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Come every day-every hour-every moment; and in the purifying stream wash you of every defilement of the flesh and of the spirit. Wash you of your every action, of your every word and every thought. Once opened, the blessed fountain is for ever opened unto you. Come then unto it with thanksgiving-come unto it with joy

like men bent on death or victory, | cleanness in his side pierced for you. and victory shall be yours. But dream not here of an easy conquest. When the foe is in the very heart of the citadel, nothing will serve but a resisting unto the blood. Be then watchful unto prayer. Faint not, nor suffer yourselves to be disheartened by your defeats, but at every fall, at every short coming, instead of seeking an excuse in the infirmity of your nature, confess your sin before your GoD, humble yourself in the dust in the sense of your vileness; vile you are indeed you have sinned against your own soul,-you have sinned against your Saviour-no excuse will avail, you have no excuse left-no none, but the blood of Christ. Come then to that fountain opened for sin and un

and draw the water of life out of the wells of salvation. Come unto it for peace-peace with God and the peace of the conscience; and with the pardon of your offences, you shall also obtain deliverance from the bondage of sin, the strength you need to fight the good fight, and to finish your course with joy.

A Sermon

DELIVERED BY THE REV. J. BLACKBURN,
AT CLAREMONT CHAPEL, PENTONVILLE, AUGUST 7, 1831.

Philippians, iii. 18, 19.—“ For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things."

THE powerful influence which numbers exert over the human mind, led Moses, on one occasion, to caution the children of Israel, saying, "Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil;" and assuredly, my brethren, the popularity of any course is very dubious evidence of its truth. When this rule, the rule of multitude, prevailed, Noah stood alone-Lot stood alone-Elijah stood alone-and Jeremiah stood alone-yea, the Son of GOD himself stood alone" hand joined to hand," and wickedness was triumphant. The road both of profaneness and error is wide; "Broad is the road that leadeth to destruction, and many there be that go in thereat ;"

and it is therefore delusive and dangerous for us to allow our minds at any time to be affected by the mere circumstance that numbers attach themselves to any cause, or advocate any class of principles. St. Paul was conscious of this influence; and knowing that it was employed to promote some dangerous errors, he sought, in his conversations and in his correspondence, to guard his brethren at Philippi against the effects which the corrupt principles and practices of the multitude might produce; "for many walk," he exclaims, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ.”

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Now, though these parties have long since mouldered to their kindred dust, and though the peculiar and national aspect of their error has changed, yet, brethren, principles, whether they are good or evil, remain the same, and therefore it is our duty to study the word of GOD, not only to learn its obvious sense, but also to educe from it those sentiments which may guard us from error, and establish us in the truth. For what the Apostle said of those unhappy individuals is, we may fear, true of many in the present day, let us therefore receive the caution, remembering that it is not of limited but of universal application,

I would this morning, therefore, entreat your attention

First-To THE CROSS OF CHRIST. Secondly-TO THE ENEMIES OF THE CROSS OF CHRIST ; and

Thirdly-To THE AWFUL CONDITION of all such pERSONS: they glory in their shame, and their end is destruction.

In the First place, let me call your attention to THE CROSS OF CHRIST.

My brethren, to all the nations of antiquity, whether barbarous or polished, a cross conveyed the same idea, and called up a class of emotions similar to those which a rack, or a gibbet excites in the minds of modern Europeans. We ought ever to bear that fact in mind, that we may have a full apprehension of the force of the allusions made in the sacred writings to this instrument of torture. Thus it was among them the badge of infamy, the death of a slave; and when with these associations we look back to Calvary, and behold there three individuals suspended upon these fatal trees, we might at the first glance imagine that we saw the vilest wretches of the Jewish nation suffering the well merited effects of their own misdeeds; and then what man of sensibility, and

of natural benevolence, taking but a glance at such objects, would not turn away; for who would not abhor the cross? who would not avoid a sight of the gallows? But look to Calvary again, my brethren ? On that central cross, there is an inscription. It is written in three languages, to meet the eye of the many tongued population that now crowd the streets of Jerusalem, and you read in that inscription, "Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews." So then, it is not a cross, but it is the cross of Christ, to which our attention is directed. Ah, brethren, Jesus is the Christ, he is the anointed one of GOD, anointed to be the prophet, the priest, and the king of his people; and as the captain of our salvation, it is necessary that he should be perfected through suffering, and therefore we are called to contemplate him upon the accursed tree.

