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• j^-.i

PAROCHIAL SERMONS,

FOR THE

WINTER QUARTER,

BEINQ

THE WEEKS BETWEEN ADVENT SUNDAY AND LENT.

VOL. V.

JOHN HENRY NEWMAN, B.D.

VICAR OF ST. MARY TH^ VIROIN's, OXFORD,
AND FELLOW OF ORIEL COLLEGE.

LONDON:
PRINTED FOR J. G. F. & J. RIVINGTON,

ST. PAUL'S CHURCH YARD, AND WATERLOO ^LACE, »ALL MALL;

& J. H. PARKER, OXFOto,
1840.

LONDON :
OILBEST AND RITINOTON, PRINTEBS,

ST. John's square.

JOSHUA WATSON, ESQ. D.C.L.

THE BENEFACTOR OF ALL HIS BRETHREN,

BY HIS LONG AND DUTIFUL MINISTRY,

AND PATIENT SERVICE,

TO HIS AND THEIR COMMON MOTHER,

THIS VOLUME IS INSCRIBED,

IN THE HOPE THAT HE WILL NOT BE DISPLEASED

BY AN UNSANCTIONED OFFERING

OF RESPECT AND GRATITUDE.

ADVERTISEMENT.

The weeks between Advent Sunday and Lent
may fitly be considered as the Season of Grace ;
of which Christmas-day is the great festival, and
St. Paul the special Apostle. The following Ser-
mons, selected for this portion of the year, are
written upon subjects more or less suggested by
its main idea, though not so intimately adapted
to it in their form, as to render them unsuitable
to other seasons. As few express allusions, as was
possible, have been made to it in the text; and
they are noted at the foot of the page as they
occur. ^

Oriel Culleoc,
October 21, 1840.

CONTENTS.

SERMON I.

WORSHIP, A PREPARATION FOR CHRIST'S COMING.

(advent.)
Isaiah xxxiii. 17.

PAGE

Thine eyes shall see the King in His beauty ; they shall behold
the land that is very far ojQf 1

SERMON II.

REVERENCE, A BELIEF IN GOD's PRESENCE*

(advent.)

Isaiah xxxiii. 17.

Thine eyes shall see the King in His beauty ; they shall behold
the land that is very far off • . . l5

SERMON III.

UNREAL WORDS.

(advent.)

Isaiah xxxiii. 17.

Thine eyes shall see the King in His beauty ; they shall behold
the land that is very far off ^ 33

viii CONTENTS.

SERMON IV.

SHRINKING FROM CHRIST'S COMING.

(advent.)
Isaiah xxxiii. 17.

PAGE

Thine eyes shall see the King in His beauty : they shall behold
the land that is very far off 53

SERMON V.

EQUANIMITY.

(CHRISTMAS.)

Phil. iv. 4.
Rejoice in the Lord a1 way ; and again I say. Rejoice .... 67

SERMON VI.

REMEMBRANCE OF PAST MERCIES.

(CHRISTMAS.)

Gen. xxxii. 10.
I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the
truth, which Thou hast showed unto Thy servant .... 83

SERMON VII.

THE MYSTERY OF GODLINESS.

(CHRISTMAS.)

Hebrews ii. 11.
Both He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all
of one; for which cause He is not ashamed to call them
brethren 99

SERMON VIII.

THE STATE OF INNOCENCE.

(CHRISTMAS.)

EccLES. vii. 29.
God hath made man upright, but they have sought out many
inventions 114

CONTENTS. k

SERMON IX.

CHRISTIAN SYMPATHY.

(CHRISTMAS.)

Hebrews ii. 16.

PAGE

For verily He took not on Him the nature df Angels, but He
took on Him the seed of Abraham 133

SERMON X.

RIGHTEOUSNESS NOT OF US, BUT IN US.

(epiphany.)

1 Cor. i. 30, 31. •

Of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us
wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemp-
tion ; that, according as it is written. He that glorieth, let
him glory in the Lord 147

SERMON XI.

THE LAW OF THE SPIRIT.
(epiphany.)

Rom. z. 4.

Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to every on6 that
believeth 163

SERMON XII.

THE NEW WORKS OF THE GOSPEL.
(epiphany.)

2 CoR. V. 17.

If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature : old things are
past away ; behdid, all things are become new 187

X CONTENTS.

SERMON XIIL

THE STATE OF SALVATION.

(epiphany.)
Eph. iv. 24.

PAGB

That ye put on the new man, which after God is created in
righteousness and true holiness ..•....•.. 203

SERMON XIV.

^ TRANSGRESSIONS AND INFIRMITIES.

(epiphany.)

Heb. X. 38.

Now the just shall live by faith ; but if any man draw back. My
soul shall have no pleasure in him 223

SERMON XV.

SINS OF INFIRMITY.
(epiphany.)

Gal. v. 17.

The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the
flesh ; and these are contrary the one to the other, so that ye
cannot do the things that ye would 239

SERMON XVI.

SINCERITY AND HYPOCRISY.

(epiphany.)

2 CoR. viii. 12.

If there be first a willing mind^ it is accepted according to that a
man hath, and not according to that he hath not . . • . • 253

CONTENTS. xi

SERMON XVII.

THE TESTIMONY OF CONSCIENCE.

(efiphan"y.)
2 Cor. i. 12.

PAO£

Our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in
simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by
the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world,
and more abundantly to you-ward 270

SERMON XVIIL

MANY CALLED, FEW CHOSEN.

(SEPTUAGESIMA.)

1 CoR. iz. 24.

Know ye not, that they which run in a race, run all, but one
receiveth the prize ? So run that ye may obtain 281

SERMON XIX.

THE BLESSINGS OF THIS LIFE.

(SEPTUAOESIMA.)

Phil. iv. 18.
I have all, and abound ; I am full 306

SERMON XX.

ENDURANCE, THE CHRISTIAN'S PORTION.

(SEXAGESIMA.)

Gen. xlii. 36.
AU these things are agunst me 322

xii CONTENTS.

SERMON XXI.

AFFLICTION, A SCHOOL OF COMFORT.

(SEXAGESIMA.)

2 COR. i. 4.

PAGE

Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to
comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort where-
with we ourselves are comforted of God 340

SERMON XXII.

THE THOUGHT OF GOD, THE STAY OF THE SOUL.

(QUINQUA6ES1MA.)

Rom. viiL 15.

Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye
have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba,
Father 354

SERMON XXIII.

LOVE, THE ONE THING NEEDFUL.

(quinquagesima.)
1 CoR. sm. 1.

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and
have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tink-
Ung cymbal 371

SERMON XXIV.

THE POWER OF THE WILL.

(quinquagesima.)

Eph. vi. 10.

Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of
His might 386

SERMON I.

WORSHIP. A PREPARATION FOR CHRIST'S COMING,

" Thine eyes shall see the King in His beauty : ihey shall
behnld the land that is very far o

Year after year, as it passes, brings us the same
warnings again and again, and none perhaps more
impressive than those with which it comes to us at
this season'. The very frost and cold, rain and
gloom, which now befal us, forebode the laat dreary
days of the world, and in religious hearts raise the
thought of thom. The year is worn out ; spring,
summer, autumn, -each in turn, have brought their
gifts and done their utmost ; but they are over, and
the end is come. All is past and gone, all has failed,
all has sated: we are tired of the past: we would not
have the seasons longer ; aud the austere weather

2 WORSHIP. A PREPARATION [Sbbm.

which succeeds, though ungrateful to the body, is
in tone with our feeling, and acceptable. Such is
the frame of mind which befits the end of the year ;
and such the frame of mind which comes alike on
good and bad at the end of life. The days have
come in which they have no pleasure ; yet they
would hardly be young again, could they be so by
wishing it. Lite is well enough in its way ; but it
does not satisfy. Thus the soul is cast forward upon
the fiiture, and in proportion as its conscience is
clear and its jjerception keen and true, does it re-
joice solemnly that " the night is far spent, the day
is at hand," that there are " new heavens and a new
earth" to come, though the former are failing ; nay,
rather that, because tbey are failing, it will " soon
see the King in Hia beauty," aud " behold the land
which is very far off." These are feelings for holy
men in winter and in age, waiting, in some dejection
perhaps, but with comfort on the whole, and calmly
though earnestly, for the Advent of Christ.

And such too are the feelings with which we
now come before Him in prayer day by day. The
season is chill and dark, and the breath of the
morning is damp, and worshippers are few, but all
this befits those who are by profession penitents and
mourners, watchers and pilgrims. More dear to
them that loneliness, more cheerful that severity,
and more bright that gloom, than all those aids and
appliances of luxury by which men now-a^days
attempt to make prayer less disagreeable to them.

!■]

FOR CHRIST'S COMING.

True faith does not covet comforts. It only com-
plaiiia when it is forhidden to kneel, when it alts
upon cushions, is protected by curtains, and encom-
passed by wannth. Its only hardship is to be hin-
dered, or to be ridiculed, when it would place itself
as a sinner before its Judge. They who realize
that awful Day when they shall sec Him face to
fece, whose eyes are as a flame of fire, wiU as little
bargain to jiray pleasantly now, as they will think
of doing BO then.

One year goes and then another, but the same
warnings recur. The frost or the rain comes again ;
the earth is stripped of its brightness ; there is no-
thing to rejoice in. And then amid this unprofit-
ablenesB of earth and sky, the well-known words
return ; the Prophet Isaiah is read ; the same
Epistle and Gospel, bidding us " awake out of
sleep," and welcome Him " that cometh in the
Name of the Lord ;" the same Collects, beseeching
Him to prepare us tor judgment. O blessed they
who obey these warning voices, and look out for
Him whom they have not seen, because they " love
His appearing !"

We cannot have fitter reflections at this Season
than those which I have entered upon. What may
be the destiny of other orders of beings we know
not ; — but this we know to be our own fearfiil lot,
that before us lies a time when we must have the
sight of our Maker and Lord face to face. We
know not what is reserved for other brings ; there
b2

4 WORSHIP, A PREPARATION [Sebm-

niay be some, which, knowing nothlug of their
Maker, are never to be brought before Ilim. For
what we can tell, this may be the case with the
brute creation. It may be the law of their nature
that they should live and die, or live on an indefinite
period, upon the very outskirts of His government,
sustained by Him, but never permitted to know or
approach Him. But this is not our case. We are
destined to come before Him ; nay, and to come
before Him in judgment; and that on our first
meeting ; and that suddenly. We are not merely
to be rewarded or pnnished, we are to be judged.
Recompense is to come upon our actions, not by a
mere general provision or course of nature, as it
does at present, hut from the Lawgiver Himself in
person. We have to stand before His righteous
Presence, and that one by one. One by one we
shall have to endure His holy and searching eye.
At present we are in a world of shadows. What
we see is not substantial. Suddenly it will be rent
in twain and vanish away, and our Maker will
appear. And then, I say, that first appearance will
be nothing less than a personal intercourse between
the Creator and every creature. He will look on
us, while we look on Him.

I need hardly quote any of the numerous pas-
sages of Scripture which tell us this, by way of
proof; but it may impress the truth of it upon our
hearts to do so. We are told then expressly, that
good and bad shall see God. On the one band lioly
3

!■]

FOR CHBiSrS COMING.

Job Bays, " Though after my skin wonne destroy
this body, yet in my flesh, shall 1 see God ; whom
I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold,
and uot another." On the other hand unrighteous
Balaam says, " I shall see Him, but not now ; I
shall behold Him, but not nigh ; there shall come
a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of
Israel," Christ says to His disciples, " Look up,
and lift up your heads ; for your redemption draweth
nigh ;" and to His enemies, " Hereafter ye shall see
the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power,
and coming in the clouds of heaven." And it is
said generally of all men, on the one hand, " Behold,
He Cometh with clouds ; and every eye shall see Ilim,
and tliey also which pierced Him : and all kindreds
of the earth shall wail because of Him." And on
the other, " When He shall appear, we shall be like
Him ; for we shall see Him as He is." Again, " Now
we see through a glass, darkly ; but then face to
face :" and again, " They shall see His face ; and
His Name shall be in their foreheads'."

And, as they see Him, so will He see them, for
His coming will be to judge them. " We must all
appear before the judgment-seat of Christ," says
St, Paul. Again, " Wo shall all stand before the
judgment-seat of Christ. For it is written. As I
live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me,

' Job xix. 26, 27. Numb. xxiv. 17- Luke jt
!vi, 64. Rev. i. 7. 1 John iii. 2. 1 Cor. x

Matt.
Rev.

WORSHIP, A PREPARATION

[Sbk

and every tongue shall confess to God. So theo
every one of us shall give account of himself to
God." And again, ■' When the Son of man shall
come in His glory, and all the holy Angels with Him,
then shall He sit upoa the throne of His glory.
And before Him shall be gathered all nations; and
He shall separate them one from another, as a
shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats'."

Such 18 our first meeting with our God ; and, I
say, it will be as sudden, as it is intimate. " Your-
selves know perfectly," says St. Paul, " that the day
of the Lord so eometh as a thief in the night. For
when they shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden
destruction eometh upon them." This is said of the
wicked, — elsewhere He is said to surprise good as
well as bad. " While the Bridegi-oom tarried," the
wise and foolish virgins " all slumbered and slept.
And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the
Bridegroom eometh ; go ye out to meet Him ^."

Now when this state of the case, the prospect
which lies before us, is brought home to our
thoughts, surely it is one which will lead us
anxiously to ask, Is this all that we are told, all that
is allowed us, or done for us? Do we know only
this, that all is dark now, and all will he light then ;
that now God is hidden, and one day will be re-
vealed ? that we are iu a world of sense, and are to
be in a world of spirits? For surely it is our plain

' a Cor. T. 10. Rom. sir. 10, 11, 12.
' I Thcas. V. 2, 3. Matt. xxv. 5, 6.

Matt.

1-]

FOR CHRIST'S COMING.

Tvisdom, our bounden duty, to prepare for this great
change ; — and if so, are any directions, hints, or
rules given ua how we ai'e to prepare ? " Prepare
to meet thy God," " Go ye out to meet Him," ia
the dictate of natural reason, as well as of inspira-
tion. But how is this to be ?

Now observe, that it is soareoly a sufficient
answer to tliis question to say that we must strive
to obey Him, and so to approve ourselves to
Him. This indeed might be enough, were reward
and punishment to follow in the mere way of
nature, as they do in this world. But, when we
come steadily to consider the matter, appearing
before God, and dwelling in His presence, is a very
ditferent thing from beinnp merely subjected to a
system of moral laws, and would seem to require
another jjreparation, a special preparation of thought
and affection, such as will enable us to endure His
countenance, and to hold communion with Him as
we ought. Nay, and, it niay he, a preparation of
the soul itself for His presence, just as the bodily
eye must be exercised in order to bear the full light
of day, or the bodily frame in order to beai- exposure
to the air.

But, whether or not this be safe reasoning.
Scripture precludes the necessity of it, by telling us
that the Gospel Covenant is intended, among its
other purposes, to prepare us for this future glorious
and wonderfiJ destiny, the sight of God, — a destiny
which, if not most glorious, will be most terrible.

8 WORSHIP, A PREPARATION [Serb.

And in the worship and service of Almighty God,
which Christ and His Apostles have left to us, we
are vouchsafed means, both moral and mystical, of
approaching God, and gradually learning to bear
the sight of Him,

This indeed is a most momentous reason for
religious worship, as far as we have grounds for
considering it a true one. Men sometimes ask, Why
need they profess religion ? Why need they go to
Church ? Why need they observe certain rites and
ceremonies ? Why need they watch, pray, fast, and
meditate ? Why is it not enough to be just, honest,
sober, benevolent, and otherwise virtuous? Is not
this the true and real worship of God ? Is not
activity in mind and conduct the most acceptable
way of approaching Him ? How can they i)lease
Him by submitting to certain religious forms, and
taking part in certain religious acts? Or if they
must do so, why may they not choose their own ?
Why must they come to Church for them ? Why
must they be partakers in what the Church calls
Sacraments ? I answer, they must do so, first of all
and especially, because God tells them so to do.
But besides this, I observe that we see this plain
reason why, that they are one day to change their
state of being. They are not to be hero for ever.
Direct intercourse with God on their part now,
prayer and the like, may be necessary to our meet-
ing Him suitably hereafter : and direct intercourse
on His part with us, or what wo call sacramental

I-]

FOR CHRIST'S COMING.

commumon, may be necessary m some incompre-
hensible way, even for preparing our very nature to
bear the sight of Him.

Let us then take this yiew of religious service ;
it is " going out to meet the Bridegroom," who, if
not seen " in His beauty," will appear in consum-
ing fire. Besides its other momentous reasons, it
is a preparation for an awful event, which shall one
day be. What it would be to meet Christ at once
without preparation, we may leam from what hap-
pened even to the Apostles when His glory was
suddenly manifested to them. St. Peter said,
" Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord."
And St. John, " when he saw Him, fell at His feet
as dead ',"

This being the case, it is surely most merciful in
God to vouchsafe to us the means of preparation,
and such means as He has appointed. When
Moses came down from the Mount, and the peo-
ple were dazzled at his countenance, he put a veil
over it. That veil is so far removed in the Gospel,
that we are in a state of preparation for its being
altogether removed. We are with Moses in the
Mount so far, that we have a sight of God ; we
are with the people beneath it so far, that Christ
does not visibly show Himself. He has put a veil
on, and He sits among us silently and secretly.
When we approach Him, we know it only by faith,

. 8. Re\

. 17.

WORSHIP, A PREPARATION

and when He manifests Himself to ue, it is without
our being able to realize to ourselves that manifes-
tation.

Such then is the spirit in wliich we should come
to all His ordinances, considering them as fore-
stallings and first-fruits of that sight of Ilim which
one day must be. When we kneel down in prayer
in private, let us think to ourselves — Thus shall I
one day kneel down before His very footstool — in
this flesh and this blood of mine ; and lie will be
seated over against me — in flesh and blood also,
tbougli divine. I come, vpith the thought of that
awful hour before me, I come to confess my sin
to Him now, that He may pardon it then, and I
say, " O Lord, Holy God, Holy and Strong, Holy
and Immortal, in the hour of death, and in the day
of judgment, deliver us, O Lord !"

Again, when we come to Church, then let us
say : — ^The day will be when I shall see Christ sur-
rounded by His Holy Angels. I shall be brought
into that blessed company, in which all will be
pure, aU bright. I come then to learn to endure
the sight of the Holy One and His Servants ; to
nerve myself for a vision which is fearful before it
is ecstatic, and which they only enjoy who are not
consumed by it. When men in this world have to
undergo any great thing, they prepare themselves
beforehand, by thinking often of it, and they call
this making up their mind. Any unusual trial,
they thus make familiar to them. Courage is a

FOR CHRIST'S COMING.

necessary step in gaining certain goods, and courage
is gained by steady thought. Children are scared,
and close their eyes at the vision of some mighty
warrior or glorious king. And when Dauiel saw
the Angel, like St. John, " his comeliness was
turned in him into corruption, and he retained no
strength'." I come then to Church, because 1 am
an heir of heaven. It is my desire and hope one
day to take possession of my inheritance : and I
come to make myself ready for it, and 1 would not
see heaven yet, for I could not bear to see it. I
am allowed to be in it without seeing it, that I
may leam to see it. And by psalm and sacred
song, by confession and by praise, I leam my part.

And what is true of the ordinary services of re-
ligion, public and private, holds in a still higher or
rather in a special way, as regards the sacramental
ordinances of the Church. In these is manifested
in greater or less degree, according to the measure
of each, that Incarnate Saviour, who is one day to
he our judge, and who is enabling us to bear His
presence then, by imparting it to us in measure
now. A thick black veil is spread between this
world and the next. We mortal men range up
and down it, to and iro, and see nothing. There
is no access through it into the next world. In
the Gospel this veil is not removed ; it remains,
but eveiy now and then marvellous disclosures are

' Dan, X. 8.

12 WORSHIP, A PREPARATION [Sehm.

made to U9 of what is behind it. At times we
seem to catch a glimpse of a Form which we shall
hereafter see face to face. We approach, and in
spite of the darkness, our hands, or our head, or
our brow, or our lips become, as it were, sensible
of the contact of something more than earthly.
We know not where we are, but we have been
bathing in water, and a voice tells ns that it is
blood. Or we have a mark signed upon our fore-
heads, and it spake of Calvary. Or we recollect a
hand laid upon our heads, and surely it had the
print of nails in it, and resembled His who with a
touch gave sight to the blind and raised the dead.
Or we have been eating- and drinking ; and it was
not a dream surely, that One fed us from His
wonnded side, and renewed our nature by the
heavenly meat He gave. Thus in many ways
He, who is to judge us, prepares us to be judged,
— He, who is to glorify us, prepares us to be
glorified, that He may not take us unawares ;
but that when the voice of the Archangel sounds,
and we are called to meet the Bridegroom, we
may be ready.

Now consider what light these reflections throw
upon some remarkable texts in the Epistle to the
Hebrews. If we have in the Gospel this super-
natural approach to God and to the next world, no
wonder that St. Paul calls it an " enhghtening," "a
tasting of the heavenly gift," a being " made par-
taker of the Holy Ghost," a " tasting of the good

1.] FOR CHRIST'S COMING, 13

word of God, and the powers of the world to come."
No wonder too that utter apostasy after receiving
it should be so utterly hopeless, and that in con-
sequence, any profanation of it, any sinning against
it, should be so perilous in proportion to its degree.
If He, who is to be our judge, condescend here to
manifest Himself to us, surely if that privilege does
not fit us for His future glory, it does not prepare
us for His wrath.

And what I have said concerning Ordinances
applies still more fully to Holy Seasons, which in-
clude in them the celebration of many Ordinances.
They are times when we may humbly expect a
larger grace, because they invite us especially to
the means of grace. This in particular is a time
for purification of every kind '. When Almighty
God was to descend upon Mount Sinai, Moses waa
told to " sanctify the people," and bid them " wash
their clothes," and to " set bounds to them round
about :" much more is this a season for " cleansing
ourselves from all defilement of the flesh and spirit,
perfecting holiness in the fear of God^;" a season
for chastened hearts and religious eyes ; for severe
thoughts, and austere resolves, and charitable deeds ;
a season for remembering what we are and what we
shall be. Let us go out to meet Him with con-
trite and expectant hearts ; and though He delays
His coming, let us watch for Him in the cold and

' Advent. ' Ex. xix. 10—12. 2 Cor. vii. 1.

14 WORSHIP, A PREPARATION, &c. [Sbbm. I.

dreariness which must one day have an end. Attend
His summons we must, at any rate, when He strips
us of the body; let us anticipate, by a voluntary
act, what will one day come on us of necessity.
Let us wait for Him solemnly, fearfully, hopefully,
patiently, obediently; let us be resigned to His
will while active in good works. Let us pray Him
ever to "remember us when He cometh in His
kingdom f to remember all our friends ; to re-
member our enemies ; and to visit us according to
His mercy here, that He may reward us according
to His righteousness hereafter.

SERMON II.

REVERENCE, A BELIEF IN GOD'S PRESENCE.

" Thine eyes shall see the Kiog in Ilis buauty : they shall
behold the land that is very far off."

Though Moses was not permitted to enter the land
of promise, he was vouchsafed a sight of it from
a distance. We too, though as yet we are not ad-
mitted to heavenly glory, yet are given to see much,
in preparation for seeing more. Christ dwells among
U8 in His Church really though invisibly, and
through its Ordinances fulfils towards us, in a true
and sufficient sense, the promise of the text. We
are even now permitted to " see the King in His
beauty," to " behold the land that is very far off."
The words of the Prophet relate to our present
state as well as to the state of saints hereafter. Of
the future glory it is said by St. John, " They shall
see His face, and HLs Name shall be in their fore-

REVERENCE, A BELIEF

heads '." And of the present, Isaiah himself speaks
in passages which may be taken in explanation of
the text ; " The glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
and all flesh shall see it together ;" and again,
" They shall see the glory of the Lord and the
excellency of our God 'K" We do not see God face
to face under the Gospel, but still, for all that, it la
true that " we know in part ;" we see, though it be
" through a glass darkly ;" — which is far more than
any but Christians are enabled to do. Baptism, by
which we become Christians, is an illuniination ;
and Christ, who is the Object of our worship, is
withal a Light to worship by.

Such a view is strange to most men ; they do not
realize the presence of Christ, nor admit the duty of
realizing it. Even those who are not without habits
of seriousness, have almost or quite forgotten the
duty. This is plain at once : for, unless they had,
they would not be so very deficient in reverence as
they are. It is scarcely too much to say that awe
and fear are at the present day all but discarded
from religion. Whole societies called Christian
make it almost a first principle to disown the duty
of reverence ; and we ourselves, to whom as children
of the Church reverence is as a special inheritance,
have very little of it, and do not feel the want of it.
Those who, in spite of themselves, are influenced by
God's holy fear, too often are ashamed of it, con-

"■]

IN GOD'S PRESENCE.

sider it even as a mark of weakness of mind, hide
their feeling as much as they can, and when ridi-
culed or censured for it cannot defend it to them-
selves on intelligible grounds. They wish indeed
to maintain reverence in their mode of speaking
and acting, in relation to sacred things, but they are
at a loss how to answer objections, or how to resist
received customs and fashions ; and at length they
begin to be suspicious and afraid of their own in-
stinctive feelings. Let us then take occasion from
the promise in the text both to describe the reli-
gious defect to which I have alluded, and to state
the remedy for it.

There are two classes of men who are deficient
in awe and fear, and, lamentable to Bay, taken
together, they go far to make up the religious
portion of the community. This is lamentable
indeed, if so it is : it is not wonderful that sinners
should live without the fear of God ; but what shall
we say of an ago or country, in which even the
more serious classes, those who live on principle,
and claim to have a judgment in religious matters,
who look forward to the ftiture, and think that heir
account stands fair, and that they are in God's
favour, when even such persons maintain, or at
least act as if they maintained, that " the spirit of
God's holy fear" is no part of religion. " If the
light that is in us he darkness, how great is that
darkness !"

These are the two classes of men who are defi-
VOL. V. c

cient in this respect: first, those who think that
they never were greatly under God's displeasure ;
next, those who think that, though they once were,
they are not at all now, for all sin has been forgiven
them ; — those on the one hand who consider that
sin is no great evil in itself, those on the other who
consider that it is no great evil in them, because
their persons are accepted in Christ for their faith's
sake.

Now it must be observed that the existence of
fear in religion does not depend on the circumstance
of our being sinners ; it is short of that. Were we
pure as the Angels, yet in His sight, one should
think, we could not but fear, before whom the
heavens are not clean, nor the Angels free from
folly. The Seraphim themselves veiled their &ces
while they cried, Glory. Even then were it true
that sin were not a great evil, or were no great evil
in U5, nevertheless the mere circumstance that
God is infinite and all-perfect is an overwhelming
thought to creatures and mortal men, and ought to
lead all persons who profess religion to profess also
rehgious fear, however natural it is for irreligious
men to disclaim the feeling.

And next let it be observed, it is no dispute about
terms. For at first sight we may be tempted to
think that the only question is whether the word
" fear " ia a good or bad word ; — that one man
makes it all one with slavish dread, and another
with godly awe and reverence ; — and that therefore

"■]

IN GOD'S PRESENCE.

tbey seem to oppose each other, when they do not,
— as if both parties agi-ced that reverence is right
and selfish terror wrong, and the only point between
them were, to whether of these two the word fear
properly belonged. This is not the case, it is a
question not of words but of things ; for these per-
sons whom I am describing; plainly consider that
state of mind wrong, which the Church Catholic has
ever prescribed and her Saints ever exemplified.

To show that this is so, I wiU in a few words
state what the two sets of opinion are to which I
allude ; and what that feult is, which, widely as
they diifer in opinion from each other, they have in
common.

The one class of persons consists of those who
think the Catholic Creed too strict, — who hold that
no certain doctrines need be beheved in order to
salvation, or at least question the necessity; who
say that it matters not what a man believes so that
his conduct is respectable and orderly, — who think
that all rites and ceremonies are mere niceties (as
they speak) and trifles, and that a man pleases God
equally by observing them or not, — who perhaps go
on to doubt whether Christ's death is strictly speak-
ing an atonement for the sin of man, — who, when
pressed, do not allow that He is strictly speaking and
literally God, — and who deny that the punishment
of the wicked is eternal. Such are the tenets, more
or less clearly apprehended and confessed, which
mark the former of the two classes of wliich I speak,
c -2

REVERENCE, A BELIEF [Serm.

The other class of men are in their formal doc-
trines widely different from the former. They consider
that, though they were by nature children of wrath,
they are now by God'g grace so fully in His favour,
that, were they to die at once, they would be cer-
tain of heaven, — they consider that God 80 abso-
lutely forgives them day by day their trespasses,
that they have nothing to answer for, nothing to
be tried upon at the Last Day, — that they have been
visited by God's grace in a manner quite distinct
from all around them, and are His children in a
sense in which others are not, and have an assur-
ance of their saving state peculiar to themselves,
and an interest iu the promises such as Baptism
does not impart ; — they profess to be thus beyond
the reach of doubt and anxiety, and they say that
they should be miserable without such a privilege,

I have alluded to these schools of religion, to
show how widely a feeling must be spread which
such contrary classes of men have in common.
Now what they agree in is this : in considering
God as simply a God of love, not of awe and reve-
rence also, — the one meaning by love benevolence,
and the other mercy ; and in consequence neither
the one nor the other regard Almighty God with
fear ; and the signs of want of fear in both the one
and the other, which I proposed to point out, are
such as the following.

For instance : — they have no scruple or misgiving
in speaking freely of Almighty God. Tliey will use

II.]

IN GOD'S PRESENCE.

His Name as familiarly and lightly, as if tliey were
opeo sinners. The one class adopts a set of words
to denote Almighty God, which remove the idea of
His personality, speaking of Him as the " Deity,"
or the " Divine Being ;" which, aa they use them,
are of all others most calculated to remove from
the mind the thought of a living and intelligent
Governor, their Saviour and their Judge. The
other class of persons going into the other extreme,
but with the same result, use freely that incommuni-
cable Name by which He has vouchsafed to denote
to us His perfections. AVhen He appeared to Moses
He disclosed His Name ; and that Name has ap-
peared so sacred to our translators of Scripture, that
they have scrupled to use it, though it occurs con-
tinually in the Old Testament, substituting the
word " Lord " out of reverence. Now the persons
in question dehght in a familiar use, in prayers and
hymns and conversation, of that Name by which
they designate Him before whom Angels tremble.
Not even our fellow-men do we freely call by their
own names, unless we are at our ease with them ;
yet sinners can bear to be familiar with the Name
by which they know the Most High has distin-
guished Himself from all creatures.

Another instance of want of fear, is the bold and
unscrupulous way in which persons speak of the
Holy Trinity and the Mystery of the Divine Nature.
Tlicy use sacred terras and r^iraa^s, should occasion
occur, in a rude and abrupt way, and discuss points

gg REVEREN'CE, A BELIEF [Serm-

of doctrine concerning the All-holy and Eternal,
even (if I may without irreverence state it) even
over their cups, perhaps arguing against them, as
if He were such a one as themselves.

Another instance of this want of fear is found in
the peremptory mamier in which men lay down what
Almighty God must do, what He cannot but do, as
tf they were masters of the whole scheme of salva-
tion, and might anticipate His high providence and
wiU.

And another is the confidence with which they
often speak of their having heen converted, par-
doned, and sanctified, as if they knew their own
state aa well as God knows it.

Another is the unwillingness so commonly felt,
to bow at the Name of Jesus, nay the impatience
exhibited towards those who do ; as if there were
nothing awtul in the idea of the Eternal God being
made man, and as if we did not suitably express our
wonder and awe at it by practising what St. Paul
has in very word prescribed.

Another instance is the careless mode in which
men speak of our Lord's earthly doings and sayings,
just as if He were a mere man. He was man
indeed, hut He was more than man : and He did
what man does, but then those deeds of His were
the deeds of God, — and we can as little separate
the deed from the Doer as our arm from our body.
But, in spite of this, numbers arc apt to use rudey
familiar, profane language, concerning their God's

IN GOD'S PRESENCE.

childliood, and youth, and ministry, though He is
their God.

And another is the familiarity with which many
persons address our Lord in prayer, applying epi-
thets to Him and adopting a strain of language
which does not beseem creatures, not to say sinners.

And another is their general mode of prayer ;
I mean, in diffuse and free language, with emphatic
and striking words, in a sort of coloured or rich
style, with pomp of manner, and an oratorical tone,
as if praying were preaching, and as if its object
were not to address Almighty God, but to impress
and affect those who beard it.

And another instance of this want of reverence
is the introduction, in speaking or writing, of serious
and solemn words, for the sake of effect, to round,
or to give dignity to, a sentence.

And another histance is irreverence in Church,
sitting instead of kneeling in prayer, or pretending
to kneel but really sitting, or lounging or indulging
in other unseemly attitudes ; and, much more, look-
ing about when prayers are going on, and observing
what others are doing.

These are some out of a number of peculiarities
which mark the religion of the day, and are instanced,
some in one class of persons, some in. another ; but
all by one or other; — and they are specimens of
what I mean when I say that the religion of this
day is destitute of fear.

Many other instances might he mentioned of

SI KEVERENCE, A BELIEF [Skbm.

very various kinds. For instance, the freedom with
■which men propose to alter God's ordinances, to
suit their own convenience, or to meet the age ;
their reliance on their private and antecedent no-
tions ahout sacred subjects ; their want of interest
and caution in inquiring what God's probable will is ;
their contempt for any view of the Sacraments which
exceeds the evidence of their senses ; and their con-
fidence in settling the order of importance in which
the distinct articles of Christian faith stand: — all
which shows that it is no question of words whether
men have fear or not, but that there u a something
they really have not, whatever name we give it.

So far I consider to be plain : — the only point
which can be debated is this, whether the feelings
which I have been describing are necessary; for
each of the two classes which I have named con-
tends that they are unnecessary ; the one decides
them inconsistent with reason, the other with the
Gospel ; the one calls them superstitious, and the
other legal or Jewish. Let us then consider, are
these feelings of fear and awe Christian feelings or
not ? A very few words will surely be sufficient to
decide the question.

I say this, then, which I think no one can
reasonably dispute. They are the class of feeOngs
we should have, yes, have in an intense degree, if
we literally had the sight of Almighty God ; there-
fore they are the class of feelings which we shall
have, if we reahze His presence. In jiroportion as

"-]

JN GOD'S PRESENCE.

we believe that He is jjresent, we shall have them ;
and not to have them, is not to realize, not to be-
lieve that He is present. If then it is a duty to
feel as though we saw Him, or to have faith, it is
a duty to have these feelings ; and if it is a sin to
be destitute of faith, it is a sin to be without them.
Let us consider this a while.

Wlio then is there to deny, that if we saw God,
wo should fear ? take the most cold and secular of
all those who explain away the Gospel ; or take
the most heated and fanatic of those who consider
it peculiarly their own; take those who tliink that
Christ has brought us nothing great, or those who
think He has brought it all to themselves, — I say,
would either party keep from fearing greatly if
they saw God? Surely it is quite a truism to
say that any creature would fear. But why would
he fear? would it be merely because he saw God,
or because he knew that God was present ? If
he shut his eyes, he would still fear, for his eyes
had conveyed to him this solemn truth ; to have
seen would be enough. But if so, does it not
follow at once, that, if men do not fear, it is
because they do not act, as they would act if
they saw Him, that is, they do not feel that He
is present ? Is it not quite certain that men would
not use Almighty God's name so freely, if they
thought He was really in hearing, uay, close beside
them when they spoke? And so of those other
instances of want of godly fear, which I mentioned,

REVERENCE, A UEUEF

[She

they one and all come from deadnesa to the presence
of God. If a man believes Him present, he will
shrink from addressing Him iamiliarly, or using
before Him unreal words, or peremptorily and on
his own judgment deciding what God's will is, or
claiming His confidence, or addressing Him in a
familiar posture of body. I say, take the man who
is most confident that he has nothing to fear from
the presence of God, and that Almighty God is at
peace with him, and place him actually before the
throne of God ; and would he have no misgivings ?
and will he dare to say that those mi8gi™gs are a
weakness, a mere irrational perturbation, which he
ought not to feel ?

This will ho seen more clearly, by considering
how differently we feel towards and speak of our
friends as present or absent Their presence is a
check upon us ; it acts as an external law, com-
pelling us to do or not do what we should not do,
or should do otherwise, but for it. This is just
what most men lack in their religion at present, —
such an external restraint arising from the con-
sciousness of God's presence. Consider, I say, how
differently we speak of a friend, however intimate,
when present or absent; consider how we feel,
should it so happen that we have begun to speak
of him as if he were not present, on finding sud-
denly that he is ; and that, though we are couscious
of nothing but what is loving and open towai-ds him.
There is a tone of voice and a manner in speaking
13

II.]

IN GOD'S PRESENCE.

about persons absent, which Tve should consider dis-
respectful, or at least inconsiderate, if they were
present. When that is the case, we are ever
thinking more or less, even though unconsciously
to ourselves, how they will take what we say, how
it will affect them, what they will say to ua or
think of us in turn. When a person is absent, we
are tempted perhaps confidently to eay what his
opinion 19 on certain points; — but should he be
present, we qualify our words ; wc hardly like to
speak at all, from the vivid consciousness that we
may be wrong, and that he is present to tell ua so.
We are very cautious of pronouncing what his
feelings are on the matter in hand, or how he is
diepoeed towards ourselves ; and in all things we
observe a deference and delicacy in our conduct
towards him. Now if we feel this towards our
fellows, what should we feel in the presence of an
Angel? and if so, what in the presence of the all-
knowing, all-searching Judge of men? What is
respect and consideration in the case of our fellows,
becomes godly fear as regards Almighty God ; and
they who do not fear Him, in one word, do not
believe that He sees and hears them. If they did,
they would cease to boast so confidently of His
favourable thoughts of them, to foretell His deal-
ings, to pronounce upon His revelations, to make
free with His Name, and to address Him fami-
liarly.

Now, in what has been said, no siccount has been

REVERENCE, A BELlEl"

taken, as I have already observed, of our being
siuncrs, a corrupt, polluted race at the best, while
lie is the All-holy God, which must surely increase
our fear and awe greatly, and not at all the less
because we have beeu so wonderfully redeemed.
Nor, again, has account been taken of another
point, on which I will add two or three words.

There is a peculiar feeling with which we regard
the dead. What does this arise from ? that he
is absent ? no ; for we do not feel the same
towards one who is merely distant ; though he be
at the other end of the earth. Is .it because in
this life we shall never see him again ? no, surely
not ; because we may be perfectly certain we shall
never see him when he goes abroad, we may know
he is to die abroad, and perhaps he does die abroad; .
but will any one say, that when the news of his
death comes, our feeling when we think of him is
not quite changed ? Surely it is the passing into
another state, which impresses itself upon us, and
makes us speak of him as we do, — I mean, with a sort
of awe. We cannot tell what he is now, — what his
relations to us, — what he knows of us. We do not un-
derstand him, — we do not see him. He is passed into
the land " that is very far off;" but it is not at all
certain that he has not some mysterious hold over us.
Thus his not being seen with our bodily eyes, while
})erchance he is present, makes the thought of
him more awful. Apply this to the subject before
us, aud you will j)crccive that there is a sense, and

II.] IN GOD'S PRESENCE. 29

a true seuae, in which the invmhle presence of God
is more awful and overpowering than if we saw it.
And so again, the presence of Christ, now that it is
inTisible, brings with it a host of high and mysteri-
ous feelings, such as nothing else can inspire. The
thought of our Saviour, absent, yet present, is like
that of a friend taken from us, but, as it were, in
dream returned to us, though in this case not in
dream, but in reality and truth. When He was go-
ing away He said to His disciples, " I will see you
again, and your heart shall rejoice." Yet He had
at another time said, " The days will come when
the Bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then
shall they fast in those days." See what an ap-
parent contradiction, such as attends the putting
any high feeling into human language ; they were
to joy because Christ was come, and yet weep
because He was away; that is, to have a feeling
so refined, so strange and new, that nothing could
be said of it, but that it combined in one all that
was sweet and soothing in contrary human feelings,
as commonly experienced. As some precious fruits
of the earth are said to taste like all others at once,
not as not being really distinct from all others, but
as being thus best described, when we would come
as near the truth as we can, so the state of mind,
which they are in, who believe that the Son of God
is here, yet away, — is at the right hand of God, yet
in His very flesh and blood among us, — is present,
though invisible, — is one of both joy and pain, or

REVERENCE, A BELIEF

[S..

rather one far above either; a feeling of awe,
wonder, and praise, which cannot bo more suitably
expressed than by the Scripture word fear ; or by
holy Job's words, though he spoke in grief, and
not as being possessed of a blessing. " Behold I
go forward, but He is not there; and backward,
but I cannot perceive Him : on the left Jiand,
where He doth work, but I cannot behold Him :
He hideth Himself on the right hand, that I can-
not see Him. Therefore am I troubled at His
presence ; when I consider, I am alraid of Him',"

To conclude. Enough has been said now to
show that godly fear must be a duty, if to live as
in God's sight is a duty, — must be a privilege of the
Gospel, if the spiritual sight of " the King in His
beauty" be one of its privileges. Fear follows from
faith necessarily, as would be plain, even though
there were not a text in the Bible saying so. But
in fact, as it is scarcely needful to say. Scripture
abounds in precepts to fear God. Such are the
words of the Wise Man : " The fear of the Lord
is the beginning of knowledge," Such again is
the third commandment, in which we are solemnly
bidden not to take God's Name in vain. Such
the declaration of the prophet Habakkuk, who
beginning by declaring " The just shall live by hig
faith," ends by saying, " The Lord is in His Holy
Temple ; let the whole earth keep silence before

II.]

IN GOD'S PRESENCE.

Him." Such is St. Paul's, who, in like manner,
after having discoursed at length upon faith as " the
realizing of things hoped for, the evidence of things
not seen," adds : " Let us have grace, whereby we
may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly
fear." Such St. Luke's account of the Church
militant on earth, that " walking in the fear of
the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost," it
was " multiplied." Such St. John's account of the
Church triumphant in heaven, " Who shall not
fear Thee," they eay, " O Lord, and glorify Thy
Name; for Thou only art Holy?" Such the feel-
ing recorded of the three Apostles on the Mount
of Transfiguration, who, when they heard God's
voice, " fell on their face, and were sore afraid '."
And now, if this be so, can any thing be clearer
than that the want of fear is nothing else but want
of faith, and that in consequence we in this age are
approaching in religious temper that evil day of
which it is said, " When the Son of man coraeth,
shall He find faith on the earth '?" Is it wonderful
that we have no fear in our words and mutual inter-
course when we exercise no acts of faith ? What,
you will ask, are acts of faith ? Such as these, — to
come often to prayer, is an act of faith ; to kneel
down instead of sitting, is an act of faith ; to strive
to attend to your prayers, is an act of faith; to

' Prov. i. 7. Hab. ii. 4. 20. Heb. xii. 28. Acts ix. 31.
Rev. XV. 4. Matt. xvii. 6.
' Luke Kviii. 8.

REVERENCE, A BELIEF. &c.

[SB-

behave in God's House otherwise than you would
in a common room, is an act of faith ; to come to
it on week-days as well as Sundays, is an act of
feith ; to come often to the niofit Holy Sacrament,
is an act of faith ; and to be still and reverent
during that sacred service, is an act of faith. These
are all acts of faith, because they all are acts such
as we should perform, if we saw and heard Him
who is present, though with our bodily eyes we see
and hear Him not. But, "blessed are they who
have not seen, and yet have believed ;" for, be
sure, if we thus act, we shall, through God's grace,
be gradually endued with the spirit of Hie holy
fear. We shall in time, in our mode of talking
and acting, in our religious services and our daily
conduct, manifest, not with constraint and effort,
but spontaneously and uaturally, that we fear Him
while we love Him.

SERMON III.

UNREAL WORDS.

" Tliine eyes sliiill see the King in [lis beauty : tliou slialt
behold the land tliat is very far off,"

The Pro]jhet tells us that under the Gospel cove-
nant God's servant will have the ]>riTilege of aeeiiig
those heavenly sights which were but shadowed out
in the Law, Before Christ came was the time of
shadows ; but when He came, He brought truth as
well as grace ; and as He who is the Truth has
come to us, ho does He in return require that we
should be true and sincere in all our dealings with
Him. To be true and sincere is really to see with
our minds those great wonders which He has wrought
in order that we might see them. When God
opened the eyes of the ass on which Balaam rode,
she saw the Angel and acted upon the sight. When
He opened tlie eyes of the young man, Blisha's ser-

VOL. V. D

UNREAL WORDS.

[Sbi

vant, he too saw the chariots and horses of fire, and
took comfort. And in like manner, Christians are now
under the protection of a Divine Presence, and that
more wonderful than any which was vouchsafed of
old time. God revealed Himeelf visibly to Jacob,
to Job, to Moses, to Joshua, and to Isaiah ; to us
He reveals Himself not visibly, but more wonder-
fully and truly ; not Mithout the co-operation of our
own will, but upon our faith, and for that very
reason more truly ; for faith is the special means of
gaining spiritual blessings. Hence St. Paul prays
for the Ephesians " that Christ may dwell in their
hearts by faith," and that " the eyes of their under-
standing may be enlightened." And St. John de-
clares that "the Son of God hath given us an under-
standing, that we may know Him that is true : and
we are in Him that is true, even in His Son Jesus
Christ'."

"We are no longer then in the region of shadows:
we have the true Saviour set before us, the true
reward, and the true means of spiritual renewal. We
know the true state of the soul by nature and by
grace, the evil of sin, the consequences of sinning,
the way of pleasing God, and the motives to act
upon. God has revealed Himself clearly to us ; He
[ lias " destroyed the face of the covering cast over
all people, and the vail that is spread over all
nations." " The darkness is past, and the True Light

' Ephes

1 John

III.]

UNREAL WORDS.

now ehinetli'." And therefore, I eay. He calla upon
us in turn to " walk in the light as He is in the
light." The Pharisees might have this excuse in
their hypocrisy, that the plain truth had not been
revealed to them ; wo haTe not even this poor
reason for insincerity. We have no opportunity of
mistaking one thing for another: the promise is
expressly made to us that " our teachers shall not
be removed into a corner any more, but our eyes
sliall see our teachers ;" that " the eyes of them
that see shall not be dim ;" that every thing shall
be called by its right name ; that " the vile per-
son shall be no more called liberal, nor the churl
said to be bountiful' ;" in a word, as the text speaks,
that " our eyes shall see the King in His beauty ;
we shall behold the land that is very far off." Our
professions, our creed, our prayers, our dealings,
our conversation, our arguments, our teaching, must
henceforth be sincere, or, to use an expressive word,
must be real. What St. Paul says of himself and his
fellow-labourers, that they wore true because Christ
is true, applies to all Christians ; " Our rejoicing is
this, the testimony of our conscience, that in sim-
plicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom,
but by the grace of God, we have had our conver-
sation in the world, and more abundantly to you-

sv. 7.

I Jobnii.

36 UNREAL WORDS. [Sbbm.

■warde. . . . The thing that I purpose, do I purpose
according to the flesh, that with me there should
be yea, yea, and nay, nay? But, as God is true, our
■word toward you was not yea and nay. For the
Son of God, Jesus Christ, . . . was not yea and nay,
but in Him was yea. For all the promises of God
in Him are yea, and in Him amen, imto the glory
of God by us'."

And yet, it need scarcely be said, nothing is so
rare as honesty and singleness of mind ; so much
BO, that a person who is really honest, is already
perfect. Insincerity was an evil which sprang up
within the Church from the first; Ananias and
Simon were not open opposers of the Apostles, but
false brethren. And, as foreseeing what was to be,
our Saviour is remarkable in His ministry for no-
thing more, than the earnestness of the dissuasives
which He addressed to those who came to Him, of
taking up religion lightly, or of making promises
which they were likely to break.

Thus He, " the True Light, which lighteth every
man that cometh into the world," " the Amen, the
faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the
creation of God'," said to the young Ruler, who
lightly called Him " Good Master," " Why callest
thou Me good ?" as bidding him weigh his words ;
and then abruptly told him, " One thing thou

' 2 Cor. i. 12—20. ' John i. 9. Rev. iii. U.

III.]

UNREAL WORDS.

laekest." When a certain man professed that he
would follow Him whithersoever He went, He did
not respond to him, but said, " The foxea have
holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the
Son of man hath not where to lay His head."
When St. Peter said with all hia heart in the name
of himself and brethren, " To whom shall we go ?
Tliou hast the words of eternal life," He answered
pointedly, " Have not I chosen you twelve, and one
of you is a devil ?" as if He said, " Answer for
yourself." When the two Apostles professed their
desire to cast their lot with Him, He asked whether
they could " drink of His cup and be baptized with
His baptism." And when " there went great mul-
titudes with Him," He turned and said, that unless
a man hated relations, friends, and self, he could
not be His disciple. And then He proceeded to
warn all men to " count the cost " ere they followed
Him. Such is the merciful severity with which He
repels us that He may gain us more truly. And
what He thinks of those who, after coming to Hira,
relapse into a hoJlow and hypocritical profession, we
learn from His language towards the Laodiceans ;
" I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor
hot : I would thou wert cold or hot. So then,
because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor
hot, I will cast thee out of My mouth'."

' Mark x. 17—21. Matt. vjii. 20. Jolin vi. 68—70. Matt.
XX. 22. Luke siv. 25—28. Rev. iii. 15, 16.

UNREAL WORDS.

[Sb.

We have a striking instance of the same conduct
on the part of that ancient Saint who prefigured our
Lord in name and office, Joshua, the captain of the
chosen people in entering Canaan. When they had
at length taken possession of that land which Moses
and their fathers had seen " very far off," they said
to him, "God forbid that we should forsake the Lord,
and serve other gods. We will . . . serve the Lord,
for He is our God." He made answer, " Ye cannot
serve the Lord ; for He is a holy God ; He is a
jealous God ; He will not forgive your transgressions
nor your sins'." Not as if he would hinder them
from obeying, but to sober them in professing.
How does His answer remind us of St. Paul's still
more awful words, about the impossibility of renewal
after utterly falling away !

And what is said of profession of disdpleship
applies undoubtedly in its degree to all profession.
To make professions is to play with edge tools,
unless we attend to what we arc saying. Words
have a meaning whether we mean that meaning or
not ; and they are imputed to us in their real mean-
ing, when our not meaning it is our own fault. He
who takes God's name in vain, is not counted guilt-
less because he means nothing by it, — he cannot
frame a language for himself; and they who make
professions, of whatever kind, are heard in the sense

III.]

UNBIEAL WORDS.

of those professions, and are not excused because
they themselves attach no sense to them. " By thy
words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou
shalt be condemned'."

Now this consideration needs especially to be
pressed upon Christians at this day ; for this is espe-
cially a day of professions. You will answer in my
own words, that all ages have been ages of profession.
So they have been, in one way or other, but this
day in its own especial sense : — because this is
especially a day of individual profession. This is a
day in which there is (rightly or wrongly) so much
of private judgment, so much of separation and dif-
ference, so much of preaching and teaching, so much
of authorship, that it involves individual profession,
responsibility, and recompense in a way peculiarly
its own. It will not then be out of place if, in con-
nection witli the text, we consider some of the many
ways in which persons, whether in this age or in
another, make unreal professions, or seeing see not,
and hearing hear not, and speak without mastering,
or trying to master, their words. This I will attempt
to do at some length, and in matters of detail, which
are not the less important because they are minute.

Of course it is very common in all matters, not
only in religion, to speak in an unreal way ; viz., when
we speak on a subject with which our minds are not

UNREAL WORDS.

[Sk.

familiar. If you were to hear a person who knew
nothing about military matters, giving directions
how soldiers on service should conduct themselves,
or how their food and lodging, or their marching
was to be diily arranged, you would be sure that his
mistakes would be such as to excite the ridicule
and contempt of men experienced in warfare. If
a foreigner were to come to one of our cities, and
without hesitation offer plans for the supply of our
markets, or the management of our police, it is so
certain that he would expose himself, that the very
attempt would argue a great want of good sense
aud modesty. We should feel that he did not
understand us, and that when he spoke about us, he
would be using words without meaning. If a dim-
sighted man were to attempt to decide questions of
proportion aud colour, or a man without ear to judge
of musical compositions, we should feel that he
spoke on and from general principles, on fancy, or
by deduction and argument, not from a real appre-
hension of the matters which he discussed. His
remarks would be theoretical and unreal.

This unsubstantial way of speaking is instanced
in the case of persons who fall into any ]iew com-
pany, among strange faces and amid novel occur-
rences. They sometimes form amiable judgments
of men and things, sometimes the reverse, — but
whichever their judgments be, they are to those who
know the men and the things strangely unreal and

in.]

UNREAL WORDS.

distorted. They feel revereiice wliere they should
not ; they discern slights where none were intended ;
they discover meaning in events which have none ;
they fancy motives ; they misinterpret manner ; they
mistake character ; and they form generalizations
and comhinations which exist only in their own
minds.

Again, persons who have not attended to the
subject of morals, or to politics, or to matters eccle-
siastical, or to theology, do not know the relative
value of questions which they meet with in one or
other of these departments. They do not under-
stand the difference between one point and another.
The one and the other are the same to them.
They look at them as infants gaze at the objects
which meet their eyes, in a vague unapprehensive
way, as if not knowing whether a thing is a hundred
miles off or close at hand, whether great or small,
hard or soft. They have no means of judging, no
standard to measure by, — and they give judgment
at random, saying yea or nay on very deep ques-
tions, according as their fancy is struck at the
moment, or as some clever or specious argument
happens to come across them. Consequently they
are inconsistent; say one thing one day, another
the next ; — and if they must act, act in the dark ;
or if they can help acting, do not act ; or if they
act freely, act from some other reason, not avowed.
All this is to be unreal.

Again, there cannot be a more apjfosite specimen

4« UNREAL WORDS. [Sbhm.

of unreality than the way iu which judgments are
commonly formed upon imi>ortant queations by the
mass of the commnnity. Opinions are continnally
given in the world on matters, about which they who
offer them are as little qnalified to judge as blind
men about colours, and that because they have never
exercised their minds upon the points in question.
This is a day in which all men are obliged to have
an opinion on all questions political, social, and
religious, because they have in some way or other
an influence upon the decision ; yet the multitude
are for the most part absolutely without capacity to
take their part in it. In saying this, I am far from
meaning that this need be so, — I am far from deny-
ing that there is such a thing as plain good sense,
or (what is better) religious sense, which will see
its way through very intricate matters, or that this
is in fact sometimes exerted in the community at
large on certain great questions ; but at the same
time this practical sense is so far from being exerted
on the vast mass of questions which in this day
come before the public, that (as all persons who
attempt to gain the influence of the people on their
side know well) their opinions must be purchased by
interesting their prejudices or fears in their favour ;
— not by presenting a question in its real and true
substance, but by adroitly colouring it, or selecting
out of it some particular point which may be ex-
aggerated, and dressed up, and be made the means
of working on popular feelings. And thus govern-
13

III.] UNREAL WORDS. 43

ment and the art of government becoraes, as much
as popular religion, hollow and unsound.

And hence it is that the popular voice is so
changeable. One man or measure is the idol of
the people to-day, another to-morrow. Tliey have
never got beyond accepting shadows for things.

What is instanced in the mass is instanced also
in various ways in the individuals, and in points of
detail. For instance, men are set perhaps on being
eloquent speakers. They use great words and imi-
tate the sentences of others ; and they fancy that those
whom they imitate had as little meaning as them-
selves, or they perhaps contrive to think that they
themselves have a meaning adequate to their words.

Another sort of unreality, or voluntary profession
of what is above us, is instanced in the conduct of
those who suddenly come into power or place.
They affect a manner such as they think the office
requires, but which is beyoJid them, and therefore
unbecoming. They wish to act with dignity, and
they cease to be themselves.

And so again, to take a different case, many men,
when come near persons in distress and wish to
show sympathy, often condole in a very unreal way.
I am not altogether laying this to their fault ; for it
is very difficult to know what to do, when on the
one hand we cannot realize to ourselves the sorrow,
yet withal wish to be kind to those who feel it. A
tone of grief seems necessary, yet (if so be) cannot
under our circumstances be genuine. Yet even

UNREAL WORDS.

[Szi

here surely there is a true way, if we could fiud it,
by which pretence may be avoided, and yet respect
and consideration shown.

And ill like manner as regards religious emo-
tions. Persona are aware from the mere force of
the doctrines of which the Gospel consists, that they
ought to be variously affected, and deeply and in-
tensely too, in consequence of them. The doctrines
of original and actual sin, of Christ's Divinity and
Atonement, and of Holy Baptism, are so vast that
no one can realize them without very complicated
and profound feelings. Natural reason tells a man
this, and that if he simply and genuinely believes
them, he must have these feelings ; and he professes
to believe these doctrines absolutely, and therefore
he professes the correspondent feelings. But in truth
he does not really (if so be) believe them absolutely,
because such absolute belief is the work of long
time, and therefore his profession of feeling outruns
the real inward existence of feeling, or he becomes
unreal. Let us never lose sight of two truths, —
that we ought to have onr hearts penetrated with
the love of Christ and full of self-renunciation ; but
that if they be not, professing that they are does
not make them so.

Again, to take a more serious instance of the
same fault, some persons pray, not as sinners ad-
dressing their God, not as tlie publicim smiting on
his breast, and saying, " God be merciful to me a
sinner," but in such a way as they conceive to be

in.]

UNREAL WORDS.

becoming undej- circumstances like these, in a way
becoming such a contrast. They are conscious and
reflect on what they are about, and instead of ac-
tually approaching (as it were) the mercy-seat, they
are filled with the thought that God is great, and
man His creature, God on high and man on earth,
and that they are engaged in a high and solemn
service, and that they ought to rise up to its sub-
lime and momentous character.

Another still more common form of the same
fault, yet without any definite pretence or effort, ie
the mode in which people speak of the shortness and
vanity of life, the certainty of death, and the joys of
heaven. They have commonplaces in their mouths,,
which they bring forth upon occasions for the good
of others, or to console them, or as a proper and
becoming attention towards them. Thus they speak
to clergymen in a professedly serious way, making
remarks true and sound, and in themselves deep,
yet unmeaning in their mouths ; or they give advice
to children or young men ; or perhaps in low spirits
or sickness they are led to speak in a religious strain
as if spontaneously. Or when they fall into sin,
they speak of man being frail, of the deceitfiilness
of the human heart, of God's mercy, and so on r
— all these great words, heaven, hell, judgment,
mercy, repentance, works, the world that now ia,
the world to come, being little more than " lifeless
sounds, whether of pipe or harp," in their mouths

UNREAL WORDS.

[Sm

and ears, as the " very lovely song of one that bath
a pleasant voice and can play well on an instru-
ment," — as the proprieties of conversation, or the
civilities of good breeding.

I am speaking of the conduct of the world at
large, called Christian ; but what has been said
applies, and necessarily, to the case of a number of
well-disposed or even religious men, I mean, that
before men come to know the realities of human
life, it is not wonderful that their view of religion
should bo unreal. Young people who have never
known sorrow or anxiety, or the sacrifices which
conscientiousness involves, want commonly that
depth and seriousness of character, which sorrow
only and anxiety and self-sacrifice can give. I do
not notice this as a fault, but as a plain fact, which
may often be seen, and which it is well to bear in
mind. This is the legitimate use of this world, to
make us seek for another. It does its part when
it repels us and disgusts us and drives us elsewhere.
Experience of it gives experience of that which is
its antidote, in the case of religious minds ; and
we become real in our view of what is spiritual by
the contact of things temporal and earthly. And
much more are men unreal when they have some
secret motive urging them a different way from
religion, and their professions therefore are forced
into an unnatural course in order to subserve their
secret motive. When men do not like the conclu-

UNREAL WORDS.

Edons to which their principles lead, or the precepts
which Scripture contains, they are not wanting in
ingenuity to bhmt their force. They can frame
some theory, or dress up certain objections, to defend
themselves withal; a theory or objections which it
is difficult to refute perhaps, but which any rightly-
ordered mind, nay, any common bystander, perceives
to be unnatural and insincere.

