and the more freely the means of grace have been indulged to him, the more desperate is his case, if he happens to revolt, and the harder will the task be, if he turns profligate, to reclaim him. It is a work of much less difficulty to make a good Christian of a professed heathen, than to bring an ill Christian, who now lives like an heathen, to a feeling sense of his sins, and to any degree of true remorse and compunction of heart for them.

Let us hear the issue of the whole matter-what the consequence of these tremblings of Felix was, and how long they continued upon him, the context will inform us. He abruptly breaks off the discourse with St. Paul, and dismisses him in haste. Go thy way, says he, for this time; when I have a convenient season I will call for thee! But he soon recovers from his fright; for it presently follows-He hoped also, that money should have been given him of Paul, that he might loose him; wherefore he sent for him the oftener, and communed with him. We see the seed of the word, sown by the apostle, fell among thorns, and immediately the thorns sprung up, and choked it, Matt. xiii. 7. The love of unjust and oppressive gain quickly returned upon Felix, and drove out the impressions of St. Paul's reasonings; and when he had once stood the shock of his conscience, and got the better of his fears, he afterwards heard the same things said, without any degree of the same remorse and conHe sent for St. Paul often, and communed with him, with no other design but that of gratifying his curiosity, and extorting a bribe from him-so suddenly and easily may the best reflection be stifled, and the strongest convictions overborne, by the force of any one prevailing vice, or lust, that hath gotten an absolute dominion over us!

cern.

That this may not be our case, whenever we hear an awakening discourse from the 'pulpit, and find our consciences touched to the quick with some apposite passages of it; let us not forthwith endeavour to get rid of the smart, and to dismiss such troublesome reflections, as

Felix did; Go your way for this time, when I have a convenient season I will call for you. Nay, but this is the proper time, this the most convenient season for our entertaining them, and conversing with them, when they press to be admitted and heard. Take not therefore something, as the way is, to put off the fit; call not in company, business, or pleasure, to divert your thoughts from their present melancholy employment; but rather study every way to cherish and promote these good beginnings by retirement, meditation, and prayer! Commune with your own heart in your chamber, and be still there, Psal. iv. 1; suffer these terrors of the Lord freely to reason and plead with you, till they have persuaded you there in private; re-apply, and enforce, and improve, those good impressions you received in public, till you have rivetted the influence of them fast into your mind, and reached the end for which the good Spirit of God intended them; even till, by the means of them, you have wrought out a repentance to salvation, not to be repented of! 2 Cor. vii. 10.

Which that all of us may attain, God of his infinite mercy grant through the merits of Christ our Saviour, to whom, with the Father and the blessed Spirit, be ascribed all power and praise, now and for ever.

A

SERMON,

PREACHED AT ST. JAMES'S CHAPEL, ON GOODFRIDAY, 1718.

OF GLORYING IN THE CROSS OF CHRIST.

But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, whereby the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.-GAL. vi. 14. GOD forbid!-A manner of speech familiar, and almost peculiar to St. Paul; frequently employed by him in his writings, thrice in this very epistle; never but where he intends, with a particular degree of earnestness and vehemence, to condemn some doctrine or practice imputed to Christians, or prevailing among them; by which he thought Christianity highly dishonoured. In such cases, it is usual with him to express his dislike, his detestation of such doctrine or practice, by this emphatical phrase, μὴ γένοιτο, which we translate -God forbid.

The special occasion of his employing it here in the text, was this: the Gentile converts among the Galatians, after St. Paul's departure from them, had been seduced by some false teachers, who were Jews, into a belief, that the law of Moses was not entirely abolished; but that circumcision, and the other rites of it, were still necessary to be observed by all those, who, being heathens, intended to become Christians. This opinion had been entertained, and spread by these false teachers, partly through a superstitious reverence for their law, and a mistaken notion of the true nature and design of the Gospel; and partly, with a view of lessening the

prejudices which the Jews had conceived against the doctrine of Christ; and of avoiding the persecutions, which they every where raised against those who propagated or professed it.

The apostle having argued against these teachers, and their opinions, strongly and fervently in various parts of this epistle, returns to the same subject at the close of it; and there sums up in short, what he had before more largely delivered. As many, (says he), as desire to make a fair shew in the flesh, [ευπροσωπῆσαι ἐν σapni, a phrase of his own, which signifies, to act upon carnal views, and for worldly ends, and to study popular and plausible appearances], they constrain you to be circumcised, only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. [Not so much out of a conviction of the necessity of what they urge upon you, as that they may live easily, and carry things smoothly with all men.] For, as it follows, neither they, (these false teachers), themselves, who are circumcised, keep the law; but desire to have you circumcised. To what end? Even that they may glory in your flesh; that they may boast of having made you proselytes to Judaism in the way to Christianity, and by that means recommend themselves to their countrymen, on the account of their zeal for the law of Moses, at the same time that they would be thought to serve the interests of the Gospel. But let them consult their own safety, and affect a false glory by this insincere conduct if they please; God forbid, says he, that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ! God forbid, that I should act upon any such worldly views and motives in the propagation of the doctrine of Christ, or think to promote it by any methods, but what are agreeable to the nature and design of it: it is the doctrine of the cross, and ought therefore to be preached in simplicity and godly sincerity, without worldly hopes or fears, without arts and disguises: the chief article of this doctrine, that wherein the great lines of it centre, is, the satisfaction made to divine justice, by the sufferings and death of a

crucified Saviour. By this sacrifice of the cross all the legal sacrifices and ceremonies are determined and abolished; by this, and this only, a real atonement is made to God for our sins, and a way opened to his favour: on this, consequently, all the hopes and happiness of a Christian depend. Mean, therefore, and ignominious as the circumstances of this transaction were, I will not be offended at them myself, nor fear lest others should be offended on this subject I will perpetually dwell in my private meditations, and in my public instructions: of this capital article of the Christian faith, I will not only not be ashamed, but I will boast; I will glory in it, and in nothing beyond or besides it! For it is a doctrine full of wonder and delight, of instruction, advantage, and comfort to sincere believers, to penitent sinners; since it is that, whereby the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. Whereby the world is crucified unto me: all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, is rendered, though not incapable of polluting me, yet ineffectual towards condemning me; the sting of sin is taken away, the guilt is pardoned; and I am crucified unto the world; I am, by the victorious power of that grace, which was purchased by this sacrifice of the cross, become insensible, and dead, as it were, to the pleasures, the pomps, and vanities of this world; I have crucified the flesh, with the affections and lusts, Gal. v. 24. Since therefore the sufferings of Christ are of so great efficacy and power, as to be able to free me, not only from the guilt and punishment of sin, but also from the dominion and power of it; is there any thing I should value myself upon, in comparison of the privilege of being made a partaker of the merits of these sufferings? in comparison of the mercies, the advantages I enjoy, by the means of this humble, but admirable dispensation? Let others form to themselves what schemes of satisfaction and happiness, pride themselves in what pre-eminences, what distinctions, they 'please; but God forbid that I should glory, save in the