ed him to restore a fallen world, that he would disunite us from the creature, and unite us to himself.

If we act in this manner, we have every thing to expect from a God, whose great leading character is love. He will take pity on this wretched people. He will have compassion on these miserable provinces, in which it seems as if every individual had undertaken the task of shutting his own eyes, in order to precipitate himself, with the greater indifference, into the abyss which is gaping to swallow us up: he will repress those sea piracies, which have reduced so many families, and impaired the general commerce: he will remove those dreadful plagues which have ruined so many respectable communities as well as individuals he will stop those fearful inundations which have already committed such devastation in the midst of us; and which still occasion so many well grounded alarms: he will reconcile the hearts of the potentates of Europe, and engage them to use their united efforts to promote the happiness and the glory of the Christian world.

Much more, if we are not of the world, we shall partake of delights which the world knows not of, and which it cannot take from us, as it cannot bestow. If we are not of the world, we shall have cause of self-congratulation, with our divine Master, that we are not like desperate madmen, who seem resolutely bent on mutual and self-destruction; and in these sentiments shall thus address ourselves to God: O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, ver. 25. If we are not of the world, we shall be animated with a holy intrepidity, when death takes us out of the world, nay, when the

world and its foundations crumble into dust beneath our feet.

We shall be filled with joy unspeakable, when we reflect, that we are leaving a world of which we were not, to go to that of which we are citizens. We shall say, amidst the tears and lamentations of a last adieu: "It is true, my dear children, it is true, my dear friends, I leave you upon the earth but my Jesus is in heaven, and I go to be where he is: having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ, which is far better, Phil. i. 23. It is true, I tear myself from you, and it is like tearing me from myself; but this mournful is not an everlasting separation. Jesus Christ has prayed equally for you and for me. He has asked for me and for you, that we should all be where he is, that we may all be one in him and with the Father: and I only go before you a few instants into this state of blessedness.'

Ah! God grant, that after having preached the gospel to you, we may be enabled to say, with Jesus Christ, at our dying hour: Father, those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost! ver. 12. God God grant there may be no son of perdition in this assembly! May God vouchsafe to hearken to the prayer which we present in your behalf, in this place, and which we shall present to him on a dying bed or rather, may God vouchsafe to hear the prayer which Jesus Christ presents for us: Father, I will that they whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory! Amen. To the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory for ever. Amen,

SERMON IV.

THE CRUCIFIXION.

MATT. xxvii. 45-53.

Now, from the sixth hour, there was darkness over all the land, unto the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Some of them that stood there, when they heard that, said, This man calleth for Elias. And straight-way one of them ran, and took a spunge, and filled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink. The rest said, Let be, let us see whether Elias will come to save him. Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. And, behold, the vail of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent; and the graves were opened; and many bodies of saints, which slept, arose, and came out of the graves after his resurrection, and avent into the holy city, and appeared unte

many.

E are going to set before you, this day, my Christian friends, the concluding scene of the most dreadful spectacle that ever the sun beheld. On beholding the order, the preparations, and the approaching completion of the sacrifice of Isaac, the soul is thrown into astonishment. A father binding his own son with cords, extending him upon a funeral-pile, raising up an armed right

hand to pierce his bosom ; and all this by the command of heaven! What a prodigy! At such â sight reason murmurs, faith is staggered, and Providence seems to labor under an indelible imputation. But a seasonable and happy interposition dissipates all this darkness. An angel descends from heaven, a voice pierces the yielding air: Abraham, Abraham; lay not thy hand upon the lad; for now I know that thou fearest God; seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from me, Gen. xxii. 12. And this revolution silences the murmurings of reason, re-establishes our faith, and vindicates the ways of Providence.

A greater than Isaac, my brethren, a greater than Abraham, is here. This sacrifice must be completed; this victim must die; this burnt-offering must be reduced to ashes. In the preceding chapters you have seen the command given, the scaffold erected, the arm extended, to smite the devoted Jesus. You are going to behold him expire; no victim substituted in his room; no revocation of the decree; and instead of inquiring like Isaac behold the fire and the wood; but where is the lamb for a burnt-offering? ver. 7. he saith, Lo, I come ; . . . . to do thy will, O my God, Psa. xl. 7, 8. Jesus expires: the dead leave their tombs : the sun withdraws his light: nature is convulsed at sight of her Creator dying upon a cross: and the Son of God's love, before he utters his last sigh, gives a free course to his complaints, and makes an astonished world re-echo those mournful sounds: my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? ver. 46.

And you, Christians, what are you to become at beholding this spectacle; and what effects are these objects to produce, that shall be in any proportion to their magnitude? With whatever suc

cess our happiest addresses to you may be crowned, your actions must ever fall short of your obligations and engagements. It is possible, however, that on certain points, we may have commendation only to bestow. When restitution is the theme, some one, perhaps, conscience-struck, some Zaccheus, is induced to restore fourfold. When the doctrine of reconciliation and forgiveness is preached, some one, smitten to the heart, is, it may be, disposed to open his arms to an estranged brother. But what fruit can this discourse produce, capable of, I do not say, fulfilling your obligations, but that shall bear any manner of proportion to them? Were your hearts, henceforward, to burn with the purest and most ardent affection: were your eyes to become a living fountain of tears were every particle of your frame to serve as a several victim to penitence: were this vaulted roof to cleave assunder: were the dead, deposited in these tombs, to start up into life: What would there be in all this that is not absorbed of the ob jects which we are going to display?

Come, and clothe yourselves in mourning, with the rest of nature. Come, with the Centurion, and recognize your Redeemer and your God, and let the sentiments which severally occupy all these hearts and minds, unite in this one: I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live: yet not 1, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me, Gal. ii. 20. Amen.

That you may derive from the words which we have read, the fruit which the Holy Spirit presents to us in them, we shall, 1. attempt some elucida, tion of the letter of the text: and then, 2. endea VOL. VI

N