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 application of the text was extended, as the following sketch represents, to all orders of beings.

THE LAMB OF GOD-HIS CHARACTER-HIS SACRIFICEAND HIS CLAIM TO UNIVERSAL ATTENTION.

JOHN i. 35. 36.—Again the next day after John stood, and two of his disciples; and looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God !*

[PREACHED AT BROADMEAD, BRISTOL, NOVEMBER, 1820, AND AGAIN AT BEDFORD, MARCH, 1821.]

THE forerunner of our Lord manifested a peculiar anxiety to impress the minds of his hearers with a conviction that he was not himself the Messiah. Yet there appears to have existed a party among his disciples who entertained an improper attachment to his ministry, preferring it to that of our Lord. Their disciples constituted two distinct classes: the partisans of John, disposed to exalt his pretensions greatly beyond their real nature and his own assertions, seem to have countenanced the opinion that he was the great expected personage. To counteract such a fatal misconception, the Baptist embraced every opportunity of referring his followers to Jesus Christ, as well as of explaining his own character. He was, as he represented, "the voice crying in the wilderness, Prepare the way of the Lord;" he was "the friend of the Bridegroom," not the Bridegroom himself: and, with the same view, he uttered, on two occasions, the declaration contained in the passage just read. The testimony there expressed is not the first which he had borne to Christ: it appears that on the preceding day he had announced Jesus as "the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world:" and, as the evangelist relates in the text, "Again the next day after John stood, and two of his disciples; and looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God."

While we admire the disinterestedness of this great man in endeavouring to convince his converts that Jesus Christ was infinitely his superior, we cannot help supposing that probably his ministry and his life were the sooner closed in consequence of the inordinate attachment of his adherents. It was unfit that he should remain as a rival to the Saviour: he was therefore withdrawn from the scene, and his ministry prematurely closed, that every degree of confidence for salvation might be removed from the creature, to be fixed on the Saviour alone.

In considering the testimony borne to Jesus Christ in the text, I shall direct your attention, first, to the import of the appellation; and then to the purport of the exclamation, as it may be understood to express the claim which Jesus Christ possesses to the attention of every order of beings.

The present transcript is the result of the notes taken by the Rev. T. Grinfield, at Bristol, collated with the notes taken at Bedford:

I. The import of the appellation "the Lamb of God." There are two things which, in all probability, John had in his view when he used this appellation: the distinguishing features of our Saviour's personal character, and the great design of his appearance and death.

1. In the first place, the expression "Lamb of God" has respect to the peculiar features, the personal character of Christ.

In the Scriptures, as perhaps in every known language of mankind, a lamb has been selected as the popular symbol of innocence and patience. These were qualities that peculiarly distinguished our Saviour, and formed, on every occasion, the most conspicuous features of his character.

(1.) He was a perfect pattern of innocence. As one of his apostles describes him, "He was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners." His freedom from every taint of original sin was secured by his miraculous conception: hence the angel at his nativity declared to the Virgin Mary, "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee; and therefore, that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." As he advanced in age, all his actions were completely consonant with the law of God. He could say to his bitterest enemies, "Which of you convinceth me of sin?" He could affirm that, when Satan came, he had nothing in Christ. Even the opponents of Christianity have never attempted to impugn the moral character of its Author. It was necessary that "the Lamb of God" should be "without spot or blemish." "Such a High-priest became us;" because, as an example, he could not have been explicitly proposed to our imitation, had the slightest imperfection attached to himself; and, as a sacrifice for sin, he could not have been acceptable in the eye of infinite purity and justice, had he been any other than a spotless victim. Accordingly, his conduct was, in every particular, blameless and virtuous. In the most trying situations, under every form of temptation, we find him never failing: there appears nothing in his character in the smallest degree inconsistent with the idea of absolute human perfection. The greatest absence of every thing like malevolence,—of every thing merely selfish,-appears in all his actions. His miracles were always miracles of mercy and beneficence; his omnipotence was exerted only to do good: it seemed as if the secret of his power resided only in benefiting others, and relieving the miseries of those who surrounded him; as if he existed only for them, and became the most helpless of beings when his own interest was concerned. Innocence is a negative term, it properly denotes only the absence of faults and offences; in this respect it formed but a part of his character. His innocence was crowned with infinite beneficence.

