the Deliverer could effect only by satisfying the law. The satisfaction rendered for this purpose behoved to be complete; for if sin remained at all, it would give to death a sting, from whose power the sinner could find no deliverance. That the law might be satisfied, the curse of the law behoved to be borne. Death under the curse behoved to be endured by him who should save sinners from death; and even the pains of death temporal, behoved to be but the smaller part of his sufferings. Christ our Surety endured not only the last extremity of bodily suffering, but also intense anguish of spirit, intimated in such language as the following: "Now is my soul exceeding sorrowful even unto death." "He hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us." The curse of the law merited by sin, includes the second death. The Surety behoved to endure, what, though temporary, was yet in the reckoning of justice not less satisfactory, and what, viewed in the light of an expedient of the divine administration, for advancing the ends of the divine government was equally efficacious. Of the intensity of his mental anguish under this infliction, besides the words already quoted, there are other indications tending to give us most profound and mysterious impressions-namely, his agony in Gethsemane, under which his frame seemed as if about to sink in dissolution, while his recorded prayer expressed the anticipation of still deeper suffering, and also his language, uttered amidst the depths of these his anticipated sufferings, endured by him with the sublime patience, and even composure, derived from augmented supernatural strength, "My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?"

2. Our Surety behoved also to magnify the law by his obedience. Eternal life under the government of a righteous God, is given as the reward of obedience. We remark this principle in the original constitution under which man was placed. The economy of grace does not as to this point make void, but establishes the law. The righteous shall re

ceive eternal life as a reward, in point of degree, according to their works; but, in point of merit, for the sake of the obedience of the Redeemer. Wonderful behoved to be the transcendent perfection of that obedience whose merit avails with justice for our acceptance-merit founded essentially in the infinite dignity of the person of the Redeemer, derived also from the amazing magnitude and arduous nature of his obedience itself, and from the intense energy of the holy affections, and dispositions, and emotions of soul, in the exercise of which he triumphantly executed his astonishing work, and endured his overwhelming sufferings. Oh! what griefs and mental anguish-what wrestlings of spirit—what melting emotions and ardent affections of heart-what unshaken determination what mighty actings of soul-what patient endurance-what influence of the sublimest motives entered into that obedience unto death!

3. The achievement of the Redeemer as the conqueror of death, involved in it a conflict with, and victory over Satan, who had the power of death. To the prince of the hosts of darkness, is ascribed the power of death, not only because through his seduction sin entered, and inasmuch as many of the subordinate causes of death originate in his instigation, and proceed under his influence; but especially because sinners, being under the curse, are under Satan's power-being given up to his bondage as a tyrant, and exposed to be finally consigned to his grasp as a tormentor: so that, unless saved from his dominion, they are, at death, left to be dragged away by him as his prey, to people the regions of misery, where he reigns over ruined spirits. Christ, by procuring his people's deliverance from the curse, has procured their rescue from Satan's power, and their safe preservation from his prison of darkness. Satan has not power over their death, so as to seize them as condemned and accursed, and convey them to his prison of eternal darkness. On the contrary, Christ who holds the keys of death, and of the unseen world, comes

and receives their spirits, and conducts them by his angels to his Father's house of many mansions. In effecting the redemption of his people from the curse of the law, and thereby from Satan's power, a fearful conflict with the powers of darkness was one part of our Lord's trial, and of the travail of his soul. Not only was he subjected to the extremity of indignity, suffering, and death, from the hands of wicked men, through Satan's instigation, but with mighty and mysterious energy was his spirit assaulted by this dreadful enemy himself. Every aggravating circumstance, in the sufferings of Christ, contributed to the fulness of the satisfaction which he rendered, and the perfection of his obedience, and, in this manner, to the deliverance of his people from the curse, and their title to immortality. Satan thus, by what he inflicted on the Saviour, contributed to the destruction of his own power. In bruising the Redeemer's heel, his head was crushed. Christ, through death, destroyed him that had the power of death. He spoiled principalities and powers, and made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in his Cross. In this manner did he purchase his people's deliverance from death. Their actual rescue is a distinct work, to which let us now attend, by considering—

III. The progress and consummation of Christ's conquest over the last enemy, in his effecting his people's complete deliverance from its power.

1. The Holy Spirit communicated by Christ to dwell in their souls, is the earnest and pledge of their future immortality.

By his mediatorial work on earth, Christ acquired the right, and in his resurrection and exaltation at the Father's right hand, ascended to exercise the power, to raise his people from the dead, and glorify their natures. The agency which he shall employ in raising the bodies of his saints, and fashioning them like to his own glorious body, is that of the

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Holy Spirit, by whose influence he now renovates and sanctifies their souls. "If the Spirit of Him that raised Christ from the dead dwell in you, he that raised Christ from the dead, shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you." The renovation of the bodies of the saints in the resurrection, is the appropriate consequent of the renovation of their souls in regeneration and sanctification-the completion of the good work begun in them the crowning reward of the services of their regenerated state-the perfecting of their capacity for that glory to which almighty love raises them. It completes their conformity to him to whom they are united, and who shall reign over them as the first-born among many brethren. How could they otherwise be like him, so as to be fit to dwell with him, and see him as he is? As they shall live by him, and in union with him who is their life, they shall share in his immortality, and appear with him in glory. In his now remedying the moral death of the soul, the Redeemer gives an earnest of his power to destroy death, as affecting the less noble part of our nature, and a pledge of its omnipotent exercise. The fair structure of a spiritual temple—an inhabitation of God by the Spirit, being made to arise from the moral ruins of our fallen nature, is a pledge that the body also shall be re-constructed, a pure and glorious temple, to be consecrated by the presence, and replenished from the fulness of Deity.

2. Death, though permitted to remain as a constituent part of the present economy, is changed in its aspect, as regards the people of God, and is overruled for their benefit.

It is appointed for all men once to die. That believers are not exempted, is not owing to any want of completeness in their present title to eternal life. From the time they believe, their title is as perfect as was that of Enoch, or of Elijah, or, as shall be that of the saints who, being alive at Christ's coming, shall be changed without tasting of death.

Why then are they subject, with all the rest of mankind, to the same irreversible decree? The reason is, that under an economy in which all are in a state of moral trial, and the people of God, in a state of training for glory, and called to walk by faith, God has seen it meet that it should be so. Were it otherwise, the moral trial of the human race would be essentially different. A most striking manifestation of the divine displeasure against sin, subservient to the purposes of moral trial and discipline, would be wanting. The peculiar moral training of God's people, arising from a state of things in which they are exercised with temptation, affliction, and bereavement, would not exist. The present scope afforded them for usefulness in a sinful world, and for a holy agency, in promoting the application of redemption to the souls of others, afforded by the existing state of things, would be wanting. There would be wanting, wonderfully diversified and peculiar displays of the divine attributes, especially of divine power and grace. On the plan which divine wisdom has adopted, labour goes before rest and reward-conflict before the victory and the crown-training before the enjoyment of the inheritance. The good work begun and advanced in this mortal state, is manifested to be the work of God, and redounds to the praise of the glory of his grace.

In the meantime his people have the warranted rejoicing of hope: "In which salvation ye greatly rejoice, though now, for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness, through manifold temptations, that the trial of your faith being much more precious than that of gold, which, though it be tried with fire, perisheth, might be found unto praise, and honour, and glory, at the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ." Of the trials and tribulations of our present state-death around us-death in prospect, and in its approaches to those dear to us-death in the bereavements and sorrows which it occasions,

forms a large amount. Under every aspect it is sanctified to the people of God. As regards you who are in Christ, it