they have no idea what it is that we mean ; but without much inquiry they take for granted that these are some gloomy or extravagant notions of wild enthusiasts. When they hear that we must " flee to Christ for refuge," just as the man who had accidentally slain a person fled to the city of refuge from the pursuer of blood ; and that, if we do not actually get our souls washed in his blood, we must eternally perish; we seem to them to be alarming men without necessity, and to be dis- couraging the practice of good works. So also, when they hear that we are to devote ourselves altogether unto God, " living not to ourselves but unto him," and " walking in all things as Christ walked," we appear to them to be requiring a degree of sanctity that is not to be attained, and that is incom- patible with the common offices of life. Their own notions are so deeply rooted in their minds, and they pay so little attention to any thing spoken in the Scriptures, that they cannot conceive how sentiments so different from those which they have imbibed, can possibly be true.
To counteract this fatal evil, I would earnestly entreat all to lay aside their pre-conceived notions, and to come to the sacred volume, not as critics to sit in judgment upon God, but as little children to be instructed by him: on opening that blessed book, we should lift up our hearts to God, and pray with David, " Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law."]
2. By their worldliness —
[It is surprising to what an extent the love of this world yet predominated in the hearts of the Apostles. One would have supposed, that now at least for a few moments they should lose sight of their ambitious projects, and turn their minds to higher objects of pursuit: but not all that our Lord had said respecting his own sufferings, had in the least damped their expectations of worldly good : for St. Matthew tells us, that " then came James and John, with their Mother Salome, uniting their requests, that these two might be the chief ministers in his kingdom:" and the other ten Apostles, instead of pitying them for their folly, were filled with indignation against them, for endeavouring to secure posts of honour, which they were equally entitled to, and equally ambitious to attain0." Can we wonder that, in such a state of mind as this, they could not comprehend what our Lord spoke about his sufferings and death ?
Here again we see whence it is that men are so slow of heart to receive the self-denying truths of the Gospel. We call men to renounce the world, to " come out from it," to " be
c Matt. xx. 19, 20, 21,24.