two strangers *; is that all? Wo is me! you have feen nothing, if you have not got a fight of Chrift in this gofpel: you have heard nothing, if you have not heard the voice of Chrift. Some will go away, perhaps, pleafed with the fermons they have heard; but, O Sirs, what a matter of moon-fhine is that? Are we come this length only to please your ears? I think we have loft our errand, if we have win no heart to Chrift here: we think we have loft all our pains, if we have not win a foul to Christ here, nor made the favour of his name more known: but if henceforth fome ftranger to Christ be fet a feek. ing of him, fome. enemies be made friends, fome mockers be turned to mourners, fome graceless perfons, and families among you, were turned to praying ones, and praying perfons were turned to wrestling ones; if these that have only a form of prayer, and a form of godlinefs, were turned to the power of godlinefs; if defpifers of Christ, and of the gofpel, were turned to believers in Chrift, and followers of the Lamb, we fhould think our pains well beftowed, and our travel well recompenfed, tho' it had been a hundred miles farther. May these that are strangers and aliens to the commonwealth of Ifrael, become true citizens of the city of God; and may all the citizens take home this text with them, and rejoice in this firm word of God, that though the world fhould run into confufion and diforder; though matters fhould appear never fo difmal and defperate, though the enemies of the church, the people, the city of God, whether they be within, or without the walls, fhould roar like the ocean, and go to the utmoft bounds. of fury, yet, There is a river, the streams whereof do make glad the city of God. *The Rev. Mr. FISHER, late minifter at Glasgow, accompanied our Author in this embaffy to the South, and preached on these words, Their rock is not as our Rock, enemies themfelves being judges. It was the first time they had been in these bounds preaching. SERMON SERMON CX. The Giving Love of CHRIST, and the Receiving GAL. ii. 20. I am crucified with Chrift: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Chrift liveth in me: and the life which I now live A in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave bimfelf for me. ΤΗ HIS text is like a ftately tree, with fo many branches. We may call it a tree of life, and a tree of love. You will find life is the heart of the tree, and love is the root of it. The life of Chrift is the heart, and the love of Chrift is the root of the tree. There is a wonderful fence about this tree; it feems to be fenced. about, as it were, with death, the death of Chrift, which we are about to commemorate. The text begins and ends with it, as that which infures to the believer both this life and this love. How is the believer infured of this life of Chrift? Why, fays he, I am crucified with Chrift: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Chrift liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God.-And how is he infured and affured of this love of Chrift? Why, He loved me, and gave himself for me.. * This fubject was handled in four fermons, preached on facramental occafions. The firft was preached at Stirling, on the preparation-day, Before the facrament there, July 14th, 1739. The fecond was preached immediately before the action, July 15th. The third was delivered at Kinclaven, July 30th. The fourth at Burnt-iland, August 13th, all in the forefaid year. O! if we could by faith afcend up all the branches of this tree! The higher we climb, we will find it always the better and the fweeter. The first branch of the text is, I am crucified with Chrift. Why, may one fay, the evangelifts tell us but of two malefactors that were crucified with Christ, and Paul was none of them; nay, by this time he was at the feet of Gamaliel, and not at the foot of the cross on mount Calvary; and, had he been there, he would rather have helped to crucify him, than yielded to have been crucified with him; for fome time after this, we find him helping to ftone the firft martyr, Stephen, by confenting to his death; and helping to crucify Chrift in his members, and perfecuting them; which made Christ fay to him, as he was riding furiously against them to Damafcus, "Saul, Saul, why perfecuteft thou me?" How then could Paul be faid to be crucified with Chrift? This I fpoke to formerly*; and therefore fhall now only add these two confiderations. 