security of those who are called seculars, than the vanity of such as style themselves religious. For he says expressly and universally that his design is to 'present every man perfect in Christ Jesus." He will have no other disciples. He owns none for his scholars but such as aim at perfection, such as resolve to obtain it, and labour after it daily. If you remain secular, and in a state of imperfection, his preaching has not wrought its effect in you; and as you have no part in that perfection to which he would lead you in this life, no more shall you have part in that to which he desires to conduct you in the life that is to come. There is but one sort of Christians, even those who, having believed the gospel, mortify the deeds of the body, and crucify their flesh with its affections, and who, forgetting the things which are behind, advance some steps daily towards the mark and prize of their calling; such Christians has Paul, whose language respecting it you are now hearing, prevailed to present, by the efficacy of his preaching, perfect in Christ Jesus. It is a mistake, it is a folly, to fancy that any others are Christians. These double or middling Christians, who would at once be both Christians and worldlings, disciples of heaven and of earth, have no more place in the reality of nature than in the Scriptures of God. If you would have a place among the perfect ones of the life to come, be betimes among the perfect of this life. There is no ascending to the one of these perfections but by the other. If you will be one day in the number of full-grown men of Jesus Christ, be now in the number of his children. Walk in faith and in love during this pilgrimage, if you would aspire to the vision and glory of the heavenly country. II. But it is now time, my brethren, having spoken of his preaching, to say something to you, in the second place, of the apostle's labour and conflicts. "Whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily." | Satan raised up and brought upon them in all quarters, animating all the powers of the world against them, and subtlely engaging them in this war, some by a zeal for the religion of their fathers, others by reasons of state; some by a jealousy for reputation, others by their passion for pleasures and vices? To overcome so many difficulties, and to advance, as they did, a work whose success was, in appearance, as impossible as if they had undertaken to displace the bounds of the world, and to change mountains into seas, it was evidently necessary that these holy men should toil in an extraordinary manner, and strive with a far greater vigour than that possessed by any of the rest of the faithful. But though they all applied themselves to such service with an indefatigable and courageous earnestness, and with an admirable constancy of mind, yet St. Paul particularly signalized himself among those blessed patriarchs of the new people and Israel of God; for with respect to labour, which he mentions, first, none of them preached Christ with more fervour, none of them pressed men to yield themselves to him with more vehemency, none began with more alacrity, nor went on with more assiduity. Never was tongue more active, nor pen more divine, nor mind more vigilant, than his. He alone traversed as many countries as all the rest together. He visited all nations, sowing the gospel every where, watering it night and day with incredible pains, by his speech, by his tears, and by his cares. He had no sooner achieved one conquest than he enterprised another; and the end of one labour was to him but the beginning of another. Never did ambition or avarice, though the most restless of our passions, cause men of the world half the anxiety sustained by the apostle in bringing mankind to the perfection which the Lord Jesus promised. And as the inclination which the sun has to communicate his comfortable beams to all creatures keeps him in perpetual motion, without permitting him to Surely there is no Christian that does not meet in have one moment's rest; so St. Paul's love for souls, the way to heaven with many thorns, which the flesh, and his ardent desire to shed abroad, in every directhe world, and the devil sow there; for these cannot tion, the light, life, and blessedness with which his suffer any one to undertake so glorious a design with- Master had stored him, pressing him both day and out crossing him to the utmost of their power. Yet, night, caused him to pursue his course without among all the faithful, there are none that have more ceasing, and to circulate continually about mankind, labours and conflicts to undergo than the ministers presenting his treasures, sometimes to one country, of the gospel. This high office, besides being very and sometimes to another, passing all the days he painful itself, draws the hatred and persecutions of lived in this glorious activity. Neither did he at all the enemy more especially upon them; and again, exaggerate when he said to the Corinthians, being among all those whom God has honoured with this compelled to it by the false assertions of his calumniDivine employment, it must be acknowledged that ators, that he had laboured more abundantly than the apostles are the men who had most difficulties to any of the rest, 1 Cor. xv. 10. That part of his hissurmount and afflictions to wade through. All our tory which St. Luke has given to us in the Acts strivings for the truth are but children's play, in com- justifies the truth of his words, and the fourteen parison with the combats which these great warriors divine Epistles which he has left us, and which had to sustain. For who does not know that in every make up part of his admirable labours, as