Luke xxi. 17 — 19. Ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake. But there shall not an hair of your head perish. In your patience possess ye your souls.
IN applying to ourselves the addresses of our Lord to his Disciples, we are liable to err, if we do not dis- tinguish between their situation and our own. As far as we are in their circumstances, the application will be just, but no further. They were taught to expect on trying occasions such aid from God, as would entirely supersede the necessity of study on their parta: but if zve should form such expectations, we should only tempt God, and expose his cause to the derision of his enemies. Nevertheless, inasmuch as we are subject to many of the same difficulties with them, we may reasonably hope for the same supports and consolations. Though therefore we willingly concede, that it would be enthusiastic and absurd in us to expect the miraculous influences which were vouchsafed to them, we may regard the words before us as addressed to ourselves. In them we have,
I. An alarming declaration —
[Piety has been an object of aversion to fallen man in all
agesb Where it has appeared in its most perfect forms,
it has been most reviled and persecuted0 It might have
been hoped indeed that the glorious effects of Christianity would disarm its enemies : but the enmity of the human heart against God has never appeared so strong, as it has since the
establishment of Christianity in the world And to this
hour does a conformity to its precepts call forth the same wrath and bitterness as it did in the Apostle's days. The laws enacted for its support do indeed restrain men from executing all that is in their hearts : but the words of our Lord are still verified in every place ; nor can any wisdom or prudence in the pro- fessors of religion exempt them from the reproach connected with it. Amongst other reasons for the aversion of men to Christianity in the first ages, a very prominent one was, that it was an unaccommodating religion, and claimed, not only a
a ver. 14, 15. *> 1 John iii. 12. Gal. iv. 29.
c Acts vii. 52. and 1 Cor. iv. 9.