\ O C ^-.
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A
^^i
MISCELI.ANIES' "^ ^^
.^
FROM THE
COLLECTED WEIIINGS OF
EDWARD IRVING
J^^
ALEXANDER STRAHAN, PUBLISHER
148 STRAND, I.ONDOX
1865
CONTENTS.
The first and second columns of this Table of Contents refer to the volume and page
of " The ColUcted Writings of Edward Ircing," from whence these Miscellanies
are taken.
VOL.
PAGE
iv.
167.
iv.
504.
i.
70.
i.
322.
i.
104.
i.
493.
iv.
1.
i.
53.
i.
n40,-|
\209.j
V.
463.
V.
92.
V.
296.
iii.
39.
iii.
142.
i.
359.
ii.
120.
ii
127.
ii.
106.
ii.
107.
iv.
114.
iv.
482.
i.
261.
iv.
578.
iii.
. 385.
qgtljicaL
PAGE
Morality Borrows of Religion • • • • 3
Theology of Nature l*^
Analogy between Natural and Spiritual Processes . . 18
Natui-e Worship : its Falseness 23
Intellectual Atheism 31
Necessity of Forms 3o
Origin of Idolatry 38
Superiority of Divine to Hiunan Knowledge . . . . 52
Man's Limited Knowledge ^4
Christ in Creation : The Church the First-Fruits . . 57
Christ the Foreshadowed of Nature and Spirit . . . . CO
Life and Death <52
Why the Natural Mind conceives God as Human . . 64
Why Heaven has always been placed in tlie Sky . . 67
Reverence and Irreverence 71
Envy ''■4
Fruits of Enry 78
Pride »^
Pharisaism 81
Misconceptions as to Change of Nature 82
Natural Will and Regenerate Will 85
An Honest Heart 88
The Sabbath and its Sanctions 91
True Idea of Education 95
vi Contents.
»)OCiaL
PAGB
Social Cares 109
Marriage 113
Cliildrcn : Sacred Charges : Parents Mediums of Grace
to Children 116
Duty to Parents 121
The Orphan's Case 124
A Distinction between Men and Women 128
Antidote to Selfishness 131
The Four Offices of Friendship 133
Prosperous Preachers 140
Mr. Irving and his Glasgow Hearers 142
ATrueCliurch 145
Social Eeligion 148
Eecluseiiess of Soul 153
Inefficiency of Education piu'ely Private 156
Uses of Education 161
Education most needed by the Poor 163
3DoctrinaU
Unchangeableness of God 169
Kelations of the Persons of the Trinity 171
The Fatherhood of God 175
Christ's Relation to the Godhead 180
The Relation of Father and Son 183
The Doctrine of the Incarnation 187
The True Idea of the Incarnation 190
Christ the Embodiment of God"s Holiness 192
The Body and Soul of Christ 196
Effects of Christ's Incarnation 200
Atonement or At-one-ment 203
Christ's Life the Realization of the Spirit's Work . . 207
Christ in the Separate State 210
Adam's Property in the Promised Seed 212
VOL.
PAGE
i.
204.
iii.
261.
i.
351.1
iii.
(232,
1240.)
iii.
250.
iii.
277.
ii.
166.
ii.
132.
iii.
297.
iii.
350.
iii.
353.
iii.
373.
iii.
313.
iii.
332.
iii.
417.
iii.
414.
iii.
405.
V.
75.
V.
410.
iv.
245.
V.
437.
iv.
/236,\
\2.59./
V.
564.
V.
12/
V.
/ 25,\
I 33.)
v.
116.
V.
146.
V.
165.
V.
235.
V.
303.
iv.
275.
vot.,
, PAGE
V.
338.
V.
423.
V.
399.
ii.
220.
V.
209.
ii.
535.
ii.
/330,\
l4G3./
ii.
415.
ii.
\387./
ii.
483.
V.
180.
iii.
53.
iv.
542.
V.
/381,)
\315.|
V.
495.
V.
481.
Contents. vii
PAGE
Man punished in liis Nature 213
Clirist's Mediatorhood 215
Christ the Eedeemer of Creation 220
The Temptation 225
How the Bunds of the Law are removed 227
The Meaning of the Sacrament 231
Baptism not a mere Eite 234
Baptismal Regeneration 240
Baptized Children Members of the Church . . . . 243
The Lord's Supper 249
Particular Election 255
The Idea of Favomitism false 257
Love and Sorrow 2G3
Grace 267
Interpretation of Tongues 270
Of Prophecy 274
^cdcticaL
527. Ordination Charge to the Minister of the Scots
Cliurch, London Wall, March 15, 1827 .. .. 281
Diificulties of a IMoral Life 295
Life merely the Means to Spiritual Life 303
The Perversion and Use of Suffering 304
Blessed and Unblessed Changes 306
Practical Fruits of simple Honesty 310
What alone preserves the Church 311
Use of Money 314
Eeligion the Root of all fruitful Labour- 317
What may be Expected from Preaching 321
Sunshine Clmstians 324
The Search for Novelty 326
Deference to Opinion 328
Spiritual Suicide 330
Idolatry of Sense and its Elfects 332
Idolatry of Intellectual Life 340
v.
139.
i.
267.
ii.
178.
i.
45.
i.
303.
ii.
408.
V.
394.
L
342.
i.
98.
i.
168.
i.
178.
i.
186.
ii.
509.
V.
35.
iv.
101.
viii Contc7its.
31.. PArjE
r. 19.
^f. 67.
V. 82.
V. 94.
i. 117.
i. 46.
i. 244.
i. 140.
V. 455.
i. 1.
i. 22.
( 20,
ii. 87,
(ill.
V. 485.
V. 492.
i. 43.
i. 372.
i. 155.
PAGK
Idolatrj' of the Imagination 348
Idolatvy of Preachinp; 353
Idolatry of tlie Bible 358
Idolatry of the Sacraments 361
Sectarianism our Bane 3fi4
True Charity 369
Conflict not continuous 375
Christian Prudence 376
Evils of Prosperity to C'aristians 378
Claims of God's Word 380
Study of the Bible a Privilege 390
True Christian Prayer 396
Faith and Works 401
Discipline as related to Doctrine 405
Topics of Terror 411
The State and Religion 412
Grace runs through all 414
ll^i^toncal anti propljeticaU
285. The Visible and the Invisible Church 419
500. What tlie Protestant Church has neglected .. .. 420
9^(£(0(onarp»
i. 447. A Contrast : Kings' Ambassadors and Heaven's Jlis-
sionaries . . . . 427
i. 449. The Apostolical Missionary . . 43t)
»>cn'pture ^ortrait^,
1. 412. David 447
"•{41'} John the Baptist 455
CriticaL
i. 384. The Psalms of David 469
ETHICAL
' tw
MORALITY BOEROWS OF RELIGION.
AMOEALITY without a theology is nothing, and 1
question whether it exists independent of a theohogj
any further than law, or custom, or convenience sustains it.
Kow it is a small part of morality that established law sus-
taineth — only that extreme part which is conversant with
another's vested interests. Custom wardeth an inward circle
of morality, but still it is confined to that which is visible.
All that passes within the breast iinseen, or in secret places
unknown, or with confederates undivulged, — all ideas and
schemes of things, all those various emotions which the
varying countenance expresseth, and all more inward
which is hidden behind the scenes, — remain unwarded
either by law or custom. Now in this is the great stress
and strain of Christian morality. The apostle goes so far
as to say that the law was not made for a godly man, and
that we are not under the law ; which meaneth that we
never come near to its brink, but carry on our life for
removed from the things which it prohibits; — unless,
indeed, the law arm against us, when persecution begins ;
and then, according to the old Covenanting adage, where
persecution begins allegiance ends. That is, we owe no
further obedience, but must patiently take the detriment,
B 2
4 Ethical.
if by no means we can defend ourselves fron? its coming.
To secure all this — which, properly speaking, is the only
province of morality — there must be a theology, a divine
affection generated ; otherwise it will be trampled under
the foot of man.
There is a maxim indeed current in the world, that
virtue is its own reward ; but it seems to live only in the
mouths of men. And I dare say I might appeal it to any
one here present, whether they have found the present
rewards of virtue able to sustain them in virtuous courses.
I allow that what of virtue the world approves may,
through fear of the world's reproach, find favour in our
sight. But when the world disapproves, or when the
world hath no consciousness, as is the case in Christian
life, which is hid with Christ in God, and which the world
knoweth not, I question whether this discovery was ever
made by any one till he had tasted deeply and bitterly of
self-indulgence, and fled into the arms of self-denial, as a
refuge from disease or from the grave. Howbeit the cases
are so few, if any, in which this principle is found sufficient
for the conservation of conscience, that I stay not now at
present from the question of the world's general necessity.
When morals do not borrow of religion, they amount to
no more than a code of laws, without any authority to
enforce them except custom, the sense of duty, and the eye
of man ; and without any rewards or punishments, to give
them tlie true force of laws, except it be that reward which
virtue is to itself, a reward which, however it be talked of,
hath been found in all ages and in all countries, and I may
almost say in all men, to be quite imequal to the task of
keeping the ways of life parallel with the rules of con-
science. But when moralists borrow of religion, as in all
countries they do less or more, and in these Christian coun-
tries they have especially done, though without acknow-
ledgment, then the question changes its form, and becomes
more of a theological nature than it hath hitherto been.
We are willing to allow them all the advantage of that
science which hath lately sprung into exititence, under the
Morality Borroivs of Religion. 5
name of natural religion, though it be gathered from a
thousand lights which revelation hath kindled ; and, yield-
ing them this, we are still to point out their feebleness
in comparison with one who goes by faith in the revela-
tion of God.
The true nature of obedience to laws is little understood
amongst us, though we be the most wisely governed of
nations, and the most jealous of our national liberty ; for it
is thought to depend chiefly upon the punishment which
sanctions the law, whereas it rests upon the spirit of loyalty
and fealty that is begotten in the people. Once let a people
be heartily in love with the institutions of their native
soil, — once let them be growing unto greatness, and
flourishing under the olive reign of happiness, their laws
are obeyed almost instinctively, through love and affection
to the constitution of society. Kow, let this same people
become discontented in their breasts, dissatisfied with their
condition, alienated from the ruling powers, and unprosper-
ous in their vocations, and it comes to pass that those laws
which were wont seldom to be called upon, are not able to
constrain the turbulent mind, but are violated at every
risk. The fitness of the laws, therefore, to the condition of
the people, their adjustment to equity, their encouragement
of benevolence, and their general tendency to happiness,
and their general coincidence with the good principles
already implanted in the hearts of the people, this,— not
the severity of their sanctions, or the strictness with which
they are enforced— constitutes their strength, and gains for
for them stability and acquiescence. There is a noble
nature in man that rejects fear and force, but yields softly
to rectitude and justice. Therefore, of all governors, it
ought to be the chief aim to keep the people in good heart
and contentment with their condition ; to which end they
ought to act honestly and uprightly, that by the natural
love of good order and justice may be kept up that spirit of
patriotism and loyalty which is the surest safeguard of the
laws.
If I were going nicely into the question of reason's theo-
6 Ethical.
logy, I should side with Hume, whom I regard as the best
advocate of revelation this country has produced, inasmuch
as he hath swept away the whole of that structiire falsely
called natural religion, and shewn what a bare and com-
fortless view reason, justly exercised, must take of God's
character and providence, proving what a nonentity natural
theology is, and how to any theology revelation is absolutely
necessary. But, granting the principles of their natural re-
ligion, that there is one God who made the heavens and the
earth, and the soul of man, who ruleth over all things after
the pleasure of His will — what, I ask, is there here to produce
love or obedience in the mind ? Power doth not beget obe-
bience, but rather resistance in the mind. Dominion beget-
teth fear not love, — awe, and perhaps timorous slavery, but
never hearty and willing obedience. We know that the
Emperor of China is absolute in his dominions, but we love
him not the more, and have no disposition to obey him
further than he can reach us. Before the mind will yield
its aflections to a mind more powerful than itself, whether
that power lie in wisdom, rule, or physical strength, it
must know on what principles and for what ends it putteth
forth its superior power ; if these ends be congenial to jus-
tice and happiness, we naturally yield assent and admira-
tion. And when the happiness is produced upon ourselves,
we yield likewise gratitude and aifection. Here, therefore,
is a previous question, to which the moralist must gird him-
self, before we will yield him one tittle of advantage from
the knowledge of God, the Creator and the Governor of the
Universe — the question how this power and government
are put forth. Now, if he address himself to this previous
question which we have moved, he will find himself at a
stand. For tliis world hath such mixed fates, and the men
in it such various fortunes that nothing regular can be
brought out of its confusion. And though I allow there is
a tendency of things to run right, they are so marred by
natural and moral accidents, by storms and revolutions, by
contentions and wars, that it is beyond the power of any
skill to reduce them into justice, or draw from them a
Morality Borrows of Religion. 7
character of mercy. Hume, "who bad no favour for our
cause, is the advocate of the iufereuce in later times ; in
ancient times it was the conclusion of every school of philo-
sophers. To what, therefore, serveth this God of reason,
out of whose government reason can bring no principles of
good order ? Not certainly to generate such an attachment
as should bind upon the heart the rules of morals. And I
fearlessly assert that there never is any such attachment
upon the heart by this natural theology; on the other
hand, I have found it removing God far out of sight, — sub-
liming Ilim, as the Epicureans did, far out of our sphere, —
multiplying His avocations among the various boundless
orbs of space, so as to leave Him neither time nor care for
our puny aiitvirs — and, in truth, making their theology work
against their morality, rather than work in its behalf.
These followers of nature, have, moreover — I know not
whence derived, except in a crude manner from Scriiiture —
this notion prevalent in their schools, that God, if He keep
account, or is to hold a reckoning of human affairs, is very
good and merciful ; and as Pie hath constituted us weak,
will judge us as such, and allow for all our frailties ; which
latter part of their theology fights directly against their
morality, destroys it, and opens the door of all indulgences.
They had better leave their theology alone, therefore, for it
helps them not, but fights against them with both its hands.
"What, then, have they left ? A morality without a
theology, a code of laws without any power from whence
they emanate, without any tribunal to look after their
obedience. And when did ever such an unauthorised,
misanctioned code find power to constrain unto its service
the will and interests of men? Never since the world
began. It will be obeyed while it suits our inclinations,
or while custom sanctions it, or while interest is promoted
by it, or the good graces of those we esteem secured. But
power hath it none to penetrate into the heart, and divide
the empire of the affections, and give light to the eye of
the conscience, and command the reins of the will, and
then the helm of conduct. To take such a sovereign seat
8 Ethical.
in tlie inward man, is the prerogative of something which
mxTst he otherwise sustained than any code of laws this
world hath seen — sustained by gentle power and influence,
like that which sustaineth the law of families, or the law
of friendship, or the law of tender affection.
And if we are not able to shew some such tender and
powerful ties wherewithal to bind the Christian code
upon the heart, we allow it likewise to be utterly ineffec-
tual for the end of governing the inward parts.
The Christian religion is more after the nature of an
affection than of a command. It hath a command, but that
command dependeth on love, not on sovereignty. It ab-
horreth servitude, and favoureth hearty consent. Hence
the apostle throws off with indignation the yoke of bond-
age, and insisteth that we are not under the law, but
imder grace. There is a sovereignty, doubtless, in God,
whereby He could have compelled us to obedience, as He
compelleth the winds and waves, and other elements of
nature, and regulates the harmonious motions of the
universe. But He chooseth not to proceed after that
method. He ruleth not by might but by right. A
sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of His kingdom.
Therefore, it is vain in your moral-preachers to think of
schooling the people into Christianity by laying down the
law to them, Sabbath after Sabbath ; instead of which they
should enamour them of the nature of God, and so lodge
the affection which will hunger and thirst for ways
whereby to testify itself. And it is as absurd in the
mystics to persuade to Christianity by holding forth
the stern decrees and absolute sovereignty of God, which
doth but revolt all the affections of the heai't, and paralyse
the powers of the understanding. In which two methods
of preaching we have another palpable instance of the
meeting of extremes. But the true method in which
religion in the Scriptures seeks to bind itself upon the
heart and life of man, is by exhibitions of the most
excellent, amiable, and generous character of God, His
unceasing regard for man, His wonderful scheme for our
Morality Borj'ows of Religion. 9
salvation, His preparation for our everlasting happiness
and glory. They win upon the heart a surpassing favour
for the Governor and Lawgiver, which doth outdo every
adverse inclination, and by main pre-eminence of affection,
bear down all opposition, take the helm of the soul, and
gently steer it into the river of His pleasure.
The morality of the Scripture it availeth not the world
to possess, unless they will also lay their hand upon this
its theology, and adopt into their breasts those various
most affectionate views of the Godhead, which will create
a divine loyalty within the breast, an allegiance to heaven,
a fealty to the great liege Lord of the human race. While
their imagination dresseth Him only in His sovereign
attributes of power and wisdom and will, creatures so
weak, ignorant, and lanstable as men will be rebuked far
away from His confidence and love. Clouds and darkness
will remain around Him, which the eye dareth not to
pierce. We shall live without the sphere of His intluence ;
into which if we were to come, while we imagine Him so
sublime and terrible, we must come crouching and slavish.
Therefore nature makes a stand for her own dignity, and
abides aloof from a God while she knoweth Him only in
such masterful moods. She is afar off — she needeth to be
brought nigh. He is invisible from the radiancy that is
around Him, and some one must come forth from His
bosom and discover Him. Till you know of God more
than this vague and mysterious idea. He will never come
into favour with you, do what you may. W'ho loveth the
sandy desert or wisheth to dwell therein, though it be the
scene of many sublime commotions of the simoom wind,
and hath at times the magic scenery of the mirage, and is
always sublime in its very solitude and undefined, unob-
structed magnitxide? Nevertheless we hasten across it
under a painful sense of loneliness and helplessness, — we
dare not venture on it alone, we must equip as it were a
fleet of men, to keep the heart cheerful against the inva-
sion of gloomy thoughts. We long for some oasis, some
green island in the waste, where are things commensurate
lo Ethical.
with our minds, and objects upon whicli the affections of
onr nature may be renewed. So it is with nature's appre-
hension of God ; it is painful to dwell in, we avoid it, we
skirt along its edge, we search not its profound and mys-
terious vastness. There is a necessity for a revelation of
the face and countenance of God, in order to bring Him
into the midst of human sympathies, and have Him in the
embraces of the human soul.
THEOLOGY OF NATURE.
The philosophical religion which at this day prevails —
if any religion can be said to prevail among our lettered
people — is derived from observations made upon the works
of creation, in which they discover marks of design, and
final ends of goodness and bounty. The richness, and
beauty, and fertility of nature through all her chambers,
the diffusion of lusty happy life in every creature beneath
the sun, and the wonderful means for preserving, defend-
ing, and continuing the golden line of being ; the various
revolutions and decompositions of bodies, and their revert-
ing back again, through circles of useful change, into
their primitive forms ; — this good husbandry of all the
elements of creation ; this wise composition of them, and
as wise revolution of them, together with the signs of hap-
piness and health which every sensitive creature exhibits ;
— all this begets in the man of knowledge and taste a
high idea of the power and goodness diffused through the
whole. But the knowledge of these various changes and
useful properties of things may or may not terminate in
the idea of one God. And it doth not necessarily follow
that a scientific observer of the works of nature shall be
a believer in one great First Cause and one great Director
of all. On the other hand, I have often seen the more
knowledge of nature the less knowledge of God, until at
length a practical atheism or a deification of nature Avas
the result. Instead of a living God, the soul of the world,
Theology of Nature. ii
a power diffused over nature ; instead of a God at all times
omnipotent, an abstraction of physical power ; instead of a
God at all times wise and active, a generalisation of all
philosophical laws ; instead of the holy Father of all intel-
ligence, the ultimate root from which sprung and by which
were sustained all those branches of nature with which
they were conversant. And if I were myself to play the
philosopher, I would say that this pantheism or soul of
matter is the only accurate inference from their premises.
When you have collected a number of properties in things,
such, for example, as Paley hath done in his ' Natural
Theology,' what can you infer more than this, that there
is a separate wisdom in these things ? But how you infer
that this wisdom is one, or that, being one, it is resident in
a moral living agent, I confess myself unable to perceive.
It is a plastic something everywhere diffused ; but that
tliere are the volitions of an intelligent will, living and
self-determming, and capable of arresting all, changing all,
annihilating all, I see not by what process of sound reason-
ing they can prove. And, in point of fact, few of them
practically arrive at this conclusion, but, on the contraiy,
whatever notions of God's actual existence, rule, goodness,
and other moral attributes, they have been taught by their
mother or their preceptor out of the oracles of God, they
gradually throw aside, as they advance in the knowledge
of nature, as childish and nui'sery fables, until they leam
by degrees the perception and feeling of God as a moving,
living, approving, and disapproving being, and pass into
the apprehension of Him as a collection of physical causes,
at best a cunning workman, of whose works we may know
something, of whose design in His works we may appre-
hend a little, but of whose nature or designs beyond these,
of whose affections towards us, or ultimate design respect-
ing us, we can apprehend nothing at all. And this, I take
it, without any misrepresentation, is the loose idea of God
which now prevails among the scientific of this country,
which they have drawn from the mechanical philosophers
of France; most assuredly not from the philosophers of
1 2 Ethical.
Newton's scliool, the founders of experimental pliilosopliy in
the world, whose notions were altogether opposite, as New-
ton hath well manifested in the conclusion of his great work.
This also is the spirit of much of the poetry of the pre-
sent day, in which, if you have not the heathen mythology,
yoii are sure to have in its stead an adoration of nature
under the name of God, or of a God inherent in nature, and
dwelling on nature's outward face, whose changes they sing
of as the changing God : " These, as they change, are but
the varied God." It is the nature of the poet's vocation to
inspire every thing with the breath and soul of life, and
now that he cannot give dryads to the woods, and nymphs
to the rivers, and deities to the winds, and sovereign gods
to the various elements, without passing the limits of the
vulgar knowledge, he is fain to inspire them with a portion
of the Divinity ; and so it happens that they seem very
devout, when, in truth, they are only making the phases
and changes of nature into the aspects and acts of God,
doing homage to the creature instead of the Creator, and
so obscuring and eclipsing and making obsolete the moral
attributes which compose the high invisible nature of God,
and which alone, as we shall shew, operates upon the soul
of man. Such poets do thus bring into a poj)ular form and
make attractive those notions which the men of science
generally entertain, and help forward this idle and ineffec-
tual gossip or prattle (it riseth no higher) about the nature
of God. Then your critics and under labourers in litera-
ture do ape their betters, steal their follies, and talk as if
they knew about religion, and were competent to handle
the counsels of our God ; whereas it is the philosopher's,
not the Christian's God whom they make these words and
indite these little thoughts about. And children in the
nursery, fresh from the Christian lessons of their mother,
were better judges than such of the reverence which is
due and the reverence which is paid to the God and Father
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
To make the matter plain by a practical instance.
Suppose you were taken into the workshop of a cunning
Tlieology of Nature. 13
■workman, say, a maker of machines : suppose there to
be in his shop all the variety which you shall find in
the model-room of the Society of Arts. You see nothing
of the man himself; you know nothing of him, and you
hear notliing of him, except what you gather from perusing
the works of his hands. You do peruse and understand
them ; their exquisite workmanship, their perfect adapta-
tion to their ends, their elegance, their variety, and
the various offices of life which they subserve. Having
finished your survey, you are asked what you think of
the man who made them. You answer, " His ingenuity,
his skill, the variety of his knowledge, amazes me ; his
invention, his execution, his inexhaustible resources are
perfectly astonishing ; he is surely of the highest genius
and the finest art." But you are asked further, " Do you
love him ? Do you revere his goodness ? Do you stand in
awe of his justice ? Would you trust his word? Would
you give him j^our confidence ? Would you admire him
as a father, as a friend, as a benefactor, as a man, as much
as you admire him as a workman?" You answer, " These
are altogether diff'erent questions, which I have no means
of answering till I know him and try him in these various
relations. The man may be a drunkard, dishonest, im-
moral, and worthless in every respect, though his art and
knowledge of art be so wonderfully extensive. I have no
confidence or communion with him at present, save by
his skill and execution. But when I know him in these
several relations, I shall then be able to answer you."
Kow what difi"erence is there between this case and the
case of your scientific observers of creation, and poetical
describers of the same, and critical disseminators who are,
as it were, the carriers and retailers to the others, — the
men, I mean, who affect ignorance and carelessness about
vital religion, and take a kind of credit for the bravery
of such an affectation, but talk loudly of the majestj"- and
might of the God of natui'e, and with a high tone pass
judgment upon Christians of whom they are as ignorant
as the child unborn ? They are no further advanced than,
14 Ethical.
if I may so speak, into the workshop of God. The}' hehokl
His various creations performing their various functions,
and they are competent to the question of His power and
His wisdom; they can rise into the knowledge of His
Godhead, as St. Paul says in the 1st chapter of the
Romans — "The invisible things of him from the creation
of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the
things that are made, even his eternal power and God-
head." But beyond the apprehension of His power, as
it is variously displayed, they cannot rise. They cannot
trust in His friendship to them, or His favour for them.
They cannot tell what things He approveth and what
He disapproveth. They cannot feel towards Him the
sentiments of the heart and soul, because they know not
His feelings towards them. They can hold a communion
of intellect with His works ; but with Himself, with His
living self, they can have no sentiments kindred to those
which bind the relationships of human life, — no filial
reverence, no loyal subordination, no tender love, no
confident trust, no fear, no hope, no religion.
Ko wonder, therefore, that those classes who have
thus come by what they call their religion, and stand
thus related to God only by these remote and shadowy
apprehensions, and have truly in their hearts no feelings
towards Him, whatever knowledge they may have in their
heads ; — no wonder that these classes, whose theology I
am now endeavouring to present to you in its native
barrenness, that you may know to be upon your guard
against their affected offence at our Christian liberty, do
very seldom if ever refer these various evidences of the
Creator's power, with which they affect to be impressed,
to one living intelligent being. They are content with
them in their scattered variety ; they keep them diffn.sed
abroad, and feign a devout regard upon beholding the
wonderful or beautiful object, as if it were a limb, or
presence, or function of the Divinity. They make no
transference of the visible wonder to the great invisible
Wonderful ; no transference of the visible bounty to the
Theology of Nature. 15
All-bountifiil. They adore it as it lies before tlicm, thoy
sing of it, tbey speak of it as if it Avere a superior
existence, and not a piece of inanimate matter, held in
being, wrought upon, and beautified by the good pleasure
of the everlasting God. So that their God is nothing
but a collection of qualities or properties. He hath no
existence in their imagination or their heart, but only
in their knowledge and their sense, and hath no effect
upon their minds further than the properties of creation
which they see and know. That is, they have no God.
They pay their reverence to creation, but not to a Creator ;
and if they may be said to have any religion, it is alto-
gether materialism or the poetiy of materialism.
If, instead of allowing these properties of tlie material
universe to be abroad, dispersed, and disjoined, they
referred them to one invisible agent, the Creator and
Conductor of all, then indeed they might gradually come
by the notion of an intelligent and a powerful God, of
whom their mind might stand in awe, even when they
beheld no images of His presence. For He would not only
be the representative of so man}^ properties and works as
they beheld, but He would be the representative of power
and wisdom in the absolute, — self-existent and self-deter-
mining. And they might stand in awe of Him as capable
of putting forth that power in ways undisplayed before
them, and at times and seasons to them unknown. Siich a
conception of God as a living, intelligent workman of all
we behold, and of ourselves, could not fail to induce upon
the mind a habitual regard of some kind, and they might
then lay claim to a sentiment of religion. But as it is
commonly with these people, their notion of God hath no
effect at all ; it is merely a generalisation of science, the
law that expresses all creation and all change, — a regulated
thing which keeps things in their courses, itself as much
defined and regulated as that which it defines, — the Fate of
the ancients, or the Nature of the moderns. Of which
melancholy fact all their language indicates the certainty.
They fcilk of the works of nature, the laws of nature, the
1 6 Ethical.
phenomena of nature ; and if liaply tliey allude to anything
above or beyond nature, it is by the name of the Author of
nature.
Now, supposing them to have made this step from the
visible creation to an intelligent Creator, and that they did
habitually, upon beholding nature, connect her forms and
changes with a s^^perior Being, they are still remote from
any apprehension of the Christian's God, and incapable of
those affections which we feel towards the God who is
revealed in the Holy Scriptures. They have evidences of
immeasui'able power ; but power doth not beget love, other-
wise absolute kings and conquerors of the earth would be
the objects of love, whereas they are the objects of dread,
and create around them only timorous, crouching slaves.
And so it is that whoever fastens upon God's attribute of
sovereignty or power, and placeth that chiefly before his
eyes, becomes a timorous devotee, a superstitious feeble
slave. So that the philosopher who knows only His power,
were at every step ready to prostrate his spirit through
fear, did he not defend himself with the idea mentioned
above, that this powerful Being is somehow limited by the
rules of nature, or subject to fate, as the ancients more
honestly expressed it. They are not delivered from this
dilemma of either constantly dreading or constantly limit-
ing their God, by the perception of His wonderful wisdom
and deep design in all things which He doth. For this
wisdom is only another kind of power, rendering Him who
possesseth it doubly armed, and removing Him still further
from that neighbourhood within which our affections re-
main. If, indeed, they could make out His goodness and
tender merc3^ His grace and long-suffering, His love and
forgiveness, and other attributes visible in the revealed and
incarnate Word, — if they could read them upon the face of
this fallen and suffering world, or discern them in this
mixed and miserable constitution of human nature, then
will I allow that their philosophical tuition might serve
them for a religion, and bring them into some congeniality
with Christian feeling. But, as it is, they stand remote
Theology of Nature. ij
from everytliing that can awaken towards God the pulsa-
tions of gladness and atJection within the heart of man.
For power begetteth only dread, as men all feel in the
presence of powerful agents, as arbitrary kings, wily poli-
ticians, amongst men ; as the cataract, the tornado, or the
tempestuous ocean, in natural things. And wisdom far
surpassing our o"wn, begetteth caution, unless we know
that it is used only for good ends, which the distressed
condition of the world doth not assiire us of. And to work
affection towards God. nothing availeth save the knowledge
of His affection ; to beget trust, nothing availeth but His
proved honesty ; and to engender hope, nothing but His
promises made and faithfully performed ; and to ensure
complete devotion to His will, nothing prevaileth over our
natural selfishness save the combination in one Being of
wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, love, and truth.
Now, while men rest in this general, A^ague apprehension
of the Divinity, cloudy, dim, and obscure, the influence of
their faith in Him is nothing whatever. He is retired, He
dwelleth unknowTi, nature pursueth her steady course,
genei'ation succeedeth generation, and since the fathers fell
asleep all things have continued as they were. God passeth
into oblivion. Nature supplanteth Him. Our souls are
escaped from. His influence, and His blessing cometh not
over them. And we are at the mercy of accident and
change, even as if we knew not God. And accordingly
you shall find these philosojDhical believers, who are full of
affectation for the honoin- of the Godhead, and marvel at
the fanatical freedom and cant of Methodists, and float
away in idle speculations upon the majesty and might of
the Eternal, how in every instance they will take His
name in vain, indulge their thoughts in every range of
malice and wickedness, and break every commandment
without remorse. They are a sort of sentimentalists in
religion. Words are the coin in which they pay the I'e-
quirements of God, — censorious words upon those who live
in familiarity of speech with the ]\Iost High, and compli-
mentary speeches to their own cold hearted resen^e and
c
1 8 Ethical.
distance, which they would have to pass current for signs
of their high regard. Such religion is utterly worthless.
It is valued neither in heaven above nor in the earth
below. In heaven all is heart and affection, and such dry
salutations of the intellect have no currency. On earth
they have no use, being compatible with the violation of
every moral and religious duty. Yet these people take
airs and affect importance, and would not for the world
have themselves likened to any low, vulgar religionist.
Wretched men ! they do but deceive their own souls, and
harden them against repentance. For till they curtail the
distance at which they stand, till they break down the
barriers of formality which they have established betwixt
themselves and God, and know Him in the familiar rela-
tions of Father, and Friend, and Saviour, as well as those
of Creator and Euler, they shall make no progress in the
way that leadeth unto life eternal.
ANALOGY BETWEEN NATURAL AND SPIRITUAL
PROCESSES.
Certainly it is not accidental, that the natural world
should bear such wonderful analogies with, and afford so
many emblems or similitudes for expressing, the spiritual
world : for that we call accidental which happens but
seldom and unexpectedly : that which exhibits itself regu-
larly, according to a law or order of its own, we call of
purpose and design. Now, the case before us is really
such, that the natural world is used in divine revelation,
not in one part, but in all its parts, as if it were the proper
types for making the things which are not seen intelligible.
And the question is. How cometh this to pass? The
common resolution of the difficulty is, that the present
aspect of the fallen creation is a rude representation of
what it was in its oi'iginal beauty ; and doth, like a crumb-
ling ruin, afford some faint and imperfect notion of its
ancient magnificence. This observation, in itself, I believe
to be true; but as a solution of the difficulty before us, it
Natural and Spiritual Processes. 1 9
is inadequate and incomplete, and its incompleteness hath,
given rise to a great deal of error. For, in the first place,
though it well expro« eth the great obscuration and deteri-
oration of all things, it does not meet the difficulty of
explaining why the ru.ious creation was just left at that
state of ruin in which ■ might serve to commemorate its
primitive perfection. \\ hy stands it, like Tadmor and
Palmj-ra, a monum»^nt of former grandeur ; and not rather,
like Nineveh or habylon, which tell no tales of their for-
mer glory'' Besides, it is a false similitude that fallen
nature is like a ruin in its fall ; seeing it is not crumbling,
nor unstable, nor covered over with the dust of ages, but a
fol^-^ic firm and orderly, fresh and beautiful, standing to its
ancient constitutions, and fulfilling the intentions of its
Creator. There is a mighty power, there is an infinite
variety, there is an unspeakable grace in all its operations
and productions ; insomuch that it is ever stealing away
the worship and the adoration of men ; and hath so charmed
the minds of this scientific and tasteful generation, that by
thousands, and tens of thousands, they are leaving the
worship of Christ for the worship of nature. And, though
doubt there can be none, that in all its parts nature is
underlying the sore and grievous curse which M'as pro-
noxmced upon it after the Fall, and hath shared the bitter
portion, of its master; yet is it not a decayed and decay-
ing ruin, but a firm and enduring structure, constituted
under strong and sure laws, which preserve themselves
unbroken until this day. So that the question still re-
maineth, Plow is it that this sinful and anger-stricken work
of God should contain in it the similitude of that perfect
condition in which we at present believe, and hope here-
after to be possessed of ? Moreover, to say that nature in.
its fallen state carries a certain resemblance to the unfallen
creation, which God pronounced very good, is a mere hypo-
thesis at the best ; for we have no such records of the un-
fallen creation as to enable us to compare them together :
and if the hypothesis could be assured, it has nothing to
do with the difficulty before us, which is uot how nature
c 2
20 Ethical.
should be like the first creation, but how it should shadow
forth the regeneration, that perfect condition of things yet
to be, at present believed in, and hereafter to be mani-
fested, which we call spiritual and eternal. But, worse
than all, it is a line of argument, or rather of speculation,
which hath led into very great mischief those divines who
have adopted it; giving rise to a notion of the revealed
law, as if it were only a republication of the law of crea-
tion, and had respect to the first Adam, shewing us what
he was ; not to the second Adam, shewing us what he was
to be. From which doating and dreaming about the re-
vealed law as the picture of man's primitive condition,
hath come the false and heretical notion, that if you make
a good use of it you may set human nature upon its feet
again ; as if we had power in ourselves to regenerate our-
selves, and wanted only a model to do the work by, which
model God had kindly afibrded us in the revealed law. To
all such idlers I would say, " Go, try your hand at recti-
ficat on upon some of the lower parts of the fallen
universe : instruct the elements, for example, that they
should do no harm ; the animals, that they should not kill
each other ; the body of man, that it should not die : and
when you have succeeded there, 1 will give you higher
work, and advance you to set right the mainspring and
master-movement of the whole, which is the will or spirit
of man."
Every account of the matter drawn from the retrospec-
tion of the first estate of man rejecting, therefore, as crude
and insufScient, which hath neither sound principle nor
profitable end, I proceed to render what I conceive to be
the only true resolution of the question : which is simply
the statement of a doctrine, — that I believe God hath
ordained nature in its present form, and established it
according to its present laws, for the single and express
puipose of shadowing forth that future perfect condition
into which it is to be brought: so ihat from man down to
the lowest creature, and from the animated creation down
to the lowest plant, and from the vegetable creation
Natural and Spiritual Processes. 2 1
fliroiighout tlie elemental and inorganic world, everything
coutaineth the presentiment of its own future perfection ;
hath been so constituted of God as to be prophetic thereof;
and is bearing a silent witness to the redemption and resti-
tution of all things which is yet to be ; is in a state of
travail and great sorrow, groaning and wailing till it be
delivered of its immortal birth, in the day of the manifes-
tation of the sons of God. And herein lies the proper
meaning of the word " nature," (iiatura, " about to be born,")
that it is about to bring forth : not that it is anything, but
that it is to become b}'- bearing something.
■ I conclude, that all the appointed laws and ordinances
of God, whereby the earth is appointed to yield her fruits
into the lap of man — the hardy tillage of the ground, the
hopeful sowing of the seed, the long waiting-for of harvest,
the unavoidable mixture of the tares and wheat, their
careful separation in the time of harvest, the storing of the
one in precious garners, and the consuming of the other
with fire — will all be found to prefigure the beginning
and the progress and the consummation of that more
excellent husbandry, which the Lord is carrying forward
over the face of all the fallen creation, and which is to end
in the plentiful and joyful harvest of the Lord's coming.
For why ? Are they not also a part of the redemption
from death, which, being one in beginning and one in end,
must be one in demonstration? From the same premises
I would infer, that all which is found convenient and neces-
sary for reclaiming man from the lowest condition of savage
wretchedness, tending to moral death, and preserving him
in peaceful and harmonious societies, tending upwards to
moral life — such as criminal laws, punishments, and
judgment-seats, the royal fountain of mercy, meritorious
preferments of rank and honour, and the inviolate sacred-
ness of domestic rights ; the whole ordinance of king and
subject, nobles and people, judges and magistrates, crimes
and punishments, whereby men are reclaimed and redeemed
from that wretchedness in ivhich they are found in the state
of nature — will all be found to shadow forth that divine
2 2 Ethical.
government wliicli God exercisetli over His cburcli, and
by which He pieservetli the peace and prosperity of Zion.
And this same observation I would extend to every ordi-
nance of God by which the health and well-being of the
creatures are preserved : for they are only parts of that
great work of redemption which was procured by the death
of Christ ; and to what else then should they tend, but to
declare and foreshew the work of redemption, which by
His death was completed as to the purchase and the
pledge ; which by His restin-ection was begun as to the
operation of the Spirit ? — for I reckon that not the concep-
tion of the fleshly body, biit the resurrection of the
glorious body of Christ, was the beginning of the redemp-
tion of the world. This idea of the natural world, as being
merely the promise of a birth, forms the basis of what is
called " natural religion ;" which is not, as they define it,
to discover a religion distinct from Christianity or revela-
tion, but to shew that nature, or rather the culture of
nature's barrenness and the promotion of her well-being, is
leally a lower revelation, a preparation for what hath been
brought to light by Christ ; so that, as Paul saith, " the
invisible things of God from the beginning of the world
are clearly seen, even His eternal power and Godhead."
This idea also contains the link between all natural
sciences and the revelation of our redemption ; making
nature the handmaiden of grace, and everything venerable
in society to serve for the outward court of the Christian
temple. * * *
You may depend upon it, therefore, that the laws of all
life, vegetable, animal, mental (soulal), and spiritual, are
one and the same, though diiferent in degree ; and all
derived from one and the same sacrifice of our blessed
Lord and Saviour, ofiered from all eternity ; without which
there v/ould have been no life, but an universal death.
And you may rest assured also, that the lower is always
typical of the higher ; and that the knowledge of the
higher is best ascended into through the progression of
the lower. We ought not to wonder, therefore, that the
Nature Worship : Its Falseness. 23
Holy Spirit continually useth the emblems or symbols
derived frijui vegetable and human life — the sowing of the
seed and the harvest, the biith of the child and the full-
grown man — to set forth spiritual things withal. And you
ought not to say, they are finely chosen similitudes, but,
they are rightly appropriated types. And, however much
our men of taste and sentiment do laugh at the spiritualis-
ings of our fathers, I dare to believe and to say, that to
spiritualise nature is rightly to interpret nature ; and that
the greater part of our Lord's discourses are nothing but
divine exercises of this kind ; and so of His parables
also.
NATURE WOESHIP : ITS FALSENESS.
There is no worse sign of the times we live in, no clearer
proof of the debasement of the soul of man, and demonstra-
tion of the ignorance of the world to come, than the many
poems which are written, and the many songs which are
sung, and the many journeys which are performed, in
honour of certain lovely scenes and beautiful objects of
nature. They will call me a Goth for saying so : but it
is a Christian, and a Christian minister, who speaketh so ;
and one who heretofore drank at this fountain as copious
draughts as any of the nature-worshippers. But how can
any one who is at all interested in the primeval state of
paradise which he hath lost, or at all believeth in the
millennial and the eternal glory of the world of which he
is an heir, take delight and shout forth joyfully in con-
templating the present misery of the lower world ; when
he beholdeth the sandy wastes, the nigged mountains, the
hoary forests, the inhospitable climates of beat and cold,
the changeful accidents of thunderstorm and thunderbolts,
the avalanches of snow and inundations of wasteful waters,
the iron frosts, the drenching rains ; in one woi'd, the
natural barrenness of the earth's bosom, and the evil con-
ditions which £he underlieth since the Fall ? I speak not
24 Ethical.
now of the partial deliverance which the well-bestowed
sweat of man may give her from the rugged wilderness of
her nature ; but 1 speak of her proper nature, and show
you how ill-attuned to truth are those rapturous strains
which they utter over the elemental world.
If I speak of the element of air, which was made to
nourish human life, what infinite variations is it not liable
to, every one burdened with pain and death to thousands !
"What unwholesome vapours, what deadly blasts, what
desolating storms ! Look, and behold how almost one half
of man's care and labour is to defend himself from the ills
with which the air is loaded. His clothing, his houses,
his fires, and all his other shelters, cannot spin out to
threescore years and ten that term of life which at the
beginning was made to endure for a thousand. — If I speak
of the element of water, which was made to sustain both
vegetable and animal life, behold how it hath drowned
more than half the world, swamped a goodly portion of the
rest, gathered itself into wide-spread lakes, seas, and
oceans, leaving great portions of the earth parched, barren,
and blighted, for want of sufficient supplies. And though
the labour of man hath made its streams and rivers both
useful and ornamental, how little so they are by natural
inclination is beheld in the mighty rivers of the western
hemisphere rushing through the depths of hoar}' forests,
and filled with every beast the most destructive of human
life. And over that element how little has man the power,
who cannot cross a brook or inland bay without peril of
his life, and must bridge it over with laborious masonry,
or boat across it with a continual risk of life ! — If I should
speak of the element of earth, how it runneth to waste as
fast as it can, and hasteth to become a wilderness inacces-
sible to the tread of man ; giving itself up to be tenanted
by the beasts of prey, or by the serpent's slimy brood ;
what poisons it produceth, what cold damps it exhaleth,
what interruptions to the going forth of man ; what toil it
taseth him withal ; what long hours of labour, what long
weeks and months of patient and watchful toil, yea, what
Nature Wors/iip : Its Falseness. 25
generations of a laborious population, must be given to it
before it will consent to produce in any abundance, or to
support in any considerable numbers, the race of men.
Before you can set an ordinary meal upon your table, how
many hands must have laboured, how many brows sweat,
how many careful hearts coml ined before it came thither;
but if you would set forth a feast, how many lives must
have been perilled, how many lashes of the whip endured,
how much blood shed in desolating war, before the raw
material of it can be brought to 3'our home ; how many
ingenious men must have laboured in the shop, how many
in the damp and darksome mine, how many broiled their
faces over the oven, before it can be placed in a comely
style upon our tables ; — and how we are foot-bound to
little spots of the earth's surface, removing to and fro with
infinite pains and toils : and this law of gravitation brings
us plumb down if we would ascend to any elevation above
the earth : and the laws of space and time set a fearful
restraint upon the freedom of the human will, and the
libert}'' of human action. — But it is endless and infinite to
speak of the miserable plight into which that elemental
nature hath been reduced, which was created to be the
vital breath of our life, the wholesome nourishment of our
body, the obedient servant of oiir will.
Now, how men, looking upon the violent hands which
sin hath laid upon these things, and the base servitude
into which they are compelled by Satan, " the prince of the
power of the air," and " the ruler of the darkness of this
world," can do anj-thing but pity and lament their miser-
able case, I greatly wonder. It seems to me little less
than an insult to the poor sin-enthralled and suffering
creature, to lift ujd in its ear a pasan of joy ; and it argues,
in all who do so, either great ignorance and insensibility
towards the creature, or great degradation and debasement
in themselves. Indeed, I trace it to nothing else than
Satan's having blinded our eyes to our own bondage under
this same evil law, that we feel not the kindred bondage
of our own body and mind ; are not taught to groan within
26 Ethical.
ourselves, and cannot hear tlie groanings of all nature
around us. AVe accept Satan's ofl'er of this world and its
kingdoms, and fall down and worship them : we delight
ourselves with them as they are ; we share not their
burden, we pity not their slavery, we are not vexed that
we should be defeated of their ministry ; we look not for
any deliverance or emancipation for them ; we care not to
hear of it : and so we are stolen away from the hope of
Christ's advent to redeem the body, and all the creatures
dependent upon the body, from their thraldom.
These same views, which it is proper for a good and
wise man to live under with respect to the ground which
God hath cursed, it is proper for him to live under with
respect to all the living creatures, or the whole animal
creation, which are cursed along with it. Their birth in
groaning agony ; their life in continual peril of one another;
the absolute necessity, in order to live, that they should
make war upon one another ; their continual tendency to
the wild and savage state, and in that state their furious
and inveterate destruction of one another ; the defensive
attitudes which the beasts of the field must maintain
against the winged creatures of the air, and these again
against the beasts of the field, and both against the creeping
things of the earth. And then, how man for his own defence
must turn out, with all his faculties, and circumvent and
slay the wild creatures which have made the earth their
own ; and, in order to live, must for many generations feed
on them almost entirely. And when he hath reclaimed
the forest, and made it a fertile field, how still the sheep
that clothes him must be led to the slaughter, and the
bullock that labours his field must be stalled for the knife.
It is very pitiful to look at a city full of peaceable and
ingenious men ; to see what droves and flocks must pass
into their gates for destruction; and at what a fearful
expense of animal life human life must be supported. And
you cannot mend it. It is a constitution of things which
at the best is bad. For if you relax your bondage, the
tamed beasts run wild again, and destroy the face of the
Nature Worship : Its Falseness. 2 7
reclaimed ground: or if you cease to feed upon them,
they multiply, and eject man from his right. And if
you stand still or relax in the labouring of the ground, it
returns to thorns and thistles, and noxious animals in-
crease apace : vermin of every name, weeds of every
description, and wild beasts which are able to destroy man
at a blow : these all hang upon the rearward of civilisation,
to cut us off if we fall back. We cannot stand still ; the
feller must ply his work, the hunter must ply his work,
the fattener must ply his work, the slayer must ply his
work : for if man do it not according to a measure of
humanity and wisdom, the beasts will do it themselves,
without either humanity or wisdom.
He that looks on these things and beholdeth not the bond-
age of all creatures under the law of corruption, is indeed
blinded by the god of this world : he that looks upon these
things and feeleth not, is lost to all tenderness of feeling :
he that looks upon them and hopes not and desires not the
day of redemption, is indeed deprived of the sweetest con-
solation of this our fallen and sinful estate. Do I say that
we ought to weep and make continual lamenting, as your
sensitive sentimentalists and shrinking men of feeling do ?
No ! It is the ordinance of God for this sinful estate, to keep
it from utter death and dissolution. It is death warded
off to a distance. It is the blossoming of a life which the
wasting winds are always nipping. But we cannot make
a better of it : we cannot change it : we may humanise it —
that is, bring it under the dominion of man, cultivate the
earth, and tame the animals, and those that will not be
tamed destroy ; the poisonous extirpate, the ravenous re-
strain ; and seek to subdue all things to wholesome laws,
and be ourselves subject to the same. This is all that is in
our power : and, when thus the creature hath been improved
to the utmost, look around you, in this very island, and
behold whether the crimson dye hath been taken out of it.
No, there it is ; kept out of sight as much as may be ; but
defying all power beneath the moon to alter it. You might
as well think to clear the aii- of tempests, or the sea of
28 Ethical.
storms, or tlie earth of stubborn unwillingness to yield
anything of herself better than thorns and briers, as think
to cure or remedy the stern law of pain and death, and
obstinate resistance unto man, under which the creatures
have come.
Yes, 1 will tell j^ou what more we can do after we have
done all that British civilisation — and there is none so
perfect in the world — hath brought about. We can under-
stand the account which God hath given us of this the
evil constitution of the creatures : we can search into His
revelation concerning it ; and, finding that it was not so in
the ^beginning, but came by sin, for the fault of man, we can
hate sin the more bitterly; while we the more poignantly-
repent of our sins, and drop a tear for this suffering creation ;
and lead upwards to heaven's gate the doleful song of our
common suffering ; and pray for that redemption in which
we are taught to believe; and bless the Redeemer the more
diligently ; and call upon the sun and moon and stars,
whose brilliancy the thick clouds hath obscured ; and call
upon the air, whose balmy sweetness Satan hath poisoned ;
and upon the woods and the waters, which savage beasts
have usurped, for a concealment whence to come forth
against man, their sovereign lord ; and the earth, and every
plant which drinks the dew, and every beast which crops
the herb, and every thing that hath a being, can we, yea,
ought we, and will we, when thus schooled, call upon to
praise and bless the Redeemer, who preserved them from
instant death, hath continued tbem in an embr^'o life, and
will bring them into perfect, glorious, and eternal harmony
and well-being for ever.
And, of man, made to be the ruler of all these things
whose desecration I have been setting forth, how great is
the degradation in himself, and the hard inflexible law of
evil under which he hath been bound ! Look at him, as
you find him without the helping and healing hand of
law ; behold him as he traverseth the deserts and roameth
in the woods ; or look at him in a civilised state, when
anything hath loosened the bit and bridle of government
Nature Worship : Its Falseness. 29
with Avliicli liis mouth is held, as he was in France some
thirty j^ears ago ; or look at him within the bounds of
law, intoxicating himself, degrading himself beneath the
brutes; fighting, raging, and rioting in every possible
disguise ; or look at him when escaping the law, prowling
about like the wolf, and more cunning than the fox, more
fell than the tiger, and more diligent in tracking his prey
than the stanchest of the bloodhoimd tribes. But, oh !
behold his wars; the fury of his onset, the stoutness of
his battle, the havoc of his victory. For example's sake,
behold a man who hath over-topped law, and reached
the liberty of shewing what is in man, — a Napoleon, for
instance, — see millions fall before him, and fall behind
him ; his own eye unbedewed, his own cheek unblanched,
his heart unconscious of a pang, while he lets slip the last
pack of his bloodhounds. Oh! oh! surely man, the master
of all, who hath fallen from the greatest height of all, hath
also fallen to the greatest depth of all.
Nor can this be helped : for if civilised states will not
study war, and stand in an offensive attitude, then, as
heretofore, the barbarous people, with which the earth
teems, allured on by the scent of prey, will come down
upon them like the wolf upon the fold, and cast the world
long centuries back into the dreary waste of ignorance
and lawlessness. It is as vain to talk of peace and peace
societies, in the pi'esent dispensation, as to talk of a cloud-
less sky and an untempestuous sea. And it is vain to
decry the calling of a soldier, as if it were not as necessary
to the well-being of any state as the calling of a hunter
and a husbandman : the first, to bridle savage nations and
arrest ambitious men ; the second, to clear the woods
and coverts of destructive creatures ; and the third, to clear
the earth of thorns and briers and bristly forests. These
vain theories of a federal union of kingdoms to abolish
war ; and of the gradual influence of the people over
their rulers, preventing wars ; and of the common interest
whicli commerce engenders gradually making war to cease,
are all vague and unsound, and based upon a false assump-
30 Ethical.
tion, that man is able to alter the iron conditions into
which the Fall has brought him, and in which the
Almighty Will doth keep him till the Eedeemer shall
come to take possession of the purchased inheritance.
So also are the theories, which in these infidel years have
crept in, concerning crimes and punishments, and all legal
restraints, as if they were cruelties and arbitrary imposi-
tions upon the subject ; as if it were highly unphiloso-
phical, as they are pleased to term it, to make man respon-
sible for what his circumstances necessarily engender in
him. As if man had no power to say / will not, as if
he had no conscience to say / must not. And the philo-
sophical destroyers have come the length of saying, that
he is not responsible for his faith ; which truly is to say,
that he is not responsible for knowledge, or feeling, or
action, which all contribute in their spheres to a soil and
atmosphere for faith. The reprobates have passed all
bound ; they are ready to burst all barriers : they have
become fanciful, notional, empirical, with respect to every
reasonable principle of human well-being and axiom of
human life. And ever and anon, as they destroy another
timber in the structure, and pull down another stone in
the foundation, they say, " See what discoveries we are
making ! see what knowledge we have attained to ! Oh,
what fools our fathers were ! oh, what wise men we !
Such an age of light it is ! Wonderful what achieve-
ments of liberal principles! Surely the world will be
perfected in our time ! " To me it is manifest, from
these very occurrences, that the ship is breaking up,
when, in the midst of a perilous voyage, (for this all
allow,) the carpenters are giving her as thorough a repair
as if she were in the dock.
( 31 )
INTELLECTUAL ATHEISM.
Ah ! brethren, it is not your Humes and Voltaires and
Paines, who make a people incapable of receiving the
word : these men are creatures of the hour ; cast up by
the current, like sandy islands of the sea, or floating
substances, which the eddy of the current whirleth into
a certain consistency and driveth at its will : but it is
ignorance and sensuality, and intellect employed upon
merely outward things, which makes men fall away by
whole hosts from the belief of Divine truth. Our people
are become altogether outward and unspiritual : be they
learned, it is in outward knowledge ; be they political,
it is for the greatest visible advantage ; be they of the
unlearned classes, they are degraded with hard labour, re-
lieved with sensual indulgence, and i-egaled with malici-
ous speeches and schemes against their sttperiors. They
are alike ignorant that they have a spirit immortal, to
rule the sense, presently oppressed by the sense, and
by Christ to be redeemed from the sense. Talk to them
of their spirit, they will ask you to prove its existence ;
as if a man should ask you to prove that he hath eyes,
which if he have not yet discovered, you need not much
trouble yourself with the proof: so these men, having
no belief in the spirit, or the conscience, or the responsible
will, but saying, I am as God made me, and caring not to
know what God hath done or said to redeem them, do
shew that they cannot understand the word of God, which
speaketh to the spirit, and will not hold any converse with
the sense alone, save to rebuke it for its base pre.simiption
to set itself up to rule, nor with the understanding which
judgeth by the sense, save to rebuke its preposterous
pride in exalting itself above its place of servant to the
spirit. And thus it cometh to pass, that multitudes cannot
receive the seed of the word of Hod, because they under-
stand it not, having oppressed tlie faculty which alone is
competent to understand it ; upon whom it falleth like
seed upon the arid and frequcnud highway, to be tram
32 Ethical.
pled under foot or snatched away ; and well may it
be said of such, " Eyes have they, but they see not ;
ears have they, but they hear not ; neither do they under-
stand."
That this is the present character of our lettered classes,
I have not ceased from declaring since it pleased God to
call me to this ministry: and that they will use their
influence, through their vile traffic in newspapers and
magazines, and by schools of various sorts, to impress the
same character upon the common people also, I have from
the beginning perceived, and I am glad that at length my
brethren in the ministry are beginning to perceive it like-
wise. Now, where lies the cure ? I believe the cure
would have lain in preventing it; and that when it is
once established, there is no cure but in destruction :
society must go to wreck for ever, or else one generation
must must be well-nigh cut off. A nation never recovers
gradually out of an unspiritual state, when it hath suffered
itself to fall away from one that is spiritual. The disease
bursts out in a running sore of revolution, and it is long,
long before it heals. But Avhy is there no cure? For this
reason, that when a people fear not God they will no
longer regard the laws and ordinances of Juan. Eeligion
is not a thing of the creed merel}^ though its foundation
be there : the family rests upon it ; the marriage knot is
tied by it, and all the social obligations ; the political bond
is joined by it : every relation of superiors with inferiors
hath its safeguard in religion, which is the reverence of
invisible obligation. Make man disbelieve the invisible in
the highest sphere of the Divine will, and he will soon
disregard it in the lower spheres of the family, the house-
hold, and the state. Even already it is come to be disre-
garded with us among servants, who often see in their
masters more to hate than to love : even now it is disre-
garded in the state, which is more talked against than
commended by the people. And what family ties aie there
amongst our operative classes, I know, who have seen them
in their best and worst conditions ; and am bold to declare,
Intellectual Atheism. 'i^'^^
that in general parents make gain of their children, and
children seek to be rid of their parents. Would to God
this were the painting of my imagination ! I cannot say,
with St. Paul, that I could wish myself accursed from
Christ so that it were not so ; but I can say, I would give
this life ten times over that it were but a dream of my own.
But I have seen it all, and see it growing daily worse ;
and I know it must be so in such a state of outwardness
as we are come into. "But what is the cure?" I sa}',
the only cure is Jehovah's right hand and outstretched
ai'm, which will come in time. " But what is the part
of the minister of the gospel in such a crisis ? " To
tell that the wrath is gathering. " And no more ? "
To tell the people to flee from it, and lay open the way of
escape by repentance and tui"ning imto the Lord. " And
no more?" Yea, no more. " May not you argue it with
the people ? " Ay, argue it ; but this is the only argument
they wdll bear : for they see nothing but their interest and
pleasure, and they hear nothing but their pi'ofit and loss ;
therefore the Lord is about to plead with them by blows
and bereavements. " May we not condescend to argue
it in the court of the intellect merely ? " I think not.
" May we not dress out an argument of the political
advantage?" I think not. " AVhen then?" Give forth
the truth in a thundering peal of wrath : " Eepent, or
ye shall all likewise perish : Repent and believe, or ye
shall all likewise perish."
So the question standeth with the idolaters of the sen-
sible and visible, of the profitable and expedient, who in
these times compose the great body of the people, both
learned and unlearned, both high and low ; to whom Satan
appeareth as the prince of the knowledge and power of the
visible world ; wherewith he doth so take and captivate
their senses, and occupy all the faculties of their mind (if
mind it may be called) as to make them blind and deaf,
and of little or no understanding to hear, discern, or
apprehend the eternal truth, which is only spiritually
discerned. This is his infidel form, dressed out in all the
34 Ethical.
glory of natural science, and all the ornaments of the fine
and mechanical arts ; as he now sheweth himself in this
land, yea, in this age, leading an immense multitude away
from the faith of the gospel, and scattering diverse tempta-
tions into the Church ; which are taking effect and pro-
ducing the affectation of science, and scientific language,
and scientific methods of education, to which this age is so
very prone. And connected with it you shall always find
either refined or vulgar sensuality ; the ambition of bodily
or household ornaments and indulgences ; the thirst for
money to gratify the same ; the ambition of outward dis-
tinctions and visible glories for vanity and ostentation,
with a great quantity of furniture and apparatus of life
unknown and desired in a simple and spiritual age which,
if you would behold, look around you: whereby Satan not
only hath led astray the whole faculty of the scientific
men of Europe, with some one or two exceptions, but the
great body of the undergraduates and day-labourers in
this fraternity — that is, the artists and the artizans, tlie
mechanicians and the mechanics— of whom by far the
greater multitude you shall find veiy speedily, if they
be not already, plucked away from the ordinance of
preaching, and despising the word of God, which, amongst
its other blessings, hath made us such a wise and skilful
people. Wherein behold the black ingratitude of the child
to the mother ; for the sj^iritual is that Avhich hath given
to this land such mighty power over the mechanical, as
now hath caught us and our rulers with its idolatry : for
which ingratitude to His Church, when the Lord's long-
suffering is exhausted, we shall be visited with those
terrible judgments whereby alone the Lord is able to
make a sensual and outward people to understand His
voice.
( 35 )
THE NECESSITY OF FORMS,
The twofold nature of man, body and spirit, maketli it
necessary that eveiytliing by which he is to be moved
shotild have an outward form. While yet it lives in
spiritual essence alone, it is to him as if it lived not,
and its life hath over his life no influence or control.
Hence the great Father of Spirits hath given to all the
attributes of His being an outward form and manifestation.
The heavens declare His glory, and the earth sheweth
forth His handiwork ; and the sun which circleth round
the earth, is the tabernacle of His eflfulgency. The written
law, which is holy and just and good, is the form of His
holiness ; and the gospel of His Son is the form of His
mercy and grace. Heaven is the outward form of His
blessedness, and Hell of His fearful wrath against the
rebellious. And every doctrine in revelation is a form to
the intellect of some spiritual attribute of the Invisible ; —
the doctrine of the atonement, of His justice ; the doctrine
of the Holy Spirit, of His help. And to the most noble
and capital truths or doctrines, He giveth not only a form
for the intellect, but for the very sense of man. His incar-
nate Son is the fleshly form of His glory, and the visible
image of His person. The doctrine of our natural corrup-
tion and gTacious purification by the blood of Christ, hath
the sensible form of baptism. And the doctrine of our
continued sustenance by His "Word and Spirit, hath the
sensible form of the supper. And the doctrine of the
creation of the world, and the resurrection of Christ, which
is the re-creation of the world, hath the sensible form of
the weekly Sabbath. And the visible Church is the sensi-
ble form of the heavenly communion. And there is nothing
in the being and purposes of God, which it might benefit
man to know, that hath not a form of expressing itself
to the soul of man through the intellect or through the
sense,
Ivow, in like manner as God hath given to His spiritiial
being a constant form in revelation, so hath He appointed
D 2
36 Ethical.
nnto His servants to manifest ilieir spiritual being under
some constant form. To every man in his station He
hath appointed his duties ; to the servant and the master,
the husband and the wife, the parent and the child, the
ruler and the ruled ; which duties are the outward form
which His Holy Spirit taketh in these persons and con-
ditions. To a rich man, he hath given rules how to use
his riches, and to a poor man, how to bear his poverty ; to
a wise man, how to use his wisdom, and to a fool, how he
may be cured of his folly ; to the strong, how to employ
his strength, and to the sick, how to bear his affliction.
And so to all the various gifts of nature, allotments of pro-
vidence, and preferments of rank and power, hath God
appointed a certain formulary for their right manifesta-
tion in the sight of man; nor alloweth, without rebuke
and chastisement, that these conditions should be other-
wise occupied than for the ends for which He hath
bequeathed them diversely, that they might rightly oc-
cupy the diverse members of His great household, and
bring out the common weal of the whole family. And
while over every chamber of this world's variety He ap-
pointed a spiritual servant to preside, He did also appoint
an order of men superior to these, who should travel over
the many chambers of the house, and see that each servant
was rightly occupying till the great householder should
come ; stewards who should neither occupy the treasuiy
chambers, nor the attiring rooms, nor the bazaars of busi-
ness, nor the museums of knowledge, nor the shops of art,
nor the halls of judgment, nor the apartments of state and
dignity, nor the saloons of grace and beauty, nor the awful
places of throned sovereignty ; but who should travel over
all these from room to loom, even from the dark and
laborious ft)undations up to the stately elevations and
gilded pinnacles of society, surveying the work and occu-
pation of every inhabitant, and carefull3^ keeping them to
the right and diligent performance of their several parts,
that they may be able to render an account of their work
when the Lord shall come to call the work of every man
Necessity of Forms. 37
into jiulgmcnt. This watchful, careful office appcrtaineth
to the minister of the gospel or the pastor of the souls of
the people, iu which, if he faithfully travel, his shall be a
great reward. But if he stoop to engage himself with any
of the diverse traffics, and, meanwhile, for want of careful
oversight and spiritual instruction, the souls committed to
him go astray to serve other masters than the Lord, their
blood shall surel}' be upon his head.
Now, if the Lord our God hath taken to Himself a form
in the Scriptures for the instruction of man, and hath
instnicted each of us in His station to take a form for the
edification of one another, and wherever His counsels are
revered and obeyed, hath added the form of a minister,
who, standing aloof from the several engagements and their
temporal i-ewards, shall be His voice and messenger imto
the people, satisfied with the singular dignity thereof; is
it to be believed that He should have appointed no outward
form to those chief and leading men, who were to carry
abroad over the earth these celestial instnictions, and teach
the nations to rule their character and set forth their works
after the Avill and pleasure of their heavenly Father ; that
giving to all others good and particular instructions, how
they shall best and most happily fill their stations, He
should leave the perilous apostles and missionaries of the
whole institution no instructions as to the form which
they should take, in order to move the nations and prevail
on them to return to their rightful fealty to the Most
High ? This were to build a ship, with occupations for a
numerous crew, and berths provided for many officers and
men, but to make no provision how she should be launched
into the deep ; or, being launched into the deep, it were to
fill her with plentiful supplies to some distressed colon}',
and man her with able hands, but make no provision of a
skilful pilot and good instructions to carry her through the
strong currents and stormy winds which set adverse to her
course. The thing is not once to be imagined of Him who
is All-wise and All-provident, as well as All-good and
bountiful. A priori, before any appeal to the fact, it may
38 Ethical.
be concluded that tlie missionary, doubtless, will have his
form, as well as the people whom it is his calling to inform
after the will of God. And his form will be after the
fashion of the minister or pastor, somewhat more devout
and adventurous, as the discoverer and subduer of a
country needeth to be more adventurous than he who
keepeth it under regiment. The one fearless, the other
watchful ; the one expedite and ready for all encounters,
the other burdened with many charges ; the missionary a
spiritual warrior, the pastor a spiritual shepherd.
ORIGIN OF IDOLATRY.
The first great end which is served by a revelation of the
being and attributes of God is to recover the worship and
homage of His children from those idols to which, in the
absence of revelation, all men do naturally devote them-
selves ; and the best evidence which any man can have
that he doth rightly apprehend and appropriate the reve-
lation which God hath given, is that the excellence and
beauty thereof hath weaned him away from the particular,
idol on which his love was set, and reigneth supreme over
his whole heart and strength and soul and mind. For as no
nation hath yet been found so low and degraded as to be
without their idols, nor any nation before the time of
Christ so civilised by sciences or arts — for example, Egypt,
Greece, and Eome — as to be above the same prostration of
the soul; so we hold that, since the coming of Christ,
there is no nation, nor class of men, nor single man, let
them call themselves Atheists, Deists, or Unitarians, who
are delivered from idol-worship, neither can be saved but
by the faith of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Ghost. This will seem a very bold and uncharitable asser-
tion, if by an idol you understand only that which is fabri-
cated of wood or stone or clay or precious metal, which
truly is not the idol, but the image or symbol of the
idol. The idol itself is the idea which the worshippers
Origin of Idolatry. 39
form concerning his being and powers, and the Avorship
of the idol is the subjecting of their faith to that idea
which the}' have fonned. The statue or pictui-e is a reve-
lation of the god to the sense, which the sense doth bow
to and reverence ; but if there be any affection of the
mind, as hope or desire, or pui-pose of any kind, engaged
in the worship — which, indeed, there seldom is in image-
worship — it pays its homage, not to the sensible object
before the eye, but to the idea of power, of mercy, or
of goodness residing in the being of which that image
is the symbol. The essence of idolatry, therefore, con-
sists in the mind worshipping its own conceptions and
ideas, however exalted and enlarged, instead of the living
and true God, who made the heavens and the earth, and
all the creatures which are therein. And in this sense it
is that we asserted above that no nation, nor class, nor
individual, are free from idol-worship until they receive
by faith that revelation which God hath given of Himself
as Father, Son, and H0I3' Ghost. Into the consideration of
which matter let us now enter at large.
All idolatry hath its origin in the veiy highest regions
of the mind, being nothing else than the strong effort of
the mind to constitute forms of being more noble than
itself, before whom it may confess the infirmities which
compass it about, and of whom it may seek counsel and
help in the midst of the perplexities which beset its course.
It is the natural form of piety and reverence and religion
towards that which is higher than we, and springs up in
the mind spontaneously, as society doth towards our equals
in being, and command towards our inferiors in being.
^Ve see without us a sphere of power so infinitely above
the power of man, in the thunder and the hurricanes of
wind, in the agitations of the deep sea and the still motions
of the starry frame, — which mysteries of power the pro-
gress of knowledge, far from unriddling, in its unlearned
and ignorant conceit, doth at evejy step multiply the more,
until every blade of grass and drop of dew is a woild of
wonder within itself, and we feel within us ideas of ex-
40 Ethical.
cellence in every kind beyond what we can attain nnto, or
by our speech shadow forth — tnith so crystalline, purity so
vestal-chaste, justice so unerring, charity so very vast,
knowledge so full of light, speech so big with wisdom,
motive so redolent of grace, and life so full of blessedness.
All which mysteries of the inward conscience, like the
mysteries of outward power, so far from being brought
within our practical comprehension by progressive ad-
vances therein, are widened and rendered measureless, so
that the most conscientious, as the most knowing, men
have by far the most clear discernment of their amplitude,
and the most complete conviction of man's utter inability
ever to possess them. These heights and depths and
lengths and breadths in the world that is visible to the
sense, and the world that is visible to the spirit, are without
a people or nation to possess them, or to rule over them ;
and man, by all his powers, doth only discover the more
his incapacity to shake these spheres, or enjoy these very
pleasant lands. He cannot think they should be without
wise government and blessed possession when he perceives
all the inferior provinces of nature under their several
possession less or more intelligent — the sea given to the
fish, the land to the tribes of beasts, and the air to the fowls
of heaven, the very soil of the earth to the creeping things,
and all sheep and oxen, fish and fowl and creeping things,
given into the hand of man, each fitted and furnished
for his several masterhood, and likewise for his several
subserviency. Perceiving this in the visible, and per-
ceiving likewise in the invisible that the spheres are filled
by various powers of instinct, from the lowest animal up
to the sphere of human intelligence, and thathiunan in-
telligence is formed to discover an infinitude beyond it of
nobler things, where there is no mastery or possession in
the creatures, but, on the other hand, instinct to submit,
reverence, and worship ; — what is left to him but to people
this infinitude with nobler beings, who possess the mastery
and enjoy the blessedness thereof? These are the gods of
the nations, excelling one another in the greatness of their
Origin of Idolatry. 41
attributes and the dignity of their forms exactly as the
nations whoso worship they receive excel one another in
the extent of their knowledge and the refinement of their
spirit. Idolatry is, therefore, the mind's business in the
ideal spheres above her, as society is her business in the
real sphere around her, and power or mastery is her busi-
ness in the spheres below her. And the nation which
bath not devised for itself an idolatry is at the lowest and
most hopeless ebb, having forgotten the faculties whereby
the soul holdeth of religion.
Idolatry, therefore, hath its origin in the honest faith
and conviction of the mind that there is a form of being
more noble than itself, and the character of the idol
dependeth upon the nature of that idea which the mind
hath formed concerning the most perfect forms of being.
Amongst the Egyptians, who followed after the arts of
peace and the culture of the earth, those were exalted into
the rank of gods who had been the greatest inventors in
agriculture and the arts, and under whose government the
land had flourished most. Amongst the Greeks, who
followed after the perfection and elegance of life, those
were raised to the condition of gods who had reclaimed
the earth from the power of wild beasts and savage men,
and laid the rude foundations of the state. Among the
northern nations, whose whole soul was bent on war, and
who viewed it as a bondage to till the ground or labour in
the arts of peace, the gods were invested with the fearful
attributes of power and strength, and their blessedness
placed in the strife of battle, the glory of revenge, and the
red cup of victory. And it would be found universally, if
we could trace the histoiy of idolatry to its sources, that
the gods which the blinded nations worship were at first
the deifications of men who excelled the rest of their kind
in phj'sical and moral power, who afterwards became sym-
bolical of whatever more enlarged and ennobled thoughts
men afterwards attained unto in that class of the ideal
region to which each of these personifications belonged.
But while I thus endeavour to search out before you the
42 Ethical.
origin of idolatry in the mind of man, and refer it to
the high pLace to which it is entitled, let me beware of
Tbeguiling you into the idea that it is a thing good in itself,
or at all to be tolerated by Christian minds. It is, as we
^hall shew in the sequel, at the best but the mind's adora-
tion of its own most excellent qualities — self-worship,
productive of pride and selfishness, and hostile to true
religion, of which the first lesson is humility, and the
constant progress is charity. And when the idea becomes
embodied in a sensible form, no nobleness in the thought
or excellence in the workmanship can abate the debasing
effect of subjecting the faith of religion to the mediation
of the sense. It is putting the highest region of the soul
in subjection to the lowest ; it tenants that unoccupied
region with inanimate matter, and by the baseness of the
inter mediiim brings the soul from its soarings down to
grovel in the base substratum of the senses. God forbid
that I should palliate that most hateful and wicked
whoredom of the soul, against which His anger is ever
kindled, and for the chastisement of which He hath armed
His hand with more tenible judgments than for any other
of mortal oftences ! Nay, my purpose is far otherwise ;
and, if I fail not, it is a most righteous purpose, by
gearching into the sources of idolatry to shew unto the
men of this age, who most do pride themselves on their
deliverance from idolatry', that they also are idolaters in
their kind, and must continue so until they reverently
submit to take lessons of simple faith, and receive those
revelations which God hath made for the satisfaction of
those high cravings out of which idolatry springs. To
open which, the idolatry of these present times, permit me
to enter a little further into the natural generation of this
evil principle in the human breast.
In the dawn and infancy of reason, when weakness and
insignificancy of every kind compass us about, our parents
become the objects of our idolatry, because we see in
them a strength, and wisdom, and goodness which is ever
looking with tenderness upon our ignorance and need of
Origin of Idolatry. 43
help. Our strong affections leading our infant judgment,
and aided by the instincts of nature and the constant
presence of the object, fix upon them as the perfect fonn
of being, and we render to them that homage and worship
without which, as we have shewed, no spirit in an in-
artificial state can ever exist. Hence in many languages
the dut}^ of children to their parents is denominated by the
same word — " piety " — which is used to denote reverence
towards God. Of the first form of idolatry God is not
jealous of the child, which, by the first of social com-
mandments, He hath instructed to honour its father and
mother, while by many commandments, which He hath
exalted into a visible form in the rite of baptism, He
hath taken careful order to instruct parents that they
should take advantage of this early tendency of the infant
mind to raise it to the true Father in heaven; which if
they neglect to do, retaining to themselves the honour
whereof they are unworthy, then it cometh to pass that
their children, as they grow up and discern their miserable
shortcomings in the clear-sightedness of a single eye,
looking far over and beyond their worldly character into
the ideal of perfection from which their parents have
flinched back into base worldly measures, their better
ideas having no other form or emblem to fix upon, grow
roving and wandering, and clogging the affections or even
the humours of their mind, they make unto themselves
idols of their companions, or their mistresses, or their own
selfishness, and follow after ambition, avarice, pleasure,
or some fonn of wordliness, till they love the very faculty
by which thej' held early communion with the perfect foims
of the spirit, and sink into practical materialists or practical
utilitarians, consulting only their sense and conveniency.
When the intellect begins to develop itself, and to throw
off childish thoughts, and we come to be introduced into
the schools of knowledge, our idolatiy turns from our
parents, if they have made no progress in this kind, and
fixes itself upon our teacher, or our favourite author, or the
most distinguished living character in that science which
44 Ethical.
we follow after. Or if we be of an envious rather tlian of
a generous turn, it fixes upon some one of the illustrious
dead, amougst whose disciples we rank ourselves, and look-
ing up to him as the real form of that intellectual perfec-
tion of which we now are in quest, we pay our worship at
this shrine until we see over him into another sphere, into
which we look about for another idol of the intellect. And
a book stored with the wisdom which we seek, or a monu-
ment of art embodying the grace which we admire, or an
abstract science, or one of the fine arts, or the presiding
genius of them, will suffice for this cold idolatry of the
intellect, which is called devoting ourselves to the Muses.
But when the atfections come again into play in our manly
frame, and the soul seeks about for those unions by which
the misery of life may be comforted, — a friend closer than
a brother, or a wife closer than a friend, — then the soul
again wanders about for another living object of idolatry,
and having found some one nearly expressing the idea
which it has formed of perfect womanhood, it abandons
itself to the idolatry of love, and adopts the very language
of worship, and is guilty of all speeches and actions which
others call extravagant, but which really are not extra-
vagant when you remember that it is not to the real
person, but to the ideal divinity to which it is addressing
itself, not affection but religious worship, which it is
bestowing upon that living creature which represents its
highest conception of being. As we grow older and
acquire more exact perceptions of the imperfect creatures
we are surrounded with, — as we grow wiser, and discover
the limited understanding and weak character of every
human being that hath existed, we turn our idolatry away
from the sons and daughters of men, and endeavour to create
some visible good, or invisible abstraction, before which to
bow the knee of our heart and soul. And that M^hich we fix
upon is generally determined by the practical habits and
customs of our life. If, like the multitudes, we live chiefly
to the sense, and consider what we shall eat, what we
shall drink, and wherewithal we shall be clothed, then the
Origin of Idolatry. 45
sense usurping it over tlie understanding and tlio spirit,
obligeth the whole man to bow down and worship the
sensible forms of things, and chiefly money, which is the
mediator of this religion, through whose intercession all
requests to the material god must be addressed. These
regard the creature as the creator, for to them it is the
creator — viz., that which creates the sensations of pleasure
and pain, which they have chosen to call the chief good of
life and the chief end of man. And therefore they bow
down to the creature, to the kindly fruits of the earth,
the sweet odours, the distilled spirits, the most pungent
essences, the most beautiful colours, the costliest dainties,
the scarcest rarities, and whatever else is new, curious,
substantial, and exhilarating in the visible universe. Such
I reckon to be beneath the brutes, for the brute looketh up
with reverence to man, while they look down with reve-
rence to inanimate matter.
^Vhen the understanding hath been brought to perfec-
tion by the training of our youth, — that is, the faculty of
the spirit which knoweth and understandeth the creature,
— then it sometimes asserteth its superiority over the sense,
and maketh the sense do offices of observation for its sake ;
but as often the sense getteth the superiority and maketh
the understanding cater and refine things for its pleasant
entertainment, and most frequently the two establish a
good agreement and work to each other's hand, — and in
every case, from the highest astronomer who scans the
heavens and measures the motions thereof, down to the
lowest cook who studies new comforts for the palate of
man, they do become, every one of them who employeth
no other f\iculty than this understanding of the visible,
idolaters of the visible creation, some of the immaterial,
some of the vegetable, others of the animal, and some of
the heavenly forms of nature. I do not say idolaters of the
objects themselves, but of the pleasures which they yield
to the sense, or the harmonies which they shew to the
intellect, either of the enjoyments or of the science, of
nature's gift to affect the sense or her gift to afi'ect the
46 Ethical.
intellect, or both. And if you ask the greatest savant for
his notion of God, he tells you it is the universal power,
the universal motion, — that is, the thing which is calculable
or measurable, which casts up the different aspects and
carries on the different motions of the universe. Nature
is their creator : for why ? because nature creates those
perceptions in the understanding and the sense, — for they
are never separated, — ■ the science of which perception
they have agreed to call their chief good and the only end
of their being.
Again, those who have turned their attention, not to the
inferior natures of fruits and plants, and lower creatures,
but to human nature, to men and manners, to politics,
economics, and the other things included in the common
weal of men, looking always to the outward vi'orking of
the machine, and to the powers appointed to construct,
govern, and adjust it, if they look not inward upon the soul
itself, of which human society is but a bare function, it
happeneth that they become worshippers of good society
in one or other of its forms, — some worshipping merry
companionship, others elegant society, others mercantile
associations, others political governments, others adminis-
trations of justice, and others expediency or economy in
general. These classes devote themselves to the social
principle which is implanted in the spirit of man, and
make an idol of that form of society which satisfies their
idea the best ; or they go a step higher, and apply, by
the understanding resting upon experience, to the genei'al
laws of society, and worship the science of outward well-
being, or utility, in its various forms — police, legislation,
jurisprudence, government, or expediency in general. If
you ask such persons to give you a definition of their God,
they quote you a chapter from the Unitarian confession of
faith, saying that He is a God who hath created all things
as they are, and governs them as we see them to be go-
verned, who has instituted certain checks and counter-
checks, and will raise all up to a general inquest, after
which He will adjudge to every one just so much punish-
Origin of Idolatry. 47
ment as will reform them, and so set the world up again
in a state of good order, that the' machine thns read) nested
may have another trial. Hell is the penitentiary of the
criminals, heaven the city of the well-behaved, the earth
the state of probation, the gospel the spirit of the statutes,
and God the governor-general of the whole.
There is still another form of idolatry, higher and nobler
in its kind than any of the preceding, which is proper to
men of more large and cultivated minds, who are not
content with the enjoyments of sense, nor the results of
understanding, nor the well-being of outward society, but
look inward upon the dignity of the spirit itself, regarding
the visible universe as its mansion to dwell in, and the
matter of the universe as the furnishing of the house.
These look upon the attributes of spii-it as spirit, its
command over matter, its penetration into the mysteries of
matter, its control over itself, its creative power of reason
shewn forth in ideas and imaginations that have no out-
ward form, its inward joys and distresses, its divine faculty
of discourse with other spirits and most wondrous inven-
tion of words and symbols, whereby to reveal all its secret
cogitations and unembodied feelings, and considering what
a noble thing a spirit is, they desire, in the God whom
they frame unto themselves, that all these qualities of
spirit should meet in an infinite degree and haimonise in
unbroken communion. They require Him to be all-might}-,
omnipresent, omniscient, of infinite wisdom, justice, good-
ness, and truth. In a word, they take the form of the
human spirit, magnify its proportions to an infinite size,
and call this idea their God; the spirit making a perfect
model of itself, an Apollo Belvidere of spirit, and bowing
down doth worship it. This is the idolatry to which we
Protestants are liable from our metaphysical inclination to
render all revelation into the form of abstract propositions,
and give definitions of God after the rules of logic; and
out of it have grown the school of Unitarians and Deists,
who, not restrained by the authority of the Scriptures, as
the other Protestants are, have put them also through the
48 Ethical.
distillation of logical methods, and so perfected this idolatiy
of the human spirit. For I hold their God to be no better
than an ideal perfection of the mind of man. They who
rail against all the world as idolaters, are the idolaters of
the mind ; they worship an imagination, the Catholics
worship an image ; the one a spiritual, the other a sensual
idolatry ; the one the breach of the first commandment,
the other the breach of the fii'st and the second.
All these forms of idolatry which have been described
above are the productions of faith untutored and misguided.
Were there no faith, each man would be an idol to himself,
or the man who comes nearest to perfection would be his
idol. But the faith that there is a more perfect still than
any one hath reached, delivers men from the worship of
themselves, or one another, into the worship of that stronger,
wiser, better form of Being, which they feel to be possible,
and cannot live without conceiving, and hope to be some-
where or everywhere around them. But until the reality
of its existence be demonstrated, this production of their
faith will have no authority over them, and can be the
object of no worship. It indicates the natural desire of
the mind to have, and its propensity to create, an object
of worship. But after it hath done its best to purify and
exalt its ideas, and exerted its utmost powers of creation
to give them form and being, it is even at the best but
the worship of self under disguise. For who imaged the
conception? I myself. Who gave it form? I myself.
They do all create their God, as the Grecian metaph3'sician
boldly announced to his students, and went about in a
workman-like manner. It seems blasphemy, but it is
blasphemy only in the wording, — in the idea it is truth.
Every religion which resteth not on revelation, hath a god
created by ourselves, fabricated to the form most pleasant
to the sense, to the conception most consistent with the
vmderstanding, or to the idea most noble to the reason, but
in all cases self-fabricated ; and, therefore, self-exalting
not self-humbling, self- concentrating not self-enlarging,
producing selfishness not love, breaking up societ}^ not
Origin of Idolatry. 49
cementing it, not religions, not real, not above us but in
us, not of another spirit but of our own spirit.
Yet they are all, as hath been said, the production of the
natural faith in a nobler and a better, a more powerful
and more wise, and none of them come of knowledge
which concerns the real existent thing, the matter of fact,
the fixed and certain verity. They come of that faculty
of man which bodies the unknown, and gives to aiiy
nothing a local habitation and a name ; of which faculty
it may be said that it is to the mind what the leaves are
to the tree, which inhale the life of the plant from the
atmosphere, and transmute the atmospheric life into flowers
and fruits, for in like manner by faith the mind doth
gather in living, vigorous strength to act within itself,
and profit by the outward world for the increase of its
knowledge, — it being certain that if faith of higher things
were to die, invention would fail, and all knowledge and
art would stand still or retrograde, as in the East they
have come down into the form of proverbial sayings and
mechanical rules. There might be knowledge for use,
but none would there be for growth. And even that for
use would wear away unless faith, the great projector of
the mind, were ever busy projecting its ideas and pre-
senting its devices. For the advancement of knowledge,
therefore, in all its kinds, the activity of this natural faith
is most profitable, but for religion it is not profitable,
except as it indicates the necessity of revelation, and
somewhat prepares the way for its reception.
It doth indicate the necessity of revelation by demon-
strating, in a thousand ways, the tendency of the soul to
cast its highest conceptions into the form of life, and
construct of them a living being, though conscious the
while that it is not a reality but a fiction; wherein the
soul, by a holy instinct, doth play false with her sense
and her knowledge. She hath such a reverence for human
life, that holy of holies in the temple of creation, that she
will bow down to nothing which hath not the human
form. Either in body doth she chisel out her finest
E
50 Ethical.
fancies of a god, or in the workshop of the mind she doth
the work, but still it is a form of the human spirit which
she hath framed for herself. And though some nations, as
the Egyptians, have worshipped the lower animals, which
the Brahmins do still, think not, in this first projection,
that it was the very brute that they meant the people to
bow before, but some attribute of the Divinity thereby
symbolised, as His generous nourishment of us by the
cow, His glory by the sun, His pervading spirituality by
the symbol of fire. And at this day, though the Catholics
bow down to statues and pictures, these were at first
designed as emblems of some high and holy saintliness to
which they should offer their homage, though now to the
gross sense of the people they have become, as in Egypt
and India, real divinities. This uuiversal tendency of the
mind of man to give the object of its natural worship
the form of a living spirit, and even to embody it under the
human form, doth loudly testify that the revelation which
is suited to them ought to be the revelation of a living
spirit having relations to the spirit of man ; and it doth
also seem to require that this spirit should assume the
form of man, to shew man that perfect form of human
nature, that human type of perfection after which he is
ever seeking to worship, — that upon this Emanuel, God
with us, it may fix its single devotion, without the sin of
idolatry, but to the help of the worship of ihe true God.
I do think that so much may be inferred from the account
which hath been rendered of idolatry, first, that the
object of worship must be a living spirit; and se(!ondly,
that it must have some very close relaticm to the form of
the human spirit, to the adoration of which we have seen
that man is drawn by all his highest instincts, to which he
hath been addicted through all his history, and from
which he is not exempted in these highly intellectual and
refined times, as we are pleased to term them, I think
even more inferences may be diawn from tlie matter of
this discourse, that as tlieie are these three things to
which man's idolatry is directed, — fii'st, his own form or
Origin of Idolatry. 51
make of being as distinct from all the other creatures,
that is, his own distinctiveness, that which he calls I, and
which is no other than his liberty or will ; secondly, the
created universe outward of himself, and the law of his
own creation, which is reason, and the outward objects
with which reason holds discourse ; thiidly, the society of
man with man, or the spirit of communion, or the laws
of human fellowship ; — I say, as these three must include
all forms of idolatry — the idolatry of the will, the idolatry
of the reason, and the idolatry of communion — it may, I
think, be inferred that the revelation of the true God, in
order to abolish all three idolatries by occupying the
provinces in which they dwell, ought to present a three-
fold aspect, and hold out threefold relations to the human
spirit, in order that in the Godhead man may wholly
live, and wholly move, and wholly have his being.
So much, I think, may be gathered from the above
inquiry into the common source and natural generation
of idolatry in the soul of man. But into this matter I
enter not at present, reserving much matter for future
discourses, enough having been said to convey some most
solemn warnings and most awful lessons to your mind, of
which, in few words, take these following : —
First, That every man is liable to idolatry of one kind
or another, nay, is an idolater of some kind, unless he have
fairly and fully submitted his fail.h to receive the true
revelation which God hath made concerning Himself.
Secondly, That in proportion as we endeavour to work
the revelation which God hath made of Himself into con-
sistency with our own conceptions, and, as it were, to cast
it over again in the moulds of reason, we do so far forth
mingle clay and the seed of men with the pure gold, and
bring its glory into shame, its strength into weakness,
and its beauty into baseness.
Thirdly, That poetrj^ and philosophy, and science, and
sentiment, and every other more noble function of the soul,
cannot, in their own strength, exalt themselves into reli-
gion,— can only attain unto more beautiful and perfect
E 2
52 Ethical.
forms of idolatry, but can never constitute over themselves
any power which may be a restraint to wickedness, a help
to weakness, or a comfort in affliction. They can discover
the best in themselves, and worship it ; but a better than
themselves they cannot make, so as to believe it real, and
trust in it as real.
Fourthly, That however much the Catholics and other
idolaters of the earth deserve to be blamed, and loudly call
upon our help, there is among OTirselves, appertaining to
our proudest classes of intellectual men, idolatries which
are as fatal to the soul, and only more grievous because
they are more difficult to be demonstrated to their miser-
able slaves.
Lastly, That religion itself — I do not say the religion of
the Unitarians, which I have said is pure idolatry, but the
religion of many orthodox Christians, who little think it —
is often mingled with idolatry, and that according as it
rests upon the conceptions of other men embodied in
creeds, and resteth not wholly upon the faith of the Divine
testimony concerning Himself.
SUPERIORITY OF DIVINE TO HUMAN KNOWLEDGE.
To be brought into the secret counsels of the Almighty,
Dy familiar teaching of one Himself almighty, is an
exaltation of human nature only surpassed by the perfect
satisfaction which it yields to her various conditions. To
know things as they are to be, and have no perplexities
about the future — this is the resolution of a thousand
doubts which were wont to afflict the speculation of man.
To have that future filled with life and immortality,
honour and glory — this is the conquest of all earthly
trials and troubles. To know what is best to be done in
every predicament from the mouth of God — this is safety.
To know, when we have done amiss, where to find forgive-
ness— this is relief. To know in life's embarrassments
where to look for sufficient help — this is assurance. In
Superiority of Divine to Human Knowledge. 53
life's disappointments to know a haven to flee to, and in.
life's griefs a Comforter to repose on ; — to have, in short,
the faculties of our minds directed, and the ambiguities of
our conduct cleared up, our prayers listened to, and our
want supplied — this is unspeakable privilege, and the
knowledge which unlocks it, is not only the eternal but
the present life of man.
Oh! why do men stop short, contenting themselves
with the troublesome part of knowledge, but from this, in
which lieth its true delectation, turning themselves away ?
ITow many are content to know only the arts of their
livelihood, as if the hands were all the faculties of man,
and his body all his consignment from God. Ah! what
comes of love, and devotion and ambition, and the other
faculties of the inward man ! and with the hands what can
the soul lay up for eternity ? Faith must supply her with
a busy hand, and the Scriptures with a fei'tile field whereon
to labour, which, being employed, she will speedily treasure
up a sufficiency for eternity.
Not less have the prime ministers and chosen favourites
of knowledge departed from the fountain of intelligence.
Becoming acquainted 'U'ith some chamber of nature's
secrets, they think to find satisfaction there : and a
satisfaction they find — the vulgar satisfaction of being
honoured, flattered, and perhaps enriched. Equal satis-
faction have the most ignorant, who happen to be bom
affluent or noble; but wisdom's higher satisfaction, con-
sisting in a soul enlightened, and disabused of prejudice
and error, and contented with its sphere, it hath not been
my lot to find amongst the wise of this world's generation.
Their knowledge alters not their hearts, but opening new
fields for gratifying temper, gives strength to the evil as
often as to the good of human nature, making them more
powerful either to good or ill ; and hence, according to
St. Paul, it puflfeth up. But if, instead of resting in the
blind adoration of nature, which, being uninspired with
soul, cannot benefit their soul with its communions, they
would rise to nature's God, and acknowledge Him not
54 Ethical.
only as powerful to create and move the universe, but as
condescending to visit and merciful to save His meanest
creature, then would their travelling with knowledge bless
them, and add no sorrow, but advance them into the
fellowship of God's nature and blessedness.
Such are the benefits which accrue to us from the know-
ledge of the word of God, that nothing derived from any
other kind of knowledge can compensate for its absence.
Political knowledge carried to excess makes men proud,
bitter, and contentious. Poetical knowledge carried to ex-
cess disposeth men to be contemptuous of the wise and
prosaic ordinances of customary life. Practical knowledge
of affairs makes men worldly and artful. Knowledge of
the Scriptures is the only wisdom which shall elevate
a man's conceptions, while it purifies his principles and
sweetens his temper, and makes his conduct bountiful and
kind to all around. No matter what be your condition,
you shall find direction how to dignify and adorn it, and
make it large enough, for the sanctification of your spirit
for heaven.
MANS LIMITED KNOWLEDGE.
How few things are we able to examine to the bottom,
or see in their first principles, which yet we adhere to, out
of that faith we have in the opinion of our brethren ; each
man bringing his own share to the common stock of true
opinion and righteous feeling ! This is the community
out of which all communities spring, the community of
belief and sentiment ; the mother of common customs, the
mother of common laws ; and the parent of it is God him-
self, who hath formed the minds and hearts of men alike.
So likewise is it in the Church, which is the mother of
saints and the community of the Holy Spirit ; to whose
words, especially those which she caused to be written as
her faith, we defer with a great reverence ; and to her
customs also, until it be made manifest that they were
rashly taken up, or gradually crept in through an evil
Mans Li77iited Knowledge. 55
influence, and, as it were, a side-wind of Satan. The
notion, of every man examining every matter for himself,
is a poor, ignorant, self-conceited vagary, which Satan can
palm only upon an exceedingly vain generation, but which
he hath found this generation weak enough to adopt :
whereby he hath loosed all reverence and dependence upon
authority of every kind, and prepared men for jostling in
wild confusion and strife, like the atoms of the primitive
chaos. For what bindeth and knitteth men in social com-
munities, and maketh them necessary to each other's well-
being, but this very thing, that the one reposeth on the
other for some help or ministr}^ which he cannot accomplish
for himself. This also binds generation with generation,
and maketh men progressive. Examine for thyself! Thou
preposterous fool ! what is that thou eatest ? " Bread."
Hast thou analj'sed it, and proved it to be good ? Go to,
examine it : wouldst thou take thy daily food on trust,
thou examiner and prover of all things ? And thy drink !
Dost thou know the composition of water and all liquors ?
And thy knowledge ! young man. Dost thou know thy
father or thy mother by memory ? or hast thou it on trust.
And thy actions ! young man. Didst thou make the
statutes and the customs ? or hast thou proved them all by
Paine's ' Eights of Man ' ? And thy trade ! young man.
Didst thou invent all its tools, and discover anew all its
methods of using them ? or did thy master beat thee into it ?
And, at school, didst thou enter into learned debate with
thy teacher, why that mark should sound A, rather than
B ; and his fellow B, rather than A ? O thou naughty boy,
what a fool they make of thee ! what a conceited fool they
do svvell thee into, with this maxim of proving all things !
" Ah, but religion ; religion, sir, is another matter ; and a
man must not take that on trust, on any man's opinion." I
grant thee thou must not; and therefore go to this night
and begin thy study, but begin in a humble mood ; for the
first lesson of it is, that of all enemies, thou hast most to
guard against thine own deceitful heart. That natural
man of thine is the stronghold of the enemy ; therefore,
56 Ethical.
trust not to him. "To whom, then, shall I trust?" To
thy Creator and thy Redeemer, and somewhat to every
man who is by the Holy Ghost renewed in their image, and
thyself when thou art so renewed.
To show the utter arrogancy of man in thus seeking to
set himself independent of his Maker, and to mark the
small bounds of his power, he puts the question, " Which
of you, by taking thought, can add one cubit to his
stature ?" That is, to what amounteth all this care about
the body, and its accommodations, and all the proud
boastfulness consequent thereon ? Can you make it a cubit
higher with all your thought ? Can you change the laws
of life or of death, of health or of disease, with your thought
and carefulness ? What a deep philosophy there is in this
question, if men would but give it their study ! and how
would it disabuse them of their pride in natural science,
and bring them back again to the humility of faith and
truth ! The lesson is this, that man, by all his resources
of knowledge and art, cannot create anything new upon
the earth, or give new properties to anything created, but
merely work upon those properties which they have had
since the world began. He doth not make the sun to
shine forth in summer, but only provideth all things for
his coming : he doth not give the earth or the manure of
the earth their faculty of conveying the moisture of the
heavens with kindly ministry to the roots of plants and
herbs : he doth not give to the seed her quality of repro-
ducing her kind : he doth not give to the wheat its faculty
of nourishment, or to the grass its cheerfulness, or to the
fleece its warmth, or to the body any organ, faculty, or
power of various life. And why thy boasting, fool ! when
thou art working in another's workshop, and forging with
another's tools, and using his wonderful machines, whereof
thou understandest not one, no not a single one, and thou
callest them thine own, and boastest thyself as if thou wert
the creator and deviser of them all ! Canst thou, by taking
thought, add a cubit to thy stature ? I wish I could teach
these recreant renegadoes called men of science this lesson.
Christ ill Creation. 5 7
I would they would set to work and make us a little flesh
out of bread and water, or quicken us a little which is
dead, or do some feat of their own worthy of being talked
about, with all their philosophy, mechanical and chemical.
Why can they not help us in a famine, or create us a little
gold for the starved currency, or do something worthy of a
name ? And who helpeth them to that chief part of every
operation in which they cannot help themselves ? It is
nature. Well, then, let them give nature her due worship,
and not take it all to themselves, the boastful crew. What
temples build they to her ? what worship offer they to
her ? They cheat her also. They would not only deprive
us of our God and Father, but they will deprive their own
goddess of reason, or nature, in order that they may have
all to the credit of their own individual science and skil-
fulness.
CHRIST IN CREATION : THE CHURCH THE FIRST-FRUITS.
Beside the animal creation, which was originally subject
unto man, and is now subject unto him again in the person
of Christ Jesus, there is the inanimate or elemental crea-
tion also, which hath escaped from its subserviency, and
become enslaved unto evil. The poisons which the earth
produceth, the noxious vapours exhaled from the waters,
and the deadly infections which the air scattereth abroad,
the storms and tempests which devastate the face of the
woild, — these, and all other violences, are the signs of that
bondage into which sin hath brought all things, and out
of which Christ by His righteousness hath redeemed all
things. And when the fulness of the time is come for Him
to appear again, He shall come as the Liberator of all
nature from her thraldom. If, now, Christ have in hand
power to redeem all nature out of the bonds of evil, and
the Church have in the Holy Ghost a first-fniits thereof,
she must possess the power of miracles, to arrest the evil
course of things, and to turn them into that righteous
course which they shall obsei-ve for ever; power she
2 8 Ethical.
ought to possess over the laws of the world, such as was
possessed by our Lord when He stilled the raging winds
and calmed the tempestuous deep. And forasmuch as
poisons are the most pregnant evidences of the evil con-
dition of nature, Christ, by giving to him that beheveth
power over the same to suspend their evil effects, doth
thereby give unto His Church the best first-fruits of that
power which He now possesseth, and she shall hereafter
possess,— the power to press out from every plant, and
from every element of nature, the various principles of
death and destructiveness. For which reason it is, that in
the Scriptures all nature is represented as rejoicing in the
prospect of the Lord's coming ; as for example : " Let
the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad ; let the sea
roar, and the fulness thereof ; let the field be joyful, and
all that is therein : then shall all the trees of the wood
rejoice before the Lord : for he cometh to judge the earth:
he shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people
with his truth." (Ps. xcvi.)
