thou hast led captivity captive. And how has this great achievement been wrought out?-by submitting, by enduring, by undergoing all the pains and penalties, and all the power of death. Truly this is the work of God; for it is altogether contrary to man's views and thoughts. Man joins the idea of victory with successful resistance; man joins the idea of power with exertion; and why ?-because of his weakness. He estimates strength by the magnitude of the effort; and the greater the attempt at resistance, the more he admires. Now this is the strongest evidence of weakness; for it is the reality of his weakness which begets the effort. But it is not so with God: His ways are not as our ways. Omnipotence cannot strive; omnipotence makes no effort: He spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast. Yea, he suffered death, even the death upon the cross; and in suffering -conquered.

My brethren, let me ask you to what purpose has this great salvation been wrought out, as it respects each of you? Can you, through grace, adopt the language of the Prophet; He was wounded for our sins, he was bruised for our iniquities? And do you, in the words of the Apostle, desire to know the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death? Or is the whole of Christianity, is the entire work

of Christ, a subject of cold speculation or indifference; and do you make a mere FORM of all? I would ask you, Were the Saviour's sufferings in the garden A FORM, when, being in an agony, the sweat fell from his body as it were drops of blood? Were his sufferings on the cross A FORM, when, in all the bitterness of death, he exclaimed, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Is it, can it be possible, that the Divine Saviour should have suffered these things for you, and you remain cold and careless on the subject? Have you seen, have you felt, that you are God's enemies; and can you say, in the words of the text, that even when enemies you were reconciled to God by the blood of Christ? Have you learned that it is his blood ONLY, that it is his blood wнOLLY; that it is the blood of Christ, and NOTHING ELSE; and that it is his blood WITHOUT ANY THING ELSE, which justifies before God? It is thus alone you can in truth adopt the argument of the Apostle, and say, much more, then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. It is thus alone you can feel the force of his conclusion, as in the text; for if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved through his life. Has the everlasting Son of God by his death destroyed death, and de

livered his enemies from its power and penalties; and shall he not much more, by reigning, as he does at this moment, on the right hand of God, having all power in heaven and in earth, save his friends, his redeemed, by his lifesave them from sin in this life, and from the punishment of sin in the next? But if you are alike ignorant of, and indifferent to, the exceeding, the inestimable value of the blood of atonement; if you are still strangers to its sovereign efficacy, in blotting out sin before God, in cleansing the heart from its pollution, and in freeing the life from its power; how can you hope to stand before Christ, when he shall appear, with his holy angels, in the greatness of his might? How do you think that you, a worm, will then be able to stand before him in his power; when death and hell, that reign over you, could not stand before him in his weakness? Consider this, all ye that forget God; and flee from the wrath of the Lamb, for his wrath is very terrible.

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SERMON VIII.

JEREMIAH xxììì. 6.

In his days Judah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.

THE Prophet Jeremiah was called and appointed of God, more especially for the purpose of denouncing certain ruin and swift destruction against his own people and his own nation, the stubborn and idolatrous kingdom of Judah. To man's judgment, it must have appeared a most difficult and dangerous office, exposing the individual to innumerable sufferings and sundry kinds of death, for one man to stand forth singly, in the face of a rebellious people, to witness against kings and rulers, against prophets and priests, against princes and people; -to testify openly against their iniquities; -to assure them that the most terrible and awful judgments were, in a manner, suspended over them, just ready to fall; that the most

tremendous and unheard-of sufferings were in preparation, yea, in progress against them;— that a nation whom they hated was coming up to the attack, to be, as it were, the executioners of Divine vengeance;-that this very nation was led on and directed, was strengthened and encouraged, by that same God who had so often delivered them out of their distresses, and saved them from innumerable dangers; but now, in consequence of their impenitence and wickedness, their idolatry and rebellion, using those same enemies (from whose hands he had rescued them in the most signal manner but a few years before, in the days of Hezekiah, by a miraculous exertion of his own mighty power, of which they themselves were the witnesses), as the instruments of vengeance in executing his wrath and indignation upon them. He was about to root out the entire nation, utterly to destroy their city and temple; and to carry off all the survivors of those terrible calamities into distant countries, to be the bond slaves and captives to their haughty conquerors. This was his declaration, this had been his declaration of old: Thus saith the Lord, I will make Jerusalem heaps, and I will make the cities of Judah desolate, without inhabitant. Again; The strong shall be as tow; and the maker of it as a spark, and they shall both burn together, and none