p 2 Pet. iii. 14, 17. i Jude, ver. 24.
ST. Paul's zeal illustrated and improved.
2 Cor. xi. 23 — 29. Are they ministers of Christ ? {I speak as a fool) I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. Of the Jeivsfive times received I forty stripes, save one. Thrice tvas I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep ; in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren ; in weariness and pain- fulness, in ivatchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fasti7igs often, in cold and nakedness. Beside those things that are without, that ivhich cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches. Who is iveak, atid I am not locak ? Who is offended, and J burti ?iot ?
THE people of the world are in the habit of repre- senting religious persons as defective in every mental attainment, and negligent in the discharge of every social duty : and it becomes Christians not only to cut off all occasion for such reproach, but so to con- duct themselves as to be able to appeal to all who know them, that they are in no respect below any other people who are similarly circumstanced with themselves. As St. Paul, when his adversaries sought to detract from his character, silenced them by this challenge, " Whereinsoever any is bold, I am bold also : are they Hebrews ? so am I ; are they Israelites ? so am I ; are they the seed of Abraham ? so am I :" so ought Christians in every department of life to be able to challenge competition with other men, and boldly to say, ' Are they modest, prudent, kind, faith- ful, diligent ? so am I.' This they should be able to do in reference to all heathen virtues, and worldly attainments. But in relation to every thing of a spi- ritual nature, the Christian should so far excel, that no worldly person should be able to come near him. Our blessed Lord intimates this in the question which he puts to us ; '' What do ye more than others ?" We ought to do more than any other people in the world either do or can do ; and, like the Apostle in our text, we should be able to enumerate many things, in which our adversaries, even the best of them, can bear no competition with us.
It is well for the Church of God that St. Paul was so calumniated by his enemies : for, if he had not been so traduced, he never would have recorded the extent of his labours, respecting which, from the brief history of them in the Acts of the Apostles, we should not have formed any adequate conception. True it is, indeed, that he again and again acknow- ledges, that, if not so compelled to declare the truth, he would have been a fool for boasting in this man- ner : and we too shall be guilty of the most egre- gious folly, if we without necessity proclaim our own goodness ; but still, I say again, we should be infe- rior to the world in nothing that pertains to this life^
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and superior to them in every thing that pertains to the Hfe to come.
From this account, which the Apostle gives of his own labours, we shall take occasion, I. To place them more distinctly before you —
Of course, it is only a cursory notice that we can take of them : and indeed it is the accumulated mass, rather than any minute particulars, which will best answer our end in this discourse. Yet, that we may have something of a distinct view of his labours, let us notice,