E SUNDAY READING. DEATH OF CHRIST OR, TRACT FOR GOOD FRTDAY. % DEATH of CHRIST, 1PHERE is no part of our religion which is bet- i ter known than the great and important fact, that Jesus Christ our Savior died on the cross for us; and yet it is often known to little or no .pur- pose. We all have heard also, more or less of th ] ., m . an d when bad ttfftd fef*^ ™^ ,ed W ' n 5 S » And sitting down they of, he would not an passed by re - ^ hedhUn S ff their heads and saying-lbou viled ,,im * Bffi temple, and buildest it in three tWdCSt 75 s ? thou be the Son of God, ^ J | * fig ' the cross. Likewise also the until the ninth hour. And about the ninth houi ; Jesus cried with a loud voice, My God ! my <^a * why hast thou forsaken me ? \nd straightway one of them that stood by took a sponge and filled u with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to* drink. Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. And behold the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom, and the earth did quake, and rocks rent, and the graves were opened, and many bodies ot the saints which slept arose and came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy cit y> and appeared unto many. Now, when the centurion, and they that were with him, watching feus, saw the earthquake, and those tilings that were done, they feared greatlv, saying, Truly this v^-the Son of God." ■ Such is the story of the death of Christ— a most Wopd^rml and affecting story. But what are the ^ es to be made of it ? Now in the first place, I vmrA r^.r ii ' IS First, then, I would warn you tw •* . nough simply to believe that Jesus ChrU ? m * as the Scriptures here describe, and Z tor. There is indeed a knoiled lTo\l° ^ which as I shall presently shew, i s of hi i H ance; but there is also a certain, carelesf IT*' feeling knowledge of it, which perhans 5^ creases our guilt and condemnation gJt£ says some, that I should be. so wicked as L? u lieve that Jesus Christ died for me » •so, that I should take part against him, as K story, and that 1 should be like Judas, or Po2 Pilate, or the chief priests, or the soldiers, or of the multitude who cried out, < Crucify crucifV him !' It is admitted that yon believe they crucifi' ed him wickedly, and were guilty of his blood; and that you would not for the world have had the'stain of that blood qj>on you. But stop, my friend, are you sure that you do not resemble in some respects these very people ? The great sin of the multitude, nay, and of many princes and chief persons ii those days, was their thoughtlessness and igno ranee of Jesus Christ, ' For had they known it/ ai the Scripture tells us, they would not have cruci- fied the Lord of Glory. Most of those who joined in the cry against Christ, seem to me to have been your irreligious, ignorant, and unthinking sort of people, who trouble themselves very little witk thinking who is good, and who is wicked. They were ready, therefore, to follow any blind guide, and to commit almost any wickedness without knowing what they were doing. Now, if you are a thoughtless ignorant person, who have never considered at ail what is true god- liness, and what is true religion— M yon are one ot in 0' as , „n vour religion merely on trust, ^ e Wl : 0t hit er to taken part with Christ only, an d who have h the* ^ ^ am pe0 pi e because you *PP e ide ou exceedingly deceive ^^^f^y^ '^ * real believer.- ^ lf 5 'thlt yoJ were in France, where S0PP °Talk ara n^t Christ, and bring forward pi au- rf Xour^ing arguments against Chris- 8 " n, Suppose you were to go and live a few ^fiffiUw^ (and some such "ar in this country) who are always talking E Christianity, 1 fear such faith as yours tld presently give way, and you who now sup. pose yourself a Christian, would turn against that Uor about whom you have hitherto troubled yourself so little; just like that mob of unthink- ing people who at one time cried out, ' Hosanna to the son of David!' but presently afterwards turned round and said, ' Crucify, Crucify him !'— Take care then, in the first place, that your's is not f that idle thoughtless way of believing in Christ, which is in fact no believing at all — which lasts no longer than while Christianity is fashionable among those around us. But beware also of another way of believing in the death of Christ, which is of almost as little use or avail. I mean, beware lest your thoughts con- cerning him are merely general, and have no ap- plication to yourselves, so as to influence your own practice. Christ, say some, is the Savior of the world; they also call him commonly, 'Our Savi- jji','— they trust in a general way, that through hlm tne y shall be saved : but here lies the great mischief— -they have not applied this matter to themselves, He is our Savior,* they are apt to / s say! but, He is my Savior, i s a ,__„ they have not yet attained. The? a « e ,0 which with the general truth, for they J^T * ati *I uneasy and cast down on account TZw^ r ^ therefore they h ave never needed to hi S " 1S ' and °nd raised up. Neither have thev fel? tI C ° mfort «i some new and powerful motive J £ £n ° f as the true knowledge of the dei nS 06 '* Phes; they are therefore a Lst as cold T^' ferent, though they know the gttrftm^ "7' more ignorant persons 1 first spoke of Bun' meamng of this rebuke will be rendered stilU Plain by proceeding next to shew #hat '"fot Properly affected by the death of Christ 6 -hin t then, before we can be rightly afFecte,! there must be some right foundation of knowffi borne persons, perhaps, have been to church many hundred times ,n their lives, and still they know little or nothing even of Jesus Christ— the i?reat subject of all preaching. Ask yourselves then who was Christ? He is called in Scripture the to oi Cod, he was not a mere man like us, but he came down from heaven and he went back to hea- ven again. He was with God the Father in the be guuiing, for the Scripture saith, "The Word (that is Christ) was with God, and the Word was God j and the Word was nfcide flesh, and he dwelt among us.' Now, if we know that Christ is thus great, and divine, we shall know also, that there is good tfoif.on for trusting in him. If a common man were to promise you something great, perhaps you would not trust his promise, because you might suspect that he had promised more than such a one as he could perforin ; but if a King's Son were to promise you the same thing, you would put con- FJence in him, because he was a King's Son, and thouffh the thing were ever so great, you would have no doubt at all on the matter. Now Christ . t | ie s on of God ; — He is therefore great and worthy to be trusted