successful issue of their labours Many trials, also, they
would meet with from ivithout, insomuch that " their own dearest friends would become their bitterest enemies." No other thing that could be done by them would give such gene- ral and inveterate offence as their adherence to him. They might become infidel, or licentious, and even profligate, and excite only pity ; whereas their attachment to him would pro- voke the most embittered hostility ; and not from the immoral only, but the moral also : yea, on the whole, the self-righteous moralists would be the fiercer enemies of the two : nor would imprisonment and death be too heavy penalties for them to expect at the hands even of their own parents or children.]
On their enduring of these to the end, would their everlasting salvation depend —
[It would be to no purpose for them to run well for a sea- son, if they should stop before they reached the goal. They might suflTer much and long, and yet perish, if they had not for- titude to sustain the utmost extremity of pain that could be inflicted on them. " If they would save their life, they must lose it : and on no other condition could they hope to save it to life eternal." To this eflTect the Church has been warned in all ages. Lot's wife was made a sad example of the danger of looking back, after she had escaped from Sodom ; as the whole Jewish nation had been, after their deliverance from the land of Egypt \ The Prophet Ezekiel, in particular, had warned the Jews, that a declension from the ways of godliness would infallibly involve them in ruin^: and, in like manner, the Church in all ages is here warned by our Lord, that " then only will his followers be made partakers of his salvation, if they hold the beginning of their confidence fix*m unto the end''." *' If any draw back, whatsoever be the occasion of that depar- ture, it will be to inevitable and everlasting perdition "^."J
But in my text there is, more directly and obviously,
IL An encouragement expressed —
" Salvation" is here declared to be the certain
recompence of our fidelity —
[But who shall tell us what salvation is, even " that sal- vation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory?" Who can form any just idea of it? Who can inform us what it is to behold the Saviour face to face ; and to be seated with him on his throue; and to enjoy the most intimate communion with him to all eternity ? Who shall describe the blessedness of
^ Jude, ver, 5, '' Ezek. xviii. 24.
'^ Heb. iii. 14. ^ Heb. x. 38, 39.