Disease of every kind is mortality begun. Now, as
Christ came to destroy death, and will yet redeem the
body from the bondage of corruption, if the Church is to
have a first-fruits or earnest of this power, it must be by
receiving power over diseases, which are the first-fruits
and earnest of death ; and this being given to her, com-
pletes the circle of her power. For in creation there is no
more than these five parts : the pure spirit, the embodied
soul of man, the body of man, the animal creation and the
inanimate world : of all which sin hath taken possession,
and over all which Christ hath obtained superiority, to
reconstitute them in that way which shall for ever demon-
strate the being and attributes of God. This superiority,
this ownership, He now inheriteth in sole right and pos-
session ; but, evermore willing to shew forth His dutiful-
ness to His Father, not less on heaven's throne than in the
garden of Gethsemane and on the cross, He doth wait upon
the Father's will to determine the time when the day of
complete redemption shall at length arrive; and the
Christ in Creation. 59
Father, in order to gratify tho Son, and make known 11 is
surpassing goodness and the riches of His glory, doth beget
unto Him, out of sinful flesh, a body, the Church, unto
whom He may communicate His fulness, and by whom He
may express it unto all creation ; ruling and goveniing. by
these His kings and priests, those innumerable worlds
which He hath purchased with His blood, (for the
heavenly things, as well as the earthly t lungs, were
purified by His blood :) and meanwhile, until the day of
the refreshing, until the restitution of all things cometh.
He doth, by means of this Church, which the Father hath
given to Him for a body, and which He hath informed
with His own Spirit, communicate a first-fruits and earnest
of that power which He is hereafter by their means to
express in its fulness, and to hold for ever. And this He
doth to the end that devils, and devil-possessed men, ma}'
know the certainty of that doom which abideth ihem, and
that the latter may cast in their lot with the righteous and
be saved ; while to the bodies of men, and to all inferior
creation. He doth make sure that redemption from the
grave and from the curse which they shall surely obtain.
This first-fruits of power, to cast the devils into hell, to
raise the bodies of the dead, and to hold the superiority of
all inferior creation, being possessed by the believing
Church, doth continually demonstrate and signify unto
the world who, and of what kind, their Redeemer is;
who, and of what kind, is that man, Jesus of Nazareth,
whom God hath constituted both Christ and Lord. This
first-fruits and earnest of the inheritance of power and
prerogative, which under Him we are yet to hold, is like-
wise the Church's argument to men of their certain de-
struction, if they come not forth from the world ; of their
superlative dignity and honour, if they do come forth from
it into the bosom of the Church. It is a sign of that which
we preach Christ to be, — Lord of all. It is a sign of that
which we preach Him as about to do, — to cast out devils,
to raise the dead, and to liberate the creature. It is a sign
of what we, the Church, are, in real uninterrupted union
6o Ethical.
with Him, holding a real power under Him, — the arm of
His strength, the temple of His presence, the tongue
of His Spirit, the manifoldness of His wisdom, the kings
and the priests of Christ for God.
CHRIST THE FORESHADOWED OP NATURE AND SPIRIT.
Thodgh there was a creation of angels, and likewise of
men, before the bringing in of the Christ, or the revealing
of the Man-God, it is constantly set forth in Holy Scripture
that, to manifest Him, and in Him to manifest Himself,
was the first beginning and great end of all the creation
of God, for which all that went before was but the neces-
sary preparation. For as the great idea of a master-
builder discovereth not itself in the first stone which is
laid, nor in the first scafiblding which is reared up, but in
the progress, and often towards the completion of the
work : so the system of the universal Architect, in creating
being, though, from the beginning, it was beautiful, hath
a unity, and design, and end, towards which it all pro-
ceeded, and without which it was altogether incomplete;
to wit, the personal manifestation of Himself in visible
power and majesty. And as the physiologists, who study
the various tribes of living things upon the earth, do tell
you that the whole series of the creatures, upwards to
man, are but, as it were, efforts of nature to produce the
parts of which man's body is composed ; studies and mould-
ings of the several fragments, which in him are all sweetly
and harmoniously recomposed ; so do I say that the creation
of pure spii-its in heaven, and upon earth of creatures made
up of body and spirit, was but designing and making of
the parts, and the preparations for the constituting of that
divine form of being which in Christ Jesus appeared, and
in Christ Jesus shall to eternity abide the most glorious
Head for all creatures to conform and submit themselves
unto, in the worship and service of the invisible God and
Father of all. In angels we have pure and unmixed spirits
Christ tlie Foreshadowed. 6 1
to give a manifestation of spirit, and of the functions of
pure spirits ; such as understanding, righteousness, love,
&c. ; but in man we have the functions of spirit made
visible by being breathed into tabernacles of clay, in order
therewith to make a manifestation of body also with its
several properties of comprehending space, and possessing
the material creation ; — the first being, as it were, a part
of the second ; and the second but, as it were, the tj'pe of
that Divine form of being which Christ was to be. For,
as hath been set forth in the former head of discourse,
" Adam was but the type of Him that was to come," that
is, Adam was not the perfect work, but the type or fore-
shewing of it ; even as the tabernacle was but the type of
the Church which now is. And therefore the Creator
said, " Let us make man in our own image, after our own
likeness ;" by which word of God I understand, not a like-
ness in respect to the moral righteousness of His Spirit
merely, for this is possessed by the elect angels also ; but
in respect likewise to the composite and mixed character
of his person, made up of body and spirit ; to signify that
he was the type, image, or likeness of that form of being
in which God was hereafter to be revealed, and for ever
manifested : and, accordingly, the Creator proceeded, after
having spoken this word, to fashion him a body of the dust
of the groimd, and afterward to breathe into his nostrils the
spirit of life, and he became a living soul. So when the
fulness of time was come, the Christ, or Second Adam, had
at first a body prepared for Him from the woman's sub-
stance, and a reasonable soul given unto Him by the
Creator, according as it is in our Catechism, " He took
unto Himself a human body and a reasonable soul." To
which the Son of God, the eternal Word, having joined
Himself in con-substantial union, He became the Son of
man and the Son of God, in " two distinct natures and one
person for ever." The Divine creature (creature as man)
was composed, the end of creation accomplished, and God,
the eternal and invisible God, made manifest in a person,
to all creation, for ever and for ever. This idea 1 would
62 Ethical.
impress upon your minds, as indispensable to the right con-
ception of the glory which was brought to God by the Son
of man upon the earth ; and indispensable to the under-
standing of the Holy Scriptures, in which the same is
often tauiiht.
LIFE AND DEATH.
" I^T the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."
The sentence was death, and death is the execution of
the sentence. What, then, is life? Life we hold of the
purchase of Christ's sacrifice made from the foundation of
the world. \\ hether you regard the life of any individual,
or the life of the race of men, or the life of animals, or the
vegetable life of the world, it is all a fruit, a common fruit
of redemption, a benefit of the death of Christ, from all
eternity purposed, and so far as God is concerned accom-
plished also. Nevertheless, like all the benefits of Christ's
death which are common to all, it is not of the nature of a
covenant, but of a grant at will ; not of a certainty, but of
a possibility ; and, therefore, cannot be calculated upon for
a day or for an hour. And though there be light diflused
around, and every necessary of life, and the materials of
much enjoyment ; still it is all in uncertainty ; a chaos,
out of which something fixed and stable seemeth to be
forming itself, but not the very thing; a life in death, and
a death in life ; a hope, a promise, a po&sibility, but no
more : the enemy being held at bay, but growling in the
distance, and ever snatching his prey upon the right hand
and the left, yet restrained : as it were, a respite, but not
a reprieve ; an arena for certain trials and preparations
previous to the sealing of the fixed and ultimate mandate.
Such is life. But death is not such ; it is no promise or
threatening, but the veiy reality; not a hopeful possibility,
but a stern necessity : within the verge of which lies no
repentance nor remission, nor change for better or for
worse ; but fate, irrevocable fate. Death is indeed like
the fulfilment of a vv^ord of God, it is so steadfast and im-
Life and Death. 63
movable. It is not like sickness, ■which is fluctuatins; ;
noi' like disease, which is curable ; nor like soirow, which
is mitigable : nor is it the conflict of good and ill, of hope
and fear ; but the consummation and perpetuity either of
the one or of the other. Death is the execution of the
mandate ; it is the curse effected ; the expulsion from the
very hope and dream of Eden. Such is the difference be-
tween life and death ; so gieat and comprehensive, that
they are in human language used as the most direct of all
opposites, and the most violent of all contraries. And yet
even death hath received from Christ's sacrifice a certain
benefit, which retardeth the evil day of the curse's con-
summation, which taketh not effect until after the judg-
ment in the second death. Meanwhile there is to the body
a rest in the grave ; and to the separate soul there is a
looking for and a waiting for of judgment : which con-
ditions of rest and fearful expectation, even in the wicked-
est, are nothing to be compared to the awful reality of woe
and misery which cometh on in the second death ; and
Avhich would doubtless have been the instantaneous effect
of the curse, had it not been beaten off and postponed by
the powerful mediation and intercession of Christ, slain for
us from the foundation of the world. I sa}^ that, but for
Christ and His righteousness, this earth had instantly, on
the fall of man, passed into the condition of the lake
that burneth, and man into the condition of the second
death ; or.^ like the angels which kept not their first estate,
he had been imprisoned in chains of darkness until the
judgment of the great day. Such is the common, such is
the universal remedy of that offering, that it is by virtue
of the redemption of Christ the sun shineth ujpon the evil
and the good; by the redemption of Christ the rain
descendeth upon the just and the unjust ; by reason of the
redemption of Christ the body resteth in the grave ; and
by rea^son of the redemption of Christ the separate spirits
are in prison, and not in the lake that burneth, which is
the second death. So that the curse doth not completely
take effect until the day of judgment ; at which it will be
64 Ethical.
found that this earth hath been redeemed gloriously, and
the bodies of the innumerable saints have arisen gloriously
from the dead, and the souls of innumerable saints have
come forth gloriously from the paradise of the separate
spirits to enjoy the heaven which Christ hath sanctified
and blessed, and for the inhabitation of which He hath
sanctified and blessed them.
WHY THE NATURAL MIND CONCEIVES GOD AS
HUMAN.
It is most natural for the mind of man to transfer to other
intelligent creatures the form, and feeling, and character
with which he is so familiar in himself. If any one will
examine what is his notion of an angel, he will find that it
consists of human form, with human energies, and human
affections. So also God was at first conceived to be of
form and feature, and passion and action, similar to man,
and was so sculptured by the ancient artists and set forth
by their mythologists. The Jews were hindered from
making an image of the Divinity, that they might derive
their knowledge of Him, not from beholding with the
sense a polished work of man's fingers, but from perusing
the facts recorded of His ways, and the description given
of His character, in their inspired books. Yet so prone
is man to connect human form with intelligence, that they
were constantly lapsing into idolatry and setting up
images before their eyes. We Christians, at least wo
Protestants, are delivered from the sensible imagery with
which the ancients invested their idea of God ; but there
is hardly any Christian whose conception of God is free
from some ingredient of human nature. I consider that
one great use of God manifest in the flesh was to give
us a form of Godhead upon which we might concentrate
the various atfections of our nature, and be joined to Him
as humanity is joined to humanity ; and, therefore, I see
no objections to artists putting forth their imaginations
The Natural Mind conceives God as Human. 65
upon the person of Christ. This incarnation of the
Divinity was designed to address man's compound nature
through every avenue and by every winning method, in
order that having won its loves, it might forward them
to the adoration of the invisible God, who hath no form
that it may be beheld, who hath no dwelling-place that
it may be approached unto, but dwelleth evermore in light
inaccesible and full of gloiy, hath His seat in every pious
heart, and filleth all existence with life and joy. Christ,
therefore, I regard as the avenue through which the soul
reacheth to God. Christ's visible person I regard as the
great preservative from idolatry, being the legitimate pre-
sentation of the nature of God to all the faculties of man ;
and, save through Him as the avenue, no one, it seems
to me, can win his way to the unformed, incorporeal
Godhead ; and, therefore, all Unitarian and Socinian doc-
tiines are to be held as cutting asunder the bridge and
pathway which God hath made for the mind to pass from
the conception it is familiar with here below to the con-
ception of Himself. They take the words God is painted
with ; but what are words compared with life and gesture,
with sight, touch, and living spirit. They take the cold
words, but will not take the image God imj^ressed of Him-
self upon clay ; and their religion will never come to have
in it any heat, warmth, or affection. It is as if a man
should conceive love from the description of a female
form, and live upon that unsubstantial feeling, and refuse
to see, or hear, or hold intercourse with the fair object of
his entranced affection. But, by the way, I may remark,
that however serviceable the incarnation be to prevent us
from idolatry, I have observed it produce the opposite
effects. I have witnessed a devotedness to the incarnate
Deity, a resoluteness to rise no higher, or conceive no
further, a fondness for the hymns that exalt His living
attributes, a disrelish for those which set forth the Deity
not incarnate, — in short, a limitation of all their sympa-
thies to the manifestation of God in Judea for three short
years, which, in my opinion, vergeth and inclineth to idol-
F
66 Ethical.
atry itself, and is tlie indulgence of that very corporeal
taste in tilings divine which the ancients built their religion
upon, and which the Jews constantly hungered after.
There is nothing more to be guarded against than this
investiture of God with human attributes, to which we are
the more inclined from the images of fluctuating, imperfect
humanity with which the inspired writers have found it
necessary to shadow Him forth to our apprehension. They
say, God is angry with the wicked; and we straightway
fancy His nature to be ruffled with the afiection of anger ;
but it means simply that the wicked shall experience the
same effects from His providence and judgment as they
would from one whom they had set on edge against them
by their flagrant misconduct. The Scriptures say God re-
penteth ; and immediately we fancy that He is unsteady
in His mind, and revolveth in various directions according
to circumstances ; and so we seek to steal a march upon
Him, by flattery, by entreaty, by pertinacity, as we would
do upon a mortal. But it means simply, that if we change
our courses for the better, we shall have a corresponding
improvement in all our treatment and experience, in the
feelings of our own breast, and in all the happiness which
human nature enjoyeth. So also He is said to hear and
answer prayer, and we are commanded to fill our mouths
with argiiments, and make him acquainted with our wants;
and we straightway infer that the stronger we can make
our case, the more frequent and pressing our solicitations,
the more copious our petitions, and the more necessitous
our whole condition, the more chance we shall have of a
favourable hearing and a liberal reply.
I woidd not, by what hath been said above, disrobe God
of those human sympathies which the Scriptures have
attributed to Him, and rebuke as criminal the imagination
of these to reside in Him ; but I would rebuke the adding
others of our own imagining. I think these afi'ections
are neccessary to be imagined in Him, in order to awaken
the kindred sentiments in our own breast ; that we must
invest Him with the qualities of a Father in order to
JV/iy Hcave7i has always been placedin the Sky. Gj
approach nim with affection ; and with the qualities of
a generous Benefactor, in order to appi'oach Flim with
hope ; and with the qualities of a Patron of happiness,
in order to approach Him with joy ; and also with the
qualities of Almighty Governor, that our affection may
not fall into freedom ; and, above all, with the qualities
of the Searcher of hearts, that we may be driven from all
untruth, and disguise, and deception. The perusal of His
acts and promises is useful, as it enables us to build up
within our minds these general conceptions of the God-
head, and to create the moral and spiritual image of the
Deity to which we render our homage : His paternal pro-
vidence of all, testified through His Word, convincing us
of His Fatherhood ; His unbounded liberality of promise
and providence, convincing us of His generosity; His
penetration through all disguises, and unravelling of all
mystery, convincing us of His heart-searching and rein-
trying knowledge ; His anticipation of all our necessities,
convincing us of His perfect acquaintance with every want
which our tongue can express.
WHY HEAVEN HAS ALWAYS BEEN PLACED IN THE SKY.
Mkx are so conscious themselves of the pollutions which
defile the earth, and of the enormities which are transacted
in its various comers, that in all their superstitions, even
the most rude and barbarous, they have placed the habita-
tions of their good deities away from its confused noise and
unresting wickedness; while they have quartered their
evil deities in the bowels of the earth, compressing them
down to work their devilish works in the centre of that
wicked orb, on the outside of which so much wickedness
is transacted ; and when they would do their worship to
the gods above, they chose the elevation of more high
places and the deep silence of groves to bring them moro
near to their habitation. The heavens — from the pure
light with which they are filled by day, and the vast
F 2
68 Ethical.
magificence with which they are overspread by night,
from the manifokl motion of the sun and moon and stars,
all accomplished in silence and beauty, and from the
boundless extent of the blue expanse to which the sense
and the imagination in vain seek to find a limit — have
become to all people the emblem of those higher and
nobler ideas which the soul conceives concerning purity
and peacefulness, order, and justice, and righteousness.
And if these ideas have anywhere a reality, a local habita-
tion and a name, the soul conceives it must be somewhere
within the compass of the azure serene, where all looks so
lovely and peaceful. Hither, therefore, she removes the
better deities, which are the personifications and patrons
of those more excellent things M'hich the soul conceives
within herself, but nowhere finds exemplified upon the
earth. Moreover, the earth is so dependent upon the
heavens, and the heavens so masterful over the earth,
bestowing upon her light and heat and fruitful influences,
or laying her waste with whirlwind and storm; splitting
her bulwarks with the lightning and the thunderbolt,
or with the earthquake making her to shudder to her
very centre, that the imagination of man hath placed
in the regions above, the dwelling-place of all that is
mighty and powerful, as well as of all that is just, orderly,
and good.
The heavens being thus to all nations, in all ages, the
emblem of harmony and beauty, of peace and quietness, of
vastness and infinity, and being, from their very nature,
likely to continue the proper contrast to the disorder and
jarring confusion of the earth, it hath pleased the Lord, in
His revelation, to accommodate Himself to this condition
of human thought, and represent Himself as having His
throne and proper dwelling-place in the heavens, thereby
encouraging men to follow after those ideas which are
higher and nobler than the earth, and constituting Himself
patron of every high and saintly desire of the soul. I
dwell, saith He, in that place with which all your better
tho'.ights are associated; and you dwell nearer to my
JV/iy Heaven lias always been placed in the Sky. 69
presence according as you surpass the earth, and have your
hopes and desires upon the things above. You canm.t
come near me hy being earthly ; but by being heavenly
in your thoughts you can come near to mine abode :
whence, if you have lived in earthiness, you shall, after
death, be debarred, and thrust down to the lower parts
of the earth ; but if you have loved the higher aspirations,
and sought the holier occuj)ations of the soul, you shall
be disrobed from earthly vestments, and translated from
earthly habitations to my own spiritual and blessed habita-
tions.
Now, it is to be observed that, in thus taking to Himself
a local habitation, Jehovah did not knowingly deceive men
into the idea of His limited presence ; for He at the same
time taught them that He was everywhere, on the earth
and in the lowest depths of hell — upon the earth, beholding
the evil and the good, making the wrath of men to praise
Him, and restraining the remainder of wrath ; in hell,
holding the devils by His stern right hand from bursting
abroad, and by the manifestation of His justice making
them to believe and tremble. But He signified that
heaven was His home, the abiding place of His presence,
the seat of His glorious majesty, into whose gates nothing
entereth that defileth or maketh a lie, where are fulness of
joy and pleasures for evermore; and thus He did accom-
modate Himself to the previous conditions of the human
soul, and patronise what super-terrestrial thoughts dwelt
amongst them, without abusing their minds by misrepre-
sentation, or falsifying their conduct by error.
Any one who is at all acquainted with the human
spirit must know how helpful, if not necessary, to all
its thoughts or outward things is the idea of place. It
is the nature of a limited creature to conceive all things
in some place. Hence the metaphysicians have said that
space is the form of all our outward, and . time the form of
all our inward ideas. But be this as it may, things seem
but dreams or fancies until we have got them associated
with place, and also with person. Justice, for example,
70 Ethical.
though an idea common to the human kind, is of little
or no service until it become? personified and placed in the
lawgiver and the judge, in the tribunals and the awful
seats of jiistice. Taste, also, though more delicate and
shadowy, must be personified and placed in the works
of the fine arts, in the ornaments of the person, and the
beautifying of nature. Power and dignity also must have
their outward form in the emblems and attributes of
magistracy, and their dwelling-place in the palaces and
thrones of kings ; and mercy also hath her dwelling-place
by the side of power, and her emblem in the sceptre of
power. And in all things we may claim and assert it to
be of the nature of man, not a weakness, but in some sort a
neccessity, thus to give a local habitation and a name to
his most spiritual conceptions ; for otherwise he could not
make them known to others, and but indistinctly conceive
them to himself. Our speech to one another is a revelation
by emblems of those invisible thoughts and immaterial
feelings which are passing within us. The thought is not
here, neither is it there ; but by putting it into words, we
have, by the help of things here and there, given it a mani-
festation unto others. This is poetiy, to make the emo-
tions of the spirit manifest; and he is the greatest poet
who maketh the greatest number of high aud noble emo-
tions most distinctly manifest. Now, we represent our-
selves by the finest and best aspects of things upon the
earth : woman's beauty by the flowers of the field, and
childhood's innocence by the lamb, the gentlest of the
creatures which move upon the earth, and the dove,
the most harmless of the fowls of heaven ; man's fortitude
and strength by the oak, the stoutest tree of the field,
or the lion, the noblest animal which roams over the wild.
The infinite forms of nature, and the infinitely varied
impressions which they make upon our senses, are all put
into requisition in order to set foi'th the emotions of our
spirit, and make them intelligible to the spirit of another
man. But the emotions of the spirit have no resemblance
to, nor proper dwelling-place in, these forms of nature, or
Reverence and Irreverence. 7 1
impressions of the sense, which are not pictures, but only
emblems and intermediate things, upon which the atten-
tion of the other spirit is arrested, till it examine itself
for the kindred emotion which is thus shadowed forth.
When I explain the feelings of my soul to another soul,
that soul looketh not to my words or images, which would
mislead it altogether, but it looks in upon itself to see the
eifect which these words or images are producing. And
if they are producing no effects, nothing is understood ; if
they are producing etfects, then let him shew the effect by
his words and natural gestures ; and so, by comparing
spiritual emotion with spiritual emotion, through the
help of sensible visible things, or words which are ori-
ginally the name of them, we come to understand what
is passing within our souls. It is a necessity, therefore,
rather than a weakness, which obligeth man to give to his
spiritTxal conceptions "a local habitation and a name,"
And out of this necessity cometh, among the other wise
adaptations of revelation, this one— that the Lord hath
a place of abode assigned to Him in the lieavens, though
He is everywhere, beholding the evil and the good.
EEYERENCE AND IRREVEEENCE.
" Every one of these good provisions, made by the God
of providence in the constitution of the world for the
fructification of the seed which His Son was preparing to
sow, may be, yea, and is continually, pei^verted from their
Maker's good intention and pui-pose by the perverseness of
man, in appropriating them to the nourishment of his own
pride and self-sufficiency; and being so perverted, they
nourish nothing but rebellion against God, indifference to
Christ, and independence on His Holy Spirit. The love
of children to their parents, how often doth it become
conceit of their good name, or delight in their high and
honourable station ! The love of spouses, how often doth
it become idolatry ! The love of family, how often doth it
72 Ethical.
become clannish pride, and over-weening fondness ! And
so also how often do companies, townships, cities, and
kingdoms, forgetting the love of equality and the law of
neiglibourly love, out of which they arose, become the
fountains of envy, vain- glory, party-spirit, war, and blood-
shed ! But this is the transgression of these good institu-
tions of God, and their apostasy from the purpose and
intention of the Creator ; for which they shall be judged.
Hath God then, in all His providence, made no provision
against this tendency of man to become proud, and boast
himself in his possessions ; to become self-suificient and
unkind, narrow-minded and uncharitable ? I answer, that
He hath in a most remarkable way, provided the means
of discountenancing and destroying this ungenerous, un-
gracious principle, and creating a soil for the production
of humility, reverence, and bountiful regard unto all ;
which is the last thing in the constitution of man's social
condition of which I would treat. This check and re-
straint is found in the diversity of the orders, and ranks,
and abilities, and gifts of men, which are so essential an
ingredient of human existence, that if 30U were to break
it all down to-morrow, before to-morrow ended it would
begin to grow apace. For it is founded by God in the very
constitution of men. Reverence of a superior, and kindness
to an inferior, are as essential to the being and the well-
being of a man, as is justice and equity to an equal. And
why ? Because man was made to reverence God, and to
exercise merciful sway over the creatures ? And how
should he do the one or the other, without a principle of
reverence and condescension implanted in his breast ? And
is not man himself split into two parts ; man for conde-
scending love, woman for reverent love r And these split
again into parents and children ; parents for authoritative
love, children for obedient love ? How then should it other-
wise be, than that these the principles and properties of
our nature should have a representation in the ordinances
and institutions of the society which we compose ? Yea,
God obligeth it : for one man cannot be all thinsfs. — But I
Reverence and Irrevere7ice. 73
am not going to reason these things out, as if I were a
lecturer in an infidel university, discoursing with great
respect to an infidel class. I say, equity is not more of the
well-being of a state, nor free trade of the wealth of a
state, than diversity of rank is of the existence of a state.
Equality is pride. Liberty, with equality, is licentious-
ness. Oh I let us not envy ; let us, like wise men, pity
the republics of the west, which would cut otii" precedence,
and nobility, and royalty, in order to conduct government
by hire. Oh ! oh ! how little do they know of the nature
of man, how little do they know of the providence and
grace of God, in the permission, yea, in the establishment
of all these things ! These are the restraints against that
very self-sufficiency, and pride of man, which turns the
milk of human kindness into the sourness of malice and
indifference, which breaks in upon the relative duties of
servant and master, of tenant and landlord, of laity and
nobility, of people and prince, of nation and king. They
are the continual nourishment of reverence to a superior :
they cultivate the principle of worship, which ever fights
against the principle of selfishness ; they are alone capable
of holding pride in check, and keeping the mind open to
charity and love, which pride freezeth up. Like every-
thing else, it will go to excess, and engender knee-worship,
and hat-reverence, and every form of sycophancy. But
laugh not these things to scorn : they are of a better nest
than are arrogancy, and plebeianism, and slanderous con-
tempt of a superior : they are good plants run to seed ;
which nevertheless came out of a good bed. And here I
cannot help recalling to the mind of many who are able to
judge, how much sweeter, gentler, and opener to light, and
to affection, the reverential spirit of the Scottish peasantry,
and of the well-instructed part of the English peasantry,
preserveth their souls, than doth the levelling, equalising,
all-censuring, and all-judging spirit of our manufacturing
people, taught in newspaper lore ; those political states-
men, no longer choosing to be called peasantry, but opera-
tive classes. What a difference there is between these two
74 Ethical.
characters ! the character of a thoughtful reverent peasant,
and the character of these self-sufficient loquacious fellows
with whom our manufacturing towns are filled. Which
cometh chiefly of this, that the one revereth all men in
their places, and honoureth especially those to whose care
the welfare of a nation is committed, is humble in his ideas
of himself, never dreams of being able to judge those above
him, to dispute it with a man of learning, or doctor of the
Church, to handling state questions, or sit in judgment
upon kings : to all which, and much more, the other
thinking himself quite equal, becometh vainer and more
empty than the peacock; chattereth like the magpie, and,
like the mocking-bird, sitteth all day long mocking and
mimicking every fowl of a deeper and sweeter song. This
irreverence is the beginning of pride, pride the parent of
cruelty, and cruelty of all destructiveness ; while, on the
other hand, reverence of a superior in place, in person, in
mind, in honour, and in dignity, is the beginning of meek-
ness, of humility, of docility, and of every gracious disposi-
tion. Nor is there any one thing against which this nation,
against which mankind have now more to be on their
guard ; no one thing which is so eifectually scourging the
soil of the world, and maketh it spew forth the seed of the
word ; which is so selling men to infidelity, and binding
them over under strong indentures to Satan, as this spirit
of irreverence, which in the region of the mind is called
criticism and reviewing ; which in the region of politics
is called radicalism; and in the region of the Church,
thinking for one's self, where it produceth what is com-
monly called personal, but is in truth selfish, religion —
that is, no religion, but the religious esteem of ourselves.
ENVY.
Envy, and jealousy, and malignity, have their origin in
the same evil principle which moves the thief to possess
himself of our property, or the fraudulent to outwit us in
Envy. 75
our dealings. It is a stealing of reputation and of good
name. It springs from the conscioiisness of inferiority, and
it is a confession of that inferiority. It hides a discon-
tented mind ; and yet it cannot hide it, but divulges it.
The envious are not only thieves, but they tell upon them-
selves. Every one who hears their envious tale is their
confessor, and would do well to give them pity, but not
absolution. They deserve no absolution till they have the
grace to perceive how much they need it. The thing,
when looked upon nakedly, is the meanest, worst of
knaveries ; and therefore it becomes necessary cunningly to
hide it under various disguises. The most common is, an
interest in our welfare. They profess to know how rich
we are in the commodity they would deprive us of, and
then they would sicken our enjoyment of it by shewing
hovv- full of snares it is, and therein they do well act one
part of friends, if they bear up the other part, which good
men delight in more, of rejoicing with us in our joy, and
bearing up our hearts against the envies of others, as well
as bearing it down with their fears. If they shew confi-
dence in our good parts, as well as distrust of our evil, then
it is excellent friendship, and the more to be admired that
it hath, in it counsel and warning, as well as congratu-
lation. But, if this be the eternal cant — " I am no flat-
terer, I am plain with my friends, I love you too well to
flatter you, beware of vanity, beware of pride, beware of
the world" — then I say, Down with it; it is rank envy,
and proceeds from absence of kindness ; it is the satyr dis-
guised and cloaked with friendship, and will cast the mask
the moment you are found tripping ; it will bear you down
with calumny, instead of aiding you with counsel. Call
they this Christ's discipline, call they this charity, which
rejoiceth in the good, not in the evil, which is the minister
of hope, not of suspicion, the inspirer of joy, not of cold
distrust? Away with it from our communion. Let
friends rejoice with friends, speak tenderness, love with
pure hearts fervently, and resei-ve suspicion, keep it far
back, unwillingly advance it, never display it ; but weep
76 Ethical.
over it secretly, and talk of it alone in prayer to God, that
it may prove iinfonnded. Another way envy hath of shew-
ing itself is by criticism, or a regard for truth. There is a
noble love of truth, and a fearlessness of uttering it before
friend and foe, which one of the most truth loving of
English philosophers pronounced to be the seed-bed of
every other virtue. This liberty of speaking truth one
who means to take its full scope from the chair of truth
should be the last to blame. Let truth be said, come what
wilL But this noble virtue is one of the commonest cloaks
of envy in these times. They stab through this veil private
character, domestic charities, public virtues : whosoever
hath any elevation, there are a thousand ready to assail
and pull down. They take an error in a word to be the
sign of a malignant heart, and a gesture of the bod}' to speak
the darkest, deepest hypocrisy. It is painful to witness
the many of this land who feed and fatten upon scandal,
who lacerate and suck the blood of the worthiest men,
giving full scope to their villanous weapons, for no end I
can see, but because, being themselves in the sink of all
vice and iniquity, cowardly and behind a screen they
would diag down to the same abominable vileness the fair
reputation and honourable purposes of the most unble-
mished men and women. They play a game between truth
and falsehood, between sincerity and sport ; they make
no difference between things good and evil, calling bitter
sweet and sweet bitter ; and, being themselves divested
of virtue, of religion, of honour, broken in name, which
therefore they dare not avow, ruined in prospects, they do
wreak the malignity which the devil hath stocked them
withal, in reward for their souls sold over to his service,
upon all who have not the interests of their master, his
hellish, interests of strife and malignity, at heart.
Many other are the disguises, besides personal affection
and love of truth, which malignity and envy do assume in
order to gratify their wicked purposes. And I do exhort
the people of my flock to be on their guard against their
own hearts, lest they indulge under these or other forms
Envy. yy
this most wretcliccl passion against tlie fair name and good
fortuno of others. I'robe deep, and put yourselves to
seA'cre and painful inspection, lest this arch deceit may he
lurking in your hearts ; for where it is present, the devil
hath a friend sure and steadfast, and the Savioiir hath an
enemy the most difficult to be cast out. And as all men of
fair reputations and good success have this stealth and
plunder to expect, I pray you to take the Baptist's way of
meeting and defeating it. Do not give them the advantage
by losing your temper; for, being thrown oif your guard,
you may chance to do or say something of which they will
make a handle to abuse you. But are we patiently to stand
by and hear our good report blasted and blasphemed ?
There is the mistake. They cannot blast or blaspheme your
good report — which is good only while it stands with
the good and with God, the author of all goodness. To
stand well with the scum of men is no standing whatever ;
to be well spoken of by all men is one of the four woes
which Christ pronounced, " Woe unto j^ou when all men
speak well of you. Blessed are ye who are persecuted for
righteousness' sake. If ye suffer for righteousness' sake,
happy are ye. This is your calling, to suffer for the sake of
Christ." Take it well, therefoie ; take it all joy when ye
fall into divers persecutions ; for so persecuted they the
prophets that were before you. The creatures are a sort
of reptile which adhereth to the stem of noble plants, and
hath its food from that which their bark and leaves can
well enough spare. But the noble plant riseth not against
the reptile that feedeth on it. Ko more do ye.
But this lesson is more easily taught than practised.
And the reason why it is of such difficult practice is, that
we do not sufficiently remember from whom our various
gifts of good name or good deeds proceed. We consider
our distinction as our own, whereas it is God that maketli
us to differ ; and having this touched, we feel as if our
own were invaded, and make an effort to defend ourselves.
Now, though I blame not self-defence, but consider it as
a Christian privilege, yet that you may be guarded in the
78 Ethical.
true defensive armour of the Baptist, I pray y(m. to remem-
ber that God is your defence, and will bring you safety.
Eemember that if God were to take away His restraining
Spirit, ye would soon sink into all the evil conditions into
which jj-our enemies would fain bring you. ITierefore
separate not your confidence from Him who sustaineth
you, but remember, in the extreme assaults of the enemy,
that He is for you who is greater than all that can be
against you.
FEUITS OF ENVY.
Not to feel envious of another's exaltation, but to rejoice in
it, even when it interferes with our own place and brings
with it our downfall, is a rare yet a necessary attainment
of Christian life. For this world is the theatre of so much
rivalry, and men, forgetting the interests of everlasting
truth and universal love, do so attach themselves to their
own personal advantage, as to account every one an enemy
who trespasseth thereon, and crj^ " Away with him," with-
out any regard to the humility of his conduct or the
righteousness of his intention; and, on the other hand,
there is so much emulation and endeavour to outstrip our
fellows, so much ambition of high places, that, with a
savage gladness, they delight to invade the good and
established rights of those who have obtained the lead ; so
that, between the resolution of those above to dispute, and,
if possible, keep down the pretensions of others, and the
resolution of those beneath to pull down those above and
rise into their places, must discord, and bad feeling, and
evil-speaking arise to trouble the happiness of life. First,
feelings of jealousy, and envy, and rivalry are bred within
the breast, and soon give birth to acts of wickedness, and
malice, and malignity, out of which come strifes, and
quarrels, and dissensions of various kinds, which occasions
those agonising scenes and shocking crimes of which the
world is full. These bitter and malevolent passions are the
foes of faith, virtue, patience, temperance, brotherly-kijid-
Fruits of Envy. 79
ness, and charity, and everything else which belongs to the
discipline of Christ, and they are veils upon the under-
standing, and keep out the light of truth. A man under
the influence of malignant passions is at the opposite polo
from truth, and is in darkness, and, if he be brought to
believe, his faith is like that of the devils, and maketh him
to tremble but not to obey.
All this Cometh of too much devotion to our own selfish
passions and interests, and too little regard to the feelings
and interests of others ; and the only cure for it is to bring
the latter more prominently forward, and to cast the
former into the shade. By dwelling upon our sensations,
and consulting for our own gratification, and keeping an
eye to our own interests, we forget the rights and feelings
of others ; and, on the other hand, according as we attend to
the well-being of others we lose interest in our own. A
bad temper is nothing but a succession of selfish feelings
and selfish actions in small matters ; when it ascends to
higher, it is called a bad heart and a bad life. And tyranny
of rulers is another form of the same evil. They use the
sacred power consigned to them by God and their country
for their ovim private and peculiar gratification. And even
the best parts of human nature may become tyrannical. An
hospitable man may be a tyrant by his hospitality, and a
generous man by his generosity, and one who loves you
may, by the excess of his love, make you his slave. And
this often occurs in human life, that the most selfish men,
when unobserved, can do the most generous actions, and
delight in their secrecy, as a miser delighteth in "his wealthy
store, and will not bear even the acknowledgments of the
party whom they have obliged ; so that this intense regaid
to one's self corrupts even those parts of human nature which
God hath implanted for the welfare of our neighbour, and
converts acts of kindness into inflictions of self-willedness,
and takes from them the power of propagating kindness in
return. And this also I have found, that the spirit of this
selfishness hath insinuated itself into things admired
amongst men — into friendship, for example, which they
8o Ethical.
value by its poverty, and esteem most highly when it is
bestowed npon one alone ; in love, likewise, which they
hold can exist in truth only between two hearts ; in clan-
ship, which is thought more valuable by the strength of its
antipathies ; in patriotism also, which they shew forth
very often by their hatred and declamations against other
lands. Which are all but refinements of that selfishness,
jealousy, and rivalry; John the Baptist, in his person,
exhibiting the most notable instance of pure and perfect
freedom from all such evil dispositions.
PKIDE.
Of all the strongholds of Satan, pride is the strongest,
which truly is more than ordinary error, being the boast
and bravery of error. A proud man is not only hardened
like the rest of this world, but he is annealed. He hath
added to the hardness of the iron the temper of the steel ;
and when others are bruised he will not yield, but will fly
to pieces sooner. Also we are taught by this example,
that of all the forms of pride, the pride of knowledge is
the most insuperable ; the pride of riches in the publicans
yielded, as also the pride of chivalry in the soldiers, when
the pride of knowledge in the scribes and Levites did only
gather fresh importance. Of which also the reason is
most obvious, because knowledge is the eye of the mind,
which, being blinded by error, leaves all passage im-
pervious ; and when pride comes to the aid of such
knowledge, it employeth our hands and all our faculties
in withstanding any kind friend who would remove the
veil, so that we are in darkness, and vain of our darkness,
and barricaded in it till One stronger than ourselves do
set us free.
( 8i )
PHARISAISM.
The Pharisaical spirit, the love of outward and traditional
things, hath afflicted every age, and afflicted this present
age in no small degree ; and I question whether, in this
state, Ave shall ever have it extinguished. For there is an
opinionativeness which seems almost inseparable from
faith, and which yet is not of the essence of faith. If
indeed our faith cometh from hearing of men, or from
tradition, or from any other source than the fruits of the
Spirit wrought in our heart and life, this dogmatism will
continue to attend it ; but if it spring from tlie proof of
the thing, from the inbred conviction of its holy fruits,
from the growth of heavenly temper, then that charity
riseth up within the breast which thinketh no evil, is
the death of all divisions and of all evil-speakings, and the
true form of Christ's discipleship is manifested within us.
In looking upon the outward, visible Church, it hath
always appeared to me divided into two classes — one
which held Christ in all charitableness, and another which
held Him in all uncharitableness ; the former lying oiDcn
to light, and trying every spirit with a kind experiment,
and hoping the best, and hard to be convinced of evil —
the latter, doubting and distrusting every one, weighing
his every word with a critical exactness, and with all
their ears listening to the report of evil ; the former
intelligible, by their simplicity and singleness of heart — ■
the latter most confused and unapproachable, by reason
of their bigotry to their church and favourite pastors, and
their forms and other credentials ; the former most soft
and touching, by their tender pity of yoiir frailties, and
their kind counsels of your waywardness — the latter most
repulsive by their firm and constrained fellowship, into
which you can enter as a jiarty only through the needle's
eye of their prejudices. In the one class you will find the
school of Christ, in the other the school of the Pharisees;
and I do exhort those who listen to my unworthy exhorta-
tions to become of the former, Christians in heart, not
G
g2 Ethical.
cliurclimen, nor sectarians, making no difference among
the spiritual servants of Christ, and trampling under foot
the little distinctions of outward form. For if you do
not watch over this with diligence, if you allow your-
selves to be all of this or of that sort, saying, " I am
of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas ;" then you place
a fence'around your liberty, and become the dupes of your
favourites; if they be designing, the partisans of their falli-
bility the reflection of their imperfect light, and, m short,
anything within the limits of positive idolatry, if it go not
ofttimes to that very extreme.
MISCONCEPTIONS AS TO CHANGE OF NATURE.
Theke are three delusions that men are under touching
the alteration of their nature. The first, that we are
o-overned by necessity, and can do nothing to change our-
selves; the second, that we can change at will; the third,
that we are the creatures of circumstances. I would
divide the truth amongst all these three opinions, which,
as they are commonly held apart, are every one of thema
gross and a fatal error. We are governed by necessity, m
as far as our conduct does not go at random, but is deter-
mined by certain principles common to human nature, ot
which the chief one is the desire to improve our condition,
and reach the place that we judge it best to occupy; but
this condition into which we would bring ourselves de-
pendeth upon our knowledge of the various conditions
which man hath been in, or can be in ; and the ability ot
reaching that condition which we think the fittest depends
upon the circumstances of our present condition, which
is like the platform from which we have to arise. So that
these three things concur— certain instincts leading us to
remove inconveniences and attain well-being, knowledge
how to do it, and instruments to do it withal. The in-
stincts are unchangable and necessary to human nature,
the knowledge is changeable, and the instruments are
Misconceptions as to Change of Nature. 8
J
infinitely various. It is vain, therefore, in the necessa-
rians to say, that we must go on iniplicity, and can make
no help for ourselves. If we had no senses to perceive
things, no mind to understand things, or no wells of mind,
which are books, to drink out of, — that is, if we were
stocks and stones, — than we were necessary in that sense.
But this idea of necessity is only the philosophic, the
abstract philosopher's error, and I never heard of any one
who fell into the practice of it except old Pyrrho the
Greek, who went forth as the bird flies, and lost his life
over a precipice. The common error arises from the
second dogma, of free will, or the ability to change when
we please. You may as well think to wash the negro
white, or to bend the rooted oak and make it change its
gnarled knotted growth into the flexible scion which
grows around its root, as think to change yourselves at
will. For your conduct is determined by your schemes
and plans ; your schemes and plans by your wishes and
ambitions ; your wishes and ambitions by your knowledge
and your opportunities. AVithout making alteration upon
these parts of your inward man, and upon j'-our outward
circumstances, you will never change, but grow more and
more inflexible till death. But if you set about increasing
your knowledge, changing your company, altering your
sensual indulgences, meditating upon your plans, lending
your ear to counsel, and occupying your heart with wis-
dom, and so make innovation upon the republic within
the breast, and alteration of the outward circumstances
that set it into motion ; then through the change of know-
ledge and vision which are to the mind like food and air
to the body, you shall work upon the inward structure of
the mind itself, and upon the outward life. There is an
inward structure and anatomy of the mind, as there is
an inward structure and anatomy of the body. This is the
necessary and unalterable part. As the eye must neces-
sarily see, and the ear must necessarily hear, one part of
the mind must necessarily hope, and another necessarily
fear. Then there is a food proper to affect in every Avay,
n 2
84 Ethical.
wholesome and unwholesome, the inward organs of mind,
as there is a food capable of affecting in every way, whole-
some and unwholesome, the inward organs of the body ;
which food of the mind, as hath been said, is the various
kinds of knowledge, objects of sen.se and opportunities
of action. Now, just as the body, when its inward parts
are wholesomely acted upon by wholesome food, puts on
healthy appearances and healthy actions ; so the mind
having its proper food brings forth outwardly good fruits
of virtue and honesty and piety. And as when the body
looks sickly and feels feeble, you alter its diet or place of
abode in order to effect a change, but never think of a
change from mere willing and wishing ; so with the mind
when it puts forth bad fruits of immorality and folly, and
hath no aspirations after the noble and the good. If you
wish to change, it is in vain, to think of doing so by a mere
act of willing and wishing, — you must change upon it its
food, give it new^ ideas, new views of things, new prin-
ciples of action, new wishes, new ambitions, new objects
of hope and fear, of love and joy. Therefore, Avhile men
entertain the same opinions, and submit their minds and
bodies to the same routine of excitement, the same plea-
sures, the same company, the same habits of life, the same
books, and the same topics of discourse, — so far from ex-
pecting change, they need only expect confirmation of the
present character. The longer they follow in the train
the deeper will they get involved. They are under a
necessity of their own bringing on, and every man as he
grows older feels the necessity growing in him. The hope
of alteration decreases with age, and the whole texture of
the character becomes rigid and inflexible.
Now take these two facts into account, — first the in-
ability of the mind to strike out from its own natural
darkness any light upon true religion, and the necessity,
in order to change its condition and conduct, of new know-
ledge and materials of action, — and you will perceive at
once how intellectual people, as they grow in natural
science, and improve in intellectual culture, do grow
Natural Will and Regenerate Will. 85
darker and darker upon religion, and remove farther and
farther from the beginnings of spiritual life. All other
knowledge but revealed knowledge becomes an attraction
towards some other thing than God, — the more knowledge
the more attractions, the more attractions the more bond-
age, and the less liberty to make that renouncement of
self esteem and worldly preferences which spiritual life
requires.
NATURAL WILL AND REGENERATE WILL.
With respect to the will of man, that which originates
our actions and purposes, and directs us to the acquisition
of knowledge and to the exertion of power, it is found in its
natural state in a condition of bondage, not wdllingly obe-
dient, yet obedient to some form of present good, from
which it is not able to extricate itself into the obedience of
God and the desire of everlasting good. For to the eye
of natural men, the things unseen and eternal are either
wholly in the dark, or do but loom indistinctly through a
perpetual mist which oveihangs them ; and the things
wliich are seen and temporal take such strong colours and
press upon us with such present and urgent demands,
Avhile the w'hole course and cui-rent of the world bears in
towards them, and involves us irredeemably in the midst of
thera, that the great multitude of us are moved with a com-
bined desire to attain or to recover some of the good and
pleasant things, and to occupy some of the ambitious and
commanding places with which the world abounds. Hardly
one in a thousand, by deep meditation upon his own in-
ward being, discovereth that there is anything better than
to eat, drink, and make merry while the day lasts ; and
when the night cometh, they enter into its dark and eternal
.shroud with as little true concern about the future things
which lie hid therein as they had during their life. For
man is not a creature to be conjured out of his former
being by a deathbed sickness; nor are the spirits of the
piince of this world which have ruled him to be east out
86 Ethical.
by the parting prayer of a priest, or the holy sacrament,
or the consecrated wafer, or any such ritual formalities.
The Psalmist truly said, " The wicked have no bands in
their death," because they die a brutal death, as they
have lived a brutal life ; their will, which divideth them
from the brutes, having been occupied and engrossed with
things which differ not in kind, but only in degree fiom
those things which occupy and engross the brutes. For
what is a rich man's or a poor man's table better than the
crib from which the nobler animal is fed ? what the luxu-
rious dainties of the epicure, but the wash with which the
filthier brutes do gorge themselves ? and what is man's
habitation, though a palace, but the lair of the nobler
animal ? and what his dress, though waited on by all the
graces, but the shelter or ornament which the lower crea-
tures need not ? And what trulj' are our riches and pos-
sessions but the honey which the bee hath distilled, or the
store which the ant hath laid up against the winter ? And
what, moreover, is all the understanding by which these
things are discovered, compounded, served up, and accu-
mulated— I mean the harder handicrafts, with the natural
and mechanical sciences — but the mere varied instincts of
the animal which hath the lordship of the earth ? For
which ends if a man wish and decree and scheme, then
surely his will is in bondage to the eaith, and hath whollj''
lost, or never discovered, that it is spiritual and immortal,
and hath nothing to do with the earth save to possess it
like a master, and use it as a base instrument of his nobler
ends ?
But it is altogether otherwise with the will of him whom
God hath redeemed from the bondage of the natural world
into the liberty of the spiritual world, and which conti-
nually desireth and continually presseth towards the mark
of conformity to the will of God. For, dearly beloved
brethren, as I have often tauo;ht you, this is our fall, to
have a will out of harmony with the will of Him who
created us ; and this is our recovery, to be brought back
again into sweet converse with otir Father's will, and the
Natural Will and Rcgeiiei-ate Will. Z^
divine order of our Father's lionse. Wherefore God first
revealed His law or will with the gospel in its bosom, as a
child promised, but hereafter to be born; signifying thereby
that the gospel came in order to bring us back to the obe-
dience of the law, or to the harmony of the will of God.
And Christ, when Pie came to fulfil the promise which had
been made unto the flithers, was careful, in the first place,
to reconstitute the law in a purer, more spiritual, more
enlarged form, according with the more enlarged and gra-
cious form which the gospel was about to receive from His
incarnation and death and resurrection, and dispensation of
the Holy Ghost. So that he who hath tasted the good word
of God hath his will raised to other desires, and stirred up
with other concerns, than what he shall eat, and what he
shall drink, and wherewithal he shall be clothed, even
with the desiie of universal consent and continued har-
mony with the Divine will, that whether he eat, or
whether he drink, or whatever he do, he may do all to
the glory of God. And truly to glorify God becometh the
chief end of his being, and he no longer careth even to
glorify himself; and he holdeth the world's wages as the
first-fruits of hell, and the world's friendships as the ene-
mies of God; and now he hath his ti-easures in heaven,
and he glories in the riches of the grace of God in Christ
Jesus the Lord. And, whereas he feels continually the
opposite forces of a corrupt nature, and an evil world, and
infinite temptations leading him away from the main drift
of all his desires, and perceiveth that but for the strength
which cometh from above he is also unable to stir one foot,
or advance one step in the way of God's commandments, or
to extricate his spirit in anything from its oppressors,
instead of boasting and talking, instead of swaggering wilh
big purposes, and building airy castles of high danger, he
walketh in a lowly way, and observeth a humble de-
meanour, and seeketh his strength from the Lord Jehovah,
in whom is eveilasting strength, to whom his wish being
wholly directed, with an eager longing of union, he boweth
himself in prayer, he beseecheth with supplication, he
88 Ethical.
attendeth with reverence, lie Avaitetli -witli hope, he ■under-
taketh with a divine trust, and in every act of his devising
and purposing and performing, hath a constant regard to a
divine sustenance, so that the root and spring of his life
is divine, his spirit is heavenward, his heart full of divine
asjjirations, his eye full of divine researches and holy
notices, his words full of Christian speeches, and his hand
accomplished in gracious and divine acts of love.
AN HONEST HEART.
Is it what the world calls a good natural disposition,
with which some men are born ? This it cannot be ; for if
that were a preliminary requisite, then the gospel would
only be for a pait of men, and the children of the kingdom
would be born of flesh and blood, and the law of the
flesh would not be contrary to the law of the Spirit. This
notion we utterly reject ; for it is the very essence of the
Arminian heresy, which gives a certain co-operative power
unto the creature, and so filcheth all the glory from God.
If, then, this co-operative, yea, and precedent principle,
be not in the person of man, is it in his education? or is
it in civilisation ? or, in general, is it to be found in his
outward circumstances ? This I reject, because I have
rejected the former; being well assured, that if the quality
of pure and essential goodness be not found in any one
man, it will not be found in any two men, nor in anj^ com-
bination of men, nor in any of the works of men. For
if good dispositions could in any way of nature be pro-
duced in us, then the children of God were born of the
will of men ; or if good works before God — that is, fruits
of righteousness — could by any combination of means,
discovered or discoverable, be brought to light, then what
need were there for the regeneration of the Holy Ghost?
Besides, it is such a preposterous thing to put man's cir-
cumstances before man ! As if the circumstantial things —
the climate of the heavens, or the qualities of the ground,
Aji Honest Heart. 89
or the secret and subtle influences of tlie stars, or the
mechanical arts, or any other conditional things — were
made to rule over man, and man were not made to rule
over them. As if he might be fallen from all blessedness,
and lost to all good, and they not be so, but still retain
some secret fire of heaven in them, and subtle prize of
divine virtue, to those moral alchy mists who can work
it out of them by co-operative societies, and mechanic
schools, and infidel universities, and other mysteries of
those adepts in moral aleh^-my, or jugglers in the service
of Satan.
But still the stone lies at the foot of the hill, and how is
it to be rolled up or taken away ? The question resteth
unresolved. But what is this soil of "a good and honest
heart," which must be already in existence before the
Sower of seed— that is the Son of Man, who j)reacheth
the gospel of the kingdom — can receive any fruits into
His garner ? Can it, saith a third, more orthodoxly and
religiously disposed, be this outward visible Church,
and the ordinances of religion, which we all know must
be observed and diligently kept before any fiuit of righte-
ousness will be produced ? But this will do no better
than the others. For, first, I take it that the chief of
the ordinances of religion — the ministry of the word
and the sacraments — are nothing but the sowing of the
seed : and the Church visible doth now the office which
the Son of man did while on earth, who sent His apostles,
and they their successors, and so on until our times, into
all the world, to preach the gospel, and establish a Church
for the preaching and full setting of the gospel. The
"good and honest heart," therefore, ought to be some-
tliing different from these, as the soil is different both
from the seed and the Sower of the seed. Besides, how-
ever sacred be the forms of the ordinances of religion,
and however profitable their use w-hen connected with
the spiritual substance and realit}^ thereof; they are not,
when separated thence, of any profit to any one, but a
hypocrisy, a profanation, a hardening of the heart to
90 Ethical.
holy things, a tuniing away from the living waters of
the fountain, and a great offence to the Divine Persons
who have presented us with these most precious gifts :
and, therefore, so far from preparing a soil, they do rather
scourge the soil, and wholly disqualify it for receiving
the holy seed. Witness the case of the Jews whom our
Saviour addressed : how little their scrupulous adherence
to forms did prepare them for receiving the seed of the
great Sower of the earth ! And, therefore, I think this
can as little be admitted for the right solution of the
difSculty as the other two : and besides these three, my
ingenuity can suggest to me no other ; for if this pre-
requisite of " a good and honest heart " be not in the
natural disposition, be not in the education and civil
institutions of society, be not in the forms and ordinances
of the visible Cliurch, where should it be ; for these seem
to include the whole visible ordinances of God and man
for the well-being of mankind ?
I answer, it is in all of these, when rightly interpreted
as ordinances of redemption and gifts of grace, and when
rightly applied to us by the Holy Spirit of God ; and it is
in none of them, when intei'preted merely as the law and
course of nature, and used according to the inclinations
of nature. The soil of " a good and honest heart " is
produced by an operation of the Holy Spirit upon this
our fallen nature through the means of those fallen things
which are around us. As in the creation He did move
at first upon the void and formless waters, before the
Word said " Let there be light," in order to prepare
them for receiving the forms which the Word had pro-
posed to give them ; so in the regeneration He doth
prepare for the seed of the Sower, which is the same
word of the Son of God, by working upon the moral
chaos of man's nature a readiness to receive the seed
when it shall be cast into it. And as the same creating
Spirit doth, by many previous processes of nourishment
and health and growth, prepare every animal for con-
ceiving seed, and bringing forth its kind ; so doth He,
Tlie Sabbath and its Sanctions. 9 1
long before the seed of the word of God is sown iu the
heart, prepare every heart with a relish, yea, and with
a longing for the same. He maketh the appetite before
lie bringeth the meat : and having brought the meat, Ho
giveih })ower to digest it, and so reneweth the decayed
face of nature.
THE SABBATH AND ITS SANCTIONS.
The Sabbath was made for man, not for God. We are to
benefit from it. And the only part the Almighty hath in
the matter is to interpose His authority against doing our-
selves any harm. How can any one think the Almighty
wrongs us in bestowing upon us a seventh day of rest?
AMien He made the world, and gave man the care of it, He
might have said, " Let th)' care never cease, prune the
exuberance of nature, and rule over the living creatures
without any remission. Every hour ye idle I will require
it at your hand." Or when the world fell. He might say,
'• NoAv, sweat on in your sultry toil, consume the sinews
of your strength and the faculties of your mind Avithout
any intervention of repose. Fight the fight of life till
death bring you to a stand. Enslave each other, and exact
your slavery at your will ; I take no more charge of you,
and leave you to the play of j^our own free will." But
instead of thus abandoning His creature to itself, He gave
it statutes to preserve it from its own wilfulness, and this
of the Sabbath He placed among the first.
The Almighty perceiving that man would not be merci-
ful in his power over his fellow-man, or over the cattle of
the field, did thus enter His own voice against their total
debasement and -degradation, and gave their body and
mind a space in which no one could call them servant, iu
which they might feel at pristine liberty to transact affairs
with themselves and their God. Perceiving, also, that the
world with its pleasures and engagements would encroach
more and more upon man, and occupy all his time, and so
92 Ethical.
banish all higher ihonghts and higher cares, ITe took the
summary measure of setting off the seventh part of time, in
-which it should not he lawful to do any work. And in
His wisdom perceiving that the constitution of both body
and mind would be thereby better kept up in strengtli,
and the enjoyment of action be more relished after a rest,
.and the strenuousness of action better sustained in the pros-
pect of it. He interfered and constituted the Sabbath for
our welfare. Perceiving also that the mind had faculties
which wei'e best developed in quiet and retirement, and
that in becoming acquainted with all things under the sun
it might drop acquaintance with itself, and lose the high
relish and entertainment which spring from a well-ordered
breast. He did appoint us this season inviolable to muse
and meditate and commune with our own souls. And
wisliing to be remembered by His creatures, and not to be
eclipsed by worldly objects, or forgotten in worldly cares.
He made provision of time, and commanded cessation of
care, that the soul might have communion and fellowship
witli her God. Likew^ise desiring that the memor}' of its
creation might never depart from the face of the earth, and
that she should devoutly rejoice before the God who
brought her beautiful and replenished from the womb of
ancient chaos, He appointed this great commemoration of
creation weekly to recur. And, finally, for us Christians,
who are born again and created anew, and raised from
death unto life : and from the slavery of sin to the inherit-
ance of the saints in light. He caused it to be changed to
the day for ever memorable bj' the triumph of our Lord and
Saviour over death and the grave. * * *
It is the part, therefore, of every wise man to delight in
this day of recreation and refreshment; to defend it as one
of the great rights of humanity, and as one of the bulwarks
of our salvation. Therefore, brethren, leaving exhorted jo\x
to set apart seasons of rest and repose upon your own
accord, we cannot but be urgent that 3'ou should especially
attend to this prescribed to you by the Lord. Saith the
commandment, " Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy
The Sabbath and its Sanctions. 93
work ; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Loid thy
God : in it thou !?halt not do any work, thou, nor thy son,
nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant,
nor thy cattle, nor thy sti'anger that is within thy gates."
The work of our hands is first of all to cease, and the
labours of our bodies ; and not of ours only, but of every
creature over whom the Lord giveth us control. The
preparing of our victuals, which is a necessary act, and the
doing of merciful offices, our Saviour hath sanctioned by
His own example, because the Almighty bringeth on that
day, no less than on others, the return of our bodily wants,
and the occurrence of unfortunate accidents". Man was not
made for the Sabbath, otherwise every seventh day the laws
of human nature would have stopped their course, and
animal nature would not have needed his help. There
would have been no offence of the elements or of savage
creatures to have called upon him for his resources of
defence. But these calls continuing as on other days, he
is to answer them as on other days, and preserve his being
in a healthy state, and also the being of those aronnd him.
All Judaical observation of it, therefore, which would
place the body upon short allowance, or leave the condi-
tion of the sick unguarded, or not sufficiently provide for
the comfort of the inferior creatures ; all ascetic inflictions,
of fasting, of mortification, of discomfort, of confinement, or
of suffering, are to be avoided as not only not called for,
but corrupting the very purpose and intention of the holy
day, which is a day of refreshment and restoration, not a
day of penance and humiliation.
But while the comfort and health both of the body and
the mind are attended to, it is only the better to enable us
to comply with the true spirit of the ordinance ; and there-
fore this is not to be made a handle of for preparations of
feasting, or vain adorning of the person, for excursions or
pleasure, for assemblies of our kindred, or any other thing
which would hinder us from reaping the advantages of the
institution. In this I go so far that I would not have the
rest of the Sabbath broken up even by ths too large de-
94 Ethical.
inands of public worship, wliicli is instrumental to the rest
of the Sabbath, and not a part of its rest, and which often
becomes the laborious employment of the Sabbath instead
of being part of its spiritual recreation. We should have
time for both body and mind to come into a state of repose.
Tranquil moods and sweet quiet thoughts should recreate
our souls. We should allow its rest to come like oil over
our troubled minds. And whatever tends to this solemn-
ising, tranquil) ising effect should be adopted; whatever
hinders it should be avoided in the employment of the day.
But I depend chiefl}'' for the right enjoj^ment of the
Sabbath's rest upon the exclusion of week-day concerns,
which being well done, I think the soul instructed in the
knowledge of God would find its way by itself to the
right employment of the holy day. Now, first of all, it
will not be denied that our calling should not be followed
in whole or in part : that we should shut the doors and
windows of our shops, and withhold our feet from the
lesort of business, our tongues from discoursing, and our
minds from being agitated with its cares and concerns.
When we go to rest at night we shut out the light
which lingereth in the heavens, and we bar out the in-
gress of the world and compose our minds from irritating
thoughts. So when we go to rest on Sabbath from weekly
employments, we should not only close the door of our
workshops, but, if possible, shut out the cares and thoughts
which harbour about them. All letters of business, all
messengers of business, and all conversation of business,
and all books which treat df business, we should exclude ;
all journeys for the prosecution of business, all visits of
travellers come on that end, all their bribes and overtures
to truck and barter we should utterly reject. Tor we do
but cheat ourselves (God, who looketh to the heart, we
cannot cheat) if, when we shut the doors and windows of
our shops, we open an active speculation within our
minds, and carry on in the chambers of thought those
concerns which we have refrained from in visible places.
And as the commandment is upon our servants and the
True Idea of Education. 95
stranger witliin our gates, so wo should hinder our woi k-
nien from doing anjthing on our account, and we should
require nothing of them save what is necessary for our own
health and the health of the cattle. Moreover, we should
not bo instrumental to the work of others, and therefore
we should not command our so'vant to buy nor buy our-
selves. We should not encourage any traffic, nor employ
any Sabbath vehicles. Our Sabbath journeys should be
indeed Sabbath-day journeys ; and if we employ the ser-
vices of our servants and cattle, it should be to them after
Sabbath-day measvires, for health or refreshment's sake, by
no means for labour or for profit. I do reckon it, there-
fore, inconsistent with the ordinance of God to encourage
the buying and selling of commodities, the plying of public
vehicles, the attendance and labour of servants, and what-
ever else hinders the rest of any lellow-mortal, or of any
inferior creature.
TRUE IDEA OF EDUCATION.
It seemeth to me that the true idea of education is con-
tained in the word itself, which signifies the act of drawing
out, or educing ; and being applied in a general sense to
man, must signify the drawing forth or bringing out those
powers which are implanted in him by the hand of his
Alaker. This, therefore, we must adopt as the rudimental
idea of education ; that it aims to do for man that which
the agriculturist does for the fruits of the earth, and the
gardener for the more choice and beautiful productions
thereof; what the forester does for the trees of the forest,
and the tamer and breaker-in of animals does for the
several kinds of wild creatures ; this same office in a higher
kind, according to the higher dignity of the subject, doth
education propose to do for the oti'spring of man, who is to be
the possessor of the earth, and the enjoyer of its beautiful
and fragrant fruits, the monarch of all the creatures, the
possessor of knowledge, the subject of laws, and the wor-
€)6 . Ethical.
shipper of God. And that system of education alone can
be regarded as liberal and enlarged, as complete and ca-
tholic, which takes into the compass of its view all the
powers and capacities which are given to man, and capable
of being educed or brought forth by good and skilful
husbandry.
It is necessary, thei'efore, to consider and classify those
powers which are given to human nature ; those original
capacities of the soul of man, which all possess, though in
different degrees ; the univeisal and catholic attributes of
humanity, without which men were not to be regarded as
men, nor allowed to carry on in the midst of men the
vocations of human life. These capacities seem to be
threefold, rising in the scale of dignity one above another.
The first is, the capacity of knowing and understanding
the propei-ties of those things which we see, and handle,
and taste, and in the midst of which we are to pass our
life ; that is, the knowledge of nature as it is STibmitted to
our iive senses, and can be discovered, examined, and
discoursed of by our understanding, which judgeth by the
sense, and taketh means to an end. The second is, the
capacity of knowing and understanding our own selves, of
judging amongst, and rightly regulating, those thoughts
and emotions of the soul which command the actions of
the body, direct the observations of the senses, instruct
the understanding to labour in this or that province of
outward nature ; the capacity which unites us in families,
in friendships, and in societies, enacts laws and forms of
government, submits to them when they are enacted ; and,
in short, produces all that inward activity of spirit, and
outward condition of life, which distinguishes man from
the lower creatures. The third is, the power of knowing,
and worshipping, and obeying the true God; which,
though it be a faculty lost and hidden in man by the Fall,
is now renewed in him by the Word and Spirit of God,
whereof assurance is given to all who believe the gospel,
by the blessed sacrament of baptism, which declares, not
by words but by signs, that from the earliest hour of life,
True Idea of Educatio7i. 97
the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost implant the
lost capacity of divine and spiritual life, which thenceforth
education may consider as the third and noblest province
of her kingdom. Now that education is liberal, catholic,
and complete which embraceth this threefold capacity of
human nature, and orderetli itself in such wise as to give
to each its proper place in the scale of dignity ; and that
again is narrow and sectai'ian, and hurtful, which em-
braceth only a part, or disordereth the relative dignity and
subserviency of the several parts.
Two questions may here be started — whether man hath
these three capacities of physical, moral, and religious
education, and whether this is the proper order of their
dignity. Nor is it to be expected that we should have a
universal consent upon this subject, seeing there be some
wi'etches who teach that man differeth only from the brutes
in having a better constitution of senses, and who reject all
his moral and religious distinctions, as the imagination of
the superstitious, or the deceptions of the cunning. BiTt,
setting these aside, who are generally of sxich a degi'aded
type of man, as not worthy to be heard in any court holden
upon man's proper dignity, we have, for the proof of this
second division of man's capacities, the universal consent
of all the Avise and virtuous, who have held self-knowledge
far more important than natural knowledge, and self-com-
mand far more excellent than command over the most
hidden secrets of the three kingdoms of nature. "\\'e have
also the whole body of civil histor}-, which is the narrative
of the moral being of man : we have the whole body of law,
the man}' forms of government, the world of his imagina-
tion, the infinitelj' various records of his feelings, his dis-
courses skilfull}' framed to move the feelings of others, the
books of morals and of metaphysics ; and, in short, every
foj-m of literature holds of man's moral being, save books
of natural science and natural histoiy, which, though thev
have made a great noise in the world of late, and in a
manner deafened its ear, are to the books which record the
phenomena of man's peculiar and moral being, as the small
H
98 Ethical.
tithe of poultry and of garden stuffs are to the exuberance
of the whole earth. And, with respect to the reality and
dignity of the third capacity, our capacity of divine know-
ledge, it is real and it is dignified only to him who
believeth in the revelation of Grod ; and to him who be-
lieveth not, it is but a shadow, and an ineffectual doctrine.
For the religion that is called natural, I consider but as
a higher form of morals, and not entitled to any separate
consideration ; but the religion which is called revealed, is
so high and noble in its beginnings, so infinite in its ends,
so real in its discoveries, so full of peace and joy and
blessedness, to our moral being, that to one who knows it,
and believes it, it is not necessary to exalt its pre-eminence
over the other two ; and to one who knows it not, this is
not the time to enter into the controversy, and hardly the
place, seeing I understand myself to be discoursing before
the believers and disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ,
who have come hither to be instructed in His faith and
discipline.
But a matter of such vast practical importance as educa-
tion should not be allowed to rest upon any individual's
notion of the capacities of the human mind, or to be con-
ducted according to any private judgment concerning the
ends and objects of human life. And I reckon that the
more novel and original any scheme is, which has educa-
tion for its object, the less worthy it is of oiir regard. For,
of a thing so common, so ancient, so fiill of anxiety to
every one, and so full likewise of reflection to every one,
men must surely by this time have got to know the first
principles, and to practise the best rules. Therefore, I
were willing to renounce both the classification which
hath been given above, of the capacities of our nature, and
the order of their respective dignity, if it should be found
not to have received the common consent of men, or be not
embodied in their practice, and required by their institu-
tions. But when I see that in every well-ordered family,
the first lesson of a mother to her children is of God and
uf conscience, of religion and of duty, and that almost all
True Idea of Education. 99
schools, academies, and universities of any standing, have
heretofore generally arisen out of religion, and been so
ordered as to cultivate both the knowledge and the practice
of religion ; and that in all well-constituted states, religion
hath had the first place and highest reverence, orders of
luen being set apart to teach it as the principle of action,
the root and stem of manly character ; and that, in the
forms of our country, thereon rest the sanction of an oath,
the sacredness of a covenant, the forms of law, the very
foims of merchandise, the holy bond of matrimony, the
qualification for an office, and everything, in short, which
constitutes the nerve and sinew of the state ; I must not
only keeji the place which I have taken for religion,
above every other capacity of man, but call upon him who
disputes it to enter into controversy with the universal
judgment of those chosen men who have stamped the
image of their mind upon the face of law and the constitu-
tions of civil life. And that the moral duties of man to
man come second in order, and rise far above the know-
ledge and management of the material world, who will
dispute that comprehendeth ought of his own, of his
neighbours, or the common weal, which are not built up, as
they fondly imagine, by contributions of physical science,
and skill in arts, but by domestic and homely virtues, by
female chastity and grace, by manly wisdom and virtue,
by the good and wholesome administration of laws, by
moderation and disinterestedness in those who govern,
by industry, freedom, and loyalty in those who are
governed, and by the other forms of moral character,
whereof it would be endless to speak particularly. We
live, indeed, in a time when the physical sciences have
almost stormed the strongholds of morality and religion ;
but I trust in God, though at times I fear, that His blessins:
upon the ancient bulwarks of our Church, and our polity,
will presei-ve them against the bravadoes of phj-sical
knowledge, and the rude attacks of physical force. But if
any one will ascend beyond thirty short years of time, and
take the judgment of the centuries and ages which pre
H 2
lOO EtJdcaL
ceded tliis present generation of men, lie will find, tliat Ly
universal consent the studies of nature were far postponed
to the studies of man and the study of God, and the com-
mand over nature's secrets rated far beneath the command
over self, and ohedience to the holy, just, and good ordi-
nances of the Most High.
We have therefore the best right to conclude, that if
education fulfil the rudimental idea which it names, and,
indeed, the only catholic idea of it which can be taken up,
it must address itself to unfold these three various parts of
man's nature, in due subordination to one another, by all
the helps and instruments which can be made subservient
to that blessed end. Now all who believe in revealed
religion, and have had any experience of its godly fruits,
know well how utterly ineffectual is every other means to
quicken religious life within the soul, save the revelation
of His mind and will, which for that end God himself hath
given to the children of men. The gospel of Christ, as it
is unfolded there, in all its various forms of narration, of
doctrine, of precept, and of example, of promise and rev/ard,
and of prophecy and fulfilment, through four thousand
years of time, is the only light which availeth to dispel the
brooding darkness wherein the spirits of all the young and
old are found involved, and hidden from all knowledge
which concerneth God and immortality, the invisible world,
and everlasting life. They have Avritten most beautifully
concerning the light of nature, and the revelation of God
contained in the material universe ; and very pleasant it
were to believe ail which they have beaulifullj^ written ;
but I have yet to find the man, either in the records
of well-authenticated history, or in the circles of living
society, who hath derived from that source any abiding
consciousness of God's existence or revelation of His
mind, a,ny deliverance from sin or practical government of
life, any w^ell-groimded hope of immortality, any available
consolation against affliction and death. Yet I blot not
out of the scheme these the handiworks of God ; but be-
fore they can be rightly perused I exact much previous
Tnic Idea of Education. lOi
knowledge conceniing Him whom they do but dimly
represent, and concerning that sad calamity of the world
which hath shifted every one of them from its centre ;
and then witli such illumination both human nature and
physical nature may be perused with much theological
profit and instruction, which without it are a chaos of
confusion, a book of riddles, a chain of paradoxes, and
series of contradictions. That seminary of education, there-
fore, from which the Scriptures are excluded, wherein the
doctrines and the precepts of the Scriptures are not con-
stantly inculcated, and in Scripturewise commended to the
heart and conscience of the youth, is to be accounted a
place for neglecting man's best and noblest, his everlasting
capacity; for crushing to the earth that immortal spirit
which should have soared to heaven ; for extinguishing
and annihilating that divine spark which the Son of God
came to kindle anew in every heart, and which the Spirit
of God abideth for ever to watch over, and to nourish and
presei-ve for everlasting.
AVith respect to that second form and degree of our
capacities which hath reference to the knowledge of our own
intellectual and moral nature, gives us the command of
the various feelings and affections lying in such disarray
within our breast, and prepares us for discharging aright
the various offices and duties we owe to ourselves, our
neighbours, our kindred, and our country, and whereon
personal happiness and the common weal chiefly dej^end :
this faculty we Christians are of opinion is best cultivated
by the knowledge of God, whose revelation, by universal
consent even of its enemies, contains the best code of moral
duties the world hath ever possessed. And we would have
the authority of God employed to support that which the
wisdom of God hath devised ; and therefore we think, that
in a well-conducted education, the knowledge of ourselves
should come out of the knowledge of God, which is set
forth, not in the abstract, but in relation to human nature ;
and morals grow out of religion, as the branches, and
leaves, and flowers, and fruits, grow from the root and
I02 Ethical.
trunk of the tree. And I see not, indeed, liow in a Chris-
tian state like Britain, where every moral and political
duty is entwined with religion, in the very texture of
society ; where our poetry, and our literature, and our
philosophy, heretofore delighted to graft themselves upon
the same venerable stem, and since they separated have
produced nothing but sour, bitter, and poisonous grapes ;
and where. Sabbath after Sabbath, moral duties are incul-
cated on religious principles in our churches, and in our
universities, and in our chief schools, and in the great
body of our common schools ; — I see not how in this land,
morals can be taught apart from Christianitj^, founded up-
on classical traditions, or modern infidel doctrines, with-
out distracting the very vitals of the land, and tearing to
pieces that constitution of society which hath shewn its
soundness by weathering the storms which have strewed
the world with the wrecks of other states. But on what-
ever founded, a system of moral duties of some kind ought
to be exhibited, and enforced in every school, else will
that second part of human nature which is the bond and
blessing of society be left dormant as well as the first,
and nothing be cultivated of the noble being of man, save
those lowest and meanest powers whereby he converseth
with the properties of matter, or with the brutes that
perish.
The late-sprung idea of having any art or science per-
taining to the mind or body of youth taught apart from
and independent of religion, is manifestly not only an un-
christian but an antichrist ian idea, which gives up the
false principle that there are talents and gifts which are
not to be acknowledged as of God, and may be used with-
out any view to His service ; and that men may innocently
teach departments of human knowledge without any allu-
sion to the Fountain of light, and our children may, with-
out harm, be taught the same after that ungodly fashion.
Now, I say, if there be antichristian, if there be atheistical
doctrine, it is this ; and if there be a practice which will
beget scepticism and unbelief, it is this. And to this may
True Idea of Education. 103
be traced that almost universal scepticism which is en-
twined with knowledge, and seated in our schools of
knowledge, until it seemeth to be almost inseparable from
them.
Be it obsei"\'ed, therefore, that the point for which wo
argue is not whether religion should be taught in the
school or in the family, but whether, in a land professing
to be governed on Christian principles, and to establish
the Christian religion amongst its people, it be not a glar-
ing inconsistency, a gross solecism in law, and so far forth
the entire rejection of religion, that the schools where the
^•outh are taught should not recognise the authority of
God and advancement of Chi'ist's kingdom, as constantly
and unequivocally as the churches, chapels, or conventicles
where the men are taught. I am not dividing the matter of
religious education between the home and the school, be-
tvt'een the parents and the teachers, but shewing that it is
bej'ond the power of a Chi'istian parent to entrust the
training of the spirit entrusted to him, to any one who is
unprincipled in Chi-ist's gospel, and uncareful of its obli-
gations : even as it is likewise beyond the power of a
Christian government to constitute schools which shall
not acknowledge, in the ordering of knowledge and the
instructing of mind, the same authority of Christ, the
universal Governor, which every Christian polity shoi^ld
acknowledge in all its acts and ordinances.
I take it, therefore, to be established upon broad doc-
trinal principles, that it is a solecism in a Chi-istian govern-
ment to authorise, and in Christian parents to patronise,
an}' school for youth, be the subject taught in it what it
may, when that subject is not taught with a view to the
glory of God, the eternal salvation of the soul, and the
Christian well-being of the land, Now, if any one say,
" Oh, but we cannot trust the religion of our children to
be under the tuition of those whom the Church and State,"
or, as it should rather be said, whom the belicA'ing nation,
" hath approA-ed for that end ; " the answer is, No one
obligeth thee to delegate thy child's education to any one :
1 04 Ethical.
it is tHne own act to do so. Thou art tlie guardian of the
spirit of thy child : do that which seemeth unto thee good.
But do not thou hinder others from having the advantage
which they may need; neither do thou set up such an
anomaly and solecism in a Christian land as education
without the acknowledgment of God's propriety in the
bodies and minds of the children, who are His creatures,
and by baptism His redeemed creatures.
Our notion of human nature, as explained above, is, that
it is fashioned and furnished for more excellent purposes
than to turn the clod or handle machines, to transport the
produce of the earth from place to place, or work in mines
of gold and silver ; or to eat, drink, and make merry, over
the indulgences which are by these means procured. And,
therefore, those systems of education whose chief aim it
fs to teach the nature of the physical productions of the
earth, and the mechanical arts by which they are to be
transported from place to place, and the chemical arts by
which their forms and properties are changed, and the
science of economy, or of turning our handiwork to the
most account, are to me no systems of education whatever,
unless I could persuade myself that man was merely king
of the animals, head labourer and master workman of the
earth. I can see a great use and value in these physical
sciences, to enable a man to maintain himself with less
brutal labour, to the end he may have more leisure upon
his hands for higher and nobler occupations ; and in this
respect T greatly admire them, as having bowed the stub-
born neck of the elements to the spirit of man, and restored
him that power over creation with which he was endowed
at first. But if he is to be taught in his youth no higher
occupation than this, no godlike recreation of his soul, no
spiritual sciences ; and, if what he is taught of intellect be
thus bound down, like Prometheus, to the barren earth,
then have we an education which, however splendid in its
apparatus, however imposing in its experiments, however
fruitful in riches, and all which riches can command, is
poor and meagre, low, mean, and earthly, altogether insuf-
True Idea of Education. 105
ficient to satisfy man's estate ; wliicli doth but harness
him for his work, Avhich doth but enslave and enserf him
to the soil, but giveth to him no tokens, no hint, no inti-
mation, of his reasonable being, — for I call not that reason
■which labours in the clay, — it is but the instinct of the
noble animal, and not the reason of the spiritual being.
Such education will depress a people out of manliness,
out of liberty, out of poetry, and religion, and whatever
else hath been the crown of glory around the brows of
mankind.
SOCIAL
^"f^ ~^%^< ^^ ^'X^<^ 1-4^%^ ^^^ l-^"^^ ^
SOCIAL CARES.
AS we grow in years, and become the fellows and
companions and servants and masters of a new
generation, straightway, to the cares that come upon us
from the generation that gave us birth, there are added
the cares of this world's business and government, which
our fathers resign into our hands ; and a little further
onward in the journey of this mortal life, we become
authors to ourselves of the cares of another generation,
spning from our loins : and so it fareth with us from
generation to generation, that we are burdened with the
care not of ourselves, but of many others, from which we
cannot escape by any act of stem resolution, or stoical
pride, without turning the milk of our nature into sour-
ness, or making our abode in the cold and solitaiy regions
of pride, or sinking into the depths of indifi'erence and
apathy towards our kind, unless, indeed, which is the only
cure, we are enabled by faith to enter into the mysteiy of
God's fatherly providence, and repose our souls with
security upon His care.
Oh, how intricate and interwoven is this net of care-
fulness, in which the spirits of men are taken captive ! It
reacheth unto all ; it is around all ; it is Satan's snare for
no Social.
catching all. If I look into my own breast, and observe
what passeth therein continually, that is, to what my
nature is ever inclined, I find from the opening of my
eyelids in the morning, until their closing in unconscious
sleep, that faster and more plentiful than motes in the sun-
beam, cares succeed each other, and float about in the
light of intelligence which is within me ; and Satan will
not give me leisure for a morning or evening prayer, but
he will be interposing, between the eye of my faith and
the heaven of my desires, some phantom of worldly care
or interest, the ghost of something past, or the shadow of
something coming, or the substance of something present ;
and yet I am not a man like many here present, loaded
with worldly charges, but exempted from them by the
nature of my calling, and desirous in my spirit to keep
myself exempt : but I do find that my natural eye loveth
not more the light, or an object to look upon, than my
natural man loveth an object in this world to hope, or
fear, or desire ; and I do moreover find that there is no
deliverance in nature ; that the understanding hath its
cares in the objects of knowledge : that the heart hath its
cares in the objects of afiection ; that every profession is
filled with worldly cares, which will not be kept out by
the gratings of the convent, as our pious fathers vainly
thought, which will not be kept out by the untrodden
solitudes of the hermitage, nay, which will not be exor-
cised from the closet by the voice of solemn prayer, but
Daunt sick men's couches, and sit heavy upon the dying
man's breast, and would seem almost to follow us into
the grave ; and I wonder not at the superstition of the
Eomanist, which feigneth that the fires of purgatory
are needed to separate this earthly intermixture from the
soul before it be fit to ascend into the pure abodes of
the blessed.
Seeing, then, that this subject toucheth us all so closely,
revealing that troublous sea into which every man is cast
at his birth to swim for his life, we do well, like men
earnestly desiring to be delivered from these many waters
Social Cares. 1 1 1
of evil, and planted upon a rock, to consider the causes
Avhicli have brought us into this jeopardy of our life ; tho
fotal issues of abiding therein ; and the only way of
deliverance which the Lord, in His grace, hath revealed.
And, as to the causes which entwine these cares with our
natural being, I observe, that they are no less than the
preservation, the well-being, and the happiness of this our
present estate. It is not that the mind naturally loveth
care on its own account, from which, indeed, it would
rather be delivered, for the enjoj'ment of its own will and
pleasure ; but that without care nothing will proceed well
in the out^vard world, which is very obstinate and en-
tangled, like the wild forest and the woody thicket, and
cannot be brought into regular and productive courses,
but by much husbandry and economy and care ; yea, and
the soul itself, if suffered to grow according to its own
wdll and pleasure, doth likewise become overrun with the
weeds of idleness, and infested with the brood of evil and
wicked passions. And what were a family without the
care of a thrifty wife and industrious husband ? and what
were any concena of business without the care of a head
master and inferior servants ? and what were a state
without the watchful care of its governors ? and what
were laws without the diligence of magistrates ? and
what were the rising generation without the labour and
care of teachers ? and, in short, of what worth were the
existence and well-being of society without the care to
maintain it on the part of those who enjoy it? As the
beautiful garden and well ciiltivated fields would, but for
the hand of man, soon return under the dominion of the
curse and become a sterile wilderness, so would the regu-
larity and peace and concord of society, without the dutiful
cares of men, retura to the rudeness and ferocity and wild
disorder of savage life. The causes, therefore, of care are
deeply seated and wide-spread in the natural wants and
advantages of human life ; and while the objects of this
world continue the chief or only objects of the soul, it were
not only a vain but a very unwise thing to call upon men
112 Social.
to suspend their cares, — for it could lead only to im-
providence, waste, idleness, and disorder, against which
the commandments of the gospel are set in direct oppo-
sition. " He that will not work," saith the apostle,
" neither should he eat," " He that provideth not for his
own, especially those of his own house, hath denied the
faith, and is worse than an infidel." To him who hath no
higher object than this world, care is the certain portion ;
and, as it were, the present price with which its future
goods are purchased : it is his pain, it is his penalty for
want of faith on the providence of God, and the world
unseen ; and while this faith is unpossessed, his soiil must
have the tortures of anxiety, and the pains of disappoint-
ment, and the sufferings of loss and defeat. The moralist
may do his best to regulate, but he cannot deliver the soul
of men from this evil agitation ; for while men have hope,
it must look forward to something ; while they have desire,
it must fasten upon something ; and if there be nothing
assured to them by faith beyond the grave, and above the
world, then upon this side the grave, and upon the world,
their desires must rest: and if in my wife and child I
know nothing immortal and eternal, whereon to fix my
love, and in the fixed fellowship of which to defy time and
change, what can 1 do but fix it upon that visible transient
being, this natural existence, in the mysteries of which we
have become acquainted together, and with all the un-
certainties of which our acquaintances must be disturbed ?
If there be a cure therefore for care, it is not in things
visible : its remedy is not in the understanding, nor
within the resources of man ; for, as hath been said, every-
thing is full of care, and, as hath been shewn, nothing can
proceed without it.
1 1
MARRIAGE.
In the relation between husband and wife, it is the
design of God to exhibit the most perfect union whereof
two spirits living upon the earth are susceptible. He in-
tendeth that there should be community between them in
all things, individuality in none ; that whenever they differ
they should find a common ground on which to agree, and
not separate and recede into their proper provinces of
thought and feeling ; but do their most diligent endeavour
to be of one heart and of one soul. He meaneth it to be the
perfection of communion, the masterpiece of affection, and
the parent of all other associations — friendship, acquaint-
ance, and society. And this, not for the sake of domestic
happiness and prosperity alone, but for the sake of religion
and spiritual blessedness. For in joining such a communion,
it is manifest that both parties must surrender their per-
sonality, and come forth from the magic circle of their self-
love ; that their natures must become interwoven, each
resigning self for something better, which is not self, but
communion, which is not a thing seen, but a thing imseen
■ — something made from the union of the two, which hath
no existence in either. Now, in this resignation of self,
which Christian matrimony is intended by our Lord to be,
the gieat step is taken towards religion. Communion is
deliberately preferred to selfishness ; and if communion
with a spirit of like infirmity with our own, how much
more communion with the Father, and with His Son Christ
Jesus ! When this community, not of goods, nor of person,
but of purpose and design, and everything which is com-
municable, hath taken place, and is in sweet operation,
then it not only assisteth the parents to the higher and
more perfect communion which religion is, but is to the
children a constant emblem, as hath been said, of commu-
nion in general, and from the earliest dawn of feeling, it
maketh a streniious debate with the principle of selfish-
ness, to which hiiman nature is so prone. They behold,
from the first moment that their spirit can behold spiritual
I
114 Social.
things, a common interest as well as a self-interest. All
that blessed family estate, of which they are a part, they
perceive to come from the sacrifice of the personal, and tlie
triumph of the common. Its regulation proceedeth alto-
gether by consent, and whenever dissent comes, then come
discord and every evil. The face of peace is marred, the
harmony of the household is confounded with jarring
interests, and the guardian genius of home departeth. But
when communion returns, then with it the blessedness of
the whole family is restored. In this way it cometh to
pass that the married estate becomes a standing t^-pe or
emblem of communion, a constant argument against selfish-
ness, a constant incitement of the generous and pious parts
of human nature in all the household ; and being so esta-
blished, it is worth a thousand lessons to the heart; it is
an atmosphere in which the heart lives, and breathes, and
hath its being; and the blessing to the family of such a
cordial union is not to be estimated. It is not to be esti-
mated, because no one's consciousness can ascend so high
into the rudiments of his being. There the dawn of
thought and feeling God hath mysterious^ly hidden from
us in the darkness of childhood ; like as, at the same
period. He hid from us the prospective view of life. There
our spirits grew, feeding upon smiles and embraces ; our
morning of life dawned in the holy light of a father's and
a mother's shining face. Joy was our frequent companion,
Mnd carelessness went ever with us, hand in hand. If,
instead of such an auspicious ushering into this world of
care, we had been fed with the sour grapes of maternal
fretfulness and paternal tj-ranny ; if our ear, for the dulcet
and soothing sounds of a mother's fond love and a father's
sprightly jo}^ had been accustomed to sharp quarrel and
contentious discord ; if the comfort we had in our homes
had been banished out of doors by feuds and contentions,
and peevishness had usurped the place of sweetness, and
stern command of loving-kindness, and contention of com-
munion, and we had grown up under these storms and
troubles of the domestic estate, rather than under its pacific
Marriage. 1 1 ^
influences ; — then, just as in troubles of the political estafo
every mind is a little shaken off its centre — simie unhinged,
and many altogether deranged, and a s^pirit of wild specu-
lation and factious dissension seizeth all the children of the
state, — so in the family, it cometh to pass, is such anarchy,
that all tlie springs of thought and chaiacter are troubled
at their fountain, and a brood of discontented, disunited,
ill-thriven children grow up fulfilling the terrible, yet true
commination of the Lord, that He visiteth the iniquities
of the parents ujx^u the children to the third and fourth
generation of them that hate Him and keep not His com-
mandments. But, upon the other hand, when true commu-
nity and harmony of feeling are preserved by the parents
and guardians of the family, the children gi'ow up under
the sweet influences of love and blessedness, and become
unconsciously attached to home, — with how much strength
they know not, until they are torn away from it, or some
of its endeared objects are removed. They grow up as the
subjects of a well-ordered state, in the midst of their pri-
vileges and possessions, working, each one in his place,
with diligence and contentment, holding no disputes or
noisy brawls, and venting no wild patriotic effusions, but
living upon those things concerning which your would-be
patriots talk. Such people, though quiet and simple, are
strong, and strongly united, and, being invaded or assailed,
woe to those who stir them or wound their peace. They
rise from their quietness, and thej' dash them in pieces,
like the potsherds. Thus nourished in peace and unity,
the tender shepherds of the tender flock have oft cnished
and trodden upon the mailed and battled strength of armies
that had swept whole portions of the earth. In such peace,
in such love, and in such strong attachment to home, do
children grow up who are nourished under the sweet con-
senting sway of united and harmonious parents.
I 2
( ii6 )
CHILDREN : SACRED CHARGES : PARENTS MEDIUMS OF
GEACE TO CHILDREN.
Each babe is a gift from heaven, a gi'atuity from God,
of an infinite value, and, little as parents think of it, is a
greater treasure than an estate or a kingdom, and the care
of it is more honourable than the royal sceptre, which,
"with the honours and power, convej's also the care and
trouble and endless fatigues of governing. But this little
spirit, whereof the administration and management is de-
legated to us, comes forth already linked by the invisible
cords of nature to the hearts of its parents, a part of them-
selves ; and we feel it as being of ourselves a part, grieving
not so much in our own ailments as we sympathise in its
trials, so that our rule over it is sweet as the rule which
we have over ourselves. And a mother would rather
starve herself than her child, and she would expose her
own naked bosom to save her child. And in the incle-
ment storm, a mother, when she could no longer maintain
the struggle with the blast, hath been known to take the
warm cloak from her own shivering frame, and having
wrapped it around her infant, lay herself down in the
drifting snow to perish, content with the hope that her
child might thus haply be saved. Whosoever, then, hath
been presented by God with a child, hath not only gotten
something that shall outlive the world, and which doth
in its Creator's eye outvalue the world, but this spiritual
realm over which he hath been made the governor is so
sweetly joined to himself, that to care for it is to gi'atify
himself, to watch over it is to double his own well-being.
Care here is sweetness, power is love, and trouble is
pleasure.
What, then, is a family of such ? — it is a little diocese
of immortal souls ; and what are the parents but the
diocesans thereof, not joined by outward ceremony of
the Church, but by the inward harmonies of spirit with
spirit? And for what end is such a diocese given unto
any one ? — for their everlasting salvation. And why did
Children : Sacred Charges. 1 1 7
God, the great Parent, link tlieir natures together? — that
therehy the experience of the one might draw upon the
inexperience of the other, the knowledge of the one upon
the ignorance of the other. And why did Christ permit
children to be presented in their earliest infancy at the
holy font of baptism? — that the parents might know their
child had an immortal soul, for which He died. And why
did the Church, over the fountain opened for sin and un-
cleanness, require obligations of these parents? — in ordei'
to constitute them parents in the spiritual sense. Each
father is thus a prophet and a priest unto his child, and
the law constitutes him a king. So that he mystically
represents to his family the threefold relation of Christ to
His people — of prophet, priest, and king.
Behold, now, into what deep waters we have come,
pursuing the stream of this discourse. We began with
a certain shallow notion of obligation, founded upon the
wonderful providence which had, out of two young per-
sons, made the little state with all its prosperity to arise.
But what have we now? — consignment after consignment
from Heaven of immortal souls, testimony after testimony
by the sacrament of baptism that Christ hath died for their
sakes, covenant after covenant before the Church that we
will rear their spirits for immortality. In which there is
a threefold obligation of an eternal kind : first, the obliga-
tion arising from the intrinsic value of the gift ; secondh',
the obligation to the Son of God for His death on its
account ; thirdly, our own voluntary obligation to do
for it those functions of a spiritual parent which before
God and the Church we entered into at baptism. And
we spoke of an infirmity arising out of fluctuating fortune,
of uncertain health, of unregulated temper, out of tempta-
tions and artifices of deceivers ; but what is that to the
infirmity of the immortal soul, preyed against by all
the arts of the devil, the world, and the flesh? And what
a charge resteth upon those who were instrumental in
hrinKing: these immortal creatures into the world, who
Stood sponsors for their spiritual education at the sacra-
1 1 8 Social.
ment of baptism, whose soul is all implicated with their
souls, whose happiness dependeth upon their happiness,
and whose salvation, if it depend not on their salvation,
doth yet depend upon the prayers they have ofiered for
their salvation, upon tire instruction they have given them
concerning the things of their peace, and upon the pains
ihey have taken in training them up in the nurture and
admonition of the Lord ! And, oh ! what an affliction,
what a huge affliction, — affliction enough to darken heaven
itself, were some essential change not wrought upon our
nature, — that our children should be torn from us in judg-
ment, and consigned to the miserable condition of the
wicked ! I say not that heaven's joy will be afflicted with
ttuy sadness, nothing doubting the plenary fulfilment of
joy which is to be partaken there ; but left as this matter
is under the veil, what a motive for parents to apply them-
selves to the opening souls of their children, and, while
they neglect not things convenient for their bodies, to be
at pains to feed their souls, to nurse their souls for heaven,
to be instant in season and out of season (if ever out of
season) at the throne of Divine grace, — to watch as those
that have to give a solemn account, — to sprinkle the door-
posts of their house with the blood of purification, and
to cany a censer of incense through all its chambers, —
but above all, to give them the most healthful shelter
of parents' piety, and the sweet recreating atmosphere of
conjugal unity, — the audience of affectionate speeches
between man and wafe, which will beget the feeling of
union, the desire of it, the ensuing of it, until at length
they find it in the union of their souls with Christ, M'hich,
as hath been said, is the thing of which matrimonial union
is an emblem, and for which the sight of matrimonial
union doth discipline the expectation of the mind !
To give supreme dignity to the head of a famil}^ God
hath chosen to Himself the name of Father, and therein
given to the parental relation the highest and holiest place.
And woman He hath exalted to the level of man, making
her bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh, in every respect,
CJiildrcn : Sacred Charges. 1 1 9
of body and of mind, meet companion for man. And in
order to double the liappiness of both, and lav the founda-
tion of tlie dearest amity and the closest union, He hath
formed the body and soul of the one to need and desire the
help of the other. So that, being joined as He purposed,
they might be one. Each nature maketh request for the
natiire of the other, whereby it may be completed. And
marriage is the completion of these designs of the Creator.
And being the wedding, not of the body only, but of the
heart and soul, marriage is followed not only by natural
issue of the bod}^ but also by issue of the soul. And the
children find already prepared for them a couch of affec
tion in their parents' hearts. The heart, if I may so spcalc,
becomes conceptive, and with its teeming afiections is
ready to embrace the offspring which God may send. And
as God, to dignif}' the station offlither, hath taken to Him-
self the fatherly relation to His creatures ; so, to dignify
the station of mother, His onl^^-begotten Son was made of
a woman, and called her mother. And to sanctify the re-
lation of the children to each other. He who sitteth on the
right hand of God on high hath called Himself the Elder
Brother of the family. And God hath said that children
are His heritage, and that the fruit of the womb is His
reward. And, oh, think you that He weaveth that fine
Aveb of interlacing affections which a family is, only that
all its life long sorrow may prey upon its weakness, and
death at length riot in its dissolution ? No, no ; He
weaveth that fine web of interlacing atlections which a
family is, that He may make their hearts blessed and
fruitful with mutual love ; He weaveth it weak and liable
to calamity, that it may be taught to find its strength in
the suflBciency of His grace ; He maketh it subject to the
dissolution of death, that its dross and corruption may be
purged awa}', — that its pure and pious affections may
be put beyond the power of a scornful world, and beyond
the fluctuations of time, which vexeth and afflicteth all
things.
Parents should guard themselves against partiality, and
1 20 Social.
prevent their children from everything which might foster
selfishness. Their diversity of natural gifts and tempers
will always be enough to excite discord and disagreement :
against which it is the very design of a common parentage,
a common house, a common name, a common kindred, to
work an effectual check. A father's justice and equity
must stand umpire in all their quarrels ; and a father's
righteous severity must chastise the offender, even though
the offended should plead his cause. A father's wisdom
must study their several talents, and approjDriate to them
their several occupations corresponding thereto : they
should be taught to labour, when they can labour, not for
themselves, but for the little community which laboured
for them. No separate purse, no separate interest, should
be permitted under their father's roof : and when the time
cometh that they go forth to serve another master, they
should be taught that their first care is not for themselves,
but for the family whereof they now are members. Jsor
should the feeling of family unity be suffered to leave them
when they are doing for themselves, and have a house and
family of their own. Still they should remember their
father's house, and their father's name, and be helpful to it
for ever. I consider that this island, which is so signally
favoured in its institutions, hath no mean blessing, amongst
others, in the institution of clanship which exists in the
north, and is as honourable to the domestic character of
Scotland, as is the trial by jury to the judicial character
of England. I never yet have found but that a religious
family was remarkably united in itself, and sought about
to trace out the scattered fragments of the stock from
which it came. Whence I conclude, that this long remem-
brance of kindred, and distant ramification of it, is a good
characteristic of any people, and to be carefully preserved
as another defence against the selfishness of our peculiar
and proper nature. A father and a m.other have a duty to
discharge, not only to their children, but to their children's
children, to the furthest generation which they are per-
mitted to see; and, in faith and piayer, and the other
Duty to Parents. 121
offices of invisible affection, they have a duty to discharge
to their utmost posterity. And a brother and a sister have
duties to discharge, not to their own children only, but to
all the children of their common father; and of their
father's brethren, and of their father's name. And the
more this gentle intercommunion of affection and cheap
interchange of mutual love is fostered in private in a
family, the more will it be prepared for entering into the
mystery of the Church of Christ, and sympathising with
the manifold conditions, and helping the manifold wants,
of her various members. Therefore it is called the house-
hold of faith ; and the members of it are called brethren ;
and Christ, our Elder Brother, the first-born of the house,
and heir of all. Which shows us that the privilege of the
first-born is also a venerable ordinance, which God hath
honoured, and which in all Christian kingdoms hath been
established by the sanction of law. All these are types,
in the natural constitution of things, most profitable for
enabling the reason of man to recognise its own well-being
and consolation in the doctrines and ordinances of the
gospel.
DUTY TO PARENTS.
