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from Heaven, one that came from those upper Regions to our World, to raise Mens' Views from Earth to Heaven, and to lead and guide them to that blessed State, and form them into a Meetness for it. He never coveted worldly Riches and Honours, nor honoured them fo far as to poffefs them, that he might teach us not to fet too high a Value on thefe Things, or feek for our proper Portion or Happiness here below. Conftantly did he aspire towards the heavenly State, where his human Nature, which was as yet for wife Ends in Circumstances of deep Humiliation and Abafement should be received into Glory, and admitted to the Joys of God's immediate blifful Prefence; the Profpect of which helped to carry him through his amazing Sufferings. We are told, that, for the Joy that was fet before him, he endured the Crofs, defpifing the Shame. Heb. xii. 2. That Paffage, in Pf. xvi. 9, 10, II, is justly applied in the New Testament to our Lord Jesus Christ, as having been fpoken by David in the Perfon of the Meffiah: Therefore my Heart is glad, and my Glory rejoiceth; my Flesh also shall rest in Hope. For thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell, neither wilt thou fuffer thine Holy One to fee Corruption. Thou wilt fhew me the Path of Life; in thy Prefence is

Fulness

Fulness of Joy, at thy right Hand there are Pleafures for evermore. Nothing therefore can be more unfuitable to the Followers of Jefus, than to have their Hearts fixed down to this prefent World, and the Objects and Enjoyments of it. Let us, in Conformity to his illuftrious Pattern, raife our Affections to the Things that are above. Let us follow him in the Way to Glory, looking forwards with a stedfaft Faith and Hope to that eternal Life, which our Lord Jefus Christ hath so clearly brought to Light through the Gospel.

Secondly, Another remarkable Part of our Saviour's Character was his admirable Self-denial, Man's Apoftacy was properly a fetting up Self in Oppofition to God: And an inordinate Self-Love, the making our own Will and Appetites our Rule, and the pleasing and advancing carnal Self and it's narrow Interefts our principal governing End, is that in which the Strength of our Corruption doth confift. And therefore our Lord Jefus Christ, who came to recover and reftore our Nature to a right Temper and Pofture, had it much in View to check and fubdue this inordinate Selfishness: And accordingly he infifteth upon it, as a neceffary Qualification of thofe that would approve themselves his faithful Difciples, that they should deny themfelves; that they fhould be ready to renounce and abandon VOL. IV. Ζ their

their own Inclinations and Interefts, even with Regard to thofe Things that are neareft and deareft to them here on Earth, when it is the Will of God they should do fo. If any Man will come after me (faith he) let him deny himself, and take up his Crofs, and follow me. Mark viii. 3, 4. The Manner of Expreffion fhews that in this he hath led the Way by his own Example: For he is not like thofe rigid Tafk-Mafters, who bind heavy Burdens, and grievous to be borne, and lay them on Mens Shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their Fingers; as he chargeth the Pharifees with doing, Matt. xxiii. 4. The being obliged to deny our felves may seem to be a very hard Leffon, but he hath in a wonderful Manner exemplified it to us in his own Practice; for certain it is, that there never was before, never fhall there be again, a Self-Denial fo perfect, fo amazing, as his own. This is one Thing the Apoftle feemeth particularly to have in View, when he faith, Let this Mind be in you, which was alfo in Chrift Jefus. He had, in the Verfe immediately preceding, laid it down as an important Piece of Advice that they should not look every Man on his own Things, but also on the Things of others, i. e. that they should not be wholly taken up with felfifh Views, intent only

upon

upon pleafing themselves, or confulting their own particular Intereft; but rather fhould be ready, in many Instances, to deny themselves for the Good of others. And then he urgeth the Example of Jefus Chrift, who, though he was a Person of fuck infinite Dignity and Glory, yet, for us Men and for our Salvation, fo far denied bimfelf, that he made himself of no Reputation, or, as it might be literally rendered, be emptied himself; i. e. divested himself of the Brightness of his Glory for a While, and, though he was in the Form of God, yet he took upon him the Form of a Servant; or, as it is elsewhere expreffed, though he was rich, yet for our Sakes he became poor, that we through his Poverty might be rich. 2 Cor. viii. 9. His whole Life on Earth, from the Womb to the Grave, was one unparalleled Courfe of Self-Denial: He took our Nature in fuch outwardly mean Circumstances, that he was defpifed and rejected of Men, and looked upon as a Root out of a dry Ground, having no defirable Form or Comeliness. If. liii. 2, 3. The first thirty Years of his facred Life he spent in an unobserved Obscurity in Subjection to his Parents, and probably in the mean Occupation of his reputed Father: Hence the Jews called him not only the Carpenter's Son, but the Carpenter. Matt. xiii. 55Mark

Z 2

Mark vi. 3. And afterwards, when he made a more public Appearance, he submitted to Contempt and Reproach, and to be in a poor and low Condition, in which he was in a great Measure deftitute of the common Conveniencies and Accommodations of Life: Foxes have Holes, faith he, and the Birds of the Air have Nefts; but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his Head. Luke ix. 58. Oh astonishing SelfDenial in a Perfon of fuch incomparable Dignity, who gave fo many Proofs of his Divine Power, and who could have commanded Legions of Angels to attend him, and minifier unto him! The Apostle Paul, having given that excellent Advice, Let every one of us pleafe his Neighbour for his Good to Edification, urgeth it from this Confideration, that even Chrift pleafed not himfelf. Rom. xv. 2, 3. He did not confult his own flefly Eafe or Pleasure, or any felfif worldly Advantages and Interefts; but made all thefe give Way to the earneft. Defire he had of promoting the Honour of God and the Salvation of Mankind. And, as his Self-Denial appeared through the Whole of his facred Life, fo especially in the last aftonishing Scene of it: What SelfDenial muft it have been in fo glorious a Perfon to fubmit to fuch grievous Sufferings, fuch fhocking Indignities, and to bear our

Iniquities,

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