clearly work of importance the beginning is always much show us how the case really stood. more difficult than the progress and prosecution ? The apostles broke up the ground in which we labour; they opened and levelled the race in which we run; they with infinite pain laid the foundations of the house which we build. The business at that time was to overthrow paganism, to demolish Judaism, to fill up great deeps and to level mountains; whereas we enter upon a work already settled and fixed. They went through a country where there was neither way nor path, nor any thing favourable to them; whereas we go in the track which they have made. To all this we must add the great extent of their charge, which enclosed the whole universe, and obliged them to take care of all the nations of the world; whereas we labour each of us in a small parcel of this great and vast heritage of the Son of God. What shall I say of the persecutions which G His strivings or conflicts were not less than his ministerial labours. For by them he means the perils and sufferings which the discharge of his apostleship, and the preaching of the gospel, caused him every hour to experience, and which he frequently compares to the combats which were at that time solemnized in Greece; because those who engaged in them had various pains and inconveniences to suffer, as he shows at large in the 9th chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians, ver. 25—27. He had more enemies to sustain than any of the rest; there were Jews and pagans without, seducers and false brethren within. It makes us tremble only to read the persecutions and obstructions which he received from these quarters. He himself has drawn up a little catalogue of them, in which he represents to us through what depths of afflictions he had passed, and was still daily passing; being pursued, out of measure, both by his own countrymen, and also by the Gentiles. He was beaten, imprisoned, scourged, stoned; he was in shipwrecks on the sea, in dangers and deaths upon the land. He was sometimes at the mercy of robbers in deserts, and at others beset round in cities, both with weapons of enemies, and the ambushments of false friends. He was reduced to nakedness, to cold, to hunger, and thirst. It is this hard and terrible chain of labours and sufferings to which he here alludes, when he says, "Whereunto I also labour, striving." But, oh the deep humility of this holy man! he immediately gives the glory of these marvellous exploits to the grace and assistance of the Lord Jesus alone. I labour and strive, says he, "according to his working, which worketh in me mightily." He exercises the same modesty elsewhere, when, having said that he had "laboured more abundantly than they all," he presently corrects himself, and adds, "yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me." It is the invincible force of this grace of the Lord Jesus which he calls here "his working;" and he says that it works in him "mightily," or with power, to signify the admirable effects which it produced in him; first, in that it raised up in him the light of knowledge, the love of holiness, charity towards the Lord's flock, and such prudence and wisdom as were necessary for the instruction and government of souls. Secondly, in that it endued him with a more than human courage, with an immovable constancy and firmness, both that he might sustain the burden of such great and continual labour, and patiently and cheerfully bear the persecutions and temptations which were still let loose against him; the Lord overruling these things, which tended to frustrate his purposes, for his glory and the advancement of his work, as he promised him, that his strength should be made perfect in his weakness. Thirdly, in accompanying the apostle's preaching with divers miracles, which ravished men, and gave authority to his words, as he expressly testifies in another place: "I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ hath not wrought by me, to make the Gentiles obedient, by word and deed, through mighty signs and wonders," Rom. xv. 18, 19. Lastly, this Divine efficacy of our Saviour also magnificently appeared in the success with which he crowned the labours of St. Paul; opening the hearts of those who heard him, and causing his voice to enter into them, notwithstanding all the impediments of nature, with such a miraculous blessing, that he made his gospel to abound from Jerusalem, and round about even to Illyricum, subduing nations, and converting them gloriously to the service of his Master. It is this that he here represents to the Colossians, when he says, "I labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily." And it excellently conduces to his design, which is to show the truth of the gospel he preached, which shone forth clearly in those many miracles, they being as seals by which the Lord confirmed it. This great example especially concerns those whom God has called to the sacred ministry of his house; and it shows them, on one hand, how painful their office is; that it is a work, (as the apostle says when addressing Timothy,) a work, I say, rather than a dignity; a labour, and not a recreation; for the proper discharge of which they must toil and strive, watch in all things, endure afflictions, and do the work of evangelists, 1 Tim. iii. 1; 2 Tim. iv. 5. And it teaches them, on the other hand, that they must not be discouraged by those great difficulties, but trust in the grace of Christ, and expect from the sole efficacy of his assistance that light, that strength, that pa tience and constancy, which is requisite for finishing so laborious a course, since it is he alone who renders us meet for these