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'E 
 
CHRISTIAN LIFE, 
 
 ITS COURSE, ITS HINDRANCES, 
 AND ITS HELPS. 
 
 SERMONS, 
 
 PREACHED MOSTLY IN THE CHAPEL OF RUGBY SCHOOL. 
 
 THOMAS ARNOLD, D.D. 
 
 HEAD MASTER OF RUGBY SCHOOL, 
 AND LATE FELLOW OF ORIEL COLLEGE, OXFORD. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 B. FELLOWES, LUDGATE STREET. 
 
 1841. 
 
R. CLAY, PRINTER, BREAD STREET HILL. 
 
INTEODUCTIOK 
 
 701014 
 
" As far as the principle on which Archbishop Laud and his 
 followers acted went to re-actuate the idea of the church, as a co- 
 ordinate and living power by right of Christ's institution and express 
 promise, I go along with them; but I soon discover that by the 
 church they meant the clergy, the hierarchy exclusively, and then 
 I fly oiFfrom them in a tangent. 
 
 " For it is this very interpretation of the church, that, according 
 to my conviction, constituted the first and fundamental apostasy ; 
 and I hold it for one of the greatest mistakes of our polemic divines, 
 in their controversies with the Romanists, that they trace all the 
 corruptions of the gospel faith to the Papacy." — Coleridge. Literary 
 Remains, vol. iii. p. 386. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The Sermons contained in this volume will 
 be found, I hope, to be in agreement with its 
 title ; although having been written separately, 
 and not having been intended to form together 
 a systematic work, they were not capable of 
 making any regular whole. They were all 
 preached in the chapel of Rugby School, with 
 the exception of the XXIP, and of the last 
 three in the volume ; and of those three, one 
 was preached at Ambleside, another in the 
 parish church at Rugby, and the third, 
 (the XXXIX*^) was written for a congregation 
 in Westmorland, but was in fact never preached 
 at all. 
 
 Amongst the helps of Christian life, the 
 highest place is due to the Christian church 
 and its ordinances. Several sermons will be 
 
 b 
 
11 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 found dwelling upon this point ; and the con- 
 cluding sermon considers the church in its 
 complete development ; that is, when perfectly 
 identified with the State. I venture to call the 
 reader's attention to this, because I believe that 
 I have been greatly misunderstood with respect 
 to my estimate of the Christian church, as dis- 
 tinguished from the Christian religion. I agree 
 so far with those, from whom I in other things 
 most widely differ, that I hold the revival of the 
 church of Christ in its full perfection, to be the 
 one great end to which all our efforts should be 
 directed. This is with me no new belief, but 
 one which I have entertained for many years. 
 It was impressed most strongly upon me, as it 
 appears to have been upon others, by the re- 
 markable state of affairs and of opinions which 
 we witnessed in this country about nine or ten 
 years ago ; and every thing since that time has 
 confirmed it in my mind more and more. 
 
 Others, according to their own statement, 
 received the same impression from the pheno- 
 mena of the same period. But the movement 
 had begun earlier ; nor should I object to call it, 
 as they do, a movement towards '' something 
 deeper and truer than satisfied the last cen- 
 
INTRODUCTION. Ill 
 
 tury."* It began, I suppose, in the last ten 
 years of the last century, and has ever since 
 been working onwards, though for a long time 
 slowly and secretly, and with no distinctly 
 marked direction. But still, in philosophy and 
 general literature, there have been sufficient 
 proofs that the pendulum, which for nearly two 
 hundred years had been swinging one way, was 
 now beginning to swing back again ; and as its 
 last oscillation brought it far from the true 
 centre, so it may be, that its present impulse 
 may be no less in excess, and thus may bring 
 on again, in after ages, another corresponding 
 reaction. 
 
 Now if it be asked what, setting aside the 
 metaphor, are the two points between which 
 mankind has been thus moving to and fro ; 
 and what are the tendencies in us which, thus 
 alternately predominating, give so different a 
 character to different periods of the human 
 history ; the answer is not easy to be given sum- 
 marily, for the generalization which it requires 
 is almost beyond the compass of the human 
 mind. Several phenomena appear in each 
 period, and it would be easy to give any one 
 
 * See Mr. Newman's Letter to Dr. Jelf, p. 27. 
 
 h2 
 
IV INTRODUCTION. 
 
 of these as marking its tendency ; as, for 
 instance, we might describe one period as having 
 a tendency to despotism, and another to Hcen- 
 tiousness : but the true answer hes deeper, and 
 can be only given by discovering that common 
 element in human nature which, in religion, in 
 politics, in philosophy, and in hterature, being 
 modified by the subject matter of each, assumes 
 in each a different form, so that its own proper 
 nature is no longer to be recognised. Again, it 
 would be an error to suppose that either of the 
 two tendencies which so affect the course of 
 human affairs were to be called simply bad or 
 good. Each has its good and evil nicely inter- 
 mingled ; and taking the highest good of each, 
 it would be difficult to say which was the more 
 excellent; — taking the last corruption of each, 
 we could not determine which was the more 
 hateful. For so far as we can trace back the 
 manifold streams, flowing some from the eastern 
 mountains, and some from the western, to the 
 highest springs from which they rise, we find on 
 the one side the ideas of truth and justice, on 
 the other those of beauty and love : — things so 
 exalted, and so inseparably united in the divine 
 perfections, that to set either two above the 
 
INTRODUCTION. V 
 
 other were presumptuous and profane. Yet 
 these most divine things separated from each 
 other, and defiled in their passage through this 
 lower world, do each assume a form in human 
 nature of very great evil : the exclusive and 
 corrupted love of truth and justice becomes in 
 man selfish atheism; the exclusive and cor- 
 rupted worship of beauty and love becomes in 
 man a bloody and a lying idolatry. 
 
 Such would be the general theory of the two 
 great currents in which human affairs may be 
 said to have been successively drifting. But 
 real history, even the history of all mankind, and 
 much more that of any particular age or country, 
 presents a picture far more complicated. First, 
 as to time : as the vessels in a harbour, and in 
 the open sea without it, may be seen swinging 
 with the tide at the same moment in opposite 
 directions ; the ebb has begun in the roadstead, 
 while it is not yet high water in the harbour ; so 
 one or more nations may be in advance of or 
 behind the general tendency of their age, and 
 from either cause may be moving in the opposite 
 direction. Again, the tendency or movement in 
 itself is liable to frequent interruptions^ and short 
 counter-movements : even when the tide is 
 
VI INTRODUCTION. 
 
 coming in upon the shore, every wave retires 
 after its advance ; and he who follows in- 
 cautiously the retreating waters, may be caught 
 by some stronger billow, overwhelming again for 
 an instant the spot which had just been left 
 dry. A child standing by the sea sh©re for a 
 few minutes, and watching this, as it seems, irre- 
 gular advance and retreat of the water, could 
 not tell whether it was ebb or flood : and we, 
 standing for a few years on the shore of time, 
 can scarcely tell whether the particular move- 
 ment which we witness is according to or against 
 the general tendency of the whole period. 
 Farther yet, as these great tendencies are often 
 interrupted, so are they continually mixed : that 
 is, not only are their own good and bad elements 
 successively predominant, but they never have 
 the world wholly to themselves: the opposite 
 tendency exists, in an under-current it may be, 
 and not lightly perceptible ; but here and there 
 it struggles to the surface, and mingles its own 
 good and evil with the predominant good and evil 
 of its antagonist. Wherefore he who would learn 
 wisdom from the complex experience of history, 
 must question closely all its phenomena, must 
 notice that which is less obvious as well as that 
 
INTRODUCTION. Vli 
 
 which is most palpable, must judge not peremp- 
 torily or sweepingly, but with reserves and 
 exceptions; not as lightly overrunning a wide 
 region of truths but thankful if after much pains 
 he has advanced his land-marks only a little ; if 
 he has gained, as it were, but one or two frontier 
 fortresses, in which he-can establish himself for 
 ever. 
 
 Now, then, when Mr. Newman describes the 
 movement of the present moment as being 
 directed towards '' something better and deeper 
 than satisfied the last century," this description, 
 although in some sense true, is yet in practice 
 delusive ; and the delusion which lurks in it is at 
 the root of the errors of Mr. Newman and of 
 his friends. They regard the tendencies of the 
 last century as wholly evil, and they appear to 
 extend this feeling to the whole period of which 
 the last century was the close, and which began 
 nearly with the sixteenth century. Viewing in 
 this light the last three hundred years, they 
 regard naturally with excessive favour the 
 preceding period with which they are so strongly 
 contrasted ; and not the less because this period 
 has been an object of scorn to the times which 
 have followed it. They are drawn towards the 
 
Vlll INTRODUCTION. 
 
 enemy of their enemy, and they fancy that it 
 must be in all points their enemy's opposite. 
 And if the faults of its last decline are too pal- 
 pable to be denied, they ascend to its middle and 
 its earlier course, and finding that its evils are 
 there less flagrant, they abandon themselves 
 wholly to the contemplation of its good points, 
 and end with making it an idol. There are few 
 stranger and sadder sights than to see men 
 judging of whole periods of the history of man- 
 kind with the blindness of party-spirit, never 
 naming one century without expressions of con- 
 tempt or abhorrence, never mentioning another 
 but with extravagant and un distinguishing ad- 
 miration. 
 
 But the worst was yet to come. The period 
 which Mr. Newman and his friends so dishked, 
 had, in its religious character, been distinguished 
 by its professions of extreme veneration for the 
 Scriptures : in its quarrel with the system of 
 the preceding period it had rested all its cause 
 on the authority of the Scripture, — it had con- 
 demned the older system because Scripture 
 could give no warrant for it. On the other 
 hand, the partizans of the older system pro- 
 tested against the exclusive appeal to Scripture ; 
 
INTRODUCTION. IX 
 
 there was, as they maintained, another autho- 
 rity in rehgious matters ; if their system was not 
 supported in all its points by Scripture, it had 
 at least the warrant of Christian antiquity. 
 Thus Mr. Newman and his friends found that 
 the times which they disliked had professed to 
 rely on Scripture alone; the times which they 
 loved had invested the church with equal 
 authority. It was natural then to connect the 
 evils of the iron age, for so they regarded it, 
 with this notion of the sole supremacy of 
 Scripture ; and it was no less natural to asso- 
 ciate the blessings of their imagined golden age 
 with its avowed reverence for the church. If 
 they appealed only to Scripture, they echoed 
 the language of men whom they abhorred ; 
 if they 'exalted the church and Christian anti- 
 quity, they sympathized with a period which 
 they were resolved to love. Their theological 
 writings from the very beginning have too 
 plainly shown in this respect the force both of 
 their sympathies and their antipathies. 
 
 Thus previously disposed, and in their sense 
 or apprehension of the evils of their own times 
 already flying as it were for refuge to the system 
 of times past, they were overtaken by the poli- 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 tical storm of 1831, and the two following 
 years. That storm rattled loudly, and alarmed 
 many who had viewed the gathering of the 
 clouds with hope and pleasure ; no wonder, 
 then, if it produced a stormy effect upon those 
 who viewed it as a mere calamity, an evil 
 monster bred out of an evil time, and fraught 
 with nothing but mischief. Farther, the govern- 
 ment of the country was now for the first time 
 for many years in the hands of men who ad- 
 mired the spirit of the age nearly as much as 
 Mr. Newman and his friends abhorred it. Thus 
 all things seemed combined against them : the 
 spirit of the period which they so hated w^as 
 riding as it were upon the whirlwind ; they 
 knew not where its violence might burst; and 
 the government of the country was, as they 
 thought, driving wildly before it, without at- 
 tempting to moderate its fury. Already they 
 were inclined to recognise the signs of a national 
 apostasy. 
 
 But from this point they have themselves 
 written their own history. — Mr. PercevaVs letter 
 to the editor of the Irish Ecclesiastical Journal, 
 which was reprinted in the Oxford Herald of 
 January 30, 1841, is really a document of the 
 
INTRODUCTION. XI 
 
 highest value. It acquaints us^ from the very 
 best authority, with the immediate occasion of 
 the pubhcation of the Tracts for the Times, and 
 with the objects of their writers. It tells us 
 whither their eyes were turned for deliverance; 
 with what charm they hoped to allay the trou- 
 bled waters. Ecclesiastical history would be far 
 more valuable than it is, if we could thus learn 
 the real character and views of every church, 
 or sect, or party, from itself, and not from its 
 opponents. 
 
 Mr. Perceval informs us, that the Irish Church 
 Act of 1833, which abolished several of the 
 Irish Bishoprics, was the immediate occasion of 
 the publication of the Tracts for the Times ; and 
 that the objects of that publication were, to 
 enforce the doctrine of the apostolical succes- 
 sion, and to preserve the Prayer Book from 
 " the Socinian leaven, with which we had reason 
 to fear it would be tainted by the parliamentary 
 alteration of it, which at that time was openly 
 talked of." But the second of these objects is 
 not mentioned in the more formal statements 
 which Mr. Perceval gives of them ; and in what 
 he calls the *' matured account" of the principles 
 of the writers, it is only said, "whereas, there 
 
Xll INTRODUCTION. 
 
 seems great danger at present of attempts at un- 
 authorized and inconsiderate innovation as in 
 other matters so especially in the service of our 
 church, we pledge ourselves to resist any attempt 
 that may be made to alter the Liturgy on insuffi- 
 cient authority : L e. without the exercise of the 
 free and deliberate judgment of the church on 
 the alterations proposed." It would seem, there- 
 fore, that what was particularly deprecated was 
 '^the alteration of the Liturgy on insufficient 
 authority," without reference to any suspected 
 character of the alteration in itself. But at any 
 rate, as all probability of any alteration in the 
 Liturgy vanished very soon after the publication 
 of the tracts began, the other object, the 
 maintaining the doctrine of the apostolical 
 succession, as it had been the principal one from 
 the beginning, became in a very short time the 
 only one. 
 
 The great remedy, therefore, for the evils of 
 the times, the " something deeper and truer than 
 satisfied the last century," or, at least, the most 
 effectual means of attaining to it, is declared to 
 be the maintenance of the doctrine of apostolical 
 succession. Now let us hear, for it is most im- 
 portant, the grounds on which this doctrine is to 
 
INTRODUCTION. xiii 
 
 be enforced, and the reason why so much stress 
 is laid on it. I quote again from Mr. Perceval's 
 letter. 
 
 "Considering, 1. That the only way of salva- 
 tion is the partaking of the body and blood of 
 our sacrificed Redeemer ; 
 
 "2. That the mean expressly authorized by 
 him for that purpose is the holy sacrament of 
 his supper ; 
 
 " 3. That the security by him no less expressly 
 authorized, for the continuance and due applica- 
 tion of that sacrament, is the apostolical com- 
 mission of the bishops, and under them the 
 presbyters of the church ; 
 
 '' 4. That under the present circumstances of 
 the church in England, there is peculiar danger 
 of these matters being slighted and practically 
 disavowed, and of numbers of Christians being 
 left or tempted to precarious and unauthorized 
 ways of communion, which must terminate often 
 in vital apostasy ; 
 
 " We desire to pledge ourselves one to another, 
 reserving our canonical obedience, as follows : — 
 
 "1. To be on the watch for all opportunities 
 of inculcating, on all committed to our charge, 
 a due sense of the inestimable privilege of com- 
 
XIV INTRODUCTION. 
 
 munion with our Lord, through the successors 
 of the apostles, and of leading them to the 
 resolution to transmit it, by his blessing, unim- 
 paired to their children." 
 
 Then follow two other resolutions : one to 
 provide and circulate books and tracts, to fami- 
 liarize men's minds with this doctrine ; and the 
 other, ^^to do what lies in us towards reviving 
 among churchmen the practice of daily common 
 prayer, and more frequent participation of the 
 Lord's Supper." 
 
 The fourth resolution, " to resist unauthorized 
 alterations of the Liturgy," I have already quoted : 
 the fifth and last engages generally to place 
 within the reach of all men, accounts of such 
 points in our discipline and worship as may 
 appear most likely to be misunderstood or un- 
 dervalued. 
 
 These resolutions were drawn up more than 
 seven years ago, and their practical results have 
 not been contemptible. The Tracts for the 
 Times amount to no fewer than ninety; while 
 the sermons, articles in reviews, stories, essays, 
 poems, and writings of all sorts which have 
 enforced the same doctrines, have been also 
 extremely numerous. Nor have all these 
 
INTRODUCTION. XV 
 
 labours been without fruit ; for it is known 
 that a large proportion of the clergy have 
 adopted, either wholly or in great part, the 
 opinions and spirit of the Tracts for the Times ; 
 and many of the laity have embraced them also. 
 
 It seems also, that in the various publications 
 of their school, the object originally marked out 
 in the resolutions quoted above, has been fol- 
 lowed with great steadiness. The system has 
 been uniform, and its several parts have held 
 well together. It has, perhaps, been carried on 
 of late more boldly, which is the natural con- 
 sequence of success. It has in all points been 
 the direct opposite of what may be called the 
 spirit of English protestantism of the nineteenth 
 century ; upholding whatever that spirit would 
 depreciate ; decrying whatever it would admire. 
 A short statement of the principal views held 
 by Mr. Newman and his friends, will show this 
 sufficiently. 
 
 " The sacraments, and not preaching, are the 
 sources of divine grace." So it is said in the 
 Advertisement prefixed to the first volume of 
 the Tracts for the Times, in exact conformity 
 with the preamble to the resolutions, which I 
 have already quoted. But the only security for 
 
XVI INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the efficacy of the sacraments^ is the apostoHcal 
 commission of the bishops^ and under them, of 
 the presbyters of the church. So it is said in 
 the preamble to the resolutions. These two 
 doctrines are the foundation of the whole 
 system. God's grace, and our salvation, come 
 to us principally through the virtue of the 
 sacraments ; the virtue of the sacraments de- 
 pends on the apostolical succession of those 
 who administer them. The clergy, therefore, 
 thus holding in their hands the most precious 
 gifts of the church, acquire naturally the title 
 of the church itself; the church, as possessed 
 of so mysterious a virtue as to communicate to 
 the only means of salvation their saving efficacy, 
 becomes at once an object of the deepest reve- 
 rence. What wonder if to a body endowed with 
 so transcendant a gift there should be given also 
 the spirit of wisdom to discern all truth ; so that 
 the solemn voice of the church in its creeds, 
 and in the decrees of its general councils, must 
 be received as the voice of God himself. Nor 
 can such a body be supposed to have commended 
 any practices or states of life which are not 
 really excellent ; and the duty either of all Chris- 
 tians, or of those at least who would follow the 
 
INTRODUCTION. XVll 
 
 most excellent way. Fasting therefore, and the 
 state of celibacy, are the one a christian obli- 
 gation, the other a christian perfection. Again, 
 being members of a body so exalted, and receiv- 
 ing our very salvation in a way altogether above 
 reason, we must be cautious how we either trust 
 to our individual conscience rather than to the 
 command of the Church, or how we venture to 
 exercise our reason at all in judging of what the 
 Church teaches : childhke faith and childlike obe- 
 dience are the dispositions which God most loves. 
 What, then, are they who are not of the Church, 
 who do not receive the Sacraments from those 
 who can alone give them their virtue ? Surely 
 they are aliens from God, they cannot claim his 
 covenanted mercies ; and the goodness which 
 may be apparent in them, may not be a real 
 goodness ; God may see that it is false, though 
 to us it appear sincere ; but it is certain that 
 they do not possess the only appointed means of 
 salvation ; and therefore, we must consider their 
 state as dangerous, although we may not venture 
 to condemn them. 
 
 I have not consciously misrepresented the 
 system of Mr. Newman and his friends in a 
 single particular; I have not to my knowledge 
 
XVlll INTRODUCTION. 
 
 expressed any one of their tenets invidiously. 
 An attentive reader may deduce, I think, all the 
 subordinate points in their teaching from some 
 one or more of the principles which I have 
 given ; but I have not wilfully omitted any 
 doctrine of importance. And, in every point, the 
 opposition to what I may be allowed to call the 
 protestantism of the nineteenth century is so 
 manifest, that we cannot but feel that the peculiar 
 character of the system is to be traced to what 
 I have before noticed — the extreme antipathy of 
 its founders to the spirit which they felt to be 
 predominant in their own age and country. 
 
 It is worth our while to observe this, because 
 fear and passion are not the surest guides to 
 truth, and the rule of contraries is not the rule 
 of wisdom. Other men have been indignant 
 against the peculiar evils of their own time, and 
 from their strong impression of these have 
 seemed to lose sight of its good points ; but Mr, 
 Newman and his friends appear to hate the 
 nineteenth century for its own sake, and to 
 proscribe all belonging to it, whether good or 
 bad, simply because it does belong to it. — 
 This diseased state of mind is well shown by the 
 immediate occasion of the organization of their 
 
INTRODUCTION. xix 
 
 party. Mr. Perceval tells us that it was the 
 Act for the dissolution of some of the Irish 
 bishoprics, passed in 1833, which first made the 
 authors of the Tracts resolve to commence their 
 publication. Mr. Perceval himself cannot even 
 now speak of that Act temperately ; he calls 
 it ''a, wanton act of sacrilege/* "a monstrous 
 act," "an outrage upon the Church;" and his 
 friends, it may be presumed, spoke of it at the 
 time in language at least equally vehement. 
 Now, I am not expressing any opinion upon the 
 justice or expediency of that Act ; it was opposed 
 by many good men, and its merits or demerits 
 were fairly open to discussion ; but would any 
 fair and sensible person speak of it with such 
 extreme abhorrence as it excited in the minds of 
 Mr. Perceval and his friends ? The act deprived 
 the Church of no portion of its property ; it 
 simply ordered a different distribution of it, with 
 the avowed object on the part of its framers of 
 saving the Church from the odium and the 
 danger of exacting Church Rates from the Roman 
 Catholics. It did nothing more than what, accord- 
 ing to the constitution of the Churches of Eng- 
 land and Ireland, was beyond all question within 
 its lawful authority to do. The King's supre- 
 
 c2 
 
XX INTRODUCTION. 
 
 macy and the sovereignty of parliament may be 
 good or bad, but they are undoubted facts in the 
 constitution of the Church of England, and 
 have been so for nearly three hundred years. I 
 repeat that I am stating no opinion as to the 
 merits of the Irish Church Act of 1 833 ; I 
 only contend, that no man of sound judgment 
 would regard it as ''a, monstrous act," or as 
 '' a wanton sacrilege." It bore upon it no marks 
 of flagrant tyranny ; nor did it restrain the 
 worship of the Church, nor corrupt its faith, nor 
 command or encourage any thing injurious to 
 men's souls in practice. Luther was indignant 
 at the sale of indulgences ; and his horror at the 
 selling Church pardons for money was, by God's 
 blessing, the occasion of the Reformation. The 
 occasion of the new counter- reformation was 
 the abolition of a certain number of bishoprics, 
 that their revenues might be applied solely to 
 church purposes ; and that the Church might so 
 be saved from a scandal and a danger. The dif- 
 ference of the exciting cause of the two move- 
 ments gives the measure of the difference 
 between the Reformation of 1517, and the views 
 and objects of Mr. Newman and his friends. 
 There are states of nervous excitement, when 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXi 
 
 the noise of a light footstep is distracting. In 
 such a condition were the authors of the Tracts 
 in 1833, and all their subsequent proceedings 
 have shown that the disorder was still upon 
 them. Beset by their horror of the nineteenth 
 century, they sought for something most oppo- 
 site to it, and therefore they turned to what 
 they called christian antiquity. Had they judged 
 of their own times fairly, had they appreciated 
 the good of the nineteenth century, as well as 
 its evil, they would have looked for their remedy 
 not to the second or third or fourth centuries, 
 but the first ; they would have tried to restore, 
 not the Church of Cyprian, or Athanasius, or 
 Augustine, but the Church of St. Paul and of ^ 
 St. John. Now, this it is most certain that they 
 have not done. Their appeal has been not to'^ 
 Scripture, but to the opinions and practices of \ 
 the dominant party in the ancient Church. _\ 
 They have endeavoured to set those opinions 
 and practices, under the name of apostohcal tra- 
 dition, on a level with the authority of the 
 Scriptures. But their unfortunate excitement 
 has made them fail of doing even what they 
 intended to do. It may be true that all their 
 doctrines may be found in the writings of those 
 
XXU INTRODUCTION. 
 
 whom they call the fathers; but the effect of 
 their teaching is different because its proportions 
 are altered. Along with their doctrines, there 
 are other points and another spirit prominent in 
 the writings of the earlier Christians, which give 
 to the whole a different complexion. The Tracts 
 for the Times do not appear to me to represent 
 faithfully the language of christian antiquity; 
 they are rather its caricature. 
 
 Still more is this the case, when we compare 
 the language of Mr. Newman and his friends 
 with that of the great divines of the Church of 
 England. Granting that many of these believed 
 firmly in apostolical succession ; that one or two 
 may have held general councils to be infallible ; 
 that some, provoked by the extravagances of the 
 puritans, have spoken over-strongly about the 
 authority of tradition : yet the whole works, 
 even of those who agree with Mr. Newman in 
 these points, give a view of Christianity different 
 from that of the Tracts, because these points, 
 which in the Tracts stand forward without relief, 
 are in our old divines tempered by the admixture 
 of other doctrines, which, without contradicting 
 them, do in fact alter their effect. This applies 
 most strongly, perhaps, to Hooker and Taylor ; 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXlii 
 
 but it holds good also of Bull and Pearson. 
 Pearson's exposition of the article in the Creed 
 relating to the Holy Catholic Church is very 
 different from the language of Mr. Newman : it 
 is such as, with perhaps one single exception, 
 might be subscribed by a man who did not 
 believe in apostolical succession.* ' Again, Pear- 
 son is so far from making the creeds an indepen- 
 
 * The sixth and last mark which he gives of the unity of 
 the Church is, " the unity of discipline and government." 
 " All the Churches of God have the same pastoral guides ap- 
 pointed, authorized, sanctified and set apart by the appoint- 
 ment of God, by the direction of the Spirit, to direct and 
 lead the people of God in the same way of eternal salvation ; 
 as, therefore, there is no Church where there is no order, no 
 ministry, so where the same order and ministry is, there is the 
 same Church. And this is the unity of regiment and disci- 
 pline." Pearson on the Creed, Art. IX. p. 341, seventh edit. fol. 
 1701. It would be easy to put a construction upon this para- 
 graph which I could agree with ; but I suppose that Pearson 
 meant what I hold to be an error. Yet how gently and 
 generally is it expressed ; and this doubtful paragraph stands 
 alone amidst seventeen folio pages on the article of the Holy 
 Catholic Church. And in his conclusion, where he delivers 
 what " every one ought to intend when they profess to believe 
 the Holy Catholic Church," there is not a word about its go- 
 vernment ; nor is Pearson one of those interpreters who 
 pervert the perfectly certain meaning of the word " Catholic" 
 to favour their own notions about episcopacy. I could cor- 
 dially subscribe to every word of this conclusion. 
 
XXIV INTRODUCTION. 
 
 dent authority, coordinate with Scripture, that 
 he declares, contrary, I suppose, to all probability, 
 that the Apostles' Creed itself was but a deduc- 
 tion from our present Scriptures of the New 
 Testament. * Undoubtedly the divines of the 
 seventeenth century are more in agreement with 
 the Tracts than the Reformers are ; but it is by 
 no means true that this agreement is universal. 
 There is but one set of writers whose minds are 
 exactly represented by Mr. Newman and his 
 friends, and these are the nonjurors. 
 
 Many reasons, therefore, concur to make it 
 doubtful whether the authors of the Tracts 
 have discovered the true remedy for the evils of 
 
 * ^* To believe, therefore, as the word stands in the front of 
 the Creed, ... is to assent to the whole and every part of it 
 as to a certain and infallible truth revealed by God, . . . and 
 delivered unto us in the writings of the blessed apostles and 
 prophets immediately inspired, moved, and acted by God, out 
 of whose writings this brief sum of necessary points of faith 
 was first collected." (P. 12.) And in the paragraph immediately 
 preceding, Pearson had said, ** The household of God is built 
 upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, who are 
 continued unto us only in their writings, and by them alone 
 convey unto us the truths which they received from God, upon 
 whose testimony we believe." It appears, therefore, that 
 Pearson not only subscribed the 6th Article of the Church of 
 England, but also believed it. 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXV 
 
 their age ; whether they have really inculcated 
 " something better and deeper than satisfied the 
 last century." The violent prejudice which pre- 
 viously possessed them, and the strong feelings 
 of passion and fear which led immediately to 
 their first systematic publications, must in the 
 first instance awaken a suspicion as to their 
 wisdom; and this suspicion becomes stronger 
 when we find their writings different from the 
 best of those which they profess to admire ; and 
 bearing a close resemblance only to those of the 
 nonjurors. A third consideration is also of much ! 
 weight : that their doctrines do not enforce any/ 
 great points of moral or spiritual perfection 
 which other Christians had neglected ; nor do{ 
 they, in any especial manner, '' preach Christ."- 
 In this they offer a striking contrast to the reli- 
 gious movement, if I may so call it, which began 
 some years since in the University of Cambridge. 
 That movement, whatever human alloy might 
 have been mingled with it, bore on it most clear 
 evidence that it was in the main God's work. 
 It called upon men to turn from sin and be 
 reconciled to God; it emphatically preached 
 Christ crucified. But Mr. Newman and his 
 friends have preached as their peculiar doctrine. 
 
XXVI INTRODUCTION. 
 
 not Christ, but the Church ; we must go even 
 farther and say, not the Church, but themselves, 
 What they teach has no moral or spiritual excel- 
 lence in itself ; but it tends greatly to their own 
 exaltation. They exalt the sacraments highly, 
 but all that they say of their virtue, all their ad- 
 miration of them as so setting forth the excellence 
 of faith, inasmuch as in them the whole work is 
 of God, and man has only to receive and believe^ 
 would be quite as true, and quite as well grounded^ 
 if they were to abandon altogether that doc- 
 trine which it is their avowed object especially 
 to enforce — the doctrine of apostolical succes- 
 sion. Referring again to the preamble of their 
 original resolutions, already quoted, we see that 
 the two first articles alone relate to our Lord 
 and to his Sacraments ; the third, which is the 
 great basis of their system, relates only to the 
 Clergy. Doubtless, if apostolical succession be 
 God's will, it is our duty to receive it and to 
 teach it ; but a number of clergymen, claiming 
 themselves to have this succession, and insisting 
 that, without it, neither Christ nor Christ's Sacra- 
 / ments will save us, do, beyond all contradiction, 
 preach themselves, and magnify their own impor- 
 tance. They are quite right in doing so, if God 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXVll 
 
 has commanded it ; but such preaching has no 
 manifest warrant of God in it ; if it be according 
 to God, it stands alone amongst his dispensations ; 
 his prophets, and his apostles had a different 
 commission. " We preach," said St. Paul, '' not 
 ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord ; and our- 
 selves your servants for Jesus' sake." It is 
 certain that the enforcing apostolical succession 
 as the great object of our teaching is precisely 
 to do that very thing w^hich St. Paul was com- 
 missioned not to do. 
 
 This, to my mind, affords a very great pre- 
 sumption that the peculiar doctrines of Mr. 
 Newman and his friends, those which they make 
 it their professed business to inculcate, are not of 
 God. I am anxious not to be misunderstood in 
 saying this. Mr. Newman and his friends preach 
 many doctrines which are entirely of God; as 
 Christians, as ministers of Christ's Church, they 
 preach God's word ; and thus, a very large 
 portion of their teaching is of God, blessed both 
 to their hearers and to themselves. Nay, even 
 amongst the particular objects to which their 
 own "Resolutions" pledge them, one is indeed 
 most excellent — "the revival of daily common 
 prayer, and more frequent participation of the 
 
XXVlll INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Lord's Supper." This is their merit, not as 
 Christians generally, but as a party (I use the 
 word in no offensive sense) ; in this respect their 
 efforts have done and are doing great good. But 
 they have themselves declared that they will 
 especially set themselves to preach apostolical 
 succession ; and it is with reference to this, that 
 I charge them with '' preaching themselves ;" it 
 was of this I spoke, when I said that there was 
 a very great presumption that their peculiar 
 doctrines were not of God. 
 
 Again, the system which thej hold up as 
 "better and deeper than satisfied the last 
 century" is a remedy which has been tried once 
 already : and its failure was so palpable, that all 
 the evil of the eighteenth century was but the 
 reaction from that enormous evil which this 
 remedy, if it be one, had at any rate been 
 powerless to cure. Apostolical succession, the 
 dignity of the clergy, the authority of the 
 Church, were triumphantly maintained for 
 several centuries ; and their full development 
 was coincident, to say the least, with the cor- 
 ruption alike of Christ's religion and Christ's 
 church. So far were they from tending to 
 realize the promises of prophecy, to perfect 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXIX 
 
 Christ's body up to the measure of the stature 
 of Christ's own fulness, that Christ's Church 
 declined during their ascendency more and 
 more; — she fell alike from truth and from 
 holiness; and these doctrines, if they did not 
 cause the evil, were at least quite unable to 
 restrain it. For, in whatever points the fifteenth 
 century differed from the fourth, it cannot be 
 said that it upheld the apostolical succession 
 less peremptorily, or attached a less value to 
 Church tradition and Church authority. I am 
 greatly understating the case, but I am content 
 for the present to do so : I will not say that 
 Mr. Newman's favourite doctrines were the 
 very Antichrist which corrupted Christianity ; 
 I will only say that they did not prevent its 
 corruption, — that when they were most exalted, 
 christian truth and christian goodness were most 
 depressed. 
 
 After all, however, what has failed once may 
 doubtless be successful on a second trial : it 
 is within possibility, perhaps, that a doctrine, 
 although destitute of all internal evidence 
 showing it to come from God, may be divine 
 notwithstanding ;— revealed for some purposes 
 which we cannot fathom, or simply as an ex- 
 
XXX INTRODUCTION. 
 
 ercise of our obedience. All this may be so ; 
 and if it can be shown to be so, there remains 
 no other course than to believe God's word, and 
 obey his commandments ; only the strength of 
 the external evidence must be in proportion to 
 the weakness of the internal. A good man 
 would ask for no sign from heaven to assure 
 him that God commands judgment, mercy, and 
 truth ; whatsoever things are pure, and lovely, 
 and of good report, bear in themselves the seal 
 of their origin ; a seal which to doubt were 
 blasphemy. But the cloud and the lightnings 
 and thunders, and all the signs and wonders 
 wrought in Egypt and in the Red Sea, were justly 
 required to give divine authority to mere positive 
 ordinances, in which, without such external 
 warrant, none could have recognised the voice 
 of God. We ask of Mr. Newman and his 
 friends to bring some warrant of Scripture for 
 that which they declare to be God's will. They 
 speak very positively and say, that '' the security 
 by our Lord no less expressly authorized for 
 the continuance and due application of the 
 Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, is the apo- 
 stoHcal commission of the bishops, and under 
 them the presbyters of the Church." They 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXxi 
 
 say that our Lord has authorized this "no 
 less expressly" than he has authorized the Holy 
 Supper as the mean of partaking in his body 
 and blood. What our Lord has said concerning 
 the communion, is not truly represented : he 
 instituted it as one mean of grace among many ; 
 not as the mean ; neither the sole mean, nor the 
 
 principal. But allow, for an instant, that it was 
 instituted as the mean; and give this sense to 
 those well-known and ever memorable words in 
 which our Lord commanded his disciples to eat 
 the bread and drink of the cup, in remembrance 
 of him. His words commanding us to do this 
 are express ; " not less express," we are told, is 
 his " sanction of the apostolical commission of 
 the bishops, as the security for the continuance 
 and due application of the Sacrament." Surely 
 these writers allow themselves to pervert lan- 
 guage so habitually, that they do not consider 
 when, and with regard to whom, they are doing 
 it. They say that our Lord has sanctioned the 
 necessity of apostolical succession, in order to 
 secure the continuance and efficacy of the 
 sacrament, " no less expressly" than he instituted 
 the sacrament itself. If they had merely asserted 
 that he had sanctioned the necessity of apostolical 
 
XXXll INTRODUCTION. 
 
 succession, we might have supposed that, by 
 some interpretation of their own, they impHed 
 his sanction of it, from words which, to other 
 men, bore no such meaning. But in saying that 
 he has " expressly sanctioned it," they have, 
 most unconsciously 1 trust, ascribed their own 
 words to our Lord ; they make him to say what 
 he has not said, unless they can produce* some 
 other credible record of his words besides the 
 books of the four evangelists, and the apostolical 
 epistles. 
 
 That their statement is untrue, and, being 
 untrue, that it is a most grave matter to speak 
 untruly of our Lord's commands, are points 
 absolutely certain. But if they recall the asser- 
 tion, as to the expressness of our Lord's sanc- 
 
 * " Scripture alone contains what remains to us of our 
 Lord's teaching. If there be a portion of revelation sacred 
 beyond other portions, distinct and remote in its nature from 
 the rest, it must be the words and works of the eternal Son 
 Incarnate. He is the one Prophet of the Church, as he is our 
 one Priest and King. His history is as far above any other 
 possible revelation, as heaven is above earth ; for in it we have 
 literally the sight of Almighty God in his judgments, thoughts, 
 attributes, and deeds, and his mode of dealing with us his 
 creatures. Now, this special revelation is in Scripture, and 
 in Scripture only : tradition has no part in it." — Newman s 
 Lectures on the Prophetical Office of the Church. 1837. 
 Pp. 347, 348. 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXXllI 
 
 tion, and mean to say, that his sanction is 
 implied, and may be reasonably deduced from 
 what he has said, then I answer, that the deduc- 
 tion ought to be clear, because the doctrine in 
 itself bears on it no marks of having had Christ 
 for its author. Yet so far is it from true, that 
 the necessity of apostolical succession, in order 
 to give efficacy to the sacrament, may be clearly 
 deduced from any recorded words of our Lord, 
 that there are no words* of his from which it 
 
 * Since this was written, I have found out, what certainly 
 it was impossible to anticipate beforehand, that our Lord's 
 words, " Do this in remembrance of me," are supposed to 
 teach the doctrine of the priest's consecrating power. But the 
 passage to which I refer is so remarkable that I must quote it 
 in its author's own words. Mr. Newman, for the tract is 
 apparently one of his, observes, that three out of the four 
 Gospels make no mention of the raising of Lazarus, He then 
 goes on, '* As the raising of Lazarus is true, though not con- 
 tained at all in the first three Gospels ; so the gift of con- 
 secrating the Eucharist may have been committed by Christ 
 to the priesthood, though only indirectly taught in any of the 
 four. Will you say I am arguing against our own Church, 
 which says that Scripture ' contains all things necessary to be 
 believed to salvation V Doubtless, Scripture contains all things 
 necessary to be believed ; but there may be things contained 
 which are not on the surface, and things which belong to the 
 ritual, and not to belief. Points of faith may lie under the 
 surface : points of observance need not be in Scripture at 
 all. The consecrating power is a point of ritual, yet it is 
 indirectly taught in Scripture, though not brought out, when 
 
 d 
 
XXXIV INTRODUCTION. 
 
 can be deduced, either probably or plausibly ; 
 none with which it has any, the faintest, con- 
 nexion ; none from which it could be even 
 
 Christ said, ' Do this,' for he spake to the apostles, who were 
 priests, not to his disciples generally." — Tracts for the TimeSf 
 Tract 85, p. 46. 
 
 This passage is indeed characteristic of the moral and 
 intellectual faults which I have alluded to as marking the 
 writings of the supporters of Mr. Newman's system. But 
 what is become of the assertion, that this security of the 
 apostolical commission was " expressly authorized " by our 
 Lord, when it is admitted that it is only indirectly taught in 
 Scripture ? And what becomes of the notion, that what our 
 Lord did or instituted may be learned from another source 
 than Scripture, when Mr. Newman has most truly stated, in 
 the passage quoted in the preceding note, that our Lord's 
 history, the history of his words and works, "is in Scripture, 
 and Scripture only : tradition has no part in it ?" I pass over 
 the surprising state of mind which could imagine a distinction 
 between things necessary to be believed, and necessary to be 
 done ; and could conceive such a distinction to be according 
 to the meaning of our article. It would appear that this shift 
 has been since abandoned, and others, no way less extraordi- 
 nary, have been attempted in its place ; for an extraordinary 
 process it must be which tries to reconcile Mr. Newman's 
 opinions with the declaration of the sixth article. But now 
 for Mr. Newman's scriptural proof, that our Lord " committed 
 to the priesthood the gift of consecrating the Eucharist." 
 " When Christ said, * Do this,' he spake to the apostles, 
 who were priests, not to his disciples generally." This would 
 prove too much, for it would prove that none but the clergy 
 were ordered to receive the communion at all: the words, 
 *' Do this," referring, not to any consecration, of which there 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXXV 
 
 conjectured that such a tenet had ever been 
 in existence. I am not speaking, it will be 
 observed, of apostolical succession simply; but 
 of the necessity of apostolical succession, as a 
 security for the efficacy of the sacrament. That 
 
 had been no word said, but to the eating the bread, and drink- 
 ing of the cup. Again, when St. Paul says, " the cup which 
 we bless," — " the bread which we break," it is certain that the 
 word, " we," does not refer to himself and Sosthenes, or to 
 himself and Barnabas, but to himself and the whole Corinthian 
 church ; for he immediately goes on, " for we, the whole 
 number of us," (oi ttoWoi, compare Romans xii. 5,) *^ are one 
 body, for we all are partakers of the one bread." Thirdly, 
 Tertullian expressly contrasts the original institution of our 
 Lord with the church practice of his own day, in this very 
 point. " Eucharistise sacramentum et in tempore victus, et 
 omnibus mandatum a Domino, etiam antelucanis coetibus nee 
 de aliorum manu quam praesidentium sumimus." {De Corona 
 Militis, 3.) I know that Tertullian believes the alteration 
 to have been founded upon an apostolical tradition ; but he no 
 less names it as a change from the original institution of our 
 Lord ; nor does he appear to consider it as more than a point 
 of order. Lastly, what shadow of probability is there, and is 
 it not begging the whole question, to assume that our Lord 
 spoke to his apostles as priests, and not as representatives of 
 the whole Christian church ? His language makes a distinc- 
 tion between his disciples and those who were without ; it 
 repels it as dividing his disciples from each other. His 
 twelve disciples were the apostles of the church, but they 
 were not priests. In such matters our Lord's words apply 
 exactly, " One is your Master, even Christ, and all ye are 
 brethren." 
 
 d2 
 
XXXVl INTRODUCTION. 
 
 this doctrine comes from God, is a position 
 altogether without evidence, probability, or pre- 
 sumption, either internal or external. 
 
 On the whole, then, the movement in the 
 church, excited by Mr. Newman and his friends, 
 \/ appears to be made in a false direction, and to 
 be incapable of satisfying the feeling which 
 prompted it. I have not noticed other presump- 
 tions against it, arising from the consequences to 
 which the original doctrines of the party have 
 since led, or from certain moral and intellectual 
 faults which have marked the writings of its sup- 
 porters. It is enough to say, that the movement 
 originated in minds highly prejudiced before 
 hand, and under the immediate influence of 
 passion and fear ; that its doctrines, as a whole, 
 resemble the teaching of no set of writers entitled 
 to respect, either in the early church, or in our 
 own ; that they tend not to Christ's glory, or to 
 the advancement of holiness, but simply to the 
 exaltation of the clergy ; and that they are 
 totally unsupported by the authority of Scrip- 
 ture. They are a plant, therefore, which our 
 heavenly Father has not planted ; a speaking in 
 the name of the Lord what the Lord has not 
 commanded; hay and stubble, built upon the 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXXvii 
 
 foundation of Christ, which are good for nothing 
 but to be burned. 
 
 I have spoken quite confidently of the total 
 absence of all support in Scripture for Mr. New- 
 man's favourite doctrine of " the necessity of 
 apostolical succession, in order to ensure the 
 effect of the sacraments." This doctrine is very 
 different from that of the Divine appointment of 
 episcopacy, as a form of government, or even 
 from that of the exclusive lawfulness of that 
 episcopacy which has come down by succession 
 from the apostles. Much less is it to be con- 
 founded with any notions, however exalted, of 
 the efficacy of the sacraments, even though 
 carried to such a length as we read of in the 
 early church, when living men had themselves 
 baptized as proxies for the dead, and when a 
 portion of the wine of the communion was placed 
 by the side of a corpse in the grave. Such notions 
 may be superstitious and unscriptural, as indeed 
 they are, but they are quite distinct from a belief 
 in the necessity of a human priest to give the 
 sacraments their virtue. And, without going to 
 such lengths as this, men may over-estimate 
 the efficacy of the sacraments, to the disparage- 
 ment of prayer, and preaching, and reading the 
 
XXXVlll INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Scriptures, and yet may be perfectly clear from 
 the opinion which makes this efficacy depend 
 immediately on a human administrator. And so, 
 again, men may hold episcopacy to be divine, 
 and the episcopacy of apostolical succession to 
 be the only true episcopacy, but yet they may 
 utterly reject the notion of its being essential to 
 the efficacy of the sacraments. It is of this last 
 doctrine only that I assert, in the strongest 
 terms, that it is wholly without support in Scrip- 
 ture, direct or indirect, and that it does not 
 minister to godliness. 
 
 In truth, Mr. Newman and his friends are well 
 aware that the Scripture will not support their 
 doctrine, and therefore it is that they have pro- 
 ceeded to such lengths in upholding the autho- 
 rity not of the creeds only, but of the opinions 
 and practices of the ancient church generally ; 
 and that they try to explain away the clear 
 language of our article, that nothing '^ which 
 is neither read therein (i, e, in holy Scripture,) 
 nor may be proved thereby, is to be required 
 of any man that it should be believed as an 
 article of faith, or be thought requisite or neces- 
 sary to salvation." It would be one of the most 
 unaccountable phenomena of the human mind. 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXXIX 
 
 were any man fairly to come to the conclusion 
 that the Scriptures and the early church were 
 of equal authority, and that the authority of 
 both was truly divine. If any men resolve to 
 maintain doctrines and practices as of divine 
 authority, for which the Scripture offers no coun- 
 tenance, they of course are driven to maintain 
 the authority of the church in their own defence ; 
 and where they have an interest in holding any 
 particular opinion, its falsehood, however palpable, 
 is unhappily no bar to its reception. Otherwise 
 it would seem that the natural result of believing 
 the early church to be of equal authority with 
 the Scripture, would be to deny the inspiration 
 of either. For two things so different in several 
 points as the Christianity of the Scriptures and 
 that of the early church, may conceivably be 
 both false, but it is hard to think that they can 
 both be perfectly true. 
 
 I am here, however, allowing, what is by no 
 means true, without many qualifications, that 
 Mr. Newman's system is that of the early 
 church. The historical inquiry as to the doc- 
 trines of the early church would lead me into 
 far too wide a field ; I may only notice, in pass- 
 ing, how many points require to be carefully 
 
 V 
 
Xl INTRODUCTION. 
 
 defined in conducting such an inquiry: as, for 
 instance, what we mean by the term " early 
 church/' as to time ; for that may be fully true 
 of the church in the fourth century, which is 
 only partially true of it in the third, and only in 
 a very slight degree true of it in the second or 
 first. And again, what do we mean by the term 
 '' early church " as to persons ; for a few eminent 
 writers are not even the whole clergy ; neither 
 is it by any means to be taken on their authority 
 that their views were really those of all the 
 bishops and presbyters of the Christian world : 
 but if they were, the clergy are not the church, 
 nor can their judgments be morally considered 
 as the voice of the church, even if we were to 
 admit that they could at any time constitute its 
 voice legally. But, for my present purpose, we 
 may take for granted that Mr. Newman's system 
 as to the preeminence of the sacraments, and 
 the necessity of apostolical succession to give 
 them their efficacy, was the doctrine of the early 
 church ; then I say that this system is so dif- 
 ferent from that of the New Testament, that to 
 invest the two with equal authority is not to 
 make the church system divine, but to make 
 the scriptural system human ; or, at -the best. 
 
INTRODUCTION. xU 
 
 perishable and temporary, like the ceremonial 
 law of Moses. Either the church system must 
 be supposed to have superseded the scriptural 
 system,* and its unknown authors are the real 
 
 * This, it is well known, has been most ably maintained by 
 Rothe, (^Anfdnge der Christlichen Kirclie und ihrer Verfassungf 
 Wittenberg, 1837,) with respect to the origin of episcopacy. 
 He contends that it was instituted by the surviving apostles 
 after the destruction of Jerusalem, as an intentional change 
 from the earlier constitution of the church, in order to enable 
 it to meet the peculiar difficulties and dangers of the times. 
 To this belongs the question of the meaning of the expres- 
 sion, 01 toIq ^evrepaig rdv 'AwocnoXwv diard^eaL TrapuKoXov- 
 OrfKorec, in the famous Fragment of Irenaeus, published by 
 Pfaff, from a manuscript in the library of Turin, and to be 
 found in the Venice edition of Irenaeus, 1734, vol. ii. Frag- 
 mentorum, p. 10. But then Rothe would admit that if the 
 apostles altered what they themselves had appointed, it would 
 follow that neither their earlier nor their later institutions 
 were intended to be for all times and all places, but were 
 simply adapted to a particular state of circumstances, and 
 were alterable when that state was altered : in short, whatever 
 institutions the apostles changed were shown to be essentially 
 changeable ; otherwise their earlier institution was defective, 
 which cannot be conceived. And thus it may well be that 
 the early church may have altered, in some points, the first 
 institutions of the apostles, and may have been guided by 
 God's Spirit in doing so ; but the error consists in believing 
 that the new institutions were to be of necessity more per- 
 manent than those which they succeeded ; in supposing that 
 either the one or the other belong to the eternal truths and 
 laws of Christ's religion, when they belong, in fact, to the 
 essentially changeable regulations of his church. 
 
Xlii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 apostles of our present faith, — in which case, we 
 do not see why it should not be superseded in 
 its turn, and why the perfect manifestation of 
 Christianity should not be found in the Koran, 
 or in any still later system ; or else neither of 
 the two systems can be divine, but the one is 
 merely the human production of the first cen- 
 tury, the other that of the second and third. 
 If this be so, it is clearly open to all succeeding 
 centuries to adopt whichever of the two they 
 choose, or neither. 
 
 To such consequences are those driven who 
 maintain the divine authority of the system of 
 Mr. Newman. Assuredly the thirst '' for some- 
 thing deeper and truer than satisfied the last 
 century" will not be allayed by a draught so 
 scanty and so vapid ; but after the mirage has 
 beguiled and disappointed him for a season, the 
 traveller presses on the more eagerly to the true 
 and living well. 
 
 In truth, the evils of the last century were 
 but the inevitable fruits of the long ascendency 
 of Mr. Newman's favourite principles. Christ's 
 religion had been corrupted in the long period 
 before the Reformation, but it had ever retained 
 many of its main truths, and it was easy, when 
 
INTRODUCTION. xliii 
 
 the appeal was once made to Scripture, to sweep 
 away the corruptions, and restore it in its perfect 
 form ; but Christ's church had been destroyed 
 so long and so completely, that its very idea was 
 all but lost, and to revive it actually was impos- 
 sible. What had been known under that name, — 
 I am speaking of Christ's church, be it observed, 
 as distinguished from Christ's religion, — was 
 so gTeat an evil, that, hopeless of drawing any 
 good from it, men looked rather to Christ's 
 religion as all in all ; and, content with having 
 destroyed the false church, never thought that 
 the scheme of Christianity could not be per- 
 fectly developed without the restoration of the 
 true one. But the want was deeply felt, and its 
 consequences were deplorable. At this moment 
 men are truly craving something deeper than 
 satisfied the last century ; they crave to have / 
 the true church of Christ, which the last cen-^ 
 tury was without. Mr. Newman perceives their 
 want, and again offers them that false church 
 which is worse than none at all. 
 
 The truths of the Christian religion are to be , 
 sought for in the Scripture alone ; they are the 
 same at all times and in all countries. With the 
 Christian church it is otherwise ; the church is 
 
xliv 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 not a revelation concerning the unchangeable 
 and eternal God, but an institution to enable 
 changeable man to apprehend the unchangeable. 
 Because man is changeable, the church is also 
 changeable ; changeable, not in its object, which 
 is for ever one and the same, but in its means 
 for effecting that object ; changeable in its 
 details, because the same treatment cannot suit 
 various diseases, various climates, various con- 
 stitutional peculiarities, various external influ- 
 ences. 
 
 The Scripture, then, which is the sole and 
 direct authority for all the truths of the Chris- 
 tian religion, is not, in the same way, an autho- 
 rity for the constitution and rules of the Christian 
 church ; that is, it does not furnish direct autho- 
 rity, but guides us only by analogy ; or it gives 
 us merely certain main principles, which we must 
 apply to our own various circumstances. This is 
 shown by the remarkable fact, that neither our 
 Lord nor his apostles have left any commands 
 v^ith respect to the constitution and administra- 
 tion of the church generally. Commands in 
 abundance they have left us on moral matters ; 
 and one commandment of another kind has been 
 added, the commandment, namely, to celebrate 
 
INTRODUCTION. xlv 
 
 the Lord's Supper. "Do this in remembrance 
 of me/* are our Lord's words ; and St. Paul 
 tells us, if we could have otherwise have doubted 
 it, that this remembrance is to be kept up for 
 ever. " As often as ye eat that bread or drink 
 that cup ye do shew the Lord's death till he 
 comer This is the one perpetual ordinance of 
 the Christian church, and this is commanded to 
 be kept perpetually. But its other institutions 
 are mentioned historically, as things done once, 
 but not necessarily to be always repeated : nay, 
 they are mentioned without any details, so that 
 we do not always know what their exact form 
 was in their original state, and cannot, therefore, 
 if we would, adopt it as a perpetual model. Nor 
 is it unimportant to observe that institutions are 
 recorded as having been created on the spur of 
 the occasion, if I may so speak, not as having 
 formed a part of an original and universal plan. 
 A great change in the character of the deacon, 
 or subordinate minister's office, is introduced in 
 consequence of the complaints of the Hellenist 
 Christians: the number of the apostles is in- 
 creased by the addition of Paul and Barnabas, 
 not appointed, as Matthias had been, by the other 
 apostles themselves, but by the prophets and 
 
Xlvi INTRODUCTION. 
 
 teachers of the church of Antioch. Again, the 
 churches founded by St. Paul were each, at 
 first, placed by hhn under the government of 
 several presbyters ; but after his imprisonment 
 at Rome, finding that they were become greatly 
 corrupted, he sends out single persons, in two 
 instances, with full powers to remodel these 
 churches, and with authority to correct the 
 presbyters themselves : yet it does not appear 
 that these especial* visitors were to alter perma- 
 nently the earlier constitution of the churches ; 
 nor that they were sent generally to all the 
 churches which St. Paul had founded. Indeed, 
 it appears evident from the epistle of Clement, 
 that the original constitution of the church of 
 Corinth still subsisted in his time ; the government 
 was still vested not in one man, but in many.f Yet 
 
 * The command, " to appoint elders in every city," is given 
 to Titus, according to Paul's practice when he first formed 
 churches of the Gentiles (Acts xiv. 2). Nor did Timothy, or 
 Titus, remain permanently at Ephesus, or in Crete. Timothy, 
 when St. Paul's second Epistle was written to him, was cer- 
 tainly not at Ephesus, but apparently in Pontus ; and Titus, at 
 that same period, was gone to Dalmatia : nor indeed was he 
 to remain in Crete beyond the summer of the year in which 
 St. Paul's Epistle was written ; he was to meet Paul, in the 
 winter, at Nicopolis. 
 
 -j- Only elders are spoken of as governing the church of 
 Corinth. It is impossible to understand clearly the nature of 
 
INTRODUCTION. XlvU 
 
 a few years later the government of a single 
 man, as we see from Ignatius, was become very- 
 general ; and Ignatius, as is well known, wishes 
 to invest it with absolute power.* I believe that 
 he acted quite wisely according to the circum- 
 stances of the church at that period ; and that 
 nothing less than a vigorous unity of govern- 
 ment could have struggled with the difficulties 
 
 the contest, and of the party against which Clement's Epistle is 
 directed. Where he wishes the heads of that party to say, ti 
 3t' t/JLE araaLQ koX epiQ Koi o-j^/ff/iara, i/c^wpw, aTreijjLL uv lav 
 (3ovXr}cr6e, Kal ttoiw rd Trpoaraaaoneva vtto tov TrXrjdovgj c. 54, 
 it would seem as if they had been endeavouring to exercise a 
 despotic authority over the church, in defiance of the general 
 feeling, as well as of the existing government, like those earlier 
 persons at Corinth whom St. Paul describes, in his second 
 Epistle, xi. 20 ; and like Diotrephes, mentioned by St. John, 
 3 Epist. 9, 10. But in a society where all power must have 
 depended on the consent of those subject to it, how could any 
 one exercise a tyranny against the will of the majority, as well 
 as against the authority of the apostles ? And rd TrpoaTaatTojieva 
 VTTO TOO ttXijOovq must signify, I think, " the bidding of the 
 society at large," Compare for this use of TrXfjdoQy Ignatius, 
 Smyrn. 8 ; Trallian. 1,8. A conjecture might be offered as 
 to the solution of this difficulty, but it would lead me into 
 too long a discussion. 
 
 * Insomuch that he wished all marriages to be solemnized 
 with the consent and approbation of the bishop, /ufrct yvbjfxrjg 
 TOV kiriffKOTTov, that they might be " according to God, and not 
 according to passion ;" Kara Qeov koX firj kut (.iriOvfilay, — Ad 
 Poly carp. 5. 
 
Xlviii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 and dangers of that crisis. But no man can 
 doubt that the system which Ignatius so earnestly 
 recommends was very different from that which 
 St. Paul had instituted fifty or sixty years earlier. 
 On two points, however, — points not of detail, 
 but of principle, — the Scripture does seem to 
 speak decisively. 1st. The whole body of the 
 church was to take an active share in its con- 
 cerns ; the various faculties of its various mem- 
 ] bers were to perform their several parts : it was 
 to be a living society, not an inert mass of mere 
 hearers and subjects, who were to be authorita- 
 tively taught, and absolutely ruled by one small 
 portion of its members. It is quite consistent 
 with this, that, at particular times, the church 
 should centre all its own power and activity in 
 the persons of its rulers. In the field, the 
 imperium of the Roman consul was unlimited ; 
 and, even within the city walls, the senate's 
 commission, in times of imminent danger, released 
 him from all restraints of law ; the whole power 
 of the state was, for the moment, his, and his 
 only. Such temporary despotisms are sometimes 
 not expedient merely, but necessary : without 
 them society would perish. I do not, therefore, 
 regard Ignatius's epistles as really contradictory 
 
INTRODUCTION. xlix 
 
 to the idea of the church conveyed to us in the 
 twelfth chapter of St. Paul's First Epistle to the 
 Corinthians : I believe that the dictatorship, so 
 to speak, which Ignatius claims for the bishop in 
 each church, was required by the circumstances ^ 
 of the case ; but to change the temporary into 
 the perpetual dictatorship, was to subvert the 
 Roman constitution ; and to make Ignatius's 
 language the rule, instead of the exception, is no 
 less to subvert the Christian church. Wherever 
 the language of Ignatius is repeated with justice, 
 there the church must either be in its infancy, or 
 in its dotage, or in some extraordinary crisis of 
 danger ; wherever it is repeated, as of universal 
 application, it destroys, as in fact it has destroyed, 
 the very Hfe of Christ's institution. 
 
 But, 2d, The Christian church was absolutely 
 and entirely, at all times, and in all places, to be / 
 without a human priesthood. Despotic govern-^ 
 ment and priesthood are things perfectly distinct 
 from one another. Despotic government might 
 be required, from time to time, by this or that 
 portion of the Christian church, as by other 
 societies ; for government is essentially change- 
 able, and all forms, in the manifold varieties of 
 the condition of society, are, in their turn, lawful 
 
 e 
 
1 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 and beneficial. But a priesthood belongs to a 
 matter not so varying — the relations subsisting 
 between God and man. These relations were 
 fixed for the Christian church, from its very 
 foundation, being, in fact, no other than the 
 main truths of the Christian religion ; and they 
 bar, for all time, the very notion of an earthly 
 priesthood. They bar it, because they establish 
 the everlasting priesthood of our Lord, which 
 leaves no place for any other ; they bar it, 
 because priesthood is essentially mediation ; and 
 they establish one Mediator between God and 
 man — the Man Christ Jesus. And, therefore, 
 the notion of Mr. Newman and his friends, that 
 the sacraments derive their efficacy from the 
 apostolical succession of the minister, is so 
 extremely unchristian, that it actually deserves 
 to be called antichristian ; for there is no point 
 of the priestly office, properly so called, in which 
 the claim of the earthly priest is not absolutely 
 precluded. Do we want him for sacrifice ? Nay, 
 there is no place for him at all; for our one 
 atoning Sacrifice has been once offered ; and by 
 its virtue we are enabled to offer daily our 
 spiritual sacrifices of ourselves, which no other 
 man can by possibility offer for us. Do we want 
 
INTRODUCTION. Ti 
 
 him for intercession ? Nay, there is One who 
 ever liveth to make intercession for us, through 
 whom we have access to {irpocraycoyrjv, admission 
 to the presence of) the Father, and for whose 
 sake, Paul, and Apollos, and Peter, and things 
 present, and things to come, are all ours already. 
 His claim can neither be advanced nor received 
 without high dishonour to our true Priest, and 
 to his blessed gospel. If circumcision could not 
 be practised, as necessary, by a believer in 
 Christ, without its involving a forfeiture of the 
 benefits of Christ's salvation ; how much more 
 does St. Paul's language apply to the invention 
 of an earthly priesthood — a priesthood neither 
 after the order of Aaron, nor yet of Melchizedek ; 
 unlawful alike under the law and the gospel. 
 
 It is the invention of the human priesthood, 
 which falhng in, unhappily, with the absolute 
 power rightfully vested in the Christian church 
 during the troubles of the second century, fixed 
 the exception as the rule, and so in the end 
 destroyed the church. It pretended that the 
 clergy were not simply rulers and teachers, — 
 ofiices which necessarily vary according to the 
 state of those who are ruled and taught, — but 
 that they were essentially mediators between 
 
 e2 
 
lii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 God and the church ; and as this language 
 ould have sounded too profanely, — for the 
 mediator between God and the church can be 
 none but Christ, — so the clergy began to draw 
 to themselves the attributes of the church, and 
 to call the church by a different name, such as 
 the faithful, or the laity ; so that to speak of the 
 church mediating for the people did not sound 
 so shocking, and the doctrine so disguised found 
 ready acceptance. Thus the evil work was con- 
 summated ; the great majority of the members 
 of the church were virtually disfranchised; the 
 minority retained the name, but the character of 
 the institution was utterly corrupted. 
 
 To revive Christ's church, therefore, is to 
 expel the antichrist of priesthood, which, as it 
 was foretold of him, '' as God, sitteth in the 
 temple of God, showing himself that he is God," 
 and to restore its disfranchised members, — the 
 laity, — to the discharge of their proper duties in 
 it, and to the consciousness of their paramount 
 importance. This is the point which I have 
 dwelt upon in the XXXVIIP^ Sermon, and which 
 is closely in connexion with the point maintained 
 in the XL*^ ; and all who value the inestimable 
 blessings of Christ's church should labour in 
 
INTRODUCTION. Kli 
 
 arousing the laity to a sense of their great share 
 in them. In particular, that discipline, which 
 is one of the greatest of those blessings, never 
 can, and, indeed, never ought to be restored, 
 till the church resumes its lawful authority, and 
 puts an end to the usurpation of its powers by 
 the clergy. There is a feeling now awakened 
 amongst the lay members of our church, which, 
 it if can but be rightly directed, may, by God's 
 blessing, really arrive at something truer and 
 deeper than satisfied the last century, or than 
 satisfied the last seventeen centuries. Otherwise, 
 whatever else may be improved, the laity will 
 take care that church discipline shall continue to 
 slumber, and they will best serve the church by 
 doing so. Much may be done to spread the 
 knowledge of Christ's religion ; new churches 
 may be built ; new ministers appointed to preach 
 the word and administer the sacraments ; those 
 may hear who now cannot hear; many more 
 sick persons may be visited ; many more children 
 may receive religious instruction : all this is 
 good, and to be received with sincere thankful- 
 ness : but, with a knowledge revealed to us of a 
 still more excellent power in Christ's church, 
 and with the abundant promises of prophecy in 
 
liv INTRODUCTION. 
 
 our hands, can we rest satisfied with the lesser 
 and imperfect good, which strikes thrice and 
 stays ? But if the zeal of the lay members of 
 our church be directed by the principles of Mr. 
 Newman, then the result will be, not merely a 
 lesser good, but one fearfully mixed with evil — 
 Christian religion profaned by antichristian fables ; 
 Christian holiness marred by superstition and 
 uncharitableness ; Christian wisdom and Chris- 
 tian sincerity scoffed at, reviled, and persecuted 
 out of sight. This is declared to us by the sure 
 voice of experience ; this was the fruit of the 
 spirit of priestcraft, with its accompaniments of 
 superstitious rites and lying traditions, in the 
 last decline of the Jewish church ; this was the 
 fruit of the same spirit, with the same accom- 
 paniments, in the long decay of the Christian 
 church ; although the indestructible virtue of 
 Christ's gospel was manifest in the midst of the 
 evil, and Christ, in every age and in every 
 country, has been known with saving power by 
 some of his people, and his church, in her worst 
 corruptions, has taught many divinest truths, 
 has inculcated many holiest virtues. 
 
 When the tide is setting strongly against us 
 we can scarcely expect to make progress, it is 
 
INTRODUCTION. Iv 
 
 enough if we do not drift along with it. Mr. 
 Newman's system is now at the flood ; it is daily 
 making converts; it is daily swelled by many 
 of those who neither love it nor understand it in 
 itself, but who hope to make it serve their pur- ^ 
 poses, or who like to swim with the stream. A 
 strong profession, therefore, of an opposite 
 system must expect, at the present moment, to 
 meet with little favour ; nor, indeed, have I any 
 hope of turning the tide, which will flow for its 
 appointed season, and its ebb does not seem to 
 be at hand. But whilst the hurricane rages, those 
 exposed to it may well encourage one another 
 to hold fast their own foundations against it ; 
 and many are exposed to it in whose welfare I 
 naturally have the deepest interest, and in whom 
 old impressions may be supposed to have still so 
 much force that I may claim from them, at 
 least, a patient hearing. I am anxious to show 
 them that Mr. Newman's system is to be 
 opposed not merely on negative grounds, as 
 untrue, but as obstructing that perfect and posi- 
 tive truth, that perfection of Christ's church, 
 which the last century, it may be, neglected, but 
 which I value and desire as earnestly as it can 
 be valued and desired by any man alive. My 
 
In INTRODUCTION. 
 
 great objection to Mr. Newman's system is, that 
 it destroys Christ's church, and sets up an evil in 
 its stead. We do not desire merely to hinder the 
 evil from occupying the ground, and to leave it 
 empty ; that has been, undoubtedly, the misfor- 
 tune, and partly the fault of Protestantism; but we 
 desire to build on the holy ground a no less holy 
 temple, not out of our own devices, but accord- 
 ing to the teaching of Christ himself, who has 
 given us the outline, and told us what should be 
 its purposes. 
 
 The true church of Christ would offer to 
 every faculty of our nature its proper exercise, 
 and would entirely meet all our wants. No wise 
 man doubts that the Reformation was imperfect, 
 or that in the Romish system there were many 
 good institutions, and practices, and feelings, 
 which it would be most desirable to restore 
 amongst ourselves. Daily church services, fre- 
 quent communions, memorials of our Christian 
 calling continually presented to our notice, in 
 crosses and way-side oratories ; commemorations 
 of holy men, of all times and countries ; the 
 doctrine of the communion of saints practically 
 taught; religious orders, especially of women, 
 of different kinds, and under different rules. 
 
INTRODUCTION. Ivil 
 
 delivered only from the snare and sin of per- 
 petual vows ; — all these, most of which are of 
 some efficacy for good, even in a corrupt church, 
 belong no less to the true church, and would there 
 be purely beneficial. If Mr. Newman's system 
 attracts good and thinking men, because it seems 
 to promise them all these things, which in our 
 actual church are not to be found, let them 
 remember, that these things belong to the per- 
 fect church no less than to that of the Romanists 
 and of Mr. Newman, and would flourish in the 
 perfect church far more healthily. Or, again, if 
 any man admires Mr. Newman's system for its 
 austerities, if he regards fasting as a positive 
 duty, he should consider that these might be 
 transferred also to the perfect church, and that 
 they have no necessary connexion with the 
 peculiar tenets of Mr. Newman. We know that 
 the Puritans were taunted by their adversaries 
 for their frequent fasts, and the severity of 
 their lives ; and they certainly were far enough 
 from agreeing with Mr. Newman. Whatever 
 there is of good, or self-denying, or ennobling, 
 in his system, is altogether independent of 
 his doctrine concerning the priesthood. It is 
 that doctrine which is the peculiarity of his 
 
Iviii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 system and of Romanism; it is that doctrine 
 which constitutes the evil of both, which over- 
 weighs all the good accidentally united with it, 
 and makes the systems, as such, false and 
 antichristian. Nor can any human being find in 
 this doctrine any thing of a beneficial tendency, 
 either to his intellectual, his moral, or his spiritual 
 nature. If mere reverence be a virtue, without 
 reference to its object, let us, by all means, do 
 honour to the virtue of those who fell down o 
 the stock of a tree ; and let us lament the harsh 
 censure which charged them with '' having a lie 
 in their right hand."* 
 
 What does the true and perfect church want, 
 that she should borrow from the broken cisterns 
 of idolatry ? Holding all those truths in which 
 
 * The language which Mr. ISIewman and his friends have 
 allowed themselves to hold, in admiration of what they call 
 reverential and submissive faith, might certainly be used in 
 defence of the lowest idolatry ; what they have dared to call 
 rationalistic can plead such high and sacred authority in its 
 favour, that if I were to quote some of the language of the 
 " Tracts for the Times," and place by the side of it certain 
 passages from the New Testament, Mr. Newman and his 
 friends would appear to have been writing blasphemy. It 
 seems scarcely possible that they could have remembered what 
 is said in St. Matthew xv. 9 — 20, and who said it, when they 
 have called it rationalism to deny a spiritual virtue in things 
 that are applied to the body. 
 
INTRODUCTION. Hx 
 
 the clear voice of God's word is joined by the 
 accordant confession of God's people in all ages ; 
 holding all the means of grace of which she was 
 designed to be the steward — her common prayers, 
 her pure preaching, her uncorrupted sacraments, 
 her free and living society, her wise and search- 
 ing discipline, her commemorations and me- 
 morials of God's mercy and grace, whether 
 shown in her Lord himself, or in his and her 
 members ; — looking lovingly upon her elder 
 sisters, the ancient churches, and delighting to 
 be in communion with them, as she hopes that 
 her younger sisters, the churches of later days, 
 will delight to be in communion with her; — what 
 has she not, that Christ's bride should have ? 
 what has she not, that Mr. Newman's system 
 can give her ? But, because she loves her Lord, 
 and stands fast in his faith, and has been 
 enlightened by his truth, she will endure no 
 other mediator than Christ, she will repose her 
 trust only on his word, she will worship in the 
 light, and will abhor the words, no less than the 
 works, of darkness. Her sisters, the elder 
 churches, she loves and respects as she would be 
 herself loved and respected ; but she will not, 
 and may not, worship them, nor even, for their 
 
\ 
 
 Ix INTRODUCTION. 
 
 sakes, believe error to be truth, or foolishness to 
 be wisdom. She dares not hope that she can be 
 in all things a perfect guide and example to the 
 churches that shall come after her ; as neither 
 have the churches before her been in all things 
 a perfect guide and example to herself. She 
 would not impose her yoke upon future genera- 
 tions, nor will she submit her own neck to the 
 / yoke of antiquity. She honours all men, but 
 ^' makes none her idol ; and she would have her 
 own individual members regard her with honour, 
 but neither would she be an idol to them. She 
 dreads especially that sin of which her Lord has 
 so emphatically warned her — the sin against the 
 Holy Ghost. She will neither lie against him, 
 by declaring that he is where his fruits are not 
 manifested ; nor blaspheme him, by saying that 
 he is not where his fruits are. Rites and ordi- 
 nances may be vain, prophets may be false, 
 miracles may be miracles of Satan ; but the signs 
 of the Holy Spirit, truth and holiness, can never 
 / be ineffectual, can never deceive, can never be 
 evil ; where they are, and only where they are, 
 there is God. 
 
 There are states of falsehood and wickedness 
 so monstrous, that, to use the language of 
 
INTRODUCTION. Ixi 
 
 Eastern mythology, the Destroyer God is greater 
 than the Creator or the Preserver, and no good 
 can be conceived so great as the destruction of 
 the existing evil. But ordinarily in human 
 affairs destruction and creation should go hand 
 in hand ; as the evergreen shrubs of our gardens 
 do not cast their old leaves till the young ones 
 are ready to supply their place. Great as is the 
 falsehood of Mr. Newman's system, it would be 
 but an unsatisfactory work to clear it away, if we 
 had no positive truth to offer in its room. But 
 the thousands of good men whom it has beguiled, 
 because it professed to meet the earnest craving 
 of their minds for a restoration of Christ's church 
 with power, need not fear to open their eyes 
 to its hollowness ; like the false miracles of fraud 
 or sorcery, it is but the counterfeit of a real 
 truth. The restoration of the church is, indeed, 
 the best consummation of all our prayers, and 
 all our labours ; it is not a dream, not a prospect 
 to be seen only in the remotest distance ; it is 
 possible, it lies very near us ; with God's blessing 
 it is in the power of this very generation to begin 
 and make some progress in the work. If the 
 many good, and wise, and influential laymen of 
 our church would but awake to their true 
 
Ixii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 position and duties, and would labour heartily to 
 procure for the church a living organization and 
 an effective government, in both of which the 
 laity should be essential members, then, indeed, 
 the church would become a reality.* This is 
 not Erastianism, or rather, it is not what is com- 
 monly cried down under that name ; it is not 
 the subjection of the church to the state, which, 
 indeed, would be a most miserable and most 
 unchristian condition ; but it would be the deli- 
 verance of the church, and its exaltation to its 
 own proper sovereignty. The members of one 
 particular profession are most fit to administer 
 
 * The famous saying, " extra eeclesiam nulla salus," is, in 
 its idea, a most divine truth ; historically and in fact it may 
 be, and often has been, a practical falsehood. If the truths of 
 Christ's religion were necessarily accessible only to the 
 members of some visible church, then it would be true always, 
 inasmuch as to be out of the church would then be the same 
 thing as to be without Christ ; and, as a society, the church 
 ought so to attract to itself all goodness, and by its internal 
 organization, so to encourage all goodness, that nothing would 
 be without its pale but extreme wickedness, or extreme igno- 
 rance ; and he who were voluntarily to forfeit its spiritual 
 advantages would be guilty of moral suicide : so St. Paul 
 calls the church the pillar and ground of truth ; that is, it was 
 so in its purpose and idea ; and he therefore conjures Timothy 
 to walk warily in it, and to take heed that what ought to be 
 the pillar and ground of truth should not be profaned by 
 fables, and so be changed into a pillar of falsehood. But to 
 
INTRODUCTION. Ixiii 
 
 a system in part, most unfit to legislate for it or 
 to govern it : we could ill spare the ability and 
 learning of our lawyers, but we surely should 
 not wish to have none but lawyers concerned 
 even in the administration of justice, much less 
 to have none but lawyers in the government or 
 in parliament. What is true of lawyers with 
 regard to the state, is no less true of the clergy 
 with regard to the church ; indispensable as 
 ministers and advisers, they cannot, without 
 great mischief, act as sole judges, sole legis- 
 lators, sole governors. And this is a truth so 
 palpable, that the clergy, by pressing such a 
 claim, merely deprive the church of its judicial, 
 legislative, and executive functions ; whilst the 
 common sense of the church will not allow them 
 
 say universally, as an historical fact, that " extra ecclesiam 
 nulla salus," may be often to utter one of the worst of false- 
 hoods. A ferry is set up to transport men over an unfordable 
 river, and it might be truly said that " extra navem nulla 
 salus ;" there is no other safe way, speaking generally, of 
 getting over : but the ferryman has got the plague, and if 
 you go in the boat with him, you will catch it and die. In 
 despair, a man plunges into the water, and swims across : 
 would not the ferryman be guilty of a double falsehood who 
 should call out to this man, " extra navem nulla salus," 
 insisting that he had not swum over, when he had, and saying 
 that his boat would have carried him safely, whereas it would 
 have killed him ? 
 
