who is the Seed of the woman and the Seed of Abraham, the Root and Offspring of David, and the son of Mary; the man who is the Mediator, the Surety, and the Messenger of the covenant; and the man who is the prophet like unto Moses, the priest after the order of Melchisedec, and the king raised up to sit in the throne of his father David. The crucifying of this man is a deed unparalleled. Whether we consider the actors by whom, or the ends for which, he was crucified, no such deed was done, or seen, from the day that light began to shine, and days to be numbered.-But this reminds us of passing

To the THIRD head of our method, which is the crucifying of the Man Christ Jesus. Christ Jesus is the Man by himself. Among the sons of the mighty none is equal to him, none is like him, and there is none besides him.The crucifying is a deed of which, in all its circumstances, there is no example in the history of punishment.Crucifixion was a death to which the inhumanity of the Roman law adjudged the vilest and basest of evil doers; and to this painful and ignominious death the Son of the Highest submitted himself, not for offences he had committed against the institutions of Moses, or the laws of Rome, but because the Holy One of Israel had "made "him, who knew no sin, sin for us, that in him we might "be made the righteousness of God." In remembering and shewing it forth, our faith both admits the fact, and believes with the heart, and professes with the mouth, the nystery and glory of the fact. Scripture sets forth the riches of the glory of the mystery of this momentous fact, by exhibiting it to the world as the execution of the counsel of God; the fulfilling of the prophecies of scripture; the infliction of a penalty; the operation of a curse; and the expedient of reconciliation for iniquity. After illustrations of these particulars, we shall behold a part only of the glory of the momentous fact, several others of equal importance being observable in its exhibition.

First, The crucifying of the Man Christ Jesus is exhi bited to the world as a deed which executed the counsel of God: "Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel "and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wick"ed hands have crucified and slain." Where is the understanding that is able to comprehend the wisdom of con

trivance, and the depth of design in this part of the mys tery of godliness? When counsels were formed, when plans were laid, when means of redeeming love were devised, before the existence of creatures, or the captivity of slaves, then it was determined that their Redeemer should die the death of the cross. Collect, O hearer! collect your thoughts on this astonishing exhibition. A dispensation of redemption rises before us among the persons of the Godhead, who commit to one of themselves the execution of it in our nature, and determine that he shall be crucified and slain by wicked hands, while the agency which fulfilled their determination is deeply criminal, and punishable at the bar of law and justice.

Secondly, The crucifying of the Man Christ Jesus is exhibited to the world as a deed that fulfilled many prophecies of scripture. From the first effusion of the spirit of prophecy, almost all the prophets spake and wrote concerning it, some in obscurer, and some in clearer terms. In recording the first prophetical account of it, Moses represents the crucifixion of Christ under the metaphor, Bruising his heel." David writes more clearly, saying, "They pierced my hands and my feet." Isaiah is not less express. According to his prediction, Messiah is despised and rejected, wounded and bruised, and cut off out of the land of the living; and, to mention no more instances, Gabriel says to Daniel, "Messiah the prince shall be cut off, "but not for himself." From Paradise where bruising the seed of the woman was foretold, to Calvary, where they crucified him, a chain of prophecy stretches itself; and all the particular prophecies of the manner and circumstan ces of his death, which break forth on the several links of the chain, were fulfilled before he bowed his head and gave up the ghost. "Jesus, knowing that all things were now "accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, "I thirst.-And they filled a spunge with vinegar, and put "it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth. When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished; "and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost."

Thirdly, The crucifying of the Man Christ Jesus is exhibited to the world as the infliction of a penalty. The crucifiers beheld it as the punishment which their laws inflicted upon blasphemers of God and the king; but "he had done violence to none, neither was any deceit in his

"mouth. It pleased the Lord to bruise him, to put him to "the grief" of dying on the cross, and to "make his soul an "offering for, sin." In the judgment of God, which is according to truth, the crucifying of the Lord of glory, in our nature and stead, is the punishment that transgressors of the law under which he was made deserved. Prophets, who testified of it beforehand, exhibit it to our faith not unfrequently in this light. "The Lord hath laid on him the "iniquity of us all-he bare the sin of many. He was "wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our "iniquities-For the transgressions of my people was he "stricken." Apostles, after his crucifixion, are no less clear and pointed in this part of their testimony: "He hath made "him sin for us who knew no sin.-Christ hath once suf"fered for sins. He his own self bare our sins in his own "body on the tree. Christ died for our sins, according to "the scriptures." Faith in the blood of Christ receives, without dispute or hesitation, the exhibitions which the scripture makes of his cross, not merely as orthodox notions, but as practical and operative principles. Under the warmth and impulse of these new and lively principles, believers exert themselves vigorously in the obedience of faith, and boldly encounter tribulation and persecution for the sake of his righteousness and name. this sentiment come to his table. With this sentiment go cut to the world; recollect it in the time of trouble; and do not forget it at the entrance to the valley of the shadow of death.

