behalf. You can only be happy in proportion as you rise above this world to the pursuit and enjoyment of heavenly things. Look at the Saviour, and see how superior he was to all the things of time and sense. That is the state I wish you to attain ; and the more you resemble him now, the richer shall be your enjoyment of his presence in a better world — ]
John xvii. 16. They are not of the world, even as I am not of
the world.
SUCH is the enmity of a carnal mind to the will and law of God, that men usually hate us most for those very things which render us most acceptable in the sight of God. The sanctity of Abel was the real ground of the inveterate hatred that rankled in the breast of Cain, and that impelled him to destroy his brother whom he could not imitate. And David in his day complained, that when he put on sackcloth and chastened his soul with fasting, pleasing as that conduct must have been to God, profane scoffers turned it to his reproach. Thus our Lord told his Disciples that the world would hate them because they did not conform themselves to its habits : but at the same time, repeating what he had spoken of their holy singularity, he pleads it as an argument with his heavenly Father to interpose more effectually for their preservation from evil, and their sanctification through his truth a. The assertion before us leads us to shew, I. In what respects Christ was not of the world —
Our Lord fulfilled with the utmost exactness all his social and relative duties, and wrought, till the age of thirty, at his father's trade b. But though he filled up his proper station in the world, he was not of the world,
1. In his spirit and temper — [A levity of mind, a disregard of God, and an indifference about eternal things, characterize the generality of mankind.
a ver. U—17. b Mark vi. 3.