On the other hand, we often deceive ourselves with regard to what is called in the world-business! Take an example of a man born with all the uprightness of mind compatible with the loss of primitive innocence. While left to the reflections of his own mind in early life, he followed the dictates of reason, and the sentiments of virtue. His mind, undisturbed with the anxieties inseparable from the management of a large fortune, applied almost wholly to the study of truth, and the practice of virtue. But officious friends, a proud and avaricious family, the roots of vanity, and love of exterior grandeur, scarcely ever eradicated, have induced him to push bis fortune, and distinguish himself in the world. He aspires to civil employment. The solicitations to which he must descend, the intrigues he must manage, the friends with whom he must temporize to obtain it, suspend his first habits of life. He accomplishes the object of his wishes. The office, with which he is invested, requires application. Distraction becomes an indispensable duty. The corruption of his heart, but slightly extinguished, rekindles by so much dissipation. After having been some time without the study of truths, once his favourite concern, he becomes habituated not to think of them at all. He loses his recollection of them. He is exhausted in the professional duties he has acquired with so much solicitude. He must have a temporary recess from business. The study of truth, and the practice of virtue, should now be resumed. But he must have a little recreation, a little company, a little wine. Meanwhile age approaches, and death is

far advanced. And when is he to enter on the work of salvation? Happy he, my brethren, who seeks no relations in life, but those to which he is called by duty! Happy he, who in retirement, and if you please, in the obscurity of mediocrity, far from grandeur and from courts, makes salvation, comparatively, his sole, his principal concern. Excessive anxieties, and selfish pursuits are weights which retard exceedingly the Christian in his course. Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin that doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. This is St. Paul's idea in the words of my text: and it is the first remark requisite for its illustration.

The second turns upon the situation in which the Hebrews were placed, to whom the advice is given. These Hebrews, like ourselves, were Christians. They were called, as we are called, to run the race of virtue, without which no man can obtain the prize promised by the Gospel. In this view, they required the same instructions with ourselves.

But the Christians, to whom this epistle was addressed, lived, as was observed in our first discourse, in an age of persecution. They were daily on the eve of martyrdom. For that the apostle prepares them throughout the whole of this epistle. To that he especially disposes them in the words which immediately follow those I have discussed. Consider diligently, says he, adducing the author and finisher of our faith, who so nobly ran the career of martyrdom; consider diligently him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be weary and faint in

your minds. Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striv ing against sin, Heb. xii. 3, 4. What does he mean by their not having yet resisted unto blood? Here is still a reference to the games of the heathen: not indeed to the pleasures of the course as in the words of my text, but to the Olympian games, in which the wrestlers sometimes received a mortal blow. And this idea necessarily includes that of martyrdom. But the flesh, so circumstanced, is very evasive. What excuses will it not make rather than acquiesce in the proposition! Must I die for religion? Must I be stretched on the rack? Must I be hung in chains on a gibbet? Must I mount a pile of faggots? St. Paul has therefore doubled the idea in my text. He was desirous to strengthen the Hebrews with a twofold class of arguments: viz. those required against the temptations common to all Christians; and those peculiar to the afflictive circumstances in which they were placed by Providence. It was proper to press this double idea. This is our second remark for the illustration of the text.

The third turns on the progress the Hebrews had already made in the Christian religion. The nature of this progress determines farther the very character of the advice required, and the precise meaning of those expressions, Laying aside every weight, and the sin that doth so easily beset us. We never give to a man, who has already made a proficiency in an art or science, the instructions we would give to a pupil. We never warn a mariner, who has traversed the seas for many years, not to strike against a rock which lifts its summit to the clouds, and is perceived

by all who have eyes. We never caution a soldier, blanched in the service, not to be surprised by the manœuvres of an enemy, which might deceive those who are entering on the first campaign. There were men among the Hebrews to whom the apostle wrote, who, according to his own remark, had need to be taught again the principles of the doctrine of Christ ; that is, the first elements of Christianity. We find many among the catechumens, who, according to an expression he uses, had need of milk, and were unable to digest strong meat, Heb. v. 12. But we ought not to conceive the same idea of all the Hebrews. The progress many of them had made in religion, superseded, with regard to them, the instructions we might give to those entering on the course. I cannot think, that those Hebrews, who in former days had been enlightened;-those Hebrews, who had endured a great fight of afflictions--those Hebrews, who, according to the force of the Greek term, used in the tenth chapter of this epistle, had been exposed on the theatre of the world, by affliction, and by becom ing a gazing-stock---those Hebrews, who had taken joyfully the spoiling of their goods, Heb. xi. 33, 34 ;--I cannot think that they had need of precautions against the gross temptations, by which Satanseduces those who have only on external acquaintance with Christianity. The principal design of the apostle in the words of my text, is to fortify them against those subtle snares, and plausible pretences, which sometimes induced Christians to relapse, who seemed the most established. These are the kind of snares, these are the kind of sophisms the apostle ap26

VOL. VII.

parently had in view, when he speaks of weights, and the sin that doth so easily beset us.

Thanks be to God, my dear brethren, that though we are right, on the one hand, in saying of some among you, that they have need to be taught again the first principles of the doctrine of Christ; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat, Heb. v. 12.-Thanks be to God that you af ford us, on the other hand, the consolation granted to our apostle, of seeing among you, cultivated minds, geniuses conversant with the sublime mysteries of Christianity, and with the severest maxims of morality. Hence I should deem it an insult to your discernment and knowledge, if, in the instructions I may give to day, whether for the period of persecution, or for the ordinary conduct of life, I should enlarge on those truths which belong to young converts. What! in a church cherished by God in so dear a manner: what! in a church which enjoys a ministry like yours, is it necessary to affirm, that people are unworthy of the Christian name, when during the period of persecution, they anticipate, if I may so speak, every wish of the persecutors, when they carry in their bosom formularies which abjure their religion; when they attend all the services of superstition; when they enjoy, in consequence of their apostacy, not only their own property, but the property of those who have gone with Jesus Christ without the camp, bearing his reproach? What! in a church like this, would it be requisite to preach, that men are unworthy of the Christian name, who in the time of ecclesiastical repose, deliberately live