their ceremonies, the insincerity of their devotions; proclaiming on all occasions, their ignorance, their pride, their ambition, their avarice, and their fraudulent assumption of tyrannical power. And motives of interest and revenge suggested the resolution in this infernal assembly, of arresting the denouncer of their crimes, and of putting him to death. "Every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light lest his deeds should be reproved." The Roman magistrate was actuated by feelings not more honourable; he sacrificed public justice to private interests, and did the Jews "a favour" at the expense of his own integrity. Yet these are the men, and these are their principles, for whom the dying Saviour prayed, "Father, forgive them, FOR THEY KNOW NOT WHAT THEY DO."

The question still returns, What does this plea mean? Why does this holy intercessor allude so emphatically to that ignorance, which, instead of palliating, aggravates the guilt of the unfeeling enemies by whom he is surrounded? In reply to this inquiry, I apprehend the only adequate solution is to be found in the supposition, that the Saviour did not intend to palliate the sin of his destroyers, but to furnish an illustration of his own transcendent grace. The plea does not proceed, I conceive, on the concession of their comparative innocence, but upon the hopeless and inevitable ruin into which these blind wretches were hastening to plunge. It was not intended that these infatuated men were ignorant, and therefore without guilt; but that they were blindly sporting upon the brink of perdition, unconscious alike of the moral turpitude of their conduct, and of its fearful consequences. Their blindness could be no proof of their innocence, since innocence needs no forgiveness; but it was portentous of the impending wrath of Heaven, and without some interposition of mercy, rendered their doom infallible. They were so immersed in the darkness of corruption, so insensible to the destiny involved in their guilty career, so completely under the dominion of that moral stupor which habits of sin invariably produce, and which is at once the evidence and the penalty of confirmed depravity, that they would never pray for themselves, if the Saviour did not pray for them; if the Father did not freely forgive them, they would never be induced to seek forgiveness. If grace did not arrest them in the greatness of their way, they would rush on with unsuspecting haste, till wrath overtook them to the uttermost. It was the dreadful ruin to which the blind madness of these men was hurrying them onwards, that awakened the pity of the Redeemer, even amidst the agonies of his own broken heart, and drew from his suppliant voice that prayer, "Forgive them, Father! they know not what they do!" Oh, how

mysterious, how ineffable, the compassion of Jesus Christ! The prayer itself contained a touching proof of the infinite mercy of the Redeemer; but, if possible, the plea by which he enforces that prayer, multiplies that proof, and places his love to miserable men in a light still more affecting and overwhelming. Here is grace supplicated for those whose wickedness had been atrocious, whose folly was equal to their guilt, whose blind obduracy of heart seemed to render them irreclaimable, and who, but for divine interference, were going headlong into the blackness of darkness for ever. The greatness of their iniquity is used as a plea for their forgiveness! What an intercessor! what a mediator do we behold in the High Priest of the church of God! He pities us before we learn to pity ourselves, and dies for us while we are yet enemies! He finds in the very depths of our ruin, a motive to redeem us!

On the whole, this passage in the history of Jesus Christ illustrates in a signal manner the unsearchable riches of divine grace, by presenting that grace in contrast with an example of human depravity without parallel. It teaches us to hate sin, and to love God.

The crucifixion afforded an exhibition of human nature, dreadful and humiliating to the last degree. It discovered the secrets of the heart of man, shewing to what lengths of crime men are capable of proceeding, when, instead of being controlled by knowledge and piety, they are abandoned to the capricious influence of ignorance, prejudice, and unbridled passion. They are ready for every extreme of vice and crime, when, for a moment, God removes the restraints of his providence, and suffers their infuriated passions to assume the tyranny of the soul. Then there is nothing too dreadful for them to perpetrate-no atrocity too diabolical—no enterprise too sacrilegious or profane-no sin which they are not prepared to commit against God. They assail him in his brightest image, his fairest glory; they crucify his beloved Son! Nor is it, perhaps, too much to suppose, that at this awful juncture the Sovereign of the world allowed the human heart to disclose the deep working of its mysterious passions, in overt acts of brutal violence or infernal malignity; that the same hour which brought redemption might also bear testimony to our need of this supernatural grace. Let us not retire from this scene of humiliation without shedding a tear of bitterness over its portentous ruins. It is the degradation of our common nature. It is man in shame, in guilt, and in dishonour, leagued with the fiends of darkness; his moral instincts suppressed, his reason prostrate, his passions maddened and unchained, and presenting the dreary spectacle of fallen greatness, of departed glory, the wreck of what was once fair and majestic in the

moral likeness of God. How is the crown fallen! and the fine gold is become dim!

