When resting upon the transgressor, it sinks him to eternal condemnation in the region of the blackness of darkness-when imputed to Jesus, it agonized him as the man of sorrows-as the consumed victim-as the bloody sacrifice: "surely he hath borne our griefs." "It pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin." Isa. liii. 10. We have no expression of the Father's love equal to that which is beheld on Calvary. We are not to suppose that the mysterious agonies endured by Christ as our Surety, were procured through the reluctance of the Divine Nature to be merciful, but rather that these are the demonstrations of love-of love and mercy which none but God can possess-infinite-unsearchable! Our Lord saith, "I say not, I will pray the Father for you, for the Father himself loveth you." The love of the Father is expressed in various parts of the redemption, and as altogether boundless and free, providing us all spiritual blessings-bestowing upon us the spirit of adoption, and contemplating us with parental tenderness. This love devised the way whereby we might in justice be restored to his paternal bosom; nor did it hesitate in its accomplishment, although no less a

price could be available than the substitution of that eternal One who came to receive the drops of the night into his most holy soul. Thus" God hath commended his love to us," by sending his Son: "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John iii. 16. According to what we have seen in the doctrine of Justification, Christ is to be received as the Representative Head of his people; for them he wrought out a righteousness answerable to that part of the law which saith, "Do this and live." And for them he endured the wrath answerable to the sentence "the soul that sinneth shall die." Thus holy requirements and irreversible denunciations uttered by him whose voice changeth not, are all answered, and the way thrown wide open whereby the redeemed may in security pass by the gates of hell, and through those of glory. The obedience of Christ was complete, and offered in human nature. The sufferings of Christ were entire, and endured in human nature. The human nature assumed was suited to and capable of meeting the requirement belonging properly to man. His was a body and soul meet for God, being after the image

of God, after the likeness wherein man was originally created. So that although in his deep voluntary humiliation the Saviour took our nature as nature stripped of visible dignity, and reduced to suffering dependance,-Satan had nothing in him. "He was holy, undefiled, and separate from sinners;" God's Holy One! Hence flowed the "sweet savour of his offering, when for our sakes he laid down. his life. "For their sakes I sanctify myself." "I lay down my life for the sheep; I lay it down of myself; no man taketh it from me; I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again." It is in this relation that when our Lord bowed his head in death, he exclaimed, "It is finished!" The propitiation was complete. "He died unto sin once," in that act acknowledging the desert of sin. But he could not be holden of death; death had no dominion over him. And having discharged the debt contracted by his people, he burst from the prison of the grave a justified man! "Declared to be the Son of God with power, by the resurrection from the dead." Rom. i. 4. Thus Daniel's prophetic testimony was fulfilled, "Messiah shall be cut off, but not for himself;" but, as in verse 24, finish the transgression and to make an end

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of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy." Dan. ix. "Without

this shedding of blood, there is no remission:" Heb. ix. 22. By it, remission is full and complete. "The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin." 1 John i. 7.

The doctrine that is thus unfolded to our eyes comes richly impregnated with consolation to every sin-burdened conscience. Such sinners are taught to rest beneath the cross, hearkening with confidence to the covenant language spoken in every wound, in every groan, in every triumph of the mysterious sacrifice. "I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins." "Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world." "Look unto me and be ye saved." "He gave his life a ransom for many." Scriptures such as these encourage the transgressor to hope for and believe the promise whereby he may individually receive forgiveness. The grace is free, the virtue of the procuring cause of forgiveness, which is the blood of Christ, is without limit, Matt. xii. 31. Sinners of the most enormous degree have proved the efficacy

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of the provision and the truth of the promise. Mary wept not in vain, when she stood behind Jesus, and let fall her tears upon his feet: the dying thief was not rejected, when in the bitterness of death he turned a believing eye on his redeeming Saviour. The jailor was heard when exclaiming, "what must I do to be saved," and myriads now crowding around the throne of the Lamb on High, sing their neverceasing acclamations ;-" He hath redeemed us unto God by his blood." It is not, then, the greatness or the multitude of the sins that will prevent the extension of forgiveness to the guilty. The fountain is opened, wherein the soul that plunges into its all-availing flood, will find every iniquity lost to sight, washed clean away. This was the confidence of faith expressed by David-" Wash me, and I shall be clean." The confidence is rightly placed, for there is a promise by which it is justified,— "Come, let us reason together, saith the Lord, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." Isa. i. 18.

Forgiveness of this description is such as a sinner requires, and such as the truly convinced long after. It is free, it is full, it is irrevocable it procureth the removal of the