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Lord, help me, I beseech thee, thus to laud and adore thee! Give me a lively sense of thy mercy to my soul; and then my soul shall offer up her gracious returns of lively praise. Sacrifice and burnt-offering thou requirest not, for no outward thing, even of thine own appointment, when not inwardly understood, can please thee; the music of my voice, without the incense or breathings of my soul, thou wilt not accept. O assist me, then, to praise thee aright; for, without thee, I can do nothing. Thou alone givest occasion to praise; and thou also givest the Spirit of praise to use the occasion. Vouchsafe both unto me. Then shall I one day join the great "assembly of the first-born, whose names are written in heaven," and sing, with joy unspeakable and full of glory, that ever-new song, "Salvation to our God who sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb! Amen. Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God, for ever and Amen."

ever.

CHAPTER XXI.

A Christian in losing his Life saves it.

CHRIST hath said, "Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whosoever will save his life, shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.”

In doing this the Christian must die daily. He is crucified with Christ in the flesh, that he may live with Christ in the Spirit. His mortal body is

brought into subjection to the rule of grace; and grace mortifies that body, by crucifying its affections and lusts.

These words are easy and plain; but, alas! how few do know them! To die to SELF is the most painful thing to flesh and blood that can be. Το be stripped of all conceited worth, to renounce a man's own righteousness as well as his sins, to give up in earnest his own will and way, to live in an emptied frame of mind simply upon Christ for strength, wisdom, grace, and salvation, to desire nothing but what may please him, to be contented with the trials he sends because they are his, to have a heart carried above the world, not to fear man against God; to bear, to believe, to hope, to endure all things as the best, and to maintain a firm'view of eternal glory; all this is losing a man's own carnal life, and saving the life of his soul in Christ Jesus. The Christian who hath this in him may say with the Apostle, "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me."

At first sight, this kind of life appears gloomy and dreadful; but when once truly tasted, it is sweet and pleasant to the soul. It grows less difficult and painful, as the carnal life is more and more subdued. The life of the flesh can only indulge

some poor, base, and vexatious gratifications in earthly and perishing things; but the renewed life of the Spirit consists in righteousness, joy, and peace in the Holy Ghost, which cannot be lost, and which never can cloy. The enjoyment of this renders the Christian, in proportion to his enjoyment, a steady man, unshaken or unsubdued by the disorders and distresses of the world, and cleaving the faster to God when they come. A worldly man is often terrified to his wit's end, or to death, where a real Christian can be calm and resigned. He hath learned the value of all life in Christ; and he knows that what is really worth his anxiety can never be lost. In throwing all upon God, he finds the fears and terrors of his weak and corrupt flesh abated, and he gains strength and liveliness in his soul. The Captain of his salvation gives him a tranquillity of courage, which the bravest human heart cannot put on. Women of delicate tenderness, by this gracious gift, have frequently met the king of terrors himself, with a soberness of triumph, unknown to mortal heroes.

These mortal heroes, indeed, may have ventured upon death, despising life and all its enjoyments; but all the while were evidently concerned for their vain glory, and the useless perpetuity of a name. The peculiar distinction of the Christian hero is, that he not only can meet death as a vanquished foe, but also can look down upon the infamy of the world with a noble scorn, valuing it, and all mere reputation among worms, as trifling pageantry or idle pride. He can live and die in secret, which none

of these ostentatious mortals can either endure or dare to do.

No man can live truly by his own power, but only by power from on high. The Christian, therefore, is daily looking unto Jesus, his head of life, for the maintenance and support of every grace. If Christ withdraw his hand, he must fall; for, in himself, the strongest, the wisest, the holiest Christian, is confusion and wickedness, weakness and nothing. He feels himself void of all good, and flies to Jesus, therefore, to obtain it. When he doth not enjoy his Saviour, he cannot enjoy himself. But when he hath him, he hath more than all things; because he hath him who made and possesses them all.

They who are great, and love to be great, in outward things, have commonly but little of this essential life within them. When the soul hath no feast within, it gads abroad for delight, and will put up with mean and carnal trash, unsuitable to its proper nature, rather than have nothing. Outward pomp and carnal show, even in religion, commonly proclaim an inward emptiness and want.

There is a carnal knowledge of spiritual things, which the Apostle calls a "knowing Christ after the flesh," and which is very different from the divine knowledge of those things. The Apostles appear to have had chiefly, if not only, the former, till the day of Pentecost, when they fully "received power from on high." They indeed loved Christ, and sincerely followed him before; but their love and knowledge of the Saviour had in it a large mixture of flesh and corruption. Hence, they were aston

ished to hear of his sufferings and death, and their own humiliation; when, it is plain enough, they expected great temporal advancement and honour for themselves, and a glorious temporal kingdom for him. Even after his resurrection, like the Jews at large, they thought of a "kingdom to be restored unto Israel:" but, when the true kingdom came into their hearts, we hear no more of these carnal expectations, but of a joyful readiness to suffer persecution and death for their Lord, and to go somewhere else, instead of this world, fully to enjoy him.

So, among us called Christians, there is this carnal knowledge of Christ, consisting in outward profession and a natural understanding of the truths of the gospel, which is also mixed sometimes with degrees of grace and spiritual life. But persons in this state are much in outward things, are great outwardly, talk of religion outwardly, and of its great advancement by great human helps in the world. They are strong in their animal passions, carry these into religious matters, make a vast noise and agitation among men, are great rulers if possible, seek to carry all church affairs in their own way, and in short, are never easy out of a bustle, and certainly never easy in it. When these people sink into themselves by getting more true life in Christ, they are found to be more and more mild, humble, patient, gentle, "not obtruding themselves into things which they have not seen, nor vainly puffed up by their fleshly mind." Then Christ is all in all to them; and they themselves nothing at all. Then it is that they lose their own lives, and find them again with great interest and sweetness in Christ.

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