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the sordid miser, and relish the charms of human friendships, seek a better friend than an earthly one; else your friendships are but idolatrous. Love your earthly friends, but let God have the chief place in your heart. He is well worthy of it who laid down his life for you. You yet want to experience the friendship of Him who has all power and all perfection and all excellencies: who, as God, can fill your souls with good; and, as man, can bless you with sure and everlasting friendship. He solicits, he invites you, by my mouth, to seek his face, and assures you you shall not seek his face in vain.

O Christians, who do know, or have known, Christ Jesus, the sinner's Friend, I fear the love of many of you is waxen cold. This comes from your idolatrous attachment to the world. You have too much of its spirit and taste; the gaining of money is too great an object with you. None can enjoy Christ except they are loose to all things beside him. Consider how you grieve his Spirit and weaken your hands. Seek for close union with him, and heart-felt experience of his friendship. While you do this, avoid the entangling embarrassments of the world. Be content with little little will serve for nature. Lay up treasures in heaven; and with your whole souls wait for the perfect enjoyment of Him whose loving-kindness is better than life.

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SERMON IX.

CHRIST'S KINGDOM NOT OF THIS WORLld.

JOHN Xviii. 36.

Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world.

WHOEVER has at all attended to the progress of the Divine life in the soul of man must have observed, that one of its most common and obvious hinderances is the love of this world. Even when a man is favoured with the most pleasant and the most vigorous views of Christ crucified, and feels something of what is meant by his words, "If I be lifted up from the earth I will draw all men unto me," then do the cares or distractions of the world often come in, with great weight and power, and tend to fix him to the earth. In this case, if the Christian is not very much on his guard, he is apt to start aside like a broken bow; and so deceitful is the heart, that it will soon, for the present, lose its liveliness and heavenly direction. He knew this well who prayed, and by his example teaches us to pray in like cases, "My soul cleaveth to the dust: quicken thou me, according to thy word." Prayer and supplication, with watching and perseverance,

are, it is well known to all who have any thing of experimental godliness, the constantly prescribed means of relief and of recovery in such cases. But it is needful for the soul to be well fortified also in clear and strong views of the nature of Christ's kingdom. Many have poor views of this. They make it to be too much of this world. They lose sight of its beauty, and are tempted to stumble at Christ, as soon as they meet with disagreeable crosses in the world. It seems impossible to them to attend to Divine things while these crosses continue; whereas they ought to be then exercising themselves in faith and patience, and labouring to experience the goodness of God in the midst of the crosses, instead of impatiently longing for their removal. For, what if they were removed? Do men then pray more fervently, serve God more sincerely, and bring forth fruit more vigorously? Experience shews they do not. Did David serve God in the fulness of prosperity with that warmth with which he did in the depths of adversity? No. And this is one of the many proofs of man's natural depraved condition, that the state which should engage us the more to serve God in love and thankfulness, tempts us to retire into self-importance, and to forget him and all our obligations to him. It is in adversity especially that God meets the believing soul with sensible, rich, and overpowering grace; and men are brought to feel

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that Christ's kingdom is not of this world, when they find, amidst the severest afflictions, the real substance of spiritual enjoyment. And he who has had a little sense of this, will not dread outward afflictions, for he has found that in the season of suffering it is that God visits him most eminently with grace. And indeed it is in this way that Christ's kingdom is proved to a man's experience not to be of this world, since often his enjoyment is. the greatest when outward circumstances are the most adverse. And as Christians are to walk by faith, and not by sight, they have great obstructions in doing this, when the objects of sense are the most flattering and the most pleasant, because these draw away the heart from God. On these accounts the knowledge of the maxim of the text is of high importance: "My kingdom is not of this world." It was delivered on a particular occasion, by the Son of God, when he was before Pontius Pilate. And from this its nature he infers that his servants would not fight for him against the Jews: Cæsar, and the powers of the world, need not fear him; his kingdom did not interfere with theirs, but was of a quite different character.

But what was thus delivered on a special occasion, like many other Scripture maxims, has the nature of a general perpetual truth: and it deserves now to be illustrated a little more particularly, that I may, in the next place,

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apply the instruction of it for the conviction of the profane, for the exhortation of Christian professors, and for the encouragement of the sincere, especially when in affliction.

I would begin by putting such questions as these: What is the great enjoyment, the true health, and the highest privilege of a real Christian? Is it not, to be drawn to Christ by the cords of his love which passeth knowledge; and to experience the power of his cross in lifting up the mind to heavenly things? And when the mind is filled with the fulness of God, and sees the great things of Christ's salvation, do not worldly things appear little, mean, and worthless? Men favoured with such views attend to ordinary business with diligence, because it is their duty; but they are fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. But now, when we have not steadily before our eyes Christ's kingdom as perfectly distinct from this world, and having its pleasures, its enjoyments, its privileges, its hopes, and its concerns, as quite of a different nature; then worldly avocations and interruptions, either from the flow of prosperity or the damp of adversity, get strong hold on the spirit, and take away the view of Christ, making his kingdom to look like a shadow, a fable, a vapour, a nothing! Think you it was so with primitive Christians burning in the fire for Christ? Worldly things to them appeared trifles, and Christ's kingdom was seen to be the grand reality. And here men may discover whether

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