ends of the earth;' and would you have Christ come any lower than a look? O look up to Jefus as lifted up upon the pole of the crofs, for all nations to behold him. -Object. My eyes are dim, the crofs far off; Jerufalem, where it was fet up, is out of fight. Anf. The pole of the gospel and of the facrament, on which Christ is now lifted up, is near hand; look up to him thereon, and be faved.-Object. Saith one, I am fo burdened with guilt, I cannot lift mine eyes. Anf. Then lie low before him like the humble publican, who was fo burdened, that he was ashamed to lift up his eyes to heaven, and under a deep fenfe of his vileness cried, God be merciful to me a finner,' and so doing was accepted: In like manner humble yourfelves before a merciful Redeemer, and plead his promife Matth xi. Trust his word for eale and reft to your burdened 28. foul. ADVICE X.. Even fo must the Son of Man be lifted up. HE lifting up of the brazen ferpent upon a pole, to heal ferpent-ftung Ifraelites, was a type of the lifting up of Chrift on the crofs, to heal convinced finers of their wounds by fin. As there was but one brazen ferpent for healing the whole camp of Ifrael, fo Christ crucified is the only remedy and Saviour for a loft world.--He must be lifted up; his dying on the crofs was necessary to fulfil his engagements, from eternity to be our furety; he must be offered up as a facrifice to fatisfy divine juftice for the fins of men, feeing nothing elfe could do it. Though Chrift's engagement to fuffer for us was entirely voluntary at first, yet having once undertaken, it became neceflary for him to be litted up. And glory to him that would not go back from his word, however great his fufferings were. Come then, O communicants, behold and confider, with fuitable thoughts and affections, your liffed up Jefus dying on the cross. After he had borne the heavy crofs on his bleeding shoulders up Mount Calvary, this crofs muft next bear him upon the top of the Mount, being first nailed to it, and lifted up with it.--Come, fee how this was done; Behold the cross-tree laid down upon the ground, and the Lord Jefus ftript naked, laid on his back, with hands and feet ftretched out upon the tree, that they might take the measure of his body, and mark the holes for the nails! and lo, they take the measure longer than the truth, that they might both crucify and rack him at once, till his bones fhould go out of joint: So the cross was a rack as well as a death. -Our first parents ftretched forth their guilty hands to take the forbidden fruit from the tree, therefore our glorious Saviour did willingly stretch forth his innocent hands to be nailed to the tree, to fatisfy for their guilt. --Come fee four big nails driven into his hands and feet, the most finewy and fenfible parts of his body, and faftened to the tree; apply your ear, and hear the hideous found of the hammers knocking in these nails! Oh, your fins were the hammers that did it, mourn for them. Come next and fee' the Lord of Glory, when nailed faft to the tree, lifted up with it on high, and made to ftand upright to the view of all the world! And then the foot of the tree let fall down with violence into the deep hole they had digged to faften it, which fall did unfpeakably increase his torments, and rend the four wounds made by the nails. Thus his own weight became his torture, ftill widening the wounds more and more, till all his precious blood streamed out at them. Behold your great Emmanuel lifted up on a cross, betwixt heaven and earth, as if he had been unworthy of a place in either, hanging betwixt too thieves, as if he had been the greateft malefactor of the three! O what a fpectacle was your Redeemer both to heaven and earth when thus lifted up! An aftonishment to Angels! A derifion to the wicked! Compunction to believers! but a facrifice acceptable to the justice of his eternal Father! -Look on this moving fpectacle with deep forrow for fin that fastened him to the tree, and made him hang on thefe tormenting nails for feveral hours without comfort inward or outward! No way could he turn for ease, being fixed to the tree; If he ftirred his bleffed body at all, he was tormented afresh by the wounds of his hands and his feet, on which the whole weight of his body did hang; if he had moved his head, which had the crown of thorns on it, the thorns would but pierce into it the deeper; yet for all this he complained not; no figh or groan was heard from him, but what he offered up to God for your fins! When the Son of Man was thus lifted up, obferve how the streams of his precious blood run down to the ground, and stood in a little pool at the foot of the cross, until the earth drank it up. Let this fight affect your hearts, and open all the fprings of forrow for fin that pierced him. Sit down at the foot of the crofs, and receive this facred blood, as it falls, upon your hard hearts; let it drop on them, until it make them as foft as the ground it fell on. Let it drop on all the fores and wounds of your fouls, for it is the balm that must heal` them.