sin is ever before me," Ps. li. 3, the image of bloody Uriah haunts me every where, then how happy to be enabled to say, "I have wept for these sins, in the bitterness of penitence I have lost the remembrance of pleasure in sin; and I trust, by the grace of God, I am guarded against future attacks from them." Such are the pleasures of this sacrifice: but what are its rewards! Let us only try to form an idea of the manner in which God gives himself to a soul, that devotes itself wholly to him. Ah! if "we love him," is it not "because he first loved us?" Alas! to what degree soever we elevate our love to him, it is nothing in comparison of his love to us! What shall I say to you, my brethren, on the love of God to us? What shall I say of the blessings, which he pours on these states, and on the individuals who compose them, of the restoration of peace, the confirmation of your liberties, the preservation of your lives, the long-suffering that he exercises towards your souls? Above all, what shall I say concerning that great mystery, the anniversary of which the church invites you to celebrate next Lord's day? "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son," John iii. 16. A God who has loved us in this manner, when we were enemies to him, how will he not love us, now we are become his friends, now we dedicate to him ourselves, and all besides that we possess? What bounds can be set to his love? "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" Rom. viii. 32. Here I sink under the weight of my subject. "O my God! how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee!" Ps. xxxi. 19. My God! what will not the felicity of that creature be, who gives himself wholly to thee, as thou givest thyself to him! Thus, my dear brethren, religion is nothing but gratitude, sensibility and love. God grant we may know it in this manner! May the knowledge of it fill the heart and mouth of each of us during this festival, and from this moment to the hour of death, with the language of my text, "Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not, but a body hast thou prepared me. In burnt-offerings for sin, thou hadst no pleasure: Then said I, Lo! I come. I come, as it is written in the volume of the book, to do thy will, O God!" May God condescend to confirm our resolutions by his grace. Amen. SERMON XXXIV. 66 Sometimes we require the most difficult duties of morality of you. At other times we preach the mortification of the senses to you, and with St. Paul, we tell you, they that are Christ's, have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts," Gal. v. 24. Sometimes we attack your attachment to riches, and after the example of our great Master, we exhort you to "lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through, nor steal," Matt. vi. 20. At other times, we endeavour to prepare you for some violent operation, some severe exercises, with which it may please God to try you, and we repeat the words of the apostle to the Hebrews, "Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin: wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees," Heb. xii. 4. 12. At other times we summon you to suffer a death more painful than your own; we require you to dissolve the tender ties that unite your hearts to your relatives and friends; we adjure you to break the bonds that constitute all the happiness of your lives, and we utter this language, or shall I rather say, thunder this terrible gradation in the name of the Almighty God, "Take now thy sonthine only son-Isaac-whom thou lovestand offer him for a burnt-offering upon one of the mountains, which I will tell thee of," Gen. xxii. 2. To-day we demand all these. We require more than the sacrifice of your senses, more than that of your riches, more than that of your impatience, more than that of an only son; we demand a universal devotedness of yourselves to "the author and finisher of your faith;" and to repeat the emphatical language of my text, which in its extensive compass involves, and includes all these duties, we require you "henceforth not to live unto yourselves: but unto him, who died and rose again for you." As we have great designs upon you, so we have great means of executing them. They are not only a few of the attractives of religion. They are not only such efforts as your ministers sometimes make, when uniting all their studies and all their abilities, they approach you with the power of the word. It is not only an august ceremony, or a solemn festival. They are all these put together. God has assembled them all in the marvellous transactions of this one day. Here are all the attractives of religion.Here are all the united efforts of your ministers, who unanimously employ on these occasions all the penetration of their minds, all the THE EFFICACY OF THE DEATH OF tenderness of their hearts, all the power of CHRIST. 2 CORINTHIANS v. 14, 15. The love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: And that he died for all, that they which live, should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him, which died for them, and rose again. language to awake your piety, and to incline you to render Jesus Christ love for love, and life for life. It is an august ceremony, in which, under the most simple symbols that nature affords, God represents the most sublime objects of religion to you. This is a solenn festival, the most solemn festival that Christians observe, this occasions them to express in songs of the highest joy their gratitude and praise to their deliverer, these are their sentiments, and thus they exult, "The right hand We have great designs to-day on you, and of the Lord doeth valiantly!" Ps. cxviii. 15. we have great r'eans of executing them.