This triumphant declaration was invariably fulfilled in all the conduct of the sainted sufferers. Life they esteemed not, but as it was exercised in establishing the religion of their Lord; and death they counted gain. Human principalities and powers were of little weight with them, who concluded that it was better to obey God than man; and who, when they were brought before rulers and kings for their Master's name, were so far from being deterred by their authority, that they boldly preached his doctrines and asserted his truth in their presence. Things present did not, and things to come could not, weaken their faith, or weary out their love-nor could heighth or depth, in which the utmost bounds of nature, and every possible contingency are implied, have power to change that charity which never faileth, which came down from heaven, and aspired to it again.

With respect, indeed, to bearing and enduring, those properties of charity were in a more extraordinary manner exercised in the persons of the apostles, than they have been, or, at least, now are, in any members of the Christian church. If our graces, if our gifts are not equal to those which the first promoters of Christianity possessed, neither are our trials equal to theirs. The Almighty

Providence seems always to have proportioned the powers of his servants to the exigencies of the time, and to have granted such degrees of grace and faith as might be adequate to the persecutions or temptations that were to be undergone.

Possibly that exalted degree of charity, which the apostles derived from the Spirit of God, may be now no more; but, as we are expressly told that it never faileth, so much of it must still remain as may be necessary to support us in the several departments of duty, and to place us above the influence of accidental calamities or temptations.

We have not what the apostles had to bear. We are not persecuted on the account of religion; but life has many other moral evils which call upon us for such a spirit of resignation and patience as is inspired by the love of God and of human kind.

There are, moreover, many other graces necessary, though possibly not in so great a degree, for us as they were for the apostles; nor is it by any means unimportant to us that, XI. Charity hopeth all things, believeth all things.

Whether we suppose that this hope, ascribed by the apostle to charity, is to be accepted in a moral or in a religious sense, it will be

found equally necessary to our peace. We shall do wisely, therefore, to cultivate it in both; and shall find it for our happiness neither to fear every thing from man, while we hope every thing from God, nor yet, while we hope every thing from man, to fear every thing from God.

Either of these apprehensions must be equally destructive of our peace: our dependence on the Almighty must make us everlastingly wretched, if accompanied only by fear; and our commerce with our fellow creatures would render us miserable, were all confidence, all hope at an end. He who hopeth all things from God, gives that honour to his merciful attributes, which is due from reason and from gratitude: he who hopeth every thing from man, even though he should often be disappointed, is possessed of a happier, because of a more benevolent temper, than those that look upon mankind as in a state of general enmity, and think of every man they meet with as of a designing foe.

However, with respect to our hope both from God and from man, some restrictions, no doubt, are necessary; what we know of the disposition of our fellow creatures, and what we believe of the nature of the supreme Being, ought to regulate our expectations in regard to both.

We are not to hope that the eternal Lover of truth and justice can leave unpunished the transgressors of his sacred laws. We believe that he is a rewarder only of the sincere of heart, the faithful and the honest; and from thence we may conclude, with the sacred writer, that the hope of the hypocrite shall perish.

Experience convinceth us, that, with respect to our fellow-creatures, universal righteousness is far from prevailing among men : it is, therefore, necessary for our own security, that our hopes of them should be bounded by reason and experience; that we should neither indiscriminately judge of the whole species as destitute of every moral principle, nor implicitly trust them with our lives and fortunes. The first sentiment would always be injurious to the community; the other might, many times, be detrimental to ourselves.

In this manner, and under these restrictions, to hope and to believe will, I trust, be found consistent with THE EVANGELICAL CHARITY.