of a Christian with the Saviour is not merely that of a disciple with his teacher; it is the relation of a subject to his prince. "One is

your Master, even Christ." "My sheep hear my voice, and they follow me." In the whole course of our lives, if we are indeed his disciples, we shall evince our allegiance by a conscientious observance of his laws, by an implicit submission to his will, together with a sincere desire of ascertaining more and more of his mind and purpose. "We shall call no man Master upon earth," nor dare to trifle with the least of his injunctions; and while we plead the merits of his death and the perfection of his righteousness as the alone ground of hope, we shall reverence him as a Sovereign, who is entitled to that spiritual, that interior obedience of the heart which is suited to the character of him who searches it. He who trusts in him as his Saviour must obey him as his Lord; nor shall any be washed in his blood who will not submit to his sceptre.

The moment Paul was brought to a saving acquaintance with Christ, he wrought in him a most profound sense of his majesty; a most humble and reverential submission to his will. His proud, intractable heart melted like wax before the sun, till, passive and subdued under the hand of Christ, he exclaims, "Lord, what wouldst thou have me to do?" While you prefer submission to any other yoke, while the dictates of any other authority have more power over you than the precepts of Christ, dream not of being his disciples. It is absolutely impossible.

4. The cost of which we are speaking relates to what we are to expect. In general, to commence the profession of a Christian is to enter upon a formidable and protracted warfare; it is to engage in an arduous contest, in which many difficulties are to be surmounted, many enemies overcome. The path that was trod by the great Leader is that which must be pursued by all his followers. If he found his way strewed only with flowers, if his career was cheered with acclamations and greeted with smiles, you may not unreasonably indulge in like expectations. But if his course, on the contrary, was a course of trial and effort, of affliction and discouragement; if a life of poverty and suffering, closed by a death of ignominy and agony, form the principal features of his history, regulate your expectations accordingly. is sufficient for the servant to be as his Master, the disciple as his Lord." "If they called the Master of the house Beelzebub, how much more them of his household." "Marvel not," saith our Lord, "if the world hate you; it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love its own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you." "In the world ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world, that in me ye might have peace."

Though violent persecution is not an event, under the present circumstances of the Christian profession in this country, within the range

* Matt. xxiii. 8.

† John x. 27.

John xv. 18, 19.

John xvi. 33.

of probability, yet serious and painful opposition may be expected. Vigorous attempts will be made to deprive you of your crown, at one time by an assault on your doctrinal, at another by efforts to corrupt your practical, principles. A strong current will set in from the world to obstruct your progress, swelled by the confluence of false opinions, corrupt customs, ensnaring examples, and all the elements of vice, error, and impiety, which are leagued in a perpetual confederacy against God and his Christ. Your path will often be beset, not merely by the avowed patrons of error, but by such as "hold the truth in unrighteousness;" who, never having experienced the renovating power of divine truth, will be among the first and foremost to ridicule and oppose its genuine influence. While you live like the world, you may with impunity think with the church; but let the doctrines you profess descend from the head to the heart, and produce there the contrition, the humility, the purity, the separation from the world which distinguish the new creature, that world will be armed against you. "They think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speak. ing evil of you." "In order to stand your ground, it will be requisite for you to "quit yourselves like men, and be strong." Aware that he is everywhere and at all times surrounded with danger, the life of a Christian is a life of habitual watchfulness; in solitude, in company; at home, abroad; in repose and in action; in a state of suffering, or a state of enjoyment; in the shade of privacy, or in the glare of publicity. Aware of his incessant liability to be ensnared, he feels it incumbent on him to watch. The melancholy history of the falls of Noah, of David, and of Peter is adapted and designed to teach us this lesson.

An opportunity may present itself perhaps, in your future course, of growing suddenly rich, of making at least a considerable accession to your property; but it involves the sacrifice of principle, the adoption of some crooked and sinister policy, some palpable violation of the golden rule; or, to put it in the most favourable light, such an immersion of your mind in the cares and business of the world as will leave no leisure for retirement, no opportunity for "exercising yourself unto godliness," no space for calm meditation and the serious perusal of the Scriptures. Are you prepared in such a conjuncture to reject the temptation; or are you resolved at all events to make haste to get rich, though it may plunge you into the utmost spiritual danger? "Count the cost ;" for with such a determination you cannot be Christ's disciple.

By the supposition with which we set out, you have solemnly renounced the indulgence of sinful pleasures. But recollect that siren will return to the charge, she will renew her solicitations a thousand and a thousand times; she will sparkle in your eyes, she will address her honeyed accents to your ears, she will assume every variety of form, and will deck herself with a nameless variety of meretricious embellishments and charms, if haply at some one unguarded moment she may entangle you in those "fleshly lusts which war against the soul."

* 1 Pet. iv. 4.

"Count the cost." Are you prepared to shut your eyes, to close your ears, and to persist in a firm, everlasting denial?

You will meet with injuries and unjust provocations: "count the cost" in this respect.

5. The cost of the Christian profession stands related to the term and duration of the engagement" Be thou faithful unto death." It is coeval with life.

II. Why, we say, is it expedient for those who propose to become Christians to "count the cost?"

1. It will obviate a sense of ridicule and of shame. (See the context.) 2. It will render the cost less formidable when it occurs.

3. If it diminishes the number of those who make a public and solemn profession, this will be more than retrieved by the superior character of those who make it. The church will be spared much humiliation; Satan and the world deprived of many occasions of triumph. III. The reasons which should determine our adherence to Christ, notwithstanding the cost which attends it.

