from being advantages, will greatly aggravate their condemnation, and point the sting of the never-dying worm. Better were it for us to have been inhabitants of Tyre and Sidon, Luke x. yea of Sodom and Gomorrah, than to appear in judgement with no better plea than this. Neither let us speak peace to ourselves, because we are not so bad as others, but perhaps live decently and comfortably, are useful in society, and perform many things that are commonly called good works. If these works spring from a true love of God, if they are framed according to the rule of his word, if they are performed by faith in Christ Jesus our Lord, they are undoubtedly good, and shall be rewarded before men and angels; if otherwise, you have already your reward, in the complacence of your own minds, and the approbation of friends and acquaintance. The Christianity of the New Testament imports more than all this. It is, to believe in Jesus Christ; so to believe in him, as to obey him in all his commands, to trust him in all his dispensations, to walk in his steps, copying out the bright example of his love, meekness, patience, selfdenial, and active zeal for the glory of God, and the good of mankind.-It is, from a consciousness of our utter inability to perform these great things, to depend continually upon the promised aid and direction of his Holy Spirit, to seek this assistance by frequent fervent prayer, to offer up ourselves daily as living sacrifices unto God;and, finally, when we have done all, to be deeply sensible of our unworthiness of the least of his mercies, to confess ourselves unprofitable servants, and to place all our hopes upon this faithful saying, "That Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners."

Thus, from the consideration of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, the greatness of our misery by nature, and the wonderful things he has done and suffered for our redemption, we may learn the complete security of that salvation he has provided, the extreme danger of neglecting it, and the folly and presumption of attempting to establish a righteousness of our own, independent of him "who is appointed of God unto us, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption," I Cor. i. In setting these things before you plainly and faithfully, I trust I have delivered my own soul. Time is short, life is precarious, and perhaps, to some, this may be the last opportunity of the kind that may be afforded them; God grant we may be wise in time, that, "to-day, while it is called to-day," we may hear his voice. Then we shall understand more of the text than words can teach us; then we shall experience "a peace which passeth all understanding," Phil. iv.; "a joy" which "a stranger intermeddleth not with," Prov. xiv.; and a hope "full of glory," which shall be completed in the endless possession of those "pleasures which are at the right hand of God," Psalm xvi.; where sin, and its inseparable attendant sorrow, shall cease for ever; where "there shall be no more grief, or pain, or fear," Rev. xxi.; but every tear shall be wiped from every eye.

34

SERMON III.

On the Christian Name.

Acts, xi. 26, latter part.

And the Disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.

TH

HE evangelist Luke, having contributed his appointed part to the history of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, proceeds, in the book we style the Acts of the Apostles, to inform us of the state and behaviour of those faithful followers he left behind him on earth, when he ascended, in the name and behalf of his people, to that heaven from whence his love had brought him down. We are informed, that the gracious promises he had made while he was yet with them, began soon to take place; for, "when the day of Pentecost was fully come," Acts, ii. the Holy Spirit descended powerfully upon them, qualified them for preaching the Gospel to the whole world, and gave them an earnest of success, in making their first essay the happy means of converting about "three thousand souls."

The first believers, who " were of one heart and one soul, who continued stedfastly in the Apostle's doctrine, and had all things in common," would probably have been well content to have lived together in Jerusalem, till death had successively transplanted them to the Jerusalem which is above. But this was not to be their rest; and their Lord, who had appointed

them to be "the salt of the earth," and "the light of the world," Matth. v. made use of the rage of their enemies to effect that separation which those who are united by the grace of God are often so loath to yield to. Little did Herod and the Jews consider what would be the conse quence of the persecution they raised against the Church of Christ: but persecutors are always blind, and counteract their own designs. So here; for we are told, that those whom they scattered abroad, "went every where preaching the word." Thus, the word of the Lord "ran and was glorified;" their bitterest enemies contributing to push it forward, till, in a few years, it was published "from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth," Psalm, lxxii.

For a while these faithful followers of the Lamb were known only by particular names, according to the different humours of different places; Nazarenes, Galileans, the people of that way, pestilent fellows and the like: but at length, when they grew more numerous, when their societies were regularly formed, and their enemies universally alarmed, they began to bear a more general and emphatical name. St. Luke has informed us, that this was the case in fact; and has likewise told us where it first obtained; and as I suppose he did not this without some design, I shall endeavour to draw some observations for our use and direction, from this remark in the text, that "the disciples were called Christians first at Antioch:" which I shall divide into two; thus-That the first general name by which the disciples were distinguished from the world, and united among themselves, was that of Christians; and, secondly, That this took place at Antioch. Thus the propositions lie in the text; but, in treating of each, it may

be more convenient to invert this order, and consider the latter as previous to the other.

Now, if we consider the state of the city of Antioch, before, at the time, and since, the event which is here recorded; from each of these views we may gather some lesson of instruction for ourselves; which ought to be our view in all we read, but especially when we read those books "which are able to make us wise unto salvation," and where no one sentence is insignificant. But let us not forget, with all we read and hear concerning religion, to mingle our frequent prayers to the great Author and Fountain of all grace, for that aid and assistance of his Holy Spirit, without which we can do nothing to advantage.

Antioch, the capital of Syria, built about three hundred years before Christ, had been long the most flourishing city of the East: the most remarkable circumstance of its ancient state, as suiting our present purpose, was its having been the seat and residence of Antiochus, the most cruel and inveterate enemy of the church and people of God; the most direct and eminent type of that Antichrist who was afterwards to appear in the world; spoken of expressly by prophecy in Daniel, chap. xi.; the completion of which you may see at large in the first book of Maccabees, in Josephus, and more briefly in the 79th and 80th psalms. But behold the wisdom, the power, and the providence of God! When his people were brought low, he helped them; he set those bounds to the rage of the adversary which could not be broken through: and, at length, in his appointed time, he erected this first general standard of the Gospel, upon the very spot where his grand enemy had so long encamped; and from whence his pernicious