Ixiv INTRODUCTION. 
 
 to exercise these powers, and, whilst they assert 
 that no one else may exercise them, the result is, 
 that they are not exercised at all, and the 
 essence of the chmxh is destroyed. 
 
 The first step towards the restoration of the 
 church seems to be the revival of the order of dea- 
 
 rJ cons ; which might be effected without any other 
 change in our present system than a repeal of all 
 laws, canons, or customs which prohibit a deacon 
 from following a secular calling, which confer on 
 him any civil exemptions, or subject him to any 
 civil disqualifications. The Ordination Service, 
 with the subscription to the Articles, would 
 remain perfectly unaltered; and as no deacon 
 can hold any benefice, it is manifest that the 
 proposed measure would in no way interfere with 
 the rights or duties of the order of presbyters, or 
 priests, which would remain precisely what they 
 are at present. But the benefit in large towns 
 would be enormous, if, instead of the present 
 system of district visiting by private individuals, 
 excellent as that is where there is nothing better, 
 
 .4^ we could have a large body of deacons, the 
 
 I ordained ministers of the church, visiting the 
 
 sick, managing charitable subscriptions, and 
 
 sharing with their presbyter in those strictly 
 
INTRODUCTION. IxV 
 
 clerical duties, which now, in many cases, are too 
 much for the health and powers of the strongest. 
 Yet a still greater advantage would be found in 
 the link thus formed between the clergy and 
 laity by the revival of an order appertaining in 
 a manner to both. Nor would it be a little 
 thing that many who now become teachers in 
 some dissenting congregation, not because they 
 differ from our Articles, or dislike our Liturgy, 
 but because they cannot afford to go to the uni- 
 versities, and have no prospect of being main- 
 tained by the church, if they were to give up 
 their secular callings, would, in all human pro- 
 bability, be glad to join the church as deacons, 
 and would thus be subject to her authorities, and 
 would be engaged in her service, instead of being 
 aliens to her, if not enemies. 
 
 When we look at the condition of our country ; 
 at the poverty and wretchedness of so large a 
 portion of the w^orking classes ; at the intellectual : 
 and moral evils which certainly exist among the 
 poor, but by no means amongst the poor only ; 
 and when we witness the many partial attempts 
 to remedy these evils — attempts benevolent 
 indeed and wise, so far as they go, but utterly 
 unable to strike to the heart of the mischief; 
 
 / 
 
Ixvi INTRODUCTION. 
 
 can any Christian doubt that here is the work 
 for the church of Christ to do ; that none else 
 can do it ; and that with the blessing of her 
 Almighty Head she can. Looking upon the chaos 
 around us, one power alone can reduce it into 
 order, and fill it with light and life. And does he 
 really apprehend the perfections and high calling 
 of Christ's church ; does he indeed fathom the 
 depths of man's wants, or has he learnt to rise 
 to the fulness of the stature of their divine 
 remedy, who comes forward to preach to us the 
 necessity of apostolical succession ? Grant even 
 that it was of divine appointment, still as it is 
 demonstrably and palpably unconnected with 
 holiness, as it would be a mere positive and cere- 
 monial ordinance, it cannot be the point of most 
 importance to insist on ; even if it be a sin to 
 neglect this, there are so many far weightier 
 matters equally neglected, that it would be 
 assuredly no Christian prophesying which were to 
 strive to direct our chief attention to this. But 
 the wholly unmoral character of this doctrine, 
 which if it were indeed of God, would make it 
 a single mysterious exception to all the other 
 doctrines of the gospel, is, God be thanked, not 
 more certain than its total want of external 
 
INTRODUCTION. Ixvii 
 
 evidence ; the Scripture disclaims it, Christ him- 
 self condemns it. 
 
 I have vsrritten at considerable length ; yet so 
 vast is the subject, that I may seem to some to 
 have written superficially, and to have left my 
 statements without adequate support. I can 
 only say that no one paragraph has been written 
 hastily, nor in fact is there one the substance of 
 which has not been for several years in my mind ; 
 indeed, in many instances, not only the substance, 
 but the proofs in detail have been actually 
 written; but to have inserted them here would 
 have been inpracticable, as they would have been 
 in themselves a volume. Neither have I know- 
 ingly remained in ignorance of any argument 
 which may have been used in defence of Mr. 
 Newman's system ; I have always desired to 
 know what he and his friends say, and on what 
 grounds they say it ; although, as I have not 
 read the Tracts for the Times regularly, I may 
 have omitted something which it would have 
 been important to notice. Finally^ in naming 
 Mr. Newman as the chief author of the system 
 which I have been considering, I have in no 
 degree vdshed to make the question personal ; 
 but Mr. Perceval's letter authorizes us to con- 
 
 /2 
 
Ixviii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 sider him as one of the authors of it ; and as I 
 have never had any personal acquaintance with 
 him, I could mention his name with no shock to 
 any private feelings either in him or in myself. 
 But I have spoken of him simply as the 
 maintainer of certain doctrines, not as maintain- 
 ing them in any particular manner, far less as 
 actuated by any particular motives. I believe 
 him to be in most serious error ; I believe his 
 system to be so destructive of Christ's church, 
 that I earnestly pray, and would labour to the 
 utmost of my endeavours for its utter overthrow : 
 but on the other hand, I will not be tempted to 
 confound the authors of the system with the 
 system itself; for I know that the most mis- 
 chievous errors have been promulgated by men 
 who yet have been neither foolish nor wicked ; 
 and I nothing doubt that there are many points 
 in Mr. Newman, in which I might learn truth 
 from his teaching, and should be glad if I could 
 come near him in his practice. 
 
 Rugby, 
 April Uth, 1841. 
 
NOTE. 
 
 In order to prevent the possibility of misunderstanding, it 
 is proper to repeat what has been often said by others, that 
 the English word ** priest " has two significations, — the one, 
 according to its etymology, through the French pritre, or 
 jprestre, and the Latin presbyterus, from the Greek Trpea-PvTepog ; 
 in which sense it is used in our Liturgy and Rubrics, and sig- 
 nifies merely " one belonging to the order of Presbyters," as 
 distinguished from the other two orders of bishops and dea- 
 cons. But the other signification of the word " priest," and 
 which we use, as I think, more commonly, is the same with the 
 meaning of the Latin word, sacerdos, and the Greek word 
 upevQj and means, " one who stands as a mediator between 
 God and the people, and brings them to God by the virtue of 
 certain ceremonial acts which he performs for them, and 
 which they could not perform for themselves without profana- 
 tion, because they are at a distance from God, and cannot, in 
 their own persons, venture to approach towards him." In 
 this sense of the word '* priest," the term is not applied to the 
 ministers of the Christian church, either by the Scripture, or 
 by the authorized formularies of the Church of England ; 
 although, in the other sense, as synonymous with Presbyters, 
 it is used in our Prayer Book repeatedly. Of course, not one 
 word of what I have written is meant to deny the lawfulness 
 and importance of the order of Presbyters in the church : I 
 have only spoken against a priesthood, in the otRer sense of 
 the word, in which " a priest " means " a mediator between 
 God and man ;" — in that sense, in short, in which the word is 
 not a translation of TrpeapvTepog, but of iepevQ, 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 SERMON I. 
 
 Gen. iii. 22. — And the Lord God said, Behold, the 
 man is become as one of us, to know good and evil . 
 
 SERMON II. 
 
 1 Cor. xiii. 11. — When I was a child I spake as a child, 
 I understood as a child, I thought as a child ; but 
 when I became a man, I put away childish things . . 11 
 
 SERMON III. 
 
 1 CoR. xiii. 11. — When I was a child I spake as a child, 
 I understood as a child, I thought as a child ; but 
 when I became a man, I put away childish things . . 22 
 
Ixxii CONTENTS. 
 
 SERMON IV. 
 
 Col. i. 9. — We do not cease to pray for you, and to 
 desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of 
 his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding . . 32 
 
 SERMON V. 
 
 Col. i. 9. — We do not cease to pray for you, and to 
 desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of 
 his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding . . 43 
 
 SERMON VL 
 
 Col. iii. 3. — Ye are dead, and your life is hid with 
 Christ in God . 54 
 
 SERMON VII. 
 
 1 Cor. iii. 21 — 23. — All things are yours ; whether 
 Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or 
 death, or things present, or things to come ; all are 
 yours ; and ye are Christ's ; and Christ is God's . . 65 
 
 SERMON VIII. 
 
 Gal. v. 16, 17. — Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not 
 fulfil the lusts of the flesh. For the fiesh lusteth 
 against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh ; 
 and these are contrary the one to the other, so that ye 
 cannot do the things that ye would 76 
 
CONTENTS. Ixxiii 
 
 SERMON IX. 
 
 Du that forsaketh 
 
 88 
 
 Luke xiv. 33. — Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh 
 not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple . . . 
 
 SERMON X. 
 
 1 Tim. i. 9. — The law is not made for a righteous man, 
 but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly 
 and for sinners, for the unholy and profane .... 99 
 
 SERMON XL 
 
 Luke xxi. 36. — Watch ye, therefore, and pray always, 
 that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these 
 things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the 
 Son of Man 110 
 
 SERMON XIL 
 
 Prov. i. 28 — Then shall they call upon me, but I will 
 not answer ; they shall seek me early, but they shall 
 not find me 121 
 
 SERMON XIIL 
 
 Mark xii. 34. — Thou art not far from the kmgdom of 
 God 133 
 
 SERMON XIV. 
 MATT.xxii. 14. — For many are called, but few are chosen 145 
 
Ixxiv CONTENTS. 
 
 SERMON XV. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Luke xi. 25. — When he cometh he findeth it swept and 
 
 garnished. 
 John v. 42, — I know you, that ye have not the love of 
 
 God in you 156 
 
 SERMON XVI. 
 
 Matt. xi. 10. — I send my messenger before thy face, 
 who shall prepare thy way before thee 167 
 
 SERMON XVII. 
 
 1 Cor. ii. 12. — We have received not the spirit of the 
 world, but the Spirit which is of God 177 
 
 SERMON XVIII. 
 
 Gen. xxvii. 38. — And Esau said unto his father, Hast 
 thou but one blessing, my father ? Bless me, even me 
 also, O my father. 
 
 Matt. xv. 27- — And she said. Truth, Lord : yet the 
 dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their master's 
 table 188 
 
 SERMON XIX.^ 
 
 Matt. xxii. 32. — God is not the God of the dead, but 
 of the living 199 
 
CONTENTS. IXXV 
 
 SERMON XX. 
 
 Ezek. xiii. 22. — With lies ye have made the heart of 
 the righteous sad, whom I have not made sad ; and 
 strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should 
 not return from his wicked way, by promising him life 210 
 
 SERMON XXI. 
 
 ADVENT SUNDAY. 
 
 Heb, iii. 16. — For some when they had heard did pro- 
 voke : howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by 
 Moses 221 
 
 SERMON XXII. 
 
 CHRISTMAS DAY. 
 
 John i. 10. — He was in the world, and the world was 
 made by him, and the world knew him not . . . .232 
 
 SERMON XXIII. 
 
 SUNDAY NEXT BEFORE EASTER. 
 
 Matt. xxvi. 40, 41. — What, could ye not watch with me 
 one hour? Watch and pray, that ye enter not into 
 temptation ; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh 
 is weak 245 
 
Ixxvi CONTENTS. 
 
 SERMON XXIV. 
 
 GOOD FRIDAY. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Romans v. 8. — God commendeth his love towards us, in 
 that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us .257 
 
 SERMON XXV. 
 
 EASTER DAY. 
 
 John xx. 20. — Then the disciples went away again unto 
 their own home 268 
 
 SERMON XXVI. 
 
 WHITSUNDAY. 
 
 Acts xix. 2. — Have you received the Holy Ghost since 
 ye believed? . 279 
 
 SERMON XXVII. 
 
 TRINITY SUNDAY. 
 John iii. 9. — How can these things be ? 290 
 
 SERMON XXVIII. 
 
 ExoD. iii. 6. —And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid 
 
 to look upon God. 
 Luke xxiii. 30. — Then shall they begin to say to the 
 
 mountains, Fall on us ; and to the hills. Cover us . . 302 
 
CONTENTS. Ixxvii 
 
 SERMON XXIX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Psalm cxxxvii. 4. — How shall we sing the Lord's song 
 in a strange land ? 313 
 
 SERMON XXX. 
 
 1 CoR. xi. 26. — For as often as ye eat this bread, and 
 drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he 
 come 323 
 
 SERMON XXXL 
 
 Luke i. 3, 4. — It seemed good to me also, having had 
 perfect understanding of all things from the very first, 
 to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus, 
 that thou mightest know the certainty of those things 
 wherein thou hast been instructed 334 
 
 SERMON XXXIL 
 
 Luke i. 3, 4. — It seemed good to me, also, having had 
 perfect understanding of all things from the very first, 
 to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus, 
 that thou mightest know the certainty of those things 
 wherein thou hast been instructed 344 
 
 SERMON XXXIII. 
 
 John ix. 29. — We know that God spake unto Moses ; 
 as for this fellow, we know not from whence he is . . 354 
 
IxXViii CONTENTS. 
 
 SERMON XXXIV. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 1 Cor. xiv. 20. — Brethren, be not children in understand- 
 ing : howbeit, in malice be ye children, but in under- 
 standing be men 366 
 
 SERMON XXXV. 
 
 Matt. xxvi. 45, 46. — 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 ; behold he is at hand that doth betray me . .377 
 
 SERMON XXXVI. 
 
 2 CoR. V. 17, 18. — Old things are passed away; behold 
 all things are become new, and all things are of God, 
 who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ . . 388 
 
 SERMON XXXVII. 
 
 EzEK. XX. 49. — Then said I, Ah, Lord God ! they say 
 of me, Doth he not speak parables ? 398 
 
 SERMON XXXVIII. 
 
 Isaiah v. 1 . — Now will I sing to my well-beloved a song 
 of my beloved touching his vineyard 409 
 
CONTENTS. Ixxix 
 
 SERMON XXXIX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Col. iii. 17. — Whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all 
 in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God 
 and the Father by Him 427 
 
 SERMON XL. 
 
 [Preached on the Day of her Majesty's Coronation, in the 
 Chapel of Ambleside.] 
 
 John xviii. 36. — Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of 
 
 this world. 
 Rev. xi. 15. — The kingdoms of this world are become 
 
 the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ . . . 438 
 
 Notes 455 
 
SEKMON I. 
 
 Genesis iii. 22. 
 
 And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one 
 of us, to know good and evil. 
 
 This is declared to be man's condition after the 
 Fall. I will not attempt to penetrate into that 
 which is not to be entered into, nor to pretend 
 to discover all that may be concealed beneath 
 the outward, and in many points clearly para- 
 bolical, form of the account of man's temptation 
 and sin. But that condition to which his sin 
 brought him is our condition; with that, un- 
 doubtedly, we are concerned ; that must be the 
 foundation of all sound views of human nature ; 
 the double fact implied in the word fall is of the 
 last importance ; the fact on the one hand of our 
 present nature being evil, the fact on the other 
 L- B 
 
2 WHAT THE DOCTRINE OF MAN's FALL TEACHES. 
 
 hand that this present nature is not our proper 
 
 nature ; that the whole business of our hves is to 
 
 «a^ It off, and to return to that better and holy 
 
 /nature^ which, in ti'uth, although not in fact, is 
 
 \l *the proper nature of man. 
 
 All individual experience, then, and all history 
 begins in something which is evil ; all our 
 course, whether as individuals or as nations, is a 
 progress, an advance, a leaving behind us some- 
 thing bad, and a going forwards towards some- 
 thing that is good. But individual experience, 
 and history apart from Christianity, would make 
 us regard this progress as fearfully uncertain. 
 Clear it is that we are in an evil case ; we have 
 lost our way; we are like men who are bewil- 
 dered in those endless forests of reeds which line 
 some of the great American rivers; if we stay where 
 we are, the venomous snakes may destroy us ; 
 or the deadly marsh air when night comes on will 
 be surely fatal ; it is death to remain, but yet if 
 we move, we know not what way will lead us out, 
 and it may be that, while seeming to advance, we 
 shall but be going round and round, and shall at 
 last find ourselves hard by the place from which 
 we set out in the beginning. Nay, we may even 
 feel a doubt, — a doubt, I say, though not a 
 reasonable belief, — but a doubt which at times 
 would press us sorely, whether the tangled 
 thicket in which we are placed has any end at 
 
THAT OUR PRESENT STATE IS NOT NATURAL, 3 
 
 all; whether our fond notions of a clear and 
 open space, a pure air, and a fruitful and habit- 
 able country, are not altogether merely ima- 
 ginary ; whether the whole world be not such a 
 region of death as the spot in which we are 
 actually prisoned; whether there remains any 
 thing for us, but to curse our fate, and lie down 
 and die. Under such circumstances, although 
 we should admire the spirit which hoped against 
 hope ; which would make an effort for deliver- 
 ance ; which would, at any rate, flee from the 
 actual evil, although other evil might receive him 
 after all his struggles ; yet we could forgive those 
 who yielded at once to their fate, and who sat 
 down quietly to wait for their death, without the 
 unavailing labour of a struggle to avoid it. 
 
 But when the declaration has been made to us 
 by God himself, that this dismal swamp in which 
 we are prisoners, is but an infinitely small portion 
 of his universe, that there do exist all those 
 goodly forms which we fancied ; and more, when 
 God declares too that we were in the first in- 
 stance designed to enjoy them; that our error! 
 brought us into the thicket, having been once 
 out of it ; that we may escape from it again ; 
 nay, much more still, when he shows us the true' 
 path to escape, and tells us, that the obstacles in 
 our way have been cleared, and that He will 
 give us strength to accomplish the task of 
 
 B 2 
 
4 NOR ACTUALLY INEVITABLE. 
 
 escaping, and will guide us that we do not miss 
 the track ; then what shall we say to those who 
 insist upon remaining where they are, but that 
 they are either infatuated, or indolent and 
 cowardly even to insanity ; that they are refusing 
 certain salvation, and are, by their own act, 
 giving themselves over to inevitable death. 
 
 This, then, is the truth taught us by the 
 doctrine of the Fall ; not so much that it is our 
 certain destruction to remain where we are, for 
 that our own sense and reason declare to us, if 
 we will but listen to them ; but that our present 
 position is not that for which God designed us, 
 and that to rest satisfied with it is not a yielding 
 to an unavoidable necessity, but the indolently 
 or madly shrinking from the effort which would 
 give us certain deliverance. 
 
 Now it is a part of our present evil condition 
 from which we must escape, that we know good 
 and evil. We are in a world where evil exists 
 within us, and about us ; we cannot but know it. 
 True it is, that it was our misfortune to become 
 acquainted with it ; this noisome wilderness of 
 reeds, this reeking swamp ; it would have been far 
 happier for us, no doubt, had we never become 
 aware of their existence. But that wish is now 
 too late. We are in the midst of this dismal place, 
 and the question now is, how to escape from it. 
 We may shut our eyes, and say we will not see 
 
IGNORANCE NOW IS NOT INNOCENCE. 5 
 
 objects SO unsightly; but what avails it, if the 
 marsh poison finds its way by other senses, if we 
 cannot but draw it in with our breath, and so we 
 must die. And such is the case of those who now 
 in this present world confound ignorance with in- 
 nocence. This is a fatal mistaking of our present 
 condition for our past : there was a time when 
 to the human race ignorance was innocence ; but 
 now, it is only folly and sin. For as I supposed 
 that a man lost in one of those noxious swamps 
 might shut his eyes, and so keep himself in some 
 measure in ignorance, yet the poison would be 
 taken in with his breath, and so he would die : 
 even thus, whilst we would fain shut the eyes of 
 our understanding, and would so hope to be in 
 safety, our passions are all the time alive and 
 active, and they catch the poison of the atmo- 
 sphere around us, and we are not innocent, but 
 foolishly wicked. 
 
 We must needs consider this carefully ; for, 
 to say nothing of wider questions of national 
 importance, who that sees before him, as we 
 must see it, the gradual change from childhood 
 to boyhood, who that sees added knowledge 
 often accompanied with added sin, can help 
 wishing that the earlier ignorance of evil might 
 still be continued ; and fancying that knowledge 
 is at best but a doubtful blessing. 
 
 But our path is not backwards, but onwards*^ 
 
b WE MUST GO FORWARDS, 
 
 Israel in the desert was hungry and thirsty, 
 while in Egypt he had eaten bread to the full ; 
 Israel in the desert saw a wide waste of sand, or 
 sandy rock, around him, while in Egypt he had 
 dwelt in those green pastures and watered gar- 
 dens to which the Nile had given freshness and 
 life. But that wilderness is his appointed way 
 to Canaan ; its dreariness must be exchanged for 
 the hills and valleys of Canaan, and must not 
 drive him back again to the low plain of Egypt. 
 There is a moral wilderness which lies in the 
 early part of our christian course ; but we must 
 not hope to escape from it but by penetrating 
 through it to its farthest side. 
 
 Undoubtedly this place, and other similar 
 places, w^hich receive us when we have quitted 
 the state of childhood, and before our characters 
 are formed in manhood, do partake somewhat of 
 the character of the wilderness; and it is not 
 unnatural that many should shrink back from 
 them in fear. We see but too often the early 
 beauty of the character sadly marred, its sim- 
 phcity gone, its confidence chilled, its tenderness 
 hardened ; where there was gentleness, we see 
 roughness and coarseness ; where there was 
 obedience, we find murmuring, and self-will, and 
 pride ; where there was a true and blameless 
 conversation, we find now something of false- 
 hood, something of profaneness, something of 
 
ENDURING THE INTERMEDIATE EVIL, 7 
 
 impurity. I can well conceive what it must be 
 to a parent to see his child return from school, 
 for the first time, with the marks of this grievous 
 change upon him : I can well conceive how 
 bitterly he must regret having ever sent him to 
 a place of so much danger ; how fondly he must 
 look back to the days of his early innocence. 
 And if a parent feels thus, what must be our 
 feelings, seeing that this evil has been wrought 
 here. Are we not as those who, when pretend- j 
 ing to give a wholesome draught, have mixed 1 
 the cup with poison ? How can we go on I 
 upholding a system, the effects of which appear j 
 to be so merely mischievous ? ^^-^ 
 
 Believe me, that such questions must and 
 ought to present themselves to the mind of every 
 thinking man who is concerned in the manage- 
 ment of a school : and I do think that we could 
 not answer them satisfactorily, that our work 
 would absolutely be unendurable, if we did not 
 bear in mind that our eyes should look forward, 
 and not backward ; if we did not remember that 
 the victory of fallen man is to be sought for, not 
 in innocence, but in tried virtue. Comparing 
 only the state of a boy after his first half-year, 
 or year, at school, with his earher state as a 
 child, and our reflections on the evil of our 
 system would be bitter indeed; but when we 
 compare a boy's state after his first half-year, or 
 
8 AS LOOKING TO THE GOOD BEYOND IT. 
 
 year, at school, with what it is afterwards ; 
 when we see the clouds again clearing off; when 
 we find coarseness succeeded again by delicacy ; 
 hardness and selfishness again broken up, and 
 giving place to affection and benevolence ; mur- 
 muring and self-will exchanged for humility and 
 self-denial ; and the profane, or impure, or false 
 tongue, uttering again only the words of truth 
 and purity; and when we see that all these 
 good things are now, by God's grace, rooted in 
 the character ; that they have been tried, and 
 grown up amidst the trial ; that the knowledge 
 of evil has made them hate it the more, and be 
 the more aware of it ; then we can look upon 
 our calhng with patience, and even with thank- 
 fulness; we see that the wilderness has been 
 gone through triumphantly, and that its dangers 
 have hardened and strengthened the traveller for 
 all his remaining pilgrimage. 
 
 For the truth is, that to the knowledge of good 
 and evil we are born ; and it must come upon 
 us sooner or later. In the common course of 
 things, it comes about that age with which we 
 are here most concerned. I do not mean that 
 there are not faults in early childhood — we know 
 that there are ; — but we know also that with the 
 strength and rapid growth of boyhood there is 
 a far greater development of these faults, and 
 particularly far less of that submissiveness which 
 
BUT IF THE GOOD DOES NOT COME, 9 
 
 belonged naturally to the helplessness of mere 
 childhood. I suppose that, by an extreme care, 
 the period of childhood might be prolonged con- 
 siderably ; but still it must end ; and the know- 
 ledge of good and evil, in its full force, must 
 come. I believe that this must be; I beheve 
 that no care can prevent it, and that an extreme 
 attempt at carefulness, whilst it could not keep 
 off the disorder, would weaken the strength of 
 the constitution to bear it. But yet you should 
 never forget, and I should never forget, that, 
 although the evils of schools in some respects 
 must be, yet, in proportion as they exceed whatj 
 must be, they do become at once mischievous 
 and guilty. And such, or even worse, is the^ 
 mischief when, with the evil which must be, 
 there is not the good which ought to be ; for, 
 remember, our condition is to know good and^^jX^ 
 evil. If we know only evil, it is the condition 7^ 
 of hell ; and therefore, if schools present an 
 unmixed experience, if there is temptation in 
 abundance, but no support against temptation, 
 and no examples of overcoming it ; if some are 
 losing their child's innocence, but none, or very 
 few, are gaining a man's virtue; are we in a 
 wholesome state then ? or can we shelter our- 
 selves under the excuse that our evil is unavoid- 
 able, that we do but afford, in a mild form, the 
 experience which must be learned sooner or 
 
J 
 
 10 THE MISCHIEF AND THE SIN ARE GREAT. 
 
 later ? It is here that we must be acquitted or 
 condemned. I can bear to see the overclouding 
 of childish simplicity, if there is a reasonable 
 hope that the character so clouded for a time 
 will brighten again into christian holiness. But 
 if we do not see this, if innocence is exchanged 
 only for vice, then we have not done our part, 
 then the evil is not unavoidable, but our sin: 
 and we may be assured, that for the souls so 
 lost, there will be an account demanded hereafter 
 both of us and you. 
 
 February 1840. 
 
SERMON II. 
 
 1 Corinthians xiii. 11. 
 
 When I was a child I spake a^ a child, I understood as a 
 child, I thought as a child; hut when I became a man, I 
 put away childish things. 
 
 Taking the Apostle's words literally, it might 
 appear that no words in the whole range of 
 Scripture were less applicable to the circum- 
 stances of this particular congregation : for they 
 speak of childhood and of manhood ; and as all 
 of us have passed the one, so a very large pro- 
 portion of us have not yet arrived at the other. 
 But when we consider the passage a little more 
 carefully, we shall see that this would be a 
 very narrow and absurd objection. Neither the 
 Apostle, nor any one else, has ever stepped 
 directly from childhood into manhood ; it was 
 his purpose here only to notice the two extreme 
 
12 CHILDHOOD AND MANHOOD. 
 
 points of the change which had taken place in 
 him, passing over its intermediate stages ; but 
 he, hke all other men, must have gone through 
 those stages. There must have been a time in 
 his life, as in all ours, when his words, his 
 thoughts, and his understanding were neither all 
 childish, nor all manly : there must have been a 
 period, extending over some years, in which 
 they were gradually becoming the one less and 
 less, and the other more and more. And as it 
 suited the purposes of his comparison to look at 
 the change in himself only when it was com- 
 pleted, so it will suit our object here to regard it 
 while in progress, to consider what it is, to ask 
 the two great questions, how far it can be has- 
 tened, and how far it ought to be hastened. 
 
 '' When I w^as a child, I spake as a child, I 
 understood as a child, I thought as child; but 
 when I became a man, I put away childish 
 things." It will be seen at once, that when the 
 Apostle speaks of thought and understanding, 
 {e^povovvy 6\oyL^ofjb7]v,) he does not ^ean the 
 inhere intellect, but all the notions* feelings, and 
 desireffe of our minds, which partake of an intel- 
 lectual and of a moral character together. He 
 is comparing what we should call the whole 
 nature and character of childhood with those of 
 manhood. Let us see, for a moment, in what 
 they most strikingly differ. 
 
CHARACTERISTICS OF CHILDHOOD. 13 
 
 Our Lord's well known words suggest a dif- 
 ference in the first place, which is in favour of 
 childhood. When he says, '' Except ye be con- 
 verted, and become as httle children, ye can in 
 no case enter into the kingdom of heaven," he 
 must certainly ascribe some one quality to child- 
 hood, in which manhood is generally deficient. 
 And the quality which he means is clearly humi- 
 lity ; or to speak perhaps more correctly, teach- 
 ableness. It is impossible that a child can have 
 that confidence in himself, which disposes him~ 
 to be his own guide. He must of necessity lean 
 on others, he must follow others, and therefore 
 he must believe others. There is in his mind, 
 properly speaking, nothing which can be called 
 prejudice ; he will not as yet refuse to listen, as 
 thinking that he knows better than his adviser. 
 One feeling, therefore, essential to the perfection 
 of every created and reasonable being, childhood 
 has by the very law of its nature ; a child cannot 
 help believing that there "are some who are 
 greater, wiger, hotter thaa himself, and Jie is dis- 
 posed to follow their guidance. 
 
 This sense of comparative weakness is fbwided 
 upon tAith, for a child is of course unfit to guide 
 himself. Without noticing mere bxjdily help- 
 lessness, a child knows scarcely what is good and 
 what is evil ; his desires for the highest good are V 
 not yet in existence ; his moral sense altogether 
 
14 CHARACTERISTICS OF CHILDHOOD. 
 
 is exceedingly weak, and would yield readily to 
 the first temptation. And, because those higher 
 feelings, which are the great check to selfish- 
 ness, have not yet arisen within him, the selfish 
 instinct, connected apparently with all animal 
 life, is exceedingly predominant in him. If a 
 child then on the one hand be teachable, yet he 
 is at the same time morally weak and ignorant, 
 and therefore extremely selfish. 
 
 It is also a part of the nature of childhood to 
 be the slave of present impulses. A child is not 
 apt to look backwards or forwards, to reflect, 
 or to calculate. In this also he differs entirely 
 from the great quality which befits man as an 
 eternal being, the being able to look before and 
 after. 
 
 Not to embarrass ourselves with too many 
 points, we may be content with these four cha- 
 racteristics of childhood, teachableness, igno-> 
 ranee, selfishness, and living only for the present. 1 
 In the last three of these, the perfect man should 
 put away childish things ; in the first point, or 
 teachableness, while he retained it in principle, 
 he should modify it in its application. For while 
 modesty, humility, and a readiness to learn, are 
 becoming to men no less than to children ; yet 
 it should be not a simple readiness to follow 
 others, but only to follow the wise and good ; 
 not a sense of utter helplessness, which catches 
 
CHANGE TO MANHOOD 15 
 
 at the first stay, whether sound or brittle ; but 
 such a consciousness of weakness and imperfec- 
 tion, as makes us long to be strengthened by 
 Him who is almighty, to be purified by Him 
 who is all pure. ^ 
 
 I said, and it is an obvious truth, that the 
 change from childhood to manhood is gradual ; 
 there is a period in our lives, of several years, in 
 which we a^e, or should be, slowly exchanging 
 the qualities of one state for those of the other. 
 During this intermediate state, then, we should 
 expect to find persons become less teachable, less 
 ignorant, less selfish, less thoughtless. '' Less 
 teachable," I would wish to mean, in the sense 
 of being "less indiscriminately teachable;" but 
 as the evil and the good are, in human things, 
 ever mixed up together, we may be obliged to 
 mean " less teachable" simply. And, to say the 
 very truth, if I saw in a young man the changes 
 from childhood in the three other points, if 
 I found him becoming wiser, and less selfish, 
 and more thoughtful, I should not be very 
 much disturbed if I found him for a time less 
 teachable also. For whilst he was really be- 
 coming wiser and better, I should not much 
 wonder if the sense of improvement rather than 
 of imperfection possessed him too strongly ; if 
 his confidence in himself was a little too over- 
 weening. Let him go on a little farther in life. 
 
 t^^ 
 
16 OFTEN BOTH TOO FAST AND TOO SLOW. 
 
 and if he really does go on improving in wisdom 
 and goodness, this over-confidence w^ill find its 
 proper level. He will perceive not only how 
 much he is doing, or can do, but how much 
 there is which he does not do, and cannot. 
 To a thoughtful mind added years can scarcely 
 fail to teach humility. And in this the highest 
 wisdom of manhood may be resembling more 
 and more the state of what would be perfect 
 childhood, that is, not simply teachableness, but 
 teachableness with respect to what was good and 
 true, and to that only. 
 
 But the danger of the intermediate state 
 between childhood and manhood is too often 
 this, that whilst in the one point of teachable- 
 ness, the change runs on too fast, in the other 
 three, of wisdom, of unselfishness, and of thought- 
 fulness, it proceeds much too slowly : that the 
 faults of childhood thus remain in the character, 
 whilst that quality by means of which these 
 j faults are meant to be corrected, — namely, 
 teachableness, — is at the same time diminishing. 
 Now, teachableness as an instinct, if I may call 
 it so, diminishes naturally with the conscious- 
 ness of growing strength. By strength, I mean 
 strength of body, no less than strength of mind, 
 so closely are our body and mind connected 
 w^ith each other. The helplessness of childhood, 
 which presses upon it every nioment, the sense 
 
WHY TEACHABLENESS DECREASES. 17 
 
 of inability to avoid or resist danger, which 
 makes the child run continually to his nurse or 
 to his mother for protection, cannot but diminish 
 by the mere growth of the bodily powers. The 
 boy feels himself to be less helpless than the child, 
 and in that very proportion he is apt to become 
 less teachable. As this feeling of decreased 
 helplessness changes into a sense of positive 
 vigour and power, and as this vigour and power 
 confer an importance on their possessor, which 
 is the case especially at schools, so self-confi- 
 dence must, in one point at least, arise in the 
 place of conscious weakness ; and as this point 
 is felt to be more important, so will the self- 
 confidence be likely to extend itself more and 
 more over the whole character. 
 
 And yet, I am bound to say, that, in general, 
 the teachableness of youth is, after all, much 
 greater than we might at first sight fancy. Along 
 with much self-confidence in many things, it is 
 rare, I think, to find in a young man a deliberate 
 pride that rejects advice and instruction, on the 
 strength of having no need for them. And, there- 
 fore, the faults of boyhood and youth are more 
 owing, to my mind, to the want of change in the 
 other points of the childish character, than to the 
 too great change in this. The besetting faults of 
 youth appear to me to arise mainly from its 
 retaining too often the ignorance, selfishness, 
 
 c 
 
18 THE CHANGE OUGHT TO BE HASTENED, 
 
 and thoughtlessness of a child, and having 
 arrived at the same time at a degree of bodily 
 vigour and power, equal, or only a very little 
 inferior, to those of manhood. 
 
 And, in this state of things, the questions be- 
 come of exceeding interest, whether the change 
 from childhood to manhood can be hastened, 
 and how far it ought to be hastened. That it 
 ought to be hastened, appears to me to be clear ; 
 hastened, I mean, from what it is actually, be- 
 cause in this respect we do not grow in general 
 fast enough ; and the danger of overgrowth is, 
 therefore, small. Besides, where change of one 
 sort is going on very rapidly ; where the limbs 
 are growing, and the bones knitting more firmly, 
 where the strength of bodily endurance, as well 
 as of bodily activity, is daily becoming greater ; 
 it is self-evident that, if the inward changes 
 which ought to accompany these outward ones 
 are making no progress, there cannot but be 
 derangement and deformity in the system. And, 
 therefore, when I look around, I cannot but 
 vydsh generally that the change from childhood 
 to manhood in the three great points of vnsdom, 
 of unselfishness, and of thoughtfulness, might 
 be hastened from its actual rate of progress in 
 most instances. 
 
 But then comes the other great question, 
 " Can it be hastened, and, if it can, how is it to 
 
IF IT CAN BE DONE HEALTHFULLY : 19 
 
 be done ?" '^ Can it be hastened" means, of course, 
 can it be hastened healthfully and beneficially, 
 consistently with the due development of our 
 nature in its after-stages, from hfe temporal to 
 life eternal. For as the child should grow up 
 into the man, so also there is a term of years 
 given in which, according to God's will, the 
 natural man should grow up into the spiritual 
 man ; and we must not so press the first change 
 as to make it interfere with the wholesome work- 
 ing of the second. The question then is, really, 
 can the change from childhood to manhood be 
 hastened in the case of boys and young men in 
 general from its actual rate of progress in ordinary 
 cases, without injury to the future excellence and 
 full development of the man ; that is, without 
 exhausting prematurely the faculties either of 
 body or mind. 
 
 And this is a very great question, one of the 
 deepest interest for us and for you. For us, as, 
 according to the answer to be given to it, should 
 depend our whole conduct and feelings towards 
 you in the matter of your education; for you, 
 inasmuch as it is quite clear, that if the change 
 from childhood to manhood can be hastened 
 safely, it ought to be hastened ; and that it is a 
 sin in every one not to try to hasten it ; because, 
 to retain the imperfections of childhood when 
 you can get rid of them, is in itself to forfeit the 
 
 c2 
 
20 WHICH QUESTION MUST BE CONSIDERED, 
 
 innocence of childhood ; to exchange the con- 
 dition of the innocent infant whom Christ blessed, 
 for that of the unprofitable servant whom Christ 
 condemned. For with the growth of our bodies 
 evil will grow in us unavoidably ; and then, if we 
 are not positively good, we are, of necessity, posi- 
 tively sinners. 
 
 We will consider, then, what can be done to 
 hasten this change in us healthfully: whether 
 we can grow in wisdom, in love, and in thought- 
 fulness, faster in youth than we now commonly do 
 grow ; and whether any possible danger can be 
 connected with such increased exertion. This 
 shall be our subject for consideration next Sunday. 
 Meantime, let it be understood, that however 
 extravagant it might be to hope for any general 
 change in any moral point, as the direct result of 
 setting truth before the mind ; yet, that it never 
 can be extravagant to hope for a practical result 
 in some one or two particular cases ; and that, if 
 one or two even be impressed practically with 
 what they hear, the good achieved, or, rather, 
 the good granted us by God, is really beyond our 
 calculation. It is so strictly; for who can worthily 
 calculate the value of a single human soul ? but 
 it is so in this sense also, that the amount of 
 general good which may be done in the end by 
 doing good first in particular cases is really 
 more than we can estimate. It was thus that 
 
AND IS OF PRACTICAL IMPORTANCE. 21 
 
 Christ's original eleven apostles became, in the 
 end, the instruments of the salvation of millions : 
 and it is on this consideration that we never need 
 despair of the most extensive improvements in 
 society, if we are content to wait God's appointed 
 time and order, and look for the salvation of the 
 many as the gradual fruit of the salvation of a 
 few. 
 
 August 1839. 
 
SEE MO N III. 
 
 1 Corinthians xiii. 11. 
 
 When I was a child I spake as a child, I understood as a 
 child, I thought as a child; hut when I became a man, I 
 put away childish things. 
 
 After having noticed last Sunday what were 
 those particular points in childhood which in 
 manhood should be put away, and having ob- 
 served that this change cannot take place all at 
 once, but gradually, during a period of several 
 years, I proposed to consider, as on this day, 
 whether it were possible to hasten this change, 
 that is, whether it could be hastened without 
 injury to the future development of the charac- 
 ter; for, undoubtedly, there is such a thing in 
 minds, as well as in bodies, as precocious growth ; 
 and although it is not so frequent as precocious 
 growth in the body, nor by any means so gene- 
 
MANLINESS IS NOT MERELY INTELLECTUAL, 23 
 
 rally regarded as an evil, yet it is really a thing 
 to be deprecated; and we ought not to adopt 
 such measures as might be likely to occasion it. 
 
 Now I believe the only reason which could 
 make it supposed to be possible that there could 
 be danger in hastening this change, is drawn 
 from the observation of what takes place some- 
 times with regard to intellectual advancement. 
 It is seen, that some young men of great ambi- 
 tion, or remarkable love of knowledge, do really l 
 injure their health, and exhaust their minds, by V 
 an excess of early study. I always grieve over 
 such cases exceedingly ; not only for the indi- 
 vidual's sake who is the sufferer, but also for the 
 mischievous effect of his example. It affords a 
 pretence to others to justify their own want of 
 exertion ; and those to whom it is in reality the 
 least dangerous, are always the very persons 
 who seem to dread it the most. But we should 
 clearly understand, that this excess of intellectual 
 exertion at an early age> is by no means the 
 same thing with hastening the change from 
 childishness to manliness. We are all enough 
 aware, in common life, that a very clever and 
 forward boy may be, in his conduct, exceeding 
 childish, that those whose talents and book- 
 knowledge are by no means remarkable, may be/V 
 in their conduct, exceedingly manly. Examples 
 of both these truths instantly present themselves 
 
24 YET IT IS A STATE OF GREATER WISDOM ; 
 
 to my memory, and perhaps may do so to some 
 of yours. I may say farther, that some whose 
 change from childhood to manhood had been, in 
 St. Paul's sense of the terms, the most remark- 
 ably advanced, were so far from being distin- 
 guished for their cleverness or proficiency in 
 their school-work, that it would almost seem a» 
 if their only remaining childishness had been dis-^ 
 played there. What I mean, therefore, by the 
 change from childhood to manhood, is altogether 
 distinct from a premature advance in book-know- 
 ledge, and involves in it nothing of that over- 
 study which is dreaded as so injurious. 
 
 Yet it is true that I described the change from 
 childhood to manhood, as a change from igno- 
 rance to wisdom. I did so, certainly ; but yet, 
 fare as knowledge is, wisdom is rarer ; and 
 X /knowledge, unhappily, can exist without wisdom, 
 as wisdom can exist with a very inferior degree 
 of knowledge. We shall see this, if we consider 
 what we mean by knowledge ; and, without 
 going into a more general definition of it, let us 
 see what we mean by it here. We mean by it, 
 either a knowledge of points of scholarship, of 
 grammar, and matters connected with grammar; 
 or a knowledge of history and geography ; or a 
 knowledge of mathematics ; or, it may be, of 
 natural history ; or, if we use the term, '' know- 
 ledge of the world," then we mean, I think, a 
 
FOR WISDOM IS NOT MERELY KNOWLEDGE, 25 
 
 knowledge of points of manner and fashion ; 
 such a knowledge as may save us from exposing 
 ourselves in trifling things, by awkwardness or 
 inexperience. Now, the knowledge of none of 
 these things brings us of necessity any nearer to 
 real thoughtfulness, such as alone gives wisdom, 
 than the knowledge of a well-contrived game. 
 Some of you, probably, well know that there are 
 games from which chance is wholly excluded, 
 and skill in which is only the result of much 
 thought and calculation. There is no doubt that 
 the game of chess may properly be called an 
 intellectual study ; but why does it not, and 
 cannot, make any man wise ? Because, in the 
 first place, the calculations do but respect the 
 movements of little pieces of wood or ivory, and 
 not those of our own minds and hearts ; and, 
 again, they are calculations which have nothing 
 to do whatever with our being better men, or 
 worse, with our pleasing God, or displeasing him. 
 And what is true of this game, is true no less of 
 the highest calculations of astronomy, of the 
 profoundest reseaches into language ; nay, what 
 may seem stranger still, it is often true no less 
 of the deepest study even of the actions and 
 principles of man's nature ; and, strangest of all, 
 it may be, and is often true, also, of the study of 
 the very Scripture itself; and that, not only of 
 the incidental points of Scripture, its antiquities. 
 
26 BUT THE KNOWING HOW WE MUST BE SAVED. 
 
 chronology, and history, but of its very most 
 divine truths, of man's justification, and of 
 God's nature. Here, indeed, we are considering 
 about things where wisdom, so to speak, sits 
 enshrined. We are very near her ; we see the 
 place where she abides ; but her very self we 
 obtain not. And why ? — but because, in the 
 most solemn study, no less than in the lightest, 
 our own moral state may be set apart from our 
 consideration; we may be unconscious all the 
 while of our great want; and forgetting our 
 great business, to be reconciled to God, and to 
 do his will : for wisdom, to speak properly, is to 
 us nothing else than the true answer to the 
 Phihppian jailor's question, ''What must I do 
 to be saved ?" 
 
 Now then, as knowledge of all kinds may be 
 gained without being received, or meant at all to 
 be applied, as the answer to this question, so it 
 may be quite distinct from wisdom. And when 
 I use the term thoughtfulness, as opposed to a 
 child's carelessness, I mean it to express an 
 anxiety for the obtaining of this wisdom. And 
 farther, I do not see how this wisdom, or this 
 thoughtfulness, can be premature in any one; 
 or how it can exhaust before their time any 
 faculties, whether of body or mind. This re- 
 quires no sitting up late at night, no giving up 
 of healthful exercise ; it brings no headaches. 
 
EAJILIER MANLINESS NOT UNNATURAL, 27 
 
 no feverishness, no strong excitement at first, 
 to be followed by exhaustion afterwards. Hear 
 how it is described by one who spoke of it from 
 experience. " The wisdom that is from above / 
 is first pm-e, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be 
 entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without 
 partiality and without hypocrisy." There is 
 surely nothing of premature exhaustion con- 
 nected with any one of these things. 
 
 Or, if we turn to the third point of change 
 from childhood to a Christian manhood, the 
 change from selfishness to unselfishness, neither 
 can we find any possible danger in hastening 
 this. This cannot hurt our health or strain our 
 faculties ; it can but make life at every age 
 more peaceful and more happy. Nor indeed do 
 I suppose that any one could fancy that such a 
 change was otherwise than wholesome, at the 
 earliest possible period. 
 
 There may remain, however, a vague notion, 
 that, generally, if what we mean by an early 
 change from childishness to manliness be that we 
 should become religious, then, although it may 
 not exhaust the powers, or injure the health, yet 
 it would destroy the natural liveliness and gaiety 
 of youth, and by bringing on a premature 
 seriousness of manner and language, would be y" 
 unbecoming and ridiculous. Now, in the first 
 place, there is a great deal of confusion and a 
 
\i 
 
 28 NOR INCONSISTENT WITH HAPPY SPIRITS, 
 
 great deal of folly in the common notions of the 
 gaiety of youth. If gaiety mean real happiness 
 of mind, I do not believe that there is more of it 
 in youth than in manhood; if for this reason 
 only, that the temper in youth being com- 
 monly not yet brought into good order, irritation 
 and passion are felt, probably, oftener than in 
 after life, and these are sad drawbacks, as we all 
 know, to a real cheerfulness of mind. And of 
 the outward gaiety of youth, there is a part also 
 which is like the gaiety of a drunken man; 
 which is riotous, insolent, and annoying to 
 others ; which, in short, is a folly and a sin. 
 /There remains that which strictly belongs to 
 ' youth, partly physically — the lighter step and 
 the livelier movement of the growing and vigor- 
 ous body ; partly from circumstances, because a 
 young person's parents or friends stand between 
 him and many of the cares of life, and protect 
 him from feeling them altogether; partly from 
 the abundance of hope which belongs to the 
 beginning of every thing, and which continually 
 hinders the mind from dwelling on past pain. 
 And I know not which of these causes of gaiety 
 would be taken away or lessened by the earlier 
 change from childhood to manhood. True it is, 
 that the question, '' What must I do to be 
 saved?" is a grave one, and must be considered 
 seriously ; but I do not suppose that any one - 
 
BUT ONLY WITH FOLLY AND SIN : 29 
 
 proposes that a young person should never be 
 serious at all. True it is, again, that if we are 
 living in folly and sin, this question may be a 
 painful one ; we might be gayer for a time 
 without it. But, then, the matter is, what is to 
 become of us if we do not think of being saved ? 
 — shall we be saved without thinking of it ? and 
 what is it to be not saved but lost ? I cannot 
 pretend to say that the thought of God would 
 not very much disturb the peace and gaiety of an 
 ungodly and sinful mind; that it would not 
 interfere with the mirth of the bully, or the 
 drunkard, or the reveller, or the glutton, or the 
 idler, or the fool. It would, no doubt; just as 
 the hand that was seen to write on the wall 
 threw a gloom over the guests at Belshazzar's 
 festival. I never meant or mean to say, that the 
 thought of God, or that God himself, can be 
 other than a plague to those who do not love 
 Him. The thought of Him is their plague here ; 
 the sight of Him will be their judgment for ever. 
 But I suppose the point is, whether the thought 
 of Him would cloud the gaiety of those who were 
 striving to please Him. It would cloud it as 
 much, and be just as unwelcome and no more, as 
 will be the very actual presence of our Lord to 
 the righteous, when they shall see Him as He 
 is. Can that which we know to be able to make 
 old age, and sickness, and poverty, many times 
 
30 WHILE TO DELAY PUTTING OFF CHILDHOOD^ 
 
 full of comfort, — can that make youth and health 
 gloomy? When to natural cheerfulness and 
 sanguineness, are added a consciousness of God's 
 ever present care, and a knowledge of his rich 
 promises, are we hkely to be the more sad or the 
 more unhappy ? 
 
 What reason, then, is there for any one's not 
 anticipating the common progress of Christian 
 manliness, and hastening to exchange, as I said 
 before, ignorance for wisdom, selfishness for un- 
 selfishness, carelessness for thoughtfulness ? I 
 see no reason why we should not ; but is there 
 no reason why we should ? You are young, and 
 for the most part strong and healthy ; I grant 
 that, humanly speaking, the chances of early 
 death to any particular person among you are 
 small. But still, considering what life is, even to 
 the youngest and strongest, it does seem a fearful 
 risk to be living unredeemed; to be living in 
 that state, that if we should happen to die, (it 
 may be very unlikely, but still it is clearly pos- 
 sible,)— that if we should happen to die, we should 
 be most certainly lost for ever. Risks, however, 
 we do not mind ; the chances, we think, are in 
 our favour, and we will run the hazard. It may 
 be so ; but he who delays to turn to God when 
 the thought has been once put before him, is 
 incurring something more than a risk. He may 
 not die these fifty or sixty years ; we cannot tell 
 
I 
 
 IS AN INFINITE RISK AND A CERTAIN EVIL. 31 
 
 how that may be ; but he is certainly at this very 
 present time hardening his heart, and doing 
 despite unto the Spirit of Grace. By the very 
 wickedness of putting off turning to God till a 
 future time, he lessens his power of turning to 
 Him ever. This is certain ; no one can reject God's 
 call without becoming less likely to hear it when 
 it is made to him again. And thus the lingering 
 wilfully in the evil things of childhood, when we 
 might be at work in putting them off, and when 
 God calls us to do so, is an infinite risk, and a 
 certain evil ; — an infinite risk, for it is living in 
 such a state that death at any moment would be 
 certain condemnation ; — and a certain evil, be- 
 cause, whether we live or not, we are actually 
 raising up barriers between ourselves and our 
 salvation : we not only do not draw nigh to God, 
 but we are going farther from Him, and lessening 
 our power of drawing nigh to Him hereafter, 
 
 August 1839. 
 
SERMON IV. 
 
 COLOSSIANS i. 9. 
 
 We do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might 
 be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and 
 spiritual understanding. 
 
 This is the first of three verses, all of them 
 forming a part of the Epistle which was read this 
 morning, and containing St. Paul's prayer for the 
 Colossians in all the several points of Christian 
 excellence. And the first thing which he desires 
 for them, as we have heard, is, that they should 
 be filled with the knowledge of God*s will in all 
 wisdom and spiritual understanding; or, as he 
 expresses the same thing to the Ephesians, that 
 they should be not unwise, but understanding 
 what the will of the Lord is. He prays for the 
 Colossians that they should not be spiritually 
 foohsh, but that they should be spiritually wise. 
 
WHAT IS SPIRITUAL FOLLY. 33 
 
 The state of spiritual folly is, I suppose, one 
 of the most universal evils in the world. For 
 the number of those who are naturally foolish is 
 exceedingly great ; of those, I mean, who under- 
 stand no worldly thing well ; of those who are 
 careless about every thing, carried about by 
 every breath of opinion, without knowledge and 
 without principle. But the term spiritual folly 
 includes, unhappily, a great many more than 
 these ; it takes in not those only who are in the 
 common sense of the term foolish, but a great 
 many who are in the common sense of the term 
 clever, and many who are even in the common 
 sense of the terms, prudent, sensible, thoughtful, 
 and wise. It is but too evident that some of the 
 ablest men who have ever lived upon earth, have 
 been in no less a degree spiritually fools. And 
 thus, it is not without much truth that Christian 
 writers have dwelt upon the insufficiency of 
 worldly wisdom, and have warned their readers 
 to beware, lest, while professing themselves to be 
 wise, they should be accounted as fools in the 
 sight of God. 
 
 But the opposite to this notion, that those 
 who are, as it were, fools in worldly matters, 
 are wise before God ; although this also is true 
 in a certain sense, and under certain peculiar 
 circumstances, yet taken generally, it is the 
 very reverse of truth ; and the careless and 
 
 D 
 
34 WORLDLY FOLLY NOT SPIRITUAL WISDOM, 
 
 incautious language which has been often used 
 on this subject, has been extremely mischievous. 
 On the contrary, he who is foolish in worldly 
 matters is likely also to be, and most commonly is, 
 no less foolish in the things of God. And the op- 
 posite belief has arisen mainly from that strange 
 confusion between ignorance and innocence, with 
 which many ignorant persons seem to solace 
 themselves. Whereas, if you take away a man's 
 knowledge, you do not bring him to the state of 
 an infant, but to that of a brute ; and of one of 
 the most mischievous and malignant of the brute 
 creation. For you do not lessen or weaken the 
 man's body by lowering his mind ; he still 
 retains his strength and his passions, the pas- 
 sions leading to self-indulgence, the strength 
 which enables him to feed them by continued 
 gratification. He will not think it is true to any 
 good purpose ; it is very possible to destroy in 
 him the power of reflection, whether as exer- 
 cised upon outward things, or upon himself and 
 his own nature, or upon God. But you cannot 
 destroy the power of adapting means to ends, 
 nor that of conceahng his purposes by fraud or 
 falsehood ; you take only his wisdom, and leave 
 that cunning which marks so notoriously both 
 the savage and the madman. He, then, who is a 
 fool as far as regards earthly things, is much 
 more a fool with regard to heavenly things ; 
 
EXCEPT IN A FEW INSTANCES ; 35 
 
 he who cannot raise himself even to the lower 
 height, how is he to attain to the higher ? he 
 who is without reason and conscience, how shall 
 he be endowed with the Spirit of God ? 
 
 It is my deep conviction and long experience 
 of this truth, which makes me so grieve over a 
 want of interest in your own improvement in 
 human learning, whenever I observe it, over the 
 prevalence of a thoughtless and childish spirit 
 amongst you. I grant that as to the first point 
 there are sometimes exceptions to be met v^dth ; 
 that is to say, I have known persons certainly 
 whose interest in their work here was not great, 
 and their proficiency consequently was small; 
 but who, I do not doubt, were wise unto God. 
 But then these persons, whilst they were indif- 
 ferent perhaps about their common school-work, 
 were any thing but indifferent as to the know- 
 ledge of the Bible : there was no carelessness 
 there ; but they read, and read frequently, books 
 of practical improvement, or relating otherwise 
 to rehgious matters, such as many, I believe, 
 would find even less inviting than the books of 
 their common business. So that although there 
 was a neglect undoubtedly of many parts of the 
 school-work, yet there was no spirit of thought- 
 lessness or childishness in them, nor of general 
 idleness; and therefore, although I know that 
 their minds did suffer and have suffered from 
 D 2 
 
36 BUT IS SPIRITUAL FOLLY ALSO. 
 
 their unwise neglect of a part of their duty, yet 
 there was so much attention bestowed on other 
 parts, and so manifest and earnest a care for the 
 things of God, that it was impossible not to en- 
 tertain for them the greatest respect and regard. 
 These, however, are such rare cases, that it 
 cannot be necessary to do more than thus notice 
 them. But the idleness and want of interest 
 which I grieve for, is one which extends itself 
 but too impartially to knowledge of every kind ; 
 to divine knowledge, as might be expected, even 
 more than to human. Those whom we com- 
 monly find careless about their general lessons, 
 are quite as ignorant and as careless about their 
 Bibles; those who have no interest in general 
 literature, in poetry, or in history, or in philo- 
 sophy, have certainly no greater interest, I do 
 not say in works of theology, but in works of 
 practical devotion, in the lives of holy men, in 
 meditations, or in prayers. Alas, the interest 
 of their minds is bestowed on things far lower 
 than the very lowest of all which I have named ; 
 and, therefore, to see them desiring something 
 only a little higher than their present pursuits, 
 could not but be encouraging ; it would, at 
 least, show that the mind was rising upwards. 
 It may, indeed, stop at a point short of the 
 highest, it may learn to love earthly excel- 
 lence, and rest there contented, and seek for 
 
WANT OF THOUGHTFULNESS COMMON : 37 
 
 nothing more perfect, but that, at any rate, is 
 a future and merely contingent evil. It is better 
 to love earthly excellence than earthly folly ; it 
 is far better in itself, and it is, by many degrees, 
 nearer to the kingdom of God. 
 
 There is another case, however, which I can- 
 not but think is more frequent now than for- 
 merly ; and if it is so, it may be worth while to 
 direct our attention to it. Common idleness and 
 absolute ignorance are not what I wish to speak 
 of now, but a character advanced above these ; 
 a character which does not neglect its schooP~] 
 lessons, but really attains to considerable pro- 
 ficiency in them ; a character at once regular 
 and amiable, abstaining from evil, and for evil in 
 its low and grosser forms having a real abhor- 
 rence. What, then, you will say, is wanting 
 here ? I will tell you what seems to be wanting, 
 — a spirit of manly, and much more of christian, 
 thoughtfulness. There is quickness and clever- 
 ness ; much pleasure, perhaps, in distinction, 
 but little in improvement ; there is no desire of 
 knowledge for its own sake, whether human or 
 divine. There is, therefore, but little power of 
 combining and digesting what is read ; and, con- 
 sequently, what is read passes away, and takes 
 no root in the mind. This same character 
 shows itself in matters of conduct ; it will adopt, 
 without scruple, the most foolish, common-place 
 
38 MORE COMMON NOW THAN FORMERLY, 
 
 notions of boys, about what is right and wrong ; 
 it will not, and cannot, from the lightness of 
 its mind, concern itself seriously about what is 
 evil in the conduct of others, because it takes no 
 regular care of its own, with reference to pleasing 
 God ; it will not do any thing low or wicked, 
 but it will sometimes laugh at those who do; 
 and it will by no means take pains to encourage, 
 nay, it will sometimes thwart and oppose any 
 thing that breathes a higher spirit, and asserts a 
 more manly and christian standard of duty. 
 
 I have thought that this character, with its 
 features more or less strongly marked, has 
 shown itself sometimes amongst us, marring 
 the good and amiable qualities of those in 
 whom we can least bear to see such a defect, 
 because there is in them really so much to 
 interest in their favour. Now the number of 
 persons of extraordinary abilities who may be 
 here at any one time can depend on no calcu- 
 lable causes : nor, again, can we give any reason 
 more than what we call accident, if there were 
 to be amongst us at any one time a number of 
 persons whose whole tendency was decidedly 
 to evil. But if, in these respects, the usual ave- 
 rage has continued, if there is no lack of abiHty, 
 and nothing like a prevalence of vice, then we 
 begin anxiously to inquire into the causes, 
 which, while other things remain the same. 
 
OWING TO A CERTAIN CLASS OF BOOKS, 39 
 
 have led to a different result. And one cause 
 I do find, which is certainly capable of producing 
 such a result; a cause undoubtedly in exist- 
 ence now, and as certainly not in existence a 
 few years back; nor can I trace any other 
 besides this which appears likely to have pro- 
 duced the same effect. This cause consists 
 in the number and character and cheapness, 
 and peculiar mode of publication, of the works 
 of amusement of the present day. In all these 
 respects the change is great, and extremely 
 recent. The works of amusement published 
 only a very few years since were comparatively 
 few in number; they were less exciting, and 
 therefore less attractive ; they w^ere dearer, and 
 therefore less accessible; and, not being pub- 
 lished periodically, they did not occupy the 
 mind for so long a time, nor keep alive so con- 
 stant an expectation ; nor, by thus dwelling 
 upon the mind, and distilhng themselves into 
 it as it were drop by drop, did they possess it 
 so largely, colouring even, in many instances, its 
 very language, and affording frequent matter 
 for conversation. 
 
 The evil of all these circumstances is actually 
 enormous. The mass of human minds, and 
 much more of the minds of young persons, 
 have no great appetite for intellectual exercise ; 
 but they have some, which by careful treatment 
 
40 WHICH EXHAUST CURIOSITY, 
 
 may be strengthened and increased. But here 
 to this weak and delicate appetite is presented 
 an abundance of the most stimulating and least 
 nourishing food possible. It snatches it greedily, 
 and is not only satisfied, but actually conceives 
 a distaste for anything simpler and more whole- 
 some. That curiosity which is wisely given us 
 to lead us on to knowledge, finds its full grati- 
 fication in the details of an exciting and pro- 
 tracted story, and then lies down as it were 
 gorged, and goes to sleep. Other faculties 
 claim their turn, and have it. We know that 
 in youth the healthy body and lively spirits 
 require exercise, and in this they may and ought 
 to be indulged ; but the time and interest which 
 remain over when the body has had its enjoy- 
 ment, and the mind desires its share, this has been 
 already wasted and exhausted upon things utterly 
 unprofitable : so that the mind goes to its work 
 hurried and languidly, and feels it to be no more 
 than a burden. The mere lessons may be learnt 
 from a sense of duty ; but that freshness of power, 
 which in young persons of ability would fasten 
 eagerly upon some one portion or other of the 
 wide field of knowledge, and there expatiate, 
 drinking in health and strength to the mind, as 
 surely as the natural exercise of the body gives 
 to it bodily vigour, — that is tired prematurely, per- 
 verted, and corrupted; and all the knowledge 
 
AND UNFIT THE MIND FOR EXERTION, 41 
 
 which else it might so covet, it now seems a 
 wearying effort to attain. 
 
 Great and grievous as is the evil, it is pecu- 
 liarly hard to find the remedy for it. If the 
 books to which I have been alluding were books 
 of downright wickedness, we might destroy them 
 wherever we found them ; we might forbid their 
 open circulation ; we might conjure you to shun 
 them as you would any other clear sin, whether 
 of word or deed. But they are not wicked books 
 for the most part ; they are of that class which 
 cannot be actually prohibited ; nor can it be pre- 
 tended that there is a sin in reading them. They 
 are not the more wicked for being published so 
 cheap, and at regular intervals; but yet these 
 two circumstances make them so peculiarly in- 
 jurious. All that can be done is to point out 
 the evil; that it is real and serious I am very 
 sure, and its effects are most deplorable on the 
 minds of the fairest promise; but the remedy 
 for it rests with yourselves, or rather with each 
 of you individually, so far as he is himself con- 
 cerned. That an unnatural and constant excite- 
 ment of the mind is most injurious there is no 
 doubt; that excitement involves a consequent 
 weakness, is a law of our nature than which 
 none is surer ; that the weakness of mind thus 
 produced is and must be adverse to quiet study 
 and thought, to that reflection which alone is 
 
42 AND ARE THEREFORE MISCHIEVOUS. 
 
 wisdom, is also clear in itself, and proved too 
 largely by experience. And that without re- 
 flection there can be no spiritual understanding, 
 is at once evident ; while without spiritual un- 
 derstanding, that is, without a knowledge and a 
 study of God's will, there can be no spiritual 
 life. And therefore childishness and unthought- 
 fulness cannot be light evils; and if I have 
 rightly traced the prevalence of these defects 
 to its cause, although that cause may seem to 
 some to be trifling, yet surely it is well to call 
 your attention to it, and to remind you that 
 in reading works of amusement, as in every 
 other lawful pleasure, there is and must be an 
 abiding responsibility in the sight of God ; that, 
 hke other lawful pleasures, we must beware of 
 excess in it; and not only so, but that if we 
 find it hurtful to us, either because we have 
 used it too freely in times past, or because our 
 nature is too weak to bear it, that then we are 
 bound most solemnly to abstain from it : be- 
 cause, however lawful in itself, or to others 
 who can practise it without injury, whatever 
 is to us an hindrance in the way of our intel- 
 lectual and moral and spiritual improvement, 
 that is in our case a positive sin. 
 
 November 1839. 
 
SEE MO N V. 
 
 COLOSSIANS i. 9. 
 
 We do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye 
 might he filed with the knowledge of his will in all 
 wisdom and spiritual understanding. 
 
 These words, on which I spoke last Sunday, 
 appeared to contain so much which concerns 
 us all so deeply, and to suit the peculiar case 
 of many of us here so entirely, that I thought 
 they might well furnish us with matter for 
 farther consideration to-day. And though I 
 noticed one particular cause, which seemed to 
 have acted mischievously, in the last few years, 
 upon the growth and freshness of the mind in 
 youth, yet it would be absurd to suppose that 
 before this cause came into existence all was 
 well ; or that if it could be removed, our pro- 
 gress even in worldly knowledge would hence- 
 
44 OTHER CAUSES OF WANT OF THOUGHT. 
 
 forth be unimpeded. There are mawy other 
 causes no doubt which oppose our growth in 
 worldly wisdom; and still more which oppose 
 our growth in the wisdom of God. 
 
 One of these causes meets us at the very 
 beginning ; it exists at this very moment ; it 
 makes it difficult even to gain your attention for 
 what is to be said. This cause is to be found in 
 the want of sympathy between persons of very 
 different ages, between what must be, there- 
 fore, in the common course of nature, different 
 degrees of thoughtfulness. It is the want of 
 sympathy, properly speaking, which creates in 
 these matters a difficulty of understanding ; for 
 the attention and memory are alike apt to 
 be careless where the mind is not interested ; 
 and how can we understand that to which 
 we scarcely listened^ and which we imperfectly 
 remember? Nature herself seems to lead the 
 old and the young two different ways ; and when 
 the old call upon the young to be thoughtful, it 
 seems as if they were but calling them to a state 
 contrary to their nature ; and the call is not 
 regarded. 
 
 Is it then that we have here an invincible 
 obstacle, which renders all attempts to inspire 
 thoughtfulness utterly vain? and if it be so, 
 what use can there be in dwelling upon it? 
 None, certainly, if it were actually and in all 
 
LITTLE SYMPATHY BETWEEN YOUTH AND AGE. 45 
 
 cases invincible ; but if it be everything short 
 of invincible, there is much good in noticing 
 it. There is much good surely in trying to 
 impress the great truth that nature must be 
 overcome by a mightier power, or we perish. 
 There is much good in meeting and allowing 
 to its full extent what we are so apt in our 
 folly to regard as an excuse, and which really ^ 
 is the earnest of our condemnation. It is very j 
 true, and to be allowed to the fullest extent, 
 that it is against the nature of youth in all 
 ordinary cases to be thoughtful ; that it is very 
 difficult for you even to give your attention to 
 serious things when spoken of, more difficult 
 still to remember them afterwards and always. 
 It is for the very reason because it is so difficult, 
 because it is a work so against nature, to raise the 
 young and careless mind to the thought of God; 
 because it is so certain that, in the common 
 course of things, you will not think of Him, but 
 will follow the bent of your own several fancies 
 or desires, that therefore He, who wills in his love 
 to bring us to himself, knowing that without the 
 knowledge of Him we must perish for ever, was 
 pleased to give his only -begotten Son, that 
 through Him we might overcome nature, and 
 might turn to God and live. 
 
 I wish that I could increase, if it were possible, 
 the sense which you have of the difficulty of 
 
46 THE DIFFICULTY SHOULD BE FELT STRONGLY, 
 
 becoming thoughtful, so that you could but see 
 that out of this very difficulty, and indissolubly 
 » /connected with it, comes the grace of Christ's 
 redemption. You have not strength of purpose 
 enough to shake off folly and sin ; surely you have 
 not, or else, why should Christ have died ? It is 
 so hard to come to God ; undoubtedly, so hard 
 that no man can come unto God except God 
 will draw him. Nature herself leads us to be 
 careless, our very strength and spirits of them- 
 selves will not allow us to reflect. Most true ; 
 for that which is born of the flesh, is flesh ; and 
 we inherit a nature derived from him in whom 
 we all die. 
 
 I beHeve that it is not idle to dwell upon this ; 
 for it is scarcely possible but that good and 
 earnest resolutions should often enter the minds 
 of many of you : or, if not resolutions, yet at 
 least wishes, wishes chilled but too soon, I fear, 
 by the thought or feeling, that however much to 
 will may be present with you, yet how to per- 
 form it you find not. Now, if this true sense of 
 weakness might but lead any one to seek for 
 strength where it may be found, then indeed it 
 would be a feeling no less blessed than true; 
 for it would urge you to seek God's help and 
 Christ's redemption, instead of desperately yield- 
 ing to your weakness, and so remaining weak 
 for ever. 
 
THAT WE MAY SEEK OUR BEST HELP. 47 
 
 You may look at the prospect before you in 
 all its reality : you may see how much must be 
 given up, how much withstood, how much en- 
 dured ; how hard it is to alter old ways, not in 
 itself only, but because the change attracts atten- 
 tion, and is received, it may be, with doubts as 
 to its sincerity, with irony, and with sneers. 
 There is all this before you: it cannot be denied; 
 it must not be concealed. The way to life is not 
 broad and easy ; it is not that way which is most 
 trodden. To pass from what we are to what we 
 may be hereafter, from an earthly nature to an 
 heavenly, cannot be an easy work, to be done at 
 any time, with no effort, with no pain. It is the 
 greatest work which is done in the whole world, 
 it is the mightiest change ; death and birth are, 
 as it were, combined in it ; but the Lord of 
 birth and of death is at hand, to enable us to 
 effect it. Think that this is so ; and the more 
 you feel how hard a task is set before you, the 
 more you will be able to understand the language 
 of joy and thankfulness with which the Scripture 
 speaks of a human soul's redemption. 
 
 This great work may be wrought for every 
 soul here assembled ; the want of sympathy in 
 sacred and serious things may be changed to 
 sympathy the most intense ; the carelessness of 
 fools may be changed into spiritual wisdom. It 
 may be wrought for all ; but it is more happy to 
 
48 SOME WILL SEEK AND FIND IT ; 
 
 think that it will be wrought for some; — for 
 whom, no mortal eye or judgment can discern ; 
 but it will be wrought for some. If many should 
 yield in despair to their enemy, yet some will 
 resist him : if Christ be to many no more than 
 foolishness, if his name convey nothing more 
 than a vague sense of something solemn, which 
 passes over the mind for an instant, and then 
 vanishes, yet to some, undoubtedly, he will be 
 found to be the wisdom of God, and the power 
 of God. There are some here, we may be 
 quite sure, who will be witnesses for ever to all 
 the world of men and angels, that what truly 
 was impossible to nature, is possible to nature 
 renewed and strengthened by grace. 
 
 Without such a change, it is vain, I fear, to 
 look for any thing like wisdom or spiritual 
 understanding ; for how can such a seed be 
 expected to grow in a soil so shallow as common 
 thoughtlessness? and how can merely human 
 motives have force to overcome so strong a 
 tendency of nature? nay, how can such motives 
 be brought to act upon the mind ? for it is abso- 
 lutely impossible that the middle-aged and the 
 young should be brought into entire sympathy 
 J with, each other, unless Christ's love be their 
 common bond. Human wisdom in advanced life 
 may be, and is to persons of strong faculties of 
 mind, naturally pleasant ; but how can it be 
 
AND THESE WILL ASSIST OTHERS : 49 
 
 made so to persons of ordinary faculties in early 
 youth ? There are faults which society con- 
 demns strongly^ while the temptation to them in 
 after hfe is shght. Persons in middle age may 
 resist these easily, and abhor them sincerely ; 
 but how can we make young persons do the 
 same, when the temptation to commit them is 
 strong, and the condemnation of them by their 
 society is either very slight, or does not exist at 
 all ? And, therefore, we find that, do what we 
 will, the same faults continue to be common in 
 schools, the same faults both of omission and 
 commission ; there is the same inherent difficulty 
 of bringing persons of different ages and positions 
 to think and feel alike, unless Christ has become 
 possessed of the thoughts and feelings of both, 
 and so they become one with each other in him. 
 But it was our Lord's charge to Peter, 
 '' Thou, when thou art converted, strengthen 
 thy brethren." As sure as it is that some who 
 hear me are turned, or turning, or will turn, to 
 God, so sure is it that these, be they few or 
 many, will do something towards the strength- 
 ening of their brethren. Whatever good is to be 
 done amongst us on a large scale, it must be^ / 
 done only in this way, the many must be "* 
 strengthened through the few. General changes 
 effected through words addressed to a multitude 
 of persons together, it is vain to look for. The 
 
 E 
 
J 
 
 50 so THAT THERE IS HOPE OF GOOD, 
 
 words spoken here, like all the other means of 
 grace which God offers, will be rejected or for- 
 gotten by the majority ; the sense of your weak- 
 ness will only lead to worse carelessness; the 
 same bad things will be done; the same good 
 things not done ; and he who were to expect 
 that it should be otherwise, would not be so 
 much over sanguine as unwise. Yet, knowing 
 this full well, there is still a reasonable hope left 
 for every one who is permitted to preach Christ's 
 gospel ; a hope which need never be abandoned, 
 and which is enough, if rightly considered, to 
 make us go on with thankful joy. I look around ; 
 and, although a great many will hear in vain, yet 
 there are some, as I have said before, who will 
 not. We know not who these are, nor how 
 many ; yet, being sure that there will be some, 
 and being allowed to hope that there may be 
 several, we speak not idly, nor as to the air ; but 
 we speak words to which some human hearts 
 will answer, we preach a Saviour in whom some 
 will believe. And we know further, that, how- 
 ever few they may be, they will yet do some 
 good ; and that, if there are several, they will do 
 much good : we know that there is a meaning in 
 Christ's parable, where he speaks of the little 
 lump of leaven which a woman took and hid 
 in three measures of meal, till the whole was 
 leavened. 
 
LET THEM ONLY WATCH AND PRAY. 51 
 
 Who those are to whom Christ's gospel will 
 not have been spoken in vain, we cannot tell, 
 nor so much as guess ; but, what may seem more 
 strange is, that they cannot even tell themselves. 
 There may be some who, being strongly moved 
 when they hear Christ's call, may be almost 
 ready to exclaim, '^ Lord, I am ready to go with 
 thee whithersoever thou goest :" there may be 
 others whose anxious and half-despairing prayer 
 may be, ^' Lord, I believe ; help thou mine 
 unbeHef :" but if any one is moved by Christ's 
 call, and feels within himself that he should like 
 to follow Christ, and to be with him always, let 
 him cherish that work of the Holy Spirit within 
 him, which has given him if it be only so much 
 of the will to be saved. It is a spark which may 
 be quenched in a moment ; in itself it can give 
 no assurance ; but if any one watches it care- 
 fully, and prays that it may live and be kindled 
 into a stronger spark, till at last it break out into 
 a flame, then for him it is full of assurance ; 
 God has heard his prayer ; and he has received 
 the gift of the Holy Spirit, an earnest of his 
 eternal inheritance. Will he not then watch 
 and pray the more anxiously, lest the fruit which 
 is now partly formed should never ripen ? Will 
 he not see and feel that there is some reality in 
 the things of God, that strength, and peace, 
 and victory, are not vainly promised ? Will he 
 
 e2 
 
52 YET SOME ALSO WILL HEAR IN VAIN, 
 
 not hold fast the things which he has now not 
 heard only, but known, lest by any means he 
 should let them slip ? May God strengthen 
 such, whoever they may be, with all the might 
 of his Spirit ; and may he be with them, even to 
 the end. 
 
