feems to be very plain to the carnal eye, yet the spiritual depth thereof cannot be founded without the help of the Spirit of God: there is alfo a great depth in this queftion; angels cannot found the depth thereof, they pry into it, and cannot think enough of Chrift; they can never think too much of him and what fhall men fay in answer to it, What think ye of Chrift?, To divide this text too critically, would, I fuppofe, be the way to confufe it; but I think every word hath an emphasis therein. I. There is an emphasis in the interrogative particle What: WHAT think ye of Chrift? What place do you give him? What value do you put upon him? What grandeur and glory do you afcribe unto him? What efteem have you of him? And fo, 2. There is an emphasis in the verb think: fome think not of him at all, God and Chrift is not in all their thoughts; fome think meanly, fome think bafely, fome think difhonourably, fome think hardly of him: but what think ye? What is your judgment of Christ ? What is your opinion of him? What is your fentiment of him? What is your apprehenfion of him? How stand you affected towards him? And what confideration have you of him? 3. There is an emphafis in the pronoun ye: What think YE of Chrift? ye Pharisees and Sadducees; What think YE of Chrift? Ye that are fo bufy in ftarting queftions about the law, What think ye of Chrift, the end of the law? Ye legalifts and felf-righteous perfons, What think ye of Chrift? Yea, though it was put to the Pharifees in particular, yet it concerns all in general. The trying question that is propofed for the conviction of hypocrites, and to find them out, is useful for the confolation and confirmation of believers, and for discovering their uprightness. While the daughters of Jerufalem think no more of Chrift than of another belovéd, faying, What is thy beloved more than another? the fpoufe of Chrift thinks him to be the chief among ten thoufands. Therefore, it comes to you all, What think ye of Chrift, believers and unbelievers? Surely, to them that believe he is precious. 4. There ye 4. There is an emphafis in the object or matter of the queftion, Chrift; What think ye of CHRIST; What think ye of the Meflias? What think of the Anointed of God, the Chrift of God? It is remarkable, Chrift. fays not here, What think ye of ME? But, What think ye of CHRIST? that is God's Anointed, and the Meffias promised to the fathers: and hereby it is intimate to us, that as Chrift loves to magnify his office, as the Sent, and Sealed, and Anointed of God; fo we cannot have right and becoming thoughts of him, unlefs we apprehend him in his faving offices, to which he is authorized of the Father: and fo, when he says not, What think of ME? But, What think ye of CHRIST? He does not fimply commend himfelf, but his Father alfo, who anointed him to that office; and himself, bearing his Father's commiffion, and invefted with his authority to fave finners: What think ye of Chrift? Here is the proper object of the esteem of rational creatures, and efpecially mankind finners, on whom their thoughts ought to be terminate. It is not, What think ye of God abfolutely confidered? For, God out of Chrift is a confuming fire. It is not, What think ye of Mofes? You magnify Mofes and the law; but a greater than Mofes is here, even he by whom the law is magnified and made honourable. It is not, what think ye of the minifters and their fermons? Oh! they are nothing but the image of death without him! but the queftion is, What think ye of Chrift? The word itself is but a dead letter without Chrift. It is a remarkable faying that Chrift hath to the fame purpose, John v. 39, 40. "Search the fcriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they that testify of me.-And ye will not come to me that ye might have life." You think you have eternal life in the fcripture, but the fcripture teftifies of me; yet ye will not come to me, tho' the fcripture teftifies that eternal life is only to be had in me. Chrift is the true God and eternal life, 1 John v. 20. "And this is the record, that God hath given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son," ver. II. Seeing, then, that the fcripture teftifies of Chrift, that eternal life is in him; in vain do men think to have eternal life, even in the fcripture, while they will not come to Chrift, that they may have life. People may think respectfully of the fcripture, and yet perish in their ignorance, and die in a delufion, while they do not think refpectfully of Christ, in a fuitableness to the teftimony that the fcripture gives of him; therefore, the great queftion is ftill, What think ye of Chrift? OBSERV. That the great question of the Chriftian Catechifm, by which people are to try themselves, is this, WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? Here, you fee, Chrift, who is the catechift, that puts the question, is alfo the catechifm, the matter of the queftion. It is to this fame purpofe that Chrift demands an answer to this queftion, both with refpect to the people in general, what they thought of Christ : t; and alfo with refpect to the difciples themselves, what they thought of him, Luke ix. 18, 19, 20. " Whom fay the