things; strengthening us in weakness, comforting us in trouble, encouraging us in difficulties, sustaining us under assaults, and so conducting us, that though we are nothing of ourselves, yet in him we can do all things, who makes us able ministers of the new testament, 2 Cor. iii. 5. But though St. Paul's example particularly respects pastors, yet it appertains also to all true Christians in general, since there is not one of them who is not the Lord's servant, who has not the management of some of his talents, and who is not called to labour and combat. Let us meditate, then, all of us in common, both upon the preaching and labour of this great apostle, and jointly make our improvement of them. He still at this day declares to us the same Christ, whom he before preached to all the nations of the world. Though the organs that sound it to you be incomparably weaker than his were, yet it is his word that you hear, the same word and the same Christ which in time past converted the universe. The same Paul, whose voice had then so much efficacy, speaks yet to you daily. He addresses to you the same doctrine, he sets before you the same wisdom, he admonishes and teaches every man among you. Do not abuse so great a blessing, do not frustrate the true and just effects of this holy man's labour. The end of his preaching is, that you all may be perfect. This is the mark to which he calls you all in general. Say not to me that he speaks to some only. I warn, says he, and teach every man, that I may render every man perfect in Jesus Christ. Object not the employments which you have in the world, nor the duties to which your family and your affairs confine you. If they be incompatible with that perfection which the apostle requires of you, you must renounce them. It is an extreme folly to excuse oneself from being happy. This ought to be the first and last of our cares; and if we cannot attain it but by quitting honours, by losing riches, by retrenching our delights, yea, as our Lord says, by plucking out our own eye, or cutting off our foot or our hand; it is better to forego all this, than keep it, to be cast, at our departure hence, into the torment of eternal fire. But these are vain and mere frivolous pretences to palliate our negligence. If we have truly received Jesus Christ into our hearts, neither a wife, nor children, nor a family, nor an estate, nor the honest and lawful employments of the world, will hinder you from being perfect. The fear of God, honest deportment, plain dealing and justice, charity and beneficence, and, in a word, the holiness in which our perfection consists, is not incompatible with any of these things. For I ask you, Is it your business or your calling which obliges you to offend God and injure men ? to pollute your body with the filth of infamous pleasures? to defraud or to rob your neighbour? to drown your whole life in luxury, in debauches, and in slothfulness? No, no, Christian, excuse not yourselves by such pretences. The affairs of your family and of your trade are altogether innocent of your faults. They rather invite you to honesty and innocency than solicit you to vice. It is nothing but the rage of your ungoverned passions that causes this disorder. It is nothing but your ambition, your covetousness, your pride, your effeminateness and delicacy, which turns you away from Christian perfection. To obtain it there is no need that you should retire into a desert or a cloister, nor that your habits or your food should be different from those of the people among whom you live; there needs for this nothing but a retirement from vice, and a sincere renunciation of the practice of it, plucking its lusts from your heart, changing your life, and not your dwelling, your conduct, and not your clothes. And this it is, my beloved brethren, in which we must labour and strive. The design to which I call you is great and painful, and no less difficult than the conquest | of the world, the business of St. Paul's apostleship. For there is no duty more severe than that of renouncing our passions, or more difficult than that of overcoming ourselves. It is much more easy to wear a cowl, or a hair-cloth, and to blacken the body with blows, yea, to kill oneself, than to put off the desires of the flesh. Labour then earnestly and assiduously, since you have undertaken so difficult a task. Employ all your time in it; let no day pass without engaging in it; watching and praying, mortifying all the members of your old man, with a true penitence; reading the word of God, and meditating upon it; embracing his promises, exercising yourselves in the study and practice of those good and holy works which he has recommended to us. The design is great, and you are weak. But the Lord Jesus, in whom you have believed, is almighty and all-merciful. He still has the same power which before converted the world by the hand of St. Paul. If you labour in his work with such zeal as his apostle did, he will also communicate his graces unto you. He will display his virtue upon you. He will work powerfully in you. He will bruise Satan under your feet, and crucify your flesh by the efficacy of his own. He will vivify your spirit by the light of his. He will cause you to triumph over your enemies. He will comfort you in the afflictions which you shall suffer for so good a cause. He will guide you in all your ways. And after the labour and the combat, will crown you on high in the heavens with that glory and immortality, with which all the pains of the present life are not worthy to be compared. So be it; and unto him, as also to the Father, and to the Holy Spirit, the only true God, blessed for ever, be honour and glory, to ages of