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And what a Divine wisdom will then appear to have been his who served God in the world; and who will hear the voice, "To him that overcometh will I give to sit on My throne!" he shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and enjoy an eternal repose; he shall look back on the seed sown in life, and forward to a perspective of endless joy.

They only who here, by the obedience of faith, "put on the Lord Jesus Christ," shall hereafter put on the likeness of his incorruption and glory they who have been clothed here with humility and meekness, with purity and love, shall be clothed, ere long, with the white robe of victory over sin, sorrow, and death. Having previously put on Christ in the humble resemblance of his human character, they shall put on Christ in the glorified resemblance of his Divine condition. What a prospect to animate our hope and confirm our obedience! Let us sow to the Spirit now; and in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. Instead of halting between two opinions, let us act a manly and decided part: we have nothing to endure but what religion will enable us to welcome, and what will prove for our ultimate benefit if we love the Lord. Let us cheerfully go forth without the camp, bearing the reproach of Christ; "for here we have no continuing city, but we seek one that is to come."

LXXVII.

REPROACH INCURRED BY CHRISTIANS.*

HEBREWS, Xiii., 13: Bearing his reproach.

[Preached at Broadmead, Bristol, Thursday morning, March 5, 1829, previously to the administra tion of Christian baptism.]

AMONG the evils of the present state, one, and that not the least trying, is unmerited reproach. The very circumstance of reproach being unmerited, seems to render it peculiarly hard to bear: yet this is, in reality, a great relief; for who cannot better endure reproach when it is not deserved, than when it is justly inflicted? It is never so intolerable as when aggravated by an accusing conscience; never so tolerable as when he who suffers it is supported by the inward monitor, and by the approbation of that God whose vicegerent conscience is. "Let no man," says Peter, "suffer as an evildoer; but if any man suffer as a Christian, let him rejoice; for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon him." Jesus Christ himself was the greatest object of unmerited reproach that ever appeared on the earth.

The following are the chief grounds on which the first Christians were called to bear reproach, and on which we also may be called to bear the same.

VOL. IV.-Q e q

From the notes of the Rev. T. Grinfield.

1. They suffered reproach, as being followers of a crucified Saviour. The apostle alludes to this in the words connected with the text. It was appointed under the law that, when the victim offered in sacrifice had been slain, the blood should be brought into the sanctuary by the high-priest, and sprinkled upon the altar, but the body burned without the camp of Israel: and, in analogy with this typical sin-offering, Jesus Christ was crucified without the walls of Jerusalem; as though He had been too impure to suffer within that holy city, which was regarded as, what the ancient camp of Israel had been, "the camp" of the saints, the chosen abode of God. Hence it was a signal proof of fortitude in the primitive Christians to follow such a Master, to glory in his cross. Nothing could appear more shocking to the pride of nature than reliance on a crucified man for eternal salvation! but this they professed: and we must be ready to sustain the same profession and the same reproach; if we have not learned this lesson, we have not acquired the first elements of Christian knowledge.

2. A second ground of the reproach suffered by the first Christians was, that they forsook the ways of an evil world. This is implied in the words, "Bearing his reproach :" He was not of the world, as He declared, and therefore the world hated Him; and those who followed Him, followed Him in this; they went forth after Him, and left the world behind, not by a local retirement, but in the spirit of their mind and example. They were not conformed to the world in its prevailing maxims and passions: in things indifferent, indeed, they affected no singularity; on the contrary, the apostle who wrote the text "became all things to all men," so far as conscience and usefulness required. But in all serious respects, they renounced the world for Christ; they were "buried with Him in baptism," as dead to the world; they had no fellowship with the works of darkness, except to reprove them. Men of the world often censure Christians as singular; they think it strange if ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, "speaking evil of you." "There are various amusements, approved of by the world, which, in my opinion, are incompatible with piety: such are the theatre, games of hazard, all conversation that conveys by insinuation and "double intendre" improper ideas, all irreverent mention of sacred subjects. All this is hostile to the seriousness and composure of mind required by religion: therefore, "come out from among them, and be separate!"

3. Christians are reproached by many on account of their general seriousness and spirituality of character. This the world cannot pardon. Nothing gives more offence to worldly persons than being in earnest in religion, living for God and eternity: they feel it a reflection upon their own conduct as Noah, by building the ark, condemned the world. Let a person be evidently serious here, and those who differ on every other point will often concur in condemning him. Yet this is as unreasonable as it is unchristian: for, in every other pursuit, fervour and enthusiasm is admired; in science, in poetry, in war; it is only in religion that it is condemned. It is true, there may be such a thing as fanaticism; and let this be condemned as folly;

but that real earnestness should be ridiculed in such a cause, is a proof of infatuation, as well as aversion to godliness; it is a want of consequential reasoning, as well as of a pious spirit. The things of God are either true or not; if they are not true, let them be consigned to utter neglect; but if, as it is allowed, they are true, they must be deserving of our most serious regard; and those only are inconsistent and irrational who profess to believe these things, and yet are cold towards God and eternity, and immersed in the things of the present world! You, my dear friends, will go forth, I trust, with a different mind, and be ready to say with David, when reproached for his zeal in the service of God, "If this be vile, I will be yet more vile." Remember that Jesus Christ himself, with all the sober wisdom of his conduct, did not escape this reproach: He was said to be mad, to be possessed; the same was said of Paul; he was called "beside himself, and mad;" and the same has been often said of pious persons. 4. Lastly those who adopt any peculiar mode of religious observance, have been at times exposed to ridicule on that account. This kind of trial is, I believe, diminishing, and a better spirit taking its place; yet there are still some good men, and especially the unthinking multitude, who will express a degree of ridicule for modes of religious worship differing from their own. This remark applies to the mode of baptism which we adopt. Baptism is regarded by us as a solemn mode of expressing repentance and faith; because Jesus Christ commanded the apostles first to go and teach, or disciple, all nations, and then to baptize them in the name of the Father, Son, and Spirit: conformably with which order of things He added the declaration, "He who believes and is baptized shall be saved;" while his apostles gave the charge, "Repent and be baptized;" and represented baptism as designed to express "the answer of a good conscience towards God." Hence, as we infer, none can be made disciples without their own deliberate avowal of repentance and faith.