 But for those, — who they are, again, we know 
 not, nor how^ many ; but here, also, there will 
 too surely be some, — for those who hear now, 
 as they have often heard before, words which 
 they scarcely heed, which have at times partially 
 caught their attention, but have not produced 
 in them the shghtest real effect, for them the 
 words are coming to an end ; they will soon be 
 released from the irksome bondage of hearing 
 them ; and another opportunity of grace will 
 have been offered to them in vain. To-morrow, 
 and the day after, they will walk as they have 
 walked before, the wretched slaves of folly and 
 passion ; leaving undone all Christ's work, and 
 greedily doing his enemy's. Yet even these 
 Christ yet spares, he still calls them, he has 
 died for them. Still the word must be spoken 
 to them, whether they will hear, or whether they 
 will forbear. It may be, that they will some day 
 turn ; and if not, Christ has perfected his mercy 
 towards them ; and Christ's servants have de- 
 livered their own souls in warning them. May 
 there be but few of us on whom this horrible 
 
THROUGH THE HARDNESS OF THEIR HEARTS. 53 
 
 portion will fall : yet, is it not an awful thing to 
 think of, that it will, in all human probability, 
 fall on some ? and that whoever hardens his 
 heart, and resists the word spoken to him this 
 day, he is one who has done as much as in him 
 lies to make himself among that number ? 
 
 November 1839. 
 
SEEMON VI. 
 
 CoLossiANS iii. 3. 
 Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. 
 
 When I have spoken, from time to time, of 
 denying ourselves for the sake of reheving 
 others, although self-denial and charity are, in 
 their full growth, amongst the highest of Chris- 
 tian graces, yet I have felt much hope that, up to 
 a certain degree, in their lowest and elementary 
 forms at least, there might be many that would 
 be disposed to practise them. For these are 
 virtues which do undoubtedly commend them- 
 selves to our minds as things clearly good: so 
 much so that I am inclined to think that the 
 much-disputed moral sense, the nature of which 
 is said to be so hard to ascertain, exists most 
 clearly in the universal perception that it is 
 
SPIRITUAL-MINDEDNESS IS ABOVE NATURE. 55 
 
 good to deny ourselves and to benefit others. 
 I do not say merely that there is a perception 
 that it is good to deny ourselves in order to be- 
 nefit others ; but that there is in self-denial, 
 simply, something which commands respect ; an 
 unconscious tribute, I suppose, to the truth that 
 the self which is thus denied is one which, if in- 
 dulged, would run to evil. 
 
 But a point of far greater difficulty, of abso- 
 lutely the greatest difficulty, is to impress upon 
 our minds the excellence of another quality, 
 which is known by the name of spiritual or 
 heavenly-mindedness. In fact, this, — and this , 
 almost singly, — is the transcendent part of Chris- / 
 tianity ; that part of it which is not according to, \ 
 but above, nature ; which conscience, 1 think, 
 itself, in the natural man, does not acknowledge. 
 When Christianity speaks of purity, of truth, of 
 justice, of charity, of faith and love to God, it 
 speaks a language which, however belied by our 
 practice, is at once allowed by our consciences : 
 the things so recommended are, beyond all doubt, 
 good and lovely. But when it says, in St. Paul's 
 words, " Set your affections on things above, not 
 on things on the earth : for ye are dead, and 
 your life is hid with Christ in God," the language 
 sounds so strange that it is scarcely intelligible ; 
 and if we do get to understand it, yet it seems to 
 give a wrench, as it were, to our whole being. 
 
56 AND LEAST OF ALL, NATURAL TO YOUTH. 
 
 to command a thing extravagant and impos- 
 sible. 
 
 I am persuaded that this would be so, more or 
 less, everywhere ; but in how extreme a degree 
 must it hold good amongst us ! Even in poverty, 
 and sickness, and old age, where this life would 
 seem to be nothing but a burden, and the com- 
 mand to set the "affections on things above" might 
 appear superfluous, still the known so prevails over 
 the unknown, the familiar over the incompre- 
 hensible, that hope and affection find continually 
 their objects in this world, there is still a clinging 
 to life, and an unwilhngness to die. But in a 
 state the very opposite to this, in plenty, in 
 health, in youth ; with much of enjoyment ac- 
 tually in our hands, and more in prospect ; with 
 just so much mystery over our coming life as to 
 keep alive interest, yet with enough known and 
 understood in its prospects to awaken sympathy ; 
 what deafest ear of the deaf adder could ever 
 be so closed against the voice of the charmer, as 
 our minds, so engrossed with the enjoyments 
 and the hopes of earth, are closed against the 
 voice which speaks of the things of heaven ? 
 
 Again, I have said, when speaking of other 
 subjects, that I looked upon the older persons 
 among you as a sort of link between me and the 
 younger, who communicated, in some instances, 
 by their language and example, something of an 
 
HOW CAN WE BE CALLED DEAD, 57 
 
 impression of the meaning of christian teaching. 
 But when we speak of a thing so high as spiri- 
 tual-mindedness, it seems as if none of us can 
 be a hnk between Christ's words and our brethren's 
 minds : as if we all stand alike at an infinite distance V!^ 
 from the high and unapproachable truth. The \ 
 mountain of God becomes veiled, as it were, with 
 the clouds which rested upon Sinai : we cannot 
 approach near it, but stand far off, for a moment, 
 perhaps, in awe ; but soon in neglect and in- 
 difference. 
 
 Let any one capable of thinking, but in the 
 full vigour of health of body and mind, placed 
 far above want, and with the prospect, accord- 
 ing to all probabihty, of many years of happy 
 life before him, let such an one go forth, at 
 this season of the year above all, let him see the 
 vast preparation for life in all nature, amongst 
 all living creatures, in every tree, and in every 
 plant of grass ; let him feel the warmth of the 
 sun, becoming every day stronger and stronger ; 
 let him be possessed, in every sense, with an 
 impression of the vigour and beauty and glory 
 around him; and let him feel no less a vigour 
 in himself, too, of body and mind, an infinitely 
 varied power of enjoyment in so many faculties 
 of repose and of energy, — and then let him 
 calmly consider what St. Paul could mean, when 
 he says generally to Christians, " Set your afFec- 
 
58 WHEN LIFE IS so STIRRING IN US ? 
 
 tions on things above, not on things on the 
 earth ; for ye are dead, and your Hfe is hid 
 with Christ in God." 
 
 Let a person capable of thinking, and such as 
 I have supposed in all other respects, consider 
 what St. Paul could mean by calling him '^ dead." 
 With an almost thrilling consciousness of life, 
 with an almost bounding sense of vigour in body 
 and mind, he is told that he is 'Mead." And, 
 stranger still, he is told so by one whose re- 
 corded life and existing writings declare that 
 he too must have had in himself a consciousness 
 of life no less lively ; that there was in him an 
 acti\dty and energy which neither age nor suf- 
 ferings could quell ; that he wielded an influence 
 over the minds of thousands, such as kings or 
 conquerors might envy. If St. Paul could stand 
 by our side, think we that he, any more than 
 ourselves, would be insensible to the power 
 within him, and to the beauty and the glory 
 without ? Yet his words are recorded ; he 
 bids us not set our affections on things on the 
 earth ; he declares of himself, and of us equally, 
 if we are Christ's servants, that we are dead, and 
 that our life is hid with Christ in God. 
 
 I have put the difliculty in its strongest form, 
 for it is one well worth considering. What St. 
 Paul here urges is indeed the highest perfection 
 of Christianity, and therefore of human nature ; 
 
ST. Paul's explanation. 59 
 
 but it is not an impossible perfection, and St. 
 PauFs own life and character are our warrant 
 that it is nothing sickly, or foolish, or fanatical. 
 But let us first hear the whole of St. Paul's 
 language : " If ye, then, be risen with Christ, 
 seek those things which are above, where Christ 
 sitteth at the right hand of God. Set your 
 affections on things above, not on things on the 
 earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid 
 with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our 
 life, shall appear, then shall we also appear with 
 him in glory. Mortify therefore your members 
 which are upon the earth : fornication, unclean- 
 ness, inordinate affection, e^il concupiscence, and 
 covetousness, which is idolatry." " Mortify," I 
 need not say, is to make dead, to destroy. " Ye 
 are dead ;" therefore let your members on earth 
 be dead; ^^fornication, uncleanness, inordinate 
 affection," &c. As if he had said. By becoming 
 Christians ye engaged to be dead ; and therefore 
 see to it that ye are so. But what he requires 
 us to make dead, or to destroy, are our evil 
 affections and desires : it is manifest, then, that 
 it is to these that, by becoming Christians, we 
 engaged to become dead. 
 
 This is true : and it is most certain that Christ 
 requires us to be dead only to what is evil. But 
 the essence of spiritual -mindedness consists in 
 this, that it is assumed that with earth, and all 
 
60 so MUCH OF SIN AND SUFFERING AROUND US 
 
 things earthly, evil or imperfection are closely- 
 mixed ; so that it is not possible to set our affec- 
 tions keenly upon, or to abandon ourselves to 
 the enjoyment of, any earthly thing, without the 
 I danger of those affections and that enjoyment be- 
 i coming evil. In other words, there is that in the 
 state of things within and around us, which ren- 
 ders it needful to be ever watchful ; and watchful- 
 ness is inconsistent with an intensity of delight 
 and enjoyment. 
 
 For, consider the case which I was just sup- 
 posing; that hvely sense of the beauty of all 
 nature, that indescribable feeling of delight w^hich 
 arises out of the consciousness of health, and 
 strength, and power. Suppose that we abandon 
 ourselves to such impressions without restraint, 
 and is it not manifest that they are the extreme 
 of godless pride and selfishness ? For do we not 
 know that in this world, and close to us 
 wherever we are, there is, along with all the 
 beauty and enjoyment which we witness, a large 
 portion also of evil and of suffering ? And do we 
 not know that He who gave to the earth its 
 richness, and who set the sun to shine in the 
 heavens, and who gave to us that wonderful 
 frame of body and mind, whose healthful work- 
 ings are so dehghtful to us, that He gave them 
 that we might use both body and mind in his 
 service; that the soldier has something else to 
 
CALLS US TO WORK AND NOT TO ENJOY. 61 
 
 do than to gaze like a child on the splendour of 
 his uniform or the brightness of his sword ; that 
 those faculties which we feel as it were burning 
 within us, have their work before them, a work 
 far above their strength, though multiphed a 
 thousand fold ; that the call to them to be busy 
 is never silent ; that there is an infinite voice in 
 the infinite sins and sufferings of millions which 
 proclaims that the contest is raging around us ; 
 that every idle moment is treason ; that now it 
 is the time for unceasing efforts ; and that not 
 till the victory is gamed may Christ's soldiers 
 throw aside their arms, and resign themselves to 
 enjoyment and to rest ? 
 
 Then when we turn to the words, " our life is 
 hid with Christ in God," the exceeding greatness 
 of Christ's promises rises upon us in something of 
 the fulness of their reality. Some may know the 
 story of that German nobleman,* whose life had 
 been distinguished alike by genius and worldly 
 distinctions, and by Christian holiness ; and who, 
 in the last morning of his life, when the dawn 
 broke into his sick chamber, prayed that he 
 might be supported to the window, and might 
 look once again upon the rising sun. After 
 looking steadily at it for some time, he cried out, 
 " Oh ! if the appearance of this earthly and created 
 thing is so beautiful and so quickening, how much 
 
 * The Baron Von Canitz. 
 
62 so THAT OUR LIFE IS NOT YET. 
 
 more shall I be enraptured at the sight of the 
 unspeakable glory of the Creator Himself!" That 
 was the feeling of a man whose sense of earthly- 
 beauty had all the keenness of a poet's enthu- 
 siasm ; but who, withal, had in his greatest health 
 and vigour preserved the consciousness that his 
 life was hid with Christ in God ; that the things 
 seen, how beautiful soever, were as nothing to the 
 things which are not seen. And so, if from the 
 feeling of natural enjoyment we turn, at once 
 thankfully and earnestly, to remember God's 
 service, and to address ourselves to His work; 
 and sadly remember, that, although we can 
 enjoy, yet that many are suffering; and that, 
 whilst they are so, enjoyment in us for more than 
 a brief space of needful rest cannot but be sin ; 
 then there must come upon us, most strongly, the 
 impression of that life where sin and suffering 
 are not ; where not God's works only, but God 
 Himself is visible ; where the vigour and faculties 
 which we feel within us are not the passing 
 strength of a decaying body, nor the brief prime 
 of a mind which in a few years must sink into 
 dotage; but the strength of a body incorruptible 
 and eternal, the ripeness of a spirit which shall go 
 on growing in wisdom and love for ever. 
 
 Thus, then, if we consider again St. Paul's 
 meaning, we shall find that, high and pure as it is, 
 it is nothing unreasonable or impossible; that 
 
AND WE SHOULD FEEL THIS TO BE TRUE, 63 
 
 what he requires us to be dead to absolutely is 
 that which is evil ; that, because of the mixture 
 of evil with ourselves and all around us, this life 
 must not and cannot be a life of entire enjoyment 
 without becoming godless and selfish ; that, 
 therefore, our affections cannot be set upon 
 earthly things so as to enjoy them in and for 
 themselves entirely, without becoming inordi- 
 nate, and therefore evil. He does require us, 
 old and young alike, to set our affection on 
 things above : to remember that with God, and 
 with Him alone, can be our rest, and the ful- 
 ness of our joy ; and amidst our pleasure in 
 earthly things to retain in our minds, first, a 
 grateful sense of their Giver ; secondly, a remem- 
 brance of their passing nature; and thirdly, a 
 consciousness of the evil that is in the world, 
 which makes it a sin to resign ourselves to any 
 enjoyment, except as a permitted refreshment to 
 strengthen us for duty to come. Above all, let 
 one feeling be truly cherished, and it will do 
 more, perhaps, than any other to moderate our 
 pleasure in earthly things, and to render it safe, 
 and wholesome, and Christianlike. That feeling 
 is the remembrance of our own faults. Let us 
 bear these in mind as God does ; let us consider 
 how displeasing they are in His sight ; how 
 often they are repeated ; how little they deserve 
 the enjoyments which are given us. If this does 
 
64 NOT LIVING TO OURSELVES, BUT TO GOD, 
 
 not change our selfish pleasure into a zealous 
 gratitude, then, indeed, sin must have a dominion 
 over us ; for the natural effect would be, that our 
 hearts should burn within us for very shame, and 
 should enkindle us to be thankful with all our 
 strength for blessings so undeserved; to show 
 something of our love to God who has so richly 
 shown his love to us. 
 
 March 1840. 
 
SERMON VII. 
 
 1 Corinthians iii. 21 — 23. 
 
 All things are yours : whether Paul, or ApolloSj or Cephas, 
 or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things 
 to come ; all are yours ; and ye are Christ's ; and Christ 
 is God's. 
 
 It is very possible, that all may not distinctly 
 understand the force of the several clauses of 
 this passage, yet all, I suppose, would derive a 
 general impression from it, that it spoke of the 
 condition of Christians in very exalted language, 
 and made it to extend to things in this world, 
 as well as to things in the world to come. But 
 can it be good for us to dwell on our exaltation ? 
 And if we do, may we not dread lest such lan- 
 guage might be used towards us as that which 
 St. Paul uses in the very next chapter to the 
 Corinthians, '' Now ye are full, now ye are rich, 
 ye have reigned as kings without us: and I 
 
 F 
 
66 WE MAY DWELL ON OUR CHRISTIAN PRIVILEGES 
 
 would to God ye did reign, that we also might 
 reign with you." It would seem, however, that 
 it would be good for us to dwell on the greatness 
 of our condition and privileges, because St. Paul, 
 who thus upbraids the Corinthians with their 
 pride, had yet himself immediately before laid 
 the picture of their high privileges, in the words 
 of the text, in full detail before them, as if he 
 wished them carefully to consider it. And so 
 indeed it is. It feeds pride to dwell upon our 
 good qualities or advantages, as individuals, or as 
 a class in society, or as a nation, or as a sect or 
 party ; but, to speak generally, our advantages 
 and privileges, as Christians, have not a tendency 
 to excite pride; for some reasons in the nature 
 of the case; for this reason amongst ourselves 
 particularly, because the very essence of pride 
 consists in contrast ; we are proud that we are, 
 in some one or more points, superior to others 
 who come immediately under our observation. 
 Now, we have so little to do with any who are 
 not Christians, that the contrast is in this case 
 wanting ; we have none over whom to be 
 proud ; none whom we can glory in surpassing ; 
 and, therefore, a consideration of our Christian 
 advantages, in the absence of that one element 
 which might feed pride, is likely with us to work 
 in a better manner, and to lead rather to thank- 
 fulness and increased exertion. 
 
WITHOUT THE RISK OF EXCITING PRIDE. 67 
 
 I say to increased exertion ; for what would 
 stop exertion is pride. It is the turning back, 
 and pausing to look with satisfaction on what is 
 below us, rather than the looking upward to the \ / 
 summit, and thinking how much our actual 
 elevation has brought us on the way towards it. 
 And, further, there is coupled with every con- 
 sideration of Christian privileges, the thought of 
 what it must be to leave such privileges unim- 
 proved. In this respect, how well does the 
 language of the two lessons from Deuteronomy 
 suit the lesson from the Epistle to the Corin- 
 thians. We heard the description of the beauty 
 and richness of the land which God gave to his 
 people, — there were their advantages and privi- 
 leges, — we heard, al^o, the declaration of their 
 unworthiness, and the solemn threatening of 
 vengeance if, after having received good, they 
 did evil. And as the vengeance has fallen upon 
 them to the utmost, so we are taught expressly 
 to apply their example to ourselves. '' If God 
 spared not the natural branches," such was St. 
 Paul's language to the church at Rome, '' take 
 heed lest he also spare not thee." 
 
 Let us not fear, then, to consider more nearly 
 the high privileges ;5vhich, as Christians, we en- 
 joy : let us endeavour to understand, not merely 
 generally, but in detail, the exalted language of 
 the text, where it is said, that all things are ours ; 
 f2 
 
68 PxVUL, APOLLOS, AND CEPHAS ARE OURS ; 
 
 Paul, Apollos, and Cephas, the world, and life, 
 and death, the things of time, and the things of 
 eternity. These are ours because we are Christ's, 
 and Christ is God's : they are ours so long as 
 we are Christ's, and so far as we are his truly. 
 They are not ours so far as we are not his : they 
 are ours in no degree whatever the moment that 
 he shall declare that we are his no longer. 
 
 '' Paul, and ApoUos, and Peter, are ours." 
 
 This, perhaps, is the expression which we should 
 
 understand least distinctly of any. It is an 
 
 expression, however, of deep importance, though 
 
 perhaps less so here than in congregations of a 
 
 different sort. I need not, therefore, dwell on 
 
 it long now. But the Corinthians, as many 
 
 Christians have done since, were apt to think 
 
 more of their being Christians of a certain sort, 
 
 than of being Christians simply : some said, 
 
 " We have Paul's view of Christianity, the true 
 
 and sound view of it, free from superstition :" 
 
 others said, " But we have Peter's view of 
 
 Christianity, one of Christ's own apostles who 
 
 were with him on earth; ours is the true and 
 
 earliest view of it, free from all innovations :" and 
 
 others, again, said, '^ Nay, but we have been 
 
 taught by Apollos, an eloquent man, and mighty 
 
 in the Scriptures ; one who best understands 
 
 how to unite the law and the gospel ; one who 
 
 has given us the full perfection of Christianity." 
 
OUR MINISTERS, NOT OUK IDOLS. 69 
 
 No doubt there were some differences of views 
 even between Paul, and Peter, and ApoUos ; for 
 while, on the one hand, they were all enlightened 
 by the Spirit of God, yet, on the other hand, 
 they retained still their human differences of 
 character and disposition, which must, on several 
 occasions, have been manifest. But St. Paul does 
 not tell us what these were, nor how far they 
 extended, nor to what degree they had been 
 exaggerated by those who heard them. He does 
 not insist upon the truth of his own view, nor 
 wish the Corinthians to lay aside their divisions, 
 after the manner so zealously enforced by some 
 persons now, namely, that those who said they 
 were of Peter, or of ApoUos, should confess that 
 they had been in error, and declare themselves 
 to be now only of Paul. Such a condemnation 
 of schism he would have held to be in itself in 
 the highest degree schismatical. But St. Paul 
 was earnest, that schisms should be ended after 
 another way than this, by all parties remember- 
 ing, that whatever became of the truth or false- 
 hood of their own particular views of Christianity, 
 yet, that Christianity according to any of their 
 views was the one great thing which was their 
 glory and their salvation. '' Paul, and ApoUos, 
 and Peter, are all yours ; but you are Christ's." 
 You should not glory in men ; that you belong 
 to a purer church than other Christians : but 
 
70 THE WORLD IS OURS, 
 
 that you belong to the church of Christ ; 
 that church which, in its most pure particular 
 branches, has never been free from some mix- 
 ture of human infirmity and error ; nor yet, in 
 its worst branches, has ever lost altogether the 
 seal of Christ's Spirit, nor ceased to believe in 
 Christ crucified. 
 
 But the next words are of more particular 
 concern to us here. " The world, and life, and 
 death, and things present, and things to come, 
 all are ours." They are all ours, so far as we 
 are Christ's. The world is ours ; its manifold 
 riches and delights, its various wisdom, all are 
 ours. They are ours, not as a thing stolen, and 
 which will be taken from us with a heavy over- 
 payment of penalty, because we stole it when it 
 did not belong to us ; but they are ours by God's 
 free gift, to minister to our comfort, and to our 
 good. And this is the great difference ; the 
 good things of the world are stolen by many ; 
 but they belong, by God's gift, to those only 
 who are Christ's: and there is the sure sign, 
 generally, to be seen of their being stolen, — an 
 unwillingness that he to whom of right they 
 belong should see them. What a man steals, he 
 enjoys, as it were, in fear : if the owner of it 
 finds him with it, then all his enjoyment is gone ; 
 he wishes that he had never touched it; it is 
 no source of pleasure to him, but merely one 
 
NOT STOLEN, BUT AS GOD's GIFT. 71 
 
 of terror. And so it is often with our stolen 
 pleasures, — stolen, I mean, not in respect of 
 man, but of God, — stolen, because we do not 
 feel them to be God's gift, nor receive them, as 
 from him, with thankfulness. They may be 
 very lawful pleasures, as far as other men are 
 concerned; pleasures bought, it may be, with 
 our own money, or given to us by our own 
 friends, and enjoyed without any injury to any 
 one. They may be the very simplest enjoyments 
 of life, our health, the fresh air, our common 
 food, our common amusements, our common 
 society ; things most permitted to us all, as far as 
 man is concerned, but yet things which are con- 
 stantly stolen by us, because we take them with- 
 out God's leave, and enjoy them not as his gifts. 
 They are all his, and he gives them freely to his 
 children. If we are his children, he gives them 
 to us ; and delights in our enjoyment of them, 
 as any human father loves to see the pleasure of 
 his children in those things which it is good for 
 them to enjoy. But then, is any child afraid of 
 his father so seeing him ? or is the thought of 
 his father any interruption to his enjoyment? 
 If it would be, we should be sure that there was 
 something wrong ; that the enjoyment, either in 
 itself, or with respect to the particular case of 
 that child, was a stolen one. And even as 
 simple is the state of our dread of God, of our 
 
72 LIFE AND DEATH ARE OURS ; 
 
 wish to keep his name and his thought away 
 from us. It is the sure sign that our pleasures 
 are stolen^ either as being wrong in themselves, 
 or much oftener, because we have taken them 
 without being fit for them, have snatched them 
 for ourselves, instead of receiving them at the 
 hands of God. Two of us may be daily doing 
 the very same things in most respects, — enjoying 
 actually the very same pleasures, whether of 
 body or of mind ; the same exercises, the same 
 studies, the same indulgences, the same society, 
 — and yet these very same things may belong 
 rightfully to the one, and be stolen by the other. 
 To the one, they may come with a double bless- 
 ing, as the assurance of God's greater love here- 
 after ; to the other, they are but an addition to 
 that sad account, when all good things enjoyed 
 here, having been not our own rightly, but 
 stolen, shall be paid for in over measure, by 
 evil things to be suffered hereafter. 
 
 And what I have said of the world, will apply 
 also to life and to death. Oh, the infinite differ- 
 ence whether life is ours, or but stolen for an 
 instant ; whether death is ours, our subject, 
 ministering only to our good ; or our fearful 
 enemy, our ever keen pursuer, from whose grasp 
 we have escaped for a few short years, but who 
 is following fast after us, and when he has once 
 caught us will hold us fast for ever ! Have we 
 
OUR SERVANTS, NOT OUR ENEMIES. 73 
 
 ever seen his near approach — has he ever forced 
 himself upon our notice whether we would or 
 no ? But two days since he was amongst us, — 
 we were, as it were, forced to look upon him. 
 Did we think that he was ours, or that we were 
 his ? If we are his, then indeed he is fearful : 
 fearful to the mere consciousness of nature ; a 
 consciousness which no arguments can over- 
 come ; fearful, if it be merely the parting from 
 life, if it be merely the resigning that wonder- 
 ful thing which we call our being. It is fearful 
 to go from light to darkness, from all that we 
 have ever known and loved, to that of which we 
 know and love nothing. But if death, even thus 
 stingless, is yet full of horror, what is he with his 
 worst sting beside, the sting of our sins ? What 
 is he when he is taking us, not to nothingness, 
 but to judgment ? He is indeed so fearful then, 
 that no words can paint him half so truly as our 
 foreboding dread of him, and no arguments 
 which the wit of man can furnish can strip 
 him of his terrors. 
 
 But what if death too, as well as life, be ours ? 
 — which he is, if we are Christ's : for Christ has 
 conquered him. If he be ours, our servant, our 
 minister, sent but to bring us into the presence 
 of our Lord, then, indeed, his terrors, his 
 merely natural terrors, the outside roughness of 
 
74 MINISTERING ONLY TO OUR GOOD, 
 
 his aspect, are things which the merest child 
 need not shrink from. Then disease and decay, 
 however painful to living friends to look upon, 
 have but little pain for him who is undergoing 
 them. For it is not only amidst the tortures of 
 actual martyrdom that Christians have been more 
 than conquerors, — in common life, on the quiet 
 or lonely sick bed, under the grasp of fever or of 
 consumption, the conquest has been witnessed as 
 often and as completely. It is not a little thing 
 when the faintest whisper of thought to which 
 expiring nature can give utterance breathes of 
 nothing but of peace and of forgiveness. It is 
 not a little thing when the name of Christ pos- 
 sesses us wholly ; not distinctly, it may be, for 
 reason may be too weak for this ; but with an 
 indescribable power of support and comfort. 
 Or even if there be a last conflict, — a season of 
 terror and of pain, a valley of the shadow of 
 death, dark and gloomy, — yet even there Christ 
 is with his servants, and as their trial is so is 
 His love. Thus it is, if death be ours ; and death 
 is ours, if we be Christ's. And are we not 
 Christ's ? We bear his name, we have his out- 
 ward seal of belonging to his people, — can we 
 refuse to be his in heart and true obedience ? 
 Would we rather steal our pleasures than enjoy 
 them as our own ; steal life for an instant, rather 
 
IF WE ARE TRULY CHRISt's. 75 
 
 than have it our sure possession for ever ? Would 
 we rather be fugitives from death, fugitives 
 whom he will surely recover and hold fast, 
 than be able to say and to feel that death as well 
 as life is ours, things to come, as well as things 
 present, because we are truly Christ's ? 
 
 May 1838. 
 
SERMON VIII. 
 
 Galatians v. 16, 17. 
 
 Walk in the Spirit^ and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the 
 
 flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the 
 
 Spirit against the flesh ; and these are contrary the one 
 
 to the other, so that ye cannot do the things that ye 
 
 would. 
 
 '* We cannot do the things that we would." 
 These are words of famihar and common use; 
 this is the language in which we are all apt to 
 excuse, whether to ourselves or to others, the 
 various faults of our conduct. We should be 
 glad to do better, so we say and think, but the 
 power to do so fails us. And so far it may seem 
 that we are but echoing the apostle's language ; 
 for he says the very same thing, " Ye cannot do 
 the things that ye would." Yet the words as 
 we use them, and as the apostle used them, 
 have the most opposite meaning in the world. 
 
god's meaning of the words ''I CANNOT." 77 
 
 We use them as a reason why we should be 
 satisfied, the apostle as a reason why we should 
 be alarmed ; we intend them to be an excuse, 
 the apostle meant them to be a certain sign of 
 condemnation. 
 
 The reasons of this difference may be under- 
 stood very easily. We, in the common course 
 of justice, should think it hard to punish a man 
 for not doing what he cannot do. We think, 
 therefore, that if we say that we cannot do well, 
 we establish also our own claim to escape from 
 punishment. But God declares that a state of 
 sin is and must be a state of misery ; and that if 
 we cannot escape the sin, we cannot escape the 
 misery. According to God's meaning, then, the 
 words, ^^Ye cannot do the things which ye 
 would," mean no other than this : " Ye cannot 
 escape from hell; ye cannot be redeemed from 
 the power of death and of Satan ; the power is 
 wanting in you, however much you may wish it : 
 death has got you, and it will keep you for ever." 
 So that, in this way, sickness or weakness of the 
 soul is very like sickness or weakness of the body. 
 We cannot help being ill or weak in many cases : 
 is that any reason why, according to the laws of 
 God's providence, we should not suffer the pain 
 of illness ? Or is it not, rather, clear that we 
 suffer it just because we have not the power to 
 get rid of it ; if we had the power to be well, 
 
78 WHY THE SICK CANNOT BE WELL. 
 
 we should be well. A man's evils are not gone 
 because he wishes them away : it is not he who 
 would fain see his chains broken, that escapes 
 from his bondage ; but he who has the strength 
 to rend them asunder. 
 
 Thus, then, in St. Paul's language, '' Ye can- 
 not do the things that ye would," means exactly, 
 " Ye are not redeemed, but in bondage ; ye are 
 not saved, but lost." But he goes on to the 
 reason why we cannot do the things which we 
 would, which is, ^^ because the flesh and the 
 spirit are contrary to one another," and pull us, 
 as it were, different ways. Just as we might say 
 of a man in illness, that the reason why he is not 
 well, as he wishes to be, is because his healthy 
 nature and his disease are contrary to one an- 
 other, and are striving within him for the mas- 
 tery. His blood, according to its healthy nature, 
 would flow calmly and steadily ; his food, accord- 
 ing to his healthy nature, would be received with 
 appetite, and would give him nourishment and 
 strength; but, behold, there is in him now an- 
 other nature, contrary to his healthy nature : and 
 this other nature makes his blood flow with fever- 
 ish quickness, and makes food distasteful to him, 
 and makes the food which he has eaten before to 
 become, as it were, poison ; it does not nourish 
 him or strengthen, but is a burden, a weakness, 
 and a pain. As long as these two natures thus 
 
ST. PAUL BIDS US TO BE WELL, 79 
 
 struggle within him, the man is sick ; as soon as 
 the diseased nature prevails, the man sinks and 
 dies. He does not wish to die, — not at all, — 
 most earnestly, it may be, does he wish to live ; 
 but his diseased nature has overcome his healthy 
 nature, and so he must die. If he would live, in 
 any sense that deserves to be called life, the 
 diseased nature must not overcome, must not 
 struggle equally ; it must be overcome, it must 
 be kept down, it must be rendered powerless ; 
 and then, when the healthy nature has prevailed, 
 its victory is health and strength. 
 
 So far all is alike ; but what follows after- 
 wards ? As '' ye cannot do the things which ye 
 would, because the flesh and the Spirit are con- 
 trary to one another," — what then ? '' There- 
 fore," says the apostle, " walk in the Spirit, and 
 ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh." Surely 
 there is something marvellous in this. For, let 
 us speak the same language to the sick man : 
 tell him, '' Follow thy healthy nature, and thou 
 shalt not be sick," what would the words be but 
 a bitter mockery ? " How can you bid me," he 
 would say, '' to follow my healthy nature, when 
 ye know that my diseased nature has bound me ? 
 Have ye no better comfort than this to offer me ? 
 Tell me rather how I may become able to follow 
 my healthy nature ; show me the strength which 
 may help my weakness : or else your words are 
 
80 BECAUSE CHRIST HAS REDEEMED US. 
 
 vain, and I never can recover." Most true would 
 be this answer ; and therefore disease and death 
 do make havoc of us all, and the healthy nature 
 is in the end borne down by the diseased nature, 
 and sooner or later the great enemy triumphs 
 over us ; and, in spite of all our wishes and fond 
 desires for Hfe, we go down, death's conquered 
 subjects, to the common grave of all living. 
 
 This happens to the bodies of us all ; to the 
 souls of only too many. But why does it not 
 happen also to the souls of all ? How is it that 
 some do fulfil the apostle's bidding ? that they 
 do walk in the Spirit, and therefore do not fulfil 
 the lusts of the flesh ; and therefore having con- 
 quered their diseased nature, they do walk accor- 
 ding to their healthful nature, and are verily able 
 to do, and do continually, the very things that 
 they would ? Surely this so striking difference, 
 between the universal conquest of our diseased 
 nature in the body, and the occasional victory 
 of the healthy nature in the soul, shows us clearly 
 that for the soul there has appeared a Redeemer 
 already, while for the body the redemption is 
 delayed till death shall be swallowed up in 
 victory. 
 
 For most true is it that in ourselves we could 
 not deliver ourselves either soul or body. " Walk 
 in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of 
 the flesh," might have been as cruel a mockery 
 
THE SPIRIT WILL ENABLE US TO BE WELL, 81 
 
 to US, as the similar words addressed to the man 
 bodily sick,^ — '' Walk according to thy healthy 
 nature, and thou shalt not suffer from disease," 
 They might have been a mockery, but blessed 
 bej God they are not. They are not, because 
 God has given us a Redeemer ; they are not, 
 because Christ has died, yea rather has risen 
 again ; and because the Spirit of Christ helpeth 
 our infirmities, and gives us that power which 
 by ourselves we had not. 
 
 Not by wishing then to be redeemed, but by 
 being redeemed, shall we escape the power of 
 death. Not by saying, " Alas ! we cannot do the 
 things that we would !" but by becoming able to 
 do them. Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not 
 fulfil the lusts of the flesh ; but if ye do fulfil 
 them, ye must die. 
 
 The power to walk in the Spirit is given by the 
 Spirit ; but either all have not this power, or all 
 do not use it. I think rather it is that all have 
 it not, for if they had it, a power so mighty and 
 so beneficent, they surely could not help using 
 it. All have it not ; but I do not say that they all 
 might not have it ; on the contrary, all might have 
 it, but in point of fact they have it not. They have 
 it not because they seek it not ; for an idle wish 
 is one thing; a steady persevering pursuit is 
 another. They seek not the Spirit by the 
 appointed means, the means of prayer and 
 
 G 
 
82 IF WE SEEK HIM BY SINCERE PRAYER : 
 
 attending to God's holy word, and thinking of 
 life and death and judgment. 
 
 Do those seek the Spirit of God who never 
 pray to God ? Clearly they do not. For they 
 who never pray to God never think of Him ; 
 they who never think of Him, by the very force 
 of the terms it follows that they cannot seek his 
 help. And yet they say, " Oh, I wish to be good, 
 but I cannot !" But this, in the language of the 
 Scripture, is a lie. If they did wish to be good, 
 they would seek the help that could make them 
 so. There is no boy so young as not to know 
 that, when temptation is on him to evil, prayer 
 to God will strengthen him for good. As sure 
 as we live, if he wished really to overcome the 
 temptation, he would seek the strength. 
 
 Consider what prayer is, and see how it can- 
 not but strengthen us. He who stands in a 
 sheltered place, where the wind cannot reach 
 him, and with no branches over his head to 
 cause a damp shade, and then holds up his face or 
 his hands to the sun in his strength, can he help 
 feeling the sun's warmth ? Now, thus it is in 
 prayer: we turn to God, we bring our souls, 
 with all their thoughts and feelings, fully before 
 Him ; and by the very act of so doing, we shelter 
 ourselves from every chill of worldly care, we 
 clear away every intercepting screen of worldly 
 thought and pleasure. It is an awful thing so to 
 
FOR PRAYER BRINGS US TO GOD. 83 
 
 submit ourselves wholly to the influence of God. 
 But do it ; and as surely as the sun will warm us 
 if we stand in the sun, so will the Giver of hght 
 and life to the soul pour his Spirit of life into us ; 
 even as w^e pray, we become changed into his 
 image. 
 
 This is not spoken extravagantly. I ask of 
 any one who has ever prayed in earnest, whether 
 for that time, and while he was so praying, he 
 did not feel, as it were, another man ; a man able 
 to do the things which he would; a man re- 
 deemed and free. But most true is it that this 
 feeling passes away but too soon, when the 
 prayer is done. Still, for the time, there is the 
 effect ; we know what it is to put ourselves, in a 
 manner, beneath the rays of God's grace ; but 
 we do not abide there long, and then we feel 
 the damp and the cold of earth again. 
 
 Therefore says the Apostle, ^^Pray without 
 ceasing." If we could literally pray always, it is 
 clear that we should sin never : it may be thus 
 that Christ's redeemed, at his coming, as they 
 will be for ever with him and with the Father, 
 can therefore sin no more. For where God is, 
 there is no place left for sin. But we cannot 
 pray always ; we cannot pray the greatest portion 
 of our time ; nay, we can pray, in the common 
 sense of the term, only a very small portion of 
 it Yet, at least, we can take heed that we do 
 
 g2 
 
84 HOW TO NOURISH THE SPIRIT OF PRAYER I 
 
 pray sometimes, and that our prayer be truly in 
 earnest. We can pray then for God's help to 
 abide with us when we are not praying ; we can 
 commit to his care, not only our hours of sleep, 
 but our hours of worldly waking. '' 1 have work 
 to do, I have a busy world around me ; eye, ear, 
 and thought will be all needed for that work, 
 done in and amidst that busy world ; now, ere I 
 enter upon it, I would commit eye, ear, thought, 
 and wish to thee. Do thou bless them and 
 keep their work thine; that as, through thy 
 natural laws, my heart beats and my blood flows 
 without my thought for them, so my spiritual 
 life may hold on its course, through thy help, at 
 those times when my mind cannot consciously 
 turn to thee to commit each particular thought 
 to thy service." 
 
 But I dare not say that by any the most 
 urgent prayers, uttered only at night and morning, 
 God's blessing can thus be gained for the whole 
 intervening day. For, in truth, if we did nothing 
 more, the prayers would soon cease to be urgent ; 
 they would become formal, that is, they would 
 be no prayers at all. For prayer lives in the 
 heart, and not in the mouth ; it consists not of 
 words, but wishes. And no man can set him- 
 self heartily to wish twice a day for things, of 
 which he never thinks at other times in the day. 
 So that prayer requires in a manner to be fed. 
 
BY READING GOD's WORD, 85 
 
 and its food is to be found in reading and think- 
 ing ; in reading God's word, and in thinking about 
 him, and about the world as being his work. 
 
 Young men and boys are generally, we know, 
 not fond of reading for its own sake ; and when 
 they do read for their own pleasure, they natu- 
 rally read something that interests them. Now, 
 what are called serious books, including certainly 
 the Bible, do not interest them, and therefore 
 they are not commonly read. What shall 
 we say, then ? Are they not interested in be- 
 coming good, in learning to do the things which 
 they would ? If they are not, if they care not 
 for the bondage of sin and death, there is, of 
 course, nothing to be said ; then they are con- 
 demned already; they are not the children of 
 God. But one says, '' I wish I could find inter- 
 est in a serious book, but I cannot." Observe 
 again, '' Ye cannot do the things that ye would," 
 because the flesh and the Spirit are contrary to 
 one another. However, to return to him who 
 says this, the answer to him is this, — '' The in- 
 terest cannot come without the reading ; it may, 
 and will come with it." For interest in a subject 
 depends very much on our knowledge of it ; and 
 so it is with the things of Christ. As long as 
 the life and death of Christ are strange to us, 
 how can we be interested about them ? but read 
 them, thinking of what they were, and what 
 
86 WHICH CHERISHES THOUGHTS OF GOD, 
 
 were their ends, and who can help being in- 
 terested about them ? Read them carefully, and 
 read them often, and they will bring before our 
 minds the very thoughts which we need, and 
 which the world keeps continually from us, the 
 thoughts which naturally feed our prayers; 
 thoughts not of self, nor selfishness, nor plea- 
 sure, nor passion, nor folly, but of such things as 
 are truly God's — love, and self-denial, and purity, 
 and wisdom. These thoughts come by reading 
 the Scriptures ; and strangely do they mingle at 
 first with the common evil thoughts of our evil 
 nature. But they soon find a home within us, 
 and more good thoughts gather round them, and 
 there comes a time when daily life with its vari- 
 ous business, which once seemed to shut them 
 out altogether, now ministers to their nourish- 
 ment. 
 
 Wherefore, in conclusion, walk in the Spirit, and 
 ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the fiesh ; but do 
 even the things which ye would. And ye can 
 walk in the Spirit, if ye seek for the Spirit; 
 if ye seek him by prayer, and by reading of 
 Christ, and the things of Christ. If we will do 
 neither, then most assuredly we are not seeking 
 him ; if we seek him not, we shall never find 
 him. If we find him not, we shall never be 
 able to do the things that we would ; we shall 
 never be redeemed, never made free, but our 
 
AND SO FEEDS PRAYER. 87 
 
 souls shall be overcome by their evil nature, 
 as surely as our bodies by their diseased 
 nature ; till one death shall possess us wholly, a 
 death of body and of soul, the death of eternal 
 misery. 
 
 September 16/A, 1838. 
 
SERMON IX. 
 
 Luke xiv. 33. 
 
 Whosoever he be of you that forsaheth not all that he hath, 
 he cannot he my disciple. 
 
 In order to show that these words were not 
 spoken to the apostles alone, but to all Chris- 
 tians, we have only to turn to the 25th and 26th 
 verses, which run thus : — '^ And there went great 
 multitudes with him, and he turned and said unto 
 them. If any man come to me, and hate not his 
 father and mother, and wife and children, and 
 brethren and sisters, yea and his own life also, 
 he cannot be my disciple/' The words were not, 
 then, spoken to the twelve apostles only, as if 
 they contained merely some rule of extraordinary 
 piety, which was not to be required of common 
 Christians : they were spoken to a great multi- 
 tude ; they were spoken to warn all persons in 
 
THE FEW A SAFER GUIDE THAN THE MANY. 89 
 
 that multitude that not one of them could be- 
 come a Christian, unless he gave himself up to 
 Christ body and soul. Thus declaring that there 
 is but one rule for all ; a rule which the highest 
 Christian can never go beyond ; and which the 
 lowest, if he would be a Christian at all, must 
 make the foundation of his whole life. 
 
 Now take the words, either of the text, or of 
 the 26th verse, and is it possible to avoid seeing 
 that, on the very lowest interpretation, they do 
 insist upon a very high standard ; that they do 
 require a very entire and devoted obedience ? 
 Is it possible for any one who believes what 
 Christ has said, to rest contented, either for him- 
 self or for others, with that very low and very 
 unchristian standard which he sees and knows to 
 prevail generally in the world? Is it possible 
 for him not to wish, for himself and for all in 
 whose welfare he is interested, that they may 
 belong to the small minority in matters of 
 principle and practice, rather than to the large 
 majority ? 
 
 And because he so wishes, one who endeavours 
 to follow Christ sincerely can never be satisfied 
 with the excuse that he acts and thinks quite as 
 well as the mass of persons about him ; it can 
 never give him comfort, with regard to any judg- 
 ment or practice, to be told^ in common lan- 
 guage, " Everybody thinks so ; everybody does 
 
90 DIFFERENCE BETWEEN " MANY" AND '' ALL." 
 
 SO." If, indeed, this expression " everybody " 
 might be taken Hterally; if it were quite true, 
 without any exception, that " everybody thought 
 or did so ;" then I grant that it would have a very 
 great authority ; so great that it would be almost 
 a mark of madness to run counter to it. For 
 what all men, all without a single exception, 
 were to agree in, must be some truth which the 
 human mind could not reject without insanity, 
 — like the axioms of science, or some action 
 which if we did not we could not live, as sleep- 
 ing and eating ; or if there be any moral point 
 so universally agreed upon, then it must be 
 something exceedingly general : as, for instance, 
 that truth is in itself to be preferred to false- 
 hood; which to dispute would be monstrous. 
 But, once admit a single exception, and the in- 
 fallible virtue of the rule ceases. I can conceive 
 one single good and wise man's judgment and 
 practice requiring, at any rate, to be carefully 
 attended to, and his reasons examined, although 
 millions upon miUions stood against him. But 
 go on with the number of exceptions, and bring 
 the expression " everybody " to its real meaning, 
 which is only '' most persons," " the great majo- 
 rity of the world;" then the rule becomes of no 
 virtue at all, but very often the contrary. If in 
 matters of morals many are on one side and 
 some on the other, it is impossible to pronounce 
 
HOW FAR THE MANY ARE RIGHT. 91 
 
 at once which are most hkely to be right: it 
 depends on the sort of case on which the differ- 
 ence exists; for the victories of truth and of 
 good are but partial. It is not all truth that 
 triumphs in the world, nor all good ; but only 
 truth and good up to a certain point. Let them 
 once pass this point, and their progress pauses. 
 Their followers, in the mass, cannot keep up 
 with them thus far : fewer and fewer are those 
 who still press on in their company, till at last 
 even these fail; and there is a perfection at 
 which they are deserted by all men, and are in 
 the presence of God and of Christ alone. 
 
 Thus it is that, up to a certain point, in moral 
 matters the majority are right ; and thus Christ's 
 gospel, in a great many respects, goes along with"^ 
 public opinion, and the voice of society is the 
 voice of truth. But this, to use the expression of 
 our Lord's parable, this is but half the height of 
 that tower whose top should reach unto heaven. 
 Christianity ascends a great deal higher; and 
 therefore so many who begin to build are never 
 able to finish. Christ's disciples and the world's 
 disciples work for a certain way together; and thus 
 far the world's disciples call themselves Christ's, 
 and so Christ's followers seem to be a great ma- 
 jority. But Christ warns us expressly that we 
 are not his disciples merely by going a certain 
 way on the same road with them. They only 
 
92 THEY DO NOT FOLLOW CHRIST WHOLLY. 
 
 are His, who follow him to the end. They only 
 are His, who follow Him in spite of everything, 
 who leave all rather than leave Him. For the 
 rest. He does not own them. "What the world 
 can give they may enjoy ; but Christ's kingdom 
 is shut against them. 
 
 Speaking, then, according to Christ's judgment, 
 and we must hold those to be of the world, and 
 not of Him, — and therefore in God's judgment 
 to be the evil and not the good, — who do not 
 make up their minds to live in His service, and 
 to refer their actions, words, and thoughts to 
 His will. Who these are it is very true that we 
 many times cannot know : only we may always 
 fear that they are the majority of society ; and 
 therefore we are rather anxious in any indivi- 
 dual's case to get a proof that he is not one of 
 them, because, as they are very many, there is 
 always a sort of presumption that any given 
 person is of this number, unless there is some 
 evidence, or some presumption at any rate, for 
 thinking the contrary. 
 
 When we speak, then, of the good and of 
 the evil side in human life, — in any society, 
 whether smaller or larger, — this is what we 
 mean, or should mean. The evil side contains 
 much that is, up to a certain point, good : 
 the good side — for does it not consist of human 
 beings? — contains, unhappily, much in it that 
 
CHARACTERS OF ESAU AND JACOB. 93 
 
 is evil. Not all in the one is to be avoided, — 
 far from it ; nor is all in the other by any means 
 to be followed. But still those are called evil, 
 in God's judgment, who live according to their 
 own impulses, or according to the law of the 
 society around them ; and those are to be called 
 good, who, in their principles, whatever may be 
 the imperfections of their practice, endeavour 
 in all things to live according to the will of 
 Christ. 
 
 And in this view the characters of Jacob and 
 Esau are, as it seems to me, full of instruction ; 
 and above all to us here. For I have often 
 observed that the early age of an individual 
 bears a great resemblance to the early age of 
 the human race, or of any particular nation : 
 so that the characters of the Old Testament 
 are often more suited, in a christian country, 
 for the instruction of the young than for those 
 of more advanced years. To Christian men, 
 looking at Jacob's life, with the faults recorded 
 of it, it is sometimes strange that he should be 
 spoken of as good. But it seems that in a rude 
 state of society, where knowledge is very low, 
 and passion very strong, the great virtue is, to 
 be freed from the dominion of the prevailing 
 low principle, to see and resolve that we ought 
 and will live according to knowledge, and not 
 according to passion or impulse. The know- 
 
94 
 
 ledge may be very imperfect, and probably is so : 
 the practice may in many respects offend against 
 the knowledge, and probably will do so ; yet it 
 is a great step taken ; it is the virtue of man, in 
 such a state of society, to follow, though im- 
 perfectly, principle, where others follow instinct, 
 or the opinion of their fellows. It is the great 
 distinguishing mark, in such a state of things, 
 between the good and the evil : for this reason, 
 amongst many others, that it is the virtue, under 
 such circumstances, of the hardest attainment. 
 
 Now, the scripture judgment of Jacob and 
 Esau, should be in an especial manner the basis 
 of our judgment with regard to the young. 
 None can doubt, that amongst the young, when 
 they form a society of their own, the great 
 temptation is to live by impulse, or according to 
 the opinion of those around them. It is like a 
 light breaking in upon darkness, when a young 
 person is led to follow a higher standard, and to 
 live according to God's will. Esau, in his faults 
 and amiable points alike, is the very image of 
 the prevailing character amongst boys ; — some- 
 times violently revengeful, as when Esau looked 
 forward with satisfaction to the prospect of his 
 father's death, because then he should be able 
 to slay his brother Jacob ; sometimes fiill of 
 generosity, as when Esau forgot all his grounds 
 of complaint against his brother, and received 
 
BOTH IN HIS GOOD AND HIS EVIL, 95 
 
 him on his return from Mesopotamia with open 
 arms ; — but habitually careless, and setting the 
 present before the future, the lower gratification 
 before the higher, as when Esau sold his birth- 
 right for a mess of pottage. And the point to be 
 noted is, that because of this carelessness, this 
 profaneness or ungodliness, as it is truly called 
 in the New Testament, Esau is distinguished 
 from those who were God's people ; the promises 
 were not his, nor yet the blessing. This is 
 remarkable, because Esau's faults, undoubtedly, 
 were just the faults of his age : he was no worse 
 than the great majority of those around him ; 
 he lived as we should say, in our common 
 language, that it was natural for him to live. 
 He had, therefore, precisely all those excuses 
 which are commonly urged for the prevail- 
 ing faults of boys : yet it is quite certain that 
 the Scripture holds him out as a representa- 
 tive of those who were not on the side of 
 God. 
 
 If the Scripture has so judged of Esau and 
 Jacob, it must be the model for our judgments 
 of those whose circumstances, on account of 
 their belonging to a society consisting wholly of 
 persons young in age, greatly resemble the cir- 
 cumstances of the early society of the world. I 
 lay the stress on the belonging to a society 
 wholly formed of young persons ; for the case of 
 
96 OUR TENDENCIES ARE LIKE HIS. 
 
 young persons brought up at home, is extremely 
 different ; and their circumstances would be best 
 suited by a different scriptural example. But 
 here, with you, I am quite sure that the great 
 distinguishing mark between good and evil, is 
 the endeavouring, or not endeavouring, to rise 
 above the carelessness of the society of which 
 you are members ; the determining, or not 
 determining, to judge of things by another rule 
 than that of school morahty or honour ; the 
 trying, or not trying, to please God, instead of 
 those around you : for the notions and maxims 
 of a society of young persons, are like the notions 
 and maxims of men in a half-civilized age, a 
 strange mixture of right and wrong ; or rather 
 wrong in their result, although with some right 
 feeling in them, and therefore, as a guide, false 
 and mischievous. That it is natural to follow 
 these maxims, is quite obvious : they are the 
 besetting sin of your particular condition ; and 
 it is always according to our corrupt nature to 
 follow our besetting sin. It is quite natural that 
 you should be careless, profane, mistaking evil 
 for good, and good for evil ; but salvation is not 
 for those who follow their nature, but for those 
 in whom God's grace has overcome its evil ; it 
 is for those, in Christ's language, who take up 
 their cross and follow him; that is, for those 
 who struggle against their evil nature, that they 
 
AND WE MUST OVERCOME THEM. 97 
 
 may gain a better nature, and be born, not after 
 the flesh, but after the Spirit of God. 
 
 What is to be said to this ? or what quahfica- 
 tion, or compromise, is to be made in it ? The 
 words of the text will authorize us, at any rate, 
 to make none : their language is not that of 
 indulgent allowance; but it is a call, — a loud 
 and earnest, even a severe, call, it may be, in 
 the judgment of our evil nature, — to shake off 
 the weight that hangs about us ; to deHver our 
 hearts from the dominion of that which cannot 
 profit, and to submit them to Christ alone. 
 This is God's judgment, this is Christ's word; 
 and we cannot and dare not quahfy it. They 
 are evil, for God and Christ declare it, who 
 judge and live after the maxims of the society 
 around them, and not after Christ; they are 
 evil who are careless; they are evil who live 
 according to their own blind and capricious 
 feelings, now hot, now cold ; they are evil who 
 call evil good, and good evil, because they have 
 not known the Father nor Christ. This, and 
 nothing less, we say, lest we should be found 
 false witnesses of God : but if this language, 
 which is that of Scripture, seem harsh to any 
 one, oh ! let him remember how soon he may 
 change it into the language of the most abundant 
 mercy, of the tenderest love ; that, if he calls 
 upon God, God is ready to hear ; that if he 
 
 H 
 
98 FOLLOWING NOT MEN BUT GOD. 
 
 seeks to know and to do God's will, God will be 
 found by him, and will strengthen him ; that it 
 is true kindness not to disguise from him his real 
 danger, but earnestly to conjure him to flee from 
 it, and to offer our humblest prayers to God, 
 for him and ourselves, that our judgments and 
 our practice may be formed only after his 
 example. 
 
 October 2Sthy 1838. 
 
SERMON X. 
 
 1 Timothy i. 9. 
 
 Tlie law is not made for a righteous man, hut for the 
 lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, 
 for the unholy and profane. 
 
 These words explain the meaning of a great 
 many passages in St. Paul's Epistles, in which also 
 he speaks of the law, and of not being under 
 the law, and other such expressions. And it is 
 clear, also, that he is not speaking solely, or 
 chiefly, or, in any considerable degree, of the 
 ceremonial law; but much more of the law of 
 moral good, the law which told men how they 
 ought to live, and how they ought not. This 
 law, he says, is not, made for good men, but for 
 evil : a thing so plain, that we may well wonder 
 how any could ever have misunderstood it. It 
 is so manifest, that strict rules are required, just 
 
 h2 
 
100 THE LAW IS NOT FOR THE GOOD, 
 
 exactly in proportion to our inability or want of 
 will to rule ourselves ; it is so very plain, that, 
 with regard to those crimes which we are under 
 no temptation to commit, we feel exactly as if 
 there were no law. Which of us ever thinks, as 
 a matter of personal concern, of the law which 
 sentences to death murderers, or housebreakers, 
 or those who maliciously set fire to their neigh- 
 bours' property ? Do we not feel that, as far as 
 our own conduct is concerned, it would be 
 exactly the same thing if no such law were in 
 existence ? We should no more murder, or 
 rob, or set fire to houses and barns, if the law 
 were wholly done away, than we do now that it 
 is in force. 
 
 There are, then, some points in which we feel 
 practically that we are not under the law, but 
 dead to it, that the law is not made for us ; but 
 do we think, therefore, that we may murder, and 
 rob, and burn ? or do we not rather feel that 
 such a notion would be little short of madness ? 
 We are not under the law, because we do not 
 need it ; not because there is in reality no law 
 to punish us if we do need it. And just of 
 this kind is that general freedom from the law, 
 of which St. Paul speaks, as the high privilege 
 of true Christians. 
 
 But yet St. Paul would not at all mean that 
 any Christian is altogether without the law ; 
 
so FAR AS THEY ARE GOOD ; 101 
 
 that is, that there are no pointii' at' all in whicli 
 his inchnation is not to evil,^and in which,? "her-e- 
 fore, he needs the fear of God to restrain him 
 from it. When he says of himself, that he kept 
 under his body lest that by any means he should 
 become a castaway, just so far as this fear of 
 being a castaway possessed him, that is, just so 
 far as there were any evil tendencies in him, 
 which required him to keep them under by an 
 effort, just so far was he under the law. And 
 this is so, as we full well know, with us all ; for 
 as there is none of us in whom sin is utterly 
 dead, so neither can there be any of us who is 
 altogether dead to the law. 
 
 Yet although this be so, yet there is no doubt 
 that the gospel wishes to consider us as generally 
 dead to the law, in order that we really may be- 
 come so continually more and more. It sup- 
 poses that the Spirit of God, presenting to our 
 minds the sight of God's love in Christ, sets us 
 free from the law of sin and death ; that is, that 
 a sense of thankfulness to God, and love of God 
 and of Christ, will be so strong a motive, that we 
 shall, generally speaking, need no other ; that it 
 will so work upon us, as to make us feel good 
 easy and delightful, and thus to become dead to 
 the law. And there is no doubt also, that that 
 same freedom from the law, which we ourselves 
 experience daily, in respect of some particular 
 
102 BUT NOT DEAD TO THEM WHOLLY. 
 
 great crimes^ (for as I said, we do not feel that it 
 a5;thfe fear Qf tjie.l^w which keeps us from murder 
 or from robbing,) that very same freedom is felt 
 by good men in many other points, where it may 
 be, that we ourselves do not feel it. A common 
 instance may be given with respect to prayer, 
 and the outward worship of God. There are a 
 great many who feel this as a duty ; but there 
 are many also to whom it is not so much a duty, 
 as a privilege and a pleasure ; and these are dead 
 to the law, which commands us to be instant in 
 prayer, just as we, in general, are dead to the law 
 which commands us to do no murder. 
 
 This being understood, it will be perfectly 
 plain, why St. Paul, along with all his language 
 as to the law being passed away, and our being 
 become dead to it, yet uses, very frequently, lan- 
 guage of another kind, which shows that the law 
 is not dead in itself, but lives, and ever will live. 
 He says, ^' We must all stand before the judg- 
 ment-seat of Christ, that every one may receive 
 according to what he has done in the body." 
 And he adds, '' Knowing, therefore, the terror of 
 the Lord, we persuade men." But the judgment, 
 and the terror of the Lord, mean precisely what 
 are meant by the law. And this language of St. 
 Paul shows more clearly, that, unless we are first 
 dead to the law, the law is not, and never will 
 be dead to us. 
 
APPLICATION OF THIS DOCTRINE. 103 
 
 I should not have thought it useless, to have 
 offered merely this explanation of a language, 
 which is very common in the New Testament, 
 which forms one of its characteristic points, (for 
 St. John's expression of '' Perfect love casteth out 
 fear" is exactly equivalent to St. Paul's, '^ That 
 we are dead to the law,") and which has been 
 often misunderstood, or misrepresented. But 
 yet, I am well aware, that mere explanations of 
 Scripture cannot be expected to interest those 
 to whom Scripture is not familiar. The answer 
 to a riddle would be very soon forgotten, unless 
 the riddle had first at once amused and puz- 
 zled us. Just so, explanations of Scripture, 
 to be at all valued, must suppose a previous 
 knowledge of, and desire to understand, the diffi- 
 culty ; and this we cannot expect to find in 
 very young persons. Thus far, then, what I 
 have said has been necessarily addressed, I do 
 not say, or mean, to the oldest part of my 
 hearers only, but yet to the older, and more con- 
 sidering part of them. But the subject is capa- 
 ble, I think, of being brought much more 
 closely home to us ; for what St. Paul says 
 of the law, with reference to all mankind, 
 is precisely that state of mind which one 
 would wish to see here; and the mistakes of 
 his meaning are just such as are often pre- 
 valent, and are likely to do great mischief. 
 
104 THE GOSPEL SUCCEEDS TO THE LAW. 
 
 with regard to the motives to be appealed to 
 in education. 
 
 Now, what is the case in the Scripture ? Men 
 had been subject to a strict law of rewards and 
 punishments, appealing directly to their hopes, 
 and to their fears. The gospel offered itself to 
 them, as a declaration of God's love to them ; 
 so wonderful, that it seemed as though it could 
 not but excite them to love him in return. It 
 also raised their whole nature ; their understand- 
 ings, no less than their affections ; and thus led 
 them to do God's will, from another and higher 
 feeling than they had felt heretofore ; to do it, 
 not because they must, but because they loved 
 it. And to such as answered to this heavenly 
 call, God laid aside, if I may venture so to speak, 
 all his terrors ; he showed himself to them only 
 as a loving father, between whom and his children 
 there was nothing but mutual affection ; who 
 would be loved by them, and love them for ever. 
 But to those who answered not to it, and far 
 more, who dared to abuse it ; who thought that 
 God's love was weakness ; that the liberty to 
 which they were called, was the liberty qf 
 devils, the liberty of doing evil as they would ; 
 to all such, God was still a consuming fire, 
 and their most merciful Saviour himself was 
 a judge to try their very hearts and reins ; in 
 short, the gospel was to them, not salvation. 
 
CHILDHOOD IS UNDER THE LAW : 105 
 
 but condemnation ; it awakened not the better, 
 but the baser parts of their nature ; it did 
 not do away, but doubled their guilt, and, 
 therefore, brought upon them, and will bring 
 through all eternity, a double measure of punish- 
 ment. 
 
 Now all this applies exactly to that earlier and, 
 as it were, preparatory life, which ends not in 
 death, but in manhood. The state of boyhood 
 begins under a law. It is a great mistake to 
 address always the reason of a child, when you 
 ought rather to require his obedience. Do this, 
 do not do that ; if you do this, I shall love you ; 
 if you do not, I shall punish you ; — such is the 
 state, most clearly a state of law, under which we 
 are, and must be, placed at the beginning of 
 education. But we should desire and endeavour 
 to see this state of law succeeded by something 
 better : we should desire so to unfold the love of 
 Christ as to draw the affections towards him; 
 we should desire so to raise the understanding 
 as that it may fasten itself, by its own native 
 tendrils, round the pillar of truth, without 
 requiring to be bound to it by external bands. 
 We should avoid all unnecessary harshness ; we 
 should speak and act with all possible kindness ; 
 because love, rather than fear, love both of God 
 and man, is the motive which we particularly 
 wish to awaken. Thus, keeping punishment in 
 
106 YOUTH IN PART OUTGROWS IT. 
 
 the background and, as it were, out of sight, 
 and putting forward encouragement and kind- 
 ness, we should attract, as it were, the good and 
 noble feelings of those with whom we are deal- 
 ing, and invite them to open, and to answer to, 
 a system of confidence and kindness, rather than 
 risk the chilling and hardening them by a system 
 of mistrust and severity. 
 
 And for those who do answer to this call, how 
 really true is it that they do soon become dead, 
 in great measure, to the law of the place where 
 they are living ! How little do they generally 
 feel its restraints, or its tasks, burdensome ! 
 How very little have they to do with its punish- 
 ments! Led on by degrees continually higher 
 and higher, their relations with us become more 
 and more relations of entire confidence and 
 kindness ; and when at last their trial is over, 
 and they pass from this first fife, as I have 
 ventured to call it, into their second life of man- 
 hood, how beautifully are they ripened for that 
 state ! how naturally do all the restraints of this 
 first life fall away, like the mortal body of the 
 perfected Christian ; and they enter upon the 
 full liberty of manhood, fitted at once to enjoy 
 and to improve it ! 
 
 But observe, that St. Paul does not suppose 
 even the best Christian to be without the law 
 altogether : there will ever be some points in 
 
BUT IT STILL REMAINS IN PART : 1 07 
 
 which he will need to remember it. And so it 
 is unkindness, rather than kindness, and a very 
 mischievous mistake^ to forget that here, in 
 this our preparatory life, the law cannot cease 
 altogether with any one ; that it is not possible 
 to find a perfect sense and feeling of right exist- 
 ing in every action ; nay, that it is even unreason- 
 able to seem to expect it. Little faults, little 
 irregularities, there always will be, with which the 
 law is best fitted to deal; which should be met, 
 I mean, by a system of rules and of punishments, 
 not severe, certainly, nor one at all inconsistent 
 with general respect, kindness, and confidence ; 
 but which check the particular faults alluded to 
 better, I think, than could be done by seeming 
 to expect of the individual that he should, in all 
 such cases, be a law to himself. There is a 
 possibility of our overstraining the highest prin- 
 ciples, by continually appealing to them on very 
 trifling occasions. It is far better, here, to 
 apply the system of the law ; to require obedi- 
 ence to rules, as a matter of discipline ; to 
 visit the breach of them by moderate punish- 
 ment, not given in anger, not at all inconsistent 
 with general confidence and regard, but gently 
 reminding us of that truth which we may never 
 dare wholly to forget, — that punishment will 
 exist eternally so long as there is evil, and that 
 the only way of remaining for ever entirely 
 
108 AND WHERE LAW IS, 
 
 strangers to it, is by adhering for ever and 
 entirely to good. 
 
 This appHes to every one amongst us ; and is 
 the reason why rules, discipline, and punish- 
 ments, however much they may be, and are, 
 kept in the back ground for such as have become 
 almost wholly dead to them, must yet continue 
 in existence, because none are, or can be, dead 
 to them altogether. But now, suppose that we 
 have a nature to deal with, which cannot answer 
 to a system of kindness, but abuses it ; which, 
 when punishment is kept at a distance, rejoices, 
 as thinking that it may follow evil safely; a 
 nature not to be touched by the love of God or 
 man, not to be guided by any perception of its 
 own as to what is right and true. Is the law 
 dead really to such as these ? or should it be so ? 
 Is punishment a degradation to a nature which 
 is so self-degraded as to be incapable of being 
 moved by any thing better ? For this is the real 
 egradation which we should avoid ; not the fear 
 of punishment, which is not at all degrading, but 
 the being insensible to the love of Christ and of 
 goodness ; and so being capable of receiving 
 no other motive than the fear of punishment 
 alone. With such natures, to withhold punish- 
 ment, would be indeed to make Christ the 
 minister of sin ; to make mercy, that is, lead to 
 evil, and not to good. For them, the law never 
 
THERE ALSO IS PUNISHMENT. 109 
 
 is dead, and never will be. Here, of course, in 
 this first life, as I have called it, punishment 
 indeed goes but a little way : it is very easy for 
 a hardened nature to defy all that could be laid 
 upon it here in the way of actual compulsion. 
 Our only course is to cut short the time of trial, 
 when we find a nature in whom that trial cannot 
 end in good. Still there may be those in whom 
 this life here, like their greater hfe which shall 
 last for ever, will have far more to do with 
 punishment than with kindness; they will be 
 living all their time under the law. Continue 
 this to our second life, and the law then vn\l be no 
 less aHve, and they will never be dead to it, nor 
 will it be ever dead to them. And however a 
 hardened nature may well despise the punish- 
 ments of its first life, — punishments, whose 
 whole object is correction, and not retribution, 
 — yet where is the nature so hard as to endure, 
 in its relations with God, to feel more of his 
 punishment than of his mercy ; to know him for 
 ever as a God of judgment, and not as a Father 
 of love ? 
 
 November IBthy 1836. 
 
SERMON XL 
 
 St. Luke xxi. 36. 
 
 Watch yCf therefore, and pray alroays, that ye may he 
 accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall 
 come to pasSf and to stand before the Son of Man. 
 
 This might be a text for a history of the Chris- 
 tian church from its foundation to this hour^ or 
 to the latest hour of the world's existence. We 
 might observe how it had fulfilled its Lord's 
 command; with what steadiness it had gone 
 forward on its course, with the constant hope of 
 meeting Him once again in glory. We might 
 see how it had escaped all these things that were 
 to come to pass : tracing its course amidst the 
 manifold revolutions of the world, inward and 
 outward. In the few words, " all these things 
 that shall come to pass," are contained all the 
 events of the last eighteen hundred years: 
 
THE VARIED COURSE OF THE CHURCH, 111 
 
 indistinct and unknown to us, as long as they are 
 thus folded up together; but capable of being 
 unrolled before our eyes in a long order, in which 
 should be displayed all the outward changes of 
 nations, the spread of discovery, the vicissitudes 
 of conquest ; and yet more, the inward changes 
 of men's minds, the various schools of philosophy, 
 the successive forms of public opinion, the influ- 
 ences of various races, all the manifold elements 
 by which the moral character of the christian 
 world has been affected. We might observe 
 how the church had escaped all these things, or 
 to what degree it had received from any of them 
 good or evil. And then, stopping at the point 
 at which it has actually arrived, we might con- 
 sider how far it deserves the character of that 
 church, '' without spot, or wrinkle, or any such 
 thing," which should be presented before the 
 Son of Man at his coming again. 
 
 This would be a great subject; and one, if 
 worthily executed, full of the deepest instruc- 
 tion to us all. But our Lord's words may also 
 be made the text for a history or inquiry of an- 
 other sort, far less comprehensive in time and 
 space, far less grand, far less interesting to the 
 understanding ; yet, on the other hand, capable 
 of being wrought out far more completely, and 
 far more interesting to the spiritual and eternal 
 welfare of each of us. They may be made the 
 
112 AND OF EACH OF US SEPARATELY. 
 
 text for an inquiry into the course hitherto held, 
 not by the church as a body, but by each of us 
 individual members of it: an inquiry how far 
 we, each of us, have watched and prayed always, 
 that we might be accounted worthy to escape 
 all the things which should come to pass, and to 
 stand before the Son of Man. And, in this view 
 of the words, the expression "all these things 
 .which shall come to pass" has reference no 
 longer to great political revolutions, nor to 
 schools of philosophy, nor to prominent points 
 of national character; but to those humbler 
 events, to those lesser changes, outward and in- 
 ward, through which we each pass between our 
 cradle and our grave. How have we escaped 
 these, or turned them to good account ? Have 
 earthly things so ministered to our eternal wel- 
 fare, that if we were each one of us, by a stroke 
 from heaven, cut oflf at that very point in our 
 course to which we have severally attained this 
 day, we should be accounted worthy to stand 
 before the Son of Man ? 
 
 Here is, indeed, a very humble history for 
 us each to study: yet what other history can 
 concern us so nearly? And as, in the history 
 of the world, experience in part supplies the 
 place of prophecy, and the fate of one nation 
 is in a manner a mirror to another, so in our 
 individual history, the experience of the old is 
 
WHAT WILL COME TO PASS TO US, 113 
 
 a lesson to the middle-aged, and that of the 
 middle-aged a lesson to the young. If you wish 
 to know what are the things which shall come 
 to pass with respect to you, we can draw aside 
 the veil from your coming life, because what 
 you will be is no other than what we are. If 
 we would go onwards, in like manner, and ask 
 what are the things which shall come to pass 
 with respect to us, our coming life may be seen 
 in the past and present life of the old ; for what 
 we shall be is no other than what they have 
 been, or than what they are. 
 
 Let us take, then, the actual moment with 
 each of us, and suppose that our Lord speaks 
 to each of us as he did to his first disciples : 
 '' Watch and pray always, that ye may be ac- 
 counted worthy to escape all these things which 
 shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son 
 of Man." We ask, naturally, '' What are the 
 things which shall come to pass ?" and it is to 
 this question that I am to try to suggest the 
 answer. 
 
 Those arrived at middle age may ask the 
 question, '' What are the things which shall 
 come to pass to us ?'* Now, setting aside extra- 
 ordinary accidents, on which we cannot reckon, 
 and the answer would, I think, be something of 
 this sort: There will not come to pass, it is 
 likely, any great change in our condition or 
 
114 IN MIDDLE AGE, 
 
 employment in life. In middle age, our calling, 
 with all the duties which it involves, must 
 generally be fixed for each of us. Our par- 
 ticular kind of trial will not, it is probable, be 
 much altered. We must not, as in youth, fancy 
 that, although our actual occupation does not 
 suit us, although its temptations are often too 
 strong for us, yet a change may take place to 
 another line of duty, and the temptations in that 
 new line may be less formidable. In middle 
 age it will not do to indulge such fond hopes 
 as these. On the contrary, our hope must lie, 
 not in escape, but in victory. If our tempta- 
 tions press us hard, we cannot expect to have 
 them exchanged for others less powerful : they 
 will remain with us, and we must overcome 
 them, or perish. Have we tastes not fully re- 
 conciled to our calling, — faculties which seem 
 not to have found their proper field ? We must 
 seek our remedy not from without, humanly 
 speaking, but from within: we must discipline 
 ourselves ; we must teach our tastes to cling 
 gracefully around that duty to which else they 
 must be helplessly fastened. If any faculties 
 appear not to have found their proper field, we 
 must think that God has, for certain wise reasons, 
 judged it best for us that they should not be 
 exercised; and we must be content to render 
 him the service of others. In this respect, then. 
 
IN ADVANCED YEARS, 115 
 
 the immediate prospect for middle age is not so 
 much change as stedfastness. Fortune will not 
 suit herself to our wishes: we must learn to 
 suit our wishes to her. 
 
 But go on a little farther, and what are the 
 things which must come to pass then ? A new 
 and a most solemn interest arising to us in the 
 entrance of our children into active life. Hitherto 
 they have lived under our care, and our duty to 
 them was simple ; but now there comes the 
 choice of a profession, the watching and guid- 
 ing them, as well as we can, at this critical 
 moment of their course. What cares await 
 us here; and yet what need of avoiding over 
 care ! What a trial for us, how we value our 
 children's worldly interests when compared with 
 their eternal — whether we prefer for them the 
 path which may lead most readily to worldly 
 wealth and honour, or that in which they may 
 best and safest follow Christ ! This is a danger 
 which will come to pass to us ere long : do we 
 watch and pray that we may be delivered from 
 it? 
 
 The interest of life, which had, perhaps, some- 
 thing begun to fade for ourselves, will revive 
 with vigour at this period in behalf of our child- 
 ren ; but after this it will go on steadily ebbing. 
 What life can offer we have tasted for ourselves ; 
 we have seen it tasted, or in the way to be tasted, 
 
 i2 
 
 k 
 
116 IN OLD AGE, 
 
 by them. The harvest is gathered, and the symp- 
 toms of the fall appear. Is it that some faculty 
 becomes a little impaired, some taste a little 
 dulled ; or is it that the friends and companions 
 of our life are beginning to drop away from us ? 
 Long since, those whom we loved of the gene- 
 ration before us have been gathered to the grave ; 
 now those of our ovm generation are falling fast 
 also — ^brothers, sisters, friends of our early youth, 
 a wife, a husband. We are surrounded by a 
 younger generation, to whom the half of our 
 lives, with all their recollections and sympathies, 
 are a thing unknown. Impatience, weariness, a 
 clinging to the past, a vain wish to prolong it in 
 an earthly future, — these are the things which 
 shall befall us then ; and they will befall us too 
 surely, and too irresistibly, unless by earlier 
 watchfulness and prayer we may have been 
 enabled to avoid them. For vain will it be, 
 with faculties at once weakened by the decay 
 of nature and perverted by long habits of world- 
 liness, to assay, for the first time, to force our 
 way into the kingdom of heaven. Old age is 
 not the season for contest and victory ; nor 
 shall we then be so able to escape unharmed 
 from the temptations of life as to stand before 
 the Son of Man. 
 
 These are the things which will come to pass 
 for us and for you. But for you there is much 
 
IN OPENING MANHOOD, il7 
 
 more to come, which to us is not futm-e now, 
 but past or present. With you, for a time, it 
 will be all a course forwards and upwards. From 
 the preparation for life, you will come to the 
 reality ; from a state of less importance, you will 
 be passing on to one of greater. Your tempta 
 tions, whatever they may be now, will not cer 
 tainly become weaker. As outward restraint is 
 more and more taken off from you, so your need 
 of inward restraint will be greater. Will those 
 who are extravagant now on a small scale, be 
 less extravagant on a large scale ? Will those 
 who are selfish now, become less selfish amidst 
 a wider field of enjoyment ? Will those who 
 know not or care not for Christ, while yet, as it 
 were, standing quietly on the shore, be led to 
 think of him more amidst the excitement of the 
 first setting sail, amidst the interest of the first 
 newly-seen country ? 
 