ages. Amen. VERSE 1, 2. SERMON XVI. CHAPTER II. For I would that ye knew what great conflict I have for you, and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh; that their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ. DEAR brethren, as gardeners and husbandmen are not satisfied with sowing good seed in the ground which they have prepared, but also take care to eradicate the weeds which might choke or injure the good plants; so in the spiritual husbandry of Jesus Christ, it is not enough that the ministers of his gospel cast his Divine word, the good and saving seed of our regeneration, into the souls of men, they must also exert themselves to weed and cleanse this spiritual soil committed to their cultivation; extirpating those bad and pernicious weeds of error and false doctrine, which, springing up of themselves, or being privily sown by an enemy's hand, would mar all this Divine tillage. Hence the apostle St. Paul, having in the 1st chapter of this Epistle very effectually established the truth, as you have heard, proceeds now in this 2nd chapter, the beginning of which we have read, to refute and reject the errors which certain false workers, ministers of Satan, were artfully endeavouring to introduce; that this people, as a field or a garden of God's, being cleared of all worthless and noxious seed, the precious grain of the gospel, which the apostle had sown there, might take root and spring up, and grow at large, covering and crowning it all over with the flowers and fruits of incorruption, which are sincere piety and true sanctity, no strange plant being mingled with it. These seducers, as we have often intimated, taught, that besides faith in Jesus Christ, of which they made profession, there was also a necessity for observing the Mosaic law, and of worshipping of angels, and of practising certain kinds of superstitious discipline and mortifications of their own invention. And to render all this the more acceptable, they mingled with it some of the subtilties and vain speculations of secular philosophy. This is the weed which the apostle, the church's holy husbandman, now roots up out of his Lord's field; fortifying the Colossians against the craft of such men; and divinely showing them how full and sufficient was the doctrine of his gospel; how unprofitable, and even plainly dangerous, were the additions made by these seducers. This you will hear in the course of the chapter. The two verses which we have read, and the three or four following, are as the entrance or gate of this controversy. In these the apostle is preparing the hearts of the Colossians to receive his instructions, by placing before them the evidences of his ardent desire for their salvation. In the 1st verse, he declares his great anxieties for them and for their neighbours: "I would that ye knew what great conflict I have for you," &c. Then he adds, in the following verse, the design or the cause of this conflict: "That their hearts might be comforted," &c. These two points we purpose to handle in the present discourse, by the assistance of the grace of Christ: St. Paul's care and conflict for the Colossians and the Laodiceans; then his design, or the end for which he underwent all this trouble for them. I. In reference to the first of these two points, you may remember that the apostle affirmed, in the end of the preceding chapter, that, to discharge the ministry which God had committed to him, he laboured and fought according to the energy that wrought powerfully in him. Now he descends from generalities to a particular instance; and having spoken definitely of the labour he endured for the edification of all, he tells the Colossians of the great anxiety he felt for them in particular; adding, "For I would that ye knew what great conflict I have for you, and for those of Laodicea." It is not without cause, says he, that I profess to strive and labour for the But to the Colossians and the Laodiceans, whom he here expressly names, he adds indefinitely all those who had not seen his face in the flesh. His name was so very celebrated among Christians, that there could hardly be one of them who had not heard of him, and who did not know him by report, and consequently had seen him in heart and in spirit. But he speaks of those only who had not seen him present in the flesh, whether by these words he means all the faithful in general, of every cast and country, who had never enjoyed his presence, (for we know that the care of this eminent apostle extended to them all,) or whether he speaks of the faithful in Phrygia or in Asia only, which, in my opinion, is more likely. For as it was impossible that St. Paul and the other apostles should personally visit every place, they often sent evangelists as their assistants and coadjutors, to travel in various parts for the conversion of souls. And so, though the apostle had traversed the greatest part of Asia Minor, and honoured many of its principal cities with his presence and preaching, and especially the province of Phrygia, (as we gather from the book of the Acts, chap. xvi. 6; xviii. 