removed defilement and communicated health. "And, behold there came a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And Jesus put forth his hand and touched him, saying, I will, be thou clean; and immediately his leprosy was cleansed."*

As

a prophet, how divinely sweet were the instructions of the God-man. "His lips were like lilies, dropping sweet-smelling myrrh. His speech did distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, as the showers upon the grass. The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his lips." In vain did the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herodians endeavour to entangle him in his talk; "they were confounded by his wisdom."+

It was in the agonizing pangs of soul-travail for Zion, and in the unlimited temptations he sustained from the prince of this world, in the hour and power of darkness; and in the good confession the great Captain of our salvation witnessed before the tribunal of his own depraved creatures; and in bodily sufferings on the cross, that there was the most sublime and perfect display of the beauties of holiness, which emanated from his impeccability. Contemplate the glorious Immanuel at Gethsemane, while the wisdom, purity, and justice of the Father are transferring the whole accumulated amount of

* Mark, i. 40-42. + Songs, v. 13. Deut. xxxii. 2; Mal. ii. 6; Luke, xi. 53, 54; xx. 20.

his people's guilt, and the wrath due to them, upon his innocent head; that, as the substantial scape-goat of the whole congregation, he might "bear away their iniquities into a land not inhabited.”* "The yoke of their transgressions is bound" by Jehovah's hand; "they are wreathed and come up upon his neck. Behold, and see, if there be any sorrow like unto his sorrow, wherewith the Lord afflicted him in the day of his fierce anger."+ Hear his language while he personates Zion, and appropriates to himself her wickedness: "O Lord, rebuke me not in thy wrath; neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure. For thine arrows stick fast in me, and thy hand presseth me sore. There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger; neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin. For mine iniquites are gone over my head; as an heavy burden, they are too heavy for me. My wounds stink and are corrupt, because of my foolishness. I am troubled; I am bowed down greatly: I go mourning all the day long. For my loins are filled with a loathsome disease, and there is no soundness in my flesh. I am feeble and sore broken: I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart." Here we behold the beloved of the Father, and our divine Substitute," in whom was no sin, and who knew no sin," yet made sin for Zion, confessing her inherent depravity, enduring * Lev. xvi. 22. Lam. i. 12, 14. ‡ Ps. xxxviii. 1—8.

Jehovah's displeasure against her for her transgressions, and bewailing them as his own, while his holy, innocent soul, is deeply wounded by their imputation. The entire mass of our sins and corruptions, covered his shoulders like a thick filthy mantle; and while his purity shrunk with abhorrence from the loathsome, and ponderous burden, he held it fast, nor did he lay it aside, till he had put off his grave-clothes, and come forth from the tomb with new holy garments for Zion:-to adorn her "with glory and beauty, of blue, purple, scarlet, and fine twined linen." In the extremity of his agony in the garden, our divine Immanuel could not but feel an innocent aversion to the wormwood and the gall, contained in the dreadful cup of expiation, which he declared in that "If it be possible," &c.; but his infinite sympathy with the mind of Jehovah, is instantly expressed in holy acquiescence, "Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done." No finite mind can conceive, the terrible pangs of soul-travail, which took hold of the spotless Lamb of God, in this hour of darkness; when the consolations of the Father were withdrawn, and he was left alone to contend with the dragon, that with his own right hand, and with his holy arm he might obtain the victory. Although "Jehovah's equal,” yet in his character of the "first-born among many brethren," our glorious Immanuel made himself in his human nature, as dependent on the Father, as

any of the creatures whom he came to redeem. "Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications, with stong crying and tears, unto him who was able to save him from death, was heard in that he feared. Though he were a son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered." * He acquired an experimental knowledge of painful compliance with the commands of God, in the utmost extremity of suffering. It was not by physical strength, that our divine Champion conquered Satan, for that was weakened by the way," + and received the covenant aid of Jehovah, who "sent an angel to strengthen him." It was the mighty power of his immutable holiness, which repelled the fiery darts and poisoned arrows of hell, and made them recoil with multiplied force upon the adversary's guilty head.

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"The whole assembly of the congregation shall kill the passover." And we are all verily guilty, concerning the true paschal Lamb of God, our Elder Brother. Both Jew and Gentile representatives of his sinful church, exerted every effort, to prove some accusation against him, but in vain the alarmed conscience of the very heathen judge, constrained him to testify, that there was no spot or blemish in the sinless victim; who, when he was worried and reviled by the fat bulls of Bashan, "reviled not + Ps. cii. 23.

* Heb. v. 7, 8.

again; when he suffered he threatened not."* Behold the undefiled royal Melchizedek, whose unchangeable righteousness is the sceptre of his everlasting kingdom, meekly grasping the feeble reed, which his merciless executioners placed in his innocent hand, as the mock insignia of his kingly office; while, in cruel derision, they pierced his temples with a crown of thorns. "The depths of affliction closed him round about, and the weeds were wrapped round his head;" but he "was not rebellious, neither turned away back. He gave his back to the smiters, and his cheeks to them that plucked off the hair, and hid not his face from shame and spitting."+ Surely, we have only to contemplate this sublime manifestation of divine patience and humility in our glorious Immanuel, and, unless our "hearts are fat, and our eyes shut," (which God forbid,) we must cast from us with abhorrence the pernicious doctrine, that his holy, precious flesh was peccable, and contained in it "the law of the members," which in our corrupt and sinful nature, maintains till death a warfare against the renewed mind. Believe me, my dear friends, they who cling to "lying vanities forsake their own mercies : and, oh! what mercy is here, that the Lord of life, and Creator of heaven and earth, should assume the "form of a servant, and be made in the

* 1 Pet. ii. 23.

+ Jon. ii. 5; Isai. 1. 5, 6. Ibid. vi. 10.