Had any one persuaded profane _Esau_ not to lose so glorious a privilege, merely for the sake of gratifying a present corrupt inclination, when he saw him about to sell his birth-right for a little red pottage, would not one think that man to have been _Esau_’s friend? And just thus stands the case between GOD and us. By the death and resurrection of JESUS CHRIST, we are new-born to an heavenly inheritance amongst all them which are sanctified; but our own corrupt wills, would tempt us to sell this glorious birth-right for the vanities of the world, which, like _Esau_’s red pottage, may please us for a while, but will soon be taken away from us. GOD knows this, and therefore rather bids us renounce them for a season, than for the short enjoyment of them lose the privilege of that glorious birth-right, to which, by knowing the power of the resurrection of JESUS CHRIST, we are entitled.
O the depth of the riches and excellency of christianity! Well might the great St. _Paul_ count all things but dung and dross for the excellency of the knowledge of it. Well might he desire so ardently to know JESUS, and the power of his resurrection. For even on this side eternity it raises us above the world, and makes us to sit in heavenly places in CHRIST JESUS.
Well might that glorious company of worthies, recorded in the Holy scriptures, supported with a deep sense of their heavenly calling, despise the pleasures and profits of this life, and wander about in sheep-skins, and goat-skins, in dens and caves of the earth, being destitute, afflicted, tormented.
And O that we were all like minded! that we felt the power of CHRIST’s resurrection as they did! How should we then “count all things as dung and dross for the excellency of the knowledge of CHRIST JESUS our LORD!” How should we then recover our primitive dignity, trample the earth under our feet, and with our souls be continually gasping after GOD?
And what hinders but we may be thus minded? Is JESUS CHRIST, our great High Priest, altered from what he was? No, “he is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.” And though he is exalted to the right-hand of GOD, yet he is not ashamed to call us brethren. The power of his resurrection is as great now as formerly, and the Holy Spirit, which was assured to us by his resurrection, as ready and able to quicken us who are dead in trespasses and sins, as any saint that ever lived. Let us but cry, and that instantly, to Him that is mighty and able to save; let us, in sincerity and truth, without secretly keeping back the least part, renounce ourselves and the world; then we shall be christians indeed. And though the world may call us out, and separate from our company, yet JESUS CHRIST will walk with, and abide in us. And at the general resurrection of the last day, when the voice of the archangel and trump of GOD shall bid the sea and the graves to give up their dead, and all nations shall appear before him, then will he confess us before his Father and the holy angels, and we shall receive that invitation which he shall then pronounce to all who love and fear him, “Come, ye blessed children of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world.”
Grant this, O Father, for thy dear Son’s sake, JESUS CHRIST our LORD; to whom, with Thee and the Holy Ghost, &c.