23,) yet it is probable that there were still many cities to which he had not been able to go in person. Expositors, both ancient and modern, for the most part, conclude from these words. of St. Paul that he had not yet visited the city of Colosse nor the city of Laodicea when he wrote this Epistle; and they suppose that he had converted those people, and founded churches among them, by the ministry of Epaphras. Nor can it be denied but that the words give us some apparent ground so to conceive. For saying that he "had a great conflict" for the Colossians and the Laodiceans, and for all those who had not seen his face in the flesh, he seems to enrol the Colossians and the Laodiceans among those who had never seen him. Nevertheless there are ancient authors,* and than whom none are more eminent for profound learning, as well as for acuteTheodoret, in his Preface to this Epist. and on the place itself. ness and solid judgment, who think otherwise, and hold that St. Paul had been both at Colosse and at Laodicea; thinking it improbable that he should have twice gone through Phrygia, as St. Luke expressly states, and not have seen those two cities, the principal ones of that country. And for these words, and all those which have not seen my face in the flesh," they conceive them to be added not to rank the Colossians and the Laodiceans with such as had not seen the apostle, but, on the contrary, to distinguish and separate them from others who had not; as if St. Paul had said that he had a great conflict, not only for them, but even for those who had never seen his face in the flesh. But after all, this difference is of no great importance; and as we have no other means for deciding the point, we forbear to insist on it, leaving every one at liberty to take either way of the two, neither of them damaging the truth of faith or holiness of life. And thus we have seen who they were for whom the apostle sustained the great conflict of which he here speaks. Consider we now the conflict itself. By this he means, I doubt not, first and principally, that care, and solicitude, and thoughtfulness which the consideration of these churches drew upon him. For though their faith and constancy afforded him much satisfaction, and encouraged his hope, yet when he cast his eyes upon the great temptations that surrounded them, the hatred and persecutions of the world, the seducements and artifices of false teachers, and when he reflected on the weakness of human nature, he could not but fear lest so many things, and those of so much force, should draw them off from piety. Love is not without apprehension, no, not in the greatest safety; how much less in the midst of so many dangers! The apostle elsewhere assures us that the affection which he bore to the faithful was so great, that he sympathized in all their miseries, and felt as if he had suffered them himself. The care which I have of all the churches, says he, keeps me besieged from day to day. "Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not?” 2 Cor. xi. 29. And in the 3rd verse of the same chapter he represents to us the great anxiety he felt for the Corinthians in particular: "I fear lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity which is in Christ." Just the same he apprehended for the Colossians and Laodiceans, and other Christians in Asia, that is, lest the frauds and artifices of seducers should confound their faith, and spoliate among them, as they had done in the church of the Galatians, as appears by the Epistle which he wrote them on the occasion. Yet these just fears which oppressed the mind of the apostle were not his whole conflict. For under this word he comprises also all that he did to divert the danger which he apprehended. First he was perpetually in prayer for the safety of these dear churches; and as Moses in olden time upon the mountain ceased not to lift up his hands to the Almighty for the victory of Israel, engaged at that time in battle with Amalek; so this great apostle, from that high station where Jesus Christ had set him in his church, continually presented his supplications and sighs to heaven for the good success of the conflicts in which his Master's troops were engaged. He writes, "We pray always for you," 2 Thess. i. 11. "I always make request for you all in all my prayers," Phil. i. 4. cease not to pray for you, and to desire that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wis dom and spiritual understanding," Col. i. 9. Τα We prayer he added action; courageously attacking error on all occasions; refuting seducers, and exposing the vanity of their doctrine and the malignity of their design, not only by word of mouth, but also by writing, as we see by those divine Epistles of his which remain with us, and which abound in evidences of his great earnestness against these false apostles. And as he courageously assails the enemy, so he smartly appeals to the faithful; reproving them, admonishing and encouraging them to necessary firmness and constancy. He proceeded with so much magnanimity, that he spared not St. Peter himself, who, having fallen through weakness and pliancy into certain things which seemed to favour error, Paul boldly engages him, and with much freedom shows him his fault, as elsewhere he has narrated, Gal. ii. In short, he omitted none of the duties of a valiant and vigilant captain, either against the foe, or towards his friends and fellow soldiers, as we may see in his writings. But his combat did not terminate here. He often came to blows, cheerfully suffering for this cause all the persecutions which the rage of the Jews and the malice of seducers could contrive and form against him. And, indeed, the very chain with which he was loaded, and the prison he was in when he wrote this Epistle, made a part of this combat of his; it being clear, by the history of the Acts, that nothing had more inflamed the hatred of the Jews against him, who cast him into this affliction, than the zeal which he showed every where against the corruptions of those persons who wished to retain the ceremonies of the Jewish law; and hence it is that he told the Colossians, chap. i. 24, he suffered for them; because in effect, it was for maintaining their liberty, and the liberty of other Gentiles converted to the gospel, and for