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hopeless infidelity; anxious also, perhaps, to find consolation, and encouragement, and counsel, amongst the Apostles and elders, who still remained in that city. Not knowing the things that shall befal me there; save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me. Not long afterwards, the Apostle received a more precise intimation from a certain prophet, named Agabus, of the trials which awaited him at Jerusalem, where he was to be imprisoned and delivered into the hands of the Gentiles; and he had been prepared for the worst that could befal him, by that brief but emphatic warning of his Lord, which although he did not hear it with his own ears, he had learned from the other Apostles, and had already seen exemplified in their case and his own: Ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake. But, continues St. Paul, none of these things move me; neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.

So speaks the Apostle in the history; now hear him in his own Epistle: I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in

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persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then am I strong.* The faithful servant of Christ sits down, and counts the cost, before he undertakes the active duties of a ministry, which requires of him many sacrifices, and will expose him to many trials. As there is no concord between Christ and Belial, so neither can there be any friendship or agreement between their servants respectively. He who has no fellowship with the works of darkness, but reproves them, must expect to be disliked by the workers of them. He, who exhorts and rebukes the ungodly with all authority; whose duty and office it is, to preserve and point out the broad and ineffaceable boundary line between right and wrong, must expect to encounter ridicule, reproach, and slander. And he must learn to regard all these trials as proofs of his own faithfulness; as the unwilling testimony borne by an ungodly world to the success of his labours in the cause of Christ. If one Apostle could glory in tribulations § of the sharpest kind; and if another counted it all joy when he fell into divers temptations-such tribulations and such temptations as have now, thanks be to God, ceased to

* 2 Cor. xii. 10. § Rom. v. 3.

+ Eph. v. 11.

Tit. ii. 15.

|| James i. 2.

vex the Church of Christ, or his ministers ;--if, in later days, a Cranmer, a Ridley, and a Latimer, did not count their life dear to themselves, so that they might bear testimony to the truth by their death, and seal the charter of religious freedom with their blood; how little excuse is left for the timid and time-serving minister of the Gospel, who trembles at the thought of awakening the resentments of profane and profligate men, enemies of the cross of Christ; who temporizes, and holds parley with the powers of darkness; calls by soft and inoffensive names practices, which his code of instructions broadly condemns; and doubtfully insinuates, rather than proclaims with authority, the strict unbending rules, and awful prohibitions of the everlasting Gospel. Such ministers of Christ, who are not fully emancipated from the bondage of false opinions, and worldly sentiments, and selfish fears, cannot appeal, as St. Paul did, to those amongst whom they have laboured in the Lord: I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. But the trials of our courage and perseverance are many and fearful; and we have great need, my brethren, that you should pray

for us, that utterance may be given unto us, that we may open our mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the Gospel; that therein we may speak boldly, as we ought to speak.*

The concluding part of St. Paul's valedictory discourse to the elders of the Asiatic churches, reminds them, that the flock, entrusted to their spiritual care, was so entrusted by the Holy Ghost; and that their office was, to feed with wholesome doctrine the Church of God, not merely because they had been set over it by the Spirit of God, but because the Son of God had purchased it with his blood. That, for which so great a price had been paid, must needs be a precious charge. The Redeemer gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word; that he might present it to himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish ;+ and the degree, in which it shall correspond to this requirement, must mainly depend upon the faithfulness of those, who are appointed to build

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up with the words of sound doctrine, and the power of holy example; and to watch against

* Ephes. vi. 19.

+ Ephes. v. 26.

the grievous wolves that enter in, of infidelity, or error, or ungodliness.

The Apostle, in the last place, reminds his hearers of that, which had been a constant theme of his preaching, as it is of the very essence of Gospel morality, a self-denying, active charity: I have showed you all things, how that so labouring, (that is, as I did, with mine own hands ministering unto my necessities, and to them that were with me) ye ought to support the weak; (those who are unable to labour for themselves) and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.* This declaration of our Lord is not recorded in any of the Gospels; but was remembered and preserved by the disciples, amongst whom, in the first age of the Church, many sayings of Jesus Christ must have been current, which were not committed to writing by the Evangelists, who, as they profess to have written only a part even of the miracles which he wrought, would certainly not have attempted to give a transcript of all that he said. Other sentences are ascribed to our Saviour by some of the earlier writers of the Church, and may probably have been spoken by him. But we do

* Acts xx. 34.

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