Godm, then may we very cheerfully forego it. If we be appre- hensive of consequences, what is there to fear" ? Man, at the utmost, can only kill the body; whereas God can kill the soul: and therefore God only and exclusively should be the object of our fear0.]
2. Those who have braved and borne the enmity of the world —
[Do you repent of what you have done ? Has not God made up to you all that you ever suffered for his sake ? Do you think that you will ever feel regret, when you come to heaven, that you suffered so much in your way thither ? Are you not even ashamed that you ever for a moment accounted the cross of Christ heavy, or that you groaned under its weight ? Sure I am, that " you shall receive an hundredfold even in this life, with persecutions ;" and that one moment's enjoyment of your Saviour's presence will abundantly repay all that you endured for his sake. Be not careful then what men may do against you : only seek to cut off occasion from those who seek occasion ; and determine through grace, that they " shall find no occasion against you, except concerning the law of your God."]
m Jam. iv. 4. n Isai. li. 12, 13. ° Luke xii. 4, 5.
John xv. 22. If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin ; but now they have no cloke for their sin.
EVERY sin is committed against an infinitely good and gracious God : yet the stoical doctrine of the equality of sins is not therefore true. Guilt may be aggravated or diminished by a variety of circum- stances. Hence our Lord denounced peculiar woe against Chorazin and Bethsaida. To the same effect he speaks concerning the Jews in the text.
I. How greatly aggravated the sin of the Jews was in rejecting Christ —
Sin admits of so many degrees of malignity, that one may be considered as no sin in comparison of another ; not that any man can be absolutely without