abroad. I see places conquered, battles won, and every blow aimed at his throne, serving only to establish it. I see a servile idolatrous court elevating him above men, above heroes, and likening him to God himself. I see all parts of the world overwhelmed with his troops, your frontiers threatened, religion trembling, and the protestant world at the brink of ruin. At the sight of this tempest, I expect every moment to see the church expire, and I exclaim, O thou little boat, driven with the wind, and battered in the storm! Are the waves going to swallow thee up? O church of Jesus Christ! Against which the gates of hell were never to prevail, are all thy hopes come to this! Behold Almighty God makes bare his holy arm, discovers himself amidst all this chaos, and overwhelms us with miracles of love, after having humbled us by the darkness of his providence. Behold! In two campaigns*, more than a hundred thousand enemies are either buried in the waves, or killed by our troops, or trodden to death by our horse, or taken prisoners. Behold! Whole provinces yield to our arms. Behold! Our noble army covered with more laurels than we had ever seen before. Behold the fatal power that was just now exalted to heaven, shaking, falling, and about to be cast down to hell. My brethren, let these events make us wise. Let us not judge of the conduct of God by our own ideas, but let us learn to respect the depths of his providence. But what! shall we always live in shades and darkness! Will there always be a veil between the porch *Of Hochstet and Ramillies. 1 and the sanctuary? Will God alwayslead us among chasms and gulfs ? Ah! my brethren, these are precisely the ejaculations, these are the desires with which we would inspire you; and this we affirm, that the deep things of God expose the folly of a worldly man, who immoderately loves the present life. Presently this night, this dark night, shall be at an end, presently we shall enter into that temple, where there is no need of the sun, because the Lamb is the light thereof, Rev. xxi. 23. Presently we shall arrive at that blessed period, when that which is in part shall be done away. In heaven we shall know all things. In heaven we shall understand nature, providence, grace, and glory. In heaven, Jesus Christ will solve all our difficulties and objections. In heaven we shall see God face to face. O how will this knowledge fill us with joy! O how delightful will it be to derive knowledge and truth from their source! My soul, quit thy dust! Anticipate these periods of felicity, and say with Moses, Lord shew me thy glory! O Lord, dissipate the clouds and darkness that are around thy throne! O Lord shorten the time that separates us ! No man can see my face and live. Well! Let us die then. Let us die to become immortal. Let us die to know God. Let us die to be made partakers of the divine nature. Happy to form such elevated wishes! Happier still to see them accomplished! Amen. .... SERMON XII. The sentence passed upon Judas by Jesus Christ. : MATTHEW xxvi. 24. The Son of man goeth, as it is written of him: but wo unto that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! it had been good for that man, if he had not been born. THIS verse is part of a period beginning at the seventeenth, and ending with the twenty-fifth verse, in which the evangelist narrates two events, the last passover of Jesus Christ, and the treason of Judas. One of my colleagues will explain the other parts of this passage of sacred history, and I shall confine myself to this sentence of our Saviour against Judas, It had been good for that man, if he had not been born. This oracle is unequivocal. It conveys a most melancholy idea of the condition of the unhappy criminal. It should seem, Jesus Christ enveloped in qualified terins a truth the most dreadful imaginable. These words, It had been good for that man, if he had not been born, are equivalent to these, Judas is for ever excluded from the happiness of heaven; Judas is for ever condemned to the punishment of hell. It is the same truth, which the apos tles expressed, after the example of their master, in milder terms, "Thou Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men, shew whether thou hast chosen Justus or Matthias, that he may take part of this apostleship, from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place," Acts i. 24, 25. What is this place? The answer is easy, though some ancient heretics affirmed extravagant things about it. It is the place reserved for those against whom the door of mercy is shut: it is the place reserved for those who must for ever serve for victims to divine justice. If you recall to mind all the most guilty persons, and those whose condition is the most desperate, you will not find one, of whom that can be said without rashness which is here affirmed of Judas. Judas is the only person, literally the only person, whom we are allowed with certainty to declare is in the torments of hell. Certainly we cannot help forming lamentable ideas of the condition of some sinners, who died in perpetrating their crimes; as of some who were less men than monsters of humanity, and who died blaspheming God, and attacking religion and morality, as Pharaoh, Belshazzar, Julian, and others: but after all, it is not for us to set limits to the mercy of God. The Holy Spirit hath ways unknown to us to convert the hearts of men. Judas is the only one without exception, of whom I dare venture to affirm, he is irrecoverably lost. And when I form this judgment of his destiny, I do not ground it merely on his betraying Jesus Christ; for it is not impossible that after he had committed that crime, he might have obtained forgiveness by |