doest, except God be with him,' (John iii. 2.) Our blessed Lord might with confidence say, to the face of his most inveterate enemies and malicious slanderers, 'I have not a devil; but I honour my Father, and ye dishonour me,' (John viii. 49.) He could in his filial and affectionate converse with his heavenly Father even say, 'I have glorified thee on earth; I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was,' (John xvii. 4, 5.) Could a blasphemer dare to converse in such language with the omniscient God? And would God have raised from the dead,

: visibly taken up to heaven, crowned with praise and honour, and placed on his own right hand, a person who had robbed him of his honour, and usurped his prerogative? It is therefore evident that Jesus was innocent; and consequently deserved no sentence of death, no rude mockeries, insults, and blows.

Do you ask, my brethren, what was the cause of all those inhuman outrages committed against the Son of God? My answer is: Alas! for your sins and mine he was smitten and afflicted. Nay Christ himself answers you in the words of the prophet: 'Thou hast made me to serve with thy sins; thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities, (Isaiah xliii. 24.)

As for the cause of his being sentenced as a blasphemer for making himself the Son of God, it is to be sought for in the fall of our first parents, of which we have all been partakers. Man, in the state of innocence, was his Creator's beloved child; but instead of being satisfied with that glorious privilege, he was. for mounting higher; he was for attaining to the sum mit of Divine perfection, and being equal to God himself, the great author of his being. Seduced by satan he, with the most impious arrogance, sought to deprive his Creator of the honour and pre-eminence due to him, to ascend his exalted throne, and to seat himself there as an equal with God. But he thereby

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became like the devil, at whose instigation he fell, and rendered himself obnoxious to temporal and eter

nal death.

Now for the atonement of these horrid sins, committed by the human race, the true and essential Son of God, 'who accounted it not robbery to be equal with God,' was not only to empty himself of his Divine glory; but also to suffer himself to be sentenced to death, as a blasphemer who deified himself. And this he did to expiate our presumption in endeavouring to make ourselves as gods by knowing good and evil, and again to acquire for us the glorious liberty of being the sons of God. How many thousands presumptuously pretend to be the children of God, and would fain be accounted such by others, who are utter strangers to the purity and holiness required in the gospel? To atone for this sin, if such men sincerely repent of their presumptuous arrogance and spiritual pride, the only Son of God was in this afflictive manner to satisfy God's offended justice, and not only to suffer his real Godhead, which he held of the Father by eternal generation, to be reviled; but likewise to permit the glorious character of his Divine Sonship to be ridiculed and reviled; nay, he suffered this indignity from the meanest slaves, on whom he himself had bestowed life, and breath, and power to insult him.

Therefore when we see, with the eye of faith, our dear Redeemer standing before the tribunal of the wicked, insulted and beaten by the licentious servants, and his awful and benign countenance covered with their loathsome spittle; we are not to suppose that all we have to do is to pity our suffering Saviour; to bewail him with lamentations and tears; and to express our indignation against the servants and soldiers, who thus treated him, by curses and execrations. For though they so horribly sinned against the Son of God, yet were they only the instruments to inflict those indignities, which our sins brought on him; for they

laid on him the iniquities of us all, and he was bruised for our transgressions. By our sins, we all assisted at this infernal carnival. By our sins, we also mocked and struck the Prince of Life, and, as it were, spit in the face of him, who is the brightness of his Father's glory, and the express image of his person. Our sins were present, and consequently shared in the impious rage and violence, which these miscreants committed against the innocent Lamb of God.

