fore, like a wise and compassionate father, who sees his beloved child in danger, whether from the violence of others, or from his own folly and inconsideration, disappoints the malice of the foe, and delivers his poor creature ofttimes even against his own inclination. "He will not "suffer us to be tempted above that we are able, "but will with the temptation also make a way "to escape, that we may be able to bear it." In the

Fourth place, God pities his children, when labouring under outward trouble and affliction: when streams of creature comfort are dried up, inward and divine consolations are made much more to abound: nay, those very afflictions which are so grievous to nature, and which are looked upon as the wounds of an enemy, not as the chastisements of a tender-hearted father, are really the effect of pity and love. God knows how much we are attached to time, and the things thereof, and that this alone were sufficient to undo us; and therefore, in pity to our souls, he "the desire of the heart and of the eyes," to shew us the folly of seeking our happiness, and setting up our rest in this world. The skilful physician does not skin over the green wound, but probes to the bottom of it, and cuts off every remainder of infection how

takes away

ever painful it may be to the patient, lest an unseasonable pity should kill where it was designed to cure. Though our outward man decay," says the apostle, "yet our inward man is re"newed day by day; and though the tabernacle, "the outward house," is shattered and broken down, yet if the inward inhabitant is proportionally strengthened, the exchange is not to be complained of; for though "no chastening for "the present be joyous, but grievous, neverthe "less afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised "thereby." In the

Fifth and last place, God pities his children, at the hour of death, when an eternal world is ready to open upon them in all its awful solemnity, when nature recoils and stands shuddering on the brink; "his staff and his rod comforteth "them, when passing through the dark valley"when this world and all its enjoyments are flying away, when "lover and friend stand at a dis"tance," the Almighty God himself, their neverfailing friend, takes them by the hand, carries them in his arms, and, ere they are aware, ushers them into the regions of eternal day-then it is that this exceeding great and precious promise is fully accomplished. God is not ashamed to be called their God, and father, and to own them for

his children, and accordingly, as his children and heirs, puts them in possession of their inheritance, of that inheritance which he their heavenly Father had prepared, which Christ their elder brother had purchased, which their faith had believed in, and to the expectation of which their hope had raised them. "It doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear,

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we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he "is." Thus have I endeavoured to open up the nature of the promises referred to in the text. I now proceed to the

Second head, to explain the qualification necessary for being partakers in these promises, namely, holiness, or being cleansed from "all fil"thiness of the flesh and spirit."

From the former epistle to the church of Corinth, and the preceding chapter of this, we may gather, that the sins the Corinthians were chiefly addicted to, were idolatry, intemperance, and uncleanness; the first of which may not improperly be termed "filthiness" or impurity" of spirit," and the two last "filthiness of the flesh;" and it is not improbable that the apostle might have these chiefly in his view in the exhortation of the text, however he expresses himself at large, with

out condescending on any one, or any particular number of vices: let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness. The word " spirit" is here taken to signify the inward, mental part of man; those secret recesses of the soul which are penetrable only by the eye of the Deity. The scripture represents the soul of man as polluted and diseased by sin, in the same manner as the body is by any loathsome, noxious distemper," from the "sole of the foot, even unto the head," saith the prophet Isaiah, "there is no soundness in it, but "wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores; the "whole head is sick, and the whole heart is "faint:" and our Saviour himself saith, "out of "the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adul

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teries, fornications, thefts, false-witness, blas

phemies, these are the things which defile a "man." The purity, and health, and perfection of the human soul, consist in an enlightened understanding, a will conformed to the great standard of purity, and affections regular and undefiled. Filthiness or impurity of spirit therefore, as it regards the first grand faculty of the mind, is that ignorance, error, and prejudice, under which the human understanding lies buried. Though « life and immortality" are now clearly “ brought "to light," yet the bulk of mankind remain wholly ignorant of their truest and most impor

tant interests; they remain ignorant of God, ignorant of themselves, ignorant of true happiness, of consequence they fall into numberless and fatal errors, whereby the soul is betrayed into a situation the most fearful and dangerous. They imagine" God is altogether such an one as them"selves," and therefore, neither to be feared nor loved. They are clean in their own eyes, and yet are not washed from their filthiness; they imagine themselves " rich, and increased in "goods," and to stand in need of nothing, and

know not that they are wretched, and miser"able, and poor, and blind, and naked;" their cry is, "who will shew us any good?" no matter who is the giver, or what the gift, if it serves the present turn. Hence they catch at shadows, and follow after dreams; they eagerly pursue the unsatisfying pleasures of sin, which are but for a moment, and despise those solid, those substantial joys which are durable, which are eternal. The third defilement of the understanding is prejudice, which weakens its vigour, renders it proof against reason, truth, and sense, and fortifies it in ignorance. It is a very peculiar weakness of human nature to imagine it a mean thing to confess having been in a mistake, and to renounce an opinion we have once entertained; whereas, in reality, nothing discovers more genuine greatness