What has been here noticed of individuals,
takes place even in the case of whole Churches, at
times when love has waxed cold and faith failed.
The whole system of the Church, its discipline and
ritual, are all in their origin the spontaneous and
exuberant fruit of the real principle of spiritual
religion in the hearts of its members. The invisi-
ble Church has developed itself into the Church
visible, and its outward rites and forms are nou-
rished and animated by the living power which
dwells within it. Thus every part of it is real, down
to the minutest details. But when the seductions
of the world and the lusts of the flesh have eaten
out this divine inward life, what is the outward
Church but a hollowness and a mockery, like the
whited sepulchres of which our Lord speaks, a
memorial of what was and is not ? and though we
trust that the Church is no where thus utterly
deserted by the Spirit of truth, at least according
to God's ordinary providences, yet may we not
say that in proportion as it approaches to this

UNREAL WORDS.

[Se*

deadness, the grace of its ordinances, thougli not
forfeited, at least flows in but a scanty or uncertaiTi
stream?

And lastly, if this unreality may steal over the
Church itself, which is in its very essence a prac-
tical institution, much more is it found in the
philosophies and literature of men. Literature is
almost in its essence unreal ; for it is the exhibi-
tion of thought disjoined from practice. Its very
home is supposed to be ease and retirement, and
when it does more than speak or write, it is ac-
cused of transgressing its bounds. This indeed con-
stitutes what is considered its true dignity and
honour, viz. its abstraction from the actual afiairs of
life ; its security from the world's currents and
vicissitudes ; its saying without doing. A man of
literature is considered to preserve his dignity by
doing nothing, and wheu he proceeds forward into
action, he is thought to lose his position as if he
were degrading his calling by enthusiasm, and be-
coming a politician or a partisan. Hence mere hte-
rary men are able to say strong things against the
opinions of their age, whether reHgious or political,
without offence ; because no one thinks they mean
any thing by them. They are not expected to go
forward to act upon them, and mere words hurt
no one.

Such are some of the more common or more ex-

UNREAL WORDS.

tended specimens of profession without action, or of
speaking without really seeing and feeling. In in-
stancing which, let it be observed, I do not mean
to say that such profession, as has been described,
is always culpable and wrong ; indeed I have im-
plied the contrary throughout. It is often a mis-
fortune. It takes a long time really to feel and
understand things as they are ; we learn to do so
only gradually. Profession beyond our feelings is
only a fault when we might help it; — when either
we speak when we need not speak, or do not feel
when we might have felt. Hard insensible hearts,
ready and thoughtless talkers, these are they whoso
unreality, as I have termed it, is a sin ; it is the sin
of every one of us, in proportion as our hearts are
cold, or our tongues excessive.

But the mere fact of onr saying more than we
feel, is not necessarily sinful. St. Peter did not rise
up to the full meaning of his confession, "Thou
art the Christ," yet he was pronounced blessed.
St. James and St. John said, "We are able," with-
out clear apprehension, yet without offence. We
ever promise things greater than we master, and
we wait on God to enable us to perform them.
Our promising involves a prayer for light and
strength. And so again, we all say the Creed,
but who comprehends it fully? All we can hope
is that we are in the way to understand it ; that
we partly understand it ; that we desire, pray, and
strive to underRtand it more and more. Our creed

VOL. V. E

UNREAL WORDS.

[Sat

becomes a sort of prayer. Persona are culpably
unreal in their way of speaking, not when they say
more than they feel, but when they say things dif-
ferent from what they feel. A miser praising alms-
giying, or a coward giving rules for. courage, is
unreal; but it is not unreal for the less to dis-
course about the greater, for the liberal to descant
upon munificence, or the generous to praise the
noble-minded, or the self-denying to use the lan-
guage of the austere, or the confessor to exhort
to martyrdom.

What I have been saying comes to tliis : — be in
earnest, and you mil speak of religion where, and
when, and how you should ; aim at things, and your
words will be right without aiming. There are teu
thousand ways of looking at this world, but only
one right one. The man of pleasure has his way,
the man of gain his, and the man of intellect his.
Poor men and rich men, governors and governed,
prosperous and discontented, learned and unlearned,
each has his own way of looking at the things which
come before him, and each has a wrong way. There
is but one right way ; it is the way God looks at
the world. Aim at looking at it in God's way.
Aim at seeing things as God sees them. Aim at
forming judgments about persons, events, ranks,
fortunes, changes, objects, such as God forms. Aim
at looking at this lite as God looks at it. Aim at
looking at the life to come, and the world unseen,
as God does. Aim at "seeing the King in His

UNREAL WORDS.

beauty." All things that we see are but shadows
to ua and deliiaious, unless we enter into what they
really mean.

It is not an easy thing to learn that new language
which Christ has brought us. He has interpreted
all things for us in a new way ; He has brought ua
a religion which sheds a new light on all that
happens. Try to learn this language. Do not get
it by rote, or speak it as a thing of course. Try
to understand what you say. Time is short, eternity
is long ; God is great, man is weak ; he stands be-
tween heaven and hell ; Christ is hia Saviour.
Christ baa suffered for hini. The Holy Ghoat
sanctifies him ; repentance purifies him, faith justi-
fies, works aave. These are solemn truths, which
need not be actually spoken, except in the way
of creed or of teaching ; but which must be laid
up in the heart. That a thing is tnie, is no reason
that it should be said, but that it should be done ;
that it should be acted upon ; that it should be
made our own inwardly.

Let us avoid talking of whatever kind ; whether
mere empty talking, or censorious talking, or idle
profession, or descanting upon gospel doctrines, or
fine philosophical theories, or rich and eloquent
language. Let us guard against frivolity, love of
display, love of being talked about, love of sin-
gularity, love of seeming original. Let us aim
at meaning what we say, and saying what we
mean; let us aim at knowing when we under-

52 UNREAL WORDS. [Serm. III.

Stand a truth, and when we do not. When we
do not, let us take it on faith, and let us profess
to do so. Let us receive the truth in reverence,
and pray God to give us a good will, and divine
light, and spiritual strength, that it may bear fruit
within us.

SERMON IV.

SHRINKING FROM CHRISrS COMING.

" Thine eyes shall see the King in His beauty ; they shall
behold the land that is very far oif."

Before Christ came, the faithful remnant of Israel
was consoled with the promise that " their eyes
should see" Him, who was to be their " salvation."
" Unto you that fear My Name shall the Sun of
Righteousness arise with healing in His wings."
Yet it is observable that the prophecy, though
cheering and encouraging, tad with it something
of an awful character too. First, it was said,
"The Lord whom ye seek, shall suddenly come
to His Temple, even the messenger of the Covenant
whom ye delight in." Yet it is soon added, " But
who may abide the day of His coming ? and who
shall stand when He appeareth ? for He is like a
refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap'."

' Mal.iv. -2; iii. 1,2.

SHRINKrNG FROM

[Ses

The same mixture of fear with comfort is found
in the Disciples after His Resurrection. The wo-
men departed from the sepulchre " with fear and
great joy." They " trembled and were amazed :
neither said they any thing to any man, for they
were afraid." The Apostles " were terrified and
affiighted, and supposed that they had seen a
spirit." "They believed not for joy, and won-
dered." And our Lord said to them, "Why are
ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your
hearts ?" On another occasion, " None of the dis-
ciples duret ask Him, Who art Thou ? knowing
that it was the Lord '." It might be from slow-
ness to believe, or from misconception, or from the
mere perplexity of amazeuient, but So it Was ; they
exulted and they were awed.

Still more remarkable is the account of onr
Lord's appearance to St. John in the book of
Revelations ; more remarkable because St. John
had no doubt or perplexity ; Christ bad ascended ;
the Apostle had received the gift of the Holy
Ghost ; yet he " fell at His feet as dead."

This reflection leads us on to a parallel thought
concerning the state and prospects of all Christians
in every age. We too are looking-out for Christ's
ooming, — we are bid look-out, — we are bid pray for
it ; and yet it is to be a time of judgment. It is to

. 37, 38. Julin

ivo

CHRIST'S COMING.

be the deliverance of all Saints from sin and sorrow
forever; — yet they, every one of tliem, must un-
dergo an awful trial. How then can any one look
forward to it with joy, not knowing (for no one
knows) the certainty of his own salvation? And
the difficulty is increased when we come to pray
for it, — to pray for its coming soon : how can we
pray that Christ would come, that the day of judg-
ment would hasten, that His kingdom would come,
that His coming may be at once, — may come on us
this day or to-morrow, when by so coming He would
be shortening the time of our present life, and cut
off those precious years given us for conversion,
amendment, repentance, and sanctification ? Is
there not an inconsistency in professing to wish
our Judge already come, when we do not feel
ourselves ready for Him ? In what sense can we
really and heartily pray that He would cut short
the time, when our consciences tell us that, even
were our life longest, we should have much to do
in a few years?

I do not deny that there is some difficulty in the
question, but surely not more so than there is on
every side of us in religious matters. Religion has
(as it were) its very life, in what are paradoxes and
contradictions in the eye of reason. It is a seem-
ing inconsistency how we can pray for Christ's
coming, yet wish time to "work out our salvation,"
and " make our calling and election sure." It was
a seeming contradiction, how good men were to de-

SHRINKING FROM

tS>i

sire His first coming, yet be unable to abide it; how
the Apoatlea feared, yet rejoiced after Ilis resur-
rection. And so it is a paradox how the Chrigtian
should in all things be sorrowfiil jet always re-
joicing, and dying yet living, and having nothing yet
possessing all things. Such seeming contradictions
arise from the want of Jepth in our minds to master
the whole truth. We have not eyes keen enough
to follow out the lines of God's providence and will,
which meet at length, though at first sight they seem
parallel.

I will now try to explain how these opposite
duties of fearing yet piajing to have the sight of
Christ are not necessarily inconsistent with each
other. Why we should fear it, is not strange. Surely
when a man gets himself steadily to contemplate a
state of things beyond this life, he is in the way to
be overpowered by the thoughts which throng upon
him. How dreadful to the imagination is every
scene of that unknown hereafter ! This life indeed
is full of dangers and pains, but we know what they
are like ; we do not know what shall be in the
world to come. " Lord, whither goest Thou ?" said
the Apostles ; " we know not whither Thou goest."
Supposing a man told that he shoiJd suddenly be
carried off to some unknown globe in the heavens,
— this is the kind of trouble in its least fearful
shape, which the future presents, when dwelt upon.
And still more trying is the peculiar prospect which
presents itself of Christ's coming in judgment.

IV.]

CHRISrS COMING.

What a prospect, to be judged for all our doings by
an UDerring Judge ! Try to trace back the history of
yoiu- life in memory, and fancy every part of it cou-
tessed by you in words, put into words before some
intimate friend, how great would be your shame !
but how gladly would you in that day resign your-
self to a disclosure to a fellow-sinner, how gladly a
disclosure to a world of sinners, compared with the
presence of an All-holy, All-seeing Creator with His
eyes upon you, " beholding you," aa the gospel
speaks of Him in the days of His flesh, — and one
deed of evil after another told forth, while all your
best actions and best qualities fade away and become
as discoloured and unsightly as if there were nothing
good in them ; aad you the while uncertain how the
decision shall he. I do not presume to say that all
this will happen in detail ; but this is what is meant
by a judgment in the earthly sense of the word, and
that awful trial is surely not called a judgment for
uothing, but that we may gain some ideas from it.
Think of all this, and you will not deny that the
thought of standing before Christ is enough to
make us tremble. And yet His presence is held
out to us by Himself as the greatest of goods;
all Christians are bound to pray for it, to pray for
its hastening ; to pray that we may speedily look
on Him whom none can see " without holiness,"
none but " the pure in heart ;' — and now the ques-
tion is. How can we pray for it with sincerity ?
I. Now first, though we could not at all reconcile

fig SHRINKING FROM [Sbbm.

our feelings about ourselves with the command
given us, still it is our duty to obey tbe latter on
faith. If Abraham could lift uji his knife to slay
his son, we may well so far subdue our fears as to
pray for what nevertheless is terrible. Job said,
*' Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him."
Under all circumstances surely, we may calmly re-
sign ourselves into His hands. Can we suppose that
He would deceive us ? deal unkindly or hardly with
UB ? Can He make use of us, if I may so say, against
ourselves ? Let us not so think of the most mercifiil
Lord. Let us do what He bids, and leave the rest
to Him. Thus, I say, we might reason with our-
selves, if nothing else could be said.

9. But nest, I observe, that when we pray for
the coming of Christ, we do but pray in the Church's
words, that He would " accomplish the numher of Hjb
elect and would hasten His kingdom." That is, we
do not pray that He would cut short the world, but,
80 to express myself, that He would make time go
quicker, and the wheels of His chariot speed on.
Before He comes, a certain space must be gone
over ; all the Saints must be gathered in ; and each
Saint must be matured. Not a grain must fall to
the ground ; not an ear of com must lose its due
rain and sunshine. All we pray is, that He would
please to crowd all this into a short space of time;
that He would " finish the work and cut it short in
righteousness," and " make a short work upon the
earth;" that He would accomplish, — not curtail, but
13

IV.]

CHRIST'S COMING.

fulfil, — the circle of his Saints, and hasten the age
to conie without disordering tliis. Indeed it cannot
be otherwise. All God's works are in place and sea-
son ; they are all complete. As, in nature, the struc-
ture of its minutest portions is wrought out to per-
fection, and an insect is as wonderful as Leviathan ;
80, when in His providences He seems to hurry, He
still keeps time, and moves upon the deep harmonies
of truth and love. When then we pray that He
would come, we pray also that we may be ready ;
that all things may converge and meet in Him;
that He may draw us while He draws near ua, and
make us the holier the closer He comes. We pray
that we may not fear that which at present we justly
do fear ; " that when He shall appear, we may have
confidence, and not be ashamed before Him at His
coming'." He can condense into an hour a life of
trial. He who frames the worlds in a moment, and
creates generations by the breath of His mouth, and
melts, and hardens, and deluges, and dries up the solid
rocks in a day, and makes bones to live, grow, and
die, and buries them in the earth, and changes them
into stone, apart from time and at His mere will,
more wondrously can He deal with the world of
spirits, who are never subject to the accidents of
matter. He can by one keen pang of agony punish
the earthly soul, or by one temptation justify it, or
by one vision glorify it. Adam fell in a moment ;

Abraham was justified when be seized the knife ;
Moses lost Canaan for a word ; David said, " I have
sinned," and was forgiven ; Solomon gained wiadom
in a dream ; Peter made one confession, and receiyed
the keys ; our Lord baffled Satan in three sentences ;
He redeemed us in the course of a day ; He regene-
rates us by a form of words. We know not hoip
" fearfully and wonderfully" our souls " are made."
To men in sleep, in drowning, or in excitement,
moments are as years. They suddenly become other
men, nature or grace dispensing with time.

3. But again, you say, How can I pray to see
Christ, who am so unclean ? You say well that you
are unclean. But in what time do you propose to
become otherwise ? Do you expect in this life ever
to be clean ? Yes, in one sense, by the presence
of the Holy Ghost within you ; but that presence
we trust you have now. But if by " clean," you
mean free from that infection of nature, the least
drop of which is sufficient to dishonour all your ser-
vices, clean you never will be till yon have paid the
debt of sin, and lose that body which Adam has
begotten. Be sure that the longer you live, and the
holier you become, you will only perceive that
misery more clearly. The less of it you have, the
more it will oppress you ; its full draught does but
stmi and stupify you ; as you come to yourself, your
misery begins. The more your soul becomes one
with Him who deigns to dwell within it, the more
it sees with His eyes. You dare not pray for His

CHRIST'S COMING,

presence now ; — would you pray for it had you lived
Methuselah's years ? I trow not. You will never
be good enough to desire it ; no one in the whole
Church prays for it except on conditions implied.
To the end of the longest life you are still a beginner.
What Christ asks of you is not sinlessness, hut dili-
gence. Had you lived teu times your present age,
ten times more service would be required of you.
Every day you live longer, more will be requii-ed.
If He were to come to-day, you would be judged
up to to-day. Did He come to-morrow, you would
be judged up to to-morrow. Were it put off a year,
you will have a year more to answer for. You
cannot elude your destiny, you cannot get rid of
your talent; you are to answer for your oppor-
tunities, whatever they may be, not more nor less.
You caunot be profitable to Him even with the
longest life, you can show faith and love in an hour.
True it is, if yon have turned from Him, and served
sin, and in proportion as you have done this, you
have a great work before you, — to undo what you
liave done. If you have given years to Satan, you
have a double duty, to repent as well as to work ;
but even then you may pray without dread; for in
praying for His presence you still are praying, as I
have said, to be ready for it.

4. But once more. You ask, how you can make
up your mind to stand before your Lord and God;
I ask iu turn, how do you bring yourself to come
before Him now day by day? — for what is this but

SHRINKING FROM

[SB.

meeting Him ? Consider what It is you mean by
praying, and you will see that, at that very time
that you are asking for the coming of His kingdom,
you are anticipating that coming, and accomplishing
the thing you fear. "Wlien you pray, you come into
His presence. Now reflect on yourself, what your
feelings are in coming. They are these ; you seem
to say, — " I am in myself nothing but a sinner, a
man of unclean lips and earthly heart. I am not
worthy to enter into His presence. I am not worthy
of the least of all His mercies. I know He is All-
holy, yet I come before Him ; I place myself under
His pure and piercing eyes, which look me through
and through, and discern every trace and every
spring of evil within me. Why do I do so ?
Primarily for this reason. To whom should I go ?
"What can I do better ? Who is there in the whole
world that can help me ? Who that will care for
me, or pity me, or have any kind thought of me, if
I cannot obtain it of Him ? I know He is of purer
eyes than to behold iniquity ; but I know again that
He is AU-mercifiil, and that He so sincerely desires
my salvation that He has died for me. Therefore,
though I am in a great strait, I will rather fall into
His hands, than into those of any creature. True
it is I could find creatures more like myself, im-
perfect or sinful ; it might seem better to betake
myself to some of these who have power with God,
and to beseech them to interest themselves for me.
But no ; somehow I cannot content myself with

this ; — no, terrible aa it is, I liad rather go to God
alone. I liave an instinct within me which leads me
to rise and go to ray Father, to name the Name of
Hia well-beloved Sod, and, having named it, to place
myself unreservedly in His hands, saying, " If Thou,
Lord, wilt be extreme to mark what is done amiss,
O Lord, who may abide it ? But there is forgiveness
with Thee." This is the feeling in which we come
to confess our sins, and to pray to God for pardon
and grace day by day ; and observe, it is the very
feeling in which we must prepare to meet Ilim
when He comes visibly. Why, even children of this
world can meet a judicial process and a violent death
with firrauess. I do not say that we must have
ought of their pride or their self-trusting tranquillity.
And yet there is a certain composure and dignity
which become us who are born of immortal seed
when we come before onr Father. If indeed we
have habitually lived to the world, then truly it is
natural we should attempt to fly from Him whom
we have pierced. Then may we well call on the
mountains to fall on us, and on the hills to coverus.
But if we have lived, however imperfectly, yet ha-
bitually, in His fear, if we trust that His Spirit is
in us, then we need not be ashamed before Him. We
shall then come before Him, as now we come to
pray. — with profound abasement, with awe, with
self-renunciation, still as relying upon the Spirit
which He has given us, with our faculties about us,
with a collected and determined mind, and with

SHRINKING FROM

[S«i

hopo, He who cannot pray for Cbrist's comiog,
ought not in consistency to pray at all.

I have spoken of coining to God in prayer gene-
rally ; but if this is awful, much more is coming to
Him in the Sacrament of Holy Communion ; for
this is in very form an anticipation of His coming,
a near presence of Him in earnest of it. And a
number of men feel it to be so; for, for one reason
or another, they never come before Him in that
most Holy Ordinance, and so deprive themselves of
the highest of blessings here below. Still their
feeling is much the same as theirs would be, who
from fear of His coming, did not dare look-out for
it. They indeed who are in the religious practice
of communicating, understand well enough how it
is possible to feel afraid and yet to come. Surely it
is, and the case is the same as regards the future
day of Christ. You must tremble, aud yet pray for
it. We have all of us experienced enough even of
this life, to know that the same seasons are often
most joyful and also most painful. Instances of
this' must suggest themselves to all men. Consider
the loss of friends, and say whether joy and grief,
triumph and humiliation, are not strangely mingled,
yet both really preserved. The joy does not change
the grief, nor the grief the joy, into some third feel-
ing ; they are incommunicable with each other, both
remain, both affect us. Or consider the mingled
feelings with which a son obtains forgiveness of a
father, — the soothing thought that nil displeasure

CHRIST'S COMING.

is at an end, the veneration, and love, and all the
undescribable emotions, most pleasurable, which
cannot be put into words, — yet his bitterness
against himself. Such is the temper in which we
desire to come to the Lord's table ; such in which
we must pray for His coming ; such in which His
elect will stand before Him when He comes.

5. Lastly, let me say more distinctly what I
have already alluded to, that in that solemn hour we
shall have, if we be His, the inward support of His
Spirit too, carrying us on towards Him, and " wit-
nessing with our spirits that we are the children of
Grod." God is mysteriously threefold ; and while
He remains in the highest heaven, He comes to
judge the world; — and while He judges the world,
He is in us also, bearing us up and going forth in
ua to meet Himself. God the Son is without, but
God the Spirit is within, — and when the Son asks,
the Spirit will answer. That Spirit is vouchsafed
to us here ; and if we yield ourselves to His gracious
influences, so that He draws up our thoughts and
wills to heavenly things, and becomes one with us,
He will assuredly be still in us and give us confidence
at the Day of judgment. lie viill be with us, and
strengthen us ; and how great His strength is what
mind of man can conceive ? Gifted with that su-
pernatural strength, we may be able to lift up our
eyes to our Judge when He looks on us, and look
on Him in turn, though with deep awe, yet without

VOL. V. F

66 SHRINKING FROM CHRIST'S COMING. [Serm. V.

confusion of face, as if in the consciousness of inno-
cence.

That hour must come at length upon every one
of us. When it comes, may the countenance of
the Most Holy quicken, not consume us ; may the
flame of judgment be to us only what it was to the
Three Holy Children, over whom the fire had no
power !

SERMON V.

" Rejoi

n the I.ord alway, and again I say, Rejni

In other parts of Scripture the prospect of Ctiriat's
coniiug is made a reason for solemn fear and awe,
and a call for watching and prayer, but in the
verses connected with the text a distinct view of
the Christian character is set before us, and distinct
duties urged on us. " The Lord is at hand," and
what then ? — why, if so, we must " rejoice in the
Lord ;" we must be conspicuous for " moderation ;"
we must be " careful for nothing ;" we must seek
from God's bounty, and not from man, whatever
we need ; we must abound in " thaiiksgiving ;" and
we must cherish, or rather we must pmy for, and we
shall receive from above, " the peace of God which
passeth all understanding," to " keep our hearts and
minds through Christ Jesus,"
f2

EQUANIMITY.

[Sei

Now this is a view of the Christian character
definite and complete enough to admit of comments
iiig on, — and it may be useful to show that the
thought of Christ's coming not only leads to fear,
but to a calm and cheerful frame of mind.

Nothing perhaps is more remarkable than that
an Apostle, — a man of toil and blood, a man com-
bating with powers unseen, and a spectacle for men
and Angels, and much more that St. Paul, a man
whose natural temper was so zealous, so severe, and
so vehement, — I say, nothing is more striliing and
significant than that St. Paul should have given us
this view of what a Christian should be. It would
be nothing wonderful, it is nothing wonderfiil, Uiat
writers in a day like this should apeak of peace,
quiet, sobriety, and cheerfulness, as being the tone
of mind that becomes a Christian ; but considering
that St. Paul was by btrth a Jew, and by education
a Pharisee, that he wrote at a time when, if at any
time. Christians were in lively and incessant agita-
tion of mind ; when persecution and rumours of
persecution abounded ; when all things seemed in
commotion around them ; when there was nothing
fixed ; when there were no Churches to soothe them,
no coiu^e of worship to sober them, no homes
to refresh them; and, again, considering that the
Gospel is full of high and noble, and what may be
called even romEtntic, principles and motives, and
deep mysteries ; — and, further, considering that the
very topic which the Apostle combines with his

EQUANIMITY.

adnioiiitiona is that awftil subject, the coming of
Christ ; — it is well worthy of notice, that, in such a
time, under such a covenant, and with such a pro-
spect, he should draw a picture of the Christian
character, as free from excitement and effort, as full
of repose, as still and as equable, as if the great
Apostle wrote in some monastery of the desert or
some country parsonage. Here surely is the finger
of God ; here is the evidence of supernatural in-
fluences, making the mind of man independent of
circumstances ! This is the thought that first sug-
gests itself; and the second is this, how deep and
refined is the true Christian spirit! — how difficult
to enter into, how vast to embrace, how impossible
to exhaust ! who would expect such composure and
equanimity from the fervent Apostle of the Gen-
tiles ? We know St. Paul could do great things ;
could suffer and achieve, could preach and confess,
could be high and could be low; but we might have
thought that all this was the limit and the perfec-
tion of the Christian temper, as he viewed it ; and
that no room was left him for the feelings which
the text and following verses lead us to ascribe to
him.

And yet he who " laboured more abundantly
than all" his brethren, is also a pattern of simplicity,
meekness, cheerfulness, thankfulness, and serenity of
mind. These tempers were especial characteristics
of St. Paul, and are much insisted on in his Epi-

EQUANIMITY.

[Sei

sties. For instance : — " Mind not high things, but
condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise in

your own conceits Provide things honest in

the sight of all men. If it be possible, as much as
lieth in you, live peaceably with all men." He
enjoins, that " the aged men be sober, grave, tem-
perate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience."
" The aged women likewise . . . not false accusers,
not given to much wine, teachers of good things,
that they may teacli the young women to be sober,
to love their husbands, to love their children,
to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obe-
dient to their own husbands." And " young men "
to be "sober-minded." And it is remarkable that
he ends this exhortation with urging the same
reason as is given in the verse after the text :
" looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious
appearing of our great God and Saviour Jesus
Christ." In like manner, he says, that Christ's
ministers must show " uncorruptness in doctriue,
gravity, sincerity, sound speech that cannot be con-
demned ;" that they must be " blameless, not self-
willed, not soon angry .... lovers of good men,
sober, just, holy, temperate '." All this is the de-
scription of what seems almost an ordinary cha-
racter ; I mean, it is so staid, so quiet, so unambi-
tious, so homely. It displays so little of what ]

16—18. Titus ii

i. 7, 1

v.]

EQUANIMI'n'.

is striking or extraordinary. It is so negligent
of this world, so unexcited, so single-minded.

Tt is observable, too, that it was foretold as the
peculiarity of Gospel times, by the Prophet Isaiah :
" The work of righteousness shall be peace ; and
the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance
for ever. And My people shall dwell in a peace-
able habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet
resting-places '."

Now then let us consider more particularly what
is this state of mind, and what the grounds of it.
These seem to be as follows : — The Lord is at
hand ; this is not your rest ; this is not your abiding-
place. Act then as persons who are in a dwelling
not their own ; who are not in their own home ;
who have not their own goods and furniture about
them; who, accordingly, make shift and put up
with any thing that comes to hand, and do not
make a point of things being the best of their kind.
'■ But this I say, brethren, the time is short."
What matters it wliat we eat, what we drink, how
we are clothed, where we lodge, what is thought of
us, what becomes of us, since we are not at home ?
It is felt every day, as regards this world, that when
we leave home for a while, we are unsettled. This,
then, is the kind of feeling which a belief in Christ's
coming may create within us. It is not worth
while establishing ourselves here ; it is not worth

' Is^

EQUANIMITY.

[Se.

while spending time and thought on such an object.
We shall hardly have got settled when we shall
have to move.

This being apparently the general drift of the
passage, let us next enter into the particular por-
tions of it.

1, "Be carefiil for nothing," he says, or, as St.
Peter, " casting all your care upon Ilim," or, as lie
Himself, " Take no thought" or care " for the morrow,
for the morrow will take thought for the things of
itself." This of course is the state of mind which
is directly consequent on the belief, that " the Lord
is at hand." Who would care for any loss or gain
to-day, if be knew for certain that Christ would
show Himself to-morrow? no one. Well, then,
the true Christian feels as he would feel, did he
know for certain that Christ would be here to-mor-
row. For he knows for certain, that at least Christ
will come to hiiu when he dies ; and faith anticipates
his death, and makes it just as if that distant day,
if it be distant, were past and over. One time or
another Christ will come, for certain ; and when He
once has come, it matters not what length of time
there was before He came ; — however long that
period may be, it has an end. Judgment is coming,
whether it comes sooner or later, and the Christian
realizes that it is coming ; that is, time "does not
enter into his calculation, or interfere ^ith his

v.]

EQUANIMITY.

view of things. Wben men expect to live out
their plans and projects, then they care for them ;
when they know they will come to nought, they
gi\e them over, or become iiidiifevent to them.

So, again, is it with all forebodings, anxieties,
mortifications, griefs, resentments of this world.
" The time is short." It has sometimes been well
suggested, as a mode of ca.lraing the mind when
set upon an object, or much vexed or angered at
some occurrence, what will you feel about all this
a year hence ? It is very plain that matters which
agitate us most extremely now, will then interest
us not at all ; that objects about which we have
intense hope and fear now, will then be to ns
nothing more than things which happen at the
other end of the earth. So will it be with all
human hopes, fears, pleasures, pains, jealousies,
disappointments, successes, when the last day is
come. They will have no life in them ; they will
be as the faded flowei-s of a banquet, which do but
mock us. Or when we lie on the bed of death,
what will it avail us to have been rich, or great, or
fortunate, or honoured, or influential? All things
will then be vanity. Well, what this world will be
imderstood by all to be then, such is it felt to be
by the Christian now. He looks at things as he
then will look at them, with an uninterested and
dispassionate eye, and is neither pained much nor
pleased much at the accidents of life, because they
are accidents.

EQUANlMCn'.

[Set

'2. Another part of tlit- character under review
is, wiiat our traiielatiou calls moderatioii ; " Let
your moderation be known unto all men," or, as it
may be more exactly rendered, your consideration,
fiiimess, or equitableness. St. Paul makes it a.
part of a Chrietian character to have a reputation
for candour, dispassionateness, tenderness towards
others. The truth is, as soon and in proportion as
a person believes that Christ is coming;, and recog-
nizes his position as a stranger on earth, who has
but hired a lodging in it for a season, he will feel
indifferent to the course of human affairs. He will
be able to look on, instead of taking a part in them.
They will be nothing to him. He will be able to
criticize them, and pass judgment on them without
partiality. This is what is meant by " our modera~
tion" being acknowledged by all men. Those who
have strong interests one way or the other, cannot
be dispassionate observers and candid judges. They
are partisans ; they defend one set of people, and
attack another. ITiey are prejudiced against those
who differ from them, or who thwart them. They
cannot make allowances, or show sympathy for
them. But the Christian has no keen expect-
ations, no acute mortifications. lie is fair, equita^
ble, considerate towards all men, because he has no
temptation to be otherwise. He has no violence,
no animosity, no bigotry, no party feeling. He
knows that his Lord and Saviour must triumph;
he know« that He will one ilay come from heaven.

v.]

EQUANIMIl-Y.

no one can say how soon. Knowing then the end
to which all things tend, he cares less for the road
which is to lead to it. When we read a book of
fiction, we are much excited with the course of the
narrative, till we know how things will turn out ;
but when we do, the interest ceases. So is it with
the Christian, He knows Christ's battle will last
till the end ; that Christ's cause will triumph in the
end ; that His Church will last till He comes. He
knows what is truth and what is error, where is
safety and where is danger ; and all this clear know-
ledge enables him to make concessions, to own dif-
ficulties, to do justice to the erring, to acknowledge
their good points, to be content with such coun-
tenance, greater or less, as he himself receives from
othei-s. He does not fear; fear it is that makes
men bigots, tyrants, and zealots ; but for the Chris-
tian, it is his privilege, as he is beyond hopes and
fears, suspense and jealousy, so also to be patient,
cool, discriminating, and impartial ; — so much so,
that this very iaimess marks his character in the
eyes of the world, is " known unto all men."

3. Joy and gladness are also characteristics of
him, accorduig to the exhortation in the text, " Re-
joice in the Lord alway," and this in spite of the
fear and awe which the thought of the last day
ought to produce in us. It is by means of these
strong contrasts that Scripture brings out to us
what is the real meaning of its separate portions.
If we had been told merely to fear, we should have

76 EQUAXIMiry. [Skrm.

mistaken a slavish dread, or the gloom of despair,
for godly fear ; and if we lind been told merely to
rejoice, we should perhaps have mistaken a rude
freedom and familiarity for joy ; but when we are
told both to fear and to rejoice, we gain thus much at
first sight, that our joy is not to be irreverent, nor
our fear to be desponding; that though both feel-
ings are to remain, neither is to be what it would
be by itself. This is what we gain at once by such
contrasts. I do not say that this makes it at all
easier to combine the separate duties to which they
relate ; that is a further and higher work ; but thus
much we gain at once, a better knowledge of those
separate duties themselves. And now 1 am speak-
ing about tlie duty of rejoicing, and I say, that
whatever be the duty of fearing greatly and trem-
bling greatly at the thought of the Day of judg-
ment, and of course it is a great duty, yet the com-
mand so to do cannot reverse the command to
rejoice ; it can only so far interfere with it as to
explain what is meant by rejoicing. It is as clear
a duty to rejoice in the ])ro8pect of Christ's coming,
as if we were not told to fear it. The duty of
fearing does but perfect our joy ; that joy alone is
true Christian joy, which is informed and quickened
by fear, and made thereby sober and reverent.

How joy and fear can be reconciled, words can-
not show. Act and deed alone can show how. Let
a man try both to fear and to rejoice, as Christ and
His Apostles tell him, and in time he will learn

v.]

EQUANIMITY.

how ; but wlien he has learned, he will be as little
able to explain how it is he does both, as he was
before. He will seem inconsistent, and may easily
be proved to be so, to the satisfaction of irreligious
men, as Scripture is called inconsistent. He be-
comes the paradox which Scripture enjoins. This
is variously fulfilled in the case of men of advanced
holiness. They are accused of the most opposite
faults; of being proud, and of being mean; of being
over-simple, and being crafty ; of having too strict,
and, at the same time, too lax a conscience ; of
being unsocial and yet being worldly ; of being too
literal in explaining Scripture, and yet of adding
to Scripture, and superseding Scripture. Men of
the world, or men of infeiior religiousness, can-
not understand them, and are fond of criticizing
those who, in seeming inconsistent, are but like
Scripture.

But to return to the case of joy and fear. It
may be objected, that at least those who fall into
sin, or who have in times past sinned grievously,
cannot have this pleasant and cheerful temper which
St. Paul enjoins. I grant it. But what is this but
saying that St. Paul enjoins us not to fall into sin ?
When St. Paul Mams us against sadness and heavi-
ness, of course he warns us against these things
which make men sad and heavy; and therefore
especially against sin, which is an especial enemy
of joyfulness. It is not that sorrowing for sin is
wrong when we hnrc sinned, but the smning is

EQUANIMHT.

[Se.

wrong which causes the sorrowing. When a pei*-
Bon has siiined, he cannot do any thing better than
sorrow. He ought to sorrow; and so far as he
does sorrow, be is certainly }ioi in the perfect
Christian state ; but it is his sin that has forfeited
it. And yet even here sorrow is not inconsistent
with rejoicing. For there are few men who are
really in earnest in their sorrow, but after a time
may be conscious that they are so ; and when man
knows himself to be in earnest, he knows that
God looks mercifully upon him; and this gives him
sufficient reason for rejoicing, even though fear re-
mains. St. Peter could appeal to Christ, " Lord,
Thou kuowest all things, Thou knowest that I love
Thee." We of course cannot appeal so unreservedly
— still we can timidly appeal — we can say that we
humbly trust, that, whatever be the measure of our
past sins, and whatever of our present self-denial, yet
at bottom we do wish and strive to give up the
world and to follow Christ; and in proportion as
this sense of sincerity is strong upon our minds,
in the same degree shall we rejoice in the Lord,
even while we fear.

4. Once more, peace is part of this same temper
also. " The peace of God," says the Apostle, " which
passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts
and minds through Christ Jesus." There are many
things in the Gospel to alarm us, many to agitate
us, many to transport ns, but the end and issue of
all these is peace, " Glory to God in the highest,
13

v.] EQUANIMITY, 79

and on earth peace." It may be asked iudeed
whether warfare, perplexity, and uncertainty be
not the condition of the Christian here below ;
whether St. Paul himsolf does not say that he has
" the care," or the anxiety, " of all the Churches,"
and whether he does not plainly evince and avow
in his Epistles to the Galatians and Corinthians
much distress of mind. *' Without were fight-
ings, within fears '." I grant it ; he certainly
shows at times much agitation of mind ; but con-
sider this. Did you ever look at an expanse of
water, and observe the ripples on the surface ? Do
you think that disturbance i^eiietrates below it ?
Nay ; you have seen or heard of fearful tempests
on the sea; scenes of horror and distress, which
are in no respect a fit type of an Apostle's tears
or sighiugs about his flock. Yet even these violent
commotions do not reacli into the depths. The
foundations of the ocean, the vast realms of water
wliich girdle the earth, are as tranquil and as gilent
in the storm as in a calm. So is it with the souls
of holy men. They have a well of peace springing
up within them unfathomable; and though the acci-
dents of the hour may make them seem agitated,
yet in their hearts they are not so. Even Angels
joy over sinners repentant, and, as we may there-
fore suppose, grieve over sinners impenitent, — yet
who shall say that they have not perfect peace?

EQIJ.VNIMITY.

[Sbi

Even Almighty God Himself deigns to speak of
His beiiig grieved, and angry, and rejoicing, — yet is
He not the unchangeable ? And in like manner, to
compare human things to divine, St. Paul had per-
fect peace, as being stayed in soul on God, though
the trials of life might vex him.

For, as I have said, the Christian has a deep,
silent, hidden peace, which the world sees not, — ■
like some well in a retired and shady place, diffi-
cult of access. He is the greater part of his time
by himself, and what he is in solitude, that is his
real state. What he is when left to himself and
to his God, that is his true life. He can bear him-
self; he can (as it were) joy in himself, for it is the
grace of God within him, it is the presence of the
Eternal Comforter, in which he joys. He can
bear, he finds it pleasant, to be with himself at all
times, — " never less alone than when alone." He
can lay his head on his pillow at night, and own in
God's sight, with overflowing heart, that he wants
nothing, — that he " is full and abounds," — that God
has been all things to him, and that nothing is not
his which God could give him. More thankfulness,
more holiness, more of heaven he needs indeed, but
the thought that he can have more, is not a thought
of trouble but of joy. It does not interfere with his
peace to know that he may grow nearer God. Such
is the Christian's peace, when with a single heart
and the Cross in his eye, he addresses and com-
mends himself to Him with whom the night is as

v.]

EQUANIMITY.

clear as the day. St. Paul says that " the peace of
God shall keep our hearts and minds." By " keep"
is meant " guard," or " garrison" our hearts ; so as
to keep out enemies. And he says, our " hearts
and minds" in contrast to what the world sees of
us. Many hard things may be said of the Chris-
tian, and done against him, hut he has a secret pre-
servative or charm, and minds them not.

These are some few suggestions on that character
of mind which becomes the followers of Him who
was once " born of a pure Virgin," and who bids
them as " new-born babes desire the sincere milk
of the Word, that they may grow thereby." The
Christian is cheerful, easy, kind, gentle, courteous,
candid, unassuming; has no pretence, no affecta-
tion, no ambition, no singularity ; because he has
neither hope nor fear about this world. He is
serious, sober, discreet, grave, moderate, mild, with
so little that is unusual or striking in his bearing,
that he may easily be taken at first sight for an
ordinary man. There are persons who think reli-
gion consists in ecstasies, or in set speeches ; — he is
not of those. And it must be confessed, on the
other hand, that there is a common-place state of
mind which does show itself calm, composed, and
candid, yet is very far from the true Christian
temper. In this day especially it is very easy
for men to be benevolent, liberal, and dispas-
sionate. It costs nothing to be dispassionate when

VOL. V. G

EQUANIMITY.

[Sebm. V.

you feel nothing, to be cheerful when you fear
nothing, to be generous or liberal when you have
nothing of your own to give, and to be benevolent
and considerate wlien you have no principles and
no opinions. Men now-a--daya are moderate and
equitable, not because the Lord is at hand, but
because they do not feel that lie is coming. Quiet-
ness is a grace, not in itself, only when it is grafted j
on the stem of fiiith, zeal, self-abasement, and dili- |
gence.

May it be our blessedness, as years go on, to add
one grace to another, and advance upward, step by
step, neither neglecting the lower after attaining
the higher, nor aiming at the higher before attaining
the lower. The first grace is faith, the last is love ;
first comes zeal, afterwards comes loving-kindness ;
first comes humiliation, then comes peace ; first
comes diligence, then comes resignation. May we
learn to mature all graces in us ; — fearing and trem-
bling, watching and repenting, because Christ
coming ; joyful, thankful, and careless of the future, ]
because He is come.

SERMON VI.

REMEMBRANCE OF PAST MERCIES.

" I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the
Irulh, which Thou hast showed unto Thy aeryant."

The spirit of humble thanlcfulneBS for i>aBt mercies,
which these words imply, is a grace to which we
are especially called in the Gospel. Jacob, who
spoke them, knew not of those great and wonderful
acts of love with which God has since visited the
race of man. But though he might not know the
depths of God's counsels, he knew himself so far as
to know that he was worthy of no good thing at
all, and he knew also that Almighty God ha^l shown
him great mercies and great truth : mercies, in that
He had done for him good things, whereas he had
deserved evil ; and truth, in that He had made him
promises, and had been faithful to them. In conse-
quence, he overflowed with gratitude when he

looked back upon the past ; marvelling at the con-
trast between what he was in himself and what God
had been to him.

Such thankfulness, I say, is eminently a Christian
grace, and is enjoined on us in the New Testament.
For instance, we are exhorted to be " thankful,"
and to let " the Word of Christ dwell in us richly
in all wisdom ; teaching and admonishing one an-
other in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, sing-
ing with grace in our hearts to the Lord."

Elsewhere, we are told to " speak to ourselves in
psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and
making melody in our heart to the Lord ; giving
thanks always for all things unto God and the
Father, in the Name of om- Lord Jesus Christ."

Again, — " Be carefiil for nothing : but in every
thing by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving,
let your requests be made known unto God."

Again, — " In every thing give thanks : for this
is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you'-"

The Apostle, who writes all this, was himself an
especial pattern of a thankful spirit : " Rejoice in the
Lord alway," he says, " and again I say. Rejoice."
" I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, there-
with to be content. I have all, and abound ; I am
full." Again ; " I thank Christ Jesns our Lord,
who hath enabled me, for that He counted me
faithful, putting me into the ministry ; who was

' Col. iii. 15, 16. Epli. V. 19, 20. Phil. iv. 6. 1 Tliess. v. 18.

VI.] REMEMBRANCE OF PAST MERCIES. 85

before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and inju-
rious. But I obtained mercy, because I did it
ignorantlj in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord
was exceeding abundant, witb faith and love which
is in Christ Jesus '." O great Apostle, how could
it be otherwise, considering what he bad been and
what he was, — transformed from an enemy to a
friend, from a blind Pharisee to an inspired
preacher ? And yet there is another Saint, besides
the patriarch Jacob, who is his fellow in this ex-
cellent grace, — like them, distinguished by great
vicissitudes of life, and by the adoring love and
the tenderness of heart with which he looked back
upon the past : — I mean, " David, the son of Jesse,
the man who was raised up on high, the anointed
of the God of Jacob, and the sweet Psalmist of
Israel *."

The book of Psalms is full of instances of David's
thankful spirit, which I need not cite here, as
we are all so well acquainted with them. I will
but refer to his thanksgiving, when he set apart the
precious materials for the building of the Temple, as
it occurs at the end of the first book of Chronicles ;
when he rejoiced so greatly, that he and his people
had the heart to offer freely to God, and thanked
God for his very thankfulness, " David, the king
. . rejoiced with great joy ; wherefore David
blessed the Lord before all the congregation ; and

' Phil. iv. 4. U.

1 Tira.i. 12— U. ' 2 Sam. x

REMEMBRANCE OF PAST MERCIES.

[Sw

David said, Blea'^ed be Thou, Lord God of Israel,
our Father, for ever and ever. .... Both riches
and honour come of Thee, and TIiou reigiiest over
all; and in Tliiue hand is jiower and might, and in
Thine hand it is to make great, and to give strength
unto all. Now, therefore, our God, we thank Tbee,
and praise Thy glorious Name. But who am I, and
what is my people, that we should be able to offer
BO willingly after this sort? for all things come of
Thee, and of Thine own have we given Thee '."

Such was the thankful spirit of David, looking
back upon the past, wondering and rejoicing at the
way in which his Almighty Protector had led him
on, and at the works He had enabled him to do ;
and praising and glorifying Him for His mercy and
truth. David, then, Jacob, and St. Paul, may be
considered the three great patterns of thankfulness
which are set before us in Scripture ; — saints, all of
whom were peculiarly the creation of God's grace,
and whose life and breath it was hnmbly and ador-
ingly to meditate upon the contrast between what,
in diiFerent ways, they had been, and what they
were. A perishing wanderer had unexpectedly
become a Patriarch, a shepherd a King, and a per-
secutor an Apostle; each had been chosen, at God's
inscrutable pleasure, to fulfil a great purpose, and
each, while he did his utmost to fulfil it, kept
praising God that he was made His instrument. Of

' 1 Cliron. xx

VI.] REMEMBRANCE OF PAST MERCIES. 87

the first, it was said, "Jacob have I loved, but
Esau have I hated ;" of the second, that " He re-
iiised the tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not the
tribe of Ephraim, but chose the tribe of Judah, even
the hili of Sion, which He loved : He chose David
also His servant, and took him away from the
sheepfolds." And St. Paul says of himself, " Last
of all, He was seen of me also, as of one born out •
of due time '."

These thoughts naturally come over the mind at
this season ', when we are engaged in celebrating
God's grace, in making us His children, by the
incarnation of His only-begotten Son, the greatest
and most wonderful of all His mercies. And to
the Patriarch Jacob, our minds are now particidarly
turned, by the first lessons for this day, taken from
the Prophet Isaiah, in which the Church is addressed
and comforted under the name of Jacob. Let us
then, in this season of thankfulness, and at the
beginning of a new year, take a brief view of the
character of this Patriarch ; and though David and
Isaiah he the Prophets of grace, and St. Paul its spe-
cial herald and chief pattern, yet, if we wish to see
an actual specimen of a habit of thankfulness,
occupied in the remembrance of God's mercies, 1
think we shall not be wrong in betaking ourselves
to Jacob.

' Rom. ix. 13. Paaltn Ixxviii. 68—71. 1 Cor. xv. 8.
' Second Sunday after ChHstinaa.

Jacob's distinguishing grace then, as I think it
may be called, was a habit of affectioaate musiug
upon God's providences towards him in times past,
and of overflowing thankfulaess for them. Not
that he had not other graces also, but this seemB
to have been his distinguishing grace. All good
men have in their measure all graces ; for He, by
■whom they have any, does not give one apart from
the whole: He gives the root, and the root puts
forth branches. But since time, and circumstance^
and their own use of the gift, and their own disposi-
tion and character, have much influence on the mode
of its manifestation ; so it happens that each good
man has his own distinguishing grace apart from
the rest, his own particular hue, and fragrance, and
fashion, as a flower may have. As, then, there are
numberless flowers on the earth, all of them flowers,
and so far like each other ; and all springing from
the same earth, and nourished by the same air and
dew, and none without beauty ; and yet some are
more beautiful than others; and of those which are
beautiful, some excel in colour, and others in sweet-
ness, and others in form ; and then, again, those
which are sweet have such perfect sweetness, yet
so distinct, that we do not know how to compare
them together, or to say which is the sweeter ; so is
it with souls filled and nurtured by God's secret
grace. Abraham, for instance, Jacob's forefather,
was the pattern of faith. This is insisted on in
Scripture, and it is not here necessary to show that

VI.]

REMEMBRANCE OF PAST MERCIES.

he was so. It will be sufficient to say, that he left his
country at God's word ; aud, at the same word, took
up the knife to slay his only son, Abraham seems
to have had something very noble and magnanimous
about him. He could realize and make present to
him things unseen. He followed God in the dark
as promptly, as firmly, with as cheerful heart and
bold stepping, as if he were in broad daylight.
There is something very great in this ; and, there-
fore, St. Paul calls Abraham our father, the father
of Christians as well as of Jews. For we are espe-
cially bound to walk by faith, not by sight ; and
are blessed in faith, and justified by faith, as was
faithful Abraham. Now (if I may say it, with due
reverence to the memory of that favoured servant
of God, in whose praise I am now speaking) that faith
in which Abraham excelled was not Jacob's charac-
teristic excellence. Not that he had not faith, and
great faith, else he would not have been so dear
to God. His buying the birthright and gaining the
blessing from Esau were proofs of faith. Esau saw
nothing or little in them,— lie was profane ; easily
parted with the one, and had no high ideas of the
other. However, Jacob's faith, earnest aud vigor-
ous as it was, was not like Abraham's. Abraham
kept his affections loose from every thing earthly,
and was ready, at God's word, to slay his only son.
Jacob had many sons, and may we not even say
that he indulged them overmuch ? Even aff regards
Joseph, whom he so deservedly loved, beautiful and

REMEMBRANCE OF PAST MERCIES.

[Ski

touching as his love of him is, yet there i
contrast between bia feelinn;s towards the "son of
his old age," and those of Abraham towards Isaac,
the unexpected offspring of bis hundredth year ;
nor only such, but his long-promised only son, with
whom were tbe promises. Again : Abraham left
his country, — so did Jacob ; but Abraham, at God's
■word, — Jacob, from necessity, on the threat of Esau.
Abraham, from the first, felt that God was his por-
tion and his inheritance, and, in a great and generous
spirit, ho freely gave up all he had, being sure that
he should find what waa more excellent in doing' so.
But Jacob, in spite of his really living by laitfa,
wished (if we may so say), as one passage of his his-
tory shows, to see before he fully believed. When
he was escaping from Esau and came to Bethel, and
God appeared to him in a dream and gave him
promises, but not yet the perfomiauce of them, —
what did he do ? Did he simply accept them ?
He says, " If God will be with me, and will keep
me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to
eat and raiment to put on, so that I come again
to my father's house in peace, t/ien shall the L(»d
be my God '." He makes bia obedience, in some
sense, depend on a condition ; and although we
must not, and need not, take the words as if he
meant that be would not serve God till and urdess
He did for him M-hat He had promised, yet they
seem to show a fear and anxiety, gentle indeed,
' Gen. xxviii. 20, 21.

VI,]

REMEMBRANCE OF PAST MERCIES.

and subdued, and very human, (and therefore, the
more interesting and winning in the eyes of ns
common men, who read his words,) yet an anxiety
which Abraham had not. We feel Jacob to be
more like ourselves than Abraham was.

What, then, was Jacob's distinguishing grace,
as faith was Abraham's ? I have already said it :
I suppose, thankfulness, Abraham appears ever to
have been looking forward in hope^ — Jacob looking
back in memory. The one rejoicing in the future,
the other in the past. The one setting bis alTec-
tions on the future, the other on the past. The
one making his way towards the promises, the other
musing over their fulfilment. Not that Abraham
did not look back also, and Jacob, as he says, on
his deathbed, " wait for the salvation " of God ;
but this M'as the difference between them, Abraham
was a hero, Jacob " a plain man, dwelling in tents."

Jacob seems to have had a gentle, tender, affec-
tionate, timid mind — easily frightened, easily agi-
tated, loving God 80 much that He feared to lose
Him, and, like St. Thomas perhaps, anxious for
sight and possession from earnest desire of having
them. Were it not for faith, love would become im-
patient, and thus Jacob desired to possess, not from
cold incredulity or hardness of heart, but from such
a loving impatience. Such men are easily downcast,
and must be treated kindly ; they soon despond,
they shrink from the world, for they feel its rudeness,
which bolder natures do not. Neither Abraham nor

REMEMBRANCE OF PAST MERCIES.

[Ski

Jacob loved tho world. But Abraham did not fear,
did not feel it. Jacob felt and winced, as being
wounded by it. You recollect his touching com-
plaints, " All these thin^ are against me !' — " Then
shall ye bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to
the grave." — " If I am bereaved of my children, I
am bereaved." Again, elsewhere we are told, " All
his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort
him, but he refused to be comforted." At another
time, " Jacob's heart fainted, for he believed them
not." Again, " the spirit of Jacob their father re-
vived'." You see what a child-like, sensitive, sweet
mind he had. Accordingly, as I have said, his hap-
piness lay, not in looking forward to the hope, but
backwards upon the experience of God's mereiea
towards him. He delighted lovingly to trace, and
gratefiilly to acknowledge, what had been given,
leaving the ftiture to itself.

For instance, when coming to meet Esau, ho '
brings before God in prayer, in words of which the
text is part, what He had already done for him,
recounting His past favours with great and humble
joy in the midst of his present anxiety. " O God
of my father Abraham," he says, " and God of my
father Isaac, the Lord which saidst unto me. Return
unto thy country, and to thy kindred, and I will
deal well with thee : I am not worthy of the lea
of all the mercies, and of all the truth, wkich Thou j
hast shewed unto Thy sarant ; for with my staff I \

' Gen. xlii. 36 38, xliii. U; xxxvii. 35 ; xlv. 26, 27.

VI.]

REMEMBRANCE OF PAST MERCIES.

passed over this Jordan^ and now I am become t?so
bands." Again, after he had returned to his own
land, he proceeded to ftilfil the promise he had
made to consecrate Bethel as a house of God, " Let
us arise, and go up to Betliel ; and I will make
there an altar unto God, who answered me in Oie day
of my distress, and was with me in the way which I
went." Again, to Pharaoh, still dwelling on the
past; " The days of the years of my pilgrimage are
an hundred and thirty years ; few and evil have the
days of the years of my life been," he means, in
themselves, and as separate from God's favour, " and
have not attained unto the days of the years of the
life of my fathers, in the days of their pilgrimage."
Again, when he was approaching his end, he says to
Joseph, " God Almighty appeared unto me at Luz,"
that is. Bethel, " in the land of Canaan, and blessed
me." Again, still looking back, " As for me, when
I came from Padan, Rachel died by me in the land
of Canaan, in the way, when yet there was but a little
way to come to Ephrath ; and I buried her there in
the way of Ephrath." Again, his blessing upon
Ephraim and Manasseh : " God, before whom my
fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God wJtich
fed me all my life long unto this day, the Angel which
redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads." Again
he looks back on the land of promise, though in the
pleutifulness of Egypt: " Behold I die, but God
shall be with you, and bring you again unto the
land of your fathers." And when he gives com-

94-

REMEMBRANCE OF PAST MERCIES.

[Sbi

mand about his burial, he says: " I am to be i
gathered unto my people ; bury me with mj fathers
in the cave that is in the field of Epliron the j
Hittite." He gives orders to be buried with his J
fathers. This was natural, but observe, he goes on \
to enlarge on the subject, after his special manner:
" There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife ;
there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife ; and
Uiere I buried Leali." Aud further on, when he I
speaks of waiting for God's salvation, which is aa ■
act of hope, he so words it as at the same time to
dwell ujjon the past : " I have waited," he says, that
is, all my life long, " I have waited for Thy salvar-
tion, O Lord." Such was Jacob, living in memory '
rather than in hope, counting times, recording sea-
sons, keeping days ; having his history by heart, and i
his past life in his hand; and as if to carry on his
mind into that of his descendants, it was enjoined
upon them, that once a year every Israelite should
appear before God with a basket of fruit of the
earth, and call to mind what God had done for him
and his father Jacob, and express his thankfulness
for it. " A Syrian ready to perish was my father,"
he had to say, meaning Jacob ; " and he went down
into Egypt, and sojourned there, and became a
nation, great, mighty, and populous. , . . And the
Lord brought us forth out of Jigypt with an out-
stretched arm, and with great terribleness, and with

' Gen. xxxii. 9,
16. 21; xlix. 29—

10 ; XXXV. 3 ; xlvi

. 3. 7.

REMEMBRANCE OF PAST MERCIES.

signs, and with wonders,; aud hath brought ua
into this land . . . that floweth with milk aud honey.
And now, behold, I have brought the first-fruits of
the land, which Thou, O Lord, hast given me '."

Well were it for us, if we had the character of
mind, instanced in Jacob, and enjoined on his
descendants ; the temper of dependence upon God's
providence, and thankfulness under it, and careful
memory of all He has doue for us. It would be
well if we were in the habit of looking at all we
have, as God's gift, undeservedly given, and day by
day continued to us solely by His mercy. He gave ;
He may take away. He gave us all we have, life,
health, strength, reason, enjoyment, the light of con-
science ; whatever we have good and holy within us;
whatever faith we have; whatever of a renewed
will ; whatever love towards Him ; whatever power
over ourselves ; whatever prospect of heaven. He
gave us relatives, friends, education, training, know-
ledge, the Bible, the Church. All conies from Him.
He gave ; He may take away. Did He take away,
we should be called on to follow Job's pattern, and be
resigned : " The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken
away. Blessed be the Name of the Lord ^." While
He continues His blessings, we should follow David
and Jacob, by living in constant praise and thanks-
giving, and in oifering up to Hira of His own.

' Deal. xxvi. 5—10.

' Job i. 21.

REMEMBRANCE OF PAST MERCIES.

[Se.

We are not our o-wn, any more than what wal
possess. We did not make ourselves; we cannoti
be supreme over ourselves. We cannot be our o'wn4
masters. We are God's property, by creation, by"!
redemption, by regeneration. He has a triple clainiil
upon us. Is it not our happiness tlms to view the I
matter? Is it any happiness, or any comfort to I
consider that we are our own ? It may be thought so ]
by the young and prosperous. These may think it ]
a great thing to have every thing, as they suppose,
their own way, — to depend on no one, — to have to |
think of nothing out of sight, — to be without the
irksomeness of continual acknowledgment, continual
prayer, continual reference of what they do to the
will of another. But as time goes on, they, as all men,
will find that independence was not made for man
— that it is an unnatural state — may do for a while,
but will not carry us on safely to the end. No; we
are creatures, and, as being such, we have two duti^
to be resigned and to be thankful. i

Let us then view God's providences towards ub ,
more religiously than we have hitherto done. Let us
try to gain a truer view of what wc are, and where
we are, in His kingdom. Let us humbly and reve-
rently attempt to trace His guiding hand in the years
which we have hitherto Uved. Let us thankfully
commemorate the many mercies He has vouchsafed
to us in time past, the many sins He has not re-
membered, the many dangers He has averted, the
many prayers He has answered, the many mistakes

Vl] REMEMBRANCE OF PAST MERCIES. 97

He has corrected, the many warningB, the many les-
sons, the much light, the abounding comfort which
He has from time to time given. Let us dwell upon
timea and seasons, times of trouble, times of joy,
times of trial, times of refreshment. How did He
cherish us as childreu ! How did He guide us in
that dangerous time when the mind began to thinl;
for itseli^ aud the heart to open to the world ! How
did He with His sweet discipline restrain our pas-
sions, mortify our hopes, calm our fears, enliven our
heavinesses, sweeten our desoliiteness, and strengthen
our infirmities ! How did He gently guide us to-
wards the strait gate ; how did He allure us along
His everlasting \vay, in spite of its strictness, in
spite of its loneliness, in spite of the dim twilight in
which it lay ! He has been all things to us. He
has been, as He was to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
our God, our shield, and great reward, promising
and performing, day by day. " Hitherto hath He
helped ns." " He hath been mindful of us, and He
will bless us." He has not made us for nought ;
He has brought us thus far, in order to bring us
further, in order to bring us on to the end. " He
will never leave us nor forsake us ; so that we may
boIdJy say, The Lord is my Helper ; I will not fear
what flesh can do unto me." We may " cast all our
care upon Him, who careth for us." What is it to us
how our future path lies, if it be but His path ?
What is it tn ns whither it leads us, so that in
the end it leads to I lim ? What is it to us what

VOL. V. u

98 REMEMBRANCE OF PAST MERCIES. [Serm. VI.

He puts upon us, eo that He enables us to undergo
it with a pure conscience, a true heart, not desir- 1
ing any thing of this world in comparison of Him ? i
What is it to U8 what terror befals us, if He be but 1
at hand to protect and strengthen us? " Thou, ,
Israel," He says, " art My servant, Jacob, whom I i
have chosen, the seed of Abraham My friend," "Ft
not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel ; I will ;
help thee, saith the Lord, and thy Redeemer, the
Holy One of Israeh" " Thus saith the Lord that J
created thee, O Jacob, and He that fonned thee, '
O Israel, Fear not ; for I have redeemed thee, I ■
have called thee by thy name ; thou art Mine. When
thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee ;
and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee ;
when thou walkest througli the fire, thou shalt not
be burned ; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.
For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel,
thy Saviour'."

