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Believer. He feels as a man, but he endures as a chriftian.

Miftake me not in fuppofing that I have been wishing to reprefent the Chriftian life as void of fuffering. Releafed from many of the diftreffes of other men, it has fufferings peculiar to itself. "We must take up our crofs, and deny our* felves." "We must enter into the kingdom of "God through much tribulation." Our striving against in, efpecially our befetting is often as it were a reliftance unto blood, the cutting off a right hand, or plucking out a right eye; the crucytying of the fleth, with the affections and lufts. "The Captain of our falvation was made "perfect, as a man, through fufferings.' 66 It "behoved him to fuffer," and fo to enter into his glory; and it behoves all his faithful followers to

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fuffer with him, that they may be glorified to "gether" with him. "Now no chaftening is for "the prefent joyous, but grievous: nevertheless

afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righ"teoufnefs unto them that are exercifed thereby*." Befides to reprefcnt this important truth in the words of the excellent Kempis. "The regene"rate man, as he becomes more fpiritualifed,

has a quicker difcernment of the crofs, wher"ever it meets him, and his fenfe of the evils of "his exile, as the punishment of his fallen life,

increafes in proportion to his love of God, and defire of reunion with him. But, this man ❝ thus

Heb. xii. 11.

"thus fenfible of mifery, derives hope even fron "his fufferings; for, while he sustains them with "meek and humble fubmiffion, their weight is "continually diminifhing; and what to carnal "minds is an object of terror, is to him a pledge "of heavenly comfort. He feels that the strength, "the life, the peace, of the new man, arife from "the troubles, the decay, and death, of the old: "and from his defire of conformity to his crucified "Saviour, as the only means of refloration to his "first perfect ftate in God, he derives fo much "ftrength, and comfort, under the fevereft tribu"lations, that he wishes not to live a moment without them. Of the truth of this, the blessed «Paul is an illuftrious inftance; who fays of "himself, "I take pleasure in infirmities, in re"proaches, in neceffities, in perfecutions, in dif"treffes, for Chrift's fake; for when I am weak, "then I am ftrong*."

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I forbear to dwell on the comforts of a good confcience; the luxury of doing good; the refpect, and efteem, of the pious, and the worthy; the good will, and confidence, of those who have witneffed his integrity; which the true chrif tian can fcarcely fail to enjoy; but which he who acts on inferior principles muft frequently fall fhort of. Let me haften to apply briefly the argu ment of this and the preceding difcourfe.

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APPLI

Payne's Tranflation. Book 2. Chap. 12. Sec, 8.

APPLICATION,

Do you then, my friends, admit the truth of the arguments which have been bought forward? I have endeavoured to render them in general fuch, that to refuse your affent to them would be to oppose reafon, and common obfervation. Are you convinced that chriftianity has greatly the advantage over irreligion, even in the prefent life; that her ways are ways of pleafantness, and all

Her paths are peace, while the wicked are like "the troubled fea, when it cannot reft, whofe "waters caft up mire and dirt; that there is no peace to the wicked." And, are not all the promises of God made to the faithful*? Is it not declared that "ALL things work together "for good to them that love Godt?" And is it not impoffible to fhew a fingle bleffing, in all the Scriptures, p. omifed to the wicked, either in this life, or the next? Are not indignation and "wrath, tribulation and anguish, denounced "against every foul of man that doeth evil? Is

it not faid the Lord trieth the righteous: ❝ but the wicked, and him that loveth violence, 8. his foul hateth : upon the wicked he fhall rain "fnares, fire and brimftone, and an horrible tem

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The Reader will find thefe well collected together by Dr Clark" in a little work published in 1790. "in Rom. viii. 28. Rom. ii. 8, 9.

"peft: this fhall be the portion of their cup*?" How then ought fuch convictions as these to operate ? Ought they not to cause you to be willing to embrace the gofpel; to attend the means of grace, with an hearty defire of profi ting by them; to ftrive against all fin, praying to God for ftrength, to enable you to overcome it? The Gofpel brings its own moft certain evidence along with it. If any man be willing to do the "will of God, he fhall know of the doctrine whe"ther it be of Godt." You will not surely deny the principles, that we ought " to do juftly, love mercy, and walk humbly with our Godt. And if you perform thefe, or earnestly and heartily defire to perform them, you will come fhort of nothing that is good. Elpecially, obferve the laft claufe. "Walk humbly with thy "God." For "God refifteth the proud, and giveth grace unto the humble §". Are you

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then

Pfalm. xi. 5,6. John. vii. 17. "Ean tis thelee, &c. It is worthy of obfervation that Paine, in the former part of the Age of Reason," page 2, bringing forward his Creed, obferves" I believe that religious duties confist "in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavouring to make our fellow-creatures happy. To walk humbly with our God, which the prophet reprefents as one of the three requifites, Paine well knew to be too oppofite to his fyftem of infidelity; and therefore finks that clause in a fort of unmeaning repetition of the two former : for et inly, the endeavouring to make our fellow-creatures happy conveys no idea which is not contained in doing juftly and loving mercy.

James iv. 6. 1 Pet. v. 5. cxxxviii. 6. Prov. iii. 34. 12,` Luke i. 52.- -XIV. 11.

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See Job xxii. 29. Pf.
xxix. 23. Matt. xxiii.
-xviii. 14.
&c. &c.

then willing to forfake your fins, even thofe which most easily befet you; to ceafe to do evil, to learn to do well, to turn to God, and feek your happiness in him? Are you willing to do this in his ftrength, not in your own; in the way which he has appointed, through his dearly beloved fon? Are you willing to feek every thing, both for time and eternity, in and through him; to be entirely at his mercy, to be altogether his? If fo, you are not far from the kingdom of God. But if you are inwardly defermined to make a reserve of this or that finful

purfuit; if you are refolved to withhold this thing from God, to comply with the world in that, to gratify your own inclination in another; how is it poffible that you should ever truly become the Difciples of Chrift? Does he not say, “If any "man will come after me, let him deny himself,

and take up his crofs, and follow me: whofoe ver "doth not bear his crofs, and come after me, "cannot be my difciple *:"- Whofoever forfaketh not all that he hath cannot be my difciple*? Why will you then vainly hope to be Chriftians. on other terms than he has propofed? What was the covenant, into which you entered at your Baptifm? Was it not, 1. that you "fhould renounce "the Devil, and all his works; the pomps and "vanities of this wicked world, and all the fin66 ful

Mat. xvi. 24, &c. Mark, viii. 34. Luke. ix, 23./ nd xiv. 27. + Luke. xiv. 33. fee verse 26. Mat, x. 37. Deut. xiii. 6. Mat. xix. 21, 22 and 23. Evil. 23, 24a

and 25.

&c. &c.

Luke,

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