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wish to quit this troublesome world and all its vanities; a desire to be with Christ, which is far better*. Yet is this wish unalloyed with discontent. The Christian can humbly resign himself, whether living or dying, to the good pleasure of his heavenly Father, who knows, infinitely better than himself, what is good and proper for him.

* Did we feel the vanity of the world as practically, as we are ready to allow it theoretically, this wish would always be predominant in our hearts, though tempered, no doubt, with resignation to the will of heaven and with humble gratitude for our deliverance from the merited penalties of sin.

Paulisper te crede subduci in montis ardui verticem celsiorem, speculari inde rerum infra te jacentium facies; et, oculis in diversa porrectis, ipse a terrenis contactibus liber, fluctuantis mundi turbines intuere. Jam seculi et ipse misereberis; tuique admonitus, et plus in Deum gratus, majore lætitia quod evaseris gratulaberis. Cerne tu itinera latronibus clausa, maria obsessa prædonibus, cruento horrore castrorum bella ubique divisa: madet orbis mutuo sanguine; et homicidium cum admittunt singuli, crimen est; virtus vocatur cum publicè geritur; impunitatem sceleribus acquirit, non innocentiæ ratio, sed sævitiæ magnitudo. Cyprian. ad Donat. Oper. vol. i. p. 4, 5.

The sum and substance of practical wisdom is condensed in this short apophthegin, The fashion of this world passeth away.

Thus, secure under the protection of his God, and firmly relying on the merits of his Saviour, he calmly awaits the hour of his dissolution; when he shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the sons of God, when tears shall be wiped away from every eye, and when the sorrows of time shall give place to the joys of eternity.

CHAPTER V.

THE INFLUENCE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT UPON THE

AFFECTIONS.

WHILE the blessed Spirit of God is employed in illuminating the understanding, and in converting the will of his servants, he is also working a gradual change in their affections. He weans them from the gross and terrestrial objects of sense: he mortifies the works of the flesh and he draws up their minds to high and heavenly things *. He teaches them not merely theoretically, but experimentally, the infinite disproportion between the pleasures of this world and the joy which is reserved for the faithful at the right hand of God. By slow and almost imperceptible degrees, a surprising change takes place within

* Art. XVII.

them. They no longer feel any relish for those vanities, which the slaves of dissipation esteem absolutely necessary for their happiness: and, what at first was resigned upon principles of duty and conscience though with no small reluctance, now ceases to excite a single wish, and is considered with indifference or even aversion*.

I. The life of Christ is the beautiful exem

By this new nature, the very natural motion of the soul, so taken, is obedience to God and walking in the paths of righteousness: it can no more live in the habit and ways of sin, than a man can live under water. Sin is not the Christian's element: it is too gross for his renewed soul, as the water is for his body. He may fall into it, but he cannot breathe in it; cannot take delight and continue to live in it: but his delight is in the law of the Lord. That is the walk, that his soul refreshes itself in: he loves it entirely, and loves it most, when it most crosses the remainders of corruption that are in him: he bends the strength of his soul to please God, and aims wholly at that. It takes up his thoughts early and late he hath no other purpose in his being and living; but only to honour his Lord, that is, to live to righteousness. He doth not make a by-work of it, a study for his spare hours; no, it is his main business, his all. Abp. Leighton's Works, Vol. i. p. 402.

plar, which every man under the guidance of the Holy Spirit endeavours to imitate.

Such a man finds himself uneasy in the society of those, whose daily conversation is the very reverse of that bright pattern, which was once, and only once, exhibited before the eyes of sinful mortality: and he flies with delight to companions, whose habits and views are more congenial with his own. Still, whenever there is even a faint hope only of effecting a reformation, he seeks not morosely to shun the presence of the thoughtless and the dissipated *. Here his business is, to watch for opportunities of usefulness; to avoid the appearance of unnecessary rigour; and to diffuse the practice of holiness, rather by occasional hints and general remarks, than by petulant reproof and pointed allusion. We

* Όπου πλείων κόπος, πολὺ κέρδος. Καλοὺς μαθητὰς ἐὰν φιλῇς, χάρις σοι οὐκ ἔστιν· μᾶλλον δὲ τοὺς λοιμοτέρους ἐν πραότητι ὑπότασσε. Οὐ πᾶν τραῦμα τῇ αὐτῇ ἐμπλάστρῳ θεραπεύεται. Τοὺς παροξυσμοὺς ἐμβροχαῖς παθε. Φρόνιμος γίνου ὡς ὁ ὄφις ἐν ἅπασιν, καὶ ἀκέραιος woεi TEρIOTEρά. Ignat. Epist. ad Polycarp. § i, ii.

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