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wants; who, like ourselves, was a man of forrows, and acquainted with grief; who, by confequence, will be more apt to fympathize with his fellow-fufferers, and to fend relief to those forrows of which he himself bore a part!

SERMON XXXIII.

GALATIANS Vi. 14.

God forbid that I should glory, fave in the cross of our Lord Jefus Chrift.

[Preached at the celebration of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper.]

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"MY ways are not as your ways, and "my thoughts are not as your thoughts," faid the Lord to the Old Teftament church. And never, furely, did the Eternal Wisdom fo disappoint the expectations and blast the hopes of men, as by the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Had men been confulted concerning the state in which it was most proper for the Meffiah to appear, they would have introduced him into the world with all the circumftances of external pomp and fplendour; they would have put into his hand the fceptre of dominion over the nations, and subjected to his kingdom all the people of the earth, from the rifing to the fetting of the fun. A Meffiah, whose glory should not strike the senses, whose kingdom was not to be of this world, who was to be made perfect through fufferings, who was to triumph by humiliation, who was to become victorious by a shameful death, and in whose humiliation, and fufferings, and cross, the world was to glory; that was an idea which never presented itself to their minds, and which, if it had presented itself, would have been immediately rejected, as having no form nor comeliness, for which it could have been defired:

yet, fuch was the method contrived by Infinite Wif dom to accomplish the redemption of the world. One great end of all the divine difpenfations, has been to humble and confound the pride of man. lt was pride that at first introduced moral evil into the world. It was pride that tempted the angels to rebel against their Maker, that brought them down. from the manfions of light, to the abodes of darkness and despair. It was pride that tempted our first parents to difobey the divine commandment. The language of their apoftafy was, "I will afcend into "the heavens, I will rife above the height of the "clouds, I will exalt my throne above the stars of "God, I will be like the Moft High." Pride, although not made for man in his best estate, hath not forfaken him in his worft. Even the fall did not efface the strong impreffion from his mind. As if he had continued the fame noble being he came from the hands of his Creator; as if he had been still the happy lord of the inferior world, he retained the consciousness of his original excellence, when that excellence was no more; he furrendered himself to delufions which flattered his vain mind; he tried new paths to elevation and worldly greatness; he even appropriated to himself the attributes of the divinity, and, poffeffed with the madness of ambition, arrogated to himself those honors which are due to God only. Hence the world deified mortal men, worshipped as its creators those to whom it had lately given birth, and adored as immortal and divine the human creatures whofe death it had beheld.

As man fell by pride, it was the appointment of Heaven that he should rife by humility. This doc-...

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trine was early delivered to the world. God teftifi ed by his prophets, that he knew the proud afar off that the proud in heart was an abomination to him, but that he would hear the cry of the humble; that though he dwelt in the high and holy place, he would dwell alfo with that man who was of a humble and contrite fpirit. But more than inftructions were requifite to reform the sentiments, and change the spirit, of a world which had been fo much intoxicated with dreams of earthly greatnefs, and fo long enchanted with spectacles of human glory. Accordingly it pleased God, in the fulness of time, to fend forth his own Son into the world, in fashion as a man, in the form of a fervant, to become obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, and hath appointed all Christians to glory in his crofs, nay, to glory in nothing elfe. "God forbid that I fhould "glory, fave in the crofs of our Lord Jefus Chrift.”

These words might give occafion to many useful discourses. All that I intend at prefent is, to fhow you by what means we are to glory in the cross of Christ.

In the first place, then, We are to glory in the cross of Chrift, by frequently meditating upon the circumstances of his death and paffion.

The human actions and events in which we glory, become often the objects of contemplation; they prefent themselves fpontaneously to the mind, and become the favourite ideas of the foul. We turn them on all fides, we view them in every light, we delight in them, we dwell upon them, we make them our meditation day and night. Surely, then, it becomes us to revolve often in our mind this great mystery of

godliness, God manifested in the flesh, and dying on a cross for the falvation of the world. The angels in heaven, as we are told in Scripture, defired with earneft eyes to look into the fufferings of Jefus ; much more should we make the fufferings of Jefus the object of our meditation, for he took not on him the nature of angels, but of the feed of Abraham.

Call up to thy mind, then, O Chriftian! the doleful circumstances of thy Saviour's paffion, the fad variety of forrows which he fuffered, the torment of body and agony of mind which he underwent, the cruel, the ignominious, and accurfed death which he endured. Make these things prefent to thy mind, till the blended emotions of contrition and forrow, of awe and wonder, of joy and pleasure, of gratitude and love, take poffeffion of thy heart. "Can you not "watch with me one hour?" faid our Lord to his disciples, when he entered into his agony. "Can

you not watch with me one hour?" faith our Lord to his disciples in every age, when they are about to renew the memorials of his death and paffion. Agreeably to his dying charge, accompany thy Redeemer, O Christian! in the last scene of his fufferings. Look to him with such a lively sense and feeling of his forrows, till, like Paul, thou art crucified with Christ. While all nature is thrown into diforder, while the rocks are rent, and the dead arife, wilt thou contin ue. unmoved? Wilt thou continue harder than the rocks, and more infenfible than the afhes of the dead? No; while thou thus mufeft, holy affections will be kindled, and the heavenly fire will burn; from the altar which was erected on the hill of Calvary, a living ember will touch thy lips, and purify thy heart,

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