BX 5133 .B373 1827 v.l Bather, Edward. Sermons, chiefly practical SERMONS. Digitized by tlie Internet Archive in 2015 https://archive.org/details/sermonschieflypr01 bath SERMONS, CHIEFLY PRACTICAL. BY THE REV. EDWARD'BATHER, M.A. ARCHDEACON OF SALOP, IN THE DIOCESE OF LICHFIELD: AND VICAIt OF MEOI.E BRACE, SALOP. VOL. I. THIRD EDITION. LONDON: J. HATCHARD AND SON, 187, PICCADILLY. 1840. LONDON: PRINTED BY IBOTSON AND PALMER, SAVOY STRKKT. TO THE INHABITANTS OF THE PARISH OF MEOLE BRACE, IN THE HOPE OF BEING USEFUL TO THEM, IN GRATEFUL ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF THEIR UNIFORM KINDNESS TOWARDS HIMSELF, AND IN TESTIMONY OF HIS OWN GREAT REGARD AND ESTEEM FOR THEM, THE FOLLOWING SERMONS ARE INSCRIBED AND DEDICATED BY THEIR VERY SINCERE FRIEND, THE AUTHOR. ADVERTISEMENT. The following Sermons are nothing more than a miscellaneous selection from the author's or- dinary parish discourses. They are not pre- sented to the public as a series ; much less as containing any scheme or abstract of the Chris- tian faith. Indeed, the leading doctrines of the Gospel are in general rather assumed and recognised in them for the purpose of practical instruction, than fully stated or formally ex- pounded. Many topics also are omitted, of no less importance than those which have been in- troduced. Such discourses as appear, were written at different periods, some of them long ago, and none of them with any view to publication. — This is uo excuse for their defects, neither is it mentioned with that intention ; but only VIU ADVERTISEMENT. as the author's apology, if his readers shall happen to discover that more passages have been borrowed from commentators on the se- veral texts, or from other religious writers, than are expressly acknowledged in the mar- gin. He believes, however, that such passages are neither numerous nor of any great im- portance. The last Sermon in the volume was preached after reading His Majesty's Letter, authorising a collection on behalf of the National Society for educating the Poor in the Principles of the Established Church, and is subjoined in con- formity to a request made at the time by the Congregation. Meole Brace, June 1, 1827. CONTENTS. SERMON I. CHRIST THE SAME FOR EVER. Hebrews xiii. 8. Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever. Page 1 SERMON II. CHRISTMAS DAY. 1 John i. I — 4. That which was from the beginning ; which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the Word of life ; (for the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested unto us ;) that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us : and truly, our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full ...... 22 X CONTENTS. SERMON III. THE HISTORY OF THE CRUCIFIXION CONSIDERED, AS IL- LUSTRATIVE OF god's love and man's DEPRAVITY. Matthew xxvii. 35. And they crucified him . . . .44 SERMON IV. THE WEAKNESS OF THE LAW, AND THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL. Romans viii. 3, 4. For vvliat the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sin- ful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit . . 68 SERMON V. SELF-RTGHTEOUSNESS. Jeremiah ii. 34, 35. Also in thy skirts is found the blood of the souls of the poor innocents ; I have not found it by secret search, but upon all these. Yet thou sayest, Because I am innocent, surely his anger shall turn from me. Behold, I will plead with thee, because thou sayest, I have not sinned . 8G CONTENTS. XI SERMON VI. WHIT-SUNDAV. John xvi. 8 — 11. And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, ot" righteousness, and of judgment. Of sin, because they believe not on me : of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more : of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged . . .106 SERMON VII. WAITING FOR THE ADOPTION. Romans viii. 23. Ourselves also which have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adop- tion, to wit, the redemption of our body . . 128 SERMON VIII. MISERY ai< THE WICKED. Isaiah Ivii. 20, -21. The wicked are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt : there is no |)eacc, saith my God, to the wicked . . .149 XII CONTENTS. SERMON IX. a directory for the penitent. Psalm cxxx. 1, 2. Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice . • . . . 170 SERMON X. THE PROPHECY OF HABBAKKUK PRACTICALLY APPLIED. Habakkuk iii. 2. O Lord, I have heard thy speech, and was afraid : O Lord, revive thy work in the midst of the years ; in the midst of the years make known : in wratli remember mercy 188 SERMON XL SIN OF ABUSING GRACE. Romans vi. 1. Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound ? God forbid ...... 214 SERMON XII. USE TO BE MADE OF THE LIGHT. John xii. 33, 36. Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you : for he that walk- eth in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth. While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the_ chil- dren of light . . . . . 22. :j: Rom. x. 13. § John iii. 16. VOL. I. N 178 A DIRECTORY FOR consideration, if it stands quite alone. If some glimpses of a method, or at least of a possibility of forgiveness, do not follow speedily upon conviction of sin and danger, the sinner will be driven to despair : but the glad tidings of a Saviour, if he believes them, will quicken him to exertion. Instead of lying down as without a remedy, or plunging further into wickedness, or striving to put God out of his thoughts, he will " arise and go unto his Father." And the consciousness of guilt, and the dread of wrath occupying his mind conjointly with this hope of mercy, both together will bring him into a proper disposition to seek and wait for pardon ; and as his belief in the atonement, and in God's goodness in having provided it, strengthens, and he comes more and more to approve and admire the glorious scheme of redemption, an ingenuous and godly sorrow will more and more possess him. For the gospel, once under- standingly and heartily embraced, shows God to man in quite a new and most amiable and engaging light : and teaches him that all his sins have been committed against one who de- served no such usage at his hands : and this con- sideration will, if anything can, make him angr}' with himself for all that he has done. But, at all events, this which has been de- clared is the sinner's only sure ground of hope THE PENITENT. 179 in prayer. When " out of the depths" he cries for mercy, he must look for it from the forgive- ness which is with God, and is promised by God for the sake of Jesus Christ, whom the writer of this Psalm saw in the types or sha- dows of the law, and whom we see with so much clearer manifestation in the plain history of the gospel. But though the blood of Christ is a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world ; and though God answereth prayer, and casteth out none who come to him in Christ's name, he has not promised to fulfil all the sinner's mind to-day or to-morrow. He will pardon, and sanctify, and redeem from all troubles in his own good time, and with this assurance the sinner must be content. He must not fret against God because he has not the sense of pardoning love upon his soul, and cannot see that God accepts him in Christ all at once. There must not only be prayer and hope, there must be patience of hope. " We have need of patience," saith the apostle, "that after we have done the tvill of God, we might receive the promise. For yet a little while," in his sight with whom a thousand years are one day, " and he that shall come, will come, and will not tarry. And the just shall live by faith; but if N 2 180 A DIRECTORY FOR any man draw back, mv soul shall have no pleasure in him." * " The will of God," in this case, " is, that we believe in him whom God hath sent." This is his commandment : but if the sinner's faith will not hold out under discouraging appearances ; if he distrusts God because he has not all that he wishes imme- diately, he provokes and dishonours him almost as much as they do who have never applied to him at all. "Let us take heed lest there be in any of us an evil heart of unbelief in depart- ing from the living God." t Let us "be sober, and hope to the end."' This is the pattern set before the convinced sinner by the Psalmist. Having once been taugrht that there is forg-ive- ness with God, he does not suffer himself to doubt any more : but " I wait for the Lord," he proceeds, " my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope. My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning ; I say more than they that watch for the morn- ing." This, therefore, is what the sinner has to do : to acknowledge his transgression ; to pray with- out ceasing ; to believe and hope in God ; to wait in hope with patience ; though deliverance tarry, still to wait for it, assured that God can- not break his word, and that he has good right * Heb. X. 36—38. f Heb. iii. 12. THE PENITENT. 181 to withhold his blessings as long; as he sees good ; and that he orders delays and all things else for the best. But because this patient waiting for the Lord, and this rejoicing in a hope not soon realised, is no easy duty to flesh and blood, let one thing which the Psalmist has put before us be noted very particularly ; I mean, the warrant or ground of hope : " In his word do I hope." This is what makes hope to be so sure and stedfast an anchor of the soul. It is cast upon God's word. Thy apprehensions, sinner; thy ignorant judgment of thine own case ; thy particular frame of mind ; thy feelings ; thy bodily weaknesses and ailments ; thy disordered faculties and diseased imaginations, they may make confusion and darkness in thy mind, but they cannot change the written word of God. They, and a thousand things beside, may make it harder for thee to understand the written word, and lay hold of the consolations of it ; but if thou desirest to see the truth, and to cast thyself upon God in Christ, these things can- not make it impossible but that thou shalt, in that word, have something for thy soul to stay upon ; some plain simple promise, at least, to keep thee from despair, till, God having tried and exercised thee in such manner as seemeth best to his sovereign love and wisdom, thy 182 A DIRECTORY FOR "light rises in obscurity, and thy darkness is turned into noon-day," * and thou shall know in whom thou hast believed. It is written. •• As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked."! " A new heart will I give you, and anew spirit will I put within you."';]; "This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord ; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts : and their sins and their ini- quities will I remember no more.'' % " Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth." il I, even I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.' •T " Bv grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God." " This is a faithful say- ing, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.'" ft '•I exhort, therefore, that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men ; for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour, who will have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth ; for there is one God and one * Isa. Iviii. 10. 7 EzeL xxxiii. 11. 1 Ezek. xxxvi. 26. § Heb. viii. 10. | Isa. xlv. 22. f Isa. xliii. 25. *• Eph. u. 8. 1 Tim. i. 15. THE PENITENT. 183 Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus ; who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time." * " Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your back- slidings." f If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righ- teous, and he is the propitiation for our sins ; and not for our's only, but for the sins of the whole world." All this, and far more to the like effect, is written : it is God's word, who is the truth. I shall not comment or gloss upon it, to risk the spoiling of the simplicity of a sin- ner's hope. Let him take it as it is. Ponder it well ; hold it fast ; think of it continually ; re- ceive it not as the word of man, but (as it is in truth) as the word of God ; and surely he can- not think that his case is desperate in spite of all this : he cannot so except against himself as to imagine that nothing at all of this word includes him, and gives him ground for his foot to rest upon. " Against hope he may believe in hope for let what will be against the sin- ner who desires to come back to God, who wishes to repent and believe the gospel, and prays without ceasing — let what will be against him, God's word is not. That is for him, and God is for him : let him not be against himself : * 1 Tim. ii. 1—6. f Jer. iii. 22. \ 1 John ii. 1, 2. 184 A DIRECTORY FOR " But I wait for the Lord, (let him say with tlie Psalmist,) and in his ivord do I hope," And " hope maketh not ashamed :" * for hear Jehovah's answer — " Let Israel hope in the Lord, for with the Lord is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption, and he shall re- deem Israel from all his iniquities."' There are many ways in which the wisest misapprehend and pervert the scriptures ; and some have abused God's mercy to their own ruin. But no man ever did, or will, or can mistake through thinking of God as being, in himself, more merciful than he really is. " Fools, and slow^ of heart," as sinners are, " to believe all that the scriptures have spoken," they often " limit the Holy One of Israel," and affront and injure him, and hurt themselves at the same time, by doubting about his infinite, all-surpassing loving- kindness : but no man ever exceeded by think- ing of it too highly. Indeed, the imagination of man's heart, with all the lights of grace and scripture aiding it, never came near to con- ceiving of it aright. But this we know — " God liath given unto us his only begotten Son :" he is redemption : it is he who " of God is made unto us redemption." Would any one desire redemption more plenteous, more full, more perfect ; or demonstration of God's love more * Rom. V. 5. THE PENITENT. 185 forcible? "lie that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things ?" * Is the sinner willing to be saved from his sins ? Will he have the forgiveness of them to be purchased for him — will he be also washed from them if he may ? The scripture says, whosoever will receive Christ for these pur- poses, " let him take of the waters of life freely." f Christ is the fountain — in him these living waters are ; nothing is demanded by way of payment for them ; they are to purify from guilt, to cleanse from defilement ; and without money, and without price, he who covets holiness and forgiveness may have them, be he now as vile, and wretclied, and as worth- less as he may. Let him believe, and apply to God in Christ's name. His authority for so doing is God's word ; and, as sure as he be- lieves with all his heart, he lives. I do not say he shall, this instant, discern and knov\^ that he lives, or is in the state of grace : I do not say how much assurance of his own personal sal- vation he shall ever have in this world, or how far he shall be enabled to perceive that his own faith is genuine ; but Christ says : " Go ye out into all the world, and preach the gos- pel to every creature : he that believeth, and is * Rom. viii. 32. + Rev. xxii. 17. 186 A DIRECTORY FOR baptized, shall be saved." * And God says, "With the Lord is mercy, and he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities." And this in- cludes everything-. There is no misery in the world which sin hath not introduced ; whoso- ever, therefore, is saved from his sins, shall be saved, eventually, from all ills besides. If, being in the depths of distress, he cries unto the Lord, he shall be left in those depths no longer than his distress may be for his spiritual good ; and then " blessed is the man which endureth temptation ; for when he is tried, he shall re- ceive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him." f And now there is no need of any lengthened exhortation. I have endeavoured to discourse upon this Psalm practically throughout, and to apply whatsoever has been said in explanation of it as I have proceeded. I have put the example of the Psalmist before you ; let it suffice to add, "Go and do likewise." If all you desire is to escape punishment, that is not it of which I have been speaking. If you want to be saved sin— to be turned from the love, the habit, and the practice of it, and then to be saved from punishment at the same time, this is honest desire : and with reference to the accomplishment of this the promises are made* * Mark xvi. 13, 16. t James i. 12. THE PENITENT. 187 Go to God by prayer in Christ's name ; and wait upon him, and hope in his word. If you are in trouble, do not fly from God to the world, or to forgetfulness, or to more sin, but fly to hhn. " God is in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, and not imputing- their trespasses unto them." * Do not wrong him by a base distrust of him. By his power he can save you ; by his love he will save you ; and by his word he hath told you that he will. If you mean to go on still in wickedness, as I have said before, so say I now again, you have no part or lot in this matter : but if you desire to turn from all wickedness, do not disparage or impeach his power, or love, or faithfulness. * 2 Cor. V. 19. * 188 SERMON X. THE PROPHECY OF HABAKKUK PRACTICALLY APPLIED. Habakkuk iii. 2. " O Lord, I have heard thy speech, and was afraid : O Lord, revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known ; in wrath remember mercy." The prophecy of Habakkuk consists but of three short chapters. There is no peculiar difficulty in it ; nor are the three chapters together longer than many a single chapter in the New Testa- ment. My meaning is, without entering into any minute explanation of particular expressions, to take a general view of the whole book ; ex- pounding it so far as it is necessary for such a purpose, and then showing the application which may be made of it to ourselves. I. The book consists of two parts. — The for- mer only is properly a prophecy : — the latter is THE PROPHECY OF HABAKKUK. 189 tlie prophet's prayer or act of adoration address- ed by him to God, after having received the pro- phecy from God to be communicated to the people. The first chapter opens with Habakkiik's com- plaint of the iniquity of the people among whom he had been called to minister. And at the 5th verse we have the Lord's reply, in whicli he de- clares what he is about to do in consequence of that wickedness which his servant so truly had described, and with so much reason had be- wailed. He would raise up the Chaldeans, "that bitter and hasty nation." " They should march through the breadth of the land ; they should be terrible and dreadful ; their horses should be swifter than leopards, and more fierce than the evening wolves : they should come all for violence ; they should scoff at kings, and de- ride every strong-hold :" — in short, carry all before them. And then, at the ll//< rtrse, this part of the divine denunciations is concluded with a very remarkable prediction, intimating, I suppose, the great pride of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of the Chaldeans, and the extraordinary manner in which he should be punished by mad- ness, as is related afterwards as matter of his- tory in the book of Daniel. Then," that is, after he has executed my wrath upon Judca, " then shall his mind change, and he shall pass 190 THE PROPHECY OF HABAKKUK over, imputing his jjower unto his god," — nanie- \y, to his idol, Bel, the false god of Babylon. Habakkuk having received this message, makes answer at the I2th verse, and so doing, he shows how pious and wise and right a view he had of God's proceedings. He humbly acquiesces in the calamities threatened ; but he intimates that he does riot expect his country to be utter- ly ruined by them, or suppose that God meant to forsake his people, or to uphold their adversa- ries for ever. " Art thou not from everlasting," (he says) " O Lord, my God, mine Holy One ? we shall not die. O Lord, thou hast ordained them" (our enemies) "ybr judgment ; and, O mighty God, thou hast established them for correc- tion."* They would be thrown aside, he sup- poses, when they had done their work : — for they were most wicked in themselves, utterly ignorant that God was employing them as his instruments, and as utterly regardless of God, and of giving him the glory of their successes, as the fisherman would be if he should " sacri- fice to his net, or burn incense to his drag,'* because by means of them he earned his living. "Shall they, therefore," (he asks in conclusion,) " empty their net, and not spare continually to slay the nations ?"t In other words, shall these Chaldeans, O Lord, go on to oppress thy people * Hab. i. 12. f Hab. i. 16, 17. PRACTICALLY APPLIHD. 191 for ever, as if they lay at their mercy like a draught of fishes dragged in a net to land ? Having made this inquiry, at the first verse of the second chapter, the prophet puts himself into an attitude to wait for Jehovah's answer. " I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved."* And then the Lord's answer fol- lows ; introduced,^rs^, by a direction to the pro- phet to do what was customary with God's spe- cial messengers at that time; namely, to write the prophecy in large characters, and hang it up in some public place where all might read it : and secondly, by a direction to the people to wait God's time for their deliverance in faith, hope, and patience : — "Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie : though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surel}^ come, it will not tarry. Behold, his soul," (that is, the soul of the oppressing enemy,) " behold his soul, which is lifted up, is not upright in him : but the just" (the pious Israelite who would wait upon God) " shall live by his faith." )' And then comes a prophecy of deliverance to Israel, and of destruction to the Chaldeans. The Ciial- * Hab. ii. 1. f Hab. ii. 2, 4. 192 THE PROPHECY OF HABAKKUK (leans are rebuked for their insatiable ambition, their pride, their cruelty, their sensuality and idolatry ; and warned that they had consulted shame and ruin to themselves by their oppres- sion of others. Jehovah is declared to be in his holy place, as it were taking continual notice of their impious proceedings ; all the earth is com- manded to keep silence before him ; and both his worshippers, and his insolent foes who per- secuted them, are certified that the time was drawing near, when all should own his sovereignty and behold his greatness. " The earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea."* No doubt, the final triumph of the gos- pel, and the absolute downfal of all the ene- mies of Christ's church, are prefigured by the events here foretold, and in this way, at least, intimated in the prophecy ; but the deliverance of the Jews from captivity, and the destruction of the Chaldean monarchy, were the matters primarily intended : and accordingly the accom- plishment of the prophet's vision, or rather the first and proximate accomplishment of it, will be found in the overthrow of Belshazzar, Ne- buchadnezzar's grandson, recorded in Daniel ; in the transfer of the empire to the Medes and Persians ; and in the return of the Jews, and the * Hab. ii. 14. 1MIA( TICALI.Y APPLIED. 193 rebuilding of the temple and of the walls of Jerusalem, related in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. And here the pt^ophetical part of the book con- cludes with the end of the second chapter. The third and last chapter is entitled, at the first verse, "a prayer of Habakkuk the prophet upon Shi- gionoth." The precise meaning of the word Shigionoth may be doubtful ; but the whole prayer, as it is called, is addressed at the conclusion, much as we should address a letter now, to the chief singer on my stringed instruments. The word Shigionoth, therefore, has no doubt some relation to the music ; what that may be, is not material to ourselves ; but from these circumstances we are authorised to collect tkis — that the splendid piece of poetry which follows, having been com- posed by Habakkuk, under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, and addressed by him to Almighty God, upon receipt of the Revelation previously recorded, is next handed over to the ministers of the temple, to be used, like David's Psalms, as a /bnw of worship. And if so, it is, of course, to be looked upon as conveying to the Jews an intimation of what their views and feelings ought to be, whilst looking for the chastisements predicted in the foregoing chap- ters, and when they should actually come upon VOL. I, o 194 THE PROPHECY OF HABAKKUK them. And this is very necessary to be borne in mind. The pra3'er itself consists of three parts : — the first part, containing the whole of what, in the strict sense, can be called prayer, that is petition, begins and finishes with the single verse which I have taken for my text. " O Lord, I have heard thy voice and was afraid ; O Lord, revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known ; in wrath remember mercy." As thougli he had said — it is an awful judgment, O Lord, which thou hast decreed for us, and we may well trem- ble at the approach of it ; but though we dare not ask to have the calamity itself averted, see- ing thou hast decreed it absolutely, yet do not thou forsake us ; in the midst of those years of adversity, heal our backslidinos, renew us to repentance, keep alive and re-animate the prin- ciple of grace in our souls, make known thy own glorious perfections, and thy favour towards th)' people, by preserving us amidst our trials, and purifying us by means of them ; yea, and show some token upon us for good, let us have some comfort, and obtain some spiritual bene- fit, even when thy wrath is hottest against the sheep of thy pasture. I must not enter into any minute explication of the next partyro7/« the ^rd verse to the end of the PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 195 16th: suffice it to say, that it contains (not however in exact order of time) a most sublime and affecting commemoration of the glory of God's love to Israel, and of the manifestation of his power in their settlement in Canaan. " God came from Teman, and the Holy One from mount Paran. His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise. And his brightness was as the light ; he had horns coming out of his hand : and there was the hiding of his power. Before him went the pestilence, and burning coals went forth at his feet. He stood, and measured the earth : he beheld, and drove asunder the nations ; and the everlasting mountains were scattered, the per- petual hills did bow : his ways are everlasting. I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction : and the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble. Was the Lord displeased against the rivers ? Was thine anger against the rivers ? Was th)^ wrath against the sea, that thou didst ride upon thine horses and thy chariots of salvation? — Thy bow was made quite naked, according to the oaths of the tribes, even thy word. Thou didst cleave the earth with rivers. — The moun- tains saw thee, and they trembled ; the over- flowing of the water passed by ; the deep ut- tered his voice, and lifted up his hands on high. o 2 196 THE PROPHECY OF HABAKKUK The sun and moon stood still in their habi- tation : at the lig-ht of thine arrows thev went, at the shining- of thy glittering spear. Thou didst march through the land in thine indigna- tion; thou didst thresh the heathen in thine anger ; thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy -people.''* These last words sufficiently point out the connexion in the prophet's mind between the sublime commemoration of God's ancient mercies, and the prayer by which it is introduced. In this marvellous manner Jeho- vah had gone forth of old on behalf of Israel ; and his servant knew that there was no varia- bleness with him. He stays himself, therefore, upon recollection of the past ; and his hope in prayer is built, not upon any power he had to extenuate his people's guilt, but upon consider- ation of Jehovah's loving-kindness, which had been so often manifested, and his infinite power which had been so often exerted for their deli- verance. In the spirit of it, his prayer is the same with that which our church has copied from the Old Testament worship: "O God, we have heard with our ears, and our fathers have declared unto us the noble works which thou didst in their days, and in the old time before them." Therefore, " O Lord, arise, help * Hab. iii. 3—13. PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 197 US and deliver us for thy name's sake.'^ And then, " Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost." And it is in much the same strain that Ha- bakkuk also concludes his prophecy. Having " by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving , made his request known unto God ;"* having fortified his mind by reference to experience, his faith rises to assured confidence : he triumphs and exults in the high views of God presented to him ; and though he still looks for chastise- ment to his people, and for much tribulation as necessarily to come before deliverance, yet if he " weeps, it is as though he wept not." The sting of the affliction is plucked out; and as if he might already shout for victory, he exclaims : "Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines ; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat : the Hock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls : yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds' feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places. "'f n. And now, from the general scope and bearing of the whole book, it is very obvious to collect, — * Phil. iv. 6. t Hab. iii. 17—19. 198 THE PllOPHECY OF HABAKKUK First, a view of God's dealings with his peo- ple who have sinned, but whom nevertheless he has not utterly cast off, but is willing to bring to repentance, and to forgive upon their repentance : — And then a view of what ought to be their conduct, and might be their privilege, under the expectation or endurance of his rebukes. Much more might profitably be added, as will appear to the pious reader of the prophecy, but the consideration of what has been stated may fully occupy us now. 1. We, then, of the Christian church are the covenant people of God at present, as the Jews were formerly. Let it be supposed, for it is what has happened in many instances, and pos- sibly may happen to any of us, and without a watchful humility will happen to us all, — that having in God's mercy known something of the excellency and happiness of religion, we have nevertheless become weary of well-doing, fal- tered in our course, or even fallen into gross and deliberate wickedness. If it has been so, we have shown ourselves to be as unworthy of the divine love and favour, as Israel were in the days of Habakkuk. Then God very likely may deal by us as he did by them ; and if he should, we must and may do, through grace, what the prophet was instructed to do and did. PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 199 (1.) As for the Lord our God, "his eyes are in every place, beholding the evil and the good."* — "Our secret sins are in the light of his countenance." t "There is not a word in our tongue but he knoweth it altogether.";}: He seeth therefore, and judgeth ; " for whither shall we go from his spirit ; or whither shall we flee from his presence ?" — " If our heart con- • demn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things." § (2.) But "whom the Lord loveth he chas- teneth ; and what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?"|| He has promised to do this for his people : " If they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments, then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes."^ Because we should be his people, we are not therefore exempt from the tokens of his righteous indignation ; on that very account we may the rather look for them : for as it would not consist with his faith- ful love to us to refrain from smiting us friendly, and reproving us ; so neither can it consist with his glory, which he can never sacrifice, and which God forbid we should ever desire him to sacrifice, to let those go unrebuked who give occasion to his enemies to blaspheme. We * Prov. XV. 3. f Psalm xc. 8. J Ps. cxxxix. 4, 7. § 1 John iii, 20. \\ Heb. xii. 6, 7. f Ps. Ixxxix. 32. 200 THE PROPHECY OF HABAKKIK may be proud enough, (for such as sin wilfully, in spite of knowledge, generally fall through pride ;) so we may be proud enough to wonder marvellously , as the Jews did, that such as we should be brought low or be disgraced. But what are we better than they ? If God spared not the natural branches of his ancient olive- tree, the seed of his beloved Israel, why should he deal more favourably with us, who were grafted in on their default ? He says to them, wonder as ye may, " I will work a work in your days, which ye will not believe, though it be told you."* And he did utterl}' desolate Ju- dea, then a flourishing empire, by those who, formidable as they became speedily, were, when Habakkuk wrote, a petty and contemptible people, too insignificant to be thought of as in- struments of any serious evil. Therefore, why should not we look for like measure from a God who to eternity will never suffer a hioli look or a proud stomach, or tolerate the turning of his grace into lasciviousness ? If we " pro- voke the Lord to jealousy," whatsoever we may think, we are not " stronger than he."' Cor- rect us he will, therefore, if he does not mean to do far worse : perhaps, take the wise in their own craftiness, and cause us to wound our own peace, and undo our own prosperity with our * Acts xiii. 41. PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 201 own hands ; perhaps smite us fearfully by some very feeble instrument ; perhaps smite us in such manner as to put us to open shame, and lay our honour in the dust, and destroy our power to be useful, and thrust us down from such stations as we have occupied. Thus he says in Ezekiel, " The Levites which are gone away from me, which went astray after their idols, they shall even bear their iniquities ; and they shall not come near unto me, to do the office of a priest unto me, nor to come near to any of my holy things in the most holy place. But I will make them keepers of the charge of the house."* That is, he would employ them in some very inferior and menial business. But there is no need to enlarge further: his re- sources, if I may so speak, for correction, like the treasures of his love, are inexhaustible ; our comfort is> that he is always righteous, and wise, and good ; and " though he cause grief, yet he will have compassion ;" and willeth not the death of a sinner. t (3.; This we gather in the next place from his word to Habakkuk. There we find that he plainly told his people why he contended with them : that he certified them fully of the mean- ing of his judgments ; and that though he would not withdraw his hand, or lay aside his chasten- * Ezek. xliv. 10. f Lam. iii. 32. 202 THE PROPHECY OF HABAKKUK ing rod, he left them not without a promise of deliverance, nor without instructions how to demean themselves in affliction. And his word shows to us also our transgression and our sins : we too learn from it, that in very faithfulness he causeth us to be troubled. It is all-sufficient for direction and for comfort. " As many as I love (it saith,) I rebuke and chasten ; be zealous, therefore, and repent."* — "Come and let us return unto the Lord, (it saith,) for he hath torn, and he will heal us ; he hath smitten, and he will bind ns up." We must wait his time indeed : " But, after two days," it proceedeth, " he will revive us, and we shall live in his sight ; then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord : his going forth is prepared as the morning, and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the former and latter rain unto the earth. "t " I will cause all her mirth to cease," the Lord saith of his church; but "behold," he adds, " I will allure her and bring her into the wilderness, and will speak comfortably unto her ; and I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor (or trouble) for a door of hope.";}: That is, her fruitfulness and her consolation should spring out of her humiliation and her punish- ment— just as Israel prospered after judgment had been executed upon Achan, in that same * Rev. iii. 19. + Hos. vi. 1—3. : Hos. ii. 11 — 16. PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 203 valley of Achor, where they had fallen before their enemies on account of their disobedience. " And she shall sing there as in the da3^s of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt ; and it shall be at that day, saith the Lord, thou shalt call me Ishi," or husband, an appellation of cordial affection and endearment, " and shalt no more call me Baali," or Lord, a name implying, on the part of those who use it, more of awe and distance ; " and I will have mercy on her that had not ob- tained mercy ; and I will say unto them that were not my people, thou art my people : and they shall say, thou art my God."* Such as these are the manifestations which God is wont to make of his kindly disposition towards those who have fallen by their iniquity, when, " seeing their ways, he would heal them but when, nevertheless, it is meet to "correct them in measure, and not leave them altogether unpunished." 2. What ought to be their conduct, and might be their privilege, under the expectation or endurance of his rebukes, we may gather now from considering the conduct and the prayer of Habakkuk. (L) In the first place, let them have a right understanding of God's dealings with them ; let * Hosea ii. 2'3. 204 THE PROPHECY OF HABAKKOK them reject and put out of their minds all hard thoughts of him, as if he had ceased to be a father, because they had ceased to walk as children ; or as if he had changed, any further than to vary the expressions of his concern for them according to circumstances. It was not in hatred that God doomed our first parents to labour and sorrow : the prophet believed the Chaldean enemy to be established only for cor- rection ; and whosoever of us is constrained to say of himself, " I am the man that have seen affliction by the rod of his wrath ;" yet let him endeavour to view himself as chastened, but not killed, and to hope in God's word by the apostle, " But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world."* (2.) Let persons so situated, in the next place, follow Habakkuk in turning, and preparing them- selves at once to seek counsel of God. Be it their resolution, as it was his, " I will watch to see what he will say unto me :" and in order to this, let them search the Scriptures, at the same time " giving themselves unto prayer." When the consciousness of guilt, and sense of divine indignation, and the feeling of affliction, as sent from God — when remorse and shame, and per- haps the apprehension of utter disgrace, are all * 1 Cor. xi. 32. PRACTICALLY APPLIED. •205 upon people's minds together, they will be like enough to produce an inextricable confusion of spirit : it will be very difficult for people to pass a judgment upon their own condition, to distin- guish between contrition for their guilt, and the sorrow of this world ; and when they feel, as yet it is fit they should, suffering as suffering — to see whether there is any better and more hopeful kind of grief in their hearts or not. And it will be very difficult for them to discern how far they may hope without presumption, and whether their hope, if they have any, may not be presumption, and how to apply the Scriptures to their own case ; and, in short, what course to take, in any respect, in their perplexities. Then let them recollect, that all things are naked and open before him, with whom they have to do;" that with God there is no perplexity ; that he understands them thoroughly, when they understand not themselves at all ; that he is that physician of the soul who is perfectly ac- quainted with the disease, and with the patient, and with the effect that every particular way of treatment will have on both — and who hath also all remedies at his command. Let them think of this, and let them commit themselves abso- lutely to Him, not much desiring this or that, but that He, in despite of their unworthiness and their provocations, would, in his own good 206 PROPHECY OF HABAKKUK time, and by his own chosen instruments, make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight; have their souls in his keeping, and order whatsoever shall befall them. " Of Him, it is written, are ye in Christ Jesus, who, of God, is made unto us wisdom."* In this light let them see light, and beware, above all, of consulting with their own passions and their own desires. — These are the blind guides which have led them astray so long. (3.) Further, seeing there is a vision, and a plain one, which he that runs may read : a vi- sion, I mean, of ultimate deliverance to the pe- nitent— *' When the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness which he hath committed, and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive ;"t — seeing this promise is set forth for them in Christ, let those who have fallen by their iniquity thank God for it, and not repine because the vision is yet for an appointed time, and consolation is not to be had in a day ; " and because they must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God ;" or be for a season like Judah and Jerusalem, which were trodden under foot of the Gentiles se- venty years. It is good enough for such as resemble Judah in backsliding and a false pro- fession, if they go mourning all their lives long ; * 1 Cor. i. 30. t Ezek. xviii. 27. PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 207 yea, if they be put to open shame — if tlie}^ seem to be even disowned of God — and, like the in- cestuous person among the Corinthians, be de- livered to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, if it may be with the same merciful meaning — " that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus."* — "Surely it is meet to be said unto God, I have borne chastisement, I will not offend any more :"t and meet to be said also, " I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against him, until he plead m}'^ cause, and execute judgment for me.";]: Only (inasmuch as it is written, " though the vision tarry, wait for it, and the promise stand- eth sure,") it is still a duty likewise not to cast away our hope. There is no humility in despair. When the calamity foretold by Habakkuk had actually fallen upon God's people, Jeremiah was raised up to say to them, " It is good that a man both hope, and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord therefore, let such as know that their sins have called for God's rebukes, at the same time that they settle it upon their minds to say, with reference to those rebukes, " It is the Lord, let him do what seemeth him good ;" say also, as Micah does, (through faith in the atone- ment,) " He will bring me forth unto the light, * 1 Cor. V. 5. f Job xxxiv. 31. X Micah vii. 9. § Lam. iil. 26. 208 THE PROPHECY OF HABAKKUK and I shall behold his righteousness." Let them hope to have it shown at last, that God did give them repentance ; and to have the song- put into their mouths in that day, " Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage ?"* (4.) But such as would walk on their way, "rejoicing in hope, and patient in tribulation," must follow the apostle a step further, and " continue instant in prayer."