' Is. xli. 8. 14; iliii. 1—3.

SERMON VII.

THE MYSTERY OF GODLINESS.

" Both He that sanctifleth and they wlio are sanctified are
all of one ; for which cause He is not ashamed to call them
brethren."

OuB Saviour's birth in the flesh is an earoest, and,
as it were, beginning of our birth in the Spirit. It
is a figure, promise, or pledge of our new birth, and
it effects what it promises. As He was bom, so
are we born also ; and since He was bom, there-
fore we too are born. As He is the Son of God
by nature, so are we sons of God by gi-aoe ; and it
is He who has made us such. This is what the
text says. He is the " Sanctifier," we the " sancti-
fied." Moreoyer, He and we, says the text, " are
all of one." God sanctifies the Angels, but there the
Creator and the creature are not of one. But the
Son of God and we are of one ; He has become " the
h2

100

THE MYSTERY OF GODLINESS.

[Sb.

fii-stborn of every cr<?ature;" lie has taken our
nature, and in and through it He sanctifies us. He
is our brother by virtue of His incarnation, and,
as the text says, " He is not ashamed to call us I
brethren ;" and, having sanctified our nature in j
Himself, He communicates it to us.

This is the wonderful economy of grace, or mys-
tery of godliness, which should be before our minds '
at all times, but especially at this season ', when
the Most Holy took upon Him our flesh of " a. pure j
Virgin," "by the operation of the Holy Ghost, i
■without spot of sin, to make us clean from all sin."
God " dwelleth in the Light which no man can ap- i
proach unto ;" He " is Light, and in ITim is no |
darkness at alh" " Hia garment," as described in
the Prophet's Vision, is " white as snow, and the
hair of His head like the pure wool ; His throne
the fiery flame, and His wheels burning fire." And
in like manner the Son of God, because He is the
Son, is Light also. He is " the True Light, which
lighteth every man that cometh into the world."
On His transfiguration " His face did shine as the
Bun," and " His raiment became shining, exceeding
■white as snow," " white and glistering," And
when He appeared to St, John, " His head and His
hairs were white hke wool, as white as snow ; and
His eyes were as a flame of fire ; and his feet like i
unto fine brass, as if they burnt in a furnace; and

Vll]

THE MYSTERY OF GODLINESS.

101

His countenance was as the Eiin ehineth in His
strength '." Such was our Lord's holiness because
He was the Son of God from eternity. There was
always the Father, always the Son ; always the
Father, therefore always the Son, for the Name of
Father implies the Son, and never was there a time
when the Father Almighty was not, and in the
Father the Son also. He it is who is spoken of in
the beginning of St. John's Gospel, when it is said,
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word
was with God, and the Word was God." Soon
after the same Apostle speaks of Him as " in the
bosom of the Father." And He speaks Himself of
" the glory w hieh He had with the Father before
the world was." And St. Paul calls Him " the
Brightness of God's glory, a,nd the express Image
of His person." And elsewhere, " the Image of
the Invisible God." Thus what our Lord is, that
none other can be ; He is the Only-begotten Son ;
He is of God's nature, and of one substance with
the Father, which cannot be said of any creature.
He is one with God, and His nature is secret and
incommunicable. Hence St. Paul contrasts His
dignity with that of Angels, the highest of all
creatures, with a view of showing the infinite su-
periority of the Son. " Unto which of the Angels
said He at any time. Thou art My Son, this day

1 Tim. vi. 16, 1 John i. 5.
t. xvii. 2. Mark ix. 3. Luke

X. 39. Rev. i. 14— IG.

102

THE MYSTERY OF GODLINESS. [Skbm.

have I begotten TheeT' Again, " Wlien He
bringeth iu the first-begotten into the world. He
saith, And let all the Angels of God worship Him."
And again, " To which of the AngeU saith He at
any time, Sit on My right hand until I make
Thine enemies Thy footstool?" Of the Angels
we are told, "He putteth no trust in His saints;
yea, the heavens are not clean in His sight ;" but
our Lord is His "beloved Son, in whom He is
well pleased '."

He it was who created the worlds ; He it was
who interposed of old time in the affairs of the
world, and showed Himself to be a living and ob-
servant God, whether men thought of Him or not.
Vet this great God condescended to come down on
earth from His heavenly throne, and to be bom
into His own world ; showing Himself as the Son
of God in a new and second sense, in a created
nature, as well as in His eternal substance. Such
is the first reflection which the birth of Christ
suggests.

And next, observe, that since He was the All-
holy Son of God, though He condescended to be
bom into the world. He necessarily came into it in
a way suitable to the All-holy, and different from
that of other men. He took our nature upon Hin|,
but not our sin ; taking our nature in a way above

Heb. i. 3, et seqq Col. i. 15. Job J

VII.]

THE MYSTERY OF GODLINESS.

103

nature. Did He then come from heaven in the
clouds ? did He frame a body for Himself out of
the dust of the earth ? No ; He was, as other
men, " made of a woman," as St. Paul speaks, tliat
He might take on Him, uot another nature, but
the nature of man. It had been prophesied from
the beginning, that the Seed of the woman should
bruise the serpent's head. "I will put enmity,"
said Almighty God to the serpent at the fall, " be-
tween thee and the woman, and between thy seed
and her Seed ; It shall bruise thy head '." In con-
sequence of this promise, pious women, we are told,
were in the old time ever looking out in hope that in
their own instance peradventure the promise might
Hud its accomplishment. One after another hoped
in turn that she herself might be mother of the
promised king ; and therefore marriage was in re-
pute, and virginity in diseateem, as if then only
they had a prospect of being the Mother of Christ,
if they waited for the blessing according to the
course of nature, and amid the generations of men.
Pious women they were, but little comprehending
the real condition of mankind. It was ordained,
indeed, that the Eternal Word should come into
the world by the ministration of a woman; but
bom in the way of the flesh He could not be.
Mankind is a fallen race ; ever since the fall there
has been a " fault and corruption of the nature of

. 15.

101 THE MYSTERY OF CODUXESS. [Sbrm.

every man that naturally is enj^pnilered of tbe
offspring of Adam; . . so that tbe flesh lustetb
always contrary to the Spirit, and therefore in every
person born into this world it deserveth God^s
wrath and damnation." And "the Ajioatle doth
confess that concupiscence and lust hath of itself
the nature of sin." "That which is bom of the flesb,
is flesh." "Who can bring a clean thing out of an
unclean ?" " How can he be clean that is boru of
a woman?" Or as holy David cries out, "Behold
I was shapen in wickedness, and in sin hath my
mother conceived me '." No one is born into the
world without sin ; or can rid himself of the sin of
his birth except by a second birth through the
Spirit. How then could the Son of God have come
as a Holy Saviour, had He come as other men ?
How conld He have atoned for our sins, who Him-
self had guilt ? or cleansed our hearts, who was im-
pure Himself? or raised up our heads, who was
Himself the son of shame ? Surely any such
messenger had needed a Saviour for his own dis-
ease, and to sucti a one would apply the proverb,
"Physician, heal thyself." Pi'iests among men are
they who have to offer "first for their own sins,
and then for the people's";" but He, coming as tbe
immaculate Lamb of God, and the all-prevailing
Priest, could not come in the way in which those

' John iii. 6,
' lleb. vii. 2;

Jobx

VI 1.

THE MYSTERY OF GODLINESS.

105

fond persons thought. He came by a new aiiJ
Uviug way, by which He aloue has come, and
which alone became Him. The prophet Isaiah
had been the first to announce it; "The Lord
Himself shall give you a sigii," he says, "Behold, a
Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall
call His Name Immanuel." And accordingly St.
Matthew, after quoting this text, declares its ful-
filment in the instance of the Blessed Mary. " AJl
this," he says, " was done that it might be fulfilled
which was spoken by the projihet." And further,
two separate Angels, one to Mary, one to Joseph,
declare who the adorable Agent was, by whom this
miracle was wrought. " Joseph, thou son of David,"
an Angel said to him, " fear not to take unto thee
Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her
is of the Holy Ghost ;" and what followed from
this? He proceeds, "And she shall bring forth a
son, and thou shalt call His Name Jesus, for lie
shall save His people from their sins." Because
He was " incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the
Virgin Mary," therefore He was " Jesus," a " Savi-
our from sin." Again, the Angel Gabriel liad
already said to Mary, " Hail, thou that art highly
favoured ; the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou
amongwomen " And then he proceeds to declare, that
her Son should be called Jesus ; that He " should be
great, and should be chilled the Son of the Highest ;"
and that "of His Kingdom there shall be no end."
And he concludes by announcing, "The Hnlv Ghost

shall come upou tliee, and the power of the Highest
shall overshadow thee ; therefore that Holy Thing
which shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son
of God '." Because God the Holy Ghost wrought
miraculously, therefore was her Son a " Holy Thing,'
" the Son of God," and " Jesus," and the heir of an
everlasting kingdom.

This is the great mystery which we are now cele-
brating, of which mercy is the beginning, and sanc-
tity the end : according to the Psalm, " Righteous-
ness and peace have kissed each other." He who
is all purity came to an impure race to raise them
to His purity. He, the brightness of God's glory,
came in a body of flesh, which was pure and holy
as Himself, " without spot, or wrinkle, or any such
thing, but holy and without blemish ;" and this he
did for our sake, " that we might be partakers of
His hoHness." He needed not a human nature for
Himself, — He was all-perfect in His original divine
nature ; but He took upon Himself what was ours
for the sake of us. He who " hath made of one
blood all nations of men," so that in the sin of one
all sinned, and in the death of one all died. He came
in that very nature of Adam, in order to communi-
cate to us that nature as it is in His Person, that
" our sinful bodies might be made clean by His
Body, and our souls washed through His most pre-
cious Blood;" to make us partakers of the divine

' Matt. i. -20, 21. Luke i. 2H— 3S.

Vn,] THE MYSTERY OF GODLINESS. 107

nature ; to sow tho aeed of eternal life in our
hearts ; aud to raise us from the corniptiou that
is in the world through lust, to that immaculate
purity aud that fulness of grace which is in Him.
He, who is the first principle and pattern of all
things, came to be the beginning and pattern of
human kind, the firstborn of the whole creation.
He, who is the everlasting Light, became the Light
of men; He, who is the Life from eternity, became
the Life of a race dead in sin ; He, who is the Word
of God, came to be a spiritual Word, "dwelKng
richly in our hearts," an " engrafted Word, which is
able to save our souls ;" He, who is the co-equal
Son of the Father, came to "be the Son of God in
our flesh, that He might raise us also to the adop-
tion of sons, and might be the first among many
brethren. And this is the reason why the Collect
for the season, after speakhig of om- Lord as the
Only-begotten Son, and born in our nature of a pure
Virgin, proceeds to speak of our new birth and
adopted sonship, and renewal by the gi-ace of the
Holy Ghost.

And when He came into the world. He was a
[)attem of sanctity in the circumstances of His life,
as well as in His birth. He did not implicate and
contaminate Himself with sinners. He came down
from heaven, and made a short work in righteous-
ness, and then returned back again where He was
before. He came into the world, and He speedily
left the world : as if to teach up how little He
13

108 THE MYSTERY OF GODLINESS. [Sai

Himself, how little we His followers, have to do with
tlie world. He, the Eternal Everliving Word of
God, did not outlive Methuselah's years, nay, did not
even exhaust the common ago of man ; but Ho came
and He weut, before men knew that He had come,
like the lightning shining from one side of heaven
unto the other, as being the beginning of a new
and invisible creation, and having no part in the old
Adam. He was in the world, but not of the world ;
and while He was here, He, the Son of man,
was still in heaven : and, as well might fire feed
upon water, or the wind be subjected to man's bid-
ding, as the Only-begotten Hon really be portion
and member of that perishable system in which He
condescended to move. He could not rest or tarry
upon earth ; He did but do His work in it ; He
could but come and go.

And while He was here, since He could not ac-
quiesce or pleasure Himself in the earth, so He would
none of its vaunted goods. When He humbled Him-
self unto His own pinful creation. He would not let
that creation minister to Him of its best, as if disdain-
ing to receive offering or tribute from a fallen world.
It is only nature regenerate nhich may venture to
serve the Holy One. He would not accept lodging
or entertainment, acknowledgment or blandishment,
fi-om the kingdom of darkness. He would not be
made a king ; He would not be called. Good Master ;
He would not accept where He might lay His head.
His life lay not in mauV breath, or man's smile

VII.] THE MYSTERY OF GODLINESS. 109

was liid in Him from whom He came and to whom
He returned.

" The Light shineth in darkness, and the darkness
comprehended it not." He seemed like other men
to the multitude. Though conceived of the Holy
Ghost, He was bom of a poor woman, who, when
guests were numerous, was thrust aside, and gave
birth to Him in a place for cattle. O wondrnus
mystery, early manifested, that even in birth He
refused the world's welcome ! He grew up as the
cari>enter's son, without education, so that when He
began to teach, His neighbours wondered how one
who had not learned letters, and was bred to a
humble craft, should become a prophet. He was
known as the kinsman and intimate of humble per-
sons ; so that the world pointed to them when He
declared Himself, as if their insufficiency was an ar-
gument against His claims. He was brought up in
a town of low repute, so that even the better sort
doubted whether good could come out of it. No;
He would not be indebted to this world for comfort,
aid, or credit; for "the world was made by Him,
and the world knew Him not." He came to it as a
benefactor, not as a guest ; not to borrow from it,
but to impart to it.

And when He grew up, and began to preach the
kingdom of heaven, the Holy Jesus took no more
from the world then than before. He chose the
portion of those Saints who preceded and prefigured

IIU

THE MYSTERY OF GODLINESS.

[Sbi

(

Him, Abmham, Moses, David, Elijah, and Ilis fore-
runner John the Baptist. He lived at large, with-
out the ties of" home or peaceful dwelling ; He lived
as a pilgrim in the land of prooiise ; He lived in
the -wilderness. Abraham had lived in tents in the
country which his descendants were to enjoy. David
had wandered for seven years up and down the same
during Saul's persecutions. Moses had been a pri-
soner in the howling wilderness, all the way from
Mount Sinai to the borders of Canaan, Elijah
wandered back again from Carmel to Sinui. And
the Baptist had remained in the deserts from his
youth. Such in like manner was our Lord's man-
ner of life, during His ministry : He was now in
Galilee, now in Judfea ; He is found in the moun-
tain, in the wilderness, and in the city ; but He i
vouchsafed to take no home, not even His Al-
mighty Father's Temple at Jerusalem.

Now all this is quite independent of the special
objects of mercy which brought Him upon earth.
Though He had still submitted Himself by an in-
comprehensible condescension to the death of the
cross at length, yet why did He from the first so
spurn this world, when He was not atoning for its
sins ? He might at least have had the blessedness
of brethren who believed in Him ; He might have
been ha]>py and revered at home ; He might have
had honour in His own country; He might have
submitted but at last to what He chose from the i

VII] THE MYSTERY OF GODLINESS. HI

first ; He might Imvo delayed His voluntary suffer-
ings till that hour when His Father's, and His own
will made Ilim the sacrifice for sin.

But He did otherwise ; and thus He becomes a
lesson to us who are His disciples. He, who was
so separate from the world, so present with the
Father, even in the days of His flesh, calls u]ion us.
His brethren, as we are in Him and He in the
Father, to show that we are wliat we have been
made, by renouncing the world while in the world,
and living as in the presence of God.

Let them consider this, who think that the per-
fection of our nature still consists, as before the
Spirit was given, in the exercise of all its separate
functions, animal and mental, not in the subjection
and sacrifice of what is inferior in us to what is more
excellent. Christ, who is the beginning and pattern
of the new creature, lived out of the body while
He was in it. His death indeed was required as
an expiation ; but why was His life so mortified, if
such austerity be not man's glory ?

Let us at this season approach Him with awe
and love, in whom resides all perfection, and from
whom we are allowed to gain it. Let us come to
the Sanctifier to be sanctified. Let us come to
Him to leam our duty, and to receive grace to do
it. At other seasons of the year we are reminded
of watching, toiling, struggling, and suffering ; but
at this season we are reminded simply of God's

112

THE MYSTERY OF GODLINESS.

[Sbi

gifts towards us siniiera. " Not by works of righte-
ousness which we have done, but according to His
mercy He saved us." We are reminded that we
can do nothing, and tliat God does every thin^.
This is especially the season of grace. We come
to see and to experience God's mercies. We come
before Him as the helpless beings, during His
ministry, who were brought on beds and couches for
a cure. We come to be made whole. We come
as little children to be fed and taught, " as new-bom
babes, desiring the sincere milk of the word, that we
may grow thereby '." This is a time for innocence,
and purity, and gentleness, and mildness, and con-
tentment, and peace. It is a time in which the
whole Church seems decked in white, in her bap-
tismal robe, in the bright and glistering raiment
which she wears upon the Holy Mount. Christ
comes at other times with garments dyed in blood ;
but now He comes to us in all serenity , and
peace, and He bids us rejoice in Him, and to
love one another. This is not a time for gloom, or
jealousy, or care, or indulgence, or excess, or
licence; — not for "rioting and drunkenness," not
for " chambering and wantonness," not for " strife
and envying '," as says the Apostle ; but for putting
on the Lord Jesus Christ, "' who knew no sin,
neither was guile found in His mouth."

' 1 Pet. ii. 2.

' llor

VII.] THE MYSTERY OF GODLINESS. 113

May each Christmas, as it comes, find us more
and more like Him, who as at this time became a
little child for our sake, more simple-minded, more
humble, more holy, more affectionate, more resigned,
more happy, more fuU of God.

VOL. V.

SERMON VIII.

THE STATE OF INNOCENCE.

EccLEs. vii. 29.

*' God hath made man upright, but they have sought out

many inventions."

The state of our parents as God made them " up-
right" and " very good," in the day that they were
created, presents much to excite our interest and
sympathy, though we, their descendants, have passed
away into a far different state. Since that time our
nature has gone through many fortunes, — through
much evil to greater good. That primeval state is
no longer ours. It is no longer ours, though it is
no longer forfeited. The penalties are removed;
the flaming sword no longer bars the entrance of
Eden ; yet have we not returned to it. For so is
it with all that happens to us, — the past never re-
turns, not in what it contained, any more than
in itself. Each time has its own peculiar attri-

SEaM.VIII.] THE STATE OF INNOCENCE. 115

butes ; it is impressed with its own characters.
We recognise them in memory. When from time
to time this or that passage of our lives rises in our
minds, it comes to us with its own savour. We
know it as if by taste and scent, and we know that
that peculiar and indescribable token, be it good or
bad, never can attach to any thing else. And
what is true of indifferent things, is true also when
right and wrong come into question, and in the
great destinies of man. If we sin and forfeit what
God has given, not God Himself (such seems to he
His will), not God Himself, in the fulness of His
mercies, ever brings back what we were. He may
wash out our sin, — He may give us blessings,
greater blessings than we had, — He does not give
us the same. When man was driven out of Para-
dise, it was for good and all, — he never h^ re-
turned, — he never will return, — he has been bom
again, but not into possession of the garden of inno-
cence : he has a rest in store, and a happier one, — •
a more glorious paradise, but still another.

This being so, it would seem as if there was little
to interest us now in the first condition of Adam.
As lost, it would only raise remorse and distress ;
as found again, it is something new. And yet,
though Almighty God does not bring back the
past. His dispensations move forward in an equa^
ble uniform way, like circles expanding about their
centre; — the greater good to come being, not in-
deed the same as the past good, hut nevertheless
I 2

116 THE STATE OF INNOCENCE. [Si:«»i.

resembling it, as a substance resembles its type. In
the past we see the future as if in miniature and
outline. Indeed how can it be otherwise? seeing that
all goods are but types and shadows of God Himself,
the Giver, and are like each other because they are
like Him. Hence the garden of Eden, though long
past away, is brought again and again to our notice
in the progress of God's dealings with us, not only
in order to instruct us by the past, but unavoidably,
if I may so speak, from the resemblance which
one condition of God's favour hears to another ; of
Adam's first state to the Law, and the Law to the
Gospel, and the Gospel to the state of rest after
death, and that to heav<?n. For instance, the land
that flowed with milk and honey, was hut a visible
return of the lost garden ; and in a manner reversed
the sentence of banishment which God has laid
upon our first parents. Again, the reign of Christ
too is imaged as a state in which the beasts return
to the dominion of man, and are harmless. When
the serpent is no longer venomous, and when " the
desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose," and
" instead of the thorn shall come up the fir-tree, and
instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle-tree ;"
when " the mountains and the hills shall break
forth into singing, and all the trees of the field
shall clap their hands '." And so of the interme-
diate state ; for our Lord says to the penitent thief,
"To-day shalt thou be with Me in paradise." And

' Isai. XXKV. 1 ; Iv. 13, 12.

VIII.]

THE STATE OF INNOCENCE.

117

lastly, to describe heaven too, in the last words which
God has vouchsafed to us, ending His revelations
aa He began them, He sets before us the visiou of
a happy garden. " He showed nie a pure river of
water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the
throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of
the street of it, and on either side of the river, waa
there the Tree of Life, which had twelve manner of
fruits, and yielded her fruit every month ; and the
leaves of the Tree were for the healing of the na^
tions'." Thus God takes away the less to give the
greater, — not reversing the past, but remedying and
heightening it ; preserving the pattern of it, and so
keeping us from forgetting it.

Therefore we may well look back on the garden
of Eden, as we would on our own childhood. That
childhood is a type of the perfect Christian state ;
our Saviour so made it when. He said that we must
become as little children to enter His kingdom.
Yet it too is a thing past and over. We are not,
we cannot be children ; grown men have facul-
ties, passions, aims, principles, views, duties, which
children have not ; still, however, we must become
as little children ; in them we are bound to see
Christian perfection, and to labour for it with them
in our eye. Indeed there is a very much closer
connexion between the state of Adam in Paradise
and our state in childhood, than may at first be

THE STATE OF INNOCENCE.

thought ; SO that in surveying Edeu, we are in a way
looking back on our own childliood ; and in aiming
to be children again, we are aiming to be as Adam
on his creation. Let us then now compare together
these two parallel states, and in doing so let us
have an eye to that third state, higher than either ;
I mean our regenerate state in Christ, of which
these two are both types.

There ia, for what we know, a very mysterious
real connexion between the garden of Eden and
our childhood, on which, however, I am not going
to enlarge. I mean, the doctrine of original sin
does connect together, in some unknown and awliil
way, Adam and each of us. If, as we believe,
Adam's sin is imputed to eanh of us, if we enter into
the world with it upon us, in all its consequences,
just as if it were ours, certainly we cannot be in
Adam's state when he was in Eden (rather what
he was when leaving it), hut still so much may be
said, that our childhood is in some sense a con-
tinuation of Adam's state when in Eden, a carry-
ing it on through and after his falJ, and not a
begiiming ; though in thus speaking we use words
beyond our o«ti meaning.

But, dismissing this subject, I would have you
observe, that as far as we are given to know it,
Adam's state in Eden seems to have been like the
state of children now — in being simple, inartificial,
inexperienced in evil, unreasoning, un calculating,
ignorant of the futum, or (as men now speak) unin-

tellectual. The tree of the knowledge of good and
evil was kept from him. Also, I would observe,
that whereas we who do know good and evil, are
bid to become as simple children ; so again we are
promised a paradise in which shall be no Tree of
Knowledge. St. John describes to us the futnre
paradise, and tells us of the Tree of Life there, but
it has no Tree of Knowledge ; instead of which " the
glory of God doth lighten it, and the Lamb is the
light thereof." It would seem then, taking human
nature according to what it was on its creation,
according to what it is in childhood, (which is the
type of its perfection,) and according to what is im-
plied about its future state, that in all these states
the " knowledge of good and evil" is away, whatever
be the meaning of that phrase, and that instead of
it the Lord is our Light, " and in His light shall we
Bee light." This remarkably corresponds with the
worda of the text: "God hath made man upright,
but they have sought out many inveniiom." But to
return to our first parents.

The state in Eden seems, I say, to be very much
what is called the life of innocents, of such as are
derided and contemned by men, as they now are,
their degenerate descendants.

1. First they were placed in a garden to cultivate
it; how much is implied even in this ! "The Lord
God took the man and j)ut him into the garden
of Eden, to dress it and to keep it." If there was
a mode of life free from tumult, anxiety, excite-

120

THE STATE OF INNOCENCE.

[S=.

ment, and fever of mind, it was the care of a
garden. You will say it could not be otherwise,
while he was but one man in the whole world ; —
the accumulation of human beings, the mutnal
action of mind on mind, this it is which creates
all the hurry and variety of life. Adam was a
hennit, whether he would or no. True ; but does
not this very circumstance that God made him
such, point out to us what ia our true happiness,
if we were given it, which we are not. At least
we see in type what our perfection ie, in these first
Bpeciniens of our nature, which need not, unless
God had so willed, have been created in this so-
litary state, but might have been myriads at once,
&s the Angels were created. And let it be noted,
that, when the second Adam came, lie returned,
nay, more than returned to that life which the first
had originally been allotted. He too was alone, and
lived alone, the immaculate Son of a Virgin Mother;
and He chose tlie mountain summit or the garden
as His home. Save always, that in His case sorrow
and pain went with His loneliness ; not, like Adam,
eating freely of all trees but one, but lasting in the
wilderness for forty days, — not tempted to eat of
that one through wantonness, but urged in utter
destitution of food to provide Himself with some
necessary bread, — not as a king giving names to
fawning brutes, but one among the wild beasts, —
not grajited a help meet for His support, but praying
alone in the dark morning, — not dressing the herbs

VXII.]

THE STATE OF INNOCENCE.

and flowers, but dropping blood upon the ground in
agony, — not falling into a deep sleep in the garden,
but buried there after His passion; — yet still like
the first Adam, solitary, — like the first Adam, living
■with His God and Holy Angels. And this is the
more remarkable, both because He came to do a
great work in a short ministry, and because the
same characteristic will be found in His servants also ;
nay, in His most laboriously employed and most
successfully active servants, before and after Him.
Abraham, Isaac, aud Jacob, were as " plain men
dwelling in tents;" Moses lived for forty yeaxs a
shepherd's life; and when at length he was set over
the chosen people, still in one of the most critical
moments of his government, he had long retirements
in the Mount with God. Samuel was brought up
within the Temple: Elijah lived in the deserts; so
did the Baptist, his antitype. Even the Apostles
had their seasons of solitude. We hear of St. Peter
at Joppa ; and St. Paul had his labours again and
again suspended by imprisonnient ; as if such occa-
sional respite from exertion were as necessary for
the spirit as sleep la necessary for the body. If
then the life of Christ and His servants be any
guide to us, certainly it would appear as if the
simplicity and the repose of life, with which human
nature began, is an indication of its perfection. And
again, does not our infancy teach us the same les-
son ? which is especially a season when the soul is
left to itself, withdrawn from its fellows as effec-

THE STATE OF INNOCENCE. [Serm.

tualiy as if it were the only liuman being on earth,
like Adam in his inclosed garden, fenced off from
the world, and visited by Angels.

2. Fenced off from tlie world, nay, fenced off
even from himself; for so it is, and most strange too,
that our infant and childish state is hidden from
ourselves. We cannot recollect it. We know not
what it was, what our thoughts in it were, and what
our probation, more than we know Adam's. This
is a remarkable analogy for such persons as question
and object to the account of our first parents in
Eden. To what does their difficulty amount at the
utmost, but to this, that they do not know what
their state was ? that there is a depth and a secret
about the Word of God, which they caimot pene-
trate? And is it greater than that which hangs
over themselves personally, in their own most mys-
terious infancy? the history of which, doubtless, if
it could be put into words, and set before us, would
be as strange and foreign to us, would be as little
recognised by us as our own, as the second and
third chapters of Genesis, And here again occurs
a ]mrallel in our state of perfection ; " we know
not what we shall be," We know not what we are
tending to, any more than what we have started
from. St. Paul was ouce caught up to Paradise,
and he witnesses to the incomprehensible nature of
those doings which were begun and broken off in
Edeu. "I knew such a man .... how he was
caught up into paradise, and heard umpeahfible

VIII.]

THE STATE OF INNOCENCE.

I2cf

words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter '."
And all this is further paralleled by the state of
regeneration in the present "world, sis far as this,
that those who advance far in the divine life, both
are themselves hidden, and see things hidden ironi
common men. "The light shineth in darkness, and
the darkness comprehended it not." " The world
was made by Him, and the world knew Him not."
"The world knoweth us not, because it knew Him
not." And on the other hand, "The secret of the
Lord is with them that fear Him." " He that be-
lieveth in the Son of God, hath the witness in him-
self." " To him that overcometh, will I give a
white stone, and in the stone a new name writ-
ten, which no man knoweth saving he that re-
ceiveth itV

3. Another resemblance between the state of
Adam in paradise, and that of children is this, that
children are saved, not by their purpose and habits
of obedience, not by faith and works, but by the
influence of baptismal grace; and into Adam God
" breathed the breath of life, and man became a
living soul." Far diflereot is our state since the
fall : — at present our moral rectitude, such as it is,
is acquired by trial, by discipUne ; but what does
this really mean ? by sinning, by suifering, by cor-
recting ourselves, by improving. We advance to

' 2 Cor. xii, 3, 4.

'Johni. 5. 10. 1 Juhn iii. 1. Pe. xxv. 14. 1 .Tolm v. 10,
Rev. ii. 17.

124.

THE STATE OF INNOCEN'CE.

CSsut.

the truth by experience of error ; we sucM;eed j
through failures. We know not how to do right 1
except by having doue wrong. We call virtue (
a mean, — that is, considering it to lie between M
things that are wrong. We know what is right,
not positively, but negatively ; — we do not see the
truth at once and nmke towards it, but we ftdl
upon and try error, and find it is not the truth. We
grope about by toucli, not by sight, and so by a
miserable experience exhaust the possible modes
of acting till nought is loft, but truth, remaining'. I
Such is the process by which we succeed ; we walk j
to heaven backward ; we drive our arrows at
mark, and think him most skilful whose short- |
comings are the least.

So it is not with children baptized and taken ]
away. So was it not while Adam was still upright,
as God created him. Adam might probably have
matured in holiness, had he remained in his first state,
without experience of evil, whether pain or error ;
for he had that within him which was to him more
than all the habits which trial and discipline pain-
tully form in us. Unless it be presumptuous to say
it, grace was to him instead of a habit ; grace waa
his clothing within and without. Grace dispensed
with efforts towards holiness, for holiness lived in
him. We do not know what we mean by a habit,
except as a state or quality of mind under which ]
we act in this or that particular way; it is a per^ 1
mauent power in the mind ; and what is grace but

VIII.] THE STATE OF INNOCENCE. 135

this ? ^Vhat then man feUen gains by dint of exer-
cise, working up towards it Ijy religious acts, that
Adam already acted yJ-om. He had that light ■within
him, which he might make brighter by obedience,
but which he had not to create. Not till he fell,
did he lose that supernatural endo'wment, which
raised him into a state above himself, and made him
in a certain sense more than man, and what the
Angels are, or Saints hereafter. This robe of inno-
cence and sanctity he lost when be fell; he knew
and confessed that he had lost it; but while he
possessed it, he was sinless and perfect, and accept-
able to God, though he had gone through nothing
painful to obtain it. He tired of it; he tired of
being upright from the heart only, and not in the
way of reason. He desired to obey, not in the way
of children, but of those who choose for themselves.
He ate of the forbidden fruit, that he might choose
with his eyes open between good and evil, and his
eyes were opened, and he " knew that he was naked ;"
for the strength of God's inward glory went from
him, and he was left henceforth to struggle on to-
wards obedience as he best might in his fallen state
by experience of sin and misery. And here again
let it be observed, as in former points of the parallel,
that this gift which sanctified Adam and saves
children, does become the ruling principle of Chris-
tians generally when they advance to perfection.
According as habits of holiness are matured, prin-
ciple, reason, and self-discipline are unnecessary; a

THE STATE OF INNOCENXE.

[Sb.

moral instinct takes their place in tlie breast,
rather, to speak more reverently, the Spirit is sove-
reign there. There is no calculation, no struggle,
no self-regard, no investigation of motives. We act
from love. Hence the Apostles say, " Ye have an
miction from the Holy One, and ye know all things;"
" Ye are the temple of the U\ing God ; as God hath
said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them '."

Now if the doctiine on which this parallel is
founded be true, which one cannot doubt, how
miserable that state, which is so often praised and
magnified as the perfection of our nature, whereas
it is the very curse that has come upon us, — the
knowledge of evil. Yet can any thing be more
certain that men do glory in it; glory iu their
shame, and consider they are advancing in moral
excellence, when they aje but gaining a knowledge
of moral evil ?

For instance, I supjiose great numbers of men
think that it is slavish and despicable to go on in
that narrow way in which they are brought up as
children, without experience of the world. It is
the narrow way, and they call it narrow in con-
tumely. They fret at the restraints of their father's
roof, and wish to judge and act for themselves.
They think it manly to taste the pleasures of sin ;
they think it manly to know what sin is before '
condemning it. They think they are then better

' 1 Jolin ii. 20. 2 Cor. vi. IG.

VIII.] THE STATE OF 1N^"0CENCE. 127

judges, wlieu they are not blindly led by others,
but have taken upon them, by their own act, the
yoke of evil. They think it a fine thing to ourae
and swear, and to revel, and to ridicule God's
sacred truth, and to profess themselves the devil's
scholars. They look down upon the innocent, upon
women and children, and solitaries, and holy and
humble men of heart, who, like the cherubim, see
God and worship, aa unfit for the great business
of life, and worthless in the real estimate of thiqgs.
They think it no great harm to leave off a correct
Ufe for a time, so that they return to it at length.
They consider that it is even more pleasing to God,
a more " reasonable service," to subdue evil than to
follow good. They consider that to bring " the
motions of sin" under, and sbow their power over
it, is a higher thing than not to have them to fight
against'. They think it more noble to have an
enemy to overcome and rebels to control than to
be in peace. Alas ! they commonly do not acknow-
ledge so much as that there is a rebel power within
them ; they call sin but a venial evil, and no wonder
that, so thinking, they can bear to talk of trying it,
and cannot understand that it is better to be ever
pure than to have been at one time stained.

This la one kind of knowledge, and most miser-
able doubtless, which we have gained by the fall, to
know sin by experience; — not to gaze at it with

' Vitl. Ffuudt's Sermons, XIII.

THE STATE OF INNOCENCE.

[Ski

awe as the Angels do, or as children when they
woiider how there eau be wicked men in the world,
bat to admit it into our hearts. Alas ! ever smoe
the fall this has been more or less the state of the
natural man, to live in sin; and though here and
there, under the secret stirrings of God's grace, bo J
has sought after God and obeyed Him, it has been I
in a grovelling sort, like worms working their way |
upwards through the dust of the earth, turning- evil I
against itself, and unlearning it from having known J
it. And such too seems to be one chief way inl
which Providence carries on His truth even under I
the Gospel ; not by a direct flood of light upon the 1
Church, but by setting one mischief upon another, |
bidding one serpent destroy another, the leas the I
greater ; thus gradually thinning the brood of sin, ]
and ^vasting them by their own contrariety. And ]
in this way doubtless we are to regard sects and
heresies, as witnesses and confessors of particular J
truths, as God's means of destroying evil, — ^mortal J
themselves, yet greedy of each other.

4. The mention of heresy and error opens upon \
us a large subject to which I will but allude. What
then is intellect itself, as exercised in the world, but I
a fruit of the fall, not found in paradise or in heaven, I
more than in little children, and at the utmost but I
tolerated in the Church, and only not incompatible \
with the regenerate mind? Children do not go by J
reason ; Adam in his state of innocence had no 1
opportunity for aught but what we should call a I

VIII]

THE STATE OF INNOCENCE.

139

calm and simple life. To God Most High we ascribe
moral excellences, truth, fiiithfulness, love, justice,
holiness ; again we speak of His power, knowledge,
and wisdom; but it would be profane even to utter
His great Name in connexion with those powers of
mind which we call ability, and prize so highly.
Christ again displays no eloquence or power of
words, no subtle or excursive reasoning, no bril-
liancy, force, or fertility of thought, such as the
world admires. Nay the same truth holds as re-
gards our own regenerate state ; for though doubt- ■
less every power of the intellect has its use in the
Chm-ch, yet surely, after all, faith is made supreme,
and reason then only is considered in place when it
is subordinate. " Blessed are they," says our Lord,
" that have not seen and yet have believed ;" and
.St. Paul again, " The Jews require a sign, and the
Greeks seek after wisdom ; but we preach Christ
crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling-block, and to
the Greeks foolishness ; but unto them which are
called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of
God and the wisdom of God'." What a contrast
to such passages is presented by a mere catalogue of
the powers of mind by which men succeed in life,
and by which the structure of society is kept to-
gether! Take the world as it is, with its intelli-
gence, its bustle, its feverish efforts, its works, its
results, the ceaseless ebb and flow of the great tide

1 Cor. i, 22—24.

of mind : view society, I mean, not in its adventi-
tious evil, but in its essential cbaracters, and what U
all its intellectual energy but a fruit of tUe tree of
the knowledge of good and evil, and though not sin-
ful, yet, in fact, the consequence of sin ? Consider its
professions, trades, pursuits, or, in the words of the
text, " inventions ;" trace them down to their sim-
plest forms and first causes, and what is their parent,
but the loss of original uprightuess ? "What place
have its splendours, triumphs, speculations, or theo-
ries in that pure and happy region which was oar
cradle, or in that heaven which is to be our rest ?
Dexterity, promptness, presence of mind, sagacity,
shrewdness, powers of persuasion, talent for busi-
ness, what are these but developments of intellect
which our fallen state has occasioned, and probabl?
iar from the highest which our mind is capable of?
And are not these and others at best only of use'
in remedying the effects of the fall, and, so ftr,
indeed, demanding of us deep thankfulness towards
the Giver, but not having a legitimate employment
except in a world of sickness and infirmity?

Now, in thus sjieaking, let it be observed, I am
not using light words of what is a great gift of God
and one distinguishing mark of man over the brutes^
our reason ; I have but spoken of the particular arer-
ciscs in which it has its life in the world, as we see
them ; and these, though in themselves excellent,
and often admirable, yet would not have been but
for sin, and, now that they are, subserve the purposes

VIII.] THE STATE OF INNOCENCE. 131

of sin. Reason, I say, is God's gift ; but so are the
passions ; Adam had the gift of reason, and so had
he passions ; but he did not malk by reason, nor was
he led by his passions ; he, or at least Eve, was
tempted to follow passion and reason, instead of
her Maker, and she fell. Since that time passion
and reason have abandoned their due place in man's
nature, which is one of subordination, and con-
spired together against the Divine light within him,
which is his proper guide. Reason has been as
guilty as passion here. God made man upright, and
grace was his strength ; but he has found out many
inventions, and his strength is reason.

To conclude : Let us learn from what has been
said, whatever gifts of mind we have, henceforth to
keep them under, and to subject them to innocence,
simplicity, and truth. Let our characters be formed
upon faith, love, conterapla.tiveness, modesty, meek-
ness, humility. I know well that men differ so
much here one from another, that it were folly to
expect their outward character to appear one and
the same. One man carries his gentleness on the
surface, or his hiunbleness, or lis simplicity ; and his
intellectual gifts are hid within him. We look at
him, and cannot understand how he should possess
those endowments of mind, which we know he has.
Another's graces are buried, or nearly so; he over-
flows with thought, or is powerful in speech, or
takes a keen ^iew of the world, and is ever present
and ready wherever he is ; while he keeps his self-
K 2

132

THE STATE OF INNOCENCE.

[Sebm. VIU.

abaflement and seriousness to himself. These are
accidents ; " the Lord seeth not as man seeth ; for
man looketh on the outward appearance, but the
Lord looketh on the heart'," Let us labour to
approve ourselves to Christ. If we be in a crowd,
still he we as hermits in the wilderness ; if we be
rich as poor, if married as single, if gifted in mind,
still as little children. Let the tumult of error teach
us the simplicity of truth, the miseries of guilt the
peace of innocence, and " the many inventions " of
the reason the stability of faith. Let us, with St.
Paul, be " all things to all men," while we " live
unto God ;" " wise as serpents and harmless as
doves," "inmaJice children, in understanding men."

ii. 16.

" For verily He took not on Him the nature of Angels, but
He took on Him the seed of Abraham."

We are all of one nature, because we are bods of
Adam ; we are all of one nature, because we are
brethren of Christ. Our old nature is common to
us all, and so is our new nature. And because our
old nature is one and the same, therefore is it that
our new nature is one and the same. Christ could
not have taken the nature of every one of us, unless
every one of us bad the same nature already. He
could not have become our brother, unless we were
all brethren already; He could not have made ua
His brethren, unless by becoming our brother ; so
that our brotherhood in the first man is the means
towards our brotherhood in tbe second.

I do not mean to limit the benefits of Christ's

134 CHRISTIAN SYMPATHY. [Sbrm.

atoning death, or to dare to say that it may not
effect ends infinite in niimher and extent beyond
those expressly recorded. But still so far is plain,
that it is by taking our nature that He has done
for U9 what He baa done for none else ; that, by
taking the nature of Angels, He would not have done
for us what He has done ; that it is not only the
humiliation of the Son of God, but His humiliation
in our nature, which is our life. He might have
humbled Himself in other natures besides human
nature ; but it was decreed that " the Word" should
be " made flesh." " Forasmuch as the children are
partakers of flesh and blood. He also Himself like-
wise took part of the same." And, as the text
Bays, " He took not hold of Angels, but He took
hold of the seed of Abraham."

And since His taking on Him our nature is a
necessary condition of His imparting to us those
great benefits which have accrued to us from His
death, therefore, as I have said, it was necessary
that we should, one and all, have the same original
nature, in order to be redeemed by Him ; for, in
order to be redeemed, we must all have that nature
which He the Redeemer took. Had our natures
been different. He would have redeemed one and not
another. Such a common nature we have, as being
one and all children of one man, Adam ; and thus
the history of our fall is connected with the history
of our recovery.

IX,] CHRISTIAN SYMPATHY. 135

Christ then took our nature, when He would
redeem it ; He redeemed it by making it suffer in
His own person ; He purified it, by making it pure
in His own person. He first sanctified it in Him-
self, made it righteous, made it acceptable to God,
submitted it to an expiatory passion, and then He
imparted it to us. He took it, consecrated it,
broke it, and said, " Take, and divide it among
yourselves."

And moreover. He raised the condition of human
nature, by submitting it to trial and temptation ;
that what it failed to do in Adam, it might be able
to do in Him. Or, in other words, which it becomes
us rather to use. He condescended, by an ineffable
mercy, to be tried and tempted in it ; so that,
whereas He was God from everlasting, as the
Only-begotten of the Father, He took on Him the
thoughts, affections, and infirmities of man, thereby,
through the fulness of His Divine Nature, to raise
those thoughts and affections, and destroy those
infirmities, that so, by God's becoming man, men,
through brotherhood with Him, might in the end
become as gods.

There is not a feeling, not a passion, not a wish,
not an infirmity, which we have, which did not
belong to that manhood which He assumed, except
such as is of the nature of sin. There was not a
trial or temptation which befals us, but was, in kind
at least, presented before Him, except that He had

136

CHRISTIAN SYMPATHY.

[Sbi

nothing mthin Him, sympathizing with that which
came to Him from without. He said upon His last
and greatest trial, " The Prince of this M"orld eometh
and hath nothing in Me ;" yet at the same time we
are mercifiiUy assured that " we have not a Higli
Priest which cannot be touched with the feeliug- of
our infirmities, but" one, who " was in all points
tempted, like as we axe, yet without sin." And
again, " In that He Himself hath suffered being
tempted. He is able to succour them that are
tempted '." I

But what I would to-day draw attention to, is
the thought with which T began, viz. the comfort
vouchsafed to us in being able to contemplate Him
whom the Apostle calls the man Christ Jesus, the
Son of God in our flesh. I mean, the thought of
Him, " the beginning of the creation of God," " the
firstborn of every creature," binds us together by a
sympathy with one another, as much greater than
that of nature, as Christ is greater than Adam.
We were brethren, as being of one nature with
him, who was " of the earth, earthy ;" we are now
brethren, as being of one nature with " the Lord
from heaven." All those common feelings, which
we have by birth, are far more intimately common
to us, now that we have obtained the second birth.
Our hopes and fears, likes and dislikes, pleasures and

. 15; ii. 18.

IX.]

CHRISTIAN SYMPATHY.

137

paiua, have been moulded upon one model, have
been wrought into one image, blended and com-
bined unto " the measure of the stature of the ful-
ness of Christ." What they become, who have
partaken of " the Living Bread, which came down
from heaven," the first converts showed, of whom
it is said that they " had all things common ;" that
" the multitude of them that believed were of one
heart and of one soul ;" as having " one body, and one
Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism,
one God and Father of all '." Yes, and one thing
needful ; one narrow way ; one business on earth ;
one and the same enemy ; the same dangers ; the
same temptations ; the same afflictions ; the same
course of life; the same death; the same resurrec-
tion ; the same judgment. All these things being
the same, and the new nature being the same, and
from the Same, no wonder that Christians can sym-
pathize with each other, even as by the power of
Christ sympathizing in and with each of them.

Nay, and further, they sympathize together in
those respects too, in which Christ has not, could
not have, gone before them ; I mean in their mutual
sins. This is the difference between Christ's tempt-
ation and ours : His temptations were without sin,
but ours vnth sin. Temptation with us almost cer-
tainly involves sin. We sin, almost spontaneously,
in spite of His grace. I do not mean, God forbid.

Eph, i

138 CHRISTIAN SYMPATHY. [Sibk.

that His grace is not sufficient to sulxlue all sin in
us ; or that, as we como more and more under its
influence, we are not less and less exposed to the
involuntary impression of tcnijttation, and iiiucb less
to voluntary sin ; but that so it ia, our evil nature
remains in us in spite of that new nature which the
touch of Christ communicates to us; we have still
earthly principles in our souls, though we have
heavenly ones, and these so sympathize with tempt-
ation, that, as a mirror reflects promptly and of
necessity what is presented to it, bo the body of
death which infects us, when the temptations of
this world assail it, — when honour, pomp, glory, the
world's praise, power, ease, indulgence, sensual plea^
sure, revenge, are offered to it, — involuntarily re-
sponds to them, and sins, — sins because it is sin;
sins before the better mind can control it, because it
exists, because its life is sin ; sins tiU it is utterly
subdued and expelled from the soul by the gradual
growth of holiness and the power of the Spirit.
Of all this, Christ had nothing. lie was "born of
a pure Virgin," the immaculate Lamb of God ; and
though He was tempted, yet it was by what was '
good in the world's offers, though unseasonable and t
unsuitable, and not by what was evil in them. He ]
overcame what it had been unbecoming to yield to, j
the while feeling the temptation. He overcame '
also what was sinful, but He felt no temptation to it.
And yet it stands to reason, that though His
temptations differed from ours in this main respect.

yet His presence in ua makes us sympathize one
with another, even in our sins and faults, in a way
which is impossible without it ; because, whereas the
grace in us is common to us all, the sina against that
grace are common to us all also. We have the same
gifts to sin against, and therefore the same powers,
the same responsibilities, the same fears, the same
struggles, the same guilt, the same repentance, and
such as none can have but we. The Christian is
one and the same, wherever found ; as in Christ,
who is perfect, so in himself, who is training towards
perfection ; as in that righteousness which is im-
puted to him in fulness, so in that righteousness
which is imparted to him only in its measure, and
not yet in fulness.

This is a consideration ftill of comfort, but of
which commonly we do not avail ourselves as we
might. It is one comfortable thought, and the
highest of all, that Christ, who is on the right hand
of God exalted, has felt all that we feel, sin excepted ;
hut it is very comfortable also, that the new and
spiritual man, which He creates in us, or creates ns
into, — that is, the Christian, as he is naturally found
eveiywhere, — has everywhere the same temptations,
and the same feelings under them, whether innocent
or sinful ; so that, as we are all bound together in
our Head, so are we bound together, as members
of one body, in that body, and believe, obey, sin,
and repent, all in common.

140 CHRISTIAN SYMPATHY. [Sw

I do not wish to state tbis too strongly. Doubtless I
there are yerj many diiferenees between Christian I
and Christian, Though their nature is the same^
and their general duties, hindrances, heljjs, privi-
leges, and rewards the same, yet certainly there
are great differences of character, and peculiarities
belonging either to individuals or to classes. High
and low, rich and poor, Jew and Gentile, man and
woman, bond and free, learned and unlearned,
though equal in the Gospel, do in many respects
differ, so that descri])tion9 of what passes in the
mind of one will often appear strange and new to
the other. Their temptations differ, and their
diseases of mind. And the difference becomes far
greater, by the diflSoulty persons have of expressing
exactly what they mean, so that they convey wrong
ideas to one another, and offend and repel those
who really do feel what they feel, though they
would express themselres otherwise.

Again, of course there is this great difference
between Christians, that some are penitents, and
some have never fallen away since they were brought
near to God; some have fallen for a time, and
grievously ; others for long years, yet perhaps only
in lesser matters. These circumstances will make
real differences between Christian and Christian, so
as sometimes even to remove the possibility of sym-
pathy almost altogether. Sin certainly does con-
trive this victory in some cases, to hinder us being

IX] CHRISTIAN SYMPATHY. HI

even fellows in misery; it separates us while it
seduces, and, being the broad way, has different
lesser tracks marked out upon it.

But still, after all such exceptions, I consider that
Christians, certainly those who are in the same out-
ward circumstances, are very much more like each
other in their temptations, inward diseases, and
methods of cure, than they at all imagine. Persona
think themselves isolated in the world ; they think
no one ever felt as they feeJ. They do not dare to
expose their feelings, lest they should find that no
one understands them. And thus they suffer to
wither and decay what waa destined in God's pur-
pose to adoru the Church's paradise with beauty
and sweetness. Their " mouth is not opened," as
the Apostle speaks, nor their " heart enlarged ;" they
are " straitened " in themselves, and deny them-
selves the means they possess of at once imparting
instruction and gaining comfort.

Again : we sutfer the world's opinion to hang
upon us as a load, or the influence of some system
of religion which is in vogue. It very frequently
happens that ten thousand people all say what not
any one of them feels, but each says it because every
one else says it, and each fears not to say it lest he
should incur the censure of all the rest. Such is
very commonly what are called the opinions of the
age. They are bad principles or doctrines, or false
notions or views, which live in the mouths of men,
and have their strength in their public recognition.

14^

CHRISTIAN S^TJPATHY.

[S..

Of course by proud men, or blind, or carnal,
or worldly, these opinions which I speak of are
really felt and entered into ; for they are the natural
growth of their own e^il hearts. But very fre-
quently the same are set forth, and heralded, and
circulated, and become current opinious, among' vast
multitudes of men who do not feel them. These
multitudes, however, are obliged to receive them by
what is called the force of public opinion ; the care-
less, of course, carelessly, but the better sort super-
stitiously. Tims ways of speech come in, and modes
of thought quite alien to the minds of those who
give into them, who feel them to be unreal, unna-
tural, and uncongenial to themselves, but consider
themselves obliged, often from the most religious
principles, not to confess their feelings about them.
They dare not say, they dare not even realize to
themselves their own judgments. Thus it is that
the world cuts off the intercourse between soul and
Boul, and substitutes idols of its own for the one
true Image of Christ, in and through which only
souls can sympathize. Their best thoughts are
stifled, and, when by chance they hear them pat
forth elsewhere, as may sometimes be the case, they
feel as it were conscious and guilty, as if some one
were revealing something against them, and they
shrink from the sound as from a temptation, as
something pleasing indeed but forbidden. Such is
the power of false creeds to fetter the mind and
bring it into captivity ; false views of things, of facts,

of doctrines, are imposed on it tyrannically, and men
live and die in bondage, wbo were destined to rise
to the stature of the fiilness of Christ. Such, for
instance, I consider to be, among many instances,
the interpretation which is popularly received among
us at present, of the doctrinal portion of St. Paul's
Epistles, an interpretation which has troubled large
portions of the Church for a long three hundred
years.

Again : I say, we are much more like each other,
even in our sins, than we iancy. I do not of course
mean to say, that we are one and all at the same
point in our Christian course, or have one and all
had the same religious history in times past ; but
that, even taking a man who has never fallen from
grace, and one who has fallen most grievously and
repented, even they will be found to be very much
more like each other in their view of themselves, in
their temptations, and feelings upon those tempta-
tions, than they might fancy beforehand. This we see
most strikingly instanced when holy men set about
to describe their real state. Even bad men at once
cry out, " This is just our case," and argue from it
that there is no difference between bad and good.
They impute all their own sins to the holiest of men,
as making their own lives a sort of comment upon
the text which his words furnish, and apijealing to
the appositeness of their own interpretation in proof
of its correctness. And I suppose it cannot be
denied, concerning all of us, that we are generally

144.

CHRISTIAN SYMPATHY.

[Sw

surprised to hear the strong language which good
men use of themselves, as if such confessions showed
them to be more like ourselves, and much less holy
than we had fancied them to be. xVnd on the other
hand, I suppose, any man of tolerably correct life,
whatever his positive advancement in grace, will
seldom read accounts of notoriously bad men, in
which their ways and feelings are described, mthout
being shocked to find that these more or less cast a
meaning upon his own heart, and bring out into light
and colour lines and shapes of thought within him,
which, till then, were almost invisible. Now this
does not show that bad and good men are on a level,
but it shows this, that they are of the same nature.
It shows that the one has within him in tendency,
what the other has brought out into actual exist-
ence ; so that the good has nothing to boast of over
the bad, and while what is good in him is from
God's grace, there is an abundance left, which marks
him as being beyond all doubt of one blood with
those sons of Adam who are still far from Christ
their Redeemer. And if this is true of bad and good,
mucn more is it true in the case of which I am
speaking, that is of good men one with another ; of
penitents and the upright. They understand each
other far more than might at first have been sup-
posed. And whereas their sense of the heinousness
of sin rises with their own purity, those who are
holiest will speak of themselves in the same terms
as impure persons use about themselves; so that

CHRISTIAN SYMPATHY.

Christians, though they really differ much, yet as
regards the power of sympathising with each other
■will be found to be on a level. The one is not too
high or the other too low. They have common
ground ; and as they have one faith and hope, and
one Spirit, so also they have one and the same
temptations, and one and the same confession.

It were wel] if we understood all this. Perhaps
the reason why the standard of holiness among us is
so low, why our attainments are so poor, our view
of the truth so dim, our belief so unreal, our general
notions so artificial and external, is this, that we
dare not trust each other with the secret of our
hearts. We have each the same secret, and we keep
it to ourselves, and we fear that, as a cause of
estrangement, which really would be a bond of union.
We do not probe the woun ds of our nature tho-
roughly; we do not lay the foundation of our reli-
gions profession in the ground of our heart ; we
make clean the outside of things ; we are amiable
and friendly to each other in words and deeds, but
our love is not enlarged, our bowels of affection are
straitened, and we fear to let the intercourse begin
at the root ; and, in consoquen<ie, our religion, viewed
as a social system, is hollow. The presence of Christ
is not in it.

To conclude. If it be awful to tell to another in
our own way what we are, what will be the awful-
ness of that Day when the secrets of all hearts shall
be disclosed ! Let us ever bear this in mind when

CHRISTIAN SYMPATHY.

we fear that others should know what we really are ;
— whether we are right or wrong in hiding our eins
now, it is a vain notion if we suppose they will
always be hidden. The Day shall declare it; the
Lord will come in judgment ; He " will bring to
light the hidden things of darkness, and will make
manifest the counsels of the hearts'." AVith this
thought before us, surely it is a little thing whether
or not man knows us here. Then will be knowledge
without sympathy; then will be shame with ever-
lasting contempt. Now though there be shame,
there is comfort and a soothing relief; though there
be awe, it is greater on the side of him who fears
than of him who makes ayowal.

SERMON X.

RIGHTEOUSNESS NOT OF US, BUT IN US.

1 Cor. i. 30, 31.

" Of Him are ye in ChriBt Jesus, who of God is made unto

us wisdom, and rigbteousness, and sanctification, and redemp-

tion ; that, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him

glory in the Lord."

St. Paul is engaged, in the chapter from which
these words are taken, in humbhng the self-conceit
of the Corinthiana. They had had gifts given them ;
they did not forget they had them ; they used, they
abused them ; they forgot, not that they were theirs,
but that they were given them. They seem to have
thought that those gifts were theirs by a sort of
right, because they were persons of more cultiva-
tion of mind than others, of more knowledge, more
refinement. Corinth was a "wealthy place ; it was
a place where all nations met, and where men saw
much of the world ; and it was a place of science
It had indeed some good thing
l2

148

RIGHTEOUSNESS

[S«,

in it which Athena had not. The wise men of
Athens heard the Apostle and despieeU him, but
of Corinth it waa said to him by Christ Himself,
"I have much people in this city '." Yet, though
there were elect of God at Corinth, yet in a place
of BO much luxury and worldly wisdom, difficulties
80 great stood in the way of a simple, humble faith,
as to seduce, if it -were possible, even the elect, — as
to bring it to pass that those who were saved were
saved " as by fire." In spite of the clear view^ which
the Apostle had doubtless given them on their con-
version of their utter nothingness in themselves ; in
spite too of their confessing it, (for we can hardly
suppose that they said in so many words that their
gifts were their ovm,) yet they did not feel that they
came from God. They seemed, as it were, to claim
them, or at least to view their possession of them
aa a thing of course ; they acted as if they were their
own, not with humbleness and gratitude towards
their Giver, not with a sense of responsibility, not
with fear and tremblltig, but as if they were lords
over them, as if they had sovereign power to do
what they would with them, aa if they might use
them from themselves and for themselves.

Our bodily powers and limbs also come from God,
hut they are in such sense part of our original for-
mation, or (if I may so say) of our essence, that
though we ought ever to lift our hearts in gratitude

' Acts xviii. 10,

NOT OF US, BUT IN US.

to God while we use them, yet we use them as our
instruments, ministers, organs. They spring from
lis, and (as I may say) hold of us, and we use them
for our own purposes. Well, this seems to have
been the way in which the Corinthians used their
supernatural gifts, as if they were parts of them-
selves, — as natural faculties, instead of influences in
them, but not of them, from the Giver of all good,
— not with awe, not with reverence, not with wor-
ship. They considered themselves not members of
the Kingdom of saints, and dependent on an unseen
Lord, but still members of an earthly community,
still rich men, still scribes, still philosophers, still
disputants, who had the addition of certain gifts,
who had aggrandized their existing position by
the reception of Christianity. They became proud
when they should have been thankful. They had
forgotten that to be members of the Church they
must become as little children ; that they must
give up all, that they might win Christ; that they
must become poor in spirit to gain the true riches ;
that they must put off" philosophy if they would
speak wisdom among the perfect. And, therefore,
St, Paul reminds them that "not many wise men
after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble
are called;" and that all true powerj all' true wisdom
flows from Christ, who is " the power of God, and
the wisdom of God ;" and that all who ate Chris-
tians indeed, renounce their own power and their
own wisdom, and come to Him that He may be the

150 RIGHTEOUSNESS {Bam. 1

Source and Principle of their power, and of their
wisdom ; that they may depend on Him, and hold
of Him, not of themselves ; that they may exist in
Him, or have Him in them ; that they may be (as
it were) His members ; that they may glory simply
in Him, not in themselves. For, whereas the wis-
dom of the world is but foolishness in God's sight,
and the power of the world but weakness, Giod had
set forth His Only-begotten Son to be the First-bom
of creation, and the standard and original of true
life ; to be a vrisdom of God and a power of God,
and a " righteousness, sanctification, and redemp-
tion" of God, to all those who are found in Him.
" Of Him," says he, " are ye in Christ Jesus, who is
made unto ua a wisdom from God, namely, righte-
ousness, and sanctification, and redemption; that
according as it is written. He that glorieth, let him
glory in the Lord."

