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prescribed to him without exposing himself to the danger either of being wounded by the spikes, or drowned in the waves. This is the first emblem, which our apostle uses here; I run, alluding to the course in general; I do not run uncertainly, in allusion to such combatants as, by passing the boundaries, lost the fruit of their labor.

2. Among other games were those of wrestling and boxing. Address in these combats consisted in not aiming any blow, which did not strike the adversary. He, who had not this address, was said to beat the air, to signify laboring in vain. This is the second allusion of St. Paul, I fight, not as one that beateth the air.

3. The combatants observed a particular regimen, to render themselves more active and vigorous, The time, the quantity, and the nature of their aliments were prescribed, and they punctually complied with the rules. They laid aside every thing likely to enervate them. "Would you obtain a prize in the Olympick game? said a pagan philosopher, a noble design! But consider the preparations, and consequences. You must live by rule, you must eat when you are not hungry, you must abstain from agreeable foods, you must habituate yourself to suffer heat and cold, in one word, you must give yourself up entirely to a physician." By these means the coinbatants acquired such health and strength, that they could bend with the greatest ease such bows, as horses could hardly bend; hence the health of a champion was a common proverb to express a strong hale state. As this regimen was exact, it was painful and trying. It was necessary not only to surmount irregular desires, but all those exercises must be positively practised, which were essential to victorious combatants: It was not sufficient to observe them a little

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while, they must be wrought by long preparations into habits, without which the agility and vigor acquired by repeated labors would be lost witness that famous champion, who, after he had often and gloriously succeeded, was shamefully conquered, because he had neglected the regimen for six months, during which time a domestic affair had obliged him to reside at Athens. This is the third allusion, which our apostle makes in the text, I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection.

Let us observe by the way that these expres sions of our apostle have been abused to absurd though devotional purposes, and, to omit others, it was an abuse of these expressions, which produced the extravagant sect of the Flagellants. All Italy in the thirteenth century was seized with a panic, which ended in the birth of this sect. The next century, the Germans being afflicted with a plague, it filled all Germany; and the folly of Henry III. king of France, joined to that mean complacence, which induces courtiers to go into all the caprices of their masters, introduced it into that kingdom, and into that kingdom it went with so much fury, that Charles, Cardinal of Lorrain, actually killed himself by adhering too closely to its maxims during a rigorous winter.

What a wide field opens here to our meditation, were it necessary to shew the absurdity of such de

votions!

We might shew, that they owe their origin to paganism. Plutarch says, that, in the city of Lacedemon, they were sometimes pursued even to death in honor of Diana. Herodotus speaks to the same purpose concerning the festival of the great goddess in Egypt. In like manner Philostratus speaks of the devotions performed in honor of Scythian

Diana. Thus also Apuleius concerning the priests of the goddess of Syria; and thus authors more credible, I mean the writers of the book of Kings, concerning the priests of Baal.

We might shew the weakness of the arguments, on which practices are founded; as fabulous miracles, and, among many others, a letter brought by an angel from heaven to Jerusalem, which declared that, the blessed virgin having implored pardon for the guilty, God had replied, that their pardon should be granted on condition they whipped. themselves in this manner.

We might produce the weighty reasons, which many of the Roman communion, and among others Gerson, and De Thou, urged against such practices, and the testimonies of our scriptures, which expressly forbid them: but we will content ourselves with observing, that the words of our text have nothing that can serve even for a plausible pretence for these superstitions. We said, St. Paul alluded to the regimen observed by combatants; combatants observed that kind of life, which was most proper to fit them for their profession; in like manner St. Paul observed what fitted him for his. Were it possible to prove, that mortification and macerations were necessary to this purpose, we should not then have a right to determine that the apostle had his eye on such services here. For our parts, we think, he intended all acts of repentance prescribed in scripture, and exemplified by the saints; as silence, retirement, fasting, abstinence from criminal pleasures, and so on.

4. Further, there were persons, who presided over the pagan games. They were called heralds. The name given them in the Greek language is precisely the same which in our language is rendered preacher. Their office was expressed by a

word which signifies to preach.

It consisted in

proclaiming the game, directing the combatants, encouraging the weak, animating the valiant, exposing the prize to public view, and giving it to the victor. This is the fourth allusion of our apostle, lest when I have preached to others. The original word which we have translated preached, is the very word, which is used to describe the office of such as presided at the games; and St. Paul, by using this term, gives us a beautiful idea of the apostleship, and in general of the gospel ministry. What is the office of a minister of the gospel? We publish the race, we describe the good works, which God hath before ordained, that we should walk in them we animate you by often saying, run with patience the race that is set before you: we lift up to public view the prize, and in the name of God we cry, so run that ye may obtain. Happy if you all attend to this voice, and if, while a few are eagerly and constantly running the race set before them, others do not run more eagerly cross the space, like those unhappy people just now mentioned, who were wounded with iron spikes or drowned in the waves.

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5. In fine, The last remark we made on pagan games regards the different destiny of the combatants. The conquered derived no advantage from their pains but the victors were covered with họnors and advantages: they were distinguished in all public assemblies; they were called by the high sounding name of Olympian; they were crowned with great ceremony; statues were erected to their honor; and breaches were made in the walls of cities to admit them with the greater pomp. This is the fifth allusion, which the apostle here makes to the games, lest I should be a cast-away; a cast-away, the heathens applied this word to such

combatants as entered the lists but did not obtain the prize.

Such were the games celebrated through all Greece, and in particular at the city of Philippi, where St. Paul wrote this epistle, and in that of Corinth, to which it is addressed. The believer is a stranger on earth, he sees there a thousand delights of which he doth not partake. The eyes of Paul at Philippi, more properly his ears, (for St. Paul hardly attended public amusements) were struck with the fame and magnificence of these games. The Corinthians were in the same condition. How hard it is to live in a country, and to be excluded from the pleasures of the inhabitants! St. Paul strengthens the Corinthians and himself against these temptations, he rises from sensible to spiritual pleasures, and says, he hath also an area, a race, a crown, a triumph. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly so fight I, not as one that beateth the air. But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection; lest that by any means when I have preached to others, I myself should be a cast-away.

We have explained the terms and allusions of the apostle. His meaning is sufficiently clear. I keep under my body, and so on, does not mean, as some interpreters have it, I halt between hope of salvation, and fear of destruction, an interpretation directly opposite to that assurance, which St. Paul expresses in many parts of his epistles, and particularly in this famous passage, which we have elsewhere explained, I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, Rom. viii. 38. 39. But I keep under my body,

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