goats ? Or if he were so disposed, are not all the beasts of the foreft his, and the cattle upon a thousand hills? Is not the whole world his, and all that is therein ?-What fatisfaction therefore could he hope to make by giving unto God that which was his already? And after all, tho' God was pleased to accept of fuch facrifices under the Jewish dispensation, yet it is impoffible that the blood of bulls and of goats should ever take away fin. It appears then, that only two methods could poffibly be devised, which could afford our first parent the least glimpse of hope of appeafing the Deity's offended juftice, namely, repentance and facrifice; and both these totally infufficient to procure falvation. "He "looked, therefore, but there was none that "would know him; and he wondered that "there was no interceffor." His miferies, indeed, and the horrors of a perishing world, did strongly plead for a Redeemer but where should this Redeemer be found, or who is able to deliver his brother from death, and make an agreement unte God for him? Yet Yet thus difficult as the task is, of finding a Redeemer, it is not impoffible with him to whom all things are poffible. There was yet one method, which lay hid in the gracious bofom of Providence, and which we could never have discovered, if it had not been revealed to us. For fee! when human invention was staggered, and conscious guilt was finking under the apprehenfions of divine justice, the arm of the Everlasting brought falvation, and the angel of his prefence faved them. The Son of the Most High, who alone had the power of reconciling God's mercy to his justice, became man for our fakes, and by one oblation of himself once offered, made a full, perfect, and fufficient facrifice, oblation and fatisfaction for the fins of the whole world. Here then let us ftop for a moment, and contemplate this moft extraordinary and aftonishing act of divine love to man. What a furprizing mercy was it in God the Father to find out fuch an expedient for us, and to fend his only begotten Son to be exposed to the infults of an impious and ungrateful world! I dle to his world! How astonishing again was it to fee him, who was the brightness of his Father's glory, and the exprefs image of his perfon, putting on the lowly form of a fervant; submitting not only to be man, but even to be the leaft and lowest of men! For fuch he was in every stage of life, even from his cragrave. The very circumstances of his birth were fuch as were not only void of all worldly pomp and grandeur, but even fuch as would naturally expose him to the scorn of the haughty, the contempt of the rich, and the derifion of fools. Tho' he was born a king by his office, yet mean fwadling clothes were his imperial robes, and a manger his royal cradle. And no fooner was he born into the world, tho' the obfcurity of his fituation might well have concealed him from public notice, than he was doomed the victim of a tyrant's jealousy, nor could any thing less than banishment from his country deliver the helpless babe from the edge of the sword. And even after this escape, this foreboding prelude, as it proved, to his misfortunes, what was his whole ministry on earth but one continued scene of hardship! Tho' his life was laid out and employed in acts of benevolence, tho' he even spent himself in doing good to the fouls and bodies of men, yet all this could not fave him from the combined malice of men and devils. Nay, his very miracles were fo far from mitigating the bitterness of his perfecutors, that they inflamed their rage and venom against him ftill more. They caft down at his feet the blind, the deaf, the lame, and the dumb; and by his all-powerful word the eyes of the blind were opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; the lame man leaped as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb did fing yet in vain did these marvellous acts befpeak the finger of God; he met with no better return for them than that bitter and malevolent reproach," he casteth out "devils thro' Beelzebub, the prince of "devils." Yet is not this all that he did for us miferable finners, nor did his fufferings for us ftop here. The prefent folemnity calls upon us to take a farther view of his love to us, and to accompany him to the last act of his life, compared with which his former miferies were flight and inconfiderable. And And furely never was a greater complication of infolence and barbarity, never did the fun behold a more bloody and inhuman tragedy, in all the parts and circumstances of it! See your God, ye guilty fons of a guilty parent, for your fakes, extended on the cold ground, racked with bitter agonies, and fweating as it were large drops of blood! See him, again, betrayed by a faithless traitor; arrested as a very thief, with fwords and staves ; abandoned and denied by his coward difciples; accufed by falfe witneffes; reproached as a blafphemer; condemned by the voice of an enraged multitude, as worse than guilty of the united crimes of fedition, robbery, and murder ! Behold him again blind-folded, spit upon, buffeted, mangled with whips and fcourges. See! he comes loaded with his cross, and infulted with the enfigns of mock royalty! His hands are compelled to fuftain a reed of reproach; his head is lacerated with a crown. of thorns; and, as if these were not sufficient tortures, his ears are wounded with that infulting falutation, Hail! King of the Jews! VOL. II. I In |