ture,-to undergo contempt and death; constant in its operations, in the paroxysm of an agony, the sharpest the human mind was ever known to sustain, it maintained its vigour unimpaired. In the whole business of man's redemption, wonderful in all its parts, in its be. ginning, its progress, and completion, the most wonderful part of all is the character of Christ, a character not exempt from those feelings of the soul and infirmities of the body which render man obnoxious to temptation, but in which the two principles of piety to God, and good will to man, maintained such an ascendancy over all the rest, that they might seem by themselves to make the whole. This character, in which piety and benevolence, upon all occasions, and in all circumstances, overpowered all the inferior passions, is more incomprehensible to the natural reason of the carnal man, than the deepest mysteries,-more improbable than the greatest miracles, -of all the particulars of the gospel history, the most trying to the evil heart of unbelief, the very last thing, I am persuaded, that a ripened faith receives; but of all things the most important and the most necessary to be well understood and firmly believed,--the most efficacious for the softening of the sinner's heart, for quelling the pride of human wisdom, and for bringing every thought and imagination of the soul into subjection to the righteousness of God. “Let this mind,” says the apostle, “ be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus;'--that mind which incited him, when he considered the holiness of God, and the guilt and corruption of fallen man, to say, “I come to do thy will, O God!”--that-is, according to the same apostle's interpretation, to do that will by which we are sanctified, to make the satisfaction for the sinful race which divine justice demanded. Being in the form of God, he made himself of no reputation; he divested himself of that external form of glory in which he had been accus.

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tomed to appear to the patriarchs in the first ages, in which he appeared to Moses in the bush, and to his chosen servants in later periods of the Jewish history, -that form of glory in which his presence was manifested between the cherubim in the Jewish sanctuary. He made himself of no reputation, and, uniting himself to the holy fruit of Mary's womb, he took upon him the form of a slave,of that fallen creature who had sold himself into the bondage of Satan, sin, and death; and, being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, he submitted to the condition of a man in its most humiliating circumstances, and carried his obedience unto death-the death even of the cross-the painful ignominious death of a malefactor, by a public execution. He who shall one day judge the world, suffered himself to be produced as a criminal at Pilate's tribunal; he submitted to the sentence, which the dastardly judge who pronounced it confessed to be unjust: the Lord of glory suffered himself to be made the jest of Herod and his captains: he who could have summoned twelve legions of angels to form a flaming guard around his person, or have called down fire from heaven on the guilty city of Jerusalem, on his false accusers, his unrighteous judge, the executioners, and the insulting rabble,-made no resistance when his body was fastened to the cross by the Roman soldiers,-endured the reproaches of the chief priests and rulers-the taunts and revilings of the Jewish populace; and this not from any consternation arising from his bodily sufferings, which might be supposed for the moment to deprive him of the knowledge of himself. He possessed himself to the last. In the height of his agonies, with a magnanimity not less extraordinary than his patient endurance of pain and contumely, he accepted the homage, which, in that situation, was offered to him as the king of Israel, and in the highest tone of confident authority,

promised to conduct the penitent companion of his sufferings that very day to Paradise. What, then, was the motive which restrained the Lord of might and glory, that he put not forth his power for the deliverance of himself and the destruction of his enemies ? -Evidently that which he avows upon his coming first into the world: “I come to do thy will, O God!” and, by doing of that will, to rescue man from wrath and punishment. Such is the example of resignation to God's will of indifference to things temporal-of humility, and of love, we are called upon to imitate.

The sense of our inability to attain to the perfection of Christ's example, is a reason for much humility, and for much mutual forbearance, but no excuse for the wilful neglect of his command. It may seem that it is of little consequence to inculcate virtues which can be but seldom practised; and a general and active benevo. lence, embracing all mankind, and embracing persecution and death, may appear to come under this descrip. tion: it may seem a virtue proportioned to the abilities of few, and inculcated on mankind in general to little purpose. But, though it may be given to few to make themselves conspicuous as benefactors of mankind, by such actions as are usually called great, because the effect of them on the welfare of various descriptions of the human race is immediate and notorious, the principle of religious philanthropy, influencing the whole conduct of a private man, in the lowest situations of life, is of much more universal benefit than is at first perceived. The terror of the laws may restrain men from flagrant crimes, but it is this principle alone that can make any man a useful member of society. This restrains him, not only from those violent invasions of another's right, which are punished by human laws, but it overrules the passions from which those enormities proceed; and the secret effects of it, were it but once universal, would be

more beneficial to human life than the most brilliant actions of those have ever been to whom blind superstition has erected statues and devoted altars. As this principle is that which makes a man the most useful to others, so it is that alone which makes the character of the individual amiable in itself,-amiable, not only in the judgment of man, but in the sight of God, and in the truth of things; for God himself is love, and the perfections of God are the standard of all perfection..

SERMON XII.

MATTHEW Xvi. 28.

Verily, I say unto you, there be some standing here, which shall not taste of death till they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.

THESE remarkable words stand in the conclusion of A a certain discourse, with the subject of which, as they have been generally understood, they seem to be but little connected. It must therefore be my business to establish what I take to be their true meaning, before I attempt to enlarge upon the momentous doctrine which I conceive to be contained in them.

The marks of horror and aversion with which our Lord's disciples received the first intimations, of his sufferings, gave occasion to a seasonable lecture upon the necessity of self-denial, as the means appointed by Providence for the attainment of future happiness and glory. "If any one," says our Lord, "would come after me,"-if any one pretends to be my disciple, “let him take up his cross and follow me." To enforce this precept, as prescribing a conduct, which, afflictive as it may seem for the present, is yet no other than it is every man's truest interest to pursue, he reminds his hearers of the infinite disproportion between time and eternity; he assures them of the certainty of a day of retribution; and to that assurance he subjoins the declaration of the text, as a weighty truth, in which they