e imagined than for Him who is
the eternal Son of God, in all things equal to his Father, to conceal
these glorious titles under the appearance of a sinner? What a subject
of confusion to us, who, being abominable criminals, are ashamed to pass
for what we are, and desire to appear and be esteemed what we are not!
Shall we not learn from this example of Christ to love humiliations,
especially as we cannot but acknowledge that we deserve every reproach
and all manner of contempt from all creatures? Seventhly, by beginning
the great work of our salvation in the manner he was one day to finish
it; suffering in his own person the punishment of sin, to deliver us
from both sin and its punishment, he confounds the impenitence of
sinners who will suffer nothing for their own sins; and inculcates the
necessity of a spiritual circumcision, whereof the external was but the
type and figure, as the apostle puts us in mind.[9]

It is manifest, beyond all contradiction, from several texts of the Old
Testament,[10] that men under that dispensation ought not to have rested
in the external act alone, but should have aspired from the letter to
the spirit, from the carnal to a spiritual circumcision. These texts, at
the same time that they set forth its necessity, describe it as
consisting in a readiness and willing disposition to conform to the will
of God, and submit to it when known, in every particular. They in
consequence require a retrenchment of all inordinate and superfluous
desires of the soul, the keeping a strict guard and government over
ourselves, a total abstinence from criminal, and a prudent reserve even
in the lawful gratifications of sense and appetite. If such instances of
spiritual circumcision were required of those under the Old Law, to
qualify them for acceptance with God, can any thing less than the same
entitle us Christians to the claim of spiritual kindred with faithful
Abraham, and to share of that redemption which Christ began this day to
purchase for us at the expense of his blood? We must cut off whatever
inordinate or superfluous desires of riches, honors, or pleasures reign
in our hearts, and renounce whatever holds us wedded to our senses or
the world. Though this sacrifice required the last drop of our blood, we
ought cheerfully to make it. The example of Christ powerfully excites us
not to spare ourselves. A thousand irregular affections reign in our
souls, and self-love is master there. This enemy is on