tyrs of the Christian Church, are witnesses on record of this important truth, that the most honourable laurels are gathered in the vale of tears, and that the crown of glory sits brightest on the brows of those who have gained it with their blood. Jesus of Nazareth, too, was appointed to learn obedience by the things that he suffered. All the virtues of adversity shone forth in his life. The pitience that acquiesces with cheerfulness, in all the appointments of Providence, the magnanimity which triumphs over an enemy by forgiveness, the charity which prays for its persecutors, are striking and conspicuous parts of his character. But we injure his merit as a sufferer, if we consider it only as breaking out in single and occasional acts of virtue. His sufferings themselves, his conde scending to become a victim for the sins of men, and to die for the happiness of the world, is an infinite exertion of benevolence, that admits of no comparison, that is transcendant and meritorious. The consideration of this, more than the circumstances of his departure, more than the rocks which were rent, than the sun which was darkened, than the dead which arose, had we been present at the scene, should have made us cry out with the centurion, Surely this man was the Son of God."

III. If we consider our Saviour as a priest, who was to > make an atonement for the sins of men, the expediency of his making this atonement by sufferings and death will be manifest. It is one of the doctrines revealed in the New Testament, that the Son of God was the Creator of the world. As, therefore, he was our immediate Creator, and, as his design in our creation was defeated by sin, there was an evident propriety that he himself would interpose in our behalf, and retrieve the affairs of a world, which he had created with his own hands. But it is evident, at first sight, that redemption is a greater work than creation; that it requires a more powerful exertion to recover a world lying in wickedness to happiness and virtue, than to create it at first in a new state of innocence. In the work of redemption, therefore, it was expedient, that there should be a brighter display of the Divine perlections, and a greater exertion of benevolence than was exhibited in the work of creation. Now, if God, without a satisfaction by sufferings, and by a mere act of indemnity, had blotted out the sins of the world, such a display of the divine attributes would not have been given. But

by the Son of God's appearing in our nature, and suffering the punishment which was due to our sins, . scene is presented, on which the angels desire to look.This in the language of Scripture, was the glory that excelleth: here the Almighty made bare his holy arm, and gave testimony to the nations what was in the power of a God to effectuate. Hereby all the perfections of the divine nature were glorified. That immaculate purity, which cannot look upon sin, and that astonishing love, which could not behold the ruin of the sinner, were awfully displayed; the majesty of the divine government was sustained, and the rigour of the law was fulfilled; justice was satisfied; mercy without restraint, and without measure, flowed upon the children of men. In short, more glory redounded to God, and greater benevolence was made manifest to men, than when the morning stars sung together at the birth of nature, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.

IV. If we consider our Saviour in that state of glory to which he is now ascended, the propriety of his being made perfect by sufferings will more fully appear. Because he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, therefore hath God highly exalted him, hath given him a name above every name, and committed to him all power in heaven and in earth. By the appointment of Providence, suffering hath ever been the path to honour. Ought not Christ, therefore, also to have suffered, and to enter into his glory? As, upon earth, he submitted to the lowest degree of abasement, and appeared in the form of a servant, he is now in heaven exalted to the highest pinnacle of honour, and appears in the form of God. As, in his state of humiliation, he was poor, and had not where to lay his head, he is now the Lord of nature, and inherits the treasures of heaven and of earth. Instead of the mock title of King of the Jews, which they wrote upon his cross, he is now in very deed the King of kings, and Lord of lords. Instead of the crown of thorns, which pierced and wounded his blessed head, he is now for ever encircled with a crown of glory.

What dignity does it reflect upon all our race, that one, who wears our likeness, who is not ashamed to call us brethren, now sits upon the throne of Nature, now holds in his hand the sceptre of Providence, and exercises uncontrouled dominion over the visible and invisible

worlds! What abundant consolation will it administer to Christians in all their afflictions, what openings of joy will it let down into the vale of tears, when we recollect that the Governor of the world is a God who partakes of our own nature, who, in the days of his humanity, had a fellow feeling of all our wants; who, like ourselves, was a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; who, by consequence, will be more apt to sympathize with his fellow-sufferers, and to send relief to those sorrows of which he himself bore a part!

