my foul troubled, and what fhall I fay?" "My God! my God why haft thou "fortaken me ?" Whence thefe fad and me?” mournful complaints?-Did they proceed, from any defect of magnanimity and fortitude?—No, my brethren; it was the perfection of his mind that feemingly enfeebled him the boundlefs extent of his underftanding, which comprehended the full dimenfions of fin and of wrath, was the fole cause of his deep and unparalleled diftrefs. It was not the fhame nor the torment of the cross that afflicted him; the thieves who fuffered with him endured the fame ;-but his foul, if I may be allowed the expreffion, was crucified more than his body; his heart had sharper nails to pierce it than his hands or his feet-in his body he felt the rage and cruelty of his murderers; but in his foul he felt fufferings of a more exquifite nature. Then he bore the griefs, and carried the forrows, of all his people; then he felt not the fins only, but the wounds alfo, of every broken heart; the torments of his martyrs, the reproaches of his faints, the poverty, diftreffes, and perfecutions,

which any, any, which all of them, have felt or fhall feel, till the laft trumpet fhall found, and he shall come again in his glory.

Thus God spared not his own Son: to these inconceivable sufferings was the Lord of life delivered. But for whom, and for what ends, did the Son of God fuffer? This was the

Third thing I propofed to confider. And after what hath been already fuggested, it is unnecessary that I fhould spend much time upon this head. It is evident that Chrift did not fuffer on his own account:

"He was holy, harmlefs, undefiled, and fe

parated from finners." "He did no fin, neither was guile found in his lips." He fuffered in the room of guilty man; he was delivered for us, faith the Apostle, not only for our benefit, but in our place:

"He was made fin for us, who knew no

fin, that we might be made the righte"oufnefs of God in him."-" He fuffer"ed, the just for the unjuft, that he might

bring us to God."Do you afk, Why God Jpared not his own Son? The answer is,

That he might spare us : he delivered him

up

up to temporal fufferings, that we might be delivered from everlasting punishment: "For God fo loved the world, that he gave "his only begotten Son, that whofoever "believeth in him, might not perish, but "have everlasting life.". Do you afk again, Who may lay claim to the benefit of this gift? I readily anfwer, Every child of Adam without exception, who feels his need of a Saviour, and is willing to accept him as he is offered in the gofpel. The death, as well as the birth of Christ, " is good ti

dings of great joy unto all people;" to Gentiles as well as to Jews; to men of all kindreds, nations, and languages; to finners of all forts, the vileft not excepted; "He is the Lamb of God, which taketh 86 away the fin of the world."-Every labouring and heavy-laden finner is invited to come unto him'; and "him that cometh " he will in no wife caft out."In this. fenfe, Chrift is the "Saviour of all men;" though I apprehend, that as the Apostle, in this paffage, is writing purpofely for the comfort of real Chriftians, this affertion, that Chrift was delivered up for us all, is chiefly

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chiefly intended to fignify, that all true be lievers have an equal intereft in this gift of God; the weakest, as well as the strongest; the dejected, as well as the joyful; the convert of yesterday, as well as the oldeft fervant in his family for the inference he draws from it is exprefsly limited to those who have received Chrift: How shall be not WITH HIM, ALSO freely give us all things? This leads me to the

:

Second branch of my fubject; which is, to show,

That the gift which God hath already bestowed upon finners of mankind, affords every fincere believer the most abfolute certainty, that nothing fhall be with-held from him that is neceffary to make him happy.

The Apoftle, to give weight and emphafis to his conclufion, puts it into the form of a question, How shall be not give?

It is impoffible that he fhould not give; darknefs and light may fooner become one, than that God fhould deny to believers in Chrift aught that is conducive to

their real felicity.He fpeaks, you fee, in the language of affurance and triumph and well he might; for if God spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, what can be fuppofed to stop the current of his bounty? Is there Is there any benefit too valuable for God to bestow?That cannot be the gift he hath already conferred, is infinitely more precious than all that remains to be given. Other things may be estimated, but " the riches of "Christ are unfearchable?' "In him "dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.". -Shall the unworthiness of

the creature reftrain his munificence ? This objection is fully obviated by the free and gratuitous manner in which God hath bestowed his "unfpeakable gifts"for it is evident, that we must have been far more unworthy of a Saviour, than we poffibly can be of any fubfequent favour: and feeing God spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, unmerited, nay, unfolicited, what bounds can be fet to the Christian's hope? especially when we confider, that Chrift was delivered up to fufferings

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