taketh a city." In cases of opposition (and you may have opposition, notwithstanding the present happy appearance) the greatest danger is from ourselves. If we do not keep under our passions and feelings, our enemies will not fail to take the advantage of us. This therefore, in case of opposition, you are to expect; and the consequence may be fatal to your comfort and usefulness in this place, and detrimental to the cause of truth in general. But if agreeably to our Lord's direction, you be wise as a serpent and harmless as a dove; if you preach the truth faithfully and feel and live accordingly, you may hope for a blessing on your ministry. But however this may be, you will be accepted and approved by the great shepherd of the sheep, who will say to you at last, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things; I will make thee ruler over many things; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."

II. I am to address myself in a very few words to this church and society.

MEN AND BRETHREN,- -You have heard what has been said to your pastor elect and the exhortation to him, to preach the truth. If he be bound to preach the truth, you are bound to hear, receive and obey it. If he shall faithfully preach it, he will be accepted by his God and Judge, whether you hear or forbear. You are now to have another pastor set over you in the Lord. This is one of the gifts which Christ has received and which he dispenses in consequence of his ascension; and you are accountable for the manner in which you shall improve by this gift. Your pastor is to be a watchman on this part of the walls of Jerusalem, to give warning to you. If he shall faithfully warn you and you shall not hear nor regard, your blood will be on your own heads. But if you shall hear and comply, you shall live. Therefore take heed how you hear. Incline your ear and come unto Christ. Hear and your souls shall live; and he will make with you an everlasting covenant, even the sure mercies of David."

SERMON XIII.

THE MINISTER'S PARTING COUNSEL.*

2 CORINTHIANS 13: 2.- Finally, brethren, farewell: Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you.

CORINTH was a famous city of Greece, in which the gospel was introduced and established by the apostle Paul. There he exercised his ministry for a year and six months at one time, besides his occasional visits afterward. And there that ministry was attended with great success. All this appears, as from other passages in the New Testament, so particularly from Acts 18: 9, 10, 11, "Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace. For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee, to hurt thee: for I have much people in this city. And he continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them." To this church planted by the apostle himself, he wrote two epistles, of which this from which our text is taken is the last. At the close of this epistle, he takes his final leave of this church, in the affecting words of the text. As if he had said, And now, brethren, after all my acquaintance with you, which has been mutually so agreeable and profitable; after all my labors among you, which God has been pleased so greatly to bless; and after my repeated visits and epistles to you; I bid you an affectionate and final farewell. I ardently wish you prosperity in every respect; and particularly that you may "be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace, and then the God of love and peace shall be with you."

What I propose in this discourse, is to consider the several parts of this farewell of the apostle, to the Corinthians.

I. He wishes them to be perfect.

We are not to understand here absolute, sinless perfection. This is not attainable in this life.

"There is not" even a just

* A Farewell Sermon to the people of Colebrook, preached July 14, 1799, and printed at the request of the hearers.

man upon earth; that doeth good and sinneth not," Eccles. 7: 20. "And who can say, I have made my heart clean; I am pure from my sin," Prov. 20: 9. "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one," Job 14: 4. But if any man has attained to perfection in this life, he is a just man upon earth, that doeth good and sinneth not; he is pure from his sin; he is a clean thing brought out of an unclean; in direct contradiction to the scriptures just quoted.

If any person ever has attained to perfection in this life, we may surely suppose, that some of the saints mentioned in scripture, were favored with this privilege. Therefore let us search for perfection among the most distinguished saints of both the Old Testament and the New. Noah, Daniel and Job are in scripture mentioned as eminent saints and as peculiarly beloved of God. Let us attend to them distinctly. Noah, though distinguished from the rest of the world in being saved from the flood and in being employed as a preacher of righteousness to the old world, and though in the main he walked with God, yet was overtaken with gross intemperance, as you cannot but remember. Job was indeed an eminently good man, so that there was none like him in all the earth, and for a long time he persevered in his patience, under various most distressing afflictions, brought on him in a rapid succession, and for a long time he conducted himself in the most humble and pious manner, "falling down to the ground and worshipping;" saying, "naked came I out of my mother's womb and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; and blessed be the name of the Lord." And when he was insulted by his own wife, because he still retained his integrity, and refused to curse God and die, he made the following most proper and pious answer: "What? shall we receive good at the hand of the Lord, and shall we not receive evil." Yet to show, that there is no man upon earth, though really just and upright, who liveth and sinneth not, Job at last had his patience exhausted, so that he "opened his mouth and cursed his day."

