SECTION IL gg he suffered the death of the cross, to bear witness tothe truth of it, and sealed it with his blood, and rose again for the confirma- tion of the same doctrine." Now if this were all the meaning of the gospel of Christ, St. Paul would never have preached it in such language as he did, We must suppose him to be a very inaccurate writer, a most unintelligible preacher, and a most unfit man to be made an apostle, and be sent to instruct the ignorant world, if he had expressed himself in such mysterious, figura- tive, and strange phrases, and all this while had meant no more by them, than whit the Sociniansmean by their gospel. Can we think Godwould have employed such an instrument as this was, whose way of talking would have rather deceived multitudes than informed them of the truth, would have led them into the dark rather thanhave given them light, would have fil- led their heads with mysterious words without ideas, and instead of leading them into the way of salvation, would-have left them inbewildered thoughts, about the doctrines and duties of it with so much entanglement and confusion ? Here I might add also, that the holy apostle not only in- structs his own countrymen the Jews, and the Gentile 'strangers in this divine doctrine, and teaches them to build their hopes of salvation upon it ; but he ventures his own soul, his immortal concernments, and his everlasting hopes upon the same founda- tion. He glories in the cross of Christ ; Gal. vi. 14. He has committed his all into his hands till the great judgment-day ; 2 Tim. i. 12. He lives by thefaith of the Son of God, who loved me, saith he, and gave himself for me; Gal. ii. 20. It is the pleasure-of his tongue, it is the joy of his pen, it is the delight and the life, of his spirit to talk of those things : He hangs upon this subject, and knows not how to leave it; his very heart and soul is in it, and he abandons all things for the sake of this know- ledge. He despises the former privileges of his birth, of his learning, of the Jewish prerogatives and rites. He renounces . all his legal and ceremonial perfection, and all his honour amongst the Priests and the Pharisees in comparison of this. " What thingswere gain to me," says he, " those I count loss for Christ : Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency ofthe knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung that I may win Christ, and be found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith : that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and the fel- lowship of his sufferings, being madeconformable unto his death; Philip. iii. 7-10. Nor is the apostle Paul singular in this respect, or different in his sentiments from the other apostles. You find Peter and 3
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