Alas, my beloved brethren, did we rightly consider this, it would be impossible, that we should walk so carelesly and find such delight in sin! "Supposing, a malefactor (to borrow the words of Luther, who makes this comparison, in his sermon on the sufferings of Christ,) was to be executed for murdering the son of a prince, or king, and in the mean time, thou, O sinner, wert carelesly singing and revelling till thou wert seized by the officers of justice, and convicted of having aided the assassin as an accomplice to perpetrate the murder: With what agonizing terrors wouldest thou be filled, especially if thy conscience likewise flew in thy face, and confirmed the accusation? With much more violent convulsions ought thy guilty mind to be agitated, when thou art reflecting on the sufferings of Christ. For the wicked Jews, were the servants of thy sins, and thou in reality art he, who by his sins hath put to death and crucified the Son of God." But alas! what will be done to the sinner, since God's beloved Son has been thus rigorously treated? He experienced no clemency, or alleviation of his sufferings. As he had taken on himself the enormous guilt of our blasphemies, our haughtiness and presumption, our sensuality and depravation, and allowed that they should be imputed to him, as our security; he was looked on and treated no other. wise, than if he himself had committed these and the like sins, and consequently the innocent Jesus suffered the punishment of them, instead of the guilty.

Dost thou not see, O wretched sinner, the rigorous severity of God, and his insupportable wrath against the henious, wicked ways of men? And wilt thou still sport and play with sin as a darling bosom child, when so glorious a person has suffered so much, and laid down his life on account of it? or dost thou vainly imagine that the Son of God suffered himself to be sentenced to die, to be mocked, insulted, buffeted, and spit upon, merely to procure for thee the privilege of sinning with impunity? Dost thou suppose that this stupendous transaction came to pass that thou mightest have the liberty of doing evil, and going on in trespasses and sins? How vain and groundless is the imagination! for it has not so much as a shadow of probability on its side. The adorable person, who was crucified for thy sins, teaches thee to draw another kind of inference from his unspeakable sufferings : For when he was led to his crucifixion, he spoke these memorable and pathetic word: 'If they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry? (Luke xxiii. 31.) If God has not spared his only, his beloved Son, when he took on himself the guilt of, and atoned for the sins of others, what rational hopes canst thou entertain that he will spare a degenerate child, who has forfeited his birthright, and is determined to continue in sin? Nay, can such a one expect any indulgence, as perhaps makes a jest of repentance and sanctification, and in the presumptuous depravity of his heart dares ask this impious question, "If I am obliged to lead a life of piety and holiness, what necessity was there of Christ's dying for me? What occasion is there for his imputed merit, if I do not sin, but lead a pious and godly life?"

Therefore, O sinner, forbear by an obstinate continuance in sin to spit on and mock him, who from a cordial love to thy immortal soul, hath suffered indignities, pain, and death; and who, without any reluctance or contradiction, permitted the sentence of temporal death to be passed on him, in order to deliver

thee from the sentence of eternal death. Wilt thou still take a delight in sin, the expiation of which cost thy Mediator so much pain and sorrow? Behold his sacred face swelled by blows, and covered with blood! Behold his eyes quite sunk and weighed down with agony and want of sleep! Stand a while before this affecting spectacle; and with prayers and tears dowell on the consideration, that the Prince of Life was insulted, spit on, struck, and even condemned to die an ignominious death, till thou art made sensible of the heinousness of thy sins, and thy heart is filled with horror at the thought of them. Let it be a matter of unspeakable grief to thee, that thou hast so outraged the Son of God, and as it were insulted the Lord of glory, and given thy vote for the sentence passed on him. Thus, the passion of Christ will lay in thee a true foundation for godly sorrow, and a sincere repentance. For, (again to make use of the pious Luther's words) "This is the proper, natural effect of our Saviour's passion, that it transforms men, as it were, into his likeness; so that as Christ suffered extreme tortures in soul and body for our sins, we also should, by the consideration of our manifold sins, be tortured in the mind and conscience. This is not the effect of mere words, but of deep reflection and serious detestation of sin. Thus the passion of Christ performs its proper, natural, and effectual operation; it mortifies the old Adam, expels all sinful desires, all delight and confidence in the creatures. Then we are grieved in our consciences, and are displeased with our past sinful lives. But (to proceed in Luther's words) he who finds himself so obdurate and insensible, that Christ's passion works no such pious emotions in him, ought to fear that he does not turn his thoughts inward on himself, so as to know his own heart. For the only alternative is this, thou must be made conformable to the image and sufferings of Christ either in this life or that which is to come. At least, these terrors will overwhelm thee on thy death-bed. Thou shalt then shudder and