In every age of the Church, not in the primitive
age only. Christians have been tempted to pride
themselves on their ^fts, or at least to forget that
they are gifts, and to take them for granted.
Ever have they been tempted to forget their
own responsibilities, their having received what
they are bound to improve, and the duty of fear
and trembling, while improving it. On the other
hand, how they ought to behave under a sense of
their own privileges, St. Paul points out when he
says to the Philippiane, " Work out your own salva-
tion with fear and trembling, for it is God which ■

X.]

NOT OF US, BUT IN US.

151

worketb iii you both to will and to do of His good
pleasure '." God is in you for righteousness, for
sanctification, for redemption, through the Spirit
of His Son, and jou must use His influences, Hia
operations, not as your own, (God forbid !) not as
you would your own mind or your own limbs, irre-
Terently, but as His presence. All your knowledge
is from Him ; all good thoughts arc from Him ; all
power to pray is from Him ; your Baptism is from
Him ; the consecrated elements are from Him ; your
growth in holiness is from Him. You are not your
own, you have been bought with a price, and a,
mysterious power is working in you. Oh that we
felt ali this as well as were convinced of it !

This then is one of the first elements of Christian
knowledge and a Christian spirit, to refer all that
is good in us, all that we have of spiritual life and
righteousness, to Christ our Saviour ; to believe
that He works in us, or to put the same thing
more pointedly, to believe that saving truth, life,
light, and holiness are not of us, but must be in us,
I shall now enlarge on each of these two points,

1. Whatever we have, is not of us, but of God.
This surely it will not take many words to prove.
Our unassisted nature is represented in Scripture as
the source of much that is e\il, but not of any thing
that is good. We read much in Scripture of evil
coming out of the natural heart, but nothing of
good coming out of it. When did not the multi-
' Phil. ii. 13.

158 RIGHTEOUSNESS [Sbbm.

tude of men turn away from Him who is their life?
when was it that the holy were not the few, and
the unholy the many? and what does this show
but that tlie law of niaii'a nature tends to^rards evil,
not towards good ? As is the tree, so ia its fruit ;
if the fruit be evil, therefore the tree must be ctiL
When was the face of human society, which is the
fruit of human nature, other than eiil ? When was
the power of tlie world an upholder of God's truth 1
When was its wisdom an interpreter of it ? or
its rank an image of it ? Shall we look at the early
age of the world ? What fruit do we find there?
" The earth was corrupt before God, and the earth
was filled with violence." " God saw that the wicked-
ness of man was great upon the earth, and that
every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was
only evil continually. And it repented the Lord
He bad made man on the earth, and it grieved Ilim
at His heart." Shall we find good in man's nature
after the flood, more easily than before? "And the
Lord said. Behold the people is one, and they have
all one language ; and this they begin to do, and
now nothing will be restrained from them which
they have imagined to do . . . So the Lord scat-
tered them abroad from thence upon the face of all
the earth." Shall we pass on to the days of David ?
" The Lord looked down from heaven upon the
children of men, to sec if there were any that did
understand and seek God. They are all gone asid^*
they are ail together. become filthy; there is none'

X.]

NOT OF US, BUT IN US.

153

that doeth good, no not one." Three times did God
look down from heaven, and three times was man
the same, God's enemy, a rebel against his Maker.
Let us see if Solomon will lighten this fearful testi-
mony. He says, " The heart of the sons of men is
full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they
live, and after that they go to the dead." Shall we
ask of the prophet Isaiah ? He answers, " We are
all as an unclean thing, aud all our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags ; and we all do fade as a leaf; and
our iniquities as the wind have taken us away." Or
Jeremiah 1 " The heart is deceitful above all things,
aud desperately wicked." Or what did our Lord
Himself, when He came in the flesh, witness of the
fruits of the heart ? He said, " Out of the heart
proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fomica^
tions, thefts, false witnesses, blasphemies." And
will His coming have improved the world ? How
will it be, when He comes again ? " When the Son
of Man Cometh, shall He find faith on the earth ' V
What then human nature tends to, is very plain,
and according to the end, so I say must be the
beginning. If the end is evil, so is the beginning ;
if the termination is astray, the first direction is
wrong. " Out of the abundance of the heart the
mouth speaketh," and the hand worketh ; and such
as is the work and the word, such is the heart.

. 6—8. Ps. ;

Isa. ixiv. 0. Jer. :

t. 2, 3.

Luke

Etc!, i

154 RIGHTEOUSNESS [Skmi.

Nothing then can be more certain, if we go by
Scripture, not to apeak of experience, than that the
present nature of man is evil, and not good ; that
evil things come from it, and not good thiogs. If
good things come from it, they are the exception,
and therefore not of it, but in it merely ; first ^'i m n
to it, and then coming from it ; not of it by nai : ■ ,
but in it by grace. Our Lord says expressly, " Tiiat
which is bom of the flesh, is flesh : and that which is
bom of the Spirit, is spirit. Marvel not that I say
unto thee. Ye must be bom again'." And agaio,
" Without Me ye can do nothing ' ;'* and St. Paul
" I can do all things through Christ, that strengthen-
eth me." And again, in the Epistle before us, " Who
maketh thee to differ from another ? and what hast
thou that thou didst not receive ? now if thou
didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou
hadst not received it ^ ?"

This is that great truth which is the foundation of
all true doctrine as to the way of salvation. All teach-
ing about duty and obedience, about attaining heaven,
and about the office of Clirist towards us, is hollow
and unsubstantial, -which is not built here, in the
doctrine of our original corruption and helplessness;
and, in consequence, of original guilt and sin. Christ
Himself indeed is the foundation, but a broken self-
abased, self-renouncing heart is (as it were) the
ground and soil in which the foundation must be

NOT OF US, BUT IN US.

laid ; and it is but building on the sand to profess
to believe in Christ, yet not to acknowledge that
without Him we can do nothing. It is what is
called the Pelagian heresy, of which many of us
perhaps have heard the name. I am not indeed
formally stating what that heresy consists in, but I
mean, that, speaking popularly, I may call it the
belief, that " holy desires, good counsels, and just
works," can come of us, can he from us, as well as
in us: whereas they are from God only,; from
whom, and not from ourselves, is that righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption, which is in us, — from
whom is the washing away of our inward guilt, and
the implanting in us of a new nature. But when
men take it for granted that they are natural ob-
jects of God's favoiu", — when they view their privi-
leges and powers as natural things, — when they
look upon their Baptism as an ordinary wort, bring-
ing about its results as a matter of course, — when
they come to Church without feeling that they are
highly favouredin being allowed to come,— when they
do not understand the necessity of prayer for God's
grace, — when they refer every thing to system, and
subject the provisions of God's free bounty to the laws
of cause and effect, — when they think that education
will do every thing, and that education is in their own
power, — when in short they think little of the Church
of God, which is the great channel of God's mercies,
and look upon the Gospel as a sort of literature or
philosophy, contained in certain documents, which

156 RIGHTEOUSNESS [Sbi

they may use as they use the instruction of other
books ; then, not to mention other instances, are
they practically Pelagians, for they make themselves
their own centre, instead of flepending on Almighty
God and His ordinances.

2. And, secondly, while truth and righteousness
are not of us, it is quite as certain that they are
also in us if we he Christ's ; not merely nominally
given to us and imputed to us, but really implanted
in us by the operation of the Blessed Spirit. Our
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, when He came on
earth in our flesh, made a perfect atonement, " sacri-
fice, oblation, and satisfaction for the sins of the
whole world." He was bom of a womaji. He
wrought miracles, He fasted and was tempted in
the desert. He suffered and was crucified, He was
dead and buried ; He rose again from the dead. He
ascended on high, and " fiveth ever" with the Father,
■ — all for our sakes. And as His incarnation and
death were in order to our salvation, so He accom-
plished the end which that humiliation had in view.
All was done that needed to be done except what
could not be done at a time, when they were not
yet in existence on whom it was to he done. AH
was done for us except the actual grant of mercy
made to us one by one. He saved us by anticipa^
lion, but we were not yet saved in fact, for as yet we
were not. But every thing short of this was then
finished. Satan was vanquished ; sin was atoned
for ; the penalty was paid ; God was propitiated ;

X.]

NOT OF US, BUT IN US.

157

righteousness, sanctification, redemption, life, all
were provided for the sons of Adam; and all that
remained to do was to dispense, to impart, these
divine gifts to them one by one. This was not done,
because it could not be done all at once ; it could
not be done forthwith to individuals, and salvation
was designed in God's counsels to be an individual
gift. He did not once for all restore the whole race,
and change the condition of the world in His sight
immediately on Christ's death. The sun did not rise
on Easter-day, nor did He rise from the grave, on a
new world, but on the old world, the sinful rebellious
outcast world as before. Men. were just what they
had been, both in themselves and in His sight. They
were guilty and corrupt before His crucifixion, and
so they were after it ; so they remain to this day,
except so far as He by His free bounty and at His
absolute will vouchsafes to impart the gift of His
passion to this man or that. He provided, not gave
salvation, when He suffered; and there must be a
giving or applying in the case of all those who
are to be saved. ' The gift of life is in us, as truly
as it is not of us ; it is not on]y_/}-om Him but it is
unto us. This must carefully be borne in mind, for
as there are those who consider that life, righteous-
ness, and salvation are of us, so there are others
who hold that they are not in us; and as there
are many who more or less forget that justifi-
cation is of God, so there are quite as many who
more or less forget that justification must he in

158 RIGHTEOUSNESS [Sk

man if it is to profit him. And it is bard to saj
which of the two errors is the gT^ater.

But there is another ground for saying that Christ
did not finish His gracious economy by His death
viz. because the Holy Spirit came in order to fini^
it. When He ascended, He did not leave us to
ourselves ; so far the work was not done. He sent
His Spirit. Were all finished as regards iudividuals,
why should the Holy Ghost have condescended to
come ? But the Sjiirit came to finish in us what
Christ had finished in Himself, but left unfinished
as regards us. To Him are committed to apply to
us all that Christ had done for us. As then His
mission proves on the one hand that salvation is not
from ourselves, so does It on the other that it must
be wrought in us. For if all gifts of grace are with
the Spirit, and the presence of the Spirit is within
us, it follows that these gifts are to be manifested
and wrought in us. If Christ is our sole hope, and
Christ is given to us by the Spirit, and the Spin!
be an inward presence, our sole hope is in an in-
ward change. As a light placed in a room pours
out its rays on all sides, so the presence of the
Holy Ghost imbues us with life, strength, holi-
ness, love, acceptableness, righteousness. God lookS'
on us in mercy, because He sees in us " the mind of
the Spirit," for whoso has this mind has holiness and
righteousness within him. Henceforth all his
thoughts, words, and works, as done in the Spirit,
are acceptable, pleasing, just before God; and what-

ever remaining iufirmity there be in him, that the
presence of the Spirit hides. That divine influence,
■which has the fulness of Christ's grace to purify us,
has also the power of Christ's blood to justify.

Let us never lose sight of tins great and simple
view, which the whole of Scripture sets before us.
What was actually done by Christ in the fiesh eigh-
teen hundred years ago, is in type and resemblance
really wrought in us one by one even to the end of
time. He was bom of the Spirit, and we too are born
of the Spirit. He was justified by the Spirit, and so
are we. He was pronounced the well-beloved Son,
when the Holy Ghost descended on Him ; and we
too cry Abba, Father, through the Spirit sent into our
hearts. He was led into the ■wilderness by the
Spirit ; He did great works by the Spirit ; He
offered Himself to death by the Eternal Spirit ; He
■was raised from the dead by the Spirit ; He was
declared to he the Son of God by the Spirit of holi-
ness on His resurrection : we too are led by the
same Spirit into and through this world's tempta-
tions ; we too, do our works of obedience by the
Spirit ; we die from sin, we rise again unto righte-
ousness through the Spirit ; and we are declared to
be God's sons, — declared, pronounced, dealt with as
righteous, — through our resurrection unto holiness
in the Spirit. Or, to express the same great truth
in other words ; Christ Himself vouchsafes to repeat
in each of us in figure and mystery all that He did
and suffered in the flesh. He is formed in us, born

leO RIGHTEOUSNESS [S«t«.

in UB, suffers in us, rises again in us, lives in us ; and
this uot by a successioTi of events, but all at once :
for He conies to us as a Spirit, all dying, all rising
again, all living. We arc ever being bom, ever being
justified, ever lieing renewed, dying to sin, rising
to rigliteousness. His whole economy in all its parts
is ever in ua all at once; and thia divine presence
constitutes the title of each of us to heaven ; this is
what He will acknowledge and accept at the last
day. He will acknowledge Himself, — His image ia
us, — as though we reflected Him, and He, on look'
ing round about, discerned at once who were His
thoee, namely, who gave back to Him His imaga
He impresses us with the seal of the Spirit, in
order to avouch that we are His. As the king's
image appropriates the coin to him, so the likeness
of Christ in us separates us from the world
assigns us over to the kingdom of heaven.

Scripture is full of texts to show that s^vatioif
ia an inward gift. For instance: What is it that
rescues us irom being reprobates ? " Know ye not,'
says St. Paul, " that Jesus Christ is in you, except
ye be reprobates," What is our hope ? " Christ in
us, the hope of glory." What is it that haUows and
justifies ? " The Name of the Lord Jesus, and the
Spirit of our God." What makes our offeringB
acceptable? "Being sanctified by the Holy Ghost.
What is our life? "The Spirit is life because of
rigliteousness." How are we enabled to fulfil the
law? "The righteousness of the law is fulfilled in

X.]

NOT OF US, BUT IN US.

161

US who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit."
Who is it makes us righteous ? " The fruit of the
Spirit is in all goodness, and righteousness, and
truth '."

To conclude. — I have said that there are two
opposite errors : one, the holding that salvation is
not of God; the other, that it is not in ourselves.
Now it is remarkable that the maiutainers of both
the one and the other error, whatever their differ-
ences in other respects, agree in this, — in depriving
a Christian life of its mysteriousness. He who
believes that he can please God of himself, or that
obedience can be performed by his own powers, of
course has nothing more of awe, reverence, and
wonder in his personal religion, than when he
moves his limbs and uses his reason, though he
might well feel awe then also. And in like
manner he also who considers that Christ's passion
once undergone on the Cross absolutely secured his
own personal salvation, may see mystery indeed in
that Cross (as he ought), but he will see no mystery,
and feel little solemnity, in prayer, in ordinances, or
in his attempts at obedience. He will be free,
familiar, and presuming, in God's presence. Neither
will " work out their salvation with fear and trem-
bling ;" for neither will realize, though they use
the words, that God is in them " to will and to do."

' 2 Cor. xiii. 5. Col. i
Rom. viii. 10. Eph. v. i
VOL. v.

Corinth thought eveu of His last and best, lightly
and unthaiikfully.

Sinful feelings and passions generally take upon
themselves the semblance of reason, and aflfeet to
argue. The Jews, whom St. Paul is opposing in
the text, disguised from themselves their own un-
belief in this way; and this has turned out a benefit
to the Church ever since, as having led St. Paul, in
consequence, to set forth views of the Gospel which
otherwise might not have come to us with the
authority of inspiration. The text contains such a
view, expressed very concisely, which I now propose
to explain ; and, after doing so, I will add a few
words on the feelings of the Jews, in contrast with
the doctrine it contains.

St. Paul tells us, that " Christ is the end of the
Law for righteousness to every one that belieTeth."
Here are three subjects which call for remark ::
the Law, Righteousness, and Faith. I will spe&k:
of them in succession,

1. In the first place, of " the Law." By the Law is,
meant the eternal unchangeable Law of God, which
is the revelation of His wiU, the standard of perfec-
tion, and the mould and fashion to which all crea^
tures must conform, as they would be happy. God
is holy, and His Law is holy. His Law is the
image of Himself ; it is the word of Life and Truth
commanding that of which He is the perfect pat^
tern. " Be ye holy," He says, " for I am holy."
" Be ye perfect, even as your Father which is in

XI.]

THE LAW OF THE SPIRIT.

165

heaven is perfect '." His Law is the declaration
of His infinite and glorious attributes, and thereby
becomes the rule by which all beings imitate,
approach, and resemble Him. And when He
created them, He provided that it should be to
them what it ought to be. God loves holiness, and
therefore, as became a good and kind Father, He
created all His children holy. He created them to
be His children, not His enemies ; beings in whom
He might take pleasure ; who might be near Him,
not far oif from Him ; whom He might love and
reward. He formed them upon the pattern of the
Law ; He moulded them into symmetry by means
of it. He created man " in His own Image," and
" after His likeness ;" that is, upon the type of the
Law. He put His Spirit within Him, and set up
the Law in His heart ; so that, what He is in His
infinite nature, such was man, such was Adam in a
finite nature, — perfect after his kind.

And in this sense, the Law given to the Israel-
ites from Mount Sinai is called in Scripture, and
may be considered, the holy and eternal Law of
God. Not that any number of commandments,
uttered in man's language and written upon tables,
could be commensurate with what is of an infinite
. and of a spiritual nature ; not that a code of pre-
cepts, addressed to one portion of a fallen race, in
one country, and in one particular state of moral

' 1 Pet. i. 16. Matt. ■

THE LAW OF THE SPIRIT.

and social existence, could rise to the majesty and
beauty of what is perfect; — but that tlie La'w of
Moses represented the Law of God in its place and
age ; was the fullest reTelation of it, and the nearest
approximation to it, then vouchsafed ; and was that
Law, as far as it went. As Adam, a child of the
dust, was also an " image of God ;" so the Jewish
Law, though earthly and temporary, had at the
same time a divine character. It was the light of
God shining in a gross medium, in order that it
might be " comprehended ;" and if it did not teach
the chosen people all, it taught them much, and in
the only way in which they could be taught it.
And hence, as in the text, St. Paul, when on the
subject of the Jews, speaks of their Law as if it
were the eternal Law of God ; and so it was, but
only brought down to its hearers, and condescend-
ing to their infirmity.

2. Such is " the Law," as spoken of in the text ;
and by " Righteousness," is meant conformity to the
Law, — that one state of soul which is pleasing to
God. It is a relative word, having reference to a
standard set up, and expressing a fulfilment of its
requirements. To be righteous is to act up to the
Law, whatever the Law be, and thereby to be
acceptable to Him who gave it. Such Adam was.
in paradise ; the Law was his inward life, and
Almighty God dealt with him accordingly, — called,
accounted, dealt with bim as righteous, because he
was righteous.

XI,] THE LAW OF THE SPIRIT. 167

It was far otherwise with him when be had fallen.
lie then Jirfeited tbe presence of the Holy Spirit;
he no longer fulfilled the Law; he lost his righte-
ousness, and he knew he had lost it. He knew it
before God told him ; he condemned himself, be
pronounced himself unrighteous, before God form-
all)' rejected him from a state of justification. And
in this state he has remained, viewed in himself,
ever since ; knovring tbe Law, but not doing it ;
admiring, not loving ; assenting, not following ; not
utterly without the Law, yet not with it ; with the
Law, not within bim, but before him, — not any
longer in bis heart, as the pillar of a cloud, which
was a gracious token and a guide to the Israelites,
hut departing from him, and moving away, and
taking up its place, as it were, over against him,
and confronting him, as an enemy, accuser, and
avenger. It was a cloud and darkness, instead of
a pillar of light ; and from it tbe Lord looked out
upon bira, and troubled him. Or in St. Paul's
words, " the commandment, which was ordained to
life, be found to be unto death '." What bad been
a law of innocence, became a law of conscience ■
what was freedom, became bondage ; what was
peace, became dread and misery.

Let us thank God that dread and misery are left
us. Better is it that the Law remain to us exter-
nally, and in tbe way of an upbraiding conscience,

THE L.4W OF THE SPIRIT. [Smk.

than that it should be utterly removed. While,
and 90 far as, it so remains, our own judgment upon
ourselves is a warning to us, what the judgrnent of
God will be hereafter, what Hia view of us is at
present. For is not the pain of a had conscience
diflferent from any other pain that we know ? I do
not ask whether it is greater or less than pther
pain, but whether it is not unlike any other, pecu-
liar and individual. Can it he compensated and
overcome hy the wages of sin, whatever thej be, —
or, rather, does it not, while it lasts, remain dis-
tinctly perceptible and entire in the midst of them ?
In it, then, we have a figure of the wrath of Grod
upon transgressors of the Law ; the pain which it
inflicts on us at times, or in certain cases, is a sort
of indication how God regards, and will one day
visit, all sins, according to the sure word of Scrip-
ture. Take an instance, which, though extreme^
will serve to explain what I would say. What
accounts we read of the frightful sleepless remorse
which murderers have before now shown ! so much
BO, that, though no one knew their crime, yet they
could not help confessing it, — as if death were a,
lighter suffering than a bad conscience. Here you
see the misery of being unjustified. Or, again, con-
sider the peculiar piercing distress which follows
upon the commission of sins of impurity ; — here you
have a corroboration in a particular instance of
what Scripture affirms generally, concerning the
misery of sinning. Or think of those indescribable

XL] THE LAW OF THE SPIRIT. 169

feelings in our nature, to whieh our first parent
alludes, when he says, " I keard Thy voice in the
garden, and I was afraid, because T was naked; and
I hid myself." Are not these feelings a type of
the horror with which Angels now look, with which
we shall look hereafter, upon all transgression of
the Law, or unrighteousness ?

Unrighteousness then is a state of misery, fright-
ful as the murderer's, acute as theirs who follow
Belial, and overpowering as Adam's when he fled
from Grod. And from this state Christ came to save
us, by bringing us back again to righteousness. Man
was righteous at the first, because the Law of God
ruled him ; he became unrighteous when this Law
ceased to rule him ; and he becomes righteous again
by the Law of God once more ruling him. He
was righteous at the fii-st by the presence of the
Holy Spirit, which enabled him to obey the Law ;
and such too is his second righteousness. And thus
the words of the text are fulfilled; " Christ is the
end of the Law for " or unto " righteousness." He
effects what the Law contemplates and enjoins, but
cannot accomplish, our righteousness. And how ?
St. Paul does not mention it in the text, but in
many other places in his Epistles ; viz. by that great
gift of His passion, the abiding influence of the
Holy Ghost, which enables us to offer to God an
acceptable obedience, such as by nature we cannot
offer.

' Gen. iii. 10.

Now let rae show from Scripture some of these
points on which I have been insisting.

First, not much need be said to make it plmn
that by nature we cannot please God, or, in other
words, have no principle of righteousness in u&
St. Paul says in so many words, " They that are in
the flesh cannot please God ;" and Just before, " The
carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not
subject to the Law of God, neither indeed can be."
In the foregoing chapter he says, " We know that
the law is sjiiritual ; but I am carnal, sold under sin.
For that which I do, I allow not ; for what I -would,
that do I not ; but what I hate, that do I. I know
that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good
thing." Again, " By the deeds of the Law there
shall no flesh be justified in His sight; for by the
Law is the knowledge of sin." In like manner the
prophet Isaiah says, " We arc all as an uncleaa
thing; and all our righteousnesses are as filthy
rags'." Such is our state by nature ; the best things
we do are displeasing to God in themselves, as
savouring of the Old Adam, and being works of the
flesh and not spiritual.

And as this is our natural state, so the desire of
religious men, and the one promise of a merciful
Gud has ever been, that we should be made obe-
dient to the Law, or righteous. Thus David says,
" Thou requirest truth in the inward parts ; and

' Rom. viii. 7, 8 ; vii. 14, 15. 18 ; iii. 20. la. Ixiv. 6.

slialt make me to understand ■wisdom secretly.
Thou slialt purge me with hyssop, and I shall be
clean ; thou shalt wash me, and I shall be whiter
than snow. Make me a clean kcai-t, O God, aud
renew a right spirit within me, O give me the com-
fort of Thy help again; and stahlish me with Thy free
Spirit." Again, " I will wash my hands in innoceficy,
O Lord, and so will I go to thine altar." Again,
" Give me understanding, and I shall keep Thy Law,
yea, / shaU keep it with my whole heart . . . Behold
my delight is in Thy commandments. O quicken
me in Thy righteousness." " Teach me to do the
thing that pleaseth Thee ; for Thou art my God : let
Thy loving Spirit lead me forth into the land of
righteousness^"

And what Psalmists ask. Prophets promise. They
make it the one great distinction of Gospel times,
that that original righteousness which is so necessary
for us, and from which we are so far gone, should be
vouchsafed again to us, aud that through the Spirit.
Daniel states the object of Christ's coming to be the
" making reconciliation for iniquity, and bringing in
everlasting righteousness." Malachi says that Christ
should " purify the sons of Levi," that they may
" offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness."
In Isaiah Almighty God speaks to them " that know
righteousness" viz, " the people in whose heart is
My law ;" and he also speaks of " the Spirit being

' Ps. li. 6, 7. 10. 12; j

. 6; <

iO. 40; cxliii. 10.

poured upon us from on high," and in consequeneti
of " rigkieoiisness remaining in the fruitful field, and
the work of righteousness being peace, and the effed
of righteousness, quielness and assurance for ever."
Still more clear is the prophet Jeremiah in decli
ring what the Gosjwl gift consists in ; " Behold the
days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new
covenant with the house of Israel and with the house
of Judah: I \f\\[pui Mj/ law in their inward parts, and
write it in their hearts." In similar terms does th«
prophet Ezekiel describe the great gift of the Gospel,
" A new heart also will I give you, and a Jtetc spirii
will I put within you; and I will put My Spirii
within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes^
and ye shall keep My judgments and do them,
Again elsewhere the prophet Isaiah calls this new
nature, or righteousness, or gift of the Spirit, which
the Gospel furnishes, a sort of garment or robe of
the soul, being that glory which Adam had before
sin stripped him of it ; " He hath clothed me with
the garment of salvation. He hath covered me with
the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh
himself with ornaments, and as a bride adometh
herself with her jewels." With this passage must
be compared St. John's words in the Revelations,
" The marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife
hath made herself ready. And to her was granted
that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and
white ;y(w the fine litien is the righteousness of saints.
Our Lord also speaks of the great gift of the

THE LAW OF THE SPIRIT.

Gospel under the same figure, when He tells us of
the man who came to the marriage feast without a
wedding-garment, that is, without righteousness or
holiness'.

Thus, if we listen to the Toiees of the prophets,
we must helieve that the righteousness of the Law
really is fulfilled in us under the Gospel through the
Spirit ; — but as this is a truth in this day denied by
some persons, it may be well to insist upon it.

Now that it is a plain truth of Scripture, is
proved, in addition to what has been said, by those
numerous passages which speak of holy men as
" righteous before God." This is an expression to
which we shall do well to attend, as being an addi-
tional explanation of the word " righteousness ;" for
if holy men are righteous befmx God, they come up
to God's staiidard of perfection. The phrase " in
the sight of" or " before " often occurs in Scripture,
and it means " in th.e judgment," " witb tlie loitness"
of him or them to whom it is applied. Thus in the
last chapter of St. Luke, where it is said, " Their
words seemed to them as idle tales," this stands in
the original Greek, " Their words seemed in their
sight" or " before them" that is, " in their jvdgment."
And hence when St. Paul speaks with an oath, he
uses these words, " Now the things which I write
unto you, behold, before God, I lie not," that is

' Dan. ix. 24. Mai. iii. 3. Is. li. 7; sxsii. 15, 16, 17.
Jer. xxxi. 31. Ez. xxxvi. 26, 27. Is. Ixi. 10. Rev. xix. 7, 8.

THE LAW OF THE SPIRIT.

" with the witness of God," And so Peter and John
answer the council, " Whether it be right in ihe
sight of God to hearkeii unto you more than unto
God, judge ye," i. e., " in the presence " and " with
the witness of God." And hence the Angels are
said " to stand in the presence of God," or to be
" before His throne," for they can bear it. And on
the other hand, the prodigal son says, " Father, I
have sinned 6efwe thee^ that is, I know that thou
art conscious of my sin. When then it is said, as
it so often is said in Scripture, that the righteous
are righteous " before God," this means that their
righteousness is not merely the name or semblance
of righteousness, nor righteousness up to an earthly
standard, but a real and true righteousness which
approves itself to God. They are able to stand
hefore God and yet not be condemned. They are
not sinners before God, hut they are righteous before
God, and bear His scrutiny. By nature no one can
stand in His presence. " AH the world hecomes
guilty hefore God'' " By the deeds of the Law no
flesh shall be justified in His sight f" How then are
we able to come before Him ? How shall we stand
in His sight ? The answer is given us in the Old
Testament, in the words of Balaam to Balak. Balak
asked, " Wherewith shall I co]ne hefore the Lord,
and bow myself before the High God ?" and the
answer was, " He hath showed thee, O man, what
is good ; and what doth the Lord require of thee,
but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk

THE LAW OF THE SPIRIT.

humbly with thy God ?" Or again, the answer may
be given in the words of Zacharias, who blesses the
Lord God of Israel for fulfilling His promise, and
enabling uh to come into His presence to "serve
Ilim, without fear, in holiness and righteousness
before Him.^' And accordingly, to come to the
case of individuals, Noah, even before the Gospel
times, is said to have " found grace in the eyes of the
Lord." Why ? Because, iu the words of Almighty
God to Him, " Thee have I seen righteous before
Me" or, in My sight, "-in this generation;" and
Daniel escaped the lions, " foi-asmuch as before God
innocency was found in him." In like manner Za-
charias and Elizabeth " were both righteous before
God," or in the judgment of God. It was told
Cornelius that " his prayers and alms had come up
for a memorial in the sight" or judgment, of God.
And St. Paul speaks of intercession for governors
being " good and acceptable in the sight of God our
Saviour." And he prays for his brethren that God
would " work in them that which is well pleasing
in His sight," or judgment. St. Peter too speaks of
a " meek and quiet spirit," being, " in the sight of
God, of great price." And St, John, that " we re-
ceive what we ask of Him, because we do those
tilings that are pleasing in His sight." And hence
Christ warns the church of Sardis to " be watchful,
and strengthen the things which remain, which are
ready to die;" for. He says, " I have not found thy
M'orks perfect before God," or in the witness of God.

176 THE LAW OF THE SPIRIT. [Sw

And accordingly the word " witness " is itself used I
elsewhere to express the same thing, as in the Id-
stance of Abel, who, St. Paul says, by his " more
excellent sacrifice," " obtained ivitness that he was
righteous ; God testifying of his gifts'." If then it
is plain from Scripture, as it is, that by nature we
are unrighteous in God's sight, and cannot stand
before God, the same Scripture also proves that by
the gift of grace we arc righteous, and can stand
before Him ; and it is as easy, by some evasion, to
explain away the Scripture proofs for the doctrine
of original sin, as those which Scripture furnishes
us for the doctrine of implanted righteousness, and
that through the S]tirit.

St. PanI has a immber of other passages concern-
ing the office of the Holy Spirit, which are equally
apposite to show that He vouchsafes to give us in-
ward righteousness under the Gospel, or to justify,
or make us acceptable to God. For instance, he
says, " Ye are washed, ye are sanctified, ye are jus-
tified in the Name of the Lord Jesus, and by the
Spirit of our God." Elsewhere he first calls the
Gospel " the ministration of the Spirit" and in the
next verse, " the ministration of righteousness."
Elsewhere he speaks of the Holy Ghost as " the

'Lukexxiv. 11. Gal.

. 20. Actsiv. 19. Lutei. 19.

viii. 2 ; i. 5. Rom. iii.

19. Mic. vi. 8. Luke i. 74

Gen. vii. 1. Dan. TJ. 22.

Luke i. 6. Acts X. 4. 1 Tim.

Heb. xiii. 21. 1 Pet. i

i. 4. I John iii. 22. Rev. u

Heb. si. 4.

THE LAW OF THE SPIRIT.

Spirit of adoption." And he intimates that " the
righteousness of the Law" is "fidfiUed" in those
" who walk after the Spirit." " Again he says that
the presence of the Spirit in us pleads, as it were,
for us with the Father, " making intercession for us
with plaints unutterable ;" and tliat God, " who
searcheth the hearts," " k/mweth what is the mind of
the Spirit, because He niaketh intercession for the
Baints, according," or, in a way acceptable, " to God."
And elsewhere he contrasts the state of nature and
the state of grace in this plain way, clearly implying
that that inward gift of righteousnesa which we lost
in Adam we have recovered iu Christ ; " As by the
offence of one, judgment came ujion all men to con-
demnation, even so by the righteousness of One the
free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.
For as by one man's disobedience many were made
sinners, so by the disobedience of One shall many be
made righteous . . . that, as sin hath reigned unto
death, even so might grace reign through righteous-
ness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord'."
Sin, which we derive through Adam, is not a name
merely, but a dreadful reality ; and so our new righ-
teousness also is a real and not a merely imputed
righteousness. It is real righteousness, because it
comes from the Holy and Divine Spirit, who vouch-

MCor. vi. 11. 2 Cor.iii. 8, 9. Gal. iv. 5, 6. Rom. viii.
6, 27; V. 18—21.
VOL. V. N

safes, in our Clmrch'g language, to pour it into otifi
hearts, and who thus makes us acceptable to God
as by nature, on account of original sin, we are dis-
pleasing to Him. We are " not in the flesh, but in
the Spirit," and therefore in a state ai grace. Agaiiii
St. Paul speaks of the " offering of the Gentile*
being acceptadk." How acceptable ? He proceeds,
" being sanctified by the Holy Ghost." He speakS'
of presenting our " bodies as a living sacrifice, holy,
acceptable unto God." He says that Christ has *' saved
us, according to His mercy, by the washing of rege-
neration, and the renewing of the Holy Ghost," and
that we are able thereby to " walk worthy of the
Lord unto all pleasing' ."

Such then is the meaning of the words of the tex^
"Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness."
As if the Apostle said. Would you fulfil the righte-
ousness of the Law? You cannot in your own
strength. You cannot without that divine gift
which His passion has purchased, the gift of the
Spirit; with it "the righteousness of the Law ma^
be fulfilled in you." Christ then is the end of the
Law for righteousness, because He effects the pur*
pose of the Law. He brings that about which
" the Law cannot do, because it is weak through
the flesh," through our unregenerate, unrenewed,
carnal nature.

' Rom. sv. 16; xii. 1. Tit. iii. 5, Col. i. 10.

THE LAW OF THE SPIRIT.

3. But here this question may be asked, — " How
can we be said to fulfil the Law, and to offer an
acceptable obedience, since we do not obey perfectly ?
At best we only obey in part ; the best obedience
of ours is sullied with imperfection. Even with the
gift of the Spirit, we do nothing which will bear the
strict inspection of a holy and just Judge. Adam,
on the other hand, had no sinful nature at all,
before his fall ; there was notbing in him to coun-
teract or to defile the influences of grace. He then
might be justified by his inward righteousness, but
we cannot."

I answer as follows : — We can only be justified,
certainly, by what is perfect ; no work of oure, as
fer as it is ours, is perfect ; and, therefore, by no
work of ours, viewed in its human imperfections,
are we justified. But when I speak of our righte-
ousness, I speak of the work of the Spirit, and this
work, though imperfect, considered as ours, is per-
fect aa far as it comes from Him. Our works, done
in the Spirit of Christ, have a justifying principle
in them, and that is the presence of the All-holy
Spirit. His influences are infinitely pleasing to
God, and able to overcome in His sight all our
own infirmities and demerits. This we are ex-
pressly told by St. Paul, in reference to one work
of the Holy Ghost, the exercise of prayer, as I
just now quoted his words. "He that searcheth
the hearts, knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit,
because He maketh intercession for the saints."
n2

"180 THE LAW OF THE SPIRIT. [S»

that is, in their hearts, "according to God '." Not
then for any thing of our own are we acceptable to
God, but for the work of grace in us ; and as having
this work of grace in us, we are acceptable. Ani
this Divine Presence in us, makes us altogethei
pleasing to God. It makes those works pleasing
to God, which it jiroduces, though human infirmity
be mixed with them ; it hallows those acts, that lif^
that obedience of which it is the original causey
and which it orders and fashions ; so that our new
obedience or righteousness is justifying, tboug'b im-
perfect, not for its own sake, but for this new i
heavenly principle of grace infiised into it.

But again, there is another reason why, for Christ^
sake, we are dealt with as perfectly righteouB,
though we be not so. Not only for the Spirit'*
presence in ns, but for what is ours ; — not indeed
what is now ours, but for what we shall be. Wa
are not unreprovable and unblemished in holiness
yet, but we shall be at length through God's mercy.
They who persevere to the end, will be perfect in
soul and body, when they stand before God m
heaven; and now that perfection is beginning" in
them, now they have a gift in them which will in do*
time, through God's mercy, leaven the whole mass
■within them. They will one day be presented blame-'
less before the Throne, and they are now to labom
towards, and begin that perfect state. And in comti

XI.] THE LAW OF THE SPIRIT. 181

deration that it is liegun in tliem, God of His great
mercy imputes it to them as if it were already com-
pleted. He anticipates what will be, and treats them
as that which they are labom-ing to become. This is
what is meant by faith being imputed for righteous-
ness, which St. Paul often insists on, and which ia
implied in the last words of the text, which I have
not yet explained. " Christ is the end of the Law
for righteousness to every one that belieneth'' Faith
is the element of all perfection ; he who begins with
faith, will end in unspotted and entire holiness. It
is the earnest of a great deal more than itself, and
therefore is allowed, in God's consideration, to stand
for, to be a pledge of, to be taken in advance for,
that which it for certain will end in. He who be-
lieves has not yet perfect righteousness and un-
blameableness, but he has the first fruits of it.
And all through a man's life, whether his righteous
deeds be more or less, or his righteousness of heart
more or less, his faith is something quite distinct
from any thing he had in a state of nature, and
though it does not satisfy the requirements of God's
law, yet since it tends to perfection, it is mercifully
taken as perfection. " Abraham believed God, and
it was counted to him for righteousness," because
God, who sees the end from the beginning, knew
it would end in perfect and unblemished righteous-^
nesa. And in like manner to us " it shall be im-
puted, if we believe on Him that raised up Jesus

182

THE LAW OF THE SPIRIT.

[Sn

our Lord from the dead, who was delivered for our 1
offences, and raised again for our justification *."

4. Lastly, such being the Law, such our righte- 1
ousness, such the work of Christ in uh through the
Spirit, and such the office of faith, we see what the
loistake of the Jews was, of which so much is said
in St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans, and which |
seems to be the reason why the text itself was
written. They were in a path which never would
lead to holiness and heaven. They were in a state '
which was destitute of grace and help. They ■were
under the threatening and condemning Law. Many I
good men doubtless there had been, and were
under the Law, but their spiritual excellence was
not from the Law, but from the Gospel, the bless-
ings of which were anticipated under it, and which
the Apostle was at that time preaching throughont
the world. But the Pharisees and others, not
understanding the real nature and office of their
Law, and the reason why God had given it through
Moses, thought to be saved by it, — thought it led
to heaven. "Whereupon St. Paul attempted to
show them that they were, as I may say, in the
wrong road: They aimed at eternal life ; that was
the object towards which they professed to be
travelling. Now St. Paul told them that the
Jewish Law did not lead to it. He said that if

' Rom. iv. 24, 25.

THE LAW OF THE SPIRIT.

they desired to reach the eternal rest of heaven,
they must betake themselves to another road.
And that they could not, as it were, cross over
into it, but that they must go back and enter in
at the gate, and that this gate was faith. He said
that the further they went on in their present
course, the less they would really advance towards
their object ; and though it seemed lost time going
back, it was not so. They might do as many works
and services as they would in their present state,
but these would not advance them at all, and why ?
Not that works were not necessary, God forbid !
but that such works were not good works; that
no works were good works but those done in the
Spirit, and that nothing could gain them the gift
of the Spirit but iaith in Christ. They desired to
be righteous ; it was well ; but Christ alone was
" the end of the Law for righteousness to every one
that believed." They desired to fulfil the Law ;
well then, let them seek " the Law of the Spirit of
life," whereby " the righteousness of the Law might
be fulfilled in them." They desired the reward of
righteousness ; be it so ; let them then " wait
through the Spirit for the hope of righteousness
by faith'." But they were too proud to con-
fess that they had any thing to learn, to begin
again, to submit to be taught, to believe in Him,
they had crucified, to come suppliantly for the

THE LAW OF THE SPIRIT.

gift of the Spirit. They refused the true righteous-
ness which God had provided, thinking they were
righteous as they were, and that they could be saved
in the flesh. Hence St. Paul says, " They, being
ignorant of God's righteousness, and going- about
to establish their own righteousness, have not sub-
mitted themselves unto the righteousness of God'."
They thought that faith was something mean and
weak, so it was ; and, therefore, that it was unable
to do great things, so it was not; for Christ's
strength is made perfect in weakness, and He has
chosen the despicable things of this world to put
to shaine such as are highly esteemed. They con-
sidered that they were God's people by a sort of
right, that they did not need grace, and that their
outward ceremonies and their dead works would
profit them. Therefore the Apostle warned them,
that Abraham himself was Justified, not by circum-
cision, but by faith ; that circumcision was not
taken for righteousness in his case, for it nevw
would arrive at righteousness, but that faith would
arrive, and therefore it was taken; that "to him
that worketh not, but believcth on him that justi-
fieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for rjghteous-
nes8°;" that " by grace are we saved through faith,
not of works, for we are God's workmanship,
created in Clirist Jesus unto good works ^ ;" that
by grace, then is it no more of works, otherwise

\ Rum. s. 3. ' Rum. iv. 5. •" Epli. ii. 8—10.

XL]

THE LAW OF THE SPIRIT.

185

grace is no more grace ; but if it be of works, then is
it no more grace, otherwise work is no more work'."
However, the Jews still preferred their old works to
good works ; they refused to go the way by which
alone their persons, thoughts, words, actions, ser-
vices could be made acceptable to God ; they
would not exercise that loving faith which alone
could gain for them the gift of the Spirit, and was
fruitful in true righteousness ; they refused to be
justified in God's way, and determined to use the
Law of Moses for a purpose for which it was never
given, for their justification in His sight, and for
attaining eternal life.

And in consequence God turned from them, and
gave to others what was first offered to them. He
manifested Himself to the Gentiles. Those who
had hitherto been without any tokens of God's
favour, outstripped in the race those who had long
enjoyed it. The first became last, and the last first.
" The Gentiles, which followed not after righteous-
ness, have attained to righteousness, even the righte-
ousness which is of faith ; but Israel, which followed
after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to
the law of righteousness. Wherefore? Because
they sought it, not by faith, but, as it were, by the
works of the Law ; for they stumbled at that stum-
bling-stone '."

186 THE LAW OP THE SPIRIT. [Sbrx. XL

Let us see to it, lest in any way we too stumble
at God's commands or promises ; let us beg of Him
to lead us on in His perfect and narrow way, and
to be "a lantern to our feet, and a light to our
path," while we walk in it.

SERMON XII.

THE NEW WORKS OF THE GOSPEL.

2 CoE. V. 17.

" If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature ; old things are
past away ; behold, all things are become new."

Nothing is more clearly stated, or more strongly
insisted on, by St. Paul, than the new creation, or
second beginning, or regeneration, of the world,
which has been vouchsafed in Christ. It had been
announced in prophecy, " Behold, I create new
heavens and a Tiew earth, and the former shall not be
remembered, nor come into mind." Again : " Behold,
the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a
new covenant with the house of Israel and with the
house of .Tudah. ... I will put My law in their
inward parts, and write it in their hearts, and will
he their God and they shall be My people." And
again: "A }iew heart will I give you, and a new
spirit will I put within you ; and I will take away

188 THE NEW WORKS OF THE GOSPEL. [Sei

the Btony heart out of your flesli, and I will give
you an heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit
within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes,
and ye shall keep My judgments and do them'.'
In the text, St, Paul declares the fiilfilment of these
promises in the Gospel. " If any man be in Christ,
he is a new creature ; old thinp are past atcay^ as
the heavens and earth shall pass away, at the end
of the world ; " behold, all things are become i
And hence He calls Clirist, not only " the Image of
the Invisible God," but also " the 7?»"s^-ioni of every
creature ;" or, as He calls Himself in the book of
Revelation, " the i»?^mn!Vzy of the creation of God*."
St. Paul also speaks of "the new and living way
which He hath consecrated for us throug-h His
flesh ;" of Christians having " put oif the old man
with his deeds," and having " put on the new maji,
which is renewed in knowledge, after the Image of
Him that created him ;" of " neioness of life," and
" newness of spirit ;" of '* ministers of the i\W
Testament, not of the letter, but of the Spirit ;" and
of our being God's " workmanship, axated in Christ
Jesus unto good works °." Elsewhere he says, that
true and avaihng " circumcision is that of the heart,
in the Spirit and not in the letter, whose praise ii
not of men, but of God ;" and that " circumcision

' Isa. Ixv. 17. Jer. xsxi, 31. 33. Ez. :

' Col. i. 15. Rev. iii. 14.

' Heb. X. 20. Col. iii. 9, 10. Rom. vi.

iii. 6. Eph. ii. 10.

XII.]

THE NEW WORKS OF THE GOSPEL.

189

is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing, but the
keeping the coraiuandmente of God '."

Now it may be asked, la there not some contra-
riety in these statements ? The Gospel is said to
be a new covenant, and yet, after all, it is to con-
sist in " walking in God's statutes," and " doing His
judgments," and " keeping His commandments,"
and being " created unto good works," Now these
were but the terms of the old covenant : " Fear
God and keep His commandments ;" " If thou wilt
enter into life, keep the commandments ;" " The
man that doeth those things shall live by them '."
If the new covenant be of works, too, how is the
Gospel other than the Law ? how can it justly be
called new? If the way of salvation be now what
it ever has been, how are we gainers ? What pri-
vilege is there in being brought under the Gospel ?
What has Christ done for us ? Hence some per-
sons have concluded that salvation under the Gospel
is not of works ; and in confirmation of this they
urge, that St. Paul elsewhere speaks expressly of
salvation as being not of works but of faith ; and
they allege that faith is a new way of salvation,
though works of obedience are not and cannot be.

Now there can be no doubt at all that salvation
is by faith, and that its being by faith is one of those
special circumstances which make the Gospel a new

' Rom. ii. ^9.
' Eccles. xii. 13.

covenant ; but still it may be by works also ; for, t«
use a familiar illustration, obedience is the road to
heaven, and faith the gate. Those who attempt to
be saved simply without works, are like i>er8ons who
should attempt to travel to a place, not along the
road, but across the fields. If we wish to get to
our journey's end, we shall keep to the road ; but
even theu we may go the wrong road. This was
the case with the Jews. They professed to go along
the road of works, — they did not wander into ths
fields, — so far well : but they took the wTong road.
That particular road of which faith is the gate, that
particular obedience, those particular works, which
commence in faith, these are the only right and
sure road to heaven. It is wrong to leave the road
for the open country ; again, it is wrong to go along
the wrong road ; — but it is not wrong to go along
the right road. And in like manner it is sinful to
attempt no obedience whatever; it is blind per-
versity to attempt obedience by the Je%vish law or
the law of nature ; but it is not sinful, it is not
perverse, it is nothing else than wisdom, nothing
else than true godliness, to follow after that obe-
dience which is of faith.

The illustration may be pursued further. A road
may want repairing, — it may get worse and worse as
we go on, till it ceases to be a road : it may fall off
from a road into a lane, from a lane to a path, or a
wild heath, or a marsh ; or be cut off by high impass-
able mountains ; so that a person who attempts that
13

XII]

THE NEW WORKS OF THE GOSPEL.

191

way will never arrive at his journey's end. This
was the case with the works of the Law by which
the Jews thought to gain heaven, — this is the case
with all works done in our natural strength : they
are like a road over fens or precipices, which is sure
to fail us. At first we might seem to go on well,
but we should find at length that we made no pro-
gress. We should never get to our journey's end.
Our best obedience in our own strength is worth
nothing ; it is altogether unsound, it is ever fail-
ing, it never grows firmer, it never can be reckoned
on, it does nothing well, it has nothing in it pleas-
ing or acceptable to God ; — and not only so, it is
the obedience of souls born and living under God's
wrath, for a state of nature is a state of wrath. On
the other hand, obedience which is done in faith is
done with the aid of the Holy Spirit ; it is holy and
acceptable in God's sight ; it grows habitual and
consistent ; it tends to possess the soul wholly ; and
it leads straight onward to heaven. This was the
very promise of the gospel as the prophet Isaiah
announces it. " An highway shall be there and a
way, and it shall be called the way of holiness : the
unclean shall not pass over it. . . the way-faring men,
though fools, shall not err therein '." This being
understood, we shall have no difficulty in under-
standing St. Paul's language. The way of salvation
is by works, as under the Law, but it is by " works

which spring out of faith," and which come of " tl
inspiration of the Spirit." It is because works a
living and spiritual, from the heart, and by faith, thai
the Gospel is a new covenant. Hence in the j
above quoted we are told again and again of '
law m our inward parts ;" " a new /wart ;" " a nel
spirit ;" the Holy " Spirit within us ;" " n<
life" and " circumcision of the heart in the Spirit.'
And hence St. Paul says, that though we have not
been " saved by works," yet we are created unto good
works ;" and that " the blood of Christ purg-es tlM
conscience from dead works to serve the living God '.'
Salvatiou then is not by dead works, but by living
■works. The Jews could but do dead works ; but
Christians can do good and spiritual works. Th«
Gospel covenant, then, is both a new way and not s
new way. It is not a new way seeing it is in works ;
it is a new way in that it is 61/ faith. It is, £
St. Paul words it, the " obedience of feith ;" — new
because of faith, old because obedience.

And thus there is no opposition between St
Paul and St. James. St. James says, that justi^
fication is by works, and St. Paul that it is hj
faith; but, observe, St. James does not say that it
is by dead or Jewish works ; he mentions expressly
both iaith and works ; he only says, " not faith only
but works also ;" — and St. Paul ia far from denT^
ing it is by works, he only says that it is by fiutit

XII.] THE NEW WORKS OF THE GOSPEL. 193

and denies that it is by dead works. And what
.proves this, among other circumstances, is, that he
never calls those works, which he condemns and
puts aside, good works, but simply works ; whenever
he speaks of good works in his Epistles, he speaks
of Christian works; not of Jewish, On the whole,
then, salvation is both by faith and by works. St.
James says, not dead faith, and St. Paul, not dead
works. St. James, "not by faith on/y," for that
icould be dead faith ; St. Paul, " not by works only,"
for such would be dead works. Faith alone can make
works living ; works alone can make faith living.
Take away either, and you take away both ; — he
alone has faith who has works, — ^he alone has works
who has faith.

It is not at all wonderful, then, that though the
way of salvation under the Gospel is new, still in
certain respects it is still what the Jews, nay, and
■what the heathen thought it to be. The way of
justification has in all religions been by means of
works, so it is under the Grospel ; but in the Gospel
alone is it by means of good works.

However, this statement, simple and obvious as
it is, is a hard saying to many persons, who think
that the way of salvation should be altogether new
under the Gospel, altogether different from what is
prescribed under other religions ; whereas they think
little has been gained for us by Christ, if after all
He has left us, as before, to be saved by obedience.
This is a difficulty with them. They think Christ-

VOL. V. o

194 THE NEW WORKS OF THE GOSPEL- [Seik.

ianity is made Jewish, or almost heathen. If salva-
tion is attained by what in the oid way ; and this
being the case, I shall make some remarks, ■with the
hope of reconciling the mind to it.

I observe, then, that whether it came from Noah
after the flood or not,' so it is, that all religions, the
various heathen religions as well as the Mosaic
religion, have many things in them which are very
much the same. Tliey seem to come from ona
common origin, and so far have the traces of truth
upon them. They all are branches, though they
are corruptions and perversions, of that patriarchal
religion which came iVom God. And of course the
Jewish religion came entirely aiid immediately from
God, Now God's works are like each other, not
different ; if, then, the Gospel is from God, and the
Jewish religion was from God, and the variouE
heathen religions in their first origin were from God,
it is not wonderful, rather it is natural, that they
should have in many ways a resemblance one with
another. And, accordingly, that the Gospel is in
certain points like the religions which preceded
it, is but an argument that " God is One, and that
there is none other but He ;" — the difference being
that the heathen religions are a true religion
coiTupted ; the Jewish, a true religion dead ; and
Christianity, the true religion living and perfect.
The heathen thought to be saved by works, bo
did the Jews, so do Christiana ; but the heathen
took the works of darkness tor good works, the

XII.] THE NEW WORKS OF THE GOSPEL. 195

Jews thought cold, formal, and scanty, works to
be good works, and Christians believe that works
done in the Spirit of grace, the fruit of faith, and
offered up under the meritorious intercession of
Christ, that these only are good works, but that
these are good : — so that while the heathen thinks
to be saved by sin, and the Jew by self, the Christ-
ian relies on the Spirit of Him who died on the
Cross for him. Thus they differ ; but they all agree
in thinking that works are the means of salvation;
they differ in respect to the quality of these works.

Let us take some parallel instances in religious
doctrine and worship, for they abound,

1. For example: Religioa, considered in itself,
cannot but have much which is the same in all sys-
tems, true and false. It is the worship of God.
This involves saying prayers, postures of devotion,
and the like, whatever the particular worship be ;
nor is the Gospel less a new covenant, because it
retains these old usages, unless it ceases to be new,
because it retains religion. While man is man, it
could not be otherwise. These observances are right
when performed well, evil when performed ill; evil
as performed by the heathen, right as performed by
Christians. The heathen worship devils, as St. Paul
tells us. As is their god, such is their service. The
Gospel came to destroy the "worship of de.vils, not
to destroy worship ; wo do not cease to have a new
worship, because we worship, Bot devils, but
Almighty God.

196 THE NEW WORKS OF THE GOSPEL. [Sui« I

2, Agaiu. meetings for worship have been in all re- i
ligions from the first. But it does not follow from this |
that " old things" have not been made to ]>a88 away I
till coming to church is denounced as a sin. On the
contrary, St. Paul expressly tells us not to forsake "
the aeaembling of ourselves together, though " all J
things have become new." What had been done!
of old time for bad purposes or in a bad vray, is tol
be done for a holy purpose and in a heavenly way I
under the Gospel. A new life is infused into what '
once was evil, or at least profitless; so that, whereas
of old time men came together to worship as " dry
bones," in consequence of the creative power of J
Christ, " the dead bones live."

3. Again, religion has ever e.\isted in a large J
organized body, with orders and officers, witli I
ministers and peojile. It has always exercised an J
influence over the State, and it has ever been what I
is called established, or had rank and property. '
Now there is abundant evidence that this was in-
tended to be the condition of religioii under the
Gospel, in spite of its being a new religion. Ranks
existed from the first, — Apostles, Evangelists, Pro-
phets, Bishops, and Deacons, as we read in Scripture.
And property was held by the Church, for the rich
gave up their wealth, and laid it at the Apostles'
feet. And St. Paul used his privilege as a citizen
of Rome. Here again, then, though salvation be of
faith, and religion be spiritual, and old things be
passed away, and all things become new, yet the old

XII.]

THE NEW WORKS OF THE GOSPEL,

197

framework remains as far as this, that there are men
set apart to preach the Gospel, and that they " live
by the Gospel."

4. Again, all religions, before the Gospel came,
had their mysteries ; I mean alleged disclosures,
which could not be fiillj understood all at once, if at
all, and which were open to some more than to
others. The Gospel, though it be light and liberty,
has not materially altered things here. It has mys-
teries, as we all know ; such as the doctrines of the
Holy Trinity, and the Incarnation. And these mys-
teries cannot be equally entered into by all, but
in proportion as men are humble and holy, and
■ intellectually gifted, and blessed with leisure. St.
Paul speaks of " the hidden wisdom," and declares
that " the natural man receiveth not the things of
the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him ;
neither can he know them, because they are spiri-
tually discerned." And elsewhere he declines to
speak to the Hebrews about Melchizedec, " of
whom " he had " many things to say, and hard to
be uttered, seeing " they were " dull of hearing'."

5. Again, religions beforeChrist came ever had holy
days and festivals, both among heathen and Jews.
The Gospel has not done away with holy days, only
it has changed them, and made them more holy.
For instance, it has not destroyed the Feast of one
day in seyen, or the Lord's day ; not to mention

' 1 Cor. i

14. Heb, ^

THE NEW WORKS OF THE GOSPEL.

[SebM.

other instances. This is the more remarkable, be-
cause St. Paul's words are at first aight very strong
against the observance, under the Goepel, of any
days above others, as a matter of religion. He finds
fault with the Galatians because they observed
" days, and months, and times, and years." And he
bids the Colossians not to let any man " judge them
in meat or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, of
of the new moon, or of the sabbath days, which are a
shadow of tilings to come, but the body is of Christ '."'
Who would not, at first sight, suppose from these
words, that all holy days, aU holy seasons, "were to
be done away, under the Gospel, as mere sha,dow8,— ^
Sunday, Christmas-day, Easter-tide, Lent, and aU
the rest ? Yet it is uot bo. The Apostles in the
Acts, and St. John in the Revelation, observe and
recognize the Lord's day as a Gospel festival. Jewish'
days are shadows, but Christian are not ; just aa'
Jewish works, or works of the Law, avail not, but
Christian works avail. The weekly festival is not
one of the " old things " which have " passed away *
in Christ, neither are righteous" works. The Sabbath
has "become new" by becoming the Lord's day;
works become new, by becoming spiritual.

6. Again, washing with water was a heathen rite
of purification, and also a Jewish rite. Yet it re-
mains under the Gospel ; and with the same changes
The " divers washings " of the Jews were " carnal

' Gal. iv. 10. Col. ii. 16, 17.

Xll]

THE NEW WORKS OF THE GOSPEL.

ordinances' ;" but Baptism, our washing, is a washing
of the Spirit ; and because the former are annulled,
it does not follow that the latter should be. On
the contrary, our Lord distinctly commanded His
Apostles, " Go ye and teach all nations, baptizing
them^"

7. Once more. The heathen had temples; the
Jews had a temple ; and our Lord said to the Sa-
maritan woman, that the hour was coming when the
true worshippers should worship, not in the temple
at Jerusalem, but " in spirit and in truth." But this
did not mean that there were to be no Christian
temples, or churches, ag we call them ; at least it
has never been taken so to mean. All it would seem
to mean is, that the Jewish temple is not like a
Christian temple, but differs in some essential
points.

I have said enough to explain St. Paul's state-
ment in the text, that " old things are passed away,"
and " all things new " under the Gospel. By all
things being " new " is meant that they are renewed ;
by " old things passing away " is meant that they are
cltanged. The substance remains ; the form, mode,
quality, and circumstances are different and more
excellent. Religion has still forms, ordinances, pre-
cepts, mysteries, duties, assembhes, festivals, and tem-
ples as of old time ; but, whereas all these were dead
and carnal before, now, since Christ came, they have

200 THE NEW WORKS OF THE GOSPEL. [Sku.

a life in them. lie has brought life to the world
He has given life to religion; He has made every
thing spiritual and true by His touch, full of virtue,
full of grace, full of power: so that ordinances,
works, forms, which before were unprofitable, now,
by the inward meritorious influence of His blood
imparted to them, avail fur our salvation.

