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sent into the world, by his God and father, and of his sending the apostles into the world. Was it not to reform and to amend it? Was it not, in the language of the apostle, to teach men to deny alt ungodliness, and worldly lusts, and to live righteous, sober and pious lives? Was it not, as the same apostle says, to teach us to mortify our members that are of the earth, that is, to subdue our lust of sensual pleasure, to check all worldly ambition; to teach us to disregard wealth and splendour, ant to cure us of all envy and malice? Was it not if short to check and mortify all those inordinate alfections and passions which have this world, and the things of it, for their object and end?

Do not the plainest rules of the gospel engage us to deny ourselves, and to forego many pleasures and advantages of this world because they cannot be enjoyed with a good conscience, and is it not manifest from all this, that it could not be the design of christianity to qualify men for the enjoyment of this world chiefly, since it is rather calculated to wean our affections from it? For if we be allowed to have no pride, no ambition, no sensuality, no malice, or revenge, how can our chier happiness consist in this world; since it is in the gratification of these passions chiefly that the happiness

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piness of the worldly minded consists. What are the precepts of christianity, but rules of sobriety, humility, justice, benevolence, and piety; affections the most disinterested and heavenly, in which consists the perfection of human nature, and our preparation for another, and a better state...

Now since christianity tends to make us indif ferent about those things which the worldly minded pursue with so much eagerness and constancy: and since it raises our affections towards nobler and remote objects; it is evident that Christ, by teaching his disciples this temper and disposition, did not design that their happiness should consist in the enjoyment of this world. The very nature of their institution, demonstrates that they are intended for another and better country. Their re-: ligion, raises their hopes and expectations of something better than any thing that this world affords, and actually forms them for it; and our Lord will not disappoint the expectations which he has rais ed in their minds, or refuse them that high sphere of action and enjoyment, for which, by obeying his commands, and following his example, they are actually trained.

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Upon the whole then, we see that it properly belongs to a Christian to be constantly looking above

and

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and beyond this present world. comparatively speaking, he has no interest worth pursuing here, he will employ his thoughts and meditations upon that more enduring substance which is reserved for him in Heaven. His proper treasure is no where but in heaven. There therefore, is his heart, and there is his conversation, in the usual acceptation of the term. For where aš man's treasure or chief happiness is, there will be his heart and affections, and that will be the subject of his daily thoughts and conversation.

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To become a Christian therefore, is in effect to break off our strongest attachments to this world, and the things of it of it. It is to cease to look upon any thing that this world affords as our chief good. It is as we may say, to throw up our interest here, and to build on a more sure and solid foundation, not upon the sandy foundation of worldly enjoyments, which are so apt to deceive us, but upon a rock which no temporary accident can shake.

Except this be our disposition, we have no more. than the name of Christians, nor that indeed justly, for a worldly minded Christian is an absurdity. Otherwise it would be possible to serve God and Mammon; whereas the heart of man, can have no

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more than one chief object of its desire, or one chief good; and it is the nature of this chief good, that which men most value and esteem, which ma nifests their disposition, and determines their cha

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If what we chiefly prize, what! our hearts and affections are most eagerly set upon, and what we are most of all bent to obtain, be any of the plea sures and advantages of this world, we forfeit all our title to heaven and heavenly things. For these things will not hold a second place in our esteem. But if, in consequence of looking upon this world as a thing that is precarious and unsatisfactory, it be the most earnest wish of our hearts to secure the favour of God, and the happiness of heaveir, if it be our chief care and concern to approve our hearts before him, by an uniform course of welldoing; if we be careful to obey the precepts, and to copy the example of our Lord and master Jesus Christ, and if, when we are property called to it, we be ready, rather than violate our consciente, to abandon every thing that is dear to us in life; and even life itself, we may then, but in no other case, conclude that we are Christians indeed, we have placed our treasure and our hearts in heaven, and there will be our reward at last.

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have now shewn on what accounts Christians may be said not to belong to this world, but to be citizens of heaven. It is because the kingdom of Christ was not of this world, and because both his express precepts, and the very spirit of his religion, require that qur affections should be weaned from the present state, and fixed upon a future and a better. I now proceed to make some inferences from the doctrine, thus laid down and enforced.. I. This doctrine may teach us the great value of Christianity, as it extends our views to great and remote objects, and thereby gives us a superiority of mind to this world, and all the transitory enjoyments and pursuits of it. Great views indicate, and indeed constitute great minds; and thus the prospects of Christianity, by drawing off the attention from every thing mean, base, and un worthy of us, prevents their engaging our affec tions, and exciting any inordmate passion. What charms can sensual pleasure, worldly gain, or worldly ambition, have for that man whose mind is habitually occupied with the thoughts that he is born to infinitely greater expectations, with which those lower pursuits are wholly inconsistent, and who suffers those great, tho distant objects to make a suitable impression upon him. What

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