taking the words as they lie, I shall offer a few practical observations, which seem naturally and immediately to arise from the perusal of them, making such improvement as may occur as I go along. And may the Father of mercies, who has put this treasure into our hands, favour us with his gracious presence and blessing.

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I. From the words, "He spared not his own Son," we may observe, in one view, the wonderful goodness and inflexible severity of God. So great was his goodness, that when man was by sin rendered incapable of any happiness, and obnoxious to all misery; incapable of restoring himself, or of receiving the least assistance from any power in heaven or in earth; God spared not his only begotten Son, but, in his unexampled love to the world, gave him, who alone was able to repair the breach. Every gift of God is good: the bounties of his common providence are very valuable; that he should continue life, and supply that life with food, raiment, and a variety of comforts, to those who by rebellion had forfeited all, was wonderful: but what are all inferior blessings, compared to this unspeakable gift of the Son of his love? Abraham had given many proofs of his love and obedience before he was commanded to offer up Isaac upon the altar; but God seems to pass by all that went before, as of small account in comparison of this last instance of duty. "Now "I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not "withheld thy son, thine only son from me," Gen. xxii. Surely we likewise must say, "In this was manifested "the love of God to us, because he gave his Son, his

only Son, to be the life of the world." But all comparison fails: Abraham was bound in duty, bound by gratitude, neither was it a free-will offering, but by the express command of God: but to us the mercy was un

desired, as well as undeserved. "Herein is love; not "that we loved God;" on the contrary, we were enemies to him, and in rebellion against him, "but that "he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation "of our sins," the sins we had committed against himself. My friends, ought not this love to meet a return? Is it not most desirable to be able to say with the apostle, upon good grounds, "We love him, be"cause he first loved us?" Should it not be our continual inquiry, "What shall we render to the Lord for "all his benefits?" especially for this, which is both the crown and the spring of all the rest? Are we cold and unaffected at this astonishing proof of divine love? and are not our hearts grieved and humbled at our own ingratitude? Then are we ungrateful and insensible indeed!

The justice and severity of God is no less conspicuous than his goodness in these words: as he spared not to give his Son for our sakes, so, when Christ appeared in our nature, undertook our cause, and was charged with our sins, though he was the Father's well-beloved Son, "he was not spared." He drank the bitter cup of the wrath of God to the very dregs: he bore all the shame, sorrow, and pain, all the distress of body and mind, that must otherwise have fallen upon our heads. His whole life, from the manger to the cross, was one series of humiliation and suffering, John, xviii. Observe him in the world, despised, vilified, persecuted even to death, by unreasonable and wicked men; ridiculed, buffeted, spit upon; and at length nailed to the accursed tree! Consider him in the wilderness, Luke, iv. given up to the power and assaulted by the temptations of the devil! Behold him in the garden, Luke, xxii. and say, "Was ever sorrow like unto his sorrow, wherewith the Lord

"afflicted him in the day of his fierce anger?" How inconceivable must that agony be, which caused his blood to forsake its wonted channels, and start from every pore of his body! Behold him, lastly, upon the cross, Matth. xxvii. suffering the most painful and ignominious death; suspended between two thieves; surrounded by cruel enemies, who made sport of his pangs; derided by all that passed by! Attend to his dolorous cry, expressive of an inward distress beyond all we have yet spoken, of, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" St. Paul reminds the Galatians, that, by his preaching among them, Jesus Christ had "been evidently set forth cru"cified before their eyes," Gal. iii. Would it please God to bless my poor words to the like purpose, you would see a meaning you never yet observed in that awful passage, "Tribulation, and wrath, and anguish upon

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every soul of man that doth evil," Rom, ii.; for the punishment due to the sins of all that shall stand at the last day on the right hand of God met and centred in Christ, the Lamb of expiation; nor was the dreadful weight removed till he, triumphant in death, pronounced, "It is "finished," John, xix. Let us not think of this as a matter of speculation only; our lives, our precious souls, are concerned in it. Let us infer from hence, how "fearful a thing it is to fall into the hands of the living

God," Heb. x. The apostle Peter, 2 Pet. ii. aḍmonishes those to whom he wrote from the fearful example of the angels who sinned, and of the old world; where the same word is used as in my text, oux EQEIσato, "he spared them not;" that is, he punished them to the utmost; he did not afford them the least mitigation. It is a frequent figure of speech, by which much more is understood than is or can be expressed. Much more then may we say, if God "spared not his Son, what shall

"be the end of those who obey not the Gospel? 1 Pet. iv. If the holy Jesus was thus dealt with, when he was only accounted a sinner by imputation, where shall the impenitent and the ungodly appear? "If these things were "done in the green tree, what shall be done in the dry?" Luke, xxiii. The punishment of sin in the soul in a future state is twofold: the wrath of God in all its dreadful effects, typified by fire unquenchable, Mark, ix.; and the stings of conscience, represented by a worm that never dies. Our Lord endured the former; but the other, perhaps, could have no place in him, who was absolutely perfect and sinless. But if the prospect of one made him amazed and sorrowful beyond measure, what consternation must the concurrence of both raise in the wicked, when they shall hear and feel their irrevocable doom! May we have grace so to reflect on these things, that we may flee for safety to the hope set before us, to Jesus Christ, the only, and the sure refuge from that approaching storm, which "shall sweep away "all the workers of iniquity as a flood," Isa. xxiii.

II. Here, as in a glass, we may see the evil of sin. The bitter fruits of sin are indeed visible every where. Sin is the cause of all the labour, sickness, pain, and grief under which the whole creation groans. Sin often makes man a terror and a burden, both to himself and those about him. Sin occasions discord and confusion in families, cities, and kingdoms. Sin has always directed the march, and ensured the success, of those instruments of divine vengeance whom we style Mighty Conquerors. Those ravagers of mankind, who spread devastation and horror far and wide, and ruin more in a few days than ages can repair, have only afforded so many melancholy proofs of the malignity of sin. For this, a shower of flaming brimstone fell upon a

whole country; for this, an overwhelming deluge destroyed a whole world; for this, principalities and powers were cast from heaven, and are reserved under chains of darkness, 2 Pet. ii. to a more dreadful doom. But none of these things, nor all of them together, afford such a conviction of the heinous nature and destructive effects of sin, as we may gather from these words, " He spared "not his own Son."

III. Here we may likewise see the value of the human soul. We ordinarily judge of the worth of a thing by the price which a wise man, who is acquainted with its intrinsic excellency, is willing to give for it. Now, the soul of man was of such estimation in the sight of God who made it, that, when it was sinking into endless ruin, "he spared not his own Son, but freely delivered "him for our ransom." Two things especially render the soul thus important in the view of infinite wisdom: first, the capacity he had given it; for "he formed it "for himself," Isa. xliii. capable of knowing, serving, and enjoying God; and, by consequence, incapable of happiness in any thing beneath him; for nothing can satisfy any being but the attainment of its proper end: and, secondly, the duration he had assigned it, beyond the limits of time, and the existence of the material world. The most excellent and exalted being, if only the creature of a day, would be worthy of little regard*. On the other hand, immortality itself would be of small value to a creature that could rise no higher than the pursuits of animal life. But in the soul of man the сараbility of complete happiness or exquisite misery, and that for ever, make it a prize worthy the contention of different worlds. For this an open intercourse was

Vid. Young's Night Thoughts, 7th Night.