e 
 
 lift : 
 
 TWENTY-TWO SERMONS 
 
 BY THE 
 
 BT. REV. Ot P. MPILVAffiE, D.D., D.C.I. 
 
 * TB E PBOT.8T*T EPISOOPA!, OH^.CH THE 
 
 OB,O. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 ROBERT CARTEE & BROTHERS, 
 
 285 BROADWAY. 
 
 1854. 
 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1854, by 
 
 CHARLES P. McILVAINE, 
 In the District Court of the United States, for the District of Ohio. 
 
 FRANKLIN PRINTING COMPANY. COLUMBUS, O3I0, 
 
TO THE 
 
 C L E B, 0- Y AND LAITY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN THE DIOCESE OF OHIO, 
 
 PUBLISHED ACCORDING TO A REQUEST, LONG SINCE MADE IN THE DIOCESAN 
 CONVENTION, ARE 
 
 MOST RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED, 
 
 BY THEIR AFFECTIONATE FRIEND AND PASTOR, 
 
 THE AUTHOR, 
 
 WITH HIS EARNEST PRAYER THAT WHEN HIS VOICE IS SILENT IN DEATH, HE 
 
 MAY LONG BE PERMITTED, BY THEM, TO TEACH AND 
 
 PREACH JESUS CHRIST. 
 
 CINCINNATI, OCT. 1, 1854. 
 

CONTENTS. 
 
 SERMON I. 
 
 THE POWER OF THE WORD OF GOD. 
 
 Psalm cxix. 130. " The entrance of thy words giveth light ; it giveth under- 
 standing to the simple." Page 1 . 
 
 SERMON II. 
 
 THE TRUE CHURCH, THE WORLD'S LIGHT. 
 
 Matthew v. 14 "Ye are the light of the world." 
 
 Page 25. 
 
 SERMON III. 
 
 THE CHURCH OF CHRIST IN ITS ESSENTIAL BEING. 
 
 1 Chronicles xxii. 1 " Then David said, This is the house of the Lord God, 
 and this is the altar of the burnt-offering for Israel." Page 55. 
 
 SERMON IV. 
 
 THE PERSONAL MINISTRY OF CHRIST, IN HIS CHURCH, NOW AND EVER. 
 
 Luke iii. 16, 17 "I indeed baptize you with water ; but one mightier than I 
 cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose : he shall 
 baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire : whose fan is in his 
 hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and will gather the wheat 
 into his garner ; but the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable." 
 
 Page 83. 
 
 SERMON V. 
 
 THE PRESENCE OF CHRIST IN THE ASSEMBLIES OF HIS PEOPLE. 
 
 Matthew xviii. 20 "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, 
 
 there am I in the midst of them." 
 
 Page 103. 
 
TU CONTENTS. 
 
 SERMON VI. 
 
 THE NATURE AND CONDEMNATION OF SIX 1 . 
 
 1 John iii. 4" Sin is the transgression of the law." 
 
 Pag* 124. 
 
 SERMON VII. 
 
 THE GREAT FEAST AND THE VAIN EXCUSE. 
 
 Luke xiv. 16, 17, 18 " Then he said unto them, a certain man made a great 
 supper, and bade many : and sent his servant at supper time, to say to 
 them that were bidden, Come, for all things are now ready ; and they all 
 
 with one consent began to make excuse. 
 
 Page 147. 
 
 SERMON VIII. 
 
 THE CALL TO DILIGENCE. 
 
 Romans xiii. 12 " The night is far spent ; the day is at hand." 
 
 Page 171. 
 
 SERMON IX. 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN NOT OF THE WORLD. 
 
 John xvii. 16 " They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world." 
 
 Page 190. 
 
 SERMON X. 
 
 THE TRUE ESTIMATE OF LIFE. 
 
 Psalrn xc. 12 "So teach us to number our days that we may apply our 
 
 hearts unto wisdom." 
 
 Page 213. 
 
 SERMON XL 
 
 THE NATURE AND EFFICACY OK SAVING FAITH. 
 
 John iii. 36 "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life ; and he that 
 believeth not the Son, shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on 
 
 him." 
 
 Page 231. 
 
 SERMON XII. 
 
 FAITH APPROPRIATING THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. 
 
 John vi. 53, 54 "Verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye eat the flesh of 
 the Son of Man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso 
 eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life ; and I will raise 
 
 him up at the last day." 
 
 Page 257. 
 
CONTENTS. Vll. 
 
 SERMON XIII. 
 
 THE CHARACTER OF GOD AS MANIFESTED IN CHRIST. 
 
 1 John iv. 8, 9 He that loveth not, knoweth not God ; for God is love. In 
 this was manifested the love of God towards us, because that God gent 
 his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him." 
 
 Page 284. 
 
 SERMON XIV. 
 
 THE BELIEVER'S HIDDEN LIFE IN CHRIST. 
 
 Colossians iii. 3, 4 "Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God: 
 when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with 
 
 him in glory." 
 
 Page 308. 
 
 SERMON XV. 
 
 THE BELIEVER'S PROGRESSIVE LIFE IN CHRIST. 
 
 Proverbs iv. 18 " The path of the just is as the shining light that shineth 
 
 more and more unto the perfect day." 
 
 Page 326. 
 
 SERMON XVI. 
 
 THE BELIEVER'S ASSURANCE IN CHRIST. 
 
 Romans viii. 32 " 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 ?" 
 
 Page 347. 
 
 SERMON XVII. 
 
 THE BELIEVER'S PORTION IN CHRIST. 
 
 Colossians i. 12 "Giving thanks unto the Father which hath made us meet 
 
 to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light." 
 
 Page 371. 
 
 SERMON XVIII. 
 
 THE PRESENT BLESSEDNESS OF THE DEAD IN CHRIST. 
 
 Revelation xiv. 13 " I heard a voice from Heaven saying unto me, Write 
 Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth : Yea, saith the 
 Spirit, that they may rest from their labors ; and their works do follow 
 them." 
 
 Page 390. 
 
Vlll. CONTENTS. 
 
 SERMON XIX. 
 
 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 
 
 Luke xxiy. 34" The Lord is risen indeed." 
 
 Page 413. 
 
 SERMON XX. 
 
 THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD IX CHRIST. 
 
 John xi. 23" Thy brother shall rise again." 
 
 Page 439. 
 
 SERMON XXL 
 
 THE FINAL SATISFACTION OF THE BELIEVER IK JESUS. 
 
 Psalm xvii. 15 "As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness ; I shall 
 
 be satisfied when I awake, with thy likenesss." 
 
 Page 4G4. 
 
 SERMON XXII. 
 
 THE MINISTER OF ^CHRIST EXHORTED TO GROWTH IN GRACE. 
 
 1 Timothy vi. 11 "Thou, man of God, flee these things, and follow 
 after rightecmsness, godliness, faith, loye, patience, meekness." 
 
 Page 488. 
 
SERMON I. 
 
 THE POWER OF THE WORD OF GOD. 
 
 PSALM cxix. 130. 
 
 ** The entrance of thy words gireth light ; it gireth understanding unto the 
 simple." 
 
 "!N the beginning God created the heavens and the 
 earth, and the earth was without form, and void, and 
 darkness was upon the face of the deep." The material 
 of this world was all there, under that darkness, but there 
 was nothing else. Organization was not ; life was not ; 
 there was the element of all things, but the form of 
 none. 
 
 "The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the 
 waters " Still the chaos remained. Life came not. 
 There was to be no order nor life, till there was light ; 
 nor any light, without the word. Then came the word of 
 God; its first voice to this world: "Let there be light. 
 And there was light. And the evening and the morning 
 10 ere the first day" Thus early the union of the Spirit 
 and the word. The next thing was order, organization ; 
 then life, and then man, a living soul in the likeness of 
 his Maker. 
 
 But soon that crown upon the head of creation had 
 fallen. The image of God, in man, was lost. The grace 
 of God interposes to restore it. Lost in the first Adam, 
 
 it is renewed in the second. There is a new creation in 
 1 
 
2 SERMON I. 
 
 Christ Jesus. The Spirit of God comes clown again and 
 moves upon the face of that deep of darkness, and confu- 
 sion, and spiritual death, into which the whole human 
 nature is fallen. 
 
 But the God of nature is the God of grace. And his 
 instrument, as in the beginning, still is Light. Until the 
 light of the knowledge of Himself, in his law and in his 
 gospel, in his justice and grace, in his holiness and love, 
 as all are manifested in Christ, reconciling the world unto 
 Himself, be received into man's heart, his recovery to the 
 likeness of God cannot begin ; his nature must remain 
 " without form, and void ;" its affections out of place and 
 perverted, in conflict with one another and the Creator, 
 all desolate and empty as to all spiritual life. "God is 
 light." His children are "children of light." Light is 
 the element of their new birth. How then reads the 
 account in the Scriptures of the new creation ? " God, 
 (it is written) who commanded the light to shine out of 
 darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of 
 the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus 
 Christ."* 
 
 Such is the elementary process by which we are 
 recovered from the fall. " We are his workmanship, 
 (saith the Apostle) created in Christ Jesus unto good 
 works." Each true child of God is that new creation ; 
 exclusively, and most wonderfully the "workmanship" of 
 God ; the work of his power, his wisdom, his grace ; 
 transforming him by the renewing of his mind, translating 
 him into marvellous light; a work even more to the 
 glory of God than the creation of the heavens and earth, 
 
 * 2 Cor. iv. G. 
 
THE POWER OF THE WORD OF GOD. O 
 
 because the manifestation of his grace, as well as of his 
 power. All this visible workmanship shall pass away ; 
 but that remaineth, and will be for ever making known 
 more and more, "to the principalities and powers in 
 heavenly places, the manifold wisdom of God." 
 
 But from beginning to ending, that work, by the Spirit 
 as the power, is by the light as the instrument ; " light of 
 the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus 
 Christ ;" in his person and offices, especially in his 
 sacrifice on the cross and that glory made visible to us 
 by God's shining in our hearts. 
 
 No sooner appears that light in the heart, than, under 
 the power of the Spirit, all things become new; order 
 begins where confusion reigned. Life enters the void of 
 that dead and desolate nature. The law of holiness takes 
 the mastery. The affections find their rightful objects 
 and range themselves in their proper relations to the 
 Creator and the creature. The love of God is shed 
 abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost, and man is again 
 in the likeness of his Maker. 
 
 But the God of nature is the God of grace. And as 
 light came not in the first creation without the wordy so 
 it comes not in the neAV creation. 
 
 We have seen that it is " the light of the knowledge 
 of his glory in the face of Jesus Christ," that God 
 employs. The sun, then, that shines on us is Christ. 
 " I, (saith our ascended Lord) am the light of the world; 
 he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall 
 have the light of life." But that sun has gone far out of 
 our sight. How then doth his shining now come to us ? 
 When the sun of our natural day is beyond our horizon, 
 
4 SERMON I. 
 
 there is a moon to receive its light and reflect it to the 
 earth. Has the God of grace provided in like manner 
 for the absence of him on whom our spiritual day 
 .depends? The Psalmist answers : "Thy word is a light 
 unto my feet and a lamp unto my path." God, by his 
 Spirit, takes of the things that are Christ's, in his word, 
 and shows them unto us.* He shines on the Scriptures, 
 and by them in our hearts. He gives no new revelation 
 to the word, but he gives a new sight to our understand- 
 ing. He plants no new stars in the sky, but he gives us 
 a new lens to see what have been always there. Other 
 means of making us wise unto salvation he could certainly 
 have employed, as he gave light to the earth before he 
 gave it the sun. But as it is now his ordinance, that 
 without the sun there shall be no day, so hath he 
 ordained, that without his word there shall be no life 
 abiding in us. Other ordinances he hath made for our 
 spiritual nurture and growth, but all their light is in the 
 word. Whether the voice of the preacher, or the 
 Church's discipline, or the ministration of sacraments, 
 they are only the means whereby God shows forth, 
 applies, or seals more emphatically the precious things of 
 his word; and only according to the reception of this in 
 the heart, can they be efficacious to salvation. 
 
 We are now prepared for the first of the two divisions 
 of this discourse, viz : 
 
 I. The condition on which the efficacy of the word 
 depends " The entrance of thy word giveth light." 
 
 The word of God must have entrance to our hearts. 
 "Let the word of Christ dwell in you, in all wisdom," is 
 
 *,Tohn xvi. 14. 
 
THE POWER OP THE WORD OF GOD. 
 
 the requirement. " God hath shined in our hearts," was 
 the experience of the Apostle and his brethren. 
 
 The daily sun enlightens us not, except his rays have 
 admission through the windows communicating with the 
 mind within. It is his entrance to the inner chamber 
 of the eye by which we see. So must it be with the 
 word. 
 
 " True," says some reader of the Scriptures ; " I am 
 not ignorant of a truth so elementary. Of course the 
 word must have access to my thoughts and opinions : I 
 must not only read but ponder it. Whatever impedes an 
 honest interpretation must be taken away. It must 
 have entrance to my most cherished belief." Yea, but 
 there is still an inner chamber which it claims to enter. 
 The outer apartment of the mind it must indeed first 
 penetrate, and with your every intellectual faculty and 
 effort must it be allowed free course. But it must not 
 stop there ; for its chief message cannot be delivered 
 there. It is sent to the secret conscience and heart, and 
 must not be kept waiting outside, as if you could receive 
 its errand at second hand. It comes direct from God, 
 charged to speak with the master of the house ; and in 
 your most private audience, face to face, must it be 
 received. It comes with " doctrine, reproof, correction, 
 and instruction in righteousness," and demands that your 
 most hidden thoughts, and motives, and affections all 
 from which are the issues of life be arraigned before it, 
 to be examined, reproved, corrected, instructed. Shut- 
 ting the door, then, against the interruption of worldly 
 cares ; realizing the presence of God and his eye upon 
 us ; mindful of all we have at stake, and seeking help at 
 
SERMON I. 
 
 the throne of grace, that we may read, mark, learn, and 
 inwardly digest the word to our soul's health, we must 
 bid it search the ground of our hearts. Amidst the deep 
 corruptions and wants of our nature, amidst all its ruin 
 and indwelling sins, in the citadel of our rebellion and 
 the temple of our worldly idolatry, the word must take 
 its stand, and speak to us face to face, telling us of God, 
 his law, his holiness, his condemnation of our sins ; tell- 
 ing us of Christ, the grace that gave him, and the love 
 that brought him to be a sacrifice for us, and the fulness 
 and freeness of the salvation his blood hath purchased for 
 us ; yea, deep in our hearts with the consciousness of our 
 ruin and beggary bearing us down to eternal death, must 
 the word speak to us of Christ on the cross, and Christ 
 on the throne ; especially of the perfect justification of 
 all believers through his righteousness imputed, and their 
 finally perfect sanctification through his Spirit imparted 
 unto them. 
 
 Such is the entrance on which the power of the word, 
 to make us wise unto salvation, depends. And thus are 
 explained the different effects of the reading of the Bible 
 on different minds equally familiar with its chapters. 
 
 To many a man, after years of diligent perusal, it 
 remains, as to all spiritual improvement, a sealed book. 
 He is still " the natural man" that " perceiveth not the 
 things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them, 
 because they are spiritually discerned ;"* seeing them 
 afar off, as the natural eye sees the starry nebulae of the 
 heavens, but wanting the help of a spiritual vision to 
 bring them nigh and discover their magnitude, and 
 
 *1 Cor. ii. 14. 
 
THE POWER OF THE WORD OF GOD. I 
 
 number, and relations, and glory. Every controversy of 
 the truth, he may have mastered. Among the ablest of 
 its expounders, he may be ranked. And yet may there 
 be a veil on his heart,* so that he sees nothing beyond 
 the letter, and a ray from the inner temple of the truth 
 may have never reached him. Such a verse as, "to you 
 that believe, he is precious" may find no response in his 
 experience. All within him may remain as cold and dead 
 to the calls of the word, as undrawn by its invitations, as 
 uncheered by its promises, as unaffected by its revelation 
 of the wonderful love of God in Christ, as fast bound in 
 woiidliness, and as alien from the hidden life of the man 
 of God, as if a Bible had never met his eye. The reason 
 is, the word has never had " entrance" It has been kept 
 as a servant at the door, not received as a friend into the 
 private house. 
 
 But not so with many an humble reader, though of far 
 inferior furniture of knowledge and skill of interpretation, 
 who " applies his heart to understanding ;" searching the 
 Scriptures "for hid treasures;" whose affections take hold 
 on their chapters, whose hungering after righteousness 
 digests their teaching ; whose prayers obtain the help of 
 the Spirit, that the truth may give him life. To him 
 they are "all glorious within," their "vesture is of 
 wrought gold." "Wondrous things" are in God's law, 
 whoever reads it ; but to none do they appear but to him 
 who prays, " Open thou mine eyes" That is the man who 
 comes to know, by an evidence which cannot deceive, that 
 the word is of God, because it does in him the works of 
 God, and leads his heart unto God, and sheds abroad 
 
 *2 Cor. iii. 13-16. 
 
8 SERMON I. 
 
 therein the love of God. The entrance of the word gives 
 him light, and that light giveth him life. " Thy word 
 (said the Psalmist) have I hid in my heart" And 
 because he could say this, he could further say, "Thy 
 testimonies have I taken as my heritage for ever, for 
 they are the rejoicing of my heart." 
 
 We come now, in the second place, to 
 
 II. The power of the word thus having entrance "It 
 giveth light* It giveth understanding unto the simple" 
 
 The effect of the word on the day of Pentecost is the 
 great, standing, comment on these words That day was 
 the first of the new creation under the Gospel. A 
 deeper moral darkness than that which then covered the 
 earth, had never been known. A more hopeless people 
 among whom to begin the effort of the word, than the 
 Jews then at Jerusalem, could not be. More helpless 
 agents than the laborers of that day, apostles of a 
 Master recently crucified, and supposed by all that heard 
 them to be still in death, we cannot imagine. But the 
 word of their lips was not their word. "The Spirit 
 gave them utterance" and gave it entrance. As they 
 delivered the word, God commanded the light. And 
 what a birth-day that was ! what a new creation ! Behold 
 that great multitude Jews out of all nations, hastening 
 to the apostles to confess Christ and receive his baptism ! 
 Three thousand, in one day, brought to repentance, joy- 
 fully embracing the Gospel, forsaking all to follow Jesus ! 
 They come out of all the enmity and obduracy and 
 unbelief of a people that have just been rejecting and 
 crucifying with wicked hands that same Jesus. His 
 blood is on their raiment, and the hatred of his gospel 
 
THE POWER OF THE WORD OF GOD. 
 
 9 
 
 was just now in their hearts. But see the new creation ! 
 Since the world began, there had not been such a mani- 
 festation of the power of God. All things in those three 
 thousand hearts are become new their views, their 
 affections, their faith. They have put off the old man 
 and put on the new man. All things are now counted 
 loss for Christ. The shame of his cross is their glory ; 
 and in the city of his rejection and crucifixion, and 
 before the rulers that slew him, they take their stand as 
 his disciples, ready to die for his name. The entrance of 
 God's word had given them great light, and the simplest 
 among them, it had suddenly, in one day, made "wise 
 unto salvation." 
 
 We look back to that day, as the day of days, intended 
 for light to all subsequent days. Never can the word 
 have a harder work to do than the work of that day ; 
 never can it attempt an entrance into a more impenetra- 
 ble fortress of human pride and enmity ; never can its 
 missionaries encounter trials of faith more severe, or 
 need the power of God more perfectly. There is nothing 
 of the depth of Satan in " the Man of Sin," or in the 
 strong entrenchments of the power of darkness among 
 the heathen, or even in the awful atheism that is now 
 coming in like a flood, that presents a mightier barrier 
 against the word than did the mind of the Jews on the 
 morning of that day. 
 
 We must not allow the encouragement thus derived to 
 be impaired by the suggestion that the marvellous things 
 of that Pentecost were miraculous, and that days of 
 miracle are passed. True the Spirit wrought miracu- 
 lously in those that spake the word to give them utter- 
 
10 SERMON I. 
 
 ance in divers tongues, but not in those that heard to 
 give them new hearts. It was an extraordinary operation 
 of the Spirit that gave such manifest witness to the word 
 in the speech of the Apostles. It was the ordinary, 
 which is promised to the Church in all ages, that gave 
 such abundant entrance to the word, and such light to its 
 entrance. 
 
 Were the private history of the conversion of each 
 man of that new-created host, unveiled to us, what 
 striking attestations, under all variety of circumstances, 
 should we read, to the light-giving power of the simple 
 word, under the blessing of the Spirit! It was no 
 eloquence or labored argument of the preacher that 
 turned them. Not one of them ascribed his conversion 
 to the miracle of the tongues, however that may have 
 first arrested his attention. All he knew as the instru- 
 ment of the power that wrought in him thus to will and 
 to do, was the word he had heard concerning the crucified 
 Jesus ; and it was the very simplest statement of the 
 word; not in any extended view, but only in a few Old 
 Testament passages, with a little comment; and most 
 likely, in many cases, it was but a single one of those tes- 
 timonies that did the work with the conscience and heart. 
 
 Such has been the working of the word ever since that 
 day. How often has a single verse, with wonderful 
 grasp, arrested the careless sinner after he had been for 
 many years an unmoved hearer, and taught him such 
 views of the law of God and his transgressions, that he 
 could not rest till he fled to Christ for refuge! And 
 who shall fix the limit to this power of the word to give 
 light to such wanderers, when we know it is God that, by 
 
THE POWER OF THE WORD OF GOD. 11 
 
 it, shines in the heart? Jesus fed the five thousand with 
 a few barley-loaves. And what measure of saving light 
 may he not pour into thousands of humble, seeking 
 hearts, by a few words of his scriptures ! David had 
 but a small part of the Old Testament for that word 
 which was his "meditation all the day." But with that 
 little, God gave such light that David's religious experi- 
 ence has been the example of Christians of every age, 
 and of the highest spiritual degree. 
 
 And this suggests the beautiful similarity of the 
 spiritual image wrought by the light of the word, wher- 
 ever, in any age or part of the earth, it has been received. 
 A strong family likeness between the piety of the saints 
 under all dispensations since Enoch walked with God, 
 establishes their near relationship as children of the same 
 Father, the workmanship of the same grace. Is it the 
 spiritual character of Augustine in the fourth century, or 
 of Luther in the sixteenth, or of Baxter, or Doddridge, 
 or Venn, or Simeon, of England or of Bedell or Milnor, 
 in the new world; is it a work of the word on some 
 humble daughter in the dairyman's cottage or the high 
 and mighty in a king's palace ; is it amid the refinements 
 of your high places of learning or among the degraded 
 victims of the vilest heathenism, that you trace the doings 
 of the word? You see, in the piety it creates, innu- 
 merable varieties of minor details, with wonderful iden- 
 tity of ruling feature ; the great transformation every- 
 where the same, and everywhere ascribed to the same 
 grace; the affections, the desires, the trust, the hope, the 
 conflict the same; the same spiritual meat, like the 
 manna of the desert, is the food of all ; the same flowing 
 
12 SERMON I. 
 
 Rock of living water is the refreshment of all ; the same 
 Bible prayers and praises express the wants, and faith, 
 and love, of all. Jesus is the joy of all. 
 
 But I must speak more particularly of that clause of 
 the text, which says, that the entrance of God's words 
 "giveth understanding unto the simple" 
 
 I see in this an advance upon the previous statement ; 
 a more emphatic declaration of the power of the word. 
 It means not only that its entrance giveth light, but 
 that it so giveth light as to give understanding in the 
 truth of God even " unto the simple." 
 
 Here let us pause a moment. In all efforts to pro- 
 mote the free circulation and universal reading of the 
 Scriptures, and more and more in these days of the 
 quickened efforts of Popery, we are encountered by a 
 Church and by many who are harnessed in her traces, 
 while they wear not her livery, telling us that the Bible 
 is not for the simple ; that instead of getting from it 
 understanding, they can only pervert it to their own 
 destruction ; and indeed that to none is it a safe or edifying 
 book, with which they ought to be trusted, but under par- 
 ticular guidance of a priest and the authoritative inter- 
 pretation of that Church. 
 
 We answer, "The entrance of thy words giveth un- 
 derstanding unto the simple" We affirm and may safely 
 call the history of Bible reading to prove it, that there is 
 not a doctrine of the gospel, a precept pertaining to 
 God's service, a single consolation in Christ, a warning, 
 an exhortation affecting the Christian life, that is not, in 
 some at least of its forms of expression, as plain in the 
 Scriptures to the simple, as to the learned, so making the 
 
THE POWER OF THE WORD OF GOD. 13 
 
 word, like the true Church, which, under God, it creates, 
 Catholic word, open to all conditions of men, sent for all, 
 suited to all, and not, as some who make a special boast 
 of the name of Catholic would have it, a sealed book to 
 all mankind, which only the traditions of ages, managed 
 by a peculiar priesthood, could open and interpret. 
 
 That there are not high places in Scripture which only 
 the ladder of studious learning may mount, we are far from 
 teaching. But just as far are we from allowing, that on 
 the scaling of those heights depends our knowledge of 
 any great truth pertaining to Christian faith, or hope, or 
 life. It is where the humblest may walk, that the "trea- 
 sure hid in a field" is to be discovered; and while the 
 man of great equipment may be looking too high to find 
 it, the simple has already " sold all he has, and bought 
 it," and enjoyed and loved it. 
 
 But of all pretenders to special light in understanding 
 the Scriptures, and all claimants to your special submis- 
 sion to their interpretation, the church of Rome has the 
 least reason to expect her claim to be acknowledged. Let 
 her show, not that she has fathomed mysteries and 
 mounted heights which the simple cannot reach, but that 
 she has not most grossly darkened and perverted such 
 plain and elementary teaching of the Scriptures as the 
 simple and honest-minded cannot mistake. One would 
 suppose that if words can make any teaching plain, it is 
 the wording of the second commandment, as forbidding 
 the bowing down to and worshipping graven images ; or 
 this, " there is one God and one Mediator between God 
 and man" as expressly limiting our refuge to one only 
 Mediator ; or, "the blood of Jesus Christ clcanscth us from 
 
14 SERMON I. 
 
 all sin" as freeing the believer in Jesus from all reason 
 to apprehend any suffering for his sins in the world to 
 come ; or the simple words of the institution of the 
 Lord's Supper, as incapable of having engrafted on them 
 the monstrous blasphemy of transubstantiation or the 
 idolatry of the mass. But what work have the interpre- 
 tations of Rome made of these plain Scriptures ! Call 
 up the simple from any of your humblest ranks of Bible 
 readers, and how easily will he show that in these things, 
 either she hath no honesty to acknowledge, or no under- 
 standing to perceive the meaning of the word. Let her 
 disband her army of mediators, and put out the fires of 
 her purgatory, and reduce her pompous mass to the sim- 
 plicity of the Christian sacrament as the Lord ordained 
 it ; let her pluck down and give to the moles and the 
 bats her innumerable idols, her worshipped pictures and 
 images, and dead men's bones ; let her put on sackcloth 
 and repent, before God and man, for the souls she has 
 seduced, and the indignity she has done to God's com- 
 mandment, by a grossness of idolatry which surpasses 
 even that of heathen Rome ; and then let her begin anew 
 to learn in simplicity and godly sincerity the Holy Scrip- 
 tures which are able to make even such a blind and 
 perverted church wise unto salvation. Till then, let her 
 not wonder if we think her incompetent to teach the 
 plainest lessons of Christ, and would rather rely on the 
 interpretations of the simplest reader of the Bible, whose 
 conscience is undefiled by the known habit of disobe- 
 dience to God's plain will, than on hers. 
 
 But we must remember that our text does not speak 
 of the mere interpretation of the word, but also and 
 
THE POWER OF THE WORD OF GOD. 15 
 
 especially of its spiritual discernment ; that which " the 
 natural man," with all the aids of learning and of vigorous 
 intellect cannot have, while the spiritually-minded peasant 
 on his estate may be rejoicing therein ; the discernment 
 which draws the heart to the word, and applies the word 
 to the heart with a subduing and sanctifying power, so that 
 by it we come to know, not only the word, but Christ 
 whom it is its great object to make manifest in our hearts. 
 Let us also remember that in this spiritual discernment 
 of the things of the Spirit, is contained all that God 
 regards, as the true knowledge of himself, of his will, or 
 his salvation in Christ ; all other knowledge of his word 
 being in his sight but as chaff in the comparison ; that in 
 his sight the simplest, having that one attainment, are of 
 more understanding and of more dignity in his kingdom, 
 and of more honor to his service, than if, without it, they 
 had all faith, so as to remove mountains, and all learning, 
 so as to expound all mysteries. Let us remember also 
 that in the school of this spiritual discernment, the Spirit 
 of God is the only teacher : that there is no respect of 
 persons there ; the way of promotion being just as easy 
 and free to the simplest rustic, as to the most instructed 
 and elevated ecclesiastic ; humility, earnestness and 
 prayer, being the only qualifications required. 
 
 Then remember that while God gives grace to the 
 humble, he resists the proud ; that while he gives more 
 light to him who walks by what he has, he takes away 
 his light from them that abuse it to works of darkness ; 
 remember also that the Apostle speaks of God's send- 
 ing to those who have "pleasure in unrighteousness," 
 "strong delusion that they should believe a lie"* and further- 
 
 * 2 Thes. ii. 11, 12. 
 
16 SERMON I. 
 
 more that no "pleasure in unrighteousness" is more 
 directly connected in Scripture with such awful punish- 
 ment, than that which changes " the glory of the incor- 
 ruptible God, into an image made like corruptible man," 
 " worshipping and serving the creature more than the 
 Creator."* Then look how the Church of Rome finds 
 not only her pleasure, but her enormous gains of " gold, 
 and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls," and 
 all merchandize of pomp, and pride, and luxury, in that 
 very unrighteousness of creature and image and picture 
 worship, continually putting forth pretended miracles in 
 its support, and arguments than which the heathen Ro- 
 mans had none worse for their idolatry ; so that if ever 
 the "Father's house" was "made a house of merchan- 
 dize" in the traffic of an idolatrous priestcraft ; if ever 
 there wasa house of idols on earth, it is in that Church. 
 And can that Church live ? Will not God make good 
 his word against the graven images ? 
 
 Separate from all testimony of prophecy, can we doubt 
 that " desolations are determined" on that rebellious city? 
 Is there no voice from the desolations of ancient Babylon, 
 telling what must be prepared for the modern? Can we 
 forget those words " Son of man, these men have set 
 up their idols in their heart, and put the stumbling-block 
 of their iniquity before their face : should I be inquired 
 of at all by them ? I the Lord will answer him that 
 cometh, according to the multitude of his idols. And I 
 will set my face against that man, and I will make him a 
 sign and a proverb, and I will cut him off from the midst 
 of my people; and ye shall know that I am the Lord."| 
 Under the sound of these words, we ask, if the Church 
 
 * Romans i. 23, 28. + Ezekiel xiv. 3-5. 
 
THE POWER OF THE WORD OF GOD. 17 
 
 which they so awfully condemn, is to be allowed the arro- 
 gant claim of being exclusively the Temple of the Holy 
 Ghost, where alone we can learn to " worship God in spirit 
 and in truth ;" where alone we are to learn his law and 
 acquire the heart of a true obedience to his command- 
 ments ? Can it be believed, that with a conscience so 
 polluted by an evident, habitual, cherished iniquity, in 
 such plain contempt of God's word, and bound, moreover, 
 to its vindication, by her own most solemn decrees and her 
 abounding spiritual merchandize, so that to renounce it, she 
 must not only abandon a great source of her wealth, but 
 humble herself to the lowest confession and self-abasement 
 before God and man ; can it be believed, that in her is 
 to be found the spirit of meekness, and simplicity, and 
 purity, and prayerfulness, for the interpretation of the 
 the very word which so denounces her favorite sin ? Must 
 she not, in self-defence, bar up her corridors against 
 the entrance of that word which giveth light and under- 
 standing to the simple, lest even the most simple should 
 find her out? If the Spirit may be grieved by any of 
 you, so that he will strive with you no more, must he not 
 be grieved by such an idolatrous Church, so that he wiS 
 depart and leave it to wander on from sin to sin, and from 
 darkness to darkness? Did God let Ephraim alone, 
 because he was "joined to his idols;" and shall we suppose 
 the same spiritual adultery will not produce the same 
 spiritual abandonment of a Church that hath so abused a 
 light of which Ephraim had scarcely the dawn ? Oh 1 
 give me the most unlettered reader of the Bible, and let 
 him only have simplicity, and singleness, and earnestness 
 of desire to know and do the will of God, to know and 
 2 
 
18 SERMON I. 
 
 follow Christ, to know and abandon sin; let him be also 
 a man of earnest prayer for the teaching of the Spirit, 
 and he shall give you a far better interpretation of God's 
 word as to all the vital matters of Christian life and hope, 
 than is ever to come from a Church that is joined to her 
 idols by decrees which she cannot annul without annihi- 
 lating her proudest claims and humbling herself to the 
 lowest abasement. He at least will know the truth, 
 though it may be but its alphabet ; while she certainly 
 will deny the truth against which she is so permanently 
 pledged. 
 
 Witness that man of God and bold soldier and apostle 
 of the Reformation; a young man and simple in knowl- 
 edge, finding in the dark and dust of his monastery that 
 neglected, unknown Bible, reading and giving entrance at 
 once to its word into his hungry heart see how, as he 
 reads, God giveth him understanding ; how the mind of 
 Luther is emerging out of the chaotic darkness of the 
 darkest ages of the Romish Church, as that word giveth 
 him light. But still his deliverance is not complete. See 
 him now in "the holy city," going about in his own igno- 
 rance to establish his own righteousness by works of bodily 
 penance. A single verse finds entrance into his burdened 
 heart " The just shall live ~by faith.''' It scatters the 
 night; it bursts his chains; it creates the great Reformer; 
 it lays the corner-stone of the Reformation in the great 
 corner-stone of the Gospel Justification ly faith through 
 the righteousness of Christ accounted of God to the 
 believer. Then began that great light, the revival of what 
 ages of corruption had well nigh extinguished the Pro- 
 testant Reformation, to which, under God, we in this land 
 
THE TRUE CHURCH, THE WORLD 's LIGHT. 19 
 
 are so immeasurably indebted. Its whole life was the 
 blessing of the Spirit of God on the unsullied Bible the 
 free reading, the simple teaching of the Bible. How won- 
 derfully did its entrance at that period among the nations 
 of Europe, long sitting in darkness, under the bonds, and 
 superstitions, and idolatry of Popery, give them light ! 
 How wonderfully did it give understanding to the simple ! 
 What a glorious revival of gospel-faith and life appeared, 
 in immediate connection with, and as the direct result, 
 under the Holy Ghost, of the free publication and reading 
 of his word ! " The seed" was, and is, and ever shall be, 
 the ivord. I know not a more perfect expression in a few 
 words of the very heart and soul of the Protestant faith 
 and work than that. " The seed is the ^vord" said the 
 Lord, when his kingdom was as a grain of mustard seed. 
 The seed is the ivord, said the intrepid Luther, when the 
 kingdom had to be planted almost anew. The seed is the 
 wordy said those men of faith and love who founded our 
 Bible Societies, that every family on earth might be pos- 
 sessed of the Scriptures. The seed is the ^vord, say our 
 diligent steam-presses, hastening to multiply copies of the 
 Bible, and the many and various Protestant agencies in 
 almost all lands, to spread and teach them, and the hun- 
 dred and fifty or sixty languages and dialects in which 
 Protestants are sending the Scriptures to Jew and Gen- 
 tile, bond and free. The seed is the wordy say all our 
 Protestant Missionaries, making it their first effort when 
 they go into a heathen land, or among the Jews, or where 
 Romanism reigns and darkens the land, or among any 
 people, to see that the Scriptures are in the hands of the 
 people, in their own tongue wherein they were born. 
 
20 SERMON I. 
 
 The precise opposite is the very embodiment of Roman- 
 ism. Not only is the word not the seed from which grows 
 that tree, but she professes no such principle as would lead 
 her to place any value on the dissemination of the Scrip- 
 tures, no matter in what version or tongue. 
 
 Do Romish missionaries translate the Scriptures? How 
 many of the versions now known are by the labors of 
 such hands? Where is the land in which such laborers 
 are known to be promoting, urging, facilitating the reading 
 of the word? Need we say that such works have no part 
 in the propagation of religion by the Papal hierarchy? 
 that not only has she no desire that her people shall have 
 free access to the Scriptures in their own vernacular 
 tongue, but that she prohibits it where she can, under her 
 severest penalties, and never allows it even in appearance, 
 but where the time and the place make it impolitic to do 
 otherwise ? Search through the holy city, her vaunted 
 centre of light and faith, for such a phenomenon as a 
 Bible on sale; ask her mind on this subject, from the pe- 
 riod of WicklifFe's translation of the Vulgate into English, 
 or the burning of Tyndale's New Testament, or the epistle 
 of the present Pontiff from his late retreat under the pro- 
 tection of Naples, addressed to the prelates of Italy, or 
 the recent sufferings of God's people in the prisons of 
 Tuscany. Should that dark power obtain the ascendancy 
 it claims, and once had in all Europe, think ye that in 
 this land, a single house would have in its own language 
 the Book of God, but by express license of a priest ; or 
 that persecution for reading the Scriptures would not put 
 on the same aspect as that which now makes that duty 
 and privilege so criminal and perilous in Italy? 
 
THE POWER OF THE WORD OF GOD. 21 
 
 But why all this in a Church professing a Bible-faith 
 and a Bible-mission ? Why should it be more tolerable 
 to Romish powers to read any book of vile licentiousness 
 of morals, or lead a life of odious profligacy, than to read 
 the Scriptures? You answer justly, it is the dread of 
 their confronting testimony. It is the unclean spirit 
 among the tombs, crying out : " What have I to do with 
 thee torment me not." 
 
 But there is another answer. Your Bible societies, your 
 Missionaries translating and circulating the Scriptures ; 
 your zealous agents endeavoring to place a Bible in every 
 house of every land, are stimulated by the one great princi- 
 ple that the seed is the word sanctification is through the 
 truth and the ivord is truth. No, says Rome. The 
 seed is the sacrament, not the word sanctification is 
 through the office of the priest, dispensing the grace of 
 the Church. The truth, except just to bring you to the 
 Church, and the priest, and the sacraments, has nothing 
 to do with your sanctification. This is her great central 
 principle. Here stands the citadel of her hopes. On this 
 she plants her engines of war. By this she has drawn 
 the millions of the ignorant and superstitious to her feet, 
 and bound them in chains of iron, and made merchandize 
 of them, and made herself rich in the traffic of her priest- 
 craft. Take away this, and her power and wealth are 
 ended. Nothing can be more directly at war with this, 
 both in principle and operation, in the basis it goes on, 
 and in the light it spreads in its march, than the great zeal 
 which God has raised up in these days to translate and 
 circulate the Scriptures. Nothing must Rome be expected 
 move thoroughly to hate ; nothing is she more bound by 
 
22 SERMON I. 
 
 her own principles, to destroy, as the very antagonism of 
 herself, than our Bible societies, sending out to all people 
 the Scriptures. I cannot imagine a spectacle more odious 
 to the genuine spirit of the Romish system and priest- 
 hood, than such an institution as the British and Foreign 
 Bible Society, so mighty in patronage, so vast in opera- 
 tion, so increasing in strength ; its vast confederation of 
 auxiliary societies; its great catalogue of translations; its 
 issues amounting from its first days, to about twenty- 
 seven millions of copies of the Scriptures all because 
 66 the seed is the ivord" and sanctification is "through the 
 truth:' 
 
 Brethren, what an account we shall have to render for 
 the use we make of the Scriptures! Do we give the 
 word of God a free entrance to our hearts? "Behold! 
 I stand at the door and knock." Do our hearts answer 
 Come in, thou messenger of God, minister of light and of 
 blessing, come in to the secret place of my thoughts and 
 affections; converse with me, admonish me, humble me, 
 correct me, warn me, take away my hope, if it be not the 
 good hope that maketh not ashamed, that I may seek a 
 better ; bring all that is within me into captivity to the 
 obedience of Christ! The spirit which thus invites and 
 welcomes the word of God, is the spirit that makes the 
 wise, and the proud, and the great, to be the simple ; and 
 without which the poorest and most ignorant cannot be 
 the simple ones, to whom the word of God will give the 
 saving light. It is he that is a little child in such simpli- 
 city, whatever he be in strength of mind, in wealth or 
 poverty of knowledge, in elevation or obscurity, who, by 
 the light of God, and through the mediation of Jesus, will 
 
THE POWER OF THE WORD OF GOD. 23 
 
 enter into the kingdom. It is he who does not thus be- 
 come as a little child, that can never enter that kingdom. 
 Ah ! how the want of that simplicity accounts for the 
 difficulties which some men find in the Scriptures, and 
 for the darkness that rests upon so many minds as to the 
 true knowledge of God and of themselves, even after much 
 reading of the Scriptures. The entrance of the word 
 giveth understanding "to the simple" to "the poor in 
 spirit," to them that are "followers of God as dear chil- 
 dren," to them who "receive with meekness the engrafted 
 word" and strive in the Lord's help, to be doers, as well 
 as hearers or readers of its precepts. "Thou hast hid 
 these things from the wise and prudent (those who trust 
 in their own understanding) and hast revealed them unto 
 babes." 
 
 But one thing is carefully to be borne in mind. The 
 power to give light is not in the word. As the word of 
 truth, it can teach truth in the letter, but to teach it so 
 that it shall be spiritually discerned, and so that the 
 learner shall have that knowledge of God, and of his Son 
 Jesus Christ, which is life eternal, is the office of "the 
 Spirit of truth," who is also "the Spirit of life in Christ 
 Jesus," The Holy Ghost is come for that very end 
 to lead us into all saving truth into such views of it, 
 that our hearts shall receive, and love, and rejoice in it, 
 and adore the riches of divine grace made known therein. 
 When he shines on the word, and into the heart of the 
 reader by it, then its entrance giveth light. The Scrip- 
 tures are then an illuminated mine full of precious things. 
 Where the natural man walks unconscious of the riches 
 around him, seeing nothing but the forms which contain 
 
24 SEEMON I. 
 
 the hid treasures, the mind enlightened by the Holy 
 Ghost beholds "wondrous things," and exclaims, "thy 
 testimonies are wonderful ;" "how love I thy law." But 
 one thing is needful here. Prayer Prayer ! We must 
 call upon God then, to enable us to use this word. 
 "Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous 
 things out of thy law," must be our prayer. The need of 
 God's help must be felt ; the utter insufficiency of our 
 own understandings spiritually to discern, must be felt^ 
 We must come to Jesus, the true light and ask continu- 
 ally that his Spirit may be given to us. Read and pray ; 
 hear and pray are exhortations founded on our need as 
 truly as " watch and pray." " If thou criest after know- 
 ledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding," is a 
 condition of finding the knowledge of God, as much as "if 
 thou incline thine ear," and " apply thine heart," and 
 " seekest as for silver, and searchest as for hid treasures." 
 Brethren, do you thus feel your need of divine help in 
 endeavoring so to use the word that, read or heard, it 
 shall make you wise unto salvation ? Do you thus call 
 upon God to take of the things that are his, and show 
 them unto you? The Lord give us all richly to expe- 
 rience the power of his Spirit, through the word, to give 
 us the light of the knowledge of his glory in Jesus Christ, 
 and to make us meet to be partakers of the inheritance 
 of his saints ! Amen. 
 
SERMON II. 
 
 THE TRUE CHURCH, THE WORLD'S LIGHT. 
 
 MATTHEW v. 14. 
 " Ye are the light of the world." 
 
 You will immediately recognize in these words a part 
 of our Lord's Sermon on the Mount. To whom were 
 they addressed ? To Ministers of his word, as such ? We 
 answer, that as yet he had not ordained his Apostles or 
 Ministers. Some of those whom he afterwards ordained 
 had now been called, with reference to their becoming his 
 Apostles, and were now his followers; but as yet they 
 were simply disciples. To whom then were these words 
 addressed ? The answer is in the first verse of the chap- 
 ter. "Seeing the multitude, he went up into a mountain, 
 and when he was set, his disciples came unto him, and he 
 opened his mouth and taught them, saying," &c. The 
 text is part of what he then taught. So that it was to his 
 disciples, as such, without particular reference to the office 
 of the ministry, that he said " ye are the light of the 
 world" In this sense we shall use these words in this 
 discourse, considering them as teaching all who profess to 
 be disciples of Christ, what they are expected, individu- 
 ally, to be towards the world, according to their several 
 positions- and opportunities; teaching, also, what is the 
 office and duty of that wide-spread community and rela- 
 tionship in which, under the name of his Church, the Lord 
 
26 SERMON II. 
 
 Jesus Christ, by the outward and visible bond of sacra- 
 ments, has associated his professing people. To the 
 whole visible Church, in all its several parts, as occupying 
 different countries, cities and villages ; to all the several 
 individuals of which the Church is any where composed, 
 ministers and laity, the Lord now addresses the words of 
 the text, " Ye are the light of the ivorld" As thus 
 addressed, without reference to the faithfulness or 
 unfaithfulness of Christians, the steadfastness or the 
 apostacy of any particular section of the visible Church, 
 these words express simply what the Lord expects of all 
 that are called by his name, individually and collect- 
 ively and what they will be, so far as they walk accord- 
 ing to their high calling and profession. But they may 
 grievously dishonor their calling. They may be Chris- 
 tians but in name and form. They may receive the grace 
 of God in vain. If their lamps did ever burn, they may 
 have quite gone out. Whole communities of nominal 
 Christians may be in this state. Churches, once faithful, 
 may have wholly departed from the faith, and still remain 
 in name and form Christian Churches. Their duty is the 
 same as ever, to be the light of the world; but they are 
 only adding to its darkness and increasing its delusions. 
 Addressed to faithful, consistent, disciples of Christ, 
 those who belong to that invisible, living Church, which 
 is simply and exclusively the blessed company of all God's 
 faithful people, under whatever name or form ; the Church 
 of the promises ; the Church, which is the temple of the 
 Holy Ghost, because in every one of its members is the 
 Spirit of Christ ; to that Church, the words of the text 
 express not only what it ought to be, but what indeed it 
 
THE TRUE CHURCH, THE WORLD'S LIGHT. 27 
 
 is, "the light of the world" All the spiritual light that ever 
 shines on the world comes to it, under God, and by his 
 appointment, through the instrumentality of the Church, 
 thus viewed. And a time cometh, when, according to the 
 promise of God, that blessed company shall be so enlarged, 
 and in its various means and agencies shall so extend 
 itself among all nations, and shall be made so mighty 
 through the power of God abiding on it, that it will be 
 literally light to all the world.* 
 
 If it require a strong faith in the promise of God to 
 expect such a day, seeing what the Church now is ; what 
 faith must it have required when Jesus uttered the 
 words before us ? What a remarkable declaration it 
 was, considering the time and circumstances ! Never had 
 a moral darkness so gross, so hopeless, covered the earth. 
 Truth, concerning God and his will, seemed almost lost. 
 The lamps in the golden candlestick of the Jewish Church 
 had nearly all gone out. The Gentile world was all night. 
 None then so much as dreamed of a power that could 
 break that night. The wisest of heathen sages hoped 
 for nothing better than a faint ray by which to see for 
 themselves, but nothing for others. Jesus, on a moun- 
 tain of Israel, has before him the little company of his 
 disciples. Some are fishermen, all of obscure condition, 
 all from a nation oppressed and despised by the rulers of 
 the earth it is the beginning of his Church. To that 
 feeble band on the mountain top, he says, "ye are the 
 light of the ivorlcV How it must have astonished them ! 
 How in the infancy of their faith, it must have alarmed 
 them, by the responsibility it involved ! How impossible 
 
 *Isai. cli. Ix. 
 
28 SERMON II. 
 
 it must have seemed, except as their minds took refuge 
 in the power of God ! It was as if Jesus had taken a 
 straw and set it for a taper, and said, this shall give light 
 to all nations. But "he spake as one having authority" 
 authority over all things to make good his word. In the 
 beginning of the creation, it was he who " commanded 
 the light to shine out of darkness," and suspended the 
 sun in the firmament of heaven to be the light of our 
 natural day. It was as easy for him, from that little 
 beginning of disciples, to raise up a church which would 
 prove the regeneration of the earth. And how marvel- 
 lously were his words fulfilled! Before the last of that 
 little company had finished his course, how literally had 
 their ministry been made the light of the world. What 
 nation was there which their labors had not penetrated ; 
 what fortress of the powers of darkness into which they 
 had not carried their lamp ; what cavern of iniquity out 
 of which they had not led some children of night into 
 the knowledge and peace of God ? 
 
 Let that first wonderful work of the Church encourage 
 us. Immense is still the reign of darkness in this world. 
 Utterly without strength is the present Church, of itself, 
 to overcome it. But now, as much as in the beginning, 
 the Lord says to the blessed company of his faithful 
 people, "Ye are the light of the world." Unbelief looks 
 at them, and says hoiv can it be! But faith looks unto 
 Jesus, and remembering " the years of ancient time," 
 says, Thou knowest. Thine is the power. Hast thou 
 said, and shall it not be done ? Zion will fulfill her 
 destiny. " The righteousness thereof shall go forth as 
 brightness, and her salvation as a lamp that burneth." 
 In the further exhibition of the text, let us consider, 
 
THE TRUE CHURCH, THE WORLD'S LIGHT. 29 
 
 I. The position and office here assigned to the Church 
 of Christ on earth. 
 
 You remember how emphatically the Saviour asserted 
 of himself, exactly what he here declares of his people . 
 "I am the light of the world"* These words indicate that 
 Christ is the world's only light. And the similar words 
 addressed to his people indicate that they are the world's 
 only light. And how are these apparently contradictory 
 declarations to be reconciled ? We answer, 
 
 To this benighted world there is but one sun as the 
 source of spiritual light. But he hath gone from the 
 view of men and doth not shine directly upon the world. 
 There are intermediate agencies, secondary lights ; there 
 are planets and satellites ; there is a system of dependent 
 and associated instruments, which keep their circuit around 
 that great central orb, held therein only by his power, and 
 shining only in his light. Perfectly dark in themselves; 
 only as they receive light from him are they the light of 
 the world. Thus the Church, in its ministry, and in all the 
 life and works of its people, is to Christ, what moon and 
 planets are to the sun. The world receives from them, as 
 they receive from Christ. They are the light of the world 
 as the only visible light. He is the light of the world as 
 the only original light. And thus we harmonize the two 
 declarations. Of himself Jesus speaks as the author and 
 giver. " I am the light." To his Church, he speaks as his 
 constituted instrument and medium. " Ye are the light." 
 
 This is not an illustration of our own invention. It is 
 precisely that of the Scriptures. The prophet Isaiah, 
 addressing Zion, says, " Arise, shine, for thy light is come, 
 
 *John viii. 12. 
 
30 SERMON II. 
 
 and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.* John, in 
 the opening of the Apocalypse, beheld in vision a repre- 
 sentation of the churches, under the emblem of " seven 
 golden candlesticks," instruments of light but not its 
 containers. In the midst of them "there walked one like 
 unto the Son of Man, whose countenance was as the sun 
 shineth in his strength." From him came the light which 
 seemed to dwell on the lamps of those candlesticks. In 
 his hand were seven stars ; as the sun holds the planets 
 before his face, that he may shine on them, and by them 
 on the world. And these stars, John was told, represented 
 the ministry of the churches, f 
 
 But the most remarkable use of this method of illustra- 
 tion is in another part of the Revelation of St. John. He 
 beheld, and " there appeared a great wonder in Heaven, 
 a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her 
 feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars." J 
 
 Among interpreters of the Apocalypse, there is entire 
 agreement that under this symbolic appearance is repre- 
 sented the true Church on earth, in its purity and faith- 
 fulness, doing its appropriate work in the world, and 
 holding its proper relation to Christ. This is evident 
 from the children of the woman being described as those 
 "which keep the commandment of God and have the testi- 
 timony of Jesus Christ." || Now observe the description. 
 The ornament of her head was a crown of stars. Under 
 her feet was the shining moon. Thus was indicated the 
 Church's office as a light-bearer to the world, but only a 
 bearer, not the fountain ; the medium, not the origin ; as 
 
 * lx. Isai. 1. fRev. i. 12-20. 
 
 J Rev. xii. 1. || Verse 17. The Church is called "the Bride, the Lamb's 
 -wife." Rev. xxi. 9. 
 
THE TRUE CHURCH, THE WORLD'S LIGHT. 31 
 
 the moon and planets are only the reflectors by which the 
 unseen sun casts his radiance on the earth. But whence 
 came the light of that moon and those stars ? She was 
 " clothed with the sun" In that all-investing light, she 
 was all light ; her head, her feet, her raiment, all did shine 
 as the sun. I need not tell you that the sun thus invest- 
 ing the Church, represents him whose countenance John 
 beheld " as the sun shineth in his strength," and whose 
 proclamation is, " I am the light of the world." But that 
 bright form was seen, where all luminous bodies, whose 
 office it is to shine on this earth, are stationed, in the firma- 
 ment of heaven. The vision, therefore, whatever other 
 instructions it was intended to give, is an impressive 
 exhibition of the great office of the Church on earth, and 
 of what a faithful Church must be ; the bearer of the 
 knowledge of Christ to all people the light of the world. 
 
 But in order to set forth the more distinctly this 
 striking representation of the faithful Church, let me 
 turn your attention, by way of contrast, to another 
 symbol in the Revelation of St. John, of a Church, but 
 a fallen Church. 
 
 Nothing can be more evident than that the Scriptures, 
 especially the epistles of St. Paul, and the Apocalypse of 
 St. John, contain predictions, in very impressive terms, 
 of a great apostacy from the truth and spirit of the 
 Gospel, which after the Apostolic age would appear in the 
 visible Church ; an apostacy which, taking its rise at a very 
 early period, and growing from age to age in stature and 
 development, would at lengtli assume a shape and position 
 of great prominence and power. It would subdue to its 
 dominion, by signs and wonders, by seductive delusions, 
 
32 SERMON II. 
 
 or terrific persecutions, a large part of the professedly 
 Christian world. It would put forth the most arrogant 
 and exclusive claims to dominion and authority. It would 
 usurp the prerogative of God ; and sit in his Church as if 
 if it were God, changing his laws, absolving from their 
 obligation, substituting its own. It would be especially 
 marked as a persecutor of the children of the faithful 
 Church, of those who, rejecting its unauthorized com- 
 mands and testimonies, should " keep the commandments 
 of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ."* You find 
 such a prediction in the second chapter of the second 
 epistle to the Thessalonians. Those Christians had 
 been troubled in mind, concerning the second coming of 
 Christ. Paul writes to them thus : " Let no man deceive 
 you by any means ; for that day shall not come, except 
 there come a falling aivay first, (an apostacy) and that 
 man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, who opposeth 
 and exalteth himself above all that is called God or that 
 is worshipped ; so that he, as God, sitteth in the temple 
 of God, showing himself that he is God." The temple 
 here means, of course, the Christian Church. Sitting 
 therein as God, means, claiming dominion and authority 
 in the Church as God. This "Man of sin," Paul next 
 called " the mystery of iniquity" and said it had even in 
 his time begun to work, (v. 7.) Its coming, he said, 
 would be " after the ivorJdng of Satan, ivith all poiver, and 
 signs, and lying wonders, and ivith all deceivableness of 
 unrighteousness" It would continue until the second 
 coming of Christ and would be destroyed thereby. 
 
 * See Dan. vii. 20, 21, 25, compared with Rev. xvii. ; see also 2 Thess. ii. 
 3-10 ; and I Tim. iv. 1-3. 
 
THE TEUE CHURCH, THE WORLD'S LIGHT. 33 
 
 " Consumed" saith the Apostle, "by the spirit of his 
 mouthy and destroyed by the brightness of his appearing" 
 (v. 8.) Daniel, predicting the same Man of Sin, under 
 the symbol of a great ecclesiastical ruler, says, " He shall 
 speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear 
 out the saints of the Most High, and think to change 
 times and laws."* 
 
 But what we find in St. Paul, under the names of the 
 "Man of Sin," and "Mystery of Iniquity," St. John, in 
 the Apocalypse, exhibits under another form. The 
 faithful Church is the Bride of Christ. He has already 
 exhibited it under the form of a woman arrayed in the 
 light of the Lord as her wedding garment, and crowned 
 therewith as her glory. He now exhibits, under the like 
 form, but far other raiment, an apostate Church, which 
 pretends to be the Bride of Christ. Let me give you his 
 description : "1 saw a woman sit upon a scarlet colored 
 beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads 
 and ten horns, and the woman was arrayed in purple and 
 sca'rlet color, and decked with gold and precious stones, 
 having a golden cup in her hand, full of abominations ; 
 and upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, 
 BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OP HARLOTS, AND ABOMI- 
 NATIONS OF THE EARTH ; and I saw the woman drunk with 
 the blood of the saints and of the martyrs of Jesus." 
 Her throne was upon " many waters," which were inter- 
 preted to St. John as representing "peoples, and multi- 
 tudes, and nations, and tongues," a vast dominion of 
 nations.! Now that all these predictions indicate a great 
 Church apostacy, is too universally understood among the 
 
 * Dan. vii. 25. f Rev. xvii. 3-6 and 15. 
 
 3 
 
34 SERMON II. 
 
 learned, as well Romish as Protestant, to need any argu- 
 ment.* We have no time, nor has it anything to do with 
 our present object, to attempt a particular interpretation. 
 But we are speaking of the faithful Church as the light of 
 the world, and we wish to illustrate that aspect by the 
 contrast of an apostate Church. Let us then compare 
 the two as exhibited in the two symbols of the Apoca- 
 lypse. Each is represented under the form of a woman. 
 One is the true bride of Christ, the other only a pretender 
 to that character. Both are magnificently apparelled. 
 But how vast the difference in the style of their adorning ! 
 The true bride is arrayed in the simplicity, and purity, 
 and heavenly beauty of the light ; clothed with the 
 splendor of the sun ; the crescent moon as a sandal 
 adorns her feet; a circle of stars is the ornament of her 
 brow. Nothing but shining light is her glory, as becomes 
 the symbol of that which is ordained to be the light of 
 the world. The other is gorgeously apparelled, indeed, 
 but her ornaments are all earthly, such as worldly pride 
 and pomp put on ; the meretricious beauty of scarlet, and 
 purple, and precious stones, and gold, such as kings of the 
 earth have given her, and the " peoples and multitudes," 
 over whom she rules, are attracted by ; as poor a substi- 
 tute for a vesture and crown of light, as paste for the 
 genuine pearl. 
 
 Again : in the symbol of the faithful Church we see a 
 constant glorying in Christ alone. The light that adorns 
 her is not her own ; she is clothed with the sun. Every 
 ray of her glory tells you whence it comes and whom it 
 glorifies, Jesus, the Son of God, whom it is her single 
 
 * " All the ancient expositors agree in identifying these prophecies \rith some 
 heretical Church." Wordsivorth on the Apocalypse. 
 
THE TRUE CHURCH, THE WORLD'S LIGHT. 35 
 
 office to make known to the world, as planets testify of the 
 absent sun by which they shine. But the other, what a 
 contrast ! There you see no reference to any but herself; 
 no indication of dependence on the glory of another ; no 
 light leading you to seek elsewhere its source. All is 
 put on to attract the praise of men, instead of directing 
 them to Christ. She glorifies herself;* self-exaltation is 
 the prominent aspect of the apostate Church. Her voice 
 is, " I sit as a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no 
 sorrow," | and I claim the obedience of all nations unto 
 myself. But the voice of the faithful Church is : I stand 
 as a lamp, shining in the light of my Lord, to testify unto 
 and glorify him, that all may look unto him and be saved. 
 Again : from every thing in the position and aspect 
 of the woman representing the faithful Church, whose 
 children " keep the commandments of God and have the 
 testimony of Jesus," you see that she is occupying pre- 
 cisely the place, and doing the work, which the Lord has 
 appointed to his Church. John beheld her " in heaven,''' 
 among the constellations, where God in the beginning 
 placed the lights, "to rule over the day and over the 
 night." From that position she receives the direct rays 
 of the sun, and reflects them on a world shrouded in dark- 
 ness. Her office is that of a light-bearer to the world. 
 In it is her whole glory; all her jewelry is light she is 
 shod with it, crowned with it, clothed with it none of it 
 her own; all from the sun. Take away that light, and 
 she hath nothing left of any beauty. Beautiful representa- 
 tion of that blessed company of the children of God, who, 
 walking by faith, see him who is invisible ; and setting 
 
 * Rev. xviii. 7. -I- Ibid. 
 
36 SERMON II. 
 
 their affections on things above, have their conversation 
 in heave n, and their " life hid with Christ in God," and 
 are changed into his image, and thus become the living 
 surfaces in which he reflects himself, and the active agents 
 by which his truth is spread in the world. But not such 
 the position in which St. John saw the woman represent- 
 ing the fallen Church. She was not in heaven, among the 
 stars of light, but on earth, "in the wilderness" There 
 she was sitting, not in banishment, or under constraint, 
 but on her throne, in all her power, in all her blazonry 
 and pomp. It was her chosen place, and it indicated that 
 instead of the light of the world, she was its desolation ; 
 where she reigns in her glory, there is a spiritual wilder- 
 ness, and the light of Christ doth not come. Behold, 
 then, that impressive and awful figure, as St. John has 
 pictured it. How would you ever obtain the idea from 
 all her aspect, that it is the great office of the Church of 
 Christ, which she professes to be, to enlighten the world, 
 to be the active carrier and distributer of the light of 
 Christ to men ? Where, in her position in the wilderness, 
 in her raiment and ornaments, in the throne she sits on, 
 and the name she wears on her forehead, and the cup she 
 holds out to the world, is there a feature or sign that says 
 any thing of light ? " Ye are the light of the world" saith 
 the Lord^to his Church, and the woman representing the 
 Church that answers to those words, is all a reflection of 
 light. But in the symbol of the fallen Church, there is 
 not the least sign of light received or reflected. Instead 
 of the clothing of the sun, we see the poor substitute of 
 purple, and scarlet, and gold, and precious stones ; intelli- 
 gible signs, indeed, of worldly pride and pompous luxury ; 
 
THE TRUE CHURCH, THE WORLD 's LIGHT. 37 
 
 of loving the praise of men more than the praise of God ; 
 of living unto one's self instead of unto Christ ; of reli- 
 ance for influence on outward and earthly attractiveness, 
 instead of intrinsic holiness. But they say nothing of 
 LIGHT 5 much of darkness. Brilliants are worn to sparkle 
 on the wearer, not to irradiate the observer. They well 
 express the spirit of an apostate Church, glorying in 
 worldly greatness ; seeking to win the regards of men by 
 impressions on the senses, and through the avenues of 
 worldly tastes and dispositions ; but they say nothing of the 
 great office of the Church in the " manifestation of the 
 truth" as it is in Jesus. To sit enthroned on a ten-horned 
 wild beast,* is significant of conquest and cruelty, and of 
 extending ecclesiastical dominion, by force, but not by 
 truth. The whole combination is an apt symbol of secular 
 potentates sustaining the arrogant claims and persecuting 
 oppressions of some great ecclesiastical power ; but " ye 
 are the light of the ivorld" would read very strangely were 
 it written on such a rider and such a bearer. 
 
 Then that golden cup in the woman's hand, full of 
 abominations ! It reminds us of the name " BABYLON" 
 on her brow, for it is written in Jeremiah, " Babylon hath 
 been a golden cup in the Lord's hand that made all the 
 earth drunken." It is a striking name, especially as con- 
 nected with every thing else in the vision, for intoxicating 
 delusions and fatal seductions, for poisonous moral corrup- 
 tions, as attributes and acts of the mission on which the 
 great apostacy goes out among the nations, "with all 
 deceivableness of unrighteousness," as Paul describes. 
 
 * The original word signifies a wild beast, one that inhabits desert places, 
 fierce and hurtful. 
 
38 SERMON II. 
 
 But a cup of abominations contains no light of life, no 
 testimony of Christ. 
 
 Then that name on her forehead, " MYSTERY." It 
 reminds us of St. Paul's name for the same apostacy, 
 " Mystery of Iniquity"* It teaches us that in it are 
 " the depths of Satan," as in the Gospel are " the deep 
 things of God." It speaks of a mysterious concealment 
 of truth, instead of its publication all abroad. It speaks 
 of an effort to attract reverence by being veiled and keep- 
 ing things in the dark ; of making mystery of all rites 
 and benefits, as magicians do with their incantations, and 
 as counterfeit physicians with their remedies ; it speaks 
 of this being as conspicuous an attribute of the apostate 
 Church, as the crown of light of the faithful Church. 
 Light reveals, mystery hides. Light opens the book of 
 the knowledge of Christ, and says to all men, READ. 
 Mystery shuts the book and puts it under her robe and 
 says, You must not read; it is not for common eyes. 
 Only the privileged may be trusted therewith. 
 
 Then that other name, " BABYLON THE GREAT," written 
 also on her forehead. It reminds us, by way of contrast, 
 of the promise to God's faithful people. " His name 
 shall be in their forehead." And again, " I will write 
 upon him the name of my God, and the name of the 
 city of my God, which is New Jerusalem.^ Ah ! yes, 
 Jerusalem ! But here the name written is that of the 
 old Pagan enemy of Jerusalem, her persecutor, her 
 destroyer, that led her children into captivity, and slew 
 her prophets, and profaned her sanctuary, and took away 
 her golden candlestick with the sacred vessels of her 
 
 * 2 Thess. ii. 7. T Rev. iii. 12 ; xxii. 4. 
 
THE TRUE CHURCH, THE WORLD'S LIGHT. 39 
 
 sacraments, and set them in the house of her idolatry, and 
 used them in the feasts of her idols. How remarkable to 
 find the hand of inspiration writing the name of that old 
 Pagan city of abominations upon the forehead of a Church, 
 calling itself the Church of Christ ! Yes, Babylon for 
 Jerusalem ; the destroyer of the people of God, for " the 
 mother of us all" But so it is. It is a terrible brand, 
 indeed. It tells of grievous oppressions, of the desola- 
 tions of God's sanctuary, of internal debasements, con- 
 nected with hideous idolatries. It brings to mind the 
 river of Babylon, by the side of which the captive Jews 
 sat down and wept when they remembered Zion. It 
 recalls the words of Jeremiah : " Babylon shall become 
 heaps, a dwelling place for dragons, an astonishment and 
 an hissing, without an inhabitant."^ But how would it 
 sound to say to that Church thus written on, thou art the 
 light of the ivorld; the faithful bride of him who is the 
 Light of life. How great the relief to turn from that sad 
 and awful spectacle, to the symbol of the true bride, on 
 whose brow, instead of such names of apostacy, is written 
 in heaven's own sweet light, upon a coronet of stars, 
 Teacher of the ivord of God to all people. 
 
 But that great Church apostacy, so remarkably pre- 
 dicted and prefigured in the Scriptures, where is it ? has 
 it yet appeared'} You will not think it very probable 
 that an apostacy, the leaven of which St. Paul said had 
 begun to operate even in his time,| and which he assured 
 us was to grow into the gigantic stature of that " Man of 
 Sin," whose attributes he described, has not yet, during 
 
 * Jer. li. 37. 
 
 t " The mystery of iniquity doth already work." 2 Thess. ii. 7. 
 
40 SERMON II. 
 
 the progress of eighteen hundred years, been sufficiently 
 matured to be seen and known. Where then will you 
 find it ? Under what Church form is it seen ? For evi- 
 dently it is not a mere defection of individuals, however 
 many, but of a Church, in its corporate principles and 
 life. I shall not answer this question directly but I will 
 do better. I will assist you to answer it for yourselves. 
 
 What then is the light which the Church is ordained to 
 diffuse ? The knowledge of God and his will, of Christ 
 and his salvation. Under what outward form does the 
 Church receive and possess that light ? Your ready 
 answer is, Under the form of the word of God. The 
 Psalmist says, "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a 
 light unto my path." " The entrance of thy words giveth 
 light ; it giveth understanding to the simple.'^ The 
 Philippian Christians were "lights in the world" by "hold- 
 ing forth the word of life." 
 
 Then if the word of God is the light which the Church 
 is ordained to diffuse, it only remains to ask, how is the 
 Church to be the light of the world? You answer easily : 
 It is by doing to all the world what the Philippians did 
 in the midst of their perverse nation: holding forth ever?/ 
 ^vhere the word of life. Changing the figure, from the 
 diffusing of light, to the sowing of seed ; we read in the 
 parable of the sower, that the world being the great field 
 on which the fruits of holiness and spiritual life are to be 
 grown, the seed, the only seed, which God has provided to 
 be sown therein is the word, and the work of the Church 
 is to sow that seed in all the ivorld. From nothing else 
 can spiritual life be made to grow. 
 
 * Ps. cxix. 105, 130. 
 
THE TRUE CHURCH, THE WORLD'S LIGHT. 41 
 
 One more question : Under what form does the Church 
 possess the word ? IN THE HOLY SCRIPTURES, answers 
 every Christian people. " Search the Scriptures," said 
 our Lord. " They are they which testify of me." This 
 he said, not to the Jewish priests, but to the people* It 
 follows then that the great office of the Church on earth, 
 as the light of the world, is to make known the word; 
 not to make a mystery of it, but a manifestation; to pub- 
 lish it to all people sound it from the house-tops ; 
 proclaim it on the mountains ; put it into all languages ; 
 sow it broadcast, like the sower in the parable, that went 
 forth to sow ; so that though some seed should fall on the 
 wayside, and some on the rock, and some among thorns, 
 some at any rate may find the good ground, and spring 
 up and bring forth fruit. It follows further, that one of 
 the great means of thus making known the word to all 
 people, is to make known to them that book in which 
 God has written it, and which we are commanded to 
 search. Nothing can be more directly incumbent on the 
 Church's office as a light-bearer to the world, than the 
 publication of the Scriptures in all languages, and their 
 distribution to all men, and the effort to persuade all men 
 to search them for the testimony of Jesus, the will of 
 God, and the Gospel of our salvation. 
 
 Thus I have given you one of the means of answering 
 the question as to where the apostacy described is to be 
 found. Can you find a Church that has fallen from her 
 proper place and office as a publisher of the light of God's 
 word to the world ? Can you find a Church which not 
 only is not engaged in the free circulation of the Scrip- 
 tures, but, in its essential principles, denies that there 
 
 * John v. 39, compared \rith verses 15, 16, 17. 
 
42 SERMON II. 
 
 is any necessary or important connection between the 
 knowledge of the Scriptures and the growth of religion ; 
 which makes the seed to be not the ivord, and claims to 
 be able to do the entire work of the Church, though all 
 but her own chief priests be wholly destitute of the Scrip- 
 tures ? Can you find a Church in whose dominions, in 
 proportion as you approach the centre of her power and 
 the fullness of her glory, where her chief seat is, and 
 where her ornaments and jewels are best seen, and her 
 consistency is least hindered, you find the greatest dearth 
 and ignorance of the Scriptures, so that where she is most, 
 the Bible, is least ? Can you find a Church which in her 
 missions among the heathen makes no effort to introduce 
 the Scriptures among the people, makes no translations 
 of the Bible into their tongues, feels no need of such 
 auxiliaries, does all the work of her missions without the 
 Scriptures ? Can you find a Church which, instead of 
 seeking to convince and persuade by manifestation of 
 the truth, substitutes her own authority and power, and 
 not merely does not set an open Bible before the world 
 and say come and ready but shuts the book and writes 
 upon it "mystery," and takes it out of sight, and says 
 You must not read ; it is enough if certain privileged 
 ones shall read ? Do you know a Church which, in 
 countries where she has ascendancy enough to venture so 
 far, concentrates her whole authority and vigilance upon 
 keeping the people from the free searching of the Scrip- 
 tures ; fences up her territories against their entrance as 
 against a pestilence, no matter in what version, Protes- 
 tant or Romish, they come ; employs an active police in 
 the zealous search after any that induce men to read the 
 
THE TRUE CHURCH, THE WORLD'S LIGHT. 43 
 
 Bible, or that venture, in the secret chamber, to refresh a 
 weary spirit from that water of life ; dragging them for 
 that one only crime to chains and prisons and galleys, to 
 the company of felons and the sufferings of martyrs, 
 fearing nothing so much for her dominion, and strength, 
 and wealth, as the free searching and universal circula- 
 tion of the word of God ? Find a Church in which these 
 eminent peculiarities are exhibited, not merely in many 
 of her members, but in her corporate authorities ; not as 
 accidents of a certain age or region, but as ordinances 
 and laws, proceeding directly from her essential princi- 
 ples, inseparably connected therewith, and which she 
 cannot deny till she denies herself; and then, by those 
 marks, independently of many others that might be 
 given, you will have found out the seat of the woman 
 that is not "clothed with the sun; 5 ' and hath not the 
 testimony of the Apostles, as a crown of twelve stars 
 upon her head ; whose adorning, and power, and glory, 
 are not of God, wherever else they may have come from: 
 "The Mystery of Iniquity" of St. Paul, "The Babylon" 
 of the Apocalypse.* 
 
 * The recent persecutions in Italy, for the single crime of reading the Scrip- 
 tures, must open the eyes of many to what all who know the history, or under- 
 stand the doctrinal system of the Church of Rome, have always known, that 
 actually and doctrinally she forbids, and in consistency must forbid, the free 
 reading of the Scriptures, and only relaxes her practice in that particular 
 where her dominion is not sufficiently established to warrant the full carrying 
 out of her principles. But Cardinal Wiseman has recently been bold enough 
 to be sufficiently plain on that head. In his " Catholic Doctrine for the Use of 
 the Bible, " lately published, he says, " The Bible is more difficult to under- 
 stand than any other book. No Greek classic, no Arabian or Persian Poet, no 
 Hindoo mystic is more abstruse." (p. 13.) Of course then the Church of 
 Rome does not say to the people, "Search the Scriptures," but Jesus did. The 
 Cardinal must refer chiefly to the Old Testament for the difficult parts. But 
 when Jesus said " Search the Scriptures, " the people had only those parts. 
 But the Cardinal again : (p. 25.) " In Catholic countries, such as can read or 
 
44 SERMON II. 
 
 Oh ! it is a consolation indeed to remember that we be- 
 long to a Church, the essential principle of which is, that 
 sancuification is by the truth; that the seed of all spiritual 
 
 do read, have access to the Latin version without restraint." The Latin 
 version for the people ! "If a son ask bread, will he give him a stone ? " 
 What better is the Latin version to people that cannot read Latin ? But the 
 Cardinal again: (p. 26.) ''Though the Scriptures may be permitted, we do 
 not urge them on our people ; we do not encourage them to read them. " Of 
 course you do not urge people to read the Latin version, when they know 
 nothing of the Latin tongue. But Jesus not only encouraged but urged : 
 " Search the Scriptures ; " and Paul commended the Bereans because they 
 " searched the Scriptures daily ; " Acts, xvii. 2. But the Cardinal further 
 states, (p. 25,) that where the Church permits " the reading of Scripture, she 
 does not permit the interpreting." Wonderful privilege ! First, it is a Latin 
 version, and then the few who can read that, though they are not encouraged 
 to do it, but only not forbidden, must not interpret ; that is, must not attempt 
 to find out the meaning ! A lamp they are permitted to hold in hand, but 
 must not walk by it? They may read, for example, " Come unto me all, ye 
 that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest ; " but they must 
 not interpret that sweet and plain invitation of grace. The Bereans had the 
 privilege of listening to an intepreter of the Scriptures, as infallible, per- 
 haps the Cardinal will grant, as the Pope ; even St. Paul. But even then 
 "they searched the Scriptures daily, whether those things (which he taught) were 
 so ; " and Paul praised them for it. Did they read without interpreting ? 
 
 By this prohibition to interpret, ths exceedingly liberal allowance of the 
 Latin version is made practically a nullity, even to a Latin reader. It is 
 time, therefore, for the Cardinal to be more candid. Next, therefore, he con- 
 fesses that the Romish Church is opposed to the free reading of the Scriptures. 
 " If (he says, p. 20,) we be asked why we do not give the Bible indifferently 
 to all, and the shutting up of God's word be disdainfully thrown in our face, 
 we will not seek to elude the question, or meet the taunt by denial, or by en- 
 deavoring to prove that our principles on the subject are not antagonistic to 
 those of Protestants. They are antagonistic, and we glory in avowing it. " We 
 trust then we shall hear no more of the denial of this avowed antagonism ; we 
 have had enough of it. The principles of the Romish Church are most certainly 
 directly antagonistic, as to the reading of the Scriptures by the people, to the 
 principles of Protestants. Then, if out of " Catholic countries " Romanists are 
 ever allowed to read any but a Latin. Bible, let it be remembered it is not 
 according to the principles of the Romish Church, but against them, and be- 
 cause a surrounding Protestantism requires that measure of concession for the 
 present, and when Popery shall be sufficiently in the ascendant it will cease. 
 Who can doubt this when he reads the Cardinal, at p. 15, as follows : "The 
 experiment has been tried on a great scale of what the indiscriminate reading 
 of the Bible will make a people. It has been tried in the dominions of Queen 
 Pomare with unexampled success. It has transformed a mild and promising 
 
THE TRUE CHURCH, THE WORLD'S LIGHT. 45 
 
 life in the world is the word; that the knowledge of the 
 Scriptures is essentially connected with the propagation of 
 the Gospel ; that to persuade men to search the Scrip- 
 tures as the testimony of Jesus, is a great duty of her 
 ministry; that to spread the knowledge of the Bible is the 
 way by which the Church is to be the light of the world. 
 It is a great consolation to think of the institutions, un- 
 der the name of Bible Societies, which band together such 
 a vast array of the numbers, and wisdom, and influence, and 
 wealth of Protestant Christians in the single work of print- 
 ing the Scriptures for circulation among all people, and 
 whose issues are already many millions. It is delightful 
 to think of the vast and mighty system of agencies, from 
 the great publishing centres, to all the ramifications of mis- 
 sionaries, and zealous lay distributers and scripture-read- 
 ers, so exclusively connected with Protestant Churches 
 and the result of Protestant principles, whose object is to 
 place the pure word of God in every language, in every 
 house, and to encourage, and urge, and aid all people to read 
 the same. It is the glory of Protestant missionaries, that 
 always their first work in a dark land, is to get the Scrip- 
 tures as soon as possible into the language of the people; 
 to make the Bible an open book to them, by making it 
 speak in their tongue, and by teaching them to read it ; 
 
 race into a pack of lazy, immoral infidels." The Cardinal is emphatic. The 
 Bible, God's word, by the simple reading of it, has made a heathen people'a 
 great deal worse ! How it has made infidels of heathens, we do not under- 
 stand We supposed they had always been infidels. But the assertion is, 
 that what our Lord commanded us to search, and Paul praised the Bereans for 
 searching daily, and Timothy was commended for knowing in his childhood, 
 has been thus destructive to the morals, &c. of the subjects of Queen Pomare. 
 Of course, then, the principles of the Romish Church PROHIBIT the Scriptures. 
 Can they permit the word of God to be read, if they think it so poisonous? 
 The Cardinal will be believed. 
 
46 SERMON II. 
 
 thus clothing their work at once "with the sun" and seek- 
 ing to "shine as lights in the world," like the Philippian 
 Christians of old, by "holding forth the word of life." 
 
 More and more may all such work and zeal increase 
 among us. It is evidence of the true and living Church. 
 It is the garment of praise ; it is the terror of the powers 
 of darkness; it is Jerusalem against Babylon. 
 
 II. And now, from the view we have taken of the posi- 
 tion and office of the Church of Christ in this world, let me 
 very briefly deduce a few of the important lessons con- 
 tained therein. 
 
 1. The great duty of the Church, in all her agencies and 
 operations, is to be a preacher and a witness of Christ. He 
 is the true light. To know him is life eternal. To make 
 him known to the world by his word is to be the light of 
 the world. To be clothed with the testimony of Jesus, so 
 that every aspect of the Church directs the eye of the sin- 
 ner unto him, so that all her beauty and value are sought 
 in the faithfulness of that her proper testimony, is for the 
 Church to be clothed with the sun. As that testimony 
 becomes obscure ; as any Church declines from the direct- 
 ness, and fulness, and constancy of that manifestation of 
 Christ ; as she gets to glorying in some other wisdom, and 
 seeking some other praise, and putting on some other 
 raiment, she wanders from her orbit; she falls from her 
 sphere ; she loses life ; she becomes darkness instead of 
 light to the world ; she may retain the whole form and or- 
 dinance of the visible Church, but in spirit and life she 
 may be utterly apostate. 
 
 2. The Church must seek her whole power to do her ap- 
 pointed work, in the constant renewal upon herself of the 
 
THE TRUE CHURCH, THE WORLD'S LIGHT. 47 
 
 light and life of Christ. The moon and planets are no de- 
 positories, they are only reflectors of the light of the sun. 
 Arrest for a single moment their communion with that 
 central power, and they are perfect darkness. They must 
 be clothed with the sun, by renewal, every instant. Thus 
 must the Church continually be receiving from Christ. 
 She can lay up nothing in store. Her office is that of a 
 reflector. Her face must be always looking unto Jesus. 
 What she was in the Apostles' times was no security for 
 what she would be in future times. The seven Churches 
 of Asia were particularly represented in "the seven can- 
 dlesticks " which John beheld, and in the midst of them 
 walked the Son of Man, as the sun shineth in his strength. 
 But now what are they ? The Church of Rome was once 
 so faithful that St. Paul testified that its faith was spoken 
 of throughout the world.* What is it now ? Just as 
 each individual believer must be constantly renewing his 
 spiritual life by communion with Christ, "who is our life," 
 must the whole Church, which is but the aggregate of all 
 believers, be receiving again directly from the fountain of 
 its being, that replenishment of life, without which, though 
 it keep all the form of a Church, it can have only a name 
 to live ; and that renewal of spiritual light, without which, 
 however the word of God may be in its hands, it will not 
 profit thereby, nor make use of it for the good of the 
 world, nor exhibit any example to lead men to God. 
 
 3. It is not merely in a corporate capacity, but by com- 
 bination of the faithfulness of individual Christians, in 
 their several spheres and relations, and in the use of their 
 several talents, that the Church is to be the light of the 
 world. The holiness of the Church is simply the aggregate 
 
 *Rom. i. 8. 
 
48 SERMON II. 
 
 of the personal holiness of its several members. All 
 other holiness is but relative and ceremonial. Such also 
 is the light of the Church. Its ministry is of no avail to 
 fulfill its great work, but as each minister is faithful. Its 
 whole body of people can do nothing for the world, but as 
 each congregation, and each member of each congrega- 
 tion, is faithful in his own individual stewardship. The 
 Church at Philippi was composed of Christians who in the 
 midst of a crooked and perverse nation shone "as lights 
 in the world" as many lights as there were Christians 
 each doing his individual work in union with all the rest. 
 And thus the Philippian Church altogether was a light 
 in the world. What that one Church was, all Christians 
 are required to be. They are styled "children of the 
 light." "The path of the just is as the shining light, 
 which shineth more and more unto the perfect day." 
 As that path ascends in holiness, and gets more above 
 the world, and nearer to God, it becomes the more a 
 shining light. All members of the Church have not the 
 same office, but they have essentially the same work, the 
 same interest, the same essential relation to the Lord 
 and the world. The Church is a communion, not only of 
 brothers, but of laborers; not only in the hope of salva- 
 tion, but in the privilege of spreading the knowledge of 
 it, and of multiplying the number of those who partake 
 therein. We are all to be "workers together with God." 
 It is the heritage of each disciple of Christ to be per- 
 mitted to "occupy" the place and stewardship which his 
 Master has assigned him, so that when his Lord cometh, 
 he miy say of that disciple, however humble his lot, "/ 
 am glorified in him" How much each may do, none can 
 
THE TRUE CHURCH, THE WORLD'S LIGHT. 49 
 
 say, because results depend on God, and the magnitude 
 of a work is so little to be measured by its outside ap- 
 pearances or visible connections, and so much is added to 
 the visible deed by the unseen faith, and love, and prayer 
 that attend it ; and because that which seems least to our 
 eye may be a seed from which the Lord will raise harvests 
 of fruit in all generations. Who knows but that the con- 
 version of Saul was an answer to the prayer of Stephen 
 when he prayed for his persecutors ? What was the con- 
 nection between the faithfulness of a certain pious mother 
 diligently instructing her son in the Holy Scriptures,* 
 and the subsequent wide usefulness of that son when he 
 became Paul's own son in the faith, the beloved Timothy, 
 the instrument, under God, of making many wise unto 
 salvation ? It is apparently a little thing to the darkness 
 of the great world, that a single Christian, in a very 
 humble sphere, and with little worldly means and influ- 
 ence, should set the example of purity, and holiness, and 
 undeviating consistency of life ; should manifest the practi- 
 cal influence and blessedness of the Gospel in all his 
 spirit, and temper, and conversation, in the government 
 of his household, in the spirituality of his mind, in his 
 love of things above, in the application of Christian princi- 
 ples to all the relations of social life, in the conscientious 
 use of his pecuniary substance for the relief of human 
 suffering, and the promotion of the Gospel ; it seems little 
 that such a Christian should in his prayers be earnestly 
 beseeching God to send laborers into his harvest, and to 
 pour out his Spirit on the Church, and to establish his 
 kingdom in the whole earth. But no. It is the way ; 
 
 * 1 Tim. i.2 ; 2 Tim iii, 14, 15. 
 4 
 
50 SERMON II. 
 
 God's appointed way. The eye cannot say to the foot, 
 nor the rich to the poor, nor the strong to the weak, nor 
 the learned to the most ignorant, nor the whole Church 
 to its least member, " I have no need of thee." In the 
 vision of St. John, the woman had a crown of twelve stars 
 on her head, but her whole body, every member, was 
 clothed with the sun. Beautiful, at night, is that broad 
 girdle of light which spreads through the firmament, com- 
 posed of innumerable distinct points of radiance, but each 
 so minute to our view, that none can be distinguished 
 from all the rest. So does each humble faithful follower 
 of Christ, living in the light of his Lord, contribute his 
 part to the whole office of the Church ; too obscure to 
 be distinguished ; too precious to be dispensed with. 
 
 4. Lastly, the Church will discharge its duty to the 
 world only so far as each of its several sections or congre- 
 gations shall be faithful to its own locality and neighbor- 
 hood. And this brings me, brethren, to the happy 
 services of this day, in which all the cares, and anxieties, 
 and toils, and burdens, connected with the progress of 
 this noble edifice, now solemnly consecrated to the 
 worship and word of God, have so joyfully terminated.* 
 Having followed your efforts with the liveliest interest, 
 from your first incipient measures, through all your trials 
 and discouragements, to the present hour, with a sympathy 
 much more intimate than you might have expected from 
 my official relation to you, I have admired the deter- 
 mined perseverance with which, in the face of great 
 difficulties, you have gone on, not only to complete, but 
 
 * Preached at the consecration of St. John's Church, Cincinnati, Feb. 9, 
 1854. 
 
THE TRUE CHURCH, THE WORLD'S LIGHT. 51 
 
 also to relieve from incumbrance, this House of Prayer, 
 so good, so spacious, so appropriate, as well as beautiful, 
 in all its parts and furniture. And now that it is occu- 
 pied with a fixed congregation, in which the minister of 
 God may be well content to lay out all his efforts for their 
 eternal good, and that in him who occupies towards you 
 that responsible position, you are so richly blessed with a 
 most faithful and earnest preacher of Christ and pastor of 
 the flock (whom may God long spare and you long pos- 
 sess) ; I desire to take my part with you in a thankful 
 acknowledgment of the good hand of the Lord in these 
 mercies ; in feeling that it was He who gave what we have 
 this morning consecrated to his service ; and in supplica- 
 tion that all that has been expended here, and all that 
 shall be enjoyed here, may ever be to the glory of his 
 grace, in the increase of his kingdom everywhere. 
 
 But now, my brethren, after the special services of this 
 occasion, the question naturally arises, what will God, who 
 has placed you in this house to profit by all the privileges 
 of his grace, and who has thus brought you together as a 
 communion and congregation, what ivill He have you to do ? 
 What return, what fruit does He expect? How much 
 has your power to do good been increased by your pre- 
 sent associated condition ! How much ability to do good 
 was previously possessed among the individuals composing 
 this congregation, all of which is enhanced and made as a 
 city set on a hill by this union under this roof ! Now 
 there is a design in this. God has a purpose in forming 
 congregations. What is it here ? Brethren, will you 
 satisfy that purpose in being content just to occupy your 
 places here at the stated times, and join in the worship 
 
52 SERMON II. 
 
 and listen reverently to the word of God ; or, if you do 
 more, and spiritually improve your privileges here, so as 
 to grow in grace, and so that the number of God's true 
 people shall be increased among you? Will that be 
 enough ? Is this congregation and communion, set up of 
 God in the midst of this rapidly enlarging population, in 
 the midst of so much darkness, so much wickedness, so 
 much unbelief, in the midst of multitudes that are without 
 God and without hope, is it only for the spiritual good and 
 enjoyment of those who belong to it? Is a light-house 
 erected merely to give light within ? or to cast the beams 
 of hope upon surrounding darkness and dangers, and lead 
 the wandering and lost from afar off into the way of 
 safety? Such is God's will with regard to you. You 
 belong to that great community on which the Lord has 
 laid the duty of being the light of the world. Ye must 
 take your part in those great works of Christian effort 
 which limit their benevolence only by the limits of the 
 world. But especially must you realize your responsi- 
 bility as connected with the spiritual necessities of the 
 world immediately around you. We must not be content 
 in this growing city, with our present churches, and 
 ministers, and Sunday schools, and other agencies for 
 good-doing. As fast as possible must they be increased 
 in number and extension. Sin, crime, neglect of God 
 and his word, the profanation of his holy day ; infidelity, 
 zealous and bold, indigenous and foreign, seeking prose- 
 lytes just where the want of the means of grace is great- 
 est ; a hundred forms of spiritual darkness and want are 
 fearfully increasing in power and diffusion around us, and 
 all Christian people have greatly to increase their efforts 
 
THE TRUE CHURCH, THE WORLD'S LIGHT. 53 
 
 if they would keep up with the fast increasing demand 
 upon their zeal. Thus far you have begun well. Your 
 Sunday schools, your Bible classes, your contributions to 
 good works of various kinds, to the distribution of the 
 Scriptures, and of tracts, to the support of colporteurs 
 cariying the printed word where other agencies do not 
 reach, to the maintenance of missionaries at home and 
 abroad, all speak most encouragingly for the future 
 influence and good-doing of this recently organized flock. 
 Go on, brethren, to put your talents daily to the best 
 investment Ability increases with exercise. Talents 
 are ascertained by use. Blessings multiply, as blessings 
 are improved. In what particular ways you are to work 
 I cannot here specify. I aim now simply at stirring up 
 the conscientious inquiry, what the Lord will have you to 
 do, individually and collectively, as a leaven, as a light, 
 in the midst of the population of this city. The glory of 
 a Church is to have the light of Christ, and by it so to 
 shine in holiness and good works, that sinners may be led 
 to Christ for eternal life. Be that, as long as these walls 
 shall stand, the glory of the Church that shall worship 
 here. Here may the precious Gospel of Christ be ever 
 preached in purity and faithfulness, and be accompanied 
 " with the demonstration of the Spirit and of power 1" Here 
 may the riches of divine grace be gloriously manifested 
 in the conversion of multitudes of wandering sinners to 
 the faith and hope of Christ, and in their growing meet- 
 ness for his presence ! Here may many a desolate heart 
 be made the temple of the Holy Ghost ! To this house 
 may thousands of those who shall be with Christ in his 
 kingdom, have reason to look from the heights of their 
 
54 SERMON II. 
 
 glory, and say, There was I lorn ; there I first saw the 
 true light; there I learned the preciousness of Christ to 
 my soul. Here, under the rod of the word and the power 
 of God, may a fountain ever flow, fed from out of the 
 riches of Christ, the streams of which shall make glad the 
 hearts of the perishing in the most distant habitations of 
 the wilderness ! Amen. 
 
 
SERMON III. 
 
 THE CHURCH OF CHRIST IN ITS ESSENTIAL BEING. 
 
 1 CHRON. xxii. 1. 
 
 " Then David said, This is the house of the Lord our God, and this is the 
 altar of the burnt-offering for Israel. " 
 
 IT was by no means a secondary matter under the dis- 
 pensation of the levitical law, to know ivhat was the house 
 of the Lord, and what was the altar of the burnt-offering 
 for Israel. 
 
 There was but one house, and one altar of burnt-offer- 
 ing. No sacrifice was accepted that was not brought to 
 the door of the one, and sanctified by being offered upon 
 the other. All that was peculiar to that dispensation was 
 centered in that house and altar. All that pertained to 
 an Israelite, as an Israelite, depended on his connection 
 therewith. Hence the question between the Jews and 
 Samaritans, as laid for decision before our Lord by the 
 woman of Samaria, namely, whether men ought to wor- 
 ship at Jerusalem, or on Mount Gerizim, whether the true 
 house and altar were in the one mount or the other, was 
 a vital question to all who desired a share in the peculiar 
 privileges of the ceremonial law. And hence the decision 
 of that question had not been left to human appoint- 
 ments or conjectures. In every period of the history of 
 the levitical dispensation, God had visibly declared by 
 signs and wonders where his house and what his altar was. 
 
56 SERMON III. 
 
 When the tabernacle was set up and the altar therein, and 
 all was consecrated according to divine appointment, then 
 "a cloud covered the tent of the congregation and the 
 glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle."* It was the 
 marvellous signal whereby the God of Israel proclaimed 
 in language too plain to be misunderstoood, " This is the 
 house of the Lord our God, and this is the altar of the 
 burnt-offering for Israel." 
 
 And when, in place of the tabernacle of the wilderness, 
 the more permanent and magnificent temple of Jerusalem 
 was built, the same signal appeared. "The fire came 
 down from heaven and consumed the burnt-offering and 
 tbe sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the house. 
 And when all the children of Israel saw" they signified 
 that they well understood; "they bowed themselves with 
 their faces to the ground, upon the pavement, and wor- 
 shiped, and praised the Lord, "f 
 
 The dispensation of the law had a typical relation at 
 all points to that of the Gospel. Its priesthood was 
 typical, not indeed of our human ministry, which is no 
 priesthood; but of that priesthood of our blessed Lord in 
 heaven, which alone makes our ministry of any use, or 
 the sinner's hope the least consolation. Its temple was a 
 grand type of the Church of God, his household of faith, 
 in earth and heaven. And the question, what is that 
 Church or household, is just as vital to all our participation 
 in the blessings of the Gospel, as was the question, what 
 was the temple, and what the altar of the burnt-offering 
 of Israel, to all participation in the privileges of the 
 chosen people. 
 
 *Ex. xl. 34. i-2 Chron. vii. 1 and 3. 
 
THE CHURCH OF CHRIST IN ITS ESSENTIAL BEING. 57 
 
 To belong to the house or family of God is certainly 
 essential to all hope of salvation. If \ve have no part 
 in the temple, we can have none in the atoning sacrifice. 
 If we be not of the family, we can have no share in its 
 communion and festival. If we are not of Israel, we can 
 have no inheritance in Israel. It is just as true, and to 
 this we would draw your special attention, that if we do 
 belong to the house, the Church, the family of God, zve 
 must have part in the heritage of his people. 
 
 To be found in the Church, and to be saved, are essen- 
 tially connected. Whatever the Church may be, and 
 whatever may make us members thereof, it is Christ's 
 living body ; and the scriptures always represent those 
 who belong to that body as being in Christ Jesus, precise- 
 ly where St. Paul was so earnest that he might be found 
 at the last; and nothing can be more impossible than 
 that a real member of Christ, a sinner found, at death, 
 actually in him, can be lost. We repeat it, then, with 
 special emphasis; membership in the Church of Christ, 
 and salvation in Christ, are essentially connected, and cor- 
 relative. 
 
 And, further: Whatever be the instrument of God, 
 whereby alone we are made members of Christ's Church, 
 it is essential to salvation, and is necessarily saving sim- 
 ply because it unites us to Christ himself. Therefore, if 
 any sacramental ordinance if the sacrament of baptism 
 make us any thing more than visibly m professedly members 
 of the Church; if it be the instrument whereby we are 
 made, not merely in the visible sign, but in the inward 
 reality, members of the body of Christ; if every one who 
 has received that sacrament is a member of Christ's 
 
58 SERMON III. 
 
 body, the Church, then is he found in Christ and then it 
 is true, not only that without that sacrament we cannot 
 be saved, but with it, ive cannot be lost. Wherever you 
 find the baptized, you find, according to such views, not 
 only the true and only house and Church of the Lord 
 our God, but those who have a saving portion in the one 
 great burnt-offering for Israel. 
 
 Baptism and salvation are as indissolubly connected, 
 according to that view, as our being in Christ, and our 
 being in the peace of God. The saved are exclusively 
 the baptized. The baptized are certainly the saved. 
 These are consequences of that doctrine of baptism, which 
 cannot be escaped. They follow of necessity from the 
 vital union between the Church and Christ; from the 
 oneness of membership in it and in him. Hence the 
 primary importance of the question, what is the house of 
 the Lord our God? what constitutes the Church of 
 Christ ? what makes us members thereof? Are the sacra- 
 ments and the ministry so essential to the being of the 
 Church, that without them it is a nonentity ? Is the 
 sacrament of baptism so identical with membership in the 
 Church, not visible merely, but spiritual membership in 
 the body of Christ, that whoever is baptized is such mem- 
 ber, and whoever is not baptized cannot be? If not, 
 what are the relations of the visible and divinely appoint- 
 ed ordinances of the Church to the being and member- 
 ship thereof? These are questions which we hope, with- 
 out the need of any great length of discussion, satisfac- 
 torily to answer. And subjects more important in these 
 days, I know not where to find. 
 
THE CHURCH OF CHRIST IN ITS ESSENTIAL BEING. 59 
 
 We must enter upon their consideration with the two 
 certainties of which we have spoken plainly in sight, 
 namely, whatever we make the Church, to be members is 
 to be saved, not to be members is to be lost; because it 
 is simply to be, or not to be, in Christ. And, moreover, 
 whatever we make the one instrument whereby alone we 
 Become members of Christ's Church, and so of Christ 
 himself, be it the living faith in the heart, or the sacra- 
 ment of baptism on the brow, that instrument is not only 
 absolutely necessary, in every case, to salvation, but 
 wherever applied must be saving, simply because in virtue 
 thereof we are in Christ Jesus. And, really, when we 
 have set before you these infinitely momentous conse- 
 quences of whatever view we take, we seem to have gone 
 much of the way in answering the questions before us. 
 For how hard it is, in view of all that have assuredly died 
 in faith without having received the outward sign of bap- 
 tism, as many of the martyrs died, and then of all who 
 have died, without faith, having that sign, as millions on 
 millions of the most ungodly have died, how hard to be- 
 lieve that all the latter died in the Church and so in 
 Christ, and that none of the former could thus die ! Not 
 even the Romish apostacy, far as it has dared to avow the 
 monstrous consequences which flow from its corruptions 
 of Christian doctrine, has ventured entirely to maintain 
 the extreme results of assigning to a sacrament so easily 
 received, so indiscriminately possessed, a necessity so ab- 
 solute, and an efficacy so saving. What is the invention 
 of a baptism "in Hood" and "in will" (in sanguine and 
 in voto, as Rome's standard writers speak,) but the con- 
 fession of salvation ivilhout a sacrament, and thus a virtual 
 
60 SERMON III. 
 
 denial of her doctrine of sacramental union to Christ the 
 only union ? Nevertheless, she is bound to the honest 
 avowal, that as, by her own declaration, every baptized 
 man, except he be an infidel, or a heretic, or a schismatic, 
 is in Christ Jesus, by a living union, every such man must 
 have part in the salvation of Christ. His sacramental 
 baptism saves him for as long as that sign is on him, he 
 is in the Church and in Christ and to call in other sac- 
 raments, to bring in the fires of purgatory, in order to 
 make his baptism finally saving, is to flinch from the 
 direct consequences of her doctrine, and virtually deny it. 
 
