"and them which suffer adversity:" all that is adverse or grievous to us, as sickness, pain, losses, want, and poverty, reproaches, contempt, scorn, turning out of secular employments, spoiling of goods, stigmatizing, taking away of children, banishment, every thing which we may undergo in and for our profession.

$5. The motive added to the diligent discharge of the duty enjoined, is, That "we ourselves are also in the body." Were you indeed, as if the apostle had said, once freed from the body, none of these things could reach you; but whereas you are in the same state of natural life with them, equally exposed to all the sufferings which they undergo, be they of what kind they will, and have no assurance that you shall always be exempted from them, this ought to be a motive to you to be mindful of them in their present sufferings. This, I perceive, is the sense of the place. §6. And we may observe from hence;

1. Bonds and imprisonment for the truth were consecrated to God, and made honorable, by the bonds and imprisonment of Christ himself; and commended to the church in all ages by those of the apostle and primitive witnesses of the truth.

2. It is better, more safe and honorable, to be in bonds for Christ, than to be at liberty with a brutish, raging, persecuting world.

3. Whilst God is pleased to give grace and courage to some to suffer for the gospel unto bonds, and to others to perform the duty here recommended towards them, the church will be no loser by suffering.

4. When some are tried as to their constancy in bonds, others are tried as to their sincerity in the discharge of the duties required of them on such occasions. And,

5. Usually more fail in the neglect of their duty towards sufferers, and so fall from their profession, than do so fail under their sufferings.

§7. 1. Although there are peculiar duties required of us towards those who suffer for the gospel in bonds, yet we are not hereon discharged from the same kind of duties towards those who suffer in lesser degrees. And,

2. Not only those who are in bonds for the gospel, or suffer in an high degree in their persons, are under the special care of Christ, but those also who suffer on the same account in any other kind whatever, though the world may take little notice of them; and therefore they are all commended to our special remembrance.

3. Professors of the gospel are exempted from no sorts of adversity, from nothing that is evil and grievous to the outward man in this world; and therefore we ought not to think it strange when we fall into them.

4. That we have no security of freedom from any sort of suffering for the gospel whilst we are in the body, or during the continuance of our natural lives. Heaven is the only state of everlasting rest. Whilst we have our bodily eyes, all tears will not be wiped from them.

5. We are not only exposed to afflictions during this life, but we ought to live in the continual expectation of them, so long as there are any in the world who actually suffer for the gospel. Not to expect our share in trouble and persecution, is a sinful security proceeding from very corrupt principles of mind.

6. A sense of our being continually obnoxious to sufferings, no less than those who actually suffer, ought to incline our minds to a diligent consideration of them in their sufferings, so as to discharge all duties of love and helpfulness towards them.

7. Unless we do so, we can have no evidence of our present interest in the same mystical body with them, nor just expectation of any compassion or relief from others, when we ourselves are called to sufferings. What a severe self-reflection must we charge ourselves with for want of due compassion for those who were in that condition before us!

VERSE 4.

Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled; but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.

$1. Occasion and design of the words. $2. Exposition. Marriage is honorable in all. $s. And the bed undefiled. 4. The dreadful doom of whoremongers and adulterers. $5, 6. Observations.

§1. THIS declaration refers, undoubtedly, to some principles and practices that were then current in the world. And these were, that marriage was at least burthensome, and a kind of bondage to some men, especially an hinderance to them that were contemplative, and that fornication was at least a thing indifferent, which men might allow themselves in, though adultery were to be condemned. In opposition to these cursed principles and practices, the apostle, designing to commend and enjoin chastity to all professors of the gospel, declares, on the one side, the honorable state of matrimony from divine institution; and on the other, the wickedness of that lasciviousness wherein they allowed themselves, with the certainty of divine vengeance which would befall them who continued in it, There was just reason, therefore, why the apostle should insinuate the prescription of the duty intended by a declaration of the honor of that state which God had appointed for the preservation of chastity. Seg 1 Tim. iv, 3.

§2. The preposition (ev) when applied to persons, is constantly used in the New Testament for (inter) among; Beza, (inter quosvis) among all, that is, all sorts of persons. The apostle doth not assert that marriage was a thing in good reputation among all men, Jews and Gentiles, but that it is honorable in all sorts of persons, who enter into it according to the law of God and righteous laws among men. For by a defect herein it may be rendered highly dishonorable. Again; it must be a marriage of two individual persons, and no more, according to the law of creation and divine institution, (for polygamy was never honorable;) it must not be of persons within the degrees of consanguinity laid under divine prohibition, (incest being no less dishonorable than adultery;) there must also be a concurrence of all necessary circumstances both of mind and body in the married; such as have power over their own persons, freedom in choice or consent, personal mutual yow or contract, natural meetness for the duties of marriage, and the like. Wherefore that marriage is honorable, which, on the ground and warranty of divine institution, is "a lawful conjunction of one man and one woman by their just and full consent, into an indissoluble union, (whereby they become one flesh) for the procuration of children, and mutual assistance in all things divine and human.”, I shall only add, that as the legitimate and orderly continuation of the human race depends hereon, so whatever is of virtue, honor, comeliness, or order amongst men; whatever is praiseworthy and useful in all societies economical, ecclesiastical or political, proceeds from the principle here asserted. All to whom children are dear, relations useful, inheritances valuable, and God's approbation is preferred to sordid un

cleanness and eternal ruin, ought to account this state honorable.

Nor is there any sort, order or degree of men, by reason of any calling, work, or employment, but that marriage is an honorable state to them. This is the plain sense of the words. However, if the phrase (Ev Tari) should be rendered "in all things," or every manner of way, the popish notion of celibacy can never escape the force of this divine testimony against it. For, is it lawful for them to esteem and call that so vile, as to be unmeet for some order or sort of men among them, which God hath declared to be honorable "in all things" "or every manner of way?" I shall only say, that their impiety in imposing the necessity of single life on all their ecclesiastics, wherein they have usurped divine authority over the consciences of men, hath been openly pursued by divine vengeance, in giving it up to be an occasion of multiplying such horrid uncleannesses as have been scandalous to the Christian religion, and ruinous to the souls of millions.

§3. To the state of marriage, the apostle adds the consideration of the duties of it in that expression, (017n apravios) the bed undefiled. And two things are here intended: the honorable state of marriage as opposed to the defiled bed of whoremongers and adulterers; and the preservation of marriage duties within their due bounds, 1 Thes. iv, 3-5; 1 Cor. vii, 2—5; for, in that respect, there may be many pollutions even of the marriage bed.

From this state and use of marriage the means appointed of God for the preservation of the purity and chastity of our persons the aggravation of the contrary sin is enormous. Who can express the detestable wickedness of forsaking those divine appointments, in contempt of the authority and wisdom of God, by