wrath which they provoked and drew down. On thefe, therefore, exhaust thy vengeance: bring forth those enemies of thy Saviour, and flay them before his eyes.

How will it affect the mind with contrition and godly forrow, when, on this folemn occafion, you call up your past fins to your remembrance! How will it grieve you to think, as one by one they pass before you in review, that each of them added a pang to your Saviour's agony, and formed the bitter ingredients of that cup which he drank! Will not this confideration break your covenant with death, and difannul your agreement with hell? Can you ever again cherish thofe fins in your heart, which not only crucified the Lord of glory upon Mount Calvary, but which even now crucify him afresh, and put him to open fhame?

But, Chriftians, I hope better things of you. On this occafion, let me befeech you, by the sufferings of your crucified Redeemer, to break off your iniquities by repentance. Refolve fincerely, by the grace of God, to live no longer in fin. Finally, implore the affistance of the Divine Spirit, to renew your wills, and purify your fouls. Then may ye rejoice in this the day of your folemnity, and be welcome guests at the table of the Lord. Then fhall ye be joyfully invited to the marriage-fupper of the Lamb. Then fhall Jefus manifest himself to you in the breaking of bread. He shall fay unto your fouls, "Be of good "cheer, thy fins are forgiven thee;" and infpire into you the well-grounded hope of fitting down with, him at his table above, where in his prefence ye fhall rejoice for evermore. Which may God grant, and to his name be the praife!-Let us pray.

EVENING SERMON

MATTHEW xxviii. 6.

Come, fee the place where the Lord lay.

WHEN our Saviour expired upon

the cross, the cause of Christianity feemed to be loft. Rejected by that nation to whom he was fent, condemned under the forms of a legal trial, and crucified as a malefactor before all the people, an effectual bar feemed to have been put for ever to all his defigns. It then feemed that all was over. A people whom their prophets taught to look for a king, did not look for him to come down from a crofs; a nation who expected the appearance of a Meffiah, did not expect him to appear from the from the grave. His followers were few in number, and feeble in fpirit. Although he had frequently foretold his death, the idea of a temporal prince was fo ftrong in their minds, that they could not reconcile themselves to the thought of a fuffering Saviour; and though he had alfo on various occafions foretold his refurrection, they were so much under the power of prejudices, deeply rooted, that they either did not understand, or did not believe, his predictions. When he was apprehended by a band of foldiers, they forfook him and fled; they had not courage to attend him in the last hour of his life; to go with him to the tribunal and to the

crofs afar off only, they followed with their eyes, and beheld with tears, him whom they expected to behold no more. Then they gave up all for loft. The fun, which was foon after darkened by a preternatural eclipfe, and the rock which was rent afunder by an earthquake, appeared to be the fad tokens of a glory that had departed, and of a kingdom that

was to be no more.

Dark and dismal were the fhades of that night which defcended on the Saviour's tomb: the hearts of the difciples were troubled, and their Comforter was gone. All the fcenes of their past lives, the miracles they had seen, the discourses they had heard, the hopes they had entertained, were like a dream; they abandoned themselves to despair, and, as we learn from the Evangelift Luke, they were about to leave Jerufalem, and betake themfelves to their old employments.

While the enemies of Jefus triumphed, and his friends lamented, the counfels of heaven were executing, and the operation of the Almighty was going forward. We read in the Gospel of Matthew—— "In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn to"wards the first day of the week, came Mary Mag

dalene, and the other Mary, to see the fepulchre. "And behold, there was a great earthquake; for "the angel of the Lord defcended from heaven, and "came and rolled back the ftone from the door, "and fat upon it. His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as fnow. And for "fear of him, the keepers did fhake, and became as "dead men. And the angel answered and said un6C to the women, Fear not ye For I know that ye

"feek Jefus, which was crucified. He is not here: "For he is rifen, as he said: Come, fee the place "where the Lord lay."

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The nativity of our Lord had been announced by an angel to the fhepherds of Bethlehem. "While they were abiding in the field, and keeping watch "over their flocks by night, Lo, the angel of the "Lord came unto them, and the glory of the Lord "fhone round about them; and the angel faid unto

them, Fear not, for behold I bring unto you glad "tidings of great joy, which fhall be unto all peo"ple; for unto you is born this day, in the city of "David, a Saviour, which is Chrift the Lord." In like manner, his fecond nativity, his refurrection to a new life, was here announced by an angel. What emotions would arife in the minds of these ministers of heaven, who had attended him through his life, we cannot tell this only we know, that " into these things they defire to look." Much more then doth it become us to contemplate the life and death and refurrection of our Lord; for he took not on him the nature of angels, but of the feed of Abraham. Chriftians! you have this day beheld your Saviour fet forth crucified among you; let us now contemplate him as arifing from the dead, and appearing in glory: you have already fat at the foot of the cross, and I hope reaped benefit from the commemoration of your Redeemer's paffion; let me now carry you to the tomb, to behold" the place "where the Lord lay."

of

Behold then, in the first place, in the refurrection your Lord, the proof that the redemption of the world is accomplished.

Our falvation is every where ascribed in Scripture, to the death and paffion of our Saviour. As our great High Prieft, he made an atonement for the fins of the world upon the crofs; his death was our redemption, and his blood the ranfom that was paid for the foul: but his refurrection was the proof, that the facrifice which he offered up was accepted by God, and that the price which he paid, was available for our recovery. By his fuffering unto death, we were freed from condemnation; but our free dom was not made manifeft till he arose from the grave. His resurrection then is the bafis of the whole Christian inftitution, and the ground of our faith and of our hope in him. That Chrift appeared on earth as a Great Prophet; that he paffed his days in inftructing and reforming the world; and that after a life of eminent and exemplary goodness, he died the death of a malefactor, was common to him and others, whom God had raised up to be the lights of the world, and patterns to mankind. Thus the prophets of old were perfecuted and deftroyed by fundry kinds of death; thus the martyrs, fince the time of our Lord, were cut off in a cruel and ignominious manner: but in their deaths there was no expiation for fin; the blood of the prophets and of the martyrs spoke no fuch language; their blood cried, indeed, to heaven-not for mercy, but for vengeance against a guilty world. If Chrift had died like one of them, and been heard of no more, how fhould we have believed that his death had atoned to the penitent, for all the blood that had been shed from the foundation of the world? How fhould we have believed that the whole earth had obtained reOoo