 We come now to one of the two main questions which 
 we propose to answer in this discourse, namely : 
 
 I. In what consists the essential being of the Church 
 of Christ; and, consequently, what is membership in the 
 same ? We shall find it a shorter and easier question than 
 some of you may apprehend. 
 
 But let us mark well, that the question is not, what is 
 the Church in its apostolic appointments, but in its essen- 
 tial existence; not the polity,but the being; not what makes 
 the Church a visible organization before the world, but 
 what makes it the mystical body of Christ before God. 
 
 The difference between the Church in its essential being 
 before God, and in its divinely appointed mode of mani- 
 festation or visible profession before men, is precisely the 
 same as the difference between the inward reality of com- 
 munion with God, and the visible profession of that com- 
 munion in the sacraments. All who come to the Lord's 
 Supper we call communicants; we do not mean that all are 
 really communicants in the salvation of Christ. Bat 
 we name them what they profess to be. A ad in the same 
 
THE CHURCH OF CHRIST IN ITS ESSENTIAL BEING. 61 
 
 way, we call the whole body of those who come to that 
 sacrament, the Church the body of Christ. But it does 
 not follow that we suppose them all to be really, spiritual- 
 ly, of the Church or body of Christ, We name them 
 what they profess to be. Professing to be communicants, 
 we call them communicants. Professing to be Christians, 
 we call them Christians. In baptism, professing to be 
 regenerate, they are spoken of as regenerate in baptism. 
 Professing, in the several ordinances of the Church, to be 
 the Church, they are called the Church; although we do 
 not forget the declaration of St. Paul : "He is not a Jew 
 which is one outwardly ; neither is that circumcision which 
 is outward in the flesh ; but he is a Jew which is one in- 
 wardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit 
 and not in the letter,"* If this was the state of the 
 case under the ceremonial dispensation, how much more, 
 if possible, must it be under the more spiritual and in- 
 ward? How emphatically should we keep in mind, that he 
 is not a Christian which is one outwardly, neither is that 
 baptism which is outward in the flesh ; but he is a Chris- 
 tian who is one inwardly, and the true, saving; baptism is 
 that of the heart, in the spirit and not in the letter; and 
 hence the Christian Church is not constituted of those 
 who are Christians in the sacrament only, which is outward 
 in the flesh, but of those whose baptism is that of the 
 heart, in the spirit. 
 
 We find in the narrative connected with the text a 
 very convenient and striking illustration. A pestilence 
 was raging among the people of Israel in the reign of 
 David. He beheld the angel of the Lord stand between 
 
 * Rom. ii. 28, 29. 
 
G2 SEKMON III. 
 
 the earth and heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand, 
 stretched out over Jerusalem. The angel "stood by the 
 threshing floor of Oman the Jebusite. " David prayed 
 that his hand might be stayed. The Lord commanded 
 him to set up an altar on that floor. He did so, " and 
 offered burnt- offerings and peace-offerings and called upon 
 the Lord. And He answered him from heaven by fire up- 
 on the altar of burnt-offering." * " When David saw that 
 the Lord had answered him in the threshing floor of Oman, 
 then (it is written) he sacrificed there; "f that is, he con- 
 tinued to sacrifice there, notwithstanding (as the next 
 verse says) "the tabernacle of the Lord and the altar of 
 the burnt-offering were at that season at Gibeon. " Then 
 David said, " this is the house of the Lord our God., and 
 this is the altar of the burnt-offering for Israel. " The 
 same miraculous indication from heaven that had been 
 given at the consecration of the tabernacle, that the 
 house of the Lord was there, was now manifested unto 
 David, that the house of the Lord was that open thresh- 
 ing floor. The Lord answered from heaven by fire upon 
 the altar. 
 
 The case of Jacob at Bethel is precisely similar. In 
 the open field he sleeps. The vault of heaven alone is 
 over him. God appears to him. He awakes and says, 
 " Surely the Lord is in this place this is none other but 
 the house of God and he named the place Bethel" 
 house of God.\ Now, what made that open field or that 
 naked threshing floor the house of the Lord? Jacob's 
 words afford precisely the answer, " The Lord is in this 
 place." The special presence of the Lord! It is rest- 
 
 *1 Chrcm. xxi. 14-26. fver. 28. }Gen. xxviii. 11-19. 
 
THE CHURCH OF CHRIST IN IIS ESSENTIAL BEING. 63 
 
 deuce in a place, not walls, that makes it our house. It 
 is the citizens, not their edifices, that make the city. 
 
 Now, with this plain light from the Old Testament, as 
 to what of old constituted the Lord's house, we open the 
 New Testament to see what makes his house or Church in 
 these days. I find the house of God declared to be in 
 every true servant of God; and that which gives him that 
 character, the indwelling of God's Spirit. " Know ye not 
 that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is 
 in you. " I find next the whole community of God's 
 people called his temple. " Ye are the temple of the 
 living God (said St. Paul to the Corinthians) as God 
 hath said, I zvill dwell in them and walk in them. "| The 
 indwelling of God made them his temple. And thus the 
 same Apostle says to the Ephesians, "Ye are builded to- 
 gether, for an habitation of God, through the Spirit. " J 
 The Spirit abiding in them made them the habitation of 
 God. Here we have precisely the similar case to that of 
 the threshing floor of Oman the Jebusite. The presence 
 of God to David in that unwalled space, made God's house 
 to be there. The indwelling of God by his Spirit in any 
 human being makes him his temple. The same indwell- 
 ing of the Spirit in the whole community of God's people, 
 makes it all his temple his Church. The parts are not 
 made each a temple by being first united to the whole. 
 But the whole communion becomes the whole temple or 
 Church, by the aggregation of the several parts, each be- 
 ing a temple in itself. God dwells in the community, and 
 so makes it his house, by dwelling in each member there- 
 of, and so making him "the habitation of God, through 
 the Spirit. " 
 
 *1 Cor. vi. 19. f2 Cor. vi. 16. * Ephes. ii. 22. 
 
64 SERMON III. 
 
 Thus we have found, by a very short process, the es- 
 sential being of the Church all that gives it a spiritual, 
 and thus all that gives it a real, existence towards God. 
 Nothing can be more simple. We ask, where is the house 
 of the Lord our God? The scriptures answer, wherever 
 is " the habitation of God through the Spirit," wherev- 
 er his Spirit dwells. And thus the saying of Tertul- 
 lian, so much wondered at because not understood, is per- 
 fectly scriptural : "Wherever three are met together in 
 the name of the Lord, there is the Church"* not a 
 Church in any outward equipment or visible organization; 
 but the Church, the habitation of God, in the highest 
 sense of spiritual being. And why? Simply because of 
 the Lord's assurance : " There am I in the midst of them. " 
 I dwell in them they are thus my temple, my Church. 
 And to the same effect writes St. Paul: "By one Spirit 
 we are all baptized into one body- and have all been 
 made to drink into one Spirit. "| In other words, the 
 bond which makes us all one body in Christ one Church, 
 is not an outward tie, but participation in the same inward 
 life; not a visible sacrament of baptism, but that baptism 
 which the sacrament signifies ; the being baptised ly 
 the Spirit, the drinking into one Spirit, as the living 
 branches drink into the life of the vine, and so are one 
 body therewith. 
 
 Thus we have ascertained wherein consists the being of 
 the Church, and yet have only incidentally mentioned 
 such things as the sacraments, the ministry, or any out- 
 
 * Tertullian, lib. de exhort. Castitat. cap. vii. Ubi tres, ecclesia est, licet 
 laici. Unusquisque enim sua fide vivit, nee est personarum acceptio apud 
 Deum . Quoniam non auditores legis justificantur, sed factores. 
 
 i 1 Cor. xii. 13. 
 
THE CHURCH OF CHRIST IN ITS ESSENTIAL BEING. 65 
 
 ward order. We have found that whatever the necessity 
 of these, by divine appointment, to the w^-being of the 
 Church, they are not necessary as elements of its being ; 
 however necessary as means of establishing, extending, 
 and continuing the Church, they are not parts of its es- 
 sential structure. 
 
 The moment we get this view of the Church, as quite 
 another thing in its essential constitution from the ordi- 
 nances which God has connected therewith, the way is 
 plain to the decision of the connected and important in- 
 quiry, ivhat is the divinely appointed instrument ivhereby we 
 'become members of the Church ? We have seen that what- 
 ever makes any man " the habitation of God, through the 
 Spirit," makes him also a member of God's Church; 
 since the latter is^ simply the community of all those in 
 whom, individually, God's Spirit dwells. In other words, 
 the Church in its real, interior being, is the aggregate of 
 all branches of the True Vine; all real branches; all that are 
 united to the Vine by an internal, vital bond, in partaking 
 of its life ; not of such branches, in connection with those 
 which, however professedly and reputedly branches, are 
 only so in appearance, by an outward insertion and the tie 
 of a visible bond 5 (that is the visible Church as seen of 
 men;) but of such branches only as commune in the Vine's 
 own life, and by that oneness of spiritual life are united 
 not only to the Vine, but among themselves also ; all 
 abiding in Christ by the fellowship of his Spirit, and he 
 thus abiding in each of them. That is the Church of 
 Christ. Union to that Church and union to Christ are, 
 therefore, identical. Now, what is the order ? Is it first, 
 union to the Church in order to union to Christ; or union 
 
66 SERMON III. 
 
 to the Vine first, in order to membership with the branch- 
 es ? St. Peter decides, and well it were if those who claim 
 to have such special succession from him, would better re- 
 ceive his words, " To whom coming, as unto a living stone 
 ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house" 
 a holy Church the habitation of God through the Spirit.* 
 Now, observe that this spiritual house is made of none 
 but living stones each is a real living Christian. The 
 Church of God contains none else in his sight. Observe, 
 also, chat the stones do not become living in consequence of 
 being built up into the Church, as if the life were thence 
 communicated; but they are built up into the Church as a 
 consequence of being already living, they together making 
 the living Church, and not the Church making them. Ob- 
 serve, again, that it is by the coming of each separate 
 stone to Christ as the living head of the corner, and being 
 joined unto him, that gives it life, and it is that coming 
 and union that joins each stone to every other by oneness 
 of life in Christ, and thus builds up the spiritual house. 
 The whole building is "fitly framed together in Christ." 
 Thus the order : We come to Christ that we may come to 
 his Church; not first the Church that we may, through 
 union therewith, become members of Christ. If we were 
 speaking of the visible Church, and of visible or professed 
 union to Christ, we should say : Come to the Church, be- 
 cause only by its visible forms and signs can you be pro- 
 fessedly in Christ. But it is of the Church in its spiritual 
 being, without reference to its visible institutions, that we 
 are now speaking, and hence the order coming to Christ 
 thus made alive unto God and so built up in his spir- 
 itual house. 
 
 * 2 Pet. ii. 4-5. 
 
THE CHURCH OF CHRIST IN ITS ESSENTIAL BEING. 67 
 
 But how do we come to Christ ? Peter gives his testi- 
 mony again : " Wherefore, also, it is contained in scripture. 
 Behold I lay in Zion a chief corner stone, and he that be- 
 tieveth on him shall not be confounded. "* Thus he that 
 lelieveth on, is he that cometh to, that living corner stone. 
 It is faith that saves us from being confounded, because it 
 is faith that makes us partakers of Christ. Thus we have 
 another step in the order. A living faith brings us to 
 Christ. By partaking of his Spirit we are united unto 
 him in oneness of inward life, and all who have that same 
 union to Christ are thereby united to one another, in one 
 spiritual communion and fellowship, which is the Church 
 of Christ. Thus a living faith is God's ordained means 
 whereby we are made members of his spiritual house, his 
 living Church, unto which are the promises and by which 
 he is glorified. 
 
 Now, my brethren, let me remind you of the position 
 from which we set out, namely: that whatever the Church 
 may be, to be found therein is to be saved, not to be 
 found therein is to be lost; because it is to be found or 
 not found in Christ. And, again, that whatever be the 
 instrument whereby we are made members of the Church, 
 outward ordinance, or inward faith, it is not only abso- 
 lutely necessary to salvation, but must be absolutely 
 saving, and all who are thus in the Church must have 
 peace with God. Taking the view we have given of 
 what constitutes the Church, and what instrumentally 
 unites us thereto, these positions are not only true, but 
 exactly consistent with all else in the scriptures, and in 
 religion. They are but another mode of saying, "He 
 
 * 1 Pet. ii : 6. 
 
68 
 
 SERMON III. 
 
 that believeth in Jesus shall be saved, and he that be- 
 lieveth not shall be damned." Taking any other view 
 of the being of the Church, and of what instrumentally 
 makes us members thereof; say that the Church is made 
 up of all who are joined together in a visible fellowship by 
 the bonds of visible ordinances; that every baptized per- 
 son is a member, and no unbaptized person can be ; then 
 consider who the baptized every where are that most la- 
 mentable mixture of tares and wheat, that awful conjunc- 
 tion and confusion of godly and ungodly; and can you 
 say that all, because in the Church, have peace with God? 
 But why not, if they are in the true Church in the body 
 of Christ ? If not, are your views of the being of the 
 Church and what makes a member, consonant with the 
 scriptures? Can they be in Christ and not in God's 
 peace ? 
 
 II. We proceed to the other question proposed. If 
 the sacraments and other visible ordinances of the Church 
 are not essential to its being, in ivhat relation do they stand 
 thereto ? Mark well the question, lest we be misunder- 
 stood. It is not, what are the several objects, wcs, benefits, 
 towards the Church, or the Christian, for which the sacra- 
 ments, &c., were ordained but the much narrower ques- 
 tion, what is the relation they stand in toward the essen- 
 tial being of the Church, and consequently of the Chris- 
 tian? 
 
 We look back to the narrative of David on the thresh- 
 ing-floor of Oman the Jebusite. In one verse we have 
 him saying of that open floor, simply because God's pres- 
 ence was there: " This is the house of the Lord our God;" 
 and in the next verse we read that he " set masons to 
 
THE CHURCH OF CHRIST IN ITS ESSENTIAL BEING. 69 
 
 hew stones to build (in that place) the house of God " 
 and afterwards we find the magnificent temple of Solomon 
 erected on that very spot, and customarily spoken of in 
 the subsequent scriptures, as the house of God. How is 
 this ? Two houses in the same place the invisible and 
 visible? or the same house under different relations 
 first in its invisible being, made ' a temple by God's pres- 
 ence, next in its visible form, made a visible temple by 
 walls and courts and altars? 
 
 The plain truth is, that when the stately sanctuary of 
 Solomon was erected over and around the place which 
 David long before had pronounced to be the temple of 
 God, since the presence of God was no more there than it 
 was before, it was no more really God's temple. Take 
 away the walls and courts, and leave the divine presence, 
 and the temple is there still. Of what use then were the 
 walls and courts and altars, and all the imposing ceremo- 
 nial connected therewith? We answer, they gave visibil- 
 ity to that otherwise invisible house of the Lord. They 
 were its conspicuous notes and marks. They did not 
 give it being, but they gave it visible, sensible, being. 
 God needed them not in order to recognize his temple; 
 but man did. Thus there was a sense in which the out- 
 ward and visible building was the house of the Lord, 
 while the real house was there without it. It was the 
 form of that spiritual house, and called therefore the house. 
 So we call our liturgy prayer, when it is only a form of 
 prayer. Words, however, are signs and expressions of 
 prayer, and we call them prayer, with no risk of being 
 understood to mean that prayer is so identical therewith 
 that it must be where they are, or cannot be where they 
 are not. 
 
70 SERMON III. 
 
 Let us now apply what has been said of the temple 
 of Jerusalem to illustrate the relation of the sacraments 
 and other ordinances of the Church, to the Church itself. 
 During the interval between the death of Christ and 
 the setting up of the visible Church by the administra- 
 tion of baptism to the three thousand on the day of Pen- 
 tecost, there was certainly a Church. Since the begin- 
 ning of the world, God had always his house, his habita- 
 tion through the Spirit, in this world. One hundred and 
 twenty disciples, believers in Jesus, commanded by him 
 to continue in Jerusalem till they should receive the 
 promise of the Father, were gathered together in Jeru- 
 salem, in his name, and he, according to his promise, was 
 in the midst of them. They were thus his temple. And 
 presently the Lord visibly declared they were his temple, 
 precisely as he declared the same of the threshing-floor 
 of Oman, or the tabernacle of Moses. " There came a 
 sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it 
 filled all the house where they were sitting, and there ap- 
 peared unto them cloven tongues, like as of fire, and it 
 sat upon each of them, and they were all filled with the 
 Holy Ghost." 
 
 But as yet, the Church of Christ had no administration 
 of sacraments. It was like the house of the Lord in the 
 threshing-floor of Oman, when it had no walls. The 
 baptism ministered before the death of Christ was not 
 the sacramental baptism of the Christian Church. The 
 Lord's Supper had been administered to only eleven out 
 of the hundred and twenty, and then while the Jewish 
 dispensation still existed. The sacraments were in being 
 only as appointments for a time to come. They had no 
 
THE CHURCH OF CHRIST IN ITS ESSENTIAL BEING. 71 
 
 hand in constituting the Church that then was. But that 
 Church nevertheless was just as really the Church of God, 
 as it has been ever since. Composed of living stones, 
 built upon the precious corner stone which God had laid, 
 and inhabited by " the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, " 
 it was in every essential respect "the temple of the living 
 
 God." 
 
 But the Church, then made visible as such, only by mi- 
 raculous signs, in order that it might come into contact with 
 the world in which its work is to be done, must have a 
 visible and permanent form or body. It is not enough 
 that God knoweth them that are his. Man must see who 
 profess to be his. An angel host may dwell among us 
 in all the perfectness of their being, but until they put 
 on some visible shape we cannot know their presence. 
 Man comes in contact with man, only through the means 
 of a visible form the body he lives in. The Church, 
 as a spiritual house, can be known to the world only 
 through a similar form. So, then, when the Apostles 
 proceeded to place the Church in its appointed relations 
 to the world, they invested it with a body of visible ordi- 
 nances, which the Lord had appointed, and such as, by 
 their fewness and simplicity, were suited to a dispensation 
 intended to embrace all nations. No sooner had David 
 ascertained the house of the Lord, than he set men to 
 hew stones to build its walls. No sooner had the Lord 
 declared, by the manifestation of the Spirit on the day 
 of Pentecost, that in those hundred and twenty disciples 
 was his Church, than the Apostles began to preach the 
 word and baptize. Thousands were the same day turned 
 to the Lord, and, by faith, were joined to Christ, and so to 
 
72 SERMON III. 
 
 his Church. What was thus invisibly done, they were re- 
 quired openly to confess. They were baptized in the 
 sacramental sign, as they had been already in the spirit- 
 ual reality. Thus they became, not more really members 
 of Christ, but more visibly; as a king, by his coronation, 
 is no more a king, but only more formally and declara- 
 tively. 
 
 But as baptism is only once in a Christian's life, a sac- 
 rament more permanently in sight was needed for the 
 full visibility of the Church. The Lord had prepared 
 and directed it. The Apostles added therefore to the 
 baptized, the sacrament of communion in the body and 
 blood of Christ. Thus the Church, with both the sacra- 
 mental marks and signs which the Lord had ordained, 
 and with a divinely appointed ministry preaching the pure 
 word of God, was fully set up in its visible form, as be- 
 fore in its invisible being. " They that gladly received 
 the word were baptized, and they continued steadfastly 
 in the Apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of 
 bread and in prayers." 
 
 Now, in all this account of the difference between the 
 Church as it is, and the Church as it is visible, in ordi- 
 nances, we have had in view the language of our stand- 
 ards. When the object is to declare simply what the 
 Church of Christ is, without reference to how it is known, 
 the description is, "the Messed company of all faithful peo- 
 ple ;"* in other words, all believers in Jesus. But when 
 the object is not only the spiritual being of the Church 
 before God, but its visible form before men; what indi- 
 cates as well as what constitutes it ; then the Homily for 
 
 * Communion office. 
 
THE CHURCH OF CHRIST IN ITS ESSENTIAL BEING. 73 
 
 Whit-Sunday says: "The true Church is an universal 
 congregation or fellowship of God's faithful and elect 
 people, built upon the foundation of the Apostles and 
 Prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner 
 stone. " So much for what it is in its essential constitu- 
 tion. Then the Homily proceeds: "And it hath always 
 these notes or marks whereby it is known : Pure and 
 sound doctrine, the sacraments ministered according to 
 Christ's holy institution, and the right use of ecclesiasti- 
 cal discipline."* So much for what makes it visible. 
 
 Thus our standards place the sacraments and ministry 
 in relation to the inward being of the Church, exactly 
 where they put them as to the spiritual being of the in- 
 dividual Christian. A man is not qualified for the sacra- 
 
 * The declaration of Bishop Ridley in the Conferences between him and 
 Latimer during their imprisonment, are remarkably illustrative of the above 
 passage from the Homilies. Ridley supposes the Romish adversary whom he 
 calls Antoninus, to say: "Without the Church, (saith St. Augustine,) be the 
 life never so well spent, it shall not inherit the kingdom of heaven. " To 
 which Ridley answers by defining what the Church is and how it is marked, 
 and thus making no objection to the truth of the adversary's position, provided 
 the Church spoken of were rightly understood. He says : "The holy Cath- 
 olic or universal Church, which is the communion of the saints, the house of 
 God, the city of God, the spouse of Christ, the body of Christ, the pillar and 
 stay of truth ; this Church, I believe, according to the Creed ; this Church I 
 do reverence and honor in the Lord the marks whereby this Church are 
 known to me in this dark world are these : The sincere preaching of God's 
 word ; the due administration of the sacraments ; charity ; and faithful observ- 
 ing of ecclesiastical discipline, according to the word of God. And that 
 Church which is garnished with these marks, is in very deed that heavenly Je- 
 rusalem which consisteth of those that be born from above. Forth of this I grant 
 there is no salvation. " Soon after, Bishop Ridley more particularly describ- 
 ing the constituency of the Church, says : " That Church which is Christ's 
 body, and of which he is the head, standeth only of living stones and true 
 Christians, not only outwardly in name and title, but inwardly in heart and 
 in truth." Ridley's Works, Parkers' Society Edition, pages 123 and 126. 
 
 Nothing can be plainer than the above distinction of Ridley's between the 
 Church, as consisting of all, arid only of those who are true Christians in heart 
 and tiuth, and as made known or visible by the sacraments, <fec. 
 
74 SERMON III. 
 
 ment of baptism until he has been baptized; that is, until 
 he has received that inward grace, that baptism of the 
 Spirit, which the sacrament signifies. He must repent 
 and believe he must first be a Christian, and then re- 
 ceive the marks and notes of a Christian. But still he is 
 said by the Church to be made in baptism "a member of 
 Christ, and a child of God;" because while his previous 
 religious life was seen of God, the Church can know him 
 only from the period of his professing a religious life, and 
 in her register dates his being made a child of God from 
 the day when she began to know him as such. His be- 
 coming a child of God was really when he repented and 
 believed in Jesus. His becoming such in the sight of 
 the Church was when he professed repentance and faith 
 in the sacrament of baptism. So we say a man receives 
 the conveyance of an estate when he receives the signed 
 and sealed title-deed, though he was really the owner 
 from the time he paid for it. The human tribunal can- 
 not take knowledge of the private transaction ; but re- 
 quires the visible instrument, and makes its date the be- 
 ginning of ownership. Such is the case as necessarily in 
 the Church as in the state. A man is made a member of 
 Christ in baptism, who was a member before by a living 
 faith, because then he receives the visible instrument by 
 which only the Church can know him. A community of 
 Christ's people begins to be his Church before the eyes of 
 men, when it becomes clothed with those outward ordi- 
 nances which make it visible as such to men. 
 
 Our Church, when speaking with reference to our 
 standing and privileges in the visible Church, dates the 
 time when we were made children of God at our sacra- 
 
THE CHURCH OF CHRIST IN ITS ESSENTIAL BEING. 75 
 
 mental baptism ; because then we were made professedly 
 such. But when she speaks of our standing before God 
 who looketh on the heart and needs no sacramental signs 
 to mark us, then, as everywhere in her Homilies, she leaves 
 the sacramental sign out of sight and speaks only of what 
 it signifies, the baptism of the Holy Ghost, the new birth 
 unto righteousness; and dates the beginning of Christian 
 life and hope from thence. This is the key which not 
 only fits the wards of our Church standards, but unlocks 
 what, in some of our oldest and best divines, Bishop Bev- 
 ericlge, for example, seems contradictory ; so that to some 
 they seem to teach the very doctrine of baptismal regen- 
 eration and justification which they expressly deny. 
 
 And, now, in the concluding part of this discourse, lest 
 in what we have said concerning the relation of the out- 
 ward order to the inward being of the Church, we should 
 seem in any degree to favor that neglect of ordinances to 
 which some minds in avoiding the opposite extreme of 
 undue reliance on them are so apt to run, we must take 
 you once more to the threshing floor of Oman the Jebu- 
 site, and the temple built thereon. 
 
 That magnificent temple, with all its various ceremoni- 
 al appurtenances, was, as we have seen, not the house of 
 the Lord, but only the visible form of that house, and for 
 that reason only was called the temple. But it must be 
 noted emphatically that as a form, it was all divinely ap- 
 pointed. As the tabernacle was made by Moses accord- 
 ing to the pattern which God had showed him in the 
 Mount; so the temple was built by Solomon, after a pat- 
 tern which David his father had received of the Lord, 
 and of which David said to him : " All this the Lord 
 
76 
 
 SERMON III. 
 
 made me understand, in writing by his hand upon me, 
 even all the works of this pattern. "* The altars and 
 courts and walls of that structure did not make it the 
 house of the Lord, but they were as much of divine com- 
 mand as if they did. The form was not the being, but 
 God appointed that form for that being, and no man could 
 put them asunder without profaneness. If the one was 
 very subordinate to the other, both were sacred; both to 
 be reverenced as nothing of man's ordaining should 
 ever be. 
 
 We turn again to the visible ordinances of the house of 
 God, under the gospel. They are very few and simple, as 
 suits the more spiritual aspect, and the more active work 
 of a Church which must be as much at home in the wil- 
 derness as in the city, on the march of missionary inva- 
 sion as in the oldest and most fixed dwelling place of 
 Christianity. The Jewish ritual was for a single nation 
 and a narrow territory. The work of that dispensation 
 was in no sense aggressive. It was to preserve, not to 
 spread the knowledge of God a light to be kept within 
 the veil of the sanctuary, not to be carried abroad into 
 surrounding paganism. It was a sentinel on the walls; 
 a witness to testify; a prophet to be ever pointing towards 
 the more perfect dispensation. Thus stationary, it could 
 bear the weight of cumbrous ordinances. But the Chris- 
 tian dispensation is for the length and breadth of the 
 earth. Its business is conquest; breaking down the 
 kingdom of Satan; making captive all nations to Christ; 
 never to be stationary till that work is done. On such 
 an errand, the Church, like the first Apostles, must carry 
 little weight, nothing but staff and scrip. The water, 
 
 * 1 Chron. xxviii: 11, 12, 19. 
 
THE CHURCH OF CHRIST IN ITS ESSENTIAL BEING. 77 
 
 the bread, and the word; Baptism, the Supper of the 
 Lord, and the trump of the Gospel, are all her equip- 
 ments. These are notes and marks which God has made 
 as essential to her divinely appointed visible form, as the 
 dwelling of his Spirit in the hearts of his people is essen- 
 tial to her invisible being. There is nothing more foolish 
 than to suppose that because the exterior of the Church 
 is not the Church, because the ordinances of religion are 
 not religion, they may be treated with little religious 
 regard. Do those who are prone to such thoughts, 
 imagine the same with regard to another form; that which 
 makes their own being a visible being namely, their 
 own bodies? God has joined the soul and body of man 
 together in this life, by a bond which only death is per- 
 mitted to break. No man supposes that his body is his 
 life; he knows that the soul is essentially the man; but 
 he knows that the soul is an inhabitant of this world, 
 only as long as the body is its habitation; that it can 
 give no sign of life nor hold any communication with this 
 world, but by that bodily form. The ordinances of the 
 senses and of speech and motion are its visible being, 
 though not its being. Their actings and re-actings, one 
 upon another, are continual and necessary. The well-being 
 of each requires the constant keeping of the other in 
 health and vigor. It is the madman that says, the body 
 is not the spirit, and therefore I will not regard it. 
 "What God hath joined together let no man put asunder." 
 In the same way, has God joined together in this life, 
 the spiritual being of his Church and a certain body of 
 divinely instituted ordinances, without which the former 
 is permitted to have no fixed habitation in this world, 
 
78 SERMON III. 
 
 nor any means of manifesting itself as a Church of God, 
 before the world. And while it is a most important 
 truth that these are not religion, but only its forms, we 
 must maintain that precisely in proportion as they are 
 neglected by any branch of the visible Church, must the 
 life of true piety therein be damaged. True, we can 
 easily suppose a servant of God with the word in his 
 mind, and the Spirit of Christ in his heart, separated by 
 divine Providence from all public and social means of 
 grace, and yet living unto God in the highest spiritual 
 health, the Lord working in him independently of those 
 means of grace from which his own dispensation has sep- 
 arated him. But let him be returned to the bosom of Chris- 
 tian fellowship, and then if he wilfully come not to the 
 public sacrifice of prayer and praise, and neglect the 
 ministry of the word, and the sacrament of communion 
 in the atonement of Christ, he must decline in grace. 
 His confession of Christ before men is effaced. However 
 he may hope that in his private life he can shed the 
 influence of a Christian example on those around him, 
 that life is but an evil example of the manifest inconsis- 
 tency of professing to be a follower of Christ, and yet 
 wilfully dishonoring institutions of Christ, divinely ap- 
 pointed means of grace, as binding in their place as any 
 obligations of the scripture. 
 
 Still stronger appears the case when we speak of the 
 Church instead of the individual Christian. There is such 
 a thing as destroying the spirit of religion in the visible 
 Church, by overloading the simple institutions of Christ 
 with rites and ordinances of human invention. But there 
 is another extreme not less fatal. Two ways there are of 
 
THE CHUECH OF CHEIST IN ITS ESSENTIAL BEING. 
 
 79 
 
 dishonoring the Gospel and doing damage to our own 
 souls, as regards the divinely instituted ordinances of tr 
 Church. We may undervalue and overvalue them, 
 diminutive estimate of their use, you deny them the pU 
 which God has given them. By an exaggerated estimate, 
 you appoint them a place which God has denied them, 
 a misguided zeal for the inward life of all religion, you 
 may do great injustice to its ordained means of growth. 
 Out of an Inordinate concentration of interest upon the 
 sacramental signs and means, you may grievously , 
 honor the nature and hinder the growth of inward piety. 
 Make the sacraments, in effect, identical with the com- 
 munication of grace, and we cannot undervalue them, i, 
 that respect, for thus they are not what God made them. 
 Make them only signs and effectual means of grace, 
 depending on the faith and prayer of those who come to 
 them, and we cannot overvalue them, except we give them 
 a higher place than the ministry of the word of God. 
 
 We must carefully guard against both the extremes 
 which I have adverted to. Which is the worst I have no 
 wish to decide. But I see not why the one error should 
 be supposed the result of a specially reverential spirit, 
 and the other of an irreverent. If I find a man who 
 out of a pious fear of leading sinners away from t 
 and from the spiritual power of godliness, to a resting 
 in its more lifeless form, unduly and injuriously 
 ciates the sacraments in comparison with the preaching 
 of the gospel, I see not that I may not attribute his error 
 to an humble reverence for his Master, at least as much 
 as that of the man who out of an earnest zeal 
 visible Church, so exalts the sacraments as to change 
 
80 SERMON III. 
 
 their whole character from signs of grace to grace itself; 
 so magnifies the ministry of the Church, under the name 
 of a sacrificing priesthood, as not only to deprive the 
 preaching of the word of its rightful honor and value, 
 but to put our Lord's ever-living priesthood almost out 
 of sight, and make the coming of a sinner to sacraments 
 ministered by a priesthood of men, to be all that is 
 meant by his coming to Christ. I see no godly reverence 
 in this. Sacraments which point me and help me to 
 Christ, I understand and reverence and love as God's own 
 means of grace. Sacraments which say then are Christ 
 to me, and which profess to give me grace for which the 
 scriptures bid me look unto Jesus; sacraments and min- 
 istries which thus stand in the way of my feeling the 
 need and preciousness of a direct and constant communi- 
 cation between my soul and the present intercession of 
 Jesus at the right hand of God, independently of all or- 
 dinances and all human intervention, are sacraments and 
 ministries most sadly perverted, and over which a godly 
 reverence has only to mourn such dishonoring of the 
 Gospel and of Christ. 
 
 There is the form of godliness, and there is the power; 
 both of God. Each has its peculiar importance. The 
 great evil is in confounding them ; putting one for the 
 other; being satisfied with either without the other. 
 Just as the inspired word, the appointed instrument of 
 sanctification, is dependent for its efficacy on the faith 
 that receives it, so are the sacraments. The form of 
 grace is in the latter ; the form of truth is in the former ; 
 in themselves only forms; to the unbelieving equally in- 
 efficacious ; to the believing alike means of grace from 
 
THE CHURCH OF CHRIST IN ITS ESSENTIAL BEING. 8l 
 
 God whereby he carries on his good work in the hearts of 
 his people. 
 
 Great care must we take, lest in giving these divinely 
 ordained and precious means their right place of most 
 reverent estimation, our minds rest too much upon them, 
 instead of passing intelligently through them to the 
 clearer seeing of Christ and the more vigorous apprehend- 
 ing, by faith, of all his promised grace ; lest we make them 
 objects instead of mediums; like a man using his spectacles as 
 things to look at, instead of things to look with. Great care 
 must we take lest we narrow the communion of our souls 
 with Christ to the single avenue of outward and ministe- 
 rial means of grace, and thus deprive our souls of the 
 blessedness of that habitual walk of faith, wherein it is 
 the believer's privilege to be always going directly and 
 most freely to his Saviour, as well in his daily exercises of 
 heart as in the solemnities of the sanctuary; great care 
 lest out of a disproportioned reverence for sacramental in- 
 stitutions we place in any secondary rank among means 
 of grace, that great instrument of God in awakening a 
 dead world, and sanctifying a believing heart, the inspired 
 word, preached by Christ's ambassadors ; read, and pon- 
 dered, and prayed over by the sinner. 
 
 And now, in conclusion, let us remember, brethren, that 
 the House of the Lord, the household of faith, for which 
 we have been inquiring, and of which I have showed you 
 the essential being, is the Church, not of this Christian 
 dispensation only, but of all dispensations, since there was 
 a Church of God on earth; the Father's house of many 
 mansions, in which the saints of all ages, all forms, all di- 
 versities of light and privilege, are joined together at this 
 6 
 
82 SERMON III. 
 
 time, whether they be saints in the imperfectness of the 
 Church below, or in the perfectness of the holiness above; 
 the House of God, in which Enoch walked with him, and 
 Abraham lived by faith, and David praised, and Paul la- 
 bored; the Church, whose life has always been "hid with 
 Christ in God" "the communion of saints the Holy 
 Catholic Church" wherein is the "one Lord" the hope 
 and life, the one living faith of the heart, whereby that life 
 and hope are embraced, and the one baptism of the Spirit, 
 sanctifying the heart and making it meet for the inherit- 
 ance of the saints in light. Other " Holy Catholic Church" 
 I know not where to find. A member of that Catholic 
 Church I rejoice to greet in any man, of whatever name, 
 in whom are those spiritual marks. If I know him not 
 for a brother, God knows him for a son. If he be sepa- 
 rated from visible Church communion, he is not, and can 
 not be separated from communion here and forever with 
 all the true Church of Christ, simply because he is not 
 separated from Christ. 
 
 To gather sinners into that blessed communion ; to build 
 them in that faith and promote in them more and more 
 that baptism, is the single work of our ministry. Noth- 
 ing is of any value in the Church but as it bears on that. 
 To be in that communion is life out of it is death. To 
 bring a soul to that Church, is to save it and make proof 
 of our ministry. There, brethren, may we be found when 
 called of God to die counting all things but loss for the 
 excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord 
 that we may "win Christ and be found in him." Amen. 
 
 NOTE. The above discourse was preached in the Church of the Epiphany, 
 Philadelphia, A. D. 1848, as the first annual sermon of the Prot. Ep. Society 
 for the Promotion of Evangelical Knowledge. It has been much altered for 
 this volume, and it is hoped improved, but its sentiments in no sense changed- 
 
SEBMON IV. 
 
 THE PERSONAL MINISTRY OF CHRIST IN HIS CHURCH, NOW AND EVER. 
 
 LUKE iii. 16, 17. 
 
 'I indeed baptize you with -water; but one mightier than I cometh, the 
 latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose ; He shall baptize you 
 with the Holy Ghost and with fire ; whose fan is in his hand, and he will 
 thoroughly purge his floor, and will gather the wheat into his garner; but 
 the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable."* 
 
 THE advent of our Lord had taken place some thirty 
 years before these words were spoken concerning him by 
 his distinguished herald, John the Baptist. He had come 
 in the flesh, but not in his ministry. But now he was 
 about to appear in the work which the Father had given 
 him to do. Meanwhile, the Jewish people, by the study 
 of the prophecies concerning the coming of the Messiah, 
 had been generally impressed with the belief that the 
 time was at hand; so that in consequence of the peculiar 
 character and ministry of John, "all men mused in 
 their hearts whether he were the Christ or no." Thus 
 was that faithful messenger led to declare, in the words 
 of the text, how infinitely superior to himself was He 
 whose coming they looked for, and whose way he was 
 sent to prepare. 
 
 Before proceeding to the chief subjects of discourse as 
 contained in the text, we cannot but draw your attention 
 
 * Preached for the Church Missionary Society, in St. Saviour's, Chelsea, 
 London, May 8, 1853. 
 
84 SERMON IV. 
 
 to the exceeding strength of the testimony of John to the 
 personal dignity and eminence of our Lord. " One might- 
 ier than I cometh, whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose" 
 To take off, or carry, the shoes of another, was in those 
 days so menial an office that only the lowest of servants 
 were put to it. But even that, John confessed he was not 
 worthy to perform to our Lord. And yet, Who was 
 John? Do you say, a prophet? "Yea, (said the Lord) 
 and much more than a prophet; and verily I say unto 
 you, among them that are born of women there hath not 
 risen a greater than John the Baptist." 
 
 Many centuries before his birth, prophets of God had 
 been inspired to foretell his coming. An angel from the 
 host of heaven was despatched to announce to his parents 
 the near approach of that event. From his mother's 
 womb, "he was filled with the Holy Ghost." Other 
 prophets were distant foretellers of the coming of Christ. 
 This prophet was his immediate forerunner going di- 
 rectly before his face. Others testified that Christ ivould 
 come; John testified that he ^vas come; and to him was 
 granted the privilege and honor of being the first to see 
 and recognize and proclaim Jesus, in his proper character 
 as the Saviour of the world. And yet that greatest of 
 prophets, most exalted of men, sanctified from the birth, 
 felt himself not worthy to unloose the latchet of the 
 shoe of Christ. The question comes then, Who and 
 ivhat is Christ? Do you say, "a great prophet, mighty 
 in word and deed"? Aye, but since John was more than 
 a prophet, and yet so unspeakably his inferior, will you 
 say he was a mere man; when a man, than whom there 
 was not a greater among the sons of men, was not worthy 
 
THE PERSONAL MINISTRY OF CHRIST. 85 
 
 to serve him in the very humblest office? The words of 
 Christ in the book of the prophet Malachi, shall answer, 
 "Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare 
 my way before me."* Who is this, thus speaking as if 
 he were Lord of all? speaking of sending his messenger 
 to prepare his way, some six hundred years before the 
 time? Is it mere man; or is it the sovereign and eternal 
 God? Let the prophet Isaiah answer further, "The 
 voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye 
 the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a high- 
 way for our 6W."| John the Baptist was that voice 
 crying in the wilderness Christ, he whose way he came 
 to prepare; and Christ was then our Lord and God. 
 Contemplating him in that infinite dignity, we perfectly 
 comprehend the unworthiness of John so much as to 
 perform the lowest service at his feet. The seraphim 
 veil their faces in his presence. And God forbid that 
 we, sinners on earth, should render him any lower rever- 
 ence. Be it the glory of every soul that hopes in him 
 for acceptance with God, to place him on the throne of 
 his heart, as his God, as well as .Saviour, and to worship 
 him as sitting on the throne of all dominion and power, 
 the eternal Jehovah, "for whom and by whom are all 
 things." 
 
 Let us proceed to the main points of the text. You 
 will observe the strong comparison between the ministry 
 of John and that of Christ. "I indeed baptize you with 
 water; but one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of 
 whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose ; he shall baptize 
 you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire; whose fan is 
 
 Malachi iii. 1. f Isaiah xl. 3. 
 
86 SERMON IV. 
 
 in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and 
 will gather the wheat into his garner; but the chaff he 
 will burn with fire unquenchable." We mark in the first 
 place : 
 
 I. The essential difference between the ministry of 
 Christ, and that of all his ministers on earth, in point of 
 
 SPIRITUAL EFFICACY. 
 
 The difference is expressed in the text with reference 
 merely to the comparative baptisms of John and of Christ. 
 But it holds as well in regard to all parts of the work 
 of the ministry. John baptized with water only. In 
 other words, the outward sign of baptism was all that 
 John co aid give. The inward and spiritual grace of bap- 
 tism, which is the real baptism, was not at his disposal. 
 He, who was mightier than John, and whose coming in 
 the power of his ministry was then at hand, HE would 
 baptize "with the Holy Ghost and with fire" 
 
 We understand the addition of the words "tvith fire" 
 to the baptism of the Holy Ghost, as a figurative expres- 
 sion of the searching, refining, illuminating, warming in- 
 fluences of the Lord's Spirit upon the dark, and dead, and 
 cold heart of unregenerate man. The whole declaration 
 was intended to foretell the mighty power that would 
 attend on the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ for the 
 sanctification of the hearts of sinful men; how, as water 
 cleanses, and as fire refines and kindles, so his Spirit would 
 search out and consume away the corruptions of our sinful 
 nature, enlightening believers with heavenly wisdom, 
 shedding abroad in their hearts the love of God, till finally 
 they are restored to his perfect image and likeness in a 
 spotless holiness. 
 
THE PEKSONAL MINISTRY OF CHRIST. 87 
 
 We have no idea that John, in using these words, had 
 any direct reference to the Christian sacrament of bap- 
 tism. It is written that our Lord "baptized not"* that 
 is, he did not baptize in the visible form of water. But 
 yet in the highest, and fullest, and only real sense in which 
 baptism can be given, he did baptize; because he poured 
 out upon his disciples that Spirit of holiness, which is the 
 only true baptism. In this sense, none but he ever did 
 or could baptize. In this sense he has been ministering 
 to his Church and baptizing, ever since the Gospel began 
 its course; every soul of man that was ever transformed 
 by the renewing of his mind, into the love and holiness 
 of God, having been indebted for all to the direct work of 
 Christ himself, as the ever-present minister of his grace, 
 baptizing with the Holy Ghost. In this view there is 
 really no ministry of baptism in the Church, except the 
 unseen, but ever-living and all-powerful ministry of Christ, 
 searching, changing, sanctifying the hearts of sinners. 
 The declaration of John is as if he had said he that 
 cometh after me is mightier than I. He shall sanctify 
 with the Holy Ghost, internally, really, effectually. I 
 baptize with water. I can give but the form and sign of 
 sanctification. He will make you holy in spirit and in 
 truth, giving you the power and life of a new birth unto 
 righteousness. 
 
 Thus you perceive that the baptism given by our Lord 
 is identical with the commencement, and progress, and 
 final completion of our sanctification by his Spirit. It is 
 the abiding and progressive renewing of our minds after 
 the mind of Christ. The baptism in the form of the sac- 
 
 *John iv. 2. 
 
88 SERMON IV. 
 
 rament is once only that by the power of the Spirit is 
 progressive in the Christian life, and is co-extensive there- 
 with; just as communion in the form of the sacrament is 
 occasional only, while the spiritual communion with Christ 
 continues as long as faith lives in the heart. The 
 baptism of the Spirit begins in the spiritual regeneration 
 of the sinner, whether that great inward change takes 
 place at the time of the sacramental washing, or before, 
 or after. It continues and becomes more perfect; as the 
 Christian, under the cleansing of the Spirit, becomes more 
 holy. Every increase of inward sanctification is the pro- 
 gress, step by step, of this baptism of the Holy Ghost. 
 As the inward washing becomes more perfect, the real 
 baptism becomes more complete. The Christian, improv- 
 ing his privileges, is always under that direct ministry of 
 Christ, who thus sits "as a refiner and purifier of silver," 
 and who will continue that work, till he shall have search- 
 ed out and consumed away in the believer the last impu- 
 rity of our nature; till our whole inner man shall become 
 the new man, perfectly conformed to our Lord's own like- 
 ness, and meet for his kingdom. 
 
 But the words of John, comparing his baptism with that 
 of his Lord, we all must alike use who are commissioned 
 to officiate in the ministry of Christ on earth. To be 
 able to baptize only with water, was not a peculiarity of 
 the Baptist. No minister of the gospel can do any more. 
 It is not given to us to communicate in baptism the spirit- 
 ual, sanctifying grace. We officiate only in the sign of 
 the Spirit, and except the receiver of the sign have the 
 preparation of a living faith to seek the reality of him 
 who only can give it, it will be to him but a sign. The 
 
THE PERSONAL MINISTRY OF CHRIST. 
 
 spiritual grace, or the new birth unto righteousness, is 
 not tied to our hands; depends not on our agency; flows 
 not through our act; dwells not in any store-house in the 
 Church on earth; never reaches any heart but directly by 
 the unseen, personal ministry of Jesus, reaching to each 
 seeking soul as really now as when of old he healed the 
 leper, or raised the dead. Thus we point every one that 
 desires the renewing of the Holy Ghost far above our min- 
 istry; far above all visible ordinances in our gift, however 
 divinely appointed and needful in their place, to him who 
 is "able to save to the uttermost;" saying with John the 
 Baptist, "Behold the Lamb of God!" 
 
 It does not militate against all this to say, that between 
 our ministry and that of John, there is this great differ- 
 ence, that the baptism he gave was not, as ours is, a sac- 
 rament, and that the Holy Ghost had not then been 
 given, as after the ascension of Christ he was given to 
 the Church. For, you will note, that we are not teaching 
 that greater power of the Spirit does not attend the right 
 reception of Gospel ordinances in repentance and faith, 
 than attended the baptism of John; but that whatever 
 the grace received therein by the repenting and believing 
 heart, it is not the ministry of man, nor the ordinance 
 given by the human minister, that confers it. Sacraments 
 are means of grace, made fruitful on certain conditions 
 only; but they are not grace; they contain not grace; 
 they give not grace. The efficacy of grace resides not 
 in them, is not confined to them. "Not by might nor 
 by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord." It is "God 
 that worketh in us to will and to do," as directly as when 
 he made the world. It is the Spirit of God moving on 
 
90 SERMON IV. 
 
 our hearts as personally and directly as when he moved 
 on the face of the primitive chaos, that gives the newness 
 of life. It is the Lord and Giver of life shining into our 
 hearts, as truly and immediately as when in the begin- 
 ning" of the world, he said "Let there be light." 
 
 This declaration we confine not to baptism, or to sacra- 
 mental ordinances. We extend it to every part of our 
 ministry. It takes in the whole preaching of the word. 
 What if it be a Paul that preaches, or an Apollos, or Ce- 
 phas ; no matter what the winning simplicity, or the mov- 
 ing eloquence with which the pure truth is declared and 
 urged upon your hearts. As to all spiritual power, it goes 
 not of itself beyond the outward sign, which is the spoken 
 word. It remains in the memory or in the understand- 
 ing of the hearer, as powerless of itself for spiritual life, 
 as the mere water upon the brow of the baptized. A 
 great gulf is fixed between the furthest point which our 
 preaching can reach, and the conversion of a sinner to 
 God. We may teach the understanding and convince it. 
 We may move the sensibilities and disturb them in their 
 depths. We may alarm the wicked with the solemn and 
 searching exhibition of the truth, and, like a smitten 
 Felix, he may tremble at the prospect of a judgment to 
 come. But conviction of the intellect is not conversion; 
 the gushing of tears, the quaking of conscience, is not 
 conversion. The great work remains. Repentance, a 
 new heart, is not ours to give, nor ours so much as to 
 begin. Let us realize that whenever a sinner is turned 
 unto God, with a new heart, and a genuine repentance, 
 whatever the instrument employed, and however entirely 
 out of our sight the process within, the work is as directly 
 
THE PERSONAL MINISTRY OF CHRIST. 91 
 
 and exclusively of the omnipotence of God as if he 
 should create a world. Man never converted man to 
 God. 
 
 John the Baptist was "a voice crying in the wilderness, 
 Prepare ye the way of the Lord." He was only a voice. 
 He spoke the truth and urged it ; nothing more. If any 
 repented, and so in his heart was prepared the way of the 
 Lord, it was the Lord that prepared that way. That voice 
 was the appointed instrument, like the trumpets around 
 the walls of Jericho ; but the power was His only who sent 
 the voice. Nothing more than such instruments, are the 
 ministers of the Gospel. There is a second coming of 
 Christ for which it is our office to make ready the way, 
 "by turning the hearts of the disobedient unto the 
 wisdom of the just." For this purpose we cry aloud in 
 this world's wilderness of sin, and emptiness, and misery. 
 We sound the call to repentance; we publish the invita- 
 tions of the Gospel; we lay siege to the conscience with 
 the battery of truth ; we try to gain over the hearts of 
 men to God. We know it is the Lord's appointed 
 means. Without it, his way will no more be prepared, 
 than it can be by it. But we are only a voice. Left to 
 ourselves, none mightier to look to and depend on, none 
 to speak to the rebellious and disobedient, the wordly, 
 and the proud, and the dead in sin "as never man 
 spake," our ministry would be as fruitless as the voice 
 on the wind that dies away. 
 
 But we are not left to ourselves. The whole work of 
 the ministry is not committed to such earthen vessels, 
 The treasure of Gospel truth is in such feeble hands as 
 ours, that all may see that the excellency of the power is 
 of God and not of us. We do the under-work. There is 
 
92 SERMON IV. 
 
 a teacher and minister of whom it is written that he hath 
 " the tongue of the learned to speak a word in season to 
 him that is weary/' and^concerning whom it was testified 
 of old, that he spake " as one having authority, and not 
 as the scribes." His word commanded the sea and it obey- 
 ed ; he bade the dead arise, and they stood up ; and he is 
 now, and always, the great officiating minister of his 
 Church "having authority" over the consciences and 
 hearts of men, and not suffering his word to return unto 
 him void. We plant the seed and water it : He gives the 
 life, and growth, and fruit. We call upon sinners to work 
 out their salvation with fear and trembling: He works in 
 them to will and to do according to his good pleasure; 
 we the instruments merely, Christ all the power and 
 his all the glory. 
 
 This vast difference, between the visible minister in the 
 sanctuary here, and the invisible minister in the sanctuary 
 on high, the Church of Corinth, even in the days of St. 
 Paul, had in a great degree forgotten; so prone is man to 
 glory in man, and so early began in the Church that great 
 sin, which afterwards grew to such enormity, and now 
 reigns so widely and ruinously in a large part of nominal 
 Christendom, the virtual substitution of the ministering 
 of man for that of the Lord of all ; so that the people, 
 instead of looking unto Jesus, look to the so-called priest, 
 and put their trust in him, and in the sacraments of God's 
 appointing, or of man's making, which he gives them. 
 And Paul taught us how to rebuke that sin. Hear his 
 indignant words: "Who is Paul, and who is A polios, but 
 ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to 
 every man ? I have planted, Apollos watered, but God 
 
THE PERSONAL MINISTRY OF CHRIST, 93 
 
 gave the increase. So then, neither is he that planteth 
 any thing, nor he that watereth, but God that giveth the 
 
 increase."* 
 
 Not only is this view of great importance to minister 
 and people, to keep their dependence where it ought to 
 be, but it is of great consolation to both. 
 
 What should we do to sustain our hearts in so great a 
 work as that committed to us, having nothing stronger 
 than the simple word as our means of producing in the 
 hearts of men the obedience of Christ; feeling that "nei- 
 ther is he that planteth any thing, nor he that watereth," 
 what should we do, were it not for the assurance that 
 " God giveth the increase" ? that we are not alone in the 
 work that there is a minister to give the growth and 
 fruit, as well as we feeble ones to plant the seed; that 
 not only must HE give it, if it be given at all, but he doth 
 give it; that all the conversions and all the growth of 
 grace in any heart, since the Gospel was preached, are the 
 abundant evidence that to the faithful planting and water- 
 ing of his word, he will give increase. That seed may 
 have its winter, when it will seem only to wither and die, 
 and we may need "long patience" to wait for it, and the 
 fruit may never come for us to see in this life; for what 
 are we in the matter; but it will be given, and be gath- 
 ered into the Lord's garner, to the praise of the riches of 
 his grace. 
 
 And let all that hear the word of his grace take comfort 
 likewise. The same words that forbid all trust in man, 
 encourage all faith in Christ. When you realize how 
 great is the work to be wrought in your hearts to make 
 
 * 1 Cor. iii. 57. 
 
94 SERMON IV. 
 
 you superior to the world and meet for God's kingdom, 
 where would be your hope, had you no ministry to look 
 to for help, but that of men of like passions and infirmities 
 with yourselves? But when you learn to look on all our 
 work as only the voice of the word, directing you above 
 and away from ourselves, and from all trust in the crea- 
 ture and in ordinances, to Christ, the great power of God, 
 who is "made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and 
 sanctification, and redemption ;" when in the very weak- 
 ness of the ministry that can only baptize with water, 
 you learn to look, while you wait on that ministry, the 
 more to him who doth and will baptize every seeking 
 soul with the Holy Ghost, and who will continue that bap- 
 tism until he hath perfectly cleansed you from all unright- 
 eousness and set you at his own right hand; then will 
 your hope abound and your hearts rejoice, and you will 
 glory in the preciousness of Christ, your strength and 
 your Redeemer. 
 
 But there is a part of our text to which I have not yet 
 directed your attention. 
 
 John testified further concerning Christ, in these words 
 "whose fan is in his hand, and he ^vitt thoroughly purge 
 his floor, and gather the wheat into his garner, but the chaff 
 he willlurn with fire unquenchable." 
 
 II. This leads us to speak, in the second place, of the 
 essential difference between the work of Christ, as the 
 minister of his Church, and all our ministry, in point of 
 
 DISCIPLINARY POWER. 
 
 A part of our office is the exercise of government and 
 discipline in the visible Church. Besides the work of re- 
 proving, and exhorting, and instructing, by the word, for 
 
THE PERSONAL MINISTRY OF CHRIST. 95 
 
 the increase in grace of all the members of the Church, 
 it is part of our office to separate from its communion, as 
 far as it can be safely done, by ministers who cannot 
 search the heart, all such as are unworthy to continue 
 therein. 
 
 But when we say that such discipline is to be exercised 
 by ministers tvho cannot search the heart, you see at once 
 how contracted is the field of their work in this respect, 
 and how limited the power of their office. Innumerable 
 are the avenues and the disguises by which the self-de- 
 ceived and the deceiver may elude the vigilance of such 
 watchmen, and not only enter, but remain in, the com 
 munion of the visible Church, to its exceeding injury and 
 dishonor. Hence it is that while the true, the invisible 
 Church, as God's own "household of faith," unto which 
 his promises are exclusively made, cannot have in it any 
 but his true people; because a living union by faith to 
 Christ is the very essence of membership in that Church, 
 and because he who does search the heart, and cannot be 
 deceived, keeps the door; the visible or professing Church, 
 on the other hand, the Church as it is seen of men, under 
 the boundaries and marks of outward ordinances, is rep- 
 resented in the scriptures, just as all must see it to be, 
 exceedingly mixed the genuine people of God united 
 every where, under the same sacraments, with those who 
 are only nominally his people. It is the true Vine with 
 its many branches ; some united to it by a junction of 
 life; others only by the bonds of outward ordinance; some 
 living and fruitful, others dead.* It is the great draw-net 
 cast in to the sea, gathering of every kind, the good and 
 
 * John xv. 1, 2. 
 
96 SERMON IV. 
 
 the bad, and keeping the mixed multitude within its 
 meshes, until it is brought to shore, and they "gather the 
 good into vessels, and cast the bad away."* It is the 
 great harvest-field, in which the tares have grown up with 
 the wheat, all surrounded by the same enclosure, all seem- 
 ing to the distant eye to belong to the same sowing, but 
 really of entirely distinct natures, and coming from entire- 
 ly different seed, from seed sown by different hands, and 
 for opposite ends. It is that field permitted to go on thus 
 confused and defiled, because the servants of the hus- 
 bandman cannot be trusted with the separation; "lest 
 while they gather up the tares," unable to distinguish with 
 accuracy, "they root up also the wheat with them."f 
 
 We do not mean that the visible Church is not a great 
 deal more mixed and defiled with the unholy and the 
 spiritually dead, than it would have been, had there been 
 every where and always a more faithful ministry of the 
 word and of such discipline as is committed to man. 
 But we mean that under the best ministry of which hu- 
 man wisdom and faithfulness are capable, the state of the 
 visible Church, under the power of Satan and our deceit- 
 ful hearts, would have perfectly fulfilled those inspired 
 representations of its mixed and lamentable aspect. It 
 is the Holy Catholic Church, because its true members 
 are holy as the true wheat is good, no matter what it 
 be mixed with ; and because the unholy are not its mem- 
 bers, however seeming to be, as the tares are not of the 
 harvest, though enclosed within its landmarks. 
 
 But is there no remedy for this sad confusion? Be- 
 cause our ministry cannot make the separation, is there 
 
 * Matt. xiii. 47. t Matt. xiii. 
 
THE PERSONAL MINISTRY OF CHRIST. 97 
 
 none that will? Is the Lord's hand shortened that he 
 cannot purify his Church ? As Lord of the Temple, will 
 he not drive out all that profane it, as of old he cleansed 
 his Father's house in Jerusalem? As the Bridegroom 
 who hath espoused the Church as his Bride, is there not a 
 day coming when he will present it unto himself, a pure 
 virgin, without spot and blameless? Whatman cannot do, 
 because he hath power neither to discern between the 
 true and the false, nor to separate them to their own 
 places, he who hath all power in heaven and earth will 
 do in the last day. He " will send forth his angels to 
 gather out of his kingdom all things that offend,.and them 
 which do iniquity, and he will cast them into a furnace of 
 fire; where shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth." 
 "Then shall ye discern between the righteous and the 
 wicked, between him that serve ih God, and him that 
 serveth him not." "Then shall the righteous," the 
 Church universal, in its true being and character, as a 
 living, holy, peculiar people, without spot and without 
 mixture, "shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their 
 Father," as the sun when all the vapors that had con- 
 cealed its light have been driven away by some rushing 
 wind. W 
 
 In that day, will all the present ministry of man be 
 ended, as that of John the Baptist ceased when the Lord 
 had come. "He must increase, but we must decrease. 
 He that cometh from heaven is above all." Heralds' work 
 is done when the King appears. "The Lord is in his 
 holy Temple." We that were sent before him "to make 
 ready his way," are wanted no more, as ministers of his 
 word. We come down, therefore, from our pulpits, to give 
 7 
 
98 SERMON IV. 
 
 account of our stewardship. We must take our places in 
 the great congregation, with all the quick and the dead, 
 when the trump of the archangel hath called to judg- 
 ment, having no distinction from our office as ministers 
 of the Gospel but the greater responsibility, and like all 
 the rest of men, to be driven away as stubble, if not in 
 Christ, "But who may abide the day of his coming, and 
 who shall stand when he appeareth ?" Then shall the whole 
 multitude of the professed servants of God, all marked 
 alike by outward enclosure of ordinances the Church 
 of sacramental signs, in which the Church of spiritual 
 grace appears as the wheat of the harvest, while yet mix- 
 ed with the chaff on the threshing floor, then shall they 
 be separated one from another. The time of the winnow- 
 ing comes. The Lord is now ready and furnished for that 
 work. His "fan is in his hand" Ah 1 is ready, waiting 
 only the fullness of time. The delay will not be long. 
 "He ivill thoroughly purge his floor" How awful that dis- 
 crimination, as one shall be taken of the baptized and an- 
 other left one taken of two that $like called themselves 
 Christians, and were of the same visible communion, and 
 the other left. How differently the line of separation will 
 be made from any anticipation we now can make.^t How 
 it will cross all the bounds of what we call denominations, 
 and overlook all the distinctions^ visible Churches, and 
 place on the right many that feared they were not of the 
 Lord's people, and on the left many more that feared not 
 but were confident they were his ! Ah, what self-delu- 
 sions, what dreams of self-righteousness, what presump- 
 tions of dead and fruitless faith, what hopes carelessly 
 encouraged, never examined, will then flee away! what 
 
THE PERSONAL MINISTRY OF CHRIST. 99 
 
 terrible disappointments will take their place ! We are 
 already warned by the Lord, that "many shall seek to enter 
 and shall not be able." That day will show those many, as 
 it will also show "a multitude that no man can number," 
 that "have washed their robes and made them white in 
 the blood of the Lamb/' and who are "therefore before 
 the throne of God and the Lamb." Then shall be heard 
 that cry of disappointed expectation, "Lord, Lord, open 
 unto us!" and that answer from him that sitteth on the 
 throne, "I know you not;" and then the plea of beginning 
 anguish, "Have we not eaten and drunk in thy presence?" 
 Were we not communicants at thy table ? Did we not 
 come to thy solemn feasts ? Were we not called by thy 
 name and numbered with thy Church ? And then the 
 final answer, the seal of exclusion and condemnation for- 
 ever, " I never knew you depart from me." Ye were 
 never mine. Ye were among my people, but never of 
 them. Ye took my name : ye never received my Spirit. 
 Most perfect will be the purification of the Temple in 
 that day ; not only as it embraces the whole Church, so 
 that none shall be left in its visible fellowship but God's 
 true people ; but the temple in the heart of each true 
 child of God "the habitation of God through the Spirit." 
 In that work the Lord " will sit as a refiner and purifier of 
 silver, and he shall purify the sons of Levi, (his own royal 
 priesthood of all believers,) and purge them as gold and 
 silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in 
 righteousness" a pure offering, without spot or blemish, 
 forever and ever. All their dross will be purged away. 
 Every remnant of a corrupt nature will be consumed. 
 The image of God in them will appear as untarnished, and 
 
100 SERMON IV. 
 
 bright, and complete, as if sin had never defaced it. " They 
 shall be mine, saith the Lord, in that day when I make up 
 my jewels." 
 
 We return to the language of John the Baptist, descri- 
 bing the doings of that day of separation, of excommuni- 
 cation, and of ingathering: " He shall gather the wheat into 
 his garner" All will be joyfully harvested home ; not a 
 grain left behind ; not a grain but shall be regarded as 
 worth being laid up in the garner; all his true people 
 perfectly known, each called by name, each recorded 
 in the book of life, each treasured up and put away as 
 crown jewels of his kingdom, for which a price far more 
 precious than of gold that perisheth, has been paid by 
 the Great King. 
 
 For that great ingathering, the Lord hath gone to pre- 
 pare the many mansions in the Father's house. It will 
 require the " many" for it will be a great harvest. 
 
 " But the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable." 
 "Behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven." 
 But let it be well observed here that the whole reference 
 of John the Baptist, in the figure of the wheat and the 
 chaff, and of our Lord, in the corresponding figure of the 
 wheat and the tares, is to the visible Church ; not to the 
 whole race of man, including the Church, but to the 
 Church, exclusive of all the rest of mankind. The judg- 
 ment, indeed, will embrace all the quick and dead ; but 
 here its application to the visible Church alone is in view. 
 It is a solemn thought indeed, that some of the most im- 
 pressive accounts of the searchings of the judgment, and 
 the separations it will make, and the condemnations that 
 will ensue, are accounts of the Lord's sitting in judgment 
 
THE PERSONAL MINISTRY OF CHRIST. 101 
 
 on his visible Church, on his professing people, those to 
 whom his ministers have given the baptism of water in his 
 name, and who have belonged to the visible communion 
 of his children. The chaff and the grain on the threshing 
 floor, the tares and the wheat in the harvest field, like 
 the wise and the foolish virgins when the bridegroom com- 
 eth, are the whole baptized Church, the whole company 
 of professing Christians. But the chaff was never the 
 grain, however intimately associated with it. Tares never 
 were wheat, however near to it they grew ; however like 
 it they may have seemed ; however enclosed with it in the 
 same hedge. Visibly, they belong to the same harvest, 
 because in the same field. Really, they are wholly unlike 
 in nature. They came from different seed. The servants 
 of the husbandman sowed the one; an enemy the other. 
 What a testimony is here to what the Lord will find in his 
 visible Church when he cometh not only Christians of 
 various degrees of holiness and growth, but Christians 
 and those that never were Christians but in name and 
 form; all baptized of water, but not all born again of the 
 Holy Ghost; the old nature in many remaining unchanged 
 and as essentially different from that of God's people, as 
 weeds from wheat ; as chaff that is fit only to be burned, 
 from the good grain that is precious for the garner. 
 
 Brethren, where shall we be found in that day? How 
 infinitely important is an honest judgment of ourselves 
 now by the light of the word, lest we then be judged of 
 the Lord to our everlasting confusion ! Without that, 
 how easily may we call ourselves Christians, go to the 
 Christian communion, and go to the grave expecting the 
 Christian's inheritance, and then, when the seal is set to 
 
102 SERMON IV. 
 
 our portion, find out to our unspeakable dismay, that the 
 Lord never knew us as his people. There is no danger 
 of such delusion where there is the fear of it, and the dil- 
 igent and prayerful effort by the grace of God to escape it. 
 But oh ! that baptism of the Holy Ghost, without which 
 none can see the Lord ; that indwelling spirit of life, and 
 love, and holiness; that daily growth toward the perfect 
 mind of Christ ; let us most earnestly seek it as our mis- 
 sion every day, our work for all of life, as much our con- 
 stant calling in this world, as it is the work of the morning 
 light to increase hour by hour unto the perfect day. Our 
 earnest aspiring of the heart to be holy, will be the best 
 evidence that we are holy. Oar earnest seeking for a 
 more complete baptism of the Spirit, will be the witness 
 of the Spirit to a true baptism already attained, and the 
 pledge of more. That growing in grace, towards the per- 
 fect day of grace, will be your evidence that the day has 
 begun, that ye are children of light, and will be partakers 
 of the inheritance of the saints in light. Lord Jesus, send 
 thy Spirit! Blessed Spirit of Christ, come down upon 
 our hearts ! More and more, day by day, baptize us, wash 
 us, make us more holy, till the work of grace be finished 
 in everlasting glory ! Amen. 
 
SERMON Y. 
 
 THE PRESENCE OF CHRIST IN THE ASSEMBLIES OF HIS PEOPLE. 
 
 MATTHEW xviii. 20. 
 
 "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the 
 midst of them." 
 
 THE presence of the Great and Good Shepherd wherever 
 his people, however scattered, may be how comforting 
 the assurance of it ! In the valley and shadow of death 
 to be able to say "thou art with me" lights up the whole 
 way and takes from the dying believer, all his fear. 
 When the twelve Apostles had received their commission 
 to carry the message of the Gospel to all people, and to 
 assault, with the single weapon of the truth, the strong 
 holds of Satan, in all the world 5 and when they looked 
 at their utter impotence for such a work twelve despised, 
 persecuted, unlearned Jews, servants of a crucified master, 
 to attack the entrenched philosophies, and superstitions, 
 and ungodliness of all mankind, and that in direct con- 
 flict with all the power of rulers, all the resistance of 
 priesthood, all the learning of the schools oh! what a 
 comfort it must have been to hear, immediately in con- 
 nection with their commission, those assuring words of 
 their Omnipotent Master, "Zo, / am with you alivays" 
 Now, precisely what that precious promise was to the 
 twelve Apostles, and has been to all the generations of 
 
104 SERMON V. 
 
 the Christian ministry, the promise in the text was given 
 to be to the whole membership of Christ's true Church, 
 to every gathering together of his people, in his name, to 
 the end of the world. Let us study a promise so express 
 and so dear. 
 
 The text contains these two prominent heads of dis- 
 course : A promise, and a certain assemblage of persons to 
 whom that promise is made, We will first consider the 
 peculiar description given of that assemblage, and then 
 the contents of that promise. 
 
 1, What is the peculiarity of the assemblage ? "Where 
 two or three are gathered together in my name." Such 
 is its brief description. The peculiarity is found in these 
 words, " in my name" the name of Christ. What, then, 
 are we to understand by this essential condition of the 
 promise ? 
 
 The original word here translated, in, may more properly 
 be rendered, unto, making the passage read "gathered 
 together unto my name." The same original expression 
 occurs in the appointed form of baptism, where "baptizing 
 them in the name of the Father," &c., should be read, 
 "^baptizing them unto, or into, the name," &c. Whether 
 we read the text one way or the other, makes no difference 
 in the doctrinal teaching contained therein, for both read- 
 ings come to the same thing in substance. But I think 
 we get at the fullness of the meaning of our Lord, and 
 are enabled to read the text in its proper relative bearing 
 and to understand the allusion contained in it to the 
 name of the Lord, as connected with the temple worship 
 of the Jewish dispensation, by taking it as unto, instead 
 of in my name. We shall therefore read the text as if it 
 
CHRIST PRESENT IN ASSEMBLIES OF HIS PEOPLE. 
 
 105 
 
 were written, " where two or three are gathered together 
 unto my name, there am I in the midst of them." 
 
 You can hardly have avoided being struck with the 
 very peculiar sense in which this expression "my name" 
 and its equivalents, the name of the Lord" "the name of 
 Jesus" &c., are used in the scriptures. For example, 
 where the prophet, speaking of Him who was to be born 
 of a virgin, says: "His name shall be called Wonderful, 
 Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of 
 Peace." Do we find our Lord actually called by these 
 names in the New Testament scriptures? By the name 
 of God and "the Great God" he is called* in the New 
 Testament; but neither in the New Testament nor in the 
 usage of the Church do we find the title "Wonderful," 
 or "Counsellor," or "Everlasting Father," applied as a 
 name of Christ. 
 
 Again, in the words of the prophet, concerning the 
 same divine person: "His name shall be called Immamiel, 
 which being interpreted (says the Evangelist Matthew) 
 is, God with us." But when the child of Mary came to 
 be named, he was called Jesus, and this by divine direc- 
 tion ; and nowhere in the New Testament writings is he 
 called Immanuel. And yet we do not perceive that any 
 were at a loss to account for this, or that it was ever 
 objected against the claims of Christ by unbelieving Jews, 
 as if because he was not actually called Immanuel, or 
 Wonderful, or Counsellor, or Everlasting Father, &c., 
 therefore the prophecies were not fulfilled in him. The 
 reason is, that there was a peculiar use of such languag e 
 which the Hebrews were accustomed to, and perfectly 
 
 * Titus ii. 13; Rom. ix. 5; 2 Pet. i. 1; Rev, xxi. 5-7. 
 
106 SERMON V. 
 
 understood, however different from our usage. You get 
 a nearer view of it in this passage : " From the rising of 
 the sun unto the going down of the same, my name shall 
 be great among the Gentiles, and in every place incense 
 shall be offered unto my name"'' And again, where it is 
 written of Christ that God "hath given him a name 
 which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, 
 every knee should bow," &c.| 
 
 But is it to a name only that every knee is to bow, and 
 that incense is everywhere to be offered. No, you an- 
 swer. It is to the Being whose name it is. The name is 
 evidently used there as an expression for Christ himself, 
 as the great object of universal adoration. Thus, bap- 
 tized unto the name of the Father, and the Son, and the 
 Holy Ghost, is being baptized, consecrated, unto the 
 Father, and the Son, and Holy Ghost. So, "let every one 
 that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity," 
 means every one that professes Christ himself, as his 
 Master and Saviour. And thus, "His name shall be 
 called Immanuel," means, he shall le " Immanuel, God 
 with us:" and again, "His name shall be called Wonder- 
 ful," &c meant, he should le among men, really the 
 "Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God;" and whether he 
 has ever been literally called by either of those names 
 has no connection with the fulfilment of those prophecies 
 in him. Thus we reach the text. "Where two or three 
 are gathered together unto my name" means, gathered 
 together unto me unto me, with reference to all that I 
 am towards sinners, to seek me as the object of their 
 worship, as their trust and hope. 
 
 *Mal.i.ll. tPhiLii. 9, 10. 
 
CHRIST PRESENT IN ASEMBLIES OF HIS PEOPLE. 107 
 
 But why, it may be asked, should our Lord employ 
 this circuitous expression ? Why not say, gathered unto 
 me, instead of unto my name? We think that, besides its 
 conformity to a mode of speech which the Jews were 
 accustomed to, especially in the Old Testament writings, 
 there was an important reference to the promise of God's 
 presence in the assemblies of his people, under the pre- 
 vious dispensation. 
 
 You will remember the promise to the Jewish Church, 
 which bore the same relation to that national and limited 
 dispensation, that this in our text bears to the Christian 
 and universal. It was given to that Church in these 
 words: " In all places w/^r<? I record my name, I ivill come 
 unto thee and I will bless thee."* Now, I need not tell 
 you that after the temple of Solomon was built, that was 
 the place and the only place that answered this description, 
 a place where God had recorded his name in other words, 
 where God especially manifested his presence among his 
 people Israel. Accordingly, when Solomon consecrated 
 that sanctuary, he said : " I have built a house for the 
 name of the Lord God of Israel ;" and in his consecra- 
 ting prayer, he called that house "the place of which God 
 had said, 'My name shall be there.' " : There was the altar 
 of the burnt-offering of Israel, and nowhere else. It 
 was not lawful to offer sacrifice but at that altar. There 
 only was the mercy-seat, and the covenant, and the she- 
 kinah of glory. When the tribes went up to worship there, 
 they were said to go up unto the name of the Lord. If 
 they assembled anywhere else than around that one 
 
 *Ex. xx. 24. 
 
108 SEKMON V. 
 
 altar, they were not gathered unto that name, for nowhere 
 else had God appointed to meet and bless them. 
 
 Now, we think it was with reference to all this that our 
 Lord employed the peculiar language of the text : " Where 
 two or three are gathered together unto my name, there 
 am I in the midst of them. It was to draw a most 
 important contrast between the restrictive character of 
 the dispensation of the law, and the free, the universal 
 adaptation of the dispensation of the Gospel. Under the 
 former, God's name was but in one place. His promise 
 of special presence and blessing, was only to those whose 
 sacrifices were offered there. Under the latter, the name, 
 the grace, the fullness, of the blessing of Christ, the head 
 of the Church, are present and ready, wherever the needy 
 meet together unto him, to seek his face. Any house, 
 any place in which such a congregation meets, is the house 
 where God's name, Imrnanuel, God with us, is placed. 
 It abides there as long as that congregation is there. 
 
 We have thus ascertained the sense of the peculiar 
 language of the text. Let us now contemplate a little 
 further the peculiarity of the assemblage described. They 
 are evidently gathered together for prayer. This is 
 manifest from the preceding verse. "If any of you shall 
 agree on earth, as touching anything that they shall ask, 
 it shall be done for them of my Father which is in 
 Heaven." Then follows the assurance of Christ's pres- 
 ence with two or three, showing that they are supposed to 
 be gathered together to ask something, to pray. They 
 are gathered unto the name of Christ. They bring their 
 sacrifices of prayer and thanksgiving unto Christ, as 
 the Jews brought their offerings unto the name of the 
 
CHRIST PRESENT IN ASSEMBLIES OF HIS PEOPLE. 109 
 
 Lord, in the temple at Jerusalem. To come unto the 
 name of Christ, is to come unto him in all those aspects, 
 attributes and offices in which he is revealed to us under 
 the several names applied to him in the scriptures. Is 
 his name " Immanuel God with us?" We must gather 
 together unto him as the true God, essentially and perfectly 
 divine God with us, God manifest in the flesh, dwelling 
 among us, because incarnate in our nature. Is his name 
 " Jesus" because "he shall save his people from their sins ? " 
 Then we gather unto him as our Saviour, our refuge and 
 only hope, as the Mediator between God and man, through 
 whom alone we can obtain remission of our sins and eter- 
 nal life. Is it written, " This is the name by which he 
 shall be called, 'the Lord, our righteousness?' 1 Then 
 we must be gathered unto him as our righteousness, all 
 our righteousness, and a most perfect and sufficient right- 
 eousness for the justification of all that come, because he 
 is Jehovah, as well as our righteousness, whose perfect 
 obedience to the law, and suffering its penalty as man, for 
 us, is rendered infinitely meritorious for our complete justi- 
 fication. Is he represented as the Prophet of his Church, to 
 enlighten it; the Priest of his Church, to atone for and sanc- 
 tify and bless it; the King of his Church, to rule over and 
 in the hearts of his people and to make them the partakers 
 of his kingdom forever? Then the congregation described 
 in the text, is gathered unto him, as unto one who fulfils 
 towards them the three offices expressed in those three 
 names they come to him for the blessings which those 
 names promise. They pray unto him as the true God. 
 They pray through him as the true and only Mediator. 
 They trust in him as their only Righteousness. He is 
 
110 SERMON V. 
 
 their altar, their atoning sacrifice, their incense, their only 
 interceding priest, the holy temple in which God has 
 placed his name, in which he manifests his glory, and in 
 which sinners are brought nigh unto him, by the blood 
 of Jesus. Thus, as the worshippers in Israel came on the 
 great feast-days, from all parts of the earth, whither their 
 dispersions had carried them, to the one holy temple at 
 Jerusalem, all concentrating at that one point, all gather- 
 ing unto that one altar, and sacrifice, and priesthood, and 
 mercy-seat ; all delighted to meet where God had placed 
 his name, so are all true Christians, of all regions and all 
 ages, united and centered in Christ. And just as the 
 temple in Jerusalem, in all its magnificence and glory, 
 stood forth upon the holy hill of Zion so pre-eminent, 
 so conspicuous, that the eye rested everywhere on that 
 one commanding, engrossing object, so, in the hearts of 
 those who truly gather themselves together, no matter 
 from what corner of the earth, unto Christ, he is the 
 glorious vision, the tower of strength, the citadel of hope, 
 the mansion of grace, the brightness and fullness of the 
 Godhead, that fixes every eye, delights every affection, 
 engrosses every prayer, and concentrates upon himself 
 the thankful trust of all believers. The whole true 
 Church is always gathered together in spirit there, whether 
 it be on earth or in heaven. Thus, it is a true and living 
 Church. Thus, it is essentially one. Gather it in spirit, 
 in heart, in trust, in love, in praise, anywhere but just 
 there, unto that name, and its whole spiritual being is 
 gone. It is no more a living Church of Christ. It may 
 keep all the forms, and sacraments, and ministry, but it 
 cannot be a living Church of Christ. Unto that one altar, 
 
CHRIST PRESENT IN ASSEMBLIES OF HIS PEOPLE. Ill 
 
 Christ; unto that one sacrifice, Christ; unto that one 
 Priest to make intercession ; unto that one temple of the 
 Godhead, Christ, must the Church be gathered, and there 
 alone must be its hope, or a Church it is but in name and 
 visible form, exactly as the individual man, whose heart 
 and hope are not centered there, can be a Christian but 
 in name and form. 
 
 Thus, we have seen all the peculiarity of the assembly 
 to which the promise of Christ's presence is given. And 
 before we leave this part of our subject, I beg you will 
 observe two things: 
 
 First, that whether the number gathered together be 
 great or small, affects not the application of the promise ; 
 the presence of Christ is there. The specification in the 
 text is reduced to the fewest members of which a meeting 
 of praying people can consist two or three. Thousands 
 may pomvout their hearts together, or a very little flock 
 of Christ's people may be found to seek him in prayer 
 and praise, while all around them is ungodliness and spir- 
 itual death; but like the light of God that shone in the 
 dwelling of the Israelite in Egypt, on whose door-post 
 was sprinkled the blood of the paschal lamb, while on all 
 the land lay the deepest darkness, so is the Saviour in 
 the midst of that little flock, and manifesting himself as 
 "Immanuel, God with us" "full of grace and truth," the 
 light of life. 
 
 Observe, again, that the place where the gather- 
 ing together unto Christ occurs, has no connection 
 with the promised presence. Place, as we have seen al- 
 ready, was once most materially connected with the pro- 
 mise of the presence of God in the assemblies of his 
 
112 SERMON V. 
 
 people. As one nation was chosen out of all nations to 
 be his people, and one tribe out of all their tribes to offi- 
 ciate in his worship, and one family of that tribe to be 
 exclusively the priests, so was one land selected to be the 
 holy land, and one city to be the holy city, and one house 
 to be God's holy temple, and one chamber of that house 
 to be holy above all others, because it was there his name 
 was specially recorded, and there was the special sign of 
 his presence in the visible glory above the mercy-seat. 
 
 In all this, there was reason then. But it is all passed 
 away. The veil rent in twain from top to bottom, when 
 Jesus, our only mediating priest, had finished the only 
 sacrifice that can take away sin; the inner sanctuary 
 of the temple, the holy of holies, thus thrown [open to 
 universal view; that was the sign from heaven, that in 
 all such respects, old things were now to pass away and 
 all to become new. The holy nation, the peculiar people, 
 is now the universal Church, embracing the ends of the 
 earth, "the blessed company of all believers" Its holy 
 priesthood, under Christ, is none other than that same 
 " blessed company of all believers." " Ye, (saith St. Peter, 
 addressing all of them,) are a holy priesthood, to offer 
 up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God, by Jesus Christ." 5 * 
 Thtir sacrifices are themselves' their bodies and spirits 
 in love, in faith, in prayer, in thankfulness, in praise, in 
 obedience. The great priest of our profession, by whom 
 every one of that universal priesthood of worshipping 
 believers, presents himself acceptable unto God, is he, 
 who having first presented himself a propitiatory sacrifice 
 for our sins, now " ever liveth to make intercession for all 
 that come unto God by him." Restriction of place has 
 
 *1 Peter, ii. 5. 
 
CHRIST PRESENT IN ASSEMBLIES OF HIS PEOPLE. 113 
 
 vanished with that whole peculiar system of which it was 
 a part. The name of the Lord God is not now recorded 
 in one spot of earth more than another; but is recorded, 
 as no where else in earth or heaven it can be, in him of 
 whom it is written, "His name shall be called Immanuel, 
 which being interpreted is, God with us." That name 
 indicates the true temple of our worship, the true and 
 only sanctuary of our hopes. In Christ, our Lord, 
 "dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead, ~bodily" In the 
 typical temple at Jerusalem, it dwelled only in sym- 
 bol of wondrous light. In the real temple, our blessed 
 Lord, it dwells in all the reality of its unsearchable glory, 
 by a personal union of the divine nature with the human. 
 In him is the only sacrifice for sin. In him is the true 
 mercy-seat and the ever-living and prevailing intercession. 
 To that glorious temple all the ends of the earth are com- 
 manded to look, and all places on earth are equally near. 
 Where, then, under the whole dome of the sky, is that 
 little company' those two or three gathered to worship 
 Jesus, to trust in him, to love him, to approach the 
 Father by him, as Jehovah their Righteousness, Jehovah 
 their King ? Where are they ? Is it that little band in the 
 upper chamber on the day of Pentecost? is it Paul and 
 Silas in the dungeon of Philippi ? is it the humble gather- 
 ing of a few persecuted ones, taking refuge in the dens 
 and caves of the earth, hunted by the terrors of Pagan 
 Home, or by the fiercer, more unsparing persecutions of 
 Papal Rome? is it the retired worship of some of you, 
 my brethren, praying, one with another, in one of your 
 own dwelling places; or the simple Christian household 
 
 gathered for its daily family worship, with Bible in hand. 
 8 
 
114 SERMON V. 
 
 and looking unto Jesus? is it the two or three cast upon 
 a desert shore, or alone in some Sodom of ungodliness, or 
 afar off on the outskirts of our wide-spread population; 
 the forest their church, the sky their shelter; no minister 
 to preach to them, no ordained hands to give them the 
 sacrament? still, let them be only gathered together unto 
 the name of Christ there Christ is, as head of his 
 Church, in all the riches of his grace and fullness of his 
 promises, in their midst, to hear them, to bless them, as 
 richly, as directly, as if the place were the consecrated 
 Church, in all the sanctity and grandeur of the temple 
 of Jerusalem, in its original glory. 
 
 That place, we said, may be without the presence of a 
 minister of the Gospel. Still, if the two or three be 
 gathered there unto the name, unto the mediation of 
 Christ, the promise of his presence is theirs. There are 
 reasons enough to show the value of an ordained ministry 
 to the spiritual interests of the Church, without making 
 the nearness of access between Christ and his people, in 
 the least dependent on that agency. In coming to God, 
 through Christ, there is no difference between one sinner 
 and another, one believer and another, the least of the 
 laity and the highest of the ministry. The mercy-seat, 
 the blood of Jesus, the peace of God, are most freely 
 accessible to all alike. A contrite heart and a living faith 
 are equally demanded of all and equally qualify all. 
 
 That place, we said, may be without the presence of 
 the sacrament of the Saviour's body and blood. The 
 promise of the Saviour's presence is not dependent on the 
 actual reception, under all circumstances, of that most 
 precious sign and pledge of his presence with his people. 
 
CHRIST PRESENT IN ASSEMBLIES OF HIS PEOPLE. 115 
 
 There are reasons enough for us to love it and wait on it, 
 as a precious means of grace to the penitent and believing 
 communicant, without placing it in any such essential 
 relation. The same faith that obtains the presence of 
 Christ among his people assembled at his visible table, 
 obtains it also, when, without the visible table and sacra- 
 mental signs, they are gathered unto that true and living 
 bread which they signify. 
 
 We say the same of the consecrated Church. A more 
 unwarranted, unevangelical idea cannot be entertained, 
 than that because we consecrate our houses of worship, 
 it is the teaching of our Church that prayer is more 
 acceptable to God in such places than any where else ; 
 that the praying soul is any nearer the throne of grace 
 kneeling within such walls, than when kneeling in the 
 cottage or the forest ; that the two or three are any more 
 certain of the presence of Christ in that place, than if 
 they were gathered together on the desert mountain, or 
 in some cave of the earth; or that any part of a conse- 
 crated Church, as the chancel, the part about the com- 
 munion table, is any more holy, or any nearer to Christ, or 
 spiritually privileged, than any other part 
 
 It was to avoid the Romish superstition that the place 
 where the table stands and the Lord's supper is adminis- 
 tered, is more holy, and more privileged, and nearer to 
 God, than where the Gospel is preached and the people 
 pray and praise, (a superstition quite in keeping with the 
 Judaism of the Romish, and equally repugnant to the 
 Catholic spirituality of the true Gospel faith,) that it 
 was directed by the reformers of our mother Church, that 
 the sacramental table, instead of a fixed, stone, altar- 
 
116 SERMON V. 
 
 shaped structure, as it had been under the Romish sway, 
 should be a table of wood, and movable, easily taken 
 from place to place, as the convenience of the congrega- 
 tion should require.* And, in particular denial that the 
 consecrated building renders prayer therein any more 
 acceptable or effectual, our Homilies declare that "the 
 chief and special temples of God, wherein he hath the 
 greatest pleasure and most delighteth to dwell, are the 
 bodies and minds of true Christians;"! "that the Church 
 or temple is counted and called holy, not of itself, but 
 because God's people resorting thereunto are holy, and 
 exercise themselves in holy and heavenly things ; "J so 
 that the house is holy because of the prayer of the people 
 in it; and not the prayers acceptable in any degree 
 because of the house. And again, our Homilies say, that 
 " the Apostles and holy fathers knew that their prayers 
 were heard in what place soever they made them, though 
 it were in caves, in woods and in deserts ;" and "they 
 that worship God the Father, in spirit and in truth, in 
 whatsoever place they do it, worship him aright." || 
 
 We must be careful to keep clear in our minds, the 
 broad distinction between the faith of a worshipping people 
 and all those privileges and means of grace which are 
 
 * Our Rubric, before the communion office, directs that the communion 
 table shall stand " in the body of the church or in the chancel." Custom places 
 it in the chancel. But what if it should be placed in the midst of the pews, 
 in the body of the church, without rails around it, unfenced ; how would it 
 shock the reverence of some, especially of those who ascribe a very special 
 holiness, not only to the table, but to the par Is around it ! And yet it would 
 be placed just as consistently with the written order of the Church as if it 
 were in the chancel. 
 
 f Horn Of Time and Place of Prayer. \ Horn. For Repairing the Church 
 Horn. On the Place and Tinae of Prayer. || Horn. Of the Right Use of the 
 Church. 
 
CHRIST PRESENT IN ASSEMBLIES OF HIS PEOPLE. 117 
 
 appointed for the help of that faith. The two or three 
 gathered unto Christ on some desert shore, and the hun- 
 dreds assembled in the consecrated sanctuary, with the 
 Gospel preached and sacraments ministered, certainly differ 
 to a very important extent, in those things which are 
 appointed as outward helps of faith and means of grace. 
 But if you only suppose the faith in the hearts of the 
 little band in the desert, with no outward means but their 
 united prayers, to be as genuine as the faith of the privi- 
 leged congregation with the full equipment of ecclesiastical 
 appointments, the presence of the Lord in the riches of 
 his grace is the blessing of the one, just as much as of 
 the other. "He that lelieveth shall be saved." 
 
 II. We come now in the second part of this discourse 
 to consider the nature and preciomness of the blessings 
 embraced in the promise of the presence of our Lord in 
 the midst of his worshipping people. 
 
 You will perceive that the text is a declaration of 
 omnipresence. It is the declaration on the part of our 
 Lord Jesus, that though there should be as many separate 
 gatherings unto his name as there are separate places on 
 the whole earth for them to be held in, all at the same 
 precise moment, he is present in each and all. " There 
 am I in the midst " of each assembly. But such omni- 
 presence is an essential and incommunicable attribute of 
 the Divine nature. Hence we know that it cannot be 
 with reference to his human nature, his human body and 
 soul, that our Lord will be present in the assemblies of 
 his people. It is therefore in his divine nature as God, 
 though in his office as Mediator, that his presence is 
 promised. He that said, "before Abraham was / am" 
 
118 SERMON V. 
 
 thus expressing his presence as God in all time, said also, 
 " where two or three are gathered together in my name, 
 there / am" thus expressing his presence as God, the 
 Redeemer, with his people in all places. But wherein, 
 then, is the peculiarity of the promise? Is not Christ, 
 as God, present to all people, in all places, whether they 
 be gathered unto his name for worship, or against his 
 name, for blasphemy? There is an essential presence 
 God is every where. There is a gracious presence God 
 is with the righteous his presence is the exclusive bless- 
 ing of his people. This it is that makes heaven. To all 
 beings our Lord is present as the upholder of all; to all 
 men as the Judge of all; to the lost in eternity, as the 
 avenger of his law ; to his people here as their Mediator, 
 their strength, and light, and joy, and life; their shepherd, 
 their salvation. To his people in heaven, he is present 
 as their infinite portion and glory forever. 
 
 Jacob, when he fled from the face of Esau, well knew 
 that at every step of that long jonrney, God was present. 
 But the night on which, in a solitary place, he saw in his 
 sleep, the mystic ladder reaching from heaven to where 
 he lay, angels of grace coming and going thereon, and 
 above, the Lord manifesting himself to the desolate heart 
 of the patriarch, as he doth not unto the world, he exclaim- 
 ed, "surely the Lord is in this place this is none other 
 but the house of God and this is the gate of Heaven"* 
 
 It was the relation in which God was present to Jacob, 
 then, and the manifestation of that relation, that made 
 him present that night, in that place, as he had not been 
 elsewhere. And such is the peculiarity of the presence 
 
 *Gen. xxviii. 11-18. 
 
CHRIST PRESENT IN ASSEMBLIES OF HIS PEOPLE. 119 
 
 of Christ, as God, in the assemblies of his people. He 
 is present as their God, their Saviour; as bearing a rela- 
 tion of most special nearness and preciousness to them ; 
 as full of grace for them ; waiting to receive their prayers, 
 manifesting himself unto them, in their hearts, by his 
 Spirit, as he doth not unto the world ; so that the desert, 
 or dungeon, or den of the earth, if their gathering together 
 be there, is "none other than the house of God and the 
 gate of heaven." 
 
 It is manifestly the object of the text to teach that 
 there is a special blessing to be expected, and therefore a 
 special duty to be fulfilled, in the gathering of ourselves 
 together for common prayer. 
 
 We have no lack of assurance that the presence of the 
 Lord, in all its preciousness, is granted to the single con- 
 trite, praying heart. " To this man will I look (saith the 
 Lord), even to him that is of an humble and contrite 
 spirit, and that trembleth at my word." There is a 
 special promise to secret prayer. "Thou, when thou 
 prayest, enter into thy closet; and when thou hast shut 
 thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret, and thy 
 Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly."* 
 But if secret prayer has its advantages and special bless- 
 ing, so has the united prayer the social worship the 
 gathering together of the Lord's worshippers to join heart 
 to heart, and voice to voice, in supplication and praise. 
 Hence, in all ages, the great stress laid on public wor- 
 ship first, the secret prayer within the veil of each one's 
 own private sanctuary, then the coming of the several 
 worshippers, each with the fire and incense of his solitary 
 
 *Matt. vi. 6. 
 
120 SERMON V. 
 
 offering, to put all together in one holy flame and one 
 fragrant cloud, ascending before the mercy seat through 
 the offering of Jesus, "once for all." These two methods 
 of coming unto the name of Jesus must go together. If 
 the private, under certain circumstances, can live without 
 the social, the social cannot, under any circumstances, ex- 
 ist, except in form, without the private. He who knows 
 the most of the pleasures, the consolations, the manifold 
 blessings of secret prayer, will invariably be the best 
 qualified and the readiest to partake in the privileges of 
 more public prayer. 
 
 And now, brethren, let us bring all this subject into 
 nearer application to our hearts and consciences. How 
 ought we to meet the promise in the text? What cor- 
 responding emotions and efforts of mind does it demand 
 of us? For what purpose is our Lord thus present in the 
 assemblies of his people, gathered unto his name? They 
 come to him in prayer. In what aspect to what end, 
 does he come into the midst of them? The promise of 
 the Old Testament was "In all places where I record 
 my name, I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee" 
 That promise, I will bless thee, is not in the New Testa- 
 ment text, It was enough for him who "is full of grace " 
 to say under the Gospel dispensation, " I am in the midst 
 of them." We know it must be to bless them. Why 
 cometh the glorious sun, if not to shine? why the plen- 
 teous fountain of grace, if not to flow? why the very 
 bread of God, if not to feed us? why the Shepherd of 
 Israel in the midst of his flock, if not to distribute out 
 of his fullness as every one hath need? 
 
 Now what is it we need, and what should we cultivate in 
 
CHRIST PRESENT IN ASSEMBLIES OF HIS PEOPLE. 121 
 
 our hearts, in order that we may derive the more benefit 
 from that presence? I answer, faith moTQ faith to real- 
 ize that presence. To that one point I confine our appli- 
 cation of this discourse. You remember with what joy 
 the pious Israelites went up to the gathering of the tribes 
 unto the name of the Lord at Jerusalem. "I was glad 
 when they said unto me, ' Let us go into the house of 
 the Lord. Our feet shall stand in thy gates, Jerusa- 
 lem. How lovely are thy tabernacles, Lord of Hosts ! 
 My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the 
 Lord."^ Whence came this high joy this large expec- 
 tation? They believed the promise, "In the place where 
 I record my name, I will come unto thee, and I will bless 
 thee." They expected to meet God to come into his 
 very presence, to receive out of his fullness. Who can 
 wonder that they were glad to go up, and longed for the 
 time to arrive? But how does this rebuke the spirit of 
 Christian worshippers ! It seems as if, with the enlarge- 
 ment of our privilege, had come the diminution of our 
 disposition to embrace it. Why is it that the opportuni- 
 ties of public worship are so languidly appreciated by 
 great numbers of those who consider themselves to be 
 true worshippers? How is it that so many little difficul- 
 ties serve as great hindrances to keep them from the 
 house of prayer difficulties which in matters of worldly 
 interest the same people would be ashamed to make of 
 so much consequence ? Why is it that when we come up 
 to the gathering of the people to the name of the Lord, 
 we do it too much as only a reasonable duty, a befitting 
 solemnity, a profitable thing in some general way, instead 
 
 *Psalms cxxii. 1,2; Ixxxiv. 1, 2. 
 
122 SERMON V. 
 
 of having our minds set on the one single and engross- 
 ing object of meeting and communing directly with the 
 Lord where he has promised to be present? Oh! how 
 should we see the pillar of cloud resting over the place 
 of the congregation of the Lord's people, as it did of old 
 over the tabernacle of Israel, saying, " the Lord is in this 
 place ; this is none other than the house of God and the 
 gate of Heaven." With what joy should we hail the Sab- 
 bath of worship; with what high expectation should we 
 enter into the courts of the Lord ; how would our hearts 
 be lifted up at those words, "The Lord is in his holy 
 temple," had we more practical faith to realize what intel- 
 lectually we so well believe. We must seek more of such 
 faith. We must go to the assembling together of Christ's 
 people, realizing who is there who besides the visible 
 company of believers that great Shepherd of Israel in 
 all his tenderness and love; that searcher of hearts see- 
 ing our every want, and weakness, and hindrance, and 
 desire ; that most merciful and compassionate High Priest 
 who waits to take our poor, polluted, unworthy prayers, 
 and offer them to the Father, with the merit and efficacy 
 of his own intercession ; that mighty Redeemer who hath 
 all power in heaven and earth for the very purpose of 
 answering the prayers, and supplying the wants, and 
 overcoming the adversaries of his people. What more 
 appropriate song for a company of believers, gathered 
 unto his name, can there be, than that which we so often 
 sing in our assemblies "0, come, let us sing unto the 
 Lord; let us heartily rejoice in the God of our salvation." 
 What needest thou, Christian pilgrim, in thy journey- 
 Christian soldier, in thy warfare Christian laborer, in thy 
 
CHRIST PRESENT IN ASSEMBLIES OF HIS PEOPLE. 123 
 
 work? What needest thou, poor sinner, in thy unwor- 
 thiness, and weakness, and temptation ? What wouldst 
 thou that the Lord should do unto thee ? Think what 
 thy need is, when thou goest where the Lord is in the 
 midst of his assembled people. Is it that the eyes of 
 your understanding may be more opened to see the things 
 of the Spirit of God? Is is that you may be enabled 
 more entirely to overcome the world? Is it that you 
 may be led more powerfully, more habitually, by the 
 Spirit of God, as a child of God ? Be prepared with your 
 petition, whatever it be. " The Lord is in his holy tem- 
 ple." He is waiting to give thee audience. You see him 
 not. He sees you. It is " the accepted time." Lift up 
 your heart unto the Lord. The Lord increase our faith! 
 and grant us to know by sweet experience how his 
 presence can turn our darkness into day, and make us 
 drink of rivers of living water in "a dry and thirsty land 
 where no water is." 
 
SERMON VI. 
 
 THE NATURE AND CONDEMNATION OF SIN. 
 
 1 JOHN iii. 4. 
 
 " Sin is the transgression of the law." 
 
 THE essential foundation of all right appreciation of the 
 Gospel of our salvation, is a right view of that from 
 which it is our deliverance' sin; its nature, its evil, 
 its condemnation. To think of understanding what 
 Christ has done to save us, without first learning what 
 sin has done to ruin us; to think of estimating aright the 
 exceeding preciousness of the redemption, before our 
 eyes have been opened to see the entireness of our con- 
 demnation, is the sure way to come short in all our hopes 
 of the grace of God, as revealed in the person and offices 
 of Jesus Christ. 
 
