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stalked about our streets! And though he has not

will do it soon, and may When we see our neigh

yet called at our door, he do it before another day. 'bours and friends dropping off on every side, it becomes us to say, I must go too: I must shortly put off this tabernacle. Why then should I be fond of the pomps and vanities of the world, the trifling enjoyments of time and sense! Let me get my accounts settled, my evidences clear, Jesus in my arms, and then let death come when it will! Let me employ those talents to the best purpose which will then be taken from me, and wisely improve that time which will then be swallowed up in eternity!

2. That we exercise faith in the providence and grace of God, both with respect to death and its consequences. Come and see, not only with the eye of sense or reason, but of faith. Look not only at death, but to Him who appoints and controuls it; not only into the grave, but beyond it. See death first under a seal; and when the seal is loosed, under a divine direction. It cannot come without a warrant, it can do nothing without a commission. Oh christian! Death may kill thee, but it cannot hurt thee. It is in the inventory of thy blessings: come then, see it subdued and unstung. That which is a dreadful sight to others, may be delightful to thee; and it is faith that must make it so. All these, says the apostle, died in faith; in a state of faith, in the exercise of it, and in a manner becoming it. Heb. xi.

3. That we patiently wait and cheerfully submit to it. Come and see: this implies activity and willingness. Do not start back, or retire to a distance; but meet it, receive its message, and fall into its arms. Play on the hole of this asp, and put thy hand upon this cockatrice den. Oh ye of little faith, wherefore do ye doubt? Can ye be afraid of seeing death who have seen Jesus? Should not you who have

fought a good fight, finish your course with joy; not indeed frowardly desiring death, as Jonah did, but raised above the slavish fear of it. If we should rejoice in the distant hope of glory, how much more in the prospect of immediate fruition! It is not enough for the christian to die because he must die, or submit to it without reluctance merely, but should thankfully entertain it as his real privilege. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, and that her iniquity is pardoned.

Well then, Come and see. This is the language of the dying christian to his sorrounding friends; the language of the sick bed and the gaping grave. This also is the language of God to us, when we have lost our dear relations, ministers, and christian friends. Likewise when he visits us with threatening diseases. When the harbingers, come, the sound of their mas ter's feet is heard behind them, Come and sees

"O for an overcoming faith,
To cheer my dying hours,
To triumph o'er the monster death,
And all his frightful powers!

If sin be pardoned I'm secure,
Death hath no sting beside;
The law gives sin its damning power,

But Christ my ransom dy'd.

Now to the God of victory

Immortal thanks be paid,

Who makes us conquerors while we die,
Through Christ our living head."

Distinguishing character of Christians.

SERMON IX.

JOHN XVII. 16.

They are not of the world.

IN this chapter we have Christ's parting prayer a little before his sufferings, in which he gives us an excellent example, and also a specimen of his own intercession. It was a prayer after sermon, after the Lord's supper, a kind of family prayer, importunate and prevailing. As never man spake like Christ, so never did any one pray like him. He had always a frame of mind suited to the duty, a fulness of expression, and a comprehensive knowledge of the divine will. The persons in particular for whom he prayed were those who did or should in after time. believe on his name, and whose distinguishing character is here described.

All I shall attempt will be, to illustrate the description given of the true followers of Christ : They are not of the world.

1. This does not imply that they have no natural or civil connexion with the men of the world.

Grace does not dissolve the union between man and man: the righteous and the wicked may be nearly allied, as Abel and Cain, and the young Abijah to the wicked Jeroboam, who made all Israel to sin. The father is no less a father, nor the son a son, because one fears God and the other persists in a course of rebellion against him.-Much business may also be lawfully and even necessarily transacted between men of widely different characters. Hence the apostle, exhorting against a needless intimacy with persons of corrupt conversation, makes this exception: Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world. (1 Cor. v. 10.) The godly in the present state are under the necessity of having some intercourse with those whose ungodly deeds are very grievous to them, like as Lot, whose righteous soul was vexed from day to day with the filthy conversation of the wicked; yet he dwelt amongst them, and had dealings with them. And. unless we go out of the world, these things are not to be avoided.

2. Neither does it imply that believers are to be wholly disengaged from the things of the world, any more than from the men of the world. They have their farms and their merchandize as well as others, and it is not requisite that under a pretence of religion they should sequester themselves from all secular concerns, and retire into a wilderness. They may be as much in their duty while in their worldly callings as in the closet, when labouring for their fami-. lies as when making supplications unto God. They are to buy and sell, to labour with their head and hands, and in every other respect to use this world; only let them take care not to abuse it. An idle christian is no good character; for if we do not find ourselves some employment, Satan will. Not slothful in business, says. the apostle; but then he adds,.

Whatever be our

fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. worldly calling, if it be but lawful and unensnaring, and providence do not point out any thing more eligible, it becomes us therein to abide with God; to seek his glory in all, and depend on him for ability and success. Our blessed Lord, it seems, did not refuse to follow the occupation of his reputed father, and to be called the carpenter; and Paul, though abundant in his labours for the good of souls, yet wrought as a tent-maker, labouring with his hands, to supply his own necessities and those who were with him. 1 Cor. vii. 24. Acts xx. 34.

3. Nor are we to conclude that even the best of men are entirely divested of a worldly spirit, though they are not of the world. The most eminent christian is but a man, and is liable to the same frailties and infirmities as other men. It is an earthen vessel into which the oil of grace is poured, and it will still savour of its original. He that is of the earth is earthy: he was wholly so before, and partly so when renewed by grace. Evil principles, though they are subdued and kept under, are not eradicated and destroyed. Those whose affections are set on things above, and whose conversation is in heaven, have frequent occasion to say with David, My soul cleaveth unto the dust: quicken thou me according to thy word. They are not so spiritual, so weaned from the world as they ought to be, nor as they wish to be. The world troubles me, says one of old, and yet I love it! What should I do, if it did not trouble me?' Transformed we may be, by the renewing of our minds; but too much conformed, we still shall be. After the fullest conviction of the emptiness and vanity of creatures, we shall still find our hearts strongly attracted by them. It is one thing to profess ourselves strangers and pilgrims on the earth, and another to live and act in a manner which perfectly corresponds with such a profession. The apostle speaks

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