only exhort you to begin the work of salvation while it is yet day," the night cometh when no man can work." Soon will your day of grace be over. Will you still flatter yourselves, that you have time enough yet; or will you, after all the warning given you from the word of God, presume on his mercy to save you, though you know not how, nor why, though you never be converted all your days? What shall I say but warn you still by repeating the same thing, that “ except ye repent ye shall surely perish." As the godly by a patient continuance in well doing shall not lose the things which they have wrought, but receive a full reward, so neither shall you lose the things that you have wrought, if you go on in impenitence and unbelief, but receive a full reward, for the wicked "shall go away into everlasting punishment, and the righteous into life eternal." SERMON XXXIII. TO BE HEAVENLY-MINDED, A NECESSARY 2 Cor. iv. 16, 17, 18. For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. THE HE Apostle is describing the comfort and support of his mind amidst the afflictions to which he was exposed in the discharge of the Ministry of the Gospel. Very grievous indeed were those afflictions; and no situation in life could be conceived so calamitous as a state of constant danger and persecution, of contempt and reproach, of poverty and distress; but though troubled on every side, he was not distressed; though perplexed, he was not in despair; though cast down, he was not destroyed. He tells us in the Text, that he fainted not; and why? He repeats it again and again, that for this cause he fainted not, because he had * This Sermon, one of the last of Mr. Milner's compositions for the Pulpit, was preached August 6th, 1797, in the Church of Holy Trinity, Hull, on occasion of the death of the Rev. Dr. -Clarke, his predecessor, whom he survived only a few months. received mercy; he believed and therefore spake, "knowing that He which raised up the Lord Jesus, shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you." Though his outward man perished, his inward man was renewed day by day. This is the peculiar secret of christian happiness, that even while in all outward things the believer is a constant sufferer, and his prospects in the world are decaying more and more, and death appears likely soon to close the whole of his visible life, yet he has an inward life nourished by the bread of God which giveth life to the world, even Jesus Christ the Son of God, which life waxes stronger and stronger, and tends to a perfection of a blessed immortality. While the Apostle thinks of this, he calls his present scene of affliction LIGHT; it is also BUT FOR A MOMENT: but the glory to which he is reserved he calls a WEIGHT, it is solid and substantial, and it is ETERNAL. Even his present afflictions are blessings in disguise; they are preparing and fitting him through grace for the glory that shall be revealed, and this they do, not merely because they are afflictions; for then they would have the same effect on all men; for all men are exposed to afflictions; but they have this blessed tendency on the minds of real christians, because they look not at visible, but invisible objects; and they alone of all men are true arithmeticians in divinity; they calculate the value of time and eternity, and are in some degree affected as they ought, in consequence of the calculation. The Apostle goes on in the next chapter to express the confidence with which he expected to enjoy this heavenly kingdom; even now he speaks of a house, the building of God, as his own, and confesses that God, who had given him the earnest of the Spirit, had wrought him for the self-same thing. But I must not enlarge upon the Apostle's general argument, which runs through the fourth and fifth chapters of this Epistle. Blessed is that man who, in any degree of real experience, can go on with the Apostle, and make his feelings to be his own. How light to him will be the evils which flesh is heir to! (for besides the sufferings to which every real christian, as such, is exposed, I need not say that man, as man, is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward:) Such a one can realize christianity, and find in his own soul, according to the measure of his faith, hope and love, though he may not attain the Apostle's degree of those precious graces, the consolation and support which are here described. But let no man think himself a real christian, whose heart is set upon worldly things, I mean who makes them his great object, the main-spring and guide of his desires and pursuits. There are many infirmities which attend the most genuine christian: But worldly-mindedness is not a ruling principle in his character. A covetous christian is as great a contradiction in terms as a sensual or intemperate christian. Having several observations to lay before you from the subject of the Text, my first (and it is a very obvious one) is this, that if ever we mean to enter into the kingdom of God, we must be heavenly-minded. The thing speaks for itself. How shall that man arrive at the end of a proposed journey, who moves not a step on the road? How shall he reach an object which lies due North, who directs all his motions to another object which lies due South? "Ye cannot serve God and Mammon. If a man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. The friendship of the world is enmity with God." The force of these passages, and numberless such passages as these in Scripture, is not to be evaded by saying that we must be diligent in business, and attend to the duties of our station. We ought so to do, and this world's process involves even true christians in many things, which, however, by no means seize their affections. God looketh at the heart! Can we say with the Psalmist, "whom have I in heaven but thee, and there is none upon earth that I desire in comparison of thee." This single mark of heavenly-mindedness is decisive of the character. As our desires are, so are we. He who supremely desires to be with Christ; who prefers that enjoyment which the gospel offers of heavenly things to every thing earthly; who is a stranger upon earth, sensible of his natural guilt, receives God's chief mercy in Christ Jesus with all thankfulness, and waits for the coming of his Saviour to complete that felicity of which he has here the earnest by the Holy Spirit, he is the christian. Hence alone St. Paul could rejoice and patiently endure, and be faithful unto death. If in this life only he had hope in Christ, he would have been, as he says elsewhere, most miserable. Those whose affections are earthly, will either faint or despair under sufferings, or will walk in forbidden ways to relieve themselves. How can such expect to be owned by Christ at the last day? Indeed, how perfectly unsuited are their notions and taste to the kingdom of heaven! It is impossible that they should |