ordained to wrestle with principalities, with powers, with spiritual wickedness, yet need not fear the issue their subtle chieftain is a vanquished foe; they fight against him under the banner of a victorious leader, who has completely crushed his power; and this mighty Captain of their great salvation, in that He himself has suffered, being tempted, (Heb. ii.) is able to succour them that are tempted; He will make them more than conquerors, and save to the uttermost all that come unto God through him.

We next come to consider why Christ must needs have suffered, on an account more levelled to the comprehension of our present understandings, than the accounts already stated; for our nature having been the nature chosen by infinite wisdom for the fulfilment of his purpose, it is immediately apparent, that, as man, Christ could not possibly delineate perfection, had He not endured death. If a triumph over the last and greatest enemy which man is doomed to conquer had not been obtained by our great Lord and Master, He could not have been tempted in all points like to what we have been; He could not have been experimentally enabled, as He is now enabled, to succour us in the last trying conflict with him who has the power of death. But by the death of Christ is brought to pass the saying that is written, (Isa. xxv. 8; 1 Cor. xv. 34,) "Death is swallowed up in victory; O death, where is now thy sting? O grave, where is now thy victory? The sting of death is sin," but the sting is now destroyed; for the infinite merits of

the glorious Saviour propitiates for all sin. Thanks therefore be, thanks, fervent thanks unto our gracious God, which giveth us the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord.

It has been, we conceive, clearly and satisfactorily proved, that the blessed Redeemer could not demonstrate infinite perfection without the endurance of every sufferance to which the lowest probationary in the boundless universe ever had, is now, or will ever be, liable. The sufferance of death was therefore rendered indispensably imperious; death may have passed on many orders of probationary beings; but be that as it may, death has been passed on us; and it was on this very account, it was for the suffering of death, we are expressly told, our nature was selected. It was for the suffering of death that Christ assumed our nature, and was made a little lower than the angels. Had Christ delineated perfection in angelic nature, He could not have endured this species of temptation; for angels, we know, are spirits, and are not enveloped in a carnal nature; He therefore could not have endured those acute corporeal sufferings, unto which those who have been formed after the law of a carnal commandment have been rendered liable; neither could man, or probably many other probationaries, (should many in the boundless universe exist, as degraded as ourselves,) have reaped the benefit of his merits. For had not the great heavenly Victor overcome every trial by which the lowest order of probationary beings had ever been overcome, we must repeat, his

merits would not have reached the case of all erring probationaries: and He could not have proved victor over every trial, had He not endured death, as probationary beings are ordained to endure it; nor as man, could he possibly have delineated perfection, had he not endured it. "We therefore see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour, that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man. For as much, then, as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, (as there do exist probationary children, made after the law of a carnal commandment,) He also himself likewise took part of the same, that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil for verily, He took not on him the nature of angels, but He took on him the seed of Abraham; wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of his people."

It is likewise evident, that Christ could not, as man, have demonstrated full perfection, had He not triumphed over death, under circumstances the most appalling incidental to humanity-under circumstances the most humiliating and ignominious-under the endurance of trials and tor

tures the most excruciating. Natural evil unquestionably is the offspring of moral evil: previous to the exemplification of the second, we never hear of the exemplification of the first.

Natural evil is at once the offspring of moral evil, and often operates both as its preventive and cure. The greatness and extremity of corporeal or natural evil, unto which probationary beings are become obnoxious, is probably proportioned unto the degree and extremity of moral evil with which their nature is become infected. This is proved by the utmost extent of corporeal sufferings, and even the certainty of death itself, being often found insufficient to prevent the committal of the atrocious crimes which pride, revenge, cruelty, malice, hatred, and avarice, prompt man to perpetrate; a fact historic pages too abundantly confirm.

But whatever sufferings are inflicted upon man, whether they are sent from the immediate hand of our blessed heavenly Father, or by the hand of man, in hope of reclaiming offenders, or deterring others from crime, by the example made of them; or are permitted to befal them, through the malign interference of their inveterate foe and his agents, wicked men; yet we are assured that no event can molest us but such as are inevitably incidental unto states of trial, or have been ordained to constitute these states; that no temptation can or will overtake us but such as is common to man; and let what will befal us, man cannot now complain; "for God spared not his only-begotten Son, but gave him up to suffer," in its extremest degree, every evil unto which man is liable. Had he not done this unto the uttermost, many among our feeble race would have manifested virtues which Christ did not demon

strate. We read of worthies even under the ancient dispensation, who by wicked men were tortured, not accepting of deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection. And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea moreover of bonds and imprisonments: they were stoned, they were sawn asunder; were tempted, were slain with the sword; they wandered about in sheep-skins and goat-skins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented, (of whom the world was not worthy.) And under the gospel dispensation the sufferings of its early converts are too notorious to require particularizing here. Had not therefore the great Founder of Christianity himself headed the noble army of martyrs who yielded up their lives amidst the most excruciating tortures, in attestation of its truth-had He not himself, under the most excruciating tortures the power of darkness could devise, borne witness unto the truth of his assertions, he would have imposed on his feeble followers sufferings hard to be borne, which He touched not even with his finger, and would have been excelled in virtue by weak probationaries.

But by the sufferings of Christ and his primitive disciples, we have not only a powerful attestation to the truth of his religion, but we can with certainty infer that every trial we sustain, every suffering we endure, are working for our good; and if we suffer rather than sin, we may be assured that we ultimately shall have abundant cause to say that it is good for us that we have been afflicted. And to this blessed end, "let us