The honour in which we should live and move and
breathe towards our parents includeth, if need should be,
all that a sel•^'ant oweth to his master. Not that any
father would willingly put a son into the condition of a
servant, but rather, like God, adopt servants into the con-
dition of sons ; according to St. Paul, " Henceforward we
are no more servants, but sons, heirs of God and joint-heirs
with Christ;" — but that, if b}' the adversities of life and
through the infirmities of age our parents should be
brought into straits, as oft they are, it is the duty, it is
the honom-, and it ought to be the glory of children to
turn out as labourers, yea, as bondsmen and servants, for
their fathers' sake. And it is a stigma, a most gross stain
122 Social.
"apon the sculclieon of any family that a father and a mothei'
ibhuuld pine in want, or hang dependent npon charity,
while their children have enough and to spare. And when
this becometh prevalent in any country, it is time that
they should take the state of sentiment of the realm into
their thou^'htful deliberations, and take measures against
the evil, by a more pure and plentiful diifusion of religion ;
for there is a disease at work in the joints and ligaments
of society which will dissolve its union, and make of it
an un wieldly mass.
Oh, who would refuse to lay down his hands, and work
and toil, yea till blood started from his willing fingers, for
the sake of an aged father and mother ! For laboured not
that father soon and late for us, laboured not that mother
night and day for us ? Whither is the strength of the one
gone ? — in bowing himself for his children. And whither
is the beauty of the other flown? — in much anguish for
her children. Where are the fruits of their labour and
anguish? — they went in bread for tlieir children. And to
what served that bread purchased with a parent's strength ?
— it went to nourish health and strength in their children.
Strength was reared by strength. Health was bought
with health. Are children their own ? Ko, they are
Dought with a price, with the price of their father's and
their mother's youthful labours. Let them redeem them-
selves by labour in return, if God should so make it
needful in His providence. In whom centred ail the
early feelings of our parents' hearts? — in their children.
For whom ascended their prayers unto God ? — for their
children. AVhy do they grieve over their broken for-
tunes ? — ^because of their children. And for whom had
they destined all ? — for their children. For them ever}^
pound that accumulated was doubly dear; for them its
loss is twice lamented. And can the children allow them —
the stays and props of their childhood — to fall for M'ant
of a stay and prop ? Can they allow these servants, these
slaves of their youth to die, worn with cares, and gray
with years, and yield them no service ? Can they allow
Duty to Parents. 123
lliese ministers of all tlicir peace and blessedness to be in
their old age single and uncomforted ? Then, veril}', upon
them and theirs will the heaviest curse of Heaven descend,
the curse of a broken-hearted father and a despairing
mother. They shall have the inheritance of their own
mockeries, and their own children shall inflict manifold
upon their hearts the wounds which they deserve, by
having inflicted them upon the undeserving, upon those
who deserved smiles and caresses. A father's blessing in
the religious homes of the patriarchs Avas a thing which
children besought with tears, which they propitiated with
the most grateful kindness ; because to have it they knew
was propitious of all good — to have it not, ominous of all
evil. And poor Esau, when he had been sorel}' defrauded,
said, " Hast thou not one for me likewise, father ? " But a
father's curse let no one abide it ; it is more terrible than
exile or excommunication, and next to the curse of God the
heaviest thing which falleth upon the head of any mortal.
And, finally, into this mother afifection of honour towards
our parents, there enter many other tender feelings which
I have not time to treat particularly- : as the gratitude
that we feel to benefactors is their due ; all the tenderness
which Ave owe to most devoted friends is their due, for
what friend sticketli by his children like a father? All
that we owe to the most devoted servant is their due, for
what servant eA-er waited upon her children like a mother?
And if we have had religious parents, all the reverence Ave
owe to the priest should alight upon them, for the}^ have
sent up more prayers than any priest, and taught us more
lessons of goodness, and gi\'en us more wholesome counsels,
and administered to us more faithful rebukes. The heart
of man is very capacious, and hath a chamber for every
possible relation of life. For the relations of life are all
offsprings of certain affections of the mind, Avhich jire-
dispose it to unite itself in such relation to the beings
Avith Avhom it is surrounded. Kow Avhatever is just and
honourable, and true and praiseworthy, and aflfectionate
and devoted, in the breast of man, duth commonly pour
1 24 Social.
itself tipon tlie heads of children, fiom the frank and
generous breasts of parents. For an unnatural parent is
far less frequent than an unnatural child, though an
unwise parent be more frequent. Therefore, in addition
to all the obligations which have this day been discoursed
of, it is the part of every child to recollect whatever more
extraordinary attention he hath received, and to repay
these with more extraordinary returns. And if any one
render these extraordinary returns where there have been
no such extraordinary gifts, such unpaid affection is well-
pleasing to God ; and if any one render these extraordinary
returns where there hath been neglect and mistreatment,
it is the more acceptable to God, who maketh " His rain
to descend upon the evil and the good, and His sun to rise
upon the just and upon the unjust."
THE ORPHANS CASE.
It is not the occasional admonitions of a father, or the
lessons of early piety dropped by a mother in the ears of
childhood, whereof we lament the loss to the orphan ; these
may, in some measure, be supplied by a good guardian and
a pious teacher, which, alas ! are not often to be found in
any rank — seldom in the lower ranks to be obtained at all ;
it is not the control of a father's authority, or the admoni-
tion of a mother's watchful affection, which also are hardly
to be found a second time upon the earth, but it is the
ever-present picture of a father working for his family from'
break of day to evening-fall, from week to week, and from
year to year ; his enduring of all weathers and encounter-
ing all hazards for his wife and little ones, and the ever-
present picture of a mother labouring in the house all the
day, and often watching all the night over the objects of her
unwearied solicitude ; and not the union of their hands only,
but the xmion of their hearts, their consultations together
by the evening fire over the interests of the little state,
their fears, their hopes, their prayers, and all other demon
TJie Orphans Case. i 2 5
gti-ations of their incessant care ; — that is what we lack and
lament in a family which God hath bereaved of its natural
heads. Those conditions are all gone frora the house which
make it the nursery of affections in the children. It is
home no longer ; no longer sweet home which contained
the excitement of every tender feeling, and its reward
when excited. A mother's smile no longer unlocks the
heart, and a father's knee no longer unbends the tongue of
the little prattler. And there is no commonweal round
which their opening sentiments may concentrate ; no fatlier
whose labours the sons may share so soon as their hand
can form for itself labour ; no mother whose cares the
daughters may divide so soon as their hearts can under-
stand to feel. They look not on conjugal love and parental
■union, which, being present before the eyes of children, is,
as it were, the practical representation of all those tenden-
cies of the mind to unite with others, the actual demonstra-
tion of that which brotherhood, and friendship, and religion
aim to become. There is nothing to counteract the selfish,
to which individual nature tendeth; nothing to represent
the social and the common. The little ones bereaved are
not drawn forth by the natural heat of parental affections,
nor united by the cement of family bonds. They grow up
lonely and divided, and are liable to divisions. And when
divisions arise, there is none to heal them. There is no mark
nor sign, no banner round which their affections may unite
when they are broken and scattered abroad. And herein
is sustained the most grievous loss, which it boots not to
enlarge upon, but rather to set forth the cure which God
hath provided for the same. In His word, which describes
the redemption of this world out of suffering and mercy, it
is revealed that orphans, though they be fatherless and
motherless, and without a certain home or dwelling-place,
are not therefore forsaken upon the face of the earth, but
become members of His family who is the father of the
fatherless, and the husband of the widow, and the oi-phan's
help, and the refuge of all the destitute who put their trust
in Him. And though they be cut off by the afflictinrui of
126 Social.
Providence from tlie happy establiylimeiit. of liome, and
liave lost their jior ion and inheritance of a father's in-
dustrious arm and a mother's tender care, they are not
removed from the watchfulness of that Eye which never
slumbereth nor sleepeth, nor from the help of that ample
Hand which dealeth out its portion to everything that
liveth. And though they he unheeded and alone, and the
step-dame world use them roughly, they are certainly of '
more value in the sight of the Lord than the lilies of
the field, which He arrayeth in more royal robes than the
monarchs of the earth ; and their immortal souls are dearer
in His sight than the raven's brood, which He carefully
nourisheth, or the wild sparrow of the field, which cannot
fall to the ground without His notice and permission. The
orphans may be cast forth and ejected from their father's
tenement or farm, when they have no longer the scheming
mind and busy hand of a father to pay the rent thereof to
the needy or heartless lord. With the wrecks and frag-
ments of their household, they may have to take their
heavy way to crowded cities, or to foreign lands, or without
the means to move themselves away, they may become
burdensome to the charity of those around them, and lose
the noble rank of independent men ; but though the worst
should befall which cold poverty and helpless orphanage
are heirs to, let them not despond or be cast down, for they
are not one jot further removed from the kingdom of heaven
than before, which cometh not with observation, neither
consisteth in meat and drink, — which is independent of,
and to be insured without help of, yea in opposition to,
father and mother, and brother and sister, — which is before
riches, or food, or clothing, yea, more instant that to-
morrow's fare. For it is written, " Care not for to-morrow •,
say not, \\ hat shall we eat ? or. What shall we drink ? or,
"Wherewithal shall we be clothed ? but seek ye first the
kingdom of heaven, and all things shall be added there-
unto. After all these things do the Gentiles seek ; but
your heavenl}' Father knoweth that ye have need of all
these thinti-s."
The Orphans Case. 127
"When an orplian comes to take knowledge of his state,
and to compare it with that of others, whom God is rearing
under more soft and favourable conditions, he is apt to
shrink, and misgive, and grow timorous. The helpless boj',
or more helpless girl, finding shelter under the roof of some
kindly relation, cannot by all kindness be brought to forget
the difference between itself and the rest of the children.
This difference it discerneth, not so as to express it, or to
comprehend it, but still it is shewn in its backwardness, in
its timorousness, in its bashfiilness to take its rights, or to
plead its cause when its rights are invaded. Biit how
seldom does affection try to establish itself in an orphan's
lluttering and unceitain heart — how seldom is affection in
any form an orphan's lot ! They are sent to live at schools,
with no parents' home to bind their aching hearts at time
of holidays ; they are apprenticed out to masters, with no
parent to protect them from a master's harshness; or
brought up in asylums, where, let the best be done, there
is small compensation for the loss of home. It is good
when these asylums are under a man devoted to the
Lord, because there the oi-phan is instructed in the Divine
helps for these its natural ills. But when otherwise it
happens, as for the most part it does, that no such instruc-
tion is tendered to it, the little helpless thing, buffeted and
beat about, under much authority and little affection, grows
dissatisfied and distrustful ; and having no natural guar-
dian to whom to unbosom its grief, it grow^s reserved and
jealous, and loseth that noble sense of equality and resolu-
tion to keep its own which is so necessary to the unfolding
of a manly character. Often its spirit altogether droops;
sometimes it sours ; and more frequently it worketh cheer-
lessly on till something occurs to determine it to good or
ill, though it wants that cheerful setting out, that morning
sprightliness and buoyancy of hope, which so well be-
cometh a young man entering life in the pride of his youth,
and which is so good a promise of a successful issue to the
journey.
This constant feeling of their loss, and sense of their
128 Social.
loneliness, which presseth clown the spirit of orphans, and
being helped by the hard and niggard conditions into which
they are thrown, hinders the fair development of their
character, and makes their success to depend more upon
fortuitous events and chance patronage than upon hopes
fairly formed, and measures steadily pursued, is not to be
removed save by some feeling as constantly present in the
mind, to counteract that feeling of their rejected and forlorn
condition which produceth the evil. And this considera-
tion the Almighty has abundantly provided in the reve-
lation of the gospel. For whereas things go on in the
worldy estate of man by transmission from father to son,
by family help, and by inheritance of one kind or other.
He hath made it quite the reverse in the religious estate,
which He doth promote independent of all these aids, by
honouring the state of orphanage. So that it is a very
condition of its success that we be able to forsake father
and mother, and brother and sister. Eeligion rests upon
the individual, and gives dignity to the individual, and is
the only thing whereby the heart of the orphan can be sus-
tained, and the inequalities of his condition made up, and
the withering effect prevented which the solitude of soul in
which he grows hath upon the bloom of his opening cha-
racter. Here he is upon a level with the best-conditioned
of his fellows, and he breathes the inspiration of perfect
equality. Nay, more, he hath here the advantage. There
is here a counterpoise, and more than a counterpoise to
their earthly advantages.
A DISTINCTION BETWEEN MEN AND WOMEN.
Though the Baptist bore hardest against the affections
of the monarch, the king had too much regard for him to
sacrifice him to wounded affection. He did not imprison
him out of revenge for his faithful admonition in re-
spect of his brother Philip's wife, but to protect him from
her vengeance. IS^ow, here I take a distinction between
A Distinction Between Men and Women. 129
men aud women. There are stronger parts in man than
his affections ; in woman there are none so strong. Herod
bore John's assault upon his affections, and heard him
gladly notwithstanding ; hut Herodias could not, Herod
did many things at the Baptist's suggestion ; and Herodias
feared he might also, at his suggestion, put her away, and
therefore hastened to precipitate his death. In which
difference in the constitution of man and woman, I pray
you to observe the wisdom of the Creator again. Tlie
woman being destined for the part of a nurse and a mother
to the world, and the man for the father and governor of
the world, the Almighty made affection strongest in the
breast of one ; in the breast of the other, He made authority
and command prevail over affection, when it so happens
that they cannot be sweetly accorded. Woman was in-
tended for the solacement of man, and to that end was
bestowed upon him in Paradise at first ; and when she led
him astray, her share in the sentence was, that her desire
should be to her husband, and that he should rule over her.
But to man the bitterest half of the curse did fall — that he
should labour the ground, and win his bread with the sweat
of his face. So that man was made the slave of labour, the
tiller of the ground, the owner of the ground, the governor
of the earth ; and woman was made the comfort of man in
the midst of his many toilsome labours, and of his heartless
supremacy. Therefoi'e, affection was made the strongest in
the one, and in the other, understanding, rule, and strength
— understanding to direct, rule to undertake, and strength
to carry into effect, the management of this niggard earth,
which the Lord yielded to his sovereignty. Now, in
making these remarks, I am so far from dividing, that
I do, in truth, unite the bond between man and woman,
by pointing out the proper domain of each ; for upon the
proper regulation of this rudimental relation of all society,
its prosperity, in a great measure, dependeth. For exam-
ple, in old Eome, when women nobly did the part of wives
and mothers, what noble men were reared, patriotic, affec-
tionate at home, and terrible abroad ; and in this cotmtrj^
K
1 30 Social.
where these domestic virtues are equally prized, what a
seed of pious and heroic men we have to hoast of. But
when the ordinances of society go in this respect against
the ordinances of God, to what unseemly conditions it
leads. Amongst the American Indians, you have women
in bondage to the men ; they bear the burdens, they work
the work, they do everj^thing but hunt and carry on war ;
and being thus abstracted from their natural oifice of sooth-
ing and softening the man, it hath come to pass that the
men are of an indomitable pride, — strength of will, cunning,
and revenge being their chief characteristics. They have
rejected the alliance of woman's heart, and see to what they
have been brought ! In ancient Egypt, again, the opposite
experiment was made. The woman had, by the marriage
contract, the supremacy ; and see what effects it produced
upon the people ! They became quiet, peaceable, lovers of
justice and order — and so far it was well ; but they became
soft and effeminate, and submissive to tyranny and misrule ;
their understanding became debased, and their very senses
fell from their proper use, when they anived at and became
subservient to soft affection — the most miserable pass of
meanness. They worshipped every timid creature, and
paid them divine honours ; even cruel creatures they wor-
shipped, for possessing that boldness which they wanted —
loving the one, fearing the other. And all the idolatry
which elsewhere had been rendered to the ideas of things,
or to forms which represented these ideas, or to noble and
useful men, was by them rendered to living creatures,
whose brutal proneness of nature they beheld by outward
sense. Much more might be said upon this subject, with
regard to which, instances crowd upon our remembrance ;
but we merely observe, that the affections being wounded
in Herodias, set the whole course of her nature in arms ;
Herod bore the wound, being controlled by higher faculties.
( 131 )
ANTIDOTE TO SELFISHNESS.
The true and proper antagonist of the selfish feelings is
not the social feelings, which are limit-ed or confined within
the range and application of social institutions, and which
at the ultimate make but a republic of men, each watched
by his fellow, but the religious feeling, which at once
destroys our own individuality, by making us a subject
of the Most High, and subordinates our wishes and our
interests to the revealed will and purpose of God. And
not in proportion to the refinements of society is selfishness
subdued, but in proportion to the progress of religion.
And a country is civilised and happy according to the
regard which it hath for the authority of God, not according
to the subjection which it hath to the laws of men. The
one eradicates, the other only opposes — the one removes,
the other only restrains, the selfish and malignant passions
of the heart. A man may be intensely selfish and malig-
nant, yet a good subject and a reputable member of society.
A man cannot be a Christian in the least, without being
in the same degree delivered out of his own will into
the will of God. And whatever of our own free-will we
surrender, is surrendered into the hands of One who is
wiser to guide, and more able to promote. And if we
surrender all our will and personal interests into His
hand then indeed we become a part of His family, His
children, the brethren of Jesus Christ, His disciples and
servants, and the active ministers of His Holy Spirit.
We are nothing, He is everything. We love Him, and
He loveth us, and He dwelleth with us : He in us, and
we in Him.
Exactly in proportion as this lesson is learned and acted
on, we get delivered out of the power of selfishness, with
all its anxieties, cares, jealousies, and malignant actions,
into the power of faith and trust, with all their fruits of
peace, joy, long-suffering, gentleness, meekness, patience,
temperance ; and being now in confidence and communion
with the Father of spirits, whose sceptre is a sceptre of
K 2
132 Social.
righteousness, we are not afraid of wliat man can do against
■us, neither are we afraid that the power of the wicked can
prevail against the progress of the truth. " For He inaketh
the wrath of man to praise Him, and the remainder of his
wrath He doth restrain." There ensueth a divine content-
ment with our lot, a resignation to the evil, a temperate
enjoyment of the good, and a thankfulness for all. The
limitations of our faculties give us no distress. We are as
God made us, and we shall be answerable for that only
which He hath given us. And the higher gifts and ofSces
of another do not grieve us. " To his God he standeth or
falleth." We rejoice in what is true and worthy and
righteous, wherever it is found. Every device of goodness
we promote and hasten forward ; and we love those who
love it, and we help those who strive for it. Truth and
righteousness are to us the voice and footsteps of God, and
we revere them for His sake who first manifested them in
the person of His dear Son. And if we can promote good
works in others, we delight to do so, and we delight to
have good promoted by others in ourselves. We become
absorbed in God's commonwealth : our citizenship is in
heaven, and we do the works of our Father who is in
heaven. For evil-doers we fret not ourselves ; and though
they be high in power and spread like the green bay-tree,
we only pity the more their speedy overthrow. We are
not restless, timorous, or dismayed, because we know the
Lord's hand is over them to restrain the excesses of their
wrath. We scorn them not by day, we plot not against
them by night. Our sweetness is not soured by their cor-
ruption, because our confidence is in God, who dasheth
the wicked in pieces like the potter's vessel. Our vocation
is not to labour against them, but to labour for God ; not
to hunt them through their labyrinths of error, but to push
forward the interests of truth ; not to grieve ourselves with
all the abominations of the earth, but to do justly, to love
mercy, and to walk humbly with our God. Thus the good
that there is or hath been rejoiceth us, and the evil that
there is or hath been doth not alarm or vex us. The one
Tfie Four Offices of Friendship. 133
is the food of our joy, the other of our faith ; both of our
steadiness and perseverance. A constancy of purpose, a
tranquillity of sjjeech, a steadiness of execution, mark us
to be the children of the God of order and of truth, around
Avhom, though there may be clouds and darkness, yet
righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his
throne. ^\ here is envy, rivalry, and jealousy ? They
have died of their own accord. Where is malice, cruelty,
revenge ? They cannot live upon the soil of such devo-
tion. We are become like the children of God, merciful
and kind, to our enemies forgiving, because they are only
our enemies according as they are His, and even upon His
enemies He maketh His sun to arise, and His rain to drop
fatness down.
THE FOUR OFFICES OF FRIENDSHIP.
The first great office of a friend is to \xy our thoughts
by the measure of his judgment, and to task the whole-
eomeness of our designs and purposes by the feelings of
his heart. The knowledge upon which the mind works is
such a compound of truth and error, and the mind hath
naturally such a fond partiality for her own children, and
the heart of the best man is so beset with straitening
prejudice, that, conscious of our weakness, we no sooner
commence any new thing than we long to discourse of it to
our friend, that he may take hold of it with his judgment,
and try it by his conscience of good and ill. And being
approved by him, we have, as it were, an initial test and
first experiment of the conception, which we are thereby
encouraged to work into form, and bring out either by
word or deed for the welfare of our fellow men. To
fulfil this office will require that our friendly affections be
subordinated to a sound judgment and an honest heart,
otherwise we are not worthy the first and equal confidence
of things, and fit only for the inferior station of partisans,
bribed by affection into that service which our higher
1 34 Social.
faculty of reason hath not yet approved. For this cause, 1
doubt not, it was that our Saviour sent His twelve apostles
and seventy missionaries, two by two, to preach the gospel,
that they might be to each other a counter-test of all they
did and said.
As this office of a good friend is to guard against the
imperfections of our nature, and protect the world from
the effects, and ourselves from the responsibility, of ovir
folly, the next office of a friend is to protect us from the
selfish and wilful and malicious part of our nature. To
stand alone in a good cause, to be the first to strike out of
the unknown and invisible some great idea or device, is the
most royal pre-eminence which God bestoweth upon His
creatures. But if the yearning of the soiil to communicate
the same be resisted, and it remain buried in our own
bosom, then, however good and generous in its first con-
ception it might have been, it will grow full of selfishness,
and in the end perhaps reveal itself in malice. It toucheth
the soul's pride to possess a great scheme or idea all unto
herself, it raiseth her pride of superiority, and exciteth her
lust of rule. If no heart will be the partner of her thoughts,
or no ear the hearer of her complaints, or if by her own
peculiar nature she will confide neither in the one or the
other, then let society be upon its guard, for it harboureth
one that is dissocial; and let that one be on his guard
against himself, for he is in a lonely place, which is cold
and friendless, and he is on a high place which is giddy.
He loses the capacity of fellowship from the want of
it — he loses the capacity of friendship from his nourished
selfishness and secrecy — he grows self-willed, submitting his
will to no discipline of equality — he grows self-interested
because he findeth none fit or worthy to take a part in it.
He broods over his purposes alone, grows domineering,
and for the execution of his purposes makes tools and
instruments of men. Those that are around him he winds
and works to his will ; he will receive only suppliancy or
service, and those who will not give it he sideth from.
And so, if he have strength given him, whether of intellect,
The Foiw Offices of Frie7idship. 135
of taste, of persuasion, or of power, it all comcth under the
sway of bis selfishness ; ho becomes the head of a school,
sect, or party, which will breed disturbance with the things
existent, and generally an evil disturbance (for selfishness
and power are generally evil) ; and therefore such a
man should be looked to by those who are interested in
things that are already established. This self-collected
spirit, which in the end becometh turbulent, a good
friend or a band of good friends would have conducted
down by degrees, and converted him into a benefactor ;
and hence it is that good men do sometimes attach
themselves to those evil beings like their good genius ;
as if hopeful to conciliate them to good, or in the evil
day to ward off the ill which they might bring to the
commonweal.
A third great office of friendship is to awaken us, and
lift us up, and set us on nobler deeds. There is living in
the heart of man a diviner light which is aye sparkling
through the gloom of his benighted nature, and shewing
him in the world the light of better ways, which it is the
part of a friend to tend more carefully than the virgins of
Vesta did the sacred fire, lest it be smothered by the car-
nal and gross elements which we bear about in us, and
its occasional gleam be swallowed by the darkness which
covereth the earth, and the gi'oss darkness which covereth
the people. There is not a man in whose soul schemes and
purposes of a nobler life than he now liveth in the flesh
are not ever budding, or rather I shoiild say, thoughts and
ideas of a better life, which, if fostered, would form the
rudiments of schemes, which schemes being perfected,
would constitute a virtuous and pious man out of one Avho
is herding with the vilest of the peojile. Oh, it touehcth
one to the quick to see a mob or rabble of men, chance-
collected, addressed by some wise and high-minded minis-
ter of truth, held mute while he shews them pictures of
excellence, answering with their brightened countenances,
with their sighs, haply with their tears, to the true feeling
of the noble things which his noble soul deviseth, thereby
1 36 Social.
testifying that they have high faculties for scanning truth,
that they can climb to the top of his high argument, and
taste the proportions of his finest characters ; — I say, it
toucheth me to see these men dispersing to wallow again
in the trough of their sensuality, or labour in the service
of their malicious passions, quarrelling, contending, and
fighting for those wretched matters which are scattered
upon the dunghill of this earth. Oh for wiser and purer
mothers to rear iis in our childhood, for skilful masters to
open upon our sight the path of virtue and true nobility,
for pastors worthy of the name to feed the souls of the
people, and friends to stand around them, and bear us
faithful company towards things exalted and pure. Then
should you see men, and the sons of men rise in the land,
men like unto the sons of God, to contend with those chil-
dren of the earth, earthy and devilish, which at present by
far the greater part among us are found to be. Let it be
the office of true friends to do for each other that function
which may have been neglected by mothers, and teachers,
and pastors those great functionaries of the commonweal —
to bring to light every stifled purpose of good, to rally
every reluctant faculty of well-doing, to awaken what is
dormant, to chafe what is torpid, to point the way, and
shew us wherein we may excel, not others, but ourselves ;
not to shrink from shewing us our faults, to recover us, to
reassure us, to extricate us from dilemmas of the judgment,
to resolve us of the casuistry of the conscience, to work
upon the irresoluteness of the will, to hold up the hands
which hang down, to confirm the feeble knees, to make
straight paths to the feet, and to pioneer the way of that
great work which in this life it is given unto every one
to do.
The fourth good oflSce of a friend is to rally us when we
are defeated in our schemes, or overtaken with adversity.
And so much is the world alive to this office, as to have
chosen it out as the true test ; it being one of our best
proverbs that a friend in need is a friend indeed. Oh, but
a man is well ofi" for friends while things flourish with
Tlie Four Offices of Friaidship. 137
liim ! The great world is always ready with its friendly
ministry for Avhatever he may need. Tlie great world will
tlien become our friend, and serve us with a ready and
willing ministry of whatever we need, — flattery for the
ear, incense for the nostril, sweetness for the taste, beauty
and elegance for the eye, rapture and ravishment to the
soul. You, too, will take well with them, and they will
take well with you while you are rising. They will filch
the credit of your prosperity from God and become your
patrons ; and when you can reflect honour, they will take
you into their train, and seat you by their sides. But
sure as David, who harped in the palace of Saul, and had
Saul's daughter to wife, had to take the wilderness of Sin
for his refuge, and the rock of Machpelah for his habita-
tion, when the countenance of Saul turned against him, so
surely shall the man whom prosperity hath exalted have
to shift for himself, forlorn and abandoned, when adversity
setteth in upon him. And his talents shall now be dis-
covered to have been nought, and his accomplishments to
have been nought, and his services to have been nought.
All the cords which lifted him on high and held him in
his place shall untwist full rapidly, and he shall find him-
self solitary and unbefriended of all that fashionable crew
who heretofore delighted to do him honour. Therefore let
every man rising in the world's favour look to his ways,
and deal faithfully by his former friends and associates,
and most faithfully by his God, that he may have a
hiding-place and a secure refuge when the time of his
trial and the days of his darkness come. For then he will
surely be deserted — the greater part pressing no farther
good out of him, a better few Avilling to help but without
the means, and those who have the means and are well
disposed hardly knowing the way.
A man in adversity is like a shipwrecked and dismantled
ship upon the deserted strand — he needeth much reparation
and outfit before he can be of use to any one ; a man in
prosperity is like a ship full laden with costly goods, which
is a prize to every one that is needy, and an honour to
138 Social.
every one who batli in her any share or interest. A man
who is rejected and despised of the world is like a ship
that is not seaworthy, in which no one will risk an atom of
his wealth, and which proves a clog upon the course of any
free and fair sailing vessel; whereas a man whom the world
embraceth with its favours, and who flourisheth in pros-
perity, is like a convoy ship, under whose lofty and armed
sides many sail in safety. AVho is he that hath had the
world set against him, or whom the world hath dashed
from his anchorage-ground, that hath not known, amidst
these back-waters of the soul, the good and the strength of
heart there is in a friend upon whom to fall back, and by
whom to be received as into a haven, and fitted out again
for another encounter ? Happy is he who hath one into
whose ear his soul may tell its calamities, shew its weak-
nesses, and lay open its wounds ; from whose lips it may
receive the consolation and tender counsels it needeth ; at
whose hand accept the help, and, if need be, the medicine
which cures adversity, and whose bitterness is savoury
when administered by the hand of a friend ! Eloquence
might exhaust itself in speaking the praises of a man who
can discern the value of a soul in its dismantled slate,
stri^Dped of all outward embellishments, and struggling
hard with its bristling ills and thick-coming trials ; who
can say, Come to my home with a welcome ; come for a
season and take shelter until the storm be overpast ; come,
and I will make thee a chamber upon the wall, where thou
shalt be free to go out and in unmolested, and share our
bread and our water. I tell you of a truth, m}^ beloved
brethren, the man who can so entreat a ruined man, is
worth a whole streetful of visit-exchanging citizens. He
is the good Samaritan whom Christ painted to the life
for all His followers. Pie will stand in the judgment,
because he took the stranger in, and clothed the naked,
and fed the hungry, and gave the thirsty drink. There
is immortality in these actions ; their memory never
fails, and the remembrance of them delights the soul for
ever.
The Four Offices of Friendship. 1 39
And the fourfold nature of his office requires in a good
friend a fourfold qualification for discharging the several
parts of it aright. For the first, sympathy with our
thoughts and pursuits, for where there is no sympathy
there will be no communication ; and not only sympathy
with them but xmderstanding of them, and a solid judg-
ment and an honest heart to give us good counsel and true
upon, all our plans. For the second, a generous nature
which looks to the commonweal, and will not yield it to
the pleasuring of a friend ; also a manly and tried mind,
which will not veil truth and manhood, even before a
friend, so as to give in to his wilfulness, but will be an
equal friend or no friend at all. For the third, a high and
heroic soul, which can strike out noble duties in every
path of life, and behold in all classes, from him that sitteth
on the thi-one to him that gi-indeth behind the mill, the
elements of a heaven-born nature, and the destinee of an
immortal glory; and perceiving them, will stimulate us
thereto, however much against the stomach of our o"^^ti
present inclination, or the spirit of our present life. For
the fourth, a tender and a true heart, which keeps to its
afi'ections, and as it is not beguiled into friendship by
outward forms or conditions, so is not alienated by the
absence of them, but loves the soul, the unadorned soul,
for its own intrinsic qualities; and while it preserves
them, will love it in good report and in ill report, in
prosperity and in adversity, in life and in death, and
for ever. According as these qualities meet in any one,
he rises in the scale of friendship ; where they all
combine together in one, they fonn a friend more
precious to the soul than all which it inherits beneath
the sun.
( I40 )
PEOSPEEOUS PEEACHEES.
There is a tide in public favour, which some ride on
prosperously, which others work against and weather
amain. Those who take it fair at the outset, and will have
the patience to observe its veerings, and to shift and hold
their course accordingly, shall fetch their port with pro-
sperous and easy sail ; those again, who are careless of
ease, and court danger in a noble cause, confiding also in
their patient endurance, and the protection of Heaven,
launch fearlessly into the wide and open deep, resolved to
explore all they can reach, and to benefit all they explore,
shall chance to have hard encounters, and reach safely
through perils and dangers. But while they risk much,
they discover much ; they come to know the extremities
of fate, and grow familiar with the gracious interpositions
of Heaven. So it is with the preachers of the gosjDcl.
Some are traders from port to port, following the customary
and approved course ; others adventure over the whole
ocean of human concerns : the former are hailed by the
common voice of the multitude, whose course they hold ;
the latter blamed as idle, often suspected of hiding deep
designs, always derided as having lost all guess of the
proper course. Yet of the latter class of preachers was
Paul the apostle, who took lessons of none of his brethren
when he went up to Jerusalem ; of the same class was
Luther the reformer, who asked counsel of nothing but his
Bible, and addressed him single-handed to all the exigents
of his time ; of the same class was Calvin, the most lion-
hearted of churchmen, whose independent thinking hath
made him a name to live, and hath given birth to valuable
systems both of doctrine and polity. Therefore, such ad-
venturers, with the Bible as their chart, and the neces-
sities of their age as the ocean to be explored, and brought
under authority of Christ, are not to be despised, because
they are single-handed and solitary, by the multitude of
useful men, who wait upon those portions which some
former adventures have already brought into the vineyard.
I
Prosperotts Preachers. 141
And long let this audience, ■which listens to the voice of a
pastor,* who, without sacrificing the gospel of Christ, hath
diverged further than any of his ago from the approved
course of preaching, and launched a hold adventure of his
o^^^l into the ocean of religious spectilation, bringing off
prouder triumphs to his Eedeemer than any ancient pilot
of them all — long may this the people of his pasture, give
countenance to those in whom they discern a spirit from
the Lord, and a zeal for His honour, however much they
may hold of ancient and venerable landmarks, which,
though they might well define the course proper to a
former generation, may be quite unsuitable to the neces-
sities of the present. Such adventures, under God, this
age of the world seems to us especially to want. There
are ministers enow to hold the flock in pasture and in
safety. But where are they to make inroad upon the alien,
to bring in the votaries of fashion, of literature, of senti-
ment, of policy, and of rank, who are content in their
several idolatries to do without pietj^ to God, and love to
Him whom He hath sent? Where are they to lift up
their voice against simony, and arts of policy, and servile
dependence upon the great ones of this earth, and shameful
seeking of ease and pleasure, and anxious amassing of
money, and the whole cohort of evil customs which are
overspreading the ministers of the Church ? Truly, it is
not stagers who take on the customary form of their office,
and go the beaten round of duty, and then lie down con-
tent ; but it is daring adventiirers, who shall eye from the
proud eminence of a holy and heavenly mind, all the
grievances which religion underlays, and all the obstacles
which stay her course, and then descend, with the self-
denial and the faith of an apostle, to set the battle in array
against them all.
* Dr. Chalmers.
( H2 )
MR. IRVING AND HIS GLASGOW HEARERS.
This place has been tlie cradle of my clerical character,
whatever it may become — this coBgregation its nurse and
fostering mother, God above all being its protector. Your
indulgence has restored me to the confidence of myself,
which had begun to fail, under the unsanctioning coldness
of the priesthood, restored me to the Church from which
despair of being serviceable had well-nigh weaned me,
and restored my affection to this holy vocation, which I
shall labour to fulfil, and by God's grace to magnify.
Take, then, my acknowledgments in good part, they are
all I have to offer, and they are well deserved by men
whose good and honourable report hath borne down the
misjudgments with which my opening ministry was
assailed.
But, in a still dearer sense, we stand related to the
people of the parish than to the congregation, inasmuch as
the indulgence of nature's affections is dearer than to
discharge the duties of the highest office, or to inherit the
honour of having discharged them well. Here, in the
pulpit, we filled a station, and took upon us an official
character, and played one part amongst the many which
are played upon the stage of life. There in the parish we
went forth in nature's liberty, consociating with the jDeople
as man doth with man, or friend with friend ; a soother of
distress, a brother of the youth, an encourager of the
children, and often listener to the wisdom of the aged.
We took no clerical state, assumed no superiority of
learned, nor affectation of vulgar phrase, served ourselves
with no imposing address ; but in the freedom of natural
feeling, and speaking from the fulness of the heart, we
wandered from house to house, depending on the gainliness
of genuine nature, and the patronage of Almighty God, —
which two staffs, nature and God, have sustained our
goings forth, and brought us with great delight through
the thousands of families in this parish, and failed us
never. Oh ! how my heart rejoices to recur to the hours I
Mj\ Irving and his Glasgow Hearers. 143
have sitten under the roofs of the people, and been made a
paiiaker of their confidence, and a witness of the hardships
they had to endure. In the scantiest, and perhaps sorest
time with which this manufacturing city hath been ever
pressed, it was my almost daily habit to make a round of
their families, and uphold what in me lay the declining
cause of God. There have I sitten, with little silver or
gold of my own to bestow, with little command over the
charity of others, and heard the various nairatives of hard-
ship, narratives uttered for the most part with modesty
and patience, oftener drawn forth with difficulty thap
obtruded on your ear, — their wants, their misfortunes,
their ill-requited labour, their hopes vanishing, their
families dispersing in search of better habitations, the
Scottish economy of their homes giving way before en-
croaching necessity, debt rather than saving their con-
dition, bread and water their scanty fare, hard and
ungrateful labour the portion of their house, — all this
have I often seen and listened to within naked walls, the
witness, oft the partaker, of their miserable cheer, with
little or no means to relieve. Yet be it known, to the
gloiy of God, and the credit of the poor, and the en-
couragement of tender-hearted Christians, that such appli-
cation to the heart's ailments is there in our religion, and
such a hold in its promises, and such a pith of endurance
in its noble examples, that when set forth by our inex-
perienced tongu.e, with soft words and kindly tones, they
did never fail to drain the heart of the sourness which
calamity engenders, and sweeten it with the balm of re-
signation, often enlarge it with cheerful hope, sometimes
swell it high with the rejoicings of a Christian triumph.
The manly tear which I have seen start into the eye of
many an aged sire, whose wrinkled brow and Ij-art locks
deserved a better fate, as he looked to the fell conclusion
of an ill-provided house, an ill-educated family, and a
declining religion, which hemmed him in, at a time when
his hand was growing feeble for work, and the twilight of
age setting in upon his soul, — that tear is dearer to my
144 Social.
remembrance than the tear of sentiment which the eye of
beauty swims with at a tale of distress ; yea, it is dear as
the tear of liberty which the patriot sheds over his fallen
country ; and the blessings of the aged widow, bereft of
the sight and stay of her children, and sitting in her lonely
cabin the live-long day at her humble occupation — her
blessings when my form, darkening her threshold, drew
her eye — the story of her youth, of her family, and
husband, wede away from her presence — her patient trust
in God, and lively faith in Christ — with the deep response
of her sighs when I besought God's blessing upon the
widow's cruse, and the widow's barrel, and that He would
be the husband of her widowhood, and the father of her
children, in their several habitations, — these, so oft my
engagement, shall be hallowed tokens for memory to flee
to, and sacred materials for fancy to work with, while the
heart doth beat within my breast. God above doth know
my destiny ; but though it were to minister in the halls of
nobles, and the courts and palaces of kings. He can never
find for me more natural welcome, more kindly entertain-
ment, and more refined enjoyment than He hath honoured
me with in this suburb parish of a manufacturing city.
My theology was never in fault around the fires of the
poor, my manner never misinterpreted, my good intentions
never mistaken. Chiirchmen and Dissenters, Catholics
and Protestants, received me with equal graciousness.
Here was the popularity worth the having — whose evi-
dences are not in noise, ostentation, and numbers, but in
the heart opened and disburdened, in the cordial welcome
of your poorest exhortations, and the spirit moved by j^our
most unworthy prayer, in the flowing tear, the confided
secret, the parting grasp, and the long, long entreaty to
return. Of this popularity I am covetous ; and God in
His goodness hath granted it in abundance, with which I
desire to be content.
( 145 )
A TRUE CHURCH.
Tin: word church denotes a body of men living together,
feeling and acting towards one another, under the influence
of those principles of love and charity under which Christ
acted to the world, which moved Ilim, though rich, for
our sakes to become poor, though the equal of God, to
make Himself of no reputation, to humble His heavenly
state to come to the condition of the earth, to bow His
head as a man, and endure the ignominious death of the
cross, for not His equals, not His friends, not good men,
nor even righteous men, but for wicked men, for the
rebellious, for His enemies, for those very malefactors
who with wicked hearts did crucifj' and slay Him. This
spirit which He was of, hitherto unknown upon the eartli,
this example, above the imagination of mortal men, this
life of sacrifice beyond price, of humiliation beyond mea-
sure, of beneficence beyond estimation of men or angels, —
this spirit, example, and life, is constantly looked upon,
studied, besought of God, attempted, practised by all His
followers towards one another, and towards the world,
the wicked and persecuting world. And in as far as this
new spirit and life of Christ gaineth over the old spirit
and life of nature, they become one with Christ and one
with each other, one in heart and soul, and compose the
church — and two such men are as much a church as two
hundred or two thousand. For it is not the number of
members, but the condition of being, — this interwoven and
intertwined unity of nature, — which is designated by that
most holy and heavenly name ; and the prosperity and.
thriving of a church are to be judged of by the progress
of this heavenly harmony and Christian spirit of charity.
A few in such bonds of perfectness will do more for 1he
cause of the church than multitudes who take the name
but study not the pui-pose of the society. The name being
nothing, as hath been said, if it be not significant of the
purpose ; which purpose is no less than the glorious one
of uniting the broken and divided earth in heavenl}' har-
L
1 46 Social.
mony again, bringing human life to be transacted after
Christ's life, and human kind to be Christ's kind, and
peace — outward and inward, private and public — to pre-
vail over the world, and charity, such as no poet hath
dreamed of in the silver or the golden age, but which
prophets have sung of through the long and troubled vista
of distant ages.
I may take an illustration of this which hath been said
from a subject dear and familar to us all. Liberty is to
a nation what charity is to a church, — all its strength,
all its activity, and all its greatness ; it denoteth that
state of union in which people are most happy and
powerful ; and where it hath been understood and esta-
blished, it giveth to a few united men that energy and
might which many otherwise united cannot have. Whereof
ancient Greece is an example, which, cooped within limits
hardly larger than a petty province, coped with and over-
came as much of the world as could be numbered in arms
against it, and held an empire of taste and of letters still
unrivalled. Whereof we are as striking an instance, who,
by the power of that political union called liberty, have
cantoned the world with our fortified stations, and held
its largest, finest territories under our sway, not of terror
and tyranny, but of law and government ; and have, by
our arts and sciences, subjected the whole face of nature
to ourselves, and brought every production of the animal
and vegetable kingdom in all parts of the world to do
homage to our power. The ambitious man who sought
the monarchy of Europe established no power like to this ;
he established nothing at all; he subverted, like the
thunderbolt and lightning, but he established nothing,
because he had no image of liberty in his soul, no rever-
ence or desire of it in others, but was selfish, and there-
fore dissocial. The Autocrat of all the Russias, the
Emperor of China, can lay the foundation of no empire
like this ; this kind of power cometh only to men governed
by the principle of free government. The Lord blighteth
all tyranny with barrenness ; all true government He
A True Church. 147
honoureth with productiveness and increase. And these
rewards are everywhere awaiting the noble-minded and
disinterested, who will be daring enough to break the
yoke of others, and self-governed enough to guard against
their own arbitrariness and misrule
Now, as liberty, or a state of good and wise government,
is the condition in which a nation is strong and happy,
and as health is the condition in which the body of man
is able for its work, and the mind for its cogitations— that
is, in both cases when each member of the corporation
worketh harmonious with the rest, and so raaketh up a
united whole ; so, in a higher kind, charity, haraiony, and
commonness of spirit is the condition in which a church is
efficient and strong to produce its own well-being, to pro-
pagate itself, to enlarge, to last and endure upon the face
of the earth, where it hath so much to encounter and over-
come. And the attainment of this Christian chai'ity, this
conimunit}' of inward goods, I regard as the whole inten-
tion and reward of our religion, so far as this world is con-
cerned ; and the church or fellowship of Christians in
which it is realised may consider that they have reached
the mark of the prize of their high calling upon the earth,
and that they have no further object than to seek to diifuse
abroad the enjoyments of their condition to those who have
not yet tasted the Goshen-peace of it, but are afflicted with
all the plagues of the world.
This communion and harmony of our souls with one
another, my beloved brethren, is that for which our Lord
praj-ed in His intercessory praj-er for His Church, the last
act which He did for His disciples before the hour and
power of darkness had dominion over Him. He prayed
that they might be one, as He and the Father were one.
Then, embracing a wider circuit of desire, He looked
forward to all who should believe on Him through their
word, and prayed that they might all be one, " as thou,
Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one
in US : that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
And the glory which thou gavest me I have given Ihom ;
L 2
148 Social.
that they may be one, even as we are one : I in them, and
thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one ; and
that the world may know that thon hast sent me, and hast
loved them, as thou hast loved me."
SOCIAL RELIGIOX.
When religion hath so prevailed over the inward man as
to possess it of the divine knowledge, the Christian law,
and the principles of spiritual well-being, it cometh to pass
that social religion groweth of its own accord, a wise and
godly discipline is produced, the spirit of love and charity
reigneth over schism and division ; humility and poverty
of spirit in respect to ourselves, kindness and gentle-
ness in respect to others, take the place of the envies and
emulations and grudgings of the world ; outward decency
is the expression of inward reverence ; the harmony of
the voice of the attuning of the heart ; the oneness of
prayer of the single-heartedness of the whole ; the stillness,
the anxiety, and the eagerness become proofs of zeal ; faith
cometh by hearing, conviction cometh out of reproof, the
word of God is profitable unto all things, and the man of
God is thoroughly furnished unto every good word and
work. Not only would men, thus possessed with one
common principle of religion, be diawn regularly to the
house of God by an inward motive, and while there, held
in a mood suitable to the various parts of the service, but
over their ordinary meetings a spirit of order, and peace,
and wisdom would prevail ; and for prayer and fellowship,
and other recreations of the soul, express meetings would
be held ; and the whole intercourse of life would be im-
pressed with a spirit of truth and sincerity, and all hy-
pocrisy and dissimulation would be done away with ; and
in place of formality there would be affection ; and in place
of ridicule there would be counsel ; for satire, kindly ad-
monition ; for enmities, forgiveness ; for malice, benevo-
lence ; and charity and love instead of unrighteousness.
Por when religion hath been founded in the common,
Social Religion. 149
wants and common benefits of our common nature, it is not
possible that it should not form a bond of closest alliance
between man and man. Being a principle of such extent,
affecting, not a part of man, but the whole of man. and
transforming every man into the common image of God, it
cannot be but that it will produce the strongest fellow-
feeling, and lav the foundation of the strongest social prin-
ciple. Even though it had not been a part of its doctrine
to extinguish envies and divisions, and to enforce love
and unity, it Avould have had this effect by the natural
influence of its common principles, — one Spirit, one Lord,
one faith, one baptism, one hope of our calling, one God
and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and
in us all. Any one of these, being really, nut formally
present ; being felt, not professed ; being acted upon as a
principle, not idly entertained as a matter of opinion, were
sufficient to be the basis of a community : all together they
produce the strongest bond by which the world is blessed.
This will appear with great conviction if you will consider
the effect which is produced by any one of these common
sympathies when exhibited in those minor degrees which
the world contains. One common sovereign, who loves his
people and is worthy of their love, begets amongst them a
loyal fealty, v/hich makes them forget their private con-
venience to contribute to his royal state, aud, when need
is, forget their private quarrels to fight for the throne of
his fathers. Of which, let the history of the whole world
bear testimony. One common law is the basis of a deeper
and more enduring union still, the union of a free nation,
which is more powerful still than the union of a lo^^al
nation ; and when the two combine together, they render
a nation almost invincible. How strong this sense of com-
mon right becomes in a people, is best to be seen when
it is threatened with any injury. What gatherings of the
land when any point of constitutional law is threatened, —
what remonstrances to the guardian authorities of the
state, — what fearful demonstrations, which, being coolly
and resolutely made by a whole people, no power on earth
1 50 Social.
can witlistand ! And hence arisetli out of many divided
hearts the heart of a nation, out of many contending
powers is produced the power of a nation ; and so the
character of a nation, the ])ride of a nation, the terror of a
nation, and all that enters into that sacred name, the com-
monwealth. These two principles of union both concur in
Christians, for Christ is their Lawgiver and their King,
whose laws and government inspire in those who have in
truth submitted themselves to their gi-acious protection, a
feeling of heavenly citizenship and of Christian rights, and
therewith a bond of brotherhood kindred to that which is
felt by the loyal subjects of the same wise and gracious
prince, and the citizens of the same free and privileged
community. This bond of union hath suggested to the
minds of the apostles many beautiful expressions ; such as
" Our citizenship," (for so the word signifies in the Greek,)
" our citizenship is in heaven." " Ye are a chosen genera-
tion, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people,
which in times past were not a people, but now are the
people of God." The law we are under is called the per-
fect law of liberty, the royal law of the Scriptures. And
in these terms we are spoken to : " Now therefore ye are
no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with
the saints, and of the household of God." So that religious
men are a nation within a nation, or rather they are a
nation scattered among all nations, who are not divided
by seas nor borders, by rivers nor mountains, from each
other's sympathy and love ; they live under one law and
under one Lord, and have a common interest in each other.
They pray for the common weal of all, and they act for the
common weal of all ; they fight against the common enemies
of Christ, the devil, the world, and the flesh, under a com-
mon Captain of their salvation, and for a common inherit-
ance in which they shall dwell together, see each other
face to face, and know each other even as they are known
by the Searcher of their hearts.
Now, observe upon another side of the mind how common
affections join men together, and form sweet associations in
Social Religion. 1 5 1
the bosom of the same community — how families and kin-
dred are united together in the tenderest fraternities, which,
though far separated and disjoined, keep up the intercoui-se
of kindness in defiance of every obstacle, find a thousand
apologies to shake oft" business and meet together, and if
they meet not face to face, meet oft in memory, in hope,
in prayer, and in discourse, and keep up the best debate
which the soul can make with the narrow conditions
with which upon tlie earth she is invested. And wherever
they go, they still remember home ; and however they
may prosper in foreign parts, they still sigh for home ; and
at length to home they direct their weary steps, though
it were but to die, and be buried in the grave by the
side of their fathers.
Now if it be found a consistent law of human nature in
all its states and conditions, that a common sentiment hath
ever the effect of establishing to itself some form and body
of outward communion and fellowship, interchanges of
visits, words of politeness and friendship, meetings for
sociality, academies for knowledge, associations for cha-
ritable and benevolent purposes, insomuch that in science
there is hardly a branch, in jurisprudence hardly a depart-
ment, in philanthropy hardly a walk, in the large catalogue
of human suiferings and wants hardly one genuine kind,
for which, in this city, to its immortal honour be it spoken,
there is not an association voluntarily formed of members
the most diverse in rank, opinion, and disposition, and line
of life, in everything save that particular case which asso-
ciates them together, and causeth them to organise them-
selves, to hold frequent meetings, to contribute time,
thought, and means, — how should it be otherwise than that
a number of men, who, not in one sentiment, or in one
affection, or in one interest, but in all, or almost all, are
identified, or striving to be identified, — how is it possible
that such men, soul of one soul, and heai't of one heart, and
mind of one mind, nay, I might say bone of one bone, and
flesh of one flesh, — for are they not all of one body, whereof
Christ is the head? — how is it possible that Christian men,
152 Social.
embosoming siicli common feelings as I have above insuffi-
ciently set forth, should not meet together, should not long
to meet together, should not shun and forego everything to
meet together, — how is it possible, save by holts and bars,
and main force, they should be hindered to meet together
or should be kept asunder ? The thing were the greatest
anomaly in human nature, the most wonderful and unac-
countable phenomenon which the history of mankind hath
exhibited, — so wonderful that in all its vacillations, and
oddities, and absurdities, human nature hath not, for
eighteen hundred years, exhibited such a phenomenon.
For the people of God hath alwaj's met together, and love
to talk together, and to pray together, and to sing psalms
together, and will continue to do so wdiile the bands of
Christian truth and sympathy hold together, — ay, and until
they are dislocated by bigotry, sectarianism, and schism.
Those who feel these common principles and sentiments
in their hearts, cannot keep asunder : their souls are bound
by ties over which time and place and worldly interest
have not any power. They are one by a thousand obliga-
tions, any one of which is enough to join the associations
of the present world. And that they who are so united
shoidd keep asunder, is the most complete of all evidence
that they have not, in this, the Spirit of Christ, and that,
however they may profess, they are none of His. If the
diversities of Christians keep them asunder in their hearts,
and cause them to think and speak uncharitably of one
another, that is proof enough that they are under ecclesias-
tical pride, and not under Christian charity. If the diver-
sity of rank keep them asunder, that is proof enough that
they are under worldly pride, not under Christian humility.
If the diversity of learning or wisdom keep them asunder,
it is proof sufficient that they are under the dominion of
intellectual conceit, not of spiritual humility. If the diver-
sity of doctrine keep those asunder who hold Christ the
Head, and engender sectarian pride, then are they under
the paltry spirit of a religious corporation, not of the great
household and community of saints.
^3
RECLUSEXESS OF SOUL,
Eecluseness of the spiritual man often runneth into a
visionary form. Into this form of the disease fell that
soul of every excellence, the glorious Milton, who so dwelt
in the ethereal regions of his poetry, and the empyrean
of his refined religion, that all his busy life, in the most
temper-tiying and frailty-revealing times, he could not
learn to accommodate his ideas to the existing forms of
man so as to worship with him. He saw illiberality in
one class, and ignorance in another ; he was disgiisted with
the pride and irreligion of a third, and with the intolerance
and worldliness of all. And so he fell into the greatest
of all intolerance, and for the latter years of his life dwelt
apart within the temple of his own pious soul.
" His soul was like a star, and dwelt apart."
Thus doth the Almighty, in various ways, punish the
soul of man for contracting its sympathies, and shutting
up its bowels of compassion to its kind. For as He, the
possessor of all good, is likewise the author of all good ;
He, the sole inhabitant of eternity, is the Father of all
who dwell within the bounds of time.
Therefore, brethren, I exhort as many of you as the Lord
our God hath called with a holy calling, to hold intercourse
with each other on all religioiis points in which you can
conscientiously agree ; and these are far more numerous
than those in which you differ. For I hold that this same
recluseness of the soul, when it exerciseth not itself with
the sad contemplation of the outer world, nor with the
severe inspection of its own self, but cometh abroad to take
a part in human affairs, hath always wrought wretched-
ness and woe. Being shut within its own sanctuary, and
brooding over its own thoughts and designs, taking little
or no counsel of others, it worketh according to its own
particular prejudices, i-ather than for the commonweal. And
being conscious of honest intentions, and fully persuaded
in his own mind, the spiritual bigot, whom power hath
154 Social.
lifted up, "becomes a spiritual oppressor. Conscience armetli
him against the consciences of others ; he hath not known
his own imperfections by bearing the contradictions of
others; he Lath not been taught to distrust himself by
submitting to the schooling of opposite opinions. He
thinks he alone is right, that God favoureth the right ;
and so adding trust in God to natural foolhardiness, he
rusheth like a horse into the battle, and generaly mangleth
himself amongst the resisting weapons of men. So reigned,
and so fell, one of the most injurious, and yet, so far as
man can judge, one of the most pious, primates of England.
Again, this recluseness of the spiritual man often runneth,
as in the case of the glorious poet alluded to above, into
an excessive puritanism too high for this earth. When
the poet meets with the Christian, and the practical
philanthropist combineth not with both to hold them in
check, the result of the combination is to beget an over-
refined life of the soul, which I might call its prophetic
life. It surveys the possibilities, not the realities of things.
And perceiving the glad consummation to which God is
conducting all things, it vaults the intervening space, and
devours the long interval necessary to the accomplishment
of the vision ; by help of imagination, bodies it forth ; by
hope possesseth it and enjoys it, and in these enjoyments
the prophetic Christian lives. And these inhabiting his
better being, having his citizenship in times long distant,
and his tempers set thereto, when he cometh into actual
contact with men, he is wounded and irritated on all sides;
he complains and quarrels with the actual state of things,
and being too far gone in the ethereal disease, he withdraws
to his closet, and sings his royal fancies, laments that he
hath fallen on evil days and evil tongues, calls for hearers
fit though few, wonders if there be faith still left upon the
earth, and, like Elijah, complaineth that he is left alone,
when there may be thousands of true men known to God's
more charitable eye. Which condition of the recluse
soul I do rather pity than blame, for to himself alone
is he harmful — to posterity one such enthusiast, one such
Recluseness of Soul. 1 5 5
Christian hero, is often more profitable than perhaps a
thousand of those more practical believers who have not
bowed the knee to Baal, neither worshipped the images
which are set up to him. Four forms of the recluse
Christian spirit — the contemplative, the ascetic, the despotic,
and the visionary — every one of us will necessarily fall under,
unless, while we grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, we do also communicate freely
with one another that light and spiritual understanding
which is freely given unto us.
The rule which, following myself, I recommend to each
one of you, is to hold intercourse of speech and communion
of soul with every Christian with whom you meet, upon
those things wherein you can honestly agree. Discourse of
the Christian temper, which all believe consisteth in meek-
ness, gentleness, and love ; discourse of the Christian life,
which all consider includeth good morals, agreeable man-
ners, an upright and honourable spirit ; discourse of the
wasdom of God's creation, and the bountifulness of His
providence, and the exceeding greatness of His promises
towards those who believe. Confess to each other your
imperfections, and open up, according to your knowledge,
how these may best be removed ; and though you cannot
agree upon the exact measure of your Lord's dignity, or
the exact end of His coming, certainly you can admire and
praise Him, so far as you are agreed ; and where you differ,
if you cannot agree to differ, you can be silent. The good
breeding of the world requires as much ; and, sure, Chris-
tian charity will not yield the palm of patience and forbear-
ance to the spirit of the world ! So you can have infinite
compass of sweet and improving discourse ; and if you wish
to 3,ct together, there are regions unbounded. You can
agree to disseminate the Scriptures, which is your common
faith ; to dispel ignorance, which is your common enemy ;
to limit the reigning of power ; to build up the tabernacle
of peace in the midst of us; to succour the distressed, and
recover the fallen : to save penitents, and pluck the wicked
as brands from the burning ; to confirm the doubting.
156 Social.
and to stay tlie marcli of unbelief; and to do works of
mercy and loving-kindness towards all who need your
help.
INEFFICIENCY OF EDUCA.TION PUEELT PRIVATE.
The experiment of leaving it to private interest to attend
to the education of the youth, and giving it no patronage
or superintendence of Church or State, hath been tried
among the peasantry of England for three centuries ; and
such is the apathy of an imeducated people, that till others
interfered, they continued as ignorant as they were at the
Eeformation. And for the last half century it hath been
tried in the manufacturing towns amongst a people com-
monly well supplied not only with the necessaries but with
the comforts of life. But such is the power of present gain,
that they rather choose to convert their children into
ministers to their own extravagance, than part with any of
their superfluities to have them instructed. ^Vhat educa-
tion does spring up in a country upon this spontaneous
principle, must always be of a very inferior kind, just
enough to compass the interests which an unenlightened
people can discern. And the teachers will also be of an
inferior kind, such who will qualify them most readily and
most cheaply for those short-sighted and narrow interests.
Being wholly dependent upon the people, they cannot be
expected to face out any popular prejudice, which they will
be the rather disposed to minister to and perpetuate. There
is no fellowship of a class or order to bear their spirit up.
They have no standing with the law or the church, to give
them importance. They are but servants of the public, and
ministers to its pride and pleasure : and they will be found
little elevated above the condition of the slaves who an-
ciently were entrusted with the care of the education of the
youth. You shall find such masters in the villages of Eng-
land, meagi'e in their knowledge, mean in their conditions,
and wholly depressed out of the dignity proper to one who
is rearing souls for the life that is, and the life that is to
Inefficiency of Edtication purely Private. 1 5 7
come. In Ireland, the condition of such schools is still
more miserable, and the books usually taught in them con-
tain superstition and barbarism in their grossest forms. In
America, this experiment is making upon a large scale ;
and although they have central colleges in most of the
States for furnishing teachers, I am informed that the sys-
tem is rapidly bringing the condition of schoolmasters into
that of servants, who are hired j'carly or half-3'early, and
removable at the pleasure of their employers. The princi-
ple of supply and demand, which is the idol of these days,
will not answer for anything beyond the most coarse and
common bodily necessities of man. And being applied to
our moral and spiritual necessities, it never faileth to bring
them under the dominion of profit and loss It reducetli
ever}' relation to calculations of interest, and makes money,
which is but the medium for exchanging visible things,
the medium also for the exchange of feeling, and affection,
and duty. It hath already gone far to destroy the relation
betAveen servant and master, and the respect due from
inferior to superior ; as hath been well exemplified by the
abolition of the combination laws, which hath afforded us
an opportunity of seeing what effect this principle of sup-
ply and demand hath had in abulishing those finer feelings
of gratitude and mutual respect by which society is bound
together. If the same experiments were made on educa-
tion, as the economists recommend, the result would be the
same — to destroy the reverence in which the teachers and
instructors of youth have in all countries been held, to
estimate them according to the profit, not the profitable-
ness, of their instruction, and to bring into an inferior
estimation all learning and knowledge which could not
be converted into ready money. Those sciences would be
taught which are marketable, and those teachers who fitted
our sons most expeditiously for the market-jjlace would be
in the highest repute. But, as for sound principles, en-
larged views of duty, true manliness of character, reverence
for the laws, and the king, and the authorities under him ;
piety to God, faithfulness to Christ, and regeneration by
158 Social.
the Holy Spirit, and all the other principles and effects of
fjpiritual life ; these would remain nnregarded in the choice
of schoolmasters, untaught in the schools, and consequently
unpractised in the world, and be reputed so many vulgar
errors, which every liberal man must renounce in private,
and in public respect only so long as the public mind is
not sufficiently enlightened to despise them.
Let us next see how this important matter of superin-
tending the schools might be entrusted to the representa-
tives of law and government. In ancient times, when the
governors of the State and the legislators were also the
moralists and philosophers, who consulted for the well-
being of the people, in the largest sense in which they
could conceive it, the care and superintendence of the
youth might well be entrusted to them. But, in these
times, when statesmanship applies itself exclusively to
piiblic concerns, and it is considered an infringement on
the part of law to meddle with our familiar atfaii's, which
are held sacred to every man, it were totally inconsistent
with the division of power that they should take upon them
the superintendence of the schools. The magistrates who
represent the law in the country parts, and the deputies
of government who watch over the peace, would conceive
it foreign to their vocation to be burdened with such a
charge, and would not be fitted to undertake it. Law and
government, amongst the Gothic nations, include a much
smaller scope of the private well-being of men, than they
did among the classic nations ; and there is in the spirit
of the people a decided aversion to their taking more upon
them than the foreign policy and inward peace of the com-
munity. If interest, therefore, be sectarian, and swallow
up the higher and nobler desires of the soul, law is still
more sectarian, aiid by its very nature confined to our out-
ward and overt acts ; and therefore is altogether incom-
petent to take charge of the practical education of the
people, so as to select the proper persons, watch over
the discipline, judge of the instructions, and give life to
the whole interior organisation of the schools. And yet,
Inefficiency of Education purely Private. 159
while I thus exclude both private interest and law as
lieing sectarian and narrow-sphered, I do not wholly ex-
clude either of them. Private interest should have an
insight over everything, to take advantage of the schools
or not ; there should be no compuLsion, there shoiild bo
no bribe of any kind applied to it ; it should be left wholly
at liberty to make its choice of that which it is not able to
prepare, and perhaps not very well able to judge of, but of
which, nevertheless, the judgment must not be taken out
of its hand, lest evils of a greater magnitude should be
introduced. And law should stand to the schools in the
same relation in which it doth to other parts of the com-
mon good, ready to see that ever}' man fulfilleth his cove-
nant, and dischargeth his office, and, if complaint be made,
ready to arbitrate the matter, and see that justice hath its
rights. But neither of these two powers in a community
is sufficiently enlightened in the character and working
of the human spirit, in the fields which it hath for culture,
and the chambers which it hath for containing stores, to
•undertake to superintend the operation of cultivating and
storing it.
This can pertain only to religion, which is wide and ex-
tensive as the human spirit, and carries its views of human
well-being into the eternal as well as the tempoi-al estate ;
which is soft, and applieth itself with no outward terrors,
nor coarse and outward gains, but with the soft appliances
of love and afi'ection to every soul, and seeketh to nourish
and cherish therein a spirit of holiness, and of wisdom, and
of the fear of God, and of the love of man. Our religion
hath a special application unto children, and contemplates
them as the types of what a man should be with all his
strength and understanding about him. Their simplicity,
their faith, their affection, their unworldliness, do all com-
bine to make the human spirit, in its infancy and child-
hood, the object of its beloved care. And when any mother
shews a care of her children, and acquires a power over
them, you shall always find that religion is the instiument
by which she is working upon them. Indeed I see not
T 60 Social.
liow any education, properly so called, can proceed without
religion ; because, though you may teach the lesson, how-
are you to enforce the lesson? The fear of school discipline
is, to the finer parts of education, what the fear of law is to
the finer parts of society, never touching, never reaching
them. There must be an unnoticed discipline, an invisible
Master, who is prevailing by His gracious influences over
the unnoticed and invisible workings of the soul within.
Lessons of knowledge j'ou may teach without the help of
this inward Minister, but lessons of morality, lessons of
honour, lessons of truth and piety, lessons of manly and
noble character, you never shall be able to teach. Do
your best, unless you take religion to your aid, you shall
but built the outward walls, and rougu-cast your hout^e,
but you shall never get within its threshold to furnish its
interior, or direct the operations, or preserve the peace and
blessedness of the household. Religion is, therefore, by its
very nature the mistress and superintendent of education.
It is wide as its occasions, and profitable to them all ; full
of helpful ministry, gracious encouragement, and assurance
of reward. Therefore it hath come to pass in all the Gothic
nations, and it was so among the ancient Britons, that the
superintendence of education hath been left to the guar-
dians of religion. In all Christian countries it hatli been
so, and in the primitive Church, the rearing up of the cate-
chumens was as great a care of the priest as the edification
of the members of Chi'ist ; and all the universities of Europe
have been conducted by priests, and still the greater part
of them are so conducted ; and we owe the preservation of
all our learning to the priests. And though now the spirit
of infidelity is beginning to work strange revolutions in
the seminaries of learning, it is only a recent innovation,
whereof no materials for judging are yet properly before
us ; but if we may judge from what hath passed around us,
we will surely conclude, that a knowledge dissevered from
religion, and serving no ends of leligion, will serve no ends
of social nor private well-being : and though it may increase
individual power, and bi'ing a short-lived harvest of indivi-
Uses of Education. i6i
dual and national vanity, and obtain command over tlio
visible universe, and accumulate liches thence, it worketh
not in the spirit, nor upon the spirit ; brings it no redemp-
tion, allbrds to it no consolation, lays over it no sweet
restraints of love, nor strong obligations of duty, — makes
no provision for the sorrows, and troubles, and adversities
of the soul, and hath no tendency to dignify and ennoble
the mind in its high places, nor build up society in any of
its strongholds. It is education resting upon religion, and
superintended by religion, which hath made us what we
are ; and let us beware of divorcing these two helpsmeet
for one another, lest we become like other nations where
they are divorced.
USES OF EDUCATION'.
If I know anything of Christian religior^ it is for the
learned as necessary as for the unlearned, the same to bar-
barians and Scythians, bond and free, bringing the method
of redemption, and the means of regeneration, which all
equally need. And, inasmuch as education draws out the
various powers of the intellectual and moral being, it
enables us to judge, by the mere tests of that religion
■which prescribes to them the rules, of their health and
salvation. So that there can be no doubt, that the evidence
of the Divine origin, and the blessedness of the enjoyments
of religion, are heightened to the man of cultivated mind ; —
just as the face of heaven shews more intelligent to the
astronomer, and the face of nature shews more beautiful to
the poet, and the face of men more expression to the artist,
than to those whose faculties of obsei-vation have not been
■ developed. At the same time, there is not so much in this
as might at first be imagined ; because, as hath been said
above, the true face of religion is not discerned by the eye
of the intellect, but by a spiritual faculty w^hich no human
teaching can cultivate. Nevertheless, it must be allowed,
that if the intellect have not been subjected to vanity or
worldliness in our education, and if our moral being have
1 62 Social.
not been submitted to sense or selfishness, that secondary
evidence which is brought to nature must be stronger
according to the number of the points upon which nature
comes in contact with religion. But it is quite possible
that education may become sectarian, and thereby fight
against religion. It may attend to the mere giving and
receiving of impressions of knowledge by words or diagrams,
or models and moulds of art ; cultivating the intellect and
the taste alone, without minding the culture of principles of
duty, or the building up of an excellent and manly charac-
ter. It may aim to prepare man only for the present life,
cultivating in him the pnidences and addresses by which
he is to work his way in the community, without turning
his attention to the permanent parts of his nature, or giving
him to know of the life which is to come. In which cases,
by being sectarian, or addressing only a part of human
nature, and that the lowest part, it unfits a man for religion,
whose abject is to order man according to the scale of the
true dignity of his faculties, not according to the scale of
their present usefulness. But if education be so conducted
as to fulfil the purpose which its name imports, of educing
or drawing out the powers and faculties which are in human
nature, there can be no doubt that it will qualify us better
for serving every end imposed upon us by the revelation of
God, which speaks not to the foolish but to the understand-
ing, whose commandments enlighten the eyes, and whose
testimonies make wise the simple. It is the part of false-
hood and superstition to desire the ignorance and blindness
of those whom they delude, to keep their orgies in the twi-
lights of the soul, and to oppose the progress of knowledge
amongst the people, for no other reason but because it
makes them think and reason ; and the priests who do so
are the priests of a superstition, and the statesmen who do
so are the statesmen of an oligarchy, which standeth in the
well-being of a few, and the detriment of the many. But,
on the other hand, it is possible for the spirit of education
to be sectarian and narrow-minded, as well as the sjiirit of
religion and the spirit of policy; and, instead of educing
Education most needed by the Poor. 163
and developing all the faculties of human nature, to culti-
vate only a part, and to be conducted according to a theory,
popular in the time and place, instead of being conducted
by the old, and constant, and universally admitted princi-
ples of our nature. In which case, it may be the duty
both of sound religion and of enlightened policy to set
themselves against the insufficient and vicious culture of
the periple ; and to insist, not that the people should abide
in darkness, but that their minds should be brought wholly
and fairly into light. For, if those who educate the youth
be not, or the books by which they are educated be not, in
harmony with the spirit of religion, and of law, which are
established in a country, and still more if they be opposed
to it ; it must come to pass, sooner or later, that the con-
trary spirits will manifest themselves, and strive together
for the superiority. Give me the schools and the school-
books, and in time I shall have both the churches and the
courts of law.
EDUCATION MOST NEEDED BY THE POOK.
Forasmuch as letters are the great contrivance by which
men have chosen to express their thoughts and feelings,
aaid by which God hath made to man the revelation of His
being and will, it is surely first of all necessary that
reading should be given to all, as the key by which they
are to open to themselves the knowledge of that which is
recorded concerning the past, and revealed concerning the
future. And to the end that this generation may be able
to record unto the generations to come what hath occurred
in its days, and that each man may be able to record the
series of his own impressions and feelings, or communicate
them to whom he pleaseth, so that the intercourse and
communion of life may be preserved, there ought to be
added, next to the faculty of reading the thoughts of
others, the faculty also of recording our own thoughts, —
that is, of writing. These are universals which ouglit to
de taught to every man, because every man, whatever his
u 2
164 Social.
sphere and occupation be, hath the like need of them, and
■will derive from them much guidance and consolation of
his life. And it seems to me, that the poor have the most
need of the consolation and sustenance which these two
arts afford; inasmuch as their life is more burdened and
pressed with incessant toil, with everything to depress
them to the earth, and little to elevate them above it,
having no facility of moving to and fro, to catch the gales
and cuiTcnts of improvement, to behold the various works
of invention, and hear the sentiments which dignify the
being of man. The poor who are bound to place, and
insphered in the narrow prejudices of place ; who have
no story, but a few traditions; no wisdom, but a few
proverbs ; no hope higher than a poorhouse in their old
age ; no ambition beyond a cottage : these, I say, so far
from being excluded, have the best right to, by having the
greatest need of, reading and writing ; those two wittiest
inventions, and greatest heljis of man's condition, whereby
the past may be made to pass over again before them,
and the future to rise up in its glor}'- under their eyes ;
the distant may be brought near, the learned made level
to their capacities, the good introduced to their cottage fire-
sides, the godly made accessible to their souls, and every
admirable and heavenly quality which hath rooted and
seeded on the earth made as free and blessed to the
cottage as it is to the palace, the senate, and the uni-
versity. If I might apply a Scripture quotation, less out
of place than many Scripture quotations are, I would
have it cried from the northern to the southern pole, and
from the rising of the sun to the going down thereof, — •
" Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters ;
and he that hath no money come buy wine and milk,
without money and without price."
But let it be recognised and fairly stated out, lest our
enthusiasm carry us too far, that reading is only the key
by which the mind of others is directed to us, and writing
the key by which our mind is discovered to them ; and
that the interchange of mind with mind, which these
Education most needed by the Poor. 165
inventions enable us to cany on, may be productive of
evil as readily as of good, unless there be given there-
with some criterion to know the good from the evil. The
world of books is wide as the world of man's thoughts
and fancies and feelings, full of poisons as well as of
food and medicine ; whatever hath been felt of good and
ill hath been written, and the evil hath its blazoning to
the eye as well as the good, its rich garnish and savoury
odour to the base appetites of the mind, and needeth not
to be sought, but is presented before the face of all the
people, cheapened down to their poverty, and pressed
upon them with all assiduity. Wherefore, like putting
a blind man into a wood where poisons grow as plenti-
fully as fniits, and leaving him there to feed his body,
is it to introduce our people to this chaos of right and
wrong, of truth and falsehood, of religion and irreligion,
of blessedness and misery, of heaven and hell, without
having cultivated in them any principles by which to
know the evil from the good, and to distinguish the
wholesome from the unwholesome. For, let men talk
of liberality as they please, no one is so wildly liberal
as to say that everything which is written is right, and
everything which is circulated amongst the people is
good. If any man had the folly to say so, I would go
to the place where his children were educated, and see
whether indiscriminateness were the order of his nursery ;
I would sit down at his table, and hear whether indis-
criminateness were the order of his discourse. It is
absurd. AMiy are these men so fierce for liberality, why
so illiberally liberal, so passionately tolerant, so sarcasti-
cally contented with everything ?
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UXCHANGEABLENESS OF GOD.
IF we could suppose anything to be added to God whicli
was not in Him nor pertained to Him from everlasting,
we must suppose that before such addition He Avas incom-
plete, or is now. more than complete. If we could suppose
anything to be recovered which was lost, or to be remem-
bered which was forgotten, or to be reassumed which was
rejected, to be reformed which was amiss, or to be changed
which needed change, we must suppose mutation, or
deviation, or disappointment in Him who is the Eock of
ages and refuge of all distressed things, the stability and
support of all being, the eternal and unchangeable I AM,
the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever, in whom there is
no variableness nor shadow of turning. So that, when
words of this import and signification are applied in the
Holy Scriptures unto our God, as that He repenteth, and
removeth, and restoreth, and reformeth that which He hath
already constituted and done, they are but significant of
the changes which the mutable universe, and we a part
of it, are passing through in this our outward and separate
voyage, until we shall be safely brought back and recon-
stituted in an unchangeable union to the Lord Jesus our
Head. They are the words of human language, proper to
1 70 Doctrinal.
express that imperfect and unstable condition in which all
things at present are, and shall continue to be, until the
days of restitution ; and being applied to God, they express
not any change in Him, but in us who behold Him. As
we speak of the risings, and the settings, and the revolu-
tions of the sun, though he abideth steadfast in the
heavens, or hath but a motion which to the eye is
imperceptible ; as we speak of his being clouded and
obscured and eclipsed, though he shineth with a constant
brightness ; and as we speak of the irregularities of the
heavenly motions, and the unsettledness of all sublunary
things, though it be certain they do all obey a constant
and invariable law, which neither is nor can be changed,
save by the good will and pleasure of God ; — speaking in
all these instances in accomodation to the appearances
which offer themselves to the sense, and against the
realities which we discover by the reason : so speaketh
God in Holy Scripture concerning Himself, accomodating
His word to that language which is necessary to man's
present condition, and presenting Himself as full of
repentance towards him that repenteth, pure to the pure,
and froward to the froward, and upright to the upright ;
yet is it most certain that within, and under, this popular
form of speech, there is also in His word a deeper reve-
lation concerning the oneness and unchangeableness of His
being, concerning the harmony of all His operations, and
the great end of all His works ; into which revelation of
His steadfast and constant being He is ever seeking to
draw men out of the changes and fluctuations in which He
findeth them, and to which he doth assimilate and accom-
modate Himself, in the first instance, by the only language
which they are able to understand. As any discreet man
who would teach astronomy to unlettered and ignorant
"people must begin from the appearances of the heavens,
and employ a language conformed thereto, until he shall
have ascended with his disciples into the great principles
of things ; of the heaven's rest, and the earth's rotation ; of
the sun's central place, and the earth's revolution, and the
Unchaiigcableness of God. 1 7 1
regular motions of all the planets; after which, he em-
I^loyeth another language derived from the facts, and not
fruui the appearances : so the teacher of Divine truth must
proceed, as indeed the Holy Spirit in the declaration of
Divine truth hath proceeded, beginning by the use of the
popular language of God's repentance and changeableness
towards us as w^e change towards Him, which is the
Arminianism of Divine truth, mistaken bj' all the Metho-
dists and the great body of our Evangelicals for the whole
of it ; but truly it is only the popular accomodation thereof,
in order to lead the people into the true principles of God's
unchangeableness, and the eternal sacrifice of His Son, of
the eternal constitution of the Church and election of all
saints in Him, of their perseverance, their assurance, and
certain gloiy, with all other the higher truths of the
mystery of godliness, which are the truth, and alone
entitled to the name of the truth ; discarded though they
be at present as high Calvinism, and even decried as soul-
destroying Antinomianism ; yea, and all the subsidiaiy
and subordinate language of entreaty and promise and
condition, is only adopted for the purpose of introducing
our waywardness to the knowledge of His counsels, which
are one in their purpose and regular in their progression,
all leading to the one glorious end of manifesting nnto His
creatures the wonders of His eternal being, and securing
them in the blessedness of the same. This manifestation
of Himself is the one end of creation, and of redemption,
and of restitution ; and I may also add, it is the one end ot
the permission of sin in the world, of an apostasy in the
Church, and of reprobation through eternity, — 1 say the
chief and only end of all is the declaration of the essential
glory of the Godhead.
RELATIONS OP THE PERSONS OF THE TRINITY.
As concerneth worship, or continual acknowledgment
and seivice of the Creator, as the great first cause, and deep
172 Doctrinal.
abysmal will, which is separate from the creature, yet the
life of the creature, and the basis of its being ; this is a
mystery which cannot be otherwise understood, than by
perusing the Christ, who, though God, did not worship
Himself, but did evermore worship the invisible Father,
and yet He was God. But being God, united to the crea-
ture, and seen only through the actings of the creature, it
is most needful that nothing terminate in Him, but pass
through Him into the region of the invisible : therefore,
whenever the people were disposed to rest in Him, He did
always refer them back unto the Father, saying, "Ye
cannot come unto me, except the Father which hath sent
me draw you." Now, I know well, that the ignorance of
this time, upon the subject of the Trinity, passeth all igno-
rance of any former time ; and therefore I do deem it of the
more importance to draw your attention particularly to this
part of the subject which concerneth worship. Christ's
human nature, inhabited by the Holy Ghost, and from
which the Holy Ghost never was and never shall be sepa-
I'ated, was not an object of worship, and never shall be an
object of worship ; and if Christ received worship upon
earth, from those who were ignorant of His Divinity, He
did receive it, not as man, but as God. This I hold to be
a most important point of doctrine, and most necessary to
preserve men from creature- worship, and, above all, from
saint-worship ; for 1 believe that Christ's human nature is
not distinct from, but most closely united to, and indeed
the very support, yea, and substance, of the renewed nature
of every believer. Whosoever by faith eats His body and
drinks His blood, is one with Him, as He is one with the
Father ; and that is one siibstance in diverse personalities.
As by nature I am of the substance of Adam, and coequal
with him in all pains and penalties of this fallen being, so
by faith I am coequal in honour, and to be coequal in
glory, with the human nature of Christ; one with Hira, I
say again, as He is one with the Father. Such unity it is
as all visible unity only resembleth, but doth never equal.
Such unity giveth faith, as that it can be said, we are of
Relations of tlic Persons oj the Trinity.
/ o
His flesh and of His bones ; and is of tlie essence and sub-
stance of faitli, and He who hath not this hath no life
abiding in him. His human nature is inhabited by the
Holy Ghost ; and our human nature is by the Holy Ghost
likewise inhabited. If, therefore, inhabitation by the Holy
Ghost makcth any creature-substance as the body of Christ
to be worshipj^ed, then must it also make His membeis,
which are of the same substance, and by the same Sj^irit
inhabited, to be in like manner worshipped ; and so have
3"0U saint-worship introduced at once ; as, indeed, it was
introduced into the Papal Church, and must ever be intro-
duced, where the body of Christ is worshipped ; and it doth
destroy the whole end of redemption, which is to get the
creature separated from the Creator, and delivered from
the worship of itself. Bi;t as the creature, in its redeemed
state, is inhabited by the Holy Ghost, this would constitute
it an object to be worshipped, if Christ's body, which
is inhabited by the Holy Ghost, might be worshipped.
"Wherein then consisteth that pre-eminent dignity of Christ
above all redeemed creatures, which placeth Him at dis-
tance infinite above them, though in substance most closely
united with them? It consisteth in His Divine nature,
with which His human nature mingleth not, though to it
in one person united. This constituteth Him Head over
all, though Brother of all the redeemed ; Brother by the
community of the human substance, and the inhabitation of
the Holy Ghost; Head by the solitary pre-eminence, by
the Divine dignity of being the eternal and only-begotten
Son of God. Nevertheless, though in His Divine person-
ality He be a proper object of worship, like as is the Holy
Ghost in His Divine personality ; yet, as the Holy Ghost
inhabiting the creature doth cease from worship contem-
plated therein, so the Son, taking the redeemed creature
into union with His own person, and shewing the Godhead
in the manhood, doth cease from being the object of wor-
ship, being therein the great Leader of the chorus, the
great Head of the worshippers. And who, then, is the
proper object of worship ? I answer, the Father, the Son,
1 74 Doctrinal.
and the Holy Ghost, one God; — not as inhabiting the
creature, for then the creature would worship a Deity
within itself; — not as sustaining the redeemed creature,
for then the creature would worship its visible Head, and
.still the object of its worship would be in and of itself : but
the object of its worship is God the Father, Son, and Holy
Ghost, their invisible, incommunicable, indivisible being,
represented in the person of the Father. Let no one start
at this, as if it denied worship to the Son and the Holy
Ghost. The Son and the Holy Ghost are one with the
Father, who are worshipped when He is worshipped. The
Divine person of the Son is not contained in His manhood :
the ocean, the round immense of space, were better said to
be contained within a household dish, than that the Divine
nature of the Son should be contained in manhood. And
to guaid against this error, is the very reason why divines
rest so much upon the distinctness of the Godhead from the
manhood. But, save through the manhood of Christ, God
shall never be known to any creature, nor communicated
to any creature ; and for this reason, that the fulness of the
Godhead cannot thus, or in any way, be to the creatures
communicated, most necessary it is, in order to the exist-
once of true worship, that the Godhead, not in its mani-
fested likeness and limited proportions, nor in its felt
influences and operative powers, but in its invisible, in-
effable, imcomprehensible fulness and essential separate-
ness, from the creature, that is, in the person of the Father,
representing the substance of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
should be worshipped. And this, verily, is the end of the
whole mystery, That God should inhabit the creature in
the person of the Holy Ghost, and yet not be worshipj)ed
there : that God should sustain the creature, in the person
of the Son, united unto man, and yet not be worshipped
there, but be worshipped in the absolute invisible ]3erson
of the Father : so that God supporteth all, inhabiteth all
the redeemed creatures, and for the security and blessed-
ness thereof, receiveth their homage out of and beside them
Relations of the Persons of the Trinity. 175
all. Sucli is the true account of Divine worship, and such
is the way in which it is attained.
A\'hile, however, I argue, that the Godhead, in the per-
son of the invisible Father, approached unto by the mani-
fest Christ, through the indwelling Spirit, is the only
ultimate object of worship from whom all petitions are to
be sought, and all favours understood to proceed, I do not
the less preserve unto the Godhead, manifest in the person
of the Son, a superlative dignity above every visible crea-
ture ; the King of all power ; the Priest of all holiness :
the Heir of all possession ; the Eevealer of the Godhead ;
the Light coming forth from the mystery of light, in which
the Father dwelleth inaccessible ; the life, also, felt in all
redeemed creatures, and the visible object of all their ho-
mage, reverence, and obedience ; and so bound to, and
submitted to, and in that sense worshipped by, all the
angels of God : as it is written, " When he bringeth his
Son the second time into the world, he saith, And let all
the angels of God worship him : " and not the angels only,
but every creature ; as it is written, " That at the name of
Jesus every knee might bow." But still, while this supre-
macy and lordship of God manifest may never be doubted,
I argue not the less that Christ will suffer no worship to
terminate in Himself, as an ultimate object, but will lead it
up into the invisible and infinite Godhead of Father, Son,
and Holy Ghost; where again no worship is received, nor
petition answered, which doth not come through the mani-
fest Godhead as its way, and from the indwelling Spirit as
its source : so that the end of the whole matter is, that the
creature is taken into the circle of the intercommunion of
the blessed Trinity, and therein consisteth its blessedness
and its stability.
THE FATHERHOOD OF GOD.
Where a son is, there must necessarily be a father, the
generation of a son is that which constitutes the relation
1 76 Doctrinal.
of a father ; and therefore if the only-begotten Son was
generated from all eternity, God who generated Him must
from all eternity be the Father. Concerning the mystery
of the eternal generation of the Son in the bosom of the
Father, God forbid that I should speculate, or even ven-
ture to think that I can comprehend it, or that I would
liken it to anything in the heaven above or in the earth
below. AVhile I reverently contemplate it, and meditate
upon it as a mystery of the Divine Being hid within Him-
self, and receive it implicitly as a matter of divine faith,
revealed for our knowledge of God, and comfort and
delight in Him, all that I would attempt in discoursing
thereof would be to shew unto His Church the streams
of consolation and grace which flow from this most secret
and mysterious fountain. Dear brethren, the knowledge
that the first act of the Godhead was to generate a Son
in His own image and likeness, who should contain the
fulness of Himself, and dwell within Himself the object
of all His delight, is such a proof of fellowship and com-
munion and divine affection, as should fill every creature
with trust and confidence, and assure our hearts before
Him. Were this Son a creature, then it would have quite
the other effect of exciting env}^ and disgust in all other
creatures to behold God lavishing such excess of fondness,
and bestowing such amplitude of love upon one crea-
ture, and exalting him by such immeasurable titles and
unparalleled honours into His own immediate presence
and fellowship and blessedness. I say that this Soci-
nianism is the destruction and death of all confidence
of the creatures towards God, and must of necessity beget
distance and reserve when they behold such ravishment
and blandishment, and exalted style and mighty prero-
gative, bestowed upon one above the rest. But beiog
that Christ is not a creature but the only-begotten Son
of God from all eternity, in whom all that is to be created
hath its reality, when the Father beholds it, and loves
it, and delights in it, for that He sees it in His Son,
the offspring and excellency of Himself, what a height of
The Fatherhood of God. i *]*]
honour, — oli, what an exalted birthplace and most noble
stock doth it give to every creature, to me, to you, dear
brethren, to think that we were seen of a long time, j-ea
from the beginning of days, yea from all eternity, in
the womb of the all-creating Word, and were loved and
beloved of the Father before all time, as a part — an
essential part — of His own dear Son ! It doth at this
moment fill my heart with such high contentment and
' holy joy, as words cannot utter, to know, and assuredly
believe, that I had heretofore my being in the Son, which
was in the bosom of the Father, and that I came forth
from them in order that I might serve the purposes of
the Father to glorify Himself in presenting His Son before
all creatures for their homage and adoration, and ever-
lasting obedience. I say, it makes my soul swell with
ineffable delight, it lifts my ignoble being into a high
nobility, it linketh my solitary and divided substance
into high alliance, thus surely to believe, that albeit I
am fallen and sinful with my fathers, and by reason of
my connexion with Adam have come into my present
most pitiful and lowly condition ; j-et long before Adam
was, and angels were, and sin was, I had a being, a blessed
and a holy being, — I, even I, in the bosom of the Father,
with that mirror and image of Himself, His spotless Son ;
with that dearest object of His love, His onh'-begotten and
well-beloved Son. And though I be very sinful and loath-
some in my own sight, — how much more in the sight of
God's holiness! — how comforteth it my soul to know that
Ihe Son Himself, in whose bosom I was beloved ere yet
I was fallen or had an outward being, hath Himself
followed me, followed all His offspring into their wretched
quarters and most grievous condition, lying under the
curse of God, and subject to a law which the flesh was
\ over-weak ever to think of keeping; that He xander the
same curse should come and contend with that infirmity
and wretchedness, and overcome it, in order to bring us
back again into that most sure and perfect blessedness
which He had, and which in Him we had, before the
178 Doctj^inal.
■world was ! I can conceive, dear brethern, the pains with
which the Son parted with His children into an outward
being and existence, the care which He took for the
secnrity of their well-being, if it were possible to prevent
the long era of apostasy and alienation from the Highest.
But seeing such a thing was not jDossible, forasmuch as
it was the eternal purpose to manifest the Son himself to
take away sin, I can next conceive the care and exceeding
skilfulness with, which He would construct their beina:
and their habitation, in order to be to them the assurance
that their Parent would yet come Himself and be the rock
of their stability and the refuge of their loneliness, 0
brethren, creation, though doubtless very good, is no
joyful subject of contemplation to my soul. It is full
of foundling-nakedness. There is the child, but where
are its parents gone? There it is, with eye and ear and
every sense, but it looketh for its parent in vain, who is
not yet become visible. It was a great comfort in such
a plight to give x\dam an image of himself, taken from
himself, in whom his soul might delight in beholding
itself ; but yet that blessed garden with it is no compen-
sation for the sight of that glorious and blessed face which
might not yet be seen ; and though the inward conscious-
ness of the soul beholding its own purity be a dear
delight, it is not complete, because man is made to look,
not upon himself, but upon the countenance of God. But
when I look upon creation as the first step towards the
manifestation of that countenance of God in Christ Jesiis,
then indeed it doth content me well. For now I behold
the poverty and the peril of it to be undergone for the
glory of God and the good of all things, in the revelation
of the visible Godhead to be the head and rock and
unremoved strength of the creature. Methinks I could
be content to endure the trials of this present life, and
its unceasing sorrow and wretched incumbrances, not for
threescore years and ten but for the age of an antedi-
luvian, yea and for ever, to know that by bearing it I
was ministering my part towards the glorious manifesta-
TIic Fatherhood of God. 1 79
tion of tlio only-begotten Son of God. This slioiild liavo
been the comfort and preservation of our first parents,
to have knovm, (as doubtless they did know,) and to have
borne in mind, that they -were only forerunners sent
before to prepare the way of Him that was about to come,
types to represent the form of His being, like the morning
star which telleth of the rising of the Sun of righteousness
upon the world. And having failed herein, it became
necessary, for this as well as other reasons, that Christ
should be His own morning star, or, as the second Adam
in flesh, that He should typify and represent His own
coming in glory, in that glory in which He would have
come first and only had sin not entered into the world.
And when our race had come mto this perilous and
wretched condition of fallen and sinful creatures, it ought
to have been their sweet consolation that they were not
yet cast off from being witnesses of Him that was to come.
But now, instead of being witnesses and types of His glori-
ous kingdom, they were witnesses and types of His
gi'ievous humiliation and painful sufferings. And now,
dear brethera, that we have known Him, and do believe
on Him, though we have not seen Him, as the sufferer,
and also as the conqueror, — have seen Him, as the second
Adam, do what the first failed in, and present the perfect
and sufficient type, though in humility, of what He shall
hereafter be in glory, — it ought greatly to content and
delight us that we are called upon to follow His foot-
stejDs, in order that we may hereafter be advanced to His
crown ; and though we find ourselves come from the
bosom of His Father where we dwelt with Him from
all eternity, it is only to serve our little part towards
the completeness of the great work, and for our service
to be again brought into a constant and infallible union
with the Son, and through Him with the Father, and bo
monuments of their power and grace, and love and blessed-
ness, for ever and ever.
0 brethren, what rich fountains of inexhaustible depth
and plentiful refreshment do flow from the knowledge of
X 2
i8o Doctrinal.
this mystery, that from all eternity the Father generated
His only-begotten Son, with all things present in Him,
Himself complete in all things, and yet to be presented as
the visible fulness of the Godhead ! In that first act of the
all-originating will of God, whereby He constituted Him-
self a Father, I do discern the eternal blessedness of His
creatures for ever and ever, when the work now in progress
shall have been completed. The holy creation shall be
loved as that only-begotten Son was beloved. For why?
Because they have kept the word of His testimony, and
have not departed from their holy vocation of God.
CHKISTS RELATION TO THE GODHEAD,
I MUST, though reluctantly, disagree with the method in
which many of the orthodox fathers, and reformers, and
doctors, and ministers, are wont to speak, as if some actions
of Christ were actions done in the Godhead only, and some
others were actions done in the manhood only. And right
glad am I that this, though current in the schools, and in
sermons, hath not found its way into any of the standards
of the Church ; for if this way of speaking were correct, it
would lead necessarily to the making of two persons in
Christ, or else of two ascendancies which in succession
overrule His person, like the ascendancies of the flesh and
the spirit in the person of a man, — which cannot be pre-
dicated of a Divine person, who overruleth, and hath the
ascendant, and is not overruled or acted upon by an ascen-
dancy. It is, moreover, a false idea concerning the Divine
nature, to speak as if it could do a finite action, let that be
ever so stupendous, even as creation itself, without assum-
ing a finite form. It is, moreover, to subvert the whole
purpose of the Creator, and confidence of the creature, to
say that the personality of the Son may ever go into action
separate from, or by suspension of, the human nature. If
the human nature of Christ were thus ever, though only
once, put si\b silentio, it might be again and again, and for
Christ's Relation to the Godhead. 1 8 1
ever, and so the whole mystery of a manifest Goclhead is
defeated. I know from -what this mode of speaking hath
arisen, even from a desire to find in Christ's life tliat
evident manifestation of Godhead which Christ himself
declareth that it contained not, when He said unto Peter,
" Flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my
Father which is in heaven." It is also a well-meant attempt
to preserve the Godhead of Christ impassive, by giving to
it the acts of power, and to the manhood the acts of sutfer-
ing. But really, though well-meant in this respect, it doth
but save the flimsiest appearance ; for in deed, and in truth,
it is to the Godhead as disproportionate and unfit to suifer
the pity and compassion of the mind which moveth to the
healing of the sick, or the casting out of devils, as it is to
suffer and abide the scourgings and buffetings of men ; both
being proper only to manhood, and not predicable of God-
head, except under a figure.
This mode of speaking, concerning the life of Christ, as
being part all Godhead and part all manhood, is not only
attended with these evil eflfecis, but hath this moreover
to answer for, that, first of all, it doth defeat the manifes-
tation of the Holy Ghost in His manhood, which I affirm
hath been almost forgotten to be a work of the Holy Ghost
at all ; and from this is chiefly derived that aimlessuess,
fancifulness, idleness, and unprofitableness, with which
men speak of the Holy Ghost altogether. And besides this,
it hath destroyed Christ's life from being the great t^-pe,
both as respecteth suffering, and as respecteth power, of
what every Christian's life, under the influence of the Holy
Ghost, ought to be, for I believe, that we cast not devils
out, and heal not the sick, and do not the other parts of
Christ's life, simply and traly because we have not faith,
and are responsible unto Christ's challenge and rebuke,
with which He chid His disciples when they fell short of
their privilege to cast devils out, saying tmto them, " O
ye faithless generation, how long shall I bear with you?"
All these evils, I say, come of this false way of representing
the activity of the two natures of Christ ; and therefore it is
1 8 2 Doctrinal.
not, as it were, a matter of iugenious speculation, but grave
reformation of error, wlien I undertake a little to lay open
the distinctness of the nature of Christ in the unity of person,
and that in every word, action, and suffering of the same.
As I said, the person acting and sufiering is the eternal
and unchangeable Second Person of the Godhead. He is
the / who was in the bosom of the Father from all eter-
nity ; and in every action He is conscious God. "When He
saith, " I will," it is the Godhead that willeth. From the
infinite Godhead, therefore, is the origin of every volition
and action of Christ. The fountain is there, in the infinite.
And how proceedeth it into the finite ? It proceedeth into
the finite by an act of self-humiliation and self-restriction,
which is the peculiar, proj)er, and boundless condescension
of the Son in His own self-existent personality. But no
eye beholdeth it, no finite mind comprehendeth it, no word
can utter it ; the greatness of this grace of self-humiliation
on the part of the Son is known unto the Father only,
whose bosom alone contained that fulness which is con-
tracted into manhood's narrow limits. This Divine act of
self-contraction is the Godhead part of every act of Christ.
It is the continuance, it is the abiding and the eternal per-
petuity of that one resolve which is written in the book,
" Lo ! I come ; a body hast thou prepared for me." This
is the nature of God ; what He doth, to do for ever ; He
doth not exist in time. Time measure th Him not, as
space comprehendeth Him not. That ;|)urpose of the Son,
to humble Himself into manhood, did not cast His Godhead
away. He did not become, in person, a mere man. He con-
tinued to be in person the same Son of God, after as before
He made this dedication of Himself unto His Father's
glory, and unto the creature's good. He is God still, but
God thus self-determined to act and suffer the man. He
cannot cease to be Son of God, nor can He cease from
His own willingness to become Son of man : and thus He
is always to be by these words defined, Son of God willing
to become Son of Man. The Divine nature, therefore, ever
acts, and it ever finishes with acting, when the Son of man
The Relation of Father and Son. iS
o
I gins to act. It is the Son of man, whose action is seen,
1 It, reported, discoursed of, imitated, and delighted in, by
ilie creatures. The Son of Man only suffers, and the Son
<'i man onlj' acts with poAver. His actions, and His words,
,ire like His countenance, such as man's are ; such as
ivcry man's, who is full of the Holy Ghost, ought to be ;
;ind such, I believe, as mankind's will be, in the days of
tlie kingdom. But, while thus I speak, I put no man into
the level of Christ ; for that action of His self-contracting
power, which belongeth to Him as a Divine and self-
existent person, which is the action, and the only action,
of the Godhead, and yet is present in all His actings, and
yet not mingled with the human parts and appurtenances
of them, is that to which no man may aspire. Because the
sage hath, by his self-contracting power, brought himself to
speak and act with the children of the nursery, the sage is
not therefore to be eqiialled with the child, nor is the child
to presume himself a sage. Yet is the sage, though appar-
ently but a child, a sage still ; and by far the noblest part
of his action is hidden in that previous self-contraction of
his powers whereof the children have no consciousness
at all.
THE RELATION OF FATHEK AND SON.
Take rip the notion, that Christ is a Divine person, the
same in substance and equal in power and glory with the
Father, but that He is not the Son from all eternity, but
only from the day of His earthly generation, or from some
higher date which is still in time ; and what have we
whereby to know and assure ourselves of God's most gra-
cious will ? In that case. Fatherhood is not essential unto
God, but only circumstantial, and, as it were, accidental,
deriving its origin from something that hath happened
in time, and kno^vn only amongst the sons of men. For
when you say that Christ is not Son from eternity, you
say that God is not a Father from eteniity ; and when you
say that Christ is Son only with relation to the work of
1 84 Doctrinal.
redemption, you say that God is Father only with relation
to the same. By defining a time and a place and a being,
you exclude all anterior time, and all other place, and
other beings. And the question is — If God be not known
as a Father, save to fallen men, nor Christ as a Son, as
what are they known? What is the essence of the rela-
tionship, if it be not the love of Fatherhood and the in-
heritance of Sonship ? The only other relation is that of
Will and of Word. But I have shewn that, though Will
doth represent the self-origination of God, and from Him
of all things, and Word, in the Scripture sense of the Aoyo;,
do represent the full expression of that Will, whereby the
unity of the substance is well enough preserved in the dis-
tinctness of the persons ; yet is there no love or parental
care, no goodness, no grace, expressed by that mode of
stating and apprehending the relation between the ever-
lasting Persons. And so, by making the quality of Father
and Son to be in time, and to originate in a train of acci-
dents, you do merely deprive yourself and ail beings of
knowing and delighting themselves in God as their Father.
