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the following paffage, Eph. iii. 17. 18. 19. "That Chrift may dwell in your hearts by faith; "that ye being rooted and grounded in love, "may be able to comprehend with all faints, "what is the breadth, and length, and depth, "and height; and to know the love of Chrift, "which paffeth knowledge, that ye might be fill. "ed with all the fulness of God."

4. In the last place, From what has been faid, learn what is your moft proper employment at the Lord's table. Adore and contemplate the riches of redeeming grace, that great theme which the angels defire to look into." Think, with humble amazement, on the boundless mer. cy of God, which reached even to you, and with the highest thankfulness on the honour to which you are admitted, of receiving the fenfible pledges of his love. Dwell on this impenetrable mystery of "Immanuel God with us-God ma "nifested in the flesh." Think on this awful. proof of divine juftice and holiness, the wrath of God poured out upon his own Son. Think on the perfection of that atonement which is made for the fins of the world. Rejoice in the fulness of that Saviour who is now made "head over "all things to the church ;" and draw, by faith, from his fulness, every neceffary supply to yourfelves and as you are now to commemorate his death, with a view to his second coming, think on that " day of falvation," when he shall come" to be glorified in his faints, and admired. "in all them that believe;" when you shall enter in triumph into the holiest of all, where P. 2

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no doubt the mystery of redemption fhall be more fully difcovered; when faints and angels fhall jointly fing that new fong, Rev. v. 12. "Worthy is the Lamb that was flain, to receive "power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, "and honour, and glory, and bleffing;" when the whole plan of divine grace fhall be completed and clofed, and the mediatorial kingdom itfelf brought to a period; for "then cometh the "end, when he fhall have delivered up the king"dom to God, even the Father;" when confirmed angels, and redeemed finners, when the whole host of heaven fhall unite in one acclamation, "Hallelujah for the Lord God omnipo"tent reigneth."

SER.

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SERMON

Glorying in the Cross.

GALATIANS vi. 14.

VIII.

But God forbid that I should glory fave in the crofs of our Lord Jefus Chrift.

MTM

Action Sermòn.

Y brethren, we are this day met to keep up the remembrance of our Redeemer's fuf. ferings and death in our room. We are to com- memorate an event the most important, the most interesting, and the most astonishing, that crea. tion ever beheld. We are to contemplate a fubject the most wonderful and myfterious that ever was offered to the mind of man. The incarnation of the Son of God, the King of kings found in the form of a fervant, and the Prince of life expiring on an accurfed tree. What is this but the union of things the most oppofite and feemingly inconfiftent that can poffibly be con-ceived? the union of the most diftant extremes of strength and weakness, glory, and base-nefs, honour and shame?

In a fort of correfpondence and analogy to this great fubject itself, nothing can be more op

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pofite than the fentiments formed by believers and unbelievers with regard to it. To the one, it hath a dignity and majefty unfpeakably amiable; to the other, it hath a meannefs and bafenefs that is fhameful and contemptible. The Apoftle Paul often takes notice of this, that it was "to the Jews a ftumbling-block, and to the "Greeks foolishness;" and he often difcovers his own inviolable attachment to his Saviour, by an open profeffion of esteem for those circumftances in his character and appearance which a blinded world were most apt to treat with derifion and scorn. This is particularly the case in the text, "But God forbid that I should glory "fave in the cross of our Lord Jefus Chrift."

By the cross of Chrift, in the New Testament, we are sometimes to understand the sufferings of believers for Chrift's fake; but more commonly, and, I think, evidently in this place, it fignifies his humiliation in general, and particularly his crucifixion, to which circumftance our attention is directed, because it was the most base and ig nominious of the whole. In this the apoftle fays he would glory: nay, he expreffes his abhorrence at the thought of glorying in any thing elfe: "God forbid that I fhould glory fave in the "cross of our Lord Jefus Chrift." Nothing can be more fuited to the employment of this day, and nothing more proper to diftinguish between the friends and the enemies of Christ, than this, when carefully attended to; for the one will undoubtedly glory, and the other will as certain ly be ashamed of his cross.

In

In difcourfing further on this fubject, what I propofe, through divine affiftance, is,

1. To explain the import of the apostle's glo, rying only in the Saviour's crofs.

2. To fhew what good reafon every real Christian hath to glory in it. And, 3. To make some practical application of the fubject.

I. IN the first place, then, let us explain the import of the apostle's glorying only in the Saviour's crofs. What is this object in which the apostle fays he would glory? Very wonderful indeed. It is, That Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Mary, was fubjected to a long life of forrow, reproach, and contempt: That towards the clofe of it, he was arrefted, accused, condemned as a malefactor; and after innumerable and unfpeakable indignities, was at last nailed to a cross, an engine of torture of the most cruel and painful kind, and fo fhameful, that it was a manner of punishment appropriated to the most detefted criminals of the bafeft rank. What is there here to glory in? and what does the apostle mean by this expreffion? It means,

1. That he had a high esteem of it, as an event of the greatest moment, and an object worthy of the highest regard. We do not glory in common things, but in things of peculiar dignity and worth. It was not then in his view merely what it seemed. He did not confider it, fure. ly, as the execution of a criminal; but said, with the centurion on Mount Calvary, Truly "this

" was

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