it may be reasoned on the authority of his beloved St. John, 1" God is love" (John I. iv. 8); 2 "Jesus saith to Thomas, I am the Way, the truth and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by me" (John xiv. 6); and 3 comparing these two authorities may teach any one to ascribe all his attainment in these blessed properties to "the love of God which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord" (Rom. viii. 39).

=3, After ascending therefore to the highest at once, it may be thought, that no other property of the same superior appetitive class in this divine Subject or Combination can deserve to be mentioned: but considering love as his universal principle, one may still find other modes belonging thereto as a part of the Subject besides those abovementioned: of which Innocence and Peace, or a perfect inoffensiveness, is one according to St. Paul. "For this (says he) Thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself" (Rom. xiii. 9). Therefore Perfect Innocence is an unmeaning expression if applied absolutely, or with no reference to any particular action or imputation like those above mentioned. But the property in perfection may be applied to every point of this holy Person's life, and to every ingredient of the same; which is presumed to be more than can possibly be said of any other. There may be others mentioned even in so candid a record as the Holy Scripture without any particular imputation; but it does not follow that sin might not have been imputed to them. Indeed it is very presumable from different circumstances, as well as from different authorities of Scripture, (Gal. iii. 22; Pet. I. ii. 22), that of all mankind Christ was alone without sin; behaving at the same time with so much mildness and indulgence towards all except the chief priests, the Pharisees and others of that class, as if he had himself required some indulgence.

And it is no more than one should expect as a natural consequence of righteousness or innocence, to find a calm horizon with the sunshine of peace in any sphere where it reigns and to which it may extend, be it inward or outward, in thought or in deed; so that the name of Christ should signify almost the same thing with Peace. For speaking of his reign it was said, "Mercy and truth are met together: righteousness and peace have kissed each other" (Ps. lxxxv. 10). He says "Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God" (Matt. v. 9): and also tells his followers by St. James, "The fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace" (Jam. iii. 18). “Peace I leave with you; (said he) MY PEACE I give unto you. Not as the world giveth give I unto you: let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid" (John xiv. 27). So it was predicted of his reign again, or of his blessed influence, that righteousness should be its basis, and under it the fierceness of the savage temper should be restrained by inno"And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins. The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid," &c. (Isai. xi. 5, 6). So angels sang at his birth, which was like a prediction, “Glory to God in the highest; and on earth, peace; good will toward men" (Luke ii. 14). And we also find experimentally according to these predictions, that the more Christ is in any one or any where, the more peace and comfort. So he charges his disciples, "Have salt (that is pleasantness or comfort) in yourselves, and peace one with another" (Mark ix. 50).

On the other hand, there does not appear in any of the Subject's properties before mentioned a greater contrariety than in the present combination. For if we look into the real state of the case, we shall not find a subject more loaded with guilt than this, who "was offered to bear the sins of many" (Heb. ix. 28); nor a greater peace-breaker according to his own account. "Think not (says he) that

I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law: and a man's foes shall be they of his own household " (Matt. x. 34, &c.); being in this respect much like what Isaiah predicted," Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah.... For I will tread them in mine anger, and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments," &c. (Isai. lxiii. 1, &c.). And in the Subject, or his cause, this sanguinary part has certainly been verified as well as a pacific: in fact no other cause or pretext, whether civil or religious, has occasioned so much public strife and bloodshed in the world: while the commotion and tumult thus occasioned in our own breasts at the same time are more lasting and violent than can be produced by any other means whatever. Such is the struggle that he has with his subjects in taking possession, and the war that he kindles within them; which is still but one step towards peace, there being no peace without a revolution in the natural state. For "the wicked are like the troubled sea; whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked" (Isai. lvii. 20, 21). Hence the violent struggle on this point, and the temporary resistance that is to be expected both within and without by the probationer for eternity. But PEACE WILL COME AT LAST WITH INNOCENCE. "These things have I spoken unto you, (says he) that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world" (John xvi. 33). And welcome tribulation in the world with peace in Christ, if it please God!

=4, He was an example too of Patience and Moderation: which, as it shone generally, through his life, so most eminently at the conclusion, when a person's character is said to be shewn most decidedly. For then it appeared not only in the endurance of mocking, buffetting

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and other cruel indignities, at the hands of his captors, but also in the mildest reproof that ever was offered on such an occasion to his wretched betrayer. He was an example of Meekness and Humility; in short of every excellent disposition that can be looked for in a superior: which coming from one so much higher than their objects were all amplified thereby; while there was in them at the same time independent of this circumstance a perfection that would be sought in vain elsewhere, and is best seen by contrast; as for example, the Subject's meekness another time contrasted with St. Paul's highness on a similar occasion, namely that of being smitten each in the same presence, and each most unworthily: when "Jesus answered, If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil; but if well, why smitest thou me?” (John xviii. 28). But mark the difference, "Then said Paul unto him, God shall smite thee, thou whited wall: for sittest thou to judge me after the law, and commandest me to be smitten contrary to the law" (Acts xxiii. 3). We should think it rather a high comparison for any of the common sons of men to be compared with so rare a character as St. Paul; and yet how differently does he qualify the privilege of speech, and how terribly does he fail in the superior graces of meekness and humility compared with his divine Master: as who would not fail on a similar comparison?

But it was for the inferior appetitive virtues that our Saviour's example was chiefly intended, and his station in life particularly adapted. Being made, not lower than the angels only, but lower than the generality of mortals if his outward condition, he had the whole scale of their upward duties before him, from those respecting the lowest object on earth to those respecting the Highest in Heaven, that his example might be complete according to the fulness of his grace; and in all has richly endowed us-submitting readily to human ordinances as well as divine, honouring the temporal authorities, from highest to lowest, and paying the respect to others which is generally due

to them as men-suffering at the same time for conscience sake, and for well doing instead of evil without endeavouring to retaliate: whereby he has left us the invaluable legacy of a perfect example, as we are reminded by one of his immediate followers, the venerable St. Peter (Pet. I. ii. 21). But

=5, The most important as well as peculiar example of his bequeathing is that hearty and enlightened Devotion which he uniformly evinced; and which though given as an example to all men was practised with as little ostentation as we find in its record. Devotion, that lovely characteristic of the children of grace, has been represented already as equivalent with piety or the love of God, in a superior degree: and if we consider the simple record of the Subject as it respects his devotion, we shall find the same to have been superlative in him. He sought not his own will, but the will of the Father which had sent him (John v. 30). His meat was to do the will of Him that sent him, and to finish his work (Ib. iv. 34); to prosecute, perfect and establish for ever the gracious Word or Dispensation of which himself was the centre or nucleus. And herein, to lament and bewail before God the sins which he had taken upon himself for others, and to deprecate the wrath of God threatened and forthcoming upon their real subjects or perpetrators, was often the course of his devotion for a night perhaps, after having devoted a day to their instruction and admonition (Matt. xiv. 23, et pr.): to grieve for the griefs of the Holy Spirit of God (Eph. iv. 30), was natural and habitual with this "Man of sorrows" and to resent his Father's wrongs as if they had been his own, according to the prediction, "Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee? Yea, I hate them right sore, even as though they were mine enemies" (Ps. cxxxix. 21, 22). What made such a feeling natural to him was, the light of the Word of life; but the most that we can feel ourselves in general is, a zeal without