DISCOURSE VIII.

THE DUTY OF TAKING UP THE CROSS.

LUKE IX. 23.

If any man will come after me, let him-take up his crofs daily, and follow me.

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HAT inftrument on which, the Romans, malefactors were condemned to fuffer an ignominious and painful death, became a fign or fymbol of all that is afflicting or tormenting, vexatious or difagreeable, whether to the body or the mind of man. The utmost torture and anguish were expreffed by the noun cruciatus, the infliction of them by the verb crucio.

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As the punishment alluded to was not in VIII. ufe among the Jews, they must have bor

rowed the expreffions from the Romans; unless, as fome learned men think, they had been received before from the Perfians, who, it is faid, were accustomed to fix criminals to fome kind of crofs. 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 unpleafing by the general term of crosses.

Since the time when the Son of God, by fuffering on the cross, for the fins of the world, exalted it to a dignity above the thrones and diadems of princes, on which it was foon portrayed as their greatest ornament and higheft glory, the word became one of mighty import in the Chriftian fyftem, of which the doctrine, difcipline, and duties, all range under it's banner.

When our Lord pronounced the paffage felected for my text, he, no doubt, intended

to

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to fignify by what death he himself should DISC. die, and withal to intimate, that, befides the manifold perfecutions his apoftles were to undergo for his fake, fome of them should even literally be conformed to him in the manner of their leaving the world; which accordingly came to pafs. It seems impoffible to reflect upon this wonderful and characteristic circumftance respecting the ever bleffed Founder of our religion, as Grotius has well obferved, without fuppofing that Plato must have been under a degree of divine impulse, when he closed the account of his righteous man who should appear, at some future day, upon the earth, by predicting, that, "after having "fuffered all other ills, he fhould, at "length, be fixed to a cross."

To understand the phrafe of taking up and bearing the cross, it must be recollected, that, upon the infliction of this punishment, the criminal was obliged to take up the cross,

and bear it, on his fhoulders, to the place of

execution.

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Our Lord's declaration fhall be confidered, in the following difcourfe, as general, and made to all his difciples. We fhall ftate the grounds on which the duty is founded; and point out the manner in which it may best be performed.

It may appear difficult, at first fight, to comprehend the goodness of God in afflicting us, or commanding us to afflict ourfelves. Could not he render us holy, without rendering us miferable, 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 wifdom has seen it fit, that we should pass through the pains and hazards of infancy and youth, in the latter inftance, and, in the former, that through tribulation and affliction we fhould enter into his heavenly kingdom. It is his will; and therefore, though no reafons could be affigned, filence and fubmiffion would best become us. But there are many.

For

For it is obvious to remark, in the first Bisċ. place, that Christianity did not bring afflict VHI. tions into the world with it; it found them already there. The world is full of them. The mifery of man is a theme on which philofophers and hiftorians, orators and poets, have expatiated, from age to age; nor is it yet by any means exhaufted. The wealthy and the great, the men of business and the men of pleasure, have discovered no method of exemption. In every profeffion, every ftation, nay, in every individual, there is a fomething, which, at times, damps all enjoyments, and embitters the cup of life. Men are difquieted either by the tempers of others, or their own; by their fins, or by their follies; by fickness of body, or forrow of heart. Many, instead of becoming better by their fufferings, are made worfe; 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,

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Secondly, how it came to be fo, and we

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fhall