their contempt in the testimony of our own consciences, and in the approbation of our God. We know that it is our duty to despise all the vanities which the world can offer us1, and that, if we would not be found enemies of God in the last day, we must relinquish all desire after that friendship of the world, which is enmity with Godk: let us therefore go on boldly in the way of duty, and if we meet with a cross in our road, let us not turn aside from it, but take it up and glory in it.]
3. Seek more and more conformity to the Saviour's image —
[The command of God is, " Be not comformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your minds." The way in which we are to comply with this command is set before us in our Lord's example. We are not indeed to attempt the things which were peculiar to him as a Prophet of the Most High God ; but to get the same mind which was in him ; to imitate him in his spirit and temper, and to mani- fest the same superiority to things visible and temporal, and the same decided preference for things invisible and eternal : then, like the higher regions of the atmosphere, we shall remain serene, while those who grovel on the earth are agitated by incessant tempests. " Come out then from the world, and be separate, and touch not the unclean thing, and God will be a father unto you, and ye shall be his sons and daughters1:" and know that the more your conversation is in heaven now, the greater will be your meetness for it whenever you shall be called hence.]
1 1 John ii. 15, 16. k Jam. iv. 4. ' 2 Cor. vi. 17, 18.