1. With the deepest humihation for havmg occa- sioned him such anguish —
[Had we never sinned, our adorable Lord would never have assumed our nature, nor borne any of these agonies which we have been contemplating. In them, therefore, toe should read our guilt and misery. Was he under the hidings of his Father's face? We deserve to be banished from the presence of our God to all eternity. Did he suffer inconceivable agonies both of body and soul, under the wrath of Almighty God ? We merited the utmost extremity of that wrath for ever and ever. Did he suffer even unto death ? We were obnoxious to everlasting death, even that " second death in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone," " where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched." Draw near then with me. Brethren, to Geth- semane and to Golgotha, and contemplate with me the scenes which were there exhibited. Do you see in the garden that sufferer, whose agonies of soul are so intense, that the blood issues from every pore of his body ? And do you behold him on the mount, stretched upon the cross, and hear his heart- rending cry, " My God ! my God ! why hast thou forsaken me ? " Say then with yourselves, ' Now I behold what my sins have merited ; or, rather, what they merit at this hour. There is not a moment of my life, wherein I might not justly be called upon to drink that bitter cup, without the smallest hope for any, the slightest, mitigation of my woe through eternal ages.' Dear Brethren, this is the glass in which I wish you to behold your own deserts. I would not have your eyes turned away from it for one instant to the latest hour of your lives. In viewing particular sins, you may perhaps be led to self-complacency, from the thought that they have not been so enormous as what are habitually committed by others : but in \iewing your iniquities as expiated by our blessed Lord, you will see that nothing can exceed your vileness ; and you will be ready to take the lowest place as the very " chief of sin- ners." The best of you, no less than the most abandoned, have merited, and do yet daily merit, at God's hand, all that the Saviour of the world endured for you : and I again say, ' Never look at yourselves in any other glass than this.'''\
2. With the liveliest gratitude for sustaining them in your behalf —
[Truly he interposed not thus for the angels when they fell : but for you he undertook and executed this stupendous work of " redeeming you to God by his own precious blood." This, methinks, should fill you with such wonder and love, that you should never be able to think of any thing else. In this mystery are contained "all the treasures of wisdom and