As the punishment alluded to was not in use among the Jews, they must have borrowed the expressions from the Romans; unless, as some learned men think, they had been received before from the Persians, who, it is said, were accustomed to fix criminals to some kind of cross. Such application of the word is common, I believe, to most of the modern languages of Europe. In our own, we denote all events adverse and unpleasing by the general term of crosses.

Since the time when the Son of God, by suffering on the cross, for the sins of the world, exalted it to a dignity above the thrones and diadems of princes, on which it was soon portrayed as their greatest ornament and highest glory, the word became one of mighty import in the Christian system, of which the doctrine, discipline, and duties, all range under its banner.

When our Lord pronounced the passage selected for my text, he, no doubt, intended to signify by what death he himself should die; and withal to intimate, that, besides the manifold persecutions his apostles were to undergo for his sake, some of them should even literally be conformed to him in the manner of their leaving the world; which accordingly came to pass. It seems impossible to reflect upon this wonderful and characteristic circumstance respecting the everblessed Founder of our religion, as Grotius has well observed, without supposing that Plato must have been under a degree of divine impulse, when he closed the account of his

Our Lord's declaration shall be considered, in the following discourse, as general, and made to all his disciples. We shall state the grounds on which the duty is founded; and point out the manner in which it may be best performed.

It may appear difficult, at first sight, to comprehend the goodness of God in afflicting, us, or commanding us to afflict ourselves. Could not he render us holy, without rendering us miserable, by way of preparative? Doubtless, he could have done it; and he could have produced all men, as he created the first man, at their full growth; but his wisdom has seen it fit, that we should pass through the pains and hazards of infancy and youth, in the latter instance, and, in the former, that through tribulation and affliction we should enter into his heavenly kingdom. It is his will; and therefore, though no reasons could be assigned, silence and submission would best become us.

But there are many.

For it is obvious to remark, in the first place, that Christianity did not bring afflictions into the world with it; it found them already there. The world is full of them. The misery of man is a theme on which philosophers and historians, orators and poets, have expatiated from age to age; nor is it yet by any means exhausted. The wealthy and the great, the men of business and the men of pleasure, have discovered no method of exemption. In every profession, every station, nay, in every individual, there is a

something, which, at all times, damps all enjoyments, and imbitters the cup of life. Men are disquieted either by the tempers of others, or their own; by their sins, or by their follies; by sickness of body, or sorrow of heart. Many, instead of becoming better by their sufferings, are made worse; they murmur, they rebel, they rage, they despair, and the torments of time lead on to those of eternity. Such is the state of things in the world. Let us reflect,

Secondly, how it came to be so, and we shall find still less cause of complaint. The misery of man proceeded not originally from God; he brought it upon himself. "God formed him upright;" and, while upright, happy; but he "sought out inventions," he followed his own imaginations, and became miserable. What the wise man says of death, is equally true of affliction; "God made it not, neither hath he pleasure in the destruction," nor the suffering "of the living. For he created all things, that they might have their being, and the generations of the world were healthful, and there was no poison of destruction in them, nor the kingdom of death upon the earth; for righteousness is immortal-But ungodly men with their works and words, called it to them." You see how exactly this harmonizes with the doctrine of the apostle; "death "—and, in like manner, trouble" came upon all men, for that all had sinned." Whatever, therefore, our sufferings may be, we suffer no more than we deserve; we must bow down under the mighty hand of God; we must kiss the rod, exclaiming, in the words of Nehemiah, "Thou art just, O Lord, in all that is brought upon us; for thou hast done right, but we have done wickedly."* The Scriptures inform us, that by one man's transgression moral evil entered into the world; death and every kind of natural evil entered with it. To find our way through all the mazes of that labyrinth of disputation which the subject has occasioned, may be difficult; to explain clearly and unexceptionably every particular in that concise history given us by Moses, may not be easy; but the fact is sufficient, related in the Old Testament, acknowledged and built upon in the New. And it is the only clue that can unravel, the only key that can open, every thing. Grasp it firmly, and suffer no man, either by fraud or force, to wrest it from you. Without it, all is dark and inexplicable. You will be driven, either to deny there can be a wise and gracious God who governs the world, which is the madness of the Epicureans; or, to affirm that evil is good, which is the absurdity of the Stoics.

• Nehem. ix. 33.

But though it be most undoubtedly an absurdity to call evil good, there is no absurdity in holding, that good may be brought out of evil. Natural evil may be converted into a remedy for moral evil, which gave it birth. Sin produced sorrow; and sorrow may contribute, in some measure, to do away sin That the crosses we meet, the pains and the troubles we suffer through life, are by the providence of God intended, and by his grace rendered effectual, for this purpose shall be our

Third observation; and I am confident it will give full satisfaction and rest to your minds, as touching the matter in discussion.

