presented, is I trust, the prayer and desire of your hearts.

My principal business at this time will be to keep my eye on these words of the prophet, "a man of sorrows," and to give a brief, circumstantial account of our Lord's sufferings: in the prosecution of which, I shall have little more to do than quote the Evangelists, whereby it will appear, that Christ may most emphatically be styled a man of sorrows. Let us begin with what befel our most precious and adorable Saviour, who was, and is, and who ever will continue eternally to be, God-man in the person of one Christ. He having instituted his sacred supper, sung an hymn with his disciples; which it is most probable was a part of the Hallel, or song of praise, which the Jews were obliged to sing on the night of the passover, which consisted of six psalms, the 113th, 114th, 115th, 116th, 117th, and 118th. They did not sing this all at once, but in parts; just before drinking the second cup, and eating the Lamb-they sung the first part of it, which contained the 113th and 114th

psalms. And on mixing the fourth and last cup, they completed the Hallel, by singing the rest of the psalms, beginning with the 115th, and ending with the 118th. Now the last part of the Hallel, Christ most probably deferred to the close of his supper, there being many things in it pertinent to him, and proper on this occasion, particularly Psalm cxv. 1. and exvi. 12, 15. and cxviii. 22, 27. The Jews themselves say, the sorrows of the Messiah are contained in this part. That this is the Psalm or hymn, which Christ and his apostles sung, may (says Dr. Gill) be rather concluded, than that it ' was one of his own composing; since "not only He, but all the disciples sung it, and therefore must be what they were acquainted with; and since Christ, in most things, conformed to the rites ' and usages of the Jewish nation. The hymn being finished, our blessed Jesus went forth with his disciples into the garden of Gethsemane; where, as the surety of his people, as the sin-bearing, sinatoning Saviour, the wrath of his divine Father begins to fall upon him. The

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Evangelist Matthew says, "He began to be sorrowful and very heavy." Mark says, "He began to be sore amazed, and to be very heavy." What an excess of sorrow do these words signify! Sore amazed, sorrowful, and very heavy. How was his righteous soul encompassed, besieged, and begirt about with the wrath of God! An inward quaking, an inexpressible amazement, filled his righteous soul! and he took with him Peter, James, and John, who had seen him transfigured on the Holy Mount; who were singled out from the other eight apostles, and to whom our Lord says, My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death; tarry ye here, and watch with me. And he fell on his face and prayed, and said, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt." "Surely, (as saith the prophet,) he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows!" He took our nature, both soul and body, to suffer in that nature, what was due to our souls and bodies. Our whole nature had sinned, and our whole nature must suffer.

He suffered in his soul, which is the principal part of our nature, as well as in his body, which is but the case or sheath of the soul. Some small respite seems for a few moments to be granted him, and he returns to his disciples, and found them sleeping. His sorrows are renewed, and return upon him, "and he prayed the second time, saying, O my Father, if this cup may not pass from me, except I drink it, thy will be done." But the whole storm, and confluence of divine wrath, must fall upon Christ our sacrifice, and therefore the conflict is again renewed: "And being in an agony, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground." Believers, what think ye, must the Lamb of God suffer, feel, experience, and sustain from a sight and sense of sin imputed, and the curse inflicted? It was the imputation of sin to him, and the infliction of the curse due to sin, upon him, which filled his spotless soul with amazement, put him in an agony, and caused him to sweat great drops of blood, of clotted blood, that forced itself

from the veins through the skin; yea, through his very raiment !

Those three favoured disciples, who had seen Christ shining forth with glory and splendour inexpressible, at his transfiguration, now beheld him in his agony and bloody sweat; he was now a man of

sorrows.

One observes, That the state Christ was in at this time, must needs admit of some shrinkings in his human nature, encompassed with our infirmities. He saw the comforting influences of God suspended; the guilt of innumerable ' iniquities imputed to him; the indigna'tion of God, for our sins, breaking out

against him; and the law, edged with "all its curses, levelled at him; and him'self left to bear all this! The appre'hension of all this, meeting in a clear

understanding, could not but raise suit"able passions of fear and trouble in his human nature. If he had not known the greatness of the punishment he was 'to endure, he had undertaken to ransom 'us from he knew not what. If he had 'not feared it, he had not been a sensi