-"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord MY BRETHREN, There is also an ambiguity in the effects. which the apostle attributes to this love. He says, "the love of Christ constraineth us," the love of Christ uniteth, or presseth us. "The love of Christ constraineth us," may either signify, our love to Jesus Christ unites us to one another, because it collects and unites all our desires in one point, that is, in Jesus Christ the centre. In this sense St. Paul says, "Love love uniteth us together, it would express a sentiment very conformable to the scope of St. Paul in this epistle. He proposes in this epistle in general, and in this chapter in particular, to discourage those scandalous divisions which tore out the vitals of the church at Corinth, where party was against party, one part of the congregation against another part of the congregation, and one pastor was against another pastor. Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all the ministers of the gospel, of whom he speaks spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ," in the preceding and following verses; or all Eph. i. 3. “Blessed be God, who hath begot-believers, to the instruction of whom he conseten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrec- crated all his writings. tion of Jesus Christ from the dead," 1 Pet. i. 3. And on what days, is it natural to suppose, should the preaching of the gospel perform those miracles which are promised to it, if not on such days as these? When, if not on such days as these, should "the sword of the spirit, divide asunder soul and spirit, joints and marrow," Eph. vi. 17; Heb. iv. 12, and cut in twain every bond of self-love and sin? To all these means add the supernatural as-is the bond of perfectness," Col. iii. 14, that is sistance that God communicates in a double to say, the most perfect friendships, that can portion in these circumstances to all those, be formed, are those which have love for their whon a desire of reconciliation with heaven | principle. Thus if my text were rendered conducts to this assembly. We have prayed for this assistance at the dawning of this blessed day; we prayed for it as we ascended this pulpit, and again before we began this exercise; with prayer for divine assistance we began this discourse, and now we are going to pray for it again. My dear brethren, unite your prayers with ours, and let us mutually say to God; O thou rock of ages! Thou author of those great mysteries, with which the whole Christian world resounds to-day! make thy "work perfect," Deut. xxxii. 4. Let the end of all these mysteries be the salvation of this people. Yea, Lord! the incarnation of thy Word; the sufferings, to which thou didst expose him; the vials of thy wrath, poured on this victim, innocent indeed in himself, but criminal as he was charged with all our sins; the cross to which thou didst deliver him; the power that thou didst display in raising him from the tomb, conqueror over death and hell; all these mysteries were designed for the salvation of those believers, whom the devotion of this day has assembled in this sacred place. Save them, O Lord! "God of peace! who didst bring again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make them perfect in every good word to do thy will; work in them that which is well-pleasing in thy sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen," Heb. xiii. 20, 21. "The love of Christ constraineth us." This is our text. Almost every expression in it is equivocal: but its ambiguity does not diminish its beauty. Every path of explication is strewed with flowers, and we meet with only great and interesting objects even conformable to the mysteries of this day and the ceremony that assembles us in this holy place. If there be a passage in the explication of which we have ever felt an inclination to adopt that maxim, which has been productive of so many bad comments, that is, that expositors ought to, give to every passage of Scripture all the different senses which it will bear, it is this pasage, which we have chosen for our text.Judge of it yourselves. There is an ambiguity in the principal subject, of which our apostle speaks, "The love of Christ." This phrase may signify either the love of Christ to us, or our love to him. There is an ambiguity in the persons who are animated with this love. "The love of Christ constraineth us; St. Paul means either "The love of Christ constraineth us," may also signify, the love of Christ transports us, and carries us, as it were, out of ourselves. In this case the apostle must be supposed to allude to those inspirations, which the pagan priests pretended to receive from their gods, with which, they said, they were filled, and to those, with which the prophets of the true God were really animated. The original word is used in this sense in Acts, where it is said, "Paul was pressed in spirit, and testified to the Jews, that Jesus was Christ," chap. xviii. 5. This explication approaches still nearer to the scope of St. Paul, and to the circumstances of the apostles. They had ecstacies. St. Peter in the city of Joppa was "in an ecstacy." St. Paul also was caught up to the third heaven," chap. x. 10, not knowing" whether he was in the body, or out of the body," 2 Cor. xii. 2, 3. These ecstacies, these transports, these close communions with God, with which the inspired men were honoured, made them sometimes pass for idiots. This is the sense which some give to these words, "We are fools for Christ's sake," 1 Cor. iv. 10. This meaning of our text well comports with the words which immediately precede, "Whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God; or whether we be sober, it is for your cause;" that is to say, if we be sometimes at such an immense distance from all sensible objects, if our minds be sometimes so absent from all the things that occupy and agitate the minds of other men, that we seem to be entirely "beside ourselves," it is because we are all concentrated in God; it is because our capacity, all absorbed in this great object, cannot attend to any thing that is not divine, or which does not proceed immediately from God. "The love of Christ constraineth us." This expression may mean, (my brethren, it is not my usual method to fill my sermons with an enumeration of the different senses that interpreters have given of passages of Scripture: but all these explications, which I repeat, and with which perhaps I may over charge my discourse to-day, appear to me so I should have remarked one figure of speech. just and beautiful, hat I cannot reconcile my- which, I think, has not been observed, I mean, self to the passing of them over in silence.