4. There was an agonotheies. This prize is given by a judge: 2 Tim. iv. 8, ' Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day.' Our claim must be justified before his tribunal.
5. No obtaining the crown without running: Heb. xii. 1, 'Let us run with patience the race that is set before us ; ' 1 Cor. ix. 24, ' Know ye not that they which run in a race, run all, but one receiveth the prize ? So run that you may obtain.' And that is no lazy posture. Here is reaching forth, pressing forward ; we must bend all the faculties and powers of our souls and bodies to obtain it by faithful and constant diligence. We must do things as for heaven indeed, and make as much speed as we can to get the crown which is offered to us by Jesus Christ.
6. In a race we must hold on without any discontinuance. We are not to stand still and give over, but with a constant earnestness to press toward the mark. So here, there is no standing still, by omitting good duties ; by slight occasions we come to leave them off. The fire of the altar was never to go out.
7. There must be no looking back ; we must still take pains to press forward. As the true racers do not use to stand still, or look be- hind them to see how much of the way is already past, or to see how much the rest come short of him, but sets to his business to get through the remainder of the race ; so they that set themselves to the heavenly race must not look back in a double sense ; first, not to think of what he hath forsaken for Christ : Luke ix. 62, ' No man having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.' We must not mind or look at anything behind us ; that will turn us back, and stop us in our course. Secondly, not contenting ourselves with that we have got, possibly, heretofore, with what we might have done, but must hold till we apprehend the prize or mark, and still make forward with all our rui<2rht. The saints in a sense forget
YER. 17.] SERMONS UPON PHILIPPIANS III. 109
what they have done for Christ : ' Lord, when saw we thee an hungry ? '
Use. To persuade us to continue in our christian course till we come to the end of the race. Some races are longer, some shorter ; but the end of every man's race is the end of his life.
1. We that have gone so far in the way must hold out, though never so many difficulties and assaults : ' You did run well, who hindered you ? ' "When you have gone so far in the way to heaven, do you begin to look behind you. as if you were about to change your mind? Have you fixed upon these hopes with so great reason and deliberation, and will you draw back and be slight in the pursuit ?
2. Is the world and the flesh growu better, or God grown worse ? Jer. ii. 5, ' Thus saith the Lord, What iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain ? '
3. All former watching, striving, and praying is lost. The Nazarite was to begin again the days of his purification if he had defiled himself, Num. vi. 12 ; 2 John 8, ' Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward ; ' Gal. iii. 4, ' Have ye suffered so many things in vain ? if it be yet in vain.'
[The doctor's sermon on the 15th verse being printed already among the discourses on peace and holiness,1 the reader is referred thither. The sermon on the 16th verse never came to the publisher's hands.]
SERMON XII.
Brethren, he followers together of me, and mark them which tcallc so, as ye have us for an ensample. — Phil. iii. 17.
In this verse the apostle persuadeth the Philippians to agree in the imitation of his practice of forsaking all for Christ. There were dif- ferences among them ; some were thus minded, and some otherwise minded. He would have them agree in one common rule, one common hope, and one common example, that they might avoid deceitful workers, whose walking was not so regular as to become a pattern to others, as in ver. 18. Therefore since all were not to be promiscuously imitated, they should follow the best, viz., himself who had taught them Christianity, and those other servants of the Lord who hold on the same course and way of salvation as he did, and breathed out nothing but faith in Christ and holiness, ' Brethren, be ye followers together of me,' &c.
In which words the apostle propoundeth his own example, both at first and second hand.
1. At the first hand, in his own immediate practice, ' Be followers together of me.'
1 See vol. ii. p. 56 of this edition. — Ed.