 We propose, at this time, a consideration of sin, as the 
 basis of the knowledge of the Saviour. To ears listening 
 for such attractions of discourse as are independent of the 
 vital seriousness of the subject, we can promise but little. 
 To hearers who hear for spiritual profit, and whose interest 
 is proportioned to the importance of the subject, we could 
 not propose one more calculated to fasten their closest at- 
 tention. May the Spirit of the Lord be our guide, teaching 
 me so to speak, and you so to hear, that all of us may 
 
THE NATURE AND CONDEMNATION OF SIN. 125 
 
 be accounted before God as good stewards of the manifold 
 riches of his grace. 
 
 1. What is sin? The text answers in one of the 
 plainest and most concise statements that words could 
 furnish "Sin is the transgression of the law" Suppose 
 you were inquiring concerning sin in general not merely 
 against God, but against any human government the 
 same answer serves universally. Sin or crime, any where, 
 before any tribunal, is neither more nor less than the 
 transgression of the law. As law is the only measure of 
 obedience, its transgression is the only measure of disobe- 
 dience. As its fulfilment is innocence, its violation is 
 guilt. If there be no law, there can be no transgression, 
 and consequently no sin. By the law, therefore, is the 
 only knowledge of sin. Nothing else but law can be 
 admitted to take part in the determination of what is sin. 
 These elementary truths are equally applicable to all laws, 
 human and divine. 
 
 Returning then to the nature of sin against God, as 
 defined to be the transgression of God's law, you will see 
 at once that all depends on what that law is. Here we 
 have no difficulty. The plain answer is, the revealed ivill 
 of God. If he hath not made known to us his will if 
 he hath not written it, either on the tables of our con- 
 science, or in his visible works, or in his scriptures, so that 
 if we will, we may know it, it is not law for us. But if 
 he have so revealed it, then, though by our negligence and 
 indifference we may be ignorant of it, it is law for us, and 
 sin is its transgression. 
 
 It matters not how the will of God is made known to 
 us whether by the voice of natural conscience or by the 
 
126 SERMON VI. 
 
 written word whether in the brief compendium called 
 the ten commandments, or as they are expanded and ap- 
 plied in any precept of the scriptures whether you find 
 it formally declared, or only informally indicated 
 whether the thunders of Sinai or the mercies of Calvary 
 be our teachers a chapter of Moses or a sermon of Je- 
 sus: whatever, in any way, we learn, or may learn, to be 
 God's will for us, that is the law. Thus, a promise of the 
 Gospel is law, because it essentially implies the duty of 
 embracing it. Thus all the love of God in Christ is the 
 giving of his law, because it publishes and seeks to write 
 on our hearts the obligation of love, and gratitude, and 
 obedience, in return. Thus, in an important sense, the 
 Gospel is all law, and the very strongest publication of 
 the law; because not only does it confirm and establish 
 it, but declares it under additional sanctions ; makes its 
 violation the more guilty, and enlarges our knowledge of 
 the divine will in all things. The injunction to believe in 
 the Lord Jesus Christ is law, and the exhortation to re- 
 pent is law, and to embrace every promise made to 
 penitent sinners in Christ, and to set our hearts upon the 
 blessedness of his kingdom all this is as truly God's law 
 to us, as the ten commandments of Sinai. 
 
 2. "The law of God is perfect" It extends to the 
 whole of man; it leaves no part of him, no faculty of body 
 or mind, no thought, no affection, no deed, no moment, un- 
 embraced. Human laws are necessarily exceedingly im- 
 perfect; they must leave out the government of the whole 
 inner man, and all the secret springs of man. But God 
 looks upon the heart, and therefore legislates for the 
 heart; and as the fountains out of which are the issues 
 
TEE NATURE AND CONDEMNATION OF SIN. 127 
 
 of life dwell there, it is there, where no other law can 
 reach, that his will is heard in its most solemn and 
 searching requirements. God's law is perfect; nothing 
 in us or by us is too minute or secret to escape its pro- 
 visions. These truths are elementary and self-evident. 
 To suppose that there is any thing in us to which his law 
 does not extend, is to suppose that man, in something, is 
 not under God's government; in other words, is indepen- 
 dent of the will of his Maker. 
 
 3. Another self-evident truth: God's law requires 
 of all a perfed obedience. What else can it require? 
 Was there ever a law of any sort that did not require the 
 same? To say that a law requires but a partial obedi- 
 ence, is to say that only part of it is really law. In that 
 part in which it does not require perfect obedience, or in 
 that degree in which disobedience may be tolerated, it 
 may be advice, but it cannot be law. To say that God 
 does not require us to come up to the fullness of a certain 
 commandment, is to say that in its fullness it is not his 
 commandment. Whatever is law, must by its nature re- 
 quire complete obedience. Its transgression must be 
 sin. 
 
 Here, then, the question comes again, What is sin? 
 We are prepared with the answer, because we have ascer- 
 tained the law. Whatever falls short of, whatever trans- 
 gresses, in outward deed, or inward thought, or affection, 
 any, the least part of that will or law of God, from the 
 earliest moment of your accountableness to the latest, is 
 sin. Whit! replies some hearer, am I marked in God's 
 remembrance, with such awful strictness ? Can I fail in 
 nothing, in not even a thought, or a moment of perfect 
 
128 SERMON VI. 
 
 fulfilment, but it is sin; and sin to be brought into judg- 
 ment ? You can answer for yourself, if you will repeat 
 the necessary definition of sin " the transgression of the 
 laiv" Is it not the same under all governments ? Can 
 you come short in any thing of the law of this land, 
 without being guilty before it ? The government may be 
 too imperfect to take cognizance of your guilt, but that 
 does not make you the less guilty. It may be able to 
 prove nothing against you, because its eye is not in every 
 place beholding the evil and the good; but your guilt is 
 all the same. And now let us advance one step further. 
 
 There is a passage in St. James' Epistle which reads 
 thus: "Whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet offend 
 in one point, he is guilty of all."^ It sounds unrea- 
 sonable, but we will show you that ifc is nothing peculiar 
 to the divine law. The meaning is, that every single sin is 
 the breaking of the whole law. The mind of James was 
 probably led to the utterance of this principle, by one of 
 those traditionary notions whereby the Jews, in his day, 
 made void the law. 
 
 The Scribes taught that by the strict observance of 
 some one requirement of the law, a man would secure the 
 favor of God, though he neglected all others. The 
 Pharisees, therefore, used to select some prominent duty, 
 such as the keeping of the Sabbath day, or paying the 
 tenth ; and then, with whatever their traditions added to 
 them, be exceedingly scrupulous and exact in those par- 
 ticulars, however negligent in every thing else. The idea 
 was that of compensation. It was imagined that by a 
 measure of strictness not required, they would make up 
 
 * James, ii. 10. 
 
THE NATURE AND CONDEMNATION OF SIN. 129 
 
 for, in any one point, the neglect of what was required in 
 other points. This singular notion, we apprehend, has a 
 wider habitation than the minds of the Jewish Phari- 
 sees. It is a form of self-righteous delusion, which, 
 however unreasonable, has been the hope of thousands 
 who have enjoyed the light of the Gospel. What else is 
 the idea practically so prevalent, and that comforts so 
 many, now-a-days, that if you do well in one line of duty, 
 you will not be condemned if you neglect another; if 
 you attend to one table of the law, you may be at ease 
 though the other have been forgotten; if you have led a 
 moral life it will answer, though you have not led a reli- 
 gious life good works towards man will suffice, though 
 you have been habitually disobedient towards God. It 
 was this idea of compensation, as if we could ever compen- 
 sate for disobedience to God, that gave rise to all that 
 system of will-worship, the divers fastings and vain repe- 
 titions of prayers, and minute scrupulousness in certain 
 self-imposed outward forms, or penances, while the whole 
 spirit of true obedience was wanting, on which the Saviour 
 so often and so solemnly pronounced those words "wo 
 unto you. Scribes, Pharisees, Hypocrites" Exactly the 
 same, though in a Christian dress, is that which in the 
 Romish Church, under the traditions of Popery, making 
 equally void the Gospel, produces corresponding fruits 
 among nominal Christians. The man who cannot be 
 persuaded to eat meat on Friday, can easily profane the 
 name of God every day and be comforted. Be very 
 exact in keeping certain days, repeating certain prayers, 
 and doing certain penances, and visiting certain shrines, 
 and attending mass, and confessing to a priest, and all 
 
 will be well. 
 9 
 
130 SERMON VI. 
 
 Against all this, whatever shape it may assume, accord- 
 ing as it may appear among Jews, or Romanists, or Pro- 
 testants, (for the human heart will produce it in some 
 shape among all,) stands the declaration of St. James, 
 "whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet offend in one 
 point, is guilty of all." The meaning is not, that to 
 violate any one precept of the law, is to violate every 
 precept, or is as guilty as if every other were violated. 
 Certainly the commission of one sin cannot necessarily 
 involve the commission, or the guilt, of all sins. But the 
 law of God is one. It contains various precepts, but it is 
 one law. Sin is the transgression of the law in its oneness, 
 its integrity. To break it anywhere, breaks it entirely; 
 all its authority is resisted, all its honor is injured, all 
 its condemnation is incurred. It is a chain of many links. 
 One link broken, the chain is as perfectly broken as if 
 many links were broken. One sin makes you as truly a 
 violator of the whole law of God; brings you as really 
 under its verdict of guilty, forfeits as entirely your inno- 
 cence or righteousness at its bar, as any number of sins. 
 
 But is there anything new in this ? Is it not just what 
 you are all familiar with under the laws of the land ? Let 
 us suppose a covenant or contract between man and man. 
 It may have its several articles, but it is all one covenant. 
 Now, should one of the parties keep the whole, except 
 that he fails in a single article, will not the law decide 
 that, in the failure of that one article, the whole covenant 
 is broken, and the other party entirely released, and the 
 penalty, whatever it be, all incurred ? And if the failure 
 be in two or more articles, instead of one, you know that 
 the covenant is no more entirely, though it may be much 
 
THE NATURE AND CONDEMNATION OF SIN. 131 
 
 more flagrantly broken. And you well know that before 
 the law of the land, it would avail nothing to save the 
 party in default from the penalty or forfeiture resulting 
 from a broken covenant, should he plead that he had ful- 
 filled it in every thing but one single article. The law of 
 the land would consider that the keeping of all but one 
 is no justification for failure in that one. It would an- 
 swer: the covenant is all broken; you have forfeited all 
 that you were to get by it ; your claim on the other party 
 is all lost; he has a perfect right to exact from you the 
 whole penalty; justice cannot help you ; law has nothing 
 for you but its condemnation. The clemency of the other 
 party is all you have to look to. 
 
 Now that represents precisely the state of a transgressor 
 of God's law. God has been pleased to enter into cove- 
 nant with us. He might have said simply "Do this" wifch^ 
 out annexing any promise of eternal life ; and then* it 
 would not have been a covenant, but simply a law. But 
 he has been pleased to say, Do this and live, annexing the 
 promise of life eternal to the keeping of his law. And 
 he has annexed the penalty; that is, the loss of life eternal, 
 to every violation of that covenant. "Cursed is he, (in 
 other words, condemned is he to the penalty of the law) 
 who continueth not in all things written in the book of the 
 law to do them." You observe, the condition' of the cove- 
 nant is continuance in all things to do them ; not merely 
 during part of life, but all of life; not in some things, 
 but in all things. Now, you are a transgressor of the law. 
 It is of no importance at present to ask how often, or 
 under what aggravating circumstances, you have trans- 
 gressed. It is enough that you have transgressed. The 
 
132 SERMON VI. 
 
 covenant thus is all broken. God is perfectly released 
 from his promise of life. You have forfeited all that you 
 were to gain by obedience. He can exact from you all 
 the penalty of a law entirely broken. It will avail noth- 
 ing in point of law and justice to plead that you have 
 kept the covenant in other particulars. The breach 
 remains in that one particular, and cannot be healed. To 
 be innocent, or righteous, in the sight of the law, by your 
 own obedience, is now forever impossible. Add another 
 transgression or a thousand you will thereby increase 
 your guilt and your punishment ; but the covenant is no- 
 more entirely, though it is certainly more flagrantly viola- 
 ted. All this we showed you is just the parallel of wluat 
 takes place under all human law. And thus the principle 
 announced by St. James, is a general principle of law? 
 whether human or divine : " Whosoever shall Jceep the ivhole 
 law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all" 
 
 4. And now we are prepared for another step. It is 
 essentially involved in the great but perfectly simple and 
 obvious principles of law and obedience of which we 
 have spoken, that the condemnation of a sinner before 
 God, essentially and necessarily takes place immediately 
 upon the transgression of his will. In other words, the 
 sinner is " condemned already" 
 
 One of the most common misapprehensions, and one 
 which exercises the strongest influence in keeping men 
 insensible to the awfulness of their state before God, as 
 sinners impenitent and unpardoned, is an idea, directly 
 the contrary of what I have thus declared. It is a very 
 common thought, that the condition of sinners on earth 
 who continue impenitent, is neither one of positive wrath 
 
THE NATURE AND CONDEMNATION OF SIN. 133 
 
 or peace; not of condemnation; assuredly not of accep- 
 tance ; but a condition, the decision upon which is deferred 
 to a day of trial hereafter, in the future world. Mean- 
 while they imagine they are contributing to make that fu- 
 ture decision favorable, or unfavorable, according as, by 
 evil deeds or good deeds, they are running up an account on 
 one side or the other, in the book of God's remembrance. 
 Now, I can imagine no reason why this thought should 
 be entertained, except it be the supposition that God, 
 however he be the All-seeing Witness of every sin, to 
 whom "the darkness and the light are both alike," does 
 not so notice sin as soon as it is committed, as in his own 
 mind to decide upon what it is and what it deserves. Men 
 have a vague idea of the day of judgment, They know 
 that in human affairs, there can be no condemnation till 
 the formal trial, because till then, since the human judge 
 ascertains transgression only by examination of witnesses, 
 the truth cannot be determined : and so they imagine the 
 day of judgment is to ascertain guilt; to enable the Judge 
 of all the earth to decide upon the merits of each case, as 
 if God were not himself always witness and always judge, 
 always perfectly knowing, always perfectly measuring and 
 deciding upon every transgression. No, brethren, the 
 day of God's judgment is not to assist the knowledge or 
 counsels of him who knoweth all things. It is not to 
 unveil any thing in us that is not now all marked and open 
 to him who searches the secrets of all hearts. It is not 
 that God may then/or^ a decision as to us, which he had 
 not formed before ; but to declare, and vindicate, and exe- 
 cute before the assembled angels of heaven, and the 
 assembled generations of all mankind, the condemnation 
 
134 SERMON VI. 
 
 or the justification already passed upon all before we died. 
 The essential judgment, except as to the infliction of the 
 penalty, is going on all our life-time. We are at each 
 moment perfectly known and weighed in the balance of 
 the law of God. " He that planted the ear, shall he not 
 hear ? He that formed the eye, shall he noc see ? He 
 that teacheth man knowledge, doth not he know ? " You 
 see, in a moment, that it cannot be possible but that as 
 God is witness to every sin, and the law is simply his own 
 will, so he must judge every sin immediately by that law, 
 and the sinner must at once stand before him instantly as 
 he sins, in his true position, as a convicted transgressor, 
 condemned already. Such would be the case under human 
 laws, were it not for the great imperfections which neces- 
 sarily belong to their administration in the hands of men. 
 But what saith the Lord upon this point? " He that lelieveth 
 on the Son of God is not condemned" No, he is delivered 
 from condemnation, because he has taken refuge in Christ. 
 But proceeds the verse: "He that lelieveth not is condemn- 
 ed already"* What gives these declarations a special 
 impressiveness is, that they come from Him who is to be 
 the Judge, and to pronounce the sentence of the last day. 
 It is upon this actual condition of sinners in the pres- 
 ent life, that all the structure of the Gospel is erected. 
 It brings salvation to every one that believeth; but in so 
 doing it pronounces all of us lost till we embrace it. Jesus, 
 our Saviour, " came to seek and save that which was lost" 
 If we are not now already lost, we are not those whom he 
 came to save. He came " to preach deliverance to the 
 captive, and the opening of the prison doors to them that 
 
 *Jolm iii. 18. 
 
THE NATURE AND CONDEMNATION OF SIN. 135 
 
 are bound." If any of you are not already condemned 
 before God for your sins, then his law has not laid hand 
 upon you ; you are not captives under its arrest ; you are 
 not bound; its prison doors have not been shut upon you. 
 You are therefore not among those to whom the mes- 
 sage of the Saviour's grace is addressed. He came to give 
 salvation, not to those who may be lost, under a judgment 
 not yet given, but who are lost already; to give deliverance, 
 not to those who are in danger of condemnation, but to those 
 who are condemned already. Hence it is written : "There 
 is now, therefore, no condemnation to them that are in 
 Christ Jesus."* They are now, in this present life, deliv- 
 ered from condemnation, because they are in that refuge ; 
 they have become believers in, and thus partakers of 
 Christ Jesus. Of course it follows, that to all who are not 
 in Christ Jesus, there is now the condemnation of God. 
 
 And here, if you ask me what then is the difference 
 in regard to condemnation between your state in the pre- 
 sent life and what it will be in the world to come, in case 
 it continues as it now is unto death, I see but one answer, 
 and I feel that it is an awful answer, and I would that it 
 were deeply felt as an awful thing to be true of any body. 
 There is no difference but in one particular. The sinner 
 who has not availed himself of the salvation that is in 
 Christ Jesus, is i&k finally, irreversibly, condemned. Your 
 day of grace and long suffering is not ended yet. You 
 have still an accepted time and a day of salvation. The 
 condemnation is perfect, but the prison door is not forever 
 barred. You are bound, but your bonds may be loosed. 
 You may yet be persuaded to listen to Him who preaches 
 
 * Rom. viii. 1 . 
 
136 SERMON VI. 
 
 deliverance to the captive. But your time to die may 
 come before your repentance. Then the door is fast for- 
 ever. Then the voice of a Saviour's grace is heard no 
 more. Your condemnation abideth without end; the 
 same precisely that abideth now, only then a condemna- 
 tion sealed up forever. 
 
 5. We proceed to one more position, which, though 
 it has been included in what has been already said, we 
 wish to make more distinct and prominent. It is this: 
 A 'single transgression of the law of God makes you liable, 
 to its whole penally. "The wages of sin is death." The 
 declaration is not, that death is the wages of sins of a cer- 
 tain number, but of sin any sin. This is but a figura- 
 tive form of the original declaration, " In the day that 
 thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Adam in- 
 curred that penalty by a single transgression. And again, 
 another form of the same thing: " Cursed is every one 
 that continueth not in all things written in the book of 
 the law to do them." If the continuance of perfect obe- 
 dience be not unbroken, if it be not in every hour and 
 moment, if it be not in all things required by the will of 
 God, the law is transgressed, and the wages of sin are due. 
 
 It is one thing to speak of penalty being equally due 
 to one sin as to many, and a very different thing to speak 
 of it as being due in an equal degree of severity. Death 
 is universally the wages of sin, without reference to this 
 or that sin, few sins or many; death of the body in the 
 loss of its soul till the resurrection, death of the soul in 
 the loss of that favor of God which is life, and that loving 
 kindness of God which is better than life death spiritual 
 in everlasting banishment from God. But that eternal 
 
THE NATURE AND CONDEMNATION OF SIN. 137 
 
 banishment from God, and loss of all spiritual life and 
 hope, will be accompanied with more or less of the posi- 
 tive infliction of the pains of hell, according as you have 
 accumulated sin upon sin ; according as you have done 
 so in the midst of the light of the Gospel, or in compara- 
 tive darkness ; according as your privileges, and mercies, 
 and opportunities have abounded, and you have resisted 
 convictions, trifled with serious impressions, and quenched 
 the influences of the Spirit of God that would have per- 
 suaded you to repentance. 
 
 I need not further show the proof of our present posi- 
 tion, that a single transgression of the law of God makes 
 you liable to the law's penalty. You perfectly well know 
 that such is the case under all laws. One murder incurs 
 the penalty of death as fully as twenty; one theft as fully 
 as a hundred. Who ever heard of the law delivering a 
 criminal from the whole penalty of murder, on the ground 
 that he had committed the crime but once ? And how 
 strange it would seem, to see a fellow creature, with the 
 blood of his neighbor on his hands, and the fear of the 
 law before him, administering consolation to his trembling 
 heart by saying, " I never took life before, therefore I 
 cannot be condemned to die for this." 
 
 But, my brethren, is not this precisely the sort of peace 
 which they who neglect the salvation of God are contin- 
 ually ministering to their souls ? That they have very 
 often transgressed the divine law, they freely own. But 
 that therefore they have forfeited all title to God's favor 
 lost all reason to hope for eternal life on the ground of 
 their own merits incurred a positive condemnation, and 
 are now abiding under it, and have nothing to look for 
 but the wrath of God, after death, unless they flee to a 
 
138 SERMON VI. 
 
 better hope and righteousness than any within them- 
 selves they cannot admit. And why? The only reason 
 given is that, though sinners indeed, they have not sinned 
 to this or that extent. We beg to remind them, that to 
 what extent they have sinned is not now the question. 
 " Sin is the transgression of the law" whether one or a 
 thousand; and condemnation necessarily follows upon sin, 
 whether it be once committed or a thousand times. The 
 law of God and the law of man are in principle exactly 
 alike in this respect. The question of the extent to 
 which you have sinned is necessary to the determination 
 of the amount of your guilt, but enters in no wise into 
 the question of the fact that you are guilty. Besides, 
 the amount of your sins is a subject of inquiry to which 
 you are not equal, except to see that it is broader than 
 the sea, deeper than the sea, enough to make you hide 
 your face in the dust, and seek the mercy of God with a 
 broken and contrite heart. When all the history of your 
 whole life can be read by you, all the movements of 
 thought, all the working of affection, and desire, and mo- 
 tive, all moments, all things done within as well as without, 
 all things left undone within and without when you are 
 competent to read that whole history in all its connections, 
 each moment, with your circumstances, your light, your 
 privileges, your opportunities, all those things which will 
 make it more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the 
 judgment than for the impenitent of this day and this land; 
 yea, when you are competent to read all this history in 
 such comparison with the law of God that you shall see its 
 sins as they are seen by him, before whose holiness even 
 the heavens are unclean, then you may attempt to justify 
 
THE NATURE AND CONDEMNATION OF SIN. 139 
 
 yourselves by measuring the extent of your transgressions. 
 Meanwhile, it is very easy so to read that history as to 
 see that you have sinned enough to be brought in guilty 
 before God, and therefore under condemnation and wrath, 
 till you shall be found in Christ Jesus, rescued in that 
 ark. 
 
 And now, having gone over the ground thus finished, I 
 am very conscious that I have been bestowing much at- 
 tention upon principles not only exceeding plain, but very 
 familiarly known and recognized among all descriptions of 
 men; and the question occurs, how is it that principles 
 so easily understood and acknowledged in ordinary mat- 
 ters of human jurisprudence, should need so much expli- 
 cation when applied to divine? For example, when 
 we speak of the single transgression of a human law 
 being enough to incur its condemnation, we speak what 
 every body knows. None think of charging the law with 
 undue severity. It must be so, in the very nature of 
 law. But as soon as the same is asserted of transgres- 
 sion of the law of God, immediately there is a revolt. It 
 cannot be. It is incredible that the Judge of all men 
 should be so severe. And this, too, will arise in the 
 breasts of men who, as judges in the land, are in the 
 practice of administering judgment on precisely the same 
 principle. How is this to be accounted for ? 
 
 I apprehend the answer is not difficult. Men realize 
 that they have a deep interest in the principles of crimi- 
 nal law between man and man, and they therefore think 
 of them enough to understand them, at least in the ele- 
 ments of which we have spoken. The subject is earthly; 
 but the whole matter of the law of God is unearthly it 
 
140 SERMON VI. 
 
 does not force itself upon daily thought. It is easy not to 
 realize that you have any thing of great moment depend- 
 ing on it, and therefore its interest, its nature, and its appli- 
 cation, are not considered, except in the most dreamy way. 
 
 Again, in human affairs, men are compelled to feel the 
 absolute necessity of a wise and strictly administered 
 government of law. But it is precisely here that they 
 allow themselves, for want of consideration, to realize 
 nothing as to the relations between them and God. 
 Nothing do they practically believe in so little, whatever 
 speculatively they may acknowledge, as God's moral law 
 reaching to the thoughts and intents of the heart, 
 strictly administered on the 1 essential principles of all law, 
 and having its final assize and sentence, when "God will 
 bring all things into judgment, with every secret thing." 
 
 Again, there is nothing to warp our views when consider- 
 ing the proper process of things under human tribunals. 
 We are not the accused. We feel that our interests are 
 identified with the strict execution of the law. The true 
 principles seem self-evident, because our eye is single. 
 But before God we are all the guilty ones. Impenitent 
 men feel that all their hope out of Christ is in trusting 
 that God's law will prove to be some such law, in its prin- 
 ciples and decisions, as no law can be. Thus their eye is 
 perverted, and when they think at all on the subject, it is 
 to deceive themselves with expectations which a candid 
 consideration would teach them can end only in the bit- 
 terest disappointment. 
 
 But again, in human jurisprudence we easily distin- 
 guish between the judge, to condemn according to law, 
 and the ruler, to pardon according to dictates of mercy. 
 
THE NATURE AND CONDEMNATION OF SIN. 141 
 
 We see those offices in different hands, and well compre- 
 hend that it is the duty of the one to sentence to death the 
 very man to whom the other may grant a pardon. But 
 in God those offices are united. He only can bind and 
 loose, condemn and forgive; and because thus united in 
 God, those two offices become confounded in men's 
 thoughts, till that of the Judge, administering the law, is 
 lost sight of, and nothing remains upon the judgment seat 
 but a Being of boundless compassion, to pardon the trans- 
 gressor. They know perfectly well that a wise human 
 ruler will exercise his power to pardon only when the 
 great interests and sanctions of the law are not thereby 
 impaired. But they do not ask whether the law of God 
 must not be treated with equal respect. Thus they care- 
 lessly take refuge in the certainty that God is plenteous in 
 mercy, not inquiring whether there be not some one only 
 way of administering his mercy, some certain conditions 
 on which alone, out of regard to the guilt of sin and the 
 honor of his law, his mercy shall be dispensed, which they 
 have utterly neglected. 
 
 There is an injunction of St. Paul of the greatest con- 
 sequence to all safe conclusions, as to what you may 
 expect under the law of God. "Behold (saith he) the 
 goodness and severity of God."* The Apostle had in his 
 mind the severity of God in casting off and punishing 
 the Jews for their unbelief and rejection of the gospel, 
 and his goodness in admitting the Gentiles to its bless- 
 ings. We have now in view, in the just application of 
 the Apostle's words, the severity of God in holding as 
 guilty, and in condemning to eternal misery, all trans- 
 
 *Rorn. xi. 22. 
 
142 SERMON VI. 
 
 gressors of his law ; and on the other hand, his goodness 
 in mercifully providing, through the atoning sacrifice of 
 his own Son, Jesus Christ, such plenteous redemption 
 that every penitent sinner, coming unto Jesus, shall have 
 everlasting life. We must behold the character and ways 
 of God in both these aspects, or we cannot know him. 
 The goodness is no more his character, no more essential 
 or honorable to his nature, than the severity. The red, 
 as well as the violet of the rainbow, is essential to the 
 pure white light of the solar ray. God, as Judge, must 
 be "a consuming fire" to the wicked and impenitent, for 
 the same reason that, as a merciful Father, he is eternal 
 life to the penitent sinner coming unto him through the 
 atonement of Christ. The terrible retribution that he 
 brought on the Jews, for their unbelief, and with which he 
 still visits them, is a chapter in the history of his gov- 
 ernment, to teach us its character, as much as any book 
 of his goodness to the children of men. What the Apos- 
 tle calls "the terrors of the Lord," are as essential to our 
 right knowledge of him as his mercies the sentence of 
 the law condemning the sinner, as the grace of the gospel 
 justifying the believer in Jesus Sinai as much as Calvary. 
 They are parts of his ways, neither of which can be right- 
 ly known as setting forth his dealings with man, without 
 the other. The same indeed must we say of all govern- 
 ments. Wherever a wise law is wisely executed, there is 
 both a goodness and a severity to be beheld, if we would 
 appreciate its character. Severity, in this application, 
 means not harness, but strictness. The goodness of a 
 ruler to pardon the offender is weakness, if there be not 
 also a strictness to punish iniquity. The judge of your 
 
THE NATURE AND CONDEMNATION OF SIN. 143 
 
 criminal court shows a righteous severity, when he so ad- 
 ministers the law that crime shall be sure of his sentence 
 in the strict execution of the law. The Judge of all the 
 earth is righteously severe, when he holds every trans- 
 gressor of his law strictly subject to its penalty, and will 
 admit to the enjoyment of his saving grace none but those 
 who seek it in the way of his own appointment the ato- 
 ning sacrifice and all prevailing mediation of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ. I must behold that severity, that strict- 
 ness, that certainty that the law of God will not clear the 
 guilty, that if I appear at that bar in no righteonsness but 
 my own I must be condemned and lost, or I cannot take 
 a right view of the wonderful grace and mercy of God, in 
 providing eternal redemption for us by the sacrifice of his 
 only begotten Son; nor can I see my absolute need of my 
 fleeing for refuge to the hope that is there set before me. 
 "By the law is the knowledge of sin." The only way to 
 know ourselves as sinners, is to measure ourselves by the 
 will of God. The only way to know what we have to fear 
 as sinners, is to behold the severity of God in enforcing 
 the penalty of the violation of his will, as exhibited in 
 his word, and in all his dealings with mankind. The 
 only way to get a right sense of our need of the ark of 
 salvation provided in Christ Jesus for all that will flee to 
 it, is to behold and see in what hopeless ruin the flood of 
 the wrath of God, which is coming upon all unrighteous- 
 ness of men, must overwhelm us, unless we are found in 
 that refuge. Thus, by the law is the knowledge of the 
 gospel, as it is the essential lesson whereby we learn the 
 need of the gospel. And thus, in the words of St. Paul, 
 it is "our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, that we may 
 
144 SERMON VI. 
 
 be justified by faith" a schoolmaster that teaches a 
 very humiliating lesson indeed, and teaches it very stern- 
 ly and inflexibly, and by many inflictions of the rod upon 
 our consciences and wills, which are so slow to learn in 
 such a school, but whose lesson, nevertheless, is the begin- 
 ning of wisdom, the voice of one that prepareth the way 
 of the Lord. 
 
 And now what, my brethren, has been our object in all 
 this discussion of the law of God? Let me answer the 
 question plainly. It has been that we might, by the bless- 
 ing of the Holy Spirit, accomplish one most needful, most 
 precious, most kind, but most painful work in the minds 
 of a large class of this congregation. But, to make myself 
 better understood. You, my hearer, let me suppose, have 
 not sought the Lord. You have no reason to believe that 
 if death should overtake you as you now are, it would 
 find you in Christ, having fled thither from condem- 
 nation, trusting there, and sheltered there, as under the 
 curtains of the Lord's sanctuary. Now the object of all 
 this discourse has been one which I know that no mere 
 reasoning of mine, without the sealing power of God's 
 Spirit, can effect: to lead you to feel that you have no hope 
 of salvation. It is to take away from you all thought that 
 in such a state as yours there is any such thing as salva- 
 tion for you ; it is to lead you up to the bar of God, 
 noiv, before the final trial comes, and induce you to judge 
 your case in the presence of his law, and see what must 
 be the certain issue, if, hereafter, when the books shall be 
 opened, you come before it in your present state. I 
 could not attempt a kinder office. To make you hopeless, 
 that you may seek that only hope which will not make 
 
THE NATURE AND CONDEMNATION OF SIN. 145 
 
 you ashamed, is the greatest kindness. Then where are 
 you now? Under the Gospel? No. Under its revela- 
 tions, its invitations, its responsibilities, you certainly are. 
 It is proposed to you. But have you accepted it? No. 
 You have lived to this day in the rejection of all its offers 
 of salvation. You have been constantly called to its em- 
 brace, and have constantly refused; so that under the 
 Gospel, as in any sense a hope or a protection, you are not. 
 Then where are you? Of course under the law; the 
 strict, unmitigated, inflexible, holy, heart-searching, heart- 
 requiring law of God, every transgression of which is sin 
 and condemnation. To that law exclusively must you 
 look for justification. If it have nothing against you, you 
 have hope. But mark, your case all hangs on that one 
 condition. You are shut up unto the law for hope. Light 
 can come upon your prospect for eternity but from that 
 one quarter. If you have not transgressed the law, it 
 will justify you; if you have, it will condemn you. " The 
 goodness of God" in pardoning sinners, you cannot behold 
 for any comfort or hope, because that is revealed only to 
 those who seek it by embracing the mediation of Christ. 
 It is only "the severity of God,"as a just and holy Judge, 
 most strictly enforcing and maintaining his law, that you 
 are permitted to behold from your present position. Now 
 what is your verdict upon your case, arraigned for your 
 own decision at that bar? What does your whole life tes- 
 tify? What witnesses stand up against you, from all 
 your thoughts, and affections, and words, and deeds? Be- 
 hold that great cloud of witnesses coming into court to 
 appear against you, brought from all the mercies, and priv- 
 ileges, and talents, which you have not improved in God's 
 10 
 
146 SERMON VI. 
 
 service. See how sternly Conscience demands to be heard, 
 and testifies that you have always loved the world, to the 
 exclusion of its Maker, and sought your happiness in its 
 service, to the exclusion of the service of God. But 
 alas ! what witness is this that now comes in, claiming that 
 none else need be heard. Meek, and gentle, and loving, 
 but decided and fixed. It is the Gospel. It comes with 
 all its offers of peace, all its invitations and promises, all 
 its love and grace. It holds up the blood of Jesus Christ 
 which was shed for you, and cries, "These all hath he re- 
 jected. I called continually, but he refused. I stretched 
 out my hands, but he did not regard. He despised all 
 my counsel, and would none of my reproof." Oh! poor 
 sinner, what answer can you make to such testimony? 
 What can you say to escape the certain condemnation of 
 God? Whither will you flee? No where can you flee, if 
 all this shall take place with you after this present day of 
 grace is over. But I tell you where now you can flee. 
 That rejected blood of Christ still cries, come. The door 
 of access to the mercy of God, through Christ, is still 
 open, and over it is written still, come. There is bound- 
 less mercy in God for you, if only in that way, Jesus 
 Christ, you will seek it. And will you heap sin upon sin, 
 judgment upon judgment, by refusing to come? God for- 
 bid ! God, in mercy to your soul, persuade you to come, 
 and be found holding on to the cross of Jesus, pleading 
 his blood, abiding in him as the ark of God, in that day 
 when you shall be called, with all of us, to appear at his 
 judgment! Amen. 
 
. vii. 
 
 THE GREAT FEAST AND THE VAIN EXCUSE. 
 
 LUKE xiv. 16, 17, 18. 
 
 " Then said he unto them, a certain man made a great supper and bade 
 many, and sent his servants, at supper time, to say to them that were 
 bidden, Come, for all things are now ready. And they all, with one 
 consent, began to make excuse." 
 
 ONE of our Lord's objects in delivering this parable, was 
 to illustrate, by way of prediction, the reception which 
 would be given in the world to those offers of salvation 
 with which his Apostles were soon to be sent forth. The 
 same is our object, in the present selection of this parable, 
 or so much of it as the text contains. We wish to draw 
 your attention to the treatment which the gospel invitation 
 receives from the great mass of those to whom it is sent, 
 and to the aspect of such a reception in the sight of God. 
 66 A certain man (we read) made a great feast" That 
 certain man, is represented in the corresponding parable, 
 given by St. Matthew,* as a King ; and the great feast is 
 there described as a marriage feast ; and the occasion of 
 it, as the marriage of the King's son. These several par- 
 ticulars are given by the Lord, with the evident design of 
 enhancing the dignity and excellence of the festival,, 
 and consequently the honor and favor shown by the 
 King to the "many" whom he bade to it; and their duty. 
 
 *Matt. xxii. 2. 
 
148 SERMON VII. 
 
 as a matter of thankfulness, as well as of obedience, to 
 embrace the invitation. 
 
 Now you can have no doubt that, under that figure of 
 a great feast thus provided, is intended to be represented 
 all that eternal life and glory in the presence, and favor, 
 and communion of God and the Lamb, to which we are all 
 so earnestly called a feast of blessedness which God only 
 could make; and to which his sovereign mercy alone 
 could have bade the needy, and perishing, and unworthy, of 
 all nations, to come. It is a marriage-feast. The bride- 
 groom is the only begotten Son of God. So intimate is 
 the union which takes place between him and all those 
 who embrace the invitations of his grace, and come unto 
 him, and receive out of his fullness, and live by him so 
 affectionate, and tender, and inseparable is that union, that 
 it is likened, in the parable, to a marriage union. Be- 
 lievers in Jesus are espoused unto their Lord. The cove- 
 nant between them, is a marriage covenant. By virtue 
 thereof, they become, for all the purposes of their sancti- 
 fieation, and justification, and life, in and through him, 
 "one flesh," " bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh" so 
 that their debts, and wants, and infirmities, are his to bear 
 for them ; and his righteousness and Spirit are theirs to 
 possess in him. Thus, the whole company of true believers 
 in Jesus, as composing his living Church, are called in 
 Scripture his Bride; and on that glorious day, when all 
 believers shall have been made ready to be received unto 
 Christ, in his kingdom on high, having been perfectly 
 cleansed from all sin, and made, in body and spirit, per- 
 fectly conformed unto himself, then shall take place " the 
 marriage of the Lamb." The Lord will receive his 
 
THE GREAT FEAST AND THE VAIN EXCUSE. 149 
 
 perfected people unto himself; that where he is, there 
 they may be also. As a glorious Church, without spot or 
 wrinkle, they will all be " arrayed (for a marriage garment) 
 in fine linen, clean and white; for the fine linen is the 
 righteousness of saints." All that Christ hath obtained, 
 by the purchase of his obedience and sacrifice, they will 
 be made to share, as their marriage dower. They will sit 
 with him on his throne. They will enter into the joy of 
 their Lord. His mind will be perfectly in them ; his glory 
 all upon them. He, the heir of the kingdom, in his own 
 right; they, inheriting all things, as joint-heirs with, and 
 in virtue of their union unto him. "When Christ, who is 
 our life, shall appear, then shall we also appear with him 
 in glory." 
 
 The maker of the feast is represented as sending out 
 his servants, " to say to them that were bidden, Come, for all 
 things are ready" 
 
 The point of time in the gospel history, was when the 
 Apostles received their full commission to go and preach 
 the Gospel to every creature. All was ready when our 
 Lord, having offered up himself for the sins of the world, 
 having risen from the dead and ascended into heaven and 
 sat down upon the right hand of the Majesty on high, as 
 the Prophet, Priest and King of his Church, a Prince and 
 Saviour, rich in grace and power, had given the promised 
 evidence of his readiness for his whole work in the pouring 
 out of the Holy Ghost, on the day of Pentecost. That " bap- 
 tism of the Holy Ghost " testified by the gift of tongues and 
 the cloven flames of fire, was the sign from heaven that 
 all things were ready on the side of God; that the atone- 
 ment was accepted, the ever-living intercession of our 
 
150 SERMON VII. 
 
 High Priest begun, the new and living way prepared, 
 Christ ready to be made unto all that should come unto 
 God, by him, "wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and 
 redemption." All was ready. Nothing remained to be 
 done to make the salvation of God most perfect, most ap- 
 plicable to all conditions of men, most free to the unwor- 
 thiest, most accessible to the neediest and most feeble. 
 The wisdom, the love, the mercy, the holiness, the riches 
 of the grace of God, ' had finished the preparation. All 
 that was now to be done was for sinners to come and take 
 of the feast and live forever. Then began the servants 
 of the King, the Apostles of Christ, to preach the Gospel 
 to all nations, to publish on every side, a full and free sal- 
 vation, "without money and without price," to all believ- 
 ers in Jesus, saying to all the needy and perishing: "Come 
 come to Jesus. He is able to save to the uttermost all 
 that come unto God by him." Continually has that call 
 been repeated since the Apostles finished their course. 
 How often have you all heard that sound ? How repeat- 
 edly, how urgently, how importunately, have you all been 
 entreated, by the messengers of God, to come and partake 
 in what his grace has made ready in Christ ! 
 
 This brings us to the last words of our text and those 
 on which we shall now chiefly speak : " And they ally ivith 
 one consent, legan to make excuse." Such was their answer 
 to the King's invitation to the marriage festival of his son. 
 In the parable as given by St. Matthew, it is said, "-they 
 ivould not come"* This is certainly the honest aspect of 
 the case. It was not because of any impediments or dif- 
 ficulties that they came not, but simply that they were 
 
 *Matt. xxii.3. 
 
THE GREAT FEAST AND THE VAIN EXCUSE. 151 
 
 unwilling their hearts were not right. But in St. Luke 
 that unwillingness is politely disguised by those who would 
 not, under an exterior intended to be considered as respect- 
 ful to the King whose honors and riches were refused. 
 They made excuse: "I pray thee have me excused." In 
 St. Matthew, we read that "the remnant" that is, we must 
 understand, a certain part of those who were bidden, and 
 who were unwilling, but not respectful enough even to 
 attempt an excuse, or wise enough to desire one, proceed- 
 ed to such lengths that they took the servants of the King 
 and " entreated them spitefully and sleiv them." Their aver- 
 sion, singular as it was, to becoming the guests of the King, 
 on an occasion so distinguished, was too strong to be veil- 
 ed. It sought no concealment; but at once declared its 
 real spirit, its decided enmity, in the persecution and 
 death of those who brought the invitation. 
 
 Such precisely is the state of things under the publica- 
 tion of that message of mercy and grace with which the 
 ministry of the gospel is charged. Which of the first 
 heralds was not spitefully entreated by those to whom they 
 went in the name of the Great King? Hardly had they 
 opened their message before Stephen was stoned to death, 
 and James, the brother of John, was slain with the sword, 
 and Peter was shut up in prison, to be delivered to the 
 rage of the people. The world has been ever since essen- 
 tially the same in its spirit towards the Gospel. Some 
 are so offended at it, so kindled into positive persecution 
 by the urgency of its love and the terms of repentance 
 and holiness on which its salvation is offered, that they 
 cannot patiently hear its voice, but treat it as an enemy, 
 casting it from them and sometimes even in these days, 
 
152 SERMON VII. 
 
 they lay hands of violence on the messengers, put them 
 in loathsome dungeons and to a cruel death; while 
 there is often a spirit manifested by some, of such 
 bitter hatred and opposition, that it requires no special 
 sagacity to see that, so far as the ready mind is concerned, 
 there are not wanting even in this our land, the materials 
 and the agents by which the fires of deadly persecution 
 might be speedily kindled and the messengers of grace 
 would be spitefully entreated and killed. 
 . But many of those to whom the Gospel message comes, 
 are represented as making excuse. They have no idea of 
 rejecting it. They suppose they commit no such griev- 
 ous sin. They desire to be considered as treating it 
 with great respect. They think it a great mercy that such 
 salvation has been provided. That the Gospel is not only 
 true, but most important, and necessary; that death can- 
 not be met in peace without its hopes, they freely own. 
 That, sometime before they shall be called to face that 
 great terror of the sinner, they will have put on that only 
 armor, they earnestly hope. Nothing Would fill them with 
 more dismay, than to be assured that their day of grace 
 will have expired before they will have embraced the Gos- 
 pel. Every anticipation of death-bed thoughts and anxie- 
 ties is associated in their minds with expectations of re- 
 penting, and praying, and endeavoring at last to become 
 partakers of Christ. 
 
 But the invitation and calling of God is, " Come, for all 
 things are ready" It means, come now, because all things 
 are ready now. But there lies the difficulty " Come by 
 and by ; all things will be ready j ust when it shall suit 
 your convenience to come" that would be the acceptable 
 message to them. But God's set time is now. To-day is 
 
THE GREAT FEAST AND THE VAIN EXCUSE. 153 
 
 the day of salvation. As soon as God is ready to receive 
 sinners, is the time for sinners to go to him. But alas! 
 his time is not theirs. All things on their part are not 
 ready. They are not ready for God, however he may be 
 ready for them. The world also has its invitation abroad, 
 and proclaims its feast, and calls the many, and blazons 
 its attractions, and they cannot excuse themselves there. 
 They think they will avail themselves of both but of 
 each according to their own convenience. The world's 
 festivcd first, and for that their days of vigor and health, 
 their prime of life, when they can best enjoy and best 
 make return. Then, the invitation of God, when infirmity 
 comes on, and life is getting weary, and death is near. 
 So that when the message of the great God and King is 
 heard, saying, "Come, I have prepared my feast of grace; 
 the lamb for the burnt-offering has been slain; the free 
 and perfect salvation, purchased by the sacrifice of my 
 beloved Son is ready ; come ye ! come ye ! for why will ye 
 die ?" their answer to the messenger, in the secret lan- 
 guage of the heart is, " I pray thee have me excused. My 
 convenient season for such things has not yet come. Let 
 the feast be kept. Let the table wait. God will surely 
 be patient with me. He ' desire th not the death of a sin- 
 ner.' I expect some day to come. I have no thought 
 of dying without the consolations of religion; but not now. 
 God will surely excuse me in this deliberate preference of 
 my own will to his I" 
 
 Meanwhile, you do not see these persons keeping away 
 from the constant repetition and urging of that same invi- 
 tation. They attend where it is preached. They perhaps 
 approve of no ministry that does not exhibit it continually. 
 
154 SERMON VII. 
 
 All this while, it enters not into their thoughts that in 
 the sight of God they are guilty of so great a sin, every 
 moment, as an actual rejection of his grace and denial of 
 Christ. On the contrary, they draw a broad line of sep- 
 aration, and that too, entirely in their own favor, between 
 the case of those who will have nothing to do with the 
 Gospel and expect never to care for it, because they deny 
 its truth; and their own case, who, not only believing its 
 truth and preciousness, but knowing they cannot be saved 
 without it, so abuse their light, and dishonor their con- 
 victions, and practically deny what they know, as to ex- 
 cuse themselves from all present participation in its duties 
 and promises. 
 
 We come now to the sort of excuses usually made. 
 In the parable they are classified. Our Lord has there 
 presented three forms of them, as examples under which 
 all may be arranged. One man is represented as answer- 
 ing the servant of the King : " / have bought a piece of 
 ground and I must needs go and see it" Another, " / 
 have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them" An- 
 other, "I have married a ivife and therefore I cannot corned 
 Each says, "I pray thee have me excused." And each 
 seems to think he has given a sufficient reason and has 
 treated the royal condescension and kindness quite respect- 
 fully. Now you perceive, that, while these excuses are 
 very different in form, they are in substance alike. They 
 indicate persons of different classes, but agreeing in one 
 main feature of character. They are all drawn from things 
 foreign to the feast. The men have something to do at 
 home and therefore they cannot go abroad; or they have 
 Something that interests them so much at home that they 
 
THE GREAT FEAST AND THE VAIN EXCUSE. 155 
 
 have no wish to go abroad, though it were even to such 
 a festival. They profess no objection to what they are 
 called to enjoy. It is no doubt very good, and they 
 are no doubt, very much favored in being called to it; 
 but they have matters of their own to see to, which they 
 are not willing to lay aside. Now what does this suggest 
 in regard to the excuses usually made, in men's hearts, 
 for not embracing the Gospel ? They are not founded on 
 any professed objections arising out of the blessings of- 
 fered. The Lord is gracious; his grace is unsearchable. 
 Eternal life in his kingdom is worth all worlds. This they 
 deny not. Their excuses are various in form, but they all 
 unite in being drawn from things of this life, from inter- 
 ests of the world. The love of this present world, in some 
 of its aspects, is the sum and substance of all ; such an 
 immersion of mind and heart in the cares and interests of 
 this life that the mercies of God for another, however pro- 
 fessedly reverenced, are not heartily valued; however hon- 
 ored as true, are neglected as comparatively unimportant. 
 Let us take the illustrations afforded in the parable. 
 One man has bought his piece of ground, and must needs go 
 and see it. He represents the man of business, who is 
 prospered, so that he is "adding field to field." The 
 blessing of God is on his labor and toil ; and by that 
 very blessing, he is made to feel as if he could do without 
 God. The more prosperous, the more must he be ex- 
 cused for not being religious. The more blessed with 
 things of this life, so much the more is his heart over- 
 charged with them ; so much the less room there is for 
 thoughts of God's goodness, and of his own debt of gratitude 
 and love ; so much the less he feels the need of those infin- 
 
156 SERMON VII. 
 
 itely richer blessings to which God calls him in the gospel; 
 and so much the more urgently prays, " Have me excused."" 
 
 The next illustration is that of a man who has bought 
 five yoke of oxen and thinks he must needs go to prove them. 
 He represents the diligent laboring man, pursuing some 
 honest and appropriate vocation, in a lower range of world- 
 ly gradation than the former. He is dependent, his 
 family are dependent, on his daily industry. He must be 
 excused attendance at the King's table, because he cannot 
 neglect the supply of his own household ; as if to honor 
 the King's grace were not the very way to serve his own 
 necessities. His doctrine is, that men of diligence in 
 business, laboring for the daily bread of their families, 
 must be excused embracing eternal life, excused from seek- 
 ing the everlasting friendship and favor of God, from whom 
 alone their strength to labor, their ability to reap where they 
 sow, and to enjoy when they reap, is derived; as if to 
 serve God were not the shortest way to serve themselves ; 
 and to be allowed so much as to gather up the crumbs 
 that fall from his table, were not a surer way to provide 
 for their households than to gain all the world, and lose 
 his blessing with it. 
 
 The condemnation here is not that such persons are so 
 diligent in business, but that their diligence is confined to 
 the least part of their business ; that they are laboring 
 for the meat which perisheth, instead of that which endu- 
 reth unto everlasting life; that they are forgetting eter- 
 nity in the zeal for a day ; neglecting immortal souls, for 
 dying bodies ; setting God aside, as if to please him were 
 no part of their proper daily business, imagining that it is 
 possible, in any real sense, to provide for themselves in 
 
THE GREAT FEAST AND THE VAIN EXCUSE. 157 
 
 this life, while God's will and blessing are neglected. The 
 condemnation is, that they allow the concerns of the field, 
 or the shop, or the counting room, or the office, so to fill 
 their hearts and days, that when God comes to them in 
 behalf of their souls, they have no leisure to hear him, no 
 room to admit him. He must wait till they shall find a 
 more convenient season ; and when, after such treatment, 
 he condescends still to plead with them, and to say, " I 
 ask not that you be less diligent in your secular business, 
 but only that, instead of setting your hearts upon it, you 
 give me your hearts, that I may giveyow my saving bless- 
 ing" alas! the answer that arises, like the cold mist 
 from the ground which God's rain has just watered, is, 
 " Our hearts are too much occupied already ; we have no 
 affections at liberty ; we are so taken up with things that 
 are seen and are temporal, that we have no time, no heart, 
 for unseen and eternal:" and what is still more strange, 
 they answer thus, as if it were something like a valid and 
 justifying excuse. 
 
 There is a third class and condition represented in the 
 parable: that of the man of domestic contentment and 
 blessings, who is so much occupied and satisfied with 
 them that he feels no need of any that are higher, and 
 better, and more enduring. His home is his temple; 
 there he worships ; but God is not there. All of home 
 is represented in the parable, in the person of that one 
 being, on whom all its happiness so mainly depends the 
 wife. " I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come." 
 The case is presented as a type of the manner in which 
 the dearest earthly blessings God ever gives, are made to 
 become our strongest masters, our most ensnaring idols, 
 
158 SERMON VII. 
 
 to keep our hearts from loving him. A sweet home, 
 such as a good wife, and a faithful mother, and dear chil- 
 dren make, many that hear the Gospel have received of 
 God; and this precious blessing keeps their hearts from 
 God ; this, when they are called to seek a better heritage, 
 an everlasting, holy home, where they and theirs may all 
 be at rest and full of joy, when all earthly things shall 
 have passed away ; where they may see God, face to face, in 
 the endless festival of a Saviour's love, oh ! then, it is this 
 very home on earth that holds them fast, and keeps them 
 away. They are too well satisfied with their present rest, 
 to set their hearts on that which "remaineth for the peo- 
 ple of God." Let us pause a moment over such a case : 
 The domestic man, to whom no attractions on earth are 
 comparable with those of his own fireside; who, instead 
 of seeking enjoyment anywhere else in preference, returns 
 from wherever else his duty may take him, to rest, and 
 soothe, and comfort, and satisfy his heart at home ; who 
 comes from his daily work and meets the welcome of his 
 wife, and the fond embraces of his children, and delights 
 his heart among them, and feels how theirs beat, pulse by 
 pulse, with his, and knows that his cup runneth over 
 we tremble for that man, that sweet home, that whole 
 domestic circle, when we see in him who heads it and 
 should lead it all to God, a heart so satisfied therein that 
 God is forgotten, and from that temple of his own making 
 and blessing is excluded ; that he who gave those blessings 
 that they might win that parent's heart is not sought, 
 because he is not wanted. Not wanted ! Yes, they feel 
 no need of him. They are "rich and in need of nothing." 
 Oh ! it is fearful to look into a household of so many 
 
THE GREAT FEAST AND THE VAIN EXCUSE. 159 
 
 blessings and see that what really prevents the father and 
 mother from feeling any need of God's grace, is the very 
 fullness with which his providence has enriched them; that 
 what he sent as winning arguments to persuade them to 
 give him their hearts, are turned into the very chains that 
 bind their hearts away from him. Will God allow this? 
 Will his compassion for that family permit it to go on 
 unwarned, unvisited ? Will he not come down in mercy, 
 but in chastisement, and take away one idol and another, 
 till this setting up of their idols in their hearts shall cease, 
 and they will feel their need of him, and turn unto him 
 as their only sufficient rest? 0, remember those words: 
 "I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God." Give him not 
 such reason to hang your house in mourning ! How often, 
 in mercy to men's souls, does God visit them for these 
 things, sending sorrow throughout their household, turn- 
 ing their cup of blessing to bitterness, and causing their 
 very rest to become their weariness, in order to make 
 them know how poor, how empty, how desolate is every 
 thing, where God is not their portion, and rest, and refuge. 
 And now, having looked at the three classes of those 
 who are represented as making excuse, it occurs to us as 
 something exceedingly remarkable, that sinners, soon to die, 
 soon to stand before God in judgment, should, in the least, 
 desire to be excused from embracing his salvation won- 
 derful beyond degree ! What! the naked excusing them- 
 selves from being clothed? the lepers from being cleansed? 
 the hungry from being fed ? the condemned from being 
 pardoned? the perishing from being saved? Yes, as 
 if God were to be the only gainer; as if you were 
 called to make a great sacrifice and endure a great trial, to 
 
160 SERMON VII. 
 
 come to God and receive his peace, and obtain a blessed 
 home in his kingdom, and have the sting of death and the 
 terrors of the judgment day all removed ! How can it be 
 accounted for? When you read in the parable, that in 
 answer to the King's invitation to his great feast, they 
 that were called, "all began with one accord, to make 
 excuse ; " and when one pleads one pretext, and the next 
 some other pretext, all perfectly futile, you feel that 
 there is something very extraordinary in the matter, 
 something which the reasons given do not explain. Who 
 ever heard of the subjects of a gracious Prince earnestly 
 praying to be let off from accepting his invitation to his 
 banqueting hall, and to the marriage festival of his son ? 
 Who ever heard of their pleading such hindrances as are 
 given in the parable ? There is a want of nature in this 
 whole matter. It was never met with in real life. All 
 this is designed. It is intended to make it seem so much 
 the more remarkable, so much the more in need of ex- 
 planation, that men should treat as they do the invitation 
 of the Gospel, where the King is our God, our Judge, our 
 Creator, our Father ; and the feast is life eternal in Christ 
 Jesus ; and the called, who make excuse and will not come, 
 are poor, perishing sinners, needing the mercy and grace 
 of God above all things, and certain to be lost forever, 
 except they embrace the very invitation which they 
 refuse. 
 
 Think of some naked, starving pauper perishing on the 
 highway! A benevolent prince, as he passes, is arrested 
 by his misery, and bids him arise, and go with him to his 
 sumptuous home, where bread and raiment shall be sure 
 to him all his life. You hear from lips almost ready to 
 
THE GREAT FEAST AND THE VAIN EXCUSE. 161 
 
 be sealed in death the strange answer: "I pray to be ex- 
 cused. I cannot make the sacrifice." Who would not 
 say, The man has lost his senses; much misery has made 
 him mad? 
 
 Enter the cell of a criminal under sentence of death, wait- 
 ing the summons to the scaffold. The prison-door opens. 
 Is it the messenger of the law come to say, that the 
 time has arrived? No, it is the Lord of the country, 
 his countenance beaming with benevolence. He comes, 
 to say, "A ransom is found thou art redeemed from 
 death. Arise, and let thy chains be loosed, and come 
 forth into peace and life." You expect the prisoner will 
 leap for joy and embrace the knees of him who brings 
 such tidings. But see ! he is troubled and silent ! Is he 
 deaf? Is he crazed? Has he misunderstood? He is 
 actually troubled by the tidings. He is anxiously search- 
 ing his mind for an answer by which, without being 
 disrespectful, to put off the man who has intruded upon 
 his dungeon, with such an errand. At length you 
 hear him, "Pray, sir, consider my circumstances. This 
 dungeon is my home. Here, in these bonds, is my rest. 
 I am attached to my prospects and cannot sacrifice 
 them. Plans for the better adorning of my prison are 
 not yet complete ; how can I leave them ! By and by 
 it will be more convenient. I appreciate your kind- 
 ness, but pray let me be excused ! " Poor wretch, who 
 would not think his prison had made him mad? 
 
 Change the scene ! A man is under sentence of death 
 at the bar of God. The condemnation of his sins reaches 
 to everlasting woe. He knows not but the next hour he 
 may take up his abode forever in hell. The Lord of life,, 
 the Prince of peace, the God of glory, in his wonderful 
 11 
 
162 SERMON VII. 
 
 grace, proclaims, "I have found a ransom a precious price 
 has bought thee. Everlasting life and bliss await thee. 
 Forsake thy sins; flee unto Jesus, put thy trust in 
 him; follow him and all is well forever." By his word 
 preached, by his Spirit striving, God reiterates the invita- 
 tion, entreating, exhorting, not willing that any immortal 
 soul should perish within reach of such blessedness. The 
 man excuses himself! In his heart he begs to be permit- 
 ted to decline! Is there a spectacle on which angels 
 look with such amazement, as that perishing sinner thus 
 turning away from the salvation of God? How his miser- 
 able pleas must seem to them in their deep reverence, as 
 they behold at one view the majesty of the great God, the 
 heaven of heavens, the hell of the lost, and that poor, im- 
 mortal soul at the brink of its bottomless gulf! He has 
 so much to do for this life, that he cannot attend to the 
 life eternal. He has some scheme of worldly business on 
 hand, which he cannot interrupt to think of Christ. He 
 has some pleasures of this world to enjoy, which he cannot 
 sacrifice for salvation, and heaven, and God. The man be- 
 seeches God to let him go on; for such is the real language 
 of his heart. He beseeches God not to disturb him in his 
 course. "I pray thee have me excused." He is willing 
 to attend Church; to believe in Christianity; to give his 
 mite when called on for good works and he expects, 
 some time or other, to give his heart to God, but he is not 
 willing to go any further now. He wishes to be allowed 
 to remain contented with his condition, till it shall be con- 
 venient to change. So that to have the light of truth 
 flash straight in his face; to have the warnings of God 
 thundering at his ear; to be convinced of his folly and 
 
THE GREAT FEAST AND THE VAIN EXCUSE. 163 
 
 sin when he is not ready to renounce them ; to be made 
 to see that his house is in flames before he is willing to 
 leave it, would too much trouble him. He therefore ear- 
 nestly desires that all this may stand aside, till he shall 
 find it convenient to give it audience. But what is all 
 this but the voice of God, the mercy, the pity, the earliest 
 love of God, seeking the salvation of that soul ? And 
 what is his strong desire to keep all this at a distance yet, 
 but an earnest beseeching of God to let him alone, and 
 allow him to take his rest in the world, and not trouble 
 him with so much light and conviction, so clear a sight of 
 his sins, so deep a sense of the worth of his soul, so strong 
 an impression of eternity, that he cannot be at ease, un- 
 less he repent? Oh! it is an awful prayer that a sinner 
 thus makes, to be let alone in his condemnation, in his 
 bondage, in his nearness to everlasting woe a prayer 
 which comes often much more sincerely, much more from 
 the heart, than many a better prayer from many a nom- 
 inal Christian. And a prayer it is that God answers. 
 Men that make it are sometimes taken at their word. 
 They would not that God should bless them now with his 
 Holy Spirit, and he takes his Spirit away, not only for this 
 time, but for all time, and they are left undisturbed indeed, 
 to get all they can in the world, and make the best of a 
 life, and a death, and an eternity, without God. 
 
 It is written of the prodigal son, that before he became 
 sensible of his folly and sin, "he came to himself" Then 
 he said, "/ will arise and go to my father" Let the man 
 who thus neglects or delays the salvation of his soul, but 
 once come to himself see where he is, what he is, what all 
 is worth in comparison with the peace of God, and he too 
 
164 SERMON VII. 
 
 will instantly arise and go, and will not tarry till lie gets 
 to the feet of his Father, and pours out a full heart of re- 
 pentance and supplication before him. 
 
 And now let us put the question, how can all that we 
 have described be accounted for this strong and general 
 disposition to be excused from accepting the invitation of 
 God; the folly and emptiness of the excuses given; the 
 ingenuity with which they are perseveringly clothed in new 
 forms as circumstances vary; and the tenacity with which 
 they are held and used for the quieting of conscience under 
 troublesome alarms of the truth, no matter how often ex- 
 posed in all their vanity. It would seem as if to the people 
 so invited and so excusing themselves, there were something 
 positively odious in God's feast of grace; something ex- 
 ceedingly opposed to the ruling dispositions of their hearts 
 in the Gospel of Jesus. Can this be true ? Is there such 
 strong opposition between the sinner's heart and the sin- 
 ner's God, the will of man and the following of Christ? 
 I pray you, consider. What else offers the least expla- 
 nation of the phenomenon we have been looking at ? Let 
 me beg that they whose manner of receiving the Gospel 
 has been described, would consider where the difficulty 
 does really lie ? Is its heart truly expressed in the rea- 
 sons you commonly give for not seeking after God? You 
 have seen and felt the emptiness of those reasons again 
 and again, but the difficulty was unchanged. Ah ! there 
 is a truth here which must be learned, however hard to 
 be admitted. St. Paul goes to the root of the matter: 
 " The carnal mind is enmity against God" The disposi- 
 tions of the unrenewed mind are averse to his holy will 
 and service. Nothing less humiliating explains the case. 
 
THE GREAT FEAST AND THE VAIN EXCUSE. 165 
 
 No duty presents such claims, such motives ; none meets 
 such general and strong reluctance. No interest is pretend- 
 ed to be comparable with this in importance; none meets 
 such impatience under its importunity, or such desire to 
 be delivered from its counsels. Ah! the heart is not 
 right. The resistance is there. The excuses are but 
 soft pretences. It is not the cares or the pleasures of 
 this life that keep the sinner from the grace of God. 
 The power is not in them. They work by a power in the 
 sinner's heart. His heart is so sinful, so alienated from 
 God, so averse to his holy service, so dead to all the in- 
 ducements of his grace, so alive to sin and the world, that 
 change of heart, a new heart, to be born again, is the only 
 remedy. Oh ! yes and as soon as that change of heart 
 does take place, by the grace of God, in any worldly 
 minded man, how immediately do all those reasons he was 
 wont to give for not embracing the Gospel, vanish as va- 
 por! How do they then seem as so many strong evi- 
 dences that the natural heart is "deceitful above all 
 things, and desperately wicked !" How plainly does he now 
 see that the one simple cause of all the difficulty hitherto 
 experienced in the efforts of the truth to bring him to God, 
 was the desperate, yet ingeniously masked, resistance of 
 his heart, fighting against God, and continually throwing 
 itself into one cover after another, to conceal its real char- 
 acter. How wonderful then appears the long-suffering of 
 God, in having so long borne with him, while thus reject- 
 ing his grace ! 
 
 And now, let us see how all this appears in the sight of 
 God. In the parable as given by St. Luke, the treatment 
 of the invitation is given as it was expressed by those in- 
 
166 SERMON VII. 
 
 vited: They made excuse. But in the parable as given 
 by St. Matthew, the treatment is described as it appeared 
 to the Maker of the feast. " They made light of it, and 
 went their way, one to his farm, another to his merchan- 
 dise." 
 
 It is not meant that they considered themselves as 
 making light of the King's invitation ; nor that they did 
 not intend to excuse themselves as respectfully as pos- 
 sible; but that, however they may have intended to ap- 
 pear, the King interpreted their conduct as nothing less 
 than making light of all the honor and enjoyment to which 
 he had condescended to bid them. Certainly; for who 
 would not think that to esteem the privilege of partaking 
 in the King's festival as less interesting than to go to one's 
 farm or merchandise, is to make light of it indeed? 
 
 Such then is the interpretation which the Lord God 
 assigns to all this making of excuse, when he, the King 
 whose laws we have broken, whose condemnation we de- 
 serve, instead of sending us away under his endless wrath, 
 invites us to partake in the riches of his saving grace. Under 
 whatever form you decline, whatever reason you give, he 
 considers you as making light of his mercy, and compas- 
 sion, and love. You do not intend to be so understood. 
 You wish, in all your ways, to be very respectful to the 
 Gospel, and to be considered as having a very high regard 
 for what it offers. Even in the manner of declining its 
 invitation you suppose you are rendering it a respectful 
 tribute; for instead of denying its claims, you confess them, 
 and the infinite importance of its consolations, and you 
 express the hope that you will one day accept them ; only 
 you are not ready yet; you set them aside for the present. 
 
THE GKEAT FEAST AND THE VAIN EXCUSE. 167 
 
 Be not deceived ! God sees beneath all that veil, how 
 ever it may blind your eyes. In his view, you make light 
 of all that he has done for you and all that he offers you 
 in Christ. Is it not true ? How can you make light of 
 any thing, but by so treating it, as to show that you lightly 
 estimate it, that you account it as of little value. I speak 
 of that estimate which the life, not the creed, or the sen- 
 timent, or the confession of the lips, expresses. 
 
 Well, then, here is a salvation which cost the deep 
 humiliation, the awful agonies and death of God's beloved 
 Son. Angels desire to look into it as the greatest wonder 
 of love and grace. God, by his word and ministry, sets 
 it before you, and entreats you to make it your own. 
 Now, suppose Satan, in endeavoring to persuade you to 
 neglect it, should offer the whole world as his price where- 
 with to persuade you, and that considering the immensity 
 of the bribe, you should consent. Surely you would make 
 light of the grace of God ; " for what is a man profited, 
 if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul ? " What 
 an indignity to the grace of God, to think this world a 
 recompense for the neglect of his salvation ! 
 
 But far more inexcusable is yo'ur case. It is no such 
 vast consideration to which you have yielded. You have 
 weighed the peace of God against a matter of ordinary 
 worldly business, or pleasure, or personal gratification, or 
 palpable sinfulness. You have allowed such things, prac- 
 tically to outweigh the precious things of the Gospel, 
 the dying love of Christ, the mercies of God, the glory 
 of his kingdom ! Thus have you grievously dishonored 
 his great salvation. In your practical estimate, you have 
 weighed in the balance, the emptiness of a short and 
 
168 SERMON VII. 
 
 worldly life on earth, spent in constant peril of hell, against 
 eternal blessedness in the peace and presence of God; 
 and the latter you have decided to be the least precious, 
 the least entitled to your heart's devotion. You have 
 acted, year after year, on that estimate, and in so doing, 
 have incurred the more guilt, because it has been directly 
 opposed to the estimate, which in your understanding you 
 were obliged to make, and in your professed opinions, 
 avowed. What if a man should stand on the shore of the 
 ocean, and profess to measure its waters in the hollow of 
 his hand? Would he not make light of it? But have 
 you not offered such indignity to the mercy of God, in 
 Christ Jesus? 0, yes ! in all the reasons you plead for 
 not coming to him, in all your excuses, you make light of 
 that boundless breadth and depth of grace. What could 
 not be purchased but by the sacrifice of God's only be- 
 gotten Son on the cross, cannot be thus treated without 
 the most grievous guilt. 
 
 "All that a man hath will he give for his life" pro- 
 perty, labor, intense protracted suffering nothing seems 
 to a man too high a price to pay for his life. We never 
 make light of that. How would it sound to hear one 
 say, "I have so much to do that I cannot give any time 
 to save my life. I am so much attached to the world, 
 that I can make no sacrifice of it, to save rny life !" Men 
 have a more respectful sense of the worth of this life, 
 which, after all, is but a vapor, than to speak in that way. 
 But when the consideration is life eternal, a question of 
 heaven or hell; when it is the wrath of God that is 
 to be escaped then almost any sacrifice is too costly ; 
 men are busied about this or that worldly matter, and can- 
 
THE GREAT FEAST AND THE VAIN EXCUSE. 169 
 
 not see to it, and they must be excused; and they are 
 thought quite reasonable. The Spirit of God must wait 
 their convenience. They will be ready by and by to 
 attend to him, when the world can be enjoyed no longer. 
 They will give ear upon a death-bed, when heart and flesh 
 are failing. Yes! those miserable leavings of life they 
 will give to God ! And is not this making light of his 
 grace ? 
 
 But the guilt and wonder of it are the greater, because 
 you profess to believe the scriptures and the infinite im- 
 portance of what they reveal. That an infidel who 
 despises the gospel as a fable, and makes a mock of hell 
 as a dream, that he should prefer any bauble to a Chris- 
 tian hope, is no marvel; but that they who have no 
 doubt of the dread events of the judgment day, and 
 know that out of Christ is no salvation, should do so 
 that is the wonder. 
 
 But there is nothing to wonder at when we read in the 
 parable, the impressive sequel; "/Sb that servant came and 
 told his Lord these things. Then the King, being angry, 
 answered : I say unto you that none of those men that were 
 bidden, shall taste of my supper" 
 
 My dear friends, let that declaration alarm you. The 
 invitation may cease, the door may be shut, much sooner 
 than you expect. What if it should turn out with you, 
 as with millions, who lived, and excused themselves, and 
 hoped for better things by and by, just as you are doing, 
 and who are now without hope forever that before your ex- 
 cuses are ended, your day of grace shall be ended; your op- 
 portunity, your privileges, God's forbearance, the precious 
 invitations of the Gospel to you, all ended ; and God shall 
 
170 SERMON VII. 
 
 say : " Their prayer shall be answered long enough have 
 I called and they refused. I ivill excuse them. Never 
 shall they come. Never shall they hear another call. 
 The seal is set on their condition forever." Then you 
 die. I go to your funeral a sad funeral, indeed stand- 
 ing beside your coffin, and looking upon your sealed lips 
 and eyes, and thinking of the end of all things that has 
 come upon your immortal soul, I say to myself, where is 
 he now ? how seems to him now the worth of salvation, 
 the preciousness of a hope in Christ? how looks this world 
 to him now since eternity has begun ? how seem now the 
 excuses he was wont to give for not embracing the invita- 
 tion of the Gospel ? Alas ! what light that outer dark- 
 ness has thrown on all things ! what delusions it has un- 
 masked ! what realities it has revealed ! Oh ! that lost 
 soul, what would it now give to hear again that invitation, 
 " Come, for all things are ready ! " and what anguish 
 will it add to his eternal woe, to think how continually 
 that call was once heard and pressed on his acceptance, 
 and how light he made of it, till the opportunity was 
 passed. Oh! he will not make light of the grace of God 
 in that outer darkness, when he shall see them coming 
 from the east and west, from the north and south the 
 least privileged, the men of the fewest opportunities ; and 
 he himself cast out. Oh ! may we never know the 
 thoughts of a lost soul, looking back upon its day of 
 grace and its treatment of the invitation of the grace of 
 God in Jesus Christ ! 
 
SERMOI VIII. 
 
 THE CALL TO DILIGENCE. 
 
 ROMANS xiii. 12. 
 
 The night is far spent ; Ihe day is at hand. 
 
 THE whole duration of our existence, here and hereaf- 
 ter, is, in these words, divided into two parts night and 
 day a single night, a single day. The night begins at 
 birth, the day begins at death. To those who are this 
 side of the grave, it is night; to those who are beyond 
 the grave, it is day. They who died in the Lord, have 
 now the day of endless glory; they who died in their 
 sins, have also their endless day; but as the scriptures 
 speak of it, it is "the day of wrath, and of the revela- 
 tion of the righteous judgment of God."* 
 
 You will observe that the relative position of night 
 and day, in regard to the life of man, is not the same in 
 the text as in certain other passages of scripture. Some- 
 times the comparison is between our present life and our 
 approaching death; between the life that now is, as the 
 only time to work out our salvation, and death, as the 
 final termination of all opportunity of preparing to meet 
 our God; and then the present life is our day, and death 
 is represented as a coming night. Of this sort is the 
 comparison in those words of our Lord, " I must work 
 
 Romans ii. 5. 
 
172 SERMON VIII. 
 
 the works of Him that sent me, while it is day ; the night 
 cometh, when no man can work."* 
 
 But here the comparison is not between life and death, 
 but between two divisions of life the life that we have 
 now, before we die, and the life we shall have when we 
 die. Hence, the present is the night, the future the day. 
 " The night is far spent ; the day is at hand." To some 
 here, it is very near the break of day. 
 
 I. I will show in what sense our present life is justly 
 called the night. 
 
 1st. It is our time of ignorance. At the very best 
 of our condition this side the grave, we walk in igno- 
 rance in respect to matters in the works and ways of God, 
 so innumerable, so immeasurable, that our light elsewhere 
 is but as the spark of the fire-fly upon the bosom of the 
 night. But mistake me not; I do not mean that we have 
 not a clear, and most precious, and sufficient revelation of 
 the truth and will of God, in regard to all things which 
 it was the purpose of God to reveal, as necessary to our 
 doing his will, and attaining our salvation. There is light 
 enough in the Bible, when received by a lowly and pray- 
 erful mind, and when pursued with ready obedience, to 
 teach all we have need, for present duties and interests, 
 to know concerning God and ourselves; His will, and 
 our duty ; His salvation, through Christ, and our way by 
 which to obtain it ; light enough about the way of life, 
 and the passage of death, and the awards and the heri- 
 tage of eternity, and the love and wrath of God, to guide, 
 to stimulate, to comfort us, if we will "run with patience 
 the race that is set before us." But still, even there, 
 
 John ix. 4. 
 
THE CALL TO DILIGENCE. 173 
 
 where the precious revelation of the word of God is most 
 direct and full, and where the meek and lowly mind is 
 conscious that it needs no more, it is revelation directed 
 only here and there, touching only certain points, and em- 
 inences, and headlands. It is but reflected and partial 
 light the moon, not the sun; the light of night, in 
 which we can see enough to shape our course and be com- 
 forted ; not the broad, penetrating daylight, scattering the 
 mists, illuminating the valleys, filling the forests, reveal- 
 ing all things. 
 
 Surely, when you think of the works of God immedi- 
 ately around us, and of what the wisest know of them, 
 you will feel that now is the night. 
 
 Who but the most learned in the various departments 
 of what science calls the ivorks of nature, but religion calls 
 the works of God, can have a just impression of how lit- 
 tle we are capable of knowing there ? We speak, indeed, 
 and justly, of great advances beyond the knowledge of 
 preceding ages, in that field ; wonderful discoveries, as- 
 tonishing results of vast researches. But let us remem- 
 ber, these are all comparative. They are vast and won- 
 derful compared with what was known before; but, com- 
 pared with what we must know remains unknown, and im- 
 possible to be known in the present life compared with 
 vast regions of knowledge in the works of God, all around, 
 and all above, and within the circle of our constant view, 
 but into which the researches of man have never pene- 
 trated, and in this life cannot penetrate one single step 
 what is all human attainment here, but the laborious 
 climbing up of now and then an eminence, only to see a 
 boundless expanse, where foot of man hath never trod? 
 
174 SERMON VIII. 
 
 Our lamp is better, and shines further and brighter, 
 than that of previous centuries. It has greatly extended 
 our illuminated circle. But after all, it is a lamp not 
 the sun; the night is relieved, not broken. It is a very 
 little way that we can go without being lost in the unmit- 
 igated darkness. We discover planets before unknown; 
 we resolve the nebulous spots in the sky into many dis- 
 tinct stars and immense worlds; we calculate the prodi- 
 gous orbits and predict the distant returns of the comets ; 
 we measure the velocity of light, and the bulk and weight 
 of worlds apparently on the outskirts of the universe; 
 but what remains ? Is there an atom of the dust of our 
 own earth is there a spark in the light of our own sun- 
 is there a leaf on the trees of our own forests is there 
 a sensation in our own personal consciousness is there a 
 mote in the sunbeam, that is not yet to our understand- 
 ing an impenetrable mystery ? 
 
 But, my brethren, from the universe of the works of 
 God, turn your thoughts to the universe of his Providence; 
 its boundless embrace, its unfathomable designs, its innu- 
 merable parts, their wonderful minuteness, their wonder- 
 ful greatness ! Think how far our light extends over that 
 world, and you must feel that it is now the night. 
 
 Every least event, the falling of a leaf, the passing of 
 a shadow, the movement of a thought, the death of an 
 insect, is connected, in the counsels of God, as really as 
 the downfall of an empire, with one grand, holy, infinite- 
 ly good and wise design, which, from the beginning, he 
 has been carrying on toward the final consummation, as 
 steadily and surely as the sun ascends the skies; involv- 
 ing infinite complexity of detail ; presenting to our feeble 
 
THE CALL TO DILIGENCE. 175 
 
 vision inextricable confusion and contradiction ; but going 
 on in the continual progress of its vast orbit, with such 
 harmony and perfectness in the sight of God, that all will 
 be finally completed precisely where, and when, and how, 
 his will at first designed. 
 
 But what a world of darkness is all that movement to 
 us, except as we see a little of its surface! How much of 
 it can we trace ? How far can our sounding-line descend 
 into its depths ? How many of its winding labyrinths are 
 we able to follow ? Is there a single course on that chart 
 that our eye can pursue ? Is there a single action of 
 our own, or of any creature, the bearing of which on that 
 movement we can see, or in any degree appreciate, know- 
 ing, as we do, all the while, that every action of every crea- 
 ture is part and parcel of that wondrous system ? 
 
 A few things of God's providence we do know, but only 
 because he has told us. We know that in the moving on of 
 his great purposes, he is present everywhere, and to us all; 
 that his will controls, combines, subordinates all events to 
 his final design; that to each of us there is that freeness 
 which makes us morally accountable for what we do, or 
 leave undone ; that all things shall work together for eter- 
 nal good to them that love God; that the ultimate accom- 
 plishment of the perfect redemption and blessedness of 
 the whole blessed communion of those who believe in his 
 Son Jesus Christ, is the one end to which the whole move- 
 ment is directed ; and that all will issue at last in most 
 wonderfully displaying and glorifying the infinite riches 
 of the wisdom, and goodness, and grace of God to a sinful 
 world. More than this, as to the providence of our Hea- 
 venly Father, we know not' more, we have no need, in 
 
176 SERMON VIII. 
 
 this life, to know. It is our Father's hand that is guid- 
 ing all ; and what need his children to inquire any further ? 
 " His way is in the sea, and his path in the mighty waters, 
 and his footsteps are not known," We cannot follow 
 them ; but we can trust and not be afraid. We may take 
 the lamp of his word, and go forward in our daily obedi- 
 ence, feeling that the path of life and salvation, and so of 
 happiness, here, as well as hereafter, is plain ; but still it 
 is night. 
 
 And now, from considering your knowledge of things 
 present and temporal, proceed to consider what we know 
 of the things future and eternal the world beyond the 
 grave. 
 
 "Now, I know in part" said St. Paul, speaking of that 
 world; and in comparison with him who had been " caught 
 up to the third heaven,"* what can we know ? We have 
 the words of another apostle who was favored with won- 
 derful manifestations of the spiritual world. " We know 
 not what we shall be, (said St. John,) but this we know, 
 that when he (Christ) shall appear, we shall be like him, 
 for we shall see him as he is."| Oh, yes ! blessed be God, 
 we do know this one glorious truth. When our Lord and 
 Saviour shall appear in his second coming to receive his 
 people to his glory, we, if belonging to that company, 
 shall see him as he is, and be like him as he is ; and that 
 knowledge of the future blessedness of his people is 
 enough for every purpose of duty, of encouragement, and 
 of consolation. But beyond what is contained in that one 
 great truth of perfect likeness and communion between 
 Christ and his people, in the presence of his eternal glory, 
 
 *2 Cor. xii. 2. f 1 John iii. 2. 
 
THE CALL TO DILIGENCE. 
 
 what know we of the life and relations of the redeemed 
 during their endless being, in the world to come? What of 
 that elder family of blessed ones, those hosts of God, the 
 angels about his throne, who we know have much to do 
 with us here, and will have more hereafter? What know 
 we of those "principalities and powers in heavenly places," 
 whose everlasting blessedness is to be so like, and so 
 mingled with, our own? What know we of what is con- 
 tinually taking place among us an immortal soul becom- 
 ing disembodied, leaving its bodily tabernacle, going forth 
 as it never was before, and where it never was before its 
 mode of existence, of communication, of action what do 
 we know ? Yea, what of the employments, and residence, 
 and relations, and faculties of immortal souls, after the 
 resurrection, when their bodies, made incorruptible, shall 
 be again inhabited, and the inhabitants divested of all in- 
 firmities; superior to all that we know of the laws of mat- 
 ter, and space, and time; admitted to the interior of mys- 
 teries, of which we know not even the existence; at home 
 in all the boundless domain of light; seeing nothing, as we 
 are compelled to see all things, in the mere outside qualities 
 seeing all things as we see nothing, in the imvard nature ? 
 And concerning the soul that hath no peace with God, 
 but is driven away from his presence into the "outer 
 darkness," what know we, what adequate conception 
 have we, of the awful despair of that soul, when with all 
 its enlarged powers of life, of thought, of ability to realize 
 what it is to be lost forever, to have eternity sealed upon 
 his ruin, he knows that his day of salvation is over, the 
 day of his judgment begun. God has cast him out, his 
 
 12 
 
178 SERMON VIII. 
 
 condition is everlasting? Oh! who knows how eternity 
 seems to that lost soul ? 
 
 But think of a ransomed soul, coming, in the resurrec- 
 tion day, to the full possession of its heavenly inheritance ; 
 think of him as safe forever, in the peace, and love, and 
 immediate presence of " God and the Lamb," bathing in 
 that fullness of joy, with faculties immensely invigo- 
 rated and enlarged, and, for aught we know, multiplied 
 in number ; think of him in the bosom of that glo- 
 rious communion of infinite love, and holiness, and know- 
 ledge, God and the Saviour, and the whole vast assembly 
 of his ransomed people, their communion, one with another, 
 without an interposing veil, spirit to spirit, being to being, 
 never a wave of trouble in that deep sea of blessedness 
 Oh ! what know we now of heaven ! what a time of 
 ignorance is this ! Surely it is the night. 
 
 2d. But we must give you another reason why the 
 present division of our existence is justly called the night. 
 With a large proportion of the human family, it is a period 
 of sleep. " They that sleep, sleep in the night." Men are 
 asleep in regard to their eternal interests, dozing away the 
 time given them to make their peace with God and secure 
 a heritage in Christ ; fast locked in a deadly sleep, so that 
 while the interests at stake are infinite, and the time is 
 fast hastening away, and the warnings are loud around 
 them, and the earth is quaking under the steps of the 
 coming judgment, and a voice from heaven is heard con- 
 tinually crying, "Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise 
 from the dead, and Christ shall give thee life," they sleep 
 on as unmoved and unconcerned as ever. 
 
 Insensibility is a marked feature of sleep. Lift up the 
 
THE CALL TO DILIGENCE. 179 
 
 eye-lid of the sleeper and he does not see. The sleep- 
 walker, with his eyes open, paces the fearful edge of the 
 precipice, but sees not. The heavens are pealing with 
 thunder, but he hears not. A boat is seen rushing down 
 the rapids of Niagara, drawing fearfully near the tremen- 
 dous cataract ; every one that sees is frantic with anxiety 
 for the man that is in it; but that man is perfectly at 
 ease, he knows nothing of the peril, he is asleep. A fellow 
 creature is to be executed for capital crime, at break of 
 day, to-morrow. The scaffold is ready. You go into his 
 dungeon to help him get ready to meet the judgment 
 of God. You can hardly overcome your emotions. But 
 the prisoner has none. He is utterly insensible to the 
 awfulness of his condition. He imagines himself at liberty, 
 and his thoughts are busied with sanguine schemes for the 
 present world. He is asleep. I know not a truer picture 
 of the spiritual slumber in which impenitent men are 
 drowned, in regard to their actual state before God, and 
 the great work of life which demands their instant effort. 
 Oh ! what is condemnation at a bar whose extremest pen- 
 alty can only kill the body, to the condemnation of 
 God, which forever destroys both soul and body in hell? 
 And what sleep is so strange, what insensibility so fear- 
 ful as his, who, under that condemnation for his sins, 
 knowing there is a Saviour to take it away, and but a 
 short and most uncertain time to secure an interest in that 
 Saviour's grace, is doing nothing for it, feeling no concern 
 about it ; taken up with dreams about this short life, as 
 if it were to abide forever! Nothing seems sufficient to 
 arouse him to the business of his soul. The warnings of 
 the word are in vain. The afflictions of Providence shake 
 
180 SERMON VIII. 
 
 him in vain. Soon it will be too late to be concerned, and 
 to pray, and strive ; but he is sleeping on. Sometimes, 
 indeed, there is a partial opening of the eyes. Some sense 
 of the reality, and of what ought to be done, gains an 
 entrance. The man is half awake, and begins to look 
 around upon time and eternity, sin and God, heaven and 
 hell ; and he begins to move a little about the work to 
 be done. But the world is at hand with its opiate, and 
 the strength of long established habits of impenitence, 
 and of the neglect of God, is at hand with its bonds ; 
 and he falls back as insensible and unconcerned as ever, 
 till in his sad history that whole awful declaration of God 
 is fulfilled: "Because I called and ye refused, ... ye 
 have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of 
 my reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity, and mock 
 when your fear cometh; when your fear cometh as desola- 
 tion, and your destruction as a whirlwind. Then shall they 
 call upon me, but I will not answer." 11 Yes, then; for 
 when " destruction cometh from God, as a whirlwind," 
 upon the impenitent soul, sleep can endure no more ; no 
 prayerless soul can then help calling upon God. " Then 
 shall they call upon me," saith the Almighty they shall 
 beg a hiding place from that tempest. Yes, then they will 
 pray who never prayed before. But the time to be heard 
 is over. That time was once. It was dreamed away. It 
 is now gone forever. " They shall call upon me, but I ivill 
 not answer" 
 
 But a state of dreaming is also characteristic of sleep. 
 The sleeper, starving with hunger, dreams he is seated at 
 a plentiful feast. The sleeper buried in a prison, and 
 clothed in chains, dreams ; and at once the sad reality is 
 
 *ProT. i. 24, etc. 
 
THE CALL TO DILIGENCE. 181 
 
 exchanged, in his imagination, for all the sweets of his 
 home, and the enjoyments of liberty. And what else is 
 the actual state of those who, with such complacent 
 confidence in their condition, are living for this world, un- 
 concerned about God and his peace? Do they see any 
 thing any tiling^ as it is, in its real character, its actual 
 relations, its just proportions, in its proper value? Are 
 not all things that engage their interests, but as a proces- 
 sion of actors upon the stage, that " walketh in a vain 
 show," indebted to tinsel, and drapery, and imagination, 
 for all it looks like, and only waiting the drop of the cur- 
 tain to break up and vanish " as a dream when one awa- 
 keth?" Are they spending their strength in efforts 
 that tell upon the great business of life, the great concern 
 of man ; or only upon schemes of happiness, which the 
 first waking moment, the first dawn of the eternal day, 
 wih 1 put to shame as a most wretched delusion ? What is 
 every thought of the possibility that man, an immortal 
 soul, made for communion with God, can ever be happy 
 or satisfied, even in this life, without God, without his 
 peace, his love, his blessing what is it, but the veriest 
 and vainest dream the mind of man is capable of ? And 
 what else is the idea so much indulged, that there is so 
 much time in life to serve God, that one may safely delay 
 the work of salvation to a more convenient season ? Has 
 it never seemed to you, in sleep, that you were engaged 
 in something that was occupying a very long time, a 
 whole day of effort, full of a whole history of cares, and 
 trials, and doings, which in reality was the dream of a 
 moment? And what else will seem your imagination 
 of the length of the present life, as furnishing abundance 
 
182 SERMON VIII. 
 
 of time to serve the world, and then to serve God, when 
 death shall unbar the windows of the day, and you shall 
 find the night is gone, eternity begun? A dream! a 
 dream! but, alas, a dream which must be remembered 
 with anguish to all eternity. 
 
 I am aware that dreams seldom seem dreams while they 
 are passing. They seem honest realities. So seem, as 
 long as they last, the delusions of this world, that hold the 
 spiritual sleeper. It is the awakening that will convince 
 him what they are, and where the reality is found. 
 
 Sometimes, in a dream, there is an undefined idea that 
 we are only dreaming. And it is not unfrequently the 
 case with those who try to content themselves with earthly 
 things for their portion, and to feel that they are about 
 their work, and seeking their appropriate ends, that they 
 feel an uncomfortable sense that it is all a mistake ; that 
 they are only sowing to the wind, to reap the whirlwind; 
 that nothing has any reality of peace, but the peace of 
 God, that nothing is worth their hearts but his service. 
 But on they go, till that half consciousness of the truth 
 sleeps also, and so they die, and find how true was that 
 half heard voice within them, and how sorrowful it was 
 that they did not hear it more reverently. 
 
 II. It remains for the second division of our discourse, 
 that we speak of the future life, as called in our text "the 
 day" But to show in what sense it is so called, is ren- 
 dered unnecessary by what we have said of the present life 
 as the night. By contrast, you can easily understand the 
 appropriateness of the wording of the text. But let us try 
 to form some conception of the change from the present 
 night to that coming day. To help your conception, think 
 
THE CALL TO DILIGENCE. 183 
 
 of the change from a man asleep to the same man when 
 he awakes from sleep ! Such is the marvellous change 
 that were it not for our daily sight and experience of 
 it, we could hardly believe it to be the same identical man. 
 Such new views and feelings, such enlargement and ex- 
 altation in all his consciousness, in the operation of all his 
 senses, in every faculty of body and mind ! It is an in- 
 fant suddenly sprung up to manhood. It is a captive 
 suddenly unchained and brought out of darkness into 
 open day. The man is new to himself. He is in a new 
 world. Well, then, apply this to the aid of your thoughts 
 in conceiving of the change when we shall awake out of the 
 present night time, into the new vigor, and activity, and 
 faculty, the new consciousness, the expanded being, of the 
 eternal day. 
 
 Again, consider the vast change that takes place with 
 each of us, every morning, as the rising of the dawn ex- 
 changes the uncertain and contracted views of the night 
 for the expanded revelation of the day. Suppose you had 
 never seen the face of creation but at night, with the 
 moon and stars, and the aid of your lamp what would 
 you know of it? A little just around you, the rest all a 
 black expanse, nothing seen but undefined extension. 
 And suppose you should then suddenly find yourself in 
 the open day; all the varied scenery of nature, all the 
 beautiful coloring of the flower, of the forest, and the sky, 
 all the minute and the grand which every day reveals to 
 our familiar view, suddenly exhibited. It would be a 
 feeble illustration of the vast change that must take place 
 when a soul exchanges this present star-light night of life, 
 aided as it is by the lamp of the word of God, for the full 
 
184 SERMON VIII. 
 
 disclosures of the everlasting day. Then will there be the 
 awaking of the soul to a vigor of capacity to enjoy or to 
 suffer, which it never knew before. Then will there be 
 light; light penetrating, surrounding, exhibiting every 
 thing as it is. Oh ! then must every false hope be seen 
 as it is, with all counterfeit piety, and every thing under 
 the name of religion, till nothing remains unconfounded 
 with the light, but the simple giving of the heart to God 
 and the simple resting of the sinner in Christ. Then will 
 be seen the true value of the peace of God and the full pre- 
 ciousness of the love of Christ to sinners; the wisdom of 
 those who took refuge there, and the guilt of those who 
 neglected so great salvation. It will be "the day" in- 
 deed, "of the revelation of the righteous judgment of God" 
 through everlasting ages. A day which will behold only 
 two. communities out of the whole race of man; but those, 
 alas ! how widely separated in character and destiny. To 
 one it will be " the day of the revelation of the righteous 
 judgment of God," in his holiness and justice, fulfilling 
 his word to the impenitent and disobedient, making retri- 
 bution for their ingratitude, and rebellion, and neglect of 
 the Gospel of Christ; while to the other also it will be the 
 "revelation of the righteous judgment of God," in his 
 boundless grace to all who embraced the salvation of 
 Christ, making good to them all his promises, investing 
 them with "joy unspeakable and full of glory." 
 
 It is written concerning that day, "there shall le no 
 night there"* No night to the blessedness of the redeem- 
 ed, because their vision of God will never be clouded; the 
 brightness of their eternal prospect will never be darken- 
 
 *Rev. xxii. 5. 
 
THE CALL TO DILIGENCE. 185 
 
 ed ; sorrow can never come ; perfect bliss never cease. But 
 it is not to that community only that there will be no 
 night. There will be none to the lost, because there will 
 be no sleep there, no rest arising out of a brief unconscious- 
 ness of the awful reality of their destiny, no darkness up- 
 on their prospect, not even a momentary dream, however 
 delusive, of something better. It will be a perpetual, un- 
 changing "day of the revelation of the righteous judgment of 
 God" Oh! it would be something there to be allowed 
 some blindness for a moment to the whole reality, some 
 dream, some mode of getting the mind away from the 
 perpetual thought of the everlasting future of a lost soul. 
 No, there is "no night there" 
 
 III. I have but little time to dwell upon that portion 
 of our text which must conclude our discourse the de- 
 claration that "the night is far spent, the day is at hand" 
 It is true in regard to those who have spent a large part 
 of the average life of man. It is applicable to those who, 
 whether young or old, vigorous or infirm, are, in the ap- 
 pointment of God, soon to die, and among them may be 
 the least expecting and the least prepared in this assem- 
 bly ; it is true in regard to us all, my brethren, because 
 of the preciousness of every year and day when such in- 
 terests are at stake, and such uncertainty hangs over even 
 the morrow. Oh ! yes, the day is at hand, because the long- 
 est life of man is nothing in the presence of that eternity. 
 
 And how stands your condition and work, my hearers, 
 with reference to that day? Have you been, to this mo- 
 ment, sleeping away your season of grace ? Has the far- 
 spent night been consumed in neglecting God, in denying 
 your hearts to Christ, in serving a world that has no wages 
 
186 SERMON VIII. 
 
 to pay you but disappointment and sorrow? Is the great day 
 at hand, and have you made no preparation ? Is the whole 
 work of your salvation undone, all put off to some indef- 
 inite period, as if any uncertainty were good enough for 
 such an interest ? And will you still say with the sluggard, 
 "a little more sleep, a little more slumber," instead of 
 being up and about your great work, striving to redeem 
 the time and get ready for that day ? Is it not high time, 
 ye dying men, to awake out of sleep ? high time to cease 
 hardening your hearts against the grace of God, and in- 
 creasing your alienation and your guilt ? Is it not high 
 time you were beginning a life of earnest prayer, of hum- 
 ble repentance, of diligent watchfulness, "lest that day 
 come upon you unawares" and find you without hope in 
 Christ? 
 
 Are there any who feel that it is high time, and whose 
 consciences are struggling to be free and to be permitted 
 to seek God and salvation? I beseech them give ear to 
 that awakened conscience. Do not grieve the Spirit of 
 God, whose voice it is, and whose rebuke it speaks. "The 
 time is short." The redeeming grace of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ still invites you. 
 
 Ye who hope you are Christians in more than name, 
 are you indeed awake ? Do you know yourselves ? Do 
 you realize the solemnity of your obligations to God? 
 Are your eyes well open to the leading of the Master 
 whose name you bear? Do you see the blessedness you are 
 seeking the awfulness of the misery you should be esca- 
 ping ? Does the reality of eternal things, of the all-seeing 
 eye of God, and of the love and promises of Christ, bear 
 supremely upon your hearts and control your lives ? Is your 
 
THE CALL TO DILIGENCE. 187 
 
 standing with God well ascertained? Are all dreamy 
 hopes and baseless consolations renounced ? Is it only by 
 "comfort of the scriptures" that you have hope of salva- 
 tion? Do you habitually reduce all questions of duty, all 
 marks of a Christian, all your expectations of God's favor 
 to that test the scriptures ? Are you living "as children 
 of the light and of the day," lamp in hand and trimmed, 
 waiting the coming of your Lord ? 
 
 Was not that a tender, but most piercing rebuke of 
 Jesus to his disciples, when they slept in Gethsemane, 
 while he was prostrate in prayer, and full of agony? At 
 first when he came to them and found them asleep, he only 
 said, " Could ye not watch with me one hour,"* only one 
 hour? A second time he came from his own place of 
 agony and prayer, and found them "asleep again."* Then 
 he looked on them in silence, and went away again to his 
 solitary conflict and agony. A third time he came, and 
 Judas and his band were coming to take him; the time 
 to watch and pray was over. Then he said, "Sleep on now, 
 and take your rest; behold the hour is at hand and the 
 Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, 
 let us be going." As if he had said: 'Now slumber if you 
 can. When watching and praying would have been of use 
 to prepare you for the coming trial, you could sleep. Now 
 that the danger has come, take your rest; watching and 
 praying are too late. Sleep on now !' And may not the 
 unfaithful disciple of the present day expect a more pain- 
 ful rebuke, when his Lord, instead of the Sufferer in Geth- 
 semane, shall be the Judge of quick and dead? ' Sleep 
 
 * Matt, xxvi . 40 . Matt. xxvi. 43. f Ib. 45, 46. 
 
188 SERMON VIII. 
 
 on now? (may not Jesus then say,) ' faithless sleeper, 
 bearing the name of Christian ; take your rest now, if you 
 can find it. You need not watch or pray any more. The 
 time is ended. You slept in the day of temptation, when 
 prayer and vigilance would have been your salvation, when 
 my faithful ones were denying themselves and taking up 
 their cross and following me. Your slumbers will be dis- 
 turbed no more by the calls of duty and of mercy. Be- 
 hold, they are at hand that will take you away. Sleep on, 
 take your rest, where their worm dieth not and the fire is 
 not quenched!' But to the earnest, wakeful, watching, 
 praying believer in Jesus, how animating is the declaration : 
 " the night is far spent, the day is at hand;" the race is far 
 run, the prize is at hand ; the battle is far gained, the crown 
 is at hand ; the pilgrimage is far traveled, the home and 
 the rest are at hand. "Now is our salvation nearer than 
 when we believed" was the exulting language of one 
 who realized ah 1 its joyfulness. Every day, every trial, 
 every sorrow, brings nearer our day of deliverance, short- 
 ens the intervening night. How much nearer to many of 
 us, brethren, is that glorious day, than when we first came 
 as believers to Christ! How soon it will be here with 
 death to try our faith, and put us to earnest prayer and 
 exercise of hope for a short space, and then all trial is over 
 and the day begun, and we are safe at home for ever and 
 ever. "Lift up your hearts, then, for your redemption 
 draweth nigh." Press forward, brethren. Keep your 
 eye upon the golden towers of the city of God on high. 
 Walk as children of the day, "fervent in spirit, rejoicing 
 in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing instant in prayer." 
 Moderate all earthly concern, soothe every pain, lighten 
 
THE CALL TO DILIGENCE. 189 
 
 every burden, assuage all griefs, with the thought of the 
 nearness of the time when you will be with Christ in his 
 glory. "The earnest expectation of the creature waiteth 
 for the manifestation of the sons of God." "I reckon, 
 (said one who was well skilled in such computation,) I reck- 
 on, that the sufferings of this present time (said an Apostle 
 who had so many sufferings in his time to count) I reckon 
 that ah 1 are not worthy to be compared with the glory that 
 shah 1 be revealed in us."* May that estimate be ours, and 
 so that glory ours, through our Lord Jesus Christ ! Amen. 
 