 You know not yet, nor can know, the immense 
 importance of that period of life on which many 
 of you are entering, or have just entered. You 
 are coming, or come, to what may be called the 
 second beginning of life : to which, in the com- 
 mon course of things, there will succeed no third. 
 Ignorance, absence of temptation, the presence 
 of all good impressions, constitute much of the 
 innocence of mere childhood, — so beautilful 
 while it lasts, so sure to be soon bhghted ! It 
 
118 WHICH IS A SECOND BEGINNING OF LIFE. 
 
 is blighted in the first experience of hfe, most 
 commonly when a boy first goes to school. 
 Then his mere innocence, which indeed he 
 may be said to have worn rather instinctively 
 than by choice, becomes grievously polluted. 
 Then come the hardness, the coarseness, the 
 intense selfishness; sometimes, too, the false- 
 hood, the cruelty, the folly of the boy: then 
 comes that period, so trying to the faith of pa- 
 rents, when all their early care seems blasted ; 
 when the vineyard, which they had fenced so 
 tenderly, seems all despoiled and trodden under 
 foot. It is indeed a discouraging season, the 
 exact image of the ungenial springs of our na- 
 --J;ural year. But after this there comes, as it 
 were, a second beginning of life, when prin- 
 ciple takes the place of innocence. There is a 
 time, — many of you must have arrived at it, — 
 when thought and inquiry awaken; when, out 
 of the mere chaos of boyhood, the elements of 
 the future character of the man begin to appear. 
 Blessed are they for whom the confusion and 
 disarray of their boyish life is quickened into a 
 true life by the moving of the Spirit of God! 
 Blessed are they for whom the beginnings of 
 thought and inquiry are the beginnings also of 
 faith and love ; when the new character receives, 
 as it is forming, the christian seed, and the man 
 is also the Christian. And, then, this second 
 
MAY THAT BEGINNING FIT us 119 
 
 beginning of life, resting on faith and conscious 
 principle, and not on mere passive innocence, 
 stands sure for the middle and the end : those 
 who so watch and pray as to escape out of this 
 critical period, not merely unharmed, but, as it 
 were, set clearly on their way to heaven, will, 
 with God's grace, escape out of the things which 
 shall befal them afterwards, till they shall stand 
 before the Son of Man. 
 
 But the word is, '' Watch and pray always, 
 that ye may be accounted worthy to escape." 
 We see the time with many of you come, or 
 immediately coming ; out of your present state 
 a character will certainly be formed ; as surely 
 as the innocence of childhood has perished, so 
 surely will the carelessness of boyhood perish 
 too. A character vdll be formed, whether you 
 watch and pray, or whether you do neither ; but 
 the great point is what this character may be. 
 If you do not watch the process, it will surely 
 be the character of death eternal. Thought and 
 inquiry will satisfy themselves very readily with 
 an answer as far as regards spiritual things : 
 their whole vigour will be devoted to the things 
 of this world, to science, or to business, or to 
 public matters, all alike hardening rather than 
 softening to the mind, if its thoughts do not go 
 to something higher and deeper still. And as 
 years pass on, we may think on these our 
 
120 TO STAND BEFORE THE SON OF MAN. 
 
 favourite or professional subjects more and more 
 earnestly ; our views on them may be clearer 
 and sounder, but there comes again nothing like 
 the first free burst of thought in youth ; the in- 
 tellect in later life, if its tone was not rightly 
 taken earlier, becomes narrowed in proportion 
 to its greater vigour ; one thing it sees clearly, 
 but it is blind to all beside. It is in youth that 
 the after-tone of the mind is happily formed, 
 when that natural burst of thought is sanc- 
 tified and quickened by God's Spirit, and we 
 set up within us to love and to adore, all our 
 days, the one image of the truth of God, our 
 Saviour Jesus. Then, whatever else may befal 
 us afterwards, it rarely happens that our faith 
 will fail ; his image, implanted in us, preserves us 
 amid every change ; we are counted worthy to 
 escape all the things which may come to pass, 
 •and to stand before the Son of man. 
 
 November 5th, 1837. 
 
S E E M O N XII. 
 
 Pkoverbs i. 28. 
 
 Then shall they call upon me, hut I will not answer ; they 
 shall seek me early, hut they shaU^otJind me, 
 
 Christ's gospel gives out the forgiveness of 
 sins ; and as this is its very essence, so also in 
 what we read connected with Christ's gospel, 
 the tone of encoiuragement, of mercy, of loving- 
 kindness to sinners is ever predominant. What 
 was needed at the beginning of the gospel is no 
 less needed now ; we cannot spare one jot or 
 one tittle of this gracious language ; now, as 
 ever, the free grace, that most seems to be with- 
 out the law, does most surely establish the law. 
 But yet there is another language which is to 
 be found alike in the Old Testament, and in the 
 New; a language not indeed so common as the 
 
122 SEEMING CONTRADICTIONS OF SCRIPTURE. 
 
 language of mercy, but yet repeated many times ; 
 a language which we also need as fully as it was 
 ever needed, and of whose severity we can no 
 more spare one tittle than we can spare anything 
 of the comfort of the other. And yet this lan- 
 guage has not, I think, been enforced so often as 
 it should have been. Men have rather shrunk 
 from it, and seemed afraid of it ; they have con- 
 nected it sometimes with certain foolish and 
 presumptuous questions, which we, indeed, do 
 well to turn from ; but they have not seen, that 
 with such it has no natural connexion, but be- 
 longs to a certain fact in the constitution of our 
 nature, and is most highly moral and practical. 
 
 The language to which I allude is expressed, 
 amongst other passages, by the words of the 
 text. They speak of men's calling upon God, 
 and of his refusing to hear them ; of men's seek- 
 ing God, and not finding him. Remember, at 
 the same time, our Lord's words, '' Ask, and ye 
 shall receive ; seek, and ye shall find." I pur- 
 posely put together these opposite passages, be- 
 cause the full character of God's Revelation is 
 thus seen more clearly. Do we doubt that our 
 Lord's words are true, and do we not prize them 
 as some of the most precious which he has left 
 us ? We do well to do so ; but shall we doubt 
 any more the truth of the words of the text ; 
 and shall we not consider them as a warning no 
 
EACH TRUE OF DIFFERENT PERSONS. 123 
 
 less needful than the comfort in the other case ? 
 Indeed, as true as it is^, that, if we seek God, we 
 shall find him ; so true is it that we may seek 
 him, and yet not find him. 
 
 Now, then, how to explain this seeming con- 
 tradiction ? We can see at once, that these 
 things are not said of the same persons, or rather 
 of the same characters at the same time. They 
 are said of the same persons ; that is, there is 
 no one here assembled who is not concerned 
 with both, and to whom both may not be appli- 
 cable. Only they are not and cannot be both 
 applicable to the same person at the very same 
 time. If God will be found by us, at any given 
 moment, on our seeking him, it is impossible 
 that, at that same moment, he should also not be 
 found. Thus far is plain to every one. 
 
 And now, is it true of us, at this present time, 
 that God will be found by us, if we seek him, or 
 that he will not be found ? If we say that he will 
 be found, then the words of the text are not apph- 
 cable to us at present, although at some future 
 time they may be ; and then we have that well- 
 known difficulty to encounter, to attempt to draw 
 the mind's attention to a future and only contin- 
 gent evil. If we say that he will not be found, then 
 of what avail can it be to say any word more ? 
 why sit we in this place, to preach, or to hsten 
 to preaching, if God, after all, will not be found ? 
 
124 IN SOME SENSE, BOTH ARE TRUE 
 
 Or, again, should we say that there are some by 
 whom he will not be found, then who are they 
 that are thus horribly marked out from among 
 their brethren ? Can we dare to conceive of any 
 one amongst us that he is such an one ; that there 
 are some, nay, that there is any one amongst us, 
 to whom it is the same thing whether he will 
 hear, or whether he will forbear ; who may close 
 his ears as safely as open them, because God 
 has turned his face from him for ever ? It were 
 indeed horrible to suppose that any one of us 
 w^ere in such a state ; and happily it is a thought 
 of horror which the truth may allow us to repel. 
 
 But what, if I were to say, that now, at this 
 very moment, the words of the text are both 
 applicable to us, and not applicable ? Is this a 
 contradiction, and, therefore, impossible ? or is 
 it but a seeming contradiction only, and not 
 only possible, but true? Let us see how the 
 case appears to be. 
 
 We should allow, I suppose, that the words of 
 the text were at no time in any man's earthly life 
 so true as they will be at the day of judgment. 
 The hardest heart, the most obstinate in sin, 
 the most closed against all repentance, is yet 
 more within the reach of grace, we should 
 imagine, whilst he is alive and in health, than he 
 will be at the day of the resurrection. We can 
 admit, then, that the words of the text may be 
 
OF THE SAME PERSONS AT ONCE. 125 
 
 true, in a greater or less degree ; that they will 
 be more entirely true at the last day, than at 
 any earlier period, but yet that they may be 
 substantially true, true almost beyond exception, 
 in the life that now is. Now, carry this same 
 principle a little farther, and we come to our 
 very own case. The words of the text will be 
 more true at the day of judgment, than they 
 ever are on earth ; and yet on earth they are 
 often true, substantially and practically. And 
 even so, they may be more true to each of us a 
 few years hence, than they are at this moment ; 
 and yet, in a certain degree, they may be true 
 at this moment ; true, not absolutely and 
 entirely, but partially ; so true as to give a most 
 solemn earnest, if we are not warned in time, of 
 their more entire truth hereafter, — first, in this 
 earthly life ; then, most perfectly of all, when we 
 shall arise at the last day. 
 
 It may be, then, that the words of the text, 
 although not applicable to us in their full and 
 most fatal sense, may yet be applicable to us in 
 a certain degree ; the evil which they speak of 
 may be, not wholly future and contingent, and a 
 thing to be feared, but present in part, actual, 
 and a matter of experience. This is not a con- 
 tradiction ; it is not impossible ; it may he our 
 case. Let us see whether it really is so, that is, 
 whether it is in any degree true of us, that when 
 
]2() WHO SEEK, AM) F£KD, 
 
 we call upon God he will not answer ; that when 
 we seek hhn we shall, in any manner, be unable 
 to find him. 
 
 It is manifest, that, in proportion as Christ's 
 words, *' Seek, and ye shall find," are true to 
 any man, so are the words of the text less true 
 to him ; and in proportion as Christ's words are 
 less true to any one, so are the words of the text 
 more true to him. Now, is Christ's promise, 
 ^' Seek, and ye shall find," equally true to all of 
 us? Conceive of one, — ^the thing is rare, hut 
 not impossible, — of one wh6 had been so kept 
 from evil, and m hapjjily led forward in good, 
 that when arrived at boyhood, his soul had 
 scarcely more stain upon it than when it was 
 first fully cleansed, and forgiven, in baptism! 
 Conceive him speaking trntfi, without any effort, 
 on all occasions; not grc-r^ciy, not proud, not 
 violent, not selfish, not feeding conscious that he 
 was living a life of sin, and thc^reforc} glad to 
 come to God, rather than shrinking away from 
 him ! Conceive how complct('ly to such an one 
 would Christ's words be fulfilh^d, ** S(jck, and ye 
 shall findr When would his prayers be un- 
 blessed^ or unfruitful ? When would he turn his 
 thoughts to God without feeling plefisurc in 
 doing so; without a lively consciousness of God's 
 love to him; without an assured sense of the 
 reality of things not seen, of redemption and 
 
WHO SEEK, AND DO NOT FIND. 127 
 
 grace and glory I \^'ould not the communion 
 with God, enjoyed by one so untainted, come up 
 to the full measure of those high promises, " It 
 shall come to pass, that before they call I will 
 answer, and while they are yet speaking, I will 
 hear ?" Would it not be plain, that God was as 
 tnily found, by such a person, as he was sought 
 in sincerity and earnestness ? 
 
 But now, take the most of us : suppose us not 
 to have been kept carefully from evil, nor led on 
 steadily in good ; suppose us to have reached 
 boyhood with bad dispositions, ready for the first 
 temptation, with habits of good uncultivated: 
 suppose us to have no great horror of a he, 
 when it can serve our turn ; with much love of 
 pleiisurt\, and little love of our duty ; >vith much 
 selfishness, and little or no thought of God : 
 suppose such tm one, so sadly altered from a 
 state of ba]^tismal purity, to be saying his pntyers 
 as he has been Uiught to siiy them, and siiying 
 them sometimes with a tliought of their mean- 
 ing, and a wish that God would hear them. 
 But does (lod hear them ? I ask of your own 
 consciences, whether you have had any sense 
 that he had heard you ? whether death and 
 judginent, Christ and Christ's service, have be- 
 come moiv real to you atler such pniyers ? If 
 not, then is it not manifest, that you have sought 
 (iod, and have not found him ; that voii have 
 
128 WHO PRAY, AND ARE NOT HEARD. 
 
 called upon him, and he has not heard ? You 
 know, by experience, that you are not as those 
 true children who are ever with him, who listen 
 to catch the lightest whisper of his Spirit, for 
 whom he, too, vouchsafes to bless the faintest 
 breathing of their prayer. 
 
 Or, again, in trying to turn from evil to good, 
 have you ever found your resolutions give way, 
 the ground which you had gained slide from 
 under your feet, till you fell back again to what 
 you were at the beginning ? Has this ever 
 happened to us ? If it has, then, in that case 
 also, we sought God, but failed to find him ; the 
 victory was not yours, but the enemy's; the 
 Spirit of Christ did not help you so as to 
 conquer. 
 
 Take another case, yet again. Has it ever 
 happened to any of you, to have done a mischief 
 to yourselves which you could not undo ? It 
 need not be one of the very highest kind; but 
 has it ever happened that, by neglect, you have 
 lost ground in the society in which you are 
 placed, which you cannot recover; that your 
 contemporaries have gained an advance upon 
 you, while you have not time left to overtake 
 them ? Does it ever happen that, from neglect- 
 ing some particular element of learning in its 
 proper season, and other things claiming your 
 attention afterwards, you go on with a disadvan- 
 
I 
 
 WHO HAVE ERRED BEYOND REMEDY. 129 
 
 tage, which ydu would fain remove, but cannot ? 
 Does it, in short, ever happen to any, that his 
 complete success here is become impossible ; 
 that whatever prospects of another kind may be 
 open to him elsewhere, yet that he cannot now 
 be numbered amongst those who have turned 
 the particular advantages here afforded them to 
 that end which they might and ought to have 
 done ? 
 
 To whomsoever this has happened, the truth 
 of the words of the text is matter of experience,, 
 not in their full and most dreadful extent, but 
 yet quite enough to prove that they are true ; 
 and that just as he now feels them in part, so, if 
 he continues to be what he is, he will one day 
 feel them wholly. He feels that it is possible to 
 seek God, and not to find him ; he has learnt by 
 experience that neglected good, or committed 
 evil, may be beyond the power of after-regret to 
 undo. It is true, that as yet, to him, other 
 prospects may be open; prospects which, pro- 
 bably, he may deem no less fair than those which 
 he has forfeited. This may be so; but the 
 point to observe is, that one prospect was lost 
 so irretrievably by his own fault, that afterwards,, 
 when he wished to regain it, he could not» Now 
 God gives him other prospects, which he may 
 realize ; but as he forfeited his first prospect 
 beyond recovery, so he may do also with his 
 
130 WHAT IS TRUE IN PART NOW 
 
 last : and though ill-success at school may be 
 made up by success in another sphere, yet what 
 is to make up for ill-success in the great business 
 of hfe, when that, too, has been forfeited as irre- 
 coverably ; when his last chance is gone as hope- 
 lessly as his first ? 
 
 Now, surely there is in all this an intelligible 
 lesson. I am not at all exaggerating the import- 
 ance of the particular prospect forfeited here; 
 but I am pressing upon you, that this prospect 
 may be, and often is, forfeited irrecoverably ; 
 that when you wish to regain it, it is too late, 
 and you cannot. And I press this, because 
 it is a true type of the whole of human life ; 
 because it is just as possible to forfeit salvation 
 irrecoverably, as to forfeit that earthly good 
 \ which is the prize of well-doing here, with this 
 infinite difference, that the last forfeit is not only 
 irretrievable, but fatal ; it can no more be made 
 up for, than it can be regained. Here, then, 
 your present condition is a type of the complete 
 truth of the text : but there are other points, to 
 which I alluded before, in which it is more than 
 a type ; it is the very truth itself, although, 
 happily, only in an imperfect measure. That 
 unanswered prayer, of which I spoke, those 
 broken resolutions, — are they not actually a 
 calling on God, without his hearing us ; a seek^ 
 ing him, without finding him ? We remember 
 
WILL BE WHOLLY TRUE HEREAFTER, 131 
 
 who it was that could say with truth to his 
 Father, " I know that thou hearest me always.'* 
 We know what it is that hinders God from hear- 
 ing us always ;. because we are not thoroughly 
 one in his Son Christ Jesus. But this unan- 
 swered prayer is not properly the state of 
 Christ's redeemed : it is an enemy that hath 
 brought us to this ; the same enemy who will, 
 in time, make all our prayers to be unanswered, 
 as some are now ; who will cause God, not only 
 to be slow to listen, but to refuse to listen for 
 ever. Now we are not heard at once, we must 
 repeat our prayers, with more and more earnest- 
 ness, that God, at last, may hear, and may bless 
 us. But if, instead of repeating them the more, 
 we do the very contrary, and repeat them the 
 less ; if, because we have no comfort, and no 
 seeming good from them, we give them up 
 altogether ; then the time will surely come when 
 all prayer will be but the hopeless prayer of 
 Esau, because it will be only the prayer of fear ; 
 because it will be only the dread of destruction 
 that will, or can, move us; — the love of good 
 will have gone beyond recall. Such prayer does 
 but ask for pardon without repentance ; and 
 this never is, or can be, granted. 
 
 So then, in conclusion, that very feeling of 
 coldness, and unwillingness to pray, because we 
 have often prayed in vain, is surely working in 
 K 2 
 
132 UNLESS WE TAKE HEED IN TIME. 
 
 US that perfect death, which is the full truth of 
 the words of the text. Of all of us, those who 
 the least like to pray, who have prayed with the 
 least benefit, have the most need to pray again* 
 If they have sought God, without finding him> 
 let them take heed that this be not their case 
 for ever ; that the truth, of which the seed is 
 even now in them, may not be ripened to their 
 everlasting destruction, when all their seeking, 
 and ail their praying, will be as rejected by God, 
 as, in part, it has been already. 
 
 November Sth, 1835. 
 
SERMON XIII. 
 
 Mark xii. 34. 
 Thou art not far from the kingdom of God. 
 
 Whoever has gone up any hill of more than 
 common height, may remember the very differ- 
 ent impression which the selfsame point, whe- 
 ther bush, or stone, or cliff, has made upon him 
 as he viewed it from below and from above. In 
 going up it seemed so high, that we fancied, if we 
 were once arrived at it, we should be at the sum- 
 mit of our ascent ; while, when we had got be- 
 yond it, and looked down upon it, it seemed 
 almost sunk to the level of the common plain ; 
 and we wondered that it could ever have appeared 
 high to us. 
 
 What happens with any natural object accord- 
 ing to the different points from which we view 
 
134 DIFFERENT SENSES OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 
 
 it, happens also to any particular stage of ad- 
 vancement in our moral characters. There is a 
 goodness which appears very exalted or very or- 
 dinary, according as it is much above or much 
 below our own level. And this is the case with 
 the expression of our Lord in the text, '' Thou 
 art not far from the kingdom of God." Does 
 this seem a great thing or a little thing to be 
 said to us ? Does it give us the notion of a 
 height which we should think it happiness to 
 have reached ; or of a state so little advanced, 
 that it would be misery to be forced to go back 
 to it ? For, according as it seems to us the one 
 or the other, so we may judge of the greater or 
 less progress which we have made in ascending 
 the holy mountain of our God. 
 
 But while I say this, it is necessary to distin- 
 guish between two several senses, in which we 
 may be said to be near to the kingdom of God, 
 or actually in it. These two are in respect of 
 knowledge, and in respect of feeling and prac- 
 tice. And our Lord's words seem to refer par- 
 ticularly to knowledge. The scribe to whom he 
 used them, had expressed so just a sense of the 
 true way of pleasing God, had so risen above the 
 common false notions of his age and country, 
 that his understanding seemed to be ripe for 
 the truths of that kingdom of God, which was to 
 make the worship of God to consist in spirit and 
 
ITS HIGHEST SENSE. 135 
 
 in truth. Now, as far as the knowledge of the 
 kingdom of God is concerned, although, un- 
 doubtedly, there are many amongst us who are 
 deficient in it, yet it is true also, that a great 
 many of us are in possession of it; we are fa- 
 miliar enough with the truths of the kingdom of 
 God, and our understandings fully approve them. 
 But we may be near to or far from the kingdom 
 of God, in respect also of feeling and practice ; 
 and this is the great matter that concerns us. 
 It is here, then, that we should ask ourselves 
 what we think of our Lord's words in the text ; 
 and whether he to whom they were spoken ap- 
 pears to us an object of envy or of compassion ; 
 one whom we envy for having advanced so far, 
 or pity for not being advanced further. 
 
 '' Not far from the kingdom of God." Again, 
 if we take the words Kingdom of God in their 
 highest sense, then the expression contains all 
 that we could desire to have said of us in this 
 life ; hope itself on this side of the grave can go 
 no higher. For as, in this 'sense, the kingdom 
 of God cannot be actually entered before our 
 death; so the best thing that can be said 
 of us here, is, that we are not far from it ; that 
 we are in the land of Beulah, so happily ima 
 gined in the Pilgrim's Progress ; all of our pil- 
 grimage completed, save the last act of crossing 
 the river; with the city of God full in sight. 
 
136 ITS LOWEST SENSE. 
 
 and with hearts ready to enter into it. In this 
 sense, even St. Paul himself, when he wrote his 
 last epistle from Rome, could say no more, could 
 hope for, could desire no more, than to be not 
 far from the kingdom of God. 
 
 Yet again, take the words '' Kingdom of God" 
 in their lowest sense, and then it is woe to us 
 all, if the expression in the text is all that can 
 be said of us ; if, in this sense, we are only not 
 far from the kingdom of God. For take the 
 kingdom of God as God's visible Church, and 
 then, if we are not Christians at all, but only 
 not far from becoming so ; if we have not re- 
 ceived Christ, but are not far from receiving 
 him ; this is a state so imperfect, that he who is 
 in it, has not yet reached to the beginning of 
 his Christian course ; and we need not say how 
 far he must be from its end, if he have not yet 
 come as far as its beginning. 
 
 Thus, in one sense, the words express some- 
 thing so high that nothing can be higher ; in 
 another, something so low, that, to us, nothing 
 can be lower. We have yet to seek that sense, 
 in which they may afford us a useful criterion of 
 our own several states, by appearing high, per- 
 haps, to some of us, and to others low. 
 
 The sense which we seek is given by our 
 Lord, when he declares that the kingdom of 
 God is within us ; or by St. Paul, when he tells 
 
ITS SENSE TO US PRACTICALLY. 137 
 
 US, that it is righteousness, peace, and joy in the 
 Holy Ghost. And now it is no more a thing 
 which we cannot yet have reached, or, on the 
 other hand, which we all have reached : there is 
 now a great difference in us, some are far from 
 it, some are near it, and some are in it ; and thus 
 it is, that they who are near it, seem in it to 
 those who are far off, and far from it to those 
 who are in it. 
 
 Now, first, do they seem far from it ? Then, 
 indeed, ours is a happy state, as many of us as 
 can truly feel that they live so constantly in holy 
 and heavenly tempers, in such lively faith and 
 love, so tasting all the blessings of God's king- 
 dom, its peace, and its hope, and its joy, that 
 they cannot bear to think of that time, when 
 these blessings were not enjoyed except in pro- 
 spect ; when they rather desired to have faith and 
 love, than could be said actually to have them ; 
 when their tempers were not holy and heavenly, 
 although they were fiilly alive to the excellence 
 of their being so, and had seen them already 
 cleansed from the opposites of such a state, from 
 ill-nature, and passion, and pride. 
 
 If any such there be, in whom good resolu- 
 tions have long since ripened into good actions, 
 and the continued good actions have now led 
 to confirmed good habits, how miserable will 
 they think it to be only '' not far from the 
 
 k 
 
138 THOSE WHO ARE WITHIN IT. 
 
 kingdom of God." How ill could they bear to 
 go over again the struggle which used to ac- 
 company every action, when it was done in 
 defiance of habits of evil ; or to be called back 
 to that condition when resolutions for good were 
 formed over and over again, because they were 
 so often broken, but had as yet rarely led to any 
 solid fruit ! How thankful will they be to have 
 escaped from that season when they were seek- 
 ing, but had not yet found; when they were 
 asking of God, but had not yet received ; when 
 they were knocking, but the door had not yet 
 been opened ! They were then, indeed, not far 
 from the kingdom of God, but they were still 
 without its walls ; they were still strangers, and 
 not citizens. It had held out to them a refuge, 
 and they had fled to it as suppliants to the 
 sanctuary ; but they had not yet had the word 
 of peace spoken, to bid them no more kneel 
 without, as suppliants, but to enter and go in 
 and out freely ; for that all things were theirs, 
 because they were Christ's. 
 
 I have dwelt purposely somewhat the longer 
 upon this, because the more that we can feel the 
 truth of this picture, the more that we can put 
 ourselves into the position of those who are 
 within the kingdom of God, and who, hving in 
 the light of it, look back with pity upon those 
 who are only kneehng without its gates, — the 
 
THOSE WHO ARE NEAR IT. 139 
 
 more strongly we shall feel what must be our 
 condition, if those who are without its gates 
 appear to us to be objects of envy rather than 
 pity, because they are so near to that place from 
 which we feel ourselves to be so distant. Or, to 
 speak without a figure, if we could but under- 
 stand how persons advanced in goodness would 
 shrink from the thought of being now only re- 
 solving to be good, then we shall perceive how 
 very evil must be our condition, if this very re- 
 solving to be good seems to us to be an advance 
 so desirable ; if we are so far from being good ac- 
 tually, that the very setting ourselves in earnest 
 to seek for good strikes us as a point of absolute 
 proficiency in comparison of our present degra- 
 dation. 
 
 Yet is not this the case with many of us ? Do 
 we not consider it a great point gained, if we 
 can be brought to think seriously, to pray in 
 earnest, to read the Bible, to begin to look to our 
 own ways and lives ? We feel it for ourselves, 
 and others also feel it for us : it is natural, it 
 is unavoidable, that we feel great joy, that we 
 think a great deal is done, if we see any of you, 
 after leading a life of manifest carelessness, and 
 therefore of manifest sin, beginning to take more 
 pains with himself, and so becoming what is 
 called somewhat more steady and more serious. 
 
440 OF THESE LAST WE ARE HOPEFUL, 
 
 I know that the impression is apt to be too 
 strong upon us : we are but too apt to boast for 
 him who putteth on his armour as for him who 
 putteth it off; because he who putteth on his 
 armour at least shows that he is preparing for 
 the battle, which so many never do at all. We 
 observe some of these signs of seriousness : we 
 see, perhaps, that a person begins to attend at 
 the Communion; that he pays more attention to 
 his ordinary duties; that he becomes more re- 
 gular. We see this, and we are not only thank- 
 ful for it, — this we ought to be, — but we satisfy 
 ourselves too readily that all is done : we reckon 
 a person, somewhat too hastily, to be already 
 belonging to the kingdom of God, because we 
 have seen him turning towards it. Then, if he 
 afterwards does not appear to be entered into it : 
 if we see that he is not what we expected, that 
 he is no longer serious, no longer attentive to 
 his common duties, we are overmuch disap- 
 pointed; and, perhaps, are tempted too com- 
 pletely to despair for him. Is it not that we 
 confounded together the beginning and the end; 
 the being good, and the trying to become so ; 
 the resolution with the act ; the act with the 
 habit ? Did we not forget that he is not at once 
 out of danger who begins to mend ; that the first 
 softening of the dry burning skin, the first abating 
 
BECAUSE OTHERS ARE NOT EVEN NEAR IT. 141 
 
 of the hard quick pulse, is far removed from 
 the coolness, and steadiness, and even vigour of 
 health restored, or never interrupted ? 
 
 But what made us forget truths so obvious ? 
 What made us confound things so different that 
 the most ignorant ought to be able to distinguish 
 them ? Cannot we tell why it is ? Is it not be- 
 cause there are so many in whom we cannot see 
 even as good signs as these, — of whom we can- 
 not but feel that it would be a great advance for 
 them, a matter of earnest thankfulness, if we 
 could only see that they were not far from the 
 kingdom of God, — nay, even that their steps 
 were tending thither? Let us look ever so 
 earnestly, let us watch ever so carefully, let us 
 hope ever so charitably, we cannot see, we can 
 scarcely fancy that we see, even the desire to 
 turn to God. We do not see gross wickedness ; 
 it is well : we see much that is amiable ; that is 
 well also : but the desire to turn to God, the 
 tending of the steps towards the kingdom of 
 heaven, — that we cannot see. But this is a thing, 
 it may be said, that man cannot see : it may 
 exist, although we cannot perceive it. Oh, that 
 it might and may be so ! Yet, surely, as out of 
 the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh, 
 so a principle so mighty as the desire of turning 
 to God cannot leave itself without witness : 
 some symptoms must be shown to those who 
 
142 THE SAD PROSPECT OF THESE LAST 
 
 are eagerly watching for them ; some ground 
 for hope must be afforded, where hope is so 
 ready to kindle. If no sign of life appears, 
 can the life indeed be stirring ? And if the life 
 be not stirring ; if the disorder is going on in so 
 many cases, raging, with no symptom of abate- 
 ment ; is it not natural, that when we do see such 
 symptoms, we should rejoice even with over 
 measure, that we should forget how much is 
 yet to be done, when we see that something 
 has been done ? 
 
 To such persons, it would be an enviable 
 State, to be not far from the kingdom of God. 
 But what, then, must be their state actually? 
 A hopeful one, according to many standards of 
 judgment ; a state that promises well, it may be, 
 for a healthy and prosperous hfe, with many 
 friends, perhaps with much distinction. We 
 know that all this prospect may be bhghted ; 
 still it exists at present ;■ — the healthy constitu- 
 tion, the easy fortune, the cheerful and good- 
 humoured temper, the quickness and power of 
 understanding ; all these, no doubt, are hopeful 
 signs for a period of forty, or fifty, or perhaps 
 sixty years to come. But what is to come then ? 
 what is the prospect for the next period, not of 
 fifty, or sixty, not of a hundred, not of a thou- 
 sand, years ; not of any number that can be 
 numbered, but of time everlasting ? Is their 
 
MAKES US THINK THOSE HAPPY 143 
 
 actual state one of hopeful promise for this period, 
 for this life which no death shall terminate? 
 Nay, is it a state of any promise at all, of any 
 chance at all ? Suppose, for a moment, one with 
 a crippled body, full of the seeds of hereditary 
 disease, poor, friendless, irritable in temper, low 
 in understanding : suppose such an one just 
 entering upon youth, and ask yourselves, for 
 what would you consent that his prospects 
 should be yours ? What should you think would 
 be your chance of happiness in life, if you were 
 beginning it in such a condition ? Yet, I tell 
 you, that poor, diseased, irritable, friendless 
 cripple has a far better prospect of passing his 
 fifty, or sixty, years, tolerably, than they who 
 have not begun to turn towards God have of a 
 tolerable eternity. Much more wretched is the 
 promise of their life ; much more justly should 
 we be tempted, concerning them, to breathe that 
 fearful thought, that it were good for them if 
 they had never been born. And now if, as by 
 miracle, that cripple's limbs were to be at once 
 made sound, if the seeds of disease were to 
 vanish, if some large fortune were left him, if his 
 temper sweetened, and his mind became vigorous, 
 should not we be excused, considering what he 
 had been and what he now was, if we, for a 
 moment, forgot the uncertainty of the future ; 
 if we thought that a promise so changed, was 
 
144 WHO ARE NEAR TO THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 
 
 almost equivalent to performance ? And may 
 not this same excuse be urged for some over- 
 fondness of confidence for their well-doing whom 
 we see near to the kingdom of God, when we 
 consider how utter is the misery, how hopeless 
 the condition of those who do not appear to 
 have, as yet, stirred one single step towards it. 
 
 June 12th, 1836. 
 
SEEM ON XIV. 
 
 Matthew xxii. 14. 
 For many are called, hut few are chosen. 
 
 The truth here expressed is one of the most 
 solemn in the world, and would be one of the 
 most overwhelming to us, if habit had not, in a 
 manner, blunted our painful perception of it. 
 There is contained in it matter of thought more 
 than we could exhaust, and deeper than we could 
 ever fathom. But on this I will not attempt to 
 enter. I will rather take that view of the text 
 which concerns us here ; I will see in how many- 
 senses it is true, and with what feehng we should 
 regard it. 
 
 " Many are called, but few are chosen." The 
 direct application of this was to the parable of 
 those invited to the supper ; in which it had 
 been related, how a great multitude had been 
 invited, but how one among them — and the 
 application, as well as the fact in human hfe. 
 
 L 
 
146 THE CALLED AND THE CHOSEN. 
 
 require that this one should be taken only as a 
 specimen of a great number — had been found 
 unworthy to enjoy the feast prepared for them. 
 They had not on the wedding garment ; they 
 had not done their part to fit' themselves for the 
 offered blessing : therefore they were called, but 
 not chosen. God had willed to do them good, 
 but they would not ; and therefore, though he 
 had called them at the beginning, he, in the end, 
 cast them out. 
 
 We have to do, then, not with an arbitrary 
 call and an arbitrary choice, as if God called 
 many in mockery, meaning to choose out of 
 them only a few, and making his choice inde- 
 pendently of any exertion of theirs. The picture 
 is very different ; it is a gracious call to us all, 
 to come and receive the blessing ; it is a reluctant 
 casting out the greatest part of us, because we 
 would not try to render ourselves fit for it. 
 
 I said, that we would take the words of the 
 text in reference to ourselves, for here, too, it is 
 true, that many are called, but few are chosen. 
 It is a large number of you, which I see before 
 me, and if we add to it all those who, within my 
 memory, have sat in the same places before you, 
 we shall have a number very considerable indeed. 
 All these have been called ; they have been sent 
 here to enjoy the same advantages with each 
 other ; and those advantages have been put 
 
WHO ARE CALLED IN A LOWER SENSE. 147 
 
 within their reach. They have entered into a 
 great society which, on the one hand, might 
 raise them forward, or, on the other, depress 
 them. There has been a sufficient field for 
 emulation; there have been examples and in- 
 structions for good ; there have been results of 
 credit and of real improvement made attainable 
 to them, which might have lasted all their lives 
 long. To this, they have been all, in their turns, 
 called ; and out of those so called, have all, or 
 nearly all, been chosen ? I am not speaking of 
 those, who, I trust, would be a very small number, 
 to whom the trial has failed utterly, who could 
 look back on their stay here with no feelings but 
 those of shame. But would there not be a very 
 large number, to whom their stay here has 
 been a loss, compared with what it might have 
 been ; who have reaped but a very small part of 
 those advantages to which they had been at first 
 called ? Are there not too many who must look 
 back on a part, at least, of their time here as 
 wasted ; on the seeds of bad habits sown, which, 
 if conquered by after-care, yet, for a long time, 
 were injurious to them ? Are there not too 
 many who carry away from here, instead of good 
 notions, to be ripened and improved, evil notions, 
 to be weeded out and destroyed ? Are there not, 
 in short, a great number who, after having had 
 a great advantage put within their reach, and 
 L 2 
 
148 WHICH IS A TYPE OF THE HIGHER SENSE, 
 
 purchased for them by their friends, at a great 
 expense, have made such insufficient use of 
 their opportunities, to say nothing stronger, as 
 to make it a question afterwards, whether it 
 might not have been better for them had they 
 never come here at all. 
 
 Thus far I have been speaking of what are 
 called the advantages of this place in our com- 
 mon language. That argument, which Butler 
 has so nobly handled, in one of the greatest 
 works in our language, the resemblance, namely, 
 between the course of things earthly and that 
 of things spiritual, is one which we should never 
 fail to notice. We can discern the type, as it 
 were, of the highest truth of our Lord's sayings 
 in the experience of our common life in worldly 
 things. When he tells us, speaking of things 
 spiritual, that ^^many are called, but few are 
 chosen;" that ^^ whoso hath, to him shall be 
 given; but from him that hath not shall be taken 
 away even that which he hath," although the 
 highest truth contained in these words be yet, 
 in part, matter of faith, for we have not yet seen 
 the end of God's dealings with us : yet what 
 we do see, the evident truth of the words, that 
 is, in respect to God's dealings with us in the 
 course of his earthly providence, may reason- 
 ably assure us of their truth no less in respect 
 to those deahngs of God which as yet are future. 
 
AND AN EARNEST OF IT. 149 
 
 I began, therefore, with reminding you of the 
 truth of the words of the text with regard to 
 worldly advantages ; that even here, on this 
 small scale, the general law holds good ; that 
 more things are provided for us than we will 
 consent to use ; that, in short, '' many are called, 
 but few are chosen." 
 
 But it were ill done to limit our view to this : 
 we are called to much more than worldly ad- 
 vantages; and what if here, too, we add one 
 more example, to confirm our Lord's words, 
 that " many are called, but few chosen T Now 
 here, as I said, it is very true that God's choice 
 is as yet not a matter of sight or of certainty 
 to us ; we cannot yet say of ourselves, or of any 
 other set of living men, that " few are chosen." 
 But though the full truth is not yet revealed, 
 still, as there is a type of it in our worldly ex- 
 perience, so there is also a higher type, an 
 earnest, of it in our spiritual experience : there 
 is a sense, and that a very true and a very im- 
 portant one, in which we can say already, say 
 now, actually, in the life that now is ; say, even 
 in the early stage of it, that some are, and some 
 are not, " chosen." 
 
 We have all been called, in a christian sense, 
 inasmuch as we have been all introduced into 
 Christ's church by Baptism ; and a very large 
 proportion of us have been called again, many 
 
 1 
 
 k 
 
150 WHO ARE CHOSEN ? 
 
 of US not very long since, at our Confirmation. 
 We have been thus called to enter into Christ's 
 kingdom : we have been called to lead a life 
 of holiness and happiness, from this time forth 
 even for ever. Nothing can be stronger than 
 the language in which the Scripture speaks of 
 the nature of our high calling: '^ All things/' 
 says St. Paul to the Corinthians, '^ all things 
 are yours : whether Paul, or ApoUos, or Peter, 
 or the world, or life, or death, or things present, 
 or things to come, all are yours; and ye are 
 Christ's, and Christ is God's." Now, if this be 
 the prize to which we are called, who are they 
 who are also chosen to it? In the first and 
 most complete sense, no doubt, those who have 
 entered into their rest; who are in no more 
 danger, however slight ; with whom the struggle 
 is altogether past, and the victory securely won. 
 These are entered within the veil, whither we 
 can as yet penetrate only in hope. But hope, 
 in its highest degree, differs little from assur- 
 ance ; and even, as we descend lower and lower, 
 still, where hope is clearly predominant, there 
 is, if not assurance, yet a great encouragement ; 
 and the Scripture, which delights to carry en- 
 couragement to the highest pitch to those who 
 are following God, allows of our saying of even 
 these that they are God's chosen. It gives them, 
 as it were, the title beforehand, to make them 
 
WHO ARE CHOSEN? 151 
 
 feel how doubly miserable it must be not only 
 not to obtain it^ but to forfeit it after it had 
 been already ours. So, then, there are senses 
 in which we may say that some are chosen now; 
 although, strictly speaking, the term can by us 
 be applied, in its full sense, to those only who 
 are passed beyond the reach of evil. 
 
 Those, then, we may call chosen, who, having 
 heard their call, have turned to obey it, and have 
 gone on following it. Those we may call chosen, 
 — I do not say chosen irrevocably, — but chosen 
 now ; chosen so that we may be very thankful 
 to God on their behalf, and they thankful for 
 themselves ; who, since their Confirmation, or 
 since a period more remote, have kept God be- 
 fore their face, and tried to do His will. Those 
 are, in the same way, chosen, who having found 
 in themselves the sin which did most easily beset 
 them, have struggled with it, and wholly, or in a 
 great measure, have overcome it. Thus, they 
 are chosen, who, having lived either in the fre- 
 quent practice of selfish extravagance, or of 
 falsehood, or of idleness, or of excess in eating 
 and drinking, have turned away from these 
 things, and, for Christ's sake, have renounced 
 them. They are chosen, I think, in yet a higher 
 sense, who, having found their besetting sin to 
 be, not so much any one particular fault, as a 
 general ungodly carelessness, a lightness which 
 
152 WHO ARE CHOSEN ? 
 
 for ever hindered them from serving God^ have 
 struggled with this most fatal enemy ; and, even 
 in youth, and health, and happiness, have learnt 
 what it is to be sober-minded, what it is to think. 
 Now, such as these have, in a manner, entered 
 into their inheritance ; they are not merely 
 called, but chosen. God and spiritual things 
 are not mere names to them, they are a reality. 
 Such persons have tasted of the promises ; they 
 have known the pleasure — and what pleasure is 
 comparable to it ? — of feeling the bonds of evil 
 passion or evil habit unwound from about their 
 spirit; they have learnt what is that glorious 
 liberty of being able to abstain from the things 
 which we condemn, to do the things which 
 we approve. They have felt the sense of 
 power succeed to that of weakness. It is a 
 delightful thing after a long illness, after long 
 helplessness, when our legs have been unable 
 to support our weight, when our arms could 
 lift nothing, our hands grasp nothing, when it 
 was an effort to raise our head from the pillow, 
 and it tired us even to speak in a whisper, — it 
 is a delightful thing to feel every member re- 
 stored to its proper strength : to find that exer- 
 cise of limb, of voice, of body, which had been 
 so long a pain, become now a source of perpetual 
 pleasure. This is delightful, it pays for many 
 an hour of previous weakness. But it is in- 
 
WHO ARE NOT CHOSEN ? 153 
 
 finitely more delightful to feel the change from 
 weakness to strength in our souls; to feel the 
 languor of selfishness changed for the vigour of 
 benevolence ; to feel thought, hope, faith, love, 
 which before were lying, as it were, in helpless- 
 ness, now bounding in vigorous activity ; to find 
 the soul, which had been so long stretched as 
 upon the sick bed of this earth, now able to 
 stand upright, and looking and moving steadily 
 towards heaven. 
 
 These are chosen ; and they to whom this 
 description does in no degree apply, they are not 
 chosen. They are not chosen in any sense, they 
 are called only. And, now, what is the propor- 
 tion between the one and the other ; are there 
 as many chosen as there have been many called ? 
 Or do Christ's words apply in our case no less 
 than in others ; that though they who are called 
 are many, yet they who are chosen are few ? 
 
 This I dare not answer ; there is a good as 
 well as an evil which is unseen to the world at 
 large, unseen even by all but those who watch 
 us most nearly and most narrowly. All we can 
 say is, that there are too many, whom we must 
 fear are not chosen ; there are too few, of whom 
 we can feel sure that they are. Yet hope is a wiser 
 feeling than its opposite ; it were as wrong as it 
 would be miserable to abandon it. How gladly 
 would we hope the best things of all those whom 
 
154 HOW THEY CAN BECOME CHOSEN. 
 
 we saw this morning at Christ's holy table. 
 How gladly would we believe of all such, that 
 they were more than called merely ; that they 
 had listened to the call ; that they had obeyed 
 it ; that they had already gained some Christian 
 victories ; that they were, in some sense, not called 
 only, but chosen. But this we may say ; that 
 hope which we so long to entertain, that hope 
 too happy to be at once indulged in, you may 
 authorize us to feel it ; you may convert it into 
 confidence. Do you ask how ? By going on 
 steadily in good, by advancing from good to 
 better. By not letting impressions fade with 
 time ; now, with many of you, your confirma- 
 tion is little more than three months distant ; 
 when we next meet at Christ's table, it will 
 have passed by nearly half-a-year. It may be, 
 that, in that added interval, it will have lost 
 much of its force ; that, from various causes, 
 evil may have abounded in you more than good ; 
 that then shame, or a willing surrender of your- 
 selves to carelessness, will keep away from 
 Christ's Communion, many who have this day 
 joined in it. But, if this were not to be so ; if 
 those, whom we have seen with joy this day 
 communicating with us in the pledges of Chris- 
 tian fellowship, should continue to do so steadily ; 
 if, in the meantime, traits shall appear in you in 
 other things that our hope was well founded ; if 
 
HOW THEY CAN BECOME CHOSEN. 155 
 
 the hatred of evil and the love of good were to be 
 clearly manifest in you ; if by signs, not to be 
 mistaken by those who watch earnestly for them, 
 we might be assured that your part was taken, that 
 you were striving with us in that service of our 
 common master, in which we would fain live and 
 die ; if evil was clearly lessened among us — not 
 laughed at, but discouraged and put down ; if 
 instead of those turning away, who have now 
 been with us at Christ's table, others, who have 
 now turned away, should then be added to the 
 number ; then we should say, not doubtingly, 
 that you were chosen ; that you had tasted of the 
 good things of Christ, that the good work of 
 God was clearly begun in you. We might not, 
 indeed, be without care, either for you or for 
 ourselves : God forbid, that in that sense, any of 
 us should deem that we were chosen, until the 
 grave has put us beyond temptation. But, how 
 happy were it to think of you as Christ's chosen, 
 in that sense which should be a constant encou- 
 ragement to us all : to think of you as going on 
 towards God, to think of you as living to him 
 daily ; to think of you as on his side against all 
 his enemies ; to think of you as led by his 
 Spirit, as living members of his holy and glorious 
 Church, — militant now, in heaven triumphant! 
 
 October 8th, 1837. 
 
SEE MO N XV. 
 
 Luke xi. 25. 
 When he cometh hejindeth it swept and garnished. 
 
 John v. 42. 
 / know you, that ye have not the love of God in you. 
 
 These passages, of which the first is taken 
 from the gospel of this morning's service, the 
 other from the second lesson, differ in words, 
 but their meaning is very nearly the same. The 
 house which was empty, swept and garnished, 
 was especially one empty of the love of God. 
 Whatever evil there may not have been in it; 
 whatever good there may have been in those of 
 whom Christ spoke in the second passage ; yet it 
 and they agreed in this ; one thing they had not, 
 which alone was worth all the rest beside : they 
 had not the love of God. 
 
 And so it is still ; many are the faults which 
 we have not ; many are the good qualities which 
 
THE SOUL EMPTY OF LOVE TO GOD. 157 
 
 we have ; but the life is wanting. What is so 
 rare as to find one who is not indifferent to God ? 
 What so rare, even rarer than the other, as to 
 find one who actually loves him ? 
 
 Therefore it is that those who go in at the 
 broad gate of destruction are many ; and those 
 who go in at the narrow gate of life are few. 
 For destruction and life are but other terms for 
 Indifference to God on the one hand, and love to 
 him on the other. All who are indifferent to 
 him, die ; a painless death of mere extinction, 
 if, like the brute creation, they have never been 
 made capable of loving him ; or a living death of 
 perpetual misery, if, like evil spirits and evil men, 
 they might have loved him and would not. And 
 so all who love him, hve a life, from first to last 
 without sin and sorrow, if, like the holy angels, 
 they have loved him always ; a life partaking at 
 first of death, but brightening more and more 
 unto the perfect day, if, hke Christians, they 
 were bom in sin, but had been redeemed and 
 sanctified to righteousness. 
 
 Whoever has watched human character, 
 whether in the young or the old, must be well 
 aware of the truth of this : he will know that the 
 value of any character is in proportion to the 
 existence or to the absence of this feeling, or 
 rather, I should say, this principle. An excep- 
 
158 CAN CHILDREN LOVE GOD ? 
 
 tion may, perhaps, be made for a small, a very 
 small number of fanatics ; an apparent excep- 
 tion exists in the case of many who seem to be 
 religious, but who really are not so. The few 
 exceptions of the former case are so very few, 
 that we need not now stop to consider them, 
 nor to inquire, how far even these would be 
 exceptions, if we could read the heart as God 
 reads it. The seeming exceptions, being cases 
 either of hypocrisy, or of very common self- 
 deceit, we need not regard either ; for they are, 
 of course, no real objection to the truth of the 
 general statement. It remains true, then, gene- 
 rally, that the value of any character is in pro- 
 portion to the existence, or to the absence, in it 
 of the love of God. 
 
 But is there not another exception to be made 
 for the case of children, and of very young 
 persons ? Are they capable of loving God ? and 
 are not their earthly relations, their parents 
 especially, put to them^ as it were, in the place 
 of God, as objects of trust, of love, of honour, 
 of obedience, till their minds can open to com- 
 prehend the love of their Father, who is in 
 heaven ? And does not the Scripture itself, in 
 the few places in which it seems directly to 
 address children, content itself with directing 
 them to obey and honour their parents ? Some 
 
159 
 
 notions of this sort are allowed, I believe, to 
 serve sometimes as an excuse, when young per- 
 sons are blamed for being utterly wanting in a 
 sense of duty to God. 
 
 The passages which direct children to obey 
 their parents, are of the same kind with those 
 directing slaves to obey their masters, and 
 masters to be kind to their slaves ; like those, 
 also, which John the Baptist addressed to the 
 soldiers and publicans : in none of all which 
 there is any command to love God, but merely a 
 command to fulfil that particular duty which 
 most arose out of the particular relation, or 
 calling, of the persons addressed. In fact, when 
 parents are addressed, they are directed only to 
 do their duties to their children, just as children 
 are directed to do theirs to their parents : in 
 both cases alike, the common duty of parents 
 and children to God is not dwelt upon, because 
 that is a duty which does not belong to them as 
 parents, or as children, but as human beings ; 
 and as such, it belongs to all alike. In fact, the 
 very language of St. Paul's command to children, 
 implies this ; for he says, '' Children, obey your 
 parents in the Lord, for this is right :" right, 
 that is, in the sight of God : so that the very 
 reason for which children are to discharge their 
 earthly duties is, because that earthly duty is 
 commanded by, or involved in, their heavenly 
 
160 ALL CAN, WHO ARE NOT INFANTS. 
 
 duty ; if they do not do it, they will not please 
 God. But it is manifest that, in this respect, 
 there is for all of us one only law, so soon as we 
 are able to understand it. The moment that a 
 child becomes capable of understanding any 
 thing about God and Christ, — and how early 
 that is, every parent can testify, — that moment 
 the d^ty to love God and Christ begins. It 
 were absurd to say, that this duty has not begun 
 at the age of boyhood. A boy is able to under- 
 stand the force of religious motives, as well as 
 he can that of earthly motives : he cannot 
 understand either, perhaps, so well as he will 
 hereafter ; but he understands both enough for 
 the purposes of his salvation; enough to con- 
 demn him before God, if he neglects them; 
 enough to make him derive the greatest benefit 
 from faithfully observing them. 
 
 And what can have been the purpose with 
 which the only particular of our Lord's early 
 life has been handed down to us, if it were not 
 to direct our attention to this special truth, that 
 our youth, no less than our riper age, belongs to 
 God ? '' Wist ye not, that I must be about my 
 Father's business?" were words spoken by our 
 Lord when he was no more than twelve years 
 old. At twelve years old, he thought of pre- 
 paring himself for the duties of his after-hfe ; and 
 of preparing himself for them, because they were 
 
THE HOUSE EMPTY, SWEPT, AND GARNISHED. 161 
 
 God's will. He was to be about his Father's 
 business. This is Christ's example for the 
 young ; this, and scarcely anything more than 
 this, is recorded of his early years. Those are not 
 like Christ who, at that same age, or even older, 
 never think at all of the business of their future 
 hves, still less would think of it, not as the 
 means of their own maintenance or advancement, 
 but as the duty which they owe to God. 
 
 Such as these are the very persons, whose 
 hearts are like the house in the parable, empty, 
 swept, and garnished. The house so described 
 in the parable is one out of which an evil spirit has 
 just departed. In the case of the young, the evil 
 spirit in this sense, that is, as representing some 
 one particular favourite sin, may perhaps have 
 never entered it. That empty, swept, and gar- 
 nished house, how like is it to what I have seen, 
 to what I am seeing so continually, when a boy 
 comes here with much still remaining of the 
 innocence of childhood ! Evil spirit, in the sense 
 of any one particular vice, there is none to be 
 found in that heart, nor has there been any ever. 
 It is empty, swept, and garnished : there is the 
 absence of evil ; there are the various faculties, 
 the furniture, as they may be called, of the house 
 of our spirits, which the spirit uses either for 
 evil or for good. There is innocence, then; 
 there i§, also, the promise of power. God hatlt 
 
 M 
 
162 DOES god's spirit enter into it ? 
 
 richly endowed the earthly house of our taber- 
 nacle : various and wonderful is the furniture of 
 body and mind, with which it is supplied. How 
 can we help admiring that open and cheerful 
 brow which, as yet, no care or sin have furrowed ; 
 those light and active limbs, full of health and 
 vigour ; the eye so quick ; the ear so undulled ; 
 the memory so ready; the young curiosity so 
 eager to take in new knowledge ; the young 
 feelings, not yet spoiled by over-excitement, 
 ready to admire, ready to love ? There is the 
 house, the house of God's building, the house 
 which must abide for ever ; but where is the 
 spirit to inhabit it ? Evil spirit there is none : 
 is it, then, possessed by the Spirit of God ? Has 
 the fire from heaven as yet descended upon that 
 house, — the living sign of God's presence, which 
 alone can convert the house of perishable clay 
 into the everlasting temple ? 
 
 Can that blessed Spirit of God be indeed 
 there, and yet no sign of his presence be mani- 
 fest ? It may be so, or, to speak more truly, it 
 might have been supposed to be so, if God's 
 word had not declared the contrary. What 
 God's secret workings are, in how many ways, 
 to us inscrutable, he may pervade all nature ; in 
 how many cases he may be near us, and we know 
 it not ;. may, perhaps, be amongst those real 
 mysteries, those truths revealed to none, nor to 
 
NOT UNLESS HIS FRUITS ARE MANIFEST. 163 
 
 be revealed ; those yet uncleared forests, so to 
 speak, of the world of nature, into which the 
 light of grace has not been permitted to pene- 
 trate. But all such mysteries are to us as if they 
 did not exist at all; we have nothing to do 
 with them. God has told us nothing of his 
 unseen and undiscernible presence : when and 
 where he is so present, he is to us as if he were 
 not present at all. God was in the wilderness of 
 Horeb before the bush was kindled ; but he was 
 not there for Moses. God, in some sense dis- 
 cernible, it may be, to other beings, may be in 
 that house which to us is empty ; but God, our 
 own God, the Holy Spirit, into whose service we 
 were baptized, where he is, the house is not 
 empty to us, but full of hght. Invisible in him- 
 self, the signs of his presence are most visible : 
 where no works, no fruits of the Holy Spirit are 
 to be discerned, there, according to our Lord's 
 express declaration, there the Holy Spirit is not. 
 But the light which declares his presence may 
 indeed be a little spark; just to be seen, and 
 no more. It may show, that he has not aban- 
 doned all his right to the house of our tabernacle 
 as yet ; that he would desire to possess us fully. 
 Such a little spark, such an evidence of the Holy 
 Spirit's presence, is to be found in the outward 
 profession of Christianity. They who call Jesus, 
 Lord, do it by the Holy Ghost ; and, therefore, 
 
 M 2 
 
164 BUT ANOTHER SPIRIT WILL ENTER, 
 
 it is quite true in this sense, that in every bap- 
 tized Christian, who has not utterly apostatized, 
 there is that faint sign of the Holy Spirit's still 
 having a claim upon him ; he is not yet utterly 
 cast off. This is true ; but it is not to our 
 present purpose : such a feeble sign is a sign of 
 God's yet unw^earied mercy, but no sign of our 
 salvation. The presence with which the parable 
 is concerned, is a far more effectual presence 
 than this : the house in which there is no more 
 than such a faint sign of a divine inhabitant, is, 
 in the language of the parable, empty. To no 
 purpose of our salvation is the Spirit of God 
 present in the house, when the light of his 
 presence does not flash forth from every part of 
 it, when it is not manifest, not only that he has 
 not quite cast it off to go to ruin, but that he 
 has been pleased to make it his temple. 
 
 In this sense, therefore, in this practical, 
 scriptural. Christian sense, those many young 
 minds, which we have seen so often, may truly 
 be called empty. But will they remain so long ? 
 How often have I seen the early innocence of 
 boyhood overcast ; the natural simplicity of boy- 
 hood, its open truth, its confident affection, its 
 honest shame, perverted, blunted, hardened ! 
 How often have I seen the seven evil spirits 
 enter in and dwell there, — I know not, and never 
 may know, whether to be cast out again, or to 
 
AND BEING ENTERED WILL DWELL THERE. 165 
 
 abide for ever. But I have seen them enter, 
 and, whilst the person was yet within my view, 
 I have not seen them depart. And why have 
 they entered ? why have they marred that which 
 Was so beautiful ? For one only reason, — ^because 
 the house was empty, because the Spirit of God 
 was not there : there was no love of God, no 
 thought of God. Mere innocence taints and 
 spoils as surely before the influence of the world, 
 as true principle flourishes in spite of it, and 
 strengthens. This, too, I have seen, not once 
 only : I have seen the innocence of early boy- 
 hood sanctified by something better than inno- 
 cence, which gave a promise of abiding. I have 
 seen, in other words, that the house was not 
 empty; that the Spirit of God was there. I 
 have watched the effect of those influences, 
 which you know so well : the second half-year 
 came, a period when mere innocence is sure to 
 be worn away, greatly tainted, if not utterly 
 gone ; but still, in the cases which I am now 
 alluding to, the promise of good was not less, but 
 greater, there was a more tried, and, therefore, 
 a stronger goodness. I have watched this, too, 
 till it passed on, out of my sight. I never saw 
 the blessed Spirit of God depart from the house 
 which he had chosen : I well believe that he 
 abides in it still, and will abide in it even to the 
 day of Jesus Christ. 
 
166 AND HIS SIGNS ARE MANIFEST. 
 
 This I have seen, and this I shall continue to 
 see ; for still the great work of evil and of good 
 is going on ; still the house, at first empty, is 
 possessed by the spirits of evil, or by the Spirit 
 of God. And if we do not see the signs of the 
 Spirit of God, we are but too sure that the evil 
 spirit is there. We know him by the manifold 
 signs of folly, coarseness, carelessness ; even 
 when we see not, as yet, his worse fruits of false- 
 hood and profligacy. We know him by the 
 sign of an increased, and increasing, selfishness, 
 the everlasting cry of the thousand passions of 
 our nature, all for ever calling out, " Give, give ;" 
 all for ever impatient, complaining, when their 
 gratification is withheld, when the call of duty 
 is set before them. We know him by pride and 
 self-importance, as if nothing was so great as 
 self, as if our own opinions, judgment, feelings, 
 were to be consulted in all things. We know 
 him by the deep ungodliness which he occa- 
 sions — no thought of God, much less any love of 
 him; living utterly without him in the world, 
 or, at least, whilst health and prosperity continue. 
 These are the fatal signs which show that the 
 house is no longer empty ; that the evil spirits 
 have entered in, and dwell there, to make it 
 theirs, as too often happens, for time and for 
 eternity. 
 
 March ISth, 1838. 
 
SEEMON XVI. 
 
 Matthew xi. 10. 
 
 / send my messenger before thy face, who shall prepare thy 
 way before thee. 
 
 If it was a part of God's dispensations, that there 
 should be one to prepare the way before Christ's 
 first coming, it may be expected much more, 
 that there should be some to prepare the way 
 before his second. And so it is expressed in the 
 collect for the third Sunday in Advent : ^^ O 
 Lord Jesu Christ, who at thy first coming didst 
 send thy messenger to prepare thy way before 
 thee; grant that the ministers and stewards of 
 thy mysteries may likewise so prepare and 
 make ready thy way, by turning the hearts o^ 
 the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, 
 that at thy second coming to judge the world 
 we may be found an acceptable people in thy 
 
168 PREPARATION FOR CHRIST'S COMING, 
 
 sight, who livest and reignest with the Father 
 and the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world 
 without end. Amen." Now, in what does this 
 preparing for him consist ; and what is its 
 object? The Scripture will inform us as to 
 both. The object is, '' Lest he come and smite 
 the earth with a curse ;" lest, when he shall 
 come, his coming, which should be our greatest 
 joy and happiness, should be our everlasting 
 destruction ; for there can abide before him 
 nothing that is evil. This is the object of pre- 
 paring for Christ's coming. Next, in what does 
 the preparation consist ? It consists in teaching 
 men to live above the common notions of their 
 age and country ; to raise their standard higher ; 
 to live after what is right in God's judgment, 
 which often casts away, as faulty and bad, what 
 men were accustomed to think good. And as 
 the people of Israel, although they had God's 
 revelation among them, had yet let their standard 
 of good and evil become low, even so it has been 
 in the christian Israel. We have God's will in 
 our hands, yet our judgments are not formed 
 upon it ; and, therefore, they who would prepare 
 us for Christ's coming, must set before us a com- 
 mandment which is new, although old : in one 
 sense old, in every generation, inasmuch as it is 
 the same which we had from the beginning ; in 
 another sense, in every generation more new. 
 
TO BE BETTER THAN MEN IN GENERAL. 169 
 
 inasmuch as the habits opposed to it have 
 become the more confirmed ; and the longer the 
 night has lasted, the more strange to our eyes is 
 the burst of the returning hght. 
 
 But when we thus speak of the common 
 notions of our age and country being deficient, 
 and thus, in effect, commend notions which 
 would be singular, do we not hold a language 
 inconsistent with our common language and 
 practice ? Do we not commonly regard singu- 
 larity as a fault, and attach a considerable 
 authority to the consent of men in general ? 
 Nay, do we not often appeal to this consent, as 
 to a proof which a sane mind must admit as 
 decisive ? Even in speaking of good and evil, 
 have not the very words gained their present 
 sense because the common consent of mankind 
 has agreed to combine notions of self-satisfaction, 
 of honour, and of love, with what we call good, 
 and the contrary with what we call evil. 
 
 A short time may, perhaps, not be misapplied 
 in endeavouring to explain this matter ; in show- 
 ing where, and for what reasons, the common 
 opinion of our society is to be followed, where it 
 is to be suspected, and where it is absolutely to 
 be shunned or trampled under foot, as clearly 
 and certainly evil. 
 
 1 must begin with little things, in order to 
 show the whole question plainly. Take those 
 
170 WHERE CONSENT MAY BE TRUSTED, 
 
 tastes in us which most resemble the instincts 
 of a brute ; and you will find that in these, as 
 with instinct, common consent becomes a sure 
 rule. When I speak of those tastes which most 
 resemble instincts, I mean those in which nature, 
 doing most for us at first, leaves least for us to 
 learn for ourselves. This seems the character of 
 instinct : it is far more complete than reason 
 in its first stage, but it admits of no after im- 
 provement ; the brute in the thousandth ge- 
 neration is no way advanced beyond the brute 
 in the first. Of our tastes, even of those be- 
 longing to our bodily senses, that which belongs 
 to what are called particularly our organs of taste 
 is the one most resembling an instinct : we have 
 less to do for its improvement than in any other 
 instance. Men being here, then, upon an equal- 
 ity, with a faculty given to all by nature, and 
 improved particularly by none, those who differ 
 from the majority are likely to differ not from 
 excellence but from defect : not because they 
 have a more advanced reason, but because they 
 have a less healthy instinct, than their neigh- 
 bours. Thus, in those matters which relate to 
 the sense of taste — I am obliged to take this 
 almost trivial instance, because it so well illus- 
 trates the principle of the whole question — we 
 hold the consent of men in general to be a good 
 rule. If any one were to choose to feed upon 
 
WHERE IT BECOMES LESS CERTAIN. 171 
 
 what this common taste had pronounced to be 
 disgusting, we should not hesitate to say that 
 such an appetite was diseased and monstrous. 
 
 Now, let us take our senses of sight and hear- 
 ing, and we shall find that just in the propor- 
 tion in which these less resemble instincts than 
 tlie sense of taste, so is common consent a less 
 certain rule. Up to a certain point they are 
 instincts : there are certain sounds which, I 
 suppose, are naturally disagreeable to the ear; 
 while, on the other hand, bright and rich colours 
 are, perhaps, naturally attractive to the eye. 
 But, then, sight and hearing are so connected 
 with our minds that they are susceptible of very 
 great cultivation, and thus differ greatly from 
 instincts. As the mind opens, outward sights 
 and sounds become connected with a great num- 
 ber of associations, and thus we learn to think 
 the one or the other beautiful, for reasons which 
 really depend very much on the range of our 
 own ideas. Consider, for a moment, the beau- 
 tiful in architecture. If the model of the lean- 
 ing tower of Pisa were generally adopted in our 
 public buildings, all men's common sense would 
 cry out against it as a deformity, because a lean- 
 ing wall would convey to every mind the notion 
 of insecurity, and everybody would feel that it 
 was unpleasant to see a building look exactly as 
 if it were going to fall down. Now, what I have 
 
172 CONSENT MAY BE TRUSTED, 
 
 called common sense is, in a manner, the instinct 
 of our reason : it is that uniform level of reason 
 which all sane persons reach to, and the wisest 
 in matters within its province do not surpass. 
 But go beyond this, and architecture is no longer 
 a matter of mere common sense, but of science, 
 and of cultivated taste. Here the standard of 
 beauty is not fixed by common consent ; but, in 
 the first instance, devised or discovered by the 
 few : and, so far as it is received by the many, re- 
 ceived by them on the authority of the few, and 
 sanctioned, so to speak, not so much from real 
 sympathy and understanding, as from a reason- 
 able trust and deference to those who are be- 
 lieved the best judges. 
 
 Here, then, we suppose that the common 
 judgment is right ; but we perceive a difference 
 between this case and the one mentioned before, 
 inasmuch as in the first instance the right judg- 
 ment of the mass of mankind is their own ; in 
 the second instance they have adopted it out of 
 deference to others. Not only, then, vdll men's 
 common judgment be right in matters of instinct 
 and of common sense, but also in higher matters, 
 where, although they could not have discovered 
 what was right, yet they were perfectly wiUing to 
 adopt it, when discovered by others. And this 
 opens a very wide field. For in all matters 
 which come under the dominion of fashion. 
 
WHEN MEN WISH TO FIND THE TRUTH, 173 
 
 where the avowed object is the convenience or 
 gratification of society, men Hsten to those who 
 profess to teach them with almost an excess of 
 docihty ; they will adopt sometimes fashions 
 w^hich are not convenient. But yet, as men can 
 tell well enough by experience whether they do 
 find a thing convenient and agreeable or not, so 
 it is most likely that fashions which continue 
 long and generally prevalent are founded upon 
 sound principles ; because else men, being well 
 capable of knowing what convenience is, and 
 being also well disposed to follow it, would 
 neither have been very long or very generally 
 mistaken in this matter ; nor w^ould have ac- 
 quiesced in their mistake contentedly. 
 
 We do perfectly right, then, to regard the 
 common opinion as a rule in all points of dress, 
 in our houses and furniture, in those lighter 
 usages of society which come under the denomi- 
 nation of manners, as distinguished from morals. 
 In all these, if the mass of mankind could not 
 find out what would best suit them, yet they are 
 quite ready to adopt it when it is found out ; and 
 so they equally arrive at truth. But take away 
 this readiness, and the whole case is altered. If 
 there be any point in which men are not ready 
 to adopt what is best for them ; if they are either 
 indifferent, or, still more, if they are averse to it ; 
 if they thus have neither the power of discover- 
 
174 ELSE IT MAY NOT BE TRUSTED. 
 
 ing it for themselves, nor the will to avail them- 
 selves of it, when discovered for them ; then it is 
 clear that, in such a point, the common judgment 
 will be of no value, nay, there will even be a pre- 
 sumption that it is wrong. 
 
 Now as the common consent of mankind was 
 most sure in matters where their sense most re- 
 sembled instinct, that is, where nature had done 
 most for them, and left them least to do for 
 themselves; as here, therefore, they who are 
 sound are the great n\ajority, and the exceptions 
 are no better than disease ; so if there be any 
 part of us which is the direct opposite to instinct, 
 a part in which nature has done next to nothing 
 for us, and all is to be done by ourselves ; then, 
 here the common consent of mankind will be of 
 the least value ; here the majority will be help- 
 less and worthless; and they who are happy 
 enough to be exceptions to this majority, will be 
 no other than Christ's redeemed. 
 
 Now, again, if this deficient part of our nature 
 could be seen purely distinct from every other ; 
 if it alone dictated our language, and inspired 
 our actions, then it would follow, that language, 
 which must ever be fixed by the majority, would 
 be, in fact, the language of the world of infinite 
 evil ; and our actions those of mere devils. 
 Then, whoever of us would be saved, must needs 
 begin by forswearing, altogether, both the Ian- 
 
YET IT IS PARTLY TRUE, 175 
 
 guage and the actions of his fellow-men. But 
 this is not so ; in almost every instance this de- 
 ficient part of our nature acts along with others 
 that are not so corrupted ; it mars their work, 
 undoubtedly ; it often confuses and perverts our 
 language ; it always taints our actions ; but it 
 does not wholly usurp either the one or the 
 other ; and thus, by God's blessing, man's lan- 
 guage yet affords a high witness to divine truth, 
 and even men's judgments and actions testify, 
 though with infinite imperfection, to the exist- 
 ence and excellence of goodness. 
 
 And this it is which forms one of the great 
 perplexities of life ; for as there is enough of 
 what is right in men's judgments and conduct to 
 forbid us from saying, that we must take the 
 very rule of contraries, and think and do just 
 the opposite to the opinions and practice of 
 men in general ; so, on the other hand, there is 
 always so much wrong in them, that we may 
 never dare to follow them as a standard, but 
 shall find, that if trusted to as such, they will 
 inevitably betray us. So that in points of greater 
 moment than mere manners and fashion, it will 
 ever be true, that if we would be prepared for 
 Christ's coming, we must rise to a far higher 
 standard than that of society in general ; that in 
 the greatest concerns of human life, the practice 
 of the majority, though always containing some- 
 
176 BUT IN THE MAIN CORRUPTED. 
 
 thing of good, is yet in its prevailing character, 
 as regards God, so evil, that they who are con- 
 tent to follow it cannot be saved. 
 
 This is the explanation of the apparent diffi- 
 culty in the general, and thus, while acknowledg- 
 ing that there are points, in which men, by com- 
 mon consent, make out what is best ; and others in 
 which, although they do not make it out, nor at 
 first appreciate it, yet they are very willing to 
 adopt it upon trust, and so come by experience 
 to value it ; while, therefore, there are a great 
 many things in which singularity is either a dis- 
 ease or a foolishness ; so again, there are other 
 points in which men in general have not the 
 power to make out what is good, nor yet the 
 docility to adopt it ; and, therefore, in these 
 points, which relate to the great matters of life, 
 singularity is wisdom and salvation, and he who 
 does as others do, perishes. That is what is 
 called the corruption of human nature. I shall 
 attempt on another occasion, to go into some 
 further details, and show by common examples, 
 how strangely our judgment and practice con- 
 tain, with much that is "right, just that one taint 
 or defect which, as a whole, spoils them. And 
 this one defect will be found to be, as the Scrip- 
 ture declares, a defect in our sense of our rela- 
 tion towards God. 
 
 September \Oth, 1837. 
 
SERMON XVII. 
 
 1 Corinthians ii. 12. 
 
 We have received not the spirit of the worldy but the 
 Spirit which is of God. 
 
 And, therefore, he goes on to say, our language 
 is different from that of others, and not always 
 understood by them ; the natural man receiveth 
 not the things of God, for they are foolishness 
 unto him ; neither can he know them, because 
 they are spiritually discerned. That is, they are 
 discerned only by a faculty which he has not, 
 namely, by the Spirit ; and, therefore, as beings 
 devoid of reason cannot understand the truths 
 of science, or of man's wisdom, for they are 
 without the faculty which can discern them ; 
 so beings devoid of God's Spirit cannot under- 
 stand the truths of God. 
 
 Now, in order to turn this passage to our profit, 
 
 N 
 
178 WHY, AND IN WHAT IT IS CORRUPTED, 
 
 we need not consider those who are wholly 
 without God's Spirit, or inquire whether, indeed, 
 there be any such ; it is not that there are two 
 broadly marked divisions of all men, those 
 who have not the Spirit of God at all, and those 
 who have it abundantly ; if it were so, the sepa- 
 ration of the great day of judgment would be 
 begun already, nor would it require, in order to 
 effect it rightly, the wisdom of Him who trieth 
 the very hearts and reins. No doubt there will 
 be at last but two divisions of us all, the saved 
 and the lost ; but now the divisions are infinite ; 
 so much so, that the great body of us offer much 
 matter for hope, as well as for fear. We cannot 
 say, that they are without the Spirit of God ; 
 yet neither can we say, that they are led by the 
 Spirit, so as to be God's true servants. We cannot 
 say, that the things of God are absolutely to 
 them as foolishness ; yet, certainly, we cannot 
 say either, that they are to them as the divinest 
 wisdom. 
 
 And here we return to the subject on which 
 I was speaking last Sunday. It is because we 
 are not led by the Spirit of God, but have within 
 us much of the spirit of the world, that our 
 judgments of right and wrong are so faulty ; and 
 that this faultiness is particularly seen in our 
 faint sense of our relations to God. These rela- 
 tions seem continually foolishness to us, because 
 
WHEN IT JUDGES IN PART TRULY. 179 
 
 they are spiritually discerned, and we have so 
 little of God's Spirit to enable us to discern 
 them. And our blindness here affects our whole 
 souls ; we have, in consequence of it, a much 
 fainter perception even of those truths which 
 reason can discern by herself; or, at any rate, 
 if we do not doubt them, they have over us 
 much less influence. 
 
 Now we will first see how much of natural 
 reason, and even of the Spirit of God, does exist 
 in our common judgments ; for it is fair to see and 
 to allow what there is of right in our language 
 and sentiments, as well as to note what is wrong. 
 Reason influences thus much, that we not only 
 comn^iend good generally, and blame evil ; but 
 even, in particular cases, we commend, I think, 
 each separate virtue, and we blame each separate 
 vice. I never heard of justice, truth, kindness, 
 self-denial, &c., being other than approved of in 
 themselves ; or injustice, falsehood, malice, and 
 selfishness being other than condemned. And 
 the Spirit of God influences at least thus much, 
 that we shrink from direct blasphemy and pro- 
 faneness ; we cannot but respect those whom we 
 believe to be living sincerely in the fear of God ; 
 and further, if we thought our death near, we 
 should desire to hear of God, and to depart 
 irom this life under his favour. No doubt, all 
 such feelings, so far as they go, are the work of 
 
 n2 
 
180 BECAUSE WE ARE NOT IN EARNEST, 
 
 God's Spirit : whatever is good and right in our 
 minds towards God, that proceeds not from the 
 spirit of the world, but from the Spirit of God. 
 