in, with respect to all those things in which he claims our trust. He is quali- fied to fulfil all the ends for which he came into the world, and to accomplish the great work of oui; Salvation. But how does he accomplish it ? — I an- swer, chiefly by the dying for us — this is therefore the point on which I mean here principally r to dwell. By his death, he made satisfaction, or a- tenement, to God for our sins. Man is a sinner. We are all sinners. We ought to obey God every day, and every hour of every day. We ought to do nothing but what God commands, and to do every thing we do because God commands it. — Not a thought ought to be indulged which God does not approve — not a single wish or affection of the heart. It is astonish ing how strict the Scrip- ture is in describing our duty — it says, 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and soul, and mind, and strength, and thy neighbour as thyself.' But do you thus love God, and dost thou love thy neighbour also ? Is this great and good being habitually in your thoughts, and are you continually saying to yourself,— ' How shall I please him ?' — Are you for the Lord's sake ear- nest also to serve every one of your fellow crea- tes, and careful not to prefer yourself before fcemi And is it always thus with you ? Do these pod intentions and aims never flag within you ? — hook back now to your conduct this morning ; — did you cast off sloth betimes as you ought! DicTyou be- a keyourseli to prayer asyou ought with earnestness, 10 with warm affection towards God with * with deep humility, with becoming devotSr?' you read his word as you had op por tun rV S you pursue whatever was the most digi , j the next hour with alacrity, and in a ^er1 y ,° f irame of epirit ? Has no impatient thought rl Ug i this day- no Iftj^^ ceeded out oi your lips? Now, il h e^Sj^ conduct for a smgle morning, you and mud s may be traced in you, what then must have bee the sin of your whole lives ! O think on tins sub jeer, and apply it to your own hearts! Think 1 mean, of those offences against God;which in child' hood, in youth, and in riper age you have com- mitted. Think also, of all the good which you might have done, and have neglected to do. Per- haps many a false step in life has been deliberately taken by you, and many a gross and dreadful sin committed, besides all your other innumerable of- fences ; an d if you do not see much sin to have been in you, it is only because your ignorance has hid- den from you your guilt; because your conscience is blinded, and your whole life has been one con- stant course of I orgetfulness of God, and neglect of his will and commandments. And hcw, therefore, 1 say, are ail these sins to be pardoned ? Will your future obedience serve as a plea before God? Alas! you cannot expect to do in future any thing more than your whole fu- ture duty, even if you can be supposed to do that, the future therefore shall not be able at the utmost to atone, for more than itself. — Will ycu then say, that your sins are small, and shall be forgiven on account of fheir smallness? but are they not sins against the great God, and does not your conscience w itness in consequence of what has been already 11 fhat they are both many and great ? Will yon s d that they were committed through ig- then P fand thoughtlessness ? I answer, that this Il0ran L]ghtlessness was a sin. Or will you plead, Vel L t that your sins do not in themselves de- iTmmshmehtt I answer, that at this rate you v as well say, that no sin deserves punishment; fa if one sin, why not another ? And how then is God's government, or indeed any government to be maintained, if sin and ignorance are to be all alike, and if the guilty are not to be liable to any punishment, for their guilt? . Now this is a plain and practical way in which everyone, as I think, may learn to understand the great ends of Christ's coming into this world. He came 'to die for us, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God/ He came ' to seek and to save them that were lost, (for without him we are all lost) and to give his life a ransom for us.'—' Behold then the lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the, world.' — ' For he was brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before the shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth/ —Tha^ Jesus whom wicked men crucified between two thieves, one on either side, and Jesus in the midst— that Jesus who hung on the cross as a cri- minal for oik* sakes, w as wounded for our sins, and bruised for our iniquities. He bare our sins on his own body on the tree. Our sins are imputed to him, and his righteousness is imputed to us, if we ar eof the number of those who confess their sins, a nd who by a hearty repentance, and true faith turn unto hi m . x ; ^'hile therefore we read the melancholy tale of he Death of Christ, we must not forget what k part 12 w«ffrad in it. It is not the soldier onlv tW ■ the side of Christ. It is not the Jew s 1^ crucified him — it was not Judas, or Pontin l! ht or Caiaphas, or the chief priests only that & deed— it is our sins that have crucified him 1, should look on him whom wr. have God would have interposed in order to dehW (I own Son from the base and wicked treatment^ he was exposed to from his enemies, jf there 1 not been a grand design to be accomplished bv h namely, your salvation and mine. While we we™ over a suffering Savios, let us then Weep over the* sins of our own which caused him to suffer And while we blame Pilate, and Herod, and Judas and a 1 the rest of the wicked tribe, let our blam'ebe chiefly directed among ourselves, whose guilt has made this costly sacrifice necessary, and for whose sake Christ was contented to die— was contented to bear Ins cross to Golgotha, and then to be crucified upon it. Tins then is the way to be properly af- fected by the story of the death of Christ. But further, we should be affected also wilh a sense of gratitude for the benefits derived from Christ s death. Jt is not sorrow, or contrition only that we ought to feel on reading Christ's death-we ought also to feel thankfulness and joy for our deli- verance. Christ has suffered that we might go free. What thanks and praise are clue to both God the .Father, who spared not his own Son, but delivered him -up for us all : and to Christ himself for the willingness with which he became obedient unto death— even the death of the cross— for the willing- ness with which he bore his agony in the garden, and then carried his cross, and then-had his body nailed to the accursed tree — for the willingness, I 13 • I which he-- -red all until the hour came, *