made them form a picture of Him, who was the defire of all nations, very unlike the original.

A king whom the world admires, is one of extenfive power, with numerous armies, a golden crown and fceptre, a throne of ftate, magnificent palaces, fumptuous feafts, many attendants of high rank, immenfe treasures to enrich them with, and pofts of honour to reward their fervices.

Here was the reverse of all this; for a crown of gold, a crown of thorns; for a fceptre, a reed put into his hand, in derifion; for a throne, a cross; inftead of palaces, not a where to lay his head; instead of sumptuous feafts to others, oftimes hungry and thirsty himself; inftead of great attendants, a company of poor fishermen; inftead of treasures to give them, not money enough to pay tribute, without working a miracle; and the honour they were promised, was, each of them to bear a cross. In all things the reverse of worldly greatnefs from first to laft; a manger for his cradle at his birth, not a place to lay his head fometimes in his life, nor a grave of his own at his death.

Here unbelief frets and murmurs, and afks, Where is all the glory that is fo much extolled? For difcovering this, faith needs only look through that thin vail of flesh, and under that low disguise appears the Lord of Glory, the King of Kings, the Lord of Hofts, ftrong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle a; the heavens his throne, the earth his footftool, the light his garments, the clouds his chariots, the thunder his voice, his ftrength omnipotence, his riches all-fufficiency, his glory infinite, his retinue the hofts of heaven, and the excellent ones of the earth, on whom he bestows riches unfearchable, an inheritance incorruptible, banquets of everlafting joys, and preferments of immortal honour; making them kings

B

a Pfal. xxiv. 8.

kings and priests unto God, conquerors, yea, and more than conquerors, children of God, and mystically one with himself.

But when Chrift affumed the form of a fervant, and paffed over the ftage of the world, unnoticed; yet this state of debasement was not without fome difcoveries of his intrinfic glory.

His birth was mean on earth below, but it was celebrated with hallelujahs, by the heavenly hoft, in the air above; he had a poor lodging, but a star lighted vifitants to it from diftant countries. Never prince had fuch vifitants fo conducted. He had not the magnificent equipage of fovereigns, but he was attended by multitudes of patients, feeking and obtaining healing of foul and body, which was more real grandeur, than if he had been attended with crowds of princes: he made the dumb that attended him fing his praifes, and the lame to leap for joy, the deaf to hear his wonders, and the blind to fee his glory; he had no guards of foldiers, nor magnificent retinue of fervants, but as the Centurion, who had both, acknowledged, health and fickness, life and death, took orders from him: even the winds and ftorms, which no earthly power can controul, obeyed him; and death and the grave dared not to refuse to deliver up their prey, when he demanded it. He did not walk on carpets of Perfia, but the fea joyfully fupported him when he honoured it as his path. All nature, finful man excepted, honoured him as its Creator. By thefe, and many fuch things, the Redeemer's glory fhone through his meanness in the feveral parts of his life. Nor was it totally clouded at his death; it was not indeed attended with the fantaftic trappings of artificial forrow; but the frame of nature folemnized the death of its author; heaven and earth were mourners, the fun was clothed in black. And if the inhabitants of

the

the earth were unmoved, the earth itself trembled under its awful load; few Jews paid him the compliment of rending their garments, but the temple, the pride of their nation, rent afunder its beautiful vail, as now having loft its illuftrious vifitant; and even the rocks, not fo infenfible as they, rent their bowels. He had not a grave of his own; but the graves about Jerufalem, fpontaneously open to accommodate him. Death and the grave might be proud of fuch a tenant in their territories; but he came not there as a fubject, but as an invader and conqueror; it was then the king of terrors loft his fting, and on the third day the prince of life triumphed over him, spoiling death and the grave.

Such was the life, and fuch was the death of Christ, whom the Apostle, juftly, in the text, accounts the top, the crowning glory of the Jewish nation.

But as he elsewhere faith, none of us liveth unto himself, and none of us dieth unto himself, so I may add, that this obfervation was applicable to Jefus, in it's fulleft force.

"He taught us how to live, and (oh too high

"A price for knowledge) taught us how to die."

Yes; his life, and death, doctrines, and miracles, all tended to the glory of God, and the happiness

of men.

2. He was CHRIST the BLESSED, not only as he was the glory of the Jewish nation, but to fhew all the infinite perfections of the Deity, so as to exhibit him as an object of worship and honour, and a ground of truft, love, and efteem. And truly the glory of God was manifefted in the face of Christ Jefus, being the brightness of the Father's glory, and the exprefs image of his perfon. The beautiful frame of nature fhews much of God; but alas it is overcaft with a gloom

of

of terror towards a guilty world. And although its language be plain and loud in proclaiming the glory of the Creator, yet it is dark and intricate as to his inclination towards finful men: it neither affures peremptorily that we are in a state of despair, nor gives fure footing for our hopes. If we are favourites, whence fo many troubles? If we are hopeless criminals, whence fo many favours? Nature fhews God's glory and our fhame; his law our duty, and confequently our danger; but about a way of efcape- Nature is dumb on this important point. But, Jefus, as the woman of Samaria, juftly obferved, when he came tells us all things. But a mind affected only with outward grandeur would fcarcely credit, that more of the glory of God fhines forth in Chrift crucified, than in the face of heaven and earth; the face of Chrift, in which fenfe discovers nothing but marks of pain and difgrace, that bloated, mangled vifage, red with gore, and covered with marks of fcorn, fwelled with blows, and pale with death, that would be the last object in which the carnal mind would feek to fee the glory of the God of life.

It would turn away from the deformed mangled object, but would have poffibly viewed with rapture the fame Jefus, when transfigured on the holy mount, and holding conferrence with Mofes and Elias, his celeftial Vifitants. Divine glory fhone indeed then in a bright manner on mount Hermon, but not near fo brightly as on mount Calvary; this was the more glorious transfiguration of the two. Though all the light in the world, in the fun and flars was collected together, into one ftupenduous mafs of light, it would be but darkness to the glory of this feemingly dark and melancholy object, for it is here alone, we all with open face, behold as in a glass, the glory of God.

Here

Here shines spotlefs juftice, incomprehenfible wifdom, and infinite love, all at once: none of them darkens or eclipfes the other, every one of them gives a luftre to the reft. They mingle their beams, and fhine with united eternal fplendor: the juft Judge, the merciful Father, and the wife Governor. No other object gives fuch a difplay of all these perfections, yea, all the objects we know, give not fuch a display of any one of them. No where does juftice appear fo awful, mercy fo amiable, or wifdom fo profound.

Here fhines forth the glory of infinite love to a loft world. Comparisons can give but a very imperfect idea of this love, which paffeth knowledge; for though we fhould fuppofe all the love of all men that ever were, or fhall be on the earth, and all the love of angels in heaven united in one heart, that heart would be cold, compared to that which was pierced with the foldiers fpear. The Jews faw but blood and water, but faith can difcern a bright ocean of eternal love flowing from these wounds. We may have some impreffion of the glory of it, by confidering its effects; we fhould confider all the fpiritual and eternal bleffings, received by God's people for four thousand years, before Chrift was crucified, or that have been received fince, or that will be received till the confummation of all things; all the deliverances from eternal mifery; all the oceans of joy in heaven; the rivers of water of life to be enjoyed to all eternity, by multitudes as the fand of the fea fhore. All these, and ten thousand times more, are the bleffings which flow from that love that was displayed in the crofs of Chrift. Here also beam forth the glories of infinite wisdom.

The glories that are found feparately in the other works of God, are found united here. The joys of heaven glorify God's goodness, the pains of hell

glorify