Christians, but are lost to common ingenuity. Every true friend of Christ and heir of his salvation is constrained by his redeeming love, and by that affectionate hope and consequent gratitude, which are enkindled by it, to live, not to himself, but to him who died for him, and rose again.

I might add, that beside the moral or argumentative influence of Christian hope, in the respects now mentioned, upon the character of its subject, it has likewise a natural efficacy to sanctify the heart and life. For it is one of the graces of that Holy Spirit, and of that heavenly religion, whose whole design and tendency are to purify and exalt our degenerate nature. Consequently, the hope of the gospel as well, as all its other virtues, is essentially holy, both in its nature and effect, and therefore must gradually root out the remains of sin, and carry forward the opposite interest in its happy possessor. Christian hope is also immediately connected with evangelical faith, both as it directly springs from it, and bears a striking resemblance to it; and of course the same pure and noble fruits, which Scripture and experience ascribe to the latter, may with equal reason be predicated of the former.

Our subject leads us to reflect on the excellency of the Christian religion, not only in bringing life and immortality to light, but in giving such a rational and sublime view of future happiness, and rendering the hope of it such an eminent instrument and support as well, as fruit and solace of virtue. Thus the very privileges and comforts as well, as requirements, of the gospel, directly tend to sanctify our hearts, and raise them to their true perfection and felicity. How worthy is such a system of a holy and benevolent Deity! How friendly to the present and final welfare of man!

Our subject presents a certain criterion, by which to try our hopes of heaven. We all, I suppose, profess to be candidates and expectants of future glory. But what are the grounds, properties, and effects of our hope? Is it built upon, and productive of, inward and practical holiness? Or is it accompanied with security, sloth, and sinful gratification? If the latter, our hope and our pretended religion, are mere absurdity, mockery, and delusion. For is it not repugnant to sober reason to hope for salvation, when our very hope is of such a nature and influence, as to prove us heirs of destruction? Can that hope originate from, and lead you to heaven, which has nothing heavenly in its nature and operation, but every thing the reverse? How inexpressibly foolish is it, to expect a holy happiness without a holy disposition! To expect to be finally glorious in the eyes of the Lord, when our prevailing character is unlike and contrary to his! To look for complete and endless satisfaction in the presence, service, and enjoyment of a Being, whom we habitually dislike, and whose laws of fellowship are our greatest burden and aversion! To expect to find our eternal happiness and delight in those spiritual exercises and entertainments, which are entirely opposite to our present determined pursuits and established increasing propensities!

Is it not equally absurd and impious to hope for divine forgiveness and acceptance, without a heart-purifying faith in, and vital union to, Christ? To expect to be spared by that patience, which we continue to provoke, and to be finally embraced by that mercy, which we resolve to abuse? To propose to live the life of the wicked, and yet die the death of the righteous? To live in a worldly, proud, unchristian manner, and then die like holy, humble, heavenly Christians? To hope for victory Ff

over sin and temptation by lazy wishes, without earnest struggles against it? And to enter in at the strait gate, without striving and agonizing for it! How absurd to profess a belief of the Bible, and yet hope for happiness without, yea, contrary to scriptural grounds! to expect the end without the appointed means! Yea, in the use of methods, which contradict and defeat it! Such hopes as these, not only imply the mad expectation of absolute impossibilities, but also the impious presumption, that God will prove false to himself, to his own essential attributes and declared constitution, for the sake of honouring, and saving us in our perverse and rebellious dispositions!

Let those, who have hitherto cherished such infatuated, wicked, and ruinous hopes, be entreated immedi ately to abandon them; or else they, and their delusive expectations will soon perish together in the pit of destruction; for what is the hope of the hypocrite, when God shall take away his soul! But if we possess the purifying hope above described, let us rejoice in it, bless God for it, walk worthy of it, hold it fast unto the end, and under its enlivening influence press forward to still higher degrees of Christian purity, confidence, and joy. Dearly beloved, having such precious promises as the ground and object of our elevated hopes, "Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”

Sermon XVI.

The Christian Pattern.

PHIL. ii. 5.

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. THE Christian religion has this unspeakable advantage

above all other systems, that it holds out a perfect model of virtue in the life of its Founder; a model, which fully exemplifies and enforces his excellent doctrines and precepts; which exhibits at once the express image and glory of God, and a safe and complete directory for the conduct of man; and agreeably, one main object of Christ's appearing in our nature, and living in our world, was to mark out by his life as well, as by his instructions, the path to immortality.

The apostle in the text and following verses pathetically urges upon Christians a studious imitation of this glorious pattern, particularly in the amiable virtues of love and meekness, of humility and condescension. Accordingly, I shall take occasion to illustrate and enforce the great duty of copying the spirit and life of our blessed Master.

The first inquiry, which this passage suggests, is, in what respects is Christ an example to his followers? The answer is, He is our pattern in those things only, which are common to him and us. He is not an object of imitation in those things, which were peculiar to him, as the Son of God and Redeemer of the world; nor did he exemplify those duties, which result from

our peculiar situation, as sinful and redeemed creatures; such as repentance of sin, and faith in the divine mercy through a Mediator. But Christ is our exemplar in all those right dispositions and actions, which belong to human nature in its uncorrupted state, and to which it is gradually recovered by gospel faith and repentance. We are therefore bound to imitate him in all those moral excellencies, which he exhibited, as a subject of that law, of those relations and circumstances, which were common to him and us. In these particulars he is a pattern admirably fitted to guide and encourage our imitation. For

First, He possessed the same nature, and was placed in the same condition with ourselves; and his example, therefore, being human, exhibits to us the same kind of virtues, practised in the same manner, and under similar circumstances of difficulty and temptation, as belong to ourselves; and thus naturally affects our minds with a far more insinuating and engaging force, than different instances of virtue or even the same, in a different nature. In this view the example of perfect angels or even of the Deity could not be so suitable, so complete, or so encouraging to us; it could not enforce those duties, which are proper to embodied and imperfect, to guilty and redeemed creatures. But Christ was in all things made like unto us, sin only excepted; he was subject to the same infirmities and passions, to the same troubles and temptations as well, as to the same general ties of duty. His example also takes in a very great compass of virtue. It is so wonderfully ordered, as either directly to exemplify, or strikingly to enforce the duties of almost every station and relation of human life. Filial piety towards both his earthly parents and his heavenly Father shone in his early and private life. He condescended to teach