SERMON XXXIII.

GALATIANS vi. 14.

God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.*

"MY ways are not as your ways, and my thoughts are not as your thoughts," said the Lord to the Old Testament church. And never, surely, did the Eternal Wisdom so disappoint the expectations and blast the hopes of men, as by the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Had men been consulted concerning the state in which it was most proper for the Messiah to appear, they would have introduced him into the world with all the circumstances of external pomp and splendour; they would have put into his hand the sceptre of dominion over the nations, and subjected to his kingdom all the people of the earth, from the rising to the setting of the sun. A Messiah, whose glory should not strike the senses, whose kingdom was not to be of this world, who was to be made perfect through sufferings, who was to triumph by humiliation, who was to become victorious by a shameful death, and in whose bumiliation, and sufferings, and cross, the world was to glory, that was an idea which never presented itself to

• Preached at the celebration of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper.

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their minds, and which, if it had presented itself, st, holy have been immediately rejected, as having no form urn: comeliness, for which it would have been desired: a such was the method contrived by infinite Wisdom to ac complish the redemption of the world. One great end of all the divine dispensations has been to humble and confound the pride of man. It 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 mansions of light, to the abodes of darkness and despair. It was pride that tempted our first parents to disobey the divine commandment. The language of their apostacy was, "I will ascend into the heavens, I will rise above the height of the clouds, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, I will be like the Most High." Pride, although not made for man in his best estate, hath not forsaken him in his worst. Even the fall did not efface the strong impression from his mind. As if he had continued the same noble being he came from the hands of his Creator: as if he had still been the happy lord of the inferior world, he retained the consciousness of his original excellence, when that excellence was no more: he surrendered himself to delusions 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, possessed with the madness of ambition, arrogated to himself those honours 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 whose death it had beheld.

As man fell by pride, it was the appointment of Heaven that he should rise by humility. This doctrine was early delivered to the world. God testified 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 also with that man who was of an humble and contrite spirit. But more than instructions were requisite to reform the sentiments, and change the spirit, of a world which had been so much intoxicated with dreams of earthly greatness, and so long enchanted with spectacles of human glory. Accordingly, it pleased God, in the fulness of time, to send forth his own Son

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as a man, in the form of a seranto death, even the death of the all Christians to glory in his othing else. "God forbid that ross of our Lord Jesus Christ." occasion to many useful disat present is to show you by y in the cross of Christ. the cross of Christ, by frequently umstances of his death and passion. and events, in which we glory, become often the objects of contemplation; they present themselves spontaneously to the mind, and become the favourite ideas of the soul. We turn them on all sides, 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 salvation of the world. The angels in heaven, as we are told in Scripture, desired, with earnest eyes, to look into the suffering of the object of our meditation, for he took not on him the nature of angels, but of the seed of Abraham.

Call up to thy mind, then, O Christian! the doleful circumstances of thy Saviour's passion; the sad variety of sorrows which he suffered; the torment of body and agony of mind which he underwent; the cruel, the ignominious, and accursed death which he endured. Make these things present to thy mind, till the blended emotions of contrition and sorrow, of awe and wonder, of joy and pleasure, of gratitude and love, take possession of thy heart. "Can you not watch with me one hour?" said our Lord to his disciples, when he entered into his agony. "Can you not watch with me one hour?" saith our Lord to his disciples in every age, when they are about to renew the memorials of his death and passion. Agreeably to his dying charge, accompany thy Redeemer, Ŏ Christian! in the last scene of his sufferings: look to him with such a lively sense and feeling of his sorrows, till, like Paul, thou art crucified with Christ. While all nature is thrown into disorder, while the rocks are rent, and the dead arise, wilt thou continue unmoved? Wilt thou continue harder than the rocks, and more insensible than