* Heb. xii. 2.
2. The advantage which the Christian has over all other people upon earth —
A man that knows not God as a merciful and un- changing God, knows not where to look in a time of trial. He may, indeed, comfort himself with some general notions of God's mercy ; but he has no solid ground of hope ; nor can he ever know what is meant by " the peace of God which passeth all under- standing." But the truly enlightened Christian can glory in the midst of tribulations : for he refers all to God, who is too wise to err, too mighty to be foiled, too faithful to forsake his people : he views God as presiding in every storm, and as *' ordering all things for the good of his own peopled He regards not the various circumstances which occur, as though they were accidental : whatever their aspect be, he considers them as parts of one great w^iole ; and, whether the steps which he is constrained to take in this wilderness appear, in the eye of sense, to be pro- gressive or retrograde, he still bears in mind, that they are leading him " in the right way," to the city of habitation, the heavenly Jerusalem^. Behold this illustrated in the Apostle Paul. What storms and tempests he had to sustain, you well know : but was he appalled by them ? No : " he knew in whom he had believed ; and that He was able to keep that which he had committed to him\" " Who," says he, " is he that condemneth ? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again ; who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ 1 Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword ? As it is written. For thy sake we are killed all the day long ; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors, through Him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be
f Rom. viii. "28. s Ps. cvii. ". '' 2 Tim. i. 12.
2296.] MELCHIZEDEC A TYPE or CHRIST. 2«).>
able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord'." Here you see the anchor in the full discharge of its office ; and here you behold a stability which no created power could impart. This shews the Christian in his true light. I pray God we may all have an ever-increasing measure of that confidence in God which so mightily upheld his soul ; and that we may thus be " kept in safety for that inheritance, xohich we know to be reserved in heaven for us ^."
i Rom. viii. 34—39. i^ 1 Pet. i. 4, 5.