life itself. That which, of all our possessions, is the most easily lost or injured, is that on the continuance of which all other things depend. The preservation of life requires incessant attention and exertion; the material requisite to feed the vital flame must be collected from innumerable sources, at great expense of time and trouble: the spark of life is perpetually exposed to the danger of extinction, like a lamp carried in a stormy night, that requires to be covered by the hand, and seems every moment ready to expire. Nothing but the strongest attachment to life could secure it, amid continual exposures, from sudden or premature destruction: without the operation of the selfpreserving instinct, man would be literally like a shadow, that is here to-day and gone to-morrow. On the first departure of prosperity, on the first preponderance of sorrow over joy, in this checkered scene,— in which the colours of good and evil are so constantly intermingled that it is often difficult to say which predominates over the other,how many, unrestrained by the natural love of life, would forsake their stations; how few, unsupported by attachment to being, would persevere in their course to the end, or "run with patience the race set before them!" Our first father would probably have fulfilled, in the letter, the sentence he incurred, and died on the very day of his transgression, thus destroying the human race in their original, had it not been for the benevolent care of his Creator, by which his existence, and the desire of its continuance, were secured for the great purpose of his moral probation. For life, we cannot forget, is, in its highest use, the season of our trial for an eternal state of being. This is the point of view in which its preservation becomes unspeakably interesting. It stands connected with nothing less than the incarnation, sufferings, and glory of the Son of God; and, whatever is the importance of those stupendous mysteries, the same is the importance of human life, considered as the "time of our visitation!" The results of the whole process of redemption, the accomplishment of the greatest designs of the Deity, are involved in the continuance of this probationary state of existence.

2. A second purpose answered by the principle we are considering is the promotion of industry and labour. Life must be loved, in order that it may be preserved; and preserved, in order that it may be employed. The original denunciation of death was preceded by the sentence of a life of labour: "Cursed is the ground for thy sake; thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; in the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread, until thou return to the ground." In every other state of society, and perhaps in none so much as in the most refined state, the greater part of the community must necessarily be subjected to labour. Under the best possible form of government, some must produce what is to be enjoyed by others. This unavoidable condition of subjection and servitude will be attended, in many cases, by great hardship and suffering. In such circumstances, nothing but that strong attachment to life of which we are speaking could reconcile the weary sufferers to a voluntary continuance in a state that entails so much endurance. Yet, while every humane person must regard

such instances of excessive toil with compassion, and desire to alleviate them so far as he may be able; this laborious condition of the multitude should be considered as a dispensation of mercy blended with judgment. For what would be the state of society, disturbed as even now it is by crimes, if the multitudes of those who are at present confined by labour were let loose upon the public in all the wantonness of a licentious imagination and unbridled passions? Reflect, for a moment, what misery and desolation must arise from such a mass of depravity, such an accumulation of cupidity and malevolence, abandoned, without any fixed employment, to its own turbulent impulses! This, it must be acknowledged, is a melancholy picture of human nature; but it is such as truth requires. How great a benefit, therefore, that necessary condition of labour, which acts as a barrier of defence against the wildness of human passions, and says, as it were, to that tempestuous ocean, "Thus far shalt thou come, and no farther!" But the desire of preserving life is the strongest incentive to all this salutary industry and toil.

3. A third object to which the same principle is subservient is the protection of life from the hand of violence. Without some strong restraining sentiment, the life of individuals would be exposed to continual danger from the disordered passions of others. The first crime, of a social nature, committed by man, was the extinction of his brother's life; and the first penal law, enacted by God, was directed against a repetition of that crime: "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed." The love of life, so strongly felt in every bosom, inspires it with a proportionate horror of any act that would invade the life of another. Every one burns with indignation against an assassin, as against his own personal enemy; every one feels interested in the discovery of such a criminal, and would consider himself honoured in stepping forward to drag before the tribunal of justice one who is regarded as if he had injured every partaker of his nature! This universal horror and exposure to the public vengeance, which peculiarly attaches to the crime of murder in all civilized states of society, cannot but operate as a powerful and important safeguard of human life. The magistrate and the law owe their whole protective efficacy to that sentiment of attachment to existence which is a law written on every heart.

III. In adding a brief improvement of this subject, we may infer, 1. The fall of man; the universal apostacy of our nature from the state in which it originally proceeded from the Divine Author. Created with this inextinguishable desire of existence, we are destined to dissolution: our nature includes two contradictory principles,—the certainty of death, and the attachment to life. This fact affords the clearest evidence that we are now placed in an unnatural, disordered, disjointed condition; that a great and awful change has passed upon our race since our first father came from the hand of God. And this change must be owing to ourselves; it cannot be ascribed to our Creator, without the supposition of a sufficient cause in our own misconduct. Here revelation breaks the silence of nature, while it tells us that by

one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all, because all have sinned. On any other hypothesis, the problem is inexplicable; for, can the Father of the universe, himself the source of all created tenderness, be conceived to have thus treated his own offspring, without a real and sufficient cause? Can malevolence and misery issue from the bosom of infinite goodness and love? Can He who gave us life, who bound us to it by so strong a tie of attachment, deprive us of it, and doom us to a corruption from which nature recoils, without a necessity arising from ourselves? Let any one that is a parent judge by his own parental feelings, according to the appeal of our Saviour himself, founded upon this analogy. But the Scripture makes all clear: we are like the potter's vessel described by Jeremiah, which was at first made good, but was marred after it was made: "How is the gold become dim? and the fine gold changed! The crown is fallen from our head; wo unto us, for we have sinned!"