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Now that cross upon which "the Prince of Glory died" supplies a comprehensive phrase which includes all the doctrinal truths involved in the extraordinary transaction of his death; and hence the phraseology of the Apostle, "the preaching of the cross," glorying of the cross," "the persecution of the cross." He employs this phrase in our text in a metaphorical and moral sense, and it becomes a significant description of all the great principles which were concentrated in his death. The enemies then of the cross of Christ are not those who opposed the punishment of crucifixion, for they might have been among the most benevolent of mankind, but they who are the enemies of those great principles which were associated with the crucifixion of the Son of God. When we read, therefore, of the cross of Christ in our text, we are called to remember those important truths, those powerful motives, those amazing troubles which were connected therewith.

Regarding the cross of Christ as

thus supplying a comprehensive phrase, | Christ, when the only begotten of the let us consider it,

First, as the symbol of abasing truths. Pride seems to have been the earliest, and is certainly one of the most powerful evils with which man had to contend; and all the degradation, which is the consequence of his apostacy from GoD, has not lessened that self-esteem and complacent regard with which we are prone to view our own characters, and to contemplate our own doings. Thus we are prone continually to lessen the amount of our own transgressions, to plead that our venial sins are scarcely worthy of the notice of their benevolent Creator; or again to plead, that our obedience is respectable, and that our righteousness may deserve and challenge the acceptance and favour of Jehovah. Now the cross of Christ is the symbol of truths the very opposite of these notions, and therefore most offensive and abasing to the pride and ignorance of the human heart. For in that cross we behold an exhibition of the extreme evil of sin, and of the necessity of a righteousness more perfect and complete than human power can produce, to satisfy the claims of the attributes and law of God.

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Father, full of grace and truth, suffers, groans, and dies, as the surety of transgressors; endures all the terrors of his Father's displeasure, that he might thereby atone for sin, sustain the requirements of the Divine law, and the demands of inflexible justice. The Apostle Peter has declared that Jesus

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bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sin, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed." No man then that looks at the cross of Christ, and beholds the disinterested yet bitter agonies of the Lamb of GOD, occasioned by the pressure of a mighty load which weighed him down, can think that sin is a venial evil—a trifle not to be regarded. Hence the enmity which the cross provokes-hence the cry against it, as against its holy victim-" away with it.”

And then, brethren, there is another abasing truth in the cross of Christ, namely, that the substitution of a perfect sacrifice is necessary to our salvation. Men are prone to think that they can meet the claims of the Divine law, but they are altogether ignorant of its spirituality, of its inflexibility, and of the extent of its requirements. Jesus Christ by one offering for ever perfects them that believe; he procured not only an atonement for sin, but a righteousness which is complete; and that very righteousness, which is the best boon that God's grace ever bestowed upon man, is the occasion of offence to multitudes, who, because it thus supersedes their services, as a meritorious ground of justification, become the enemies of the cross of Christ. But they also become the enemies of the cross of Christ,

Brethren, the desert of sin has been again and again exhibited under the varied forms which the justice and providence of GOD have been pleased to appoint. We behold it in the expulsion of our parents from that blissful region of paradise into which they were conducted by the hand of their Creator. We behold it in the desolation of the deluge—in the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah-in all the successive plagues which visited Egypt, and which afflicted the chosen tribes of Israel. Every passage of this book Secondly, as it is the source of reveals to us that sin is that abomin-powerful motives. The design of the able thing which God hates: but, my death of Christ was to save his peohearers, the turpitude of sin was ple from their sins. My dear friends, never so exhibited as in the cross of let us never separate redemption from

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the power of sin, from the redemp- | from the depravity of the Jews, and the
machinations of the devil.
Let it be our

tion, from its curse.

desire continually to remember that the Apostle Paul, when writing to Titus, has declared, "that he gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself peculiar people, zealous of good works." It was his great design to "redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people;" and the influence of this sacrifice, St. Paul recognized, when he said, "for the love of Christ constraineth us, because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: and that he died for all, that they which live, should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him who died for them, and rose again." Now, my brethren, when a man, by faith, contemplates the bleeding love of Jesus, as exhibited on the cross, he feels that he cannot live the rest of his life according to the will of the flesh-that he cannot crucify the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame that every wound, that every groan, that every pang which afflicted his heart, becomes a motive to him as a faithful disciple, to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts; he is crucified with Christ-he becomes dead to the world, and the world dead to him. And it is this very fact, that the cross of Christ is a powerful motive to holiness, which makes men at enmity with it; they would have no objection to the mere theory, the abstract hypothesis, but the doctrine of the cross which is practical, which supplies motives, which demands consistency of conduct, which teaches the denying of ungodliness and wordly lusts, this doctrine they abhor, they reject with disdain, to this day, because they are wedded to their lusts.

