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ple of our blessed Saviour himself: therefore we are directed to look unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of God*. What are the troubles we are accustomed to, compared with the agonies of the cross? What is the contempt of silly empty people, who caH themselves the world, compared with the disgrace of hanging naked as a malefactor before a multitude, who mocked at the punishment as a proof that he who suffered it, was an impostor? Nothing was ever so full of apparent disgrace, as the character of Jesus Christ at his passion. How distressing and almost distracting is it, to be innocent, and yet seem to be guilty? This is a piercing trial to an honest mind. To affect to be great when we are mean, and powerful when we are weak, exposes us to the scorn of every enemy; and this the enemies of Christ laid to his charge, and gratified themselves with every malicious expression that could add to the apparent infamy of his sufferings. Yet all this shame he patiently endured, for the joy that was set before him. This we are to consider under all our trials.

God does not lay

Chap. xii 2.

upon

upon us any grief or chastening, for its own sake; but to correct our minds, and give us a title to that joy, which shall be the reward of patient suffering. Thus we shall not be weary and faint in our minds. I grant it is a severe trial to mortal man, to deserve good and receive evil: but to this we are all called, as the followers of a crucified Saviour. The Son of God was made perfect through sufferings; and if God is our father, we must expect that he will chasten us; if he does not, then are we bastards and not sons*. Bastards are often forsaken by their parents, and left to grow up without correction: consequently to be brought by the tendency of their unreformed nature to misery and destruction: but no Christian would wish for such a privilege : he judges it far better to suffer in hope, than to be at his ease, as one whom God hath neg

lected.

From the description given of the Church as a spiritual society, the Christian is to learn. the dignity of his own character, and to conduct himself in a manner suitable to his station. He seems outwardly like other men; but inwardly he has an honourable place in the kingdom of spirits: he is in the company

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of angels, saints, and martyrs; he is under the dominion of God as his king and lawgiver; he is a student of wisdom in the school that

has sent out so many sons unto glory; he is within the covenant that is sealed by the blood of Christ for his purification and redemption; his name is registered in heaven, as an heir of immortality: he knows that while the mighty empires of the earth are changing and passing away into oblivion, the kingdom of which he is a member shall never be moved. The earth shall be shaken, and the heavens shall melt away; but his inheritance is secure. The same God who is a consuming fire to an impenitent world, will be to him a Protector and a Saviour, if he serves him acceptably, in this short time. of his probation, with reverence and godly fear.

The last chapter of the Epistle consists wholely of exhortations, relating to the great duties of charity, purity, submission, and a detachment from the world.

All parties of men are bound together by a common interest; which, though in some cases even wicked and absurd, and little better than a conspiracy, will have its effect in disposing

Chap. xii. 28.

posing them to espouse the cause, and prefer the company and conversation of one another. Now as there is no common interest so important as that of Christians, it ought to produce such a friendship as is superior to every other relation or connexion. Remember them that are in bonds, says the Apostle, as bound with them; that is, as considering that they are members of the body of Christ, and that one member cannot suffer without affecting the rest. The same rule is applicable to every other condition of life; as if it had been said; remember them that are poor, as partaking of their poverty; remember them that are sick, as being sick with them: for thence we shall feel the same obligation to relieve them as to relieve ourselves; and much greater comfort, because it is more blessed to give than to receive.

Purity of life is another virtue essential to the Christian character. We are to consider ourselves as brought into that heavenly society, wherein are angels, saints, and martyrs: then, how shocking will it be to reflect, that an impure Christian is impure in the company of Angels; drunk, and like a beast, in the company of Angels; covetous, ambitious, self-interested, and deceitful, in the company

of

of Angels. Hence you will understand, how a wicked Christian is worse than a wicked Heathen, and will have a more severe account to give; because he adds affront and insult to his wickedness; so that it shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for him.

1

From the consideration that true religion has always had the same object from the beginning of the world, namely, that of bringing men to God by the way of faith and patience; and that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, to day, and for ever; yesterday, under the Law; to day, under the Gospel; and for ever, in the kingdom of Glory: we should learn to be stedfast in this ancient plan, and look with a suspicious eye upon all pretended reformations and improvements of modern Christians, who are inventing new modes of faith, and would shew us what they call a more excellent way. Vanity is always fond of novelty: you see it every day in the common change of fashions: and therefore vain men are carried about with every wind of doctrine, propagated by those who are ignorant of the antiquity of that religion, by which all believers have been and are now to be saved. If men did but study the scripture on a right principle, without a spirit of

party,

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