But I press them no further than to requeft your attention to them. It is your duty finally to determine for yourselves. And, therefore, my heart's defire is, that you may establish yourselves in the truth as it is in Jefus, and that, consequently, you may walk as he walked in all your intercourse with God and with each other.

You have your new Teftament in your hands, which is the statute-book of our law; try, therefore, therefore, by the contents of that volume, the doctrines and precepts of every teacher, those in this place by no means excepted. With this book in your hands, or rather in your head and heart, use your own unbiaffed understanding, according to the measure and means afforded to each, and you cannot fail to discover every impoftor, and to be able to repel those wolves who may come to you in sheep's cloathing.

SERMON

SERMON XVIII.*

CHRIST THE DELIVERER OF MANKIND.

I PETER III. 18.

CHRIST ALSO HATH ONCE SUFFERED FOR SINS, THE JUST FOR THE UNJUST, (THAT HE MIGHT BRING US TO GOD,) BEING PUT TO DEATH IN THE FLESH, BUT QUICKENED BY THE SPIRIT.

IN the commemoration of particular events, it is expected that our endeavours to explain the word of God fhould be directed to fuch parts of the chriftian doctrine and instruction, as may be peculiarly appropriated to the folemnity of the day. And indeed, to do otherwise would be to divert the minds of the hearers from that subject, to the confideration of which they shew themselves previously disposed by their attendance.

The obfervance, however, of particular days and seasons, except the lord's-day, is of no further obligation than as our own inclinations may difpofe us. The setting apart, therefore,

* Preached on Good-Friday.

therefore, a portion of the present day is in us a merely voluntary action, and judged to be only fo far expedient, as each of us may determine for himself.

The hiftory of the appropriation of the prefent feafon to fuperftitious purposes would be a long, and no pleasant labour. And as we are not difpofed to concern ourselves in fuch abuse of it, it is needless to recite how high it is marked in the roman calendar, or how much has been infifted concerning it, by fome ill-judging and inconfiftent protestants, even fo late as in our own times.

Suffice it, for our purpose, to attach ourfelves to the rational doctrine of the gospel, without regard to the fuperftitious and enthusiastic conceits of gloomy or visionary men; and to labour to draw from that large and inexhauftible fpring of living waters the reasonable hope, the refreshing comfort and confolation which they afford.

The apoftle Peter, in the course of his argument to fuch of his chriftian brethren as were then harraffed by perfecution, pronounces them happy," if they fuffer for

righteousness-fake;" and, accordingly,

exhorts

exhorts them "not to be afraid, not to be "troubled, but to fanctify the Lord God in "their hearts; to be ready always to give

66

an answer to every man that asked them a reafon of the hope that was in them, with meeknefs and reverence; to have a

good confcience, that they might be "afhamed, who falfely accufed their good "converfation and behaviour as chriftians."

With a view to their encouragement and fupport, in thus patiently fuffering in the cause of religion and virtue, from the fcandal and perfecution of their enemies, he reminds them of the fimilar hard treatment which was fhewed. to their mafter, whose difciples they profeffed to be, and whofe cross they had taken up in fuch their profeffion. "For Chrift," faith the apostle, "alfo hath once fuffered for fins, the just "for the unjuft."

It oftentimes happens, in the course of the dispensations of providence, that the holy and the good are, in this world, neceffarily involved in the fufferings and afflictions of the profligate and the wicked.

who were born in Babylon

"The jews might with

great

great propriety fay, our fathers have finned, and we have borne their iniquities*;" that is, we fuffer on their account. Peter alfo ufes a fimilar phrase when he speaks of our lord's cruel and unjust sufferings, " he bore "our fins in his own body on the tree +," that is, as the fame apoftle explains it elfewhere," he was by wicked hands crucified " and flain ;" and this fenfe is also confirmed by the very context where the paffage occurs in Peter's epistle §.

Thus Chrift, in whom was no fin, shared the fate of a cruel and unrelenting persecution, even unto death. He fuffered for, or because of, the fins of his perfecutors, but his fufferings were one neceffary link in the chain of evidence of his divine commiffion, as it fulfilled the prophecies concerning him; and his death opened the way to the completion of that evidence by his refurrection from the dead. Hence the fuffering of the juft was, in fuch evidence, and in the illuftrious example it afforded of patient enduring unto the end, greatly for the advantage of

* Lam. v. 7. + 1 Pet. ii. 24.

Acts ii. 23.

See Graham's "Letters on the doctrine of atone

"ment." 8vo. 1772. p. 61, 62.