This one point, in addition, is clear from what has
been said ; that if all Christian worship is " in spirit
and in truth," nothing has a place under the Gospel
which is not spiritual. It is very inconsistent then,
to say, as some people do say, that Baptism should
be observed, and yet that it does not convey Divine
grace, and is a mere outward ordinance ; for if so, it
is nothing better than a Jewish rite, and, instead of
being observed, it ought to be abolished altogether.
And again, unless the Church itself, and the minis-
terial order attached to it, be a means of gT^ce, and
the instrument of the Holy Ghost, they are no
better than the Jewish temple and the Jewish
priests, which have come to nought, and have no
part in the spiritual system of the Gospel. And so,
in like manner, works of obedience also, if they arfl'
no better than " the works of the Law," which
cannot justify ; if they are not pleasing to God ; if
they be filthy rags, as some persons say, and as the
works of nature are ; if so, then I do not see that
they need be attempted at all ; for all works of the
Law are done away. Every thing is done away in the
Gospel but what is spirit and truth ; and our works.

XII]

our ordinances, our discipline, are spirit and tnitli,
or they are done away.

And, lastly, hereby we see "why justification must
be of faith ; because, as Christ, by means of Ilia
Spirit, makes a new beginning in us, so faith, on
our part, receives that new beginning, and co-ope-
rates with Him. And it is the only principle which
can do this; for as things spiritual are unseen, so faith
is in its very nature that which apprehends and uses
things unseen. We renounce our old unprofitable
righteousness, which is from Adam, and accept,
through faith, that new righteousness which is im-
parted by the Spirit ; or, in St. Paul's words, " we,
through the Spirit, wait for the hope of righte-
ousness by faith."

To conclude. Let us think much, and make
much, of the grace of God ; let us beware of receiv-
ing it in vain ; let us pray God to prosper it in our
hearts, that we may bring forth much fruit. We
see how grace wrought in St. Paul : it made him
labour, suffer, and work righteousness almost above
man's nature. This was not lis own doing ; it Mas
not through his own power. He says himself,
" Yet not I, but the grace of God which was in
me." God's grace was " sufficient for him." It
was its triumph in him, that it made him quite
another man from what he was before. May God's
grace be etficacious in us also. Let us aim at
doing nothing iu a dead way ; let us beware of
dead works, dead forms, dead professions. Let

gOS THE NEW WORKS OF THE GOSPEL. [Sbrh.XIL

US pray to be filled with the spirit of love. Liet xa
come to Church joyfully ; let us partake the Holy
Communion adoringly ; let us pray sincerely ; let
us work cheerfully ; let us suffer thankfully ; let us
throw our heart into all we think, say, and do ; and
may it be a spiritual heart ! This is to be a new
creature in Christ ; this is to walk by faith.

SERMON XIII.

THE STATE OF SALVATION.

" That je put on tlic new man, 'which arter God is created in
rigtiteousnesa and true holiness."

These words express Tory strongly a doctrine which
is to be found in every part of the New Testament,
that the Gospel covenant is the means of introduc-
ing us into a state of life so different from that in
which we were bom, and should otherwise continue,
that it may not unfitly be called a new creation. As
that which is created differs from what is not yet
created, so the Christian differs from the natural
man. He is brought into a new world, and, as
being in that new world, is invested with powers
and privileges which he absolutely had not in the
way of nature. By nature, his will is enslaved to
sin, his soul is full of darkness, his conscience is

QOi THE STATE OF SALVATION. [SuiL

under the wrath of God ; peace, hope, love, fiiith,
purity, he has not ; nothing of heaven is in him ;
nothing spiritual ; nothing of light and life. But
in Christ all these blessings are given : the will and
the power ; the heart and the knowledge ; the lighl
of faith, and the obedience of faith. As far as ft
being can be changetl without losing his identity,
as far as it is sense to say that an existing being caa
be new created, so far has man this gift when
the grace of the Gospel has its perfect work an4
its maturity of fruit in him. A brute difien-
less from a man, than does man left to himBel^.
with his natural corruption allowed to run its
course, differ from man fully formed and perfected
by the habitual indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

Hence, in the text, the Apostle speaks of the
spiritual state which Christ has brought us, as being
a " new creature in righteousness and true holi-
ness." Elsewhere, he says, " If any man be in
Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed
away ; behold, all things are become new." Else-
where, " Be ye transformed by the renewing of your
mind." Elsewhere, " Ye are dead, and your life is
hid with Christ in God." Elsewhere, "We are
buried with Him by baptism into death ; that, like
as Christ was raised up from the dead by the gloiy
of the Fatlier, even so we also should walk in new-
ness of life '."

' 2 Cor. V. 17. Rom. :

xni.]

THE STATE OF SALVATION.

What then is this new state in wliicli a Christian
finds himself, compared with the state of nature ? It
is worth the inquiry.

Now, first, there ought to "be no difficulty iu our
views about it so far as this : that there is a certain
new state, aiid that a state of salvation ; and that
Christ came to bring into it all whom He had
chosen out of the world. Christ " gave Himself
for our sins (says St. Paul), that He might deliver
ME from the present evil world." He "hath deli-
vered us from the power of darkness, and hath
translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son."
He came "to gather together in one the children of
God, which are scattered abroad." " As many as
received Him, to them gave He power to become
the sons of God'." This is most clear. There can
be no doubt at all that there is a certain state of
grace now vouchsafed to us, who are born in sin
and the children of wrath ; such, that those who
are to be saved hereafter, are (to speak generally)
those, and those only, who are placed in that saving
state here. I am not going on to the question,
whether or not there is a visible Church ; but I insist
only on this, that it has not seemed fit to Almighty
God to transplant His elect at once from this world
and from a state of nature to the eternal happiness
of heaven. He does not suffer them to die as they
were born, and then, on death, change them out-

' Gal. i. 4. Col. i. 13. Jolin xi. 52 ; i. 12.

20G

THE STATE OF SALVATION.

[Seul

wardly and inwardly ; but He brings tbem into a
saving state liere, preparatory to heaven ; — a state
which the Catechism calls a "state of salvation;!"
and which St. Luke denotes, when he says " The
Lord added daily to the Church such as should be
saved' ;" that is, persons called to salvation, placed
in a saving state.

No one ought to deny this ; though in this day,
when all kinds of error abound, some persons seem
to have taken up a notion that the world was fully
reconciled all at once by Christ's death at the very
time of it, and wholly transferred into a state of
acceptance ; so that there is no new state necessaij
now for those who shall ultimately be benefited by
It ; that they have but to do their duty, and they
will be rewarded accordingly ; whereas it does cer-
tainly appear, from such texts of Scripture as have
been quoted, that there is a certain state, or king-
dom of Christ, into which all must enter here who
shall be saved hereafter. We cannot attain ttt
heaven hereafter, without being in this new king-
dom here ; we cannot escape from the miseries and
horrora of the Old Adam, except by being brought
into this Kingdom, as into an asylum, and there
remaining.

And further, this new state is one of " righteous-
ness and true holiness," as the text speaks, Christ
brings us into it by coming to us through His

XIII.] THE STATE OF SALVATION. 207

Spirit ; and, as Hia Spirit is holy, we are holy, if
we are in the state of grace. Christ is present in
that heart which He visits witli His grace. So that
to be in His kingdom is to be in righteousness, to
live in obedience, to breathe, as it were, an atmo-
sphere of truth and love.

Now it is necessary to insist upon this also : for
here again some men go wrong ; and while they go
so far as to acknowledge that there is a new state,
or kingdom, into which souls must be brought, in
order to salvation, yet consider it as a state, not of
holiness and righteousness, but merely or mainly of
acceptance with God. It has been maintained by
some persons, that human nature, even when rege-
nerate, is not, and cannot be, really holy ; nay, that
it is idle to suppose that, even with the aid of the
Holy Spirit, it can do any thing really good in any
degree ; that our best actions are sing ; and that we
are always sinning, not only iu slighter matters, but
so as to need pardon, in all we do, in the same sense
in which we needed it when we were as yet unre-
generate ; and, consequently, that it is vain to try
to be holy and righteous, or, rather, that it is pre-
sumptuous.

Now, of course it is plain, that even the best of
men are liill of imperfections and failings ; so far is
undeniable. But, consider, by nature we are in a
state of death. Now, is this the state of our hearts
under the Gospel? Surely not ; for, while "to be
carnally minded is death," " to be spiritually minded

is life and peace." I mean, that the state of sahai-
tion in which we stand is not one in wliich
righteousnesses are" what the prophet calls " fiithj
rags," but one in which we can help sinning unl
death, — can help sinning in the way men do si
when left in a state of nature. If we do so sin, «
cease to be in that state of salvation ; we fell
into a state resembling our original state of wrath,
and must pass back again from wrath to grace (if
be so), as we best may, in such ways as God hsa
appointed ; whereas it is not an uncommon notion,
at tbis time, that a man may be an habitual sinner,
and yet be in a state of saWation, and in the king-
dom of grace. And this doctrine many more per-
sona hold than think they do; not in words, but in
heart. They think that faith is all in all ; that faith,
if they have it, blots out their sins as fast as they
commit them. They sin in distinct acts in tha^
morning, — their faith wipes all out ; at noon, — theii
faith still avails ; and in the evening, — still thei
same. Or they remain contentedly in sinful habita'
or practices, under the dominion of sin, not warrinff
against it, in ignorance what is sin and what is not ;
and they think that the only business of a Christian
is, not to be holy, but to have faith, and to think
and speak of Christ ; and thus, perhaps, they are
really living, whether by habit or by act, in extor*
tion, avarice, envy, rebellious pride, sclf-indulgencer
or worldliness. and neither know nor care to know
it. If they sin in habits, they are not aware of these

XIII.] THE STATE OF SALVATION.

at all; if by acts, instead of viewing them one and
all together, they take tliem one by one, and set
their faith against each separate act. So far has this
been carried, that some men of name in the world
have, before now, laid it down as a great and high
principle, that there is no mortal sin but one, and
that is want of faith ; and have hereby meant, not
that he who commits mortal sin cannot be said to
have faith, but that he who has faith cannot be said
to commit mortal sin ; or, to speak more clearly,
have, in fact, defined a state of salvation to be
nothing more or less than a state in which our sins
are forgiven ; a state of mere acceptance, not of
substantial holiness. Persons who hold these opi-
nions, consider that the great difference between a
state of nature and a state of salvation is, that, in a
state of nature, when we sin, we are not forgiven
(which is true) ; but that, in a state of salvation,
when we sin, our sins are forgiven us, because we
are in that state. On the other hand, I would
maintain from Scripture, that a state of salvation
is so far from being a state in which sins of every
kind are forgiven, that it is a state in which there
are not sins of every kind to forgive ; and that, if a
man commit them, so far from being forgiven h/ his
state, he falls at once Ji'om hie state by committing
them; so far from being justified by faith, he, for
that very reason, has not faith whereby to justify him.
I say, our state of grace is a state of holiness ; not
one in which we may be pardoned, but in which we

VOL. V. P

glO THE STATE OF SALVATION. [Sem.

are obedient. He who acts unworthily of it, ts not
Bheitered by it, but forfeits it. It is a state in
which power is giveu us to act rightly, and there-
fore punishment falls on us if we act wrongly.

This is plain, from Scripture, on many reasons;
of which I will here confine myself to one or two.

1. Let us first consider such Parables of our
Lord as speak of the Christian state, to see what
its characteristics are. These will be found not
recognise at all the caae of instable, variable mind^
falling repeatedly into gross sins, and Raved hf-
that state of grace in which they have been placed..
The Christian state does not shelter a man who
sins, but it lets hira drop. Just as we cannot bold in
our hands a thing in flames, but however dear it be
to us, though it be a child, we are forced at length
to let it go ; so wilful sin burns like fire, and the
Church drops us, however unwillingly, when we si^
wilfully. Not our faith, not our past services, not
God's past mercies, avail to keep us in a. state of
grace, if "we sin wilfully after receiving the knowi
ledge of the truth '." Now I say, agreeably witl^
this, we shall find our Saviour's parables dividf}
Christians into two states, those who continue ii^
God's favour, and those who lose it ; and those who^
continue in it are said to be, not those who merely,
have repentance and faith, who sin, but ever wasK
out their sins by coming for pardon, but those whft

XIII.]

THE STATE OF SALVATION.

do not sin ; — not those whose one great aim is to
obtain fm-givencss, hut those who, (though they
abound in infirmities, and so far have much to be
forgiven,) yet are best described by saying that they
aim at increasing their talents, aim at laying up
for themselves a " good foundation for the time to
come, that they may lay hold of eternal life '."

For example, in our Saviour's first parable, who
is he who builds his house upon a rock ? not he who
has faith merely, but he, who having doubtless faith
to begin the work, has faith also strong enough to
perfect it ; who " heareth and doeth"

Agam, in the parable of the Sower, the simple
question considered is, who they are who profit by
what they have received ; what a Christian has to
do is represented as a work, a process which has 3
beginning, middle, and end ; a consistent course of
obedience, not a state in which we have done
nothing more at the end of our lives, than at the
beginning, except sin the oftener, according to it3
length. In that parable one man is said not to
admit the good seed ; a second admits it, but its
root withers ; a third goes further, the seed strikes
root, and shoots upwards, but its leaves and blossoms
get entangled and overlaid with thorns. The fourth
takes root, shoots upwards, and does more, bears
fruit to i>erfection. This then is the Christian's great
aim, lest he should come short after grace given

' 1 Tim. vi
p 2

212 THE STATE OF SALVATION. [Swui.

him. Tbis forms his peculiar danger, and his special
dread. Of course he is not secure from jwril of
gross sin ; of course he is continually defiled with
sins of infirmity ; but whereas, how to be forgiven
is the main inquiry for the natural man, so, how to
fulfil his calling, how to answer to grace given, how
to increase his Lord's money, how to attain, tbis
is the great problem of man regenerate. Faith
gained hira pardon ; but works gain him a re-
ward.

Again, the Net had two kinds of fish, good and
bad, just and wicked; they differ in character and
conduct; whereas men allow themselves to speak
as if, in point of moral condition, the saved and th(
reprobate were pretty much on a level ; the real
difference being, that the one had faith appropriafc-
ing Christ's merits, and a spiritual conviction of thi
own perishing state, and the other had not. Aiii>
so 1 might go on to the parables of the Ten Virgin^
the Talents, and others, and show in like manner
that the state of a Christian, as our Lord contem-
plates it, is one in which he is, not lamenting the
victories of sin, but working out salvation ; he-
ginning, continuing, and at last perfecting, a course
of obedience.

2. This being the doctrine of the Gospels, we
shall understand why it is that so little is said in
the Epistles of the sins of Christians. Indeed, no
one can be sufficiently aware, till he inquires into
the subject, how very few texts can be produced

XIII.] THE STATE OF SALVATION. 213

from the Apostles' writings containing a promise of
forgiveness when Christiaiis sin '. And yet this
ajiparent omission is not difficult to explain. They
had sins before they were Christians ; they were
forgiven that they might not sin again. St. Paul
and his brethren never pray that Christians' sins
may be pardoned, but that they may fulfil their
calling. Their description of the state of the
Church is almost like an account of Angels and the
spirits of the just. "Our conversation is in hea-
ven," says St. Paul, and so sums up in few words
■what almost all his Epistles testify to us. We
hear of their " glorying in tribulations," their being
"alive from the dead," their "joy and peace in
believing," their being " fruitful in every good
work," their " increasing in the knowledge of
God," their " work of faith, and labour of love, and
patience of hope." This is a picture of those whom
the Apostle acknowledges as true Christians ; and
in the case of such persons gross transgression is
impossible. They are far beyond that ; what they
have to avoid is short-coming in the end. They are
day by day to lessen the distance between them-
selves and their goal. They are to produce some-
thing positive, and they are gifted with the grace
of the Holy Spirit for this purpose. There is
nothing generous, nothing grateful, nothing of the
high temper of faith in sitting at home and merely

' Vide of these Sermons, Vol. iv, Serm. vii.

214

THE STATE OF SALVATrON.

[SnH.

praying for pardon. Tliis might be well enough,
it was all that they could do wLile they were in
the state of unassisted nature, in the house of
bondage, with fetters upon them, and the iron
entering into them. But their chains had been
struck off; they could work, they could run; and
they had a work to do, a road to journey. If tbey
wilfully transgressed, they left the road, they
abandoned the work. Then they were like De-
mas, who went back, and they had to be restored
to be pardoned, not in the state of grace, but, if I
may so say, into it.

3. Let us now turn our thoughts to St. John's
description of the Christian state. For instance,
in his first Epistle he expressly tells us, " Who-
soever is bom of God, sinneth not, but he that
is begotten of God, keepeth himself, and that
wicked one toucheth him not'." Such is the stato
of the true Christian ; he is not only bom again,
but is born of God. All who are baptized, indeed
are bom of God, as well as bom again ; but those
who fall into sin, though they cannot undo what
once has been, and are still born again, yet they
are bom again to their greater condemnation, and,
therefore, not bom again of God any longer, but,
till they repent, bom again unto judgment. But
he in whom the divine birth is realized, " sinneth
not, but keepeth InmBelf," and what is the conse-

XIII]

THE STATE OF SALVATION.

315

quence ? " that wicked one toucheth him not :"
why ? because he is in the kingdom of God. Satan
cannot touch any one who keeps within that king-
dom. God has " translated us from the power of
darkness into the kingdom of His dear Son." It
is by seducing us out of that kingdom that Satan
destroys us ; but while we continue within the
sheepfold, the wolf cannot harm us. And hence
the prophecy, which belongs to all Christ's fol-
lowers in their degree as well as to our Lord Him-
self, "He shall give His Angels charge over thee
to keep thee in all thy ways" " He shall deliver
thee from the snare of the hunter, and from the
noisome pestilence. He shall defend thee under
His wings, and thou shalt be safe under His
feathers. There shall no e-vil happen unto thee,
heither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.
Thou shalt go upon the lion and adder : the
young lion and the dragon shalt thou tread under
thy feet '." The serpent can but tempt, he cannot
harm us, while we are in the paradise of God. ThiS,
I repeat, is the state of salvation, of which the
Catechism speaks, and St. John assures us that they
only are thus kept from the touch of that wicked
one, who are so born of God as not to sin.

Again, " Whosoever is bom of God, doth not
commit sin, for His seed remaineth in him ; and he
cannot sin, because he is bora of God." Again He

ci. 11. 3. 10, 13.

ZIG

THE STATE OF SALVATION.

[Sbrm.

says, " He that saith he abideth in Hini, ought him-
self also to walk even as lie walked." Again, "If
that which ye have heard from the beginning shall
abide in you, ye also shall abide in the Son and in J
the Father." What is this but to say, that if itl
did not, they were no longer in grace ?
ever abideth in Ilini, sinneth not." Again, "'
know that we have passed from death, unto ,
because we love the brethren '."

And on the other hand the same Apostle pis
declares, that they who do sin are not in a 8tat0<|
grace. For instance, " If we say that we have I
lowship with Ilim, and walk in darkness,
and do not the tmth." "He that eaith he ,
the light, and hateth his brother, is in darki
even until now." Again, " Whosoever c
ein, transgresseth also the law, for sin is the t
gression of the law. , . . Whosoever sinneth,
not seen Him, neither known Him." " He H
committeth sin is of the devil." " Whom
transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine i
Christ, hath not God V

You see here are two states distinctly mentioned,
and two states only ; a state of grace, and a state j
of wrath ; and he who sins in the state of grac^ J
falls at once into the state of wrath. There is no I
such person under the Gospel as a "justified sin- I

i. 6. 14.
. 0. 8. -2

XIII.]

THE STATE OF SALVATION.

217

ner," to use a phrase wbich is sometimes to be

heard. If he is justified and accepted, he has

ceased to be a sinner. The Gospel only knows of

» justified saints ; if a saint sins, he ceases to be

i justified, and becomes a condemned sinner. Some

1 persons, I repeat, speak as if men might go on sin-

Ining, and sinning ever so grossly, yet without falling

from grace, without the necessity of taking direct

tnd formal means to get back again. They can

bet back, praised be God, but still they have to get

pack, and the error I am speaking of is forgetfulness

Ihat they have fallen, and have to return.

4. That they who sin fall into a hopeless state,
[that is hopeless while they continue in it, so tliat
Ithey can only gain hope i_y leaving it, is shown far
I more forcibly in St. Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews.
iFor instance, the inspired writer, says, "If we sin
I wilfully, after that we have received the knowledge
f of the truth, there remaincth no more sacrifice
for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judg-
ment and fiery indignation, which shall devour" or
eat " the adversaries'." Here it is expressly said
that wilful sin against knowledge does not leave us
as it found us. AVe cannot leceive pardon as we
received it at the first, freely and instantly, merely
on faith, we are thrown out of grace ; and though
1 our prospects are not at once liopeless, yet our state
L is hopeless, tends to perdition, nay, in itself, is per-

218 THE STATE OF SALVATION.

dition, one in which, while we are in it, we are lost
Hence all through this Epistle St. Paul, equaltr
with St. John, speaks of but two states, a. state of
grace and glory in the heavenly Jerusalem, a com-
munion with God, Christ, Augels, saints departed,
saints on earth; and, on the other hand, a state of
wrath ; and he warns his brethren that they cannot
sin without falling into the state of ^ftTath. " "We
are not of them that draw back unto perdition, but
of them that believe to the saving of the soul '."
He does not speak of sin and sinners tenderly ; he
does not merely say, " If you sin, you are an evl»
dence of human frailty ; you are inconsistent ; yon
ought to keep from sin from gratitude; you shoaM
be deeply humbled at your sins; you should betake
yourselves to the atonement of Christ, if you sin.*
All this is true, but it would be short of the real state
of the case ; and St. Paul, therefore, says much more :
"If you sin wilfully, you throw yourselves out of
God's kingdom ; you, by the very act, disinherit your-
selves, you bring yourselves into a dreadful region ;"
and he leaves it to them to draw the inference what
they ought to do to get back again. He orgei^.
against them " the terrors of the Lord." He bidif
them not deceive themselves, for sinners have ntf
inheritance in the kingdom. Accordingly, he warnj(
them " to look diligently, lest any man come short of
the grace of God ;" and to " fear lest a promise bemg*

' Heb. X. 39.

xin.]

THE STATE OF SALVATION.

319

left us of entering into Hia rest, any of them should
seem to come short of it '."

Such is the new state of " righteousness and true
holiness," in which Christians are created, and such
is the state of those who draw hack from it ; and if
any one asks whether St. Paul does not say that
"hy faith we stand?" — I answer, as I have already
answered, that doubtless faith does keep us in a
state of grace, and is the means of blotting out for
us those sins which we commit in it. But what
are those sins which we do commit ? Sins of in-
firmity ; — all other sins faith itself excludes. If we
do commit greater sins, we have not faith. Faith
we cannot use to hlot out the greater sins, for faith
we have not at all, if we cammit such. That faith
which has not power over our hearts to keep ua
from transgressing, has not power with God to keep
Him from punishing.

To conclude. This is our state : — Christ has
healed each of us, and has said to ua, " See thou
sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee ^"
If we commit sin, we fail, — not at once hack
again into the unredeemed and lost world ; no, hut
at least we Ml out of the kingdom, though for a
while we may linger on the skirts of the kingdom.
We fall into what will in the event lead us back
into the lost world, or rather into what is worse.

' Heb. xii. 15 ;

' John V. 14.

220 THE STATE OF SALVATION.

iinleps M'e turn heavenward, and extricate oureelveB
from our fearful state as speedily as we can. We
come into what may be called the passage or vesti-
bule of hell ; a place full of those unclean spirits
who " seek rest and find none," and rejoice in
getting possession of souls, from which they were
once cast out. We are no longer in the light of
God's countenance, and though (blessed be His
Name), doubtless we can through His help get back
into it; but wo have to get back into it, — and then
the whole subject becomes an anxious and seriom
one. Yes, it is indeed very serious, considering
how the common run of Christians go on. If
wilful sin throws us out of a state of grace, and if
men do sin wilfully, and then forget that they have
done so, and years pass away, and they merely
smooth over what has happened by forgetting it,
and assume that they are still in a. state of graces-
making no efforts by true repentance to be put
into it again, only assuming that they are in it
and then go about their duties as Christians, just aa
if they were stiil God's children in the sense in
which Baptism made them, and were not presump-
tuously intruding without leave, and not by the door,
into a house whence they have been sent out, and if
they so live and so die, what are we to say about
them? Alas! what a dreadful thought it is, that
there may be numbers outwardly in the Christian
Church, nay, who at present are in a certain sense

XIII.] THE STATE OF SALVATION. 321

religious men, who, nevertheless, have no principle
of growth in them, because they have sinned, and
never duly repented. They may be under a dis-
ability for past sins, which they have never been at
the pains to remove, or to attempt to remove.
Alas ! to think that they do not Itnow their state
at all, and esteem themselves in the unreserved
enjoyment of God's favour, when, after all, their
religion is for the most part hut the reflection of
others upon their surface, not a light within them,
or at least but the remains of grace once given. O
dreadful thought, if we are in the number ! O most
dreadful thought, if an account lies against us in
God's books, which we have never manfully en-
countered, never inquired into, never even prayed
against, only and s\Ta\Ay fwgoiten ; which we leave
to itself to be settled as it may ; and if at any time
some sudden memory of it comes across us, we think
of it without fear, as if what had gone out of our
minds had been forgotten of God also ! Or even,
as the way of some is, when they recollect any
former sins of whatever kind, we palliate them, give
them soft names, make excuses, saying they were
done in youth under great temptation, or cannot be
helped now, or have been forsaken. May God give
us all grace ever to think of these things ; to reflect
on the brightness of that state in which God once
placed us, its purity, its sweetness, its radiance, its
beauty, its majesty, its glory ; and to think, in con-

222 THE STATE OF SALVATION. [Sxrm. XIU.

trast, of the wretchedness and filthiness of that load
of sin, with which our own wilfulness has burdened
us ; and to pray Him to show us how to unburden
ourselves, — ^how to secure to ourselves agam those
gifU which, for what we know, we have forfeited.

" Now the juat shall live by failh ; but if any man draw back,
My aoul shall have no pleasure in him."

Warnings such as this would not be contained in
Scripture, were there no danger of our drawing back,
and thereby losing that " life " in God's presence
which faith secures to us. The blessedness of a
creature is to " live before God '," to have an
"access^" into the court of the King of kings,
that state of grace and glory which Christ has pur-
chased for us. Faith is the tenure upon which this
divine life is continued to us ; by faith the Christian
lives, but if he draws back be dies ; his faith profits
him nothing ; or, rather, his drawing back to sin is
a reversing of bis faith ; after which, God has no

' Gen. X

' Rom. T. 2.

thej

224 TRANSGRESSIONS AND INFIRMITIES. [Sei

pleasure m him. And yet, clearly as this is stated
in Scripture, men in all ages have fancied that they
might sin grievously, yet maintain their Christian
hope. They have comforted themselves witft
thoughts of the infinite mercy of God, as if H(
could not punish the sinner; or they have laid
hlame of their sins on their circumstances ; or th)
have hoped that zeal for the truth, or that almi
giving would make up for a had life ; or they have
relied upon repenting in time to come. And not
the least suhtle of such excuses is that which result^
from a doctrine popularly received at this day, that
iaith in Christ is compatible with a very imperfect
state of holiness, or with unrighteousness, and avails
for the pardon of an unrighteous life. So that a man
may, if so be, go on pretty much like other men,
with this only difference, that he has what he con-
giders faith, — a certain spiritual insight into the
Gospel scheme, a renunciation of his own merit,
and a power of effectually pleading and applying to
his soul Christ's atoning sacrifice, such as others
have not ; — that he sins indeed much as others, but
then is deeply grieved that he sins ; that he would
he under the wrath of God as others, had he not faith
to remove it withal. And thus the necessity of a
holy life is in fact put out of sight quite as fully as
if he said in so many words, that it was not re-
quired ; and a man may, if it so happen, be low-
minded, sordid, worldly, arrogant, imperious, self-
confident, impure, self-indulgent, ambitious.

i», seu- m
>U8, or fl

XIV.] TRANSGRESSIONS AND INFIRMITIES, 225

covetous, nay, may allow himself from time to time
in wilfiil acta of sin which he himself condemns, and
yet, by a great abuse of words, may be called spiritual.

Now I quite grant that there are sins which faith
is the means of blotting out continually, so that the
"just " still " lives " in God's sight in spite of them.
There is no one but sins continually so far as this,
that all that he does might be more perfect, entire,
blameless, than it is. We are all encompassed by
infirmities, weaknesses, ignorances ; and all these
besettiug sins are certainly, as Scripture assures us,
pardoned on our faith ; but it is another thing to
assert this of greater and more grievous sins, or
what may be called transgressions. For faith keeps
us from transgressions, and they who transgress, for
that very reason, have not true and lively faith ;
and, therefore, it avails them nothing that faith, as
Scripture says, is imputed to Christians for righte-
ousness, for they have not faith. Instead of faith
blotting out transgressions, transgressions blot out
faith. Faith, if it be true and lively, both precludes
transgressions and gradually triumphs over infirm-
ities, and while infirmities continue, it regards them
■with so perfect an hatred, as avails for their forgive-
ness, and is taken for that righteousness which it
is gradually becoming. And such a doctrine is a
holy doctrine ; for it provides for our pardon with-
out dispensing with our obedience.

This distinction in the character of sins, viz. that
some ai'gue absence of faith and involve the loss of

VOL. V. Q

336 TRANSGRESSIONS AND INFIRMITIES. [Sw

God's favour, and that others do not, is a. very ii
portant one to insist upon, even though we cannot
in all cases draw the line and say what sins imply
the want of faith, and what do not ; because, if we
know that there are sins which do throw us out o
grace, though we do not know which they are, this
knowledge, limited as it is, will, through God's
mercy, put us on our guard against acts of sin of
any kind ; both from the dread we shall feel lest
these in particular, whatever they are, may be o£
that fearful nature, and next, from knowing that at
least they tend that way. The common mode of
reasoning adopted by the religion of the day is this;
some sins are compatible with true faith, viz. Bins
of infirmity ; therefore, ^vllful transgression, or what
the text calls *' departing" from God, is compatibly
with it also. Men do not, and say they eannoti
draw the line ; and thus, from putting up with smidl
sins, they go on to sufferance of greater sins. Well,
I would take the reverse Wd,y, aud begin at tha
other end. I would force upon men's notice thab
there are sins which do forfeit grace ; and then if, i
is objected, we cannot draw the line between one
kind of sin and another, this very circumstance will
make us shrink not only from transgressions, but
also from infirmities. From hatred and abhorrence
of large sins, we shall, please God, go on to hate
and abhor the small.

Now then let us betake ourselves to Scripture,
in proof of this distinction between sin and sin.

XIV.]

TRANSGRESSIONS AND INFIRMITIES.

227

I say then this : first, that there are sins which forfeit
a state of grace ; next, that there are sins which do
not forfeit it ; and, lastly, that sins which do not
forfeit it, nevertheless tend to forfeit it.

1. No one surely can doubt that there arc sins
which exclude a man, while he is under their power,
from salvation. This is brought home to us by all
that meets us on the very surface of the inspired
text. " He that committeth sin, is of the devil,"
says St. John; "whosoever doeth not righteousness,
is not of God." And, again, St. Paul, " Many walk,
of whom I have told you often, and now tell you
even weeping, that they are the enemies of the
Cross ofClu-ist; whose end is destruction." Again,
" Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever
of you are justified by the Law ; ye are fallen from
grace '." Again, in the text, " The just shall live
by faith, but if he draw bacli. My soul shall have
no pleasure in him." Here are instances, at first
sight, of sins which forfeit our hope of salvation ;
but let me be more particular.

{ I .) All habits of vice are such. For instance,
St. Paul says, " Know ye not that the unrighteous
shall not inherit the kingdom of God ? Be not de-
ceived : neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adul-
terers, nor effeminate, nor drunkards," and so he
" shall inherit the kingdom of God •." As,

li. 8. 10.
i. 9, 10.

Phil. iii. 18, 19. Gal. ^

228 TRANSGRESSIONS AND INFIRMITIES. [Stra,

then. Baptism made us " inheritors of the kingdom
of heaven," so sins such as these forfeit tliat kiug-
dom. Accordingly, the Apostle goes on. by war
of contrast, to speak of what they had become in
Christ, — " And such were some of you ; but ye are
washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified."

{2.) Next, it is fearful to think, (fearful, because,
among ourselves at this day, men are almost blind
to the sin,) that covetousness occurs in tbe midst of
sins of the flesh, as incurring forfeiture of grace
equally with them. St. Paul says, " neither adal-
terers, nor effeminate, nor covetous." Again, to the
Ephesians, "This ye know, that no whoremonger,
nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an
idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of
Christ and God." This accords with our Lord's
warning, "Ye cannot serve God and mammon':"
as much as to say, If you serve mammon, you forth-
with quit God's service ; you cannot serve two mas-
ters at onco ; you have passed into the kingdom of
Mammon, that is, of Satan.

(3.) All violent breaches of the law of charity are
inconsistent with a state of grace ; for the Apostlev
in the places just cited, speaks of " thieves, revilers,
and extortioners." In like manner St. John says, in
the Book of Revelations, " Without are dogs, and
sorcerers, and murderers ^"

(4.) And in like manner all profaneness, heresy,

' Eph, V. 5. Matt. li. 2J. ' Rev. xxii. is.

XIV.] TRANSGRESSIONS AND INFIRMITIES. S29

and false 'worship ; thus St. John speaks of " idola-

■ ters," with murderers ; and St. Paul saya that Esau,

■ as being " a profane person," lost the blessing ; and
declares of all who " preach any other gospel " than
the true one, " Let him be accursed'."

(5.) And farther, " hardness of heart," or going
against light ; according to the text, " Let us labour
to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the
same example of unbelief;" and " To-day, if ye will
hear His voice, harden not your hearts^."

Such are greater sins or transgressions. They are
here specified, not as forming a complete list of such
sins, which indeed cannot be given, but in proof of
what ought not to be doubted, that there are sins
which are not found in persons in a state of grace.

2. In the next place, that there are sins of infirm-
ity, or such as do not throw the soul out of a state
of salvation, is evident directly it is granted that
there are sins which do ; for no one will pretend to
say that all sins exclude from grace, else no one can
be saved, for there is no one who is sinless.
However, Scripture expressly recognizes sins of
infirmity as distinct from transgressions, as shall
now be shown.

For instance : St. Paul saja to the Galatians,
" The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit
against the flesh; and these are contrary the one
to the other, so that ye cannot do the things that

I Heb. xii. 16. Gal. i. 8.

ye would'." In tliese words lie allows that it
possible for tlie power of the flesh and the grace of
the Spirit to co-exist in the soul ; neither the flesh
quenching the Spirit, nor the Spirit all at once sub-
duing the flesh. Here then is a sinfulness which
compatible with a state of salvation.

Again, the same Apostle says, that we have a
High Priest who is " touched with the feeling of
our infirmities" in that He had them Himself, oS
but their sin. This irajjlies that we have sinful in-
firmities, yet of that light nature that they can be said
to be in substance partaken by One who was pure
from all sin. Accordingly in the next verse St. Paul
bids us " come boldly to the throne of grace, that
"we may obtain mercy." Such words do not imply
a return into a state of salvation, but pardon in that
state, and they correspond to what he afterwards
says, " Let us draw near with a true heart in fiill
assurance of faith, having boldness to enter into tha
holiest by the blood of Jesus," that is, by a con-
tinual approach ; or, as he says to the Romans, bv
Christ " we have access," or admission, " by faith
into this grace wherein we sta»d^."

In like manner he says, that "the Spirit helpeth
our infirmities'," whereas transgression grieves and
quenches the Spirit.

And somewhat parallel to this is his language

. 15, 16 i X. 19—22. Rom. ^

XrV.] TRANSGRESSIONS AND INFIRMITIES. g31

about himself, when, after speaking of a trial to
■which he was subjected, he says that Christ said
to him, " My grace is sufficient for thee, for My
strength is made perfect in weakness ;" and he adds,
" Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my
infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon
me'."

And so in an earlier part of the same Epistle he
says, apparently with the same meaning, " We have
thiH treasure," the knowledge of the gospel, " in
earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power
may be of God, and not of us^"

Sine of infirmity seem also intended in his ex-
hortation to the Corinthians in another part of the
same Epistle. After showing that righteousness
has no fellowship with unrighteousness, and bidding
them " be separate and touch not the unclean
thing," he adds, " Having therefore these promises,
let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of the
flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of
God\"

In like manner St. John says, " If we walk in the
light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one
with another; and the blood of Jesus Christ His
Son cleanseth us from all sin." It seems then there
is sin which is consistent with " walking in the
light," and that from this sin " the blood of Christ
cleanseth us'."

' 2 Cor. xii. 9. • 2 Cor. iv. 7.

' 2 Cor. vii. 1. * J John i. 7.

232

TRANSGRESSIONS AND INFIRMITIES. [Sui

Again, the same Apostle ears soon after, " Mj
little children, these things write I unto you, tliat
ye ain not ; and if any man sin, we have an Ad-
vocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous^
and He is the Propitiation for our sins." Here sins
are contemplated as attaching to a Christian, and
as past over in Christ's righteousness ; yet pre-
sently St. John says, " Whosoever is born of God,
doth not commit sin'," that is, infinnities he may
admit, transgressions he cannot.

And St. James says, " In many things "we offend
all," that is, we all stumble. We are ever stumbling
along our course, while we walk ; but if we actually
foil in it, we fall from it.

And St. Jude : " Of eome have compassion, miJc-
ing & difference; and others save with fear, pulling
them out of the fire^" Distinct kinds of sins ar©
evidently implied here.

And lastly, our Lord Himself had already implied
that there are sins which are not inconsistent with ft
state of grace, when lie said of His Apostles, "Tbe
spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak"."

3. It remains to show that these sins of infirmity
tend to those which are greater and forfeit grace,
which is not the least important point which comes
under consideration.

An illustration will explain what 1 mean, and

' 1 John ii. 1 ;

' Judo 22, 23.

TRANSGRESSIONS AND INFIRMITIES.

may throw light on the whole subject. You know
it continually happens that some indisposition over-
takes a man, such, that persons skilled in medicine,
when asked if it is dangerous, answer, "Not at pre-
sent, but they do not know what will come of it ; it
may turn out something very serious ; but there is
nothing much amiss yet; at the same time, if it be
not cheeked, and, mucli more, if it be neglected, it
will be serious." This, I conceive, is the state of
Christians day by day, as regards their souls ; they
are always ailing, always on the point of sickness;
they are sickly, easily disarranged, obliged to take
great care of themselves against air, sun, and weather;
they are full of tendencies to all sorts of grievous
diseases, and are continually showing these ten-
dencies in slight symptoms ; but they are not yet in
a dangerous way. On the other hand, if a Chris-
tian falls into any serious sin, then he is at once cast
out of grace, as a man who falls into a pestilential
fever is quite in a distinct state from one who is
merely in delicate health.

Now with respect to this progress of sin from
infirmity to transgression, here, as before, we have
no need to go to Scripture in proof of a truth which
every day teaches us, that men begin with little
sins and go on to great sins, that the course of sin
is a continuous declivity, with nothing to startle
those who walk along it, and that the worst trans-
gressions seem trifles to the sinner, and that the
lightest infirmities are grievous to the holy. " He

234 TRANSGRESSIONS AND INFIRMITIES. [Sehi.

that despisetli small things," says the wise man,
"shall Ml by httle and httle;" this surely is the
doctrine of inspired Scripture throughout ; and here
I will do not more than cite two passages from two
Apostles in behalf of it. St. James says expressly,
" When lust hath coaceived, it hringeth forth sin ;
and sin, when it is ^nis/ied, bringeth forth deatk^T
You see that from the first it tends to death ; for it
ends in death, but not (ill it ends, till it is^nished.
Again St. Paul says, " Make straight paths for
your feet, lest that which is lame he turned otit of the
way I but let it rather be healed^" We are ever in
a degree lame in this world, even in our best estate.
All Christiana are such ; but, when in consequence
of their lamenesB they proceed to turn aside, or, as
the text says, to " draw back," then they differ from
those who are merely lanio, as widely as those who
halt along a road differ from those who are out of
it. Those who have turned aside, have to retumy
they have fallen into a different state: those who
are lame, nmst be " healed " in the state of grace
in which they are, and while they are in it ; and
that, lest they " turn out" of it. Thus lameness is
at once distinct from backsliding, yet leads to it.

And here an observation may be made concern-
ing that sin against the Holy Ghost, which shall
never be forgiven. I am very far from denying- that'
there is a certain special sin to which that avfiil'

title belongs ; nor will I undertalte to say what it
is ; but I observe thus much : — that, whereas it is
the unpardonable sio, there is not a sin which we
do but may be considered to tend towards it, and
to be the beginning of that which ends in death,
which ends in impenitence, ends in quenching those
gracious influences, by which alone we are able to
do any good. And this is a very serious thought to
all who sin wilfully ; that though their sin be sUght,
they are beginning a course, which, if let run on
freely, ends in apostasy and reprobation. Hence
the force of the following passage, which describes
the ultimate result of a course of wilful sin, or what
every wilful sin tends to become : " It is impossible
for those who were once enlightened, and have
tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made par-
takers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted of the
good word of God, and the powers of the world to
come, if they shall fall away" so as utterly to
quench the grace given them, " to renew them again
to repentance'."

On the whole, then, this may be considered a
Christian's state, ever about to fall, yet by God's
mercy never falHng; ever dying, yet always alive;
full of infirmities, yet fi-ee from transgressions ; and,
as time goes on, more and more free from infirmities
also, as tending to that perfect righteousness which
is the fulfilling of the Law ; — on the other hand,

236 TRANSGRESSIONS AND INFIRMITIES. [Sej

should he fall, recoverable, but not without much
pain, with fear and trembling.

I conclude with advising you, my brethren, one
thing, which is obviously suggested by what I hare
said. Never sutFer sin to remain upon you ; let it
not grow old in you; wipe it off while it is fresL,
else it will stain ; let it not get ingrained ; let it not
eat its way in, and rust in you. It is of a consum-
ing nature ; it is like a canker ; it will eat your
flesh. I say, beware, my brethren, of suffering an
in yourselves, and this for a great many reasons.
First, if for no other than this, you will forget you
have committed it, and never repent of it at all,
Repent of it while you know it ; let it not be wiped
from your memory without being first wiped away
from your soul. What may be the state of our souls
from the accumulating arrears of the past ! Alas
what difficulties we Lave involved ourselves in,
without knowing it. Many a man doubtless in this
way lives in a languid state, has a veil intercepting
God from him, derives little or no benefit from the
ordinances of grace, and cannot get a clear sight of
the truth. %¥hy ? His past sins weigh upon him
like a load, and he knows it not. And then again,
sin neglected, not only stains and infects the soul,
but it becomes habitual. It perverts and deforms
the soul ; it permanently enfeebles, lames, or muti-
lates us. Let us then rid ourselves of it at once
day by day, as of dust on our bands and faces. We
wash our hands continually. Ah ! is not this like

XIV.] TRANSGRESSIONS AND INFIRMITIES. 237

the Pharisees, unless we wash our soiled souls also ?
Let not then this odious State continue in you; in
the words of the prophet, " Wash ye, make you
clean, put away the evil of your doings" from before
the eyes of your Lord and Saviour. Make a clean
breast of it. You sin day by day ; let not the sun
go do\^'n upon your guilt. You sin continually, at
least so far as to make you most miserable, most
offensive, most unfit for the Angels who are your
companions. Come then continually to the Fount
of cleansing for cleansing, St. John says that the
Blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin. Use
the means appointed, — confession, prayer, festing,
making amends, good resolves, and the ordinances
of grace. Do not stop to ask the degree of your
guilt, — whether you have actually drawn back from
God or not. Let your ordinary repentance be as
though you had. You cannot repent too much.
Come to God day by day, intreating Him for all the
sins of your whole life up to the very hour present.
This is the way to keep your baptismal robe bright.
Let it be washed as your garments of this world are,
again and again; washed in the most holy, most
precious, most awfully salutary of all streams. His
Blood, who is without blemish and without spot.
It is thus that the Church of God, it is thus that
each individual member of it becomes all glorious
"nithin, and filled with grace.

Thus it is that we return in spirit to the state of
Adam on his creation, when as yet the grace and

SS8 TRANSGRESSION AND INFIRMITIES. [Sbrm. XIV.

glory of God were to him for a robe, and rendered
earthly garments needless. Thus we prepare our-
selves for that new world yet to come, for the new
heavens and the new earth, and all the hosts of
them in the day when they shall be created ; — ^when
the marriage of the Lamb shall come, and His
wife shall make herself ready, and to her shall be
granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white ;
for the fine linen is the righteousness of Samts.

Gal. v. 17.
" The Qesh lustcth against the Spijit, and the Spirit against
the flesh ; and these are contrary the one to the other, bo that
ye cannot do the things that ye would."

It 18 not uncommonly said of the Church Catholic,
and we may humbly and ihEmkfully receive it,
that though there is error, variance, and sin in an
extreme degree in its separate members, yet what
thej do all in common, what they do in combina-
tioD, what they do gathered together in one, or
■what they universally receive or allow, is divine
and holy; that the sins of individuals are over-
ruled, and their wanderings guided and brought
round, so that they end in truth, in spite, or even
in one sense, by means of error. Not as if error
had any power of arriving at truth, or were a
necessary previous condition of it, but that it
pleases Almighty God to work out His great pur-

SINS OF INFIRMITY.

■

posea in and througli human infirmity and sia I
Thus Balaam had a word put in his mouth in tie I
midst of his enchantments, and Caiaplias prophesied
in the act of persuading our Lord's death.

What is true of the Church as a body, is true J
also of each member of it who fulfils his calliagJ
the continual results, as I may call them, of hiH
faith, are righteous and holy, but the procea
through which they are obtained is one of imper-
fection ; so that could we see his soul as Angela ,
see it, he would, when seen at a distance, appesrfl
youthful in countenance, and bright la apparela
but approach him, and his face has lines of care^
upon it, and his dress is tattered. His righteous- j
nes9 then seems, I do not mean superficial, this
would be to give a very wrong idea of it, but
though reaching deep within him, yet not whole
and entire in the depth of it ; but, as it were,
"wrought out of sin, the result of a continual
struggle,— not spontaneous nature, but habitual
self-command.

True faith is not shown here below in peace, but J
rather in conflict ; and it is no proof that a maii.1
is not in a state of grace that he continually sins^l
provided such sins do not remain ou him as whi
I may call ultimate results, but are ever j
on into something beyond and unlike theniselres,!!
into truth and righteousness. As we gain hap-
piness through suffering, so do we arrive at holi'fl
ness through infirmity, because man's very condition,

XV.] SINS OF INFIRMITY. 241

is a fallen one, and in passing out of the country
of sin, he necessarily passes ttroug'h it. And hence
it is that holy men are kept from regarding them-
flelves with satislaction, or resting in any thing
short of our Lord's death as their ground of con-
fidence; for, though that death Las already in a
measure wrought life in them, and effected the
purpose for which it took place, yet to themselves
they seem but sinners, their renewal being hidden
from them by the circumstances attending it.
The utmost they can say of themselves is, that
they are not in the commission of any such sins as
would plainly exclude them from grace ; but how
little of firm hope can be placed on such negative
evidence, is plain from St. Paul's own words on the
subject, who, speaking of the censures passed upon
him by the Corinthians, says, " I know nothing by
myself," that is, I am conscious of notliing "yet am
I not hereby justified ; but He that judgeth me is
the Lord." As men in a battle cannot see how it
is going, so Christians have no certain signs of God's
presence in their hearts, and can but look up towards
their Lord and Saviour, and timidly hope. Hence
they will readily adopt the well-known words, not
as expressing a matter of doctrine, but as their
own experience about themselves. " The little fruit
■which we have in holiness, it is, God knoweth,
corrupt and unsound; we put no confidence at all
in it ; . . . our continual suit to Him is, and must

VOL. V. E

248 SINS OP INFIRMITY. [Sb.

be, to bear with our iofirmities and pardon oui
offences '."

Let U9 then now enumerate some of tbe infirmities
which I speak of; infirmities which, while they cer^
tainly beset those who are outcasts from God's grace,
and that with grievous additions and fatal aggrava-
tione, yet are also possible in a state of acceptance,
and do not in themselves imply the absence of true
and lively faith. The review will serve to humble all
of us, and perhaps may encourage those who are
depressed by a sense of their high calling, by re-
minding them that they are not reprobate, tboagh
they be not all they should be.

1. Now of the sins M'liich stain us, though with-
out such a consent of the will as to forfeit grace, I
must mention first original sin. How it is that we
are bom under a curse which we did not bring
upon us, we do not know ; it is a mystery ; but
■when we become Christians, that curse is removed..
We are no longer under God's wrath ; our guilt 19'
forgiven us, but still the infection of it remaioH.
I mean, we still have an evil princi])le within i
dishonouring our best services. How far we i
able, by God's grace, in time to chastise, restrain
and destroy this infection, is another question ; bi*
still it is not removed at once by Baptism, and i
not, surely it is a most grievous humiliation I

' Hooker on Justification, § 9.

XV.]

SINS OF INFIRMITY.

those who are striving to " walk worthy of the
Lord unto all pleasing'." It is involuntary, and
therefore does not cast us out of grace ; yet in
itself it is very miserable and very humbling ; and
every one will discover it in himself, if he watches
himself narrowly. I mean, what is called the old
Adam, pride, profaneness, deceit, unbelief, selfish-
ness, greediness, these and similar sins, the inherit-
ance of the Tree of the knowledge of good and
evil ; in s which the words of the serpent sowed in
the hearts of our first parents, which sprang up
and bore fruit, some thirty fold, some sixty, some
an hundred, and which have been by carnal descent
transmitted to us.

2. Another class of involuntary sins, which often
are not such as to throw us out of grace, any more
than the infection of nature, but are still more
humbling and distressing, consists of those which
arise from our former habits of sin, thoufjh now
long abandoned. We cannot rid ourselves of sin
when we would ; though we repent, though God for-
gives us, yet it remains in its power over our souls,
in our habits, and in our raemories. It has given a
colour to our thoughts, words, and works ; and
though, with many efforts, we would wash it out from
us, yet this is not possible except gradually. Men
have been slothful, or self-conceited, or self-willed,
or impure, or worldly-minded in their youth, and

afterwards they turn to God, and would fain be
other than tliey bave been, but their former self
clings to them, as a poisoned garment, and eats into
them. They cannot do the things that they wonld,
and from time to time they seem almost reduced
back again to that heathen state, which the Apostle
describes, when lie cries ont, " O wretched man thti
I am ! who shall deliver me from the body of this '
death'?"

3. Another class of involuntary sins are such
arise from want of self-command ; that is, from tlic
mind being possessed of more light than strength, till
conscience being informed, but the governing prin*
ciple weak. The soul of man is intended to be 8 welt-
ordered polity, in which there are many powers and
faculties, and each has its due place ; and for theseto
exceed their limits is sin; yet they cannot be kept
within them except by being governed, and we are un-
equal to this task of governing ourselves except after
long habit. While we are learning to govern our-
selves, we are constantly exposed to the risk, or rather
to the occurrence of numberless failures. We have
failures by the way, though we triumph in the aid^
and thus, as I just now ini])lied, the process of learn-
ing to obey God is, in one sense, a process of sinning
from the nature of the case. We have much to be
forgiven ; nay, we have the more to be forgiven the
more we attempt. The higher our aims, the greater

SINS OF INFIRMITV.

our risks. They whci venture much with their talents,
gain much ; and in the end they hear the words,
" Well done, good and faithful servant ;" but they
have 80 many losses in trading by the way, that
to themselves they seem to do nothing but fail.
They cannot believe that they are making any pro-
gress; and though they do, yet snrely they Ijave
much to be forgiven in all their services. They are
like David, men of blood ; they fight the good fight
of faith, but they are polluted with the contest.

I am not speaking of cases of extraordinary devo-
tion, but of what every one must know in his own
case, how difficult it is to command himself, and do
that he wishes to do ; — how weak the governing
principle of his mind is, and how poorly and im-
perfectly he comes up to his own notions of right
and truth ; how difficult it is to command his
feelings, grief, anger, impatience, joy, fear ; how
difficult to govern his tongue, to say just what he
would ; how difficult to rouse himself to do what
he would at this time or that ; how difBcult to rise
in the moniing ; how difficult to go about his
duties and not be idle ; how difficult to eat and
drink just what he should ; how difficult to fix his
mind on his prayers ; how difficult to regulate his
thoughts through the day ; how difficult to keep
out what should be kept out.

We are feeble-minded, excitable, effeminate,
wayward, irritable, changeable, miserable. We
have no lord over us, because we are but partially

246 SINS OF INFIRMITY. [Si

Butjeet to the dominion of the true King of Saints.
Let us try to do right as much as we will, let i
pray as earnestly, yet we do not, in a time of trial,
come up even to our own notions of perfection, or
rather, we fall quite short of them, and do perhaps
just the reverse of what we had hoped to do.
'^hjle there is no external temptation present, our
passions sleep, and we think all is well. Then
we think, and reflect, and resolve what we wlU do;
and we anticipate no difficulty in doing it. Bui
when the temptation is come, where are we then!
We are like Daniel in the lions' den ; and our'
passions are the lions; except that wc have not
Daniel's grace to prevail with God lor the shutting
of the lions' mouths lest they devour us. Then our
reason is hut like the miserable keeper of wild
beasts, who, in ordinary seasons is equal to them,
but not when they are excited. Alas! Whatever
the affection of mind may be, how miserable it ii
It may be a dull, heavy sloth, or cowardice, which
throws its huge limbs around us, binds us closer
oppresses our breath, and makes us despise ourselves^
while we are impotent to resist it; or it may 1]
anger, or other baser passion, which, for the momenti
escapes from our controul after its prey, to our
horror and our disgrace ; but any how, what I
miserable den of brute creatures does the soul then
become, and we at the moment (I say) literallj
unable to help it! 1 am not, of course, speaking of
deeds of evil, the fruits of wilfulness, — malice, or

XV.] SINS OF INFIRMITY. 247

revenge, or uncleannese, or intemperanee, or vio-
lence, or robbery, or fraud ; — alas ! the sinful heart
oflen goes on to commit sins which hide from it at
once the light of God's countenance; — but I am
supposing what was Eve's case, when she looked at
the tree and saw that the fruit was good, but before
she plucked it, when lust had conceived and was
bringing forth sin, but ere sin was finished and had
brought forth death. I am supposing that we do
not exceed so far as to estrange God from us ; that
He mercifully chains the lions at our cry, before
they do more than frighten us by their moanings or
their roar, — before they fall on us to destroy ns;
yet, at best, what misery, what pollution, what
sacrilege, what a chaos is there then in that conse-
crated spot, which is the temple of the Holy Ghost!
How is it that the lamp of God does not go out in
it at once, when the whole soul seems tending to
hell, and hope is almost gone ! "Wonderful mercy
indeed it is, which bears so much ! Incomprehensible
patience in the Holy One, so to dwell, in such a wil-
derness, with the wild beasts ! Exceeding and divine
virtue in the grace given us, that it is not stifled !
Yet such is the promise, not to those who sin
contentedly after they have received grace ; there is
no hope while they so sin ; but where sin is not part
of a course, while it Is still sin, whether sin of our
birth, or of habits formed long ago, or of want of
self-command, which we are trying to gain, God

SINS OF INFIRMITY.

jnercifiilly allows and jiardons it, and " the blood of
Jesus Christ cleaiisetU us from" it all.

4. Further, I niiglit dwell upon sins which we
fall into from being taken unawares, — when the
temptation is sudden, — as St. Peter, when he first
deuied Christ; though whether it became of a dif-
ferent character, wheu he denied twice aud thrice,
is a further question.

5. And again, those sins which arise from the
devil's temptations, inflaming the wounds aud scars of
past aius healed, or nearly so ; exciting' the memory,
and hurrying us away ; and thus making use of our
former selves against our present selves, contrary t«
our will.

6. And again, I might speak of those which rise
from a deficiency of practical experience, or from
ignorance how to perform duties which we set
about. Men attempt to be munificent, and their
acts are prodigal ; they wish to be firm and zealous,
and their acts are cruel ; they wish to be benevo-
lent, and they are indulgent and weak; they do
harm when they mean to do good ; they engage in
underi;akings, or they promote designs, or they put
forth opinions, or they set a pattern, of which evil
comes ; they countenance evil ; they mistake false-
hood for truth ; they are zealous for &lse doctrines;
they oppose the cause of God. One can hardly say.
all this is without siii, and yet in them it may be in-^
voluntary sin, aud pardonable on the prayer of fait

SINS OF INFIRMITY.

7. Or I might speak of those unworthy motives,
low views, mistakes in principle, false maxims,
which abound on all sides of us, and which we
(as it were) catch from each other ;— that spirit of
the world which we breatlie, and which defiles all
we do, yet which can hardly be said to be a wilful
pollution ; but rather it is such sin as is consistent
■with the presence of the grace of God in us, and
which that grace will blot out and put away.

8. And, lastly, much might be said on the subject
of what the Litany calls " negligences and ignor-
ances," on forget fulnesses, heedlessnesses, want of
seriousness, frivolities, and a variety of weaknesses,
which we may be conscious of in ourselves, or
see in others.

Such are some of the classes of sins which may
be found, if it so happen, where the will is right,
and iaith lively ; and which in such cases are not
inconsistent with a state of grace, or may be called
infirmities. Of course it must be ever recollected,
that infirmities are not always to be regarded as in-
firmities ; they attach also to those who live in the
commission of vrilfiil sins, and who have no warrant
whatever for considering themselves in a saving
state. Men do not cease to be under the in-
fluence of original sin, or sins of past years, they
do not gain self-command, or unlearn negligences
and ignorances, by adding to these oifences others
of a more grievous character. Those who are out
of grace, have infirmities and much more. And

250 SINS OF INFIRMITY. [S««.

there will always be a tendency in such persona to
explain away tlieir wilful sins into infirmities. This
is ever to be borne in mind. I am not attempting
to draw the line between infirmities and transgres-
sions ; I only say, that to whomever besides suet
infirmities do attach, they may happen to attach to
those who are free from transgressions, and who
need not despond, or be miserable on account of
failings which in them are not destructive of faith
or incompatible with grace. Who these are He
only knows for certain, who "' tries the reins and
the heart," who "knoweth the mind of the Spirit,"
and " discerns between the righteous and the
wicked." He is able, amid the maze of contend-
ing motives and ])rinciples within us, to trace out
the perfect work of righteousness steadily going
on there, and the rudiments of a new world risinof
from out the chaos. He can discriminate between
what is liabitual and what is accidental ; -what is
on the growth and what is in decay ; what is s
result and what is intermediate ; what is of us and
what is in us. He estimates the difference between
a will that is honestly devoted to Him, and one that
is insincere. And where there is a willing mind. He
accepts it " according to that a man bath, and not
according to that he hath not'," In those whose
wills are holy. He is present for sanctification and
acceptance; and, like the sun's beams in some cave

XV.] SINS OF INFIRMITY. U5l

of the earth, His grace sheds light on erery side,
and consumes all mists and vapours as they arise.

We indeed have not knowledge such as His ;
were we ever so high in God's favour, a certainty
of our justification would not belong to us. Yet,
even to know only thus much, that infirmities are
no necessary mark of reprobation, that God's elect
have infirmities, and that our own sins may possibly
be no more than infirmities, tbis surely, by itself, is
a consolation. And to reflect that at least God
continues us visibly in His Church ; that He does
not withdraw from us the ordinances of grace ;
that He gives us means of instruction, patterns of
holiness, religious guidance, good books ; that He
allows us to frequent His house, and to present
ourselves before Him in prayer and Holy Com-
munion ; that He gives us opportunities of private
prayer; that He has given us a care for our souls;
an anxiety to secure their salvation ; a desire to be
more strict and conscientious, more simple in faith,
more ftill of love than we are ; all this will tend to
soothe and encourage us, when the sense of our
infirmities makes ua afraid. And if further, God
seems to be making «a His instruments for any pur-
pose of Hie, for teaching, warning, guiding or com-
forting others, resisting en-or, spreading the know-
ledge of the truth, or edifying His Church, this too
will create in us the belief, not that God is certainly
pleased with us, for knowledge of mysteries may be
separated from love, but that He has not utterly

262

SINS OF INFIRMITY.