people that I am?" What is the fentiment and opinion of the people about Chrift? It is anfwered for the people, that fome took him for John the Baptist, fome for Elias, fome for one of the old prophets: they had an esteem of Chrift, but not according to his worth and excellency, his grandeur and glory, Well, but fays Chrift to his difciples, "Whom fay ye that I am?" What is your thought and judgment? Peter anfwers, in the name of the reft, faying, Thou art the Chrift of God." Believers only can answer this question to purpofe, What think ye of Chrift? The method which I would here effay to profecute, as the Lord may affift, fhall be the following, viz. I. To premife fome general remarks for clearing of this doctrine. II. To fhew what is the import of this queftion, in the feveral parts thereof. III. Offer fome reafons of the doctrine, fhewing why this is the leading and trying queftion in the Chriftian catechifm. IV. Deduce fome inferences, and fo make application of the point, for informing of our minds, trying of of our state, and directing of our thoughts and affections concerning Chrift. I. The first head propofed is, To offer fome general remarks for clearing of the doctrine. 1. Remark, That man is a thoughtful, or a thinking creature.' God created him with a thinking faculty, capable of difcurfive thought and ratiocination; capable of rational cogitation concerning God, and fpiritual objects, and celeftial things; which beafts, that have fome fort of thoughts, yet are not capable of. I need not infift upon this, for fome of you know, that even Pagan philofophers are acquaint with this, and that heathen poets have inferred it from the very frame and ftructure of the human body; as Ovid. Pronaque cum Spectant animalia cetera terram, META. lib. i. fab. 2 Man was endowed above beafts with a faculty capable of celeftial contemplation. It is peculiar to the creatures. called MEN and ANGELS, to think of God, and to think of Chrift; other creatures are not capable of fuch thoughts: this is plainly fuppofed in this queftion, What think ye of Chrift? 2. Remark, That man's thoughts, together with all the faculties and powers of his foul, have got fuch a dafh by the fall of Adam, that they were fet a wavering after other objects, befides God the chief good : yea, the fall in a manner dafhed out his brains; and his head being broken, God went out of his head, • and the creature came in.' Since that time, he could never have a right thought of God in his head: yea, God is not in all his thoughts; innumerable other things fill up the room which God fhould have. He created man upright, but he bath found out many inventions, infomuch that now every imagination of the thoughts of his heart is only evil continually, Gen. vi. 5. The world, and the lufts * i. e. “While other animals look downwards upon the earth, "the Creator gave man a lofty face; and ordered him to look "to heaven, and lift bis countenance upright towards the flars." T4 thereof, thereof, do monopolize and ingrofs all the thoughts of the children of men, and God is thruft out of them; there is no room for God, or the Son of God. This wrong fet of thoughts is alfo here fuppofed in the queftion, What think ye of Chrift? 3. Remark, "That whatever confufed thoughts, and "dark apprehenfions men may naturally have, now in "their fallen ftate, concerning God and his law, like "the confufed chaos, Gen. i. 2. "Without form and void, "and darkness upon the face of the deep ;" yet thoughts "of Chrift, or of God in Christ, are what no man could ever have had in the leaft glimmering idea by nature, "without divine golpel-revelation." Adam fallen retained fome awful and terrible thoughts of God; but no thought could he ever have had of Chrift, unless God had revealed him as the feed of the woman that was to bruife the head of the ferpent. This is the mystery that was hid from ages and generations; the great mystery of godlinefs, God manifefted in the flesh; God in Christ, reconciling the world to himfelf, could not enter into cur thoughts. Some natural impreffions men have of God as a law-giver, ftanding upon terms of obedience with them, according to the first covenant, [namely, of works] made with the firft Adam; but God in Chrift, as the end of the law for righteoufnefs, and fulfilling the righteoufnefs of the law in the finner's room, is fuch a hid den myftery, fo far above the natural thoughts of man, that even where the objective revelation of this mystery is made, without the fubjective, internal, faving illumination in the knowledge thereof, men cannot have or entertain any due apprehenfions of it, but remain doting upon their legal dreams and imaginations concerning God, as in the old covenant relation to them. This was evident in the Pharifees here, notwithstanding of the gofpel-light they had both from the Old Teftament prophecies and promifes of Chrift, and from the rays of the Sun of righteoufnefs. himself, now arifen among them; ftill they were doting upon the law, and had fome dark thoughts of God with relation thereto; therefore Chrift, to direct their thoughts in the only way to God, he leads them to himfelf. And as the difciples themselves, |