His constitution indeed was slender, and often subject to distempers; but his mind was strong, and endued with a solid judgement and prompt memory. His humility and self-abasement, was wonderful; his sobriety and temperance, singularly strict; his contempt of the world, great and generous; his charity to the poor, extensive; his love for the souls of men, universal; his ministerial labours, incessant; his constancy in the profession of religion, invincible; and his style and manner of writing, to inculcate it even by the confession of his enemies, weighty and powerful Let it suffice to observe, that in all his apostolic exercises, he was under the unerring guidance of the Holy Spirit.

The doctrine he appears particularly anxious to inculcate on the minds of his audience, in this place, is one of the most prominent articles, among the fundamentals of Christianity, namely, that of justification by the Son of God: And by him all that believe are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.

That no person could be justified by the law of Moses, is abundantly evident from the nature of it. The ceremonial law. which God gave to the Israelites through the medium of Moses, consisted in a ritual of legal observances. It made nothing pefect, not even him that did the service as pertaining to the conscience. The sacrifices under the law, were intended merely to symbolize the substance. Indeed, the whole Levitical dispensation serves to instruct us in this

comfortable truth, that God never designed his people should imagine their sin and guilt were actually, to all intents and purposes, transferred from the offender to the victim. But they were hereby led to look to Christ, the antitype of all their sin-offerings in faith and hope, that their sins should all be imputed to him, and themselves through the merit of his sacrifice, be acquitted from guilt. This, as the design of all their expiatory sacrifices, was more clearly exhibited to them in the institution of the scapegoat, where the imputation of our sins to Christ, was in the most lively manner represented, Lev. 21. 22. And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness : And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited. Here was a plain and express commutation or transferring of guilt from God's people to the scape-goat. All their iniquities, all their ransgressions in all their sins, were laid upon his head. He bore upon him all their iniquities; or, in other words, their sins were imputed to him. Now, we cannot for a moment suppose, that all the hopes of the children of Israel terminated upon this goat; but that they looked to the great Antitype to whom their guilt was indeed to be transferred and their sins imputed, and from whom they expected their discharge and justification. Hence it plainly ap

pears, that the hopes of the faithful under the Jewish dispensation, with respect to the forgiveness of sin and reconciliation to God, was through the imputation of their sins to Christ, the substance of all the Levitical shadows, and the only true sin-offering. For a proof of what is here advanced, the reader is referred to a perusal of Paul's letter to the Hebrews, in which he unanswerably proves to the Jews, that the law-sacrifices were inferior to that of Christ; that their external service consisted only in carnal ordinances imposed on them, till the time of reformation; that as there was no remission without the shedding of blood, it was necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with a better sacrifice ;" and that the "Great High-Priest is passed into the heavens, having obtained eternal redemption for us."

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And, by him, all that believe are justified. Although it is the province of a three-one God, essentially considered, in the person of the Father to justify those who believe in Jesus, yet as our justification was obtained through the vicarious substitution of the immaculate Immanuel, this illustrious personage being the substance and centre of the scriptures throughout, deserves to be distinctly considered in his mediatorial character. This is he of whom "Moses and the prophets did write, who was delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification." A brief investigation of the ancient prophecies concerning him will convince us of their exact corres

pondence with the narrative of his incarnation, life, death, resurrection and ascension; together with a satisfactory belief in his divine mission, and a delightful prospect of their continued accomplishment in the extent and duration of Messiah's kingdom. When we take a view of the Old festament, through the medium of the New, we find, that though he was the wonderful counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, and the Prince of Peace-yet he was the man Christ Jesus; that, though he was born of a woman, and appeared in the end of the world, yet it is also true that the Lord possessed him in the beginning of his way, before his works of old;" that he was "set up from everlasting, or ever the earth was;" that though in his divine personality, he must necessarily be the Son of God and begotten by him; yet his going forth must have been of old from everlasting; and, in a word, that the sceptre and law-giver did depart from Judah, till the Shiloh came, who is over all God blessed for ever."

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The place where our Saviour was born, according to the prediction of Micah, was Bethlehem-Ephratah. This town, though but little among the thousands of Judah, was honoured with being the place out of which he came forth, who is the Supreme Ruler in Israel. Here be was born; but the place of his principal residence was Galilee of the nations. This people, who had set in darkness, saw this great light among them, even upon them did the light shine, who had dwelt in the land of the shadow of death.

The circumstances of his appearing in the world, were low and abased, very different from the expectations men had entertained of the Messiah; and, therefore, according to Isaiah, he was despised and rejected of men; they hid their faces from him and esteemed him not. So far was his appearance from that glory and majesty, that pomp and splendour which was expected in the Messiah, that he was considered as a worm, and no man ; a reproach of men, and despised of the people. Even the priests and rulers themselves, who should have been the builders of the Jewish Church, like many in our own day, "refused this stone, which is become the head of the corner;" and the reason of this was, that they saw no form nor comeliness, no riches nor honour, no magnificence nor beauty in him, that they should desire him.

This glorious person, by whom believers are justified, is the Prophet whom the Lord God raised up unto his people, like to Moses. He put his words into his mouth, that he might speak unto them whatsoever he commanded him; and held his people under the strongest injunctions upon their peril to hearken to the words which this prophet should speak in his name; and accordingly we find him diligent and faithful in the discharge of the sacred and important trust. constantly preached righteousness in the great congregation, and declared the faithfulness and salvation of God. He announced to the world the joyful news of a glorious salvation from sin, guilt, danger and misery. "The spirit of the

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