ficulties may you not surmount! what wonders may you not perform!

Christ also is your Captain. And, in his character, conduct and example, you have every possible consideration to animate and encourage you. Need I remind you of the transcendent excellencies he possesses; his skill and address, his magnanimity and resolution, his tenderness and love? These he eminently displayed, during his own personal conflict with the powers of darkness, in the days of his flesh. And now he is in heaven, he exerts them for the defence and support of his followers in their militant state. He was made perfect through sufferings, that he might bring many sons unto glory. To give them a title to victory he died, and to secure the victory to them he lives. For this great purpose he employs all his influence on their behalf; an influence which extends over universal nature, and is subject to no controul whatever. With his divine Father he uses his interest, in the character of Mediator, that they may prevail. The affairs of providence he adjusts in such a manner, as to contribute to the success of their cause. The malice of their enemies he restrains, their schemes he detects and counteracts, and their haughty power he checks and subdues. With a compassionate eye he looks down upon them, when overwhelmed with the troubles of life, when wearied and broken by painful conflicts with sin and sense, and when discouraged and oppressed with numerous and grievous temptations. Nor does he fail, on certain occasions, by various means, such as his word, his ordinances, and the seasonable influence of his grace and Spirit, to comfort their drooping hearts, and to strengthen their feeble hands. The bruised reed he will not break, and smoking flax he will not quench, until he send forth judgment unto victory a. And have not these considerations, Christian, thus addressed to your own feelings, the most animating effect?

I might here also put you in mind of the weapons with which you are furnished, the company in which you are enlisted, and the wages you receive. You do not meet the enemy naked and defenceless. He who leads you into the field, first commands you to put on the whole armour of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to

a Matt. xii. 20.

stand a. Truth is your girdle, righteousness your breast-plate, faith your shield, salvation your helmet, the word of God your sword, and your feet are shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Your fellow-soldiers are the excellent of the earth the loyal subjects of the Prince of peace, the sons of God, the heirs of glory-not a few only, but an hundred and forty and four thousand, and thousands of thousands, whom no man can number. And the wages appointed you are adequate to your necessities, yea more than enough for your subsistence, such I may add as will largely compensate all your pains and sorrows; even the satisfaction of a peaceful conscience, the pleasures resulting from communion with God, and the joys on certain occasions which arise from the unclouded prospects of a future blessed immortality.

And now, clad in armour proof against every assault-led on by a Captain of unconquerable magnanimity-supported by a numerous body of saints and confessors, all shouting, The sword OF THE LORD AND HIS CHRIST-angels with wishful eyes waiting the event-a cloud of witnesses on every side, marking your conduct and you yourself, Christian, pouring out inces sant cries to Heaven, to prosper the enterprise-I say, thus advancing, in defence of the noblest cause that was ever asserted, and relying upon the power and faithfulness of Almighty God, What have you to fear?-Victory, complete victory, shall crown the day. And so I am led,

3. and lastly, To describe the triumph which will succeed the fatigues and dangers of this painful warfare

Describe it, did I say? It is not to be fully described. The utmost I can do is only to draw out some faint and general representation of it. The scene will be glorious beyond all imagination, as may naturally be concluded from the greatness of the cause, the fierceness of the contention, the zeal with which Christ has interested himself in it, and the important consequences it draws after it. If to subdue, totally subdue, the most haughty, cruel, and powerful enemies; if to emerge, in the full enjoyment of health, out of all the horrors of war; if to return home, richly laden with the spoils of victory; if to be crowned with the applauses of his prince and his country, a Eph. vi. 10-18.

and henceforth quietly to possess, not only his liberties, but an affluence of all earthly good: if these are the prospects which animate the soldier in the day of battle, and push him on to the most hazardous enterprises; What may not you, Christian, expect, as the fruit of that far more noble conflict in which you are engaged? The moment death has done his office, your toils, and pains, and sorrows, shall for ever cease, and an endless duration of unutterable bliss and glory commence.

