Thus, through all the vicissitudes of day and night, of light and of darkness, I find this creature useful, and most eminently so, when most wanted.

Who can help discovering the wisdom and goodness of God, in giving the Saviour of the world the character of a Lamb; and who can forbear admiring, with enduring gratitude and thankful affection, all, and more then all, that we can conceive of as excellent in the lamb, whether we consider it as parting with its garment to clothe us, or giving us its delicious flesh for nourishment: Indeed in whatever light we view it, who, I say, can help admiring with gratitude and love, all, and infinitely more than all this manifested spiritually in the Lamb of God.

He gave his garment to clothe a naked world! and his flesh for the life of that world. Is it possible we can forbear exclaiming, O! Lord I will praise thee for thou hast clothed me with the garments of salvation, thou hast covered me with the robe of rightcousness; and lest any apprehensive individual, who does not call in question his privilege to make use of the figure, should doubt his right to the divine substance, the Holy Ghost directs an apostle to declare, "That this robe of righteousness, this righteousness of God, is to all and upon all those who believe, there being no difference;" so that we may as legitimately claim Christ Jesus, and all that he has done and suffered as our own, without money, and without price, as the Lamb which we have purchased for our use.

But I hasten to enquire, why our Saviour is styled the Lamb of God?

1st. Because, although not made manifest until the fulness of time, he was, by divine appointment, from before all worlds, ordained to take away the sin of the world.

2d. Because he was the very express image of the invisible God. First, That he was appointed from before all worlds to sustain the character of a Redeemer, is abundantly manifest, from a variety of divine testimonies. He was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, and the sinful children of men had grace given them, in Christ Jesus as this Lamb slain before the world began.

All the figures made use of in the early ages of the world, seem to point to this grand manifestation. When I see Abel offering up a lamb of his flock, and the Supreme Being graciously accepting his offering, I then plainly see why our Saviour bears the character of the Lamb of God.

Secondly, Because he was the very express image or manifestation of the otherwise invisible God. He was the brightness of his Father's glory, and the express image of his person; and although as human, he was made in the form of a servant; yet as divine, he thought it no robbery to claim equality with God. Although as the Lamb slain, he was the son of mun; yet as the everlasting Father, he was God with us.

Thus it is, that the Lamb of God can fully accomplish what the Lamb of our flocks could not: for when sacrifices and offerings, thou wouldst not, then, said he, "Lo, I come to do thy will, O God." And of the Son he saith, "thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever." Hence the Apostle exhorts his fellow labourers to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood, and this word was made flesh, and this word was with God, and this word was God, and was before all things, and by him all things consist. In one word, He is the only wise God our Saviour. He is therefore fully qualified.

Thirdly, to take away the sins of the world. But what are we to understand by his taking away the sin of the world? Nothing is more manifest, than that the Lamb of God hath not physically taken away the sin of the world. This indubitable fact the experience of every day fully evinceth.

When Jesus came into this our world, he found it lying in the wicked one, and when he left it, he left it lying in the wicked one. He made no change either in the civil or moral state of the world. He had a few given him out of the world, and he earnestly prayed they may be kept from the evil which was in the world.

But he left mankind in general, nearly as he found them, ignorant of themselves and of his righteousness: and the world is still wandering after the beast and the false prophet.

Nor is it the world only, which is thus prone to idolatry and pernicious deviations; the few whom our Saviour had chosen out of the world, complained of being burdened with a body of sin and death. One of the most eminent luminaries in the Christian church says, "When I would do good, evil is present with me, and the evil that I would not do, that do I?" He complains of being carnal and sold under sin. And another Apostle declares, "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” One of the wisest men that over lived, positively pronounced, "that there was not a just man upon earth that lived, and sinned

not." Nor was this, at that time incontrovertible fact, true only in that day. The Bishop of Jerusalem affirms, that "we all offend in many things."

But in fact, there is no deficiency of evidence, to prove that man in his best estate is vanity, and that the leprosy is still in the walls of the whole building. That the whole head is still sick, and the whole heart faint. That such is the magnitude of the desolating, the still pervading evil, as to leave no uncontaminated individual in the whole wide spreading family of man! The Canaanite is still in the land. Nor will the Divine Being permit in the present scene, the utter extermination of evil, or take away the thorn from the flesh, lest the people forget, lest they be above measure exalted. The tares must grow with the wheat, until the time of harvest, the chaff must inclose the grain until the winnowing season. The most exalted of our Saviour's disciples, must bear about in his own body, the dying of the Lord Jesus, thus having in remembrance the source of their Redeemer's sufferings.

How then did this Lamb of God take away the sin of the world? I answer, first, in his own person spiritually; secondly, he hath covenanted to take away sin physically, from every individual of the fallen race, and he will perform this astonishing separation in the time of harvest, which he informs us is the end of the world.

