- ing his Father's will. His will consist in any thing else than his loving God supremely, and regarding his glory and interest above his own. was his interest and his Father's will his Father's interest; and his seeking his Father's will instead of his own, was his seeking his Father's interest instead of his own. Christ saw that his Father had proposed the most important and glorious object, which could not be obtained, unless he made a sacrifice of himself, and gave up his own good for the good of the universe, which his Father was seeking and was engaged & determined to accomplish. Now, we ought to bear it on our minds, that Christ's self-denial consisted in thus giving up his own real, valuable good, which, simply considered, he ought to regard. This is an idea of self-denial, that is very different from what is often believed and maintained. Some suppose, that self-denial consists in giving up a less personal good for a greater personal good, But this was not Christ's self-denial. Others suppose, that self-denial consists merely in giving up a selfish good for a benevolent good. But this was not Christ's self-denial. He never had any selfish good to give up. He had a personal good, but not a selfish one. For be never felt any selfish motives towards himself. Again, others suppose, that self-denial consists in giving up sinful affections for holy affections. But this was not Christ's self-denial. For he never had any sinful affections towards any object or being in the universe. It was not possible, therefore, that his self-denial should Let us now consider how Jesus Christ expressed and manifested such a spirit of self-denial. This was his governing principle of action. And therefore he must have always expressed it in a plain and striking manner. But he expressed it, especially, in the following instances of his conduct. 1. In his consenting to the glorious scheme of man's redemption. He was concerned in forming that great and complicated and astonishing design. He knew every other possible method of God's displaying himself to the view of his intelligent creatures, and of promoting his glory and their good. He knew, that God might have made all his intelligent creatures perfectly holy, and have preserved them in that state forever, which would have precluded all occasion for his undertaking the office of a Mediator.But he saw that this would not be the wisest and most benevolent method of God's treating the moral creation. He saw that there was a better way for God to lay open his heart and display his glory before angels and men. And he saw that this best way would render it necessary for him to take the most arduous, difficult and painful part in the accomplishment of the important scheme. And when he saw it, he cheerfully consented to the adoption of a scheme, that would subject him to the greatest labors and sufferings. Hear his language on this subject before he came into the world. "The Lord God possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. I was set up from everlasting from the beginning, or ever the earth was. Then I was by him, as one brought up with him; and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him; rejoicing in the habitable part of the earth; and my delights were with the sons of men." He covenanted with the Father, in the early days of eternity, to undertake the selfdenying work of man's redempsion, with a clear and full view of what he must do and suffer in order to accomplish it. Nor did he ever lose sight of his sufferings a single moment, until the very scene opened before him. "Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say?-Father, save me from this hour?-but for this cause came I unto this hour.-Father, glorify thy name." It was selfdenying ed his self denying spirit by taking to view such a scene of self-deni- he is represented to address his Father, respecting his incarnation, in terms the most submissive, self denying and joyful. "Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened; burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required. Then said I, lo, I come; in the volume of the book it is written of me; I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart." This was a strong and striking expression of the most perfect self renunciation and consecration of his glory to the glory of God and the good of the universe. 3. Christ manifested his self-denial, after he became man, by his constant and cheerful obedience to the will of his Father. He publicly and repeatedly declared, that he always meant to be obedient to every intimation of the divine will. He said, “I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father, that sent me. I came from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.My meat is to do the will of him that sent me and to finish his work." If we now look into his conduct, through the course of his life, we shall find these declarations fully verified by the most constant obedience to every divine precept. He was entirely submissive to his parents, while he was in a state of minority. He read the Bible in his youth and made it the rule of his faith and practice. He lived in a course of secret prayer. Being in the form of a servant, he labored with his hands, agreeably to the fourth command. And agreeably to the same command, he remembered and sanctified the Sabbath day.He annually attended the passover, and punctually observed all the Mosaic rites and ceremonies.He submitted to be baptized by John, in Jordan, as the original rite of inauguration into the priest's office. He preached the gospel with great zeal and diligence.