With

Fourthly, The crucifying of the Man Christ Jesus is exhibited to the world as the operation of a curse. The curse is the sentence which the Lawgiver denounced upon the transgressor of his law. Its original form is simple: "In the day that thou eatest of the tree of which I "have commanded thee not to eat, thou shalt surely die." Moses afterward extended it to every transgression and disobedience: "Cursed be he that confirmeth not all "the words of this law to do them." Alluding to these words of Moses, Paul expresses it in this manner: "Curs"ed is every one that continueth not in all the things which are written in the book of the law, to do them." This curse, which took hold of the elect as of the rest of mankind, operated forcibly and justly on the Man Christ Jesus, made under the law in room of the elect. So forci

bly and justly did it operate, that the apostle, without apologising for the harshness of the term, affirms that he was made a curse: "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse "of the law, being made a curse for us; for it is written, "cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree." Words appear to have been chosen on purpose to impress this part of the mystery of the cross upon the ear of the world.— Peter, in particular, cannot rest satisfied with saying, they killed him, and slew him, and put him to death. This bold and resolute speaker uses, once and again, the intolerably harsh expression, "Hanged on a tree." - Martyrs, whom Christ redeemed from the curse, may have been crucified or hanged for his sake. But his own case was singular: "Made a curse for us;" curse, the sentence of the law of works; and 'cross,' or 'tree,' an evidence of being under it, and an instrument of executing it, met together in his death. Behold the man, whose claims to be the blessed and only potentate are indisputa ble! behold what he humbled himself to be made and to bear for accursed transgressors!

Fifthly, The crucifying of the Man Christ Jesus, is exhibited to the world as the expedient of reconciliation for iniquity. In this expedient, the wisdom and love of God break forth to the world; and meeting together, with his holiness, mercy, truth, and righteousness, glorify them-selves in the highest. Accordingly, you will have observed in the scripture endeavours to draw and to fix upon it the public mind. Reconciliation is one of the high and Sovereign purposes of the crucifixion of Messiah, revealed by Gabriel to the prophet Daniel; and a writer under the New Testament exhibits it to the Hebrews, as one of the most comprehensive. "Wherefore in all things it be"hoveth him to be made like unto his brethren, that he "might be a merciful and faithful high-priest in things "pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of "the people." That reconciliation is completely effected by his cross is affirmed in another place, with the strongest confidence and the most exuberant joy: "If when we' "were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death "of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be "saved by his life. And not only so, but we joy in God, "through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now "received the atonement."

Wonders in the crucifixion of the Man Christ Jesus, are to be observed in the FOURTH PLACE. Look back to creation; and, in the work of six days, behold wonder rising upon wonder. Look back to the desert of Horeb, and behold a wonder, which, upon its own principles, natural philosophy is not able to explaina bush burning, and not consumed. Follow the Israelites from Goshen to Canaan, and all you can say unto God is, How terrible and how gracious art thou in thy works! But turn the eye upon the place of skulls, where they crucified his holy child Jesus, and behold wonders unequalled in the annals of his right-hand and holy arm.— Here God and man, sin and holiness, love and hatred, weakness and strength, honour and dishonour, death and victory, the blessing and the curse, meet together, and exert themselves wondrously, forming coalitions of conflicting causes, and producing effects apparently discordant, yet perfectly harmonious.

First, In the crucifixion, God and man met together in one person. God manifested in the flesh is a marvellous work, and a wonder. Though revelation declares it, infidels will in no wise believe it. Lord, open their eyes, that they may see! Look to Golgotha, O believers! and behold God and man in one person, and this person nailed to a cross, and hanged on a tree! Who hath seen such a sight, who hath heard such a report? "O the depth of "the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! "how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past "finding out!" The union of God and man, in his person who was crucified, we believe and profess on earth; and in heaven, the adoration of it will be our blessedness and glory for ever.

Secondly, Strength and weakness met together in the crucifixion. Through weakness the man Christ Jesus was crucified, and yet he was then as he is now, and was before, "the Mighty God." At that moment, he who is, and was, and will be mighty to save, travelled in the greatness of his strength. In the language of descriptive prophecy, his "strength was dried up like a potsherd;" and to appearance he was weak as other men, dying before the thieves on either side of the cross. But though the weakness of man appeared to the bodily eye, the omnipotence of God was visible to the intellectual and spiritual