oppose the great work of God for the salvation of man. Q. What are we made at our baptism? A. Soldiers of Jesus Christ, the Captain of our salvation. Q. What is the Christian profession called? A. The fight of faith, which alone can give us the victory.. Q. Is man able by his own strength to oppose his spiritual adversaries ? A. He knows nothing about them till God warns him of his danger. Q. How are we to stand against these enemies? A. As soldiers do in war. Q, What are the arms of the spiritual warfare? A. The helmet of salvation, the shield of faith, and the sword of the spirit. Q. What temper of mind are we to preserve? A. We are to be sober, and vigilant, and fearful of surprise. Q. Which are the three great enemies of man? A. The Devil, the World, and the Flesh. Q. How are you to defend yourself against the Devil ? A. To resist him, stedfast in the faith. A. Never to take its word, or admit of its authority. Q. How against the Flesh? A. By mortification, abstinence, and self denial." Q, What is the great object to a Christian soldier?: A. The hope of a victory over sin and death, and of obtaining the kingdom of Heaven, the prize of our calling. Q. Where may we see and learn the nature of the Christian warfare? A. From the wars of the Hebrews in the Scripture. Q. From what events in particular? A. From the overthrow of Pharaoh and bis host in the sea... Q. From what others? A. From the fall of Jericho, the de feat of the Midianites, the death of Sisera, &c. Q. What do you infer from these things? A. That God still fighteth for us, and that that all his enemies shall perish as these did. Q. When the king of Moab could not prevail against the Israelites, neither by force, nor enchantments, what was done? A. They were destroyed by the allurements of bad company. Q. What will happen when Jesus Christ shall triumph over all his enemies? A. He shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the sound of the last trumpet. Q. How was this foreshewn? A. Jericho, for a pattern to us, fell before Joshua with the same circum. stances. THE TEXTS. Rev. xii. 7. There was war in hea ven. 2 Tim. ii. 3. Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier, of Jesus Christ. No man that warreih, entangleth himself with the affairs of this life. ་ Eph. vi. 15. Take unto you the whole armur of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day. 2 Cor. x, 3. We do not war after the flesh: for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God, to the pulling down of strong hoids. Joshua x. 24. Put your feet upon the nocks of these kings. Rom. xvi. 20. The God of peace shull bruise Satan under your feet shortly. 1 Thess. iv. 16. The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God. V. THE CHAPTER OF THE THE Potter naketh vessels out of clay, and fashioneth them as he pleases. Some are great, and some are small: some are made to honour, and gome some to dishonour. All things made of earth are frail, and easily broken: and though they are finely figured, and painted and gilded, they are but earth still, and a fall destroys them. I come from the hands of my Maker, as clay from the hands of the Potter, and am called a vessel because I have a capacity to hold either good or evil. In the language of the Scripture a person and a vessel are the same thing. Paul is called a chosen vessel: and he exhorts the husband to give honour to the wife as to the weaker vessel. The same power which formed me hath wisely given unto me my station and my use in this life. As the clay doth not reply against the will of the Potter, so must not I find fault with the state of life to which God hath called me, but conform myself to it, and be useful in my place. I shall still be happy and respectable, if I do my duty in an inferior station, and fulfil the will of God, which is the great end of man's being in this world, and his greatest honour in every state of life. O how yain is it for man to resist God, and exalt himself, |