thing further to be enjoyed. This was St. Paul's ex- perience. He had been apprehended and arrested, as it were, by the Lord Jesus, in order that he might be made to possess all the treasures of grace and glory: and, from that hour, he could never be satisfied with any thing short of the full enjoyment of themb. And, while he cherished this holy ambition in his own bosom, he recommended it earnestly to all others.
There are, in the words before us, two things which he recommends from his own example :
I. An humble sense of our present attainments —
St. Paul, though so eminent, entertained but low thoughts of himself —
[Never was there a man more distinguished than he, whether we consider in general his love to Godc and mand, or examine the particular graces that adorned his soul6. He not only was not inferior to any other Apostle f, but he laboured more abundantly than they allg. Yet, from an impartial view of himself, as compared with the requirements of God's law, and the example of his Divine Master, he was constrained to confess that he had not yet attained that measure either of knowledge or of holiness, which it was his duty, and his pri- vilege, to possess. This, I say, he found from an exact com- putation11, and has recorded it for the instruction of the Church in all ages.]
In this respect he proposes himself to us as an example —
[The word " perfect," in the close of the text, is not to be understood in the strictest sense, (for then it would con- tradict what he had before said1,) but as signifying that degree of maturity at which the generality of Christians arrive k. To persons of this description he says, " Be thus minded :" and surely it is impossible not to feel the propriety of the exhor- tation. Let any one of us, even the best amongst us, compare himself with the perfect law of God, or with the spotless
b ver. 12. c 2 Cor. v. 14. Acts xx. 24. and xxi. 13.
* Rom. ix 1—3. Phil. ii. 17.
e Sympathy, 2 Cor. xi. 29 ; Contentment, Phil. iv. 11, 12 ; Dead- ness to the world, Gal. vi. 14 ; Industry, Rom. xv. 19 ; Self-denial, 1 Cor. ix. 15.
f 2 Cor. xi, 5. and xii. 11. el Cor. xv. 10.
h \oyi(oficu. ' ver. 12.
k 1 Cor. ii. 6. and xiv. 20. and Eph. iv. 13.