served for his own Son to enlighten mankind. Some of the wisest of the heathen sages were honest enough to confess their ignorance, and to declare their expectation of the great Teacher. That Teacher at length appeared. For several years he went about Judea, diffusing heavenly wisdom wherever he went, with a simplicity and dignity that astonished his hearers, and constrained them to say, "Never man spake like this man." Having finished his work upon earth, he confided the business of instruction to other hands; qualifying them for it by his Holy Spirit, and promising to succeed their efforts by his own presence and blessing. The apostle says that the Ephesians had heard him, and been taught by him." Not personally indeed; for Christ never visited Ephesus; but ministerially. The apostles and other teachers had "the mind of Christ;" his Spirit had led them into all truth; and both by their preaching and their writings they published it to the world.

We also are still favoured with the word of Christ. Many of our Lord's admirable discourses were committed to writing by the four Evangelists. The apostles also wrote many epistles to churches or individuals; which epistles are of no less authority than the gospels; and taken together with the Old Testament (which is also "the word of Christ") we may still be said to have heard and learned of him. His truth, ministerially declared to us, in and by his ordinance of public preaching, or perused by us in private, is to be received, as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God; which is able to make us wise to salvation, through faith in him." Hence we are exhorted, Heb. xii. 25, to beware" that we refuse not him that speaketh from heaven," and see we are no less bound to regard the written word, than if we heard the voice of Christ himself. This gospel delivered to us, is "the savour of life unto life, or the savour of death unto death," and the original sanction

not

still attends it. "He that believeth shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be condemned.".

But Christ is not only the great Teacher, but he is, himself, the chief subject of all divine teaching. Our text speaks of the truth "as it is in Jesus". he is, as it were, the centre in which all the lines of divine truth meet-he is the great subject of the gospel; so that "preaching Christ," and "preaching the gospel," are the same thing; according to what St. Paul intimates as to his own practice, he was "determined not to know any thing among the people, but Jesus Christ and him crucified."

the words may also refer to the purity of the doctrine taught; to know the truth" as it is in Jesus," is to know and receive the pure unadulterated truth, as it was at first delivered by him and his apostles; and without that mixture of error, which the weakness or wickedness of men has since introduced. Or it may further intimate that to know the truth aright, is to know it practically, as not only taught by the lips of Jesus, but as also beautifully exemplified in his holy life; in his harmless, devout, and benevolent practice; for Christ taught by his example, as well as by his doctrine.

But I think we are to understand by the words chiefly this that Jesus Christ, and salvation by him, is the sum and substance of what we are to learn. "I am," said Christ," the truth"-the substance of the numerous ordinances of the old Testament of their priesthood, their altar, their sacrifices, their washings-they were "the shadows of good things to come;" and they did come, in and with Christ, who is the body, the substance, the soul of them all.

Thus, when St. Paul reproves the Galatians for entertaining some dangerous errors about justification, he aggravates their fault, by saying O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus

Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you."

It is plain that what he distinguished by the name of "the truth" was, the gospel method of salvation by Jesus Christ-the acceptance and justification of a sinner, through faith in the blood and righteousness of Christ. In short, that great doctrine which is represented in so solemn a manner by St. John, in his first epistle, fifth chapter, and called a testimony or record, testified by the Three in heaven and Three on earth, which is this, that "GOD HATH GIVEN TO US ETERNAL

LIFE; AND THIS LIFE IS IN HIS SON.

We by no means exclude from the truth, the DUTIES which devolve upon believers; for we shall presently shew that these are not only necessarily connected, but form an essential part of it.

Indeed, to know the truth of the gospel aright, is to be taught by the Holy Spirit, not merely words and propositions of truth: or to yield the assent of the understanding to them-it is far more; the heart as well as the head is influenced; divine things, truly learned, have a powerful influence on the affections of the soul, on the temper and disposition of the heart, and upon the whole conduct, allowing for those deviations and imperfections, which, alas, are found in the best of men.

This is strongly implied in the text, and forms the second branch of our discourse; for the apostle is, you will recollect, exhorting the Ephesians to walk differently from the unconverted heathen, and to be renewed in the spirit of their mind, and, in a word, to become new creatures.

And here we may observe, that the text, with many other similar passages in Scripture, plainly intimates that some who professed to receive the gospel, disregarded its practical influence.

The gospel must be allowed to be " a good