heart, and awaken that strong crying for salvation, and already the gospel has done half its work. We need but show to the hungering and thirsting soul" the bread of God” and the well-spring of eternal life, trusting to the certainty of its finding there complete refreshment. We need but direct the eyes of him who is wounded by the serpent sin, to him who was lifted up upon the cross for sinners, secure that the sight must, in time, restore health and comfort. Attend therefore, if there be any who know sin and danger, but as yet know not redemption, and you shall hear "what the Lord hath done for your souls." In two words lies the cure of all your disease, the escape from all your danger, the shelter for all your fears-" Christ crucified!"

When sin had overcome the faithfulness of man, and corrupted his innocence; as soon as he became sensible of his shame, and convinced of his wretchedness, his Creator, "in judgment remembering mercy," gave the first promise of a Saviour: declaring that, as woman was the first transgressor, one born of a woman should

destroy the power of the serpent: "Her seed shall bruise thy head." This heavenly deliverance, so early promised, was not immediately made manifest. Mankind were trained by many ages of ignorance, error, folly, backsliding, idolatry, and rebellion, by long and hard bondage to the lust of the flesh, to an universal acknowledgement of misery, and an humble desire of salvation from heaven. "The creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who has subjected the same in hope." But when the time arrived which the Lord in his secret wisdom had appointed, then were fulfilled, each in its own order, "the sayings that were written" concerning the redemption of the world. The Saviour was to be "the mighty God, the everlasting Father;" he was accordingly conceived by the Holy Ghost; and "declared to be the Son of God with power," by the surpassing miracles which he wrought, and by the solemn annunciation of a voice from heaven; being "glorified with the glory which he had with Isaiah, ix. 6.

a

"he

b

the Father before the world was. He was to be the seed of the woman; was born," accordingly, "of a pure virgin." He was to be wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities; a prophecy which, when he visited mankind, his hungerings, his wanderings, his temptations, the insults which he bore, the sorrows which he endured, all abundantly fulfilled. He was to be led as a lamb to the slaughter, and there to bear the iniquities of us all which, when he breathed out his tortured and exhausted soul upon the cross, he perfectly performed. "Christ was once offered to bear the sins of the many," and hath " put away sin by the sacrifice of himself."

C

That our great Redeemer should be man of like nature and passions with ourselves, sin only excepted, was necessary, that as man had by sin made himself the enemy of God; so should man be punished for sin, to make atonement and satisfaction to his offended justice. For " as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall b Isaiah, liii. 5.

c Heb. ix. 28.

many be made righteous.'

" d

"There is one

God, and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.'

,, е

But as a mere man could never, by obedience or by suffering, make satisfaction for his own sin; much less for the sins of the whole world: as no created being can purchase salvation for his brethren, with a righteousness which is not his own, but given to him from on high; it was equally necessary that the Mediator should be God equal with the Father. Indeed no creature of God's hand could have had " power to lay down his own life, and power to take it up again." Such power belongs to God alone; and God our Saviour made use of it to offer himself as a free-will offering for sin. Thus, therefore, speaks the scripture, "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself."f Could the same purpose have been answered by a meaner sacrifice, we may well believe that the Father would not have yielded up his only-begotten Son to insult and to death: the mighty God would not have left the throne of his glory, to share the weakness

d Rom. v. 19.

e 1 Tim. ii. 5.

f 2 Cor. v. 19.

and humiliation of human nature.

Herein

we behold the dreadful character of sin: that it is so abominable in the sight of God, so utterly destructive of our eternal happiness, that nothing less than the blood, the shame, the agony, of a divine Saviour, could appease the justice of the Lord, or turn away his wrathful indignation.

Herein too we obtain perfect assurance and confidence that a refuge from sin and its punishment will not be sought in vain :

66

'God hath given unto us eternal life, and this life is in his Son." Before sufficient satisfaction and redemption was offered, God refused not pardon to mankind through hate toward his creatures, or indifference to their welfare; but because it was more important that his justice should be duly honoured and preserved, than that a sinful generation should escape punishment. The love of God is boundless: it would grant to all eternal happiness; it "willeth not the death of a sinner:" but the claims of his infinite justice must receive equal attention. Both, by the wisdom and goodness of the Lord, are joined together in the

1 John, v. 11.