Amidst the applauding shouts of friendly angels, and the joyful congratulations of fellow-saints, your immortal spirit shall ascend to the mansions of the blessed. Jesus, the great Captain of your salvation, shall welcome you thither, and in the presence of that illustrious assembly, with his own lips pronounce you conqueror. "This is he who dared to enter the lists with the powers of darkness, maintained the fight amidst a thousand dangers, and has now won the prize. I saw him, bravely asserting the cause of God and truth, and resolutely contending with his own heart, the world, and the devil. I beheld him amidst the many vicissitudes of this short but painful warfare-sometimes almost borne down by ignorance and error, prejudice and passion, flattery and reproach, perplexing doubts and discouraging fears-and then, animated by a ray of divine hope, resuming fresh courage, and resolving, in the strength of God, to conquer or die. His silent reasonings I noticed. His sorrowful complaints I watched. His earnest cries I heard. The aid he implored was granted him. Out of weakness he became strong. He waxed valiant in fight. The armies of sin and death he put to flight. Though faint, he pursued. The last blow is now given. His warfare is accomplished. Well done, good and faithful servant! enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." So shall he be arrayed with the robes that conquerors wear, and receive at the hands of Jesus, the righteous Judge, the palm of victory, and diadem of glory. And O! what rapturous joys will circulate around his heart, while he reflects on the dangers he has escaped, and remembers with infinite gratitude, that the victory, glorious as it is, is wholly to be ascribed to the blood of the Lamb! while he feels within, the satisfactions which result from a consciousness of perfect knowledge, purity and happiness! while he casts his eye around

him, upon the bright and numerous assembly to which he is united! and while he looks forward to a duration of felicity and glory which shall know no end!

And now say, Christian, Whether all these considerations have not a mighty effect to animate you to perseverance? Can you resist their united force?-the goodness of the cause-the seasonable and effectual support you may depend upon receiving -and the victory, the glorious victory, which shall crown the day. Be persuaded, therefore, though faint, yet to pursue.

DISCOURSE XV.

RELIGION AN ABIDING PRINCIPLE.

PHIL. I. 6.-Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you, will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.

CONFIDENCE, in matters of a doubtful nature, is generally considered as an expression of great ignorance and folly. And with good reason-For if men were sensible of the weakness of their intellects, of the powerful influence of prejudice and passion, and of the various arts by which error too often insinuates itself into the mind; they would be cautious how they hastily pronounced upon either opinions or facts, where the evidence is at all defective. Yet, a modest diffidence of our own judgment will by no means justify scepticism, or a continual habit of doubting. There are some truths so plain and self-evident, that it would argue a criminal disaffection of the heart to them, as well as a most unreasonable incredulity, were we to withhold our assent. And there are others, which though not discoverable by the light of nature, yet being clearly laid down in scripture, we may be confident of their authenticity. And even these will admit of such an appeal to impartial reason, as serves

rather to strengthen than diminish their force. Men divinely inspired might, indeed, peremptorily demand the credit of their hearers to the doctrines and facts they reported to them, without entering into a particular explanation of them. Yet, we find both Christ and the apostles taking pains to establish the principles, upon which the truths they delivered were founded, in order thereby more fully to convince their disciples of the reasonableness and importance of such truths.

An instance of this we have in the passage just read. That spirit of discernment with which the apostle was endued, might perhaps have authorised him to pronounce confidently concerning the future state of the Philippians, and upon such issue he might have put the matter. He, however, does not rest the argument here; but enters into the principles and grounds of his confidence, which were in every view as level to their compre hensions and conviction as to his. With pleasure he remembered their fellowship in the gospel, that is, their holy, humble, exemplary behaviour, from the beginning of their profession until that time. From thence he clearly inferred the soundness of their conversion. And satisfied that their conversion was the work of God, he from this principle fairly concluded, that what God had thus begun he would in due time bring to perfection. This was a kind of reasoning obvious to the plainest understanding; and which may, I think, without the charge of rashness or undue confidence, be applied to the character and state of every real Christian. I propose, therefore, in discoursing of this sub ject, to consider more particularly,

I. What this important matter is, of which we may be confident concerning every man of true religion; and,

II. The grounds of this confidence.

I. As to the matter of which we may be confident, it is this -That God will perform the good work he hath begun in the real Christian, until the day of Jesus Christ.

Religion is manifestly the thing here intended. What that is we have largely considered in the preceding discourses. In order, however, to throw light on the subject we are now discuss→ ing, it will be proper to attend a while to the description given us of it in this passage.

1. It is a work wrought in the soul of man.