Use 6. Lastly, take that great rule which the apostle gives in such times as those wherewith we are concerned, " Nevertheless the foun- dation of God stands sure," — 0 blessed be God for it! — " God knows who are his."
What, then, is required on our part? " Let him that nameth the name of Christ depart from evil." Your profession, your privileges, your light, will not secure you ; you are gone, unless every one that nameth the name of Christ departs from all iniquity. What multi- tudes perish under a profession every day! 0 that our hearts could bleed to see poor souls in danger of perishing under the greatest pro- fession !
Will you hear the sum of all? Perilous times and seasons are come upon us; many are wounded already; many have failed. The Lord help us! the crown is fallen from our head,- — the glory of our profession is gone, — the time is short, — the Judge stands before the door. Take but this one word of counsel, my brethren : " Watch, there- fore, that none of these things may come upon you, but that you may escape, and be accounted worthy to stand before the Son of God."
SERMON XXVII.1
THE CHRISTIAN'S WORK OF DYING DAILY.
" I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily."
1 Con. xv. 31.
These words have a great vehemency and emphasis in them, and discover an uncommon earnestness upon the spirit of the apostle when he wrote them; and indeed they carry a greater appearance of
1 Tins sermon was preached September 26, 1CS0.
THE CHRISTIAN'S WORK OF DYING DAILY. 335
such a vehemency in the original than in our translation. For the words we put in the last place, " I die daily," are the first in the ori- ginal: Kat)' rt'Aspav uiro8v7)<r/.u, " I die daily;" Nr, r^v upsrspav -/.ocuy^div, h £%u h Xpisrw 'ijjffoD rw Kvpiu fi/xav, — " Yea, I do so by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord." And there is no expression used by the apostle that hath a greater ardour of spirit in it than this hath.
The special reason of using it in this place is, to evidence the sta- bility of his faith about the resurrection of the dead. That, you know, is the dispute he is upon. And he proves here that it was not an opinion that he had ; but a firm-rooted faith, that carried him. through all difficulties and sufferings. " Why stand we in jeopardy every hour? I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily. If after the manner of men I have fought Avith beasts at Ephesus, what advantageth it me, if the dead rise not? let us eat and drink; for to-morrow we die." " I do evi- dence my faith," saith he, " of the resurrection, by my readiness to suffer all things in the confirmation of the truth of it." And it is the great duty of ministers to be ready at all times to evidence the stability of their own faith in the things which they preach to others, by a cheerful suffering for them.
There are two things in the words : An assertion ; and the confir- mation of it. The assertion is this, " I die daily." The confirma- tion of it, " I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord."
There are two or three difficulties in these words. I shall very little trouble you with conjectures, but give you what I think the sense of the Holy Ghost in them.
The one is from the ambiguous signification of the word -/.avyjneii, which we render here " rejoicing." But in other places it is rendered sometimes by " confidence," sometimes by " boasting," and some- times by " glorying." " donation" is the word I would use, if our language would bear it. " And your gloriation ; " — which is an exul- tation of joy.
There is another difficulty, in the transposition of the words, such as are not in the Scripture again. " I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus." This hath afforded variety of con- jectures unto many; but plainly the sense of it is this, " By the re- joicing which you and I have in the Lord." And I could give instances of the like trajections in the Greek tongue, from one per- son to another, if it were to your edification.
There is yet a third difficulty. The particle vq here is a note of an oath, or swearing; as much as 3 in the Hebrew tongue; or in our language, " by;" yet sometimes it is used as a note of strong asseve-
336 THE christian's work of dying daily.
ration. And we have chosen to express it by a middle word, " I protest." If it be a note of an oath, then the word is used to denote the object, " I swear by your rejoicing in the Lord;" that is, " by the Lord in whom you rejoice." As it is said expressly, " Jacob swore by the Fear of his father Isaac;" that is, " by Him whom his father Isaac feared." But I rather take it here as a note only of vehement asse- veration; and so, says he, " It is as true as that you and I do glory in Christ, and rejoice in him, I die daily."