- a sublime ambiguity. I understand by this, the When I adopt one, I seem to myself to regret artifice of a man, who, not being able to exthe loss of another.) This, I say, may also press his rich ideas by simple terms, of detersignify, that the love of Jesus Christ to us minate meaning, makes use of others, which "surrounds us on every side;" or that our love excite a multitude of ideas; like those wa to him pervades and possesses all the powers of machines that strike several ways at once. I our souls. could show you many examples of these traits of eloquence both in sacred and profane writers: but such discussions would be improper here. The first sense of the original term is found in this saying of Jesus Christ concerning Jerusalem, "The days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side," Luke xix. 43. The latter is a still more beautiful sense of the term, and perfectly agrees with the preceding words, already quoted, "If we be beside ourselves, it is to God." A prevalent passion deprives us at times of the liberty of reasoning justly, and of conversing accurately. Some take these famous words of St. Paul in this sense, "I could wish myself accursed from Christ for my brethren," Rom. ix. 3, and these of Moses, Forgive their sin, and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book," Exod. xxxii. 32. Not that a believer in Christ can ever coolly consent to be separated from Christ, or blotted out of the catalogue of those blessed souls, for whom God reserves eternal happiness: but these expressions flow from "transports of love" in holy men. They were "beside themselves," transported beyond their judgment. It is the state of a soul occupied with one great interest, animated with only one great passion. Finally, these words also are equivocal, "If one died for all," that is to say, if Jesus Christ has satisfied divine justice by his death for all men, then, all they who have recourse to it, are accounted to have satisfied it in his person. Or rather, "If one died for all," if no man can arrive at salvation but by the grace which the death of Christ obtained for him, "then are all dead," then all ought to take his death for a model by dying themselves to sin. Agreeably to this idea, St. Paul says, "We are buried with him by baptism into death," Rom. vi. 4, that is, the ceremony of wholly immersing us in water, when we were baptized, signified, that we died to sin, and that of raising us again from our immersion signified, that we would no more return to those disorderly practices, in which we lived before our conversion to Christianity. "Knowing this," adds our apostle, "in that Christ died, he died unto sin once; but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God," ver. 10. Thus in my text, "If one died for all, then were all dead," that is, agreeable to the following words, "He died for all, that they which live, should not henceforth live unto themselves; but unto him, which died for them, and rose again." Such is the diversity of interpretations, of which the words of my text are susceptible. Nothing can be farther from my design, nothing would less comport with the holiness of this day, than to put each of these in an even balance, and to examine with scrupulosity which merited the preference. I would wish to unite them all, as far as it is practicable, and as far as the time allotted for this exercise will allow. They, who have written on eloquence, In general, we are fully persuaded, that the design of St. Paul in my text is to express the power of those impressions, which the love of Jesus Christ to mankind makes on the hearts of real Christians. This is an idea that reigns in all the writings of this apostle; and it especially prevails in this epistle, from which our text is taken. "We all, with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory; even as by the spirit of the Lord," 2 Cor. iii. 18. 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," chap. iv. 10. Though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory: while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal," ver. 16-18. "He that hath wrought us for the self-same thing, is God, who also bath given unto us the earnest of the spirit," chap. v. 5. "We are willing rather to be absent from the body, and present with the Lord," ver. 8. Again in the text, "The love of Christ constraineth us, because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead; and that he died for all, that they which live, should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again." This is the language of a soul, on which the love of Christ makes lively and deep impressions. Let us follow this idea, and, in order to unite, as far as union is practicable, all the different explications I have mentioned, let us consider these impressions. I. In regard to the vehement desires and sentiments they excite in our hearts. "This love constraineth," it possesses, it transports us. II. In regard to the several recipients of it. "The love of Christ constraineth us," us believers, and