greatly to be desired. They perhaps who lived nearest to the primitive church, or rather to Christ, the great head of the church, felt it most: as those countries which are nearest to the sun will have the most heat. But our own happiness, I am fully convinced, depends upon drawing nigh to God; and the more we take an interest in the sufferings of Christ, the more detached shall we be from this world, and the more gratefully shall we anticipate the crown of glory purchased by his crown of thorns. Let us,. before we leave this part of our subject, listen to the sentiment of one other holy man, Bishop Beveridge. In his Good Friday Sermon, on those solemn words, "And he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost,”* he says, Have we deserved grief and sorrow of heart? He was a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief! He wept, he was grieved, his soul was exceeding sorrowful, even unto death,'t Have we deserved pain and torment in our bodies? He was in that pain and torment, that his sweat was as it were great drops of blood, which fell down from his blessed + Matt. xxvi. 38.

* John xix. 30.

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body to the ground! Have we deserved to be forsaken of all our friends? He was forsaken of all his disciples, and betrayed too by one of them. Have we deserved to be accused, arraigned, condemned for our sins? He was accused, he was arraigned, he was condemned for them. In a word, have we deserved death? He hath suffered it, even the death upon the cross.'

Thus did these holy men (to take two only out of a cloud of witnesses) speak of the person who suffered-and of the nature of those sufferings.

3rdly. We are further to consider that all these circumstances, mysterious as some of them may appear to us, were by the appointment of his heavenly Father.

"The Lord hath laid on him the iniquities of us all." "It pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief." And here, again, our gratitude is loudly called for. Salvation from first to last is a free gift. We did not contrive our redemption; nay, we should never have laid help upon One that is mighty. Rather let us confess the sad truth, that but for the intervention of divine wisdom, mercy, and

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compassion, we must have suffered, justly suffered, for ever suffered, the punishment due to our transgressions.

But when the Lord saw that there was no man, when he hearkened and there was no intercessor, therefore his own arm brought salvation.

When we attempt to think even in the most humble manner upon the divine counsels, we are lost in wonder and amazement. But when we think upon the divine goodness, with gratitude and submission; we stand as it were safe with Moses in the cleft of the rock, whilst the Lord passes by. "I beseech thee show me thy glory," may

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times have been our wish. How wonderfully gracious the answer, " "I will make all my goodness pass before thee!" And if the Lord proclaimed his name under the law, and that name was the Lord, the Lord God, gracious and merciful, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin; but who will by no means clear the guilty; surely, my fellow Christians, partakers in this heavenly calling, we under the Gospel know our God

under this name, we see him in his beloved Son in whom he is well pleased, we hear his voice, we behold his miracles of mercy. From the cradle to the grave, from Bethlehem to Calvary, there was but one design of mercy. And that work was completed, when he himself said, "It is finished-and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost." Here justice was fully satisfied. God did provide himself a Lamb for a burnt-offering. Here mercy shone conspicuously for the christian faith was exemplified in the last prayer of its divine Founder-" Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Here an everlasting righteousness was brought in, so that God can be just, and yet the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus."

Let us now proceed to examine our own interest and our own duty, as they arise. out of this great and wonderful transaction.

If the Lord, the holy and righteous Father against whom we had sinned, was pleased to lay on his well-beloved Son the iniquities of all; if that divine person in the fulness of time came into the world, and

most willingly offered himself upon the cross, as an atoning sacrifice for our transgressions; if his willingness and his ability to save were proved in every instance of his ministry, by healing the sick, and raising the dead, and doing that which belongs to God alone, pardoning sin; if he fulfilled prophecy, and, after being dead three days, raised himself to life again;—if all these things were done for us, that we might inherit eternal life: then, my brethren, we have the deepest interest in the death of Christ. Well might an apostle say, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world."

The bare mention of such a gift should fill the soul with gratitude; and yet, alas! those who might be benefited, too frequently turn a deaf ear to the offers of

mercy. The subject which fills heaven and earth with wonder, which calls forth the hallelujahs of angels, is treated with indifference by the sons of men! The great Author of our faith, when with his lips he was preaching to the Jewish nation, had reason to complain, "Ye