ercise of power, or the exercise of any different power, to lay it down, and take it up, at His pleasure. He who could voluntarily assume life, in the exercise of the same power, may voluntarily lay it aside, or retain it, in defiance of all the powers of earth and hell to destroy it.

Again; The power of Christ over His life was made manifest from the defeat which attended the efforts of His enemies to destroy it, until His appointed time had come. It would appear that Herod Antipas-the cruel and abandoned ruler who beheaded John the Baptist-had some designs upon His life. But our Lord directed the Pharisees who acquainted Him with these designs, to go and tell him that He should continue to perform miracles and teach in his territory, Galilee, until He had completed His work. What a message for a seemingly unprotected man to send back to so violent and unscrupulous a ruler! But the secret was that He had power over His life. He knew His safety; and that he could not perish out of Jerusalem. We have a more striking instance of our Lord's preserving His own life, in the manner in which He escaped out of the hands of the enraged inhabitants of Nazareth, the town in which he was brought up. He had preached in their synagogue; but they were so dissatisfied with His doctrines, that a tumult was raised, and they seized Him, and drew Him to the brow of the precipitous hill, on which their city was built, to cast Him down headlong, "but," we are informed, "He passing through the midst of them, went His way." These violent men, could have no power against Him to injure a hair of his head, because it had not been given them; and because He possessed the power of overwhelming them with sudden fear, or of miraculously taking Himself out of their hands, and rendering Himself invisible. Unmolested, according to the Gospel narrative, He went His way through a crowd of men, intent on His destruction. The hour had not come for Him to part with His life. In like manner, when the Jews, displeased with the doctrines of Christ, as related in the eighth chapter of John, took up stones to cast at Him, He" hid Himself," and went out of the temple, through the midst of His enemies. His hiding Himself must mean that He rendered Himself invisible. His answer “I am He," to those who had been sent to arrest Him, in the garden, had such an effect upon them, that they went backward, and fell to the ground. It would seem that none of the band who were sent to arrest Him, with Judas at their head, knew Him, although they had brought torches and lanterns, to assist them in making the arrest. He would teach them that His life could not be wrested from Him; that He must consent to lay it down of Himself; that with one of His own disciples for their guide, and lights to distinguish Him, He could make them not to know Him. And, then, as if more signally to expose the folly of all this array of power to take Him into custody, the very words, "I am He," by

which He made Himself known as the object of their search, struck the soldiers down with amazement and fear, as if they had fallen by the weapons of a conquering foe. And after He had permitted the band of soldiers to take Him, He told His disciples that He could have, if He desired it, more than twelve legions of angels for His protection. It was not helplessness;—it was not for want of power to preserve His life, that he yielded Himself to His enemies. In the judgment-hall of Pilate, He fearlessly proclaimed to that unjust Judge, that he could have no power against Him, except it had been given him,-given him (He meant) by the very prisoner at his bar. He stood before that tribunal, not only possessed of power, to retain his own life, but of power in an instant to overwhelm His judge, His accusers and the band of soldiers, with consternation, and utter destruction. Follow Him to the cross. There, nailed to the accursed tree, He yielded up His spirit; but it was a voluntary surrender of life. I do not mean that it was not a real death. I do not mean that the charge so often brought by the Apostles, in their preaching, against the Jews, of having killed or slain the Prince of life, was a false charge. Because He did not choose, at the time of His crucifixion, to exercise the power to retain His life, which he claims in the text, and which He had repeatedly exercised before, it did not diminish their guilt. They were just as guilty of the murder, as they would have been, if Christ had not possessed this power, or had not voluntarily laid down His life.

As we stand by the cross, what an amazing spectacle do we behold! The Prince of Life, who could say, "No man taketh my life from me, but I lay it down of myself," appears as a weak and defenceless victim, in the hands of a detachment of Roman soldiers, and closed around by a sneering, scoffing Jewish mob. We behold the Lion of the tribe of Judah, who might have instantly prevailed against His enemies, led as a helpless lamb to the slaughter, and as a dumb sheep before her shearers. Let us recur to the account of an eye-witness, an evangelist, who stood very near His cross. I will give you his very words: "Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scriptures might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar, and they filled a sponge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth. When Jesus, therefore, had received the vinegar, He said, it is finished, and He bowed His head, and gave up the ghost." No wonder that the centurion, and those that were with him, watching Jesus, exclaimed, "Truly this was the Son of God." Not the attending circumstances merely, marvellous as they were, the earthquake, the supernatural darkness, but the manner of His death, having in it, as related in these words of an eye-witness, so much of the appearance of a voluntary surrender of life, and so much, not of the serenity or stoicism of the philosopher, but of the majesty and

compassion of a God, pointed Him out as a Being more than human. That which, in the exercise of sovereign freedom, He assumed, He consented for a time to relinquish. But He had power not only to lay it down, He had power to take it again; which leads me,

II. Secondly, to consider briefly Christ's power over His life, in resuming it, after He had laid it down, as a proof of His divi nity. It is not the fact of Christ's resurrection from the dead which I feel called upon to establish. This doctrine cannot be denied by believers in the Bible, as a divine revelation. My simple object will be, taking the truth of this doctrine, as admitted, to show that a Scriptural view of the resurrection of Christ, that view particularly which is suggested by the text, involves a conspicuous proof of His deity. Our Lord claimed to possess the power of resuming His life again, after he had laid it down. The possession of such a power over the subtle principle of life, whatever may be the particular theory adopted, as to the nature of the body which was raised from the dead, must be regarded as a conclusive proof of His divinity. Even on the unscriptural theory, that the material body of Christ was not raised, and that no body whatever was raised from His tomb, but that a spiritual or psychical body was eliminated at death; I say, even on this theory, Christ's asserted power over the subtle principle of life, must be regarded as the attribute of a Being infinitely more than human.