-Obferve alfo, the great extent of Chrift's fufferings at this tinie, they reached to all the parts of his body, and to all the powers of his foul: He fuffered in all his fenfes; his feeing, with the fcornful geftures of his enemies; his hearing, with their fcoffs and blafphemies; his fmell, with the noifome ftench of Golgotha; his tafte, with gall and vinegar; his feeling, with the piercing nails and thorns. Behold his hands, that were ftill beftowing bleffings, now fixed with nails; his feet that walked in God's ways, now digged through; his bowels, that yearned for finners, now fhrunk and dried up; his lips, that spoke as never man ipoke, now swollen with blows. Now he fuffered on the cross till his ftrength was dried up like a potfherd, and his tongue cleaved to his jaws.' the fire of God's wrath fcorched him inwardly, which made him cry out, I thirst.” His enemies mingled, at this time, a cup of vinegar and gall to him, which he refuíed; but, glory to him, he refused not the cup which his Father mingled to him, though filled with wrath and curfes: This he drank for us, though it filled his whole foul with anguith, and O made him rear and complain of his Father's deferting, him: The arrows of the Almighty were within him, the poifon whereof drank up his fpirit. Amidft thefe fearful fufferings, our lifted up Jefus expired, willingly offering up him felf, on the crofs, a propitiatory facri*fice for us. O believers, did Chrift lift up himself as a willing facrifice for you on the cross? fee then to lift up the gates of your fouls to receive in this Saviour; let him have a joyful welcome into your fouls, and give him the best entertainment, the beft affections, and the beft fervice. -Did he willingly stretch out his arms to be nailed to the cross for you? Then be not unwilling to ftretch out the arms of faith to embrace him; but fee to embrace him wholly in all his offices, of prophet, priest, and king; be willing to be taught, faved, and ruled by him. Was Chrift lifted up on the crofs (as the brazen ferpent was lifted up in the wilderness) for healing all ftings and wounds given us by fin and Satan? O then look up to him with the eye of faith for healing. This is the great remedy of God's contriving and providing, put ftrong confidence in it, and look to it with hope and expectation: Never miftruft the virtue of God's remedy, nor defpair of healing from it, however deep your flings, or large your wounds be: For Chrift was lifted up to be a remedy for the chief of finners, I Tim. i. 15 and none ever perished that looked to him.' Was Chrift willing to be lifted up to fuffer for you? Then let your hearts be lifted up to ferve and obey him, like King Jehoshaphat, whofe heart was lifted up in the ways of the Lord, 2 Chron. xvii. 6. Lift up your heart with your voice in his praife; fpeak of the glorious honour of his Majefty, and make known his mighty acts: Obey his commands, and particularly his dying command; to remember him at his table, with activity and delight: Go with lifted up hearts to a communion table, to remember him, that went fo willingly to be lifted up on a bloody crois for you. The ancient exhortation to communicants was SURSUM CORLift up your hearts to meet with a lifted up Je DA, fus.' ADVICE. XI Speak unto the Children of Ifrael, that they go forward." HIS is the anfwer of Mofes's prayer for Ifrael when in a great ftrait at the Red-fea. It is faid, - he cried to God, yet we read not of one word he spake He only lift up his heart to God, who well underitands the language of the heart. Mofes's filent prayers of faith prevailed more with God, than Ifrael's loud out. cries of fear. A believing communicant may, in a ftrait, cry to God, in prayer, without fpeaking a word, fo did Mofes here for fainting Ifrael. When they came out of the land of bondage, and fled from Pharaoh's tyranny, the Lord ordered them to march toward the fea; but now when they are near to it, and fee Pharaoh's mighty army purfuing, and clofe at their heels, they are in a great ftrait what courfe to take; they think certainly they must turn either to the right or left hand to make their efcape from Pharaoh; no. faith God, speak to them to go ftill forward, as ftraight towards the fea, as if they faw a fleet of transport ships there waiting to take them in. O! might they think, his is a hard command, go forward, when we fee nothing but the deep devouring fea before us; as good go back to the Egyptians, or ftand ftill until they come up, and put us to the fword, as go forward into the fea, and be drowned: Will the deep fea have any more mercy on us than the cruel Egytians.'-But, faith the Lord, make no objections, afk no questions,. let the people go forward, obey my command, and trust me with their lives. 6 4. Obferve here, O timorous communicant, O doubting believer, when you are in fears and ftraits with refpect to the management or fuccefs of your duty, you are to fet yourselves to obey God's command, go forward in the use of means, with a fincere heart, and leave the event to God. You may poílibly, at this time, be brought to the ftraitening cafe of the children of Ifrael, when at the brink of the Red-fea and their |