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SERMON XX.

THE CRUCIFIXION.

JOHN xix. 30.

When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished, and he bowed the head and gave up the ghost.

On this sacred day, if possible, more than on any other, it is the anxious prayer of all who have "a good hope through Christ," that their minds may be kept in a lively recollection of the triumphs of redeeming love; and on this sacred day more, if possible, than on any other, it is alike the privilege and duty of Christ's ministers, to call on every one hitherto destitute of that hope, to come at once to the throne of grace, and to draw near to the holiest of all, into which Jesus has entered with his own blood. The words in the text-the last our blessed Lord spoke on earth-are full of encouragement to the

very worst of sinners, when viewed in harmony with the whole genius of his precious gospel; and as such, I purpose, with the help and strength of his Spirit, now more immediately to contemplate them. For though it is most true that they are words full of sweet and holy joy, in an especial sense, to the believer united by faith to his glorified head; they are words also, in which the vilest and most hardened have a direct personal interest; and (eternal blessings on our Immanuel!) they may become, too, through his grace, the words of life to every sinner breathing! Lift up thy head, then, thou who art bowed down by a sense of thine exceeding iniquity; and thou who hast not yet felt any personal interest in the consolations of the gospel; and thou who, like the Centurion, feelest thou art not "worthy" that the heavenly Jesus should visit thee; and thou who findest that in thyself dwelleth no good thing, yet hast not hitherto seen any way of escape from the wrath of an offended Father; and thou who hast not ventured to come with thy load and thy consciousness of guilt, to the mercy-seat, knowing that if thou art judged after the broken law, thou must be condemned; and thou who, many a time it may be, hast heard, out of the book of life, the treasured hopes and bright prospects and sure inheritance of the Lord's people unfolded and explained, but, with distrust or despair, hast said at the time of hear

ing, all this pertains not to me, all this gives me no comfort, all this holds out to me no encouragement, for I find not in myself any of this spiritual life, character, and peace;-come, thou sinner, whoever and wherever thou art, come boldly to the healing blood of Christ- he died for thee, he will receive thee, he will bless thee, he will not, cannot cast thee off, if truly penitent, for he came "not to condemn the world," but that the world "through him might be saved;" and therefore he came not to condemn thee, but to save thee,—yes, thee, whatever thy sins, how numerous soever, how heinous soever, how frequent soever; if thou comest to Jesus once and for ever, he "will in no wise cast thee out;" if thou kneelest as a suppliant at the cross, pardoning love will raise thee from it with the sweet words—" I will blot out for ever thine iniquities, yea, as a thick cloud thy transgressions;" if thou return unto the Lord in undissembled sorrow for the past, he will prove himself to thee, by the evidence of abundant inward quiet of soul, that he is a God who "hath no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked should turn to him and live;" that he is indeed long-suffering and forgiveth iniquity a thousand fold,—yes, to thee, and to every contrite and humbled sinner like thee, and that "though thy sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow, though they be red like crimson they shall be as wool." Mortal tongue cannot

tell the immense love contained in those three words, "It is finished;" probably it is the burthen of the sweetest song that rings through the pure courts of heaven, and it is poured forth probably with the greatest ardour by those sainted ones, in whose souls, while on earth, the Spirit of God made the Saviour's sacrifice more entirely valuable, by first producing in them a more entire sense of innate vileness, helplessness, and danger! And after all our contemplation, and after all our prayers, and after all our waiting upon God, it seems not unlikely that so long as we are in the flesh, it is not his ordinary plan to permit us the complete enjoyment of the rich spiritual consolation contained in this, as in all other of the Saviour's language. "It is finished," are words, the power of which we know indeed in part, but we shall never fully know till we

come to the general assembly of the first-born, to the spirits of the just made perfect." In "bowing his head and giving up the ghost," in this total submission to his Father's will, this obedience unto death itself, he showed that he had now paid in full the ransom price which could alone redeem captive sinners, that the work of man's salvation was now completed, that a perfect satisfaction was made to the justice of God, a fatal blow given to the power of Satan, a fountain of grace opened which shall ever flow, and a foundation of happiness laid, which shall never

fail. He declared too, not only that he was on the point of resigning his mortal life, but that, the sufferings both of his body and soul being now ended, he was entering on the joy set before him in the reconciliation of the world to his Father, and that, as the Lamb of God prefigured under the types of the Old Testament, which were all now accomplished, he gave himself up to take away the sin of the world, and so abolished sin and transgression, while he brought in an everlasting righteousness; and he proved further, that the purpose of God concerning his sufferings being now fulfilled, he was expiring in the clear and full enjoyment of the light of his Father's countenance, and that that anguish of spirit was now gone which he had suffered, when he "sweat as it were great drops of blood," for his persecutors were now at rest from their cruel and relentless malice. The Almighty Lord open all our hearts to see and feel the wondrous love displayed in this most costly of all imaginable sacrifices! You heard (in the first lesson of this morning*) the interesting account of another sacrifice which had been proposed, as a trial of faith to the patriarch Abraham; and beautiful indeed it is, as a type in most of its features of that offering up of the bleeding Saviour, we this day commemorate. Isaac was the heir of promise, the dutiful, submissive, and beloved child,

* Good Friday.

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