CSei

;. XV.

forsaken us in spite of our sins, that He still re-
inemberB us, and knows us by name, and desires
our salvation. And further, if, for all our in-
firmities, we can point to some occasions on which
we have sacriiiced any thing for God's service, or to
any habit of sin or evil tendency of nature which
we have more or less overcome, or to any habitual
self-denial which we practise, or to any work which
we have accomplished to God's honour and glory
this perchance may fill us with the bumble hope
that God is working in us, and therefore ii
peace with us. And, lastly, if we have, through
God's mercy, an inward sense of our own eincerity
and integrity, if we feel that we can appeal to God
with St. Peter, that we love Ilim only, and desire
to please Ilim in all things, in proportion as we feel
this, OP at such times as we feel it, we have an
assurance shed abroad on our hearts, that we are
at present in His favour, and are in training for
the inheritance of His eternal kingdom.

"If there be first a willing mind, it is nccepted according to
that a man hath, and not according to tiiat he hath not."

Men may be divided into two great classes, those \
who profess religious obedience, and those who do
not ; and of those who do profess to be religious,
there are again those who perform as well as profess,
and those who do not. And thus on the whole
there are three classes of men in the world, open
sinners, consistent Christians, and between the two,
{as speaking with the one, and more or less acting
with the other,) professing Christians, or, as they
are sometimes called, nominal Christians. Now
the distinction between open sinners and consistent
Christians is so clear, that there is no mistaking it ;
for they agree in nothing; they neither profess the
same things nor practise the same. But the dif- /

ference between professing Christians and true
Christians is not so clear, for this reason, that
true Christians, however consistent they are, jet
do sin, aa being not yet perfect ; and so far as they
sin, are inconsistent, and this is all that professing
Christians are. What then, it may be asked, is the
real difference between true and professing Chris-
tians, since both the one and the other profe»
more than they practise ? Again, if you put the
question to one of the latter class, however incon-
sistent his life may be, yet he will be sure to say'
that he wishes he was better ; that he is sorry ftir'
his sins; that the flesh is weak; that he cannot
overcome it; that God alone can overcome it ; that
he trusts God will, and that he prays to Him (
enable him to do it. There is no form of words
conceivable which a mere professing Christian can-
not use ; nay, more, there appears to be no senti<
ment which he cannot feel, as well as the traa
Christian, and at first sight apparently with the'
same justice. He seems just in the very position of
the true Christian, only perhaps behind him ; not
so consistent, not advanced so much ; still, on the
same line. Both confess to a struggle withia
them ; both sin, both are sorry ; what then is thfi
difference between them ?

There are many differences ; but, before going;'
on to mention that one to which I shall confine mf
attention, I would have you observe that I am'
speaking of differences in God's siglit. Of course,

XVr.] SINCERITY AND HYPOCRISY. 255

■we men may after all bo unable altogether, and
often are unable, to see differences between those
who, nevertheless, are on different sides of the line
of life. Nor may we judge any thing absolutely
before the time, but God " searcheth the hearts."
He alone, " who searcheth the hearts," " knoweth
what is the mind of the Spirit." We do not even
know ourselves absolutely. " Yea, I judge not
mine own self," says St. Paul, " but He that judgeth
me is the Lord." God alone can unerringly discern
between sincerity and insincerity, between the hypo-
crite and the man of perfect heart. I do not, of
course, mean that we can form no judgment at all
upon ourselves, or that it is not useful to do so ;
but here I will chiefly insist upon the point of doc-
trine, viz. how does the true Christian differ in
God's sight from the insincere and double-minded?
— leaving any practical application which it admits,
to be incidentally brought out in the course of my
remarks.

Now the real difference between the true and
the pi-ofessing Christian seems to be given us in
the text, — " If there he a willing mind, it is ac-
cepted," St. Paul is speaking of almsgiving ; bnt
what he says seems to apply generally. He is lay-
ing down a principle, which applies of course in
many distinct cases, though he uses it with refer-
ence to one in particular. An honest, unaffected
desire of doing right is the test of God's true
servants. On the other hand, a double mind, a

SINCERITY AND HYPOCRISY.

pursuing other ends besides the truth, and in con-
sequence an inconsistency in conduct, and a half-
consciousness (to sa.y the least) of incousistency,
and a feeling of the necessity of defending oneself
to oneself' and to God, and to the world ; in a word,
hypocrisy ; these are the signs of the merely pro-
fessed Christian. Now I am going to give some
instances of this distinction, in Scripture and in
fact.

For instance. The two great Christian graces
are faith and love. Now, how are these charac-
teiTzed in Scripture ? — By tlieir being honest or
single-minded. Thus St. Paul, in one place, speaks
of " the end of the commandment being love ;"
■what love ? — " love out of a pwe Jieart ;" he pro-
ceeds, " and of a good conscience ;" and still farther,
" and of faith," — what kind of faith? — " faith wn-
feigned ;" or, as it may be more literally translated,
" unhyi)ocritical faith ;" for so the word means in
Greek. Again, elsewhere he speaks of his " calling
to remembrance the unfeigned faith" which dwelt
in Timothy, and in Iiis mother and grandmother
before him ; that is, literally, " unhypocritical faith."
Again, he speaks of the Apostles approving thent-
selves as the ministers of God, " by kindness, by the
Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned," or, more literally,
" unhypocritical love." Again, as to love towards
man, " Let love be without dissimulation" or, more
literally, as in the other cases, " let love be unhy-
pocritical." In like manner, St. Peter speaks of

XVI.] SINCERITY AND HYPOCRISY. 257

Christians " having purified their souls in obeying
the truth through the Spirit unto unhypocritical
love of the brethreu," And, in like manner, St.
James apeaks of " the wisdom that is from above,
being first pure . . ." and, presently, " without par-
tiality, and without hypoorisy '." Surely it is very
remarkable that three Apostles, wi-iting on different
subjects and occasions, should each of them thus
speak about either faith or loTe without hypocrisy.

A true Christian, then, may almost be defined
as one who has a ruling sense of God's presence
■within him. As none but justified persons have that
privilege, so none but the justified have that prac-
tical perception of it. A true Christian, or one
who is in a state of acceptance with God, is he,
"who, in such sense, has faith in Him, as to live
in the thought that He is present with him, — ■
present not externally, not in nature merely, or in
providence, but in his innermost heart, or in his
OMiscietice. A man is justified whose conscience is
illuminated by God, so that he habitually realizes
that all his thoughts, all the first springs of his
mora! life, all his motives and his wishes, are open
to Almighty God. Not as if he was not aware
that there is very much in him imi)ure and corrupt,
but he wishes that all that is in him should be bare
to God. He believes that it is, and he even joys to
think that it is, in spite of hia fear and shame at its

' 2 Cor. vi. 6. Rom. xii. 9. 1 Pet. i. 23. James iii. 17.

258

SINCERITY AND HYPOCRISY.

CS«

being so. Ho alone admits Christ into the ehrine
of his heart ; whereas others wish in some way or
other, to be to themselves, to have a home, a
chamber, a tribunal, a throne, a self where God is
not, — a home within them which is not a temple, a
chamber which is not a confessional, a tribunal
without a judge, a throne without a king ; — that
self may be king and judge ; and that the Creator
may rather be dealt with and approached as though
a second party, instead of His being that true and
better self, of which self itself should be but an
instrument and minister.

Scripture tells us that God the Word, who died
for us and rose again, and now lives for us, and
saves us, is " (jnick and powerful, and shai-per than
any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing
asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and
marrow, and a discerner of the thoughts and intents
of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is
not manifest in His sight ; but all things are naked
and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we
have to do '." Now the true Christian realizes
this ; and what is the consequence ? — Why, that
he enthrones the Son of God in his conscience,
refers to bim as a sovereign authority, and uses no
reasoning with Him. He does not reason, but he
says, "Thou, God, seest me." He feels that God
is too near hiiu to allow of argument, self-defence,

' UeL. iv. 12, 13.

XVI.]

SINCERITY AND HYPOCRISY.

259

excuse, or objection. He appeals in mattcTB of
duty, not to his own reason, but to God Himself,
whom with the eyes of faith he sees, and whom he
makes the Judge ; not any fancied fitness, or any
preconceived notion, or any abstract principle, or
any tangible experience.

The book of Psalme continually instances this
temper of profound, simple, open-hearted confidence
in God. " O Lord, Thou hast searched me out and
known rae. Thou knowest my downsitting and
mine uprising. Thou understandest my thoughts
long before . , . There is not a word in my tongue
but Thou knowest it altogether." " My soul haiigeth
upon Thee. Thy right hand hath upholden me."
" When I wake up, I am present with Thee."
" Into Thy hands I commend my spirit, for Thou
hast redeemed me, O Lord, Thou God of Truth."
" Commit thy way unto the Lord, and put thy trust
in Him, and He shall bring it to pass. He shall
make thy righteousness as clear aa the light, and
thy just dealing as the noonday." " Against Thee
only have I sinned, and done this evil in Thy sight."
" Hear the right, O Lord, consider my complaint,
and hearken unto my prayer that goeth not out of
feigned lips. Let my sentence come forth from
Thy presence, and let Thine eyes look upon the
thing that is equal. Thou hast proved and visited
mine heart in the night season. Thou hast tried
me, and shalt find no wickedness in me ; for I am
utterly purposed that my mouth shall not oEFond."

Once more, " Thou shalt guide me with Thy coun-
sel, and after that receive me with glory. Whom
have I in heaven but Thee ? and there is none upon
earth that I desire in comparison of Thee. My
flesh and my heart faileth, but God is the strength
of mine heart and iny portion for ever '."

Or, again, consider the following passage in St.
John's First Epistle. " If our heart condemn us,
God is greater than our heart and knoweth all
things. Beloved, if our heart condemn us not,
then have we confidence towards God." And, in
connexion with this, the following from the same
Epistle : " God is Light, and in Him is no darkness
at all. If we say that we have fellowship with
Him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the
truth. ... If we confess our sins, He is faithful
and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness." Again, " the darkness
is passed, and the true light now shineth." Again,
" Hereby we know that He abideth in us, by the
Spirit which He hath given us." And again, " He
that believeth on the Son of God, hath the witness in
himself." And, in the same connexion, consider St.
Paul's statement, that "the Spirit itself beareth wit-
ness with our spirit, that we are the children of God*."

And now, on the other hand, let us contrast such

' Pb. cxxxix. 1, 2. 4; Ixiii. 8; xxxi. 5 ; xxxvii. 5, fl ;
U. 4 ; xvii. 1—3 ; Ixxiii. 24 — 26.

' 1 John iii. 20, 21 ; i. "5—9 j ii. 8 ; iii. 24 ; v. 10. Rom.

XVI.]

SINCERITY AND HYPOCRISY.

a temper of mind, which loves to walk in the light,
with that of the merely professing Christian, or, in
Scripture language, of the hypocrite. Such are they
who have two ends which they pursue, religion and
the world ; and hence St. James calls them " dou-
hle-minded." Hence, too, our Lord, speaking of
the Pharisees who were hypocrites, says, " Ye can-
not serve God and mammon '." A double-minded
man, then, as haviug two ends in view, dare not
come to God, lest he should be discovered ; for " all
things that are reproved are made manifest by the
hght ^," Thus, whereas the Prodigal Son " rose
and came to his Father," on the contrary, Adam hid
himself among the trees of the garden. It was not
simple dread of God, but dread joined to an unwil-
Tmgness to be restored to God. He had a secret
in his heart which he kept from God. He felt
towards God, — as it would seem, or at least his de-
scendants so feel, — as one man often feels towards
another in the intercourse of Ufe. You sometimes
Bay of a man, " he is friendly, or courteous, or re-
spectful, or considerate, or communicative ; but,
after all, there is something, perhaps without his
knowing it, in the background. He professes to
he agreed with me ; he almost displays his agree-
ment ; he says he pursues the same objects as I ;
but still I do not know him, I do not make pro-
gress with him, I have no coufidence in him, I do

' Lukexvi. 13. ' Eph. V. 13.

SINCERITY AND HYPOCRISY.

[Se*

not know him better than the first time T aaw him."
Such is the way in "which the double-minded ap-
proach the Most High, — they have a something
private, a hidden self at bottom. They look on
themselves, as it were, as independent parties,
treating with Almighty God as one of their fellows.
Hence, so far from seeking God, they hardly like
to be sought by Him. They would rather keep
their position and stand where they are, — on earth,
and so make terms with God in heaven ; whereas,
" he that doeth truth, coraeth to the light, that
his deeds may be made manifest that they are
wrought in God'."

This being the case, there being in the estimation
of the double-minded man two parties, God and
self, it follows (as I have said), that reasoning and
argument is the mode in which he approaches his
Saviour and Judge ; and that for two reasons i —
first, because he will not (five himself up to God,
but stands upon his rights and ajipeals to his notions
of fitness ; and next, because he has some secret
misgiving after all that he is dishonest, or some con-
sciousness that he may appear so to others ; and,
therefore, he goes about to fortify his position, to
explain his conduct, or to excuse himself.

Some such argument or excuse had the unprofit-
able servant, ■when called before his Lord. The
other servants said, " Lord, Thy pound hath gained

XVI.] SINCERITY AND HYPOCRISY. 263

ten," or " five pounds." They said no more ; no-
thing more vras necessary ; the case spoke for itself.
But tbe unprofitable servant did not dare leave his
conduct to tell its own tale at God's judgment-seat ;
he said not merely, " Lord, I have kept Thy pound
laid up in a napkin ;" he appealed, as it were, to
reason against his Maker; he felt he must make
out a case, aud be went on to attempt it. He
trusted not his interests to the Eternal and All-
perfect Reason of God, before whom he stood, but
entrenched himself in his own.

Again: — When our Lord said to the scribe, who
had answered Him that eternal life was to be gained
by loving God and hie neighbour, " Thou hast an-
swered right," this ought to have been enough.
But his object was not to please God, but to ex-
alt himself. And, therefore, he went on to make
an objection. " But he, willing to justify himself,
said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour?"
whereas they only are justified in God's judgment,
who give up the notion of justifying themselves by
word or deed, who start with the confession that
they are unjust, and who como to God, not upon
their own merits, but for His mercy.

Again : — We have the same arguing and insin-
cere spirit exposed in the conduct of the Pharisees,
when they asked Christ for the authority on which
He acted. They said, " By what authority doest
Thou these things?" This might be the question
of sincere inquirers or mere objectors, of fiiith or of

264

SINCERITY AND HYPOCRISY.

[See

hypocrisy. Observe how our Lord detects it. He
asked them about St. John's baptism ; meaning to
Bay, that, if they acknowledged St. John, they must
acknowledge Himself, of whom John spake. They,
unwilling to submit to Christ as a teacher and Lord,
preferred to deny John to going on to acknowledge
Him. Yet, on the other hand, they dare not openly
deny the Baptist, because of the people ; so, be-
tween hatred of our Lord and dread of the people,
they would give no answer at all. " They reasoned
among themselves," we are told. In consequence,
our Lord left them to their reasonings ; He refused
to tell them what, had they reasoned sincerely, they
might learn for themselves.

What is seen in the Gospels, had taken place,
from the beginning. Our first parents were as ready
with excuses, as their posterity when Christ carae.
First, Adam says, " I hid myself, for T was afraid ;"
though fear and shame were not the sole or chief
reasons why he fled, but an incipient hatred, if it
may be said, of his Maker. Again, he says, " The
woman, whom Thou gavest me . . , she gave me
of the tree." And the woman says, " The serpent
beguiled me-" They did not honestly surrender
themselves to their offended God, but had some-
thing to say in their behalf. Again, Cain says,
when asked where his brother was, whom he had
murdered, " Am I my brother's keeper ?"

Balaam, again, is a most conspicuous instance of
a double mind, or of hypocrisy. He has a )>lausible

SVI.l

SINCERITY AND HYPOCRISY.

265

reason for whatever he does ; he can so skilfully
defend himself, that to this day ho looks like a good
man, and his conduct and fortunes are a perplexity
to many minds. But it is one thing to have good
excuses, another to have good motives. He had
not the love of the truth, the love of God, in his
heart ; he was covetous of worldly goods ; and,
therefore, all his excuses only avail to mark him as
double-minded.

Again : — Saul is another very remarkable in-
stance of a man acting for his own ends, and yet
having plausible reasotis for what he did. He offered
sacrifice on one occasion, not having a commission ;
this was a sin ; yet what was his excuse ? — a very
feir one. Samuel had promised to come to offer
the sacrifice, and did not. Saul waited some days,
the people grew discouraged, his army fell off, and
the enemy was at hand, — so, as he says, he "forced
himself '."

Such is the conduct of insincere men in difficulty.
Perhaps their difficulty may be a real one ; but in
this they differ from the sincere : — the latter seek
God in their difficulty, feeling that He only who
imposes it can remove it; but insincere men do
not like to go to God ; and to them the difficulty
is only so much gain, for it gives them an apparent
reason, a sort of excuse, for not going by God's rule,
but for deciding in their own way. Thus Saul took

1 Sam. xiii. 12.

his own course ; thus Jeroboam, when in a difficulty,
put up calves of gold and instituted a new worship
without divine command. Whereas, when Heze-
kiah was in trouble, he took the letter of Sennsr'
cherib, " and went up into the house of the Lord,
and spread it before the Lord '." And when St.
Peter was sinking in the water, he cried out to
Christ, "Lord, save me'!" And in like manner
holy David, after he had sinned in numbering the
people, and was told to choose between three pun-
ishments offered Mm, showed the same honest and
simple-hearted devotion in choosing that of the
three which might be the most exactly called, fall-
ing into the Lord's ha.nds. If he must suffer, let
the Lord chastise him. — " I am in a great strait,"
he says; "let us fall now into the hands of the
Lord ; for his mercies are great ; and let me not
fall into the hand of man ^"

Great, then, is the difference between sincere and
insincere Christians, however like their words may
be to each other ; and it is needless to say, that
what I have shown in a few examples, might be
instanced again and again from every part of Scrip-
ture, particularly from the history of the Jews, as
contained in the Prophets. All men, even after the
gift of God's grace, sin ; God's true servants profess
and sin, — sin, and are sorry ; and hypocrites profess
and sin, — sin, and are sorry. Thus the two parties

' Is. xxxvii. H. ^ Matt. xiv. 30. ^ 2 Sam. xsiv. 14.

XVI.] SINCERHT AND HYPOCRISY. g67

look like each othei'. But the word of God dis-
criminates one from the other by this test, — that
Christ dwells in the conscience of one, not of the
other ; that the one opens his heart to God, the
other does not ; the one views Almighty God only
as an accidental guest, the other as Lord and owner
of all that ho is ; the one admits Him as if for a
night, or some stated season, the other gives him-
self over to God, and considers himself God's servant
and instrument, now and for ever. Not more dif-
ferent is the intimacy of friends from mere acquaint-
ance ; not more different is it to know a person in
society, to he courteous and obliging to him, to in-
terchange civilities, from opening one's heart to
another, admiting him into it, seeing into his, loving
him, and living in him ; — than the external worship
of the hypocrite, from the inward devotion of true
faith ; approaching God with the lips, from believing
on Him with the heart; so opening to the Spirit
that He opens to us, from so living to self as to ex-
clude the light of heaven.

Now, as to applying what has heen shown
from Scripture to ourselves, this shall here be
left, my brethren, to the consciences of each of
us, and a few words will suffice to do this. Do
yon, then, habitually thus unlock your hearts and
Bubject your thoughts to Almighty God ? Are you
living in this conviction of His Presence, and have
you this special witness that that Presence is really

SINCERITY AND HYPOCRISY.

rsB.

Bet up "witbin you unto your salvation; viz. that
you live in the fear of it ? Do you believe, and act
on the belief, that His light penetrates and shines
through your heart, as the sun's beams through a
room ? You know how things look when the sun's
beams are on it, — the very air then appears full of
impurities, which, before it came out, were not
seen. So is it with our souls. We are fiill of
Btaius and corruptions, we see them not, tbey are
like the air before the sun shines; but though we
see them not, God sees them : He pervades us aa
the smibeara. Our souls, in His view, are full of
things which offend, things which must be repented
of, forgiven, and put away. He, in the words of
the Psalmist, "has set our misdeeds before Him,
our secret sins in the light of His countenance '."
This is most true, though it be not at all welcome
doctrine to many. We cannot hide ourselves from
Him ; and our wisdom, as otir duty, lies in embrac-
ing this truth, acquiescing in it, and acting upon it.
Let us then beg Him to teach us the Mystery of
His Presence in us, that, by acknowledging it, we
may thereby possess it fruitfiilly. Let us confess it
in faith, that we may possess it unto justification.
Let us so own it, as to set Him before us in every
thing. " I have set God always before me," says
the Psalmist, " for He is on my right hand, there-

' Ps. xc. 8.

XVI]

SINCERITY AN0 HYPOCRISY.

fore I shall uot fall '." Let us, in all circumstances,
thus regard Him. ^Vhethe^ we have sinned, let us
not dare keep from Him, but, with the Prodigal
Son, rise and go to Him. Or, if we are conscious
of nothing, still let us not boast in ourselves or
justify ourselves, but feel that " Ho who judgeth us
is the Lord." In all circumstances, of joy or sorrow,
hope or fear, let us aim at having Him in our
inmost heart ; let us have no secret apart from
Him. Let us acknowledge Him as enthroned with-
in us at the very springs of thought and affection.
Let us submit ourselves to His guidance and sove-
reign direction; let us come to Him, that He
may forgive us, cleanse us, change us, guide us, and
save us.

This is the true life of saints. This is to have
the Spirit witnessing with our spirits that we are
sons of God. Such a faith alone will sustain the
terrors of the last day ; such a faith aloue will be
proof against those fierce flames which are to sur-
round the Judge, when He comes with His Holy
Angels to separate between " those who serve God,
and those who serve Him not l"

2 Con. i. 12.

" Our rejoicing Is this, the testimony of our conscience, that

in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdOiB, but

by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world,

and more abundantly to you-ward."

In these words the great Apostle appeals to his
conscience that he had lived in simplicity and sin-
cerity, with a single aim and an innocent heart, as
one who was illuminated and guided by God's grace.
The like appeal he makes on other occasions ; when
brought before the Jewish council he says, " Men
and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience
before God until this day'." And in his second
Epistle to Timothy he speaks of having served God
from Ills forefathers " with pure conscience'."

Sbrm, XVII.] THE TESTIMONY OF CONSCIENCE. g71

And in the text be expreaaly saya, what he jmplieg,
of course, whenever he appeals to his conscience
at all, that he ia able to rejoice in this appeal. He
was given to know hia own sincerity in auch mea-
sure, that he could humbly take pleasure iu it, and
be comforted by it. " Our rejoicing is this," ho
says, " the testimony of our conscience." In like
manner he says to the Galatians, " Let every man
prove hia own work, and then shall he have re-
joicing in himself alone, and not in another'." And
ao also speaks St. John ; " If our heart condemn us
not, then have we confidence towards God'." Such
was the confidence, such the rejoicing of St. Paul
and St. John ; not that they could do any thing
acceptable to God by their unaided powers, but that
by His grace they could so live as to enjoy a cheer-
ful hope of His favour, both now and evermore.

The same feeling is frequently expressed in the
Psalms ; a consciousness of innocence and integrity,
a satisfaction in it, an appeal to God concerning it,
and a confidence of God's favour in consequence.
For instance, " Be Thou my judge, Lord," says
David ; he appeals to the heart-searching God, " for
I have walked innocently ; my trust hath been also
in the Lord, therefore shall I not fall." He proceeds
to beg of God to aid him in this self-kuowlcdge ;
" Examine me, Lord, and prove me ; try out the
ground of my heart, ' that is, lest he should be de-

272

THE TESTIMONY

[Ser

ceived in tbinkiiig himself wliat he was not. He
next enumerates the special points in which God
had enabled him to obey ; " I have not dwelt with
Tain persons; neither will I have fellowship with
the deceitful ; I have bated the congregation of the
■wicked, and will not sit among the ungodly. . . As
for me, I have walked innocently ; O deliver
me, and be mereiftil unto me. My foot standeth
right ; I will praise the Lord in the congregations'."
In this and other passages of the Psalms two points
are brought before us : that it is possible to be inno-
cent, and to have that sense of our innocence, which
makes us happy in the thought of God's eye' being
upon us. Let us then dwell on a truth, of which
Apostles and Prophets unite in assuring us.

What the text means by " simplicity and sin-
cerity," I consider for all practical purposes to be
the same as what Scripture elsewhere calls " a per-
fect heart ;" at least this latter phrase will give us
some insight into the meaning of the former. You
know that it is a frequent account of the kings of '
Judah in the Sacred History, that they walked or
did not walk with God, with a perfect Iieart. In
contrast \vith this phrase, consider what our Saviour
says of the attempt made by the Pharisees to serve
God and mammon, and St. James's account of a
double-minded man. A man serves with a perfect
heart, who serves God in all parts of his duty ; and,

vi. ], 2, &c.

I XVII.] OF CONSCIENCE. 273

here and not there, but here and there and every-
where ; not perfectly indeed as regards the quality
of his obedience, but perfectly as regards its extent;
not completely, but consistently. So that he may
appeal to God v-ith the Psalmist, and say, " Exa-
mine me, O Lord, and prove me; and seek the ground
of my heart," with the humble trust that there is
no department of his duty on which Almighty God
can put His hand, and say, " Here thou art not with
Me;" no part in which he does not set God before
him, and desire to please Him, and to be governed
by Him. And something like this seems to be St.
James's meaning, when he says, on the other hand,
that " Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet
offend in one point, he is guilty of all';" for such a
one is of imperfect heart, or double-minded.

Again, such seems to be our Saviour's meaning
when He uses the word hypociite. A hypocrite is
one who professes to be serving God faithfully,
while he serves Him in only some one part of his
duty, not in all parts. The word is now commonly
taken to mean one who uses a profession of religion
as a mere instrument of gaining his worldly ends, or
who wishes to deceive men into thinking that he is
what he is not: This is not exactly its Scripture sense,
which seems rather to denote a person who would
(if I may use the words) deceive God ; one, who,
though his heart would tell him, were he honest

27+ THE TESTIMONY OF CONSCIENCE. [Sekm.

with it, that he is not serving God perfectly, yet
■will uot ask his heart, will not listen to it, trifles
with his conscience, is determined to believe that he
is religions, and (as if to strengthen himself in his
own false persuasion, and from a variety of mixed
motives difficult to analyze) protests his sincerity
and innocence before God, appeals to God, and thus
claims as his own the reward of innocence.

Now then to attempt to describe that state of
heart, which Scripture calls simple and sincere, or
perfect, or innocent ; and which is such, that a man
may know he has it, and humbly rejoice in it.

We are by nature what we are ; very sinful and
corrupt, we know ; however, we like to be what we
are, and for many reasona it is very unpleasant to
us to change. We cannot change ourselves ; this too
we know full well, or, at least, a very little experience
will teach us. God alone can change us ; God alone
can give us the desires, affections, principles, views,
and tastes which a change implies: this too we
know; for I am all along speaking of men who have
a sense of religion. What then is it that we, who
profess religion, lack ? I repeat it, this: a willing-
ness to be changed, a willingness to suffer (if I may
use such a word), to suffer Almighty God to change
us. We do not like to let go our old selves ; and in
whole or part, though all is offered to us freely, we
cling hold to our old selves. Though we were pro-
mised no trouble at all in the change ; though there
were no self-denial, no exertion in changing, the case

XVII.] THE TESTIMONY OF CONSCIENCE.

would not be altered. We do not like to be new-
made ; we are afraid of it ; it is throwing us out of
all our natural ways, of all that is familiar to us. We
feel as if we should not be ourselves any longer, if
we do not keep some portion of what we have been
hitherto ; and much as we profess in general terms
to wish to be changed, when it comes to the point,
when particular instances of change are presented
to us, we shrink from them, and arc content to re-
main unchanged.

It is this principle of self-seeking, so to express
myself, this influence of self upon us, which is our
ruin. I repeat, I am speaking of those who make
a profession of religion. Others, of course, avowedly
follow self altogether; they indulge the fiesh, or
pursue the world. But when a man comes to God
to be saved, then, I say, the essence of true conver-
sion is a surrender of himself, an unreserved, uncon-
ditional surrender ; and this is a saying which most
men who come to God cannot receive. They wish
to be saved, but in theu* own way ; they wish (as it
were,) to capitulate upon terms, to carry otF their
goods with them ; whereas the true spirit of faith
leads a man to look off from self to God, to think
nothing of his own wishes, his present habits, his im-
portance or dignity, his rights, his opinions, but to
say, " I put myself into Thy hands, O Lord; make
Thou me what Thou wilt ; I forget myself; I divorce
myself from myself; I am dead to myself; I will
t2

276 THE TESTIMONY OF CONSCIENCE. [S

follow Thee." Samuel, Isaiah, and St. Paul, three
Saints in very different circumstances, all instance
this. The child Samuel, under Eli's instruction,
eays, "Speak, Lord; for Thy servant heareth'." The
prophet Isaiah eays, " Here am I ; send me'." And
still more exactly to the point are St. Paul's words,
when arrested by the miraculous vision, " Lord, what
wilt Thou have me to do^?" Here ie the very voice
of self-surrender, " What wilt Thou have me to do ?
Take Thy own way with me ; whatever it be,
pleasant or painful, I will do it." These are words
■worthy of one who was to be to after-ages the
pattern of simplicity, sincerity, and a pure con-
science: and as he spake, so he acted; for in his
own narrative of what happened, he goes on to say,
" I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision."

Now to give some instances in illustration.

1. One very common case, though it is not one
in which men have any pretensions to be considered
as sincere, is when they determine to repent more
fully by-and-by, or to be more strict in their mode
of living by-and-by. However, it will serve to ex-
plain what I would say. Alas ! so common is it,
that I should not wonder if some persons here pre-
sent, were they but honest, would confess it of them-
selves, that they dare not put themselves into God's
hands, lest He should make them what they love not.

XVII.] THE TESTIMONY OF CONSCIENCE.

Here then is the absence of a perfect heart, a
shrinking from the absolute surrender and sacrifice
of self to God.

2. Again, in a number of cases want of perfect-
ness is shown in their keeping away, as they obsti-
nately do, from the Lord's Supper. I am not speak-
ing of the case of open sinners. Of course, it is well
that they should feel reluctant; it would be dread-
ful indeed if tbey did not. Nor do I mean to say
that many are not kept away by fears, which they
ought not to have, which are mistaken. But still
there are a great number, who have good words in
. their mouth, who profess all reverence, all service
I towards God, acknowledge His power and love, be-
lieve in what Christ has done for them, and say they
desire to be ruled by Him, and to die the death of
the righteous, who yet are quite unraoveable on this
particular point, Wliy is this ? I fear, for this reason.
They dare not profess in God's sight that they will
serve Him, They dare not promise ; they dare not
pray to Him. They dare not beg Him to make
them wholly His, They dare not ask Him to dis-
close to them their secret £iults. They dare not
come to an Ordinance, in which God meets them
face to face. As many a man will tell an untruth
who dare not swear it, so many men will make ran-
dom professions of obedience, who dare not put
themselves in circumstances when perhaps they may
be taken at their word. And as cowards disguise
■from themselves their own cowardice, till brought

278

THE TESTIMONY OF CONSCIENCE.

[S..

into danger, bo do these their h)'pocrisy, till obliged
to take a side. They profess vaguely; but they
dare not definitely and solemnly say, " Aud here we
offer and present unto Thee, O Lord, our souls and
bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and lively sacrifice
unto Thee."

3. Another instance of insincerity is set before us
in the conduct of the young man in the Gospel,
who came running to Christ, and saying, " Good
Master." He did not justly know himself, and he
flattered himself that he was perfect in heart when
he had a reserve in his obedience. You will observe
he was even forward and rude in his manner ; and
here we seem to gain a lesson. When young ]>er-
Bons address themselves to religious subjects without
due reverence and godly fear, when they rush to-
wards them impetuously, engage in them hotly, talk
about them vehemently, and profess them conspicu-
ously, they should be very suspicious of themselves,
lest there be something or other wrong about them.
Men who are quite honest, who really wish to sur-
render themselves to Christ, have counted the coat.
They feel it is no slight sacrifice which they are I
making; they feel its difficulty and its pain; and
therefore they cannot make an impetuous offer of 1
their services. They cannot say, " Lord, I will fol-
low Thee whithersoever Thou goest ;" it is too great
a profession. They tiare not say, " All these have i
I kept from my youth up ;" lest, after all, they dis- i
cover something in themselves lacking. They have I

THE TESTIMONY OF CONSCIENCE.

379

no heart to say, " Good Master," in a familiar light
manner, before him who stands to them instead of
God, and whose words involve duties. The young
ruler came running, not waiting till Christ should
look on him or call, — not fearing, but intruding
himself. Christ exposed what was in his heart, and
he who ran to accost Him, stole away sorrowing.

4. And here perhaps we shall understand some-
thing of the contrast between St. Peter's first and
second profession of service to Christ. He made
the iirst of his own accord. Christ had said,
" Whither I go, thou canst not follow Me now'."
He answered, " Lord, why tannot I follow Thee
now ? I will lay down my life for Thy sake." Now,
we may indeed say that his fall was merely an
instance of weakness ; — so it may have been ; — ^yet
it does seem likely too, that, at the time he said it,
he had not' that perfect devotion to Christ which he
had afterwards. Let it not be imagined that on
that former occasion, when " he forsook all and fol-
lowed" Christ, or again, when he went to meet Him
on the sea, the Holy Apostle did not act out of the
fulness of a perfect heart ; but may we not reve-
rently suppose that till Pentecost his state of mind
was variable, and sometimes had more of heaven in
it than at other times ? We may surmise that he,
who first said, " Thou art the Christ," and next, " Be
it ftir from Thee, Lord," earning blessing and rebuke

280 THE TESTIMONY OF CONSCIENCE, [Sec

almost in one breath, on this occasion came short
of the sincerity which he showed before and after-
wards. We may surmise that his fault was not
merely self-deception, but, in a measure, a reserved
devotion ; that there was one comer (as it were) of
his heart, which at that moment was not Christ's;
for the more that is the case, the louder men com-
monly talk, in order to beat down the risings of
conscience. When a man half-suspects his own
honesty, he makes loud professions of it. Contrast,
with this, St. Peter's words after our Lord's resur-
rection. First, ho waits for Christ to say, " Follow
Me;" next, observe his answer to Christ, " Lordj
Thou knowest all things; Thou knowest that I love
Thee'." Then he felt that he dare appeal to his
heart-searching Judge, in witness that He waa
making an unreserved surrender of himself. He
did not thus speak before.

5. Another illustration may be drawn from the
state of mind which not unfrequently is found in a
person who has been injured or insulted, and is
bound in duty to forgive the offenders. I am sup-
posing a well-meaning and religious man; and he
often lies under the temptation to forgive them up
to a certain point, but at the same time to make a
reserve in favour of his own dignity, or to satisfy his
sense of justice, and thus to take the matter in part
into his own hands. He cannot get himself honestly

' John xxi. 15.

XVIL]

THE TESTIMONY OF CONSCIENCE.

281

to surrender every portion of resentment, and to leave
hia cause simply to God, as remembering the words,
" Vengeance is Mine; I will repay'." This reluc-
tance 18 sometimes seen very clearly under other
circumstances, in the instance of children, who,
whether they be out of temper, or obstinate, or
otherwise what they should not be, cannot bring
themselves to do that very thing which they ought
to do, which is enough, which comes up to the
mark. They are quite conscious that they are
wrong, and they wish to be right; and they will do
a number of good things short of what is required of
them; they will show their wish to be at one again
with the parties they are displeased with ; they will
go round about their duty, — but from pride, or other
wrong feeling, they shrink from going close to it,
and, as it were, embracing it. And so again, if they
have been in fault, they will make excuses, or half-
confess ; they will do much, but they cannot bring
themselves to do a whole deed, and make a clean
breast of it.

6. Lastly may be mentioned, the case of persons
seeking the truth. How often are they afraid or
loth to throw themselves on God's guidance, and
beg Him to teach them ! how loth to promise in
His sight that they will follow the Truth wherever
it leads them ! but whether from fear of what the
world will say, fear of displeasure of friends, or of

' Rom. xii. 19,

282 THE TESTIMONY OF CONSCIENCE. [Seb

ridicule of strangers, or of triumph of eneniieB, or
from entertaining some fancy or conceit of their
own, which they are loth to give up, they hang
back, and think to gain the tmth, not by rising and
coming for it, but, as it were, by a mere careless
extension and grasp of the hand, while they sit at
ease, or proceed with other work that employs
them. Much might be said on what is a very fertili
part of the subject.

In all these ways, then, to which many more
might be added, men serve God, but do not serve
Ilim with a "perfect heart, or " in simplicity and sin-
rerity." And in explaining what I consider Scrip-
ture to mean by perfectness of purpose, I have
explained also in a measure how it is that a person
must know if he has it. For it is a state of mind
which will not commonly lie hid from those who are
endued with it. Not more different is ice from the
flowing stream, than a half purpose from a whole
one. " He bloweth with His wind, and the waters
flow." So is it when God prevails on a heart to
open itself to Him, and admit Him wholly. There
is a perceptible difference of feeling in a man, com-
pared with what he was, which in common circum-
stances, he, cannot mistake. He may have made
resolves before, he may have argued himself into a
belief of his own sincerity, he may have (as it were)
convinced himself that nothing can be required of
him more than he has done, he may have asked
himself what more is there to do, and yet have felt

SVH.] THE TESTIMONY OF CONSCIENCE. g83

a soniotliiiig in liini still wbJcli needed quieting,
■which was ever rising up and troubling him, and
had to be put down again. But when he really gives
himself up to God. when he gets himself honestly
to say, " I sacrifice to Thee this r-heriahed wish, this
lust, this weakness, this scheme, this opinion : make
me what TJwu wouldest have me ; I bargain for
nothing; I make no terms; I seek for no previous
information whither Thou art taking me ; I wOl be
what Thou wilt make me, and all that Thou wilt
make me. I say not, I will follow Thee whither-
soever Thou goest, for I am weak; but I give my-
self to Thee, to lead me anywhither. I will follow
Thee in the dark, only begging Thee to give me
strength according to my day. Try me, O Lord,
and seek the ground of ray heart ; prove me, and
examine my thoughts ; look well if there he any way
of wickedness in me ; search each dark recess with
Thy own bright light, and lead me in the way
everlasting," — what a difference is this ! what a
plain perceptible change, which cannot be mis-
taken ! what a feeling of satisfaction is poured
over the mind ! what a sense that at length we
are doing what we should do, and approving our-
selves to God our Saviour ! Such is the blessedness
and reward of confession. " I said I will confess
my sins unto the Lord, and so thou forgavest the
wickedness of my sins." It matters little whether
it is a resolve for the future or a confession of the
past; the same temper is involved in both. If a

284 THE TESTIMONY OF CONSCIENCE. [Sehm.

person does not confess with a desire of amendment,
it is not a real confession ; but he who comes to God
to tell before Him BorrowfuUy all that he knows
wrong in himself, is thereby desiring and beginning
what is right and holy ; and he who comes to beg
Him to work in him all that is right and holy, does
thereby implicitly condemn and repent of all that is
wrong in him. And thus he is altogether innocent;
for all his life is made up either of honest endeavour
or of honest confession, exactness in doing or sor-
row for not doing, of simplicity and sincerity, re-
pentance being on the one side of it, and obedience
on the other. Such is the power, divinely vouch-
safed in the Gospel to an honest purpose. It either
does, or blots out what is not done ; or rather by one
act, or in itself^ which is one, it both performs part,
and blots out the rest.

And here it is obvious to point out the bearing
of what has been said on the subject of Justification.
We know that faith justifies us ; but what is the
test of true faith? Works are its evidence; but they
are so on the whole, after a sufficient period of time,
to others, and at the judgment of the last day.
They scarcely can be considered an evidence definite
and available for a man's own comfort at any
moment when he seeks for one. He does some
things well, some ill ; and he is more clear-sighted
and more sensitive in the instance of his failings
than of his successful endeavours. If what he does
well, be an evidence of faith, what he does ill will

XVII.] THE TESTIMONY OF CONSCIENCE. 2S5

be to him a more convincing proof that he has not
faith ; and thus he canuot conclusively appeal to his
works. Now, I suppose, absolute certainty about
our state cannot he attained at all in this life ; but
the nearest approach to such certainty, which is
possible, would seem to be afforded by this con-
sciousness of openness and singleness of mind, this
good understanding (if I may use such an expression)
between the soul and its conscience, to which St.
Paul so often alludes. " Our rejoicing is this," he
says, " the testimony of our conscience, that in sim-
plicity and godly sincerity we have had our conver-
sation in the world." He did not rejoice in his
faith, but he was justified by faith, because he could
rejoice in his sincerity. Perfectness of heart, simple
desire to please God, " a spirit without guile," a
true and loyal will, as far as these are present, faith
is justifying ; and whereas those who have this in-
tegrity will more or less be conscious of it, there-
fore, after all exceptions duly made on the score of
depression of spirits, perplexity of mind, horror at
past sins, and the like, still, on the whole, really
religious persons will commonly enjoy a subdued
but comfortable hope and trust that they are in a
state of justification. They may have this hope
more or less ; they may deserve to have it more or
less ; at times they may even be unconscious of it,
and yet it may secretly support them; they may
fancy themselves in perfect darkness, yet it may be
a light cheering them forward ; they may vary in

THE TESTIMONY OF CONSCIENCE,

[Se.

their feelings about their state from day to day,
and yet, whether or not they can collect evidence
to satisfy their reason, atill, if they be really i)erfect
in heart, there will be this secret sense of their sin-
cerity, with their reason or against reason, to whisper
to them peace. And on the other hand, it never
will rise above a sober trust, even in the most
calm, peaceful, and holy minds. They to the end
will still but say, " Lord, I believe ; help Thou
mine unbelief." They still will say in St. Paul's
words, " I am conscious to myself of nothing, yet
am I not hereby justified, but He that judgeth me
is the Lord." " Judge me, O Lord ; examine me ;
search the ground of my heart ; judge Tliou me, who
art the sole Judge ; I judge not myself. I do but
say, Thou knowest me ; I say not, I know," It was
but the Pharisee that said, " Lord, I thank Thee I
am not as other men are." We can but " gird up
the loins of our minds, be sober, and hope to the
end, and pass the time of our sojourning here iii
fear'," though " the day has dawned, and the day
star has arisen in our hearts^"

One more remark must be made. It may be
objected, that, if the feeling of a good conscience
be the evidence to us of our justification, then are
persons in a justified state, who are external to the
Church, provided they have this feeling. I reply
briefly, — for to say much here would be out of place.

' 1 Pet. i. 13—17.

XVII.] THE TESTIMONY OF CONSCIENCE. :287

— that every one will be judged according to his light
and hia privileges ; and any man who has really the
testimony of a good conscience is acting up to his
light, whatever that is. This does not, however,
show that he has always so acted; nor determine
what his light is ; nor what degree of favour he is in ;
nor whether he might have been in greater, had his
past actions been other than they have been. It but
shows that he is accepted in that state in which he
is, be it one of greater favour or less, heathenism',
schism, superstition, or heresy ; and that, because
his faults and errors at present are not wilful. And
in like manner, in the case of members of the
Church, a good conscience evidences God's accept-
ance, according to that measure of acceptance which
He gives to His Church, that is, evidences their jus-
tification ; whereas what privileges attach to bodies
or creeds external to the Church we do not know.
No inward feeling can do more than what is here
assigned to it, unless an inward feeling can be the
evidence of an external revelation.

But here I am speaking to members of the
Church ; to those who, if they serve God with a
perfect heart, are justified. Let us then, since this is
our privilege, attempt to share in St. Paul's sincerity,
that we may share in his rejoicing. Let us endeavour
to become friends of God and fellow citizens with the
saints ; not by sinless purity, for we have it not ; not

288 THE TESTIMONY OF CONSCIENCE. [Sbrm. SVII.

in our deeds of price, for we have none to ahow;
not in our privileges, for they are God's acts, not
ours ; not in our Baptism, for it is outward ; but in
that which is the fruit of Baptism within ua, not a
word but a power, not a name but a reality, which,
though it can claim nothing, can beg every thing ; —
an honest purpose, an u.nreserved, entire submission
of ourselves to our Maker, Redeemer, and Judge.
Let us beg Him to aid us in our endeavour, and, as
He has begun a good work in us, to perform until
the day of the Lord Jesus.

lot, that they which run in a race, run all, but o:
leceiveth llie prize ? So run that ye may obtain."

Nothing is more clearly brought out in Scripture,
or more remarkable in itseli^ than this, tliat in every
age, out of the whole number of persons blessed
with the means of grace, few only have duly availed
them of this great benefit. So certain, so uniform
is the fact, that it is almost stated as a doctrine.
" Many are called, few are chosen." Again, " Strive
to enter in at the strait gate ; for many, I say
unto you, shall seek to enter in, and shall not be
able." And again, " Wide is the gate, and broad
is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many
there be which go in thereat . . . Strait is the
gate, and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life,
and few there be that find it." And St. Paul seems

MANY CALLED, FEW CHOSEN.

[S>:e

expressly to turn the historical fact into a doctrine,
when he says, by way of remark upon his own
day, as compared with, former ages of the Church,
"Even 80 then, at this present time also," that is,
as formerly, " there is a remnant, according to the
election of grace '."

The word "remnant" is frequent with the Pro-
phets, from whom St. Paul takes it. Isaiah, for
instance, says, " Thougfh the number of the ehildren
of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall
be saved." Jeremiah speaks of " the remnant of
Judah," and the " small number," to which a return
was promised. Ezekiel, too, declares that God " will
leave a remnant," " that ye may have some," con-
tinues the divine oracle, " that shall escape the
sword among the nations, when ye shall be scat-
tered through the countries. And they that escape
of you shall remember Me among the nations,
whither they shall be carried captives." And so
well understood was this, that the hope of good
men never reached beyond it. Neither the pro-
mise, on the one hand, nor the hope, on the other,
ever goes beyond the prospect of a remnant being
saved. Thus the consolation given to the Church
in the book of Jeremiah is, that God " will not
make a full end ;" and Ezra, confessing the sine of
his people, expresses his dread lest there should

' Matt. XX. :
xi. 5-

,. 13, 14. Rom.

MANY CALLED, FEW CHOSEN.

be " no remnant '." Thus Christ, His Apostles, and
His Prophets, all teach the same doctrine, that the
chosen are few, though many are called ; that one
gains the prize, though many run the race.

This rule in God's dispensations is most abund-
antly and awfully illustrated in their history. At
the time of the l^ood, out of a. whole world, in spite
of Adam's punishment, in spite of Enoch's preach-
ing, in spite of Noah's setting about the ark, eight
only found acceptance with God, and even one of
these afterwards incurred a curse. When the Is-
raelites were brought out of Egypt by miracle, two
only of the whole generation entered the land of
promise. Two tribes alone out of twelve remained
faithful at the time of the great schism, and con-
tinued in possession of God's covenanted mercies.
And when Christ came, the bulk of His own peo-
ple rejected Him, and His Church came but of the
scanty remnant, " as a root out of a dry ground."

Moreover, it is observable that Almighty God
seems as if to rejoice, and deigns to delight Himself
in this small company, who adhere to Him, as if
their fewness had in it something of excellence and
preciousness. " Fear not," He says, " little flock,
for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the
kingdom." " Behold, I send you forth as sheep in
the midst of wolves." " I pray not for the world.

' Rom. ix. 27.
Ezra ix. 14.

I, 9. Jer. xlvi. 28.

MANY CALLED, FEW CHOSEN.

[See

but for those whom Thou hast given Me." In a
like spirit, St. Paul says, " Whom He did forekuow.
He also did predestinate." And in the time of
Elijah, " I have reserved to Myself seven thousand
men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of
Baal." And in the time of Moses, " The Lord did
not set His love upon you, nor choose you, because
ye were more in number than any people, for ye
were the fewest of all people '."

And it need scarcely be added that the same
bountifulness on God's part, the same ingratitude
on the part of man, the same scarcity of faith, sanc-
tity, truth, and conscientiousness, have marked the
course of the Christian Dispensation, as well as of
those on which inspired writers have commented.

So clear is this, that persons who, from unwil-
lingness to take the narrow way, or from other
like cause, have disputed it, have scarcely any
thing left them to urge but certain false views
or consequences, which have been, or may be,
entertained concerning the doctrine. And as these
misconceptions tend at once to prejudice the mind
against it, and to pervert its reception of it, I sball
now examine one or two of the objections to which
it is exposed.

1. Now, first, it has ofteu happened that, because
the elect are few, serious men have considered that

XVIII.] MAfTi' CALLED, FEW CHOSEN.

293

this took place in consequence of some fixed decree
of God. They have thought that they were few,
because it was God's will that they should not be
many. Now it is doubtless a great mystery why
this man receives the truth and practises it, and
that man does not. We do not know how it is;
but surely we do not tend to solve it, by saying
God has so decreed it. If you say that God abso-
lutely chooses the one and rejects the other, then
that becomes the mystery, You do but throw it
back a step. It is as difficult to explain this abso-
lute willing or not willing, on the part of Almighty
God, as to account for the existence of iree will in
man. It is as inexi)licable why God should act
differently towards this man and that, as it is why
this man or that should act differently towards
God. On the other hand, we are solemnly assured in
Scripture that God " hath no pleasure in the death of
the wicked ;" that He is " not willing that any should
perish, but that all should come to repentance '."

The doctrine, then, which is implied in the
text, does not lead us to any hard notions of God.
He is a most loving Father still, though few are
chosen. His mercy is over all His works, and to no
one does the word of life come but with the intent
that he may live. If the many remain in unbelief,
they " are not straitened" in God's love, but they
" are straitened in their own bowels." Man will

39* MANY CALLED, FEW CHOSEN. [Sbbm.

not be what by God's renewing and co-operating
grace he might be. It is man's doing, not God'e
■will, that, while the Tisible Church is large, the
Church invisible is small.

2. But it may be said that this doctrine lies open
to another objection ; that to believe that few
only find the gate of life, necessarily makes a man
self-confident and uncharitable towards others,
whether he considers himself predestined to life or
not. Every one, it is said, will place himself on
the safe side of the line, and, of course, will place
his friends with him ; and all others he will give
over, as if they were to be classed among the many.
Now the text, and the verses which follow it, supply
the readiest answer to this objection, St. Paul
speaks as if the Christian course were a race, in
which one only out of many could succeed. And
what is the conclusion he arrives at ? "I keep under
my body, and bring it into subjection, lest that by
any means when I have preached to others, I myself
should be a castaway." You see how tar the holy
Apostle was from security and self-satisfaction,
though he, if any one, would have had a right to
feel easy about his state. And the exhortation he
gives his brethren is, " So run that ye may obtain,"
Are candidates for a prize confident, because only
one can gain it? What is the meaning of asserting
that " they which run in a race " take it for granted
that they are on the winning side ?

And yet it is quite true that there are men who, in

XVIII.] MANY CALLED, FEW CHOSEN.

consequence of holding the doctrine that the chosen
are few, instead of exerting themselves, become proud
and careless. But then, let it be obserred, these per-
sona hold another dot-trine besides, which ia the real
cause of their carnal security. They not merely
think that Christ's flock is small, but that we can
tell whether or no we belong to it, and that they do
know that they themselves belong to it. Now, if a
man thinks he knows for certain that he shall be
saved, of course he will be much tempted to indulge
in a carnal security, and to look down upon others,
and that, whether the true flock of Christ is large or
small. It is not the knowledge that the chosen are
J&e which occasions these bad feelings, but a man's
private assurance that he is chosen

St. Paul tells us that whom God " did foreknow
He also did predestinate," and " whom He did pre-
destinate, them He also called; and whom He
called, them He also justified ; and whom He jus-
tified, them He also glorified ;" but he does not say
that God discloses this to the persons who are sub-
jects of it. He has deep and eternal counsels, but
they are secret ones ; He has a decree, founded on
righteousness and truth, but it is not revealed. We
know not, we cannot know, whom God has chosen
for salvation ; and while we understand this, and
keep it before us, we shall not be puffed up about
ourselves, nor harsh and censorious towards others,
though we bear in mind ever so much tliat the gate
of heaven is narrow, and few there be that find it.

296 MANY CALLED, FEW CHOSEN, [Sbbm.

This, I think, is very plain ; yet it may be useful
to enlarge upon it. Let us take au ilhistration, not
exact, but sufficient for the purpose. Supposing we
had to cast lots for some worldly benefit, a sum of
money, or some desirable post, or the like, and only
three or four out of a great number could succeed,
how should we be aifected beforehand ? Should we
be at all led to speeula,te or judge who were to be
successful, who unsuccessful? And why not? Be-
cause it would be idle to employ our thoughts
about an event which nothing we saw before us,
nothing we could see, tended to discover to us, idle
to attempt to decide in a case where there were no
means of deciding. For what any of us could know,
one man had as good a prospect as another. We
should feel as much as this, that a certain prize was
destined for some out of all of us ; we should feel
anxious and expectant, and that would be the end
of the matter. Now, as regards our heavenly pro-
spects, the decision indeed is not a matter of chance;
God forbid ! — but yet it is as much hid from us as
if it were. Nothing tliat we see, or think we see,
can enable us to decide about the fiiture. We do
not know but those who are the greatest sinners
now, may repent, reform, and in severity and aus-
tereness of life surpass ourselves ; the last often-
times become the first. Nor do wekuow about our-
selves, however fair we seem, but we may fall away.
We cannot compare ourselves with others at all. All
we know is, and a most awful thought it is, that out

XVIII] MANY CALLED, FEW CHOSEN. 297

of the whole number of those who have received the
Christian calling, out of ourselves and our frieuds,
and all whom we see and hear of in the intercourse
of life, but a few are chosen ; but a few act up to
their privileges. Now, considering the inscrutable
darkness in iihich the event lies, bid almost like the
time of judgment in the prescience of Almighty
God, is this a thought to fill us with confidence and
pride, or is it not rather an exceedingly solemn and
dreadful thought? Should a prophet declare that
out of a given number of persons but a few would
be alive this time year, that the greater part would
die, should we, under any circumstances, feel alto-
gether easy, were our health ever so good in appear-
ance, or were there ever so many older persons than
ourselves in the number addressed ? Should we not
be made very anxious at every little indisposition,
or at every symptom of illness, or at every chance
of accident from without ? Should we have much
heart for speculating about others ?

And this surely is the real state of the case. Our
means of judging ourselves or others are so very
insuflScient, that they are practically nothing ; and
it is our wisdom to let the attempt alone. We may
know about ourselves, that at present we are sincere
and earnest, and so far in God's favour ; we may be
able to say that such and such words or deeds are
right or are wrong in another; but how different is
this from having the capacity to decide absolutely
about our or his eternal doom ! How differeut

MANY CALLED, FEW CHOSEN.

[Seb

this from being able to take in tbe whole compass
of our lives, the whole range and complication of
our thoughts, words, deeds, habits, principles, and
motives ! How different from being able to argue
from what we see to what God knows, or from
discerning whether the divine seed has taken root
in particular minds ! St. Paul himself, though con-
scious of nothing, says to the Corinthians, " Yet am
I not hereby justified, but He that judgeth me is
the Lord; therefore judge nothing before the time,
until the Lord come, who both will bring to light
the hidden things of darkness, and will make mani-
fest the counsels of the hearts'." We cannot esti-
mate the real value of any thing which we or
others do; or how it stands in making up their or
our final account in God's sight. What is a sign of
feith in one man, is not in another ; what is a great
deed in one man, is not in another. The differences
of disposition, education, and guidance are so great,
and make the problem so intricate, that it would
seem to be the height of madness, (were it not some-
times attempted by persons not mad,) to attempt to
solve it. St. Paul says in one place that he has not
" attained." On the contrary, at the end of his life,
after fighting a good fight, then he says that
" henceforth there was laid up for him a crown of
righteousness'." Thus there was a point at which,
and not before, his salvation was, practically speaJc-

' 1 Cor.

' Phil, i

2 Tim. i

XVrn.] MANY CALLED, FEW CHOSEN.

ing, secured. What happened in his case, may, for
Tvhat we know to the contrary, happen in otirs also;
and the point at which victory is certain may vary
in the case of every one of us.

Or, again, let us recur to the Apostle's words in
the text ; " Know ye not," he says, " that they which
run in a race, run all, but one receiveth the prize?
So run that ye may obtain."" When a number of
persons are contending for a prize, since one alone
can obtain it, it is plain that no one, from what he
knows about himself, can conclude any thing con-
cerning his own success ; because, even be he ever so
hkely in himself, yet another may be more likely.
The event is utterly and totally hid from him, unless
he be very well acquainted with his rivals. Now
here, again, the illustration used is not altogether
parallel. In the prize which we run for, praised be
God, there is no such rivalry of one against another ;
there is no restriction ; and if all did their duty, all
would succeed. Yet the effect is the same as re-
gards our knowledge, as if only one could succeed ;
I mean, we do not know the standard by which God
will judge us. Nothing that we are, can assure us
that we shall answer to what He expects of us ;
for we do not know what that is ; it can but avail
to cheer us and give us hopes and good spirits. In
contending for a prize, it is of no use to be second
best. He who comes second, as little gains it as he
who comes last. And so in striving to enter in at
the strait gate, unless we rise to that which God

MANY CALLED, FEW CHOSEN.

requires of us, unless we attain, no matter how near
we were attaining ; — after all it has come to this,
that we have not attained. Thia thought will surely
ever keep us from dwelling on our own proficiency,
whatever it is ; rather it will lead us, with the great
Apostle, to " follow after, if that we may apprehend
that for which we are apprehended of Christ Jesus."
It is not till life is over, when we have lived in the
fear of God consistently, when death has put its
seal upon us, and cut us off from the chance of
falling, that others, surveying us, and observing our
consistency and perseverance in well-doing, will
humbly trust that we are in St. Paul's case, to
whom, after " finishing; hia course," it was revealed
that " a crown of righteousness was laid up for
him."

The doctrine, then, that few are chosen though
many be called, properly understood, has no ten-
dency whatever to make us fancy ourselves secure
and others reprobate. We cannot see the heart,
we can but judge from externals, from words and
deeds, professions and habits. But these will not
save us, unless we persevere in them to the end ;
and they are no evidence that we shall be saved,
except so far as they suggest hope that we shall
persevere. They are hut a beginning; they tell for
nothing till they are completed. Till we have done
all, we have done nothing ; we have but a prospect,
not possession. If we ultimately do attain, every
good thing we shall have done will have tended to

XV[II.] MANY CALLED, FEW CHOSEN. 301

that attainment, as a race tends to a goal ; but, un-
less we attain, it will not have so tended ; and,
therefore, from no good thing which we do can we
argue that we are sure to attain.

