"2 Cor. vi. 4 — 10. In all things approving ourselves as the mifiisters of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in neces- sities, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labours, in ivatchings, in fastings ; hy pureness, by knoio- ledge, by long-suffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love imfeiyned, by the ivord of truth, by the power of God, by the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, by honour and dishonour, by evil report and good report: as deceivers, and yet true ; as nnknotvn, and yet well known; as dying, and, behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed; as sorrowful, yet alivay rejoicing ; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.
WHAT a portrait is here drawn ! Was there ever, from the foundation of the world, an uninspired man that could pour forth an extemporaneous effusion like luito this ? By much study, a man of deep thought may ramify a subject, and distribute it into a great variety of minute particulars : but the passage before us smells not of the lamp : it savours not of scientific arrangement : it is no laboured accumulation of par- ticulars, brought forward in order to display a fund of learning, or to exhibit the resources of ingenuity : it. is an effusion out of the fidness of a heart devoted to the Lord, of a heart enlarged in the service of mankind.
To enter minutely into the different expressions here brought before you, would be unprofitable in a public discourse. It is by taking the passage in the aggregate, as one vast compendious whole, that we shall best consult the edification of your souls. It refers primarily, no doubt, to St. Paul himself: but, improved in the way I propose, it will be of essential benefit to the whole Christian world : for which end, I shall take occasion, from it, to set before you the mhiiste7ial office.
I. As executed by him —
His whole life, after his conversion to Christianity, was one continued scene of " afflictions," to which