load of their iniquities, from which there no release is to be obtained. The Saviour of the world, during the scene before us, was troubled more than we can imagine for all; but He was troubled, no doubt, most bitterly in spirit for those who will not be troubled, as becometh transgressors, for themselves.

Having thus far regarded the agony of Jesus, let me conclude with a brief notice of His reiterated prayer, and of the answer returned to it.

Thrice did Jesus supplicate, falling on His knees in the garden-“ O my Father, if it be "possible, let this cup pass from me: never

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theless, not as I will, but as Thou wilt." No words of supplication can be more suitable than these, for every son of man, at the prospect of tribulation and death. The flesh begins to speak in them, desiring to be exempt from pain, but is refrained, by a godly spirit, from indulging its desire, beyond the limits of innocent infirmity, and is finally brought to acquiesce in the Divine will. Here, accordingly, is a prayer under affliction, exactly fit for a race of creatures who have been born to it, and yet are always naturally shrinking from it's approaches. Thereby, we may give vent to the feelings of our mortal nature, lest they wax hot past endurance within us, and, at the same time, render them subject to the better counsels

of our Father which is in heaven. Also, if once be not enough to relieve the apprehensions which distress us, we may cry repeatedly unto God in these, or in such like terms, and still be clear of using vain repetitions. Provided we utter them not with feigned lips, but after the true pattern of our afflicted Lord, of whom the Apostle writes to the Hebrews, that," in the days of His flesh, when He had "offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears, unto Him that

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was able to save Him from death, He was "heard in that He feared," (Hebrews v. 7.) -provided we utter them truly after His pattern, God will, doubtless, hear us with favour, when we call upon Him again and again, and will grant our frequently-uttered prayer.-Observe, however, that He did not remove the cup from His own Son, or in any wise alter the contents of it, or make Him insensible to its bitterness; God did not thus answer the prayer of His Son Jesus, against the cup pre sented to Him, but only by sending an angel, to strengthen Him for the necessity of drinking it. Let us, then, beware of expecting more. Whatever deliverance we request of the Father in His name, be we content, if He hear us as He heard Him. The sorrow or suffering which we deprecate, may, long before and unchange

ably, have been ordained, so that it must needs be accomplished; but, if we have sincerely desired the will of God, such His accomplishment of it should content us, especially with support under it from above. Circumstances naturally the most painful, accompanied by spiritual strength and comfort, are far better than circumstances the most easy, without these heavenly blessings. Be satisfied therefore, my brethren, with these, whatever God shall be pleased to ordain for you besides. And, finally, I will say, be prepared to endure, for a time, the want or failure even of these; since that, moreover, had Jesus to experience. He, the same who was strengthened in the garden, had not long after cause to exclaim from the cross"My "God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?" (Matt. xxvii. 46.) Remembering this, let no Christian think it strange, if darkness and desolation of soul should sometimes follow to him upon light and comfort. Unless he can trace the change to sin, his proper reflection on it will be "The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord. It is enough "for the disciple that he be as his master, and "the servant as his lord." (Matt. x. 24, 25.)

SERMON XI.

PSALM Xxxii. 1, 2.

Blessed is he whose unrighteousness is forgiven, and whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth no sin, and in whose spirit there is no guile.

THE Psalms, more frequently, perhaps, and remarkably, than any other Book of the Old Testament, are framed in language suitable to the New. David, and the several inspired persons by whom they were written, may be observed in many places to have expressed themselves, not only as distinctly foreseeing, but, as even enjoying by anticipation, the spiritual blessings which have been since, accordingly, wrought out, and declared unto all people. Instructed by "the Holy Spirit of promise," they spake, on various occasions, like men already reaping the comforts and benefits of that "great salvation,” which was not, during their lives, nor during a number of succeeding generations, to be actually introduced, and made known, in order to the common acceptance of it by mankind.

There is, in the verses which I have chosen

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for my text, a very striking example of this evangelical language of the Psalms. So apposite are the terms and manner of expression therein adopted, to the doctrine of grace and truth, which, in these last days, Jesus Christ hath revealed, that St. Paul thought proper to make use of them, when he would describe to the disciples at Rome, the peculiar process, or dispensation of their deliverance from the Divine wrath, and reinstatement in the Divine favour, through the gospel. Having most unequivocally asserted that leading feature of the new covenant, the justification of man by faith, and not by works, by stating, " To him that work"eth not, but believeth on Him that justifieth "the ungodly, his faith is counted for right“eousness,” the Apostle immediately remarks, "Even as David also describeth the blessed"ness of the man, unto whom God imputeth "righteousness without works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and "whose sins are covered: blessed is the man "unto whom the Lord will not impute sin." (Rom. iv. 5, &c.) Nor does he let it drop after this, as a place of Scripture only casually referred to in his argument. On the contrary, he examines into it, and proceeds to prove, concerning the blessedness thus described by the Psalmist, that it cometh without distinction

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