the most extreme reproach and ignominy. Nor can I suppose the worst appellations any sect in succeeding ages has been doomed to bear, have implied half of that contempt which an inhabitant of Antioch or Daphne expressed, when he called a man a Christian. If we imagine a set of people, who, at this time, in France, should style themselves the disciples of the late Damien, and be called after his name, we may perhaps form some idea of what the people of Antioch understood by the word Christian. The apostle assures us, that he and his brethren were "accounted the filth and off"scouring of all things," 1 Cor. iv. ; πepixabάpμata toù xójμa ὡς περικαθάρματα τοῦ κόσμου σπάντων περίφημα. He has chosen two words of the most vile and despicable signification; which, I believe, no two words in our language will fully express. The outward state of things is since changed, and the external profession of Christianity is now no reproach; but let us not imagine the nature of things is changed too. It was then received as a maxim, that "all who "will live godly in Christ Jesus, must suffer persecu

tion," 2 Tim. iii.; and it is a truth still, founded upon Scripture, and confirmed by experience. If we know nothing of it in our own cases, it is because our tempers and manners have hitherto been too conformable to that wicked world which in our baptisms we were engaged to renounce. I shall have occasion to speak further upon this point before I close: in the mean time, here is a test to examine ourselves by. If we could not glory in the Christian name, under the same circumstances as the disciples bore it at Antioch, we are as yet unworthy of it. Let conscience judge.

Once more: Antioch, the city where the Gospel once so flourished, that from thence the whole Christian church received that name by which it is still called, is

now no more. It has been a heap of ruins more than five hundred years. The light of the Gospel has been long withdrawn: gaiety and festivity are likewise forgot. Slavery, imposture, and barbarisin, have blotted out the resemblance, and even the remembrance, of what it once was. O that our yet happy land could from hence take a timely warning! Our privileges are great; perhaps greater, all things considered, than any nation has possessed since the days of Solomon. Our preservation hitherto has been wonderful; often have we been in extreme danger, but have always found deliverance at hand. Yet let us not be high-minded; our sins and aggravations, (it is to be feared,) have been, and still are, very great likewise; and God, we see, is no more a respecter of places than of persons. Antioch is ruined, Rev. iii.; Philadelphia, which received so honourable a testimony from the mouth of the Lord himself, has been long since destroyed. Let us beware of boasting; let us not presume too much on what we are; nor say," the temple of the Lord, the temple of "the Lord is here," Jer. vii.; we are the bulwark of the Protestant interest, and none can hurt us. If the Lord is with us, it is true; if we "walk worthy of the "vocation wherewith we are called," we are safe; but, if otherwise, we know not how soon God may visit us with his heavy judgments, war, famine, discord, or pestilence, till we become a warning to others, as others are now proposed warnings to us. Our liberties, our properties, our religion, are in God's hands: may he incline our hearts to true repentance, lest at length these blessings should be taken from us, and given to a people that will bring forth more fruit.

There is an ambiguity in the original word χρηματίσαι, which our translation renders called: for though, that VOL. II.

2 Q

is the more general sense it bears in Heathen writers, wherever it occurs in the New Testament, except in this passage, and in Rom. vii. S. it signifies to be taught or warned by a revelation from heaven. Thus it is spoken of Joseph and the wise men, Matth. ii. ; Simeon, Luke ii. ; Cornelius, Acts x.; Noah, Heb. xi.; and elsewhere. It does not therefore appear quite certain from the text, whether the disciples chose this name for themselves, or the wits of the time fixed it upon them as a mark of infamy; or, lastly, whether it was by the special direction of the Spirit of God that they assumed it. But I incline to the latter supposition; partly, because, in those happy days, it was the practice and the privilege of the disciples to ask, and to receive, direction from on high in almost every occurrence; but, chiefly, on account of the excellent instructions couched under this emphatical name, sufficient to direct and to animate those who were to be known by it, in their duty to each other, to God, and to the world. Some of these I propose to infer from the other proposition contained in the text, that the first name by which the followers of the Gospel were generally known was that of Christians.

Hitherto, as they were separated from the world, so they had been divided among themselves! and so strong were the prejudices subsisting between the members of the same body, that we find, in the beginning of this chapter, some of one party contended with the apostle Peter only for eating with those of another. Hence we read the phrases, we of the Jews, they of the Gentiles. But henceforward they are taught to blend and lose the greater distinction of Jew and Gentile, and the lesser divisions of Paul, Apollos, and Cephas, in a denomination derived from him who alone was worthy

to be their head, and who was equally " rich in mercy "to all that call upon him" in every place.

And as they thus were taught union and affection among themselves, so their relation to God, the way of their access to him, and their continual dependence upon him, were strongly implied in this name. A Christian is the child of God by faith in Christ: he draws near to God in the name of Christ: he is led and supported by the Spirit of Christ: Christ is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the ending, of the faith, hope, and love of every believer. From him alone every good desire proceeds: by him alone every good purpose is established; in him alone any of our best performances are acceptable. Let us beware, (it is a necessary caution in these days,) of a Christianity without Christ. I testify to you in plain words, that this is no better than a house without a foundation, a tree without a root, a body without a head, a hope without hope; a delusion, which, if persisted in, will end in irremediable destruction: " for other founda❝tion can no man lay, than that which is laid, Christ "Jesus:" he is the corner-stone, "chosen of God, and "precious." Alas! for those who are offended with him in whom God is well-pleased! but those who trust in him shall never be ashamed. This is another important lesson comprised in the word Christian.

Nor is this all; but in the name of Christian they might, and we may, read the terms upon which we are to stand with the world. If I was asked what the words Platonist or Pythagorean signified, I should say they expressed certain persons, who embraced the sentiments, submitted to the institutions, and imitated the conduct of Pythagoras and Plato; and, in order to describe them further, I need do no more than give an

account of the lives and writings of their respective masters. Could I thus, in some distant, unknown country, where the name of Christianity had been only heard of, have an opportunity of declaring the history, the doctrines, and the laws, of Jesus Christ; how he lived, how he taught, how he died, and upon what account; what usage he himself received from the world, and what he taught his followers to expect after he should leave them: if I should then describe the lives and the treatment of his most eminent servants, who lived immediately after him, and show, "that as he was, "so were they in the world," 1 John iv. ; that, pursuing his pattern, they found exactly the same opposition ;would not the inhabitants of such a country conclude, even as the Scripture has assured us, that the temper of Christianity, and the temper of the world, must be exactly opposite; and that, as it is said, "Whoever "will be a friend of the world is an enemy of God," James iv; so whoever had boldness to profess himself a friend of God, must necessarily be an enemy to the world, and would be sure to find the world, and all in it, at sworn enmity with him? But if I should further tell them, that though the same laws, the same warnings, and the same examples, still subsist; yet that fierce opposition I have spoken of is at length nearly over, so that none are better pleased with the world, or more agreeable to it, than many of those who speak most honourably of the Christian name: would not these people immediately infer, that one of these contending powers must have yielded to the triumphant genius of the other? that either the whole world were become such Christians as those who were first styled so at Antioch, or that modern Christians must be, for the most part, so only by profession, and have neither