particularly us ministers of the gospel, who are heralds of the love of God. III. In regard to the consolations which are experienced through the influence of love in the miseries of life, and in the agonies of death, of which the apostle speaks in the preceding verses. IV. In regard to the universality of that devotedness, with which these sentiments inspire us to this Jesus, who has loved us in a manner so tender. "He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again." After we have considered these ideas separately, I will endeavour to unite them all together, and apply them to the mystery of this day. God grant, when you come to the table of Jesus Christ, when you receive from our hands the bread and the wine, the symbols of his love, when in his name we say to you, "This is my body, this is my blood;" you may answer, from the bottom of a soul penetrated with this love, "The love of Christ constraineth us, because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead; and that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again." I. Let us consider the impressions of the love of Christ on us in regard to the vehemence of those desires, and the vivacity of those sentiments, which are excited by it in the soul of a real Christian. I am well aware that lively sentiments, and vehement desires, seem entirely chimerical to some people. There are many persons, who imagine that the degree, to which they have carried piety, is the highest that can be attained; that there is no going beyond it; and that all higher pretensions are unsubstantial, and enthusiastical. Agreeably to this notion, they think it right to strike out of the list of real virtues as many as their preachers recommend of this kind, although they seem celebrated in Scripture, and beautifully exemplified in the lives of the holy men of old. I am speaking now of zeal and fervour. This pretence, all extravagant as it is, seems to be founded on reason, and has I know not what of the serious and grave in its extravagance. It is impossible, say they, that abstract truths should make the same impressions, on men composed of flesh and blood, as sensible objects do. Now all is abstract in religion. An invisible Redeemer, invisible assistance, an invisible judge, invisible punishments, invisible rewards. Were the sentiments of those men cold, who If religion has produced such lively sentiments, such vehement desires in the hearts of those believers, who saw in a very imperfect manner the objects that are most capable of producing them, I mean the cross, and all its mysteries, what emotions ought not to be excited in us, who behold them in a light so clear? Ah, sinner! thou miserable victim of death and hell, recollect the means that grace has employed to deliver thee! raised from the bottom of a black abyss, contemplate the love that brought thee up, behold, stretch thy soul, and measure the dimensions of it. Represent to thyself the Son of God enjoying in the bosom of his Father ineffable delights, himself the object of his adorable Father's love.Behold the Son of God casting his eyes on this earth, touched with a sight of the miseWere the people, whom I oppose, to attri-ries into which sin had plunged the wretched bute their coldness and indifference to their posterity of Adam; forming from all eternity own frailty; were they endeavouring to correct the generous design of suffering in thy stead, it; were they succeeding in attempts to free and executing his purpose in the fulness of themselves from it; we would not reply to their time. See him, whom angels adore, uniting pretence: but, when they are systematically himself to mortal flesh in the virgin's womb, cold and indolent; when, not content with a wrapped in swaddling clothes, and lying in a passive obedience to these deplorable disposi-manger at Bethlehem. Represent to thyself tions, they refuse to grant the ministers of the Jesus suffering the just displeasure of God in gospel the liberty of attacking them; when they the garden of Gethsemane; sinking under the pretend that we should meditate on the doc-weight of thy sins, with which he was chargtrines of redemption and on a geometrical cal-ed; crying, in the extremity of his pain, "O culation with equal coolness; that these words, "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son to save it," should be pronounced with the same indifference as these, "The whole is greater than a part," this is the height of injustice. We are not obliged, we think, to reason with people of this kind, and while they remain destitute of that faculty, without which they cannot enter into those demonstrations, which we could produce on this article, it would be in vain to pretend to convince them. my Father! if it be possible, let this cup pass from me!" See Jesus passing over the brook Cedron, carrying to Calvary his cross, execrated by an unbridled populace, fastened to the infamous instrument of his punishment, crowned with thorns, and rent asunder with nails; losing sight for a while of the love of his Father, which constituted all his peace and joy; bowing under the last stroke, and uttering these tragical words, which ought to make all sinners shed tears of blood, My God! my God! why hast thou forsaken me?" Ah! phiAfter all, we glory in being treated by per- losophical gravity! cool reasoning! how missons of this kind in the same manner, in which employed are ye in meditating these deep mysthey would have treated saints of the highest teries! "How excellent is thy loving kindorder; those eminent pietists, who felt the fine ness, O God!" Ps. xxxvi. 7. "My soul shall emotions, which they style enthusiasm and be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, when fanaticism. What impressions of religion, had I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate Moses, David, Elias, and many other saints, a on thee in the night-watches," Ps. lxiii. 