 * Rom. viii. 18. 
 
SERMON IX. 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN NOT OF THE WORLd. 
 
 JOHN xvii. 16. 
 " They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world." 
 
 How peculiarly interesting and instructive to a devout 
 reader of the scriptures, is the intercessory prayer of our 
 Lord, contained in this chapter, and of which the text is 
 a part. The chapter is altogether composed of that pray- 
 er, except a verse or two of introduction. And what is 
 the value and interest of so long a prayer, coming from 
 the lips of our great Intercessor, and especially when we 
 read in it that it was offered, not only for his disciples 
 then living, but for all that should ever believe on him 
 through their word, and therefore for us, if we answer to 
 that description ! 
 
 The time and circumstances of this prayer give a special 
 impressiveness to whatever lesson of duty it was intended 
 to teach. Jesus had just come, with his disciples, from 
 the upper chamber, where he had substituted for the 
 Paschal feast of the Jews, the Christian feast of the Lord's 
 Supper, to commemorate what in a few hours was to be 
 offered the sacrifice of himself, as the Lamb of God, in 
 propitiation for the sins of the world. He had now 
 reached the Mount of Olives. In a few moments he was 
 to enter the solitary garden, and to endure that awful 
 
THE CHRISTIAN NOT OF THE WORLD. 191 
 
 agony of soul, which, ever since, has associated, in Chris- 
 tian minds, such affecting thoughts with the name of 
 Gethsemane. It was night. Our great High Priest 
 being prepared to offer himself, without spot, to God, both 
 in the garden and on the cross, begins that gracious in- 
 tercession for believers, which now he ever liveth to 
 continue in the presence of the Father Almighty. Hav- 
 ing finished his parting words of counsel and consolation 
 to those he was about to leave alone in the world, as sheep 
 in the midst of wolves, " he lifted up his eyes to heaven, 
 and said, Father, the hour is come : " the hour of the 
 great trial, the hour of the deep agony, the hour of the 
 powers of darkness, the hour of the great conflict for the 
 deliverance of sinners, the hour of the propitiation for the 
 sins of the whole world. Then followed that mediatorial 
 prayer, so earnest, so affectionate, so comprehensive the 
 prayer that embraced in its arms of love, and bore up to 
 God, all the wants of all disciples of Christ, in all future 
 ages; a prayer which ascended, and was accepted, on the 
 ground of the perfect merits of the offerer; which still 
 lives in heaven before the mercy seat, and is as efficacious 
 for the Church of Christ as when it came first from his 
 lips, and to which it is the privilege of all that come unto 
 God, by faith in Christ, to attach their kindred supplica- 
 tions, that they may mount on its wings, and be heard for 
 its merits. 
 
 Brethren, is the intercession of our Lord in heaven, as 
 the " Advocate with the Father for all that come unto God 
 through him," a matter of deep interest to you ? Do you 
 feel, sometimes, as if you would like to look " within the 
 veil," and get a view of the High Priest of our profes- 
 
192 SERMON IX. 
 
 sion, in the discharge of his great office, standing before 
 the mercy-seat, bearing on his heart the wants of all his 
 people, and in virtue of his atoning sacrifice on the cross, 
 making intercession for each of them? Would you like 
 to know what is the burden of his intercession ? what be- 
 sides the forgiveness, and sanctification, and perfect redemp- 
 tion of believers ? what in your individual case attracts 
 his attention and furnishes especial subject of mediation ? 
 We cannot lift the veil of things unseen, as yet. But as 
 Jesus, on the Mount of Transfiguration, vouchsafed to his 
 disciples, for a moment, a sight of that ineffable glory 
 which he was soon to put on, and in which he is now seen 
 in heaven ; so, in this mediatorial prayer, offered in such 
 direct connection with his mediatorial sacrifice, in the hour 
 that so concentrated all the functions of his everlasting 
 priesthood, he has given us the best view we can have in 
 this world, of his intercessory office, " in the secret place 
 of the tabernacle of the Most High." Study the petitions 
 of that prayer. You will see in it what it was for which 
 your Saviour was especially concerned in your behalf, my 
 Christian brethren, when his love for you was just taking 
 him to suffer and die for your sins. You may thus form 
 a good idea of what concerns him now, in your behalf, as 
 he looks upon you in your present weakness, and expo- 
 sure, and dangers. And thus may you learn, most im- 
 pressively, what it is that should occupy your chief con- 
 cern for yourselves, and should speak with all earnestness, 
 in your own prayers. 
 
 In that mediatorial prayer of our Lord, there is a fea- 
 ture on which I desire to collect all your thoughts at pres- 
 ent. And that is, how much the mind of our compassion- 
 
THE CHRISTIAN NOT OF THE WORLD. 193 
 
 ate Saviour was drawn to, and occupied with, the condi- 
 tion of his people, as being "in the world-" in it as a 
 place of duty and a place of danger, and yet as being not 
 " of the world -" a separate people, mingled but distinct, 
 associated but not assimilated, having much in common 
 with the world as to the present life, but yet " a peculiar 
 people," " not conformed to the world." First, he de- 
 scribed them as having been given to him by the Father, 
 "out of the world" Then he adverted to the trial to 
 which they were to be exposed, in being, without his visi- 
 ble presence, in the midst of the world's influences. 
 "Now, (he said,) I am no more in the world, but these are 
 in the ivorld, and I come to thee" Then he speaks of the 
 opposition they must meet with from the world. " The 
 world hath hated them, became they are not of the world, even 
 as I am not of the world." Then comes the supplication 
 drawn out by that thought of the world's enmity. " I 
 pray not that thou shoiddst take them out of the world, but 
 that thou shouldst keep them from the evil" Then follows 
 a repetition of the description just before uttered, of the 
 unworldly character of his people, their distinct and sepa- 
 rate character while in the world : " They are not of the 
 world, even as I am not of the world" This repetition of 
 that description is remarkable. Why, in the space of 
 three verses, did Jesus twice declare of his people, on 
 that most solemn occasion, in that brief space when the 
 whole burden of their necessities, in all ages, was in his 
 mind, " They are not of the ivorld, even as I am not of the 
 world" ? It was no vain repetition. Our Lord had mean- 
 ing in such things. It is, like his " Verily, verily, I say 
 unto you," intended to be regarded as very emphatic; and 
 13 
 
194 
 
 SERMON IX. 
 
 it ought to draw our serious attention. I read it as 
 connected with the next verse, "Sanctify them through 
 tlnj truth." The progressive sanctification of the disciples 
 of Christ is most intimately connected with the distinct 
 carrying out of their character, as " not of the world." 
 I read it also as connected in the same prayer with the 
 declaration of the Saviour, "/ am glorified in them" 
 Christ is glorified in his disciples in proportion as they are 
 faithful to their proper character as " not of the luorld" 
 
 I desire, therefore, in this discourse, to set out in some 
 of its chief features, this character of Christ's people, as 
 " Not of the world" 
 
 But in order that our view may be distinct, we must 
 form a distinct idea of the ivorld here spoken of. What 
 are its. distinctive features ? 
 
 The human race are in the scriptures distributed into 
 two, and only two, divisions the Jdngdom of God and the 
 world, or the kingdom of " the god of this world," " the 
 spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience." They 
 who walk according to that spirit, are said to walk " accord- 
 ing to the course of this world," and to be "dead in tres- 
 passes and sins;" "fulfilling the desires of the flesh, and 
 of the mind."* And our Lord has solemnly declared that 
 none can enter into the kingdom of God, except they be 
 bom again of the Holy Ghost; f that is, the only way out 
 of the world into the kingdom of God, is the way of a 
 great spiritual transformation, the new birth by his Spirit. 
 "If any man be in Christ, (that is, "not of the world,") 
 he is a new creature." Thus, St. Paul exhorts us to be 
 " transformed by the renewing of the mind" as the only 
 way to be "not conformed to this world"\ 
 
 *Eph. ii. 1-3. fjohn iii. 3-5. \ Rom. xii. 2. 
 
THE CHRISTIAN NOT OF THE WORLD. 195 
 
 Hence it is manifest that in the scriptural view of the 
 world, as spoken of in the text, the basis of its distinctive 
 character, is the natural or unregenerate state of man. 
 The world is not marked off by external peculiarities; 
 it is not a question of less or more in worldly vanities, or 
 worldly devotedness ; its boundary line is not made by 
 the pale of the visible Church ; we do not ask who are 
 they that have received the sacraments of the Church, 
 and attend punctually upon its services. The true line of 
 the world runs within the visible sanctuary and separates 
 to right and left the partakers of the sacraments. It is 
 simply the question, who are they that have been born 
 again, and have the Spirit of Christ ? All who have not 
 been thus transformed, and who are therefore in their nat- 
 ural state of spiritual death, are " walking according to 
 the course of this world," and so are of the ^uorld. 
 
 Now consider what innumerable varieties of moral char- 
 acter this description of the world embraces from the 
 most profligate sensualist, to the person of pure morals 
 and delicate refinement ; from the men of most brutal 
 inclinations and habits, to the elevated tastes of those 
 who find their pleasures in intellectual culture; from the 
 most selfish of mankind, to those whose benevolence is 
 the blessing of their neighborhood ; from the most dis- 
 honest, to those whose scrupulous uprightness is almost 
 proverbial. Such vast diversities are certainly found among 
 those who make no pretension to having undergone any 
 such spiritual change as that expressed by being " born 
 again" of the Holy Ghost. The question then arises and 
 an important one it is Seeing such wide diversities of 
 moral character are thus all classed together as the world, 
 
196 SERMON IX. 
 
 and of course, as all displaying essentially the same pre- 
 dominant features, alike out of the kingdom of God, and 
 therefore excluded from his salvation, what is that pre- 
 dominant likeness, in the midst of so much unlikeness, 
 by which this classification is made ? 
 
 We answer : it is in their affections; they "mind earthly 
 things," as their portion and felicity ; their affections are 
 set "on things on the earth" and not "on things above, 
 where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God," and where 
 they are commanded to be set, and will be set if we " be 
 risen with Christ," and have his Spirit;* or, to use another 
 inspired description, they " mind" they set their hearts on 
 "the things of the flesh," and not "the things of the 
 Spirit"! Such is the distinctive feature of the world. 
 
 The affections of some who are of the world, are cer- 
 tainly placed on things far higher and purer, more noble 
 and refined than those of others ; but we mean that what- 
 ever they may be, they are things on the earth, temporal, 
 not eternal, not the things of the Spirit of God; not 
 Christ, and his will, and service, and kingdom. It is not 
 asserted that the affections of all are set in that direction 
 with equal devotedness ; that all follow " the course of this 
 world" with the same zeal; that none have ever any 
 serious thoughts of religion, or make any efforts to 
 obtain eternal life. Far from it. Many of the most 
 worldly in their affections, are among the most laborious 
 in endeavors, by outward works, which require no change 
 in the current of the affections, to obtain salvation. The 
 Pharisee who prayed in the temple, and was a member of 
 ; God's visible Church, and fasted twice in the week, and 
 gave the tenth of all he possessed to what he considered 
 
 *Col. iii. 1, 2. fRom. viii. 5. 
 
THE CHRISTIAN NOT OF THE WORLD. 197 
 
 good works, was of the world. We may go further than 
 he in seriousness of mind. Religious truth may exert a 
 daily influence, of no little value upon our feelings and 
 ways. Though not renewed in our minds, we may be 
 reached and operated on in our minds, by the word and 
 Spirit. Some may seem so little worldly in their affec- 
 tions, that in comparison with others, they may seem 
 almost spiritually minded. But the question is not, what 
 influences affect us partially, or occasionally, or compara- 
 tively, but what have the habitual, the governing control 
 of our hearts; where do we seek our present portion; 
 whence come the motives that conclusively and perma- 
 nently determine our lives ? And the answer, with regard to 
 all who have not been born of the Spirit of God, in all 
 the varieties of their aspects, is, " they mind earthly things" 
 not the things of " the Spirit of God'' They cannot say, 
 " The Lord is the portion of my soul." My heart is fixed 
 on God. " I delight in the law of God, after the inward 
 man." I hunger to be "holy, as God is holy." 
 
 And thus, having seen the distinctive feature of the 
 world, we obtain by contrast the more satisfactory view of 
 the character of the disciple of Christ, as "not of the 
 ivorld" 
 
 The basis of his distinctive character is, that he has 
 been born again. He is " not in the flesh," but " in the 
 Spirit." By the grace of God, he is " begotten again unto 
 a lively hope ;" thus he has been given " out of the world," 
 unto Christ, by the Father ;* and now he "minds the things 
 of the Spirit." Thus is he " spiritually minded." t His 
 affections are upon " the things of the Spirit " the will 
 of God and the path of holiness here; the presence of 
 
 * John xvii. 6. t Rom. viii. 5. 
 
198 SERMON IX. 
 
 God and the holiness of his kingdom hereafter. He can 
 say, " the Lord is the portion of my soul" The creature is 
 cast down from the throne it had usurped in his heart. 
 The supremacy of the Creator is restored. The great 
 governing motives of his life, are brought from above this 
 world, even from Christ his Lord in heaven. I do not 
 mean that there is never any inconsistency in the state of 
 his mind with this heavenward direction ; that earthly 
 things are so entirely cast out, as well as cast down, as 
 not to furnish cause of continual watchfulness and often 
 of deep self-humiliation; that though his heart be habitu- 
 ally on heavenly things, he does not find still that it is a 
 very weak and wayward heart, needing, to keep it where 
 it is, the continual renewing of the same grace that first 
 placed it there. As was said before, in regard to those 
 who are of the world, we are looking, not at the partial, 
 or occasional, or secondary influences, but at the habitual, 
 and supreme. The true disciple is not of the world, be- 
 cause his treasure is not ; and hence his heart is not. 
 What he loves, he is conformed to. 
 
 Take good heed, brethren, to that weighty saying of 
 our Lord : " where your treasure is, there ivill your heart 
 be also." It shows the precise level of your spiritual 
 standing. You can neither rise above nor fall below that 
 mark. If our Lord Jesus Christ be not your chosen and 
 precious treasure, then your hearts are as far beneath him, 
 as earth is below the heavens. Whatever your happiness, 
 its fountain head is somewhere here on the earth. The 
 stream cannot rise above its source. Your happiness can 
 never be else than of the earth. Your best portion is 
 therefore here. Temporary, turbid, unsatisfactory as all 
 
THE CHRISTIAN NOT OF THE WORLD. 199 
 
 things earthly must be, they are your all. Alas ! what 
 poverty for an immortal soul ! Nothing laid up for eter- 
 nity ; and yet eternally you must live ! 
 
 But on the other hand, if Christ be your treasure, in 
 comparison of whom you " count all things but loss/' 
 then your hearts are "where he is, at the right hand of 
 God." The fountain head of your happiness is there in 
 the holy mount. A well of the water of life is within 
 you that is ever "springing up into everlasting life."* 
 You will go where your treasure is. Your "own place" is 
 with Christ, where he is at the right hand of God. 
 
 And now, having seen the main classifying feature of 
 those who are not of the world) let us attend for a moment 
 to the comparison by which the nature of the difference 
 between them and the world is illustrated in the text. 
 "They are not of the world, (said our Lord,) even as 1 
 am not of the world" that is, the disciple of Christ is not 
 of the world just in the same sense as He who took our 
 nature and was made man, and dwelt among us, was not. 
 The extent of unworldliness in the two, is to be sure un- 
 speakably different; the principle is the same. And thus 
 have we a fundamental principle of all Christian character. 
 The disciple is as his Master. There is a common charac- 
 ter and spirit in the head of the mystical body "which is 
 the blessed company of all faithful people," and each of 
 his members. "Let this mind be in you which was also 
 in Christ Jesus."| "We have the mind of Christ," j was 
 the declaration of primitive Christians, and we must be 
 essentially of the same mind, or we are not Christians 
 of any degree. Likeness to God was the character of 
 
 * John iv. 14. t Phil. ii. 5. i 1 Cor. iii. 16. 
 
200 SERMON IX. 
 
 man as created and unfallen. Likeness to God in Christ 
 is the character of man now fallen, but created anew. It 
 is true religion on earth. It will be heaven forever. It 
 is the family likeness of " the household of God/' associ- 
 ating into one holy brotherhood, all disciples of Christ on 
 earth in their exceeding imperfectness, and all saints in 
 heaven in their perfect holiness. The difference between 
 them is great but continually decreasing. Those on the 
 earth are striving to be delivered more and more from 
 remaining worldliness, and to be more conformed to their 
 Master's holiness. What of the world yet besets them 
 is not held by them willingly, but adheres to them unwil- 
 lingly, as clay on the garments, and mire on the feet of 
 the traveller through a marshy way. Soon their journey 
 will be ended. They will be unclothed of all that remains 
 of the world, and clothed upon with all that remains of 
 heaven. Then will Christ and all his people be one in 
 holiness made perfect, as they are one now by a common 
 Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. 
 
 As I have thus described the true disciples of Christ 
 as not of the world, in respect to the objects on which 
 their affections are supremely set, and the governing mo- 
 tives and spirit of their lives, let me now conduct you to 
 another view. The true followers of Christ are not of 
 the world, but are a peculiar people in it as regards their 
 consolations amidst the trials of the present life. 
 
 The type of the condition of the Christian as in the 
 world, but not of it, was the nation of Israel as God's 
 chosen and peculiar people, dwelling alone in the earth, 
 surrounded with the nations, but unassimilated to any of 
 them ; first while in Egypt, then in the wilderness, then 
 in Canaan. The ceremonial law, from its elementary be- 
 
THE CHRISTIAN NOT OF THE WORLD. 201 
 
 ginning before they forsook Egypt to its completion at 
 Sinai, was the wall of separation between them as a visi- 
 ble Church of God's peculiar people, and all other people. 
 That outward separation and distinctness, represented the 
 spiritual separation and peculiarity of all that true Israel, 
 in all ages, " who worship God in the Spirit and rejoice in 
 Christ Jesus, and put no confidence in the flesh." In 
 conformity with that type, St. Peter says to all true be- 
 lievers in Jesus : " Ye are a chosen generation, a royal 
 priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye 
 should show forth the praises of Him who hath called 
 you out of darkness into his marvellous light." | 
 
 But most signally were the people of Israel marked 
 off in Egypt, as well as in the wilderness, by the peculiar- 
 ity and the inimitable nature of their consolations amidst 
 abounding afflictions. "When the plague of darkness came 
 down on all the land of Egypt, so deep and black that 
 " the people saw not one another, neither did any rise 
 from his place for three days;" then it is written, "all 
 the children of Israel had light in their dwellings" What 
 light was that? Many of them lived where the Egyp- 
 tians lived. Then, if it were only some ordinary, natural 
 light, such as of candles or torches, why could not the 
 Egyptians have had the same? No, the Israelites had 
 what was impossible to the Egyptians. All the means of 
 ordinary lighting were made of none effect, by the ex- 
 traordinary, supernatural darkness. The light in the 
 dwellings of the Israelites was equally supernatural. It 
 was just the same light which afterwards, in the pillar of 
 fire, guided their night march out of Egypt and lighted 
 up their whole camp when they rested. Under the 
 
 *Phil. iii. 3. f 1 Pet. ii. 9. 
 
202 SERMON IX. 
 
 plague of darkness it stood, not as a great column of light, 
 for the families of Israel were scattered among the Egyp- 
 tians ; but it entered, like the present light of Gospel 
 promises, into each of their houses, and cheered and com- 
 forted them with the expression of God's favor, while 
 their oppressors were trembling around them under the 
 darkness of his judgment. It was the hand-writing upon 
 their walls, marking them as His peculiar people, and dis- 
 tinctly testifying, that though in Egypt, they were not 
 of Egypt. 
 
 And thus it is, when God sends afflictions on the chil- 
 dren of men, which bring such darkness upon all the 
 ways, and pleasures, and hopes of the people of the world, 
 that they are disquieted within them, and go mourning 
 all the day, and know not who will show them any good, 
 but grope about for consolation and find none. Then 
 may ye " discern between the righteous and the wicked, 
 between him that serveth God and him that serveth him 
 not." " A book of remembrance " is written for them 
 that fear the Lord and think upon his name.* Unto 
 them " shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing 
 in his wings." There is light in their hearts. " They 
 walk in the light of the Lord." Having peace with God, 
 through faith in Jesus Christ, they are enabled to " glory 
 in tribulations " "in all things giving thanks" .find- 
 ing their consolations to abound in God with the increase 
 of their trials. It is written, " He giveth songs in the 
 night" f Songs in the day time are easily given. Such 
 is the rejoicing of the world. Egypt could have that. 
 But in the night, in deep tribulation, when all the candles 
 with which the children of this world light their life, have 
 
 *Mal. iii. 16, 17, 18. t Job xxxv. 10. 
 
THE CHRISTIAN NOT OF THE WORLD. 
 
 203 
 
 gone out ; especially in the night of death ; oh, then to 
 have songs of rejoicings in our hearts! Who can give 
 them but God; who but his people can learn them? 
 The magicians of Egypt did great wonders, indeed, in 
 imitation of God's plagues upon Egypt, but to counter- 
 feit his signal-light in the dwellings of his people, they 
 did not attempt. The world, and they who are not of it, 
 are often associated in the same tribulations ; but the 
 songs in the night with which God visits his people in such 
 times of need, is that " secret of the Lord with them that 
 fear him," with which the world intermeddleth not. " I 
 call to remembrance (said the Psalmist) my song in the 
 night.' But the light in the dwellings of Israel in Egypt 
 did not forsake them when they had left Egypt. As 
 soon as their scattered families had gathered into one 
 great host, and had gone out on the march to the 
 promised possession, then the scattered lights of their 
 dwellings were gathered over the vast multitude into 
 a pillar of cloud and of fire the visible expression 
 of the presence of God among them, to guide, defend, 
 supply and comfort them. " In the day time he led them 
 with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire." : 
 
 How distinctly were the Israelites thus separated from 
 all the people of the countries, and marked as God's pe- 
 culiar people! You know that towards the Israelites, 
 that pillar was light, and towards all others, darkness; 
 that in the day time it appeared as a cloud, luminous, but 
 cloudy; but as evening came on, its brightness in- 
 creased, till, the night being complete, it was all a pillar of 
 fire, illumining the whole host of Israel with a glorious 
 
 * Ps. Ixxviii. 14. 
 
204 SERMON IX. 
 
 effulgence, making plain their way. res ting as a defence and 
 consolation upon their camp, and saying in a language that 
 could not be mistaken, " God is here ; this is his people" 
 What a wondrous sign ! How remarkably were the people 
 of Israel separated from all other people, by consolations 
 which it was impossible for others to have ! But the true 
 Israel the living Church of Christ has a still more 
 blessed light. God still leads his people, whom he hath 
 chosen out of the world, in whose hearts he hath placed 
 his Spirit, and who, in the midst of Egypt, are not of it, 
 having set out in their journey to the heavenly land. He 
 leads them "in the day time with a cloud, and all the 
 night with a light of fire." What else is "the glorious 
 Gospel," the very light of his countenance, the assurance 
 of his presence, the pledge of the inheritance, the lamp of 
 our path, the strength and joy of our hearts that glori- 
 ous manifestation of grace in Christ Jesus? "A cloud" 
 for it is all a mystery of the deep things of God; " afire" 
 of wondrous brightness, for it is "the light of the 
 knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus 
 Christ." Full of precious promises, it is "joy unspeaka- 
 ble and full of glory " to the believer, while it is all 
 condemnation to the world that heeds it not. " In the 
 day time it is a cloud the day time of prosperity when 
 the world is in its sunshine, and puts on its brightest and 
 most assuring countenance ; when no afflictions darken it, 
 and no trials reveal its emptiness. Then the people of 
 God are wont to feel too little their need of what his 
 grace has prepared for them in the gospel. They see so 
 much light all around in the wilderness, that, false and 
 vain as it is, it dims, to their view, the light of the gos- 
 
THE CHRISTIAN NOT OF THE WORLD. 205 
 
 pel. The preciousness of the latter is not fully realized. 
 It is a pillar of cloud, not of fire as the clouds that 
 brighten so gloriously at evening into blazing chariots, 
 are only clouds at noon. But only wait till the sun has 
 set. Let dark night come on a night of adversity, of 
 sorrow, of deep affliction. Then, when all the candles 
 with which the men of the world seek to light up their 
 tabernacles, only serve to make their darkness the more 
 sensible ; when the perfect impotence of all human con- 
 solations is most painfully felt 5 when what was before, to 
 the world, as a fire of light, is now all gloominess and 
 misery then shines out, in all its glory, the preciousness 
 of the gospel. The darker the world, the brighter the 
 gospel. The more all other lights go out, the brighter 
 that light appears. What was a cloud in the day time, is 
 a pillar of fire in the night time, saying, of all whose 
 hearts it comforts, and whose path it guides, "These 
 are not of the world." It will be with them in all their 
 journey to that world where their home is, and their hearts 
 are, and never will it seem so glorious, so full of the 
 presence and love of God, as when they shall be going 
 through " the valley and shadow of death." 
 
 Nothing more detects and exhibits the essential differ- 
 ence, in point of character, of dependence, and of heart, as 
 well as portion, between the world and those who are not of 
 ti, than affliction. Job said, " when He hath tried me, I 
 shall come forth as gold."* When he was tried by a hot 
 fire of tribulation, he did come forth as gold indeed. 
 Nothing could so plainly have showed the eminent pecu- 
 liarity of his character, as of another stamp altogether 
 from those around him. 
 
 * Job xxiii. 10. 
 
206 SERMON IX. 
 
 There is in pure gold an essential peculiarity, which man 
 can neither give nor take away. Mix its dust as you 
 please with the dust of other substances; burnish as you 
 please other substances into its likeness, the fire will de- 
 tect the counterfeit, and will bring out the gold, untar- 
 nished and undiniinished. Thus it is with the genuine 
 character and peculiarity of true Christians. "Not of the 
 world;" as long as they are this side of the grave, they 
 are in the world. Their business is there, their sphere of 
 duty is there. They have so many secular interests, em 
 ployments, duties and sympathies, in common, in many 
 respects, with the world, that, inasmuch as their distinct- 
 ive character is in the inward man, it does not always 
 appear to the common observer, or in ordinary circum- 
 stances, how truly they are "a peculiar people," mixed 
 with, but not conformed to, the world, having much to do 
 with it, but living above it. Thus, to many, there seems 
 no difference of much moment between the character of 
 the real Christian, and that of many amiable, upright 
 people, who make no claim to that distinction. But the 
 real difference is immense. There is an entire contrast 
 of ruling dispositions, of chosen portion, of habitual re- 
 liance, and of actual relation to God. 
 
 On one side, the affections are on things on the earth. 
 Thus are they essentially worldly, some more than others, 
 but all, in their ruling dispositions and reliance, worldly, 
 Hence, they have nothing better than the world can give. 
 On the other side, the affections are set on things above, 
 in Christ, his will, his glory, his kingdom in some more 
 earnestly than in others, in some more manifestly than in 
 others, but in all that are Christ's indeed, really and ef- 
 
THE CHRISTIAN NOT OF THE WORLD. 207 
 
 fectively. Thus is their character formed, and their 
 position determined. The two classes, in the sight of 
 God, are really two widely distinct people, having hearts 
 without sympathy with one another, in their governing 
 influences; having masters as opposite as the world and 
 heaven; consolations as different as things that are seen 
 and are temporal, and the things invisible and eternal, of 
 the kingdom of God. There are times when all this 
 becomes especially manifest times of affliction, when 
 ordinary supports have failed, and human relief is vain, 
 and the world seems to the sorrowing heart all a desert, 
 and all its cisterns dry. The faithful disciple of Christ is 
 not disappointed then, for he has expected nothing better 
 from the world. His consolation is not taken away, be- 
 cause it never depended on any thing here. He says to 
 the man of the world, journeying with him, "Let not 
 your heart be troubled; God is a very present help. 
 Our light afflictions, which are but for a moment, may well 
 be cheerfully borne, when we think of the everlasting rest 
 which remaineth for the people of God. Let the love of 
 Christ be our comfort, as we journey on to his kingdom." 
 But how little his worldly neighbor is able to receive such 
 consolation. It is something he has never learned. It 
 meets no sympathy within him. What cheers the Chris- 
 tian, only the more troubles him. The more the trials 
 press, and the world grows dark, the more in contrast 
 these travelers appear. One of them, as he walks in 
 darkness, is continually saying in spirit, "Who will show 
 me any good;" all is "vanity and vexation of spirit;" 
 there is none to comfort me ! The other, cast down, but 
 not destroyed, sorrowful, but rejoicing in God, has meat 
 to eat, his neighbor knows not of. "My soul, wait thou 
 
208 SERMON IX. 
 
 only upon God, for my expectation is from him. In God 
 is rny salvation and my glory; the rock of my strength 
 and my refuge is in God." 
 
 The two travelers are drawing near to the valley of death. 
 How different their views of that passage. To one it is 
 the end of all his expectations ; to the other, it is the 
 entrance upon all the blessedness of his portion. To one, 
 it is leaving forever all he has ever loved; to the other, it 
 is going to all on which his love has ever been supremely 
 placed. Now they are stepping down together. The 
 waters are deep, the darkness is awful ; heart and flesh 
 are failing. " Who will help me ? " cries the man who 
 has not made God his trust. No voice answers. No kind 
 hand, able to support, is held out to him. He goes down 
 alone, in all that darkness, through all that awful way 
 all alone. The world has left him. His candle has gone 
 out. The waters get deeper and deeper. Not a ray of 
 light. Oh! how dreadful so to die. To leave all behind; 
 to have nothing to go to in eternity no refuge in God, 
 no portion in Christ. Where is his neighbor? Is he 
 alone? Hear him ! " My soul followeth hard after thee; 
 thy right hand upholdeth me." "The Lord is my shep- 
 herd; I shah 1 not want." It is the shadow of death, 
 but its darkness is turned to day. It is a strange path, 
 but his Saviour has trodden it before him, and taken 
 away all its terrors. It will soon open upon his home 
 and rest. Deeper and deeper he descends. Earnestly 
 and peacefully his spirit says, " I will fear no evil, for thy 
 rod and thy staff they comfort me." The deep waters 
 now threaten to overwhelm him. A voice whispers, 
 " When thou passest through the waters, I will be with 
 thee." He knows his shepherd's voice, and answers, "I 
 
THE CHRISTIAN NOT OF THE WORLD. 209 
 
 will trust, and not be afraid." His sins assail him; his 
 unworthiness stares him in the face, and would paralyze 
 his hope. He answers, "I know in whom I have believed, 
 and that he is able to save me to the uttermost." 
 " Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his 
 saints." Jordan divides before his people, going to their 
 heavenly Canaan. Its floods overwhelm those who, being 
 not of the true Israel, are of the ivorld. 
 
 And now, as we are all soon to need all the help and 
 consolation we can get, let each of us ask himself, to 
 which class do I belong? Of the world or not? There is 
 no neutral position. 
 
 To those who know where they belong, and that the world 
 is their all allow me a few kind, earnest words. My 
 dear friends, I have endeavored to set before you the 
 real, the essential difference between your spiritual state 
 and that of God's people. You see that it is no inciden- 
 tal thing, but a radical difference of spiritual being. Their 
 bread is not your bread. Their chief happiness is not hap- 
 piness to "you. Their chief desires have no place in you. 
 Their God is not your God; your god is not theirs. The 
 difference is appalling. What can remove it on your part ? 
 How can you be as they? Do I hear you say, "Sup- 
 pose we should become more serious and thoughtful, as 
 regards religion; less interested with the idols of the 
 world; more sensible of the emptiness of all earthly things; 
 more secluded and circumspect ? And suppose we should 
 be unfailing in attendance on all religious services, private 
 and public, would this translate us into the condition of 
 those who are not of the world?" I answer, all this only 
 reaches the outer man. You might shut yourselves up 
 
 14 
 
210 SERMON IX. 
 
 in a monastery, and by a process of self destruction, be- 
 come, in a sense, dead to the world; but it does not follow 
 that you would be alive unto God. Bodily sickness, even, 
 may easily make the world, and all in it, seem exceedingly 
 distasteful, but it cannot make us hunger and thirst after 
 God and holiness. What, then, must you do ? I go to 
 the foundation. There is but one answer. " Ye must be 
 born again" Nothing will do but a neiv heart. The differ- 
 ence is in moral nature. Nothing but an entire change of 
 moral nature will abolish it. The gradual brightening of 
 a worldly state into a spiritual, is just as impossible as to 
 burnish brass into gold. They want a common base ; they 
 can never be one. Your only way is to stop where you 
 are ; begin life anew ; seek the renewing of the Spirit of 
 God. Go down to the beginning of childhood ; arise from 
 thence to be the people of God. Begin to serve him, by 
 obtaining the new birth by his grace. "Except ye be 
 converted, and become as little children, ye cannot see the 
 kingdom of God." He is mighty to create you anew. 
 He is merciful to hear your cry, when you entreat him to 
 do so. Seek till you find. 
 
 To my brethren, who, as professed disciples of Christ, 
 are professedly not of the world, let me say Strive to 
 keep so far beyond the separating line, to have so strong 
 a sense of having your hearts fixed on " the things of the 
 Spirit of God," that it will not be necessary to search for 
 evidence of what you are, when the time of trial shall re- 
 quire the most ready and positive consciousness of being 
 the living children of God. " To be spiritually minded is 
 life and peace." The more of that mind, the more evi- 
 dence of spiritual life; the more enjoyment of the peace 
 of God. 
 
THE CHRISTIAN NOT OF THE WORLD. 211 
 
 But consider the importance of living thus evidently 
 not of the world, with reference to the benefit of your 
 example. Your profession, at its lowest terms, is a high 
 profession. To be not of the world, while in it, a people 
 of a new heart and another home, with affections set on 
 God, is a high profession in such a world as this. Your 
 walk should manifest its truth. How impressive must it 
 be to the worldly, who have nothing beyond this world, 
 when they see in Christians that decided love of heavenly 
 things, that cheerful renunciation of whatever on earth is 
 inconsistent with a spiritual mind; that comfort in present 
 trials, derived from eternal prospects; that evident feeling^ 
 that here they have no continuing city, but are seeking 
 one to come, which so properly belongs to their pro- 
 fession, as followers of Christ. Such examples are con- 
 stant sermons. You know how it is when people emigrate 
 to new countries, leaving the land of their birth for what 
 they think a better land ; how it affects their neighbors, 
 and often makes them dissatisfied till they go also. So the 
 effect will often be upon people of the world, when it is 
 plain, in the spirit and walk of their friends and neigh- 
 bors, especially their dearest relatives, that they have left 
 the world, and are now but strangers here, and are press- 
 ing on towards the heritage of the people of God. Men 
 may never go where other preaching can reach them. 
 Sermons in the pulpit, sermons in books, they can avoid; 
 but such living sermons they cannot escape. They go 
 wherever they go, and are perpetually saying to them, 
 "Why stand ye here all the day idle? Come away. 
 Go with us. The good land is inviting you, as well as 
 us. This is all barren ; that is all life. Here you must 
 
212 SERMON IX. 
 
 perish ; there you will live forever." And that silent ser- 
 mon will be felt. It often unnerves the hardest heart. 
 And, by the blessing of the Spirit of God, honoring the 
 preaching of the word in the examples of his people, 
 many are thus made unwilling to put up with the world, 
 and are finally persuaded to put in their lot with those 
 who have renounced it, for the inheritance incorruptible 
 and undefiled, saying, "Whither you go, we will go; your 
 people shall be our people, and your God our God." 
 
SERMON X. 
 
 THE TRUE ESTIMATE OF LIFE. 
 
 PSALM xc. 12. 
 
 " So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom." 
 
 THE Psalmist prayed for the teaching of God in number- 
 ing his days. What days, and what sort of numbering 
 did he mean ? Did he refer to his days that were past ? 
 But surely he could easily count them, without higher 
 help than that of his own memory. He knew his own 
 age. Did he refer then to days yet to come ? But how 
 could he have expected to be able to number those days? 
 Or how could he pray to be taught to number days, the 
 number of which God purposely, and in great wisdom, 
 conceals from all men? What then could he have 
 meant ? It is manifest, that whether he referred to days 
 past or future, he was speaking of numbering them in a 
 sense very different from the mere arithmetical estimate 
 of how many they had been or would be. It was a num- 
 bering such as mere numbers could not make. It was a 
 numbering that was not to be satisfied with ascertaining 
 how long he had lived or was to live. It required a higher 
 calculus, and it could not be effectively accomplished with- 
 out help from God. We understand him as if he had 
 said in his prayer, Teach me in my meditations upon the 
 
214 SERMON X. 
 
 life I have already past, and upon the shortness, and un 
 certainty, and infinite interests dependent on the days 
 yet to be lived in this world teach me to become so deep- 
 ly impressed with the view of the time already lost, and 
 the need of diligence and faithfulness in improving the 
 time yet to come, as a steward of God, as one who is soon 
 to be called into judgment, as an immortal soul seeking 
 eternal life; that I may be led to apply my heart, my 
 whole heart, to that only true wisdom thy service, oh ! my 
 God-and the securing of thy peace and blessedness forever ! 
 Ah ! brethren, there is need to pray for divine teaching 
 in the study of that lesson. There is heart-work as well 
 as head-work to be done. To apply the heart unto wisdom, 
 we must first apply our hearts unto God in supplication. 
 We need a mind enlightened by his Spirit, to be enabled 
 to take a right view of days that are gone, their lessons 
 of humiliation, of repentance, of warning, of thankful- 
 ness, of faith. We need wisdom from above, to be ena- 
 bled so to contemplate the future the future of this life, 
 and the future of the world to come all that, between 
 this and the grave, of which we know nothing but that 
 "the time is short; " all that beyond the grave which is 
 "unseen and eternal;" so to number those endless days; 
 so to measure the infinite interests at stake and the time 
 given us to secure them; so to see the days of this life 
 in comparison, and in their connection, with the days of 
 the life of the world to come, that we may not sleep as do 
 others, but be giving all diligence, redeeming the time, 
 working while it is called to-day, lest we fail of the 
 life eternal. Such numbering of our days, we desire 
 now to attempt. We would undertake it in prayerful 
 
THE TRUE ESTIMATE OF LIFE. 215 
 
 dependence on the help of the Lord. May his teaching 
 guide the preacher and bless the hearer ! 
 
 Let us begin with our days that are past. But how 
 shall we number them?' on what system by what rule ? 
 What standard of measurement shall we adopt ? Let us 
 take the great work of life, and measure by that. What 
 is it? The service of God; the salvation of the soul! 
 Life is given, life is preserved, for that work only. It can 
 be measured by none other. Every other line deceives. 
 Days have no right to be called days of life, that have 
 not been spent in that work. Many men are dead while 
 they live ; their natural life is all spiritual death. The 
 man who has just begun to serve God, "in spirit and in 
 truth," has already lived a longer term of real life than 
 all his life before, because he has now begun the true life, 
 for the one end of all life. He is "alive unto God" In 
 this respect, as there is an essential difference between 
 those who live unto God and those who do not; so there 
 is often a very important difference among those whom 
 we must believe to be truly God's people. Some of them 
 seem just to live. The most you can say of them is, that 
 they are not spiritually dead. The reality of life is too 
 feeble in them to give them any but a doubtful experience 
 of the power of godliness and the blessedness of the love 
 of God in Christ. The root of the matter is in them, but it 
 is little nourished by the word of truth and faithful prayer. 
 Weeds of earthly growth are all about it. The cold shade 
 of worldly conformity keeps away the cherishing influence 
 of the sun. There is no vigor, nor activity, nor lively 
 enjoyment of the spiritual life. The fruit is scanty just 
 enough to indicate life. Such days count but little. In 
 
216 SERMON X. 
 
 other Christians, religion is the active out-working of a 
 heart earnestly aspiring after more conformity, in all its 
 affections, to God's will and holiness ; a heart of prayer, of 
 love, of zeal, of labor, of joy and peace in believing ; the 
 tree is constantly and rapidly growing in root, and branch, 
 and fruit, drinking at every leaf of the aliment which 
 every breeze brings to it, and every morning dew deposits 
 upon it. Such Christian life counts rapidly. Every day 
 adds to the numbering. No days are blank. A year of 
 such life is a longer life; tells more upon the business of 
 life; lays up more treasure in heaven; does more for the 
 glory of God; contains more of the light and joy of life, 
 than a whole long life of such slow, lukewarm, undecided, 
 half-worldly, unaspiring, down-hearted, dust-grovelling re- 
 ligion as many are contented with, from whom we could 
 not withdraw the name of Christian. 
 
 With the aid of this arithmetic, let us measure the 
 past. Let me first address those who trust they have 
 been born again, and have thus begun a new and spiritual 
 life. My Christian brethren, what was all that portion of 
 your days which elapsed before you thus began to live ? 
 What shall we call it in our present reckoning ? Was it 
 a time of life, or of death? What shall we call those 
 days of worldliness, but days of vanity and delusion ; days 
 of blindness and infatuation ; days of ingratitude, and 
 disobedience, and hardness of heart, and impenitence, 
 never to be remembered but with self-abasement before 
 God, and with wonder and praise that his long suffering 
 spared you to out-live them ? But taking your position 
 at that great era in your existence, when you were brought 
 to life, by being brought to God, endeavor to form some 
 
THE TRUE ESTIMATE OF LIFE. 217 
 
 idea how much of your subsequent days should be num- 
 bered in such an estimate as we are now forming. How 
 old are you, as Christians, in growth of grace, in victory 
 over the world, in works of righteouness, in labors of love, 
 in preparation to die ? How much of your time have you 
 wasted ? In how much have you been faithful stewards 
 of the mercies and gifts of God? What return have you 
 made for the love of Him, whose whole life on earth, and 
 whose bitter death were for you ? Seen from a death-bed, 
 seen from eternity, how do your days appear? How 
 much dross will He find mixed up with the genuine gold, 
 who shall come to purify his people and " refine them as 
 gold and silver are refined? " Oh! what a soul-humbling 
 view does this method of numbering our days, bring to a 
 Christian; how it diminishes his real life to a humiliating 
 remnant of life, as ore out of the mine, when the fire 
 separates the gold ; how it shows him the need of a con- 
 trite heart for his best days, and of the atoning blood of 
 Christ, lest his best deeds and moments should bring him 
 into condemnation. Ah ! brethren, while you look to 
 yourselves for humiliation, you must look away from your- 
 selves for consolation. Other refuge have we none, but 
 the boundless mercy of God, through the intercession of 
 our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus, Saviour of my soul, let me 
 to thy bosom fly ! 
 
 But I must call another class of my hearers to the 
 numbering of their days those who are conscious that 
 they have no title to the character of God's servants. 
 My friends, what is the just estimate of your past days ; 
 how many of them will bear examination by the light of 
 that day which shall drive away all delusions and dreams, 
 
218 SERMON X. 
 
 as the sun dispels the mists of the morning ? How long 
 have you lived? I know an answer. Long enough, you 
 can say, to have had abundance of time to become ser- 
 vants of God; long enough to be blessed beyond measure 
 with the goodness, the patience, the compassion of God ; 
 long enough to be able to tell of innumerable privileges 
 and opportunities of grace neglected and lost; long 
 enough to heap up a fearful account of convictions unheed- 
 ed, light resisted, and calls of the Spirit of God neglected. 
 But is there not another and still more humiliating answer? 
 Has not all your life been one of sin and rebellion against 
 God ? I know it is a hard saying. But the question is 
 asked in tenderness and love, and let it be considered in 
 simplicity and sincerity, so that this present numbering of 
 your days may be as God will number them in the judg- 
 ment. 
 
 But how can your days have been only days of sin and 
 rebellion against God, when so much that is good and useful 
 to others, may have resulted from them ? True, you have 
 not been religious, but you may have been quite moral 
 and upright, living in the diligent discharge of the duties 
 of domestic life, and of the social bond ; exercising much 
 commendable kindness and benevolence, and active good- 
 doing towards your fellow creatures; and are you then to re- 
 gard your past lives as all lost and all sin ? Mind, we are 
 speaking of lost, with reference to the great end of life; 
 lost in respect to the one work given us to do in this 
 world. We are speaking of sin and rebellion against God, 
 as measured by the simple rule of the scriptures. You 
 send a laborer into your field to do a certain work, to 
 which you expect him to devote all the day. He does 
 
THE TRUE ESTIMATE OF LIFE. 219 
 
 many things that are useful to others, but your work he 
 wholly neglects. Is not his time lost ? Has he not spent 
 his whole day in sinning against your command, and in 
 rebellion against your will ? 
 
 But the Saviour has given us the best illustration. " A 
 certain man, (it is written,) had a fig tree planted in his 
 vineyard?* You are represented in that favored tree. It 
 was "planted;" there was a purpose and object in its 
 being where it was. It was in "a vineyard;" not in the 
 open high way; not on the sterile heath; but on privileged 
 ground; fenced and cultivated. Such is your position. 
 God has a purpose in your being here. You have a cer- 
 tain end to answer. You are in the midst of facilities for 
 that end. The means of grace enrich the vineyard you 
 live in. The water of life flows through the midst of it. 
 But the parable proceeds : "He came and sought fruit there- 
 on, and found none" Such, also, is your precise position 
 before God. With all your opportunities, and privileges, 
 and mercies, knowing so well what God expects of you, 
 and with every motive to make you comply, God seeks 
 in you, every day, the fruit the reasonable fruit of all 
 his care, and culture, and goodness, and he findeth none. 
 None! not a branch is bearing; not an affection is devoted 
 to his service; no portion of life has been consecrated to 
 him. The parable proceeds : " Then said he unto the dres- 
 ser of his vineyard, lo! these three years have I come seek- 
 ing fruit on this fig tree, and find none; cut it doivn why 
 cumber eth it the ground ? " 
 
 Why cumber eth it the ground? Was it deserving of 
 such a hard saying ? True, that tree had never produced 
 the fruit for which it was planted, and thus it had entirely 
 
220 SERMON X. 
 
 * 
 
 failed in rendering any return for its cultivation. But had 
 it done nothing else ? Had it been entirely useless ? Did 
 not the fowls of the air find a home in its branches? Did 
 not the weary laborer find rest and shade under its foliage ? 
 Did not its falling leaves enrich the soil for other plants 
 to feed on ? Yes ; but was it planted, was it placed in a 
 vineyard, had it been enriched and cultivated, for such 
 ends? It failed in the single object for which it was 
 planted, and nourished -fruit fruit after its kind. It 
 was therefore a cumberer of the ground, and was deservedly 
 cut down. 
 
 And is not this exactly your case ? You plead that 
 though you have not returned to God a life devoted to 
 his service, a life of love to him, and of the following of 
 Christ, your days have not been without usefulness in 
 various collateral relations. We deny it not. We hope it 
 is true of all of you, whom we are now specially address- 
 ing. But chat is not the question. Has God found in 
 you that fruit which every year, every day, he has sought? 
 Where has been your heart? On what have your affec- 
 tions been set? In what have you sought your happiness ? 
 Where has your treasure been ? Plead that you have not 
 lived in vain ; but have you lived unto God ? Can he 
 number your days as days of service to him, when another 
 will than his has held all the mastery ? The voice of God 
 has been following you at every step, saying : "My son, 
 give me thy heart;" and never has that voice been obey- 
 ed; always has that heart, with its whole energy of will 
 and affection, been given to other gods, the gods of the 
 vanities of this world; and is it too much then, my friends, 
 to say that therefore, as sure as the barren fig tree was con- 
 
THE TRUE ESTIMATE OF LIFE. 221 
 
 demned as a cumberer of the ground, your days must be 
 numbered as only days of sin and rebellion against God ; 
 days in which, while all your life was the gift of his grace, 
 and all your blessings came from his Providence, and your 
 every breath was from his forbearance and mercy, God 
 was practically rejected, and his will denied. Alas ! this 
 is a fearful view of the past, especially as you know not 
 how shorfc the future will be before it becomes eternity. I 
 wish indeed, we had not to say such painful things to any 
 body. But when they are the solemn truth, the more we 
 love you, the more must we say them to you, affectionate- 
 ly, but so plainly that as much as possible, their painful- 
 ness may be felt. 
 
 And now we turn to the future. What future is there 
 to us, before that endless future begins its course ? How 
 many days to come may we number before that life comes 
 that has no days, or years, or centuries that ever and 
 ever, into which all years, all times, empty as rivers into 
 the ocean ? How long have we yet to live ? I mean, to 
 live here; for we have always to live. The Psalmist pray- 
 ed, "Lord, let me know mine end and the measure of my 
 days, what it is, that I may know how frail I am." Our 
 end, the measure of our days ! Of course, in the way of 
 numerical computation, we cannot know it now. But, in 
 the way of a serious impression of how near our end is, 
 and how precious our time is, we can know what it is. 
 We can do just as the Psalmist did. He measured his 
 days by the eternity of God. Thus he began : " Before 
 the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst 
 formed the earth or the world, even from everlasting to 
 everlasting, thou art God." " A thousand years in thy 
 
222 SERMON X. 
 
 sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch 
 in the night." A thousand years in God's sight, but as 
 yesterday 1 Yea, because God's measure of duration is 
 eternity. The Psalmist, measuring by the same line, look- 
 ed at the longest age of man on earth. " The days of our 
 years are threescore years and ten ; and if by reason of 
 strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength 
 labor and sorrow, for it is soon cut off and we fly away." 
 "In the morning it flourisheth and groweth up; in the 
 evening it is cut down and withered." * Thus did a life 
 of fourscore years appear, when seen in the shadow of an 
 eternal future. Let us get that same view. Suppose 
 that by reason of strength we should lengthen out our 
 journey here, with labor and sorrow, to those four score years 
 How long they look from childhood; how short will 
 they look from a death-bed ! How long when we compare 
 them only with shorter periods, as a year is long compar- 
 ed with an hour ; but how short, in comparison with ev- 
 erlasting ages ! Oh ! Lord, so teach us to number our days ; 
 so teach us to feel their exceeding insignificance as they 
 stand beside eternity; so teach us to feel their unspeakable 
 magnitude and preciousness as days that must decide 
 what we shall be, where we shall be, what our endless 
 portion happiness with God, or misery in banishment from 
 God, forever and ever! 
 
 But threescore years and ten ! what right have we to 
 count on any such length of days ! "Boast not thyself of 
 to-morrow" saith the warning voice of God's word, "for 
 thou Jcnowest not what a day may Iring forth" " Go to, 
 ye that say, to-day or to-morrow 2ve ivill go into such a city 
 
 * Ps. xc., 2 and 4 ; 10 and 6. 
 
THE TRUE ESTIMATE OF LIFE. 223 
 
 and continue there a year, and luy and sell and get gain, 
 2vhereas ye knoiv not what shall be on the morrow. For what 
 is your life ? It is even a vapor which appeareth for a 
 little time and then vanisheth aivay" * What a rebuke to 
 your confident calculations upon years to come ! What a 
 gloomy shadow ifc brings over all the schemes of a worldly 
 mind the buying, and selling, and getting gain, and lay- 
 ing up treasure on earth, and trying to be happy without 
 hope in eternity, and without God for a refuge and por- 
 tion. Oh ! what a gloomy cloud when you once realize, 
 as sometimes the most worldly mind is forced to do, that 
 all of life is such a mere vapor ; that its surest and proud- 
 est calculations may be so easily and awfully disappoint- 
 ed. Ye know not what ye shall be on the morrow. Ye 
 may be dead on the morrow ; ye may be disembodied 
 spirits on the morrow ; ye may have received your ever- 
 lasting condemnation on the morrow ; ye may be beyond 
 the reach of hope on the morrow; the eternal night of 
 darkness and of despair unutterable may have settled 
 down upon your soul, to-morrow. Oh ! that solemn warn- 
 ing, "Ye know not what shall be on the morrow" so often 
 preached by the funerals of those that die unprepared ; 
 that hand-writing on the wall of every earthly habitation 
 which so many are afraid to read, lest like the King of 
 Babylon in his banqueting house, their thoughts should 
 trouble them, and their eyes should see too plainly the 
 vanity and folly of their worldly idolatry; I would that it 
 could appear to you in every temple of Mammon, in every 
 house of feasting, in every street of business, in all the 
 cares and interests and attractions of home, in all scenes 
 
 / * James iv., 13, 1-1. 
 
224 SERMON X. 
 
 of gayety and mirth, everywhere* And if it be too seri- 
 ous, too impressive a monitor to suit your occupation ; if 
 the zeal of any worldly scheme, if the gayety of any plea- 
 sure, if the relish of any amusement, cannot bear to be so 
 confronted with the uncertainty of life and the nearness 
 of the judgment to come; if you could not read that wri- 
 ting of God without feeling it an unwelcome intrusion 
 upon your occupation or your pleasure, out of place be- 
 cause not in keeping with what you are about ; then be 
 sure your pleasure or occupation is out of place, not be- 
 fitting, either in itself, or else in the spirit in which you 
 pursue it, the position, the relations, the interests of a 
 sinner whose days are so few, and beneath whose feet, at 
 his next step, the grave may open, Oh ! let us try to real- 
 ize, always and everywhere, what we are, whither going, 
 what we have at stake, what we have to do. We speak of 
 dying. Shall we ever die ? Can we die if we would ? 
 We shall suffer dissolution. The mysterious bond between 
 body and soul will be divided. We shall depart hence. 
 But we this within, that thinks, and sees, and speaks this 
 soul, will never cease its thinking, and remembering, and 
 enjoying or suffering. It cannot die if it would. Once em- 
 barked in life, onward you must go, living and living 
 forever and ever; no door to escape out of being; no 
 refuge from the necessity of life ; one thing or other your 
 unchangeable portion the home of the saved, or the 
 portion of the lost. 
 
 How can we number the days of such a future ? There 
 is a way. If we cannot compute, we can contemplate. 
 We can survey the ocean, which we cannot measure ; we 
 can compare with its boundless bosom the narrow streams 
 
THE TRUE ESTIMATE OF LIFE. 225 
 
 that empty therein ; we can consider the tides of life that 
 are continually pouring their contributions of immortal 
 souls into that eternity; we can think of all that is beyond 
 the horizon which now bounds our view, and ah 1 that is 
 beneath, in those fathomless depths which no mortal 
 thought can penetrate ; we can get an impressive sight of 
 what is length of days on earth, as measured by the con- 
 trast of the life to come a foot-print on an ocean shore. 
 We can thus obtain some view of the preciousness of a 
 good hope in Christ Jesus, and the unspeakable littleness 
 of every thing in comparison. We can so number the 
 days of that eternal future, as to form some answer to 
 that question of our Lord, which many dare not answer 
 What shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and 
 lose his oivn soul? And thus, we can realize something 
 of the folly of the man who makes this world his portion, 
 doing nothing to save his soul ; something of the weighty 
 argument that enforces those constant exhortations of the 
 scriptures " Be ye ready ; " " Prepare to meet your 
 God;" "Labor not for the meat which perisheth, but for 
 that which endureth unto everlasting life;" "Give all 
 diligence ; " "Work out your salvation with fear and trem- 
 bling;" "To-day, if ye will hear His voice, harden not 
 your hearts." One glance at eternity! a moment's draw- 
 ing aside of the veil! with what power would it preach 
 those exhortations; how it would expose the folly of a, 
 worldly life, and convince you of the preciousness of the* 
 refuge that is in Christ! 
 
 Brethren, must we not all adopt the prayer of the texr>. 
 " So teach us to number our days, that we may apply OWE- 
 hearts unto wisdom " ? Let our hearts be now applied to 
 
 15 
 
226 SERMON X. 
 
 the study, that we may know what the true wisdom is 
 for us. 
 
 Son of man, have you secured a hope, in Christ, of ac- 
 ceptance with God? Are you laying up treasure in 
 heaven ? Have you repented, and fled to Him who is 
 our only refuge from the condemnation of sin ? Have 
 you the peace of God, and are you striving to retain it, 
 till he calls you to his presence? What answers your soul 
 to these questions ? "No ? I have not found, I have not 
 sought, I have not repented. Here I am, an immortal 
 soul, eternity at hand, all my work undone, all my porlion 
 here no home to go to when I die, no Saviour secured to 
 comfort and save when I go hence all God's mercies to 
 be accounted for, all his will undone." Then, poor sinful 
 man, what is the wisdom to which thy heart should be ap- 
 plied? Art thou willing to meet death in such a state ? 
 Canst thou stand before God in such a state ? Ah ! how 
 dreadful to have your day of grace ended in such a state. 
 
 What is wisdom? One thing is wisdom for thee; all 
 else is foolishness, in comparison. Apply thine heart in- 
 stantly, earnestly, entirely, to the effort to obtain the 
 peace of God, through that merciful and compassionate 
 Saviour, who waits to receive your petitions, to help your 
 infirmities, to cleanse you from your sins, and to embrace 
 you in his love. May I not entreat you, in the name of 
 that poor soul which you have so neglected ; in the name 
 of that eternal portion of bliss or woe which you have so 
 much forgotten ; in the name of that God whose peace is 
 so precious, whose wrath is a consuming lire ; in the name 
 of Jesus, that most gracious Saviour, whose love and 
 sufferings for you have been so ungratefully slighted; 
 
THE TRUE ESTIMATE OF LIFE. 227 
 
 must I not entreat you, delay no more. Seek eternal 
 life, while it may be attained ; escape the wrath to come, 
 before it be come ; do the work of him that sent you, be- 
 fore he shall send for you to give account of your work ; 
 cease to cumber the ground with barrenness, lest barren- 
 ness and hopelessness be your portion forever. Oh ! seek 
 your endless portion in Christ. Bring that sin-fettered, 
 world-oppressed soul to Christ ! He will set it free. 
 Bring that poor, wearied, burdened, disappointed heart, to 
 Christ 1 He will give it rest. Dying sinner, whose days 
 are numbered, and whose sins have brought on you the 
 condemnation of God, flee to Christ, and he will be to 
 you a hope that maketh not ashamed, and a peace that 
 passeth understanding. 
 
 My Christian brethren ye who hope in Christ, and 
 trust you are his what is the lesson for you in the views 
 we have been taking? What is the wisdom to which 
 your hearts should be applied? I answer, the wisdom of 
 a greater earnestness in the whole work and life of a dis- 
 ciple of Christ. It is a short time you have to live for 
 the glory of your Lord in this evil world. It is a short 
 time you have to do good, where there is so much evil ; 
 and to seek the salvation of your fellow creatures, where 
 so many are perishing. It is a short time ye have to get 
 ready to meet death as Christians should meet it, rejoicing 
 in Christ your Saviour, and feeling that death hath no 
 sting remaining, nor the grave any fears. Ye are pre- 
 pared to die, if ye be in Christ Jesus; but ye may not be 
 so prepared as to feel prepared. Your sense of a good 
 hope may not be strong. Your evidence of being in 
 Christ may not be such as to free your minds from many 
 
228 SERMON X. 
 
 painful doubts which you would fear to encounter on a 
 death bed. We want to go down into the valley and 
 shadow of death with our hope all determined, our conso- 
 lation all ascertained; no need of an anxious examination 
 of evidence; no room for a painful suspicion that we 
 have been crying peace, when there was no peace. We 
 want to be found prepared, not only to go safely, but joy- 
 fully; not only alive unto God, but looking for, and 
 hasting unto, that day, when he shall call us hence. 
 We want to be found with our loins girt about, as servants 
 waiting for their Lord; with our staif in hand, as pilgrims 
 waiting to go home ; with our lamps trimmed and burning, 
 as the wise waiting for the coming of Him who saith, " I 
 come quickly" Christian brethren, apply your hearts to 
 such wisdom. Seek to become more weaned from the 
 world. Endeavor to make the most profitable investment 
 of your remaining days, and of the talents entrusted to 
 you, for the good of man and the glory of your Lord. 
 Practise constantly on the rule of looking, not at the 
 things that are seen and temporal, but at those which 
 are not seen and eternal. Live, and pray, and work, as 
 those whose eyes are thus opened and thus elevated; who 
 see in open vision the things eternal the unseen God, 
 the unseen glory of his people, the eternal misery of the 
 lost. Seek a bright and shining hope; seek a strong 
 faith, that lays hold vigorously on the promises, and puts 
 on the whole armor of God, and stands complete in " the 
 righteousness which is of God, by faith." Be it your 
 every day's work to apply your hearts to that wisdom. 
 You will reap if you faint not. The hour of your death 
 will be your recompense. 
 
THE TRUE ESTIMATE OF LIFE. 229 
 
 Brethren, friends all we must all pray to be taught 
 of God, or we shall never learn from the solemn lessons 
 we have been considering. What I have said to you to- 
 day, how often have you heard before, and with how little 
 benefit. How often have your days been numbered before 
 you, so that you have seen the shortness of your time 
 and your eternity just at hand, and have felt the exceed- 
 ing folly of a careless, worldly life, and have turned away 
 and continued the same careless, worldly life, as if the fu- 
 ture were all a dream, and the present were all the reality. 
 These world-blinded hearts, these sin-palsied hearts, how 
 slow to learn in such a school. To read the page is easy. 
 To understand the truth, and take it away in your mem- 
 ory, is easy. But to have it written in our hearts ; to get 
 its impression, and keep it, so that it shall abide in us; so 
 to learn the lesson, that we shall learn by it, and be wise 
 in heart, unto salvation; for this we must not trust our- 
 selves; we must pray; we must apply our hearts unto 
 Him who alone giveth wisdom; we must take the lesson 
 to the engraver, and beg Him who can write his law in 
 our inward parts, to grave it upon our hearts, so that 
 nothing shall erase it, and so it shall speak to us by the 
 wayside and the fireside, in our business and in our enjoy- 
 ments, in solitude and in company everywhere ; keep- 
 ing us solemnly in mind that the end of all things is at 
 hand; ever urging us to count all things but loss for 
 Christ, that we may be found in him. Oh ! yes, we must 
 pray Lord teach us so to number our days, so to ap- 
 ply our hearts! We must pray for one another. We 
 must pray for the careless and unconcerned. We must 
 pray for those who pray not for themselves. What we all 
 
230 SERMON X. 
 
 need is, seeing "the time is short," and "the fashion of 
 this world passeth away," that "they that weep be as though 
 they wept not ; and they that rejoice as though they re- 
 joiced not; and they that buy as though they bought 
 not; and they that use this world, as not abusing it." 
 We want, not only an abiding sense of the shortness of 
 our time remaining for our great work, but an humble, 
 contrite sense of how the time past condemns us for our 
 unprofitableness, and a solemn sense of the unutterable 
 worth of the soul that each of us has to save, with such 
 a spirit of earnest application of life, and love, and 
 strength, to the following of Christ, that we certainly 
 shall not come short of the inheritance of his saints. 
 Lord, so teach us. Write that law of life on our hearts. 
 Evermore give us that wisdom. Help us to be ever 
 pressing " toward the mark, for the prize of our high call- 
 ing of God, in Christ Jesus." So teach us always to 
 pray, and always to learn ! Amen. 
 
SEBMON XL 
 
 THE NATURE AND EFFICACY OF SAVING FAITH, 
 
 JOHN iii. 36. 
 
 "He that beleveth on the Son hath everlasting life ; and he that believeth 
 not the Son, shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him." 
 
 NONE who read the scriptures can fail to notice how much 
 is there made of faith) as essential to a truly religious 
 life, and the salvation of the soul. The jailor of Philippi 
 rushes in fear and trembling before his prisoners, Paul and 
 Silas, and begs to know what he must do to be saved. 
 Their simple answer is, " Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 and thou shalt be saved." A poor blind man pushes his 
 way through a crowd, and gets to Jesus, begging that his 
 eyes may be opened. Jesus grants his prayer, opens his 
 eyes, and then ascribes all to his faith. "Thy faith hath 
 saved thee." Our blessed Lord sends his apostles to 
 preach the Gospel to every creature, and underwrites their 
 commission with these emphatic words: "He that believeth 
 shall be saved ; and he that believeth not shall be damned. " 
 But for strength of declaration on this head, we need not 
 look any further than the text: "He that believeth on the 
 Son hath life; and he that believeth not the Son, shall not 
 see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him." You see 
 how directly and essentially everlasting life is here con- 
 nected with the possession of faith in Christ. He that 
 
232 SERMON XI. 
 
 has a true faith in Christ, is now in possession of life 
 eternal. He who has it not, is now abiding under the 
 wrath of God. 
 
 Now, we should not think much of the reflecting dis- 
 position of that man, who, accustomed to the usual 
 thoughts on the subject of saving faith, had never been 
 struck with something pparently so peculiar, so unlike 
 what we are accustomed to in all other interests of man, 
 in this absolute dependence of everlasting life and death 
 singly on the possession of faith in Christ, as to have felt 
 there was a difficulty which he would much desire to have 
 removed. I suppose there is a large number of minds, 
 among the respectful hearers of the gospel, who are con- 
 scious, all the time, of a want of satisfaction on that 
 subject; and another class, among serious and earnest 
 Christians, to whom, while it may present no difficulty, it 
 is a subject about which they feel that they have little to 
 say, except that it is the plan of Him who is infinitely 
 wise and merciful, thus to make believing in Jesus the 
 turning point of life or death to the sinner's soul. 
 
 We desire to show that there is much more to be said 
 than that; that faith is not so peculiar in its connection 
 with salvation, nor so unlike its position in all other con- 
 cerns of man, as is much imagined; that the exceedingly 
 prominent and essential position assigned to faith, in the 
 economy of our salvation, and in all the Christian life, in- 
 stead of having no parallel in other interests of man, is in 
 precise conformity with what we are familiar with in all 
 other human interests; so that, from all our connections 
 with nature and Providence, from all our worldly concerns 
 and relations, we should have had reason to anticipate 
 
THE NATURE AND EFFICACY OF SAVING FAITH. 233 
 
 that the place and function of faith, in all our spiritual 
 interests, would be just what the scriptures represent it. 
 
 But I must first correct a prevalent, but very errone- 
 ous idea, of the nature of the faith required in the Gospel. 
 It is a common supposition, arising out of the great 
 things attributed to faith in the scriptures, such as the 
 believer's union to Christ, his justification in the right- 
 eousness of Christ, his victory over the world, &c., that 
 it is some principle of the regenerate heart, so peculiar, 
 so entirely above nature, and so exclusively pertaining to 
 the Gospel, that there is nothing elsewhere corresponding 
 to, or partaking of, its character. That there is such 
 a thing as faith between man and man, in the ordinary 
 concerns of human life, is of course understood; .but the 
 idea is, that between such natural faith, and that of the 
 Christian believer, successfully prosecuting the work of 
 his salvation, there is nothing in common. Faith that 
 saves the soul, through Christ, we know is asserted in the 
 scriptures to be "the gift of God"* It is therefore sup- 
 posed that it must be unlike, in all things, that faith 
 which is only the gift of nature. 
 
 We shall take good heed, that in correcting this idea, 
 we do not, in the slightest degree, reduce your conception 
 of saving faith, as being never a natural endowment of the 
 human heart, and never attainable by man without the 
 converting grace of God; never attained but by the di- 
 rect act of the Holy Spirit upon man's mind and heart, 
 convincing him of his ruined state as a sinner, condemned 
 under the law of God; revealing to him the preciousness 
 of Christ, as his only and perfect refuge, and enabling 
 
 *Eph. ii. 8. 
 
234 SERMON XI. 
 
 him to embrace and rest thereon with a joyful hope of 
 salvation. Faith is thus most truly and exclusively "the 
 gift of God" But must we not say the same of love to 
 God? Is not the love in which all the law is fulfilled, 
 and which, in its various degrees of perfectness, is the 
 sum and substance of all piety, as much the gift of God 
 as saving faith? And yet, do any suppose that it is a 
 grace so peculiar to vital religion, so entirely supernatural, 
 that in the natural man there is no corresponding affec- 
 tion? Is not the love of a dutiful son to an affectionate 
 father an emotion very nearly corresponding to that of a 
 child of God towards his Father in heaven ? Must we 
 have an entirely new affection created within us, before 
 we can love God ; or only an old natural affection made 
 new by having a new heart given to it; made new by be- 
 ing transferred from the creature to the Creator, and set 
 upon our Father in heaven? And when, according to the 
 scriptures, we hold, that the love of God in our hearts 
 cometh only by the gift of his Spirit working in us, what 
 is meant, but that the affection of love, implanted in us by 
 nature, and kept, by the bondage of our fallen nature, 
 grovelling amidst earthly things, and incapable of ascend- 
 ing to God, has been, by the power of his Spirit, regen- 
 erated, purified, and exalted, so that what was before 
 only the supreme love of the world, and the things there- 
 in, is now the supreme love of God and his will. In a few 
 words, to love is the gift of nature. To love God is the 
 gift of grace. 
 
 Now, precisely what we have said of the nature and 
 peculiarity of the love of God in the heart, is equally 
 true of a saving faith in Christ. In our unregenerate 
 
THE NATURE AND EFFICACY OF SAVING FAITH. 235 
 
 state, faith is as universal as love; The child trusts in 
 his m ther as naturally as he loves her. Mutual reliance 
 is as natural between man and man as mutual love. 
 This reliance is nothing lout faith, in its entire definition. 
 And the difference between such natural faith and reli- 
 gious, saving faith, is not that they are two entirely 
 separate things, but that the one is regenerated into the 
 other; a new heart is given it, so that now, instead of 
 satisfying itself with earthly things to trust in, it embra- 
 ces the heavenly ; instead of contenting itself with hew- 
 ing out to itself cisterns that can hold no water, it rests 
 for happiness upon the fullness of God ; instead of seek- 
 ing salvation in our own righteousness, it embraces 
 promises of God in Christ, and in doing so embraces the 
 Christ in all the offices and relations which he sustains 
 to us; his will as well as his grace; the precept of his 
 present service as well as the hope of his everlasting 
 blessedness. And because this great change can no more 
 take place in the natural faith of the heart than the cor- 
 responding change in the heart's natural love, without the 
 direct gift of God's Holy Spirit, therefore, most justly is 
 it said of saving faith, that it is "not of yourselves, hit the gift 
 of God" So that just as we said of love, we now say of 
 this. Faith is the gift of nature. But saving faith in 
 Christ is exclusively the gift of grace. To believe and 
 to live by faith, is born with us, To believe with the 
 heart in Christ, and live thereby unto God, is not ours till 
 we are born again. 
 
 But we advance a further step. Not only do we find 
 in the natural faith of men that which is so akin to the 
 saving faith of the Gospel; but the exceeding prominence 
 
236 SERMON XI. 
 
 assigned to the latter in thewliole plan of salvation, in 
 all our spiritual interests and duties, is precisely corres- 
 pondent to the position held by the natural faith of man, 
 in all his temporal concerns ; in all that constitutes the 
 welfare of human society ; so that it would be a departure 
 from all that we are accustomed to in the divine arrange- 
 ments for our secular interests and duties, did we find in 
 the provisions of the Gospel for our spiritual and eternal 
 welfare, any less essential and prominent position assigned 
 to faith than that in which the scriptures have placed it. 
 
 But you tell me that such is the exceeding prominence 
 of faith in the religion of Christ, that every thing in the 
 saving of the soul is made to hinge on that one gift ; that 
 without it there can be no true piety, no interest in 
 Christ, no salvation ; and with it, we are " in Christ," and 
 have eternal life ; that it is the tree to which all the other 
 manifestations of personal religion belong as its fruit, and 
 without which they can no more be produced than grapes 
 can grow without the stock and root of the vine. True ! 
 But what less can you say of natural faith in all that per- 
 tains to the personal, domestic and social relations of man 
 in the present life ? Does not the whole movement of 
 this world, as a world of mind and heart and mutual inter- 
 ests and innumerable connections, between man and man, 
 turn upon the single pivot of faith ? 
 
 Take man at his birth. What is the whole existence 
 of the feeble, helpless infant, but a life of the most 
 simple, implicit faith. He literally lives ly faith. Take 
 away his unquestioning faith in his mother's love and care, 
 and what will become of his life ? And when the time 
 arrives for his education, how can he receive the first 
 
THE NATURE AND EFFICACY OF SAVING FAITH. 237 
 
 communications of knowledge but by an elementary and 
 implicit faith? Must he discuss the necessity or the pro- 
 priety of the alphabet before he will receive it ? And to 
 the end of life, how large a part of all he will ever know 
 as matter of fact, must be known by faith only ; by reli- 
 ance on the testimony of men ! How can he know of 
 distant lands which he never sees, but by such faith alone ? 
 Suppose a man to have no faith in his fellow-man, and 
 what can you imagine more helpless or more wretched! 
 Suppose a family, the members of which are without faith 
 in one another, and how is it possible there can be any 
 family life ? And thus advancing to the social relations 
 of a whole nation, how immediately would you dissolve 
 the bonds of civilized communities, and annihilate ah 1 the 
 combinations and reciprocal dependencies which make the 
 basis of society, and how would you substitute a condition 
 worse than even of the lowest barbarism you ever heard 
 of, were you to take away from a people merely their 
 faith in one another. Nothing more distinguishes a civil- 
 ized from a savage state, than the extension of the exer- 
 cise of faith. By the growth of faith in one another, 
 combinations for mutual benefit become more easy and 
 more numerous and more efficient. Thus arise power 
 and accumulation of the means of further improvement. 
 Knowledge grows with this union of minds. Laws extend 
 their protection, because men rely on one another for their 
 observance and support. Commerce spreads its wings, 
 and arts and all the blessings of cultivated life attain do- 
 minion on the strength of the confidence of man in man. 
 How lives the vast system of pecuniary exchange that 
 binds the whole business world together, embracing in its 
 
238 SERMON XL 
 
 connections, all countries, all classes, all interests, so that 
 were it stopped, there must take place a dissolution in 
 the secular interests of men like that in our bodies, when 
 the circulation of the blood has ceased; how lives that 
 whole system but by faith? And in the world of letters, 
 what if the faith that now receives and acts confidently 
 on reports of distant lands, or of important phenomena in 
 nature, or of valuable experiments in science, were extinct, 
 so that instead of being ever willing to rely on human 
 testimony, we must verify everything by our own obser" 
 vation or experiment how then could knowledge increase 
 or science advance; what could we ever know beyond 
 the narrow horizon of our own personal inspection ? How 
 know we even to prepare for the morrow, but by our faith that 
 the laws which regulate the present, will alike extend into 
 the future ? Certainly it needs no more words to show 
 how innumerable are the ramifications of faith in our 
 most ordinary concerns; how they run in all directions, 
 extend to^all particulars, and embrace the utmost extremi- 
 ties of the social system, so as not only to bind together 
 its several members in one harmonious movement, but 
 like the arteries in our bodies, to supply the very life by 
 which it exists. 
 
 But is there any thing beyond this in the importance 
 attached to faith in the Gospel ? Is that faith in our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, which is "the gift of God," of any 
 more necessity to the present life of piety within us or to 
 the future salvation of our souls, according to the revela- 
 tion of God in the scriptures, thin is that faith which is 
 the gift of nature to the dearest earthly interests of every 
 individual, family and nation? 
 
THE NATURE AND EFFICACY OF SAVING FAITH. 239 
 
 But let us come to some of the special powers and effects 
 of faith, as ascribed to it in the scriptures. 
 
 We read, for example, in an epistle of St. John, that 
 "whatsoever is born of God, overcometh the world; and 
 this is the victory that overcometh the ivorld, even your 
 faith"'' It is a property, then, of a living and saving 
 faith, that it overcomes the world. Faith in the individual 
 Christian, will give him, through the power of God, such a 
 victory over the world, that he will successfully resist all 
 the influences with which it opposes his going out of it, 
 and living unto God, and journeying toward the heavenly 
 land. It will make him victorious in his daily conflicts 
 with its temptations, and will carry him triumphantly to 
 the end of his pilgrimage, where the battle will cease and 
 the crown of life be gained. The same faith will make 
 the whole Church of Christ, by the power of its Divine 
 Head, ultimately victorious over the whole world. By faith, 
 it will "subdue kingdoms;" it will remove mountains of 
 obstacle now presented by idolatry, and superstition, and 
 worldliness, and all sinfulness ; it will "quench the violence 
 of fire," which the combined powers of infidelity, and 
 popery, and anarchy will kindle around it ; a Red sea of 
 dangers will divide before it; the walls of the mystic 
 Babylon, like those of Jericho of old, will fall before it; it 
 will stop the mouths of lions, gnashing their teeth against 
 it ; it will "have trial" hereafter, as in past ages, "of cruel 
 mockings and scourgings yea, moreover, of bonds and 
 imprisonment ;" and many of the children and soldiers of 
 faith may be slain; but it is written in the "sure word of 
 prophecy," that " the kingdom, and dominion, and the 
 
 * 1 John, v. 4, 
 
240 SERMON XI. 
 
 greatness of the kingdom, under the whole heaven, shall 
 be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, 
 whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all nations 
 shall serve and obey Him."* And this is the victory that 
 by the power of God, will thus overcome the world, even 
 the combined faith of the people of God. And what is 
 all this but just, in greater extension, what faith has been 
 achieving from the beginning ? Did not Moses overcome 
 the world by a wonderful victory, when he refused the 
 honor, and power, and wealth connected with being " called 
 the son of Pharaoh's daughter;" and "esteemed the re- 
 proach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of 
 Egypt ?" And was it not his faith, " enduring as seeing 
 Him that is invisible," and "having respect unto the 
 recompense of the reward " at God's right hand, that 
 gained that victory ? j And did not faith overcome the 
 world in each soldier of that noble army of martyrs, who, 
 amidst the persecutions of all ages, enlisted under Christ, 
 and fought a good fight, and finished their course, and enter- 
 ed into the glory of God, " more than conquerors?" The 
 world slew them ; but in consenting to be slain, rather than 
 obey the world to the dishonoring of Christ, they over- 
 came the world. The same was the victory of that " glori- 
 ous company of the Apostles," who by faith in the words 
 of their Lord, "lam with you always, even to the end of the 
 world" issued forth from Jerusalem, to assault, single 
 handed, the empire of darkness, over the whole earth, 
 and ceased not their work till a great multitude in every 
 land had renounced the world and become obedient unto 
 God. 
 
 But is there any thing singular or strange in this con- 
 
 *Dan. vii. 27. fHeb. xi. 24-27. 
 
THE NATURE AND EFFICACY OF SAVING FAITH. 241 
 
 nection of faith ? Is there nothing analogous thereto in 
 what the natural faith of man accomplishes away from the 
 duties of the service of God ? I would not for a moment 
 keep out of view the infinite superiority of a gospel faith 
 over every other form and operation of faith, in its pro- 
 perty so to enable the Christian to overcome the world, 
 that in his heart, and spirit, and life, he is no more of it; 
 but one of "a peculiar people," who declare, in all their 
 affections and life, that they " have here no continuing city 
 or abiding place, but are seeking one to come." "No man 
 can do such miracles except God be with him." But there 
 is a faith which, in an unspeakably lower field, and for in- 
 finitely less precious ends, and against far less opposition, 
 overcomes the world. The man who sets his heart, not 
 indeed on treasure in heaven, but upon the treasures of 
 golden mines in a far distant land, and puts such faith in 
 the promises of wealth to him who will go there and search 
 the sands, and the rocks, and encounter all the perils and 
 endure all the hardships inseparable from the effort, that 
 notwithstanding all the resistance of all that he loves, and 
 all that he has in this world, he makes the needed sacrifice 
 of every personal comfort, and domestic attachment, and 
 worldly connection ; and, with a brave will, battles all the 
 dangers and difficulties of the long, disheartening journey 
 by the way of the wilderness and the savage, fearing 
 neither hunger, nor cold, nor nakedness, and reaches at 
 last the scene of his anticipated labors is there no vic- 
 tory that overcometh the world in him? True, it is the 
 power of a worldly dominion in his heart overcoming the 
 obstacles of the world without ; it is a victory that uses 
 the attractions of one promise of the world against those 
 16 
 
242 SERMON XI. 
 
 of all the world besides ; it only makes the conqueror, 
 more than ever, the slave of the world ; but it is a great 
 victory to be gained over such obstacles and at such cost ; 
 and that which obtains it is faith. Nothing but strong 
 faith in the promises that came from that distant land, 
 of golden gains; faith investing those things unseen and 
 distant with the influence of things present and seen, could 
 take such possession of the mind, and nerve it for such 
 labors and sacrifices. 
 
 But let us take another example. A great Captain 
 overcame with his armies .many nations - a large part of 
 the earth. But how ? Not by superiority of numbers, 
 for the vanquished nations far exceeded his array. Not 
 by superior personal courage, for armies are generally 
 much alike in that respect. Superiority of discipline is 
 said to have decided the contest. But what is the soul, 
 and bond, and strength of military discipline, but faith ? 
 That which binds the regiment into one compact and 
 steady array, and enables it to move as one man, obeying 
 without confusion, and without fear, the orders of the 
 head, unbroken by assault, unaffected by dangers, is not 
 the mere practice of evolution, but it is something without 
 which all such practice would come to nought in the hour 
 of conflict confidence, reliance not the reliance of each 
 man upon himself, but of each in all the rest; and, espe- 
 cially, the confidence of all in the leading head. The 
 weak are made strong by such faith. The fearful are 
 made bold by such faith. The hundreds have overcome 
 the thousands by such faith. Without it, the strong be- 
 come weak, the bold become fearful ; and the greater the 
 number, the worse the defeat and the dismay. 
 
THE NATURE AND EFFICACY OF SAVING FAITH. 243 
 
 I am well aware that whatever examples I may produce 
 of the operation of the natural faith of man surmounting 
 great difficulties, and accomplishing great victories, in 
 pursuit of some engrossing end, must come immeasurably 
 short of a just resemblance, in many respects, of that 
 elevated faith which is " mighty, through God," to over- 
 come the world. But we are looking for analogies, not 
 equals ; for faith in the world, occupying a position towards 
 the world, similar, in its low and contracted sphere, to that 
 of faith in the hearts of those who are "not of the world" 
 in its high endeavors to attain the kingdom of God. 
 
 There is certainly a boundless difference in character 
 and spirit between the faith that overcomes the world out 
 of the love of it, and that it may have the more of it 
 and that which overcomes the world because it has re- 
 nounced it, and is endeavoring to get as much delivered 
 as possible from its entanglements and attractions. You 
 describe a vast gulf between the two, when you say of the 
 faith which God gives by his grace, that it " worketh by 
 love," the love of God, the love of holiness, the love of 
 unseen and eternal blessedness with Christ ; and can say 
 nothing better of the faith that is naturally in us, than 
 that, if it ever work by love, it is only by the love of 
 things on the earth, as empty and fleeting as the shadow. 
 And in point of operation, what comparison is there between 
 the faith which, in accomplishing its ends, has no power to 
 rest on but man's, and that which, because it is engaged 
 in the work of God, in obedience to his word, and in the 
 assurance of his promises, has the power of his omnipo- 
 tent arm to nerve it and make it victorious? The former 
 can never rise above the arm of flesh it leans to. All it 
 
244 SERMON XI. 
 
 gains is of its own level. The latter must rise to the arm 
 above, which it holds to. Its conquests must be as high 
 as heaven, and as eternal as God. 
 
 But vast as is the difference in point of character and 
 operation, there is a strict analogy between the position of 
 our natural faith as connected with every worldly enter- 
 prise, and that of a saving faith as connected with the 
 great enterprise of every Christian believer, to overcome 
 and live above the world. 
 
 But let us take another instance of the great promi- 
 nence assigned to faith in the scriptures. We read the 
 words of our Lord Jesus, where he says: "/ am the 
 bread of life ;" in which single expression he embraces all 
 our salvation as being found in him. Then he says : "He 
 that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on 
 me shall never thirst ; " * thus making faith not only the 
 way, but the certain way, by which we are to partake of 
 him and live forever. St. Paul, in enforcing this doc- 
 trine, said : " We are made partakers of Christy if ^ue hold 
 the beginning of our confidence (faith) steadfast unto the 
 end ; " | thus teaching that not only is it faith that ob- 
 tains Christ and makes him ours, but that it is the stead- 
 fast continuance of faith alone that retains him as ours, 
 and will finally insure to the soul the everlasting posses- 
 sion of that living bread. And in the same connection 
 are the words of the text : " He that believeth on the Son, 
 hath everlasting life." The act of faith is here immedi- 
 ately connected with our being partakers of Christ, with 
 our coming into saving union with him, and being justi- 
 fied in his righteousness; and thus it is connected with the 
 
 * John vi. 35. f Heb. iii. 14. 
 
THE NATURE AND EFFICACY OF SAVING FAITH. 240 
 
 present possession of life with God, and life everlasting. 
 But this wonderful blessing, consequent upon the simple 
 act of believing with the heart in Christ, is it illustrated 
 by any analogy to be found in the efficacy of that faith 
 which resides naturally in man, and operates in his daily 
 interests ? 
 
 What is it that goes on continually between the physi- 
 cian and the sick? A man is dying with a malady, 
 against which all his own efforts, and the skill of those 
 about him, have proved ineffectual. He is told of a phy- 
 sician at a distance, of whose power over disease he 
 receives such evidence and assurance, that .he is per- 
 suaded that if he can only get to him he can be saved. 
 At much expense and much effort, in his weakness, he 
 goes to that physician, places himself in his hands, sur- 
 renders himself implicitly to his direction, to be conformed 
 in all things to his requirements. Thus he comes into 
 union with that physician. There is a vital connection 
 formed between the malady of the one and the power of 
 the other. The sick man is thus a partaker of the phy- 
 sician, in all his skill and power to heal. But what has 
 made him thus a partaker? what has formed this union, 
 whereby he escapes from death? Is it not bis faith? 
 It was simply because he so fully believed in the physi- 
 cian, that he came to him; that he placed himself in his 
 hands; that he obeyed all his most painful requirements. 
 Without faith he would not have done so. By faith was 
 the union formed between himself, as dying, and the skill 
 of that physician, as mighty to save him. 
 
 Now, you well know that the salvation which is offered 
 to us in Christ, is presented to us in the light of a gra- 
 
246 SERMON XI. 
 
 cious and all-sufficient remedy for our dying condition 
 under the internal dominion of sin, and the condemnation 
 of God's violated law. Jesus comes to us as the physi- 
 cian, mighty to save to the uttermost all who believe in 
 his name. He "healed all that came unto him," in the 
 days of his ministry on earth, of all their " divers diseases 
 and torments" of body, in order to show how ready and 
 able he is to comfort and deliver all that ever thereafter 
 should mourn the power of sin, and the burden of its 
 condemnation on the soul. 
 
 Let us then suppose the case of a sinner thus feeling 
 his spiritual necessities. He has tried all .the expedients 
 which self-reliance and human aid could suggest, and now 
 feels that he is as helpless as he is sinful and needy. 
 The gracious call of Christ is heard, saying, "Come unto 
 me, and I will give you rest." It comes to him with convin- 
 cing evidence that to Christ he cannot apply in vain. He 
 comes to the Saviour, embraces his promises, surrenders 
 himself to his grace, submits himself to his will. Thus 
 are all his necessities brought into union with all the 
 saving grace that is in Christ Jesus. Thus does he be- 
 come a "partaker" in all which that gracious physician 
 has invited him to seek in him. He now hath life in 
 Christ. And what has brought him to that possession ? 
 What has set him down at the feet of Jesus, to do just 
 what he directs, but faith ? It was because he did not 
 believe in any other refuge, that he renounced all others. 
 It was because he did believe in this one refuge, that he 
 fled to it, and was made partaker in its salvation; and 
 now he will be jthe final partaker of Christ unto life eter- 
 
THE NATURE AND EFFICACY OF SAVING FAITH. 247 
 
 nal, if he shall only " hold the beginning of his confidence 
 steadfast unto the end" 
 
 Thus, we are prepared for the strong declaration of the 
 text: "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting 
 life ; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, 
 but the wrath of God abideth on him." 
 
 We do not see but that, as regards the points now in 
 view, that text, in its first declaration, has its entire 
 parallel and illustration in the case of every sick man, 
 who, in reliance upon a physician's skill, applies to him, 
 adopts his prescriptions, and is delivered from death by 
 his cure; and in its second declaration, has its entire par- 
 allel in the case of every sick man who might equally be 
 healed, but, because he chooses some other help, and will 
 not entrust his case to him who is able to heal, must die. 
 He that believed in the physician, has life. He that be- 
 lieveth not, shall not have life, but the power of death 
 abideth on him. 
 
 If God, in his wise providence, has thus suspended the 
 cure of the body upon the exercise of faith, is it a matter 
 of wonder that in the appointments of his grace, he should 
 make the salvation of our souls as much dependent on 
 the exercise of a true faith in the exclusive sufficiency of 
 our Lord Jesus Christ? Do we not see that the position 
 of faith in the Gospel, as essential to our being partakers 
 of Christ, so far from being such a peculiarity of the Gos- 
 pel, that it has no parallel any where else, and has no 
 explanation but that so hath God ordained, is no more 
 than the carrying out, in our highest concerns, of the 
 ways of God, as they are ordered in all the temporal inter- 
 ests of man, so that if it were possible that we should be 
 
248 SERMON XI. 
 
 saved through Christ, in any other way than by believing 
 upon him, it would be a departure, not only from the re- 
 peated dec arations of God's word, but also from all the 
 ways of his providence. 
 
 In truth, the position of faith in the heart of the Chris- 
 tian as regards the life of his piety, and the strength of all 
 its operations towards God, is just the restoration of what 
 dates its origin as far back as the creation. Faith in God 
 was as much the feature of man before he fell under the 
 power of sin, as love to God. His whole perfect walk was 
 of the simplest, most implicit and affectionate trust. The 
 divine word on which his faith rested, was written in his 
 own enlightened conscience and faithful heart ; was writ- 
 ten in every illuminated page of the great volume of 
 nature ; was heard in his direct and daily communion with 
 his Maker. None, ever since, have walked as perfectly 
 by faith, as did Adam, before he fell; as none have ever 
 walked as perfectly in love. " Faith that worketh by 
 love," was more mature in Paradise than it has ever been 
 out of it. 
 
 But the fall of man dislocated both his love and faith. 
 It destroyed neither; but it separated both from God. 
 Love remained ; but not love to God. Faith remained; 
 but not a living faith in God. And now the prominence 
 of our natural faith in all the concerns of this life; its con- 
 tinual and essential operation, from the most simple trusting 
 of childhood, through all the complex reliances of our man- 
 hood; and then down again to the simplicity of a second 
 childhood, so that it is as true in secular life as in spiritual, 
 that we live by faith -what is all this but the remnant, 
 the detached fragment, of that implicit, and all compre- 
 
THE NATURE AND EFFICACY OF SAVING FAITH. 249 
 
 hensive, faith in God which once reigned supreme in the 
 heart of man; and which, because it embraced the whole 
 will of God, connected itself with and sanctified the 
 whole world that God created ? Faith then, was all reli- 
 gious faith, whatever its secular connections; because 
 then the most ordinary and secular act and interest was 
 directly associated with and part of the service and wor- 
 ship of God. All life was religion, as all religion was 
 life. 
 
 Now, it is the office of the grace of God, dispensed 
 through Christ our Mediator, to restore religious faith to 
 its original supremacy in the heart and life of man ; to 
 regenerate the present natural faith in the creature, so 
 that it shall be a living, saving faith in the Creator ; to 
 take up that fallen fragment as it lies broken away from 
 God, like a chain that has lost its upward fastening, and 
 now is dragging along in the dust ; to lift it up again to 
 God ; link it again to his throne ; then carry it from man 
 to man, till every heart has moored itself thereto ; and so 
 to unite all mankind in one happy reliance on the prom- 
 ises, in one happy obedience to the will, in one happy par- 
 ' ticipation in the blessing and salvation, of God. 
 
 But in saying that the faith required of the Christian 
 for salvation, is just the restoration of a faith which is as 
 old as the creation of man, I must be understood as speak- 
 ing only of its essential nature and its prominent position in 
 religion. In the exercise of faith, there is something pecu- 
 liar to the Gospel, and which, before sin came into the 
 world, and the promise of a Saviour was made, could not 
 exist. Religion and salvation are now so inseparably asso- 
 ciated in our thoughts, that we can scarcely imagine them 
 
250 SERMON XI. 
 
 divided. But before the coming in of sin, man's religion, 
 which was then in its perfectness, had no reference to sal- 
 vation. There was no salvation to be attained, because 
 there was nothing lost. Man was safe, as long as he con- 
 tinued what he was. But he sinned, and thus was lost. 
 A salvation and a Saviour were now required. Hence- 
 forth religion was all about salvation; and the Saviour, 
 then promised, and now sent of God to seek and to save 
 that which is lost, became, as he ever must be, the great 
 and precious object and refuge in the sight of sinners. 
 To get to Christ; to be partakers of him, in all his offices, 
 as the one Mediator between God and man, became at 
 once the great matter. Thus it is that faith in the Lord 
 Jesus Christ^ faith as the approach of the soul to him who 
 is the sinner's way to God and God's way to sinners, be- 
 came so leading a feature in true religion; not faith in any 
 new prominence, but in an entirely new direction; not faith 
 rendered any more essential to religion than it was before, 
 but performing its essential office by seeking deliverance 
 from a misery which man had not before, and embracing 
 a remedy which man needed not before ; faith seeking 
 God, by first resting in a Mediator, and looking unto Jesus 
 as the Author and the Finisher of all its hope. 
 
 But we must not omit to speak of a peculiarity in the 
 saving faith whereby we become partakers of the right- 
 eousness of Christ, which eminently distinguishes it from 
 that natural faith of the human heart with which we have 
 compared it. It is described as "faith that worketh ly 
 love"* That is, not only is it working, operative, influ- 
 ential, as all faith, whether of the natural or regenerate 
 heart, whether occupied with secular or eternal things, 
 
 *Gal. v.6. 
 
THE NATURE AND EFFICACY OF SAVING FAITH. 251 
 
 must be, unless it be only nominal ; but the operative 
 character of saving, gospel faith, is distinguished by this 
 notable peculiarity, that "it worketh ly love" by the love 
 of him on whom its trust is placed, Jesus Christ ; by the 
 love of God, unto whom it comes through Christ ; by the 
 love of his will and service, and by the love of all his 
 people for his sake. Hence the true believer is drawn by 
 the affections of his heart to desire, and to walk in, the 
 path of holiness ; not merely because, without holiness, he 
 knows he cannot be saved, but because he loves holiness 
 as the very image and likeness of God. Take away that 
 operative love, thus drawing him to delight in the will of 
 him on whose promises his faith is placed, and that faith 
 is dead. It is but the lifeless form of faith, about as much 
 like the saving faith of the gospel, as a corpse is like the 
 living man. It may join him to the visible Church, but it 
 cannot unite him to Christ; it may make him a partaker 
 of the visible fellowship of true believers, but it cannot 
 introduce him to that invisible communion wherein true 
 believers are partakers of Christ, in the imputation of his 
 righteousness to justify them, and the communication of 
 his Spirit to sanctify them. 
 
 But it is needless to show that the natural faith of the 
 human heart, which, as we have seen, in point of prom- 
 inence and importance in secular affairs, is so analogous to 
 that of the Gospel, has no such attribute. It is a working 
 faith, however. It is not dead in regard to its appropriate 
 office. It strongly embraces all the promises it has to 
 rest upon. But it does not necessarily work by love. 
 For example, is it the faith of the sick man seeking the 
 physician's aid, trusting in his skill, conforming to his 
 
252 SERMON XI. 
 
 directions ? It is operative, it is obedient, and it may be 
 successful, though, in place of having any love for the phy- 
 sician, or for the obedience of his will, by which to work, 
 there may be the strongest aversion to both, an aversion 
 overcome only by the stronger love of life. 
 
 And now let me return once more, in conclusion, to 
 the particular words of the text : 
 
 "He that believe th on the Son, hath everlasting life" 
 He " hath the Son" because his faith has applied to the 
 Son. He hath life, because in the Son is " the life of 
 men." He hath " everlasting life ; " as he that hath the 
 inexhaustible fountain, hath the endless stream. Is Christ 
 our righteousness, wherein we are justified before God? 
 Faith brings us to, and makes us partakers in, that right- 
 eousness. Is Christ our sanctification, whereby we are made 
 meet for the presence of God ? Faith brings us to, and 
 makes us partakers in, that sanctification. And the union 
 of those two is life, with God, and unto God "life ever- 
 lasting;" the same life precisely as that which saints made 
 perfect enjoy in the immediate vision of God, and in the 
 boundless bliss of his kingdom ; except that here, it is the 
 stream, begun and flowing on, impeded and obscured by 
 the nature it flows in ; but growing wider, and deeper, as it 
 proceeds; while there, it is the ocean, without measure, and 
 without impurity the united life of all the saints of God, 
 in their utmost perfectness of communion with his infinite 
 fullness. 
 
 But we must mark more particularly, that the words of 
 the text are in present time. They declare, that "he that 
 believeth on the Son, hath everlasting life." The posses- 
 sion of life, in other words, is immediate on the possession 
 
THE NATURE AND EFFICACY OF SAVING FAITH. 253 
 
 of faith. When the sinner believes with his heart, as 
 soon as he so believes, he hath that life, that peace with 
 God, that justification, that sanctification; yea, justifica- 
 tion complete, because in that there can be no degrees or 
 progression ; but sanctification begun, as the morning light, 
 and going on to the perfect day of holiness in heaven. 
 
 But the text contains as positive a declaration of the 
 present possession of the ivrath of God ly him ivho leliev- 
 eth not. " He that believeth not the Son, shall not see 
 life ; but the wrath of God abideth on him." " The wrath 
 of God abideth " NOW, on every one that hath not faith 
 in Christ. He waits not for the day of judgment. He 
 "is condemned already."* Does this seem a hard saying? 
 But is it not the necessary result of these two facts, 
 namely : that you have sinned against God, and that 
 you have not embraced the only terms of his forgiveness? 
 If I find a man under the power of a deadly disease, and tell 
 him of one that can and will heal him, if he will only trust 
 himself to his care; and then, when he will not do so, but 
 prefers to trust the power of his own nature to overcome the 
 malady, and so goes on to die, would it be strange, if I 
 should say, because he will not put his trust in that physi- 
 cian, he cannot have life ; but the power of death abideth 
 on him? 
 
 A raging flood, we will suppose, has overflowed the land ; 
 a family, surrounded by the waters, has gathered to the 
 last foothold; the tide is rapidly rising ; soon they must 
 be swept away. But see ! a boat hastens to their relief- 
 A rope is thrown, and a voice cries to them, " come away ; 
 seize the rope ; trust its strength and we will save you." 
 One grasps it eagerly, and is drawn aboard and rescued. 
 
 *John iii. 18. 
 
254 SERMON XI. 
 
 The others hesitate, and linger, and look around for some- 
 thing else. They hope the waters will not rise any more. 
 They will hope to be saved where they are. But now the 
 moment of rescue is over the boat can stay no longer. 
 The flood increases, and takes them all away. And what 
 is the most appropriate language concerning them ? None 
 better than that of the text : He that believeth is saved; 
 but they that believed not, cannot live, but 'the wrath of the 
 flood abideth on them. And what is this but, under an- 
 other form, the precise case of those who believe not on 
 the Lord Jesus Christ? They are sinners. They have 
 therefore incurred the condemnation of God. They have 
 come under his wrath. Have they ever obtained the 
 removal of that wrath ? The only Saviour has come to 
 save them; has come near to them; has stretched out 
 his hands unto them; has entreated them to embrace his 
 salvation; but they have turned away from him; they 
 will not rest their hearts upon his grace. What follows ? 
 Why, they remain, of course, just as they were ; their 
 sins unpardoned ; their souls without peace. Let that 
 unbelief, that neglect of Christ, go on to death, and they 
 can never see life ; but the wrath of God abideth on them 
 forever and ever. Surely it is not wonderful, that, reject- 
 ing the ark you must abide the flood; that, neglecting to 
 avail yourselves of the only salvation, you should remain 
 the lost to all eternity. 
 