! Here, therefore, in my text is a prayer for them; "O Lord, I have heard thy speech, and was afraid ; O Lord, revive thy work in the midst of the yeaTS ; in the midst of the years make known, in wrath remember mercy." It is lawful to be afraid of judgments ; lawful, so it be done with submission, even to deprecate judg- ments, and pray for mitigation of affliction and for its removal, — " for the glory of thy name, turn from us all those evils which our sins have most righteousl}- deserved." To say, " revive thy work in the midst of the years," meaning, " renew us in the spirit of our minds," is the bonnden duty of all penitent sinners. And to say the same, meaning, " restore our comforts and our power to be useful," — is permitted them. But then, according to the first sense only must * Micah vii. 18. 7 Rom. xii. 12. PRACTICALLY APPLIED •209 he the'w absolute \)rayer. If it be uttered in the other sense, this must be added to it, " Neverthe- less, not as we will, but as thou wilt." Let sanctification, salvation /rom sin, the healing of their backslidings, be the grand blessing for which they strive. As for anything else, let them not be troubled, because they cannot but desire it ; yet be it wholly at God's pleasure to give or to withhold. For their own parts, let them remember their sins — let them consider that they deserve to be destroyed — if God save from that, it is enough. And if at this moment they are in a state in which forgivejiess ma?/ reach them, and are not gone to their own place which their work has earned, need there is, and need enough, that they should be truly thankful. (5.) There are other things, however, besides people's sins, which it is their duty to confess ; and perhaps some are too apt to forget this when a deep sense of their iniquity is upon them. Praise, and thanksgiving, and confes- sion of benefits received, are duties, as well as acknowledgment of transgression : duties to the penitent or mourner for sin, as well as to others ; yea, and to him they may prove means of grace also as well as duties. If, whilst bewailing their sins, and recalling the aggravations of them, people duly remembered God's goodness to his VOL. I. p 210 THE PROPHECY OF HABAKKUK church generall}^ and to themselves specially, and " made mention of his loving-kiudnesses which have been ever of old," it might perhaps be better for them. It would not make their sense of sin less, but greater. " Against Thee have I sinned," would surely come with a still greater force upon their hearts ; but at the same time, such recollections would tend much (and what else doth the Lord require ?) to draw them back with bands of love to God. It must strike every attentive reader of the Scriptures, that it is not God's method usually to send the great truths of his word into men's minds one at a time. At least it is very remarkable, how awful threat- enings and awful exposures of guilt are wont to be intermingled with affectionate expostulation, and to be followed up speedily by promises : and how often mercy is the conclusion of a dis- course, which might have been expected to have closed with judgment. Let sinners therefore not confine their meditations to their own sin exclusively ; but, like Habakkuk, consider also how God hath gone forth for the salvation of his people, and what mercies themselves have ex- perienced at his hands heretofore. Such recol- lections produced the " spirit of adoption " in him who had wasted his substance in riotous living, and gave him confidence and encourage- ment to return ; for how could he have said. PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 211 " I will arise, and go unto my father," * liad he thought exclusively of his own unw'orthiness, and not at all of what he had been accustomed to from that father's love and bounty. Let every sinner do his utmost to cherish, together with the sense of sin, the like thankful remembrance of his heavenly father's goodness. And from the prophet's exulting conclusion we may learn what are likely to be the conse- quences. Be the frame of the returning sin- ner's spirit what it may — be his faith and pa- tience what they will — his submission ever so implicit, or his humiliation as sincere as it may ; certainly he may still be afflicted, and have cause enough to say with Jerusalem, " the crown is fallen from my head ; woe unto me that I have sinned." f But yet, if the true contrition which is in him, be accompanied by such high and animating views of God's power and love, and parental tenderness, as a due consideration of his mercies in times past is calculated to pro- duce ; the sinner may well look, to God, as still waiting to be gracious and willing to have mer- cy upon him ; and so at least be enabled to say with the psalmist, " in the multitude of the sor- rows which I had in my heart, thy comforts have refreshed my soul." ;|l * Luke XV. 18. f l-am. v. 16. \ Fs. xciv. 19, old Translation. p 2 212 THE PROPHECY OF HABAKKUK But let me conclude with a few words of caution. Because there is hope and comfort for the peni- tent, let no man think there is the same for the impenitent. " If ye be willing and obedient, 3'e shall eat the good of the land,"* and may look to do it, " though your sins have been as scai let." '* But if ye still refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword, for the moutli of the Lord hath spoken it." — Because in wrath God remembers mercy : because he is slow to anger and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil ; and says of his people who have sinned, "how shall I give thee up,""!" — let no man think that he does not hate sin in those who are called by his name, or who have seem- ed to run well their christian course, or have " tasted that the Lord is gracious." In propor- tion to their profession ; in proportion to their light and knowledge ; in proportion to their former progress through grace, and their expe- rience of divdne mercy, are tlie aggravations, and consequently the guilt, and baseness, and unthankfulness, and inexcusableness of people's particular acts of sin; though, with all their aggravations, upon repentance they may be forgiven for Christ's sake. If, then, the Lord shall have ^' healed your backslidings,'' and restored unto you the joy of * Isa. i. 18, 19. fHoseaxi. 8. I'UACTICALLY APPLIED. 213 his salvation, and spoken peace to your souls again, after your goodness has passed away as the early dew ; if he shall have recovered you from your falls, remember what that deportment is which alone can become you henceforth. Once you have thought of yourselves more highly than you should liave thought :" now you have found your level. " Think henceforth so- berly."— As towards God, "remember and be confounded," and let your sin be ever before you and as towards man, " begin at length with shame to take the lowest room." 214 SERMON XL SIN OF ABUSING GRACE. Romans vi. 1. " Shall we continue in sin, that grace may ahoundl God forbid.'' "The o-race of God that briDg:eth salvation hath appeared (saith St. Paul) unto all men.'"* For (as saith another apostle) " God is love." f This is the foundation-stone of gospel truth. Hence, as from a fountain, spring all the " ex- ceeding great and precious promises " of hoi}- writ, and "every good gift and every perfect gift " to sinners ; hence it came to pass, that God " gave his only begotten Son ;" that whosoever believeth in that Son of his shall not perish ; that " mercy rejoiceth against judgment :" ^ that God is long-suffering towards the vilest : that "all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be for- ♦ Titus ii. 11- 7 1 John iv. 16. \ James ii. 13. SIN OF ABUSING (iRACE. 215 given"* to the penitent; that "by grace we are saved through faith ;"f and that ''where sin hath abounded, grace did abound much more." J: But, in St. Paul's time, there were persons who drew a most perverse and wicked inference from this. Not knowing, or not caring to con- sider, that the goodness of God should have led them to repentance, — "Let us continue in sin," they said. Assured, as we are, of the slowness of God to wrath, it cannot be very dangerous : indeed it will be for the fuller manifestation of his glory to rescue us at last. Nobody owns these sentiments ; but thousands, it is to be feared, hold and act upon them still ; and that not only among the more careless part of man- kind, but even among those who make a more than ordinary profession of religion. With reference to this awful error, I shall en- deavour to set before you three things : — I. The fact, that men do very commonly abuse God's grace. II. The great danger of so doing. III. The inference which ouo-ht to be drawn from the aboimding of grace. I. And first, I say, it is a fact, that God's grace is very commonly abused. Men sin with greater boldness than tliey otherwise would do, * Matt. xii. 31. -]- F.ph. ii. 8. t Rom, v. -20. 216 SIN OF ABUSING GRACE. in consequence of their assurance that they have a most gracious God to deal with. Even the very " truth as it is in Jesus" partially viewed, becomes the minister of iniquity ; and from the promises of the Bible, the transgressor draws a consolation which supports him under the viola- tion of its commandments. It may be imagined, perhaps, that a great part of the careless world know so little of what grace means, as hardly to be in a capacity for incurring this kind of guilt ; but the case is otherwise : all wilful and habitual evil livers are implicated more or less. That iniquity abounds, we all know too well. And the liar, and the thief, and the pro- fane swearer, and the sabbath-breaker, and the drunkard, all sin against their consciences — are all condemned by their own hearts ; and all, when they think, are apprehensive of the wrath of God. They do not disbelieve it, that " the wages of sin is death they are not prepared to deny that God will "judge the world in righteousness."'!" As, therefore, there are times when sinners are constrained to think, something they need, (and seeing they will not amend their ways as yet,) something they will find, to rid them of their terrors, whilst they go on still in their wickedness. Most willingly, therefore, do they assent to it, that " God is love." " He * Rom. vi. 2;3. 7 Acts xvii. ol. SIN OF ABUSING GRACE. 219 is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works :" "he willeth not the death of a sinner :" he is not " extreme to mark what is done amiss ;" he gave his own Son to suffer, and he can never mean to cast his poor creatures into hell : he will accept their repentance : he will extend his long-suffering towards them. They shall have space to repent, if that be needful, and so all will be well. If indeed God were extreme to mark his creatures' errors ; if he were not so loving unto every man, sinners had need to be more cautious ; and, delightful as those indulgences are which his law forbids, to ven- ture upon them would be too hazardous an ex- periment ; but there is little fear as the case really stands. I put it to men's consciences whether they are not arguing thus continually ; and whether they could dare to act as they have done, and perhaps are doing, if it were not for some such views as these of the divine mercy and forbearance ? But if careless people have recourse to these delusions, and incur this guilt ; much more do hypocritical pretenders to godli- ness. There are persons who statedly read, and hear, and talk loudly of evangelical truth, and would pass for men of prayer and piety, whose practices nevertheless are as contrary to the gospel as darkness is to light ; who are not 218 SIN OF ABUSING GRACE. " doers of the word but hearers only, deceiving their ownselves," and " holding; the truth in unrighteousness." But God "loves them with an everlasting love," they say : " By grace are they saved through faith, not by works, lest any man should boast." Being "justified by faith, they have peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord." "Without money and without price, they are called to take of the waters of life freel}-." Their father is " the Lord who changeth not ;" their Redeemer, " the same yes- terday, to-day, and for ever." Doth he not say, " I am he that blotteth out thy transgression for mine own sake V " Of his own will begat he them by the word of his truth ;" and " his loving-kindness he will not utterly take from them, nor suffer his faithfulness to fail." " The blood of Christ cleanseth from all sin :" He " is able to save to the uttermost :" therefore they are not afraid. Much longer they do not mean to go on in sin, but yet a little further they will venture, and it shall be "to the praise of the glory of God's grace at last, when he " makes them to be accepted in his beloved." This, I say, is the fact. There is a tendency in our corrupt nature to bring evil out of good ; and by some such processes as these, both care- less and comparatively ignorant sinners, and SIN OF ABUSING GRACE. 219 hypocrites, abuse so much of Scripture as they happen to be acquainted with, or care to bear in mind. II. Now consider what an awful danger is hereby incurred. To rebel against a rightful master one would think should be bad enough ; but to rebel against one who is not only a master in authority, but a father in love and mercy, must be unspeakably worse ; especially where his very fatherly dispo- sitions are made the encouragements to offend him fearlessly. But whatsoever " fools" who "make a mock at sin" may think, or self-de- ceiving hypocrites may pretend, as much sin as there is, so much is there also of danger, and so much is there like to be of condemnation. Nothing can be more true than that God is merciful ; yea, infinitely merciful ; nothing more true than that his grace is absolutely free. For God hath given his infinite and infinitely be- loved Son to die for us ; and whosoever cometh to the throne of grace by him, shall be accepted for his sake only and entirely. But people would do well impartially to view the whole counsel of God ; and then they would see in every page of his word, where the sacrifice of the death of Christ is set forth as the foundation stone of the sinner's hope, that the end and in- tention of his sufferings is, at the same time, to 2-20 SIN OF ABUSING GRACE. "redeem us from all iniquity:"* that he hath " chosen us that we should be hoi}' :"t that " his own self bare our sius in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live to righteousness :"';|; that sin is, in itself, the great- est of all evils, and that salvation primarily consists in the " renewal of the spirit of the mind""§ after the divine image, and cannot be without it. If these things are so, it should at least be evident that the sinner persisting in his evil courses can have no part or lot in Christ ; that he is all day long rejecting and despising his great salvation, and shutting him- self out of heaven, by rendering himself more and more incapable of heavenly blessedness. But he shall repent. Most assuredly, if to- day he will hear the voice of God and of conscience ; if he be ready now, at this instant, to throw down the weapons of his warfare and sue for grace, God " waiteth to have merc3%"'|| and willeth not the death of a sinner. But this is what he has no thought of doing. He will continue in sin a little longer, presuming upon God s forbearance. Is not this just what your neighbours have done before you, and so have gone to judgment with their sins upon their heads ? Know ye " the day or the hour in * Titus ii. 14. f Eph. i. 4. 1 I Pet. ii. 24. § Eph. iv. 23. II Isa. xxx. 18. SIN OF ABUSING GRACE. 221 which the Sou of man shall come ?" Does not sin harden the heart, and sear the conscience ? If men are not growing in grace, can it be otiier than that they are growing in sin ? And will repentance become the easier because we love sin more, and have more to repent of? Can men repent without grace? And if they cannot, are they the likely persons to have grace hereafter, who turn their backs upon it when it is prof- fered them to-day, and who refuse the grace of sanctification, because, without asking for it, they are continually experiencing the grace of forbearance ? These things, I think, sinners would do well to ponder; for if they are true, nothing can be more perilous than the condition of the wilfully impenitent — nothing more likely than that they should die in their sins, nothing more improba- ble than their conversion. But except ye re- pent, ye shall all surely perish. And then " of how sore punishment shall he be thought wor- thy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and done despite to the Spirit of grace ?"* If God will avenge the breach of his laws, will he not much more avenge the contempt of his gospel? and more than that, the abuse of his gospel ? He was no light sinner, and fell under no light condemnation, who said unto his Lord : * Heb. X. 29. 222 SIN OF ABUSING GRACE. " I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reap- ing where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed, and I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth."* But what shall become of that servant who saith unto God, — I knew thee that thou art a kind and good master, abundant in goodness and truth ; I had experienced thy long-suffering, and thy unwillingness to let me perish, and therefore I said within myself, " I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of my own heart ?"t "Be not deceived," brethren, " God is not mocked : for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap,":{; God will not himself provide the means by which his own glory may be tarnished, his government insulted, and his tlireatenings set at nought. If ye are not saved by grace, ye shall be con- demned because of grace. Woe unto you for every good and perfect gift which you have re- ceived from God : woe unto you that you have heard and understood the gospel : woe unto you that Clirist hath died, if your corruption will make him the minister of sin. Better had it been for you if, through some fatal blindness, you had despaired of mercy, and believed God to be inexorable and inaccessible, than that hearing of him continually as the God of love * Matt. XXV. 24. f Deut. xxix. 19. | Gal. vi. 7. SIN OF ABUSING GRACE. •223 you should, on that account, take courage to provoke him more. This is the perfection of baseness and ingratitude, and as ye have done, so will the Lord requite you. III. Gospel truth, however, is still the same, though wicked men abuse it to their own ruin. Let us therefore consider, in the last place, the inference which we ought to draw from the abounding of grace and mercy, in Jesus Christ towards sinners. There is forgiveness with God, say the wicked ; therefore we will not fear him. But saith the man after God's own heart, " there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared."* And what can be more reasonable, or worthier of an ingenuous spirit; or what more equitable ? We all expect goodwill from those to whom we have shown much kindness : we all think it but just, that the manifestation of a forgiving spirit in ourselves should disarm the enmity of our neighbour. If we do good to our foes, we expect thereby to overcome the evil which is in them. Our meekness and our mer- cy are intended to conciliate, and not to invite fresh injuries. And for our own parts, we are conscious that our friends who love us are the persons whom we are most fearful to offend ; though they are, we are sure, the persons who * Psalm cxxx. 4. 224 SIK OF ABUSING GRACE. would be the least willino; to avenge themselves, if we should offend them. And why are we to deal otherwise by almiohtv God ? He never wronged us; and he doth not afflict us willingly. If he smites us, it is in love ; and if he shall cast anv of us off at last, our ruin will not be or his procuring, but of our own. " It is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves."* " He holdeth our souls in life."t " He crowneth the vea with his goodness, and his clouds drop fatness.*';]: If his justice, as it must. " turueth man to de- struction," his mercy saith, "come again, ye children of men."§ "For he will not always chide, nor keep his anger for ever." " He hatli. not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. "|| Contrariwise, " God comraendetli his love toward us, in that, whilst we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."5r And now, " if any man sin, we have an advo- cate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righte- ous, and he is the propitiation for our sins." ** May not the apostle well declare, " little children, these things I write unto you, that ye sin not ?" For how hateful is sin, if it offends such a God as this ? and what need have we to " loathe ourselves in our own sight, because of * Ps. c. 3. t Ps. Ixvi. 9. ; Ps. Ixv. 11. ^ Ps. xc. 3. II Ps. ciii. 9, 10. f Rom. v. 8. ** 1 John ii. 1, 2. SIN OF ABUSING GRACE, 2-25 our iniquities ?"* Do not imagine, brethren, that God is so willing to forgive, because sin is a trifle and provokes him, and dishonours his government but a little. He hath shown you what sin is upon the cross. It could be no trifle which broug-ht the Son of the Blessed there. It is altogetiier love to sinners, not in- diflference to sin at all, that makes a way for you to escape, who perhaps have been sinners before the Lord exceedingly : it is the same love, and nothing else, which hath spared you until now, and will now accept you, and blot out all the past, if now ye will hear his voice. Do not say in your hearts, I pray you, he that hath borne so long with us, may bear longer ; be it far from you to treat your God, as you would blush to treat a mere fellow-creature : but, if your judgments are convinced of what you ought to do, betake yourselves to the means of grace, that through the divine blessing your hearts may be turned, and your unruly wills be brought into subjection to the will of God. Search the Scriptures. Perhaps much of what has been said seems new to you: you have heard it long ago : but you may not have duly weighed and pondered it. The world, and its cares, and its vanities, are present to your sight. God is invisible ; and heaven and the * Ezek. xxxvi. 31. VOL. 1. Q 226 SIN OF ABUSING GRACE. glories there, and the promises of the gospel, and the performances of the Redeemer, are ob- jects of faith. You must endeavour to make them present to your minds by meditation, otherwise you will not have that faith in them, which may counteract the influence of this en- snaring and ever-present world. But whilst you meditate upon them, pray to have your be- lief of them strengthened. " Faith worketh by love,"* wheresoever it is genuine. " It overcomes the world, "t and it is the instrument which God employs to purify his people's hearts : there- fore, I repeat it, ask for more of it ; and as it shows you more and more of the glory of God's goodness "in the face of Jesus Christ," "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. "J " I beseech you, bre- thren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world ; but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind. Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good. Be kindly afFectioned one towards another, with brotherly love ; in honour preferring one another : not slothful in business : fervent in * Gal. V. 6. -|- 1 John v. 4. + Matt. v. 16. SIN OF ABUSING GRACE. 227 spirit ; serving the Lord ; rejoicing in hope ; patient in tribulation ; continuing instant in prayer ; distributing to the necessity of saints ; given to hospitality. Bless them which perse- cute you : bless, and curse not. Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep. Be of the same mind one towards ano- ther. Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits : recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men. If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peace- ably with all men. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath : for it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore if thine enemy hun- ger, feed him : if he thirst, give him drink : for, in so doing, thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good."* These are the acts and habits to which consideration of the riches of God's grace ought, in all reason and equity, to lead us. " When these things are in us, and abound, they make us that we shall be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge"! of our Re- deemer : these are the marks and signs by which our " profiting will appear unto all men." and to our own consciences. Walking in this * Rom. xii. 1, 2, 9—21. f 2 Peter i. 8. q2 228 SIN OF ABUSING GRACE. w ay, we may lawfully walk in hope ; and if we " love the Lord Jesus in sincerit}^" it will be thus, that we shall " adorn the doctrine of our God and Saviour," to good and effectual pur- pose. Loud profession, if it stands alone, can only bring the blessed gospel into contempt ; but the world will be won to reverence our prin- ciples, when they behold and cannot gainsay our godly and consistent practice. 229 SERMON XII. USE TO BE MADE OF THE LIGHT. John xii. 35, 36. Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness come upon you ; for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth. " While ye have the light, believe in the light, that ye may he the children of the light." These are the words of the Lord Jesus Christ, spoken to the Jews with reference to their higli privilege of liaving Him for their instructor. They are addressed to you in reference to your privilege of having, at this time, his gospel. There are three things to which, in discoursing upon them, I shall direct your attention. I. To the Doctrines which they deliver. II. To the Duties arising out of those doc- trines. 230 USE TO BE MADE OF THE LIGHT. III. To the Motives by which those duties are enforced. I. The doctrines are expressed in the first clause of the text — " Yet a Httle while is the light with you." The light is the Lord Jesus Christ, made known through the publication of the gospel : as it is written — " That was the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world :"* and again — " Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto ray path.""!" 1. This light, the text says, is with you ; and it is so to every necessary purpose. With Holy Scripture in your hands, and the public ministration of the word to attend upon ; and the assemblies of God's worshippers, and the services of the church, and all the privileges of the Christian Sabbath accessible, no serious and humble inquirer after divine truth among you can be destroyed for lack of knowledge." The divine record contains all things necessary to salvation ; and your condition with respect to it is such, that there is no insuperable im- pediment to your drawing out of it full and ample directions as to all which you have to do, or to believe, that you may attain eternal life. If you be all sinners, as indeed you are, and * John i. 9. -|- Psalm cxix. 105. USE TO BE MADE OF THE LIGHT. 231 on that account under the wrath of God, it is no more than is declared and testified unto you from day to day. If, hereafter, you must every one of you stand before God's judgment-seat, there to answer for the things done in the body, you are fairly and fully warned of it. If it be impossible, as indeed it is, that you should be able to save yourselves, or to escape condemna- tion, either through excusing your transgres- sions, or denying them, or being sorry for them, or producing any good to counterbalance them, or by any other way of strength or merit of your own, all this also is so fully expounded to you, that it must be wilful if you deceive your- selves with false hopes, or build upon a wrong- foundation. If, on the other hand, there is a deliverer for you, "able to save unto the utter- most,"* this also is explicitly revealed. Who Jesus Christ is, and what he has done and suffered, and what ye must do if ye would benefit by him, all is set forth and published ; and not only simply published, you have " line upon line, and precept upon precept."! And every motive which is calculated to work either upon your hopes or upon your fears, upon your judgment, or upon your affections, so as to persuade you to accept your Saviour, and to "flee from the wrath to come," is, for these * Heb. vii. 23. t Isa. xxviii. 10. 232 USE TO BE MADE OF THE LIGHT. purposes, most mercifully emplo3'ed by God : and all day long he calls and entreats you to have pity upon your own souls, and to receive " an eternal weight of glory" at his hands. Nor are these things " so hard to be under- stood," but that any plain* man might suffi- ciently comprehend them : and though, in fact, some are still very ignorant, it is no more for want of eyes than for want of light. " The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, the Lord hath made even both of them."* It is written con- cerning God's people, " They shall all be taught of God and this means, not only that they shall have the scriptures from God, but also that he shall " open their understandings," by his Spirit, to discern the true meaning of them : according as it is writtten — " If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him.":J: So that if you would but hear and read when you might, and pray when you came to God's church, that he would bless the instructions given you, and be constant in doing this, you would soon be " wise unto sal- vation :" and though, at this day, there may be much blindness among you, yet sure I am there is not one among you so blind even 7ww, but that he does know these two things • first, that * Prov. XX. 12. -j- John vi. 45. j James i. 5. USE TO BE MADE OF THE LIGHT. 233 more knowledge would be good for him, and secondly, in what book, and through what means, to look for it. Whether, therefore, your minds are enlightened effectually or not, the text assuredly holds good : " The light is with you.'' It is in your choice and in your power to know " what ye must do to be saved." 2. But the text has one doctrine more — " Yet a little while" it says, " is the light with you." "The night cometh."* "The time is short." " The fashion of this world passeth away :"f and, "There is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave, whither ye are all going, "J quickly. "The days of our years," says the Psalmist, speaking of those who live longest," " are threescore years and ten ; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow ; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away."§ Not half of us, however, sur- vive to middle age; very few to this extreme age of man : and you that hear me now, or I that speak, either or any of us, may be gone before I have time to finish. This is easy to be understood : but it is not therefore a know- ledge to be despised. It is God's mercy which hath so ordered it, that the truths which are * John ix. 4. f 1 Cor. vii. 29, 31. I Eccles. ix. 10. § Psalm xc. 10. 234 USE TO BE MADE OF THE LIGHT. easiest of all to be understood, are usually those which are most needful of all to be con- sidered. II. Let us look now to the duties arising; out of these plain doctrines. Our Lord specifies two of these : To " icalk" and to " believe." Inasmuch as "the light is with you," but with you only for a " little while," "walk while ye have the light ; and while ye have the light, helieve." 1. There is a way of walking which, because ye have the light, ma}' reasonably be looked for from you. " Ye were sometimes darkness," (says St. Paul,) " but now are ye light in the Lord ; walk as children of light."* The light was given to guide you in the way of God's commandments. Then your duty is to pray, without ceasing, that God M ould " remember his holy cove- nant," and accordingly " put his law in your inward parts, and write it in your hearts ;" or give you, through his Spirit, a zeal and appe- tite for dutv, a love to him and to his work. This do, and then set God always before you : act always as recollecting that he beholds you, and has a rio'ht to vour services, and will call you to account ; and " whatsoever ye do, do * Ephes. V, S. USE TO BE MADE OF THE LIGHT. 235 it heartily," with an eye to his glory; not say- ing in your hearts, how may I act so as best to serve my own worldly interests, but what is it which God would have me do ? and in what manner will he be best pleased to have such or such a work discharged ? There are duties immediately to God him- self. To have him in your hearts far before any of his creatures ; to " worship him in spirit and in truth ;"* to hallow his name, and his day : and you must be daily examining how these have been attended to. There are duties, also, to your fellow-creatures ; and these must be rendered, not only in goodwill to them, but in obedience also to their Father and your own. You must " do unto all men as you would they should do unto you;" considering them as be- ing at once your own brethren, of one blood with you, and God's children and Christ's re- deemed. " By this," says St. John, " we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments ;"(" but on the other hand, " If a man say I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar ; for he tiiat loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him, that he who loveth God love his brother also.";|l * John iv. 23. f 1 John v. 2. | 1 John iv. 20. 21. 236 USE TO BE MADE OF THE LIGHT. You will, therefore, respect at the same time the claims both of piety and of huraauitv. As "fearing God and regarding man," you will not " hide yourselves from your own flesh ;" von will not " hate your brother in your heart you will not bear malice against him, or seek revenge ; you will not tempt any to sin : you will not " go bevond to defraud vour brother in any matter you will not speak evil of him willingly ; vou will not covet anvthing- that belongs to him : — but you will pray for him ; bear with him ; be sorry for him when he is in affliction ; rejoice with him in his prosperity ; sacrifice much to keep in peace with him ; think well of him as far as you are able, and deny yourselves, that you may be helpful to him. Besides these duties of your general callins: as christian people, there are duties also of your particular calling as members of society. Be your calling what it may, you will remember that it is the place assigned you by God ; for that it is he who hath " set the members every one of them in the body as it hath pleased Him.' * Therefore no part of any man's proper and lawful business is a trifle. In the shop and in the field, no less than in the church and at the table of the Lord, God is to be sought, honoured, and regarded ; whilst, at the same * 1 Cor. xii. 18. USE TO BE MADE OF THE LIGHT. 237 time, "ye are to render unto all men their due," * as the law of love prescribes, and the golden rule of doing as you should be done by instructs you. The light of Scripture conde- scends to shine upon everything, and the law of God to regulate down to the weights and measures of the trader, and the day's work of the labourer. It calls to the honest perform- ance of every contract, be the matter as small or as ordinary as it may ; and it is not mere truly the duty of the minister of the gospel to " take heed to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made him overseer,"f and to " watch for souls as one who must give ac- count," than it is the duty, and the religious duty too, of the very lowest servant in the household, to do the very meanest work which he is paid for doing, in the best way he can, and as the master who pays him may reasonably expect. " Walk while ye have the light," therefore, may thus be construed ; — let the fear of the Lord, sense of obligation to God, direct you in evert/thing. From the highest instances to the lowest make a conscience of your ways. Religion, in the practical part, does not consist in doing soine things well — in attending to this duty or to that, or in a few, or in many splendid * Rom. xiii.7. -[- Acts xx. 28. 238 USE TO BE MADE OF THE LIGHT. performauces. The true principle is like the " leaven which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened."* Godliness must enter into ever3'thing, and actuate us throughout. That it may do so, the light is given : " The grace of God, which bringeth salvation, hath appeared unto all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righ- teously, and godly in this present world, look- ing for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works."t " Add, therefore," says St. Peter, "to your faith, virtue; and to virtue, know- ledge; and to knowledge, temperance; and to temperance, patience ; and to patience godli- ness ; and to godliness, brotherly kindness ; and to brotherly kindness, charity : for if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledo-e of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind.";}: To him the light shineth to no purpose : he is not thankful for the high privilege which he pos- sesses of having the light ; and, it may be * Matt. xiii. 33. \ Titus ii. 1 1—14. 1 2 Pet. i. 5—9. USE TO BE MADE OF THE LIGHT. 239 added, he has quite forg'otten our Lord's gra- cious warning, that the light is with him but for a little while. For surely, if, because he has the light, he should walk in the way of God's commandments ; because he is not to have it long, it behoveth him to say with David, " I made haste, and delayed not, to keep thy com- mandments." * 2. Our Lord adds, " believe in the light." It is neglect of this second duty which causes neglect of the former. If it be asked why, when " light is come into the world," men do not " walk as children of light," the answer is, they do not believe in the light. With all their professions respecting the gospel, they do not indeed believe it. They are not even fully and beyond a doubt satisfied and persuaded of its absolute and perfect truth ; much less do they " receive the love of the truth," (as St. Paul expresses it,) "that they should be saved." f But ye c?o believe — "Ye believe in God the Father Almighty ;" — Ye believe in a judgment to come ; in heaven and hell. I shall grant it that you do not disbelieve. Certainly you will not say, neither do you think it, that there is not a God, and that the wicked certainly shall not go into everlasting punishment, and the righte- ous into life eternal. But your lives too often * Psalm cxix. 60. f 2 Thess. ii. 10. 240 USE TO BE MADE OF THE LIGHT. prove, that you are but in a state of doubt re- specting these great matters. You halt between two opinions : sometimes you are persuaded one wa}^ and then the balance turns a little ; you let your persuasion go, and think the other way. Wilful sinners have much the same manner and degree of persuasion concerning God and judg- ment, as the thief is wont to have concerning the magistrate and the execution of the laws. He covets to lay his hand upon his neighbour's pro- perty, but he considers there are laws, and ma- gistrates to enforce them, and it is likely that he may be found out and punished, and whilst these thoughts prevail, he hesitates ; but as the temptation waxes stronger, he considers that the chances are against detection, and he may escape, and then he steals. But no man steals whilst he is sure that the owner of the property observes him, and that he cannot fail to be hea- vily punished for his act. And thus it is with sinners against God. God does see us, they think ; he will judge us, and for this they re- frain from many crimes ; but under a stronger temptation they commit those crimes. What is this, but that their minds being full of the ap- petite for forbidden indulgence, their persuasion that God's eye is upon them, their assurance that he will judge the world in righteousness, is gone? Did you see God looking at you, and hell USE TO BE MADE OF THE LIGHT. 241 open to receive you for your deed, though this might not convert your hearts from the love of wickedness, it would tie your hands from acting- it. When therefore you do act it, you do not see or apprehend these things, as, if you really did believe, you would see them ; and if you are habitual sinners, you live habitually in unbe- lief. I do not say in disbelief or persuasion that the scriptures are false ; but in unbelief, or without any settled persuasion that they are true. In order to salvation, however, you have need of more faith than a mere persuasion and con- viction of the understanding that God's word is true. It is the will which must be wrouofht upon. You must embrace the word as good, " receive the love of the truth," if you would be saved ; and as much as this, no doubt, our Sa- viour means when he says, " While ye have the light, believe in the light." Inasmuch as the gospel comes to you with evidence and testi- mony enough of its coming from God, and is by God graciously propounded to you, to be your guide to life eternal — your duty is to accept it thankfully, and with absolute submission ; your duty is to take God's word for every part of it, with full consent of your whole soul to it; to admire, and approve, and delight in this me- thod of deliverance, so as not to covet or desire VOL. I. 11 242 USE TO BE MADE OF THE LIGHT. to be saved in any other way ; either by any merits of vour own, or bv anv other Saviour than Christ ; or except in a way of renouncing all sin, and denying your sinful appetites. But, on the contrary, to covet earnestly to be saved in this icay, and therefore, with full purpose of heart, actually to flee from the wrath to come, bv fleeino- to Jesus Christ, beo-o-ing- God, in his name, to forgive you your sins, and to cleanse you fi'om all unrio-hteousuess. Use the means, then, by which the grace of faith may be wrought in you. Search the scrip- tures ; meditate upon their contents ; consider the importance of their declarations ; the suffi- ciency, and the excellency, and suitableness to your wants of the way of salvation revealed in them. And pray to God without ceasing, that all these things may make a due impression upon you. Ask God to glee you faith, for, like every other good gift, it is from above. Ask him con- tinually to increase your faith, and to keep vou through faith unto salvation. And if vou would know how far your prayers are answered, look to the fruits. They who " icalk in the light " by a holy obedience, and a consistent, conscientious discharge of the duties of their station for God's sake, are the same who " believe in the light ;'' as, on tlie other hand, thev who believe are the only ones who can ever live to God's ^lorv. USE TO BE MADE OF THE LIGHT, 243 III. I come now to the last head on which I proposed to speak : — Namely, to consideration of the motives by which the duties both of obe- dience and of faith are urged. Two motives are assigned, — the first, for warning, the second for encouragement ; and addressed to our fears and to our hopes respec- tively. 1. And first, while ye have the light, dis- charge the obligations arising from so vast a privilege, " lest darkness come upon you ; for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whi- ther he goeth." Woful is the condition of those who, from any cause, sit in darkness : who, being sinners, are not conscious of their sinfulness : who mis- take evil for good : who having wandered from God and incurred his anger, know not how to come back to him and be reconciled. But of all who sit in darkness they have most cause to be afraid, from whom God has taken the light which once they had, because they abused it. Yet this is often threatened. "The kingdom of God shall be taken away from you," (says our Lord to the Jews,) " and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof."