THE NATURE AND DESIGN OF CHRIST'S MISSION. THAT man is actuated to every performance by some influential principle or motive, is a fact to be inferred from the ordinary occurrences of life; and even to the superficial inspector of such performances it will appear that self-interest, self-aggrandizement is generally that principle or motive. Unadulterated Philanthropy and disinterested Eenevolence, may consistently be designated as exotics in this nether world, as sentiments cherished but by few mortals, existing but in few minds. Circumscribing the soul within the narrow confines of self; stifling the commiserations of pity; restraining the sympathetic tear; and withholding the hand of relief, is conduct, the result of those principles which exist in the majority of mankind. But to assert, that there are none, in some respect exempt from the baneful influence of such selfish and anti-chris tian sentiments, would be not only exceeding the limitations of Christian charity, but deviating from the path of veracity and rectitude. Mortals there are, from whose hearts emanate the pure and unsullied principles of beneficence; in whose souls, the brightest sentiments of charity are all concentrated; growing with unfading splendor and unimpairing lustre. But imperfection and alloy has constantly been concomitant with man, and with the exception of the great Immanuel none ever existed, entirely free from imperfection, and unalloyed with any species of defect. He, unaffected by such sublunary motives, accomplished every thing for the welfare of others. The tale of woe, and the cry of the distressed never entered his ears unheeded, the entreaties of the afflicted and the anguish of the invalid, melted his heart and constrained him to exert his almighty power. He visited the chambers of death, condescended to impede the ravages of disease, poured the oil of consolation into the heart of the mourner, and to complete his beneficence imparted to them the peculiar "blessing of his love." But his resignation of celestial honors for a season, and assumption of humanity for apostate rebels, was the paramount action of his existence, the source whence all his other performances emanated. In contemplation of this the mind is overwhelmed, and we are constrained to desist, lost in astonishment and praise, nevertheless a consideration of its nature, and design, may not only be instructive but profitable. "God made man upright," with a soul uncontaminated; its affections sanctified; its powers invigorated, and incapable of being affected by casualties of any kind, man came from the hands of Jehovah. Instated in a situation of consummate bliss, and continually participating the pure and unsullied pleasures of intimacy with God, he passed the period of his primeval state. Exciting the invidious hatred of apostate angels, and being assailed by all the powers of darkness, he fell and incurred the curse of a violated law, thereby debilitating all his powers, corrupting all his affections, and rendering himself, unfit for engaging in the duties, for performing the exercises, and for pursuing the allotments to which Jehovah had destined him. Supererogatory obedience to any divine prescription, exceeding the powers of created beings, at first man might have been deemed irrecoverably lost. But it soon appeared that the rejoicings which might have occurred in the hellish camp, were but momentary, and that all the machinations and direful artifices of the grand foe, could be rendered subservient to the promotion of Jehovah's glory, and advancement of degraded man's happiness. "Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever the hills were formed," the great Immanuel, well acquainted with the mysteries of futurity, covenanted with his Father, ordained a remedy for the evils engendered by this sad catastrophe, and opened a way, by which we may have free access to Jehovah, when we might "obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need." Agreeably to his great designs, in the fullness of time, he assumed humanity, and entered the world, the progeny of impoverished parents, unsignalized by any sublunary honors, and unaccompanied by any of the honorable of the earth. Subjected to incessant ignomy, reproach, and obloquy, passing an existence, a concatenation of the acutest trials, assailed by all the powers of darkness within, and by the malevolence and bloodthirty dispositions of his countrymen without, 66 and finally the victim to their unhallowed rage, experiencing a death of scandal and of ignominy, were the leading characteristics of his mission, the sufferings which he, as the expiatory sacrifice for his people endured. Thus was the law satisfied. Christ being the end of the law for righteousness, to every one that believeth," thus was justice magnified, it demanded the fulfilment of the violated law, which "Christ magnified and made honourable," and thus were the perfections and attributes of Deity harmonized, "mercy and truth meeting together, righteousness and peace embracing each other." "The ransom was paid down. The fund of heav'n, Amazing and amaz'd, pour'd forth the price, Such is the nature of the Saviour's mission; but what was his design? To answer this interrogation, various are the passages in the sacred records, and different the sentiments contained in them. Sometimes it is asserted "the Son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost." Sometimes, "he came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repen Н |