DISCOURSE VIII.

THE DUTY OF TAKING UP THE CROSS.

LUKE IX. 23.

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

T

HAT instrument on which, among the Romans, malefactors were condemned to suffer an ignominious and painful death, became a fign or symbol of all that is afflicting or tormenting, vexatious or disagreeable, whether to the body or the mind of man. The utmost torture and anguish were expressed by the noun cruciatus, the infliction of them by the verb crucio.

As

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The Duty of taking up the Crof

As the punishment alluded to was use among the Jews, they must hav rowed the expressions from the Ro unless, as fome learned men think, the been received before from the Per who, it is faid, were accustomed t criminals to some kind of cross. application of the word is common, lieve, to most of the modern languag Europe. In our own, we denote all e adverse and unpleasing by the general of croffes.

Since the time when the Son of C by fuffering on the cross, for the fins of world, exalted it to a dignity above thrones and diadems of princes, on whic was foon portrayed as their greatest o ment and highest glory, the word beca one of mighty import in the Chrif system, of which the doctrine, difcipl and duties, all range under it's banner.

When our Lord pronounced the paffa selected for my text, he, no doubt, intend The Duty of taking up the Cross.

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• fignify by what death he himself should DISC. e, and withal to intimate, that, besides the manifold perfecutions his apostles were to ndergo for his fake, fome of them should wen literally be conformed to him in the manner of their leaving the world; which ccordingly came to pass. It seems impofble to reflect upon this wonderful and haracteristic circumstance respecting the ever blessed Founder of our religion, as Grotius has well observed, 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 should, at "length, be fixed to a crofs."

To understand the phrase 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 shoulders, to the place of execution.

Our

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The Duty of taking up the Crof

Our Lord's declaration shall be VIII. dered, in the following discourse, as g and made to all his disciples. W state the grounds on which the d founded; and point out the mann which it may best be performed.

It may appear difficult, at first sig comprehend the goodness of God in a ing us, or commanding us to afflict selves. Could not he render us without rendering us miferable, by w preparative? Doubtless he could have it; and he could have produced all me he created the first man, at their growth; but his wisdom has seen it that we should pass through the pains hazards of infancy and youth, in the la instance, and, in the former, that thro tribulation and affliction we should e into his heavenly kingdom. It is his w and therefore, though no reasons could affigned, filence and fubmiffion would become us. But there are many.

For it is obvious to remark, in the first bise.

place, that Christianity did not bring afflietions 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 philosophers and historians, orators and poets, have expatiated, from age to age; nor is it yet by any means exhausted. The wealthy and the great, the men of business and the men of pleasure, have discovered no method of exemption. In every profeffion, every station, nay, in every individual, there is a fomething, which, at times, damps all enjoyments, and embitters the cup of life. Men are disquieted either by the tempers of others, or their own; by their fins, or by their follies; by sickness of body, or forrow of heart. Many, instead of becoming better by their sufferings, are made worse; 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,

Secondly, how it came to be so, and we shall

VOL. III.

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