the nation; and give him a name among thoſe worthies, who were reputed the excellent of the earth. But what others counted gain, this he counted loſs for Chriſt.
Not in the eminency of his gifts, nor in the extent of his uſefulneſs as a Chriſtian miniſter———He had been caught up into the third heaven; had heard the words of God, and ſeen the viſion of the Almighty; had wrought all manner of wonders, and ſigns, and mighty deeds.———What was ſtill more valuable, he had planted churches, and converted ſouls. His labours were gone out into all lands, and his words into the ends of the earth———Yet all theſe acquirements, before the infinite God, were defective; all theſe performances in point of juſtification, were inſufficient. Therefore in none of theſe he gloried.———Which reminds me of the ſecond enquiry.
II. In what the apoſtle did glory.———He gloried in a croſs. Strange! What ſo ſcandalous as a croſs? On a croſs rebellious ſlaves were executed. The croſs was execrable among men, and accurſed even by God. Yet the apoſtle glories in the croſs.———Crucifixion not being uſed among us, the expreſſion does not found ſo harſh, neither is the idea ſo horrid. But to the ear of a Galatian, it conveyed much the ſame meaning, as if the apoſtle had gloried in a halter, gloried in the gallows, gloried in a gibbet.
Stupid creature, perhaps ſome may reply, to undervalue the moſt ſubſtantial endowments, and glory in infamy itſelf! But ſtop a moment, and hear the apoſtle farther. He glories in the croſs of Chriſt; that illuſtrious perſon, who was anointed to be the all-inſtructing prophet, the all-atoning prieſt, and the
