DISCOURSE THIRTEENTH.

JOSEPH HALL, D.D.

EMINENT among the best and holiest men that any age or country has produced, stands the name of Bishop HALL. He was born, July 1, 1574, at Briston Park, Leicestershire, of parentage "honest and well allowed." In common with many others of the good and great, his religious and moral worth was the fruit, under God, of maternal piety and care. In allusion to his mother he says: "How often have I blessed the memory of those divine passages of experimental divinity which I have heard from her mouth!" His literary training was received in the Grammar School of his native town, and in Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he was chosen fellow, at the age of twenty-two. Here he ably filled, for two years, the office of professor of rhetoric, which he resigned for the ministry, and accepted the rectory of Hawsted. He also held charge in Waltham for sixteen years, and afterward the deanery of Worcester. In 1627 he was raised to the see of Exeter, whence, in 1641, he was transferred to Norwich.

His Episcopal office was rendered painful by the representations to the king, probably by the infamous Laud, that he was too indulgent to the scruples of the Non-Conformists; and he was finally committed to the Tower. On regaining his liberty, he retired to Norwich, but in a few months his estate, including his furniture, books, and apparel, was exposed for sale; and, expelled from his residence, he retired to a small house in Heigham, where, in 1656, "quietly, gradually, and even insensibly, he gave up his last breath."

To Hall's deep piety was added a mind of uncommon penetration, a poetic fancy, and a fine, classic taste. It was Sir Henry Watton who first styled him the "English Seneca." Fuller's amplification is well known: "He was commonly called our English Seneca, for the pureness, plainness, and fullness of his style; not ill at controversies, more happy at comments, very good in characters, best of all in his meditations." Hsll's writings are very numerous; of which his "Contemplations on the Old and New Testaments," are the most noted. They well deserve the

name of "Sacred Classics." Of scarcely inferior merit are some of his less celebrated treatises, devotional and practical. His published sermons are comparatively few, since, as he informs us, it was his custom to "gather the quintessence of those larger discourses," into the form of meditations. The few extant sermons are not much known, being exceedingly rare. That was a happy thought of his: "It seemed not amiss, that some of those metals should be shown in the ore, whereof so great a quantity was presented in the wedge." The author of this work is happy in being able to embody a discourse "in the ore;" and as a specimen of earnest and faithful presentation of the cross-bearing doctrines of the Gospel, it is especially worthy of imitation in these times, when formality and voluptuousness threaten the Churches with sorer evils, than were ever inflicted by the knife of persecution.

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The discourse is remarkable for that density of expression and amplitude of thought, that gintness and richness of illustration, that pungency and pathos, and that fervor of piety and soundness of doctrine, which characterize Bishop Hall's productions.

THE BELIEVER CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST.

"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live."-GAL. ii. 20.

He that was once tossed in the confluence of two seas, was once no less straitened in his resolutions betwixt life and death. Neither doth my text argue him in any other case here; as there he knew not whether he should choose, so here he knew not whether he had. "I am crucified," there he is dead; yet "I live," there he is alive again; "yet not I," there he lives not; "but Christ in me," there he more than lives. This holy correction makes my text full of wonders, full of sacred riddles. 1. The living God is dead upon the cross, "Christ crucified." 2. St. Paul who died by the sword, dies on the cross. 3. St. Paul who was not Paul till after Christ's death, is yet crucified with Christ. 4. St. Paul thus crucified yet lives. 5. St. Paul lives not himself, while he lives. 6. Christ who is crucified, lives in Paul, who was crucified with him.

See then here, both a Lent and an Easter; a Lent of mortification "I am crucified with Christ;" an Easter of resurrection and life "I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me." The Lent of my text will be sufficient (as proper) for this season; wherein my speech shall pass through three stages of discourse; Christ crucified, St. Paul crucified, St. Paul crucified with Christ. In all which, your

Christian patience shall as much shorten my way as my care shall shorten the way to your patience.

Christ's cross is the first lesson of our infancy, worthy to be our last, and all. The great doctor of the Gentiles affected not to fly any higher pitch. Grande crucis sacramentum, as Ambrose writes: this is the greatest wonder that ever earth or heaven yielded. God incarnate, was "a great mystery;" but God suffering and dying was so much more, as death is more penal than birth. The Godhead of man, and the blood of God, are two such miracles, as the angels of heaven can never enough look into, never enough admire.

Ruffinus tells us that among the sacred characters of the Egyp tians, the cross was anciently one, which was said to signify eternal life; hence, their learneder sort were converted to, and confirmed in the faith. Surely, we know, that in God's hieroglyphics, eternal life is both represented and exhibited to us by the cross. That the cross of Christ was made of the tree of life; a slip whereof the angels gave to Adam's son, out of Paradise, is but a Jewish legend; Galatine may believe it, not we. But, that it is made the tree of life to all believers, we are sure. This is the only instrument to scale heaven; never man ascended thither, but by it. By this, Christ Himself climbed up to His own glory. "Father, glorify Thy name;" that is, saith He, "Lift Me up to the tree, not of My shame, but of My triumph." "Behold, we preach Christ crucified" (saith St. Paul), "to the Jews a stumbling-block, to the Greeks foolishness; but to them which are called, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God." Foolish men, that stumble at power, and deride wisdom! Upbraid us now, ye fond Jews and pagans, with a crucified Saviour; it is our glory, it is our happiness, which ye make our reproach. Had not our Saviour died, He could have been no Saviour for us; had not our Saviour died, we could not have lived. See now the flag of our dear Redeemer, this cross, shining eminently in our foreheads; and if we had any place more high, more conspicuous, more honorable, there we would advance it. O blessed Jesu, when Thou art thus lifted up on Thy cross, Thou drawest all hearts unto Thee; there Thou "leadest captivity captive, and givest gifts unto men." Ye are deceived, O ye blind Jews and paynims, ye are deceived. It is not a gibbet, it is a throne of honor, to which our Saviour is raised; a throne of such honor as to which heaven and earth and hell, do and must bow. The sun hides his awful head, the earth trembles, the rocks rend, the graves open, and all the frame of nature doth homage to their Lord in this secret, but divine pomp of his crucifix ion. And while ye think His feet and hands despicably fixed, be