 Where, then, is the great defect which yet con- 
 tinually makes our practical judgments quite 
 wrong ; which makes us, in fact, so often coun- 
 tenance and support evil, and discountenance and 
 discourage good ? First, it is owing to the spirit 
 of carelessness. One of the most emphatic terms 
 by which a good man is expressed in the language 
 of the Greek philosophers, is that of airovBalosy 
 " one who is in earnest." To be in earnest is, 
 indeed, with most of us, the same as to be good ; 
 it is not that we love evil, but that we are indif- 
 ferent both to it and to good. Now, many of us 
 are very seldom in earnest. By this I mean, 
 that the highest part of our minds, and that 
 which judges of the highest things, is generally 
 slumbering or but half awake. We may go 
 through a very busy day, and yet not be, in this 
 true sense, in earnest at all ; our best faculties may, 
 as it were, be all the while sleeping or playing. 
 It is notorious how much this is so in the com- 
 mon intercourse of society in the world. Light 
 anecdotes; playful remarks; discussions, it may 
 be, about the affairs of the neighbourhood, or, 
 in some companies, on questions of science or 
 party politics ; all these may be often heard ; but 
 we may talk on all these brilliantly and well, and 
 
BUT WILFULLY REFUSE TO BE SO. 181 
 
 yet our best nature may not once be called to 
 exert itself. So, again, in mere routine business, 
 it is the same : the body may toil ; the pen 
 move swiftly ; the thoughts act in the particular 
 matter before them vigorously ; and yet we our 
 proper selves, beings understanding and choosing 
 between good and evil, have never bestirred 
 ourselves at all. It has been but a skirmishing 
 at the outposts ; not a sword has been drawn in 
 the main battle. Take younger persons, and 
 the same thing is the case even more palpably. 
 Here there is less of business, in the common 
 sense of the term ; the mind is almost always 
 unbraced and resting. We pass through the 
 good and evil of our daily life, and our proper 
 self scarcely ever is aroused to notice either the 
 one or the other. 
 
 But the worst of it is, that this carelessness 
 is not altogether accidental : it is a carelessness 
 which we do not wish to break. So long as it 
 lasts, we manage to get the activity and interest 
 of life, without a sense of its responsibility. We 
 like exceedingly to lay the reins, as it were, upon 
 the neck of our inclinations, to go where they 
 take us, and to ask no questions whether we are 
 in the right road or no. Inclination is never 
 slumbering : this gives us excitement enough 
 to save us from weariness, without the effort 
 of awakening our conscience too. Therefore 
 
182 THUS CONSCIENCE SLUMBERS, 
 
 society, expressing in its rules the feelings of its 
 individual members, prescribes exactly such a 
 style of conversation as may keep in exercise all 
 other parts of our nature except that one which 
 should be sovereign of all, and whose exercise is 
 employed on things eternal. 
 
 Not being, then, properly in earnest, — that is, 
 our conscience and our choice of moral good 
 and evil being in a state of repose, — our language 
 is happily contrived so as that it shall contain 
 nothing to startle our sleeping conscience, if her 
 ears catch any of its sounds. We still commend 
 good and dispraise evil, both in the general and 
 in the particular. But as good and evil are 
 mixed in every man, and in various proportions, 
 he who commends the little good of a bad man, 
 saying nothing of his evil, — or he who condemns 
 the httle evil of a good man, saying nothing of 
 his good, — leads us evidently to a false practical 
 conclusion ; he leads us to like the bad man and 
 to dislike the good. Again, the lesser good be- 
 comes an evil if it keeps out a greater good ; and, 
 in the same way, the lesser evil becomes a good. 
 If we have no thought of comparing good things 
 together, if our sovereign nature be asleep, 
 then we shall most estimate the good to which 
 we are most inclined; and where we find this 
 we shall praise it, not observing that it is taking 
 up the place of a greater good which the case 
 
AND EVIL GIVES US NO PAIN, 183 
 
 requires, and, therefore, that it is in fact an evil. 
 So that our moral judgments may lead practi- 
 cally to great evil : we may join with bad men 
 and despise good ; we may approve of qualities 
 which are, in fact, ruining a man ; and despise 
 others which, in the particular case, are virtues ; 
 without ever in plain words condemning virtue 
 or approving vice. 
 
 But, farther, this habit of never being in earnest 
 greatly lowers the strength of our feelings even 
 towards the good which we praise and towards 
 the evil which we condemn. It was an admi- 
 rable definition of that which excites laughter, 
 that it was that which is out of rule, that which 
 is amiss, that which is unsightly, (these three 
 ideas, and other similar ones, are alike con- 
 tained in the single Greek word ala-xpov,) pro- 
 vided that it was unaccompanied by pain. This 
 definition accounts for the otherwise extraor- 
 dinary fact, that there is something in moral 
 evil which, in some instances, affects the mind 
 ludicrously. That is to say, if moral evil affects 
 us with no pain ; if we see in it nothing, so to 
 speak, but its irregularity, its strange contrast 
 with what is beautiful, its jarring with the har- 
 mony of the system around us; then it does 
 acquire that character which is well defined as 
 being ridiculous. Thus it is notorious that 
 trifling follies, and even gross vices, are often 
 
184 BUT BECOMES LAUGHABLE. 
 
 SO represented in works of fiction as to be ex- 
 ceedingly ludicrous. It is enough, as an instance 
 of what I mean, to name the vice of drunken- 
 ness. Get rid for the moment of the notions of 
 vice or sin which accompany it, and which give 
 moral pain ; get rid also of those points in it which 
 awaken physical disgust ; retain merely the no- 
 tion of the incoherent language, and the strange 
 capricious gait of intoxication ; and we have 
 then an image merely ridiculous, as much so 
 as the rambling talk and absurd gestures of the 
 old buffoons. 
 
 Here, then, we have the secret of vice be- 
 coming laughable ; and of things which are 
 really wicked, disgusting, hateful, being ex- 
 pressed by names purely ludicrous. Where no 
 great physical pain or distress is occasioned 
 by what is evil, our sense of its ludicrousness 
 will be exactly in proportion to the faintness 
 of our sense of moral evil ; or, in other words, 
 to our want of being in earnest. The evil that 
 does not seriously pain or inconvenience man, 
 is very apt to be regarded with feehngs ap- 
 proaching to laughter, if we have no sense of 
 pain at the notion of its being an offence against 
 God. 
 
 Thus, then, we have seen how, from the want 
 of being in earnest, from the habitual slumber of 
 conscience, or that sovereign part of us which 
 
DIRECT APPLICATION OF THIS. 185 
 
 looks upon our whole state with reference to 
 its highest interests, and passes judgment upon 
 all our actions, — how, from the practical absence 
 of these, we may get to follow evil persons, and 
 be indifferent to the good; to admire qualities 
 which, from usurping the place of better ones, 
 are actually ruinous ; and, finally, to regard all 
 common evil not so much with deep abhorrence, 
 as with a disposition to laugh at it. And thus 
 the practical judgment and influence of the so- 
 ciety around us may be fatally evil; while the 
 society all the time shall contain, even in its 
 very perversion, various elements of truth and 
 of good. 
 
 I have kept to general language, to general 
 views, perhaps too much ; but all the time my 
 mind has been fixed on the particular apphcation 
 of this, which hes scarcely beneath the surface, 
 but which I cannot well bear more fully to 
 unveil. But whoever has attended to what I 
 have been saying, will be able, I should trust, to 
 make the application, for himself, to those points 
 in our society which most need correction. He 
 vdll be able to understand how it is that the 
 influence of the place is not better, while it 
 undoubtedly contains so much of good ; how 
 the public opinion of a christian school may yet 
 be, in many respects, very unchristian. If he 
 has attended at all to what I have said about 
 
186 WHAT MAKES US CARELESS, 
 
 our SO rarely being in earnest, he will see some- 
 thing of the mischief of some of those publica- 
 tions, of those books, of that tone of conversation, 
 which, I suppose, are here, as elsewhere, in 
 fashion. Utterly impossible is it to lay down a 
 rule for others in such matters : to say this book 
 is too hght, or this is an excess of light reading, 
 or this laugh was too unrestrained, or that tone 
 of trifling too perpetual. But, in these things, 
 we should all judge ourselves; and remember, 
 that you are so little under outward restraint, 
 your choice of reading is so free, your inter- 
 course with one another so wholly uncontrolled, 
 that, enjoying thus the full liberty of more ad- 
 vanced years, you incur also their responsibility. 
 There is, doubtless, an excess of light reading, 
 both in kind and in quantity; there is such a 
 thing as a tone of conversation and manner too 
 entirely, and too frequently, trifling. And you 
 must be quite aware that we are placed here for 
 something else than to indulge such a temper as 
 this. Cheerfulness and thoughtlessness have no 
 necessary connexion : the lightest spirits, which 
 are indeed one of the greatest of earthly bless- 
 ings, often play around the most earnest thought 
 and the tenderest affection, and with far more 
 grace than when they are united with the shal- 
 lowness and hardness of him who is, in the sight 
 of God, a fool. It were a strange notion, that we 
 
WHAT WOULD MAKE US EARNEST. 187 
 
 could never be merry without intoxication, yet 
 not stranger than to think that mirth is the 
 companion only of folly or of sin. But, setting 
 God in Christ before us, then the conscience is 
 awake ; then we are in earnest ; then we measure 
 things rightly ; then we feel them strongly ; then 
 we love those that are good, and shun those that 
 are evil ; then we learn that sin is no matter of 
 laughter, that it ill deserves to be clothed under 
 a ludicrous name ; for that thing which we laugh 
 at, that which we so miscall, is indeed the cause 
 of infinite evil; for that Christ died; for that 
 there are some who die that death which lasts 
 for ever. 
 
 September 17th, 1837. 
 
SEEM ON XVIII. 
 
 Genesis xxvii. 38. 
 
 And Esau said unto his father, Hast thou hut one blessing, 
 my father? Bless me, even me also, O my father. 
 
 Matthew xv. 27. 
 
 And she said, Truth, Lord : yet the dogs eat of the crumbs 
 which fall from their master^ s table. 
 
 Of these two passages, the first, as we must all 
 remember, is taken from the first lesson of this 
 morning's service ; the second is from the morn- 
 ing's gospel. Both speak the same language, 
 and point out, I think, that particular view of 
 the story of Jacob obtaining the blessing which 
 is most capable of being turned to account ; for, 
 as to the conduct of Jacob and his mother, it is 
 manifestly no more capable of affording us 
 benefit, as a matter of example, than the con- 
 duct, in some respects similar, of the unjust 
 steward in our Lord's parable. The example. 
 
HOW TO REGARD OTHERs' ADVANTAGES, 189 
 
 indeed, is of the same kind as that. If the 
 steward was so anxious about his future worldly 
 welfare, and Jacob about the worldly welfare of 
 his descendants, that they did not scruple to 
 obtain their ends, the one by dishonesty, the 
 other by falsehood, much more should we be 
 anxious about the true welfare of ourselves and 
 those belonging to us, which no such unworthy 
 means can be required to gain. But the point 
 of the story, to which the text refers, and which 
 is illustrated also by the words of the Syrophoe- 
 nician woman, is one which very directly con- 
 cerns us all, being no other than this, — what 
 should be the effect upon our own minds of wit- 
 nessing others possessed of greater advantages 
 than ourselves, whether obtained by the im- 
 mediate gift of God, through the course of his 
 ordinary providence, or acquired directly by 
 some unjust or unlawful act of those who are in 
 possession of them ? 
 
 Now, it is evident that, as equahty is not the 
 rule either of nature or of human society, there 
 must be many in every congregation who are so 
 far in the condition of Esau and of the Sjrophoe- 
 nician woman, as to be inferior to others around 
 them in some one or more advantages. The 
 inferiority may consist in what are called worldly 
 advantages, or in natural advantages, or in 
 spiritual advantages, or in some or all of these 
 
190 WHETHER OF FORTUNE, 
 
 united. And it is not to be doubted, that the 
 sense of this inferiority is a hard trial, both as 
 respects our feehngs towards God and towards 
 men. It is a hard trial ; but yet, no trial over- 
 takes us but such as is common to man : and 
 here, as in all other cases, God will, with the trial, 
 also make a way for us to escape, that we may 
 be able to bear it. 
 
 Let us consider, then, some of the most com- 
 mon cases in which this inferiority exists amongst 
 us. With regard to worldly advantages, the 
 peculiar nature of this congregation makes it 
 less necessary, than it generally would be, to 
 dwell upon inequality in these : in fact, speaking 
 generally, we are a very unusual example of 
 equality in these respects ; the advantages of 
 station and fortune are enjoyed not, literally, 
 in an equal degree by all of us, but equally as 
 compared with the lot of the great mass of 
 society; we all enjoy the necessaries, and most 
 of the comforts of life. What differences there 
 are would, probably, appear in instances seem- 
 ingly trifling, if, indeed, any thing were really 
 trifling by which the temper and feelings, and 
 through them the principles, of any amongst us 
 may be affected for good or for evil. It may 
 possibly happen that, in the indulgences, or 
 means of indulgence, given to you by your 
 friends at home, there may be, sometimes, such 
 
I 
 
 OR OF NATURAL POWERS, 191 
 
 a difference as to excite discontent or jealousy. 
 It may be, that some are apt to exult over 
 others, by talking of the pleasures, or the liberty, 
 which they enjoy; and which the friends of 
 others, either from necessity or from a sense of 
 duty, are obliged to withhold. If this be ever 
 felt by any of you as a trial ; if it gall your 
 pride, as well as restrict your enjoyments ; then 
 remember, that here, even in this seemingly 
 little thing, the inferiority of which you com- 
 plain may be either increased ten-fold, or 
 changed into a blessed superiority. Increased 
 ten-fold, even as from him that hath not, shall 
 be taken away even that which he hath, if by 
 discontent, and evil passions towards God and 
 man, you make yourselves a hundred times 
 more inferior spiritually than you were in out- 
 ward circumstances ; but changed into a blessed 
 superiority, if it be borne with meekness, and 
 patience, and thankfulness, even as it was said of 
 the Gentile centurion, that there had not been 
 found faith equal to his, no, not in Israel. 
 
 But turning from worldly advantages to those 
 which are called natural, and the inequality 
 here is at once as great as elsewhere. In all 
 faculties of body and mind ; in the vigour of the 
 senses, of the limbs, of the general constitution ; 
 in the greater or less liability to disease generally, 
 or to any particular form of it ; or, again, in 
 
192 EITHER OF BODY OR MIND. 
 
 powers of mind, in quickness, in memory, in 
 imagination, in judgment ; the differences between 
 different persons in this congregation must be 
 exceedingly wide. But, with regard to bodily 
 powers, the trial is little felt, till the inferiority is 
 shown in actual suffering from pain or from dis- 
 ease. So long as we are in health, our enjoy- 
 ments are so many, and we so easily accommo- 
 date our habits to our powers, that a mere 
 inferiority of strength, whether it be of limb or 
 of constitution, is not apt to make us dissatisfied. 
 But if it comes to actual illness or to pain, if 
 we are deprived of the common enjoyments and 
 occupations of our age, then perhaps the trial 
 begins to be severe ; and when we look at others 
 who have taken the same liberties with their 
 health as we have done, and see them notwith- 
 standing perfectly well and strong, while we are 
 disabled or suffering, we may think that God 
 has dealt hardly with us, and may be inclined ta 
 ask wdth Esau, '' Hast thou but one blessing, my 
 Father ? bless me, even me also, O my Father !" 
 Now this language, according to the sense in 
 which we use it, is either blameable or innocent. 
 If we mean to say, " Hast thou health to give to 
 others only and not to me : give me this blessing 
 also, as thou hast given it to my brethren ;" then 
 it has in it somewhat of discontent and murmur- 
 ing ; it imphes a claim to which God never listens. 
 
ADVANTAGES OF OTHERS IN MIND. 193 
 
 But if we mean, " Hast thou only one kind of 
 blessing, my Father ? If thou hast blest others 
 in one way, I murmur not nor complain ; but out 
 of thine infinite store, give me also such a bless- 
 ing as may be convenient for me ;" then God 
 hears the prayer, then he gives the blessing, 
 and gives it so richly, and makes it bear so 
 evidently the mark of his love, that they who 
 were last are become first ; if others have health, 
 and we have sickness, yet the spirit of patience 
 and cheerful submission which God gives with it, 
 is so great a blessing, and makes us so certainly 
 happy, that the strongest and healthiest of our 
 friends have often far more reason to wish to 
 change places v^th us, than we with them. 
 
 Let us now take inequality in powers of mind. 
 And here, undoubtedly, the difference is apt to be 
 a trial. Not that, probably, it excites discontent 
 or murmuring against God ; nor jealousy against 
 those whose faculties are better than our own ; 
 the trial is of another kind ; we are tempted to 
 make our inferiority an excuse for neglect ; be- 
 cause we cannot do so much nor so easily as 
 others, we do far less than we might do. But 
 the parable shows us plainly, that if one talent 
 only has been given us, while others have ten, 
 yet that the one, no less than the ten, must be 
 made to yield its increase. Here is the feehng 
 expressed so earnestly by the woman entreating 
 
194 HOW WE MAY GAIN OUR BLESSING. 
 
 Christ to heal her daughter. '' The dogs eat of 
 the crumbs which fall from their master's table." 
 Small as may be the portion of power given us, 
 when compared with the plenty vouchsafed to 
 others, still it is capable of nourishing us if we 
 make use of it ; still it shows that we too have 
 our blessing. And if using it with thankfulness, 
 if doing our very best with it, knowing that 
 '' a man is accepted according to what he hath, 
 and not according to what he hath not," 
 we labour humbly and diligently ; then, not 
 only does the talent itself become increased, 
 so that our Lord, when he comes to reckon with 
 us, may receive his own with usury ; but a bless- 
 ing of another kind is added to our labours, again, 
 as in the former case, making those who were 
 last to become first. For if there be one thing 
 on earth, which is truly admirable, it is to see 
 God's wisdom blessing an inferiority of natural 
 powers, when they have been honestly, humbly, 
 and zealously cultivated. From how many pains 
 are they delivered, to which great natural talents 
 are continually exposed; irritation, jealousy, a 
 morbid and nervous activity, bearing fruits, not 
 of peace, but of gall ! With what blessings are 
 they crowned, to which the most powerful na- 
 tural understanding is a stranger; the love of 
 truth gratified, without the fear that truth will 
 demand the sacrifice of personal vanity; the 
 
ADVANTAGES OF OTHERS SPIRITUALLY. 195 
 
 line of duty clearly discerned, because those 
 mists of passion and selfishness which obscure 
 it so often from the view of the keenest natural 
 perception, have been dispersed by the Spirit of 
 humihty and love; imperfect knowledge pa- 
 tiently endured, because whatever knowledge is 
 enjoyed is known to be God's gift, and what 
 he gives, or what he withholds, is alike welcome. 
 This is the blessing of those, who having had 
 inferior natural powers, have so laboured to im- 
 prove them according to God's will, that on all 
 there has been grafted, as it were, some better 
 power of grace, to yield a fruit most precious 
 both for earth and heaven. 
 
 But I spoke of an inequality of spiritual ad- 
 vantages also, and this is perhaps the hardest 
 trial of all. O how great is this inequality in 
 truth, when it seems to be so little ! All of you, 
 the children of Christian parents ; all members 
 of the Christian Church ; all partaking here of 
 the same worship, the same prayers, the same 
 word of God, the same sacrament ; are you not 
 all the Israel of God, and not, like Esau, or the 
 Syrophoenician woman, strangers to the covenant 
 of blessing ? Yet your real condition is, not- 
 withstanding, very unequal. How unlike are 
 your friends at home ; how unlike, also, are your 
 friends here ! Are there not some to whom their 
 homes, both by direct precept and by example, 
 
 o 2 
 
196 HOW WE MAY GAIN OUR BLESSING HERE I 
 
 are a far greater help than to others ? Are there 
 not some, whose immediate companions here may 
 encourage them in all good far more than may 
 be the case with others ? So, then, there may be 
 some to whom this great blessing has been 
 denied, whilst others enjoy it. What then ? 
 Shall we say, that, because we have it not, we 
 will refuse to go in to our Father's house ; that 
 we will not walk as our brother walks, unless we 
 have his advantages ? Then must we remain 
 cast out ; vessels fashioned to dishonour ; re- 
 jected of God, and cursed. Nay, rather let us 
 put a Christian sense on Esau's prayer, and cry^ 
 '' ' Hast thou but one blessing, my Father ? 
 Bless me ; even me also, O my Father.' If 
 thou hast given to others earthly helps, which 
 thou hast denied to me, give me thyself and thy 
 own Spirit the more ! If father and mother for- 
 sake my most precious interest, do thou take me 
 up. If my nearest friends will not walk with 
 me in the house of God, be thou my friend, 
 and abide with me always, making my house as 
 thine. Outward and earthly means thou givest 
 or takest away at thy pleasure ; but give me help 
 according to my need, that I yet may not lose 
 thee." 
 
 How naturally are we interested at the thought 
 of any one so circumstanced, and uttering such a 
 prayer ! How earnestly do we wish to help him. 
 
so THAT THE LAST MAY BE FIRST, ] 97 
 
 to show our respect and true love for a faith so 
 tried and so enduring ! And think we that God 
 cares for it less than we do ? or have we not 
 already the record of his love towards it, when 
 Christ answered the Syrophoenician woman, 
 " O woman, great is thy faith ! be it unto thee 
 even as thou wilt." He may not, indeed, see 
 fit to give the very same blessing which was in 
 the first instance denied : we may still have 
 fewer spiritual advantages than others, as far as 
 human helps are concerned ; fewer good and 
 earnest friends ; fewer examples of holiness 
 around us ; fewer to join with us in our prayers 
 and in our struggles against evil. But though 
 this particular blessing may be denied, — as Esau 
 could not gain that blessing which had been 
 given to Jacob, — yet there is a blessing for us 
 also, which may prove, in the end, even better 
 than our brother's. He who serves God steadily, 
 amidst many disadvantages, enjoys the blessing 
 of a more confirmed and hardier faith ; he has 
 gone through trials, and been found conqueror ; 
 and for him that overcometh is reserved a more 
 abundant measure of glory. 
 
 But, on the other side, we who, like Jacob, 
 or Jacob's posterity, have the blessing, — whether 
 it be natural, worldly, or spiritual, — let us con- 
 sider what became of it when it was not im- 
 proved. What was the sin of Esau, — speaking 
 
198 AND THE FIRST MAY BE LAST. 
 
 not of the individual, but of the less favoured 
 people of Edom, — compared v^ith the sin of 
 Jacob ? Nay, not of Edom only ; but it shall 
 be more tolerable for Sodom, in the day of 
 judgment, than for the unbeheving cities of 
 Israel. So it is, not only with the literal but 
 with the Christian Israel ; so it is, not only with 
 the church as a whole, compared with hea- 
 thens, but with all those individuals amongst us, 
 who enjoy in any larger measure than others any 
 of God's blessings. They are blessings ; but they 
 may be made fatal curses. This holds true with 
 blessings of every kind : with station and wealth, 
 with bodily health and vigour, with great powers 
 of mind, with large means of spiritual improve- 
 ment. To whom much is given, of him shall be 
 much required. It is required of us to enjoy 
 our blessings by using them: so will they be 
 blessings indeed. So it is vdth money and in- 
 fluence, with health, with talents, with spiri- 
 tual knowledge, and good friends and parents. 
 There are first who shall be last : that is, those 
 who began their course with advantages which 
 set them before their brethren, if they do not 
 exert themselves, will fall grievously behind 
 them : for the blessing denied may be, in effect, 
 a blessing given ; and the blessing given, in hke 
 manner, becomes too often a blessing taken away. 
 
 March I5th, 1835. 
 
SERMON XIX. 
 
 r 
 
 Matthew xxii. 32. 
 God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. 
 
 We hear these words as a part of our Lord's 
 answer to the Sadducees ; and, as their question 
 was put in evident profaneness, and the answer 
 to it is one which to our minds is quite obvious 
 and natural, so we are apt to think that in this 
 particular story there is less than usual that par- 
 ticularly concerns us. But it so happens, that our 
 Lord, in answering the Pharisees, has brought in 
 one of the most universal and most solemn of all 
 truths, — which is indeed implied in many parts 
 of the Old Testament, but which the Gospel 
 has revealed to us in all its fulness, — the truth 
 contained in the words of the text, that '' God 
 is not the God of the dead, but of the living." 
 
200 TO BE WITHOUT GOD IS DEATH, 
 
 I would wish to unfold a little what is con- 
 tained in these words, which we often hear even, 
 perhaps, without quite understanding them ; and 
 many times oftener without fully entering into 
 them. And we may take them, first, in their 
 first part, where they say that '^ God is not the 
 God of the dead." 
 
 The word '' dead," we know, is constantly 
 used in Scripture in a double sense, as meaning 
 those who are dead spiritually, as well as those 
 who are dead naturally. And, in either sense, the 
 words are alike applicable : " God is not the God 
 of the dead." 
 
 God's not being the God of the dead signifies 
 two things : that they who are without Him are 
 dead, as well as that they who are dead are also 
 without Him. So far as our knowledge goes 
 respecting inferior animals, they appear to be 
 examples of this truth. They appear to us to 
 have no knowledge of God; and we are not 
 told that they have any other life than the short 
 one of which our senses inform us. I am well 
 aware that our ignorance of their condition is so 
 great that we may not dare to say anything of 
 them positively : there may be a hundred things 
 true respecting them which we neither know 
 nor imagine. I would only say that, according 
 to that most imperfect light in which we see 
 them, the two points of which I have been 
 
IN OTHER CREATURES AND IN MAN. 201 
 
 speaking appear to meet in them : we believe 
 that they have no consciousness of God, and we 
 believe that they will die. And so far, therefore, 
 they afford an example of the agreement, if I 
 may so speak, between these two points; and 
 were intended, perhaps, to be to our view a 
 continual image of it. But we had far better ' 
 speak of ourselves. And here, too, it is the 
 case that ^^God is not the God of the dead." 
 If we are without Him we are dead ; and if we 
 are dead we are without Him : in other words, 
 the two ideas of death and absence from God 
 are in fact synonymous. 
 
 Thus, in the account given of the fall of man, 
 the sentence of death and of being cast out of 
 Eden go together ; and if any one compares the 
 description of the second Eden in the Revela- 
 tion, and recollects how especially it is there 
 said, that God dwells in the midst of it, and is its 
 light by day and night, he will see that the banish- 
 ment from the first Eden means a banishment 
 from the presence of God. And thus, in the 
 day that Adam sinned, he died ; for he was cast 
 out of Eden immediately, however long he may 
 have moved about afterwards upon the earth 
 where God was not. And how very strong to 
 the same point are the words of Hezekiah's 
 prayer, " The grave cannot praise thee. Death 
 cannot celebrate thee ; they that go down into 
 
202 EXAMPLES FROM SCRIPTURE. 
 
 the pit cannot hope for thy truth ;" words 
 which express completely the feeling that God is 
 not the God of the dead. This, too, appears to 
 be the sense generally of the expression used in 
 various parts of the Old Testament, " Thou 
 shalt surely die." It is, no doubt, left purposely 
 obscure ; nor are we ever told, in so many 
 words, all that is meant by death ; but, surely, 
 it always implies a separation from God, and the 
 being — whatever the notion may extend to — the 
 being dead to him. Thus, when David had 
 committed his great sin, and had expressed his 
 repentance for it, Nathan tells him, ^' The Lord 
 also hath put away thy sin ; thou shalt not die :" 
 which means, most expressively, thou shalt not 
 die to God. In one sense, David died, as all 
 men die ; nor was he, by any means, freed from 
 the punishment of his sin : he was not, in that 
 sense, forgiven ; but he was allowed still to 
 regard God as his God; and, therefore, his 
 punishments were but fatherly chastisements 
 from God's hand, designed for his profit, that he 
 might be partaker of God's holiness. And thus, 
 although Saul was sentenced to lose his king- 
 dom, and although he was killed with his sons 
 on Mount Gilboa, yet I do not think that we 
 find the sentence passed upon him, " Thou shalt 
 surely die ;" and, therefore, we have no right to 
 say that God had ceased to be his God, although 
 
I 
 
 EXAMPLES FROM SCRIPTURE. 203 
 
 he visited him with severe chastisements, and 
 would not allow him to hand down to his sons 
 the crown of Israel. Observe, also, the language 
 of the eighteenth chapter of Ezekiel, where the 
 expressions occur so often, '' He shall surely 
 live," and " He shall surely die." We have no 
 right to refer these to a mere extension, on the 
 one hand, or a cutting short, on the other, of 
 the term of earthly existence. The promise of 
 living long in the land, or, as in Hezekiah's case, 
 of adding to his days fifteen years, is very 
 different from the full and unreserved blessing, 
 '' Thou shalt surely live." And we know, un- 
 doubtedly, that both the good and the bad to 
 whom Ezekiel spoke died alike the natural death 
 of the body. But the pecuhar force of the 
 promise, and of the threat, was, in the one case. 
 Thou shalt belong to God, in the other. Thou 
 shalt cease to belong to him ; although the veil 
 was not yet drawn up which concealed the full 
 import of those terms, '' belonging to God," and 
 " ceasing to belong to him :" nay, can we venture 
 to affirm that it is fully drawn aside even now ? 
 
 I have dwelt on this at some length, because it 
 really seems to place the common state of the 
 minds of too many amongst us in a light which 
 is exceedingly awful ; for if it be true, as I think 
 the Scripture implies, that to be dead, and to be 
 without God, are precisely the same thing, then 
 
204 TO BE OWNED BY GOD IS LIFE. 
 
 can it be denied, that the symptoms of death are 
 strongly marked upon many of us ? Are there 
 not many who never think of God, or care about 
 his service ? Are there not many who hve, to 
 all appearance, as unconscious of his existence, 
 as we fancy the inferior animals to be ? And is 
 it not quite clear, that, to such persons, God 
 cannot be said to be their God ? He may be 
 the God of heaven and earth, the God of the 
 universe, the God of Christ's church; but he 
 is not their God, for they feel to have nothing 
 at all to do with him ; and, therefore, as he 
 is not their God, they are, and must be, 
 according to the Scripture, reckoned among the 
 dead. 
 
 But God is the God of the living. That is, 
 as before, all who are alive, live unto him ; all 
 who live unto him, are alive. " God said, I am 
 the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and 
 the God of Jacob ;" and, therefore, says our 
 Lord, " Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, are not 
 and cannot be dead." They cannot be dead, 
 because God owns them : he is not ashamed to 
 be called their God ; therefore, they are not cast 
 out from him ; therefore, by necessity, they live. 
 Wonderful, indeed, is the truth here implied, in 
 exact agreement, as we have seen, with the 
 general language of Scripture ; that, as she who 
 but touched the hem of Christ's garment was, in 
 
THIS IS TRUE EVEN NOW. 205 
 
 a moment, relieved from her infirmity, so great 
 was the virtue which went out from him ; so 
 they who are not cast out from God, but have 
 any thing whatever to do with him, feel the 
 virtue of his gracious presence penetrating their 
 whole nature ; because he lives, they must live 
 also. 
 
 Behold, then, life and death set before us ; 
 not remote, (if a few years be, indeed, to be 
 called remote,) but even now present before us ; 
 even now suffered or enjayed. Even now, we are 
 alive unto God, or dead unto God; and, as we 
 are either the one or the other, so we are, in the 
 highest possible sense of the terms, alive or dead. 
 In the highest possible sense of the terms ; but 
 who can tell what that highest possible sense of 
 the terms is ? So much has, indeed, been 
 revealed to us, that we know now that death 
 means a conscious and perpetual death, as life 
 means a conscious and perpetual life. But 
 greatly, indeed, do we deceive ourselves, if we 
 fancy that, by having thus much told us, we 
 have also risen to the infinite heights, or de- 
 scended to the infinite depths, contained in those 
 httle words, life and death. They are far higher, 
 and far deeper, than ever thought or fancy of 
 man has reached to. But, even on the first edge 
 of either, at the visible beginnings of that infinite 
 ascent or descent, there is surely something 
 
206 TO LIVE WITHOUT GOD 
 
 which may give us a foretaste of what is beyond. 
 Even to us in this mortal state, even to you 
 advanced but so short a way on your very 
 earthly journey, life and death have a meaning : 
 to be dead unto God, or to be alive to him, are 
 things perceptibly different. 
 
 For, let me ask of those who think least of 
 God, who are most separate from him, and most 
 without Him, whether there is not now actually, 
 perceptibly, in their state, something of the cold- 
 ness, the loneliness, the fearfulness of death ? I 
 do not ask them whether they are made im- 
 happy by the fear of God's anger ; of course 
 they are not ; for they who fear God are not 
 dead to Him, nor He to them. The thought 
 of Him gives them no disquiet at all; this is 
 the very point we start from. But I would 
 ask them whether they know what it is to feel 
 God's blessing. For instance : we all of us have 
 our troubles of some sort or other, our dis- 
 appointments, if not our sorrows. In these 
 troubles, in these disappointments, — I care not 
 how small they may be, — have they known 
 what it is to feel that God*s hand is over them ; 
 that these little annoyances are but his fatherly 
 correction ; that He is all the time loving us, and 
 supporting us? In seasons of joy, such as they 
 taste very often, have they known what it is to 
 feel that they are tasting the kindness of their 
 
f 
 
 i 
 
 IS EVEN NOW A LIVING DEATH. 207 
 
 heavenly Father, that their good things come 
 from his hand, and are but an infinitely slight fore- 
 taste of his love ? Sickness, danger, — I know that 
 they come to many of us but rarely ; but if we 
 have known them, or at least sickness, even 
 in its lighter form, if not in its graver, — have 
 we felt what it is to know that we are in our 
 Father's hands, that He is with us, and will be 
 with us to the end ; that nothing can hurt those 
 whom he loves ? Surely, then, if we have never 
 tasted anything of this ; if in trouble, or in joy, 
 or in sickness, we are left wholly to ourselves, to 
 bear as we can, and enjoy as we can ; if there is 
 no voice that ever speaks out of the heights and 
 the depths around us, to give any answer to our 
 own ; if we are thus left to ourselves in this vast 
 world, — there is in this a coldness and a lone- 
 liness ; and whenever we come to be, of neces- 
 sity, driven to be with our own hearts alone, the 
 coldness and the loneliness must be felt. But 
 consider that the things which we see. around 
 us cannot remain with us, nor we v^th them. 
 The coldness and loneliness of the world, with- 
 out God, must be felt more and more as life 
 wears on : in every change of our own state, in 
 every separation from or loss of a friend, in 
 every more sensible weakness of our own bodies, 
 in every additional experience of the uncer- 
 tainty of our own counsels, — the deathhke feel- 
 
208 AND TO LIVE WITH HIM IS LIFE. 
 
 ing will come upon us more and more strongly : 
 we shall gain more of that fearful knowledge 
 which tells us that " God is not the God of the 
 dead." 
 
 And so, also, the blessed knowledge that He 
 is the God "of the living" grows upon those 
 who are truly aHve. Surely He " is not far 
 from every one of us." No occasion of life fails 
 to remind those who live unto Him, that He 
 is their God, and that they are his children. On 
 light occasions or on grave ones, in sorrow and 
 in joy, still the warmth of His love is spread, 
 as it were, all through the atmosphere of their 
 lives : they for ever feel his blessing. And if 
 it fills them vdth joy unspeakable even now, 
 when they so often feel how little they deserve 
 it ; if they delight still in being with God, and 
 in living to Him, let them be sure that they 
 have in themselves the unerring witness of life 
 eternal : God is the God of the living, and all 
 who are with Him must live. 
 
 Hard it is, I well know, to bring this home, in 
 any degree, to the minds of those who are dead : 
 for it is of the very nature of the dead that they 
 can hear no words of life. But it has happened 
 that, even whilst writing what I have just been 
 uttering to you, the news reached me that one, 
 who two months ago was one of your number, 
 who this very half-year has shared in all the 
 
AS MAY SOON BE FULLY REVEALED TO US. 209 
 
 business and amusements of this place, is passed 
 already into that state where the meanings of 
 the terms life and death are become fully re- 
 vealed. He knows what it is to live unto God, 
 and what it is to die to Him. Those things 
 which are to us unfathomable mysteries, are to 
 him all plain; and yet but two months ago 
 he might have thought himself as far from at- 
 taining this knowledge as any of us can do. 
 Wherefore it is clear that these things, life and 
 death, may hurry their lesson upon us sooner 
 than we deem of, sooner than we are prepared 
 to receive it. And that were indeed awful, if, 
 being dead to God, and yet little feeling it, be- 
 cause of the enjoyments of our worldly life, 
 those enjoyments were on a sudden to be struck 
 away from us, and we should find then that to 
 be dead to God was death indeed, a death from 
 which there is no waking, and in which there is 
 no sleeping for ever. 
 
 3Iay 2ithj 1840. 
 
SERMON XX. 
 
 EzEKiEL xiii. 22. 
 
 With lies ye have made the heart of the righteous sad, whom 
 I have not made sad; and strengthened the hands of the 
 wichedy that he should not return from his wicked way, 
 hy 'promising him life. 
 
 The verses which immediately precede this, 
 require explanation, but perhaps our knowledge 
 is hardly sufficient to enable us to give it fully. 
 There are allusions to customs, — to fashions, 
 rather, — common amongst the Israelites at the 
 time, which we can now scarcely do more than 
 guess at ; but we may observe, that there was a 
 general practice, which even God's own prophets 
 were directed often to comply with, of enforcing 
 what was said in word by some corresponding 
 outward action, in which the speaker made him- 
 self, as it were, a living image of the idea which 
 he meant to convey. Thus, when Zedekiah, the 
 son of Chenaanah, was assuring Ahab, that he 
 
OBSCURITIES IN POINTS OF DETAIL 211 
 
 should drive the Syrians before him, he made 
 himself horns of iron, and said, '^ With these 
 shalt thou push the Syrians until thou have con- 
 sumed them." In the same way, it is imagined 
 that the false prophetesses spoken of in the text 
 were in the habit of wearing pillows, or cushions, 
 fastened to their arms, and directed those who 
 came to consult them to do the same, as a sign 
 of rest and peace ; that they who trusted to them 
 had nothing to fear, but might lie down and 
 enjoy themselves at their feasts, or in sleep, with 
 entire security. Or, again, if we connect what 
 is said of the pillows with what immediately 
 i follows about the kerchiefs put upon the head, 
 I we may suppose that both are but parts of a 
 fantastic dress, such as was often worn by pre- 
 1^ tended prophets and fortune-tellers, and which 
 R they may have made those wear, also, who came 
 I before them. We know that the covering on the 
 I' head was, for instance, a part of the cere- 
 B monial law of the Roman augurs, when they 
 ■^ began their divinations. But, however this be, 
 ■kthe exact understanding of these particular 
 ^'points is not necessary to our deriving the lesson 
 of the passage in general. I know that there is 
 something naturally painful to an active mind in 
 being obliged to content itself with an indistinct 
 notion, or, still more, with no notion at all, of 
 the meaning of any words presented to it. But, 
 
 p2 
 
212 DO NOT EXTEND TO THE GENERAL MEANING. 
 
 whilst we should highly value this sensitiveness, 
 as, indeed, few qualities are more essential in 
 the pursuit of truth, yet we must be careful not 
 to let our disappointment carry us too far, so as 
 to pass over a whole passage, or portion, of 
 Scripture, as if in despair, because we cannot 
 understand every part of it. Much of the sup- 
 posed obscurity of the prophets arises from this 
 cause — that we find in them particular expres- 
 sions and allusions, which, whether from a fault 
 in the translation, or from our imperfect know- 
 ledge of the times of which the prophets speak, 
 and of the language in which they wrote, are 
 certainly quite unintelligible. But these are 
 only a few expressions, occurring here and there ; 
 and it is a great evil to fancy that their writings, 
 in general, are not to be understood, because of 
 the difficulty of particular passages in them. 
 Thus, with the very chapter of which we are 
 now speaking, the expressions to which I have 
 alluded can only be uncertainly interpreted, yet 
 the lesson of the chapter, as a whole, is perfectly 
 clear, notwithstanding. The dress, or fashions, 
 or particular rites, of the false prophets of Jeru- 
 salem and their votaries, may offer no distinct 
 image to our minds : but the evil of their doings, 
 how they deceived others, and were themselves 
 deceived ; the points, that is, which alone con- 
 cern us practically, these are set before us 
 
SUPERSTITION AND UNGODLINESS 213 
 
 plainly. '' With their hes, they made the heart of 
 the righteous sad, whom God had not made sad ; 
 and they strengthened the hands of the wicked, 
 that he should not return from his wicked way, 
 by promising him life." Where the way of life 
 was broad, they strove to make it narrow ; and 
 where it was narrow, they strove to make it 
 broad: by their solemn and superstitious hes, 
 they frightened and perplexed the good, while, 
 by their lives of ungodliness, they emboldened 
 and encouraged the wicked. 
 
 It may not, at first sight, seem necessary that 
 these two things should go together : there might 
 be, it seems, either the fault of making the heart 
 of the righteous sad, without that of strengthen- 
 ing the hands of the wicked ; or there might be 
 the strengthening of the hands of the wicked, 
 without making sad the heart of the righteous. 
 And so it sometimes has been : there has been a 
 wickedness which has not tried to keep up super- 
 stition ; there has been a superstition, the sup- 
 porters of which have not wilfully encouraged 
 wickedness. Yet, although this has been so, 
 with respect to the intention of the parties con- 
 cerned, yet, in their own nature, the tendency of 
 either evil to produce the other is sure and 
 universal. We cannot exist without some in- 
 fluences of fear and restraint, on the one hand, 
 and without some indulgence of freedom, on the 
 
2 1 4 PREPARE THE WAY FOR EACH OTHER. 
 
 other. God has provided for both these wants, 
 so to speak, of our nature ; he has told us whom 
 we should fear, and where we should be 
 restrained, and where, also, we may be safely in 
 freedom : there is the fruit forbidden, and the 
 fruit which we may eat freely. But if the 
 restraint and the liberty be either of them put in 
 the wrong place, the double evil is sure to follow. 
 Restrained in his lawful liberty, debarred from 
 the good and wholesome fruit of the garden, 
 man breaks out into a liberty which is unlawful ; 
 he eats of the forbidden fruit, whose taste is 
 death : or, surfeited with an unholy freedom, 
 and let to run wild in a space far too vast for 
 his strength to compass, he turns cravingly for 
 that support to his weariness which a narrowed 
 range would afford him ; and he limits himself 
 on that very quarter in which alone he might 
 expatiate freely. Superstition, in fact, is the 
 rest of wickedness, and wickedness is the break- 
 ing loose of superstition. 
 
 But, however true this may be, are we con- 
 cerned in it ? First of all, when we find an evil 
 dwelt upon often in the prophets, and find it 
 dwell upon again by our Lord and his Apostles 
 with no less earnestness ; there is, at least, a 
 strong presumption, that an evil of this sort is 
 nothing local or passing, but that it is fixed in 
 man's nature, and is apt to grow up in all times. 
 
THE NARROW MINDED OFTEN LEAST OBEDIENT. 215 
 
 and in all countries. Now, the double evil 
 spoken of in the text, occurs again in the gos- 
 pel ; there we find men spoken of, who in like 
 manner, insisted upon what was. trifling, and 
 were careless of what was important ; and in 
 the epistles, we find, again, the same characters 
 holding up as righteous others than those who 
 worked righteousness ; men, who spoke lies in 
 hypocrisy, having their conscience seared v^dth a 
 hot iron. We may presume, therefore, that 
 this evil is of an enduring character ; but if we 
 look back to the history of the Christian Church, 
 or look around us, the presumption becomes the 
 sad conviction of experience. 
 
 Nor is the evil merely one which exists in the 
 country at large ; a thing which might be fully 
 dwelt upon any where but here. On the con- 
 trary, I hardly know of an age more exposed to 
 it than youth. There exist in youth, in a very 
 high degree, those opposite feelings of our na- 
 ture, which I have before spoken of, a tendency 
 to respect, to follow, to be led, on the one hand ; 
 and on the other, a lively desire for indepen- 
 dence and freedom. These feehngs often exist 
 in the greatest strength in the same individual ; 
 and when they are not each turned in their 
 proper direction, ruin is the consequence. No- 
 thing is more common than to see great nar- 
 rowness of mind, great prejudices, and great 
 
216 SUPERSTITION IS IDOLATRY* 
 
 disorderliness of conduct, united in the same per- 
 son. Nothing is more common than to see the 
 same mind utterly prostrated before some idol of 
 its own, and supporting that idol with the most 
 furious zeal, and at the same time utterly rebel- 
 lious to Christ, and rejecting with scorn the 
 enlightening, the purifying, and the loving influ- 
 ences of Christ's Spirit. 
 
 The idols of various minds are infinitely vari- 
 ous, some seducing the loftiest natures and some 
 the vilest. But of this we may be sure, that 
 every one of us has a tendency to some one 
 idol or other, if not to many ; and our busi- 
 ness is especially each to watch ourselves, lest 
 we be enslaved to our peculiar idol. I will 
 now, however, speak of those which tempt the 
 highest minds, which by their show of sacred- 
 ness and excellence, make us fancy, that while 
 following them we are following Christ. And 
 let none be surprised, if I rank among idols 
 many things, which, in themselves and in their 
 proper use and order, are indeed to be loved and 
 reverenced. It was most right to respect the 
 Apostle Peter, and listen to his word ; but that 
 great Apostle would have been ruin to Cornelius, 
 and not salvation, if he had suffered him, without 
 reproof, to fall down before him, and render to 
 him the service due to Christ alone. How 
 many good and pious feelings must have been 
 
HOLY THINGS OFTEN MADE IDOLS. 217 
 
 awakened from age to age in many minds, 
 at the sight of the brazen serpent on the pole, the 
 memorial of their fathers' deliverance in the 
 wilderness. But when this awakening, this 
 solemn memorial was corrupted into an idol, 
 when men bowed down before it in superstition, 
 it was the part of true piety to do as Hezekiah 
 did, to dash it, notwithstanding all its solemu 
 associations, into a thousand pieces. 
 
 Thus things good, things noble, things sacred, 
 may all become idols. To some minds truth is 
 an idol, to others justice, to others charity or 
 benevolence ; and others are beguiled by ob- 
 jects of a different sort of sacredness : some 
 have made Christ's mother their idol; some 
 Christ's servants ; some, again, Christ's sacra- 
 ments, and Christ's own body^ the church. If 
 these may all be idols, where can we find a 
 name so holy, as that we may surrender up our 
 whole souls to it ; before which obedience, rever- 
 ence without measure, intense humility, most 
 unreserved adoration, may all be duly rendered. 
 One name there is, and one only ; one alone 
 in heaven and in earth ; not truth, not justice, 
 not benevolence, not Christ's mother, not his 
 holiest servants, not his blessed sacraments, 
 not his very mystical body, but Himself only, 
 who died for us and rose again, Jesus Christ, 
 both God and Man. 
 
218 CHRIST THE CURE FOR IDOLATRY. 
 
 He is truths and he is righteousness^ and he 
 is love ; he gives his grace to his sacraments, 
 and his manifold gifts to his church ; whoever 
 hath him, hath all things ; but if we do not 
 take heed, whenever we turn our mind to any- 
 other object, we shall make it an idol and lose 
 him. Take him in all his fulness ; not as God 
 merely, not as man merely ; not in his life on 
 earth only, not in his death only, not in his ex- 
 altation at God's right hand only ; but in all his 
 fulness, the Christ of God, God and Man, our Pro- 
 phet, our Priest, our King, and Lord ; redeeming 
 us by his blood, sanctifying us by his Spirit; and 
 then worship him and love him with all the 
 heart, and with all the soul, and with all the 
 strength ; and we shall see how all evil will be 
 barred, and all good will abound. No man who 
 worships Christ alone, can be a fanatic, nor yet 
 can be a mere philosopher ; he cannot be bigot- 
 ted, nor yet can he be indifferent ; he cannot be 
 so the slave of what he calls amiable feelings, 
 as to cast truth and justice behind him ; nor yet 
 can he so pursue truth and justice as to lose 
 sight of humbler and softer feelings, self-abase- 
 ment, reverence, devotion. There is no evil 
 tendency in the nature of any one of us, 
 which has not its cure in the true worship of 
 Christ our Saviour. Let us look into our hearts, 
 and consider their besetting faults. Are we indo- 
 
LOVE OF IDOLS IS NOT TRUE REVERENCE, 219 
 
 lent, or are we active; are we enthusiastic, or 
 are we cold; zealous or indifferent, devout or 
 reasonable ; whatever the inclination or bias of 
 our nature be, if we follow its kindred idol, it 
 will be magnified and grow on to our ruin ; if we 
 worship Christ, it will be pruned and chastened, 
 and made to grow up with opposite tendencies, 
 all alike tempered, none destroyed ; none over- 
 growing the garden, but all filling it with their 
 several fruits ; so that it shall be, indeed, the 
 garden of the Lord, and the Spirit of the Lord 
 shall dwell in the midst of it. 
 
 And who shall dare to make sad the heart of 
 him who is thus drinking daily of the well-spring 
 of righteousness, by telling him that he is not 
 yet saved, nor can be, unless he will come and 
 bow down before his idol ? And if, rather than 
 do so, he break the idol in pieces, who shall 
 dare to call him profane, or cold in love to his 
 Lord, when it was in his very jealousy for his 
 Lord, and in his full purpose to worship him alone, 
 that he threw down all that exalted itself above 
 its due proportion against him ? And if a man 
 be not so worshipping Christ only, who shall 
 dare to encourage him in his evil way, by mag- 
 nifying the sacredness of his idol, and ascribing 
 to it that healing virtue which belongs to Christ 
 alone ? 
 
 What has been here said might bear to be 
 
220 BUT ITS GllEAT ENEMY. 
 
 followed up at far greater length than the 
 present occasion will admit of. But the main 
 point is one, I think, of no small importance, 
 that all fanaticism and superstition on the one 
 hand, and all unbelief and coldness of heart on 
 the other, arise from what is in fact idolatry, — 
 the putting some other object, whether it be 
 called a religious or moral one, — and an object 
 often in itself very excellent, — in the place of 
 Christ himself, as set forth to us fully in the 
 Scriptures. And as no idol can stand in Christ's 
 place, or in any way save us, so whoever wor- 
 ships Christ truly is preserved from all idols, and 
 has life eternal. And if any one demand of him, 
 further, that he should worship his idol, and tells 
 him that he is not safe if he does not, his answer 
 will be rather that he will perish if he does ; that 
 he is safe, fully safe, and only safe, so long as he 
 clings to Christ alone; and that to make any- 
 thing else necessary to his safety, is not only to 
 minister to superstition but to ungodliness also ; 
 not only to lay on us a yoke which neither our 
 fathers nor we were able to bear; but, by the 
 very act of laying this unchristian yoke upon us, 
 to tear from us the easy yoke and light burden 
 of Christ himself, our Lord and our life. 
 
 September ISthy 1836. 
 
SEEMON XXL 
 
 ADVENT SUNDAY. 
 
 Hebrews iii. 16. 
 
 For some when they had heard did provoke : howbeit not 
 all that came out of Egypt by Moses. 
 
 I TAKE this verse as my text, rather than those 
 which immediately go before or follow it, because 
 it affords one of the most serious instances of 
 mistranslation that are to be met with in the whole 
 New Testament. For the true translation of the 
 words is this : '' For who were they who, when 
 they had heard, did provoke ? nay, were they 
 ' not all who came out of Egypt through Moses ?" 
 And then it goes on, "And with whom was 
 he grieved forty years? was it not with them 
 that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wil- 
 derness? And to whom sware he that they 
 should not enter into his rest, but to them that be- 
 Jieved not?" I call this a serious mistranslation. 
 
222 
 
 ADVENT IS OUR NEW YEAR S DAY. 
 
 because it lessens the force of the writer's com- 
 parison. So far from meaning to say that ^' some, 
 but not all did provoke," he lays a stress on the 
 universality of the evil : it v^as not only a few, 
 but the whole people who came out of Egypt, 
 with only the two individual exceptions of Caleb 
 and Joshua. All the rest who were grown up 
 when they came out of Egypt did provoke God ; 
 and the carcases of that whole generation fell in 
 the wilderness. 
 
 Had the lesson from the Hebrews been actu- 
 ally chosen for the service of this day, it could 
 hardly have suited it better. For this day is the 
 New-year's day of the christian year ; and it is 
 probably for this reason that the service of the 
 first day of the common year is confined entirely 
 to the commemoration of our Lord's circum- 
 cision, and takes no notice of the beginning of a 
 new year. It is manifest that it could not do so 
 without confusion: for the first of January is 
 not the beginning of the Christian year, but 
 Advent Sunday ; the last Sunday of the Chris- 
 tian year is not Christmas-day, as it would be 
 this year if we reckoned by the common divi- 
 sions of time; but it is the last Sunday after 
 Trinity. Now, then, we are at the beginning 
 of our year ; and well it is that, as our trial is 
 now become shorter by another year, as another 
 division of our lives has passed away, we should 
 
HOW REGARDED BY THE CHURCH. 223 
 
 fix our eyes on that which makes every year so 
 valuable, — the Judgment, for which it ought to 
 be a preparation. In fact, if we observe, we 
 shall see that these Sundays in Advent are much 
 more regarded by the church as the beginning 
 of a new year, than as a mere prelude to the 
 celebration of the festival of Christmas. That 
 is, Christmas-day is regarded, so to speak, in a 
 twofold hght, as representing both the comings 
 of our Lord, his first coming in the flesh, and 
 his second coming to judgment. When the day 
 actually arrives it commemorates our Lord's first 
 coming : and this is the beginning of the Chris- 
 tian year, historically regarded, that is, so far as 
 it is a commemoration of the several events of 
 our Lord's life on earth. But before it comes, 
 it is regarded as commemorating our Lord's 
 second coming : and wisely, for his first coming 
 requires now no previous preparation for it ; we 
 cannot well put ourselves into the position of 
 those who lived before Christ appeared. But our 
 whole life is, or ought to be, a preparation for 
 his second coming ; and it is this state, of 
 which the season of Advent in the church ser- 
 vices is intended to be the representation. 
 
 There is something striking in the season of 
 the natural year at which we thus celebrate the 
 beginning of another Christian year. It is a 
 true type of our condition, of the insensible 
 
224 ITS SEASON IS TYPICAL. 
 
 manner in which all the changes of our lives 
 steal upon us, that nature, at this moment, gives 
 no outward signs of beginning ; it is a period 
 which does not manifest any striking change in 
 the state of things around us. The Christian 
 Spring begins ere we have reached the half of 
 the natural winter. Nature is not bursting into 
 life, but rather preparing itself for a long period 
 of death. And this is a type of an universal 
 truth, that the signs and warnings which we 
 must look to, must come from within us, not 
 from without ; that neither sky nor earth will 
 arouse us from our deadly slumber, unless we 
 are ourselves aroused already, and more disposed 
 to make warnings for ourselves than to find 
 them. 
 
 If this be true of nature, it is true also of all 
 the efforts of man. As nature will give no sign, 
 so man cannot. Let the church do all that she 
 may ; let her keep her solemn anniversaries, and 
 choose out for her services all such passages of 
 scripture, as may be most fitted to impress the 
 lesson which she would teach ; still we know 
 that these are alike powerless and unheeded ; 
 that unless there be in our own minds some- 
 thing beforehand disposed to profit by them, 
 they are but the words of unavailing affection, 
 vainly spoken to the ears of the dead. 
 
 Oh that we would remember this, all of us ; 
 
ITS WARNING IS UNHEEDED, 225 
 
 that there is no voice in nature, no voice in man, 
 that can really awaken the sleeping soul. That 
 is the work of a far mightier power, to be sought 
 for with most earnest prayers for ourselves and 
 for each other; that the Holy Spirit of God 
 would speak, and would dispose our hearts to 
 hear ; that so being awakened from death, and 
 our ears being truly opened, all things outward 
 may now join in language which we can hear ; 
 and nature, and man, life and death, things 
 present and things to come, may be but the 
 manifold voices of the Spirit of God, all work- 
 ing for us together for good. Till this be so, 
 we speak in vain ; our words neither reach our 
 own hearts, nor the hearts of our hearers ; they 
 are but recorded in God's book of judgment, to 
 be brought forward hereafter for the condemna- 
 tion of us both. 
 
 Yet we must still speak ; for the Spirit of 
 God, who alone works in us effectually, works 
 also secretly ; we know not when, nor how, nor 
 where. But we know, that as the Father worketh 
 hitherto, and the Son worketh hitherto, so the 
 Holy Spirit worketh hitherto, and is still work- 
 ing daily. We know that, every year, he creates 
 in thousands of God's people that work which 
 alone shall abide for ever. We know that in 
 the year that is just past he has done this ; that 
 in the year which is just beginning he will do it. 
 
 Q 
 
226 TILL THE SPIRIT OF GOD SPEAKS IN IT. 
 
 Have we not here, also, many in whom he has 
 wrought this work? may we not hope, and 
 surely believe, that there are many in whom he 
 is even now preparing to work it ? 
 
 We know not who these are ; still less do we 
 know, what were the occasions which the 
 Holy Spirit so blessed as to work in them 
 his work of life. But this we know, that we 
 are bound to minister all the occasions which 
 we can ; we must not spare our labour, al- 
 though it is God alone who gives the in- 
 crease. We must speak of life and of death, 
 of Christ and of judgment, not forgetting that 
 we speak often, and shall speak, utterly in vain ; 
 yet knowing that it is by these very thoughts, 
 though long unheeded, that God's Spirit does 
 in his own good time awaken the heart : he 
 takes of the things of Christ and shows them to 
 us ; and then, what was before like a book in a 
 strange language — we saw the figures, but they 
 conveyed no meaning to our minds — becomes, 
 on a sudden, instinct with the language of God, 
 which we hear and understand as readily as if it 
 were our own tongue wherein we were born. 
 
 Therefore, we speak and say, that another 
 year has now dawned upon us ; and we would 
 remind you, and remember ourselves, in what 
 words the various Scriptures of this day's service 
 point out its inestimable value. *' Now is our 
 
PASSAGES OF THE DAy's SERVICE 227 
 
 salvation nearer than when we believed." So 
 says St. Paul in the epistle of this day ; and how 
 blessed are all those amongst us who can feel 
 that this is truly said of them ! Then, indeed, 
 a new year's day is a day of rejoicing ; we are 
 so much nearer that period when all care, all 
 anxiety, all painful labour will be for ever ended. 
 But there is other language of a different sort, 
 which, it may be, will suit us better. *' I have 
 nourished and brought up children, and they 
 have rebelled against me." ^' Their land is full 
 of idols, they worship the work of their own 
 hands, that which their own fingers have made ;" 
 which means to us, the work of our own hearts, 
 that which our own fancies and desires have 
 made. '' Enter into the rock and hide thee in 
 the dust, for fear of the Lord and for the glory of 
 his majesty." For, in the very temple of God, 
 his church, all manner of profane thoughts and 
 words and works are crowded together ; the din 
 of covetousness and worldliness is loud and con- 
 stant, and will ill abide the day of His coming, 
 who will, a second time, cast out of his temple 
 all that is unclean. And is there not also in us 
 that evil heart of unbelief and disobedience 
 which departs from the living God? are there 
 not here those who are becoming daily hardened 
 through the deceitfulness of sin ? How are they 
 passing their time in the wilderness, and with 
 Q 2 
 
 I 
 
228 WHICH SPEAKS ITS FITTING LANGUAGE. 
 
 what prospects when they come to the end of 
 it ? God said, '' I sware in my wrath, that they 
 shall not enter into my rest." By the way that 
 they came, by the same shall they return ; they 
 shall go back to that bondage from which they 
 were once redeemed, and from which they will 
 be redeemed again no more for ever. 
 
 These are some of the passages of this day's 
 service which speak to us at the beginning of 
 this new christian year. Let me add to all this 
 language of warning, the language in which God, 
 by his apostle Paul, answers every one of us, if 
 we ask of him in sincerity of heart, '' Lord, what 
 wilt thou have me to do ?" He answers, '' The 
 night is far spent ; the day is at hand : let us 
 walk honestly as in the day ; not in rioting and 
 drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, 
 not in strife and envying ; but put ye on the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for 
 the flesh to fulfil the works thereof." Now, I 
 grant, that this day, of which the apostle speaks, 
 has never yet shone so brightly as he had hoped 
 and imagined; clouds have, up to this hour, 
 continually overshadowed it. I mean, that the 
 lives of Christians have hindered them from 
 being the hght of the world. It has been a light 
 pale and dim, and, therefore, the works of dark- 
 ness have continued to abound. But admit this, 
 and what follows ? Is it, or can it be, any thing 
 
god's kingdom still imperfect. 229 
 
 else but a more earnest desire not to be ourselves 
 children of darkness, lest what we see to have 
 happened in part should happen altogether; 
 namely, that the day should never shine on us 
 at all ? We see that God's promises have been 
 in part forfeited ; we see that Christ's kingdom 
 has not been what it was prophesied it should 
 be. Is not this a solemn warning, that for us, 
 too, individually, God's promises may be for- 
 feited? that all that we read in Scripture of 
 light, and life, and glory, and happiness, should 
 really prove to us words only, and no reality ? 
 that whereas the promise of salvation has been 
 made to us, we should be in the end, not saved, 
 but lost ? If, indeed, God's kingdom were 
 shining around us, in its full beauty; if every 
 evil thing were driven out of his temple ; if we 
 saw nothing but holy lives and happy, the fruits 
 of his Spirit, truth, and love, and joy ; then we 
 might be less anxious for ourselves ; our course 
 would be far smoother ; the very stream would 
 carry us along to the end of our voyage without 
 our labour; what evil thoughts would not be 
 withered, and die long ere they could ripen into 
 action, if the very air which we breathed were of 
 such keen and heavenly purity ! It is because 
 all this is not so, that we have need of so much 
 watchfulness; it is because the faults of every 
 one of us make our brethren's task harder; 
 
230 LET us EACH IN OURSELVES 
 
 because there is not one bad or careless person 
 amongst us who is not a hindrance in his 
 brother's path, and does not oblige him to exert 
 himself the more. Therefore, because the day 
 is not bright, but overclouded ; because it is but 
 too like the night, and too many use it as the 
 night for all works of darkness ; let us take the 
 more heed that we do not ourselves so mistake 
 it ; let us watch each of us the light within us, 
 lest, indeed, we should wholly stumble ; let us 
 put on the Lord Jesus Christ. You know how 
 often I have dwelt on this ; how often I have 
 tried to show that Christ is all in all to us ; that 
 to put on Christ, is a truer and fuller expression, 
 by far, than if we had been told to put "on truth, 
 or holiness, or goodness. It includes all these, 
 with something more, that nothing but itself can 
 give — the sense of safety, and joy unspeakable, 
 in feeling ourselves sheltered in our Saviour's 
 arms, and taken even into himself. Assuredly, 
 if we put on the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall not 
 make provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts 
 thereof : such a warning would then be wholly 
 unnecessary. Or, if we do not like language 
 thus figurative, let us put it, if we will, into the 
 plainest words that shall express the same mean- 
 ing ; let us call it praying to Christ, thinking of 
 him, hoping in him, earnestly loving him : these, 
 at least, are words without a figure, which all 
 
TRY TO PERFECT IT. 231 
 
 can surely understand. Let us be Christ's this 
 year that is now beginning ; be his servants, be 
 his disciples, be his redeemed in deed : let us 
 live to him, and for him ; setting him before us 
 every day, to do his will, and to Hve in his 
 blessing. Then, indeed, if it be his pleasure that 
 we should serve him throughout this year, even 
 to its end, we may repeat, with a deeper feeling 
 of their truth, the words of St. Paul ; w^e may 
 say, when next Advent Sunday shall appear, 
 that now is our salvation nearer than when we 
 became behevers. 
 
 November 21th, 1836. 
 
SERMON XXIL 
 
 CHRISTMAS DAY. 
 
 John i. 10. 
 
 Se was in the world, and the world was made by Him, 
 and the world knew Sim not. 
 
 When we use ourselves, or hear others use, the 
 term '' mystery," as applied to things belonging 
 to the gospel, we should do well to consider 
 what is meant by it. For our common notion 
 of the word mystery, is of something dark ; 
 whereas Christ and his gospel are continually 
 spoken of as being, above all other things, light. 
 Then come others, and say, '' Light and dark- 
 ness cannot go together : what you call the 
 mysteries of Christianity are no part of it, but 
 the fond inventions of man : Christianity is all 
 simple and clear:" and thus they strike away 
 some of the very greatest truths which God has 
 revealed to us. Thus they deal in particular 
 
CHRISTIAN MYSTERIES ARE REVELATIONS. 233 
 
 with the great truth declared in the text, that 
 He who made the world visited it in the like- 
 ness of man. Now, if this truth were a mystery, 
 in the common notion of that term ; if it were a 
 thing full of darkness, defying our minds to un- 
 derstand it, or to. draw any good from it ; then, 
 indeed, it would be of little consequence whether 
 we received it or no. It is because it is a mys- 
 tery in a very different sense, in the sense in 
 which the word is used commonly in the Scrip- 
 tures, that is, a thing which was a secret, but 
 which God has been pleased to reveal, and to 
 reveal for our benefit, that therefore the loss of 
 it would be the loss of a real blessing, a loss at 
 once of light and comfort. 
 
 But we must go a little further, and explain 
 from what this sad confusion in the use of the 
 term "mystery" has arisen. There are many? 
 things, relating to ourselves and to things 
 around us, which by nature we cannot under- 
 stand ; and of God we can scarcely understand 
 anything. Now, while the gospel has revealed 
 much that we did not know before, it yet has 
 not revealed everything : of God, in particular, 
 it has given us much most precious knowledge, 
 yet it has not removed all the veil. It has fur- 
 nished us with a glass, indeed, to use the 
 apostle's comparison ; but the glass, although 
 a great help, although reflecting a likeness of 
 
234 THEY REMOVE DARKNESS, NOT CAUSE IT. 
 
 what, without it, we could not see at all, is 
 yet a dark and imperfect manner of seeing, 
 compared with the seeing face to face. So, 
 when the gospel tells us that He who made the 
 world visited it in our nature, it does not indeed 
 enable us yet fully to conceive what He is who 
 made us, and then became as one of us ; there 
 is still left around the name of God that light 
 inaccessible which is to our imperfections dark- 
 ness; and so far as we cannot understand or 
 conceive rightly of God, so far it is true that 
 we cannot understand all that is conveyed in 
 the expression that God was in the world dwell- 
 ing among us. Yet it is still most true that by 
 the revelation thus made to us we have gained 
 / immensely. God, as he is in himself, we cannot 
 I understand; but Jesus Christ we can. When 
 ' we are told to love God, if we look to the life 
 and death of Christ, we can understand and feel 
 how truly He deserves our love ; when we are 
 told to be perfect as God is perfect, we have the 
 image of this perfection so truly set before us in 
 his son Jesus, that it may be well said, " Whoso 
 hath seen Him hath seen the Father ;" and why, 
 then, should we ask with Philip, that "He should 
 show us the Father ?" 
 
 What, then, the festival of Christmas presents 
 to us, as distinct from that of Easter, is, gene- 
 rally, the revelation of God in the flesh. True 
 
REVELATION OF GOD IN THE FLESH. 235 
 
 it is, that we may make it, if we will, the same 
 as Easter : that is, we may celebrate it as the 
 birth of our Saviour, of Him who died and rose 
 again for us; but then we only celebrate our 
 Lord's birth with reference to his death and 
 resurrection : that is, we make Christmas to be 
 Easter under another name. And so every- 
 thing relating to our Lord may be made to refer 
 to his death and resurrection ; for in them con- 
 sists our redemption, and for that reason Easter 
 has ever been considered as the great festival of 
 the christian year. But yet, apart from this, 
 Christmas has something peculiarly its own: 
 namely, as I said before, the revelation of God 
 in the flesh, not only to make atonement for 
 our sins, — which is the peculiar subject of the 
 celebration of the season of Easter, — but to give 
 us notions of God at once distinct and lively ; to 
 enable us to have One in the invisible world, 
 whom we could conceive of as distinctly as of 
 a mere man, yet whom we might love with all 
 our hearts, and trust with all our hearts, and 
 yet be guilty of no idolatry. 
 
 It is not, then, only as the beginning of an 
 earthly life of httle more than thirty years, that 
 we may celebrate the day of our Lord's birth in 
 the flesh. His own words express what this day 
 has brought to us : '' Henceforth shall ye see 
 heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending 
 
236 
 
 and descending upon the Son of man." The 
 words here, Hke so many of our Lord's, are ex- 
 pressed in a parable; but their meaning is not 
 the less clear. They allude evidently to Jacob's 
 vision, to the ladder reaching from earth to 
 heaven, on which the angels were ascending 
 and descending continually. But this vision 
 is itself a parable : showing, under the figure 
 of the ladder reaching from earth to heaven, 
 and the angels going up and down on it, a free 
 communication, as it were, between God and 
 man, heaven brought nearer to earth, and hea- 
 venly things made more familiar. Now, this is 
 done, in a manner, by every revelation from 
 God, most of all by the revelation of his Son. 
 Nor is it only by his Spirit that Christ com- 
 municates with us even now ; though He is 
 ascended again into heaven, yet the benefits of 
 his having become man, over and above those 
 of his dying and rising again for us, have not 
 yet passed away. It is still the man Christ 
 Jesus who brings heaven near to earth, and 
 earth near to heaven. 
 
 It has been well said by Augustine, that 
 babes in Christ should so think of the Son of 
 man as not to lose sight of the Son of God : 
 that more advanced Christians should so think 
 of the Son of God as not to lose sight of the 
 Son of man. Augustine well understood how 
 
AS MAKING GOD CONCEIVABLE, 237 
 
 the thought of the Son of man is fitted to 
 our weakness ; and that the best and most 
 advanced of us in this mortal Hfe are never so 
 strong as to be able to do without it. Have 
 we ever tried this with our children ? We tell 
 them that God made them, and takes care of 
 them, and loves them, and hears their prayers, 
 and knows what is in their hearts, and cannot 
 bear what is evil. These are such notions 
 of God as a child requires, and can under- 
 stand. But, if we join with them some of those 
 other notions which belong to God as he is in 
 himself; that he is a Spirit, not to be seen, not 
 to be conceived of as in any one place, or in 
 any one form ; what do we but embarrass our 
 child's mind, and lessen that sense of near and 
 dear relation to God which our earlier accounts 
 of God had given him ? Yet we must teach him 
 something of this sort, if we would prevent him 
 from forming unworthy notions of God, such as 
 have been the beginning of all idolatry. Here, 
 then, is the blessing of the revelation of God in 
 Christ. All that he can understand of God, or 
 love in him, or fear in him — that is to be found 
 in Christ. Christ made him, takes care of him, 
 can hear his prayers, can read his little heart, 
 loves him tenderly ; yet cannot bear what is 
 evil, and will strictly judge him at the last day. 
 But what we must teach when we speak of God, 
 
238 WHICH IN HIMSELF HE IS NOT. 
 
 yet which has a tendency to lessen the Hvehness 
 of our impressions of him, this has no place 
 when we speak of Christ. Christ has a body, 
 incorruptible and glorified indeed, such as they 
 who are Christ's shall also wear at his coming, 
 yet still a body. Christ is not to be seen, 
 indeed, for the clouds have received him out of 
 our sight ; yet he may be conceived of as in one 
 place — at the right hand of God ; as in one cer- 
 tain and well-known form — the form of the Son 
 of man. Yet let us observe again, and be thank- 
 ful for the perfect wisdom of God. Even while 
 presenting to us God in Christ, that is to say, 
 God with all those attributes which we can 
 understand, and fear, and love ; and without 
 those which throw us, as it were, to an infinite 
 distance, overwhelming our minds, and baffling 
 all our conceptions ; even then the utmost care 
 is taken to make us remember that God in him- 
 self is really that infinite and incomprehensible 
 Being to whom we cannot, in our present state, 
 approach ; that even his manifestation of himself 
 in Christ Jesus, is one less perfect than we shall 
 be permitted to see hereafter ; that Christ stands 
 at the right hand of the Majesty on high ; that 
 he has received from the Father all his kingdom 
 and his glory ; finally, that the Father is greater 
 than he, inasmuch as any other nature added to 
 the pure and perfect essence of God, must, in a 
 
SCRIPTURE TEACHES THIS CAREFULLY. 239 
 
 certain measure, if I may venture so to speak, 
 be a coming down to a lower point, from the 
 very and unmixed Divinity. 
 
 I have purposely mentioned this last circum- 
 stance, although it is not the view that I wish 
 particularly to take to-day, because such pas- 
 sages as that which I quoted, where Christ tells 
 his disciples, that his Father was greater than 
 he, and many others of the same sort, through- 
 out the New Testament, are sometimes apt to 
 embarrass and perplex us, if we do not consider 
 their pecuHar object. It was very necessary, 
 especially at a time when men were so accus- 
 tomed to worship their highest gods under the 
 form of men, that, whilst the gospel was itself 
 holding out the man Christ Jesus as the object 
 of religious faith, and fear, and love, and teach- 
 ing that all power was given to him, in heaven 
 and in earth, — it should, also, guard us against 
 supposing that it meant to represent God as, in 
 himself, wearing a human form, or having a 
 nature partaking of our infirmities ; and, there- 
 fore, it always speaks of there beinff something 
 in God higher, and more perfect, than could 
 possibly be revealed to man : and for this eternal, 
 and infinite, and inconceivable Being, it claims 
 the reserve of our highest thoughts, or, rather, 
 it commands us to believe, that they who shall 
 hereafter see God face to face, shall be allowed 
 
240 PRACTICAL VALUE OF THIS REVELATION. 
 
 to see something still greater than is now 
 revealed to us, even in Him who is the ex- 
 press image of God, and the brightness of his 
 glory. 
 
 But, now, to return to what I was dwelling on 
 before. It is not only for children, that the 
 revelation of God in Christ is so valuable : it is 
 fitted to the wants of us all, at all times, and 
 under all circumstances. Say, that we are in 
 joy ; say, that we are enjoying some of the 
 festivities of this season. It is quite plain, that, 
 at whatever moment the thought of God is 
 unwelcome to us, that moment is one of sin or 
 unbelief; yet, how can we dare to mix up the 
 notion of the most high God with any earthly 
 merriment, or festivity ? Then, if we think of 
 him who was present at the marriage in Cana of 
 Galilee, and who worked a miracle for no other 
 object than to increase the enjoyment of that 
 marriage supper, do we not feel how the highest 
 thoughts may be joined with the most common 
 occasions ? how we may bring Christ home with 
 us to our social meetings, to bless us, and to 
 sanctify them ? Imagine him in our feasts as he 
 was in Cana ; — we may do it without profaneness ; 
 being sure, from that example, that he condemns 
 not innocent mirth ; that it is not merely because 
 there is a feast, or because friends and neigh- 
 bours are gathered together, that Christ cannot. 
 
CHRIST AMONGST US, 241 
 
 therefore, be in the midst of us. This alone 
 does not drive him away ; but O consider, 
 with what ears would he have Hstened to any 
 words of unkindness, of profaneness, or of im- 
 purity! with what eyes would he have viewed 
 any intemperance, or revelling ; any such im- 
 moderate yielding up of the night to pleasure, 
 that a less portion of the next day can be given 
 to duty and to God ! Even as he would have 
 heard or seen such things in Cana of Galilee, so 
 does he hear and see them amongst us ; the 
 same gracious eye of love is on our moderate 
 and permitted enjoyments ; the same turning 
 away from, the same firm and just displeasure 
 at every word or deed which turns pleasure 
 into sin. 
 
 But if I seek for instances to show how God 
 in Christ is brought very near to us, what can I 
 choose more striking than that most solemn act 
 of christian communion to which we are called 
 this day ? For, w^hat is there in our mortal hfe, 
 what joy, what sorrow, what feeling elated or 
 subdued, which is not in that communion brought 
 near to Christ to receive his blessing ? What is 
 the first and outward thing of which it reminds 
 us ? Is it not that last supper in Jerusalem, in 
 which men, — the twelve disciples, the first mem- 
 bers of our christian brotherhood, — were brought 
 
 R 
 
 I 
 
242 IN THE HOLY COMMUNION, 
 
 into such solemn nearness to God, as seems to 
 have begun the privileges of heaven upon earth ? 
 They were brought near at once to Christ and 
 to one another ; united to one another in him, in 
 that double bond which is the perfection at once 
 of our duty and of our happiness. And so in 
 our communion we, too, draw near to Christ 
 and to each other ; we feel — who is there at 
 that moment, at least, that does not feel ? — what 
 a tie there is to bind each of us to his brother, 
 when we come to the table of our common 
 Lord. So far, the Lord's Supper is but a type 
 of what every christian meeting should be : 
 never should any of us be gathered together on 
 any occasion of common life, in our families or 
 with our neighbours ; we should sit down to no 
 meal, we should meet in no company, without 
 having Christ also in the midst of us ; without 
 remembering what we all are to him, and what 
 we each therefore are to our brethren. But when 
 we further recollect what there is in the Lord's 
 Supper beyond the mere meeting of Christ and 
 his disciples ; what it is which the bread and the 
 wine commemorate ; of what we partake when, 
 as true Christians, we eat of that bread, and 
 drink of that cup ; then we shall understand 
 that God indeed is brought very near to us ; 
 inasmuch as he who is a Christian, and partakes 
 
AND IN ALL PLACES, 243 
 
 sincerely of christian communion^ is a partaker 
 also of Christ; and as belonging to his body, 
 his living spiritual body, the universal Church, 
 receives his share of all those blessings, of all 
 that infinite love which the Father shows con- 
 tinually to the head of that body, his own well- 
 beloved Son. 
 