Let it not be said that the view here taken of human nature is exaggerated, to sustain the credit of a gloomy theology. It rests upon the deep and broad basis of the universal history of our species, of which the crucifixion supplies the darkest page, but not the only demonstration of enormous depravity. Far be it from us, indeed, to affirm, that no moral beauty, no honourable sentiments, no graceful virtues, no remnants of human dignity are to be found to relieve the gloom of the apostacy. Enough of reason, and of conscious responsibility, remains in man to contend, however feebly, with what is ignoble, corrupt, and estranged from God. We see, in numberless happy instances, that education can correct and refine the moral sentiments: that the imagination and the heart are susceptible of culture; and that religion, by purifying the soul, restores it to the fellowship of heaven. The temple is decayed, but not destroyed; and the embers that glow dimly upon the altar, may be rekindled by the breath of heaven into a brilliant and a hallowed flame. But, after all, our estimate of human nature would be defective and erroneous, were we to regard only what is excellent or amiable in individual characters,--or to suppose that all the morality which appears upon the surface of life, in tranquil times, or under well-regulated governments, were a perfect index of the human heart. Law, policy, and the restraints of civil and military power, coerce the wicked and protect the good. Without government there is no security; the peace and order of society would be trampled under the foot of violence, and the passions of the multitude let loose upon rapine, would convulse and depopulate the world. There are analogies between the natural and the moral order of things; and to form our sentiments of the deep and inward principles of human nature from the surface of life, in times of public tranquillity, would be not less delusive than to infer the constitution and course of nature from some beautiful plain, intersected by streams of transparent water, clothed with the fruits of ripening harvest, and basking in the rays of a summer sun. Let it not be forgotten, that beneath this scene of loveliness, are subterranean fires, elements of destruction, controlled by the Author of nature at his will, but ready at all times to burst forth, and destined hereafter to effect the conflagration of the globe.

If this view of human nature is sad, it is not, on that account, to be evaded. Rather let us learn from it to regard sin, that deadly malady of the soul, that moral poison and plague of the creation, with fear, with profound abhorrence, and stern hostility. Even in

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regard to the present life, whatever curbs and represses its sovereign sway, calls for our gratitude,-and since, without the existence of law, of government, of social order, the wicked would speedily accomplish the destruction both of others and of themselves,-let us foster a reverential feeling for all the great institutions of society which have a tendency to cherish virtue and to suppress crime, and which, by investing the intelligent and the virtuous with power, arm the peaceful members of the community against the aggressions and outrages of brutal force. Above all, let us adore that Providence, whose mysterious interposition keeps together the frame of society, and maintains our safety amidst the very elements of confusion, standing, as we do, at every moment, upon the very brink and verge of ruin. He that controls the winds, the floods, and the volcanic fires, over which we unconsciously walk, tempers the passions of mankind, without infringing upon their moral freedom, and with equal ease "stills the noise of the waves, and the tumult of the people!" Nor will he permit even the temporary ascendancy of evil, without overruling it for purposes of wisdom and goodness. If his beloved Son falls by wicked hands, the victim of fraud and violence, it is by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, for the redemption of a sinful world. And it will be seen in the end, that the authors of mischief, of whatever rank or name, have undesignedly and involuntarily subserved the designs of his government, of whom it is sublimely written-" God is love!" The crucifixion teaches this delightful truth, not less clearly than it proclaims the depravity of man. The subserviency of human crimes to the gracious intentions of the divine administration, is not among the least impressive mysteries disclosed by that great catastrophe. Upon that cross, erected by impious man for the sport of his inhuman passions, mercy is enthroned, and the guilty deed is overruled for the sinner's own redemption! "Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain!" It was no more than had been predicted; and it was not before every iota of prophecy had been fulfilled, that the patient Son of God, as if then, and not till then, at liberty to depart, exclaimed, "It is finished!"— bowed his anointed head, and yielded up his spirit!

From the cross of our redemption, we may now follow him to the throne of his glory, consoled by the persuasion, that having thus far defeated the stratagems of the great adversary, he will certainly accomplish what yet remains to be done for the salvation of his church. If, in the days of his humiliation and sorrow, he "triumphed gloriously," in his exaltation we have an infallible pledge of the

final deliverance of his people from the dominion of sin and of death. So long as the powers of darkness are permitted, they will war with heaven. If the head is no longer assailable, the members will not be spared. Every individual believer will make his way into the kingdom, through temptations, and conflicts, and much tribulation. To the whole body of Christ the present will be a militant state-a march through the wilderness, harassed by fatigue and battle-until, by conquest, they take possession of the promised land. But we are assured, that the severity of the conflict will but serve, as in the instance of the Redeemer, to enlarge the fruits of victory, "that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold which perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise, and honour, and glory, at the appearing of Jesus Christ."

The present aspect of the world seems to forebode future crimes, miseries, and revolutions, not less appalling than those which have heretofore originated in the depraved passions of mankind. Human nature remains unchanged. Truth, happiness, and religion will still be opposed by all that is degenerate and ignoble in the children of disobedience. But we owe to Christianity-to its facts and to its doctrines-the consolatory persuasion, that neither the guilty projects of unbelief, nor the reckless spirit of impiety, will finally súcceed in frustrating the intentions of infinite love. All will be overruled for good-the ultimate and highest good of redeemed man, the regeneration of his moral faculties, and his meetness for an eternal union with his Maker. The process of renovation is advancing with slow but infallible steps; nor will it cease until the last of the faithful is placed in security, his entrance being made on the course of eternal life. To what extent the designs of heaven may reach, how far evil will be made the means of its own extinction, and infinite mercy triumph over the sin and misery which infest the world, it is not for us to conjecture, much less to decide. But of this we may rest assured, that after a provision of such immense magnitude for the restoration of man to himself and to his God, as we find in the redemption of the cross, no sin and no suffering will survive the present dispensation, but such as may be resolved into the incurable wickedness of the lost. It will appear that the grace of heaven has no limits but incorrigible crimethat the sinner is the author of his own condemnation-that the righteousness of the divine administration is attested even by the conscience of the adversary of God; while the multitudes of the redeemed, rapt in the beatific vision, will sing the song of adoration-"Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty!— Just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints!"