* And the Jewish nation at this day, everywhere scattered, and everywhere trodden under foot, without ♦ Matt. xxi. 43. R 2 244 USE TO BE MADE OF THE LIGHT. priest, or law, or Saviour known to them, are a standing monument of the truth of God in the execution of his threatenings ; and a standing warning to us, that we should " not be high- minded, but fear." God has many wavs of taking the light from YOU, thouffh ve should continue to the last where the true light shineth. In the words imme- diately following the text it is said: "These things spake Jesus, and did hide himself from them." And very often we read to the like ef- fect ; as in the 10th chapter, after the Pharisees had sought to stone him at Jerusalem, " he went away beyond Jordan, and abode there." And, for a similar reason, it is said in the 11th chap- ter, " Jesus walked no more openly among the Jews, but went thence unto a countn,- near to the wilderness, unto a city called Ephraim, and there continued with his disciples." And it is God who has provided a ministry for your in- struction, and who qualifies and endows indi- vidual teachers for their office : see that ye tempt him not to take them away. People are quite bold enough, that I say not far too bold and too presumptuous, in passing judgment upon ministers as not preaching the truth, and in declaring the impossibility of edifying b\^ this minister or by that. If it should be so that any number of unfit persons have rashly and USE TO BE MADE OF THE LIGHT. 245 wickedly intruded themselves into a sacred office, to teach before themselves have learned ; and if it is to the damage of their hearers; — without meaning to defend or excuse them, I say to you, walk according to the light, lest ye tempt God to let a spirit of delusion blind the minds of any who now or hereafter are to teach you ; lest you tempt him to employ good men in other services, and to let the evil get the upper hand in the visible church altogether, for filthy lucre's sake. It is not come to this yet; it will be worse for all parties if it ever should ; but it may be worse with you than now it is, though you should have tiie most faithful in- structors in the world, and the best opportuni- ties to the end of your days. It is "the Lord who giveth wisdom." * " The natural man re- ceiveth not the things of the Spirit of God," (let wlio will declare them,) " but they are foolish- ness to him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." f " But he that is spiritual, judgeth all things." " If you will do the will of God, you shall know of the doc- trine ;" J for he himself will open your under- standing, and put his Spirit within you, to sub- due your prejudices and purify your affections ; but if you will fight on against God's will, and hear of Christ without setting yourselves either * Prov. ii. 6. t 1 Cor. ii. 14, 15. | Jolin vii. 17. 246 USE TO BE MADE OF THE LIGHT. to seek pardon through him by prayer in his name, or to do the things which he says: — If you will put off all serious care for your souls from day to day, the light may still shine indeed, but your eyes shall be holden that they shall not see. God will refuse you grace to understand : yea, he will " give you over to a strong delusion to believe a lie." * According to that w^hich is writ- ten, "none of the wicked shall understand;"! and this is the meaning of that saying, " there- fore they could not believe, because he hath blinded their eyes and hardened their heart ; that they should not see with their eyes, and understand with their heart, and be convert- ed, and I should heal them.";]: Most certainly, this awful scripture is fulfilled too often even in this Christian land. At least it is most certainly too common to find grown men and women, and sensible men and women too, who can under- stand most worldly matters readily enough ; who, having had the scriptures to read all their lives, and having heard the gospel of Christ all their lives, plainly and faithfully delivered, are, nevertheless, at last, not gross sinners only, but even greatly and grossly ignorant of the truths which should convert them : — who abide by all the misbelief and absurd error of the utterly careless part of mankind, as if they had never * 2 Thess. ii. 11. f Dan. xii. 10. X John xii- 39, 40. USE TO BE MADE OF THE LIGHT. 247 heard a word against it, and have as much yet to learn of Christ, as children five years old. And are not these dropping off and dying day after day with this veil upon their heart? In- deed, this is not the fault of these people's teachers : it is their own doing — their own de- votedness to things with which an effectual knowledge of the truth cannot consist, and which indispose men from coming to the light, and drive them to close their eyes against it. Act up to what you know : this is the sure way to increase knowledge, and, indeed, the only way to retain as much as you have already got. If you will let your sinful appetites grow upon you, they will do so till you are so filled with them, and besotted by them, that you will no longer be able to rouse yourselves to attend to truth, and will be past enduring sound doc- trine. You may then indeed die quietly, like one who departs in a slumber, but hope in your death you can have none, and once dead you will be past hope for ever. 2. But use the light as you should ; and, saith our Lord, ye shall be the children of the light. Here is a gracious promise, not to those alone who have long lived godly in Christ Jesus ; but even to the sleeper also who will this day suffer himself to be awakened. " Repent and 248 USE TO BE MADE OF THE LIGHT. turn from all your transgressions, and so ini- quity shall not be your ruin."* "Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light."! If you have never cared for your souls till now, begin to-daj^ ; if ye have never heard God's voice to effect be- fore, hear it now. Look at once to the Sun of Righteousness, who is risen with healing on his wings.":|; '* Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world, this instant. Before you turn to an3'thing else, fall down upon your knees, and say unto him, " Lord, save us, we perish ;" and he will save you. Pray unto him, "create in us a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within us :"|| and a new heart he will give you, and a new spirit he will put within you ; and he will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and give you a heart of flesh, and put his spirit within you and then " you shall walk in his statutes, and keep his judgments, and do them and, walk- ing in the light, be the children of the light : — his children who is the light ; and " if children, then heirs — heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ.""** Bethink 3-ou what you lose — what a pearl * Ezek. xviii. 30. f Eph. v. 14. : Malac. iv. 2. § John u 29. II Ps. li. 10. «f Ezek. xxxvi. 26. ** Rom. viii. 17. USE TO BE MADE OF THE LIGHT. 249 you throw away. Is it nothing to be the sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty ? Is it not to be taught, and fed, and guided, and sup- ported, and protected, and comforted ; and to have all things that befall you, of whatever sort they be, turned into blessings ? Is it not to re- joice in hope all your lives long : and then to have far more than ever you did hope for, explicitly realized to you for eternity ? Is it not to be made like God, and to see God, and to dwell with God, and to have God himself for your portion and your "exceeding great reward ?" And are not all the figures and images which can be collect- ed of riches, and pleasures, and grandeur, and glory, and beauty — are they not confessedly weak and feeble representations, the best that can be used, but still infinitely inadequate to elevate your minds to some conception of this glory which is to be revealed ? But it is yours : this crown of happiness, su- preme and indescribable, it is yours, if ye will accept of it. For it is yours, if you will "only let your conversation be as becometh the gos- pel of Christ,"* which revealeth it. And that you may do, because he who calls you to a gos- pel life, saying — " Be ye clothed with humili- ty,"! " Put on charity,":}: " Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the * Phil. i. 27. t 1 Pet. v. 5. I Col. iii. 14. 250 USE TO BE MADE OF THE LIGHT. flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof,"* is able, and willing, and pledged, and by his own word bound, to work every grace in you which he requireth of you, to hear your prayer, if you will pray, and to keep you stedfast unto the end in answer to your prayers, in the way of his commandments. * Rom. xiii. 14. 251 SERMON XIII. GOD'S ADVERSARIES HIS INSTRUMENTS. John xi. 49 — 53. " And one of them, named Caiaphas, being the high priest that same year, said unto them, Ye know nothing at all; " Nor consider that it is expedient for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not. " And this spake he not of himself: but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation ; and not for that na- tion only, but that he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad. Then from that day forth they took counsel together for to put him to death.''' " The Lord is king, be the people never so impatient : he sitteth between the cherubims, be the earth never so unquiet."* — " The kings * Ps. xcix. 1, 2. 252 god's adversaries of the earth indeed stand up, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord, and aoainst his anointed : but he that dwelleth in heaven shall laugh them to scorn."* Let them do what they will, they cannot defeat his purposes, but, on the contrary, they shall defeat their own schemes against him, and bring to pass his decrees by the very devices by which they attempt to frustrate them ; " for he taketh the wise in their own craf- tiness,"! and the "wrath of man shall praise him.":[; By his sovereign power and wisdom, and in his infinite love, he overrules the op- position of his adversaries to the benefit of his people, and to the manifestation of his own glory. The last day will show this to his everlasting- honour ; but, in the mean time, enough stands recorded for the illustration of so consolatory a truth. I purpose to consider now the chief and most marvellous instance of all. The text contains the advice of Caiaphas the high priest to the Jewish council ; the most atrocious advice ever given upon earth, and as wickedly taken as maliciously delivered. Yet, out of the horrible deed which ensued in consequence, the Almighty knew how to bring, and in fact did bring, " glad tidings * Ps. ii. -2—4. t 1 Cor. iii. 19. t Ps. Ixxvi. 10. HIS INSTRUMENTS. 253 of great joy to all people, and glory to God in the highest."* I. The Lord Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead. Of those who saw the miracle, some believed on him ; but others went their way to the Pharisees, and told them what things Jesus had done. Upon this they convoked a coun- cil, and said, " What do we? for this man doetli many miracles ; if we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him : and the Romans shall come, and take away both our place and na- tion." The wicked obstinacy of these men is mani- fest at the first glance. If, as they confessed, they could not but admit the miracle to have been wrought by him, it is clear what they should have done in common honesty : they should have confessed also, " Thou art, thou canst not but be what thou callest thyself ; thou art the Christ,'' therefore, "the Son of the living God :" and they should have become his dis- ciples, have received and obeyed his word, and sought salvation by him. But they had pre- cisely the same reason for refusing this, which all wicked men to whom the gospel is preached have at this day. They were sufficiently ac- quainted with his doctrine to know, tliat it * Luke ii. 10. 254 GOD*S ADVERSARIES required holiness, and could be of no benefit to the impenitent : they knew that taking him for their king, in the only sense in which he demanded their allegiance, was equiva- lent to the renouncing of their evil lusts : and they were resolved on no account to agree to this : their sin and worldliness they would keep, therefore the\' would make no league with him. But, if they would not accept and honour him, others might ; and, seeing what mighty works he did, it was clear they would. And here lay the grievance ; they could not bear to think of it, that the people should believe on one, whom they chose to treat with scorn ; 3'ea, should respect and be guided by one, whose life and doctrine were a standing reproach to their wickedness, and served so effectually to expose their hypocrisy. He must be got rid of, therefore ; and in order to this, they repre- sent him as dangerous to the nation. " The Romans will come, they sa}'." — That is, this Jesus sets himself up to be a king ; if he is not checked, the people will follow him, a se- dition will ensue, and the Roman emperor will have a pretence for bringing us into worse bon- dage than ever : this is the meaning of their words. But the whole was mere hypocrisy and false- HIS INSTRUMENTS. 255 hood : they were far from being so very sub- missive to Caesar's government. But if they had cared for it, Jesus, as they very well knew, sought no temporal authority ; and truly, this was one of the grounds on which they quar- relled with him. Had he wrought his miracles in confirmation of pretensions to an earthly kingdom, and in proof of his having earthly pre- ferments to bestow, they would have attended to him ; for then his doctrine would have been altogether to their taste — but no : " Repent,''' he said, "and be converted;"* and "lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven."f However, much as they desired it, they knew not how openly to propose the putting of him to death as yet. Some even of their own council might oppose it ; such men as Nicodemus, and Joseph of Arimathaea, and Gamaliel, perhaps, from prudence, if not from honesty. So they hesitated till one, troubled with no scruples, helped them out. Then said Caiaphas, " ye know nothing at all ; nor consider that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not." Here are three things to be looked to : the meaning of Caiaphas— the meaning of Him who, as the evangelist tells us, dictated or directed * Acts iii. 19. f Matt. vi. 20. 256 GOD S ADVERSARIES the particular expressions which Caiaphas used in delivering his counsel — and the result and consequences, stated also in the text, of the whole proceeding". 1. It is said, Caiaphas spake not of himself ; that is, he was led bv one above him to use language, and to give advice, which would bear a sense not at all in his mind : — in this, manner he spake not of himself. Bur, as far as he un- derstood his own expressions, no doubt he fol- lowed the dictates of his own evil miud. and had his own malicious purpose. And the meaning of his words, in this view of them, is plain enough, and was understood at once by his auditors : he hated the Lord Jesus as thoroughly as any of them, and he was the boldest politician of them all : so he adopts the hint of the council, and improves upon it. As though he had said to them, You are afraid of the Romans ; need enoush there is that you should be so : but if you let this perplex your deliberations, surely you are very weak — you know nothing at all — all ditliculty is verv easilv removed. Is it not an allowed maxim, that private rights should be sacrificed to public con- venience ? If this man is like to trouble vou. put him to death, right or wrong — why should vou hesitate ? ^V]lat matters it. that such a one HIS INSTRUMENTS. 257 as he is sliould suffer, when by liis single death all may escape the danger ? This was Caiaphas's meaning, and so he was understood ; for from that day forth, it is said, "they took counsel together for to put him to death." They had long desired to destroy him, and now they had got a plausible pretence. Now, therefore, their malice had its way ; and b\' this subterfuge they ridded themselves of any remaining scruples or qualms of conscience. 2. But what Caiaphas designed in malice, that Almighty Godi permitted in love and mercy ; and the terms in which that hypocrite coun- selled his atrocious sin, were overruled by the Holy Ghost, to be the vehicle of a glorious prophecy, declaratory of God's intent in the permission. Caiaphas had said, " it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people ; and that the whole nation perish not." And by the mouth of Caiaphas, though wholly beside his purpose, and without his consciousness, God, in a much higher sense, said so too. Caiaphas being high priest that year, God, though he rejected his person, put honour upon his office, and made him a prophet, whilst he himself aimed at nothing but an act of desperate VOL. I. s 258 GOD S ADVERSARIES enmity and rebellion. And accordingly, with- out being at all led away from his own ill de- sign, he was led to utter it in such terms as might, and did contain a prophecy, "that Je- sus" (whose death he was contriving) " should die for that nation : and not for that nation only, but that also he should gather tog-ether in one, the children of God that were scattered abroad." This was God's meaning — the wicked Jews should be permitted to follow^ their own wicked devices ; and so doing, they should fulfil the purpose of God for the salvation of man, by an act, which, as far as we can see, could not well have been wrought except by some such evil instruments. God was not about to force them to the act, or to lead them to it, or to leave any thing undone which might be necessar}' to make them see the guilt and baseness of it ; but if, with their eyes open, they would be base enough to perpetrate it, he would not stand in their wa}^ — they might take their course and commit the sin ; and then he would take his course to bring good out of it. 3. And now see the result. "They took counsel ; bribed Judas to betray his master ; apprehended Jesus ; dragged him before the judgment-seat ; falsely accused, condemned, and crucified him." So they had their own way thus far. HIS INSTRUMENTS. 259 But " O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God !"*' Sin might be in their power, but events were not ; and never are to man — God ordains the issue, and so He had his way too ; and by their hands lifted up against him, executed his own work of grace, mercy, and peace. For God having permitted that his Son should die — and his Son having yielded himself to the malice of his foes — and they having followed the dictates of their own blind and wicked minds — here is a ransom ; here is what all the creatures of the universe put together could not have furnished — a sin offering, not only absolutely spotless, but all- sufficiently meritorious. And " him hath God set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood. "t Now therefore, without any im- peachment of God's truth, or holiness, or justice, it may be said, and is said — " Let the wicked forsake his wa}', and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon."J Let the sinner ask power to return from sin ; the grace of a new heart : the gift of the Holy Ghost to sanctify him, and asking he shall have. Let him come boldly to the throne of grace notwithstanding his unrighteousness: " For if any man sin, here is * Rom. xi. 33. t Horn. iii. 25. :j; Isa. Iv. 7. s 2 260 god's adversaries an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous ; and he " (through the use made l)y God of the Jews' wickedness) "is the propitia- tion for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world."* II. And now may it not well be said, " God is king of all the earth," and may ye not well rejoice that his kingdom " ruleth over all," and " sing praises with understanding?" See how he ordereth all things, and all for good. " Man's heart deviseth his way, but the Lord directeth his steps."! and for the event and issue of every- thing, his counsel alone can stand. For observe further — That kingdom which Caiaphas and the Jews so zealously laboured to destroy, that, inas- much as it was the kingdom of God, their own act established. On the other hand, that king- dom which they desired to uphold, inasmuch as it was God's adversary, that this same act destroyed. 1. They numbered the Lord Jesus with the transgressors. And now, theyjmagined in their evil hearts, now we shall hear no more of him ; all will despise him, and his memory will be put out for ever. But no; they were laying all the while the foundation stone of his exaltation. He had * 1 John ii. 1,2. f Prov. xvi. 9. HIS INSTRUMENTS. 261 said himself, " I, if" I be lifted up," that is cru- cified, "will draw all men unto me;"* and in this manner it came to pass. This is the mes- sage which the ministers of the gospel are charged with from God to you. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Blessed, resigned himself up to deatli on your behalf — he did not call upon his Father, as he might have done, to send twelve legions of angels for his deliver- ance from his adversaries ; but " arise, let us be going," (he says to his disciples, when he knew the hour was come,) " behold, he is at hand that doth betray me."t If ye seek Je- sus of Nazareth, he says to those who came out against him — " I am he ; if ye seek me, let these, my disciples, go their way.":}: His peo- ple's deliverance is all that he will provide for : as for himself, " as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth, "§ For he would " suffer once for sin, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God."|| And this is the doctrine which draws mankind : the belief of wliich, I mean, fills them with admir- ing love and thankfulness towards him whom, through the believing of it, they perceive to have done such great things for their souls. It was to the misapprehending, unenlightened eye of * John xii. 32. \ Matt. xxvi. 46. [ Joliii xviii. 8. § Isa. liii. 7. (| 1 Peter iii. 18. 262 god's adversaries sense alone, that the cross was a scandal and stumbling-block. To the mind taught of God, the glory of God is nowhere manifested so af- fectingly as there; and it is, and will be for ever, in exact proportion as the end and inten- tion of that precious blood-shedding is under- stood and laid to heart, that the heart will be given to God, and men will be zealous to take Christ's yoke upon them. Through contempla- tion of this his kingdom comes — that spiritual kingdom which, as his word speaks, is within us. This is the doctrine which the angels de- sire to look into ; and the Crucified One is he whom the just shall love and honour ; and be- cause he yielded to be crucified, glory in him for ever and ever. For what will lead us to be Christ's willing servants, if the knowledge of his having this title to be our master will not? and what will beget love and zeal for him, but the belief that he " loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood ?" The Jews therefore, by that act by which they would have deliver- ed the Son of God to infamy, brought to pass with respect to him only just what God willeth — that he shall reign in his people's hearts. 2. But what brought they to pass with respect to themselves? They crucified the Lord of ^lory, and now they pretend we shall have no- thing to fear from that power which otherwise HIS INSTRUMENTS. 263 would have come to take away our place and nation. Alas ! they knew not what was the ark of their nation's strength. With their own hands they withdrew from under them the one foundation- stone, on which the whole edifice of their nation rested ; they cast the true heir out of the vine- yard ; they forfeited their relation to Almighty God, by the rejection of his Son ; and by this deed they excommunicated or unchurched them- selves : they said to the Lord, depart from us ; so at last he did depart, and then that happen- ed which they were affecting to avert. The Romans did come and take away their place and nation ; and Jerusalem hath been trodden under foot of the Gentiles to this day, and shall be so, until they shall look upon him whom they pierced, and mourn because of him. And now let me return to that with which I set out : — from the whole we learn this great, and, to all right-minded and pious people, this most consolatory doctrine — that the Lord God is king, and the only one who has control over events. He has given to man plain rules of conduct, and has plainly told us the consequences respectively both of obedience and of disobedience ; but whilst he promises his holy Spirit to them that ask him ; and with every temptation to sin makes a way to escape, that such as desire to preserve 264 god's adversaries their loyalty to him, may be able to bear it ; — he still leaves it to every man to walk in the contrary way, if he is determined so to do. If you pre- fer the pleasures of sin, you may take them ; if you fear man more than God, you are at liberty to obey man before God ; and if you will fight against God's cause, God's people, God's counsels, you may. But know this, "the counsel of God, that shall stand and with all the rebellious spirit that there is in the world, and with all the variety of causes which seem to us to be in motion, the whole universe is but one vast magazine of means, by which God executes his own wise and glorious purposes. Angels and devils ; good men and bad men ; peace and warfare ; the course of nature, and all changes and accidents : all of them, in differ- ent manners indeed, but to the same effect, are his instruments. And when some designedly, and others undesignedly, shall have done their work, the end shall be, that God in all things shall be glorified : that every knee shall bow to the name of Jesus; that all things which offend shall be rooted out of his kingdom ; that the wicked shall perish, and the righteous be for ever with the Lord who bought them. God will permit as much present evil as he means to overrule for good, and no more ; and as it was with the head of the redeemed, Christ Jesus, HIS INSTRUMENTS. 265 so shall it be with all his members, for he and they are one. Then there is one plain road to security and happiness ; and a wayfaring nian, though a fool, shall not err therein. " Ac- quaint yourselves with God, and be at peace." Resign yourselves up to him : seek, salvation in the way of his appointments, and do his com- mandments, hearkening to the voice of his words. You want no other knowledge, device, or wisdom ; for there is no knowledge, device, or wisdom against the Lord. He will keep those in perfect peace whose mind is stayed upon him. It is notiiing to you to know what may be on the morrow ; what changes or chances await you in this mortal life ; or how, when they come, they each act upon your in- terests : — If you will be aga'mst God, every thing is against you, and a curse is upon all your blessings ; but if you will be on the Lord's side, all is for you. Believe that God is your Father in Jesus Christ ; and believing, pray, " Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name ; thy king- dom come; thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven." Meditate on his goodness and power, till you perceive it to be as much your interest as your duty, and as much your duty as your interest, that God should thus be glori- fied in all things, and by all people be thus 266 god's adversaries, &c. zealously obeyed : and let it actually be the first desire of your own hearts, and the constant study of your lives, to " seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness — and then such as "honour the Lord he will honour;" God, for his part, will take care of you ; — He will " give you day by day your daily bread ; for- give you your trespasses ; save you from temp- tation, and deliver you from evil :" and order everything to these ends respecting you. And if walking by faith in the Son of God, and as- suring yourselves that God is thus dealing by you, you possess your souls in patience during this life ; the last day shall interpret all things. Then ye shall know in whom ye have believed, and see what good cause ye had to trust him ; and thenceforth it shall be your joy to unite with holy angels, and the spirits of just men made perfect, in proclaiming, " Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen." 267 SERMON XIV. MARTYRDOM OF JOHN THE BAPTIST. Matthew xiv. 10. " And he sent and beheaded John in the prison The history of the martyrdom of John the Baptist is related incidentally in explanation of a circumstance which occurred respecting our blessed Saviour. "Herod the Tetrarch," it seems, '*had heard of the fame of Jesus."* All that country must have heard of it ; and such as knew him not for the Messiah, must have been much per- plexed as to what was to be thought or said of him. Accordingly some supposed him to have been Elias, others took him for one of the ancient prophets : " But," said Herod, " this is John the Baptist ; he is risen from the dead, and therefore mighty works do show forth them- selves in him." And then the Evangelist, for * Matt. xiv. 1 , 2. 268 MARTYRDOM OF illustration of" this declaration, gives us an ac- count of the fact of John's having been put to death by Herod, as it had happened some time before. The record is submitted to our consideration by the infallible Spirit of God ; and therefore, by his help, good instruction may surely be drawn from it. In this dependence, I shall proceed to bring the whole passage before you ; noting also such additional circumstances as are related by St. Mark, and subjoining such observations and reflections for practice as shall appear naturally to suggest themselves. John preached in the wilderness of Judea : but, by some means or other, he was brought to Herod's court — or at least he had, in some way, opportunity and occasion to preach to him ; and he did preach to him with such ac- ceptance that, as St, Mark tells us, " Herod heard him gladly, and observed him ;"* and even went so far as to do many right things, which otherwise he would not have done, at his suggestion. " But at length Herod laid hold on John and bound him, and put him in prison ; and this he did for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife," Before we go further, it will be best to give some account of these persons. * Mark vi. JOHN THE BAPTIST. 269 There are three Herods mentioned in the New Testament. The one of whom we are going to speak, was the second of them ; the same who is usually called Herod Antipas, and the son of Herod the Great, who reigned at the period of our Saviour's birth. At his death, his kingdom was divided into four parts ; and when the word of God came to John the Baptist in the wilder- ness, this Herod Antipas had one of these parts, being tetrarch of Galilee ; * and his brother Philip had another of them, being tetrarch of Iturea and Trachonitis. Herod married the daughter of Aretas, king of Arabia Petrea, but conceiving a violent passion for the wife of his brother Philip, whose name wasHerodias, he put his own lawful wife away, and took her instead ; and when she came to his court, she brought with her a daughter, of whom we shall have occasion to speak more by-and-bye, whom she had by Philip, and whose name was Salome, At, or not long after, the period of this in- cestuous marriage, John had access to Herod ; and nothing daunted by the personal risk he ran, like a faithful man of God as he was, he boldly represented to him the sinfulness of his be- haviour. " It is not lawful for thee to have her," he says, meaning Herodias; and on this account it was, and at this bad woman's instigation, that * Luke iii. 1. 270 MARTYRDOM OF Herod shut up John in prison. Here he lay some time : and Herod being much irritated by the boldness which he had shown, was well enougli inclined to have proceeded to still greater ex- tremities with him ; and much more so was Herodias. " She had a quarrel against him, and would have killed him, but she could not ;" that is, she could not bring Herod to consent to it as yet. For this, two reasons are assigned. St. Matthew says, " He feared the multitude, because they counted John as a prophet ;" to which St. Mark adds, that " He feared John himself, know- ing that he was a just man and a hoh'." His conscience convinced him ; he stood in awe of John's integrity, and so paid that homage to virtue and godliness which vice is often con- strained, per force, to pay. The desire of revenge, however, still kept firm hold of Herodias ; she watched her opportunity, and it soon arrived. Herod's birth-day, it seems, was kept, and on that occasion he gave a grand banquet " to his lords, high captains, and chief estates of Galilee ;" and then Herodias and her daughter Salome thought fit to pay him a compliment, even in those times not usual, and in itself by no means modest or decorous. Salome came into the banqueting room, and there danced before Herod and his guests. With this exliibition the king JOHN THE BAPTIST. 271 was vastly pleased ; as were his lords also ; and being, perhaps, heated with wine, and certainly much off his guard, he bound himself, by a rash oath, to give her whatsoever she should ask, though it should be to the half of his kingdom. Salome did not think fit to make her demand without consideration, but retired to consult her mother. Now the master-passion of the heart seldom misses its opportunity. Herod ias saw instantly what use she could make of Herod's rashness, and she instructed her daughter to re- turn and ask for the head of John the Baptist. And though there no doubt must have been many things in Herod's power to bestow, the possession of which could not but have seemed very desirable in the eyes of a vain young woman like Salome, and which she would much more naturally have demanded, had she been left to herself, she nevertheless unhesitatingly denied herself so far, and fell in at once with her mother's views. " She came in straightway — (with haste, St. Mark says) to the king, and asked, saying, I will that thou give me, by- and-bye, the head of John the Baptist." And the king was sorry, " exceedingly sorry," as St. Mark writes ; " nevertheless, for the oath's sake, and them who sat at meat with him, he com- manded it to be given her." He by no means liked to do it, but yet he yielded. He ought to 272 MARTYRDOM OF have begged God's forgiveness for having wick- edly taken his name in vain, by swearing what he could not abide by without sin still greater : but instead of this, he chose to consider himself bound by the rash oath which he had taken. He was too proud to recede, or acknowledge himself surprised and circumvented ; and, as if it were a respect which he owed to his guests to fulfil an engagement to which he had pledged himself in their presence, and to reward, at any cost, the person who had contributed so courteously to their entertainment, he issued the fatal order, and " sent and beheaded John in the prison." Such is the history. It seems obvious to make some remarks both upon the conduct of the several actors in it, and upon the whole account, viewed as a dispensation of God's awful, but wise and holy providence. As for Herodias, the portrait presented to us of her is such a one as can only fill the mind with simple horror and detestation. The account given of her has no alleviating circumstances : her conduct, from the first, is utterly unprin- cipled, and we see her throughout steadily bent upon wreaking her vengeance to the uttermost on the holy man who had presumed to interpose a remonstrance between her and the gratification of her passions, without the least regard to the purity of his intentions, the exemplariness of his JOHN THE BAPTIST. 273 general character, or the obvious truth and justice of his faithful rebukes, and without the least re- morse for the guilt she was bringing upon Herod. But though the portrait is horrible, the present- ing of it to our view is not therefore useless : it shows W'hat human nature may come to where grace is not. It cries aloud to us, therefore, with the apostle, " to abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul;"* and which may carry such as once yield themselves their servants to obey them, to the most dreadful extremities : and in common with some other histories which God's w^isdom has seen fit to record of the awful, miserable consequences which have arisen from licentious gratification of sensual appetite, it is calculated to make us look with disgust and terror upon the first approaches to a class of crimes which certainly too many are disposed to look upon with indulgence ; and to dread, as our worst foes, any who, under whatever show of peculiar regard, will consent to be our partners in vice. And well would it be if man- kind saw what Holy Scripture shows them — the strict alliance wliich there is wont to be between sensual profligacy, and detestable, bloody cruelty ; and if they could learn from such histories as the one before us, instead of thinking of sin as associated with pleasure, * 1 Peter ii. 11. VOL. I. T 274 MARTYRDOM OF habitually to contemplate it, in its natural ten- dency to brutalise the mind altogether ; and never to remember it, without remembering also the downfal and the ruin to which it leads. But look next to the wretched daughter of this worthless mother, and to her vain exhibition at King Herod's feast. Great applause the poor creature got for her accomplishments, and her courtesy in the display of them ; and sump- tuous, no doubt, the king's entertainment was, and well contented, probably, were his guests : but it ended badly to all parties, and there is nothing in the account greatly to enamour us of this world's festivities. Without attempting, therefore, to show just where the lawful ends and the unlawful begins in such matters, I think it may be observed, in passing, that if pious Job did well in suffering his sons to feast in their houses every one his day, that which follows had also some reason in it : " It was so when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings, according to the number of them all ; for Job said, it may be that my sons have sin- ned, and cursed God in their hearts."* " When the harp and the viol, the tabret and the pipe, and wine are in their feasts," men too frequently * Job i. 4, 5. JOHN THE BAPTIST. 275 quite "disregard the work of the Lord, and lose all consideration of the operation of his hands ;"* and Christians will do well to keep on the safe side in the liberties they allow themselves. Very dangerous, too, it is obvious to remark, is the admiration bestowed upon the frivolous accomplishments of young persons, or any applause which people get beyond what is reasonable. Salome put herself in great peril by what she did ; and the event showed that it had been better for her had she been a "keeper at home,"t as the apostle speaks. It shows, too, the worthlessness of those mere exterior endowments which sometimes are all that parents care to have their children pos- sessed of. One would think that if Herod's guests had ever so much admired Salome's idle performance, they must have loathed the sight of her when she came in again, with the same graceful manner, to prefer her petition for John the Baptist's head ! This, however, she would not have done except at her mother's bidding. Whilst we shudder, therefore, at the thought of a mother sending her daughter upon such an errand, let us thank God if it has not fallen to our lot to find such foes as this in our own households ; and let all parents, that they may be quite sure of not leading their children wrong * Isa. V. 12. -|- Titus ii. 5. T 2 •276 MARTYRDOM OF in anything, take heed to go the only way to avoid so doing ; which certainly is, by giving all diligence positively and explicitly to " bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord."* There is no middle course. Turn we now to the principal character in this evil group — I mean King Herod. He had received John the Baptist with honour ; had observed him, respected him, and in some things even followed his godh" admonitions ; but he had sold himself to an unlawful passion, and made himself the slave of an unprincipled and imperious M'oman, for the gratification of that passion ; and when he was rebuked for his bosom sin, he was enraged against his faithful monitor; and though, in his hours of delibera- tion and self-possession, he was too politic to do violence to a favourite of the people, and had a wholesome fear of laying his hands upon a prophet of the Lord, yet he was liable to be taken by surprise, as all men are ; and then he acted as, in such a case, all men will do whose hands are tied by inferior principles, but whose hearts are not transformed by the grace of God. Learn, from his example, the vanity of half convictions and partial reformations, and the necessity, in order to salvation, of declaring war at once against the sin that you love best, * Eph. vi. 4. JOHN THE BAPTIST. 277 be it what it may. When plain, downright, uncompromising truth, such as would be deli- vered by such a preacher as John the Baptist, is brought before the mind, most people will go as far as Herod went. It is not in people's choice. If the conscience is not absolutely seared with a hot iron, the truth of God will approve itself to their consciences ; and reve- rence the messenger they must, if (as John's was) his life be coincident with his doctrine. But it is of no avail to attempt to compound with God under convictions : the world will all be godly, if God will let them go to heaven for the merit of as many good works as they can perform, without self-denial, and will dispense with obedience where it thwarts a headstrong- inclination. But God will not so be mocked. Thou shalt have the Lord for thy God, and thou shalt have no other ; therefore thou shalt zealously and honestly give to God that very place in thine heart which the sin that is dear- est to thee has usurped : that must be thrust down, and by his grace be expelled, that he may be enthroned. And if thou canst not all at once exterminate the appetite, yet thou must go down upon thy knees, and ask him to give thee grace against it ; and believe with the leper in the gospel, " Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean."* And from the outward * Matt. viii. 2. 278 MARTYRDOM OF act of thy favourite siu thou must keep tliyself, and from the temptation (at least from running to meet the temptation) through which thou hast hitherto fallen into it. And thus thou cuttest off the offending right hand, and pluckest out the offending right eye ; the pain which thou en- durest in the doing of it, showing thee, all along, the necessity of the deed : for you may take this for a sound rule — the more you desire not to part with a particular sin or evil habit, the nearer it goes to your heart to part with it ; the more assuredly that habit is in God's place, and the more certainly ruined you are if you do not part w-ith it. Therefore set our Lord's argument against your own reluctance, and see which is weightiest : " It is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell,"t Arise, and flee for your lives. If you will do so, the same Spirit which has convinced, is able to convert : the same Saviour who provided for your conviction, and showed you, by his word, what your sin was, did it because he was will- ing to convert, and he will answer the prayer for sanctification when you shall put it up ; for "all things are possible with God." When Herod's conscience forced it upon him that John was a man of God. and John said to him in God's name, and Herod could not dispute it, * Matt. V 29. JOHN THE BAPTIST. 