miliation and suffering lay open to his view: The cup of sorrow which he had often tasted, and the last dregs of which he was doomed to exhaust stood full before him. Already he was treacherously sold by one disciple; he knew that he was soon to be disowned, and deserted by the other disciples and that his blood must shortly flow by the hands of those whom “he came to seek and to save;" already his “soul was troubled,” and recoiling at the prospect of the horror of that wrath which was soon to overwhelm him he began to expostulate, “O my Father! if it be possible let this cup pass from me.” But amidst these circumstances of humiliation and agony, the compassionate Jesus was not unmindful of us; he spread a table, and covered it with the richest blessings which his bounty could afford. I could not choose a subject more appropriate to the occasion of our meeting; more adapted to affect your hearts and my own, or prepare us for a suitable and profitable approach to this sacred festival than the love of Jesus Christ. The great apostle tells us the effect which was produced on his own soul by contemplations on this theme, “the love of Christ constraineth us."

The word which we translate “constrain" is often used in the New Testament, and literally signifies to hold, to possess, or exercise dominion over; so completely to subdue the object upon which it fastens as lo control or carpy it along at pleasure. “The love of Jesus,"

saỹs Paul, “constrains me; it has obtained, and now possesses an unlimited dominion over my soul. While I contemplate its freedom, its riches, its sovereignty, its immensity, I am lost in amazement ; I am altogether

I transported and scarcely know whether I am in the body or out of the body.” The Lord grant that such, through the abundant unction of the Holy One, may be the effect on our cold, lifeless hearts while I endeavour,

1. To mention some instances of the Saviour's love, and shew

II. To what this love will constrain us when powerfully felt.

1. The Saviour's love is luminously manifested by what he has already done for us. But we feel utterly at a loss when we attempt to enumerate particulars, because the powers of language must fall infinitely short of the subject. To form any suitable conceptions of the love of God our Saviour it would be necessary to comprehend the number and exquisiteness of those sorrows which he endured from his cradle to his cross, the enormity of all those crimes which he expiated ; the odiousness of those pollutions which he washes away; the terrors of that “ second death the sting" of which he extracted; the majesty of that law the precept of which he obeyerd in his life, and the penalty of which he sustained in his death; the horrors of that hell from which he effectually redeems, and the glories of that kingdom to which he has procured a full, unalienable title. « Christ

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hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. That he might sanctify the people with his own blood, he suffered without the gate.” He made, in short, a real, a full, and everlasting satisfaction for the iniquities of his chosen. This truth, so expressive of the Redeemer's love, and so replete with consolation to his followers, is taught in innumerable passages, and in language easy to be understood. “He was made of a woman; made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. “ He is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth ;" “he is the end of the law;" he, as the Substitute and Sponsor of his people, obeyed and suffered until there was no more demand either for obedience, or suffering; until the injuries of the law were fully repaired, and the claims of divine justice paid to the uttermost farthing. “He through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot, and by this one offering perfected forever them that are sanctified.” Christian, has thy conscience been often agitated by the recollection of past offences? Hast thou been ready with The Patriarch to cry out, “the arrows of the Almighty are within me, the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit.” When, during these seasons of disquietude and dismay, thou art enabled to plead the atoning blood of Jesus, and to behold the Father as fully pacified through him, art thou not constrained to a

dore his love? Dost thou not consider it as presenting “a breadth, and length, and depth and height” which surpass all comprehension?

But when in connection with the blessings which the Redeemer procured we consider the expence by which they were obtained our admiration of his love necessarily encreases. Had he purchased our pardon by a price easily furnished, or removed every obstacle in our way to glory without incurring much labor, or overcoming strong opposition: had he expiated our guilt by the blood of lambs, or he-goats; had he washed off the stain of our iniquities by the application of rivers of oil, or opened a way to the holiest of all by a single effort of his arm, his love must have appeared great, but it appeared infinitely greater, infinitely more disinterested when we reflect that our salvation was procured at the expence of so much toil, and shame, and suffering to himself. Indeed, we can conceive no species of degradation to which the Saviour did not stoop, nor any sufferings which he did not endure in obtaining the redemption of sin

That we might enjoy “riches, durable and unsearchable riches,” “ he became poor” in the extreme; he passed like a stranger and sojourner on his own earth and “ had not where to lay his head :" he did not possess the least portion of this world as his own, although he was really its Creator and Lord. “ That he might redeem us from the curse of the law” he endured that curse in his own body and soul because, in the estimation of law and justice, of earth and heaven, “ cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.” That he might bring us near to the Father, and provide for us fulness of joy in his presence he was shut out for a season from the fellowship of the Father, and refused a solitary ray of his countenance to support or revive; he was treated as an alien and outcast. Believer, hast thou any assurance of Jehovah's love, and any enlivening prospect of his communion forever, remember that to obtain this a “horror of great darkness” overspread the soul of the Surety, and extorted from his lips that melancholy exclamation,“ my God! my God! why hast thou forsaken

! me? Why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring ?” It is this circumstance which ought to enhance the blessings of salvation in thine esteem, and excite the most elevated conceptions of the Redeemer's love that the purchase of these blessings cost him a life of exquisite, unparalleled sorrow, and “ brought him at last to the dust of death.” This was a consideration which the apostle often mentioned for influencing his own heart, and the hearts of his hearers, and readers.

« He. loved me and gave himself for me. made sin, a sin-offering for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” This consideration will

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