1. That Chrift, on the crofs, was not a private, but a public perfon, reprefenting all his people: fo that, when he died and fuffered, we died and fuffered in him. As the first Adam did not fin only for himfelf, but for all his natural feed, that should come of him by ordinary generation; fo the fecond Adam did not die for himfelf at all, but for all his feed. 2., There is a real, fpiritual, and indiffolvable union between Christ and all his people that believe in him; infomuch, that his being crucified, is the fame as if they had been crucified in their perfon. The fecond branch of the text is, Nevertheless I live. It is not an annihilation of being, but a renovation and reformation of my former being. Though I be crucified and dead, yet I live a new life. I am not what I was, nor whofe I was, nor where I was. I am not what I was; I am not Saul the perfecutor, but Paul the believer, the profeffor, the preacher. I am not whofe I was; I was Satan's, but now I am Chrift's. I am not *What the Author delivered on this, and fome of the following claufes of this verfe, was never published. VOL. VII. + G where where I was; I am living in another world, breathing in another air: I live. The third branch is, Yet not I. Not I! Who then? Why, what folemn contradictions are here? I am crucified and dead: then there is an end; for, death is the end of all. Nay, but hear him again, Nevertheless I live. Why, this is a fhort death that is fo foon restored to life or, is he at one and the fame time both dead and alive? Yes, Paul is dead, and Paul lives: I live. It is not, I was crucified and dead, but I AM crucified with Chrift; I am dead, and yet I am living; and yet not I here is another contradiction, or paradox, not of myfelf, but by the life of another. No foul can animate this body but my own; yet neither foul nor body can live but by God. Thus doth he annihilate himself, that he may magnify his Master, and that Christ may be all in all: and fo the Fourth branch of the text is, Chrift liveth in me. Chrift is the root and fountain of all spiritual life, having it fo fuperabundant in himfelf, that he conveys it to all his members. Chrift is faid to live in the believer by virtue of the fpiritual union, whereby he and they are one Spirit. The foul doth not more properly live in the body, than he doth quicken both foul and bedy. Chrift is the Sun of righteousness to the foul: his abfence leaves us dead; his prefence revives us; and happy he that can fay, Chrift liveth in me. The fifth branch is, The life that I now live in the flefh, I live by the faith of the Son of God. I live, and live in the flefb. By flesh he means not the corruption of nature; for to that he was dead, when crucified with Chrift, but the mortal body. It is one thing to live in the flesh, another to live to the flesh, or after the flesh. Paul did not lead fuch a life as he did before; for that was to the flesh; his life now is but in the flesh. In the former ftate he was dead while he lived; but now I am alive, fays he. What a mercy were it, if all here could fay, They live, before they go hence, and ceafe living? It is never too foon to begin to live. But what fort of a life is it? I live, fays he, by the faith of the Son of God. Here is life, I live; he was very fure of it; for he had faid it before, I live; yet not I, but Chrift liveth in me; and here again, I live. Well, here is the means of this life, I live by faith, by the faith of the Son of God. We live primarily and properly by Chrift, as the body. by the foul; but mediately and inftrumentally by faith, as by the fpirits which are the bonds of foul and body : He that bath the Son bath life; he that hath faith hath the Son. Here further is the defignation given to this faith. It is called, The faith of the Son of God. It is fo denominated, becaufe, 1. He is the revealer of it. Neither nature nor the law could open the door of faith; "Grace and truth came by Jefus Chrift, John i. 17, 18.-No man hath feen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bofom of the Father, he hath declared him." 2. He is the approver and favourer of faith. There is nothing more acceptable to him. When he finds it ftrong in any man or woman, he is ready to fay, O man, " O woman, great is thy faith; be it to thee even as thou wilt." 3. He is the Author of faith: he is both the feeker and the giver of it; Faith is the gift of God: and he that calls us to believe, he only works it in ùs. 4. He is the increafer of it; therefore the difciples pray, Lord, increafe our faith. He that gives it, gives the increase of it. 5. He is the Finisher of faith; both the founder and finisher, Heb. xii. 2. He that begins this good work, he perfects the work of faith with power. 6. He is the object of faith. Faith defires to know nothing but Christ and him crucified. On thefe accounts it may be called the faith of the Son of God: where again you have the object of faith defcribed from his glorious perfon; he is the Son of God, a perfon of quality, and of fuch quality as to be equal with God the Father; "Higher than the higheft; without beginning and without end; the faithful Witnefs; the Prince of the kings of the earth; the Alpha and Omega; the beginning and the end; which was, and which is, and which is to come; the Almighty: he who hath on his vesture and on his thigh this name written, King of kings, and Lord of lords." And then the object of faith is described from his works; He loved me, and gave himself for me, which is, The fixth branch of the text. The apoftle had, in G 2 the |