SERbt. X7ÍXVII.] THE EIËRISTIANnS TREASURE. IIIß or, 3. for their possession and enjoyment of life eter- nal. But instead of collecting all the treasures and riches of the saints under these three general heads, I shall cli-use rather to make a paraphrase on the whole verse of .my text, and thus discover the interest that a christian basin the persons and things of earth and heaven. Whether Paul, or Apolios, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come, all are yours." ;l. The ministers of the gospel are yours. Is Pahl appointed an apostle separated to the gospel by the immediatecall of Christ it is for your sakes, O ye Corinthians, that he was chosen and called ! Christ had you in his eye, and upon his heart, when he stopped him in the midst of his fury' and persecution; when he overwhelmed him with glory, in the road to Damascus; and from a persecutor made an apostle of"him, and a preacher of the cross ofJesus : For he designed then to send him. to Corinth; to call you from heathenism, and to save your souls. Is Paul a man oflearning and of bright parts? Is he endowedwith profound knowledge- of divine mysteries above his brethren? Is he fit to preach for the couver- sion of the heathen world, and to write the great things of God -for the church, in all future ages! It is for your sakes, O Christians, that he is thus endowed : It is for you, O believers in Great Britain, though you live as it were at the ends of the earth, andin the old age of the world ; it is even for you that he was appointed and in- spired to write his epistles to Rome,, Corinth, -and Ephe- sus, and the rest of the early churches. It. is by his writings, that you havebeen enlightened in the mysteries of Christ, and the wonders of the gospel. Almost seven- teen hundredyears.. ago was he made the apostle.of the ;ensiles, and that partly for your sakes. Paul-himself is yours. Was Apollosan eloquent man, and mighty in the scrip- .tures? It was for you, O primitive Christians, that he had the gift of oratory bestowed ma him. Has-any Ali- nister in our age and place of abode a peculiar. talent of eloquence, bath he a vivacity of fancy; .a strength ofex- pression, a sweet accent, ,and a commanding voice ? It r2,
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