better tendency, than to draw them off from Chrift and his Apostle, and to bring them under that yoke of bondage which neither they nor their fathers were able to bear, and from which Christ had redeemed and made them free. His views again were just the reverse of theirs, even to bring them to Christ, and to maintain them in the glorious liberty of the fons of God, by carrying them on to that perfection fet forth in him. And his earnest zeal for accomplishing this great object, is fuch as a tender and affectionate father feels for his little children, when he fees them in danger of perifhing, or like the anguish of a woman in the pains of childbirth.

We need not ftand on the addrefs he makes to them as little children. It carries great tendernefs of affection in it; but has nothing fingular, as it was the ordinary title by which the Apoftles addreffed the young converts to Chriftianity. But when he ftyles them " my little children," his affection to them, and their duty to him, are both fet in the most affecting light, and could hardly mifs to ftrike fuch of them as liftened to the new teachers, in a very fenfible manner; efpecially on what he

adds,

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adds, that as he had formerly begotten them in Chrift by the gofpel, 1 Cor. iv. 15. he was now put to the fame pains anew, through their folly and thoughtlessnefs: for the word he ufes does not fo properly fignify travailing in childbirth, i. e. the actual bringing forth children, as the pains and forrows that attend it. Such were the feelings of this great apostle on this new emergency; the best pattern a gospel minister can form himself upon, as Chrift is the great pattern for a Chriftian; his work is never done, nor his folicitude and pains at an end, until Chrift is formed in those under his care.

The expreffion is ftrong and bold: too bold the learned and wife men of the world have thought it; and much learned pains have been taken to bring it down to their standard. The Apostle himself tells us, that though he did not speak the wisdom of this world, nor of the men of this world, that yet he fpake wisdom, and the wifdom of God too, I Cor. ii. 6. 7. Nor may it be doubted that he spoke, as the apostles first preached, Acts ii. 4. as the "Spirit gave him utterance.' lowest conftruction that the words, with all the help of figure and metaphor, can VOL. III.

S f

The

be

be brought down to, is, their being formed into the image, and a thorough refemblance of Jefus Chrift, the only proper standard of all perfection and worth; an excellency not to be attained by studying the morals of Epictetus, or Marcus Antoninus; nay, nor by copying out every virtue we can find in Jefus Christ himfelf, and forming ourfelves upon them: For all this, even fuppofing it could be done, would amount to no more than a fyftem of pure morality; and though it is impoffible that any one can be a good Chriftian without morality, yet the most perfect mere moral virtue, (if fuch a thing could be on any other principles than the Chriftian), would never make a Chriftian; at moft it could only be forming one's felf on Chrift, which could in no fenfe be called forming Chrift in them.

They come fomewhat nearer the Apoftle's fenfe, who explain it, by the true doctrine of the gofpel being firmly fettled in their minds; (if by this they mean, the firm faith and belief of the teftimony God has given, and the record he has made concerning his Son): for indeed where-ever that is found, the work the Apostle aims at is done.

done. But then it must be remembered, that however the gofpel of Chrift is the mean by which the thing is done, yet it does it not in a merely rational or moral way, (tho' indeed the Chriftian faith is the most rational thing in the world; juft as rational as it is to believe, that the God of truth is not a liar or a cheat), but it doth it by the ministration of the Spirit. There are numberless instances of people very firmly of the Christian opinion, and who cannot be reckoned either infidels or unbelievers, and yet their belief hath hardly fo much influence on their hearts and spirits, as the faith of devils hath on them. These indeed "believe, and tremble;" which is as far as the grounds of their belief can carry them. And the dead faith, as the Apostle James calls it, of these merely rational believers feldom goes further than to destroy these fears; while in all other refpects it leaves them as much strangers to Chrift, and the business on which he came into the I world, as thofe who never heard of him.

We must therefore, of neceffity, look further for the Apoftle's meaning. Nor do we need to look far: he has it laid very fairly to our hands in this fame epistle. They Sf 2

who

who are Chriftians indeed, have put on Chrift. He is in them, and by him God himself is in them, and dwells in them as his living temples. Being thus united to the great fountain of life, they live by him; nay more, it is not fo properly they that live, as Christ that liveth in them. They who are thus joined to him are one fpirit with him; and one spirit argues one life, one mind, and one way of living. As I had formerly occafion to difcourfe upon this very intimate and astonishing union, I need fay nothing further here, but only remind you of what is written, 2 Cor. xiii. 5. "Examine yourselves, whether you be in "the faith; prove yourfelves: know you not your own felves, how that Chrift is in you, except you be reprobates?" And 1 John iv. 9. In this was manifefted the "love of God towards us, that he fent his

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only begotten Son, that we might live by "him" who is emphatically styled by him, John vi. 33. "the bread of God which came "down from heaven, and gives life to the tz world." This is what makes the Chriftian; and this only can do it: for Christ himself has affured us, "that unless we eat "the flesh, and drink the blood of the Son

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