he laid down his life for his friends, John xv. 13. His incarnation, his birth, his life, his cross, his death, are so many voices, each of which cries to us, Behold how he loved you, chap. xi. 36.

Had Jesus Christ alone practised the virtues, which he prescribed to us, it might be objected, that a man must be conceived of the Holy Ghost, Matt. i. 20. to resist the force of custom. But we have seen many christians, who have walked in the steps of their master. The primitive church was compassed about with a happy society, a great cloud of witnesses, Heb. xii. 1. Even now, in spite of the power of corruption, we have many illustrious examples; we can shew magistrates, who are accessible; generals, who are patient; merchants, who are disinterested; learned men, who are teachable; and devotees, who are lowly and meek.

If the believer could find no exemplary characters on earth, he could not fail of meeting with such in heaven: On earth, it is true, haughtiness, sensuality, and pride, are in fashion. But the believer is not on earth. He is reproached for being a man of another world. He glories in it, he is a man of another world, he is a heavenly man, he is a citizen of heaven, Phil. iii. 20. His heart is with his treasure, and his soul, transporting itself by faith into the heavenly regions, beholds customs there different from those which prevail in this world. In heaven, it is the fashion to bless God, to sing his praise, to cry Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts, Isa.. vi. S. to animate one another in celebrating the glory of the great Supreme, who reigns and fills the place. On earth, fashion proceeds from the courts of kings, and the provinces are polite when they imitate them. The believer is a heavenly courtier; he practiseth in the midst of a crook

ed and perverse nation, the customs of the court, whence he came, and to which he hopes to return. 3. Satan assaults the christian with the threatenings of the world, and with the persecutions of those who are in power. Virtue, I own, hath a venerable aspect, which attracts respect from them who hate it; but, after all, it is hated. A beneficent man is a troublesome object to a miser; The patience of a believer throws a shade over the character of a passionate man: and the men of the world will always persecute those virtues, which they cannot resolve to practise.

Moreover, there is a kind of persecution, which approacheth to madness, when, to the hatred, which our enemies have naturally against us, they add sentiments of superstition; when, under pretence of religion, they avenge their own cause; and, according to the language of scripture, think that to kill the saints is to render service to God, John X. 2. Hence so many edicts against primitive christianity, and so many cruel laws against christians themselves. Hence the filling of a thousand deserts with exiles, and a thousand prisons with confessors. Hence the letting loose of bears, and bulls, and lions, on the saints, to divert the inhabitants of Rome. Hence the applying of red hot plates of iron to their flesh. Hence iron pincers to prolong their pain by pulling them piece-meal. Hence caldrons of boiling oil, in which, by the industrious cruelty of their persecutors, they died by fire and by water too. Hence burning brazen bulls, and seats of fire and flame. Hence the skins of wild beasts, in which they were wrapped, in order to be torn and devoured by dogs. And hence those strange and nameless punishments, which would seem to have rather the air of fables than of historical facts, had not christian persecutors, (good

God! must these two titles go together!) had not christian persecutors Let us pass this article, my brethren, let us cover these bloody objects with a veil of patience and love.

Ah! how violent is this combat! Shall I open the wounds again, which the mercy of God hath closed? Shall I recal to your memories the falls of some of you? Give glory to God, Josh. vii. 19. Cast your eyes for a moment on that fatal day, in which the violence of persecution wrenched from you a denial of the Saviour of the world, whom in your souls you adored; made you sign with a trembling hand, and utter with a faltering tongue those base words against Jesus Christ, I do not know the man, Matt. xxvi. 72. Let us own, then, that Satan is infinitely formidable, when he strikes us with the thunderbolts of persecution.

A new combat brings on a new victory, and the constancy of the christian is displayed in many a triumphant banner. Turn over the annals of the church, and behold how a fervid faith hath operated in fiery trials. It hath inspired many Stephens with mercy, who, while they sank under their persecutors, said, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge, Acts vii. 60. Many, with St. Paul, have abounded in patience, and have said, Being reviled, we bless, being defamed, we entreat, 1 Cor. iv. 12, 13. It has filled a Balaam with praise, who, while his hand was held over the fire to scatter that incense, which, in spite of him his persecutors had determined he should offer, sang, as well as he could, Blessed be the Lord who teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight, Psal. cxliv. 1. It transported that holy woman with joy, who said, as she was going to suffer, Crowns are distributed to-day, and I going to receive one. It inspired Mark, Bishop of Arethusa, with magnanimity, who, ac

cording to Theodoret, after he had been mangled and slashed, bathed in a liquid, of which insects are fond, and hung up in the sun to be devoured by them, said to the spectators, I pity you, ye people of the world, I am ascending to heaven, while ye are crawling on earth, and how many Marks of Arethusa, how many Balaams, how many Stephens and Pauls, have we known in our age, whose memories history will transmit to the most distant times!

4. But how formidable soever Satan may be, when he shoots the fiery darts of persecution at us, it must be granted, my brethren, he dischargeth others far more dangerous to us, when, having studied our passions, he presenteth those objects to our hearts which they idolize, and gives us the possession, or the hope of possessing them. The first ages of christianity, in which religion felt all the rage of tyrants, were not the most fatal to the church. Great tribulations produced great virtues, and the blood of the martyrs was the seed of the church. But when under christian emperors, believers enjoyed the privileges of the world, and the profession of the faith was no obstacle to worldly grandeur, the church became corrupt, and by sharing the advantages, partook of the vices of the world.

Among the many different objects which the world offers to our view, there is always one, there are often more, which the heart approves. The heart, which doth not glow at the sight of riches, may sigh after honors. The soul that is insensible to glory, may be enchanted with pleasure. The demon of concupiscence, revolving for ever around us, will not fail to present to each of us that enticement, which of all others, is the most agreeable to us. See his conduct to David. He could not entice him by the idea of a throne to become a par

ricide, and to stain his hands with the blood of the anointed of the Lord: but as he was inaccessible one way, another art must be tried. He exhibited to his view an object fatal to his innocence: the prophet saw, admired, was dazzled, and inflamed with a criminal passion, and to gratify it, began in adultery, and murder closed the scene.

My brethren, you do not feel these passions now, your souls are attentive to these great truths, and, while you hear of the snares of concupiscence, you discover the vanity of them. But if, instead of our voice, Satan were to utter his; if, instead of being confined within these walls, you were transported to the pinnacle of an eminent edifice; were he there to shew you all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, Matt. iv. 8. and to say to each of you, There, you shall content your pride; here, you shall satiate your vengeance; yonder, you shall roll in voluptuousness: I fear, I fear, my brethren, very few of us would say to such a dangerous enemy, Satan, get thee hence, ver. 10.

This is the fourth assault, which the demon of cupidity makes on the christian; this the last triumph of christian constancy and resolution. In these assaults the christian is firm. The grand ideas which he forms of God, make him fear to irritate the Deity, and to raise up such a formidable foe. They fill him with a just apprehension of the folly of that man, who will be happy in spite of God. For selfgratification, at the expence of duty, is nothing else but a determination to be happy in opposition to God. This is the utmost degree of extravagance : Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he? 1 Cor. x. 22.

Over all, the christian fixeth his eyes on the immense rewards, which God reserveth for him in another world. The good things of this world,