And whether that be a small matter, brethren, judge
ye. Furthermore, if it be in time, and dependent upon
this our fallen estate, then with this our fallen estate,
when it is recovered, it must work itself out, and be no
more existent for ever. So that even we who look for
the redemption, must in the completion of it look to lose
the knowledge of God as a Father. And as what then
shall we know Him ? Surely not as less loving, now
that we are perfected ; then as more loving — but what can
be more loving than a Father ? And yet as a Father we
must certainly lose the knowledge of Him, if this title and
relation of Father were taken up only in time, and to com-
pass a particular end. And who that hath known the
grace and goodness and loving-kindness of the God and
Father of our Lord. Jesus Christ, could bear that it should
be abolished, and that we should return to know Him only
as the Creator and Supporter of our being? And it were,
methinks, a small recompense of the work of Christ, that
The Relation of Father and Son. 1S5
t should only reveal the beams of the gracious countenance
(if God for a limited period of eternity, and over a small
part of the habitable world — that the manifestation was
I luly made to man, and only to fallen man, and only for the
lud of raising him to his former estate. This, indeed, is
ihe common notion; but it is a very bare one, and clean
contrary to the tenour of Scripture, which continually setteth
forth the work of Christ as a work upon which the uni
veise hangeth with expectation, and the angels look into
with eager desire, making it an essential part of the
mystery of godliness that God was seen of angels.
Now take up the only other possible supposition, that
Ho takes His name and office of Son from the eternal pur-
pose of God, in which He gave Himself as an offering for
sin — that it is not essential to Him as the eternal ^\''ord,
but belongs to Him as a party in the everlasting covenant
and all-inclusive purpose of God. This is the highest
ascent to which they can arise who doubt or deny the
eternal generation. But even this will not avail : for,
though the purpose carry us upward, bej'ond the fountain-
head of time, into eternity, and include within itself all
events which haA-e been, which are, and Avhich arc to be,
and so this last notion be saved from the absurdities which
flow out of the other two ; yet doth it wholly change the
character of the purpose itself, or at least destroy one of its
essential features. For I assert that to the very existence
of the purpose, His pre-existence as the Son of God is
essential ; His pre-existence as the Word is not sufficient;
to constitute the purpose as I find it written in all the
Scriptures. For the purpose is not a purpose of will only,
but it is a purpose of goodness, and of grace, and of mere}',
and of bounty, — in one word, it is a purpose of love, ac-
cording to the good pleasui'e of His will.
If any one would deny Divine honour to the Son because
the function He performeth in the creation and redemption
of things is different from that of the Father, he wandereth
very wide from all rules of right reasoning, — which would
require him first to prove that the Father of Himself created
1 86 Doctrinal.
or redeemed anything, tliat any creature is the single work
of the Father ; for of whomsoever a creature is the work, to
that being he oweth his homage and worship, Now, if
these heretics will go to and shew me that the Pather
created all things without the Son, or the Father and the
Son without the Spirit, I will allow that the worship of
that thing is due unto the Father alone ; or if they will
shew me that the Father created the Son in order that with
Him He might create the Spirit, that these two might
afterwards create the worlds — as our great poet but small
theologian hath feigned — then all the things which the
creature Son and the creature Spirit created would owe
their worship to the Father. But oh, what a notion it
is that the Father should create a creature, in order that
afterwards with His creature Ho might go art and part in
creating another creature, and then afterwards retire far
away from the scene of active affairs, and leave these two
creatures to work the world into form and consistency,
and redeem it out of sin and misery ! I utterly abhor and
reject the base notion, that the Father is not present in all
His works, whether of creation, providence, or redemp-
tion ; and no one can deny that the Son and the Spirit are
also all-present, and acting an essential part therein. What
a notion this, that the Omnipotent should take into the fel-
lowship of all His counsels, and the concert of all His
plans, and the conjunction of all His operations, two crea-
tures who, however dignified, are but creatures still, and
more inferior to the Creator than any imagination can take
in, or any similitude represent ! It were nothing to this
that the potter should go to the vessel which he has just
made and ask its help to make him a second, and do nothing
afterwards without a consultation of the three. It were
nothing to this that the will of man, instead of consulting
with his intelligent reason and with his active powers,
should go and consult with two statues of Minerva and
Psyche which he had chiselled out of marble. These things
are nothing so absurd as that base and crude scheme which
our heretical divine but mighty poet hath invented for ex-
The Doctrine of the Incarniation. 187
pressing the mj^stery of the Trinity. But if, brethren, it
lie written, as it is everywhere written, that the Son and
the Spirit perfonn an essential part with the Father in the
creation, snbsistency, and redemption of all things which
are in heaven and earth, then I say that all things in
heaven and in earth owe their worship to the Father and
the Son and the Spirit, from whom, and by whom, and in
whom they live and breathe, and have their being.
THE DOCTRINE OF THE INCAENATION. *
The thing which we maintain is. That as Adam was the
perfect man of creation, Jesiis was the perfect man of rege-
neration ; perfect in holiness, by being perfect in faith ;
perfect in faith, though all the created universe strove to
alienate Him from God ; and prevailing to believe in the
Father, against the universe, through the divinity of His
person; which was thereby proved to be uncreated, and
above creation, by prevailing against a rebellious creation,
with which He clothed Himself, and under whose load He
came. And we further maintain, that there is no other
way of seeing His divinity in action save by this only, that
His union with the Father by faith stood good against the
whole creation, and prevailed to draw creation out of the
hands of its oppressors back again, and to reconcile it unto
God. All which is a dead letter, a fiction, a folly, if so be
that His creature nature was not part and parcel of the
fallen and rebellious creation, in reconciling which He
reconciled all. This is the substance of our argrunent :
that His human nature was holy in the only way in Avhich
holiness under the Fall exists or can exist, is spoken of or
can be spoken of in Scripture, namely, through inworking
or energising of the Holy Ghost : not from the Holy Ghost
mixed up with either the substance of body or soul — which
[* In this extract we have gathered up in little the sahent points cf
difference between Mr. Irving and the heads of the Scotch Church aneut
the doctrine of the Incarnation ; and, though it is very closely reasoned
and, at points, abstruse, it has been here reprinted as being in many
ways a bold iuid memorable statement.]
1 88 DGctrinal.
is to confound Godhead and manhood — Lut by the Holy
Ghost, under the direction of the Son, enforcing His human
nature, inclining it, uniting it to God ; even as the devil,
likewise a spirit, without mixing in it, did enforce it away
from God. And thus doth Christ in the salvation of every
sinner resist, overcome, and destroy the devil's power and
work.
The common thing created by God in Adam, was created
in His own image, after His own likeness ; and is, there-
fore, our complete being, visible and invisible, flesh and
reason, or, as it is commonly denominated, body and soul.
This is what man was created : this hath not been added
to, for creation never hath been added to : it was completed
in the six daj'S. The community of man is therefore his
compomid nature, body and soul, flesh and reason, God
hath formed our hearts alike, as well as our bodies. Xow,
where lies the individuality, the personality, that which
we denominate, I myself ; that which God regards as re-
sponsible ? I had not proposed this to myself as a question
wlien I wrote my book upon the Incarnation, and when I
wrote the earlier part of this tract ; Avhich are therefore
both written under the common notion that the community
is in the flesh, and the personality is in the soul ; while
yet I perceived all along, that if there is not a commtmity
in Christ's soul with us, the community in His flesh is
really nothing but an appearance ; that is to saj^ if His
flesh was not united to His mind by the same laws as ours
is, He had no community with us whatever ; and for this I
have always stood mainly, so that, however the metaphy-
sical point of a man's personality be held by my reader,
the doctrine which I maintain is not afi'ected by it. At
present, from what study I have been able to give this sub-
ject, I incline to believe that the personality is a property
superinduced by God upon that community of body and
soul which we inherit, being that which connects every
man with Himself, as responsible to Him for that common
endowment of body and soul and estate which He entrusts
us with. For certain, Christ had a body and soul of man's
The Doctrine of the Incarnation. 1S9
substance, without thereby having a human person ; and,
therefore, we can assert the siufuhiess of the whole, the com-
plete, the perfect human nature, which He took, without in
the least implicating Him with sin; yea, verily, seeing ho
subdued those properties which it had in itself, and made it
holy, wo assert Him to be only Eedeemer of man from sin,
I wish it to be steadily borne in mind in reading this tract,
that whenever I speak of the flesh of Christ, I mean, except
when the contrary is expressed, the whole creature part ;
which is not a person, but a substance ; a substance which
we must describe by its properties of sinfulness and dark-
ness and deadness, in order to understand the wonderful
work of redemption which Christ wrought in it. ^Vhat
A\'as holy, was His person ; and from that came redemption
into the nature ; what was powerful, was the person ; and
from that came strength into the nature. Sin, in a nature,
is its disposition to lead the person away from God ; sin in
a person, is the yielding thereto. All creation is sinful,
being in a state of alienation from God : it has one law in
it, the law of sin ; and through all its parts this law binds
it in one great sinful operation. The Person of the Son of
God was born into it ; He restrained, withstood, overcame
this co-operation of a sinful creation, conquered the con-
queror, and won it back to God ; obtained power over all
flesh. This is the great theme which we maintain.
The precious truth for which we contend, is, not whether
Christ's flesh was holy — for surely the man who saith we
deny this blasphemeth against the manifest truth — but
whether dui'iug His life it was one with us in all its
infirmities and liabilities to temptation, or whether, by the
miraculous generation, it underwent a change so as to
make it a different body from the rest of the brethren.
They argue for an identity of origin merely ; we argue for
an identity of life also. They argue for an inherent holi-
ness ; we argue for a holiness maintained by the person of
the Son, through the operation of the Holy Ghost. They
say, that though His body was changed in the genera-
tion, He was still our fellow in all temptations and sym-
1 90 Doctrinal.
patliies : we deny that it could be so ; for change is
change ; and if His body was changed in the conception,
it was not in its life as ours is. In one word, we present
believers with a real life ; a suffering, mortal flesh ; a real
death and a real resurrection of this flesh of ours : they
present the life, death, and resurrection of a changed flesh :
and so create a chasm between Him and us which no know-
ledge, nor even imagination, can overleap. And in so doing,
they subvert all foundations : there is nothing left standing
in our faith of Godhead, in our hopes of manhood.
THE TEUE IDEA OF THE INCAENATION.
The doctrine concerning the incarnation, upon which
the primitive Church was founded by the apostles, and to
which the Reformers brought us back, and from which we
are fast swerving again, is this — That it is a great purpose
of the Divine will which God was minded from all eternity
to make known unto His creatures, for their greater infor-
mation, delight, and blessedness ; to make known, I say,
to all His intelligent creatures, the grace and mercy, tlie
forgiveness and love which He beareth towards those who
love the honour of His Son, and believe in the word
of His testimony. In order that thereby His children,
comprehending more fully the beauty and loveliness of the
Divine Majesty, might desire Him the more, and cleave
unto Him with an entire fidelity. Which aspect, if I may
so speak, of the Divine character, could never be beheld
by a creature unfallen; forasmuch as grace, and mercy,
and forgiveness, do necessarily presuppose and require
guilt, and offence, and hatefulness, for the objects upon
which to put themselves forth, as necessarily as the power,
and wisdom, and order, and harmony of creation require a
chaos, and confusion, and darkness which they may adorn,
and order, and bless. And as God did not at once command
the created world to come forth as we now behold it, but
first permitted a chaos which was without form and void,
[
I
The True Idea of tJic Incarnaiiou. 191
in order that by successive acts of wisdom and goodness,
IIo might order it into beauty and light ; so also did He
permit that in the moral part of His works there should bo
a rebellion, and darkness, and disobedience, in order that
by successive acts of compelling grace He, might lead
out the harmony and unity of all His chosen, " against the
dispensation of the fulness of the times when He shall
gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are
in the heavens and which are on the earth." And in thus
proceeding, He doth manifest the grace or favour which
He beareth even to sinners who honoiir His Son, giving
His Son thereby a very great exaltation before the heavenly
host, when they perceive that for His sake the Father of
all can forgive sin. This, then, you will bear in mind,
that the incarnation of His Son is the way hy which God
xevealeth that more tender aspect of Plis being called
grace — that part of the divine substance which could not
otherwise have been made known. And therefore the
gospel is called a mysteiy, because it was long hid to all,
and is yet in a great measure hid unto all, being still only
in the act and progTess of unfolding itself. Abraham had
a distant prospect of it, and Moses had a material model
of it, the psalmist a royal foretaste of it, and the prophets
a national manifestation of it, which yet themselves under-
stood not, though they believed ; and our Lord verified
Abraham's distant view, substantiated Moses's shadow,
answered part of the predictions of the psalms and the
prophets, prepared the way of the Spint to open the mystery
more perfectly to the apostles, and promised that He would
come again to manifest, clear up, and accomplish what still
lay shroxided in the mystery : and this we look for Him to
accomplish against the dispensation of the fulness of the
times.
Take this, therefore, my beloved brethren, for the true
principle of the work of the incarnation, that it was a
purpose which God purposed in Himself, to make known
by Jesus Christ, and by all who shall honour and cleave
to Him, the riches of His grace and mercy to the chief of
192 Doctrinal.
sinners. And taking this for the true account of the matter,
be comforted and strengthened and edified, in knowing
that there is nothing accidental nor circnmstantial in the
work of your redemption, but that it is complete in Him in
whom ye believe and trust ; — that as the men are carried
•safe who cleave unto the lifeboat, while the men that
rashly commit themselves to the billows are dashed to
pieces, or, to keep to the sacred emblem, as the souls who
believed Noah and took refuge in the ark were saved, while
all the rest perished, so you have nothing to fear if ye
cleave to Christ, and resign yourselves to the shelter of
His brooding wings. Oh, our fathers knew the comfort
of this doctrine of the unconditional, uncircumstantial,
nnaccidental, the substantial, eternal, and unchangeable
election in Christ Jesus ; and, receiving it, they grew into
His similitude, and were strengthened to do works worthy
of His lioliness. But we have confounded the security of
the divine purpose which includeth the Church, and em-
braceth every spirit which believeth in Jesus, and which
is the argument for believing in Him, that we may be
so kept in safety for ever ; this have we confounded by
looking continually at the varieties of the moods and frames
of the natural man, and changing conditions of the visible
Church, which have no more to do with the constancy of
that purpose in which we are wrapped up with Jesus, than
this changing atmosphere and cloudy canopy over our heads
hath to do with the fixed stars of heaven, and the constant
liadit and heat of the cdorious sun.
CHKIST THE EMBODIMENT OF GODS HOLINESS.
Upon' that imagined offence which is done to our ideas of
justice, by the doctrine of the Just suffering for the unjust,
1 have to observe that, though the fall must come first in
ihe nature of things before the redemption, and, coming
first in the nature of things, must also come first in the
manifestation ; we are not, therefore, to suppose that that
Christ the Embodiment of God's Holiness. 193
form of God's being and attributes revealed in the redemp-
tion, which is grace, is not as necessary, and essential, and
ancient a part of Himself, as that other form of severity and
justice which is revealed in the Fall ; though the latter be
anterior both in the idea and in the manifestation, We
are apt to transfer the succession of time to the Divine
mind, and so to confound all things. But, truly with the
Lord all things are present from the beginning, and all
appearances are but the unfoldiugs of His mighty purpose
for the manifestation of that which is with Him from the
beginning. And this is most necessary, and constantly
to be kept in mind, in order that we may not give to the
eternal Jehovah a succession of existence. He is all in all
times and in every time, as He is all in all places and in
every place. And this is the reason why ever}- siibstantial
matter of our faith is by the apostles traced up to before
the foundation of the world : and every mystery is said to
be hid in Him before the world was. Bearing this in mind,
to the question, Whether the scheme of vicarious suffering
and imputed righteousness which we have unfolded, con-
taineth in itself anything adverse to justice ? we at once
answer. No, but everything prosperous to righteousness and
truth. It is from eternity of the righteous and holy will of
God to punish sin ; and it is so still, and whosoever believeth
in Jesus hath a lively and most present sense of the heinous-
ness of sin, and the eternal A^Tath which abideth on it. It
is equally of the righteous and holy will of God to save
the sinner, and to show forth His goodness and mercy and
forbearance in his salvation; and every believer in Christ
hath a most blessed hope and assurance through grace of
eternal salvation. These two forms of the holy will of God
being most consistent with one another, will mutually
illustrate each other when they are manifested. And ac-
cordingly w^e find it to be so. For the Word which revealeth
the will of the Father, and in whom the Father doth ob-
jectively' behold all His purposes, and is well pleased Avith
them, doth embody in the one act of His eternal sacrifice
the utmost perfection of the Father's holiness and of the
0
1 94 Doctrinal.
Father's goodness ; of the former, in proving that the law
was holy, and not tyrannical ; a right, good, and blessed
constitution, for humanity in its fallen state ; and so reflect-
ing from the mirror of ks purity the greatness and heinoiis-
ness of our depravity. ^His holy life set against our wicked
life, is the only adequate manifestation of our sin or of the
righteousness of God. I say not but that in the conscience
there is a certain sense of right, as in the understanding
there is a certain discernment of truth ; but as the latter
could not discover the light, so could not the former quicken
the life, could not give it real form, or even ideal form,
until the Lord manifested it in actual being. But in thus
manifesting the holiness. He also manifested the love, and
that in the most exalted and marvellous kind, as every one
doth freely acknowledge, for it can be brought into com-
parison witli, and tried by, the tests of human love?^
I consider it to be rather a low view of the Eecfeemer's
work, to contemplate it so much in the sense of acute bodily
suffering, or to enlarge upon it imder the idea of a price or
a bargain, which is a carnal similitude, suitable and proper
to the former carnal dispensation, and which should, as much
as possible, be taken away for the more spiritual idea of our
sanctification by the full and perfect obedience which Christ
rendered until the will of God; thereby purchasing back,
and procuring for as many as believe in Him their justi-
fication and sanctification by the Holy Spirit, which is
their conformity to the will of God, and reliance on His
eternal purpose. For whosoever is brought into con-
formity with the will of God is thereby included in his
purpose. It was a great act of power in the Son — a de-
monstration of His almighty power, to take up flesh and
strengthen it against all the powers of hell — to take up
flesh and purify it against all the powers of sin and corrup-
tion. But no one will say it was impossible, for it hath
been accomplised ; and no one will say that there was any
violation of the principles of eternal holiness and justice,
for the Son to do what was within His power, or for the
Father to suffer Him to do it. With respect tc the com-
Christ the EjJibodimejit of God's Holiness. 1 95
munication of the gift to others, we do not now entreat : at
present we are considering only of the purchase of the gift ;
and this, as hath been said, was by His obedience and perfect
fulfilment of God's most holy law, which had been offended
by our first parents and by all their posterity. And it was
the offended law, or, in other words, God's imalterable,
immitigable holiness, which perpetuated the punishment.
If an}' one of Adam's children could have stood up and kept
the law, he would, in virtue of his own innocency, have lived
in it, and known neither suffering nor death. The man,
Christ Jesus, did this, and, in virtue of His work, now liveth,
it being impossible that He should be holden of death. By
which life of obedience the law stood honoured : it was
proved to be holy, it was proved to be jmit, it was proved to
be good, and it was satisfied. I may say the holiness of God's
law was never manifested upon the earth till now, because
it was never kept. In the idea it was holy; but never in
the reality, till Christ said, "Father, I have glorified thee
on the earth; I have finished the work which thou gavest
me to do." 'The justice of the law might well be doubted,
and its cruelty believed, at least its disproportion to human
conditions : forasmuch as every man had smarted and suf-
fered under it, and no one been able to attain unto the
keeping of it. It might have been siipposed the law of a
tyrannical, or arbitrary, or even a malicious being, inas-
much as it had punished all and acquitted none. This was
a great, a very great apparent stigma, which the perfect
obedience of Christ in human flesh removed, proving un-
equivocally that it was made for flesh, and would have
blessed humanity had its gracious intention and adaptation
not been crossed and prevented by the fall of our first
parents, and the consequent apostasy of the will of man,
and its alienation from every thing which is holy, and just,
and good ; for the goodness of the law, — that is, its kind-
ness and bountifulness, and fruits of blessedness, — were all
contradicted by the fact of such long and universal miseiy
as had been upon the earth. The Divine purpose in
creating human nature, and putting it under His holy, just,
o2
196 Doctrinal.
and good law, seemed to be wholly frustrated; tlie veiy
end of creation seemed defeated; there was no glory of God
redounding from it, but glory to the enemy of God. The
world had gone into chaos, and the great achievement was,
out of the chaos to bring something more perfect than
before. To justify the ancient constitution of law and
government under which the world was established at first ;
to retrieve, to do more than retrieve, the honour of the
Creator, — to make it glorious. This was the first end for
which Christ gave Himself to become man from the founda-
tion of the world.
THE BODY AND SOUL OF CHRIST.
I BELIEVE in opposition to all fantastics, schismatics, and
sectarians who say the contrary, that Christ took unto
Himself a true body and a resonable soul; and that the flesh
of Christ, like my flesh, was in its proper nature mortal
and corruptible ; that He was of the seed of David ; that
He was of the seed of Abraham, as well as of the seed of
the woman ; yea, that he was of the seed of the woman after
she fell, and not before she fell. Even the time for making
known the truth that Christ in human nature was to come,
did not arrive till after the Fall, because it was determined
in the covinsel of God that He who was to come should come
in the fallen state of the creature, and therein be cut ofi" — ■
yet not for Himself — to the end it might be proved that
the creature substance which He took, and for ever united
to the Godhead, was not of the Godhead a part, though by
the Godhead sustained. Af He had come in the unfallen
manhood, as ihese dreanifers say, and had not truly been
subject i;nto death, but, for some lesser end and minor ob-
ject, and as it were by intent, had laid aside the mantle
of the flesh for a season, who would have been able to say
that the manhood of Christ had not become deified — that
is, become a part of the Godhead ? And if so, then not
only He, but all His members likewise, who are to be
brought into the yarj selfsame estate with Himself, must
TJie Body and Soul of Christ. 1 9 7
also be deified, or pass into the Godhead; the creature
become an object of worship ; the Creator be mingletl with
the creature; the doctrine of God the soul of the world
brought in, and all the other most wicked tenets of the
Eastern superstitions of the earth introduced in the room
of the most fruitful, most holy mystery of a personal God,
separate from the creatxirc, yet supporting the creature by
eternal union with, though in perfect distinctness from,
Himself, in the person of the Son, and. through the in-
dwelling of the Divine nature in the person of the Holy
Ghost; to the end of worshipping the invisible Godhead of
Father, Son and Holy Ghost, remaining hidden, and for
ever to remain hidden, in the person of the Father. I say,
and fearlessly assert, and undertake to prove that this great
result and consummation of the Divine scheme could not
otherwise be attained than by the fall of the creature, in
order to reveal its non-divinity, or prove its creatureship ;
so that, when the Son of God should come to take it unto
Himself, it might, by the very act of dying, shew itself,
though of Him, not to be the very God ; and when, taken
up into that surpassing glory with which it is now crowned,
it might be for ever known to be not human nature deified,
but human nature uplifted and upheld by God. The fall
of all creation, spiritual and material, was but a step unto
the death of the body of Christ; even as the creation of all
things visible and invisible was only a step to the creation
of that body. It was because the Lamb slain, as well as
the God manifested, was a pail of the Divine purpose, that
death came into the world. Death knew not what death
meant, until Christ died ; then the mysteiy of death was
unfolded unto itself If the meaning of a fall is ever to be
understood, it must be studied in the cross and tomb of
Christ. For if Christ had stepped at once out of the in-
finite and invisible into resurrection power and glory, and
without dying drawn up the creatures into i:nion with the
same, the creature would have worshipped itself, so clothed
with might, adorned with beauty, and with stability in-
vested; instead of worshipping the invisible God of heaven,
198 Doctrinal.
out of the creature yet supporting the creature and inhabit-
ing the creature ; therefore the object of the creature's de-
pendence, and the subject of the creature's blessedness :
but 3'et essentially separate from and advanced above the
creature's noblest state, and therefore properly the object
of the creature's continual worship. And this is the iirst
point in the mystery of Christ's constitution, His taking the
substance of the fallen Virgin Mary.
With respect to the human soul of Christ I have next to
speak. That Christ had a reasonable soul, as well as a
true body, is a doctrine most necessary to be believed ;
because, otherwise. He were not a man, but only the appa-
rition of a man ; a siiperior being, who for a certain end
and purpose had clothed himself with human form — as was
often done before in manifestations to the Patriarchs and
the Prophets — which is the fountain of Arianism with all its
poisoned streams. Besides, if Christ had not a reasonable
soul, His human feelings and affections were but an assumed
fiction to carry the end which His mission had in view ;
and His sufferings and His death were a phantasmagoria
played off before the eyes of men, but by no means entering
into the vitals of human sympathy, nor proceeding from the
communion and love of human kind, nor answering any end
of comforting human suffering, and interceding for human
weakness, and bringing up again the fallen creature to
stand before the throne of the grace of God : it is all but
a phantasm and apparition, like that which appeared unto
Manoah and his wife, and transacted wonderful things in
their presence. This was the source of the Gnostic errors
in the first ages of the church. Moreover, and most of all,
if Christ had not possessed a reasonable soul, as well as a
mortal and corruptible body (which yet saw not corruption,
by the Father's special grace), the Divine nature of Christ
must have been separated and divorced from His human
nature during the time it hung dead upon the cross and lay
buried in the tomb. If there had been biit two principles,
a body, and the eternal person of the Son, united in Jesus
of Nazareth, then when the body of Christ lay in the tomb,
I
■i
The Body and Soul of Christ. 1 99
the Divinity must Lave been separated fiom the humanity ;
and this, though only for an instant suffered, woukl upset
tlie whole coustition of God in Christ. For if once the
Creator and the creature part of Christ, if once the Divine
and human natures, have been parted, they may be parted
again ; and where then were the assurance of creation's
.stability in the Christ constitution for ever and ever?
Essential it is to the purpose of God, that when the nature
of the Godhead in the person of the Son had joined itself
to the creature in the substance of manhood, that hyposta-
tical union of two distinct natiu'es in one person should be
established for ever and ever. Clearly, therefore, doth it
remain, that there must be a part of human nature capable
of subsisting separate from the body, which, when the body
fell into the curse of death, might maintain the continuity
of co-existence with the Godhead of the Son, until the time
came for the Father to send the Holy Spirit into His mortal
and corruptible body, and unite it in a glorified state unto
the Godhead of the Son ; which hath the while preserved
its creature-condition in connexion with the separate soul.
And as I said above, that the Fall is to be understood by
meditating that for which it came to pass — to wit, the dead
body of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world ;
even so say I now, that the twofold nature of man, soul and
body, invisible and visible, is both to be best understood,
and most surely believed, by meditating upon the same
great key of creation — to wit, the divinity of the Son sub-
sisting in hypostatical union with the invisible soul of the
man, while the visible body of the man was lying unin-
formed with any conservative or vital principle, truly dead,
truly corruptible but not to corrupt, until it pleased the
Father to raise it, in reward of Clu'ist's faith and strone:
cryiugs, with supplications and tears, that He might be
delivered from death ; wherein, because of His piety, He
was heard. Yea, more: this is to me the great assurance of
a spiritual world of separate souls in life, though invisible
at this time, and in all times since death began his work ;
and it is to me the defeat of all those fantastics who
2 GO Doctrinal.
dote and dream concerning the sleep of tlie sonl from death
tinto the resTirrection ; and, moreover, of that more common,
hut at the hottom not less pernicious, opinion, that the soul
receiveth upon its being disembodied some aerial vehicle,
some house of habitation, some tabernacle of very subtile
matter, wherein to act and to discourse over God's creation :
which I hold to be no better than refined and disguised
materialism : making void a spiritual world, and also the
doctrine of Christ's coming with glory, in visible, sensible
humanity'', to reign with His saints, in the like humanity,
over a purified kingdom of flesh and blood. Moreover, I
can see how, for these great ends of putting to silence such
manifold fanciful and heretical notions, it should have been
so distinctly declared, and so prominently brought forward
in the Apostles' Creed, that the action of His incarnation
did not terminate at His death; but that He descended
into the place of separate spirits, and did a work therein —
concerning which I do not now enter, but only recognise it
as a great head of doctrine, by means of which those deters
concerning the sleep of the soul, and the new clothing of
the soul during its separate estate, are to be baffled and
befooled.
EFFECTS OF CHRIST S INCARNATION.
Besides the good effects, necessarily resulting from Christ's
taking our fallen humanity, and of which not one would
have resulted had He taken humanity in an unfallen
state, there is another, to which divines of this age will be
more alive ; which is, that there could otherwise have been
neither reconciliation nor atonement between God and man.
I Those, indeed, who consider atonement as a bargain, of so
' much merit on Christ's side against so much demerit on
ours ; so much suffering in His person, instead of so much
suffering in ours ; will see little or nothing in the line of
argument which I am about to pursue. But those Avho
consider, as I do, that this is a most insufficient, and, when
taken for the whole, a most prejudicial view of the mystery;
Effects of Chris fs Incartiation. 20 1
and who imclerstand atonement in its onlj' scriptural sense,
at-one-ment, or reconciliation between the holy Creator and
tlie unholy creature ; that which I am about to argue will
appear of the greatest moment, and unanswerable. With
respect to that burgain-and-barter hypothesis, I observe,
that in order to make out of Christ's sufferings an infinite
quantity to cover the infinite delinquency of His elect, they
reason thus : It was an infinite person that suffered, and
therefore His sufferings must be of infinite value. Now,
with all sound theologians, and with all the doctors, I deny
the possibilit}' of the Divine nature suffering. The God-
head cannot be tempted, and how should the Godhead
suffer ? The human nature of Christ alone suffered ; and
that is not infinite, but finite. Therefore there is no in-
finite amount of suffering to balance against the sufferings
of the elect through eternity ; and so the account will not
balance, and the base theory^ falls to the ground. Besides
being illogical, how degrading is it to represent the great
mystery as shut up in this, that the Father would have so
much punishment, get it where He could, and so He took it
out of His own Son ! That the Father did hide His face
from His Son ; that He did say, " Awake, O sword, against
Him that is my Fellow;" that it pleased Him to bnaise Him
and to put him to grief, there can be no doubt — and any
view of the mysteiy which wdll not give fair interpretation
to these vindictive expressions of God's holiness cannot be
received ; — but that orthodox and enlarged view which I
have given of the Father's act, as bringing Chi-ist into the
conditions of the fallen humanity-, doth well and truly
appropriate every utterance which the Father hath uttered,
aud every act which the Father hath done against sinners, to
be spoken and done against Christ also : not by substitution
merely, but by reality ; not by imputation merely, but in
very truth. This, indeed, is what they cannot understand
who consider imputation as containing the whole mystery
of God ; whereof it is only a part, though a very important
part: and it will prove utterly unintelligible, confusion
worse confounded, to all those who consent to the sufficiency
202 Doctrinal.
of tlie debtor-and- creditor tlieology; or have been sucked
by Satan into the heresy that Christ had a humanity in
some way diverse from ours. This most unsound view of
the matter, as the other is most insufficient, doth in effect
make altogether void the Father's activity in the sufferings
and death of Christ, which we are at such pains to preserve.
■Qf, as these adversaries of the truth allege, Christ in His
incarnation did apprehend an immortal and incorruptible
substance, and not the very same mortal and corruptible
which you and I inherit under the curse ; and if, by a mere
act of power or will, He brought it into death, and laid it
in the grave, and, as it were, rid himself of it for a season,
then why may He not, by the same act of will and of power,
rid Himself of it again for another season, and another,
and another ? and why not rid Himself of it for aye, and
use it as a mantle, according to occasion? and wheie is the
security of the redeemed creature, that it may not again
altogether fall out of union with the Godhead ?\But if
Christ took upon Himself our fallen and corruptible nature,
and brought it up through death into eternal glory, then is
the act of the will of Christ not to lay down, but to assume
or take up humanity into Himself; and the continuance of
His act is to keep it in union with Himself, and not for
any sake to dismiss it from Himself. He takes it. He
loves it, He strengthens it, He sanctifies it. He immortalises
it, He glorifies it. For His part He doth nothing but
embrace it, and hold it fast unto Himself. It is the act not
of the Son but of the Father, which makes the flesh drop
off from His immortal being into death and the grave.
This, I say, is the Father's act ; and it is the Father's act
again to bring up that body in its changed and glorified
state : not, indeed, without Christ's consent, but that con-
sent given, when He consented to join Himself to the mortal
and corruptible seed of the woman. He consented to be
brought into the possession of an enduring body through
the transition state of a mortal life, through the passage of
death and the grave ; to which consenting, He consented
therein to the act of the holy Father, which required the
AtonciHcnt or At-onc-viciit. 203
coiTuptible and mortal creature-substance to ftxll ofi" from
His immortal soul and divinity into death and the grave.
And this is the meaning of that remarkable saying in
John X. 17, 18 : " Therefore doth my Father love me,
because I lay do^\^l my life, that I might take it again.
No man taketh it from me, but I lay it do\\'n of myself :
I have power to lay it do%vn, and I have power to take it
again. This commandment have I received of my Father,"
In these words Christ asserteth three things : first, that no
one whatsoever, man or angel, had power to take His life
from Him ; the second, that it was by Himself laid down ;
and the third, that this was done by the commandment of
the Father, These three things concur in His act of dying ;
a commandment of the Father, His own free w'ill to obey
that commandment, and His total independence of any third
power or influence. Every act of his life was of the same
kind ; done of free will, without constraint, in obedience
to the absolute will of the Father.
ATONEMENT OR AT-ONE-MENT.
Those w^ho say that there is but one will in Christ,
either make Him only God, or only man. There is the
absolute will of the Godhead, and there is the limited will
of the creature. These tw^o may be consentaneous with
one another, which is holiness ; or they may be dissentient
from one another, which is unholiness in the creature ; but
the one cannot be the other without confounding two most
opposite things, the Creator and the creature, and in-
troducing the doctrine of Spinoza, the doctrine of Eastern
sophists and Western savans ; that God is the soul of the
world ; that He is diffused through the creatures, and that
the creature is of Him a part. If, again, you say with
Sergius, that the operation in Christ is neither Divine nor
human, but a mixture of both, as he called it, Theandric or
Godmanly, you do confuse the two natures of Cbrist, and
make one between them, which is neither God's nature
204 Doctrinal.
nor man's nature, but an ixnknown something lying be-
tween them both, with which man hath no sympatliy, or
rather no consubstantiality ; with which God hath no con-
substantiality, and, tlierefore, which cannot be Mediator
between God and man. Tliis also leads directly to the
confusing of the Creator with the creature, in the person of
Christ, and therefore to everj'thing evil besides ; and again
bringeth out God to be the soul of the world, and the
world a part of God. It is therefore, however little
apprehended by our debtor-and-creditor divines, no less
than to confuse and confornid all things, thus to permit
such points of doctrine as this to remain in error, or even
under silence.
Now the orthodox doctrine is, that there were two wills
in Christ ; the one the absolute will of the Godhead, which
went on working in its infinite circles, the other a man's
will, which was boimded by the limited knowledge, the
limited desires, the limited affections, and the limited
actions of manhood ; a Divine nature, and a human nature,
God, and man. The orthodox doctrine holdeth, moreover,
that from the incarnation onwards, and for ever, the Son of
God never thought, felt, or acted, but by condescending out
of the infinitude of the Divine will, into the finiteness of
the human will ; in which condescension, the self-sacrifice,
and humiliation, and grace, and goodness of the Godhead
are revealed : without which condescension these attributes
of the Godhead could never have been known unto the
creatures. This condescension it is which giveth an
infinite value to every act of Christ, — in the Father's
sight, inasmuch as it makes him known, and obtains
His great purpose of self-manifestation ; — in the creature's
sight, inasmuch as it shews unto the creature the great
free-will condescension of the Son, by which the Father is
made known, and the Holy Spirit communicated. More-
over, the attributes of thought, feeling, and action, under
which the Godhead is represented to us in the Old
Testament, before the incarnation, appertain not to the
absolute will of the Godhead, which hath no limitation of
Atonement or At-onc-mcnt. 205
epaco or time, no creature miud, nor creature will, but
appertain to the Godhead, contemplating itself as ahout to
be iniited to the manhood by incarnation of the Son ; so
that all revelation is truly an anticipation by word, like as
all creation is an anticipation by act of the great thing
which was accomplished by the uniim of two wills or
operations in Christ ; or, to express this truth in Scripture
language, the Spirit of Prophecy is the testimony of Jesus.
It is not to tell out the truth fully, to say that such ex-
pressions as God changeth, God repenteth, are accomo-
dations to man's way of speaking : they are anticipations
of God's way of shewing Himself, by taking the nature of
man into the personality of the Son, and through that
nature acting the purposes of the Godhead by the creatures.
And human language itself is a great, and, next to creation,
the greatest, work of God unto the same great end ; and
Christ the Creator is only worthy to be expressed by Christ
the "Word. Be it so, then, that unto every thought, word,
and act of Christ, there concurreth two operations ; an
operation in the infinite Godhead, and an operation in the
finite manhood ; and that these two operations are not
the operations of two persons, but of one person only ; and
what result and inference have you, but this most sublime,
most perfect one, that the actings of the Godhead, all the
volition, puiiDOses, and actings of the Godhead, are con-
sentaneous with, are one with, all the volitions, all the
actings, of the manhood of Christ ? For the Godhead
never acteth but by the Son ; and the Son never acteth
unto the creatures, but by the manhood, which, with His
Godhead, formeth one pei'son. Wherefore, this sublime,
this perfect truth is for ever incoi-porated in the person of
Christ : that Godhead and manhood are not in amity
merely, not in sympathy merely, not in harmonj- and
consociation merely, but in union, unity, and unition,
hypostatical or consubstantial. I would not give the truth
expressed in these words of the Catechism, " Two distinct
natures, and one person for ever," for all the truths that
by human language have ever been expressed. I would
2o6 Doctidnal.
ratlier liave been the humblest defender of this truth in
the four oecumenical councils of the Church than have
been the greatest reformer of the Church, the father
of the Covenant, or the procurer of the English consti-
tution.
At-one-ment, or reconciliation, is a mere notion, figrn-e of
speech, or similitude, until it be seen efiected in the con-
stitution of the person of Christ, under these two wills or
operations. I object not to the similitude taken from
paying debts, nor to the similitude taken from redeeming
captives, nor to the similitude taken from one man's dying
in the room of another, nor to any of the infinite simili-
tudes which St. Paul useth most eloquently and most fitly
for illustrating and enforcing this most precious truth of
the at-one-ment, or reconciliation ; but the similitudes are,
to my mind, only poor helps for expressing the largeness,
fulness, and completeness of the thing which is done by
the Word's being made flesh, and which is exhibited as
done, by the placing of the God-man on the right hand of
the Majesty on high, visible Head, effective Euler of tbe
created worlds, and of the intelligent creatures which
possess them. This head actor of all things enacted, this
being comprehensive of all beings created, great fountain
of life, full ocean of animation, is in every thought, in
every act, God and man, God's will and man's will, in one
person united. Everything, therefore, thence flowing,
circling wide as creation's utmost bound ; every occur-
rence, every accident, every attribute, every act, every
relation, eveiy change, every position which together con-
stitute the variety of life in the creation redeemed and
naled by Christ, is in very truth a demonstration of man-
hood at one with Godhead, because it is all thought, spoken,
and done by the Person, the One person, who in all His
thoughts, M'Ords, and doings, is God and man. What
reconciliation like this reconciliation, what at-one-ment
like this at-one-ment ?
( 207 )
Christ's life the realization of the spirit's work.
The work of the Holy Ghost in the human nature of
Christ, from His conception unto His baptism, was to fulfil
all the righteousness of the law ; and I think that word
which He spake at His baptism, " Thus it becometh us to
fulfil all righteousness," is the amen with which He con-
cluded that great accomplishment. The baptism of John
was the isthmus which connected the fulfihnent of the law
upon the one hand, with the opening of the spiritual and
evangelical holiness iipon the other : to which our Lord
alludes, in these words : " The kingdom of heaven suftereth
violence from the baptism of John until now, and the vio-
lent take it by force ;" giving them to understand that the
baptism of John had initiated into the kingdom, as the bap-
tism of Moses in the cloud, and in the sea, initiated into
the law. From the anointing with the Dove, I believe that
our Lord entered upon a higher and holier walk than mere
law-fulfilling, giving to us the ensample of that spiritual
holiness which knoweth no law but the law of liberty ;
that is, the will inclined unto the will of God. Therefore
it was that our Lord broke the Sabbath without offence ;
and touched lepers, and otherwise offended the law ; and
therefore, also, He went up to the feasts, or went not up,
according to His mind. And many things besides He did,
which are all expressed in these two similitudes, of which,
when challenged for this neglect, He made use : " No man
putteth new wine into old bottles ; no man putteth a piece
of new cloth into an old garment ;" signifying that the
spirit of His discipleship, of which He was then performing
the novitiate, would not piece on to, much less be contained
within, the old worn-out commandments of Moses. Besides,
the works which He did by the Spirit were the self-same
works which the Spirit in the apostles did : and it is con-
tinually written. He set us an example that we should
follow His steps, /isow, it is my conviction, from these and
many other grounds which I cannot now enter upon, that
our Lord enjoyed, during His public ministry, that mea-
2o8 Doctrinal.
sure of the Spirit wliicli His Cliurch was to be endowed
with after the resurrection, to the end that His life might be
the model of every Christian's life who is regenerated with
the Holy Ghost. He walked in liberty, He rejoiced in
power. He triumphed in victory from the time He received
the Spirit after His baptism, until the time He fell, as it
were, plumb down from that elevation into the agony of
the garden and the abandonment of the cross. Before
entering upon which. He was strengthened with that voice
out of the heavens, " I have both glorified my name, and
I will glorify it again." Then came on that hour and
power of darkness of which He said Himself, " Now is my
soul troubled, and what shall I say ? Father, save me from
this hour ? but for this cause came I to this hour : Father,
glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven,
saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorif}' it again."
This, I think, brought on the great crisis, and put Him uj^on
His probation to the very uttermost. And now openeth
that scene of agony, that ocean of sorrow, concerning
which it is not our present purpose to discourse, save to
mark it as a grand epoch in the Eedeemer's life. /It is my
conviction that our Lord's life between these two points of
time, the descending of the Dove, and the bringing of the
Greeks unto Him, when that fearful hour began, is truly
the great realisation and prototype of the Spirit's work in
every regenerate man, in order that his life might not only
fulfil the law of Moses, but give the prototype and the ex-
ample of all spiritual righteousness?^ The Father, when
His Son had accomplished and fulfilled the law, did bestow
upon Him a measure of that resurrection-life in the Sjiirit
which He himself should afterwards be honoured and pri-
vileged to bestow upon the Church. The Father baptized
Him with the Holy Ghost, who was afterwards to baptize
all the elect children ; and so He became an example unto
us, and must have tasted a great enjoyment of His Father's
countenance, far above and beyond what He enjoyed before,
and in the removal of which I deem the misery of that
agony and death to have chiefly consisted. He had the
Chris fs Life Realizalion of Spit^it's Work. 209
Spirit lifting Him into a high communion with His Father, /
to the end of shewing Ilim the regenerate Church, and
what should be the measure of their enjoyment ; and this
being accompliished, I say again, He was let plumb down
into the former measure of the Spirit, to swim in the tem-
pestuous ocean, which all the elements of moral disorder
could raise around Him. Fearful chaos ! awful valley of
the shadow of death ! season of the hour and power of dark-
ness ! — Thus have we two measures of the Spirit : the first
for law-keeping, to be in lieu of the obedience of those elect
ones before, who had believed on Him under the law, or,
as it is written, " for the transgressions that were under the
first covenant;" the second measure of the Spirit being for
an ensample unto us of that baptism of the Dove with
Avhich we should be baptized. And there is a third mea-
sure of the Spirit, which quickened Him in the tomb, with
which also our bodies shall be anointed when we shall be
quickened in the tomb. — And thus have we the whole .
mystery of the Holy Ghost realised in the life of Christ.
First, the mystery of law-keeping, done for the sake of
those that were under the law, but not for us ; secondly,
the mystery of the Holy Ghost, which the Churcli now
enjoyeth ; and thirdly, the mj-sterj' of the Holy Ghost,
Avhich shall constitute the New Jerusalem of the risen
saints in the millennial kingdom. /And thus the work of
the Holy Ghost is substantiated ana realised in the person
of Christ ; is a fact, is a thing upon which faith may be
rested by every poor creature of whose substance Christ
hath taken a part. And thus is answered the only ques-
tion wliich remained against the removal of the law : What
model remaineth to us in its stead ? Christ's life from His
baptism to His agony is our model of the liberty and power
of the Holy Ghost. And let this sufiice for the subject of
the removal of the lawy
2IO Doctrinal.
CHRIST IN THE SEPARATE STATE.
How absurd, how exceedingly absurd, to set forth the
experience of the Lord's soul between death and the resur-
rection, as an experience of rest and joyl'ulness, merely
because He said unto the thief upon the cross, " To-day
shalt thou be with me in paradise ! " But, dear brethren,
God forbid that I should for a moment doubt the blessed
estate of that thief, and all the saints who sleep in Jesus,
^ i while I maintain that Christ endured a most fearful conflict
during His abode in the separate state.' I no more doubt
the blessedness of the saints there, than I doubt their
blessedness here. But by what means, in this life, do the
saints come by the peace that passeth all understanding,
and the joy of the Ibjly Ghost ? Was it not procured to us
by the sufferings of Christ in the flesh ? Because we have
joy in the days of our flesh, had He therefore joy also ?
Yes, He had joy ; but did He not work it out by strong
contentions and bloody sweat ? In like manner, while I
doubt not the blessedness of the separate state, but most
surely believe that the bodies of his people do rest united
unto Christ, ready* to come with Him at His coming, I
as surely believe that they enjoy this estate of rest and
blessedness only in virtue of that conquest over death
1 and over hell which He achieved (by descending into
' death and hell.) And by how much the empire of Satan
in death is stronger than the empire of Satan in life ; b}^
how much the corruption of the body by the worm is a
more complete work of sin, than any sickness or sorrow in
life ; by how much Satan's power over a disembodied
spirit, shut out from the hopeful and somewhat cheerful
world, is more mighty by far than his power over an em-
bodied soul, with all the comforts of the earth and pos-
sibilities of the regeneration around it; by how much
hopelessness is more miserable than hope, and necessity
more obdurate than possibility ; by how much, in short,
the powers of death and hell, and the outer darkness of
their dominion, is more terrible than any abode of settled
Christ in the Separate State. 211
and confined misery upon the earth : even by so imich
more fearful was tlic struggle, by so much more hideous
wiUJ the front of battle, by so much more terrible the
labours of the conflict, by so miich more glorious the
achievement of the victoiy, w^hich the Son of man fought,
endured, and achieved over death and hell, than was that
which he fought, and endured, and achieved, over the
powers of the world and the flesh. For Satan was the
cause of both conflicts ; Satan and his host were the rulers
of the fleshly and of the spiritual conflict which our Lord
endured. Who, when He had overcome Satan in the
world, and condemned sin in the flesh, did lay aside His
fleshly mantle, and in spiritual nakedness descend into a
spiritual battle with spiritual wickednesses, with the thrones
and dominions and powers of darkness. And when He had
overpowered them in their own strongest region. He re-
turned, and took His body out of the hands of the hungiy
grave, from the ravenous powers of corruption ; and, being
once more clothed. He tarried with His Church until the
day of His ascension into glory. And in token of His
victory, He brought from the state of separate spirits as
many of the saints as it seemed to him good ; who also took
their bodies from the grave, \and went with Him into glory.)
But the best trophy which He left behind Him in that
separate state, is the blessedness in which the souls of His
people abide, and the hopefulness in which their bodies
rest ; being assured of, and earnestly looking forward to,
the day of their manifestation : when from their present
secret and unseen abodes they shall come forth, arrayed in
the glory with which the Son of man shall then be adorned
— if, after their resurrection, ^j^he}' be not appointed for a
season to set the Church in order, and establish it tri-
umphant over all the earth ;1 and thereafter to be brought
by the Lord into the glorious presence of the Father.
f2
212
ADAM S PROPERTY IN THE PROMISED SEED.
The promise made iinto the woman of a seed, who should
avenge their evil, and retrieve their loss, certainly seemeth
to contain a hint of the mystery of God, even the Father
and the Son; for why otherwise exclude Adam from all
property in the promised seed ? And I am the more con-
vinced of this from observing that ever afterwards, unto
the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, this promise of
the seed was given to the man and not to the woman ; and
so continued until the time of Isaiah the prophet, when the
mystery of a Virgin's conception began to revive the long-
lost hope and honour of womanhood given in paradise.
Indeed, the more I consider that state of paradise, both as
it was before and after the Fall, in the light of a type of
Christ and His Church, the more complete does it seem
to me. Before the fall, Adam was indeed the type of what
Christ was in the eternal counsel to be revealed, as the
Head and Lord of all. Adam, with Eve and all her chil-
dren included in his side, was a notable type of what
Christ was in the eternal counsel, with a Church chosen in
Him from out of the apostacy which was to come in upon
every form of creation. Eve, formed out of a rib from
Adam's side to be his delight, was the emblem of the
Church created by Christ and of Christ and for Christ.
And Eve's being in the transgression, not Adam, and draw-
ing him after her, as it would seem, out of no love to the
tree, but of love to her, (" She gave unto me, and I did eat,")
doth represent Christ drawn by the transgression of His
spouse into the fellowship of her low condition, suffering
for her in order to restore her. And, no doubt, as it was
first in the purpose it shall be in the end. That is to say,
Christ and His spouse chosen in Him shall be married, and
brought into the full and complete sovereignty of all the
creatures of God. When I see this type of that which is to
come so complete in all its parts, I have the less doubt or
hesitation in believing that in the promise to the woman of
a Son who should bruise the serpent's head, there is con-
Ma7i Pu7iished in his Nature. 2 1 3
tained the first hint of the mystery that He should not
come by natural generation, but by the Holy Spirit,
wlierefore he was called the Son of God, That destruction
of the serpent's head which He was to accomplish, no
doubt referreth to the destruction of death, which is the
last enemy; of which victory the resurrection from the
dead was the great beginning. Now, by the resurrection
from the dead He was proved to be the Son of God with
power; so that in this promise given to the woman of a
seed, and in His destination, we find both that which after-
wards entitled Him to be called the Son of God, and that
which demonstrated Him before all on earth and in heaven
to be actually the Son of God. But the light which shone
in paradise, like the blessedness which was partaken there,
was soon to be eclipsed with clouds, and broken to pieces
by the dense atmosphere of sin. And from the time our
first parents left the paradise of Eden, down till the time
of David, we have no further hint of the mystery of the
Father and the Son. But then it bursts out very brightly.
MAN PUNISHED IN HIS NATURE.
By punishing man in his nature, as it were, rather than
in his will, it shewed that the will was under the stern
bondage of intractable nature ; under the obstinate jDcr
verse law of the flesh; and could not be recovered other-
wise than by the smiting, judging, and destroying of that
flesh, or natural man, which sin had made its stronghold ;
that there could be no peace between the Creator and the
creature until there was a redemption from the power of
that natural law, which had overpowered the spiritual will
and divine purpose under which the creature was formed
at the first. And this is further shewn out to my mind
by God's taking the lives of the unconscious brutes ; and
taking as offerings the first-fruits of the earth in her seasons ;
as if He would smite nature in her four corners, to demon-
strate her universal and consummate wickedness ; — yea,
214 Doctrinal.
and the first-born of man had to be redeemed with an offer-
ing; and the Lord's right nnto every child's death was
marked by the bloody rite of circumcision; — all which
demonstrated an unextingiiishable variance and hatred
between the creature and the Creator, between nature and
Spirit, between the law of the visible creation and the will
of the invisible Creator. And He who believes that nature
is any way amended by the course of time, talks like a fool
or an infidel : for, as the mother towards her delivery is
more burdened and oppressed, and in her delivery is torn
asunder with awful anguish ; so nature grows only more
oppressive upon the creation as she draweth nearer to the
birth and the manifestation of the sons of God ; in the act
and article of which she shall be rent and torn up to her
very centre. To talk of peace to any man, therefore, upon
any grounds whatever, other than the incarnation of the
Son of God, is the greatest of all falsehoods, being, in truth
and verity, the denial of all which God hath said or done
since the fall of man. For what saith the apostle ? " The
whole creation groaneth and travaileth together until now :
and not only they, but ourselves also, which have received
the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan
within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to Avit, the re-
demption of the body." Now, it is to be understood from
all the Scripture, and indeed is of the very essence of the
incarnation, that Christ took upon Himself the burden of
this fallen nature, and bore it during His life, and carried
it to His death ; that it was a part of Him which died with
Him, but rose not with Him again. Sin, that slayeth all
things. He slew ; by dying, He did destroy Him that hath
the power of death. He carried the disabilities both of Jew
and Gentile with Him to the cross, and by the cross He
slew the enmity. There died not a man, but there died
the Son of man. As in Adam was created, not a man, but
man ; so in Christ died, not a man, but human nature in the
general underwent, in His death, the penalty of the curse ;
Adam being made the representative of all mankind in his
probation, Christ was made their representative in the re-
Christ's Mediatorhood. 2 1 5
demption j accordinpr as it is written, " As by the offence of
one judgment came upon all men to condemnation ; even so
by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men
unto justification of life ; " and again, "As by man came
death, so by man came also the resurrection of the dead."
If it squareth with the goodness and justice of God, and the
nature of sin, that for the offence of Adam sin and miserj'-
should descend, as at this day we behold it ; then, in like
manner, we should expect that righteousness and peace
should likewise be derivable from one man, to all who are
united to Him by living faith.
CHRIST S MEDIATOEHOOD.
The redemption doth introduce us to a new distinction,
the distinction between the fallen creature redeemed, and
its Divine redemption-head ; which distinction forms the
basis of all our obligations unto Christ, and constitutes the
inferiority and dependence of the redeemed creation upon
Christ its Head. So that, while He is a creature. He is yet
above the creatures ; while He is Head unto the Church,
He is yet above the Church ; linking the whole creation
untg Himself in firmest bond by His human nature, and by
His Divine connecting it with the Godhead, — truly Media-
tor between the invisible Godhead and the visible creature,
the way unto the Father, and the Father's way unto us !
Now, to give this distinctness is another great end of the
fall of the creatures. For being by their fall taught their
wickedness and their weakness, they were thereby pre-
pared to receive and acknowledge righteousness and strength
in Him who should recover and restore them. But for the
Fall, the eternal Son of God could not have been known by
the creatures, in any of His offices, as Prophet, Priest, and
King ; in any of His names, as Jesus, Christ, and Lord.
So that the Fall is as essential for giving the God-man His
dignity over and above the creatures, as it is for teaching
2i6 Doctrinal.
the creature its distinctness from the invisible and incom-
prehensible Godhead,
Thus then have we established two great distinctions,
and three great distinct substances. First, The invisible,
infinite, absolute Godhead ; secondly, The manifest God-
head in the Son of man ; and, thirdly. The redeemed crea-
tures. And now I have to add a fourth, which is. The
unredeemed creation, or the reprobate part of the crea-
tures. The whole creation hath fallen, excepting only
a part of the angelic form of being who are elect in Christ,
and intended, in the Divine purpose, to shew the mighty
power of the Christhead of creation, which should stretch
its arms of salvation both ways, and sustain the infirmity
of the creature in all its forms. The elect angoils, no
doubt, looked forward to Him that was to come, and
stood in that hope; they were His witnesses in the
spiritual region of creation ; they are His trophy, won
from that domain wherein sin was first conceived, because
that domain was first in being. Besides these, the rest
of creation hath all fallen ; and out of that fall, God hath
from the beginning been signifying His purpose to take,
by redemption, a part, and only a part. Tlierefore He
separated the clean and the imclean of animals, and
required the clean to be presented in sacrifice, in order
to signify that the elected part should be made a sacrifice
of, as was first shewn in Christ, and now is shewing in
the Church. Then, from amongst the families of the
earth, He chose one to bless above the rest, with His
covenant; and now, from all the Gentiles, He is taking
whom it pleaseth Him to take. The end of this mystery
of electing only a part, is to shew forth God's sovereignty,
and God's right over the creatures ; to establish the im-
mutable distinction between God and the creatures still
more effectually, and above all to mark out, for ever, the
nature of guilt, the nature of sin. If the scheme of God
had ended in the redemption of all the creatures, then
it would have seemed but a great scheme for manifesting
His own power and being, as the Three -one God ; for
Christ's Mediatorhood. 217
distino-uishing Himself from tlie creature, and securing
to Himself the worship of the creature, and unto the
creature its own blessedness : but God being a holy God,
tlio nature of holiness itself, the nature of sin, and the
nature of atonement and satisfaction, the nature of priest-
hood, which is an essential part of Christ, as the Head
of the creatures, would have been for ever lost; for if
sin, after any curve of aberration, or cycle of change,
is able to aiTive at the same point with holiness, then, at
that point, the difference between sin and holiness ceaseth
for ever. It turns out that there is no essential and
eternal difference between the obedience and the disobedi-
ence of God, but only a temporary and expedient one ; and
it further follows, that the creatures have only been in the
hand of God like the men upon a chess-board, to perform a
certain great exploit of purpose and forecast. I have no
hesitation in saying, moreover, that this scheme of saving
all at the last, doth destroy the very existence of a will
altogether ; and a will is the substance of a spii-it, of an
intelligent being : reason, without a will, is like a visible
world without a sensible creature to possess it. The will
is before reason, as the sense is before the sensible world,
Now, if the fallen will should not manifest for ever its
unchangeableness in itself, the demonstration would be
wanting of what a will is, which would seem to be nothing
else than a material substance which changed and changed
again for ever. All this, and much more, I can see would
flow from the universal redemption of all the fallen crea-
tures. Eeprobation, eternal reprobation of a part, is the
very ground upon whicii the nature of sin resteth, without
which sin is but a change, ordained of God, whereof the
creature must be patient; a circumstance of creation,
which we must be content for a while to stand under,
but which will soon betake itself away. The very possi-
bility of understanding the true difference between obe-
dience and disobedience, throughout eternity, would be
destroyed ; government under Christ would be, what
government under Christ's lieutenants on the earth hath
2l8 Doctrinal.
at length become, on principles of expediency alone ad-
ministered ; a frightful materialism would invert all
things ; and God would be the world, and the world
would be God.
Besides this, it were to lose the whole end of God's
scheme in bringing His purpose to pass, by a creation,
and a fall, and a redemption, instead of bringing it to
pass by one single act, were a part of the creatiire not
left for ever in an unredeemed state. For, as hath been
so often said, the great end of the scheme is to separate
between the creature and the Creator, and, in bringing
it up again from its fall, so to bring it up as that, while
it stood infallibly, by standing in Christ, the Head, it
should yet know itself not to be God, by knowing itself
not to be its head, and by knowing even its Head not
to be the infinite and invisible God, but only such a
manifestation of Him as the creatures are competent to
apprehend. If now, as the Universalists falsely assert,
there should be no reprobation of the creatures, there
would be no evidence of what creation is when standing
out of God. liedemption would have no glory above
creation, because creation hath no apparent inferiority
beneath redemption. And as I believe that redemption
and its glories, above creation and its infirmities, is the
veiy principle with which God will go forth to people
the spheres innumerable with which we are surrounded,
I do hold it to be a most essential point, that the glories
of redemption should be seen reflected from the dark
background of a reprobate creation, existing under the
conditions of the second death. For, if there be one
principle which, from the beginning of the world until
now, hath been declared at sundry times, and in divers
manners, this is the principle, that the chosen and elected
part is chosen of free grace, chiefly for the end of shewing
forth the wickedness of the part not elected. In one
word, without reprobation of the fallen creatures, helpless
and irremediable, free grace is no better than an empty
name. Grace is favour where no right remained, where
Christ's MediatorJiood. 2 1 9
no far-distant possibility of reparation existed, where no
law nor scheme of God comprehended restoration, and
where restoration could not otherwise than by grace come
to pass.
Seeing, therefore, it is essential for every good and
holy purpose of the Creator, that a part of the creation
should be left in its fallen state, or rather brought up
again by a resurrection, and be constituted in the estate
of the second death, which is not annihilation, and which
is not life, but the second death, in which the worm dieth
not, and the fire is not quenched, the question next occurs,
by what means, and by w^hat mighty workmanship, is the
ledemption of the part to be redeemed accomplished ?
This is taught us in the redemption of the body of Christ,
concerning which we have already discoursed. The fallen
woman's substance was, by the Holy Ghost, sanctified, and
preserved wholly, against all the powers of hell and death.
The human will of Christ was, by the power of the Holy
Ghost, preserved perfectly concentric with the divine and
absolute will of the Godhead, so that the latter foimd
the former always a vehicle for expressing itself intelli-
gibly to the creatures : yet did the human will of Christ
know temptation of the flesh, as we see by His tempta-
tion, when He said, " Not my will, but thine be done ;"
that is to say, the flesh which beareth our will to a side,
away from its centre, and maketh it sinful, which is a will
in bondage, was not able to carry Christ's will away,
though nature shook, and shrunk, and quivered again,
under the mighty power which held it unswerving from
its rectitude. Ah that word, " My will," toucheth me to
the heart, shewing me that Christ called human nature by
the name I ! — and that His human nature would have
swerved Him from His centre, but for the Holy Ghost,
which abode in Him.
( 220 )
CHEIST THE EEDEEMER OF CREATION.
If tlie end of God in creation be, to manifest Himself
unto the creatures, which is indeed the only end that He
hath declared ; and if His method of doing this be by bring-
ing in His own Son, and setting Him np for ever, in the
form of the Lamb slain and risen from the dead, or in
the form of lisen God-man, and in that form to shew Him-
self for ever and ever nnto the creatures which He proposed
to create ; then is it never to be doubted, that He who
woiketh all things to the praise of His own glory, and
who leaveth no loose or open parts in His purpose, but
maketh it to be altogether harmonious, and consenting
unto the great end, would from the beginning of creation
bring Himself into action under that form, which He was
afterwards to assume : that is to say, everything would
have an eye and aim to the risen God-man, everything
would tell and foretell of Him, everything would have its
origin in that idea or purpose, and have the definition of
its being thereby determined. And this is what I under-
stand, by all things being made for Christ, as well as by
Christ. The Christ form of being, God and man in one
person, was only an idea and a purpose until the incarna-
tion, when it became a fact. The person of the eternal
Son, I mean, did not become the Christ in very deed, until
He took human substance of the virgin. Therefore, the
only meaning that can be assigned to such expressions as
that all things were made by Him and for Him is, that the
person of the Son — not in His absolute infinity, which
I have said I even believe to be impossible, but in the
finite creature form which He was in the fulness of time
to assume and to retain for ever and ever — did create all
things visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or
principalities, or dominions, or powers ; wherefore, also,
He is called first-begotten from the dead, first-born of
every creature. This, then, is the only ground of revela-
tion anterior to Christ, that God might testify'' unto Him
that is to come ; and creation till He come, is but that same
Christ the Redeemer .of Creation. 221
testimony, from the strongest archangel down to the worm
that crawleth on the ground, I believe there is no spor-
tiveness, playfulness, idleness, extravagance, or waste of
creation power, but one concatenated systematic testimony
unto the Christ ; into whom, as all the disjected members
are to be gathered up again into the head, so believe I,
that in their present disjected state, the only end and pur-
pose of their being is, to testify to Him of whom man is
the only image, and Adam before his fall the only perfect
type. Kow, the counterpart of revelation is faith ; and if
the end of creation is to reveal Christ, then the object of
all faith must be Christ. And all knowledge in the crea-
ture subsisting, whether of itself, or of other creatures, or
of God, is no true knowledge, until it hath turned to a
testimony, is either incomplete or is false, until it hath
revealed something concerning Christ, who is the end of
all created things ; and therefore faith comes in where
knowledge endeth ; or, I should say, knowledge is but as
the needle that pointeth unto Christ, in whom I must
believe : and the rivers of knowledge pour themselves into
the ocean of faith ; for the end of knowledge is not itself,
but something which is to be. And the word, being the
communication of knowledge, doth, therefore, no more than
set out Christ that I may believe upon Him ; and the
preaching of the Word is the testimony of Jesus. But we
have not yet arrived at the root of the matter, which is
deeper still.
The end of all things created by the Godhead being, as
hath been said, the bringing in of the Christ, and that not
at the beginning, but onward a good way in the procession
of the purpose, the preceding pei'iod must necessarily be
the season of faith, during which the creatures can live
only by faith. For the thing visible is not the real thing
that is to he for ever; but is to be changed into its eternal
form, whenever the Christ in His eternal form shall be
revealed. Seeing, then, that faith is the condition of all
the creatures until Clirist come, they must be constituted fit
subjects for faith : they must be constituted, also, fit sub-
222 Doctrinal.
jects of hope, and altogether imperfect without hope : and
these two principles of faith and hope must be wrought
into the very vitals of their constitution. Now this is
truly the condition of man ; who is born to believe, having
no knowledge until he receive it from another ; and is born
to hope, having nothing in possession to begin with, but
nakedness, helplessness, hunger, and want of every kind.
To a creature thus constituted, faith and hope become the
elements of his being ; and therefore, in his very nature,
man proveth himself a witness for something that is to
come. And such a creature is proper to become the sub-
ject of a divine revelation ; and through such creatures
that divine revelation must be communicated to other
creatures, who are not in like manner constituted ; even
as the apostle expressly declareth, in the Epistle to the
Ephesians, That it is by the Church the manifold wisdom
of God is made known unto the heavenly hosts; and
through the intelligence and power which man possesseth
over the lower creatures, God expecteth of His piety, and
of His diligence, that He would make them speak the
praises of God their Creator, which is Christ, and make
them prophesy concerning Him which is to come : so that,
as God destined man to be the form which He should
assume. He hath made man also to be the great witness
unto His coming in that form.
If all things then were created by the Son, in the as-
sumed form of the Christ, or the risen God-man, then all
things spoken by God unto man must be spoken by the Son
in that same character. But it may be asked here, What
need to speak at all ? I answer, Because when the crea-
ture had fallen into sin and death, it necessarily became
overspread with darkness, and ignorance, and error. And
this was one reason of the Fall, even to negative that light
of revelation which the creature possessed in itself; to
shew that the creature was not the true light, but only a
witness of the true light ; and that the witness might not
be mistaken for the person witnessed of, it came to pass
that darkness was permitted to cover the earth, and gross
Christ the Redeemer of Creation.
^- J
darkness the people. Yet, under this the chmd of dark-
ness, the mystery lay shrouded ; but so shruudL-d as that
tlie creature, in himself, should not be able to discover it.
Aiid thus, during the fall-season of the creature, it is con-
nected with the Creator by its very imperfectness ; having
in itself the gi'ound of the truth of the promise of God, but
yet, not being able of itself to read the lesson thereof;
having a will, but in bondage ; having an understanding,
but in darkness ; having a body, but under the law of sin
and death ! having a world for a possession, but a world
ever rising in arms against its Master ; having a being
craving for faith, but ever falling into superstition ; having
a being formed for hope, but ever falling into delusion, A
miserable estate indeed, had it been cut off and separated
from Divine teaching ! but, being connected with Divine
teaching, the only state of being in which it was good for
the creature to be during the preparatory and preliminary
season before the coming of Christ. For, by these very
defects, by these very unsatisfied cravings, it was taught
its need of a higher Teacher ; which lesson, without such
imperfections, the creature could never have learned. And
thus the Fall becomes the ground of a revelation, such as we
now possess ; that is, a revelation of words superinduced
upon the marred revelation of creation. The Fall made the
knot which no fallen being could loose ; which every one,
by his own nature, should be craving to have loosed ; but
could not otherwise have loosed, than from some one
higher than himself. The Fall made the riddle, which no
fallen intellect could resolve, and which might create a
craving for superhuman intelligence ; and thus it is, that
the fallen world, without a revelation, were indeed a sole-
cism in the idea : but a fallen world with a revelation is a
better state of the creation than its first or unfallen estate,
because in this there existed nothing to distinguish it from
God, and to teach it that it was not God in itself; no in-
completeness, no mystery, no suifering, no evil, no apparent
contradiction to be reconciled. But in the other state, the
creature by its very want, fjom clothes of skin to clothing
224 Doctrinal.
of righteousness, from succession of seasons to give him
bread unto the preparation of the times and seasons for
giving him bread from heaven, all from new-born babyhood
unto the birth of the resurrection morn, is man in the fallen
state of his being dependent upon the word of the revela-
tion of God. Oh, what a mystery of goodness, as well as of
wisdom, there is to be seen in the fall of man, which made
way for the revelation of word and of ordinance, and
enabled a Church to be preserved upon the earth, exclusive
of none which should maintain the testimony, until He
that is to come should come !
Thus was the creature linked to the Creator, by the very
act of its falling away from Him, and hung in total depend-
ance upon His gracious word, by the very act of disobeying
His word : just as the infant, which with anguish is rent
from its parent, becomes, in that very act of its birth, the
object of its parent's tenderest care. It was no longer a
creation out of God, but a creation that had been out of
Him, brought into Him, and standing in Him by His
gracious and faithful word. And not only did the fall
of the creature thus make way for the revelation of the
grace of God, but it did also, in a manner, render that
revelation absolutely necessary, in order to maintain the
completeness and accomplish the ends of the Divine pur-
pose. Because now the creation being made subject unto
vanity, and possessed with the spirit of a lie, wanting its
high Prophet to interpret its ever misinterpreted mystery ;
man himself having become subject to the deceiver, and
being no more able to understand or prophesy the truth ;
either the creation must fail from its high design of being
and speaking and acting for Christ, or God himself must
interfere with a Divine commentary and interpretation
thereof. And forasmuch as we cannot believe that God
is ever to be thwarted, or the testimony of Christ ever
defeated, it doth necessarily remain, that a revelation shall
be superinduced upon a fall ; and that God shall first ap-
pear a Projohet, to gainsay the gainsayers, and to deliver
truth from the jaws of the lion, before He becometh a High
The Temptation.
--'D
Priest to purify and sanctify the whole lump, and a King
of kings to nile over it in righteousness. In which cha-
racter of the Prophet He shall scj^arate the truth from the
lie, and preserve the testimony of the truth against the
many witnesses of the lie.
THE TEMPTATION.
I BELIEVE that in the minds of many the edge of this
mighty trial is taken off by a certain vague apprehension
that Christ was helped to bear it by the new power which
He had received from heaven : but this is a notion against
which we protest, as totally unsupported by Scripture, and
defeating one chief end of His coming in the flesh, which
was to conquer eveiy form of wickedness and trial that
could come against Him from the cradle to the grave, and
to set us an example that we might follow His steps. If
His humanity bore not His human encounter, but needed
the aid of His superior faculties, then how serveth it as an
encouragement or an example to us who are mere men, and
have no such divinity to bear us up ? His humanity sus-
tained Him against all earthly encounters ; and whatever
His divinity served Him, it seiwed not to lighten the load
which lay heavy upon His shoulders.
I speak not now of the mere inward struggles which He
had to maintain as the surety of mankind, which many
sound divines have thought could not be of less amount
than all the sufferings which all that believe in Him are
saved from through all eternity. Neither do I speak of
those unrecorded temptations of the powers of darkness
which He had to sustain throughout His life, and of which
we have a shrewd intimation in the expression with which
this recorded temptation concludes, " The devil departed
from Him for a season ; " nor of the hidings of His Father's
countenance, nor of anything save the outward visible suf-
ferings with which men can sympathise. It may be said
many of His followers have endm-ed as much; but hath
Q
226 Doctrinal.
any one endured it without sin? To endure is nothing.
The tortured Indian endures many crucifixions. Bed-rid
patients endure whole years of torture, of which single
nights have in them the materials of many a tragedy.
Kature must endure what the hand of God layeth on,
however great it be. But doth she endure without mur-
muring, even what she cannot avoid enduring ? And Avhat
is laid upon her by every wicked son of Belial, doth she
endure without the resentment of a man ? But here is a
man, a very man, by distinction the Son of man, enduring
heaps of trouble and affliction from every outward and
inward quarter, and carrying Himself under it, not like a
man, but like a God. It is Adam, sent not into paradise,
but into hell, for the trial of His faithfulness, and enduring
all the tortures of hell with no defalcation of His faithful-
ness. This was the trial, not that He should bear, but
that He should bear as one who bore not; not that He
should endure in a sinful world, but that without sin
He should endure; that for all His cruel condition He
should be able to challenge the severest inspection of that
host of enemies He was surrounded with, and who had
risen up against Him ; that He should bear the knowledge
of Him who searcheth the heart and trieth the reins of the
childi'en of men, and receive the testimony that He had
done no violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth.
Such was the heavy work which Christ undertook, and
such the happy issue to which He had to bring it.
Having before Him this yet unattempted work of con-
quering in flesh and blood all the enemies of flesh and
blood, both on earth and in hell, of preserving Himself
immaculate though a man, perfect and sinless though a
sorely tempted man, it was very desirable that He should
have at the outset of such a perilous voyage some trial of
His strength to endure its hardships. Having a human
soul full of anticipation and feeling, as we see through all
His life, especially in the garden of Gethsemane, He could
not look upon the trial before Him without misgivings.
If, after having proved His strength in this wilderness,
Hoiu the Bonds of the Law aix Removed. 227
and tliroiigli all the scenes of His ministiy, sucli horrors
overtook Him on entering the last scene of it, what anxie-
ties and fears must have pressed Him at its oiitset, when,
from being a private man, He nndertook so high a task !
Think not I take from His dignity thus to behold Him
accessible to those troubles of the spirit. It doth but
prove the more the tenderness of His humanity, and en-
courage that fellow-feeling with Him which is the most
genuine mark of His disciples. But take from your idea of
His dignity or not, it is the truth that He had such mis-
givings, and prayed His Father in His agony to let the
cup pass from Him. We have been so much agitated with
disputes about His divinity that we dare hardly trust our-
selves to conceive of His humanity, lest we should trespass
upon the integrity of the former. But this nervous deli-
cacy must not be indulged either by you or by me; we
must look upon His true humanity, and speak of it as
' the evangelists and the apostles likewise spoke of it. And
1 when need is, we must do the same of His divinity. These
misgivings of the human soul of Christ, it was the purpose
of this temptation to chase away: — to give Him, in the
ver}^ outset and beginning of His undertaking, a proof
that He was equal to its utmost perils ; that He might
take courage and enter upon it with boldness; that in
all His diflScult passages memory might have a spot to
flee to, whereat He encountered this, and more than this.
This temptation I consider to be one of three remark-
able passages of the snme kind, which are recorded in
His life. The other two are the transfiguration and the
agony.
HOW THE BONDS OF THE LAW ARE EEMOVED.
Thehe is in the law suclv a purity and fitness for pro-
ducing human well-being ; there is so much good sense in
the Ten Commandments, so much right feeling, so much
beauty of virtue and righteous judgment, that every good
and wise man seeketh earnestly and desireth ferv^ently to
Q 2
228 Doctrinal.
put himself under such a goodly system of morality, which
is at once the perfection of moral philosoph}^ the code of
justice, the guide of affection, the sum of religion, the
bulwark of society, and the stay of life ; insomuch that I
know not what preternatural power is required to separate
a man from this form of wisdom, which is all redolent with
humanity, and with humanity's noblest forms. The only
thing capable of divorcing between the moral law and
hixman nature is the inexorable holiness of God, which will
not be satisfied with an} thing short of its complete obedi-
ence. If the law would relax a little to the infirmities of
the flesh ; if it would be gentle, and tender, and gracious,
and look not so much to our shortcomings as to our attain-
ments ; or if it would tarry a while and wait the gradual
progress of virtue ; or if it woijld forget the past transgres-
sions in our present endeavour to do our best ; or if, more-
over, it would quietly stand like a Grecian temple, or a
Grecian statue, as the ideal, the beau ideal of moral beauty
and perfection, and suffer us poor sciilptors to carry on the
w^ork of moulding ourselves the best we can after the
model of its beauty, then indeed it might stand and re-
ceive the homage of all virtuous and well-disposed men.
But it hath such a tongue of iron, and doth ring out again
such thunders of revenge against every transgression, and
every shortcoming it doth gauge Avith such exact rule, and
such a mighty omniscient eye doth watch sleepless over its
virgin purity, that while, on the one hand, it doth solicit
and attract with its perfect form, on the other it doth repel
with its chill and icy coldness. God's inexorable holiness,
I say, is that which maketh the very beauty of the law,
and its peifection, to be most horrible and most revolting
unto the heart of a believer. But if we could but persuade
ourselves that God's holiness would relent, and that He
would soften and accomodate the law to our infirmities, all
might yet be well ; and this trul}^ is the hope and belief
of all those who aa'e making shift with the law for a rule of
life. They do, in ver}- deed, believe that God is not so
holy, but that He is able to forgive a transgression of the
Holo the Bonds of the Laiu arc Removed. 229
law, and to overlook our shortcomings from its obedience.
And this notion is so firmly rooted in men's minds, that
nutliing but a great demonstration to the contrary could
overcome it. Men have no right estimate of the evil of
sin, of the holiness of God, of the inexorableness of the
law ; and before you can wean human nature from the Ci jn-
templation of its own perfection, and perfectibility in the
law, you must have to offer unto them some indubitable
demonstration and stupendous monument of the unalter-
able holiness of God, the irreducible demands of the law,
and the hideous nature of sin. If such a demonstration
and monument of a lasting kind can be given, and es-
tablished in some grand and conspicuous way, it may be
possible ; but otherwise it never will be possible to divorce
human nature from the high-minded affections which it
beareth to the good, and just, and honourable law, and the
easy hope with which it fiattereth its good nature, that
God will never require of His poor creatures more than
they are able in this state of sin and infirmity to perform,
especially when He beholdeth in them a devout aspiration
after the perfect and blameless righteousness of the law,
together with a continual sorrow and repentance because
of our many shortcomings and positive offences. But if, I
say, it can be made to appear, beyond doubt and question,
that he that offendeth in one point of the law is guilty of
ail ; that heaven and earth may pass away, but one jot or
one tittle shall not pass from the law till all be fulfilled ;
and that God cannot forgive a transgression, the slightest
as the heaviest, without a recompense of an infinite price ;
and that as one transgression brought the world and all its
inhabitants into this misery and death, out of life and
blessedness, so any one transgression will condemn the
soul into the lowest hell for ever ; and that this is God's
unalterable, unchangeable being and attribute ; — if this, I
say, can be made clearly apparent, and undoubtedly true
and unchangeable for ever, then men may be brought to
see the law in another light, and to abhor it as a living
man abhorreth the dagger of the assassin, or the axe of the
2 30 Doctrinal.
executioner, or the grim face of death, or the corruption of
the grave, or the pit of hell. Now, I ask, where, by what,
hath God made this eternal demonstration of sin's horrid
guilt, and His own inexpressible abhorrence of the sinner ;
1 answer, By sending His Son in the likeness of sinful
flesh ; by making the Word flesh, by making Him consub-
stantial with the sinner, and shewing how under this form
God hid His face from His own Son, and bruised Him, and
put Him to grief, and called for His sword to slay Him,
and covered Him with the pall of death, and brought Him
into the humiliation of the grave ; — all this, though He
was without sin, and saw not corruption, merely because
He had become consubstantial with the sinful creatures.
Thus, and no otherwise, was that great demonstration made.
And I stand in my place, as a preacher of truth, and say,
that there is no demonstration of all this, if Christ did not
become bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh ; if He were
in any other state than the fallen humanity ; if He were in
the likeness of sinless flesh, and not in the likeness of
sinful flesh.
The law bore its spite against sin in flesh : Christ con-
demned sin in flesh : the law could not do it, Christ did it
for the law ; or rather He did it for the Lawgiver, even
His Father, of whose holiness the law is the bearing and
the pressure upon sinful flesh. As the sin of Adam did
not need to be done over again in every person of Adam's
kind, but by the principle of imputation death passed upon
all men, and the law appeared in due time to shew the
abundance of the transgression ; so neither doth the work
of righteousness, under the law, need to be done over
again : but, being once done in Christ, is for ever done ;
and the law being satisfied with Christ, giveth itself up to
Christ, and saith. Thou, 0 man, art worthy to have, to hold,
to exercise me, thou great Lord of law ! And Christ
having become sole proprietor of the law, doth say, in His
own right. Stand aside, thou grace-eclipsing law : thou
hast had thy time ; and a better time awaiteth thee yet,
when my throne of righteousness shall be established ; but
Meanmg of the Sacrament. ■ 231
for tlie present, be thoii content to take thyself out of the
Avay, that the grace of my Father, through me, may shine
forth unto the ends of the earth. And now, j-e swift
messengers, ye gentle ministers of grace, go forth and
preach the good tidings of great joy unto all men ; preach
the gospel of salvation unto every creature under heaven.
This message hath been proclaimed unto the earth since
the resurrection ; that men are no longer under the law,
that God is gracious, that their sins are forgiven, and that
God is love. This is the grace, this is the peace, which
unto men, unto all men, is proclaimed ; and the world is
under the law no longer, but under grace. And thus, by
one man the law hath been satisfied, and by one man the
grace of God hath been revealed from behind the eclipse
which the Lord had brought upon it. For it was but an
eclipse, because the promise was before the law, and the
law, which came four hundred and thirty years after, could
not make the promise of none efiect.
The promise was of grace, and not of merit ; of faith and
not of works. Abraham believed, and it was counted unto
him for righteousness.
THE MEANING OF THE SACRAMENT.
Our personality is not given to us by Adam, but by God ;
and, therefore, we are responsible to God for all the actings
of our personal will. But our substance is derived from
Adam : we are of one substance with him, though difierent
persons. Now, from this turn to the Antitype which it
was all intended to shadow forth. Here is Christ the
second Adam — a person such as none was ever, nor ever
shall, nor ever can be ; being no other than the second
Person of the Godhead — the Word made flesh. He,
according to the Father's purpose, was appointed to be the
father of a spiritual seed — the father of the eternal ; ay,
He received power to beget sons unto God. " As the
Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son
to have life in himself," who quickeneth with eternal life
232 DocU'inal.
wliom He willetli ; for lie willetli as the Father willeth,
and as the Father and the Sou will, the Spirit efiecteth.
Now, according to this purpose of the eternal Godhead, the
Spirit from Christ proceeding doth quicken a new life in
God's elect ones. And as life is opposite to death, He doth
quicken the life by mortifying the death, — that is to say,
the substance of life, which we receive from Christ, doth
act against and overcome the substance of death, which we
receive from a fallen creation ; which is a creation in death
subsisting, yet not the second death, but the first death,
over which Christ hath obtained power, and which, by the
resurrection, He will wholly receive,— not in part receive,
but wholly receive ; — one part to the resurrection of life,
another part to the resurrection of judgment, which judg-
ment is unto life, or unto the second and eternal death.
Those living ones, therefore, whom Christ begetteth out of
the creatures dead in Adam, He begetteth by an imparta-
tion of that substance which He now enjoyeth in the state
of redemption and immortality. But the substance which
He communicates is not His own personality, His own self,
but the Holy Ghost proceeding from Himself. The Holy
Ghost is now His to give — the Holy Ghost doth now dwell
in Him ; and that which proceedeth from Him is the Holy
Ghost. Therefore, beyond, and apart from His own per-
son, Christ is only known and felt through the operation
of the Holy Ghost. Christ, therefore, is in the elect only
in the substance of the person of the Holy Ghost. The
Son is not personally united to the elect ; but the Holy
Ghost personally doth dwell in them, as He also dwelleth
in the body of Christ. It is the energy of the Son which
claspeth unto and for ever embosometh in Himself the
human nature ; but it is the energy of the Holy Ghost
which joineth, and, I may say, claspeth the elect unto the
human nature of Christ. The Son doth not proceed from
Christ, but formeth Christ by enfolding the humanity.
The Son's is an act of love, dwelling, and resting, and re-
joicing over human nature. He doth not Himself go
forth ; but He sendeth forth His human nature, the Holy
JMcaniug of the Sacrament. 233
Ciliost, of whose substance His human nature is, as it were,
the containing vessel, frum which the Spirit proceedeth at
t he will of the Son, which is also the will of the Father,
into and upon the elected people of God, who thereupon
become members of Christ's body, and being taken to-
gether become the body of Christ. And when thus
explained, you will, I think, have little difficulty in dis-
cerning the body of Christ in the bread and wine of the
supper. We are of Christ's bodily substance as we are of
Adam's bodily substance ; and yet we are different persons
from Christ, though consubstantial with His body. We
are consubstantial with His body, not merely by our com-
mon holding of Adam, which is true of all men, but by a
common operation of the Holy Ghost, which is distinct
from His operation to create or to generate, and is His
operation to create and generate anew. The energy of the
Godhead put forth, in creating Adam, is a different thing
from the energy of the Godhead put forth in creating Chi'ist ;
and the energy of the Godhead put forth in generating
from Adam, is different from the energy of the Godhead in
regenerating from Christ. The former is the energy of
giving existence to the creature, the next is the energy of
giving salvation to the creature ; the one an energy unto
a fall, the other an energy unto infallibility. There is no
greater mystery, however, though there be a higher effect,
in the one energy than in the other. And, as every one
sees his unity of substance with Adam, and feels his dis-
tinctity of person from another man, so ought we to believe
that every regenerated man is of the substance of Christ,
though distinct from Him, and far beneath Him in respect
of personal attributes and powers. So much for the dis-
tinctness of Christ from His body the Church, which, I
think, the papal idea, that Christ's personal substance is
given to us in the supper, doth subvert. Seeing, then,
from what hath been said above, Christ's personal sub-
stance cannot be extended beyond Himself, and that He
doth not include us, as it were, within the limits of Him-
self, and cast the mantle of His body over us ; seeing, also,
2 34 Doctrinal.
that it is by the Holy Ghost proceeding from Him that all
redemption and regeneration is accomplished, the question,
what is meant by eating His flesh and drinking His blood,
is not of difficult solution, but doth signify our being made
partakers of that special work of the Holy Ghost, which
was exercised in sanctifying, and redeeming, and raising
from the dead Christ's very flesh. That Christ's flesh
should not have fallen into the same sinfulness, and re-
mained under the same corruption under which all flesh of
Adam, save Christ's own, fell and remaineth, is due to a
power of the Holy Ghost, which then, for the first time,
was put forth. How to designate this action of the Holy
Ghost, or rather this finished work of the Holy Ghost, we
know not, save by saying that it produced Christ's flesh
and blood. As we would designate the work of the Holy
Ghost in creation, by saying that from it flesh and blood of
man arose out of dust, out of nothing, with all the thought,
purpose, and work which flesh and blood is capable of; so
say we that the second forthputting of Holy-Ghost energy
brought out of fallen flesh and blood the flesh and blood of
Christ, which prevailed over death and the grave, and sin
and hell, and is capable of the seat at the right hand
of God, and the superintendency of all created things,
visible and invisible.
BAPTISM NOT A MEEE EITE.
You will not err, brethren, as the formalists of this day
do err, in supposing that the outward act of washing with
water brings with it, as of necessity, any saving virtue,
or worketh, as by magic, a cleansing of the corrupt soul ;
for, on the other hand, as we have oft taught you, for a
man without faith to have to do with these sacraments is
an abomination to the Lord, and bringeth down upon his
spirit some visitation of God, as sure, though invisible, as
that which fell upon the profane, though otherwise exalted,
king of Judah ; yea, and to his child no blessing descendeth
from the diy fountain of his father's faithless act, but rather
Baptism not a Mere Rite. 235
an inheritance of barrenness, and a visitation of wrath,
according to the threatening of the Second Cunimandnient
against iiloLitry ; for is there grosser idolatry within the
Eoinish Church than that which is taught in this land of
the sacrament of baptism, — that on that rite, discharged in
due form, there is present a virtue to regenerate the soul
of the little one, and to look for any other regeneration
is but a vagary of idle and enthusiastic brains? But,
nevertheless, though the parent who presented us at the
laver of regeneration, and the priest who washed us therein,
and the people who were witnesses thereof, had been all
faithless and idolaters, and the little one made but a cold,
unfathered, unbefriended entrance into the Church ; yet
within the covenant it is now found, and being there found,
it is an heir of all the promises which are the everlasting
inheritance of the faithful disciples of Christ. So that I
have no hesitation in saying, it is as fully privileged to
enter in by faith into the riches of the inheritance as any
other, however more favourably conditioned, and more
dutifullj' introduced to the Church. There are rough in-
clemencies which such a little one shall have to pass
through — disabilities, disadvantages, and hindrances ; such
as prayerless parents, ungodly acquaintance, an untutored
childhood, an unspiritual ministry, infinite tempations of
worldliness — accumulated upon its head in consequence,
it may be, of a long line of ungodly ancestors, or by the
withdrawing of God's candlestick from the Church, or
from its being the day of His wrath upon the country ;
and from a thousand other dispensations of His righteous
government, over which we have no control. For it is
a poor and shallow notion of God, that He is the God only
of individuals, and not also the God of families, and the
God of nations, and the God of generations and of ages.
There is a scheme of justice and government ; there is a
recompence of reward, and a recompence of vengeance,
which reacheth far and wide, both over the Church and
over the world. The Church hath her discipline of heaven,
however much she may hold discipline cheap ; and she is
236 Doctrinal.
suspended from her ministry of grace to the world, and her
light is eclipsed, and she is stricken, smitten, and afflicted :
she is excommunicated also, and given over to Satan to be
accursed, if she forsake the testimonies of the Lord. The
milk of her breasts being dried up, her children are left to
pine and perish, and the land where she tabernacleth is
defeated of its blessings, and scourged with every evil.
All this happeneth, and hath happened, to every Church
which hath existed in Christendom ; ay, and will happen
to us, if we continue in our Laodicean condition, neither
hot nor cold, full of boasting and self-suflSciency, and
golden bravery, when there is no faith, or almost none, in
the midst of us. And what were the Church without such
government? — a house of all iniquit}^ and not the house of
God ; Satan's temple, not the temple of the Holy Spirit ;
another prison-house of slavery, instead of being the citadel
of -the free ; dark and plagued as Egypt, and not peaceful
and untroubled as Goshen.
Truly, dear brethren, when these things we think upon,
we may well mourn and weep, and rend our garments, and
cast dust upon our heads, and be imclean until the evening.
Ah, when I compare the silent steady working of an in-
visible principle of an ever-felt obligation like that of
baptism, setting in motion the hearts and minds of a whole
people, linking into communion, and yet preserving in
due subordination, the various ranks and degrees of men,
regenerating the aifections of nature, and hallowing the re-
lationships of kindred, sweetening the bitterness of adverse
conditions, sanctifying all the offices of the Church, and
displaying her as the true and liberal mother of all her chil-
dren : — when this harmonious and effectual working of the
Holy Spirit, through the institutions of Christ, I do com-
pare with the present condition of the Church, concerning
which there is such triumphant boasting: if I observe,
first, the relaxation on the part of the rulers of the Church,
and their indifference to the spiritual charge of their chil-
dren, their ignorance of the state of families for which they
are responsible, and the abuse, 1 had almost said profana-
Baptism not a Mcvc Rite. 237
tion, of the sacrament itself, tlic profaneness, the privacy,
llie indecent haste of its administration : the ignorance of
its bonds and obligations, and the practical, if not open
denial, that it involveth any: if I observe, next, the dis-
cipline of families, how little system and order, how little
instruction and discipline, how little worship, how the
father hath ceased from the priesthood of his house, and.
the children from the devout honour of their father ; how
the mother hath ceased from the gentle office of kindly
carrying into efi'ect the details of a father's plans ; and how
the servants are kept without the family circle which our
mild and gracious discipline bringeth into one : if I ob-
serve, again, the state of the schools, in which these defects
are intended to be supplemented, and witness the secularity
and ostentation which run through them, insomuch that I
regard the Sunday school, as it is ordinarily conducted, to
be no Sabbath work, and likely to be of no advantage to the
Church of Christ, having in truth little or no relation to
the Church, and no reference whatever to the ordinance of
baptism, as the origin out of which it grows, or to the com-
munion, as the end to which it aims, or to the spiritual
seed, as the material upon which it works, but being in
truth little holier than our week-day parish schools : if
next I observe the outward and visible machiner}- of the
present religious world, as it well nameth itself; their
endless, and often prayerless committees, their multitu-
dinous, and often unhallowed meetings, their hustings and
hustings-like harangues, their numerous travellers upon
commission, their flaming, and often fallacious reports,
with all the hurry, haste, and bustle of the evangelical
and methodistical machinery ; can I be but grieved at the
fall and declension of the Church's gloiy, and the common
weal ? Can I be but indignant when they call themselves
better than their fathers, and dare to say that a millennial
age is beginning to dawn in those churches which are
hastening to their downfall and destruction? Can I be
but desirous to restore the spiritual meaning, and the
spiritual power of the ordinances of the Church, and espe-
238 Doctrinal.
cially of tliis the sacrament of baj)tism, which I may call
the primum mobile, the moving power of the whole ?
Brethren, you must bear with my zeal : it is not the zeal
of a fanatic or enthusiast, but of one who has lived much
with the fathers, and is stricken in spirit with the dege-
neracy of the children ; of one who would fain turn the
hearts of the children unto the fathers, lest God come and
smite the earth with a curse.
The end of that instruction which the sponsor, under
the watchful e^'e of the Church, should impart, is the
fitting of the baptized for sitting down at the Lord's table,
which may never be permitted save to those who are of
sufficient knowledge of the faith that is within them.
When they have attained unto this degree in the Church,
they are no longer under sponsorship, but free to become
sponsors or catechists in their turn ; and therefore, every
parent or sponsor should long for the time when he can
tlius deliver up his burden into the hands of the Church :
and the rulers of the Church should be most ready on
their part to receive the burden from the shoulders of the
sponsors, and to advance another child to the freedom of
Christ's house : yea, the elders in their several wards
should be diligent to travail with all the youth until they
persuade them to seek admission to the table of the Lord ;
and when it so happeneth, as in our city congregations it
doth, that the youth are found separated from those who
have the charge over them, there seems to me only two
ways of answering the end and intention of baptism ; — the
first, by the elders and deacons dealing with their several
charges in the congregation ; the other, to restore the dis-
cipline of the primitive Church, by appointing catechists
from amongst the brethren : but these are only resources
to be substituted in those cases where the youth are, in
the providence of God, separated from their sponsors :
wherever they are not, let the discipline of the Scottish
Church, which hath been described above, proceed under
the sponsor each Sabbath during the hours of intermission
from public worship.
Baptism 710 1 a Mere Rite. 239
The incarnation of the Son of God, which, being under-
stood aright, is the key of all mysteries, openeth to my
mind likewise the mystery of infant baptism ; for the Holy
(ihost did not wait until His bai)tism, but took possession
nf Him the moment of His conception. The Son of God
united Himself to the woman's seed in the womb of the
Vii'gin, and the Holy Ghost possessed the holy thing which
was conceived of her and born of her, and the same Holy
Ghost abode in Him during the season of unconscious
infanc}', and was in Him, though there was no means of
revealing Himself as yet in His power and holiness unto
the knowledge of men. And so I say it is with every
elect child of God, that they have the Holy Ghost from the
first moment of their being — have Him in vii'tue of the
Father's electing and of Christ's redeeming love ; and that
the Church may be a fit manifestation of this, she ought to
have, and cannot do without, her ordinance of infant bap-
tism, whereby she may declare that the elect of God are
separated by the Holy Ghost from their mother's womb,
and that the work of the Spirit is as much a part of the
eternal counsel as is the sacrifice of the Lamb which was
slain before the foundation of the world. This is that
which makes infant baptism proper, yea, even possible ; but
we are not therefore to conclude that, becaiise the elect are
chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, and
blesssed in the Spirit with spiritual blessings in heavenly
places, we are not particvxlarly to reverence the ordinance
of baptism as signifying and sealing the same unto us in
the sight of the Church, and opening unto our own experi-
ence a new measure of the Spirit's influence, which also is
shewn in the mystery of the incarnation, by the Spirit
descending upon our Lord in the form of a dove, when He
came up out of the waters of baptism. Neither do I argue
from these premises that the time of the manifestation of
the Spirit is at the birth or at the baptism of God's elect, or
at any other particular time, — nay, the object of our argu-
ment is to place the gift of the Spirit, out of all time and
all circumstances, in the hand of the Father and the Son,
240 Doctrinal,
and to place tlie manifestation of tlie S^iii'it at any time or
in any circumstances which may seem to them most to
their own glory ; so that it is no objection to say that the
Spirit of God was not manifested till such a time, and
therefore to conclude that He was not present before ; for
as the seed of a royal people of kings and priests, yet to be
manifested, has been present in the seed of Abraham dur-
ing all their captivities and dispersions, and, to revert to
my former instance, as the seed of the glorious Lord of all
was present in the Creature born of the Virgin during all
the period and in all the passages of His humiliation ; so I
say that the seed of a glorified saint is present in every
saint who eometh to glory through all the passages, how-
ever sinful and however humiliating, of his present pil-
grimage.
BAPTISMAL KEGENEEATION.
The error of baptismal regeneration consisteth, not in
holding that the true children of God are regenerated at
their baptism, and from thence should date their admission
into the household of faith, which, with all my orthodox
fathers in the Church, I hold to be the only true doctrine,
but in holding, that every person who is baptized doth
virtually thereby become regenerate and possessed with
the Holy Spirit ; or, to speak the language of theologians,
that the inward grace is so connected with, or bound to,
the outward ordinance, that whosoever receiveth the one
doth necessarily become partaker of the other. This is an
error of the most hideous kind ; bringing in justification
by works, or rather by ceremonies, destroying the election
of the Father, the salvation of the Son, and the santifica-
tion of the Holy Ghost, and exalting the priest and the
ceremony into the place of the Trinity. This is exactly
what the Papists have done, and against nothing have the
Protestants more sedulously guarded ; and I am sure, that
I have taken, more than a dozen times, a solemn protest
against such a vile notion. I have struck at the very root
Baptismal Regeneration. 241
of it, by shewing, that among the baptized there is a repro-
bation as well as an election ; and I have endeavoured
even to prevent the imputation of it, by shewing, that
faith, true fiiith, the gift of the Father and the manifesta-
tion of His electing love, is necessary to the receiving
of an}' baptismal gifts, is necessary to the receiving of the
ordinance itself. I have shewn, in many discourses, how
the IIol}^ Spirit once given will never be recalled; and
that the perseverance of the saints is as sure a doctrine
as the unchangeableness of the Father's will or the suffi-
cienc}' of the Son's salvation, being nothing else than the
irresistibleness of the Holy Ghost expressed with reference
to the subject of His possession. And if the Holy Ghost is
irresistible, and there is a reprobation in the Church, how
could I say that the Holy Ghost is necessarily tied to the
ordinance of baptism, or to any ordinance whatever ?
Yet, while thus we most steadfastly hold that God
among the baptized hath His own pDeople, endowed with
all grace, and Satan hath his, entirely destitute of grace,
— for we allow of no secondary influences of the Holy
Ghost, — Ave are not the less steadfast in maintaining!:,
that it appertaineth not to us to make the distinction
or division between them, which God only maketh, nor
to speak of baptism otherwise than God speaketh of it.
