for a moment the sacred veil of his humanity, and conceive the objects present to his soul in that moment; hell and heaven: the long, long vista of eternity opened to his view; the whole race of Adam hastening to their destiny; the gates of hell yawning wide to receive them; the sword of justice ready to slay them; while he, and he alone, partaker at once of the nature of God and man, stood between the living and the dead; and there was an awful pause, a silence in the full choir of heaven awaiting the result; but "It is finished," the last pang has been endured-the work of redemption, the costly purchase of souls is now complete:-that was the last sighthe last struggle-" he bowed his head and gave up the Ghost."

My friends, this is no fiction to awake a vain emotion, to call up a sentimental tear; it is a fact that appeals to every feeling, every hope, every fear, every principle of action within you. It is a fact, that "God has thus commended his love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us." It is a fact, that nothing less than the substitution of one whose merit out-weighed the accumulated guilt of all mankind could avert the sentence, "The soul that

sinneth, it shall die." It is a fact, that if Christ had not died we should be still under the curse; and it is equally a fact, that if we believe not in his finished work, and if we attempt to justify ourselves before him, he is for us dead in vain; and we stand in our unpardoned guilt as though no Saviour had ever suffered for us.

But oh! my friends, the subject of this day's consideration appeals to a feeling stronger than even hope or fear; it appeals to our love; "We love him because he first loved us," and this day we have beheld, as it were, the tokens of that love in every stripe, in every wound, and heard them in every sigh.-It was for us he bore the cross and despised the shame; and shall not we for his sake take up our cross, and follow him out of a "world that lieth in wickedness,'

66

bearing his reproach," and seeking only that he who once suffered for sins may be exalted in us, and in all around us. Shall we hug to our bosoms the enemy that slew him, Sin? Shall we join the multitude in the cry, " Crucify him! crucify him?" Should we, as the spectators of the tragedy on Calvary, join in railing on him; should we give another spear to pierce his side? should we supply other

66

thorns to rend his brow? Our every feeling revolts from the awful thought. Yet oh, my friends, remember this awful truth of Scripture, "If ye sin wilfully after ye have received the knowledge of the truth, you crucify to yourselves the Son of God afresh and put him to an open shame." (Heb. vi. 4-6.) And in the language of prophecy we find him displaying, as his severest sufferings, "the wounds wherewith he was wounded in the house of his friends." (Zech. xiii. 6.)

Remember this, and if any feeling of gratitude, any sense of "the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge," has been awakened in your hearts this day, -oh, let it not evaporate in a vain emotion! oh, let it not be "as the morning cloud, and as the early dew, that passeth away" without effect.

D

SERMON V.

PREACHED ON EASTER SUNDAY, 1830.

ROMANS, Iv. 25.

Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.

We have lately been led to consider the sacrifice and death of Christ; our feelings have been wrung by the recital of his sufferings; the cross seems still before our eye; we see the blood that flowed from his side; the wounds seem bleeding afresh before us; the sound of the cruel mockings, the railing with which he was assailed; the cries of "Crucify him, crucify him," still ring in our ears; we hear his dying groan; we behold his lifeless body extended on the tree; and then follow it to the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, and there we have

left it. But ah! is this "He who should have redeemed Israel?" is this He upon whom our hopes for immortality were fixed? He has suffered for our offencesbut is the sacrifice accepted? Shall we seek the living among the dead? Shall we hear a voice that bids us live, issuing from the tomb? Hopeless hope!

Never in the annals of time-not even when the Patriarch was called to raise the sacrificing knife over the child of promise; never was human faith put to a trial so severe, as that under which the disciples laboured, when they had seen their Lord crucified and slain-delivered for their offences, and given over, as it appeared, a prey into the hands of death.

One anchor yet remained for hope to cling to. He had said, "It is finished." He had drank to its dregs, the cup which his Father had put into his hands.

He

had trodden alone the wine-press of his Father's wrath, and he had declared the sacrifice complete. Some there were who " hoped against hope," whose faith pierced even the gates of death, and while they knew not how it was to be accomplished, yet clung to his word of promise; and while hope seemed buried in the grave of Jesus, the lamp of Christian