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And then, with respect to the mode which we prefer, that of immersion, none will contend that this was not the primitive mode. This latter point is much clearer than the former; and yet, strange to say, the ridicule has been directed principally against the mode; the point which, in a positive institution, is most important to be observed, and which, in the case before us, is so clearly according to primitive usage, that Wall, the most approved advocate of pædo-baptism, allows immersion to be the original practice, and only pleads for the lawfulness of sprinkling; while Whitby, the celebrated expositor, wishes that the primitive mode of immersion were restored.

To close this brief address with a word of exhortation.

Be content to go forth bearing the reproach of Jesus Christ. It is his reproach, as that which He bore; and, if you bear the same, as being his follower, as one that forsakes a worldly course, as one whose mind and walk are marked by spirituality, you are the honoured partaker of the reproach which the Son of God endured.

In the next place, it is incurred for his name. "Happy are ye

when men shall revile you for My sake; rejoice in that day! for great is your reward in heaven!" Great reward is laid up for those who bear reproach in his service; that reproach will turn into a crown of glory; at the resurrection of the just, they will emerge into the new heavens and earth, touched with a divine radiance, and welcomed with the applause of God! "Whosoever shall confess Me before men, him will I confess before the angels of God." But those who refuse to bear his reproach must give an account to a greater than us; they will be alarmed at his voice, and abased at his presence. As those who gave but a cup of cold water for the sake of Christ, did it to himself; so those who reproached his servants, will be treated by Him as having reproached himself!

And, for your encouragement, remember, my brethren, that here we have no continuing city; what is reproach to a passing stranger? Despise the reproach of a world which you will shortly quit; a world which knew not the Lord of glory! receive it with unspeakable calmness; as if "no new thing happened to you!" You share it with the Lord Jesus Christ; and, when He shall appear, you shall appear with Him, and be glad with exceeding glory!

LXXVIII.

THE REFUGE OF CHRISTIANS.*

HEBREWS, Vi., 17, 18: Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath; that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us.

[Preached at Bristol, February 24, 1828.]

THE peculiar situation in which the first Christian converts of the Jewish nation were placed, and the danger of apostacy to which they were exposed, occasioned this Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Hebrews. Being surrounded by the Gentile nations that despised them, and having crucified the Lord Jesus, they were treated, both by pagans and Jews, with scorn, contempt, and persecution. This epistle, therefore, was written in order to fortify them against the scoffs and the more violent assaults of their enemies, by teaching them that many of the great truths of religion, which were founded in the Jewish, were more clearly revealed in the Christian economy. His endeavour was to cheer their minds in the midst of their trials, and to animate them to activity, by holding up and exhibiting the promises of the gospel: "That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises; for when God made promise

From the notes of John Greene, Esq.

to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself;" intimating to believers that they should be the inheritors of eternal life, as the reward of their perseverance. "Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath; that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation." This, then, is the character of the people of God; they are here represented as having fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before them, and such only are the heirs of the promises made to Abraham. We shall consider,

1st. That Christians are heirs of the promises.

2dly. The immutability of God's promises.

3dly. The strong consolation which these promises afford as the privilege of true Christians.

First. Christians are described as having fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before them, and have thus become the heirs of the promises. We shall contemplate this subject in an inverted order, that you may see, my brethren, how far your conduct and experience coincides with this description; that if you have, on Scriptural principles, thus fled for refuge, you may infer that you are heirs of the promises.

We find in the Jewish economy, that there were six cities of refuge appointed for the manslayer, for him who had slain a brother or a kinsman without malice prepense, and if he arrived there before the avenger of blood overtook him, he was safe. A council was then to be held, and if the manslayer was found to have committed the act in malice, he was capitally convicted, and afterward executed; but if he was proved to be innocent of a malicious intention, he was to be confined to the city in which he had taken refuge, until the death of the Jewish high-priest. This was designed, my brethren, to shadow out the condition and apprehension of the penitent sinner under the gospel dispensation; that as the death of the high-priest was to release the manslayer, so it was typical of Divine grace, provided as the refuge of sinners by the death of Christ, our great High-Priest and Deliverer. To illustrate this application of the subject, we must remember that six of these cities were appointed, in different parts of Judea, as places of refuge, and way-marks, or posts, leading to them were set up, that the direct road might be well known. You may conceive with what earnestness such persons would flee for their lives from the pursuit of the "avenger of blood," and with what eagerness they would speed their way to secure an entrance into one of the nearest of these cities before they were overtaken. This was the hope set before the manslayer, and you may readily suppose that he never would relax his exertions, or be diverted from his purpose, till he had reached his resting place of refuge. We are all, my dear brethren, in this condition, as sinners against God, and are exposed to his righteous indignation. We are "children of wrath, even as others," and it is owing to the merciful provision of God that we have any way of escape. This we have through the death of his

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