3. One other miscoiiceptioa of this doctrine shall
be mentioned, and then I will conclude. It may be
said, then, that the belief that true Christians are
few, leads men to isolate themselves in their own
opinions, to withdraw from the multitude, to adopt
new and extravagant views, and to be singular in
their conduct, as if what the many held and did
could not be right. This may sometimes be the
case ; but I would have it remarked, that if true
Christians are few, they must in a certain sense be
singular. Singularity is no proof that we are right
in our opinions, or are Christ's chosen, because there
are a great many ways of being singular, and all
cannot be right. And persons are often, as is ob-
jected, singular, from love of being so, from conceit,
or desire to excite remark ; and therefore it does
not follow that even those who profess the views of
Christ's true servants, are themselves in their num-
ber. But, on the other hand, neither does it follow,
because men are singular in their opinions, that
they are wrong, nor, because other opinions are
generally received in their day, that therefore these
are right. If the multitude of men are ever in the
broad way " that leadeth to destruction," there is no
ground for maintaining that, in order to be right in
our religious views, we nmst agree with the many ;

302 MANY CALLED, FEW CHOSEN. [Sbeh.

rather, if as persons are, so are their opinions, it
would seem to be certain that popular opinions will
ever be as mistaken and dangerous as popular prac-
tices. Those who serve God faithfully must ever
look to be accounted, in their generation, singular,
intemperate, and extreme. They are not so ; they
must guard against becoming so ; if they are so,
they are equally wrong as the many, however
they may, in other respects, diifer from them ; but
still it is no proof that they are so, because the
many call thera so. It is no proof that they are
so, because others take it for granted that they are,
pass their doctrines over, put their arguments aside
without a word, — treat them gravely, or are vexed
about them, or impatient with them, or ridicule
them, or fiercely oppose them. No ; there are
numberless clouds which flit over the sky, there
are numberless gusts which agitate the air to and
fro: as many, as violent, as far-spreading, as fleet-
ing, as uncertain, as changing, are the clouds and
the gaJes of human opinion ; as suddenly, as im-
petuously, as fruitlessly, do they assail those whose
mind is stayed on God. They come and they go ;
they have no life in thera, nor abidance. They
agree together in nothing but in this, in threatening
like clouds, and sweeping like gusts of wind. They
are the voice of the many ; they have the strength
of the world, and they are directed against the few.
Their argument, the sole argument in their behalf,
is their prevalence at the moment ; not that they

XVIII.] MANY CALLED, FEW CHOSEN.

303

existed yesterday, uot that they will exist to-morrow ;
not that they base themselves on reason, or ancient
belief, but that they are what every one now takes
for granted, or, perhaps, supposes to be in Scripture,
and therefore, it seems, not to be disputed ; — not
that they have most voices through long periods, but
that they happen to be most numerously professed
in the passing hour. On the other hand, divine truth
la ever one and the same ; it changes not, any more
than its Author ; it stands to reason, then, that
those who uphold it must ever be exposed to the
charge of siugularity, either for this or for that por-
tion of it, in a world which is ever varjing.

What a most awful view does human society
present to those who would survey it religiously !
Go where you will, you find persons with their own
standards of right and wrong, yet each different
from each. Thus everywhere you find both a wit-
ness that there is a standard, and yet an evidence
everywhere that that standard is lost. Go where
you will, you find in each distinct circle .certain per-
sons held in esteem as patterns of what men should
be ; each sect and party has its Doctors, its Con-
fessors, and its Saints. And in all parties you
will find so many possessed of good points of cha-
racter, if not exemplary in their lives, that, to judge
by appearances, you do not know why the chosen
I should not be many instead of few. Your very
1 perplexity in reconciling the surface of things with
our Lord's announcements, the very temptation you

304.

MANY CALLED, FEW CHOSEN.

[Sb.

lie under to explain away the plain worda of Scrip-
ture, show you that your standard of good and evil,
and the standard of all around you, must be very
different from God'a standard. It showa you, that
if the chosen are few, there must be some parti-
cular belief necessary, or some particular line of
conduct, or something else different from what the
world supposes, in order to account for this solemn
declaration. It suggests to you that perchance
there must be a certain perfection, completeness,
consistency, entireness of obedience, for a man to
be chosen, which most men miss in one point or
another. It suggests to you that there is a great
difference between being a hearer of the word and
a doer ; a well-wisher of the truth, or an approver of
good men or good actions, and a faithful servant of
the truth. It suggests to you that it is one thing
to be in earnest, another and higher to be " rooted
and grounded in love." It suggests to you the
exceeding dangerousness of single sins, or particular
bad habits. It suggests to you the peril of riches,
cares of this life, station, and credit.

Of course we must not press the words of Scrip-
ture ; we do not know the exact meaning of the
word " chosen ;" we do not know what is meant by
being saved, " so as b j fire ;" we do not know what
is meant by " few." But still the few can never
mean the many ; and to be called without being
chosen, cannot but be a misery. We know that
the man, in the parable, who came to the feast

XVIII]

without a wedding garment, was " cast into outer
darkness'." Let us then set at nought the judg-
ment of the many, whether about truth and false-
hood, or about ourselves, and let us go by the judg-
ment of that line of Saints, from the Apostles'
times downwards, who were ever spoken against in
their generation, ever honoured afterwards, — singu-
lar in each point of time as it came, but continuous
and the same in the line of their history, — ever
protesting against the many, ever agreeing with each
other. And, in proportion as we attain to their
judgment of things, let us pray God to make it live
in us ; that, at the Last Day, when all veils are
removed, we may be found among those who are
inwardly what they seem outwardly, — who with
Enoch, and Noah, and Abraham, and Moses, and
Joshua, and Caleb, and Phineas, and Samuel, and
Elijah, and Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, and the Baptist,
and St. Paul, have " borne and had patience,
and for His Name-sake laboured and not fainted,"
watched in all things, done the work of an Evan-
gelist, fought a good fight, finished their course,
kept the faith.

Such is St. Paul's confession concerning Lis tem-
poral condition, even in the midst of his trials.
Tliose trials brought with them spiritual benefits ;
but, even as regarded this world, he felt be bad
cause for joy and thanlvfulness, in spite of sorrows,
pains, labours, and self-denials. He did not look
on this life with bitterness, complain of it morosely,
or refuse to enjoy it ; he was not soured, as the
children of men often are, by his trials ; but he
felt, that if he had troubles in this world, he had
blessings also ; and he did not reject these, but
made much of them. " I have all, and abound ; I
am full," he says. And, elsewhere, be tells us, that
"every creature of God is good," and that "godli-
ness is profitable unto all things, having the pro-

SaUK.XIX] THE BLESSINGS OF THIS LIFE.

mise of the life that now is, and of tliat which is to
come'."

Gloom is no Christian temper; that repentance
is not real, which has not love in it ; that self-chas-
tisement is not acceptable, which is not sweetened
by faith and cheerfulness. We must live in sun-
shine, CTcn when we sorrow ; we must live in God's
presence, we must not shut ourselves up in our
own hearts, even when we are reckoning up our
past sins.

These thoughts are suitable on this day ', when
we first catch a sight, as it were, of the Forty Days
of Lent. If God then gives us grace to repent, it
is well ; if He enables us to chasten heart and body,
to Him be praise ; and for that very reason, while
we do so, we must not cease rejoicing in Him. All
through Lent we must rejoice, while we afflict our-
selves. Though " many be called, but few chosen ;"
though all run in the race, but " one receiveth the
prize ;" though we must " so run that we may ob-
tain ;" though we must be " temperate in all things,"
and " keep under our body and bring it into sub-
jection," lest we be castaways ; yet through God
alone we can do this ; and while He is with ua, we
cannot but be joyful ; His absence only is a cause
for sorrow. The Three Holy Children are said to
have stood up in the midst of the fire, and to have
called on all the works of God to rejoice with

308 THE BLESSrNGS OF THIS LIFE. \Sbi

them ; on sun and moon, stars of heaven, nights
and days, showers and dew, frost and cohl, light-
nings and clouds, mountains and hills, green things
upon the earth, seas and floods, fowls of the air,
heasts and cattle, and children of men, — to praise
and bless the Lord, and magnify Him for ever.
We have no such trial as they; we have no such
awful suspense as theirs, on entering the burning
fiery furnace ; we attempt for the moat part what
we know ; we begin what we think we can go
through. We can neither instance their faith nor
equal their rejoicing ; yet we can imitate them so
far, as to look abroad into this fair world, which
God made " very good," while we mourn over the
evil which Adam brought into it; to hold commu-
nion with wliat we see, while we seek Him who is
invisible ; to admire it, while we abstain from it ; to
acknowledge God's love, while we deprecate His
wrath ; to confess that, many as are our sins, His
grace is greater. Our sins are more in number
than the hairs of our head ; yet even the hairs of
our head are all numbered by Him. He counts our
sins, and, as He counts, so can He forgive ; for
that reckoning, great though it be, comes to an
end ; but His mercies iail not, and His Son's merits
are infinite.

Let us, then, on this day dwell upon a thought,
which it will be a duty to carry with us through
Lent, the thought of the blessings and mercies of
which our present life is made up. St. Paul said that

XIX.] THE BLESSINGS OF THIS LIFE. 309

he had all, and abounded, and was full ; aud this, in
a day of persecution. Surely, if we have but reli-
gious hearts and eyes, we too must confess that our
daily and hourly blessings in this life are not less
than bis. Let us recount some of them.

1. First, then, we ought to bless and praise God
that we have the gift of life. By this I mean, not
merely that we live, but for those blessings M'hich
are included in the notion of our living. He has
made life in its very nature to imply the existence
of certain blessings which are tbeniselvcs a happi-
ness, and which bring it to pass that, in spite of all
evils, life in itself, except in rare cases, cannot be
otherwise than desirable. We cannot live without
the means of life; without the means of life we
should die ; and the means of life are means of
pleasure. It might have so been ordered that life
could not have been sustained without the use of such
means as were indifferent, neither pleasurable nor
painful, — or of means which were even painful ; as in
the case of illness or disease ; when we actually find
that we cannot preserve it without painfiil remedies.
Now, supposing the ordinary ways of preserving it
had been what are now but extraordinary ; suppos-
ing food were medicine ; supposing wounds or blows
imparted health and strength. But it is not so. On
the contrary, life consists in things pleasant ; it is
Rustained by blessings. And, moreover, the Gospel,
by a solemn grant, guarantees these things to us.
After the flood, God Almighty condescended to

310 THE BLESSINGS OF THIS LIFE. [Sehm.

promise that there neyer should be such a flood
again; that seed-time and harvest should not fail.
He ratified the stability of nature by His own Word,
and by that Word it is nplield. And, in like manner,
He has, in a special way, guaranteed to us in the
Gospel that law of nature whereby good and plea-
sant gifts arc included in our idea of life, and life
becomes a blessing. He might, did He so will,
sustain us Christians, not by bread only, but by every
word that proeeedetli out of His mouth. But He
has not done so. He has pledged to us those ordi-
nary means of sustenance which we naturally like ;
" bread shall be given us ; our water shall be sure ;"
" all these things shall be added mito us." He has
not indeed promised us what the world calls its
great prizes ; He has not promised us those goods,
so c^ied, of which the goodness depends on the
imagination ; He has not promised us large estates,
magnificent domains, houses like palaces, sumptuous
furniture, retainers and servants, chariots and horses,
rank, name, credit, popularity, power, the deference
of others, the indulgence of our wills, luxury, sen-
sual enjoyments. These, on the contrary, He denies
us ; and, withal. He declares, that, specious and in-
viting as they are, really they are evil. But still He
has promised that thia shall be His rule,— that thus
shall it be fulfilled to us as His ordinary providence, —
that life shall not be a burtlen to us, but a blessing,
and shall contain more to comfort than to afflict.
And giving us as much as this, He bids us be satis-

XIX] THE BLESSINGS OF THIS LIFE. 311

fied ttitli it; He bids us confess that we "havo all"
when we have so much ; that we " abound " when
we have enough ; He promiseB ns food, raiment, and
lodging; and He bids us, " having food and raiment,
therewith to be content'." He bids us be content
with those gifts, and withal unsolicitous about them;
tranquil, secure, and confident, because He has pro-
mised them ; He bids us be sure that we shall have
80 much, and not be disappointed that it is no more.
Such is His merciful consideration of us ; He does
not separate us from this world, though He calls us
out of it; lie does not reject our old nature when
He gives ns a new one ; He does but redeem it from
the curse, and purify it from the infection which
came through Adam, and is none of His. He
especially blesses the creation to our use, though we
be regenerate. " Every creature of God," says the
Apostle, " is good, and nothing to be refused, if it
be received with thanksgiving, for it is sanctified by
the word of God and prayer'." He does not bid us
renounce the creation, but associates us with the
most beautiful portions of it. He liltens us to the
flowers with whicli He has ornamented the earth,
and to the birds that live solitary under heaven, and
makes them the type of a Christian. He denies us
Solomon's regal magnificence, to unite us to the lilies
of tlie field and the fowls of the air, "Take no thought
for your life, what ye shall eat or what ye shall

' 1 Tim. vi. 8. ' 1 Tim. iv. 4, 5.

312

THE BLESSINGS OF THIS LIFE.

[Se.

drink ; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on.
Is not the life more than meat, and the body than
raiment ? Beliold the fowls of the air, for they sow
not, neither do they reap, nor gather into bams;
yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye
not much better than they ? . , . .And why take ye
thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the
field, bow they grow ; they toil not, neither do they
spin ; and yet, I say unto you, that even Solomon
in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these'."
Here then, surely, is a matter for joy and thank-
fulness at all seasons, and not the least at times,
when, with a religious forbearance, and according
to the will of the Giver, not from thanklessness but
from fear, we, for a wliile, more or less withhold
from ourselves His good gifts. Then, of all times,
when we think it right to suspend our use of the
means of life, so far as may not hurt that life, His
gift, and to prove how pleasant is the using them by
the pain of abstaining from them, — now especially,
my brethren, in the weeks in prospect, when we shall
be called on to try ourselves, as far as may be, by
hunger, or cold, or watching, or seclusion, that we
may be brought nearer to God, — let us now thank
God that He has not put us into an evil world, or
subjected us to a cruel master, but has given us a
continual record of His own perfections in all that
lies around us. Alas ! it will be otherwise hereafter

XIX]

THE BLESSINGS OF THIS LIFE.

313

with those whom God puts out of His sight for
ever. Their world will be evil; their life will be
death ; their rulers will be the devil and his angels ;
flames of fire and the lake of brimstone will be their
meat and drink ; the heaven, above them will be
brass ; their earth will be dust and ashes ; the blood
in their veins will be as molten lead. Fearful
thought ! which it is not right to do more than
glance at. Let us utter it, and pass by. Rather it
is for us to rejoice that we are still in the light of
His countenance, on His good earth, and under His
warm sun. Let us thank Him that He gives us the
fruits of the earth in their season ; that He gives us
" food out of the earth, and wine that maketh glad
the heart of man, and oil to make him a cheerful
countenance, and bread to strengthen man's heart'."
Thus was it with our fathers of old time ; thus is it
with us now. After Abraham had fought with the
kings, Melchizedek brought forth bread and wine
to refresh him. The Angels who visited him made
themselves men, and ate of tlie calf which he dressed
for them. Isaac blessed Jacob after the savoury meat.
Joseph's brethren eat and drank, and \iere merry
■with him. The seventy elders went up Mount
Sinai with Moses, Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and
they saw God, and moreover " did eat and drinli."
David, after his repentance, Lad " bread set before
hira, and he did eat." When Elijah went for his

' Ps. tiv. 14, 15.

314

TUF, BLESSINGS OF THIS LIFE

[Sei

life, and requested that he mi^ht die, " an Angel
touched liim, and said unto hiin, Arise and eat ;"
and be did eat and drink, once and twice, and
lay down to sleep between his meals ; and when be
arose, he " went in the strength of that meat forty
days and forty nights unto Horeb the mount of
God." St. Paul also, after his conversion and bap-
tism, " received meat and was strengthened'."

2. Again, what a great blessing is that, of which
I have just spoken in Elijah's case, the gift of sleep!
Almighty God does not suffer us to be miserable for
a long while together, even when He afflicts us ; but
He breaks our trial into portions ; takes us out of
this world ever and anon, and gives us a holy-day
time, like children at school, in an unknown and
mysterious country.

All this then must he borne in mind, in reflecting
on tbose solemn and sobering truths concerning the
Christian's calling, wbich it is necessary often to
insist upon. It is often said, and truly, that the
Christian is born to trouble, — tbat sorrow is the rule
with him, and jileasure the exception. But when
this is said, the question is one of seasons, circum-
stances, events ; such things as are adventitious
and additional to the gift of life itself. The Chris-
tian's lot is one of sorrow, but, as the regenerate t^e
with hun is happiness, so is the gift of natural life

XIX.] THE BLESSINGS OF THIS LIFE. 315

also. We live, therefore we are happy; upon this
life of ours come joys and eoirowa ; and in propor-
tion as we are favourites of God, it is sorrow that
comes, not joy. Still, after all, considered in our-
selves, that we live ; that God breathes in us ; that
we exist in Him ; that we think and act ; that we
have the means of life ; that we have food, and sleep,
and raiment, and lodging ; and that we are not lonely,
but in God's Church, and are sure of brethren by
the very token of our having a Father which is in
heaven ; — so far, rejoicing is the very condition of
our being, and all pain is little more than external,
not reaching to our inmost lieart. So far all men
almost are on a level, seasons of sickness excepted.
Even delicate health and feebleness of life does not
preclude these pleasures. And as to seasons of sick-
ness, or even long and liabitnal pain or disease, the
good Lord can compensate for them in His own
way by extraordinary supplies of grace, as in early
times He made even the torments of Christians in
persecution literally pleasant to them. He who so
ordered it, that even the red hot iron did feel
pleasant to the Martyrs after a while, cannot fail of
means to support His servants when life becomes a
burden. But, generally speaking, it is a happiness,
and that to all ranks. High and low, rich and poor,
have the same refreshment in their pilgrimage.
Hunger is as pleasantly appeased by the low as by
the high, on coarse fare as on delicate. Sleep is
equally the comfort and recruiting of rich and poor.

THE BLESSIXGS OF THIS LIFE.

[Se»

We eat, drink, and sleep, whether we are in sorrow
or in joy, in anxiety or in hope. Our natural life is
the tj'pe of our spiritual life, and thus, in a literal
as well as higher sense, we may bless Him " who
saveth our life from destruction, and crowneth us
with mercy and loving-kiudness ; who satisfieth our
mouth with good things, making us young and lusty
as an eagle'."

3. Now, again, consider the blessings which we
have in Christian brotherhood. In the beginning,
woman was made, that man might not be alone,
but might have a help meet for him ; and our Lord
promised that all who gave up this world and this
world's kindred for Him, should "receive manifold
more in this present time, houses, and brethren,
and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands,
with persecutions ^" You see He mentions the
troubles of Christians, which were their lot as
Christians ; but still these did not interfere with
the prior law of their very nature, that they should
not be friendless. As food and raiment are neces-
sary conditions of life, society is an inseparable
adjunct of it. God does not take away food and
raiment when He gives grace, nor does He take
away brotherhood. Hg removes from the world to
put into the Church. Religion without a Church
is as unnatural as life without food and raiment.
He began our life anew, but He built it up upon

XIX.]

THE BLESSINGS OF THIS LIFE.

317

the same foundations ; and as He did not strip us
of our body, when He made us Christians, neither did
He of social ties. Christ finds us in the double taber-
nacle, of a house of flesh and a house of brethren,
and He sanctifies both, not pulls them down. Our
first life is in ourselves ; our second in our friends.
They whom God forces to part with their near of
kin, for His sake, find brethren in the spirit at their
side. They who remain solitary, for His sake, have
children in the spirit raised up to them. How
should we thank God for this great benefit ! Now
especially, when we are soon to retire, more or less,
into ourselves, and to refrain from our ordinary in-
tercourse with one another, let us acknowledge the
blessing, whether of the bolj marriage bond, or of
family affection, or of the love of friends, which He
80 bounteously bestows. He gives, He takes away ;
blessed be His Name. But He takes away to give
again, and He withdraws one blessing, to restore
fourfold. Abraham offered liis only son, and re-
ceived him back again at the Angel's voice. Isaac
" took Rebekah, and she became his wife, and he
loved her ; and Isaac was comforted after his mo-
ther's death." Jacob lost Joseph, and found him
governor of Egypt. Job lost all his children, yet
his end was more blessed than his beginning. We
too, through God's mercy, whether we be young or
old, whether we have many friends or few, if we be
Christ's, shall all along our pilgrimage find those in

318

THE BLESSINGS OF THIS LIFK

[Sw

whom we may live, who will love us and whom we
may love, who will aid us, and help us forward, and
comfort u8, and close our eyes. For His love is a
secret gift-, which, unseen by the world, binds to-
gether those in whom it Hves, and makes them live
and sympathize in one another.

4. Again, let us bless and praise God for the
present peace of the Church, and the freedom of
speech and action which lie has vouchsafed to us.
There have been times, when, to be a Christian,
was to he an outcast aud a criminal ; when, to pro-
fess the faith of the Saints, would have subjected
us to bonds and imprisonment. Let us thank God
that at present we have nothing to fear, but may
serve Him zealously, "no man forbidding" us. No
thanks indeed to the world, which has given us this
peace, not ftom any love to the Church or the
Truth, but from selfish and ungodly principles of its
own ; but great thanks to God, who has made use
of the world, and has ovcn-uled its course of opinion
to our benefit. We have large and noble Churches
to worship in ; we may go freely to worship when
we will ; we may enjoy the advice of those who
know better than ourselves ; we may speak our
mind one to another ; we may move about freely ;
we may hold intercourse with whom we will ; we
may write what we will, explaining, defending, re-
commending, spreading the tnith, without suffering
or inconvenience. This is the blessing which we

XIX.] THE BLESSINGS OF THIS LIFE. 319

praj" for in our Collects ; and wouderfully has God
granted it for very many years past. We pray
daily that God would "give peace in our time."
We pray three times a week that " those evils,
which the craft and eubtilty of the devil or man
worketh against us, be brought to nought ;" and
" that, being hurt by no persecutions, we may ever-
more give thanks unto God in His Holy Church."
We pray yearly that " the course of this world may
be so peaceably ordered by His governance, that
His Church may joyfully serve Him in all godly
quietness ;" and that He may " keep His household,
the Church, in continual godliness, that through Plis
protection it may be free from all adversities, and
devoutly given to serve Him in good works, to the
glory of His Name," Now all this is most wonder-
fully fulfilled to us at this day, — praised he Hia
great mercy ! You will ask, perhaps, whether too
much prosperity is not undesirable for the Church?
— It ia bo; but I am speaking, not of the Church,
but of ourselves as individuals : what is dangerous
to the body, may be a blessing to the separate
members. As to ourselves, one by one, God has
His own secret chastisements for us, which, if He
loves us. He will apply when we need them ; but,
if we know how to use the blessing duly, it is, I
say, a great gift, that we are allowed to serve God
with such freedom and in such peace as are now
vouchsafed us. Great mercy indeed, which we

320 THE BLESSINGS OF THIS LIFE. [Sei

forget because we are used to it ; which many
prophets and righteous men in the first ages of the
Gospel had not, yet which we have had from our
youth Tip. We from our youth up have lived in
peace ; with no persecution, no terror, no hindrance
in serving God. The utmost we have had to en-
dure, is what is almost too trifling for a Christian to
mention, — cold looks, or contempt, or ridicule, from
those who have not the heart themselves to attempt
the narrow way.

5. Lastly, and very briefly, my brethren, let U3 re-
mind ourselves of our o^vn privileges here in this
place. How great is our privilege, my brethren! —
every one of us enjoys the great privilege of daily
Worship and weekly Communion. This great privi-
lege God has given to me and to you, — let ns enjoy
it while we have it. Not any of us all knows how long
it may be his o'wn. Perhaps there is no one among
us all, who can reckon upon it for a continuance.
Perchance, or rather probably, it is a bright spot in
our lives. Perhaps we shall look upon these days
or years, time hence ; and then reflect, when all is
over, how pleasant they were ; how pleasant to ,
come, day after day, quietly and calmly, to kneel
before our Maker, — week after week, to meet our
Lord and Saviour. How soothing will then be the
remembrance of His past gifts! we shall remember
how we got up early in the morning, and how all
things, light or darkness, sun or air, cold or fresh- J

XIX.] THE BLESSINGS OF THIS LIFE. 321

ness, breathed of Him, — of Him, the Lord of glory,
who stood over us, and came down upon us, and
gave Himself to us, and poured forth milk and
honey for our sustenance, though we saw Him not.
Surely we have all, and abound ; we are full.

VOL. V.

SERMON XX.

ENDURANCE, THE CHRISTIAN'S PORTION.

" All these things are against me.

So spoke the Patriarch Jacob, when Joseph had
been made away ■with, Simeon was detained in
Egypt, Benjamin threatened, and his remaining
sons suspected by him and distrusted ; when out
of doors, nay, at his door, was a grievous famine,
enemies or strangers round about, evil in prospect,
and in memory a number of sad remembrances
to pain, not to cheer him, — the dreadful mis-
conduct of his owu family and its consequences,
and, further back, the wrath of Esau, his sepor-
ration from his father's house, his wanderings, and
his ill-usage by Laban. From his youth upwards
he had been full of sorrows, and he bore them
with a troubled mind. His firet words are, "If
God will be with me . . . then shall the Lord be
my God." His next, •' Deliver me, I pray Thee."

i.XX.l

ENDURANCE, &c.

His next, " Ye have troubled me." His next, " I
will go down into the grave nnto my son mourn-
ing," His next, " All these things are against me."
And his next, " Few and evil have the days of the
years of my life heen '." Blow after blow, stroke
after stroke, trouble came like hail. That one hail-
stone falls is a proof, not that no more will come,
but that others are coming surely ; when we feel
the first, we say, "It begins to hail," — we do not
argue that it is over, but that it is to come. Thus
was it with Jacob ; the storm muttered around him,
and heavy drops fell while he was in his father's
house ; it drove him abroad. It did not cease be-
cause he was out in it ; it did not end because it
had begun. It continued, because it had begun ;
its beginning marked its presence ; it began upon a
law, which was extended over him in manhood also
and old age, as in early youth. It was his calling
to be in the storm ; it was his very life to be a
pilgrimage ; it was the very thread of the days of
his years to be few and evil.

And what Jacob was all his life, that was his son
Joseph at least iu the early part of it; for thirteen
years, from seventeen to thirty, he was in trouble
far greater than Jacob's; — in captivity, in slavery,
in prison, in bonds so tight, that the iron is said to
have entered into his soul. And what Joseph was

iii. 20, 21 :

in the beginning of life, such was Abraham, his
forefather, in the latter half of it. For seventy-five
years he lived in hia *' father's house ;" but hence-
forward he was a wanderer. Thus did Almighty
God, by the instance of the patriarchs of His an-
cient people, remind that people themselves that
this world was not thtiir rest; thus did He fore-
shadow that condition of life, which is not only a
lesson, but a pattern to ub, of our very state of life,
"if we live godly in Christ Jesus'," He Himself,
the Lord Incarnate, chose to sojourn only on earth ;
He had not where to lay His bead, " Let us go
forth, therefore, unto Him without the camp, bear-
ing His reproach, for here have we no continuing
city, but we seek one to corae ^" In Jacob is pre-
figured the Christian. He said, " All these things
are against me ;" and what he said in a sort of de-
jection of mind, that must the Christian say, not
in dejection, not sorrowfully, or passionately, or in
complaint, or in impatience, but calmly, as if con-
fessing a doctrine. " All these things are against
me;" but it is my portion; they ar^ against me,
that I may fight against them and overcome them.
If there were no enemy, there could be no conflict;
were there no trouble, there could be no faith ;
were there no trial, tbere could be no love ; were
there no fear, there could be no hope, Hope,
faith, and love, are weapons, and weapons imply

2 Tim. iii. 12. ' Heb. xiii. 13, 14.

XX.]

foes and encounters ; and, relying on my weapons,
I will glory in my suiferings, being " persuaded that
neither death, nor life, nor Angels, nor principali-
ties, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to
come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other crea-
ture, shall be able to separate us from the love of
God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord'."

That trouble and sorrow are in some especial
sense the lot of the Christian, is plain fi-om such
passages of Scripture as the following : — For in-
stance, St. Paul and St. Barnabas remind the disci-
ples " that we must through much tribulation enter
into the kingdom of God." Again, St. Paul says, " If
BO be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also
glorified together." Again, " If we suffer, we shall
also reign with Him." Again, " Yea, and all that
"will live godly in Christ Jesus, shall suffer persecu-
tion," Again, St. Peter, " If, when ye do well,
and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is accept-
able with God ; for even hereunto were ye called."
And our Saviour declares, that those who have
given up the relations of this world "for Ilis sake
and the Gospel's," shall receive "an hundred-fold"
now, " with persecutions." And St. Paul speaks
in his own case of his " perils," by sea and land,
from friend and foe, without and within him, of the
body and of the soul. Yet he adds, " I will glory
of the things which concern mine infirmities ^"

To passages, however, like these, it is natural to
object that they do not apply to the present time
that they apply to a time of persecution, which is
past and over ; and tiat men enter the kingdom
now, without the afflictions which it involved.
What we see, it may be said, is a disproof of so
sad and severe a doctrine. In this age, and in this
country, the Church surely is in peace; rights are
secured to it, and privileges added. Christians now,
to say the very least, have liberty of person and
property ; they live without disquietude, and they
die happily. Nay, they have much more than
mere toleration, they lave possession of the whole
country; there are none but Christians in it ; and
if they suffer persecution, it must be (as it were)
self-inflicted, from the hands of each other. Chris-
tianity is the law of the land ; its ministry is
a profession, its offices are honours, its name a
recommendation. So far from Christians being
in trial because they are Christians, those who are
not Christians, infidels and profligates, they are
under persecution. Under disabilities indeed tl
are, and justly ; but it would be as true to say that
Christians are justly in trouble, as to say that they
are in trouble at all. What confessorship is there in
a man's putting himself in the front of the Christian
fight, when that front is a benefice or a dignity
Rulers of the Church were aforetime marks for the
persecutor ; now they are but forced into temporal
rank and power. Aforetime, the cross was in the in-
ventory of holy treasures, handed down from Bishop

XX] THE CHRISTIAN'S PORTION. 3:27

to Bishop ; but now what self-denial is there in the
Apostolate, what bitterness in Christ's cup, what
marks of the Lord Jesus in the touch of His Hand,
what searching keenness in His saored Breath? Of
old time, indeed, as the Spirit forthwith drave Him
into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil, so
they, also, who received the Almighty Comforter,
in any of His high gifts, were at once among the
wild beasta of Ephesus, or amid the surges of the
sea ; but there are no such visible proofs now of
the triumph of God's grace, humbling the indivi-
dual, while using him for heavenly purposes.

This is what objectors may say; and, in corrobo-
ration, they may tell us to look at the feelings of
the world towards the Church and its sacred offices,
and to judge for ourselves whether they have not
the common sense of mankind with them. For is
not the ministry of the Church what is called an easy
profession ? Do we not see it undertaken by those
who love quiet, or who are unfit for business ; by
those who are less keen, less active-minded, less
venturous than others ? Does it not lead rather to
a land of Canaan, as of old time, than to the narrow
rugged way and the thorny couch of the Gospel ?
Has it not fair pastures, and pleasant resting-places,
and calm refreshing streams, and milk and honey
flowing, according to the promise of the Old Cove-
nant, rather than that baptism and that draught
which is the glory of the New ? Facts then, it will
be said, refute such notions of the suffering charac-

S28

ENDURANCE,

[Sl.

ter of the Christian Church. It suffered at first, —
suffering was the price of its triumphing; and since
that, it has ceased to suffer. It is as truly in peace
now, as it was truly in suffering then ; — one might
as well deny that it did suffer, as that it is in peace ;
and to apply texts which speak of what it was then
to what it is now, is unreal, offends some hearers,
and excites ridicule in others. This is what may be
said.

Yet is it 80 indeed ? Let us look into the Bible
again. Are we to go by faith or by sight? — for
surely, whatever conclusions follow from what we
see, these cannot undo what is written. What is
written remains ; and if sight is against it, we
must suppose that there is some way of solving the
difficulty, though we may not see how ; and we
must try, as well as we can, to solve it in our own
case.

Let us, I say, consider the words of Scripture
again. Surely, if endurance be not in some sense
or other the portion of Christians, the whole New
Testament itself has but a temporary meaning. It
is all built upon this doctrine as a groundwork. If
"the present distress'," of which St. Paul speaks,
does not denote the ordinary state of the Christian
Church, the New Testament is scarcely written for
us, but must be remodelled before it can apply.
There ai-e men of the world in this day who are at-

XX.] THE CHRISTIAS'S PORTION. 3*9

tempting to supersede the precepts of Christ, about
almsgiving and the niainteuance of the poor. We
are accustomed to object, that they contravene Scrip-
ture. Again, we hear of men drawing up a Church
government for themselves, or omitting Sacraments,
or modifying doctrines. We say they do not read
Scripture rightly. They answer, perhaps, that Scrip-
ture commands or countenances many things which
are not binding on us eighteen hundred years after.
They consider that the management of the poor, the
form of the Church, the power of the state over it,
the nature of its faith, or the choice of its ordi-
nances, are not points on which we need rigidly
keep to Scripture ; that times have changed. This
is what they say; and can we find feult with theci
if we ourselves allow that the Now Testament is a
dead letter in another most essential part of it ? Is
it strange that they should think that the world
may now tyrannize over the Church, when we allow
that the Church may now indulge in the world ?
Surely they do but make a fair bargain with us ;
both they and we put aside Scripture, and then
agree together, we to rest, and they to rule. We
have taken the world's pay, and must not grudge
its yoke. Independence siu-ely is not the Church's
privilege, unless hardship is her portion.

Well, and perhaps affliction, hardship, distress,
ill usage, evil report, are her portion, both promised
and bestowed, though at first sight they may seem
not to be. What proof is there that temporal hap-

ENDURANCE,

[Se.

piuess was the gift of the Law, which will not aval]
for temporal adversity being that of the Gospel ?
You say the Jews had the promise of tliis world.
True. But look at their history. Is that promise
fulfilled on its surface ? Had tliey not long perioda
of captivity, war, famine, pestilence, weakness, in-
ternal division ? Look at their history as a whole.
Is it not very like other histories ? Had not their
power a beginning, a progress, and an end? Did
they not pass through those successive stages which
other states pass through? What prosperity had
they, to go by appearances, which other states had
not? AVhat trouble had other states which they
were spared? If, then, the face of things be taken
to prove that the Christian Church is not bom to ,
trouble, would it not also prove that the Jewish
Church was not allotted prosperity ? And if, in spite
of appearances, we yet say that the Israelites had
special temporal blessings, why may we not, in
spite of the appearance, say that Christians have
special temporal trials ?

You will say, perhaps, that the .Jewish promise
was suspended on a condition, the condition of obe-
dience, and that the Jews forfeited the reward,
because they did not merit it. True; let it be so.
And what hinders, in like manner, if Christians are
in prosperity, not in adversity, that it is because
they too have forfeited the promise and privilege of
affliction by disobedience? And what hinders that,
as, in spite of the sins of the people, the Jewish

XX-] THE CHRISTIAN'S PORTION. 331

Church still in some sufficient sense did obtain the
temporal promise ; so, in like manner, in spite of the
sins of the multitude of Christiana, the Christian
Church as a whole, and her true children in parti-
cular, may partake in the promise of distress?

It is very difficult then to argue from what we
see, and there arc many ways in which what is
written may be fulfilled in spite, or by means, of it.
All that clearly can be pointed out is the word of
promise. It was said of Israel, " He loved the
people; all His saints are in thy hand; and they sat
down at thy feet ; every one shall receive of thy
words. . . . Let Reuben Hve and not die; and let

not his men be few Hear, Lord, the voice of

Judah, and bring him unto his people. Let his
hands be sufficient for him, and be Thou an help
to him from his enemies." And of Levi ; " Let Thy
Thummim and Thy Urim be upon Thy Holy One.
. . . Bless, Lord, his substance, and accept the work
of his hands: smite through the loins of them that
rise against him, and of them that hate him, that
they rise not again." And of Benjamin; "The
Beloved of the Lord shall dwell in safety by Him."
And of Joseph ; " Blessed of the Lord be his land,
for the precious things of heaven, for the dew, and
fbr the deep that coucheth beneath, and for the
precious things brought forth by the sun, and for
the precious things brought forth by the moon, and
for the chief things of the ancient mountains, and
for the precious things of the lasting hills, and for

332

ENDURANCE,

[SEt

the precious things of the earth, and the fulness
thereof." And of Zebulon ; " Rejoice, Zebulon, in
thy going out, and, Issachar, in thy tents .... they
shall suck of the abundance of the seas, and of trea-
sures hid in the sand." And, " Blessed be he that
enlargeth Gad ; he dwelleth as a lion, and teareth
the arm with the crown of the head." And,
" O Naphthali, satisfied with fayour, and full of
the blessing of the Lord, possess thou the west and
the south." And, " Let Asher be blessed with
children ; thy shoes shall be iron and brass ; and as
thy days, so shall thy strength be," And of all of
them together it was said, " Israel shall dwell in
safety alone ; the fountain of Jacob shall be upon
a land of corn and wine ; and his heavens shall
drop down dew'." These were the bright and plea-
sant things promised to the first people of God, in
the plains of Moab, on their entering into the land.
And now in turn, what did the second great Pro-
phet of the Church declare, when He was set upon
the mount, with the people around Him, and
published His covenant of grace. " He opened His
mouth and said, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for
theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they
that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed
are the meek. . . . Blessed are they which do hunger
and thirst after righteousness. . . . Blessed are the
merciful Blessed are the pure in heart

' Dsut.

XX.] THE CHRISTIAN'S PORTION. 333

Blessed are the peacemakers." And lastly, " Blessed
are ye when men shall revile you, and persecute
you, and shall say all manner of evil against you
falsely for My sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding
glad ; for great is your reward in heaven ; for so per-
secuted they the Prophets which were before you."
And by contrast, He added, "But woe unto you
that are rich, for ye have received your consolation.
Woe unto you that are full, for ye shall hunger.
Woe unto you that laugh now, for ye shall mourn
and weep. Woe unto you when all men shall speak
well of you, for so did their fathers unto the false
prophets'."

At another time He spoke thus : " Sell that ye
have, and give alms." " If thou wilt be perfect, go
and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor." " It
is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a
needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom
of God." " Whosoever will be chief among you, let
him be your servant." " If any man will come after
Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross,
and follow Me." And, in a word, the doctrine of
the Gospel, and the principle of it, is thus briefly
stated by the Apostle, in the words of the Wise
man. " Whom the Lord lovcth He chasteneth, and
Bconrgeth every son whom He receiveth. If ye en-
dure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons.
... If ye be without chastisement, whereof all are

334. EXDURANCE, [Sekm.

partakers, then arc jg bastards, and not sons '," Can
words speak it plainer, that, as certainly as teniporal
prosperity ie the gift of the Law, so also are hard-
ship and distress the gift of the Gospel ?

Take up thy portion, then. Christian soul, and
weigh it well, and learn to love it. Thou wilt find,
if thou art Christ's, in spite of what the world
fancies, that after all, even at this day, endurance,
in a special sense, is the lot of those who ofifer
themselves to be servants of the King of sorrows.
There is an inward world, which none see but those
who belong to it; and though the outside robe be
many-coloured, like Joseph's coat, inside it is lined
with camel's hair, or sackcloth, fitting those who
desire to be one with Him who fared hardly in the
wilderness, in the mountain, and on the sea. There
is an inward world into which they enter who come
near to Christ, though to men in general they seem
the same as before. They hold the same ])Iace as
before in the world's society; their employments
are the same, their ways, their comings in and
goings out. If they were high in rank, they are
still high; if they were in active life, they are stili
active ; if they were wealthy, they still have wealth.
They have still great friends, poweiful connectiona,
ample resources, fair name, in the world's eye ; but,
if they have drunk of Christ's cup, and tasted the

XX.] THE CHRISTIAN'S PORTION. 3^5

bread of His Table in sincerity, it is not with them
as in time past. A change has come over them,
unknown indeed to themselves, except in its effects,
but they have a portion in destinies which other
men Lave not, and, as having destinies, they have
conflicts also. They drank what looked like a
draught of this world, but it associated them in
hopes and fears, trials and purposes, above this
world. They came as for a blessing, and they have
found a work. They are soldiers in Christ's army ;
they fight against " things that are seen," and they
have " all these things against them." To their sur-
prise, as time goes on, they find that their lot is
changed. They find that in one shape or other
adversity happens to them. If they refuse to afflict
themselves, God afflicts them. One blow falls, they
are startled ; it passes over, ifc is well ; they expect
nothing more. Another comes; they wonder; "why
is this ?" they ask ; they think that the first should
be their security against the second ; they bear it
however; and it passes too. Then a third comes;
they almost murmur ; they have not yet mastered
the great doctrine that endurance is their portion.
O simple soul, is it not the law of thy being to
endure since thou earnest to Christ? Why earnest
thou but to endure? Why didst thou taste His
heavenly fea.st, but that it might work in thee?
Why didst thou kneel beneath His hand, but that
He might leave on thee the print of His wounds?
Why wonder then that one sorrow does not buy

336

ENDURANCE,

[SEi

off the next ? Does one drop of rain absorb the
second ? Does the stonn cease because it has begun ?
Understand thy place in God's kingdom, and rejoice,
not complain, that in thy day thou bast thy lot with
Prophets and Apostles. Envy not the gay and thriv-
ing world. Religious persons ask, " Why are we so
marked out for crosses ? Others get on in the world;
others are prosperous ; their schemes turn out well,
and their families settle happily; there is no anxiety,
no bereavement among them, while the world fights
against us." This is what they sometimes say,
though with some exaggeration certainly, for almost
all men, sooner or later, have their troubles, and
Christians, as well aa others, have their continual
comforts. But what then, be it ever so true ? if so,
it is but what was foretold long ago, and even under
the Law fulfilled in its degree. " They have chil-
dren at their desire, and leave the rest of their sub-
stance for their babes." " They are in no peril of
death, but are lusty and strong. They come in no
misfortune like other folk, neither are they plagued
like other men. . . . Their eyes swell with fatness,
they do even what they lust. . . . Lo these are the
ungodly, these prosper in the world, and these have
riches in possession." Such is the portion, such the
punishment of those who foi-sake their God.
" Verily, I say unto you, they have their reward '."
When, then, my brethren, it is objected that times

' Ps. xvii. 15 ; Ixsiii. 4—12. Malt. vi. 5.

XX.] THE CHRISTIAN'S PORTION. 337

are changed since the Gospel was first preached, and
that what Scripture says of the lot of Christians
does not apply to us, make answer, that the Church
of Christ doubtless is in high estate everywhere, and
so must be, for it is written, " I will give Thee the
heathen for Thine inheritance, and the uttermost
parts of the earth for Thy possession." Yet that
while she maintains her ground, she ever suffers in
maintaining it ; she has to fight the good fight, in
order to maintain it ; she fights and she suffers, in
proportion as she plays her part well ; and if she is
without suffering, it is because she is slumbering.
Her doctrines and precepts never can be palatable to
the world ; and if the world does not persecute, it is
because she does not preach. And so of her indi-
vidual members : they in their own way suffer ; not
after her manner, perhaps, nor for the same reason,
nor in the same degree, but more or less, as being
under the law of sulTering which Christ began.
Judge not then by outward appearance; think not
that His servants are in ease and security because
things look smooth, else you will be startled, per-
haps, and offended, when suffering falls upon you.
Temporal blessings, indeed. He gives to you and to
all men in abundance; " He maketh His sun to
rise upon the just and unjust ;" but in your case it
will be "houses and brethren and lands, with per-
■eecutions." Judge not by appearance, but be suro
'that, even when things seem to brighten and smile
VOL. V. Z

ENDURANCE,

[Sm

upon God's true servants, there is much witliin to
try them, though you see it not. Of old time they
wore clothing of hair and sackcloth uuder rich robes.
Men do not observe this custom now-a-days ; but
be quite sure still, that there are as many sharp
distresses underneath the visible garb of things, as
if they did. Many a secret ailment or scarcely-
observed infirmity exercises him, who has it, better
than thorns or knotted cord. Many a silent grief
lying like lead within the breast, or like cold ice upon
the heart. Many a sad secret, which a man dare i
not tell lest he should find no sympathy. Many a
laden conscience, laden because the owner of it has
turned to Christ, and which he would not have felt,
had he kept from Him. Many an apprehension for
the future, which cannot be spoken ; many a bereave-
ment which has robbed the world's gifts of their
pleasant savour, and leads the heart but to sigh at
the sight of them. No ; never while the Church
lasts, will the words of old Jacob be reversed, — all
things here are against ns but God ; but if God be
for us, who can really be against us? If He is in
the midst of us, how sihall we be moved ? If Christ
has died and risen again, what death can come upon
ns, though we be made to die daily? what sorrow,
pain, humiliation, trial, but must end as His has
ended, in a continual resurrection into His new
world, and in a nearer and nearer approach to Him?
He pronounced a blessing over His Apostles, and

XX.] THE CHRISTIAN'S PORTION. 339

they have scattered it far and wide all over the
earth unto this day. It runs as follows : " Peace I
leave with you, My peace T give unto you ; not as
the world giveth, give I unto you." " These things
I have spoken unto you, that in Me ye might have
peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation ; but
be of good cheer, I have overcome the worid^"

* John xiv. 27 ; xvi. 33.

z 2

SERMON XXI-

AFFLlCriON, A SCHOOL OF COMFORT.

2 Cor. i. 4.

" Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be
able to eomfott them which are in any trouble, by the comfort
wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God."

If there is one point of character more than another
which belonged to St. Paul, and discovers itself ia
all he said and did, it was his power of s}Tnpatbizing
with his brethren, nay with all classes of men. He
went through trials of every kind, and this was their
issue, to let him into the feelings, and thereby to
introduce him to the hearts of high and low, Jew
and Gentile. He knew how to persuade, for he
knew where lay the perplexity ; he knew how to I
console, for he knew the sorrow. His spirit within I
him was as some delicate instrument, which, as the '
weather changed about him, as the atmosphere was
moist or dry, hot or cold, accurately marked all its ,

Sehm. XXI,] AFFLICTION, A SCHOOL OF COMFORT. 34-1

variations, and guided him what to do. " To the
Jews he became as a Jew, that he might gain the
Jews; to them that were under the Law, as under
the Law, that he might gain them that were under
the Law; to them that were without Law, as
without Law, that he might gain them that were
without Law, To the weak," he says, " hecame I as
weak, that I might gain the weak, I am made all
things to all men, that I might by all means save
Bome." And so again, in another place, after hav-
ing recounted his various trials by sea and land, in
the bleak wilderness and the stifling prison, from
friends and strangers, he adds, " Who is weak, and
I am not' weak? who is offended, and I burn not?
If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things
which concern mine infirmities." Hence, in the
Acts of the Apostles, when he saw his brethren
weeping, though they could not divert him from his
purpose, which came from God, yet he could not
keep from crying out, " What mean ye to weej), and
to break my heart ? for I am ready, not to be bound
only, but also to die at Jerusalem, for the Name of
the Lord Jesus," And even of his own country-
men who persecuted him, he speaks in the most
tender and affectionate terms, as understanding well
where they stood, and what their view of the Gospel
was. " I have great heaviness and continual sorrow
in my heart ; for I could wish that myself were
accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen

S43

AFFLICTION,

[Sei

according to the flesh." And again, "Brethren, my
heart's desire and prajer to God for Israel is, that
they might be saved. For I fiear them record that
they have a zeal of God, but not according to know-
ledge." And hence so powerful was he in speech
■with them, wherever they were not reprobate, that
even King Agrippa, after hearing a few words of
St. Paul's own history, exclaimed, " Almost thou
perauadest me to be a Christian'!" And what he
was in persuasion, such he was in consolation. He
himself gives this reason for his trials in the text,
speaking of Almighty God's corafortmg him in all
his tribulation, that he might be able to comfort
them which are in any trouble, by the comfort
wherewith he himself was comforted of God.

Such was the great Apostle St. Paul, the Apostle
of grace, whom we hold in especial honour in the
early part of the year. At this season we comme-
morate his conversion ; and at this season we give
attention, more than ordinary, to bis Epistles. And
on Sexagosima Sunday we almost keep another
Festival in his memory, the Epistle for the day
being expressly on the subject of his trials. He
was beaten, he was scourged, he was rhased to and
fro, he was imprisoned, he was shipwrecked, he was
in this life of all men most miserable, that he might

' 1 Cor. ix. 20-22. 2 Cor. xi. 29, 30. Acts xxi, 13.

A SCHOOL OF COMFORT.

understand how poor a thing mortal life is, and
might learn to contemplate and describe fitly the
glories of the life immortal.

" Experience," he tells us elsewhere, " worketh
hope," — that grace which of all others most tends to
comfort and assuage sorrow. In somewhat a simi-
lar way our Lord says to St. Peter, "Simon, Simon,
behold, Satan hath desii-ed to have you, that he
may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee,
that thy faith fail not; and when thou art con-
verted, strengthen thy brethren '." Nay, the same
law was fulfilled, not only in the case of Christ's
servants, but even He Himself, " who knoweth the
hearts," condescended, by an inofFable mystery, to
learn to strengthen man, by the experiencing of
man's infirmities. "In all things it behoved Hiin
to be made like unto Ilis brethren, that Pie might
be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things
pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the
sins of the people ; for in that He Himself suffered,
being tempted. He is able to succour them that are
tempted." " We have not a High Priest, who can-
not be touched with the feeling of our infirmities,
but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet
without ain^"

Such is one chief benefit of painful trial, of what-
ever kind, which it may not be unsuitable to enlarge

344

AFFLICTION,

[Sbb

on. Man is born to " trouble, as the sparks fly up-
ward." More or less, we aU bave our severe trials
of pain and sorrow. If we go on for some years in
the world's sunshine, it is only that troubles, when
they come, should fiill heavier. Such at least is
the general rule. Sooner or later we fare as other
men; happier than they, only if we learn to bear
our portion more religiously ; and more favoured,
if we fall in with those who themselves bave suf-
fered, and can aid us with their sympathy and their
experience. And then, while we profit from what
they can give us, we may learn from them freely to
give what we have freely received, comforting in
turn others with the comfort which our brethren
have given us from God. ,

Now in speaking of the benefits of trial and suf-
fering, we should of course never forget that these
things by themselves have no power to make us
holier or more heavenly. They malie many men
morose, selfish, and envious. The only sympathy
they create in many minds is the wish that others
should suffer with them, not tbey with others.
Affliction, when love is away, leads a man to wish
others to be as be is ; it leads to repining, male-
volence, hatred, rejoicing in evil, " Art thou also
become weak as we ? art thou become like unto
us ?" said the princes of the nations to the fallen
king of Babylon. The devils are not incited by
their torments to any endeavour but that of mak-

XXI.]

A SCHOOL OF COMFORT,

345

ing others devils also. Such ia the effect of pain and
sorrow, when unsanctified by God's saving grace.
And this is instanced very widely and in a variety
of cases. All afflictions of the flesh, such as the
Gospel enjoins, and 8t. Paul practised, watchiogs
and fastings, and subjecting of the body, have no
tendency whatever in themselves to make men
better ; they often have made men worse ; they
often (to appearance) have left them just as they
were before. They are no sure teat of holiness and
true faith, taken by themselves. A man may be
most austere in his life, and, by that very austerity,
learn to be cruel to others, not tender. And, on
the other hand (what seems strange), he may be
austere in his personal habits, and yet be a waverer
and a coward in his conduct. Such things have
been, — I do not say they are likely in this state of
society, — but I mean, it should ever be borne in
mind, that the severest and most mortified hfe is
as little a passport to heaven, or a criterion of saint-
Ijness, as benevolence is, or usefulness, or amiahle-
ness. Self-discipline is a necessary condition, but
not a sure sign of holiness. It may leave a man
worldly, or it may make him a tyrant. It is only
in the hands of God that it is God's instrument.
It only ministers to God's purposes when God uses
it. It is only when grace is in the heart, when
power from above dwells in a man, that any thing
outward or inward turns to his salvation. Whether
persecution, or famine, or the sword, they as little

346

AFFLICTION,

[Sbh

bring the soul to Christ, as they separate it from
Him. He alone can work, and He can work
through all things. He can make the stones bread.
He can feed ub with "every word which proceedeth
from His mouth." He could, did He so will, make
us calm, resigned, tender-hearted, and sympathizing,
without trial ; but it is His will ordinarily to do so
by means of trial. Even He Himself, when He
came on earth, condescended to gain knowledge by
experience ; and what He did Himself, that He
makes His brethren do.

And while affliction does not necessarily make
Hs gentle and kind, nay, it may be, even makes us
stem and cruel, the want of affliction does not mend
matters. Sometimes we look with pleasure upon
those who never have been afflicted. We look
with a smile of interest upon the smooth brow and
open countenance, and our hearts thrill within us at
the ready laugh or the piercing glance, There is a
buoyancy and freshness of mind in those who have
never suffered, which, beautiful as it is, is perhaps
scarcely suitable and safe in sinful man. It befits
an Angel ; it befits very young persons and children,
who have never been delivered over to their three
great enemies. I will not dare to deny that there
are those whom white garments and unfading cha-
plets show that they have a right thus to rejoice
always, even till God takes them. But this is not
the case of the many, whom earth soils, and who
lose tlieir right to be merry-hearted. In tbem

XXI.]

A SCHOOL OF COMFORT.

317

lightness of spirits degenerates into rudeuees, want
of feeling, and wantonness ; such is the change, as
time goes on, and their hearts become less pure
and childlike. Pain and sorrow are the almost
neeessary medicines of the impetuosity of nature.
Without these, men, though men, are like spoilt
children ; they act as if they considered every
thing must give way to their own wishes and con-
veniences. They rejoice in their youth. They
become selfish ; and it is difficult to say which self-
ishness is the more distressing and disagreeable,
self in high spirits, or self in low spirits ; self in joy,
or self in sorrow ; in the rude health of nature, or
in the langiaor and fretfulness of trial. It is difficult
to eay which will comfort the worse, hearts hard
from suffering, or hard from having never suffered ;
cruel despair, which rejoices in misery, or cruel
pride, which is impatient at the sight of it. The
cruelty, indeed, of the despairing is the more hateful,
for it is more after Satan's pattern, who feels the
less for others, the more he suffers himself; yet the
cruelty of the prosperous and wanton is like the
excesses of the elements, or of brute animals, not
designed, more at random, yet perhaps even more
keen and trying to those who incur it.

Such is worldly happiness and worldly trial ; but
Almighty God, while He chose the latter as the
portion of His Saints, sanctified it by His heavenly
grace, to be their great benefit. He rescues them
from the selfishness of worldly comfort without sur-

S4S AFFLICTION, [Sesm.

rendering them to the selfishness of worldly pain.
He brings them into pain, that they may be like
what Christ was, and may be led to think of Him,
not of themselves. He brings them into trouble,
that they may be near Him. When they mourn,
they are more intimately in His presence than they
are at any other time. Bodily pain, anxiety, bereave-
ment, distress, are to them His forerunners. It is
a solemn thing, while it is a privilege, to look upon
those whom He thus visits. Why is it that men
would look with fear and silence at the sight of
the spirit of some friend departed, coming to them
from the grave ? Why would they abase them-
selves and listen awfully to any message he brought
them? because he would eeem to come from the
very presence of God. And in like manner, when
a man, in whom dwells His grace, is lying on the
bed of suffering, or when he has been stripped of his
friends and is solitary, he has, in a peculiar way,
tasted of the powers of the world to come, and ex-
horts and consoles with authority. He who has
been long under the rod of God, becomes God's
possession. He bears in his body marks, and is
sprinkled with drops, which nature could not im-
part to him. He comes " fmm Edom with dyed
garments from Bozrah,*' and it is easy to see with
whom He has been conversing. He seems to say to
us in the words of the Prophet, " I am the man
that hath seen affliction by the rod of His wrath.
He hath led me and brought me into darkness.

XXI.]

A SCHOOL OF COMFORT.

349

but not unto light . . He bath bent His bow, and
set me as a mark for the arrow'," And they who
see him, gather around like Job's acquaintance,
speaking no word to him, yet more reverently
than if they did ; looking at him with fear, yet
with confidence, with fellow-feeling, yet with re-
signation, as one who is under God's teaching and
training for the work of consolation towards his
brethren. Him they will seek when trouble comes
on themselves ; turning from all such as delighted
them in their proaj)erity, the great, or the wealthy,
or the man of mirth and song, or of wit, or of
resource, or of dexterity, or of knowledge ; by a
natural instinct tuniiug to those for consolation
whom the Lord has heretofore tried by similar trou-
bles. Surely this is a great blessing and cause of
glorying, to be thus consecrated by affliction as a
minister of God's mercies to the afflicted.

Some such thoughts as these may be humbly
entertained by every one of us, when brought even
into any ordinary pain or trouble. Doubtless if
we are properly minded, we shall be very loth to
take to ourselves titles of honour. We shall be
alow to believe that we are specially beloved by
Christ. But at least we may have the blessed
certainty that we are made instruments for the con-
solation of others. Without impatiently settling
any thing absolutely about our own real state in

350

AFFLICTION,

[SB„a.

God's sight, aud how it will fare with us at the
last day, at least we may allow ourselves to believe
that we are at present evidently blessed by being
made subservient to His jiurposes of mercy to
others ; as washing the disciples' feet, and pouring
into their wounds oil and wine. So we shall
say to ourselves, " Thus far, merciful Saviour, we
have attained ; not to be assured of our salva-
tion, but of our usefiilnesa. So fer we know, and
enough surely for sinful man, that we are allowed
to promote His glory who died for us." Taught by
our own paiu, our own sorrow, nay, by our own sin,
we shall have hearts and minds exercised for every
service of love towards those who need it. We
shall in one measure be comforters after the image
of the Almighty Paraclete, and that in all senses
of the word ; advocates, assistants, soothing aids.
Our words and advice, our very manner, voice, and
look will be gentle and tranquillizing, as of those
who have borne their cross after Christ, We shall
not pass by His little ones rudely, as the world does.
The voice of the widow and the orphan, the poor
and destitute, will at once reach our ears, however
low they speak. Our hearts will open towards
them ; our word and deed befriend them. The
ruder passions of man's nature, pride and anger,
envy and strife, which eo disorder the Church, these
will be quelled and brought under in the case of
other men, by the earnestness and kindness of our
admonitions. Thus, instead of being the selfish

creatures which we were by nature, grace acting
through suffering, tends to make us ready teachers
and witnesses of Truth to all men. Time was
wheo, even at the most necessary times, we fomid
it difficult to speak of heaven to another ; our
mouth seemed closed, even wlien our heart was
ftill ; but now our affection is eloquent, and " out
of the abundance of the heart our mouth speaketh."
Blessed portion indeed, thus to be tutored in the
Bweetest, softest strains of gospel truth, and to
range over the face of the earth pilgrims and so-
journers, with winning voices, singing, as far as in
the flesh it is possible to sing, the song of Moses
the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb ' ;
severed from ties of earth by the trials we have en-
dured, without father, without mother, without abid-
ing place, as that patriarch whom St. Paul speaks
of, and, like him, allowed to bring forth bread and
wine to refresh the weary soldiers of the most
High God. Such too was our Lord's forerunuer,
the holy Baptist, an austere man, cut off from
among his brethren, living iu the wilderness, feed-
ing on harsh fare, yet so far removed from stern-
ness towards those who sincerely sought the Lord,
that his preaching was almost described in pro-
phecy as the very language of consolation, " Com-
fort ye, comfort ye, My people . . . speak ye com-
fortably to Jerusalem,"

AFFLICTION,

[See

Such was the high temper of mind instanced in
our Lord and Ilis Apostles, and thereby impressed
upon the Church of Christ. And for this we may
thank God, that much as the Church has erred in
various ways since her setting up, this great truth
she never has forgotten, that we must all " take
up our cross daily," and " through much tribulation
enter into the kingdom of God." She has never
forgotten that she was set apart for a comforter of
the afflicted, and that to comfort well we must first
be afflicted, St. Paul was consecrated by suffering
to be an Apostle of Christ; by fastings, by chas-
tisements, by self-denials for his brethren-sake, by
his forlorn, solitary life, — thus did he fill up day by
day those intervals of respite which the fury of his
persecutors permitted. And so the Church Catholic
after him has never forgotten that ease was a sin,
favoured as she might be with peace from external
enemies. Even when riches and honours flowed
in upon her, still has she always proclaimed that
affliction was her proper portion. She has felt
she could not perform the ofllice of a comforter,
if she enjoyed this world; and, though doubtless
her separate branches have at times forgotten this
truth, yet it remains, and is transmitted from age
to age ; and though she has had many false sons,
yet even they have often been obliged to profess
what they did not practise. This indeed is strange
news to the world, who are bent on gratifying
themselves, and who think they have gained a

point, and have just cause for congratulation, when
they have found out a way of saving themselves
trouble, and of adding to their luxuries and con-
veniences. But those who are set on their own
ease, most certainly are bad comforters of others ;
thus the rich man, who fared sumptuously every
day, let Lazarus lie at his gate, and left him to be
"comforted" after this life by Angels, As to com-
fort the poor and afflicted is the way to Leaven, so
to have affliction ourselves is the way to comfort
them.