First, he took away the sin of the world virtually or spiritually in his own person. This fact is clearly taught by the whole law of ceremonies, which was given to Moses. When we behold the whole congregation of Israel assembled at the door of the tabernacle, and the unoffending victim brought forth into their presence, when we see the High Priest confessing the sins of all the people on the head of this devoted sacrifice, and by confessing and laying the hand on the head, transferring the sins of the offenders, to this harmless inoffensive creature, when we behold this creature slain, with the transgressions of the people upon his head, when we witness the whole of this solemn transaction, we witness, as plain as it can be rendered in figure, how the Lamb of God taketh away the sin of the world. When we see the High Priest entering into the most holy place with this blood, there to present it before the divine mercy seat, and the people accepted in him the High Priest, then we see the Lamb of God, not only taking away the sin of the world, but entering into the holiest of all for us, and ever living to make intercession for us.

All this, and much more, is strikingly figured, under the Mosaic law. But if we turn to those sacred testimonies, where the veil of figure is drawn aside, we shall find this God honouring, man restoring system, made, if possible, still more clearly manifest. All we, says the evangelical prophet, like sheep have gone astray, every one to his own way, but the Lord hath laid upon him the iniquities of us all.

Thus we see, when the whole world, like a flock of stray sheep, wandered after the beast, and by consequence, forfeited a glorious immortality, the Lord, in reality performed that upon Christ Jesus, for every wanderer, that the High Priest performed for the people of Israel and as the iniquities of that nation, when transferred to the suffering victims, was by that transaction, wholly taken away, so that God saw no iniquity in Jacob, nor perverseness in Israel, so, just so, when all our iniquities were laid upon the Lamb of God, he put them away by the sacrifice of himself. Hence it is that we have the answer of a good conscience toward God.

The inspired penman says, “ Messiah shall be cut off, but not for himself, not for any transgression he had committed in his own person Assuredly rot; he was smitten for the transgressions of the people; so saith another heaven-taught scribe, and the before cited prophet proceeds to inform us, that Messiah when cut off, should finish transgression and make an end of sin and it is therefore, as we are told by another inspired penman, who had drank into the same spirit, "It is therefore, that Jesus appeared the second time without sin unto salvation."

It is in consequence of the grand transaction on Mount Calvary, that we so often hear of the total destruction of sin, that the iniquities of Jacob shall be sought for, but shall not be found; that all our sins are to be cast as a stone into the depth of the sca; that they shall no more come into remembrance; that they are blotted out as a cloud; and our iniquities as a thick cloud; and that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing unto them their trespasses; with a multitude of similar testimonies, all which serve to corroborate the truth of my text, in a spiritual sense, that as it respects the offended Majesty of heaven the Lamb of God hath indeed taken away, by one offering, the sin of the world.

Perhaps there are, who may he ready to acknowledge, that the Lamb of God did take away the original sin of the world, and that

we shall not now suffer for the crime committed in Paradise, by our first parents; but that our actual transgressions are still in force against ús. To which I answer, whatever sin Jesus the Lamb of God took away, was that which would have procured our death, had it not been taken away, and it was by taking that sin away, whatever it was, that he became the world's Saviour.

Now, if original sin could of itself bring on death, and if that only could be our destruction, then indeed there will at least remain a shadow of reason for affirming that Jesus took away no other sin. But if, on the other hand, actual transgression is of as fatal a nature as original sin, and would as effectually sink us under the weight of God's displeasure, procuring the wages of sin, which is death, then I must join issue with the Apostle, and repeat, while I have either tongue or voice to articulate, "that He, Christ Jesus, his own self, bear all our sins in his own body on the tree, and that he put away all our sins by the sacrifice of himself."

Surely to speak of sacred truth, in a sense so equivocal, is impiously jesting with the good word of our God. To talk of Jesus as the Saviour of a people who are not saved; to affirm that he taketh away the sins of those, whose sins are not taken away; that he destroyed the works of the Devil, which are not destroyed; that the blood of Jesus cleanseth from all sin, yet we are not cleansed from all sin, but that our iniquities still remain before God, exciting both wrath and indignation; that Jesus came to make peace, yet peace is not made; that he blotted out the hand writing of ordinances that was against us, and yet it is not blotted out; I say, thus to express ourselves, is more derogatory to the honour of God, than any language that is found in the mouth of the disso-lute publican, in as much as the turpitude which attaches to spiritual wickedness, is of far greater magnitude, than any merely temporal consideration.

No, my dear hearers, believe me, our Saviour, was not an equivocal or conditional Saviour. But, as in the language of your catechism, every sin deserves God's wrath, and curse, both in this world, and that which is to come, when Jesus appeared as the world's Saviour he effectuated his mission, by taking away whatever deserved the curse of God, he therefore bore our iniquities in his own body on the cross, and was there, while laden with every of these soul-wounding sins, made a curse for us: nay, it is an eternal truth, that had this head of every man left with us in the sight