people of other nations could have any idea of. So great was the actual influence of thefe ideas, that, in the time of the Maccabees, they fhewed a heroism and magnanimity in the defence of their reli gion, and in fuffering for it, which muft have aftonished their heathen perfecutors. And our Saviour found among them fuch notions of a future. state, and of a resurrection, as (however they came by them, and how imperfect and obfcure foever they were) could not fail to make numbers of them to think and act in a manner far fuperior to the most admired of the Greek and Roman philofophers.

If the attention of the Jews was kept awake to great and distant objects, how much more is this the cafe with chriftians, to whom life and immortality are brought to light by the gofpel. Chriftianity is the laft difpenfation of God to mankind, and it doth not feem poffible, that more ample provision should be made to enlarge the views and comprehenfion of the human mind, in order to fix its attention upon great and remote objects, and raise it above the influence of prefent and temporary things.

A true christian, like his great mafter, is not of this world, but a citizen of heaven. He confiders himself as a firanger and pilgrim here below, and lives by faith, and not by fight. Let him be ever fo poor and defpifed here, he looks upon himfelf as an

1

heir of immortal glory and felicity, of an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, referved in heaven for him. He may fee his body decaying with old age, wafting with a diforder, or mangled with torture, and every way at the mercy of his enraged perfecutors, but he rejoices in the firm belief and expectation of its rifing again incorruptible at the last day; and that when Christ, who is the refurrection and the life, shall appear, be alfo fhall appear with him in glory.

What an elevation of thought and fentiment is here! How muft this faith make us overcome the world, and render us fuperior to its allurements or its threats. With this enlarged comprehenfion of mind, which brings the future confequences of his actions into immediate profpect, it is impoffible that a fincere chriftian fhould live addicted to vicious gratifications and purfuits, which he muft fee to be deftructive of these his animating hopes; and he muft neceffarily grow more in love with that temper and conduct which is, with the greatest propriety, called chriftian, and which enfures to him thefe glorious expectations. As he who has called him to thefe great privileges is holy, fo will he alfo be holy in all manner of converfation. It will be his daily endeavour to cultivate that holiness of heart and life, without which, he is fenfible, no man can fee the Lord. With this hope fet before him, all the afflictions of this prefent life will feem light,

trifling,

trifling, and not worthy to be named with, but will be abfolutely loft in the confideration of, that eternal weight of glory which awaits his patient con tinuance in well doing.

This fuperiority to prefent and temporary things, which is attained by truly chriftian principles, is of the most rational nature, being of the fame kind with that which is acquired by experience, and which neceffarily refults from the structure of our minds, and the circumftances in which divine providence has placed us in this world for it is only perfecting the affociation of thofe ideas which have. a real connection, and uniting in our minds the feveral parts of one whole, and things which nothing but time separates. If it be compared with that kind of fuperiority which might be acquired by other principles, thofe of the Stoics, for inftance, its advantage will appear to be exceedingly great.

The Stoic affects to defpife pain, because, according to his arbitrary definition of things, it cannot be called an evil, and does not depend upon himself. Having imagined, though without any ground, that every man's happiness muft, in any cafe, arife from himself (in exclufion even of the divine being) he thinks it abfurd to complain of any thing which he could not help. Complaint implies a fenfe of unhappiness; and this, according to his hypothefis, can never take place without

his own confent. If his wife or child be in the moft dreadful agonies, he looks, or affects to look on their condition with the greatest tranquillity, and the most unfeeling indifference; fatisfied that fickness and pain are not in his catalogue of things within his power, and that the fufferers themselves are not unhappy, fince misfortunes are unavoidable, and he knew that his wife or child were not naturally exempt from them. When he dies, he expects that his foul, being a particle detached from the Universal Mind, will be abforbed in it again, and that his feparate confcioufnefs will be loft for ever.

These are the great outlines of the famous philofophical fyftem of Zeno, which is faid to have made fo many great men; but it has certainly no foundation in nature. The principles of it can never have been really felt, and all the boasted effects of it must have arisen from conceit and obstinacy.

How differently, and how much more naturally, does the chriftian think and act in the cafes abovementioned! He does not pretend to deny the evi. dence of his fenfes, nor has recourfe to whimsical diftinctions; and not having maintained that pain is no evil, he finds himself under no neceffity of behaving as if he was unaffected by it. He owns that present sufferings are not joyous, but grievous; but he ftill thinks them nothing in comparison with the

glory

glory that fhall be revealed, and therefore he endures patiently for righteousness fake, in a firm belief of being more than recompenfed for them at the refurrection of the juft. If his friends be in diftress, he has no principles that lead him to check, but, on the other hand, such as encourage him freely to indulge his natural fympathy with them; and these feelings will certainly prompt him to exert himself to the utmost in their favour. At the fame time, he will not fail to exhort his friends to the duties of christian patience and fortitude; inculcating the great christian doctrine of the tranfitorinefs of this world, and its fubferviency to another. When he dies, he indulges no extravagant, but really uncomfortable conceit, about being absorbed in the divine mind; but believes that he fhall, in his own person, rife again from the dead, when he shall refume, and retain his own feparate consciousness, live again under the government of that God whofe goodnefs he has experienced, and whofe friendship he has fecured, know all his virtuous friends once more, and rejoice with them through all eternity,

If we confider the principles of morals in the heathen world, we fhall fee the manifeft advantage there is over it in the plan of revelation. The views of the heathens upon this fubject were exceedingly confined, and did not require that comprehenfion of mind, which is neceffary to the practice of those duties that were enjoined both in the Jewish