(2.) A second, and an equally distinguished feature of his character, implied in the appellation of a lamb, is his patience. "The Son of Man," as he said of himself, "came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many." He bowed to the will of his Father, and was "obedient unto death, even the death of the crosɛ.” In the midst of injuries and insults, the most unmerited and aggravated that were ever suffered, he exhibited a perfect pattern of patient resigna

tion. He never resented the violence of his enemies: "When he was reviled, he reviled not again." "He was led as a lamb to the slaughter; and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth." There was indeed one instance in which "he opened his mouth :" arraigned before the high-priest, he answered not a word; until, in reply to the demand whether he was the Son of God, he answered in the affirmative; thus breaking silence before his enemies only when his confession ensured his condemnation to death. The miraculous powers he possessed over nature and the minds of men he never exerted to avert his own sufferings, or avenge his wrongs upon his persecutors. Though the elements were at his disposal, and demons subject to his command, yet, in the crisis of his affliction, nothing was visible but compassion for the guilty: "Father," he cried, "forgive them, for they know not what they do!" Nor would he suffer his disciples to retaliate the injuries he received: he rebuked Peter when he drew the sword on Malchus; he rebuked his disciples when they would have called down fire on the Samaritans, saying, "Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of." Gentleness and tenderness, a sensibility to the sufferings of others, and an indifference to his own, these formed the most prominent traits of his character: in these he places the essence of his religion, so far as it is practical and relative to others. Of other virtues, we may say that they form parts of the Christian character; but these are emphatically the Christian spirit itself: in proportion as we are patient, compassionate, forbearing, forgiving, and ready even to suffer for the good of others, we have "the mind of Christ."

It was thus that he illustrated, in his own example, the nature and genius of the gospel dispensation, as superior to every other. None of his predecessors in the church of God could compare with himself here. The law was a severe dispensation; its tendency was not so much to cherish the milder virtues, the lamb-like graces of the gospel. Moses, though the "meekest of men" under that economy, was overtaken by the impetuosity of his spirit when he dashed in pieces the tables inscribed by the finger of God. The miracles of Elijah and Elisha were sometimes destructive: the former commanded fire from heaven, the latter bears from the wood to consume his enemies. John the Baptist was austere in his manners, and terrific in his preaching: there was in him much moral grandeur, but it was of a savage and uncultivated aspect; it resembled the lonely and severe character of the wilderness in which he appeared: he was "the axe laid to the root of the trees;" the son of thunder, commissioned to summon the guilty before the tribunal, and denounce judgment on every unfruitful professor. But Jesus Christ was mild, affable, social, compassionate; "the friend of publicans and sinners;" who came to "feed his flock like a shepherd, to gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom." When he beheld the city of Jerusalem, he wept over it: when he said to all who heard him, "Learn of me," he could truly and peculiarly add as at once an example and encouragement to his disciples, "for 1 am meek and lowly in heart." So well might he be

styled, with a view to the features of his character, "the Lamb of God."

2. But we shall form a very inadequate idea of the full import of John's expression, if we confine it to the example of Jesus Christ. This is not the only, nor perhaps the principal view in which we are to understand the appellation "Lamb of God!" There is another object of the highest importance to us, and to which his innocence and patience were requisite. He appeared not merely as a pattern of holiness; though, in this respect, we have seen in him an unrivalled preeminence above all the messengers of God: but he is to be principally regarded as the Saviour, "who taketh," or beareth, “ away the sin of the world." That the Baptist, in calling Jesus Christ "the Lamb of God," had a reference to his sacrificial character, is manifest from the explanatory clause he added on the preceding occasion-" who taketh away the sin of the world." The example of Christ, however perfect, had no proper power to "take away sin:" the best example, as we know, has but a feeble influence in correcting depravity, and none whatever in removing guilt. It is unnecessary, however, to multiply words in proof of this doctrine; because it is our privilege, on the present occasion, to address those who are continually reminded of Christ as the only mediator between God and man. In the appellation employed by the Baptist there is then, secondly, a distinct reference to the great design of his appearance and death. It points him out as the Lamb which God provided and accepted. It marks the sacrificial character of Christ, prefigured by the legal offerings. This Divine Lamb fulfilled all that was signified by those ancient sacrifices, which consisted principally of lambs; and especially all that was represented by the paschal lamb. A lamb was offered daily, in the morning and evening, in the tabernacle, and afterward in the temple: but the paschal sacrifice was solemnized with a peculiar attention and publicity once in every year. The Jews regarded this as the most important of all their observances. It was the most ancient of them all, instituted on their departure from Egypt, in commemoration of their deliverance from the destroying angel: and, though at first it reminded them of that event, yet afterward it probably served to direct their expectations to the great sacrifice for sin by the promised Redeemer. The circumstances and the purport of this remarkable ceremony may be found fully described in the twelfth chapter of Exodus; a chapter replete with the doctrine of Christ crucified. On that memorable night in which the angel of the Lord slew all the first-born of Egypt, not excepting those of the royal household, he was ordered to spare the families of Israel, which had been directed to exhibit a sign of the redemption by Jesus Christ, by sprinkling the blood of a lamb on the posts of their doors. The destroying angel recognised this consecrated token, and passed over the house thus marked, without smiting any member of the family it contained. That this was typical of the salvation by Jesus Christ is evident from the application of it made by the apostle Paul, when he says, "Christ, our passover, is sacrificed for us; therefore let us keep the feast." The idea of Christ being the VOL. III.-E e