5, 6. list of whom we have not time to produce?-"The love of God is shed abroad in our titude for his condescension, first for incorporating us into this august body, and next for substituting us to act in his place, that we rejoice in every opportunity of sacrificing all to express our sense of it. hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto | These are the true sentiments of a minister of the gospel. When I speak of a minister of the gospel, I do not mean a minister by trade and profession only, I mean a minister by inclination and affection. For, my bre thren, there are two sorts of ministers, the one I may justly denominate trading ministers, the other affectionate ministers. A trading minister, who considers the functions of his ministry in temporal views only, who studies the evidences and doctrines of religion, not to confirm himself, but to convince others, who puts on the exterior of piety, but is destitute of the sentiments of it, is a character sordid and base, I had almost said odious and execrable. What character can be more odious and execrable, than that of a man, who gives evidence of a truth, which he himself does not believe? Who excites the most lively emotions in an auditory, while he himself is less affected than any of his hearers? But there is also a minister by inclination and affection, who studies the truths of religion, because they present to him the most sublime objects, that a reasonable creature can contemplate, and who speaks with eagerness and vehemence on these truths, because, he perceives, they only are worthy of governing intelligent beings. II. Let us consider the impressions of the love of Jesus Christ in regard to the different receivers of it. "The love of Christ constraineth us," us, that is to say us believers, whatever rank we occupy in the church: but in a particular manner us apostles of the Lord. I have already intimated, that my text may be considered as an explication of what related to the apostles in the foregoing verse. What idea had St. Paul given of apostleship in the preceding verses? He had represented these holy men as all taken up with the duties of their office; as surmounting the greatest obstacles; as triumphing over the most violent conflicts in the discharge of their function; as acquitting themselves with a rectitude of conscience capable of sustaining the strictest scrutiny of men, yea, of God himself; as deeply sensible of the honour that God had put upon them, by calling them to such a work; as devoting all their labours, all their diligence, and all their time, to the salvation of the souls of men. We must repeat all the foregoing chapters, were we to confirm these observations by the apostle's own words. In these chapters we meet with the following expressions."Our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience," 2 Cor. i. 12. "Thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place," chap. ii. 14. "We are not as many, which corrupt the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ," ver. 17. "If the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses, for the glory of his countenance, which glory was to be done away; how shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious?" chap. iii. 7, 8. "All things are for your sakes, that abundant grace might redound to the glory of God," chap. iv. 15. To the same purpose are the words immediately preceding the text. "Whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God; or whether we be sober, it is for your cause." What cause produced all these noble effects? What object animated St. Paul, and the other apostles, to fill up the noble character they bore in a man-ed to Abraham confirmed to Moses; he is dener so glorious? St. Paul tells you in the text, "The love of Christ constraineth us;" that is to say, the love of Jesus Christ to his church makes such deep and lively impressions on our hearts, that we can never lose sight of it. We think we can never take too much pains for the good of a society, which Jesus Christ so tenderly loves. We are so filled with gra What effects does a meditation of the love of God in Christ produce on the heart of such a minister? St. Paul mentions the effects in the text, "The love of Christ constraineth, surroundeth, presseth, transporteth, him."My brethren, pardon me if I say the greatest part of you are not capable of entering into these reflections; for, as you consider the greatest mysteries of the gospel only in a vague and superficial manner, you neither know the solidity nor the beauty of them, you neither perceive the foundation, the connexion, nor the glory of them. Hence it is, that your minds are unhappy vhen they attend long to these subjects; reading tires you; meditation fatigues you; a discourse of an hour wears out all your patience; the languor of your desires answers to the nature of your applications, and your sacrifices to religion correspond to the faintness of those desires, and to the dulness of those applications, which produced them. It was not thus with St. Paul, nor is it thus with such a minister of the gospel as I have described. As he meditates, he learns; as he learns, his desire of knowing increases. He sees the whole chain of wonders, that God has wrought for the salvation of men; he admires to see a promise made to Adam renewed to Abraham; he rejoices to find a promise renew lighted to see a promise confirmed to Moses, published by the prophets; and long after that publication accomplished by Jesus Christ.Charmed with all these duties, he thinks it felicity to enter into the views and the func tions of Jesus Christ, and to become "a worker together with him," chap. vi. 1; this work engrosses all his thoughts; he lives only to ad |