have I iii heaven but thee ? and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee." But how few are there who thus " count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ!" Yet they, who do not thus regard him, have no just sense of his worth and excellence, and therefore in reality under- value and despise him.
We cannot better improve this subject than by ob- serving—
1 . What enmity there is in the heart of man against God!
The Apostle of the Gentiles has told us, that " the carnal and unrenewed mind is enmity against God." This indeed is a hard saying : but we have abundant proof of the truth of it in the subject we have been considering. We have evidence enough of it in the general forgetfulness of God, and the opposition to his will which prevails in the world. But, in the in- stance before us, an experiment has been made ; an experiment which removes all doubt, and proves indis- putably, how men would treat God, if they had him in their power. God has, for the accomplishment of his own gracious purposes, condescended to clothe himself in human flesh, and to sojourn among men. He assumed nothing of the pomp and splendour of this world, that the attachment or aversion of men might the more evidently appear to arise from their discovery of his true character. He dazzled not their eyes by a full display of his Deity, but suffered the rays of it occasionally to appear, as their organs of vision were able to bear it. He admitted them so close to him, that they might easily contemplate his proper character, and form a rational judgment of his excellencies and perfections. By this he gave them an opportunity of testifying what were the dispositions of their minds towards him. And what was the result of the experiment? Did they love him, admire him, and adore him as God ? Behold, they could " see no form nor comeliness in him." On the contrary, they