The the irreligious cannot have. Under the defence of the Most High, he has less cause to fear the worst, and more reason to hope the best, than those that live without God in the world. "The wicked therefore flee "when no man pursueth, but the righteous "are bold as a lion."* Even death itself has to the real Christian no terrors. only sting it has is sin, and of that sting he has disarmed it. Instead of being to him, as it is to the worldly man, the extinction of his hopes, it is the consummation of them, and puts him in possession of those heavenly treasures on which his heart is fixed. He therefore goes on with cool undaunted composure to the discharge of his duty, whatever difficulties, whatever dangers may stand in his way; conscious that he is acting under the eye of an Almighty Being, who can both protect and reward him; who has commanded him, if it be necessary, "lay down his life for his brethren†;" and who will never suffer him to be a loser in the end, even by that last and greatest sacrifice to the public good. *Prov. xxviii. 1. † 1 John iii. 16. 66 to Such are the effects, the genuine and natural effects, of RELIGIOUS PRINCIPLE on the human mind. It will give us, as we have seen, every thing which our present situation seems more peculiarly to require; PUBLIC SPIRIT, UNANIMITY, AND UNSHAKEN FORTITUDE. Embrace, then, with thankfulness, the support which Christianity offers you, and which you have hitherto sought elsewhere in vain. Amidst so many enemies, take care to secure, at least, one friend. By obedience to the Divine laws, recommend yourselves to the Divine protection; and then remember those most comfortable expressions of the Almighty to another people: "How can I give thee up, Ephraim ? my soul is turned within me. "I will not execute the fierceness of my anger; for I am God, and not man."* “In a little wrath I hid my face from thee "for a moment, but with everlasting kind 66 66 66 ness will I have mercy on thee."† *Hos. xi. 8, 9. + Isaiah liv. 8. SERMON XII. MATT. X. 34. THINK NOT THAT I AM COME TO SEND PEACE ON EARTH; I CAME NOT TO SEND PEACE WE may, without the smallest hesita tion, conclude, that the words of the text cannot possibly have that signification, which at the first view, and as they here stand single and unconnected, they appear to have. It would be the extremity of weakness to suppose, that he whose whole life and doctrine breathed nothing but peace and gentleness, and who declared at another time, in the most positive terms, that "he came not to destroy men's lives, "but to save them*," should here mean to denounce war and desolation to the human species. And that, in fact, this is not the real import of the words before us, will be evident to any one who considers, with the least degree of attention, the whole passage from which they were taken, and the occasion on which they were spoken. It will be evident that they relate solely to the first preachers of the Gospel, to whom our Lord was then delivering their evangelical commission; and were intended to appřize them of the calamities and persecutions to which the execution of that commission would infallibly expose them. 66 They were sent forth as sheep among "wolves; they were to be delivered up to "the councils, to be scourged in the syna 66 gogues, to be brought before governors "and kings, to be hated of all men for “Christ's sake*:" a treatment so totally opposite to that which their early prejudices led them to expect under the Messiah, THE PRINCE OF PEACE †, that it was highly necessary to set them right in this important point; and to forewarn them in plain terms, that although the ultimate effect of † Isaiah ix. 6. * Matt. x. 16—22. |