279 " It is not lawful for thee to have thy brother's wife," Herod might not have been able, and might not all at once have been enabled, by God's grace, to have conquered his passion for her, so that he should have given her up with- out feeling loss or pain : but, in spite of the pain, he might have sent the woman out of his house ; and had he done so, he would have done an act more acceptable to God, and more demonstrative of honesty, and of the fear of the Lord, than all the things put together to which John had persuaded him. He would have done the very thing which alone could be fit evidence of repentance : for though he would have surrendered nothing but a very worthless idol, and his loss would have been, personally to himself, a great gain, (as to part with sin, and with the ministers of sin, always is a great gain,) yet he would have surrendered what was his carnal mind's chief good for God's sake ; and then the Lord would, no doubt, have stood by him, and he should have had " more grace," and the remainder of this sad history would have been spared. But he chose to keep his idol ; and though he did not mean, at the instant, to make his faithful reprover a bloody sacrifice at that base idol's shrine, it was but in the natural course of things that he should do so, as in fact he did ; and if you will 280 MARTYRDOM OF keep your besetting sins, it will be the same with you ; they will lead you on into mischief", which now you may not contemplate. It is absurd to think that they will never carry you beyond a certain point. You may be upon your guard just now, but you will not be so always. You live among the vanities of this wicked world ; and some sight as silly, some exhibition as impertinent, as that of Salome dancing before Herod and his lords, may be so occupying you, and so putting God out of your thoughts, that vou may have no time to recol- lect yourselves just when the temptation crosses you, through which the devil, or some fair- spoken agent of his, comes and asks you just only to " fill up the measure of your sins," and do the act which perhaps now your heart ab- hors. Why may not you commit yourselves by a rash engagement, as Herod did ? and then consider how that man lived afterwards. Herod was a Jew ; and of the sect, as is supposed, of the Sadducees ; but when Herod heard of the fame of Jesus — " This is John," he says, " whom I beheaded ; he is risen from the dead." Now it was the peculiar tenet of the Sadducees that there is no resurrection : but the image of the man whom he had murdered, no doubt had been continually before Herod's mind after tlie fact was done \ and therefore. JOHN THE BAPTIST. 281 in spite of his infidel principles, when he heard of an extraordinary person, the accusing spirit in his own bosom would let him think of no- thing else but John the Baptist. *' Thus the wicked are as the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt." *' There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked." * But from the actors in this woful history let us turn to the holy sufferer. In what spirit, or with what demeanour, John met his death, the Evangelist indeed has not related, nor is it of any importance to us to be informed, since we know what is of so much more consequence, namely, how he lived. But upon this silence of the scripture record, and upon the general slowness of scripture to speak respecting the manner in which God's saints have died, I would make one remark. Certainly it is not usual with the sacred writers to enter into the particulars of men's behaviour at this season. The good actions of good men are plain, intelli- gible matters, and being seen, ought to be marked ; but the language and outward de- portment of a dying man, though it may often be edifying, and though it is highly fitting then to note it — and his friends may take comfort from reflecting upon the piety of it, when they * Isa. Ivii. 20, 21. •282 MARTYRDOM OF can couple it ^vith a godly conversation in time past ; yet it is, in itself, a thing which must not be scanned too narrowl}', or be depended upon too explicitly, or be judged of too peremptorily as evidence of a man's spiritual condition, one way or the other. A man is not himself in a situation of extreme weakness. The mere ef- fect of disease may, and often does, cause a very good man to depart as under a cloud ; whilst, on the other hand, Satan can deceive the wicked as well on their deathbeds as at any other time: and though charity ''hopeth all things," I do think what are called the happ3^ deaths of people, whose lives have been notoriously wicked, are oftentimes set forth in print, for the instruction of the ignorant, in a way which, to say the least, is very presump- tuous and incautious. The way which the Bible takes to glorify God's grace, and to show what it has wrought in his saints, is, as I ob- served, by informing us how it enabled them to behave in life : this, at least, is the course with respect to John the Baptist. However, I must not now go beyond what is recorded of him in the passage under our review. Two things are there briefly noted, from which, especially if considered in connexion with each other, much wholesome instruction may be drawn. We have a specimen of his method of exhorta- JOHN THE BAPTIST. 283 tion, and in St. Mark, an account of the manner in which even such a one as Herod was affected by the consideration of his general deportment. John's object was to glorify God, and to save the soul of his hearer; so with uncompromising, fearless honesty, he goes straight to his point. He is not satisfied with having brought Herod a little way, but he plainly rebukes his favourite iniquity, and tells him that he must not spare that ; and then we have Herod's own testimony in his favour. As to parting with Herodias, it is true, he would not hear of it; — here the preacher failed, notwithstanding that he had got the conscience of his auditor on his side. But yet in the general " Herod feared John, know- ing that he was a just man and an holy, and ob- served him : and when he heard him, he did many things, and heard him gladly." And this was after John had been so bold as to attack his bosom sin ; for St. Mark assigns this reve- rence which Herod bare towards John, as the reason why Herodias could not kill him, as she desired to do, because of the offence she had taken at that rebuke. And now here is a les- son to all to speak the truth boldly, without fear of consequences ; and, if we will consider the matter a little, great encouragement also to do so. It is true, John lost his life by his faith- fulness ; but we know who has said, " He that 284 MARTYRDOM OF will lose his life for my sake, the same shall find it."* We are sure, that John's loss was a great gain indeed. But such a fiery trial as that to which he was called, is not likely to be our lot, in times in which no man can be persecuted for righteousness' sake unto death. How much more then are we inexcusable, if, for fear of man, as so often happens, we will wink at the sins of those whom it is our dut}' to reprove, or be ashamed of Christ and his gospel before the world ! To people circumstanced as we are, the history gives every encouragement, if we would be honest ; it tells us, that if fearing God and keeping his commandments, we will not be afraid of the world, the world will be afraid of us. When people professing godliness begin to show a timid, compromising spirit, and to act as if they were very anxious that the world should speak v/ell of them, and to be over-fear- ful of displeasing and offending those whom, as they well know, nothing can reconcile to de- cided piety, — then the world is quick-sighted enough to see, that these people have not as much principle as will bear them out. And such shall always be the object of the world's attack. But in what is to be said or done for God or God's cause, though we must always "speak the truth in love," and take as much care, as with honesty we can, not to affront those * Matt. X. 39. JOHN THE BAPTIST. 285 whom it is our duty to persuade, yet we have nothing to do with calculating just how much the world will be pleased to tolerate of plain speaking, or plain dealing, or zealous practice ; nor need we be much troubled ; neither shall we be, if we are in earnest. Without any affecta- tion, or hypocritical parade, people may by the grace of God so conduct themselves, as to force the world to see that their part is chosen — that their loyalty to God is impregnable — that they always will speak out, if they speak at all — and that they will never sanction by word or deed, by concession to others, any more than by ex- ample in themselves, a lower standard of reli- gious practice than the true one. And then the world is a coward in its heart. The men of the world fear such people, as Herod feared John, and will let them alone ; yea, will reverence them, and be kept in awe, and be kept in order too, by means of them ; so that they will be instruments to support the weak, and to repress iniquity, where they can do no more. They will help to make God's cause respected at the least ; and then it is certain they have taken the course in which their own souls shall be saved, through the merits of him that lovetb them ; and it may be always hoped, and will in fact generally be found, that though unsuccessful with some, as John was 286 MARTYRDOINI OF with Herod, they will yet effectually ))oint others, as he pointed many, "to behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world." If, brethren, you would be assured of salva- tion to yourselves — if you would be useful in the best way to others — if you would stop the mouths of gainsayers — adorn the doctrine of the gospel — give no occasion to the Lord's enemies to blaspheme, — the road to all this is not the road of lukewarmness, and hesitation, and timidity, and scrupulosity about giving offence ; but in the general habit of your lives let there be a plain and fearless avowal of your senti- ments— a decided, consistent endeavour to do all for the glory of God. And if you ask, how shall you get men to bear with this ? One method I shall commend to you, by which you may try to reconcile them, and no more : " Above all things, put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness."* Pray to God that this may be in your hearts ; if it is there, it icill shine and show itself in your lives ; and when the good-will of those about you is not to be ob- tained by these means, you may do very well without it ; and when any, in spite of these graces abounding in you, shall speak evil of you, or despitefully use you, you may very well en- * Coloss. iii. 14. JOHN THE BAPTIST. 287 dure it. And if by an ordinary providential dispensation, or even by the hands of violence and wrong, a godly man or a godly minister of the gospel, of this decidedly faithful and cha- ritable character, should be cut off, as John was, in the prime of life and usefulness, there is nothing for him to grieve for; and to those whom he may leave behind him, there is by far greater cause for thankfulness than sorrow. Let us pray that the fruit may ripen, and then, at God's pleasure be it when it shall fall. Let us be careful to be found ready, and then, let the Lord come at his own good time. Such a one as I have spoken of, let him die as young as he will, has lived long enough for the purposes for which life is given, and is "ga- thered in as a shock of corn in his season."* And as to the church, which was wont to be edified by a good man's life or doctrine — as to the friends or dear connexions who are bereaved of a good man's care — all must learn that lesson, " Let no man glory in men."f God gives lights to the world, and helpmates to individuals, in the persons of those who have his grace in their hearts ; and great need there is to bless him for the loan thus lent unto us, whilst we have it. But God wants no man's assistance for * .lob V. 26. t 1 Cor. iii. 21. 288 MARTYRDOM OF the building* up of his people, or for doing any manner of good to any who trust in him. When he takes away one, he can send a better — as Jesus began, when John departed. " Leave thy fatherless children, I will preserve them alive ; (he says ;) and let thy widows trust in me."* If any of you have now good parents, husbands, friends, or spiritual advisers — thank God for them ; use them while you may : and let the thought of the shortness of human life stir you up to profit by them at once. If any of you have lost such, remember you have not therefore lost the Lord ; he hath the residue of the Spirit ; he shall keep you in perfect peace, if your mind be stayed upon hira. " Come unto him, all ye that labour and are heavy laden. "t Let all earthly privations and bereave- ments bring you into closer acquaintance and communion with God in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself ; and then, let you have lost what earthly friend you may, you will be brought to one, "whose shoe's latchet that friend was not worthy to stoop down and un- loose."^ "There is one good, and that is God." § May his grace enable us all to believe it; and to draw the waters of our consolation from the * Jer. xlix. 11. f Matt. xi. 28. X Mark. i. 7. § Matt. xix. 17. JOHN THE BAPTIST. 289 fountain head : anything else the weakest of us may do without, so long as we have grace to believe his promise — " I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee."* * Heb. xiii. 5. VOL. I. U '290 SERMON XV. THE DANGER OF SECURITY. 1 Corinthians x. 12. " Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest hefalL^ This exhortation is built by St. Paul upon a review which he had been making of the con- duct of Israel in the wilderness. That genera- tion had abundant privileges : they had been redeemed out of the house of bondage, by signs and miracles, most gracious, and most awful : they were fed by miracle every day : they were obliged by kindnesses innumerable : the Lord of hosts was with them, and dwelt among them : they had heard him speaking to them out of the midst of the fire, and he went before them, in a pillar of a cloud by day, and in a fire by night to guide them. But though they had sung and THE DANGER OF SECURITY. 291 shouted for his glorious triumphs ; and had re- joiced in him as their help and their shield so often, " with many of them he was not well pleased, and they were overthrown in the wil- derness ;" " they lusted after evil things ;" "they made a calf in Horeb, and worshipped the molten image;" "they committed fornica- tion, for which there fell of them, in one day, ^hree-and-twenty-thousand ; they tempted Christ, and were destroyed of serpents ; they murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer." This is his account of them ; and then he adds, " Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples, and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come : wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall." He that thinketh he standeth, is one, who, whether he be a truly pious and christian man, or not, at least looks upon himself as such : but doing so, he does not perceive himself to be in any great spiritual danger now at present. How- ever, think he as he may, danger there surely is : for how is he any better than Israel? and why should that not happen to him, which, in spite of so much mercy of God, happened afore- time to them ? Most undoubtedly, it is possible for him to fall : and if so, his persuasion of security adds greatly to the hazard. Especially u 2 292 THE DANGER OF SECURITY. therefore, and, above all men, let such a one take heed. This is the apostle's meaning. There are three thing-s which the words give me occasion to set before you. I. The danger there is of falling to every one of us. II. How greatly the danger is increased by a •vain security, or a " thinking that we standi III. The true way of security by which we may stand. I. And first, as to the danger there is of fall- ing to every one of us. By falling, of course, is meant falling into sin ; and, in this place, it must mean falling into such sins as thev, the consideration of whose case gave occasion to the warnings, did actually fall into- But of them it is especially commemorated, that " they lusted after evil things," were " idolaters, fornicators, tempters of Christ, mur- murers," in a direct, explicit, and gross manner, against God. Wickednesses like these, or, at least, as bad as these wickednesses and such as will issue funless grace prevent, and repentance intervene) in destruction, and in the being shut out from the heavenly Canaan : these are the fallinos meant. The thing to be considered, therefore, is tlie possibility and the danger that the very best of us may fall in this shameful and awful way. THE DANGER OF SECURITY. 293 So much the apostle's words imply, and it will not be hard to prove it. I will grant, that \^ou may have repented ; I will grant, that your pro- fession of the gospel may be sincere ; that you have resolved against sin ; against all sin, and, above all, against your bosom sin — the sin you love best ; and that you may think at this present time, that it would be better you should die, than turn back again to the idols which you have loved. I will grant, if you please* (and to put as strong a case as I can, and so to conclude more certainly, in all lower or weaker cases,) I will grant, that, at this moment, you really would sooner die than wilfully commit such or such a particular iniquity. Yet still, I affirm it is possible for you to fall. Yea, and it is possible that the temptation to that very ini- quity may come upon you so suddenly, or so sweetly, as that you may yield even to that, and being fallen by it, may lie down polluted under it like slaves. Take an example or two of the fact, before we proceed further. They may show you, at least, that there is some difference between be- ing resolved to fight, and actually facing the enemy in the field. Is it likely, think you, that David had never resolved and prayed against uncleanness? or, will any of you, after reading the books of Samuel and the Psalms, give your- 294 THE DANGER OF SECl'RITY. selves credit for being wiser, better, holier, and more established servants of the Lord than he was in earl}' life ? Yet, you all know how he fell into adultery, and how that led him to wilful murder ! — Perhaps you will not] give yourselves credit, without some hesitation, for loving the Lord Jesus Christ with more sincerity and fer- vency than St. Peter did before the crucifixion. Certainly, that honest, hasty man spoke from his heart, and what he was resolved upon, when he said — " Though I should die with thee, yet will 1 not den}' thee."* Yet you know what followed ; and for your learning is his scandal- ous denial of his Master recorded : and not with- out good reason. One who was no very wise man, had wisdom enough to say to his adver- sary, (and the event justified his saying,) " Let not him that girdeth on his harness, boast him- self as he that putteth it oS".'"! Let us look then to your case how it stands. You are converted ; you are walking in the way of the Lord, you think; — be it so; but, consi- der what you have been converted from, (if that is indeed the case,) and what you are by nature. "Look to the rock whence you were hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence you \n ere digged.";}; If you have any self-knowledge, you well know that your natural mind is " enmity against * Matt. xxvi. .35. + 1 Kings xx. 11, \ Isa. li. 1. THE DANGER OF SECURITY. 295 God :"* and, unless you were sanctified from your very childhood, that you were once the slaves of many corrupt affections : perhaps ye were even grossly "foolish, deceived and dis- obedient, serving divers lusts and pleasures, liv- ing in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another :"f perhaps ye had contracted no small familiarity with wilful sin, and had lived in it in despite of conscience. But be this as it may, what is your conversion itself? Are you so com- pletely sanctified in body, soul and spirit, that you hate sin with an absolute and perfect ha- tred ? Or doth not our church declare truly, "The infection of nature remaineth ; yea, in them that are regenerated, whereby the lust of the flesh is not subject to the law of God?";j; Is it not so, that if with St. Paul you can say^ " I delight in the law of God after the inward man," you are obhged to acknowledge with him, "I see another law in my members, war- ring against the law of my mind."§ Examine yourselves ; look into your own hearts ; recol- lect yourselves a little : — you are living, you imagine, in a course of holy obedience. I shall not deny it ; — perhaps it is so ; but do you not occasionally at least perceive in yourselves some- thing like a disposition to go a contrary way ? * Rom. viii. 7. f Titus iii. 3. + Art. ix. § Rom. vii. 22, 23. 296 THE DANGER OF SECURITY. Do you not sometimes feel that it is with some reluctance, and at a considerable cost of self- denial, that you do your duty ? Is it not up-hill work ? Is there not, too often, a sense of weari- ness both in prayer and in the offices of obe- dience, even when no apparent temptations or crosses are before you ? Or, to go a step fur- ther, have you not, since you thought you were turned to God, in some things turned from him, and resisted the Spirit and refused to fol- low his guidance ? Perhaps you can recollect a fall or two which you have had already ; or if you have not deliberately gone back to the world or to sin, may you not, like Lot's wife, have looked back with a longing eye ? Or if you have been very stedfast and very zealous, and very affectionately devout; may it not be, because your religious convictions are of no very long- standing? " To them who hy patient continuance in well doing seek for glory, and honour, and immortality, eternal life"* is promised. It may- be, you have not yet had time for this. At all events, hear the Scriptures : " Ye must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.^f "Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be who find it." J " Strive to enter in at the strait gate ; for many, I say unto you, * Rom. U.J, f Acts xiv. 22. I Matt. vii. 14- THE DANGER OF SECURITY. 297 shall seek to enter in, but shall not be able."* The tempter never slumbers ; the world is full of snares ; the flesh is always bribeable. "The heart is deceitful above all things," (saith the prophet,) " and desperately wicked : — who can know it V'f " He that trusteth in his own heart therefore is a fool. "J But you have withstood some temptations : — what then ? So had Balaam the Son of Bosor : but when Balak sent more honourable messengers, and richer rewards and fairer promises ; he could hold fast his integrity no longer. Satan has more arrows in his quiver yet. If you are not to be fright- ened out of your religious profession, possibly you may be flattered out of it ; if you will not sell your souls for money, yet for pleasure perhaps you may ; if the world's lying doctrines cannot deceive you, some wicked perversion of Scrip- ture may ; if you. cannot be drawn to commit a positive crime, you may be drawn to neglect a duty, or to slight the means of grace; if you will not yield to passion, you may give way to sloth, and then lust will come in afterwards. So Da- vid fell. Or, in spite of warning, you may forget to watch, and so sin through surprise, though you would not do it coolly and advisedly. Thus Peter fell. And, like Israel, you may remember the diet of Egypt, and pine for it. * Luke xiii. 24, f Jerem. xvii. 9. I Prov. xxviii. 26. 298 THE DANGER OF SECURITY. In some hour of fatigue, or relaxation, or un- watchfulness, the tempter may venture to sug- gest to your minds, that it was well with you, all ease and enjoyment once; when, fearing no hell and hoping no heaven, and not concerning your- selves that God observed you, you did freely eat the forbidden fruit, and found it (whether good for food or not) at least as agreeable to the taste as it was pleasant to the eyes. And then the downhill road is easy — the backslider returns, as it were, to the society of old ac- quaintances ; and his evil appetites make them- selves speedy amends for their long abstinence. " When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest and finding none : then saith he, I will return unto ray house from whence I came out ; and when he is come, he findeth it swept and garnished : then goeth he, and taketh with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they en- ter in and dwell there ; and the last state of that man is worse than the first."* So it is too often : and because of the corruption yet re- maining in your hearts, there is danger that it may be so with any of you. However, if ye be Christians, " Greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. "f " God is greater than your heart ;";]; and " His * Matt. xii. 43. f 1 John iv. 4. t 1 John iii. 20, THE DANGER OF SECURITY. 299 grace is sufficient for you ;"* and his promises are all that can be desired to those who will lay hold upon them : and therefore, in spite of all these dangers, it certainly is possible for you, at the very least, so far to stand, as to be kept from disgracing your profession by gross and scandalous sin. Instances of this there have been, and there are continually. II. But I proceed now to the second head, which I purposed to consider, and therein to point out to you a principle of downfal and destruction, which, if you be not upon your guard against it, will render it impossible for you not to fall ; — even that by which Peter fell, (for surprise alone could not have hurt him,) namely, a vain security, or a " thinking that you stand" Awful as is that host of perils and snares which I have already spoken of as encompass- ing you, yet (as I have said) it is possible for you to stand against them; but add this to them, or to any one of the least of them, and that possibility is gone. He that fears, and trembles, and distrusts himself, may fight his way under the banner of the Lord throusli tremendous trials ; but he that thinketh he standeth, has yielded the only tenable ground * 2 Cor. xii. 9. 300 THE DANGER OF SECURITY. to tlie enemy already, and so has already half lost the battle. When I speak of a man's thinking that he standeth, and of vain security, I mean to direct your minds to the state of a person who, be- cause he may have been proceeding prosper- ously in a religious course for some time, hath at length most foolishly and causelessly begun to forget his danger. He imagines that, be- yond a doubt, all things are to continue with his soul as they at present are, or to improve. Because he hears the word with joy, he is always to do so ; because his religious impres- sions are at this moment strong and lively, his mind is always to feel the importance of reli- gion, and the excellency and the blessedness of it as now it does ; and because he is now enabled to despise some temptations to sin, which, heretofore, would have overpowered him, he is becoming insensible of his own weakness and proneness to sin, unconscious of bearing in his bosom a treacherous, backsliding, and revolting heart, till at length it passes away from his apprehensions that he is absolutely dependent upon God, and must be kept, and only can be kept, by his power, through faith and instant prayer and watchfulness, in the way upon which he is entered. This is a very THE DANGER OF SECURITY. 301 likely condition for any of us to come to. It is what most do come to in the course of their trial, and do suffer from more or less, till they are either recovered from it by divine grace, or finally destroyed : and it is a condition the more to be dreaded and guarded against, be- cause we are brought to it by imperceptible degrees ; because, indeed, many are actually arrived at it, and so are come to the very brink of a pit before they have themselves the small- est suspicion that they are approaching towards it. When the young disciple has served God for a little while with zeal and a seeming will- ingness, he finds in that service such perfect freedom and enjoyment ; his present condition, in the mere article of comfort, is so preferable to his former state of living without God in the world, that whilst temptation is at a distance, he can hardly conceive how he should ever bring himself to draw back. To his present apprehensions it is something quite unnatural ; but is he, on that account, absolutely safe? Alas! alas! just when his heart burns within liim, and he thinks that for the wwld he would not part with his happy experiences, as he calls them, of God's love ; when prayer and praise are become his delight, and he is congratulat- ing himself upon his spiritual victories ; when all his sails are set, and it appears as if a fair 302 THE DANGER OF SECURITY. wind were carrying the gallant vessel of his religious hope at once into the desired haven . just then — (what a pity to cast a damp upon the exultation of such a happy being !) — just then it may be so : and if there is, on his part, no fear of such a thing at all, it surely is so, that there is but a step between him and some deadly downfal. Depend upon it, it can never safely be permitted to the disciple of him who came to save his people from their sins, to forget his own weakness and his own sinfulness for any length of time, or to be unconscious that it is possible for him to relapse into the very sins which he has resolved against most zealously, even though he should now be in a frame of mind to be pleased with nothing so much as " praising the Lord for his goodness, and for the wonders which he doeth for the children of men/' The very next thing to thinking all is well, with men who dwell in the body, is, through our corruption and the base pride of our hearts, a little carelessness ; not all at once a ceasing from the act of prayer, or an interruption of the course of it, but a diminution of the spirit of prayer : a little less of earnestness in prayer, and a little sloth, and then soon follows some self-indulgence, some postponing of duty, some actual sin, and not far off, some gross sin, and THE DANGER OF SECURITY. 303 the fall is felt. But the recovery, in all likeli- hood, is at a grievous distance. The soul, having " fallen such a pernicious height," is stunned and stupified. All is dismay and darkness and confusion. God, who was so lately a Father of mercies, and a God of all consolation, now appears as a stern and angry Judge. How should the soul go to him ? Or if, perhaps, it thinks of going to him, accustomed, as it hath been of late, to the joyful contemplation of its religious privileges, and pampered, as through its own folly it hath been, rather than nourished by its comforts, repentance seems a dreary task, and self-examination is most distasteful ; and so the work is put off till the old man revives, and the former pleasures of sin are re- collected ; and the idols of the sinner's days of ignorance are reinstated in their dominion, and remorse is overcome, and conscience stifled, till at length he who once seemed to run so well, becomes more sin's slave than ever. III. But (which is the last point I had to speak to) there certainly is one true way of security by which the christian soldier might be enabled to "withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand." If the carnal and vain security, of which so much has been said, be suffered to come to a height, then indeed no man can tell you how 304 THE DANGER OF SECURITY. you may stand in spite of it. But the way of true security, and the only way, is by the avoiding of that carnal securit3^ See then to this. Pray to God continually that at all times, and under all circumstances, he would keep up in your hearts a salutary spirit of self-distrust. " With the lowly is wisdom,"* and " Happy is the man that feareth always."')" It may seem hard to press upon the zealous, and the fervent in spirit, anything which may look like a check or damp upon the glow of their religious affections : but circum- spection and consideration are seldom out of season ; and that is a divine word which saith to you : " Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. "J At those times, then, when you have most spiritual comfort, and are filled with the liveliest hopes, and have done best» and look upon yourselves as more than usually favoured by God, at those times consider your- selves as especially called upon to reflect on your natural corruption, and on the miscarriages of former times, and to beg of God to establish, strengthen, settle you. Strive to have it as much as possible upon your minds, that special religious privileges and advantages, and con- quests over temptation in the strength of the Lord, are calls not only to thankfulness, but to * Prov. xi. 2. t Prov. xxviii. 14. I Ps. ii. 11. THE DANGER OF SECURITY. 305 awe and godly fear. Remember it is the Lord your God who hath led you all these years through this wilderness of snares and perils ; and that, by having done so, seeing you could not have gone one step in safety by yourselves, he has laid upon you an awful obligation to watchfulness, lest his labour of love prove vain with you. Recollect not only that your bodies are " temples of the Holy Ghost,"* and that *' Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates,"f but also how much it must aggravate your guilt, if, with such a provision made for your soul's health, you should after all miscarry. And to the intent that you may never lose sight of the possibility of a miscarriage, and of your being seduced to forsake the Lord when he leadeth you by the way, and that you may not be puffed up in the vanity of your fleshly mind, consider well God's word to Ezekiel : "I will establish my covenant with thee, and thou shalt know that I am the Lord, that thou mayest re- member and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame, when I am pacified toward thee for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord God. "J And take pattern from penitent David : " I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me."§ * 1 Cor. vi. 19. t 2 Cor. xiii. 3. % Ezek. xvi. 62, 63. § Ps. li. 3. VOL. 1. X 306 THE DANGER OF SECURITY. Never fail to make confession of sin a part of your secret religious worship, and study to be in confession as particular as you can. Be con- tinually looking back to see how you were led into sin ; and let your remembrance of the many instances of sin teach you your prone- ness to it. " When I am weak," says St. Paul, "then I am strong."* This, I believe, is a rule without any exception ; and so is the converse of it — when I am strong, then am I weak. One thing may safely be vouched for respect- ing perseverance; — whosoever is to endure to the end, and so to be saved, it can only be in a way of lowliness, and patience, and humility, and watching, and Christian industry, and persevering prayer, and godly fear, and self- distrust, and proving of a man's own self, and jealous suspicion of a man's treacherous heart, and abjuring of his own strength. If you will suffer yourselves to be advised in these things, you may then be counselled further, otherwise it is to little purpose to say more. But "Be not wise in your own conceits."f *' Be ye clothed with humility.":]: " Be not prudent in your own sight."§ " Be not high-minded, but fear."|| " Work out your salvation with * 2 Cor. xii. 10. f Rom. xii. 16. % 1 Peter v. 5. § Isa. V. 21. II Rom. xi. 20. THE DANGER OF SECURITY. 307 fear and trembling ;"* and then it may be added, and must be added, " Take unto you the whole armour of" God."f "To this man the Lord will look, even to him that is poor, and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at his word.";jl This man will be thankful for the means of grace, and will find grace through tiie use of them. He will " abide in Christ" by faith, for he has no other trust or stay, "and Christ will abide in him"§ by his Spirit, " and satisfy his soul in drought, and make fat his bones. "II This is the man of whom it is writ- ten, " I will never leave thee nor forsake thee."^ "Trust therefore in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not to your own understanding ; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct your paths."** " God hath sent his only begotten Son, that ye might live through him ;"tt '^^^> " Through him ye may have access by one Spirit to the Father.";|;:j: Then hear the words of David : "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. "§§ Go and do ye likewise. Be this your faith and your continual prayer, * Phil. ii. 12. t Eph. vi. 13. J Isa. Ixvi. 2. § John XV. 4. II Isa. Iviii. 11. ^ Heb. xiii. 5. ** Piov. iii. 3, 6. +t 1 John iv. 9. XX Ep'i- »• 18. § § Ps. cxxi. 1—8. X 2 308 THE DANGER OF SECURITY, and then, before ye call, here is the answer ready — God only waits to be inquired of, that he may do it for you. " He will not suffer thy foot to be moved. He that keepeth thee will not slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep." The Lord is thy keeper : the Lord is thy shade on thy right hand. " The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night." "The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil : he shall preserve thy soul." " The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore." 309 SERMON XVI. HUMILITY THE ROAD TO GREATNESS. Matthew xviii. 2, 3, 4. ''And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, ** And said. Verily I say unto you, unless ye he converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. " Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.'^ The disciples had put a question to our Saviour upon a subject which seems to liave occupied their minds very often. It appears, however, from the other evangelists, that they were driven to do so, by his having first asked them, "What they had disputed by the way." They were not very willing to explain themselves ; but being aware that he knew their thoughts, 310 HUMILITY THE they at length plainly inquired, " Which of them was to be the greatest " in the kinodora which he was about to establish ? No doubt it was an earthly kingdom which they had in view ; and each of them, on his own ground, conceived himself to be entitled to the highest place in it ; so that the dispute originated in mistake and worldly ambition ; and increase of grace, and the glories of the world to come, had no place in their thoughts as subjects of inquiry. Our Lord's reply, however, had reference to these things. He was going to establish a spiritual kingdom, and qualifications were ne- cessary both for admittance into it, and for advancement to its posts of honour, ver}^ differ- ent from any which had occurred to their minds under their very mistaken views of the nature of it. If the proud ambitious spirit, at present too visible in their demeanour, should not be brought into better subjection, there would be little evidence of their conversion to God : and in that case thev could not so much as enter into his kingdom, much less be exalted above their brethren who should be found there ; but he would do better than tell them which should be greatest ; that is, whether it should be John, or James, or Matthew, or Peter, or any other : he would tell them what those dispositions of ROAD TO GREATNESS. 311 the heart were, which would infallibly lead to greatness ; and inasmuch as they wanted a pattern, he would set one before them, by the following of which any of them might attain to all that a holy and pious ambition could aspire after. "Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them ;" and whilst they doubtless wondered, and were much puzzled to think what could be his meaning, he shows them that such a poor, little, lowly thing as that child, was the very best type or emblem which could be exhibited of the character and qualifications of those who should attain to honour in his kingdom. They must be like that child. " Verily I say unto you, except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever, therefore, shall humble himself as this little child, the same is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven." Tlie words, no doubt, are a call to conver- sion ; but they set it before us under a special aspect, and therefore I shall confine myself to that single view of it. In order for a man to enter into the kingdom of heaven, and be a disciple of Christ at all, such a change must pass upon his heart, as shall bring him to the temper and disposition of a little child : and if 312 HUMILITY THE he would grow in grace, and advance in the kingdom of heaven, it must be through advanc- ing in this self-same child-like spirit : this, I believe, is the doctrine of the text. I. Let us take the former part of the doc- trine first : — In order to a man's entering into the kingdom of heaven, in order to his being a disciple of Christ at all, such a change must pass upon his heart as shall bring him to the dispo- sition and temper of a little child. In explaining this, a mistake must be guarded against in the outset. Jesus (as we have said) placed a little child before his disciples, and told them, that except they were converted, and be- came as little children, they could not enter into the kingdom of heaven : and, in another place, he is related to have rebuked certain persons, who would have kept little children from him, declaring, that "of such is the king- dom of God."* These expressions of his, how- ever, do not imply any contradiction of the doc- trine of human corruption : he does not declare in them that children are innocent, in the strict sense of the word, or not born in sin. His words have no bearing upon this point at all ; he is not comparing the n)ind or manners of little children with the divine law, and affirming their exact agreement with that rule of our sanctifi- * Mark X. 14. ROAD TO GREATNESS. 313 cation : the comparison implied in his saying, is between the tempers and habits of a child, and the tempers and habits of a grown person. And what he means is, that his disciples should be instructed by observing the difference. If they would be his disciples indeed, and grow in meetness for glory and immortality, let them cultivate that spirit, which commonly dis- tinguishes children from grown men and women. We have to inquire, then, what this pecu- liarly child like spirit is. And here our blessed Redeemer has not left us in the dark. The dis- tinguishing feature in children which he fixes upon, and to which he directs our notice, is their humdity. For the expression in the first clause of the text, to become as little children, is explained in the second clause, by humbling ourselves, as little children. The sum of what the text requires of us, as necessary to our en- trance into Christ's kingdom, is included under the notion of a child-like humility. Observe then how humility in children shows itself ; and it will be very easy to see how fit an emblem it is of that which we all need, in order to our right acceptance of the religion of Jesus Christ. The humility of children is manifested, in the first place, by their peculiar docility or teach- 314 HUMILITY THE ableness. Everybody knows, I suppose, that an io;norant child is much easier to be instructed than an ignorant man. If you will set about the teaching of an ignorant man, you will in all probability find, that before you can stir one step towards informing his mind on the particu- lar point you have in view, you have a lesson to inculcate very much harder than that would be, if he were but prepared for entering upon it. You have to convince him, that he stands in need of instruction, and that you do not insult him, by taking upon you to be his tutor. But the child has got this hard lesson already ; he knows that he knows nothing ; everything is new to him — everything is strange : and by his eager curiosity, and the multitude of questions which he asks, he sufficiently assures you, that he will be right glad of an}^ information which you can give him, and that it has never entered into his head that you are not wiser than he. He is not at all affronted by the air of supe- riority which you necessarily assume in instruct- ing him ; he feels himself to be quite in his place as an inquirer, and that you are quite in yours as teaching him. That you take his en- tire ignorance for granted, does not in the least offend him ; he expects that you should do so. He is not come to show you his learning, but to seek yours ; and if he cannot understand your ROAD TO GREATNESS. 