the Samaritans, under the instruction of Jesus, understood the word. He said to the woman of Samaria, "I am the Messias," and the Samaritans "said unto the same woman, now we believe, not because of thy saying, for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world." To save the world was a fine thought, and will always do its author honour: but, my God! what an undertaking! An undertaking, however, to which Jesus Christ was every way equal. It was no rash enterprize, taken up without much thought, and ending in the disgrace of the manager. Cool, mature deliberation, a prudent comparison of difficulties with abilities to surmount them, patience to endure much contradiction, compassion to pity and goodness to pardon the most cruel affronts, justice to claim and dignity to support rights and privileges due to the office, perfect purity towards God, and general good will towards all mankind, these, and whatever else were necessary to the execution of this grand design, were all found in the Son of David. "What think ye of Christ? Whose son is he ?” The proper answer is, He is the Christ, exclusive of every other, "the son of the living God, full of grace and truth."

The world had lost its understanding, and lost it so completely as not to know its Creator. The salvation of the world from such gross ignorance, therefore, required the revelation of a body of sound religious information, and this the prophets gave. Jesus Christ was the chief subject of prophecy, and himself the greatest of all prophets. A prophet is one who foretells future events, and various are the events both of nations and