the righteous; and he never will advance a plea inconsistent with truth and righteousness for any one; yet he can effectually plead your cause, and insure your justification from every charge. And you hear what he has said: Him that cometh to me, I will in nowise cast out.

He is revealed in the character of a great high priest; ordained for men, in things pertaining to God, that he might offer both gifts and sacrifice for sin, and make intercession for all them that come unto God by him. Now he hath put away sin, by the sacrifice of himself; for he bore our sins in his own body on the tree; he made his soul an offering for sin; and now his blood cleanses from all sin; for he is the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world; he has obtained eternal redemption, and is able to save to the uttermost. But say you, My guilt is immense; my sins are so aggravated, so multiplied, so deserving the divine displeasure, that I fear he will utterly reject me.' Well, would your blood, do you think, satisfy justice better than the precious blood of Christ? Would your death display God's abhorrence of sin more strongly than the death of his Son? Could any valuable end to the universe be better answered by it? For whom should he die, but for those that deserved death? for whom be made a curse, but for those who were justly obnoxious to the curse of the law? If Christ died for them that never deserved to die, his death was the most shocking of all events, and must be an indelible dishonor to God's moral government. What is to make him amends for all his sufferings, but the redemption of lost souls? Still I fear he will reject me.' Who could show the riches of his grace, and the efficacy of his atonement more? And what has he affirmed in the text? Him that cometh to me, I will in nowise cast out.

He is revealed as a king, and the captain of salvation. But will he accept of such adherents as went down to his ancestor after the flesh, to the cave Adullam. 1 Sam. xxii. 2. Will he accept of deserters from his grand enemy?' Try. 'Can he inspire cowards with courage? make strong out of weakness? strengthen the spoiled against the strong? and make them that have no might, more than conquerors? I

am sure he can, and sure he will. will in nowise cast out.

Him that cometh to me, I

SECONDLY: What considerations may best satisfy us that he will in nowise cast out any one who comes to him?

His word ought to satisfy you. He could not speak more positively, more indefinitely, or more extensively; and nothing could induce him to say it, if he did not mean to keep his word; nor can nor can any thing induce him to

break it.

His assuming these characters, his coming into our world, taking on him our nature, becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, fully confirms it. None of these things could be needful for any other end; and no good end can be answered by all he has already done, but the salvation of just such as you.

His conduct in the days of his flesh confirms it. He then cast out no one who applied to him. Not the Samaritan woman, at the well of Sychar; the woman who had been a notorious sinner; the poor Syro-phoenician; the thief on the &c.

cross,

His conduct ever since testifies the same. "6 'He ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.” His kindness to Saul of Tarsus, to millions of Jews and Gentiles, are proofs of this. To the church at Corinth also; some of whom, before their conversion, were the very vilest of sinners. After enumerating the characters which could not be permitted to enter the kingdom of heaven, the Apostle adds-" And such were some of you; but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." Who ever applied to him in vain? Here are many witnesses present. Some tried him early, and some tried him late; but none came too soon, and in one sense, none too late. Then

I may delay.' Delay what? Delay being safe? delay being happy? delay, till you are cut off by some unexpected accident? delay, till you are delirious? delay, till you are paralytic? delay, till you are given up to judicial hardness of heart? Oh! folly! Oh! madness!

LXXIV.

THE SPIRITUAL PARTICIPATION OF CHRIST.

JOHN vi. 53—57.

Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.

"NEVER man spake like this man," said the officers, when the chief priests and pharisees sent to apprehend Jesus. (vii. 46.) I should use the same exclamation; but in a far worse sense than that in which they intended it to be taken, if I could be brought to doubt of the divinity, incarnation, and atonement of Christ. See how our Lord, in the preceding discourse, repeatedly insists upon it, that he was the true bread from heaven, in a superior sense to the manna,—even the bread of life. Notice with what an asseveration he reaffirms it in the text, dilating on the idea, and enforcing it, both negatively and positively.

