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THOUGHTS ON 2 COR. vii. 1.

Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness.

ARCHBISHOP LEIGHTON, in a sermon on these words, says, 'It is the Lord who is the Sanctifier of his people; he purges away their dross, and pours clean water upon them, according to his promises; yet doth he call us to cleanse ourselves. He puts new life into us, and causes us to act, and excites us to it, and calls it up to act in the progress of sanctification. Men are strangely inclined to a perverse construction of things. Tell them that we are to act, and work, and give diligence, then they would fancy a doing in their own strength, and be their own saviors. Again: tell them that God works all our works in us, and for us, then they would take the case for doing nothing. If they cannot have the praise of doing all, they will sit still with folded hands, and use no diligence at all: but this is the corrupt logic of the flesh; its base sophistry. The apostle reasons just contrary: "It is God that worketh in us, both to will and to do;" 'therefore,' would a carnal heart say, 'We need not work, or, at least, may work very carelessly;' but he infers, "Therefore, let us work out our salvation with fear and trembling;" i. e. in the more humble obedience to God, and dependence on him, not obstructing the influence of his grace, and, by sloth and negligence, provoking him to withdraw or abate it. Certainly, many in whom there is the truth of grace, are kept very low in the growth of it, by their own slothfulness, sitting still, and not bestirring themselves, and exercising the prop

er actions, of that spiritual life by which it is entertain

ed and advanced."

ILLUSTRATION OF JONAH iv. 8.

And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God frepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, It is better for me to die than to live.

THIS account of the extreme heat of the climate of Nineveh, is well illustrated in the ingenious Mr. Campbell's Travels, page 130.

'It was early in the evening when the pointed turrets of the city of Mosul opened on our view, and communicated no very unpleasant sensations to my heart. I found myself on Scripture-ground, and could not help feeling some portion of the pride of the traveller, when I reflected that I was now within sight of Nineveh, renowned in holy writ. The city is seated in a very barren, sandy plain, on the banks of the river Tigris. The external view of the town is much in its favor, being encompassed with stately walls of solid stone, over which the steeples or minarets of other lofty buildings are seen with increased effect. Here I first saw a caravan encamped, halting on its march from the Gulf of Persia to Armenia; and it certainly made a most noble appearance, filling the eye with a multitude of grand objects, all uniting to form one magnificent whole. But,

though the outside be so beautiful, the inside is most detestable. The heat is so intense, that, in the middle of the day, there is no stirring out; and, even at night, the walls of the houses are so heated by the day's sun, as to produce a disagreeable heat to the body, at a foot or even a yard distance from them. However, I entered it with spirits, because I considered it as the last stage of the worst part of my pilgrimage; but, alas! I was disappointed in my expectation, for the Tigris was dried up by the intensity of the heat, and an unusual long drought, and I was obliged to take the matter with a patient shrug, and accommodate my mind to a journey on horseback, which, though not so long as that I had already made, was likely to be equally dangerous; and which, therefore, demanded a full exertion of fortitude and resolution.

It was still the hot season of the year, and we were to travel through that country, over which the horrid wind I have before mentioned sweeps its consuming blasts. It is called, by the Turks, Samiel, is mentioned, by holy Job, under the name of the east wind, and extends its ravages all the way from the extreme end of the Gulf of Cambaya up to Mosul; it carries along with it flakes of fire like threads of silk; instantly strikes dead those that breathe it, and consumes them inwardly to ashes, the flesh soon becomes black as a coal, and dropping off the bones. Philosophers consider it as a kind of electric fire, proceeding from the sulphureous or nitrous exhalations, which are kindled by the agitation of the winds. The only possible means of escape from its fatal effects, is to fall flat on the ground, and thereby to prevent the drawing it in: to do this, how

ever, it it necessary first to see it, which is not always practicable.

"The ordinary heat of the climate is extremely dangerous to the blood and lungs, and even to the skin, which blisters and peels from the flesh, affecting the eyes so much, that travellers are obliged to wear a transparent covering over them, to keep off the heat.'

No. III.

If they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry? Luke xxiii. 31.

THIS is, very obviously, a proverbial expression; and agreeably to this idea, we find that the Jews frequently compared a good man to a green tree, and a bad man to a dead one; so that the meaning of the proverb is, 'If an innocent person thus suffer, what will become of the wicked? or of those who are as fit for destruction as dry wood is for the fire?" Very similar to which are many passages in Scripture, divested of that proverbial term which Christ here uses. For example, Prov. xi. 31, 'Behold, the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth; much more the wicked and the sinner.' Jer. xxv. 29; Ezek. ix. 6, &c.; and, to mention no more, in 1 Pet. iv. 17, 18, we read, 'For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God; and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the Gospel of God? and if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?' To the above may be added Theophy lact's comment: 'If the Romans have done such things

towards me; a green tree, fruitful, and always flourishing, ever living through my divinity, and nourishing all by the fruits of my doctrine, what will they do to you, the people, a dry tree, void of all vital righteousness, and bringing forth no fruit? For, if ye possessed any vital energy of good, ye might, perhaps, be thought worthy of being spared; but now, as dry wood, ye will be cast into the fire and burned.' See Psal. i. 3. Jude, ver. 13. This mode of expression is not unusual with the Pagan writers. Apuleius speaks of one Emilianus thus: Tu vero, et id genus hominum qualis tu es, tanti revera estis quantum habetis; ut arbor infæcunda et infelix, &c. tanti est in precio, quanti lignum ejus in trunco. Pricæus observes, that this proverbial saying. of Christ, is of the same form with that of Catullus: Quid facient crines, cum ferro talia cedunt? So also Seneca: Si illi, qui virtutem sequuntur, avari, libidinosi, ambitiosique sunt, quid vos estis, quibus ipsum nomen virtutis odio est? Had the Greek been dɛvdgov, which is the proper word for a tree, the reading would have been intricate; but as we find uλov, wood, the difficulty immediately vanishes.

Can we read this solemn passage, and not admire that love of Christ which induced him to submit to such treatment from men for our sakes, and not inquire, what sort of trees we are! whether trees of righteousness of the Lord's own planting in his vineyard, bringing forth fruit to his glory? or whether any of us may be mere dead wood, living in sin, and fit only to become fuel for the fire of Divine wrath?

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