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authors of fuch reproach and fuffering, fo contrary to the meek and merciful fpirit of Chrift: for if they are bleffed, who are reviled and perfecuted for his fake, the revilers and perfecutors must be curfed. But this is not all: he bids his difciples follow him, learn of him, for he was meek and lowly: he taught them to bear injuries, and not fimite again; to exceed in kindness; to go two miles when asked to go one; to part with cloak and coat too; to give to them that afk, and to lend to them that would borrow; to forgive, aye, and love enemies too; commanding them, faying, Blefs them that curfe you; do good to them that hate you; and pray for them which defpitefully ufe you, and perfecute you. Urging them with a moft fenfible demonstration, That, faith he, ye may be the children of your Father, which is in heaven: for he maketh his fun to rife upon the good and the evil, and his rain to defcend upon the just and the unjuft. He alfo taught his difciples to believe and rely upon God's providence, from the care that he had over the least of his creatures: Therefore, faith he, I fay unto you, take no thought for your life, what ye fhall eat, and what ye fhall drink, nor yet for your body, what ye fhall put on : is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment ? Behold the fowls of the air, for they fow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them are ye not much better than they? Which of you, by taking thought,

• Mat. Y

can add one cubit unto his ftature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Confider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they fpin: and yet I fay unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not ar rayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God fo clothe the grafs of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is caft into the oven, fhall he not much more clothe you, O ye of littlefaith? Therefore take no thought, faying, What fhall we eat, or what fhall we drink, or wherewithal fhall we be clothed? For after all those things do the Gentiles feek, for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But feek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteoufnefs, and all thefe things fhall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow fhall take thought for the things of it felf: fufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. O! how plain, how fweet, how full, yet how brief are his bleffed fentences! They thereby fhew from whence they came, and that Divinity itself spoke them: what are laboured, what are forced and fcattered in the best of other writers, and not all neither, is here comprized after a natural, eafy, and confpicuous manner. He fets nature above art, and trust above care. This is he that himself came poor into the world, and so lived in it: he lay in a manger, converfed with mechanics; fafted much, retired often: and when he feasted, it was with barley loaves and fish, dreffed

• Mat. vi..

doubtless in an eafy and homely manner. He was folitary in his life, in his death ignominious. The foxes had holes, the birds of the air had nefts, but the Son of Man had not a place whereon to lay his head. He that made all things as God, had nothing as man; which hath this bleffed inftruction in it, that the meanest and pooreft fhould not be dejected, nor yet the richest and highest be exalted. In fine, having taught this doctrine, and lived as he spoke, he died to confirm it, and offered up himself a propitiation for the fins of the whole world, when no other facrifice could be found, that could atone for man with God: who, rifing above the power of death and the grave, hath led captivity captive, and is become the first-born from the dead, and Lord of the living; and his living people praise him, who is worthy for ever.

§. II. John the Baptift, who was the forerunner of Chrift's appearance in the flesh, did by his own abftinence fufficiently declare what fort of perfon it was he came to prepare and befpeak people to receive. For, though fanctified in his mother's womb, and declared by Chrift to be the greatest of all prophets; yet his cloathing was but a coarse garment of camel's hair, and a leathern girdle; and his food, only locufts and wild honey: a life very natural, and of great fimplicity. This was all the pomp and retinue, which the greatest ambaffador that ever came to the world was attended with, about the best of meffages, to wit, Rement, for the kingdom of God is at hand:

and, there is one coming after me, whose shoeslatchet I am not worthy to unloofe, who fhall baptize you with fire, and with the Holy Ghoft; and is the Lamb of God that taketh away the fin of the world.d Did the forerunner of the coming of God, for Immanuel is God with men, appear without the ftate, grandeur, and luxury of the world; and fhall those who pretend to receive the meffage, and that for glad tidings too, and confefs the Immanuel, Jefus Christ, to be the Lord, live in the vanity and excefs of the world, and care more for their fine clothes, delicate dishes, rich furniture, stately attendance, and pleafant diverfion, than for the holy cross of Christ, and bleffed narrow way that leadeth to falvation? Be ashamed, and repent.

§. III. PETER, ANDREW, PHILLIP, and the rest of the holy apostles, were by calling, as well as doctrine, not a luxurious people; for they were made up of poor fishermen and mechanics: for Christ called not his disciples out of higher ranks of men, nor had they ability, any more than will, to use the exceffes herein reproved. You may conceive what their lives. were, by what their Master's doctrine was; for they were the true fcholars of his heavenly difcipline. Peter thus fpeaks, and exhorteth the Chriftians of his time, Let not your adorning be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and the wearing of gold, and of putting on of apparel; but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible,

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• Mat. iii. 11. John i. 29.

1 Pet. iii. 3, 4.

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even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the fight of God of great price; for after this manner, in the old time, the holy women, who alfo trufted in God, adorned themselves. Wherefore 'gird up the loins of your minds, be fober, and hope to the end, as obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to your former lufts, in your ignorance, but as he, which hath called you, holy, fo be you holy in all manner of conver fation: and giving all diligence, add to your faith, virtue; to virtue, knowledge; and to knowledge, temperance; and to temperance, patience; and to patience, godlinefs; and to godlinefs, brotherly kindnefs; and to brotherly kindness, charity; for if these things be in you and abound, they make you, that you shall be neither уси barren nor unfruitful: for fo an entrance fhall be miniffered unto you abundantly, into the everlafting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jefus Chrift:-"not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing; but contrariwife, blessing; knowing, that ye are thereunto called, that ye fhall inherit a bleffing: for even hereunto were ye called, because Chrift alfo fuffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye fhould fol low his steps, who did no fin, neither was guile found in his mouth; who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he fuffered, he threatened not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously.

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Pet. i. 13, 14, 15. 2 Pet. i. 5, 6, 7, 8. 11. 1 Pct. iii. ga * Chap, ii. 21, 223 KB•

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