But because the Church is limited in her power of dis-
cerning the efficacy of the ordinance, shall she, therefore,
strip the ordinance of all efficacy whatever, and speak
of it in a lower style than the Scriptures require her to
do ? If so, she changeth the everlasting ordinance. We
must still treat the baptized as the children of God, who
have been brought into covenant witl* Him. If they have
forgot their privileges and their engagements altogether,
the more need have we to remind them diligently of that
which God hath not forgotten, though they may. My
brethren, what say you, if a man is forgetting the dignity
of his name, and the honour of his station, is it friendly,
or even honest in you, by silence, to acquiesce with him
therein ; or, by diligently avoiding the subject, to indulge
K
2A2 Doctrinal.
him in his wicked forgetfulness ? But if his Father he
waiting for him with all tenderness of affection, and
earnestly desiring his return to the path of duty, ready
to forgive, is it right of us to keep this matter hidden
from such a one? Now, dare any one, who heareth me,
declare that this is not the case with respect to any
baptized person ? If so, with respect to what class of
them, or what individual of that class? If you cannot
answer me, tell me how you dare take upon you to speak
otherwise of all and to all than as children of the covenant,
to whom God is openly reconciled, and for whom Ho
earnestly waiteth till he shall he converted? Therefore
we dare not do otherwise than use the language quoted
above It is a necessary consequence of our present igno-
rance, and the invisibility of the Church. It is written,
that baptism is for the receiving of the Holy Ghost ; and,
therefore, we will ever hold up baptism as the ordinance
in which the Holy Ghost is received by the faithful : and
having baptised any one upon the ground of our belief in
his faith, we will speak of him as one that hath received
the Holy Ghost. If he should not, then we do continually
convince him of his want, and of the exceeding danger
of his estate of reprobacy. He may take it to heart, and
repent of his great wickedness : he may harden himselt
the more, and be given up to believe a lie,-that he is
reo-enerate, when indeed he is not : what then? we cannot
prevent the judgment of God, and have, for our parts,
fulfilled our vocation. But even reason and common
proverbs say, that putting a man in good company is
one of the best ways to make him good ; and that to give
Mm a bad name, or to suppose him bad, is the sure way
to make him so. No one would say, that a society ot
worthy men should change the purity and gravity of their
discourse, because one or two foolish or ignorant fellows
pestered them with their presence : but because we have
o-ot amongst us those who are ignorant and foolish, they
would have us to speak other language than that which
Christ hath taught His disciples. The Lord forbid : I, lor
Baptised Chi Id re Ji Members of the Church. 243
one, by the grace of God, will never consent to such an
lunvise, unprincipled, and rebellious course.
BAPTISED CHILDREN MEMBEES OF THE CHURCH.
The parent is the medium through whom God will
convey all needful gi*ace nnto the children, during the
time of their own incapacity' of faith, and in what respects
they continue incapable of faith, until by the Church
they be judged worth}'- to sit down at the table of the
Lord. It is of the substance, not to say of baptism, but
of circumcision, and all the covenants and promises of
God, that they should be unto the father and his children.
It began to be so in the Fall, and it continueth to bo so
in the Eedemption : yea, and it is of the very constitution
and law of our being that it should be so ; for, if otherwise,
then is there a period in the existence of every soul for
which God hath made no provision, and of which man can
render no account. I mean, from the first beginning of
life in the womb until the time that we are capable
of understanding and believing the revelation of God,
or hearing the preaching of the gospel — which age, let
me observe in passing, was not thought by the primitive
Church to be so early as it is in these days. AVhat are
we during that important period of existence ? Souls we
have, and bodies we have ; therefore we are persons.
And how stand we to God? What connexion have we
with our Maker ? What purpose serve we amongst His
creatures ? How are we responsible ? And how are
we dealt with ? AVhen, moreover, it is remembered, that
within this period more than the half of human souls are
called away from their earthly sojourn, these questions
are of a very large application, as well as of the most deep
concernment. To these questions a Baptist can make no
answer : he can neither say the child is a believer nor an
unbeliever ; he can neither make it the subject of hope
nor of fear. So far as the world to come is concerned, that
E 2
244 Doctjdiial.
child is a nonentity, or at best an isolated, solitary thing,
without relation to God of any sort. And what state is
this for a soul to be in ; an immortal, responsible soul ?
This barrier, which ariseth in the mind of every person,
is at once opened and set to a side, by the fourth head
of doctrine which we have derived from the sacraments of
baptism and circumcision; whereby it is concluded, that
the parents, through whom God hath seen it good to bring
that soul into the world, is by God regarded as verily and
truly responsible for the souls which God hath given him,
until they be capable of responsibility for themselves; unto
which reason itself gives its assent, in the laws of all well-
regulated States. And it is consistent with the very
ordinance of nature that it should be so ; for if God
honours two human beings so highly, as by means of them
to bring into the world those immortal souls which He
alone, can create, and which He alone doth give, is it to be
wondered that He should honour them to convey to that
soul the sustenance of His grace, through which alone it is
capable of existing in a healthy and happy state ? No one,
I suppose, will say that the law of generation concerneth
more than our material part ; the soul, surely, is not linked
to the body by a necessary law : otherwise we have one
of two conclusions, — either that it hath no separate exist-
ence after death, or that it sleeps away the time during
which the body is dissolved ; either of which conclusions
all orthodox divines and sound-minded men utterl}^ abhor.
If, then, the soul is the gift of God, coeval and coexistent
with the first pulse of life, which God, by the ordinance
of death doth again separate, and call unto Himself, and
retain apart till the resurrection of the dead, then is it
after the nature of a trust unto the parents, of a bequest, of
a great grace and honour, and may well stand connected
with future acts of grace necessary to its well-being, with
future supplies to those parents for the rearing up of the
infant for immortal life, and with vows and pledges taken
of them in token of their acknowledgment, designed for
enlightening their minds concerning their charge, and
Baptised Children Members of the Church. 245
for the assurance of their responsibility. Therefore marvel
not that God should accept the parents as sponsors for
this flis gift ; rather niar\-el if there should not be an
ordinance to that eftect. This ordinance is infant baptism,
•wherein is declared and taught unto the parent the whole
mystery of this little creature's immortality, and of its rela-
tionship to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
As a teacher of righteousness, I do instruct you all, dear
brethren, that the openness of this ordinance to the uncon-
scious babe, who hath no righteousness, nor faculty of any
kind for receiving any ; who can work no work, set forth
no prayer, and act no faith, but is wholly born in sin, is
the clearest demonstration in the world of the freeness of
Divine grace, and the willingness of the Father to bestow
the Holy Spirit upon any age and upon all ages of human
life. The only thing which is preferred before this gift
is faith. If a parent have faith for himself, he may not,
without a denial of God's promise, fail to have faith for his
baptized child. And any one who hath been baptized may
not, without casting dishonour upon his father, and upon
the Church which judged his father worthy to receive the
sacrament for his children's sake, doubt of his full right
and title to this inheritance of the forgiveness of sins and
of the Holy Ghost. And because many children are wont
to puzzle and perplex themselves about the qxiestion,
whether their parents had faith or not ; I say positively,
that they take too much upon them to go about to judge a
question which hath already been judged by the Church.
Not that I infringe the right of private judgment, which I
consider a most essential point of the protestation which
we have lifted up against the Papacy, but that I will
not peraiit a decision to be reviewed by private judg-
ment, which God hath not left to private judgment, but
fixed in the rulers of the Church. Your parent did not
himseK take it upon his own private judgment to decide
whether he was worthy to have his child baptized : he left
it to the rulers of the Church, into whose hands the sacra-
ments are committed, to decide to whom they should be
246 DocU'iiial.
administered. The Church decided favourably lu your
case, and then the thing resteth upon the Church's respon-
sibility. For your part, ye may not doubt thereafter that
you are freely admitted to all which the Church hath thus
to share iu common among her members, be it much or be
it little. The same say I, in answer to all doubts with
respect to the minister of the Church by whom it was done,
who is only a minister or servant of the Church, not the
Church herself; whose gift ye received, whether it came
through the hand of a dishonest or a true servant ; seeing,
as is well set forth iu our Catechism, "the sacraments are
made effectual, not from any virtue in them, or in him that
doth administer them, but only by the blessing of Christ,
and the working of the Holy Spirit in them who by faith
receive them." Eemember that I do not say the Holy
Spirit is actually given to every baptized person ; for that
dependeth upon the previous gift of faith, which is from a
higher source than the Holy Ghost, even fiom the Father,
and which the Father giveth to whom it pleaseth Him;
— but that the Church having judged one to have faith, she
may not refuse to judge that he hath righteousness imputed
to that faith which she judgeth him to have, nor that his
children have the fellowship of the same, nor that his bap-
tized children are declared to have righteousness also, and
the Holy Spirit. The first judgment involveth all the fol-
lowing ones ; and in all her acts of discipline towards that
baptized child, she ought to proceed towards him as to-
wards one who is in covenant with God, and a privileged
member of the Church.
I hold it to be the duty, not of one man, the pastor, but
of every man, the members of Christ, to watch for the
interests of His house ; first of all for those for whom they
are severally responsible— that is, these our children —
whom they have brought into the great inheritance, and
the equally great responsibility, of the Church of Christ ;
and in those Churches which admit of sponsors besides the
parents, it is the duty of the sponsors, and indeed the very
meaning of the ofSce, to see that those for whom they have
Baptised Children Mejubers of I he Church. 247
offered themselves in that responsive situation be made
acquainted with the infinite privileges and awful sanctions
of the Church of Christ, that they may lay hold of the one,
and flee from the other ; and of every Christian church —
that is, body of Christians worshipping in one place, for
truly there is but one Church, — of every Christian commu-
nity, it is the bounden duty to see that all the baptized of
their body, that all the younger children, be reared up,
and all the prodigals of the house bo brought back to their-
Father's love, and to their Father's yearning bowels of com-
passion. And this, let me say unto you, the catechists of
my church, is your first office, to be, under your pastor,
labourers for the sake of the younger members of our
churcli, — you to be instructed by him, and the younger to
be instructed b}' you. But we are not alone ; we are the
brethren of all that are joined to Christ in the sacrament of
l)aptism ; and if we be the brethren of all Christ's members,
then ought we to feel a brotherly tenderness towards those
who are around us, of every condition and of every name,
who are entitled to the same j^rivileges, and amenable to
the same judgment as we are ; one with us in the blessing
of believing, or in the woe of rejecting the gospel. The
little children of the poor who surround us cannot escape
the painful sanctions of the covenant into which they have
been brought. When the time for judging the professing
foiTQal Church shall come, they shall share the judgment.
It did not hinder the people of Israel from being destroyed
that they lacked knowledge, or that their priests had faijed
in their holy functions : no more will it hinder them from
being destroj^ed that they lack knowledge. Their igno-
rance is the beginning of their curse, and the beginning of
their judgment. Ignorance is mental darkness ; ignorance
is mental barrenness ; ignorance is God's judgment already
revealed in the mind. Now, if these your neighbours were
suffering in the fields by blasting mildew, and in their
houses by famine, would you not feel it your duty to go
foi-ward and relieve them? If the Lord had j^alsied the
father of a family, if He had inflicted a universal plague
248 Doctrinal.
upon the children, would not nature take pity upon them ?
And shall nature's bowels be more melting than Christ's
bowels ? Shall the desolateness that sight beholdeth be
more grievous than the desolateness which faith beholdeth ?
Shall the sufferings of a few years be more pitiable than
the sufferings of eternity ? Shall the world be better and
more friendly to its denizens than the Church of Christ to
her members? If I thought, brethren of this flock, that we
would be less pitiful of the children of the Established
Church, or of the Dissenters from the Established Church,
than of our own, I, who am a minister of an Established
Church, would rebuke your evil, rather than commend
your good example, before the Jerusalem above, which is
the mother of us all. For, oh ! the sacrament of baptism
entaileth upon all the same penalties of ignorance and dis-
obedience. Were not our fathers of one Protestant Church ?
Hold we not the same doctrines ? have we not the same
sacraments ? Therefore, I say unto you, go unto the hedges,
and the lanes, and the by-ways, and invite all to your
feast ; instruct all, edify all, that it may not be said that,
in a Christian land, with Christian neighbours, multitudes
perish without ever knowing the glad tidings of salvation :
for assuredly the judgment of God Avill come upon us, if we
knowingly allow of such abominations.
Wherefore, brethren, I say ye are yet under the spirit of
the world in this work which 3-e have undertaken, if you
execute it merely in the spirit of natural philanthropy or
pity, as to children in a state of nature, and do not carry
with you all these great truths of the Church of Christ, and
act under them in the spirit of Christian love and brother-
hood towards the strayed and prodigal, after whom the
heart of the Father longeth so affectionately, that He
maketh mirth and gladness beyond all measui'e when any
of them returns, saying, " For my son was dead and is
alive again, was lost and is found." And when any of the
sheep wandereth, He goeth forth into the wilderness, and
patiently ploddeth over the weary waste, and returneth
very glad that He hath found him. And when one of them
The Lord's Stipper. 249
repenteth, there is more joy in heaven than over ninety
and nine persons who need no repentance. And as our
Father in heaven is, in His longings after them, so ought
•we to be ; and as He is patient in His requests, so ought wo
to be ; and as He is joyful in His success, so ought wo to
be. ^Ve ought to go forth boldly and courageously ; wo
ought to seek patiently; we ought to invite largely;
we ought to threaten fearfully ; and when we succeed in
bringing any back to the fold, we ought to return very
cheerfully, and rejoice right gladly. And so, being filled
with the doctrine and with the Spirit of Christ, we will
not weary in our work, knowing that to us also there re-
maineth a rest and a great and glorious reward ; as it is
written in the prophet Daniel, " And they who turn many
from darkness into light, shall shine as the stars in the fir-
mament for ever and ever."
THE LORDS SUPPER.
Ix the Saviour's ministry of salvation there is nothing
more remarkable than the suitableness of the word to the
action, the propriety of time and place to both, and
the harmony of all with the feelings of those who were
addressed ; and which arose from His soul's being attuned
by the deep relations of truth, unbroken in its perception,
undisturbed in its emotions, rich in feeling and harmony,
responsive to every secret association of nature, whereof
He was the Creator, and acquainted with every deep and
secret movement of the human soul, to whose mysterious
sj^mpathies He was always ready, in his great grace, to
accord whatever He had to say or do. In this sweet and
haiTQonious spirit, having touched the souls of His apostles
by these varioiis notes of warning. He proceeded to the
institution of this holy service. He took bread, and gave
thanks, and blessed it, which was the sign of a new and
distinct service from that in which they had been engaged,
and brake it, and gave xmto them ; and while their minds,
already moved with the mysterious meaning of all that
250 Doctrinal.
Lad been said and done during the snpper, burned for an
explanation of this solemn commencement, He said, " This
is my body which is given [or broken] for you : this do in
remembrance of me. And he took the cup, and gave
thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it;
for this is my blood of the new testament [or, this is the
new testament in my blood], which is shed for many for
the remission of sins."
Such was the institution of the holy ordinance whereof
we have taken in hand to explain the meaning, according
to the principle formerly laid down, that every ordinance
which is set forth by signs should explain itself by help
of the ordinary signification of the signs and of the words
pronounced over them. Tollowiug this rule of interpreting,
with the elements in our hands, and the words in our
mouths, we remark, with respect to the signs, that, as the
element used in the sacrament of baptism is the emblem of
purity, and the action of washing or dipping therein is the
sign of purification ; so bread and wine, the elements used
in the sacrament of the supper, are the emblems of strength
and cheerfulness, and the action of eating and drinking is
the sign of sustenance and nourishment. Bread is the
staff of life ; and wine cheereth the heart of man. Also,
to sit around the table of any one, and be permitted to
eat of his bread and drink of the wine which he hath
mingled, is, on his part, a sign of hospitality and friend
ship, and on ours a pledge of faithfulness and truth.
Which sentiment that our Saviour felt keenly is manifest
from what He said of Judas : " He was troubled in spirit,
and testified, and said, Verily, verilj'', I say unto you, that
one of you shall betray me." " Behold, the hand of him
that betrayeth me is with me on the table." " One of you
which eateth with me shall betray me." In which expres-
sions it is manifest that He felt the criminality to be
aggravated by the breach of that good faith which is
signified in eating and drinking with a man at his table.
Thus are these two things, therefore, the wavy face and
ontward show of this ordinance : first, a pledge of friendship
The Lord's Supper. 251
and faithfulness to Him around whose table we are seated ;
and, secondly, that we are come thither for the sake of
sustenance and refreshment. So much is discernible by
the eye from the visible emblems and actions of the ordi-
nance, which being taken along with what is gathered by
the ear from the words that are appointed to be spoken,
giveth its whole meaning and significance.
Well, then, believing the total depravity and entire help-
lessness of this visible estate of manhood, by virtue of its
connexion with and laying hold upon Adam, our great
head, we desire to know the hope which remaineth for
creatures whose power of good, whose very power of life,
hath thus departed from them. What shall wo lay hold
upon in order to lift us out of this fearful pit and miry
clay into which we have sunk, and in which our feet are
holden fast? There is nothing which we can lay hold
of for that great end of redemption and resurrection but
the risen body of Christ : as it is written, " If Christ be
not risen, then are we still in our sins." It is nothing
that Christ was crucified and laid in the grave, unless
He be also risen : for to die is the very consummation of
our lives and demonstration of our helplessness, in which
every one that shareth doth so far forth demonstrate his
taking part with the rest of the fallen creatures. But if
such a one as hath been born and lived and died like other
fallen creatures, have likewise arisen from the dead and
liveth for ever; then, indeed, there is a door of hope opened
to every poor, mortal, corniptible creature who holdeth the
same nature. On the other hand, again, there would have
been no ground of hope if He had not died, but been
translated like Enoch and Elijah ; because in that case it
would not have been made manifest that He was bone of
our bone, and flesh of our flesh, partaker in all respects
of the substance of fallen manhood. He might have been
an angel who had but taken human form and appearance
in order to accomplish some errand and message of God,
as the damnable Arian heresy feigneth. But being proved
to be very man and partaker with man in his doleful
252 Doctrinal.
condition, by His having borne it first and last, and all its
sorrows and infirmities, and having risen incorruptible from
the tomb, and entered into an eternal life and infinite
power, all eyes and all hearts of mortal kind ought to be
turned unto the risen body of Christ, as the great demon-
stration of the possibility and of the fact of redemption
and resurrection from this our low and lost estate.
For what hope is there else ? The rest of mankind, all
the children of Adam, lie mouldering in the dust : the
worm hath fed upon them, and corruption hath devoured
them. There is no memory of them, and their name is
perished. They had no power against death while they
lived, and when they came to die they were fain to yield
themselves, and the grave closed her mouth upon them, and
the}^ are not. To look for help from them is utterly vain ;
they need a helper more than we, for we are still in the
narrow strait and isthmus of life, but they are swallowed
up in the gulf. But here is one Man who. His life long,
prevailed against sickness and death ; who said that He had
power to lay down His life, and that He had power to take
it up again ; who entered into the house of death, and
spoiled the strong man of the house, contending with him
for His own body, and overcoming him, for it saw not cor-
ruption. There it lay, the seed of the regenerated world,
and death and Satan sought to destroy it for ever ; but it
endured all their malignant power, and arose in glory and
in strength into the possession of an eternal life at the
rig-ht hand of the throne of God ; whence the risen Man
shall come again to judge the world in the last day.
If, therefore, the children of Adam are ever to be helped
out of their present evil plight of sin and death, it must be
through the power and prevalency of that Son of Adam
who is now in the heavens, far above death and sin, and all
principalities, and powers, and dominions, and every name
that is named both in this world and in that which is to
come. Here the resurrection of Christ is the tomb-stone
of His divinity, whereby He was declared to be the Son of
God with power : it is also the strong point of the gospel,
The Lord's Supper. 253
to the preaching of Avhich the preaching of the cross is hut
jDreparatory, to shew forth His true manhood, His being
truly in the estate as Avell as in the stead of fallen manhood,
in preparation for the shewing forth His resurrection, which
is the proof that now fallen manhood hath been exalted
from its lowly bed into the condition of risen and immortal
manhood, and in that condition will take its superior place
of primogeniture above all other beings, upon the right
hand of the throne of God.
These things being so, what have we in the supper but
this risen body of Christ, this headship of risen manhood,
unto which the eyes of all fallen creatures should be directed,
and the hands of all creatures smking, drowning in death
should be stretched out, and to which the supplications of
all that fell with Adam should be lifted up ? This our
risen and glorified substance Ave have presented to us in
the symbol of the supper ; which, presenting us with bread
doth say, " This is my body broken for you," and present-
ing us with wine doth say, " This is the blood of the new
covenant, which was shed for j^ou ; drink ye all of it."
Christ doth as it were let down His body in this sacred
symbol from its regal dignity to the capacity of the present
weakness of man, and present it under a figure to all who
have believed upon Him, and have their hopes directed
upwards to that pole-star of the night, in order that their
faith therein may be strengthened, and that they may re-
cieve a pledge that they shall be pai'takers thereof. He
doth not present His very body, which is in the heavens,
far removed from mortal sight ; He doth not convert wine
and bread into His glorious body, for that is to go quite
beyond the mysteiy of which the end is in the day of the
resuiTection, — to transubstantiate then the fallen substance
of the believer into the true substance of Christ; but not
to transubstantiate bread and wine into that most glorious
substance. He doth not consubstantiate His body and
blood with the elements of bi'ead and wine ; which dogma
of obdurate Luther, left to teach us not to trust in man,
hath indeed no touch of the mystery at all, which transub-
254 Doctrinal.
stantiation hath, though out of all time and out of all sub-
ject. For there is a time when there shall be a transub-
stantiation, and there is a subject upon which it shall be.
The subject which shall be transubstantiated into Christ's
real body is the substance of fallen manhood in the believer;
and the time at which it shall be done is at the resurrection
of the just, before the setting up of the millennial kingdom,
in which they are to reign as kings and priests upon the
earth. But that baked bread and fermented wine were to
be transubstantiated into the real body of Christ, now or at
any time, is a beastly sensual foil}', which was never heard
of amongst Christians till that mother of abominations made
every holy thing abominable. But that anything is at any
time to be consubstantiated with the body of Christ, as
poor obstinate Luther, to punish his obstinacy, was per-
mitted to hold with fierce contention against the Eeformed
Churches, is an idea for which there is no foundation any-
where. We, indeed, who believe and receive this pledge
of the supper in true faith, shall be consubstantiated with
Christ ; but that taketh not place through the conjunction
of any other substance with His glorious substance, but
through the changing of the substance of fallen manhood
into the new state of the risen manhood, by the same
change in the day of our resurrection which passed upon
Christ in the day of His resurrection. But as to making
this transubstantiation upon bread and wine, and making
it now by the power of priestl}'- consecration, — which is
never to be made but by the power of the voice of Christ
extended upon His sleeping saints in the renewal of the
Church, — it is a monstrous figment, which should be hunted
out of the earth with the fire of the Holy Spirit, and the
sword of the preached word of Christ.
To the eye of fiiith, and to the handling of faith, and to
the receiving of faith, there is indeed that present transub-
stantiation of which they iguorantly and foolishly say that
it is made unto the sense. Faith doth, indeed, behold, and
handle, and eat, and feed upon the risen body of Christ,
although invisible to the sense, and incomprehensible to
Particular Election. 255
the understanding of the sense ; and we believe that Christ
is truly and really present in the holy sacrament unto
every believer, and is there and then partaken of in a high
and spiritual sense, with which sight and reason have no-
thing to do, but which is accomplished wholly by the Spirit
through faith. And that faith may ascend as by a ladder
unto the exaltation of Christ's body, He doth let down, from
His high and holy place, this symbol from time to time
unto His Church, to the very end that they may know and
most assuredly believe that His absence, the absence of His
body, divideth Him not from their care, neither divideth
Him from their presence.
PAETICL'LAR ELECTION.
To talk of conditional election, is the most egregious
folly, the most entire rejection of Christ ; the most wilful
insurrection against the Father. First, to ask a condition
over and above what is contained in Christ's work, is to
disannul that work and to say to the Father, " Thy grace
is not yet enough; I cannot tnist Thee yet." "What a
speech, what a thought for a creature ! But what an awful
speech, what a hideous thought for a creature who be-
lieveth in redemption, who seeth the grace of God iu
Christ, and will not trust Him ! Secondly, ^Vhat a defeat
of Christ, what a renunciation of His work, which was
nothing else but that He might obtain trust for His
Father ! Talk to me of receiving Christ, and not believ-
ing in unconditional election ! You know not what you
say. Talk to me of living in doubt of this, and yet living
by faith ! The thing is impossible. If you be living in
the honour of Christ, you must be living in the honour of
Him that sent Him ; and surely you will not be making
conditions with your Creator, if you are honouring Him.
Moreover yoix are making shipwreck of your own dignity;
I may say, destroying your own personality, and sinking
yourself in the community of the reconciled, if you thus
256 Doctrinal.
make liglit of election, — for the reconciliation is common
nnto many, bnt the election is peculiar imto one. No one
can think of election without thinking of himself; no one
can believe in election without contemplating God as trans-
acting with himself. This is the true ground of a personal
interest in Christ; and where this is not in estimation,
there may be social and ecclesiastical religion, but personal
there will be none. All dignities put together are nothing
to this dignity of being regarded and beloved by God.
"What will deliver you from priestcraft, from ecclesiastical
domination, from the fashion of the religious world, from
public opinion, is to come into communication with God,
not uj)on the common ground of redemption merely, but
upon the private, peculiar, and personal ground of election
also. This is what will remove you from being an atom in
a mass composed of many atoms, and make you to become
an individual capable of assimilating individuals to your-
self, and having in yourself an integral individual life.
This is what makes every stone of the temple a living-
stone ; this is what makes every member of Christ alive ;
this is what constitutes the vitality of the Church, and
differenceth between a papal mass, a religious- world mass,
and a living body of living members; In one word,
wherever this doctrine of election hath been duly prized
by any church, as by the Church of Scotland, and by the
Church of England until the days of Laud, it hath stirred
up the might of men as individuals, and delivered them
from the lethargic corruption of aggregate masses. And
to this it is, far more than to all causes put together, that
the children of the Scottish Church have so much indivi-
dual prowess, and individual success, in all parts of the
world ; because the personal hath been cultivated in them,
b}^ the constant recognition of this doctrine of election,
while the principle of community hath been preserved by
the doctrine of the redemption, — into which, however,
they have not generally so much insight, nor so much
liberty of declaring it, as they have into the former. In
one word, Is the invisible Godhead to have a plnce in our
The Idea of Favouritism False. 257
creed, or is it not? If, as all Scripture teacheth, the invi-
sible, incomprehensible Godhead hath the chiefest place in
our faith, being the great object of our worship, then must
election have the principal place in our creed, as repre-
senting the intercourse between the soul and the invisible
incomprehensible God. Is the unseen operation of the
llol}' Ghost, whereby the invisible God communicates His
invisible actings to the invisible soul, to have a place in
our creed ? that is to say, are we to hope for special mani-
festations and revelations of the Spirit ? Are we to know
God as our God, to be taken into His pavilion, and to be
filled with His love ? ai'e we to enjoy raptures, and seizures,
and solitary sequestered enjoyments of the Divine presence,
with which no other intermeddleth ? then must election
stand, for election doth name that particular operation of
God's Spirit which one only can partake of, by himself,
and in himself, though he may be able to communicate,
and tell somewhat of the same, for the encouragement of
his brother. These two great doctrines, — the commonness
of the redemption, the personality of the election, do stand,
and projD each other up : they can only stand together, and
where they are not maintained with equal foot, evil be-
tideth both. The former without the latter degenerates
into universal salvation; the latter without the former
degenerates into blind and absolute fate, partiality, or
favouritism. But where the two are held fast, they bo^
come the two poles upon which the goodness, and beauty,
and solidity of the Divine purpose revolve.
THE IDEA OF FAVOURITISM FALSE.
Another prejudice upon the nature of God, and which
is hardly less prevalent amongst good people, is, that He
hath certain favourites amongst the human race. That a
man is in favour with Him according to his worth and
well-doing, and out of favour with Him according to his
"wickedness, is as certain as that He governs the world
s
258 Doctrinal.
with equity, and will judge it in righteousness. At the
same time, that there are great diflerences both in the
moral and physical formation of men, and great differences
likewise in their religious attainments, there can he no
doubt ; but it is a great mistake to refer these differences
to God's partiality for one and His dislike of another.
These different gradations of place and natural gifts are
necessary for fulfilling the various offices of the world, as,
to use St. Paul's illustration, different vessels are necessary
in a great house, and different members in the body of
man ; and therefore they are to be accounted not an act
of partiality, but an act of wisdom, in order that the
affairs of the world may go on and prosper. It would be
partiality if God, after distributing His talents unequally
amongst men, required as great return from those who had
few as from those who had many ; but when He hath de-
clared, on the other hand, that of those to whom much is
given much shall be required, and that a man shall be
judged according to that he hath, and not according to that
he hath not ; it is, on the one hand, most envious, discon-
tented, and unreasonable to complain, — on the other, most
ungenerous and thoughtless to exiilt. What hast thou
that thou hast not received, and for which thou shalt
not be accountable? The highest-born and most highly-
favoured man is not entitled to exult, because God, who
made him to differ, will make him to account for that dif-
ference. Neither is the meanest-born and worst-condi-
tioned entitled to complain, lest God take away his single
talent, and confer it on the man with ten talents, against
whose undue proportion he murmured. Now, it is not
otherwise in religion, where equal differences exist. I
shall not take it upon me to explain, as being a question
far beyond the compass of a discourse, how it happens that
whole nations know not God, and of those that do, whole
hosts neglect to acknowledge Him, and that there be but a
few who cleave to His commandments ; but while I pre-
tend not to explain the diflSculty, I will take upon nie to
resist every explanation which refers it to partiality and
The Idea of Favoitriiisin False. 259
favouritism. Thus mucli I can perceive, that the progress
of religion at home and abroad, and the progress of religion
in ever}' bieast depends upon the use of human wisdom and
human energy as much as the preservation of liberty, or
the enlargment of fortune, or any other good thing under
the sun. And while all men revolt from the idea that these
natural things come by partiality in the Creator, they
ought equally to revolt from the idea that religious things
come of that partiality. 1 believe that God has given us
not only the best scheme of religion, but the fittest for
propagation that could be given ; and I attribute its im-
perfect propagation at home and abroad not to any letting
or hindering on His part, but to base neglect and shameless
prostitution of the means which He hath revealed for its
propagation. But waving these questions of how things
might be, and taking things as they are, it is vain and
delusory, nay, it is self-conceited and blasphemous, in
any one to attribute his religious condition to an act of
favouritism. It is an act of grace, but it is not an act
of favouritism. An act of favouritism lies in exalting us at
the expense of another, or over the head of another who
hath laboured as well for the prize. An act of grace
lies in having exalted us at all. An act of favouriti.sm
would cease if all were equallj- exalted. An act of grace
would only be made the greater. An act of favouritism
reflects upon others. An act of grace does not. An act
of favouritism springs from weakness, and engenders
vanity ; an act of grace springs from goodness, and en-
genders gratitude. While, therefore, eveiy one gives God
the gloiy of all his religious exaltation, he should be care-
\ fill lest he sully the Divine character with weakness, or
gather upon himself the airs and conceits of a favourite,
1; and affect towards others the tone and manner of a superior.
For every other to whom Christ hath been preached, by
the use of the same means might have obtained from
God the same grace, and therefore they are to be argued
and remonstrated with, not superciliously treated. And by
having reached that superior station, a man is not, as it
s 2
26o Doctrinal.
were, set free to range in larger liberty, or licentiousness
of feeling, but to enjoy more strength and opportunity,
that he may devote it to the more holy avocations. Paul,
upon whose words this measure of God's grace is com-
monly rested, was never found calculating upon his high
place in the Divine favour ; and when, in self-defence, he
was called upon to open up the grace that had been shewn
to him, though it was in self-defence, and to establish his
Divine commission, he three times calls himself a fool for
his pains, and craves indulgence for doing what he con-
sidered to be the part of folly ; not that I object to the use
of such expressions as Scripture sanctions, — chosen of God,
elect of God, people of God, holy nation, and royal priest-
hood,— but that I will not allow them to strangle the life
of other parts of Scrij)ture, or mar the proportions of the
Divine character. It is thus, that the imperfection of lan-
guage hampers the spirit of God, and that men pitch in
each other's teeth passages of Scripture which it is their
part to reconcile, not to set at variance. There are not
two names of God which one might not find inconsistent
with each other in a thousand things, as Sovereign and
Father, Judge and Saviour, and so of any act or faculty
ascribed to Him. But give your study, as we advised, to
the living model of Godhead, Jesus Christ. Did He turn
aside from the wicked, or instruct His disciples to do so ?
Did He separate and divide Judea into two parts, the
chosen and the reprobate, loving the one, abjuring the
other ; keeping company with the one, abstaining from the
other ? He did not so ; but there were those who did so —
— viz., the Pharisees, against whose policy and princiiDles
He directed a thousand weapons, and guarded all his fol-
lowers ; but, for Himself, He kept with publicans and
sinners. He spoke gently to the down-trodden, He took the
part of the proscribed, He washed the feet of the meanest,
and put forth His grace and power for the salvation of all.
Kow, He is my pattern of the Godhead ; and until they
will reconcile these notions of favouritism in God with
His conduct, I hold them vain and idle as the empty chaff;
The Idea of Favour it isiii False. 261
and until they reconcile their parting the populatioa
asunder, and allocating the saints from the sinners, theii*
cleaving to the one, and their forsaking the Ishmaelite
tents of the other, — reconcile this with the practice of
Christ, I hold it ungodly and unchristian.
This notion of being God's favourites, against which wo
argue, when it obtains a seat in the mind, works the most
baleful effects on every side. Towards God it places us in
a most unbecoming familiarit3^ We fancy Him to be all
on our side — that He has fairly taken us up and will carry
us through ; we identify our crudest conceptions with in-
fallible inspirations of His Holy Spirit ; we join ourselves
to those who are, in like manner, initiated into the Divine
mysteries. A school is formed, a sisterhood, or brotherhood
of ^devotees, not a church, of the living God. Everything
held therein is right, — everything else is wrong, — we are
the people, the people of God. And for the rest, they
must be held as heathen men and publicans until they can
adopt our discipline in whole and in detail. They are looked
upon as people in whom God is not interested, nay, as a
people for whom the Saviour has not died, whose prayers
are an abomination to the Lord, This idea is the very
seed-bed of persecution, which springs seldom from blood-
thirstiness, sometimes from a love of power, but far more
frequently from the idea that we are doing God's service.
Our cause is thought to be God's catzse, and the end being
always presumed holy, the means are less rigorously in-
spected. Now, though the age has abhorred and abolished
persecution for conscience' sake, — that is, violent forcible
measures, — it consists with my observation that there exists
a spirit of exclusion and suspicion towards all who do not
think exactly alike with the leaders of the religious world ;
which spirit is, to all intents and purposes, the same as
persecution, — is, in truth, persecution carried as far as the
age will allow it. The root of the evil is in supposing that
we hold our opinions by a direct patent from God, and can
by no means be wrong in any particular. Our scheme of
doctrine and of duty, our scheme of religious sentiment and
262 Doctrinal.
practice, is the approved infallible one, wliicli we never
dream of being wrong any more than we dream of any
other being right. Now, what difference is there m bemg
so held to the infallibility of a fraternity, or to the infalli-
bility of one man ? None that I can discern.
This baneful prejudice of favouritism generally goes along
with that of sovereignty. One who proceeds by blind will,
puts forth the gentle parts of his nature which still sur-
vive, in acts of favouritism. For favouritism is an act of
will,' no less than cruelty. The one is reward put forth
without desert; the other is punishment put forth without
a cause. Now, truly, if God cannot consistently with His
nature look out for objects worthy of His favour, and other
objects deserving of His disfavour. He is not a fit Governor
for the nature of man, which abhors more than death to be
maltreated without occasion, and which is corrupted into
every base and vicious form by having favours heaped upon
it without regard to its deserving. If you would degrade
a man to the very uttermost, make him the slave of a tyrant,
or a tyrant's favourite. In the one case he sinks into the
lowest ebb of humanity,— cunning, treacherous, vile and
menial ; in the other case, he adds to these, mock-majesty,
late-sprung greatness, mockery of the dust from which he
hath been exalted, weakness, silliness, often the panderism
of every vice, and the ministry of every vanity. Oh, if
God is to be translated into such a Euler, I crave exemption
for myself, and must be fain to put up without His govern-
ment. But perish the thought ! be spurned for ever the
horrid thought ! It never lived but in souls base-bom and
base-bred, who would have licked the dust for the favour
of princes, and been content to be trodden on by a royal
foot. Eeligion is an awful thing ; and I believe it to be a
most ennobling thing, for want of which the finest natural
faculties suffer shipwreck ; but awful though it be, it is in-
telligible, and the way in which it ennobles can surely be
laid down. j
( 263 )
LOVE AND SORROW.
The beginning of love and the beginning of sorrow are in
believing without doubt that God hath granted unto us,
in Jesus Christ, " that we should be saved from our
enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us ; that we,
being delivered out of the hand of our enemies, might
serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness
before Ilim, all the days of our life." No one who standeth
in doubt of his being delivered from sin and misery, from
guilt and condemnation, from the flesh, the devil, and the
world, and lifted up into the condition of an adopted and
accepted son, to be in God's bosom in what nearness Jesus
lieth, and to be loved with what love He is beloved — no
one who doubteth or disbelieveth his full and free admis-
sion into the bosom of God by the side of Jesus, can love as
Jesiis loveth, or sorrow as He sorroweth. Jesus is the
fountain-head of sorrow — or, rather, God is the fountain-
head, and Jesus the containing ocean, out of whose fulness
it ever overfloweth in streams to moisten and mellow the
heart of man ; for as water is to the parched earth, so is
sorrow to the hard heart of man. It may seem strange to
say it, but it is most true, that the tears which flow from
the eyelids of a man are as needful to the fruitfulness of his
heart as the dews which descend from the eyelids of the
morning are to the thirsty ground. Now from Jesus
sorrow floweth out ; and faith uniteth us to Jesus ; and
being one with Him, the tide floweth without interruption.
The heart of Jesus is ever full of sorrow over His heartless
spouse, his thankless world, and above all His Father's
outcast and dishonoured name : it lougeth to discharge
itself into kindred bosoms : He wanteth those who will
weep with Him ; through whom He may weep aloud in the
hearing of the hard-hearted world. God's sorrow over the
world ceased not with the agony of Gethsemane or the
heart which brake on Calvary ; there is still a cause, there
is still the same cause, for which He should be filled with
sc rrow ; yea, there is a far more worthy cause, in that the
264 Doctrinal.
boundless measure of His love to men is no longer hidden,
but revealed in the glorious gift of the risen Jesus unto
them : and, instead of being overpowered with the full dis-
closure of God's unmeasured love, behold, the Church hath
lost all sense, all memory, all knowledge of it, and goeth
about to deny and doubt, and to hide under a bushel the
excellent glory which was committed unto her keeping.
Can God be but grieved at His heart to see His most
honourable Son treated as an alien within the bounds of
that creation which He made, redeemed, and longeth to
glorif}^ all by reason of our unfaithfulness, ingratitude, folly,
and pride ? The work of Christ in flesh is persecuted
from the face of the earth as detestable iniquity ; His work
in the Spirit contemned and derided as the most wild and
wretched fanaticism ; and all the dear-bought inheritance
of all spiritual blessings in tbe heavenly places cast away
with execration as the most daring profanation, the most
extravagant folly ! Ah me ! wanteth there a theme for
sorrow ? And where are the mourners ? where is the
living harp on which the wounded spirit of Jesus might
ring out, in the hearing of heaven and earth and reckless
men, the full measure of His lamentations ! 1 cannot tell
how I wonder at the hardness of our hearts who believe in
these things. Surely we are a remorseless and impenitent
people.
If love, then, be the door of entrance into sorrow — for
how can a man grieve if he have no tenderness of heart to
be wounded, no losses nor crosses nor widowed affections
over which to weep ? — how, oh how shall we be lifted up
into love, that we may be able to go down into sorrow,
and make common cause with our God over the present
most grievous state of His Church and His creatures ! In
no other way can the region of love be entered, but by
escaping out of the region of fear, where dwelleth nothing
but sadness, trembling, and the shadow of death. And
how shall we escape out of this, the region of the horrible
pit, in which the conscience of man doth bind him down
under the guilt of sin, and the present oppressive sense of
Love and Soin'ow. 265
shortcoming and transgression of God's holy laws ? Oh,
how otherwise, my brethren, but by receiving from the
hand of Jesus the gift of a conscience cleansed by
His blood, — of a law satisfied and made honourable by His
righteous life ! Thou weariest thyself in vain, and dost but
sink deeper and deeper in the mire, while thou seekest to
clear thine own account with God, which Jesus hath
cleared for all flesh, by that perfect righteousness which
He wrought under the law, before His public acknowledg-
ment in baptism as the Son of God, and entrance upon His
free calling as a Son of God, to body forth the love of the
Father, and all the Father's sorrow over His thankless
children. If Jesus, though the eternal Son of God, and
generated into flesh the holy child of God, must yet travel
through thirty years of hard servitude under an earthly
master, which is Moses, and acquit Himself to the full of
all the obligations and arrears which God had upon flesh,
before He could be avouched the Son of God, and receive
the Spirit of adoption, and enter upon the heartbreaking
sorrows of a Son, — how, I pray, shouldest thou expect,
0 man, to be brought into the same emancipation from
bonds, the same commonness of heart with God, the same
ovei-flowings of sorrowful love, until thou shalt have acted
faith upon the work of Christ, for satisfaction of all God's
claims upon thee, and clearing away of all thy guilt in His
sight ? Thinkest thou to step up into the dignity of a son,
without laying ofi" the bonds of the slave, the chains of the
guilty culprit? And how shalt thou do this, othei-odse
than by faith in the work of Jesus under the law, in that
name Jesus, which saveth His people from their sins?
Therefore put away thy fears, 0 heart-bound sinner, for
Jesus hath done justice to thine offended God : thy Creator
is satisfied with all flesh, — in respect of law-keeping its
servitude is finished ; it is come of age, and needeth not to
be under tutors any more. Your Father sendeth you your
title of sonship ; why take you it not up ? He adopteth
you into His famil}' from the place of a servant ; why
go you not in ? He openeth to you His bosom ; why go you
266 Doctrinal.
not forward to embrace Him? He stretchetli you out the
golden sceptre, as to His queen ; why goest thou not forth
to touch it, and seat thyself by His side in glorious
majesty? What meaneth this burden-bearing bondage,
these stripes of fear, this sadness, this despair ? Be done
with this grief on thine own account : thy account is
settled, and thy burden is cast upon the Lord ; come in,
the Lord hath need of thy griefs ; but thou must first be
assured that thou art His son, and as a son thou must lie in
thy Father's bosom, and hear the whisperings of His love,
the sighings of His sorrow, the heavings of His troubled
heart, then go forth impregnated with the like generous
disposition of loving and saving sinners, and begin to
endure all things in order to bring thy God's love near
to the ears of savage men. Thou must believe that Jesus
hath made thy griefs His, and borne them all ; and now in
thy turn thou must make His griefs thine, and bear them
forth and sing them to the desert winds, if the hearts of
men be too hard to hearken unto thee. To suffer is our
calling, to have the full fellowship of Christ's sufferings,
and to be conformed unto His death ; but no one can
touch with his little finger this mighty load, unless he do
first believe himself to be a son, and get quit of his own
guilty fears. Every particle of suffering which ariseth
from the sting of past guilt, or from the rankling pain of
abiding roots of sin, or from the shame of exposure, or
from the actual exposui-e of our crimes, is not suffering for
righteousness' sake, is no fellowship of Christ's sufferings,
but the punishment of unbelief and actual wickedness.
Therefore believe thou, 0 sinner, that thy guilt is atoned
for, and break off thy sins by repentance, and lead a holy
life by the washing of regeneration, and the renewing of
the Holy Ghost ; and then shalt thou begin to suffer with
Christ, and to bear the burden of the sorrows of God.
( 267 )
GRACE.
"We, wLlo hold tlie doctrine of an election and a reproba-
tion amongst the children of men, hold of necessity the
universality of the presentation ' of the free grace of God;
because it is by the acceptance of that grace the elect are
made manifest, and by the rejection of it that the repro-
bate are made manifest; which revelation of both classes
could not come to pass without the presentation of it to all
mankind. This mystery of election and reprobation is
entirely dependent upon the universality of the free gift
and ofier of grace, and preaching of the gospel unto all ;
and Cometh out of it, dawning and clearing itself upon
those who will be at the pains to read the Holy Scriptures,
or who will have the patience to reflect upon what they
already believe. You believe, do you, that the manifesta-
tion of the grace is freely made unto all ? " Yes." And
what cometh of those who reject it ? " They are repro-
bates." And what cometh of those who receive it ? " They
are elect." Well now, did God contemplate this issue of it,
or another ; did He reveal this issue of it, or another ?
Surely He must both contemplate and reveal the truth.
Therefore His word speaketh of an election and a repro-
bation as about to be manifested by the free preaching of
His grace unto all men in Jesus Christ. And a very gra-
cious, holy, and most necessary part of the revelation it is,
teaching that salvation is not made easy by the gospel —
w^hich is the root of all errors ; I may say, the practical
error of all, save the election — but that men are by the
gospel placed imder more awful sanctions, equipoised, as
it were, between the top of heaven and the depth of hell ;
the field on which the powers of heaven and hell are to
contend for the victory ; the substance out of which a
monument is to be built to the inexhaustible grace or
inexhaustible severity of God. And those who, hiding
the principles and the issues of election and reprobation,
and at the same time preaching the gospel freely unto
all, do their utmost to keep the world in the delusion that
268 DoctjHnal.
salvation is made easy aud attainable at any time, do bring
the Cburcb into a state of ease and inactivity, of sleep and
death, such as vp'e now behold it to be in. And it is to
preach only one-half of the glory of God impersonated
in Christ; whereof the world hath had but the part of
grace revealed at the former advent, and waiteth for the
other part, of judgment and severity, against the advent yet
to come. His birth in Bethlehem ushered in the day of
grace ; His coming in the clouds shall usher in the day
of judgment ; and these two make up the manifestion of
God in Christ Jesus, the fulness of the Godhead in the
body of the Son of man. If they will sum up the whole,
and preach the result unto the Church, let them station
themselves under the whole, let them understand the whole ;
and from the consummation look back and tell what hath
passed ; and see if they can include it all under these
words, " Grace unto all." They must add, " The grace of
election unto some, the severity of reprobation unto
many ; " " God in Christ a God of mercy, and a God of
justice ; " "a Father, and a consuming fire ; " " the Saviour
of the Church, and the destroj^er of the world;" "the
builder iip of heaven, and the builder up of hell " — all to
His glory ; all to the glory of His holiness and truth ; and
equally of the essence and substance of His being. Now,
as I take it, beloved brethren, that the evening shadows of
the day of grace are darkening around us ; and the temple
gate, though loth, is ready to be shut, after which no one
shall be able to enter ; and the night is thickening ; and
the sword of the angel of judgment is in his hand ; and the
snare of the tempter is spreading ; and the pit of the de-
stroyer is widening its mouth ; and the time of the end is
at hand ; we hold out, as it were, a last momentary invita-
tion, and blow a final blast, mingled of entreating pity and
warning, around the world, saying, " Kow or never; the
day is far spent, and the night is at hand : haste ! haste for
your lives ! enter, enter into the ark ! for the heavens are
thick, and the hail is coming down upon the forest, and
the city is low in a low place."
Grace. 269
And, still a little higher to ascend into the nature of
grace, I wonld obsei've, that it is not, as it were, the
second term of a decreasing, but of au increasing series ;
not of a descending, but of an ascending ratio : it is not the
repairing of a breach, or the reforming of a mistake, or the
remedj'ing of a disease ; but it is the further opening of
the mystery of the Divine Being, and the exalting of the
Divine handiwork into a higher region : not to place man
where Adam was, but far above what Adam bad the idea
of; to exalt the natui'e of man into consubstantial and
eternal union with the nature of God, and in humanity to
make God for ever manifest, and to lift the sons of men
into the nearest link of the chain which hangeth from the
throne of God. There is a gi'eat overestimate and exagge-
ration of the work of creation, by transferring to it the
spiritual ideas which we have obtained from the regenera-
tion, and decking out the primitive estate of the first Adam
with honours derived from the essential properties of the
second Adam : but to me it is clear and manifest, that
the second Adam, which is the child of the regenerating
Spirit, is as much superior to the first Adam, which is the
child of the creating Spii'it, as a quickening Spirit is to a
living soul, as the spiritual body of the resurrection is to
the natural body which we have at present ; as the prime
place and prerogative of heaven is to the possession of a
garden, and the sovereignty of the angels of heaven is to
the sovereignty of the creatures of the earth. And by how
much I believe the issues of the regeneration to be un-
speakably more noble than the issues of creation were, by
so much do I believe this second act of the will of the
Godhead, which is revealed in grace, to be more excellent
than the former act of creation was. It is a great step
forward in the great work of self-manifestation ; it is a
high advancement in the progress of the stability and
blessedness of all things.
The Father's grace is manifested in His being willing
to become a Father to those who had already subverted
themselves from His favour, and brought themselves under
2 70 Doctrinal.
His wratli and curse : it was further manifested by His
willingness to suffer His Son to go forth of His bosom, and
take sinful flesh, and come under cursed conditions ; which
was a thing never to have been imagined, nor ever to
have been believed, had it not been performed ; and never
to have been performed, had not the grace of God been
able to surpass all limits, both of imagination and belief.
For in every act of that humiliation of His Son, as in the
first idea of it, the Father must be hidden in the righteous
Judge ; and this, too, that He may be known as a Father.
In order, I say, to be known as a Father to the rebellious,
He must hide His fatherhood from the only-begotten and
well-beloved Son: which, 1 say again, were a thing in-
credibly paradoxical if it had not really been. And it
never would have been, save to make known the infinite
excellencies and profound mysteries of Divine grace ; how
justice, and holiness, and most precious sacrifice and the
suspension of tenderest love, how anguish, and tears, and
groans, and the strongest torments, and the deepest abase-
ment, must all be swallowed up in the amplitude of the
signification and power of grace. I may call creation a
pastime, if I call grace a work ; or if you will call creation
a work, then I must call grace His strange work. His peer-
less and surpassing work. The one is but as the formless
chaos, upon whose heaving disorder and restless strife the
glorious attributes of grace are to be engraven for ever, in
the order and beauty and blessedness of an eternal and
unchangeable world.
INTERPRETATION OF TONGUES,
The interpretation of tongues did not consist in their
knowledge of the strange words, or the structure of the
foreign languages. It was nothing akin to translation ; the
Spirit did not become a schoolmaster at all ; but brought to
the man's soul with the certainty of truth, that this which
He was giving him to utter was the interpretation of the
thing which the other had just spoken. This conviction
Ititerpretation of Tongues. 271
might be brought to the spirit of the speaker himself, and
then he was his own interpreter ; but it was more frequent
to bestow that gift Tipon another. This provision of an
order who should interpret, as well as an order who should
speak with tongues, shews that the gift of tongues had a
higher origin than from the variety of languages amongst
men. If it had been merely for preaching the truth to
people of other languages, an order of interpreters would
never have been required at all. If it had only been given
for conveying the truth to foreign nations, then why have
so many in each church, like the church of Corinth ? If it
be said, this was to stir them to go forth to those whose
tongues they had received ; while I allow that this is so far
forth good and true, it is by no means the whole truth ; for
why, then, have an order of intepreters there also ? This
shews that the gift was good for that Church in itself; that
it was resident in the churches for home use, as well as for
service abroad ; and that God saw such use in it, as to pro-
vide another ministry for the purpose of making it avail-
able to the uses for which it was given. If the circumstance
of the language being foreign would have prompted them
to go forth to the heathen, the interpretation being at hand
would prompt them to remain with the Church ; and both
being standing orders in the Church, we conclude that this
gift of speaking with another tongue, and the other gift of
interpreting what was spoken, are, being taken together, a
constant accomplishment of the Church, necessary to her
completeness wherever she is, and to be continued with
her even though the whole world had been converted to
the faith and the office of the missionary were done away
with for ever. Let us consider this twofold ordinance as
one, and see what it yieldeth. If there should be in our
church an order of men, of whom the Spirit so manifestly
took possession as to make them utter the mysteries of god-
liness in an imknown tongue, and another order of men to
whom the Spirit divided the power of interpreting the
same, the first impression that would be made by it is, that
verily God was in us of a truth, as truly as He was in the
272 Doctrinal.
Shechinah of the holy place ; and the next, that He was
speaking forth oracles for our obedience. The unknown
tongue, as it began its strange sounds, would be equal to a
voice from the glory, " Thus saith the Lord of hosts," or
" This is my Sou, hear ye him ;" and every ear would say,
" Oh that I knew the voice ;" and when the man with the
gift of interpretation gave it out in the vernacular tongue,
we would be filled with an awe, that it was no other than
God who had spoken it. Methinks it is altogether equal to
the speaking with the trumpet from the thick darkness of
the Mount, or with a voice as thunder from the open vault
of heaven. The using of man's organs is, indeed, a mark
of a new dispensation, foretold as to come to pass after
Christ ascended up on high, when He would receive gifts
and bestow them upon men, that the Lord God might dwell,
might have an habitation, in them. Formerly the sounds
were syllabled we know not how, because God had not yet
prepared for Himself a tent of flesh; which He accom-
plished to do first in Jesus of Nazareth, and is now perfect-
ing in His Church, who are His temple, in whom He
abideth as in the holy place, and from whom He speaketh
forth His oracles in strange tongues. The strange tongue
takes away all source of ambiguity, proving that the man
himself hath nothing to do with it, and leaves the Avork and
the authority of the word wholly in the hand of God. And
therefore tongues are called a sign to the unbeliever,
1 Cor. xiv. 22 : " Wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to
them that believe, but to them that believe not." Just as
the voice given at Bethabara over the baptized Christ was
spoken as a ground of faith to the unbelieving Jew, and
the voice given before His passion was a confirmation to
the faith of the inquiring Greek, and of all ^vho heard it :
so these voices, spoken forth from the breasts of men, by a
power not human, but divine, are intended to convince the
unbelievers that God really dwell eth in the Church ; hath
chosen the Church for His habitation ; and that, if they
would find Him, they must seek Him tbei"e, for nowhere
else is He to be found. The prophet Isaiah, to whom it
Interpretation of Toiigties.
~/6
was given to forewarn men of this particular gift of
tongues, doth so speak of it as a fresh evidence which God
would give to men for a ground of believing, and which,
alas ! they would also reject. I take the quotation as the
apostle hath sanctioned it, the Holy Spirit's version of His
own words : " With men of other tongues, and other lips,
will I speak unto this people : and yet for all that will they
not hear me, saith the Lord," (1 Cor. xiv. 21.) I cannot
but look upon this gift of tongues as sealing up the sum of
God's dealings with men for their obedience of faith. It
is the very power of God, which to blaspheme is to blas-
pheme the Holy Ghost. And witness what power it had
on the day of Pentecost, when three thousand were added
to the Church. This is the " greater thing " which was to
be done by him that believeth. No one could say that
Jesus was the Christ, that God was in Him, but by the
Spirit leading him into the truth of what He spoke, or con-
vincing him of the Divine nature of the works which He
did. God did not manifest Himself in Christ in this ^^n-
equi vocal way; for Christ's life was not a witness to Him-
self, but to the Father. Christ came to do the Father's will
in our condition, that we in the like case might be assured
of power and ability through Him to do the same. He was
the prototype of a perfect and holy man under the condi-
tions of the Fall, that we, under those conditions, might
know there was power and will in God that we should all
be perfect and holy. This being accomplished, and Christ
ascended up on high, God sets on foot another work, which
is to testify that honour to which man had become advanced
in the person of the Son of man, and in all other persons
who by faith should be united to Him. As God had
shewn how far man had fallen in Adam, by the state of the
world under sin and suftering and death ; so, by the Church
would He shew how far man had risen in Christ, that all
men believing in Him might be brought to that exceeding
exaltation. Therefore in the Church He sheM's not man's
identity with the fallen Adam, biit man's identity with the
lisen Adam. In the incarnation, Christ's identity with
T
2 74 Doctrinal.
the fallen man was shewn, yet without sin : in the Church,
Christ's identity with God is shewn, the power and glory
of God in Him are exhibited, that all men might believe
in His name. This gift of tongues is the crowning act of
all. None of the old prophets had it ; Christ had it not ; it
belongs to the dispensation of the Holy Ghost proceeding
from the risen Christ : it is the proclamation that man is
enthroned in heaven, that man is the dwelling-place of
God, that all creation, if they would know God, must give
ear to man's tongue, and know the compass of reason. It
is not we that speak, but Christ that speaketh. It is not in
us as men that God speaks ; but in us as members of Christ,
as the Church and body of Christ, that God speaks. The
honour is not to us, but to Christ ; not to the Godhead of
Christ, which is ever the same, but to the manhood
of Christ, which hath been raised from the state of death
to the state of being God's temple, God's most holy place,
God's Shechinah, God's oracle, for ever aud ever.
OF PROPHECY.
What is this gift of Prophecy, of which the apostle
maketh such high account? It is evidently very different
from what is commonly understood by prophesying, as the
mere foretelling of future events, because it is "unto men
for edification and exhortation and comfort." But if that
vulgar idea of prognostication be meant to repiesent the
true character of a prophet of the Old Testament, nothing
is so insufficient. Is the office of Moses <jr Elias, of Isaiah
or Jeremiah, described by saying that they foi'etold future
events? I trow not. Their office standeth in tliis, that
they were God's mouth to men, fitted aud furnished for
uttering His own mind in adequate expressions, and for
standing in the breach between the Church and the world,
between the world and its destruction. Ah me : what a
mischief hath been dune by these Avild schi.-matics, who,
in their sectaiian zeal to repress the free inquiries of the
Of Prophecy.
/D
Church into the prophets, have dared to propagate it among
their weak adherents, that these books of the prophets are
only for the curious speculators into the future! Might
unto you, 0 ye misleaders of the people ! If ye return
not at the watchman's voice, the night and thick darkness
abide you : any little twilight you now grope in, will soon
pass into the deepest, darkest midnight. 0 my misguided
brethren ! I tell you, the prophets are the utterers of the
word of God for the weal of man. None of their writings
is of any private interpretation, to single men, or genera-
tions of men, or particular ages ; but to the Church catholic
and universal ; for they spake not after the will of men,
but as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. They are
very profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and
for instruction in righteousness. They are most profit-
able for holiness, both personal, ecclesiastical, and natio-
nal. They reveal God in all His fulness and variety of
being. They speak in human ears the strains of heaven. Oh !
how very sublime, how very pathetic, how very moral, how
veiy divine they are ! It is the richest tissue of discourse
that was ever woven. The poet, the orator, the merchant,
the statesman, the divine, every form of spiritual work-
man, will find the instruments, and the measures, and the
rules, and the chief perfonnances of his art, therein. How
many-sided are the prophets ! How they stretch athwart
the middle space between heaven and earth, lying all
abroad in the most varied beauty ! I am grieved, sore
pained at my heart, that the affections of men should
have departed away from such a feast of fat things. I
cannot understand it. It did not use to be so. In my
boyish days, when the firesides of the Scottish peasantry
were my favourite haunts, and converse with the gra}'-
headed elders of the Church my delight, their praj'ers were
almost exclusively drawn from the psalms and the pro-
phets. Have I not heard them use those blessed passages
with a savour and unction which indicated both intel-
ligence and full feeling ! Is the mind of man departed
into the sear and yellow leaf? Is there to be no second
T 2
276 DoctrinaL
spring? Are we ever to feed on the garbage of the maga-
zines and the religious newspapers ? God forbid ! That
rich and copious vein of rendering God's messages in forms
of thought and language worthy of Him, and powerful over
the hearts and souls of men, which prophecy is in the
hands of the Old Testament prophets, the apostle wisheth
all the Church to study to possess; and being attained,
he counts it of an unspeakable price in the ecclesiastical
economy; insomuch, he saith, that if they were all thus
to speak as from the heart of God to the heart of man,
and there come into the assembly one that believeth not,
or one unlearned, he says he cannot fail to be convinced
and judged of them all. What a heart-searching, truth-
telling thing must this prophecy, then, have been? Such
a thing must prophesying have been — clear, true, warm,
and tender ; fresh from the heart ; redolent with the affec-
tions of God to sinful men ; piercing and penetrating, yet
not appalling, but cleansing and comforting, to the con-
science. And this is what our preaching is intended to
stand for ? Wretched sxibstitute ! It seems to me that
this gift of prophesying, which the Church are by the
apostle called upon to covet above all other gifts of
the Spirit, is the same gift which was ministered by the
Old Testament prophets, — the faculty of shewing to all
men their true estate in the sight of God, and their near-
ness to His judgments, and the way of escape ; the faculty
of doing for persons what they did for kingdoms and cities ;
foretelling being a part, but only a part of it ; yet that to
give warning of which the spirit of the prophet is stirred
up to put forth all the powers and energies of the per-
suasive Spirit of God, that the evil may be avoided and
the good attained. Such prophecies had gone before upon
Timothy, and by them he is exhorted by the apostle to war
a good warfare ; and the gift is said to be given unto
him by prophecy, as well as by the laying on of the
hands of the presbytery, (1 Tim. i. 18, iv. 14.) Joining
this with the declaration quoted above, that prophecy was
fitted to convince and judge any stranger who by accident
Of Prophecy. 277
might come in, and to lay open the secrets of his heart, so
that he should be forced to fall down and worship, as per-
ceiving that God's eye was in them, and that things were
laiowu to them which no one but God and his own con-
science could know, what can I say of this gift of the
Spirit less than that it was God telling, by His chosen
servant, His own knowledge of the secrets of a man's
heart, that he might confess his sin and find forgive-
ness of it ? One trembles to think that such a power
should be given to men of looking into men : but if this
power be with God, and He have given it to Christ, who
possesseth those seven eyes which are the seven spirits
of God sent forth into all the earth ; and if the Church be
Christ's functionary, through which to express a mani-
festation of every attribute which He possesseth ; then is
it to be expected that there should also be found in the
Church an order of men to use Christ's eyes with Christ's
heart, and speak forth to the discovered and detected
sinner such strains as these : " 0 Jerusalem, Jerusalem,
thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are
sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy
children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens
under wings, and ye would not!" (Matt, xxiii. 37);
"Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a foun-
tain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the
slain of the daughter of my people ! " ( Jer. ix. 1 ) ; " As
I live, saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death
of the wicked, but rather that he should turn and live :
Turn ye, turn ye ; why will ye die, 0 house of Israel ! "
This, I think, is the true idea of the gift of prophecy, —
that it was Christ speaking forth His love and His earaest-
ness and His knowledge, to deliver each man from the
roots of bitterness that are Avithin him, and to warn him
of the certain consequences which will ensue upon the
evil course he is now following. The word of wisdom
hath reference to truth, and the "word of knowledge to
faith, but prophecy hath reference to persons. It is for
building up and comforting the Church, for converting
278 Doctrinal.
sinners from the error of their ways, and warning the
v/orki of the evil to come. And that such a power is
in the Spirit is as sure as that it is in Christ ; and that
He hath promised it to His Church is not only proved from
its place in this enumeration, but it is also clear from the
express promise that the Spirit will shew us things to
come ; from the example of the prophecies which went
before on Timothy, and of the prophet who bound himself
with Paul's girdle, and prophesied that the like would
they do at Jerusalem to him who owned it. Our Lord
shewed many examples of the like personal prophesyings,
over Peter, and Judas, and the two sons of Zebedee ; and I
have no doubt the pi'imitive Church was all-rife with this
gift of foreshewing to persons the future destinies which
hung over them, and grounding thereon the same variety
of all-inclu.sive discourse which the old prophets used
towards cities and nations.
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ORDINATION CHARGE TO THE MINISTER OF THE SCOTS
CHURCH, LONDON WALL, MARCH 15, 1827.
REVEREND SIE, and very dear Brother in the Ministry
of the Gospel of Christ, — Of all the offices which are
sustained in this world, you have now, by the solemn ordi-
nance of the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery, been
set apart to the most burdensome and responsible : of all
the churches called Christian, you have this day chosen to
take upon you the vows of the most severe and uncompro-
mising : and, I may add, that you have accepted a call,
and are now ordained to labour, in the most difficult portion
of the vineyard of the Lord. Therefore gird up your loins
like a man ; and hear me while I set forth at length what
the Church of Scotland expecteth at your hands in this city,
wherein she hath invested you with the sacred character of
a minister. And that I may keep order in my charge, I shall
present it to j'ou under these five heads : — first, the student
or scholar; secondly, the preacher or minister; thirdly, the
pastor ; fourthly, the churchman ; and fifthly, the man.
First, then, vaj brother, be instructed of one who rather
needeth to be instructed himself than to administer instruc-
tion to any, that the Church expecteth thee to grow in all
knowledge and in all wisdom, as thou growest in years;
282 Practical.
not to forget anght whicli thou hast learned in thy youth,
but to increase the store thereof, in all kinds which may
be profitable to thy ministry, but especially in the Holy
Scriptures, and the qualifications for the sacred ofiice, in
which thy proficiency before the Presbytery hath appeared.
Tor we have no examining chaplains, as hath our sister
Church, for taking trials of those who desire licence to
preach, or ordination to a charge ; and the order of doctor,
which our Church constituted for the searching of deep
learning and the handling of difficult questions, has become
a mere nominal title ; and there are no fellowship endow- '
ments in our Universities to preserve a separate order of
learned men : so that each one of us ministers and pastors
hath to support the burden of the learning and scholarship
of our Church, This you must set yourself to do as a
part of your bonnden duty, perfecting yourself in the know-
ledge of the original tongues, and applying yourself to the
critical study of the Scriptures ; in order that you may be
equal to any disputation which you may be called to main-
tain with the Jew, the Papist, the infidel, the heretic, and
the schismatic ; who are best foiled from the Scriptures
themselves. I know that you have apprehended that
peculiar structure of the Scriptures, which I call the 'pro-
phetic mctJiod of Divine truth, always to foretell and to fulfil
and to further its own growth unto the end ; whereby the
Bible, though consisting of many pieces at different times
composed, doth manifest itself to every wise scholar to be
the one word of that omniscient God to whom time past,
present, and to come are alike. Besides the careful study
of the structure of the Book itself, in order to be con-
vinced of its oneness and Divine original, I charge you to
become acquainted with the history of the Church, both
of the election and the apostasy, which in Holy Writ is
brought down to the apostles' times, and elsewhere scat-
tered up and down till our times. In doing this, you will
perfect j^ourself in the history of the nations ; which are
but the apostasy of the patriarchal religion, as the ten
tribes were of the Jewish, and the Papacy is of the
Ordiiiation Charge. 283
Christian. ^Vhence it comelh to pass, that the mysteries,
and Sibylline books, and popular fables of Polytheis;m are
but patriarchal revelations disguised : whence also the
Lord continued a certain light of prophec}' amongst the na-
tions, and commissioned His prophets, and sent His apostles
to them. Besides this large generosity of God to the whole
world, there is a j^ortion of it which hath kept the seed
that was more plentifully scattered therein, to the history
of which you will most diligently attend, as it hath been
successively possessed and overruled by the four monarchies
of Daniel, under the last of which the world still holdeth
together, though ready to be dissolved. My brother, take
this book of the world's history, not Grotius, or Paley, or
Lardner, for the book of evidences to be perused by your
mind, and as there is occasion, to be opened to your people.
And next to this history of the fact and growth of revela-
tion, I pray thee dear brother, to give all diligence to the
study and learning of truth, spiritual or metaphysical, in
order, that by looking narrowly into the many-sided spirit
of man, and its erroneous tendencies to heresy, schism,
will-worship, and idolatry, thou may est learn a due caution
of thyself, and a right value for the orthodox creed of the
Church, which thou must defend against all gainsayers.
Oh, study the history of the orthodox faith, and talk not
like an ignorant sectary against creeds, but study thou the
errors into which Satan hath deluded the believer, that
thou mayest be aware of, and guarded against, his wiles.
And, moreover, make thyself acquainted with the history
of the Christian apostasy, I mean the Papacy ; for thou
shalt find therein every truth and ordinance of the Primi-
tive Church, though immured as it were in a Babel of
superstition. Brother, know that abomination, and be not
silent against it; for it is the abominable thing which
God hateth, and which thou must hate if thou at all lovest
the Church of Christ. These studies which I have noticed
are within our province, and must at no rate be neglected
If thou art able to pass beyond, I warn thee against criticism,
which is the region of pride and malice, — and invite thee to
284 Practical.
physiology, which, is the science of life in all its forms and
conditions, and of philology, which is the science of words,
the forms of human thought. I charge thee, my brother, to
arm thyself for the warfare which thou hast to wage from
this place against the materialism, the Socinianism, the
deism, and the latitudinarianism which are come up against
this city, and have overflowed it even unto the neck. Make
not thyself a mere sermon-maker, or a talker, or a de-
claimer, or a clerk of religious accounts, or a committee-
man, or a polite payer of visits, or a drudge of any kind.
Seek thy God in thy closet and in thy study; be alone for
hours together ; be fervent in prayer and meditation ;
commune with the prophets, and the apostles, and the
saints, and the martyrs, and Jesus, the Author and Finisher
of our faith. Do so, I chai'ge thee, that the Church may
not be ashamed of thy ignorance or unprofitableness, but
rejoice in thee as a good and skilful soldier who knows to
defend and to attack on every side of the city of our Zion.
Secondly, In thy capacity of a preacher or minister of the
gospel, I charge thee, as a steward of the mysteries of
Christ, to know those ordinances which are entrusted to
thy administration. The several parts of public worship
thou hast to conduct without the help of any service-book
or curate ; no form to guide thee, which I hope thou wilt
never need nor desire to have. 0 brother, what a weight
lieth upon a minister's shoulders ; and what need of largest
knowledge and most patient study hath he above all men !
—First, then, concerning those Psalms, of which I would
not forego one out of the collection for all the paraphrases,
hymns, and spiritual songs of these Methodistical times.
Thou must taste and deeply drink into the spirit of them,
and open them to the flock and congregation ; for praise
without the understanding is praise without the heart, not
l^leasant in the ear of God. If thou shouldest find it
necessary to open the Psalms a little by way of preface, in
order to point out Christ and the Church and the kingdom
in them, thou wilt do well : they are the essence of Divine
truth, the divinest of the inspirations of the Spirit, uj^on
Ordination Charge. 285
N\ liicli I charge thee to admit no raodern innovations, and
ill their stead to take no modern substitutes. And stir tlie
people up to love and relish them, w^hich is best done by
loading them to know and understand them. — Secondly, thy
prayers. 0 brother, what a burden is laid upon th}' spirit,
to offer in such a time as this the prayers of the Christian
Church : for remember thou pray not for thy people alone,
nor for the presbytery alone, nor for the Kirk of Scotland
alone, but for the holy catholic Church, and communion of
saints; and remember we have not four separate prayers,
but as it were four parts of prayer, which together make
up the Liturgy of our Sabbath-day. Thou must not indulge
the people by saying the same thing twice over, one for the
forenoon company, and the other for the afternoon company,
who can make it convenient to attend. It is a day's service,
a Sabbath's sacrifice ; divided as thou best may. Oh, it is
an onerous charge, my brother, this of public prayer ; I
cannot tell thee how it weighs my spirit down : and I give
it in charge to thee to make this part of the ministry thine
especial care. Our Church loveth that it should be ex-
tempore, and it is best that it should be so ; but oh, fill
the fountains of thy spirit every week by secret devotion,
and painful meditation, and solemn, careful thought of all
things. Preaching cometh next in order, which is as it
were the food and nourishment of all the rest, the foolish-
ness of God which is wiser than the wisdom of men, the
royal ordinance of the kingdom. Here put forth all thy
knowledge, all thy wisdom, all thy strength of manhood,
with all the gifts and graces of the Divine nature. Take
thy liberty : occupy thy commission : beat down the enemies
of the Lord; wound and heal; break down and build up
again. Be of no school ; give heed to none of their rules
and canons. Take thy liberty, be fettered by no times,
accommodate no man's conveniency, spare no man's pre-
judice, yield to no man's inclinations, though thou should
scatter all thy friends, and rejoice all thine enemies.
Preach the gospel : not the gospel of the last age, or of
this age, but the everlasting gospel j not Christ crucified
286 Practical
merely, but Christ risen : not Christ risen merely, but
Christ present in the Spirit, and Christ to be again present
in person. Dost thou take heed to what I say ? Preach
thy Lord in humiliation, and thy Lord in exaltation : and
not Christ only, but the Father, the will of the Father.
Keep not thy people banqueting, but bring thein out to do
battle for the glory of God and of His Church : to which
end thou shalt need to preach them the Holy Ghost, who is
the strength of battle. And hark ye, brother, be not afraid
in these days, to be called Antinomian ; but preach the
gospel freely. Let the sectarian ignorance and malice of
this city box the whole comjiass of heresy with thee as
they have done with me, in order to find thy true course ;
but still while they are blaming and blaspheming be thou
preaching the offices of the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Ghost, in the salvation of poor sinners. And take a long
and a strong pull at the work : if they will measure thee,
let it be by the hours and not by the minutes. We must
lift the barriers up, brethren, and beat the sentinels back,
and make room, and make large room, if we would have
any use of our weapons, or profit of the fight. — Lastly,
come the sacraments, which I pray thee to study from the
Scriptures, or any author older than a century ; but at thy
peril from any later ; and give no heed to what is talked
upon baptism and the Lord's supper in these clear-headed
times. Brother, to my certain knowledge the atmosphere
of theology hath been so long clear and cloudless, that
there hath been neither mist nor rain these many years :
and even to talk of a mystery is out of date. But thou
must preach Christ in a mystery, and shew the very great
mysteries of godliness, especially of these two sacraments.
Get thee out of this bright sunshine of the intellect, and
meditate the deep mysteries of the Spirit, which the natural
man perceiveth not. When they talk of plainness and
perspicuity, to thy text, m}' brother : to thy warfare of
prayer and meditation ; try the depths ; sound with thy
deepest line, my brother. Oh, I charge thee enter into
the mysteries of these two sacraments : if I should hear
Ordination Charge. 287
of thee setting them forth as bare and naked signs, I will
be the first to charge thee with a most dangerous error.
Fill these vessels with spiritual water : awaken the faith
of the people ; let them come to them in earnest faith, not
in empty ignorance ; in mysterious expectation and assur-
ance of God's spiritual blessing; not in a clearheaded
belief that nothing is to be expected or to be received.
0 brother, if I were to tell thee what fniit of my ministry
1 have had from these two sacraments, thou wouldest not
be surprised at the zeal with which my discourse doth
clothe itself.
And now I come to the third head of this charge — the
pastoral, which I begin by telling thee, that thou wilt find
the very idea of it departed and lost in this city ; for a
certain idea of society and companionship which is totally
fruitless of any spiritual good. But thou must recover it
as thou wouldst answer to the great Shepherd of the sheep.
Of which office, give me heed, it is the first part to give
thy benediction unto the flock, to bless them, men, women,
and children, at thy meetings and at thy partings ; not
with light words, but with a bishop's blessing. This ig
old-fashioned, my brother, but I am speaking to the mi-
nister of an old-fashioned church, which heretofore had no
other custom : and, moreover, our fathers would not break
bread without a solemn word of prayer which would weary
a congregation in these times. If thou neglect this, and
allow Satan to have the first word, he will have the last,
and for the most part he will have the whole. Be thou
the pastor always ; less than the pastor never. Go thus,
or go not at all. Thou art an ordained minister from
henceforth : thou art a shepherd of the people. Be thou
then a bishop. Because thou hast no palace, no, nor even
house of thine own to dwell in, thou hast the more need to
defend thyself from being misconstrued into a clerk or a
school-boy. Dost thou hear what I say ? I have met with
more insolence from Scottish lads conceiving me a mere
Scottish lad, and Scottish men of substance conceivino- me
a Scottish adventurer, than from the peers and princes of
288 Practical.
this realm. I will not call thee brother, if thou force not
thy people to regard thee as their pastor. When thou
gdest to visit thy people, take an elder with thee, and by
no means excuse his not attending, and teach the people to
receive it as an honour done them by the rulers of the
church : and when thou visitest the sick, do the same.
Consult a common time convenient for the elder and thy-
self. But this is not enough ; thy people must come to
thee, and seek thy counsel and thy prayers. Have no
idlers about thee : have no spare time : if they come, they
come for holy ends ; if not, they had better not come at
all. And thou wilt have to lament how few do come near
thee for spiritual counsel or instruction, and how many
complain that thou comest not near them in an easy way,
to pass an hour, and so forth. But go not for any such
ends of pastime. Hearest thou what I say ? At no rate
go for any such ends. Thou wilt find the day too short
for serious duties : at night thou wilt find how few prayers
thou hast offered, how few texts considered, how few
duties discharged. But if any say, Eemember me in thy
prayers ; make a note of that, and forget it not : or if he
say, Pray for me in such a distress, forget it not. O
brother, I know from experience what difficulties abide
thee in this field : gird up thy loins, and contend with
them like a man. As the office of a shepherd is to everj-
sheep of his flock, so is thine to all this people, who have
called thee to be their pastor, whose call thou hast ac-
cepted : whose love and desire each for the other we have
this day solemnly ratified and joined. Thou must be
willing to give thy life for every one of them, to wash
their feet, to minister to them in health and in sickness, in
wealth and in poverty, in good and in bad report. For
why ? because they are the Lord's — because they are the
flock of Christ which He hath purchased with His own
blood. Feed them, my brother ; tend them, my brother;
shew forth unto them a shepherd's care : and be assured
that the chief Shepherd, when He shall appear, will give
thee a crown of glory which fadeth not away. Then the
Ordination Charge. 289
flock will yield increase ; and they will make thee good
return : thou shalt eat of their milk, and be filled with
their fatness : thoii shalt be clothed with their fleece, and
thou shalt bless the day wherein thou first tookest a sheep-
hook and pastoral staff into thy hand. Eemember what is
written of this pastoral oflSce by the prophet Ezekiel, to
which I refer thee, for I must hasten, seeing I would fain
lay before thee, in this brief compass, the fvill measure of a
Scottish presbyter's office, that my heart may be discharged
of the love it bears thee, and our mother Church may be
satisfied with me in the office which she hath this day
appointed me to bear.
Fourtlihj, I would charge thee with thy duty as a church-
man ! that is, an ordained minister of the Kirk of Scotland,
whom the presbytery have this day taken bound by solemn
obligation to maintain the doctrine, discipline, government,
and laws thereof, which thou must study, imbuing thyself
with the spirit of our reformers, and martyrs, and cove-
nanters, and looking through the cloud of the Papal apos-
tasy into the Presbj'terian discipline and primitive worship
of the Culdees. Thou art this day honoured to be a minister
of the most primitive Church under heaven, not excepting
the Waldenses or the Albigenses : for though the apostasy
had possession of the court of Scotland for about three
centuries, it never had possession of the whole land ; in the
western fastnesses of which the true fire continued to live
upon the altar. I pray thee, brother, to remember this day
that thou art the member of a Church which hath oft
covenanted together for the purity of Christian policy to
testify against all Papal and Prelatical invasions ; which
God built up in the whirlwind, and strengthened in the
midst of the storm. Thou wilt hear much idle and ignorant
talk about the Church of Christ, as if in speaking of the
Kirk of Scotland or the Church of England, we spake not
of the Church of Christ. Turn a deaf ear to their envious
prattle, and tell them that the Lord himself addresseth His
seven churches by their several names, and giveth them
instructions according to their diverse conditions. This is
D
290 Practical. ?
\
the language in which they are wont covertly to speak
against Established Churches : for they are come to the
condition of not being able to bear the establishment of
religion, to foster which our fathers, with the exception of
a handful, did unanimously teach to be the first duty of the
civil magistrate. Thou must not lose thyself in the tossing
waves of opinion, which waste all things in this city ; but
stand upon the stable rock on which the fathers rested.
Thoii art this day one of a body : in the presbytery we
expect of thee obedience to the statutes which we obey :
in thy session, we expect of thee to rule and moderate all
things according to the laws of the Church. Thou art not
thine own master, that thou shouldest flinch in anything
from that model of church government which God hath
blessed to us and to our fathers. We hinder thee not from
brotherly commixnion with all who are not of the apos-
tasy, with all of the Church rooted and grounded in the
faith of the Lord's divinity, and calling Him, and Him
only. Head. But against those who deny His divinity,
(these are the true Antichrists,)— against those who have
given His glory to another, pope, virgin, or saint, (these
are the apostasy,) — thou must contend unto the death. As
a churchman, thou owest brotherly love to the Church of
England, such as the church of Philippi did to the church of
Ephesus, and both to the church of Jerusalem ; but thou
owest also rebuke and reproof for her backslidings in doc-
trine and discipline ; which also she oweth to us : and
both debts of love must be discharged. To the Noncon-
formists also, who hold sound doctrine, thou owest brotherly
love ; and rebuke and reproof also thou owest them for
their uncharitable spirit towards us and all Establishments.
To the Papacy, and to the Socinian, thou owest no mercy.
Unfold their vileness, cry against them with all thy might.
Superstition on the one hand, liberality on the other, (for
that sign of the prophet is accomplishing now when the
churl is called liberal,) — I say, brother, superstition on the
one hand, and liberality on the other, thou must fight
against with the two-dedi2;ed sword of the faith. Our
Ordination Charge. 291
Chuich hath waned a good warfare against the former : if
she will now war as good a warfare against the latter, the
Lord will still continue His favour unto her. Thou
knowest, brother, thou well dost know, the sei-pent-cunning
of this liberal spirit. Be wiser than it is, be more harmless
than it professeth to be, (but it is deadly poison against
Christ ;) put on thine armour of divine intelligence, and
contend against it as a churchman, as a member of Christ's
Church, as a presbyter of the Kirk of Scotland. Brother,
that liberality is killing our children ; it hath already slain
its tens of thousands of the children of the Scottish Church
in this metropolis ; and thou must divest it and expose it
Wilt thou not biing out the complete armour of religion
against the irreligiousness of liberality. Then I tell thee
God will not o-^Ti thy ministry in this city ; for this city is
sick unto death, and dying of the mortal wounds which she
hath received fnim it. God called thee to this metropolitan
city, and hath planted thee here by a wonderful providence :
therefore look to it, my brother, and do thy Master som©
service herein. If thou thinkest to build up this dis-
mantled Church, by merely fulfilling the office of a minister
and pastor to the people in this house assembling, thou
dost miserably err, I tell thee thou art not merely the
minister of London Wall Church, but thou art a presbyter
of the Kirk of Scotland, to combine thine endeavours with
the presbytery for gathering our poor countrymen preyed
'on by Satan under the giiise of liberality. Thou art a
Churchman of the holy catholic Church, to take up the
cross of Christ and fight the good fight against the devil,
the world, and the fle>h, in all their forms : thou art a
prophet to cry aloud to the Ninevites, to this Babylon, which,
after enjo^'ing the light of God so long, is now beginning to
deny that it was from Christ that light of God did come. For
thy duties as a churchman, I refer thee to Christ's instruc-
tions to the angels of the seven chiarches : and I proceed.
Lastly, To speak to thee of thy duties as a man ; for this
is the basis upon which all the other forms of character are
built, and thou must give good heed to it. I speak not of
u 2
292 Practical.
the natural form of man which thon art of, for this thot;
hast crucified with Christ, and it must live no longer ; hut
I speak of those many functions which the new man hath
to discharge towards those to whom we are related by other
ties than the ministerial, or the pastoral, or the ecclesiasti-
cal,— to friends and to acquaintance, to servants, to men in
general, and to the society of which thou art a member, and
to the civil polity of which thou art a subject. For the
present, thou must dwell, like a wayfaring man, in a lodg-
ing ; but I trust thou wilt soon be master of thine own
house, to give thy people a pattern of household govern-
ment, as Joshua resolved to do, and as every bishop and
every elder is required to do. Thou wilt keep hospitality ;
and accumulate riches at thy peril. Oh, if thou grow
rich, — oh, if thou shouldst die rich, I will be ashamed of
thee. Look at the hard hearts of rich men ; look at their
vain self-importance ; look at their contempt of Christ ; and
pray, oh earnestly pray, to be kept from that greatest
snare. Thy cloak and thy parchments, brother, — that is,
thy decent apparel and thy books, — ^be these thy riches,
and then thou canst speak out against Mammon, and tell
those men of thousands and tens of thousands, whom thou
art surrounded with, what they should do with their
treasures. If thou spare them, God will not spare thee. I
give thee it in charge this day, that thou reprove them and
their accumulations sharpl3\ Keep thou hospitality. Shew
thou to lordly prelates what the word bishop meaneth.
Shew thou to substantial citizens what the word hospitality
meaneth. Shew thou to rich men what the word charity
meaneth ; and to all, what faith meaneth. Go thou out as poor
a man as thou came in ; and let them bury thee when thou
diest. And if God should bless thee with a wife and children,
put no money in the bank for them, but write prayers in the
record of the book of life : be this thy bank of faith ; be
this thy exchange, even the providence of God ; and let
the lords of thy treasury be the prophets and the apostles
who went before thee. 0 my brother, be zealous for the
good primitive customs of the Church : abjure thou the
Ordination Chat'ge. 293
prudential maxims of this metallic age. Oh, be thou a
man far above this world, living by faith in the world to
come like one of the elders who have obtained a good
report. Be thou of a bold countenance and a lion heart,
of a single eye and a simple spirit : otherwise Satan will
soon hedge thee in and mow thee up ; he will come to thee
as a counsellor, but we of the presbytery, whose voice I
now speak, are thy counsellors : he will come to thee as
a threatener; but who dare meddle with thee who are
Christ's anointed minister? he will come to thee as a
flatterer; be thou therefore honest and self-denied. If thou
do thy duty, as I trust thou wilt, thy dearest friends will
come to warn thee, and will exceedingly afflict thee by
their apprehensions ; but thou art not to be seduced
by friends, being this day charged by the whole Church
of Christ to be ftiithful unto Christ, and to no other allegi-
ance. The time is coming, yea, now is, when thou mayest
have to testify against wickedness in high places, as did
the fathers of the Church : and thou must, and then there
will come about thine ears such a hurricane of stormy
voices ; but, like Elijah, thou must stand in the cleft of
the rock till it passeth by. But, if thou hast any floating
interest, if thou hast any selfish end, canst thou stand all
this, my brother ? no, thou wilt shrink and yield every
limb of thee. If thou art not ready to die, get ready
as fast as thou mayest ; for the soldier in the battle who
is not ready to die hath two enemies to fight: and if
thou be not ready to die for Christ, thou mayest have
a hundred ; but if thou be ready to die for Christ thou
hast but one, who is emphatically ilie enemy, against whom,
that all thine energies may be collected, give this daj' all
interests, all afi'ections, all gains, all talents, all things unto
the Lord, and count them but as dung that thou mayest
win Christ. What the Lord Jesus, who was followed by a
multitude, did say to them indiscriminately, I may well
turn round and say to thee His soldier, His captain of
a hundred, yet, I trust, to be His captain of a thousand, —
"He that would be my disciple must hate father and
294 PracticaL
mother, and sister, and wife, and children, and house*
and lands, and his own life also, — must take up his cross,
and follow me."
And now, what sayest thou ? Who is sufficient for these
things ? Thou art, Christ strengthening thee ; and thinkest
thou Christ will be wanting to thee ? No, verily. He
never sendeth any one a warfare on his own charges. Thou
mayest be wanting unto Christ, but never will Christ be
wanting unto thee. But what assurance have I, dost thou
say ? The same which the apostles had, the same which
the seventy had, the same which Titus and Timothy and
the primitive pastors had, — that Holy Spirit which de-
scended at Pentecost, which hath been present in the
Church, which is now present in it, and freely accessible
to us all, for all the powers and offices which Christ's
members in their several offices shall be accountable. And
hast thou not this day been set apart by the highest symbol,
even the laying on of hands? Is that a symbol sym-
bolising nothing ? No ! it symboliseth every form of the
Spirit which Timothy or Titus had. There is now a gift
in thee as surely as there was a gift in Timothy, by the
laying on of the hands of the presbytery. And neglect it
not, neglect not the gift of prL'phecy that is in thee by the
laying on of our hands. Thou hast a Spirit this day sealed
upon thee by the hoi}' ordinance of the Church, which
Paul describe th unto Timothy to be, " not the Spirit of
fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." Thou
are not one of the demi-infidels who believe that those
ordinances of Christ's appointment are but naked signs.
Thou knowest for what thou art this day made responsible ;
thou knowest what a gift Christ hath this day bestowed
upon thee. We have not laid hands suddenly on thee ;
we have made full pioof of thy ministry, of thy doctrine,
of thy life. W^e have this day observed the ordinance of
the Church blamelessly. And we believe that Christ will
honour His own holy ordinance, to communicate thereby
those same gifts of the Spirit which he did communicate
in the days of old unto His faithful bishops. Wherefore
I
Difficulties of a Moral Life. 295
1 have ptit thee in remembrance, that thou stir up the
gift of God which is in thee by the putting on of our
hands. That good thing which was committed unto thee
keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us. I give
thee charge in the sight of God, who quickeneth all
things; and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius
Pilate witnessed a good confession ; that thou keep this
commandment without spot unrebukeable until the ap-
pearing of our Lord Jesus Christ; which in his times
He will shew, " who is the blessed and only potentate,
the King of kings, and Lord of lords ; who only hath im-
mortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach
unto, whom no man hath seen, nor can see : to whom be
honour and power everlasting." Amen.
DIFFICULTIES OF A MOEAL LIFE.
"When I meditate upon the xmfavourable conditions with
which moral life sits suiTounded in this fallen and con-
founded world, it seems to me that no aim less poweiful
than the arm of a God can extricate her and set her on high
above all her foes. Pleasure, with all her siren daughters
arrayed for temptation's ends, come in mazy dance, be-
wraying the weakness of moral life, setting the blood on
fire, and the heart into a gleeful mood ; and they bring in
their hands each an intoxicating cup, one offering a draught
to vanity, another to love, a third to fancy, a fourth to
tendei'-hearted pity, a fifth to humanity; and so through the
open portals of every feeling they insinuate into the soul
poisonous drugs in the season of youth, when the mouths
of natural affection are open and thirsty ; they charm the
soul, they cheat it, they shave its locks of strength, they cast
bands upon it, as Delilah did upon the might of Samson.
And who is the grey-headed man hearing me, who is the
strong man, who is the young man, whom these daughters
of pleasure and joy have not at one time or other entrapped
into their wiles, and for a season prostrated all his monJ
296 Practical.
strengtli ? And if haply any one doth stand the softness of
these joyous allurements, and by strength of nature be
enabled to overcome, then come anon an assailing host of
another kind, arrayed under the banners of human appro-
bation. They come with each a reproachful word on their
lips. Not able to endure the steadiness of our purpose
where they themselves have yielded up the struggle, friends,
fellow-companions come mocking our stoical humours ; they
reproach us for unkindness, want of companionship, want of
gallantry, of spirit, of youthful joy. They seek us in our
retired stiidies, or our patient persevering industry ; they
spread the banquet for our entertainment, they press us
with kind hospitality to the feast, they bear down our
purposes by the exceeding greatness of their regard, and
we who would not yield to pleasure when addressing our
selfish part, yield to the same pleasure invading us through
the accessible avenue of friendship and society. And thus
again are many more carried by a tide of solicitude from the
rock of their moral resolution, and set adrift into the ocean
of social enjoyment, no longer the masters of themselves.
Then cometh ambition, and the noble desire to rise in
life and wield a sceptre of influence and power. And now
beginneth the tear and wear of manhood, — the game of
policy, the strife of party, the tug of power, the opposition
of principles, the gains and losses of various schemes. The
vacuity of the mind which in youth besought the occupa-
tion of fine sentiment under feeling and soft enjoyment,
now beseecheth the occupation of business afiairs, schemes,
wiles, stratagems, and arduous undertakings. All the tender
brood of early life are unhoused to seek their domicile in
minds of tenderer years, to cheer others, for we have
weightier things to mind. Alas, alas ! we are cheated ;
these tender occupants are the daughters of a softer, better
stock than those ruffian passions and cool-blooded intriguing-
policies which now have gotten the hold. Oh, I do pity
moral life in this stage and trial of life, for it is a miracle
if it keep above in the confusion which these ambitious
thoughts do breed. I could describe its feeble resistance
Difficii I tics of a Moral L ife. 297
aud its overthrow, its trampling under foot, and its grave.
But what avails it to do so before men who live in the heat
and heart of ambition's empire, and can remark everywhere
its ruinous ravages upon well-principled and noble action ?
Behold the young man arise all glowing with liberal and
manly sentiment, breathing patriotism, and haranguing
against corruption, upholding disinterestedness aud inde-
pendence on every hand. Leave him alone for a few years,
and what do you find ? The stripling patriot embracing and
hugging that which he formerly denounced, and laughing
at the new race of unfledged youth who are in the early
stage of ambitious career. He laugheth at it as the in-
experience of youth, or the hunting of place, and he
opportunely casteth in the way lures and baits, never
doubting to hook him and have him, and transfer him
from the realm of his natural liberty into artificial places,
where he maybe taught graceful and becoming movements.
Now, what is the plain meaning of this revolution, and
what is the real cause? It meaneth that the breath of
noble-mindedness was in the youth at first, the power
of virtuous discernment, and virtuous feeling, and virtuous
speech, but that when it came to action, — when he must
commit his interests for virtue's sake, his ambitions, his
worldly advancement, he could no longer stand, but gave
in where so many had given in before him. This is the
secret of the apostasy from principle which they complain
of in every rank — the weakness of the hand of moral life.
These and so many other disadvantages have to be borne
up against in the performance of what our conscience com-
mends, that perhaps there is not one present who would
not confess, without further demonstration, the point at
issue, that moral life hath a weak hand to perform even that
little which her eye discerneth. But if any one hesitates
to confess, then without further ado I put it to the issue of
a few categorical questions. Have not your hearts, while
perusing the lives and heroic actions of noble men, burnt
with approbation and resolved to walk in the same glorious
footsteps ; and gradually, upon descending into the arena
298 Practical.
of life, you have been witladrawn from jowc noble purpose
into the tame commonplace virtue of the day, perhaps
degraded into manj"- of its popular vices? If you have,
this is a proof of nature's inability to perform what she is
able to discern. Again, have you ever found it necessary
to disguise from the world your real purposes, and conceal
from them parts of your actual character ? As often as you
have, you have confessed not only inferiority to your own
ideal standard, but to the worlds actual standard, which is
infinitely lower. Again, have you ever had to criminate
yourself in your private moments, or to confess your faults
into the bosom of your friend, or before him whom you
had injured or neglected ? Such remorses are acknowledg-
ments of feebleness to perform what conscience is con-
vinced of, for where there is no conviction of conscience
there can be no remorse. Again, have you never from the
pulpit, or from the voice of virtuous friends, or from
the press, or even fi'om the stage, had your soul fired
against those forms of wickedness in which you indulged,
and to which you returned to indulge again ? Nay, verily,
have not you, in your places as guardians of others, as
parents, as masters, as teachers, as governors, given forth
law and judgment against your very selves ? But what
avail eth further discourse upon the weakness of men's cha-
racter, compared with their intellect and their conscience ?
The thing is revealed in every conscious breast; every
man hath it written on his forehead. Every life confesseth
it in its lines and passages ; broken resolutions speak it,
defeated wishes weep over it, all prostrate virtues cry out
against it, all meannesses confess it, all vices rejoice in it,
all hypocrisies live by it, all passions prosper from it. All
secret indulgences, public misdemeanours, all backslidings,
and false promises would go into desuetude and die away,
that moment the character of man became of equal strength
with his conscience to feel and his intellect to discern the
way.
Now, God knows, I have no cold-hearted or cruel inten-
tion in exposing these evil influences of the world, and
Difficulties of a Moral Life. 299
evil tendencies of human nature to comply therewith. But
it is necessary to make an exposition of the true state of the
case before inquiring into the applications by which it may
be solved. Having laid the wound bare, I come now to
seek for remedies ; and first, I ask the moralist, with whom
I hold this friendly and free conference, what means he
hath to propose for bringing the hand with which moral
life acts into obedience of the heart with which moral life
feels, or the eye with which she sees. His common reme-
dies are good education of youth and good government of
men. Good government, I acknowledge, is an excellent
help, which the wisdom of society hath devised to make it
the interest of men to walk orderly in those things whereof
it is permitted governors to take cognisance. But, as we
have already remarked, it is totally inadequate to the
remedy of those interior evils of our condition, of which we
at present treat. Governors and judges wait ixntil the evil
within the breast, or the evil of outward conduct comes
to a height, escapes from control, takes visible form, and
makes head against another's rights, or against the common
weal. Then it is their province to put forth their help and
restrain the growing evil ; which evil, even then, they do
not cure, but confine by force, or, by banishment or death,
clean lop off from all hope of amendment. The fear of
which fatal issue, I do allow, saves many characters from
ruin, as the buoys planted upon the fatal rocks where
vessels have split save many others from coming near
destruction. But the helps we want are of a finer cast
and a more frequent application. Something ever present,
ever felt, something pouring vigour into the enervated
framework of natnre, and arraying her in defence against
the temptations of the world. Something within the sacred
circle of freedom which law toucheth not, may prevail with
the same fearful influence which law hath beyond that
circle, and which, while it operates by punishment upon
fear may operate by rewards upon hope, b}' stimulus
upon ambition, by persuasion upon unwillingness and
timidity. For it is not by great things and by great occa-
300 Practical.
sions that the character of man is formed to worth or to
worthlessness. Great crimes grow not at once, nor great
virtues. The mind, like the body, grows strong by degrees,
and parts not with its strength but by degrees. And being
placed beyond the reach of outward accidents, it is more
regular and slow in its progression to healthy or unhealthy
conditions than is the body itself. It is the food which it
feeds on daily, hourly, every instant that builds up or saps
its strength, — the thoughts that come and go incessantly,
the imaginations which flit aboiit within the soul, the airy
schemes that have not taken form, but wait occasion, the
loves that flutter in confinement until they find an object
to rest on. The heart is the great continent of actions
where they grow, and utter themselves into the ear, or
before the eye of the world, as opportunity ofifereth.
Therefore in this their sleeping embryo state, the giants
of vice, the great anarchs of crime and confusion, are to
be laid hands on, and bound in chains of good order. Give
me a legislature, give me an executive, give me a monarch
of good, and a senate of noble feelings, and an uncorrupted
representative of all plebeian virtues, for the government
of the heart, that by debate and counsel timously holden
within the breast the good subjects may be encouraged, the
bad ones kept in check, overawed, and never once allowed
to lift their head ; — this is the government I seek for my
purpose, and nothing less than this will avail a jot. I want
a pilot to keep the course and have the crew in subjection,
to keep the ship out of peril, to keep the ship in the fair-
way, out of the neighbourhood of those dangerous places in
the ocean of affairs which law hath buoyed and marked
in its legislative charts. For this legislation of the heart
and strengthening of the good powers within the breast, I
ask the moralist again what he hath to offer ? Early edu-
cation is his answer ; by which I understand tuition in the
principles of moral conduct, and training in the ways of
virtue. This is right. Now, may I ask him for his code ;
of morality in which the youth are to be trained ; for be-
sides the Scriptures and works founded thereon I happen
Difficulties of a Moral Life. 301
to know no code of morals out of which children could be
taught. The works of the ancients on offices and ethics
are argumentiitive books, which it would puzzle most men
to follow ; and modern books on moral philosophy and
moral sentiment, which build not on religion, are equally-
unfit for the present necessity. But suppose they had such
a handbook as is wanted, I ask next upon what authority
they are to enforce its precepts upon .the young. For with-
out religion I see none adequate to the end. If it be upon
advantage, then who is to be judge of that advantage, but
the youth himself, whose judgments of advantage how weak
they are against the present calls of inclination and occa-
sions of evil every one doth know ! If you refer to the
better instincts of nature, as kindness, gentleness, the sense
of truth, the desire of order and of happiness, and endea-
vour to feed into early maturity these good affections, and
keep the evil ones down by discouragement, it is well ; but
now I ask for teachers able to do so. You would require
an anatomist of the soul in every village, and a perfect
puritan in every village school, a philosopher, a moralist, a
magician of the soul, able to charm its good parts out of
their natural weakness, and lay in deep and hidden places
the evil influences which most generally overule the
inward state. But, granting that you had both such a
handbook of morals and such divine moralists, I ask next
what is to become of the youth when they leave such
excellent tuition ? How are they to meet temptation,
actual temptation, when it bears down upon them in all
the gaudy colours and alluring forms of life? How aro
they to stifle the affections which rise within to meet and
embi-ace them? How are they to stem the popular cur-
rents of vanitj'- and folly and vice which vary the surface
of society like the waves of the sea, and agitate it beneath
like the ground-swell and tossing of the deep ? A man's
natural strength of character, I do declare, is as insufficient
to stem the streams of custom, however he may hate them
and strive against them, as the bare arms of the swimmer
are able to contend against the Gulf Stream of the ocean.
