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SERMON XVI.

CHRIST WITHOUT SIN.

1 PETER ii. 22.

"Who did no sin."

THE Apostles of our Lord notice with much complacency the individual virtues which dignified or adorned his character, just as the Evangelists had related the actions in which they were displayed, with much genuine and unaffected simplicity. But while they mention particular virtues, in order to recommend these to the practice of such as they intended to instruct, they do not lose sight of the effect which they may, either singly or collectively, produce in establishing and illustrating the merit of Him, in whose deportment they appeared. And not unfrequently they seem to have taken a combined view of the whole,-to have meditated on every part of Christ's history,-to have gathered into one assemblage all the varied expressions of excellence which occurred to them as they pro

tial worth, which have been put upon him by that great Being under whose government he is now placed, and by whom he is to be judged at last; —it is only then that the language of the text describes him, and that he can properly be said to have "done no sin."

Now, it is in this strict and elevated sense, that Christ" did no sin." Judging of him by the perfect and unaccommodating standard of God's holy law, that expression, as it respects Christ, is the literal expression of justice and of truth. All the requirements of the law were fulfilled in the character which he exhibited to the world. Nor can the eye of the most scrutinizing observer discover in it one feature of non-conformity, or one act of opposition, to the will of him who ruleth over all.

There may be particular virtues, or particular modifications and degrees of virtue, of which his life will afford you no instance. These are wanting, however, only for this reason that in the execution of his appointed work, and in the peculiar sphere in which he was destined to move, no opportunities occurred for practising them. It is enough, that during the whole period of his humiliation, and in all the vicissitudes through which he passed, and amid the multiplied temptations to which he was exposed, he discharged the obligations which were laid upon him, and did nothing which was inconsistent with the least

or with the greatest of them; and that the occasions afforded him for cultivating righteousness were so numerous, and so diversified, and so much connected with difficulty and trial, as to demonstrate the existence of that supreme love of righteousness, and that entire devotedness to its exercise, which would have been equally displayed at all other times and in all other circumstances. And this is what we affirm of Christ. The path of obedience which was assigned to him, was a long and a rugged one, and he walked in it with undeviating stedfastness, and he walked in it to the very end-manifesting from the very commencement to the very termination of his progress, an unqualified and unreserved acquiescence in the demands of God's law. He "did no sin ;" and when we say so, we do not mean that he was holy in comparison even of the best of men, or that he was holy in comparison of the highest standard which mere human wisdom has ever had recourse to, but that he was holy in the most rigid sense of the term -far beyond these and all similar comparisonseven according to the divine commandments in their purest spirit, and in their exceeding breadth, and in their ceaseless obligations.

In speaking with approbation of our fellow mortals, we are generally necessitated to fix upon some one leading virtue by which they have distinguished themselves from their brethren,

and on account of which alone they have become the objects of admiration and praise; but with regard to Christ, we perceive all the virtues adorning his character, and we feel at a loss in determining to which of them we should give the pre-eminence-his piety to God being equalled by his benevolence to men, and none of them surpassing his meekness under provocation, his patience amidst suffering, and his fortitude at death. In speaking with approbation of our fellow-mortals, we are frequently obliged to dwell upon the excellence of their external conduct, and to conceal the principles and motives by which they were influenced, although upon the nature of these depends, in a great measure, their title to our good opinion and our applause: But with regard to Christ, so far as they have been developed to us, or so far as we can trace them from the uniform aspect and tenor of his doings, the principles on which he proceeded were as divine, and the motives which impelled him as disinterested and worthy, as the actions themselves which he performed were agreeable to the spirit and the letter of those enactments, to which he subjected himself when he was "made under the law."-In speaking with approbation of our fellow-mortals, we must always accompany our eulogium with certain exceptions to their disadvantage-certain shortcomings which detract from the splendour or from the value of the good qua

lities for which we commend them, or certain vices which counterbalance them and render our commendations less cordial and less unqualified: But with regard to Christ, we can discern no such imperfection or demerit in any one branch of his deportment; we perceive not a single act, however insulated and transient, to which we can attach the epithet of evil; and we see every virtue in its most unalloyed form, and in its most exalted exercise-devotion, most ardent and unaffected-charity, without any admixture of selfishness-humility, undebased by meannessself-denial, which never yielded to the tempter

-patience and resignation, which no suffering could shake, and which all the terrors of death could not for a moment subdue. In speaking with approbation of our fellow-mortals, we are always supposed, even when our laudatory language is most unbounded and unmeasured in its expressions, to allow that we wish not to be strictly apprehended, and to leave it to be understood that there is need for that charity which seeks not to detect the failings of humanity, and tries to cover them when they are known: But with regard to Christ, this charity has no room to operate; it sees no failings to turn away from; it knows of nothing which claims or which requires its indulgence; exempt from every moral defect, and "glorious in its holiness," his character appeals, not to the charity of man, but to the law