in this also had shown his loving-kindness toward them, and they used and enjoyed them with thanks to the heavenly donor, but they were very far from setting too high a value on them. They did not deem them an end, but only means to an end, and they found it not hard to give up and renounce every thing for the Lord's sake, if need required. Their hearts were not bound up with such things. How different do we find it now with the majority of Christians! Their heart, estranged from God, belongs to the world; they love the world, and the things that are therein. Hence arises the anxious care for earthly things; hence the untameable desire for the possession and increase of earthly goods, which often thinks no means too bad by which it may arrive at the goal; hence the more than heathen hunting after pleasure, rough and rude in the lower, refined in the higher classes of society. Earthly things are no longer considered as means, they become the end itself. To earn and to enjoy are the watchwords of our times these are the goals to which the multitudes press on; these are the aims to which all others must yield. One enjoyment follows close upon another, and opportunities for worldly distractions and gratifications become daily more and more. How can a higher life advance amid such circumstances, and with such a mind? Where every thing is calculated for the gratification of sensuality alone, all earnest occupation of the soul about that which transcends the senses must be set aside. Where the whole life has become an external one, the inward "hidden life of the soul with Christ in God" must appear to be foolish fanaticism. Where the world has obtained dominion in the heart, the love of the Father must grow cold, and that doctrine must be unwelcome and hateful which makes self-denial, and denial of the world and its lusts, the first and most especial duty, and which commands us with holy earnestness" to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness." O let us think, my brethren, of those things "which make for our peace!" The world can give us no peace, no salvation. Christ is our peace in Him alone is our safety; in following Him is blessedness. "Let us then with Jesus hie, In our love our faith we'll shew." We live in the world, but let us not be of the world, not love the world, and live for it! Let us learn from the Christians of the first centuries what our calling is, to deny and fight against the world, that is, every thing ungodly and sinful, with all holy earnestness. Let their example encourage us, their pattern arouse us; then shall our walk be in heaven, and we shall be one day blessed heirs of an eternal inheritance. Our contemplation is not yet ended, my brethren. We have yet much to say of the holy earnestness of the lives of the first Christians, but our time has expired, and we must defer the continuation of our contemplation. If God will, we will resume the thread of our discourse on the next occasion. Till then, let us each in silence meditate on what we have heard; and may the Lord bless the words this day spoken, and crown them with abundant fruit, to the praise and honour of His name. Amen. SERMON VII. EARNESTNESS OF THE FIRST CHRISTIANS IN FORSAKING THE WORLD. O Lord, our God, hear our humble supplications, and bless us, and grant us to become daily more zealous in serving thee, as may be pleasing unto thee. We willingly renounce all vanities which are at enmity with thy service. We dedicate and give up to thee, as thine, ourselves, our souls and bodies. Thou alone it is whom we serve, and to whom we belong. O receive our offering mercifully, and keep us faithful to the end, so that we may one day attain to everlasting blessedness, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. We have begun to speak, my brethren, of the holy earnestness which Christians in the first ages manifested in their lives, and our last contemplation of it shewed us how this earnestness exhibited itself, as opposed to the world, in every station and relation of life in which they were placed. On this head, the apostolic exhortation was their grand principle and rule, "Love not the world, neither the things that are therein. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." This principle they followed with conscientious fidelity; and accordingly, they considered it to be the grand calling and duty of their lives to deny and contend against the world, in so far as under that name all sin and ungodliness was comprehended. They had, indeed, taken Christ into their hearts: He accordingly was their life; His spirit dwelt in them, and gave their mind and their aims such tendencies, that they could truly affirm," Our walk is in heaven." But in this case, they were obliged to follow their Redeemer on the path of self-denial; for he himself declares, “If any man will be my disciple, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me." And as they, by following on this path in the power of faith, and from love to the Redeemer, to whose service they had dedicated themselves, overcame the world in themselves, that is, sin, and every ungodly feeling, and busied themselves to live soberly, righteously, and honestly in this world, so also could they overcome the world without themselves, that is, every ungodly and sinful thing which met them in their relations with society, and threatened to draw them away from good, to allure and seduce them to evil. To deny all this, and contend against it with all earnestness, they considered to be their holy calling, and placed it before every other duty. But if we understand, under the name of the world, not exactly that which in and for itself is ungodly and sinful, but rather that which is earthly and perishable, and which may become sin to men under particular circumstances, we shall find, that in this also those first Christians manifested a resolute earnestness. They did, indeed, recognise in all earthly goods and enjoyments thankworthy gifts of love from their God, and were far removed from a haughty contempt of them; but they were still farther removed from frivolous abuse of those goods and joys, and from that unbridled desire after them, and that eager search for pleasure which distinguished the heathen. Their love was directed to something higher and better than the vanity of perishable things, and they held fast to the apostolic rule, "That we should rejoice as though we rejoiced not, and possess as though we possessed not, and use this world as not abusing it." If, then, they renounced all earthly possession and enjoyment, this renunciation was more an internal than an external one, in which the soul might still grovel in the bonds of worldly lusts and desires, and therefore they always shewed themselves ready to give up and sacrifice every thing perishable and vain for the sake of heavenly things. And if some went so far as to yield up willingly all claim to any earthly possession, and to lead a severe and continent life, in order to be able with less interruption to serve the Lord, and care for their soul's happiness, yet the teachers of the church never ceased to give earnest exhortations and warnings, in order to guard Christians from false paths and self-deceit. They shewed that such conduct can claim neither merit nor glory before God; that it was no way necessary to deny all earthly possessions and enjoyments, as things sinful in and for themselves, but that this was much rather the task, to deny the inward desire for them, and inward pleasure in them, and to overcome the love for the world in the heart, because the desire after God, and love to the Redeemer, must penetrate, inspire, and hallow the whole life of men. Thus they happily avoided the double peril of high-minded contempt, on the one hand, and frivolous worldly pleasure on the other; and the holy earnestness which manifested itself in their conduct was any thing but a dark, gloomy, misanthropic strictness; it was rather the natural consequence of a right estimation of all earthly things, and the natural expression of that heavenly frame of mind, according to which Christians considered themselves the property of Jesus Christ, and felt themselves above all things bound to live under him in his kingdom, and to serve him in eternal righteousness, innocence, and blessedness. Up to this point, my brethren, we cannot help doing full justice to the earnest mind of the first Christians, and their strictness of life; nor can we avoid confessing that the principles which they acknowledged, are those by which we ought to consider ourselves bound in our dealings with men. We, too, can all of us feel, that he who would be a Christian, must most especially deny and contend against the world within himself, that is, the sin which dwells in us by nature; and that he may not so knit his heart to the goods, the pleasures, and the enjoyments of this world, as to forget or neglect in their service the service he owes to God and Jesus Christ. This principle, without doubt, stands firm in |