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raise our superstructure; but we must add to our faith virtue, or we shall never be the better for all our knowledge: I therefore beg your attention, while I state some of those acquirements, which we still ought to seek after.

The first that I shall mention is Resignation to the Will of God. This, much more than active obedience, argues the progress of the soul; for a Christian, in performing works of righteousness, whether they be such as belong particularly to the ministerial office, as preaching, praying, or visiting the sick; or whether they consist only in those acts of benevolence and mercy, which every disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ will, according to his ability, be found in the exercise of; such works of righteousness I say, as they afford employment to an active character, will be gratifying, and his own will coinciding in those things with the Will of God, he will be borne forward by the tide of Love. If, moreover, his labours to do good be crowned with success, and there

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many who are disposed to receive benefit, as eagerly as he is inclined to give it, he will be ready to imagine that he has made considerable advances in the Christian course, and that he shall go on to the end of it, without meeting with any unpleasant obstacles in his way. But, it is not by so smooth and easy a path that the

Lord is usually pleased to lead his chosen people. Often, by means of sickness, confinement, or poverty, he will take from them the power of performing their favourite exercises; or he will permit such a combination of circumstances to occur, that they shall be removed from situations of usefulness, and shall seem to themselves to exist but as mere cumberers of the ground. To say, as Job, under such severe trials, "The Lord hath given and the Lord hath taken away, yet still blessed be the name of the Lord," is not easy; it requires much faith, and a firm persuasion that a God of infinite goodness and mercy cannot do wrong. We see this character of the advancing Christian beautifully exhibited in the history of Joseph, who, being in the dungeon, and apparently forgotten by God as well as by man, was, whatever he might have conceived of the matter himself (and it is natural to suppose, that, as a frail mortal, he was sometimes subject to desponding thoughts,) nearer the condition of honour and dignity, to which it was fore-ordained that he should be advanced, than when he was diligent in performing his filial and fraternal duties in his father's house, and among his ungrateful brethren; and this history concerning him is undoubtedly left upon record, that we, through patience and comfort of the Scriptures, might

have hope; for times will arrive, when we shall be ready to ask, "Can these be the dealings of God? Can he, who never willingly afflicts the children of men, allow me, (if indeed his mercies are over all his works), to be thus exercised and forgotten, as a man out of mind? Once, in my prosperity, I said, I shall never be moved; but where are his former loving kindnesses, and where shall I turn to behold the light of his countenance, which sometimes, as I conceived, shone so bright upon me? Were these the days of error and delusion, and did I, in the heat of imagination only, fancy that my God beheld me with an eye of favour?" Search the Scriptures, O Christian! and ask those who have more experience than thyself in the ways of the Lord, and thou wilt discover that thy case is no uncommon one, but, rather, what is experienced more or less by all thy fellow pilgrims; and this state of darkness and distress is represented, not only in the solitary instance of Joseph, but in that of David, and others. It is also shewn in the history of the whole people of Israel, whose going forth from Egypt was at midnight, the time of the greatest darkness, and whose journeys through the wilderness from station to station, by the space of forty years, were attended with many calamitous circumstances, inducing them frequently to

disbelieve the promises of God, and almost to abandon themselves to despair. Now, that state of resignation with which the Christian should meet such trials, which will prove his growth in grace, may be shewn from what we find Isaiah L. 10. "Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness and hath no light? Let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God."

2. Another mark of the soul's advance, is its desire of being more and more transformed into the image of Christ. It would know him, not only as the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world, but so as to be united to him, and found in him; and it desires to experience the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, and to be made conformable to his death. Every thing that Christ was, so far as his example was imitable, it would be; and will never be satisfied with any short attainments. To be accepted, it is not sufficient to believe only upon the name of the Son of God; but to be actually blessed with all spiritual blessings in him, our faith must be accompanied with an attractive power. We must put him on,* as the Scripture speaks; we must be really members of his body, and par

* Romans, xiii. 14,

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takers of his spirit. Let us take care that we deceive not ourselves with a vain profession, but let us examine ourselves, and see that we have the proof of our advancement,

1. By learning to die with Christ. These are his own words, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily, and follow me."* To this command did those, who believed in him, pay a scrupulous attention; therefore was Saint Paul enabled to say, "I am crucified with Christ." Now, as by the death of our bodies we understand a separation from that principle or world, in which we have been accustomed to live, we may conceive that the mortification, which the Scriptures recommend to Christians, is very similar in its nature; and, therefore, we may say, that it consists in the withdrawing of our minds from worldly affections; and though, while we are in the body, we must necessarily seek proper supplies for its sustenance, and have some communication with our fellow creatures upon earth, yet are we not to claim a propriety in any thing, but to sit so loose to all our enjoyments, as to give them up with cheerfulness, when the Lord thinks fit to demand the sacrifice. To convince us of this he says, in the verses immediately preced

*Luke ix. 23. + Gal. xii. 20.

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