called : and such was the constraining power of his voice, that, without hesitation, they left all that they had, and followed him. And though he commanded his subjects to make no account even of their own lives when standing in competition with his will, and promised them nothing but poverty and persecution in this world, yet they all delighted in his law, and gloried in the cross for his sake. So entirely did they yield up themselves to him, that opposition served but to rivet their affections to him, and to confirm them in their determination to live and die in his service. Did he expiate his people's sins ? behold, there was not any thing wanting either to complete his obedience, or to fill up the measure of his sufferings. He " fulfilled all righteousness," even though by so doing he made himself appear to be a sinner like unto us : he not only was circumcised by his parents, but voluntarily submitted to the ordinance of baptism, as though he had needed it for the washing away of his own ini- quities. Nor was there any kind of suffering which he did not endure, that he might fully expiate our guilt by bearing in our stead all that our sins had merited. He never ceased from his labours, till he could say in reference to all that he had undertaken to do or suffer for us, " It is finished."
But must we confine our views of his success to past or future times ? Are there not many living witnesses of his power and grace ? Is he not teaching some amongst us by his good Spirit, and " revealing unto babes the things that are hidden from the wise and prudent ?" Do not many of us also experience the virtue of his blood, and reap the fruits of his continual intercession ? Is not his almighty arm yet stretched out to deliver us from our spiritual enemies, and to bring our hearts into captivity to his will ? Wherever there is one who is brought out of darkness into mar- vellous light, one who enjoys peace with God through the blood of sprinkling, and whose corruptions are mortified through the influence of divine truth, there is a monument of our Lord's success, " an epistle of Christ known and read of all men."