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very act in which Satan and his servants appear to subvert the throne of the Messiah, they establish it. The very act which they designed for the destruction of the infant church, redeemed it. In that very act in which they imagined they had undermined the kingdom of Christ, they ruined their own. They did only whatsoever God's hand and counsel had determined before to be done. Satan fell like lightning from heaven. The Saviour, through death, destroyed him that had the power of death. He spoiled principalities and powers, and made a show of them openly, triumphing over them on the cross. Salvation was thus accomplished, the sacrifice was offered, the purchase made, the prophecies fulfilled, and the way opened to the exaltation, and glory, and eternal reign of the Mediator.

The wisdom of God may again be discerned in his having made the SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST,

WHICH WERE THE MERITORIOUS CAUSE OF SALVATION, THE EXAMPLE WHICH WE ARE TO FOLLOW.

The astonishing transactions of redemption might have been events in which we could discern the power and wisdom of God; but which, like the wonders of creation, we were little concerned to imitate. But is it not an additional display of the wisdom of God, that the Cross is our pattern, as well as our propitiation; that we are to be crucified with Christ and conformed to his death, as well as to rely on the atonement

there offered for iniquity? And what can inflame our love and supply such motives to the mortification of sin, as the death of our Saviour? It engages our duty, as much as it secures our happiness. Every act of faith is a spring of love, and constrains us to live, not unto ourselves, but unto Him that died for us and rose again.

Another evidence of the wisdom of God in the cross of Christ is, that THE DOCTRINE OF IT IS DESIGNED ESPECIALLY TO COUNTERACT THE VERY SIN BY WHICH MAN ORIGINALLY FELL. Man fell by pride, he is restored in a way of humility. He fell by self-dependence, be is saved by selfrenunciation. We lost ourselves by a vain desire after wisdom, we return to God by the foolishness of the cross. As we sinned by presumptuous curiosity, the wisdom of God humbles us at the very root of the tree of knowledge; and compels us to renounce the pride of our understanding and submit to faith. Every thing connected with the cross of Christ opposes the reigning evil of our fallen hearts. Human wisdom receives not the doctrine. Human pride comprehends nothing of it. Repentance begins in humility, faith moves in it as its proper atmosphere, claim→ ing nothing but from the undeserved mercy of God; prayer is the breathing of humility, justi fication is a free gift, salvation is of grace, holy obedience is the fruit of submission. Every

step, every act, every duty, every feeling of a Christian, all is humility. Sin has changed the way to happiness. In the first creation God wished to draw men to the knowledge of himself by the use of their reason, and the consideration of the wisdom of his works. In the second, the Saviour draws mén by the folly of the word of the Cross, and by the subjection of their reason and will to the doctrine of faith. Religion is the remedy of human pride, as it is not so much a science of the understanding, as of the heart."

The cross of Christ then is indeed the display of the wisdom of God, and THIS IN OPPOSI

TION TO ALL THE PRETENDED WISDOM OF THE

WORLD. For, where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Whatever a false philosophy may pretend, we want no other wisdom than that of the Cross. All the contrivances of men to improve upon this wisdom, fail. The additions which human reason has made to this doctrine, and the schemes by which it would attempt to accommodate it to human pride, have never succeeded. If the Greek, and those who follow his spirit, demand wisdom, and look for the

exhibition of consummate contrivance; we have none to show them, but the wisdom of the Cross. This we preach as the consummation of divine wisdom-a wisdom rightly estimated in proportion as vain reasonings are silenced, and faith is enthroned in the heart. Let this be accomplished, and the humble penitent begins to discern in the crucifixion of his Lord, the impress of the loftiest intelligence. Then does the Cross no longer appear foolishness unto him, but what it really is, the most stupendous discovery of the eternal counsels of God. Then is he willing to be ignorant of all wisdom but this wisdom of "Christ crucified." Then is he willing to be a stranger to every science, but the science of salvation. Then does he discover Christ to be the power of God, and the wisdom of God.

From the whole of this subject we may learn,

I. THAT THE PROFESSEDLY CHRISTIAN WORLD MAY BE DIVIDED INTO TWO BODIES, THOSE WHO LOVE AND OBEY THE DOCTRINE OF THE CROSS OF

CHRIST, AND THOSE WHO DO NOT. The doctrine of a crucified Saviour is the turning point of Christianity. As men judge of this, they will judge of every thing else in religion. There will necessarily be, therefore, a broad distinction between those who adore the power and wisdom'

of God as displayed in it, and all other persons. The humble penitent who understands and feels something of this astonishing subject; who knows in his own case that nothing changes and wins the heart but the grace of the Saviour, who relies on his righteousness, glories in his cross, discerns an unspeakable wisdom in the way of salvation secured by it, and is fully assured that there is no other means of saving others but by leading them into this way, will necessarily be very different in his taste and character and course of life, from those who secretly dislike this whole system of religion, who have never felt their sins, nor their need of salvation; who rely in some measure on their own works, and trust to their own wisdom; and who, though they may acknowledge in a vague manner the mystery of redemption, yet account the undisguised doctrine of the death of Christ for sinners as unnecessary or dangerous.

The momentous question is, To which of these two classes do we belong? Are we selfrighteous, proud, wise in our own conceits, trusting in our natural powers or our acquired advantages; deeming our heart good and our state good, and feeling no disposition to be saved as "the chief of sinners," and enter into life through the merits and grace of another; or are we not? Does the language of St. Paul