Live, my brethren, in the believing contemplation of this love. It is not by a single act of faith, nor by occasional acts, but by a life of faith, that our love to Christ can be strengthened, and become the habitual and constraining principle of our obedience. "The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." "Keep yourselves in the love of God." And beware of a carnal, sensual frame of mind, which is incompatible with it. The mind must be fitted and prepared for such contemplations, by rising above the gross conceptions of sense, as well as the grovelling lusts and malignant passions of sin. Let your whole souls be given to the meditation of the love of Christ, and in coming forward to his table, let the heart of every one accord with the grateful and adoring ascription, "Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood-to him be glory and dominion, for ever and ever.-Amen."

SERMON IX.

THE SYMPATHY OF CHRIST.

HEB. iv. 15.

FOR WE HAVE NOT AN HIGH PRIEST WHICH CANNOT BE TOUCHED WITH THE FEELING OF OUR INFIRMITIES; BUT WAS IN ALL POINTS TEMPTED LIKE AS WE ARE, YET WITHOUT SIN."

THE salvation which the gospel reveals is equally adapted to all mankind. There is not one gospel to the Jew, and another to the Heathen-one doctrine of salvation for the devout and sober, and another for the profane and profligate. As all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, so the same Lord is rich unto all that call on him, justifying them freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, and saving them by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost. But while the apostles of Christ preached every where and to all the same gospel, they varied occasionally," according to the wisdom given to them," the motives by which they urged the reception of the truth, and steadfastness in adhering to it when received.

The principal motive to steadfastness in the gospel is the great salvation which it makes known, and this is common to all Christians. Yet we may observe a difference in the exhortations to this duty which the apostles addressed to Gentile and Jewish believers. In addressing the former, they reminded them of the gross ignorance and idolatry in which they had at one time been plunged, and from which they were recovered by the sudden shining of the true light on their minds. In dealing with the Jews, again, they insisted much on the great improvement which the gospel had made on their former privi

leges. They possessed all they had enjoyed under the law, or first covenant, and much more. In point of revelation, they had, in addition to Moses and the prophets, Christ as the Apostle of their profession, that great Prophet whom God had promised to the fathers that he would raise up to declare his will more perfectly. Under the former dispensation, they had sacrifices by which they were allowed to draw near to God; but now they had that sacrifice which, once offered, had for ever put away sin, and in the faith of which they might serve God acceptably all the days of their life. Formerly, they had a priesthood divinely appointed to serve at the altar, and particularly a high priest, who once a-year went into the holy of holies with the blood of atonement, and stood before the mercy-seat as the representative of the congregation; but now they had a high priest, greater than all the priests under the law. This is the argument by which the apostle urges constancy in the Christian faith on the believing Hebrews in the verse preceding the text. "Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession." The high priest under the law was a mere man of like passions and subject to sin as his brethren: our high priest is "Jesus the Son of God," a person of infinite dignity and spotless purity. The Jewish high priest passed through the veil into an inner apartment of a material and earthly sanctuary: the Christian high priest" is passed into the heavens," there to appear continually before God for us. The dignity of his person, and the exalted place which he occupies, reflect the highest honour on our profession; they secure to us the highest privileges, and therefore the consideration of them ought to animate us in adhering to him, and fortify our minds against apostasy.

But then, the very things which constitute the pre-eminence of their high priest, and which are necessary to the perfection of his office, may also operate as a discouragement on the minds of Christians. If he is so great and exalted, and so far removed from us in place (they will be ready to say),, how can we suppose that he will interest himself in our affairs,

or that he will look down from the height of his glorious throne in the heavens upon those who dwell on earth, and are compassed about with manifold infirmities? Against such discouraging fears or doubts, the words of our text furnish an antidote and remedy: "For," says the apostle, "we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities." Though he be great, he is also condescending; though he be exalted, he is also compassionate and sympathizing; though he be as far removed from us, in his human nature, as heaven from earth, yet is he connected with us by a real though invisible tie, which draws down his regard upon us and prevents him from forgetting us for a single moment-this is sacred, tender, and strong sympathy. He not only loves his people with a divine love, but bears to them the affection of a brother, "bone of their bone and flesh of their flesh;" feels for them, not merely with the active benevolence of a perfectly good man, but also with the impassioned feeling of “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief" of one who knows what it is to suffer, from his own experience-who "was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." Under his greatest sufferings and temptations he never sinned, as we are all apt to do; but this is the single point of disparity; in all other points the resemblance holds between him and his brethren. There is not an infirmity, or pain, or grief which they bear, that he did not bear before them; and in consequence of this he is capable of feeling for and along with them. By the "infirmities" of Christians we are to understand every thing, including their sufferings, which has a tendency to make them faint in their Christian profession. And when it is said, "we have not an high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities," the negative form of expression is to be understood as having the force of a strong affirmation. Though we have a great high priest who is passed into the heavens, let us not suppose for a moment, that he is such a one'as cannot be touched-he is tenderly, powerfully touched with a fellow-feeling of our infirmities: He sympathizes with us, as the words literally read.

The text teaches us, that one of the distinguishing qualifi

cations of Christ as our high priest, is the sympathy or compassion which he feels for the infirmities of his followers, in consequence of his having passed through the trials to which they are liable, with this single difference, that he sinned in none of them. Let us, in the first place, explain this sympathy of our great High Priest; and, in the second place, state some of those points in which he was tempted like as we are, and is therefore qualified for sympathizing with us.

I. The principal work of Christ as our High Priest was to make reconciliation or atonement for our sins. For this purpose he assumed our nature, and through the Eternal Spirit offered himself without spot unto God. This was typified by the sacrifices under the law, the offering of which formed the great employment of the Levitical priesthood. And without this we could have derived no comfort from the intercession and compassion of Christ. But it behoved him to be not merely a proper, but also a merciful high priest. Sinners needed not only to be saved from their sins by his blood, but to be relieved, favoured, and comforted by his grace. They needed a Saviour who would not only undertake for them, and be able to perform what he had undertaken, but also would do all his work with condescension, tenderness, and pity. They required to be "saved" and "pulled out of the fire" with "compassion." They were destined, after being redeemed, and before coming to a state of final safety in heaven, to travel through the wilderness of this world, subjected to various trials, hardships, and temptations; and accordingly it was necessary that they should be placed under a leader who, being made perfect through suffering, would treat them with all the care and tenderness which flow from sympathy. Such is the fine description given of the divine care about the children of Israel, after they were brought out of Egypt, and during their peregrination in the wilderness: "In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them: and he bare them

Jude, v. 22, 23.