315 explanations of everything, he does not there- fore doubt your assertions. He takes your word for it, that things are as you tell him they are, and this he does readily, for he is sure that he knows nothing to the contrary ; and what- ever may appear difficult or unaccountable, he is not ashamed to resolve into his own incompe- tency and immaturity of judgment. And if it were not so with children, who could teach them anything ? Now, another name for a Christian is a disciple or learner. Religion is a knowledge of God, and of the method of salva- tion ; and therefore, depend upon it, the Chris- tian has need of this same teachableness, and of the humility which is its root, or he will remain in the dark for ever. " Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit ? — there is more hope of a fool than of him."* — "If an}^ man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him be- come a fool, that he may be wise."| You do know nothing of the way of salvation of your- selves ; you never will know one jot or tittle more than God tells you in the Scriptures, and you take his word for; and, therefore, a child- like reliance upon your teacher, arising out of a child-like admission of your own ignorance and incapacity, is what you want to begin with. You have heard of the wisdom of Solomon ; — * Prov. xxvi. 12. | 1 Cor. iii. 18. 316 HUMILITY THE if you will read the 3d chapter of the 1st book of Kings, you will there find how he got it: *' The Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night: and God said, Ask what I shall give thee. And Solomon said. Thou hast showed unto thy servant David my father great mercy, according as he walked before thee in truth, and in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart with thee ; and thou hast kept for him this great kindness, that thou hast given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is at this day. And now, 0 Lord my God, thou hast made thy servant king instead of David my father : and / am hut a little child : I know not how to go out or to come in. And thy servant is in the midst of thy people which thou hast chosen, a great people, that cannot be numbered nor counted for multitude. Give therefore thy servant an un- derstanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and had : for who is able to judge this thy so great a people ?" Solomon re- ceived wisdom, because he had grace to ask it of God: but he asked it through the previous grace of an humble spirit, because he saw him- self to be as a little child in incompetency for his work. If you will seek wisdom unto salvation in the same spirit, you also shall be "taught of God." Religion, however, though it is a knowledge. ROAD TO GREATNESS. 317 is not merely a knowledge : it is a submission of the will to the divine commandment, as well as of the understanding to divine instruction ; and there is no entrance into the kingdom of heaven without both of these. Once again, therefore, let us look to the little child : children are self- willed it must be admitted, but not as compared with men. Unless they have been spoiled by foolish indulgence, or discouraged by capricious severity, they are (in comparison with their elders) not only teachable, but also tractable, or disposed to yield to authority : they look for it that their parents should have their own way in all serious things without consulting thein ; and are satisfied that they should put them under such tutors and governors as they see fit to trust. They seldom dream that they them- selves are to have a voice in such matters, or that they are to decide upon the propriety of those rules of discipline by which themselves are to be governed. In general, they have so much confidence, both in the affection and in the superior wisdom of their parents, as satisfies them that they are ordering all things for the best; and that it is well for themselves to go on in the ways marked out for them, and to be con- tent for the present, to wait for their inherit- ance, and not to be their own masters and their own guides. And without such a spirit as this, 318 HUMILITY THE what liope can there be of you, my bretliren ? Christ may be set before you as "The Lord your righteousness;"* as " the fountain opened for sin and uncleanness."t He may be preached as "of God, made unto you wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemp- tion :"J and the self-denial and separation from sin and from the world which he requires, may be fairly expounded to you ; and all may be proved from Scripture ; but if there is no child-like submission and lowliness, no child- like implicit confidence in the love and in the wisdom of him by whose love and wisdom you are on all sides surrounded, there will be no obedience of faith : like Naaman, you will " turn away in a rage you will except and object against God's methods ; you will never accept as good, a commandment which crosses your ap- petites, or a salvation which supposes you to be weak and foolish, and without pretensions to the divine favour ; destitute alike of merits and of meetness for glory. "Christ's hall of au- dience is indeed a splendid place, and spacious enough to contain all the sous of men ; but the door is low, and he must stoop that enters." In the very nature of things, wisdom can only be with the lowly, and " before honour is humi- * Jer. xxiii. 6. f Zeck xiii. 1. J 1 Cor. i. 30. § 2 Kings V. 12. ROAD TO GREATNESS. 319 lity:"* and, "Thus saith the high and lofty One, which inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy, I dwell in the high and holy place ; with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones/'f — God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble."J — " Except ye be converted, and be- come as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." II. The text instructs us, secondly, that as we have begun, so we must proceed. That same child-like spirit which is necessary for our entrance into Christ's kingdom, is neces- sary for our advancement in it: "Whosoever shall humble himself as this little child, the same is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven ;" — growth in humility is growth in grace. The former part of my doctrine I illustrated by the example of Solomon ; there is in the Old Testament another example equally re- markable, which may serve to illustrate this : " There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job, and that man was pei'fect and upright, and one that feared God and eschewed evil."§ What could be wanting yet to such a character? It pleased God, by sending upon ♦ Prov. XV. 33. t Isa. Ivii. 15. \ 1 Peter v. 5. § Job. i. 1. 320 HUMILITY THE Job a series of sharp trials, to make manifest his defects, and then by his grace he supplied them. An eminent degree of submission and humility Job had already attained unto ; for when Satan had destroyed his substance, and slain all his children, " Job fell down upon the ground and worshipped, and said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither : the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away ; blessed be the name of the Lord. In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly." * Afterwards, nevertheless, when Satan was permitted to touch his person, and he laboured under a loathsome and sore disease, and his misjudging friends added cruelly to the anguish of his spirit by charg- ing him with hypocrisy. Job certainly did be- tray something of a self-justifying spirit, and some defect of absolute submission to the wis- dom of God. And then " the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind,"'!" and showed him where he had been to blame. But it is very remarkable that, in doing this, he gave Job no account at all of the reasons of his proceedings. If you will read the whole of his sublime expos- tulation with him, you will find it to be nothing else but an awful declaration of God's own ab- solute power and sovereignty ; and that it may * Job. i. 20—2-2. f Job xxxviii. 1. ROAD TO GREATNESS. 321 be all summed up in those words of the Psalm- ist, Be still, and know that I am God."* But this was enough for Job : " I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, (he says,) but now mine eye seeth thee ; wherefore, I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes. "| This was Job's growth in grace, to which he attained in consequence of his trials : he became more of a little child than ever — more than ever humbled — more than ever sensible of his own worthless- ness and unfitness to choose for himself ; more than ever content, simply and implicitly to trust in God ; and more than ever satisfied that God should say unto him, " What I do, thou know- est not now, but thou shalt know hereafter.";]: And this is what the Lord requires of us, and what he looks for in us, in proportion as he more and more reveals himself and his truth unto us ; and this is what he will actually find in us as we come to " receive the love of the truth, that we may be saved." § If God's power and sovereignty, as manifested in the marvels of Creation, might humble Job, and convince him that he had nothing to do to reply against God, much more mav we be humbled, when God's grace in the Gospel is brought in and added to the argument. Ye call yourselves Christians, * Psalm xlvi. 10. f Job xlii. 5,6. X John xiii. 7. § 2 Thess. ii. 10. VOL. I. y 322 HUMILITY THE brethren : but what is implied in this profes- sion ? That ye are a people on whose behalf God's Son stooped from heaven to earth, and was " found in fashion as a man, and became obedient to the death upon the cross." If ye are to begin your religion by becoming little in your own eyes, (and this is indeed the corner- stone and prime doctrine of it,) surely ye must advance in religion by becoming still less and less. "The truth as it is in Jesus," is a doc- trine of humiliation to the last. Look at your only Saviour between two thieves. Can you be- lieve that he was there for you, bearing your burden, satisfying for your sins, buffeted and scourged and spit upon only for you ? Can you believe this, and look upon yourselves as great ones ? In proportion as you do believe it, and consider it, and hold it fast ; and in proportion as you do hold fast all other chief truths of the Gospel, you must sink into nothing as before God. Not to mention the doctrine of original sin, every doctrine that is peculiarly christian has this tendency ; and every religious ordinance and mean of grace, and all reflection upon your- selves, and all your honest endeavours in striv- ing after holiness, have the same. You cannot believe with the heart that Christ is all your wis- dom, and all your righteousness, and the author of all good in you as well as to you, without ROAD TO GREATNESS. 323 being humbled. You cannot have striven after godliness, without having been humbled by the discovery you will have made of your failures ; or have prayed and waited upon God in ear- nest, without having acquired more and more in- sight continually into your own insufficiency and sin and blindness. And, let me tell you, if you are humbled as before God, you cannot exalt yourselves as before men. On the con- trary, it will be natural to you to " esteem others better than yourselves ;" * in honour to prefer one another f to think the meanest station the fittest for you ; to be content in any station ; and to go and sit down simply and un- affectedly in the lowest place. Let who will struggle for precedency, it will not be you ; let who will be offended at being little noticed, it will not be you : let who will desire to have the pre-eminence, you will choose rather to wait upon others, and to do good. And now, you too may know, as far as is need- ful for you, who shall be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. It is not certain that it shall be he, who even by a clear call of Provi- dence occupies the highest station now. " There are many first that shall be last, and last that shall be first." :J; Certainly it shall not be that person who is, at this time, covetous of distinc- * Phil. ii. 3. t Rom. xii. 10. X Matt. xix. 30, Y 2 324 HUMILITY THE tion ; nor he who is of opinion that distinction and precedency are his due. " Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sis;ht."* Woe unto them that "trust in themselves that they are righteous, and de- spise others !"f these shall never know the truth, and never " taste that the Lord is gracious," save only in so far as they are changed. But " blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven ;" J; and blessed is "he that humbleth himself, for he shall be exalted." § Self-sufficiency, self-preference ; fondness for hearing yourselves talk, and being listened to, and looked up to ; a confident tone in setting other people right ; a scorn of a low situation ; a promptness to judge your teachers; a habit of thinking that they are in the dark, whensoever what they say is, for matter or manner, what you did not expect : impatience of reproof and rebuke ; a notion that there is not much left for you to learn, or that there is any work of charity which it is beneath you to do ; — these things, and all that resemble them, set you lower in God's eyes, and put you further off from what Christians ought to be, just as far as they prevail : and if you let them prevail so as to govern you, and become your habitual prin- * Isa. V. 21. j Luke xviii. 9, -j- Matt. v. 3. § Luke xviii. 14. ROAD TO GREATNESS. 325 ciples, the publicans and the harlots shall go into heaven before you. The Scribes and the Pharisees "loved the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi — but be not ye called Rabbi or masters;"* desire not ye to be higher than others, " for one is your Master, even Christ, and all ye are brethren." "Whoso- ever will be great among you, let him be your minister : and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant : — even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many." f You never can humble yourselves in your behaviour to one another, as Christ humbled himself to save you all. But if you will seek, not every one his own things, but the things of others ; if ye will care more to be useful than to be applauded and observed of men ; if you will think no service mean by which you can do the least good to one for whom Christ died ; this will be the best way " to put on " Christ ; and he who is most conformed to his Master's likeness here, will sit nearest to his right hand hereafter. The world thinks it greatness, when a man carries all before him by his own power, and forces others to bow the knee, and has many to serve him : but this is not the road to * Matt, xxiii. 6—1 0. f Matt. xx. 26-2^. 326 HU.MILITY THE ROAD TO GREATNESS. the true honour — " the honour that cometh from God only." With him, " he that is slow to an- ger is better than the mighty, and he that ruleth his spirit, than he that taketh a city." * He com- mands us " to bear one another's burdens." t He tells us that " when we are weak, then we are strong,";}: and that when we cease to be learners, we cease to be wise. *' All of you be subject one to another,'' he says, " and be clothed with humility." § Almost the last act of our Master s life was to wash the feet of his disciples ; and " if I your Lord and Master" (he says) "have washed your feet, ye ought also to wash one another's feet ; for I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you," || * Prov.xvi. 32. f Gal. vi. 2. 12 Cor. xii. 10. § 1 Peter v. 5. |j Jolin xiii. 14, 15. 267 SERMON XVII. SELF-DENIAL. Matthew xvi. 24. " Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." This saying of our Lord's, together with the occasion on which it was delivered, is recorded by three out of the four Evangelists. He had been foretelling his shameful death and glorious resurrection. The manner in which this com- munication was received by his disciples, is passed over by St. Luke ; but St. Matthew and St. Mark both inform us, that Peter (utterly at a loss, no doubt, as to what could be meant by the resurrection, but grievously hurt and scan- dalized at hearing of the crucifixion) " took him," and in his ignorant and officious zeal be- gan to rebuke him, saying, " Be it far from 328 SELF-DENIAL. thee, Lord ; this shall not be unto thee." But he (the narrative proceeds) turned and said, " Get thee behind me, Satan ; thou art an ofi'ence unto me : for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men." That is, when thou wouldest have me shun the sufFer- ino;s which are ordained for me, thou knowest not what thou art about — thou wouldest have nie yield to man's mistaken apprehensions of what is fit and desirable, instead of being guided by the wisdom and will of God ; and thus, thou art doing Satan's work, and acting the part of an adversar}^ and tempter towards me. And then come the words of the text : in which, ac- cording to his usual manner of grounding some saying of general instruction upon review of the impertinent and foolish conduct of those about him, he plainly states the terms or conditions upon which alone we may share the privileges of his kingdom. He was going, through humi- liation and sufferings and everything distaste- ful to flesh and blood, to glory. " If any man will come after me,'" (he says,) "let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." I shall endeavour, by God's assistance, — I. First to explain the meaning of this pre- cept. SELF-DENIAL. 329 II. And then to urge and enforce the obliga- tion to attend to it. I. And first as to the meaning of the pre- cept, " Whosoever will be saved, he must deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Christ." To deny ourselves, is to act in contradiction to our own natural appetites and inclination : to take up the cross, is but another expression illustrative or expository of the first. St. Luke adds the word daily; "let him take up his cross daily;"* and no doubt the same thing is implied in the words as reported by St. Matthew. The thing required of us, is habitual self-de- nial, in imitation of Christ our Master. Our Lord gives this account of himself. " I came not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me."t " My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.":[: And upon this he acted from the manger to the cross: "Not as I will," righteous Father, " but as thou wilt."§ When he was made man, he was " made in all things like unto his brethren," || sin alone excepted. He had all the innocent weak- nesses of our nature : the same natural abhor- * Luke ix. 23. f John vi. 38. \ John iv. 34. § Matt. xxvi. 39. H Heb. ii. 17. 330 SELF-DENIAL. rence that we have of suffering, whether mental or bodily. Being put into this condition, our salvation was the work assigned him to accom- plish : but it proved from first to last — as he knew, before he entered upon it, that it would prove — a work of absolute self-denial. In order to it, he submitted to be born in the low and mean estate of poverty ; he had not where to lay his head ; he endured perpetual toil ; he met with perpetual opposition ; he was despised and rejected by those whom he came to bless ; reviled, misrepresented, persecuted continually. Had he cared at all to serve or please himself ; had it not been his fixed and invariable deter- mination, in all things, to make himself a sacri- fice ; being requited as he was, he would have turned back. Self-love and self-seeking would quickly have resented neglect so blind and gross, opposition so unmerited, calumny, and ill-usage, and unthankfulness, and malignity, and scorn, and insult, so base and so unremitting. But he went on bearing the cross : nor did he spend one day as he would have done, had he counted his own ease, or profit, or comfort, or honour, worthy to be put in competition, for an instant, with the good of the souls of men. That God in all things should be glorified, that sinners should be redeemed from death, these were the joint ends which he kept in view ; and he could not SELF-DENIAL. 331 be wearied, or provoked to halt or waver in the least, or to cease to press forward in the prose- cution of them ; till at length his hour came that he must make the final expiation for his enemies, and he knew what manner of hour it was to be : and his human apprehensions shud- dered, and his human frame was agonized at the contemplation of it. — Yet, " rise," he says to his disciples, " let us be going," not to flee the suff'ering, but to meet it, " behold he is at hand that doth betray me."* So " he poured out his soul unto death, and he was numbered with the transgressors." t Our part is to imitate, through grace, his de- votion and his charity ; and in order to do this, to remove out of the way the grand obsta- cle or hindrance to the discharge of our duty ; namely, a self-willed, self-seeking, self-preferring spirit. Follow Christ, we must ; not merely in doing the thing that is right, the thing that is for God's glory, and our brother's benefit, theii, and only then, when it may cost us nothing, or cost us little ; — but in setting ourselves aside, in foregoing our own present advantage, in sub- mitting readily to present loss or trouble, in sacrificing cheerfully our own inclinations, that we may do it habitually, cost it what it may. * Matt. xxvi. 46. f Isa. liii. 332 SELF-DENIAL. We must be brought to this state and temper of mind, that we must not be lovers of our own selves in such manner as to make the pleasing of ourselves, the serving of our own worldly in- terests, the exalting or honouring of ourselves, our grand end and concern and business. The Scriptures declare, " for men to search their own glory is not glory."* They command, " Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others."'|" "We that are strong," (says St. Paul,) " ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please our- selves. Let every one of us please his neigh- bour for his good to edification. For even Christ pleased not him.self.":j; "The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minis- ter, and to give his life a ransom for many."§ And " he that saith he believeth in him, ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked." || Wherefore, saith our Lord himself, " if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off ; if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out and his apostle goes so far as to say, " we ought to lay down our lives for our brethren."** The general meaning of these precepts is suf- ficiently plain and clear. We naturally love and * Prov. XXV. 27. f Phil. ii. 4. % Rom. xv. 1 — 3. § Matt. XX. 28. II 1 John ii. 6. f Matt. v. 29, 30. ** 1 John iii. IG. SELF-DENIAL. 333 seek for ourselves honour, pleasure, profit, ease, comfort, and the like, in this world ; and in due measure, and under proper restraints, and as far as can be done without sin, we may. But whereas the men of this world overlook these restrictions, and are wont to make their own will their law, and to follow the desires of the flesh and the mind, whensoever they can do it with safety to their own persons, and without sacrifice of some better-loved worldly inter- ests,— Christ requires of us, that whatsoever of worldly things we have or seek, we so hold them, or so pursue them, as to be ready to sur- render the possession of them, or to cease from our pursuit of them, the instant that the inte- rests of godliness or charity demand of us so to do. And more than this — that we be ready, at the same call, to take up instead of them, dis- honour, and pain, and loss, and labour, and af- fliction. But nothing of this sort, for the pre- sent, seemeth to be joyous, but grievous. Suffer- ing, even for Christ's sake, is suffering still. Therefore no man can act in this manner with- out contradicting and going against his natural mind and will. Readiness therefore to sacrifice our own will, habitually, and as often as such fitting occasions arise, is what Christ looks for from us. This may serve for explanation of the precept 334 SELF-DENIAL. of the text. — I proceed now to the more need- ful part of my discourse. II. To urge and enforce the obh'gation to at- tend To it. 1. No doubt it seems a hard saying, " Let a man deny himself, and take up his cross ;" and when the cross is actually before us, and the precept comes to be reduced to practice, we feel it so. But, in the first place, this self-denial is plainly, and in the nature of things, indispen- sable. If any moral change is necessary in the heart of man ; if duty to God and man, as laid down in the Scriptures, is necessary ; if God will not save men in their sins, and without re- pentance, it is impossible to do without it — there is no other way. The Scriptures say, and nobody denies it, that "he that believeth not shall be damned:"* That " this is the work of God," or the thing peculiarly required by the Gospel, " that ye believe in him whom God hath sent."t But a man cannot even believe, that is, not as the Scriptures require in order to salvation, — he cannot "receive the love of the truth, as the apostle expresses it — he cannot " believe with the heart unto righteousness,"^ — he cannot believe the Gospel method of redemption to be * Mark xvi. 16. f John vi. 29. % 2 Thess. ii. 10. § Rom. X. 10. SELF-DENIAL. 335 good, so as to embrace it with his will and affec- tions, (all which goes into the notion of a true and living faith,) without self-denial. For in order to believe, so as heartily to ac- cept Christ to be his Saviour, he must first deny his own righteousness. He must so far make a sacrifice of his pride and high conceit of him- self— things, however, as dear to our natural hearts as any in the world — he must so far abandon and give up these, as to be thankful to take all from God, as a beggar receiving alms : yea, as a culprit receiving a free pardon ; yea, and to bear this cross besides, that when God, of his mere mercy, is "pacified towards him," he must himself " remember and be confound- ed, and never open his mouth any more, be- cause of his shame,"* and because of the re- collection which he must maintain and cherish of his own sin and worthlessness. If he does not do this, he shall never be owned by Christ, for he denies unto the Lord the honour due unto his name, taking it to himself ; and this is the universal rule of Christ's kingdom, from which he will never depart or vary. " Every one that exalteth himself shall be abased, but he that humbleth himself shall be exalted."! But if we cannot to any saving purpose be- lieve what God tells us without self-denial, * Ezek. xvi. 63. f Luke xiv. 11. 336 SELF-DENIAL. much more obviously, though not more truly, we cannot, without self-denial, do what God commands us : therefore, when St. Paul instructs Titus that the grand end and intention of the Gospel is to bring us to lead sober, righteous, and godly lives, and to purifj' unto Christ a people zealous of good works, he expresses it thus — " The grace of God, which bringeth sal- vation, hath appeared unto all men, teaching us, that denying ungodliness and icorldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly."* It is to no purpose to call people to well-doing, without warnino; them of the obstacle which lies in the way of it : till we will cross our own appetites, we can do nothing well. Our own lusts, which are contrary to this holy obedience to the divine law, must be brought into subjec- tion, and only in proportion as they are so, is obedience possible. How came it that our blessed Redeemer, in spite of so much provocation, could persist in his labour of love to save his enemies, and at last give himself up to be numbered with the transgressors and crucified, but that (as I said before) he had made an absolute surrender of his own will ? And how comes it, on the con- trary, that we are wont to render " evil for evil, and railing for railing ;" that we find it so * Titus ii. 11, 12. SELF-DENIAL. 337 hard, at times, even to "render to all their due," and much more, — to be bountiful in giving ; to be very slow to anger, and to bear with provoca- tions : and to seek decidedly and earnestly, and the kingdom of God and his righteous- ness ? It is a self-loving, self-seeking, self-pre- ferring spirit, which does all the mischief, and occasions all the difficulty. We are " looking on our own things," studying our own profit and accommodation ; we cannot deny and cross our own pride, or covetousness, or thirst for re- venge. To give liberally, is largely to rob our- selves ; to pardon readily, or be reconciled easily, is to own ourselves wrong, to forego our own rights, to allow that we are not the greatest, and that it is reasonable that everything and every body should not give way to us. Therefore, whilst this selfish spirit reigns in us, we cannot look either to God or to our neighbour, so as dispassionately to allow the claims or rights of either. To do our duty, and to have our own way too, fallen creatures as we are, and living in a world of jarring and conflicting interests, where all must be served in their turns at their neighbour's cost, is impossible. Self-denial, therefore, will always be precisely as necessary as faith and good works are necessary ; we can- not be saved without it, unless we may be saved without them. VOL. 1. z 338 SELF-DENIAL. 2. Consider, secondly, whether our Lord's demand, "If any man will come after me, let him den}- himself, and take up his cross and follow me," be not (hard as our corruption is wont to think it) a most just and equitable de- mand. Do let us remember whose demand it is. His " in whom we live, and move, and have our being ;" " who giveth us all things richly to enjoy;" "who giv-eth rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness." It is the word of our Creator, Pre- server, and Redeemer, who made us for glor}^ and honour, and immortality ; and who, when w^e had forfeited our inheritance, himself pro- vided the way in which it might be restored to us ; who is continually waiting to be gracious to us, bearing with our perverseness, and be- seeching us to return to him — and ready, after ten thousand failures, to " grant us repentance unto life."* Is it not monstrous, that we should prefer our own will to his ? — that we should think it grievous to work for him ? — prefer the gratification of our own appetites, before doing good to his children ? — or think it hard, when such is the relation in which they stand to him, to cross our own inclinations, and subdue our own resentments, that we may " comfort the * Acts xi. 18. SELF-DENIAL. 339 feeble-minded, support the weak, and be pa- tient towards all men ?" Surely we should be ashamed to say, it was hard to deny ourselves for the sake of a very bountiful, earthly bene- factor : how is it that gross ingratitude towards God shall be the only ingratitude of which we are not ashamed ? But be it remembered further, " God is in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself;"* and he who commands us to take up the cross, is the same who, pre-obliged by no kindness on our part, and allured by no loveliness which he could see in us, did deny himself first for us, by " taking upon him the form of a servant;" and then, " being found in fashion as a man, did hum- ble himself even to the death upon the cross"t for us miserable sinners, who lay in dark- ness and in the shadow of death — that so (when so only it might be effected) he might make us the children of God, and exalt us to everlasting life. If it was not too much for the unmerited love of Christ to be "despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, and ac- quainted with grief ;":[: — if he **hid not his face from shame and spitting,"^ if he could put up with ingratitude and insults, could empty him- self of every thing — wealth, ease, reputation, * 2 Cor. V, 19. t Phil. ii. 7. 8. | Isa. liii. 3. § Isa. 1.6. z 2 340 SELF-DENIAL. life ; should it be thought hard, if somewhat of the same kind, though comparative!}' nothing in degree, should be looked for, in testimons- of our sense of obligation, and our love of gratitude ? Is it too much to say, when it is Cltrist wlio says it, " He that loveth father or mother,"* or house or lands, " more than me, is not wor- thy of me ?" or, " is the servant above his lord?" — " Is it not enough for the servant that he should be as his lord ?"t Is it too much for us to stoop to be useful, to la}' aside our high dignity, when our Master washed his disciples' feet, on purpose to teach us so ? Or if, at the price of his own blood, Christ hath purchased for thee, O sinner, remission of a debt of ten thousand talents, is it much that thou (though at the sacrifice of th}' pride or thy hundred pence) " shouldest have compassion on th\' fel- low servant, even as thy Lord had pity on thee Hear the blessed apostle : " I beseech 3'ou, brethren, hy the mercies of God, that ye present 3'our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, ac- ceptable to God, which is your reasonable ser- vice."§ — Consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye also be wearied and faint in \"Our minds. "|| — " The love of Christ constraineth us, because * Matt. X. 37. f Matt. x. 24, 25. % Matt, xviii. 3J. § Rom. xii. 1. |) Heb. xii. 3. SELF-DENIAL. 341 we tliLis judge, that if one died for all, tiien were all dead ; and that he died for all, that they which live, should not henceforth live unto them- selves, but unto him that died for them, and rose again." * 3. Thirdly. Our blessed Saviour's call to the cross, and self-denial, should be obe^^ed, as a thing evidently most reasonable. Though he says, " Let a man deny himself," he does not proceed in saying so in a mere ar- bitrary manner, nor does he impose any useless or vain austerities or mortifications upon us. Every sacrifice that is required, is to a good, and useful, and wise, and holy end ; and no greater sacrifices are required than are necessary to such ends. "God does not afflict willingly, or grieve the children of men."t If St. Paul says, " I keep under my body, and bring it into sub- jection," it is for a sufficient reason — "lest that by any means when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. ";[; Christ does not say to any man peremptorily, " Cut off thy right hand,'' but only, " If thy right hand offend thee' — make it impossible for thee to avoid sin, then—" cut it off." God has no delight that we should eat wormwood instead of bread, or re- fuse any comforts of his creatures, or shut our eyes against the beauty of them for nothing : * 2 Cor. V. 14. t Lam. iii. .3:3. | 1 Cor. ix. 27. 342 SELF-DENIAL. out his whole demand amounts but to this, Deny the appetite for si7i at all times ; and for created comforts, when indulgence leads to sin, or inter- feres with dut}', and thereby injures 3'our own souls. Is it reasonable that God, who is all in all to us, should call upon us to show that we love him with all our hearts ? Is it reasonable, after Christ has died to save our souls, that he should call upon us to prove, that we are so far con- cerned about them ourselves, and so far know how to estimate his excellent bounty, as to consider the care of our souls as the one thing- needful ? If it is, then it is perfectly reason- able, j^ea, and to these ends it seems abso- lutely necessary, to say, " If thy right hand of- fend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee ; if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out :" — this is proof. If we will give God our best beloved, or the best thing he is pleased to ask for at once, and habitually, — if habitually we will do the like, lest we should come short of heaven and fall into hell, — here is proof incontrovertible, that God has our hearts, that we are fleeing from the wrath to come, that we do not despise the promises of the Gospel. But otherwise, we are condemned in all these points, and shown to be hypocrites, if we make any of these pro- fessions ; for we will not only 7iot do what God SELF-DENIAL. 343 has such equitable right to demand, and make surrenders, the gain of which is so indisputably great ; but we will not do as much as we will do in many inferior cases : for certainly, many submit to great self-denial, " rise up early, and late take rest, and eat the bread of carefulness," for temporal gain : and to save their poor frail bodies, many submit to a long and painful regi- men, and often to the literal amputation of their limbs. Surely it is fitting that God should call upon men to do as much for their souls, as they will oftentimes do for their bodies — as much for him as for his creatures. God surely will not sacrifice his own glory to save us, or save us un - less we give him glory ; that is, unless we ac- knowledge his transcendent goodness, and own Christ to be the " pearl of great price," and the prize of our high calling, a glorious prize ; and our deliverance, infinite love and mercy ; nor un- less we acknowledge this unequivocally, and by some declaration more substantial than mere words. But the lukewarm do not acknowledge this. People who stand hesitating whether they shall lay aside the sin that easily besetteth them or not, — people who wilfully " entangle them- selves with the affairs of this life," — people who have no time to serve God, till they have made a better provision for their households, — people who lay their hand on some forbidden 344 SELF-DENIAL. pleasure, and say, " is it i)ot a little one," and my soul shall live, though I indulge in it in the face of a commandment? — such as these, all say that the kingdom of God and his righteous- ness are not worth seeking first ; and deny, to all practical purpose, the Lord that bought them. But if we will he content to suffer with him, so only may we reign with him : " If we deny him, he also will deny It is not reason, that God should give his eternal salva- tion, and the beholding of his own face in glory, to those who prefer time and vanit3\ 4. One consideration more I could wish to dwell upon. I say, lastly, the command to deny ourselves, is not ov\y a most equitable and rea- sonable, but also a most merciful commandment. Harshly the saying sounds, no doubt ; and painful, often very painful the struggle is, when natural appetite calls one way, and duty to God another ; and much watchfulness, and much labour, and much patience, and much anxious waiting upon God, are needful, before we can break off our evil habits, or conquer our long- ings after forbidden indulgence. Yet true it is of self-denial, no less than of godliness, for which it makes way, "that it is profitable unto all things, having promise both of the life that now is, and of that also which is to come." f * 2 Tim. ii. VI. t 1 Tim. iv. 8. SELF-DENIAL. 345 Self-denial is as necessary to our enjoyment of peace and happiness, both here and here- after, as it is to our practice of holiness and charity. What we have to deny or cross is nothing else but " fleshly lust, which wars against the soul," and '^worldly lust," or that deoree of idolatrous love and attachment to earthly things, which renders it impossible for us to love God, so as to delight in communion with him here, or be in a capacity for beholding his face in heaven. Let people remain under the dominion of their own appetites, and let them (as then they must) look upon self-denial as their torment, and seek their happiness in self-indulgence, and most assuredly they have chosen misery and downfal, and are seeking comfort in the road to ruin. " There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked."* It is not in the nature of things that there should be. if a man's own will is to be his law, and his natural appetites are to be his masters, and he is to have no consolation but what he can get from pampering them, then he must always be at war with his neighbours, and always at war with himself ; always in want, and always disappointed. For " from whence (asks St. James) come wars and fightings among you ; come they not hence, * Isa. Ivii. 21. 346 SELF-DENIAL. even from your lusts, which war in your mem- bers ? Ye lust, and have not ; ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain." * His af- fections, too, are set on things unsatisfactory in their own nature ; so that even possession cannot bless him. *' He that loveth silver, is not satisfied with silver ; nor he that loveth abundance, with increase." f Yet when he is constrained to feel, if not to acknowledge, the vanity of the world, he cannot turn his heart to anything that is better. " No man can serve two masters.":]: His affections having been devoted to earthly things, he has new tastes and appetites to acquire, before he can conceive of any enjoyment to be had in spiritual things. " If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." § But whosoever, through grace, shall have learned self-control ; to rule his spirit, to cross his own inclinations, that he may glorify God, and be useful in his generation : whosoever has left off to seek his own, and has learned to bear with others ; he has done with strife, and with all the trouble that it brings ; has done with the painful struggle for a precedency which others are not disposed to yield him ; and has done with vain hopes at the same time ; with " sowing the * James iv. 1, 2. f Eccles. v, 10. + Matt. vi. 24. § 1 John ii. 13. SELF-DENIAL. 347 wind, to reap the whirlwind ;" and hath " pre- pared the way of the Lord, and made his paths straight," for the God of peace and consolation to come and dwell in his soul. He is neither fighting against his brethren, nor striving with his Maker ; and " great peace have they (says David) which love thy law, and nothing shall offend them." * When a man is once brought to be of one mind and of one will with God, then, be outward circumstances what they may, his joy and his comfort cannot be taken from him. No doubt, before every high thing in our souls can be brought into sub- jection to the obedience of Christ, there is a conflict. The very terra self-denial implies it. But whosoever is but honest in his resolution to give up himself to God's service, and is swayed by a sense of duty and thankfulness to do so, he shall find his consolation, in the midst of the conflict, in the consciousness that God is with him of a truth. And the yoke of Christ shall be easy, and his burden light, ere long. God promises to work in us "to will as well as to do."t His grace can make us love the thing which he commandeth ; and he will give us this grace. And let the reluctance of our natural corruption be overcome, and our eyes opened to * Psal. cxix. 165. \ Phil. ii. 13. 348 SELF-DENIAL. beliold the beauty of holiness; let the promise be fulfilled of a new heart and a new spirit to be given to us ; and not only will our duty become easier every day, and God's service perfect freedom, and what were crosses no crosses ; but what was self-denial will become self-pleasing. When a man is once brought to the mind which was in Christ Jesus, having " crucified the flesh, with the affections and lusts ;" he says, with David, " O, how I love thy law!"* "The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart If Such a one has had "the exceeding great and precious pro- mises " of Scripture realized and made good to him; he is become "a partaker of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.":}; A glorious boon it is to which he hath attained, and a great escape which he hath experienced. He is de- livered from what is the root of all evil and unhappiuess ; from what makes a man dead to God and glory, and to the proper portion of a reasonable being, even from slavery to vile aflPections : and he may give thanks unto the Father who hath " made him meet to be a par- taker of the inheritance of the saints in light," § * Psal. cxix. 37. t Psal. xix. 8. f 2 Peter i. 4. § Col. i. 12. SELF-DENIAL. 349 and having done so, will assuredly bestow it upon him ; for, " Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."* Consider well, then, our Lord's own enforce- ment of his own most equitable and reasonable and merciful demand. Weigh the promise against the struggle and the difficulty, and re- member the alternative : " If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul ? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels ; and then he shall reward every man according to his works." t With this before your eyes, de- cide whether it is best to pamper your own appetites, or to cross them ; and having learned tlie necessity of self-denial, go for the means to that throne of grace to which the Scripture calls you. Beseech Almighty God to " create in you a clean heart," and to " put his Spirit within you." It is a new habit of soul that you want, as well as special assistance in times of special trial. Continue instant in prayer * Matt. V. 8. f Matt. xvi. 24—27. 350 SELF-DEN'IAL. at all time;, and let prayer aud waiting upon God be your resource in times of difficulty, and see that ye "forsake not the Lord your God, when he leads you by the way."* * Jer. ii. 17. 351 SERMON XVIII. KEEP THY HEART, THY MOUTH, THY PATH. Proverbs iv. 23 — 27. ** Keep thy heart with all diligence ; for out of it are the issues of life. Put away from thee afro- ward mouth, and perverse lips put far from thee. Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee. Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established. Turn not to the right hand, nor to the left : re- move thy foot from evil." This is a very important, as well as a very plain passage ; for it relates not only to what is of great weight and consequence in itself, but to what requires to be attended to every day of our lives. If we observed the sayings of it, we should spend every day with God, and to his glory ; and having " fought a good fight, and kept the faith," there would be laid up for us " a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, 352 KEEP THY HEART, the righteous Judge, should give us " for eter- nity. There are three things stated which we have to do, namely — I. To keep our hearts. II. To keep our tongues. III. To keep our ways, or outward conduct. I shall consider these things in the order in which they lie, adding a few words in conclu- sion respecting the means. I. And first; the wise man calls upon us to keep our hearts : " Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life." The heart is the inward mind or spirit of man ; that which loves and hates, hopes and fears, desires and loathes ; that which imagines, and thinks, and resolves, and contrives, and "out of it are the issues of life." This is the seed-bed out of which everything springs that is uttered by the tongue, or executed after- wards by the hands; or that appears, in any way, in the outward life or manners, '* A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things : and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things."* In fact, the heart is the man ; and as that is, so is he througliout ; kind in his demeanour, considerate, peaceable, friendly, * Matt. xii. 33. THY MOUTH, THY PATH. 353 generous, true, and just in his dealings ; of sound speech that cannot be condemned, a respecter of religious ordinances ; or harsh, hasty, quarrelsome, selfish, penurious, dis- honest, fraudulent, a liar, a blasphemer, a sab- bath-breaker ; just as either he loves the Lord his God in his heart, and his neighbour as him- self ; or as his carnal mind is enmity against God, and full of malice, envy, and ill-will towards his fellow-creatures. It is by lust conceiving that sin is brought forth, and a holy life is from holy and renewed affections and appetites. The heart begins to act when it desires or covets anything good or evil ; and the man either obeys God, or sins against him, according as his heart covets what is lawful and pure, and placed before us by God as a proper object to set our affections upon ; or, as it desires what is evil in itself, or denied by God to us. If bad thoughts come into people's minds, and they do not check them, and turn away from them as soon as they are conscious of them, they sin, though they never go one step further : much more do they sin if they cherish bad thoughts. If they delight and please themselves with turning over in their minds the pleasures of sin, and wilfully pollute their minds with proud, or malicious, or covet- VOL. I. A A 354 KEEP THY HEART, ous, or impure imaginations : this is sin against God, and grievous sin, though they should not form any bad purposes, or contrive or resolve upon the commission of any base or evil deed ; yea, though it were ever so sure a thing, that they could not be tempted to such a deed if it fell in their way. The Scripture says, " The thought of foolishness is sin."* Every faculty of the soul, and surely the noble faculty of thought or imagination among the rest, ought to be sacred, and given to God : and the wilful cherishing of bad thoughts strengthens, pam- pers, and nourishes the bad tempers and vile affections of which they are the offspring. Proud imaginations make a proud man prouder still. Giving the mind wilfully to think and meditate upon the happiness or the enjoyment to be had in such or such a worldly possession or sinful pleasure, makes the mind more covet- ous, worldly, or sensual than it was before ; hardens the heart, and deadens it more and more to what is holy, divine, and spiritual, and of course lays it more open to temptation ; and if the man, by some happy restraint of grace or providence, is not tempted to any outward crime, still he has very grossly offended God ; and if he habitually lets his thoughts run riot * Prov. xxiv. 9. THY MOUTH, THY PATH. 355 in this manner, he is an habitual sinner, one who has unfitted himself from serving and worshipping God in spirit and in truth. Next to sinful imaginations come sinful reso- lutions, plottings, and contrivances, and this is a great advance in wickedness. Wilfully to think about what is evil, I mean to think about it as being pleasurable and desirable, is bad enough. To contrive how we shall execute it, if opportunity should be afforded us, is indeed still but a matter of the heart ; but then, in guilt, it is within a hair's breadth of the gross evil action : we have consented to do it, and therefore, in the sight of God, and for the pur- pose of our condemnation in his sight, it is all but the same as done. We may indeed never act it ; but if we do not, the prevention is not from us, but from God's providence ; so that every man has to repent of the evil purpose of his heart, though it was never executed, and to thank God for tying up his hands. In short, all sins of the heart are to be guarded against, not merely because they lead to sinful action — they are to be guarded against with all vigilance on that account, but they are to be hated and avoided also for their own wickedness' sake. To keep thy heart, would be matter of absolute necessity, if thou would- est walk in all good conscience before God : A A 2 356 KEEP THY HEART, though thou hadst no tongue to speak with, or though thou wert a close prisoner, so that thou couldst not do an injury to any man. And the precept is for all. The danger of sinful imagi- nations and meditations, indeed, is greatest to those who have most leisure from labour of body or understanding, and is less to those ■who are fully occupied in some work of their calling : but it is not a small danger to any- body. The heart of every man is full of evil by nature, and it will exercise itself in evil, except it be watched most strictly, or, to use the words of Solomon, kept with all diligence. See then what is required : "Wash thine heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved : how long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee ?"* We must examine the state of our affections and desires as much as possible : we must reflect upon ourselves, and look into our own hearts from time to time, continually to see what is there : we must be asking our inward imaginations whither they are tending : we must watch against evil and vain thoughts. The instant we are conscious that what is pass- ing through our souls is bad, we must cast it out, and turn to some other and contrary sub- ject of meditation. We must acknowledge our transgression that we have been surprised into * Jer. iv. 14. THY MOUTH, THY PATH. 357 sin, if we have entertained anything of this kind ; and if we are contriving or plotting how any bad thing we are thinking about may be done, much more must we acknowledge wilful and deliberate sin in that. So far of the root and hot-bed of corruption. That member of the body to which the cor- ruption of the heart is transferred most readily, and which yields itself with the greatest ease to be an instrument of iniquity, is the tongue. II. The next counsel of the text, therefore, and a counsel which, like the former, is needed by all sorts and conditions of people every day of their lives, and all day long, is to keep their tongues. " Put away from thee a froward mouth, and perverse lips put far from thee." The sins of the tongue alone are here spoken of, and to those, indeed to a very brief notice of them, I must confine myself. Solomon says in another place, " In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin, but he that refraineth his lips is wise."* So swift and so short is the passage from the heart to the mouth, that it is very dangerous for crea- tures corrupt in heart as we are, to be fond of speaking much. It is best for every man to be "swift to hear, and slow to speak."t "If * Prov. X. 19, f James i. 19. 358 KEEP THY HEART, any man offend not in word," says St. James, " the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body."* His meaning is, that the governing of the tongue is a matter of such great difficulty, that the ability to do it argues an extraordinary measure of grace in him in whom it is found. If a man has grace enough to do this, he has grace enough (it should seem) for anything. The tongue, he says a little further on, "is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison •.'''f and here are two good reasons for keeping it, and I may appeal to general experience whether they are not true and sound reasons. The first I have hinted at already. It is "an unruly evil." It is very difficult indeed to "keep the door of our lips" till such time as the heart is changed. Then, indeed, we might say almost what came uppermost ; but how hard is it to refrain from saying what comes uppermost, whilst the heart is what it is by nature ! And then, how does this fill the world with evil speaking, lying and slandering ! What a ready way does the tongue furnish to a malicious spirit to " scatter firebrands and death ;" and how do people go about as tale- bearers and false accusers and mischief-makers, telling all that they have heard for truth, and * James iii. 2. f James iii. 8. THY MOUTH, THY PATH. 35.9 all their evil minds suspect, and fancy them- selves in sport; or at least, with hardly any consciousness that they are themselves, in the sight of God, among the most mischievous, and most ungodly, and most unprincipled of man- kind, because of this easy, careless, unconsidered habit. What a ready way does the tongue furnish to a dishonest spirit to excuse and defend itself, or to serve its own ends by lies and flattery ! How true is it of mankind, that as soon "as they are born they go astray and speak lies :"* and what a sad helpmate is this same member to a hasty spirit ! How hard is it for the irrita!)le and passionate to keep it with- in any tolerable bounds ! " The beginning of strife," and the strife of tongues, is wont to be the bitterest strife of all, — "the beginning of strife is as when one letteth out water, and therefore (says the wise man) leave off conten- tion before it be meddled with."! Keep thy tongue from evil. For again, " Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth ; and the tongue is a fire — a world of iniquity ; so is the tongue among the members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the whole course of nature, and is set on fire of hell. "J This is the other reason for keeping the tongue — the mischief * Ps. Iviii. S. t Prov. xvii. 14. 1 James iii. 6. 360 KEEP THY HEART, which this unruly evil does ; for what does so much mischief in society, and causes so much misery, and jealousy, and suspicion, and wick- edness, as the slanderer's tongue ; the cruel, malicious reports and tales of a "false witness that speairesent yourselves, your souls and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and lively sacrifice to him. But it has, I hope, at the same time, been suf- ficiently kept in view, that it is only from Al- niight}^ God himself that " all holy desires, all good counsels, and all just works, do proceed;"' that " without him we are not able to please him;'' and that he must " prevent us, in all our doings, with his most gracious favour, and I'urther us with his continual help," if we are I'llAYER. 3.95 to walk in the way of his commandments, and to be kept through faith unto salvation. It is time now to consider in what manner God must be approached ; for he says, For all this I will be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them." * God hath promised his Holy Spirit, but it is only to those who have learned to call upon him by diligent sup- plication. Most important, therefore, is the short pre- cept of the text — " Pray without ceasing." Here, on man's part, religion is to begin. This is the act by which the prodigal is to set out upon his return to his Father's house : and by this also he must go on unto the end. I shall endeavour, therefore, with all plain- ness of speech, I. First, to instruct you in the nature of the duty prescribed. II. And then to show the benefits of a due discharge of it. III. After which I will sul)join a few short admonitions for the different sorts or classes of God's pi'ofesscd worshippers. I. And first, as to the nature of the duty prescribed. It may seem to some, that in- struction is here unnecessary. Holy Scripture is full of calls to prayer. You fully recognise * E/jck. xxxvi. ;J7. 3.% PRAYKR. the necessity of it ; and you meet statedly, in God's house of prayer, to act upon your sense of obligation in this respect. Why should time be occupied in the explaining of a duty, in the regular practice of which you have lived so long ? Yet, upon examination, what I am about to undertake, will probably be found needful enough. For veiy many, it is to be feared, do often say their prayers, who yet never pray ; praying, and the mere saying of prayers, being two very different things. A man attends the church on the Lord's day, and repeats, word for word, after the minister. And at home perhaps, every night and morning, he repeats by rote some form of prayer, wdiich may be in itself very excellent. Or perhaps he makes his petition in his own language, without any such form. He makes a conscience of this : and when he has done it, imagines that his task is over, and he has done liis duty. But his thoughts, very possibly, have been all the while " at the ends of the earth." Tfso, what he has been doing may be called sayiTKj of prayers; but it cannot be called praying. The tongue has indeed been oc- cupied, but the mind has had no share in the work. Such a mere form can never be that spiritual worship which it becomes a rational PRAYKll 397 creature to offer to God, who is a spirit. Nor does it any more resemble it than a dead car- cass resembles a living man. Therefore, since it is unhappily too true tliat many persons never pray in any better manner than this, it is very lit and necessary to explain to them what prayer is — such prayer as, we may huinbly hope, the God who commanded us to pray will hear. Let me give you, then, a few plain directions. 1. Prayer is, in the first place, an address from you to God. When yon pray, you sj>eak to Him. If it be so, your own common sense must tell you that it is necessary for you to be convinced, and feel, whensoever you would pray, that you indeed are in God's presence, and in such manner as that he not only hears your words, but sees into your hearts, so as to know whether you are really desirous to obtain the things which you are asking for with your lips, or not. But how common is it for people to say, in the words of our liturgy, " Lord, hear our prayers : let our cry come unto thee !" — when " God is not in all their thoughts ;" — when they are not lifting up their souls to him ; — not con- scious that he is attending to what they say ; indeed, not caring whether he attends or not. How can this be [)rayer ? When you say your 398 PRAYER. prayers in this manner, you are not conversing with God. What your lips may utter, there- fore, is not of the smallest consequence. You may be repeating- the Church prayers ; but they are not your prayers. You have not adopted or taken them to be yours : for you do not address them to anybody. It is as if a beggar should repeat over to himself the words by which it is usual to ask for alms, whilst there is no man to give alms, within sight or hearing. Therefore I say, first, give yourselves a little time to consider that the eyes of the Lord God are certainly upon your souls ; that he is as certainly present in your chamber, or in his house with you, as you are tiiere yourselves: that in truth, if he were not, there could be no manner of use or sense in your praying at all. Study to keep the eye of your minds fixed steadily upon him all the while that you are npon your knees ; for the moment you cease to do this, you leave off praying, though, it is true, you may go on talking all day long. 2. Consider next what makes prayer to be necessary. It is because you are poor, weak, dependent creatures, in absolute want of the things you pray for. Accordingly, your wants and your weaknesses you must feel, before you can pray sincerely. You come to church in- PRAYER. 399 deed, and say with your lips, " Lord, show thy mercy upon us : O God, make clean our hearts within us. Lord, take not thy Holy Spirit from us." But unless you are sensihle that, being wretched sinners, you stand in need of mercy, and are undone if you obtain it not; — unless you are sensible that your hearts are indeed polluted by unholy desires and ill af- fections, and therefore require to be cleansed ; — unless you are sensible that God's Holy Spirit, and nothing else, is able to keep you in the way of holiness, and that therefore 3'ou are sure to lie dead in sin for ever, if he should take it from you ;— unless you believe all this, your prayer for these things is mockery ; for mere mockery it must be to beg of God blessings which you do not know yourselves to need, and which therefore you cannot value, or heartily desire to obtain. The next requisite of an acceptable prayer therefore is, that you feel your extreme want of the things you pray for, and be impressed with a deep sense of the misery of your con- dition, if God should not be pleased to hear you. 3. From this it follows, of course, that fervent and earnest desires are necessary. " Covet earnestly the best gifts," * says St. Paul. * 1 Cor. xii. 31. 400 PHAYFR. Hearty desires are the very essence, the very life of prayer. Yet perhaps nothing is more common than for a man to say with his lips to God, " Hallowed be thy name : thy kingdom come: thy will be done;" when all the while it is perfectly clear from his own conduct, that nothing can be further from his desires than that such petitions should be answered. He profanes God's name himself with continual oaths and blasphemies ; he allows himself in this wicked and senseless habit ; how can he desire that God's name may be hallowed ? Christ bears not rule in his own heart ; he does not seriously intend to become his obedient disciple himself ; how therefore can he desire or care that his kingdom should be established ? He lives in wilful and habitual sin, and means, at least for some time longer, to persist in his evil courses ; how therefore can he have set his heart upon it that God's will should be done? Such a man is so far from pleasing God in prayer, that he should rather seem to be adding provocation to provocation, and sin to sin. First, he hath to answer for the sin of his evil life ; secondly, for his gross carelessness and wilful blindness in a sacred business ; if not for his insolent mocking of God, in pretending to ask those things as mighty favours, which PRAYER. 401 he really, thougli perhaps not explicitly, wishes may not come to pass. Thirdly, therefore, if you would worship in spirit and in truth, understand that by how much the more fervent and sincere your desires are, by so much the more acceptable will your prayer be in the sight of God. If your desire be weak, and much crossed by that " other law in your members which warreth against the law of your mind ;"* yet, so long as it is a real desire, the gracious Lord will pity you. But if there be no desire at all, there is no prayer at all. And what you take for prayer, is mere lip-service, and hypocritical formality. 4. In addition to this, there must also be a faith, a hope, a humble confidence in prayer. Your prayer is to God : and " them that honour me," he says, "I will honour."t And right views of him to whom you pray, are, in the nature of things, quite as necessary as right views of your own condition on account of which you pray. This our blessed Saviour in- timates, saying, What things soever ye desire when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.":|; And this faith which is to be exercised in prayer is twofold : there must be a faith in God's power to give you the * Rom. vii. 23. f 1 Sam. ii. 30. J Mar xi. 24. VOL. I. D D 402 PRAYER. desire of your hearts, and a faith in his wiUing- ness to do it. And first, there must be a faith in God's power ; for if either you do not believe that God is able to give you all things needful both for your souls and bodies, or if you believe that the things you want are to be had independently of God, or without him, why should you ask them from him, or what honour do you ascribe to him by asking them ? Yet it is to be feared that people are often guilty of this hypocrisy. Doubtless you are all ready to acknowledge, in general terms, both tliat God is almighty, and that whatsoever is done upon earth he doeth it : but yet, if you will examine into your own hearts, you will very probably discover that you ask for some things with your lips which, after all, you do not expect to receive from Him, and for others which you scarcely look upon as possible to be done or granted. For instance, you say unto God, " Give us this day our daily bread ;" but this too often is only a form : you look for it merely as the wages of your own industry. And so it is with spiritual things : you pray with your lips to be delivered from the bondage of some sinful habit, and, it may be, intend to get the better of that habit ; but if, as is too often the case, you say in your hearts, " I have counsel and strength for the PRAYER. 403 war," I will master my evil appetites myself, I have made good resolutions, and I will keep them ; wliat do you but ask those things of God which you expect to obtain without him ? This is not the prayer of faith ; neither is it so where the sense of the difficulty of the thing asked for so fills and overwhelms your minds, that your soul, like Peter when he walked upon the sea, looks aside from God to behold nothing else but the angry waves ; or with the unbe- lieving lord, in the famine at Samaria, who says of God's promise, "If the Lord would make windows in heaven, might this thing be?"* But the Christian's prayer is different from this : he knows that every good gift is from above, and that there is not anything too hard for the Lord. But there must be a persuasion beyond this : a faith in God's willingness to help us. That you may be enabled effectually to approach your God in prayer, you must believe also that " the Lord is good to all, and that his tender mercies are over all his works :"t for this rea- son our Lord Jesus Christ instructs you to begin your addresses to God in these words — "Our Father which art in heaven ;" and doubtless, if it shall be your habitual recollection that it is God himself who has assigned you this form * 2 Kings vii. 2. t Psal. cxiv. 9. D D 2 404 PRAYER. of address, or privileged you to call him by this name ; as often as you repeat the words, you will be reminded by them of the tender re- lation which subsists between your God and you. Your hearts will be filled with this con- solatory reflection, that " like as a father pitieth his own children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him."'* Believins this, vou will be able, notwithstanding all that you have done to provoke God's anger, to say with the repenting prodigal, " I will arise and go unto my Father :" and though, as he did, you will acknowledge your trausgression, and your sin will be continually before you, it will not be so before you as to shake your confidence in your Father's love : you will come to him with the joyful assurance that he will not re- ject you, for it will be upon the sense of his goodness, and of his declared regard, that your souls will rest. 5. But faith must have a foundation, other- wise it cannot stand : and " other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.'* t "All the promises of God in him are yea, and in him amen.":{; Ye are by nature disinherited children, ye must remember, and now it is only for liis sake that God is a friend and a father to you : therefore our Lord himself • Ps. ciii. 13. t 1 Cor. iii. 11. I 2 Cor. i. 20. PRAYER. 405 instructs you to ask everything in his name, and our church in obedience to him teaches you to say, " through Jesus Christ our Lord " at the end of every prayer. If you repeat these words without consideration, or have not upon your mind that beh'ef which they profess, then you are coming to God by yourselves with- out a Mediator, and your prayer is good for no- thing ; but if you enter heartily into the spirit of them, and when you utter them, do really feel that all your hopes of finding favour at God's hands depend on this, that " Christ hath died, yea rather is risen again, and is even now at the right hand of God making intercession for you,"* then your faith and trust are built upon the right foundation ; you come to God in the way of his own appointment, and you can- not be disappointed. 6. I have but one thing more to mention as requisite to an acceptable prayer, and that can- not by any possibility be separated from a genuine faith in Jesus Christ ; — I mean a deep humiliation of spirit, and a sense of your un- worthiness to be heard for your own sakes. It is a manifest contradiction to suppose that a true believer can be destitute of this ; for if you are fully persuaded that the Son of the Most High God suffered death upon the cross for * Rom, viii, 34. 406 PRAYER. you, and " bare your sins in his own body on the tree," you cannot think at the same time that there are merits of your own to deserve God's favour, or that there is not a heinous guilt and defilement to provoke his righteous anger. In the communion service, therefore, you are very fitly taught to confess in this manner : " We do not presume to come to this thy table, O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in thy manifold and great mercies. We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under thy table." If you have upon your hearts that humble and contrite spirit which these words so excellently express, you will have the last requisite for prayer which need be mentioned, and will have nothing to prevent you from putting your simple trust and confidence in Jesus Christ. But in proportion as any self-righteous imaginations prevail in your minds, you will lean on the staff of a broken reed, which, instead of supporting, will only go into your hand and pierce it. Prayer, then, is not a labour of the lips, but a lifting up of the heart unto the Lord ; and I trust that the most ignorant may see the dis- tinction between praying and the mere saying of prayer. If what has been said be true, it will follow that a man may utter, with much outward solemnity, the most pathetic petitions PRAYER. 407 in the world ; he may repeat our whole liturgy, than which nothing can be more beautiful, more scriptural, or more spiritual from beginning to end, and yet not offer up so much as one genuine prayer to God ; but, on the other hand, a man may pray with as much true devotion, and as well-grounded hope of acceptance as ever St. Paul or St. John did, though his out- ward words should go no further than those of the repentant publican, " God be merciful to me a sinner." It must not however be forgotten, that the text says, pray without ceasing : and though the meaning of this, as spoken of the act of prayer, scarcely requires explanation, it is very neces- sary for you to bear it in mind, that nothing less than that which the text requires may suffice you. Of course the apostle cannot mean that it is a duty to spend the chief part of your time in actual calling upon God ; but certainly he does mean, in the first place, that you should pray very often, following the example of those holy men whose history is written in Scripture for your instruction. Such, for instance, as Daniel, of whom it is recorded, that when he was first minister of state in the greatest em- pire in the world, he still found time solemnly to worship God three times a day : and he 408 PRAYER. means also that you should make prayer a regu- lar habit of your lives ; not praying two or three times a day for a week or a month, and then leaving it off again for the next week or month, but going on perseveringly to worship God without intermission every day in private, and in public, at all stated opportunities. Nothing less than this can be meant by pray- ing without ceasing ; and nothing less than this may secure to you the benefits derivable from prayer. II. I come now to show what these are. First, of course, and chiefly, there is the direct benefit secured by God's promise : " Ask, and it shall be given you ; seek, and ye shall find ; knock, and it shall be opened unto you ;"* and again — " They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength."! This requires no explanation. The benefit of persevering prayer offered to God in spirit and in truth is this, that ask what ye will, if God sees that it is really good for you, he will bestow it. You all know what things you desire to receive from God ; if you know the value of them, you know the value and the benefits of prayer, for that is the means of obtaining them. Everything is promised to the prayer of faith, and nothing is promised without it. Seeing that ye have a * Matt. vii. 7. f Isa. xl.31. PRAYER. 409 perpetual advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and that he is the propitia- tion for your sins, it is quite impossible that God should not be much more ready to hear than you ever are to pray. If God's plain word may not suffice to overcome your doubts, at least believe his actions. Consider what the Son of God endured when the Lord laid your iniquities upon him : and then hear St, Paul — " He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things ?"* But if you will consider further what prayer has been described to be, you will see that it is a thing very highly to be valued for its own sake. That it is the most beneficial exercise of the faculties that can be devised : that if it be conducted under the guidance of God's Spirit, it hath in itself a natural tendency to beget and nourish in your hearts all those christian graces, all those right affections and dispositions, which it should be your continual care to cultivate. On this account it is that you hear holy men in Scripture speaking with such delight and satisfaction of the privilege of worshipping God : hence it is that David declareth one day in God's courts to be better than a thousand ; not * Rom. viii. 32. 410 PRAYER. merely because lie had respect to the success which should eventually attend his praj^ers, but because in the very act and exercise of prayer he found the tender mercies of his God to be bountifully showered down upon him ; because he found himself to be quickened, raised, and sanctified ; because he found that nothing but his body remained on earth, that his soul was with its dearest treasure in heaven ; that pray- ing for heavenly blessings made him heavenly- minded ; that conversing with God did tend to raise up the image of God within him ; and that such communion never failed to calm his spirits, and to keep his mind in peace under the multitude of outward persecutions and afflictions which, at many periods of his life, assailed him. These present effects of prayer all good men more or less experience. I do not mean that when they pray, their souls are invariably filled with a sensible joy in believing ; but I say, from the persevering habit of such prayer as I have been speaking of, a more profitable bless- ing than this will certainly arise. From regular habits of actual prayer you will in time acquire a praying temper or state of mind : your whole souls will in time be habitually impressed with a sense of the constant presence of that pure and almighty Being with whom you are con- PRAYER. 411 stantly conversing : you will be daily more and more filled with a conviction of the value of those heavenly blessings which you are daily seeking; and the more you feel of this, the more must you lose your relish for the vanities of this world. By the regular habit of calling your sins to remembrance in order to confess them to Almiglity God, you will become more meek and lowly in your own eyes, more sen- sible of your continual need of supplies of grace from God ; stronger in the Lord, because less self-conceited ; more charitable in judging of other men, as remembering yourselves how often ye are tempted. By the regular habit of imploring forgiveness through Jesus Christ, and looking to him as your only hope and stay, you will learn to love him better, to trust to him more implicitly, and in time to count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of him. Just in proportion as you improve in prayer, you will grow in grace, and acquire more and more of such a holy and heavenly temper as will make sin to be detestable in your eyes, and render Christ's yoke easy, and his burden light : you will be renewed in the spirit of your minds : your desires will be lifted above this lower world ; your souls will ap- proach as near to heaven as in this imperfect state of their existence they can be brought. 412 PRAYER. III. In conclusion, let me address a few words of admonition to the different sorts or classes of God's professed worshippers. 1. And first, I cannot but fear that there are too many whose worship is of that lifeless and formal kind described in the beginning of this discourse. If it be so, it is not wonderful that you have received no benefit, for " the Lord looketh upon the heart." The promises are made to praying, and not to saying of prayers ; which last, however, is that which you appear to have been doing. I beseech you to examine your- selves, that you may see for yourselves whether this be true or not. Ask your consciences seriously and deliberately where your thoughts are wont to be, and where you allow them to be during the service of the church. Do you fix them upon God ? do you lift them up to heaven ? or are they not too commonly wander- ing up and down in the earth, employed about your " farms and your merchandise," your labour or your diversions, your neighbours or your families, about anything rather than spi- ritual things ? See if this be not often, see if it be not even habitually the case. If it be so, though you should be ever so regular attendants on public worship, do not admit into your hearts so gross a delusion as that this is the way so to PRAYER. 413 walk, as to please God. Do not be puffed up with notions of your superior goodness when you compare yourselves with your neighbours who desert the house of God ; for where the heart is not, God himself testifies against such worshippers, "This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me witii their lips, but their heart is far from me, but in vain do they worship me."* Awful indeed is the state of those who so entirely forget God and themselves as altogether to despise bis sabbaths, and deem prayer a worthless thing : but be assured you are not so much more ex- cellent than they as to have entered upon the way of life by keeping the commandments, if you come to his house only to forget him there. Beware of trusting in yourselves that you are righteous for any thing that you do ; but, above all, be not so blind as to build a title to God's favour upon so very poor a thing as the mere external compliance with what should be a spiritual and reasonable service. 2. But there is another sort of persons whose worship of God is attended with very little benefit. These are they who take heed only to half of St. Paul's advice. According to such views of the duty as they have, they will pray. Probably they will strive to keep their minds * Matt. XV. 8, 9. 414 PRAYER. fixed upon God ; do in some degree feel their wants, and have a weak kind of hope in Jesus Christ. But then they will not pray without ceasing. They will attend public v\'orship, but it shall onl}' be occasionally. But if this be your case, is it at all wonderful that you depart without a blessing ? It has been said that the exercise of prayer has in itself a tendency to produce a praying temper, a pious, humble, believing spirit : but evidently nothing can be sufficient to beget a habit of the mind which is not itself a habit of the life ; so that it is in the nature of thinos impossible that mere fits and starts of prayer should produce any good in this way : and if you are not persevering in prayer, surely you cannot think yourselves that you can have warrant to expect any good from God's bless- ing. He says, indeed, ask, and ye shall have ;" but certainly this means that you must ask in earnest. But how can a man be in earnest who is not sufficiently in earnest to be persevering? If you neglect prayer at home without a cause — if you are occasionally pre- vented from attending the church by such hin- drances as certainly would not prevent vour keeping an appointment for the transacting of any serious worldly business, does not this show too plainly that you never can be im- PRAYER. 415 pressed with any very deep sense of duty, and that you cannot yet have been brought to any due understanding of what you owe to the goodness of God in having called and privileged you to draw near to him. And then what is to be expected from doing the work of the Lord deceitfully, or from holding that to be a vain or light thing which is indeed "your life?" Do consider, I beseech you, that if the care of your souls be anything, it must be the one thing needful. Do reflect that you are always in the way of temptation, and that there is always need to seek strength from God. God saith, " They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength ;"* but to wait is to be constant in attendance. Of such as you he saith, " I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot ;" 1 and according to your lukewarmness will he deal with you. 3. A few words let me say to a class of per- sons concerning whom every Christian must feel a very peculiar interest, and whose instruc- tion indeed I have had in view all along in the plainness of speech which it has been my en- deavour to employ, — I mean young beginners in religion, or those who have but very newly entered with seriousness upon a christian course. * Isaiah xl. 31. f Rev. iii. 15. 416 PRAYER. Let me entreat you, in the first place, not to be discouraged because when you pray you do not feel all that warmth and eao-erness of devo- tion which you could wish. Only persevere, and it will come ere long. In the mean time let it always be one of your prayers that the Almighty himself would teach you how to pray : for it is written, " Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities, for we know not what we should pray for as we ought : but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered."* Let me advise you also to make it your rule to pray to God solemnly, and, as well as you can, at least twice every day. Set apart your particular seasons for this ; as for instance, the moment you rise in the morning, and the last space of time at night. No doubt this is the practice of very many. Perhaps you have per- severed in it for some time : but consider this — When the hour of prayer is come, there will be times when you will find yourselves not at all inclined to pray, but very much the reverse, and then you will be tempted to omit your prayers just for that once. But do not listen to the tempter — no, not for once. " Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."t If you find in yourselves an unwillingness to pray at your * Rom. viii. 26. -{- James iv. 7. PRAYER. 417 Stated hour, no doubt you are in a wrong frame of mind ; and if so, this is the very reason why you should give yourselves to prayer imme- diately, in order that you may be brought into a right state again ; therefore I say, however dull and dead your feelings may be, still en- deavour to address yourselves to God. It will usually happen that before your prayer is over, your right affections and good desires will re- vive ; but if not, do your best and trust in Christ, for depend upon it, if you suffer your- selves to be overpowered by the unwillingness you feel to-day, and so omit your worship of God, you will be still more unwilling to-mor- row, and still more the next day, and then you will not be long without a fall. I am quite sure that there are not a few who could testify that this is the way in which awakened sinners have fallen from their own steadfastness. First they have grown languid and listless in prayer ; next they have given way to this ; then they have left their prayers off, though with a resolution to take to them again ; then the resolution hath been broken ; then sin, and sometimes a course of sinning, hath succeeded. The case, God be praised, is not desperate, but the recovery is difficidt, and much more difficult the longer it is delayed. VOL. I. EE 418 PRAYER. Be exhorted then to return to God by the same way in which you approached him at first, " whilst it is called to-day, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin." * 4. There are another class of people to whom there is infinite need to speak, though it is hard to tell what may move them, — I mean those wretched persons who never pray at all. Your minds are quite departed from God, and from the business of his house, when occa- sionally you come to it, and at home you make no pretence of prayer at all. Do bethink you who can endure the fierceness of God's anger ? Yet — I speak it in compassion — under the wrath of God you cannot but be abiding now ; and if you die in your present state, nothing else but the award of his law against transgression and habitual rebellion can be your portion for ever. Be you ever so upright in your dealings with men, Christians you are not, and cannot be ; for a Christian cannot live without God in the world, as most undoubtedly you do. " Awake then, ye wretched sleepers, and arise from the dead, that Christ may give you light." f At present you have no religion at all ; at present, therefore, there is nothing but the breath which is in your nostrils between you and perdition * Heb. iii. 13. f Eph. v. 14. PRAYER. 419 But Christ is able to save to the uttermost all such as come unto God by him, and such as do come unto him, he will in no wise cast out. 5. But I do trust that I may be addressing myself to many of a totally opposite character ; to many who, through the riches of their Re- deemer's mercy, have been enabled to give their whole hearts to God, and who are stead- fast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, " and continuing instant in prayer." Remember how, even after God had declared that he would consume the congregation of Israel, Aaron, the priest of the Lord, " stood between the dead and the living, and the plague was stayed."