When He laid down His life, it was a temporary surrender merely, to be revoked, not only by His own power, but at a time appointed by Himself: "Destroy this temple," meaning His body, "and in three days I will build it up." He consented to lay aside His life, for the space of three days, at the expiration of which, by His own power, He would take it again. Observe the expression, "I will raise it up." Its import is, that the resurrection of His body would be His own work, or an act of His own power. The term "I," refers to a nature in the person of Christ, which had power to raise the dead, and which, consequently, must have been a nature superior to human. "For to this end," writes Paul, in his Epistle to the Romans, xiv. 9, "Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that He might be Lord both of the dead and the living." Here, too, His resurrection is clearly ascribed to His own power, as establishing His authority over all that shall be raised from the dead. To this end, He arose that He might be Lord of all who live again, by the same power. It is true that the resurrection of Christ, in the New Testament, is very frequently ascribed to the Father: "Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should be holden of it." "This Jesus hath God raised up whereof we all are witnesses." "HIM God raised up the third In like manner, God is styled

day, and showed Him openly."

the Judge of the world; and yet we are most distinctly taught that Jesus Christ will judge the world at the last day; that the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment to the Son. The work of creation, also, is beyond all question ascribed to Christ, and yet Jehovah claims to be the creator of all things. Such representations are a signal proof that the Father and the Son are one in substance, and united in operation. On one page of the Bible we read, "Destroy this body, and in three days I will raise it up" and on another we read that he was raised up by God. What clearer proof could be given that the Saviour is divine, and that the Father and the Son are one?

Let us then from the cross, where the Prince of Life bowed His head, and gave up the ghost, repair to His sepulchre, on the third day. The stone is no longer at the door. Lo! it is an empty sepulchre. But, who are these in white robes? They are angels commissioned to testify that Jesus is not here-that He is risen, as He said. O what a triumph when the Prince of Life marched like a conqueror through the territories of death, proclaiming, "I am the Resurrection and the Life," and planting, as He emerged, the ensign of victory upon the door of the tomb. Let others profess their faith in a human Saviour; our hope and our rejoicing are in a divine Saviour, who had power to conquer death, and rise triumphant over the grave; who, in offering Himself, strangely united both the offerer and the offering, the Priest and the sacrifice; who is even at the right hand of God, where He maketh intercession for us.

Before concluding, we ought particularly to notice what is stated in the context, as the ground of the Father's love to the Son, a recompense which the Son esteemed sufficient for all His sufferings in our behalf, namely, that the Son, as the Prince of Life, voluntarily assumed our nature, that He might lay down His life for our offences, and resume it again for our justification. It was for this voluntary act that the Father delighted in the Son; and in being thus beloved by the Father, the Son rejoiced as an abundant reward for His amazing humiliation, in assuming the form of a servant. "Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life." "Have these words," asks John Howe, "a meaning? This our awful regard to the venerable greatness of Him that spake them, cannot suffer us to doubt. And if they mean anything, it is impossible they should not mean something most profound and great, worthy of the great, all-comprehending, central, original Being, from whence all things spring, and wherein all terminate. Here is some gradual retection of the veiled arcana of the Divine Being-if we may allude to the inscription in an Egyptian temple, I am all that was, and is, and shall be; and who is he that shall draw aside my veil.' Here is in some part a withdrawing of that sacred veil, by Him, to whom by prerogative, it belonged, and of whom it is said, No

man hath seen God at any time, but the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him." Here is some disclosure of the mystery of God the Father, and of Christ the Mediator, of God and man united in one in order to the reconciliation of the holy and blessed God, with unholy and miserable man. God loved the world. Through the riches of his inconceivable goodness-a most intense, vehement love towards the whole race of intelligent creatures-He was powerfully inclined that they should not only be saved, but he made 'sons.' But, at the same time, an inflexible regard to the eternal, immutable principles of right and wrong, had also a fixed, everlasting seat in the mind of God. Mercy would save; justice condemned. It was here that the free consent of one of the highest dignity, His own beloved Son, was proposed and accepted to assume the nature of the guilty, and lay down His life for their redemption. To the all-comprehending mind, where ends and means lie connected in one permanent eternal view, this course presented itself, and was, therefore, eternally determined, by easy concert between the Father and Son. And who can doubt but this course was indispensably necessary to this end? The Father loveth the Son; and the Son declares that he is beloved of the Father, because He freely consented to make atonement, by His own death in our nature, for the sins of our apostate race. And this delight of the Father in the Son, is the Son's all-sufficient recompense for all that He suffered in the work of human redemption."

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My hearers, if such is the love of the Father to the Son, for His love towards us, what love ought we to exercise towards Him who died for us? Finally, the subject has led us to consider a most encouraging truth, namely, Christ's power over life, as illustrated in His own death and resurrection. It is a truth which ought to revive our hearts, and from which may be derived the highest benefit. Sooner or later, we shall all be called to part with life. "There

is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither hath he power in the day of death; and there is no discharge in that war." Death is a solemn hour. Religion, although it may prepare us for this dread event, and fortify the soul to meet it, is, at the same time, designed to foster in us the most solemn thoughts in view of it, and the momentous issues which it involves. We are, perhaps, more liable to allow our dread of death to have too great an influence over us, than we are to regard it as an event of trivial importance. Some of the most consistent believers, through fear of death, are all their life-time subject to bondage. They have a constitutional timidity. For the consolation of such, and of all believers, we are expressly taught that our Redeemer took part of flesh and blood, that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who, through fear of death, were all their lifetime subject