1. His absolute right to command or claim our attachment.

2. The pain attending the sacrifices necessary to the Christian profession greatly alleviated from a variety of sources.

3. No comparison between the cost and the advantages.

XX.

PARALLEL BETWEEN THE WAR WITH THE CANAANITISH NATIONS, AND THAT OF BELIEVERS WITH THEIR SPIRITUAL ENEMIES.*

JOSHUA v. 13-15.—And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, behold, there stood a man over-against him, with his sword drawn in his hand: and Joshua went unto him, and said unto him, Art thou for us, or for our adversaries? And he said, Nay: but as captain of the host of the Lord am I now And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship, and said unto him, What saith my lord unto his servant? And the captain of the Lord's host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot; for the place whereon thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so.

come.

JOSHUA was at this time entering upon a most arduous undertaking; that of attacking the nations of Canaan, at the command of God, with a view to put the Israelites in possession of that land which God had sworn to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, he would bestow on their posterity. Joshua had just been invested with the office of the leader

• Preached at Leicester, March, 1814.

of the chosen people in the room of Moses, who was dead; he had witnessed their frequent rebellions against his predecessor, who had claims to their obedience peculiar to himself; and he had great reason to apprehend that the spirit of perverseness and insubordination, which occasioned so much uneasiness, would burst out against him with additional violence. Add to this, the enterprise on which he was entering was in itself extremely difficult and formidable.

The miraculous appearance presented to him on this occasion was probably intended to obviate his fears, and to arm him with an undaunted resolution in accomplishing the arduous duties assigned him. It is generally agreed by the most judicious commentators, that the personage who presented himself to Joshua at this time was no other than he who afterward became incarnate," the Son of God," "the Angel of the Covenant," and "the Captain of our salvation." From his commanding Joshua to pull his shoes from off his feet, assuring him the ground whereon he stood was holy, he could not fail to infer that he who addressed him was a Divine person; these being the identical words addressed to Moses when God appeared to him in the burning bush.*

We may learn from various passages in the New Testament, that the Lord Jesus Christ in his pre-existent state presided over the Jewish nation, conducted it through the wilderness, and communicated that spirit of inspiration by which its succession of prophets was actuated.

It is to those divine manifestations of himself in the ancient church there is reason to believe St. Paul refers, when, contrasting the preexistent state of Christ with his appearance while on earth, he attributes to him the form of God," who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God."+

Nothing can be conceived more adapted to support the mind of this great man of God, and enable him to encounter every obstacle with fortitude, than such a divine manifestation; by which he was assured the Son of God himself undertook the conduct of the war, and the discomfiture of his foes.

The certainty of God being engaged on their side is, in every age, the chief support of the Christian Israel, in the conflict they are called to sustain with their spiritual enemies.

The present state of the church of God is justly styled a militant state, which is the chief distinction between its present and future condition. An everlasting victory is in prospect, when all enemies will be placed under its feet. In the mean while, whoever belongs to the true Israel of God is engaged in the serious and momentous contest, which bears in many points a striking and designed resemblance to the wars which the tribes of Israel under the conduct of Joshua waged

with the inhabitants of Canaan.

As I conceive, if we attempt to trace a resemblance, it may possibly minister to our instruction and improvement, I shall confine the following discourse to that point.

I. The war in which the tribes of Israel were engaged was of Divine appointment. It was a holy war,-not originating in the enmity or ambition of the people who undertook it, but in the sovereign will and pleasure of God, who had promised ages back to put them in possession of the land of Canaan; but resolved, for the wisest ends, that the actual possession of it should be the fruit of conquest.

The warfare in which Christians are engaged, in like manner, is of Divine prescription; it is one to which they are solemnly called. The enemies they are called to combat are God's enemies; and it is his will that we shall yield ourselves as instruments in his hand for their destruction.

In resisting the world, the flesh, and the devil, we are executing his commands, and are consecrating our services to the Most High. To be resolute and determined in this warfare is to enter into the very essence of our Christian calling; and it is the principal test of our fidelity and allegiance to the King of kings. Our Saviour has distinctly exhibited them in his word, has set us in battle array against them, and says to us, These are my enemies, and also yours, and you must destroy them.

While we remain in a state of unregeneracy, we are scarcely aware of the existence of these enemies. We have no apprehension of danger, and consequently seem to ourselves to be in a [region] of peace and safety. But no sooner are the "eyes of the understanding enlightened," than a new scene presents itself, and we perceive ourselves to be encompassed with foes, and are at once convinced that no representation of the Christian calling is more just than that which likens it to a warfare.

II. The nations of the Canaanites, whom the Israelites were commanded to expel, were extremely numerous and formidable. So they appeared to the spies who were sent by Moses to search out the land. "The land," say they, "floweth with milk and honey: nevertheless, the people be strong, and the cities are walled, and very great: and we saw the children of Anak there. We be not able to go up against this people, for they are stronger than we; all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature; and there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight."

Moses himself frequently reminds the Israelites of the obligations they will be under to love and serve God, when he shall have "subdued under them nations stronger and more numerous than they."

Here we may infer with certainty, that there was naturally no proportion between the strength of the Israelites and that of the people they were appointed to subdue. The victory to which they aspired was not to be achieved by their own power;-they were encouraged by the assurance that the Lord would fight for them,-which is abundantly verified in the events recorded in the book of Joshua. Thus the enemies which obstruct our salvation are numerous and formidable, for exceeding our active powers of resistance; so that we could

* Num. xiii. 27, 31-33.