* Do not ye give np your brethren's case as hopeless ; but to all your other suppli- cations add one fervent and faithful prayer for those wretched ones who never pray for them- selves ; who, wilfully despising the cross of Christ, are indeed still aliens from the common- wealth of Israel, and strangers from the cove- nants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world. Beg of him, who hath been everything to yourselves, to take the stony heart out of their flesh, and to put his Spirit within them ; that so the plague may be stayed * Num. xvi. 48. E E 2 420 PRAYER. ero it reach to destroy their souls, and the kingdom of the Redeemer may be enlarged. Such prayers as these, by whomsoever in the whole world they shall be offered up, may God in his infinite mercy answer, through the merits of his beloved Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 421 SERMON XXI. COMMON PRAYER. Psalm xxxiv. 3. " 0 magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together." One object of my last discourse was to show that God calls us to his "house of prayer," to " make us joyful in it ;"* and that the pecu- liar services of his day, though they are indeed fit and necessary expressions of a dutiful obe- dience towards Hirii, are yet commanded wholly for our sakes, and are not to be looked upon as burdens which we must submit to and endure, but as privileges which we are permitted to enjoy. My intention now, is to enlarge a little upon common prayer, or the worship of God in the congregation. It is to this common worship, or pouring out * Isa. Ivi. 7. 422 COMMON PRAYER. of our hearts to God in concert, that the psalmist calls us in the text. " O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together." What I shall have to say now, will rest chiefly on this last word "together"; and it will be my business to inquire whether some peculiar obligations do not lie upon us, and whether there are not some peculiar advantages in meet- ing together for confession, supplication, and thanksgiving ; so that the glory of God and our own edification may be far better promoted in this way, than by adhering exclusively to a so- litary or private worship. Holy Scripture, reason, and experience seem all to teach this doctrine. He who commandeth us to " pray without ceasing,"* commandeth us also "not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together."1[ Our Sa- viour, as if he would set a special mark of his complacency on unity and agreement in prayer, says, "If two of you shall agree on earth, as touching anything that ye shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in hea- ven ;" adding, " For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." J The psalmist, in the text, bids us " exalt God's name together." St. Paul exhorts the Philippians to " strive together * 1 Thess. V. 17. -[- Heb. X. 25. * Matt, xviii. 19, 20. COMMON PRAYER. 423 for the faith of the Gospel."* And he prays himself, on behalf of the Romans, that God would " grant them to be like-minded one to- wards another according to Christ Jesus, that with one mind and one mouth they might glorify God."t But to multiply quotations in so plain a matter is quite unnecessary. If, however, we will look to the reason of the case, we shall the better see the mercy of God in his injunctions which he lays upon us. For let it be observed, God's ordinances for our well-being are not wont to be mere positive ap- pointments for the trial of our obedience, as was, perhaps, the command to Naaman to wash seven times in Jordan for the healing of his leprosy ; but they have, in themselves, a pro- per conduciveness (though not an effectual one, independently of his blessing) to the end pro- posed. By setting us to pray, for instance, he puts us upon an exercise profitable in its own nature ; and by calling us to common prayer, (the case now before us,) he carries his care for our good still further, putting us upon an exer- cise still more profitable ; or, at least, having advantages which mere private prayer has not. The benefits may be illustrated by what passes before us continually in the world. It does, in fact, very often happen that people * Phil. i. 27. t Rom. xv. 5. 424 COMMON PRAYER. being connected by the ties of blood, natural affection, party, country, or the like, and having an interest in one another's welfare, and mu- tually depending upon one another for support, do meet and associate ; sometimes to rejoice together over their common successes ; some- times to strive together against their common adversaries ; and sometimes to do honour to their common benefactors. And who does not see the effects of union, and sympathy, and co- operation, upon the minds of the parties thus coalescing? Supposing the cause to be a good one, the social principle will gain by this com- mon prosecution of it, and jealousies and differ- ences subside and are forgotten. Let fellow- countrymen meet to celebrate a victory which has brought security and peace to all. He is a strange person who would take that opportu- nity to discuss a private grudge. People are elated upon seeing those about them animated by the same feelings with themselves, and whilst it is so, they cannot but look upon one another with more complacency and good-will ; or sup- pose we should be brought together to strive manfully for the repelling of some formidable common dang-er, how can we look to the right and left upon our fellow-soldiers in the struggle, behold them gallantlj- confronting the common adversary, and feel that their success or loss is COMMON PRAYER. 425 our own, and ours and theirs, without having our affections drawn out towards them, in a degree proportioned exactly to the interest with which we regard the common enterprise, and our con- fidence in their zeal for its attainment ? But if this be so in the world, how should it be otherwise in the church, where the parties still are vien, but where the ties by which they are drawn together are so much stronger, and the common cause so much holier and more im- portant ; and where, consequently, the interest excited, when the parties are really and truly zealous in the cause, must be so much more in- tense ? — As christian people, we have "one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Fa- ther of all, who is above all, and through all, and in us all."* In this relation we are *' striving together for the faith of the Gospel : rejoicing in hope of the glory of God : ascrib- ing unto the Lord the honour due unto his name." If there be a service for us to unite in, which may have the effect of binding it down more firmly upon our hearts, that we have all these things in common ; and if there is any way by which we can make a common effort for the glorifying of him who died for us, and for the salvation of one another's souls ; if we can meet to climb up to heaven together, every * Eph. iv. 5, 6. 426 COMMON PRAYER. one giving something to all the rest, and re- ceiving something from all the rest, for the establishment and confirmation of the common hope — surely this must be a way of assembling which must bring its own blessing with it, and a service in its own proper nature calculated to make us " vessels unto honour, sanctified and meet for the master's use :" if indeed the " end of the commandment," and the badge of our discipleship, " be charity." But is not common prayer this service ? We are met together by God's command in God's house — the one God and Saviour, the one father and preserver of us all. And every sincere Christian knowing what is his own business here, and what is upon his own heart, knows thereby, in general, what is every other's business, and what is upon the hearts of all true-hearted men around him. He is come hither himself as a sinner in the sight of God, to meet those his fellow-sinners, over whose falls his christian prin- ciple has taught him to grieve : and whose spiritual danger and distress the same principle teaches him to bewail; and the sinners round him view him with the same eyes with which he views them ; and therefore, with one heart, as well as with one voice, all may say together, and each in his brother's name no less than in his own, — " We have erred and strayed from thy COMMON PRAYER. 427 ways, O Lord, like lost sheep ; we have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts ; we have offended against thy holy laws ; we have left undone those things which we ought to have done, and we have done those things which we ought not to have done, and there is no health in us."* Here is communion in humiliation : communion in self-renunciation ; communion in confession, in peril, in distress. If the humiliation be but on all sides genuine, how must the sense of it, and the common profes- sion of it, make us all feel that we are "all members one of another !" But we have also a common hope ; and building it all of us on one and the same foundation, our common supplication is a joint effort, by which, every Christian bearing every other in his heart, we come to one " throne of grace" together, each to seek for his brother as well as for him- self, and each assured that his brother is, at the same time, seeking for him " grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ." — " But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us, miserable offenders. Spare thou them, O God, which confess their faults ; restore thou them that are penitent, according to thy pro- mises declared unto mankind in Christ Jesus our Lord." Here is communion in faith, in * General Confession. 428 COMMON PRAYER. hope, in desire, in euueavour. We stand on the same ground, covet the same good gitts^ and covet them for one another. If my brother is edified, if his spiritual disease is healed, if his sins are forgiven him, my prayer is answer- ed ; and so is his prayer answered, if God does these things for me. We have " agreed together," touching these things, to ask them for each other. Our hearts are enlarged to desire that the dew of God's blessing may light on all, and let it light where it will, all are gainers. And therefore there will always be occasion for a common acknowledgment. " We thine unworthy servants, do give thee most liumble and hearty thanks for all thy goodness and lov- ing kindness to us, and to all men,''' * Here is communion in obhgation, in thankfulness, and thanksg-iving;. And thus throughout ; every sincere and pious person confesses, prays, gives thanks with his neighbour, on&for his neighbour ; and confiding in his neighbour's sincerity, he deems of all around him — these are they who desire "his kingdom to come,"' and his will to be done in whom my soul delighteth — these are they who feel that I can never go too far in ascribing glory, and honour, and worship, and power to Him, to whom it is my heart's desire to render * General Thanksgiving. COMMON PRAYER. 429 them — ^tliese are they, who are interested in precisely the same things whicli interest me, and are here to declare it. All things which are worth having or worth desiring, we have and desire in common ; and our lamentations are common, and our admirations and our rejoicing also. But I will not enlarge further upon this : — I only ask, is not the service which quickens and excites these views, a service through which, under God, charity may well be expected to be promoted, and brotherly love and unity be es- tablished and increased ; and if so, is it not for the glory of God, and for the good of souls? Ought not such a service to be more valued by us all ? And are not our obligations to attend upon it self-apparent ? But an objection will be taken here. The case has been stated rather as it ought to be, than as it is. Look, it will be said, at our chris- tian assemblies so called. If God is in the place of worship, surely people know it not. One voice indeed is uttered; " By thine agony and bloody sweat ; by thy cross and passion ; by thy precious death and burial ; by thy glori- ous resurrection and ascension, and by the com- ing of the Holy Ghost, good Lord deliver us. In all time of our tribulation, in all time of our wealth, in the hour of death, and in the day of 430 COMMON PRAYKR. judgment, good Lord deliver us."* But are these people's minds engaged ? seemetli it as though they were humbled before the cross, or confident in the Captain of their salvation? Know these that their Redeemer liveth, or care they for any of these things at all ? Does it appear that they are "thirsting after righteousness;" or " working out their salvation with fear and trembling," or, as accountable dying men, think- ing how they may meet their God ? Observe their dull, cold, irreverent, trifling manner; the drowsiness, the air of vacancy and inattention, and indifference, and listlessness. Is this com- mon prayer, this the service through which we are to edify so abundantly ? — Assuredly it is not. Almighty God, I am constrained to grant, is dishonoured in his own house too often ; and many seem to pray not at all when they use the words of prayer, but rather to take God's name in vain. But if, because it should be so in a very aw- ful degree, any will say, I will therefore pray at home, and turn my back on these assemblies : herein, I shall reply, thou doest neither well, nor wisely, nor humbly, nor charitably ; nor understandest thou, as it would be well thou shouldest, what is good for thine own soul. No doubt, the hearts of pious persons will burn * Litany. COMMON PRAYER. 431 within them in the house of God, more and more in proportion to their confidence in the zeal around them : and, no doubt, the want of such confidence is wont to cast a great damp upon their minds : and certainly I have argued for com- mon prayer, upon the supposition that people have ground for thinking, that in the worship of our one God and Saviour, many hearts among those present are in unison with their own. But the case is not a lost case, I think, if great deduction must be made from what we could desire in this respect. It would be inexpressibly better, no doubt, if we could very clearly see the genuine spirit of grace and supplication per- vading our religious assemblies throughout. But yet, great losers would any be who should forsake these assemblies even being what they are, and great sinners also in so doing. Let these few things be considered. In the first place, though it should be granted that there may be in the congregation amongst whom your lot is cast, many careless, prayerless people ; yea, though a very great proportion of them should be such, surely you will not take upon you to decide that all are such ; it is hard indeed if you will think that there are not two or three honestly gathered together in Christ's name. But if there be, here is Christ in the midst of them, and " he 432 COMMON PRAYER. knows his sheep, and is known of them ;"* and he will not send them away empty, though they should be worshipping (to make the very worst of it) in the midst of wolves. " I pray not," he says, "that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil."t But, in all like- lihood, you know, as far as may be known, more than one or two at your side " faint," perhaps, "yet pursuing,";]: and still striking at their spiritual enemies and 3'ours, and hoping in God's word. If it is so, it is enough. I mean, to assure to yourselves, if you be among them, the blessing promised to a christian as- sembly : and enough to animate and encourage you in prayer, if j'ou will let 30ur minds dwell upon it : though, doubtless, you may well de- sire to see greater things than these. Hope ye in God, however, and hope the best, for "charity hopeth all things."^ "Se- ven thousand" there were " in Israel who had not bowed the knee to Baal,"|| when Elijah thought that only himself remained. And earnest seekers of salvation there may be in any congregation, and a fervent mind to desire the good of all men ; and a genuine humble piety, seen of God, though not by you. * John X. 14. f John xvii. 15. | Judges viii. 4. % 1 Cor. xiii. 17. || Rom. xi. 4. COMMON PRAYER. 433 And it is better to hope this, and be mistaken, since it may be so, than to decide without knowledge that it is not so. At all events, "Judge not, that ye be not judged ; condemn not, that ye be not condemned."* But " the works of the flesh are manifest."t And when you stretch your charitable pre- sumptions to the utmost, you cannot but see at last, that many assemble in the church, of whom it never can be thought that they are come to " worship God in spirit and in truth." But are we to close the door, and keep these poor people out ? Will you find fault with those servants who, simply doing as they were bid, and not thinking themselves qualified to distinguish between tares and wheat, or en- titled to select and choose, when he who spread the banquet had sent out a general sum- mons— went forth and brought in unto the mar- riage as many as they could find, "both good and bad ?" J It cannot be in the least suspected that you could wish any one excluded, or that you would not rejoice to see our churches crowded, though it were with the profane, and profligate, and formal ; though it were with publicans and sinners, the vilest and the worst. For you know on whose side the work of grace begins: you know that the Lord is "to pass * Luke vi. 37. f Gal. v. 19. | Matt. xxii. 10. VOL. 1. F F 434 COMMON PRAYER. this way."* And it may be, as Ezekiel says, "in a time of love." f And he who dealt so graciously by Jerusalem, \vhen " no eye pitied her, may deck any of these with the orna- ments of his grace, (for by grace are we saved,) " and put a fair jewel on their forehead, and a beautiful crown on their head, and say unto them, Live" If you know this ; and if besides, there may be in any assembly but so much "as the shaking of an olive tree, or as the gleaning grapes when the vintage is done ;" do not so wrong yourselves, or reproach your Maker, or forget that " on some we must have compassion, and others save with fear, plucking them out of the fire;":|: — as to enter God's house of prayer with a doubtful or de- sponding mind, because it may be so, that where many are met together, only a part will in deed and in truth strive together for the faith of the Gospel. God causeth " all things to work together for good to them that love him ;" ^ and therefore there is nothing that a zealous and enlightened believer may not turn to some good account ; and if there be obstacles, and difficulties, and discouragements in our course, a wise man will know, both that we must fight against them, * Luke xix. 4. f Ezek. xvi. 6, 8, 12. | Jude 22, 23. § Rom. viii. 28. COMMON PRAYER. 435 and that the best way, and the practicable way also, is to turn them into helps, and to make them serve us. And by God's grace Christians mio-ht do so in the case before us. What damps their spirits in the worship of God might animate their zeal, and ought to have that effect. Are you not sorry for the case of those who are come to the feast without power to taste it? and are in God's house without con- sciousness of his presence ? Is it not a sad thing, and a thing to be lamented, and a thing which Christians should strive, if possible, to remedy, when " a price is put into the hands of" our fellow-creatures "to get wisdom, and they have no heart to it?" * And are not Chris- tians, on the other hand, " the salt of the earth ?"f And is not religious feeling commu- nicable from one to another; and " the kingdom of heaven, like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened?"'! It is very plain, I think, what is to be done. You are to pray with that part of the congregation who truly desire to pray, and do pray. And you are to pray for the rest who care not, or who are unable, to pray for themselves or you. And the greater the number of such miserable persons around you, the more earnest and vehement must your sup- * Prov. xvii. 16. f Matt. v. 13. \ Matt. xiii. 33. F F 2 436 COMMON PRAYER. plication be; and tlieir presence tells you so. '"Ye that make mention of the Lord, (saith Isaiah,) keep not silence, and give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusa- lem a praise in the earth."* If it is a glorious thing to be present where we are confident that all " mind the same thing," and that the best; and covet earnestly the best gifts for one ano- ther, and have given their hearts to God : it is at least an affecting thing, and God forbid that it should be thought a hopeless thing, to be present in these mixed assemblies, as they are sometimes called. And if we cannot " sing because the Lord hath triumphed gloriously ;"t it is well that rivers of " tears should run down our eyes, because men keep not his law,";|; and care not for their own salvation. Let me add a few words of admonition, for the use of all parties. The most unthinking, I suppose, have not resolved to leave things to take their own course with their souls for ever. Consider, therefore, with reference to prayer in general, that ye shall never come back to God, except by means of it. "They shall come with weep- ing, (saith the Lord,) and with supplications will I lead them."§ There is no other method. * Isa. Ixii. 6, 7. ■\ Exod. xv, 1. + Psiilm cxix. 136. § Jer. xxxi. 9. COMMON PRAYEIl. 437 And then, with reference to the special case be- fore us, do reflect a little upon what has been advanced — upon the special promises and privi- leges which belong to this common worsliip of God — upon its excellent and peculiar uses; and ask yourselves how ye can dare to despise it, how you can find in your hearts to forego the peculiar aids which it is calculated to afford you, to neglect the peculiar duty which it involves, to be so indifferent in so high a business. Will you profess yourselves Chris- tians, and care so little to be in unity with your fellow Christians, as to refuse to accompany them to the house of your one common Fa- ther? Will ye profess charity, and the obli- gation to do good unto all men, and especially unto them which are of the household of faith, and yet refuse your co-operation towards call- ing down every needful blessing upon the uni- versal church ? If ye care not to strengthen your brethren's hands in God ; are ye so strong yourselves as not to need their prayers for you ? Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of the Lord ; and, as he shall exalt you in due time, you shall be brought to regard as a bless- ing and a privilege, every opportunity of wor- shipping, where prayers weak as yours may be aided by the stronger cries of those who are 438 COMMON PRAYER. nearer to God than yourselves, and fuller of faith and zeal. Let all remember, further, that as common prayer is for the exercise and increase of bro- therly love and charity, it must also spring from charity. Herein it hath its root ; and if the root be injured, the branch will wither. Watch over your deportment, therefore, to- wards each other at all times. It might be well for each of you to recollect, respecting any near you, towards whom you may possibly be tempted to think or behave unkindl}', — he and I met together before the throne of grace on the last Lord's day, and, on the next, we are called to meet again. And the more the spirit of prayer abides in each of us, the more to re- joice in there is for both. But if we fall out by the way, how shall we pray at all ? It is worth every man's while to do his best to pre- serve the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace ; were it only that the common prayers of the christian society should not be hindered. And petty differences are not much worth thinking of, if Satan is seeking the souls of all of us, that he may sift us as wheat. You do not desire to do your neighbour's soul a damage if he has offended you, nor would you delibe- rately put your own to hazard. Then throw COMMON PRAYER. 439 down the weapons of your private enmity, lest the "armour of God"* be withholden from you, and so, like unhappy Israel, ye be found "without sword or spear"! in the day of battle, against the grand destroyer. Finally, be advised to tliis — to appropriate a little time, each of you, that, for once, you may sit down and study the prescribed form of worship of the church to which you belong. The beauties of it indeed are obvious — the diffi- culties next to none. But under this disad- vantage for edifying you, it labours by neces- sity. Having been familiar with the words of it from your childhood, and having in a man- ner learnt it by rote, at a time when you were little able to search into the sense of anything ; and being, as is usually the case, very slow to give yourselves the trouble of thinking about anything which does not excite you by its novelty ; you have probably never exa- mined or considered it at all, or, at least, not as it deserves to be examined, or as you might and would have examined it, under different circumstances. But do so now. Take it sentence by sentence, and weigh the meaning of it. And if you will do so with this all along upon your minds, that it is a common service, in which you are to pray both with * Kph. vi. 13 -f 1 Sam. xiii. 22. 440 COMMON PRAYER. your brethren and for them, you will soon find beaut}^, and propriety, and suitableness in it ; and excitement, and instruction, and comfort in the use of it, to which at present you may be entire strangers : and you shall " pray with the spirit, and pray with the un- derstanding also."* And whensoever, by any mean?, the members of Christ's body shall be brought each to strive for every other, when all are before the footstool of God together, in the manner which has been urged ; then, depend upon it, the blessing shall not tarry long. The prayer of Him who hath prayed for all, will be answered. His people will be knit together, as they ought to be, in love. They " all will be one : their Lord in them, and they in him."'\ And God in all of them will be glorified. * 1 Cor. xiv. 15. \ John xvii. 21. 441 SERMON XXIT. LORD'S SUPPER. 1 Corinthians xi. 26. " For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come.'' All christian people profess to rest their whole hope of salvation only on the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. They look for him to come the second time to judge the world in righteous- ness, and, in that day in the which he shall come, they hope to stand accepted with Almighty God, and to enter into glory for eternity : but this glory they expect as God's recompense of the travail of his soul for them, and not as the reward of their own good deservings ; and they have been taught that it is solely through his advocateship pleading the propitiation which he made for sin upon the cross, that now at 442 lord's supper. this time they receive grace to be faithful, and are enabled to take any step which they do take in the way of obedience. Clearly, therefore, his suiferings, together with the gracious intention of them, ought to be the continual subject of their meditations. It is at once their duty and their interest that it should be so. We see the lamentable fact, however, that duty and interest are wont both of them to be wofully disregarded. We are careful and troubled about many things, but the Lord that bought us with his own blood is forgotten. Some of us appear to have put him out of our minds entirely ; whilst even the best of us are so subject to be drawn aside from the contem- plation of him, that it never can be superfluous to stir us up by way of remembrance ; — there- fore " The Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread ; and when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body which is broken for you : this do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the New Testament in my blood : this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me."* In other words, he instituted the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, to the intent that his professed disciples, to the * 1 Cor. xi. -23. lord's supper. 443 end of the world, should be perpetually re- minded of the sacrifice of his death, and of the benefits to be received thereby ; for so speaks St. Paul — " As often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come." I proceed to speak, I. First, of the meaning and benefits of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. IL Secondly, of the obligations to frequent attendance upon it. IIL Thirdly, of some excuses commonly alleged by the neglecters of it. IV. Lastly, of the requisite preparation for it, together with the frame of spirit in which we ought actually to come to it. L And, first, as to the meayiing and benefits of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. The meaning is made known to us in the text. It is to " shew the Lord's death till he come." In the administration of this sacrament such an act is done as sets forth, declares, and in effect preaches "Christ crucified" to the com- municants ; presenting him by means of a simi- litude, or typical action, to their minds ; so that though at this time he is out of their sight, and they must wait for his actual coming to bless them, they may, in the mean season, be supported and sustained by sucli lively a[)pre~ 444 lord's supper. hensions of him as may much help them to wait in patience, and to rejoice in hope. Bread and wine are placed by the minister upon the table ; the bread to stand for the body of Christ, the wine to signify his blood ; the bread is then broken, to denote the break- ing or wounding of his flesh upon the cross, and the wine poured out to denote that his blood was shed ; — and thus we have in a figure the history of the Lord's death. " Before our eyes,'' as St. Paul says to the Galatians, " he is evidently set forth crucified amongst us."* The fact is related, or rather acted, in our view. The same figure or action proceeds next to instruct us respecting the intention of this fact, our own intimate concern in it, and the benefits derivable from it to each of us. For the minister — God's minister, bearing God's commission, acting under God's order, and in God's name — he having broken the bread and poured out the wine, and partaken of both himself, presents a portion of each to every communicant round the table, at the same time declaring to the receiver what that bread and that wine represent or stand for, and what the things signified, which they do stand for, are, through God's blessing upon the right use of the ordinance, to do for him. "Tiie * Gal. iii. 1. lord's supper. 445 body of our Lord Jesus Christ," that body which this bread represents ; " The blood of our Lord Jesus Clirist," that blood which this wine represents — "which were given for thee, preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life." It was for this end that God bestowed them ; and may they through his mercy be for the actual accomplishment of this end to thee ! So prays the minister ; and his word, and the accompanying action together, instruct us in these things following. The choice made of bread and wine to be the representatives of Christ's body and blood, is to teach us what that body and blood, in effect, are to man — the meat and drink of his soul ; that as the body subsists upon its food, so the soul must and may have and maintain its life from Christ ; and would, without his atoning sacrifice, as surely perish for its sin, under the wrath of God, as the body deprived of food would die of hunger. The presenting of the bread and wine so chosen to represent Christ by God's minister at God's order, and therefore, as we may say, the presenting of them by God himself to the communicants — that is, as it were, God's de- claration, that whatever good things Christ by his death has purchased, to those the commu- nicant is freely welcome. There is Christ and 446 LORD S SUPPER. redemption for him, if he will not refuse his own good. The presenting of the bread and wine to each communicant severally, and to every one with- out exception, is to remind each of Jiis own personal concern in Christ's death, and to in- struct all that "God is no respecter of per- sons;"* but that "W'hosoever believeth in his Son shall not perish, but have everlasting life." t And the calling of all to eat of the same spiritual meat, and to drink of the same spi- ritual drink, at the same time and at the same table ; — this is to show that all, minister and people together, are one family, one household of faith ; in and through Christ, one brotlierhood, every one members one of another. And now there seems to be only one parti- cular more requiring explanation, namely, what is signified bv the communicants each for him- self taking the bread and wiue, and by eating and drinking them, as it were converting them to his own use. This evidently should be the communicant's counter declaration, and his seal set opposite to God's to the charter of his christian privileges. As God giving him the bread and wine, in infinite mercy, presents him with Christ to be his salvation, so he, by taking it, accepts Christ to be his salvation. As though * Acts X. 34. f John iii. 16. lord's supper. 447 he should say, Yes, I do remember thee, Lord Jesus, what thou hast suffered, and what thou hast done for me. I acknowledge that I am undone without thee; and henceforth, renounc- ing every other confidence, I take thee for my hope and my dependence, for my king and guide, for my strength and comfort and nourish- ment, and for whatsoever else thou hast pro- mised to be. This may sufiice for the meaning of the ordinance. — As to the benefits, we are sure that God Almighty is in earnest in what he does : let it be supposed that we are so too ; sincere, I mean, and honest in our acceptance of these pledges of God's love, and in our pro- fessions of allegiance to Christ as our Re- deemer, and then certainly God will make good his pledge. " The body and blood of Christ are verily and indeed taken and received by the faithful in the Lord's Supper." The bread and wine indeed remain bread and wine, neither more nor less; but as surely as the body receives the outward sign, the soul is made partaker of the inward and spiritual grace. Christ and the things paid for by his blood- shedding are actually made over to the true believer ; and his soul by the Holy Spirit, through Christ obtained, is as truly refreshed and strengthened for newness of life and godli- 448 LORD S SUrPER. ness, as his body is refreshed by its food, and invigorated for its projoer labours. II. I come to speak now of the obligations to frequent attendance upon this holy ordinance. These, from what has appeared already re- specting the nature and benefits of the thing ftself, must be very obvious to every honest mind. The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper is our blessed Redeemer's own positive insti- tution : " This do," he says, expressly ; and he speaks the words, as it were, on his death- bed to his surviving friends, — on the same night in which he was betrayed, and within a few hours of the time when he would deliver him- self up to be a sacrifice for the sins of men. And "this do," he saj'S moreover, " in rme^w- brance of me." * Is it necessary for me to remind you of his saying, " Ye are my friends when ye do what- soever I command you ?"'}■ then, and then only. "Why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?"!]! If he be a Master, where is our obedience ? If he be a Friend, where is our love ? If he be a Benefactor, where is our acknowledgment of his benefits ? If he be a Saviour, where are our thanksgivings ? If we disregard this special commandment, at such a time delivered, and for such a purpose, * 1 Cor. xi. 24. f John xv. 14. * Luke vi. 46. LORD S SUPPER. 449 \vhere is the obedient spirit, and the respect and reference to his will which ought to be with us in the keeping of any commandment ? If we remember him not in the way of his own choice, how is it possible, in any acceptable way, to remember him at all? If we will not worship him as he himself chooses to be wor- shipped, is not the way of our choice mere will- worship ? and where is the sincerity of our pro- fessions or of our devotion ? But, says St, Paul, *' If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, let him be anathema maranatha."* He lays a twofold malediction upon him, and will not have him to be acknowledged for a Christian. Neither, if he wilfully and habitually turns his back upon this special institution, is it easy to see how he can acknowledge himself to be a Christian, or how he does much less than disown the Lord that bouo;ht him. The sacra- ments of the christian church are to the same use and effect as the sacraments of the Jewish church. Baptism answers to circumcision, the Lord's Supper to the passover ; the only dif- ference, outward form excepted, between the two last, being, that the passover commemo- rated a temporal and typical deliverance past, and foretold by a prefiguration of Christ to come ; * 1 Cor. xvi. 22. VOL. L G G 450 lord's supper. whereas the Lord's Supper commemorates Christ now come arid crucified, and foretells or as- sures us of that very everlasting deliverance through him, of which the deliverance from Egyptian bondage was a type. But if the Jewish sacrament was not attended upon, the soul who refused to do it was cut off from Israel. Let him be what he would, or do what he would, in other respects, he was not, he did not call himself, and he should not be called, one of the Lord's people. He would not do the particular act by which he was to acknow- lege himself enrolled among them, and which God had appointed for that purpose. He would not swear allegiance to the King of Israel, therefore he should be accounted none of his. And why should we be accounted Christ's, if we will not meet him in that act by himself specifically appointed to be a sign of the cove- nant between him and us ; and in which we are to accept his pledge of love, and to give our pledge of obedience openl}^ and in the face of all men. Understand what a positive institu- tion is, and what question it serves to try : the question is not simply whether we shall or shall not eat bread and drink wine — the question is not as to the excellency of this way of approach- ing God in itself, and compared with any other sort of service ; but the question is, whether lord's supper. 451 our obedience is sincere and simple, so that we have respect to God's commandment because it is God's, and are ready to come to God, and to contract with God in his own way ; and to deem his way the best way, because it is his ; — our duty, be it what it will, because he who ordered it is our Master, and we his servants — and our privilege, be it what it will, if set forth by him as such, because he is our all-wise and our all-merciful Redeemer, who must best know by what means it is best to bless us. And in the next place, the sacrament of the Lord's Supper is indeed for privilege and for blessing ; — for the strengthening and refreshing of our souls ; (as hath been said ;) for a mean and instrument of sanctification — for the con- veying to us of more grace. And is not this what we all want, and all profess to want? " Let him," however, if such a one there be among us, " let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall." * We must not tempt the Lord our God. Doubtless, if we are not sufficiently serious in the matter of our salvation, most thankfully to avail ourselves of all the helps with which God has furnished us, not only our seri- ousness, but our mere sincerity, may much be doubted ; and if we turn our backs habitually upon one principal channel through which grace * 1 Cor. X. 12. G G 2 452 lord's supper. is to be conveyed, we act as if we could work out our own salvation for ourselves : we resist and grieve the Holy Ghost ; we do tempt the Lord our God, and provoke him to withhold his grace. Doubtless, to despise or reject the means, is to despise or reject the end. Let us see then that we do not lose the end. A promise being left us of entering into rest eternal, let us take heed lest by any means we come short of it. If a man's whole worldly estate were at stake, he would neglect no probable help towards preserving it : the thing would be too serious to be trifled with — it would occupy him day and night. But the soul is at stake ; our all for eternity is at stake ; is not this too great a mat- ter to be trifled with ? — Can we afford to throw away a sure and appointed help ? But the oxen and the fatlings were killed, and the banquet spread. And the king sent forth his servants at supper-time, to say to them who had been bidden, " Come, for all things are now ready : but they with one consent began to make excuse."* And even so it is now, and with respect to the table of the Lord. IIL And these excuses must now be noticed. f As to the majority of those who statedly absent themselves, the root of their behaviour has ap- peared already. They are not in earnest about * Luke xiv. 18. f See Abp. Synge. lord's supper. 453 their souls ; " neither regard they the work of the Lord" in the redemption of man, " nor con- sider the operation of his hands." If, however, any say we are ignorant, and so not in a condition to communicate, we under- stand not this thing which we are called upon to do, — that is a good reason for seeking to be better taught ; but that is all, for instruction is not hard to be got, and the whole is intelligible enough with common sense and attention ; and therefore to remain in ignorance is these people's sin, and a great and wilful sin it is ; and they may not allege one sin in palliation of another. If any say we have little time to make pre- paration— by reading, and meditation, and self- examination, and special prayer ; I reply, you have some time. It is nowhere said in Scrip- ture just how many hours we must spend in this way. It is said, " Let a man examine him- self,"* and that is all that is said. God knows what each man's opportunities are, and every man may know his own. Let every man do what he can in this way of actual and explicit preparation : *' and if there be first a willing mind," — the rule holds good here as in other cases — " it is accepted according to that which a man hath, and not according to that which he hath not."t * 1 Cor. xi. 28. \ 2 Cor. viii. 12. 454 LORD S SUPPER. But I am a grievous sinner, another says, and am not worthy of the Lord's table. Art thou fully persuaded of that ? Then let me tell thee, if that be all, that is no impediment. As to worthiness in the strict meanino; of the word, there is no such thing as worthiness of man to receive the bounties of God. What is due pre- paration for this holy ordinance I shall show presently ; but I say now, as the Lord Jesus Christ is the Saviour of sinners, so the Lord's table is the feast of sinners : and because we are sinners we are called to it, just as because we are sinners we are called to hhn. Is it sin which you are sorr}^ for, sin which you wish you had not committed, sin which you are begging pardon for ; sinful appetite which you are engaged in striving against ? Is it this which troubles you ? And because of this do you think 3'ourself worthy of God's wrath, worthy not to be admitted to his presence, but to be shut out ? Then I say, though the sin hath been gross, and though the appetite is not yet destroyed, and though on thine own account, and for thine own proper deserts, thou indeed art worthy to be shut out, yet " Come unto Christ, thou that labourest and art heavy laden," Christ thou needest, " and he shall give thee rest."* Come unto him at his table, and he shall by no means * Matt. xi. 28. lord's supper. 