lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us; and let us run with patience the race that is set before us; looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is now set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him who endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin; and ye have forgotten the exhortation, which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him. For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards and not sons. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence, shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure, but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous; nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness, unto them which are exercised thereby. Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, lest that

which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed." (Heb. xii.)

over all Jehovah And this God has

By the victory of Christ we are assured of the power of light over darkness; that hellish fiends are held in chains, and high reigns Lord God omnipotent. pledged his own fidelity that He will suffer no man to be tempted above what he is able to bear; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that he may be able to sustain it. (1 Cor. x. 13. Our blessed Lord does not deceive the world, but declares that in it we shall have tribulation. A truth which those who believe, and those who do not believe in Christianity cannot but acknowledge. Philosophy cannot prevent our falling into temptation, or deliver us from evil; and we know nothing short of Christianity that can fully support us under it. Its glorious Founder has completely and triumphantly overcome evil by good; and doubtless enjoins all intelligences throughout the intellectual system of the boundless universe to follow his example. heaven opened, and behold a white horse and he that sat on him was called Faithful and True; and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire"-piercing and irresistible as is that element-" and on his head were many crowns; for he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords; and he had a name written," that none could know but he himself. None knows the nature and perfections of Omniscience saving Omniscience; none knows the Son, saving

"I saw

the Father only.

"And he was clothed with a

vesture dipped in blood." His glorified and spiritualized humanity bore the outward and everlasting insignia of the means by which he had obtained his glorious victory. "And his name is called the Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean." These mighty armies all followed after the one celestial Leader, who fought and won the Lord Jehovah's battle("for of the people there was none with him”)— who spoiled the power of darkness, and through the blood of his cross demonstrated perfection, under the most humiliating and distressing circumstances to which the lowest probationaries are ever liable; without which these could not have partaken the benefit of his propitiation. "Without shedding of blood" for these, "there could be no remission;" without shedding of blood, his merits had not been infinite, or reached the case of heaven's illustrious sanctities. But the glorious brightness of his infinite righteousness out-dazzles every speck, eclipses every stain. Through death he destroyed him who has the power of death; through the blood of his cross he reconcileth all things unto God."

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That an indispensable requisition did exist for the Creator's glory to be fully vindicated by virtue vanquishing every difficulty with which it was destined to struggle, we consider an irrefragable position; it must therefore have been as essential to the completion of God's purpose, that the great vindicator of his Father's honour should

cope with internal as with external trials: a conclusion which Scripture does abundantly confirm, by asserting that the glorious Son of God took on him our infirmities-was ordained to "save unto the uttermost," and must consequently have been tried to the uttermost; and therefore must necessarily have taken on him our infirmities in their most extreme degree: a conclusion also fully supported by the word of God, which expressly states that Christ not only took on him our infirmities, but that he was compassed by infirmities. Now if an exquisite sensibility to the impressions of fear may be justly classed among the number of our infirmities; and if frequent deviations from the path of duty and of virtue have been made through an excess of this violent and depressing passion, we must conclude that the great Victor was bound to combat with this impediment to virtue in its full extent, and that the most excessive degree of this natural weakness had been implanted in the human body prepared by God for the fulfilment of his purpose. For had not this been the case, He could not have with truth been said to have been tempted in all points unto which man was liable. Which assertion also proves that our blessed Redeemer was ordained to struggle with further difficulties, and share the sufferings of our frail humanity; and that He did do so, we are distinctly told; for He not only took on him our infirmities, but bare our sicknesses.

We all well know, that during the period mind and body are appointed to act in mutual contact

VOL. II.

Y

with each other, sufferings of the mind often affect the body, and that sufferings of the body, (particularly debility, exhaustion, or any other malady which shakes the nervous system and enfeebles the human frame,) often affect the mind; and that the mind of man is frequently enfeebled and depressed through these physical causes. Now, the vicissitudes to which the Son of God was continually exposed were eminently calculated to injure and debilitate the human frame with which He was invested. When man has been long enured to hardships, by having endured a continual series of them, he may become so far habituated to a deprivation of comforts as to feel tolerably easy under the loss of them. But that insensibility which is acquired by habit could not have contributed its powerful influence in rendering the human nature assumed by our blessed Saviour, totally indifferent to the conveniences of life. His was perpetually diversified by the most widely contrasted situations. Sometimes we find him kindly and hospitably welcomed by friends He loved and valued; at others ostentatiously feasted by the haughty Pharisees; then accepting the most homely fare, and the poor accommodation provided by his humble associates, of one pillow to sleep on in the hinder part of a ship; at other intervals, distressed by hunger, oppressed by weariness, destitute of every comfort, and describing his forlorn situation by a simile that must touch every feeling heart: "The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air nests, but I have not where to lay