2. But the subject may serve to remind us, also, of the salvation which provided us the antidote to our ruined condition. Every human being, it is true, is treated as a criminal, who, though he may be reprieved for a time, must expect to suffer the penalty of the law he has violated every individual, in his turn, is led forth to his destiny of death. This, however, is consistent with the plan of salvation. It is a restorative dispensation under which we are placed: we are not treated as innocent,-as if we had never offended, but as criminals chastised for disobedience, while they are placed on trial for mercy. The deluge presented a grand monument of the Divine wrath on sin; and a smaller exhibition of that wrath is repeated in the death of every human being. In such a situation, what we want is life; and this is abundantly offered. Eternal life is the gift of God by Jesus Christ! "I," said Jesus Christ, "I am the life! I am the bread of life! Whosoever believeth in me shall live for ever!" "The life," says John, 66 was manifested: whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely!" Such are some of the last accents of inspiration. As the value of a medicine is proportioned to the malignity of a disease,how earnest should be our desire, how grateful our acceptance, of such a remedy! To pass from death to life; to triumph in the prospect and approach of the last enemy; to enjoy even here many a delightful foretaste of the heavenly immortality; to experience a vital union with the Father of spirits, and hereafter to attain the consummation of this union, and bask for ever in the brightness of His presence; behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us! How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? Such neglect involves a degree of guilt and infatuation which it will require éternity to deplore, and eternity to comprehend!

3. As a third improvement, connected with what has been observed, let me remind you of the medium by which this Divine life is imparted and received. There must be a medium of contact between the benefit and the subject of that benefit; between the eternal life provided, and the Spirit for which it is provided. This connecting medium is faith.

Being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through Jesus Christ. Faith is the link of union between the salvation as prepared and perfect without ourselves and our own personal being. This is beautifully, though briefly, expressed by Peter, when he assures the cripple whom he had healed that the cure had been effected through the medium of faith: “His name, through faith in His name, hath made this man whole." Faith was as necessary in the subject of the cure, as the name itself on which his faith relied. The work of the Spirit of Christ on the heart is as necessary to our salvation as the work of Christ himself,-his obedience unto death, and his intercession in heaven.

4. In the last place, the subject concurs with the occasion to remind us of the duty, the obligation under which we lie, to impart the knowledge and enjoyment of these vital, eternal blessings, to our suffering fellow-sinners. The civil and merely temporal benefits of Christianity are great the water of life, in its passage through a country, diffuses innumerable improvements wherever it pursues its peaceful course; the very leaves of the tree of life are given for the healing of the nations. But far be it from us to recommend the civil as the great and ultimate blessings of the gospel: these are of a spiritual and eternal nature; furnishing a perfect antidote to the dread of death-a perfect satisfaction for the desire of life, so deeply implanted in the human breast.

XIII.

NOTES OF THE FOLLOWING SERMON,

TRANSCRIBED FROM THE MANUSCRIPT OF MR. HALL.

"Behold the Lamb of God."

I. THE import of this appellation.

1. The peculiar features of His personal character.

2. The design of His death.

1. His personal character. His innocence. His patience.

a High-priest became us," &c.

2. He was the Paschal Lamb. Exod. xii.

"Such

Both sacrifices the

Draw the parallel in several particulars. instrument of effecting a great deliverance. The benefit of both moral, not physical. The Lamb must be perfect offered by and for all the people. Blood sprinkled. Not a bone broken. Time of

offering.

II. The purport of the exclamation,-that He is an object of attenton. Its most proper object. Three qualities entitled to attention.

1. Intrinsic greatness. An incarnate Deity, the Ruler of all things, the mysterious Mediator and Advocate.

2. Newness. What so new as the invisible Creator clothed in human flesh-The Ancient of Days cradled as an infant; He who upholdeth all things sinking under a weight of suffering; the Lord of glory expiring on the cross; the Light of the world sustaining an awful eclipse; the Sun of Righteousness immerged in the shadow of death?

3. The relation an object bears to our interest. The Lamb of God ast interesting object to all classes of men: (1.) To sinners; (2.) To saints."

ANALYSIS OF THE SERMON,

AS REPRESENTED IN THE FOLLOWING PAGES.

I. Import of the appellation "Lamb of God."

1. Features of the personal character of Christ: (1.) Innocence; (2.) Patience.

2. Design of his appearance.

Points of resemblance between His sacrifice and the Passover. In each, (1.) A great deliverance achieved; (2.) A destruction, otherwise inevitable, averted; (3.) The benefit moral, not physical; (4.) The personal qualities of the victims similar; (5.) The blood required to be sprinkled; (6.) The sacrifice to be regarded by the whole congregation; (7.) The time of the offering the same; (8.) No bone to be broken; (9.) The Passover prepared by fire, as an emblem of torture.

II. Design of the exclamation, "Behold!"

An object worthy of supreme attention from all:

1. From sinners. Three qualities which command attention, exhibited here in the highest degrees: (1.) Greatness; (2.) Novelty; (3.) Usefulness.

2. From believers.

3. From the redeemed in glory.

4. From the holy angels.

5. From the Divine Being.

These notes give the plan of the sermon as it was preached at Bedford: at Bristol the applica tion of the text was extended, as the following sketch represents, to all orders of beings.