mighty, or how could he support and comfort these millions under all their various trials, make them victorious over all their enemies, and finally raise their bodies and souls to heaven. He must be infinite in goodness, condescension, patience and compassion, or he would never consent to undertake for creatures so unworthy and perverse as we are. And while it is necessary that he, who would undertake for us must possess these perfections of God, it is equally necessary that he should be man. No one could perform the work of a mediator between God and man, who was not himself God and man in one person; nor could any other make satisfaction or atonement for our sins. He who would make atonement for the sin of man, must perfectly obey the divine law and suffer its penalty. He must die, must shed his blood in our stead; for inspiration declares that, without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. But as God, Christ could not die. As God, he had no blood to shed. It was therefore necessary that he should assume a nature which could die; a nature in which he could shed his blood; the nature of those beings who had sinned, and for whom atonement was to be made. Agreeably, we are told that, forasmuch as those for whom he died were flesh and blood, he also took part of the same, that through death, he might destroy him that had the power of death. And while his human nature enabled him to die, his divinity gave worth and efficacy to his death, and qualified him to plead for his people efficaciously, as one who had authority. In him alone then, who was Immanuel, God with us, God manifest in the flesh, can we find one who is qualified to undertake for us. In him alone do we find one, who can do all that for our bodies and our souls, for time and for eternity, which our welfare requires. And all this, I remark,

III. He will, he does undertake to do for every one who applies to him in the exercise of faith. To every one, however vile, sinful, guilty, and wretched, who in faith comes to him crying, Lord, I am oppressed, ruined, lost, undertake for me, his promise is sure.

He never

did refuse, he never will refuse to hear the cry of such a suppliant. Him that cometh unto me, he says, I will in no wise cast out. To every one that thus comes to him, his language is, What wilt thou that I should do for thee? Wouldst thou be enlightened, instructed, guided? Follow me, and I will teach thee the good and the right way; I will guide thee into all truth, I will guide thee even unto death. Wouldst thou be supported and consoled under the various trials which await thee in life, and carried safely through them? Trust in me; and I will be thy comforter; I will even cause thee to glory in affliction, and to be joyful in tribulation. Wouldst thou be assisted to overcome thy sinful propensities, the world, and the tempter? Rely on me, and my grace shall be sufficient for thee, and make thee more than conqueror. Wouldst thou have some one to care for thine eternal interests, and plead thy cause in heaven? Commit it to me, and I will plead it successfully, for I possess all power in heaven and on earth, and ever live to make intercession for all who trust in me. Wouldst thou have thy soul saved with an everlasting salvation? Entrust it to my care, and I will undertake to save it, in defiance of all that can oppose. Cast all thy concerns, and care, and wants, upon me, and I will undertake to conduct and provide for them all; I will make with thee an everlasting covenant, well ordered in all things and sure.

And now, my hearers, are not your understandings at least convinced that you need some one to undertake for you? Are you not convinced that the Lord Jesus Christ alone can effectually undertake for you? And are you not convinced that, if you apply to him in the exercise of faith, he will undertake for you? Why will you not all then thus apply to him? Why not imitate St. Paul, and be enabled to say with him, I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him against that day. What St. Paul had committed to Christ was his soul with all its concerns. And he knew that, in consequence of his committing it to Christ, Christ had

undertaken to keep it, to save it: an undertaking which he would infallibly accomplish. On this all the apostle's hope of salvation was founded. And no man can found a scriptural hope of salvation on any other ground, If St. Paul, after all his sufferings and sacrifices and labors, would trust in nothing but this, surely we can safely trust in nothing else. O, then, be persuaded to cry from the heart in the language of our text, Lord, I am oppressed; undertake for me. By all the scenes of sorrow, and trial and affliction through which you must pass; by all the dangerous mistakes, the fatal errors into which, as frail, fallible, short-sighted creatures you are liable to fall; by the number, malice, and strength of the enemies which oppose your salvation, and which must be overcome; by all the sin of which you have been guilty, and for which pardon must be obtained; by your dying agonies; by that dread hour in which you must appear before God in judgment, I conjure you to secure, without delay, a comforter, a guide, a protector, an intercessor, a Saviour, by applying believingly to Jesus Christ to undertake for you.

But perhaps some of you will say, we have already done this. We have long since believed in Christ for salvation, we rely upon the mercy of God through him; we have entrusted all our spiritual and immortal interests to his care, and therefore we need feel no anxiety respecting them. We trust that we are safe, and that all is well. My hearers, these things are easily said, but thousands say them who never trusted in Christ, and for whom he never undertook. To such an one an apostle said, Thou sayest, I have faith; but wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? The faith which applies to Christ is a living faith, that is, a faith which is alive, and which makes its possessor alive in the service of God; a faith which, while it relies on Christ alone, is as active, and diligent, and watchful, and prayerful, and self-denying, as if it relied entirely on itself. Let those, whose pretended faith is not of this kind, remember that Christ saves his people,

not simply by working for them, but by working in them, and thus both disposing and enabling them to work out their own salvation. When he undertakes for a sinner, he undertakes not to save him without love, repentance, obedience, and a diligent, humble use of the means of grace, but he undertakes to make him perform all these duties. Be assured then that, if you live in the neglect of these duties, Christ has not undertaken for you, and that, of course, you never truly applied to him. But apply to him in sincerity, and you will soon find a change in yourselves, which will prove that he has undertaken for you, that he has begun to work in your hearts, that he is guiding you into a knowledge of the truth, that he is interceding for you at the bar of God. Yes, truly believe in him, and you will soon have evidence that he has undertaken for you; for every one that believeth hath the witness in himself.

My hearers, will you not be persuaded to do this? Must we have the pain of seeing you struggling with afflictions, led astray by errors, subdued and carried captive by your spiritual enemies, and finally dying without hope, and appearing before God without an intercessor, when such a comforter, teacher, helper, and intercessor as the Lord Jesus Christ, offers to undertake for you? If I can prevail with no others, let me, at least, hope to prevail with those of you who are afflicted, with those of you who feel ignorant, with those of you who feel burdened by conscious sinfulness and guilt, with those who are asking, What shall we do to be saved. To all such this ought to prove a word in season. O, let them receive it as such. Let them at once repair to the almighty and compassionate Saviour of sinners, and earnestly cry, Lord Jesus, have mercy on us, we are oppressed.

SERMON XXIII.

An unjust Imputation repelled by Jehovah.

JEREMIAH II. 31.

HAVE I BEEN A WILDERNESS TO ISRAEL? A LAND OF DARKNESS?

To an ingenuous mind God never appears so irresistible, so overpowering, as when he addresses his creatures in the language of tender expostulatio He may speak in the loftiest accents of uncontrollable authority and almighty power; and such a mind, thougn awed, will too often hesitate to yield obedience. He may utter the language of severe rebuke, and terrible denunciation; his reproofs and threatenings may descend from heaven like a tempest of fire; but the heart wrapped up in its own adamantine hardness, will brave the storm with sullen, unrelenting, and even apparently increasing obduracy. But when, laying aside the rightful claims of his authority, and the terrors of his wrath, God comes in the meek majesty of injured excellence, and unrequited kindness, to expostulate with his offending.creatures, every heart, which has a particle of ingenuousness in its composition, relents, melts, and falls contrite at his feet, overcome by the omnipotence of love. Did all men possess such a disposition, he would seldom address them in any other language, and even now, destitute of it as they naturally are, he condescends occasionally to employ it. One instance of its use we have in our text, where, addressing his ancient people, God says, Have I been a wilderness to Israel? This