From what we feel in ourselves, and what we see and hear of others, every person, who has thought at all upon the subject, must have been convinced, that, circumstanced as we are, "it is good for us to be afflicted." Naturally, man is inclined to pride and wrath, to intemperance and impurity, to selfishness and worldly-mindedness; desirous to acquire more, and unwilling to part with anything. Before he can enter into the kingdom of heaven, he must become humble and meek, temperate and pure, disinterested and charitable, resigned, and prepared to part with all. The great instrument employed by Heaven to bring about this change in him, is the cross. Affliction will make him humble and meek, by showing him how poor and weak a creature he is, and how little reason he has to be proud, or to be angry; it will render him temperate and pure, by withdrawing the fuel which has nourished and inflamed base lusts; it will cause him to become disinterested and charitable, as teaching him, by his own sufferings, to sympathize with his suffering brethren, and to grant that relief, which he perceives himself to want; he will die to the world, which is already dead to him, and live to God, in whom alone he finds every blessing and comfort. Contented and resigned, he will have but one wish-" to depart, and to be with Christ."

Such is the process which, at different times, and in different manners, must take place in us. The maladies to be healed are inveterate, and not without much difficulty eradicated. The process, therefore, must be long, and it must be painful; but there is good reason for it; the corruption of our nature makes it necessary, and is the real cause of the pain we endure in the operation. The surgeon applies not the knife where the flesh is sound; but when it is otherwise, the application must be made, and made in proportion to the depth of the wound, and the danger of a mortification. In such case, it is skill; it is the manner in which he would

treat his son. Does the father hate his child, whom he chastises? No; it is the best proof he can show of his love. So saith our heavenly Father of his children: "Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth." *

In this light, then, are we to view the troubles of life; not only of the more notorious and heavier kind, as poverty and persecution, sickness, pain, and the loss of persons who are dearest to us; but those also which are of less moment, and pass in secret, unobserved by the world; the little rubs and vexations arising from the ingratitude and froward dispositions of others, the conflict of passions in our minds, or that languor, that tædium vitæ, as it is called, which destroys the relish of our enjoyments, and even of life itself. All these, which constitute the daily cross mentioned in the text, are designed to cure the surfeit of prosperity; to intimate, that earth is not the seat of unmingled and permanent happiness, that here we have no abiding city, but expect, and should seek after one, to

come.

Nothing happens without the providence of God. Known unto him are all his works from the beginning. He created all, he governs all, and to every thing he has given to be what it is. He numbers the hairs of our head, the leaves of the wood, the grains of sand upon the shore, and the drops that compose the mighty ocean; each atom, at the creation was measured and weighed by his eternal wisdom. Acquainted with the state and temper of every person, and having the whole chain of events before him, he has prepared a series of them, to detach us, by degrees, from the world, and from ourselves; to train us, by a holy and salutary discipline, for better things; to hew and to polish us as precious stones, that shall have place in his celestial temple. And he has allotted to every man his cross, his own cross, that cross which is proper for him, and best calculated to effect in him so great and beneficent a purpose. Let him first consider what it is, and then "take it up, and bear it." To point out, in few words, the manner in which this may best be done, shall employ the remainder of our time.

When our Lord was led forth to be crucified, the Jews, we are told, laid hold on "( one Simon, a Cyrenian, coming out of

How finely is this touched by the hand of our great poet

"Consideration, like an angel, came,

And whipt th' offending Adam out of him."

the country; and on him they laid the cross, that he might bear it after Jesus." This stranger seems designed to appear upon this occasion, as the representative of us all, exhibiting in his person, thus loaded with the cross, or a part of it, the very same instruction conveyed by our Lord himself in the words of the text; "let him take up his cross and follow me:" we are to follow him, to tread in his steps, and, conformed to his examples, conform ourselves to it likewise in the manner of bearing those sufferings.

The very consideration, that we are following him, will direct us to do it as becomes us. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, going before us, and suffering so much for us, himself perfectly innocent, we cannot think it much that we should suffer something, who are in so many ways guilty. "If these things be done to the green tree "-if the axe be laid to the root of the verdant and fruitful tree of life itself" what shall be done to the dry?" what can the sapless and barren wood expect, but to be for burning, and fuel for fire?

"When a man groans under the iron rod of oppression, or, cast down upon the bed of sickness, feels his bones to be filled with pain, and the multitude of his bones with strong pain; when he endeavors to recollect some passage of Scripture, wherewith to solace and support his weary soul; perhaps there is nothing that will cause more light and comfort to break in upon him, than frequently to repeat and meditate upon that humble acknowledgment, made by the poor penitent from the cross on one side of his Saviour, and addressed to his reprobate companion on the other-" Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we, indeed, justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds, but THIS man hath done nothing amiss." At this thought, love of the Redeemer will spring up in his mind; and to love nothing is irksome; it will make "his yoke easy and his burden light."

In every path and every period of life, the cross will meet us; it will be found lying before us; by mean compliances, by transgressing or neglecting our duty, we may turn out of the road, and avoid it; through wilful blindness and obstinacy, we may stumble over it and fall. Our Lord took up his and bore it while strength remained; let us do likewise.

It should be borne in a spirit of submission and resignation, without complaining or murmuring. "Attend to the rod, and