30 / 514
42
INWARD WITNESS
TO
CHRISTIANITY.
[SEAM.
7r:
evils
;
and upon
this
account
they
taught their
disciples
to be unsolicitous
about
the one
or
the other, because
they were
neither
good
nor
evil._
Thus,
while
they
change the
use
of
words,
they would make stocks
and
stones
of
us,
rather
than intelligent and
holy
despisers
of
sensible
things but
the christian
doctrine teaches
us
to contemn both the good and
evil
things
of
sense
and
time,
by
the
expectation
and
prospect
of
the invisible
and eternal
world, where
both the good
and
evil
things
are of
infinitely
greater importance
:
So
our Saviour
preaches, Mat.
vi.
19,
20.
Lay not
up
for
yourselves
treasures
upon
earth,
where moth
and
rust
doth
corrupt,
and
where thieves
break
through
and
steal:
but
lay up
for
yourselves
treasures
in
heaven,
where
neither
moth
nor
rust
doth
corrupt, and
where thieves
do
not break
through
nor
steal.
Pluck out a right
eye,
cut
off
a
right
hand,
on
earth,
lest,
sparing
these,' thy
whole
body
be
cast into
hell,
where
the
gnawing
worm dies
not,
and
the
fire
is
pot quenched;
Mat.
v.
29; 30,
Mark
ix.
43,
&c.
And the
afflictions, as well as
the comforts
of
life,
are contemned and surmounted
by
the
spirit
of
a
christian, upon the
same
noble principles,
Rom.
viii.
18.
He
reckons
that
the sufferings
of
this
present
time
are
not
worthy
to be
compared
with
the.
glory which
shall
be revealed in
us
;
and therefore
he
endures the
cross,
and
despises the shame, following
the
divine example
of
Christ.
Other
doctrines
have
endeavoured
to raise the minds
of
men above
the solicitudes
or cares
of
this life
upon
mean
and
base principles,
unworthy of
human,
nature,
denying the immortality
of
the soul,
and the
life to
come.
Thus
the
Epicureans
would raise the professors'
of
their
religion above the fears
of death,
by
assuring
them,
that'
after death there
was
nothing
;
that
the soul
and
body died together, were blended in the dust,
and
were for ever lost in one grave
:
but,
on
the other hand,'
the
religion
of Christ
gives us
a
view
of
things
beyond
the
grave,
insures
a
resurrection
to
us,
brings life
and
immortality to light
by
the
gospel,
by
Christ Jesus, who
together
with the
Father,
is
originally
possessedof eter-
nal
life,
and thus
leads
us
on to
a
glorious
contempt
of'
this
present
world
of
vanity
:.For
our
light-
giiction,.