man cannot appear to be in earnest concerned for his religion without being thought a fool, or suspected to be a knave; then there arises another temptation to make men ashamed of Christ and of his word. No man likes to be despised by those about him; and he who wants perhaps neither riches nor honor, wants however to live in credit, and in good esteem with his acquaintance, and to preserve at least the character of a man of sense and understanding. How this general and almost natural inclination must work, whenever the age is so far debauched as to esteem irreligion a sure sign of a good understanding, is easily conceived. Those who have a large share of vanity will be drawn in to approve and encourage, to admire and imitate the much celebrated freedom of thinking; for so it is called, though, properly speaking, it might more truly be styled a freedom of talking. Others will be tempted to sit still, and give way to the humor of the world; and will carefully hide their faith in their hearts for fear any signs of it should appear to the utter discredit of their understanding. This is, this always will be, the case in such circumstances. But what must be done? may some say, must we seclude ourselves from conversation, or must we set up to reprove and rebuke idle word we hear? If we do, our company will soon leave us, though we leave not them. Wonderful difficulties these! So hard it seems, it is to refrain from the company of those who make a mock of sin! A hardship which a good man would choose, and which every bad one must choose if ever he intends to forsake the error of his ways. There is a contagion in ill company, and he who dwells with the scorner shall not be guiltless. But since these difficulties appear so great, compare them with the real hardships that surrounded the Christians of the first ages; they lived in perils; on all sides were terrors; within were fears, without was death. In these circumstances they were called to confess Christ in the face of an enraged and cruel world; and the rule given them to go by was, not to fear those who could kill the body only, but to fear him who could destroy both body and soul everlastingly. If this was their rule under such real difficulties, what must be yours under such pretended ones? If they were not permitted to fear the rage of kings and princes, shall you be

every

excused for fearing the scorn or the resentment of a light companion? If they were called to brave the sword, and to look every image of death boldly in the face; shall you find pity because you were afraid perhaps of being laughed at and despised by those who are void of understanding?

But not to insist on this, which may perhaps be too high a degree of virtue for the times we live in, let us come lower if you care not to be a reprover or rebuker of this iniquity, yet surely there is no necessity for you to be an admirer or encourager of it: it is no great sacrifice you make to Christ when you resign your share of the applause, which belongs to those who persecute and blaspheme him. In a word, consider with yourselves that religion is, of all others, the most serious concern. If its pretensions are founded in truth, it is life to embrace them, it is death to despise them. We cannot in this case stand neuter: we cannot serve two masters; we must hold to the one and despise the other. If we confess Christ before men, he will also confess us before God and his holy angels: if we deny him before men, he will deny us at the last day when he shall come in the glory of his Father to judge the world.

Had our Lord been merely a teacher of good things, without any special commission or authority from the great Creator and Governor of the world, it would have been highly absurd to assume to himself this great prerogative of being owned and acknowleged before men. Several have from the light of reason taught many good lessons to the world but are we bound to take every reasonable man who recommends the practice of virtue, for our master? to own his authority at the peril of our lives? No man ever thought so. Socrates taught many great things to the Greeks before Christ came into the world. If he followed reason he did well; and we shall do well to follow it too, and farther we have no concern with him. But if there be any truth at all in the gospel, the case is far otherwise with respect to our blessed Redeemer; we must own his authority, we must confess him before the world, be the danger of so doing ever so great or extreme. Whence arises this obligation? It cannot rest merely on this, that he was a teacher of reason and good morality; for in that case it would

man.

be sufficient to submit to the reason and the rules of morality which he taught, without concerning ourselves with his authority, which was no more than what reason and virtue give every But the case with us is otherwise: our Lord requires of us, that we should confess him before men; and has declared, that if we deny him before the world, he will deny us in the presence of God and his holy angels, when he comes to judge the quick and the dead. Consider what manner of person is this, who requires so much at our hands. If he is indeed the

Son of God; if all power in heaven and earth is given him by the Father; if he is constituted by God judge of all men, there is a clear reason to justify his demand, and our obedience : but if he was only a mere teacher of morality and religion, how is he to be justified in pretending to be the only Son of God, in pretending to have all power given him in heaven and earth, and to be appointed judge of all men? You must either own him under these characters, or you must condemn him as an impostor for claiming them. How far those who are willing to admit Christ to be a good teacher, but refuse to acknowlege him in any other character, are chargeable with seeing this consequence, I know not; nor can I see, if they consider it, how they can avoid it.

When therefore we read that our Lord requires of us to confess him before men, the true way to know what we are to confess, is to reflect what he confessed himself; for it cannot be supposed that he thought it reasonable for himself to make one confession, and for his disciples and servants to make another. Look then into the gospel, and see his own confession he confessed himself to be the only Son of God; to come from the bosom of the Father to die for the sins of the world; to have all power given to him in heaven and earth ; to be the judge of the world. When you have weighed these things, read his words, and judge what your duty is: Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father, with the holy angels.'

SUMMARY OF DISCOURSE XLIX.

II CORINTHIANS, CHAP. V.-VERSES 10, 11.

It is the privilege of a rational being to look forward into futurity, to consider the tendency of his actions, and to view them in their most distant consequences,

By the exercise of this power of reason, the wisest among the heathens discovered that there was ground for men to have expectations beyond this life. The argument for these expectations fully stated. Under such circumstances our blessed Lord appeared, to bring to light life and immortality through the gospel. This fundamental article of religion, as it now stands on revelation, considered.

As to the principal point, there is no difference between the hopes conveyed to us by the gospel and by natural reason: thus far then the doctrine of each must stand or fall one with the other. But the gospel has made an addition to this doctrine, and communicated to us the knowlege of some circumstances which were not discoverable but by revelation. They are principally these; a resurrection of the body; Christ the Judge of the world; rewards and punishments, in proportion to our conduct here.

First; the resurrection of the body was revealed, to give to all men a plain and sensible notion of their being subject to a future judgment. Death is the destruction of the man; for man is made of soul and body: therefore to bring the man into judgment for his deeds, the soul and body must be again brought together. This doctrine does not remove all prejudices, when examined by the scanty notions we have of the powers of na

ture; but it removes all difficulties that affect this belief, considered with respect to religion and morality; for the single point in which religion is concerned, is to know whether men shall be accountable hereafter for their actions here. Reason tells us they ought to be so: but a difficulty arises from the dissolution of the man by death; and this is followed by endless speculations on the nature of the soul, &c.: but take in the declaration of the gospel, that soul and body shall hereafter be as certainly re-united as they were dissolved by death, and all difficulty concerning a future judgment vanishes.

But still prejudices remain: to some it is incredible that the dead should be raised. To these it may be said, on the ground of the gospel evidence, that the dead have been raised; on the ground of reason, that it is quite as credible that God should be able to raise the dead to life, as he was to give them life at first, But we are farther asked, what body shall be raised, since no man has exactly the same two days together: this apparently plausible objection has nothing to do in the present case; for religion is concerned only to preserve the identity of the person as the object of future judgment, otherwise the difficulty would be as great in the judgments of this life as in those of another.

But the prejudices which affect men most, arise from the weakest of all imaginations, that they can judge from the settled laws and course of nature, what is or is not possible to the power of God. It is true that our powers are bounded by those laws, but it does not follow that his are so bounded who appointed the laws. When the Sadducees denied the resurrection, our Saviour told them, Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God. But whatever difficulties of this kind may remain, this article has removed all which lie in the way of our considering ourselves as accountable creatures, subject to the future judgment of God: so that revelation has