302 Practical.
The voice of solitary conscience is deafened by ilie
popular outcry of approbation or disapprobation, as the
voice of the sea-bird is in the womb of the rolling and
roaring tempest.
It would be most unfair to the feelings and interests of
those who have heard these painful statements of an evil
and an insiifficient cure to stop here, without stating for
their comfort and urging for their salvation the remedy
which there is in the revelation of Jesus Christ. This
addresseth itself at once to the weak men within the
breast, and brings them into life and strength. It ad-
dresseth itself also to the strong men, and by main force
binds them, or by persuasion converts them to good. The
Lord hath entered into the field to moralise the life of
men, and make it noble. For this end He hath laid down
in His holy word categorical enumerations of the good and
ill, not of actions merely, but of feelings and of thoughts,
and written them so that he who runneth may read. To
the one He hath promised to bestow all the welfare which
this fallen world permitteth man to enjoy, and all the
unbounded riches which the eternal world contains ;
threatening upon the other indignation and wrath, tri-
bulation and anguish. He hath given a code of penalties
and punishments for the thoughts and intentions of the
heart, and thereto He hath added a code of rewards and
enjoyments, and set up the very system of inward legisla-
tion which we besought the moralists to furnish us withal.
A handbook we have, and authority of the Almighty to
sustain its eveiy precept, — eternal blessing to reward the
obedience, and eternal misery to punish the transgression
thereof. To induce us to undertake repentance and
reformation, He hath brought within our reach an amnesty
for all the past, and to encourage us to persevere He hath
opened up a divine sustenance and strength for all the
future. He hath promised that His Spirit shall enter into
league with our spirit, in order to urge on the heavy work
of regeneration. He hath summoned eveiy affection of
human natvire to her Saviour, by clothing that Saviour in
Life merely the Means to Spiritual Life. 303
every useful and attractive quality. He hath, through the
mediutQ of that Saviour, exalted every feeble affection of
human nature to Himself, made the way open for the
weakest to arise, and the most sinful to trust and rejoice
before Him. There are remonstrances, there are argu-
ments, there are soft persuasions, there are fears, there are
hopes, there are high ambitions and deepest interests, there
are consolations, there are recoveries, there are assurances
of safety, — the whole artillery of human motives is brought
into constant play in the page of divine revelation. After
the ej'e of conscience hath thus been couched, and the
heart set on fire to encourage the hand to perfoim, there
is the divine example of Christ steering steadily through
extremest perils a life of glory and honour, and the as-
surance of the indwelling Spirit of Christ to work the
same effect upon all His followers. In every difiBculty
there is promise of direction, in ever}' want there is
promise of supply, and in every infirmity of strength.
The gate of heaven is opened wide to the earnest pi-ayer
of every suitor ; the Lord of heaven hath stricken a league,
offensive and defensive, with every humble servant of His,
and the gates of hell He hath promised shall never prevail
against him.
LIFE MERELY THE MEANS TO SPIRITUAL LIFE.
It was not to be expected, that, when the Spirit so dili-
gently prepared the woild for the coming of Christ, He
should neglect this preparatory work in the soul of man,
for which the world was created, is preserved, and wrought
upon. It is not to be believed, that, seeing there is a sea-
son of human life in every one during which he is inca-
pable of receiving the preached word, that the Spirit, who
is the great Author of life, should not be occupied during
the same in endeavouring to make a preparation for the
coming of the Son of man. If the law of all life, vegetable
and animal, be a preparation fur and a servant of the spiri-
tual life, how much more ought the laws of human life
304 Practical.
and human well-being to be subservient thereto ? In one
word, what is human life, and all life, but a work of the
Spirit, "the Lord and giver of life " ? And if so, for whom
doth the Spirit work, but for Christ? and of whom doth
He bear testimony, but of Christ ? It can in no manner be
doubted, therefore, that life in man, and the laws of man's
well-being, are indeed a work preparatory for the know-
ledge of the gospel. And this not any particular act, but
the honesty or dishonesty of every act, the good or evil
course according to which our life has been sj)ent ; whe-
ther we have followed after wisdom or folly ; whether we
have walked in the ways of truth or of error; whether
we have listened to the solicitations of evil, with which the
world is filled, or to the continual suggestions of good,
which are presented to our conscience ; whether we have
tised our talents well, according to the light which God
hath given us, or whether we have used them ill, accord-
ing to the same light; whether we have obeyed ihe law of
humanity towards the lower animals ; whether we have
followed knowledge and industry towards the inanimate
creatures ; whether we have followed honesty and upright-
ness towards all men, and treated every one according to
his place and station ; whether we have followed the law
of chastity, continence, and temperance towards our body,
— the law of sincerity and truth in our words, and of gen-
tleness and graciousuess in our minds ; whether we have
made a right use of all the advantages and opportunities
which God hath given us; and, in short, whether we have
sought to cultivate an honest, or give loose to the inclina-
tions of a dishonest heart.
THE PEEVERSION AND USE OF SUFFERING.
So much is it the nature of suffering to perfect holiness,
that in the ages which followed those of martyrdom, when
men were not called to it in the ordinary providence of
God, they made an artificial set of sufferings, and went into
The Perve7'sio7i aiid Use of Sufferijig. 305
a voluntary exile from all the comforts and conveniences of
life. This, if I may so speak, is the weakest side of Chris-
tianity, or that upon which Christians are most apt to
act — will-worship, a volnutary humility and neglection of
the body, as the apostle calleth it. Our dispensation
having been sown in suffering, and indeed founded on
death, the death of the Lamb of God, and ever since the
blood of the martyrs having proved the seed of the Church,
and our most noble characters having come oiit of persecu-
tion's school, and the whole of our dispensation breathing
of self-denial and hard endurance, of mortification and
crucifixion of the old man, it is always ready to be cor-
rupted into a system of asceticism or of voluntary self-
denial and suffering. Such expressions as these occuring
— "That he who hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased
from sin;" " Count it all joy, brethren, when ye fall into
divers temptations ; " "I count all things but loss that I
may know the fellowship of his sufferings;" "He who
suffereth with Him shall also reign with Him " — it comes
to pass that Christians are always falling into error upon
the head of self-inflicted mortification. Amongst the Catho-
lics it is one of the sacraments, and everywhere there is a
yoke of observance, less or more, upon the necks of the
disciples, which they submit to under the idea that they
thereby do God service. Now, the only preservative from
this, which I call the weak side of Christianity, — not that
it is weak on any side, but that human nature hath shewn
itself most disposed to err and mistake it on that side; —
against this voluntary humility the only preservative is
spiritual knowledge and understanding, with the progress
of which formality decays and spirituality grows apace.
As the inward man becomes enlightened, ho perceives that
there is no need to make artificial suflering, and go into
voluntary exile from enjoyment. As he is able to read his
own thoughts, and estimate the many moods of his mind
by the \\'ord of God, he perceives that there is a discipline
of the spirit which will bring with it enough of trial and
endurance to occupy the resolution of his mind ; and as
X
3o6 Practical.
he proceeds to set his spirit in order, he will soon find that
his sayings, and his manners, and his actions, must work
against the stream of the world, and meet with strife,
struggle, and desperate encounters. And nature will al-
ways go with the world, and friendship also, and the
habits perhaps of his own home, so that he will find a
combination against the Lord and His anointed which will|
hold his graces and his instruments of spiritual warfare in.
constant use. But to persevere and feel this requires spiri-
tual discernment. A man's conscience must be alive to
have this kind of j^recaution. It cannot have place in a
formalist, or in a priest-guided mind, or in a darkened
understanding ; and hence, just as ignorance and blindness
of the mind prevail, will this superstitious prostration and
voluntary humility come to life ; and to its destruction
nothing is necessary but to have a priesthood who ad-
dress the conscience of the people, and summon up their;
thoughts, and give them not " ipse-dixits " of their own, or
traditions and customs of the Church, by which to shape
their obedience.
Kevertheless, though there be enough of trial inwardly
and outwardly in all ages to keep the soul in active life,
and holy discipline, and progi'essive sanctification, yet
when the Almighty thereto adds sore trials of His pro-
vidence— bereavements, losses, crosses, persecution, perils,
and sword — we are to regard them as so many fostering
and nutritious measures to hasten ourselves into prema-
ture perfection, and raise us to a preternatural purity ; and?S
those who endure such afflictions patiently are to account
themselves highly favoured of the Lord, and to reckon that
His grace and His providence are working together for
their o;oud.
BLESSED AND UNBLESSED CHANGES.
What hinders you fiom giving your souls to the di-
vine institutions ? Early habits hinder, the world's cus-
tomary fashions hinder, and nature's leanings the other
Blessed and Unblessed Changes. 307
wav hinder, and passion liindcrs, and a whcile insurrec-
tionary host of feelings musters against the change. Well,
be it granted that a troop of joys must be put to flight, and
a whole host of pleasant feelings be subdued. What is
lost ? Is honour lost ? Is fortune lost ? Is God's provi-
dence scared away? Hath the world slipt from beneath
your feet, and does the air of heaven no longer sustain you ?
Has life deceased, or are your faculties of happiness de-
parted ? Change, the dread of change, that is all. The
change of society and habits, with the loss of some few
perishable joys.
Change ! Is not that as great a change w^hcn your phy-
sician chambers 5^011 up, and restricts your company to
nurses, and your diet to simples? Is not that as great a
change when you leave the dissipated city, outworn with
its excitements, and live wdth solitude and inconvenience
in your summer quarters ? And is not that a greater
change w^iich stern law makes, when it mures up jour per-
son and gives you outcasts to company with ? And where
is the festive life of those who sail the wide ocean ; and
where the gaieties of the campaigning soldier; and how
does the wandering beggar brook his scanty life ? And if
for the sake of a pained limb you wall undergo the change,
will you not for the removal of eternal pains of spirit and
flesh ? If for a summer of refreshment amongst the green
of earth, and by the freshness of ocean, ye will undergo the
change, will ye not for the rich contents of heaven ? And
if at the command of law yc will, and if for gain the sailor
will, and fur honour the soldier will, and for necessity the
strolling beggar will ; men and brethren, will ye not, to
avoid hell, to reach heaven, to obey the voice of God, to
gain the inheritance of wealth and honour, and to feed your
spirit's starved necessities — oh ! men, will ye not muster
resolution to enterprise the change ?
Bring manly fortitude to this question, I entreat you,
and look it in the face ; compare these two alternatives —
the world's principles and customs, Christ's principles and
customs. When you entered into life you were equally
X 2
3o8 Practical.
jstraugers to both, predisposed to have your own will in
everything, and reluctant to resign it either to the institu-
tions of your ancestors, or to the institutions of Christ. By
a greater aptitude of nature, and the neighbourhood of
more examples, and the presence of more immediate rewards
and punishments, and a youth of continual training, you
have grown into the school of the world where you are
enchanted and spell-bound, I know not with what ; but
sure you are bewitched, or with thraldom worn down and
mimanned. 'Tis not better fortune that holds you; that I
deny : nor more accomplishments of mind, nor larger
bounds of feeling, nor sublimer thoughts, nor more generous
actions, nor more peaceful moments ; which I affirm to be
all on the other side. What, then, is the mighty gain ? A
few gay smiles of companionship, a few momentary grati-
fications dear bought at the price of after-thoughts and
after-depressions ; a few heady excesses of spirit, and extra-
vagances of language, and irregularities of conduct ; this is
merely the sum total of the benefit. Are you free ? Not a
jot. You are the slaves of the customs, and dare not on
your peril depart from one of them. You call religion a
bondage ; yes, it is the bondage of angels strong and
seraphs blessed ; nature's well-pleased bondage to her
Maker, the creature's reverence for his Creator ; but yours,
yours is a bondage to idle fleeting customs, narrow rules of
men like yourselves, whose statutes enslave you. You have
no privileges worth the naming. You have heaven for-
feited. You have hell forestalled. Pitiful drudgery. And
this is what you are in love with and cannot leave. So
were the swinish herd enamoured of Circe's cup, forgetful
of their former noble selves.
I wish I could disenchant you, that you might perceive
the blessed truth, and love it — which I see not, but I may,
seeing God grants His blessing to the weakest instrument.
Let me speak a moment of the nature of this change, and if
ever, now God send me persuasive words.
Ye take up the thing amiss when you think, as is too
often represented, that it is a change to be succeeded in
Blessed and Unblessed Changes. 309
npon the spur of resolution. A beginning it must have,
and that must noticeable, when from leaving God's face
and favour, you turn timorously to seek them again. But
for its completion the age of Methuselah were insuflScient.
Men are never converted, but always converting ; saints
never built up, but always bixilding up. Kow, herein you
do greatly err. Unless you change and master nature at
once, j-ou give it up for hopeless, and fall down into the
quietus of man's total inability and forlornness. This is the
grossness of stupidest error. Knowledge of God's will is
not had at once, cases of conscience are not settled at once,
nor is the ability to overcome derived at once. The con-
version is the new birth, but to be bom is not to be the
man complete in feature and in mind, which groweth
out of knowledge, experience, discipline of youth, observa-
tion of life, and the thousand appointed steps between the
almost unconscious babe, and the accomplished man. Even
so, the new birth is but the first germ of religion in the
soul, which hath to be cherished, nursed, guarded, trained,
and taught by methods and means of grace as manifold as
natural strength is reared by. Therefore, so that your
souls are longing after God, your ears drinking in His
coi:nsel, your feet moving, though faint, still moving in the
path, be of good cheer, go on and prosper. Kay, so that
you are losing conceit of sin by reason of better concep-
tions, and waxing in fear of future issues, and meditating
your moiiality more, it is symiitomatic of good, go on and
pro^per. Despair not because you are not perfect, neither
turn back because yoii frequently fall.
And, ye advanced Christians, do not despise this day of
small things in a younger brother, neither go to impose on
him all your burdens, nor to minister to him the strongest
meat which you feed on ; but give God-speed to any en-
deavour after good, however small. His very aspirations
despise not, his imperfections do not sorely rebuke.
Strengthen the hands that hang down, and the feeble
knees confirm. Strengthen by encouragement and support,
do not by rebuke and censure drive him to distraction.
( 3IO )
PEACTIOAL FRUITS OF SIMPLE HONESTY.
Above all things we should cultivate honesty and sim-
plicity, truth and faithfulness, in ourselves and all with
whom we have to do. Falsehood, fraud, and subterfuge
permit at no rate : be jealous of wit and humour, and all
equivocal foims of representing things. I have sometimes
devoutly wished that I were so stupid as not to understand
a joke, that I were honest enough to perceive nothing
but the falsehood of what the French call a jeu d'esprit or
playfulness of mind. I tell you, brethren, be honest in your
dealings : take no advantage even of a child. Be conscien-
tious in your bargains. Have a single eye, and a single
heart. Seek not to be shrewd. Be not ashamed to be
called simple. And let me tell you a secret, which ought
not to be a secret, seeing it is written in the Scriptures,
that your whole body will then be full of light ; and this
in every kind : you will actually see further, and see clearer .<^
than shrewd and cunning men, and you will be less liable
to be duped than the3% provided you add to this another part
of character which is proper to an honest man — namely, a
resolution to protect honesty, and to discountenance every
kind of fraud. A cunning man is never a firm man ; but
an honest man is : a double-minded man is always unstable ;
a man of faith is firm as a rock. I tell 3'ou there is a
sacred connexion between honesty and faith : honesty is
faith applied to worldly things, and faith is honesty quick-
ened by the Spirit to the use of heavenly things. In all
that I have said upon this quality, I have not said enough
of it. I have but given the clue to the proper way of
discoursing upon it ; but I cannot be said to have discoursed
of it. Meanwhile, let me press it upon you in the words of
our old ballad, " 'Tis giiid to be honest and true."
And that wherever we find an honest-heai-ted man,
however sunk he may be in wickedness, we should have
hope, and there drop the seed of the word of God ; and this
may be extended to missionaries wherever they can find
an honest-minded people, however stupid and uncivilised,
What alone preserves the Church. 3 1 1
thither lot them go and preach the gospel with good hope.
But as to all manner of political and double-minded people,
wise in their own conceit, and prudent for this world,
clever, intellectual, and active-minded though they be ;
have more hope of a fool than of such a one. They are
too knowing to believe ; they are too shrewd to be chari-
table, they are too prudent to hope against hope : you may
as soon expect corn to grow upon the sea-beach, as the seed
of the word to take root there. Be on your guard, then,
and remember you have been warned against these forms
of character to which this age is so very prone. You
cannot be of this character, and be after God's image : the
thing is utterly impossible. Therefore, choose after which
you will be conformed ; the wisdom from above, which is
first pure, then peaceable, gentle, eas}' to be entreated, full
of mercy and of good fruits, without partiality and without
hypocrisy, or after the wisdom that descendeth not from
above, which is earthly, sensual, devilish.
WHAT ALONE PRESERVES THE CHURCH.
The only thing which preserveth the visible Church in
being is the faith, that in its ordinances all the blessings
of the invisible Church are held, as the water in a cistern,
and through them conveyed to the lips of the elect of God.
And because I believe that this is a great and fundamental
truth, and that God will at no time dispense with the
ordinances in the communication of His grace, save where
tbey are not in existence, I know full well that when the
ordinances are set light by, or when they are all over-
looked for the single glorification of one of them, the
written book, as is the case at present, we are near to
be dissolved and broken up by death. I do the more
earnestly, therefore, call upon every baptized person
who now heareth me, to rest assured that, in possess-
ing the ordinances of God from his youth, he hath
possesiied the continually overflowing cistern, where is
3 1 2 Practical.
contained the waters of the gospel ; — that you have been
setting at naught the love of God in Jesus Christ, the
affection of a Father to His children, whiich, ended,
swalloweth up all fatherly aifection in its infinite com-
prehensiveness, as the heavens include the earth and all
the planets, and all the stars which softly move therein ; —
that you have been setting at naught the infinite honour
of being accounted a son of God, which is so great that the
apostle upon that name alone inferreth Christ's superiority
above the angels; and David was amazed that one of his
loins should be honoured with that high degree ; — that
you have been rejecting the infinite condescension and
self-humiliation of the Son, who descended from the in-
comprehensible dignity of the Only-begotten of God from
all eternity, and forewent the boundless blessedness of
inhabiting the Father's bosom, in order to find for 3'ou
favour and forgiveness in the sight of God, which you, for
your part, have for long years been declaring your total
indifference and unwillingness to receive or partake ; —
that you have been withstanding and effectually resisting
the infinite diligence of the Holy Spirit in the Holy Scrip-
tures, and in all the ordinances of the Church, especially
in the preaching of the word and the administration of
sacraments ; whose condescension to reason with you, to
remonstrate against your wickedness, to wait upon you
soon and late, and in every way to insinuate Himself into
your nature, by all its avenues of aftection, you have with-
stood, and do withstand unto this hour. O, brethren ! doth
this make no difference in your guiltiness? or, rather,
doth it not make all the difference which is conceivable,
and constitute the condemnation, that light is come into
the world, and men have loved darkness rather than
light, their deeds being evil ? Is it no aggravation of a
son's crime, that he hath broken the hearts of the ten-
derest parents that ever lived ? Is it no aggravation of
a servant's crime, that he hath betrayed the trust and
pilfered the treasures of the worthiest master who ever
breathed? of a friend, that he hath cast off the truest
What alone preserves the Church. 313
friend ? of a lover, that he hath been treacherous to the
faithfullest, truest lover? of every relative offence, that
it is committed against the best and noblest, most genei'-
ous and forgiving disposition in those who are offended
against? Why, dear brethren, these are the very head
and front of offences. It is not the quantity of dust
that hath changed hands, it is not the piece of matter
which hath got a new master, that makes the complaint ;
but it is a rent heart, a violated trust, which crieth for
vengeance. And if this be so, as you all know well how
truly it is so, I affirm, that to have belonged to the visible
Church, to have been baptized, and to have known God
in the various relations of Fatlier, Friend, Lover, Master,
Eedeemer, Saviour, and Lord, and whatever else is tender,
reverend, and awful amongst men, and yet to have re-
jected Him, to have turned a deaf ear to Him, to have
defrauded Him of the kindred affection and service, doth
heap upon our head the accumulated amount of the penal-
ties which, in the statute-book, are found written against
the various violated relationships of '.righteousness, and
doth add to the amount thereof, all which poets have
truly imagined, and sentimentalists have represented in
the most romantic and incidental relationships, whereof
the statute-book taketh no cognisance. Such is the nature
of the guiltiness of a man in covenant with God : and do
they call this nothing? Is this to be lost sight of, and
not spoken of? Are men who have thus offended to be
dealt with as the ignorant and unconscious, the supersti-
tious and idolatrous heathen, called the world, and under-
stood to be as if they had never known and never despised
the knowledge of God? As the Lord liveth, while I
have the privilege and the vocation of dealing truth from
the pulpit of a Church established in these lands, I will
never suffer such a thing to be said or thought without
the most instant and urgent appeal to the law and the
testimony of our God.
( 314 )
USE OF MONEY.
Money of itself — that is, the silver and the gold which
is usually so denominated — hath few intrinsic qualities for
which it should be so desired and sought after, and few
uses to which it can be rendered serviceable. In this
respect, being compared with iron, or with brass, or even
with wood, or with stone, it is a poor servant of man ; but
being compared with bread and w^ater, and the other
kindly fruits of the earth, it sinks into utter worthlessness ;
and, therefore, there be very few who love it on its own
account. And when this does happen, as with avaricious
misers, it is only one particular foim of the passion of
covetousness, which form it hath assumed gradually by a
law common to all our passions, of transferring to the
object by which they are gratified the love and j)leasures
of the gratification itself. For, even wdth the miser, it is
at the beginning as with all other men, that he loves and
desires silver and gold, not for their hardness, or their
weight, or their colour, or their brilliancy, or any other of
their intrinsical qualities, but because, from their scarcity
and durableness, and other conveniences, they have long .a
been to man the means by which everything in the visible a
world may be purchased and made our own. It is this
quality of money for which the world prizes it so highl}^
and pursues it so earnestly, and it is this quality of money
for which the apostle stigmatiseth it so sorely. It piir-
chaseth everything that is sensual and visible, and it can
purchase nothing that is spiritual and invisible. Every
bodily desire it can gratify. It can minister luxury to
every sense, and it can gratify every evil passion of the
mind. Vanity cannot display herself without money.
Ambition mtist have a key of gold to open the doors of
that crooked labyrinth through which he winds his way to
power and office. As the times go, j'ou cannot attain to any
office of honour and trust, but by scattering abroad the
arguments of money ; and \\'hen you have them, you cannot
hold them without the qualifi-cation of money with which
Use of JMojicy. 3 1 5
to raaintain their state, and satisfy tlio rapaciousness of
your constituents, and of all men with whom you have
to do. Base degenerate age ! with their feasts and their
frolics and their fooleries, they have fairly cast out the
honour of virtuous poverty, the nobleness of honest and
upright service, the manliness, self-denial, and content-
ment with little ; — it is all gone, it is all departed : thrifty
housewives, blitnt and honest tradesmen, industrious chil-
dren, homely comfort, independent citizens, trustworthy
office-bearers, incorruptible senators, and magnanimous
nobles, and whatever else did heretofore make this land
amongst the surrounding nations fii'm and established as
the rocks which girdle her round stand unmoved, and
frown fearfully upon the boisterous waves. Money hath
corrupted the nerves and sinews of our state, the well-
braced framework of which lies all dissolved abroad in
luxury and venality ; but it hath descended, as we said,
to us all. In such extravagant customs have we been
trained — amongst such indulgences to which our fathers
were strangers — such a style of entertaining our friends —
such costly dresses for appearing decently amongst them
— such frippery and foolery of dress, as if we were chil-
dren's toys instead of immortal souls — such costly furniture
in our houses — such gilded wares for our tables, and orna-
ments for our walls — such an outwardness, and unsnb-
stantialness, and expensiveness in all the economy of life,
that no man can escape from it so as to return back again
to the simplicity of our natural wants. The style and
fashion of living is so costly, and so far beyond the ordi-
nary powers of industry, that men are forced either to
make slaves themselves all the day and all the week long,
or else they are tempted to launch out into speculations
and adventures, or start ways of obtaining that supply
of money which w^e now feel, as it were, necessary to our
existence.
It is thus that money hath become not only necessary
for "providing things honest in the sight of all men," and
the elements of contentment, which are food and raiment,
3 1 6 Practical.
but likewise for Boiirisliiug those appetites of tlie "body
•whicli should be restrained and denied, and those affections
of the natural man which it is the part of a Christian to
mortify and put to death. This comes of giving public
opinion that influence over us which in these times it
L.oldeth, instead of withstanding the world at every step
as an enemy, and fearing most of all its overtures of friend-
ship and alliance ; for the friendship of the world is enmity
with God. At this day it hath become as indispensable for
a Christian to guard himself against the accommodations
of Christians as heretofore it was for Christians to guard
themselves against the world. If indeed it has pleased the
Lord to endue any of His servants with large substance, I
think it is their part to live as becometh their rank in life ;
but I steadily object that any Christian should adopt the
worldly and ambitious maxims, the notions of living, the
desii'cs of accumulation, the ideas of education and settle-
ment to their children, which at present obtain in every
rank and class of the community, — otherwise it will plunge
them into the same sea of troubles in which the souls of
the multitude are at present engulfed. Ye shall find it
difficult enough, my brethren, to resist the tide that is flow-
ing around you, even when possessed of all disposition to
resist it ; but being under the influence of the same moving
powers 3'e shall but swell the tide, and swim with it to the
same gulf of perdition. Oh that I could tell as I can per-
ceive, oh that I could withstand as I can tell, the cunning
wiles of Satan to destroy the Church of Christ! But of
them all this seems to me the most efficient which he hath
constructed in the midst of sweet society, and under the
canopy of honourable life, and by the sanction of continual
custom. Oh, how I feel myself enthralled by it ! how
fondly would I shake it off! How gladly would I become
as a fisherman in the Galilean lake, or as a peasant of my
native land ! How fondly I would escape the artifices
with which Satan daily succeeds against me, arising out of
the intricate forms of this artificial life ! — escape from the
painful reflection of having neglected some of its forms,
Religion the Root of all friiitftil Labour. 3 1 7
and from the self-complacency of having discharged them.
Ah, I feel it to be like David going to encounter Goliath,
encumbered with the armour which Saul gave him, thus to
encounter iSatan -v^^ith all the expedient forms and fashions
of the world hanging heavy around me. Kay, it is worse ;
David's armour did only overweigh his strength, it did not
open a way to his adversaries' weapons ; but this paltrj''
disguise of manhood, this mimicry of humanity which
hath gotten the upper hand of this generation, is not only
a weakening of the Church's strength, but contains in
itself a poison to destroy her, like that garment by which
it is said, in the deep mythology of the heathens, Hercules,
that personification of manly virtue, was destroyed.
EELIGION THE ROOT OF ALL FRUITFUL LABOUR.
"What mean those idle and pestilent fellows by their
doctrines of Eremites, and Stylites, and monastic orders,
and other self-denying ordinances — self-denying in the
letter, but self-adoring in the spirit? The cowards, the
unpitiful churls, the unproductive sloths, is it for this that
God sets men free from spiritual bonds, that they may
build them prison walls, and naked cells, and addict them-
selves to fleshly torments, and leave the wilderness a wilder-
ness still, and make the city a waste, and the fertile field a
desolate waste? Upon such abusers of the Lord's gifts,
and perverters of His purpose. He will rain fire and brim-
stone and storms of fur}'. And I discern the like spirit in
a mitigated form, appearing amongst us Protestants, as it
will always appear in every time of extreme ignorance like
the present. That separation from certain of the honest
customs of life, which is beginning to be introduced as
parts of religious duty, the proscription of innocent mirth,
and well-timed hilarity, the violent philippics against the
sports and amusements of the field, the proscriptions of
that free and easy discourse which our fathers entertained,
the formation of a religious world different from the other
o
/
1 8 Practical.
world, and the getting up of certain outward visible tests
of a religious character, the proscribing of all books unless
they expressly treat upon some religious subject ; also your
Moravian establishments, and Methodist dresses, and many
other things which I could name, savour to me of the same
ignorance and misuse of the creature which the Papists
carried to its perfection, as indeed they did every other
abomination. In one word, all this is bondage, miserable
bondage : the creation waileth to be liberated by liberated
man. And shall redeemed man desert the redeeming of
the creation? The creature luveth to be subject unto man,
and shall man refuse its homage ? Then God will cut him
short for his churlish heart, and leave him to pass from the
prison of nature into the prison of his own will.
Look around and behold this land in which we dwell,
and which our fathers, by the might of God, wrested from
these papal destroyers of the earth ; — behold how it blooms
and blossoms abundantly ; — behold how full it is of all
manner of tamed and industrious beasts ; — behold how full
it is of horses and of chariots ; — behold how the wild and
ravenous beasts have ceased from the land, the dragon and
the crooked serpent ; — behold how creation is I'edeemed
by the redemption of tlie Church, how the forest timber
bears the burden, and the mine yields the implements of
the nation's defence ; — behold how everything rejoiceth be-
cause of that most enlightened and noble constitution of
the Church, which our fathers set up. It was not in reli-
gious parties, nor in religious meetings at taverns, nor in
class-meetings, nor such like accomplishments of these lat-
ter daj^s, that they went about their work of glorifying
God : but in the palace, and in the court, and in the high
parliament, and, above all, in the pulpit, in the congrega-
tion of the people, and in the camp, and in the tented field.
And the minister of the gospel did not separate a few from
the rest of his flock or perish, to coax and cozen them into
self-esteem and uncharitableness ; but he went about into
every house, instructing every family, and examining the
people, and enlightening them : and had any man better
Religion the Root of all fruitful Labour. 319
gifts or Luger knowledge than his neighbours, then he was
advanced to be an elder of the congregation : and was any-
one of a good understanding in atfairs, and able to take the
charge of God's household goods, then he was made a dea-
con of the congregation; and another, who had skill in
learning, and able to teach the youth, was appointed
schoolmaster of the youth ; and another was a catechist,
and another was a reader, and every father of a family
was a sponsor for his family ; and so the Avork went on like
a work of God, reclaiming and reforming the whole state
of the i^eople. And forthwith the land began to yield its
increase ; the mountains were covered with sheep, and the
little hills with herds, and the valleys with corn: the in-
genuity of man teemed with inventions, and the arts grew
up spontaneous. And behold the blessed fruits of the whole
in the well-watered garden of this northern island, which
yoii may be convinced of by comparing it with papal Italy,
or Spain, or France, or any other enthialled dominion of
the apostasy. And for their men of war, they are as stub-
ble to our bow ; they dare not, no one of the nations dare
sustain our onset and charge of battle — the very cheer of
our seamen is like the lion's roar in their ear, and turns
their hearts to ciddness : and our soldiers, with a naked
'sword in their naked hand, coated with their woollen,
clothes, can put to rout their men harnessed in burnished
steel. Look, I say, on this island, and behold the redeem-
ing power of a redeemed Church, in the redeemed crea-
tures, and their obedient service to their kindlj- masters.
Behold every plant of the field ministering to us either
food, or clothing, or medicine. Oh ! behold how kindly
the fruits of the earth have become, how generous and
cheerful; — behold how beautiful they are; how large?
juicy, and productive, when recovered from their natural
wildness ; how they rejoice and sing for joy in the midst
of us, because God hath made them glad. \\hich all
Cometh of man's resuming his lordship over the creation,
and redeeming it from tlie power of the enemy, according
as God resumeth His lordship over him, and the law of the
320 Pj^aciical.
Spirit of life maketh him free from the law of sin and
death. Having obtained the victory through the operation
of the Holy Ghost over the law of sin and death which is
in his members, he cannot help communicating the victory
to all the creatures which surround him. The fruits of the
Spirit are produced in the understanding, which judgeth
by the sense ; they are produced also in the sense ; and
how shall they terminate there, and not extend to the crea-
tures with which the sense holdeth continual communion?
The gentleness which the Spirit worketh will extend itself
to the creatures, towards whom it will be humanit}^ and
mercy : the decency and order wliich the Spirit delighteth
in, will shew itself towards the creatures in all good hus-
bandry and beautiful assortments : the temperance which
the Spirit worketh in every sense will place bounds to our
enjoyment, and prevent the creatures from being degraded
and misused by excess, and will work economy in all quar-
ters ; the joy of heart and cheerful hospitality which the
Spirit worketh, will prevent all niggardly hoardings of the
creature, and avaricious covetings of it ; and, in one word,
every talent which God hath given unto man for redress-
ing, redeeming, and ruling over, and blessing the inferior
creatures, having yet to be called into account by God,
who suffers no hiding of it, but requireth it to be pro-
fitably employed, will put forth its activity and power
under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, in order to accom-
plish that good ministry unto all things for which it was
originally given, and hath since been redeemed. And the
eye is sanctified to the perception of heavenly beauty,
before whose purified vision the concealed heaven on earth
is unveiled, and all things make mentiou to it of God.
God, who by faith is discovered, is by the holy eye recog-
nised in all things : and it diseourseth largely over the
creatures conceming the perfection of God, and the work-
manship of God the Creator of all things ; yea, and the
tokens of Christ the Eedeemer of all things are dimly per-
ceived beneath the veils of sense ; and I may say that the
sense of sight, that best interpreter of the visible, is made
TV/iat may be Expected from PrcacJiing. 3 2 r
subservient to the interpreting Spirit of God. And the ear
is hallowed to hear the sound of the Creator and the Re-
deemer's praise, in all soimds which are heard on the sur-
face of the world ; the songs of birds, and the lowing of
the cattle ; the roarings of the young lions, which, seek
their meat from God; all storms and tempests, and raging
winds, whose violence is restrained of God, do speak into
the ear of the spiritual man the glory of God. The rain-
bow in the heavens telleth of His covenant of peace, and
the raging of the sea declareth His power, who saith,
" Hitherto shall ye come, and here shall your proud waves
be stayed." Everything is sanctified, every creature of
God is made good by the sanctification of the holy word,
and the dedication of devout prayer. War itself is made
holy, and the man of war is converted into a minister of
the holy purj)oses of God. The whole machinery of Divine
providence is explained ; the mystery of the present dis-
pensation is unfolded; and with the liberty of the Holy
Spirit, which expresseth itself in the Psalms and the Pro-
phets, the man of divine wisdom is enabled to expatiate
over all the elements and over all the creatures, and to
sing, as it is written in Ps. civ. and in many other psalms,
of whose comfortable use the spiritual Church availeth
herself but little in this her shrivelled dotage, " The glory
of the Lord shall endure for ever : the Lord shall rejbice in
his works. He looketh on the earth and it trembleth ; ho
toucheth the hills, and they smoke. I will sing unto the
Lord as long as I live ; I will sing praise to my God while
I have my being. My meditation of him shall be sweet : I
■will be iilad in the Lord."
WHAT MAY BE EXPECTED FROM PEEACHIXG.
FouASMUCH as the preaching of the word is all the means
of converting men, which under this present dispensation
we do hold in our hand, and the Word himself doth declare
that it was to be effectual only to a very partial conversion
X
32 2 Practical.
of men, I judge it to be manifest that we are not yet
furnished with the means for the universal conversion of
the world ; and that we have reason to expect, before that
great event promised in all the prophecies can take effect,
some other instrument, more efficacious than any which we
at present possess : and that, though the ministry of the
gospel be universal in respect to the bounds over which it
is commissioned, it is not universal in respect to the end
which it hath to accomjilish ; but only partial, as was the
ministry of the law and the prophets, which raised up a
race of prophets and witnesses in one nation, whereas it is
our higher province to raise up a race of prophets and
witnesses for God over all nations.
This is a most important conclusion, which the preacher
of the gospel must ever bear in mind, otherwise he will
wholly frustrate and pervert the intention of the great
Prophet of our calling. If he take up the notion that the
gospel is for univeisal conversion, he will be like to a man
rushing into the battle with armour which he believes to
be enchanted against the dint of hostile weapons, whereas
the enchantment is only in his own Quixotic fancy, as he
will prove at the first onset : and, finding that he doth not
succeed, according to his fond expectation and false hope,
in bearing down all opposition, he will next begin to
imagine that this poor success ariseth from his own un-
skilfulness; which he beginneth forthwith to amend by
various sleights of tongue and cunning artifices, gracious
accommodations and pious frauds, in order to bring about
that universal triumph over wickedness, which was never
intended to be the trophy of preaching under its present
form. I have no doubt, though I cannot in this place spare
time to demonstrate at length, that the greater part of the
corruptions of preaching have sprung from this very error,
of expecting the conversion of the whole world from the
faculties with which Christ hath endowed the ministers of
the word, instead of expecting merely the raising up of a
race of witnesses, by whose patient testimony to condemn
the world, and justify that great act of visible judgment
What may be Expected from PreacJiiiig. 323
■with wliicli this present dispensation is to be consummatet.1,
and the universal dispensation is to be ushered in, at the
second coming of the Lord. This remark is not less im-
portant to hearers than to preachers of the word. Fur,
while it delivers the latter from false expectations, and
wicked endeavours to insinuate a corrupt and disguised
gospel into the world, it teacheth the former that the very
word which is unto salvation may fail to convert them —
nay, will fail, and bj God is designed to fail — except on
their parts they bestir themselves to activity, and watch
against the enemies of the word, who contend against it so
successfuly, and who shall surely defeat its efficacy, unless
they be fellow-workers with the Spirit of God and the
ministers of His holy word.
The word of God is eyes to the blind, understanding to
the simple, and very nigh unto us all. The truth of God
is plain unto children, and His fear is the beginning of
wisdom, and His praise is ordained even out of the mouths
of babes and of sucklings. Mothers can testify how easy
access the lessons of early piety findeth to the slender
capacities of childhood ; and missionaries, who have ad-
dressed the word to the rudest of heathens, have manifested
how little the gospel dependeth for its success upon the
previous culture of the mind. There is, indeed, no error
more fatal to the heathen world than that we must wait
the previous culture of literature and science before
preaching the gospel unto them : and at home there is an
error fast encroaching upon our schools, and shewing itself
in our school-books, that years must be waited for, and the
ripening of understanding before the faith can be received.
And, among the many errors which adult baptism teudeth
to, it is none of the least that it should favour this notion,
that men are not competent to faith from their earliest
youth, but must wait for maturity of 5'ears. But, to put
all this beyond a doubt, our Lord hath said, when sj)eaking
of the reception and rejection of His word, that it was
" hid from the wise and the prudent, and revealed unto
babes ;" which St. Paul hath confirmed in these words,
Y 2
324 Practical.
" Not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not
many noble, are called."
SUNSHINE CHRISTIANS.
Until self lieth prostrate under the feet of Him who is
love, it must ever come to pass that the pleasant and joyful
religion, which easily accommodateth itself to circum-
stances, and feels not the adverse stream of the world, nor
the enmity of nature, will yield and give way when temp-
tation Cometh. That cost they had not counted : evil
report was what they had not dreamed of. They stept out
of the good report of the irreligious world, at once into the
good report of the religious world : they were shouldered
by the religious mob, and their path strewed with palm
boughs, as if they had already fought the fight and come to
the triumph. The sandy foundation endureth the short
cahn of approbation and admiration ; but when the wind
blows, and the rain descendeth, and the streams flow, and
beat upon the house, the house falls, being founded upon
the sand. When self begins to be truly a loser in that
quarter which they love, when persecutions begin to arise
for the word, and the things seen begin to disappear, and
nothing but faith remain eth, and the invisible things of
faith, then these fall away ; their season is past ; they live
in the sunbeam, and cannot endure the dark and troubled,
conditions of the soul ; they are gone, they are not found.
But when the sunbeam shall break forth again, and the
heat of the sunshine breed the gay and beautiful creatures,
they will ascend upon the wing again, and play their merry
dance and mimicry of action, shewing also their little points
of variegated light, and after a season they will pass again,
and be no more seen nor heard. And thus it is that perse-
cution is the purifying and building up of the body of
Christ, and martyrdom is its crowning. Then it is you
can discern the election from the woiid, the true veteian
soldiers and hardy fighting men from the general cavalcade
S'unsJiinc Christians. 325
and universal mnstcr wliicli in time of jieace come forth, at
ihe call of shallow enthusiasm, and through the epidemic
influence of a popular cause.
A\ liilc so much of the spirit of society is engrafted into
the Church, and the Chinch itself so defrauded of her doc-
trines— 1 mean, such doctrines as election of grace, union
■with Christ, the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, and the
perseverance of the saints ; and while her sacraments are
prostituted as they are upon the swine Avhich wallow in the
beastly sty of this world, we shall continue to have such a
ministry and such a community as the second part of the
I)arable of the Sower describeth. Converts such as they are
numerous enough, while strong men are utterlj^ failing from
the midst of us : and no standard-bearers, no men of the
spii'it of Caleb and Joshua, are found to spy out the land of
the enemj', and report it practicable for the Lord's host to
go in and possess it. Like the men of Benjamin, they will
turn their backs in the day of battle : or, to prognosticate
more tridy, they will never see any need for battle, because
they believe that the enemy may be overcome by treaty ;
that he is capable of being satisfied in his demands, of
being soothed with sweet words, and cajoled with fair pro-
mises, and won over by skilful arts to the friendship and
the service of Christ : which is exactly at this day the popu-
lar notion amongst us, that there is not to be w^ar for ever
between Israel and Amalek, but that now the time is come
for circumcising Amalek, and taking him into the bosom of
the covenant. Such is the notion of the world which at
tliis day existeth in the Church, that if you could but hire
<_now of missionaries, and scatter abroad the leaves of enow
of Bibles, no matter how adulterated, the naughty and
bitter waters of nature would be healed. Such Christians,
such theologians, I am ashamed of: you certain!}' are not
'f the seed of your fathers: and let your mothers, the
* Lurch of Scotland and the Church of England, blush for
you, because you are bastard children. And they call it a
luvival : it is such a revival, such a transient gleam and mo-
mentary brightening up as the dying man hath immediately
oo6 Practical.
befove the last strug-le with death;— so near to death do I
believe the Gentile Church to be arrived ; and this I judge
from the character of the revival. For while I saw the
thews, and sinews, and mighty bones of the sleeping Pro-
testant Church, I looked on amazed at his giant trame,
and imagined that he might have piled Ossa on Pelion, and
made war with the principalities of wickedness in hea-
venly places ; but he awaketh, he reviveth from his sleep,
and all my hopes evanish. His limbs he cannot erect, or
even move, and hardly turn upon the bed : his voice is re-
turned to childish infancy, and his feeble arm trembleth
with age ; rheums infest him everywhere, and the breath
of lifel-aileth, and his mighty proportions of body are his
oppressions ; and I know that he will never stand to war
acrain, or do exploits of battle. The revival of the Gentile
C?iurch is such a demonstration to me of her close ap-
proachino- end. The soil is thin, the seed can do no more
than o-lve this hasty show of vegetation : the waters of the
Spirit" cannot help the growth, but do only bring it more
speedily to its premature bearing of empty husks ; and all
because it hath no depth of soil. The sun will arise, a day
of temptation will spring np, and they will wither down
and become meet companions for the tares, to be eaten and
to be trodden under foot by the cattle of the field.
THE SEAKCH FOR NOVELTY.
Theee is too much latitude allowed to this flighty fluctu-
ating disposition, in what they call the religious world. For
my part I know and will acknowledge no religious world.
I know' only the Church and the world : but I know no
religious world. You might as well speak of a bright dark-
nes? or a bitter sweetness, or a righteous wickedness, as
speak of a religious world. Yet so it is, we have such a
name ; ay, and we have such a thing ; where, with de-'
votedness to God's glory and the Church's good, and a
o-reat mixture of excellent intentions of soul, there are pre-
The Search for Novelty . 327
sent, at the same time, tlie love of show, the desiio of
popular applause, the love of large assemblies, hunger and
thirst for excitement, idle and nourishing talk, vapouring
and vaunting speeches, idolatry of one another, self-com-
placency, with much more which belongeth not to the
Church of Christ, but is the staple commodity of the world.
From which intermixture I augur no good.
It is my office to warn you against all love of spectacle
and from all hasting after novelties ; and to press upon you
a grave sedate spirit, which loves communion with truth,
seeks instruction and edification in righteousness, not
pleasure and entertainment, and rejoices in simplicity and
sincerity and truth ; because in such a spirit only will the
word of God take deep root, and bring forth much fruit to
the praise and glory of God. Therefore, I warn you, and
diligently admonish you, in hearing the word from my lips,
or the lips of other ministers, to weigh the matter, and ap-
ply the matter, and bring it home to your conscience, and
during the week to prepare your souls for it, by a most
conscientious and honest discharge of every office, and ut-
terance of ever}' thought, to hate the very appearance of
falsehood, and on no account of jest, or courtesy, or com-
pliment, or apology, to utter a lie : also to look into the
spiritual properties of all things, their relation to God and
the immortal soul; not to gaze upon the changing forms
and convenient uses which they have. For men's minds
in this day, by idleness and vanity, and the exaggeration of
appearances, and neglect of realities, have grown into a
volatile, versatile character, which cannot bear the spiritual
matters and unchanging realities of the gospel, but Avould
have it also translated into the conditions of space and
time, made meet for the present passing life, and accommo-
dated to the conveniences of the place in which we have
our abode. Therefore I do require it of you, to be grave
and sincere in all your discourses and dealings with one
another, to be moved by spiritual considerations, and for
spiritual ends ? and to measure the value of things by their
godly uses ; and it shall come to pass that the doctrines of
o
28 Practical.
the word will take a deep root in your souls, and be of a
continnal service in your lives, and be desired as meat and
drink, and be needful as the light unto your eyes, and the
lamp unto your path, a guide to your understanding, and a
consolation to your heart ;_ your wisdom, your righteous-
ness, your glory and salvation.
DEFERENCE TO OPINION.
I AM now exposing to your sight the most powerful of all
Satan's temptations, the idol of the time, the idol of the place,
I may say the terror of all men ; for I have met with very few,
hardly one in a thousand, who can stand up in the face of
public opinion and say, " I will do thus, say it or gainsay it
who please." A sentence in a newspaper will cow a man's
honesty more than an opened battery will his valour. It
hath become the very necessary of men's life, to feed on the
public opinion of their brethren. We are become an out-
ward people, from the top to the bottom of the community;
and therefore the word of God can make little or nothing of
us. Can you make the unstable water change places with .,
the immovable mountains, or the sands of the windy desert \
erect themselves into pillars of strength ? So soon shall you
make that spirit stand attentive and steadfast before the
unchangeable word of God, which is accustomed to give
way in the daily affairs of life to the changeable and expe-
dient world. Nor let any man go to take out an exception
for himself, as if he were exempt from the temptation. The
man who feeleth and acknowledgeth it, is the man of whom
there is some hope : the man who hath not felt, and doth
not acknowledge it, is the man of whom there is no hope
for the present: and the man who addresseth himself to
defend it is the man of whom there is no hope at all. I
preach it solemnly and advisedly, on the authority of the
Lord that there is no hope of any one who is given up to this
outward authority and government of others. He hath no
root in himself; he is a changeling: the seed of the word
Deference to Opinion. 329
will as soon grow upon the salt sea as in his heart ; the
foam of the waves of the sea will as soon prove a nourishing
soil to the seed of corn, as his stony and harren heart, his
wavering and irresolute will, will prove a soil for the word
of God. He is as chaff driven before the wind, and he shall
not stand in the judgment.
Do you ask me what is the remedy ? I ask you in return,
do you believe that the disease is mortal ? If you shuffle
the question to a side, and will, not answer directly, that
you do believe it to be a deadly disease, I hold no further
intercourse with you. For I am not here to soften down
my Lord's peremptory words, or to dilute ITis gospel to
please a diseased taste : which were to make myself ob-
noxious to the like condemnation ; to unteach the lesson in.
the teaching of it ; to do you harm, and to do myself harm,
and to dishonour the gospel of the Lord. But if you admit
that the spirit of world-pleasing is a spirit of death, and
desire to know how you may be delivered from its thraldom,
then hear what I have to say unto you from the Lord who
bought you with His blood from the world's oppressor.
The world is to be destroyed, and the things that are
therein, because they are altogether enmity to God. V\ hen
Christ Cometh in judgment, its bulwarks, its towei'S, and
its high places, its pleasures and enjoj'ments, the noise
of its viols, the vanity of its attire ; its barns and store-
houses ; its courts, and palaces, and chambers of revelry ;
its pomp, and pride, and bravery, with all its flatteries,
and lies, and dissimulations, shall be destroyed, along with
every one who had pleasure therein : and there shall be a
new heaven and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteous-
ness ; and holiness unto the Lord shall be upon every
person, and upon every object, and nothing shall enter
thereinto which defileth or maketh a lie. Believest thou
that in the regeneration all these things shall be changed,
the impure alloy purged out of them by fire ; Satan, the
spirit of corruption, who hath abused them, shall be cast
out ; a gi-eater shall enter into his house and spoil his
goods ; and that greater is Christ, who shall exalt in that
^2,0 Practical.
day those who have overcome the world, and cast down
into hell those whom the world hath overcome ? Believest
thoii this ? I ask thee to believe it not as a figure, but as
a reality ; that the principles which now govern the world
shall be subverted, and the powers which now hold it shall
be overthrown ; that righteousness shall be exalted, and
the righteous shall have it in everlasting possession. And
therefore thou art in love with death, thou art wedded to
the grave, thou hast sold thyself to Satan, if thou abidest
in the desire and love of the world as it now is.
SPIRITUAL SUICIDE.
I HAVE likened the apostasy from Christ, which pre-
cliideth all hope of repentance, unto the act of suicide,
which a man committeth against his own natural life,
because I believe that every baptized person is brought
into responsibility for a new life. Now, I cannot help
making an observation which is suggested to my mind by
this comparison. It is well known to j^ou that in inquests
holden upon suicides, the great point to be ascertained
is whether the act had been committed in a sound or an
insane state of his mind — the latter being justly accounted
no crime, the former a great one. This confirms by a
solemn practice what most of you may have observed
or read of, that when men fall into a state of insanity,
they are very liable to do the act of suicide ; as, indeed, I
have personally known in the case of two of the most holy
and benevolent men ; and this action, being done in the
absence of reason, is not looked upon as a crime for which
they are responsible to the laws of men or of God. Now,
it hath been af&rmed to me by the most competent wit-
nesses, that there is nothing which so much prepares the
way for insanity as indulgence of parents to the wilfulness
of their children. I remember to have been told by a
physician who had the charge of the asylum of the most
populous county in the empire, that nine out of ten of all
spiritual Suicide. 331
llie cases were cases of persons who liad been indulged
•md spoiled in theii' cliildhood. Whether the disorder
Mated in the constitution led to this wilfulness, or whether
the wilfulness of the child produced the madness of tlie
man, he took not upon him to say ; but he did solemnly
assure me that the fact was as I have stated it above.
Taking it, therefore, to be so, I have to observe that it
casts much light upon the mysterious act of apostasy or
spiritual suicide ; shewing us, first, that the madness which
leadeth thereto doth begin in the resistance of the autho-
rity and rejection of the love of our parents. And whom
baptism doth constitute our parent the ordinance itself
declare th : " I baptize thee in the name of the Father, of
the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." Being thus brought into
the family of the Father, we testify the first beginnings of
that spiritual malady which endeth in apostasy by reject-
ing the love and refusing the commands of our Father
which is in heaven. And what is His love, and what is
His commandment? Is not His love the giving of His
Son to be crucified for us ? " God so loved the world, that
he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever belie veth in
him should not perish, but have everlasting life." And
what is His commandment ? Is it not to honour the Son,
even as we honour the Father ? And how do we honour
the Son but by keeping His commandments ? And is it
not His dying commandment, " Do this in remembrance of
me " ? In His death upon the cross, the love of the God-
head shone most gloriously. In the holy supper, comme-
morative of His death, the commandment of Christ is as it
were centred and fixed. And methinks it is the last act of
wilfulness in the children to set at nought this meat, which
hath been prepared at so much cost, and is fraught with so
much benefit and blessedness. It is as if a child should
refuse the wholesome bread for which his father's brow
hath sweat, and which his mother's hand hath carefully
prepared. And truly as wise parents in such a case of
frowardness are wont to act, by setting aside the despised
meat, and suffering the little recreant to prove the pains of
332 Practical.
hunger, and come to liis senses again, and tlien to present
before liim tbat which he had rejected ; so doth the Church,
your mother, patiently and lovingly put forward, from time
to time, the manna from heaven, angels' food, the flesh and
blood of Christ, which wnth so much cost the Father pre-
pared, and serveth the Church withal, for the nourishment
of His house. This meat, I say, which is meat indeed, and
this drink which is drink indeed, we do set forth to you
again and again ; which if you again and again reject, it
will come to pass that the nourishment of life, the only
nourishment of spii-itual life, being by you refused, starva-
tion, death by starvation, will ensue ; which will not be
the less wilful self-murder, becaiTse there hath been no
other act of the will, no absolute voluntary renunciation
of, and blasphemy against, the Holy Ghost. And thus
truly it is that multitudes ]3ass into eternity guilty of the
unpardonable sin of apostasy, who have never, by any
actual renunciation, but by the neglect of the means and
ordinances of life, brought themselves to that hideous
perdition. But wherever an act of wilful apostasy doth
supervene upon the neglect of ordinances, it can, like the
suicidal act, most frequently be traced back to the rejec-
tion of our heavenly Father's affection, and the refusal
of His commandment to bear testimony to the death and
resurrection of His Son fur our reconciliation and justifi
cation.
IDOLATRY OF SENSE AND ITS EFFECTS.
When the mind of man hath made free with the revela-
tions of God, which are to be entertained by faith alone,
and devoted its worship and obedience to creatures of the
imagination, or in its vanity subjected the revelation to
reason, and counts as a vain thing every mystery, and
every purity, and every spiritual doctrine and duty which
the natural man in his pride or ignorance or sensuality
gainsayeth; where either of these idolatries are, — which,
truly, are one idolatry with a difterent object — the former
Idolat)-y of Sense audits Effects. 333
of the ideal, the other of the rational ; the one of mere
sense, the other of the richer gifts of the soul, — it will come
to pass, after a season, that the senses of the body will
come in for their share in the work, and insist on having
some outward form or similitude of that divinity which the
mind hath framed. In the rude and barbarous conditions
of society, where the intellect is still in its embryo state,
or cultivated only for the gratification of the sense, they
begin by giving to their ideas of God a sensible form, being
able to conceive of no abstract power, dignity, or beauty,
save that which is embodied in a form; and because the
human fonn is the most noble, their deities have that form,
with exaggeration of those features wherein the chief virtue
of the god is imagined to reside. And if the arts have kept
pace with their ideas, as in ancient Greece, they do then
call upon the artist to present to the sense the best effigies
which he can make of that grace, strength, majesty, or
loveliness which they have imagined in their god ; and
there the idolatry of the sense keepeth pace with the
idolatry of the imagination. But when a revelation hath
been received by any people, — whether Avritten in a book,
as amongst the Jews and Christians, or handed down by
tradition, as amongst the Egyptians and the other nations
which reach farther back and join hard to the patriarchal
times, — then the idolatry of the sense hath a different
origin and progress, and springeth out of the constant ten-
dency of the sensible and carnal man to unspiritualise
everj'thing, and to bring everything down to his own vile
and vulgar service. The number of the people who are
wholly occupied with sensible things so preponderates over
those who are devoted to the spiritual things of revelation,
that there is no possibility of supplying them with spiritual
teachers in sufficient numbers, and the}^ act with such a
dead weight upon the teachers themselves that in a short
time both priests and people call for sensible forms by
which to express those truths which are contained in the
revelation. And you must either lose their reverence for,
yea, their very knowledge of, the revealed truths, or you
334 Practical.
mnst express tliem by some signs or symbols constructed
to the perception of those sensible faculties, of which alone
they understand the report. Hence, most frequently, out
of a pious but fatal accommodation to the sensible tastes of
the people, they are indulged with emblems of the Divinity
taken from amongst the animate or inanimate creatures,
which, for a while, remain in the twilight condition of em-
blems ; but soon the shades of popular ignorance set in,
and they become the very things for which they were at
first substituted as a representation. And now the idola-
try, being established in the popular mind, begins to react
upon those who were appointed keepers of the revelation,
and who have betrayed it to the carnal part of man, which
is the stronghold of the devil. And they are fain to
entrench the truth against the corruptions by various forms
of secrecy — hieroglyphics in Egypt, mysteries in Greece,
the Sibylline books in Eome, the secret and unwritten
verses among the Druids ; — all which I regard not as arti-
tificial blinds to hide truth from the people, but as good
and wise contrivances to defend the spiritual truth against
the idolatries of the people. And hence it is that whatever
is known of these receptacles of truth which existed in an-
cient times amongst the priests of all countries, and what-
ever hath come down of their opinions in verses, in laws,
or in fables, converge to one point — the knowledge of one
God, who created and governs all things, of a future state
of rewards and punishments, and the necessity of an atone-
ment for the sons of men. The great heads of Christian
doctrine are found at the foundation of all the ancient
religions, the idolatries being but the accommodation to
popular ignorance ; and how constant and true the force
of popular ignorance is, is manifested by the Catholic
superstition, which is no other than the ancient mythology
of gods and goddesses with the new names of holy men
and holy women, and their worship as perfect an idolatry
ac any that hath ever existed upon the face of the earth.
Such is the generation of sensual idolatry ; and if we give
ourselves a little to consider the nature of man, we shall
Idolatry of Sense and its Effects. 335
find tlie principles in his nature whose uniformity bringeth
about this uniformity of result. The ancients wore wont
to say that the mind of man was a microcosm, or little
world; in which, as in all their philosophical sayings,
there was shut up much wisdom and truth, for the world
is reflected in the mind as in a mirror, and the eye of the
body doth not more completely embrace the visible forms
of things than the eye of the understanding embraceth the
laws by which they are constructed, and changed in their
forms, and removed from their places. And science is, as
it were, the map which the mind hath constructed of the
places, and the chronological table of the changes of all
things ; and the end of science is to teach men where to
■ find them, and how to be prepared for them. Science is
a revelation of the visible creation, and a prophecy con-
cerning its future condition ; and the word of God is a
revelation concerning the present condition of the spiri-
tual creation, and a prophecy concerning its future state.
There is a part of man which existeth for the outward
M'orld, and which hath no discernment of a s^jiritual world,
and can have none : this is the seat and origin of all sensi-
ble idolatry. There is another part of man which hath no
dealings with the visible world, but existeth for the spiri-
tual world : this is the seat of true spiritual Avorship,
if enlightened from above by a revelation made to faith. If
not enlightened from above, it is the seat of the idolatry
of the imagination ; or if it submit the revelation made of
faith to reason, then it is the seat of the idolatry of reason
or common sense. To the former part of man — that wliich
communeth with the visible world — we must give our
stud}', if we would discover the true cause of all sensible
idolatrj', or image-worship, strictly so called.
When the knowledge of man in whole or in part con-
sisteth in sensible things, and the conceptions of his mind
are chiefly or wholly of that which he hath seen, or tasted,
or handled, or heard, and he is conversant with few ab-
stract ideas or principles, then he is an idolater not only in
religion but in everything, requiring always an image
33^ Practical.
or sign or type of the thing concerning which you speak tc
him ; and if there be no type, forming one in his mind
before he can give utterance to any sane thought or speak
with any intelligence of the matter. If it is of justice you
speak to him, he conjureth up the recollection of an assize,
and answers you according to its forms ; if it is of honesty,
the market-place is in his mind ; if of truth, he conceiveth
some fact accurately or falsely put into words ; if of human
well-being, a siifficient table and a comfortable dwelling-
j^lace is in his mind ; if of power, it is physical strength or
mechanical contrivances ; if of duty, it is certain outward
actions ; if of religion, it is forms and ceremonies ; if of
heaven, it is the heaven of a Mohammedan ; if of hell, it is
the hell of a pagan. Which types of spiritual things he
regardeth as the things themselves, and as such doth wor-
ship them, because the spirit within him is not quickened
to desire the good of its life, and find it beneath the sur-
face of all things, but the sense is always quickened to
desire the good of its life, and hath found it upon the
surface of all things. This is the Mosaic dispensation of
human nature — the spirit under the veil of flesh; and the
Mosaic dispensation is to be understood as designed for
this infantine condition of the human spirit, and most
wisely constructed, not to conceal the spiritual things, but
to reveal the spiritual things by the only manner of revela-
tion which was intelligible to the common mind of that
sensible age. But as the spirit of the people came out of
the cloud of sense, the dispensation brightened under the
prophets, addressing itself to hope and desire rather than
to sense. And the spiritual sun dawned not until both
Jewry and Greece and Eome had become so emancipated
from the sensible forms of the mind as to have schools of
sceptics, which always betoken an intellectual condition
of the mind. Notwithstanding Avhich it came to pass, that
in the early ages of our spiritual doctrine the sensible
forms of religion still clave to the people, so that in the
primitive church the spiritual part of man was in childhood,
and relapsed into complete idolatry until the Eeformation
Idolat7'y of Setise a7id its Effects. 337
brouglit lis back again to spiritual religion. And now
again the mind hath gotten into a sceptical mood with
regard to the fonus of the Protestant churches, craving
something more spiritual still, which makes me believe
that we stand upon the eve of a new outpouring of the
Spirit, the second coming of Christ, when the forms of
our present revelation shall be in some manner cleared
away, and we shall see more nearly face to face than at
present Ave are able to do.
The effect of sensible religion is to nourish the sense
into new life, and strengthen with the bulwarks of iron
the fleshly citadel of the devil, and to pour out over all the
people a deluge of gross sensuality; to paralyse intellect,
and if it spring up to root it out of the earth ; to beggar
the moral enterprise of the soul, to subvert domestic
purity, to prepare a people for the rod of tyranny here and
for the pit of Tophet hereafter. It is to consecrate the
bare prison of the soul, the brutal flesh which the very
heathen knew to be its prison, to consecrate the vile clay
into a sanctuary, to make its blind senses the conveyances
of spirit, as if you would convey light by an aqueduct, or
carry life in a transport ship. Oh, it doth make man's
lamentable case most hideous and miserable ! His spiritual
cajjacities it doth extirpate, and bring the people down as
low as human nature will go, while the masters of the
superstition do lash their bodies and their minds with
every form of penance and torture. To have shaken off
such a hopeless thraldom is the noblest, chiefest work of the
human soul.
And if the Protestant Churches would take a lesson how
to recover their former vigour and purity, they must know
it is only by the circulation of the word of God, — not the
book merely, but in the voice of all their preachers, in the
voice of fearless preachers, which being omitted, all socie-
ties, articles, liturgies, schools, and places of worship, will
stand them in no stead. It was by the foolishness of
preaching that the gospel prevailed at first; by the foolish-
ness of preaching it was recovered from a pit of supersti-
z
33^ Practical.
tion second only to the pit of hell ; and by the foolishness
of preaching, of gospel preaching in all its life and enei-gy,
will the Protestant faith keep its ground, or extend its
blessed emancipation to papal lands.
To the idolatry of the sense it is not necessary that there
should be a statue or a picture, as is shewn in the supersti-
tion of the Mohammedans, perhaps the most sense-cultivat-
ing and spirit-destroying superstition which ever existed in
the world ; yet hath it no image. But it is a religion of the
sense to the very core of it. Their prayers are all said
towards Mecca, and a prayer not said towards Mecca is no
prayer; their hope of heaven is a carnal hope, and their
fear of hell a carnal fear ; their law is no higher than a
political law or system of police, and their religion no sub-
jugation of the heart but of the sword, standing in ignor-
ance and sense, and never to fall but by the progress of
knowledge and reason, which will bring them into scepti-
cism,— a state into which the Hindoos are coming; and
this, before another evil power hath wraj)ped the people
in its chains, is the time to diffuse amongst them the
spiritual religion of Christ Jesus. Nothing is necessary to
the idolatry of the sense but ignorance, or darkness of the
mind, for the five senses always live, and are always active,
and in a state of ignorance they have the whole man unto
themselves ; and hence it is constantly held forth in Scrip-
ture that the eyes of our understanding must be opened
before we can have the fellowship of the gospel mystery,
which is Christ in us the hope of glory.
But when I say that a state of ignorance will always pro-
duce the idolatry of the sense, you will not make a con-
verse of the proposition, and infer that a state of knowledge
will destroy the evil plant, or eradicate its odour of death.
You do not destroy a plant by bringing it from the wilder-
ness, where it grew in the untutored wildness of nature,
into a garden, where it is treated with all the knowledge of
husbandry, but, on the other hand, you enlarge it, make it
of a monstrous and unnatural size, and greatly increase the
variety and brightness of its colours, and the plentifulness
Idolatry of Sense atid its Effects. 339
of its aromatic odour, and give it a new value and power
over tlie sense of man. So there is a certain kind of know-
ledge which doth as it were, cultivate this idolatry, and
make it more attractive over the learned than it was over
the unlearned condition of the mind. If the knowledge
come in by the sense, as all natural knowledge doth, and
the mind lay itself under to receive its impressions, whether
of beauty, as the artist doth, or of harmony, as the musician
doth, or of form and figure, as doth the mathematician, or of
pleasure, as doth the epicure ; then the idolatry, far from
being weakened by the increase of knowledge, is strength-
ened and confi.rmed in exact proportion thereto. Insomuch,
that I have ever found it more difficult to reveal a true
spiritual and super-sensual perception in the mind of an
enthusiastic naturalist than of a vulgar sensualist — the one
being conceited of his form of sensuality, the other rather
ashamed of it. And if I were called upon to say before
which of these two congi-egations of men, an institute or
royal society of savants, and a ring of wrestlers or pugilists,
I would prefer to prophesy concerning the spiritual doc-
trine of Christ, I would hope for more success witli the
latter. From the former it is, " What will this babbler
say ? " from the latter, " Leave us alone till a more con-
venient season." From the former there is scoffs, satire,
and ridicule ; from the latter, blows and wounds, which,
being patiently borne, work softness and relentings ;
whereas the former being patiently borne, work only more
contempt and self-glory. The clown who supposeth his
God to reside in the cathedral, and findeth Him at no time
and in no place but when there, excited by all the visible
emblems thereof, is not more an idolater than the artist who
finds no frames of high devotion save when he looks upon
the magnificent and picturesque forms of nature in the face
of the heavens or the earth, or in the varying aspects of the
' countenance of man, the pictixresque groupings of his com-
' panions, or the remarkable action of his varied adventures.
The one is as much an idolater of place and time, of sense
and sight, as is the other. And the naturalist is no better
z2
340 Practical,
tlian either, who finds no more elevated frames of his being
than when he discovereth another specimen of his art, or
discerneth a new relation amongst those which are dis-
covered to his hand. And I will advance a little further —
that man who finds his highest emotions and desires in a
well-governed state, or a prosperous family, or a high and
nohle station, or an eminent power, or a successful policy,
all those sorts of men who wed their noble spirits to some
present and realised forms of things, are at the heart and in
the sight of God, who regardeth the heart, idolaters as much
as is he who taketh a root out of the wood, with part of
which he warmeth himself, and with the residue maketh
unto himself a god, even a graven image, and falleth down
to it and worshippeth it, and saith to it, " Deliver me, for
thou art my God."
IDOLATEY OF INTELLECTUAL LIFE. m
Intellectual or rational life I place in the cultivation of
the powers and faculties of the mind, as I place sensual life
in the cultivation of the bodily afiections. Its food is
knowledge, learning is its discipline, and wisdom is its
reward. Its business at home is with thought, its excur-
sions abroad are with contemplation, its property is the
sum total of recorded truth, and its legacy is the new truth
which it can record for those that are to live after. It
liveth in the recorded past, it liveth also with the unseen
future, and it stretcheth its being over the world from pole
to pole. There is nothing in nature more sublime than
this life of the mind. It is the true distinction between
man and the lower creatures, as sensual life is their com-
mon tie. And it is a great recovery to draw a man from
wallowing in the mire of sense, to purify himself at the
fountain of reason and truth. It is a great advance in
human nature when it can be enamoured of books, which
are images of the soul, more than with the colours and
beauty of outward forms. Intellectual pleasure, in what-
ever it consists, whether in discourse, or in eloquence, or
Idolatry of hitellechial Life. 341
in argument for truth, and from whatever source derived,
from works of imagination, of taste, of pure reason, or of
expei'imental science ; from history, from poetry, or from
philosophy, — this pleasure is truly noble and honourable to
man, and never fails to elevate and refine the pleasures of
sense, and to make us in a considerable degree, sometimes
altogether, independent of them.
In ancient times this life of reason and thought was held
in such high esteem that, for its sake, the wisest and greatest
of men were content to set at nought the conveniences and
luxuries of sensual life, and live on the most frugal fare :
they became dead, or almost dead, to the distinctions of
bodily pleasure and pain, and placed their enjoyments in
the state of the mind w^ithin. They did in a manner elope
from the body and the physical world, in order to wed
themselves for life and for death to the company of the
soul. And those stoics, and cynics who had such strength
of purpose, and such devotion to their better part, are
worthy of the highest honour, even from us Christians,
seeing they knew not the true God to whom to offer their
sacrifice, and in the absence of divine knowledge paid
their deference and tribute to virtue and the perfection of
the soul, which are the best similitudes of God that natural
reason hath access to. But now that we know the most
excellent attributes of the Divine Mind, its holiness, its
bounty, and its unsearchable riches of mercy, — now that
we know His most noble works of power and love, the
populous earth, the wondrous deep, and the mighty host of
the sky, the heaven of heavens, with all the spiritual
essences which inherit these, — it indicates a sad degene-
racy of taste, and bespeaks a debased tone of mind, to turn
from the admiration and pursuit of His most worthy attri-
butes, from the devout study and adoration of His being,
and performance of all His will, from this to turn to the
admiration of our own souls, and the adoration of that im-
perfect knowledge and virtue which it is given man by his
o-\\-n strength to attain to. We are not now as the ancients
were ; our eyes have seen, our ears have heard, what they
342 Practical.
desired to see and to hear, but were not permitted. We know
the great Spirit of the universe, the perfection of all wisdom,
and the fountain of all intelligence, whom they knew not,
but eagerly desired to know. They sought the nearest re-
semblance of Him they could find — the soul of man in its
most perfect state ; they called it virtue, they honoured it
as the chief good, and paid unto it the homage of their
heart. And in preferring this to stocks and stones and
obscene fictions of the Godhead, they proved themselves
worthy of great approbation, and, I doubt not, had the ap-
probation of God for their enlightened preference. But we
have seen, or if we have not seen we are privileged to
peruse, the image of the living and the true God, the
brightness of the Father's glory, and the express image of
His person — the adorable and unchangeable Jehovah, who
dwelleth in the light, who formerly dwelt in clouds and
thick darkness. Nor are we ignorant of human nature
and its imperfections, that we should any longer bow
before it. We know how the gold hath grown dim, and
the fine gold of primeval manhood is changed, is defiled,
and mixed with the dross of sin and cori'uption, and we can
look upon the best patterns of virtue the world hath seen,
and mark off by the line of God's holy law their incom-
pleteness in every proportion. How base, then, for us to
forsake the Perfect One and adore the imperfect, fallen, and
debased creature, — to neglect divine understanding and fol-
low as the summit of our ambition mere human under-
standing,— to prefer human nature to the nature of the
invisible God !
Nevertheless it is the custom of intellectual men who
give no heed to spiritual life thus to degrade themselves
from the perception of God to the perception only of their
own thinking selves. As the sensual man giveth his adora-
tion to the objects of sense, or to his own bodily senses
which perceive the same, and finds no place for God within
his soul, and no evidence of God without, but is engrossed
and benighted in corporeal darkness; so the intellectual
man, who converseth with thoughts and imaginations of
Idolatry of Intellectual Life. 343
ihe spirit, dotli generally become enamoured of these, or
of the men %vho awaken them, or of the books wlicrein
they are stored. And, alas! he thinketh little of God, who
made the spirit capable of these intellectual relishes, and
furnished giant spirits to dress out these banquets of the
soul which books contain within their silent folded leaves.
And oh ! the high priests of poetry and the princes of phi-
losophy, the mighty masters of eloquence and the enchan-
ters in the world of melody and song, the magicians of the
arts, who with their tiny instruments preserve from obli-
vion holy and heroic deeds, or fashion the forms of beautiful
and noble nature, or lift up on high the roofs and domes of
everlasting palaces and temples, — all these master-spints
of the earth, who owe their Creator such exalted reverence
for His distinguished gifts, are every one beset with the
btrongest passion for self-exaltion ; they stand evermore
upon the brink of self-idolatry, and rarely, most rarely, do
they escape from plunging into that snare and condemna-
tion of the devil. They form a beau -ideal, a certain
immaterial idol of the mind, each in his several walk of
genius, to which they breathe the aspirations of their glow-
ing love, and devote the energy of their scheming ambition.
And if haply in that province some mighty man hath arisen
in the days of old, who sitteth in his lofty shrine overlooking
the darkness and mist of antiquity which hath covered all
his compeers, — a Homer, a Plato, a Demosthenes, an An-
gelo, a Eaphael, a Palladio, — then they make them or their
works the object of their idolatry ; they talk of them more
than of God, they think of them more than of God, they
prostrate their genius before them, which they prostrate not
before God, and they acknowledge them as their masters,
their inspirers, who breathed into them the soul of genius,
acknowledging God no more than if He had no hand M'hat-
ever in the creation and accomplishment of themselves or
of the sage and great men whom they admire. Ah ! how
I wander sad and melancholy among these lettered and glo-
rious men, to behold their spirits drifted from their proper
course and shipwrecked from their haven of rest. I have
344 Practical.
dwelt in universities, and listened to the discourses of
learned and scientific men, but I profess, before God, there
was no breath of piety or acknowledgment rendered unto God
in all their liberal and enlightened discourse. I have feasted
my spirit with the poets of modern times, and excepting
one or two, they are as undevout as those who wrote before
the birth of Christ. Naturalists, that is they who explore
the works of God, are as dry of spiritual refreshment as the
hard and withered specimens which they bring from foreign
parts. Your master-critics would be ashamed to have ado
with religious cant. Your statesmen of note hold saint-
ship in derision. Your artists think more of the Olympic
Jove, of the Madonna and infant Saviour, than they do of
God, and Jesus Christ, whom He hath sent. The temj^les
in which they worshij) are no less various than the objects
of their worship. Some pay their homage to that which
they adore in the theatre, some in the museum, some in
libraries of learning, some in picture galleries, some in ora-
torios and dancing saloons. The Sabbath is a weariness to
them, and the worship of the true God an idle ceremony,
the Scriptures a clasped book, and prayer, if used at all,
used as a form of words.
I wish to heaven I could tell a better tale — I wish it
consisted with duty to draw the veil over such an offensive
and degrading statement ; I know how I make myself ob-
noxious to the charge of sourness and incivility, and how
all the affections which every intellectual mind hath to-
wards these high objects of human understanding, will
take alarm and turn against me, as if I undervalued those
trophies which the power of mind hath won from the
realms of ignorance or barbarism. But, in my own de-
fence, I protest that I blame not these studies, which, on
the contrary, I do highly admire, as the redeeming occu-
pation of human nature ; but I expose their tendency, and
by instances justify that exposure of their tendency to
entrap the mind into an idolatry unworthy of itself, and
to abstract it from the only true object of worship and
source of contentment and happiness. And this 1 do not
Idolatry of Intellechml Life. 345
out of a cruel anatomy of gi'eat men's failings, (far be that
vulgar passion from this dignified place!) but out of sym-
pathy for their xinbefriended condition, and inevitable de-
struction from the presence of the Lord and the enjoyment
of His blessedness. My friends, my brethren, my fellow-
men, and men of highest promise and mightiest power in
the intellectual world, I see mocked by the evil spirit, by
him domineered over, starved of spiritual food, dead to
spiritual life, their souls altogether lost and perished from
the way — these, by the grace of God, I would do my en-
deavour to reclaim, and teach how they may become spiri-
tual men, and heirs of the promised inheritance, without
in the least abasing their intellectual part.
If there was any hindrance in the word of God to the
research of truth — any bounds prescribed to the play of
imagination — any limit set to the cultivation of art or
. science — any impediment to the full development of hu-
man reason or intellect, then I would give men credit
for placing in opposition the intellectual and spiritual
man. But when we are commanded to prove all things,
and hold fast that which is good— when we are addressed
as wise men, and commanded to judge what is said — when
of poetry in every kind we have the noblest specimens
in the Holy Scriptures, and of wisdom the highest reve-
lation— when we have all the arts called into requisition
to build the temple of God, and the picture of the new
Jerusalem described with all the accuracy of science —
when we have God himself by His Holy Spirit accompa-
nying the first preachers of our faith with the gifts of
all learning, and all wisdom, and all knowledge, and all
power, which the world in that age did need or could
entertain, who is he that will say he must abuse his rea-
son, and undervalue his intellect, cramp and confine his
natural faculties, seek no eminence and court no distinc-
tion, if he once enter himself to the obedience of the
spiritual life ? Nay but, 0 man ! who art thou that liest
against God ? Hath not God written that to whom much
is given of him much shall be required— that he who hath
346 Practical.
ten talents will be judged according to tlie improvement
lie hath made of his talents, and that we are stewards to be
called to give an account of our stewardship ? The genius
of the gospel, therefore, instead of being adverse to the
culture of every rational gift, doth overlay them with a
strong objection, and will not suifer them to be dormant
without the most terrible risk. It is not, therefore, to the
gospel that the calamity is to be traced, but alas ! it is to
that fatal oblivion of God, and obscuration of His image
within us and glory without us, whicli sat down at the fatal
and calamitous fall. It is not by a process of reasoning
that gifted men forsake the high and holy God ; it is not
because God's precepts bear against the improvement of
the human mind that they reject them ; it is not because
spiritual life discourages intellectual life that intellectual
life alone engrosseth them. Oh no ! they have no such plea.
It is the necessity of their nature which drives them, no
less than that of sensual men, — the fatal necessity of fallen
nature, to fall from the living and true God, deeper and
deeper into the dominion of evil. Shall we, then, be
punished for a necessity ? No ; we shall not be punished
for a necessity ; but we shall be punished for refusing the
remedy against that necessity. I state it broadly as a
necessity, in order that men may dream no longer of re-
covering light in that darkness where they dwell, be it
intellectual or be it sensual, but look to the foimtain of
light in the word of God, and seek help from the Spii'it
of God. We all obey our common impulse of nature to
leave God — we all need to be taught by the word and
Spirit of God — we have wandered every one into his
own way, and we all need to return to the Bishop of
our souls.
If intellectual, sentimental, and poetical men, and men
of policy and art, would be delivered from their present
idolatrous and perishing state, they must follow the self-
same course with the most ignorant and untutored peasant
— ^bring their minds to this storehouse of revealed truth,
and occupy them there in a teachable and humble dispo-
Idolatry of hitellectiial Life. 347
sition. Do I degrade them by bringing them to this com-
mon fountain ? Degrade them ! Are they degraded by
seeing with the same light, speaking with the same voice,
warming themselves with the same heat, feeding them-
selves oflf the same earth with the common people ? De-
grade them ! Are not all God's creatures honoured with
a word from God's truthful lips? Is Christ unworthy of a
philosopher or poet's company, Christ the Son of God,
to whom every knee in heaven doth bow and every
tongue confess ? Degrade them ! "Will a man be de-
graded by getting to heaven from this troublous earth,
and escaping hell, running from the devil's clutches into
the embrace of all God's aflections.
And yet I believe in my heart, nay, I know assuredly,
from a thousand conversations I have held with most
worthy and esteemed friends, that this submission to be
taught of God in the same school in w^hich ignorant and
vulgar craftsmen are taught, is a good part of their ob-
jection, and hence they scout the idea of sending the
Scriptures where the people are not civilised, as is if civi-
lisation and culture of mind were a better thing, and a
thing that must go before spiritual teaching. Now in truth
they are two things altogether diverse. A nation neigh-
bouring to us hath ever been esteemed so civilised and
polished a nation as to set the fashions even to us ; yet
it hath almost no spiritual animation stirring in its popu-
lous frame. They are things diverse, altogether diverse,
and I give intellectual men to wit that they will never be
enlightened in spiritual things otherwise than by the means
of God's word and Spirit, — the one of which is already
given, the other promised to every one who will humbly
and earnestly seek His coming. Locke is a stupendous
instance of this : he travelled much with philosophy, with
political science, and personal morality, and a more suc-
cessful inquiry into these provinces the world hath never
held — one so tinily great in the research and utterance of
truth ; yet he himself confessed that he came to no know-
ledge of God or godliness till he betook himself to the study
34^ Practical.
of His word, and there lie cast the anclior of liis whole soul,
and dwelt the last ten years of his life, giving glory to
God and testimony to Christ by a spiritual walk and con-
versation. So also did Newton do and testify, so also Pascal
and Boyle. And four greater intellectual names the temple
of Fame hath nowhere engraven upon its tablets. Did
these men abase their intellects thereby ? No, they ele-
vated them — they devoted them to God, to the study of
their own soul, to its jiurification for heaven, and to its
attainment of true happiness.
Therefore, ye men of wit and understanding whom I
address, be persuaded, by that very dignity which ye
have achieved over sensual and brutal men, to climb a
higher eminence of being. Ye have travelled with natural
thought and natural knowledge, interpreting the works of
mighty and honourable minds, and rifling the honey from
those combs in which it descendeth from age to age, stored
and preserved. And j^e have done well. Now do better;
converse with the Divinity who createth the intelligent
mind — createth those who bred that milk and honey of the
soul wherein ye have delight. He hath builded a temple
for knowledge in the Holy Scriptures, a temple of divine
knowledge and divine action. Exercise your faculties
therein; listen to the voice of your God, and seek His
righteous Spirit, — then there shall be created within you
a life of immortality, and your powers of intellect shall
brighten into new effulgence, and shine like the stars of
the firmament for ever and ever.
IDOLATRY OF THE IMAGINATION.
Idolatry also doth people the highest and superlative
region of the mind, the region not of knowledge but of
faith, with imaginary beings, who hold it not by any
demonstration made to man of their existence and power,
but by a constitution which he hath given them by tne
creative faculty of his own imagination. Faith calls for
Idolatry of tJie Imagiiiation. 349
objects, and tlie spirit declares she miist have objects
for her faith, or else lose the nobler part of her being;
and the spirit, unable to find the realities which faith
requires, calls upon the imagination to body forth some
of her infinite fonns, and present them to faith for her
entertainment and satisfaction. And if the imagination
hath framed these idols with a diligent respect unto the
noblest forms of the human spirit whereof she hath any
consciousness, and if she have gathered in the attributes
of every better one which the world hach held, and pre-
sented as it were an idealised portrait, or series of por-
traits, of the best possible forms of humanity, she hath
done her best to satisfy faith, and to improve the condition
of the whole man. This, doubtless, is the noblest form of
idolatry, and therefore we shall begin with the examina-
tion of its efiects upon the spirit of man.
I obsei've, then, that it cannot by any means raise man
above himself. It is the mind turning upon its own axis,
but making no progress into a higher condition of being.
For these imaginations and creations of superior powers
are but remembered forms of what man hath been, or con-
ceived forms of what he may become. They are helps to
the ambition, and objects to the imitation of the mind,
which another human mind hath set before its fellows, as
its own labours in the unknown and undiscovered sphere
of our ideas. They may serve, like the machinery of the
poet, to please the imagination, or, like the creations of
romance, to inflame the ambition of the mind ; but never
can faith admit them into the region of realties, so as
to yield reverence to their commands, or to place trust
upon their promises. The moment it did so, the whole
man were crazed and disjointed, like the Spanish knight
of romance, who came into the condition of believing his
imagination, and following its objects as realities. Faith
cannot, must not, dare not, yield herself to the imagina-
tion of the mind, any more than to the intellect of the
mind. If she yield to the intellect, her sceptre is broken,
and she is faith no longer; if she yield to the imagination,
350 Practical.
slie is bewitclied and befooled, and sold into slavery beyond
redemption. Faith must not be possible in the intellect,
and therefore not distract our knowledge ; and to the
imagination she is a guide and conductor. The moment
any one brings home the nan-ative of things which no one
but himself hath seen, faith employs herself upon the
matter, and perceiving no impossibility in the thing, nor
no inconsistency with what she presently knows, she
hath no grounds of doubt save what may be found in
the person of him who brings the narrative, which is a
question of man's credibility, not of the principles of be-
lieving ; but no one of a sound mind would call his ima-
gination to help him to a true faith of the matter, or
suppose that because he can have an image of it in his
mind, it is credible on that account. Then might you
believe all monsters and chimeras true, all giants and
dwarfs, all elves and fairies, with every spirit which
dwells in air, earth, fire, or in fens, bogs, and waters.
All poetry, all fiction, were in that case believed which
is imagined by the writer, and by him described to the
imagination of his readers. Nay, imagination must retire
till faith hath come to a decision, and when she hath de-
cided to believe, the imagination may occupy the ground,
to construct further beautiful structures by which to invite
the later and more reserved faculties of the soul. There-
fore I say that these idols which imagination constituteth
for the use of faith, true faith never accepteth, so as to
yield them any authority, or forego for them any interest,
or yield to shape according to their will any of her courses.
When Columbus conceived the idea of a western world, it
was an imagination ; and yet not altogether an imagina-
tion, for he had some grounds of faith which his great
mind could embody into an opinion. But to the coui'ts
of Europe it was an imagination, and therefore he wan-
dered in vain to get any help for his project. No one
would adventure upon it the worth of a stiver. When
at length one court, out of pity or personal regard, yielded
him a ship, it was still an imagination to his crew, who
Idolatjy of the Imagination. 351
were always ready to mutiny upon their commander ; so
mucli doth it repent one to sacrifice anything, however
small, to any imagination : for these men were sacrificing
no money, being regularly hired, nor free will of their
own, being under command of their king ; yet were they
ready to mutiny against the very life of Columbus, out of
the mere shame of yielding to an imagination. But when
Columbus returned with tokens and evidences of another
world, then it became a belief in the mind of Europe ;
and forthwith all nations, and private persons who had
the means, set on foot large and liberal expeditions, and
made all sacrifices in the same cause, to which heretofore
they would not risk the value of a stiver. Such is the
mighty diiference upon the mind and conduct of men
between an imagination and a belief. So I hold it to be
with respect to the case in hand. That higher region
of power and blessedness whereof the soul is conscious
beyond her sphere, and whereof she seeks to discover the
possession, that she may yield to it the reverence and
worship for which she feels herself to be constituted, in
the want of which her fair-proportioned being is crippled
and disabled, is in the same condition to her as to
our ftithers before Columbus was the great ocean which
stretched from the western shores of Europe and the
islands of the blessed, half round the globe to the shores
of the Eastern Indies. And he who, by his imagination,
doth people those upper spheres with forms of being how-
ever powerful, wise, and blessed, doth no more to per-
suade his brethren of their reality, or interest others in
their existence, or find for them objects of reverence and
worship, than would the cliart-maker of those days have
induced our fathers to send out embassies, risk adventures,
or appoint colonies, by filling from his own imagination
the blank of ocean with islands and continents and nations,
and publishing it to the world. lie might be taken up for
a deceiver, or despised as a liar, or let go loose as a poor
harmless visionary, but certes he would not be believed
on, because with his pen he had scribbled over a blank
352 Practical.
part of the cliart with, the outlines of imagined lands. Go
into the cell of a madman and examine its walls ; yon
shall find it written over with words and emhlems and
signs, which to you are significant of his madness, hut
to him significant of his real condition ; and there is all
the diiference between a sane man and a madman, that the
one believes his imaginations to be realities, the other
doth not. And if no sane man believeth his own ima-
ginations to be realities, shall others believe them for
realities? Then are they twice mad to believe in those
imaginations which have not even the slender privilege
of belonging to themselves, but have been received from
another, who himself was a madman if he believed them.
There is need of no further discourse, therefore, to prove
how totally ineffectual is the imagination of man to fill
the circumjacent infinitude of the higher and more blessed
spheres, so as to secure for them any reverence or worship,
or induce over the mind any of the elevations or obligations
of religion. They can do no more than Shakespeare hath
done, better than any one, in the superstitions of his plays,
which I mention here, as it may be thought a little out of
place, because many of you doubtless have read them, in
order to question you, if when your imagination hath been
filled with the fairy figures in the "• Winter's Evening
Tale," with the airy and earthy creatures in the "Tempest,"
or the hell-commissioned sisters in the tragedy of the
Scottish king, you were disposed thereafter to look for
creatures sporting in the fairy rings and elfin knolls imder
the cold moonbeam, to hear the harp of Ariel in the air,
or sacrifice an owl or some other unclean bird to propitiate
the terrific powers of the three weird sisters who j^reside
over the destinies of men? If you answer me nay, then
I tell you that as little worship or obedience will ye yield
to the god or gods with which the imagination of man
hath peopled the infinite fields of power and blessedness
which lie around the narrow sphere which we possess.
Accordingly, the idolatries of the nations did not rest
upon the imaginations of the poets, but upon the tradi-
Idolatry of Preachijig. 353
tions of past ages, the books of the Sibyl, the nnrovealed
secrecies of the mysteries, the hieroglyphics of the priests,
and whatever else was embodied in their religious books,
or given forth by their oracles as the revelation of God.
They believed that such things had been revealed as were
written in their fables, and being in the infancy of reason,
both intellectual and moral, the}^ saw not the inconsistency
of these revelations with one another, or their insufficiency
to regenerate the natural reason of man, much less to exalt
it to higher refinements and reveal to it new powers over
its own well-being. Neither Zoroaster, nor Kuma, nor
Mohammed, nor any other who have misled the nations,
profess to come by their systems from the devices or imagi-
nations of their own brain, but to have derived them from
secret revelations made to them by those powers to whom
they sought to gather in the reverence and obedience of
men. It hath been left to this age to think they can be
religious by nature without any revelation, nay, to go to
and unmake this revelation, untwist all its harmonies of
spirit, interpret all its mysteries, and reduce to reason all
its revelations, and so despoil the superiority of the Being
which human nature longed to worship, — in order to wor-
ship Him, make His worship less, and so cut the knot
which all wise men had been endeavouring to loose since
the world began, and which the Lion of the tribe of Judah
alone had the wisdom and the power to unloose.
IDOLATRY OF TREACHING.
The preaching of the word stands in exactly the same
relation to personal sanctification as public worship does.
These exercises upon the word, and the doctrine of the
word, which we make from Sabbath to Sabbath, are either
meant for the nourishment and instruction of those who
already believe in Christ, and have the primary fonn of
the Christian in their spirit and life, — or they are for the
persuasion, and exhortation, and encouragement, and stir-
2 a
354 Practical. ^
ling up of those who halt "between Christ and the world,
— or they are for the cutting off and condemnation of those
who will not believe but continue obstinate in their sins ;
for the nourishment of the Church, for its propagation
or for its separation. And though there may be preaching <
where there is no church, nay, and ought to be the more
on that account, it is no act of religion in those who hear
until there is a church, but only a declaration in their ears
of that which they may hear or forbear to hear. So that
hearing becomes a dutiful act of religion only to those who
are already in Christ, or to those who are seeking to be-
found in Him, not having their own righteousness, which
is of the law, but the righteousness which is of God by
faith. To others it is an exercise of hearing and under-
standing, an entertainment of taste or reason, an excitement
of their affections, or a breathing of sweet thoughts over
their souls — no solemn, dutiful occupation of their time
and talents, for which they feel responsible unto God, and
are therefore very careful how they hear. The hearing
of the word, therefore, or of the preaching thereof, stands
in the same circumstances as the other parts of public
worship, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for
correction, and for instruction in righteousness, only, tq
those who by daily use have their spiritual senses exer-
cised to discern good and evil, and who, by commerce with
the unbelieving and idolatrous world, are so worn down
and wearied out that they hunger and thirst for the sincere
milk and strong meat of the word. And they are well
pleased that the tides of time have a weekly rest, and the
current of affairs a weekly cessation ; that there is a hal-
lowed, sequestered, calm, and placid bay in the boisterous
and troubled sea, which they an-ive at after weekly voyages
of risk and hardship, and when they are refreshed with
the good cheer, and furnished with the good instructions
of an experienced master of the seas. Oh, how sweet do
mariners feel it, so to find an open and a friendly creek
wherein to thrust their crazy bark and preserve their
weary lives ; so sweet do the people of God feel it to listen
Idolatry of Preaching. 355
to the spiritually-replenished and divinely-enriched dis-
course of a faithful minister. The times have been when
the word of such seers of divine things was very precious,
and when the people loved not their own lives for his
sake. I know the solitary vale in my native land which
was ransacked and spoiled by a troop of murderous horse-
men, which the people patiently bore until their godly
minister was driven with the rest of the spoil ; and I know
well the proud eminence, the northern barrier of the valley,
whereon the people, shrouded in the mists of the morning,
gathered themselves to the rescue of the beloved man ; and
when the cloud rolled its skirts from around the ministers
of Heaven's vengeance, there the}' stood, to dispute it with
the armed and embattled chivalry of hell, and broke them
in their godly wrath as the potsherd is broken in pieces,
and in their fur^' dashed the horse and his rider into the
abyss which yawned beneath to receive the sons of Belial.
It was not the man but the word of God which moved the
people so. The Avord of God was very precious to their
souls. For I have seen in the same valley the close amphi-
theatre of rocks, whei'e they were seen to sit shrouded in
twilight, with the stream rushing amongst their feet, to
listen to their pastor's voice, their only earthly possession,
which truly they would not part with, and see suffocated
with a burning brand, but preferred rather to die. And
the Lord delivered their enemies into their hands, and
saved their beloved preacher.
The same spiritual desires which draw the people of God
into one place, that they may shew the voice of thanks-
giving and tell of all His wondrous works, draw them also
thither to be edified in their faith and quickened in their
love by the ministry of His holy word. They desire to be
taught by one who is experienced, and to be instructed of
one who is called and holy. And this not apart but in
company, that the unity of the doctrine, and the com-
monness of the feeling, and the unction of true and holy
discourse, may compose their troubled spirits, and bring
into one their souls, agitated various waj's b}^ the variety
2 A 2
35^ Practical.
of professions and the vicissitudes of life. And the Lord,
to provide for this constant and necessary desire of His
Church, hath not left it to be ministered unto by any
upstart who may judge himself qualified for the same, but
appointed men to be set apart to the holy office, and to
give themselves wholly to the ministry of the word and
to prayer ; who are the angels of the churches, the stewards
of the mysteries of God, the stars which the Son of man
holdeth in His right hand, whose ofQce it is to teach what-
ever hath been imparted to them by the Spirit of God, and
to whose discourse it is the part of the people to listen
with an understanding and an attentive ear. Now, though
one would think that the hearing of sound preaching, the
mere hearing of it, were as bare a disguise as well could
be, and as small a footing as well could be for idolatry, yet
upon this narrow isthmus will idolatry found its empire,
and by his practices pros]3er, to the annihilation of pure
religion out of all the coasts. For there is a form of sound
words which from the beginning the Church hath found it
necessary, to adopt, containing the particulars of a true
faith, which soon exalts itself upon the ignorance of the
people into a symbol of all religion, the narrow way and
strait gate which lead unto life. To hear which reiterated
in their ears from Sabbath to Sabbath is the sweet music
of the charm, and preaching thus becomes the sign of their
idolatry, — orthodox preaching according to the standards
of the Church. Beaten out of every refuge, idolatry hath
his last hold in this ; and from this, that he can make war
upon spiritual religion, is well evinced in certain Pro-
testant parts of the Continent, where at this day, with the
same doctrines which we hold, and the same simple forms, \
they rage in violent persecution against all who dare to
meet for religious exercises anywhere, at any time, and in I
any manner than that prescribed by the canons, yea, and
push the pious and spiritually-minded to the extremity of
imprisonment, confiscation of goods, and banishment from j
their homes. ISow that this idolatry of orthodox preach- 1
ing, a bare and barren orthodoxy, prevails against the!
Idolatiy of Preaching. 357
fruitfulness of true doctrine, and stands for the worsliip of
the living and true God, I have no more doubt than that
there is idolatry of saints in Eome, and idolatry of the
liturgy in our sister Church. And from the preaching it
passeth over to the preacher, upon whom, bare man as he
is, the ignorance of a people will fix and fasten as an idol,
that they may get the living feelings of their heart de-
bauched from the living God away to a living man, whilo
they debauch, the homage of their understanding away
from the word of God to the airy stufi" which comes from
the voice of a mere man to the uncircumcised ear of
another man.
Far be it from me to undervalue the worth, nay, the
absolute necessity to salvation of an orthodox faith, while I
utterly condemn and abominate as creed- worship the empty
eulogy of the standards and frequent flattery of the forms of
the Church. And in the adorning of the tombs of those
who perished in their defence — (the same spirit of idolatry,
as in our Lord's time, oft adorns the tomb which erewhile
slew the martyr — first slaying him because he tore the
idolatry down, then cunningly waiting until the ignorance
of the times will allow the founders of the last venerable
thing to be made into idols — first their names, then their
venerable memorials, and their once-despised tombs) — I
see the natural generation of idolatry. I see nothing but
the light of the word and Spirit of God can keep us from
running its course over and over again, like the ancient
Israelites. It is there in the valley of ignorance. It
lurketh in the twilight shades of the mind. It haunts, it
hallows the place with a superstitious reverence ; and as
the spirits of the people travel down into the valley, they
come upon the enchanted ground, and cannot be helped off
it again save by the redemption of Christ and the operation
of the Holy Spirit. Therefore am I zealous, my beloved
brethren, over your souls, and I warn you against the
idolatry of popular preaching and popular preachers which
hath its seat amongst us. Honour that priest whose lips
keep knowledge, and be ready to receive the law at his
35 S Practical.
mouth, because it is the Avord of God; but that talk of
ministers, and hasting after favourite preachers, and
wrangling of their several merits, and quoting of their
scenes and instances, which hath grown so rank in the un-
pruned garden of true religion, let it not once be named
amongst you. Be ye men in understanding, and treat the
voice of 3'our minister as a man, — a man of God, — a man
faent from God to bear testimony of Christ.
IDOLATRY OF THE BIBLE.
Idolatry of the written word also expresseth itself in the
holy — but I call it imholy — notion which they have taken
up concerning inspiration : that the very words are in-
spii'ed, and the writei's were but as organs of voice for that
word. Where, then, were the sanctification of the writers,
if their soul were not in their words ? And you will hear
shrewd suggestions that even the act of translation hath a
certain divine sanctity in it. Thus the Jews proceeded to
honour the letter of the sacred book, counting the words
and very letters of it, and holding that there was a
mysterious sacredness in their very form. And for
their idolatry they were permitted for ever to lose the
Spirit, which they sought not to find, and were slain by
that letter on which they had such reliance. And in the
same spirit they require of you at once to believe the
book as the word of God, by one act of ftiith to adopt it,
then to read it and bow down before what you read. That
is to make the book an idol, and then prostrate j'our soul
imto it. And by so doing you shall make your soul a
timorous creatrure of superstition, or a blind worshipper
of sounds and sentences, but never a child of the Spirit of
God. Such notions flow not from orthodox doctrine, which
saith unto every man, Eead this word with what persuasion
of its divine authority you presently have, and affect not
more than you really have, for that is falsehood or super-
stition, which God abhorreth. Bring to it the faculties of
Idolatry of the Bible. 359
mind Avliicli you presently have, and j^eruso it with the
desire to be enlightened in the deep things which it con-
taineth, and the Spirit will open your soul to understand
it more and more, and dispose your heart to receive it more
and more, and constrain your will to obey it more and
more ; and as your soul grows into its confirmation more
and more, you will believe it more and more, and your
faith in its inspiration will grow with your spiritual
o-rowth, and strengthen with your spiritual strength.
