is reason to expect this, when Christ is their Master, and the
instructor provided for them is the Holy Spirit — the things
they are required to despise too are " mighty things^ What
have they then in prospect — else why despise these 1 The
Christian profession is one of great expectation — it leads
those who adopt it to approve the discipline they undergo —
they consider it a right course of discipline— they are pre-
paring to become kings, and kings much more glorious than
any earthly kings can be. There is no place here to display
the honours designed for them — their weakness, too, would
sink under them now. We have nothing here rmtJunU us
that indicates our high destination; but the kingdom is
within us ; external power and riches are never promised to
the children of God, and are seldom their lot. They are
kings, as being exempted from the power that enslaves the
rest of mankind — delivered from it enough in some things,
though "they feel it more in other respects than men in
general — there are really no freemen but the children of
God, though here they are not what they will be. Freedom
consists in a perfect acquiescence in, and agreement with, and
approval of, the dominion under which we live, and it is thus
with the saints. They have perfect exemption even h&re
from those things which perplex and distress the human race
in general, and they voill be infinitely exempted from them.