 Say not then in your hearts. Who can ascend 
 up into heaven, that is, to bring Christ down ? 
 As on this day, when he took our nature upon 
 him, he came down to abide with us for ever : 
 to abide with us, even when we should see him 
 with our eyes no more ; for whilst he was on 
 earth he so took part in all the concerns of life, 
 in all its duties, its sorrows, and its joys, that 
 memory, when looking back on the past, can 
 fancy him present still ; and then let the liveliest 
 fancy do its work to the utmost, it cannot go 
 beyond the reality ; he is present still, for that 
 belongs to his almightiness ; he is present with 
 us, because he is God ; and we can fancy him 
 with us, because he is man. This is the way to 
 lessen our distance from God and heaven, by 
 bringing Christ continually to us on earth : the 
 sky is closed, and shows no sign ; all things 
 continue as they were from the beginning of the 
 '- world ; evil abounds, and therefore the faith of 
 WL many waxes cold ; but Christ was and is 
 
 m r2 
 
 I 
 
244 AND FOR EVER. 
 
 amongst us ; and we need no surer sign than 
 that sign of the prophet Jonah — Christ cru- 
 cified and Christ risen — to make us feel 
 that we may live with God daily upon earth, 
 and doing so, shall live with him for an 
 eternal life, in a country that cannot pass 
 away. 
 
 December 25th, 1835. 
 
SERMON XXIIL 
 
 SUNDAY NEXT BEFORE EASTER. 
 
 Matthew xxvi. 40, 41. 
 
 What, could ye not watch with me one hour ? Watch and 
 pray, that ye enter not into temptation; the spirit 
 indeed is willingj hut the flesh is weak. 
 
 These words, we cannot doubt, have an applica- 
 tion to ourselves and to all Christians, far be- 
 yond the particular occasion on which they were 
 actually spoken. They are, in fact, the words 
 which Christ addresses daily to all of us. Every 
 day, when he sees how often we have gone 
 astray from him, he repeats to us. Could ye not 
 watch with me one hour ? Every day he com- 
 mands us to watch and pray, that we enter not 
 into temptation ; every day he reminds us, that 
 however willing may be our spirits, yet our 
 
246 WATCHING WITH CHRIST. 
 
 flesh is weak ; and that through that weakness, 
 sin prevails over it, and having triumphed over 
 our flesh, proceeds to enslave our spirit also. 
 
 And as the words are applicable to us every 
 day, so also are they in a particular manner suit- 
 able now, when the season of Lent is so nearly 
 over, and Easter is so fast approaching. Have 
 we been unable to watch with Christ one hour ? 
 Already are the good resolutions with which we, 
 perhaps, began Lent, broken in many instances ; 
 and the impressions, if any such were made in 
 us, are already weak end They have been a 
 burden, which we have shal^en off", because the 
 weakness of our nature found it too heavy to 
 bear. Sad it is to think how often this same 
 process has been repeated in all time, how often 
 it will be repeated to the end. 
 
 Let us just review what the course of this 
 process has probably been. Now, as the parable 
 of the Sower describes three several sorts of 
 persons, who never bring forth fruit ; so in the 
 very same persons, there is at different times 
 something of each of the three characters there 
 described. We, the very same persons, are at 
 one time hard, at another careless, and at another 
 over busy ; although, if compared with other 
 persons, and in the general form of their charac- 
 ter, some are hard, and others are careless, and 
 others over busy ; different persons having 
 
THE HARD WILL NOT WATCH^ 247 
 
 different faults predominantly. But even the 
 hardness of the road side, although God forbid 
 that it should be our prevaihng temper, yet surely 
 it does sometimes exist in too many of us. In 
 common speech, we talk of a person showing a 
 hard temper, meaning, generally, a hard temper 
 towards other men. We have done wrong, but 
 being angry when we are reproved for it, we 
 will not acknowledge it at all, and cheat our con- 
 sciences, by dwelling upon the supposed vn-ong 
 that has been done to us in some over severity 
 of reproof or punishment, instead of confessing 
 and repenting of tl^e original wrong which we 
 ourselves did. But is it not true, that a hard 
 temper towards man is very often, even con- 
 sciously, a hard temper towards God ? Does 
 it never happen, that if conscience presents 
 to us the thought of God, whether as a 
 God of judgment to terrify us, or as a God of 
 love to melt us, we repel it with impatience, or 
 with sullenness ? Does not the heart sometimes 
 almost speak aloud the language of blasphemy : 
 Who is God, that I should mind him ? I do not 
 care what may happen, I will not be softened. 
 Do not all sorts of unbelieving thoughts pass 
 rapidly through the mind at such moments; 
 first in their less daring form, whispering as the 
 serpent did to Eve, that we shall not surely 
 die ; that we shall have time to repent by and 
 
248 NOR THE CARELESS, 
 
 by ; that God will not be so strict a judge as to 
 condemn us for such a little ; that by some 
 means or other, we shall escape ? But then 
 they come, also, in their bolder form : What do I 
 or any man know about another world, or God's 
 judgments ? may it not be all a fiction, so that 
 I have, in reality, nothing to fear ? In short, 
 under one form or another, is it not true, that 
 our hearts have sometimes displayed actually 
 hardness towards God; that the thought of 
 God has been actually presented to our minds, 
 but that we have turned it aside, and have not 
 suffered it to make any impression upon us ? 
 And thus, we have not only not watched with 
 Christ according to his command, but have 
 actually told him that we would not. But 
 this has been in our worst temper, certainly ; it 
 may not have happened, — I trust that it has not 
 happened often. More commonly, I dare say, 
 the fault has been carelessness. We have gone 
 out of this place ; sacred names have ceased to 
 sound in our ears ; sights in any degree con- 
 nected with holy things have been all withdrawn 
 from us. Other sounds and other sights have 
 been before us, and our minds have yielded to 
 them altogether. There are minds, indeed, 
 which have no spring of thought in themselves ; 
 which are quiet, and in truth empty, till some 
 outward objects come to engage them. Take 
 
NOR THE OVER BUSY. 249 
 
 them at a moment when they are alone, or 
 when there is no very interesting object before 
 them, and ask them of what they are thinking. 
 If the answer were truly given, such a mind would 
 say, " Of nothing." Certain images may be faintly 
 presented to it ; it may be that it is not altogether 
 a blank, yet it could not name any thing dis- 
 tinctly. No form had been vivid enough to pro- 
 duce any corresponding resolution in us ; we 
 were, as it were, in a state between sleeping and 
 waking, with neither thoughts nor dreams defi- 
 nite enough to affect us. This state finds ex- 
 actly all that it desires in the presence or the 
 near hope of outward objects ; the mind lives in 
 its daily pursuits, and companions, and amuse- 
 ments. What impressions had been once pro- 
 duced are soon worn away; and in a soil so 
 shallow nothing makes a durable impression : 
 every thing can, as it were, scratch upon its sur- 
 face, while nothing can strike deeply down 
 within. 
 
 Or, again, take the rarer case of those who 
 are over busy. There are minds, undoubtedly, 
 which are as incapable of rest as those of the 
 generality of men are prone to it; there are 
 minds which enter keenly into everything pre- 
 sented to them by their outward senses, and 
 which, when their senses cease to supply them, 
 have an inexhaustible source of thought within. 
 
 I 
 
250 CHRIST CALLS US STILL TO WATCH, 
 
 which furnishes them with abundant matter of 
 reflection or of speculation. To such a mind, 
 doing is most delightful ; whether it be out- 
 ward doing, or the mere exercise of thought : 
 either supplies alike the consciousness of power. 
 Where, then, is there room for the less obtrud- 
 ing things of God ? Into that restless water, 
 another and another image is for ever stepping 
 down, pushing aside and keeping at a distance 
 the sobering reflections of God and of Christ. 
 Alas! the thorns grow so vigorously in such 
 a soil, that they altogether choke and kill the 
 seed of God's word. 
 
 So, then, we are either asleep, or, if we are 
 awake, we are not waking with Christ. On one 
 side, in that garden of Gethsemane, were the 
 disciples sleeping; below, and fast ascending 
 the hill, — ^not sleeping certainly, but with lan- 
 terns and torches and weapons — were those 
 whose waking was for evil. Where were they 
 who watched with Christ one hour then, — or 
 where are those who watch with him now ? 
 
 How gently, yet how earnestly, does he call 
 upon us to " watch and pray, lest we enter into 
 temptation." To watch and to pray : for of all 
 those around him some were sleeping, and none 
 were praying ; so that they who watched were 
 not watching with him, but against him. In 
 our careless state of mind the call to us is to 
 
WHICH, THOUGH CHRISTIANS IN NAME, 251 
 
 watch ; in our over busy state the call to us 
 is to pray ; in our hard state there is equal 
 need for both. And even in our best moods, 
 when we are not hard, nor careless, nor over 
 busy, when we are at once sober and earnest 
 and gentle, then not least does Christ call upon 
 us to watch and to pray, that we may retain 
 that than which else no gleam of April sunshine 
 was ever more fleeting ; that we may perfect 
 that which else is of the earth, earthly, and 
 when we lie down in the dust vdll wither and 
 come to dust also. 
 
 Jesus Christ brought life and immortality, it 
 is said, to light through the gospel. He brought 
 life and immortality to hght : — is this indeed 
 true as far as we are concerned ? What do we 
 think would be the difference in this point be- 
 tween many of us — who will dare say how 
 many ? — and a school, I will not say of Jewish, 
 but even of Greek or Roman or Eygptian boys, 
 eighteen hundred, or twenty-four hundred, or 
 three or four thousand years ago ? Compare us 
 at our worship with them, and then, I grant, 
 the difference would appear enormous. We 
 have no images, making the glory of the incor- 
 ruptible God like to corruptible man; we have 
 no vain steam of incense ; no shedding of the 
 blood of bulls and calves in sacrifice : the 
 hymns which are sung here are not vain repe- 
 
252 WE YET NEED AS IF WE WERE HEATHENS. 
 
 titions or impious fables, which gave no word of 
 answer to those questions which it most con- 
 cerns mankind to know. Here, indeed, Jesus 
 Christ is truly set forth crucified among us ; 
 here life and immortality are brought to light. 
 But follow us out of this place, — to our re- 
 spective pursuits and amusements, to our social 
 meetings, or our times of solitary thought, — and 
 wherein do we seem to see life and immortality 
 more brightly revealed than to those heathen 
 schools of old ? Do we enjoy any worldly 
 good less keenly, or less shrink from any 
 worldly evil? Death, which to the heathen 
 view was the end of all things, is to us (so 
 our language goes) the gate of life. Do we 
 think of it with more hope and less fear than 
 the heathen did? Christ is risen, and has re- 
 conciled us to God. Is God more to us ? — God 
 now revealed to us as our reconciled Father — 
 do we oftener think of him, do we love him 
 better, than he was thought of and loved in 
 those heathen schools, which had Homer's poetry 
 for their only gospel ? We talk of light, of reve- 
 lation, of the knowledge of God, while verily and 
 really we are walking, not in light, but in dark- 
 ness; not in knowledge of God, but in blind- 
 ness and hardness of heart. 
 
 " The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is 
 weak." How great is the losing -kindness of 
 
WHAT IF WE DO NOT WATCH AND PRAY ? 253 
 
 these words, — how gently does Christ bear 
 with the weakness of his disciples ! But this 
 thought may be the most blessed or the most 
 dangerous thought in the world ; the most 
 blessed if it touches us with love, the most dan- 
 gerous if it emboldens us in sin. He is full of 
 loving-kindness, full of long-suffering ; for days, 
 and weeks, and months, and years, he bears 
 with us : we grieve him, and he entreats ; we 
 crucify him afresh, yet he will not come down 
 from the cross in power and majesty ; he endures 
 and spares. So it is for days, and months, 
 and years ; for some years it may be to most of 
 us, — for many years to some of the youngest. 
 There may be some here who may go on griev- 
 ing Christ, and crucifying him afresh, for as 
 much as seventy years ; and he will bear with 
 them all that time, and his sun will daily shine 
 upon them, and his creatures and his world will 
 minister to their pleasure ; and he himself will 
 say nothing to them but to entreat them to turn 
 and be saved. This may last, I say, to some 
 amongst us for seventy years ; to others it may 
 last fifty ; to many of us it may last for forty, or 
 for thirty ; none of us, perhaps, are so old but 
 that it may last with us twenty, or at the least 
 ten. Such is the prospect before us, if we like 
 it ; not to be depended upon with certainty, it 
 is true, but yet to be regarded as probable. But 
 
254 WHAT IF WE DO NOT WATCH AND PRAY ? 
 
 as these ten, or twenty, or fifty, or seventy years 
 pass on, Christ will still spare us, but his voice 
 of entreaty will be less often heard ; the distance 
 between him and us will be consciously wider. 
 From one place after another where we once 
 used sometimes to see him, he will have de- 
 parted ; year after year, some object which used 
 once to catch the light from heaven, will have 
 become overgrown, and will lie constantly in 
 gloom ; year after year the world will become to 
 us more entirely devoid of God. If sorrow, or 
 some softening joy ever turns our minds towards 
 Christ, we shall be startled at perceiving there is 
 something which keeps us from him, that we 
 cannot earnestly believe in him ; that if we speak 
 of loving him, our hearts, which can still love 
 earthly things, feel that the words are but 
 mockery. Alas! alas! the increased weakness 
 of our flesh has destroyed all the power of our 
 spirit, and almost all its willingness : it is bound 
 with chains which it cannot break, and, indeed, 
 scarcely desires to break. Redemption, Salva- 
 tion, Victory — what words are these when 
 applied to that enslaved, that lost, that utterly 
 overthrown and vanquished soul, which sin is 
 leading in triumph now, and which will speedily 
 be given over to walk for ever as a captive in the 
 eternal triumph of death ! 
 
 Not one word of what I have said is raised 
 
LET US HELP ONE ANOTHER TO DO SO ! 255 
 
 beyond the simplest expression of truth ; this is 
 our portion if we will not watch with Christ. 
 We know how often we have failed to do so, 
 either sleeping in carelessness, or being busy and 
 wakeful, but not with him or for him. Still he 
 calls to us to watch and pray, lest we enter into 
 temptation ; to mark our lives and actions ; to 
 mark them often ; to see whether we have done 
 well or ill in the month past, or in the week past, 
 or in the day past ; to consider whether we are 
 better than we were, or worse ; whether we 
 think Christ loves us better, or worse, whether 
 we are more or less cold towards him. I know 
 not what else can be called watching with Christ 
 than such a looking into ourselves as we are in 
 his sight. It is very hard to be done ; yes, it is 
 hard — harder than any thing probably which we 
 ever attempted before ; and therefore, we must 
 pray withal for his help, whose strength is per- 
 fected in our weakness. And if it be so hard, 
 and we have need so greatly to pray for God's 
 help, should we not all also be anxious to help 
 one another? and knowing, as we do from our 
 own consciences, how difficult it is to watch with 
 Christ, and how thankful we should be to any 
 one who were to make it easier to us, should we 
 not be sure that our neighbour is in like case 
 with ourselves ; that our help may be as useful 
 to him as we feel that his would be to us ? This 
 
 k 
 
256 AND NOT HINDER EACH OTHER. 
 
 is our bounden duty of love towards one 
 another ; what then should be said of us if we 
 not only neglect this duty, but do the very con- 
 trary to it ; if we actually help the evil in our 
 brother's heart to destroy him more entirely ; if 
 we will not watch with Christ ourselves, and 
 strive to prevent others from doing so? 
 
 April \2th, 1840. 
 
SERMON XXIV. 
 
 GOOD FRIDAY. 
 
 Romans v. 8. 
 
 God commendeth his love towards usj in that, while we 
 were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 
 
 We all remember the story in the Gospel of 
 the different treatment which our Lord met with 
 in the same house, from the Pharisee, who had 
 invited him into it, and from the woman who 
 came in and knelt at his feet, and kissed them, 
 and bathed them wdth her tears. Our Lord ac- 
 counted for the difference in these words, *^ To 
 whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little ;" 
 which means to speak of the sense or feeling in 
 the person's own mind, '' He who feels that little 
 is or needs to be forgiven him, he also loves 
 little." And this same difference which existed 
 towards him when he was present on earth, exists 
 
258 DIFFICULTY OF SPEAKING OF CHRIST 
 
 no less now, whenever he is brought before our 
 thoughts. The same sort of persons who saw him 
 with indifference, think of him also with indiffer- 
 ence ; they who saw him with love, think of him 
 also with love. There is no art, no power in the 
 world, which can give an interest to words spoken 
 concerning him, for those who feel that little is 
 and that little needs to be forgiven them, or to 
 those who never consider about their being for- 
 given at all. To such, this day, with its services, 
 what they hear from the Scriptures, or what they 
 hear from men, must be alike a matter of indif- 
 ference : it is not possible that it should be 
 otherwise. Yet, God forbid that we should 
 design what we are saying this day only for a 
 certain few of our congregation, as if the rest 
 neither would nor could be interested in it. So 
 long as any one is careless, he cannot, it is true, 
 be interested about the things of Christ ; but 
 who can say at what moment, through God's 
 grace, he may cease to be careless ? Is it too 
 much to say, that scarcely a service is performed 
 in any congregation in the land, which does not 
 awaken an interest in some one who before was 
 indifferent. I do not say, a deep interest, nor a 
 lasting one, but an interest ; there is a thought, 
 a heeding, an inclination of the mind to hsten, 
 created probably by the Church services in some 
 one or other, every time that they are performed. 
 
TO THOSE WHO CARE AND WHO CARE NOT. 259 
 
 As we never can know in whom this may be so 
 created, as all have great need that it should be 
 created, as all are deeply concerned, whether they 
 feel that they are so or no, so we speak to all 
 alike ; and if the language does pass over their 
 ears like an unknown or indistinct sound, the 
 fault and the loss are theirs; but the Church 
 has borne her witness, and has so far done her 
 duty. 
 
 But again, for ears not careless, but most in- 
 terested ; for hearts to whom Christ is more 
 than all in the world besides ; for minds, before 
 whom the wisdom of the gospel is ever growing, 
 rising to a loftier height, and striking downwards 
 to a depth more profound, — yet without end in 
 its height or its depth ; is there not, also, a 
 difficulty in speaking to them of that great thing 
 which the Church celebrates to-day ? Is there 
 no difficulty in awakening their interest, or 
 rather, how can we escape even from wearying or 
 repelling them, when their own affections and 
 deep thoughts must find all words of man, 
 whether of themselves or others, infinitely un- 
 worthy to express either the one or the other ? 
 To such, then, the words of the preacher may 
 be no more than music without any words at 
 all; which does but serve to lead and accom- 
 pany our own thoughts, without distinctly sug- 
 gesting any thoughts of another to interrupt the 
 
 s2 
 
260 PURPOSES OF Christ's death. 
 
 workings of our own minds. We would speak 
 of Christ's death ; most good it is for us and 
 for you to think upon it ; so far as our words 
 suit the current of your own thoughts, use them 
 and hsten to them ; so far as they are a too 
 unworthy expression of what we ought to think 
 and feel, follow your own reflections, and let the 
 words neither offend you nor distract you. 
 
 I would endeavour just to touch upon some 
 of the purposes for which the Scripture tells us 
 that Christ died, and for which his death was 
 declared to be the great object of our faith. 
 This done in the simplest and fewest words will 
 best show the infinite greatness of the subject ; 
 and how truly it is, so to speak, the central 
 point of Christianity. 
 
 First of all, Christ died as a proper sacrifice 
 for sin ; as a sacrifice, the virtue of which is 
 altogether distinct from our knowledge of it, 
 or from any effect which it has a tendency to 
 produce on our own minds. We are forgiven 
 for his sake ; we are acquitted through his 
 death, and through faith in his blood. What a 
 view does this open, partially, indeed, — for what 
 mortal eye can reach to the end of it ? — of the 
 evil of sin, and of God's love ! of what God's 
 justice required, and of what God's love ful- 
 filled ! This great sacrifice was made once, but 
 it will not be made again ; for those who despise 
 
PURPOSES OF Christ's death. 261 
 
 this there remains no more offering for sin, but 
 their sin abideth with them for ever. 
 
 Secondly, Christ's death is revealed to us as a 
 motive capable of overcoming all temptations to 
 evil. ^' How much more shall the blood of Christ 
 purge your conscience from dead works to serve 
 the living God ?" '^ He suffered for sins, the 
 just for the unjust, that he might bring us to 
 God ; " that is, that a consideration of what 
 Christ's death declares to us should have power 
 to melt the hardest heart, and to sober the 
 lightest; that, when we think of Christ dying, 
 dying for us, and so purchasing for us the for- 
 giveness of sins, and everlasting life, such a 
 love, and such a prospect of peace with God, 
 and of glory, should in the highest degree soften 
 and enkindle us ; and from love for him, and 
 confidence of hope through the prospect which 
 he has given us, we should be able to overcome 
 all temptations. " I am persuaded," says St. Paul, 
 '^ that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor 
 principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor 
 things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any 
 other creature, shall be able to separate us from 
 the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our 
 Lord." 
 
 Thirdly, Christ suffered for us, leaving us an 
 example that we should follow his steps. He left 
 us an example of all meekness, and patience, and 
 
262 PURPOSES OF Christ's death. 
 
 humility ; he left us an example of perfect sub^ 
 mission to God's will ; he left us an infinite com- 
 fort by letting us feel when we are in any trouble, 
 or pain, or affliction, that he was troubled too ; 
 that he knew pain, and endured affliction. Above 
 all, in that hour which must come to all of us, 
 he has left us the greatest of all supports, — for 
 he endured to die ; and we may enter with less 
 fear into the darkness of the grave, for even 
 there Christ has been for our sakes, and arose 
 from out of it a conqueror. 
 
 Fourthly, Christ died that he might gather 
 together in one the children of God that were 
 scattered abroad ; he died to purchase to himself 
 his universal Church. So it is said in the Scrip- 
 tures ; and on this particular purpose of his 
 death it may not be amiss to dwell, for none so 
 needs to be held in remembrance. Many there 
 are, and ever have been^ who have rested their 
 whole hope towards God on his sacrifice ; many 
 who have learnt from his cross to overcome sin ; 
 from his resurrection to overcome the world; 
 many who, amidst all the troubles of life, and in 
 the hour of death, have been supported by the 
 thought of his example. But where is his uni- 
 versal Church? where the company of God's 
 children gathered together into one ? where is 
 the city set upon the hill, that cannot be hid ? 
 where is the visible kingdom of God, where all 
 
ONE OF THESE NOT FULFILLED. 263 
 
 its people are strivings under one Divine Head, 
 against sin, the world, and the devil ? This is 
 the sign w^hich we look for, and cannot find ; 
 this is the fulfilment of the prophecies for which 
 we seem still destined to wait in vain. 
 
 And what if, on the contrary, that which is 
 called the Church act rather the part of the 
 world ; if our worst foes be tmly those of our 
 own household ; if they who should have been 
 for our help, be rather an occasion of falling ; if 
 one of our greatest difficulties in following Christ 
 steadily, arise from the total want of encourage- 
 ment, yea, often from the direct opposition of 
 those who are themselves pledged to follow him 
 to the death ; if that Church, which was to have 
 been the clearest sign to the world of the truth 
 of Christ's gospel, be now, in many respects, 
 rather a stumbling-block to the adversary and 
 unbehever, so that the name of God is through 
 us blasphemed among the heathen, rather than 
 glorified ; may we not humble ourselves before 
 God in sorrow and in shame ? and must we not 
 confess, that through our sin, and the sin of 
 our fathers, Christ, in respect of this one pur- 
 pose of his death, has as yet died in vain ? 
 
 Israel after the flesh, lamenting their Jeru- 
 salem which is now not theirs, and mourning 
 over their ruined temple, in all their synagogues 
 repeat constantly the prayer, O Lord, build thou 
 
264 THE CHURCH IN RUINS. 
 
 the walls of Jerusalem ! O Lord, build ! O Lord, 
 build! O Lord, build! is the solemn chorus, 
 marking by its repetition the earnestness of their 
 desire. And should not this be the prayer of 
 the Israel of God, scattered now a8 they are 
 into their thousand divided and corrupted syna- 
 gogues, and no token to be seen of the pure and 
 universal Church, the living temple of the Spirit 
 of God ; should not we too, privately and pub- 
 licly, join in the prayer of the earthly Israel, and 
 pray that Christ would build for us the walls of 
 our true Jerusalem ? For only think what it would 
 be, if Christ's Church existed more than in name ; 
 consider what it would be if baptism were a real 
 bond ; if we looked on one another as brethren, 
 redeemed by one ransom, pledged to one ser- 
 vice ; if we bore with one another's weaknesses ; 
 if we helped one another's endeavours ; if each 
 saw and heard, in the words and life of his 
 neighbour, an image of Christ, and a pledge of 
 the truth of his promises. Consider what it 
 would be, if, with no quarrels, with no jealousies, 
 with no unkindness, we sought not every man 
 his own, but every man also another's welfare ; 
 as true members one of another, — of one body, 
 of which Christ is the head. Consider what it 
 would be, if our judgments of men and things 
 were like Christ's judgments ; neither strength- 
 ening the heart of the careless and sinful by our 
 
THE CHURCH IN RUINS. 265 
 
 laxity, nor making sad the heart of God's true 
 servant by our uncharitableness ; not putting 
 little things in the place of great, nor great things 
 in the place of little ; not neglecting the unity 
 of the Spirit ; not stickling for a sameness in the 
 form. Or, if we carry our views a little wider ; 
 if we look out upon the world at large, and hear 
 of rumours of wars, and see the signs of in- 
 ternal disorders, and perhaps may think that 
 the clouds are gathering which herald one of 
 the comings of the Son of man to judgment, 
 whether the last of all or not it were vain to 
 ask ; how blessed would it be, if we could see 
 such an ark of Christ's Church as should float 
 visibly upon the stormy waters ; gathering within 
 it, in peace and safety, men of various disposi- 
 tions, and conditions, and opinions ; those who 
 held much of truth, and those who had mixed 
 with it much of error ; those whom Christ would 
 call clean, and those, too, whom some of their 
 brethren call unclean, but whom Christ has 
 redeemed, and will save no less than their de- 
 spisers ; all, in short, who fled from sin and 
 from the world to Christ, and to the com- 
 pany of Christ's people ! O if we could but see 
 such an ark preparing while God's long-suffering 
 yet withholds the flood ! O that all God's scat- 
 tered and divided children would join together in 
 one earnest prayer, O Lord, build thou the walls 
 
266 HOW FAR WE MAY REBUILD IT. 
 
 of Jerusalem ! O Lord, build ! O Lord, build I 
 O Lord, build! 
 
 Yet for this, among other purposes of mercy, 
 did the Son of God, as on this dav, suffer death 
 upon the cross : he died that we might be one in 
 him. Let us turn, then, from the thought of the 
 general temple in ruins, and let us see whether 
 we cannot, at any rate within the walls of our 
 own little particular congregation, fulfil also this 
 object of Christ's death, and be one in him. Let 
 us consider one another, to provoke unto love 
 and to good works : we too often consider one 
 another for the very contrary purpose, to pro- 
 voke to contempt or ill-will. True it is, that if 
 we look for it, we can find much of evil in our 
 brethren, and they can find much also in us ; 
 and we might become all haters of one an- 
 other, all in some sort deserving to be hated. 
 But where is he who is entitled to hate another's 
 evil, when he has evil in himself; and when 
 Christ, who had none, did not hate the evil of 
 us all, but rather died to save it ? And is it not 
 true also, that, if we look for it, we can also find 
 in every one something to love ; something, un- 
 doubtedly, even in him who has in himself least : 
 but much, infinitely much in all, when we look 
 upon them as Christ's redeemed. Not more 
 beautifully than truly has it been said, that 
 christian souls — 
 
HOW FAR WE MAY REBUILD IT. 267 
 
 " Though worn and soiled by sinful clay, 
 
 Are yet, to'eyes that see them true, 
 All glistening with baptismal dew." 
 
 They have the seal of belonging to Christ ; they 
 are his and our brethren. And, as his latest 
 command, and his beloved Apostle's also, was 
 that we should love one another; so, if we would 
 bring all our solemn thoughts of Christ's death 
 to one point, and endeavour to derive from it 
 some one particular lesson for our daily lives, 
 I know not that any would be more needed or 
 better for us, than that we should especially 
 apply the thought of Christ dying on the cross for 
 us to soften our angry, and proud, and selfish feel- 
 ings ; to restrain us from angry or sneering words ; 
 from unkind, offensive, rude, or insulting actions ; 
 to excite us to gentleness, courtesy, kindness ; 
 remembering that he, be he who he may, whom 
 we allow ourselves to despise, or to dislike, or to 
 annoy, or to neglect, was one so precious in 
 Christ's sight, that he laid down his life for his 
 sake, and invites him to be for ever with him 
 and with his Father. 
 
 March 29th, 1839. 
 
SEEMON XXV. 
 
 EASTER DAY. 
 
 John xx. 20. 
 Then the disciples went away again unto their own home. 
 
 With this verse ends the portion of the scrip* 
 ture chosen for the gospel in this morning's ser- 
 vice. It finishes the account of the visit of Peter 
 and John to the sepulchre ; and therefore, the 
 close of the extract at this point is sufficiently- 
 natural. Yet the effect of the quiet tone of these 
 words, just following the account of the greatest 
 event which earth has ever witnessed, is, I think, 
 singularly impressive ; the more so when we re- 
 member that they were written by one of the 
 very persons, whose visit had been just described ; 
 and that the writer, therefore, could tell full 
 well, to how intense an interest there had suc- 
 ceeded that solemn calm. They went away 
 
THE DISCIPLES GOING TO THEIR HOME. 269 
 
 from the very sight, if I may so speak, of Christ 
 risen, to their own homes. And what thoughts 
 do we suppose that they carried with them ? 
 Let us endeavour to recall them, for our benefit, 
 also, who, Hke them, are going, as it were, to the 
 ordinary teniu-e of our daily lives from this day's 
 high solemnity. 
 
 The disciples went away to their own homes ; 
 and there they waited, either in Jerusalem or in 
 Galilee, pursuing, as we find from the last chapter 
 of St. John, their common occupations, till, after 
 their Lord's ascension, power was given them from 
 on high, and the great work of their apostleship 
 began. During this period, Christ appeared to 
 them several times : he conversed with them, he 
 ate and drank with them ; but he did not live 
 continually with them, as he had done before 
 his crucifixion ; he did not take them about with 
 him as before, while he was performing the part 
 of the great prophet of the house of Israel. 
 They were now at their own homes waiting for 
 his call to more active duties. They had seen 
 him dead, and they had seen him risen, and they 
 were receiving into their souls all the lessons of 
 his life and death and resurrection, brought 
 before them, and impressed upon them by that 
 Holy Spirit, who, according to Christ's promise, 
 was to take of the things which are Christ's, 
 and to show them to Christ's disciples. 
 
270 HOW THIS APPLIES TO US. 
 
 It is true that there came upon them, after 
 this, an especial visitation of the Spirit of power, 
 to fit them for their particular work of apostles 
 or messengers to mankind. Having been con- 
 verted themselves, they were to strengthen their 
 brethren. And as this especial visitation of the 
 Holy Spirit was given to them only, and to 
 those on whom they themselves laid their hands, 
 so none have ever since been called to that par- 
 ticular work, to which they were called, in any 
 thing of the same degree of fulness. What is 
 peculiar to them as apostles is not applicable 
 exactly to us ; but we are all concerned in what 
 belongs to them as Christians : in this respect, 
 their case is ours ; and they, when at their own 
 homes, and engaged in their own callings, stand 
 in the same situation as we all. 
 
 We may, however, still make a two-fold divi- 
 sion ; we may regard the apostles going away to 
 their own homes, as a temporary thing, as a 
 mere term of preparation for the duties which 
 they were afterwards called to ; or we may look 
 upon it as complete so far as earth is concerned, 
 since, taking them as Christians only and not 
 as apostles, they might have so lived on to 
 the end of their Hves, having received all those 
 helps which were needed for their own personal 
 salvation, and having only to use them daily for 
 their souls' benefit. This same distinction we 
 
CHRIST IS NOT IN THE SEPULCHRE. 271 
 
 may apply to ourselves. We may consider our- 
 selves as going to our own homes for a time only, 
 awaiting our call to active life ; or we may con- 
 sider ourselves, as withdrawing, after every cele- 
 bration of Christ's resurrection, to that round of 
 daily duties which on earth shall never alter; 
 and to which all the helps derived from our 
 communion with Christ are to be applied, with 
 nothing future, so far as earth is concerned, for 
 which we may need them. 
 
 So then, of whatever age we may be, what is 
 said of the apostles in the text may apply to us 
 also : after having witnessed, as it were, Christ's 
 resurrection, we go away to our own homes. 
 Let us first take that part of the text which is 
 common to us all, though not in the same degree 
 — the having been witnesses of Christ's resurrec- 
 tion. John and Peter found him not in the 
 sepulchre ; they found the linen clothes and the 
 napkin lying there, but he was gone. And upon 
 this, as John assures us, both for himself and his 
 companion, '' they believed." They beheved, 
 we should observe, when as yet they had no 
 more seen Jesus himself after his resurrection, 
 than we have now. They only knew that he 
 had been dead, and that he was not in the se- 
 pulchre. And this we know also ; we have not 
 seen him, indeed, since his resurrection : but we 
 are sure he is not in the sepulchre. We are 
 
272 THIS WE OURSELVES WITNESS. 
 
 sure that the maKce of his enemies did not do 
 its work ; we are sure, for we are ourselves 
 witnesses of it, that that name, and that word, 
 which they hoped would have been destroyed 
 for ever, like the names of many, not only of 
 false prophets and deceivers, but even of good 
 men and of wise, have not perished, but have 
 brought forth fruit more abundantly, from the 
 very cause that was intended to put them out. 
 Christ's gospel, assuredly, is a Hving thing, full 
 of vigour and full of power ; it has worked 
 mightily for good, and is working ; it is so full 
 of blessing, it tends so largely towards the hap- 
 piness that is enjoyed upon earth, that we are 
 quite sure it is not lying still buried in Christ's 
 sepulchre. 
 
 They (the two disciples) then went away 
 beheving, because they found that he was not in 
 the sepulchre. But Mary Magdalene came and 
 told them, that she had seen him risen, and had 
 heard his voice with her ears. What she told 
 Peter and John, Peter and John are now telling 
 to us. They tell us, that they have heard him, 
 have seen him with their eyes, have looked upon 
 him, yea, that their hands have handled him. 
 They tell us even more than Mary Magdalene 
 told them; for she had not been allowed to 
 touch him. We may well trust their testimony, 
 as they trusted hers, being quite ready indeed to 
 
WE WITNESS THAT HE IS RISEN. 273 
 
 believe that he was ahve, because they had 
 found that he was not amongst the dead. And 
 so we, finding that he is not amongst the dead, 
 seeing and knowing the fruits of his gospel, the 
 living and ever-increasing fruits of it, may well 
 believe that its author is risen, and that the pains 
 of death were loosed from off him, because it 
 was not possible that he should be holden by 
 them. 
 
 In this way, we, like the two disciples, may 
 be all said to be witnesses of Christ's resurrec- 
 tion. May it not be said still more of those 
 amongst us who assembled this morning round 
 Christ's table, to keep ahve the memory of his 
 death; when we partook of that bread, and 
 drank of that cup, of which so many thousands 
 and millions, in every age and in every land, 
 have eaten and drunken, all receiving them with 
 nearly the same words, — the body that was given 
 for us, the blood that was shed for us, — all, 
 making allowances for human weakness, finding 
 in that communion the peace and the strength of 
 God ; all alike receiving it with penitent hearts, 
 and with faith, and purposes of good for the time 
 to come ? Did we not then witness that Christ 
 is not perished ? that he has been ever, and still 
 is, mighty to save? That command given to 
 twelve persons, in an obscure chamber in Jeru- 
 salem, by one who, the next day, was to die as 
 
 T 
 
274 WILL HE VISIT OUR OWN HOMES ? 
 
 a malefactor, has been, and is obeyed from one 
 end of the world to another ; and wherever it 
 has been obeyed, there, in proportion to the 
 sincerity of the obedience, has been the fulness 
 of the blessing. 
 
 But this is now past, as with the two disciples, 
 and we are going again to our own homes. 
 There, neither the empty sepulchre nor the 
 risen Saviour are present before us, but com- 
 mon scenes and familiar occupations, which in 
 themselves have nothing in them of Christ. 
 So it must be ; we cannot be always within 
 these walls ; we cannot always be engaged in 
 public prayer ; we cannot always be hearing 
 Christ's word, nor partaking of his communion : 
 we must be going about our several works, and 
 must be busied in them ; some of us in prepara- 
 tion for other work to come, others to go on till 
 the end of their lives with this only. May we 
 not hope that Christ, and Christ's Spirit, will 
 visit us the while in these our daily callings, as 
 he came to his disciples Peter and John, when 
 following their business as fishers on the lake of 
 Gennesareth. 
 
 How can we get him to visit us ? There is 
 one answer — ^by prayer and by watchfulness. 
 By prayer, whether we are in our preparatory 
 state, or our fixed one ; by prayer, and I think 
 I may add, by praying in our own words. Of 
 
WATCHING AND PRAYER INVITE HIM. 275 
 
 course, when we pray together, some of us must 
 join in the words of others ; and it makes little 
 difference, whether those words be spoken or 
 read. But when we pray alone, some, perhaps, 
 may still use none but prayers made by others, 
 especially the Lord's prayer. We should remem- 
 ber, however, that the Lord's prayer was given 
 for this very purpose, to teach us how to pray 
 for ourselves. But it does not do this, if we 
 use it alone, and still more, if we use it with- 
 out understanding it. If we do understand it, 
 and study it, it will indeed teach us to pray; 
 it will show us what we most need in prayer, 
 and what are our greatest evils : but surely it 
 may be said, that no man ever learnt this 
 lesson well, without wishing to practise it; no 
 man ever used the Lord's prayer with under- 
 standing and with earnestness, without adding 
 to it others of his own. And this is not a trifling 
 matter. We know the difficulty of attending in 
 prayer ; and, if we use the words of others only, 
 which we must, therefore, repeat from memory, 
 it is perfectly possible to say them over without 
 really joining with them in our minds : we may 
 say them over to ourselves, and be actually 
 thinking of other things the while. And the 
 same thing holds good, of course, even with 
 prayers that we have made ourselves, if we 
 accustom ourselves to repeat them without 
 
 t2 
 
276 PRAYER MUST BE REAL, NOT FORMAL I 
 
 alteration ; they then become, in fact, the work 
 of another than our own actual mind, and may 
 be repeated by memory alone. Therefore, it 
 seems to be of consequence to vary the words, 
 and even the matter, of our private prayers, that 
 so we may not deceive ourselves, by repeating 
 merely, when we fancy that w^e are praying. 
 Ten words actually made by ourselves at the 
 moment, and not remembered, are a real prayer; 
 for it is not hypocrisy that is the most common 
 danger ; our temper, when we are on our knees, 
 is apt indeed to be careless, but not, I hope and 
 believe, deceitful. This, of course, must be well 
 known to a very large proportion of us; but, 
 perhaps, there are some to whom it may be 
 useful ; some, to whom the advice may not yet 
 have suggested itself, that they should make 
 their own prayers, in part, at least, whenever 
 they kneel down to their private devotions. 
 
 And this sort of prayer, with God's blessing, 
 is likely to make us watchful. We rise in the 
 morning ; we say some prayers of our own ; we 
 hear others read to us ; and yet it is possible that 
 we may not have really prayed ourselves in either 
 case ; we may not have brought ourselves truly 
 into the presence of God. Hence our true con- 
 dition, with all its dangers, has not been brought 
 before our minds ; the need of watchfulness has 
 not been shown to us. But with real prayer of 
 
AND THIS WILL MAKE US WATCH. 277 
 
 our own hearts* making, it is different ; God is 
 then present to us, and sin, and righteousness : 
 our dream of carelessness is, for a moment at 
 least, broken. No doubt it is but too easy to 
 dream again ; yet still an opportunity of exerting 
 ourselves to keep awake is given us ; we are 
 roused to consciousness of our situation ; and 
 that, at any rate, renders exertion possible. 
 There is no doubt that souls are most commonly 
 lost by this continued dreaming, till at length, 
 when seemingly awake (they are not so really), 
 they are like men who answer to the call that 
 would arouse them, but they answer, in fact, 
 unconsciously. We cannot tell for ourselves 
 or others any way by which our souls shall 
 certainly be saved, in spite of carelessness; or 
 any way by which carelessness shall be over- 
 come necessarily : all that can be done is, to 
 point out how it may be overcome, by what 
 means the soul may be helped in its endeavours ; 
 not how those endeavours and holy desires may 
 be rendered needless. 
 
 Thus, then, we may gain Christ to visit us 
 at our own homes and in our common callings, 
 when we are returned to them. And that dif- 
 ference which I spoke of as existing between us, 
 that some of us are waiting for Christ's call to a 
 higher field of action, while others are engaged 
 in that sort of duty which will last their lives. 
 
278 CONCLUSION. 
 
 I know not that this — though it be often import* 
 ant, and though I am often obliged to dwell on 
 it — need enter into our considerations to-day. 
 Rather, perhaps, may we overlook this differ- 
 ence, and feel that all of us here assembled — 
 those in their state of earliest preparation for 
 after duties; those to whom that earliest state 
 is passed away, and who are entered into an- 
 other state, in part preparatory, in part par- 
 taking of the character of actual life ; and those 
 also whose preparation, speaking of earth only, 
 is completed altogether, who must be doing, and 
 whose time even of doing is far advanced — that 
 all of us have in truth one great call yet before 
 us : and that, with respect to that, we are all, as 
 it were, preparing still. And for that great call, 
 common to all of us, we need all the same 
 common readiness; and that readiness will be 
 effected in us only by the same means, — if now, 
 before it come, Christ and Christ's Spirit shall, 
 in our homes and daily callings, be persuaded 
 to visit us. 
 
 April I9th, 1835. 
 
SERMON XXVI. 
 
 WHITSUNDAY. 
 
 Acts xix. 2. 
 Have you received the Holy Ghost since ye believed ? 
 
 It appears, by what follows these words, that 
 the question here related especially to those 
 gifts of the Holy Ghost which were given, in 
 the first age of the church, as a sign of God's 
 power, and a witness that the work of the gos- 
 pel was from God. Yet although this be so, 
 and therefore the words, in this particular sense, 
 cannot to any good purpose be asked now ; yet 
 there is another sense, and that not a lower but 
 a far higher one, in which we may ask them, 
 and in which it concerns us in the highest de- 
 gree what sort of answer we can give to them. 
 I say, " what sort of answer ; " for I think it is 
 true of all Christians that, in a certain measure. 
 
280 THE HOLY GHOST RECEIVED, 
 
 they have received the Holy Ghost. Not only 
 does the doctrine of our own, and I believe 
 every other, church, concerning baptism, shovir 
 this ; but it seems also necessarily to follow, from 
 those words of St. Paul, that " No man can say 
 that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost." 
 And yet the Scripture and common experience 
 alike show us, that a man may call Jesus Lord, 
 and yet not be really his, nor one who will be 
 owned by Him at the last day. So that what is 
 of real importance to us is, the degree of fulness 
 and force with which we could give the answer 
 to the words of the text ; not simply saying that 
 we have received the Holy Ghost, which would 
 be true, but might be far from sufficient; but 
 saying that we have received Him and are re- 
 ceiving Him more and more, so that our hearts 
 and lives are showing the impression of hi& 
 heavenly seal daily more and more clearly and 
 completely. 
 
 And this must really have always been the 
 answer which it concerned every Christian to 
 be able to make : although it has been in va- 
 rious instances, and by very opposite parties, 
 tried to be evaded. It is evaded alike by those 
 who set too highly the grace given in baptism, 
 and by those who, setting this too low, direct 
 our attention to another point in a man's life, 
 which they call his justification or conversion* 
 
NOT ONCE ONLY, BUT CONTINUALLY. 281 
 
 For both alike would give an exaggerated im- 
 portance to one particular moment of our lives, 
 and to the grace then given. Now, the import- 
 ance of particular moments in men's lives differs 
 exceedingly in different persons ; but yet in all 
 it may be exaggerated. I suppose that if ever 
 in any man's life a particular point was of 
 immense importance, it was the point of his 
 conversion in the case of St. Paul. There 
 were here united all that grace which accord- 
 ing to one view accompanies baptism espe- 
 cially, and all which according to the other 
 view accompanies conversion and justification. 
 Here was a point which separated St. Paul's 
 later life from his earlier with a broader line 
 of separation than can possibly be the case in 
 general. There can be no doubt that he, if 
 ever man did, received at that particular time 
 the Holy Ghost. But if, ten or twenty years 
 afterwards, St. Paul had been asked concerning 
 what the Holy Ghost had done for him, he 
 would not certainly have confined himself in 
 his answer to the grace once given him at his 
 conversion and baptism, but would have spoken 
 of that which he had been receiving since every 
 hour and every day, carrying forward and com- 
 pleting that work of God which had been begun 
 at the time of his journey to Damascus. And 
 as he had received more and more grace, so was 
 
282 EXAMPLE OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 his confidence in his acceptance with God at 
 the last day more and more assured. For he 
 writes to the Corinthians, many years after his 
 conversion and baptism, that he kept under his 
 body, and was bringing it into subjection, lest 
 that by any means, after having preached to 
 others, he should be himself a castaway. And 
 some years later still, though he does not use so 
 strong an expression as that of becoming a cast- 
 away, yet he still says, even when writing to the 
 Philippians from Rome, that he counted not 
 himself to have apprehended, nor to have at- 
 tained his object fully ; but forgetting what was 
 behind, even the grace of his conversion and 
 baptism, he pressed on to the things which were 
 before, even that continued and increasing grace 
 which was required to bring him in safety to his 
 heavenly crown. But if we go on some years yet 
 farther, when his labours were ended, and the 
 sure prospect of speedy death was before him ; 
 when the past grace was everything, and what 
 he could expect yet to come was scarcely any 
 other than that particular aid which we need in 
 our struggle with the last enemy — death : then 
 his language is free from all uncertainty ; then, 
 in the full sense of the words, he could say that 
 he had received the Holy Ghost, that his spirit 
 had been fully born again for its eternal being, 
 and that there only remained the raising up also 
 
ARE WE RECEIVING THE HOLY GHOST ? 283 
 
 of his mortal body, to complete that new 
 creation of body and soul which Christ's Spirit 
 works in Christ's redeemed. '' I have fought 
 the good fight, I have finished my course, I 
 have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid 
 up for me my crown of righteousness, which the 
 Lord, the righteous judge, will give me at that 
 day." 
 
 It seems, then, that the great question which 
 we should be anxious to be able to answer in 
 the afiirmative is this, ''Are we receiving the 
 Holy Ghost since we believed ?" " Since we 
 believed," whether we choose to carry back the 
 date of our first belief to the very time of our 
 baptism, when grace was given to us, — ^we know 
 not to what degree nor how, — yet given to us, as 
 being then received into Christ's flock ; or whe- 
 ther we go back only to that time when we can 
 ourselves remember ourselves to have believed, 
 and so can remember that God's grace was given 
 to us. Have we been ever since, and are we 
 still receiving the Holy Ghost? O blessed 
 above all blessedness if we can say that this is 
 true of us! O blessed with a blessedness 
 most complete, if we only do not too entirely 
 abandon ourselves to enjoy it ! Elect of God ; 
 holy and beloved ; justified and sanctified : there 
 is nothing in all the world that could impair or 
 destroy such happiness, except we ourselves, in 
 
284 DID WE ONCE NOT RECEIVE HIM ? 
 
 evil hour, believed it to be out of the reach of 
 danger* 
 
 But if the witness of memory and conscience 
 be less favourable ; if we can remember long 
 seasons of our lives during which we were not 
 receiving the Holy Ghost ; long seasons of a 
 cold and hard state, in which there was, as it 
 were, neither rain nor dew, nor yet sun to ripen 
 what had grown before ; but all was so ungenial 
 that no new thing grew, and what had grown 
 was withering and almost dying ; what shall be 
 said, then, and how can the time be made up 
 which was so wasted? But we remember, it 
 may be, that this deadly season passed away ; the 
 rain fell once more, and the tender dew, and the 
 quickening sun shone brightly ; our spiritual 
 growth began again, and is now going on 
 healthily : we have not always been receiving 
 the Holy Ghost since we believed, but we are 
 receiving him now. How gracious, then, has 
 God been to us, that he has again renewed us unto 
 repentance; that he has shown that we have 
 not, in the fullest sense, sinned against the Holy 
 Ghost, seeing that the Holy Ghost still abides 
 with us ! we grieved him, and tried his long- 
 suffering, but he has not abandoned us to our 
 own evil hearts ; we are receiving him who is 
 the giver of life, and we still live. 
 
 But must not we speak of others ? is not 
 
DID WE ONCE RECEIVE HIM ? 285 
 
 another case to be supposed possible ? may there 
 not be some who cannot say with truth that 
 they are receiving the Holy Ghost now ? They 
 received him once : we doubt it not ; perhaps 
 they were receiving him for some length of 
 time ; their early childhood was watched by 
 christian care ; their youth, and early manhood, 
 when it received freshly things of this world, 
 received also, with lively thankfulness, the grace 
 of God ; they can remember a time when they 
 were growing in goodness ; when they were 
 being renewed after the image of God. But 
 they can remember, also, that this time passed 
 away ; the grace of early childhood was put out 
 by the temptations of boyhood ; the grace of 
 youth and opening manhood died away amid the 
 hardness of this life's maturity. It is so, I 
 believe, often ; that boyhood, which is, as it 
 were, ripened childhood, destroys the grace of 
 our earliest years ; that again, when youth offers 
 us a second beginning of life, we are again 
 impressed with good ; but that ripened youth, 
 which is manhood, brings with it again the 
 season of hardness, and again our spiritual 
 growth is destroyed. We can remember, I am 
 supposing, that this fatal change did take place ; 
 but can we date it to any particular act, or 
 month, or day, or hour ? We can do so most 
 rarely: in this respect the seed of death can 
 
286 HAVE WE NEVER CONSCIOUSLY RECEIVED HIM ? 
 
 even less be traced to its beginning than the 
 seed of life. And yet there was a beginning, 
 only we do not remember it. And why do we 
 not remember it ? Because the real beginning 
 was in some act which seemed of so little con- 
 sequence that it made no impression ; in the alter- 
 ing some habit which we judged to be a mere 
 trifle ; in the indulging some temper which even 
 at the time we hardly noticed. Some such little 
 thing, — ^little in our view of it, — made the fatal 
 turn ; we received the grace of God less and 
 less; we heeded not the change for a season; 
 and when it was so marked that we could not 
 but heed it, then we had ceased to regard it : 
 and so it was that the spring of our life was 
 dried up ; and it is of no more avail to our pre- 
 sent and future state, that we once received 
 grace, than the rain of last winter will be suffi- 
 cient to ripen the summer's harvest, if from this 
 time forward we have nothing but drought and 
 cold. 
 
 Some few, again, there may be, who, within 
 their own recollection, could not say that they 
 have received the Holy Ghost : persons who 
 have lived among careless friends, to whom the 
 way of life has never been steadily pointed out ; 
 while the way of death, with all its manifold 
 paths, meeting at last in one, has been con- 
 tinually before them. Shall we say that these. 
 
ONE OF THESE CASES MUST BE OURS. 287 
 
 because they have been baptized, are therefore 
 guilty of having rejected grace given ? that this 
 sin is aggravated, because a mercy was offered 
 them once of which they were unconscious ? 
 We would not say this ; but we would say that 
 it is impossible but that they must have received 
 the Holy Ghost within their memory ; it is im- 
 possible but that conscience must have some- 
 times spoken, and that they must have sometimes 
 been enabled to obey it; it is impossible but 
 that they must have had some notions of sin, 
 and some desires to struggle against it ; and so 
 far as they ever felt that desire, it was the work 
 of God's Holy Spirit. Man cannot dare to say 
 how great the amount of their guilt may be; 
 but guilt there certainly is ; they have grieved 
 the Holy Spirit ; and, though we dare not say that 
 they have utterly blasphemed him, yet they have 
 a long hardness to overcome, and every hour of 
 delayed turning to God increases it : it may be 
 possible still to overcome it, but meanwhile it is 
 not overcome ; they are not receiving the Holy 
 Spirit ; they are not being renewed into the 
 likeness of Christ, without which no man can 
 see God. 
 
 Here, then, are the four cases, one of which 
 must belong to every one of us here assembled. 
 Either we have been always and still are receiv- 
 ing the Holy Ghost ; or we can remember 
 
288 ONE OF THESE CASES MUST BE OURS. 
 
 when we were not, but yet are receiving him 
 now; or we can remember when we were, but 
 yet now are not ; or we cannot remember to 
 have received him ever, nor are we yet receiving 
 him. I cannot say which of the last two states 
 is the most dreadful, nor scarcely which of the 
 first two states is the most blessed. But yet 
 as even those happy states admit not of over^ 
 confidence, so neither do the last two most 
 unhappy states oblige us to despair. Not to 
 despair ; but they do urge us to every degree 
 of fear less than despair. There is far more 
 danger of our not fearing enough than of our 
 being driven to despair. There is far more 
 danger of your looking on to the season of 
 youth, of our looking on to old age ; you trust- 
 ing to the second freshness and tenderness of the 
 first, — we to the calmness and necessary reflec- 
 tion of the last. There is far more danger of 
 our thus hardening ourselves beyond recall; 
 there is not only the danger, but there is the sin, 
 the greatest sin, I suppose, of which the human 
 mind is capable, that of dehberately choosing 
 evil for the present rather than good, calcu- 
 lating that, by and by, we shall choose good 
 rather than evil. I beheve, that it is impos- 
 sible to conceive of any state of mind more 
 sinful than one which should so feel and so 
 choose ; and this is the state which we incur. 
 
WE SHOULD SEE WHICH IT IS. 289 
 
 and which we persist in whenever we put off the 
 thought of repentance. Now, then, it only re- 
 mains, that we apply this each to ourselves ; I 
 say all of us apply it, the young and the old 
 alike ; for there is not one here so young as not 
 to have cause to apply it ; there is not one of us 
 who would not, I am sure, be a different person 
 from what he now is, if he were to ask himself 
 steadily every day. Have I been and am I receiv- 
 ing the Holy Ghost since I beheved ? 
 
 May, 22d, 1836. 
 
 U 
 
SEE MO N XXVII. 
 
 TRINITY SUNDAY. 
 
 John iii. 9. 
 How can these thinns he ? 
 
 This is the second question put by Nicodemus 
 to our Lord, with regard to the truths which 
 Jesus was declaring to him. The first was, 
 ^' How can a man be born when he is old ?" 
 which was said upon our Lord's telling him, that, 
 '' Except a man be born again, he cannot see the 
 kingdom of God." Now, it will be observed, 
 that these two questions are treated by our Lord 
 in a different manner: to the first he, in fact, 
 gives an answer ; — that is, he removes by his an- 
 swer that difficulty in Nicodemus's mind which 
 led to the question ; but to the second he gives 
 no answer, and leaves Nicodemus — and with Ni- 
 codemus, us all also — exactly in the same igno- 
 rance as he found him at the beginning. 
 
NO Belief without understanding. 291 
 
 Now, is there any difference in the nature of 
 these two questions, which led our Lord to treat 
 them so differently ? We might suppose before- 
 hand that there would be ; and when we come to 
 examine them, so we shall find it. The difficulty 
 in the first question rendered true faith impos- 
 sible, and, therefore, our Lord removed it ; the 
 difficulty in the second question did not properly 
 interfere with faith at all ; but might, through 
 man's fault, be a temptation to him to refuse to 
 believe. And as this, like other temptations, 
 must be overcome by us, and not taken away 
 from our path before we encounter it, so our 
 Lord did not think proper to remove it or to 
 lessen it. 
 
 We must now unfold this difference more 
 clearly. When Christ said, '' Except a man be 
 born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God,'' 
 Nicodemus could not possibly believe what our 
 Lord said, because he did not understand his 
 meaning. He did not know what he meant by 
 " a man's being born again," and, therefore, he 
 could not believe, as he did not know what he 
 was to believe. Words which we do not under- 
 stand, are like words spoken in an unknown lan- 
 guage ; we can neither believe them nor disbe- 
 lieve them, because we do not know what they 
 say. For instance, I repeat these words, rovs 
 
 iravras r)/j,as (fyavepcodrjvao Bel e/JUTrpocrOev rov firj/jLaros 
 
 u2 
 
292 WE MUST KNOW WHAT IS TOLD US. 
 
 Tov Xpta-Tov, Now, if I were to ask, do you be- 
 lieve these words ? is it not manifest that all of 
 you who know Greek enough to understand 
 them may also believe them ; but of those who 
 do not know Greek, not a single person can yet 
 believe them ? They are as yet words spoken as 
 to the air. But when I add, that these words 
 mean, " We must all stand before the judgment 
 seat of Christ;" now we can all believe them 
 because we can all understand them. 
 
 It is, then, perfectly impossible for any man 
 to believe a statement except in proportion as 
 he understands its meaning. And, therefore, 
 our Lord explained what he meant to Nico- 
 demus, and told him that, by being born again, 
 he did not mean the natural birth of the body ; 
 but a birth caused by the Spirit, and therefore 
 itself a birth of a spirit : for, as that which is 
 born from a body is itself also a body, so that 
 which is born of a spirit is itself also a spirit. 
 So that Christ's words now are seen to have this 
 meaning, — No man can enter into the king- 
 dom of God except God's Spirit creates in him 
 a spirit or mind like unto Himself, and like unto 
 Christ, and like unto the Father. Nicodemus, 
 then, could now understand what was meant, 
 and might have beHeved it. But he asks rather 
 another question, "How can these things be?" 
 How can God's Spirit create within me a spirit 
 
WE NEED NOT KNOW HOW IT HAPPENS. 293 
 
 like himself, while I continue a man as before ? 
 Many persons since have asked similar ques- 
 tions ; but to none of them is an answer given. 
 How God's Spirit works within us, I cannot tell; 
 but if we take the appointed means of procuring 
 his aid, we shall surely find that He has worked 
 and does work in us to life eternal. 
 
 We must, then, in order to believe, understand 
 what it is that is told us ; but it is by no means 
 necessary that we should understand how it is to 
 happen. It is not necessary, and in a thousand 
 instances we do not know. ^' If we take poison 
 we shall die :" there is a statement which we 
 can understand, and therefore believe. But do 
 we understand how it is that poison kills us? 
 Does every one here know how poisons act 
 upon the human frame, and what is the dif- 
 ferent operation of different poisons, — how 
 laudanum kills, for instance, and how arsenic ? 
 Surely there are very few of us, at most, who do 
 understand this : and yet would it not be ex- 
 ceedingly unreasonable to refuse to believe that 
 poison will kill us, because we do not understand 
 the manner how 9 
 
 Thus far, I think, the question is perfectly 
 plain, so soon as it is once laid before us. But 
 the real point of perplexity is to be found a step 
 further. In almost all propositions there is 
 something about the terms which we do un- 
 
 L 
 
294 WE MUST KNOW ITS PURPORT TO US, 
 
 derstand, and something which we do not. For 
 instance, let me say these few words : — '^ A 
 frigate was lost amidst the breakers." These 
 words would be understood, in a certain de- 
 gree, by all who hear me : and so far as all 
 understand them, all can believe them. All 
 would understand that a ship had sunk in the 
 water, or been dashed to pieces ; that it would 
 be useful no more for the purposes for which 
 it had been made. But what is meant by the 
 words '"frigate" and '"breakers" all would not 
 understand, and many would understand very 
 differently : that is to say, those who had hap- 
 pened to have known most about the sea and 
 sea affairs would understand most about them, 
 while those who knew less would understand 
 less ; but probably none of us would understand 
 their meaning so fully, or would have so distinct 
 and lively an image of the things, as would be 
 enjoyed by an actual seaman ; and even amongst 
 seamen themselves, there would again be dif- 
 ferent degrees of understanding, according to 
 their different degrees of experience, or know- 
 ledge of ships, or powers of mind. 
 
 I have taken the instance at random, and any 
 other proposition might have served my purpose 
 as well. But men do not speak to one another 
 at random: when they say anything to their 
 neighbour, they mean it to produce on his 
 
BUT NOT EVERY THING ABOUT IT. 295 
 
 mind a certain effect. Suppose that we were 
 living near the sea-coast, and any one were sud- 
 denly to come in, and to utter the words which 
 I have taken as my example. Should we not 
 know that what the man meant by these words 
 was, that there was a danger at hand for which 
 our help was needed ? It matters not that we have 
 no distinct ideas of the terms ^^ frigate" or "break- 
 ers ; " we understand enough for our behef and 
 practice, and we should hasten to the sea-shore 
 accordingly. Or suppose that the same words 
 were told us of a frigate in which we had some 
 near relation : should we not see at once that 
 what we were meant to understand and to be- 
 lieve in the words was, that we had lost a rela- 
 tion ? That is the truth with which we are con- 
 cerned; and this we can understand and feel, 
 although we may be able to understand nothing 
 more of the words in which that truth is con- 
 veyed to us. Now, in like manner, in whatever 
 God says to us there is a purpose : it is intended 
 to produce on our minds a certain impression, 
 and so far it must be understood. But when 
 God speaks to us of heavenly things, the terms 
 employed can only be understood in part, and 
 so far as God's purpose with regard to our minds 
 reaches ; but there must be a great deal in them 
 which we can no more understand than one who 
 had never seen a ship, or a picture of one, could 
 
296 PURPORT TO US OF GOD's REVELATION 
 
 understand the word '' frigate." Our business is 
 to consider what impression or what actions the 
 words are intended to produce in us. Up to 
 this point we can and must understand them : 
 beyond this they may be wholly above the reach 
 of our faculties, and we can form of them no 
 ideas at all. 
 
 It is clear that this will be the case most 
 especially whenever God reveals to us anything 
 concerning himself. Take these few words, for 
 example, " God is a spirit : " take them as a mere 
 abstract truth, and how little can we understand 
 about them ! Who will dare to say that he un- 
 derstands all that is contained in the words 
 ^'God" and "spirit"? We might weary our- 
 selves for ever in attempting so to search out 
 either. But God said these words to us : and 
 the point is. What impression did he mean 
 them to have upon us ? how far can we under- 
 stand them? This he has not left doubtful, 
 for it follows immediately, " They who worship 
 him should worship him in spirit and in truth." 
 For this end the words were spoken, and thus 
 far they are clear to us. God lives not on 
 Mount Gerizim or at Jerusalem ; but in every 
 place he hears the prayers of the sincere and 
 contrite heart, in no place will he regard the 
 offerings of the proud and evil. 
 
 Or again, *' God so loved the world, that he 
 
OF THE SON, 297 
 
 gave his only-begotten Son, to the end that all 
 who believe in him should not perish, but have 
 eternal life." Here are words in themselves, as 
 abstract truths, perfectly overwhelming : '' God," 
 "God's only-begotten Son," "Eternity." Who 
 shall understand these things, when it is said, 
 that " none knoweth the Son, save the Father ; 
 that none knoweth the Father, save the Son ?" 
 But did God tell us the words for nothing ? can 
 we understand nothing from them ? believe no- 
 thing ? feel nothing ? Nay, they were spoken 
 that we might both understand, and believe, and 
 feel. How must he love us, who gives for us his 
 only-begotten Son ! how surely may we believe 
 in Him who is as an only-begotten Son to his 
 Father, — so equal in nature, so entire in union ! 
 What must that happiness be, which reaches 
 beyond our powers of counting ! Would we go 
 further? — then the vail is drawn before us : 
 other truths there are, no doubt, contained in the 
 words ; truths which the angels might desire to 
 look into ; truths which even they may be 
 unable to understand. But these are the secret 
 things which belong unto our God; the things 
 which are revealed, they are what belong to us 
 and our children, that we may understand, and 
 believe, and do them. 
 
 Again, " the Comforter, whom Christ will send 
 unto us from the Father, even the Spirit of 
 
298 , AND OF THE HOLY GHOST. 
 
 Truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he 
 shall testify of Christ." What words are here ! 
 '' The Spirit of Truth/' " the Spirit proceeding 
 from the Father ;" the Spirit '' whom Christ will 
 send/' and ^^send from the Father." Can any- 
 created being understand, to the full, such '' hea- 
 venly things " as these ? But would Christ have 
 uttered to his disciples mere unintelhgible words, 
 which could tell them nothing, and excite in 
 them no feeling but mere wonder ? Not so ; 
 but the words told them that Christ was not to 
 be lost to them after he had left them on earth ; 
 that every gift of God was his ; that even that 
 Spirit of God, in which is contained all the fulness 
 of the Godhead, is the Spirit of Christ also ; that 
 that mighty power which should work in them so 
 abundantly, was of no other or lower origin than 
 God himself; as entirely God, as the spirit of 
 man is man. But can we therefore understand 
 the Spirit of God, or conceive of him ? How 
 should we, when we cannot understand our 
 own ? This, and this only, we understand and 
 believe, that without him our spirits cannot 
 be quickened ; that unless we pray daily 
 for his aid, and listen to his calls within us, 
 our spirit will never be created after his 
 image, and we cannot enter into the kingdom 
 of God. 
 
 It is thus, and thus only, that the revelations 
 
CHRISTIAN MYSTERIES. 299 
 
 of God's word are beyond our understandings ; 
 that in them, beings and things are spoken of, 
 which, taken generally, and in themselves, we 
 should in vain endeavour to comprehend. But 
 what God means us to know, or feel, or do, 
 respecting them, that we can understand ; and 
 beyond this we have no concern. It is, in fact, a 
 contradiction to speak of revealing what is unin- 
 telligible ; for so far as it is a revealed truth it is 
 intelligible ; so far as it is unintelligible, it is not 
 revealed. But though a thing revealed must be 
 intelligible in itself, yet it by no means follows 
 that we can understand how it happens. When 
 we are told that the dead shall rise again, we 
 can understand quite well what is meant ; that 
 we, beings who feel happiness and misery, shall 
 feel them again, either the one or the other, 
 after we seemingly have done with them for ever 
 in the grave. But '' How are the dead raised up, 
 and with what body do they come ?" are ques- 
 tions to which, whether asked scoffingly or 
 sincerely, we can give no answers : here our 
 understanding fails, and here the truth is not 
 revealed to us. 
 
 How, then, has Christianity no mysteries ? In 
 one sense, blessed be God for it, it has many. 
 Using mysteries in St. Paul's sense of great 
 revelations of things which were and must be 
 
300 CHRISTIAN MYSTERIES. 
 
 unknown to all, except God had revealed them ; 
 then, indeed, they are many; the pillar and 
 ground of truth, great without controversy, and 
 full of salvation. But take mysteries in our 
 more common sense of the word, — as things 
 which are revealed to none, and can be under- 
 stood by none, — then it is true that Christianity 
 leaves many such in existence ; that many such 
 she has done away ; that none has she created. 
 She leaves many mysteries with respect to God, 
 and with respect to ourselves ; God is still 
 incomprehensible ; life and death have many 
 things in them beyond our questioning ; we may 
 still look around us, above us, and within us, 
 and wonder, and be ignorant. But if she still 
 leaves the veil drawn over much in heaven and 
 in earth, yet from how much has she removed 
 it! Life and death are still in many respects 
 dark ; but she has brought to light immortality. 
 God is still in himself incomprehensible ; but all 
 his glory, and all his perfections, are revealed to 
 us in his only-begotten Son Christ Jesus. God's 
 Spirit who can search out in his own proper 
 essence ? yet Christianity has taught us how we 
 may have him to dwell with us for ever, and 
 taste the fulness of his blessings. Yea, thanks 
 be to God for the great christian mystery which 
 we this day celebrate ; that he has revealed him- 
 
CHRISTIAN MYSTERIES. 301 
 
 self to US as our Saviour and our Comforter; 
 that he has revealed to us his infinite love, in 
 that he has given us his only-begotten Son to 
 die for us, and his own Eternal Spirit to make 
 our hearts his temple. 
 
 June Uth, 1835. 
 
SEEM ON XXVm. 
 
 Exodus iii. 6. 
 
 And Moses hid his face, far he was afraid to look 
 upon God. 
 
 Luke xxiii. 30. 
 
 Then shall they begin to say to the mountains , Fall on 
 us ; and to the hills, Cover us. 
 
 These two passages occur, the one in the first 
 lesson of this morning's service, the other in 
 the second. One or other of them must have 
 been, or must be, the case of you, of me, of 
 every soul of man that lives, or has lived since 
 the world began. There must be a time in the 
 existence of every human being when he will 
 fear God. But the great, the infinite difference 
 is, whether we fear him at the beginning of our 
 relations to him, or at the end. 
 
 The fear of Moses was felt at the beginning 
 of his knowledge of God. When God revealed 
 
WE MUST FEAR GOD FIRST OR LAST. 303 
 
 himself to him at the bush, it was, so far as we 
 are told, the first time that Moses learnt to know 
 him. The fear of those who say to the moun- 
 tains, '' Fall on us," is felt at the very end of 
 their knowledge of God ; for to those who are 
 punished with everlasting destruction from the 
 presence of the Lord, God is not. So that the 
 two cases in the text are exact instances of the 
 difference of which I spoke, in the most extreme 
 degree. Moses, the greatest of the prophets, 
 fears God at first ; those who are cast into hell, 
 fear him at last. 
 
 The appearance of God, as described in this 
 passage of Scripture, is an image also of his deal- 
 ings with us at the beginning of our course, 
 when we fear him with a saving fear. " The 
 bush burned with fire, but the bush was not 
 consumed." God shows his terrors, but he does 
 not, as yet, destroy with them. It is the very 
 opposite to this at last, for then he is expressly 
 said to be a consuming fire. 
 
 Moses turned aside to see this great sight, 
 why the bush was not burnt. That sight is the 
 very same which the world has been offering for 
 so many hundreds of years : God's terrors are 
 around it, but, as yet, it is not consumed, because 
 he wills that we should fear him before it is too 
 late. 
 
 There is, indeed, this great difference ; — that 
 
304 WE CAN AVOID FEARING HIM NOW. 
 
 the signs of God's presence do not now force 
 themselves upon our eyes ; so that we may, if 
 we choose, walk on our own way, without turn- 
 ing aside to see and observe them. And thus 
 we do not see God, and do not, therefore, hide 
 our faces for fear of him, but go on, and feel no 
 fear, till the time when we cannot help seeing 
 him. And it may be, that this time will never 
 come till our life, and with it our space of trial, 
 is gone for ever. 
 
 Here, then, is our state, that God will manifest 
 himself no more to us in such a way as that we 
 cannot help seeing him. The burning bush will 
 be no more given us as a sign ; Christ will no 
 more manifest himself unto the world. And yet, 
 unless we do see him, unless we learn to fear 
 him while he is yet an unconsuming fire, unless 
 we know that he is near, and that the place 
 whereon we stand is holy ground, we shall most 
 certainly see him when he will be a consuming 
 fire, and when we shall join in crying to the 
 mountains, to fall on us, and to the hills, to 
 cover us. 
 
 Every person who thinks at all, must, I am 
 sure, be satisfied, that our great want, the great 
 need of our condition, is this one thing — to 
 realize to ourselves the presence of God. It is 
 a want not at all peculiar to the young. Thought- 
 fulness, in one sense, is indeed likely to come 
 
BECAUSE WE DO NOT SEE HIM. 305 
 
 with advancing years ; we are more apt to 
 think at forty than at fifteen; but it by no 
 means follows, that we are more apt to think 
 about God. In this matter, we are nearly at a 
 level at all times of our life : it is with all of us 
 our one great want, to bring the idea of God, 
 with a living and abiding power, home to our 
 minds. 
 
 This is illustrated by a wish, ascribed to a 
 great and good man — Johnson, and which has 
 been noticed with a sneer by unbelievers, a wish 
 that he might see a spirit from the other world, 
 to testify to him of the truth of the resurrection. 
 This has been sneered at, as if it were a confes- 
 sion of the unsatisfactory nature of the evidence 
 which we actually possess : but, in truth, it is a 
 confession only of the weakness which clings to 
 us all, that things unseen, which our reason 
 only assures us to be real, are continually over- 
 powered by things affecting our senses; and, 
 therefore, it was a natural wish that sight might, 
 in a manner, come to the aid of reason ; that the 
 eye might see, and the ear might hear, a form 
 and words which belonged to another world. 
 And this wish might arise (I do not say wisely, 
 or that his deliberate judgment would sanction 
 it, but it might arise) in the breast of a good 
 man, and one who would be willing to lay down 
 his life in proof of his behef in Christ's promises. 
 
 X 
 
306 WHAT CAN SUPPLY THIS WANT ? 
 
 It might arise, not because he felt any doubt, 
 when his mind turned calmly to the subject ; not 
 because he was hesitating what should be the 
 main principle of his life ; but because his expe- 
 rience had told him, that there are many times 
 in the life of man when the mind does not fully 
 exert itself; when habit and impressions rule us, 
 in a manner, in its stead. And when so many of 
 our impressions must be earthly, and as our im- 
 pressions colour our habits, is it not natural 
 (I do not say wise, but is it not natural) to desire 
 some one forcible unearthly impression, which 
 might, on the other side, colour our habits, and 
 so influence us at those times when the mind, 
 almost by the necessity of our condition, cannot 
 directly interpose its own deliberate decision as 
 our authority ? 
 
 No doubt the wish to which I have been allu- 
 ding is not one which our reason would sanc- 
 tion ; but it expresses in a very lively manner a 
 want which is most true and real, although it 
 proposes an impossible remedy. But the ques- 
 tion cannot but occur to us. Can it be that our 
 heavenly Father, who knows whereof we are 
 made, should have intended us to live wholly by 
 faith in this world ? That is, can it have been his 
 will, that all visible signs of himself should be 
 withdrawn from us ; and that we should be left 
 only with the record and the evidence of his 
 
THE WITNESS OF THE CHURCH. 307 
 
 mighty works done in our behalf in past times ; 
 and with that other evidence of his wisdom and 
 power which is afforded by the wonders of his 
 creation ? 
 
 We look into the Scriptures and we learn that 
 such was not his will. We were to hve by faith, 
 indeed, with respect to the unseen world ; there 
 the sign given was to be for ever only the sign 
 of Christ's resurrection. But yet it was not de- 
 signed that the evidence of Christ's having re- 
 deemed us should be sought for only in the 
 records of the past; he purposed that there 
 should be a living record, a record that might 
 speak to our senses as well as to our reason ; that 
 should continually present us with impressions 
 of the reality of Christ's salvation ; and so 
 might work upon the habits of our life, as 
 insensibly as the air we breathe. This living 
 witness, which should last till Christ came 
 again, was to be no other than his own body, 
 instinct with his own Spirit — his people, the 
 temple of the Holy Ghost, his holy universal 
 Church. 
 
