his bonds and afflictions without, and false brethren within, the apostle says, I know this shall turn to my salvation, through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Christ Jesus. Before the Apostle charged Timothy to endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ, he exhorted, thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. To be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might, is to be invincible amidst every attack of the mightiest foe, for he that is in us is stronger than he that is in the world. Most cheering too is the assurance of God that this mighty helper of man, the Holy Ghost, shall in the last days be poured out upon the house of David, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, as well as upon all flesh.

Nor is the communion of saints an unimportant part of that support the church, has in its warfare. The salvation is a common salvation: Christians strive together for the faith of the gospel, contending earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints. Their strength is vastly augmented by their union under one head, Christ Jesus; as the strength of an army is in its perfect union of movement under one commander. We are bid to comfort ourselves together and edify one another. Oh that this fellowship of spirit may be realised in all its blessedness!

The glory to come is the last support which I would mention. This has ever animated the Christian warrior. Our Captain and Leader fixed his eye on the joy set before him, and endured the cross. His devoted servant, Paul, reaching forth to the things before, pressed toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. To be heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ, what a hope! the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us; a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens, mortality swallowed up of life, the crown of glory unfading and everlasting! O

what a prize has God set before us! May we be faithful unto death, and it is all ours.

Such is the support in the prolonged warfare of the church; and animated by his support we see the army of Christ, though faint yet pursuing, and nearer and nearer their final victory.

III. THE ASSURANCE OF VICTORY.

The prediction of our text promises and assures this in two distinct views or stages of progress: present conquests and final triumphs.

1. Present conquests: he went forth conquering.

If we look at the past history of the church, it is a series of progressive victories over mighty and most subtle enemies. One impediment after another, raised by Satan, has been vanquished, one woe after another ends in the still increasing kingdom of our Redeemer. Let us take distinct æras to show this.

1. The conquests of the early church were very wonderful. Judea was deeply sunk in Pharisaic selfrighteousness, and Sadducean infidelity. Twelve apostles, mainly fishermen, one hundred and twenty disciples, chiefly of the humbler ranks of life, commence the Christian church at Jerusalem. They became three thousand on the day of Pentecost; speedily they count five thousand, then myriads, tens of thousands. The first glory of the church of Christ was among Jewish converts. It spread through Judea. Samaria receives Christ; Phoenice, Syria, Antioch, Cyprus, hear of him. The great apostle of the Gentiles is raised up. Damascus, Arabia, Pamphylia, Pisidia, Lycaonia, and Cilicia are visited by him. At length he enters Europe, by Macedonia and Greece, and after indefatigable labours is sent to Rome and preaches in Italy, everywhere establishing in Christian churches, durable monuments of the triumphs of the gospel.

The Jewish nation, alas! became, notwithstanding

the pure church which God had raised up amongst them, the first great opposer of the church of Christ; and, killing the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and persecuting the apostles, they filled up their sin, till the righteous judgment of God removed them as an obstacle to his truth, and destroyed their city ; a memorable warning of the sure end of all that oppose the gospel, and a removal of a mighty impediment to its universal diffusion.

Through three centuries of sufferings, toils, and ceaseless faith and love, the first Christians propagated the gospel. Soon Britain, Germany, Spain, France, Persia, Sarmatia, Dacia, Scythia, had heard the gospel; and, at length, the government of the whole Roman empire became, under Constantine, Christian. Satan was dethroned from his seat of power: according to the prediction, Rev. xii. 9. The great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world; he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him, and I heard a loud voice saying, in heaven, now is come salvation and strength, and the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ. Thus the divine approval is testified of the national establishment of Christianity.

2. The conquests of the Reformation. For three centuries after the national confession of Christianity, under Constantine, the visible Church was extending in Europe, Africa, and Asia, amid all the conflicts of deadly heresies, till the great truths of the Christian faith became fully established, as contained in that Athanasian Creed which our church this day teaches us to use. Then Satan, by Popery in the west and Mahomedanism in the east, sought to corrupt what he could not destroy, and for a lengthened time, though Christianity was outwardly extending, Satan, by its corruption, impeded its course, till God in his pity and love, at the beginning of the sixteenth cen

tury, exalted his true church from its depression, by the revived, open, and enlarged exhibition of his truth in the Reformation. Then the holy Bible, the little book compared with the large sealed book of God's secret providence, was fully laid before the church, and by the then recent discovery of printing, opened to men in general. (Rev. x. 2.) The light of the gospel was thus spread more or less into every Popish country through Europe. The Protestant religion was received, and had a civil establishment, in half of Germany and Switzerland; and was nationally established in Sweden, Denmark, Holland, England, Ireland, and Scotland, with a partial establishment in France, Poland, Hungary, and Lithuania. Not a few in Italy, and in Spain also, heartily embraced it. Pure confessions of faith were published, showing the largeness of the truth received, and the harmony of the Protestant churches. And, while Satan and the stubbornness of sin have been afresh exhibited in the decays of Protestantism, so that much of its purity and zeal was lost, and what remained seemed ready to die, and several countries where it had largely entered finally rejected it; God was still, by the colonizing of America in the west, and India in the East, preparing the way for the further and further triumphs of the gospel.

3. The conquests of recent missions show that the church of Christ is still going forth conquering. At the time when infidelity, lukewarmness, and indifference had overspread so largely the Christian churches; at the time when lawlessness had its full outbreak in one kingdom of Europe, in the first French revolution, God graciously called forth into full diffusiveness of good, another 'messenger of mercy, in the spirit of missions, to diffuse his truth and prepare the world for the coming of his Son. I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on

the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God and give glory to him, for the hour of his judgment is come. These missions now embrace every nation yet unblest with the gospel. As openings are made by navigation and discovery, by science and commerce into each land, and even before these forerunners of Christ have entered, the missionary goes and enters, bold in faith, and establishes a Christian church. So that now, in the largest part of the remaining heathen world, missionary stations are established, from which the light of the gospel is breaking forth, as a witness of God's holy love to all nations. Praise, and honour, and glory be to him.

4. The awakening of the interest in the Jewish people in the present day is very remarkable. Much has already been accomplished for their good. In the diffusion of the Old Testament, in the translations and circulation of the New Testament, by the publication of small books and tracts, by a version of our Liturgy into Hebrew, by missionaries now labouring successfully among them, and by the actual baptism of several thousands, a progress has been made unknown since the apostolic age. The Protestant churches of England, Scotland, and America, as well as on the Continent, have testified an unprecedented interest in their behalf. Their national state is now calling forth the attention of statesmen, and the governments of the earth. We see all the indications of those events which might be previously expected to mark the time drawing nigh of their regathering to their own land, and their conversion.

Such are the present conquests of the church of Christ. Let us then proceed onward to its final triumphs, and here I will show the grounds of confidence for this end; then the nature of the triumph.

1. The grounds of confidence for this are very numerous. Every prediction, every providence, every