AVhat portion of the Holy Spirit is in the written word, he
only shall be a judge of who hath the same inspiration wdth
Himself. It is the Spirit in us w^hich discerneth the Spirit
in the word. And then it is not letters and sounds that we
discern, but the things signified, the ideas revealed, which
beget in us such mighty revolutions. This also, like the
others, is an effort to infix, in the outward object of the
written word all that is necessary to our salvation, to con-
crete the Spirit into matter, if I may so speak, and have
the whole efficacy of the Godhead under our eye, or our
understanding, or some other of our proper faculties, and to
make religion consist in the right use of that outward
thing. But, no ! The Lord hath better determined that
it shall never be so, and hath kept the finishing of salva-
tion still with Himself, in oi-der that He may have a pur-
chase over God-avoiding man, to draw him to the only por-
tion of his blessedness. Therefore He will not concrete
His Spirit in the matter of a book, nor make Him subject
to any given formula of man's resolution, simple or subtle ;
but as the wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest
the sound thereof, but knowest not whence it cometh nor
whither it goeth, so hath He resolved that it shall be with
His Spirit, that men may leani to draw near unto His
throne, and entreat the perfection of His gifts from that
grace from which they have derived so much. And all
that He hath done for our race is but the argument and
assurance that He will do more, and will not stay till He
haA-e completed the work ; but as the former part hath
been done to the world in general, the latter pari re-
360 Practical.
mainetli to be done for each, man in particular, and T\-e
must apply ourselves to Him as those that would be saved,
in order to receive to ourselves the personal application,
and full possession, and perfect blessedness, and infinite
profit of that which now hangeth shining over the whole
race as a common dispensation — a great sign of mercy sus-
pended in the heavens, more glorious than the rainbow,
which telleth to all posterity that the seed-time and the
harvest-time of spiritual fruit, shall never cease to bless the
generations of man.
There are to our minds many more manifestations of the
tendency of this generation to magnify the importance of
the written word, and undervalue the importance of the
Spirit's application thereof, from which cometh that dex-
terity in quoting the letter of the Scriptures, and poverty
in its spiritual interpretation, which mark the preachers
and the believers of these times. Where are the rich
outpourings of doctrine — where the large manifestations of
varied truth — where the unfoldings of the deep mysteries
of texts — where the endless discourses, endless because the
soul of the preacher was boundless of spiritual thoughts
and feelings — where the huge volumes of fat and savoury
food to the spirits of believers, Avhich rejoiced the former
ages of the Church ? and yet there are tenfold more Bibles
circulated, and tenfold more talk about the Bible ; but it is
the book, the volume of the book, which hath filled us with
these declamations — not the glory of the Angel of the
book — not the eternal Word, of whom the written word
is but the outward form for all the species, but who must
dwell with the soul of each of you with His Spirit, and
conform you in such wise as that His written word shall
be to you spirit and life. The written word is but the
raw food, which the indwelling Word and Spirit giveth us
spiritual power to feed upon, and enableth us to speak out
of the fulness of a refreshed spirit, and to rejoice in the
enlargement and activity of a free and immortal spirit.
Doubt therefore, brethren, have I none that we are in
the way of converting the outward written word into an
Idolatry of the Sacraments. 361
idol, as the Jews converted their outward written law iuto
an idol, and that this evil hath heavily pressed, and is
even now heavily oppressing the Protestant Churches ; and
that from this it hath arisen that so much store is set in
these times by the circulating and translating of the word,
and £0 little to the stout and able preaching of the
word ; also that so much importance is given to the edu-
cation of children in the Scriptures, and so little to the
convincing of full-grown men by the mighty power of
the preaching of the word, of which it is well said in our
Catechism that it is the chief means in the hands of the Spirit
for the convincing and converting of men. If I were to
characterise the present great and noble exertions of the
Protestant Church, I would say of them that they were a
world of plans and expedients to make the word effectual
to the salvation of men, but which seemed in no propor-
tion to their extent, because it was never intended by God
that His word should bo so effectual. But when I shall
witness as strenuous and sedulous endeavours to seek out
children of the Spirit for preaching the word, as much
boldness to speak against the children of the world who
usurp the high places of this ministry, — when I shall hear
not in word, but see in deed, that the Holy Spirit is looked
to for all the increase, and that in this dependence all
expediencies, prayers, and managements, and solicitations
of the high and noble, and tralfic with the vanity and
self-importance of men, and human wit and wiles, are
supplanted in all our works by spiritual trust, then shall
1 bo sure that the way of the Lord is mightily preparing,
and that He is going forth as a man of war to convert the
nations.
IDOLATRY OF THE SACRAMENTS.
For want of solemn declarations of the truth concerning
the sacraments, and for want of care to exhibit the distinc-
tion of the visible Church from the world, innumerable
eiTors have sprung up amongst us, and the sacraments have
362 Practical.
come to be regarded as having in themselves a mysterious
virtue to take away our sins. The sacrament of baptism,
upon the one hand, is regarded as equivalent to regeneration,
or the new birth. That is, the new birth of the Spirit is
made to inhere in an outward sign, and can at any time be
brought to any one at the bidding of a regularly-ordained
minister of the Church ; after which, confirmation strength-
ens the infant life of the soul ; after which, the sacrament
seals it, and being from time to time regularly partaken the
work of our salvation is completed and done. Such is the
practical faith of thousands amongst us; to overthrow
which the short and easy method is simply to declare, that
without living faith these sacraments are not only no bene-
fit but a great evil to the soul. And if you be asked what
faith meaneth, you can tell them that it meaueth something
different from honesty, from lionour, from respectability,
from formality, from almsgiving, even a heart and soul and
life devoted unto God, and an inward being which the
w^orld cannot know, and cannot but persecute. Set a fence
around the ordinances, and write up the perils of breaking
through the fence. Shew the spiritual meaning of it, the
exalted faith, the holy discij)line, the heavenly discourse of
those who partake it. And not only speak thereof, but act
thereon, and debar, by the high authority of a minister of the
sacraments, whosoever with unclean hands would lay hold
thereof; and if they will oblige you to admit such, resign
your ministry rather than in your hands it should become
futile, faithless, and injurious. For these indiscriminate
mobs which come together to handle the emblems of our
Lord's body are far more hurtful than profitable to the true
Church. I would rather see churches of a dozen or a score
in private houses, as in the apostolic times, meeting toge-
ther in a pure mind to partake of the communion, than see
every splendid cathedral in the island filled with the in-
discriminate population of the country to go through the
ceremony of the sacrament. For virtue the sacrament
hath, else it would never have been instituted so strictly
and manifested sensibly. Every one knows that it hath
Idolatry of the Saci'aments. 363
virtue of some kind or other, and seeing it is tlie most
solemn of all Christian ordinances, they consider rightly
that it must have the highest virtue of all. JS'ow if this
virtue be not connected with inward spiritual condition,
and removed from outward visible circumstances, the unin-
formed people must conclude that it is connected with the
outward in some way or other ; and having done their
alms, or maintained their fasting days, or abstained from
some of their indulgences, or done that outward thing M-hich
they conceive the most religious, they come in the full and
sure expectation of deriving that high grace and heavenly
virtue which they conceive to reside in the sacraments
rightly and regularly performed. And hence the reason
that at the high festivals of the Church the communion is
thronged, because the additional holiness of the outward time
addeth to the necessary holiness of the act, which is enhanced
thereby and will count further. And hence the desire to
receive the sacrament as the pledge of reconciliation be-
tween friends, as the pledge of loyalty to the Church, as
the preparation for death, and on every other outward
occasion in which a little more religiousness is present. Do
I allude in these things to any Church ? Xo ; I allude to
all Churches. It is in our Church; it is in our sister
Church ; it is in all dissenting Churches. For it is the
natural idolatry of the human heart, the pharisaical for-
mality of all worldly religion, the aversion of the mind to
spiritual worship, nay, our total incapacity for it until we
are born again of the Spirit. But though it be present in
all Protestant Churches as a pi'actical evil, it is not present
in them as a principle. In order to disclaim it our Church
hath taken a form to herself, and begins every communion
by fencing the table with a distinct account of those who
should and those who should not partake the ordinance.
And no one is admitted to partake thereof who hath not a
token to shew that he hath been judged worthy by the
minister and elders of the Church. Our sister Church dis-
claims it, and her communion service is one of the most
perfect expositions of the sacrament which is to be found.
364 Practical.
And all the bodies which have dissented from us have
generally made the laxness of onr communion one great
jDrinciple of their dissent. What remains, therefore, to
protect the Churches from inroad of the world, and to pro-
tect the world from eating and drinking judgment to
itself, hut that we the ministers should be faithful to our
Saviour, and to the Reformers of our several churches, and
present boldly the true elements of the sacraments,
and carry into effect that which we preach, by exhorta-
tion, admonition, instruction, and, if need be, remonstrance
and hindrance.
SECTAEIANISM OUR BANE.
By sectarian, I mean one who hath taken up with a part
of the Divine word, and resolveth within himself that it
is the whole of it, and that whatever passes beyond or
diverges from this his well-shapen pattern, must be error,
and not for a moment to be believed. To which tempta-
tion of Satan we all lie so open, and are so naturally in-
clined, that I wonder not so much that Satan hath so easy
a prey of us, as that we are not iipon our guard against
him. Its plentiful occasion ariseth in our seliish hearts,
and conceited minds, and ambitious wills, which would fain
set each man up as the rule of right unto himself and the
measure of right unto others. Whereas the word of God
is large, liberal, and perfect truth, universal charity, and
submission of the will unto the will of our Father which is
in heaven. And therefore it hath no less a purpose than
to bring men's minds into union with Christ, the common
reason ; men's hearts into communion with the Spirit, the
common love ; and their wills into harmony with the eternal
will of our heavenly Father ; and so to bring about imiver-
sal peace and concord upon the earth, and to establish that
form of blessed society which is called the Church. But
this, it is manifest, can only be accomplished b}'' the common
consent of our souls to be instructed, taught, and disciplined
in all things by the word of God. Kenunciation of selfish-
Sectarianism our Bane. 365
ness lies at the root of it ; abstinence from pride aud vanity ;
the viewing of our gifts as a stewardship, of our condition
as an election of the Lord for the purposes of His own glory ;
the forsaking of all in order to be Christ's disciple, the loving
of our neighbour as ourself, the sitting down as children at
His feet to hear, the cutting oft' the right hand and plucking
out the right eye at His command, the spending and being
spent for His sake, and whatever else is most willing and
devoted to Him who died for us and rose again. And not
only so, but a perfect contentment with that condition to
which it may please Him to advance us ; whether to keep the
door or to sit upon the throne of His house ; whether as one
of the dishonourable or honourable vessels thereof; whether
servants of many or of few talents in the administration ;
whether in the body we be active hands, or humble burden-
bearing feet, guiding eyes, or watchful ears. For the Chm-ch
is not a republic, as they say the co-fraternity of letters is,
but a various community, in which are masters and servants
and slaves, parents and children, husbands and wives, and
every other relationship of life which existeth in the world ;
j-et so existing in the Church as to be devoid of pride, envy,
malice, hypocrisy, and division; but all exercising the
various gifts and graces of God's Spirit for the fulfilment
of their various offices : so as to be bound and compacted
together by the need of mutual help, as well as by the fond
desire and ever-present ability to be helpful to one another.
Now, he is not a sectarian, but a true catholic Christian,
who hath submitted himself as a child to the teaching o^.
Christ Jesus, being born again of the Holy Spirit ; and hath
and doth desire the sincere milk of the word, that he may
grow thereby into the full stature of a perfect man in Christ
Jesus ; aud who, the more he attains, the more he desireth
to attain ; never resting, as if he had attained, or were al-
ready perfect, but pressing onward to the mark for the prize
of his high calling in Christ Jesus. He is not a sectarian,
but a catholic Christian, who grows more perfect, by grow-
ing more convinced of his own natural sinfulness and alien-
ation from the love of God ; more meek and gentle before
366 Practical.
the Lord and all men ; more patient of tlae sins and infirmi-
ties of his brethren, and more set against sin itself, whether
l^resent in his own members or the members of the Church.
He, finally, is not a sectarian, but a catholic Christian, who
loves the whole word of God, and yields himself to be
moulded by it ; gives it free course over his soul to order and
govern it ; and seeks conformity with the image of God in
Christ Jesus, ever praying to be made like unto the Son of
God, and to be under the sweet influence of His blessed Spii'it,
If you have caught the idea which I have given of a
Christian who is not sectarian, you will easily perceive
how great an attainment it is, and how sweet an inclination
it must give to the preacher's voice; what a readiness to
receive his word of doctrine, rej^roof, correction, or instruc-
tion in righteousness ; and, on the other hand, it must be
manifest to you how apt we must be, under the address of
Satan, to take on partial forms of Christian character and
adopt partial views of Christian truth, and so to become
prejudiced against whatever opposeth, differeth from, or
passeth beyond, that which we have set our heart upon to
call it perfect and right and wanting nothing. For, first,
our natural spirits are different — some generous, others
just, and others selfish ; some heroical, others moderate,
and others mean ; some grave, others gay ; some enthusiastic
others slow ; some fiery, others mild ; — and these varieties
of man will be apt to feed upon that part of the holy word
which is congenial to them : the generous seizing upon
those parts which hold forth God's universal bounty, the
just apprehending those which manifest His holiness, and
the selfish delighting in those which set forth His special
love unto His own peculiar people ; the heroical applying
itself to the noble and exalted in character and sentiment,
the sublime in action, the terrible in word, and the un-
daunted in suffering, which are to be found written of
and by God's exalted servants ; the mean-spirited, plodding
even amongst the household duties and daily offices, the
proverbs and counsels, and prudent admonitions of the
Holy Scriptures ; the grave turning self denial into mortifi-
Sectarianism oitr Bane. '^^6'^
cation, ami duty iuto correction, substituting moroseness,
for seriousness and a downcast countenance for a humble
heart ; the gay catching at all the contentment and peace
and joy which belong to the divine and renewed nature, in
order to feed its own inclination therewith; — and so on,
through the yarious spirits of which men are found to be
naturally possessed each will be apt to look into the word
of God, and convert to its own colour all upon which it
fastens ; and for the rest, pass them slightingly by, and at
length forget that they are there.
Now, this being a matter of which I have meditated
much, and am well assured, I make bold to say, that Satan,
having enamoured every man of that type and form of spirit
which peculiarly belongs to himself, doth use the Scriptures
to foster and increase the same, and vex it the more with
every other form of our evil and corrupt nature. And when
he hath succeeded, he hath made that man worse than be-
fore, having in a manner sanctified all the predilections of
the flesh and the mind, and confirmed them by the belief
of a Divine sanction ; so that he thinketh God is of him
and with him, of no one and with no one who difters from
him. ^V hence cometh that violence between sects in all
ages of the Church, whereby Christ is blasphemed of the
world, and Satan twice honoured of the professing Church ;
to guard against which nothing availeth, but our necessity
of being taught of the Holy Spirit in the Divine word, and
not taught of our own natural spirit ; the former leading to
community, the latter to distraction, and difference. For
though there be a unity and consent in the natural under-
standings, and also in the natural hearts of men — for God
hath formed our hearts alike — yet our entire preference of
self doth so w^arp us from that point of communion, and
Satan doth so aggravate our several interests, that truly we
never come into true union with one another by this natural
means. And, therefore, there is no such fertile source of
sectarianism, as setting man to study by the light of his
own understanding the word of God, and to compose out of
it a system of truth for himself, and a system of character
368 Practical.
f>^r himself ; which is the rage of this day amongst us
Protestants. Each man will read the Bible for himself,
having a hearty contempt for creeds and confessions and
orthodoxy. And fine work they make of it ! And they
call themselves Bible Christians ! Which men I have found
so self-opinioned, so prejudiced against the most venerable
forms of the Church, so mighty in their own conceit, and
so fond of innovation, that I have got an instinct of abhor-
rence towards them, and would rather hope to have com-
munion with a superstitious church-ridden Papist, than with
one of these self- instructed, self-guided Bible Christians, as
they are wont to call themselves, in their high contempt
for all who have anj^ reverence for the authority of the
Church. They are exactly in religion, what your weaver
statesman and shoemaker political economist are in civil
affairs. Whereof the cure is, not to submit with slavish
deference to the Church's authority, but with the guidance
of the orthodox creed, as the common sense of the Church,
to search the Scriptures, praying continually the Holy
Spirit to lead you out of the infinite mazes and perplexities
of your own deceitful and deceivable heart, into the open
and plain and enlightened and peaceful paths of catholic
truth and perfect righteousness.
The number of our sects is our shame ; for the Christian
Church was intended to be one ; and of which the evil is, .
that we are all so full of our own peculiarities, and saj
nourish them in secret, if for certain ostensible ends we be
forced to hide them in public, that it is hardly possible for
any one born in their bosom not to be reared up with a
great pride and favour for this which is our shame. They
have each their periodical publication ; they have each their
famed preachers; they have each their great society and
tlieir favourite schemes, upon which they talk until they
have hampered within the pinfold of their sect, it may be
of their conventicle, that spirit which ought to have been
expanded into the full form of orthodox truth, and ripened
into the fulness of catholic love, which ought to find its kin-
dred and commimion everywhere in the Christian Church.
True Charity, 369
And it is not to be told what a hindrance this is to tho
preaching of the word. One will not have a moral duty
inculcated, another will not hear a prophecy explained ;
one is impatient of instruction, and will rise and go away
if you do not excite his feelings, which excitement another
decries as enthusiasm ; another cannot receive the matter if
it be read, and another dislikes that it should be spoken.
You may not tell masters their duties lest ye should offend
them; and if you preach of duties to rulers, you are
political ; and if you shew the errors of the times, you are
setting yourself up for a judge of others ; and if you bring
forth former times in the experience of the Church, you go
beyond the knowledge of the people ; and unless you harp
upon every man's single string, you do not preach Christ.
These things 1 do not imagine, but have sadly experienced,
to my own personal wounding; yea even, to what I trust
is far dearer to me — to the wounding of the truth and
honour of Christ.
TRUE CHARITY.
Our charities, like our devotions, or our acts of faith,
should be personal things as much as possible, and public
things as little as possible — offerings to need which we have
taken pains to ascertain to be free from all imposture, tributes
to our merciful Saviour who died for miserable sinners,
; and acknowledgments to God who hath made our basket
1 and our store to superabound. And to this end time is
demanded of us, and personal knowledge, which must
always precede hearty feeling, and visitation to the dis-
tressed such as our Saviour paid, and consolation such as
He bestowed in order that our heart may be made better
by the vision of mercy, aud our gratitude quickened to the
Most High, and our dependence upon Him bound more
closely, and all our Christian graces revived and re-
freshed ; — in order, on the other hand, that the poor may be
cheered with a counsellor for Heaven, and improved in the
hour of their temptation, and led to God by the presence
2 B
370 Practical.
and bounty of His servants, and instructed in tte provi-
dence of God, and the riches of a gracious Saviour; — in
rrder, also, that the rich and poor may meet together, and
their mutual dislikes be removed, and the gospel may have
free course and be glorified over all ranks of the people.
If ye would imitate the example of your blessed Saviour
and be to the downcast and misei'able what He was to the
sons of men when they were low and lost, be at charges to
humble yourselves to those of poor estate ; and for that end
divest yourselves of all the attributes of place and rank,
as our Lord divested Himself of His divine attributes.
Take under your superintendence certain portions of op-
pressed and miserable men, as He took under His superin-
tendence the whole fallen race of Adam ; humble yourselves
as He humbled Himself; engage yourselves with all your
afiections as He did, and the blessing of God will rest upon
you, and the little ye bestow will be amply refunded.
So may the Lord enable you, that when you come to
judgment ye may be found with all your other works to have
possessed this the only qualifica.tion which will pass the bar
of judgment, and introduce us to life eternal. I know no
one that is to do this greatest charity for the needy but the
charitable, the truly charitable. This is the first duty. It
is like delivering a man out of the spoiler's hand before you
feed him. It is like breaking the fetters of a slave before
you advance him. Nay, it is delivering a whole race, which
we have always with us, and our Lord says are to have
always with us, delivering them from the oppression of the
oppressor before we proceed to take further cognisance of
how their state may be improved. Therefore the man that
shieldeth himself from charity on this score is a sophist — a
sophist to his own heart, for it is only another argument for
charity. It is charity moving to a deed of justice. It is
justice and charity combined, which is the noblest pair that
can meet in a human breast.
Do you ask me how this just office is to be done for the
sake of charity. I would not legislate to you, but I would
advise. First, for the conviction of those who come forth
True Charity. 371
out of doors to solicit, I commend to you the support of
tlie Mendicity Societ3% which undertakes on a large scale
the inquisition of those characters whom no private in
spection could wind through all their deceptive haunts.
Their tickets will relieve your charitable feelings when
they are excited by street-petition ; their inspection will
take care tliat your charitable feelings are not cast away
upon the undeserving. But it is not street-solicitors, but
misery in its thousand retiring forms of shame, poverty
struggling hard to keep its head above the wave, worth
pining in neglect, iniquity trampled over by necessity,
shame waiting fur foi'giveness, heart-sick vice longing for
virtue's paths, dishonour too severely punished, virtue too
severely tried, health prostrated through over-exertion of
body and over-anxiety of mind, disease preying upon
famished frames, the wants of nature unsupplied, souls
unevangelised, children uneducated, wives and families de-
serted or borne down by graceless husbands and unaflec-
tionate fathers. These, and a thousand other forms of
misery', which harbour unseen, and cry to Heaven for re-
dress ; and Heaven crieth to men in this holy book, but men
hear not, and the abject miserables perish for evermore.
Ohon ! ohon ! a fancy cometh upon my brain which I dare
hardly utter, lest it overwhelm the feeling of this assembly,
and unman myself into unbecoming weeping. I fancy in
Bome sad abode of this city, upon some un visited pallet of
straw, a man, a Christian man, ])ining, perishing, without
an attendant, looking his last upon nakedness and misery,
feeling his last in the pangs of hunger and thirst. The
righteous spirit of the man being disembodied, I fancy to
myself arising to heaven, encircled by an attendance of
celestial spirits, daughters of mercy, who waited upon his
soul when mankind deserted his body — this attended spirit
I fancy rising up to the habitation of God, and reporting in
the righteous ear of the Governor of the earih how it fared
with him amidst all the extravagance and outlay of this
city. And saith the indignant Governor of men, " They
had not a morsel of bread nor a drop of water to bestow
2 B 2
372 Practical.
upon My saint. Who of My angels will go for Me where
I shall send ? Go, thou angel of famine ; break the growing
ear with thy wing, and let mildew feed upon their meal.
Go, thou angel of the plague, and shake thy wings once more
over the devoted city. Go, thou angel of fire, and consume
all the neighbourhood where My saint suffered unheeded
and unpitied. Burn it ; and let its flame not quench till
their pavilions are a heap of smouldering ashes."
Say not, we give to this charity so much and to that
charity so much more. God wants not mone}' alone — the
silver and gold are His ; but He wants your heart, your
feelings, your time, your anxiety. He curseth these mere
money charities, making them engender poverty in far-
greater abundance than they annihilate it, and scourging
them with the means of those who giTidgingly bestow it.
The mere mammon works mammon's work ; divine charity
worketh God's work. A Christian may as well give oveM
his faith into the hands of a piiblic body, and believe what
they appoint to be believed, and think that he thereby
satisfieth God, as cast his charity over to a public body,
yea, or to a private individual, and think that he thereby
satisfieth God. Our right hand is not to know what our left
hand doeth. It is with the heart, and soul, and strengths
and might, that He is to be worshipped and served.
Instead of hunting the shops and bazaars for refinement
of ornamental dress and furniture, or buying from foreign
collectors objects of virtu and antiques, and ranging the
round globe for its idle and exquisite singularities, we
shoidd seek the alleys and lanes of this city, where the
abject and miserable dwell, and the melancholy prisons
into which the wretched are cast out of sight and out of
help ; seek there to refit shipwrecked fortunes, and right
disabled and diseased frames, and comfort sore affliction,
and pour the oil of consolation into wounded spirits, and
give the oil of joy for mourning and the gaiment of praise
for the spirit of heaviness. Often, very often, I conld weep
amidst the emblems of smiling fortune, enshrined in chambers
and antechambers and loftv saloons. Like old Diogenes,
\
T}'uc Charity. 373
I could leap and trample iipon silken couches and massy
tables, in no cynical pride, but in Christian indignation,
when from out the windows of these chambers I look upon
the unpitied, unattended, unbefriended habitations of the
wretched poor. Out upon the votaries of state and equipage
aud fashion ! They care for nothing but self indulgence and
vanity, and have no pity of their kind, but would turn
pale and wax sick of sentiment to behold that misery
which flesh and blood as good as theirs is fain to endure in
its feverish veins and filthy habitations. Away, away with
such unsubstantial men and women — their hollow hearts
let fumes of vanity fill, their silly heads let intoxication
of excess continue to sicken ; their vain routine of life let
vanity continue to drive in his airy chariot; let age plant
its wrinkles upon their dissembling faces, and ennui con-
sume the years of their old age ; and let there be no
moui-ning over their death, nor tears dropped in their grave,
nor broken-hearted mourners to visit it in the shadowy
twilight; but instead, let cold marble entomb their colder
I hearts, and unfeeling stone be the bearer of their memory.
' Away with them ; they are good for nothing, except to
i flutter in the train of some greater personage than them-
* selves, or themselves to lead out the train of splendid
triflers. God convert them with some voice as terrible as
the voice of him that cried in the wilderness.
I speak to other men, to honest men, to men in whom
nature is not shipwrecked, and in whom, happily, a better
■ nature hath come to birth or maturity. To you I speak,
t my Christian flock, over whom the Lord hath appointed
f unto me the oversight. I guard you, yoimg men, whose
I guide for life and eternity I am honoured to be ; and to
1 you, domestic men, who are the strength of this flock;
\ and to you, elderly men, who are its counsellors. I warn
you against the invasion of the pomp and circumstance of
human life. I warn you against the parade and retinue
of state. I warn you against luxurious meals and splendid
fetes, I warn you against the wine-cup when it sparkles, and
against beauty when it wreathes itself in the Avitchery
374 Practical.
and encliantment of its smiles. I warn you against the
many inventions of luxury and convenience, which are
the links of a chain that girdles the mightiest of the earth
in ignoble bondage — the fuel of a fire that consumes the
world's myrrh and frankincense befoie the shrine of Belial,
and in the end catches and consumes the very heart that
ministers at his altar. And I counsel you to expend your
thoughts upon the nobler offices of humanity, to be a
father to the fatherless and a husband to the widow, and
the orphan's help and the stranger's friend.
I am not ignorant of the difficulty of carrying into effect
in this unprincipled city these exhortations, for I have felt
that difficult}^ ; every day of my life I feel it. There are
locusts that prey upon the generous, and grub up all that
they can catch from Christian benevolence, idlers, deceivers,
wretched spendthrifts, and contemptible souls, who steel 3
one against giving, and draw do^vn upon one the character
of a mere novice in London life. But, if to be an adept in
London life is to shut one's purse to charity, and open it to
gaudy shows, then Heaven keep all my flock in a constant
noviciate. For, after all, let the greatest novice yesterday
imported from the most innocent and unpolluted simplicity
of rural life, gratify all the freshness of a Christian and
benevolent heart for one j'ear, and, when the year is over,
cast a reckoning, and, after deducting from his whole ex-
penditure the necessaries, examine what part of the residue
went to liberality, what part to please the world's fashions,
which in his heart he doth nnuseate and despise, and I
•mistake if he shall not find a result tvirn out which shall
silence into shame any talk about being duped into over-
liberal giving. But it is not my part to recommend a
clothing of all the backs of the thriftless, and a feeding of
all the mouths of the dissolute. I know that too much
clothing, systematic clothing, charity-school clothing, is
carried to excess in those parts Avhich makes men of a
northern training blush for the paltry meanness of those
who receive, and the thoughtless squandering of those who
bestow.
( 375 )
CONFLICT NOT CONTINUOUS.
It is not natural to be always in a state of conflict with
an enemy. Conflict, indeed, implies the purpose and desire
of conquest and victory ; and if we expect upon the arrival
of a certain one to have the assured victor}^ with what
earnest expectation will his arrival be expected ! As in
the great battle which suppressed the first struggle of the
infidel power, our brave troops and their brave general
waited, in the heat of conflict, with the utmost longing
for the arrival of their confederates in arms ; so ought
the Church, with eager outlook, with stretching out of the
neck, to be looking for the arrival of the Captain of her
salvation and the heavenly host ; by the brightness of
whose coining all her enemies are to be destroyed. And I
perceive that if this consolation be not expected and con-
tinually borne' in mind, one of two things must come to
pass ; — either we will give in to worldly accommodations,
and lay down the spiritual weapons of our warfare, and
so sink down into formal professors of Christ ; or else we
will be fretted and galled, and wearied out with much
ineffectual and painful resistance, which will sicken the
soul, and rob it of its tranquillity and peace ; — and so, on
the side of temper, Satan will take us captive, working in
us the sharpness and keenness and violence of reformers,
instead of the soft, meek, and patient assurance of apostles.
And let me tell you, brethren, that in my opinion, the
great heat and asperity which is charged, not without some
cause, upon the age of Reformers, arose, as I conceive,
chiefly from their not having present in their thoughts, this
great hope and expectation, which alone can calm and
compose the soul under all agitations and afflictions. For
the care of this world is the beginning of impatience,
and anxiety, and disquietude of soul ; and the care of the
world to come is the beginning of faith and trust, and peace
and blessedness.
( 376 )
CHRISTIAN PEUDENCE.
Now is the time for Christian courtesies of manner, for
graces of behaviour, for gainliness of speech, for meekness,
gentleness, and all the arts of pacification. Now is the
time for argument, eloquence, and fearless urgency. Take
now unto yourself all calculations of foresight, strengthen
yourself with all friendly advice and aid, and even of your
fears take friendly counsel. Afterthoughts and calculations
of consequences are not for determining the thing to be
done, but the way to do it most effectually — therefore not
the inward counsellors and advisers of the mind, but the
outward ministers and servants who execute her counsels.
It may do well enough for a Jesuit or an ambitious courtier,
but it is not for a Christian, who has line upon line, and
precept upon precept, to run a calculation of chances,
and out of the future, more uncertain in its issues than
the public lottery, to draw forth a very doubtful probability,
and make of it a rule to influence, if not to counteract, the
uneiTing rules of God's revelation. And where is faith, if
thus we are to travel by sight ? This prudence is the death
of faith ; it leaves it nothing to do whatever ; for when all
is seen and calculated to a certainty, where is there any more
trust in God? A Christian's life — a Christian minister's
life — is one great series of imprudences. It courts not the
world's favour ; then it is imprudent. It standeth not for
its rights, but forgets and forgives and comes by loss ; then
it is imprudent. It careth not anxiously for to-morrow — it
hoardeth not — it is open-handed — it sj^eaks truth which is
despised. Imprudence ! It is unpolite often, and often
offensive. In short, it is a life of loss and resignation ; •
and jixst in proportion as it is so, it is a life of faith, which
looketh at the things unseen and eternal. Ay, I mistake ;
it doth calculate, but it calculates for the whole -scope of
existence, not for the period merely that is on this side
the grave. It taketh in all the future consequences, and
not a few only — therein it is prudent ; but in respect to the
world, it is little better than a long list of imprudences.
M
Christian Prudettce. 2>77
Think not that I cut off prudence, wisdom, and discretion
from the life of a Christian as of another man — I do but
assign to them their secondary place. There are these three
— conscience, wisdom, and faith — which do each preside
over a separate province of Christian life ; or rather, to every
Christian action they contribute each a part. Conscience
I consider as the eye and voice of the soul, which being
guided by the Word and Spirit of God, belu)lds and tells the
thing that is good and wise to be done. This prime minister
of the inward man works best alone. If you bring to his side
considerations of usefulness, of practicability, or of outward
seemliness, you confuse his judgment, or tamper with his
faithfulness ; and according as you silence advocates from
withoitt, and make stillness within the breast, to hear the
•suggestions of reason — God's gift — and of reason's two helps
— the AVord and Spirit of God — you are the surer of au
honest and upright judgment. The purpose being resolved
within the heaven-determined conscience, it then comes to
action : and now, as hath been said, is the time for prudence,
discretion, and wisdom, which are handmaidens for exe-
cuting the counsels of reason and of God. These are not to
bring down the lofty decision of the soul, to divest it of
heaven's plumage, and make it creep by the earth. Nay,
though it should not only be unwise but foolish, if it be
heaven-suggested, " the foolishness of God is wiser than the
wisdom of man." Though it should not only be foolish but
dangerous — not only dangerous, but fatal to be carried into
effect — still, being counselled as above, it must not be for-
saken. "What is to keep our courage up, then ? V» hat is
to recompense us ? What is to divide us from foolhardy and
violent men ? Faith is that which is to keep our courage
up, and recompense us, and distinguish us from foolhardy
and violent men — high trust that what God hath counselled,
God wil> prosper and finally reward. Faith stands in stead
of present utility. The world to come brings out its glories
to countervail present losses ; and the more that, for the sake
of faith, is resigned of renown, reputation, and advantage,
the more is that faith perfected, and the more is conscience
37^ Practical.
cheered in lier divine dictatorship. The doctrines of faith
and of present utility are the antipodes of each other.
A\ here all is done for utility there is no faith. Now, prudence
is the philosophy of present advantage. " Faith is the sub-
stance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."
Is wit-dum then excluded? No; but a Divine wisdom
Cometh instead of a human wisdom. The conscience is
guided by the oracles and Spirit of God. Now the Word
of God is surely wiser than all books, and the Spirit of God
wiser than all men. So that the fountainhead of wisdom
poureth itself into the springs of action. Conscience is to
the stream of life like what the ancients fabled of their
rivers, that each river had a guardian god who resided in
the solitiide and caverns of its fountains, guided the useful
course of every streamlet, and presided over the majestic
flow of their united waters, and entered on its majestic wave
into the full court of the ocean god, where he had a seat of
dignity in proportion to the tribute which he brought to
Neptune's watery domain. So conscience sits and reigns
supreme at the fountainheads of action, and holdeth counsel
of the Lord, and directeth her various courses according to
Divine admonition, and, gathering force, rideth upon the
full stream of a Christian life, which is not lost among the
shifting sands of human policy, but is borne, a noble testi-
monial, into the ocean of eternal good, to contribute its part
to the great and good ends of the Almighty counsels ; and
the good conscience, which presided so well over its ap-
pointed trust, is in very truth received into the court of God,
with honour in proportion to the tribute which it hath
brought to the universal good, over which God appointeth
every man a guardian, and to which He honoureth every
man to be in some sort a contributor.
EVILS OF PEOSPEEITY TO CHRISTIANS.
For one saint who is tried with adversity bej'ond what
he can bear, there are hundreds and thousands si3oiled by
the plentifulness of the Lord's bounty. Not that the Lord
Evils of Prosperity to Christians. 379
would ruin any of His saints, but that He is very bountiful.
He giveth liberall}'', and upbraideth not. And we are not
enough aware of the lurking enemy, that cannot bo tho-
roughly cleared out of any visible gift till Christ shall
come and cast him out, and bind him in the bottomless pit.
Therefore rather fear the full than the scanty hand of the
Lord. But fear neither ; rather love both, saying, " The
Lord is wisest, and knoweth what is best for me and mine.
His will be done on earth as it is done in heaven." But go
not to forget Him because He is bountiful. Because He hath
increased your store and filled your home with children,
and with other wealth, go not to forsake Him and cleave
unto the world, and unto the sense, and unto the great and
vain ones of the earth. Ah, that is ingratitude indeed !
A worldling who has been paying his court to the harlot
world may well dally in the Delilah's lap ; but you who have
sought for God, and been by God enriched, to forsake His
people, and abide with the Philistines, and dally in the
Delilah's lap, is fearful apostasy, and will cost you first
the shearing of the locks of your strength, the darkening of
your eyes to heavenly light, shameful labour in the mill
of bondage, and basest mockery of the God whom you wor-
shipped ; and they will end by making of you a toy to sport
in honour of their gods of silver and gold.
Time permitteth me not to take all the advantage which I
might take of the great principle which I laid down ; and
I have but to exhort you once more, as 3'ou value your
c.-hildren, not to be tempted away from God to the world.
For Avhat fatherless and orphan children were they then,
when you had become worldly ! ^Vhat fathers, what
mothers, of Christian, of baptized children were jou then !
Say you reaped the harvest of a thousand fields, and counted
your gold by thousands, what were that to the starving and
starved souls of your children ? Can you purchase prayers ?
can you buy grace and mercy, bribe justice, and by great
moneys take enfeoffment for them or for yourself of an estate
in the kingdom and world to come? O brethren, these are
conceits and follies which I would not insult you with, had
380 Practical.
they not been sanctified by false priests and erroneous
doctrine. But ye hold none of those things.
CLAIMS OF GOD S WORD.
There was a time when each revelation of the word of
God had an introduction into this earth which neither per-
mitted men to doubt whence it came, nor wherefore it was
sent. If, at the giving of each several truth, a star was not
lighted up in heaven, as at the birth of the Prince of truth,
there was done upon the earth a wonder, to make her children
listen to the mej-sage of their Maker. The Almighty made
bare His arm ; and, through mighty acts shewn by His holy
servants, gave demonstration of His truth, and found for it
a sure place among the other matters of human knowledge
and belief.
But now the miracles of God have ceased, and nature,
secure and unmolested, is no longer called on for testimo-
nies to her Creator's voice. No burning bush draws the
footsteps to His presence-chamber; no invisible voice holds
the car awake ; no hand cometh forth from the obscure to
write His purposes in letters of flame. The vision is shut
up, and the testimony is sealed, and the word of the Lord
is ended, and this solitary volume, with its chapters and
verses, is the sum total of all for which the chariot of heaven
made so many visits to the earth, and the Son of God him-
self tabernacled and dwelt among us.
The truth which it contains once dwelt undivulged in
the bosom of God ; and, on coming forth to take its place
among things i-evealed, the heavens and the earth, and
nature through all her chambers, gave it reverent welcome.
Beyond what it reveals, the mysteries of the future are un-
known. To gain it acceptation and currency, the noble
company of martyrs testified unto the death. The general
asseml)ly of the first-born in heaven made it the day-star of
their hopes, and the pavilion of their peace. Its every sen-
tence is charmed with the power of God, and powerful to
the everlasting salvation of souls.
Claims of God* s Word. 381
Being filled with these thoughts of the primeval divinity
of revealed W'isdom when she dwelt in the bosom of God,
and was of His eternal self a part, long before lie piepared
the heavens or set a compass upon the face of the deep ; re-
volving also how by the space of four thousand years every
faculty of mute nature did solemn obeisance to this daughter
of the Divine Mind, whenever He pleased to commission
her forth to the help of mortals ; and further meditating
upon the delights which she had of old with the sons of men,
the height of heavenly temper to which she raised them,
and the offspring of magnanimous deeds which these two —
the wisdom of God and the soul of man — did engender and
bring forth — meditating, I say, upon these miglity topics,
our soul is smitten with grief and shame to remai k how, in
this latter day, she hath fallen from her high estate; and
fallen along with her the great and noble character of men.
Or if there be still a few names, as of the missionary
Martyh, to emulate the saints of old — how to the com-
monalty of Christians her oracles have fallen into a house-
hold commonness, and her visits into a cheap familiarity ;
while by the multitude she is mistaken for a minister of
terror sent to oppress poor mortals with moping melancholy,
and do a deadly office upon the happiness of human kind !
For there is no express stirring up of faculties to meditate
her high and heavenly strains — nor formal sequestration
of the mind from all other concerns on purpose for her spe-
cial entertainment — nor pause of solemn seeking and solemn
waiting for a spiritual frame, before entering and listening
to the voice of the Almighty's wisdom. \\ ho feels the
sublime dignity there is in a saying fresh dchCended from
the porch of heaven ! Who feels the awful weight there is
in the least iota that hath dropped from the lips of God ?
Who feels the thrilling fear or trembling hope there is in
words whereon the eternal destinies of himself do hang ?
Who feels the tide of gratitude swelling within his breast,
for redemption and salvation, instead of flat despair and
everlasting retribution ? Or who, in perusing the word
of God, is captivated through all his faculties, transported
382 Practical.
througli all liis emotions, and through all his energies of
action wound up ! To say the hest, it is done as other
duties are wont to be done ; and having reached the rank
of a daily, formal duty, the perusal of the word hath reached
its noblest place. That is the guide and spur of all duty,
the necessary aliment of Christian life ; the first and the
last of Christian knowledge and Christian feeling hath, to
speak the best, degenerated in these days to stand rank and
file among those duties whereof it is parent, preserver,
and commander. And to speak not the best, but the
fair and common truth, this book, the offspring of the divine
mind, and the perfection of heavenly wisdom, is permitted
to lie from day to day, perhaps from week to week, unheeded
and unperused ; never welcome to our happy, healthy, and
energetic moods ; admitted, if admitted at all, in seasons of
sickness, feeblemindedness, and disabling soiTOW. That
which was sent to be a spirit of ceaseless joy and hope,
within the heart of man, is treated as the enemy of happiness
and the murderer of enjoyment ; and eyed askance, as the
remembrancer of death, and the very messenger of hell !
Oh! if books had but tongues to speak their wrongs, then
might this book well exclaim — Hear, 0 heavens ! and give
ear, 0 earth ! I came from the love and embrace of God,
and mute nature, to whom I brought no boon, did me
rightful homage. To man I came, and my words were to
the children of men. I disclosed to you the mysteries
of hereafter, and the secrets of the throne of God. I set
open to you the gates of salvation, and the way of eternal
life, heretofore unknown. Nothing in heaven did I with-
hold from your hope and ambition ; and upon your earthly
lot I poured the full horn of divine providence and con-
solation. But ye requited me with no welcome, ye held
no festivity on my arrival : ye sequester me from happiness
and heroism, closeting me with sickness and infirmity ; ye
make not of me, nor use me for your guide to wisdom and
prudence, but press me into your list of duties, and with-
draw me to a mere corner of j^our time ; and most of ye
set me at nought, and utterly disregard me. I came, the
Claims of God's Word. 383
fulness of the knowledge of God : angels delighted in my
company, and desired to dive into my secrets. But ye,
mortals, place masters over me, subjecting me to the dis-
cipline and dogmatism of men, and tutoring me in your
schools of learning. I came not to be silent in your dwell-
ings, but to speak welfare to you and to your children. I
came to rule, and my throne to set up in the hearts of
men. Mine ancient residence was the bosom of God ; no
residence will I have but the soul of an immortal ; and
if you had entertained me, I should have possessed you
of the peace which I had with God, '' when I was with
him, and was daily his delight, rejoicing always be-
fore him. Because I have called and you refused, I have
stretched out my hand and no man regarded ; but ye
have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of
my reproof; I also will laugh at your calamity and mock
when your fear cometh : when your fear cometh as desola-
tion, and your destniction cometh as a whirlwind, when
distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they
cry unto me, but I will not answer ; they shall seek me
early, but they shall not find me."
Christians are prone to preoccupy themselves with the
admiration of those opinions by which they stand distin-
guished as a church or a sect from other Christians ; and
instead of being quite unfettered to receive the whole
counsel of the divine will, they are prepared to welcome
it no further than as it bears upon and stands with opinions
which they already favour. To this prejudgment the early
use of catechisms mainly contributes, which, however ser-
viceable in their place, have the disadvantage of presenting
the truth in a form altogether diflferent from what in occu-
pies in the word itself. In the one it is presented to the
intellect chiefly, (and in the catechism of our Church to an
intellect of a very subtle order;) in the other it is pre-
sented more frequently to the heart, to the affections, to
the imitation, to the fancy, and to all the faculties of the
soul. In early youth, which is applied to with those com-
pilations, an association takes place between religion and
384 Practical.
intellect, and a divorcement of religion from the other
powers of the inner man. Which derangement, judging
from observation and experience, it is exceeding difficult
to set to rights in after life ; and so it comes to pass that,
in listening to the oracles of God, the intellect is chiefly
awake, and the better parts of the message — those which
address the heart and its affections, those which dilate
and enlarge our imaginations of the Godhead, and those
which speak to the various sympathies of our nature —
we are, by the injudicious use of these narrow epitomes,
indisposed to receive.
And in their train comes controversy, with his rough
voice and unmeek aspect, to disqualify the soul for a full
and fair audience of her Maker's word. The points of the
faith we have been called on to defend, or which are re-
putable with our party, assume in our esteem an importance
disproportionate to their importance in the word, which we
come to relish chiefly when it goes to sustain them; and
the Bible is hunted for arguments and texts of controversy
which are treasured up for future service. The solemn
stillness which the soul should hold before her Maker, so
favourable to meditation and rapt communion with the
throne of God, is destroyed at every turn by suggestion
of what is orthodox and evangelical — where all is ortho-
dox and evangelical ; the spirit of the reader becomes lean,
being fed with abstract truths and formal propositions ; his
temper ungenial, being ever disturbed with controversial
suggestions ; his prayers undevout recitals of his opinions ;
his discourse technical announcements of his faith. Intel-
lect, cold intellect, hath the sway over heavenward devo-
tion and holy fervours. Man, contentious man, hath the
attention which the unsearchable God should undivided
have ! and the fine, full harmony of heaven's melodious
voice, which, heard apart, were sufficient to lap the soul in
eestacies unspeakable, is jarred and interfered with ; and
the heavenly spell is broken by the recurring conceits,
sophisms, and passions of man.
Isow, truly, an utter degradation it is of the Godhead to
Claims of God's Word. 385
have His word in league with that of any man, or any
council of men. What matter to me whether it be the
Pope, or any work of the human mind, that is exalted
to the equality of God ? If any helps are to be imposed for
the understanding, or safe guarding or sustaining of the
word, wh}' not the help of statues and pictuies for my
devotion ? Therefore, while the warm fancies of the
Southerns have given their idolatry to the ideal forms of
noble art, let us Northerns beware we give not our idolatry
to the cold and coarse abstractions of human intellect.
To minds untuned to holiness the words of God find no
entrance — striking heavy on the ear, seldom making way
to the understanding — almost never to the heart. To
spirits hot with conversation, perhaps heady with argu-
ment, uncomposed by solemn thimght, ruffled and in up-
roar from the concourse of worldly interests — the sacred
page being spread out, its accents are drowned in the noise
which hath not yet subsided within the breast. All the
awe, and pathos, and awakened consciousness of a divine
approach, impressed upon the ancients by the procession
of solemnities — is to worldly men without a substitute.
They have not solicited themselves to be in readiness.
In a usual mood, and a vulgar frame, they come to God's
word as to any other composition — reading it without any
active imaginations about Him who speaks; feeling no awe
of a sovereign Lord, nor care of a tender Father, nor devo-
tion to a merciful Saviour. Kowise depressed out of their
wonted independence, nor humiliated before the King of
kings — with no prostrations of the soul, nor falling at His
feet as dead — with no exclamation, as of Isaiah, " ^Voe is
me, for I am of unclean lips ! " nor earnest suit, " Sen
me," nor fervent ejaculation of welcome, as of Samuel,
" Lord, speak, for Thy servant heareth ; " they come to
the word, feeling towards it as if it were the word of an
equal. Ko wonder it should fail of liappy influence upon
spirits which have, as it were on purpose, disqualified
themselves for its benefits, by removing from the regions
of thought and feeling with which it accords, into other
2 G
3^6 Practical.
regions, which it is of too severe dignity to affect, otherwise
than with stern menace and direful foreboding! If they
would have it bless them, and do them good, they must
change their manner of approaching it ; and endeavour to
bring themselves into that prepared and collected and re-
verential frame which becomes an interview with the High
and Holy One who inhabiteth the praises of eternity.
Go, visit a desolate widow with consolation and help
and fatherhood of her orplian children, — do it again and
again — and your presence, the sound of your approaching
footstep, the soft utterance of your voice, the veiy mention
of your name — will come to dilate her heart with a fulness
which defies her tongue to utter, but speaks by the tokens
of a swimming eye, and clasped hands, and fervent ejacula-
tions to Heaven upon your head ! No less copious acknow-
ledgment to God, the author of our well-being and the
father of our better hopes, ought we to feel wdien His
word discloseth to us the excesses of His love. Though 9,
veil be now cast over the Majesty which speaks, it is the
voice of the Eternal which we hear, coming in soft ca-
dences to win our favour, yet omnipotent as the voice of
the thunder, and overpowering as the rushing of many
waters. And though the veil of the future intervene
between our hand and the promised goods, still are they
from His lips who speaks and it is done, who commandeth
and all things stand fast. With no less emotion, there-
fore, should this book be opened than if, like him in the
Apocalypse, you saw the voice which spake ; or like him
in the trance, you were into the third heavens translated,
companj'ing and communing with the realities of glory,
which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of
man conceived.
Far and foreign from such an opened and awakened
bosom is that cold and formal hand which is generally
laid upon the sacred volume ; that unfeeling and unim-
pressive tone with which its accents are pronounced ; and
that listless and incurious ear into which its blessed sounds
are received. How can the sons of men, thus unimpas-
Claims of God's IVord. 2>'^'j
fcioned, bold communion with themes in which everything
awful, vital, and endearing to the heart of man, do meet
together? Why is not curiosity, curiosity ever hungry,
on edge to know the doings and intentions of Jeho^•ah,
the King of kings ? W hy is not interest, interest ever
awake, on tiptoe to hear the future destiny of yourselves ?
AVhy is not the heart that panteth over the world after
love and friendship, overpowered with the full tide of
the divine acts and expressions of love ? Where is nature
gone when she is not moved with the tender mercy of
Christ ? Methinks the aifections of men are fallen into
the yellow leaf. Of the poets who charm the world's ear,
which is he that inditeth a song unto his God ? Some
will tune their harps to sensual pleasures, and hy the en-
chantment of their geniiis well-nigh commend their unholy
themes to the imagination of saints. Others, to tlie high
and noble sentiments of the heart, will sing of domestic
joys and happy unions, casting around sorrow the radiancy
of virtue, and bodying forth, in undying forms, the short-
lived visions of joy ! Others have enrolled themselves the
high priests of mute nature's charms, enchanting her echoes
with their minstrelsy, and peopling her solitudes with the
bright creatures of their fancy. But when, since the daj-s
of the blind master of English song, hath any poured forth
a lay equal to the Christian theme ? Nor in philoscjphy,
"the palace of the soul," have men been more mindful of
their Maker. The flowers of the garden and the herbs
of the field have their unwearied devotees, crossing the
ocean, wayfaring in the desert, and making devout pil-
gi'images to every region of nature, for offerings to their
patron muse. The rocks, from their residences among
the clouds to their deep rests in the dark bowels of the
earth, have a most bold and venturous priesthood ; who
see in their rough and flinty faces a more delectable image
to adore than in the revealed countenance of God. And
the political welfare of the world is a very Moloch, who
can at any time command his hecatomb of human victims.
But the revealed sapience of God, to which the harp of
2 c 2
388 Practical.
David and the prophetic lyi-e of Isaiali were strung, the
prudence of God, which the wisest of men coveteth after,
preferring it to everj'- gift which heaven could bestow, —
and the eternal intelligence Himself in human form, and
the unction of the Holy One which abideth, — these the
common heart of man hath forsaken, and refused to be
charmed withal.
The word is not for the intellect alone, biit for the heart,
and for the will. Now if any one be so wedded to his own
candour as to think he doth accept the divine truth unabated
— surely no one will flatter himself into the belief that his
heart is already attuned and enlarged for all divine affec-
tions, or his will in readiness for all divine commandments.
The man who thus misdeems of himself, must, if his
opinion were just, be like a sheet of fair paper, unblotted,
unwritten on ; whereas all men are already occupied, to
very fulness, with other opinions, and attachments and
desires, than the word reveals. We do not grow Christians
by the same culture by which we grow men, otherwise
what need of divine revelation, and divine assistance ? But
being unacquainted from the womb with God, and attached
to what is seen and felt, through early and close acquaint-
ance, we are ignorant and detached from what is unseen
and unfelt. The word is a novelty to our nature, its
truths fresh truths, its affections fresh affections, its obedi-
ence a new obedience, which have to master and put down
the truths, affections, and obedience gathered from the
apprehension of nature, and the commerce of worldly life.
Therefore, there needeth, in one that would be served
from this storehouse of truth opened by Heaven, a disrelish
of his old acquisitions, and a preference of the new, a
simple, childlike teachableness, an allowance of ignorance
and error, with whatever else beseems an anxious learner.
Coming to the word of God, we are like children brought
into the conversations of experienced men ; and we should
humbly listen and reverently inquire : or we are like raw
rustics introduced into high and polished life, and we
should unlearn our coarseness, and copy the habits of tha
Claims of God's Word. 389
station : — nay, we are like offenders caught, and for amend-
ment committed to the bosom of honourable society, Avith
the power of regaining our lost condition, and inheriting
honour and trust — therefore we should walk softly and
tenderly, covering owx former reproach with modesty
and humbleness, hasting to redeem our reputation b}- dis-
tinguished performances, against offence doubly guarded,
doubly watchful for opportunities, to demonstrate oixr re-
covered goodness.
The natural powers of man are to be mistrusted, doubt-
less, as the willing instruments of the evil one ; but they
must be honoured also as the necessary instniments of the
Spirit of God, whose operation is a dream, if it be not
through knowledge, intellect, conscience, and action. Now
Christians, heedless of this grand regeneration of the
mighty instruments of thought and action, at the same
time coveting hard after holy attainments, do often resign
the mastery of themselves, are at once taken into the
current of the religious world — whiiling around the eddy
of some popular leader — and so drifted, I will not say from
godliness, but drifted certaii^ly from that noble, manly, and
independent coiirse, which, imder steerage of the word of
God, they might have safely pursued for the dignity and
salvation of their immortal souls. Meanwhile these popu-
lar leaders, finding no necessity for strenuous endeavours
and high science in the ways of God, but having a gather-
ing host to follow them, deviate from the ways of deep and
penetrating thought — refuse the contest with the literary
and accomplished enemies of the faith — bring a contempt
upon that cause in which mighty men did formerly gird
themselves to the combat— and so cast the stumoliiigblock
of a mistaken paltriness between enlightened men and the
cross of Christ ! So far from this simple-mindedness, (but
its proper name is feeble-mindedness,) Christians should
be — as aforetime in this island they were wont to be — the
princes of human intellect, the lights of the world, the salt
of the political and social state. And till they come forth
■ from the swaddling bands in which foreign schools have
]
390 Practical,
girt them, and walk boldly upon the high places of human
understanding, they will never obtain that influence in the
upper regions of knowledge and power of which unfortu-
nately they have not the apostolic unction to be in quest.
Nor will they ever become the master and commanding
spirits of the time, until they cast off the wrinkled and
withered skin of an obsolete age, and clothe themselves
with intelligence as with a garment, and bring forth the
fruits of power and of love, and of a sound mind.
STUDY OF THE BIBLE A PRIVILEGE.
Against the two methods of commiming with the word
of God, whereof the one springs from the religious timidity
of the world, the other from the religious timidity of
Christians — the one a penance, the other a weakness — we
haA'^e little fear of carrying your judgment, but you will be
alarmed when we carry our censure against the common
spirit of dealing with it in the ordinary sense of a duty.
Not but that it is a duty to peruse the word of God, but
that it is something infinitely higher than that word gene-
rally imports. Duty means a verdict of conscience in its
behalf. Now, when once the Bible is received as the word
of God, conscience is not an independent power, for the
bidding of which it waits to be opened, and at its forbid-
ding to continue sealed ; but the word, let conscience bid
or forbid, stands forth to the whole soul, dressed in its own
awful sanctions, "Believe and live" — "Believe not and
die." Its argument is its constant necessity. If conscience
at a time check us for the neglect, or admonish us of our
oliligation, it is well ; but the absence of this check or
admonition will not justify to God our neglect of that which
we believe to be His revealed will. When my Maker
speaks, I am called to listen by a higher authority than the
authority' of my own self. I should make sure that it is my
Maker who speaks, and for this let every faculty of reason
and feeling do its part; but being assured that it is no
Study of the Bible a Privilege. 39 1
other than His voice omnipotent, my whole soul must burst
foiih to give Him attendance. There must be no demur
for any verdict of any inward principle. Out of duty, out
of love, out of adoration, out of joy, out of fear, out of my
whole consenting soul, I must obey my Maker's call.
Therefore I argue, and shall shew at length, a higher and
more steadfast principle upon which this duty of duties
rests. And this is not a metaphysical distinction which I
make, or an argument of words. For after I shall have
developed my conception, I care not if the name of duty
remain, though because of the universal application of that
word to every kind and degree of obligation, I should prefer
that this first and last, this greatest and strongest of all obli-
gations should be called by the name of a spiritual necessity.
Duty, whose cold and artificial verdict the God of infinite
love is served withal, is a sentiment which the lowest
relationships of life are not content with. Servant with
master — child with teacher — friend with friend — when it
comes to the sentiment of duty, the relationship is near its
dissolution ; and it never thrives or comes to good but
when it rests upon well-tried tnist and hearty re^-ard ;
upon a love to our persons, and a confidence in our worth.
And in the ties of nature, to parents, to children, to
brethren, to husband and wife, to be listened to out of cold
constraint of duty, argues nature gone well-nigh dead.
There is a prompter consent, a deep sympathy of love, an
overstepping of all the limits of duty, a going even unto
the death, which hardly satisfies the soul of such affections.
"What, then, shall we say of that closest of all relations —
creature to Creator — which hath in it the germ of every
other ; the parental, for He formed us ; the patronal, for He
hath upheld us ; the friendly, for in all our straits He hath
befriended us; the loyal, for our safety is in His royal
hand ; and, which addeth the attachment to very self, " for
we are ourselves His workmanship ! "
Duty, in truth, is the very lowest conception of it — pri-
vilege is a higher — honour a higher — happiness and delight
a higher still. But duty may be suspended by more press-
392 Practical.
ing duty — privilege may be forgone and honour forgot, and
the sense pf happiness grow dull ; but this of listening to
His voice who plants the sense of duty, bestows privilege,
honour, and happiness, and our every other faculty, is
before all these, and is equalled by nothing but the stub-
bornest necessity. We should hear His voice as the sun
and stars do in their courses, as the restful element of earth
doth in its settled habitation. His voice is our law, which
it is sacrilege to disobey, sacrilege worse than rebellion,
worse than rebellion against our earthly father. He keeps
the bands of our being together. His voice is the charter
of our existence, which, being disobeyed, we should run to
annihilation, as our great father woidd have done, had not
God in mercy given him a second chance, by erecting the
platform of his being upon the new condition of probation,
diiferent from that of all known existences. Was it ever
heard that the sun stopped in his path, but it was God that
commanded ? Was it ever heard that the sea forgot her in-
stability, and stood apart in walled steadfastness, but it was
God that commanded ? Or that fire forgot to consume, but
at the voice of God ? Even so man should seek his Maker's
word as He loveth His well-being, or, like the unfallen
creatures of God, as he loveth his very being — and labour
in obedience, without knowing or wishing to know aught
beyond.
But while we insist that the Scriptures should be perused
out of the sense, not of an incumbency, but of a strong
necessity, as being the issued orders of Him who tip-
holdeth all things — we except against any idea of painful-
ness or force being therewith connected. We say necessity,
to indicate the strength of the obligation, not its disagree-
ableness. But, in truth, there is no such feeling of dis-
agreeabless, but the very opposite, attached to every neces-
sity of the Lord's appointing. Light is pleasant to the
eyes, though the necessary element of vision. Food is
pleasant to the body, though the stable necessaiy of life.
Air is refreshing to the frame, though the necessary ele-
ment of the breathing spirit. What so refreshing as the
Study of the Bible a Privilege.
jvo
necessaiy element of water to all animated existence ?
Sleep is the very balm of life to all creatures under the
snn. Motion is from infancy to feeblest age the most
recreating of things, save rest after motion. Every in-
stinct necessary for preserving or continuing our existence
hath in it a pleasure, when indulged in moderation ; and
the pain which attends excess is the sentinel in the way
of danger, and like the sentinel's voice upon the brink of
ruin, should be considered as the pleasantest of all, though
withdrawing us from the fondest pursuit. In like manner
attendance on God's law, though necessary to the soul as
wine and milk to the body, will be found equally refresh-
ing; though necessary as light to the eyes, will be found
equally cheerful ; though necessary as rest to the weary
limbs, will be foimd equally refreshing to our spiritual
strength.
A duty which is at all times a duty is a necessity ; and
this of listening to the voice of God can at no time be
dispensed with, and therefore is a stark necessity. The
life of the soul can at no time proceed without the present
sense and obedience of its Maker's government. His law
must be present and keep concert with our most inward
thoughts ; with which, as we can never dissolve connexion,
so ought we never to dissolve connexion with the regu-
lating voice of God. In all our rising emotions, in all our
opening purposes, in all our thoughtful debates, holden
upon the propriety of actions, in all the secret cotinsels
of the bosom — the law of God should be consentaneous
with the law of nature, or rather should be umpire of the
council, seeing nature and nature's laws have receded from
the will of God, and become blinded to the best interests
of man. The world is apt to look only to the executive
part of conduct — to the outward actions, which come forth
from behind the curtains of deliberate thought ; and as
these have stated seasons, and are not constantly recurring,
it hath come to pass that the word of God is read and
entertained chieflj- for the visible parts of life ; being used
as a sort of elbow-monitor to guard our conduct from
394 Pi^actical.
oflence, rather than an universal law to impregnate all the
sources of thought and action. Kay, but, doth the hand
ever forget its cunning, or the tongue its many forms of
speech, or the soul its various states of feeling and passion ?
Is there an interval in the wakeful day when the mind
ceases to be in fluctuating motion, and is bound in rest like
the fi'ozen lake ? I do not ask, Is it always vexed like the
troubled sea? but doth it ever rest from emotion, and
remain steadfast like the solid land ? Doth not thought
succeed thought, impression impression, recollection recol-
lection, in a ceaseless and endless round? And before
this pleasant agitation of vital consciousness can compose
itself to I'est, the eye must be sealed to light, and the ear
stopped to hearing, and the body dead to feeling, and the
powers of thought and action, done out, must surrender
themselves to repose. And even then, under the death-
like desertion of all her faculties, and the oppressive
weight of sleep, the mind in her remoter chambers keeps
up a fantastical disport of mimic life, as if loth for any
instant to forego the pleasures she hath in conscious being.
Seeing, then, not even the sleep-locked avenues of sense,
nor the worn-out powers of thought and action, nor slum-
ber's soft embrace, can so lull the soul that she should for
a while forget her cogitations, and join herself to dark
oblivion ; seeing that she keeps up the live-long day a
busy play of thought, feeling, and action, and during the
night keeps vigils in her mysterious chambers, fighting
with the powers of oblivion and inertness a battle for
existence ; — how should she be able for any instant to do
without the presence and operations of her Creator's laws
— from which, being at any instant exempted, she is a God
unto herself, or the world is her God ? From their autho-
rity being detached for a season, however brief, she is for
that season under foreign control, and rebellious to the
Being of whom her faculties are holden, and by whom her
powers of life are upheld.
His laws, therefore, should be present in our inward
parts, yea, hidden in our hearts, that we oifeud Him not.
I
Study of tJie Bible a Privilege. 395
They should be familiar as the very consciousness of life.
Into the belief being received, they should pass into the
memory, grow incorporate with the hidden sources of
nature, until the array of our purposes and actions learn
to display itself under the banners of the Supreme ; and
instinct, blind instinct himself, have his eye opened and
purged by the light of heaven, and come forth submissive
to heaven's voice. They should prove and purify all the
sentiments which bind the considerations of life, as affec-
tion, friendship, patronage, citizenship, and the like. They
should prove and purify all the feelings which instigate
the actions of life, as self-interest, generosity, hospitality,
duty, and the like. They should bridle the wit, and
humour, and levity, and licence of speech, till our words
come forth in unison with the word of God. And, in
short, they should people the whole sovil with that popula-
tion of new thoughts and new affections which the word
reveals concerning God and man, concerning the present
and the future world.
Christians too frequently permit themselves to come pre-
possessed with controversial and doctrinal opinions ; so
now I am forced with equal plainness to remark what loss
they suffer by reading under the influence of their pre-
possession. These are what they call doctrines ; as if every
moral precept, eveiy spiritual gi-ace, every divine example,
every hope, every promise, and every threatening were not
a doctrine : and these doctrines which they exalt into pre-
eminence are sacrificed to in all religious expositions, and
have grown into popular idols, and frown excommunication
upon every one who would doubt their pre-eminence, or
insist for a declaration of the truth, the whole truth, and
nothing bxit the truth.
These doctrines should be like the mighty rivers which
fertilise our island, whose waters, before escaping to the
sea, have found their way to the roots of each several
flower, and plant, and stately tree, and covered the face of
the land with beauty and verdure — spreading plenty far
and wide for the sustenance of man and beast. So ought
396 Practical.
these great doctrines of the grace of God in Christ, and
the lielp of God in the Spirit, and our need of both — to
carry health and vitality to the whole soul and surface
of Christian life. But it hath appeared to us, that, most
unlike such wide-spreading streams of fertility, they are
often, as it were, confined within rocky channels of intole-
rance and disputation, where they hold noisy brawl with
every impediment, draining off the natural juices of the
soil ; and, instead of fruits and graces, leaving all behind
naked, barren, and unpeopled !
TRUE CHRISTIAN PRAYER.
All forms of prayer which begin from conceptions of
God as the God of nature, the soul of the universe, and
wind themselves through high-wrought and long-drawn
periods concerning the infinite enlargement of His attri-
butes, and power, and works, however expedient the}' be
for raising the soul to a high temper of adoration, want
the essential character of a Christian prayer, and speak
rather the man of science or the poet than the humble
and faithful believer in Christ ; and all forms of prayer and
schemes of doctrine which uphold God in the character of
a sovereign doing His will and dividing amongst men
according to His pleasure,— some advancing and blessing,
some reprobating and cursing, for the pleasure of His
will, — however expedient they may be to restrain the self-
confidence and humble the vanity of men, are essentially
Jewish in their character, and out of place in the Christian
temple, whereof the gate is open to all, where there is no
longer any middle wall of partition, but all of every nation
are welcome who fear God and work righteousness. The
spirit of a Christian prayer is to regard God as the most
bountiful of fathers, who out of the greatness of His grace
hath given His Son to open the barred gates of His house
unto the children of men, and bring the chief of sinners
even to His royal presence to kiss the end of His sceptre,
True C/irisiian Prayer. 397
and in that blesssd aspect regarding Him, to come unto
Him as children to a father able and ready to help them
in the time of need, — never to doubt, never to misgive, but
to rest assured that as a father pitieth his children, so the
Lord pitieth them that fear Him. Our prayers, therefore,
should be from the heart, — copious effusions of aftectiouate
hearts towards Him who first loved us ; not invocations of
fear, nor beautiful disportings of fancy among the wonderful
works of God, nor high- wrought eulogiums of His goodness
and grace, but breathings of tenderness, expressive of true
aftection to Him whom we love, of penitence towards Him
we have offended, of praise towards Him whose praise is
recorded in the experience of our soul, of assixred trust
and confidence as of children to the most long-suffering and
patient of fathers. Our hearts should open themselves in
prayer to God for their many wants, as the infant openeth
its hungry mouth and lifteth up the cry in the ear of its
mother ; and as that infant, being filled and satisfied, smiles
in the face of its mother, and spreads its little hands to
embrace her in token of the gladness of its heart, so ought
our spirits, being filled with the answers of their prayers,
to feel an inward joy and thankfulness to the Father of
spirits, and call upon the lips and hands, and every other
obedient member, to express with songs and attitudes of
praise the emotions with which they overflow.
Piety is always in that excess which entitles it to the
name of superstition when it checks our exertions, or
hinders us from the use of lawful and appointed means.
The captain who would throw up the helm in a storm, the
seamen who would betake them to their knees for a
continuance, and allow the opportunities of deliverance
which God is sending to pass unimproved, are as unpar-
donable as the captain who in such a crisis gives his orders
with an oath, or the seamen who go about their duty
with imprecations. The praj'er to God is as easily uttered
as the hasty profanation of His holy name, and the silent
ejaculation of prayer is as speedily said as the bold and
bloody invocation of Ilis wrath ; and, in my esteem, it doth
398 Practical. \
bespeak as brave a man to adopt the one course as to adopt
the other; and any one who hath been in such risks, will
agree with me in thinking that the cool, collected state
of a devout man, is fitter to take the necessary measures
than the hot and heady state of a blasphemer. In our
countrymen the devout doth seldom carry it over the
active ; but amongst Catholic seamen, who repose such con-
fidence in vows and the number of their prayers, it is most
usual in a storm for all hands to betake themselves to their
images, when they should betake them to God with
their trust, and to their business with all their resources.
It is so, also, amongst the Mohammedans, who are siich
strict Predestinariaus as to strike to the fates, when they
fancy they discern them drawing near. And so also, I
believe, with the seamen of the East Indies, who in the
midst of a storm can with difficulty be kept to their posts.
These are all instances of piety setting action to a side,
and becoming ignorant and fatal superstition. The same
tendency exists in pious people everywhere by land as well
as sea, in Protestant countries no less than in Catholic ;
and against falling under it we ought constantly to be
upon our guard. For instance, the same misuse of God's
foreknowledge which enervates or rather annihilates the
Turk, produces the same effect upon multitudes amongst
ourselves who have a desire after religion, but fancy that
they are powerless, incapable of helping themselves, till
the angel of ^q Lord move the waters. It hath been
my lot a thousand times, when pressing the subject of reli-
gious duties upon men, to have in reply, "You know we
can do nothing of ourselves ;" which I hold paramount
with the Turk's saying he can do nothing to save his ship.
Paul, when he was tempest-driven in Adria, had revelation
from the angel of God that there should not a soul be lost
of all that were on board. Yet when the seamen would
have come by the boat, to leave the rest to their shifts,
Paul told the centurion to hinder them, for " unless these
abide in the ship ye cannot be saved ;" thus demonstrating
that even the issue, when known, did not prejudice nor
True Christian Prayer. 399
affect in any way the use of the proper means. But not
only among those who are upon the outside of the holy
temple of religion, and take no means of entreaty or activity
to obtain admission, looking for a door to open by invisible
agency, and themselves to be transpoMed at once within
the wall, — not onl}^ among these deluded bystandei-s, but
amongst the religious themselves, doth this preponderance
of piety over wisdom and action manifest itself. If they
were as wise as they are pious, and had studied the means
of grace as well as they know the fountain of all grace,
they would not feel loath to tell a sinner what steps to take,
— nor fondness to impress him with the idea of his inef-
ficiency,— nor constantly conclude every discourse of active
dut}' with the saving clause, that we can do nothing of
ourselves ; which method of proceeding doth cut the throat
of all thought and action, and impede all jirogress, as much
as if the captain of the ship should preach in the hour
of need to his seamen how vain it was for them to put
forth any endeavour. I reckon the separation of the
religious from the company of worldly men to be another
evidence of the same preponderance in this age of piety
over well-directed and strenuous activity ; otherwise they
would embrace intercourse and free communion as the best
instrument for serving the good cause which they have at
heart. Also, the deafness of the religious towards the free
and manly sentiment for which their predecessors have been
evermore distinguished is a proof of the same overwhelm-
ing force of the pious sentiment over the active measures,
otherwise they would know how much every thing that is
free, and manly, and liberal serves the ends of pure and
tindefiled religion. But we thank God that this state of
things is rapidly giving way, and that human agency is
coming to display in the religious world its wonted mighty
power when conjoined w^ith divine tnist.
You will perceive that I hold the promises to be the
guides of our actions as well as of our prayers, seeing it
cannot be that we are enamoured of anything without
endeavouring what in us lies to possess it ; so that if we
400 Practical.
thirst after the things promised by God, we will take steps
to obtain them, seeing that His promises make them not
only hopeful, but even certain to those who follow them
with a sincere desire and in the appointed way. The whole
of a Christian's transactions, from morning to nigLt, should
be an endeavour after some good thing held up by God as
the prize of his holy industry. His labours, mechanical or
mercantile, literary or political, should be pursued with
the hope of obtaining that daily bread which the Lord, in
permitting ns to ask, has permitted us to expect ; or, if
daily bread be already ours, then, for ends of benevolence
or charity, to win some more substance than we need in
our own household, that we may devote it to God's glory.
Every Christian I regard to be like the bee, sucking sweet-
ness from sourness and turning poisons into wholesome
food. Whatever he accumulates is so much stored from
the enemy, which the enemy would have consumed on
lust, or ostentation, or wickedness. It is a conquest made
from debateable ground, and being in our hands can be
turned to godly purpose. Thus the hours of labour, which
make such encroachments upon our disposable time, may
be peopled with holy intentions, which will effectually
banish from the details of business all meanness and fraud.
Thus we fulfil the commandment of the apostle, to be
" active in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord."
Likewise, at home, our walk and conversation, the rearing "
of our children, and the well-ordering of our house, our
hospitality to acquaintances and entertainment of strangers,
our residences and our removals, should all be regulated so
as to obtain for ourselves, our families, and our circle of
friends, those personal graces and those social excellences
which God hath promised to His i:)eople. Our public and
political interests no less — our debates, our speeches, our
associations, whether in religious or social bodies, and
our behaviour there — should all have a straight intention
to uphold virtue, and honour, and religion, and every other
pillar of the public weal ; so that, from morning to latest
evening, at home and abroad, in the closet, in the street,
Zl:
Faith and Works. 401
and the various rendezvous of active men, we may, nay,
should, have it in our eye, to select some landmark of pro-
mise erected by God to guide our undertakings.
FAITH AND WORKS.
Whereas that Divine revelation is not like the narrative
of a traveller concerning things of which we have no know-
ledge or similitude already in our minds, but is a most
various discourse addressed with Divine wisdom and grace
to every facultj^ of the human soul — the sense of justice,
the love of truth, its desire of blessedness, its delight in
liberty, its desire to see those embodied in a person, its
longing after a perfect human being who might love it, and
whom it might love, who might instruct and help it,
and to whom it might yield its revenue and its coinage, ad-
dressed to every other inward principle, sentiment, taste,
and affection of the soul ; so I judge that the faith by which
we lay hold and embrace this most various record of divine
and spiritual things, is not, as they have been doting and
dreaming for the last century, like the faith which we 3'ield
to a traveller's straightforward tale, or to a witness's decla-
ration of what he has seen and heard, but that it is a faculty
in the receiving soul somewhat proper to, and commensu-
rate with, that which is given it to receive ; a hand delicate
and comprehensive enough to handle that which is pre-
sented to it ; an eye capable of being entertained with the
glories of that glorious vision which is presented to it ; a
mind capable of apprehending the variety and beauty, and
truth and application of that which is submitted to it. And
here is the work of faith, to bring the spiritual faculties, be-
numbed by the torpor of disuse, and overlaid with a farrago
of earthly knowledge, into a state of aptness and liberty to ap-
prehend and occupy and use the infinite variety of spiritual
matters which are submitted to it in the records of the reve-
lation of the word of God, who is our wisdom, our righteous-
ness, our sanctification, and redemption, the revealer of the
mysteries of heaven and earth, the discloser of the grace and
2 D
402 Practical. -
trutli which dwell with God from everlasting, unsearchable
and unknowable ; the brightness of the Father's glory, the
express image of His person, in whom were hid all the
treasures of wisdom and knowledge, in whom dwelleth
the fulness of the Godhead bodily. Oh that I could speak
aright of faith! Oh that I could redeem it from that
paltry conceit into which our wretched evidence-writers
have reduced it ! Oh that I could give j'ou Paul's idea
of faith, the idea of the Fathers, the idea of the Eeformers !
Then would I shew that career of the soul's faculties com-
pared with which the highest scientific research is as earth
compared with heaven ; for which poetry and philosophy
are but, as it were, the sharpening of the tools, and which
hath no kindred with any other of the soul's various oc-
cupations ; being the ingathering of all her powers, the
husbandry of all her exertions, the resurrection of all her
might, the enjoyment of all her delights in the study, and
meditation, and appropriation, and application of all the
divinest things which the Son of God was able to reveal
for the exaltation of the being of man into the heavenly
place of the Divine nature. There should be no more de-
bating or disputing about faith and works, if men did but
know what faith was, to which outward works are like the
lipping shore to the mighty ocean : for as the ocean doth
lie with her many arms and bays around the earth, and
convey the blessings which are borne upon her breast, or
brought forth in her hidden womb, to all the people who
people her manifold shores ; so is faith like the great ocean
of spiritual thought and feeling, which breedeth infinite
good and worketh with mighty motion in itself, and beareth
outv/ard a plentiful tide of good and charitable works to all
the people and places with which it hath intercourse in the 1
communion and fellowship of human life. Works are but
the hem of the garment of faith, which waves abroad to the
liberal observation of men ; but the soft and warm sub-
stance of the garment, which enwrappeth the tender frame
of our own being, and protecteth. it from inclement wea-
ther and rude wintry blasts, that is faith. Now the will
._M
Faith and Works. 403
being inclined heavenward, and being supplied with a con-
stant energy from the Father, doth summon into activity
all the faculties of the mind to hold communion with the
word of God, and these faculties, not of understanding,
which affecteth the sensible, but of mind, which affecteth
the spiritual, do grow apace by the food on which they
feed ; the nectar of heaven, presented in the earthen vessel
of human language, doth convey divine activity to the soul,
and worketh within it an everlasting vitality of holiness
and goodness, and the whole inward man is changed from
a crooked thing, dwarfed and bowed down with a grievous
load of flesh and worldliness, into a giant of mighty bone,
who shouteth as by reason of wine, and rejoiceth to run his
unwearied and endless course. Oh that I could speak of
the operation of faith upon the most meagre and ill-
infonned mind ! Say they that learning can make a man's
soul pure? they lie. Say they that high life doth make a
man's soul gentle ? they lie. Say they that the natural
sciences maketh a man liberal, or that the tongues make
him human ? I testify unto you, what I do know and have
seen, that there are not more ignoble spirits in the land
than in seats of learning, and that the masters of the
sciences are ofttimes mere crawling worms in respect to
true life of soul ; and that the ranks called graceful are in
general full of selfishness, or of the hypocrisy of wanting it.
But, mark you, that a man of faith is a noble man, and a
gracious man, and a high-minded man, and a charitable
man. Find him in a cottage or in a palace, in an oc-
cupation of honour, or in an occupation of disgrace, a
man he is to give the law to other men, and to sustain
the highest men by his spotlessness, and the learnedest
by his wisdom. And they have even done exploits,
and borne perils, and subdued obstinate resistances, and
will do to the end of the world; for as the jewelled
crowm is among the ornaments of the head of men, so is
faith among the ornaments of the mind of men ; and as a
sceptre in the hand of kings is to the staff in the hands of
other men, so is faith among the other powers and authori-
2 D 2
404 Practical.
ties of the immortal soul — the prince, the potentate, the
ruling and presiding genius of the whole.
Which will to convert from its hereditary and headstrong
rebellion to an afiectionate obedience unto God, which
faith to work in the enlarged and all-embracing word of
God, and to carry into operation and effect the new bent and
inclination of the mind, thus steered, thus charted intonew
courses, and freighted with new and more precious burdens
unto all men and things, is the office of the Holy Spirit ;
for, as we have ofttimes taught you, while it appertaineth
to the Father alone, out of the deep recesses of His incom-
municable will, to originate all things, and to the ever-
obedient Word forthwith to reveal all things as they
originate there, so it appertaineth to the blessed Spirit to
bring that which hath been declared into being, and main-
tain it thus to the praise and the glory of the Father and
the Son, from whom He proceedeth, the last in act, but the
equal in dignity, the same in substance, and equal in
power and glory. For whoever willeth, however zealously,
and undertaketh, however sincerely, to become willing and
obedient unto the law, or enravished and entranced by the
gospel of Christ, his will concentred in the Father's will,
his little light of reason taken up into the light of universal
reason, which lighteth angels and men, — whoever thus
thinketh to accomplish in his own might, alas ! he shall
find himself defeated of his thought, and ere long strewed
in wreck, — the sport and contempt of his most masterful
and cruel foes. For why ? Because he would move earth
to heaven in his own strength, and distil out of it the curse
which hath impenetrated all creatures, and remove the
cherubim sword which encircleth Eden with unapproach-
able fire, and navigate the impassable gulf, and restore him-
self'to his lost^'cstate ; which it is not in the power of man
to accomplish, being a divine work, divinely executed by
the action of "the Holy Spirit in every energy of the will to
return, in every act of the mind to know the mysteries of
revelation, in every act of the power to perform actions
becoming godliness. For there is a threefold life, as we
-I
,..,jfi;
Discipline as related to Doctrine. 405
said, — tlie life of om* will, llie life of our knowlodge, and
the life of our power, — which are entwined with one
another, making a sort of trinity of man's soul ; of which
life every part presently inheriteth in an earthly and sin-
ful basis, and needeth to be transplanted to a heavenly
basis, whereby it becomes eternal life, being for the pre-
sent only temporal life. Therefore the Holy Spirit is present
with us, and helpful to us in every effectual resolution of
the will, in every act of appropriating faith, and in eveiy
demonstration of outward godliness ; and when He is not
present there is backsliding and defection. So, then, there
is a continual divinity present in our humanity ; we are
heavenly always, though we be always labouring on the
earth, and we look at all times for heavenly help, though
we be at all times stirred up with all our proper thoughts,
even in the spirit of prayer, in the spirit of faith, and in
the spirit of activity, having always the spirit of love and
of power and of a sound mind, working out our salvation
with fear and trembling, knowing that it is God who
worketh in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure.
This is to be redeemed — this is to be saved — this is to be
made partakers of life everlasting.
DISCIPLINE AS RELATED TO DOCTRINE,
Christian discipline includeth not only all that man owes
to man, and brother to natural brother, but ail, moreover,
which one son of God owes to another son of God, and one
member of Christ to another member of Christ, — the whole
scope and range, indeed, of Christian love, from washing
a disciple's feet to the laying down of our lives for the
brethren. It beareth to Christian love the same relation
which law beareth to justice, the one being the spirit, the
other the outward form and expression of the spirit.
Christian discipline being, therefore, understood to signify
all that is included in the duty of one disciple unto another,
we intend in this discourse to open a little the source of
discipline, the nourishment by Avhich it grows, and the
4o6 Pi^adical.
strength in which it standeth ; for if this can be discovered,
the Church will do its best offices for discipline when it
noxirisheth this the principle of its life.
The seed and germ of discipline, and its nourishment
through all the stages of its life, is no other than sound
doctrine, and without the constant presence and power of
sound doctrine discipline cannot long endure in its genial
and blessed spirit, but falls away, and declines into for-
mality, and, in a state of ignorance and superstition,
hardens into tyranny. For discipline is but the outward
form of Christian love, and Christian love which is in the
heart can only be generated by the knowledge of that
truth which Christ taught His disciples. The faith of
sound doctrine is that which makes the selfishness of the
natural man open into the community of the Christian,
which melts the heart of stone into the heart of flesh, and
unfoldeth all the generous sympathies of the spirit, teach-
ing it to feel kindness and to do good, and to part with one
happy condition for the sake of another's well-being, upon
the same disinterested principle which moved Christ,
though rich, for our sakes to become poor, that we through
His poverty might become rich, and to give His life a ran-
som for the sins of men. Till the entering in of faith
there is nothing present in the heart but nature, out of
which cometh the fruits of nature, which are pride, im-
piety, self-idolatry, ostentation, malice, and such like ; but
upon the entering in of faith, there entereth along with it
into the heart the light of divine knowledge, which con-
verteth it from its idolatries to the service of the living and
true God, and from the love of self to the love of its neigh-
bour as itself, and to the love of the brethren as Christ
loved the Church, and gave Himself for it. But there is
no such spirit of Christian love in a man until he loveth
the sound doctrines whereby we are redeemed out of the
vain conversation of the world, and renewed in the image
of God ; not only loveth them, but liveth in them as the
element of his breath, liveth on them as the elements of
his life.
Discipline as related to Doctrine. 407
But of all the doctrines of Scripture, that which is most
conducive to the growth of discipline, and in which indeed
the Church standeth as a community distinct from everj-
other community, is the doctrine of election, not as it is
contemplated by most theologians, under the form of an
eternal decree, but as it is contemplated in the Scriptures,
under the fonn of a fact. The doctrine of election under
the form of a decree is a doctrine into the belief of which
men grow according as they grow spiritual ; but which being
believed — or being imagined as believed, for believed it
cannot be — by any man of himself from the first, would go
far to arrest and altogether put an end to his spiritual
progress. And therefore to endeavour to enforce the faith
of it upon men is an idle and, I think, an unprofitable
work. Its evidence is not had through demonstration to the
intellect, but through experience of the grace of God, through
manifestation of the Divine Spirit within us, through the
attainment of Chi'istian graces, through the progress of our
redemption from the midst of the world's evil conditions,
and the assurance that we are coming into a meetness for
the inheritance of the saints in light. If therefore you
would persuade a man of the tnith of the doctrine of
election as a decree and purpose of God regarding himself,
the way by which to proceed is to say nothing of it what-
ever, but to lead him onward into the ways of godliness
and the experience of the divine life ; and when you have
got him far into the bowels of the land, then from some
eminence of faith and holiness make him to face about and
look back upon the ten-itory of the King which he hath
been brought over by the ministry of the King's good
Servant, and by the constant guidance of the King's only-
begotten Son. Then let him doubt, if he please, of his
being one of the King's chosen ones. But if he still doubt,
the only remedy is to proceed further and still further
onward, till you reach a more inward region, a more
intimate neighbourhood to the King's privileged places,
and stand further within the arch of the royal immunities.
By such a progress from faith to faith and from grace to
4o8 Practical.
grace tlie most faithless and dispirited will grow into tlie
belief of election, as a decree and purpose of God regarding
himself. But if, while yet beyond the King's territory, in
the hostile land, or hardly within the barriers of salvation,
while staggering and reeling upon the border line and
debateable land, you would seek to persuade a man of his
being one of the King's most choice and beloved and
most faithful servants, he must be a fool if you succeed,
and you do him wrong to make the attempt : for if you
succeed, you delude him and stop his progress ; if you fail,
you prejudice him against the sovereign whose favour is
had at so cheap a rate. Therefore, I say it again, the
doctrine of election under the form of a decree must be left
to grow upon us, or rather we grow into it, just as we grow
into the knowledge and experience of divine things within
our soul.
But not so of the doctrine of election conceived under
the form of a fact, or as it might be called, the doctrine
that the people of God are separate and distinct from
others. This is the doctrine which must ever be held up
before a Christian church — that in all things they are
diverse from the world, separated from the world by lines
and barriers, not of place nor language, nor dress nor
outward visible forms, but by lines and barriers of the
Spirit, by new principles of action and new ends of action,
by new desires of well-being and purposes of well-doing, by
a new faith, a new holiness, and a new truthfulness. But
it is separation without being distance, it is division without
being discord ; for though the Christian be diverse from one
who is not a Christian, and from himself while yet in an
unchristian state, so much as to be called a new man, still
he is divided from none of his former affections, except
in so far as they were malicious and evil. He is a more
united husband ; his friendship is tenfold more true ; his
enmities are shewn in forgiveness ; his indignation is under
the helm of love, and the divisive selfishness of humanity
is ejected, and the conjoining love of Christ is bestowed
in its stead. His relations to all men are now joined by
Discipline as related to Doctrine. 409
different ties than heretofore, and his distinctiveness con-
sisteth in the diversity of these tics, not in the weakness of
them.
Convinced I am, having had the proof and experience
of no cold, secret, or reserved, but rather of what the world
were wont to call a warm, open, and generous nature
within myself, — convinced, I say, I am, from many years'
knowledge of myself, and some short knowledge of another
self than that self which was born of my mother, of this,
that till the doctrines of the gospel penetrate the heart
it is closed and conti-acted towards God and towards the
things which are of God, towards man and the things that
are of man. I do not say that it is altogether contracted ;
nay, there is a humanity in man, and the humanity of one
man draweth to the humanity of another man ; but Christian
discipline consisteth not in the converting of our humanity,
but in the converting of the divinity within us, which is
not quickened by natural instinct, but which is born again
of water and of the Spirit, and nourished by the grace of
God. And when this divinity cometh to be born within
the soul, nature is not quenched, her milky juice and sap
is not dried up, her fire of love is not put out, nor is her
humanity contracted towards the humanity of another, nor
her being shrivelled up ; nay, every expansion of the soul
is twice expanded, and every wrinkle of selfishness is un-
folded, the bud of human nature is full blown under the
new heart and life of affection which breathes upon it
from the Spirit of God, and new uufoldings that here-
tofore were knit up in the secret parts of the soul open
themselves.
This is the form of that doctrine of election or separation,
which being insisted upon will give birth to discipline,
which being shunned or slighted will abolish it from the
Church. For if the people be not taught the principles of
their faith, which distinguisheth them as a people ; if they
be allowed to soil their raiment with earthly and sensual
contacts, and to corrupt their spirit with ambitious or
ostentatious or worldly inspirations, and be not constantly
4IO Practical.
guarded from these as the poisons of their new life, and the
old bondage from which they were redeemed ; if they be
not reminded that they are a distinct people, a people dis-
tinct in all their principles, and ends, and motives, and
distinguished for the purpose of shewing unto the world
the attributes of Him who hath called them out of darkness
into His marvellous light, in order that the world beholding
their good works may glorify their Father which is in
heaven ; — if this idea be lost, or seldom treated of, then it
must inevitably come to pass that communion within the
Church will be like society in the world ; that the name of
brethren may remain, but the meaning of it is lost ; that
the name of church, or iKKXrjo-La, or election, may abide, but
that it hath become an election without any reason of pre-
ference, an elected body whose election serveth no good
end of the common weal, or to their own private and pecu-
liar blessing. In truth the Church may become a set of
doctrines, as it is here ; or a set of forms, as it is in Eomish
places ; or a set of respectable moralities, as it is in Socinian
places — it may become anything or nothing, but never will
it become the unblemished bride of Christ, His betrothed
spouse, whom He shall yet lead in His hand and offer to
Plis Father in her glorious beauty, without spot, or wrinkle,
or any such thing. Oh, what I would give to hear this
doctrine of election, which hath become the watchword of
every hare-brained spiritual Quixote, become again what it
was in the hands of our fathers — the holy name which sig-
nified in one word the Church's harmony within herself,
and mercy towards them without ! Then would she become
again like a cottage in the wilderness for the wayworn tra-
veller to lay down his weary limbs and be refreshed ; she
would become as streams of water in dry places, as the
shadow of a gi-eat rock in a weary land. I pray the Lord
to bring His people back from their vain disputations and
profitless janglings about this word, and to abolish the
ideas grafted on it by intellectual disputants, and to bring
them at length to discern that it is but the name for all that
which separates and distinguishes the new man from the
I
Topics of Tcrro}'. 411
old man, the disciple of Christ from the disciple of Belial,
the image of God renewed in the soul in righteousness
and tnxe holiness, from the image of Satan, his pride, his
malice, his lust, whereto we are born by natural birth.
TOPICS OF TERROR.
Topics of terror, it is very much the fashion of the
time to turn the ear from, as if it were unmanly to fear
pain. Call it manly or unmanly, it is nature's strongest
instinct — the strongest instinct of all animated nature : and
to avoid it is the chief impulse of our actions. Punishment
is that which law founds upon, and parental authority in the
first instance, and every human institution from which it
is painful to be dismembered. Not only is pain not to be
inflicted without high cause, nor endured without much
trouble, but not to be looked on without a pang : as ye
may judge, when ye see the cold knife of the surgeon
enter the patient's flesh, or the heavy wain grind onward
to the neck of a prostrate child. Despise pain, I Avot not
what it means. Bodily pain you may despise in a good
cause, but let there be no motive, let it be God's simple
visitation, spasms of the body for example, then how many
give it licence, how many send for the physician to stay
it? Truly, there is not a man in being, whom bodily
pain, however slight, if incessant, will not turn to fury or
to insensibility — embittering peace, eating out kindliness,
contracting sympathy, and altogether deforming the inner
man. Fits of acute suffering which are soon to be over,
any disease with death in the distance may be borne ; but
take away hope, and let there be no visible escape, and he
is more than mortal that can endure. A drop of water
incessantly falling upon the head is found to be the most
excruciating of all torture, which proveth experimentally
the truth of what hath been said.
Hell, therefore, is not to be despised like a sick bed,
if any of you be so hardy as to despise a sick bed. There
412 Pi^actical.
are no comforting kindred, no physician's aid, no liope of
I'ecovery, no melancholy relief of death, no sustenance
of grace. It is no work of earthly torture or execution
with a good cause to suffer in, and a beholding world
or posterity to look on, and a good conscience to approve,
with scornful words to revenge cruel actions, and the
constant play of resolution or study of revenge. It is
no struggle of mind against its material envelopments and
worldly ills, like stoicism, which was the sentiment of
virtue nobly downbearing the sense of pain. I cannot
render it to fancy, but I can render it to fear. Why may
it not be the agonj'' of all diseases the body is susceptible
of, with the anguish of all deranged conceptions and dis-
ordered feelings, stinging recollections, present remorses,
bursting indignations, with nothing but ourselves to burst
on, dismal prospects, fearful certainties, fury, folly, and
despair ?
I know it is not only the fashion of the world, but of
Christians, to despise the preaching of future woe ; but
the methods of modern schools, which are content with
one idea for their Gospel and one motive for their
activity, I willingly renounce for the broad methods of
Scripture, which bring out ever and anon the recesses
of the future to upbear duty and downbear wickedness,
and assail men by their hopes and fears as often as by
their affections, by the authority of God as often as by the
constraining love of Christ, by arguments of reason and
of interest no less.
THE STATE AND RELIGION.
The ordinances of the Church though intended primarily
for " the Church of the first-born, whose names are written
in heaven," are yet of such a diffusive and blessed in-
fluence, that like the ordinances of heat and cold, light,
and health, and fruitfulness, they extend with a divine
generosity their good effects, even unto those who are not
under their saving influence; and in them do prepare a
The State and Religion. 4 1 3
Boil, are continually preparing and renewing the soil,
which doth produce unto God the peaceable fi-uits of
righteousness. The worship of the living and the true
God is so acceptable, in the midst of this world's idolatry,
that the nation which setteth it up never faileth to grow
great and prosperous, and to dwell salely in the face of
all its enemies. They talk like fools, and enemies of their
country, who talk as if it were not the duty of the govern-
ment of a country to intermeddle with religion : I say that
the goveiTD.ment which will stand neutral between Christ's
gospel and the Papal apostasy, or the Mohammedan im-
posture, or the Unitarian, abomination, or other forms of
antichristian doctrine, is essentially an atheistical govern-
ment, which hath cast off allegiance to Christ, " The Prince
of the kings of the earth," and to God who ruleth over the
nations, to give them to His Son in full inheritance : and
that king or government which afifecteth such indiffer-
ence, much more those which shew a preference to the
unbelievers, will soon be cut off in the frown of God,
and consumed in the hotness of His wrath. I am grieved
because of the opinions which are possessing my country-
men upon this great question of statesmanship ; and I fore-
see, if the tide of indifferency to Christ be not stemmed,
we also shall " go down to the sides of the pit : " and what
a fall will that be from this transcendent power and glory
with which God hath encircled this little island of the
sea ! The Lord raise up men mighty to save. When
the ordinances of God's worship are reverently conducted
throughout the parishes of a land, in the face and with
the consenting hearts of the assembled people, that nation
will be exalted very high : where the ordinance of preach-
ing is in full and vigorous action, freely handling the
doctrines of Christ, and largely expounding the will of
God for our salvation, trying every condition of the com-
munity, and measuring every relation of man to man, by
the rule of God's commandment, there will spring up such
a sense of God's fear within the hearts of men, and there
will descend such a blessing of God's grace from above,
414 Practical.
as will make itself to be felt and acknowledged in the
experience of every one. Oh ! if I were the rightful king
of these realms, instead of being his free-born and loyal
subject, I would have a hundred eyes over the land, to
pick me up the youth whom God had blessed with large
and gracious faculties. I would seek for them as for hid
treasure : every schoolmaster should be at liberty to cor-
respond with my secretaries concerning the extraordinary
endowments of the mind, and every minister of the Church,
concerning the extraordinar}'' outpourings of the Spirit
upon any youth ; and from my own privy purse, I would
have them instructed for ministers of Christ's gospel : yea,
and when my purse failed, I would pawn the jewels of the
crown, that the work might not slack ; and, when regularly
licensed to preach, the gospel by the priestly stewards of
that office, I would give to every one of them my royal
warrant and commission, my sign manual, to go forth and
preach in all corners of the kingdom, let bishop or arch-
bishop, presbytery or synod, say what they pleased ; and
I would revive and extend the old motto of the city of
Glasgow, "Let Great Britain flourish by the preaching
of the word." And in effect, this is exactly what Edward
the Sixth of blessed memory did, when he chose some
fifteen or more, and gave them this large commission ; of
whom Bernard Gilpin was one, and, I am proud to say,
John Knox was another.
GRACE RUNS THROUGH ALL.
I AM bold to assert that it is only half a gospel which,
doth not preach the redemption of creation and provi-
dence, as well as of the soul ; and it is a robbery of Christ
not to combine in Him the Creator, the Provider, and the
Redeemer. Therefore, wherever this gospel of the king-
dom is preached, it should be made known, that since the
Fall every faculty of the mind and power of the body,
every gift and endowment of natural life, and dispensa-
1
Grace runs through all. 4 1 5
tion of Providence, prosperous or adverse, is a talent be-
queathed to every one of us, according to the number of
which will be our responsibility, and according to the
improvement of which will bo our reward. And it is a
miserable conceit and most slender system of truth, to set
forth all before conversion, as not in the account of grace,
and even to give a reflected glory to their notion, according
to the maxim, " The greater sinner, the greater saint ; "
which is a strange jumble and confusion of the wicked
slander upon the apostle's doctrine, that we should do evil
that good may come. And it has the bad effect of con-
tenting people in their sins, until some great event shall
occur in the providence of God, sufficient to work the
mighty work for which they are folding their hands in idle
expectation. But I say iinto you, iS'o ; not by any means
to conceive so false an idea of the gosj^el of Christ, which
hath made known to all men that the Lord is governing
the world according to a gracious purpose of redeeming it,
seeing it hath been piirchased back from the curse by the
death of Christ, who now in heaven is governing and over-
niling all things to the one end of destroying the works of
the devil, of clean subverting them, and sweeping them
away from the face of the earth.
HISTORICAL AND
PROPHETICAL
2 E
*'■(§> «® ® «® @ ®'^ (§) «® (g)."® (D *» @ «® (D ®» '^
A . O' & '=> (% II
THE VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE CHDRCH.
THERE hath always been these two things in the world
— a visible church, now constituted in a family, now
in a nation, and now in a confraternity of all kindreds and
tongues, united by oneness of faith and baptism ; and an
invisible or elect church, continually gathering out of the
former, but known only to God, and essentially hidden
fium the discernment of men. And these two will con-
tinue in the world after the coming of Christ, with these
two differences: first, that the visible church shall now
include the whole earth, with Jenisalem as its metropolis,
tlie temple in Jerusalem as its shrine, and the Lord of
hosts in that temple as the object of universal worship,
insomuch " that whoso will not come up of all the families
of tlie earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the
Lord of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain." And
this is the temple which the Son of David who is to reign
for ever shall build unto the name of the Lord, where He
shall inhabit and reign for ever. The second difference
is, that the church invisible, which hath been gathering
tinder the dispensation of gracious promise, shall now
become visible when that New Jerusalem cometh down
from heaven in which there is no temple, and the taber-
2 E 2
420 Historical and Prophetical.
uacle of God is witli men ; or in other words, when Christ
Cometh with all His saints. It is- to the real worldly
Jerusalem that all prophecy adverteth in the first instance,
though no prophecy telleth out its burden, or accom-
plisheth its meaning save in the latter, that is, the glori-
fied condition of the saints ; which truly is the end of all
revelation, the object of all predictions, the consummation
of all dispensations, and the exposition of all types and
symbols. So that this our glorious hoj)e liveth not by
dissolving the letter of any pi'ophecy,' or evacuating the
meaning of eveiy type, but by preserving all the things
which God hath given to represent and prefigure it, and
using them all in the interpretation of the same. Now
that there will be a real Jerusalem on the earth, such a
city, only more pure and holy, as we now behold cities on
the earth, I believe ; and that there will be a temple in
that Jerusalem, because of which kings shall bring presents
into them, I truly believe ; while at the same time I
believe there will be a New Jerusalem with no temple but
the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb.
