self was the only unconcerned and unfeeling spectator; or, that, in consenting to these cruel sufferings of His Son for the world, He did not make of His love to that world its strongest and most substantial testimony?

It blunts the gratitude of men, when they think lightly of the sacrifice which God had to make, when He gave up His Son unto the death; and, akin to this pernicious imagination, our gratitude is further deadened and made dull, when we think lightly of the death itself. This death was an equivalent for the punishment of guilty millions. In the account which is given of it, we behold all the symptoms of a deep and a dreadful endurance-of an agony which was shrunk from, even by the Son of God, though He had all the strength of the Divinity to uphold IIim-of a conflict and a terror and a pain, under which omnipotence itself had well nigh given way; and which, while it proved that the strength of the sufferer was infinite, proved that the sin for which He suffered in its guilt and in its evil was infinite also. Christ made not a seeming but a substantial atonement for the sins of the world. There was something more than an ordinary martyrdom. There was an actual laying on of the iniquities of us all; and, however little we are fitted for diving into the mysteries of the divine jurisprudence-however obscurely we know of all that was felt by the Son of God, when the dreadful hour and power of darkness were upon Him-Yet, we may be well assured, that it was no mockery--that

something more than the mere representation of a sacrifice, it was most truly and essentially a sacrifice itself a full satisfaction rendered for the outrage that had been done upon the Lawgiver-His whole authority vindicated, the entire burden of His wrath discharged. This is enough for all the moral purposes that are to be gained by our faith in Christ's propitiation. It is enough that we know of the travail of His soul. It is enough that He exchanged places with the world He died for; and that what to us would have been the wretchedness of eternity, was all concentred upon Him, and by Him was fully borne. The suretiship was an equivalent for the debt, and the ransom laid down was an adequate price for the redemption that was achieved by it. When this thought takes full possession of the sinner's heart, it lightens him of all his fears. He feels the charm of an entire deliverance; and great are his peace and his joy, as he cherishes the full assurance of all being clear with God. He goes out and in by that way of access, which hath been consecrated by the blood of a satisfying atonement; and there are a light and a gladness in all his approaches unto God in Christ, which the world knoweth not. And it is well that he rates at its full amount, the expense of that mighty service which has been rendered-that he deems it to have been what it really was, a costly sacrifice; and that he bethinks him solemnly and tenderly of the deep endurance of the cross. He should look unto Him whom he hath pierced, and

on whom the heavy chastisement of his peace was laid. It is thus that the gladness and the gratitude keep pace with each other; and that in very proportion as he rejoices because of his full deliverance, does he feel the devotedness of all his faculties to Him who hath achieved it. Christ Christ gave up His. life unto the death for him, so he gives up his life in entire dedication to the will of Christ-living no more unto himself, but unto Christ who died for him and who rose again. And therefore it is, that, as you approach these tables, I would have you look with an intelligent eye on the affecting memorials that are laid thereupon. I would have you light both your faith and your love at this altar; and when you see the symbols of the body that was broken and the blood that was shed for you, I would have you fully to recognise both the service that has been achieved and the suffering that has been borne in this mighty expiation.1

1 Preached on a Communion Sabbath.

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LECTURE LXIII.

ROMANS, viii, 31, 32.

What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?"

'FOR us all.' The apostle may perhaps be confining his regards in this clause to himself and to his converts, to those of whom he had this evidence that they were the elect of God-even that the gospel had come to them with power and with the Holy Ghost and with much assurance. But, notwithstanding this, we have the authority of other passages for the comfortable truth, that Christ tasted death for every man-and so every man, who hears of the expiation rendered by this death, hath a warrant to rejoice therein; and that He is set forth a propitiation for the sins of the world-and so it is competent for every one in the world, to look unto this propitiation and be at peace; and that He gave Himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time -and so might each of you who hears this testimony, embrace it for himself, and feel the whole charm of his deliverance from guilt and from all its consequences. Christ did not so die for all, as that all do actually receive the gift of salvation. But

He so died for all, as that all to whom He is preached have the real and honest offer of salvation. He is not yours in possession, till you have laid hold of Him by faith. But He is yours in offer. He is as much yours, as any thing of which you can say I have it for the taking. You, one and all of you, my brethren, have salvation for the taking; and it is because you do not choose to take it, if it do not indeed belong to you. It is because you have treated it as the worthless thing that you trample under your feet, and will not stoop to seize upon. Or it is because, ere you appropriated it, you would break it into fragments, and either choose or reject of these fragments at your pleasure. All of you are welcome even now to salvation, if you are only willing for a whole salvation. I can promise nothing, nor can I hold out encouragement, to the man who would grasp at the offered immunity from punishment, but would nauseate the medicine that purifies and heals him-who would cling with all his might to the pardon of the gospel, but would decline its expedients for his sanctification-who can listen with a charmed ear to the report that is brought to him of the Sacrifice, but shrinks from that great moral revolution of taste and affection and habit that is wrought in every believer by the Spirit. Your mincing and mutilating of the testimony of God will do nothing for you; but your entire faith in His entire testimony will do every thing. And give me the man, who is desirous of a full rescue both from sin in its condemnation and sin in its