does not advert to the exercise of our affections towards God, but only to our actions towards men : and it is in this confined view that we must understand him as speaking in the words before us.
He informs us how rehgion will influence us in re- ference to,
1 . The world at large —
[The terms here made use of draw the line with great accuracy. It is not required of us to renounce the world en- tirely: we are social Beings, and have many social duties to perform : and, if we were to abandon society altogether, Ave should withhold from mankind many benefits which they have a right to expect from us. When God calls us " the salt of the earth," it is necessarily implied that we are to come in contact with that mass, which, by our influence, is to be kept from corruption. But from " the corruptions that are in the world'*" we are to " keep ourselves unspotted." Its pleasures, riches, and honours we are to despise*, even as our Lord Jesus Christ himself did^. Nor are we to be conformed to its sentiments and habits ^ : even its friendship we are neither to court nor desired If we Avould approve ourselves Chris- tians indeed, we must " feel such an influence from the cross of Christ, as to be crucified unto the world, and to have the world altogether crucified unto usV Thus, though in the world, we shall clearly shew that we are not of the world.]
2. That part of it which is destitute and afflicted —
[Love is the life and soul of religion : and, as it will ex- tend to all in general, so will it manifest itself particularly towards those who are bowed down with affliction. The " visit- ing" of the afflicted is an office which the true Christian wUI delight to execute ; yet not in a slight and transient manner : he wfll so interest himself in all their concerns, as to relieve and comfort them to the utmost of his power ^ His conduct towards them will resemble that of Job'. It is the way in which he expresses his obligations to God"; and in which he shews his love to his Lord and Saviour ". He considers love and charity as a commandment stamped with peculiar autho- rity by Christ himself"; and, in obedience to it, he desires to " weep with them that weep, as well as to rejoice with them that rejoice P." This is " pure and undefiled rehgion." Other
things
•I 2 Pet. i. 4. M John ii. 15, 16. ' John xvii. 14—16.
"^Rom. xii. 2. '' Jam, iv. 4. * Gal. vi. 14.
''Tliis is implied in ihe word iTna-K'tTrTio-Sxt.
' Job xxix. 12, 13, &: xxx. 25, & x\xi.l6 — 20.
'" Isai, Iviii. 6, 7. » Matt. xxv. 45. " John xiii. 34.
P Rom. xii. 15.