DISC. are above; it will be the effect, it will be the proof, of such his refurrection. IX. For to "feek," or make fearch, implies, 1. that a person is alive. A dead man, as he knows nothing, can defire nothing; and as he defires nothing, he can seek after nothing. 2. It implies not only life, but motion, the fure fign and exertion of life. No one who is alive and awake, will continue motionless, as if he were dead: the same spirit which caufes him to live, will excite him to move. When the Apostle says, "In him (that is in God) we live," he adds immediately, " and move." The Christian life is not a life of indolence: that, if it be not death, is the way that leads to it. A true Christian is active and zealous, always thinking, fpeaking, or performing fomething for the honour of God, or the good of man. But, 3. Seeking, or making search, if done as it fhould IX. fhould be, with a defire and refolution to DISC. find, implies more than mere motion and activity; it implies labour, diligence, perfeverance. Nothing valuable is to be obtained without thefe, even in the present world; much less are the wonders and the rewards of eternity. It is poffible to seek as Pilate did, who afked, "What is truth?" but never waited for an anfwer. We We may feek carelessly; or begin well, and in a little time grow weary, and give over; or we may feek in a formal manner, without love of that which is fought and therefore a search in earnest, and one that deferves the name, implies, 4. A relish and affection for the thing fought, which cannot be poffeffed by a perfon who is dead. After that which we do not affect, we shall never long take the trouble to feek. Our Apoftle to the words, "Seek those things which are above," subjoins, "Set your affections on things above, "not on things on the earth." The Greek word here used for, " fet your affections," DISC. IX. is one of very extensive meaning: " it com "prehends the actions and operations both "of the understanding and the will;" and cannot be fully tranflated by any one English word; govered, fapite, understand, mind, relife, affect, thofe things which are above. Wisdom, which is the mental faculty of rightly difcerning and distinguishing between one thing and another, resembles that bodily fense refiding in the palate, and perceiving the different taste and flavour of the various kinds of food; and it is very obfervable, that in the three languages of Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, the fame term is used for both; in the firft, gove in the fecond, fapere in the last. "Set your affec❝tions on things which are above;" acquire fuch a knowlege of them, as may incite you to relish, to regard, to attend, to search after them more and more, as the objects of your love, defire, and affection. All this compli cation of meaning feems involved in the one word, poveste. And therefore how diligent φρονείτε. and industrious, how ardent and persevering b LEIGH in PARKHURST. ought IX. ought we to be in the search thus enjoined DISC. by the Apostle! Certainly the men of the world should never be fuffered to outstripand put us to the blush, by their pursuits after honour, pleafure, or wealth. Beautiful is the exhortation of the wife man: which each perfon may regard, as if addreffed to himself: My fon, if thou wilt receive my words, " and hide my commandments with thee; fo "that thou incline thine ear to wifdom, and apply thine heart to understanding; yea, if "thou crieft after knowlege, and liftest up "thy voice for understanding; if thou seekest "her as filver, and searchest for her as for"bidden treasures; then fhalt thou under"ftand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowlege of God." We fhall be greatly quickened in this our fearch, if we confider the Apoftle's account of the things to be fought, or the objects of our search, namely, "the things above, "where Christ fitteth at the right hand of "God." Prov. xi. I, 2. III. To DISC. 1x. III. To be exalted above others in place and power upon earth, is the too general with of all. From the parabolical difcourfe of Jotham we learn, that even the bramble was not exempt from it. And during the abode of Chrift upon earth, we read of one, who defired for her two fons, that they might fit, one on the right hand, the other on the left, in his temporal kingdom, which was then imagined to be near it's establishment. Such, however, was not the nature of our Lord's kingdom, or of the promotion to be obtained in it. He himself is feated at the right hand; but it is "the right hand "of the Majefty in the heavens ;" thither muft his disciples look for their exaltation. We may fay of the Creator, in a more elevated sense than that intended by the Latin poet, Os homini fublime dedit, cælumque tueri This is a holy ambition, to which no bounds con |