the unutterable joys of heaven will be eternally lost conscience will fasten its accusations upon me and all the powers of my soul, will be overwhelmed with the torments of despair.'

And does the case of any amongst you, my beloved hearers, make this language applicable to them? O! surely, all such will feel alarmed at the consideration, and be ready to inquire with the utmost anxiety, What must I do to be saved?" And do any of you make this inquiry, with earnestness and sincerity of heart? Be it then known to you, that a way is now open for your escape from the dreadful curse to which you are exposed. Jesus became your substitute. He put himself in your stead. He redeemed us from the curse of the Law, by being himself made a curse for us.

3

Men,

brethren, and fathers this is joyful news. Turn your attention, I beseech you, to Christ crucified. There see the hand-writing of ordinances, and all the punishment which is due to your violations of the divine Law, taken away by being nailed to the cross. Here receive encouragement, ye guilty and condemned simmers, and, renouncing all dependence on your own obedience, apply by faith to him that was made a curse for you.

Should, however, these impressive con. siderations prove ineffectual, I must beg

leave to call your attention to a few further observations relative to the nature of the curse, from which Christ has redeemed his people.

It has already been remarked, that it consists in the separation of body and soul immediately after death, and in the wrath of God being poured out upon it until the day of judgment. It remains now to state, that it implies also an infliction of inconceivable punishment both on body and soul, from the day of judgment throughout eternity. When that solemn day shall arrive, the re-union of the separated soul and body will take place with inexpressible anguish to both. Compelled to stand before the tribunal of Christ, every individual who shall have died exposed to the threatenings of the Divine Law, will be stationed at his left hand, and covered with eternal shame. All the breaches of the Law, of which such persons shall have been guilty, will be charged upon them; and having not fled by faith to him who bore the curse in his own body on the tree, the awful punishment which every transgression has merited, will be immediately executed upon them. The voice of that compassionate Saviour, whose dying agonies and overwhelming sorrows were in this life disregarded by them, will then publicly pronounce the solemn sentence, "Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels."

And is it, my brethren, possible that any of you will be amongst this wretched number? Would not those eyes, although unaccustomed to weep, burst into floods of tears; and would not lamentation, and mourning, and woe, be depictured in your countenances, if you thought that dreadful sentence would be denounced against you? And yet, if you live and die, seeking to be saved by your own duties, and not by the atoning sufferings and obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ, it is as certain as that there is a God, that you will be numbered with his enemies when summoned before his solemn tribunal. What, any who are now present!—any of my dear parishioners!-any of my beloved. hearers, in danger of having the weighty curse of God denounced against them in the awful and decisive day! What! any, who are listening from time to time to the glad accents of salvation, be driven by holy angels from the blissful presence of God?— dragged by accursed fiends to the burning gulph of destruction?-and cast into the depths of unutterable woe, there to be tormented for ever and ever! O, what a gloomy and awful prospect do these considerations present! Great God! and is there no way of escape for these poor souls? Is there no means whatever, by which they may avoid the dreadful punishments of the curse of the Law?-Can no glimpse of hope be obtained of their being

favoured with a deliverance from so deplorable a state? Ah, did but the most distant prospect of escape present itself, how eagerly, it might be supposed, would every such soul embrace the opportunity of being delivered from the wrath to come! But, alas, how different is the case! There is not only a distant prospect of escape, but a complete deliverance from the curse of the Law is provided, and offered to sinners of every description: Nay, it is not merely offered to them, but they are exhorted, advised, and entreated, through successive weeks, and months, and years, to accept of this invaluable blessing. The subject too is enforceed upon them, by the most affecting and melting considerations; even by the tearsand wounds and groans-and death of God's co-equal Son: and yet all this will not do. Sinners will have their own waythey will cleave to their old practices. Though Christ weeps over them :-though ministers expostulate with them, and beseech them in his stead to be reconciled:and though the Almighty God lifts up his hand to heaven, and swears by himself that they shall not escape; still they will not lay it to heart. I would gladly however indulge a hope, that there are some present whose hearts the Lord has opened, whose consciences are awakened to their awful situation, who feel the utmost concern to escape the dreadful curse, and to be reinstated in the

divine favour. To all such I would offer the greatest encouragement; and this encouragement, I trust, will be found in noticing,

II. The mothod which Christ adopted to redeem us from the curse.

The method, our text informs us, was by his "being made a curse for us. Former opportunities have enabled us to shew that, through Adam's offence, we are born in sin, and are by nature the children of wrath; that every commandment of the divine Law has been broken by us in numberless instances, and consequently that we are exposed to its dreadful curse. Being thus sinful by nature and practice, and lying under the Divine threatening, we seem excluded from all hope of mercy. As the Almighty is a God of truth, he must necessarily keep his word inviolable; and as his nature is infinitely just and holy, he of course must feel an infinite hatred of sin, and be led to punish it with infinite or eternal punishment. How then, it may be asked, can the sinner be saved from the curse which God has denounced against him; and yet the divine truth, justice, and holiness continue unimpeached? How can God be true to his word, which declares "the soul that sinneth it shall die," if the soul that has actually sinned, in innumerable instances, shall live? How can he act according to the infinite justice, and purity of his nature, if