455 cast thee out ; and there is that grace to be had, by which thou art to fight against thy sin effec- tually. But it is said again, Desirous though I am to break off my sins by repentance, and resolved though I am with God's help to walk in new- ness of life, so sensible am I of my own weak- ness and proneness to backslide, that I fear I shall never make good my resolutions ; and if I sin after this holy ordinance, my case will be worse than ever. A sad thing it would be in- deed, should any man be insensible to his own weakness, and confident in the strength of his own resolutions, or unaware of the possibility of his falling. But neither need this be an impe- diment to the discharge of our plain duty in coming to the Lord's Supper. For the question is not as to whether you shall actually keep your good resolutions, though doubtless you ought to keep them ; but as to the sincerity with which they are made — and indeed if we should call none to the Lord's table, save those only who were fully persuaded that they cer- tainly should for ever hold fast their integrity towards God, we should call none but the proud and self-sufficient, who are the last people whom we should wish to call; and if none should come but such as upon infallible grounds might be confident that they should never sin again. 456 lord's supper. none should come at all : for what man is there that liveth and sinneth not? But look back to the first celebration of this sacrament by the Lord Jesus Christ himself. The receivers were the apostles. He knew who were clean, or in a state to communicate ac- ceptably, and who were unclean ; and of eleven of them he says, " Now ye are clean through the word which 1 have spoken to you." * But the other, namely, Judas, he calls " a son of perdition."'!" Now some have doubted, whe- ther Judas did receive, or whether he did not go out upon his wicked business before the in- stitution of this divine right took place. Our church evidently assumes it that he did receive ; but it is nothing to my present argument. If he received, no doubt he " ate and drank his own damnation, not considering the Lord's body;";}; for he must have received it without faith, in a state of malice and conscious un- charitableness ; with no purpose of repentance at all, but, on the contrary, with a firm and ex- plicit resolution upon his mind to commit sin, that is, to betray his Master. And if you go, as he did, resolving beforehand to be in any sinful respect what you have been, or without any se- rious intention of amendment, you will sin as he did, and get a curse, and not a blessing. But * John XV. 3. t Joli" xvii. 12. X 1 Cor. xi. 29. lord's supper. 457 as to the other eleven, we are sure they receiv- ed, and we are sure too that they received in an acceptable manner. But we know also that they did every one, almost immediately after receiving, commit, not indeed so base a sin as that of Judas, but yet a very base one, for they all forsook their Master, and Peter with a false oath denied him. But here lay the difference — not in what was done after receiving, not in the sin of the two parties ; but in what was done before receiving, in the antecedent preparation and frame of spirit of the two parties. Judas went resolved upon sin — Peter, to take the strongest case, went resolved against it ; re- solved against all sin generally ; and resolved, specially though weakly, and with considerable infirmity, against that particular sin into which he nevertheless fell so soon. The one, therefore, was a hypocrite ; the other a true though an in- firm believer : his heart was rioht with God at the time, though afterwards his courage failed him. What he did after receiving was a gross sin indeed — but the act of receiving itself was nevertheless an honest discharge of duty ; and you must do your duty in like manner, in spite of the possibility that you may transgress after- wards. If you should fall like Peter, you will have need to weep as he did ; but because this may be, you must not therefore break a plain 458 lord's supper. commandment now. I confess, however, there was a fault, though it did not amount to hypo- crisy or insincerity, even in Peter's preparation for the Lord's supper; and I mention it, be- cause if you will take warning and avoid it in your preparation, you will greatly lessen the danger of an after-failure. He resolved ag-ainst the particular sin of denying his Master, with much honesty, but with too much presumption and self-sufficiency ; and having this in his heart, he did not cry mightily to God, as he should have done, to be kept upright by divine grace. Now whatsoever resolutions you make of future obedience, before you come to the Lord's table, resolve humbly, and, in distrust of yourselves, cast yourselves upon God : and see the necessity, too, that preparation for the sacra- ment should be not merely habitual, but also, as far as it can, actual and special. I mean, that be you as established Christians as you may, it is well to trim your lamps before you come forth to meet the bridegroom in this ordinance ; well to give some time to prayer special to the occa- sion, and to self-examination, though, as I have said before, every man's own circumstances must determine the quantity, whether it is to be more or less, and God only looks for service in pro- portion to men's several abilities. IV. This brings me to tlie last head on which lord's supper. 459 I proposed to speak ; namel}^ the preparation requisite, and the frame of spirit in which the Lord's Supper ought actually to be attended. St. Paul says, " Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup."* And this is all that he says, and it is every word that is said anywhere in Scrip- ture upon the subject. He was speaking, how- ever, to people of common understanding, and to people whom he had himself instructed in the principles of the christian faith. And this, no doubt, is the reason why he dismisses so weighty a business with so brief an admonition. He hath explained the meaning and nature of the ordinance ; and thence he thought any honest man might sufficiently collect what those things must be, which he has occasion to exa- mine himself about ; — and so any man may. Consider what the Lord's Supper is, and it will be immediately apparent, that the things re- quired for a due participation of it must be those three which our church has noted ; — Re- pentance, Faith, and Charity. The sacrament is an act of commemoration — "For the con- tinual remembrance of the sacrifice of the death of Christ, and of the benefits which we receive thereby."! To commemorate that which we do not believe, is of course a mockery ; and * 1 Cor. xi. 28. f Catechism. 460 lord's supper. thankfully to commemorate that from which we expect no good is impossible : and to comme- morate it, if in expecting good from it, we look, for that good presumptuously, and upon false grounds, is absurd and useless ; but the Scrip- tures have assured us — that " except we repent* we perish," * notwithstanding Christ's blood- shedding ; and that in Christ nothing availeth, but " faith which worketh by love,"t or charity. But, on the other hand, if by God's grace any man hath these three things, all that Christ paid for by his death, for Christ's sake is his, and he is " passed from death unto life ;" therefore, says our church, " Ye that do truly and ear- nestly repent you of your sins, and are in love and charity with your neighbours, and intend to lead a new life, following the commandments of God, and walking from henceforth in his holy ways, draw near with faith, and take this holy sacrament to your comfort." J And so you may ; for in it you shall receive the pledges and assurances of God's love to your souls through Christ; and this is habitual preparation. Whosoever has these dispositions, is habitually, and as long as he has them, prepared for the sacrament at any time, and in a state to come to it whensoever he sees the bread and wine * Luke xiii. 3. t tj'il v. 6. | Communion Service. lord's supper. 461 upon the table, however wicked and wilful a sinner he may formerly have been. But St. Paul's words respect a special prepa- ration. He knew the deceitfulness of the hu- man heart, and how apt we are to " think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think." Therefore he says, " Let a man examine him- self."— Do not take it for granted ; but institute an honest and strict inquiry — search and see, each of you, by looking back, and looking into your own hearts, and comparing your present resolutions and desires with God's word — search and see whether you do repent or not, whether you do believe, and are in charity, or not. And thus to inquire after these things, and at the same time to confess past failures in them, and to pray to be strengthened foi" them for the time to come, this is special preparation : and if upon this investigation a man finds that though he has sinned, he does now desire to proceed in the contrary road ; if he is persuaded that he cannot trust to himself, but will and does confide his soul to Christ, assured that he is sufficient to save it; and does actually, and does intend habi- tually to pray to God for pardon, and all that he wants, in Christ's name, and is ready both to forgive offences received, and to do good and communicate to his fellow-creatures for Christ's sake, whose they are — having reason, upon in- 462 lord's supper. quiry, humbly to hope that these things are so in his soul — he is actuall}'^ prepared. But now hear what our church says to such a one, tliough fully giving him credit for all this — " Draw near with faith, and take this holy sacrament to 3'^our comfort;" but first, " make your humble confession to Almighty God, meekly kneeling on your knees." * See the view we ought to have of ourselves ; see what the frame of our spirit ought to be in drawing near to God. Believers, penitents, charitable though we be, yet are we not hereby justified. Yea, we have need to remember and be confounded, and never open our mouths any more because of our shame, if the Lord be pa- cified towards us for all that we have done. " We acknowledge and bewail our manifold sins and wickednesses, which we from time to time most grievously have committed ; pro- voking most justly thy wrath and indignation against us." f Pardon is what we want — as for good deserving, we have none of it ; and there- fore, though we may hope for an inestimable benefit in the spiritual banquet, we are to come to it as the prodigal came back to his father's house, acknowledging that we have nothing to say for ourselves, and confiding simply in our Father's love. " We do not pre- * Communion Service. -j Ibid. lord's supper. 463 sume to come to this thy table, O merciful Lord, trusting- in our own righteousness, but in thy manifold and great mercies : we are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under thy table ; but thou art the same Lord, whose property is always to have mercy ; grant us therefore, gracious Lord, so to eat the flesh of thy dear Son Jesus Christ, and to drink his blood, that our sinful bodies may be made clean by his body, and our souls washed by his most precious blood, and that we may evermore dwell in him, and he in us."* Let our proud hearts be brought down to what is here so beau- tifully expressed ; and he that so humbleth him- self shall be exalted. We shall commemorate Christ; and at God's hands receive him to be ours — the inward grace and the outward sign together, and then, as further taught, we may and we must sa}^ each of us, and say it honestly, *' Here we offer and present unto thee, O Lord, ourselves, our souls and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and lively sacrifice unto thee ;" t and this is that to which habitual con- sideration of the love of God ought to be ha- bitually leading us. This is the grand work of every one of us — this is that state to which when we shall have attained through grace, we shall be actually possessed of "righteousness, * Communion Service. f Ibid. 464 LORD S SUPPER. and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost,"* and be " meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light." t Only let man be surrendered up to God, to take God's will for his will in all things, to leave himself in God's good hands for life or death, to do God's good pleasure ; and as this is his duty, so shall it prove his glor}' and his happiness, and thenceforth no- thing shall offend him. But what is the grand argument to bring man to this submission ? — " I, if I be lifted up," (saith Christ,) "will draw all men unto me.'';}: Here in the sacrament is he set forth as lifted up, as crucified. If with discernment of the Lord's body; if, " with hum- ble and hearty thanks to God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, for the redemption of the world by the death and passion of our Sa- viour Christ, both God and man, who did hum- ble himself, even to the death upon the cross, for us miserable sinners, who lay in darkness and in the shadow of death, that he might make us the children of God, and exalt us to everlast- ing life if, with the sense of this upon your minds, ye shall eat of that bread and drink of that cup, — what act could ye possibly do, what service could ^^e possibly attend upon, which shall be more likely to quicken all * Rom. xiv. 17. f CoL i. 12. : John xii. 32. § Com. Service. lord's supper. 465 good thoughts in you ; or which could tend more powerfully to constrain you to all cheer- ful and devout obedience? Then "I bid you, in the name of God, I call you in Christ's be- half, I exhort you, as ye love your own salva- tion, that ye will be partakers of this holy com- munion. And consider how great injury ye do to God, and how sore punishment hangeth over your heads for the same, when ye wilfully abstain from the Lord's table, and separate from your brethren, who come to feed on the banquet of that heavenly food." * * Communion Service. VOL. I. H H 4GC^ SERMON XXIII. NATIONAL EDUCATION. Matthew vi. 22, 23. " The light of the body is the eye ; if therefore thine eye he single, thy whole body shall he full of light ; but if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light which is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness /" Not many years ago it was a question much debated — and indeed the debate is not ended yet — whether the children of the poor should be taught to read. It has fared, however, with this question as with many others — whilst spe- culators have been agitating it, the thing has been done. I do not mean that the poor have been taught universally, or that there is not a vast deal left in this work for those of the more opulent to look to, who may be of opinion that NATIONAL EDUCATION. 467 a national education is desirable ; but every body, one would think, must be aware that we have no choice whether the bulk of all orders shall, in some manner or other, be educated or not. We may decide whether we ourselves shall instruct the poor of our own immediate neighbourhood, and our determination may affect some individuals ; but with respect to the general mass, the case is decided for us. The descent of knowledge from the higher classes of society to the lower, has, of late years, been very rapid : the greater it has been, of course the more easily it may proceed — and since the love of knowledge is certainly one of our strongest natural appetites, when people can once see a thing so much coveted to be within their reach, they will not usually be very slow to grasp at it. The generality therefore of all ranks will be found to be not only will- ing, but eager, to obtain instruction for their children at all events, though the time should be gone by for themselves ; and if so, the late discovery in the art of teaching will greatly facilitate their views : for whatsoever may be thought of the merit of this new plan, thus much has assuredly been demonstrated in nearly every considerable town throughout the king- dom, that almost any number of children may easily enough be brought to read, under H H 2 468 NATIONAL EDUCATION. the conduct of one master, by the simple, though formerly untried expedient, of setting them to teach one another. Tuition therefore — so much of it, I mean, as may suffice to give access to books — may very readily be got by most who care to have it ; and at a cheap rate may he given by the many who are desirous to bestow it, and then everybody knows that books may easily be got. Whether we will or no, therefore, before many more years pass over us, we shall as- suredly have a population able, at the least, to read. This point ver}'^ clearly is settled, and beyond control. The light or the leaven, whichever you may be inclined to call it, may still be some time in diffusing itself everywhere, but the greatly preponderating majority will undoubtedly have received it soon. In this state of things, it can answer little purpose to debate the old question further : but there is a question which woe be to us if we neglect ! Seeing such a zeal for knowledge has been awakened — seeing such facilities for the communication of knowledge are at hand — seeing it is so certain that knowledge, of some character or other, will spread itself, how may the wise and the good give to all this a wise and a good direction ? This seems to be a question of awful interest NATIONAL EDUCATION. 469 and importance : and we are, I believe, in that state, that it is become the duty of all christian people, whatever may have formerly been their views as to the expediency of a national educa- tion, to pause and ponder it ; and for their guid- ance at this most momentous crisis, let them consider that declaration of its importance which our blessed Saviour's words in the text imply. " The light of the body," he says, " is the eye : if therefore thine e3^e be single, thy whole body shall be full of light ; but if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness : if therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness !" The words are figurative, and somewhat dif- ferent interpretations have been put upon them ; yet there seems to be little difficulty in them, and I shall only notice that sense which I con- ceive to be the true one: — If a man's sig-ht is clear, he goes straight on his way; but if he sees confusedly, and mistakes one object for another, he might as well be blind ; or indeed, in some respect, he had better be so, for then he might rely implicitly upon a guide. In like manner, scarcely any blessing is comparable to the knowledge of the truth ; but " woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil." * If what a man takes to be his chief wisdom, be * Isa. V. 20. 470 NATIONAL EDUCATION. folly — if his first principle be error, how gross and how fatal must his mental darkness be ! If what has been observed of the progress, or rather of the diffusion of knowledge in this country, be true, the consideration of that which is here suggested to us must, at least, be seasonable. Suffer me therefore to draw your attention to these two points : — I. To the danger to be apprehended in the present day from false principles, or, in the expression of the text, from " the light" which is is going abroad "being darkness." II. To the duty incumbent on Christians, and the encourag-ement afforded them to be zealous in the inculcation of right principles, or in providing that "the eye" of those with whom they have to do may " be single." These things have an obvious connexion with the occasion of my present discourse. In obedience to authority, your contributions are to be asked on behalf of the Incorporated National Society for educating the Poor in the Principles of the Established Church ; but I hope also that what I shall have to say, may, by God's blessing, be for 3'our own personal edifica- tion, and for admonition as to the duties which you owe severally to your own families. I. First, then, as to the danger to be appre- NATIONAL EDUCATION. 471 hended in the present day from false principles, or, in the expression of the text, from the light which is going abroad being darkness. This, no doubt, is a danger which exists, and is to be dreaded always. False principles cannot but be mischievous to individuals, and the dis- semination of them to the community ; and there can never cease to be a dissemination of them, mankind being what they are. That which Aaron once said of Israel was true enough in itself, though it was no excuse for his conduct: "Thou knowest the people, that they be set on mischief;"* and, " As face answereth to face in water, so in all ages doth the heart of man to man."f The "carnal" or natural mind is "enmity against God;" J and till such time as that change hath passed upon it, which nothing else but the hearty belief of the Gospel can effect, men are sensual, earthly, self-willed, and self-conceited ; and notwithstanding some amiable appearances, if the Scripture account is to be taken of what is good and what is otherwise, " Lovers of dark- ness rather than light, because their deeds are evil." § As long as they are so, they will always be ready enough to listen to any schemes * Exod. xxxii. 22. f Prov. xxvii. 19. :j: Rom. viii. 7. § John iii. 19. 47-2 NATIONAL EDUCATION. which are either for reconciling* the hope of salvation with the practice of sin, or for show- ing, in any way, that there is no danger in sin, or less danger than they had imagined —or for setting them free from such restraints as they do not relish — or for giving them such views of God and of themselves as best suit their pride. And this is the reason why a thousand false maxims pass current in the world, which a moment's reflection might show to be as sense- less as they are wicked ; and on this foundation is built the popularity of many very silly books, and the credit of blind and stupid enlighteners of the public in abundance. It is not that such writers or talkers have anything to say that is even plausible in the way of argument, much less that they are a class of persons who, by dint of a comprehensive and vigorous mind, have burst through prejudices which enslave the vulgar : but so long as iniquity abounds^ and people are bent upon holding it fast, there will always be a multitude desirous to explain away the Scriptures, and not a few who would be glad to explode them altogether : and it requires no marvellous power to make the worse appear the better reason to "a people who love to have it so." False principles will always be disseminated too easily, so long as NATIONAL EDUCATION, 473 mankind are false-hearted, and delight in wick- edness. But that which may be done at any time, may no doubt, in some states of society, be done more readily. And now that, through the increase of our manufactures, the population of the country is so much more brought together than it was formerly ; now that the art of reading is become so general, and books are multiplied so prodigiously ; and the lower orders especially are brought into a condition, by these means, in which they may, with so much greater facility, be got at by any who would work upon them either for good or evil, it behoves us, I think, to look carefully to the character of that which is put before them. There is, no doubt, a great deal of good put before them : for if God has but " a few names in Sardis which have not defiled their gar- ments," * (and in this country I trust he has many,) they will not be idle: and "when the enemy cometh in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him." f But the enemy surely hath come in like a flood ; and there is enough for those who may be zeal- ous of good works, to do. It is impossible, I conceive, to deny the fact, * Rev. iii. 4. t Isa. lix. 19. 474 NATIONAL EDUCATION. that there is proceeding from the press in this country a great and continual flood of mischief. Let people's own views be almost what they will, they must, I think, see this in some de- gree. But let their views be scriptural, and the conviction must be overwhelming. If, as I suppose I may here take leave to assume, ever}^- thing is bad which contradicts the word of God, and in proportion as it does so, there is, in the present times, a great deal that is bad abroad. Profligate books, it must be admitted, we have ever had : and profane and infidel books also. But the diabolical art of poisoning the minds of the populace, seems never to have been so well understood as now. Argumenta- tive treatises, with much polic}^ have been laid aside : and the appeal is laid just where the conscious advocate of a bad cause must ever be glad to have it laid — not to the judgment, but to the passions : and such things are scat- tered unsparingly as are exactly fitted to in- flame the passions, and to vitiate a licentious and corrupt taste still further. It is impossible that but little mischief should ensue. Hard}^ assertions will always take many by surprise. Scoflfs and sneers at the ministers of relio:ion will always do something against religion it- self. Profane ridicule, though it prove no- thing, never fails to lessen the reverence for NATIONAL EDUCATION. 475 those things which are bespattered by it. People may be, and continually are, a great deal the worse for the reading of that which they are sure has no truth in it ; and, in time, they will come to think that there is truth in it, if their indignation does not rise at once against its wickedness. Only let these things alone to proceed as they have proceeded, and let all care be withdrawn for counteraction or prevention, and the difference which may be expected will just be this : — that such as have neglected God's great salvation, will now learn to justify their neglect; that whereas we have done wrong, we shall now both do it and defend it; that whereas we have been wicked, we shall now learn to glory in wickedness. And surely the soul must be brought into an awful state, if men can by any means be delivered from shame and religious fear; and the community must be brought into an awful state, when such things may stalk abroad as were once constrained to skulk and hide themselves. It is time, however, to inquire what we have to do. Certainly we must not shut our eyes against the truth. But though it may be pru- dence to look upon our case as dangerous, it would be infidelity if we should take it to be desperate. The poison assuredly hath its anti- dote : we are in the hands of a merciful God : 476 NATIONAL EDUCATION. and "greater is he that is in us, than he that is in the world." * " The light of the body (saith our Saviour) is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light." Here I think are set before us both our duty, and the encouragement we have for the performance of it. II. This was the second point to which I requested your attention. We must, and with good hope of success we may, be zealous in the inculcation of right principles throughout the country. This seems to be very evident. If the present times afford peculiar facilities for the dissemina- tion of error ; and if all manner of moral poisons are in fact sent forth ; and if also the danger hence arising must be withstood, but two ways of proceeding ai-e conceivable. Shall we (for that is one of the conceivable methods) — shall we do all we can to check the diffusion of knowledge ? And particular!}', shall we resolve that the work of instruction shall not go on among the poor? You will agree with me, I think, that we could not effect this, if we would. But I hope you will agree with me also, that we ought not to do it, if we could. Knowledge, it must be admitted, is liable to * 1 John iv. 4. NATIONAL EDUCATION. 477 vast abuse ; but its uses surely are sublime ; and I know not what positive good can be conceived to arise from ignorance. If, there- fore, it must be owned, that when we rejoice in the rapid diffusion of knowledge, we have need to " rejoice with trembling," it neverthe- less appears, at the same time, that as we have not, so neither need we desire to have, more than one course open to us in the present times. When we consider how the intellectual light is spreading and descending, there doubtless may be cause to fear, as well as to hope. But our fears, no less than our hopes, call us very evidently to action. The mighty machinery which is at work cannot be stopped ; that is out of the question. Is it capable, then, of good ? If so, it is our duty to use it. Is it, however, capable of mischief? It is our duty to direct it. The expedient for the present times is a wise and zealous provision for national education. I do not mean that this will do everything ; but it will certainly do much, and the neglect of it will undo everything, the state of society being what it is. But you may expect to have it stated more precisely, what is here intended by education, and what is hoped from it. By education, then, I mean, first and chiefly, 478 NATIONAL EDUCATION. that those with whom we have to do must be taught to read the Bible, and be instructed in the great doctrines of the Gospel. Those whom I am to invite to take charge for this, are the members of the established church. In call- ing upon them to do so, I call them neither to concession nor to compromise. Let them ho- nestly teach what they honestly believe. That sense of Holy Scripture upon which, after se- rious examination, they will stake their own souls, that let them inculcate : nothing more, and nothing; less. Let them " not shun to de- clare " to the children of the poor "the whole counsel of God,"* so far as children can re- ceive it. Let them not keep back anything that is profitable, nor be induced to do so, be- cause many may dislike some of the particulars. Such a conduct, I think, would be neither wise, nor manly, nor godly, nor charitable, nor ho- nest. No, nor liberal, nor candid, if those terms be rightly understood. I mean, there- fore, that the Liturgy and the Catechism of the established church should be taught and used wherever schools are maintained by church- men, and that the children should attend the public wor&hip of the church on the Lord's day. However, those formularies must not be left in the bare letter, to be merely learnt by rote. * Acts XX. -n. NATIONAL EDUCATION. 479 Chiklren are taught nothing till tliey are taught to think, and their minds are exercised on what they read : and for this a living instructor will be wanted. That it may be looked to as it should be, let the laity provide schools, which may be placed, as far as practicable, under the superintendence of those who are properly the spiritual pastors of the children to he taught in them : I mean, of course, the parochial clergy. On them this task naturally devolves ; and it is no great matter to assert, that, as a body, they are willing to do their best in it. They will be thankful, I suppose, for helpers ; and it will be their province to see that schoolmasters do their duty. But, be- sides this, they will take their proper place as catechists. If, however, they may not be left unfettered in this work, to inculcate, as far as children can bear them, the same truths which they conscientiously deliver from the pulpit, it is hard to say how they can do anything ; and the work will, in that case, be most wretchedly incomplete. Holy Scripture, the whole of which children may be taught to read without their help, contains, no doubt, all things necessary to salvation ; and their ex- positions of it, no doubt, are fallible, and may be false ; but it does not therefore follow that their ministrations will be generally useless, or 480 NATIONAL EDUCATION. that they are ever needless. A standing minis- try, be it remembered, though of fallible men, is as truly God's ordinance as the Bible is his book, and from Him whom we all acknowledge they have their commission, ^' Feed my lambs." Let the clergy usurp no undue domination in this matter ; but allow us, brethren, to be your "servants for Christ's sake." As to modes of teaching, I cannot now enter upon the consideration of them. The advan- tages of that system of mutual instruction, to which I adverted in the beginning of my dis- course, appear to me to be very evident. But the whole plan is before the public, and there seems little probability that the one simple principle of it should be superseded. And they who are zealous enough to go to work, will, we may presume, do their best to seek out the most effectual instruments. At all events, however, if good people can be brought to see the necessity of the case, and to act in it earnestly, it is impossible that their pains should not be amply recompensed. Whatever be the particular methods employed, let it only be supposed that schools shall be established generally, and that in those schools some effectual and steady discipline shall be maintained, and everything be subordinate to religion ; and much for all good men to rejoice in will infallibly be accomplished. NATIONAL EDUCATION. 481 " It is good for a man," saith the prophet, "that he bear the yoke in his youth."* A great multitude of children will be brought up in good habits : in habits of order, and obe- dience, and subjection to lawful authority, to honour the Sabbath, to respect their spiritual instructors, to reverence the forms and usages of the established church. And though there may be some of these things which, to a few persons, may appear of questionable utility, I shall not hesitate to set them all before you as advantages : or to say that it would be well for individuals, and a sign of better times, if the principles which such habits imply were more generally diffused than they appear to be. In the next place, vast numbers will be put into a condition to profit effectually by the preaching of God's word. It will be admitted, I suppose, that the people would be better if their lives were more conformed than they are wont to be to the exhortations of their ministers. The pulpit might be a great instrument for the reformation of manners, and so a public bene- fit. I believe that it is so. But it might be more so, though what is delivered from it should only continue as it is. One obvious way to make it so, is to provide us with hearers to whom the things upon which we are to * Lament, iii. 27. VOL. I. I I 482 NATIONAL EDUCATION. speak liave been familiarized from their youth. ^VheIl, from children, our auditors have known the Scriptures, they know what it is of which we are discoursing. Every doctrine of religion is built upon a fact — they know the facts. They understand our allusions and our illustrations, and recognise the authorities we produce. If "we speak as the oracles of God,"* much of that which we have to say has been examined bv them, piece by piece, long ago. Is it con- ceivable that we should not be more attended to by such persons ; or that we should not "reason out of the Scripture^''^ xv'ith them to better purpose than with others ? Again : let the reli2:ious education of the people be provided for, and vast numbers will be fore-armed, in the best possible way, against evil principles : namely, by having their minds pre-occupied \\ith good ones. The pro- fane attacks on all holy things, which are go- ing about in these days, are not assailable by argument ; thev evade it ; they are beneath it ; such as read them will not listen to it: nor to anvthing that is pure and honest, and of good report. But they who have been religiously instructed from tlieir childhood, and have been brouo-ht to attend on religious ordinances, we mav well hope, will not be hurt. They will have * 1 Peter iv. 11. f Acts xvii. 2. NATIONAL EDUCATION. 483 acquired tastes and likings which such wicked- ness will disgust. Their minds will have been accustomed to regard as unquestionable and sacred verities, those doctrines and religious sentiments which scoffers and infidels revile. They will know and feel at once that it is God and God's truth which is insulted, and that it never can be part of their duty so much as to hear what these vain boasters have to say. Nor need we imag-ine that this will be the whole. A multitude will be brought up to choose the good," as well as " to j'efuse the evil." The precepts of God's word are intel- ligible to all alike. So much, I believe, is generally admitted. But let it not be thought that the common people labour under any pe- culiar disadvantage for the right apprehension, or right reception, even of its sublimest doc- trines. The Gospel, even the whole of it, was preached to the poor, and its Author has ac- cordingly told us, in very plain language, what its peculiar doctrines are. That man is a fallen creature; that our Saviour is "God, blessed for ever;" that he made a proper satisfaction for our sin by his own blood ; that we can only be justified by faith in his righteousness; that we have need to be sanctified by the Holy Ghost, and without him can do nothinof- these things, no less than others, which per- 484 NATIONAL EDUCATION. liaps are deemed easier and more obvious, are set forth in terms so plain, that anybody may know, at first hearing, what is intended to be declared by tliem. But if he can, there is no need that he should be one of the learned, in order to give his God credit for the truth or for the excellency of them. They are to be em- braced as true doctrines, and held fast, as ex- hibiting the v.ay of salvation, by a faculty which the vulgar are unquestionably as capable of possessing as their betters : — I mean by faith. And now I have not affirmed that the amplest provision for the education of the poor will do everything to make us a pious and a pros- perous people. It is very clear, that if we had trained up all the poor children in the kingdom as well as we could wish, many things would still be wanting to keep and guard them their lives through ; and it is obvious that edu- cation has to fight up hill against a thousand obstacles, — often against bad parents — always against bad examples and the snares innumer- able of a bad world — and, above all, against that natural corruption which will be before- hand with us, teach we as early as we may. But if a large body of people shall come forth into life, wlio from their infancy have been accustomed to order, and industry, and atten- NATIONAL EDUCATION. 485 tion — wlio, outwardly at least, have been wont to respect the Sabbath and religious ordinances — who have experienced much kindness from those above them in society, and especially have been used to look up to the ministers of religion as the " ministers of God to them- selves for good,'' and who also have heard much of the truth of God, and understand many chief particulars of sound doctrine, and have had their minds exercised upon them — all this as- suredly must tell. We must beware indeed of extravagant expectations, and of exaggerating the potency of instruments which may be fa- vourites with ourselves. We may not look for it that all whom we have instructed shall be- come exemplary Christians, or even respect- able and useful members of the community, — we must be prepared for many disappointments and miscarriages, and lay our account that some will draw back, even to perdition : but yet it is inconceivable that there should not be many brought to God effectually, and, I will say, impossible that a national education, con- ducted zealously on the basis of religion, should not make a great and most blessed change in the national character. The Bible is God's own accredited instrument for the conversion of the world ; the minister who unfolds it is God's own ambassador ; that children should be 486 NATIONAL EDUCATION. trained up in the understanding of it, is God"s commandment ; and every one of those chil- dren themselves is "a sheep of Christ for whom he shed his blood." It is God's honour that is to be promoted by this work, if it be undertaken as it oujjht to be. It is Gods cause wliich it is designed to further. Proceed in it, brethren, on christian principles, con- strained by the remembrance of God's mercies to yourselves, seeking his glory and loving your fellow-creatures for his sake. It is his word, " Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." * It was the Redeemer of us all who uttered it; — "It is not the will of your Father which is in heaven that one of these little ones should pe- rish." '[ Hear his declarations : take your stand upon his promises ; obey his precepts ; work with his weapons, and you shall find them " mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds." J: His word shall not return unto him void. He willeth not the death of a sinner, but would have all men to be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth. He will honour you by making you his instruments. His Spirit is " a refiner's fire ;" be it yours to plant and water, and he is ready to give the increase. Suffer me to have your attention but for a * Prov. xxii. 6. f Matt, xviii. 14. I 2 Cor. x. 4. NATIONAL EDUCATION. 487 few moments longer. It has not been my object merely to excite an interest on behalf of the noble institution which claims your aid, nor merely to insist on the expediency of edu- cating the poor. You have children of your own, who must be brought up " in the nurture and admonition of the Lord," and souls of your own at stake. What has been said, if it is to be considered at all, should be considered also with reference to these. Do not look upon religion as an expedient for keeping the lower ranks in order; or upon the Bible as given for them alone. It was indited also for you and yours. And what can you do without it ? What have been the consequences of the too great disregard of it by the middle and higher ranks of society ? And what are they like to be, if you do not amend your ways ? If the Scriptures had never been neglected, if the study of them among the higher and middle classes of society had not been very much superseded, such blasphemies as are afloat now, would never have presumed to show themselves; and you must "ask (as the prophet speaks) for the old paths once more ; where is the good way ; and walk therein" yourselves, or nothing you can do for those be- neath you can be of any effectual service to the community. However, if you could prosper 488 NATIONAL EDUCATION. here without the religion of the Bil)le, it is cer- tain you could not live eternally. And some of you, like thousands round you, may have com- mitted a great mistake. You may have brought up your children to be scholars, or to be men of business ; but have forgotten to bring them up for God. It is so, depend upon it, if holy Scripture has held any other than the first place in their scheme of study ; if religion has been represented as anything less than " the one thing needful." Hear God's word to Israel, and regulate yourselves by that. " The words which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart, and thou shalt teach them diligently to thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest b\' the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up : And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thine house, and on thy gates."* Whensoever the habits of those orders in society, which are the strength of every country, shall be squared and fashion- ed according to this holy rule, then shall the whole body be full of light indeed. Here is the foundation-stone of happiness and security — for yourselves, for your children, and for your * Deut. vi. 6—9. NATIONAL EDUCATION, 489 country. " The fear of" the Lord is the begin- ning of wisdom." * Take heed to make it so in your own case, and let it be seen by all under your influence, that you consider it to he so. Then you will "hold forth the word of life, and shine as lights of the world." f You will not " do the work of the Lord deceitfully." The appeal will not be made in vain to you, on behalf of those who are ready to perish for lack of knowledge : and in God's great mercy, 3'ou and they, and those who are nearer and dearer to you than they are, may hope at last to meet before the throne of his glory, where " they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament ; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever." * Ps. cxi. 10. t Phil. ii. 15, 16. % Dan. xii. 3. THE END LONDON : I'lllNTKI) 1!V IIIOTSON AND PAI.MKR, SAVOY STREET, STRAND.