— He went about doing good, curing diseases of body and mind. He submitted to hunger and thirst, weariness, poverty and reproach. As a man, he was obedient to the laws of man; as a Jew he was obedient to the laws of the Jews; and as a Mediator, he was obedient to every mediatorial command, even that of laying down and taking up his life. Now all these acts of obedience were acts of self denial. He was Lord of the Sabbath; he was Lord of the world; yea, he was Lord of the universe; and he had a right to command the service and obedience of the whole intelligent creation. But, nevertheless, he bowed his head and heart to the command of God and In this conduct he verified what he declared, that he came not to be ministered unto, but to minister. man. We cannot find, nor even conceive of any other obedience, so self denying as the obedience of Christ. And this selfdenial was uniform, constant and perfect; because he fulfilled all righteousness and obeyed eve ry injunction, which his Father time came to go to Jerusalem and laid upon him. This perfect obedience demonstrated, that he sought not his own will, but the will of him, that sent him. But, 4. There was another way, in which Christ more literally and emphatically expressed his self denying spirit; and that was by his sufferings. Though while he lived in retirement and obscurity, we have no account of his suffering any peculiar pain, sickness, or affliction, yet as soon as he appeared in public and visibly acted in his mediatorial office, he drew the hatred, opposition and virulence of the ungodly world against him. They, who were esteemed the most respectable and influential in church and state, united in their feelings and exertions to make him a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. They represented him to be a transgressor of the laws of God and man, an enemy to virtue and religion, a friend to publicans and sinners, in league with satan, the great enemy of all righteousness, and a disturber of the public peace as well as a traitor to his country. Thus the reproaches of them, that reproached God, fell on him without reserve and without restraint.But they did not stop here. They often attempted to stone him with stones, and once, to push him headlong down a precipice, with a malignant design to dash him to pieces. These dangers, however, he meant to escape, and by his miraculous power did escape, until his meet those sufferings and that death, which were necessary to make expiation for the sins of the world. He knew the time when and the place where he was to pour out his soul on the cross.— Accordingly he prepared himself to meet his mortal enemies and to resign himself into their cruel hands. They bind him; they beat him; they spit in his face; they try him; they condemn him; they lead him as a malefactor to the place of execution; and there, with real malefactors, nail him to the cross and make his death as painful and excruciating as possible. Thus Christ was cut off, but not for himself. Thus he was destroyed and rejected of men.— Thus he was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities and the chastisement of our peace was upon him.— Thus he bore our sins in his body on a tree. It is probable that Christ suffered more from the treatment he received from the hands of his enemies than any other person could have suffered under the same treatment. If his body were not more susceptible of pain than that of other men ; yet his mind was more capable of seeing and feeling the malignity and cruelty of those, who embrued their hands in his blood. This natural conjecture seems to be confirmed by his sweating as it were great drops of blood in consequence of his internal trouble and distress, on the prospect of his approaching death. And now we are to con- into the garden, he said, " My preferred and sought greater interests. Though he had a proper regard to himself, yet he had a greater regard to the universe; and this regard he expressed in eternity, in his life on earth and in his death on the cross and will continue to express forever. The subject under our present consideration suggests the following remarks. 1. Since the Lord Jesus Christ exercised self-denial in undertaking and performing the work of a mediator, then God the Father and the Holy Spirit exercised self denial in appointing him to that work. The Father and the Spirit saw what the work would be, and how much Christ must suffer, when they appointed him; yet they did appoint him to all the humiliation, suffering, sorrow and reproach, which he endured in order to accomplish the work of redemption. But could they have made such an appointment, or have consented to it without self-denial? They saw and felt all the evil he suffered. They esteemed and loved the good and the glory of which he deprived himself. Thus Christ denied himself of every thing, that it was in his power to deny himself. There was nothing which the glory of God and the good of the universe required him to give up, that he did not give up. He gave up more than any; yea, than all created beings could have given up, And they esteemed and had they been disposed to suffer loved Christ as themselves.and die as he did. Hence, through They, therefore, as certainly exhis life and in his death, he gave ercised self-denial in his appointevery kind and every degree of ment to the work of Mediator as evidence, that he was possessed he did in undertaking and perof perfect self-denial. He was forming that work. They denied willing to give up and did actually themselves a real great good for give up his good for the good of the sake of a real and greater others. Though his own person- good. This denial they exercised al interests were great, yet he in the spirit of disinterested be |