With regard to Daniel, though no particular gross sin is in scripture recorded concerning him, yet we have no reason to suppose that he was more perfect than the other two saints, with whom he is classed in scripture, as a distinguished favorite of God. Abraham was the father of the faithful, and the friend of God; yet he was not sinless; he fell into polygamy and lived in it for a long time. As to David, in general a man after God's own heart, you know the great sins into which he fell. Moses was a distinguished saint, and the meekest of men; yet he transVOL. II.

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gressed at the waters of Meribah, so that he was shut out of the good land.

But let us come to the New Testament. The eleven apostles, from their constant attendance on the preaching and miracles of our Lord, and from their daily conversation and intimate intercourse with him, were under great advantages for christian edification. Yet they fell short of perfection. For when the multitudes from the chief priests and elders, came with swords and staves, to take Jesus, his disciples "all forsook him and fled." Paul was the great apostle of the gentiles, was "not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles;" was "a chosen vessel to God, to bear his name before the gentiles and kings, and the children of Israel;" and appears to have done more to spread the gospel in the world, than any of the other apostles; yet according to his own testimony, he came short of perfection. His language is, Phil. 3: 12-15, "Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect; but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended; but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark, for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." This you see is an express confession of his own imperfection. The same thing is manifest from this, that when the apostle, "would do good, evil was present with him ;" and that "he had a law in his members warring against the law of his mind, and bringing him into captivity to the law of sin, which was in his members." This surely is not the description of a perfect man. If it should be said, as it has been, that the apostle is here describing his state before his conversion and not after; I answer, that in the same context, and even in the next words he declares, that he "delighted in the law of God, after the inward man ;" and that "with the mind he served the law of God;" which no unconverted man does; because "the carnal mind is enmity against God, and is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." And if it were otherwise; if an unconverted man could delight in the law of God, after the inward man, he could and would of course delight in God himself, and love him sincerely. And if he could serve the law of God; he would of course serve God himself. And what is there more difficult in any part of religion, or more distinguishing of its truth and genuineness, than the sincere love and service of the law and of God himself? Indeed this is the root of all true religion and virtually constitutes the whole.

Thus we have taken a view of the most eminent saints of scripture, and find none among them all, who profess to have attained to perfection; and concerning most of them, we find evident proofs of imperfection. They manifestly fell short of sinless perfection. But if this be so, it may be said; if sinless perfection be not attainable in this life, what does the apostle mean in our text; when he exhorts the Corinthians to be perfect?

I answer, he doubtless means the same as is intended, when it is said of Job, that "he was perfect and upright, and one that feared God and eschewed evil." By what has been already observed, it appears, that Job was not sinlessly perfect, as he cursed his day. It must mean therefore, that he was a truly good man, a sincere servant of God, a real saint. In the same sense we are told, "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." This means either the same sincerity, to which Job attained, or a perfection of furniture, a being thoroughly furnished to all good works; and the latter clause may be understood as explanatory of the former. In this sense the apostle Paul, after his express renunciation of perfection, as to himself; yet assumes it to himself and some of his fellow christians; as you may see in Phil. 3: 15, "Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded; and if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you;" plainly showing, that the apostle uses the word perfection in a very different sense, when he assumes it to himself, from that in which he had used it, when he renounced it.

Therefore when the apostle in the text exhorts us to be perfect, he exhorts as to the perfection of Job, to the integrity and sincerity of vital christianity; he exhorts us to live up to our profession, to live in character, to be real and exemplary christians.

II. The apostle tells the Corinthians, to be of good comfort. Good comfort naturally follows from the perfection before described. If we be real christians, humble penitents and cordial believers in Christ; if we live in character, and make proper proficiency in our christian course, leading an exemplary life, so as to adorn the doctrine of God our Savior; no doubt we shall enjoy comforts. There is peace and comfort in the very exercise of christian grace. The carnal mind is enmity against God, not subject to his law, neither indeed can be. Therefore so long as we are in our native state of depravity, we are in a state of warfare and opposition to God. The carnal or native mind of man is opposition itself to God; and such a temper of mind is direct