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his reward is with him, and his work before him! He shall feed his flock like a shepherd; he shall gather the lambs with his arms, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.' Thus we should think of, receive, and honour our incarnate God. But,

Thirdly. Since our profession engages us to a conformity with Jesus, his incarnation will furnish us with some of the most exalted lessons of Christianity, and at the same time present before us the most engaging motive to practise them. We will consider as much of the mind of Christ as is peculiarly exemplified in this vast ministry of the incarnation, which perhaps may be comprised under these three instructive particulars :The wonderful readiness of his mind to his whole mediatorial work, in obedience to his Father's will. The use he was inclined to make of his glorious sufficiencies. And his estimation of all worldly things. Each of which we will endeavour to apply as the time will permit.

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First. The wonderful readiness of his mind to his whole mediatorial work, in obedience to his Father's will. He could say in truth, "I delight to do thy will, O God! yea, thy law is within my bowels." Obedience was graven on his heart, and nothing could shake it. He came into the world to do God's will; that was his grand motive. Though he knew the whole of his work, and saw perfectly what the doing it would cost him, what he must endure from men, and what a sacrifice he must make to divine justice, yet with the fullest consent, with the freest choice, not of constraint (for he was under none), but willingly, he undertook the whole in obedience to his Father's will: "Lo, I come to do thy will, O God." Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered. He learned it. What! was it a lesson he had to learn? No, for the law of God was in his bowels. But now in his sufferings he practised or experienced it, or perhaps he set his hand to it, entered upon his work of suffering in the most shameful and painful part of it, and by-and-by being made perfect, having completed and finished it, he became the Author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him. Obedience was his busi

ness, his employment in the world. This is the mind of Christ. And is it ours, my friends? Is God's law within our hearts

Let your con

also? Has the obedience of Jesus Christ displayed to us the sovereignty of the blessed God, recommended to us his service, and put a glory on the law, and set it before us in its proper and desirable excellency in such manner, that now we delight therein, it is dearer to us than thousands of gold and silver, it is our meat and drink to do the will of God? Else we have not put on Christ, and are fundamentally strangers to the mind that was in him. What! Did he come to do God's will, that he might give us encouragement to neglect it? Or does he not expressly say,That not every one who calleth him Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he only that doth the will of his Father which is in heaven.' Nothing is plainer than that God made us at first to serve him; and it is not less plain that all true believers in Jesus Christ are of their Master's mind, and, after his example, zealous of good works; for such are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God before ordained that they should walk in them.' Now therefore, brethren, are you all thus minded? Is it the great concern of you all to serve and please God? sciences say if this be nearest your hearts. If it be, if you have an unfeigned love of God's law, if in the inner man, in the very bottom of your heart, you like, approve, and heartily desire to be conformed to it in every tittle without exception, and can never be satisfied till your whole man, soul, spirit, and body, be brought at length into a perfect conformity with it; and if this inward choice be proved to be genuine and real by your constant endeavour in all things to please God, and in nothing to please your own natural inclinations, then assuredly you have the spirit of Christ, and are one of his. But if your ruling desire be to please yourself and the world; if your heart be unacquainted with the excellency of God's law, and you find no love of it there; if you know not the restraining fear of God's power and presence in your soul, but are walking in a spirit of licentiousness and security; if your soul be without experience of divine love, and neither the loveliness nor loving kindness of God have an influence upon it to engage you to any grateful purpose of walking with and serving him; if you see not that to do the will of God is your one only business, or, though you seem to see it is, if you either seek not from his word what his will is, or

make no serious inquiries whether you are performing it or no; if you live after the course of the world, and interest, pleasure, honour, direct your conduct in such a case, what would you have me say? Would you that I say you have the mind of Christ? You would judge me a base flatterer if I did, a lying prophet, a vile dissembler, a horrid betrayer of my office and your souls; your own hearts would give me the lie, as they are even now doing to any confidence you may rashly have taken up of your being in Christ.