 But there is one thing to be noted here of great seri- 
 ousness. The drowning man does not make the depth in 
 which he sinks, any the deeper or more terrible, because 
 he will not seize the hand extended to rescue him. But 
 not so with the sinner, abiding and sinking under the con- 
 
THE NATURE AND EFFICACY OF SAVING FAITH. 255 
 
 demnation of sin, and who yet neglects the great salva- 
 tion which the wonderful love and grace of God have pro- 
 vided for him at so much cost, and pressed upon his 
 acceptance with so much compassion. That neglect, 
 though it be merely neglect, and rise not to a more posi- 
 tive rejection of Christ, is itself awful sin, covering the 
 soul with guilt; enough of itself to ruin you forever; and 
 consequently, to a dreadful extent, increasing the weight of 
 the condemnation abiding already. This is not often con- 
 sidered by sinners in this unhappy state. What they for- 
 feit by not taking refuge in Christ, they may sometimes 
 think of. But what they get by that course, they do not 
 consider. Not to accept Christ I What is it but to re- 
 ject him ? Take care, my hearers, that you understand 
 this. No matter how confidently you may expect, some- 
 time hereafter, to embrace Christ ; the denial of your pres- 
 ent love, and trust, and obedience, and devotedness to 
 him, is nothing less than the present denial of Christ, in 
 every practical sense ; it is the practical denial, in your 
 hearts, that you have any need of his grace; it is the 
 turning away of your whole being from the tender com- 
 passion of him who "spared not his own Son, but deliver- 
 ed him up for us all;" it is the deliberate taking away 
 from Christ that heart, that life, which he hath purchased 
 unto himself with his own blood, and saying you will not 
 have him to reign over you. And can it be that the sin- 
 ner does not come under a far heavier wrath of God for 
 this ; that if death had no sting but that one sin, it would not 
 be enough to fill us with " the terrors of the Lord." Oh ! 
 what can He, who is to judge the quick and the dead, in 
 the day when " he will bring every work into judgment, 
 
256 SERMON XL 
 
 with every secret thing," what can he then say to you so 
 terrible, as that he, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God? 
 did come to seek and save your soul, by the sacrifice of 
 himself, and you neglected so great salvation ? Ah ! that 
 denial of Christ ; what a denial from Christ must it meet, 
 in "the day of the revelation of the righteous judg- 
 ment of God ! " Escape ye, escape ye, while yet it is the 
 day of salvation ! Tarry not ; the door of the ark is yet 
 wide open, and the voice still speaks : " Him that cometh 
 unto me I will in no wise cast out." Oh ! blessed Spirit 
 of Grace, help us to persuade them to enter while yet it is 
 a day of grace and not of judgment while it is the blood 
 of the Lamb to take away sin that is proclaimed, and not 
 as it soon will be " the wrath of the Lamb," to banish all 
 hope forever! Look at the fullness, the freeness, the pre- 
 ciousness of the salvation in Christ to which ye are so 
 earnestly called ; and say, sinners, say, why will ye die ? 
 
SERMON XII. 
 
 FAITH APPROPRIATING THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. 
 
 JOHN vi. 53, 54. 
 
 ' ' Verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and 
 drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and 
 drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I \vill raise him up at the 
 last day." 
 
 THOSE among you who are familiar with the New Testa- 
 ment will remember several verses connected with the 
 text, in which our Lord, in different forms, uttered the 
 same declaration as that here given. All of them pro- 
 nounce very strongly on the necessity that, in some sense 
 or other, we should eat Us flesh and drink Ms Uood, if we 
 would attain eternal life. Such an emphatic use of terms, 
 so remarkably strong and striking, must be supposed to 
 indicate some very essential doctrine concerning the way 
 by which we are to partake in the benefits of the Saviour's 
 death. It is the object of this discourse to make that 
 doctrine plain, and to make such application of it as our 
 Lord intended. 
 
 Now the first question is : Did he use the words " ex- 
 cept ye eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of 
 Man," in a literal, or in a figurative and spiritual sensed 
 One or the other was his sense, of course. Which are 
 we to take? 
 
 17 
 
258 SERMON XII. 
 
 The Jews who heard him utter them understood him 
 in the literal sense, and therefore murmured at the requi- 
 sition, and said, " Hoiv can this man give us his flesh to eat ? 
 Those literal interpreters of the Saviour's words have not 
 wanted followers among Christians. Ever since it became 
 necessary in the Church of Rome to find scripture-war- 
 rant for her monstrous doctrine of transubstantiation, 
 which teaches that, under the consecrating act of a priest, 
 the bread and wine in the Lord's Supper are changed into 
 the very substance of the body and blood of Christ, so 
 that the communicant literally eats the flesh and drinks the 
 blood of his Saviour's body which is in heaven ; ever since 
 that doctrine became the established faith of the Church 
 of Rome,* it has been a great point with its advocates 
 to take sides with the interpretation of the Jews, and to 
 urge as necessary to salvation, the most literal obedience 
 to the Saviour's words. Grant them that meaning of the 
 text, and then, since their transubstantiation of the ele- 
 ments in the Eucharist is the only method that even pre- 
 tends to furnish the means of our literal compliance, the 
 bearing upon their favorite dogma is manifest. 
 
 But, unfortunately for the conclusiveness of all the 
 argument they would raise from that source, you must 
 first believe the doctrine that is to be proved, before you 
 can believe in that literal interpretation as its evidence. 
 If you have first established the matter of fact, that 
 under the visible forms of bread and wine in the sacra- 
 ment, we have in material reality the actual flesh and blood 
 of Christ;, then, as there is thus a way by which we may 
 literally eat that flesh and drink that blood, it becomes 
 
 * Which was not till the Lateran Council, A. D. 1215. 
 
FAITH APPROPRIATING THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. 259 
 
 possible, that our Lord, in the words before us, intended 
 to be literally understood, and possible, therefore, that he 
 had the transubstantiation of the sacramental elements in 
 view. But, on the other hand, if you suppose the 
 only method ever dreamed of, by which to comply with 
 the literal sense, to be not proved, then you abandon all 
 that can possibly vindicate that sense from the charge of 
 perfect unreasonableness ; since, in the absence of posi- 
 tive evidence to the contrary, it is not reasonable to sup- 
 pose that the Saviour could have made absolutely essential 
 to our salvation, the most impracticable thing we can con- 
 ceive of. 
 
 It is singular that any can adopt the literal interpreta- 
 tion, after the express denial put on it by our Lord himself. 
 When some of his Jewish hearers thus understood him, 
 " they strove among themselves " in their revolt at such a 
 requisition, and exclaimed, "How can this man give us his 
 flesh to eat !" Many of his disciples said, " This is a 
 hard saying, who can hear it?" Jesus knew that they 
 murmured, and said, " Doth this offend you ? It is the 
 spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing : the 
 words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are 
 life."* Thus did he expressly rebuke their literal and 
 carnal understanding of his words ; telling them distinct- 
 ly and pointedly, that "the flesh" which they understood 
 him to mean, namely, his flesh, so taken, would profit them 
 nothing, even if they could all literally eat it, that he 
 was speaking of no such carnal appropriation of him to 
 the saving of their souls ; that it was the spirit a spirit- 
 ual participation of him ; which alone could profit them 
 
 * John vi. 63. 
 
260 SERMON XII. 
 
 with God ; that his words were to be taken in that spirit- 
 ual sense, and only when so taken would they be words o* 
 life to the souls of men. 
 
 What we are to understand by that true spiritual sense 
 of the Saviour's words, so misunderstood by those who 
 heard him, we will consider directly. But at present, 
 inasmuch as the peculiar language of the text is so simi- 
 lar to that of the Lord's Supper, that many take it for 
 granted that the latter is directly referred to in the for- 
 mer, and thus the passage seems, at least, to countenance the 
 Romish dogma of transubstantiation, we will first briefly 
 inquire whether the direct and primary reference, in the 
 words of the text, and in the connected and similar lan- 
 guage of other verses in this chapter, is to the sacrament 
 of the Lord's Supper ; or in other words, whether it is only 
 in the reception of that sacrament that we find the 
 mode of eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the 
 Son of Man, to which the text refers. 
 
 We have no idea that, in the words before us, our Lord 
 had any direct reference to the sacrament of his body and 
 blood. We have no doubt indeed, that between the words 
 of the text and the whole signification of that sacrament, 
 there is one common subject and reference of unspeak- 
 able importance namely, the death of Christ, as our life, 
 and the necessity of receiving in our hearts, by faith, a 
 crucified Saviour, and of living on him by faith, as our 
 bread of life, daily and hourly. What the one teaches in 
 words, the other teaches in symbols ; what in the text is 
 expressed by figures of speech, is expressed in the sacra- 
 ment by tangible signs and forms. The text and the ordi- 
 nance are thus related together by the bond of a common 
 
FAITH APPROPRIATING THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. 261 
 
 meaning, but in no other way. They meet at the cross. 
 They are fulfilled in the same act of the believer's faith, 
 by which he lives upon Christ for life eternal. The sacra- 
 ment refers to the text, and to all such like declarations of 
 scripture, as containing the essence of its spiritual mean- 
 ing ; but that in the words of the text there was any di- 
 rect or primary reference to the subsequent institution of 
 the sacrament, we think is without evidence ; and, for 
 reasons which we proceed to give, should be strenuously 
 denied. 
 
 First. When our Lord declared the necessity of our 
 eating his flesh and drinking his blood, if we would have 
 eternal life, not only was the sacrament of the supper not 
 instituted, but even his nearest disciples had not received 
 the least hint of his intention to appoint it ; nor was there 
 anything to suggest it to them, in any institution with 
 which they were acquainted. Consequently, it was per- 
 fectly impossible that they should have understood him, 
 if the receiving of that sacrament was the duty in view. 
 Nothing more perfectly unintelligible in their circumstan- 
 ces, even to minds the most ready to learn and believe, 
 can be imagined. The bare announcement to them of 
 an intention to institute that sacrament, would have fur- 
 nished the key to his words, had they referred thereto. 
 So that, on the supposition of that being their reference, 
 it is not easily accounted for, that so much as even a hint of 
 that intended institution was withheld. Nor is it any more 
 explicable that St. John, who alone of all the Evangel- 
 ists gives the conversation before us, should be the only 
 one to omit all account of the explanatory institution of 
 the sacrament ; his narrative alone presents the difficulty 
 
262 SERMON XII. 
 
 to be solved, and his alone omits the necessary explanation. 
 To those who, in his days, and afterwards, had no gos- 
 pel but his, as no doubt was the case with many, a con- 
 versation was stated, on the understanding of which, as 
 containing a duty, eternal life depends ; and that conver- 
 sation referred, for the only mode of understanding and 
 fulfilling the duty, to the institution of a certain sacra- 
 ment, and yet of that institution not a word is given by 
 St. John. So improbable an omission of so necessary a 
 key, is strong evidence that the conversation had no 
 primary reference to that sacrament. 
 
 I know it is answered, that "our Saviour said many 
 things to the Jews which neither they nor his disciples 
 could understand when they were spoken, though his dis- 
 ciples understood them after he was risen." But none of 
 those cases were parallel to that before us. If unintelli- 
 gible till the resurrection or its connected events ex- 
 plained them, they were not necessarily revolting to all 
 minds until so explained. But here is a declaration, an 
 action required as essential to salvation, which, until ex- 
 plained, must, of necessity, have occasioned a painful re- 
 volt and the most dangerous perplexity in all minds, and 
 which therefore demanded immediate explanation. Such 
 explanation, according to our view of the Saviour's mean- 
 ing of eating his flesh, &c., was given in all that he had 
 just said of letieving on him as the bread of life; and it 
 was more particularly furnished as soon as it appeared 
 that that previous interpretation had not been taken. It 
 was given when Jesus said, " It the spirit that quickeneth, 
 the flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto 
 you, they are spirit, and they are life." But if the refer- 
 
FAITH APPROPRIATING THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. 263 
 
 ence of our Lord could only be understood by a knowl- 
 edge of the eating and drinking in a sacrament not then 
 in being, not only were his hearers utterly unable to com- 
 prehend his meaning, but his words must necessarily have 
 been to them most painfully perplexing and stumbling ; 
 they must have felt that an action was required, as 
 essential to the salvation of all men, which, so far as they 
 could understand it, was utterly impossible to all men. 
 
 Secondly. If we suppose our Lord to have had, in the words 
 before us, a direct reference to the Eucharist, as the only 
 mode of eating his flesh and drinking his blood, we make 
 him then to have assigned to that sacrament an absolute 
 necessity to the very being of spiritual life in us, which the 
 creed of no portion of the Christian Church has ever 
 maintained. "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of 
 man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you," would 
 thus mean, except ye partake of the sacrament of the Lord's 
 Supper, ye have no life in you ; no spiritual life, even in its 
 weakest state ; no regeneration by the Holy Ghost, no 
 resurrection from the death of sin, no salvation. But 
 even the Romanists, who exceed all others in the stress 
 laid on the necessity of sacramental participation, cannot 
 go to that extent. According to them, every baptized 
 child, though he may not yet for many years partake in 
 the Eucharist, is spiritually born again, and hath in him 
 the divine life in its fullest reality. And, in the view of 
 all Protestant churches, whoever truly repents of his sins, 
 and believes with the heart in Christ, is thus a partaker of 
 the life that is in Christ Jesus, though he may not yet 
 have had the opportunity of confirming it in the believ- 
 ing reception of the Lord's Supper. And the scriptures 
 
264 SERMON XII. 
 
 expressly assure us, in words pronounced long before that 
 sacrament was known, that "he that believeth on the 
 Son, hath everlasting life;" * making the life to depend, 
 not on the sacrament, but simply on faith. 
 
 Thirdly. It appears from all the conversation of our 
 Lord with which the words before us are connected, that 
 when he urged the duty and necessity of eating his flesh, 
 &c., and when he declared that without it his hearers had 
 no life in them, he was urging a duty which could then be 
 performed, and was warning them of a destitution which 
 could then be obviated. Where was the propriety of say- 
 ing, " The bread of God is he that cometh down from 
 heaven and giveth life unto the world ;" " he that cometh 
 to me, shall never hunger;" " he that eateth of this bread 
 shall live forever ;" " my flesh is meat indeed, and my 
 blood is drink indeed;"! why should our blessed Lord 
 have exhorted his hearers to labor after that very meat, 
 (v. 27) if it were not then prepared if it were not then 
 attainable if the institution of the sacrament, which did 
 not take place till a year after, was necessary to make it 
 attainable ? Some of those who heard the exhortation, 
 would die before that year would arrive. That meat was 
 essential to their salvation ; without it, they could have 
 no spiritual life ; and yet, if it was the reception of the 
 Lord's Supper that was referred to, they could not possibly 
 obtain it they must die without it. 
 
 The whole tenor of the chapter from which we have 
 selected the text compels us to understand, that, as in the 
 first sentence of the text, "Except ye eat the flesh of 
 the Son of Man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in 
 
 * John iii. 36. f John vi. 33, 35, 51 , 55. 
 
FAITH APPROPRIATING THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST 265 
 
 you," our Lord is speaking of a necessity as universal 
 as the nature of fallen man; so, in the second sentence, 
 " Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath 
 eternal life," he is speaking of a remedy equally uni- 
 versal and applicable; one which depends not on any out- 
 ward circumstance, institution, or privilege, which a believ- 
 er may, or may not, possess; but is accessible wherever 
 Christ is known, and his word received. Its chosen type 
 was the Manna. "Your fathers did eat manna in the 
 wilderness and are dead. This is the bread which cometh 
 down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not 
 die.' 5:i But it was remarkably the attribute of that bread 
 in the wilderness, that it was alike accessible to all that 
 needed it. Priestly intervention had nothing to do with 
 its preparation or distribution. Priests obtained it no 
 more easily, or directly, or abundantly, under no more 
 privilege, of any sort, than the meanest of the people. 
 The family of Aaron was treated, in regard to the common 
 bread of Israel, not as the sacerdotal family, but simply 
 as a portion of the dependent people of God. It was 
 before the appointment of the sacramental rites of the 
 ceremonial law that the manna was first given, and its 
 ordinance appointed ; and when the ceremonial law brought 
 in its priesthood, and sacrifices, and sacramental institu- 
 tions, no change was made in the universal freeness of 
 the manna ; in its perfect independence of all sacramen- 
 tal, all sacerdotal agency, in its being the unrestricted com- 
 mon bread of all the people of God alike. So it continued 
 until the host had crossed the Jordan, and exchanged 
 the bread of the wilderness for " the new corn " of the 
 promised land. And such is our Lord's chosen type of 
 
 *John vi. 49,50. 
 
266 SERMON XII. 
 
 his flesh and blood, as the living bread from heaven, with- 
 out which we cannot have eternal life. A type which, as 
 it stands connected with the whole chapter before us, com- 
 pels us to understand, by the Saviour's flesh and blood, a 
 food of life, which, though it be represented under the 
 visible elements of the Lord's Supper, and though certain- 
 ly received by the believing heart in that sacrament, is 
 not confined to the reception of sacraments; is tied to no 
 external institution ; is dependent on no priesthood or 
 ministry of man ; comes not by the intervention of hu- 
 man hands, nor can be prevented from reaching the needy 
 by any human will; a bread of which no persecution, no 
 poverty, no banishment from the visible ordinances of the 
 the Church, can deprive the true believer; a "bread of 
 God" which is not obtained and eaten only in the sanc- 
 tuary and at certain special times, but, like the manna, is 
 to be our daily bread ; obtained and eaten at home, as 
 well as at Church ; by the faith of the Christian in his daily 
 duties, in the household and in his business, as really and 
 as freely, as while participating in the solemnities of the 
 sanctuary ; a bread which he will obtain, abundantly, not in 
 any proportion to his outward ecclesiastical privileges, but 
 simply in proportion as he feels his need of it, and comes 
 in his heart's faith to Christ to obtain it. It is a bread, not 
 of the Christian dispensation merely, but of all dispensa- 
 tions, from the fall of man to the judgment day, because 
 the need of it is peculiar to none. It is that which unites 
 the whole blessed company of the people of God, of all 
 generations, in one spiritual communion and fellowship ? 
 whether they be in earth or heaven; their Saviour, their 
 life, their joy, being the same; as it is written: "They 
 
FAITH APPROPRIATING THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. 267 
 
 did all eat the same spiritual meat ; and did all drink 
 the same spiritual drink; for they drank of that spiritual 
 Rock that followed them ; and that Rock was Christ"* 
 
 You will readily perceive, in these remarks, the inter- 
 pretation I put on the words of the text. By the flesh 
 and blood of Christ, which we must receive, I understand 
 Christ himself. We must receive him as our life, accor- 
 ding to the connected verse : " He that eateth me, even 
 he shall live by me." (v. 57 .) And if you ask, then, why 
 \i\sflesh and Hood are so particularly mentioned, I answer, 
 because it is as having been once offered up on the cross, a 
 propitiatory sacrifice for our sins, that we are to receive our 
 Saviour; Christ crucified Christ as having been "woun- 
 ded" under the sword of the law, " for our transgressions;" 
 as having poured out his precious blood for the remission 
 of our sins. We must always keep that great sacrifice, 
 of which his flesh and blood were the constituents, in the eye 
 and embrace of our faith. And then again, by eating that 
 flesh and drinking that blood, I understand simply that 
 habitual exercise of earnest faith in Christ as the propitia- 
 tion for our sins in his death, and as our unfailing life, now 
 that he hath ascended to the right hand of the Father 
 Almighty, whereby we come to him, trust in him, appropri- 
 ate his benefits to our souls, and live on the daily supplies of 
 his grace ; that faith which finds its strongest expression 
 in the sacramental eating and drinking in the Lord's Sup- 
 per, and of which the natural faith that takes us to our 
 daily meals, and makes us eat our daily bread, and drink 
 our daily cup for the sustenance of natural life, is the 
 strongest and most familiar resemblance. 
 
 In confirmation of this interpretation of our Saviour's 
 
 * 1 Cor. x. 3-4. 
 
268 SERMON XII. 
 
 language in the text, let me beg you to observe in the 
 chapter before us, a remarkable mingling of expressions 
 entirely literal, with others highly figurative ; both sets of 
 expressions evidently referring to the same act on our 
 part towards Christ, as necessary to salvation, and inten- 
 ded to explain one another. For example said our Lord: 
 "This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom 
 he hath sent." (v. 29.) "He that believeth on me hath 
 everlasting life." (v. 47.) This is all literal. All is 
 suspended on faith. Then comes the figurative. " I am 
 the living bread, which came down from heaven. If any 
 man eat of this bread, he shall live forever; and the bread 
 that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of 
 the world." (v. 51.) Here, what was before expressed 
 under the literal believing in Jesus, is now found under 
 the figure of eating his flesh. The two are evidently one, 
 for each equally attains eternal life. 
 
 But again, said the Lord: "This is the will of Him that 
 sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth 
 on him, may have everlasting life; and I will raise him 
 up at the last day." (v. 40.) This is the literal. Be- 
 lieving on Christ is here the great essential to salvation. 
 Then the figurative, precisely parallel : " Whoso eateth my 
 flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life ; and I will 
 raise him up at the last day." (v. 54.) You cannot fail 
 to see how precisely these two passages are speaking of 
 the same act on our parts, just as they speak of the same 
 eternal blessings consequent upon it. Believing is the 
 literal; eating and drinking are the figurative. Eternal 
 life, and being raised up at the last day, are the results of 
 both. 
 
FAITH APPROPRIATING THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. 269 
 
 But we perceive the same yet more manifestly, in a 
 verse of the same discourse of our Lord, in which the 
 literal and figurative are mixed together : " He that com- 
 eth to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me 
 shall never thirst." (v. 35.) Here, the believing in Christ 
 is so associated with the hungering and thirsting, and conse- 
 quently with eating and drinking, all having direct refer- 
 ence to Christ, that we cannot doubt it was our Lord's in- 
 tention to use the expressions, coming unto him, believing 
 on him, and eating his flesh, &c., only as various modes of 
 declaring the same great truth; namely, the absolute ne- 
 cessity, and the saving efficacy, of a living faith, to 
 bring us into vital union with Christ, according to the 
 testimony of John the Baptist : " He that believeth on 
 the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not 
 the Son, shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth 
 on him."^ 
 
 But here I can easily suppose you to say, Is there 
 not something very unnatural a use of figurative lan- 
 guage exceedingly forced and extravagant, in speaking of 
 the simple act of faith in Christ, as if it were an eating of 
 his flesh, and a drinJcing of his blood? 
 
 We answer, that modes of expression, which, when de- 
 tached from their context, seem most unnatural and 
 forced, often appear the reverse when seen in their proper 
 place, with all the connections and circumstances of the 
 discourse around them. Let us see if the language be- 
 fore us does not illustrate this remark. 
 
 Our Lord had just fed the five thousand, by the mirac- 
 ulous multiplication of the five loaves and the two fishes. 
 
 * John iii. 36. 
 
270 SERMON XII. 
 
 In consequence of that miracle, a great multitude fol- 
 lowed him. Knowing their motive, he said to them: "Ye 
 seek me, not because ye saw the miracle, but because ye 
 did eat of the loaves, and were filled. Labor not for the 
 meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth 
 unto everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall give unto 
 you. (v. 26 and 27.) Having thus, from the recent dis- 
 tribution of temporal food, naturally and easily intro- 
 duced the sustenance of our spiritual life, under the figu- 
 rative expression of the "meat which endureth unto 
 everlasting life," he is next led, by his hearers having 
 adverted to the manna which their fathers ate in the wil- 
 derness, to speak of "the true bread from heaven," of 
 which that manna was the type. (v. 31-35.) The next 
 step was to say, that he himself was that true bread of 
 God, "the meat which endureth unto everlasting life." 
 And then, since he became that life to us, only by giving 
 his flesh and blood as an atoning sacrifice for our sins, the 
 transition was easy and natural, from saying, "I am the 
 living bread," to saying, " the bread that I will give is my 
 flesh, which I will give for the life of the world;" (v. 51.) 
 and thence again to saying, " My flesh is meat indeed, and 
 my blood is drink indeed." (v. 55.) And next, as he had 
 just before spoken of believing in him, as the way by 
 which sinners are to participate in the benefits of the sac- 
 rifice of his flesh and blood, there was an easy step to the 
 representation of that believing, by the figure of eating 
 his flesh and drinking his blood. 
 
 Thus we have reached the height of the figurative lan- 
 guage of the text by an easy gradation, from step to 
 step, till what, if introduced without such preliminaries, 
 
FAITH APPROPRIATING THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. 271 
 
 would have seemed unnatural, appears in connection with 
 them, only appropriate to, and consistent with, the whole 
 preceding discourse.* 
 
 And now having seen the appropriateness of the lan- 
 guage before us, and its true interpretation, let us devote 
 the remainder of our time to the consideration of the 
 practical lessons it teaches. 
 
 1st Let us observe the eminent, the unequalled, prom- 
 inence in which the death of Christ is here placed before 
 our hearts, for the daily contemplation of our faith. 
 
 At first, our Saviour only said, " I am the bread of 
 life." But next he said, "The bread that I will give is 
 my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." 
 "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink 
 his blood, ye have no life in you." Why this particular 
 mention of his flesh and his blood, as if, in being our 
 
 *For a truly able and learned treatise on the language of the text, and the 
 whole connected discourse of our Lord , with reference to the support of the 
 views maintained in the above discourse, and in reply to those of Cardinal 
 Wiseman, in his book on the Eucharist, see the Essay of the Rev. Dr. Turner, 
 the learned Professor of Biblical Literature in the Gen. Theol. Sem. of the P. 
 E. Ch., (published by the Harpers, N Y.,) entitled, "Essay on our Lord's 
 discourse at Capernaum," (12 mo.) In connection with the above consideration 
 of the strength of the figurative language of the text, <fcc., the reader will do 
 well to see what Dr. Turner has produced, (pp. 82 94,) from the scriptures 
 and from Jewish writers, showing that such language was current among the 
 people whom our Lord addressed. I confine myself to a single passage from 
 the Babylonish Talmud, as quoted by Dr. Turner : " Rabbi Hillel says, N"ot 
 for them, for Israel, is Messiah; for a long time ago they ate Mm, in the days of 
 Hezekiah." On which passage, Dr. Lightfoot, that great Master- critic, makes 
 the following observations: "Behold, eating the Messiah, and yet no complaints 
 upon the phraseology. Hillel is indeed blamed (in the Talmud,) for saying 
 that the Messiah was so eaten that he will no longer be for Israel ; but on the form 
 of speech not the slightest scruple is expressed. For they clearly understood what 
 was meant by the eating of the Messiah ; that is, that in the days of Hezekiah 
 they became partakers of the Messiah, received him with avidity, embraced him joy- 
 fully, and, as it were, absorbed him; whence he was not to be expected at any 
 future period." Dr. Turner's Essay, p. 68. 
 
272 SERMON XII. 
 
 bread of life, they were to be separated, one from another? 
 Why would it not suffice to have spoken of himself, in the 
 integrity of his human nature, as our living bread ? We 
 answer, because he desired to teach us, most impressively, 
 that the great event by which he became the bread of life, 
 to all generations, as well to those before, as those after 
 his crucifixion, was his death., when he offered himself as a 
 propitiatory sacrifice to God; when his flesh was wounded, 
 and his blood was poured out for the remission of sins ; 
 that it was not by coming in our nature, but by his be- 
 coming " obedient unto death " in that nature ; not by his 
 being sent forth from God, and " made of a woman, made 
 under the law," " that he redeemed those who were under 
 the law,"* but by enduring in his death the penalty of 
 the law for them ; not his incarnation, by which he became 
 man; not the example and teaching of his perfect life 
 whereby he became the guide of man; but his death, 
 wherein he completed his obedience as our surety, and 
 paid our debt to a violated law, and brought us nigh to 
 God, "that we might receive the adoption of sons." 
 
 He desired to teach, in a manner too impressive to be 
 forgotten, that the great objective event in Christianity, 
 around which the whole system of our faith is concentrated ; 
 that which, like the brazen serpent, lifted up on high for 
 all that were dying among the Israelites to behold, should 
 be ever the most exalted and the most distinctly in the 
 view of our faith, is "Christ crucified ;" Christ who indeed 
 " was made man," but that he might die for man ; Christ, 
 who being without sin in his life, was in his death " made 
 sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God 
 
 Gal. iv. 4 6. 
 
FAITH APPROPRIATING THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. 273 
 
 in him."* The ripe corn is not prepared to be our bread, 
 till it is broken, and has endured the fire. Jesus became 
 not the bread of life to dying man, but by being " wounded 
 for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities ;" by 
 enduring the " consuming fire " of the wrath of God in 
 our stead. The Atonement ! the Atonement ! that "full, 
 perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction 
 for the sins of the whole world," is the central point, the 
 great objective event, in Christianity. There our faith 
 must fix its trust. There our hope must abide as its 
 refuge. Oh ! how little we know of believing in Jesus ; 
 how little we have really learned of what he is to sinners, 
 if we have not learned thus to lift up in our hearts a cruci- 
 fied Saviour, Jesus, in his death, as the great light of our 
 life and joy of our hope. His " flesh is meat indeed," 
 his "blood is drink indeed," when thus contemplated and 
 received. Hence, though St. Paul appreciated as thank- 
 fully and devoutly as any man that ever lived, every event 
 in the Saviour's earthly mission, he did not say, God for- 
 bid that I should glory, save in the incarnation of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, or save in his holy example and unex- 
 ampled teaching. But what did he say? "God forbid that 
 I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ."! 
 And when he would designate the great burden of his 
 preaching and that of his brother Apostles, it was not, 
 "We preach Christ in the several steps of his mission, 
 from the day of his being born of a virgin, to the moment 
 when he ascended into the heavens; though all, of course, 
 received at their hands the rightful attention ; but it was, 
 "We preach Christ crucified" 
 
 *2 Cor. v. 21. fGal. vi. 14. 
 
 18 
 
274 SERMON XII. 
 
 Precisely of the same tenor is the teaching of the sac- 
 rament of the Lord's Supper, which is the visible preach- 
 ing of Christ crucified, the visible glorying of the commu- 
 nicant only in the cross of Christ. "As often (said the 
 Apostle,) as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do shotv 
 the Lord" s death till he come"* The Lord's death! Why 
 should we so especially show forth his death, rather than 
 his wonderful birth and works ? Was it not Jesus living in 
 the perpetual manifestation of a perfect holiness, and sur- 
 rounded on every side with his miraculous works of love, 
 that most commended his mission to the acceptance of the 
 world? And was it not Jesus dying on the cross, not de- 
 livered from an ignominious death either by his own pow- 
 er, nor that of the Father, that seemed the greatest 
 offense of his mission, in the sight of the world ; " to the 
 Jews a stumbling block, and to the Greeks foolishness?" 
 And yet it is Jesus dying and dead on the cross, in all the 
 deep humiliation and ignominy, the mocking and scoffing 
 of the crucifixion, that is chosen as the event to be held 
 up and showed forth by the whole Christian Church, in 
 this its solemn and only repeated sacrament, by all gene- 
 rations, till the Saviour comes again ! Why is this ? 
 Why was no sacrament appointed for the special com- 
 memoration of some other event in the mission of Christ? 
 Why, when the household of faith is gathered together to 
 keep, under the form of the sacramental supper, the feast 
 of their Saviour's love, and to commemorate his death, 
 why is nothing exhibited on the table but symbols of his 
 flesh and blood? Why are those symbols exhibited only in 
 the form of bread, the type of all nourishment, and of 
 
 * 1 Cor. xi. 26. 
 
FAITH APPROPRIATING THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. 275 
 
 wine, the type of all refreshment and joy ? Why is that 
 table, with that its simple furniture, so indispensable to 
 the very being of the visible church; so that in every con- 
 gregation, in every land, by every believer, before all the 
 world, till the second appearing of our Lord, there must 
 be so frequently repeated that solemn, sacramental show- 
 ing forth of his death, as if, in some sense, our all were 
 centered there, as if our glorying were all to be there, as 
 if that were the banner under which the whole Christian 
 host must be marshalled ? Why, but to teach in the 
 strongest manner, and to keep before the Church and the 
 world, in the utmost prominence and impressiveness, these 
 two momentous truths, namely, that of all events in the 
 Saviour's work on earth, the sacrifice offered in his death 
 for our sins, must be our refuge, our hope, our glory, the 
 strength of our salvation, the song of our praise; and that 
 that sacrifice must be received and appropriated by a liv- 
 ing faith to our several necessities as our daily bread of 
 life, or else our hope is vain, and we are yet in our sins? 
 What is it all, but just, in another form, the teaching of 
 our text: "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, 
 and drink his blood, ye have no life in you ?" And what 
 is the object of the very strong and remarkable language 
 of the text, but to do in words what the sacrament does in 
 visible symbols, namely, to make those two great vital 
 truths as conspicuous and impressive as possible? 
 
 2nd. Let us observe also the impressive light in which 
 the nature and operation of faith are represented in the 
 text. 
 
 The corporeal act of eating our daily food is chosen by 
 our Lord to illustrate what faith is in its relations to him; 
 
276 SERMON XII. 
 
 what it implies, what it does, and what is its absolutely 
 essential relation to all spiritual life in us. The believer 
 is represented as coming to Christ, as the hungry and 
 perishing come to an abundant banquet. Faith expects 
 not to partake of that feast by merely knowing it has 
 been provided, or by standing away and looking thereat 
 and acknowledging the grace that gave it, confessing that 
 Christ has come in the flesh and has died for our sins ; 
 but only by actual appropriation of the sacrifice of Christ, 
 and all the benefits connected therewith, to the deep ne- 
 cessities of the soul. 
 
 Such faith implies a sense of great spiritual want and 
 an earnest desire after those very supplies which are found 
 in Christ. 
 
 We do not ordinarily partake of food but when we feel 
 the need of it. We hunger, and therefore eat. No man 
 ever came to Christ in a saving faith, to take and live by 
 that bread of life, saying in his heart, "Lord, evermore 
 give me that bread" who was not first brought to feel that 
 without it he must die in his sins, and in whose heart 
 there had not been created so strong a desire after just 
 such grace as is treasured in Christ for sinners, that he 
 was importunate to get to him, and felt there was no 
 peace or life with God, till he had found him. 
 
 Again, it is implied in the text that a saving faith 
 makes a personal, individual appropriation of Christ, to the 
 case of each believer, bringing all that his death obtain- 
 ed, into direct application to the sinner's wants.* 
 
 It is not by believing that there is bread for us, that it 
 benefits us ; but by acting on our belief and eating of the 
 
 * " Thy words were found, and I did eat them." Jer. XT. 16. 
 
FAITH APPROPRIATING THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. 277 
 
 bread. We do not derive nourishment and strength from 
 food prepared for us, however graciously, and abundantly, 
 and freely, but by receiving it, and digesting it, till it be- 
 comes distributed, in its several parts, to all the functions 
 of our bodies, as each has need, and becomes incorporated 
 in a living union with us, as bone of our bone and flesh of 
 our flesh. 
 
 Thus does a living, saving faith, receive and appropriate 
 Christ. Thus does it make his "flesh meat indeed, and 
 his blood drink indeed," using him as the soul's bread. 
 It receives Christ crucified as the one only, and the one 
 "perfect and sufficient, oblation and satisfaction" for our 
 sins. It receives him in all the offices he sustains to us, 
 in all the saving mercies that flow from the perpetual pre- 
 sentation of his sacrifice before God on high ; it receives 
 him as still bearing towards us all the love that brought 
 him to die for us, and as ready to fulfill all the promises 
 which that love has made to us; it digests all in prayer- 
 ful meditation, and in the believing use of, and reliance on 
 all; it appropriates and distributes all, in the several 
 parts thereof, to the several affections, and principles, and 
 duties, and trials, of the Christian life, as ' each hath need ; 
 it incorporates all, as living bread, into personal, vital 
 union with the inner man, as the very being, as well as the 
 only sustenance, of our Christian life. The heart is thus 
 fed and grows in grace. The love of God in Christ be- 
 comes in our hearts more and more supreme and con- 
 straining, sin more abhorred and feared, the world more 
 overcome, the mind more spiritual, strength for every 
 conflict with temptation, zeal for every labor in the service 
 of God, increased all our affections more strongly set 
 
278 SERMON XII. 
 
 "on things above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand 
 of God." 
 
 Again, the language of the text implies that such is 
 the daily, the habitual operation of a saving faith. When 
 the Israelites lived upon the manna in the desert, it was 
 the bread of every day. It came daily ; it had to be 
 gathered and eaten daily; they could not keep it for the 
 morrow. Each day must have its own gathering and 
 receiving. So is Christ, whom that manna represented. 
 He is provided for daily wants, and must be appropriated 
 daily and habitually. There is no place where a believer 
 can be in this wilderness, that he may not find there 
 "that bread which cometh down from heaven, so that he 
 may eat thereof and not die ;" and there is no day or 
 hour in this wilderness when the believer should not, and 
 has not need to take of that bread. 
 
 Saving faith does not wait for the sacramental signs 
 and pledges of the sacrifice of Christ, before it will take 
 of that sacrifice. Its language of praise at all times, is, 
 " Christ our passover is sacrificed for us ; therefore, let us 
 keep the feast" It is a feast upon the sacrifice once 
 offered for all- a feast then begun, ever since continued 
 in every believing heart, now going on everywhere, as 
 sinners live by faith in Christ and his sacrifice. This 
 bread of God enters into, and is necessary to, our spir- 
 itual life each hour and moment. So must we receive it. 
 It is the nourishment of the daily secret prayer that asks 
 for it. It is the nourishment of the habitual faith that 
 receives and appropriates it. It is the bread that feeds 
 our love and thankfulness, when we go to express our 
 dependence on it, and our gratitude for it, and to seek 
 
FAITH APPROPRIATING THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. 279 
 
 more of it in the sacrament by which it is represented. 
 We must take and eat of it before we approach its 
 sacramental table, or else we shall be dead while we sit 
 there. We cannot feed on Christ "by faith with thanks- 
 giving" in the sacrament, except we have already begun 
 to live on him by faith with thanksgiving, in our daily 
 walk.* The life that we live in the flesh, if it be a 
 Christian life, if it be the life that is hid with Christ in 
 God, must be "a life of faith on the Son of God," the 
 habitual coming of our hearts to Christ. 
 
 And now, in conclusion, let me speak more particularly 
 concerning that holy sacrament in which we are to com- 
 mune to-day. 
 
 In the early part of this discourse, it was said that in 
 the words of the text, speaking of the necessity of eat- 
 ing the flesh and drinking the blood of Christ, there is 
 no direct primary reference to the sacrament of his flesh 
 and blood; that the text and the sacrament speak, in 
 different ways, precisely the same language, and enforce 
 
 * Our Church, in the 3d Rubric of the Office for the Communion of the Sick, 
 says : "If a man, by reason of extremity of sickness, * * or any other just 
 impediment, do not receive the sacrament of Christ's body and blood, the min- 
 ister shall instruct him that if he do truly repent him of his sins, and steadfastly 
 believe, &c., he doth cat and drink the body and blood of Christ to Ms soul's 
 health, although he do not receive the sacrament with his mouth." Jerome says : 
 " We are fed with the body of Christ, and we drink his blood, not only in mys- 
 tery, (in the sacrament,) but also in the knowledge of holy scripture." The 
 like language is common in the writings of the early fathers. Our 28th article 
 says: "The body of Christ is given, taken and received in the supper, only 
 after an heavenly and spiritual manner. And the mean whereby the body of 
 Christ is received and eaten in the supper, is faith." The 29th article says : 
 " The wicked, and such as be void of a lively faith, although they do visibly 
 and carnally press with their teeth the sacrament of the body and blood of 
 Christ, yet in no wise are they partakers of Christ." How prominent, through- 
 out our communion office, is faith, as essential to partaking in Christ, in the 
 sacrament ! 
 
280 SERMON XII. 
 
 precisely the same lesson. They are related to one an- 
 other by a common meaning and object. What one ex- 
 presses in signs of words, the other expresses in the signs 
 of bread and wine, and in our eating and drinking of the 
 same. But we think it of great importance to keep dis- 
 tinctly before you the truth, that what the text expresses 
 and requires, is not fulfilled in the mere carnal reception 
 of the bread and wine in the sacrament; nor is so confined 
 to the sacrament, however spiritually received, that it can 
 not go on, and must not go on, away from it, as truly as 
 in it ; in the daily exercise of a living faith, in our secret 
 prayers, in our retired meditations, in reading and hear- 
 ing the word of God, in a continual resting of our souls 
 upon the all-sufficiency of our ever-living and ever-present 
 Saviour. 
 
 But in being thus emphatic here, we are exceeding 
 far from teaching, that therefore, to obey our Lord's sol- 
 emn command, by partaking of the sacrament of his death, 
 and receiving therein, spiritually, by faith, his flesh and 
 blood, is needless, or is not a most precious privilege and 
 a most bounden duty, which cannot be neglected without 
 peril to the soul. Though there be other means of grace 
 whereby we may partake in the same benefits, this is the 
 means in which all others are combined and intensely 
 concentrated. It is emphatically " the communion." 
 Though elsewhere, and at all times, it is the believer's 
 privilege to hold communion with his blessed Lord, "in 
 the fellowship of his sufferings," in the participation of 
 the precious benefits of his passion; there are here helps 
 to faith, incitements to love, pledges of grace, and mani- 
 festations of our fellowship in Christ, and with one anoth- 
 
FAITH APPROPRIATING THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. 281 
 
 er, which make the Supper of our Lord peculiarly pre- 
 cious and edifying to the believer. At other times, we 
 partake more by ourselves, each in the unseen prayer of 
 his heart, in the exercise of his hidden, habitual faith. 
 Our "fellowship one with another," in our common Lord 
 and life, is not so distinctly expressed. We are "one 
 body in Christ," but even in our usual public worship and 
 common prayer of the Lord's day, our oneness is not so 
 impressively and delightfully written on all we do. But 
 when we gather around the simple table of our Lord's 
 redeeming love, all taking of that same bread, all drink- 
 ing of that same cup, all looking through those visible 
 signs to the great sacrifice which they represent, all lifting 
 up our hearts to him "who was dead and is alive again," 
 and who ever liveth the life and salvation of all that seek 
 him ; all saying, in every act of that communion, that they 
 come only to Christ, and desire none but Christ, and him 
 crucified, as their hope and refuge, their life and all ; oh! 
 in that gathering together of believers to that one table, 
 not as merely in the one house of worship where ^ve may 
 happen to be, but as taking place in union with us, in 
 so many thousands of assemblies of the people of God 
 in various lands, all thus united in showing " the Lord's 
 death until he come ;" then do we express, then do we 
 feel, then do we rejoice in, " the communion of saints" in 
 our union together in the common hope, and the common 
 life, and the common salvation, of Christ; then is the love 
 of the brethren quickened, and the love of the Lord of the 
 household increased in our hearts, when thus we feel that 
 we are marching together, as one host, under one head, to 
 one conquest and home, showing out upon our banner 
 
282 SERMON XII. 
 
 " the Lord's death,' 1 and each saying, in every act, " God 
 forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord- 
 Jesus Christ"* 
 
 But, my dear brethren, precious as that sacrament is, it 
 is but a sacrament, a mere sign without grace, a dead. 1 
 sign, if the receiver's heart be so dead as not to have the 
 living faith, by which to get within and mount above the 
 visible sign, and commune in spirit with an unseen Christ. 
 What if I should tell you that the mere receiving the 
 words of my text into your ears, without faith to appro- 
 priate their doctrine to your souls, would convey to you 
 the benefits of the body and blood of Christ? Who 
 would credit such an assurance? But why should you 
 any more believe that the mere receiving into your mouths 
 the signs in the Lord's Supper, without faith to go from 
 them to Christ, will make you partakers in any benefit of 
 his passion? Are not the words of the text as really 
 signs of saving truth in Christ, and as divinely given, as 
 those of the sacrament ? Are not the signs in the sac- 
 rament as truly words for us to read,' as the words in the 
 text? And if the word preached, in the sermon, will not 
 profit except it be mixed with faith in them that hear it, 
 
 * What I would express in regard to the special preciousness of the Lord's 
 Supper as a means of receiving Christ by faith, is very happily given in a ser- 
 mon by Bradford, the martyr : " Though in the field a man may receive Christ's 
 body by faith, in the meditation of his word, yet deny I that a man doth ordi- 
 narily receive Christ's body by the only meditation of Christ's death, or hearing 
 his word, with so much light, and with such sensible assurance, as by the 
 receipt of the sacrament. Not that Christ is not as much presented in his 
 word preached, as he is in or with his sacrament, but because there are in the 
 reception of the sacrament more windows open for Christ to enter into us, than 
 by his word preached or read. For there (I mean in the word) he hath an 
 entrance into our hearts, but only by the ears, through the voice and sound of 
 words ; but here in the sacrament, he hath an entrance by all the senses." 
 On the Lord's Supper. 
 
FAITH APPROPRIATING THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. 283 
 
 no more will the word exhibited in the signs of the sacra- 
 ment, except it be mixed with faith in them that re- 
 ceive it. To him that hears the written word of truth 
 and life, without faith inwardly to digest and appropriate 
 it, it is but a minister of condemnation. To him who 
 receives the sacramental words of the same truth and life, 
 in the same deadness, the same condemnation must en- 
 sue. We must go to the Supper of our Lord, to the house- 
 hold feast of his family and brethren, not to be made 
 his, but to profess that we are his, and to be made 
 more entirely his ; to have a life, already begun in faith, 
 strengthened and refreshed. It is a table for the living, 
 not for the dead for members of the Lord's family; 
 not for those also who may only in name and form be- 
 long thereto. "Judge therefore yourselves, brethren, 
 that ye be not judged of the Lord. Repent ye truly 
 for your sins past; have a lively and steadfast faith 
 in Christ our Saviour; amend your lives, and be in per- 
 fect charity with all men : so shall ye be meet parta- 
 kers of those holy mysteries." 
 
SERMON IIII. 
 
 THE CHARACTER OF GOD AS MANIFESTED IN CHRIST. 
 
 1 JOHN iv. 8, 9. 
 
 "He that loveth not, knoweth not God; for God is love. In this was 
 manifested the love of God towards us, because that God sent his only 
 begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him." 
 
 "Goo is Love." What an engaging representation of 
 the Most High! How simple, how comprehensive! 
 Where, but in his own inspired word, is there to be found 
 such a declaration of his essential nature? Many other 
 oracles have said, God is almighty, all-wise, infinite in 
 goodness, &c. ; but it remained for his own book to say, 
 "God is Love." 
 
 This declaration occupies the central position of the 
 text. What precedes, is inferred from it : " He that 
 loveth not, Jcnoweth not God; for God is love" What fol- 
 lows, is its chief manifestation : " In this ^vas manifested 
 the love of God towards us, because God sent his only begot- 
 ten Son" &c. We will consider, first, the central truth; 
 secondly, its chief manifestation; and thirdly, the inferen- 
 ces from it. 
 
 I. The central declaration of the text " God is Love" 
 It is a comprehensive expression for the whole nature 
 of God; not for a single attribute, but for the sum and har- 
 mony of all his attributes. You read in the scriptures, 
 
THE CHARACTER OF GOD AS MANIFESTED IN CHRIST. 285 
 
 very often, that God is holy, but never that God is holi- 
 ness; that he is just, but never that he is justice; that 
 he is merciful, but never that he is mercy. Holiness, 
 and justice, and goodness, and mercy, are severally, 
 according to our feeble way of understanding and speak- 
 ing of, God, the attributes of his nature. Neither of 
 them can stand as a comprehensive expression for his na- 
 ture itself, in its whole compass and perfectness. But, on 
 the other hand, love is not an attribute of the divine 
 nature, like holiness, wisdom, &c. It is that nature itself. 
 It is the comprehension of all the moral attributes in 
 their harmonious relations to one another. 
 
 There is a similar expression in the scriptures : " Go d is 
 Light"* It is but another aspect of the other. God is 
 Light, as he is Love. The one is the figurative, the other 
 the literal. We will employ the one expression to illus- 
 trate the other. The truth that God is lAghi, shall guide 
 us in setting forth the truth that God is Love- 
 
 Now, you are well aware, in regard to light, in its pure, 
 original state, as it comes, unchanged, from the face of 
 the sun, that it is perfectly white. But you also know, 
 that the moment you cause its ray to pass through a 
 glass of a certain form, it is separated into seven varie- 
 ties of color, and the white has all disappeared. You 
 have all the beautiful shades of the rainbow, but nothing 
 of the original aspect of the light. But by causing those 
 several varieties of colored rays to fall upon another sur- 
 face, you find they all disappear, and the original white is 
 restored. And thus, it is perceived, that the whiteness 
 of the solar ray, in its original state, is not an attribute of 
 
 * 1 John i. 5. 
 
286 SERMON XIII. 
 
 light, but is the light; not a mere variety or property 
 which light exhibits, under certain circumstances, like 
 the red, or blue, or violet, of the rainbow ; but light itself, 
 in its unbroken, primitive perfectness. Broken up and 
 decomposed by the prism, its parts exhibit various colors. 
 Those parts being recomposed, so as to make up the ray 
 in its first integrity, there is no color remaining. The 
 several hues which the decomposed light presents to our 
 eyes, are its attributes, as we see it through a certain me- 
 dium, or under certain conditions of imperfectness. But 
 when light is seen in its purity and integrity, as the face 
 of the sun delivers it, all colors are harmonized, merged, 
 and lost in perfect white. " God is Light." 
 
 But you may justly ask, when does the light which 
 comes from the sun ever descend to our eyes, unchanged? 
 As it passes through the atmosphere, or is reflected 
 from the innumerable surfaces on which it falls the 
 clouds, the grass, the flowers it is everywhere in a de- 
 gree decomposed, so that we are greeted on every side 
 with the various colors which give so much beauty, and 
 often so much terror, to the face of nature. Who, from 
 such various exhibitions of colored light, would imagine 
 that light, in its perfection, has no color? God is Light; 
 and when you contemplate his character, as its several 
 manifestations are given to our imperfect vision, through 
 the glass of his works, his providence, and his word, that 
 which we know is and must be of the most perfect sim- 
 plicity, appears as if compounded of many qualities, or 
 distinct properties, which we call divine attributes as jus- 
 tice, goodness, wisdom, holiness, mercy; while to each 
 there seems allotted a separate office in the divine dis- 
 
THE CHARACTER OP GOD AS MANIFESTED IN CHRIST. 287 
 
 pensations. Of these attributes, we speak and reason, as 
 if they were not merely aspects in which the divine char- 
 acter appears to our infirm conceptions, who here, more 
 than anywhere else, must " see through a glass darkly ; ' ' 
 but as actually distinct properties, found as really in the 
 nature of God, as in the language of man. We have ob- 
 tained the habit of imagining these several attributes to 
 be, not only real distinctions in God, as well as in our 
 own minds, but so independent one of another, that in 
 his dealings with men, he is sometimes seen in the exer- 
 cise of a part, while the rest are not concerned; some- 
 times as a God of justice, but not, at the same time, and 
 in the same act, just as much a God of mercy. 
 
 But what are these distinctions of justice, and mercy, 
 and holiness, &c., under which we are obliged to speak 
 and think of God? Do they really belong to him in 
 that separate aspect, or only to our necessarily broken 
 and confused conceptions of his nature? Do they exist 
 in that boundless, uncreated light, as it is in God, or only 
 as the atmosphere, and the clouds, and the several infir- 
 mities which hang around our moral vision, present him 
 to our view? Are they not simply the effects of that 
 process, which the revelation of the perfect unity and 
 simplicity of the divine nature undergoes, in being neces- 
 sarily conveyed through a language, or by manifestations, 
 which man may read and comprehend? Certainly, it 
 needs no argument to prove, that in God's infinitely sim- 
 ple and perfect nature, to whom there is no succession of 
 time or of counsel, no change of will or thought, there can 
 be no such distinction of attributes ; as if sometimes it were 
 an inflexible justice, to the exclusion of mercy, that de- 
 
288 SERMON XIII. 
 
 termined his ways, and sometimes it were a tender, com- 
 passionate mercy, that put justice aside, and took the 
 reins of sovereignty, and guided his hand. "God is 
 Light." All those several attributes under which the 
 character of God appears, in being made visible to us, in 
 the several revelations of his works, his providence, and 
 his word, are harmonized and merged in the perfect unity 
 and simplicity of the divine nature. "God is Love." 
 
 But you know, with regard to light, that you cannot 
 produce the pure white of the sun's ray, without the 
 presence and combination of every one of the several col- 
 ors of the prism. It is the union of all, that causes all 
 to disappear in a colorless light. Subtract either one of 
 them, and you cannot make the perfect light. It is just 
 as essential to the pure whiteness of the solar ray, that 
 it contain the red of the fearful lightning, as that it shall 
 contain the soft blue of the sky, and the grateful green 
 that carpets the earth. And so it is in God, and his ways 
 towards man. All his attributes justice as well as mer- 
 cy, wisdom as well as compassion, holiness as well as 
 goodness, must be associated, and perfectly harmonized, in 
 every procedure of his boundless administration, or else 
 the perfect unity and simplicity of his nature are not pre- 
 served. Take away either, in any degree, and God is not 
 Love. One may be manifest to our vision, and another 
 concealed. Like the tints of the rainbow, one may be 
 exhibited more strongly than another, but all must be 
 there; all in the depths of the divine mind, concurring 
 and harmonized. That which makes it so fearful a thing 
 for an impenitent sinner "to fall into the hands of the liv- 
 ing God," must be there, as well as all that which so 
 
TTE CHARACTER OF GOD AS MANIFESTED IN CHRIST. 289 
 
 tenderly invites and encourages the contrite heart to draw 
 near to God, through Jesus Christ, and repose ah 1 its sins 
 and sorrows upon his grace ; the stern hatred and con- 
 demnation of sin, whereby the unquenchable fire has been 
 prepared for the ungodly, as well as the unsearchable 
 riches of grace, which have laid up, in Christ Jesus, the 
 glorious inheritance reserved for the righteous; all must 
 be in God, and all must be present, and concurrent, and 
 harmonized, in all his' dealings with us, whatever the 
 manifestation to our infirm conceptions, or G-od is not Love. 
 
 II. Let us now consider that special manifestation of 
 this character of God to which the text refers us. 
 
 " In this was manifested the love of God toward us, 
 because God sent his only begotten Son into the world, 
 that we might live through him." Thus, the redemption 
 that is in Christ Jesus, that wonderful way of salvation 
 provided in the incarnation of the Son of God in our na- 
 ture, and in his death on the cross, as a sacrifice for our sins, 
 is that grand manifestation, which, above all his ways and 
 doings, declares that God is Love. 
 
 We are speaking now of the manifestation. God was 
 Love, when he was known only as the Creator and Preser- 
 ver of all things, as much as he is now, when we have the 
 additional knowledge of him as "He who spared not 
 his own Son, but delivered him up for us all." But then 
 the manifestation of his character was widely different. 
 As long as God continued to see all things on earth to 
 be "very good" as his own hand had fashioned it; as 
 long as sin had not entered into the world, defacing, and 
 defiling, and transforming all things ; and man still was 
 holy, so that God, the Light of light, beheld his own per- 
 19 
 
290 SERMON XIII. 
 
 factions reflected unchanged in the transparent purity of 
 all created things ; then, of course, the attribute of jus- 
 tice, the same that now arms the penalty of his violated 
 law with such fearful strength, was as much a perfection 
 of his nature, and as much associated in all his works and 
 ways, as it ever has been since. But because there was no 
 sin then to be visited, no violated law to be vindicated, that 
 justice lay all unseen in love, just as when there is no 
 cloud in the firmament, that which at other times colors 
 so deeply the sky, as if it were all a burning flame, lies 
 unseen in the sun's unbroken rays. Precisely as it 
 was with the justice of God, so was it with all his other 
 attributes. Since there was no sin deserving punishment, 
 there was no room for the manifestation of his mercy. It 
 lay undistinguished in love. So was it with holiness. As 
 there was no sin in man to exhibit the opposite of holiness 
 in God, there was no contrast by which the holiness of 
 God could be manifested. It lay undistinguished in love. 
 There being no want to be relieved, nor suffering to be 
 pitied, there was nothing to exercise the divine compassion. 
 It lay undistinguished in love. And as man was then in 
 the likeness of God, perfectly holy, there was towards 
 him the continual manifestation of the love of God, 
 in which all divine perfections were united, however 
 merged and undistinguished. And because man was 
 "made perfect in love," and all on earth was unpolluted 
 by sin; heaven and earth, in point of moral atmosphere, 
 were one. Therefore, the light of the countenance of the 
 Creator passed unchanged into the mind of the creature. 
 There was no interposing medium of human infirmities and 
 sinfulness, no cloud of anger between man and his Maker, 
 
THE CHARACTER OF GOD AS MANIFESTED IN CHRIST. 291 
 
 through which the manifestations of God's character 
 and will must pass, and by which they must be affected 
 in getting to the view of the creature. Man was love; 
 and thus he was capable of knowing God, and of reflect- 
 ing in himself the perfect image of God, as he was, and is, 
 and ever shall be Love. And the garden of Paradise, 
 where was held that perfect communion between man and 
 God, which since the entrance of sin has never been re- 
 newed in this world ; and where all the varieties of form 
 and color were blended into one harmony of perfect love- 
 liness, was it not a standing manifestation of the glory of 
 God, saying always, "God is Love, and he that dwelleth in 
 love dwelleth in God and God in him." 
 
 But sin perverted all the relations between man and 
 God. It brought guilt on the creature, and wrath from the 
 Creator. Their communion was destroyed; man was alien- 
 ated ; and henceforth he beheld his Maker from the great 
 distance to which sin had banished him, and through the 
 infirmities and corruption of nature which it had entailed 
 upon him. There was now a thick cloud between them, 
 and all the manifestations of the character of God were 
 through that cloud ; so that, as when the sun shines 
 through the storm and seems as if deprived of all light 
 but that of a frowning tempest, the unchangeable God, as 
 much Love as ever, appeared as if only justice and judg- 
 ment were the habitation of his throne. But soon was 
 established the covenant of grace. God promised his 
 only begotten Son, through whom the sinner might again 
 approach and hold communion with him, and through 
 whom he would manifest himself to the sinner. Under 
 that covenant we now behold "the light of the knowledge 
 
292 SERMON XIII. 
 
 of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ." Thus 
 we are enabled to see that God is Love. But still there is 
 so much in the world to call forth his character as just and 
 holy, hating iniquity, and by no means clearing the guilty ; 
 a God of judgment, whose terrors we are earnestly exhor- 
 ted to escape ; that men are wont to read many of his 
 doings,^ as if love were all removed far away from them, 
 and as if their only testimony were to God's justice and 
 holiness. 
 
 How fearful, for example, was his judgment, when in 
 punishment of the wickedness that overspread the earth, 
 he brought upon its whole population the waters of the 
 deluge, and, with the exception of a single family, buried 
 in one grave all mankind. Think of the cities of Sodom 
 and Gomorrah ; of the commanded extermination of the 
 Canaanitish nations, under the sword of Israel ; of the 
 vengeance, which by famine, and pestilence, and sword, 
 desolated the guilty Jerusalem, when the Romans were 
 made God's instruments of visiting upon the Jews, the 
 rejection of his Son. 
 
 Looking at such fearful dispensations without the ac- 
 companying light of the scriptures, we may see that God 
 was just and holy; that the Judge of all the earth did 
 right ; but one is apt to feel that we must look elsewhere, 
 if we desire to find the dispensation in which was fulfilled 
 the declaration, "God is Love" Such, however, is not the 
 aspect in which it is our privilege and duty, under the light 
 of the scriptures, to contemplate those proceedings. And 
 the same with regard to that most appalling of all, the 
 judgment of God upon the wicked in the last day, con- 
 signing them to a retribution which is never to end, "where 
 
THE CHARACTER OF GOD AS MANIFESTED IN CHRIST. 293 
 
 their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched." Sure- 
 ly, (it may be said,) though God is just in that retribution, 
 you cannot say he is Love. Yes, it is our privilege under 
 the revelation of his word, to pass in review all the most 
 tremendous visitations of judgment that ever came on 
 the earth ; and to survey in anticipation, all that is yet to 
 come upon man, in earth or in hell, and to declare that, 
 not only in his own essential being, but in each of these 
 manifestations, God is Love. Whatever its aspect to the 
 individual recipient, still, in the relations of God to all in- 
 telligent beings inhabiting the whole universe, angels as 
 well as men, over whom his government is exercised, and 
 before whom it is to be honored ; his sternest severity to 
 transgressors, impenitent the very judgment in which he 
 is most fearfully "a consuming fire," is that in which, 
 could we read it as it is, we should see that he is Love. 
 Did we but see all these footsteps of his power and holiness, 
 not as mere insulated parts of his ways, but in all their 
 connections with the whole dominion of God, we should 
 understand, not only that they are compatible with his 
 character as declared in the text, but that, seeing what 
 this world is, as a rebellious world, they are positively 
 essential to that character. 
 
 And what matters it to our full belief of all this, if, 
 while assured of it on the authority of the divine word, 
 we should feel ourselves baffled in our utmost efforts to 
 comprehend how it can be ? Can we any better compre- 
 hend how all the diversified colorings of nature, from the 
 delicate verdure of the grass of the field, to the glare of 
 the lightning, and the blaze of devouring fire, are concern- 
 ed in, and essential to the composition of the light of an 
 
294 SERMON XIII. 
 
 x 
 
 unclouded day, as it comes in all its transparent whiteness 
 from the sun ? Can we enter into the secrets of the light, 
 any more than into the mysteries of that divine nature 
 of which it is the scriptural similitude ? If we believe 
 the truths of philosophy in regard to the one, because we 
 see them, little as we comprehend them; may we not be- 
 lieve the doctrines of the Gospel as to the other, when 
 certified by the Spirit of truth in the holy scriptures ? 
 Surely, it is not wonderful that the very love of God to 
 men and angels, should demand just such terrible judg- 
 ments upon the wicked, and yet that we should be unable 
 to see wherein the dire necessity lies. Consider how little 
 we are capable of discerning the interior of anything ; how 
 we are only as children in the nursery, looking out upon 
 the boundless empire of God, through a very little win- 
 dow, and that very obscure; that it is but just a corner 
 of the map of his universal providence that is unrolled to 
 our inspection, so that we see never but "parts of his 
 ways," and cannot follow out a single line of the chart 
 beyond our own position. In another world, under a more 
 perfect revelation, that chart will be more unrolled. We 
 shall see God as he is, if it be our happiness to inherit 
 the blessedness of his kingdom. All his ways will then 
 be vindicated. Then shall we see perfectly, what we now 
 believe assuredly, how all his judgments, as well as all his 
 mercies, praise him ; how all the consuming fire that ever 
 fell on man has praised him ; how all the retribution poured 
 upon lost souls in hell praiseth him ; and how perfectly all 
 his severest dispensations unite and harmonize with all his 
 most compassionate and merciful, in adoring testimony 
 that God is Love. 
 
THE CHARACTER OF GOD AS MANIFESTED IN CHRIST. 295 
 
 But far beyond all other manifestations of this precious 
 truth, is that wonderful provision for the redemption of 
 sinners, to which we are directed in the text. It is men- 
 tioned there as if it were the only manifestation ; so far is 
 it beyond all others, in the fullness and glory of its evi- 
 dence. "In this was manifested the love of God toward 
 us, because God sent his onjy begotten Son into^the world 
 that we might live through him." The praises of the 
 glorified Church in heaven are represented as being in- 
 tensely concentrated upon that great gift of God's love, 
 and on the great redemption wrought out by the atoning 
 death of that only begotten Son, as if in its light, the 
 saints "made perfect" were capable of seeing no other 
 manifestation of God. They sing that "new song;" a 
 song always new, because the theme is never -exhausted : 
 " Thou hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of 
 every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation."* 
 
 In accomplishing the salvation of sinners, the one great 
 difficulty, if we may so speak, was to preserve the justice, 
 and holiness, and truth, and faithfulness of God from all 
 dishonor and all compromise with sin; to vindicate his 
 violated law to the full exaction of its penalty ; to mani- 
 fest his own infinite holiness as a sin-hating God ; and 
 yet to open a way for the going forth of the unsearchable 
 riches of his grace, for the free forgiveness and the ever- 
 lasting blessedness of the repenting sinner. To provide 
 salvation on any other terms, might have manifested com- 
 passion and mercy to the lost ; but in such a salvation it 
 could not have been said that God is Love. Such mercy 
 to the guilty would have been any thing but love to the 
 
 *Rev. v. 9. 
 
296 SERMON XIII. 
 
 whole universe of intelligent and accountable beings. It 
 is infinitely more important to the happiness of the uni- 
 verse, that the law of God shall be honored, and his faith- 
 fulness as a righteous Governor sustained, than that 
 sinners should be saved. 
 
 In the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, wherein God 
 hath laid on him the iniquities of us all, nothing is lost on 
 his part in order that we may be saved. All the divine 
 perfections are maintained and are glorified ; all co-operate 
 in entire harmony in that great salvation; yea, all are 
 manifested and vindicated as never before in the ways of 
 God. Never were his mercy and compassion so seen, as 
 when heaven and earth beheld them in the working out 
 our peace at such cost as the humiliation, and agony, and 
 death of the only begotten Son of God. Never did he 
 appear in such robes of justice and judgment, hating and 
 punishing iniquity; abating not a jot or tittle of its 
 curse; never was his holiness so seen, as when, rather 
 than save sinners at the expense of his law, he saved 
 them at the expense of his own Son, and delivered him 
 up to be "made a curse for us." Ezekiel saw in a vision 
 " the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord," 
 and he says it was " as the appearance of the low that is 
 in the cloud on the day of rain"* John had a similar 
 vision ; and says, like Ezekiel, " there was a rainbow round 
 about the throne." | It was a vision of the glory of God in 
 the redemption of sinners by Christ, wherein all the divine 
 perfections unite, and co-operate, and blend in beau- 
 tiful harmony; wherein, while they constitute the most 
 perfect assurance of salvation to every penitent and be- 
 
 *Ezek. i. 28. t Rev. iv, 3. 
 
THE CHAKACTER OF GOD AS MANIFESTED IN CHRIST. 297 
 
 lieving sinner, they all bend, as one, around the throne, 
 rendering all honor to the government of Him that sitteth 
 thereon, as being only the more glorified, as the righteous 
 Judge, in providing as a compassionate Father that free 
 salvation. 
 
 III. And now let me turn your attention to the infer- 
 ence in the text from the character there given under the 
 name of Love. " He that loveth not, knoweth not God, for 
 God is Love." In other words, where there is not the 
 love of God in the heart, there is no true knowledge of 
 him. To know him truly, and to love him sincerely, 
 must go together. 
 
 Indeed, it is a principle of general application, that we 
 know nothing that is lovely, unless we love it. The ab- 
 sence of love is the absence of true knowledge. To know 
 by the hearing of the ear, or to see, as a matter^of fact, 
 that, according to rule and the ordinary way of estimating 
 things, an object deserves to be loved, is one thing ; but it 
 is a very different matter, to know its loveliness by our own 
 consciousness, by a personal appreciation and the testimony 
 of our own affections. We know not the harmonies of 
 music, however we may learn them as a thing of science, 
 except our ear can receive and enjoy them. We know 
 not the loveliness of a landscape, which the hand of na- 
 ture has adorned with every beauty and grace, except 
 there be in us that susceptibility, that sympathy of feeling, 
 that love for it, without which we observe it not, and care 
 not for it. We may know that it is lovely, because so it is 
 said to be. But if we do not love it, we show that we do 
 not know it, but by the hearing of the ear. And thus, 
 since God is Love, and infinitely worthy to be loved by us, 
 with all our hearts ; if we love him not, there is the most 
 
298 SERMON XIII. 
 
 conclusive evidence that we do not even know him. That 
 he is, and something of what he is, we may know. On 
 the assurance of his word, or by the process of an argu- 
 ment, we may be certified, that he hath indeed a most 
 just claim on all the love we have to give. But know him 
 with the only knowledge that is owned as the knowledge 
 of God in the scriptures, we cannot, unless we love him. 
 "God is Light." The eye sees light, by first receiving 
 it. " God is Love." The heart knows him, by loving 
 him. With the understanding, we know that he is; but 
 with the affections, we know ivhat he is; and especially 
 what he is as " the God of all grace," manifesting himself 
 in the gift of his only begotten Son, that we might live 
 through him. 
 
 Hence, you find in the scriptures, that the knowledge 
 and the love of God are spoken of as identical. They 
 whose hearts are not with him, are always described as 
 those who do not know him, no matter how knowing they 
 may be in the doctrine of his word, or how mighty in the 
 exposition of the scriptures. " This is life eternal," said 
 our Lord, " to know thee, the only true God, and Jesus 
 Christ, whom thou hast sent;"* where, you see, the 
 knowledge of God is put for the whole of spiritual life, and 
 thus is inseparably joined with the love of God. And 
 thus, brethren, you see the "essential difference between 
 all that mere information concerning God, which, however 
 embraced by the understanding, lies no deeper; and that 
 inward, heart-received, and heart-subduing knowledge, 
 written with the finger of God, upon our deepest and 
 most governing affections. Without the latter, we know 
 not God. All our knowledge of him is blindness. It is 
 
 * John xvii. 3. 
 
THE CHARACTER OF GOD AS MANIFESTED IN CHRIST. 299 
 
 seeing, but not perceiving. It is knowledge lodged upon 
 the surface, as good seed lying by the way-side, or upon 
 stony ground, where it has no depth of earth and cannot 
 bear any fruit. It is not seed implanted in the only soil 
 that is prepared for it, and where only it can spring forth 
 and yield the fruits of righteousness. What if we " under- 
 stand all mysteries and all knowledge," so as to speak of 
 the things of God "with the tongues of men and of an- 
 gels," and have not love! Alas! "it profiteth us noth- 
 ing;" we are but as "the sounding brass and the tinkling 
 cymbal." "He that loveth not, knoweth not God, for 
 God is Love." 
 
 And now I will conclude this discourse with a few prac- 
 tical lessons arising out of the views we have taken : 
 
 1st. We may learn wherein consists the essential nature 
 of true piety. 
 
 True piety is simply likeness to God. Since he is 
 Light, his people are called "Children of Light." 1 * To be 
 in the image of God was the whole of the nature of piety 
 when man was unfallen. To be created anew in that im- 
 age, by regenerating grace, is the basis and substance of 
 all piety now that fallen man is striving to regain what sin 
 has made him lose. To make that likeness perfect once 
 more, will be the finishing work of the redemption that is 
 in Christ Jesus. But God is Love. The sum and sub- 
 stance, therefore, of all true piety is love, in its two aspects, 
 towards God and towards man. All the imperfect-ness of 
 piety is iniperfectness of love ; and the perfection of the 
 child of God is his being "made perfect in love." And 
 thus, when St. John repeats in a subsequent verse of the 
 same chapter the declaration of the text, "God is Love," 
 
 * 1 Thess. v. 5. 
 
300 SERMON XIII. 
 
 he adds, as an inference, " He that dwelleth in love dwel- 
 leth in God, and God in him." "As He is, so are we in 
 this world." 
 
 The law of God is like himself it is Love. In adap- 
 tation to our infirmities, it is broken into many precepts, 
 but all are one commandment Love. It is a harp of 
 many strings, but all unite in one harmony of love. " Love 
 is the fulfilling of the law," as it is the perfectness of its 
 Author. The Christian character is made up of many vir- 
 tues and aspects of grace, as it exhibits the several fea- 
 tures of holiness, of humility, of devotedness to God, of 
 benevolence to man, of patience, of meekness, of prayer- 
 fulness, of abhorrence of that which is evil, of zeal for that 
 which is good; but love is the life of all; and just in pro- 
 portion as the Christian character approaches perfection, 
 are all those several aspects seen blended and merged into 
 one controlling, harmonizing, animating, strengthening, 
 love to God and man. 
 
 While the children of God continue in this earthly 
 state, their character will be imperfect ; its several parts 
 deficient in proper harmony and proportion ; some aspects 
 and influences of piety taking undue precedence of others 
 which should have equal prominence ; more faith, perhaps, 
 than gentleness ; more distrust of self than trust in God ; 
 more hope than fear, or more fear than hope ; more meek- 
 ness to submit to affliction than boldness to go forward in 
 duty ; more prayerfulness to obtain blessings than thank- 
 fulness to acknowledge them. From Christian to Chris- 
 tian, there is great diversity of religious character, even 
 among those who may be considered equally holy ; some 
 shining more beautifully in one aspect of piety, some in 
 
THE CHARACTER OF GOD AS MANIFESTED IN CHRIST. 301 
 
 another. Let us remember, they are "all children of the 
 light" And where, in all this world of imperfectness, 
 does the purest light find a surface to rest on, without 
 being spoiled thereby of its native proportion of parts, and 
 changed from its original aspect? The child of God never 
 in this life exhibits in himself the image of God without 
 imperfection. All the features are there, but more or less 
 obscure and out of harmony. But he is growing in grace. 
 The likeness is being brought out into more and more 
 fullness, as his Christian character becomes more meet for 
 the heavenly inheritance. The more mature he becomes 
 in "the mind of Christ," the more will all things within 
 him assume their proper place, and proportion, and sym- 
 metry; losing their individual aspects, and combining into 
 one blended harmony of all Christian virtues, like the 
 several precepts of the law uniting and fulfilled in one 
 single commandment. And when the child of God attains 
 the heavenly state and the whole " general assembly and 
 Church of the first born" are there in their fullness and 
 final glory, without spot or blemish, all in the perfect like- 
 ness of God, suppose ye that we shall then contemplate 
 each other's perfectness in the several separate virtues in 
 which present circumstances draw out the Christian charac- 
 ter, any more than we shall then have need to read the one 
 commandment of the law of God, under the several par- 
 ticulars of duty in which it is now presented in the ten ? 
 Shall we know one another but as made perfect in love ? 
 Will not all the separate aspects of Christian excellence 
 be then merged in the simple perfectness of love, as all hues 
 of the rainbow are lost in the pure white of the perfect 
 light? 
 
302 SERMON XIII. 
 
 2d. The view we have taken of the divine character, 
 under the guidance of the text, suggests considerations 
 most comforting, under the various dispensations of Provi- 
 dence. 
 
 It is written that " all things work together for good to 
 them that love God." "All things!" Nothing is except- 
 ed. The whole universe of things is included. All con- 
 spire, and all work together, the greatest and the least, 
 the mightiest movements of empires, the least changes in 
 domestic or personal affairs, for the ultimate bringing to 
 pass of the promises of God to his Church, and to every 
 individual child of God in that great household. But 
 how conflicting oftentimes appear those things ; how di- 
 rectly set and prepared by man against all the good of 
 them that love God ; with what malice the powers of Sa- 
 tan are continually at work to make all things result 
 in their eternal ruin ; so that it often seems as if there 
 were nothing more contradictory to the aspect of all things, 
 than that they can possibly be working together for the 
 good of them that love God. But look abroad upon the 
 face of the sky and the surface of the earth ! What va- 
 riety, what contrasts, of colors does the light exhibit ! 
 And yet all these work together, all must work together, 
 to form the uncolored light of day. Can you trace their 
 operation to that result ? And is there any mystery in 
 the ways of God more inexplicable ? Is it any less diffi- 
 cult for us to comprehend that under the power and 
 wisdom of God, those things which seem so conflicting in 
 the events of theworld, in regard to his Church, should 
 all be made to co-operate continually in producing its ulti- 
 mate good, and in proving that towards it, all the ways of 
 
THE CHARACTER OF GOD AS MANIFESTED IN CHRIST. 303 
 
 God are love? Let us remember that to such ^children 
 as his people are in this world, it takes all his ways, the 
 chastening as well as the comforting, the severe as well 
 as the tender, to deal with them in love. The dark lines 
 have as much to do in making their true light, as the 
 milder. Were all dispensations without trials, without 
 sorrow, God would not be Love in his dealings with such 
 children, so compassed with infirmities, so easily going 
 astray, so in need of correction, any more than if all were 
 unmixed tribulation. Oh ! how should this enable us to 
 glory even in any tribulation, knowing that if we do love 
 God, that trial is only one aspect, one operation, of his 
 love toward us ; one of those lines of Providence, which, 
 as when we look upon the wrong side of a beautiful tapes- 
 try, seem now all mixed, and confused, and contradictory, 
 as if, instead of any wise design or loving object, all were 
 at best but blind chance ; but when seen on the right side, 
 as they appear to those who look on them from heaven, 
 whence every line can be traced to the uttermost, exhibit 
 but one continual evidence of the hand of God, ordering 
 all things in infinite wisdom, all with constant reference to 
 the fulfillment of his promises, all working together in the 
 most faithful, patient, unchangeable love to them that love 
 him. This we now know ly faith, on the assurance of 
 God's word. It is a part of that very working together 
 of all things for our good, that we must know these 
 things only by faith, so long as we abide in the flesh. 
 The sight of them will come when the end of them is ac- 
 complished. Then, with what adoration will we trace in 
 every minute particular, the ways of God's love towards 
 us and his whole Church, and see what steady light was 
 
304 SERMON XIII. 
 
 always upon us, however dark the earthly cloud; and how 
 steadily, from all directions, the working together went 
 on ; and how all the wrath of man and all the malice of 
 Satan, were forced to join in it, so that in that respect 
 "all things" indeed tvere ours, "the world, or life, or death, 
 or things present, or things to come."* 
 
 Lastly. From the view we have taken of the character 
 of God, there arises a thought of no little seriousness, for 
 the consideration of all who withhold their hearts from 
 him. 
 
 They often read this very text, "God is Love," as if it 
 were a refuge from the sterner declarations of the scrip- 
 tures ; and hence they indulge the hope that though they 
 go on to neglect him, to disobey him, to refuse him their 
 hearts, and set at nought his fear, and in such sin should 
 die ; nevertheless, either he will not, or else may not exe- 
 cute his law upon them in the awful penalty pronounced 
 in his word, but in some way or other may make room for 
 their escape. I beg them to consider. There is no encour- 
 agement in this character of God to them. Precisely the 
 reverse. You might as well say there never could have 
 been such a judgment as the deluge, as that the impeni- 
 tent will not be cast into hell, because God is Love. I 
 grant that between the two judgments there is an un- 
 speakable difference in degree, but both are judgments of 
 God's anger against sinners both awful beyond our con- 
 ception ; and if his being Love must prevent the one, it 
 would have prevented the other. You might as well say, 
 the fearful flash of the red lightning can never appear, be- 
 cause all light in its original perfection is purely white. 
 The more our God is Love in fhe harmony of ai his 
 
 *1 Cor. iii. 21, 22. 
 
THE CHARACTER OF GOD AS MANIFESTED IN CHRIST. 305 
 
 attributes, and in the harmony of all his works and 
 ways, the more must he be " a consuming fire " to 
 those who, instead of harmonizing in their hearts and 
 ways with his will, exhibit rebellion where there should be 
 love, and reject that great manifestation of the love of 
 God toward us, his only begotten Son, sent into the world 
 that they might live through him. Surely, the earthly 
 ruler is not less the loving magistrate, when he bars the 
 prison upon the criminal, than when he opens the door of 
 some peaceful asylum to the needy and deserving. You 
 know it is just the contrary. The more he is love, the 
 more is he just ; the more will he uphold the just law ; the 
 more will he be stern against transgressors ; the more the 
 obedient can rely on him, because the more must the dis- 
 obedient be afraid of him. Mercy is not love. In some 
 minds it is the antagonist of the ends of true love. 
 Tenderness in an earthly ruler, compassion that lays aside 
 the penalty of the law, is not love. It may be the very 
 reverse; producing results which true love would of all 
 things most deprecate. You must think of God always 
 as having a law to uphold and honor, a moral government 
 of boundless extent to sustain. You must take care to 
 remember, that however dear to him is every immortal 
 soul; however he "desireth not the death of a sinner, but 
 rather that he may turn unto him and live ;" infinitely 
 dearer to him are his own law, and government, and holi- 
 ness, and truth, all of which are pledged for the punish- 
 ment of sin ; and the very fact that God is Love, not 
 mercy, not compassion, not goodness, not holiness, not 
 justice, not wisdom, but the meeting and harmonizing of 
 all these in that love which includes and employs all, each 
 20 
 
306 SERMON XIII. 
 
 in its place, in a perfect government over all creatures in 
 heaven and earth, and under the earth, is as much the 
 assurance that the sinner who doth not turn unto him 
 must perish under the wrath of his law, as that the peni- 
 tent sinner who doth turn unto him shall live in the full- 
 ness of his grace and glory. " The terror of the Lord " 
 is not another part of God's character, but the same. It 
 is only that character of love seen from another quarter, 
 in manifestation on another surface, in exercise toward 
 another object; just as the same pillar of fire was all 
 brightness and consolation toward God's people, and all 
 darkness and dismay toward their enemies. All depends 
 upon us upon the position from which we look at God, 
 the direction from which we come to him. Do we con- 
 template him from amidst his own reconciled people do 
 we come to him with hearts turned unto him, seeking him 
 through his only Son, our only Saviour ? then he is love, 
 and because he is love, our salvation and blessedness in 
 his kingdom are sure all is light. But is it from the 
 opposite quarter, from among those who would not have 
 him to reign over them, and would not seek him, but re- 
 ject his grace? then is he still infinite love; and for that 
 very reason, your condemnation and rejection are certain. 
 There is now no salvation for you ; you are lost forever, ex- 
 cept you are in Christ Jesus. God, in wonderful love, 
 has provided a way by which we may live before him ; by 
 which the most sinful, truly repenting, may live in his 
 peace and glory forever. But it is "through his only 
 begotten Son" The way is broad enough for all. The in- 
 vitation is free enough and urgent enough for all. None 
 are cast out that come in that way. None are accepted 
 
THE CHARACTER OF GOD AS MANIFESTED IN CHRIST. 307 
 
 that come in any other. None that perish will have any 
 to accuse but themselves. "Ye will not come unto me 
 that ye might have life," is the Saviour's kind remonstrance 
 with them now. Ye would not come unto me, that ye 
 might have life, will be his stern rebuke and condemnation, 
 when they meet him as the Judge of quick and dead, and 
 find themselves cast out, and condemned, and lost, to all 
 eternity. 
 
 God is love. His saints, made perfect in his likeness, 
 are love. Heaven, the communion of God and his saints, 
 is love. What is hell? Only think of it as having, in 
 its fallen angels and its lost immortal souls, no love; their 
 intellectual powers and all the capacities and desires of 
 their fallen nature in fullest vigor, but no love ! What then 
 must be that awful fellowship that communion of the lost ! 
 Saviour, we flee to thee ! Oh ! bind our hearts to thee. 
 In thee may it be the prayer and striving of our whole life 
 to be found, each hour of life, that wherever death may 
 find us we may be safe in thee ! 
 
SERMON XIV. 
 
 THE BELIEVER'S HIDDEN LIFE IN CHRIST. 
 
 COLOSSIANS iii. 3, 4. 
 
 " Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God : when Christ, who is 
 our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory."* 
 
 THESE words are addressed to all who trust that they 
 have become truly followers and partakers of Christ, by 
 having experienced in their hearts the quickening power 
 of his Spirit, raising them from the death of sin to a new 
 and spiritual life. The Apostle has just exhorted them 
 thus: "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those 
 things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right 
 hand of God;" that is If indeed ye have followed 
 Christ in his resurrection, so that by his grace you have 
 risen from spiritual death to newness of life, then follow 
 him in his ascension ; follow him in your hearts, to where 
 he now sitteth, at the right hand of God ; set your affec- 
 tion, not on things on the earth, where Jesus is not, and 
 where the portion of his people cannot be, but on things 
 above ; those eternal, ineffable glories, of which He is the 
 centre, and source, and being. And then, as a reason 
 why Christians should thus ascend in their affections to 
 where Christ now is, amidst " things above," he bids them 
 remember that they are " dead" and their " life is hid 
 
 * Preached in Carfax Church, Oxford, England, May 15, 1853. 
 
THE BELIEVER'S HIDDEN LIFE IN CHRIST. 309 
 
 with Christ in God; " adding, as a most stimulating mo- 
 tive to that heavenward setting of their affections, the 
 glorious assurance, that "when Christ, who is our life, 
 shall appear," then shall all that are his, who have set 
 their hearts upon him as their Saviour and portion, " ap- 
 pear with him in glory." 
 
 Such is the connection of our text. Let us take up 
 its parts : 
 
 1st. " Ye are dead" The persons addressed are true 
 Christians. In what sense is the Christian dead? We 
 answer, dead to sin. The fact that he is risen with 
 Christ, or by virtue of the death and resurrection of 
 Christ, to newness of life, implies that he is crucified with 
 Christ, and so has become dead unto sin. The Apostle, 
 speaking ' of Christ and Christians, says : " In that he 
 died, he died unto sin once; but in that he liveth, he liv- 
 eth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be 
 dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God, through Jesus 
 Christ our Lord."* 
 
 In all men, there is at the same time both death and 
 life ; death unto God, and life to sin ; or else life unto 
 God and death to sin. The heart unrenewed by the 
 Spirit of Christ, is dead to God ; dead to things above ; 
 dead to the love of Christ ; dead to the motives and affec- 
 tions of the Christian life. It has no pleasure in them, 
 nor desire for them, nor sensibility to them. It lies in 
 the grave of its alienation from God, as deaf to his heav- 
 enly invitations and promises, as the dead body in the 
 sepulchre is deaf to all the sounds of the world above it 
 Such, before God, my dear brethren, are all here young 
 
 *Romans vi. 9. 
 
310 SERMON XIV. 
 
 and old, the gay and the grave, the most amiable, and 
 the most upright, and the most refined, until there take 
 place in them a spiritual resurrection till they be raised 
 up by the power of the Spirit of our risen Saviour, breath- 
 ing into them the breath of a new and holy life. 
 
 But that death is all alive a living death. Precisely 
 that which is the death of the heart towards God, is its 
 life to the world and sin. How quick the sensibility of 
 that unrenewed heart to all that is seen and temporal, as 
 its substitute for all that is unseen and eternal. How 
 naturally and easily it sins, and perseveres in sin. Its 
 affections need no exhortations or urgent sermons to per- 
 suade them in that direction. Tell it of the love of Christ, 
 and how cold it is. Tell it of the praise or gain of the 
 world, and how it kindles with life. Under the loudest, 
 most powerful declarations of the will of God, it hears 
 not. But let the will of the flesh, or the will of man, but 
 whisper its command and reward, and how keen the hear- 
 ing ; and how immediately the question of obedience 
 receives the needful consideration! 
 
 But, on the other hand, the heart of the true servant 
 of Christ is dead, and yet is alive. Sin hath lost its do- 
 minion over him. Its power is broken. He is created 
 anew in Christ. He is risen with Christ from the death 
 of sin; and though, like Lazarus coming up out of the 
 sepulchre, "bound hand and foot with grave-clothes," the 
 bonds of that old spiritual death be not all removed, he 
 is no more dead in sin, but is alive unto God alive to 
 the voice of his will, alive to the enjoyments of his ser- 
 vice, alive to the attractions of holiness, alive to the per- 
 suading, animating, subduing power of the love of Christ. 
 
THE BELIEVER'S HIDDEN LIFE IN CHRIST. 311 
 
 The great motives of godliness find a true response in his 
 heart. There is a communion of nature between them 
 and him. They draw in the direction of his affections. 
 Religion, with him, instead of a mere form of outward 
 observances, like a vesture thrown over a stone, is an in- 
 ward spring of life and love. Instead of a mere accretion 
 of works, wrought out independently of all discrimination 
 of motive %nd inward affection; religion with him is a 
 new heart, having God for its chosen portion, Jesus for 
 its precious example, and trust, and strength; seeking 
 present holiness for its present happiness; eternal holiness 
 for its coveted, eternal inheritance; and good works of 
 righteousness as naturally and as necessarily flowing from 
 all, as a fountain sends out its stream. 
 
 But here it is well to say, we are not teaching that the 
 servant of Christ in the present life is as dead to sin as 
 the unrenewed man is dead to God ; nor that he is as alive 
 unto God as the other is alive to the world and sin. Such, 
 indeed, will be the attainment of the child of grace, when 
 grace shall have finished in glory the work which is now 
 being carried on in his heart. The morning light is ad- 
 vancing unto the perfect day. The child is growing into 
 the full development of the stature of the perfect man. 
 The spiritual life is getting more and more complete do- 
 minion. The spiritual death is surrendering one remnant 
 after another of its broken sceptre. Meanwhile, however, 
 there is a remnant of that death. The Canaanite is van- 
 quished, but is yet in the land, and ready at any opportu- 
 nity to assault and wound, if not to slay. The serpent is 
 bruised with a deadly blow, but is not dead, and has venom 
 still. The malefactor at the side of the crucified Jesus, 
 
312 SERMON XIV. 
 
 was essentially dead. Life was certainly, though slowly, 
 ebbing away under the wounds of his crucifixion. But he 
 was not so dead that he could not turn upon the Lord of 
 life at his side, and assault him with bitter mockery and 
 reviling. So our old nature, crucified with Christ, how- 
 ever essentially dead to sin, has life enough remaining to 
 make us know that the malefactor within us has yet to be 
 watched, and that our warfare is not yet accomplished. 
 The time is at hand when that death unto sin will be com- 
 pleted, and our newness of life will be consummated : 
 when all of spiritual corruption will be laid aside in the 
 grave, and all of spiritual perfectness will be put on in 
 heaven, and our souls shall be with Christ at the right 
 hand of God. 
 
 2d. Let us come now to the second part of our text 
 "Your life is hid with Christ in God." 
 
 "Your life;" ye who are "risen with Christ." Your 
 life, as Christ's people the life of your faith that which 
 makes you, and sustains you, as servants of God. It is a 
 life so foreign from all that is natural to man, so different 
 from any other manifestation of life in this world, so much 
 like that of some beautiful exotic of the conservatory, the 
 food and the atmosphere of which are exclusive and pecu- 
 liar to itself, that as we look at a faithful, heavenly-minded 
 Christian, " in the world," but not " of the world," living 
 by a life evidently pertaining to another world, we are 
 moved to ask, how has he that very peculiar, that un- 
 earthly life? And the answer of the text is It is "with 
 Christ" There is the fountain. With the Christian it is 
 in regard to operation ; with Christ in point of habitation. 
 We receive the supply. Jesus keeps the source. The 
 
THE BELIEVER'S HIDDEN LIFE IN CHRIST. 313 
 
 unsearchable riches, the inexhaustible fullness of all our 
 spiritual life, is indivisibly in him. Out of that fullness 
 we receive, day by day, grace to help in time of need. 
 The manna comes down upon the Church while making 
 her way through the wilderness to the heavenly land, not 
 to be deposited in her treasury or with her ministers, as 
 bread laid up for future need. It is given day by day, 
 directly from heaven ; the daily supply of daily wants. 
 " As thy day is, so shall thy strength be." Now, as at 
 the beginning, it is "tvith Christ." He has never parted 
 with it in any sense, so as to vest the possession or the 
 distribution anywhere else. He will have every one of 
 his people, and all his Church, to realize at every moment 
 the most perfect dependence upon him for the daily con- 
 tinuance, by his own personal and direct ministration, of 
 that spiritual life which he only did originally create. He 
 will keep the Christian always consciously weak him- 
 self, that he may be strong in the Lord; always poor in 
 himself, that he may be rich in faith and in supplies out of 
 his Saviour's fullness; always knowing that while he lives 
 unto Christ, he lives only by Christ, by new applications 
 of prayer, and new communications of grace. 
 
 It is written concerning the chosen people in the way, 
 from Egypt to Canaan, "They did all drink the same 
 spiritual drink, for they drank of that spiritual rock that 
 followed them, and that rock was Christ." And we may 
 add, that as that rock represented Christ so, in that 
 chosen people, all drinking therefrom, all as dependent 
 thereupon, one day as another, one year as another ; never 
 becoming any more capable of living without the con- 
 stant renewal of the first supplies ; all drinking immedi- 
 ately from that rock, without any intermediate ministry 
 
314 SERMON XIV. 
 
 or priesthood in that people was represented the whole 
 blessed communion and fellowship of God's peculiar peo- 
 ple in all ages and parts of the world, in union with their 
 common life ; all drinking the same spiritual drink ; all 
 receiving their supplies day by day; all seeking them in 
 none but Christ, directly from him, and none ever com- 
 ing unto him in vain. 
 
 3d. But let us draw nearer to this great mystery of 
 grace. Your life is not only with Christ it is Christ. 
 So speaks our text most positively : " When Christ, who is 
 our life, shall appear," &c. What can be more intimate 
 than the union between the believer and the Saviour ! 
 We receive for our salvation not merely our Lord's prom- 
 ises, but the Lord himself; not merely what he im- 
 parts, but what he is. He himself is our bread, and 
 strength, and life, and hope, and glory. It is he that 
 is "made unto us, of God, wisdom, and righteousness, 
 and sanctification, and redemption." 
 
 How frequently and strongly do we find in the scrip- 
 tures this identifying of our spiritual life with the per- 
 son of our blessed Lord, as being himself that very life. 
 For example : "The bread of God is he which came down 
 from heaven, and giveth life unto the world." " I am that 
 bread of life." " I am the resurrection and the life." 
 "I am the way, the truth, and the life." "He that hath 
 the Son hath life." " He that abideth in me, and I in him, 
 the same bringeth forth much fruit." 
 
 The object in such passages certainly is to draw the 
 reliance of our hearts as near as possible to the very per^ 
 son, and immediate communion, of our ever-living Saviour. 
 We are prone to trust in means of grace, as if they were 
 
THE BELIEVER'S HIDDEN LIFE IN CHRIST. 315 
 
 grace, or could communicate grace; to use the sacraments 
 of Christ too much as substitutes for himself, or deposito- 
 ries of his gifts; instead of the means by which, under 
 the power of his Spirit and the light of his word, we are 
 to get the nearer to him, and thus, by faith, partake 
 directly in his fullness. The object in such scriptures as 
 I have just cited, is, to keep most distinct in our minds 
 the important truth, that whatever the value of the di- 
 vinely instituted ordinances and ministry of the Gospel ; 
 however precious even that revealed truth of the Gospel 
 in which, under the form of scripture, Christ is set before 
 us ; our new life cannot be found in them. They may 
 lead us to the life ; they cannot give the life. The Chris- 
 tian must use them, but he must not rest in them. Noth- 
 ing must for a moment interfere with his reliance upon, or 
 his looking directly unto, Jesus. The life that he lives in 
 the flesh must be in all things, at each moment, a life of 
 faith in the Son of God; and that faith embracing, lean- 
 ing upon, applying to, and receiving from, the Son of God ; 
 most directly and immediately. 
 
 But we advance to a further declaration of our text. 
 The Christian's spiritual life is said to be "hid with 
 Christ:' 
 
 It is hidden from the Christian and from all that would 
 ruin his soul. The life of the stream from which you 
 quench your thirst in the valley, is hid when its source is 
 far out of sight in the height of the mountain, where the 
 hand of man can never reach to defile or diminish it. So 
 is our life " hid ivitli Christ:' He who by the suffering of 
 death became our life, by resurrection from death and 
 exaltation to the right hand of God, became our hidden 
 
316 SERMON XIV. 
 
 life. The rock from which we all drink the same spiritual 
 drink, is high in the mount of God, where no eye but that 
 of faith can reach, where no foot but that of prayer can 
 mount. 
 
 When the whole population of a city depends for water 
 upon one single stream, and the city is encompassed with 
 enemies, who would gladly get at its source, to poison it, 
 how great is the comfort of the dependent people, to 
 know that its spring is hid in the height of the moun- 
 tain, where no enmity of man can approach. But how 
 much greater the security and the comfort, when not only 
 the source of the stream, but all its ways and channels, 
 by which it reaches the people within the city, are so hid- 
 den, that no malice of the enemy can find them out, to 
 divert or pollute them. Such a city is the living Church, 
 which is the blessed company of all God's living people, 
 and which contains none else. The life of every one of 
 those members depends on one single fountain. Cut off 
 their communication therewith, or poison its supplies, and 
 all perish. Abundant is the enmity of Satan, and of the 
 thousand agencies which he employs in this world, to ac- 
 complish that work, if it be possible to the power or skill 
 of any created being. How earnest and repeated were 
 his attempts at that very end, when our Lord was on the 
 earth. The temptations which he addressed to the Sav- 
 iour, in the desert what was their object but to intro- 
 duce, if it were possible, only one sinful thought or wish 
 into that holy mind, and thus forever poison the source of 
 all our spiritual life? But our blessed Lord is now exalted 
 to the right hand of the Majesty on high. Within the 
 veil of the heavenly sanctuary; under the shadow of the 
 
THE BELIEVER'S HIDDEN LIFE IN CHRIST. 317 
 
 Almighty; in the brightness of the glory of our ascended 
 and glorified Redeemer, is your life now hid. Satan has 
 no access there ; the thousand polluting influences of the 
 world, by which all on earth is so defiled, have no access 
 there. Our own follies, and infirmities, and sins, have no 
 access there. We can receive out of that blessed source 
 of life, but we cannot reach it. It is hid from the believer 
 who lives by it, as well as from the powers of darkness 
 that would cut off our access to it. It is written of him 
 in whom is that life, "Whom having not seen, we love; in 
 whom, though now we see him not, yet believing, we re- 
 joice." "The same yesterday, to-day, and forever," is 
 that mysterious, unsearchable, glorious life of all the 
 Church of God. 
 
 But we have the additional comfort of knowing that the 
 ways by which that life comes to and refreshes the hearts 
 of the people of God, are hidden, as well as its origin in 
 Christ. It is written of the servant of God, that " He 
 shall be as the tree planted ly flu rivers of water" And 
 it is written of that servant's Saviour and hope, that he 
 shall be to his people, " as rivers of water in a dry place" 
 And the Psalmist, speaking of that precious consolation, 
 says, "There is a river, the streams whereof shall make 
 glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacle of 
 the Most High." On the strength of that assurance, he 
 exclaimed, " God is in the midst of her ; she shall not be 
 moved: God shall help her, and that right early. The 
 Lord of Hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge." 
 But that river is out of sight to the world. Its waters 
 reach the heart of the servant of God, and become " a 
 very present help" just in the time of need, by ways un- 
 
318 SERMON XIV. 
 
 known but to Him who knoweth all things. No persecu- 
 tion can find them out, to cut them off. "Your life is 
 hid." The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou near- 
 est the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh 
 or whither it goeth ; so (said our Lord) is every one that 
 is born of the Spirit." And we add, so is every one that 
 is sustained, and sanctified, and refreshed in the divine 
 life, by the Spirit of God. Secret, inscrutable, beyond the 
 malice of man and of Satan, is the way of communion 
 between the soul of the believer and his spiritual life in 
 Christ. Is some child of God the banished victim of per- 
 secution, dwelling in caves of the earth, or buried alive in 
 dungeons of the Papal inquisition, cut off by priests of 
 Antichrist from all the ordinances of the visible Church 
 and all the visible communion of its means of grace ; 
 still there is a river of God, full of water, to make glad 
 that thirsting heart. His communion therewith is un- 
 changed. Antichrist knows not its ways. Satan cannot 
 hinder them. It springs up in the prison of the perse- 
 cuted believer, and amidst the flames of the Christian 
 martyr. As soon as we need it, and seek it, it is present. 
 We drink of that Spiritual Rock that follows us all the 
 way of this wilderness; but how it follows us, is kid. And 
 we rejoice that it is so; hid in its source; hid in its 
 streams ; hid from the power of Satan ; hid from the fol- 
 lies and the violence of man; inaccessible even to the 
 Christian believer, in the infirmities of his present nature, 
 except simply as he may apply thereto in the prayer of 
 faith, and receive out of the fullness of Christ, as every 
 one hath need. 
 
 But there is still a stronger expression in our text. 
 
