532 THE SACRIFICE OF" CHRIST. V. f will make another query, and ask Agrippa and his friends again, why St. Paul speaks of the gospel of Christ as such a matter of folly and ridicule in the esteem of the wise men ' of this world, or the heathen philosophers, if it were little more than the doctrine of the light of nature, the rules of virtue, and the favour of God to those who followed them with a repentance of their former vices ? Why should he call this gospel " the foolishness of preaching, by which it pleased God to save them . that believe ?" Why should he sneak of his venturing to preach it as a matter of courage sufficient to boast of, and that several times over ; that " he is not ashamed of the gospel of Christ; that he is not ashamed to preach it even at Rome," and that he should call " the cross of Christ his glory ;" Item. i. 16. and 2 Tim. i. 12. and Gal. vi. 14. bearingup boldly through all the reproach and shame that was cast 'upon hisdoctrine by the men of wisdomand philosophy ? If the mere restoration ofnatural reli- gionwas the grand subject, or chief theme ofhis ministry, would the heathenphilosophers have ever pronounced foolishness upon. it ; or have put him to shame for such sort of doctrines as their own reason, might teach them, and several of them did teach ? It is evident therefore, that the name of Christ crucified, in the apostle's lips, includes in it the reconciliation of sinful man to God, by the sufferings of the cursed death of the cross which. Jesus endured, andwhich is laid as the foundation of his religion. This is that which some of the philosophers of Greece would deride and call foolishness, viz. for one person to hope for pardon: of sin and eternal life by the sufferings and death of another ;, and this is the doctrine of which St. Paul is not ashamed, but makes it the mattter of his sermons and hisglory. VI. telight I bepermitted to proceed in this sort of interro- gativemanner, I would enquire of Agrippa and his companions, whether a much meaner person "than they themselves believe Jesus Christ to be, might not have been sufficient tobe sent from God as a prophet, to restore natural religion, and teach the world all the doctrines which Christ taught them ? I suppose they believe him, according to scripture, to be the only-begotten Sony of God, who lay in the bosom of the Father before the founds., tionof the world, the brightness of his Father's glory, and the express imageof his person, by whom and for whomall things' were created in heaven and earth, visible and invisible, who is the Lord of angels, and to whom all the principalities and powers of the upper world, are made subject, and are but his ministering spirits. Now was it worth while for so illustrious a being, who is so near to godhead even in their sense, to be sent down on this earth to spend a life in labour and sorrows, to he scourged . and buffeted, and nailed to a cross, and expire there in the midst of shame and agonies, if his chief businessliadbeen to re-
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