Now, the better sacrifices to which the Apostle alludes are realised in our Lord Jesus Christ.

He

is the true object of atonement and reconciliation, and in him the right of sacrifice is consummated, and has ceased. He came to be a propitiation for the sins of the whole world. His cross was an altar on which he offered up his body, and his blood was poured out at the foot of it, as a libation to God. His death was, in the strictest sense, an atonement and peace-offering, for he was our brother, of the same substance, of the same parts and passions, very man, born of a woman, experiencing our infirmities, capable of our sufferings, and undergoing all the worst pains and sufferings of mortality. There was, therefore, a perfect fitness in him to represent our race, and a perfect capacity to bear our guilt, and the Prophet says, "The Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all.” When, therefore, he died, he died unto sin, and being accepted by God in our stead, we all paid in him the penalty due to our transgressions. His death was a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world, and his blood, as St. John says, "cleanseth us from all sin." He was the end of the old economy. To him the blood of bulls and of goats owed all their efficacy. His death has ratified the final covenant of God with man,-the new and better dispensation. And he is the true and living way which opens the kingdom of heaven to all believers. "For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the

figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us: nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the High Priest entereth into the holy place every year with the blood of others; for then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself."

We see, then, from the few points to which I have drawn your attention, how incomplete the economy of Moses was, and how necessary it became, that, in the fulness of time, when mankind were better instructed in the nature of God, and the mode of worship most acceptable to him, a new and better dispensation should be given, complete as to its rites and obligations, and final and absolute as to its revelations and requirements. When the Gospel made its appearance, it was as a light shining in a dark place. Men were tired of the existing institutions of religion, and wanted a clearer and better rule of life. Carnal ordinances, and a mere worldly sanctuary, no longer satisfied the cravings of the anxious mind. Spiritual services were more congenial to the improving state of the world, and spiritual services could alone be lasting. When Christ, therefore, came into the world, he taught a spiritual worship, and the wide spread which his Gospel has obtained, furnishes the best arguments to the sneers of infidelity, and the scoffs of ungodly men. A new religion, set up by an obscure and powerless individual of Galilee, in

the face of long-established rites and divine ordinances, could never have forced its way, unfriended and alone, unless it had been based on the truth. The minds of men were the only tribunals to which it appealed, and the consciences of men its only support. It had no civil arm to give it countenance, and no martial weapons to enforce its authority; but, in spite of the most appalling difficulties, it made its way, and finally triumphed, because the truth must prevail. It appealed to the Scriptures for its testimony. Those Scriptures were in the hands of the people whom it first addressed. And it left to the candour of the unprejudiced, and the page of history, a vindication of itself from falsehood and imposture. To us, my brethren, who have lived to witness its triumph over calumny, violence, and all the worst passions of our depraved and fallen nature, and who dwell under the shadow of its covering, it presents a noble instance of divine power, working out its wonderful plans by the aid of human instrumentality, and of divine love, concurring with the hopes and interests of men, to accomplish the salvation of our unhappy race; and it teaches us to look, on all occasions, to him who is the source of all the revolutions of the world, the arbiter of our fate, and the only being in the universe who can, really and effectually, be our helper and friend. Let us, then, put our trust in him, and refer ourselves to him in every emergency. Let us remember that we are bought with a price, even with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot; that we are comprehended in the new

covenant which was ratified by his death; that we have been sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise; that we are made partakers of the divine nature; that God is our Father; and that if we sin deliberately after so much has been done for us, "there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses of how much sorer punishment suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace? For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people."

SERMON XXXIV.

ON SOME PARTS OF CHRIST'S CHARACTER.

MATTHEW Xi. 29.

LEARN OF ME FOR I AM MEEK AND LOWLY IN HEART.

"THE perfection of Christ's example," says an eminent scholar and divine,* "it is easier to understand than to imitate, and yet it is not to be understood without serious and deep meditation on the particulars of his history." It embraces every point of view in the life of man, in which he can be considered as a moral agent, and an heir of immortality. The parts, therefore, are not only numerous, but perfect in their proportions and graces, and when the mind comes to meditate thereon, they rise one upon another in such close, regular, and successive order, that it is difficult to know on which to dwell the most, or where there is the greatest scope for imitation and praise. One great advantage resulting from this perfection in the character of Christ, considered not as a whole, but by parts and particulars, is, that it affords to every one, in every stage and circumstance of his life, a rule of conduct. There is no difficulty into which we can be brought, no dilemma in which Bishop Horsley.

*