Then, my friends, we may contemplate the cross of Christ, not only as the symbol of abasing truths, and as the source of powerful motives, but, Thirdly, as the signal of an amazing conflict. The death of Christ resulted

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We know

he entered into the heart of Judas, and
doubtless his malevolent influence was
exerted also, with extraordinary power,
in the minds of the high priests and
It is probable,
elders of the Jews.
that the idea present to his mind, was,
that by the death of Christ, the rising
cause of virtue and holiness might be
overthrown, and thus he stirred all his
agencies in earth and hell to effect it.
But God has ever made the wrath of
devils, as well as men, to praise him;
and therefore the death of his Son,
which was intended to be the over-
throw of the kingdom of Christ, was
made to lead on a conflict against the
principles of evil, which continues to
this hour, and shall be perpetuated till
the victory is completely won, and
Jesus owned in earth and heaven, aye,
and in hell too, as the Lord of all.
We find the Apostle Paul in his epistle
to the Colossians, tells us, that Jesus
"having spoiled principalities and pow-
ers, made a show of them openly, tri-
umphing over them in it." And from
that day the doctrine of the cross has
excited opposition, and its followers
have endured reproach. Where, bre-
thren, did the Apostles go-in what city
did they preach, in which the truths
they proclaimed did not excite oppo-
sition? Was not the preaching of the
cross to the Jew, a stumbling block,
and to a Greek foolishness? The Jews
stumbled at it, because Messiah, the
prince, died the death of a criminal;
and the Greeks counted it foolishness,
because they could not imagine that
by the death of a slave the world was
to be renovated. The persecutions of
And are not its
past ages prove the strength of the op-
position to the cross.
ministers required still to endure the
contempt and hatred of men, when they
contend earnestly for the faith, and
know nothing amongst men but Jesus
Christ and him crucified?
who thus unfurl the Gospel banners

Those

find that the reproach of the cross of Christ has not ceased. They are laughed at for trusting their souls in the hands of another-they are despised for following their Lord in the regenerationthey are injured for labouring to lift him up that he may draw all men unto him. If they will reign with him they must suffer with him; "but at length they shall overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of his testimony”— when sin shall be overthrown and the kingdom shall be given up to the Father and GoD shall be all in all.

Now we proceed to our Second division which relates to THE ENEMIES OF THE CROSS OF CHRIST.

workers, beware of them as you would of dogs.

Now whilst the Apostle thus describes a particular class of judaizing teachers who were found in the Christian churches, yet, my brethren, it is evident that they only possessed traits of character which are to be found in multitudes of professed Christians at the present day.

First, it is evident they were proud men who valued their own righteousness. The Apostle tells us that they "being ignorant of the righteousness of God, went about to establish their own righteousness, not submitting themselves unto the righteousness of GOD." And, The men to whom the Apostle refers brethren, wherever a man is so proud, are described in the first verses of this that he cannot be brought to cast himchapter. "Finally, my brethren, re- self upon that system of Divine mercy joice in the Lord. To write the same and grace which the infinite goodness things to you, to me indeed is not grie- of GOD has revealed, he must be acvous, but for you it is safe"-to write counted as an enemy of the cross of the same things of which I had spoken Christ. Brethren, gross sensual evils to you, is neither difficult or grievous are not the only things which are ofto me, and for you it is safe. "Be- fensive to God; there are evils of the ware of dogs, beware of evil workers, mind which are as opposed to God as beware of the concision." Now it is the defiling practices of the body; and evident that the Apostle puts himself, that individual who proudly sets at in the third verse, in opposition to those nought the system which infinite wisof whom he speaks in the second, and dom has constructed-which unutterthus pourtrays the individuals he has able grace has provided—which condescribed in our text as enemies of the descending love has revealed, and alcross: "For we are the circumcision, mighty power has accomplished, that which worship God in the spirit, and individual sets himself in opposition rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no to his Maker, and must be regarded as confidence in the flesh." Now the indi- a proud enemy of the cross of Christ. viduals to whom he was opposed were Now, let me, my brethren, ask you, not of the true circumcision but they for we will not speak of those juwere the concision. They were ready daizing teachers, who were found to divide the church of Christ and tear at Philippi, but we will inquire of you, it asunder on account of their Jewish are you not resisting the righteousness prejudices—who did not worship GoD of Christ? What is your plea for acin the spirit, but only maintained the ceptance in the presence of GOD? Is it ritual forms of piety-who did not re- the kindly dispositions of your nature? joice in Christ Jesus-but placed all Is it the negative goodness of your lives? their confidence in the flesh-trusting in Is it your honest intentions and social their Mosaic usages-their Jewish rites, virtues? Oh, remember that you are and their personal righteousness for in a state of spiritual disease, in spiacceptance before GoD. And there- ritual thraldom, tied and bound by the fore he says, beware of these evil-chain of your sins. The all-wise phy

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