cherish the plants of divine grace, that "it work repentance not to be repented of ?”

3d, This subject exhorteth all,—it exhorteth careless persons to consider the guilt of overlooking sparing mercy;-of continuing insensible to the calls of Providence ;-of resisting the Spirit ;-and of turning their most serious regards from Christ in his ordinances ;-to consider, that if ye persist in this course, ye shall never see him in his graciously melting influences;—that if ye never see him in these, ye must see him coming in flaming fire; that if ye never wail unto repentance, ye shall unavailingly wail when he consumes you by the brightness of his coming. Awake, then, ye that sleep; arise, and Christ will give you life.”

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SERMON XVII.

2 Cor. iv. 10.—" Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body."

"IF any man will come after me," said Jesus, "let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." Simon of Cyrene is the only person who literally bore the cross of the Lord. The apostle, and his fellow-labourers in the gospel, obeyed the spirit of our Lord's injunction, and left an example worthy of imitation in all ages. "Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body."

"The dying of the Lord Jesus Christ" includes the corporeal and mental sufferings of the Son of God in our nature, especially on the cross," made sin for us, though he knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." "Bearing about the dying of the Lord in the body," undoubtedly includes in it an outward conformity to it, but an outward proceeding from an inward conformity to Christ suffering the accursed death of the cross. The apostle could not say, "I bear

about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ," merely because his outward sufferings bore a striking resemblance to those of Christ; otherwise, the impenitent thief who was crucified with the Lord might have used similar language. The apostle employs this expression because he suffered as a member of Christ's body, in the same cause with him, though not as an atoning sacrifice for Christ's sake, and in the spirit of Christ, enduring the appointments of God.

This is an example to be imitated by all Christians in all its essential parts. "All who will live godly in Christ Jesus, shall suffer persecution." Blessed be God, these persecutions are light, are nothing in our favoured land, compared with those of the apostles and first Christians. Still, the outward afflictions of life are great, are sometimes an ignominious, and often an agonizing cross; and they ought to be, and oftentimes are, endured as by members of Christ's body, for the glory of God and the good of the church; for the sake of Christ, and in his spirit.

I purpose to consider and illustrate a little the exercises and views of a Christian entitled to speak of himself" as always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ; that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in his body."

I. He lives in the exercises of a sincere faith in the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ. This must be

implied in his bearing it about with him as an object of reverential regard,-especially in his denying himself, and undergoing every hardship to which esteem for it may expose him. He is well acquainted with the nature and ends of Christ's death, "as a sacrifice to satisfy divine justice, and reconcile sinners to God." Many things may shake, but nothing can overthrow his belief in these precious truths. What distinguishes him is his experience of its suitableness to his own necessities, and of its divine efficacy. He took it up, and continues to bear it, as the only ransom of his soul, without which the redemption of it must have perished for ever. He took it up, and continues to bear it as the price of the divine favour, and of the heavenly inheritance. He took it up, and continues to bear it as the infallible remedy of all his spiritual distempers, in sickness and health, in prosperity and adversity, in life and in death. He took it up from his deep sense of need on the authority of God, and by the persuasion of the Holy Ghost; and he continues to bear it because it is effectual, in some comfortable measure, to deliver from the sense of divine wrath; to promote the meltings of godly sorrow for sin in his heart; to excite longings after conformity to his blessed image; to render his ordinances desirable and sweet; to take out much of the bitterness in the cup of affliction, and much of the poison in the cup of prosperity; and to confirm the resolution to cleave to him with full purpose of heart. When

he took it up it was heavy, and seemed almost intolerable; increasing acquaintance with its nature and efficacy has rendered it a light burden, an easy yoke.

II. This Christian lives in the exercise of admiring gratitude to Him whose death he bears about in his body. He could not bear about willingly what he esteemed no less disgraceful than afflicting. In the judgment of the world, in the judgment of the natural man, shame as well as pain is attached to the dying of Jesus. The time was when he reasoned and felt in the same manner; nor is he at all times, even now, exempt from the blush of the world, for which he blusheth again as a Christian, nor from the mortification of the world, for which he is again mortified,-when the cross of Christ is peculiarly humbling and painful. These emotions of false shame, or of moral cowardice, and even their consequent acts, are only exceptions from his habit of admiring gratitude,-are only proofs that it is not yet perfect, though of great practical influence. Were not the depravity of man deep as his ignorance is dark, what is there in "the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ," which would not produce admiration and gratitude? When the Christian contemplates this marvellous object in its proper light,-in the light of the word and Spirit of God; instead of being ashamed of it, he counts it his chief honour, as it is his chief happiness. There is not a

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