THE BELIEVER'S HIDDEN LIFE IN CHRIST, 319 
 
 Your life is said to be not only "hid with Christ" but 
 "hid with Christ in God." 
 
 There is a reference here to the mediatorial work and 
 office of our Lord, as depending on the union of the two 
 natures, divine and human, in the person of the Christ, 
 and also to the divine nature that he had from eternity, 
 as the original source whence all the spiritual life, which, 
 as Christ the Mediator, he bestows on sinners, is derived. 
 As Jesus is our Mediator at the right hand of God, hav- 
 ing obtained eternal redemption for us; as he is the God- 
 man, in whom it pleased the Father that all fullness 
 should dwell; as he is exalted to be head over all things 
 to his Church, our life is with him. He is the ultimate 
 and only source to which we go for new supplies. He is 
 "made unto us (saith St. Paul) wisdom, and righteous- 
 ness, and sanctification, and redemption." These are life 
 eternal. But, saith the Apostle, he is "made unto us of 
 God" these precious gifts. An expression precisely 
 corresponding with that of the text "with Christ in 
 God" As Christ is both God and man, the foundation 
 of our life is in our union of these two natures ; but as he 
 was from all eternity God, before he came in the nature 
 of man, and as all he did and suffered for us, in man's 
 nature, received its whole redeeming value and efficacy 
 from its union with the nature of God; therefore is that 
 divine nature the original source whence the fullness of 
 that hid fountain proceeds; therefore we read, "with 
 Christ in God" 
 
 The same great truth is exhibited in that vision of St. 
 John, wherein he beheld " the holy city, New Jerusalem ;" 
 "the inheritance of the saints in light." He saw "a pure 
 
320 SERMON XIV. 
 
 river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of 
 the throne of God and of the Lamb," representing the 
 life of the people of God in their heavenly heritage." 
 " A pure river, clear as crystal" Beautiful image of per- 
 fect felicity! But mark whence that river issues : "pro- 
 ceeding out of the throne of God and the Lamb" Its 
 origin, "hid with Christ in God." The grace that saves us 
 has all its head-springs in the unsearchable depths of the 
 being and government of God. It proceeds from under 
 the very throne of the sovereignty of Jehovah; all his 
 authority and power are its warrant ; all the infinite riches 
 of God are its supply; all the attributes of his nature 
 justice, and holiness, and truth, as well as mercy and com- 
 passion unite in sending it forth for the life of the world. 
 But, mark, it is the throne also of the Lainb whence it 
 proceeds. The life comes not to sinners except by the 
 mediation of the once crucified, now glorified and en- 
 throned Lamb of God; through his sacrifice on earth, and 
 his intercession in heaven. But issuing through that ex- 
 alted mediation, supplied out of the unsearchable grace of 
 God, it comes forth, not a rivulet for a few, but a river of 
 life for a whole world so full, so free, that whosoever will 
 is entreated to come, and drink, and live forever. " There 
 is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city 
 of our God." The Prophet Isaiah, standing as if upon 
 its banks, sounded the proclamation, "Ho, every one that 
 thirsteth, come ye to the waters." Jesus was still nearer 
 to it, when he stood and cried, " If any man thirst, let 
 him come unto me and drink." The way to it is all plain. 
 The invitations to it are all free. Thousands of thousands 
 have received thereof, and are now where they behold it in 
 
THE BELIEVER'S HIDDEN LIFE IN CHRIST. 321 
 
 all its breadth and fullness, proceeding out of the throne 
 of God and the Lamb. To them and to us, it is equally 
 the life that it is "with Christ in God" All the stability 
 of the throne of God; all the unchangeableness of the 
 nature of God; all the boundless love of God in Christ to 
 sinners, are thus our assurance, that it is a life which no 
 necessities of his people can diminish; no devices of Satan 
 reach; no corruptions of man pollute; as pure, as inex- 
 haustible, as eternal, as God. 
 
 But there remains yet one declaration of our text. 
 Your life is not always to be hid. Now we see not him in 
 whom we believe as our life. He is gone to receive his 
 kingdom to prepare the mansions in his Father's house 
 for his ransomed brethren. He will come again "Christ, 
 who is our life," saith the text, u shall appear." " Every 
 eye shall see him," of them " that pierced him," and of 
 them that trust in him. " His appearing" will then be, 
 not as "the man of sorrows," the despised Nazarene, with 
 a little band of feeble disciples following his steps; but as 
 the "Great God and Saviour," " far above all principality, 
 and power, and might, and dominion," coming in the 
 clouds of heaven with the glory of the Father, and with 
 all the hosts of heaven attending his word. Then will our 
 life be manifested, because he will be seen; "we shall see 
 him as he is" He will appear to his beloved people in all 
 his unspeakable glory. They shall know, as they never 
 knew before, in whom they believed; so that all shall realize, 
 indeed, that eye had not seen, nor ear heard, nor had it 
 ever entered into their hearts to conceive, what a precious 
 Saviour, what a glorious heritage, they embraced when 
 they chose their portion in Jesus. 
 21 
 
322 SERMON XIV. 
 
 But not only will Christ, the life, appear in that day, 
 but all to whom he has given life shall " appear tvith him 
 in glory " The glorious vine, with all its innumerable 
 branches, and all the clustering and ripened fruit of its 
 own life, " the travail of the soul " of our Redeemer, the 
 purchase of his atoning blood, the whole blessed com- 
 munion of saints, from the eldest born of the oldest dis- 
 pensation of the covenant of salvation, through all the 
 generations of those who were ever united to him by a 
 living faith all shall appear together, as one mystical 
 body, one royal priesthood, one holy nation, entering into 
 the glory of their infinitely exalted Head. It will be 
 "the day of the manifestation of the sons of God;" the 
 day of the manifestation of those who are sons of God, 
 in distinction from those who are not ; of those who have 
 really had their life "with Christ in God," and so have 
 lived a life of faith, from those who, under the profession 
 of such life, had all their life in the flesh, and with the 
 world. 
 
 We speak commonly of " the invisible Church" as dis- 
 tinguished from the visible; because it doth not now appear 
 to us, who are alive unto God, and who are not who are 
 the true Church and who are not. The line between the 
 merely professing Christians and the real Christians ; com- 
 municants in the form only, and communicants in the 
 spirit; the Church by participation in sacrament merely, 
 and the Church by participation in the life of Christ- is 
 now a hidden line. But when Christ shall appear, his 
 real Church, no longer in any sense invisible, shall appear; 
 the vital union of his people with him, their inseparable 
 life, their common inheritance, shall appear. All that 
 
THE BELIEVER'S HIDDEN LIFE IN CHRIST. 323 
 
 were branches of the true vine, only by being tied to it 
 by the outward bond of ordinances and forms, having 
 never drank into its life, will have been taken away and 
 given over to be burned, as the stubble; while every 
 single branch, the least, the feeblest, that was united to 
 the vine by an inward participation of life, will then appear 
 with Christ its life in glory the vine manifested in its 
 branches the Saviour glorified in all his brethren, his 
 Holy Catholic Church. Oh! who can tell what is con- 
 tained in the declaration : " Then shall ye also appear 
 with him in glory ! " Think of the glory of Christ at the 
 right hand of the throne of God ! Think of our being 
 made so to be with him, in that glory, that not only are 
 our souls joint-heirs forever with him, but even our bodies 
 are to be made "like unto his glorious body, by the 
 mighty working whereby he is able to subdue all things 
 unto himself;" think of all this enjoyed by each believer, 
 in communion with that whole brotherhood of the Church 
 of God, which shall be then gathered out of all genera- 
 tions, and all kindreds and dispensations, once so separa- 
 ted, and hid one from another, now all knowing that "they 
 did all drink the same spiritual drink for they drank of 
 that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was 
 Christ." 
 
 Now, my brethren, it is upon the broad basis of all the 
 precious and animating considerations which we have thus 
 endeavored to present to you, conscious all the while, how 
 far short of the height and depth of the text we have 
 come, that we are exhorted in the words of the Apostle, 
 immediately following the text; "Seek those things 
 which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of 
 
324 SERMON XIV. 
 
 God. Set your affections on things above, and not on 
 things on the earth." 
 
 There is not time to urge this exhortation. It speaks 
 for itself. What are things on the earth for a Christian's 
 affections to be placed on, when Christ his life is in heaven, 
 and all the hope of his soul is with him there ; and when, 
 to be ready to meet him at his appearing, and to appear 
 with him when he cometh, is the great business and inter- 
 est of our earthly state ? 
 
 But you see, brethren, on what all our hope depends. 
 Shall ive appear with Christ when he appears ; partakers 
 of his glory, heirs with him of the kingdom ? All de- 
 pends on this Is he now our life ? Have we sought a 
 new life in him ? Are we conscious of having found a 
 new life in him? Do we live now a life of faith on him; 
 a life of holiness by him ; a life of good works unto him ? 
 Can we say, " For me to live is Christ?" Then may we 
 say also, "Forme to die is gain." But all depends on 
 that one point Christ our present life. Eternal life will 
 be not a new life to the believer, but the present Christian 
 life of faith, purified, expanded, ennobled ; the little stream 
 enlarged by open communion with God's unbounded glory. 
 Oh, then, dear brethren, seek with your whole hearts, the 
 experience of that life now in the flesh. "Hid with 
 Christ in God," you can attain unto it, by the steps of 
 earnest prayer, leaning upon the promises and invitations 
 of the Gospel, and none shall fail but those who, in that 
 way, will not seek and strive. 
 
 But have I not been speaking to many in this congre- 
 gation to whom, though they do not doubt the correctness 
 of my exposition of the text, I have been all the while 
 
THE BELIEVER'S HIDDEN LIFE IN CHRIST. 325 
 
 describing an experience, a life, to which they have no 
 responding history, to which they feel themselves to be 
 entire strangers ? Have I not been speaking to those who 
 know nothing of any life but that which they have in 
 themselves, and to whom all that we have said is so alien 
 from all their experience, that did they not know it to be 
 scriptural, they would think it visionary? What then, 
 my friends, is your hope ? Can you have your portion in 
 Christ, or with his people ? Is there not an essential con- 
 nection between that hidden life of the heart in him while 
 we abide here, and that manifested life of his people with 
 him, when they shall appear with him in glory? If you 
 have not the one, can you attain the other ? If the 
 branch abide not in the vine, must it not be withered and 
 dead ? Can you be sensible that in your soul you seek 
 not the life that is hid with Christ in God, and yet in- 
 dulge the hope that when he appears, you will have a 
 portion in that very life, and a place in the great com- 
 munion of his people ? " If any man have not the Spirit 
 of Christ, he is none of his." 
 
SEEMOI XV. 
 
 THE BELIEVER'S PROGRESSIVE LIFE IN CHRIST. 
 
 PROVERBS iv. 18. 
 
 ' ' The path of the just is as the shining light which shineth more and more, 
 unto the perfect day." 
 
 THE "just," in this verse, are the righteous, the men of a 
 genuine faith and holiness. "The path of the just" is 
 the walk, the life, the habitual character of such men. 
 The passage is an Old Testament description of the gra- 
 cious, happy, useful and brightening character of the true 
 servant of God, in contrast with another path, of which 
 the inspired writer had just said : " Avoid it, pass not by 
 it, turn from it, and pass away." " The way of the wicked 
 is as darkness" 
 
 The righteous were not called Christians in those days. 
 But now that their name is taken from that of him in 
 whose righteousness and by whose Spirit alone they can 
 have any righteousness before God, we will substitute that 
 new name for that by which they are called in the text, 
 and will read the verse as if it were written, the path of 
 the Christian is " as the shining light, which shineth more 
 and more, unto the perfect day." 
 
 I. The Christian, in his habitual walk and character, 
 is as the shining light. 
 
THE BELIEVER'S PROGRESSIVE LIFE IN CHRIST. 327 
 
 How beautiful the illustration ! Light must shine. 
 You may hide it, but shine it will. Bury it in a dungeon 
 cover it with clouds it shines as ever. All may be 
 blindness around it, so that none see it, but it shines. Is 
 it a diamond, encrusted with earth, in the rubbish of the 
 mine ? It makes itself known by its shining. Is it the 
 glow-worm creeping on the ground? You know it by its 
 shining. Such is genuine Christian piety. It is of its 
 own nature light, and must give light, whether there be 
 an eye to see it or not, and the heart in which it dwells 
 must be full of light of joy, and peace, and love, and 
 hope, just so far as its piety has advanced from infancy 
 towards maturity in Christ. 
 
 The light in that heart must be a shining light ; shining 
 not merely in its own chamber where dwell the Christian's 
 affections, and joys, and tempers, and principles ; but out- 
 wardly, through all the issues of that heart, in the life ; 
 shedding around it the radiance of truth, and purity, and 
 loving kindness, and gentleness, and love ; thus attracting 
 the regards of men and leading their thoughts above to 
 him whose light it is. So strongly do the scriptures 
 insist on the essential connection between a Christian 
 heart and a shining light, that they make true Christians 
 identical with light. " Ye ivere sometime darkness" said 
 St. Paul. Mark the expression ! In their unconverted 
 state, they had been darkness itself, not merely walking 
 in darkness, but identical with it. " But now are ye light 
 in the Lord;" not only bearers of the light, as a candle- 
 stick bears the candle burning in its socket, but so pene- 
 trated with the radiance of a true godliness, so transformed 
 by the grace of God into his own likeness, so identified 
 
328 SERMON XV. 
 
 with Christ, who is " the true light," that " now ye are 
 light;" but yet only "in the Lord" 
 
 Thus the inseparable connection between the Christian's 
 faith and a shining light. How beautifully was this exhib- 
 ited in the prison at Phillippi ! Paul and Silas, with their 
 feet fast in the stocks, and their limbs in chains, and the 
 midnight around them, and all the other inhabitants of 
 the prison locked in sleep, but they themselves too full of 
 the praises of God to sleep how were they "light in the 
 Lord ;" how luminous became their very bonds ; how full 
 of joy was that midnight dungeon. Shining lights in- 
 deed ! but where was the eye to see, or who in that solitude 
 could be profited? God provided. Did he send the 
 light, and would he not send the eye to see thereby ? An 
 earthquake shook the walls, unbarred the doors, loosed 
 every man's bonds, awoke the jailor and his prisoners 
 provided thus the witnesses and the hearers. The jailor 
 owned the hand of God ; his heart was opened to the 
 Gospel at the mouth of its faithful preachers, and with 
 all his house he believed and was baptized. What is the 
 lesson ? Why, that no troublous circumstances can ex- 
 cuse, or need ever prevent us, from the manifestation in 
 life of what it is in heart to be a Christian ; that no con- 
 dition is so out of sight but that we may glorify God 
 therein and promote the spiritual good of men ; that 
 affliction, persecution, hatred, enmity, though intended for 
 our destruction, may easily become, under God's provi- 
 dence, the very reflecting surface by which our light will 
 be multiplied and our usefulness extended. 
 
 "No man liveth unto himself" alone. He cannot, if he 
 would. The man who, through sinful disobedience to 
 
THE BELIEVER'S PROGRESSIVE LIFE IN CHRIST. 329 
 
 God, is only darkness, cannot keep his darkness to him- 
 self. His shadow will darken others. The same is true 
 of the children of light. The residence may be a hovel, 
 the tenant a poor beggared cripple, full of suffering, almost 
 speechless. But is he alive unto God ? Has he the love 
 of God shed abroad in his heart? Is he sweetly sub- 
 missive to the will under which he suffers, abounding in 
 thankfulness and praise, counting all his affliction light 
 and but for a moment, in view of the eternal weight of 
 glory for which, under divine grace, he knows it is prepar- 
 ing him? He is God's own son, adopted in Jesus Christ. 
 He is an "heir of God and a joint heir with Christ." A 
 crown of glory is awaiting him in heaven. Why, then, is 
 he kept here thus to suffer ? Why doth not his Heavenly 
 Father receive him unto himself? He is "a shining light" 
 He is continued here that men may see and glorify his 
 Father who is in heaven. Yea, but how many will ever 
 see that poor hovel and that humble inhabitant? God 
 will provide. He who hath set so beautiful a light in so 
 humble a candlestick, will not permit it to shine unseen 
 of men. A thousand ways he hath of making it known. 
 That suffering child of God in his hovel may do more for 
 the salvation of others by his patient, thankful, loving 
 sufferings, and by his few words for Christ, than a hundred 
 Christians of inferior piety. His one talent of meek, and 
 lowly, and thankful acquiescence in the painful will of God, 
 will gain ten talents to his Saviour's treasury. How 
 strikingly does the well-known tract of the Dairyman's 
 Daughter, exemplify this ! How obscure the rustfc neigh- 
 borhood in which her path lay. How secluded and hum- 
 ble the cottage she lived in, and the little upper chamber 
 
330 SERMON XV. 
 
 she died in. How entirely out of sight had been her 
 pious life ; how unknown, save to two or three, was the 
 lovely Christian grace that adorned her death. She was 
 dear, indeed, very dear, to her Saviour ; and sweetly did 
 he shine upon her path as she went through the shadow of 
 death. How little did she imagine that ever mortal ears, 
 beyond that little neighborhood, would hear her name. 
 And little did her affectionate pastor imagine, when wri- 
 ting that simple, touching narrative of her life and death 
 in Christ, what God would do by that tract. God's 
 thoughts are not our thoughts. "Thus saith the Lord, 
 The heaven is my throne and the earth is my foot- 
 stool ; where is the house that ye build unto me?" " To 
 this man will I look, even to him that is poor and 
 of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word." God 
 looked much more to that temple of his grace, that con- 
 trite daughter in her poverty of goods and poverty of 
 spirit, as the manifestation of his glory, than to all our 
 temples made with hands. What book of great learning 
 and strong argument for the truth, has been honored in- 
 the conversion of sinners to Christ, as the light of the 
 example of that child of God, set in that simple narra- 
 tive ? What minister has been the instrument, by his 
 public labors, in the turning of so many to righteousness, 
 as that narrative of "The Dairyman's Daughter," trans- 
 lated, as it has been, into various languages, read in pal- 
 aces and cottages, loved among the noble and the poor, 
 gathering fruit in the households of princes ? A shining 
 light ! Not long ago a missionary in Asia Minjr, amidst 
 barbarism and the utmost spiritual darkness, found a little 
 fellowship of some ten or twelve persons of oriental 
 
THE BELIEVER'S PROGRESSIVE LIFE IN CHRIST. 331 
 
 speech, who, to his great delight, seemed true followers of 
 Christ, acquainted with the way of life. It was not long 
 since they had learned it; but their enlightening and 
 conversion were traced to a copy of that precious narra- 
 tive, which, in an oriental dress, had been brought, by Di- 
 vine Providence, as a light into that dark land, and had 
 thus been made a lamp to their path. 
 
 " Ye are the light of the world," said our Lord to his 
 people. It is the combination of such faithful manifesta- 
 tions of the truth and grace of God, in Christ, in connec- 
 tion with the teaching of the word, that constitutes the 
 only light of this world. Then follows the Lord's exhor- 
 tation to his people : " Let your light so shine before men, 
 that they may see your good works and glorify your 
 Father which is in heaven." Mark the words : " Let your 
 light so shine before men," &c. It will shine, whether 
 seen or not. But it may shine as a candle hid under a 
 bushel, or as a candle set on a candlestick and giving 
 light in all the house. Let it so shine as to be manifest, 
 diffusive, invasive of the place of darkness. So seek and 
 cherish the sanctifying influences of the Spirit of God 
 upon your affections, tempers, manners and ways ; so cul- 
 tivate a spirit of active love and of out-going benevolence, 
 according to the mind of Christ, that the genuine effect 
 of the Gospel on its true disciples, to purify their affec- 
 tions, and exalt their whole character, to promote their 
 purest happiness, and make them blessings among their 
 fellow creatures, may be known and read of all that 
 know you. " I have seen (says Bp. Taylor,) a religion 
 that wholly dwelt upon the face and tongue ; that like a 
 wanton and undressed tree, spends all its juice in suckers 
 
332 SERMON XV. 
 
 and irregular branches, in leaves and gum ; and after all 
 such goodly outsides, you should never eat an apple, or 
 be delighted with the beauties or the perfumes of a hopeful 
 blossom." 
 
 Let your light so shine, not ostentatiously, as if it were 
 shining on yourself, instead of from yourself; as if it in- 
 vited attention to your praises, instead of the praises of 
 him in whose grace you live; but still not indistinctly, 
 but positively and boldly so that men seeing your good 
 works, (for it is good works which must furnish the reflec- 
 tors and manifestations of the light of God in your heart,) 
 they may glorify (not you, for you must stand behind 
 your works, as the body of the sun stands behind its 
 light, invisible while it makes all things visible, but) " your 
 Father which is in heaven" who is your light, and joy, and 
 glory, and before whom, as the seraphim veiling their 
 faces and their feet, while they praise him, you, as his true 
 children and grateful receivers of his glory, will delight to 
 stand concealed in the shadow of your good works ; like 
 a fair taper which shines to all the room, but casts a 
 shadow around itself.* 
 
 He that would be thus a shining light, so glorifying 
 God in the sight of men, must live very near to God, 
 
 * I cannot refrain from quoting here that beautiful passage of Bp. Taylor's 
 sermon at the funeral of the Countess of Carbery, from which the above figure 
 is taken : " Like a fair taper, -when she shined to all the room, yet round 
 about her own station she cast a shadow and a cloud, and she shined to every 
 body but herself. But the perfectness of her prudence and excellent parts 
 could not be hid; and all her humility and arts of concealment, made the vir- 
 tues more amiable and illustrious. For as pride sullies the beauty of the 
 fairest virtues, so humility is the greatest eminency and art of publication in 
 the whole world; and she in all her arts of secrecy and hiding her worthy 
 things, was but like one that hideth the wind, and covers the ointment 
 of her right hand." 
 
THE BELIEVER'S PROGRESSIVE LIFE IN CHRIST. 333 
 
 dwelling constantly in his light, as the moon, so dark in 
 itself, keeps up its constant contributions to the earth 
 only by a constant walk in the radiance of the sun. 
 Your life must be that inner life which is " hid with Christ 
 in God." 
 
 II. But the Christian in his habitual walk is compared 
 not only to the shining, but to the advancing and increas- 
 ing light the shining light "which shineth more and 
 
 more" 
 
 Thus is declared, the progressive nature, the ascending 
 progress, the increasing strength and usefulness of true 
 religion in the heart. 
 
 At its beginning, at its birth out of the darkness of 
 our natural state of alienation from God and insensibility 
 to heavenly things, with all the delusions of such a 
 condition, it is like " the morning light ;" " morning spread 
 upon the mountains" and not yet reaching the valleys; 
 morning spread as a vesture of many colors upon the 
 headlands, gradually extending to the lowlands and losing 
 its coloring, as it advances, in the pure white light of the 
 maturer day. Then there is often a mistiness remaining 
 when the darkness is passed away. The features of the 
 landscape are indistinct. The dividing lines of hill and 
 vale, of land and sea, are invisible. Things appear out of 
 shape and proportion. Some leading heights are beauti- 
 fully revealed; others, less prominent, are yet in the 
 shadow ; while on much of the landscape there is an uncer- 
 tainty over which imagination may play without guide 
 or limit. Such is the beginning of the day of grace in 
 the sinner's soul. A long, dark night has been upon 
 him. The Sun of Righteousness hath risen and is chas- 
 
334 SERMON xv. 
 
 ing the night away. Bat it is early morning yet only a 
 feeble dawn. His views are very obscure. The sight of 
 the depths of his own sinful nature, of his many and great 
 necessities, and of his relations to God and his Saviour; 
 his knowledge of the temptations and dangers of his 
 path, and of the need of watchfulness, and how easily 
 he may be deluded and overcome, all is very confused. 
 The day has begun ; he is born again ; he has become 
 truly a child of the light and of the day; he knows 
 enough of his sinfulness to repent of it, and to be hum- 
 bled before God on account of it ; he knows enough of 
 the Saviour to flee to him and love him ; he knows enough 
 of holiness to hunger after it, and of the "hope that mak- 
 eth not ashamed " to rejoice in it; he is a new creature 
 in Christ Jesus, but a new creature at the dawn of life ; 
 amidst clouds, and shadows, and uncertainties, and obscuri- 
 ties, as we may suppose the new-created earth to have 
 been, when there was upon it only the light that sufficed 
 to divide the day from the night, and to manifest in gene- 
 ral the hand of God all around, and while as yet the great 
 lights in the firmament had not been made. How much 
 has he to learn of himself; of the world in its dangerous 
 influences upon a heart striving to be the Lord's; of the 
 preciousness of the love and peace of God in Christ; of 
 a life of faith, in its contests, its trials, its encouragements, 
 its victories! Some points of Christian character are 
 beautifully brought out. Others lie in a great degree un- 
 developed. There is often a want of proportion of parts, 
 and symmetry of stature,which impairs strength and causes 
 unsteadiness. Self-knowledge is feeble; self-confidence 
 is strong. Feelings are too much mistaken for affections. 
 
THE BELIEVER'S PROGRESSIVE LIFE IN CHRIST. 335 
 
 Impulse is too often the substitute for permanent princi- 
 ple. Mere sensibilities of nature appear as precious 
 fruits of the Spirit. A lively and ardent imagination 
 takes the name of spirituality of mind. Angels of light 
 are made out of apparitions to which the remaining dark- 
 ness of nature gives birth. It is only the dawn of day. 
 But it is the day. God has shined into the heart, and 
 already is he glorified in that beginning of his work of 
 grace. 
 
 If the subsequent and more mature state of Christian 
 character be more calculated, on many accounts, to show 
 forth the praises of him who calls us out of darkness into 
 his marvellous light; there are features peculiar to the 
 first life of God's children, which, in their own way, 
 but most beautifully, exhibit his hand. Glorious in- 
 deed is the natural day now well advanced, as it rises 
 towards its noon. There is nothing hid from the light 
 thereof. The heavens then, most eminently declare the 
 glory of God. But the morning has its own peculiar song 
 of praise, and sweetly does it tell of Him that created it, 
 as the sun "cometh forth like a bridegroom out of his 
 chamber." So is it also in the work of grace. Glorious, 
 beyond comparison, will be that perfect day of Christian 
 life, when every sin shall be banished, and every infirmity 
 removed, and every grace matured, and the image of God 
 in man shall be as perfect a reflection of his own perfec- 
 tions as created mind is capable of. Every step of ad- 
 vancement in the Christian toward that maturity of stature, 
 is a further step in the praise of him who, being the 
 Author, is also the Finisher, of our faith. But eminently 
 does the 'beginning of the Christian life glorify God. It 
 
336 SERMON XV. 
 
 is not life increasing upon life, but arising out of death. 
 It is not light advancing upon light, but beginning out of 
 darkness. It is not the new creation putting on one 
 additional beauty after another, but standing in all its new- 
 ness, in the dew of its birth, a striking contrast to the 
 chaos from which it has just come forth. The ransomed 
 spirits made perfect in heaven, have their own song of 
 praise, " Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our 
 sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests 
 unto God." The ransomed sinner on earth just come out 
 of the bondage and death of sin, hath his song also: 
 "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 which, according to his abundant mercy, hath begotten us 
 again unto a lively hope to an inheritance incorruptible, 
 undefiled, and that fadeth not away." 
 
 But the path of the Christian is as the shining light of 
 day, not only in its beginning at early dawn, but as it 
 shineth " more and more" That light is never stationary. 
 Upward it ascends till it attains meridian. Brighter and 
 brighter it becomes till the day is perfect. Clouds may 
 obscure it. Storms may trouble it. Its increase may 
 not be visible each hour. It may seem more obscure 
 when near its zenith than when just emerged from the 
 mists of the mountains ; but gradually, silently, it rises 
 to the perfect day. The shadows diminish till they cease. 
 The changing, varied, beauties of the morning are gradu- 
 ally exchanged for the finished glory of the unclouded 
 noon. So does true religion grow in the heart and life. 
 Such is the growth in grace which we are required to make, 
 day by day; such the growth which it is of the essential 
 nature of a new heart to desire to make, and which we 
 
THE BELIEVER'S PROGRESSIVE LIFE IN CHRIST. 337 
 
 must make if we would enjoy a present evidence that we 
 have been begotten again, and are the living children of 
 God. In that progress, the Christian becomes more pure 
 in heart, more humble in spirit, more elevated in his affec- 
 tions, less selfish in his aims, and more benevolent towards 
 others. He gets nearer to Christ, and manifests more of 
 his mind. He increases in the knowledge of himself, of 
 his sinfulness, his dependence and necessities. He knows 
 more of the trials, and more of the consolations, of a faith- 
 ful disciple. His walk is more steady and consistent. 
 The love of Christ reigns in him, with a more habitual 
 and constraining power. Faith in Christ, working by love, 
 becomes more simple, and child-like, and firm, in its lean- 
 ing on the promises ; more courageous in undertaking try- 
 ing duties; more successful in overcoming the world; more 
 patient to run the race set before it ; more diligent for the 
 prize of its high calling. The whole example is more lovely; 
 the whole spirit more pure; the whole man more and 
 more transformed, by the renewing of his mind. That 
 undue sway of mere sentiment or imagination, which the 
 new-born Christian so often exhibits, passes away before 
 the steady increase of settled principles, established in the 
 word of God. Changing frames of feeling, sometimes 
 vigorous, sometimes lifeless, are exchanged for the better 
 mastery of heart-seated affections, implanted by the 
 Spirit and nourished at the fountain of inexhaustible grace. 
 There is less dependence on excitement, with less fickle- 
 ness of spirit ; there is more quietness with more continu- 
 ance of an earnest spirit. Depressions of mind are less 
 frequent; serene reliance on the promises is more con- 
 stant. "Patient continuance in well doing," is more and 
 22 
 
338 SERMON XV. 
 
 more the tenor of his way. The shallow brook, now 
 scarcely finding its narrow and often unseen way, now 
 swollen by sudden rain, till it overflows its banks and 
 goes on its noisy course, soon to be reduced again to fee- 
 bleness and obscurity, is too often the type of religious 
 character recently begun. The deep, full river, fed by 
 unfailing springs, never overflowing, never shallow, silently 
 advancing its tribute of waters to the ocean, is the better 
 type of a better state. Let me use the eloquence of 
 Bishop Taylor here. Describing exactly what I aim at, 
 he said of a devout lady whose funeral sermon he was 
 preaching : " In all her religion, and in all her actions of 
 relation towards God, she had a strange evenness and un- 
 troubled passage, sliding toward her ocean of God and of 
 infinity, with a certain and silent motion. So have I seen 
 a river, deep and smooth, passing with a still foot and a 
 sober face, and paying to the great exchequer of the sea, 
 a tribute large and full; and hard by it, a little brook 
 skipping and making a noise upon its uneven and narrow 
 bottom ; and after all its talking and bragged motion, it 
 paid to its common audit, no more than the revenues of 
 a little cloud. So have I sometimes compared the issues 
 of her religion to the solemnities and famed outsides of 
 another's piety."* 
 
 My dear brethren, I cannot too earnestly beseech you 
 to remember the essentially progressive nature of true 
 religion in the heart. " Grow in grace" is the require- 
 ment of our Lord, inscribed over the very birth-place of 
 the child of God. "Forgetting those things that are behind, 
 and reaching forth unto those things which are before," is 
 
 * Sermon at the Funeral of the Countess of Carberj. 
 
THE BELIEVER'S PROGRESSIVE LIFE IN CHRIST, 339 
 
 the motto of the Christian life. " Blessed are they that do 
 hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be 
 filled;" they that hunger and thirst for more and more, no 
 matter what the attainment already : such, in the form 
 of a benediction, is our Lord's expression for the aspiring 
 spirit of a heart alive unto righteousness. The fruitful 
 branch bringing forth much fruit, and pruned, and trained, 
 and stretching forth its arms, and searching the soil with 
 its extending roots, that it may bring forth more fruit ; 
 such is our Lord's chosen image to set forth his true and 
 faithful disciple growing in grace. His path is as the 
 shining light that goes on to shine more and more. Unlike 
 that of the morning, ascending toward meridian and never 
 going backward, it may have its periods of decline. Some- 
 times, like the day in its progress, it may seem to decline, 
 when it is only that its sensible consolations are less, 
 while its inward life is strengthening. Clouds are upon 
 the face of its joys, while the light beyond is in full com- 
 munion with him who is the same yesterday, to-day and 
 forever. It is not necessary to real growth, that you 
 shall be able to discern your progress from day to day; 
 any more than you may expect to measure the ascent of 
 the sun from moment to moment. But from hour to 
 hour, the movement of the shadow, contracting more and 
 more, does show the steady increase of the day. So, 
 when you take some prominent besetment of your evil 
 nature to measure by, you will see, from time to time, 
 that its shadow is less and less as your path advances to- 
 wards the perfect day of your hope and holiness. 
 
 There is a shining light in earthly things, of which it 
 cannot be said that it shineth more and more unto the 
 
340 SERMON XV. 
 
 perfect day- an Aurora, but not that which increases 
 till it ends in the greater glory. Often it flashes out its 
 fitful streams of radiance, so that the benighted traveller 
 is made to hope the morning breaks, while it is yet un- 
 broken night. It is fickle and uncertain, stays where it 
 begins, brings no vital warmth, quickens no powers of 
 life, affords no guidance, and dies away in the perfect 
 night. So is there a counterfeit of God's true grace in 
 the sinner's heart, which often in outward appearance 
 much resembles it ; exceeds it often in the pretensions 
 and manifestations of its early existence; puts out bolder 
 efforts, shoots out hither and thither with greater activity, 
 draws the admiration of many, and puts out of counte- 
 nance the steady, modest, and often unseen working of 
 true piety ; but it is all excitement and impulse. Its life 
 is in itself. It knows nothing of "patient continuance" 
 It has no growth. Where it began, it ends its race. Its 
 brightest hour is at its dawn. Such religion proceeds not 
 from the fountain of life in Christ, and therefore can 
 never rise to him or above the world. He that guides his 
 path by its example will be confounded. He that takes 
 his knowledge of religion from such stimulated growths, 
 where the life is excitement, and the strength to abide de- 
 pends on excitement more and more, will be brought under 
 a delusion by which many have been led into greater 
 darkness. Measure the reality of your religion by its 
 earnestness to grow, its consciousness of present great 
 deficiency, its hungering and thirsting after more of all 
 that belongs to the likeness of God, and of all that his 
 scriptures set before you to seek. Religion that is born at 
 its maturity, and the progress of which is only to get more 
 
THE BELIEVER'S PROGRESSIVE LIFE IN CHRIST. 341 
 
 infirm and less animated, but not more deep-seated and con- 
 trolling, is very like the piety of a man who was much with 
 St. Paul in a part of his ministry, but of whom he wrote 
 by and by " Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this 
 present world." 
 
 III. But there is a perfect day to every dawn of 
 morning. " He that hath begun a good work in you, 
 will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ."* " It 
 doth not yet appear what we shall be; but this we 
 know, that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for 
 we shall see him as he is." " I will come again, (said the 
 Sun of Righteousness) and receive you unto myself, that 
 where I am, there ye may be also." That will be the 
 perfect day of the disciple of Christ, for which all his 
 growth in grace is preparation; towards which every step 
 of growth is advancement; of which every present gift of 
 grace is "the earnest of the Spirit," in which the present 
 beginnings of grace as naturally terminate, as infancy 
 ripens into manhood; and the brightness and blessedness 
 of which we can now conceive of no more than the glory 
 of the noontide sun could be anticipated, had you 
 never seen but the first streaks of the morning, tipping 
 with gold the tops of the mountains. I know not any 
 higher idea of the perfect day of the Christian's light and 
 blessedness, when his every hope will be fulfilled, and all 
 the promises accomplished, than that glorious day of Christ, 
 when he shall receive his people to himself, and they shall 
 be with him where he is, and thus inhabit eternal glory, in 
 the fullness of his glory; made like him, perfectly; see- 
 ing him, knowing him, communing with him, without a 
 
 *Phil. i. 6. 
 
342 SERMON XV. 
 
 cloud or a barrier, in the nearness of a perfect union. 
 "Then shall they shine forth as the sun, in the kingdom 
 of their Father." The perfectness of their day will be in 
 the perfectness of their own attainments in holiness. 
 God's work will be completed in them. His image will 
 be perfectly renewed upon them. Their sanctification 
 will have ripened into a finished redemption, from all the 
 bonds, and all the pollutions and infirmities of this fallen 
 state. Their day will be perfected in the complete pre- 
 cipitation of all the vapors, and in the complete extinc- 
 tion of all the darkness, of this mortal state. What 
 light, what revelation, will then be poured upon all things ; 
 on all the history of the providence of God towards this 
 world, and towards each of his people ; on all the doings of 
 his grace towards every sinner; his holiness, his justice, 
 his goodness, his long-suffering and his amazing love, in 
 all their connections with man. What light around the 
 cross! When Jesus manifested himself to Saul for his 
 conversion, there was a light seen shining round about 
 him, "above the brightness of the sun;" and then the 
 sun was at high noon. What light, then, will that be, 
 surrounding "the throne of God and the Lamb," when 
 the day shall come, of which that manifestation to Saul 
 was but a momentary glimpse; when all his people shall 
 " see him as he is," in the glory which he had with the 
 Father, before the world was! "The city had no need 
 (said St. John in his vision of that heavenly bliss) of the 
 sun to shine upon it; for the glory of God did lighten it, 
 and the Lamb is the light thereof." Had no need! Does 
 the mid-day need a candle ? Can you see the stars when 
 the sun is high ? How all present conceptions of that 
 
THE BELIEVER'S PROGRESSIVE LIFE IN CHRIST. 343 
 
 day of glory will be lost in those revelations of God and 
 of Christ, to which our present views are but as the dawn 
 of thought in the mind of infancy. 
 
 But there is a great difference between the path of the 
 Christian, going on to his reception into the glory of his 
 God and Saviour, and the shining light increasing unto 
 the perfect day. In the latter, there is so constant and 
 gradual an increase unto the final consummation, that 
 many of the last steps are not discernible from the ter- 
 minating perfection. But the Christian's highest attain- 
 ment, during the days of his growth in grace how does 
 it compare with the perfect day on which it joins? What 
 is the holiness of the most eminent saint on earth, to the 
 sanctification he will receive, when, at his passage to the 
 inheritance of the saints in light, God will complete his 
 meetness to be a partaker therein ! We must see through 
 a glass darkly, down to the very moment of our transla- 
 tion ; and then, all at once, we shall see, " face to face," 
 the glory of God, and the wonders of his kingdom. We 
 must " think as a child, and understand as a child," down 
 to the very moment of the time of our reception to be with 
 Christ; and then, all at once, we are to put away childish 
 things, and appear in the full stature, and think and 
 understand with all the vigor of the most perfect man- 
 hood. What mysterious doings of grace what marvel- 
 lous operations of the Holy Ghost, must take place in 
 the soul of the dying believer, after you have heard his last 
 word, and caught his last look, and received his last be- 
 queathed evidence that he dies in the Lord; and before 
 he joins the hosts in light, and meets, face to face, the 
 God of glory, and begins his eternal day in the presence 
 
344 SERMON XV. 
 
 of the Lamb oh ! what a change, to make him capable of 
 sustaining that wondrous vision, and meet to enter upon 
 that inheritance ! But that good work which marvellous 
 grace began, the God of all grace will make perfect in 
 that day. 
 
 And now, in conclusion, a few reflections derived from 
 the view we have taken. 
 
 1st. We see what the heavenly state will be, in connec- 
 tion with the Christian life on earth. It is another life, 
 and yet not another the same life as that which dwells 
 in the heart, and issues in the walk of the child of God 
 during his present imperfectness; but now under a new 
 dispensation, in another clime, under a brighter sky; as 
 the perfect day, when the earth is filled with light, is the 
 same day as when the first hours were struggling with 
 the mists of morning. The religion of heaven is the re- 
 ligion of believers on earth; but with both its robes, its 
 sanctification as well as justification, made perfectly white 
 in the blood of the Lamb. The happiness of heaven is 
 just the happiness of the believer on earth, only with all 
 its impurities precipitated, all its feebleness removed, all 
 its dimness of vision done away the little stream won- 
 derfully enlarged, but proceeding, as ever, out of its hid- 
 den source " with Christ in God ;" the hope of the inherit- 
 ance superseded by the possession of the inheritance ; the 
 priest who worshipped outside the vail, in types and shad- 
 ows, now standing in the most holy place, directly before 
 the throne. Grace is the dawn of glory glory is the 
 fullness of grace. Happiness in heaven is holiness made 
 perfect in the communion of God. How vain, therefore, 
 for a man to be hoping for heaven when he dies, in whom 
 
THE BELIEVER'S PROGRESSIVE LIFE IN CHRIST. 345 
 
 the seed-life of heaven is not now begun ! How impossi- 
 ble that a man should be happy in heaven, were he even 
 taken thither, who has never learned to partake in the 
 happiness of religion, before being taken thither ! How 
 can we ever reign in the life of glory, if we have 
 not first served in the preparatory life of grace ? Does 
 morning light give assurance of the full grown day? 
 Just as much does the latter tell you there has been a 
 dawn of day -just as much does the blessedness of every 
 saint in heaven testify that in him there was a new 
 birth, by the power of the Holy Ghost, wherein the new 
 life thus consummated above was begun in weakness on 
 the earth. 
 
 2d. You have no reason to be discouraged about your 
 state, when, at the outset of a Christian life, you feel your 
 attainments in grace to be very poor and feeble. It may 
 be "a day of small things," but it must not be despised. 
 The perfect day was once but a streak of feeble light, 
 scarcely visible amidst the powers of darkness with which 
 it struggled for the mastery. Every saint now in heaven, 
 rejoicing in all the maturity of his life in Christ, was once 
 where you are, just beginning to learn, just trying to creep, 
 just seeing a very little, with a very tottering faith, and 
 a very infant hope. The hill of Zion must be ascended 
 from the bottom of the valley ; and many a step must be 
 taken, without seeming to ascend at all. The great ques- 
 tion is, Has the day begun, and is it striving, in the 
 light and help of God, to increase more and more ? In 
 the faithful use of God's ordained means of grace, by 
 prayer, by watchfulness, by looking unto Jesus, the 
 Author and Finisher, by exercise of what you have, by 
 
346 SERMON XV. 
 
 improvement of what you have obtained, you will go on 
 from the good beginning in weakness, to the blessed 
 consummation in perfectness. 
 
 3rd. Ye who earnestly desire never to cease advancing 
 in holiness, till you are made perfect in heaven, remember 
 where lies the power, whence cometh the light, who it is 
 that is "made unto us, of God, sanctification and redemp- 
 tion." "Ye were sometime darkness; but now are ye 
 light in the Lord." Mark, it is "in the Lord." Your 
 standing before God, as his people, is only as ye are " in 
 Christ Jesus." Your increase in any of the endowments, 
 hopes, or happiness of his people, can be only as ye are 
 "in Christ Jesus." All your life is there; all your 
 hope is there ; all your righteousness is there. Growth 
 in grace, is simply increased likeness to Christ, increased 
 nearness to Christ, increased reliance upon Christ, in- 
 creased desire after him, increased drawing by faith and 
 prayer upon the treasury of grace in him. The crescent 
 moon, all dark in itself, increases to its fullness of light as 
 its face is turned to the sun. " Seek ye my face," is the 
 exhortation. May the answer come from every heart 
 among us, "Thy face, Lord, will I seek." 
 
SERMON XVI. 
 
 THE BELIEVER'S ASSURANCE IN CHRIST. 
 
 ROMANS viii. 32. 
 
 "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 1 " 
 
 THERE are two principal methods by which the believer 
 may comfort his soul out of the treasures of the grace of 
 God. One is, by the direct application to his own spiritual 
 state, of those promises of the scriptures which are appro- 
 priate thereto. His wants cannot be so various but the 
 scriptures furnish promises to meet them, nor so great and 
 pressing but he may find strength and consolation enough 
 in those promises to sustain his heart in peace. And 
 happy he, in whom " the word of God dwells richly, in all 
 wisdom and spiritual understanding," and whose heart is 
 habitually exercised, by devout meditation, in the practi- 
 cal use and personal application of its many "words in 
 season." That man is always ready when temptation 
 assails, to stand in the whole armor of God ; when duty 
 calls, to be girt about with truth, for its longest and hardest 
 path ; when tribulation brings its darkness, to find the 
 lamp that will light up his tabernacle; when fears come 
 about him, to give to each of them a reason of the hope 
 that is in him; and when his Lord cometh, and calleth for 
 him, to take his shining lamp, trimmed and burning, and 
 go forth to meet him. 
 
348 SEEMON XVI. 
 
 The other method is, by calling to mind what God has 
 already done for us; especially what he did for us when 
 we were enemies, wandering further and further away from 
 him, having no desire for his love, making the world our 
 God; and thence arguing, how much more we may look 
 for his compassion and grace, now that we have tnrned un- 
 to him, and embraced his promises. The believer remem- 
 bers "the rock whence he was hewn, and the hole of the 
 pit whence he was digged;" he considers the mercy that 
 plucked him "as a brand from the burning;" that persua- 
 ded and enabled him, in his great sinfulness and weak- 
 ness, to seek refuge for his lost soul in the righteousness 
 of Christ ; that put a new song into his mouth, and shed 
 abroad in his heart the love and peace of God. And 
 thence he argues with his soul He that so pitied me and 
 did such wonderful things for me when I loved him not, 
 shall I not trust in him and cast every care upon him, now 
 that he knows that I love him. "Why art thou cast down, 
 my soul, and why art thou so disquieted within me? 
 Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him, who is 
 the help of my countenance and my God." So reasoned St. 
 Paul : " If, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to 
 God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, 
 we shall be saved by his life." And so again, in the text: 
 "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 !" 
 
 The great subject of the text, is the love of God to sinful 
 and ruinedman, in the gift of his Son Jesus Christ, to be a 
 sacrifice for our sins; and the particular topics under which 
 the text leads us to consider that love, are,/rs^, the Person 
 
THE BELIEVER'S ASSURANCE IN CHRIST. 349 
 
 whom God spared not; secondly, that unto which he was 
 delivered for us all; and thirdly, the comforting inference 
 thence arising. 
 
 I. The Person whom God spared not. 
 
 He " spared not his own Son" These words are in- 
 tended to impress us with a sense of the dignity and pre- 
 ciousness of him whom God delivered up for us all, and 
 consequently with some conception of the cost of that 
 great sacrifice for our sins. The inference, " how shall he 
 not with him also freely give us all things ? " depends en- 
 tirely upon the sense in which we understand Jesus to be 
 called God's " own Son" If you give this title only an 
 accommodated meaning, supposing Jesus to be entitled 
 the Son of God, only as any mere man, sustaining a cer- 
 tain peculiar relation to God, might, in distinction from 
 other men, be so called, without implying that there was 
 literally any relation of nature to God which other men 
 had not, then the force of the text is all destroyed. For 
 when I have said to myself, "He that spared not that 
 man on whom he hath conferred the adoption of a Son, 
 but delivered him up for us all ; " what basis have I laid 
 for the Apostle's animating inference, "How shall he not 
 with him also freely give us all things ? " An actual 
 Sonship, and that implying a dignity of nature, and a 
 nearness to the Father, which cannot be in any merely 
 created being, is necessary to the argument of the text. 
 
 We are well aware that Jesus is called the Son of God, 
 sometimes, in the scriptures, with reference to his coming 
 in the flesh, his being miraculously "conceived by the 
 Holy Ghost, and born of the Virgin Mary." So spake 
 the angel to Mary, " The Holy Ghost shall come upon 
 
350 SERMON XVI. 
 
 thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee : 
 therefore that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall 
 be called the Son of God." Adam, for a similar reason, 
 as he was the offspring of God by creation out of the dust 
 of the earth, is called " the Son of God ;"* while Seth, 
 because he was not thus created, is called only the son of 
 Adam. 
 
 But our Lord Jesus Christ is named in the scriptures, 
 "the Son of God," in a sense in which none else can have 
 that name, and by which he is the " only-begotten Son." 
 We read in the text that God " delivered up " his own Son 
 for us all. But this was done not merely when our Lord 
 was delivered up to the ignominy and sufferings of the 
 cross ; but before that ; when he was delivered up to take 
 " the form of a servant," and to be so deeply humbled as 
 to be "made in the likeness of men."| Thus it is written: 
 "Being in the form of God, he thought it not robbery 
 to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, 
 and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made 
 in the likeness of men." He was delivered up for us all, 
 when all that humiliation was laid upon him. It was the 
 preparation for the sacrifice afterward to be offered. But 
 he who was thus delivered up was then God's " own Son." 
 He did not become God's " own Son " by being delivered 
 up ; but he was that Son when delivered up. Thus we 
 find his Sonship to have existed before he came into the 
 world to save sinners. And hence we find the Sonship of 
 Christ, which is spoken of in the text, to embrace all that 
 infinite dignity of nature, in which the second person of 
 the adorable Trinity existed, in the Unity of the Godhead, 
 
 * Luke iii. 38. + fhil. ii. 6, 7. 
 
THE BELIEVER'S ASSURANCE IN CHRIST. 351 
 
 from all eternity ; " the brightness of the Father's glory 
 and the express image of his person."* The title, then, 
 of God's " own Son " associates the person of our Re- 
 deemer with all that is unsearchable and infinite in the 
 glory and majesty of Jehovah, and brings to our view, 
 as setting forth his attributes, those passages of Scripture 
 which speak of all things as having been made by him ; 
 and as consisting in him, and upheld by him; which 
 moreover declare that he was "before all things;" that 
 he is "above all things," and that "in him are hid all the 
 treasures of wisdom and knowledge ;" that the hearts of 
 men are open to his sight, and that all the angels of God 
 worship him.| 
 
 But it is not merely the infinite dignity and majesty of 
 our Redeemer that we are led, by the language of our 
 text, to contemplate. It was more than an infinitely ex- 
 alted and glorious person, whom God delivered for us all. 
 He "spared not his own Son." It is the special relation 
 which that glorious person sustained unto the Father Al- 
 mighty, as his Son, " his own, his only Son," which is in- 
 tended to make the deepest impression on our minds, of 
 the wonderful grace and love of God in our redemption. 
 
 Have you never remarked, my brethren, how very fre- 
 quent in the Scriptures is the use of the expression, GocCs 
 Son, and equivalent phrases, in application to Christ ; as 
 if it were peculiarly an object of the inspired writers to 
 make us always contemplate him, no matter in what other 
 aspect of dignity he may be represented, as holding that 
 filial relation to the Father which those words express ? 
 
 *Heb.i. 3. t John i. 3. Col. i. 17. Heb. i. 3. John iii. 31. Col. ii. 3. 
 Acts i. 24. Heb. i. 6. 
 
352 SERMON XVI. 
 
 Have you never remarked how peculiarly that method of 
 speaking of Christ is used, when it is the special object 
 of any portion of the scriptures, to set forth, as impress- 
 ively as possible, what God did in giving Mm to bear our 
 sins ; and the wonderful love to us that led him to make 
 that sacrifice ; how it is then that the scriptures place 
 him before us especially as the loving Father, and how 
 he who comes to us as that great gift, is beheld as a most 
 beloved Son from "the bosom"* of that Father, and not 
 merely an infinitely exalted one from the majesty and 
 glory of the Godhead ? Take, as an example, that pass- 
 age, " Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he 
 first loved us, and sent Us Son to be the propitiation for 
 our sins." And another " God so loved the world that 
 he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on 
 him should not perish," &c.f It is in this connection that 
 our Saviour is called God's "dear Son ;"% his "ozon Son;" 
 his "beloved /SW'|| Twice while he was preparing for 
 the sacrifice on the cross; first, at his baptism, then at 
 his transfiguration, when he spake with Moses and Elias 
 " of his death which he was to accomplish at Jerusalem," 
 there came a voice from the glory of the Father, saying, 
 " This is my beloved Son"** That voice from heaven 
 never spake of him under any other name. Nor when 
 the voice of Jesus ascended in prayer to God, is there a 
 recorded instance of his using any form of address but 
 that of Father; sometimes " Holy Father," or "Right- 
 eous Father," never any substitute for Father. Six 
 times is that appellation used in that intercessory prayer 
 
 * John i. 18. f 1 John iv. 10. John iii. 16. * Col. i. 13. 
 
 Rom. viii. 32. |] Mark i. 11. **Luke ix. 35. 
 
THE BELIEVER'S ASSURANCE IN CHRIST. 353 
 
 which immediately preceded his being delivered up to be 
 crucified. When his soul was in the agony of Geth- 
 semane, his words were, " my Father , if it be possible, let 
 this cup pass from me ;" and when on the cross he utter- 
 ed, out of the depth of his sufferings, his prayer for his 
 enemies, it was " Father, forgive them," and when he 
 gave up his spirit in death, it was with the filial prayer, 
 " Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit." But 
 why such an address to God, in such seasons of peculiar 
 anguish, if not for precisely the same reason that a son 
 on earth, the more he feels his heart drawn to his Father, 
 will use those words of address to him which express most 
 tenderly the emotions of a son? The filial relation of 
 Son between Jesus and the Father Almighty is at least 
 as real as that between any son and father on earth ; it is 
 the original of which such relationships here are but the 
 faint copy ; and we must take care lest in our thoughts 
 we be unconsciously led to lose sight of this, by imagin- 
 ing that because in that divine relationship there is an 
 infinite mystery, therefore there is a less literal reality. 
 I would say the reverse. Instead of throwing unreality 
 into that relation, as if it involved no such emotions, no 
 such peculiar love and tenderness as that existing natu- 
 rally between parent and son on earth ; as if it were little 
 else than a name or an abstraction, because the Father is 
 the infinite God, and not the mortal man: it would seem 
 rather to be our duty to endeavor to conceive of it as in- 
 volving a Father's love and tenderness, only so much the 
 more exalted in power and in intensity, as the infinite 
 God is beyond the mortal man, in all the heights and 
 depths of his nature. This view follows of necessity, 
 23 
 
354 SERMON XVI. 
 
 when you once admit that when the Scriptures speak of 
 Christ as God's own Son, his only, his beloved Son, they 
 represent a literal reality, without any limitation upon the 
 usual meaning of such words ; that when we read in the 
 text that God "spared not his own Son, but delivered 
 him up for us all," we are not only allowed, but directed, 
 to form our estimate of the cost of the sacrifice, by think- 
 ing of what it would cost one of us to deliver up a be- 
 loved son to such sufferings as Jesus endured, and by 
 then adding to that cost of ours, the consideration that 
 the Father as a Father, as the Father, from whom ail pa- 
 rental love on earth is but the feeble derivative, as a ray 
 of light from the sun, is as infinite in his love and tender- 
 ness as in his power and holiness. And how strikingly do 
 you see this in that remarkable type of the sacrifice of 
 Christ, which is presented in the narrative of Abraham 
 offering Isaac his only son upon the altar.* There you 
 see the venerable and devoted father, at the command of 
 God, without a murmur, taking that only and beloved son, 
 and going forth on the long journey to the distant mount 
 of sacrifice, perfectly expecting there to slay his son ; 
 you hear those words from Isaac as they walk along, words 
 so calculated to unman a father's strongest determination 
 "My father, behold the fire and the wood, but where is 
 the lamb for a burnt-offering?" At length they reach the 
 place, and you see Abraham building the altar and laying 
 on it the wood, and then laying his son thereon, and bind- 
 ing him down ; and no complaint is heard from the sub- 
 missive son: and now the father's hand has taken the 
 knife to slay him ; the sacrifice is virtually made ; the 
 
 * Gen. xxii. 
 
THE BELIEVER'S ASSURANCE IN CHRIST. 355 
 
 suffering of Abraham was as agonizing as if he had actu- 
 ally slain his son. Who can tell what he suffered? How 
 does the narrative, with particular intent, take care that, 
 as we read it, we shall not for a moment lose sight of the 
 fact that it is a father not sparing his only son. The com- 
 mand to Abraham was, " Take now thy son, thine only son 
 Isaac, whom thou lovest." Every word of that command 
 drew blood from that father's heart. In the conversation, 
 as they go on their way, Isaac says, " My father" Abra- 
 ham answers, "Here am I, my son." And when the 
 trial is over, the blessing pronounced on Abraham begins 
 with the preface, "Seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, 
 thine only son"* All this we find in the most distinct 
 and impressive of all the types and promises of the sacri- 
 fice of Christ given to the Patriarchal Church; yea, in 
 that very type in which Abraham was granted to see by 
 prophetic exhibition the "day" of Christ "and was glad."~f 
 And why all this, but that when we are considering the 
 cost, and the dignity, and the efficacy of the sacrifice of 
 Christ, and the love that provided it for us, and all the 
 comforting inferences for the believer which flow therefrom, 
 we should concentrate our attention mainly upon the Son- 
 ship of Christ; upon the fact that he was not merely "the 
 brightness of the Father's glory," of the same essential 
 divinity, but " his only begotten Son ;" so that, as it was 
 so much the more wonderful evidence of the obedience of 
 Abraham, that he withheld not his son, his only Isaac whom 
 he loved, but delivered him for a burnt-offering at God's 
 command, we should be the more deeply penetrated with 
 a sense of the wonderful love of God to sinners, because 
 "he spared not his own Son," so infinitely nearer and more 
 
 * Gen. xxii. 117. f Jqhn viii. 56. 
 
356 SERMON XVI. 
 
 beloved than ever any only son to a father's heart among 
 men, " but delivered him up for us all." 
 
 And what thus is the great crowning glory of our re- 
 demption as respects the love that provided it, and the 
 efficacy attending it, is the basis also of its crowning bles- 
 sedness in regard to the benefits accruing therefrom to 
 the believer. It is because Christ is God's "dear Son " in 
 virtue of his divine nature, that sinners obtain, as united 
 to him by a living faith, the relationship of God's adopted 
 sons. Our redemption began with God's not sparing his 
 own Son, but delivering him up for us all. It will be com- 
 pleted in God's receiving believers as sons in Christ and 
 for Christ's sake, and delivering all the glory of his king- 
 dom unto them all. It was the Sonship of Christ that 
 made his sacrifice so infinitely meritorious. It is the son- 
 ship of his people, by adoption in him, unto God, so that 
 they are made "heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ," 
 that will make their everlasting portion so inconceivably 
 glorious. 
 
 Let us now speak in the second place of, 
 
 II. That unto which God delivered his own $on. 
 
 We might survey the whole mission of Christ, from his 
 being made in the form of a servant, till he rose from the 
 dead, and say that unto all the humiliation, and labors, 
 and sufferings of that period was he delivered. But as 
 all had reference to, and were all completed in that one 
 event, for which chiefly he took our nature, namely, Ms 
 death on the cross, therefore we find in the scriptures, that 
 his being delivered for us all, has reference mainly to that 
 event; as when he said, "The Son of Man shall be deliv- 
 ered into the hands of men ;* and, as when Peter said to 
 
 * Luke ix. 44. 
 
THE BELIEVER'S ASSURANCE IN CHRIST. 357 
 
 the Jews, " Him being delivered by the determinate coun- 
 sel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by 
 wicked hands have crucified and slain." * And, again, 
 He " was delivered for our offences and raised again for 
 our justification ;"t where "delivered" being put in oppo- 
 sition to being raised again, shows that it was deliverance 
 unto death that was meant. 
 
 But our Lord Jesus endured that death as a penalty. 
 It was the penalty of our sins. He "redeemed us from 
 the curse of the law, being made a curse for us." Hence, 
 as his death was the penalty imposed by the violated law, 
 under which he was placed that he might redeem us from 
 its curse, it is more proper to say that Christ was delivered 
 unto the law, the broken law, to endure all its wrath, to 
 exhaust all its curse, to pay all its demand against sinners, 
 to make a perfect atonement for all our transgressions, in 
 order that when that work was finished, he might "preach 
 deliverance to the captives, and the opening of the prison 
 doors" to all that are bound under its condemnation. 
 
 But let us consider all that is contained in this view. 
 The law of God, just, and holy, and good, without imper- 
 fection, and on the supremacy and upholding of which, all 
 things, in every gradation of God's intelligent creatures, 
 depend, was broken and dishonored by man. Its penalty, 
 pronounced upon every one that continueth not in all 
 things written in the book of the law, must be paid. It 
 was not in the nature of law to "clear the guilty." Man, 
 therefore, the sinner, was held under its arrest, under con- 
 demnation, in bonds, unto eternal death. That eternal 
 death he must die, or a surety must satisfy, in his stead, 
 'the justice, and holiness, and majesty of the law. But 
 
 * Acts ii. 23. t Rom. iv. 25. 
 
358 SERMON XVI. 
 
 whence shall that surety be provided? Who could make 
 atonement for the sins of the whole world ? Who could 
 receive and bear upon his soul " the iniquities of us all," 
 of all ages ; and so suffer for them, and so make propitia- 
 tion, and impart to the propitiation such wonderful value, 
 that no demand of the law should remain unpaid, no part 
 of its curse uninflicted, no word of its commandment not 
 perfectly honored and vindicated; yea, so that God 
 might be just and yet the justifier of the ungodly ? In 
 the whole range of creation, among all the " principalities 
 and powers in heavenly places," there was none compe- 
 tent to that office. The surety must come from above the 
 rank of created beings, or not at all. Must he then 
 come from the throne of God? The language of God to 
 Abraham, when he demanded of him no less a sacrifice 
 than his only son Isaac, we may, without irreverence, sup- 
 pose to have been, in this emergency, addressed by the 
 law to the love of God the Father Almighty : " Take thy 
 Son, thine only begotten Son, whom thou lovest, and offer 
 him up for a burnt-offering," and there shall be no con- 
 demnation to those that shall believe in his name. 
 
 And, wonderful to say, the boundless love of God con- 
 sented. He beheld, infinitely more clearly than we now 
 see it in the history, all that was to be endured by his own 
 Son, if delivered up to that work of redemption all the 
 long descent of humiliation, from the throne of the God- 
 head to the ignominy of the cross ; all the steps of sacri- 
 fice and suffering, from the day he took our nature in the 
 virgin's womb to the day in which he arose in it from the 
 grave. And for whom was such cost to be incurred? Ah ! , 
 what a world he looked upon ! "We were enemies." "All 
 
THE BELIEVER'S ASSURANCE IN CHRIST. 359 
 
 we like sheep had gone astray." We desired not that 
 God should reign over us. The world was one vast theatre 
 of rebellion and corruption, deserving only God's wrath 
 and damnation. And how perfectly did he search all its 
 iniquity to its depth ; and see it in all generations and in 
 all hearts at one view ; and estimate, as we cannot approach 
 unto, all its vileness, ingratitude, and hatefulness, as it 
 rose up against his authority as it despised all his love- 
 as it stood in awful contrast with his infinite holiness! 
 And it was for such sinners, that he, or none, must find a 
 ransom. Then he " spared not his own Son, but delivered 
 him up for us all." The Son was first delivered up to be 
 66 made of no reputation" by being made in "the form 
 of a servant" and "the likeness of man," so that coming 
 into the world in our nature, he might become " obedient 
 unto death" for our sins. But no sooner did he thus be- 
 come man, as the surety for all men, than the law recog- 
 nized him in that mediatorial office, and began at once to 
 lay upon him the iniquities of us all, and to wound him 
 for our transgressions. All his way, from birth to cruci- 
 fixion, that wounding went on. " The chastisement of our 
 peace was upon him" continually, for he was all the while 
 the " man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief," and 
 every sorrow was part of the price that bought our re- 
 demption, and every grief was an offering for us. At last 
 he was delivered unto death. So perfectly was he deliv- 
 ered into the hands of the law, and held under its arrest 
 in our stead, and treated as if all our sins were his, and 
 thus identified with us as our surety, by whose stripes we 
 are saved, that it is written he was "made sin for ^s" * 
 words which can be understood in no other sense than that 
 
 * Romans v, 21. 
 
360 SERMON XVI. 
 
 our sins were imputed to him, and he bore them as our 
 surety under the vengeance of the law, as if they were 
 personally his own. 
 
 Oh ! how can we comprehend the depth and height of 
 the love of God as thus manifested for us ! Read it in 
 its type Abraham offering up his son. You see the 
 venerable patriarch receiving the command, "take thine 
 only son, whom thou lovest, and offer him up for a burnt- 
 ofifering on one of the mountains which I will tell thee of." 
 He rises "early in the morning " for the painful journey ; 
 cleaves the wood for the burning of the precious victim; 
 keeps on, with his Isaac, those three long days of con- 
 cealed anguish, towards the appointed place ; every step 
 a martyrdom, every thought a crucifixion; leaves the 
 servants at a distance from the mount selected, lest they 
 should prevent the sacrifice; takes Isaac alone, lays upon 
 him the wood to bear it up the mount, takes in his own 
 hand the fire and the knife, builds the altar, binds his son, 
 and is just proceeding to slay; oh, how could mortal heart 
 be strong enough for such obedience ! How wonderful 
 the love of Abraham to God, that he did not spare his 
 only son, his beloved Isaac, the only heir of the promises 
 made unto himself, but without a murmur delivered him 
 to death by his own father's hand, because God comman- 
 ded! 
 
 But let us turn to the antetype. How very " early in 
 the morning " of the world's history did God begin, in his 
 providence and grace, to prepare for the offering of the 
 sacrifice of propitiation for our sins ; for how many thou- 
 sands of years was there one continual progress towards 
 that wonderful offering ; how was every step and arrange- 
 
THE BELIEVER'S ASSURANCE IN CHRIST. 361 
 
 merit of God's dispensations directed with a view to that 
 one great event ; with what constancy of purpose all 
 things were made to work together to bring it to pass! 
 As in the journey of Abraham, there was carried the 
 wood, the knife, and the fire, as well as the lamb for the 
 offering; so from the beginning of the world's sinfulness, 
 as God was bringing nearer and nearer the fullness of 
 time, when his own Son should be actually offered up a 
 propitiation for our sins, the signs of that promised sacri- 
 fice were seen by all generations of his Church, the fire, 
 the ivood, the knife, and the victim, all presented in that- 
 shedding of blood, for the remission of sins, and in that 
 burning of sacrifices upon altars, which, from the offering 
 of righteous Abel to the last in Jerusalem, before the 
 vail of the temple was rent in twain at the death of 
 Christ, foreshadowed, and kept up in the expectation of 
 the Church, that one perfect and sufficient oblation and 
 satisfaction for the sins of the whole world. 
 
 At length " the fullness of the times " had come, and 
 " God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the 
 law." Every step in the life of Jesus from that hour, was 
 towards that mount which God had appointed for the offer- 
 ing. Every enemy was made a servant to help on the 
 journey. Jesus bore the fuel of the burnt offering, in 
 bearing our nature and our sins. But the fire and the 
 knife to slay were in the Father's hand. The hour is 
 come. The only Son of God is nailed to the cross, " by 
 wicked hands," which accomplish unknowingly, "the de- 
 terminate counsel" of the Father. Legions of angels 
 there are to rescue him, if summoned ; but, like the ser- 
 vants of Abraham, they are kept away. There is none to 
 
362 SERMON XVI. 
 
 help. The sword of divine justice is stretched forth in all 
 its wrath against him, as our representative and substitute. 
 He is "not spared" in the least. Every sin, of every 
 soul, of every generation, with its whole penalty, is visited 
 upon him, until the last drop of the bitter cup is drank, 
 and the last jot and tittle of the exaction of the law is 
 satisfied. He suffered to the uttermost, that he might 
 "save to the uttermost ah 1 that come unto God by him." 
 To the most ignominious and the most painful death, was 
 he delivered. Everything that accompanied it, all its 
 accessories, all the stripes, and mockery, and revilings, 
 the being crucified between two thieves, and regarded as 
 a malefactor, all tell us how little the Father spared him, 
 how entirely he delivered him up. The sharpest agony 
 came when God the Father, for a time, did hide his face 
 from his Son ; thus treating him so entirely as we deserved 
 to be treated, in whose place he suffered. Even that most 
 inconceivable agony, the beloved Son was not spared. 
 And then it was that there came that cry of anguish, 
 " My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ! " 
 
 Ah ! it is what gives that sacrifice its most affecting 
 aspect, and declares most impressively how God regards 
 the guilt of sin, and yet loves, and would save, the sinner, 
 that, while to human eye there were no agents in the 
 death and sufferings of Christ but men, and no causes of 
 pain but such as their hands employed; the hand that 
 really delivered him up the unseen hand that really 
 bound him and laid him on the altar, that gave him the 
 bitter cup to drink, that kindled the fire of agony which 
 burned in his very soul, was that of his Father. He 
 "laid on him the iniquities of us all." "It pleased the 
 
THE BELIEVER'S ASSURANCE IN CHRIST. 363 
 
 Lord, (said the prophet Isaiah), to bruise him, to put him 
 to grief." It was he who made the soul of Jesus " an 
 offering for sin."* And not till that offering had become 
 a complete propitiation for the sins of the whole world; 
 not till God's own Son, standing as our surety under the 
 demands of the law, had satisfied them to the uttermost, 
 did God spare him, or cease to put him to grief. But so 
 soon as that price was paid, and that propitiation was 
 finished, did the law remove its arrest, and the surety was 
 justified from the imputed sins of men, and deliverance 
 was given to him who had been bound under their con- 
 demnation. Then came forth the Lord of Glory from the 
 bonds of death, having spoiled "principalities and pow- 
 ers," and " having blotted out the hand- writing that was 
 against us, and taken it out of the way, nailing it to his 
 cross."| Then ascended he up on high, "leading captivity 
 captive," to "the joy set before him," for which he 
 had " endured the cross, despising the shame.'" From 
 that time, all things were ready for the preaching of the 
 gospel of his free, and perfect, and glorious salvation to 
 every creature. From that time, " the righteousness of 
 God without the law has been manifested, being witnessed 
 by the law and the prophets ; even the righteousness of 
 God which is by faith of Jesus Christ, unto all and upon 
 all them that believe 5" J a free and perfect justification 
 from all sin to every soul coming unto, and with a peni- 
 tent heart embracing, the mediation of Christ ; so that 
 " now there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ 
 Jesus ;" there is no such thing remaining to them, or 
 possible unto them all taken away, blotted out, nailed to 
 the cross of Christ. 
 
 Isaiah liii. 6, 10. f Col. ii. 14, 15. \ Romans iii. 21, 22. 
 
364 SERMON XVI. 
 
 III. Let us now, in conclusion, attend to the exceed- 
 ingly comforting inference drawn by the Apostle from all 
 this love of God in Christ Jesus: "How shall he not with 
 Mm also freely give us all things!" 
 
 The apostle argues from the greater to the less. What 
 has God done for us already? He has given us his be- 
 loved Son. Not only that he delivered him up to all 
 humiliation and suffering yea, to be made sin for us; 
 what now can we need that must not come immeasurably 
 short of the preciousness of that gift ? He gave that gift 
 most freely ; without money or price on our part; when 
 we were enemies; when we desired not the knowledge 
 of his ways ; when every thing in us, and in the world 
 invoked his wrath ; and now that we have turned unto 
 him and embraced his mercy in Christ, will he not freely, 
 without any merit or price in us, as freely as he gave his 
 Son for us, give us all things; all that we need for our 
 present welfare and our eternal salvation? Shall we not 
 be "justified freely by his grace" from all our sins, see- 
 ing he has so freely provided a perfect righteousness for 
 our justification in Christ ? Will he not most freely give 
 us grace to help in time of need, seeing that his grace has 
 already so abounded towards us, that he hath not spared 
 his own Son, but delivered him up for us all ? Will he not 
 sustain us in death that we faint not ; and lift us up above 
 its waves, that we fear not; and then receive us graciously 
 to all that glory which Jesus hath purchased and prepared 
 for his people ? 
 
 How strong is this method of consolation in lower re- 
 lations ! Suppose you should hear of a poor lost orphan 
 child, carried far away into grievous bondage, and you 
 
THE BELIEVER'S ASSURANCE IN CHRIST. 365 
 
 should feel so moved with compassion as to go a long 
 journey, at a great sacrifice, to deliver him. You then 
 take him to your home, adopt him as your son, and assure 
 him that you will be to him a father. But bye and bye 
 I find that child distressed. He thinks how little claim 
 he has on your love, how little he can do to repay it ; he 
 says to himself 6 Why should such as I be the object of 
 such gratuitous affection? what if those who carried me 
 away should be permitted to regain their captive? what 
 if I should be suffered, at any rate, to come to want, and 
 wander unfriended amidst the dangers and trials of this 
 world? " Now, what could I do to that troubled heart, so 
 calculated to lift it up in hope and confidence, as to say, 
 "He that has already done for you so much, he that 
 sought you out when a stranger now that you are his 
 adopted child, how shall he not most surely protect, and 
 sustain, and cherish you! " 
 
 Such is a most feeble illustration, indeed, of the " strong 
 consolation " which belongs to those who have fled for 
 refuge to lay hold on the hope set before them in 
 Christ. The child of God has his fears and temptations. 
 The future, between this and the grave, with all its antici- 
 pated and unanticipated trials; the future, beyond the 
 grave, with its day of judgment and its eternal inherit- 
 ance of bliss or woe, arises to fill his mind with care. 
 "May not one so weak as I, be left to my own strength, 
 when trials come, seeing I so much deserve it? Can I 
 feel assured of grace according to my day, when already 
 I have so much abused the grace of God ? Will he accept 
 such prayers as mine, which, though presented in repent- 
 ance, looking only unto Jesus, and from a heart that does 
 
366 SERMON xvi. 
 
 love him, are so weak in every holy affection, and so pol- 
 luted with sinfulness? Can I feel persuaded that I shall 
 not be left to go down alone, unlighted, unsupported, into 
 the valley and shadow of death ? And when, in the great 
 day, I stand accused by the broken law, and ten thousand 
 thousand sins confront me, oh ! will Jesus then remember 
 me in his kingdom, and interpose his righteousness to 
 shield and justify me?" 
 
 Under such thoughts, his soul tempted to be cast down 
 and disquieted within him, the believer calls up the direct 
 promises of the scriptures, and endeavors to cast all his 
 cares upon God. But nothing enables him to do this 
 with more sweet and sustaining consolation, than the 
 thought of what the grace of God has already done on 
 his behalf. What greater assurance could I have (he 
 meditates) of inexhaustible love and grace, than that 
 which meets me at every remembrance of the death of 
 Christ ? He saw me, a wandering, impenitent, disobedi- 
 ent, ruined sinner, my heart wholly alienated from him, 
 my soul deserving to abide forever under his condemna- 
 tion. Then he gave his own Son to bear my sins, that I 
 might be received as his adopted child. Every conceiva- 
 ble gift of grace was contained and promised in that 
 greatest of all possible gifts. What stronger assurance 
 is possible ? If, on the bosom of every cloud, I should 
 see the tokens of his forgiving mercy ; if all the angels of 
 heaven should be despatched on purpose to tell me that 
 God will never forsake me, but will freely give me all I 
 need ; yea, if at every step I should hear a voice from 
 heaven, saying, " Let not your heart be ^troubled ; " could 
 all this be stronger than the single fact that God has al- 
 
THE BELIEVER'S ASSURANCE IN CHRIST. 367 
 
 ready so loved me, that he spared not his own Son, but 
 delivered him up to the cross for me? Oh, no! hope 
 thou in God. He that laid such a foundation, will surely 
 enable thee to build thereon the "hope that maketh not 
 ashamed." He who at such cost, hath opened for thee 
 that new and living way, will not fail thee when thou 
 needest and seekest his grace to walk therein. He who 
 purchased for .thee, at such a price, the incorruptible in- 
 heritance, surely, when thou seekest it in the way of his 
 own appointment, will not fail, in his own time, to give 
 thee possession? "All things are yours," Christian be- 
 liever, because "you are Christ's, and Christ is God's."* 
 Fear not, for " it is your Father's good pleasure to give 
 you the kingdom." When his pleasure was, to put his 
 people Israel in possession of the land of Canaan, and to 
 give them the heritage of the heathen, if the Red Sea 
 opposed their march, it was made to divide, and open 
 their path; if a mighty host pursued them, they were 
 made more than conquerors; if they wanted bread in the 
 wilderness, the manna came down from heaven ; if they 
 wanted water, where all was dry, the flinty rock was made 
 to yield it. So shall it be to the end of the world. Our 
 Lord Jesus must " see of the travail of his soul, and be 
 satisfied." For that end, all that believe in him shall 
 come to him, and be with him in his glory, joint heirs in 
 his kingdom ; and if all the angel-host be needed for their 
 safety on the way, and all the riches of grace be required 
 for their journey to the heavenly country all are theirs ; 
 given already, most freely, in the greater and all-contain- 
 ing gift of God's own Son. 
 
 *1 Cor. iii. 21,23. 
 
368 SERMON XVI. 
 
 Then, Christian brethren, let us comprehend the breadth 
 and length of the grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in 
 hope of the glory of God. Let us catch some of the 
 abounding joy of that Apostle, who so well knew in whom 
 he believed, and so felt the certainty of what he believed, 
 concerning the freeness and fullness of the salvation of 
 God to all believers. "Who is he that condemneth? (he 
 cries ;) it is Christ that died. Who shall lay anything to 
 the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. 
 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? I am 
 persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor principalities, 
 nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor 
 any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the 
 love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.'^ 
 
 But, brethren, to be allowed thus to live in triumphant 
 elevation above all fears of death and hell, in joyful assu- 
 rance of the love of God as our portion forever, is indeed 
 a "high calling," a "holy calling," and requires of us that 
 we walk worthily thereof. I have time only to speak of 
 one particular of a worthy walk according to such vo- 
 cation. 
 
 Freely hath God provided for us all things in Christ, 
 and freely will he give us all things with him, and therefore 
 freely should we seek all things thus laid up for us, and 
 waiting our earnest and faithful application. Such abound- 
 ing treasures, offered so freely, demand of us correspond- 
 ing desires, large expectations, large prayers. Among 
 the "all things "provided, is not only a free and complete 
 justification to every believer, grace to help in every time 
 of need, consolation in all affliction, strength for all duties, 
 
 * Romans viii. 33-39. 
 
THE BELIEVER'S ASSURANCE IN CHRIST. 369 
 
 and all we can want in the hour of death ; but " the Spirit 
 of holiness " to carry on in our hearts the work of righteous- 
 ness, and to " bring every thought into captivity to the 
 obedience of Christ," till we are made perfect in the 
 image of God. Next to Christ himself, there is nothing 
 so precious as that Spirit of holiness. Among the all 
 things which God will give us with Christ, nothing 
 should we so desire, in union with his righteousness to 
 justify, as his Spirit to sanctify us. Blessed are they that 
 hunger and thirst after that free gift of God in Christ. 
 Let your hearts pant after it ! Let your prayers impor- 
 tunately beg for it. The more you seek, the more will 
 come. God has most freely provided the treasury. You 
 must most freely, largely, earnestly, draw thereon, in your 
 prayers and expectations; standing at the door and 
 knocking till it is opened ; using every receipt of grace 
 as the argument only to make you wait upon God the 
 more continually, and knock at the door of his treasury 
 the more importunately, for additional gifts of every grace. 
 But if God spared not his own Son from being a sacri- 
 fice for our sins, shall we spare our sins, that cost such 
 sacrifice ? Must we not hate them, and be humbled for 
 them, and take every method to put them to death, as 
 most vile and abominable ? " He who knew no sin, ivas 
 made sin for us" It was therefore ^ue who, by our sins, 
 did adjudge and sentence him to death. The raging 
 Jewish priests were our agents. The Roman soldiers were 
 our representatives. Our sins, it was, that cried out, 
 Crucify him, Crucify him ! with demands more insatiable 
 than all the multitude that followed him to Calvary. Not 
 so much therefore upon Jewish murderers, as upon our 
 24 
 
370 SERMON XVI. 
 
 sins, let us turn our indignation, and discharge all the 
 resentment our hearts can feel, most freely condemning 
 them, and striving to put them to death, as we joyfully 
 hope freely to be justified from all of them through the 
 atoning death, and the ever-living intercession, of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 One word more. Brethren, did God indeed deliver up 
 his own Son for us all, and must we not all, under the 
 sense of deepest indebtedness, under the constraining 
 force of the most earnest thankfulness, deliver up our- 
 selves unto God in return, as the least we can offer him ? 
 Shall we think of a divided heart for the sacrifice of 
 thanksgiving? Shall we profess to lay down all we owe 
 at his feet, and yet keep back part of the price? Shall 
 we allow the world to share where God has such claims on 
 all ? Will you bring the lame, and the halt, and the blind, 
 to his service, when the blood of Christ has purchased all 
 you have, all you can do, and when all must come so 
 immeasurably short of the cost of the purchase ? "I 
 beseech you, by the mercies of God, that ye present your 
 bodies, yourselves, your hearts, and lives, a living sacri- 
 fice, holy, acceptable to God, through Jesus Christ," for 
 that only is "your reasonable service." May the Spirit 
 of the Lord come down upon all of us, to make us dead 
 to sin, and alive unto God, through Jesus Christ our 
 Lord ! Amen. 
 
SEEMQI XVII. 
 
 THE BELIEVER'S PORTION IN CHRIST.* 
 
 COLOSSIANS i. 12. 
 
 " Give thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of 
 the inheritance of the saints in light." 
 
 IT is as much the duty of the Christian to give thanks, as 
 to pray, unto the Father. If we are commanded to "pray 
 without ceasing" we are also commanded "in everything to 
 give thanks" In everything, it is a great matter of thank- 
 fulness, that we are permitted, enabled, and so graciously 
 encouraged, to pray. A sinner permitted to live under 
 the invitations of the Gospel, instead of being condemned 
 to live eternally where only the wrath of God abideth, 
 can never in anything lack a theme of thanksgiving. 
 But a sinner whose heart has been drawn by the grace of 
 God to the embracing of the invitations of the Gospel ; 
 whose heart has been so changed by the power of God, 
 that he is now made meet to be a partaker of the inherir 
 tance of the saints in light, having in that very condition 
 of his heart, the indwelling earnest and witness of the 
 Spirit that he will finally become a partaker in that 
 glorious inheritance ; he surely must in everything give 
 thanks ; no adversity, no affliction, must ever hide from, 
 his sight his boundless debt of praise, to the riches of 
 
 * Preached at St. Dunstan's-in-the-West, London, May 8, 1853. 
 
372 SERMON XVII. 
 
 the grace of God to his soul; all his life long, he must 
 be so deeply sensible of the preciousness of his hope in 
 Christ, and of the wonderful mercy of God in bringing 
 him thereto, out of the sinfulness and condemnation of 
 his unconverted state, as to make it his heart's delight to 
 give thanks unto the Father, who thus hath made him 
 "meet to be a partaker of the inheritance of the saints 
 in light." 
 
 In considering the words of the text, let us attend : 
 
 I. To the manner in which the future blessedness of the 
 people of God is presented: an " inheritance" "the inheri- 
 tance of the saints" "the inheritance of the saints in 
 light." 
 
 The portion of the people of God is an inheritance. 
 They are called elsewhere, "heirs of salvation," "heirs of 
 the kingdom." "He that overcometh, shall inherit all 
 things." Christ will say to his people in the last day : 
 "Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the founda- 
 tion of the world." * 
 
 Now there is a great Gospel truth contained in this 
 word inheritance. It teaches that the future portion of 
 the righteous, is not their purchase. They do not obtain 
 it on the basis of merit, but of relationship. They do 
 not make themselves heirs; but they are made heirs by 
 the will and favor of their Heavenly Father. A father 
 makes a son his heir, not because the son has merited 
 the inheritance, but because he is a son, a dear son. Thus 
 it is written : " The Spirit beareth witness with our 
 spirit, that we are the children of God. And if children, 
 then heirs heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ." | 
 
 * Heb. i. 14; James ii. 5; Rev. xxi. 7; Matt. xxv. 34. f Rom. xvi. 17. 
 
THE BELIEVER'S PORTION IN CHRIST. 373 
 
 If children of God, then heirs of God children by adop- 
 tion, taken up out of a miserable beggary, and adopted as 
 God's dear children, and thus made inheritors of him- 
 self as our boundless portion. But this is not all: "joint 
 heirs ivith Christ." If God's children, then Christ's breth- 
 ren ; and in virtue of that union with Christ, we inherit 
 jointly with him. In ourselves, we can have no title to 
 the inheritance. In Christ, the only begotten Son of 
 God, the sons, by adoption, have a most perfect, indefeas- 
 ible title. He, in his mediatorial office, is "heir of all 
 things"* We, in him, shall inherit all things. Thus it is 
 that such glorious things are spoken of the future pos- 
 session of his people. " To him that overcometh," he 
 saith, "I will grant to sit with me on my throne;"! 
 not merely in my kingdom, but on my throne ; not merely 
 to share the blessings of my kingdom, but to share the 
 glory of its king ; my brethren in glory, my joint heirs 
 in all that I inherit of my Father. Thus it is written, 
 that " his people shall reign with him," " shall be glori- 
 fied together" with him, and that God doth make them 
 "sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." In 
 the last day, when our Lord shall be receiving his peo- 
 ple to himself, his words to each will be, "Enter thou 
 into the joy of thy Lord," into mine own joy, which 
 thou dost inherit, because thou art in me and I in thee. 
 And when he shall have thus gathered together all his 
 beloved ones that believe in him, to be with him where 
 he is, to be glorified with him and in him, then shall 
 his own inheritance of joy be completed in their salva- 
 tion and blessedness all having come, "in the unity 
 of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, 
 
 *Hcb.i. 2. fRev.iii.21 
 
 I 
 
374 SERMON XVII. 
 
 unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of 
 Christ."* 
 
 And thus we see how much of the portion of the 
 people of God in the world to come, is described, in its 
 being called an inheritance. It teaches how that por- 
 tion is all of grace ; how it results simply from our hav- 
 ing received "the adoption of sons;" how necessary as 
 the evidence of our title is "the spirit of adoption " in our 
 hearts ; and how, since our inheritance is a joint inherit- 
 ance with that of Christ, we must look only to his merits 
 for the title, and to a vital union with him through faith 
 that we may share therein. It teaches, moreover, what 
 St. Paul calls the "riches of the glory " of that inheritance. 
 What description of riches of glory can exceed that of 
 simply telling us we shall be "joint heirs ivith Christ?" 
 
 We have in the text another feature of the future bliss- 
 It is called the " inheritance of the saints" 
 
 The saints are the "sanctified in Christ Jesus." To 
 none else is the inheritance, and in that exclusiveness do 
 we see much of its excellence. It is thus an inheritance 
 "undefiled" None are there but those whom God hath 
 perfectly sanctified. All there have "the mind of Christ 
 in its perfectness." It is a Church which he hath sancti- 
 fied and cleansed, " that he might present it unto himself, 
 a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such 
 thing." Sin enters not into that inheritance, sorrow goes 
 not thither. Tears have no fountain there. "No spot, 
 nor wrinkle, nor any such thing" upon the white raiment 
 of that holy fellowship. Holy ones made perfect are the 
 only dwellers there. " The former things are passed 
 away." The Church of Christ will not then be as now, a 
 
 * Eph. iv. 13. 
 I 
 
THE BELIEVER'S PORTION IN CHRIST. 375 
 
 church defiled; tied to a body of death; the living min- 
 gled everywhere with the dead ; the Christian of a vital 
 faith, and the Christian of a mere lifeless form, united 
 under the same profession of discipleship; the children of 
 this world communing outwardly with the true, but im- 
 perfect family of God. Oh ! no. Nor will the true Church 
 be then so far defiled as to contain any such members as 
 its best are in this life; holy indeed essentially, but so 
 imperfectly holy ; saints indeed, because truly sanctified 
 in Christ Jesus but saints conscious of coming so far 
 short in holiness, that they seem to themselves to be all 
 spot and wrinkle, and every such thing. All things will 
 then have become new not only as being holy, but as 
 being all perfectly holy. " The spirits of just men made 
 perfect" is the description of that fellowship. Oh ! it is 
 precious to think of a heritage so excluding all unholi- 
 ness. But it is most alarming for you, my hearers, in 
 whom the work of holiness is not commenced. 
 
 While however it is good to think of that inheritance 
 as exclusive of all but saints, we love to think of it as in- 
 clusive of all that are saints. We drop our denomination 
 uniform when we undress at the grave. It belongs to 
 those things that are seen and are temporal We enter 
 into eternal life in no raiment but the white robe of Christ, 
 which is the righteousness of all that are sanctified in him, 
 and belongs to those things which are unseen and eternal. 
 If it be necessary to this most imperfect state of the Church, 
 that we should be divided as we now are ; it is good to 
 think of it as a humiliation which can last only while we 
 are here. The grave will cover it with our corruptible 
 bodies. The only name to be inquired for, in ascertain- 
 
376 SERMON XVII. 
 
 ing the inheritors of Christ, is saints the sanctified 
 those who have been born again of the Spirit of God, and 
 are walking in newness of life. Bring them from the 
 east, and west, and north, and south from all generations. 
 from out of all divisions of the Christian family, from 
 under any name, or form ! Each has his lot in that good 
 land. All inherit by the same title in Christ ; and there- 
 fore all " inherit all things" In the poverty of earthly 
 inheritances, the more one heir obtains, the less all others 
 have. But in the fullness of the inheritance of the saints. 
 each inherits all, as if there were no heir but himself or 
 rather because all inherit as one body in Christ. Oh ! it 
 is a most blessed heritage that shall assemble together in 
 one most affectionate, holy, household ; such a boundless 
 fellowship of the people of God, out of all nations, and 
 kindreds, and tongues ; all seeing eye to eye ; all feeling 
 heart to heart; all children of the same redeeming grace; 
 all brethren of the same wondrous adoption in Christ ; all 
 most glorious in his likeness; "the communion of saints" 
 in its perfectness; "the Catholic Church" in its fullness; 
 "the general assembly and Church of the first-born, whose 
 names are written in heaven." 
 
 But there is another feature of the inheritance. It is 
 the inheritance of the saints in light. In light ! What 
 so pure as perfect light ? Whence all the varied beauties 
 of nature, but from light ? Light is an expression for 
 God himself, its Maker. " God is light." It describes 
 his people here; they are "children of light" It de- 
 scribes their progressive advancement in grace ; their path 
 is pictured in scripture " as the morning light which 
 shineth more and more unto the perfect day." And here 
 
THE BELIEVER'S PORTION IN CHRIST. 377 
 
 it describes their future glory, when their path shall have 
 reached meridian the perfect day ; they shall be saints 
 in light. God is light ; and they shall be like him, and 
 see him as he is. 
 
 But how shall we understand this description of the 
 inheritance ? I read it as having reference to the compa- 
 rison between the perfect state of the saints in heaven, 
 in point of spiritual knowledge, and their imperfect state 
 while here on earth; just what the same Apostle referred 
 to, when he said, " Now we see through a glass darkly, 
 but then face to face. Now we know in part; then 
 shall we know even as we are known." Now we see by 
 aid of a glass a revelation, an instrumental medium. 
 We see at a distance, at second hand. A thousand motes 
 and mists hinder our vision of spiritual and eternal things. 
 Constant vapors rise up from earth and our own evil 
 natures, to obscure our vision. At best, we know but in 
 part nothing entirely; nor can we know how little we 
 are capable of knowing of that boundless field. But 
 then we shall see face to face, in open, boundless vision. 
 We shall dwell with God, in the light which no man can 
 now approach unto. We shall know without tuition, see 
 without a medium, understand without interpreter "saints 
 in light" 
 
 Thus I understand that description of the city of God 
 in the Revelation of St. John. " The city had no need 
 of the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it ; for the glory 
 of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light there- 
 of." * 
 
 God is light its fountain, its fullness; and what need of 
 
 *Rev. xxi. 23, 24. 
 
378 SERMON XVII. 
 
 lesser lights in heaven, when he is there ? They will need 
 no sun nor moon ; in other words, no intervening medium 
 of communication from God to them. Their communion 
 with " God and the Lamb " will be "face to face." Notv, 
 we do need the aid of the sun and moon we depend upon 
 secondary lights. In this world we must walk by faith, 
 not by sight, and must have the aid of means of grace. What 
 are the ministers of the word ; what the sacraments of the 
 Church ; what the revelation contained in the scriptures, 
 but parts of a system of instrumental secondary lights, 
 teaching us that we see not yet face to face ; that however 
 great our knowledge and privileges, compared with what 
 they would have been without those aids ; however suffi- 
 cient and most precious our revelation for all the present 
 necessities of the soul, we are far yet from the perfect 
 day. Ministers, and sacramental signs, and a written in- 
 spired word, are marks of the Church in the wilderness. 
 God is with her, but in the pillar of cloud. They are 
 marks of a state of grace not yet complete. God is com- 
 municating with his people, but it is from behind the veil 
 of the inner sanctuary. But the Church in glory will have 
 no need of human ministry, nor of visible signs of spirit- 
 ual grace, nor of an inspired book, revealing, under the 
 imperfections of human language, the things of the Spirit 
 of God. The saints being " heirs of God," their portion 
 will be therefore his fullness. God is light original, per- 
 fect, boundless light. They will commune directly with 
 that light, that holiness, that truth, that infinite knowl- 
 edge, that boundless wisdom. They will be saints in light, 
 because saints in the full vision of God. In contempla- 
 ting that blessed estate, Isaiah dipped his pen in the same 
 
THE BELIEVER'S PORTION IN CHRIST. 379 
 
 effulgence as St. John, and wrote : " The sun shall be no 
 more thy light by day, neither shall the moon give light 
 unto thee, but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting 
 light, and thy God thy glory, and the days of thy mourn- 
 ing shall be ended."^ How sweet that sentence, "the days 
 of tluj mourning shall be ended." St John's account of it 
 is : " God shall ivipe aivay all tears from their eyes." We 
 know not which description is the most engaging that of 
 the evangelical prophet, or of the prophetic evangelist? 
 Neither could speak of the light of that inheritance of 
 the saints, without telling how it would banish all the sor- 
 rows which sin has brought upon our hearts, even to the 
 drying up of the last tear; just as all the remnants of 
 night, even to the last drop of dew, are wiped from the 
 face of nature by the radiance of the sun. 
 
 But we must come to the second division of our dis- 
 course. St. Paul, in the text, unites with his fellow Chris- 
 tians in giving thanks unto the Father, because he had 
 made them meet, or fit qualified in spirit, to be partakers 
 of the inheritance of the saints. And from this we take 
 our second head. 
 
 II. We cannot partake in that blessedness, unless we 
 are first, by the transforming grace of God, in this present 
 life, made meet for it. 
 
 One would suppose it could hardly be needful to use 
 many words to demonstrate so plain a truth. We really 
 partake in nothing unless we are meet to be partakers. A 
 sick man cannot partake in a sumptuous feast. It will 
 not be a feast to him; he is not meet for it. A man 
 without an ear attuned to musical sounds, may sit in the 
 
 *Isaiah Ix. 20, 21. 
 
380 SERMON XVII. 
 
 midst of the richest harmonies; but he cannot partake in 
 them, however he may hear them. Take a man of gro- 
 velling mind, and place him in a circle of the most refined 
 and intellectual; bid him associate his mind with theirs. 
 You might as well command the deaf to hear, or the blind 
 to see. How irksome that company! You easily per- 
 ceive the reason. His mind is not fitted, his tastes are 
 not qualified, for such privileges. Well, then, suppose I 
 should find a little company of saints made perfect, come 
 down from heaven, on some errand from God, to earth, 
 and keeping here for a little while their endless Sabbath 
 of holiness and happiness, as they keep it in heaven; 
 and suppose I should take a man of the world, such as we 
 meet with everywhere his affections all running upon 
 earthly things, all confined to earthly things, and set him 
 down in that circle, and say to him, "Now, partake in 
 their happiness. You think that all you need to make 
 you happy hereafter, is only to be admitted to heaven. 
 Try ! Here is a little of heaven; join those blessed ones 
 in their joys, in their sweet communion with God; in their 
 overflowing love to Christ; in their praises to him that 
 loved them, and washed them from their sins in his own 
 blood, and hath made them kings and priests unto God." 
 Why, one might as well speak to the dead. Not a chord 
 is there in his heart to harmonize with their joys. He is 
 all strange in his sympathies to them, and they to him. 
 How would he like to have nothing else but their company 
 and their pleasures, with his own present dispositions, 
 forever and ever? What heaven would that be to him? 
 His whole moral being must be changed, before he can be 
 meet to partake with the saints of God on high in their 
 holy blessedness. And so long as that change is not 
 
SERMON XVII. 381 
 
 wrought, no decree of God is needed to shut him out of 
 the presence of his glory, or the fellowship of the heaven- 
 ly host. A decree powerful enough is written in the 
 man's own affections. His own heart excludes him. A 
 mere title to heaven would not help him. What if he 
 should even be allowed to come to the table of that hea- 
 venly feast ? He could not partake. He would sit there 
 all deaf, and dumb, and dead, amidst boundless life. 
 
 My dear hearers, let us well understand what consti- 
 tutes salvation. Two things are essential, and both are 
 brought to view in the connection of our text. St. Paul, 
 speaking of Jesus, says : " In whom we have redemption 
 through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins" That is 
 one of the two forgiveness of sins. It opens the door to 
 the habitation of the saints in light. Very precious, in- 
 deed, but it is not all. Then, in the text, we have those 
 who have obtained the forgiveness of sins, that open door, 
 now giving thanks for another thing, namely, that they 
 have been made " meet to be partakers of the inheritance" 
 to which that door admits them. That is the second of 
 the two great gifts which make up our salvation. The one 
 removes the barrier on the side of the broken law; the 
 other, the barrier on the side of our own corrupt,, carnal 
 nature. The first is taken away in God's being reconciled 
 to us through the mediation of Christ. The second is 
 taken away in our hearts being reconciled to God by the 
 renewing of the Holy Ghost. They come inseparably. 
 Neither is ever without the other. They come both out 
 of the great sacrifice on the cross. Faith draws both 
 together from him who " was wounded for our transgi^es- 
 sions, and by whose stripes we are healed " " the water 
 
382 SERMON XVII. 
 
 and the blood." Whom God justifies, he also sanctifies. 
 In whom these two are united, the forgiveness of sins and 
 the meetness for the inheritance, in them is salvation. 
 They are saints. In whom both are perfected, salvation 
 is consummated. They are saints made perfect. 
 
 But what is that meetness for the inheritance of the 
 saints? It is surely likeness to the inheritance. It is 
 conformity of our affections to the nature of the blessed- 
 ness. Is that blessedness the presence and glory of God ? 
 Then the meetness for it is to be holy, since God is holy. 
 Is it a joint inheritance with Christ ? Then to be meet 
 for it, is to be like Christ ; to have his mind in us, that 
 his joy may be in us. It is to be assimilated to him in 
 our affections, that we may be associated with him in his 
 heritage. It is to be not of the world, even as he is not 
 of the world. It is to have our affections set on things 
 above, "where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God." 
 Ic is to be "dead indeed unto sin, and alive unto God 
 through Jesus Christ our Lord." It is to love the will 
 and service of God as our present happiness; to know b} r 
 our present experience the sweetness of communion with 
 him as his own children ; to have such a sense of the pre- 
 ciousness of Christ to our souls, that we can participate 
 with some degree of real consciousness in that declaration 
 of the early believers: "Whom, having not seen, we 
 love ; in whom though now we see him not, yet believing, 
 we rejoice, with joy unspeakable, and full of glory." 
 
 Vast, indeed, is the difference between that meetness 
 for the inheritance which believers in their highest sancti- 
 fication, this side the grave, possess, and that of those who 
 have not entered into possession. It seems, indeed, that 
 
THE BELIEVER'S PORTION IN CHRIST. 383 
 
 it must take a mighty work of grace to make any Chris- 
 tian now on earth, with all our infirmities and remaining 
 sinfulness, capable of the presence of God in his mani- 
 fested glory. So it must, unquestionably. The eye that 
 has never seen "the things of the Spirit of God" but 
 " through a glass darkly," must needs undergo a mighty 
 change of capacity before it is capable of looking on all 
 those wonderful and glorious mysteries, face to face. The 
 heart that has never communed with the holiness and 
 majesty of God, but on this side the veil, must needs be 
 prepared with a vast measure of new adaptation before it 
 can bear to be introduced to the presence of that unveil- 
 ed, infinite holiness and glory, on which even the seraphim 
 look not with open face. 
 