 If we consider for a moment, this would en- 
 tirely meet the want of which I have been speak- 
 ing. It is possible, certainly, to look upon the 
 face of nature without being reminded of God ; 
 yet it is surely true, that in the outward creation, 
 in the order of the seasons, the laws of the hea- 
 x2 
 
308 MAN NATURALLY WITNESSES AGAINST GOD. 
 
 venly bodies, the wonderful wisdom and goodness 
 displayed in the constitution of every living thing 
 in its order, there is a tendency at least to im- 
 press us with the thought of God, if nothing 
 else obstructed it. But there is a constant ob- 
 struction in the state of man. Looking at men, 
 hearing them, considering them, it is not only 
 possible not to be reminded of God; but their 
 very tendency is to exclude him from our minds, 
 because the moral workmanship which is so pre- 
 dominant in them has assuredly not had God for 
 its author. We all, in our dealings with one 
 another, lead each other away from God. We 
 present to each other's view what seems to be a 
 complete world of our own, in which God is not. 
 We see a beginning, a middle, and an end ; we 
 see faculties for acquiring knowledge, and for re- 
 ceiving enjoyment ; and earth furnishes know- 
 ledge to the one and enjoyment to the other. 
 We see desires, and we see the objects to 
 which they are limited ; we see that death 
 removes men from all these objects; and con- 
 sistently with this, we observe, that death is 
 generally regarded as the greatest of all evils. 
 Man's witness, then, as far as it goes, is 
 against the reality of God and of eternity. 
 His life, his language, his desires, his under- 
 standing appear, when we look over the world, 
 to refer to no being higher than himself, to no 
 
THE TRUE CHURCH WITNESSES TO HIM, 309 
 
 other state of things than that of which sight 
 testifies. 
 
 Now, Christ's Church, the living temple of 
 the Holy Ghost, puts in the place of this natu- 
 ral and corrupt man, whose witness is against 
 God, another sort of man, redeemed and rege- 
 nerate, whose whole being breathes a perpetual 
 witness of God. Consider, again, what we should 
 see in such a Church. We should see a begin- 
 ning, a middle, but the end is not yet visible; we 
 should see, besides the faculties for knowledge 
 and enjoyment which were receiving their grati- 
 fication daily, other faculties of both kinds, 
 whose gratification was as yet withheld : we 
 should see desires not limited to any object now 
 visible or attainable. We should see death 
 looked to as the gate by which these hitherto 
 unobtained objects were to be sought for; and 
 we should hear it spoken of, not as the greatest 
 of evils, but as an event solemn, indeed, and 
 painful to nature, but full of blessing and of 
 happiness. We should see love,joy, peace, long- 
 suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, 
 temperance ; a constitution of nature as mani- 
 festly proclaiming its author to be the God of 
 all holiness and loving-kindness, as the wonderful 
 structure of our eyes or hands declares them to 
 be the work of the God of all wisdom and power. 
 We should thus see in all our fellow-men, not 
 
310 BY THE HOLY LIVES OF ITS MEMBERS I 
 
 only as much^ but far more than in the constitu- 
 tion of the lower animals, or of the plants, or of 
 the heavenly bodies, a witness of God and of 
 eternity. Their whole lives would be a witness ; 
 their whole conversation would be a witness ; 
 their outward and more pecuhar acts of worship 
 would then bear their part in harmony with all 
 the rest. Every day would the voice of the 
 Church be heard in its services of prayer and 
 thanksgiving; every day would its members 
 renew their pledges of faithfulness to Christ, and 
 to one another, upon partaking together the me- 
 morials of his sacrifice. 
 
 What could we desire more than such a living 
 witness as this ? What sign in the sky, what 
 momentary appearance of a spirit from the 
 unseen world, could so impress us with the 
 reality of God, as this daily worshipping in his 
 living temple ; this daily sight, of more than the 
 Shechinah of old, even of his most Holy Spirit, 
 diffusing on every side light and blessing. And 
 what is now become of this witness ? can names, 
 and forms, and ordinances supply its place ? can 
 our unfrequent worship, our most seldom com- 
 munion, impress on us an image of men living 
 altogether in the presence of God, and in com- 
 munion with Christ ? But before we dwell on 
 this, we may, while considering the design of the 
 true Church of Christ, well understand how 
 
BUT THIS WITNESS ALSO IS LOST. 311 
 
 such excellent things should be spoken of it, 
 and how it should have been introduced into the 
 Creed itself, following immediately after the 
 mention of the Holy Ghost. That holy uni- 
 versal Church was to be the abiding witness of 
 Christ's love and of Christ's promises ; not in 
 its outward forms only, for they by them- 
 selves are not a living witness ; they cannot 
 meet our want — to have God and heavenly 
 things made real to us : but in its whole spirit, 
 by which renewed man was to bear as visibly 
 the image of God, as corrupted man had lost 
 it. This was the sure sign that Christ had 
 appointed to abide until his coming again ; 
 this sign, as striking as the burning bush, 
 would compel us to observe ; would make us 
 sure that the place whereon we stand is holy 
 ground. 
 
 Then follows the question : With this sign lost 
 in its most essential points, how can we supply 
 its place ? and how can we best avail ourselves 
 of those parts of it which still remain ? and how 
 can we each endeavour to build up a partial and 
 most imperfect imitation of it, which may yet, in 
 some sort, serve to supply our great want, and 
 remind us daily of God ? This opens a wide 
 field for thought, to those who are willing to 
 follow it ; but much of it belongs to other occa- 
 
312 
 
 sions rather than this : the practical part of it — 
 the means of most imperfectly supplying the 
 want of God's own appointed sign, a true and 
 living universal Church, shall be the subject of 
 my next sermon. 
 
 March \2th, 1837. 
 
SEKMON XXIX 
 
 Psalm cxxxvii. 4. 
 How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land ? 
 
 This was said by the exiles of Jerusalem, when 
 they were in the land of their captivity in 
 Babylon. There is no reason to suppose that 
 their condition was one of bondage, as it had 
 been in Egypt : the nations removed by con- 
 quest, under the Persian kings, from their own 
 country to another land, were no otherwise ill- 
 treated ; they had new homes given them in 
 which they lived unmolested; only they were 
 torn away from their own land, and were as 
 sojourners in a land of strangers. But the pecu- 
 liar evil of this state was, that they were torn 
 away from the proper seat of their worship. 
 The Jew in Babylon might have his own home. 
 
314 EARTH WAS NOT TO BE STRANGE TO CHRISTIANS. 
 
 and his own land to cultivate, as he had in 
 Judaea; but nothing could replace to him the 
 loss of the temple at Jerusalem : there alone 
 could the morning and evening sacrifices be 
 offered; there alone could the sin-offering for 
 the people be duly made. Banished from the 
 temple, therefore, he was deprived also of the 
 most solemn part of his religion ; he was, as it 
 were, exiled from God ; and the worship of God, 
 as it was now left to him, — that is, the offering 
 up of prayers and praises, — was almost painful 
 to him, as it reminded him so forcibly of his 
 changed condition. 
 
 Such also, in some respects, was to be the 
 state of the Christian Church after our Lord's 
 ascension. The only acceptable sacrifice was 
 now that of their great High Priest interceding 
 for them in the presence of the Father : heaven 
 was their temple, and they were far removed 
 from it upon earth : they, too, like the Jews in 
 Babylon, were a httle society by themselves 
 living in the midst of strangers. '' Our citizen- 
 ship," says St. Paul lo the Philippians, ^'is in 
 heaven;" here they were not citizens, but so- 
 journers. Why, then, should not the early 
 Christians have joined altogether in the feeling 
 of the Jews at Babylon ? why should not they, 
 too, have felt and said, '' How can we sing the 
 Lord's song in a strange land ?" 
 
BECAUSE god's SPIRIT SHOULD HALLOW IT. 315 
 
 The answer is contained in what I said last 
 Sunday ; because Christ had not left them com- 
 fortless or forsaken, but was come again to them 
 by his Holy Spirit; because God was dwelling 
 in the midst of them ; because they were not 
 exiles from the temple of God, but were them- 
 selves become God's temple ; because through 
 the virtue of the one offering for sin once made, 
 but for ever presented before God by their High 
 Priest in heaven, they, in God's temple on earth, 
 were presenting also their daily and acceptable 
 sacrifice, the sacrifice of themselves; because 
 also, though as yet they were a small society in 
 a land of strangers, yet the stone formed without 
 hands was to become a mighty mountain, and 
 cover the whole earth ; what was now the land 
 of strangers was to become theirs; the whole 
 earth should be full of the knowledge of the 
 Lord ; the kingdoms of the world were to be- 
 come his kingdom ; and thus earth, redeemed 
 from the curse of sin, was again to be so blessed 
 that God's servants living upon it should find it 
 no place of exile. 
 
 But if this, in its reality, does not now exist ; 
 if, although God's temple be on earth, the ap- 
 pointed sacrifice in it is not offered, the living 
 sacrifice of ourselves; if the society has, by 
 spreading, become weak, and the kingdoms of 
 the earth are Christ's kingdoms in name alone ; 
 
316 REMAINING VESTIGES OF CHRIST's CHURCH. 
 
 are we, then, come back once more to the con- 
 dition of the Jews in Babylon ? are we exiles 
 from God, living amongst strangers ? and must 
 we, too, say with the prophet, '^ How can we 
 sing the Lord's song in a strange land ?" 
 
 This was the question which I proposed to 
 answer : What can we do to make our condition 
 unlike that of exiles from God : to restore that 
 true sign of His presence amongst us, the living 
 fire of his Holy Spirit pervading every part of 
 his temple ? I mean what can we do as indivi- 
 duals ? for the question in any other sense is 
 not to be asked or answered here. But we, 
 each of us, must have felt, at some time or 
 other, our distance from God. Put the idea 
 in what form or what words we will, we must 
 — every one of us who has ever thought seri- 
 ously at all — we must regret that there is not a 
 stronger and more abiding influence over us, to 
 keep us from evil, and to turn us to good. 
 
 Now, the vestiges of Christ's church left among 
 us are chiefly these : our prayers together, whe- 
 ther in our families or in this place ; our reading 
 of the Scriptures together; our communion, rare 
 as it is, in the memorials of the body and blood 
 of Christ our Saviour. These are the vestiges 
 of that which was designed to be with us always, 
 and in every part of our lives, the holy temple 
 of God, his living church ; but which now 
 
COMMON PRAYER. 317 
 
 presents itself to us only at particular times, and 
 places, and actions ; in our worship, and in our 
 joint reading of the Scriptures, and in our com- 
 munion. 
 
 It will be understood at once why I have not 
 spoken here of prayer and reading the Scriptures 
 by ourselves alone. Most necessary as these are 
 to us, yet they do not belong to the helps minis- 
 tered to us by the church ; they belong to us 
 each as individuals, and in these respects we must 
 be in the same state everywhere : these were en- 
 joyed by the Jews even in their exile in Babylon. 
 But the church acts upon us through one an- 
 other, and therefore the vestiges of the church 
 can only be sought for in what we do, not alone, 
 but together. I, therefore, noticed only that 
 prayer, and that reading of the Scriptures, in 
 which many of us took part in common. 
 
 Such common prayer takes place amongst us 
 every morning and evening, as well as on Sun- 
 days within these walls. Whenever we meet on 
 those occasions, we meet as Christ's church. 
 Now, conceive how the effect of such meetings 
 depends on the conduct of each of us. It is not 
 necessary to notice behaviour openly profane 
 and disorderly: this does not occur amongst 
 us. We see, however, that if it did occur in 
 any meeting for the purposes of religious wor- 
 ship, such a meeting would do us harm rather 
 
318 COMMON PRATER. 
 
 than good : its witness to us would not be in 
 favour of God, but against him. But take an- 
 other case : when we are assembled for prayers, 
 suppose our behaviour, without being disorderly, 
 was yet so manifestly indifferent as to be really 
 indecent, that is, suppose every countenance 
 showed such manifest signs of weariness, and im- 
 patience, and want of interest in what was going 
 forward, that it was evident there was no general 
 sympathy with any feeling of devotion. Would 
 not the effect here also be injurious ? would not 
 such a meeting also shock and check our ap- 
 proaches towards God ? would it not rather 
 convince us that God was really far distant from 
 us, instead of showing that he was in the midst 
 of us? 
 
 Ascend one step higher. Our behaviour is 
 neither disorderly, nor manifestly indifferent: 
 it is decent, serious, respectful. What is the 
 effect in this case ? Not absolutely unfavour- 
 able certainly; but yet far from being much 
 help towards good. We bear our witness that 
 we are engaged in a matter that should be 
 treated with reverence : this is very right ; but 
 do we do more than this ? Do we show that we 
 are engaged in a matter that commands our in- 
 terest also, as well as our respect ? If not, our 
 witness is not the witness of Christ's church : it 
 does not go to declare that God is in us of a truth. 
 
COMMON PRAYER. 319 
 
 Let us go on one step more. We meet to- 
 gether to pray : we are orderly, we are quiet, we 
 are serious ; but the countenance shows that we 
 are something more than these. There is on it 
 the expression, never to be mistaken, of real in- 
 terest. Remember I am speaking of meetings for 
 prayer, where the words are perfectly familiar 
 to us, and where the interest therefore cannot 
 be the mere interest of novelty. Say, then, that 
 our countenances express interest : I do not 
 mean strong and excited feeling; but interest, 
 which may be very real yet very quiet also. We 
 look as if we thought of what we were engaged 
 in, of what we are ourselves, and of what God 
 is to us. We are joined in one common feehng 
 of thankfulness to him for mercies past, of 
 wishing for his help and love for the time to 
 come. Now, think what would be the effect 
 of such a meeting ? Would it not be, clearly, 
 positively good ? Would not every individual's 
 earnestness be confirmed by the manifest earn- 
 estness of others ? Would not his own sense of 
 God's reality be rendered stronger, by seeing 
 that others felt it just as he did ? Then, here 
 would be the church of God rendering her 
 appointed witness : she would be giving her 
 sure sign that God is not far from any one of us. 
 
 Now, then, observe what we may lose or gain 
 by our different behaviour, whenever we meet 
 
320 COMMON PRAYER. 
 
 together in prayer ; what we lose, nay, what 
 positive mischief we do, by any visible impatience 
 or indifference ; what we should gain by really 
 joining in our hearts in the meaning of what 
 was uttered. It is a solemn thing for the con- 
 sciences of us all ; but surely it must be true, 
 that, whenever we are careless or indifferent in 
 our public prayers, we are actually injuring our 
 neighbours, and are, so far as in us lies, destroy- 
 ing the witness which the church of Christ 
 should render to the truth of God her Saviour. 
 
 I do not know that there is any thing more 
 impressive than the sight of a congregation 
 evidently in earnest in the service in which they 
 are engaged. We then feel how different is our 
 own lonely prayer from the united voice of 
 many hearts ; each cheering, strengthening, en- 
 kindling the other. We then consider one 
 another to provoke unto love and good works. 
 How different are the feelings with which we 
 regard a number of persons met for any common 
 purpose, and the same persons engaged together 
 in serious prayer or praise ! Then Christ seems 
 to appear to us in each of them ; we are all one 
 in him. How little do all earthly unkindnesses, 
 dislikes, prejudices, become in our eyes, when 
 the real bond of our common faith is discerned 
 clearly ! There is indeed neither Greek nor Jew, 
 circumcision nor uncircumcision. Barbarian, 
 
READING OF THE SCRIPTURES. 321 
 
 Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is all, and in 
 all. And to look at our brethren, once or twice 
 in every day, with these christian eyes, would it 
 not also, by degrees, impress us at other times, 
 and begin to form something of our habitual 
 temper and regard towards them? 
 
 Thus much of our meetings for prayer. One 
 word only on those in which we meet to read 
 the Scriptures. Here I know, that difference of 
 age, and our peculiar relations to each other, 
 make us very apt to lose the religious character 
 of our readings of the Scriptures, and to regard 
 them merely as lessons. No doubt, the object 
 here is instruction : it is not so much in itself a 
 religious exercise, as a means to enable you to 
 perform religious exercises with understanding 
 and sincerity. Still there is a peculiar character 
 attached even to lessons, when they are taken 
 out of the Scriptm'es ; and the duty of attention 
 and interest in the work becomes even stronger 
 than under other circumstances. But, with those 
 of a more advanced age, I think there is more 
 than this ; I think it must be our own fault, if, 
 whilst engaged together in reading the Scrip- 
 tures, which we only read because we are 
 Christians, we do not feel that there also we are 
 employed on a duty belonging to the Church of 
 Christ. 
 
 Lastly, there is our joint communion in the 
 
 Y 
 
322 HOLY COMMUNION. 
 
 bread, and in the cup, of the Lord's Supper. 
 Here there is seriousness ; here there is always, 
 I trust and believe, something of real interest ; 
 and, therefore, we never, I think, meet together 
 at the Lord's table, without feeling a true effect 
 of Christ's gifts to and in his Church ; we are 
 strengthened and brought nearer to one another, 
 and to him. But this most precious pledge of 
 Christ's Church we too often forfeit for ourselves. 
 That we have lost so much of the help which 
 the Church was designed to give, is not our 
 fault individually ; but it is our fault that we 
 neglect this means of strength, so great in bear- 
 ing witness to Christ, and in kindling love 
 towards one another. What can be said of us, 
 if, with so many helps lost, we throw away that 
 which still remains ? if, of the great treasure 
 which the Church yet keeps, we are wilfully 
 ignorant ? How much good might we do, both 
 to ourselves and to each other, by joining in 
 that communion? How surely should we be 
 strengthened in all that is good, and have a help 
 from each other, through his Spirit working in 
 us all, to struggle against our evil ! 
 
 March 19th, 1837. 
 
SERMON XXX. 
 
 1 Cor. xi. 26. 
 
 For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do 
 show the Lords death tiU he come. 
 
 When I spoke last Sunday of the benefits yet 
 to be derived from Christ's Church, I spoke of 
 them as being, for the most part, three in num- 
 ber — our communion in prayer, our communion 
 in reading the Scriptures, and our communion 
 in the Lord's Supper ; and, after having spoken 
 of the first two of these, I proposed to leave the 
 third for our consideration to-day. 
 
 The words of the text are enough to show 
 how closely this subject is connected with that 
 event which we celebrate to-day :* " As often as 
 ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show 
 the Lord's death till he come." The com- 
 munion, then, with one another in the Lord's 
 
 * Good Friday. 
 
 y2 
 
324 CHRISTIANITY IMPLIES THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH^ 
 
 Supper is doing that which this day was also 
 designed to do ; it is showing forth, or declaring 
 the Lord's death ; it is declaring, in the face of 
 all the world, that we partake of the Lord's 
 Supper because we believe that Christ our pass- 
 over was sacrificed for us. 
 
 God might, no doubt, if it had so pleased him, 
 have made all spiritual blessing come to us im- 
 mediately from himself. Without ascending any 
 higher with the idea, it is plain that Christianity 
 might have been made a thing wholly between 
 each individual man and Christ ; all our worship 
 might have been the secret worship of our own 
 hearts ; and in eating the bread, and drinking 
 the cup to show forth the Lord's death, each 
 one of us might have done this singly, holding 
 communion with Christ alone. I mean, that it 
 is quite conceivable that we should have had 
 Christianity, and a great number of Christians 
 spread all over the world, but yet no Christian 
 Church. But, although this is conceivable, and, 
 in fact, is practically the case in some particular 
 instances where individual Christians happen to 
 be quite cut off from all other Christians, — as 
 has been known sometimes in foreign and remote 
 countries; and although, through various evil 
 causes, it has become, in many respects, too 
 much the case with us all ; for our religion is with 
 all of us, I am inclined to think, too much a 
 
WE DO NOT COME TO GOD ALONE, 325 
 
 matter between God and ourselves alone ; yet 
 still it is not the design of Christ that it should 
 be so ; his people were not only to be good 
 men, redeemed from sin and death, and brought 
 to know and love the truth, — in which relation 
 Christianity would appear like a divine philo- 
 sophy only, working, not only upon individuals, 
 but through their individual minds, and as indi- 
 viduals ; but they were to be the Christian 
 Church, helping one another in things pertain- 
 ing to God, and making their mutual brother- 
 hood to one another an essential part of what 
 are called peculiarly their acts of rehgion. So 
 that the Church of England seems to have well 
 borne in mind this character of Christianity, 
 namely, that it presents us not each, but all toge- 
 ther, before God ; and therefore it is ordered that 
 even in very small parishes, where ^^ there are 
 not more than twenty persons in the parish of 
 discretion to receive the communion, yet there 
 shall be no communion, except four, or three at 
 the least, out of these twenty communicate 
 together with the priest." Nay, even in the 
 communion of the sick, under circumstances 
 which seem to make religion particularly an 
 individual matter between Christ and our own 
 single selves ; when the expected approach of 
 death seems to separate, in the most marked 
 manner, according to human judgment, him who 
 
326 BUT TOGETHER WITH OUR BRETHREN. 
 
 is going hence from his brethren still in the 
 world ; even then it is ordered that two other 
 persons, at the least, shall communicate along 
 with the sick man and the minister. Nor is this 
 ever relaxed except in times of pestilence ; when it 
 is provided, that if no other persons can be per- 
 suaded to join, from their fear of infection, then, 
 and then only upon special request of the dis- 
 eased, the minister may alone communicate with 
 them. So faithfully does our Church adhere to 
 this true christian notion, that at the Lord's 
 Supper we are not to communicate with Christ 
 alone, but with him in and together with our 
 brethren : so that I was justified in regarding 
 the Holy Communion as one of those helps and 
 blessings which we still derive from the Christian 
 Church — ^from Christ's mystical body. 
 
 It is the natural process of all false and cor- 
 rupt religions, on the contrary, to destroy this 
 notion of Christ's Church, and to lead away our 
 thoughts from our brethren in matters of reli- 
 gion, and to fix them merely upon God as 
 known to us through a priest. The great evil in 
 this is, (if there is any one evil greater than 
 another in a system so wholly made up of false- 
 hood, and so leading to all wickedness ; but, at 
 any rate, one great evil of it is,) that, whereas 
 the greatest part of all our hves is engaged in 
 our relations towards our brethren, that there lie 
 
WE ARE TOO APT TO FORGET THIS. 327 
 
 most of our temptations to evil, as well as of our 
 opportunities of good, if our brethren do not 
 form an essential part of our religious views, it 
 follows, and always has followed, that our beha- 
 viour and feelings towards them are guided by 
 views and principles not religious ; and that by 
 this fatal separation of what God has joined 
 together, our worship and religious services be- 
 come superstitious, while our life and actions 
 become worldly, in the bad sense of the term, 
 low principled, and profane. 
 
 If this is not so clear when put into a general 
 form, it will be plain enough when I show it in 
 that particular example which we are concerned 
 with here. Nowhere, I believe, is the tempta- 
 tion stronger to lose sight of one another in our 
 religious exercises, and especially in our Com- 
 munion. Our serious thoughts in turning to 
 God, turn away almost instinctively from our 
 companions about us. Practically, as far as the 
 heart is concerned, we are a great deal too apt 
 to go to the Lord's table each alone. But 
 consider how much we lose by this. We 
 are necessarily in constant relations with one 
 another; some of those relations are formal, 
 others are trivial ; we connect each other every 
 day with a great many thoughts, I do not say of 
 unkindness, but yet of that indifferent character 
 which is no hindrance to any unkindness when 
 
328 MISCHIEF OF FORGETTING IT. 
 
 the temptation to it happens to arise. This 
 must always be the case in hfe; business, 
 neighbourhood, pleasure, — the occasions of most 
 of our intercourse with one another, — have in 
 them nothing solemn or softening : they have in 
 themselves but little tendency to lead us to the 
 love of one another. Now, if this be so in the 
 world, it is even more so here ; your intercourse 
 with one another is much closer and more con- 
 stant than what can exist in after life with any 
 but the members of your own family; and yet 
 the various relations which this intercourse has 
 to do with, are even less serious and less soften- 
 ing than those of ordinary life in manhood. The 
 kindliness of feeling which is awakened in after 
 years between two men, by the remembrance of 
 having been at school together, even without 
 any particular acquaintance with each other, is 
 a very different thing from the feeling of being 
 at school with each other now. I do not won- 
 der, then, that any one of you, when he resolves 
 to come to the Holy Communion, should rather 
 try to turn away his thoughts from his com- 
 panions, and to think of himself alone as being 
 concerned in what he is going to do. I do not 
 wonder at it ; but, then, neither do I wonder 
 that, when the Communion is over, and thoughts 
 of his companions must return, they receive little 
 or no colour from his religious act so lately 
 
GOOD OF REMEMBERING IT. 329 
 
 performed ; that they are as indifferent as they 
 were before, as httle furnishing a security against 
 neglect, or positive unkindness, or encourage- 
 ment of others to evil. Depend upon it, unless 
 your common life is made a part of your religion, 
 your rehgion will never sanctify your common 
 life. 
 
 Now consider, on the one hand, what might 
 be the effect of going to the Holy Communion 
 with a direct feeling that, in that Communion, 
 we, though many, were all brought together in 
 Christ Jesus. And first, I will speak of our 
 thoughts of those who are partakers of the 
 Communion with us, then of those who are not. 
 When others are gone out, and we who are to 
 communicate are left alone with each other, 
 then, if we perceive that there are many of us, 
 the first natural feeling is one of joy, that we are 
 so many ; that our party, — that only true and 
 good party to which we may belong with all our 
 hearts, — that our party, that Christ's party, 
 seems so considerable. Then there comes the 
 thought, that we are all met together freely, 
 willingly, not as a matter of form, to receive the 
 pledges of Christ's love to us, to pledge ourselves 
 to him in return. If we are serious, those around 
 us may be supposed to be serious too ; if we 
 wish to have help from God to lead a holier life, 
 they surely wish the same ; if the thought of 
 
330 GOOD OF REMEMBERING IT. 
 
 past sin is humbling us, the same shame is 
 working in our brethren's bosoms ; if we are 
 secretly resolving, by God's grace, to serve him 
 in earnest, the hearts around us are, no doubt, 
 resolving the same. There is the consciousness, 
 (when and where else can we enjoy it ?) that we 
 are in sympathy with all present ; that, coloured 
 merely by the lesser distinctions of individual 
 character, one and the same current of feeling is 
 working vdthin us all. And, if feeling this of 
 our sympathy with one another, how strongly is 
 it heightened by the thought of what Christ has 
 done for us all ! We are all loving him, because 
 he loved us all ; we are going together to 
 celebrate his death, because he died for us all ; 
 we are resolving all to serve him, because his 
 Holy Spirit is given to us all, and we are all 
 brought to drink of the same Spirit. Then let 
 us boldly carry our thoughts a little forward to 
 that time, only a short hour hence, when we 
 shall again be meeting one another in very 
 different relations ; even in those common indif- 
 ferent relations of ordinary life which are con- 
 nected so little with Christ. Is it impossible to 
 think, that, although we shall meet without these 
 walls in very different circumstances, yet that we 
 have seen each other pledging ourselves to serve 
 Christ together ? if the recollection of this lives 
 in us, why should it not live in our neighbour ? 
 
GOOD OF REMEMBERING IT. 331 
 
 If we are labouring to keep alive our good 
 resolutions made at Christ's table, why should 
 we think that others have forgotten them ? We 
 do not talk of them openly, yet still they exist 
 within us. May not our neighbour's silence also 
 conceal within his breast the same good purposes ? 
 At any rate, we may, and ought to, regard him 
 as ranged on our side in the great struggle of 
 life ; and if outward circumstances do not so 
 bring us together as to allow of our openly 
 declaring our sympathy, yet we may presume 
 that it still exists ; and this consciousness may 
 communicate to the ordinary relations of life 
 that very softness which they need, in order to 
 make them christian. 
 
 Again, with regard to those who go out, and 
 do not approach to the Lord's table. With 
 some it is owing to their youth ; with others 
 to a mistaken notion of their youth ; with others 
 to some less excusable reason, perhaps, but yet 
 to such as cannot yet exclude kindness and 
 hope. But having once felt what it is to be 
 only with those who are met really as Chris- 
 tians, our sense of what it is to want this feeling 
 is proportionably raised. Is it sad to us to think 
 that our neighbour does not look upon us as 
 fellow Christians? is it something cold to feel 
 that he regards us only in those common worldly 
 relations which leave men in heart so far asunder? 
 
332 GOOD OF REMEMBERING IT. 
 
 Then let us take heed that we do not ourselves 
 feel so towards hnn. We have learnt to judge 
 more truly, to feel more justly, of our relations 
 to every one who bears Christ's name : if we 
 forget this, we have no excuse ; for we have 
 been at Christ's table, and have been taught 
 what Christians are to one another. And let 
 our neighbour be ever so careless, yet we know 
 that Christ cares for him; that his Spirit has 
 not yet forsaken him, but is still striving with 
 him. And if God vouchsafes so much to him, 
 how can we look upon him as though he were 
 no way connected with us ? how can we be as 
 careless of his welfare, as apt either to annoy 
 him, or to lead him into evil, or to take no 
 pains to rescue him from it, as if he were no 
 more to us than the accidental inhabitant of 
 the same place, who was going on his way as 
 we may be on ours, neither having any concern 
 with the other ? 
 
 And, now, is it nothing to learn so to feel 
 towards those around us ? to have thus gained 
 what will add kindness and interest to all our 
 relations with others ; and, in the case of many, 
 will give an abiding sense of the truest sym- 
 pathy, and consequently greater confidence and 
 encouragement to ourselves ? Be sure that this 
 is not to profane the Lord's Supper, but to use 
 it according to Christ's own ordinance. For 
 
GOOD OF REMEMBERING IT. 333 
 
 though the thoughts of which I have been 
 speaking have, in one sense, man and not God 
 for their object, yet as they do not begin in man 
 but in Christ, and in his love to us all, so neither 
 do they, properly speaking, rest in man as such, 
 but convert him, as it were, into an image of 
 Christ : so that their end, as well as their be- 
 ginning, is with Him. I do earnestly desire 
 that you would come to Christ's table, in order 
 to learn a Christian's feehng towards one an- 
 other. This is what you want every day ; and 
 the absence of which leads to more and worse 
 faults than, perhaps, any other single cause. 
 But, then, this christian feeling towards one 
 another, how is it to be gained but by a christian 
 feeling towards Christ? and where are we to 
 learn brotherly love in all our common dealings, 
 but from a grateful thought of that Divine love 
 towards us all which is shown forth in the sacra- 
 ment of the Lord's Supper; inasmuch as, so 
 often as we eat that bread and drink that cup, 
 we do show the Lord's death till He come. 
 
 March 24!th, 1 837. 
 
SERMON XXXI. 
 
 Luke i. 3, 4. 
 
 It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding 
 of all things from the very firsts to write unto thee in 
 order, most excellent Theophilus, that thou mightest hnom 
 the certainty of those things wherein thou hast been 
 instructed. 
 
 These words, from the preface to St. Luke's 
 gospel, contain in them one or two points on 
 which it may be of use to dwell ; and not least 
 so at the present time, when they are more fre- 
 quently brought under our notice than was the 
 case a few years ago. On a subject which we 
 never, or ^ery rarely hear mentioned, it may be 
 difficult to excite attention; and, as a general 
 rule, there is little use in making the attempt. 
 But when names and notions are very frequently 
 brought to our ears, and in a degree to our 
 minds, then it becomes important that we should 
 
SCRIPTURE THE TEST OF OUR TEACHING. 335 
 
 comprehend the matter to which they relate 
 clearly and correctly ; and a previous interest 
 respecting it may be supposed to exist, which 
 may make farther explanation acceptable. 
 
 St. Luke tells Theophilus that it seemed good 
 to him to write in order an account of our 
 Lord's life and death, that Theophilus might 
 know the certainty of those things in which he 
 had been instructed ; and this, as a general rule, 
 might well describe one great use of the Scrip- 
 ture to each of us, as individual members of 
 Christ's Church — it enables us to know the cer- 
 tainty of the things in which we have been 
 instructed. We do not, in the first instance, get 
 our knowledge of Christ from the Scriptures, — 
 we, each of us, I mean, as individuals, — but from 
 the teaching of our parents first ; then of our 
 instructors, and from books fitted for the in- 
 struction of children ; whether it be the Cate- 
 chism of the Church, or books written by 
 private persons, of which we know that there are 
 many. But as our minds open, and our oppor- 
 tunities of judging for ourselves increase, then 
 the Scripture presents itself to acquaint us with 
 the certainty of what we had heard already ; to 
 show us the original and perfect truth, of which 
 we had received impressions before, but such as 
 were not original nor perfect ; to confirm and 
 enforce all that was good and true in our early 
 
336 BUT OTHER TEACHING COMES FIRST. 
 
 teaching ; and if it should so happen that it con- 
 tained any thing of grave error mixed with truth, 
 then to enable us to discover and to reject it. 
 
 It is apparent, then, that the Scripture, to do 
 this, must have an authority distinct from, and 
 higher than, that of our early teaching ; but yet 
 it is no less true that it comes to us individually 
 recommended, in the first instance, by the 
 authority of our early teaching, and received by 
 us, not for its own sake, but for the sake of those 
 who put it into our hands. What child can, by 
 possibility, go into the evidence which makes it 
 reasonable to believe the Bible, and to reject 
 the authority of the Koran ? Our children be- 
 lieve the Bible for our sakes ; they look at it with 
 respect, because we tell them that it ought to be 
 respected ; they read it, and learn it, because we 
 desire them ; they acquire a habit of veneration 
 for it long before they could give any other 
 reason for venerating it than their parents' autho- 
 rity. And blessed be God that they do; for, 
 as it has been well said, if we their parents do 
 not endeavour to give our children habits of 
 love and respect for what is good and true, 
 Satan will give them habits of love for what is 
 evil ; for the child must receive impressions from 
 without ; and it is God's wisdom that he should 
 receive these impressions from his parents, who 
 have the strongest interest in his welfare, and 
 
AFTERWAKDS WE APPEAL TO EVIDENCE. 337 
 
 who have besides that instinctive parental love 
 which, more surely, as well as more purely, than 
 any possible sense of interest, makes them ear- 
 nestly desire their child's good. 
 
 But when our children are old enough to 
 understand and to inquire, do we then content 
 ourselves with saying that they must take our 
 word for it ; that the Bible is true because we 
 tell them so ? Where is the father who does 
 not feel, first, that he himself is not fitted to be 
 an infalhble authority ; and, secondly, that if he 
 were, he should be thwarting the providence of 
 God, who has willed not simply that we should 
 beheve, but also that we should believe with un- 
 derstanding. He gladly therefore observes the 
 beginnings of a spirit of inquiry in his son's mind ; 
 knowing that it is not inconsistent with a belief 
 in truth, but is a necessary step to that which 
 alone in a man deserves the name of belief — a 
 belief, namely, sanctioned by reason. With what 
 pleasure does he point out to his son the grounds 
 of his own faith ! how gladly does he introduce 
 him to the critical and historical evidence for the 
 truth of the Scriptures, that he may complete 
 the work which he had long since begun, and 
 deliver over the faith which had been so long 
 nursed under the shade of parental authority, to 
 the care of his son's own conscience and reason ! 
 We see clearly that our individual faith, although 
 
338 DO WE RECEIVE THE SCRIPTURES 
 
 grounded in the first instance on parental autho- 
 rity, yet rests afterwards on wholly different 
 grounds : namely, on the direct evidence in con- 
 firmation of it which is presented to our own 
 minds. But with regard to those who are called 
 the Fathers of the Church, it is contended some- 
 times that we do receive the Scriptures, in the 
 end, upon their authority ; and it is argued, that 
 if their authority is sufficient for so great a thing 
 as this, it must be sufficient for everything else ; 
 that if, in short, we believe the Scriptures for 
 their sake, then we ought also to believe other 
 things which they may tell us, for their sake, even 
 though they are not to be found in Scripture. 
 
 In this argument there is this great fault, that 
 it misstates the question at the outset. The 
 authority of the Fathers, as they are called, is 
 never to any sound mind the only reason for 
 believing in the Scriptures : I think it is by no 
 means so much as the principal reason. It is one 
 reason, amongst many ; but not the strongest. 
 And, in like manner, their authority in other 
 points, if there were other and stronger reasons 
 which confirmed it, — as in many cases there 
 are, — is and ought to be respected. But, 
 because we lay a certain stress upon it, it does 
 not follow that we should do well to make it 
 bear the whole weight of the building. Because 
 we believe the Scriptures, partly on the autho- 
 
ON THE AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH ? 339 
 
 rity of the Fathers, as they are called, but more 
 for other reasons, does it follow that we should 
 equally respect the authority of the Fathers 
 when there are no other reasons in support of 
 it, but many which make against it ? 
 
 In truth, however, the internal evidence in 
 favour of the authenticity and genuineness of 
 the Scriptures is that on which the mind can 
 rest with far greater satisfaction than on any 
 external testimonies, however valuable. On one 
 point, which might seem most to require other 
 evidence — the age, namely, and origin of the 
 writings of the New Testament — it has been 
 wonderfully ordered that the books, generally 
 speaking, are their own witness. I mean that 
 their peculiar language proves them to have 
 been written by persons such as the apostles 
 were, and such as the christian writers immedi- 
 ately following them were not ; persons, namely, 
 whose original language and habits of thinking 
 were those of Jews, and to whom the Greek in 
 which they wrote was, in its language and asso- 
 ciations, essentially foreign. I do not dwell on 
 the many other points of internal evidence : it 
 is sufficient to say that those who are most 
 famihar with such inquiries, and who best know 
 how little any external testimony can avail in 
 favour of a book where the internal evidence is 
 against it, are most satisfied that the principal 
 
 z2 
 
34(X AND EVEN IF WE DID, DOES IT FOLLOW THAT 
 
 writings of the New Testament do contain abun- 
 dantly in themselves, for competent judges, the 
 evidence of their own genuineness and authen- 
 ticity. 
 
 That the testimony of the early christian 
 writers goes along with this evidence and con- 
 firms it, is matter indeed of sincere thankfulness ; 
 because more minds, perhaps, are able to believe 
 on external evidence than on internal. But of 
 this testimony of the christian WTiters it is essen- 
 tial to observe that two very important points 
 are such as do indeed affect this particular ques- 
 tion much, but yet do not confer any value on 
 the judgment of the witness in other matters. 
 When a very early christian writer quotes a 
 passage from the New Testament, such as we 
 find it now in our Bibles, it is indeed an argu- 
 ment, which all can understand, that he had be- 
 fore him the same Bible which we have, and that 
 though he lived so near to the beginning of the 
 gospel, yet that some parts of the New Testa- 
 ment must have been written still nearer to it. 
 This is an evidence to the age of the New Tes- 
 tament, valuable indeed to us, but implying in 
 the writer who gives it no qualities which confer 
 authority ; it merely shows that the book which 
 he read must have existed before he could quote 
 it. A second point of evidence is, when a very 
 early christian writer quotes any part of the New 
 
THE SAME AUTHORITY PROVES EVERY THING? 341 
 
 Testament as being considered by those to whom 
 he was writing as an authority. This, again, is 
 a valuable piece of testimony ; but neither does 
 it imply any general wisdom or authority in the 
 writer who gives it : its value is derived merely 
 from the age at which he lived, and not from 
 his personal character. And with regard to the 
 general reception of the New Testament by the 
 Christians of his time, which, in the case sup- 
 posed, he states as a fact, no doubt that the 
 general opinion of the early Christians, where, as 
 in this case, we can be sure that it is reported 
 correctly, is an authority, and a great authority, 
 in favour of the Scriptures : combined, as it is, 
 with the still stronger internal evidence of the 
 books themselves, it is irresistible. But it were 
 too much to argue that, therefore, it was alone 
 sufficient, not only when destitute of other evi- 
 dence, but if opposed to it ; and especially if it 
 should happen to be opposed to that very Scrip- 
 ture which we know they acknowledged to be 
 above themselves, but which we do not know 
 that they were enabled in all cases either rightly 
 to interpret or faithfully to follow. 
 
 When, therefore, we are told that, as we 
 believe the Scriptures themselves upon tradition, 
 so we should believe other things also, the 
 answer is, that we do not believe the Scriptures 
 either entirely, or principally, upon what is 
 
342 SCRIPTURE OUR SOLE RULE OF FAITH, 
 
 called tradition ; but for their own internal evi- 
 dence ; and that the opinions of the early Chris- 
 tians, like those of other men, may be very good 
 in certain points, and to a certain degree, with- 
 out being good in all points, and absolutely ; 
 that many a man's judgment would justly weigh 
 with us, in addition to other strong reasons in 
 the case itself, when we should by no means 
 follow it where we were clear that there were 
 strong reasons against it. This, indeed, is so 
 obvious, that it seems almost foolish to be at the 
 trouble of stating it ; but what is so absurd in 
 common life, that the contrary to it is a mere 
 truism, is, unfortunately, when applied to a sub- 
 ject with which we are not familiar, often consi- 
 dered as an unanswerable argument, if it happen 
 to suit our disposition or our prejudices. 
 
 But, although the Scripture is to the Church, 
 and to the individual, too, who is able to judge 
 for himself, the only decisive authority in matters 
 of faith, yet we must not forget that it comes to 
 us as it did to Theophilus, to persuade us of the 
 certainty of things in which we have been 
 already instructed; not to instruct from the 
 beginning, by itself alone, those to whom its 
 subject is entirely strange : in other words, it is 
 and ought to be the general rule, that the 
 Church teaches, and the Scripture confirms that 
 teaching ; . or, if it be is any part erroneous. 
 
BUT NOT OUR SOLE TEACHER. 343 
 
 reproves it. For some appear to think, that by 
 calHng the Scripture the sole authority in mat- 
 ters of faith, we mean to exclude the Church 
 altogether ; and to call upon every man, — nay, 
 upon every child, — to make out his own religion 
 for himself from the volume of the Scriptures. 
 The explanation briefly given is this ; that while 
 the Scripture alone teaches the Church, the 
 Church teaches individuals ; and that the autho- 
 rity of her teaching, like that of all human 
 teaching, whether of individuals or societies, 
 varies justly according to circumstances ; being 
 received, as it ought to be, almost imphcitly by 
 some, as a parent's is by a child, and by others 
 listened to with respect, as that which is in the 
 main agreeable to the truth, but still not consi- 
 dered to be, nor really claiming to be received 
 as, infallible. But this part of the subject will 
 require to be considered by itself on another 
 occasion. 
 
 February 17 th, 1839. 
 
SEEM ON XXXII. 
 
 Luke i. 3, 4. 
 
 It seemed good to me, also, having had perfect understanding 
 of all things from the very firsts to write unto thee in 
 order, most excellent Theo2:)hilus, that thou mightest know 
 the certainty of those things in which thou hast been 
 instructed. 
 
 I SAID, at the conclusion of my sermon, last 
 Sunday, that when we of the Church of England 
 assert that the Scripture is the sole authority in 
 matters of faith, we by no means mean to ex- 
 clude the office of the Church, nor to assert any 
 thing so extravagant, as that it is the duty of 
 every person to sit down with the volume of the 
 Scriptures in his hand, and to make out from 
 that alone, without listening to any human 
 authority, what is the revelation made by God 
 to man. But I know that many are led to adopt 
 notions no less extravagant of the authority of 
 
TEACHING DOES NOT IMPLY ENTIRE ASSENT. 345 
 
 the Church and of tradition, — even to the full 
 extent maintained by the Church of Rome, — 
 because they see no other refuge from what 
 appears to them, and not unreasonably, so miser- 
 able and so extreme a folly ; for an extreme and 
 a most miserable folly doubtless it would be, 
 in any one, to throw aside all human aid except 
 his own ; to disregard alike the wisdom of indi- 
 viduals, and the agreeing decisions of bodies of 
 men ; to act as if none but himself had ever 
 loved truth, or had been able to discover it ; and 
 as if he himself did possess both the will and 
 the power to do so. 
 
 This is so foolish, that I doubt whether any 
 one ever held such notions, and, much more, 
 whether he acted upon them. But is it more 
 wise to run from one form of error into its 
 opposite, which, generally speaking, is no less 
 foolish and extravagant ? What should we say 
 of a man who could see no middle course 
 between never asking for advice, and always 
 blindly following it; between never accepting 
 instruction upon any subject, and believing his 
 instructors infallible ? And this last comparison, 
 with our particular situation here, will enable 
 us, I think, by referring to our own daily ex- 
 perience, to understand the present question 
 sufficiently. The whole system of education 
 supposes, undoubtedly, that the teacher, in those 
 
346 MODESTY IS NOT BLIND SUBMISSION. 
 
 matters which he teaches, should be an autho- 
 rity to the taught : a learner in any matter must 
 rely on the books, and on the living instructors, 
 out of which and from whom he is to learn. 
 There are difficulties, certainly, in all learning ; 
 but we do not commonly see them increased by 
 a disposition on the part of the learner to ques- 
 tion and dispute every thing that is told him. 
 There is a feeling rather of receiving what he is 
 told implicitly ; and, by so doing, he learns : but 
 does it ever enter into his head that his teacher 
 is infallible ? or does any teacher of sane mind 
 wish him to think so ? And observe, now, what 
 is the actual process : the mind of the learner is 
 generally docile, trustful, respectful towards his 
 teacher ; aware, also, of his own comparative 
 ignorance. It is certainly most right that it 
 should be so. But this really teachable and 
 humble learner finds a false speUing in one of 
 his books ; or hears his teacher, from oversight, 
 say one word in his explanation instead of an- 
 other : does he cease to be teachable and humble, 
 — is it really a want of childlike faith, and an 
 indulgence of the pride of reason, if he decides 
 that the false spelling was an error of the press ; 
 that the word which his teacher used was a mis- 
 take ? Yet errors, mistakes, of how trifling a 
 kind soever, are inconsistent with infallibility ; and 
 the perceiving that they are errors is an exercise 
 
SUBMISSION TO TEACHERS VARIES 347 
 
 of our individual judgment upon our instructors. 
 To hear some men talk, we should think that no 
 boy could do so without losing all humility and 
 all teachableness ; without forthwith supposing 
 that he was able to be his own instructor. 
 
 I have begun on purpose with an elementary 
 case, in which a very young boy might perceive 
 an error in his books, or in his instructors, with- 
 out, in any degree, forfeiting his true humility. 
 But we will now go somewhat farther : we will 
 take a more advanced student, such as the oldest 
 of those among you, who are still learners, and 
 who know that they have much to learn, but 
 who, having been learners for some time past, 
 have also acquired some knowledge. In the 
 books which they refer to, and from which they 
 are constantly deriving assistance, do they never 
 observe any errors beyond errors in the printing ? 
 do they never find explanations given, which they 
 perceive to be imperfect, nay, which they often feel 
 to be actually wrong ? And, passing from books 
 to living instructors, should we blame a thought- 
 ful, attentive, and well-informed pupil, because 
 his mind did not at once acquiesce in our inter- 
 pretation of some difficult passage ; because he 
 consulted other authorities on the subject, and 
 was unsatisfied in his judgment ; the reason 
 of his hesitation being, that our interpretation 
 appeared to him to give an unsatisfactory sense. 
 
348 ACCORDING TO THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE TAUGHT, 
 
 or to be obtained by violating the rules of 
 language ? Is he proud, rebellious, puffed up, 
 wanting in a teachable spirit, without faith, with- 
 out humility, because he so ventures to judge 
 for himself of what his teacher tells him ? Does 
 such a judging for himself interfere, in the 
 slightest degree, with the relation between us and 
 him ? Does it make him really cease to respect 
 us ? or dispose him to beheve that he is alto- 
 gether beyond the reach of our instruction ? Or 
 are we so mad as to regard our authority as 
 wholly set at nought, because it is not allowed 
 to be infallible ? Doubtless, it would be wholly 
 set at nought, if we had presumed to be infallible. 
 Then it would not be merely that, in some one 
 particular point, our decision had been doubted, 
 but that one point would involve our authority 
 in all ; because it would prove, that we had set 
 up beforehand a false claim : and he who does 
 so is either foolish, or a deceiver ; there is 
 apparent a flaw either in his understanding, or 
 in his principles, which undoubtedly does repel 
 respect. 
 
 Let me go on a step farther still. It has been 
 my happiness to retain, in after years, my inter- 
 course with many of those who were formerly 
 my pupils ; to know them when their minds 
 have been matured, and their education, in the 
 ordinary sense of the term, completed. Is not 
 
CEASING SOMETIMES ALTOGETHER. 349 
 
 the relation between us altered then still more ? 
 Is it incompatible with true respect and regard, 
 that they should now judge still more freely, in 
 those very points, I mean, in which heretofore 
 they had received my instructions all but im- 
 plicitly ? that on points of scholarship and 
 criticism, they should entirely think for them- 
 selves ? Or does this thinking for themselves 
 mean, that they will begin to question all they 
 had ever learnt ? or sit down to forget pur- 
 posely all their school instructions, and make 
 out a new knowledge of the ancient languages 
 for themselves ? Who does not know, that they 
 whose minds are most eager to discern truth, 
 are the very persons who prize their early 
 instruction most, and confess how much they 
 are indebted to it ; and that the exercise of their 
 judgments leads them to go on freely in the 
 same path in which they have walked so long, 
 here and there it may be departing from it 
 where they find a better line, but going on 
 towards the same object, and generally in the 
 same direction ? 
 
 What has been the experience of my life, — 
 the constantly observing the natural union 
 between sense and modesty ; the perfect com- 
 patibility of respect for instruction with freedom 
 of judgment ; the seeing how Nature herself 
 teaches us to proportion the implicitness of our 
 
350 THIS HOLDS GOOD WITH THE CHURCH. 
 
 belief to our consciousness of ignorance ; to rise 
 gradually and gently from a state of passively 
 leaning, as it were, on the arm of another, to 
 resting more and more of our weight on our 
 own limbs, and, at last, to standing alone, — this 
 has perpetually exemplified our relations, as 
 individuals, to the Church. Taught by her, in 
 our childhood and youth, under all circum- 
 stances ; taught by her, in the great majority of 
 instances, through our whole lives ; never, in 
 any case, becoming so independent of her as we 
 do, in riper years, of the individual instructor of 
 our youth ; she has an abiding claim on our 
 respect, on our deference, on our regard : but if 
 it should be, that her teaching contained any 
 thing at variance with God's word, we should 
 perceive it more or less clearly, according to our 
 degrees of knowledge ; we should trust or mis- 
 trust our judgment, according to our degree of 
 knowledge : but, in the last resort, as we sup- 
 posed that even a young boy might be sure that 
 his book was in error, in the case of a manifest 
 false print, so there may be things so certainly 
 inconsistent with Scripture, that a common 
 Christian may be able to judge of them, and to 
 say that they are like false prints in his lesson, 
 they are manifest errors, not to be followed, but 
 avoided. So far, he may be said to judge of his 
 teacher; but not the less will he respect and 
 
LIFE HAS NO INFALLIBLE TEACHER. 351 
 
 listen to her authority in general, unless she has 
 herself made the slightest error ruinous to her 
 authority, by claiming to be in all points, great 
 or small, alike infallible. 
 
 Men crave a general rule for their guidance at 
 all times, and under all circumstances ; whereas 
 life is a constant call upon us to consider how 
 far one general rule, in the particular case before 
 us, is modified by another, or where one rule 
 should be apphed, and where another. To 
 separate humihty from idolatry, conscience from 
 presumption, is often an arduous task : to dif- 
 ferent persons, there is a different besetting 
 danger; so it is under different circumstances, 
 and at different times. Every day does the 
 seaman, on a voyage, take his observations, to 
 know whereabouts he is ; he compares his posi- 
 tion with his charts ; he considers the direction 
 of the wind, and the set of the current, or tide ; 
 and from all these together, he judges on which 
 side his danger lies, on what course he should 
 steer, or how much sail he may venture to carry. 
 This is an image of our own condition : we can- 
 not have a general rule to tell us where we 
 should follow others, and where we must differ 
 from them ; to say what is modesty, and what is 
 indolence ; what is a proper deference to others, 
 and what is a trusting in man so far, that it 
 becomes a want of trust in God. Only, we are 
 
352 WE MUST IN THE LAST RESORT 
 
 sure that these are points which we must decide 
 for ourselves : the human will must be free, so 
 far as other men are concerned. If we say, that 
 we will implicitly trust others, then there is our 
 decision, which no one could have made for us, 
 and which is our own choice as to the principle 
 of our lives ; for which choice, we each of us, and 
 no one else in all the world, must answer at the 
 judgment- seat of God. Only, in that word there 
 is our comfort, that, for our conduct in so doubt- 
 ful a voyage as that of life, amidst so many con- 
 flicting opinions, each courting our adherence to 
 it, — amidst such a variety of circumstances with- 
 out, and of feelings within, and on which, not- 
 withstanding, our condition for all eternity must 
 depend, — we shall be judged, not by erring man, 
 not by our own fallible conscience, but by the 
 all-wise and all-righteous God. With him, after 
 all, even in the very courts of his holy Church, 
 we yet, in one sense, must each of us live alone. 
 On his gracious aid, given to our own individual 
 souls, and determining our own individual wills, 
 depends the character of our life here and for 
 ever. Trusting to him, praying to him, we 
 shall then make use of all the means that his 
 goodness has provided for us ; we shall ask 
 counsel of friends ; we shall listen to teachers ; 
 we shall delight to be in the company of God's 
 people, of one mind, and of one voice, with the 
 
DECIDE FOR OURSELVES. 353 
 
 good and wise of every generation ; we shall be 
 afraid of leaning too much to our own under- 
 standing, knowing how it is encompassed with 
 error ; but knowing that other men are encom- 
 passed with error also, and that we, and not they, 
 must answer for our choice before Christ's judg- 
 ment, we must, in the last resort, if our con- 
 science and sense of truth cannot be persuaded 
 that other men speak according to God's will, — 
 we must follow our own inward convictions, 
 though all the world were to follow the contrary. 
 
 February 24/A, 1839. 
 
 A A 
 
SERMON XXXIII. 
 
 John ix. 29. 
 
 We know that God spake unto Moses ; as for this fellow y we 
 know not from whence he is. 
 
 The questions involved in the conversations 
 recorded in this chapter, are of great practical 
 importance. Not perhaps of immediate prac- 
 tical importance to all in this present congrega- 
 tion; but yet sure to be of importance to all 
 hereafter, and of importance to many at this 
 actual moment. Nay, they are of importance to 
 those who, from their youth, might be thought 
 to have little to do with them, either where the 
 mind is already anxious and inquiring beyond its 
 years, or where it happens to be exposed to 
 strong party influences, so that its passions are 
 likely to be engaged on a particular side, however 
 little the understanding may be interested in the 
 
IMPRESSIONS ARE NOT UNDERSTANDING. 355 
 
 matter. In fact, in religious knowledge, as in 
 other things, the omissions of youth are hard to 
 make up in manhood; they who grow up with 
 a very small knowledge of the Scriptures, and 
 with no understanding of any of the questions 
 connected with them, can with difficulty make 
 up for this defect in after years ; they become, 
 according to the influences to which they may 
 happen to be subjected, either unbelieving or 
 fanatical. 
 
 If we were to question the youngest boy about 
 the language held in this chapter by the Pharisees, 
 and by the man who had been born blind, we 
 should, no doubt, be answered, that what the 
 Pharisees said, was wrong; and what the man 
 born blind said, was right. This w^ould be the 
 answer which it would be thought proper to 
 give ; because it would be perceived that the 
 Pharisees' language expressed unbehef in Christ ; 
 and that the man born blind was expressing gra- 
 titude and faith towards him. Nor, indeed, 
 should we expect a young boy to go much far- 
 ther than this ; for such general impressions are, 
 at his age, as much many times as can be looked 
 for. But it is strange to observe how much this 
 want of understanding outlasts the age of boy- 
 hood; how apt men are to judge according 
 to names, and to see no farther; to say, that 
 the language of the Pharisees was wrong, because 
 aa2 
 
356 THE QUESTIONS STATED. 
 
 they find it employed against Christ ; but yet to 
 use the very same language themselves, whilst 
 they think that they are all the while speaking 
 for Christ. 
 
 But in this conversation between the Pharisees 
 and the blind man, there are, indeed, as I said, 
 points involved of very great importance; it 
 fcontains the question as to the degree of weight 
 \to be attached to miracles ; and the question, no 
 iless grave, with what degree of tenacity we should 
 reject what claims to be a new truth, because it 
 iseems to be at variance with supposed old truths 
 to which we have been long accustomed to cling 
 with undoubting affection. 
 
 The question as to the weight of miracles is 
 contained in the sixteenth verse. Some of the 
 Pharisees said. This man is not of God, because 
 he keepeth not the sabbath day. Others said. 
 How can a man that is a sinner do such miracles ? 
 That is to say, the first party rejected the mira- 
 cles because they seemed to be wrought in favour 
 I of a supposed false doctrine ; the other accepted 
 I the doctrine, because it seemed warranted to 
 their belief by the miracles. 
 
 The second question is contained in the words 
 of the text, '' We know that God spake to Moses ; 
 as for this fellow, we know not from whence he 
 is." We have been taught from our childhood, 
 and have the belief associated with every good 
 
ARGUMENT OF THE PHARISEES. 357 
 
 and pious thought in us, that God spake to 
 Moses, and gave him the law as our rule of life ; 
 but as for this fellow, we know not from whence 
 he is. His works may be wonderful, his words 
 may be specious ; but we never heard of him 
 before, and we cannot tear up all the holiest 
 feelings of our nature to receive a new doctrine. 
 We will hold to the old way in which we were 
 taught by our fathers to walk, and in which they 
 walked before us. 
 
 This last question is one which, as we well 
 know, is continually presented to our minds. 
 No one says, that the Pharisees were right, any 
 more than those very Pharisees thought that 
 their fathers were right who had killed the 
 prophets. But as our Lord told them, that they 
 were in truth the children in spirit of those who 
 had killed the prophets ; because, although they 
 had been taught to condemn the outward form 
 of their fathers' action, they were repeating it 
 themselves in its principles and spirit ; so many 
 of those who condemn the Pharisees are really 
 their exact image, repeating now against the 
 truths of their own days the very same argu- 
 ments which the Pharisees used against the 
 truths of theirs. 
 
 For the arguments of these Pharisees, both as 
 regards miracles, and as regards the suspicion 
 with which we should look on a doctrine opposed 
 
358 MIRACLES NOT ALWAYS DECISIVE : 
 
 to the settled opinions of our lives, have in fact, 
 in both cases, a great mixture of justice in 
 them ; and it is this very mixture which we may 
 hope beguiled them; and also beguiles those, 
 who in our own days repeat their language. 
 / For most certain it is that the Scripture itself 
 ^supposes the possibility of false miracles. The 
 case is especially provided against in Deutero- 
 nomy. It there says, '' If there arise among 
 you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and 
 giveth thee a sign or a wonder, and the sign 
 or the wonder come to pass whereof he spake 
 unto thee, saying. Let us go after other gods 
 which thou hast not known, and let us serve 
 them : thou shalt not hearken unto the words 
 of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for 
 the Lord your God proveth you, to know whe- 
 ther ye love the Lord your God with all your 
 heart and with all your soul." Observe how 
 nearly this comes to the language of the Phari- 
 sees, '^ This man is not of God, because he 
 keepeth not the sabbath day." *' Here," they 
 might have said, "is the very case foreseen in 
 rl;he Scriptures : a prophet has wrought a sign 
 and a wonder, which is at the same time a 
 breach of God's commandments. God has told 
 us that such signs are not to be heeded, that 
 He does but prove us with them to see whether 
 we love him truly : knowing, that where there is 
 
BUT DECISIVE AGAINST POSITIVE LAWS. 359 
 
 a love of him, the heart will heed no sign or 
 wonder, how great soever, which would tempt 
 it to think lightly of his commandments." Shall 
 we say that this is not a just interpretation of 
 the passage in Deuteronomy ? shall we say that 
 this is the language of unbelief or of sin ? or, 
 rather, shall we not confess that it is in accord- 
 ance with God's word, and holy, and faithful, 
 and true ? And yet this most just language 
 led those who used it to reject one of Christ's 
 greatest miracles, and to refuse the salvation of 
 the Holy One of God. Can God's truth be con- 
 trary to itself? or can truth and goodness lead 
 so directly to error and to evil ? 
 
 Now, then, where is the solution to be found ? 
 for some solution there must be, unless we will 
 either condemn a most true principle, or defead., 
 a most false conclusion. The error lies in con- 
 founding God's moral law with his law of ordi- 
 nances ; precisely the same error which led the- 
 Jews to stone Stephen. The law had undoubt- 
 edly commanded that he who blasphemed God 
 should be stoned; the Jews called Stephen's 
 speaking against the holy place and against the 
 law blasphemy against God, and they murdered 
 God's faithful servant and Christ's blessed martyr. 
 Even so the law had said. Let no miracle be so 
 great as to tempt you to forsake God ; the Jews 
 considered the forsaking the law of the sabbath 
 
360 POSITIVE DUTIES NEVER EQUAL TO MORAL. 
 
 to be a forsaking of God^ and they said that 
 Christ's miracle was a work of Satan. There 
 is no blasphemy into which we may not fall, 
 no crime from which we shall be safe, if we do 
 not separate in our minds most clearly such laws 
 I as relate to moral and eternal duties, and such 
 j as relate to outward or positive ordinances, even 
 Lwhen commanded or instituted by God himself. 
 It is most false to say that the fact of their being 
 commanded sets them on a level with each other. 
 So long eis they are commanded to us, it is no 
 doubt our duty to obey them equally ; but the 
 difference between them is this, that whereas 
 the first are commanded to us and our children 
 for ever, and no possible evidence can be so great 
 as to persuade us that God has repealed them ; 
 (for the utmost conceivable amount of external 
 testimony, such as that of miracles, could only 
 lead to madness; — the human mind might, con- 
 ceivably, be overwhelmed by the conflict, but 
 should never and could never be tempted to re- 
 nounce its very being, and lie against its Maker ;) 
 
 r^he others, that is, the commands to observe 
 
 1 . 
 
 ! certain forms and ordinances, are in their nature 
 
 \ essentially temporary and changeable : we have 
 "no right to assume that they will be continued, 
 1 and therefore a miracle at any time might justly 
 i require us to forsake them ; and not only an out- 
 ward miracle, but the changed circumstances of 
 
THE ESSENTIAL DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THEM. 361 
 
 the times may speak God's will no less clearly 
 than a miracle, and may absolutely make it our 
 duty to lay aside those ordinances, which to us 
 hitherto, and to our fathers before us, were in- 
 deed the commands of God. 
 
 Now let us take the other question, — which 
 may indeed be called a question as to the allow- 
 ableness of resting confidently in truth already 
 gained, without consenting to examine the claims 
 of something asserting itself to be a new truth, 
 yet which seems to interfere with the old. Is 
 nothing within us to be safe from possible doubt, 
 or is everything ? Or is it here, as in the former 
 case, that there are truths so tried and so sacred 
 that it w^ere blasphemy to question them ; while 
 there are others, often closely intermixed with 
 these, which are not so sacred, because they are " 
 not eternal ; which may and ought to be ex- \ 
 amined when occasion requires ; and which may 
 be laid aside, or exchanged rather, for some 
 higher truth, if it shall reasonably appear that 
 their work is done, and that if we retain them 
 longer they will change their character, and be- 
 come no longer true but false. " David having 
 served his own generation by the will of God, 
 fell asleep, and was gathered unto his fathers, 
 and saw corruption ; but He whom God raised 
 again saw no corruption.'^ This is the difference 
 between positive ordinances and moral : the first 
 
362 THE ONE TEMPORARY ONLY, 
 
 serve their appointed number of generations by 
 the will of God, and then are gathered to their 
 fathers, and perish ; the latter are by the right 
 hand of God exalted, the same yesterday, to- 
 day, and for ever. 
 
 " We know," said the Jews, '' that God spake 
 to Moses ; but as for this fellow, we know not 
 from whence he is." There was a time when 
 their fathers had held almost the very same 
 language to Moses : " they refused him, saying. 
 Who made thee a ruler and a judge over us ?" 
 But now they knew that God had spoken to 
 Moses, but were refusing Him who was sent unto 
 them after Moses. God had spoken unto Moses, 
 it was most true : he had spoken to him and 
 given him commandments which were to last 
 for ever ; and which Christ, so far from undoing, 
 was sent to confirm and to perfect ; he had 
 spoken to him other things, which were not to 
 last for ever, but yet which were not to be cast 
 away with dishonour ; but having, in the fulness 
 of time, done their work, were then, like David, 
 to fall asleep. All that was required of the 
 Jews was not to reject as blasphemy a doctrine 
 which should distinguish between these two sorts 
 of truths ; which in no way required to believe 
 that God had not spoken to Moses, — which, on 
 the contrary, maintained that he had so spoken, 
 • — but only contended that he had also, in these 
 
THE OTHER ETERNAL. 363 
 
 last days, spoken unto us by his Son ; and that 
 his Son, bearing the full image of Divine autho- 
 rity, might well be believed if he spoke of some 
 parts of Moses's law as having now fulfilled their 
 work, seeing that they were such parts only as, 
 by their very nature, were not eternal : they had 
 not been from the beginning, and therefore they 
 would not live on to the end. 
 
 The practical conclusion is, that, whilst we 
 hold fast, with an undoubting and unwavering 
 faith, all truths which, by their very nature, are 
 eternal, and to deny which is no other than to 
 speak against the Holy Ghost, we should listen 
 patiently to, and pass no harsh judgment on, 
 those who question other truths not necessarily 
 eternal, while they declare that they are, to the 
 best of their consciences, seeking to obey God 
 and Christ. When I say, that we should listen 
 patiently, and not pass harsh judgments upon 
 those who question such points, I say it without 
 at all meaning that we should agree with them. 
 It would be monstrous indeed, to suppose that 
 old opinions are never combated wrongly ; that 
 old institutions are never pronounced to have 
 lived out their appointed time, when, in fact, 
 they are still in their full vigour. But the 
 language of those who defend the doctrines and 
 the ordinances of the Church may, and often 
 does, partake of the sin of that of the Pharisees, 
 
364 WE NEVER CAN CONFOUND THEM 
 
 even when those against whom they are contend- 
 ing are not, hke Christ, bringing in a new and 
 higher truth, but an actual error. To point out 
 that it is an error, to defend ourselves and the 
 Church from it, is most right, and most highly 
 our duty ; but it is neither right, nor our duty, 
 but the very sin of the Pharisees, to put it down 
 merely by saying, '' As for this fellow, we know 
 not from whence he is ;" to treat the whole 
 question as an impiety, and to deny the virtues 
 and the holiness of those who maintain it, because 
 they are, as we call it, '^ speaking blasphemous 
 things against the holy place and against the 
 law." The mischief of this to ourselves is 
 infinite ; nay, in its extreme, it leads to language 
 which is fearfully resembling the very blasphemy 
 against the Holy Ghost : for, when we say, as 
 has been said, that, where men's lives are 
 apparently good and holy, and their doctrines 
 are against those of the Church, the holiness is 
 an unreal holiness, and that we cannot see into 
 their hearts, this is, in fact, denying the Holy 
 Spirit's most infallible sign — the fruits of right- 
 eousness ; and being positive rather of the truth 
 of the Church, than of the truth of God. There 
 is nothing so certain as that goodness is from 
 God ; nothing so certain as that sin is not from 
 him. To deny, or doubt this, is to dispute the 
 greatest assurance of truth that God has ever 
 
WITHOUT GREAT SIN. 365 
 
 been pleased to give to us. It does not, by any 
 means, follow, that all good men are free from 
 error, nor that error is less error because good 
 men hold it ; but to make the error which is less 
 certain, a reason for disputing the goodness 
 which is more certain, is the spirit not of God, 
 nor of the Church of God, but of those false 
 zealots who put an idol in God's place ; of such 
 as rejected Christ and murdered Stephen. 
 
 March 22d, 1 840. 
 
 ^ 
 
SERMON XXXIV. 
 
 1 Corinthians xiv. 20. 
 
 Brethren y he not children in understanding : howheit, in 
 malice be ye children, hut in understanding he men. 
 
 It would be going a great deal too far to say, 
 that they who fulfilled the latter part of this 
 command, were sure also to fulfil the former; 
 that they who were men in understanding, were, 
 therefore, likely to be children in malice. But 
 the converse holds good, with remarkable cer- 
 tainty, that they who are children in understand- 
 ing, are proportionably apt to be men in malice : 
 that is, in proportion as men neglect that which 
 should be the guide of their lives, so are they 
 left to the mastery of their passions ; and as 
 nature and outward circumstances do not allow 
 these passions to remain as quiet and as little 
 grown as they are in childhood, — for they are 
 
TO HURT WILFULLY OUR OWN REASON, 367 
 
 sure to ripen without any trouble of ours, — so 
 men are left with nothing but the evils of both 
 ages, the vices of the man, and the unripeness 
 and ignorance of the child. 
 
 It is indeed a strange and almost incredible 
 thing, that any should ever have united in their 
 minds the notions of innocence and ignorance as 
 applied to any but literal children : nor is it less 
 strange, that any should ever have been afraid of 
 their understandings, and should have sought 
 goodness through prejudice, and blindness, and 
 folly. Compared with this, their conduct was in- 
 finitely reasonable who weakened and tormented 
 their bodies in order to strengthen, as they 
 thought, their spiritual nature. Such conduct was, 
 by comparison, reasonable, because there is a great 
 deal of bodily weakness and discomfort, which 
 really does not interfere with the strength and 
 purity of our character in itself, although, by 
 abridging our activity, it may lessen our means 
 of usefulness. But what should we say of a man 
 who directed his ill usage of his body to that 
 part of our system which is most closely con- 
 nected with the brain ; who were purposely to 
 impair his nervous system, and subject himself 
 to those delusions and diseased views of things 
 w^hich are the well-known result of any disorder 
 there ? Yet this is precisely what they do who 
 seek to mortify and lower their understanding. 
 
368 IS THE WORST SELF-MURDER. 
 
 It is as impossible that they should become 
 better men by such a process, as if they were 
 literally to take medicines to affect their nerves 
 or their brain, in the hope of becoming idiotic or 
 delirious. It is, in fact, the worst kind of self- 
 murder ; for it is a presumptuous destroying of 
 that which is our best life, because we dread to 
 undergo those trials which God has appointed 
 for the perfecting both of it and of us. 
 
 But from the wilful blindness of these men, 
 let us turn to the christian wisdom of the 
 Apostle : ^' In malice be ye children, but in 
 understanding be men." Let us turn to what is 
 recorded of our Lord in his early life, at that 
 age when, as man, the cultivation of his under- 
 standing was his particular duty — that he was 
 found in the temple, sitting in the midst of the 
 doctors, both hearing them and asking them 
 questions : not asking questions only, as one too 
 impatient or too vain to wait for an answer, or 
 to consider it when he had received it; not 
 hearing only, as one careless and passive, who 
 thinks that the words of wisdom can improve 
 his mind by being indolently admitted through 
 the ears, with no more effort than his body uses 
 when it is refreshed by a coohng air, or when it 
 is laid down in running water ; but both hearing 
 and asking questions ; docile and patient, yet 
 active and intelhgent ; knowing that the wisdom 
 
OUR lord's example. 963 
 
 was to be communicated from without, but that 
 it belongs to the vigorous exercise of the power 
 within, to apprehend it, and to convert it to 
 nourishment. 
 
 Now, what is recorded of our Lord for our 
 example, as to the manner in which he received 
 instruction when delivered by word of mouth, 
 this same thing should we do with that instruc- 
 tion, which, as is the case with most of ours, we 
 derive from reading. Put the Scriptures in the 
 place of those living teachers whom Christ was 
 so eager to hear; the words of Christ, and of 
 his Spirit, instead of those far inferior guides 
 from whom, notwithstanding, he, for our sakes, 
 once submitted to learn ; and what can be more 
 exact than the application of the example ? Let 
 us be found in God's true temple, in the com- 
 munion of his faithful people,— his universal 
 Church, — sitting down, as it were, surrounded 
 by the voices of the oracles of God — prophets, 
 apostles, and Jesus Christ himself: let us be 
 found with the record of these oracles in our 
 hands, both reading them and asking them 
 questions. 
 
 It is quite clear that what hinders a true 
 understanding of any thing is vagueness ; and it 
 is by this process of asking questions that vague- 
 ness is to be dispelled : for, in the first place, it 
 removes one great vagueness, or indistinctness, 
 
 BB 
 
370 HEARING AND ASKING aUESTIONS. 
 
 which is very apt to beset the minds of many ; 
 namely, the not clearly seeing whether they 
 understand a thing or no ; and much more, the 
 not seeing what it is that they do understand, 
 and what it is which they do not. Take any one 
 of our Lord's parables, and read it even to a, 
 young child ; there will be something of an im- 
 pression conveyed, and some feelings awakened ; 
 but all will be indistinct ; the child will not know 
 whether he understands or no, but will soon gain 
 the habit of supposing that he does, as that is at 
 once the least troublesome, and the least un- 
 pleasant to our vanity. And this same vague 
 impression is often received by uneducated per- 
 sons from reading or hearing either the Scrip- 
 tures or sermons ; it is by no means the same 
 as if they had read or heard something in an 
 unknown language ; but yet they can give no 
 distinct account of what they have heard or 
 read ; they do not know how far they under- 
 stand it, and how far they do not. Here, then, 
 is the use of ^^ asking questions," — asking ques- 
 tions of ourselves or of our book, I mean, for I 
 am supposing the case of our reading, when it 
 can rarely happen that we have any living person 
 at hand to give us an answer. Now, taking the 
 earliest and simplest state of knowledge, it is 
 plain that the first question to put to ourselves 
 will be^ '' Do I understand the meaning of all 
 
ASKING QUESTIONS OF THE BIBLE, 371 
 
 the words and expressions in what I have been 
 reading ?" I know that this is taking things at 
 their very beginning, but it is my wish to do so. 
 Now, so plain and forcible is the English of our 
 Bible, generally speaking, that the words difficult 
 to be understood will probably not be many : 
 yet some such do occur, owing, in some in- 
 stances, to a change of the language ; as in the 
 words '' let," and '^ prevent," which now signify, 
 the one, '' to allow, or suffer to be done," and 
 the other, " to stop, or hinder," but which sig- 
 nified, when our translation was made, the first, 
 "to stop or hinder," and the second, "to be 
 beforehand with us ;" as in the prayer, " Prevent 
 us, O Lord, in all our doings, with thy most 
 gracious favour ; " the meaning is, " Let thy 
 favour be with us beforehand, O Lord, in what- 
 ever we are going to do." In other instances 
 the words are difficult because they are used in 
 a particular sense, such as we do not learn from 
 our common language ; of which kind are the 
 words " elect," "saints," "justification," "right- 
 eousness," and many others. Now, if we ask 
 ourselves " whether we understand these words 
 or no," our common sense, when thus ques- 
 tioned, will readily tell us whether we do or not; 
 although, if we had not directly asked the ques- 
 tion, it might never have thought about it. Of 
 course, our common sense cannot tell us what 
 bb2 
 
372 BOTH AS TO THE WORDS AND MATTER. 
 
 the true meaning is ; that is a matter of inform- 
 ation, and om- means of gaining information may 
 be more or less ; but still, a great step is gained, 
 the mist is partly cleared away ; we can say to 
 ourselves, '' Here is something which I do under- 
 stand, and here is something which I do not ;" 
 I must keep the two distinct, for the first I may 
 use, the second I cannot ; I will mark it down 
 as a thing about which I may get explanation at 
 another time ; but at present it is a blank in the 
 picture, it is the same as if it were not there." 
 This, then, is the first process of self-questioning, 
 adapted, as I have already said, to those whose 
 knowledge is most elementary. 
 
