others, infinitely unworthy to express either the one or the other?  To such, then, the words of the preacher may be no more than music without any words at all; which does but serve to lead and accompany our own thoughts, without distinctly suggesting any thoughts of another to interrupt the workings of our own minds.  We would speak of Christ’s death; most good it is for us and for you to think upon it; so far as our words suit the current of your own thoughts, use them and listen to them; so far as they are a too unworthy expression of what we ought to think and feel, follow your own reflections, and let the words neither offend you nor distract you.

I would endeavour just to touch, upon some of the purposes for which the Scripture tells us that Christ died, and for which his death was declared to be the great object of our faith.  This done in the simplest and fewest words will best show the infinite greatness of the subject; and how truly it is, so to speak, the central point of Christianity.

First of all, Christ died as a proper sacrifice for sin; as a sacrifice, the virtue of which, is altogether distinct from our knowledge of it, or from any effect which it has a tendency to produce on our own minds.  We are forgiven for his sake; we are acquitted through his death, and through faith in his blood.  What a view does this open, partially, indeed,—­for what mortal eye can reach to the end of it?—­of the evil of sin, and of God’s love! of what God’s justice required, and of what God’s love fulfilled!  This great sacrifice was made once, but it will not be made again; for those who despise this there remains no more offering for sin, but their sin abideth with them for ever.

Secondly, Christ’s death is revealed to us as a motive capable of overcoming all temptations to evil.  “How much more shall the blood of Christ purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” “He suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God;” that is, that a consideration of what Christ’s death declares to us should have power to melt the hardest heart, and to sober the lightest:  that, when we think of Christ dying, dying for us, and so purchasing for us the forgiveness of sins, and everlasting life, such a love, and such a prospect of peace with God, and of glory, should in the highest degree soften and enkindle us; and from love for him, and confidence of hope through the prospect which he has given us, we should be able to overcome all temptations.  “I am persuaded,” says St. Paul, “that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”