 But the change required is only like that of a child 
 that is now meet essentially for the inheritance of his 
 father, because he is a true child, with all the faculties of 
 a child ; but who must attain to manhood, and have all 
 those faculties matured, before he can be ready to enter 
 into full possession of the inheritance. What would you 
 say of the meetness of an infant to possess, and manage, 
 and enjoy, a magnificent estate inherited from his father ? 
 But in one most important sense that infant is meet. He 
 has the mind he has the faculties. All he wants is, 
 their development, their ripening, their manhood. The 
 essential preparation he has. It is only the perfecting 
 he needs. You have not to change what he is, but simply 
 to mature it. 
 
 And thus we understand the present raeetness of the 
 Christian in the imperfectness of his earthly state, for the 
 presence of the glory of God in heaven. What though 
 
384 SERMON XVII. 
 
 but the youngest child in grace, however old in years 
 just born again of the Spirit -just beginning the experi- 
 ence of newness of life every affection and faculty of his 
 heart in infant feebleness, but all nevertheless in living 
 reality? Great indeed is the growth he must make, now 
 that he has just opened his eyes upon such light as conies 
 to us here in this moonlight night, before he can be quali- 
 fied for the light of that city, where moon and sun are 
 invisible by reason of the light of the unveiled counte- 
 nance of God. 
 
 But still we can join that child in grace in giving thanks 
 unto the Father who hath (already) made him " meet to 
 be a partaker with the saints in light." He is meet, be- 
 cause he is God's regenerate and adopted child. He is 
 meet, because he has all the mind, and heart, and sympa- 
 thies, and relations, of a child of God. He is meet, essen- 
 tially, though not maturely. The time to enter upon the 
 inheritance has not yet come. He who has now given 
 him the spirit of adoption, and made him his child, when 
 that time does come, will give him the spirit, and stature, 
 and perfectness, of a full-grown son, that he may inherit 
 the kingdom prepared for him. As his day, so shall his 
 grace be. Meanwhile, his calling is that of a child of God 
 in minority and pupilage ; to see the inheritance only in 
 reversion, and in the distance ; to live in the hope of it, 
 and to be educated for it ; and God giveth him grace for 
 that need. When his calling shall be to go hence from 
 the nursery of spiritual childhood, and take his place in 
 the full citizenship of the commonwealth of Israel ; " to 
 stand in the General Assembly and Church of the First- 
 born" in heaven; to minister as one of the "royal priest- 
 
THE BELIEVER'S PORTION IN CHRIST. 385 
 
 hood" in the immediate presence of the Majesty on 
 High, then also shall his grace be as his day. His meet- 
 ness will grow with his privilege. When God shall take 
 him to the highest place, he will bring forth the best robe 
 and put it on him. 
 
 Oh! but what a difference there is between the change 
 which that child of God must undergo to make his pres- 
 ent feebleness of holy attainment meet for the fullness of 
 the future inheritance ; and, on the other hand, the change 
 that must take place in that man, in whom not a feature, 
 not an affection, not a sympathy, not a faculty, of the 
 child of God has ever found a place. In the former case, 
 it is only a change from morning to noon the day is the 
 same. It is only a transition from the child to the man ; 
 the being is the same. But in the latter, it must be a 
 change from night to day, from death to life ; from the 
 man who is in no sense a child of God, to the man who 
 is in everything his living, loving child. In the former 
 case, death is the certain introduction to the full comple- 
 tion of the glorious advancement. In the latter, death, 
 finding the essential change not made, sets the seal to 
 the certainty of its never being made to all eternity. 
 
 And now, would you be told how that meetness for the 
 inheritance of the saints is obtained? I answer, it is no 
 endowment of our natural state. All the meetness of 
 this fallen and depraved nature of ours is for the inheri- 
 tance of the unholy in darkness everlasting. The mind 
 that is in man by nature, and the mind that is in the 
 wicked and lost in hell, is essentially the same mind; just 
 as the mind of the Christian here, and of the saint with 
 God, is essentially the same. I doubt not there is an 
 25 
 
386 SERMON XVII. 
 
 awful maturity of wickedness in hell, for which the un- 
 regenerate in this world are not prepared in point of 
 present growth. It would shock them, were it now seen 
 by the worst of them: just as in "the brightness of the 
 Father's glory," as seen by the saints in light, there is a 
 manifestation for which the regenerate on earth, in point 
 of maturity of grace, are not meet. But in every unre- 
 generate man here, there is "the carnal mind," which "is 
 enmity against God, and is not subject to the law of God, 
 neither indeed can be." That is all that is needed. The 
 meetness for the fellowship of the lost is thus in him 
 essentially. It needs but development. Change of 
 worlds, from a place of hope to a prison of despair ; from 
 a condition of a thousand corrective and restraining influ- 
 ences, to one where none exist, and where every pent-up 
 corruption of the heart is set loose, and set on fire, to 
 range and rage without limit such change will soon con- 
 summate the meetness of a lost soul, for all the wickedness 
 and misery of the outer darkness. 
 
 Do you ask again, whence comes that essential meet- 
 ness for the inheritance of the saints, which I have de- 
 scribed as the possession of every child of God in this 
 world ? The answer is in our text. St. Paul, with his 
 fellow Christians, said, " Giving thanks unto the Father, 
 which hath made us meet/' &c. They ascribed all they had 
 of preparation for the inheritance, to the power of God. 
 He made them what they were, as Christians. " We are 
 his workmanship, (they said) created in Christ Jesus." 
 
 So mighty a change as that which forms out of such a 
 being as man, in all the depravity of his natural heart, a 
 being meet to associate with Christ and his saints, they 
 
THE BELIEVER'S PORTION IN CHRIST. 387 
 
 could ascribe to no power less than God's. He who crea- 
 ted man originally in his own likeness, that he might 
 qualify him for his own fellowship, now that we have lost 
 that likeness, must by the same power create us anew, or 
 we cannot be heirs of God. Hence that strong declara- 
 tion, "If any man be in Christ;" if out of all mankind 
 there be a true Christian, a child of God, a joint heir with 
 Christ, " he is a neiv creature" The work that made him 
 what he is, was a new creation. The power that made 
 him what he is, was the power that created the heavens 
 and the earth. 
 
 Of the like testimony are these joyful words of St. 
 Peter: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, who, according to his abundant mercy hath 
 begotten us again unto a lively hope, to an inheritance 
 incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away." 
 What prepared them for such an inheritance? They 
 were "begotten again." Who accomplished that new birth 
 in them ? " The God and Father of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ," in his abundant mercy. That new birth made 
 them his children. That relation of children connected 
 them with the inheritance. " If children, then heirs." 
 Invert this sentence and it will be equally true and im- 
 portant If heirs, then children. Add If children, then 
 begotten again by the Spirit of God. Add further If 
 not so begotten again, then ye cannot Bee the kingdom 
 of God. 
 
 Oh, what alarming conclusions necessarily follow from 
 all we have said, in regard to the hopelessness of those of 
 you, my hearers, in whom no such inward, transforming 
 work of grace is found ! How painful to be obliged to 
 
388 SERMON XVII. 
 
 draw such lines of exclusion from the blessed heritage in 
 prospect. But we have this alleviation and comfort, that 
 the line is not yet so drawn as never to be crossed. You 
 that find it marking you off from the fellowship of the 
 kingdom, you may cross it yet, if you will strive ; the 
 hand of God is outstretched to lift you over when you 
 strive. And it is by this painful plainness in drawing that 
 line before you, and showing where it places you, that 
 we hope, by the blessing of the Holy Ghost, to contrib- 
 ute to the raising up of a fixed determination in your 
 hearts, that by the grace of God you will overpass it, 
 and so gain a place among the inheritors of life. 
 
 But what precious encouragement and assurance there 
 is in all we have said, to those who, having the love of 
 God in them, and habitually loving his ways, are thus 
 prepared essentially to be with him in glory. Their pleas- 
 ure of heart in his word and worship, and whole service ; 
 their love of holiness, and earnestness to have more holi- 
 ness, is "the earnest of the Spirit." It witnesses with 
 their spirit, that they are children, and therefore heirs of 
 God. The Lord "gives grace and glory;" glory, the ma- 
 turity of grace; grace, the promise and preparation for 
 glory; both where there is either. The one, the first 
 fruits of the Spirit ; the other, the fullness of the ripe 
 harvest of grace. As sure as we have now the one, we 
 shall hereafter possess the other. The heart that ascends 
 to God amid the infirmities of the flesh, will go to God 
 when the flesh shall encumber it no more. To be meet 
 for the inheritance, is the assurance of obtaining it. He 
 that fashions you for it, will certainly take you to it. 
 
THE BELIEVER'S PORTION IN CHRIST. 389 
 
 Then be joyful in God, and praise him for the riches of 
 his grace ! So run that ye may obtain. So seek that ye 
 may find. So press toward the mark of the prize, that 
 ye may be sure of the blessedness promised to him that 
 endure th to the end. Amen. 
 
SEMON XVIII. 
 
 THE PRESENT BLESSEDNESS OF THE DEAD IN CHRIST. 
 
 KEY. xiv. 13. 
 
 '' I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead 
 which die in the Lord, from henceforth ; Yea, saith the Spirit, that they 
 may rest from their labors, and their works do follow them." 
 
 THE dead! Where are they? In what state are they? 
 What innumerable connexions unite them to us! They 
 have gone where we are soon to go. They are, as we are 
 soon to be. Especially the dead in Christ' what bonds 
 unite them to those here who are alive in Christ all one 
 family still ! What is their state ? Where are they ? It 
 is of them the declaration of our text was written. It 
 is of the dead as they now are before the resurrection, 
 and not as they will be after the resurrection, that the 
 text speaks. After the resurrection, they will be the 
 living as they never were before; not only alive in the 
 body, as well as in the spirit, and alive for evermore; 
 but alive in a power and perfection of life altogether 
 new. To them, in that day, there will be "no more 
 death." It is therefore of the disembodied state of the 
 people of God, to whom, as regards their bodies, there is 
 yet death, that the text speaks. Their "earthly house of 
 this tabernacle " has been dissolved. They are "absent 
 
THE PRESENT BLESSEDNESS OF THE DEAD IN CHRIST. 391 
 
 from the body." What a world of intelligent, spiritual 
 beings are the disembodied dead ! Think that not one soul 
 that ever came into life since the human family began its 
 generations, has ceased to live. They have passed out of 
 sight to us they have passed out of this life this life in 
 the body; this life of preparation for another; but not one 
 ever passed out of life. What an inconceivable multi- 
 tude are the millions that now people this earth! But 
 what are they to those who once were here and are now 
 gone away, and are living, in thought, in recollection, in 
 happiness or suffering, as really as any of us. What tides 
 of living men have the passing generations been pouring 
 into that world, millions on millions since death began, and 
 the first grave was made. On one side or other, of one 
 great line of separation, they are all found. It is the 
 same precisely that now separates into two great divisions 
 all that live yet in the flesh. It is the only distinction 
 among us that will survive us when we are gone hence. 
 High or low, princes or peasants, in riches or in beggary ; 
 all such distinctions perish when we are laid in the grave. 
 But there is one that lasts forever and runs its line among 
 the disembodied that are waiting the resurrection, as uni- 
 versally as it now divides this congregation. The two 
 classes into which it separates us here, are they that are 
 in Christ^ and they that are not in Christ. The classes 
 beyond the grave, are they that died in Christ, and they 
 that died out of Christ. There is not a soul in that 
 world that comes not under one or the other of those 
 denominations. We are led by the text to speak of the 
 present state of those who belong to the former class 
 the dead in Christ those "who died in the Lord" 
 
392 SERMON XVIII. 
 
 I. What is it to die in the Lord ? 
 
 It is the last act on earth of "being in the Lord. It is 
 to cease our Christian race as we began it, and as we ran it; 
 it is to be found when the messenger of death comes for us, 
 just where every call of duty, every trying providence, 
 every temptation, every mercy, ever since we began the 
 life of faith, found us in Christ. It is not the getting 
 into some new shelter ; it is not the putting on some new 
 armor; it is not the coming of the Christian into some 
 new relation to Christ. It is the enduring to the end, of 
 a relation formed when the Christian life began. It is the 
 abiding of the soul in the ark which it entered when first 
 it renounced the world. It is the having on of that whole 
 armor of God which we put on when first we became sol- 
 diers of Christ. It is the Christian going through the 
 valley and shadow of death, precisely as he went through 
 the dangers, and trials, and sorrows, and duties, of this mor- 
 tal life, saying, " The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not 
 want;" leaning on the hand of that Shepherd, and saying, 
 "Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me." It is faith over- 
 coming, in the last conflict, precisely as it overcame in 
 every precious conflict of the Christian's pilgrimage the 
 same faith, resting on the same promises, embracing the 
 Saviour just as ever before; passing through the Jordan 
 as it passed through the Heel Sea and the wilderness, 
 " looking unto Jesus" It is the child of God falling asleep 
 in the same arms of redeeming love in which he was al- 
 ways embraced, and where always he was safe in the peace 
 of God. But we must be more particular. " There is 
 now no condemnation (saith the Apostle) to them that are 
 in Christ Jesus" In Christ and a Christian are the same 
 
THE PRESENT BLESSEDNESS OF THE DEAD IN CHRIST. 393 
 
 state. We have no beginning of Christian life, we have 
 no nourishment of Christian life, none of its consolations, 
 none of its hopes, none of its strength, none of its armor, 
 except we be in Christ Jesus. But once there, we are in 
 possession of all that belongs to the preciousness of the 
 Gospel ; condemnation is no more ; there is grace sufficient 
 for us to live by, and die by ; and we have the inheritance 
 incorruptible reserved in heaven for us all in Christ, and 
 all ours because we are in him. 
 
 Is Christ our refuge ? We are in him when we flee to 
 him, as Noah fled to the ark. Is Christ our Surety and 
 Advocate? We are in him when we commit the cause of 
 our souls before the judgment seat to him, and thus 
 embrace him as our Representative. Is Christ our Life, 
 whereby alone we can live a life of holiness unto God ? 
 We are in him, as the branch is in the vine, when we 
 receive his Spirit, and are thus made to live by his life. 
 Is Christ our Righteousness? We are in him when, being 
 united to him by receiving his Spirit, all his merits as our 
 Mediator, his death for our sins, and his obedience unto the 
 law, are imputed unto us, and so we are clothed upon 
 with his righteousness, as our justification before God. 
 That, on the part of Christ, which thus unites us to him as 
 our Refuge, Surety, Advocate, Righteousness and Life, is 
 his Spirit abiding in us. That, on our part, which unites 
 us to him, is OUT faith. The life which the Christian lives 
 in the flesh, is "a life of faith on the Son of God" all 
 that Christian life, from its first breath to its last, from its 
 first partaking of Christ, to its departure in Christ; in its 
 inward partaking of his Spirit and its outward manifesta- 
 tion of his grace ; in all its works, and hopes, and strength, 
 
394 SERMON XVIII. 
 
 and growth, its conflicts and final victory all is simply a 
 life of faith, and of faith leaning on, uniting unto, and 
 deriving from Christ. Nothing else on our part makes us 
 to be in Christ. That faith begun, we are in him, before 
 God. Thus is the sinner a Christian. His continuance 
 as a Christian is simply the continued exercise of that 
 same faith. His progress in the Christian life is just the 
 increase of the strength of that same faith. It is faith 
 working more and more by love, and exhibiting the fruits 
 of the Spirit more and more maturely and abundantly. 
 It is the daily repetition of precisely those exercises of 
 faith wherein the Christian life began; each increasing with 
 its exercise, trusting more simply in Jesus, drawing upon 
 his grace more freely, obeying his will more impli- 
 citly, walking more closely with him, living more faith- 
 fully unto him, and thus till death. You remember that 
 bright constellation of patriarchs, and prophets, and mar- 
 tyrs, which St. Paul has grouped together so beautifully 
 in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, as illustrations of 
 faith. You remember how he begins with, "By faith, 
 Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than 
 Cain." By faith, (he goes on to say,) Enoch, and Noah, 
 and Abraham, and Moses, and a great multitude, of whom 
 the world was not worthy, lived, and labored, and denied 
 themselves, and suffered, and fainted not. These all lived 
 1)ij faith. The apostle sets down all their faithful exam- 
 ples to a life of faith. Then he adds : " These all died in 
 faith" I know not a better illustration of the connection 
 between a Christian death and a Christian life ; between 
 living in the Lord and dying in the Lord. Where faith 
 led them, death found them. On the field of their war- 
 
THE PRESENT BLESSEDNESS OF THE DEAD IN CHRIST. 395 
 
 fare, in the armor of their confidence, ready for a longer 
 contest, if duty called, they died. The promises that sus- 
 tained them in the trials of life, were their strong consola- 
 tion in the conflict of death. Their faithful death was 
 just the continuance of their life of faith, uniting it to the 
 life of eternal blessedness with God. 
 
 But the same Apostle has in another place so striking 
 an illustration of the doctrine we wish to impress on your 
 minds, that we cannot refrain from presenting it. You 
 know his stirring account, in the Epistle to the Philippians, 
 of his own earnestness on the very subject before us, 
 namely, that he might die in the Lord. You remember 
 that verse : " For whom I have suffered the loss of all 
 things, and count them but dung, that I might win Christ, 
 and be found in him.'" Found in him ! Here, you per- 
 ceive, is precisely what we are speaking of. To die in 
 the Lord, is at death to be found in him. Paul valued all 
 things as utterly worthless, in comparison with that. 
 Does he tell us what it is to be found in him ? Yes; in the 
 very next words : " That I might win Christ, and be found 
 in him, not having mine oivn righteousness, ivhich is of the 
 laiv; but that ivhich is through the faith of Christ, the 
 righteousness which is of God, ~by faitli"* In these words, 
 you see, brethren, two descriptions of righteousness one, 
 our own, which is of the law ; our own obedience, whatever 
 it be, to the law of God; our own works and merits under 
 the law; the other, that ivhich is through the faith of 
 Christ, the righteousness which is of God, ly faith ; in other 
 words, precisely the opposite of the former ; not our own 
 righteousness, but God's ; not by obedience to the law, 
 but through the faith of Christ ; not the righteousness of 
 
 *Phil. iii. 8, 9. 
 
396 SERMON XVIII. 
 
 the sinner, but of the sinner's Saviour, who fulfilled the 
 law, and endured its curse for him. These two descrip- 
 tions of righteousness are so incompatible with one 
 another that they cannot coalesce. You cannot wear 
 them both together. If you would put on one, you must 
 renounce the other. You cannot be under the law, and 
 under grace; trusting in your own merits and those of 
 Christ at the same time. See, then, what St. Paul meant 
 by being found in Christ. 
 
 If found having on his own righteousness that is, trust- 
 ing thereto, wrapping himself therein as a covering from 
 the tempest, when the wrath of God should come against 
 sin, he would not be found in Christ. He was therefore 
 most earnest not thus to be clothed, but rather to be per- 
 fectly stripped of all such protection. But, on the other 
 hand, if found trusting only in the righteousness which is 
 provided of God in Christ, and embraced by faith, clothed 
 in that spotless robe which God giveth as a wedding 
 garment to every soul that accepts his invitation to the 
 great feast of redeeming grace, then would he be found 
 in Christ, sheltered as perfectly from the condemnation of 
 sin, as Noah under the shelter of the ark, from the wrath 
 of the flood; as secure of life eternal as he in whose 
 righteousness he is clothed. Thus do we " put on Christ." 
 Thus is he " made unto us righteousness." Thus is he 
 "the Lord our righteousness." In that refuge, clothed 
 upon with that white robe, Paul was abiding when he 
 wrote the words on which we have been commenting. It 
 was all his hope. And there he most earnestly desired 
 to be found when his work should be done. He had suf- 
 fered the loss of all things for Christ; but in that righteous- 
 
THE PRESENT BLESSEDNESS OF THE DEAD IN CHRIST. 397 
 
 ness, he placed no trust. All that, and all else of his 
 own, he renounced, as incapable of answering the demands 
 of the law. Christ had suffered all the penalty, and ful- 
 filled all the obedience of the law for him. That was the 
 righteousness in which his hope rejoiced. As his end 
 drew near, he wrapped that robe about him only the more 
 humbly, and confidently, and joyfully. Death found him 
 where every trial of his faith had found him. He fell 
 asleep, where he had lived, "in Christ Jesus" and now is 
 he one of that great multitude of the dead, the "absent 
 from the body," over whose graves the Evangelist has 
 written, "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord. 
 Even so, saith the Spirit, for they rest from their labors." 
 May we follow him in his faith, that we be like him in his 
 blessedness. And now let us attend to what our text de- 
 clares of 
 
 II. The blessedness of those who die in the Lord. 
 
 There is something very remarkable in the very formal 
 and solemn manner in which St. John is made to announce 
 the precious declaration contained in the text. He be- 
 gins " / heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write., 
 Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord, from henceforth" 
 Then another voice is heard, giving a confirming testi- 
 mony to the declaration of the first: "Yea, saith the Spirit, 
 for they rest from their labors.'' 1 One is led to inquire, 
 Why this peculiar solemnity ; this new declaration from 
 heaven ; this new-commanded record and this super-added 
 celestial attestation of the same? Was there anything 
 new to the Church, in the days of St. John, in the plain, 
 though precious truth, he was thus commanded to record? 
 Had it not been the consolation of believers, and especially 
 
398 SERMON xvnr. 
 
 of martyrs, rejoicing at the stake, ever since the Gospel 
 was preached? Had not St. Paul said, some half century 
 before, that he knew that when his body should be dissolved, 
 he should have " a building of God, eternal in the heavens;"" 
 that for a child of God to be "absent from the body" is to 
 "be present ivith the Lord?" 
 
 Let it be remembered that this extraordinary announce- 
 ment of so plain and familiar a truth, occurs in the midst 
 of the prophecies of St. John concerning the persecutions 
 of the saints, by that mystic Antichrist called by St. Paul 
 "the Man of Sin," "the mystery of iniquity;" known 
 now as the Church of Rome, but called in the verses just 
 preceding our text, Babylon, because of its eminent like- 
 ness to that ancient city of corruption, in its wars against 
 the Israel of God, and in the abominations of its idolatries. 
 The prophet St. John had just predicted the utter ruin of 
 that apostate church, in these awful words: "Babylon is 
 fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all natiom 
 drink of the wine of the ^vrath of her fornications ." Next, 
 an angel denounces the vengeance of God upon all who 
 should participate in her crimes. Then, as if to show that, 
 in maintaining a faithful resistance to all her blandishments 
 and persecutions, would be the great trial of the faithful- 
 ness of the true people of God, the prophet abruptly 
 declares : "Here is the patience of the saints : these are they 
 t/iat hep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus" 
 Then, to comfort them in their struggle, comes the decla- 
 ration : " I heard a voice from heaven, saying unto me, 
 Write, blessed are the dead which die in the Lord, from 
 henceforth." 
 
 Mark the word henceforth. Does it mean from the 
 
THE PRESENT BLESSEDNESS OF THE DEAD IN CHRIST. 399 
 
 time John was directed to write ? But why should the 
 dead in Christ be blessed from that period more than any 
 other ? There was nothing in the close of John's ministry, 
 (when he received the Revelation,) to make any remark- 
 able epoch in the blessedness of the saints departed. Does 
 it mean, from a certain point of time, in the course of the 
 fulfillment of the prophecies of this book ; a time then 
 in the distant future ; as if the voice from heaven speak- 
 ing to John, were issuing from the midst of the events 
 of that future time, and saying, "from henceforth" from 
 that period, " blessed are the dead," &c.? Such interpreta- 
 tion would teach that it is given only to a certain portion 
 of the dead in Christ to be blessed and to rest from their 
 labors, while it is not given to another ; and that the dis- 
 tinction rests only upon times and external events in this 
 life, having no connection with the inward state of believ- 
 ers ; that it is not because they die in the Lord, that some 
 are blessed and rest from their labors, but because they 
 die at a certain period, amidst certain events. But this 
 is inconsistent with the analogy of faith, and with the 
 plain teaching of St. Paul, when, speaking of the depar- 
 ture of believers in general, he teaches that to depart in 
 Christy is to le with Christ ;* and therefore to be blessed 
 with the most glorious rest. It was long before this hearing 
 the voice from heaven, that John had seen in vision " a 
 great multitude which no man could number," standing 
 u before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with 
 white robes, and palms in their hands," and saying, " Sal- 
 vation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, a ad unto 
 the Lamb." They had " come out of great tribulation, 
 
 *2 Cor. v. 9, and Phil. i. 23. 
 
400 SERMON XVIII. 
 
 and had washed their robes and made them white in the 
 blood of the Lamb." They were absent from the body 
 and present with the Lord. They had died in the Lord, 
 and were now blessed in his presence, and love, and glory, 
 and they rested from their labors. Their rest is described : 
 " They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more ; 
 neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For 
 the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed 
 them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters, 
 and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes."* 
 What sweet rest ! It is exactly what the voice from 
 heaven said would be the portion of the dead in Christ. 
 And it teaches that as soon as they came out of the 
 great tribulation, as soon as they died, they were thus 
 before the throne ; and moreover, that their being thus 
 blessed and glorified, was simply because they had washed 
 their robes and made them white in the blood of the 
 Lamb" in other words, had died in the Lord. From 
 henceforth, from that time of their death, they were so 
 blessed, and entered into that sweet rest. We therefore 
 understand the word " henceforth ;" ("blessed are the dead 
 which die in the Lord, from henceforth") just as our 
 Church, causing it to be read over the graves of her peo- 
 ple, would teach us to understand it, and as the scriptures 
 in other places teach us, concerning the state of the dead 
 in Christ, namely, from the time of their dying in the 
 Lord; as if it were written, Blessed, from the moment of 
 death, are the dead who die in the Lord. 
 
 Viewed in this light, there is abundant explanation of 
 the very peculiar emphasis and solemnity with which a 
 
 * Rev. vii. 9-17. 
 
THE PRESENT BLESSEDNESS OF THE DEAD IN CHRIST. 401 
 
 voice from heaven declared anew, and directed John to 
 record anew, what the primitive Church so well understood, 
 and Apostles had so plainly taught, and faithful followers 
 of Christ had so long cherished, and in inspired epistles to 
 the churches was so indelibly written. It was foreseen 
 that a time would come when that truth, so dear to a dying 
 believer, so unspeakably comforting when a Christian is 
 called to suffer for his Master, would be almost erased from 
 the memory and belief of men; when, though it would 
 remain written in the scriptures, a Church, professing to be 
 the exclusive keeper and interpreter of the scriptures, 
 would so keep it out of sight, by keeping the whole scrip- 
 tures in bondage ; would so conceal it by her rubbish of false 
 doctrine, and vain tradition, and so deny it, by positive de- 
 cree, requiring universal belief in precisely the opposite 
 thus putting darkness for light that it would be necessary 
 that so vital a truth of the redemption in Christ Jesus should 
 be recorded again, published anew, established afresh, and 
 with an emphasis and solemnity, as if a new revelation 
 from heaven had been received. The text is not only a 
 foresight of that necessity, but a prophecy, that at that 
 time of darkness and corruption of the truth, there would 
 be, under the Spirit of the Lord, a great revival of that 
 very doctrine of the present blessedness of the dead in 
 Christ, from the very time of their death ; a fresh writing 
 of it in the creeds of all Christians ; a new record of it in 
 their hearts; and a new attestation thereof by the Spirit of 
 God, accompanying such revived teachings of the truth 
 as it is in Jesus, with his own sanctifying power. All this, 
 you know, was fulfilled. 
 
 You know the doctrine of the Church of Rome, con- 
 26 
 
402 SERMON XVIII. 
 
 cerning the state of the dead in Christ; her abominable 
 invention of purgatorial sufferings to make them meet for 
 the inheritance of the saints. The greatest persecutor of 
 God's people, "drunk with the blood of his saints;" she 
 has forbidden all men, under pain of her anathema, to 
 believe that very hope of being with Christ and resting 
 from his labors at the time of death, which the faithful 
 confessor feels to be his precious consolation when suffer- 
 ing her torments, in his Master's name. Not henceforth, 
 she pronounces, against that voice from heaven. They 
 that die in the Lord are not blessed when they die ; they 
 do not rest from their labors; they are not present with 
 the Lord. Such is the voice, not from heaven, but from 
 Antichrist. What that "mystery of iniquity" has com- 
 manded to be written, and has established by solemn 
 decree, under seal of pretended infallible teaching of the 
 Spirit of God, is, that the dead in Christ, instead of 
 resting from their labors, have entered on labors and pains 
 more severe than ever they knew before; instead of being 
 blessed and happy with Christ, are suffering for their 
 sins, in distant and dark separation from him; instead 
 of finding that his blood " cleanseth from all sin," are 
 experiencing the pains of purgatorial flames, for the 
 finishing of the work that he hath left undone ; instead of 
 being relieved by death, are more wretched than before 
 they died; instead of being liberated from all terrestrial 
 things, are now dependent on the prayers, and masses, and 
 indulgences of the Church on earth, on the will of priests, 
 and the charity of sinners, and the payment of money to 
 buy the priest's mediation, for the diminution of their 
 years of suffering. What an abomination of the devil, 
 
THE PRESENT BLESSEDNESS OF THE DEAD IN CHRIST. 403 
 
 the "father of lies!" What a horrible poison to cast 
 into the cup of the children of God, turning all its 
 sweet consolations into bitterness How can that spiritual 
 communion be else than Antichrist, which thus sets itself 
 up in the temple of God, as if it were God, and as if it 
 held the keys of death ; which opposes Christ at the death- 
 bed of his saints, prohibits them his consolations, takes 
 away " the garment of praise," with which he invests the 
 dying believer, and substitutes " the spirit of heaviness," 
 yea, denies what the Lord has written for his people, to be 
 read by them in the valley of death, and writes precisely 
 the reverse ? 
 
 Early began the rudiments of that profaneness. It was 
 part of that " mystery of iniquity," which Paul said had 
 begun to work even in his day.* It went on working and 
 maturing, as the Church declined more and more from the 
 purity of the Gospel, till it became the full grown, regu- 
 larly decreed, and sealed doctrine of the Church of Rome. 
 No man was allowed to believe otherwise, under pain of 
 her curse. At the beginning of the sixteenth century, 
 that evil doctrine was at its height. It was bringing in 
 enormous gains to the treasury of the Church and to the 
 vices of her priesthood, in the payments of poor, igno- 
 rant people for masses and indulgences, which pretended 
 to deliver the suffering souls of Christ's people out of the 
 flames of purgatory. It was the mine of her wealth, the 
 factory of her merchandize, the very lever of her power. 
 The truth of the Gospel concerning the blessedness of the 
 dead in Christ, as well as their free and perfect justifica- 
 tion in his righteousness only, had become almost as 
 unknown as if it had never been written. It was in the 
 
 * 2 Thess. ii. 7. 
 
404 SERMON XVIII. 
 
 Bible yet, but the Bible was locked up and forbidden the 
 people. Then came the Revival the Reformation. As if 
 a voice from heaven had just been heard, saying : " Write, 
 Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord, from henceforth? ' 
 from the hour they die; as if the confirmation, " Yea, saith 
 the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors" had 
 just sounded from on high; there took place a mar- 
 vellous, and wide re-establishment of that blessed truth. 
 It was Tetzel's preaching that very doctrine of purgatory, 
 and his making merchandize of men's souls thereby, that 
 first roused the spirit of Luther and caused the first blast of 
 the trump of the Reformation. The scriptures were re- 
 opened the Gospel was preached anew the whole truth 
 of the sinner's complete justification in the righteousness 
 of Christ, through faith only, without merit of works, or 
 aid of priests, or saints, or penances, or indulgences, was 
 re-written, re-attested, re-established. With it, was set up 
 anew, in the creeds and hearts of believers, the assurance 
 of the present felicity and rest in Christ, and with Christ, 
 so all that have died in him. It is now written before 
 every eye, by the publication of the scriptures in so many 
 languages, and their being placed in the hands of so many 
 millions. It is written so that it can never be concealed 
 again, wherever the Gospel is preached. Thousands and 
 thousands of faithful ministers of Christ are engaged in 
 obeying the command to write it. It is written by the 
 Spirit of God in the hearts of a multitude that cannot be 
 numbered, and no powers of Antichrist, no wiles of the 
 devil, can ever deface, or take it away. Our mother 
 Church wrote it, not only in her whole testimony to the 
 Gospel doctrine of a free and perfect justification of every 
 
THE PRESENT BLESSEDNESS OF THE DEAD IN CHRIST. 405 
 
 believer in Jesus, by his righteousness only ; but particu- 
 larly in her office for the burial of the dead, testifying there- 
 in that " the souls of the faithful, after they depart hence 
 in the Lord, and are delivered from the burden of the 
 flesh," do live with God, and " are in joy and felicity : " 
 so making, as well her graveyards, as her pulpits, pro- 
 claim it so writing it over the chambers of the dead. 
 That testimony is ours also, and in the same words. We 
 renew our solemn protest against one of the vilest inven- 
 tions of Antichrist, every time we lay a believer in his 
 last bed; proclaiming over his grave, "I heard a voice 
 from heaven saying unto me, Write, blessed are the dead 
 which die in the Lord, from henceforth ; yea, saith the 
 Spirit, that they may rest from their labors." 
 
 Let us pause on these words, and meditate on the hap- 
 piness of which they speak. They that die in the Lord 
 are blessed in death itself. Found in Christ, how changed 
 is death to them ! The sting is taken away. The terror 
 is abolished. Where flesh and blood are vanquished and 
 fall, the spirit rises in triumph and sings her song, like 
 Miriam at the Red Sea, u Thanks to God which giveth us 
 the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ." " Precious 
 in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints." It 
 is their blessedness in death to have him specially near to 
 them; to have most precious communion with him; to 
 feel a freeness and strength of faith in committing their 
 all to him, which they have not known before ; to say 
 with a confidence, and love, and peace, sweeter than ever 
 they realized before : " The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall 
 not want I fear no evil thou art with me." " The Lord 
 is my light and salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord 
 
406 SERMON XVIII. 
 
 is the strength of my life ; of whom then shall I be afraid?" 
 They " sleep in Jesus." How sweet that description, by 
 the Holy Ghost, of the death of those who die in the 
 Lord! It is going to rest after a weary day. It is all 
 peace, as the sleep of a child folded in a mother's arms. 
 " To die is gain." It is the crossing the river to the 
 blessed land, and the river is divided that the believer 
 may go over unharmed, untroubled. 
 
 The dead in Christ are blessed in being " with Christ" 
 "present with the Lord." Their "intermediate state" is 
 not intermediate between darkness and perfect light ; be- 
 tween suffering, and unmingled, ineffable, felicity ; between 
 being away from Christ, and being in the full presence and 
 communion of his love and glory. It is intermediate be- 
 cause between death and the resurrection ; between being 
 absent from the body, and being in the body again, when 
 it shall be raised in incorruption ; between the full measure 
 of felicity which the soul is capable of in separation from 
 the body, and that larger measure, when its original habi- 
 tation being fashioned like unto the glorious body of the 
 Lord Jesus, shall be restored to it, and both in one person 
 shall be "present with the Lord." Thus intermediate their 
 state, their presence with him in glory is without a veil. 
 Their communion with him in bliss and love has no barrier 
 to hinder, no infirmity to weaken, no cloud to obscure 
 it. They were found in Christ at death, and they must 
 be with him forever in glory. Our blessed Lord's own 
 chosen consolation to his people here is, "I will receive 
 you unto myself, that where I am there ye may be also." 
 They rest from their labors. They were "strangers and 
 pilgrims" here, far off from home. They had a wilder- 
 
THE PRESENT BLESSEDNESS OF THE DEAD IN CHRIST. 407 
 
 ness to labor through; a stubborn, rebellious nature to 
 labor with ; many a grievous burden to bear ; a host of 
 infirmities to make them wearied and faint in their minds ; 
 a great work to do, demanding all diligence. Their pa- 
 tience was often sorely tried. Their hearts were often 
 very heavy. Their hands hung down. They longed for 
 rest. Now it has come. The pilgrim has reached his 
 city of habitation. The stranger has arrived at his home. 
 The burden is dropped. The work is done. They rest 
 from their labors. 
 
 They were soldiers. A great prize was to be gained ; 
 a great battle was to be fought. Their all, for eternity, 
 was at stake. The world was to be overcome. An ad- 
 versary of great might, the god of this world, was to be 
 vanquished. Their march was at every step through the 
 country of the enemy. The conflict was never over while 
 they lived in the flesh. Incessantly to stand on the watch, 
 was their calling. They " fought a good fight and kept 
 the faith." In the armor of God they trusted, and with 
 the sword of the Spirit contended. In their weakness, 
 they were made strong. As their day, so was their strength. 
 God was their refuge, a very present help in time of 
 trouble. Thus they endured to the end; sometimes cast 
 down, never destroyed. Now are they more than conquer- 
 ors through him that loved them. The conflict is ended, 
 the land is gained, the crown is won. The promise of the 
 Lord is fulfilled : "To him that overcometh will I grant to 
 sit with me on my throne." " They rest from their labors" 
 
 Sweet indeed must be that rest to a soul just arrived 
 out of this evil world; just delivered from the burden of 
 the flesh, and all the pains, and sorrows, and sins, of this 
 
408 SERMON XVIII. 
 
 mortal life sweet that Sabbath of perfect rest, after all 
 these working days of the week in which we are so wearied 
 and heavy laden ; sweet that Sabbath in the temple of the 
 glory of God, in the immediate presence of Jesus, where 
 there can be no more death, nor sorrow all tears wiped 
 away and never to return, the joy of the Lord our portion 
 and inheritance. 
 
 Yea, sweet indeed, when it is considered with whom, in 
 what fellowship, that eternal rest is to be enjoyed. How 
 little we know here, by any just conception, of the love 
 of God towards his children whom he hath adopted in 
 Christ, and in whose hearts he hath shed abroad the spirit 
 of the adoption, so that they are "not servants but sons 
 heirs of God through Christ!" We measure God's love to 
 his children so much by their love to him. And we mea- 
 sure the fellowship and love of the saints above so much 
 by the feebleness and dullness of our love in the Church be- 
 low. The communion of saints ! what do we know of it 
 now ? Christian society ! social pleasures of holy minds 
 and hearts, united in Christ and in a common inheritance, 
 baptized in one Spirit; how little we know of it? Church 
 relationship ! what conception can we get of it in its full- 
 ness and blessedness, from any specimen furnished in the 
 bonds of brotherhood realized among believers in the ex- 
 ceedingly infirm, and mutilated, and defiled condition of 
 the Church on earth, with its mixtures, and divisions, and 
 jealousies and strife ? But oh, when that sweet rest shall 
 come ; when the soul departed finds itself in that com- 
 munion of "the spirits of just men made perfect," where 
 is perfect calm from all that agitates this visible Church on 
 earth, where eye will see to eye, and heart will come to 
 
THE PRESENT BLESSEDNESS OF THE DEAD IN CHRIST. 409 
 
 heart, and sin cannot enter, and love is made perfect, and 
 the love of God to his people is not only received, but 
 known, and realized, in all its wonderful depths when we 
 are come to the New Jerusalem, to the general assembly 
 and church of the first born, which are written in heaven, 
 to God in his glory, and Jesus as he is ; then shall we un- 
 derstand what holy society is; Church brotherhood; the 
 nearness of the relationship between the children of God's 
 adoption in Christ; their nearness in love to God, through 
 their vital union to his beloved Son. Then shall we under- 
 stand what communion of saints is with God, in Christ; 
 with one another, in the life everlasting. It is a rest which 
 remaineth to the people of God. Only a foretaste have we 
 here, and that in comparatively a very slight degree ; as a 
 mariner catches a little sense of rest, now and then, upon 
 his ocean voyage. To form any conception of its ineffable 
 sweetness, remaineth. Oh, how unsearchable the grace 
 that has prepared such blessedness for such sinners, and 
 that prepares such sinful hearts for such blessedness 1 
 
 But methinks I hear some complaint, as if I were 
 omitting to speak of one very important part of our text : 
 " their works do follow them" No, it is not forgotten. It 
 is reserved as part of the exhibition of the blessedness of 
 the dead in Christ. But the works of believers ! Those 
 imperfect, unworthy works, which they tried to do for 
 Christ and his Church, but which they always felt to come 
 so far short in every duty of motive and spirit, of love, 
 and faith, and devotedness ; the works they so often re- 
 pented of as most defective, and all of which they so 
 utterly renounced when they sought the rock on which to 
 build their hope of justification and acceptance with God; 
 
410 SERMON XVIII. 
 
 how can they follow into that blessedness ; what can they 
 do in that rest ; what office have they to perform in the 
 presence of Christ ; why will they go with believers, dying 
 in the Lord? Mark! they fottoiv they go not before to 
 open the door. No, no ! " Not of works, lest any man 
 should boast." Jesus goes before. The believer's faith 
 goes before, following Jesus. The door is opened by the 
 one Mediator, who hath " for us entered," and who by 
 entering as our Forerunner, and Surety, and Advocate, 
 and Righteousness, hath opened ^vide the way for his 
 people. And because his people enter by him, their works 
 of faith, and labors of love, wrought by his grace, and ac- 
 cepted through his intercession, enter likewise. They 
 bring no plea. They present no claim. They too, must 
 be accepted, only through grace, "not of works" The 
 righteousness of Christ that justifies the believer, justifies 
 his works as a believer's. They follow him, not afar off, 
 but immediately, as works always and necessarily follow 
 faith ; inseparably united, going wherever it goes, its evi- 
 dences, its fruits, its fullness; the clustering grapes follow- 
 ing hard upon the life and growth of the vine ; the mani- 
 festation following faithfully upon the reality of godliness. 
 There is to be a reward " according to works done in the 
 body " a reward not of eternal life, for that is the pur- 
 chase of Christ and his free gift to the believer but a 
 reward in eternal life, after it has been freely given, after 
 the ransomed of the Lord have freely entered into the 
 joy of their Lord. Then will come their reward, according 
 to their works not on account of their works ', on account 
 still of the merits and grace of Christ alone ; but accord- 
 ing to the faithfulness wherewith the believer, in his heart's 
 
THE PRESENT BLESSEDNESS OF THE DEAD IN CHRIST. 411 
 
 works and in his life's works, has adorned his Master's 
 service and done good to man. That reward will bring 
 sweet contributions to the blessedness of the departed be- 
 liever. It will mingle precious joys with his everlasting 
 rest. Often he will wonder at the abundant grace be- 
 stowed by his gracious Saviour on .what he regarded per- 
 haps as the very least of his doings the cup of cold water 
 given ; the secret sigh to do what, through opposing 
 providences, was never done ; the box of ointment, broken 
 and poured out. with such a sense of sinfulness and so 
 many tears, that it was never remembered, but for its un- 
 worthiness. But the thoughts of our Lord will not 
 be as our thoughts. Works will greatly help, through 
 grace, the blessedness which, but for grace, they could 
 never enter, and would only come into condemnation. 
 
 And, now, my dear brethren, let us write in our hearts, 
 let us pray the blessed Spirit of God so to write in our 
 hearts what the voice from heaven directed John to write 
 concerning the blessedness of the dead in Christ, that we 
 who live, and are so soon to die, may be quickened into 
 all diligence so to live, that when we die we may share that 
 rest. 
 
 How comforting and delightful the assurance we have 
 been considering, concerning those dear departed relatives 
 and friends, who, we have reason to believe, did die in the 
 Lord. Let us bless God for so plain and positive a 
 declaration of their state. Let us enjoy it. Let us not 
 permit the mistiness with which some seem to labor to 
 invest the condition of the righteous dead, to come over 
 our vision. Mysterious as their state, out of the body, 
 unquestionably is, it does not follow that what is revealed 
 
412 SERMON XVIII. 
 
 concerning it is not plain and certain. True, we know 
 not what we shall be there ; it is a condition of being of 
 which we have no analogous experience. But " this we 
 know" because God has revealed it, that to depart hence 
 in the Lord, is to be with the Lord; and that is enough 
 to know, and enough to give us the sweetest thoughts of 
 the present glorious communion and felicity of all those 
 whom death found in Christ. * 
 
 But are we to be like them, in our death? We are 
 soon to follow them in the dissolving of our earthly house 
 of this tabernacle. Have we a good hope that we shall 
 follow them in their departure in the Lord ? How will it 
 be with us? How is it noiv? Can I say, "For me to 
 live is Christ ?" Am I now in him, as my only hope, my 
 daily life, a branch that brings forth fruit? It is surely 
 very impressive, and ought exceedingly to reprove and 
 animate us to greater diligence, to see St. Paul with all 
 his evidences of being in Christ, and all his assurance of 
 a crown of glory, still pressing on, that he might " win 
 Christ and be found in him." Brethren, may we meet no 
 sad disappointment in our hope, when it shall be too late 
 to obtain a better. May we now make it sure that we 
 abide in Christ and he in us, so that when we come to the 
 last trial, we may have such sweet evidence of God's love 
 to us, and such precious assurance that we are going to him, 
 that it may seem as if on the wall of our chamber, for our 
 closing eyes to read, it were written by the finger of God: 
 Blessed are ye that die in the Lord ; and as if a voice from 
 heaven sweetly whispered, Yea } for ye rest from your 
 labors ! 
 
SERMON III. 
 
 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 
 
 LUKE xxiv. 34. 
 "The Lord is risen indeed." 
 
 THESE are words of conviction, and of joy. To appre- 
 ciate them, as uttered by the disciples of Christ, when they 
 became assured that he had risen from the dead, we must 
 enter into their circumstances. Well persuaded that, in 
 Jesus, they beheld him to whom all the prophets had wit- 
 nessed, who was to sit on the throne of David, and to 
 establish his kingdom over all people ; they had forsaken 
 all to follow him, and had embarked all their hopes on his 
 claims. Already had they learned, by painful experience, 
 that it was through much tribulation they were to share 
 in his kingdom; but such trials had not shaken their 
 faith. Accustomed to behold him despised, persecuted, 
 and rejected of men, their confidence was continually 
 sustained, as they heard him speak "as never man spake," 
 and with an authority that controlled the sea and raised 
 the dead. But now, deep tribulation, such as they had 
 not known before, had overtaken them. What darkness 
 ad come upon their faith ! He, who was once so mighty 
 
414 SERMON XIX. 
 
 to give deliverance to the captive, had himself been taken 
 captive, and bound to the cross. He, who with a word 
 raised the dead, had been violently, wickedly, put to an 
 ignominious death. He, whom they expected to reign as 
 king of kings, and to subdue all nations, had been brought 
 under the dominion of his own nation, and shut up in the 
 sepulchre, and all the people of Israel were now boastfully 
 confident that the death of the cross had proved him a 
 deceiver. Oh, indeed, it was a season of great heaviness, 
 and dismay, and trial ; those days and nights in which 
 their beloved Master was lying in death ! The great stone 
 which his enemies had rolled to the door of the sepulchre, 
 lest his disciples should go by night and take away the 
 body, was expressive of the cold, dead, weight, which that 
 death and burial had laid upon their hearts. That sepul- 
 chre seemed as the tomb of all their hoges. All was 
 buried with Jesus. "For, as yet, (it is written,) they 
 knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the 
 dead."* Had they understood what he had often told 
 them, they would have known " that thus it behooved 
 (the) Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third 
 day." 
 
 The third day was now come. The Jewish Sabbath 
 was over. The first day of the week was breaking. While 
 it is yet dark, faithful women repair to the sepulchre with 
 spices for the embalming. They find the stone rolled 
 away. Wondering at this, they enter the tomb. The 
 body is not there. Enemies have taken it away, is their 
 first thought. Mary Magdalene hastens to say to Peter 
 and John, " they have taken away the Lord out of the 
 sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him." 
 
 * John, xx. 9. 
 
THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 415 
 
 Angels appear to the women in their alarm, saying, " He 
 is not here, but is risen." "With fear," and yet "with 
 great joy," they ran "to bring his disciples word." But 
 to the latter, "their words seemed as idle tales, and they 
 believed them not." Peter and John had now reached 
 "the place where the Lord lay," and entering in, they 
 found the grave-clothes remaining, but otherwise an 
 empty sepulchre. They "saw and believed." After a 
 little, came Mary Magdalene to the other disciples, and 
 " told them she had seen the Lord," and what thing^ he 
 had spoken unto her. Still, "they believed not." It 
 seemed too good to be true. How was it that they did 
 not remember his words, which even the Chief Priests 
 and "Pharisees repeated to Pilate, as a reason for posting 
 a guard around the tomb, "After three days, I will rise 
 again." % The terrible shock of the crucifixion must 
 have so stunned their faith, and distracted their thoughts, 
 that what they afterward remembered so clearly, was 
 either forgotten, or not comprehended. 
 
 That same day, two of them went toward the neigh- 
 boring village. Their hearts were heavy, and they 
 "talked of all these things that had happened." Jesus 
 "drew near, and went with them." He often draws 
 near to those whose hearts are sad, because they feel their 
 need of him. He asked their grief. They told him of 
 Jesus of Nazareth, whom they believed to have been "a 
 prophet, mighty in word and deed;" how he had been put 
 to death he of whom they expected that "he would 
 have redeemed Israel;" and how it was now the third 
 day since this was done ; and of the amazing statement 
 
 *Matt. xxvii. 63. 
 
416 SERMON XIX. 
 
 that his sepulchre had been found empty, and that a vision 
 of angels had been seen, "who said he was alive." 
 
 Then answered their unknown companion : " slow of 
 heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken." " And 
 beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expoun- 
 ded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning 
 himself." What an exposition must that have been ! Who 
 but must wish we had it to read ! No wonder their hearts 
 were inflamed at the touch of such words, and burned 
 witBin them, while thus the Light of the world was opening 
 to them the scriptures. Presently, while sitting at meat 
 with them, Jesus V took bread, and Iralce it, and gave to 
 them" It was a sign they could not mistake. Their eyes 
 were opened in that breaking of bread. " They knew 
 him, and he vanished out of their sight." Immediately 
 they returned to Jerusalem with the tidings, "hey found 
 the rest of the disciples, and others, gathered together 
 but in what mind ? No more in doubt, but saying among 
 themselves, " The Lord is risen indeed" The two from 
 Emmaus, now added their testimony. Again, and more 
 confidently and joyfully, must they all have said one to 
 another, with a relief of heart, and a return of faith, and 
 a resurrection of hope, like the return of day after a 
 long and fearful night, The Lord is risen indeed ; the Lord 
 is risen indeed. 
 
 Corresponding with the faith and joy of those disciples, 
 is the state of mind in which the Church should keep her 
 feast, this day the annual commemoration of the res- 
 urrection of her Lord and Head. * Eminently is it the 
 Lord's day that from which all the Sabbaths of the Chris- 
 
 * Easter Sunday. 
 
THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 417 
 
 tian year derive their light and festival. It is " the great 
 day of the feast" that feast of faith and hope which 
 measures all the life of the true believer. 
 
 We began by saying that the words of the text, as ut- 
 tered by the Apostles, are words of conviction and words 
 of joyfulness. Under those two aspects we will treat the 
 subject they contain. 
 
 I. Words of conviction. " The Lord is risen indeed." 
 The Apostles had laid aside their doubts and were as- 
 sured. And what if we were not assured that Christ did 
 rise? St. Paul answers, "If Christ be not risen, then is 
 our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain." " Ye 
 are yet in your sins. Then they which are fallen asleep 
 in Christ are perished."* In other words, the great seal 
 and evidence of the victory of Christ over sin and death, 
 as our surety, would be wanting. We could have no con- 
 fidence in the efficacy of his death as a sacrifice for us. 
 Life and immortality would be still in darkness. Our 
 hope would want its corner-stone, our faith its warrant. 
 Every promise of the Gospel would lack the signature of 
 him who only can fulfil it.| But, saith the same Apostle, 
 " Now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first 
 fruits of them that slept."J His resurrection was not only 
 the greatest and the most important of his miraacles, but 
 the most abundantly and variously attested. We have only 
 space here for a mere glance at its evidence. 
 
 Prophets had for many centuries foretold that Messiah 
 would rise from the dead. Jesus had several times pre- 
 dicted and promised it, both to his disciples and the Jews. 
 
 * 1 Cor. xv. 14, 17, 18. f Rom. i. 4. Acts xvii. 31; & xiii. 32, 33. 
 
 1 1 (Jor. xv. 20. Ps. xvi. 9, 10 cxxxii. 11. Is. liii. 10, 11, 12. 
 
 Actsii. 30, 31. 
 
 27 
 
418 SERMON XIX. 
 
 who believed not on him.* So well did the Chief Priests 
 and Pharisees remember his words and the exact time 
 that he said he would lie in the grave, that it was the 
 alleged ground of their application to Pilate for a guard 
 of soldiers to protect the sepulchre from any attempt of 
 his disciples, apparently to make good the prediction, by 
 stealing away his body. But while the enemies remem- 
 bered so well his saying, his disciples, as if it were so 
 ordered to increase the evidence, had no recollection, or 
 no idea of the meaning, of his words, and therefore no 
 preparation either to expect his resurrection, or to prac- 
 tice the fraud which the Chief Priests apprehended. But 
 now that the tomb is empty on the predicted third day, 
 notwithstanding the guard of Roman soldiers, determined 
 as they valued their lives to keep it safely; that notori- 
 ous fact must be accounted for. The grave-clothes are 
 there. The fact of the burial was certain and notorious. 
 Either friends or enemies must have removed the body; or 
 else it did rise from death. Enemies of course did not. 
 Their easy and triumphant answer to the preaching of 
 the resurrection, had they done it, would have been to 
 produce the body. Did friends ? Who were the friends 
 of Jesus ? Eleven Apostles, Joseph of Arimathea, and a 
 few women ! The first were so overpowered by fear that 
 when he was taken, " all forsook him and fled."| But 
 had they not been too fearful to attempt it, in the face of 
 the Roman guard, was it possible for them to accomplish 
 it, to roll away that great stone, and bear away that 
 burden, so jealously and so strongly watched ? Were the 
 soldiers awake, or asleep? Of course, the latter, if that 
 
 * Matt. xx. 18, 19. fMatt, xxvi. 56. 
 
THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST.. 419 
 
 robbery was committed. But what less than miracle put 
 to sleep a whole Roman guard, on such a night, with such 
 a trust, and under such responsibility, and kept them all 
 so fast asleep that all the movement of all the men neces- 
 sary to roll away the stone, and force the tomb, and bear 
 away the body, did not arouse them ? Seeing then that 
 friends could not, and enemies would not, remove the body, 
 the empty sepulchre was negative evidence of resurrec- 
 tion. Then, when afterwards Jesus was frequently seen and 
 conversed with ; when his doubting disciples were allowed 
 to touch him, to place their hands in the print of the 
 wounds in his hands and side ; when during a space of 
 forty days they listened to his instructions, recognizing 
 perfectly the well-known countenance and voice, and the 
 teaching as never man taught; when he appeared to 
 " more than five hundred brethren at once,"* so that, as 
 a mere historical fact, we must deny the evidence of all 
 history, if we question there vidence of his appearance in 
 the body, after his crucifixion ; what excuse can be devised 
 for not believing that he was risen indeed ? Will any re- 
 sort to the desparate pretext that the disciples were de- 
 ceived? But, as men of ordinary sense, must they not 
 have known, during a close conversation and association of 
 forty days, whether it was really a human body and the 
 body of Jesus which they beheld, or not ? Will you im- 
 agine a miracle of blindness, to get rid of a miracle of 
 resurrection ? Will you take another expedient, and say 
 they were not deceived, but they practiced a deception ? 
 Then you must give a motive to account for such a de- 
 
 *1 Cor. xv. 6. 
 
420 SERMON XIX. 
 
 ception? You must explain how men, so evidently good 
 men, and the teachers of so much goodness, and the influence 
 of whose teaching was, and is, to make all deception ab- 
 horred and despised ; how such men could have gone out 
 into a world in arms against them and their doctrine, and 
 preached everywhere the resurrection of Christ as the 
 great seal of the gospel and corner-stone of their mes- 
 sage; knowing that they would draw upon them the 
 utmost rage and persecution that man could shew ; un- 
 shaken by any dangers, unwearied by any sufferings ; 
 cheerfully losing their all, and submitting to tortures and 
 death, that they might preach Jesus and the resurrection. 
 If Christ was not raised, if their teaching was all untrue, 
 then "were they of all men most miserable," having 
 nothing but sufferings here, and expecting to answer for 
 a life-long fraud hereafter. Will you imagine a miracle 
 of folly that you may escape the miracle of resurrection ? 
 
 But there was an evidence if possible, more convincing 
 even than the appearance of Jesus to his disciples, and 
 his frequent association with them. It was in " the events 
 of the day of Pentecost." 
 
 Here we remark, in general, that his resurrection was 
 the great sign and crowning miracle to which our Lord, 
 all the way of his ministry, to the day of his crucifixion, 
 referred both friends and opposers, for the final confirma- 
 tion of all his claims and doctrines. He staked all on the 
 promise that he would rise from death. The Jews asked 
 of him a sign that they might believe. He answered, 
 "There shall no sign be given, but the sign of the 
 prophet Jonas. For as Jonas was three days and three 
 nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of Man be 
 
THE RESURRECTION OP CHRIST. 421 
 
 three days and three nights in the heart of the earth."* 
 Again, in answer to the question of the Jews, " What 
 sign shewest thou ?" he promised the same sign, " Destroy 
 this temple and in three days I will raise it up." " He 
 spake (says the evangelist,) of the temple of his body."| 
 Thus, on that single event, the resurrection of Christ, the 
 whole of Christianity, as it all centers in, and depends on 
 him, was made to hinge. Redemption waited the evi- 
 dence of resurrection. Nothing was to be accounted as 
 sealed and finally certified till Jesus should deliver himself 
 from the power of death. All of the gospel, all the hopes 
 it brings to us, all the promises with which it comforts us, 
 were taken for their final verdict, as true or false, suffici- 
 ent or worthless, to the door of that jealously guarded 
 and stone-sealed sepulchre, waiting the settlement of the 
 question, will he rise ? 
 
 It was a wondrous sign to choose. The mere selection 
 of such a sign by Christ himself, was itself a very strong 
 evidence of what its accomplishment was to prove. We 
 do not wonder that the enmity of the Jews was all cen- 
 tered upon the watching of that gate. It was a serious night 
 indeed, to friends and foes, and well appreciated among 
 the powers of darkness, when that great sign was to be 
 seen, or else the gospel finally contradicted. But an 
 event so momentous was not left to but one class of evi- 
 dences. There was a way by which thousands at once 
 were made to receive as powerful assurance that Christ was 
 risen, as if they had seen him in his risen body. Jesus, 
 before his death, had made a great promise to his dis- 
 ciples, to be fulfilled by him, only after his death and 
 
 * Matt. xii. 3840. f John ii. 19. 
 
422 SERMON XIX. 
 
 resurrection; a promise impossible to be fulfilled if his 
 resurrection failed*; because then, not only would he be 
 under the power of death, but all his claim to divine 
 power would be brought to nought. It was the promise 
 of the Holy Ghost. " When the Comforter is come whom 
 Izvill send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth 
 which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me" 
 "he shall glorify me"* 
 
 It was after he had " shown himself alive after his pas- 
 sion by many infallible proofs, being seen of his disciples 
 forty days, and speaking to them of the things pertain- 
 ing to the kingdom of God," that the day for the accom- 
 plishment of that promise came. The day was that which 
 commemorated the giving of the law on Mount Sinai. It 
 was now to witness the going forth of the Gospel from 
 Jerusalem. I need not relate to you the wonderful events 
 of that day of Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Ghost 
 with the "sound as of a rushing mighty wind," that "filled 
 all the house;" the "cloven tongues like as of fire," 
 which sat on each of the disciples ; the evidence that it 
 was the Spirit of God which had then come, given in the 
 sudden and astonishing change which immediately came 
 over the Apostles, transforming them from weak and timid 
 men to the boldest and strongest ; in the change which 
 suddenly came upon the power of their ministry, converting 
 it from the weak agent it had previously been, in contact 
 with all the unbelief and wickedness of men, into an in- 
 strument so mighty, that out of a congregation composed 
 of Jews of all nations, many of whom had probably par- 
 taken in the crucifixion of Christ, three thousand, that day, 
 were bowed down to repentance and subdued to his obedi- 
 
 * John xv. 26 <fe xvi. 14. 
 
THE RESURRECTION OP CHRIST. 423 
 
 ence. I need not remind you of the miraculous attesta- 
 tion that all this was from God, in the sudden gift, to the 
 Apostles, of divers tongues, whereby they preached to an 
 audience from all nations, in the several languages in which 
 they were born; nor need I tell you of the immense number 
 of people that witnessed all these things. Thus the power 
 of God testified of Jesus. Thus Jesus made good his 
 word, " / will send the Holy Ghost and he shall testify of 
 me." How could he thus employ the power of God, if 
 the great sign, appointed his resurrection, had failed ? 
 How could he thus shew himself mighty to raise thous- 
 ands from the death of sin and to make his Apostles, in a 
 moment, preachers in all languages, if the power of death 
 were still upon him ? How could he send the Holy Ghost 
 and shew such mighty signs, who was still bound in the 
 sepulchre? 
 
 Thus was the day of Pentecost a great day of testi- 
 mony to the life and divine power, and consequently the 
 resurrection, of Christ. Each of those who heard the 
 divers tongues of the ministry of that day, each of the 
 three thousand, was a witness to the same. All "the signs 
 and wonders, and divers miracles and gifts of the Holy 
 Ghost," by which God bore witness to the preaching of 
 the Apostles, as in all their ministry they made the resur- 
 rection of Christ the great demonstration of their mes- 
 sage, all testified to its reality. For, would God accom- 
 pany with such powers the constant declaration of a lie ? 
 But witnesses have been multiplying by thousands ever 
 since. Every man that receives the Holy Ghost to raise 
 him from the death of sin to the life of righteousness, is 
 a witness. He can testify that Christ now liveth, and is 
 
424 SERMON XIX. 
 
 exalted to the right hand of power, and is able to make 
 good all his word, because he hath given him his Spirit. 
 He hath given him a new heart ; he hath done that for him 
 which only a power above man could do, and which no faith 
 but a Christian faith ever obtained. And his question is, 
 can he be dead, lying under the dominion of the grave ; can 
 he have been rejected of God, who hath the living power 
 to do these things? Thus will the evidence of our Lord's 
 resurrection, be increasing with every new spiritual resur- 
 rection among the children of this world, until that day 
 when he shall " come in the glory of his Father and all 
 his angels with him," and when " every eye shall see him, 
 and they also which pierced him." Then will "thepoiver 
 of his resurrection" be known in the universal rising of the 
 dead at his word. 
 
 We said, the words of the text, in the mouths of. the 
 Apostles, were words of conviction and of joyfulness. 
 Under the latter head we proceed next to consider the 
 subject contained in them. 
 
 II. Words of joyfulness. " The Lord is risen indeed" 
 The resurrection of Christ was the resurrection of the 
 faith and hopes of his disciples to a new life and vigor. 
 It made them new creatures, as to all joy and peace in be- 
 lieving. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, who according to his abundant mercy hath begot- 
 ten us again unto a lively hope, by the resurrection of 
 Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible 
 and undefiled, and that fadeth not away."* "The Lord 
 is risen indeed," was an exclamation of joy equivalent to, 
 His kingdom shall embrace all nations; our faith shall 
 
 *1 Pet. i. 34. 
 
THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 425 
 
 overcome the world ; death is conquered ; eternal life is 
 the heritage of all believers. 
 
 1st. Let us consider the resurrection of Christ in its 
 connection with his death as an atoning sacrifice for sin. 
 Suppose that after we have commemorated his crucifixion, 
 in the solemn services of our " Good Friday," we had no 
 resurrection to commemorate, in the customary praises of 
 our Easter Sunday, what consolation would there be to us 
 in the former ? You know that Jesus became " obedient 
 unto the death of the cross " as our surety. " He was 
 made sin for us." "The Lord laid on him the iniquities 
 of us all." Our sins being thus imputed to him as our 
 Representative, he was treated, in his death, by him to 
 whom atonement was offered, as if our guilt were his own. 
 He was held under the arrest of the law of God. Its 
 penalty was required of him. Every jot and tittle was he 
 to pay, and not till all was discharged could he be justi- 
 fied from the imputed sin, and delivered from its bonds. 
 He did satisfy the law to the uttermost, and was justified 
 in behalf of all those in whose place he stood, and for 
 whom he died. But how is that ascertained ? Where is 
 the evidence ? By what hath God declared it ? The 
 only conclusive evidence of justification from the imput- 
 ation of sin, is the release of him to whose account it is 
 laid. Then if my surety were still under the bonds of 
 death, and lying in its prison, must I not suppose that the 
 arrest of the law which he came to satisfy, is still holding 
 him ; that the price of my redemption has not been all 
 paid, or has not been accepted ; and therefore that my 
 hope is vain, and I am yet under condemnation ? But 
 Christ is risen indeed. The law has delivered its prisoner. 
 
426 SERMON XIX. 
 
 The surety comes forth from the grave. " Death hath no 
 more dominion over him." He is "justified in the Spirit" 
 by the power of his own Spirit raising him from the dead. 
 Thus was his justification from the imputed sins of men, 
 declared by the Spirit, that he might be "believed on in 
 the world."* In his resurrection, "God hath given as- 
 surance unto all men," that the atonement was finished 
 and accepted, the surety discharged, the hand writing 
 against us nailed to his cross, the way of a free and full 
 remission of sins laid open; that Jesus is "able to save 
 to the uttermost all who come unto God by him," and 
 that in him, whosoever believeth shall be justified perfectly, 
 and have peace with God. Thus you perceive the close 
 connection between his being "delivered for our offenses, 
 anfr raised again for our justification" 
 
 2nd. Let us consider the resurrection of our Lord in 
 connection with his making intercession for us. 
 
 You must not suppose that the whole work of Christ, as 
 the offerer of a propitiation, was finished on the cross. 
 The death of the sacrifice was there finished. All of the 
 office of our atoning Priest and victim that pertained to 
 the altar of sacrifice, in the court of the sanctuary, was 
 there completed. But there was a work remaining to be 
 done within the vail, in the most holy place of the sanc- 
 tuary on high, in the presence of God the Father a work 
 of oblation and intercession, in the presentation of the 
 sacrifice. 
 
 Those two chief parts of the Saviour's priesthood, were 
 showed in the typical office of the levitical High Priest 
 on "the great day of atonement." In the solemn servi- 
 ces of that annual expiation, there were two main acts : 
 
 *1 Tim. iii. 16. 
 
THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 427 
 
 the slaying of the victim, and the presentation, or obla- 
 tion, of the sacrifice. The former was done only at the 
 altar of burnt offerings in the court of the temple ; the 
 latter only within the inner vail, when the High Priest 
 entered the most holy place, with the blood, and sprinkled 
 it before the mercy seat. The second was as essential as 
 the first. It was only when the oblation in the most holy 
 place, had been added to the sacrificing in the court of the 
 sanctuary, that the propitiation became effectual. 
 
 This type could be fulfilled in our Lord, only when he 
 who was the Lamb that was slain, should rise from death 
 as our ever-living Priest, and ascend in the lody that was 
 slain, to " the tabernacle in the heavens," there to present 
 himself as the Lamb of God, before God, and make inter- 
 cession for us, in virtue of his having been sacrificed for 
 us. Resurrection was thus essential. How could St. 
 Paul have put forth that triumphant challenge, "Who 
 shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect ?" if he 
 could not have said, as the strength of his confidence, " It 
 is Christ that died ; yea, rather that is risen again, who is 
 even at the right hand of God, who also maketh interces- 
 sion for us?"* Here is first the initiatory work of our 
 justification, Christ hath died; then the finishing work on 
 his part, his intercession for us at God's right hand ; and 
 between them is the connecting fact, he is risen again. 
 The cross being thus connected with the throne the 
 death with the intercession, by means of resurrection we 
 have the one perfect and sufficient oblation and satisfac- 
 tion for the sins of the whole world. 
 
 Thus all the precious mercies that flow down upon a guilty 
 
 *Rom. yiii.33,34. 
 
428 SERMON XIX. 
 
 world, through Christ all that justifies the believer all 
 that sanctifies the sinner all the grace by which our 
 weakness is made strong and our darkness is made " light 
 in the Lord," every present consolation in Christ, and all 
 that we hope to find in him during the trial of death, 
 amidst the solemnities of the judgment day, and in the 
 everlasting blessedness of the kingdom of God as all 
 depend on the completion of his office in his everlasting 
 Priesthood in heaven, so all combine to teach us the joy- 
 fulness of the assurance that " the Lord is risen indeed" 
 
 3d. Let us next consider the resurrection of Christ, 
 as it is connected with, and insures, the promised triumphs 
 of his Church. 
 
 The Church is the mystical body of Christ, inhabited 
 and made alive unto God, by his Holy Spirit, as his nat- 
 ural body was inhabited by his human soul. Of the lat- 
 ter, the promise was, that " His soul should not le left in 
 hell, neither should his flesh see corruption"* Concerning 
 the former, the promise is, " The gates of hell shall not pre- 
 vail against it""\ In both promises, the word hell, stands, 
 as in the Apostles' Creed, for Hades the region and domin- 
 ion of death. In the first promise, the meaning was, that 
 the powers of death should not be permitted to keep the 
 natural body of our Lord in their dominions. In the 
 second, the meaning was, that all the powers of darkness, 
 sitting in the gates of the dominion of death, and pour- 
 ing forth from thence their forces against his mystical 
 body, the Church, should not finally prevail against it. 
 
 How the powers of hell endeavored, not only to subdue 
 the Captain of our salvation, but after he was shut up 
 
 * Acts ii. 31. f Matt. xvi. 18. 
 
THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 429 
 
 within the gates of death, to hold him there, and when he 
 arose from the dead, to persuade men that he was still 
 there, I need not tell you. How impossible it was that 
 he should be holden of them, when the set time to come 
 forth had arrived; how the guard was made to swoon 
 away, and there was a great earthquake, and an angel 
 rolled the stone from the mouth of his tomb, and Jesus 
 came forth, bearing " the keys of death and of hell," the 
 mighty conqueror, to reign forever and ever, I need not 
 tell you. But in that triumph, we read how easily and 
 how certainly he will see that the gates of hell shall not 
 prevail against his Church. It is the pledge and earnest 
 that all his glorious promises concerning her shall be ful- 
 filled. 
 
 Very precious and glorious are those promises. The 
 Church is to embrace all nations. The stone "cut out of 
 the mountain, without hands," is to become a great moun- 
 tain and fill the whole earth.* "The kingdom and 
 dominion and greatness of the kingdom under the whole 
 heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the 
 Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and 
 all dominions shall serve and obey hini."| The long dis- 
 persed of Israel and Judah are to be summoned from out 
 of all nations, gathered to their own land, converted to 
 Christ. J Then shall "the fullness of the Gentiles come 
 in" and be "as life from the dead." 
 
 But man demands a sign from heaven to convince him 
 that such things are possible. "What sign showest thou, 
 seeing thou wilt do all these things ?" The answer is, the 
 
 * Dan. ii. 34, 3545. f Dan. vii. 27. + Ezek. xxxvi. 2429, and 
 
 xxxvii. 15 26. Rom. xi. 25 15. 
 
430 SERMON XIX. 
 
 sign has already been given. "I am he that liveth and 
 was dead ; and behold, I am alive forever more. Amen, 
 and have the keys of of hell and death."* Jesus, risen 
 from the dead, is the sign unto the end of the world, to 
 assure the Church and the world that not a jot or tittle of 
 what he hath promised, by the scriptures, shall fail. " I 
 am the resurrection and the life," saith the Lord. " Fear 
 not, therefore, little flock, for it is your Father's good 
 pleasure to give you the kingdom." " Because I live, ye 
 shall live also." Great tribulations and persecutions, and 
 falling away from the truth, may yet befall the Church, as 
 in times past. It may seem, once more, as if she had gone 
 almost to the grave. Priests of Antichrist, in league 
 with the gates of hell, may conspire to keep her in prison 
 and in darkness, fast bound in chains, such as they well 
 know how to forge. But they shall not prevail. The 
 captive shall be delivered. " The Lord shall be her light," 
 and "the days of her mourning shall be ended." Such, 
 in point of tribulation, has been her history more than 
 once already. Think of the fearful corruption and dark- 
 ness, and bondage, and persecution, and spiritual death, 
 with which the Papal dominion, the power of " the Man 
 of Sin," who, " as God sitteth in the temple of God, show- 
 ing himself that he is God,"f did once, and for a long 
 time, oppress the Church of Christ, and drove the few 
 faithful witnesses of the truth, that remained, into the 
 wilderness, into prisons and dens, and caves of the earth, 
 so that it seemed as if there was hardly faith left on the 
 earth. But though Amalek was thus long victorious, there 
 were a faithful few, a little scattered flock, a remnant, as 
 
 *Rev. i. 18. fSThess. ii. 3,4. 
 
THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 431 
 
 in the days of Elijah the prophet, who held up their hands 
 to God in prayer, and ceased not, till God raised up his 
 faithful witness, Martin Luther, and gave him the trumpet 
 of the sanctuary to sound an alarm and proclaim anew his 
 truth. The wonderful awakening of the Church, as from 
 the dead, in that day ; that manifestation of the power of 
 her risen Head, to be unto her "the resurrection and the 
 life," is a standing and glorious testimony to all ages, and 
 for all future trials, how little her faithful people have to 
 fear, and how certain are the promises of a final possession, 
 by her Lord, of the whole kingdom of this world, in his 
 time. Her grave clothes shall be laid aside her sack- 
 cloth will be cast away. "As a bride adorned with her 
 jewels," will she come forth, leaning on the hand of her 
 Lord. " Voices in heaven " shall be heard, " saying, The 
 kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our 
 Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and 
 
 ever." 
 
 Now, it deserves your attention, that when the scrip- 
 tures speak of great conversions of nations and millions 
 to the Gospel, as connected with the second advent 
 of our Lord, and which are to bring in his millennial 
 reign, the change is represented as one of impossibility to 
 human strength, of hopelessness to human wisdom and 
 foresight, of magnitude and wonder and miracle, equal to 
 that of a resurrection of the dead. Read the 37th chap- 
 ter of Ezekiel. It is an account of the restoration of the 
 Jews, of the lost ten tribes, as well as of Judah and Benja- 
 min, to their own land ; their being united together again 
 as one nation ; their being cleansed from their sins and 
 converted to Christ, so as to have the Son of David for 
 
432 SERMON XIX. 
 
 their acknowledged King and Shepherd forever, and his 
 sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore; and all 
 these wonderful changes are described under the figure of 
 the resurrection of a whole nation from the dead. The 
 Prophet was " carried out in the Spirit of the Lord, and 
 set down in the midst of a valley which was full of bones," 
 and was made to pass round them to observe their state. 
 " There were very many in the open valley, and lo, they 
 were very dry." Then the question was asked him, "Can 
 these bones live ?" In other words, what can be more 
 hopeless to all human view, than the condition of these 
 bones ? How is it possible they can be gathered from 
 this wide and promiscuous dispersion, so long exposed and 
 bleached, and mingled together in this open valley, car- 
 ried by beasts of prey hither and thither ; how can they 
 be made to resume their former places, each in its own 
 body, bone to its bone, and stand up alive ? The Proph- 
 et's faith could answer no further than by referring the 
 question to the power of God : " Lord God, thou know- 
 est." Then came the command, " Prophesy upon these 
 bones, say unto them, Hear the word of the Lord." How 
 could the dead hear? But the Prophet obeyed. "And 
 there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and bones came 
 to bones, lone to his lone" Each resumed its original place 
 in its own body, " and the sinews and the flesh came upon 
 them, and the skin covered them above." But as yet 
 there was no life in them. The Prophet, as commanded, 
 prophesied again, and "the breath came into them, and 
 they lived and stood up an exceeding great army." Then 
 came the interpretation of the Lord : " These bones are 
 the whole house of Israel ; behold, they say, Our bones 
 
THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 433 
 
 are dried and our hope is lost. Behold, rny people, I 
 will open your graves and cause you to come out of your 
 graves, and bring you into the land of Israel, and put my 
 Spirit in you, and ye shall live and know that I am the 
 Lord." 
 
 Now, what says the unbelief of the world, as it looks 
 over the present condition of the Jews, so widely dispersed, 
 so mixed up among themselves, so mixed up among all 
 nations, the ten tribes so lost that none know where they 
 are; all so hardened against the Gospel? "Surely their 
 bones are dried and their hope is lost." We ask the 
 faith of man, Can these dry bones live ? Can the promises 
 of the scriptures, concerning these people, be fulfilled ? 
 We do not wonder that many ridicule the idea; that 
 others are unable to entertain it, seeing how few are 
 content with the answer of the Prophet, "Lord thou 
 knowest." The difficulties are as insuperable to human 
 might as the raising of the dead. So was it intended that 
 we should regard them. We have no desire to lessen the 
 appearance of impossibility, except to him who is " the 
 Resurrection and the Life." 
 
 But carry the use of the Prophet's vision beyond the 
 people of Israel. The state of the population of the 
 whole unconverted world, may be seen in that valley of 
 bones. Converted unto God, it is all to be. The 
 heathen are already given to the Lord, our Saviour, " for 
 an inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for a 
 possession ; " and a day is fast coming when the possession 
 and inheritance shall be, not only given, but received and 
 entered on. But what immeasurable difficulties oppose 
 such a conversion and regeneration; such impossibilities! 
 28 
 
434 SERMON XIX. 
 
 What! shall the little flock of the true people of God, 
 possess such a kingdom ; shall this little stone ever fill 
 the whole earth ; can all these nations, so long dead and 
 buried under vices, and superstitions, and idolatries, and 
 all darkness, and perversions of mind, for so many centu- 
 si es? C an they be made all to turn unto Christ, and live 
 as his people ? Make the hopelessness of such an event, 
 to human power, as great as you please. The reality 
 cannot be exaggerated. Hopeless, it is indeed, if the power 
 of the Church, without the power of its Lord, or without 
 a far mightier putting forth of his power, than the Church 
 has known since her first days, is to be our whole trust. 
 But our assured answer to all difficulties is the resur- 
 rection of our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead. His word 
 assures us that such great things are promised. His resur- 
 rection assures us that, because promised, they can and 
 will be accomplished. What is there in all of them more 
 hopeless, more impossible, than seemed the resurrection 
 of Christ, during those days in which he lay in the grave ? 
 To the heathen, nothing was more impossible than that 
 the dead should be raised. Pliny said that to bring them 
 back to life (Revocare defunctos} was one of those things 
 which even God could not do. Festus thought Paul mad, 
 and the Athenians mocked at him, because he preached 
 the resurrection. And are there any bonds holding the 
 Jews in unbelief, stronger than those which held our 
 Lord's body in death ? Are there any barriers between 
 the resuscitation of the Jews, as a nation, and their being 
 restored to their own land, more impossible than those 
 between our dead, and buried, Lord, and the kingdom on 
 high, to which he ascended ? Have the powers of dark- 
 
THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 435 
 
 ness acquired a more hopeless dominion over the heathen 
 world, than they seemed to have obtained over the rejected, 
 and crucified, and lifeless Head of all the promises of the 
 Gospel? Is there any thing to discourage the Christian 
 from expecting that the Jews, and the heathen, will ever 
 live unto God as a Christian people and Church ; is their 
 any thing to make the unbeliever moek at such an expec- 
 tation, which had not its perfect equal when Jesus lay in 
 the sepulchre ; his disciples scattered and dismayed ; his 
 enemies scoffing, and triumphing? But "the Lord is 
 risen indeed" Those impossibilities were all brought to 
 nought. He rose, the "Lord of all power and might." 
 Death could not hold him from ascending to his Father. 
 The nations could not prevent him from fulfilling his word- 
 All that he hath said shall be done. The greatest is done 
 already. Did he raise himself from death ? Then he 
 can, and will, bring Jews and Gentiles to spiritual life ; 
 because he has promised. "God hath given assurance 
 unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead" 
 
 5th. Lastly, we must consider the Resurrection of 
 Christ, in its connection with that of his people, who sleep 
 in him. There must be " the redemption of the body" 
 because Man is already redeemed. Our Lord will not 
 leave his work unfinished. "Your body is the temple 
 of the Holy Ghost," and he will not leave it in ruin and 
 desolation, polluted and outcast. He will build it again, and 
 in far more than its original beauty. It partook of the 
 sin, and the condemnation, and penalty. In the case 
 of all believers, it must partake of the justification and 
 the glory. What God joined together in the fall, he will 
 join together in the restoration. " We shall all be changed ; 
 
436 SERMON XIX. 
 
 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last 
 trump." " This corruptible must put on incorruptible, 
 and this mortal, immortality." The sign, the pledge, the 
 assurance, of all is that the Lord is risen. Believers are 
 members of a mystical body, of which he is head. Be- 
 cause he lives, they shall live also. He can no more per- 
 mit the gates of Hell to prevail over them, to keep them 
 in death, than he would allow them to prevail over him. 
 When he rose, as when he died and was buried, it was in 
 his federal relation, as the surety and representative of his 
 people. In him the believer rose also. Our graves were 
 opened, when the stone was rolled from his sepulchre. 
 Our victory over death was secured, when he burst its 
 bonds and came forth free. Beautifully is the argument 
 from his resurrection, to ours, delivered in St. Paul's allu- 
 sion to the presentation of the sheaf of the first ripe 
 wheat, in the temple, "Now is Christ risen from the dead 
 and become the first fruits of them that slept."* The 
 Jews were prohibited the gathering of the harvest, until 
 the first fruits were offered to God as an acknowledgment 
 of his goodness in the products of the ground. Till then, 
 the harvest was regarded as unholy unconsecrated. The 
 great proprietor had not received his tribute. That done, 
 all was considered as acknowledged to be his own, and 
 was received by the people as from him, and the harvest, 
 so consecrated, was secure to be reaped and gathered. 
 Vast is the harvest of the dead, lying ungathered. The 
 people of God of all generations, in the graves of earth 
 and sea, under all skies, dust on dust, an immense commu- 
 nity, precious beyond thought to him who died for them ; 
 
 * 1 Cor. xv. 20. 
 
THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 437 
 
 ' field from which the angels may gather for the 
 s of heaven ! It is all ready, only waiting " the 
 f the Arch-angel and the trump of God/' that the 
 aay begin ; for the first fruits have been already 
 ed. Jesus, " the first begotten from the dead," 
 ssed within the vail, and now appears in the pres- 
 God for us. Thus the whole harvest of the dead 
 st, is consecrated and pledged. It must be 
 d, for the Lord is its owner. Oh glorious day, 
 e trump of God, sounding from heaven, shall give 
 al, and " in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye," 
 I in Christ shall all come forth ! Oh that Jubilee? 
 r of all years, and end of all times, for which all 
 id dispensations have been preparing ; when every 
 of the Lord's household, now in the captivity 
 ol v*. .^, shall go free, and all debts of God's people 
 to his law, shall be finally cancelled, and all the true Is- 
 rael, from their wide dispersions, and separations, and 
 bondage, shall go home, returning "to Zion with songs 
 and everlasting joy on their heads;" when loved ones 
 shall meet again to be no more divided, and the great 
 family, the vast communion, the universal brotherhood 
 of Christ, shall meet in their heavenly Jerusalem, to keep 
 their feast of redemption and blessedness for evermore ; 
 every trace of the curse and the death abolished ; every 
 risen saint beholding in each brother, the likeness of the 
 glory of his Lord ! That will be "a holy convocation 
 unto God," indeed. How will they crowd the battlements 
 of Zion, to look down upon the deserted graves, and the 
 whole vanquished and ruined dominion of death, whence 
 they have been ransomed ! How will they fill that Holy 
 
436 SERMON XIX. 
 
 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at tlr 
 trump." " This corruptible must put on incorri 
 and this mortal, immortality." The sign, the pled 
 assurance, of all is that the Lord is risen. Belie v 
 members of a mystical body, of which he is hea< 
 cause he lives, they shall live also. He can no m 
 mit the gates of Hell to prevail over them, to kef 
 in death, than he would allow them to prevail ov 
 When he rose, as when he died and was buried, it 
 his federal relation, as the surety and representatr 
 people. In him the believer rose also. Our gra^ 
 opened, when the stone was rolled from his sc 
 Our victory over death was secured, when he ' 
 bonds and came forth free. Beautifully is the ' 
 from his resurrection, to ours, delivered in St. I 
 sion to the presentation of the sheaf of the ^ . ripe 
 wheat, in the temple, "Now is Christ risen from the dead 
 and become the first fruits of them that slept."* The 
 Jews were prohibited the gathering of the harvest, until 
 the first fruits were offered to God as an acknowledgment 
 of his goodness in the products of the ground. Till then, 
 the harvest was regarded as unholy unconsecrated. The 
 great proprietor had not received his tribute. That done, 
 all was considered as acknowledged to be his own, and 
 was received by the people as from him, and the harvest, 
 so consecrated, was secure to be reaped and gathered. 
 Vast is the harvest of the dead, lying ungathered. The 
 people of God of all generations, in the graves of earth 
 and sea, under all skies, dust on dust, an immense commu- 
 nity, precious beyond thought to him who died for them ; 
 
 * 1 Cor. xv. 20, 
 
THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 437 
 
 what a field from which the angels may gather for the 
 garners of heaven ! It is all ready, only waiting " the 
 voice of the Arch-angel and the trump of God/' that the 
 work may begin ; for the first fruits have been already 
 presented. Jesus, " the first begotten from the dead," 
 hath passed within the vail, and now appears in the pres- 
 ence of God for us. Thus the whole harvest of the dead 
 in Christ, is consecrated and pledged. It must be 
 gathered, for the Lord is its owner. Oh glorious day, 
 when the trump of God, sounding from heaven, shall give 
 the signal, and " in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye," 
 the dead in Christ shall all come forth ! Oh that Jubilee* 
 that year of all years, and end of all times, for which all 
 cycles and dispensations have been preparing ; when every 
 bondsman of the Lord's household, now in the captivity 
 of death, shall go free, and all debts of God's people 
 to his law, shall be finally cancelled, and all the true Is- 
 rael, from their wide dispersions, and separations, and 
 bondage, shall go home, returning "to Zion with songs 
 and everlasting joy on their heads;" when loved ones 
 shall meet again to be no more divided, and the great 
 family, the vast communion, the universal brotherhood 
 of Christ, shall meet in their heavenly Jerusalem, to keep 
 their feast of redemption and blessedness for evermore ; 
 every trace of the curse and the death abolished ; every 
 risen saint beholding in each brother, the likeness of the 
 glory of his Lord ! That will be "a holy convocation 
 unto God," indeed. How will they crowd the battlements 
 of Zion, to look down upon the deserted graves, and the 
 whole vanquished and ruined dominion of death, whence 
 they have been ransomed ! How will they fill that Holy 
 
438 SERMON XIX. 
 
 City with their praises, as they cry, with one voice, 
 " Thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through 
 our Lord Jesus Christ." Then will it be said, as never 
 before it could be said, "The Lord is risen indeed" risen 
 in his mystical body, the Church, for which, in his natural 
 body, he died and rose again. Then his work is done, 
 redemption is complete; the fullness of his glory as the 
 Saviour of sinners is consummated, and the year of his 
 redeemed is come. Oh, may our eyes see that endless 
 year ! May our feet stand in thy gates, Oh Jerusalem, 
 to have part with them that shall keep that feast ! 
 
 Brethren, what shall we do that we may rise to that 
 resurrection of life, and belong to that blessed company ? 
 I have time but for one brief answer, "Seek those things 
 which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of 
 God. Set your affections on things above, not on things 
 on the earth." Make Christ your heart's treasure and 
 hope, and he will make you, and keep you, as his own 
 dear treasure ; and at last will receive you unto himself, 
 as the crown jewels of his kingdom. 
 
SEBMOJN IX. 
 
 THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD IN CHRIST. 
 
 JOHN xi. 23. 
 
 " Thy brother shall rise again." * 
 
 THIS was the consolation administered by our Lord to 
 the sorrowing sisters of his friend Lazarus, who was dead, 
 and whose body had been already three days in the 
 grave. 
 
 Martha and Mary had sent unto Jesus saying, " Lord, 
 behold he whom thou lovest is sick." They had long in 
 vain expected that he would visit them in their affliction, 
 and heal their brother. Now that all was over, and it 
 seemed too late to do any good except to help them bear 
 their loss, they heard that Jesus was coming. Martha 
 immediately went to meet him. "Mary sat still in the 
 house." Her sister's first words were: "Lord, if thou 
 hadst been here my brother had not died; but I know 
 that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will 
 give it thee." She had great faith in the intercession of 
 Christ. She modestly suggested what her heart wished 
 him to intercede for. Mary, when she afterwards met 
 him, repeated her sister's lament: "Lord, if thou hadst 
 
 * Written immediately after the death of a dear son, and soon after the death 
 of the author's eldest daughter. Re-written on the anniversary of the son's 
 death a father's remembrance, in this volume, of both. 
 
440 SERMON XX. 
 
 been here my brother had not died." She made no re- 
 quest, nor suggested any. Probably she thought they 
 had nothing now to do but to drink the cup of affliction 
 that was given them, and to say in their hearts, " thy 
 will be done." 
 
 To the half-uttered petition of Martha, Jesus said: 
 " Thy brother shall rise again" In the faith of the de- 
 vout readers of the Old Testament scriptures, Martha 
 replied: "1 know that he shall rise again in the resurrec- 
 tion of the last day." The faith of God's people was 
 strong and distinct, before the brighter revelation of the 
 Gospel, as to the final and general resurrection of the 
 dead, though Sadducees denied, and Pharisees corrupted, 
 the doctrine. Martha knew not the whole meaning of Jesus 
 concerning her brother, until she saw, what her heart was set 
 on, Lazarus coming forth, that day, risen from the dead. 
 
 Here we may reasonably say why should those affec- 
 tionate and pious sisters have desired that their brother 
 should rise from the dead, before that last day, when all 
 tribulations will be ended, and they and he will never 
 be separated again ? He died in faith ; he rests from his 
 labors; he has no more tears to wipe away, no more con- 
 flicts with sin; his race is ended, his victory gained. 
 Would ye call him back to such sorrows as belong to this 
 vale of tears ? Why say, "Lord, if thou hadst been here 
 my brother had not died." Why wish he had not died; 
 especially, why hope he may rise again, before the resur- 
 rection of all the dead ? 
 
 But how natural that feeling and that desire of those 
 afflicted sisters! And how often, in spirit, do we imi- 
 tate them! Is it wise? A beloved one has died. 
 
THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD IN CHRIST. 441 
 
 We have laid his precious remains in its narrow home, 
 " looking for the general resurrection in the last day, and 
 the life of the world to come, through our Lord Jesus 
 Christ." We feel a precious confidence that he died in 
 the Lord, and that therefore his soul is with the Lord; all 
 sin, and pain, and trial, and peril of life eternal, ended, in 
 the rest which remaineth for the people of God. Could 
 we meet the Lord at the grave, and he should bid us ask 
 what we would; what petition would our hearts, torn with 
 bereavement, offer? Would it be, the opening of that 
 grave ; the restoration to us of that dear one to die 
 again ? I cannot say what a poor, bleeding, heart would 
 answer in its weakness. I fear it might say what Martha 
 almost said, and did desire. But I know what would be 
 the prayer of the wisest love infinitely the best for him 
 we love and mourn for, Let the stone remain at the door 
 of the sepulchre ; let the seal continue unbroken upon 
 the bonds of death ; let dust, dwell with dust, and ashes 
 with ashes, till there shall be no more death, nor pain, nor 
 woes, nor sin ; till that day when " corruption shall put on 
 incorruption, and mortal immortality," and when " them 
 that sleep in Jesus, will God bring with him," and "so 
 they shall ever be with the Lord." Yes, brethren, the 
 consolation with which Jesus meets us at every stage of 
 our sorrow, concerning those who sleep in him ; the sweet 
 assurance which the hand of God's love has written for 
 our faith to read, over every sepulchre of his people, is 
 Thy brother, thy parent, thy sister, thy child, shall rise 
 again; and it is our privilege unspeakable to answer, (and 
 oh, how a bereaved, believing, heart, does love that answer,) 
 " I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection of 
 
442 SERMON xx. 
 
 the last day." It is enough. We bless thee, Lord, for 
 that consolation. We ask no better. We will wait ; pa- 
 tiently, thankfully, joyfully we will wait that day. 
 
 Brethren, we bring before you, to-day, the subject of 
 " the resurrection of the lody" Conspicuous in the scrip- 
 tures, under a variety of declarations, it has been promi- 
 nent and positive in the creed of the Church of all ages. 
 Precious to the hearts of those who mourn for the dead, 
 it vitally concerns the completeness, and therefore the 
 whole reality, of the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. 
 No doctrine of the scriptures was more utterly derided 
 and rejected as impossible by the heathen philosophers, 
 whom the Gospel encountered in its first aggressions into 
 the territory of paganism. No doctrine was more con- 
 stantly preached, or more boldly gloried in, by the primi- 
 tive disciples of Christ. Paul boldly preached before the 
 philosophers of Athens "Jesus and the resurrection" 
 The Stoics and Epicureans of that classic city, "mocked," 
 because he did so. The primitive Christians triumphed in 
 the expectation of a joyful resurrection of the body, 
 though fires of martyrdom consumed it, or wild beasts of 
 the amphitheatre devoured it; and that article of their 
 faith was at once so notorious and so derided, that their 
 persecutors burned all that remained of the martyrs, and 
 then scattered the ashes on the rivers, and to the winds, 
 to be borne to all lands a contemptuous expression of 
 how incredible they thought it that God should raise the 
 dead. 
 
 But, let unbelief deride or reject as it may, we know, 
 and we joyfully hold fast the faith, that " the earth and 
 the sea shall give up their dead." Our brethren "that 
 
THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD IN CHRIST. 443 
 
 sleep in the dust of the earth " " shall rise again in the 
 resurrection of the last day." But it is important on a 
 subject, so prominent in our creed, so mysterious in its 
 details, so exclusively dependent upon revelation, on 
 which imagination and speculation may so easily go astray 
 and be wise above what is written, exposing themselves, 
 and the subject, to the derision of the infidel, that we 
 should know distinctly what is known concerning it, and 
 on what grounds it is known. We take, therefore, our 
 text, "tliy brother shall rise again;" and our enquiry will 
 be, ivhat is contained in that assurance, and what is its evi- 
 dence ? 
 
 I. What is contained in that assurance, or what is 
 meant in the scriptures by the resurrection of the dead ? 
 
 What if I should tell you that it does not mean that 
 the body of your brother, which you lay in the grave, will 
 ever rise again ; that the only meaning is that his soul 
 shall, in the last day, be re-invested with some body to 
 dwell in ; not its own body that it before inhabited, but a 
 body, no matter whence produced? Would you not an- 
 swer me can that be called a resurrection of the dead ? 
 Does not resurrection, in the very name, imply the rising 
 up to life of that which did once live and is now dead? 
 Call it a substitution for the dead, and we can understand it. 
 But to call it a resurrection, is a glaring departure from 
 the propriety of speech. So we say. But yet that is the 
 idea of the resurrection which we too often find in books 
 and in the thoughts of those who imagine they believe in 
 the resurrection of the body an idea invented for the 
 purpose of escaping certain difficulties supposed to be 
 otherwise insurmountable, but chargeable, we apprehend, 
 
444 SERMON xx. 
 
 with the grave objection that it escapes the objections, 
 not by maintaining the doctrine of a resurrection, but by 
 changing it for another. Against all such evasions of the 
 plain letter and testimony of the scriptures, I protest. 
 When Jesus said to Martha, "thy brother shall rise 
 again," did he mean that the body of her brother Laza- 
 rus, just buried, would rise; or some other body, no mat- 
 ter what or whence ? If the latter, what was the consola- 
 tion in her bereavement? And when she said, "I know 
 that he shall rise in the last day," did she mean only that 
 some body would be given his disembodied spirit in that 
 day ; or that the very body which she had loved, in which 
 he had been accustomed to commune with her, which she 
 regarded as an integral part of himself, and from which 
 she was now separated by the barriers of the grave, would 
 be restored to his spirit; that Lazarus, her brother, the 
 same soul and the same body essentially, would live 
 again? What speaks our Church on this head? We 
 enter the grave yard, reading for the consolation of 
 the bereaved, and as a solemn declaration of our faith, 
 those words of holy Job, "I know that my Redeemer 
 liveth, and that he shall stand, at the latter day, upon the 
 earth; and though after my skin, worms destroy this 
 body, yet in my flesh shall I see God."* Job certainly 
 expected to rise from the corruption of the grave in his 
 oivn flesh, his own body, that very one which worms would 
 devour, and not another. And why does our Church re- 
 quire these words of the Patriarch's faith to be read at 
 the burial of her people, and why, as we lower the dead 
 into the grave, does she make her minister say, "earth 
 
 * Job xix. 25,_27. 
 
THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD IN CHRIST. 445 
 
 to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust, looking for the 
 general resurrection in the last day and the life of the 
 world to come, through our Lord Jesus Christ, at whose 
 second coming the earth and the sea shall give up their 
 dead, and the corruptible bodies of those that sleep in 
 him shall be changed and made like to his own glorious 
 body?" It is all for the consolation of surviving Christian 
 friends, to dry their tears, and fill their minds with 
 expectation of a glorious victory over death and the 
 grave, when the Lord of life, by the trump of God, will 
 preach deliverance to the captives, and the opening of that 
 prison-door to them that are bound. But where is the con- 
 solation, and what mockery to the afflicted, if, after all, it 
 is not meant that your brother, like Job, shall stand up 
 in his own flesh and see God that the dust you give to 
 dust- that the corruptible body of your beloved one, who 
 sleeps in Jesus, shall hear that trump and live ; but only 
 that his immortal spirit, instead of being disembodied for- 
 ever, shall have a body, some body, given to it in that 
 day.* 
 
 No, brethren, the scripture doctrine of the resurrection 
 of the body, that which lights the gloom of the grave, 
 
 * To make the doctrine of the identity of the resurrection-body more expli- 
 citly avowed in their declaration of faith, the Article in the Apostles' Creed, as 
 adopted in the Greek and Latin Churches, is " the resurrection of the flesh." 
 This phrase was anciently used to guard against the idea that any other body 
 than that which dies shall rise. In the Aquileian Creed it is still more point- 
 ed hujus carnis "the resurrection of this flesh." The Church of England, in 
 her office of Baptism, has retained the article, as in the Latin Church. Where 
 the question in our Prayer Book is, " Dost thou believe all the articles of the 
 Christian faith as contained," <fcc. The English book puts the whole creed in 
 the form of a question " Dost thou believe in God, the Father," <fcc., and there 
 we have " the resurrection of the flesh" instead of "the resurrection of the 
 body." On this subject see Pearson on the Creed, Jackson's works, vol. iii. 
 Tillotson's Sermons, No. 130. 
 
446 SERMON xx. 
 
 that which Job professed, that which the martyrs gloried 
 in, and philosophers of the heathen scoffed at, that which 
 the Christian Church in all ages has declared, which the 
 afflicted heart so affectionately clings to, which crowns 
 the redemption that is in Jesus with its last victory, and 
 which alone is worth contending for, is plainly that, in the res- 
 urrection, the Lord shall give to every man his own body; 
 that the body out of which his soul departed, shall be 
 raised up again, and the same soul that departed from it 
 shall be restored and united to it again; and so the same 
 man that died shall live again, in the same body in which 
 he died."* When we say, the same lody in which he died, 
 we do not mean the same in all qualities and powers, but 
 the same essentially ; as the body from infancy to old age, 
 from wasting sickness to perfect health, is the same, 
 though there has taken place so great a change of con- 
 stituent elements, and of condition, and of powers. 
 
