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forebodings as to the event of future temptations. You are half prepared to conclude in the moment of defpondence, that you are by nature weaker than the weakeft; that the promises of the gospel will always be preached to you in vain. If, in manifeft contradiction to the unequivocal declarations of the gospel, you will not believe that its promifes extend to you and to all men; if in direct oppofition to its plaineft commandments, you are become weary of well-doing, and determined against exertion; if you will neither hold fast faith, nor labour after holiness: most truly do you affirm that the word of life will in vain have

been preached unto you. If you refuse to follow the standard of the Lord Jesus; you will not be found among thofe to whom he is the captain of falvation. But if you reft with undoubting confidence on the fcriptural covenant of grace; if in fincerity of heart you are truly defirous of being refcued from the bondage of fin, and of living henceforth as the fervant of righteoufnefs; if you are ready to take up your crofs, to fubmit to difcipline, and to endure hardship as a good foldier of Jefus Chrift: turn to the fcriptures, and behold them recording for your fake the fulfilment of their own promifes. Turn to the fcriptures, and behold them recording for enyour couragement,

couragement, for your confolation, various examples of the power of the grace of Chrift made perfect in weakness: examples, wherein the grace of Chrift difplayed its fufficiency by transforming timidity into fortitude, and rendering those who had funk under former and feebler temptations, finally and stedfastly triumphant. In an early period of our Saviour's ministry, Nicodemus was convinced that he was an inftructor commiffioned from above. We know, faid he, that thou art a teacher fent from God. For no man can do these miracles that thou docft except God be with him. He was anxious to receive inftructions from this heavenly guide; and came to request them. But how did he come? Did he come openly, in the face of day; like one whofe heart, occupied with the concerns of falvation, was fuperior to worldly confequences; like one who, fupremely bent on pleafing God, was indifferent to the opinions of men? He came like a man afhamed of his purpofe; fecretly, by ftealth, in the darkness of night. He dreaded to be discovered. He recoiled at the idea of being derided by his unbelieving countrymen. He loved the praife of men more than the praise of God. Some time afterwards, in the courfe of our Redeemer's hiftory, we

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meet Nicodemus again. The Pharifees, refolved on the deftruction of Chrift, had fent officers to seize him. These emiffaries, returning without their prey, were sharply reprehended by their employers. On that occafion Nicodemus ventured to enquire; Doth our Law judge any man before it hear him, and know what he doeth (c)? And in return he was fcornfully asked whether he also was of Galilee, whether he was a disciple of Jesus of Nazareth; an avowal to which his courage and fincerity were not equal, He had apparently made fome fmall advances in confcientious refolution; but was ftill in a great measure remaining under the habitual influence of worldly fear. When our Lord was at length apprehended and condemned to be crucified; Nicodemus feems to have been filent. We may be affured that he did not give his confent to the deed. We may be affured that he abhorred it. But the scriptures furnish no foundation for believing that he confeffed his Saviour in the hour of his diftress; or even that he ftood forward to give his voice again the fhedding of innocent blood. Soon however we fhall contemplate him with emotions very different from those, which his past conduct has excited. But let (c) John, vii. 51.

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us in the mean 'time turn our attention to a perfon of a kindred character, Jofeph of Arimathea. He also had been a disciple of Jelus; and,likeNicodemus.fecretly, for fear of the Jews. He, like Nicodemus, was a man of eminence, a rich man and a counsellor; and, like Nicodemus, had not dared to encounter for confcience-fake the contempt and indignation of the people. But being a juft and good man; holding flagrant crimes in deteftation, and fincere in his defires not actively to violate his duty as a religious man, much as he had hitherto failed as to the courageous performance of it; he would have no fhare in the perpetration of a legal murder. He had not confented to the counfel and deed of the Jewish rulers; contenting himfelf, as appears probable, like Nicodemus, with testifying his difapprobation of their proceedings by abfenting himself from their affembly. Now behold the fanctifying and strengthening power of divine grace! This man on the evening of the day on which our Saviour died, went unto Pilate; went boldly, faith one of the evangelifts (d), to mark the difference between his former cowardice and the religious fortitude with which he was now infpired; this man went in boldly to Pilate, and requested the body of Jefus. He who had himself waited (d) Mark, xv. 43.

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for the kingdom of God; in full expectation that it was about to be established, and in decided affurance that Jefus was the long-predicted King and Redeemer of Ifrael; he who, with this expectation, with this affurance, had never dared, while that King and Redeemer was alive, to confefs his authority and confide in his protection: Now, when all his apostles had forfaken him and fled; when the multitudes who had fo lately rent the air with hofannas to the fon of David, had fuccefsfully clamoured for his crucifixion; when to human eyes his claims were disproved, his promifes falfified, and all the hopes of his kingdom extinguished by his death; when he had died as a malefactor, as a criminal accused and convicted of treafon against Cæfar; when to fhew reverence to his memory, or even to mention his name with refpe&t, would be a circumstance sufficient to fubject any man to the fufpicion of being an accomplice in the guilt imputed to the King of the Jews: this man, in the face of Jerufalem, went in boldly unto the Roman governor, and requested the body of Jefus, that he might bury it in the most honourable manner, and in the fepulchre which he had prepared for himself. In the difcharge of these laft offices, on his part perhaps the first offices, of pious and undisguised

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