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SERMON XXIV.

"IT IS FINISHED."

A Communion Sermon.

JOHN Xix. 30.

He said, It is finished! and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.

We propose this day to commemorate an event striking in itself, solemn in its import, and leading to the most momentous consequences. We are to transport ourselves backward into a period many centuries distant. We will imagine ourselves placed in circumstances widely differing from those in which we now are. Judea, the land enlightened by prophecy and revelation, distinguished by peculiar marks of the divine favor, and trodden by the footsteps of the Son of God, shall present itself to our view. We shall enter into Jerusalem, the holy city, and amid the numberless objects which meet

our eyes, we will direct our attention to Him who came to seek and save that which was lost. His divine majesty, perfect holiness, and disinterested and unparalleled benevolence, will strike our minds. We will consider the last scenes of his life, and entering the chamber where, with his disciples, he had prepared to eat the passover, we shall observe him enjoining upon them a rite which was to be observed in all succeeding ages in commemoration of his death. We will then pass on to the awful consummation of the Messiah's sufferings, and while we behold him suspended in agony, and ready to dismiss his spirit, we shall hear from his lips the emphatic announcement, "It is finished."

I. The will of God was then accomplished; the great designs of the Almighty were executed. This is the first light in which the Saviour's exclamation is to be regarded.

What God brings to pass in time, was the object of his eternal purpose. The whole frame of created nature in all its parts and throughout all its revolutions, was in the view of the Creator, ere time began. The human race was ordained to exist; their fall was foreseen and permitted; their restoration was made to depend upon a determinate process. In conformity with the counsels of eternal wisdom, the Word of God, who was in the beginning; who made the worlds; who was the brightness of the Father's glory, and express image

of his person, became incarnate. It was ordained that he should be humbled for a season; that although innocent, he should suffer; that although far above men and angels, he should be controlled by human authority; that he should endure death in a violent manner; that his sufferings should be reckoned in lieu of those merited by human kind; that the sins of the world should be laid on him; that he should bear them away, and thus become the author of eternal life to those who believe on him. These were the counsels of peace which from everlasting existed in the divine mind concerning the redemption of man; and at the hour when Jesus gave up his spirit they were accomplished.

II. But the great object toward which all prior dispensations had pointed, and to which they were subservient, was now effected; and this is the second light in which we are to regard the Saviour's last declaration.

Two distinct divine dispensations had subsisted in the world previously to that in which Christ was manifested; the patriarchal and Jewish. The former comprised within it the whole race of man ; the latter was restricted to a single people. In the former, the appointed Deliverer was exhibited to the faith of the devout, through the medium of prophetical declarations and symbolical actions. By the one, they were enabled to look into futurity

and contemplate the sufferings of Christ and the glory which should follow. Through the other, they had exhibited immediately to their view, by a lively representation, the same awful and interesting event. And in the offering of sacrifices which existed from the beginning, there was recognized a symbolical transfer of the guilt of the offerer, to the unoffending victim; and there was reference made to One who should become a real and efficacious substitute; who should forever put away sin from those who believed on him, by the sacrifice of himself.

Under the economy of Moses, the same general characteristics are observable, and to these, others were added; but all were alike designed to shadow out, to express obscurely the advent-the character -the actions of the Author of our salvation. And when Jesus had attained the limit of his sufferings, when he was about to descend into that tomb from which he emerged gloriously and triumphantly— then were numerous prophecies fulfilled-then were all the types accomplished-then did the shadow give way to the substance, and the full revelation of Jesus Christ was made.

III. The humiliation moreover, of the Saviour, was past, and his sufferings had ended; and it is thus we may understand the declaration-" It is finished." Let us then consider him in his humiliation—let us present to our minds a vivid

representation of his sufferings; and the exercise will be appropriate to the present occasion, and will conduce to our general improvement.

I would then recall to your remembrance the evils and privations to which He became subjected, who was Lord of all. I would not dwell on the humiliating circumstances of his birth-nor the obscurity in which a portion of his life was spent-nor on the reproaches which were subsequently cast upon him, during the earlier part of his ministry-but advancing toward the close, I would contemplate him during that eventful night when he was delivered into the hands of his enemies.

It is however proper, to the consideration of the Saviour's sufferings, to premise the observation, that in his humanity alone he could be afflicted-as respects his divine nature, he was evidently impassive. Nor does this consideration derogate at all from the efficacy of his death, or place it on an equality with that of any other human being. The intimate union of the eternal word with the man Christ Jesus, involved in a certain sense, a mutual communication of properties. The actions or af fections of each are attributed to the other-one nature rendered him susceptible of suffering-the other conferred upon that suffering an infinite merit.

We shall now endeavor to fix our attention upon those all interesting events which occupied the last days of Jesus Christ while on earth. We shall pass