only through his intercession and provided with the freeness of his grace to the attainment of eternal life, yet feel no sense of what they owe to his love for their souls; to consider seriously the two following points:

FIRST, the obligations we are all under to reverence the Son of GOD, as the text expresses it.

SECONDLY, in what manner we shall best declare our reverence of him.

I. First, then, though the reasons and arguments which enforce this obligation are all of the weightiest nature, yet the one referred to in the text may properly enough be considered the chief.

The first argument, then, that calls upon us to reverence the Son of GOD, and consequently the message he brought us from the Father, is the greatness of his character, the superlative dignity of his person.

It was a most natural expectation in the owner of the vineyard that his tenants would show a peculiar regard to the last messenger he sent, who, as his only son and of course his heir, was next in station and authority to himself. And here we may observe, my friends, how exactly the whole moral of the parable is made to bear upon the most general feelings and reasonings of our own minds, and how it includes us all, by the judgment we unhesitatingly pass upon things of a far inferior kind. For just as certainly as we should consider the refusal of a just claim aggravated in proportion to the dignity and importance of the person employed to make it, so sure may we be that we condemn ourselves by refusing or contemptuously disregarding this last and greatest of all GoD's prophets. And certainly our reverence should always be proportioned to the known or supposed importance of its object. Now beyond all dispute, not only in the dignity of the messenger but in the importance of the message, the gospel far transcends any and every other interest whatever. What, then, say the Scriptures concerning the person and character of CHRIST? for the Scriptures are the only authority we can safely follow in such an inquiry.

GOD, (says St. Paul in his epistle to the Hebrews,) who in

time past spake unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds, who is the brightness of his glory, and upholdeth all things by the word of his power, who is made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. And here let me observe, that we have a most express declaration of this apostle to the divinity of our blessed Saviour; he not only declares his superiority to the angels, but refers that superiority to a cause perfectly distinct from any act of creation, to wit, to an inherited and consequently inherent superiority; than which no other mode of expression could better have conveyed to our limited understandings the true and plain meaning of that fundamental article of the Christian faith, "the Son of GoD, begotten, not made." So likewise, in writing to the Colossians, this same apostle styles CHRIST, the image of the invisible GoD, and tells us, that by him GOD created all things whether in heaven or in earth; and St. John-who wrote the last of all the apostles, and lived to hear the divinity of his adorable master doubted and denied to meet this damnable heresy, declares in the outset of his gospel-In the beginning was the word, and the word was with GOD, and the word was GOD; the word was made flesh and dwelt among us; he came unto his own and his own received received him not.

Now these passages of Scripture, with many others to the same purpose, though they do not explain to us the formal nature or essential being of this Son of GOD, a subject which, with our present faculties, we could not be made to comprehend, neither are we in the smallest degree concerned to know it; yet they teach us what is abundantly sufficient as well as perfectly intelligible; namely, that his character is supremely excellent, his dignity supremely eminent, far above the numberless orders of beings in the universe; which is unanswerably a most sufficient argument why we should pay him the profound

est reverence.

Secondly, we are further bound to reverence this heavenly messenger from the importance of the message itself with which he was sent into the world. Now let us ask ourselves whether

any other than an affair of the highest moment, could have induced the Almighty Father to employ in the execution of it so exalted a personage? Why, our own principles of reasoning and acting will answer the question; and, in truth, it was nothing less than our eternal salvation, which infinite wisdom saw could no otherwise consistently be provided for, and which infinite love undertook to perform. It was to purchase life for condemned sinners; to reconcile a rebel world to a justly offended sovereign; to make satisfaction to his violated law, by suffering the penalty therein denounced against every transgression and transgressor of it. It was to command us to forsake our sinsand to assure us of the divine mercy if we did so; to instruct us in pure and undefiled religion, and to engage us to all the duties we owe to God and to each other, by the clear revelation of a future state, to be adjudged to each one of us for everlasting happiness or misery, according to the deeds done in this body. For all which purposes it was necessary that a body should be prepared for this heavenly messenger, that in the familiar converse of our nature he might teach us, set us an example of patience, submission, and holiness, to follow, and in the very nature which had sinned offer a full, perfect, and sufficient atonement and propitiation for the sins of the whole world by his death upon the cross.