hold, He is powerfully trampling upon hell and death, and setting up trophies of His most glorious victory, and scattering everlasting crowns and scepters unto all believers. O Saviour! I do more adore Thee, on the Calvary of Thy passion, than on the Tabor of Thy transfiguration, or the Olivet of Thine ascension; and can not so feelingly bless Thee for "Father, glorify Me," as for-"My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me;" since it is no news for God to be great and glorious; but, for the eternal and ever-living God to be abased; to be abased unto death, to the death of the cross, is that which could not but amaze the angels, and confound devils; and so much more magnifies Thine infinite mercy, by how much an infinite person would become more ignominious. All hosannahs of men, all allelujahs of saints and angels, come short of this majestic humiliation. "Blessing, honor, glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb, for ever and ever." And ye, beloved, as ever ye hope to make music in heaven, learn to tune your harps to the note and ditty of those heavenly elders. Rejoice in this, and rejoice in nothing but this cross; not in transitory honors, titles, treasures, which will at the last leave you inconsolately sorrowful, but in this cross of Christ; whereby the world is crucified to you, and you to the world. Oh! embrace this precious cross; and say with that blessed martyr, "My love is crucified." Those that have searched into the monuments of Jerusalem, write that our Saviour was crucified with his face to the west; which, howsoever spitefully meant of the Jews (as not allowing him worthy to look on the holy city and temple), yet, was not without a mystery; "His eyes looked to the Gentiles," etc., saith the Psalmist. As Christ, therefore, on His cross, looked toward us sinners of the Gentiles, so let us look up to Him. Let our eyes be lift up to this brazen serpent, for the cure of the deadly stings of that old serpent. See Him, O all ye beholders see Him hanging upon the tree of shame, of curse, to rescue you from curse and confusion, and to feoff you in everlasting blessedness. See Him stretching out His arms to receive and embrace you; hanging down His head to take view of your misery; opening His precious side to receive you into His bosom ; opening His very heart to take you in thither; pouring out thence water to wash you, and blood to redeem you. O, all ye Nazarites that pass by, out of this dead lion seek and find the true honey of unspeakable and endless comfort! And ye, great masters of Israel, whose lips profess to preserve knowledge, leave all curious and needless disquisitions, and with that divine and extatical doctor of the Gentiles, care only to know-to preach-"Christ and Him crucified."

But this, though the sum of the Gospel, is not the main drift of my text. I may not dwell in it, though I am loath to part with so sweet a meditation. From Christ crucified turn your eyes to Paul crucified; you have read of him dying by the sword; hear him speak of dying by the cross, and see his moral, spiritual, living crucifixion.

Our apostle is two men, Saul and Paul-the old man and the new. In respect of the old man, he is crucified and dead to the law of sin; so as that sin is dead in him; neither is it otherwise with every regenerate. Sin hath a body, as well as the man hath, ("Who shall deliver me from this body of death?") a body that hath limbs and parts: "Mortify your earthly members," saith our Apostle. Not the limbs of our human body, which are made of earth; but the sinful limbs, that are made of "corruption, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection," etc. The head of sin is wicked devices; the heart of sin, wicked desires; the hands and feet of sin, wicked execution; the tongue of sin, wicked words; the eyes of sin, lustful apprehensions; the forehead of sin, impudeut profession of evil; the back of sin, a strong supportation and maintenance of evil: all this body of sin is not only put to death, but to shame too; so as it is dead with disgrace: "I am crucified." St. Paul speaks not this singularly of himself, but in the person of the renewed: sin doth not, can not live a vital and vigorous life in the regenerate. Wherefore, then, say you, was the Apostle's complaint, "Wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death?" Mark, I beseech you, it was the body of sin, not the life of sin; a body of death, not the life of that body. Or if this body had yet some life, it was such a life as is left in the limbs when the head is struck off; some dying quiverings, rather as the remainders of a life that was, than any act of a life that is. Or, if a further life, such a one as in swounds and fits of epilepsy, which yields breath, but not sense; or if some kind of sense, yet no motion; or if it have some kind of motion in us, yet no manner of dominion over us. What power, motion, sense, relics of life, are in a fully crucified man? Such a one may waft up and down with the wind, but can not move out of any internal principle.

Sin and grace can not more stand together in their strength than life and death. In remiss degrees all contraries may be lodged together under one roof. St. Paul swears that he dies daily, yet he lives; so the best man sins hourly, even while he obeys; but the powerful and overruling sway of sin is incompatible with the truth. of regeneration. Every Esau would be carrying away a blessing.