 One would suppose that the very expression, " resur- 
 rection of the dead" would suffice to settle that point. 
 But what else shall we make of the words of Job 
 "though worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I 
 see God;" or the words of Daniel, "Many that sleep in 
 the dust of the earth shall awake;" or of Christ, "the 
 hour cometh when all that are in their graves shall come 
 forth;" or of St. John, "the sea shall give up the dead 
 which are in it;" or of St. Paul, "It (the body) is sown 
 in dishonor, it is raised in glory."| What else can be 
 the meaning of such phrases as "the redemption of our 
 l)ody"\ or such a promise as that "he that raised up 
 Christ from the dead, shall also quicken your mortal 
 
 * Beveridge's Sermons, No. 72. fJobxix. 26. Dan. xii. 2. John v. 28. 
 Rev. xx. 13. 1 Cor. xv. 42, 43. $ Rom. viii. 23. 
 
THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD IN CHRIST. 447 
 
 bodies?"'' What else, when we are exhorted to "fear 
 him who is able to destroy both soul and lody in hell?" 
 Is it not meant that the present body, as well as the 
 present soul, maybe destroyed in hell? Again, "it is 
 better to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than hav- 
 ing two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting 
 fire."| It is the identical body that was maimed in this 
 world in faithful service to God, that shall enter the life 
 of the world to come ; surely not some other body in its 
 stead. 
 
 Paul thought he was addressing very comforting words 
 to the Thessalonian brethren, when he said, "I would not 
 have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which 
 are asleep (your beloved ones in the grave) that ye sor- 
 row not as others which have no hope. For if we believe 
 that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which 
 sleep in Jesus, will God bring with him."J But what 
 consolation was it, what mockery of their sorrow was it, 
 if they whom God will bring with Jesus in that day shall 
 not be those very dead which they mourned after, but 
 some other bodies which they never knew, and that never 
 died? Certainly, the several instances of resurrection 
 which have already taken place, and of which we read in 
 the scriptures, especially that of our Lord and Saviour, 
 are intended to teach us by example, what the general 
 rising of the dead will be ? But in each case, was it not 
 the identical body buried, which lived again? 
 
 To show the power of our Lord's resurrection, and how 
 essentially the resurrection of his people must follow' in 
 consequence of his, we read that "after his resurrection, 
 
 * Rom. viii. 11, fMatt. x. 28; & xviii. 8. $1 Thcss. iv. 13, 14. 
 
448 SERMON XX. 
 
 many bodies of saints which slept, arose, and came out of 
 the graves and went into the Holy City, and appeared 
 unto many."" 1 ' The passage is too plain to be evaded. The 
 very bodies which had died, came out of their graves and 
 appeared. How long they had been in their graves, what 
 changes had taken place, whether they had fallen to dust 
 or not, we are not told. We are at liberty to suppose 
 what we please on such points. The evidence is, that no 
 matter how changed by death, or how changed in being 
 quickened again, the identical bodies, that died and were 
 buried, arose. That resurrection was the antepast of that 
 glorious day when the whole fruit of the resurrection of 
 Christ shall appear ; when another great earthquake shall 
 be felt, and all graves will be opened, and all the bodies 
 of them that sleep in Jesus, shall arise and go into the 
 Holy City New Jerusalem ; and shall appear in "the 
 white raiment which is the righteousness of saints," and 
 "death shall be swallowed up in victory." 
 
 The second appearing of our Lord will find a part of 
 his Church alive on the earth "the quick ;" but it will 
 find very far the largest portion asleep, as to their bodies, 
 in the grave "the dead" Concerning these two divisions 
 of the Church, it is written, " the dead in Christ shall rise 
 first, then they which are alive and remain, shall be caught 
 up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in 
 the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord."f Cer- 
 tainly they which are alive in that day, shall be taken to 
 meet, and to be, with the Lord, in the very bodies in which 
 they were found. They shall be changed indeed, from 
 corruptible to incorruptible, yea into the likeness of the 
 
 *Matt. xxvii. 52. +1 Thess. ir. 16,17. 
 
THE EESURRECTION OF THE DEAD IN CHRIST. 449 
 
 glorious body of Christ ; yet remaining essentially the 
 same bodies. But how are we assured of this, except from 
 language exactly equalled in strength and plainness in 
 relation to the dead. " The dead shall be raised/' The 
 living "shall be changed." Which of these expressions 
 is strongest in proof of the identity in question ? Will 
 the very small remnant of the people of God which shall 
 be alive at the coming of Christ, be the only portion of his 
 people that will then enjoy a perfect redemption, a redemp- 
 tion of the whole man a redemption of the body from 
 the curse of sin to newness of life, as well as a redemp- 
 tion of the soul ; and shall all the rest, constituting almost 
 the whole of " the general assembly and Church of the 
 first born whose names are written in heaven," shall they 
 be redeemed only in part, their bodies left under the do- 
 minion of death; the works of the devil in them not de- 
 stroyed by him who came to destroy them ? Must they, 
 instead of having restored to them their own bodies, and 
 being thus blessed, like Enoch and Elijah and the saints 
 that arose after the crucifixion, and like all those who, 
 without having died, shall be changed at the voice 
 of the Archangel ; must they alone be consigned to 
 bodies, entirely alien from their own ? Such was not the 
 expectation of Job : " In my flesh shall I see God." And 
 if such were the doctrine of resurrection which Paul 
 preached at Athens, why did the philosophers mock at it? 
 Was there any difficulty in their believing that the same 
 God who made the first body for the soul to inhabit, could 
 as easily make for it a second? And where was the 
 meaning of the scattering of the ashes of the martyrs by 
 their persecutors, to the winds and waters, in derision of 
 29 
 
450 SERMON XX. 
 
 the resurrection ? Did they suppose that in that con- 
 temptuous act they offered any impediment to the resur- 
 rection which the Christians believed and taught, except 
 as it was a resurrection of the very body thus dispersed ? 
 And why, if this be not our just expectation, is the prayer 
 uttered at every reception of the sacrament of the death 
 of Christ: " The body of our Lord Jesus Christ, which 
 was given for thee, preserve thy lody and soul unto ever- 
 lasting life?" 
 
 Now, such being so evidently the doctrine of scripture, 
 that you may wonder why I should spend so much time 
 in showing it to be, you may well desire me to state what 
 are the objections to it that have caused the invention of 
 the substitute which I have mentioned ; objections on 
 account of which heathen sages thought it incredible that 
 God should raise the dead, and many like them, under 
 greater light, have not been wiser. I know of but two 
 objections that deserve a name. One is founded simply 
 on the infinite dispersion which the bodies of the dead 
 undergo. Take, for example, the bodies of Adam, and 
 Noah, and Abraham. Where are they ? Resolved into 
 original elements all their particles are still in being, but 
 where ? Let the imagination follow them through air and 
 earth and sea. The objection is against the possibility of 
 thence collecting such scattered elements and composing 
 again the bodies they once belonged to. But it comes only 
 from those who know not the power of God. He can do 
 all things which involve not a contradiction. He that 
 made the world out of nothing, can he not re-construct 
 the body when its materials are all in being? Every 
 stage and step of the dispersion has been only by his 
 
THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD IN CHRIST. 451 
 
 power and guidance. He made that dissolution he effec- 
 ted that minute dispersion he gave to every particle its 
 direction, whithersoever it went, and assigLed its place, 
 wherever in earth, or air, or sea, it may be now. Known 
 unto God, is the place and history of every particle of 
 matter, in all his works, from each grain in the structure 
 of all worlds, to every atom in the frame of the animal- 
 cule swimming in the rain drop. And can he not call 
 back what he has sent abroad ? Can he not gather 
 together what he has scattered ? Is there any skill or 
 power required for this, beyond what we experience con- 
 tinually in the wonderful power and skill by which our 
 living bodies are nourished and renewed from day to day; 
 that mysterious skill which extracts, with such unfailing 
 chemistry, from the air and the water, from vegetable and 
 animal substance, whatever our bodies need for life, and 
 which so marvellously assorts and combines them, in weight 
 and measure, and sends to their several places and offices 
 in our frames, the various aliments, so that every minutest 
 part of this most complex structure shall daily receive its 
 portion in due season? It was well said by a Jewish 
 Rabbi: "He who made that which was not, to be, can 
 certainly make that which once was, to be again." The 
 only answer needed to the objection stated, is, "The Lord 
 God Omnipotent reigneth" 
 
 But there is an objection of much more apparent force. 
 It is not based so much on the wide dispersion of the ele- 
 ments of the bodies of the dead, as upon the innumerable 
 combinations into which they have entered. It is urged 
 that those elements have been taken into the structure of 
 vegetables, and that animals have been nourished by those 
 
452 SERMON xx. 
 
 vegetables and men have fed on those animals, and 
 thus, doubtless, in innumerable instances, the particles of 
 one human body have entered into the composition of 
 another ; and so the difficulty is presented, How can ttvo 
 bodies, each of which has been constituted in part ly the same 
 particles of matter, be both raised up ? This is really the 
 only plausible objection. Its force is in the contradiction 
 which it seems to involve. That contradiction depends 
 on the assumption that, in order to the identity of the 
 body in death and the resurrection, the same numerical 
 particles must compose it. If there may be essential iden- 
 tity, without numerical sameness in all the parts, the con- 
 tradiction is avoided, and the objection fails. But all 
 nature testifies to that point. The oak that has stood a 
 hundred years, may not have an atom of the substance 
 which composed its germ in the acorn, and yet nobody 
 questions the identity of the body of the tree and the 
 germ. The human body, at sixty years of age, has 
 undergone repeatedly, since its infancy, an entire change 
 of constituent elements, so that it contains not now a 
 single particle that belonged to it in childhood. But 
 does any one question its being essentially the same 
 body? It is therefore a familiar fact, that we may pre- 
 serve our corporeal identity without preserving a numer- 
 ical sameness of parts. Nothing is a man more sure of, 
 than that the body he has now, is the same he had in 
 infancy. Nothing, however, does he know more certainly, 
 than that its constituent atoms have meanwhile been 
 entirely changed. What, then, if the difference should be 
 as great between the body buried, and that which shall 
 be raised, (though there is no necessity of supposing 
 
THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD IN CHRIST. 453 
 
 it,) might they not be as truly the same body as my pres- 
 ent tabernacle is the same that my soul inhabited when 
 I was a child ? And thus liave we not all we need for the 
 resurrection of the dead, in the full, literal sense of the 
 scriptures ? 
 
 St. Paul seems to have had in view precisely this 
 method of answering, when he supposed some caviller to 
 ask him, "How are the dead raised up, and with what 
 body do they come ?" He answered, by referring to the 
 growth of the wheat-stalk from the seed, as we have answer- 
 ed by the growth of the oak from the acorn, or the man 
 from the infant. "That which thou sowest (said he) is 
 not quickened, except it die ; and that which thou sow- 
 est, thou sowest not that body which shall be, but bare 
 grain; it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain; 
 but God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and 
 to every seed his own body."* 
 
 The reasoning is ; The wheat in the stalk is essentially 
 the wheat that was first in the seed. The seed will not 
 spring forth into wheat except it die. The human body, 
 in order to its resurrection, must go into the corruption 
 of the grave. And when the seed is grown into the beau- 
 ty of the ripening plant, how great is the change ; where 
 are the particles it possessed when it lay a mere t irrain in 
 the ground? God, in thus arraying it, as Solomon in all 
 his glory was not arrayed, giveth it a body as it pleaseth 
 him. But, in all that change, from the corrupting grain 
 to the beautiful stalk and blade of the wheat, he so pre- 
 serves the corporeal identity, that he gives "to every seed 
 its own body" the wheat and the germ are one so is 
 
 * 1 Cor. xv. 3638. 
 
454 SERMON XX. 
 
 the resurrection of the dead. What it is that is essential 
 to such identity, we know not. It is enough here to know 
 that it is not numerical' sameness of particles. The rest we 
 are well satisfied to leave with him who is " the God of 
 the dead, as well as the living."* 
 
 To the question, "hoiv are the dead raised up?" we 
 have no further answer. The matter of fact is plainly 
 revealed. But liow, he whose "footsteps are not known" 
 will accomplish such a wondrous work, thus swallowing up 
 death in such universal and stupendous victory, " in a 
 moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump," 
 his word speaks not, man knows not. Tell me how he 
 created the world, and I will tell you how he will raise 
 the dead. Tell me how, by his word, all things were 
 made, and I will tell how, at his last trump, "the earth 
 and the sea shall give up their dead." Our confidence is 
 in the promise and power of God. "I believe in God, the 
 Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth ;" and, 
 therefore, because that Almighty One hath decreed it, "I 
 believe in the resurrection of the body." 
 
 And, now having spoken of the essential sameness of 
 the body in the resurrection, we must speak of the changes 
 it will neverthless undergo. 
 
 But here we encounter a passage which, for some minds, 
 
 * " It is impossible to say, (observes an excellent writer,) that there remains 
 not, somewhere, amidst the elements to which it (the body) is reduced, a germ 
 however imperceptible, from which the immortal body may yet develop itself 
 in an instant. Too little is known of that wondrous principle, whatever it be, 
 which remains through life, and gives to the body the same peculiar, individual 
 form, aspect and identity, distinguishing it from all others, though every per- 
 ceptible particle be repeatedly changed and renewed ." " The Last Enemy," 
 by George Burgess, D.D., Bp. of the Diocese of Maine a book of much thought 
 and spiritual wealth, which cannot be read by a serious mind without benefit. 
 It should be much better known than it is. 
 
THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD IN CHRIST. 455 
 
 needs explanation. St. Paul, with reference to this very 
 subject, says : " Flesh and Mood cannot inherit the king- 
 dom of God, neither doth corruption inherit incorruption"* 
 At first view, the former clause of this verse seems contra- 
 dictory to the doctrine of the resurrection of the body, in 
 any literal sense. But to that interpretation, it is justly 
 answered, that our Saviour's body, after he had risen from 
 the dead, was flesh, and surely that inherits the kingdom 
 of God. Thomas' unbelief was cured by touching it ; and 
 when uneasy thoughts arose in the other disciples' minds, 
 lest after all it was only a spirit that appeared to them, 
 Jesus said, " Why do thoughts arise in your hearts ? Be- 
 hold my hands and my feet, that it is I, myself ; handle 
 me, and see ; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see 
 me have."| The meaning of the clause objected, appears 
 from that which follows it by way of explication; "Neither 
 doth corruption inherit incorruption." The phrase, "flesh 
 and blood" is a synonyme for our bodies as the?/ now are 
 corruptible, mortal, full of infirmities, having wants and 
 appetites belonging to their present earthly state. As 
 thus situated, they cannot inherit the kingdom of God; 
 because they are not adapted to its life, and employment, 
 and spirituality. They must be changed ; not so that they 
 shall cease to be flesh, but cease to be flesh as it now is. 
 " All flesh, (saith the Apostle,) is not the same flesh." 
 " There are celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial." "As 
 is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy ; and as 
 is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly." 
 And, "as we have borne the image of the earthy, (the first 
 Adam,) we shall also bear the image of the heavenly," 
 
 * 1 Cor. XT. 50. f John xx. 27. Luke xxiv. 3739. 
 
456 SERMON XX. 
 
 " the Lord from heaven.'^ The body as well as the soul 
 must be made "meet for the inheritance of the saints in 
 light." The soul is made so, by being born again of the 
 Holy Ghost, and finally restored, by a perfect holiness, 
 to the perfect mind of Christ, the image and likeness of 
 God. The body also must be born again, and by the 
 same Holy Spirit. It is " dead, because of sin." " But, 
 if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead, 
 dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead, 
 shall also quicken your mortal bodies, by his Spirit that 
 dwelleth in you."| Hence, the resurrection of the dead 
 in Christ is called "the regeneration."^ "We shall not all 
 sleep, but ive shall all le changed." Vast and wonderful, 
 indeed, must be the change that will fit and prepare this 
 frail and mortal body, especially after the corruption of the 
 grave, for the habitation of God, the vision of his glory, 
 the communion of his kingdom, the society of angels, the 
 employments of heaven, the life eternal. Great, indeed, 
 must be the change to prepare it to be a suitable, conge- 
 nial companion, and instrument of the soul, in the perfect 
 holiness and boundless activity and vigor of its heavenly 
 state. The disembodied spirit, accustomed to the com- 
 munion of saints made perfect, and to the ineffable glory 
 of the presence of God, when it comes to re-enter its 
 tabernacle, must find therein, not only every vestige of 
 the fall ; every remnant of the dominion and curse of sin, 
 every mark of death, every infirmity of an earthly state, 
 obliterated ; but a newness of life, a purity, an energy, 
 and activity, adapting it to participate with, instead 
 of encumbering, its own inconceivably vigorous, active, 
 
 * 1 Cor. xv. 3947, 49. f Rom. viii. 10, 11 . + Matt. xix. 28. 
 
THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD IN CHRIST. 457 
 
 and exalted powers. Without such change, the risen body 
 would be no more capable of the kingdom of God, than a 
 worm, without the transformation undergone in the chrys- 
 alis, would be capable of the new element, and new life, 
 and food, and pleasures, and occupations, of the butter- 
 fly ; or, than the seed in the ground, unchanged, unquick- 
 ened, can exhibit the properties, and perform the func- 
 tions, and answer the ends, of the growing and ripening 
 wheat. A change is to be made of worlds, from earth to 
 heaven; and a change must be made of the body, from 
 earthy to heavenly; from corruption to incorruption; from 
 mortal to immortality. That change must be made ; be- 
 cause the body, as much as the soul, has a title, in Christ, 
 to an inheritance in the kingdom of heaven. Christ came 
 to redeem us; not our souls only, but ourselves, just as we 
 are, body and soul, "from all iniquity," from all its con- 
 demnation, dominion and curse ; to destroy the work of 
 the devil entirely, in the flesh and in the spirit. One, as 
 much as the other, was bought with the price of his blood, 
 and is his. Whatever is his, he will have ; and neither death 
 nor life shall finally separate it from him. To leave the 
 bodies of his people under the power of death, would be 
 to leave his work of redemption unfinished; his own mys- 
 tical body incomplete. Man would not be saved for 
 man is corporeal, as well as spiritual. Hence, " this cor- 
 ruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal, immor- 
 tality."* Of the greatness and glory of the change, we 
 can form but the least and most inadequate conception ; 
 just as we can conceive so little of that whole transforma- 
 tion by which the soul is finally adapted, out of its present 
 
 * 1 Cor. xv. 53. 
 
458 SERMON XX. 
 
 fallen state, to the holiness and glory of its heavenly por- 
 tion. All is done by St. Paul that language can do, to give 
 us the idea. But all language fails. In this life we must 
 needs see such things through a glass, very darkly. We 
 necessarily think as children, understand as children, 
 just the spelling-book, the merest elements. The resur- 
 rection day alone can teach us any more. When we rise, 
 we shall know. But let us take some of the words of St. 
 Paul, and think of them. " It is soivn in corruption, it 
 is raised in incorruption ;" raised as pare and deathless as 
 the soul that comes to inhabit it again. "It is sown in 
 dishonor, it is raised in glory" Now a " vile body," and 
 deeply dishonored by the humiliating process of death, 
 and burial, and dissolution, so that it is put out of the sight 
 of the living, as a spectacle not to be looked on; it shall be 
 changed into a habitation as far beyond its present state, 
 as the heavenly mansions exceed in glory the grave from 
 which it will be raised. " Sown in weakness, it shall le 
 raised in poiver ;" power to endure such a vision of God, 
 and to sustain such an "exceeeding and eternal weight of 
 glory;" power to endure forever, and to mount with the 
 soul to all the heights, and go with it, in all its vast excur- 
 sions, and endless occupations and enjoyments. "It is 
 sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual lody" Natu- 
 ral IWIQ means animal; spiritual is here used in opposi- 
 tion, not to corporeal, but animal; a body spiritualized, 
 deprived of its animal properties, and weaknesses, and 
 wants ; a body made as perfectly conformed to the nature 
 and uses of the spirit dwelling therein, as a material body 
 can be; so that instead of one encumbering the other, or 
 feeling itself impeded by the other, there shall be such 
 
THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD IN CHRIST. 459 
 
 perfect harmony that both shall be one in every thing; 
 not the body now, and now the spirit, but the whole 
 redeemed man so perfect, that there shall be a complete 
 oneness of participation in all works, all occupations, all 
 blessedness. 
 
 But the highest reach of language, in describing the 
 change in the resurrection, is that of St. Paul, to the 
 Philippians. He tells us that our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 at his second coming, "shall change our vile body, that it 
 may be fashioned like unto his oivn glorious body" Fallen 
 in Adam, we bear his image in body and soul ; redeemed 
 in Christ, we must bear his image, also, in body and soul. 
 Members of Christ, we must be as he is. Ever to be with 
 the Lord, in the body ; he will qualify our bodies for that 
 blessedness, by making them like his own glorious body. 
 The harvest will be as the first fruits. We shall not only 
 see his glory, but partake therein. Our Lord will be the 
 pattern, and architect, of our resurrection. In the first 
 creation, God made man after his own image and likeness. 
 The completion of the new creation, by Jesus Christ, will 
 be the finishing of his own likeness in the risen bodies of 
 his people. What is the glory of the glorious body of 
 Christ, it hath not entered into the mind of man to con- 
 ceive. The light "above the brightness of the sun," in 
 which he appeared at the transfiguration, and the sight of 
 which the three disciples could not endure, was intended 
 to give some idea of that glory. But we wait the bea- 
 tific vision. Meanwhile, we are satisfied with the assurance 
 of St. John: "It doth not yet appear what we shall be; 
 but this we know, that when he shall appear, we shall be 
 
 *Phil.iii.20,21. 
 
460 SERMON XX. 
 
 like him, for we shall see him as he is." : One thing, 
 however, we know, that the full and glorious triumph of 
 redeeming grace and power, the fullness of the victory 
 over sin and death, will not be consummated till the res- 
 urrection day. It cannot be, while the body of a single 
 saint is under the dominion of death. It cannot be, until 
 the earth and the sea shall be made to give up their dead. 
 It cannot be, till all they that sleep in Jesus are brought 
 with him, and changed into his own likeness. Your 
 brother, whose soul is now with the Lord, must rise in the 
 body from the grave, or the Saviour's work will not be 
 finished. But, writes the Apostle, "WHEN this corruptible 
 shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal immortal- 
 ity, THEN shall be brought to pass the saying that is writ- 
 ten, 'Death is swalloived up in victory? ' Then shall the 
 triumphal song of the whole redeemed Church be heard, 
 "0, death, where is thy sting! 0, grave, where is thy 
 victory ! Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory 
 through our Lord Jesus Christ."! 
 
 If, in this discourse, we have only spoken of the resur- 
 rection of the righteous, it must not be forgotten that all 
 the graves are to give up their dead " some to everlast- 
 ing life, some to shame and everlasting contempt. "J We 
 are to be "judged according to the deeds done in the body 5" 
 and in the body must all be, in order to be so judged. 
 
 But for this most painful part of our subject, we have 
 not time except to say, that while the same identity 
 shall be preserved, there will be a change in the resurrection 
 of the unrighteous, corresponding to that of the righteous; 
 mortal changed to immortality, corruptible that of incor- 
 
 *1 John iii. 2. f 1 Cor. xv. 54-57. \ Dan. xii. 2. 
 
THE RESURRECTION OP THE DEAD IN CHRIST. 461 
 
 ruption, weakness raised in power ; in order that those who 
 are to "go away into everlasting punishment," may be fitted, 
 in the body, for its endurance, as well as that those who are 
 to enter into life eternal, may be fitted for its enjoyment. 
 And now we have seen probably as much as we can 
 know here, of what the rising of the dead means, espe- 
 cially of those who sleep in Jesus. And what precious 
 consolation does the gospel thus bring to the aching 
 hearts of bereaved believers ! " Thy brother shall rise 
 again." Yes, answers Martha, sorrowing over some re- 
 cently tenanted grave, "but not till the last day. Oh, 
 that he could now come to life again ! " ' No, the wise 
 Christian heart replies, it is a great part the consolation 
 that he will not rise now, while death still reigns, and sorrow, 
 and sighing have not fled away ; that he will not rise till 
 that day, when all things shall be made new, " the tirne^ 
 of the restitution of all things," when he can come forth 
 in a body that will never die again ; into a world where 
 there shall be no more sin, or pain, or woe ; in company 
 with the whole harvest of the dead in Christ, his holy 
 brotherhood, and then go with that whole blessed company 
 to be " ever with the Lord." This is our " garment of 
 praise for the spirit of heaviness." " Precious in the sight 
 of the Lord, is the death," and even the dust, " of his 
 saints." Not a Christian's grave is there, in the silent 
 city of the dead, but is well known to him well watched 
 and kept under his care though its memorial, for human 
 eye, has centuries ago been lost. As we walk along those 
 solemn streets, a voice seems to say, "these all shall rise 
 again." Then we think of the dead of all generations, 
 since the world began; the graves in land and sea; the 
 
462 SERMON XX. 
 
 whole earth a cemetery of unknown millions ! Not a par- 
 ticle of their dust has perished, however widely it has 
 wandered. All are waiting "the day of redemption." 
 What a multitude that cannot be numbered, of God's 
 beloved people, are there, the tribes of his true Israel, 
 dispersed through all lands, enduring the captivity of 
 death, but "prisoners of hope" listening for "the voice of 
 the Archangel and the trump of God." Then shall the 
 earth cast forth her dead, and all shall come forth, and 
 rejoin the souls from which they have been so long 
 divorced ; and then shall be joy among the angels of God, 
 to welcome home to Zion the children of that long, and 
 dark, captivity. They "return and come to Zion with 
 songs and everlasting joy upon their heads." They are 
 clothed in the white raiment of their Redeemer's righte- 
 ousness. The shout of victory, and praise, and gladness, 
 is heard from every heart. Rank upon rank, a boundless 
 congregation, they press towards "the throne of God and 
 the Lamb," to "shew forth the praises of him who called 
 them out of darkness into his marvellous light." It is the 
 " royal priesthood, the holy nation," gathered out of all 
 nations, and people, and kindred, and tongues. The Lord 
 of Glory, having finished his work, begins that endless 
 Sabbath. His Church, "without spot or wrinkle," walking 
 with him, " in white," keeps holy that long hoped-for day 
 of eternal rest. They are "joint-heirs with Christ"; 
 He, "glorified in them;" they, glorified in him. His joy 
 is in beholding in them "the travail of his soul;" their joy 
 is in beholding in him "the author and finisher of their 
 faith," and their portion forever. Oh, what believer would 
 wake the sleep of a brother in Christ sleeping in death 
 
THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD IN CHRIST. 463 
 
 till the last trump of that day of days shall call him ; 
 till he can rise in that great communion and fellow- 
 ship, and begin that Sabbath! No, beloved one, we will 
 wait in hope. Sleep on, in thy silent, lowly bed, till this 
 stormy sea is passed, and the war of sin and hell is ended, 
 and the last vial of wrath is poured upon the earth. Come 
 not again to us, till we are ready to mount with thee to 
 the heavenly gates. The time is short. The day will 
 soon break. Farewell, precious one, till then ! 
 
 But St. Paul has an exhortation for the living, founded 
 on the assurance of that day : " Therefore, my beloved 
 brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding 
 in the work of the Lord ; forasmuch as ye know that 
 your labor is not in vain in the Lord." With such perfect 
 redemption in view, such a day in prospect an inheri- 
 tance of life eternal, for body and soul, in the glory 
 of God shall anything move you from the steadfast, un- 
 shaken, setting of your hearts and the earnest devo- 
 tion of your lives to the obedience of Christ ? Shall 
 any temptations seduce, any trials discourage, any wrath 
 of man affright you, from the patient continuance in well 
 doing, knowing, as you do, that not the least moment of your 
 labor, or trial, or patience, or suffering, shall be in vain in 
 the Lord; that all will ripen unto, and that all will bring 
 forth fruit abundantly in, that great harvest. The Lord 
 strengthen us thus to abide, seeking our rest not here, on 
 these troubled waves, this open sea, where all winds 
 blow and rage, but in that haven where only the anchor of 
 the soul is cast, and where remaineth the rest of the people 
 of God. Amen. 
 
 * 1 Cor. xv. 58. 
 
SERMON XII. 
 
 TEE FINAL SATISFACTION OF THE BELIEVER IN JESUS. 
 
 Ps. xvii. 15. 
 
 "As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied 
 when I awake, with thy likeness." 
 
 THE Psalmist was in affliction oppressed by the wicked, 
 who compassed him in his steps (v. 11) and were in world- 
 ly prosperity. He described their prosperity, however, as 
 that which he did not envy. It was of very brief dura- 
 tion. "They have their portion in this life" What a 
 poor portion is that which only lasts till we get to the 
 grave! Can any thing so short-lived, so uncertain, so 
 unsatisfactory, deserve the name of riches? When the 
 Psalmist looked at the portion of the ungodly, in that 
 light, and then turned his eyes upon the portion of the 
 righteous, in the life to come, that incorruptible inherit- 
 ance, that unfading joy, the well grounded hope of which 
 is wealth indeed ; he felt how little a child of God could 
 ever have reason to feel as if his lot in this life were hard. 
 "As for me, (said he,) I shall behold thy face in righteous- 
 ness; I shall be satisfied when I awake, with thy likeness." 
 We shall confine our attention, in this discourse, chiefly 
 to the latter clause of the it "I shall be satisfied when I 
 
THE FINAL SATISFACTION OF THE BELIEVER IN JESUS. 465 
 
 aivake, ivith thy likeness" You see the connection here, 
 between our being in the likeness of God, and being satis- 
 fied. The connection is essential. There cannot be, in 
 this life, or in the life to come, a satisfied heart, a man 
 possessed of real happiness, except as he is in the likeness 
 of God. To illustrate that connection, is the chief object 
 of the present discourse. 
 
 " / shall be satisfied" A man perfectly satisfied! Can 
 there be such a miracle ? Every desire of his heart con- 
 tent, every capacity of his being filled ! We can form no 
 higher idea of a man entirely happy. What a marvel 
 would such a fellow creature be to the rest of the human 
 family; such a perfect rest of heart, on this troubled sea 
 of heaving, tumultuous, conflicting, desires ! Was there 
 ever a satisfied man on the earth? Yes, because there 
 was a time on the earth when there was no sin. I sup- 
 pose it wi'.l be conceded that our first father, as long as 
 he continued as God created him, before the malice of 
 Satan had succeeded in persuading him to desire what 
 was forbidden, knew no want, had no care, was conscious 
 of no imperfection in his portion, had no void in his heart. 
 Every power of his mind found adequate exercise ; every 
 affection of his heart found commensurate objects, in 
 which there could be no disappointment. This was es- 
 sential to the perfectness of his original state. 
 
 But the question arises, whence came his satisfaction ? 
 On what did it depend ? Ah, says the wounded spirit, 
 afflicted by some grievous bereavement, or chafed with 
 the thousand disappointments of the world, he was in the 
 garden of Paradise. All around him was perfectness. 
 There was no uncertainty hi his blessings, so long as he 
 30 
 
466 SERMON XXI. 
 
 obeyed God. Disappointed expectations were not his lot. 
 An aching void, in the midst of abundance, was not his 
 burden. There was no death to blight his every hope and 
 turn every joy to mourning ! These, we grant, were 
 precious appurtenances of happiness. They went very 
 far to fill up his cup. But they fell unspeakably short 
 of the real, essential, constitution of his blessedness. 
 Man, invested with dominion over all the creatures around 
 him, and possessed of an immortal mind, by which he is 
 made so superior to them all, must find a source of happi- 
 ness, not in what is beneath, but in what is above him; 
 in a nature with which his highest powers may commune, 
 and from the fullness of which they may be ever receiving. 
 That superior nature is the Creator. The perfect man 
 lived in direct, unreserved, continual communion with God. 
 He saw God's face in righteousness. The river was in free 
 communication with the tides of the ocean, and hence its 
 own fullness. 
 
 Now the question occurs, how took place that free com- 
 munion of man with God ? What qualified him for it ? 
 On what basis was it erected? There was nothing like it 
 between the Creator and any other individual of his earth- 
 ly creation. The answer is found in that which distin- 
 guished the creation of man from that of every other 
 earthly being. God said " Let us make man in our oivn 
 image, after our likeness" Likeness to God, in intelli- 
 gence and holiness, was the single, the essential basis of 
 Adam's communion with him, and thus of his perfect fe- 
 licity. 
 
 There can be no communion between any beings but 
 on the basis of likeness. Brutes and men can have no 
 
THE FINAL SATISFACTION OF THE BELIEVER IN JESUS. 467 
 
 communion, because they have neither intellectual nor 
 moral likeness. Adam, though surrounded with the love- 
 liness of Eden, and with all the obedient creatures over 
 whom he was vested with dominion, had no earthly being 
 with whom his mind and heart could communicate, until a 
 companion had been created in his own image and likeness ; 
 and the Most High God had none, among all his perfect 
 works of animate nature, that could know and love him, 
 and be enriched in communion with his infinite wis- 
 dom and holiness, until he had made man in his own im- 
 age, a being of intelligence and holiness. 
 
 I need not pause to show how essential to that likeness 
 in man, to God, was holiness. To have been only a ra- 
 tional being, however exalted in intellectual powers, would 
 have been no adequate qualification for communion with 
 God. Such are the fallen angels, and none so far from, 
 so incapable of, such communion. "Be ye holy, for 1 the 
 Lord your God am holy"* is an exhortation founded on 
 an intrinsic necessity, that if we would see God, face to 
 face, in the happiness of his kingdom hereafter, or if we 
 would now draw near to him in communion of soul with him. 
 as the Father of our spirits, we must be, as he is, holy. 
 Hence the real ground of the communion between the man 
 unfallen, and his Maker, and consequently of all his felic- 
 ity. He was like God, not only in being holy ; but in be- 
 ing perfectly holy. He did not, in the language of the 
 text, awake up, as if out of another state, in the likeness 
 of God ; but from the dust out of which he was made, he 
 arose, at the first, in that likeness, perfectly holy ; and h 
 was satisfied. 
 
 *Lev. xix. 2, and 1 Pet. i. 15, 16. 
 
468 SERMON XXI. 
 
 Bat what a painful contrast to this, has the world pre- 
 sented, ever since that first man, in his first estate ! Never 
 satisfied, is the brief history. Immortal minds, driving to 
 and fro over the earth, in search of something, they know 
 not what, to appease desires they do not comprehend ; 
 minds never at rest, conscious of having been created for 
 something not attained, and of possessing capacities of 
 enjoyment which are never filled, wandering further and 
 farther, and becoming more needy and less satisfied as 
 they wander. Such is the human race. The word most 
 used in the scriptures to express that dissatisfied, craving 
 state of mind, is thirst the thirst of a wanderer who has 
 lost his way in a dry and barren land, where no water is 
 and nothing can be more appropriate. A thirsty man can 
 be satisfied with nothing but water. Other things may 
 promise, but cannot fulfill ; may create hope, but only to 
 disappoint; may for the time appease, only to make 
 thirst, by and by, the more intolerable. A heart athirst, 
 as it must be by its own nature, must have the "living 
 water" those supplies which no finite source can furnish, 
 even the fullness of God ; or it only becomes more and more 
 athirst and craving. And that thirst, unsatisfied here, 
 must go on forever, in the world hereafter. Beyond the 
 grave, will it shew its real power. Here, in the present 
 life, it is all the while under the delusion of a dream. 
 The unsatisfied heart, living away from God, is constantly 
 plied with false reliances and deceitful expectations which 
 prevent the consciousness of its real want and beggary. 
 There is yet a scheme to try, yet a hope to test a bro- 
 ken cistern to go to. The woild keeps up a constant suc- 
 cession of expectations, and so sustains the dream. But, 
 
THE FINAL SATISFACTION OF THE BELIEVER IN JESUS. 469 
 
 by and by, conies death and banishes every delusion, and 
 takes the soul away to an eternity where, not only is its 
 whole condition forever fixed, but perfectly understood 
 and realized. The thirst of heart remains ; the faculties, 
 created to be satisfied only in God, remain; the man is 
 there just the same that he was here, only with every power 
 of mind intensely quickened, and every want therefore 
 intensely felt, and every hope perfectly destroyed. There 
 is nothing new to be tried ; no dream to afford a tran- 
 sient relief; nothing but self to feed on. Oh ! then must 
 the heart experience within itself, in its own aching, grow- 
 ing, burning, exacting, hopeless desires, " a worm that di- 
 eth not, and a fire that cannot be quenched." Then will 
 wants, now kept under and in comparative peace, by de- 
 ceitful hopes, be kindled into a fierce flame of entire de- 
 spair, exhibiting, what it were well for us now to know, 
 better than we do, that man, alienated from God, carries 
 always with him in this life, in the large and unappeased 
 desires of his nature, the essential element of his fiery 
 torment in the world to come, an element all ready for its 
 work and waiting only the breath of the Almighty, in the 
 sentence of eternal banishment, to kindle it. 
 
 And now let us put the question, what can relieve the 
 unsatisfied heart in the present life? Suppose this whole 
 world a paradise ; death with all its train of woes extermi- 
 nated; every thing about us restored to its condition as 
 it was, before sin introduced the curse and blight ; sup- 
 pose nothing unrestored but man; he, however, again in 
 paradise, but still the fallen man, holding no communion 
 of heart with God, arid incapable, by the state of his heart, 
 of such communion ! Will he be satisfied? The mass of 
 
470 SERMON XXI. 
 
 mankind, not knowing themselves, will say, Certainly, 
 what more can he want ? But I say, Something infinitely 
 more and better, and more exalted, he does and must 
 want. He is without God. And it is the fixed decree of 
 the Almighty, established on the day of creation, and 
 written then in the constitution of our nature, never to 
 be canceled, that the faculties of our minds, and the af- 
 fections of our hearts are never to be satisfied but in the 
 love, in the communion, of our Creator. The brute, with- 
 out a rational soul, pastures upon the ground, and is satis- 
 fied. Of the earth he is earthy ; and is therefore contented 
 with the earth. But man must have higher aliment than 
 the creature. His nature, though not divine, is so fash- 
 ioned, that divinity alone can meet its wants. He is not 
 infinite, but infinity alone, the boundless riches of the 
 grace and love of God alone, can satisfy. Communion of 
 heart and soul with God, on the essential basis of likeness 
 in spiritual character, is the great law of human happiness. 
 He who stationed the sun at the center of our planetary 
 system, and bound it for a law in the being of our every 
 star, that it shall keep perpetual orbit round that sun, and 
 never shine but as it holds communion with its light; he 
 hath placed himself as the central and only source of 
 blessedness to all his intelligent creatures, ordaining for- 
 ever, that they shah 1 live in communion of spirit with him, 
 or live in utter spiritual beggary without him ; and the 
 planet that should break its orbit would not more neces- 
 sarily become a darkened wanderer, than must a soul, 
 alienated from God, become more and more benighted and 
 miserable, a wanderer in the outer darkness, further and 
 further. The earth may pass away, but that law written 
 
THE FINAL SATISFACTION OF THE BELIEVER IN JESUS. 471 
 
 man's being, can never pass away. Men may not care 
 to think of it or believe it, but it is written. There are 
 multitudes indeed, who cherish a proud feeling of inde- 
 pendence of God, and to whom nothing seems more for- 
 eign than that they should have any need of his commu- 
 nion. If they can escape the power of his wrath, it is 
 all they suppose they need. They will trust their own 
 resources, and will be the architects of their own happi- 
 ness, and will be indebted to none else for its materials. 
 But still that dependence, in spite of them, remains. Sat- 
 isfied without God, they cannot be. So hath he ordained 
 from the foundation of the world. Were it even possible for 
 this earth, by its own resources, to meet their wants, all 
 things therein are laid under the interdict of the Al- 
 mighty, which forbids them to afford a home or resting 
 place to the heart of man, so long as he continues apostate 
 and ex-communicate from his Maker. 
 
 Thus we arrive at the basis of one of the great doc- 
 trines of the Gospel, concerning our salvation : " Except 
 a man be born again lie cannot seethe kingdom of God ;" the 
 necessity of a new birth, a new creation, by the Holy 
 Ghost. For if communion with God be essential to pres- 
 ent satisfaction ; much more must it be to the heavenly 
 blessedness. And if there can be no communion without 
 likeness ; if without being like God in holiness of heart, 
 we cannot be qualified for his holy presence, then must that 
 image of God in which man was originally created, and which 
 is now lost, be created in man anew. These two points 
 the scriptures settle without dispute : first, that " without 
 holiness, no man shall see the Lord ; " secondly, that with- 
 out being born again of the Holy Ghost, no man can have 
 
472 SERMON XXI. 
 
 holiness. The universal description of those who live, 
 and are capable of living, in the communion and fellowship 
 of an infinitely holy God, is, " We are his workmanship, 
 created in Christ Jesus"* Love is the very element of 
 that communion. " He that loveth me (said the Saviour) 
 shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will 
 manifest myself to him." "We will come unto him and 
 make our abode with him." f 
 
 But, saith the Psalmist, in the text, "I shall be satisfied 
 when I aivalce, with thy likeness." He puts off, you per- 
 ceive, the time of his being satisfied in the communion of 
 God, to another life. But why so ? Hath he not that com- 
 munion now? Doth he not already sing, in the joy of 
 his soul, "The Lord is my light and my salvation ; whom 
 shall I fear ? the Lord is the strength of my life ; of 
 whom shall I be afraid ? " j Is he not seated beside the 
 waters of that full river, " the streams whereof make 
 glad the City of God," and of which it is the privilege of 
 every inhabitant of that city to drink ? Why then is he 
 not satisfied already ? And the same we ask concerning 
 every citizen of the commonwealth of Israel. He is not 
 satisfied yet ; he is looking forward to another life, to be 
 satisfied. And yet, has he not been created anew in 
 Christ Jesus, and thus restored to the image of God ; and 
 so to his blessed communion ? Is it not now his privilege, 
 and is he not qualified by the new affections of his heart, 
 to draw nigh to God, and pour out his soul before him, in 
 love and praise ; and doth not God, according to his own 
 word, "make his abode with him ; " and hath he not the 
 promise of the Saviour, " He that bdieveth on me shall 
 
 *Eph. ii. 10. fJohn xiv. 2123. JPs. xxvii. 1. 
 
THE FINAL SATISFACTION OF THE BELIEVER IN JESUS. 473 
 
 never thirst?"* And yet he does thirst ; he is not satis- 
 fied. How is this ? 
 
 We answer : In one very important sense the child of 
 God is satisfied now. He is so satisfied with what he has 
 obtained in God, that he desires nothing in its steady but 
 only more of that. Men of the world are not satisfied, 
 because they want some things else than they possess. 
 The child of God is so satisfied that he only wants more 
 of what he possesses. The traveler in a desert land, after 
 many days of painful thirst, going from place to place, 
 for water, and finding every promised spring dried up, at 
 length finds the overflowing fountain. It is sufficient. He 
 will seek no further. He thinks not of substituting the 
 sand of the desert for its waters. More of it he will want. 
 Other than it, he wants not, and thus is he satisfied. Thus 
 sat David besides such a fountain, when he sung, " My 
 heart is fixed, 0, God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and 
 give praise."! He had been seeking fixedness and rest 
 of heart too much in earthly hopes. One dependence after 
 another had been sought, and trusted in, and had failed. 
 Now, his affections have found a sure resting place. He 
 has taken God for his refuge and exclusive portion. His 
 heart, therefore, is fixed; and certain that he cannot be 
 disappointed in that trust, he can sing for joy, and give 
 praise out of the fullness of his gratitude. He is satisfied. 
 He knows he has found what he needed. There is 
 nothing else to be sought. Nothing can add to the suffi- 
 ciency of that portion. " Whom have I, in heaven, but 
 thee ; and there is none upon earth I desire beside thee. 
 
 *Jolinvi.35. tPs.hrii.7. 
 
474 SERMON XXI. 
 
 My strength and niy heart faileth ; but God is the strength 
 of my heart and my portion, forever.""* 
 
 David's experience, in that respect, is still the experi- 
 ence of the people of God. The sinner, who, in his state 
 of alienation from God, has been wandering from one de- 
 vice to another, seeking rest and finding none, and who 
 is now brought to seek in Christ, the peace of God, and 
 there to fix his heart, is satisfied. He knows he has cho- 
 sen that good part which cannot disappoint him. He is 
 not making a mere experiment. When the question arises, 
 " Who will show us any good ?" his answer is at hand 
 "Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us."| 
 
 But still, while David's heart was thus fixed on God, 
 there was an important sense in which he was not satisfied 
 What exceeding strength of language does he use to ex- 
 press his earnest longings for a more perfect rest ! " As 
 the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my 
 soul after thee, 0, God ! My soul is athirst for God. 
 When shall I come to appear before the presence of 
 God ! "J There is evidently a deep feeling of dissatis- 
 faction with present attainment. But what is he thirst- 
 ing for ? Something besides God, or only more of God ? 
 The more he is satisfied, the more he wants. Having ex- 
 perienced such delight in God, under the imperfections of 
 the present life, he longs for the time when he may stand 
 in open vision, in God's immediate presence, and when his 
 cup will be full. Thus it is that the promise of Jesus, 
 " he that drinketh of the water that I will give him shall 
 never thirst," is not all fulfilled in the present life. The 
 godly soul, drinking of that water, does thirst; and thirsts 
 
 * Ps. Ixxiii. 25, 26. fPs. iv. 6. $ Ps. xlii. 1, 2. 
 
THE FINAL SATISFACTION OP THE BELIEVER IN JESUS. 475 
 
 the more because he drinks. His desire of more is quick- 
 ened by what he has. Because he has tasted how gra- 
 cious the Lord is, therefore he cries, in spirit, "when shall 
 I come to appear before the presence of God," and thus 
 see him as he is ? Jesus now manifests himself unto him 
 as he doth not to the world; but not as he doth to the 
 saints in heaven. Hence, he cannot be satisfied. And 
 the simple reason is that the likeness of God in him is 
 yet imperfect, and hence his communion with God is im- 
 perfect. He is like God, inasmuch as he is truly holy ; 
 he is not like him, inasmuch as he is but imperfectly 
 holy. He is God's child in all his features, but in none 
 of them with maturity of growth. It is his privilege to 
 have access to his Father who is in Heaven, but it is the 
 access of a child in the nursery, under restraint and dis- 
 cipline. The rod of chastening is yet needed. The pain 
 of the hiding of the Father's countenance has sometimes 
 to be endured. He is fed upon the King's meat, but not 
 yet permitted to sit down at the King's table. Joseph 
 loved his brethren, and knew them when they stood be- 
 fore him in the house of Pharaoh, and he yearned over 
 them and longed to make himself known to them, but the 
 time was not come ; they must have some further trials 
 before they would be prepared for him to drop the veil 
 and say, " J am Joseph" As yet, therefore, they ate of 
 the food which Joseph sent, but they ate not at the table 
 where Joseph was. Thus God sends now to his people, 
 in this world, the communications of his love ; the pre- 
 cious gifts of his Spirit ; the bread which giveth eternal life. 
 He comforts and sustains and rejoices their hearts ; but 
 he receives them not yet to the fall communion and sat- 
 
476 SERMON XXI. 
 
 isfaction of the saints " made perfect." It is not because 
 he does not love them enough; but because they are 
 not yet sanctified enough. The veil is that of their own 
 hearts. There is darkness remaining there which can 
 have no fellowship with him who is Light. There is un- 
 holiness remaining there, which can have no communion 
 with Him whose holiness makes even the heavens unclean. 
 In this imperfect, but progressive, sanctification, we can 
 " take the cup of salvation " and be so satisfied, as to want 
 nothing better, but not so as to want nothing more, even that 
 instead of a cup brought to us in this distant wilderness, 
 we may have the blessedness of partaking directly of the 
 river of life as it proceeds " out of the throne of God and 
 the Lamb." Better than what we have, cannot be, for it 
 is of God. More of it, we must have, in proportion as we 
 get nearer to God, in the perfectness of our likeness to 
 his holiness. And when his image shall be all complete in 
 us, no sinfulness remaining to be cleansed away, no feature 
 of holiness to be brought out in more maturity; when he 
 who sitteth " as a refiner and purifier of silver," shall be- 
 hold in us, as in Adam, when just created, the full reflec- 
 tion of his own likeness, every vestige of the fall obliter- 
 ated, every end of the redemption of Christ accomplished, 
 so that we are qualified to behold " his face in righteous- 
 ness ;" then will that face be unveiled in its ineffable glo- 
 ry; the brethren will be taken to the table of their brother, 
 the Lord Jesus, who is " head over all things " for their 
 sake; the children will be received to the immediate pres- 
 ence and vision of their Father who is in Heaven. They 
 shall see him as he is, for they shall be like him.* They 
 shall be satisfied. 
 
 * 1 John ii. 2. 
 
THE FINAL SATISFACTION OF THE BELIEVER IN JESUS. 477 
 
 This leads us to the time when the Psalmist expected 
 to be in possession of that consummation of happiness. 
 " I shall be satisfied when I awake, with thy likeness." 
 When I aivalce. We have no doubt that the awaking of 
 the dead at the resurrection of the just, was what David 
 was especially anticipating when he wrote these words. 
 But we may suppose him to have had reference also to a 
 nearer event. There must be something very like awak- 
 ing out of sleep, when the soul, disembodied at death, 
 first beholds those things eternal, the glory of God, the 
 inheritance of the saints, of which in this life it had form- 
 ed so feeble a conception. There is nothing indeed in an 
 immortal spirit departing from the body, analogous to the 
 falling asleep of the body in death, and waiting till the 
 resurrection before it lives again. There is no unconscious- 
 ness. But there is something in the whole condition of a 
 soul before it departs hence ; in all its views and ideas of 
 the future; in the thraldom of its powers; in the dreami- 
 ness of its best thoughts of the heavenly state, very like 
 the movements of our minds in sleep. What torpor holds 
 down our faculties when we try to realize what, if God's 
 people, we soon shall be ! How drowsy and dull our live- 
 liest conceptions of things unseen and eternal ! How feebly 
 and confusedly do our ears hear the sounds from the eter- 
 nal world, bidding us give diligence to be ready to meet 
 our God ! How little we feel what we are, and whither 
 going ! Will not the soul seem to itself to have sudden- 
 ly awaked out of sleep, as if the shadows and dreams, 
 and insensibility, of a night of slumber had all been dis- 
 persed at once, and almost a new existence begun, when 
 coming forth from the "earthly house of this tabernacle," 
 
478 SERMON XXI. 
 
 it shall find itself in the midst of the heavenly inhabit- 
 ants, in the unveiled glory of their eternal portion, in the 
 immediate presence and vision of their great God and 
 Saviour, Jesus Christ ? 
 
 But when thus we awake, it will be with God's like- 
 ness. The departed child of God will see his face in a 
 righteousness made perfect. The work of sanctification 
 will have been completed at the dissolution of the body. 
 The Christian departed is thus all ready for the presence 
 of the glory of God. He goes therefore into that pres- 
 ence, and abides there, without hindrance to the most per- 
 fect communion, and is satisfied in " the fulness of God." 
 
 But there is still a sense in which he looks forward to a 
 period of more complete satisfaction. All that the dis- 
 embodied spirit is, all the powers and faculties it possess- 
 es, are satisfied. It knows no want. It rests from its 
 labors. "Absent from the body," it is "present with the 
 Lord."* Its communion with God is full; every veil 
 taken away. But still it is "absent from the body ;" and it 
 is absent, not from choice, but because the body is under 
 the bondage of death, and as long as it lies there, the 
 penalty of sin is upon it, and the redemption of man is 
 not complete. It is as much against nature, and in con- 
 travention of the purpose of God in our creation; it is as 
 really a continuance of the power of death, for the soul 
 to be absent from the body, as for the body to be deprived 
 of the soul. If the immortal spirit be the only life of the 
 body; the body is the only proper habitation of that 
 spirit. And so long as their separation lasts, both are in- 
 heriting the consequences of sin ; the one as lying in the 
 
 *2 Cor. v. 8. 
 
THE FINAL SATISFACTION OF THE BELIEVER IN JESUS. 479 
 
 corruption of the grave, the other as living in exclusion 
 from a residence wonderfully made for it, by the wisdom 
 and power of God. 
 
 Hence it is promised, as the finishing work of the redemp- 
 tion of Christ, which is to destroy all the works of the devil 
 in his people, and make a full end of all that sin has done, 
 that this absence from the body shall have an end. The 
 grave is to be made to give up its dead. Its prisoned 
 bodies are to be unbound. Its corruption is to put on in- 
 corruption, Its mortal is to put on immortality. In the 
 perfectness of the original creation shall the bodies of the 
 dead in Christ come forth. Yea more, "He shall change 
 our vile bodies and make them like unto his own glorious 
 body" so that, as our souls shall be like him in holiness, 
 our bodies also shall be like him in glory. And think ye, 
 that those blessed ones, who died in the Lord and are now 
 blessed with the Lord, do not remember with the fondest 
 expectation that promise of a glorious, triumphant resur- 
 rection of their bodies ? Can they regard the work of 
 their Redeemer as finished, so long as there remains a 
 word of that declaration unfulfilled : "I will ransom them 
 from the power of the grave ; I will redeem them from 
 death ; death, I will be thy plagues ; grave, I will be 
 thy destruction ?" : What nearer union can take place 
 than the marriage between the soul and its body; and 
 what more violent, unnatural divorce, than when they are 
 separated at death; and next to the redemption of the 
 soul from the condemnation of sin, what more worthy ob- 
 ject of the redemption achieved by our blessed Lord can 
 there be, than the restoration to the ransomed soul of its 
 
 *Hosea xiii. 14. 
 
480 SERMON XXI. 
 
 long lost and ruined body, raised from death, and invested 
 with the glory of him who is " the resurrection of the 
 life?" Is there a spot on earth, therefore, which a child 
 of God now " absent from the body, and present with the 
 Lord," remembers with more interest than that where his 
 body was buried; where its dust lies mingled with the dust 
 of the earth, forgotten of men, seen of God ; and whence, 
 on a day soon coming, it is to come forth, at the sounding 
 of the last trump, incorruptible and immortal, to be one 
 with that soul again, and that forever and ever? Hence, 
 satisfied as that disembodied spirit is, because made per- 
 fect in holiness, and now in free and perfect communion 
 with God; satisfied, because all its own capacities are filled 
 with blessedness; we must suppose there is a time coming 
 when, as by the resurrection of the body, it will be more 
 completely restored from the consequences of sin, so will 
 it be restored by the same cause to means, and avenues, 
 and capacities of bliss which in its separate state it could 
 not have ; and hence to a satisfaction peculiar to that peri- 
 od of the Church, which will succeed the resurrection. 
 Thus we understand St. Paul, when he speaks of those 
 who have "the first fruits of the Spirit " as "waiting for the 
 redemption of the lody"* So waits now that holy patri- 
 arch whose exulting anticipation of the resurrection we 
 repeat at the burial of our dead, " I know that my Re- 
 deemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day 
 upon the earth, and though, after my skin, worms destroy 
 this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God."f It cannot 
 be to Job, or to the rest of the ransomed of the Lord, a 
 matter of indifference, that worms have now destroyed 
 
 *Rom; viii. 23. f Job xix. 25, 26. 
 
THE FINAL SATISFACTION OF THE BELIEVER IN JESUS. 481 
 
 those bodies in which they once dwelt. It must be a mat- 
 ter of earnest expectation, knowing as they now do, how 
 truly their Redeemer liveth and reigneth, that he will 
 soon "stand on the earth" in the midst of the graves of his 
 saints, and force them to give up their dead. It was that 
 awaking, to which David in the text looked forward, and 
 to which his spirit, absent from the body, though full of 
 glory, still looks forward ; " / shall be satisfied when I 
 awake ivith thy likeness" 
 
 That will be the day of the fulfillment, as never before, 
 of that which has been so long written, " Death is swal- 
 lowed up in victory"* Death is now conquered in 
 every departed believer. But then it will be swallowed 
 up, lost, abolished in victory. There will be no more 
 death to the people of God. Death will all be dead. And 
 the song of praise shall ascend from the whole ransomed 
 multitude, "Thanks to God who giveth us the victory 
 through our Lord Jesus Christ ! "| 0, then, indeed, will 
 the Christian be satisfied. In his flesh, he will see God. 
 His eyes shall behold that unsearchable glory. It is im- 
 possible for us, who have not yet awaked out of the sleep- 
 iness and dreaminess of the fleshly habitation, who, hav- 
 ing never been absent from the body, can form no concep- 
 tion of the state of a disembodied spirit ; it is impossible 
 for us to form any definite idea of the additions to the 
 blessedness of the saints in glory, which the day of resur- 
 rection will bring. It is enough for us to say and believe 
 with St. John, " When Christ shall appear, we shall be like 
 him, for we shall see him as he aVJ 
 
 The appearance of our Lord, when he cometh to 
 
 * 1 Cor. xv. 54. f 1 Co. xv. 57. $ 1 John iii. 2. 
 
 31 
 
482 SERMON XXI. 
 
 raise the dead, is to be attended with a great en- 
 largement of the capacities of the saints for blessed- 
 ness, and consequently a great enlargement of their 
 fullness of joy at God's right hand. "In my flesh, 
 shall I see God." Our whole redeemed, purified, and 
 perfected nature, so far superior to all other of the works 
 of divine wisdom and power, once in such sinful ruin and 
 desolation, then rebuilt as a glorious temple for the wor- 
 ship of God forever, adorned with the beauty of a most 
 perfect holiness, fragrant with the incense of a most per- 
 fect love, and filled with the memorials of the redeeming 
 grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, will be taken possession 
 of, and inhabited by, the glory of God, as when the bright 
 cloud came down upon the new-built temple of Jerusalem, 
 and " filled the house of the Lord." All the inner cham- 
 bers ; all the mysterious and vast capacities of that reno- 
 vated and exalted nature will be filled with God. St. Paul 
 speaks of that glorified state, as that in which the saints 
 will be "fitted with all the fullness of God:'* Think of that 
 expression ! It measures "the breadth, and length, and 
 depth, and height," of heaven. "Filled with all the fullness 
 of God" ! Every faculty, every affection, every desire, 
 every thought, every sense, thus filled ; thus in immediate 
 communion with the glory of Jehovah ! It is in vain that 
 we endeavor to reach a height of thought from which to 
 survey even a little margin of that promised inheritance. 
 Our loftiest mount of vision is enveloped in cloud. Our 
 best anticipations, when the full reality comes, will be found 
 "but as dreams when one awaketh." There must be 
 a boundless difference between seeing that inheritance 
 
 * Eph. iii. 19. 
 
THE FINAL SATISFACTION OF THE BELIEVER IN JESUS. 483 
 
 "through a glass darkly" and seeing it "face to face." 
 We have not yet awaked. Our best conceptions are 
 sleepy and imaginary. Bat when we do awake with God's 
 likeness, we shall be satisfied. 
 
 And now, my brethren, with some considerations arising 
 out of the views we have been occupied with, we will con- 
 clude this discourse. 
 
 1st. Let us be careful, when we indulge a hope of the 
 heavenly bliss, that it is the heavenly bliss we are hoping 
 for, and not some creation of our own imagination. Many 
 a man who comforts himself with such hope, would find 
 nothing that his heart could enjoy in the happiness of 
 the saints, were it once revealed to his view. How infi- 
 nitely is it exalted above the groveling ideas which the 
 world forms of its nature, as if any but a holy heart could 
 know it. You have heard, in this discourse, how the scrip- 
 tures speak of it. Job's expectation of it was, " In my 
 flesh, I shall see God." David's, "I will behold thy face 
 in righteousness." John's, "We shall be like him, for we 
 shall see him as he is " Our Lord expressed the same, 
 when he prayed: "Father, I will that those whom thou 
 hast given me, be with me where I am ; that they may 
 behold my glory."* You see the grand idea. Intimate 
 communion with God ; happiness arising out of being with 
 him; such is the highest conception presented in the 
 scriptures of the life eternal. We love to speak of it in 
 the beautiful imagery of the scriptures; but let us take 
 care that we rest not in the imagery. To think of heaven 
 as " a rest which remaineth to the people of God," gives a 
 refreshing prospect to the wearied heart ; but we must be 
 
 * John xvii. 24. 
 
484 SERMON XXI. 
 
 careful to think of it as a Sabbath-iest, a holy rest rest 
 in God ; rest which none but holy hearts can know. The 
 sorrowful heart, to which all this world, viewed through 
 the darkness of affliction, appears shrouded in continual 
 night, dwells with pleasure on the thought, there shall be 
 no night there. But you must remember that it is only 
 because the saints shall see the face of the glory of God ; 
 and that to all who are not prepared by a personal holiness 
 to commune with that glory, it is all night, even as the 
 brightest day is darkness to the blind. 
 
 I doubt not there will be innumerable contributions to 
 the happiness of that inheritance ; beauties to the eye, 
 harmonies to the ear, noble offices for every faculty of 
 mind, a universe of knowledge to enjoy; intellectual and 
 spiritual communion with the works and people of God ; 
 a thousand inlets and streams of bliss, of which we can 
 have no conception here. But they will be only the tribu- 
 taries to the ocean. They will aid, but not contribute, 
 the blessedness. To its great source in the divine full- 
 ness, they will stand related, as the loveliness of the gar- 
 den of Paradise, to Adam's walking with God in its 
 midst; the smiles of God reflected, his praises echoed, 
 his love expressed; all of them only the varied forms 
 under which he will spread the table of his heavenly 
 communion. But the King, himself, shall come in to see 
 the guests, and " God will be ally and in all" 
 
 2d. You must see, brethren, how great and radical is 
 the spiritual change, the change of heart, which all must 
 undergo, before they can enter into that life of the world 
 to come. Great is the contrast and the opposition, be- 
 tween the aspect in which the scriptures represent the 
 
THE FINAL SATISFACTION OF THE BELIEVER IN JESUS. 485 
 
 heavenly felicity, and the affections and dispositions of 
 the natural mind. What, to the world, is less interesting, 
 more insipid, less capable of their appreciation, than the 
 expectation of David: "I shall behold thy face in right- 
 eousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake, with thy like- 
 ness." Communion with God ! what is there which the 
 unregenerate heart cannot more easily partake in, and 
 enjoy ? 0, how utterly dead is that heart to all such 
 blessedness ! Instead of seeking it, hungering for it, 
 thinking of all future happiness as consisting in its per- 
 fection ; it turns away from it, to almost any communion 
 with earthly things as a relief, and feels positively averse 
 to expending a single thought upon endeavoring to draw 
 nigh to God. My hearers, is this your state ? Must 
 heaven change its whole nature, before you could be hap- 
 py there ? But it will not What then ? Why you must 
 be changed in your whole spiritual nature, if you would 
 be capable of happiness in heaven. A mighty change, on 
 one side or other, there must be, or you cannot see the 
 kingdom of God. " Ye must be lorn again" is a requisi- 
 tion, founded, not merely in the will of God, but in the 
 nature of heaven, and in the fallen, sinful, alienated 
 condition of the nature of man. 
 
 3d. You see, my brethren, how good an evidence it is 
 that God's work of grace hath place in you, and that you 
 are being prepared to " see his face in righteousness," if 
 now you "hunger and thirst after righteousness." A 
 precious blessing has our Lord pronounced on that state 
 of mind. The hungering soul "shall be filled" It shall 
 be filled with the holiness it seeks. In other words, it 
 shall be satisfied. That earnest appetite for holiness, is 
 
486 SERMON XXI. 
 
 the surest evidence of holiness already begun. It is the 
 exercise of that very grace which it seeks. It is the 
 fruit of the Spirit of holiness, by which he witnesses with 
 your spirits that you are born of God. It is the very es- 
 sence of all true prayer, and must be answered. It is 
 that beginning of communion with God, which has only to 
 go on, to enlarge at last into the fullness of the commu- 
 nion of heaven. " My sheep hear my voice and they fol- 
 low me, (saith the good shepherd,) and I give unto them 
 eternal life." That following of the heart after Christ ; 
 that hungering for more of the bread which he giveth; 
 that bleating of the sheep after the fountain of water to 
 which he leads his flock, satisfied no where else, expecting 
 satisfaction no where else ; that shews where you belong, 
 who your shepherd is, and how surely eternal life will be 
 given you when he gathers his flock around him. 
 
 Lastly ; Let those who have in their hearts the evi- 
 dence of God's children, enjoy the expectation of what 
 he has prepared for them when they shall awake in the 
 world to come. It is written, "He giveth songs in the 
 night." Our text is one of those songs. It was given 
 to David in a dark night, when the wicked compassed 
 him about. His heart rejoiced in God as he sung these 
 strains : " I will behold thy face in righteousness. I shall 
 be satisfied when I awake, with thy likeness." 
 
 Brethren in the Lord, be the same our joy in the trials 
 of our pilgrimage and warfare ! It is the Lord's song in 
 a strange land, where we are far from home ; the land of 
 our dispersion and bondage ; the land of sorrows and dark- 
 ness, of enemies and conflict. Have ye the first fruits of 
 the Spirit in your hearts, as a pledge and foretaste of the 
 
THE FINAL SATISFACTION OF THE BELIEVER IN JESUS. 487 
 
 glorious harvest ? Then enjoy the blessed hope of the 
 full fruition of that harvest, when you shall rest from your 
 labors. The more you find in this world to afflict you, 
 the more let your hearts be feasted with the prospect of 
 that world where every tear is wiped away. When tribu- 
 lation cometh upon you, and all seems dreary and empty 
 here, and the flesh is tempted to murmur, remember you 
 have in heaven " an enduring substance," " an incorrupt- 
 ible inheritance," " a crown of righteousness." Seize the 
 harp and sing : " Why art thou cast down, Oh my soul, 
 and why art thou so disquieted within me ! Hope thou 
 in God, for I shall yet praise him." The time of my re- 
 demption draweth nigh, when I shall behold thy face, 
 God, in righteousness. I shall be satisfied, when I wake 
 up with thy likeness. 
 
SE1I10I XXII. 
 
 THE MINISTER OF CHRIST EXHORTED TO GROWTH IN GRACE. 
 
 1 TIMOTHY, vi. 11. 
 
 " Thou, man of God, flee these things, and follow after righteousness, 
 godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness." 
 
 THE Epistles of St. Paul to Timothy, his own son in the 
 faith, are impressive records of the deep concern of that 
 holy Apostle, for the spiritual advancement of his younger 
 fellow laborer in the Gospel field. They show how, in his 
 view, the growth of usefulness in the ministry depended 
 on growth in grace, and how necessary he thought it, that 
 whosoever would build up the Church, by the increase of 
 its holiness and of the number of living members of 
 Christ, should himself be built up in the deep laid and 
 well wrought experience of things pertaining to the 
 Christian life ; that whosoever would be instrumental in 
 leading sinners to the fountain of life in Christ, should be 
 a man well acquainted in his own heart with the precious- 
 ness of that living water, and constantly in the habit of 
 drinking thereof, for his own spiritual necessities. The 
 text is an example of what we refer to. It is a loud call 
 of an aged and experienced ambassador of Christ to a 
 young minister of great piety and promise, warning him 
 against dangers which might ruin his usefulness, by ruin- 
 
THE MINISTER OF CHRIST EXHORTED TO GROWTH IN GRACE. 489 
 
 ing his spirituality of mind, and urging him to press on 
 after an ever increasing attainment in that eminent quali- 
 fication for his ministry which is found in a vigorous, 
 earnest, and growing piety. 
 
 I. Let us first consider the designation under which 
 Timothy is addressed " Thou man of God" 
 
 It is a form of expression which frequently occurs in 
 the Old Testament. It is applied to Moses, and David, 
 and Elijah, and various others. But we find it there used 
 for none but men bearing the prophetic office. The un- 
 official members of the Church, however eminent in holi- 
 ness, and however honored by such appellations, as "sons 
 of God," "the peculiar people of God," &c., &c., are never 
 called as Timothy is addressed in the text ; and even the 
 official men, who bore the dignity of priests of the Levit- 
 ical Law, except such of them as were also called to the 
 office of prophet, were not so named. 
 
 Now, the reason of this is seen in the meaning of the 
 appellation. "Man of God," means God's man by way 
 of eminence; God's messenger, honored with a special 
 call and message ; one sent upon a great errand from God, 
 and specially chosen for that very purpose. Such was 
 not the call of the Jewish priest : he inherited his office, 
 coming to it by virtue of his connection with the family 
 of Aaron. Nor was the Jewish priest, as a priest, sent 
 from God on any errand to man. His office was that 
 of an intercessor, on the part of man, with God. Not so 
 the prophets of the Old Testament. They were God's 
 men emphatically ; they came directly from him to men, 
 with messages of solemn import. And besides this, there 
 was no inheriting that office. The prophet was person- 
 
490 SERMON XXII. 
 
 ally, individually, directly, chosen and anointed of God 
 for his work. Thus was he a "man of God." 
 
 Now, the minister of the Gospel, as God's messenger, 
 is the prophet of the Christian dispensation. He is a 
 priest indeed, but only as all believers in Jesus are "a 
 royal priesthood,"* to offer up the spiritual sacrifices of 
 prayer and praise, in the sanctuary of their own hearts, 
 through the mediation of the one sacrifice offered once, 
 for all in the priesthood of Jesus Christ. In his official 
 distinctive work, the minister of the gospel has no errand 
 of intercession from man to God. His office is simply that of 
 an ambassador from God to man; and his call to that office 
 is, in every case, an individual, personal call; as much so, 
 and as much from God, as was that of Moses in Midian, 
 or of Samuel in the tabernacle, or of Elisha in the field, 
 or of the sons of Zebedee at the sea of Tiberias, or of Saul 
 on the road to Damascus.f If, in those cases just men- 
 tioned, the call from the Head of the Church was heard 
 by the ear, in a voice from heaven; and if the call of the 
 minister of the Gospel in these days, by the same au- 
 thority, is by the silent agency of the Holy Spirit, speak- 
 ing in the ear only of a listening conscience, there is still 
 no difference as to the reality of a personal and direct 
 call from God. Hence that solemn question at the or- 
 dination of our ministers, the answer of which demands 
 such a searching, faithful, prayerful self-examination 
 "Do you trust that you are inwardly moved by the 
 
 * 1 Peter, ii. 5,9. 
 
 t We must be understood here as speaking exclusively of that inward call 
 of which, under God, one's own conscience is the final judge. To the out- 
 ward call, by the laying on of hands, we have no allusion; but at the same 
 time we would guard against any inference, from our silence, derogatory to its 
 necessity. 
 
THE MINISTER OF CHRIST EXHORTED TO GROWTH IN GRACE. 491 
 
 Holy Ghost to take upon you this office and minis- 
 tration?" And hence the Church, in her address to 
 those who are ordained, exhorts them to consider 
 that they are called "to be messengers, watchmen, and 
 stewards of the Lord." Thus is the minister of the Gos- 
 pel, who has been truly called, a man of God; God's man, 
 for God's work. And hence the application of that name 
 to Timothy in the text, "Thou, man of God, follow 
 after righteousness, godliness," &c. The name has come 
 down from him to us; and what a sermon does that very 
 name preach to a minister of Christ, as to the responsibility 
 and solemnity of his work! Who does not so realize his 
 short-coming in all the spirit of his office, and all the duty 
 it involves, as to feel his heart shrink at the application to 
 himself of such a title ? But such is our scriptural ad- 
 dress, brethren in the ministry, and it is for us to see 
 that we honor it, by diligently obeying the exhortation 
 addressed to us in the text " Flee these things, andfolloiv 
 after righteousness" &c. 
 
 II. In considering this exhortation, let us first speak 
 of what we are here enjoined to flee " These things" 
 what things? The answer is in the previous verses: 
 " They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, 
 and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men 
 in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is 
 the root of all evil ; which while some have coveted after, 
 they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves 
 through with many sorrows." Then comes the exhorta- 
 tion "Man of God, flee these things" It is therefore 
 the desire to be rich the love of worldly possessions 
 with all those temptations and snares, those encumbering 
 
492 SERMON XXII. 
 
 cares and dangerous worldly lusts, which come so directly 
 from that source, and so often drown the professing Chris- 
 tian in spiritual rain. It is these things against which we 
 are exhorted. 
 
 A minister, even in the furthest separation from the 
 possibility of worldly gain, provides no escape from the 
 exhortation in the text. It is not probable that Timothy 
 had any worldly substance, or any prospect of becoming 
 possessed of much. Days of persecution, when men had 
 literally to forsake all things to follow Christ, were no 
 times to lay up treasures on earth. There is no minister 
 among us so poor, and so unlikely ever to be otherwise 
 than poor, whom it would not be quite as reasonable still 
 to charge against the love of money, as it was for St. 
 Paul thus solemnly to exhort his beloved Timothy. 
 
 The truth is, brethren, no position in life is exempt 
 from this rank root of all evil. Ifc is indigenous in the 
 heart of man, and stands all climates, and can grow under 
 the most adverse conditions. The heavy foot of poverty 
 cannot tread it down, so that it will not grow by the pres- 
 sure, and extract sustenance from its adversities. The 
 entire impossibility of any considerable increase of worldly 
 possessions is no barrier to its growth. It is not the 
 man who 'becomes rich, but who desires to be rich, that falls 
 into the temptation and snare. It is not the having but 
 the loving of money, which is the root of all evil. It was 
 some who " COVETED after" not who had gained wealth, 
 that Paul spoke of as having " erred from the faith, and 
 pierced themselves through with many sorrows." The 
 coveting of worldly possessions may flourish in the hearts 
 of beggars, and within the walls of a monastery, and in 
 
THE MINISTER OF CHRIST EXHORTED TO GROWTH IN GRACE. 493 
 
 the narrow worldly circumstances of a poor village pastor, 
 as luxuriantly as in the counting-rooms of merchants, or 
 the haunts of the exchange. The man who desires only 
 to lay up an amount, which to another would be but a 
 beggarly pittance, too trifling to be cared for, may never- 
 theless be as much engrossed and cankered by that desire 
 as another with the coveting of millions. 
 
 I cannot take time to speak of the destructive effect of 
 such a passion upon the heart of a minister of Christ as 
 to all the spirit of his work, or upon his reputation and 
 usefulness. The mere appearance of the evil is a blight 
 upon his influence. St. Paul's charge to Timothy as a 
 man of God was "Flee these things" Get far away ! The 
 very neighborhood is dangerous; the atmosphere is infec- 
 tious. The same charge would I urge, on the present oc- 
 casion, upon those especially who are now about to be 
 received to the work of the ministry. Flee these things; 
 all worldly lusts indeed, all secularity of spirit ; particu- 
 larly that which fixes and incarnates itself in that root of 
 all evil, the love of money, whether there be hope of 
 being ever much increased in goods or not. Be de- 
 termined that the breath of the reputation of such a 
 spirit shall never settle upon your influence. See to it 
 that your motives in undertaking the ministry, and in all 
 its future prosecution, be elevated far above that level. 
 Be jealous of your hearts in this respect; be not satisfied 
 with finding that the evil spirit has not yet entered. You 
 are to change condition and circumstances, and conse- 
 quently temptations. It is never too late for the heart 
 to be taken captive by that snare of the devil. The 
 
494 SERMON XXII. 
 
 young man in his studies, with no wants but his own to 
 provide for, is a very different being from the same man 
 in the world, with a household to provide for. The root 
 of evil, which, in the retirement of preparatory study, 
 may lie almost dormant in the heart, may grow rapidly to 
 seed when stimulated by the influences of more social and 
 public life. Flee these things in the motives which shall 
 influence you in selecting or seeking a field of labor in 
 your sacred work. Flee these things hereafter in the con- 
 siderations which shall govern you in changing a field of 
 labor where your work is blessed, for another more invit- 
 ing in a worldly view. Flee these things in those efforts 
 and arrangements which, under the general duty of so 
 providing for yourselves and your families, as to be free 
 from the necessity of distracting secular cares, it is proper 
 for a minister to see to; but which may be so seen to as 
 to nourish a worldly spirit, and betray the operations of 
 that spirit, to the great injury of your usefulness. Flee 
 these things in the very appearance. Take care of your 
 conversation, lest it seem so to love to linger amidst cer- 
 tain topics, and so to indicate a mind attached to certain 
 channels of thought, that the appearance will be as if 
 your interests and affections were more under the sway of 
 the love of money, than the honor and usefulness of your 
 high calling allow. Be determined that there shall be 
 nothing in your actual state of mind, or in your reputa- 
 tion, to hinder yqu from preaching with all boldness and 
 faithfulness against all worldliness of mind, and especially 
 that deadly form of it now under consideration; nothing, 
 when you are so preaching, reasonably to awaken in the 
 hearer the words, "Physician, heal thyself'' 
 
THE MINISTER OF CHRIST EXHORTED TO GROWTH IN GRACE. 495 
 
 2. But, besides what we are to Jfoefrom, St. Paul's ex- 
 hortation to Timothy prescribes what, as ministers of the 
 Gospel, we must follow after ; " Follow after righteous- 
 ness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness." 
 
 The foundation of the minister is the Christian. To be 
 a man of God in office, one must first be a child of God in 
 heart and life. The first school of preparation for the 
 preaching of Christ, is that of the knowledge of Christ 
 in the habitual experience of a believing heart, embrac- 
 ing his promises, living on his grace, following his com- 
 mandments. Education for the ministry begins at the 
 conversion of the sinner; it goes on with every new ex- 
 perience of his own heart and of the preciousness of Christ; 
 it enlarges as faith increases, and love grows earnest, and 
 lessons of patience and meekness are better learned, and 
 as righteousness and godliness are more understood by 
 their practical applications in the daily life. The educa- 
 tion of books and teachers and the class-room, from the 
 foundation in the college to the termination on the day 
 of the laying on of hands, makes far the most appearance 
 to the common eye, and to some, we fear, seems the only 
 education. Its great importance I need not assert or vin- 
 dicate. But, brethren, it is merely man's education. The 
 teacher is only man ; and for a man of God we need God 
 to teach. It is his work we have to do, and it is his pre- 
 paration we must have. Hence, important as is the edu- 
 cation of learning and of the intellect, the education that 
 grows up in the closet of secret prayer, in the personal 
 application of the Scriptures to your consciences, to your 
 hopes, your affections, and motives, and walk; in the 
 study of yourselves and of that spiritual knowledge of 
 
496 SERMON XXII. 
 
 Christ for which Paul counted all things but worthless ; 
 that education of which the Bible is the text- book, the 
 spirit of God the teacher, a meek and lowly mind the 
 learner, secret prayer the lamp, and a watchful self-disci- 
 pline the rod ; that education, the progress of which is in 
 the bringing of every thought more and more "into cap- 
 tivity to the obedience of Christ." Oh ! nothing can 
 compare with that in its worth or necessity to a minister 
 of the Gospel. It is riches which we may well covet after: 
 it is gold, the love of which is the root of all blessings, 
 and addeth no sorrow with it : it is the strong protection 
 against erring from the faith far stronger than the best 
 education in the mere knowledge of the arguments of the 
 truth. 
 
 A minister without the education of books is consid- 
 ered a very destitute being, and very unqualified for his 
 office. But a minister with the education of grace, what 
 is he in the sight of God ? What should he be in his own 
 sight ? The man of an unchanged heart ; who never 
 came as a sinner to Christ for mercy ; who knows nothing 
 by experience of that precious Gospel out of which all the 
 object, motive, weapons, encouragement, strength, and 
 patience of the ministry must come ; the mere hireling 
 functionary wearing the profession of the ministry as an 
 automaton performs its part in the dress of a living man ; 
 a dead body standing up in the holy place of the sanctua- 
 ry, braced to its position by outward ordinance and worldly 
 ties: can such do the work of an evangelist? Nothing 
 would have filled a devout Israelite with a deeper sense 
 of profanation than to place a corpse by the altar of God's 
 temple. But what must be thought in Heaven of one 
 
THE MINISTER OF CHRIST EXHORTED TO GROWTH IN GRACE. 497 
 
 who is yet dead in heart towards God, with all the corruption 
 of an unregenerated nature about him, such a man minis- 
 tering in Gospel sacraments and Gospel promises and in- 
 vitations, professing to stand beside the fountain of living 
 waters, as if he knew their preciousness to perishing souls; 
 accountable for the duty, which he has bound on his soul 
 by most solemn vows, of setting forth the Saviour of sin- 
 ners in all the riches of his grace ! Is HE a man of God ? 
 Yes, in profession, in vow, in office, in responsibility. As 
 such, he must stand at the judgment bar. Oh ! that all 
 would be horribly afraid of being made by ordination men 
 of God, until they have been first made by regeneration 
 God's children, having the spirit of adoption shed abroad 
 in their hearts by the Holy Ghost. 
 
 Bat it is not the possession of grace so much as growth 
 in grace that we are led by the text to speak of the fol- 
 lowing after more and more attainment in the several at- 
 tributes of a Christian character already essentially pos- 
 sessed. 
 
 And here, I would say, with special emphasis, that a 
 minister's spiritual qualification for his great spiritual 
 work is in his being not merely a Christian, but a growing 
 Christian. Is it the merely living tree that bears good 
 fruit, or is it the growing tree ? Is it the old wood of the 
 vine that puts out the fruit-bud, and suspends the clus- 
 tering grapes, or the latest growth ? So it is with every 
 Christian. He is either growing, or withering in his reli- 
 gious life. There is no possibility of his standing so per- 
 fectly still, that he shall be neither gaining nor losing. So 
 is it with the minister. He may possess the essential re- 
 ality of the spiritual life, and that life may have manifest- 
 32 
 
498 SERMON XXII. 
 
 ed itself in many goodly branches of the true vine ; but 
 if those branches are not growing, they are decaying, and 
 their fruitfulness has declined. That growth which once 
 bore fruit may remain, but the buds of new fruitfulness 
 are not formed. We can no more depend on a past growth 
 of love and faith, for present fruits of love and faith, 
 than the Israelite in the wilderness could subsist one 
 day upon the manna that he gathered days before ; or, 
 than a Christian can live upon past prayers, instead of 
 daily renewed communion with God. It is the pres- 
 ent experience, and not merely the remembered expe- 
 rience of the grace of God ; it is the fresh enjoyment of 
 his love, the fresh delight in his service, fresh spiritual 
 discernment of things of the spirit ; it is the knowledge 
 of Christ, not merely once attained and still preserved, 
 but a knowledge daily renewed and now enjoyed, and now 
 ever enlarging and getting more and more to possess the 
 soul, which prepares us for, and animates us in patiently 
 pursuing our daily work, and makes the man of God as a 
 tree planted by the rivers of water, bringing forth its 
 fruit in due season, the leaf never withering. 
 
 Give me the man in whose heart the love of God is 
 abounding more and more, and I will ask him to preach 
 on the wonderful love of Christ in the redemption of sin- 
 ners, and on the constraining power by which it should 
 bind us to live unto him, as well as on all the earnest de- 
 votedness which should flow therefrom. Give me the min- 
 ister of an active, strengthening faith, such as is daily 
 drawing new supplies of grace, and hope, and peace, from 
 the fountain in Christ, and he shall preach on such a text, 
 as "He ili at believeth on the Son hath life." Show me the 
 minister who is going on to acquire an ever fresh and en 
 
THE MINISTER OP CHRIST EXHORTED TO GROWTH IN GRACE. 499 
 
 larging experience of the preciousness of that peace which 
 Jesus promises to the weary heart that comes to him, 
 he is the man to go with a tender, affectionate, persuasive 
 zeal, and tell a perishing world what a Saviour they are 
 rejecting, when they turn away from Jesus. Oh ! it is 
 when we are most hungering and thirsting after righteous- 
 ness, that we are best prepared to press sinners to come 
 to the heavenly feast. Then, it is, that the Bible is so 
 full of texts; and that materials of discourse seem so 
 richly to abound, and that the true savor and unction of 
 the Gospel, as morning dews from the mount of God, rest 
 upon our ministry ; because then we speak what we do 
 know, and testify what our faith solemnly realizes. How 
 shall we minister in the Gospel with any sustaining confi- 
 dence that we ourselves are true disciples of Christ, having 
 a saving interest in his redemption, except we are striving 
 to grow in grace ? There is no evidence that we are alive 
 unto God so good as that of growth in the grace of God. 
 How shall we preach to a Christian people upon the duty 
 of a continual progress in holiness, yea, reprove, rebuke, 
 and exhort with all long-suffering, that their path may be as 
 the shining light which shineth more and more unto the 
 perfect day, except we know in the consciousness of our 
 hearts that we ourselves are striving after that same 
 blessed progress? And how can we ever increase in the 
 real strength of our ministry, in its power with God to 
 bring down the blessings of his spirit, or in its power with 
 man to accomplish in his heart that great change, which 
 only the power of God can effect, but as we increase in 
 our personal nearness to God through faith, and become 
 more thoroughly baptized with the Holy Ghost ? 
 
500 SERMON XXII. 
 
 Therefore, man of God, and ye who are now to be 
 invested with the office of the man of God, I beseech 
 you " follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, pa- 
 tience, meekness." You will need all the strength of 
 "faith" you can ever obtain, that you may do your work 
 in full view of eternity, of God, of judgment, of heaven, 
 and hell; that you may trust with an unflinching and 
 undiscouraged heart in those divine promises, which must 
 be all your consolation as ministers of the Gospel, and 
 may always enjoy the invigorating feeling, that you go to 
 your labors in the name, in the grace, in the strength, 
 and under the shadow of the Almighty. You will need 
 all the "love" you can ever get, to give you that earnest, 
 affectionate, pleading heart, out of which the true elo- 
 quence of our ministry proceeds, and which alone fur- 
 nishes the constraining motive, the unwearied zeal, the 
 abundant argument, and the whole pleasure of our office. 
 You will need all the progress you can make in "patience 
 and meekness" so that difficulties, and crosses, and appa- 
 rent unfruitfulness, and the hardness of heart, and all the 
 thousand annoyances and discouragements of every form, 
 which you must expect to encounter in trying to bring 
 sinners to God, instead of paralyzing your zeal and ma- 
 king you settle down in a mere formal routine of service, 
 that expects no blessing from God and no great work of 
 grace in man, may, on the contrary, take you nearer to 
 the arm of the Lord for help, and make you more con- 
 formed to the mind of Christ, who was " meek and lowly 
 in heart." 
 
 And now, that I may as much as possible speak the 
 word in season, to those who are here to be invested with 
 the office of ministers of Christ, I will introduce, as it 
 
THE MINISTER OF CHRIST EXHROTED TO GROWTH IN GRACE. 5 01 
 
 were, a new text, as the guide of what I desire yet to say. 
 You remember the words of our Lord to his ordained 
 disciples u I have ordained you that you should go and 
 bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain."' 
 
 "/ have ordained you" Ever in the course of your 
 ministry, my young friends, remember from whence your 
 authority to minister in the Lord's vineyard proceeds. 
 Visibly, the servant and steward of Christ, who is over 
 you in the Lord, conveys it. Invisibly, it is the Lord 
 himself who gives it. You can have no place in the or- 
 dained stewardship of the Gospel, but as Christ himself 
 assigns it to you. In assigning the work, and investing 
 you with the commission of his ministers, he lays on you 
 the most solemn responsibility to himself. " / have or- 
 dained you" means, to me you are to give an account. Your 
 day of ordination and your day of judgment are most 
 intimately connected. The vows and the duties here to 
 be bound upon you, will be bound in heaven; and whether 
 you heed them or not, fulfill them or not, they will meet 
 you and confront you in the day when you shall give 
 account of your stewardship. Realize, then, that it is the 
 Lord who ordains you. He appoints your work; he will 
 bring your work into judgment; he is to be your guide 
 in doing it, and your great consolation, when you feel 
 your weakness for so momentous a trust. He is your 
 whole strength, your all-sufficient strength ; a very present, 
 as also a very mighty help in all time of need. 
 
 But for ivhat does the Lord thus put you into his min- 
 istry? It is a question which it were well for you often 
 
 *Jolmxv. 1C. 
 
502 SERMON XXII. 
 
 and most solemnly to put to your own hearts and 
 consciences why hath the Lord ordained me? Why 
 this order of ministry, thus created, so perpetuated, so 
 protected ; entered by such vows ; held under such re- 
 sponsibility? Why am I admitted thereto ? Is it that I 
 may obtain a worldly maintenance, or enjoy a respectable 
 position, and sustain a routine of formal ecclesiastical ser- 
 vices? Is it for myself, or the Lord? my own emolument, 
 or the salvation of sinners? "I have ordained you that you 
 should go and Iring forth fruit" Fruit to the glory of 
 God, whatever it may cost in point of personal sacrifice, 
 is the single object of the ministry now to be committed 
 to you. Nothing can take its place nothing can excuse 
 its absence. "Every branch in me (saith the Lord) that 
 beareth not fruit, he (the father) taketh away." It is 
 cast into the fire, and is burned.* If these solemn words 
 apply to all fruitless members of the visible Church, much 
 more do they apply to all fruitless branches of its minis- 
 try. Let their solemn warning be ever sounding in the 
 ear of your consciences, and especially when you are 
 tempted to live unto yourselves, instead of to the Lord ; to 
 be satisfied with the perfunctory fulfillment of a certain 
 round of customary offices, and to make your ministry ter- 
 minate in itself, instead of aspiring evermore to be instru- 
 mental in gathering more fruit to the glory of the grace 
 of God. 
 
 But the question arises here what is the fruit which 
 the Lord ordains you to go and bring forth ? The answer 
 is found in the Lord's own words " that your fruit should 
 remain" It is abiding fruit, such as will remain when the 
 
 John xv. 5, 6. 
 
THE MINISTER OF CHRIST EXHORTED TO GROWTH IN GRACE. 503 
 
 world and all that is therein shall have passed away ; stand- 
 ing the test of God's final judgment, and remaining to 
 His glory for ever and ever. 
 
 There is never a ministry without fruit, either good or 
 evil ; nor without fruit that remains in its blessings or its 
 woes for ever and ever. We cannot avoid, if we will, 
 the doing some work. Our indifference and worldliness 
 and negligence and formality will preach and make their 
 impression, if zeal and earnestness and faithfulness do 
 not. But fruit that will remain when the Lord of the har- 
 vest, whose fan is in his hand, shall thoroughly cleanse his 
 floor, and gather the wheat into his garner, and burn up 
 the chaff with unquenchable fire that is the end of the 
 work to which you are called. 
 
 There is much fruit in the Lord's ministry which, in 
 that day, will be lighter than vanity, and far worse than 
 nothingness. What if you teach a system of doctrine 
 which is not according to God's word, and lead away the 
 minds of sinners from an exclusive trust for salvation in 
 the righteousness of Christ, to a self-righteous reliance on 
 their own obedience ; and they become earnest in that re- 
 ligion, and diligent in thus going about to establish their 
 own righteousness, not submitting themselves on the right- 
 eousness of God, prepared in Christ, for their justification; 
 and what, if to increase their opportunity of establishing 
 the more widely and surely their own righteousness, you 
 invent for them works of merit, works of self-sacrifice, works 
 of compensation to the law of God, which have no sanc- 
 tion in the scriptures ; works of " voluntary humility ; " and 
 what if in their zeal to work out a righteousness that will 
 satisfy the demands of God's law, they become exceedingly 
 
504 SERMON XXII. 
 
 laborious in such works, giving largely of their substance 
 to build religious establishments, spending daily much of 
 their time in prayers and sacraments and divers bodily ser- 
 vices, so that you think them very devout and holy what 
 is all such fruit ? Will it remain ? Is there any other 
 foundation than that which God has laid in the obedience 
 and death of his only begotten Son? And can all this 
 leading of the souls of men away from that only founda- 
 tion, to the substitution of their own righteousness, be else 
 than unspeakably abhorrent to God ? Can there be any 
 fruit of your ministry more ruinous to the souls of your peo- 
 ple, or more condemning to yourselves ? Can it abide the 
 day of God, or stand when he appeareth ? Can it endure 
 the fire that shall try every man's work of what sort it is ? 
 There is, however, good fruit which doth not remain. 
 It is good, but temporal ; which belongs to the present 
 earthly dispensation of the Church, but will have no place 
 in the heavenly and eternal ; it lasts till death, but no 
 longer. It is good, and must be sought, and has its im- 
 portant uses and relations ; but it is secondary and subsidi- 
 ary, and only good when kept in that position. I speak of 
 all that belongs to the exterior, the visible of the Church, in 
 its ordinances and ritual, its edifices and ornaments, so far as 
 the word appoints, or a wise consideration of the great end 
 of all may permit. Take care that you give these exter- 
 nal things the right place of importance in your ministry, 
 and no more. They are the scaffolding of the building; 
 they must not be treated as if they were the building 
 itself. When this is finished they will be dispensed with. 
 They belong to the seen and the temporal You may do a 
 great work, in the estimation of man, in bringing people 
 to sacraments and to attending on outward services, in 
 
THE MINISTER OF CHRIST EXHORTED TO GROWTH IN GRACE. 505 
 
 rearing church edifices and covering the land with all the 
 visible of religion, and yet nothing for eternity ; nothing 
 that will remain when all that is seen shall vanish away, 
 and only the spiritual and the eternal shall endure ; noth- 
 ing that he who ordains you will esteem as the fruit for 
 which you are sent. Despise not these things; labor for 
 them in their proper relation and place. But remember 
 they are only secondary means at the best. 
 
 But fruit there is that remains to all eternity. What is 
 it ? I trust you are all ready to say, "It is the salvation 
 of sinners, by bringing them to Christ; it is their being 
 brought to repentance and to a saving faith in Jesus, and 
 their abiding by faith in him as all their hope and life; 
 that is the fruit for which we are ordained." Yes, verily; 
 and what else will you compare to that ? All the visible 
 of the Church ministry, sacraments, ritual, will pass away, 
 just as the visible of the former dispensation has all pass- 
 ed away. But that remaineth. That alone glorifies God. 
 That alone did Jesus die for, and send the Holy Ghost to 
 accomplish, and the ministry to labor for. All else, in 
 comparison, is vanity. You may spend your lives in the 
 mere building up of the Church in its outward appoint- 
 ments ; but he who brings only one sinner to Christ is in- 
 finitely beyond you in the fruit of his ministry. For such 
 fruit the faithful minister expends his strength; around 
 that one point his studies, and prayers, and anxieties, and 
 labors concentrate. He is comforted only as he may hope 
 that God is blessing, or will bless, his work with such re- 
 ward. My brethren, is that to be the begining and end- 
 ing of your work ? 
 
 But how will you seek it ? By what means ? The ques- 
 tion is exceedingly important. There are ways and means 
 
506 SERMON XXII. 
 
 by which you may seek to save sinners, and utterly fail, and 
 worse than fail ; leading souls away from Christ, and har- 
 dening them in impenitence and self-righteousness, just be- 
 cause they are not those means which the Lord, who or- 
 dains you, has ordained to be used by you. Read the par- 
 able of the sower. The sower is the minister of the Gos- 
 pel. What means does he employ ? He sows seed. He 
 expects nothing but as the product of seed. What is 
 that seed ? " The Word" answers the Lord. Does the 
 Lord speak of any other seed ? Can any thing produce 
 the fruit of life in the souls of men, but as it contains, 
 or teaches, or nourishes the word therein ? Are sacra- 
 ments seed, or only helps, under God's blessing, of teach- 
 ing, enforcing, impressing, and nourishing the only seed? 
 Must not all growth in grace, in all the world, be traced 
 exclusively to God's blessing on his word, his truth ; just 
 as all fruit in the harvest-field must be ascribed to the sun 
 and rain nourishing the seed of the husbandmen ? 
 
 Remember, then, my brethren, that to sow the seed of 
 the word, and the word only, and by all the means of grace 
 to promote its growth, is as much your great work, as it 
 is to go and seek the salvation of souls ; he who fails here, 
 fails in his whole ministry. Nothing can supply that lack. 
 To "preach the word ; " and in that one work to be "in- 
 stant in season, out of season" is to be your life. All your 
 heart and mind and strength are needed, and are demand- 
 ed for it. All are in your ordination consecrated to it, 
 and must be employed for it. So Paul charged Timothy 
 so you are charged to-day " before God and our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, who shall Judge the quick and the dead, at 
 his appearing."* 
 
 *2 Timothy iv. 1, 2. 
 
THE MINSTER OF CHRIST EXHORTED TO GROWTH IN GRACE. 507 
 
 Bat the word of God is the testimony of Christ. He 
 is " the truth" as well as the life. The word severed from 
 its relations to him is not the word of God, is not "the 
 truth as it is in Jesns," and cannot be the seed of the 
 fruit of holiness and eternal life. You may preach a great 
 deal of the word, yea, nothing but truth and the word. 
 You may preach many very solemn, and affecting, and 
 alarming truths, and may make serious impressions, and get 
 the praise of much faithfulness. Duties may be earnestly 
 enforced, the law held forth in its strictness, and the judg- 
 ment day in its terrors ; and yet you may not preach the 
 word in its integrity ; you may not sow the good seed of 
 the kingdom ; you may not preach the Gospel, because 
 you may not preach Christ. Does he teach the solar sys- 
 tem, who while he accurately describes all the planets in 
 all other repects, omits to exhibit their relations to, and 
 dependence on, the sun ? Can he preach the Gospel, who, 
 whatever else of truth and of the word he may teach, 
 does not set forth Christ and him crucified in his person, 
 and offices, and work for sinners, his death, and present 
 ever-living intercession, as the great central light, and 
 life, and glory, on which all Christianity depends, on 
 which all its parts concentrate, from which all our hope, 
 and strength, and righteousness proceed ? Can the 
 word be the seed of spiritual life in the sinner's heart 
 but as it thus testifies of Jesus ? Can any fruit of 
 your ministry be that fruit which will remain to the eter- 
 nal blessedness of the soul and the endless glory of God, 
 except as it grows from the word thus testifying of Christ ? 
 And, my brethren, will you not determine, by the help of 
 God, to make it the study of your life to be able with all 
 
508 
 
 SERMON XXII. 
 
 simplicity, and clearness, and directness, and faithfulness, 
 and fullness, in the spirit of Christ, to teach Christ to the 
 consciences and hearts of men ? Will you not sit at his 
 feet, that he may teach you more and more that great les- 
 son ? Will you not seek your whole happiness in that 
 school, and your whole reward in that one work? Never 
 are my sympathies and affections more called out and mov- 
 ed, than when I look upon a young man just entering on 
 the work of the ministry. I see before him, by the light 
 of experience, what he as yet cannot see, however he may 
 expect it, all his trials of heart, with himself with the 
 world, with temptations to discouragement and desponden- 
 cy, to coldness and formality. And the more his desire 
 to do the work, and the deeper his sense of the solemn 
 responsibility upon him and the worth of souls about him, 
 the greater will be many of his trials. My heart is with 
 that young man in all its sympathies. Such, I trust, are 
 those now present, awaiting the laying on of hands for 
 the work of the Gospel. I can only commend them to 
 God and his grace, that they may have for their constant 
 teacher and helper, and their final portion and glory, that 
 same Jesus to whose work they are now to be sent. Ever- 
 more may you abide in him, and he in you ! Evermore 
 may you be " strengthened with all might, and the Spirit, 
 in the inner man," accomplishing the end of your work in 
 the bringing forth of much fruit, of souls brought to Christ 
 and abiding in him ! 
 
ERRATA. 
 
 e 6 line G from the bottom, for perceivetk, read receivetlt. 
 13 line 2, before Catholic, put the. 
 142 line 19, for terrors, read terror. 
 
 176 lines 18 and 19, for we know not, read it doth not yet appear. 
 235 line 13, before promises, put the. 
 371 text, for give, read giving. 
 372 note, for Rom xm. 17, read Rom. viii, 1G, 17. 
 379 note, after Is. lx., put 19. 
 392 line 22, for precious, read previous. 
 460 last line, for that of, read to. 
 463 last line, for it, read text. 
 471 first line, before man's, put in. 
 496 line 17, for with, read without. 
 503 line 9 from the bottom, for on, read to. 
 503 line 4 from the bottom for and, read by. 
 
508 
 
 SERMON XXII. 
 
 simplicity, and clearness, and directness, and faithfulness, 
 and fullness, in the spirit of Christ, to teach Christ to the 
 consciences and hearts of men ? Will you not sit at his 
 feet, that he may teach you more and more that great les- 
 t seek your whole happiness in that 
 
 the bringing forth of much fruit, of souls brought to Christ 
 and abiding in him ! 
 
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