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threefold region, deeper and deeper still, of trial and of suffering; the first, commencing from the temptation in the Wilderness, and extending over his life; the second, commencing from the Garden of Gethsemane, and extending to his death; the last, commencing from those excruciating words, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me!" and extending over the period of his disembodied being. All this travail of the Son of Man, my brethren, was undergone for the glory of God in the redemption of our souls! What think you then of the unmeasurable love with which God hath loved you in his Son? what think you of the inexpressible value of your souls, which were bought with such a price? what think you of the inconceivable glory for which such deep humiliation prepared the way? Will you then contemn this love; will you set at nought this sacrifice; will you barter away this birthright of glory, because you have to be followers of this humility? Count ye it not rather honourable to walk where the Son of God walked, and to suffer wherein he suffered? For its own sake, would you not rather suffer with the Son of God, than enjoy the pleasures of sin, or rejoice with the servants of sin? Or would you shuffle off the form of his humiliation, strike a truce with the world, and give way to the devil, and indulge the flesh; and perish utterly?-Perish utterly from the way, all who are ashamed of Christ's Cross! Perish utterly from the way, all who go about to please themselves, and not Him whose disciples and servants we are! O Lord, grant us grace never to be ashamed of thy Son! O God, grant us grace never to be ashamed of the Son of Man! Endow

us with strength to follow him through good and through bad report; and to give our life for him, who gave his life a ransom for us; yea, and to give our life for the brethren for whom he died.

For the encouragement of such devoted fellowsuffering, for the ashaming of such shrinking and apostate fears, take this discourse as my offering unto you, dear brethren; wherein I have, according to my gift, laid out in order the fourfold act of humiliation and suffering which the Son of Man underwent in order to bring glory unto God, to be to us both for instruction and for assurance: for instruction, to guide us in the way; and for assurance, to encourage us in the way. If we would bring glory to God, and be glorified with the glory of the Son of Man, we must walk in his footsteps, and contend with the devil, the world, and the flesh, as he did; and, having fought the good fight, and finished our course, enter, as he did, into the joy of our Lord. And to success in this, nothing will avail but earnestly and constantly to look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith; who endured the cross, despising the shame, and is now set down at the right hand of God. "Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." He died only to bear fruit in us; by death to destroy him that had the power of death, and deliver them who through the fear of death were all their life-time subject to bondage: he died to bruise Satan under our feet: he died to condemn sin in the flesh, and to deliver us from the curse of the Law into the glorious liberty of the sons of God. We are the fruit which have

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grown from that seed that fell into the ground and died. We have the first-fruits of that glory into which he entered, even the Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our glory and it is in no single strength, it is in no human or private strength, that we go out to this warfare against the devil, the world, and the flesh; but it is in the strength of him who conquered: for we are but a continuation of his strength; his very body, possessed with his very Spirit: in us God worketh mightily to will and to do of his good pleasure: "we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." Therefore, beloved brethren, this discourse, descriptive of Christ's sufferings, is a discourse exhortative and instructive to you to undertake the fellowship of the same: this discourse, descriptive of Christ's triumph over all his and your enemies, is a discourse full of assurance to every one who believeth in Christ. It is by spreading our souls in wide contemplation of the mighty work of God in the humiliation and exaltation of the Son of Man; it is by collecting our souls in intenser meditation upon the personal experiences of the Son of Man; that we shall grow into his image; and be led of the Holy Spirit into these the deep things of God, into which I have sought a little to introduce you this day. Therefore I do entreat you to consider Him who endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest you also be weary and faint in your minds." He hath set us an example, that we should follow his steps."Now, the God of peace, who brought again from

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the dead our Lord Jesus, that Great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work, to do his will; working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen."

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SERMON IV.

THE FRUITS OF THE INCARNATION.

EPHES. i. 2.
Grace be to you, and peace.

WE have, in the three preceding discourses, considered the Incarnation as a great purpose of the Divine counsels, designed for the ends of God's own glory, and accomplished by the manifestation of God's fulness in the person of the Son, who for that end became man: and it remains that we should now shew what fruits, unto the children of men and unto the world, it hath left behind it. To endeavour to estimate how much mankind are the better for this wonderful act of God, is the subject of our fourth and last discourse upon this mighty theme. And here we do, of design, limit ourselves to that which we actually possess, without entering into the infinite field of what we shall inherit hereafter. Not that I can separate the Gospel into parts, and discourse of it piecemeal; but that I can shew how the fulness of it bears upon this present condition in which the world since the Incarnation of Christ hath been passing its days. For I would be considerate of the church's present sickly and infirm condition; and would not sicken her weakened appetite by presenting such objects of faith as a second advent,

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