which he takes his idea and his model. Now, the idea and model of Christianity, is depicted in the Apostolical History. This is the value of the information we have. It is of this sort. It was given us with this design: to enable every human being on earth, all ranks, all sexes, all ages, all professions, to understand what a Christian. really should be.

1. The faith which the Apostles possessed, had its first expression, in a supreme love to Jesus Christ. They adored Him, as their Redeemer. They loved Him, as their Master. They confided in Him, as their Creator. They honoured and served Him, as their God. This is the true nature of divine faith.

2. The faith which the Apostles had, worked by love, and kept the commandments of God. It was not spent in controversy and speculation. It rested not, in orthodoxy of opinion, in regularity of discipline, in strictness of observances, in decency of external conduct. It purified their inward propensities and affections. It made their inmost souls the sanctuary, where all that

was peaceable, and upright, and holy, consecrated the abode of that Spirit who dwelt within them. It governed their conduct, not by the maxims of this world or its fashions, but by the inflexible law of God, and by the example of their master. It abounded in love to mankind, in patience, in meekness, in the denial of selfish affections, and the forgetfulness of particular interests. It made them willing to please all men, if by any means they could save some 1. It enabled them to rejoice, if, by any thing they could do or suffer, they might win souls for their master, and turn a benighted world from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God. This is the true nature of divine faith. This is what the Scripture means by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the example which the Apostles have set before us.

3. In fine, the faith which they had was a faith that overcame the world. We may not be raised to such offices and em

1 Rom. xi. 14. 1 Cor. ix. 22.

ployments as they held. We may not be commanded by our Redeemer to publish the Gospel among the heathen. We may not be called to suffer imprisonment, or stripes, or death. But we are called,and required, and commanded, on the pain and peril of everlasting misery, to follow the spirit of the example which they have set us, as our several circumstances and situations present us with opportunities. We must, substantially, in the sincerity of our affections, in our principles, and even in the pursuit of our temporal interests, renounce and hate the world as they did.

Now, the example of the Apostles shows us, that the victory which overcometh the world is faith. It is faith, which, beholding the invisible and eternal future, so distinct, so near, so present, gives such decision of conduct and unity of purpose, as render every allurement and every disappointment, momentary and indifferent. It was this, that gave the Apostles that enthusiasm of truth and certainty, which made the wise and prudent deride them as fools and madmen..

In this world, they suffered hunger, and thirst, and nakedness: they were buffeted: they had no certain dwelling-place: they laboured, working with their own hands: they were reviled, persecuted, defamed, despised: they were counted "fools" and "weak," "the filth of the earth, and the off-scouring of all things :" they were "set forth last," "as it were appointed unto death;" "a spectacle to the world, and to angels, and to men "."

2

But they had counted the cost. They looked, not at that which was temporal, but at that which is eternal. For they knew, that thus their light and momentary afflictions, would work for them "a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." They were contented to be accounted fools now; to be despised, and afflicted; to suffer the loss of all things. For, continually before the eye of their triumphant faith, was presented the eternal reward the kingdom that shall never be removed; the crown that shall never

1

1 1 Cor. iv. 10—13.

2 Ib. 9.

fade away; the approbation of their Master; the recompence for all His sufferings. They saw the books opened; and the thrones set; and the dead, small and great, standing before the throne of God; and this world, and all its pomp and power, its friendship and its enmity, crumbling into atoms and clear and audible amidst the taunts and blasphemies of their infuriated persecutors, the voice of the eternal Spirit whispered in their ears: "They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars for ever and ever."

"These," indeed, "are they, which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb1." These, indeed, are they that fought "against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world ";" and "they overcame," "by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death "."

1 Rev. vii. 14. 2

Eph. vi. 12.

3 Rev. xii. 11.