Secondly. As the incarnation of Christ teaches us obedience, so also an humble use of whatever we are and have to God's glory, and the good of others. Pride is all selfish, and wraps us up in ourselves, without regard to God or man. Under this influence we only consider what we are, to be vain upon it; and our gifts and endowments are only enjoyed to bring us in an income of homage and praise, if not from God, yet at least from man. We make no use of them to the ends they were designed for; and, any further than the purposes of our own reputation, interest, or ease, may call them into action, they are made even no use of at all. But Christ teaches us a better lesson. "Let nothing," says St. Paul, "be done through strife or vain glory. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others." To be vain-glorious of what you have, and to have no consideration of others in the use of it, he subjoins, is not the mind of Christ. He was in the form of God, and yet condescended to become a servant amongst men, and even to die for us. Did he consider his own things? Yea, did he not forget his own glory, and stoop to the meanest estate and the deepest sufferings? And why? Was it not because he considered the things of others? If he had not, would he have condescended as he did? Would he have taken up our nature, lived in a low condition, submitted to every kind and degree of reproach and suffering, to the shame, the pain, the death of a cross? All these submissions our desperate case required of him who alone was able to help us; and therefore he thus submitted for our good, to the glory of God. O, unparalleled love! who can come near it, who feel the blessed saving effects of it, without being kindled into the like flame? Brethren, what worth is there in our gifts, our talents,

our time, our life, but to bestow them in this Christ-like manner? Shall Christ, forgetting himself, live for us; and we, who call ourselves his disciples, live for ourselves, and do nothing for the glory of God, and the salvation of souls? Is this the spirit of Christ, or is it a lifeless formality? Away with all pretences to Christianity, if ye are strangers to the power and the spirit of it. And if there be anything peculiar, eminent, and glorious in the religion of Jesus, it is, that by the power of a divine faith the soul is taken up above the narrow considerations of self, and engages in the noble views of serving men in their most important interests, as well as present happiness, to the honour of God. This glorious design evidently brought down Christ from heaven; and incontestably there is nothing but entering thereinto in subordination to him that can bring us up thither. As a point therefore of the last importance to the reputation of our religion, and the salvation of our own souls, we should enter every one of us into a serious inquiry whether this spirit be in us; whether we be acting on this plan; and whether these be the grand views we have in life, and by which all our advantages, abilities, and opportunities, are in our general course directed. Otherwise we know not the Lord, nor will he own us for his on the day that he maketh up his jewels. Yet,

Thirdly. What disgrace has Jesus put upon all the pomp and pride of life! And how taken away all reproach from poverty! Who knows not that the incarnate God was born of a poor woman, was brought forth in a stable, was laid in a manger, the inn being taken up by more noble guests? Who knows not that he lived in a state of dependence, having throughout his life no house of his own to lay his head in, and being maintained by the liberality of others? This every one knows; but, alas! who considers? The pomp of life, to be of importance in the world, to bear a sway for wealth and abundance, to live at ease, to be above the dreadful apprehension of poverty, is not this the too common character of those who profess themselves. the followers of that Jesus who took upon him the form of a servant? Who almost has learnt from the low estate of the Son of man, having food and raiment therewith to be content? Who is not ashamed of poverty, and how often is it despised, though the King of glory was among the poorest of men? But such is

the way of the children of this world. Their god blinds them. As they see nothing better than what lies before them, so they cannot be expected to do other than lay up their hearts in it, and to measure all their good and evil by present prosperity and adversity. But has the believer learnt all this lesson from his Master? Hast thou not still some lurking esteem of worldly honour, some secret puffing up of heart through present distinctions of place, fortune, or family? Is there not still a hankering after some figure in the world, and an uneasy apprehension of being overlooked and made no account of? Is not thy heart craving easy circumstances, dissatisfied in the want, and but too well pleased in the enjoyment, of them? It is not necessity, but pride and love of ease, which create those painful anxieties our hearts are too much acquainted with. Else how is it, that, while few if any of us want food and raiment more or less, we all want content? Let us consider the manger and the stable; and let that sight repress every ambitious thought and every complaining fear. And let us be assured, that then we have most of the mind of Christ in us, and are furthest translated into his spiritual kingdom, when we are most indifferent about the good and most reconciled to the evil things of this present world; when neither prosperity puffs us up, nor adversity depresses us. Ah, sirs, how happy would it be for us, even here, if we had so learned Christ!

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