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called to give an account of it. But these obligations are so obvious, that they are perfectly intelligible to all persons, and therefore require no illus

tration.

Let all those persons who are possessed of whatever themselves and the world consider as advantages, ask themselves, what they do more than others, who are destitute of them. Better, my brethren, infinitely better were it to be poor, than to be rich and not generous; to be fools, than to be knaves; and to have been taught nothing at all, than to make a bad use of superior knowledge. It would have been better for us never to have heard of Christ than to be Christians in name on ly, and not in deed and in truth.

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HAVING OUR CONVERSATION

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HEAVEN. E

For our Conversation is in Heaven.

PHILL. III. 20.

Fany person would act in a manner becoming bis station, whatever it may be, he must frequent ly consider the nature, and the object of it; that he ray the better judge what course of conduct is most suitable to it. Without frequent reflections of this kind, men are apt to forget themselves, tạ act out of character, and to fall into habits of doing inconsistent with their place and profes

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The apostle Paul, in my Text, exhorting the church at Philippi to avoid the disorderly and sca ndalous life which some nominal christians at that time led, reminds them of the nature of their

profession,

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profession, and of the obligation which it neressavily laid them under to a sober life and conversation. Brethren, says he, V. 17. be ye followers together with me, and mark them which walk so as ye hape us for an example: for many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that t they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is their shame, who mind earthly things. For our conversation is in heaven; where also we Look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ.

Observe, what stress the apostle lays upon the proper character, and the consequent pecessary profession of a christian. It is to have our conver sation in heaven, whereas those persons, whose irregularities he is pointing out to them, minded earthly things, a conduct, as he intimates, utterly inconsistent with their profession as christians, so that he scruples not to call them the enemies of the engss of Chriss. And indeed in not complying with the main end and design of christianity,

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which, without all dispute, was to reform men's conduct, and to teach them to lead righteous aud sober lives, they contradicted the whole scheme, and took the most effectual method to bring it into discredit, and contempt, with the Gentile world,

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who from seeing the immoralities of christians, would naturally conclude, that christianity was not the thing that it was pretended to be; and that the apostles, under the specious pretence of reforming the world, were imposing upon it a religi on, which, after all, left men as wicked and abandoned as it found them. With these men, therefore the apostle justly disclaims all connection, not considering them as the friends, but the enemies of christianity; and in order to prevent other professing christians from following their example, and sharing their unhappy fate, he here expostulates with those to whom he writes on the in'consistency there was between the disposition that these apostles shewed, and the genuine temper of christianity.

The character of these abandoned professors the apostle sums up in one word, when he says, they minded earthly things. This world, and the things of it, were their chief pursuit. The riches, the pleasures, or the honours of the world, engrossed all their affections, desires, and expectations. They were not solicitous about any thing else, being without any thought about a future world, or superior happiness; whereas the proper hopes of christians are necessarily in another life,

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which their religion brings them acquainted. As the apostle elsewhere says, if in this life only we have hope we are of all men the most miserable; being disappointed in our principal object and pursuit.

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It is in heaven, my brethren, that the true christian expects his reward. He is so fully persuaded of the reality, and the superior excellence, of the happiness of that state, consisting in the perfection of his rational nature, in all virtuous enjoyments, and in the favour of Almighty God, that nothing else can finally satisfy him. He is so much interested in heaven, and heavenly things, and has his mind so constantly employed about them, that he hardly considers himself as related to this world, but rather as a citizen of heaven, and only a stranger and sojourner here below. And this is, indeed, the proper meaning of the phrase having our conversation in heaven; for in the original it is having our citizenship in heaven, implying that heaven is the place to which a christian of right belongs. He is be come a subject of that state, his dependence is intirely upon it, his treasure is lodged in it, and he is therefore chiefly concerned about it

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Every person, therefore, when therefore, when he embraces 12.

christian

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