WHAT THE PEOTESTANT CHUKCH HAS NEGLECTED.
Since the Eeformation little else has been preached be-
sides the baptismal and eucharistical gift, the work of
Christ's death unto the justification and sanctification
of the believer. The dignity and office of the Church, as
the fulness of the Lord of all, hath not been fully preached,
or firmly held, and is now almost altogether lost sight of.
Church government, bickerings about the proper form of
polity, and the standing of the civil magistrate to the Church
and in the Church, have been almost the only things con-
cerning the Church which have come into question among
Protestants ; and there hath been no holding of her up to the
heathen as the holy place of God, but, on the contraiy,
the presentation of a Book in the stead thereof. Not
but the Eeformation was the beginning of a great and a Kood
I
What the Protestant Church has Neglected. 421
work ; but that, so far from having made progress towards
completion, it has gone a great way backward, and in our
hands is a poor shred of what it was in the hands of Luther,
and Hooker, and the like. But things are taking a turn.
Let the Church know that things are taking a mighty
turn. There is a shining forth of truth in these subjects
beyond former days. The power and glory of a risen Lord,
as well as the holiness of a Lord ia flesh, is beginning to
be understood and discoursed of; and the enemy would
spread a curtain of thin sophistry between the Church and
the bright dawn : he might as well hide the morning by
drawing before our eyes the spider's cobweb, or the frost-
work of the night, which the rising sun quickly dissipates
— and so, I trust, may these poor men, who write their
nnsober and uncharitable revilings in their several parcels
of periodical abuse, be themselves like the frost-work of
the morning, absorbed into the glorious light which the
rising morn is shedding around them. But be this as it
may, now that the inward work of apprehending the glory
of Christ is begun, and proceeding apace, we may surely
expect that the outward means of convincing the world
that it is no cunningly contrived fable, will be afforded to
the Church; and that she will have her full dignity re-
stored to her of testifying not only to a holy Lord in flesh
crucified for all men, but of a risen Lord in po\\er and
gloiy, crowned for His Church, and in His Church put-
ting forth unto the world a first-fruits of that power and
government over all creation which in her He shall ever
exercise over all creation. These gifts have ceased, I would
say, just as the verdure and leaves and flowers and fruits
of the spring and summer and autumn cease in winter,
because, by the chill and wintry blasts which have blown
over the Church, her power to put forth her glorious
beauty hath been prevented. But because the winter is
without a green leaf or beautiful flower, do men thereof
argue that there shall be flowers and fruits no more?
Trusting to the Word of God, who hath created every-
thing to produce and biing forth its kind, man puts out
42 2 Historical and Prophetical.
his hand in winter, and makes preparations for the coming
year: so, if the Church be still in existence, and that no
one denies ; and if it be the law and end of her being to
embody a first-fruits and earnest of the power which Christ
is to put forth in the redemption of all nature ; then, what
though she hath been brought so low, her life is still in
her, and that life will, under a more genial day, put forth
its native powers. Will God be baffled in His own most
perfect work, in that work which He hath wrought for the
honour of His Son ? I trow not. The Church is in the con-
dition of a man faint, and sick, and apparently dead, who
putteth forth neither manly voice nor vigorous action, and
is even incapable of thought, and almost beyond feeling ;
but let the man revive again, (and we know the Church
never dies,) and he will both hear and see and feel and act
the man. So, if the Church reviveth, she must act as the
Church; which is not in the way of holiness merely, but
in the way of power, for the manifestation of the complete-
ness of Christ's work in flesh, and the first-fruits of the same
work in glory. The Church is like a man who has been
fed upon sloes, without fruits and husks, without kernels,
refuse which the swine should eat : and she is grown lean
and w^eak and helpless ; and, moreover, she has grown de-
graded in her ideas — she has forgotten the nobility of her
birth, and the grandeur of her destination ; but what then?
give her proper meat, give her nourishing drinlv, feed her
with marrow and with fatness, and she will put forth her
might again, and rejoice in her high places. The question
is, whether that be the endowment of the Church which
we have laid down above ? If so, then rest assured that
when she revives again she will embody the law according
to which she was made, and shew forth the beauty and
put forth the power with which she was endowed in the day
of her birth.
Therefore, with all patience, as one who is working for
a master the work that his master hath set him to do, have
I endeavoured to exhibit at large the Church's endowment
of Her great Head, consisting of two parts : the first, the
WJmt tJie Protestant Church has Neglected. 423
inheritance of His complete work wrought in the flesh;
the second, the first-fruits of the work which lie is to work
when He comes again. The former consisteth in perfect
holiness, through the renewal of the soul; which is strength-
ened to subdue the innate propensities of the flesh to evil, to
cnicify the world, and to overcome the evil one. This we
have served out to us in the two sacraments of Baptism
and the Lord's Supper ; in the one of which we receive
cleanness of conscience, and in the other participation of
Christ's sanctified flesh and purchased inheritance. But
none of these go further than to possess us of what He
purchased in the flesh : " This is my body, given for you ;
this is my blood, shed for the remission of sins : " His
body, given for the life of the world ; His blood, shed for
the putting away of all sin. The Church hath perfect
holiness ministered to her iu these two ordinances : Christ
doth thereby dispense that gift of the Spirit which was
dispensed to Him by the Father in the days of His flesh,
and by the faithful use of which He " sanctified Himself."
And we, having in these most comfortable ordinances that
blessed fellowship of holiness, should sanctify ourselves,
that Ave may holy as He is holy. This is the work of the
Spirit uniting us unto Christ ; taking out of us our unholi-
ness and grafting us into Christ. There is a power in the
Spirit to wash the Ethiopian white. It is not in man, but
it is in God, to do so ; and the element with which to do it
He hath in the blood of Christ, which cleanseth away all
sins. Every man baptized into the Church is answerable
for a life of spotless, stainless holiness. What though no
man hath yielded it ? So miich the more is the sinfulness of
our nature proved, and the divinity of Christ shewn, who
did present mortal flesh sinless : and let Him be glorified,
and every man be a liar.
MISSIONARY
i
'^l?^'^Sf6^'i^'ff^\'Pff^
A contkast: kings ambassadors and heavens
MISSIONARIES.
WHEN kings send out ambassadors to represent their
persons and their interests in foreign courts, they
choose out from amongst the people, men of high name
and reputation, well skilled in the ways of the world and
the policy of states ; whom, having clothed with powers
plenipotentiary, and appointed with officers and servants
of every kind, they send forth, accredited with royal
letters to all courts and kingdoms, whither they may come,
furnished with grace and splendour to feast the common
eye, and laden with rich gifts to take the cupidity or con-
ciliate the favour of those with whom they have to do.
Also, when a nation fitteth out a journey or voyage of
discovery, they choose out men of fortitude, humanity, and
skill, upon whom to bestow a valorous and steady crew,
who will not be daunted by the dangers, nor baiBed by
the difficulties of the work ; and having called in the
whole science and art of the country, to fortify and accom-
modate the danger-hunting men, they launch them forth
amidst the hearty cheers and benedictions of their country.
And when a nation arrayeth its strength to battle for its
ancient rights and dominions ; or when a noble nation
428 Missionary .
armetli in the cause of humanity to help an insulted sister
in the day of her need, as we Britons have often heen
called upon to do, the nation is shaken to her very centre
with commotion, and every arm and sinew of the land
straineth to the work. Fleets and armies, and munitions
of war ; the whole chivalry, the whole prowess, strength
and policy, and oft the whole wealth of the land muster
in the cause ; and the chief captains forsake their wives
and children, and peaceful homes ; and the warlike harness
is taken from the hall where it hung in peace ; and the
bold peasantry come trooping from their altars and their
household hearths ; and " the trumpet speak etli to the
armed throng : " they gather into one, and descend unto
the shores of the surrounding sea, whither every fleet ship
and gallant sailor have made ready to bear them to the
place where the rights of the nation, or the insulted rights
of humanity cry upon their righteous arm for redress ; —
and their kinsmen follow them with their prayers, and
their wives and children, their fathers, and the households
of their fathers, with the assembled congregations of the
people, commit them and their righteous cause to the safe
conduct and keeping of the Lord of Hosts.
But, when the King of heaven sendeth forth these twelve
ambassadors to the nations, fitteth out these discoverers of
the people that sat in darkness and the shadow of death,
and furnisheth forth this little army to subvert the thrones,
dominions, principalities and powers of darkness which
brooded over the degenerate earth, to bring forth the lost
condition of humanity, and establish its crown of glory as
at the first; he took men of no name nor reputation,
endowed with no Greek, with no Eoman fame, by science
untaught, by philosophy unschooled, fishermen from the
shores of an inland sea ; the class of men, which of all
classes is distinguished for no exploit in the story of the
world ; Galileans, a people despised of the Jews, who were
themselves a despised people. As at first, when God
wished to make a man in His own image, after His own
likeness, He brought not the materials from heavenly
A Contrast. 429
regions, neither created a finer quintessence of matter for
the high occasion, but took from the ground a handful of
dust, thereon to impress His divine image, and thereinto
to breathe the spirit of lives : so the Sou of God, himself
a sei-vant, despised and rejected of men, when He chcj.sc
vessels to bear His name before Gentiles and kings, and
the children of Israel, preferred that they should be
empty of human greatness, without any grace or comeli-
ness in the sight of man, without any odour of a good
name, or rich contents of learning or knowledge ; — that
the treasure being in earthen vessels, the praise might bo
of God.
Such men having chosen, for subverting the ancient
thrones of darkness, and recovering the world from the per-
dition of sin and the night of the gi'ave, He sent them forth,
destitute of all visible sustenance, and of all human help,
and forbade them to be beholden unto any. " Take nothing
for your journey ; neither staves nor scrip, neither bread,
neither money, neither have two coats a-piece : provide
neither gold, nor silver, nor brass, in your purses, nor scrip
for your journey, neither have two coats, neither shoes,
nor yet staves, and salute no man by the way." No
means of any sort did He permit for procuring the neces-
saries of life, or purchasing the helps of their journey ; no
store of provisions, nor even a scrij) for containing what
might be offered them by the pity or piety of the people :
no raiment or vesture, with the change of which to comfort
their weary and way-worn limbs, besides what was suffi-
cient for nature's modesty and her present necessity.
Without staff, without shoes, they fared on their way two
by two : their sandalled feet exposed to dust and sultry
heat ; their bodies to every blast of heaven ; their natural
wants to man's precarious charity. The most defenceless
bird that flies athwart the heavens, the weakest, most per-
secuted beast that cowers beneath the covert, or scuds along
the plain, are better provided with visible help than were
these apostles of the Highest ; for the birds of the air liave
nests to which to wing their flight at even-tide, and the
430 Missionary.
beasts of the earth have holes wherein to screen themselves
from pursuit ; but the founders of the spiritual and ever-
lasting kingdom had not where to lay their head.
Whom having thus divided from the resources "which
human weakness hath in the storehouse and armoury of
nature, he next divided from the resources which she hath
in the power and patronage and friendship of men. They
are to compose no speeches for the ears of prince or
governor, but to speak as the Spirit of Truth gave them
utterance ; they are not to go from house to house making
friends against the evil day, but to abide where they first
halted, so long as they are welcome ; they are not even to
salute a friend, acquaintance, or neighbour by the way.
And if, in spite of these preventions, it should come to pass
that the people they conferred with, well disposed to them
for their word's sake, should take pity upon their impro-
vided estate, and offer them money to help them on their
way ; lo, they have no purse for containing it ! if they
should offer them provision to be their viaticum from town
to town ; lo, they have no scrip wherein to bestow it !
They cannot possess, they cannot accumulate, they are cut
off and separate from all fixed and moveable wealth which
the world holdeth within its fair and ample bound. What
will preserve life, they are to take upon the credit of their
universal message, without feeling obligation, for the
labourer is worthy of his meat, and they are wholly obliged
to another cause. In no earthly shape can they benefit
from their labours under the sun ; to no account can they
turn the children of men, from whose liberality they can
profit no further than to live. Like Jonah, commissioned
with the burden of Nineveh, they are to gird up their
loins and make speed ; they are to hie from house to house,
and hasten from town to town, inquiring after the spirits of
immortal men ; to tell their tale, and hurry onward : as
the heralds of the northern chiefs were wont to hasten from
house to house, and from village to village, when rousing
the mountain-clans to war. — And cause truly see I none,
why they who hold the commission to make peace should
A Co7iti'ast. 431
not be as fleet as those who hold the commission to levy
wai", and the messenger of salvation fly with as hasty a
wing as the messenger of death ; why servants should not
be found to do as much, and to do it as hastily, for tho
King of heaven, as for the lordly chieftain of a mountain-
clan, or the throned monarch of a mighty land.
Thus disfumished of resources from nature's storehouse,
and hindei'ed from ploughing with human help, do you ask
if these first missionaries of the gospel had promises of wel-
come everywhere, and went forth on a flourishing and popu-
lar cause? if the way was prepared for them in every city?
and a hospitable home made ready for them in every
house ? Hear what their Lord saith to them at parting :
" Go your ways, behold I send you as sheep in the midst of
wolves. Beware of men, for they will deliver you up to
the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues,
and ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my
sake, and the brother shall deliver up the brother, and the
father the child, and the children shall rise up against the
parents and cause them to be put to death, and ye shall be
hated of all men for my name's sake." Such was their
heavy parting. No missionary that ever went to the
heathen, fared forth on his way with so gloomy a foreboding,
BO cheerless a farewell. Let no one object, in the face of
these predictions too truly fulfilled : " But these are not
men like us, open to every want; they are inspired miracle-
working men who had nature under their control." Their
miracles, which saved many, protected not themselves;
their inspirations, which blessed many, could not bless
themselves from every haiTU and sorrow which patient
nature can endure. They are to be placed at the bar of
civil law, to be hunted out with religious persecution ;
against them the tender aflections of life are to rise in
arms, and the soft and downy scenes of home are to bristle
like the iron front of war : the tender hands which are
wont to pluck the thorns of sorrow from our feet, are to
guide the weapons of their death ; of all men they are to
be hated for His name's sake : they are to be hunted like
432 Missionary,
the partridge on the monntains, and every refuge upon thoiJ
earth is to be hidden from their sight. Go, said He, myi
chosen ones, go like the defenceless lamb into the paw of
the ravenous wolf : the world thirsteth for your blood, and
is in arms against your undefended lives. Nevertheless,
go. You are without weapons of defence, no bribes are in
your hands, nor soft words upon your tongues ; and you go
in the teeth of hatred, derision, and rage. Nevertheless,
my children, go.
They are launched into a stormy sea, a sea of storms and
shipwreck is before them, and their frail bark is not fenced
or fitted out for any storm, or furnished for any voyage.
So the world would say, because so it seemeth in the eye of
the Tvorld, which looketh but upon the visible and tem-
poral forms of things. It is madness, they would say,
moon-struck madness, to think thatof such should come any
speed ; it is not in the nature of things they should exist a
week in any region of the earth, and in barbarous regions
not a single day : no policy of insurance would do their risk
at any premium : they are shipwrecked, cast-away creatures,
doomed to death, and destined to effect no good, even if
they should outlive their first outsetting. Men must have a
livelihood before they can speak or act : they must have
protection to cover them from the tyranny of power, and
law to save them from the riots of the people : they must
be well paid, if you would have them work well; for if a
man have no comforts his life is miserable. What ! such
mendicants as these convert the world ! say the well-
conditioned classes; vagrant, vagabond fellows, they are
fitter for the stocks or the common jail. Such illiterate
clowns, such babblers as these, instruct mankind ! say the
learned classes ; away with them to their nets and fishing-
craft. And, say the political classes, it is dangerous to the
state ; they cover plots under their silly pretences, and must
be dealt with by the strong hand of power. Methinks I
hear, in every contemptible and arrogant speech which is
vented against the modern missionaries by worldly and
self-sufficient men, the echo, afler two thousand yearS; of
A ConirasL 433
those speeches which wore wont to be poured upon the
twelve apostles and sevent}'^ disciples, when they began
to emerge out of the foundation of society, into the neigh-
bourhood and level of its higher ranks.
But the Wonderful Counsellor, in whom dwelt all the
treasures of wisdom and of knowledge, and who knew what
was in man, did not without good and sufficient cause
divorce the human desii'es from those objects on which they
naturally rest. He knew that if He gave the messengers
of His kingdom, which is not of this world, and against
which this world conspireth, to expect any ray of hope,
any shadow of consolation, or scantling of support from the
things of this world, it would be only to disappoint them
in the end : for though He foresaw that fair weather would
dawn, and much enjoyment be partaken in the progress and
towards the latter end of the work, He saw, hanging over
its first beginnings in every region of the earth, storms
and tempests, and terrific commotions, out of which the
eclipsed light of truth, was to come forth, and the day of
peace to be established ; He knew that in every realm His
truth was to make way against the edge of the sword, and,
like the j)hoenix, to procreate itself in the fiame of fire, and
that His servants were to be heard from the paw of the
lion and from the horn of the unicorn ; wherefore it
booted not to amuse those who were to plant the plant,
and those who were to propagate the plant, with the
enjoyments which were to be partaken under its future
shade ; and He spoke plainly unto them, and said. If ye
have not a heart for the extreme of human suffering,
and a soul above the fear of man, ye need not undertake
this work, — more perilous than war, more adventurous
than a voyage to " regions of thick-ribbed ice," and more
important to the earth than the most sacred legation
which ever went forth in behalf of suffering and insulted
humanity.
But, while He cut them off from the power and virtue of
gold and silver, which, they say, will unlock barred gates,
and scale frowning ramparts ; while He denied them the
2 F
434 Missio7iary .
scrip, and therewitli hindered the accumulation or use
of property in any form ; while He forbade them change of
raiment, that is, pleasure and accommodation of the person ;
and with their staff interdicted all ease of travel and recre-
ation of the sense by the way ; and in hindering salutations
hindered the formalities of life and the ends of natural or
social affection ; all these the natural motives to enterprise,
and the sweet rewards of success, while He cut asunder,
because, as hath been said. He foresaw that whether Tie
did so or not, the world would soon do it for them : Pie did
not leave their minds in a void state, without motive or in-
ducement, or hope of reward ; but proceeded to fill each
several chamber thereof with the spirit of a more enduring
patience and a more adventurous daring ; to give to faith
what He took from sight ; what He interdicted in the visi-
ble to supply from the invisible ; what of temjDoral things
He spoiled them of to repay with things spiritual and
eternal."
Thus went forth the first messengers of the kingdom,
commissioned to the most pure and benevolent and worthy
part of the people, and they approached them upon the
side whereon a good man liketh best to be approached, of
kindness and humanity : for it is more blessed to give than
to receive. Yet, to keep their character clear from all
associations of mendicity or meanness, there is no scrip nor
purse, nor obsequious demeanour allowed them, nothing that
might take from the heavenly condition of the men ; no de-
mand for food or raiment; what is set before them they par-
take of ; and the spiritual knowledge and power which they
possess they as freely give in return. If none is worthy,
they pass on : if they are persecuted, they escape away, as
it were, fishing the land, and taking in their spiritual net
the worthiest and the best thereof; establishing the ever-
lasting covenant between God and good men, between
heaven and whatever is best upon the earth. They are
kept in close dependence upon God's assistance, and cannot
move a step but in the strength of faith. They are de-
livered out of the conditions of policy, out of the conditions
*!
A Contrast. 435
of force, out of the conditions of gain, out of the conditions
of selfishness and of ambition ; fur I defy any one maxim
which appertaineth to these four spheres of human activity
to help them one jot in fulfilling their instructions : and
they are delivered into the spiritual conditions of the
spiritual kingdom which they went about to propagate.
In prayer and communion with the Spirit of God they sail
along upon an unseen and unpiloted course. They are
living models of what they teach; moving epistles of the
Spirit of God ; incarnations, each one in his measure, of
the divine nature ; instead of the Scriptures to those who
have them not, and commendations of the Scrijitures to
those who have them. And if, as hath been said, the Bible
is its own witness, these men who personified all its truth
that can be personified, and with their lips spoke the rest,
must be their own witness. And by being hindered from
worldly interests and worldly attachments, they are hin-
I dered from worldly discourse. They address only the immor-
j tal part of the people ; they confer upon no news but the
j good news of the kingdom ; they touch no interests but
I the interests of eternity ; speak of no country but heaven,
[ in no authority but the name of God. Which four things,
; wisdom to address the worthiest people, entire dependence
I upon God, exemplification of the doctrine, and constant
debate with the spirits of men, are surely four of the great
principles in the propagation of the gospel. And it is
incredible from how many altercations, from how many
aberrations of purpose, and strivings of passion, and oppo-
sitions of interest, they are cut oft". For if they are brought
into debate, it must be for some spiritual sake, and spiri-
tual truth must be elicited. If they are mistreated, it
must be in the face of justice and innocency, which makes
friends to the injured ; and, doubtless, whatever happeneth,
good or ill to them, good must come out of it to a cause
thus implicated with no earthly interests and devoted
wholly to spiritual ends.
2 F 2
( 436 )
THE APOSTOLICAL MISSIONARY.
Though a missionary in the first instance should go
forth stocked like a trader, fitted out like a discoverer,
accredited like a royal envoy, and three times armed with
prudence like a hostile spy, when he cometh into close
communication with the Spirit of God and the spirit of
the people, in order to be the mediator between these
natiiral enemies, he will, if his mind be open to light, be
taught the utter helplessness of all these helps, the utter
uselessness of all these useful things, to that work in
which he hath embarked : that, though they may com-
mend him to the proud and worldly part of the people,
and gain for him a place in their regards as a man of
some consequence and reputation, they are so far from
bringing him into contact with their spiritual feelings,
which alone he careth or ought to care for, that they set
him more remote from thence, and induce a mistake with
respect to his imearthly purpose, which it will require
him much time and labour to correct. And if he be a
true man, and a man of spiritual discernment, I think that
a transmutation will speedily come upon the outward estate
of this well-furnished missionary. He will by degrees
divest himself of all those things which withdraw the
people from the word of his mouth, or hinder them from
apprehending the simplicity and sincerity of his spiritual
purpose. He will adopt their dresses, follow their manner
of life, eat with them and drink with them, and seek access
to them at all their uugiiarded moments, that he may be
always at hand to drop his words seasonably into their ear,
and manifest constantly before their eye the influence of
his faith over all the conditions of man, instead of merely
addressing them now and then with set speeches and ab-
stract discourses against the very time, form, and place of
which, their minds are already in arms. And he will not
scruple to take favours at their hand, if that will bring
him into closer confidence of their souls, which it doth fixr
more frequently than otherwise ; and if not, he will work
I
The Apostolical Missionary. 437
to them for his meat, teach tliem the arts of his country,
do anything that may bring him and keep liim in close
and frequent conta,ct with their personal affections: and
he will learn to be of no country, that he may remove
political hindrances out of the way, and he will learn to
carry no temptations about with him ; his wealth, which
maketh him to be envied, and perhaps endangereth his
life, he will cast into the first brook which he crosseth,
or diligently hide it from the people, (but how shall he
hide it from his own heart !) his equipage of travel he will
put aside ; and, like Bernard Gilpin, the Reformer of the
North, he will give his horse to the first poor family which
hath need of one to earn their bread ; and, like that most
noble of parish priests, however full-handed the missionary
may set out on his expedition, he will, if his mind be open
to light, and his heart to love, return from his excursion,
not only empty of all things, but beholden to the w^orthy
men who had compassion upon him by the way. So that,
according to the argument, the spirit which prevaileth
wdthin the missionary's breast, will never fail to bring
him into that very condition of nakedness and depend-
ence, I should rather say, fulness of faith and spiritual
plenty, which the great Coimsellor and Founder of the
missionary cause, in the plenitude of His wisdom, ordained
as the proper condition, not to end with, but to set out
with, in this faithful and spiritual adventure.
It is not that we attach any importance to the outward
costume of a missionarj^, which also may be assumed.
Under the coarse frock of a friar lay oft more pride and
cunning than beneath a cardinal's hat; and the triple
crown hath not covered more ambitious pui-j)oses than
lay within the cowl of the Jesuit who exposed himself to
every blast of heaven. The pride of human nature may
make • noble-minded men to dwell like Diogenes in a tub ;
the disappointments of the world may drive them like
Timou to the woods ; and racking remorse may send them
unprovided pilgrims over untrodden deserts, or attach
them to the coarse fare and bare walls of a hermit's
43 S Missionary.
cell; the forms of poverty and meanness are endless,
which the spirit of man may assume for its own parti-
cular gratification, without any regard to the well-being
of others, or the propagation of the kingdom of Christ ;
and therefore no form is to be taken as a sure test of the
true spirit of a Christian missionary. Nevertheless, as
hath been proved above, there is a form which, beyond
others, is expressive of a heavenly mind and a disinterested
mission, — that which Messiah chose for Himself when
coming into the world, and which He laid upon all who
would travail with Him for the redemption of the world.
It is not indispensable to the true missionary spirit,
but the true missionary spirit doth love it, and cannot
without self-denial be brought to lay it aside ; it is not
unequivocal to those without, but it is least liable to be
misinterpreted ; it is not a capital crime against the laws
of the spiritual kingdom to lay it aside for an occasion,
as it is not a capital crime against our naval laws for a
captain to lose his ship, but as in the latter case so in
the former, he ought to be put upon his trial, and make
appear before the statutes of our king, that it was for the
best interests of the kingdom that it was set aside.
What are missionaries but the prophets' order enlarged
from the confines of the land of Israel, to roam at large
over the world ? God's messengers to the nations, telling
them their several burdens if they repent not, and shewing
them salvation if they repent. Each a Jonah to the several
qiiarters of the heathen world ; not servants of this or that
association of men, but Heralds of Heaven, who dare not be
under other orders than the orders of Christ. It is a pre-
suinption hardly short of Papal, to command them. They
are not missionaries when they are commanded. They are
creatures of the power that commandeth them. Up,
up with the stature of this character ; it is high as
heaven : its head is above the clouds which hide the
face of heaven from earth-born men : its ear heareth
the word of God continually, and continually re-echoeth
what it heareth to the nations. The missionary is the
The Apostolical Missionaiy. 439
hollow of that tnimp which resotmdeth the voice of God
liet lis reverence him, he is above tis all, he is above the
world, he is an ethereal being, and careth not for the con-
cerns of time. I wonder how anj" one can be so impious
towards God, so cruel towards men, as to wish to oblite-
rate one feature of his celestial character. Though none of
those who at present respectably bear the honours of the
name come near to it, still let it stand, that, being ever in
their eye, they may approach it more and more near.
Though none of this generation can bear the palm of it
away, some of our children may. And though none of our
children should reach it nearer than their fathers, some of
our children's children may. Some favoured one may be
raised up of God. who, like another Paul, may give it full
and complete vitality. And when he shall arrive, rest
assured that, like another Paul, he "will convert half the
nations. For well am I convinced that the gospel waiteth
only for such spiritual men, in order to burst its present
narrow bounds, and the Spirit waiteth only for these neces-
sary conditions to fill the inward soul of any man, and
make him a chosen vessel, a royal stately ship to sail in
all seas, and bear the treasure unto all lands. I feel, that
in pleading for the perpetuity of the missionaiy form of
manhood, I am pleading the cause, not only of the uncon-
verted nations, but the cause of Divine power and truth,
which is hindered from descending to tabernacle with mor-
tals only by our low-thoughted cares and worldly occupa-
tions. Martha, who was burdened with many things, is
the genius of the human race ; Mary, who had chosen the
one thing needful, is the genius of the missionary band,
Avho, not out of the greatness of their gi'ief, but the
greatness of their love, have become careless of all those
things, save that good pai-t which shall not be taken from
them.
Who is he that talks of change ? The missionarj^ ordi-
nance can never change, for the missionary work doth
never change. His work is still to overthrow the prince
of this world, seated upon the beauty and pleasantness.
440 Missionary.
upon the magnificence and glory of the visible creation,
and to deliver the souls of men into the worship of the
invisible God. Kingdoms may imdergo every vicissitude,
and be found under every form of civil polity ; nations
may exist in every degree of culture or barbarism ; they may
be noble, high minded and proud ; sordid, base, and given
over to gain and sensual indulgence ; vain-glorious, pomp-
ous, and fond of a thousand spectacles ; they may be
gi'ovelling in superstition, sunk in ignorance, abandoned to
sloth and effeminacy, or fierce, fiery, and uncontrollable ;
but never will a kingdom or nation be found possessed of
the knowledge of the true God, devoted to the faith and
pursuit of spiritual objects, or living in the practice of
Christian precepts. The maxims, the spirit of the laws
and policy, the motives and principles of private conduct,
the whole tenor of their society, and influence of their reli-
gion, have to be counteracted and overthrown in these
times, as entirely as in the days of the apostles. There is
no relaxation of the oppositions, there is no mitigation of
the difficulties of the work, which never changeth. And
the gospel which the missionary hath to preach, the king-
dom which he hath to propagate, is still the same spiritual
kingdom which flesh and blood cannot inherit, whose King
hath no communion with Belial nor with Mammon, in
whose sight iniquity cannot stand, and to whom the proud
heart and the high look are an abomination. This gospel,
which hath toleration for no natural form of humanity
however excellent, and condemneth every living man,
which beginneth in soitow and repentance for the past,
proceedeth by the faith and preference of things unseen,
and is perfected in a thousand acts of self-denial and self-
discipline, is not now more agreeable to the nations than it
was when first revealed by our Lord and Saviour. And
if the gospel, after two thousand years, is still as imaccom-
modating to the world, and the world is still by nature as
averse from its faith and discipline, how should the manner
of its propagation be altered in any respect from what was
laid down and followed at the first? If the first mission-
The Apostolical Missioiiaiy . 44 1
aries were made spiritual personages, in order to exhibit
practically to the jieoplo that preference and all-sufficiency
of spiritual things which they preached ; if they were men
of faith alone, in order to exhibit that principle which they
sought to magnify over sight and sense, why should they
not be so likewise in these times, in which the heathen are
still as devoted to things seen and temporal, as they were
in the days of Paul ? Even supposing the present mission-
aries had more divinity of nature than the apostles, and
that they could possess purse, scrip, and all other accom-
modations without being thereby uuspiritualised, how
shall they hinder the evil intei-pretation of the heathen, who
see them hired, paid, accommodated, befriended, and in
all outward things better conditioned than themselves?
They speak to us of faith ; let them show us their own. They
speak to us of the providence of God ; but they ventured
not hither without every security. They tell of Christ's
disinterestedness to us; but what lessons give they us of
the same ? And so forth through every particular of their
condition, by which Christ intended that they should evi-
dence the doctrince which they taught. I cannot under-
stand, therefore, in any way, how the condition of the mis-
sionary work should be changed, when the work itself
remaineth the same ; or how the instruction which Christ
gave for the propagation of His kingdom should now be null
and void, when it is the same kingdom that is to be pro-
pagated, and the difficulties and impediments are still
the same, over the head of which its propagation is to bo
efi'ected.
Therefore I say, let this type of the missionary stand,
that he is a man without a purse, without a scrip, without
a change of raiment, without a staff, without the care of
making friends or keeping friends, without the hope or de-
sire of worldly goods, without the apprehension of worldly
loss, without the care of life, without the fear of death; of
no rank, of no country, of no condition; a man of one
thought, the gospel of Christ ; a man of one pui-pose, the
glor)' of God ; a fool, and content be reckoned a fool, for
442 Missionary.
Christ ; a madman, and content to be reckoned a madman,
for Christ. Let him be enthusiast, fanatic, babbler, or any
other outlandish nondescript the world may choose to de-
nominate him. But still let him be a nondescript, a man
that cannot be classed under any of their categories, or de-
fined by any of their convenient and conventional names. /
When they can call him pensioner, tiader, householder,
citizen ; man of substance, man of the world, man of
science, man of learning, or even man of common sense, it
is all over with his missionary character. He may inno-
cently have some of these forms of character, some of them
he cannot innocently have ; but they will be far subordin-
ate, deep in the shade, covered and extinguished to the
world's incurious gaze, by the strange incoherent and un-
accountable character to which, he surrendereth himself
mainly. The world knoweth the missionaiy not, because it
knew Messiah not. The nature of his life is hid with Christ
in God ; he is not a man, but the spirit of a man ; he is a
spirit that hath divested itself of all earthiness, save the
continent body, which it keepeth down and usetli as its
tabernacle, and its vehicle, and its mechanical tool for
sjieech and for action.
The standard is a high one, and suiteth not an easy and
prudential age, and we that are bred in peaceful places
may stumble at it, and some of our self-sufficient spirits may
scoff at it. But our fathers held it in reputation when they
suffered the loss of all things, and counted them but as
dung, that they might win Christ : and the missionaries
who came to our fathers were accustomed to it. And what
is a missionary who shrinketh at it? Can he stand the
stake or the cross who cannot bear hunger, thirst, and
nakedness? Was any man a martyr who could not be a
hungered for Christ ? What are purse, staff, scrip, raiment,
and friendship, but the help and sustenance of life, taking
their value from the love we have of life ? And if we are
prepared to scuttle the ship, are we not prepared to sink
the timbers, and cordage, and tackle of the ship ? This un-
earthly dimension of the missionary character is in such
I
The Apostolical Missiona7'y\ 443
keeping with the rest of the Christian dispensation, as to
commend itself to our mind on that voiy account. Had it
not been perfect in this its beau -ideal, had it been accom-
modated to prudence and practice, a plausible, reasonable,
fair-looking specitlation like that which it seems hasting to
become, I for one would have said, This is not like a cha-
racter of Christ's delineation ; it wanteth the touch of the
Divine hand ; it hath not the supernatural air. It is of the
earth, earthly : it is not of the heavens, heavenly : it is
born of flesh, it consorteth with Mammon and hath fellow-
ship with Belial."
SCRIPTURE PORTRAITS
DAVID.
There never was a specimen of manhood, so ricli and en-
nobled as David, the son of Jesse, whom other saints haply
may have equalled in single features of his character, but
such a combination of manly, heroic qualities, such a flush
of generous godlike excellences, hath never yet been seen
embodied in a single man. His Psalms, to speak as a man,
do place Mm in the highest rank of lyrical poets, as they
set him above all the inspired writers of the Old Testament,
— equalling in sublimity the flights of Isaiah himself, and
revealing the cloudy mystery of Ezekiel ; but in love of
country, and gloryings in its heavenly patronage, surpassing
them all. And where are there such expressions of the
varied conditions into which human nature is cast by the ac-
cidents of providence, — such delineations of deep affliction,
and inconsolable anguish, and anon such joy, such rap-
ture, such revelry of emotion, in the worship of the living-
God ! Such invocations to all nature, animate and inani-
mate, such summonings of the hidden powers of harmony,
and *)f the breathing instruments of melody ! Sino-le
hymns of this poet would have conferred immortality upon
any mortal, and borne down his name as one of the most
favoured of the sons of men.
44S Scripture Portraits.
But it is not the writings of the man which strike us
with such wonder, as the actions and events of his wonder-
ful history. He was a hero without a peer, hold in battle,
and generous in victory ; by distress, or by triumph, never
overcome. Though hunted like a wild beast among the
mountains, and forsaken like a pelican in the wilderness, by
the country whose armies he had delivered from disgrace,
and by the monarch whose daughter he had won, — whose
son he had bound to him with cords of brotherly love, and
whose own soul he was wont to charm with the sacred n ess
of his minstrelsy, — he never indulged malice or revenge
against his unnatural enemies. Twice, at the peril of his
life, he brought his blood-hunter within his power, and
twice he spared him, and woiild not be persuaded to injure
a hair upon his head — who, when he fell in his high plans,
was lamented over by David, with the bitterness of a son,
and his death avenged upon the sacrilegious man who had
lifted up his sword against the Lord's anointed. In friend-
ship and love, and also in domestic affection, he was not
less notable than in heroical endowments; and in piety
towards God he was most remarkable of all. He had to flee
from his bed-chamber in the dead of night, his friendly meet-
ings had to be concerted upon the perilous edge of captivity
and death — his food he had to seek at the risk of sacrilege
— for a refuge from death, to cast himself upon the people
of Gath — to counterfeit idiocy, and become the laughing-
stock of his enemies. And who shall tell of his hidings in
the cave of Adullam, and of his w-anderings in the wilder-
ness of Ziph ; in the weariness of which he had power to
stand before his armed enemy with all his host, and, by the
generosity of his deeds, and the affectionate language which
flowed from his lips, to melt into child-like weeping the
obdurate spirit of king Saul, which had the nerve to evoke
the spirits of the dead!
King David was a man extreme in all his excellencjes — a
man of the highest strain, whetlier fur counsel, for expres-
sion, or for action, in peace and in war, in exile and on the
throne. That such a warm and ebullient spirit should have
David. 449
given way before the tide of its afifections, we wonder not.
We rather wonder that, tried by such extremes, his mighty
spirit should not often have burst control, and enacted
right forward the conqueror, the avenger, and the de-
str(.>yer. But God, who anointed him from his childhood,
had given him store of the best natural and inspired gifts,
which preserved him from sinking under the long delay of
his promised crown, and kept him from contracting any
of the craft or cruelty of a hunted, persecuted man. And
adversity did but bring out the splendour of his character,
which might have slumbered like the fire in the flint, or
the precious metal in the dull and earthj- ore.
But to conceive aright of the gracefulness and stiength
of king David's character, we must draw him into compari-
son with men similarly conditioned, and then shall we see
how vain the world is to cope with him. Conceive a man
who had saved his country, and clothed himself with grace-
fuhiess and renown in the sight of all the people, by the
chivalry of his deeds won for himself intermarriage with
the royal line, and by unction of the Lord's prophet been
set apart to the throne itself; such a one conceive driven
with fuiy from house and hold, and, through tedious years,
deserted of every stay but heaven, with no soothing sym-
pathies of quiet life, harassed for ever between famine
and the edge of the sword, and kept in savage holds and
deserts : and tell us, in the annals of men, of one so disap-
pointed, so bereaved and straitened, maintaining not forti-
tude alone, but sweet composure and a heavenly frame of
soul, inditing praise to no avenging deity, and couching
songs in no revengeful mood, according with his outcast and
unsocial life ; but inditing prai.ses to the God of mercy,
and songs which soar into the third heavens of the soul :
not, indeed, without the burst of soitow, and the complaint
of solitariness, and prophetic warnings to his bloodthirsty
foes, but ever closing in sweet preludes of good to come,
aud desire of present contentment. Find us such a one in
the annals of men, and we yield the argument of this con-
troversy. Men there have been, driven before the wrath
450 Scripture Portraits.
of kings to wander outlaws and exiles, whose musings and
actings have been recorded to us in the minstrelsy of our
native land. Draw these songs of the exile into comparison
with the Psalms of David, and know the spirit of the man
after God's own heart : the stei'n defiance of the one, with
the tranquil acquiescence of the other ; the deep despair of
the one, with the rooted trust of the other ; the vindictive
imprecations of the one, with the tender regret and for-
giveness of the other. Shew us an outlaw who never
spoiled a country which had forsaken him, nor turned his
hand in self-defence or revenge upon his persecutors, who
used the vigour of his arm only against the enemies of his
country, yea, lifted up his arm in behalf of that mother,
which had cast her son, crowned with salvation, away from
her bosom, and held him at a distance from her love, and
raised the rest of her family to hunt him to the death ; — in
the defence of that thankless, unnatural, mother-countr}^
find us such a repudiated son lifting up his arm, and spend-
ing its vigour, in smiting and utterly discomfiting her
enemies, whose spoils he kept not to enrich himself and his
inthless followers, but dispensed to comfort her and her
happier children. Find us among the Themistocles, and
Coriolani, and Cromwells, and Napoleons of the earth, such
a man, and we will jdeld the argument of this controversy
which we maintain for the peerless son of Jesse.
But we fear that not such another man is to be found
in the recorded annals of men. Though he rose from the
peasantry to fill the throne, and enlarge the borders of
his native land, he gave himself neither to ambition nor
to glory ; though more basely treated than the sons of men,
he gave not place to despondency or revenge ; thpugh of
the highest genius in poetry, he gave it not licence to sing
his own deeds, nor to depict loose and licentious life, nor
to ennoble any worldly sentiment or attachment of the
human heart, however virtuous or honourable, but con-
strained it to sing the praises of God, and the victories of
the right hand of the Lord of Hosts, and His admirable
works v/hich are of old from everlasting. And he hath
David. 451
dicssed out religion in such a rich and beautiful garment
of divine poesy as boseeiueth lier majesty, in which, being
arrayed, she can stand up before the eyes even of her
enemies, in more royal state, than any personification of
love, or glory, or pleasure, to which highly-gifted mortals
have devoted their genius.
The force of his character was vast, and the scope of his
life was immense. His harp was full-stringed, and every
angel of joy and of sorrow swept over the chords as he
passed ; but the melody always breathed of heaven. And
such oceans of affection lay within his breast, as could not
always slrmaber in their calmness. For the hearts of a
hundred men strove and struggled together within the
narrow continent of his single heart : and will the scornful
men have no sympathy for one so conditioned, but scorn
him, because he ruled not with constant quietness, the
unruly host of divers natures which dwelt within his single
soul? Of self-command surely he will not be held deficient,
who endured Saul's javelin to be so often launched at him,
while the people without were ready to hail him king;
who endured all bodily hardships, and taunts of his ene-
mies, when revenge was in his hand ; and ruled his
desperate band like a company of saints, and restrained
them from their country's injury. But that hs should not
be able to enact all characters without a fault, the simple
shepherd, the conquering hero, and the romantic lover ;
the perfect friend, the innocent outlaw, and the royal
monarch; the poet, the prophet, and the regenerator of
the Church ; and, withal, the man, the inan of vast soul,
who played not these parts by turns, but was the original
of them all, and wholly present in them all ; oh ! that
he should have fulfilled this high priesthood of himianity,
this universal ministry of manhood without an error, were
more than human. With the defence of his backslidings,
which he hath himself more keenly scrutinised, moi-e
clearly decerned against, and mere bitterly lamented than
any of his censors, we do not charge ourselves, because
they were, in a manner, necessary, that he might be the
2 G 2
452 Scripture Portraits.
full-urbed man ^v•llicll was neei^ied to utter every form of
spiritual feeling : but if, when of these acts he became con-
vinced, he be found less true to God, and to righteousness ;
indisposed to repentance and sorrow, and anguish ; excul-
patory of himself; stout-hearted in his courses, a formalist
in his penitence, or in any way less worthy of a spiritual
man in those than in the rest of his infinite moods, then,
verily, strike him from the canon, and let his Psalms
become monkish legends, or what you please. But if these
penitential Psalms discover the soul's deepest hell of agony,
and lay bare the iron ribs of misery, whereon the very
heart dissolveth, and if they, expressing the same in words
which melt the soul that conceiveth, and bow the head
that uttereth them, then, we say, let \is keep these records
of the psalmist's grief and despondency, as the most pre-
cious of his utterances, and suro to be needed in the case
of every man who essay eth to live a spiritual life. For,
though the self-satisfied moralist, and the diligent Pharisee,
and all that pigmy breed of purists, who make unto them-
selves a small and puny theory of life, and please their
meagre souls with the idea of keeping it thoroughly,
smiting upon their thigh, and protesting by their unsullied
honour and inviolate truth, and playing other tricks of
self-sufficiency, will little understand what we are about
to say, we will, nevertheless, for truth's sake, utter it;
that, until a man, however pure, honest, and honourable
he may have thought himself, and been thought by others,
discovereth himself to be utterly fallen, defiled, and sinfiil
in the sight of God, a worm of the earth and no man, his
soul cleaving to the dust, and bearing about with it a body
of sin and death; and until, for expressions of his utter
worthlessness, he seek those Psalms in which the psalmist
describes the abasement of his soul, 3'ea, and can make
them his own, that man liath not known the beginnings of
the spiritual life within the soul : for (let bim that readeth
understand) a man must break up before there is any hope
of him ; he must be contrite and broken in spirit, before
the Lord will dwell with him.
I
David. 453
Of all the delusions with wliich Satan hills man into
sweet security, this of our completeness and integrity is the
most fatal. ^Vhile we dwell in the idea of our rectitude,
our unsullied purity, our inflexible honesty, our truth, our
moral worth, and think that we implement any, the lowest
of God's commandments, (but they are all equally high,) we
are like the hard and baked earth, whose surface haply
some sward of greenness may cover, but which will not
wave with the rich and fruitful harvest, until you bury that
first crop of nature under the share of the plough, and turn
up the black rough mould to the heat of the sun, and the
genial action of the air, and, the ancient roots being
scorched up, sow it anew with precious seed, and wait upon
the same with diligent husbandry. AMien this soul-tillage
hath taken place, and the integTity of selfishness is broken
up, and the poisonous weeds of selfishness are cut down,
and our shallow and insuflScient righteousness trodden
under foot ; when the old man hath broken into pieces, and
we feel ourselves murderers, adulterers, thieves, liars, in
the sight of God, then shall we come to use, and thank
God that we have at hand, the penitential Psalms of David ;
the confessions, the groanings, the languishings of the deso-
late king of Israel. It booteth not that Ave have not
committed the acts, we wanted power, we wanted opportu-
nity, we wanted means ; but ah ! we wanted not will. It
was in our heart, out of which proceed murders, adulteries,
thefts, false witness. It hath been all the while in our
heart, and we knew it not. It was rooted there, and we
fostered it. Ay, and it will cause us bitter groans, ere it
will leave the place of its roots.
But to return from these rebukes of the sconiers, to the
instruction of the Christian Church upon the fitness of
David to be their psalmist. — ^Vhy were such oceans of feeU
ing poured unto David's soul, such true and graceful utter-
ance of poetry infused into his lips, and such skill of
music seated in his right hand ? Such oceans of feeling
did God infuse into his soul, and such utterance of poetry
He placed between his lips, and such skilful music He
454 ScriptzLre Porti^aits.
seated in his right hand, in order that he might conceive
forms of feeling for all saints, and create an everlasting
psalmody, and hand down an organ for expressing the
melody of the renewed soul. The Lord did not intend that
His Church should be without a rule for utteiing its glad-
ness and its glory, its lamentation and its grief; and to
bring such a rule and institute into being, He raised up His
servant David, as formerly He raised up Moses to give to
the church an institute of Law. And to that end He led
him the round of all human conditions, that he might catch
the spirit proper to every one, and utter it according to
truth ; He allowed him not to curtail his being by treading
the round of one function, but by every variety of functions.
He cultivated his whole being, and filled his soul with
■wisdom and feeling. He found him objects for every affec-
tion, that the affection might not slumber and die. He
brought him up in the sheep-pastures, that the gi'oundwork
of his character might be laid amongst the simple and uni-
versal forms of feeling. He took him to the camp, and
made him a conqueror, that he might be filled with noble-
ness of soul and ideas of glory. He placed him in the
palace, that he might be filled with ideas of majesty and
sovereign might. He carried him to the wilderness,
and placed him in solitudes, that his soul might dwell alone
in the sublime conceptions of God, and His mighty works ;
and Lie kept him there for long years, with only one step
between him and death, that he might be well schooled to
trust and depend upon the providence of God. And in
none of these various conditions and avocations of life, did
He take away from him His Holy Spirit. His trials were
but the tuning of the instrument with which the Spirit
might express the various melodies which He designed to
utter by him for the consolation and edification of spiritual
men. It was the education of the man most appropriate
for the divine vocation of the man. John the Baptist being
to be used for rough work, was trained in the rough desert;
Paul being to be used for contentious and learned work,
was trained at Gamaliel's feet : Daniel being to be used for
yohn the Baptist. 455
judgment and revelation, was trained in the wisdom of the
east ; Joseph being to be used as a providence to Egypt
and his father's house, was trained in the hardest school
of providence ; and every one hath been disciplined by the
providence of God, as well as furnished in the fountains of
his being, for that particular work for which the Spirit of
God designed him. Therefore, David had that brilliant
galaxy of natural gifts, that rich and varied education, in
order to fit him fur executing the high office to which he
was called by the Spirit, of giving to the Church those uni-
versal forms of spiritual feeling, whereof we have been
endeavouring to set forth the excellent applications. And
though we neither excuse his acts of wickedness, nor im-
pute them to the temptation of God, who cannot be tempted
of evil, neither tempteth any man, we will also add, that
by his loss the Church hath gained ; and that out of the
evil of his ways, much good hath been made to arise ; and
that if he had not passed through every valley of humilia-
tion, and stumbled upon the dark mountains, we should not
have had a language for the souls of the penitent, or an ex-
pression for the dark troubles which compass the soul, that
feareth to be deserted by its God. So much for the fitness
of the psalmist to have been made the organ of spiritual
feelino; unto the Church."
JOHN THE BAPTIST.
John was to pioneer the way for the grand proclamation
of peace and goodwill on earth. He was first to face the
rugged wastes of moral nature, and lift up his voice through
all its desolation, commanding the valleys to be filled, and
the high places to be abased, and the crooked places to be
made straight, and the rough places to be made plain : that
is, he was to summon every obstruction to Messiah the
Prince to give way and surrender; he was to rebuke
the proud elevations of human life which might resist Him;
lie was to raise and comfort the depressed conditions of life
45 6 Scripture Portraits,
which had cast away hopes of Him ; he was to rebuke the
uneven and crooked policies of men, which woukl eye Him
askance, and wilfully mistake Him; and the rough severi-
ties and unpeaeeful tempeis of life which would tear the
Saviour's dove-like affections, he was to tame and smooth
for His coming. For the moral world was then a wilder-
ness, whereon grew at pleasure eveiy rank and noxious
weed, and wherein raged every excessive passion and brutal
lust. There was a hot warfare of every interest — people
struggling with princes, and princes with each other ;
knowledge making f(jr itself a place, and obliged thereto
to shut itself up in the strong tower of stoical apathy. But
especially had the daughters of impurity possessed the
l^eople ; and liberty lived no longer upon the world, save
amongst the recesses of the north and east, where it lived
by the strength of the desolation Avhich frowned around it.
The wroiid was a waste howding walderness, in which no
repose of peace, nor voice of happiness was heard, and spe-
culation wearied out, and hope sickened to death, had fled
the breasts of all, save a few who Avere persecuted out of
life.
It was no easy ministry to enter unbefriended into this
hot warfare of lust and pride and passion, and meet it in
the face, and struggle with it single-handed and alone.
To rebuke the soldier in his fiercest moods, to discover the
priest in his most hidden and secret hypocrisies, to bridle
kings in the race of their powerful wickedness, and in
the breasts of oppressed and degraded people to kindle the
spark of hope and feeling anew, — such was the Baptist's
office in that wilderness, into which, for five hundred
years, no pruning, reforming hand had been sent by
Heaven. It was the sublimest and the most terrible posi-
tion into wdiich a frail man could be put by the Almighty,
and I much question whether another mortal hath ever
occupied a similar position. Christ afterwards sent out
twelve, then seventy, in bands of two, to cultivate the
ground the Baptist had bi'oken up ; but the Baptist was
alone upon the ground. Elias, whom the Baj^tist much
yohii the Baptist. 457
resembled, was left alone among the proiihets ; but Elias
was the remnaiit of many whose example he had before
him. John was the beginning of a new race. Elias fled
from the face of the i)erseciitor ; John fled not, but bearded
power in its very palace. Elias had a miraculous Hand
to sustain his words with signs; John did no miracle, but
had to stand in his own defenceless humanity. He was to
attack the universal customs and likings of men, and all
his armoury was his voice. Samson the Nazarite had a
work to work, and the strength to perfonn it was placed
in his hair. John had a greater work to work, and the
power to perform it was his voice. "What art thou?"
said the I'harisees. " I am the voice of one crj'ing in the
wilderness," replied the Baptist.
To educate him for this terrible office, (for the Lord
doth not despise the education of His ministers, as do
many modem upstart sects,) he was subjected to the rite
of the Xazarite, by which no razor could come upon his
head, and no strong drink pass his lips, and no luxurj'
soften the severity of his holy ofBce. Such should ever be
the ritual of a true refoi-mer and missionary. And he who
cannot keep his body under, and put it, when need is, upon
the shortest, hardest allowance, is not worthy to talk to
others of restraining and restricting their present indul-
gences of power and pleasure within narrow bounds. And
the Baptist had his habitation in the wilderness ; he fared
upon locusts and the wild honey, and he girdled his loins
With the hair of the camel. " The child grew, and waxed
strong in spirit, and was in the desert till the day of his
shewing unto Israel : " that is, till his thirtieth year.
^A'hat he communed with, or how he spent his time, God
hath not informed us ; but, as hath been said, it was a
noble tiaining for the rebuker and reprover of a Morld, for
a greatly endowed and virtuously disposed mind hath
nothing to fear from solitude. Our Saxon Alfred came
forth from his shepherd concealment recruited by medita-
tion with his own soul, with nature, and with nature's
God, and refreshed for the deliverance of England. Gus-
458 Scripture Portraits.
tavus Yasa of Sweden came forth from his concealment
amongst the miners of Dalicarlia, and overthrow, in the
strength of severe virtue, the oppression of the Dane.
Hoflfer, whose name is holy in the bosom of oppressed
ones over the face of Europe, before he made his demon-
stration for the Tyrolese, retired to the loneliest moimtain
of the Alps, and dwelt many days apart from men, feeding
upon the milk of a goat, his only companion, and then
came forth purified from all sinister intention by com-
munion vv^ith his Maker, to vv^hom, unlike our home-bred
patriots and reformers, he did devote his whole soul ; and
he ceased not from the work to vi^hich he had girded up
his soul until the earth beneath his scaffold drank the
blood which no bribes of the iTsurper could corrupt. And
so also of religion it hath been found ; for religion and free-
dom are twin -sisters, which may never be parted without
risk to both. Christ, after His baptism and setting apart,
we have no account of for three years, during which He
doubtless counted the cost of His undertaking. Paul being
called, retired three years no one knows whither, and
came forth to shatter the theology and customs of Judaea,
Greece, and Eome. Luther came forth from his temporarj'"
concealment, like a lion from his den, to roar in the teeth
of all his foes. Knox meditated with his noble soul his
pious work of reformation while he was lashed to the oar
like a convict upon the rivers of France, and from his
place of banishment he blew the first blast of his trumpet ;
after which he returned, like a flame of pure fire, to set
his country in a blaze of religious ardour, and, like a
pillar of fire, to guide them in their most glorious work.
And what is there good that cometh not out of suffering r
and what is there great that cometh not out of self-denial ?
what is there new in knowledge or in virtue that cometh
not out. of solitary thought? and what is there noble and
lasting in purpose that cometh not out of long nursing and
strengthening in the secret chambers of the mind ?
Now John, as hath been said, had given unto him the
most terrible office of attacking everything in society's
'Jo /ill ike Baptist. 459
customs wbicli might impede the progress and success of
Him that was to follow after. It was needful, therefore,
that he should bo armed at every point to meet opposi-
tion, that he should have nothing to love but his life, and
nothing that he cared for but the end and object of his
mission. Therefore, he was taught to brave life's hated
extremities ; abstemiousness was his highest feast, and I
doubt not hunger and thirst and nakedness were his
familiar friends. And looking upon the wild beasts of
the desert, he would not fear tlie face of an infuriated
man or a blood-thirsty woman. ^Vhat to him was a
scowling Pharisee, or a mocking Sadducee, or a fawning
publican, or a rough soldier, or a riotous mob ? — these
were jocund, cheerful sights to one who had roamed
amongst the roaming denizens of the desert, and in the
midst of them laid his head down under no canopy and
with no defence but the canopy and defence of the pro-
vidence of the Most High. And what lessons of Provi-
dence he would learn during these trials and troubles of his
forlorn estate ! For without many such interferences, he
must have perished utterly. And what time for conning the
Word of God, and holding communion with Him that was
with His people forty years in the wilderness ! And what
a nursery for schooling the young Nazarite into contempt
of those stately forms and cunning disguises in which sin
doth prank herself, the vanities, the affectations, the pomp
and circumstance, and painted decorations, under which
wickedness hides her shocking head and vile deformed
person ! What a school for the severe and terrible moods
of the Spirit which he was called to utter ; what a rough
training for a rough prophet ! He was to weep with no
lamentation, like Jeremiah; he was not to ride in the
chariot of the sublime, like Isaiah ; or clothe himself with
the cloudy mysteriousness of Ezekiel, nor flee like Jonah ;
but he was to strike home at every thrust the point blank
of his rebuke, was to shake and shiver and demolish the
retreats of self-esteem. He was to lay every man a wreck
upon tJie waves, and disappoint him thoroughly of all his
460 Scripture Poriraits.
braveiy, and bring all to one common confessional, and
make them passive under the same rebuke, and submit
them to the same humiliating rite of washing and cleans-
ing. He was to spare no living wight ; the portals of the
palace were not to be sacred against the spiritual leveller,
nor beautiful women to be sacred from his uncivil tongue.
If such a preaclier was to appear again even here in this
Christian island, leaving rule aside, and striking into the
bosom of eveiy corruption the land groaneth under, why,
the religious would disown him, saying that he was no
preacher of the peaceful Jesus, and the irreligious woiald
wag their heads at him in scorn, and power would libel
him, and a prison or Avorse would be his certain doom.
What an ungracious orator was this John the Baptist — a
very firebrand, a most unguarded man. He joined himself
to no party ; he entered into no paction with any one ; he
sought no backing ; he trusted to the truth he had in com-
mission to make its own way. His was to give it voice,
God's to give it success. And behold how successful he
was withal ! He excited a sensation, and, as is usual,
roused the jealousy of the vested interests. They sent
to know what or who he was, and in what right he spoke.
He answered that he was a voice, and no more ; that his
speech was all he was good for, and all he wished to stand
by. To that he referred them, leaving them to digest its
severe sentences as best they might.
Now it seemeth to me that the Baptist is the type
of eveiy herald of salvation. AVe have to do with the
same overgrown wilderness of moral life. There are
the same towers of pride and mountains of vanity to be
brought low; the same hollow hopelessness and deep despair
to be filled with consolation and assurance; the same rough
asperities of character to be shorn smooth; the same
crooked and intriguing policies to be made straight, that
the gospel of Christ may have free course and be glorified ;
there is the same gate upon the heart to be lifted up ; the
same bolted, barred gates have to lift up their heads,
that the King of glory may enter in. I do therefore con-
yoJm the Baptist. 461
sider the Baptist as our pattern and permission to take
xtrono- weapons of argument, and terrible denunciation,
wherewithal to clear away these obstructions, and malco
a highway for the descent of our Lord. Christ came not
until the Baptist had come. The gospel of salvation
Cometh not until the fear of condemnation and ruin hath
seized us. The Baptist rested his lever upon the instant
coming of Christ, and from that fulcrum took his purchase
upon the present. The preparation took its character from
that which was to be prepared for. The usher and fore-
runner made his address and approach as beseemed the
character of Him who was to follow. From which I con-
clude that this previous debate, this work of the pioneer
before the main battle, should by the preacher have a
Christian bearing and intention.
The uncivil epithets, and harsh upbraidings, and gloomy
forebodings of the Baptist had the effect, not of alienating
and disalFecting the people, but of making them gentle and
docile, because they perceived in him the spirit of the
ancient prophets. The dulness and monotony of forms,
and the wearisome traditions and customs, had not so
degraded the voice of nature within the breast of the people,
that she should not know and acknowledge the force of truth.
In the views and doctrines of one who had studied in the
desert and perused nature in her severest mood, and
derived his theology fresh from the ^Vord and Spirit of
God, there must have been an originality and freshness
of divine unction highly relishable to one who had been led
with the stale and unspiritual traditions of men. In the
inward principle of repentance, a change of feeling, a
change of soul, as well as a cliange of life, there is some-
thing infinitely nobler than in the eternal drudgery of out-
ward observances. The spirit becomes her own master.
The streams flow from an inward fountain. The life and
the heart are in union, and there is no master between
them, save the invisible mastery of God. Kature speaks
for this self government, she desires to be set right in-
wardly by divine teaching and reformation, that she may
462 Scripture Portraits.
be outwardly right. She liateth, by blind prescription of
any man, or any positive rules, to be watched and con-
strained into the proper course. The Baptist's style of
preaching, though severe, commends itself to nature's
highest and noblest moods; and when we add to this the
Baptist's jDersonal accompaniments, we shall not wonder at
the sway which he wielded over every class of men, the
most hardened and the most fierce. Around a man who
can despise accommodations and conveniences, and deal
with nature in ancient simplicity and independence, and
move amongst her social and religious institiitions, like
a traveller from another world, free to judge, and censure,
and approve, as having himself nothing at stake, — around
such a man there is a moral grandeur and authority to
which none but the narrowest and most bigoted minds
will refuse a certain awe and reverence. And when such
a personage assumeth to himself divine commission, and
publisheth new truth with divine authority, and rebuketh
all wickedness, and scorneth all consequences, he taketh by
the natural right of the wiser, the bolder, and the better
man, a high place above those who feel themselves en-
slaved and shackled by customs which they despise.
Therefore, not w^ithout sufficient cause, it came to pass
that people of all descriptions, and also of various nations,
Jews and Gentiles, excommunicated publicans and soldiers
of old Kome, levied from every quarter of the earth, over-
awed and tamed, came to this wayfarer of the desert, asking
him with humility and simplicity what they ought to do.
" What shall we do then ? " Oh, it is a noble triumph
which this forerunner of Christ achieved, to lay prostrate
before the edge of truth the distinctions of society, and the
pride of the heart and the pride of life, and every other
thing which exalte th itself against Christ — raising the
valleys, levelling the mountains, straightening the crooked-
ness, and smoothing the roughness of the people ! For
here they are of every class beseeching to know what it
behoved them to do against that terrible coming whereof
lie spake. First came the people, by which you are to
I
(
jfoJin the Baptist. 463
nnderstand the mixed and indiscriminate assemblage ; after
them came the publicans, -vvho were a hated and excom-
municated tribe, because they ministered to the rapacious-
ness of the conqueror ; after them the soldiers, who were
the conquerors themselves. These three classes came in
turns, according to their moral rank — first, the people who
Avere living txnder the law, and whose, by right of many
promises, was the Messiah whose advent was proclaimed ;
then the publicans, who, though of the nation, were held
as traitors to the heaven- bestowed law and constitution of
the country ; finally, the soldiers, who had brought the
country into subjection, and might fear the severest treat-
ment from such a union. They came humbly praying to
be informed what it became them to do. And the Baptist,
who yesterday was a solitary dweller in the desert, and to-
day is a counsellor of multitudes, dispenseth to each rank
and class of men that advice, and openeth up that walk of
repentance and reformation, which became their several
vocations in the community.
All this mockery of pride on the part of Herod, John
doubtless encountered in the outset ; for as we see by the
sequel, Herod was one of the proudest of men. And all
this he withstood. He had the advantage of being feared
as a just and a holy man. There could be no accusation of
ambition or of advantage brought against one who bore all
his wealth on his person, and held all his influence in his
voice — who made no head for himself but for Another who
was afterwards to arise. One so disinterested, one so ad-
vanced upon the vantage-ground of his disinterestedness,
never appeared upon the earth, as John the Baptist. And
to this he owed no small part of his success in every quar-
ter. And if we priests in the latter day would compel
men by the awful voice of truth, not hunt them out by the
soft words of policy, we must take our stand upon the same
vantage-gTound, and care for nought that is valued, that is
told and talked of under the sun. The earth, and all it
holds, must be to us as nothing — our food the plainest, our
raiment the simplest, and everything awarded to an earth-
464 Scripture Portraits.
despising mind. I do not say positively that we slioiild
be reduced to houseless wanderers, but we should have a
spirit in us ready fur it. We should suffer, yes, I say we
should suffer the dignities, the honours, the splendour, the
very conveniences and comforts of life ; we should suffer
them for the sake of the times and the feelings of our
friends, and for their usefulness sake, (if I may use that
most unclerical word, never used in the New Testament
to a pastor, though now the only one that is used ;) but
we should be ready to resign our all when we are staked
against a point of conscience, and to go forth upon the wide
and wild world, like the two thousand non- conforming
priests of England, and the six hundred covenanting priests
of Scotland, at the era called glorious era of the Eestoration.
Herod heard him gladly or sweetly. The eloquence of
the Baptist, nursed in deserts, the wild costume of his lan-
guage, his oration like an old prophet's woe-denouncing
burden, or like an Indian orator's song of lamentation and
revenge, the harmony of gesture, and the desert-like array
of his person. — all this was, as a spectacle, one of the most
fresh and racy things which could pass the threshold of a
court. And I figure to myself the gay gallants of the place
making merry with the rude bearing of the wanderer, and
the silver-tongued courtiers inwardly shaking their sides
at the bold truthfulness of this man, and the false women
trembling for some unmannered exposure, and the heart-
less enviers hoping for the exposure of all but them-
selves. It was, doubtless, no small pleasure to them all
to hear the Baptist preach and talk — the novelty and fresh-
ness of the whole exhibition, and the great entertainment
which there was in it.
But the Baptist was of other metal than to stop short at
these impressions. His discourse was not a spectacle ; his
doctrine would not turn a joke ; his rebukes would not be
repaid v/ith a smile; nor his services with salutations or
applause. These are current coinage for vain ostentatious
performers at a theatre ; btit such newspiipei-, pamphlet,
and courtly applause or censure hath no nourishment for a
yohn the Baptist. 465
man of God, It touchetli, it movetli hiin not, except to
shew him that he hath not yet reached his mark. There-
upon he setteth his arrow on his bow again ; he wingeth it
anew, and sendeth it with a double strain, that it may
strike through these courtly coverings and trappings of
vanity into the inner man of the heart. He stands to his
post; he spies out the vulnerable parts of the van host; he
lieth in wait for them ; he findeth his occasion, and sendeth
his bolt into the quick.
So did the Baptist to Herod, who, with all his faults —
and they were many — was a proi^d and resolute man, far
beyond the sphere of vanity and ostentation ; a self-deter-
mining man, who knew to value manly qualities in ano-
ther, and valued them in the Baptist ; a clear-headed man,
who knew truth when he heard it even against himself ; and
a man of counsel, who could discei-n that the Baptist's way
of it was the best, though bearing against his own through-
out. And I doubt not he listened to the Baptist with
honest conviction, and purposed to listen to him longer,
and either to yield to him or to make the Baptist yield.
And fain, fain would I have seen the issue of the con-
test; but an incident occurred, to mar it in the midst of
its operation. Yet Herod heard him sweetly, and was
exceeding sorrowful to put him to death, and never
afterwards could wipe the memory of him from his con-
science.
" It is the Baptist risen from the dead." It haunted
him, and would not give him rest. When Christ's fame
arose, he sought to see him, that he might be satisfied it
was not the Baptist. Such way had this servant of God
made upon this arch-servant of the devil, that he had not
only sway in life, but in death domineeied over him. From
his ashes he spoke to the tyrant. His blood spoke loud
from inmost dungeon of the palace into the ears of the
prince ; it planted thorns upon his unholy court ; it slew
his enjoyment with his mistress, and rankled like poison in
his breast ; and he said, when he heard of any extraordi-
nary person, " This is John the Baptist : he is risen from
2 H
466
Scripture Portraits.
the dead." "John have I beheaded, but who is this?"
Such is the influence which a man of God with truth upon
his lips, may gain over a man of Belial, cunning as the fox,
proud as Lucifer, and blood-thirsty as the tiger.
CRITICAL
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THE PSALMS OF DAYID.
As in political aflfairs the enlightened Scottish patriot and
statesman, in order to work upon the people, asked
for the songs of a nation, rather than its profound and
laborious literature ; and, in ecclesiastical affairs, the politic
churchmen of Eome apprehended more danger to their craft
and mystery from Luther's spiritual songs than from all
his writings of controversial and popular theology ; so, in
spiritual affairs, it is to be believed that no book of the
sacred canon seizeth such a hold upon the spiritual man,
and engendereth in the Church so much fruitfulness of
goodness and truth, of comfort and joy, as doth the Book
of Psalms, We say not that the Psalms are so well fitted
as the pure light of the Gospel by John, and Paul's Epistles,
which are the refraction of that pure light over the fields
of human well-being, to break the iron-bone, and bruise
the millstone- heart of the natural man ; but that they are
the kindliest medicine for healing his wounds, and the
most proper food for nourishing the new life which comes
from the death and destruction of the old. For, as the
songs and lyrical poems of a nation, which have survived
the changes of time by being enshrined in the hearts of a
people, contain the true form and finer essence of its cha-
470 Critical.
racter, and convey the most genial moods of its spirit,
whether in seasons of grief or joy, down to the children,
and the children's children, perpetuating the strongest
vitality of choice spirits, awakened b}'' soiil-moving events,
and holding, as in a vessel, to the lips of posterity, the col-
lected spirit of venerable antiquity : so the Psalms, which
are the songs and odes, and lyrical poems of the people of
God, inspired not of wine, or festal mirth, of war, or love,
but spoken of holy men as they were moved by the Holy
Ghost, contain the words of God's Spirit taught to the souls
of His servants, when they were exercised with the most
intense experiences, whether of conviction, penitence, and
sorrow, or faith, love and joy ; and are fit not only to
express the same most vital moods of every renewed soul,
but also powerful to produce those broad awakenings of
spirit, to create those overpowering emotions, and propagate
that energy of spiritual life in which they had their birth.
Be it observed, moreover, that these songs of Zion ex-
press not only the most remarkable passages which have
occurred in the spiritual experience of the most gifted
saints, but are the record of the most wonderful dispensa-
tions of God's providence unto His Church ; — containing
pathetic dirges sung over her deepest calamities, jubilees
over her mighty deliverances, songs of sadness for her
captivity, and songs of mirth for her prosperity, prophetic
announcement of her increase to the end of time, and
splendid anticipations of her ultimate glory. Not, indeed,
the exact narrative of the events as they happened, or are
to happen, nor the prosaic improvement of the same to the
minds of men ; but the poetical form and monument of the
event, where it is laid up and embalmed in honourable-
wise, after it hath been incensed and perfumed with the
spiritual odours of the souls of inspired men. And if they
contain not the code of the Divine law, as it is written in
the Books of Moses, and more briefly, yet better written, in
our Lord's Sermon on the Mount, they celebrate the ex-
cellency and glory of the law, its light, life, wisdom, con-
tentment, and blessedness, with the joys of the soul which
I
The Psalms of David. 471
keepeth it, and the miseries of the soul which kecpcth it
not. And if the}' contain not the argument of the simple
doctrines, and the detail of the issues of the gospel, to
reveal which the Word of God became flesh, and dwelt
among us ; yet now that the key is given, and the door of
spiritual life is opened, where do we find such spiritual
ti'easures as in the Book of Psalms, wherein are revealed
the dejith of the soul's sinfulness, the stoutness of her
rebellion against God, the horrors of spiritual desertion, the
agonies of contrition, the blessedness of pardon, the joys of
restoration, the constancy of faith, and eveiy other variety
of Christian exjierience ? And if they contain not the
narrative of Messiah's birth, and life, and death ; or the
labours of His apostolic servants, and the strugglings of
His infant Church, as these are written in the books of
the New Testament ; — where, in the whole Scriptures, can
we find such declarations of the work of Christ, in its humi-
liation and its glory, the spiritual agonies of His death, and
glorious issues of His resurrection, the wrestling of His
kingdom with the powers of darkness, its triumph over
the heathen, and the overthrow of all its enemies until the
heads of many lands shall have been wounded, and the
people made willing in the day of His power ? And where
are there such outburstiug repi-esentations of all the attri-
butes of Jehovah, before whom, when He rideth through
the heavens, the very heavens seem to rend in twain, to
give the vision of His going forth, and we seem to see the
haste of the universe to do her homage, and to hear the
quaking of nature's pillars, the shaking of her foundations,
and the horrible outcry of her terror ? And oh ! it is
sweet in the midst of these soarings into the third heavens
of vision, to feel that you are borne upon the words of a man,
not upon the wings of an archangel ; to hear ever and anon
the frail but faithful voice of humanity, making her trust
under the shadow of His wings, and her hiding-place in the
secret of His tent ; and singing to Him in faithful strains
" For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his
mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the east is
472 Critical.
from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions
from lis. Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord
pitieth them that fear him." So that, as well by reason of
the matter which it contains, as of the form in which it is
expressed, the Book of Psalms, take it all in all, may be
safely prounounced one of the divinest books in all the
Scriptures ; which hath exercised the hearts and lips of all
saints, and become dear in the sight of the Church ; which
is replenished with the types of all possible spiritual
feelings, and suggests the forms of all God-ward emotions,
and furnishing the choice expressions of all true worship, the
utterances of all divine praise, the confession of all spiritual
humility, with the raptures of all spiritual joy.
If now we turn ourselves to consider the manner or
style of the Book, and to draw it into comparison with the
lyrical productions of cultivated and classical nations, it may
well be said, that as the heavens are high above the earth
so are the songs of Zion high above the noblest strains which
have been sung in any land. For, take out of the lyrical
poetry of Greece and Eome the praises of women and of
wine, the flatteries of men, and idle invocations of the muse
and lyre, and what have we left? What dedication of
song and music is there to the noble and exalted powers
of the human spirit — what to the chaste and honourable
relations of human society — what to the excitement of
tender emotions towards the widow and the fatherless, the
stranger and the oppressed— what to the awful sanctity of
law and government, and the practical foiTas of justice and
equity ! We know, that in the more ancient time, when
men dwelt nearer to God, the lyre of Orpheus was employed
to exalt and pacify the soul ; that the Pythagorean verses
contain the intimations of a deep theology, a divine phi-
losophy, and a virtuous life ; that the lyre of Tyrtteus was
used by the wisdom of Lycurgus for accomplishing his
great work of forming a peculiar people, a nation of brave
and virtuous men : but in the times which we call classi-
cal, and with the compositions of which we imbue our
youth, we find little purity of sentiment, little elevation
The Psalms of David. ^.y^
of soul, no spiritual representations of God, nothing per-
taining; to heavenly knowledge or holy feeling : but, on
the other hand, impurity of life, low, sensual ideas of
God, and the pollution of religion, so often as they touch
it. But the songs of Zion are comprehensive as the human
soul, and varied as human life ; where no possible state of
natural feeling shall not find itself tenderly expressed and
divinely treated with appropriate remedies ; where no con-
dition of human life shall not find its rebuke or consola-
tion : because they treat not life after the fashion of an
age or people, but life in its rudiments, the life of the
soul, with the joys and sorrows to which it is amenable,
from concourse with the outward necessity of the fallen
world. Which breadth of application they compass not
by the sacrifice of Ip-ical propriety, or poetical method :
for if there be poems strictly lyrical, that is, whose spirit
and sentiment move congenial with the movements of
music, and which, by their very nature, call for the accom-
paniment of music, these Odes of a people despised as
illiterate, are such. For pure pathos and tenderness of
heart, for sublime imaginations, for touching pictures
of natural scenery, and genial sympathy with nature's
•various moods ; for patriotism, whether in national weal
or national woe, for beautiful imagery, whether derived
from the relationship of human life, or the forms of the
created universe, and for the illustration, by their help, of
spiritual conditions : moreover, for those rapid transitions
in which the lyrical muse delighteth, her lightsome graces
at one time, her deep and full inspiration at another, her
exuberance of joy and her lowest falls of grief, and for
every other form of the natural soul, which is wont to be
shadowed forth by this kind of composition, we challenge
anything to be produced from the literature of all ages and
countries, worthy to be compared with what we find even
in the English version of the Book of Psalms. Were the
distinction of spiritual from natural life, the dream of
mystical enthusiasts, and the theology of the Jews, a cun-
ningly devised fable, like the mythologies of Greece and
474 Critical.
Rome, these few Odes should be dearer to the man of true
feeliug and natural taste, than all which have been derived
to us from classical times, though they could be sifted of
their abominations, and cleansed from the incrustation
of impurity which defiles their most exquisite parts.
The reason why the Psalms have found such constant
favour in the sight of the Christian Chiirch, and come to
constitute a chief portion of every missal and liturgy, and
form of worship, public or private, while forms of doctrine
and discourse have undergone such manifold changes, in
order to represent the changing spirit of the age, and the
diverse conditions of the human mind, is to be found in
this — that they address themselves to the simple instinctive
feelings of the renewed soul, which are its most constant
and permanent part, whereas, the forms of doctrine and ■
discourse address themselves to tlie spiritual understanding,
which differs in ages and countries according to the degree
of spiritual illumination, and the energy of spiritual life.
For, as those instincts of our nature, which put themselves
forth in infancy and early life, towards our parents, and our
kindred, and our friends, and derive thence the nourishment
upon which they live, are far more constant, than those
opinions which we afterwards form concerning society,
civil polity, and the world in general ; and, as those im-
pressions of place, and scene, and incident, which come
in upon us in our early years, are not only more constant
in their endurance but more uniform in their eflect upon
the various minds which are submitted to them, than any
which are afterwards made by objects better fitted to affect
us both permanently and powerfully — so we reckon that
there is an infancy of the spiritual man, which, with all its
instincts, wanders abroad over the word of God, to receive
the impressions thereof, and grow upon their wholesome
variety into a maturity of spiritual reason, when it becomes
desirous to combine and arrange into conceptions, and sys-
tems of conceptions, the manifoldness and variety of those
simple impressions which it hath obtained. During
those days of its spiritual infancy, the soul rejoiceth as a
The Psalms of David. 475
little child at the breast of its mother ; feeds upon the word
of God with a constant relish ; delights in the views and
prospects which open upon every side, and glories in its
heavenly birthright and royal kindred : and cousidereth
w4th wonder the kingdom of which it is become a denizen,
its origin, its miraculous pi-ogress, and everlasting glory ;
and as the infant life opens itself to the Sun of Eighteous-
ness, it delights in its activity, and exhales on all around
the odour of its breathing joy. To this season of the
spiritual mind, the Psalms come most opportunely as its
natural food. We say not that they quicken the life, to
which nothing is so appropriate as the words of our Lord
recorded in the Gospels, but being quickened, they nourish
Tip the life to manhood ; and when its manly age is come,
prepare it for the strong meat which is to be found in
the wi'itings of the prophets and the apostles. But ever
afterwards the souls of believers recur to these Psalms as
the home of their childhood, where they came to knov/' the
loving-kindness of their heavenly Father, the fatness of
His house, and the full river of Plis goodness, His pastoral
carefulness, His sure defence, and His eye that slumbereth
not, nor sleepeth, with every other simple representation
of divine things, to the simple affections of the renewed
soul. Therefore are these Psalms to the Christian what
the love of parents and the sweet affections of home
and the clinging memory of infant scenes, and the generoiis
love of country, are to men of every rank and order, and
employment ; of every kindred, and tongue, and nation.
There hath grown up in these lean years a miserable no-
tion, that the Psalms are not so appropriate for expressing
the communion of the Christian Church, for the reason that
they contain allusions to places and events which are of
Jewish, and not of Christian association. And some have
gone so far as to weed out all those venerable associations,
by introducing modern names of places in their stead.
Why do they not upon the same principle weed oiat the
Jewish allusions of the four Gospels, and the Epistles ? But
it is as poor in taste and wrong iu feeling, as it is daring in
47^ Critical.
the thoiiglit, and bold in the execution. In doing so, they
consult for the liomely feeling of the natural, not of the spi-
ritual man, because the liome of the spiritual was in Jeru-
salem, and Mount Zion and the temple of God, with which
the soul connects her anticipations, no less than her recol-
lections, being taught that the new Jerusalem is to come
down from heaven like a bride, decked for her bridegroom,
and that those who are sealed are to stand upon Mount
Zion with the Lamb of God. Every name in the Psalms,
whether of person or of place, hath a mystical meaning
given to it in the Christian Scriptures. Jerusalem is not
the Jerusalem that was, nor is Babylon the Babylon that
was, and even David hath lost his personality in the ever-
lasting David. Judah and Israel mean not now the cast-
away root, but the branch that hath been grafted in. Be-
sides, we hold at pi'esent only one cycle of the revolution of
God's purpose ; the Jews shall yet be brought in, and Jeru-
salem become glorious, and the dwelling of God be again
with men. Why, then, should any part of everlasting
Scripture be made the property of an age or place, which
suppose every Christian nation to do, and where were the
community of the Christian Church? It is heady innova-
tion, and leanness of spirit which hath brought this to pass,
for no end that we can see, save to gratify national vanity,
and connect religion in a strange league with patriotism;
thereby breaking the continuity of God's dispensation ; and
destroying all lyrical propriety. As if you would render
the odes of Horace into English, with English names of
men and places, in order to make them more edifying to
the English reader. But more need not be said upon this
blunder in piety, which will disappear when the lean years
are over and gone. If we take not our forms for expressing
spiritual patriotism, from those inspired songs through
which, in the old time, the Church breathed the spirit of
her high privilege, and separate community, where shall
we obtain them of like unction and equal authority, in the
experience of times during which no prophet hath arisen
in the holy city ? For though the Church hath been as
Tlie Psalms of David. 477
sorely tried under the Gentile, as under the Jewish dispen-
sation, it hath not pleased the Lord to bestow upon any of
her priests or people, the garment of inspiration, with which
to clothe in spiritual songs the depths of her sorrow, or the
exultation of her joy. And we are shut up to the necessity,
either of responding to the voice of the Spirit in the ancient
psalmist, or to re-echo the poetical effusions of uninspired
men, — either to address the living God in the language of
His own word, or in the language of some vernacular poet,
whose taste and forms of thinking, whose forms of feeling,
yea, and forms of opinion, we must make mediators between
our soul and the ear of God, — which is a great evil to be
avoided, whenever it can be avoided. For Christians must
be forms of the everlasting and common Spirit; not man-
nerists of mortal and individual men.
But to return. Not only do the personal instincts, and
the social instincts of the child of God, find in these
Psalms the milk and honey of their existence, a cradle and a
home where to wax and gi-ow, and a multifarious world of
imagery to awaken and entertain its various senses ; but
also those instinct of pity, and compassion, and longing
charity, which it hath towards the enemies of Christ, not
indeed as His enemies, but as the hopeful prodigals of the
human family, which He loveth in common with the rest,
and would, in like manner, save. The true disciples of the
compassionate and tender-hearted Friend of sinners, adopt
the language of Israel's king, when he pours out his soul in
anxious longings for the salvation of the wicked, deprecat-
ing their stout-hearted rebellion against the King of kings,
and exhorting to be timely wise, lest they fail of their
final and everlasting rest. The new man in Christ Jesus, the
regenerate, adopted child of the second Adam, who, under
the sweet and enlightening influence of many newly-
awakened feelings, perceives himself to be linked in new
and constraining bonds of sympathy with every kindred
soul in Christ, is, nevertheless, not so absorbed in the joy-
ful consciousness of those newly- formed relations into
which he hath been introduced by grace, as to forget that
478 Critical.
he is still -united by many dear and tender ties to his
brethren in the flesh. His original descent from the first
Adam, he does not cease to recollect; and the conviction
that in virtue of this descent, he was by nature a child of
wrath even as others, stimulates his zeal in behalf of those
who appear to be less highly favoured than himself, ard
will not suffer his love towards them to fail. If, to the
inexpressible peace and consolation of his soul, he finds
himself to be now under the royal law of liberty, he grieveth
to behold his kindred, his friends, his neighbours, the world
at large, still oppressed with the yoke of bondage, heedless
of their degradation, and careless to take up their purchased
redemption. If the law of God be precious to him, and he
discover in it a beauty, and excellence, and a goodness ever
commending it to the love and admiration of his enlightened
spirit, how doth he weep and mourn on account of those by
whom it is ignorantly set at nought and utterly despised !
He adopteth the language of Israel's king, " Horror hath
taken hold upon me, because of the wicked that forsake thy
law. Eivers of waters run down mine eyes, because they
keep not thy law. Thou shalt break them with a rod of
iron : thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.
Beware now, therefore, O ye kings ; be instructed, ye
judges of the earth. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and
ye perish from the right way, when his wrath is kindled
but a little."
There are many passages in the Psalms which seem to
breathe an opposite spirit of hostility and revenge upon the
personal enemies of the psalmist, and to heap upon their
heads all the curses which are written in the book of the
law of God. Concerning this, and many other points, it
is well stated, that thoiigh the gospel law be " charity out
of a pure heart," this charity doth manifest itself under
various forsm, some pleasant, but most of them painful to
the natural man. Kebuke is a form of charity ; and cen-
sure, and excommunication, yea, and total abandonment
for a while. Truth is always a form of charity ; or, to
speak more properly, truth is the soul of which charity is
I
Tlie Psahis of David. 479
but the beautiful, graceful, and lovely member. Charity,
therefore, is not to be kno^vn by soft words, and fair
speeehes, and gentle actions, which are oftener the form
of policy and courtesy ; but must be sought in the prin-
ciple of the heart, out of which all our words, speeches,
and actions come forth. It is love to God producing love
to all His family, by which we are moved ; then it is
charity, be its form commendation or blame, mildness or
zeal, the soft and gentle moods of mercy, or the stem,
inflictions of justice, or the hasty strokes of hot and fiery
indignation : and wisdom must determine the form which
is proper to the occasion. Is not God a God of love ? and
how diversified are the moods of His providence even to
His own beloved children ? Christ brought mercy to the
earth, and in the gospel builded for her an ark, in which
she might swim over the deluge of cruelty which covereth
the earth. Yet how tei-rible is that gospel in its revela-
tion to the wicked, how unsparing of the world, how cruel
to the flesh, how contemptuous of good-natured formality,
how awfully vindictive against hypocrisy ; taking every
one of its children, and swearing him upon the altar to
be an enemy, till death, against the world, the devil, and
the flesh ! Against the various forms, then, of the devil,
the world, and the flesh, we are sworn ; and, in order
to their destruction, must make war with the two-edged
sword which proceedeth out of the mouth of the Word
of God. Of these strong actings of the soul against the
wickedness of the wicked, the psalmist's language of curs-
ing is but the breath. The world is the heathen whom he
prays God to break in pieces. And for ever let the
Christian exercise himself with that warfare, else he shall
never know the fellowship of the Eedeemer's sufferings.
It is the capital principle of all sound doctrine. That the
world is to be destroyed. It is the deep-rooted source
of all heretical doctrine. That the world is to be mended.
And to keep the one in mind, the other out of mind, it is
most necessaiy that no mean portion of the devotion of a
Christian Church should be to express the desires of their
480 Critical.
soul on this belialf. Charity being nnviolated ; j'ea, charity
being edified ; for, until the sceptre of the world is broken
in pieces, charity can find no room, but is fain to flee
into the wilderness. Out of the same charity, therefore,
ought the Christian to adopt these expressions of his hatred
to the form and fruits of wickedness, that he expresseth
his longing desire that the souls of the wicked should be
set free and saved.
The symphonies which the Church singeth with Christ
out of this book are not all a fellowship of suffering. For,
not only by the shedding of His blood did Messiah make
propitiation for her sins, and destroy her writing of con-
demnation, and put a new song in her mouth — " Who is he
that condemneth," but also for her hath He purchased the
raiment of an everlasting righteousness, and the beauties of
holiness, and the spirit of a perfect obedience, which, by
precious justifying faith, she claimeth as her own, and over
which she singeth other symphonies of gladness : "I have
kept the ways of the Lord, and have not wickedly departed
from my God. Tor all his judgments were before me, and
I did not put away his statutes from me. I was upright
before him, and I kept myself from mine iniquity. There-
fore hath the Lord recompensed me according to my
righteous dealing, according to the cleanness of my hands
in his eyesight." And in the greatness of her loyal love,
how many a song singeth the daughter of Zion, touching
the things that belong unto the King, when her tongue is
as the pen of a ready writer : " Thou art fairer than the
children of men ; grace is poured upon thy lips, therefore
God hath blessed thee for ever. Bless the Lord, O my
Suul, and forget not all his benefits, who redeemeth thy
life from destruction, and crowneth thee with loving-kind-
ness, and tender mercies." And what with a brave pulse of
glory doth her heart exult towards the accomplishment of
Messiah's kingdom, and the fulness of His power ; when all
lands shall call upon His name, and all nations shall bow
before Him, and there shall be given to Him of Sheba's
gold, and His name shall endure for ever, and last like the
The Psalms of David. 48 1
sun, and men sliall be blessed in Him, and all natiims shall
call Ilim blessed ! Then His people sing in high symphony
with their triumphant King, and all-cunqnering Lord, in
whom each one feeleth himself to be a conqueror and a
king, seated on His throne, and sharing in His royal
sovereignty, " Thou hast made me the head of the heathen ;
a people whom I have not known shall serve me ; as soon
as they hear of me they shall obey me. The strangers
shall submit themselves unto me."
For what are the conquests of David, or the greater con-
quests of David's everlasting Son, over the kingdoms of the
earth, but a shadow of that inward conquest which Christ
worketh over His enemies within our soul, which is more
valuable than the earth, and to conquer which is a higher
achievement than to subdue the kingdoms of the earth !
The history of the church is such a shadow of soul-
history, as creation is of the omnipotent Spirit which made
it. The soul is a thing for the Son of God to conquer,
the world is for Caesar, or the Son of Philip. The soul, the
boundless world of the soul to recover, to reconcile its
warring powers, to breathe the life of God over its chaotic
wastes — this is a work whereof all outward works are only
fit to be the emblems ; a work, in the execution of which
every spiritual man feels the going forth of his Saviour
conquering and to conquer. And he hath every outward
action of holy w^-it realised inwardly — ever}' groan of the
conquered, every struggle of the conqueror, His toil. His
sweat. His wounds. His death, His resurrection. His second
going forth in the plenitude of the Spirit, His unconquered
lesolution, His long-abiding labour, the turning of the tide
of battle. His sword upon the neck of His enemies, the
shout of victory, the treading of the nations in the wine-
press of his fur}', His shivering them with His iron sceptre
like a potsherd. His driving them with death, and the
grave, and him that had the power of death, into the
bottomless pit. His reign of peace, its joy, full content-
ment, and perfect assurance, what are they all, but letters,
words, and similitudes, whereby the believer may better
2 I
4^2 Critical.
understand, and better express the spiritual work whicli is
going on with his own soul, by the casting down of imagin-
ations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against
the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every
tliought to the obedience of Christ? If a company of
musical and melodious soxals feel in unison with the sounds
which flow from chords touched by the hands of a master
musician, and a company of rich and poetical souls feel in
harmony, while the drama of a master poet is rehearsed
with true action in their ears, shall not the sbids of spiritual
men be in harmony, while perusing the outward action,
whereof they are the subject ? Be in harmony ! ay, in
tiuest harmony. For they are the end of it all, the
meaning of it all. In them it hath its reality, and till
realised in them, it is an incomprehensible world to words
and images, a hieroglyphic with no interpretation; a mu-
sical instrument, with no hand cunning enough to bring
out its infinite streams of liquid music.
This Book is to be regarded as a spiritual world, with
which the new-born spirit may converse, and acquire the
knowledge and use of its faculties, as well as the know-
ledge and use of those objects which are revealed therein.
And hence it hath a charm which it can never lose, being
associated with the simple and true afltections of the spirit,
and with the joy and satisfaction which attend the revela-
tion of any new faculty within us. And this charm must
grow with our growth, and strengthen with our strength ;
for according as we increase in spiritual strength, we are
able to make more of those feelings our own ; and tlie more
we become acquainted with dialectic methods, the more we
discern their difficulty and uncertainty, and desire to return
to the simple impressions made upon the soul by the words
of the Holy Spirit. And we reckon also that the more we
advance in divine life, the simpler our discourse will be-
come, and the more delivered from the forms of human
learning, into the forms of the Spirit's teaching, until in
the end, if by reason of extreme age or languor, we can say
no more, we will say, as is reported of the apostle John,
The Psalms of David. 48 3
" Little cliildren, love one another;" and when speech is
denied as to titter anything, we will occupy our spiritual
musings with some simple forms of divine truth, as the
learned Baxter is reported to have said upon his death bed,
that he h;id been meditating all night long upon the great
wisdom of the Lord's Piayer and the Ten Commandments.
So that we very much question if these Psalms, which have
the charm of having unloosed to us the secrets of our own
spiritual selves, may not, like a true and faithful friend,
continue to add to their first loveliness and value nnto the
end. For, as was said in the beginning, and hath been
amply illustrated, the part of our being which they take
hold upon, is not our opinions or our reasonings, or any of
our peculiarities, but those universal feelings of the spiri-
tual man, which being constant in all, we have denomi-
nated s'^'mtual instincts; in the abiding of which is the
abiding of spiritual life, and upon the experiences of which
all spiritual knowledge is built up.
The universal Church of Chiist hath therefore given its
witness, that these Psalms are not made for one age, but
for all ages ; not for one place, but for all places ; not for
one soul, but for all souls ; time, place, and person, being
only so far present in them, as to associate them with
that generation to which they were first given, not to
dissociate them from an}' other generation of spiritual
children which, in after ages, was to be born to the same
Spirit by the seed of the word, which liveth and abideth
for ever. The temptations of David's soul, and its expe-
riences under them, are as much the property of eveiy
saint, and of every age of the Church, as are the discourses,
remonstrances, parables, and instructions of our Lord to
His untoward generation — as are the arguments, and de-
monstrations, and Epistles of Paul to the early churches
which he planted or watered. The}' are all equally per-
sonal, (for the Son of God himself was a person,) and the
personal runneth like a thread of humanity through
the heavenly hues of their discourse. They are all
equally secular, and the conditions of the age are the
2 I 2
484 Critical.
framework npoii wliicli the tissue of the weh is woven.
Which presence of the personal, and intermixture of the
temporary, instead of taking from the force and j)ower of
the revelations, do onl}' apply them with the more force
and power to the personality of every other saint, and the
peculiarity of every other age. For, had the revelations
not breathed of the man who spoke them, and told of
the condition of the age to which they were given, the
former would have been an automaton, and the latter a
looker upon the wonders which the automaton spoke ;
neither the one nor the other feeling any interest or con-
cern in the marvellous display of divine art. But God
wished both prophet and people to take heed, and to stand
in awe of fearful issues, if they heeded not; therefore He
moulded His man to His purpose, and cast him into the
conditions which suited His ends, and still he was a man,
acted on by course of nature, and manifest to the people
as a fellow-man, through whom, indeed, they heard soul-
stirring truths, uttered with ear-piercing words, and, when
need was, sustained by attention-rivetting works ; but
still suited to their case, and thrust in their way, and
spoken to their feelings, and pressed on their consciences,
and rivetted there by the most mighty sanctions of life and
death, present and eternal. But they are not the less
spoken to us. Ko, not the less, on that account spoken to
us. Yet, that we might have no shadow of excuse, nor
shield of self-delusion, the Lord appointed a race of pro-
phets, or ministers, to abide until His coming, who should
be gifted of His Spirit to apply the universal and uncliangc-
ahle, in all His revelation, to the condition of every time,
place, and individual ; and so far from abandoning the
peculiarity of the revelation, to xxse that no less than the
other, wherever it will accommodate itself to the case in
hand, and to bring it home with tenfold force by the appli-
cation of the parable, " Thou, even thou thyself, art the
very man " — this, even this, is the verj' season — this, even
this in which we live, is the very condition to which this
revelation was given.
1
The Psalms of David. 485
In those Psalms wbicli have been applied in the New
Testament unto Christ, it is found difficult, if not impossi-
ble, to separate the psalmist's personal expeiience from that
of Christ, or to find how, without mucli violence, they can
be wholly appropriate to Messiah. Now, with as little
straining of interpretation, they judge that another and
another, and at length all may be applied to Christ, in a
typical, or in a real signification. But this is to eiT from
ignorance of the prophetic Scriptures. Except the pro-
phecies of Daniel, and the prophecies of the Apocalypse,
and one or two of the visions of Esdras, (especially that of
the three-headed ten-feathered eagle,) the other prophecies
are always of a mixed character, belonging partly to the
times, and partly surpassing the conditions of the times,
and occasionally glancing through to the ver}'' end of time.
So that in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the other prophets,
even in our Lord's prophecies of Ilis second coming, and
the apostles' constant i-eference thereto, you cannot by any
endeavour make a clear separation belAveen that which was
then fulfilled, or hath been since fulfilled, and that which
still standeth over to be fulfilled. The reason of which,
doubtless, is explained by our Lord, that the times and the
seasons the Father hath kept in His own power, so that
even the Son Himself was not permitted to reveal them.
And Peter saith, that the prophets inquired deligently, but
could not discover what and what manner of things the
Spirit which was in them did signify. And I doubt not
that the apostles might themselves be as ignorant of the
time of the second coming of Christ, as the prophets were
of His first coming. AVhich taken together is an illustra-
tion of this great law, which maybe gathered from the very
• face of the prophetic writings, That they arose by the sug-
gestion of some condition of the Church, present in the
days of the prophets, as the particular case, but passing
beyond this in time, and passing beyond it in aggravation
of every circumstance, they give, as it were, a consecutive
glance of all the like cases, and kindred passages in the
history of the Church, and bring out the general law of
486 Critical.
God's providence and grace in the present, and in. all the
future parallel cases ; — yet with such mark of different
times interspersed as may be sufficient, by a skilful compa-
I'ison with the exact and historical prophecies of Daniel
and the Eevelation, to draw the attention of the wise to
their coming, and suffice to the conviction of the nnwi^e
when they are past. Of this great law of prophetic writing,
the confusion of David and Messiah in the Psalms referred
to, are only one instance. David's prophecies of Messiah,
which are personal, arose by suggestion of the Spirit, from
his own personal experiences, and include it. His prophecies
of Messiah, which are royal and kingly, arose out of his kingly
experience, and the two persons are interwoven with one
another in such a manner as not to be separable, just as
in the other prophecies, the first, and second, and third
events to which they have reference, are, in like manner,
interwoven.
Which so far from being an evil, is a great beauty in the
Psalms ; so far from being an inconvenience, is a great
a " ntage to those who understand aright In connecting
David with Messiah, it connects the Church and every
particular saint who adopts David's feelings with Messiah,
the children with their parent, the subjects with their king ;
so that we cannot sing his praise or his triumphs, but we
must take ourselves in as a part, and be embraced in the
very praises of our great Head, and are not permitted to
separate ourselves from Him ; but at once are we constrained
to worship the objective Saviour, who is at the right hand of
God ; and the subjective Saviour, who is in its ; the objective
Saviour who humbled Himself to the cross, and the suh-
jective Saviour who humbled Himself to behold and redeem
His servant ; the objective Saviour wiio ascended up on high,
leading captivity captive, and the subjective Saviour who in
us hath triumphed over death, and raised us to newness of
life, who liveth with us and is seated in the throne of our
hearts. Which happy blending of our spiritual nature,
suffering or enjoying with Christ suffering or enjoying, we
should have lost, had we been able to separate between
The Psalms of David. 487
David and Christ in those Psalms which have a reference
to Christ. For atone time we should have sung objectively
of Clu ist, and at another subjectively of ourselves, as repre-
sented in David, and so lost the intermarriage of the object
with the subject, which is the true propagation of religion
in the soul ; — a loss this which the Christians are beginning
to experience in those modern hymns which aie coming into
use, and those metrical versions which have the boldness to
paraphrase the Psalms, and new-model them to the present
times (a most daring innuvation upon a book of Scripture.)
— Theref jre, while we reject the puerile conceit, and most
mischievous dogma which would make eveiy word of these
Psalms to be applicable to Christ, we feel greatly indebted
to any commentator, who, preserving sound principles of
intei'pretation, can find the Saviour present in the Psalms,
vfhich is to give not only more sacredness and spirituality
to them, but to increase that happy blending of subjective
and objective religion, which is the best condition for
true and spiritual worship.
THE END.
LOJtDOS : PEDtTED BT VnlXIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAUPOIiD STEKBT,
AXD CHABtNG C£OSS.
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