And, lastly, let us ever anxiously remember that
affliction is sent for our own personal good also.
Let us fear, lest after we have ministered to others,
we ourselves should be cast-aways ; lest our gen-
tleness, consideration, and patience, which are so
soothing to them, yet should be separated from
• that inward iaith and strict conscientiousness which
alone unites us to Christ ; — lest, in spite of all the
good we do to others, yet we should have some
secret sin, some unresisted evil within us, which
separates us from Him, Let us pray Him who
sends us trial, to send us a pure heart and honesty
of mind wherewith to bear it.

THE THOUGHT OF GOD, THE STAY OF THE SOUL.

" Ye tiave not received the spirit of bondage again to fear,
but je have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry,
Abba, Father."

When Adam fell, bis soul lost its true strength;
he forfeited the inward light of God's presence,
and became the wayward, fretful, excitable, and
miserable being which his history has shown him to
be ever since ; with alternate strength and feeble-
ness, nobleness and meanness, energy in the begin-
ning and failure in the end. Such was the state of
his soul in itself, not to speak of the divine wrath
upon it, which followed, or was involved in the
divine withdrawal. It lost its spiritual life and
health, which was necessary to complete its nature,
and to enable it to fulfil the ends for which it was
created, — which was necessary both for its moral

Sebm. XXII.] THE THOUGHT OF GOD, &c.

integrity and its happiness ; and as if faint, hungry,
or sick, it could no longer atand upright, but sank on
the ground. Such is the state in which every one
of us lies as boru into the world ; and Christ has
come to reverse this state, and restore ns the great
gift which Adam lost in the beginning. Adam fell
irora his Creator's favour to be a bond-servant ; and
Christ has come to set us free again, to impart to
us the Spirit of adoption, whereby we become God's
children, and again approach Him as our Father.

I say, by birth we are in a state of defect and
want ; m'c have not all that is necessary for the
perfection of our nature. As the body is not com-
plete in itself, but requires tlie soul to give it a
meaning, so again the soul, till God is present with
it and manifested in it, has faculties and affections
without a ruling principle, object, or purpose. Such
it is by birth, and this Scripture signifies to us by
many figures ; sometimes calling human nature
blind, sometimes hungry, sometimes unclothed, and
calling the gift of the Spirit light, health, food,
warmth, and raiment ; all by way of teaching
us what our real state is, and what our gratitude
should he to Him who has brought us into a new
state. For uistance, " Because thou sayest, I am
rich and increased in goods, and have need of no-
thing ; and knowest not that thou art wretched,
and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked, I
counsel thee to buy of Me gold tried in the fire,
that thou mayest be rich ; and white raiment, that

356 THE THOUGHT OF GOD, [Sehm.

thou mayest be clothod, . . and anoint tliine eyes
with eye-salve, that thou mayest see." Again,
" God, who commanded the light to shine out of
darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the
light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in
the face of Jesus Christ." Again, " Awake, thou
that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ
shall give thee light." Again, " Whosoever drink-
eth of the water that I shall give him, shall never
thirst ; but the water that I shall give him shall be
in him a well of water springing up into everlasting
life." And in the book of Psalms, " They shall be
satisfied with the plenteousness of Thy house; and
Thou shalt give them drink of Thy pleasures as out
of the river. For with Thee is the well of life, and
in Thy Light shall we see light." And in another
Psalm, " My soul shall be satisfied, even as it were
with marrow and fatness, when my mouth praiseth
Thee with joyful lips," And so again, in the Prophet
Jeremiah, " I will satiate the souls of the priests
with fatness ; and My people shall be satisfied with
My goodness. ... I have satiated the weary soul,
and I have replenished every sorrowful soul '."

Now the doctrine which these passages contain is
often truly expressed thus : that the soul of man is
made for the contemplation of its Maker ; and that
nothing short of that high contemplation is its hap-

17, 18. 5 Cor. iv. 6. Eph. v. 14. John iv. 14.
,9; Ixiii. 5. Jer. xxxi. H. 2j.

XXII.] THE STAY OF THE SOUL. 357

piness; that, whatever it may possess besides, it is
unsatisfied till it is vouchsafed God's presence, and
lives in the light of it. There are many aspects in
which the same solemn truth may be viewed ; there
are many ways in which it may be signified. I will
now dwell npon it as I have been stating it.

I say, then, that the happiness of the soul consists
in the exercise of the affections ; not in sensual
pleasures, not in activity, not in excitement, not in
self-esteem, not in the consciousness of power, not
in knowledge ; in none of these things lies our hap-
piness, but in our affections being elicited, employed,
supplied. As hunger and thirst, as taste, sound,
and smell, are the channels through which this
bodily frame receives pleasure, so the affections are
the instruments by which the soul has pleasure.
When they are exercised duly, it is happy ; when
they are undeveloped, restrained, or thwarted, it is
not iiappy. This is our real and true bliss, not to
know, or to effect, or to pursue ; but to love, to
hope, to joy, to admire, to revere, to adore. Our
real and true bliss lies in the possession of those
objects on which our hearts may rest arid be
satisfied.

Now, if this be so, here is at once a reason for
saying that the thought of God, and nothing short
of it, is the happiness of man ; for though there is
much besides to serve as subject of knowledge, or
motive for action, or instrument of excitement, yet
the affections require a something more vast and

358 THE THOUGHT OF GOD, [Sbhm.

more enduring than any thing created. What is
novel and sudden excites, but does not influence ;
■what is pleasurable or useful raises no awe; self
moves no reverence, and mere knowledge kindles
no love. He alone is sufficient for the heart who
made it. I do not say, of course, that nothing short
of the Almighty Creator can awaken and answer to
our love, reverence, and trust; man can do this for
man. Man doubtless is an object to rouse his
brother's love, and repays it in his measure. Nay,
it is a great duty, one of the two chief duties of
religion, thus to be minded towards our neighbour.
But I am not speaking here of what we can do, or
ought to do, but what it is our happiness to do;
and surely it may be said that though the love of
the brethren, the love of all men, be one half of our
obedience, yet exercised by itself, were that possi-
ble, which it is not, it were no part of our reward.
And for this reason, if for no other, that our hearts
require something more permanent and uniform
than man can be. We gaiu much for a time firom
fellowship with each other. It is a relief to us, as
fresh air to the feinting, or meat and drink to the
hungry, or a flood of tears to the heavy in mind.
It is a soothing comfort to have those whom we
may make our confidants; a comfort to have those
to wfcom we may confess our faults; a comfort to
have those to whom "we may look for sympathy.
Love of home and family in these and other ways
is sufficient to make this life tolerable to the multi-

THE STAY OF THE SOUL.

tude of men, which otherwise it would not be ; but
still, after all, our affections exceed auch exercise of
them, and demand what is more stable. Do not all
men die ? ai'e they not taken from us ? are they not
as uncertain as the grass of the field ? We do not
give our hearts to things inanimate, because these
have no permanence in them. We do not place our
affections in sun, moon, and stars, or this rich and
fair earth, because all things material come to
nought, and vanish like day and night. Man, too,
though he has an intelligence within him, yet in his
best estate is altogether vanity. If our happiness
consists in our affections being employed and re-
compensed, "man that is born of a woman" cannot
be our happiness ; for how can he stay another, who
"continueth not in one stay" himself?

But there is another reason why God alone is
the happiness of our souls, to which I wish rather to
direct attention : — the contemplation of Him, and
nothing but it, is able ftiUy to open and relieve the
mind, to unlock, occupy, and fix our affections.
We may indeed love things created with great in-
tenseness, but such affection, when disjoined from
the love of the Creator, is like a stream running in
a narrow channel, impetuous, vehement, turbid. The
heart runs out, as it were, only at one door; it is
not an expanding of the whole man, Created na-
tures cannot open us, or elicit the ten thousand
mental senses which belong to us, and through

THE THOUGHT OF GOD,

[Sb,

which we really live. None but the presence of
our Maker can enter us ; for to none besides can
the whole heart in al! its thoughts and feelings be
unlocked and subjected. " Behold," He sajs, " I
stand at the door and knock ; if any man hear My
voice and open the door, I will come in to him, and
will sup with him, and he with Me." " My Father
will love him, and We will come unto him, and
make our abode with him." " God hath sent forth
the Spirit of His Son into your hearts." " God is
greater than our heart, and knoweth all things'."
It ia this feeling of simple and absolute confidence
and communion, which soothes and satisfies those
to whom it is vouchsafed. We know that even our
nearest friends enter into us but partially, and hold
intercourse ■with us only at times ; whereas the
consciousness of a perfect and enduring Presence,
and it alone, keeps the heart open. Withdraw the
Object on which it rests, and it will relapse again
into its state of confinement and constraint ; and
in proportion as it is limited, either to certain sea-
sons or to certain affections, the heart is straitened
and distressed. If it be not over bold to say it. He
who is Infinite can alone be its measure ; He alone
can answer to the mysterious assemblage of feelings
and thoughts which it has within it. "There is no
creature that is not manifest in His sight, but aU

XXII,] THE STAY OF THE SOUL. 361

things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him
with whom we have to do'."

This is what is meant by the peace of a good con-
science ; it is the habitual consciousness that our
hearts are open to God, with a desire that they
should be open. It is a confidence in God, fiom a
feeling that there is nothing- in us which we need
be ashamed or afraid of. You will say that uo
man on earth is in such a state ; for we are all sin-
ners, and that daily. It is so ; certainly we are
quite uniitted to eudure God's all-searching Eye, to
come into direct contact (if I may so speak) with
His glorious presence, without any medium of com-
munion between Him and us. But, first, there
may be degrees of this confidence in different men,
though the perfection of it in none. And, again,
God in His great mercy, as we all well know, has
revealed to us that there is a Mediator between the
sinful soul and Himself, And as His merits most
wonderfully intervene between our sins and God's
judgment, so the thought of those merits, when
present with the Christian, enables him, in spite of
his sins, to lift up his heart to God ; and believing,
as he does, that he is (to use Scripture language)
in Christ, or, in other words, that he addresses
Almighty God, not face to face, but in and through
Christ, he can bear to submit and open his heart
to God, and wish it open. For, while he is very

THE THOUGHT OF GOD,

[.Ski

conscious both of original and actual sin, yet still
a feeling of his own sincerity and earnestness is
possible ; and in proportion as he gains as much
as this, he will be able to walk unreservedly with
Christ his God and Saviour, and desire His con-
tinual presence with him, though he be a sinner,
and will wish to be allowed to make Him the one
Object of his heart. Perhaps, under somewhat of
this feeling, Hagar said, "Thou, God, seest me," It
is under this feeling that holy David may he sup-
posed to say, " Examine me, O Lord, and prove me ;
try out my reins and my heart." " Try tne, O God,
and seek the ground of my heart ; prove me, and
examine my thoughts. Look well, if there be any
way of wickedness in me ; and lead me in the way
everlasting'." And especially is it instanced in St.
Paul, who seems to delight in the continual laying
open of his heart to God, and submitting it to His
scrutiny, and waiting for His Presence upon it; or,
in other words, in the joy of a good conscience.
For instance, " I have lived in all good conscience
before God until this day," " Herein do I exercise
myself, to have always a conscience void of offence
toward God, and toward men," " I say the truth in
Christ, I lie not ; my conscience also bearing me wit-
ness in the Holy Ghost." " Our rejoicing is this, the
testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and
godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the

' Pa. xxvi. 2 ; cxxxix. 23, 24.

XXII.]

THE STAY Of THE SOUL.

36S

grace of God, we have had our conversation in the
world, and more abundantly to you-ward '." It is, I
say, the characteristic of St. Paul, as manifested to
us in his Epistles, to live in the sight of Him who
" searcheth the reins and the heart," to love to place
himself before Him, and while contemplating God,
to dwell on the thought of God's contemplating him.
And, it may be, this is something of the Apostle's
meaning, when he speaks of the witness of the
Spirit. Perhaps he is speaking of that satisfaction
and rest which the soul experiences in proportion as
it is able to surrender itself wholly to God, and to
have no desire, no aim, but to please Him. When
we are awake, we are conscious we are awake, in a
sense in which we cannot fancy we are, when we
are asleep. When we have discovered the solution
of some difficult problem in science, we have a con-
viction about it which is distinct from that which
accompanies fancied discoveries or guesses. When
we realize a truth, we have a feeling which they
have not, who take words for things. And so, iu
like manner, if we are allowed to find that real and
most eacred Object on which our heart may fix itself,
a ftilness of peace will follow, which nothing but it
can give. In proportion as we have given up the
love of the world, and are dead to the creature,
and, on the other hand, are bom of the Spirit unto
love of our Maker and Lord, this love carries with

ix. 1. 2 Cor. i. 12.

364

THE THOUGHT OF GOD,

[Se£

it its own evidence whence it comes. Hence the
Apostle says, " The Spirit itself beareth witness
with our spirit, that «-e are the children of God."
Again, he speaks of Him " who hath sealed ns, and
given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts'."

I have been saying that our happiness consists in
the contemplation of God ; — only such a contempla-
tion is capable of aecom i)anying tbe mind always and
every where, for God alone can be always and every
where present ; — and that what is commonly said
about the happiness of a good conscience confirms
this ; for what is it to have a good conscience, when
we examine the force of our words, but to be ever
reminded of God by our own hearts, to have our
hearts in such a state as to be led thereby to look
up to Him, and to desire Ilis eye to be upon us
through the day? It is the feeling attendant, in the
case of holy men, on the contemplation of Almighty
God.

But, again, this sense of God's presence is not
only the ground of the peace of a good conscience,
but of the peace of repentance also. At first sight
it might seem strange how repentance can have in
it any thing of comfort and peace. The Gospel,
indeed, promises to turn all sorrow into joy. It
makes us take pleasure in desolatenesa, weakness,
and contempt. " We glory in tribulations also,"
says the Apostle, " because the love of God is shed

16. 2 Cor. i. 22.

XXII.] THE STAY OF THE SOUL. 3G5

abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is
given unto us." It destroys anxiety; " Take no
thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take
thought for the things of itself." It bids us take
comfort under bereavement : " I would not have
you ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are
asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which
have no hope'," But if there be one sorrow, which
might seem to be unmixed misery, if there be one
misery left under the Gospel, the awakened sense
of having abused the Gospel might have been con-
sidered that one. And, again, if there be a time
when the presence of the Most High would at first
sight seem to be intolerable, it would be then, when
the consciousness vividly burst upon us that we had
ungratefully rebelled against Him. Yet so it is that
true repentance cannot be without the thought of
God ; it has the thought of God, for it seeks Him;
and it seeks Him, because it is quickened with love ;
and even sorrow must have a sweetness, if love be
in it. For what is to repent but to surrender our-
selves to God for pardon or punishment ; as loving
His presence for its own sake, and accounting chas-
tisement from Him better than rest and peace from
the world ? While the prodigal son remained among
the swine, he had sorrow enough, but no repentance;
remorse only ; but repentance led him to rise and go
to his Father, and to confess his sins. Thus he re-

■, 3, 5. Matt. vi. 34. I Thess. iv. 13.

THE THOUGHT OF GOD,

lieved his heart of its misery, which before was like
Boine hard and fretfiii tumour weighing upon it. Or,
again, consider St. Paul's aceoimt of tlie repentance
of the Corinthians; there is sorrow in abundance,
nay, anguish, but no gloom, no dryness of spirit, no
Btemness. The penitents afflict themselves, but it is
from the fulness of their hearts, from love, gratitude,
devotion, horror of the past, desire to escape from
their present selves into some state holier and more
heavenly. St. Panl speaks of their " earnest desire,
their mourning, their fervent mind towards him."
He rejoices, " not that they were made sorry, but
that they sorrowed to repentance." " For ye were
made sorry," he proceeds, " after a godly manner,
that ye might receive damage by us in nothing,"
And he describes this " sorrowing after a godly sort"
to consist in " carefulness, which it wrought in them,"
" clearing of themselves," — " indignation," — " fear,"
— " vehement desire," — " zeal," — ■" revenge'," — feel-
ings, all of them, which open the heart, yet, without
relaxing it, as terminating in acta or works.

On the other hand, remorse, or what the ApoBtle
calls " the sorrow of the world," worketh death.
Instead of coming to the Fount of Life, to the God
of all consolation, remorseful men feed on their own
thoughts, without any confidant of their sorrow.
They disburden themselves to no one: to God they
will not, to the world they cannot confess. The

SXII.] THE STAY OF THE SOUL. 367

world ■will not attend to their confession ; it is a
good associate, but it cannot be an intimate. It
cannot approach us or stand by us in trouble ; it is
no Paraclete ; it leaves all our feelings buried within
U9, either tumultuous, or, at best, dead ; it leaves us
gloomy or obdurate. Such is our state, while we
live to the world, whether we be in sorrow or in joy.
We are pent up within ourselves, and are therefore
miserable. Perhaps we may not be able to analyze
our misery, or even to realize it, as persons often-
times who are in bodily sictnesses. We do not
know, perhaps, what or where our pain is ; we are so
used to it that we do not call it pain. Still so it is;
we need a relief to our hearts, that they may be dark
and sullen no longer, or that they may not go on
feeding upon themselves; we need to escape from
ourselves to something beyond ; and much as we
may wish it otherwise, and may try to make idols
to ourselves, nothing short of God's presence is our
true refuge ; every thing else is either a mockery,
or but an expedieut useful for its season or in its
measure.

How miserable then is he, who does not prac-
tically know this great truth ! year after year he
will be a more unhappy man, or, at least, he will
emerge into a maturity of misery at once, when he
passes out of this world of shadows into that kingdom
where all is real. He is at present attempting to
satisfy his soul with that which is not bread; or he
thinks the soul can thrive without nourishment. He

THE THOUGHT OF GOD,

[So

fancies he can live without an object. He fancies that
he is sufficient for himself; or he supposes that know-
ledge is sufficient for his happiness ; or that exertion,
or that the good opinion of others, or (what is called)
fame, or that the comforts and luxuries of wealth, are
sufficient for him. What a truly wretched state is that
coldness and dryness of soul, in which so many live
and die, high and low, learned and unlearned. Many
a great man, many a peasant, many a busy man, lives
and dies with closed heart, with affections unde- ;
veloped, unexercised. You see the poor man, pass-
ing day after day, Sunday after Sunday, year after
year, without a thought in his mind, to appearance
almost like a stone. You see the educated man,
full of thought, full of intelligence, fidl of action, but
still with a stone heart, as cold and dead as regards |
his affections, as if he were the poor ignorant coun-
tryman. You see others, with warm affections,
perhaps, for their families, with benevolent feelings
towards their fellow-men, yet stopping there; cen-
tering their hearts on what is sure to fail them, as
being perishable. Li fe passes, riches fly away,
popularity is fickle, the senses decay, the world
changes, friends die. One alone is constant; One
alone is true to us; One alone can be true; One
alone can be all things to us ; One alone can supply
our needs ; One alone can train us up to our full
perfection ; One alone can give a meaning to our
complex and intricate nature ; One alone can give
us tune and harmony ; One alone can form and

XXIL] THE STAY OF THE SOUL. 369

possess us. Are we allowed to put ourselves under
His guidance ? this surely is the only question. Has
He really made us His children, and taken posses-
sion of us by His Holy Spirit? Are we still in
His kingdom of grace, in spite of our sins? The
question is not whether we should go, but whether
He will receive. And we trust, that, in spite of
our sins. He will receive us still, every one of us, if
we seek His face in love unfeigned, and holy fear.
Let us then do our part, as He has done His,
and much more. Let us say vnth the Psalmist,
" Whom have I in heaven but Thee ? and there is
none upon earth I desire in comparison of Thee.
My flesh and my heart faileth, but God is the
strength of my heart and my portion for ever ^"

» Ps. Ixxiii. 25, 26.

VOL. V. B b

SERMON XXIII.

LOVE, THE ONE THING NEEDFUL.

1 Cor. X

. 1.

" Tliougb I speak with fhe tongues of men and of Angels,
find have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a
tinkling cymbal."

I SUPPOSE the greater number of persons who try
to live Christian lives, and who observe themselves
with any care, are dissatisfied with their own state
on this point, that, whatever their religious attain-
ments may be, yet they feel that tlieir motive is not
the highest ; — that the love of God, and of man for
His sake, is not their ruling principle. They may do
much, nay, if it so happen, they may suffer much ;
but they have httle reason to think that they love
much, that they do and suffer for love's sake. I do
not mean that they thus express themselves exactly,
but that they are dissatisfied with themselves, and
that when this dissatisfaction is examined into, it

Serm.xxiii.] love, the one thing needful. 373

will be found ultimately to come to thi?, though
they will give differeut accounts of it. They may
call themselves cold, or hard-hearted, or fickle, or
double-minded, or doubting, or dim-sighted, or weak
in resolve, but they mean pretty much the same
thing, that their affections do not rest on Almighty
God as their great Object. And this will be found
to be the complaint of religious men among our-
selves, not less than others ; their reason and their
heart not going together ; their reason tending
heavenwards, and their heart earthwards.

I will now make some remarks on the defect I
have described, as thinking that the careful consi-
deration of it may serve as one step towards its rer
moval.

Love, and love only, is the fulfilling of the Law,
and they only are in God's favour in whom the
righteousness of the Law is fulfilled. This we know
fiiU well ; yet, alas I at the same time, we cannot
deuy that whatever good thing we have to show,
whether activity, or patience, or faith, or fruitful-
ness in good works, love to God and man is not
ours, or, at least, in very scanty measure ; not at all
proportionately to our apparent attainments. Now,
to enlarge upon this.

In the first place, love clearly does not consist
merely in great sacrifices. We can take no comfort
to ourselves that we are God's own, merely on the
ground of great deeds or great sufferings. The
greatest sacrifices without love would be nothing
Bb a

372

LOVE, THE ONE THING NEEDFUL.

[Sei

worth, and that they are great does not necessarily
prove they are done with love. St. Paul emphati-
cally assures us that liis acceptance with God did
not stajid in any of those high endowments, which
strike us in him at first sight, and which, did we
actually see him, douhtless would so much draw us
to him. One of his highest gifts, for instance, was
his spiritual knowledg'e. He shared and felt the
sinfulness and infirmities of human nature ; he had
a deep insight into the glories of God's grace, such
as no natural man can have. He liad an awful
sense of the realities of heaven, and the mysteries
revealed. He could have answered ten thousand
questions on theologica,! subjects, on all those points
about which the Church has disputed since his time,
and which we now long to ask him. He was a man
whom one could not come near, without going away
from him wiser than one came ; a fount of knowledge
and wisdom ever full, ever approachable, ever flow-
ing, from which all who came in faith, gained a
measure of the gifts which God had lodged in him.
His presence inspired resolution, confidence, and
zeal, as one who was the keeper of secrets, and the
revealer of the whole counsel of God; and who, by
look, and word, and deed, as it were, encompassed
his brethren with God's mercies and judgments,
spread abroad and reared aloft the divine system of
doctrine and precept, and seated himself and them
securely in the midst of it. Such was this great
servant of Christ and Teacher of the Gentiles; yet

XXm.] LOVE, THE ONE THENG NEEDFUL. 373

he saya, " Though I speak with the tongues of men
and of Angels, though 1 have the gift of prophecy,
and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge,
and have not charity, I am become as sounding
brass or a tinkling cymbal ; I am nothing." Spiri-
tual discernment, an insight into the Gospel cove-
nant, is no evidence of love.

Another distinguishing mark of his character, as
viewed in Scripture, is his faith, a prompt, decisive,
simple, assent to God's word, a deadness to motives
of earth, a firm hold of the truths of the unseen
world, and keenness in following them out; yet he
says of his faith also, " Though I have all faith, so
that I could remove mountains, and have not charity,
I am nothing." Faith is no necessary e'vidence of
love.

A tender consideration of the temporal wants of
his brethren is another striking feature of his cha^
racter, as it is a special characteristic of every true
Christian ; yet he says, " Though I bestow all my
goods to feed the poor, and have not charity, it pro-
fiteth me nothing." Self-denying alms-giving is no
necessary evidence of love.

Once more. He, if any man, had the spirit of a
martyr ; yet he implies that even martyrdom, viewed
in itself, is no passport into the heavenly kingdom,
" Though I give my body to be burned, and have not
charity, it profiteth me nothing." Martyrdom is
no necessary evidence of love.

1 do not say that at this day we have many spe-

874

LOVE. THE ONE THING NEEDFUL.

[Sef

cimens or much opportunity of such high deeds and
attainments ; but in our degree we certainly may
follow St. Paul in them, — in spiritual discernment,
in faith, in works of mercy, and in confessorship.
We may, we ought to follow him. Yet though we
do, still, it may be, we are not possessed of the one
thing needful, of the spirit of love, or in a very poor
measure ; and this is what serious men feel in their
own case.

Let us leave these sublimer matters, and proceed
to the humbler and continual duties of daily life; and
let us see whether these too may not be performed
with considerable exactness, yet with deficient love.
Surely they may ; and serious men complain of
themselves here, even more than when exercised on
greater subjects. Our Lord says, " If ye love Me,
keep My commandments;" but they feel that though
they are, to a certain point, keeping God's com-
mandments, yet love is not proportionate, does not
keep pace with, their obedience ; that obedience
springs from some source short of love. This they
perceive ; they feel themselves to be hollow ; a fair
outside, without a spirit within it.

I mean as follows : — It is possible to obey, not
from love towards God and man, but from a sort of
conscientiousness short of love ; from some notion of
acting up to a law ; that is, more from the fear of God
than from love of Him. Surely this is what, in one
shape or other, we see daily on all sides of us ; the
case of men, living to the world, yet not without a

XXm.] LOVE, THE ONE THING NEEDFUL.

375

certain sense of religion, which acta as a restraint on
them. They pursue ends of this world, but not to
the full ; they are checked, and go a certain way
only, because they dare not g-o further. This external
restraint acts with various degrees of strength on
\ariou8 persons. They all live to this world, and act
from the love of it; they all allow their love of the
world a certain range ; but, at some particular point,
which is often quite arbitrary, this man stops, and
that man stops. Each stops at a different point in
the course of the world, and thinks every one else
profane who goes further, and superstitious who does
not go so far, — laughs at the latter, is shocked at
the former. And hence those few who are miserable
enough to have rid themselves of all scruples, look
with great contempt on such of their companions as
have any, be those scruples more or less, as being
inconsistent and absurd. They scoff at the principle
of mere fear, as a capricious and fanciful principle ;
proceeding on no rule, and having no evidence of its
authority, no claim on our respect ; as a weakness
in our nature, rather than an essential portion of
that nature, viewed in its perfection and entireness.
And this being all the notion which their experience
gives them of religion, as not knowing really reli-
gious men, they think of religion only as a principle
which interferes with our enjoyments uninteUigibly
and irrationally. Man is made to love. So far is
plain. They see that clearly and truly; but religion,
as far as they conceive of it, is a system destitute of

376

LOVE, THE ONE THING NEEDFUL.

[Se.

objects of love; a system of fear. It repels and for-
bids, and thus seems to destroy the proper fuuction
of man, or, in other words, to be unnatural. And it
19 true that this sort of fear of God, or rather slansh
dread, as it may more truly be called, is unnatural ;
but then it is not religion, which really consists, not
in the mere fear of God, but in His love ; or if it be
religion, it is but the religion of devils, who believe
and tremble ; or of idolaters, whom devils have
seduced, and whose worship is superstition, — the
attempt to appease beings whom they love not ; and,
in a word, of the childreTi of this world, who would,
if possible, serve God and Mammon, and, whereas
religion consists of love and fear, give to God their
fear and to Mammon their love.

And what takes place so generally in the world
at large, this, I say, serious men will feel as happen-
ing, in its degree, in their own case. They will un-
derstand that even strict obedience is no evidence of
fervent love, and they will lament to perceive that
they obey God far more than they love Him. They
will recollect the instance of Balaam, who was even
exemplary in his obedience, yet had not love ; and
the thought will come over them as a perplexity,
what proof they have that they are not, after all,
deceiving themselves, and thinking themselves re-
ligious when they are not. They will indeed be
conscious to tliemselves of the sacrifice they make
of their own wishes and pursuits to the will of God ;
but they are conscious also that they sacrifice them

XXni.] LOVE. THE ONE TtllNG NEEDFUL.

377

because they know they ought to do so, not simply
from love of God. And they ask, almost in a kind
of despair, how are we to learn, not merely to obey,
but to love?

They say, how are we to fulfil St. Panl's words,
" The life which I now live in the flesh I live by
the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and
gave Himself for me?" And this would seem an
especial difficulty in the case of those who live
among men, whose duties lie amid the engagements
of this world's business, whose thoughts, affections,
exertions, are directed towards things which they
see, things present and tempoml. In their case it
seems to be a great thing, even if their rule of life is
a heavenly one, if they act according to God's will ;
but how can they hope that heavenly Objects should
fill their heart, when there is no room left for them ?
how shall things absent displace things present,
things unseen, the things that are visible? Thus
they seem to be reduced, as if by a sort of necessity,
to that state, which I just now described as the state
of men of the world, that of having their hearts set
on the world, and being only restrained outwardly
by religious mles.

To proceed. Generally speaking, men will be able
to bring against themselves positive charges of want
of love, more unsatisfactory still. I suppose most
men, or at least a great number of men, have to
lament over their hardness of heart, which, when
analyzed, will be found to bo nothing else but the

LOVE, THE ONE THING NEEDFUL.

[Ski

abseiice of love. I mean that hardness which, for
iustauce, makes us unable to repent as we wish. No
repentance is truly such without love ; it is love
■which gives it its efficacy in God's sight. Without
love there may be remorse, regret, self-reproach,
self-condemnation, but there is not saving penitence.
There may be conviction of the reason, but not
conversion of the heart. Now, I say, a great many
men lament in themselves this want of love in re-
penting ; they are hard-hearted ; they are deeply
conscious of their sins ; they abhor them ; and yet
they can take as lively interest in what goes on
around them, as if they had no such consciousness ;
or they mourn this minute, and the next are quite
impenetrable. Or, though, as they think aud be-
lieve, they fear God's aoger, and are full of confu-
sion at themselves, yet they find (to their surprise,
I may say,) that they cannot abstain from any indul-
gence ever so trivial, which would be (as their rea-
son tells them) a natural way of showing sorrow.
They eat and drink witli as good a heart, as if they
had no distress upon their minds; they find no
difficulty in entering into any of the recreations or
secular employments which come in their way.
They sleep as soundly; and, in spite of their grief,
perhaps find it most difficult to persuade themselves
to rise early to pray for pardon. These are signs of
waut of love.

Or, again, without reference to the case of peni-
tence, they have a general indisposition towards

XXriI.] LOVE, THE ONE THING NEEDFUL.

379

prayer and other exercises of demotion. They find
it most difficult to get themselves to pray; moat
difficult too to rouse their minds to attend to their
prayers. At very best they do but feel satisfaction
in devotion while they are engaged in it. Then per-
haps they find a real pleasure in it, and wonder they
can ever find it irksome; yet if any chance throws
them out of their habitual exercises, they find it
most difficult to return to them. They do not like
them well enough to seek them from liking them.
They are kept in thera by habit, by regularity ia
observing them ; not by love. AVhen the regular
course is broken, there is no inward princi]>le to act
at once in repairing the mischief. In wounds of
the body, nature works towards a recovery, and left
to itself, would recover ; but we have no spiritual
principle strong and healthy enough to set religious
matters right in us when they have got disordered,
and to supply for us the absence of rule and custom.
Here, again, is obedience, more or less mechanical,
or without love.

Again : — a like absence of love ia shown in our
proneness to be taken up and engrossed with trifles.
Why is it that we are so open to the power of ex-
citement ? why is it that we are looking out for
novelties ? why is it that we complain of want of
variety in a religious life ? why that we cannot bear
to go on in an ordinary round of duties year after
year ? why is it that lowly duties, such as conde-
scending to men of low estate, are distasteful and

380

LOVE, THE ONE THING NEEDFUL.

[SEf

irksome ? wliy is it that we need powerful preaching',
or interesting and toucLing .books in order to keep
our thoughts and feelings on God ? why is it that
our faith is so diss[iirited aud weakened by hearing
casual objections urged against the doctrine of
Christ ? why is it that we are so impatient that ob-
jections should be answered ? why are we so afraid
of worldly events, or the opinions of men ? why do
we so dread their censure or ridicule ? — Clearly be-
cause we are deficient in love. He who loves, cares
little for any thing else. The world may go as it
will ; he sees and hears it not, for bis thoughts are
drawn another way; he is solicitous mainly to walk
with God, and to be found with God ; and is in per-
fect peace because be ia stayed in Him.

And here we have an additional proof how weak
our love is; viz. when we consider how little ade-
quate our professed principles are found to be, to
support us in affliction, I suppose it often happens
to men to feel this, when some reverse or unex-
pected distress conies upon them. They indeed
most especially will feel it, of course, who have let
their words, nay, their thoughts, much outrun their
hearts ; but numbers will feel it too, who have tried
to make their reason and affections keep pace with
each other. We are told of the righteous man, that
"he will not be afi-aid of any evil tidings, for his
beart standoth fast, and believeth in the Lord. His
heart is established, and will not shrink'." Such

' Ps. c\ii. 7, tt.

XXni.] LOVE, THE ONE THING NEEDFUL.

must be the case of every one who realizes his own
words, when he talks of the shortness of life, the
weaiisomeness of the world, and the security of
heaven. Yet how cold and dreary do all such
topics prove, when a man comes into trouble ? and
why, except that he has beeu after all set upon
things visible, not on God, while he has been
speaking of things invisible ? There has been
much profession and little love.

These are some of the proofs which are continu-
ally brought home to us, if we attend to ourselves,
of our want of love to God ; and they will readily
suggest others to us. If I must, before concluding,
remark upon the mode of overcoming the evil, I
must say plainly this, that, fanciful though it may
appear at first sight to say so, the comforts of life
are the main cause of it ; and, much as we may
lament and struggle against it, till we learn to dis-
pense with them in good measure, we shall not
overcome it. Till we, in a certain sense, detach
ourselves from our bodies, our minds will not be in
a state to receive divine impressions, and to exert
heavenly aspirations. A smooth and easy Ufe, an
uninterrupted enjoyment of the goods of Provi-
dence, full meals, soft raiment, well-furnished
homes, the pleasures of sense, the feeling of se-
curity, the consciousness of wealth, — these, and the
like, if we are not careful, choke up all the avenues
of the soul, through which the light and breath of
heaven might come to us. A hard life is, alas ! no

LOVE. THE ONE THING NEEDFUL.

[Sb.

certain metliod of becoming spiritually minded, but
it is one out of the means by which Almighty God
makes ua so. We must, at least at seasons, defraud
ourselves of nature, if we would not be defrauded
of grace. If we attempt to force our minds into a>
loving and devotional temper, without this prepara-
tion, it is too plain what will follow,— the grossness
and coarseness, the affectation, the eifeminaey, the
unreality, the presumption, the hollowness, (auflfer
me, my brethren, while I say plainly, but seriously,
what I mean,) in a word, what Scripture calls the
Hypocrisy, which we see around us ; that state of
mind in which the reason, seeing what we should
be, and the conscience requiring it, and the heart
being unequal to it, some or other pretence is set
up, by way of compromise, that men may say,
" Peace, peace, where there is no peace."

And next, after enjoining this habitual prepa-
ration of heart, let nie bid you cherish, what other-
wise it were shocking to attempt, a constant sense
of the love of your Lord and Saviour in dying on
the Cross for you. " The love of Christ," says the
Apostle, " constraineth us ;" not that gratitude
leads to love, where there is no sympathy, (for, as
all know, we often reproach ourselves with not
loving persons who yet have loved us,) but where
hearts are in their degree renewed after Christ's
image, there, under His grace, gratitude to Him will
increase our love of Him, and we shall rejoice in
that goodness which haa been so good to us. Here,

XXIIIO LOVE,' THE ONE THING NEEDFUL. 383

again, self-discipline will be necessary. It makes
the heart tender as well as reverent. Christ showed
His love in deed, not in word, and you will be
touched by the thought of His Cross far more by
bearing it after Him, than by glowing accounts of
it. All the modes by which you bring it before
you must be simple and severe ; '' excellency of
speech," or " enticing words," to use St. Paul's
language, is the worst way of any. Think of the
Cross when you rise and when you lie down, when
you go out and when you come in, when you eat,
and when you walk, and when you converse, when
you buy and when you sell, when you labour and
when you rest, consecrating and sealing all your
doings with this one mental action, the thought of
the Crucified. Do not talk of it to others ; be
silent, like the penitent woman, who showed her
love in deep subdued acta. She " stood at His feet
behind Him weeping, and began to wash His feet
with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her
head, and kissed His feet, and anointed them with
the ointment." And Christ said of her, "Her sins,
which are many, are forgiven her, for she loved
much ; but to whom little is forgiven, the same
loveth little '."

And, further, let us dwell often upon those His
manifold mercies to iis and to our brethren, which
are the consequence of His coming upon earth ; His

' Luke vii. 38. 47.

38t LOVE, THE ONE THING NEEDFUL. [Sehh.

adorable couusels, as manifested in our personal
election, — how it is that we are called and others
not ; the wonders of His grace towards us, from
oup infancy until now ; the gifts He has given us ;
the aid He has vouchsafed ; the answers lie has
accorded to our prayers. And, further, let us, as
far as we have the opportunity, meditate upon His
dealings with His Church from age to age ; on His
feithfuluess to His promises, and the mysterious
mode of their fulfilment ; how He has ever led His
people forward safely and prosperously on the whole
amid so many enemies ; what unexpected events
have worked His purposes ; how evil has been
changed into good ; how His sacred Truth has ever
been preserved unimpaired ; how Saints have been
brought on to their perfection in the darkest times.
And, further, let us muse over the deep gifts and
powers lodged in the Church : what thoughts do
His ordinances raise in the believing mind! — what
wonder, what awe, what transport, when duly dwelt
upon !

It is by such deeds and such thoughts that our
services, our repentings, our prayers, our intercourse
with men, will become instinct with the spirit of
love. Then we do every thing tliaukfully and joy-
fully, when we are temples of Christ, with His
Image set up in us. Then it is that we mix
with the world without loving it, for our affections
are given to another. We can bear to look on
the world's beauty, for we have no heart for it.

XXIIL] LOVE, THE ONE THING NEEDFUL. 385

We are not disturbed at its frowns, for we live not
in its smiles. We rejoice in the House of Prayer,
because He is there " whom our soul loveth." We
can condescend to the poor and lowly, for they
are the presence of Him who is Invisible. We are
patient in bereavement, adversity, or pain, for they
are Christ's tokens.

Thus let us enter the Forty Days of Lent now
approaching ^ For Forty Days we seek after love
by means of fasting. May we find it more and
more, the older we grow, till death comes and gives
us the sight of Him who is at once its Object and
its Author.

^ Preached on Quinquagesima.

VOL. V. C C

SERMON XXIV.

THE POWER OF THE WILL.

Eph. Ti. 10.

y brethren, be strong in the Lord, and ii

We know that there are great multitudes of pro-
fessed Cliristians, who, alas ! have actually turned
from God with a deliberate mil and purpose, and,
in consequence, are at present strangers to the grace
of God ; though they do not know, or do not care
about this. But a vast number of Christians, half
of the whole number at least, are in other circum-
stances. They have not thrown themselves out of
a state of grace, nor have they to repent and turn
to God, in the sense in which they must, who have
allowed themselves in wilful transgression, after the
knowledge of the truth has been imparted to them.
Numbers there are in all ranks of life, who, having
good parents and advisers, or safe homes, or reli-

Srrm. XXIV.] THE POWER OP THE WILL. 387

gious pursuits, or being without strong feelings and
passions, or, for whatever reason, cannot he sup-
posed to have put off from them the garment of
divine grace, and deserted to the ranks of the
enemy. Yet are they not safe, nevertheless. It is
plain, — for surely it is not enough to avoid evil in
order to attain to heaven, — we must follow after
good. What, then, is their danger ? — That of the
unprofitable servant who hid his lord's money. As
fer removed as that slothful servant was from those
who traded with their talents, in his state and in
his destiny, so far separate from one another are
two classes of Christians who live together here as
brethren, — one are using grace, the other neglect- ■
ing it ; one are making progress, the other sitting
still ; one are working for a reward, the other are
idle and worthless,

This view of things should ever be borne in mind
when we speak of the state of grace. There are
different degrees in which we may stand in God's
favour ; we may be rising or sinking in His favour ;
we may not have forfeited it, jet we may not be se-
curing it ", we may be safe for the present, but have
a dangerous prospect before us. We may be more
or less " hypocrites," " slothful," " unprofitable,"
and yet our day of grace not be passed. We may
Btill have the remains of our new nature lingering
on us, the influences of grace present with us, and
the power of amendment and conversion within us.
We may still have talents which we may put to
cc 2

THE POWER OF THE WILL.

[S..

account, and gifts whieh we may stir up. We may
not be cast out of our state of justification, and yet
may be destitute of that love of God, love of God's
trutb, love of holiness, love of active and generous
obedience, that honest surrender of self, which alone
will secure to us hereafter the blessed words, " Welt
done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the
joy of thy Lord '."

The only qualification which will avail us for
heaven is the love of God. We may keep from
gross sinning, and yet not have this divine gift,
" without which we are dead " in God's sight. This
changes our whole being ; this makes us live ; this
. makes us grow in grace and abound in good works ;
this makes us fit for God's presence hereafter.

Now, here I have said a uumber of things, each
of which will bear drawing out by itself, and insist-
ing on.

No one can doubt that we are again and again
exhorted in Scripture to be holy and perfect, to
be holy and blameless in the sight of God, to be
holy as He is holy, to keep the commandments, to
fulfil the Law, to be filled with the fruit, of righte-
ousness. Why do we not obey as we ought ? Many
people will answer that we have a fallen nature,
which hinders us; that we cannot help it, though we
ought to be very sorry for it; that this is the rea-
son of our shortcomings. Not so : we can help it ;

XXIV.]

THE POWER OF THE WILL.

we are not hindered ; what we want is the will ; and
it is our own fault that we have it not. We have
all things granted to us ; God has abounded in His
mercies to us; we have a depth of power and
strength lodged in us ; but we have not the heart,
we have not the will, we have not the love to use it.
We lack this one thing, a desire to be new made;
and I think any one who examines himself carefully,
will own that he does, and that this is the reason
why he cannot and does not obey or make progress
in holiness.

That we have this great gift within us, or are in
a state of grace, for the two statements mean nearly
the same thing, is very plain of course from Scrip-
ture. We all know what Scripture says on the
subject, and yet even here it may be as well to dwell
on one or two passages by way of reminding and
impressing ourselves.

Consider then our Saviour''s words : " The water
that I shall give him, shall be in him a well of water
springing up into everlasting life'." Exhaust the
sea, it will not fill the infinite spaces of the heavens,
but the gift within us may be drawn out till it fills
eternity.

Again, consider St. Paul's most wonderful words
in the Epistle from which the text is taken, when
he gives glory to " Him who is able to do exceeding
abundantly above all that we ask or think, accord-

THE POWER OF THE WILL.

[Se.

ing to t]ie power that worketli iu us'." You observe
here, that there is a power given to us Christians,
which " worketh in us," a special hidden mysterious
power, which, makes us its instruments. Even that
we have souls, is strange and mysterious. We do not
see our souls ; but we see in others and we are con-
scious in ourselves of a principle wllich rules our
bodies, and makes them what the brutes are not.
We have that in us which informs our bodies, and
changes them from mere animal bodies into human.
Brutes cannot talk ; brutes have little expression of
countenance; they cannot form into societies ; they
cannot progress. Why ? Because they have not that
hidden gift which we have, — reason. Well, in like
manner St. Paul speaks of Christians too as having
a special power within them, which they gain be-
cause they are, and when they become Christians ;
and he calls it, in the text to which I am referring,
" the power that worketh in us." In a former
chapter of the Epistle, he speaks of " the exceeding
greatness of His power to us-ward who believe,
according to the working of His mighty power';"
and he says that our eyes must be enlightened in
order to recognize it; and he compares it to that
divine power in Christ our Saviour, by which, work-
ing in due season, He was raised from the dead, so
that the bonds of death had no dominion over Him.
As seeds have life in them, which seem lifeless, so

' Ephea

XXIV.]

THE POWER OF THE WILL.

391

the Body of Christ had life in itself, when it was
dead; and so also, though not in a similar way, we,
too, sinners as we are, have a spiritual principle in
us, if we did but exert it, so great, so wondrous, that
all the powers in the visible world, all the conceiv-
able forces and appetites of matter, all the physical
miracles which are at this day in process of discovery,
almost superseding time and s])ace, dispensing with
numbers, and rivalling mind, — all these powers of
nature are nothing to this gift within us. Why do
I say this? because the Apostle tells us that God
is able thereby " to do e^xeeding abundantly above
all that we ask or think." You see he labours for
words to express the exuberaiit, overflowing fulness,
the vast and unfathomable depth, or what he has
just called, " the breadth and length, and depth, and
height" of the gift given us. And hence he else-
where says, " I can do all things through Christ,
which strengtheneth me';" where he uses the same
word, which occurs also in the text, — " My brethren,
be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might."
See what an accumulation of words. First, be strong,
or be ye made strong. Strong in what ? strong in
power. In the power of what? in the power of
His might, the might of God. Three words are
used one on another, to express the manifold gift
which God has given us. He to might has added
power, and power He has made grow into strength.

' Phil. iv. 13.

392 THE POWER OF THE WILL. [Sanw.

We have the power of His might ; nor only so,
hut the strength of the power of His might who is
Almighty.

And this is the very account which St. Luke
gives us of St, Paul's own state in the Acts, after his
conversion. The Jews wondered, but " Saul increased
the more in strength, and confounded the Jews who
dwelt at Damascus'." He hecame more and more
strong. And, at the end of his course, when hroiight
hefore the Romans, " The Lord," as he says, " stood
with him, and strengthened him ;" and in turn he too
exhorts Timothy, " Thou, therefore, my son, be
strong in the grace that is in Chiist Jesus ; and the
things that thou hast heard of me among many wit-
nesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who
shall be able to teach others also. Thoit therefore
endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ V

I said just now that we did uot need Scripture to
tell us of our divinely imparted power ; that our own
consciousness was sufficient. I do not mean to say
that our consciousness will enable us to rise to the
fulness of the Apostle's expressions ; for trial, of
course, cannot ascertain an inexhaustible gift. All
wo can know of it by experience is, that it goes
heyond us, that we have never fathomed it, that we
have drawTi from it, anrl never emptied it ; that we
have evidence that there is a power within us, how
great we know not, which does for us what we can-

XXIV.]

THE POWER OF THE WILL.

not do for ourselves, and is always eqnal to all our
needs. And of as much as this, I think, we have
ahundant evidence.

Let us ask ourselves, why is it that we so often
wish to do right and cannot ? why is it that we are
so frail, feeble, languid, wayward, dim-aighted, fluc-
tuating, perverse ? why is it that we cannot " do the
things that we would?" why is it that, day after
day, we remain irresolute, that we serve God so
poorly, that we govern ourselves so weakly and so
variably, that we cannot command our thoughts,
that we are so slothful, so cowardly, so discontented,
so sensual, so ignorant ? Why is it that we, who
tn^t that we are not by wilful sin thrown out of
grace (for of such I am all along speaking), why is
it that we, who are ruled by no evil masters, and
bent upon no earthly ends, who are not covetous, or
profligate livers, or worldly-minded, or ambitious, or
envious, or proud, or unforgiving, or desirous of
name, — why is it that we, in the very kingdom of
grace, surrounded by Angels, and preceded by Saints,
nevertheless can do so little, and, instead of mount-
ing with wings like eagles, grovel in the dust, and
do but sin, and confess sin, alternately ? Is it that
the power of God is not within us ? Is it literally
that we are not able to perform God's command-
ments ? God forbid ! We are able. We have that
given us which makes us able. We are not in a
state of nature. We have had the gift of grace im-
planted in us. We have a power within us to do

394

THE POWER OF THE WILL.

[Ski,

what we are commanded to do. What is it wo lack ?
The power? No; the will. What we lack is the real,
simple, earnest, sincere inclination and aim to use
what God has given us, and what we have in us. I
say, our experience tells us this. It is no matter of
mere doctrine, much less a matter of words, but of
things ; a very practical plain matter.

To take an instance of the simple kind. Is not
the power to use our limbs our own, nay, even by
nature? What then is sloth hut a want of will?
When we are not set on an object so greatly as to
overcome the inconvenience of an effort, we remain
as we are ; — when we ought to exert ourselves, we
are slothful. But is the effort any effort at all,
when we desire that which needs the effort ?

In like manner, to take a greater thing. Are not
the feelings as distinct as well can be, between re-
morse and repentance ? In both a man is very sorry
and ashamed of what he has done ; in both he has
a painfiil foreboding that he may perchance sin again
in spite of his present grief. You will hear a man
perhaps lament that he is'so weak, so that he quite
dreads what is to come another time, after all his
good resolutions. There are cases, doubtless, in
which a man is thus weak in power, though earnest
in will ; and, of course, it continually happens that
he has ungovernable feelings and passions in spite
of his better nature. But in a very great multitude
of cases this pretence of want of power is really but
a want of vrill. When a man complains that he is

XXIV.]

THE POWER OF THE WILL.

under the dominion of any bad habit, let him
seriously ask himself whether ho has ever willed to
get rid of it. Cau he, with a simple mind, say in
God's sight, " I wish it removed ?"

A man, for instance, cannot attend to his prayers;
his mind wanders ; other thoughts intrude; time after
time pf^ses, and it is the same. Shall we say, this
arises from want of power? Of course it may be so; but
before he says so, let him consider whether he has
ever roused himself, shaken himself, awakened him-
self, got himself to will, if I may so say, attention.
We know the feeling in unpleasant dreams, when
we say to ourselves, " This is a dream," and yet can-
not exert ourselves to will to be free from it ; and
how at length by an effort we will to move, and the
spell at once is broken ; we wake. So it is with
sloth and indolence ; the evil one lies heavy on us,
but he has no power over us except in our unwil-
lingness to get rid of him. He cannot battle with
us ; he flies ; he can do no more, as soon as we pro-
pose to fight with him.

There is a famous instance of a holy man of old
time, who, before his conversion, felt indeed the
excellence of purity, but could not get himself to
say more in prayer than " Give me chastity, but
not yet." I will not be inconsiderate enough to
make light of the power of temptation of any kind,
nor will f presume to say that Almighty God will
certainly shield a man from temptation for his
wishing it ; but whenever men complain, as they

THE POWER OF THE WILL.

often do, of the arduousness of a high virtue, at
least it were well that they should first ask them-
selves the question, whether they desire to have it.
We hear much in this day of the impossibility of
heavenly purity ; — far bo it from me to say that
every one has not his proper gift from God, one
after this manner, another after that; — but, O ye
men of the world, when ye talk, as ye do, so much,
of the impossibility of this or that supernatural
grace, when you disbelieve in the existence of
severe self-rule, when you scoff at holy resolutions,
and affix a slur on those who make them, are you
sure that the impossibility which you insist upon does
not lie, not in nature, but in the will ? Let us but
will, and our nature is changed, " according to the
power that worketh in us." Say not, in excuse for
others or for yourselves, that you cannot be other
than Adam made you ; you have never brought
yourselves to will it, — you cannot bear to will it.
You cannot bear to be other than you are. Life
would seem a blank to you, were you other ; yet
what you are from not desiring a gift, this you make
an excuse for not possessing it.

Let us take what trial we please, — the world's
ridicule or censure, loss of prospects, loss of admirers
or friends, loss of ease, endurance of bodily pain, —
and recollect how easy our course has been, directly
we had once made up our mind to submit to it;
how simple all that remained became, how wonder-
fully difficulties were removed from without, and how

XXIV.]

THE POWER OF THE WILL.

397

tbe soul was strengthened inwardly to do what was b
be done. But it is seldom we have heart to throw
ourselves, if I may so speak, on the Divine Ann ; wo
dare not trust ourselves on the waters, though
Christ bids us. We have not St. Peter's love to
ask leave to come to Him upon the sea. "When
we once are filled with that heavenly charity, we
can do all things, because we attempt all things, —
for to attempt is to do,

I would have every one careftilly consider whether
he has ever found God fail him in trial, when his
own heart had not failed him ; and whether he has
not found strength greater and greater given him
according to his day ; whether he has not gained
clear proof on trial that he has a divine power
lodged within him, and a certain conviction witha!
that he has not made the extreme trial of it, or
reached its limits. Grace ever outstrips prayer.
Abraham ceased interceding ere God stayed from
granting. Joash smote upon the ground but thrice,
when he might have gained five victories or six,
All have the gift, many do not use it at all, none
expend it. One wraps it in a napkin, another gains
five pounds, another ten. It will bear thirty-fold,
or sixty, or a hundred. We know not what we
are, or might be. As the seed has a tree within it,
so men have within them Angels.

Hence the great stress laid in Scripture on grow-
ing in grace. Seeds are intended to grow into trees.
We are regenerated in order that we may be re-

THE POWER OF THE WILL.

[Sk.

newed daily after the image of Hiin who has rege-
nerated us. In the text and verses following, we
have our calling set forth, to " stir up our pure
minds, by way of remembrance '," to the pursuit of
it. " Be strong in the Lord," says the Apostle,
" and in the power of His might. Put on the
whole armour of God," with your loins girt about
with truth, the breastplate of righteousness, your
feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of
peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation,
the sword of the Spirit. One grace and then an-
other is to be perfected in us. Each day is to bring
forth its own treasure, till we stand, like blessed
spirits, able and waitiug to do the will of God.

Still more apposite are St. Peter's words, which
go through the whole doctrine which I have been in-
sisting on, point by point. First, he tells us that
" divine power hath given unto us all things that per-
tain unto life and godliness* ;" that is, we have the
gift. Then he speaks of the object which the gift is to
effect, — " exceeding great and precious promises are
given unto us, that by these we may be partakers of
the divine nature ;" that ^we who, by birth, are chil-
dren of wrath, should become inwardly and really
sons of God; putting off our former selves, or, as
be says, "having escaped the corruption that is
in the world through lust ;" that is, cleansing our-
selvea from all that remains in ug of original sin.

XXIV]

THE POWER OF THE WILL.

tile infection of concupiscence. With which closely
agree St. Paul's words to the Corinthians, " Having
these promises," he says, " dearly beloved, let us
cleanse ourselves from all defilement of the flesh
and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God '."
But to continue with St. Peter, — " Giving all dili-
gence," he says, " add to your faith virtue, and to vir-
tue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and
to temperance patience, and to patience godliness,
and to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly
kindness charity." Next he speaks of those who,
though they cannot be said to have forfeited God's
grace, yet, by a sluggish will and a lukewarm love,
have become but unprofitable, and " cumber the
ground" in the Lord's vineyard. "He that lacketh
these things is blind, and cannot see afar oW, and
hath forgotten that he was purged from his old
sins," — has forgotten that cleansing which he once
received, when he was Ijrought into the kingdom of
grace. " Wherefore the rather, brethren, give dili-
gence to make your calling and election sure; for
if ye do these things, ye shall never fall : for so an
entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly,
into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ." Day by day shall ye enter
deeper and deeper into the fulness of the riches of
that kingdom of which ye are made members.
Or, lastly, consider St. PaiU's account of the same

400

THE POWER OF THE WILL.

[Seb

growth, and of the course of it, in his Epistle to the
Bomans. " Tribulation worketh patience, and pa-
tience experience, and experience hope, and hope
maketh not ashamed." Such is the series of gifts,
patience, experience, hope, a soul without shame, —
and whence all this ? He continues, " because the
love of God is shed abroad in our hearts, by the
Holy Ghost which is given unto us'."

Love can do all things ; " chaiity never failetb ;"
he that has the will, has the power. You will say,
"But is not the will itself from God? and, there-
fore. Is it not after all His doing, not ours, if we
have not the will ?" Doubtless, by nature, our will
is in bondage ; we cannot will good ; but by the
grace of God our will has been set free ; we obtain
again, to a certain extent, the gift of free-will ; —
henceforth, we can will, or not will. If we will,
it la doubtless from God's grace, who gave us the
power to will, and to Him be the praise; but it is
from ourselves too, because we have used that power
which God gave. God enables us to will and to do ;
by nature we cannot will, but by grace we can ; and
now if we do not will, we are the cause of the defect.
What can Almighty Mercy do for us which He
hath not done? "He has given all things which
pertain to life and godliness ;" and we, in conse-
quence, can "make our calling and election sure,"
as the holy men of God did of old time. Ah, how

' Roi

a— 6.

XXIV.]

THE rOWER OF THE WILL.

4011

do those ancient Saints put ns to shame ! how were
they " out of weakness made strong," how " waxed"
they " valiant in fight," and became as Angels upon
earth instead of men ! And why ? — because they had
a heart to contemplate, to design, to will great things.
Doubtless, in many respects, we all are but men to
the end ; we hunger, we thirst, we need sustenance,
we need sleep, we need society, we need instruc-
tion, we need encouragement, we need example ;
yet who can say the heights to which in time men
can proceed in all things, ■who beginning by little
and little, yet in the distance shadow forth great
things ? " Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let
them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations ;
spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy
stakes ; for thou shalt break forth on the right
hand and on the left. . . . Fear not ; for thou shalt
not be ashamed ; neither shalt thou be confounded,
for thou shalt not be put to shame. ... In right©
ousness slialt thou be established ; thou shalt be far
from oppression, for thou shalt not fear ; and from
terror, for it shall not come near thee, . . . This is
the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their
righteousness is of Me, saith the Lord '." High
words like these relate in the first place to the
Church, but doubtless they are also ftilfiUed in
their measure in each of her true children. But
we sit coldly and sluggishly at home ; we fold our

' Isa. liv

hands and cry, "a little more slumber;" we shut
our eyes, we cannot see things afar off, we cannot
"see the land which is very far off;" we do not
understand that Christ calls us after Him ; we do
not hear the voice of His heralds in the wilderness ;
■we have not the heart to go forth to Him who
multiplies the loaves, and feeds us by every word
of His mouth. Other children of Adam have before
now done in His strength what we put aside. We
fear to be too holy. Others jmt us to shame ; all
around us, others are doing what we will not.
Others are entering deeper into the kingdom of
heaven than we. Others are fighting against their
enemies more truly and bravely. The unlettered,
the ungifted, the young, the weak and simple, with
sling and stones from the brook, are encountering
Goliath, as having on divine armour. The Church
is rising up around us day by day towards heaven,
and we do nothing but object, or explain away, or
criticise, or make excuses, or wonder. We fear to
cast in our lot with the Saints, lest we become a
party ; we fear to seek the strait gate, lest we be
of the few, not the many. O may we be loyal and
affectionate before our race is run ! Before our sun
goes down in the grave, may we learn somewhat
more of what the Apostle calls the love of Christ
which passeth knowledge, and catch some of the
rays of love which come from Him ! Especially at
the season of the year now approaching ', when

' Preached on Quinquagesima.

XXIV.] THE POWER OF THE WILL. 403

Christ calls us into the wilderness, let us gird up
our loins and fearlessly obey the summons. Let us
take up our cross and follow Him. Let us take
to us " the whole armour of God, that we may be
able to stand against the wiles of the devil ; for we
wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against
principalities, against powers, against the rulers of
the darkness of this world, against spiritual wicked-
ness in high places ; wherefore, take unto you the
whole armour of God, that ye may be able to
withstand in the evil day, and, having done all, to
stand."

END OF VOL. v.

• LONDON:
GILBERT & RIVINOTON, PRINTERS,

ST. John's square.

.' *

I>ONOT

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