the keeping of their faith pure from all corruptive leaven, that he fell into this wearisome suffering. Such was Paul's conflict for these faithful people. Dear brethren, admire the zeal and the love of this holy man. He was in the prison of Nero; he stood, as we may say, upon the scaffold, and had his head on the block, being indicted for a matter which concerned his life. And even in this state his heart is in pain for the churches of Colosse and Laodicea, and for those beside which had never seen him. Their danger troubled him more than his own. Neither prison nor death was able to extinguish or diminish his affection, or to make him lay aside the least of his cares; having so great a combat against his own person upon his hands, he leaves it, and on so pressing an occasion labours and fights for others. Certainly any thing cannot be imagined more elevated or more ardent than this love. We may truly affirm of it what is said in the Song of Solomon, his "love is strong as death," and his "jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, a most vehement flame. Many waters cannot quench it, neither can floods drown it." But observe again the prudence and suitable procedure of this holy man, in representing these things to these faithful people for so good an end. Having to treat with them on important matters, and to decry errors which seduction had painted over with the deceitful colours of philosophy and eloquence, that he might dispose their hearts to give him due audience, and gain his remonstrances a necessary credit and authority, he sets before them at the entrance the cares that he had for their salvation, the conflicts he sustained for them, and all the effects of that sacred amity he had towards them. As a captain, who, to keep his soldiers firm in their duty, represents to them his watchings, and his labours, and his cares for their preservation; and, in sum, all the marks of his affection to them; or rather as a tender mother, who, to with draw her dear children from giving ear to seducers, shows them her fears, her solicitudes, and her alarms, the yearning of her bowels, and all that she does or suffers for them. Such is the apostle's holy artifice in the present business; and it is grounded on a maxim which we all understand, namely, that we believe them who love us, and are concerned for our welfare, much more than those who are indifferent to us. He declares to them his pains that they may take in good part his remonstrances, and discovers to them his strong affection that they may receive his counsels. His aim is not to gain renown, or to enhance his esteem among them, (such a childish vanity had no place in the soul of this great man,) but merely to render his instructions the more ef fectual to the Colossians. And the conflicts which for this end he mentions to them should serve in like manner for examples to us. Let ministers of the gospel learn by them, what love they owe their flocks, to what cares and conflicts their office obliges them. Let nothing in the world be dearer or more precious to them than the salvation of the souls committed to their charge; let them take part in their joys and in their griefs; let them feelingly resent their wounds, apprehend their dangers, labour incessantly for their edification. To it let them consecrate the thoughts of their mind, and the words of their mouth, and the work of their pen, and the actions of their life; yea, their blood and life itself, if there be need, saying with clear conscience, as the apostle in another place does, "As for me, I will very gladly spend and be spent for your souls," 2 Cor. xii. 15; and "joy to be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith," Phil. ii. 17. Let this care and these thoughts fill their hearts day and night; let them be assured that there is no business, no incident, no peril that exempts them from this duty; no, not death itself, in the very gates of which they ought to mind still their flock, and contend for them by their prayers and their devout wishes. Such is the faithful love and care we owe you. We confess that without this watching and striving for your salvation we cannot avoid the censure and chastisements of the supreme Pastor. Judge if it be not reasonable that you should affectionately regard those whom the love of your salvation engages to so many cares and labours, and if it be not just that you receive their instructions with reverence, and hearken to the product of their studies with attention; that you comply with their zeal for your edification, and attribute much importance to their counsels, and bear with their fidelity, and impute to their affection the severity of their remonstrances when grief and fear draw from them complaints and cries against your behaviour; that you console them in their anxious cares for you by your gratitude, and above all by your progress in the studious pursuit of piety. This is the only fruit which they crave of all their cares and their conflicts; they would account them most advantageously recompensed if you do but profit by them; if they perceive by the purity of your manners, and the sanctity of your lives, that they have not laboured in vain. But do not imagine, I pray, that their solicitude discharges you of all care. On the contrary, it shows you with what earnestness and assiduity you should labour for your own salvation. For if they must heed your affairs with so much diligence, what zeal should you put forth about them yourselves! Their exertion may awaken and animate you, but it cannot save you except you strive yourselves. Their conflict will win you no crown if you take no part in it after their example. Every one will live by his |