every thing that is valuable and desirable; existing by itself, and of itself, and the only cause of existence in the universe. It is a fulness to which nothing can be added, because it is already infinite, and which cannot be impaired, because it is immutable. It was the same before the creation that it is now; and if the creation were annihilated, it would remain unchanged. "He is without variableness or shadow of turning. From everlasting to everlasting thou art God."

How consoling is it for us to know, that it hath pleased the Father that in Christ all this fulness should dwell. It is with peculiar propriety that those who are united to the Saviour are said to be complete in him, since there is a fulness of life and grace, power and love, treasured up in him for their necessities. This is the fulness with which believers are to be filled, by which they are sustained and preserved through all the temptations, and conflicts, and trials which they endure, and by which they are kept through faith unto salvation. It is because this fulness dwells in Christ that he is an all-sufficient Saviour, and has spoiled principalities and powers, making a shew of them openly; and is able to save to the uttermost. It is the enjoyment of this fulness in eternity that will constitute heaven a place of unbounded and eternal happiness; a fulness of joy from whence spring up pleasures for evermore. From this subject, I remark,

I. That as God is a spirit, we are bound to give him a spiritual worship. This is the inference which an infallible teacher has deduced from the spirituality of the divine nature. "God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth."

We are not only to refrain from worshipping God in a false manner, or by means of visible representations, but we are to give him in sincerity the love and adoration of the heart, and in the way which he has required. In addressing ourselves to God, our worship must be agreeable to his nature. Would it not be absurd and irrational to act towards our fellow-creatures as if they were void of reason and of understanding? Is it not as foolish to act towards God as if his nature were not spiritual? Is it not worse than mockery to act towards him as if he were not possessed of every perfection, and as if every perfection were not in him infinite? And is it not in those who live under the gospel dispensation, which presents the most powerful and spiritual motives to obedience, and with which is connected the influence of the Holy Spirit, a sin of the most aggravated nature to withhold this worship from God? Was it not to restore our alienated hearts to the love and the worship of God that Christ became a Saviour? The sacrifice of his death and his mediatorial offices are without effect in all who refuse to give God any worship, or who rest satisfied in the outward forms of religion.

That is spiritual worship which proceeds from a spiritual nature; and our nature before it can be spiritual must be so rendered by the renewal of the Holy Spirit. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the spirit is spirit." Before we can pass from the state of carnal-mindedness and of spiritual death, into a state of heavenly affection and of heavenly life, we must undergo that change in which "old things are said to pass away, and all things to become new." Our worship will then be spiritual, because it proceeds from a spiritual mind; a mind in which the Holy Spirit dwells; a mind whose affections and desires are towards God and towards the remembrance of his name; a mind impressed with awe before the divine majesty, and concerned for the divine glory; a mind whose prevailing habits are formed under the influence of faith and love, of reverence and humility; and a mind that has a constant regard to Christ as the only medium through which sinful ereatures can approach unto God. If all this be requisite to the acceptable worshipping of that God who is a spirit, what reason have the most spiritual, in reflecting on the frequent state of their hearts, to be deeply humbled! And how precious should he be in our estimation, who is the great High Priest with the Father, and who presents our prayers and praises with the much incense of his own merits! I observe from this subject,

II. The great depravity and apostacy of mankind. But for this depravity, the revelation which had been originally given of the spirituality and unity of the divine nature would never have been lost. There must be something wrong with the mind when it is willing to forget the most glorious and perfect object of thought and of love. And yet when we look at the history of the world, we see that this willingness to forget the living and true God, and to substitute all that an evil heart could suggest in his room, must have been powerfully and constantly felt by man. So early as the days of Abraham it had succeeded in shutting out the Creator from a great portion of the

world which he sustains, and of directing worship to idols. And though one of the leading purposes for which that patriarch was selected from the nations was, that the knowledge of the nature and character of the true God, and of the way in which he is to be worshipped, might be preserved among men, how prone were his descendants to turn to idolatry. Amid the peculiar advantages which they enjoyed, and immediately after they had witnessed the interposition of Jehovah in making a way for them through the sea, and in miraculously supplying their wants in the desert, so much were they bent on having some visible and idolatrous representation of Deity, that they gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, "Up, make us gods which shall go before us." This tendency to apostacy and idolatry continued to shew itself, and to bring down on the chil dren of Abraham the severity of punishment, till after their return from the Babylonish captivity.

And what was the condition of the world in this respect when christianity was first promulgated? With the exception of the Jews, mankind over the whole earth were in a state of the grossest ignorance and superstition, and idolatry, dwelling in darkness and in the region and shadow of death, without God, and having no hope. Paganism was supported by the pomp and splendour that could make it imposing to the senses, shielded by the power of princes, and by the no less formidable power of the priesthood. But the Saviour, who came to destroy the works of the devil, sent forth, shielded by his own almighty power, his apostles, to call men to repent, and to turn from dumb idols to serve the living and true God. He who gave them their commission made them successful in fulfilling it; and through their instrumentality founded his own pure and heavenly kingdom over the greater part of the world. But soon did this kingdom begin to suffer from the enmity of man to the spirituality, and unity, and perfection of God. Julian the apostate, learned, accomplished, and artful, employed his learning and accomplishments, and artifices, backed by the whole power of Rome, to subvert the kingdom of Christ, and to bring over his subjects to idolatry. And what he was unable to perform was in a great measure afterwards achieved by the professed ministers of the church. Idolatry, through their influence, was openly maintained and inculcated in the eighth century-the period from which we date the commencement of that anti-christian system which is fundamentally opposed to the doctrine of the prophets and apostles; which has assumed to itself the prerogatives of God; which has placed itself in opposition to the glorious gospel; and which enforces the worship of images by law and authority. This is that wicked whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming. In the mean time, it is by the special providence of God that the knowledge of his being, and of his perfections, of his mercy, and of his salvation, is preserved among men. And were this knowledge altogether left to itself, the history of the past, and a view of the present, may convince us that