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ward in the flesh." A better covenant was now introduced, when God was to "write his laws on their hearts;" and they should serve him, not according to the letter, but the spirit. Therefore, as he writes to the Romans, "The kingdom of God" does not rest on outward observances, " is not meat and drink, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost:"9 so now he writes to the Corinthians, “Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing: but the keeping of the commandments of God." This was the real purpose of the law: which is also the purpose of the Gospel: designed as it was of God for the state of the world as it is, with all its circumstances, diversities, and conditions.

The same principle which applied to those who had been originally bound under the law of Moses, applied no less to another question on which the apostle had been consulted,-the case of servants, or slaves, when converted to the faith of Christ. The Gospel, he proceeds to say, leaves men's outward circumstances as it finds them. It requires no change, but in the heart.

20. Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called.

21. Art thou called being a servant? care not for it: but if thou mayest be made free, use it rather.

22. For he that is called in the Lord, being a servant, is the Lord's freeman: likewise also he that is called being free, is Christ's servant.

23. Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men.

7 Rom. ii. 28.

8 Ileb. viii. 10.

9 Rom. xiv. 17.

24. Brethren, let every man, wherein he is called, therein abide with God.

He thus warns servants (i. e. slaves) against any false impression they might naturally receive concerning the liberty of the Gospel. They were made free with the liberty wherewith Christ had freed them. But this freedom was not from the yoke of an earthly master, but of Satan. And under the Gospel, the bondman and the freeman were alike. Each was free, and each was bound. Each was bound to the service of Christ. Each was free from that most grievous bondage, the bondage of sin: under which many suffer, who are lords over a multitude. "For whosoever committeth sin, is the servant of sin:" but he whom Christ has "made free, is free indeed," whether in the condition of Joseph as a slave, or of Joseph as a governor over all the land of Egypt.

They must not, therefore, be over anxious about earthly conditions. Freedom is better than slavery: and if thou mayest be made free, use it rather: but the thing of real consequence was not to be the servants of men, of wicked men, in obeying their call, and following their evil practices. Ye are bought with a price. See then your duty. Be not ye the servants of men. And this must be your answer when sinners entice you. For there are some who "promise liberty, but are themselves the servants of corruption." And if any such should "think it 2 John viii. 34-36.

1 Gal. v. 1.

3 Chrysostom singularly refers this to slavery; and would explain it, use slavery rather.

4 2 Pet. ii. 19.

strange, that ye run not with them into the same excess of riot," ye are bought with a price to this very end," that ye no longer should live the rest of time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God.":

your

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But though there was no change in the civil or worldly condition, the slave was to be still a slave, and the freeman still a freeman: there was another and a great change required; that a man carry on that worldly business with God, which he had before carried on without God. Let every man, wherein he is called, therein abide with God. Art thou called being a freeman? Remember, that however exempt a man may be from the yoke of his fellow creatures, he must still "give account of himself to God." Art thou called being a servant? "Be not slothful in business, but fervent in spirit, serving the Lord :"7 knowing that whatsoever good thing a man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free."" Is any man called being circumcised? Let him remember, that "except his righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, he shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven." Is any called in uncircumcision? Let him 9 be "under the law to Christ;" for there is a “circumcision of the heart," which is of perpetual obligation, which "through the Spirit mortifies the deeds of the body." For "we must all stand before the judgment seat of God," where there will be "neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision,

5 1 Pet. iv. 2-4.

8 Eph. vi. 8.

2 Rom. viii. 13.

6 Rom. xiv. 12.

9 Matt. v. 20.

7 Rom. xii. 11.

1 Ch. ix. 21.

bond nor free:" where national privileges and outward signs will be nothing; but the keeping of the commandments of God will alone avail. "He that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness," shall "abide in the tabernacle of the Lord, and shall dwell in his holy hill" for ever. 3

LECTURE LXV.

FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS REGARDING MARRIAGE.

1 COR. vii. 25—40.

25. Now concerning virgins, I have no commandment of the Lord: yet I give my judgment, as one that hath obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful.

26. I suppose therefore that this is good for the present distress, I say, that it is good for a man so to be.

27. Art thou bound unto a wife? seek not to be loosed. Art thou loosed from a wife? seek not a wife.

28. But and if thou marry, thou hast not sinned; and if a virgin marry, she hath not sinned. Nevertheless such shall have trouble in the flesh: but I spare you.

In the circumstances of the church in those days, it might be well for a man to be disencumbered of all that might entangle him, and make duty difficult. When any one was threatened with imprisonment, with loss of life and property, as in the seasons of persecution all were liable to be threatened; we know how the Col. iii. 11. 3 Ps. xv. 1, 2.

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thoughts of a wife deserted, or a family left destitute, would harass the mind, and endanger faithfulness. Among other hardships suffered by the Hebrew disciples, St. Paul says of them, "Ye took joyfully the spoiling of your goods."1 And among the evils imposed by Paul himself upon some of the earlier converts, men and women were haled, and cast into prison." 2 All these trials fell more heavily upon families, than upon those who were free from domestic ties. Therefore the apostle warns the married, Such shall have trouble in the flesh. It is not, because he thinks the single state more holy or more pleasing to God than the state of marriage, that he judges it better for one who is loosed from a wife not to seek a wife. It is not, because marriage is not honourable in all. To affirm the contrary, would be to cast reproach upon the ordinance of God. as our Lord said concerning the calamities which were to befal Jerusalem, "Woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days;" so the apostle, considering the present distress, looking at the trials and persecutions to which the Christians were exposed, thought those happiest who were free from the anxiety which adds fresh bitterness to trials and persecutions. They might come to be so careful and troubled about the many things which affect the interests of a wife and family, as to forget that "one thing is needful."

But,

29. But this I say, brethren, the time is short: it remaineth, that both they that have wives be as though they had

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