Let the importance, therefore, of the errand on which the Son of God came to us, the vital importance of it especially to each man's individual concern, be a fresh argument and a prevailing reason for paying him that veneration--may I not say that grateful sense of benefits conferred-to which he has so just a claim. Therefore let us give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression received a just recompense, how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation, wrought out for and communicated to us, not by angels, but by the LORD of angels?

Thirdly, all our obligations to reverence the Son of GoD are increased and completed by the consideration that he is the last messenger, and his message the last overture heaven will send us. Last of all, says the parable, he sent unto them his

Son, which might serve to convince us that GOD intends no further or other means of salvation for us than that made known by his Son. And surely if this is not sufficient, no other that even infinite wisdom could devise, would prevail with us. For more gracious terms of reconciliation, a more dignified or powerful intercessor, clearer instructions in our duty, or more glorious rewards or fearful punishments, for the performance or neglect of it, are not within the range of possible expectation. Let no one, therefore, deceive himself either with vain words or more vain hopes. Let no one vainly expect that another Son will come to us from the offended Father, or that we can come again to him otherwise than by and through this Son whom he hath sent. No, my brethren and hearers, it is the last time, the last offer of his mercy, the last trial of our reverence and obedience; and if this be slighted there remaineth no more or other sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall consume the adversaries.

When the husbandmen in the parable had refused submission to their master's Son there was nothing left but to punish the aggravated guilt of all their former wickedness, and utterly to expel them from the vineyard. What, then, will the LORD of the vineyard do to those husbandmen is the question, which each one of us should put to ourselves, as respects the gospel, and the answer stands ready recorded, with which the equity of our own minds accords. He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard to others, who shall render him the fruits in their season. This very vineyard is now let out to us, my hearers, and wo be unto us if we take not warning by the fate of those who were cast out for refusing him who came to redeem and save them.

Such being our obligations to reverence the Son of GOD, I am to inquire,

II. Secondly, in what manner we shall best declare our reverence of him; that is, with what disposition of mind, with what course of external behaviour, we shall most truly manifest our reverence and regard for him and the message he came to deliver to us.

Now the first step towards a due veneration of CHRIST and

his religion, is, seriously to consider what in truth it is, the purpose it is to answer, and our need of such effectual help. To drown such a reasonable duty, either in the cares or the pleasures of life, or by the shorter process of unbelief; to dismiss the claims of our souls, and join the great multitude who live here as if there was no hereafter; no GoD, no Saviour, no heaven, no hell; or if they acknowledge GoD and a future state yet will take no pains to ascertain whether he has spoken to us, and what he has said concerning our future interests, but risk their eternal all upon the sandy foundation of some notion of their own shallow conceptions-why what is this but to count ourselves, and to show that we are, unworthy of that eternal life to which, nevertheless, we vainly hope to come. My hearers, see that ye refuse not him that speaketh from heaven, for it is a complete bar, while it is persisted in, to all religious advancement, to all sense of favour conferred on us through him, to any regard for his person, or interest in the mercy he hath purchased for a world of sinners; it dries up the very springs of faith and love in our hearts, for the source of all gratitude is the remembrance of our benefactors, of the favours we have received from them. And it is infinitely more owing to inattention than to ignorance, that men are so little moved with the arguments of religion, so little affected, so slightly influenced by them.

We too seldom consider the dignified character of that Son of GOD who was sent to us by the Father, or the commanding nature of the business on which he was sent, and of course forget and become dead to the regards we owe to his person, as well as his office. Whereas if these subjects were made familiar to our thoughts, and thus came to possess our hearts, which they would surely soon do, they could not fail to produce those outward expressions of reverence, and that conscientious care to fulfil our duties, which is the only evidence of the religious principle being formed within us.

It was certainly upon this principle that our blessed LORD originally instituted the sacrament of the last supper, which was designed to cherish and keep alive, in the minds of his disciples, the remembrance of himself, of his ministry upon earth, of the relation he bears to them, of the great things he did and suffered