Surely, if all this means no more than that he was a good teacher of morality, so that his doctrine might be called the food of a virtuous soul; then if any one should infer, that no man ever spake so figuratively, so incautiously, so unintelligibly, or in a way so likely to be misunderstood, I could not deny the charge. I propose, therefore,

FIRST, To state the only ground on which it appears to me that the language of the text can be justified, or indeed be fairly explained.

That he who thus spake of himself was a divine person, who became incarnate, for the express purpose of reconciling apostate, guilty, hell-deserving sinners unto God, by his obedience unto death; his blood being shed, and his soul made an offering for sin; that so God's infinite abhorrence of moral evil might not be rendered dubious by his exempting

sinners from the infliction of eternal evil; or by his treating those sinners who believe in the Saviour, and return unto God in his name, in a way directly contrary to their personal deserts.

He must have existed previous to his appearance in our world; therefore it is said, he came down from heaven, (ver. 33. 38. 51,) and that he afterward should ascend up, where he was before. Ver. 62. Without admitting this, I cannot understand such phrases as (1 John iv. 2, 3.)`“ Jesus Christ is come in the flesh." Nor, (Rom. ix. 5.) " Of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came." John remarks, (i. 14.) "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth." And Paul says, (1 Tim. iii. 16.) "The great mystery of godliness, is, God manifest in the flesh."

Hence we infer, not barely his pre-existence, but his proper divinity. He was in the beginning with God, and he was God: not as the first and greatest of creatures, but as himself the Creator. John i. 3. Col. i. 16. Hence he spake of himself, even in his state of humiliation, as being "in heaven." John iii. 13. And he promised to be with his disciples, by his divine presence, after his humanity should be received up into glory: (Matt. xviii. 20. xxviii. 20,) where he used the present when speaking of the future, as a farther evidence of his divine mode of existence; the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.

Hence then, he came from heaven, not by change of place, but by his assumption of humanity; taking to himself a true body, and a reasonable soul, and thus becoming Immanuel, evermore uniting two distinct natures in one person; whereby he was a fit Mediator between God and man; and as our great High Priest had somewhat to offer as a sacrifice to divine justice. Thus, after honoring the precepts of that law which man had violated, he endured also the penalty which man had deserved; pouring out his soul unto death, by the shedding of his precious blood, and bearing our sins in his own body on the tree. Thus he made reconciliation for transgressors, and bore the sin of many, putting away sin by the

sacrifice of himself. Accordingly, Paul delivered it to the Corinthians, among the first principles, which he had received, "How that Christ died for our sins," according to the scriptures. On which account he is stiled, the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world; having done that really, which other sacrifices could only do typically. For, though God himself instituted sacrifices, yet it was not possible that the blood of bulls or goats could really atone for sin; inasmuch as they could not exhibit the disposition of the divine mind toward sin, as fully as the sufferings of the offenders themselves; but the death of Christ exhibited it in a still stronger and more affecting way. Thus he made him a sacrifice for sin for us, who himself knew no sin, that we might be made just, even the righteousness of God in him. Thus sin is condemned, while sinners are saved; and God is glorified in the highest, while peace is proclaimed to I proceed,

man.

SECONDLY, TO consider wherein consists that disposition and exercise of mind, which is here represented as necessary to a participation of the benefits of Christ's mediation.

Certainly, our Lord does not refer to a literal eating of his flesh, and drinking of his blood, according to the monstrous fiction of transubstantiation, brought into the church of Rome, about the ninth century; according to which, it is supposed, that after the words of consecration, the bread is literally turned into the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus Christ; though it still appears like bread to the senses, and is in reality liable to become dry and mouldy, or to be eaten by the meanest animals! Hence, one Thomas Gage, who had been a Popish missionary among some Indians, was convinced of the errors of Popery, by seeing a mouse run away with the wafer, just after consecration! But a far more horrid event, shows the absurdity of this doctrine; i. e. the poisoning of Henry VII. Emperor of Germany, with the consecrated host, by his own confessor! 1313. Blair.

Nor does our Lord here refer to a mere sacramental eating his flesh and drinking his blood, in the Lord's supper; which was not instituted when he spake these words, and which,