 Suppose, however, that we are got beyond 
 difficulties of this sort — that the words and parti- 
 cular expressions of the scripture are mostly 
 clear to us. Now, take again one of our Lord's 
 parables ; say, for instance, that of the labourers 
 in the vineyard : we read it, and find that he 
 who went to work at the eleventh hour received 
 as much as he who had been working all the 
 day. This seems to say, that he who begins to 
 serve God in his old age shall receive his crown 
 of glory no less than he who has served him all 
 his life. But now try the process of self-ques- 
 tioning : what do I think that Christ means me 
 to learn from this ? what is the lesson to me ? 
 what is it to make me feel, or think, or do ? If 
 
INSTANCE FROM THE PARABLES. 373 
 
 it makes me think that I shall receive an equal 
 crown of glory if I begin to serve God in my old 
 age, and therefore if it leads me to live care- 
 lessly, this is clearly making Christ encourage 
 wickedness ; and such a thought is blasphemy. 
 He cannot mean me to learn this from it : let 
 me look at the parable again. Who is it who is 
 reproved in those words which seem to contain 
 its real object ? It is one who complains of God 
 for having rewarded others equally with himself. 
 Now this I can see is not a good feeling ; it is 
 pride and jealousy. In order, then, to learn what 
 the parable means me to learn, let me put myself 
 in the position of those reproved in it. If I com- 
 plain that others are rewarded by God as much 
 as I am, it is altogether a bad feeling, and one 
 which I ought to check ; for I have nothing to 
 do with God's dealings to others, let me think of 
 what concerns myself. Here I have the lesson 
 of the parable complete ; and here I find it is 
 useful to me. But if I take it for a different 
 object, and suppose that it means to encourage 
 waiting till the eleventh hour — waiting till we 
 are old before we repent — we find that we make 
 it out actually to be mischievous to us. And 
 thus we gain a great piece of knowledge ; namely, 
 that the parables of our Lord are mostly designed 
 to teach some one particular lesson, with respect 
 to some one particular fault ; and that if we take 
 
374 INSTANCE FROM THE PARABLES. 
 
 them generally, as if all in them was applicable 
 to all persons, whether exposed to that particular 
 fault or not, we shall absolutely be in danger of 
 deriving mischief from them instead of good. It 
 is true, that in this particular parable, the gross 
 wickedness of such an interpretation as I have 
 mentioned is guarded against even in the story 
 itself; because those who worked only at the 
 eleventh hour are expressly said to have stood 
 idle so long only because no man had hired 
 them ; their delay, therefore, was no fault of 
 their own. But even if this circumstance had 
 been left out, it would have been just the same ; 
 because the general rule is, that we apply to a 
 parable only for its particular lesson, and do not 
 strain it to any thing else. Had this been well 
 understood, no one would have ever found so 
 much difficulty in understanding the parable of 
 the unjust steward. 
 
 This is another great step towards the dis- 
 pelling vagueness, to apply the particular lesson 
 of each part of scripture to that state of know- 
 ledge, or feeling, or practice in ourselves, which 
 it was intended to benefit ; to apply it as a lesson 
 to ourselves, not as a general truth for our neigh- 
 bours. And the very desire to do this, makes 
 us naturally look with care to the object of every 
 passage — to see to whom it was addressed, and 
 on what occasion ; for this will often surely 
 
IMPORTANCE OF USING COMMON LANGUAGE. 375 
 
 guide us to the point that we want. But in 
 order to do this, we must strive to clothe the 
 whole in our own common language ; to get rid 
 of those expressions which to us convey the 
 meaning faintly ; and to put it into such others 
 as shall come most strongly home to us. This 
 I have spoken of on other occasions ; and I have 
 so often witnessed the bad effects of not doing 
 so, that I am sure it may well bear to be noticed 
 again ; 1 mean the putting such words as '' per- 
 secution," '' the cares and riches of the world," 
 " the kingdom of God," " confessing Christ," 
 '' denying Christ," and many others, into a lan- 
 guage which to us has more lively reality, which 
 makes us manifestly see that it is of us, and of 
 our common life, and of our dangers, that the 
 scripture is speaking, and not only of things in a 
 remote time and country, and under circum- 
 stances quite unlike our own. Therefore I have 
 a strong objection to the use of what is called 
 peculiarly religious language, because I am sure 
 that it hinders us from bringing the matter of 
 that language thoroughly home to us ; our minds 
 do not entirely assimilate with it ; or if they 
 fancy that they do, it is only by their becoming 
 themselves affected, and losing their sense of the 
 reality of things around them. For our language 
 is fixed for us, and we cannot alter it ; and into 
 that common language, in which we think and 
 
376 CONCLUSION. 
 
 feel, all truth must be translated, if we would 
 think and feel respecting it at once rightly, 
 clearly, and vividly. Happy is he, who, by 
 practising this early, has imbued his own natural 
 language with the spirit of God's wisdom and 
 holiness ; and who can see, and understand, and 
 feel them the better, because they are so put into 
 a form with which he is perfectly familiar. 
 
 More might be said, very much more, but here 
 I will now pause. In this world, wherein hea- 
 venly things are, after all, hard to seize and fix 
 upon, we have great need that no mists of 
 imperfect understanding darken them, over and 
 above those of the corrupt will. To see them 
 clearly, to understand them distinctly and vividly, 
 may, indeed, after all be vain ; a thicker veil 
 may yet remain behind, and we may see and 
 understand, and yet perish. Only the clear 
 sight of God in Christ can be no light blessing ; 
 and there may be a hope, that understanding 
 and approving with all our minds his excellent 
 wisdom, the light may warm us as well as assist 
 our sight ; that we may see, and not in our 
 vague and empty sense, but in the force of the 
 scriptural meaning of the word, — may see, and 
 so believe. 
 
 November 22d, 1835. 
 
SERMON XXXV. 
 
 Matthew xxvi. 45, 46. 
 
 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 ; behold he is at hand that 
 doth betray me» 
 
 I TAKE these verses for my text, in the first 
 place, because some have fancied a difficulty in 
 them, and have even proposed to alter the trans- 
 lation, and read the first words as a question, 
 "Do ye still sleep and take your rest ?" and 
 because they are really a very good illustration 
 of our Lord's manner of speaking, a manner 
 which it is of the highest importance to us fully 
 to understand. And, secondly, I take them as a 
 text for the general lesson which they convey to 
 us ; their mixture of condemnation and mercy ; 
 their view, at once looking backwards and for- 
 wards, not losing sight of the irreparable evils of 
 a neglected past, nor yet making those evils 
 
378 DIFFICULTIES ARE NOT TO BE REMOVED 
 
 worse by so dwelling upon them as to forget the 
 still available future ; not concealing from us the 
 solemn truth, that what is done cannot be 
 undone, yet warning us also not to undo by a 
 vain despair that future which may yet be done 
 to our soul's health. 
 
 First, a difficulty has been fancied to exist in 
 the words as if our Lord had bade his disciples 
 to do two contradictory things ; telling them, 
 first, to sleep on and take their rest, and then 
 saying, " Rise, let us be going." And because in 
 St. Luke's account, when our Lord comes to his 
 disciples the last time, his words are given thus, 
 <' Why sleep ye ? rise and pray, that ye enter not 
 into temptation ;" therefore, as I have said, his 
 words in the text have been translated, '' Are ye 
 sleeping and resting for the remainder of the 
 time?" Now, I should not take up your time 
 with things of this sort, where I believe our 
 common translation to be most certainly right, 
 were it not for the sake of one or two general 
 remarks, which I think may not be out of place. 
 It is a general rule, that in passages not ob- 
 scure, but appearing to contain some moral 
 difficulty, if I may so speak ; that is, something 
 which seems inconsistent with our notions of 
 God's holiness, or wisdom, or justice; some- 
 thing, in short, of a stumbling-block, which we 
 fear may occasion a triumph to unbelievers ; it 
 
BY ALTERING THE COMMON TRANSLATION. 379 
 
 is a rule, I say, that in passages of this kind 
 the difficulty is not to be met by departing 
 from the commonly-received translation. And 
 the reason of this is plain ; that had not the com- 
 monly-received translation in such cases been 
 clearly the right one, it would never have come 
 to be commonly received. Amongst the thousands 
 of interpreters of Scripture, all, from the earliest 
 time, anxious to remove grounds of cavil from 
 the adversaries of their faith, a passage would 
 never have been translated so as to afford such a 
 ground, if the right translation of it could have 
 been different. Such places are especially those 
 in which the common translation needs not to be 
 suspected; and it is merely leading us astray 
 from the true explanation of the apparent diffi- 
 culty, when we thus attempt to evade it by 
 tampering with the translation. A notable in- 
 stance of this was afforded some few years since 
 in a new translation of some of the books of the 
 Old Testament ; in which it was pretended that 
 most of those points which had been most 
 attacked by unbelievers were, in fact, mere mis- 
 translations, and that the real meaning of the 
 original was something totally different ; and, in 
 order to show the necessity of his alterations, 
 the writer entirely allowed the objections of 
 unbelievers to the common reading; and said 
 that no sufficient answer had been or could be 
 
380 OUR lord's language parabolical. 
 
 made to them. This was an extreme case, and 
 probably imposed only on a very few; but less 
 instances of the same thing are common: St. 
 Paul's words about being baptized for the dead, 
 have been twisted to all sorts of senses, from 
 their natural and only possible meaning, because 
 men could not bear to believe that the super- 
 stition of being baptized as proxies for another 
 could have existed at a period which they were 
 resolved to consider as so pure : and so in the 
 text, a force has been put upon the words which 
 they cannot bear, in order to remove a supposed 
 contradiction ; and all that would have been 
 gained by the change would be, to have one 
 instructive illustration the less of our Lord's 
 peculiar manner of discourse ; and one instance 
 the less of the inimitable way in which his lan- 
 guage, addressed directly to the circumstances 
 before him, contains, at the same time, a general 
 lesson, for the use of all his disciples in all ages. 
 Our Lord's habitual language was parabolical : 
 I use the word in a wide sense, to include all 
 language which is not meant to be taken accord- 
 ing to the letter. Observe his conversation with 
 the Samaritan woman : it begins at once with 
 parable, " If thou hadst known who it was that 
 asked of thee, saying. Give me to drink, thou 
 wouldst have asked of him, and he would have 
 given thee living water." And again, " Whoso 
 
HOW HE DEALT WITH DIFFERENT HEARERS. 381 
 
 drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall 
 never thirst, but it shall be in him a well of 
 water, springing up unto life eternal." This 
 seems to have been, if I may venture to say so, 
 the favourite language in which he preferred to 
 speak: but when he found that he was not 
 understood, then, according to the nature of the 
 case, he went on in two or three different 
 manners. When he, to whom all hearts were 
 open, saw that the misunderstanding was wilful, 
 that it arose out of a disposition glad to find an 
 excuse, in his pretended obscurity, for not listen- 
 ing to him and obeying him, then, instead of 
 explaining his language, he made it more and 
 more figurative ; more likely to be misunder- 
 stood, or to offend those whom he knew to be 
 disposed beforehand to misunderstand and to be 
 offended. A famous example of this may be 
 seen in the sixth chapter of St. John ; there he 
 first calls himself the Bread of Life, and says, 
 that whosoever should eat of that bread should 
 live for ever : but when he found that the Jews 
 cavilled at this language, instead of explaining 
 it, he only added expressions yet more strongly 
 parabolical ; " Except ye eat the flesh of the 
 Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no 
 life in you:" and he dwells on this image so 
 long, that we find that many of his disciples, 
 bent on interpreting it literally, and, in this 
 
382 EXAMPLES GIVEN. 
 
 sense, finding it utterly shocking, went back and 
 walked no more with him. Again, when he 
 found not a disposition to cavil, but yet a pro- 
 found ignorance of his meaning, arising from a 
 state of mind wholly unused to think of spiritual 
 good and evil, he neither used, as to those who 
 wilfully misunderstood him, language that would 
 offend them still more, nor yet did he offer a 
 direct explanation; but he broke off the con- 
 versation, and adopted another method of in- 
 struction. Thus, when the Samaritan woman, 
 thinking only of bodily wants, answered him by 
 saying, "Sir, give me this water, that I thirst 
 not, neither come hither to draw," he neither 
 goes on to speak to her in the same language, 
 nor yet does he explain it ; but at once addresses 
 her in a different manner, saying, " Go, call thy 
 husband, and come hither." Thirdly, when he 
 was speaking to his own disciples, to whom it 
 was given to know the mysteries of the kingdom 
 of God, he generally explained his meaning, — at 
 least so far as to prevent practical error, — when 
 he found that they had not understood him. 
 Thus, when he had said to them, " Beware of 
 the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of 
 Herod," and they thought only of leaven and of 
 bread in the literal sense, he upbraids them, 
 indeed, for their slowness, saying, '' Are ye also 
 yet without understanding ?" but he goes on to 
 
LITERAL INTERPRETATION MOSTLY WRONG. 383 
 
 tell them in express terms that he did not mean 
 to speak to them of the leaven of bread. And 
 the words of the text are an exactly similar 
 instance : his first address is parabolical ; that is, 
 it is not meant to be taken to the letter ; " Sleep 
 on now, and take your rest/' meaning, '' Ye can 
 now do me no good by watching, for the time is 
 past, and he who betrayeth me is at hand ; ye 
 might as well sleep on now and take your rest, 
 for I need not to try you any longer.'* But, as 
 the time was really pressing, and there was a 
 possibility that they might have misunderstood 
 his words, and have really continued to sleep, he 
 immediately added in different language, '' Rise, 
 let us be going ; behold, he is at hand that doth 
 betray me." 
 
 We must be prepared, then, to find that our 
 Lord's language, not only to the Jews at large, 
 but even to his own disciples, is commonly 
 parabohcal; the worst interpretation which we 
 can give to it is commonly the literal one. His 
 conversation with his disciples, just before he 
 went out to the garden of Gethsemane, as 
 recorded in the thirteenth and following chapters 
 of St. John, is a most striking proof of this. If 
 any one looks through them, he will find how 
 many are the comparisons, and figurative man- 
 ners of speaking, which abound in them, and 
 how often his disciples were at a loss to under- 
 
3S4 WHEN DID CHRIST SPEAK LITERALLY ? 
 
 stand his meaning. And he himself declares 
 this, for, at the end of the sixteenth chapter, he 
 says expressly, '' These things I have spoken 
 unto you in proverbs ;" — that is, language not to 
 be taken according to the letter ; — " the time is 
 coming when I will no more speak unto you in 
 proverbs, but will show you plainly of the 
 Father." And then, when he goes on to declare, 
 what he never, it seems, had before told them 
 in such express and literal language, " I came 
 forth from the Father, and am come into the 
 world : again I leave the world, and go to my 
 Father," his disciples seem to have welcomed 
 with joy this departure from his usual manner of 
 speaking, and said immediately, '' Lo ! now 
 speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb : 
 now we know that thou knowest all things, and 
 needest not that any man should ask thee : by 
 this we believe that thou camest forth from 
 God." 
 
 But let us observe what it is that he said : " A 
 time is coming when I shall no more speak unto 
 you in proverbs, but shall show you plainly of 
 the Father." That time came immediately. He 
 spoke to them after his resurrection, opening 
 their understandings to understand the Scrip- 
 tures : he spoke yet more fully, by his Spirit, 
 after the day of Pentecost, leading them into all 
 truth. And what they thus heard in the ear. 
 
HIS DISCIPLES WERE TO SPEAK PLAINLY. 385 
 
 they proclaimed, according to his biddings upon 
 the house-tops. When the Holy Spirit brought 
 to their remembrance all that he had said to 
 them, and gave their minds a spiritual judgment, 
 to compare what they thus had brought before 
 them, to see his words in their true light and 
 their true bearings, comparing spiritual things 
 with spiritual, they were no niggards of this 
 heavenly treasure; nor did they, according to 
 the vain heresy of the worst corrupters of 
 Christ's gospel, imitate and surpass that sin 
 which they had so heavily judged in Ananias. 
 They kept back no part of that which they pro- 
 fessed and were commanded to lay wholly and 
 entirely at the feet of God's church. They did 
 not so lie to the Holy Ghost, as to erect a wicked 
 system of priestcraft in the place of that holy 
 gospel of which they were ministers. They had 
 no reserve of a secret doctrine for themselves 
 and a chosen few, keeping in their own hands 
 the key of knowledge, and opening only half of 
 the door ; but as they had freely received, so 
 they freely gave ; all that they knew, they 
 taught to all : and so, through their blessed 
 teaching, we too can understand our Lord's 
 words as they were taught to understand 
 them : and what is parabolical, is no longer on 
 that account obscure, but full of light and of 
 beauty, fulfiUing the end for which it was chosen, 
 
 c c 
 
386 MORAL LE«80N OF OUR LORD's WORDS. 
 
 the most effective of all ways of teaching, because 
 the liveliest 
 
 I have left myself but little space to touch 
 upon the second part of the subject — ^the general 
 lesson conveyed in our Lord's words to his 
 disciples : " Sleep on now, and take your rest. — 
 Rise ; let us be going." How truly do we 
 deserve the reproof; how thankftilly may we 
 accept the call. We have forfeited many oppor- 
 tunities which we would in vain recover; we 
 have been careless when we should have been 
 watchful ; and that for which we should have 
 watched, is now lost by our neglect, and it is 
 no good to watch for it any more. Let us 
 remember this, while it is called to-day ; for how 
 often is it particularly applicable to us here, 
 from the passing nature of your stay amongst 
 us. To both you and us too often belongs our 
 Lord's remonstrance, ^' What, could ye not watch 
 with me one hour?" So short a time as you 
 stay here, could we not be watching with Christ 
 that little period ; from which, if well improved, 
 there might spring forth a fruit so lasting ? But, 
 alas, we too often sleep it away ; we do not all 
 that we might do, nor do you; evil grows 
 instead of good, till the time is past, and you 
 leave us ; and we may as well sleep on, and take 
 our rest, so far as all that particular good was 
 concerned — the improvement, namely, of your 
 
THE PAST LOST, NOT THE FUTURE. 387 
 
 time at this place, for wliich we are alike set to 
 watch. But are we to take the words of reproach 
 Hterally ? May we really sleep on, and take our 
 rest ? Oh vain and wilful folly, so to misunder- 
 stand ! But, lest we should misunderstand, let 
 us hear oiu* Lord's next words : '' Rise ; let us 
 be going," and that instantly : the time and 
 oppoitunity already lost for ever is far more 
 than enough. — " Rise ; let us be going :" so 
 Christ calls us; for he has still other work for us 
 to do, for him, and ^^dth hiui. The future is yet 
 om* o\m, though the past be lost. We have 
 sinned greatly and irreparably ; but let us not 
 do so yet again : other opportunities are afforded 
 us ; — the disciples would not watch with him in 
 the garden, but he calls them to go with him to 
 his tiial and his judgment ; and one, we know, 
 watched by him even on his cross ; — so he calls 
 to us ; so he calls now ; but he ^vill not so call 
 for ever. There will be a time when we might 
 strike out the words, '' Rise ; let us be going ;" 
 they will concern us then no more. It is 
 only said, ** Sleep on now, and take your rest :" 
 all your watching time has been wasted, and 
 you can now watch no more ; there remains 
 only to sleep — to sleep that last sleep, from 
 which we shall then never wake to God and 
 happiness, but in which we shall be awake for 
 ever to sin and to misery. 
 
 September 25th, 1836. C C 2 
 
SERMON XXXVL 
 
 2 Cor. v. 17, 18. 
 
 Old things are passed away ; behold all things are become 
 new J and all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to 
 himself by Jesus Christ. 
 
 I HAVE, from time to time, spoken of that 
 foolish misuse of the Scriptures, by which any 
 one opening the volume of the Bible at random, 
 and taking the first words which he finds, 
 straightway applies them either to himself or to 
 his neighbour; and then boasts that he has the 
 word of God on his side, and that whosoever 
 differs from him, is disputing and despising the 
 word of God. The most extreme instances of 
 this way of proceeding are so absurd, that they 
 could not be noticed in this place becomingly ; 
 and these, of course, stand palpable to all, except 
 to those who have allowed themselves to fall into 
 
PERVERSE INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. 3S9 
 
 them. But far short of these manifest follies, 
 great errors have been maintained on general 
 points, and great mistakes, whether of over pre- 
 sumption or of over fear, have been committed 
 as to men's particular state, by quoting Scripture 
 unadvisedly ; by taking hold of its words to the 
 neglect or actual violation of its spirit and real 
 meaning. This is a great and a very common 
 mischief, but yet there is a truth at the bottom 
 of the error ; it is true, that the greatest ques- 
 tions relating to God and to ourselves, may 
 find their answer in the Scriptures ; it is true, 
 that if we search for this answer wisely, we may 
 surely find it. 
 
 Consider the words of the text, and see how 
 easily they may be perverted, if with no more 
 ado we take them, as said of ourselves, each 
 individually, and as containing to each of us a 
 statement of positive truth. *' Old things are 
 passed away ; behold all things are become new." 
 If we believe that this is God's word respecting 
 each of us, what violence must we do to our 
 memory of the past, and our consciousness of 
 the present, if we do try to persuade ourselves 
 that so total a change has taken place in each of 
 us, that what we once were, we are no longer ; 
 that what we are, we once were not; and this 
 not in some few particular points, but in the 
 main character of our minds. Again, " All things 
 
390 PERVERSE, BOTH AS APPLIED TO SCRIPTURE, 
 
 are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself 
 by Jesus Christ." If we apply these words to 
 each of us, what exceeding presumption would 
 they breed. If all things in us and about us are 
 now of God, what room can there be for sin ? If 
 God hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus 
 Christ, what room can there be for fear or for 
 danger ? And thus, while we say we are quoting 
 and believing the word of God, we do in fact 
 turn it into a lie ; we make it assert a falsehood 
 as to our past state, a falsehood as to our present 
 state, and a falsehood as to our future state : we 
 make it say, that our old nature is passed away, 
 when it is not ; that we have got a new nature 
 when we have not ; that we are reconciled to God, 
 and therefore in safety, when we are, in fact, in 
 the extremest danger. 
 
 But it is easy to see that we have no right to 
 apply to ourselves words written by St. Paul 
 eighteen hundred years ago, and applied by him 
 to other persons. I go then, farther ; and I say, 
 that if every member of the church of Corinth, 
 to which they were written, had applied them to 
 himself in the manner which I have shown above, 
 the words would in many instances have been 
 perverted no less, and would have been made to 
 state what was false, and not what was true. 
 And the same may be said of many other pas- 
 sages of St. Paul's epistles, which, having been 
 
AND TO OUR LITURGY. 391 
 
 similiarly misinterpreted, have furnished matter 
 for endless controversies, and on which opposite 
 theories of doctrine have been fondly raised, 
 each of them alike unchristian and untrue. 
 
 Thus our present position is this : — that often- 
 times by taking the representations of Scripture 
 as true in fact, whether of ourselves or of others, 
 we come to conclusions at once false and mis- 
 chievous ; being, as the case may be, either pre- 
 sumptuous, or fearful, or uncharitable, and 
 claiming for each of these faults the sanction of 
 the word of God. 
 
 A similar mistake in interpreting human com- 
 positions has led to faults of another kind. As- 
 suming as before, in interpreting St. Paul's words, 
 that the language of our Liturgy is meant to 
 describe, as a matter of fact, the actual feelings 
 and condition of those who use it, or for whom 
 it is used; and seeing manifestly that these 
 feelings and condition do not agree with the 
 words ; we do not here, as with the Scripture, do 
 violence to our common sense and conscience, 
 by insisting upon it that we agree with the words, 
 but we find fault with the words as being at va- 
 riance with the matter of fact. Some say that 
 the language of the General Confession is too 
 strong a statement of sin ; that the language of 
 the Communion Service, of the Baptismal Service, 
 and above all, of the Burial Service, is too full of 
 
392 RESEMBLANCE OF THE LITURGY TO SCRIPTURE. 
 
 encouragement and of assurance ; that men are 
 not all so bad as to require the one, nor so good 
 as to deserve the other ; that in both cases it 
 should be lowered, to agree with the actual con- 
 dition of those who use it. 
 
 Now it is worthy of notice, at any rate, that 
 the self-same rule of interpretation applied to 
 the Scripture and the Liturgy is found to suit 
 with neither. We adhere positively to our rule : 
 and thus, as we hold the words of Scripture 
 sacred, we force common sense and conscience 
 to make the facts agree with them; but not 
 having the same respect for the words of the 
 Liturgy, we complain of them as faulty and re- 
 quiring alteration, because they do not agree 
 with the facts. 
 
 I will not enter into the question whether 
 the Liturgy has done wisely or not in thus imi- 
 tating the Scripture ; but I do contend that, in 
 point of fact, there is this resemblance between 
 them. St. Paul's Epistles, in particular, although 
 it is true of other parts of the Scripture also, con- 
 tain, as does the Liturgy of our church, a great 
 many passages which, if taken either universally 
 or even generally as containing a matter of fact, 
 will lead us into certain error. Is it, therefore, so 
 very certain that we do wisely in so interpreting 
 them? 
 
 With regard to our Liturgy I need not follow 
 
TRUE SENSE OF ST. PAUL'S WORDS. 393 
 
 up the question now; but with regard to St. 
 Paul, it is certain that he, in many parts of his 
 Epistles, chooses to represent that which ought 
 to be as that which actually was : he chooses to 
 regard those to whom he is writing as being in 
 all respects true Christians, as being worthy of 
 their privileges, as answering to what God had 
 done to them, as forming a church really inha- 
 bited by the Holy Spirit, and therefore being a 
 true and living body of due proportions to Christ 
 its Divine head. Nor does he trust exclusively 
 to the common sense and conscience of those to 
 whom he was writing to interpret his language 
 correctly. He might have thought indeed that 
 if he wrote to them as redeemed, justified, sanc- 
 tified, as having all things new, as being the 
 children of God, and the heirs of God, and the 
 temples of the Holy Ghost, any individual who 
 felt that he was none of these things, that sin 
 was still mighty within him, and that he was 
 sin's slave, would neither deny his own con- 
 science, nor yet call St. Paul a deceiver ; but 
 would read in the difference between St. Paul's 
 description of him and the reality, the exact 
 measure of his own sin, and need of repentance 
 and watchfulness. But he does not rely on this 
 only : he notices sins as actually existing ; he 
 mingles the language of reproof and of anxiety, 
 so as to make it quite clear that he did not mean 
 
394 WHY HE USED SUCH LANGUAGE. 
 
 his descriptions of their hohness and blessedness 
 to apply to them all necessarily ; he knew full 
 well that they did not : but yet he knew also that, 
 considering what God had done for them, it was 
 monstrous that they should not be truly applicable. 
 But why, then, you will say, did he use such 
 language ? why did he call men forgiven, re- 
 deemed, saved, justified, sanctified ?^ — he uses 
 all these terms often as applicable generally to 
 those to whom he was writing; — why did he 
 call them so, when in fact they were not so ? He 
 called them so for the same reason which made 
 prophecy foretell blessings upon Israel of old, 
 and on the christian church afterwards, which 
 were fulfilled on neither : — in order to declare, 
 and keep ever before us, what God has done 
 and is willing to do for us ; what He fain would 
 do for us, if we would but suffer him ; what 
 divine powers are offered to us, and we vdll not 
 use them ; what divine happiness is designed for 
 us, and we will not enter into it. Let us ponder 
 all the magnificence of the scriptural language, 
 — the words of the text for example, — not as 
 describing what we are, when we are full of sin ; 
 nor yet as mere exaggerated language, which 
 must be brought down to the level of our present 
 reality. Let us consider it as containing the 
 words of truth and soberness ; not one jot or 
 one tittle needs to be abated; it must not be 
 
ITS USES TO OURSELVES. 395 
 
 lowered to us, but we rather raised to it. It is 
 a truth, it is the word of God, it is the seal of 
 our assurance ; it is that which good men of old 
 would have welcomed with the deepest joy ; 
 which to good men now is a source of comfort 
 unspeakable. For it tells us that God has done 
 for us, is doing, will do, all that we need : it tells 
 us that the price of our redemption has been 
 paid, the kingdom of heaven has been set open, 
 the power to walk as God's children has been 
 given ; that so far as God is concerned we are 
 redeemed, we are saved, we are sanctified ; it is 
 but our own fault merely that we are not all of 
 these actually and surely. 
 
 This is not a little matter to be persuaded of: 
 if it be true, as I fear it is, that too many of us 
 do not love God, is it not quite as true that we 
 cannot believe that God loves us ? Have we 
 any thing like a distinct sense of the words of 
 St. John, '' We love God because he first loved 
 us?" We believe in the love of our earthly 
 friends; those who have so lately left their 
 homes have no manner of doubt that their 
 parents are interested in their welfare, though 
 absent ; that they will often think of them ; 
 and that, as far as it is possible at a distance 
 from them, they are watching over their good, 
 and anxious to promote it. The very name 
 home implies all this ; it implies that it is a 
 
396 USE OF THE ASSURANCE OF GOd's LOVE, 
 
 place where those live who love us ; and I do 
 not question that the consciousness of possessing 
 this love does, amidst all your faults and forget- 
 fulnesses, rise not unfrequently within your 
 minds, and restrain you from making yourselves 
 altogether unworthy of it. Now, I say that the 
 words of the text, and hundreds of similar pas- 
 sages, are our assurance, if we would but believe 
 them, that we have another home and another 
 parent, by whom we are loved constantly and 
 earnestly, who has done far more for us than 
 our earthly parents can do. I grant that it is 
 hard to believe this really ; so infinite is the dis- 
 tance between God and us, that we cannot fancy 
 that he cares for us : he may make laws for a 
 world, or for a system, but what can he think or 
 feel for us ? It is, indeed, a thought absolutely 
 overpowering to the mind ; it may well seem 
 incredible to us, judging either from our own 
 littleness or our own forgetfulness ; so hard as we 
 find it to think enough of those to whom we are 
 most nearly bound, how can the Most High God 
 think of us ? But if there be any one particle 
 of truth in Christianity, we are warranted in 
 saying that God does love us : strange as it may 
 seem. He, whom neither word nor thought of 
 created being can compass ; He, who made us 
 and ten thousand worlds, loves each one of us 
 individually ; " the very hairs of our heads are 
 
IF WE WOULD BUT BELIEVE IT. 397 
 
 all numbered." He so loved us, that he gave his 
 only-begotten Son to die for us ; and St. Paul 
 well asks, ^' He that spared not his own Son, but 
 delivered him up for us all, will he not also with 
 him freely give us all things ?" 
 
 Believe me, you could have no better charm 
 to keep you safe through the temptations of the 
 coming half year, than this most true persuasion 
 that God loves you. The oldest and the youngest 
 of us may alike repeat to himself the blessed 
 words, " God loves me ;" '' God loves me ; God 
 has redeemed me ; God would dwell in my heart, 
 that I might dwell in him ; God has placed me 
 in his Church, has made me a member of Christ 
 his own Son, has made me an inheritor of the 
 kingdom of heaven." I might multiply words, 
 but that one little sentence is, perhaps, more 
 than all, " God loves me." Oh that you would 
 believe him when he assures you of it, for then 
 surely you would not fail to love him. But 
 whether you believe it or not, still it is so ; God 
 loves every one of us ; he loves each one of us 
 as belonging to Christ his Son. He does love 
 each of us ; let us not cast his love away from 
 us, and refuse to love him in return : he does 
 love each of us now, but there may be a time to 
 each of us, — there will be, assuredly, if we will 
 not believe that he loves us, — when he will love 
 us no more for ever. 
 
 February 9th, 1840. 
 
SERMON XXXVII. 
 
 EZEKIEL XX. 49. 
 
 21ien said I, Ah, Lord God ! they say of me. Doth he not 
 speak parables ? 
 
 Nothing is more disheartening, if we must be- 
 lieve it to be true, than the language in which 
 some persons talk of the difficulty of the Scrip- 
 tures, and the absolute certainty that different 
 men will ever continue to understand them dif- 
 ferently. It is not, we are told, with the know- 
 ledge of Scripture as with that of outward 
 nature : in the knowledge of nature, discoveries 
 are from time to time made, which set error on 
 the one side, and truth on the other, absolutely 
 beyond dispute ; there the ground when gained 
 is clearly seen to be so ; and as fresh sources of 
 knowledge are continually opening to us, it is 
 not beyond hope that we may in time arrive 
 
CANNOT SCRIPTURE BE CERTAINLY KNOWN ? 399 
 
 infinitely near to the enjoyment of truth, — truth 
 certain in itself, and acknowledged by all unani- 
 mously. But with Scripture, it is said, the case 
 is far otherwise : discoveries are not to be ex- 
 pected here, nor does a later generation derive 
 from its additional experience any greater insight 
 into the things of God than was enjoyed by the 
 generations before it. And when we see that 
 actually the complete Scriptures have been in 
 the world not much less than eighteen hundred 
 years ; that within that period no other book has 
 been so much studied ; and yet that differences 
 of opinion as to the matters spoken of in it have 
 ever existed, and exist now as much as ever, 
 what reasonable prospect is there, it is asked, of 
 future harmony, or of clearer demonstrations of 
 divine truth; and will not the good on these 
 points ever continue to differ from the good, and 
 the wise to differ from the wise ? 
 
 This language, so discouraging as it is, may 
 be heard from two very opposite parties, so that 
 their agreement may appear to give it the more 
 weight : it is used by men who are indifferent to 
 religious truth, as an excuse for their taking no 
 pains to discover what the truth really is ; it is 
 echoed back quite as strongly by another set of 
 persons, who wish to magnify the uncertainties of 
 the Scripture in order to recommend more plau- 
 sibly the guidance of some supposed authorita- 
 
400 CANNOT SCRIPTURE BE CERTAINLY KNOWN ? 
 
 tive interpreter of it. But yet it ought to be at 
 any rate a painful work to any serious mind to be 
 obliged to dwell not only on the obscurities of 
 God's word, but on its perpetual and invincible 
 obscurities ; and, though an interpreter may be 
 necessary if we know not the language of those 
 with whom we are conversing, yet how much 
 better would it be that we should ourselves 
 know it : nay, and if we are told that we cannot 
 know it, that our best endeavours will be unable 
 to master it, the suspicion inevitably arises in 
 our minds, that our pretended interpreter may 
 be ignorant of it also ; that he is not in truth 
 better acquainted with it than we, but only more 
 presumptuous or more dishonest. 
 
 Still a statement may be painful, but at the same 
 time true. There is undoubtedly something in 
 such language, as I have been alluding to, which 
 appears to be confirmed by experience. There 
 is no denying the fact, that the Scriptures have 
 been a long time in the world ; that they have 
 been very generally and carefully read ; and yet 
 that men do differ exceedingly as to religious 
 truth, and these differences do not seem to be 
 tending towards agreement. It seems to me, 
 therefore, desirable that every student of the 
 Scriptures should know, as well as may be, what 
 the exact state of the question is; for if the 
 subject of his studies is really so hopelessly 
 
CASE OF ANCIENT PROFANE LITERATURE. 401 
 
 uncertain, it is scarcely possible that his zeal in 
 studying it should not be abated ; nay, could we 
 wisely encourage him to bestow his pains on a 
 hopeless labour ? 
 
 Now, in the very outset, there is this consi- 
 deration which many of us here are well able to 
 appreciate. We read many books written in 
 dead languages, most of them more ancient than 
 any part of the New Testament, some of them 
 older than several of the books of the Old. We 
 know well enough that these ancient books are 
 not without their difficulties ; that time, and 
 tliought, and knowledge are required to master 
 them ; but still we do not doubt that, with the 
 exception of particular passages here and there, 
 the true meaning of these books may be dis- 
 covered with undoubted certainty. We know, 
 too, that this certainty has increased ; that inter- 
 pretations, which were maintained some years 
 ago, have been set aside by our improved know- 
 ledge of the languages and condition of the 
 ancient world, quite as certainly as old errors in 
 physical science have been laid to rest by later 
 discoveries. Farther, our improved knowledge 
 has taught us to distinguish what may be known 
 from what may be probably concluded, and what 
 is probable from what can merely be guessed at. 
 When we come to points of this last sort, to 
 passages which cannot be interpreted or under- 
 
 DD 
 
402 DIFFERENCES BETWEEN CHRISTIANS, 
 
 stood, we leave them at once as a blank ; but we 
 enjoy no less, and understand with no less cer- 
 tainty, the greatest portions of the books which 
 contain them. And this experience, with regard 
 to the works of heathen antiquity, makes it a 
 startling proposition at the very outset, when we 
 are told that with the works of Christian anti- 
 quity the case is otherwise. 
 
 We thus approach the statement as to the hope- 
 less difficulty of Scripture, confirmed, as we are 
 told it is, by the actual fact of the great disagree- 
 ments among Christians, with a well-grounded 
 mistrust of its soundness ; we feel sure that there 
 is something in it which is confused or sophis- 
 tical. And considering the fact which appears 
 to confirm it, I mean the actual differences 
 between Christians and Christians, it soon ap- 
 pears by no means to bear out its supposed 
 conclusion. For the differences between Christ- 
 ians and Christians by no means arise generally 
 from the difficulty of understanding the Scrip- 
 ture aright, but from disagreement as to some 
 other point, quite independent of the interpre- 
 tation of the Scriptures. For example, the great 
 questions at issue between us and the Roman 
 Cathohcs turn upon two points, — Whether there 
 is not another authority, in matters of Christi- 
 anity, distinct from and equal to the Scriptures, — 
 and whether certain interpretations of Scripture 
 
NOT CAUSED BY SCRIPTURE DIFFICULTIES. 403 
 
 are not to be received as true, for the sake of the 
 authority of the interpreter. Now, suppose for 
 a moment, that the works of Plato or Aristotle 
 were to us in the place of the Scriptures; 
 and that the question was, whether these works 
 of theirs could be understood with certainty ; it 
 would prove nothing against our being able to 
 understand them, if, whilst we looked to them 
 alone, another man were to say, that, to his 
 judgment, the works of other philosophers were 
 no less authoritative ; or, if he were to insist 
 upon it, that the interpretations given by the 
 scholiasts were always sure to be correct, because 
 the scholiasts were the authorised interpreters of 
 the text. No doubt our philosophical opinions 
 and our practice might differ widely from such a 
 man's ; but the difference would prove nothing 
 as to the obscurity of Plato's or Aristotle's text, 
 because another standard had been brought in, 
 distinct from their works, and from the acknow- 
 ledged principles of interpretation, and thus led 
 unavoidably to a different result. 
 
 The same also is the case as to the questions 
 at issue between the Church of England and 
 many of the Dissenters. In these disputes it is 
 notorious that the practice and authority of the 
 church are continually appealed to, or, it may be, 
 considerations of another kind, as to the inherent 
 reasonableness of a doctrine ; all which are, again, 
 
 dd2 
 
404 WHY MEN ARE TEMPTED 
 
 a distinct matter from the interpretation of Scrip- 
 ture. One of the greatest men of our time has 
 declared, that, in the early part of his life, he 
 did not believe in the divinity of our Lord ; but 
 he has stated expressly, that he never for a 
 moment persuaded himself that St. Paul or 
 St. John did not believe it ; their language he 
 thought was clear enough upon the point ; but 
 the notion appeared to him so unreasonable in 
 itself, that he disbelieved it in spite of their 
 authority. It is manifest, that, in this case, 
 great as the difference v^as between this great 
 man's early belief and his later, yet it in no way 
 arose from the obscurity of the Scripture. The 
 language of the Scripture was as clear to him at 
 first as it was afterwards ; but in his early life he 
 disbelieved it, while, in his latter life, he embraced 
 it with all his heart and soul. 
 
 It must not be denied, however, that we are 
 here arrived at one of the causes which are 
 likely, for a long time, to keep alive a false inter- 
 pretation of Scripture, and which do not affect 
 our interpretation of heathen writings. For 
 most men, in such a case as I have referred to, 
 when they do not believe the language of the 
 Scripture, but wish to alter it, whether by omis- 
 sion or addition, do not deal so fairly with it as 
 that great man did to whom I have alluded. 
 They have neither his knowledge nor his honesty ; 
 
TO MISINTERPRET SCRIPTURE. 405 
 
 a false interpretation is more easily disguised from 
 them owing to their ignorance, and they let their 
 wishes more readily warp their judgment. Thus, 
 they will not say as he did, '' The Scripture 
 clearly says so and so, but I cannot believe it ;" 
 they rather say, '' This is very unreasonable and 
 shocking, the Scripture cannot mean to say 
 this ;" or ^' This is very pious and very ancient, 
 the Scripture cannot but sanction this." And, 
 certainly, if men will so deal with it, there 
 remains no certainty of interpretation then. But 
 this is not the way that we deal with other ancient 
 writings ; and its unfairness and foolishness, if 
 ever attempted to be practised there, are so 
 palpable as to be ridiculous. No doubt it is 
 difficult to convince men against their will ; 
 nevertheless, there is good hope, that, as sound 
 principles of interpretation are more generally 
 known, they will put to shame a flagrant depar- 
 ture from them ; and that those who try to make 
 the Scripture say more or less than it has said, 
 will be gradually driven to confess that Scripture 
 is not their real authority ; that their own 
 notions in the one case, and the authority of the 
 Church in the other case, have been the real 
 grounds of their belief, to which they strove to 
 make the Scriptures conform. 
 
 Nothing that I have said is, in any degree, 
 meant to countenance the opinions of those who 
 
406* YET WITH EARNEST STUDY 
 
 talk of the Bible, — or rather, our translation of 
 it, — being its own interpreter ; meaning, that if 
 you give a Bible to any one who can read, he 
 will be able to understand it rightly. Even in 
 this extravagance, there is indeed something of 
 a truth. If a man were so to read the Bible, 
 much he would, unquestionably, be able to 
 understand ; enough, I well believe, if honestly 
 and devoutly used, to give him, if hving in a 
 desert island by himself, the knowledge of salva- 
 tion. But when we talk of understanding the 
 Bible, so as to be guided by it amidst the infinite 
 varieties of opinion and practice which beset us 
 on every side, it is the wildest folly to talk of it 
 as being, in this sense, its own interpreter. Our 
 comfort is, not that it can be understood without 
 study, but with it; that the same pains which 
 enable us to understand heathen writings, whose 
 meaning is of infinitely less value to us, will 
 enable us, with God's blessing, to understand the 
 Scriptures also. Neither do I mean, that mere 
 intellectual study would make them clear to the 
 careless or the undevout ; but, supposing us to 
 seek honestly to know God's will, and to pray 
 devoutly for his help to guide us to it, then our 
 study is not vain nor uncertain ; the mind of the 
 Scriptures may be discovered ; we may distin- 
 guish plainly between what is clear, and what 
 is not clear ; and what is not clear will be 
 
SCRIPTURE MAY BE UNDERSTOOD. 407 
 
 found far less in amount, and infinitely less in 
 importance, than what is clear. I do not say, 
 that a true understanding of the Scriptures will 
 settle at once all religious differences ; — mani- 
 festly, it cannot ; for, although I may understand 
 them well, yet if a man maintains an opinion, or 
 a practice, upon some other authority than theirs, 
 we cannot agree together. Nevertheless, we may 
 be allowed to hope and believe, that in time, 
 if men could be hindered from misinterpreting 
 the Scripture in behalf of their own opinions, 
 their opinions themselves would find fewer sup- 
 porters ; for, as Christianity must come, after 
 all, from our blessed Lord and his apostles, men 
 will shrink from saying that that is no truth of 
 Christianity which Christ and his apostles have 
 clearly taught, or that that is a truth of Chris- 
 tianity, however ancient, and by whatever long 
 line of venerable names supported, which they 
 have as clearly, in our sole authentic records of 
 them, not taught. It is not, therefore, without 
 great and reasonable hope, that we may devote 
 ourselves to the study of the Scriptures ; and 
 those habits of study which are cultivated here, 
 and in other places of the same kind, are the 
 best ordinary means of arriving at the truth. 
 We are constantly engaged in extracting the 
 meaning of those who have written in times past, 
 and in a dead language. We do this according 
 
408 CLEARLY AND CERTAINLY. 
 
 to certain rules, acknowledged as universally as 
 the laws of physical science : these rules are 
 developed gradually, — from the simple grammar 
 which forms our earliest lessons, to the rules 
 of higher criticism, still no less acknowledged, 
 which are understood by those of a more 
 advanced age. And we do this for heathen 
 writings ; but the process is exactly the same — 
 and we continually apply it, also, for that very 
 purpose — with what is required to interpret 
 the Word of God. After all is done, we shall 
 still, no doubt, find that the Scripture has its 
 parables, its passages which cannot now be 
 understood ; but we shall find, also, that by 
 much the larger portion of it may be clearly and 
 certainly known; enough to be, in all points 
 which really concern our faith and practice, a 
 lantern to our feet, and an enlightener to our 
 souls. 
 
 October I8th, 1840. 
 
SEEM ON XXXVIII. 
 
 Isaiah v. 1. 
 
 Now will I sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved 
 touching his vineyard. 
 
 Whatever difficulties we may find in under- 
 standing and applying many parts of the pro- 
 phetical Scriptures, yet every thinking person 
 could follow readily enough, I suppose, the 
 chapter from which these words are taken, as it 
 was read in the course of this morning's service ; 
 and he would feel, while understanding it as 
 said, immediately and in the first instance, of 
 the Jewish church or nation, seven centuries 
 and a half before the birth of our Lord, that it 
 was no less applicable to this christian church 
 and nation at the present period. We cannot, 
 indeed, expect to find a minute agreement in 
 particular points between ourselves and the 
 
410 WARNINGS OF THE PROPHETS, 
 
 Jews of old : the difference of times and circum- 
 stances renders this impossible ; but they and 
 we stand, on the one hand, in so nearly the 
 same relation to God, and we both so share, on 
 the other hand, in the same sinful human nature, 
 that the complaints and remonstrances of the 
 prophets of old may often be repeated, even in 
 the very same words, by the christian preacher 
 now. 
 
 If this be so, then the language of various 
 parts of the service of the Church, in this season 
 of Advent, ought to excite in us no small appre- 
 hension ; for, whilst the lessons from the Old 
 Testament describe the evil state of the Jewish 
 people in the eighth century before Christ, and 
 threaten it»with destruction, so the gospels for 
 this day, and for last Sunday, speak of the evil 
 state of the same people when our Lord was 
 upon earth; and the chapter, from which the 
 gospel of this day is taken, contains, as we 
 know, a full prophecy of the destruction that 
 was, for the second time, going to overwhelm 
 the earthly Jerusalem. We cannot but fear, 
 therefore, that if our state now be like that of 
 God's people of old, eight centuries before our 
 Lord's coming, and again like their state at his 
 coming ; and if, after the first period, their 
 city and temple were burnt, and they were 
 carried captive to Babylon, — and again, after the 
 
AS TO THE ACTUAL STATE OF GOD's PEOPLE. 411 
 
 second period, the city^'and temple were burnt 
 again, and the people were dispersed, even to 
 this day, — that, as the punishment has twice 
 surely followed the sin, so it will not fail to find 
 it out in this third case also. 
 
 And be it remembered that the people, or 
 church, of God, as such, can receive their punish- 
 ment only in this world : for, taken as a body, it 
 is an institution for^this world only. We each of 
 us, no doubt, shall have our own separate indi- 
 vidual judgment after death ; and, in the mean 
 time, our fortunes and our character often bear 
 no just correspondence with each other. But 
 nations and churches have their judgment here : 
 and although God's long-suffering so suspends it 
 for many generations that it may seem as if it 
 would never fall, yet does it come surely at the 
 last ; and almost always we can ourselves trace 
 the connexion between the sin and the punish- 
 ment, and can see that the one was clearly the 
 consequence of the other. And thus our church 
 and nation may feel their national judgments in 
 this world, quite independently of the several per- 
 sonal judgments which will be passed upon us 
 each hereafter individually, when we stand before 
 Christ's judgment-seat. 
 
 I have thus ventured to bring the condition 
 of the church as a body before our minds, al- 
 though well knowing how much more we are 
 
412 THE CHURCH OF CHRIST 
 
 concerned with the state of our own souls indi- 
 vidually. Yet still the more general view is not 
 without great use ; and indeed it bears directly 
 upon our individual state : our actions and our 
 feelings having often a close connexion with ge- 
 neral church matters ; and these actions and 
 feelings being necessarily good or bad, accord- 
 ing to the soundness of our judgment on the 
 matter which occasions them. Besides which, 
 it seems to me that general views, rather than 
 what relates to particular faults, may be with 
 most propriety dwelt on by those who have no 
 direct connexion with the congregation which 
 they are addressing. 
 
 In the first place, then, whenever we think of 
 the state and prospects of Christ's church, whe- 
 ther for good or for evil, it is most desirable that 
 we should rightly understand our own relations 
 to it. '' The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the 
 house of Israel ;" or, in the language of the New 
 Testament, '' Christ is the vine, and we are the 
 branches." Men continually seem to forget that 
 they are members of the church ; citizens, to use 
 St. Paul's expression, of Christ's kingdom, as 
 much as ever they are citizens of their earthly 
 country. But they speak of the church as they 
 might speak of any useful institution or society 
 in their neighbourhood, whose object they 
 approved of, and which they were glad to 
 
CONSISTS NOT OF THE CLERGY ONLY. 413 
 
 encourage, but without becoming members of 
 it, or identifying themselves with its success or 
 failure. For example, they speak of the church 
 as they might speak of the universities, which in- 
 deed are institutions of great importance to the 
 whole country, but yet they are manifestly 
 distinct from the mass of the community : they 
 have their own members, their own laws, and 
 their own government, with which people in 
 general have nothing to do. And so many 
 persons speak and feel of the church, regarding 
 it evidently as consisting only of the clergy : our 
 common language, no doubt, helping this con- 
 fusion, because we often speak of a man's going 
 into the church when he enters into holy orders, 
 just as if ordination were the admission into the 
 church, and not baptism. Now, if the clergy did 
 indeed constitute the church, then it would very 
 much resemble the condition of the universities : 
 for it would then be indeed a society very im- 
 portant to the welfare of the whole country, but 
 yet one that was completely distinct, and which 
 had its members, laws, and government quite 
 apart; for men in general do not belong to 
 the clergy, nor are they concerned directly in 
 such canons as relate to the peculiar business of 
 the clergy, nor does the bishop's superintendence, 
 as commonly exercised, extend at all to them. 
 But God designed for his church far more than 
 
414 ALTERED FROM ITS ANCIENT CHARACTER. 
 
 that it should contain one order of men only, or 
 that it should comprise commonly but one single 
 individual in a parish, preaching to and teaching 
 the rest of the inhabitants, like a missionary 
 amongst a population of heathens. Look at St. 
 Paul's account of the church of Corinth, in the 
 12th chapter of his 1st epistle to the Corinthians, 
 and see if any two things can be more different 
 than his notion of a church and that which many 
 people seem to entertain amongst us. Compare 
 the hving body there described, made up of so 
 many various members, each having its separate 
 office, yet each useful to and each needed by the 
 others and by the body, — and our notion of a 
 parish committed to the charge of a single indi- 
 vidual: as if all the manifold gifts which the 
 church requires could by possibility be com- 
 prised in the person of any one Christian ; as if 
 the whole burden were to rest upon his shoulders, 
 and the other inhabitants might regard the wel- 
 fare of the church as his concern only, and not 
 theirs. 
 
 But not only is the church too often confined 
 in men's notions to the single class or profession 
 of the clergy, but it has been narrowed still far- 
 ther by the practical extinction of one of the 
 orders of the clergy itself. Where the laity have 
 come to reo^ard their own share in the concerns 
 of the church as next to nothing, the order of 
 
THE ORDER OF DEACONS EXTINCT. 415 
 
 deacons, forming, as it were, a link between the 
 clergy and the laity, becomes proportionably of 
 still greater importance. The business of the 
 deacons, as we well know, was in an especial 
 manner to look after the relief of the poor ; and 
 by combining this charge with the power of bap- 
 tizing, of reading the Scriptures, and of preaching 
 also, when authorized by the bishop, they exhi- 
 bited the peculiar character of Christianity, that 
 of sanctifying the business of this world by doing 
 everything in the name of the Lord Jesus. No 
 church, so far as we know, certainly no church 
 in any town, existed without its deacons : they 
 were as essential to its completeness as its bishop 
 and its presbyters. 
 
 Take any one of our large towns now, and 
 what do we find ? A bishop, not of that single 
 town only, but of fifty others besides ; one pres- 
 byter in each church, and no deacons! Prac- 
 tically, and according to its proper character, 
 the order of deacons is extinct ; and those who 
 now bear the name are most commonly found 
 exercising the functions of presbyters ; that is, 
 instead of acting as the assistants of a presbyter, 
 they are often the sole ministers of their respec- 
 tive parishes ; they alone baptize ; alone offer up 
 the prayers of the church, alone preach the 
 word: nothing marks their original character, 
 except their inabiHty to administer the com- 
 
416 CHURCH DISCIPLINE EXTINCT. 
 
 munion ; and thus, by a strange anomaly, the 
 church in such parishes is actually left without 
 any power of celebrating its highest act, that of 
 commemorating the death of Christ in the Lord's 
 Supper ; and if it were not for another great 
 evil, the unfrequent celebration of the Com- 
 munion, the system could not go on; because 
 the deacon would be so often obliged to apply 
 to other ministers to perform that duty for him, 
 that the inconvenience, as well as the unfitness, 
 of the actual practice, would be manifest to 
 every one. 
 
 Again, what has become of church discipline ? 
 That it has perished, we all well know ; but its 
 loss is the consequence of that fatal error which 
 makes the clergy alone constitute the church. It 
 is quite certain that men will not allow the mem- 
 bers of a single profession to exercise the authority 
 of society; to create and define ojfiTences; to deter- 
 mine their punishment, and to be the judges of 
 each particular offender. As long as the clergy 
 are supposed to constitute the whole church, 
 church discipline would be nothing but priestly 
 tyranny. And yet the absence of discipline is a 
 most grievous evil ; and there is no doubt that, 
 although it must be vain when opposed to public 
 opinion, yet, when it is the expression of that 
 opinion, there is nothing which it cannot achieve. 
 But public opinion cannot enforce church disci- 
 
MEN DO NOT FEEL AS MEMBERS OF THE CHURCH. 41 7 
 
 pline now, because that discipline would not be 
 now the expression of the voice of the church, 
 but simply of a small part of the church, of the 
 clergy only. 
 
 So deeply has this fatal error of regarding the 
 clergy as the church extended itself, that at this 
 moment a man's having been baptized is no 
 security for his being so much as a believer in 
 the truth of Christianity : no matter that he 
 was made in his baptism a member of Christ, a 
 child of God, and an inheritor of the kingdom 
 of heaven ; no matter that at a more advanced 
 period of his life he was confirmed, and entered 
 into the church by his own act and deed ; still 
 the church belongs to the clergy; they may 
 hold such and such language, and teach such 
 and such doctrines ; it would be very improper 
 in them to do otherwise ; and he has a great 
 respect for the church, and would strenuously 
 resist all its enemies, but truly, as for his own 
 belief and his own conduct, these he will guide 
 according to other principles, as imperative upon 
 him as the rules of the church upon churchmen. 
 Well, indeed, do such men bear witness that 
 they are not of the church indeed ; that their 
 portion is not with God's people ; that Christ is 
 not their Saviour, nor the Holy Spirit their 
 Comforter and Guide : but what blasphemy is it 
 to call themselves friends of the church ! as if 
 
 E E 
 
418 THE GREAT EVIL OF POPERY, 
 
 Christ's church could have any friends except 
 God and his holy angels : the church has its 
 living and redeemed members ; it may have 
 those who are craving to be admitted within its 
 shelter, being convinced that God is in it of a 
 truth ; but beyond these he who is not with it is 
 against it ; he who is not Christ's servant, serves 
 his enemy. 
 
 Farther, it is this same deadly error which is 
 the root and substance of popery. There is no 
 one abuse of the Romish system which may not 
 be traced to the original and very early error of 
 drawing a wide distinction between the clergy 
 and the laity ; of investing the former in such a 
 peculiar degree with the attributes of the church, 
 that at last they retained them almost exclu- 
 sively. In other words, the great evil of popery 
 is, that it has destroyed the Christian church, 
 and has substituted a priesthood in its room. 
 This is the fault of the Greek church, almost as 
 much as of the Roman ; and the peculiar tenet 
 of the Romish church, that the supreme govern- 
 ment is vested in one single member of this 
 priesthood, the Bishop of Rome, is in some 
 respects rather an improvement of the system, 
 than an aggravation of it. For even an absolute 
 monarchy is a less evil than an absolute aristo- 
 cracy ; and an infallible Pope is no greater 
 corruption of Christ's truth than an infallible 
 
419 
 
 general council. The real evils of the system 
 are of a far older date than the supremacy of 
 the Bishop of Rome, and exist in places where 
 that supremacy is resolutely denied. And if we 
 attend to them carefully, we shall see that these 
 evils have especially affected the Christian church 
 as distinguished from the Christian religion. It 
 is worth our while to attend to this distinction ; 
 for the Christian rehgion and the Christian 
 church together, and neither without the other, 
 form the perfect idea of Christianity. Now, by 
 the Christian religion, I mean the revelation of 
 what God has done or will do for us in Christ ; 
 the great doctrines of the Trinity, the incarnation, 
 the atonement, the resurrection, the presence of 
 the Holy Spirit amongst us, and our own resur- 
 rection hereafter, to an existence of eternal 
 happiness or misery. And these truths, if re- 
 vealed to any single person living in an uninha- 
 bited island, might be abundantly sufficient for 
 his salvation ; if God disposed his heart to receive 
 them, and to beheve them earnestly, they would 
 be the means of his overcoming his corrupt 
 nature, and of passing from death unto life. 
 But because men do not generally live alone, but 
 with one another ; and because they cannot but 
 greatly hinder or help each other by their mutual 
 influence, therefore the Christian church was 
 instituted for the purpose of spreading and 
 
 EE 2 
 
420 THOUGH NOT THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 
 
 furthering the growth of the Christian rehgion 
 in men's hearts ; and its various ministries, its 
 sacraments, its services and festivals, and its disci- 
 pline were all designed with that object. And it 
 is all these which popery has perverted ; popery, 
 whether in the Roman church or in the Greek 
 church, or even in Protestant churches, for it 
 has existed more or less in all. But even in 
 the Roman church, where the perversion has 
 been most complete, it has comparatively affected 
 but little the truths of the Christian religion ; 
 all the great doctrines, which I mentioned, are 
 held as by ourselves ; the three creeds, the Apo- 
 stles' creed, the Nicene, and the Athanasian, are 
 used by the Roman church no less than by our 
 own. Thus it often happens that we can read 
 with great edification the devotional works of 
 Roman Catholic writers, because in such works 
 the individual stands apart from the Christian 
 church, and is concerned only with the Chris- 
 tian religion ; they show how one single soul, 
 having learnt the tidings of redemption with 
 faith and thankfulness, improves them to its own 
 salvation. But the moment that he goes out of 
 his closet, and begins to speak and act amongst 
 other men, then the corruption of popery shows 
 itself. The Christian church was designed to 
 help each individual towards a more perfect 
 knowledge and love of God, by the counsel and 
 
OUR DUTY AS CHURCHMEN 421 
 
 example of his brethren, and by the practices 
 which he was to observe in their society. But 
 the corrupt church exercises its influence for 
 evil ; it omits all the benefits to be derived from 
 a living society, and puts forward, in their place, 
 the observance of rites and ceremonies : know- 
 ledge and love are no longer looked to as the 
 perfections of a Christian, but ignorance and 
 blind obedience; not the mortifying all our 
 evil passions universally, but the keeping them 
 chained up, as it were, under priestly control, to 
 be let loose at the priest's bidding, against those 
 whom he calls the church's enemies ; that glo- 
 rious church which he has destroyed and con- 
 verted it into an idol temple, in that he, as God, 
 sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself 
 that he is God. 
 
 To resist this great and monstrous evil, we 
 must not exclaim against it under one of its 
 forms only, even although that form exhibit it, 
 indeed, in its most complete deformity ; but we 
 must strive against it under all its forms, remem- 
 bering that its essence consists in putting the 
 clergy in the place of the church ; and taking 
 from the great mass of the church their proper 
 share in its government, in its offices, and there- 
 fore in its benefits, and in the sense of its solemn 
 responsibilities. We speak often of church ex- 
 tension, meaning by this term the building new 
 
422 TO TRY TO HAVE THE CHURCH RESTORED. 
 
 places of public worship, and the appointing addi- 
 tional ministers to preach the word and administer 
 the sacraments. And no doubt such church ex- 
 tension is a good and blessed work, for it brings 
 the knowledge of the truths of Christ's religion, 
 and the benefit of his ordinances the sacraments, 
 within the reach of many who might otherwise 
 have been without them. But it were a yet 
 truer and more blessed church extension which 
 should add to the building and the single minis- 
 ter, the real living church itself, with all its 
 manifold offices and ministries, with its pure dis- 
 cipline, with its holy and loving sense of brother- 
 hood. Without this, Christ will still, indeed, 
 as heretofore, lay his hands on some few sick 
 folk and heal them ; his grace will convey the 
 truths of his gospel to individual souls, and they 
 will believe and be saved. But the fulfilment of 
 prophecy ; the triumph of Christ's kingdom ; 
 the changing an evil world into a world re- 
 deemed ; this can only be done by a revival of 
 the Christian church in its power, the living 
 temple of the Holy Ghost, which, visibly to all 
 mankind, in the wisdom and holiness of its mem- 
 bers, showed that God was in the midst of it. 
 It may be that this is a fond hope, which we 
 may not expect to see realized ; but looking on 
 the one hand to the strong and triumphant 
 language of prophecy, I know not how any hope 
 
WHEN DO MEN ENTER THE CHURCH ? 423 
 
 of the advancement of Christ's kingdom can be 
 more bold than God's word will warrant; and 
 on the other, tracing the past history of the 
 church, its gradual corruption may be deduced 
 distinctly from one early and deadly mischief, 
 which has destroyed its efficacy ; so that, if this 
 mischief can be removed, and the church 
 become such as Christ designed it to be, it 
 does not seem presumptuous to hope that his 
 appointed instrument, working according to his 
 will, should be enabled to obtain the full bless- 
 ings of his promise. 
 
 And now, in conclusion, if we ask, what should 
 follow from all that has been said ? what it 
 should lead us all, if it be true, to feel or to do ? 
 — the answer is, that considerations of this sort 
 are not such as lead at once to some distinct 
 change in our conduct ; to the laying aside 
 some favourite sin, or the practising some long 
 neglected duty. And yet the thoughts which 
 I have endeavoured to suggest to your minds 
 may, if dwelt upon, lead, in the end, to a very 
 considerable alteration, both in our feelings and 
 in our practice. First of all, it is not a little 
 matter to be convinced practically, that it is 
 baptism, and not ordination, which makes us 
 members of the church ; that it is by sharing in 
 the communion of Christ's body and blood, not 
 by being admitted into the ministry, that the 
 
424 NOT BY ORDINATION, BUT BY BAPTISM. 
 
 privileges and graces of Christ's church are con- 
 ferred upon us. And most wisely, and most 
 truly, does our Church separate ordination from 
 the two Christian sacraments, as an institution 
 far less solemn, and conferring graces far less 
 important : for the difference between a Christian 
 and a Christian minister is but one of office, not 
 of moral or spiritual advancement, not of greater 
 or less nearness to God. One is our master, 
 even Christ ; and all we are brethren. Words 
 which certainly do not imply that all members 
 of the church are to have the same office, or 
 that all offices are of equal importance and 
 dignity ; but which do imply, most certainly, that 
 any attempt to convert the ministry into a 
 priesthood, that is, to represent them as stand- 
 ing, in any manner, as mediators between Christ 
 and his people, or as being essentially the 
 channel through which his grace must pass to 
 his church, is directly in opposition to him ; 
 and is no better than idolatry. It was by 
 baptism that we have all been engrafted into 
 Christ's body ; it is by the communion of his 
 body and blood that we continue to abide in 
 him ; it is in his whole body, in his church, and 
 not in its ministers, as distinct from his church, 
 that his Holy Spirit abides. 
 
 Thus feeling that we each are members of the 
 church, that it is our highest country, to which 
 
CHURCH QUESTIONS 425 
 
 we are bound with a far deeper love than to 
 our earthly country, is not its welfare our wel- 
 fare ; its triumph our triumph ; its failures our 
 shame ? We shall see, then, that church ques- 
 tions are not such merely, or principally, as 
 concern the payment of the clergy, or their 
 discipline, but all questions in which God's glory 
 and man's sins or duties are concerned ; all 
 questions in the decision of which there is a 
 moral good and evil ; a grieving of Christ's 
 Spirit, or a conformity to him. And in such 
 questions as concern the church, in the more 
 narrow and common sense of the word, seeing 
 that we are all members of the church, we 
 should not neglect them, as the concern of 
 others, but take an interest in them, and act in 
 them, so far as we have opportunity, as in a 
 matter which most nearly concerns ourselves. 
 We feel that we have an interest in our country's 
 affairs, although we are not members of the 
 government or of the legislature ; we have our 
 part to perform, without at all overstepping the 
 modesty of private life : and it is the constant 
 influence of public opinion, and the active 
 interest taken by the country at large in its own 
 concerns, which, in spite of occasional delusion 
 or violence, is mainly instrumental in preserving 
 to us the combined vigour and order of our 
 political constitution. And so, if we took an 
 
426 ARE THE CONCERN OF ALL CHURCHMEN. 
 
 equal interest in the affairs of our divine com- 
 monwealth^ our Christian church, and endea- 
 voured as eagerly to promote every thing which 
 tended to its welfare, and to put down and pre- 
 vent every thing which might work it mischief, 
 then the efforts of the clergy to advance Christ's 
 kingdom would be incalculably aided, while 
 there would then be no danger of our investing 
 them with the duties and responsibilities which 
 belong properly to the whole church : they 
 could not then have dominion over our faith, 
 nor by possibility become lords over God's 
 heritage, but would be truly ensamples to the 
 flock, the helpers of our joy, the glory of Christ. 
 
 December 8th, 1839. 
 Preached in the Parish Church of Rugby. 
 
SERMON XXXIX. 
 
 CoLOssiANS iii. 17. 
 
 Whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name 
 of the Lord Jesus, giving thanhs to God and the Father 
 by Him. 
 
 This, like the other general rules of the gospel, 
 is familiar enough to us all in its own words ; but 
 we are very apt to forbear making the application 
 of it. In fact, he who were to apply it perfectly 
 would be a perfect Christian : for a life of which 
 every word and deed were said and done in the 
 name of the Lord Jesus, would be a life indeed 
 worthy of the children of God, and such as they 
 lead in heaven ; it would leave no room for sin to 
 enter. The art of our enemy has been therefore 
 to make us leave this command of the apostle's 
 in its general sense, and avoid exploring, so 
 to speak, all the wisdom contained within it. 
 
428 OPPOSITE ERRORS. 
 
 Certain actions of our lives, our religious services, 
 the more solemn transactions in which we are 
 engaged, we are willing to do in Christ's name ; 
 but that multitude of common words and ordi- 
 nary actions by which more than sixty-nine out 
 of our seventy years are filled, we take away from 
 our Lord's dominion, under the foolish and hypo- 
 critical pretence that they are too trifling and too 
 familiar to be mixed up with the thought of 
 things so solemn. 
 
 This is one fault, and by far the most common. 
 We make Christ's service the business only of 
 a very small portion of our lives ; we hallow only 
 a very small part of our words and actions by 
 doing them in his name. Unlike our Lord's 
 own parable, where he compares Christianity to 
 leaven hidden in the three measures of meal till 
 the whole was leavened, the practice rather has 
 been to keep the leaven confined to one little 
 corner of the mass of meal ; to take care that it 
 should not spread so as to leaven the whole mass ; 
 to keep our hearts still in the state of the world 
 when Christ visited it — ^^ the hght shineth in 
 darkness, and the darkness comprehended it 
 not ;" that is, it did not take the light into itself 
 so as to be wholly enlightened : the light shone, 
 and there was a bright space immediately around 
 it ; but beyond there w^as a blackness of darkness 
 into which it vainly strove to penetrate. 
 
OPPOSITE ERRORS. 429 
 
 On the other hand there has been, though 
 more rarely, a fault of the opposite sort. Men 
 have said that they were in all their actions of 
 ordinary life doing Christ's will, that they en- 
 deavoured always to be promoting some good 
 object ; and that the peculiar services of re- 
 ligion, as they are called, were useless, inas- 
 much as in spirit they were worshipping God 
 always. This is a great error : because, as a 
 matter of fact, it is false. We may safely say 
 that no man ever did keep his heart right witii 
 God in his ordinary life, that no one ever became 
 one with Christ, and Christ with him, without 
 seeking Christ where he reveals himself, it may 
 not be more really, but to our weakness far more 
 sensibly, than in the common business of daily 
 life. We may be happy if we can find Christ 
 there, after we have long sought him and found 
 him in the way of his own ordinances, in prayer, 
 and in his holy communion. Even Christ him- 
 self, when on earth, though his whole day was 
 undeniably spent in doing the will of his heavenly 
 Father, — although to him doubtless God was ever 
 present in the commonest acts no less than in the 
 most solemn, — yet even he, after a day spent in 
 all good works, desired a yet more direct inter- 
 course with God, and was accustomed to spend 
 a large portion of the night in retirement and 
 prayer. 
 
430 OUR POLITICAL CONDUCT NOT CHRISTIAN. 
 
 Without this^ indeed, we shall most certainly 
 not say and do all in the name of the Lord Jesus ; 
 much more shall we be in danger of forgetting 
 him altogether. But supposing that we are not 
 neglectful of our religious duties, in the common 
 sense of the term, that we do pray and read the 
 Scriptures, and partake of Christ's communion, 
 yet it will often happen that we do not connect 
 our prayers, nor our reading, nor our commu- 
 nion, with many of the common portions of our 
 lives ; that there are certain things in which we 
 take great interest, which, notwithstanding, we 
 leave, as it were, wholly without the range of the 
 light of Christ's Spirit. There is a story told that, 
 in times and countries where there prevailed the 
 deepest ignorance, some who came to be bap- 
 tized into the faith of Christ, converted from 
 their heathen state not in reality but only in 
 name, were accustomed to leave their right arm 
 unbaptized, with the notion that this arm, not 
 being pledged to Christ's service, might wreak 
 upon their enemies those works of hatred and 
 revenge which in baptism they had promised to 
 renounce. Is it too much to say that something 
 like this unbaptized right arm is still to be met 
 with amongst us — that men too often leave some 
 of their very most important concerns, what they 
 call by way of eminence their business — their 
 management of their own money affairs, and 
 
CHRISTIAN DUTY AT ELECTIONS. 431 
 
 their conduct in public matters — wholly out of 
 the control of Christ's law ? 
 
 Now, at this very time public matters are en- 
 gaging the thoughts of a great many persons all 
 over the kingdom ; and are not only engaging 
 their thoughts, but are also become a practical 
 matter, in which they are acting with great earn- 
 estness. Is it nothing that there should be so 
 much interest felt, so much pains taken, and yet 
 that neither should be done in the name of the 
 Lord Jesus, nor to the glory of God ? It cannot 
 be unsuited to the present season to dwell a little 
 on this subject, which has nothing whatever to 
 do with men's differences of opinion, but relates 
 only to their acting, whatever be their political 
 opinions, on Christian principles, and in a Chris- 
 tian spirit. 
 
 First, consider what we pray for in the prayer 
 which we have been using every week for the 
 high court of parliament : we pray to God, that 
 " all things may be so ordered and settled by the 
 endeavours of parliament, upon the best and 
 surest foundations, that peace and happiness, 
 truth and justice, religion and piety, may be 
 established among us for all generations." These 
 great blessings we beg of God to secure to us 
 and to our children through the endeavours of 
 parliament ; if, therefore, we are any ways 
 concerned in fixing who the persons are to be 
 
432 CHRISTIAN DUTY AT ELECTIONS. 
 
 wtio are to compose this parliament^ it is plain 
 that there is put into our hands a high privilege, 
 if you will ; but along with it^ as with all other 
 privileges, a most solemn responsibility. 
 
 But, if it be a solemn responsibility in the 
 sight of God and of Christ, surely the act of 
 voting, which many think so lightly of, and 
 which many more consider a thing wholly poli- 
 tical and worldly, becomes, indeed, a very im- 
 portant Christian duty, not to be discharged 
 hastily or selfishly, in blind prejudice or passion, 
 from self-interest, or in mere careless good 
 nature and respect of persons ; but deliberately, 
 seriously, calmly, and, so far as we can judge 
 our deceitful hearts, purely ; not without prayer 
 to Him who giveth wisdom liberally to those 
 that ask it, that he will be pleased to guide them 
 aright, to his own glory, and to the good of his 
 people. 
 
 Do I say that if we were to approach this duty 
 in this spirit, and with such prayers, we should 
 all agree in the same opinion, and all think the 
 same of the same men ? No, by no means ; we 
 might still greatly differ ; but we should, at least, 
 have reason to respect one another, and to be in 
 charity with one another ; and if we all earnestly 
 desired and prayed to be directed to God's glory, 
 and the pubhc good, God, I doubt not, would 
 give us all those ends which we so purely 
 
CHRISTIAN DUTY AT ELECTIONS : 433 
 
 desired^ although in our estimate of the earthly 
 means and instruments by which they were to 
 be gained, we had honestly differed from one 
 another. 
 
 Now, supposing that we had this conviction, 
 that what we were going to do concerned the 
 glory of God and the good of his people, and 
 that we approached it therefore seriously as a 
 Christian duty, yet it may well be that many 
 men might feel themselves deficient in knowledge ; 
 they might not understand the great questions at 
 issue ; they might honestly doubt how they could 
 best fulfil the trust committed to them. I know 
 that the most ignorant man will feel no such 
 hesitation if he is going to give his vote from 
 fancy, or from prejudice, or from interest ; these 
 are motives which determine our conduct quickly 
 and decisively. But if we regard our vote as a 
 talent for which we must answer before God, 
 then we may well be embarrassed by a con- 
 sciousness of ignorance ; we may well be anxious 
 to get some guidance from others, if we cannot 
 find it in ourselves. Here, then, is the place for 
 authority, — for relying, that is, on the judgment of 
 others, when we feel that we cannot judge for 
 ourselves. But is there no room for the exer- 
 cise of much good sense and fairness in ourselves 
 as to the choice of the person by whose judg- 
 ment we mean to be guided ? Are we so little 
 
 FF 
 
434 IN GIVING A VOTE OURSELVES, 
 
 accustomed to estimate our neighbours' cha- 
 racters rightly, as to be unable to determine 
 whom we may consult with advantage ? Surely 
 if there be any one whom we have proved, in 
 the affairs of common life, to be at once honest 
 and sensible, to such an one we should apply 
 when we are at a loss as to public matters. If 
 there is such an one amongst our own relations 
 or personal friends, we should go to him in pre- 
 ference ; if not, we can surely find one such 
 amongst our neighbours ; and here the authority 
 of such of our neighbours as have a direct con- 
 nexion with us, if we have had reason to respect 
 their judgment and their principles, may be pro- 
 perly preferred to that of indifferent persons : 
 the authority of a master, or an employer, or of 
 our minister, or of our landlord, may and 
 ought, under such circumstances, to have a great 
 and decisive influence over us. 
 
 On the other hand, supposing again that we 
 have this strong sense of the great responsibility 
 in the sight of God of every man who has the 
 privilege of a vote, we shall be exceedingly 
 careful not to tempt him to sin by fulfilhng this 
 duty ill. Nothing can be more natural or more 
 proper than that those who have strong impres- 
 sions themselves as to the line to be followed in 
 public matters, should be desirous of persuading 
 others to think as they do : every man who 
 
OR INFLUENCING THE VOTES OF OTHERS, 435 
 
 loves truth and righteousness must wish that 
 what he himself earnestly believes to be true and 
 righteous, should be loved by others also ; but 
 the highest truth, if professed by one who be- 
 lieves it not in his heart, is to him a lie, and he 
 sins greatly by professing it. Let us try as much 
 as we will to convince our neighbours ; but let 
 us beware of influencing their conduct, when we 
 fail in influencing their convictions : he who 
 bribes or frightens his neighbour into doing an 
 act which no good man would do for reward 
 or from fear, is tempting his neighbour to sin ; 
 he is assisting to lower and to harden his con- 
 science, — to make him act for the favour or from 
 the fear of man, instead of for the favour or 
 from the fear of God : and if this be a sin in 
 him, it is a double sin iji us to tempt him to it. 
 Nor let us deceive ourselves by talking of the 
 greatness of the stake at issue ; that God's glory 
 and the public good are involved in the result of 
 the contest, and that therefore we must do all 
 in our power to win it. Let us by all means do 
 all that we can do without sin ; but let us not 
 dare to do evil that good may come, for that is 
 the part of unbehef ; it becomes those who will 
 not trust God with the government of the world, 
 but would fain guide its course themselves. 
 Here, indeed, our Lord's command does apply 
 to us, that we be not anxious ; '' Which of you 
 
 ff2 
 
436 USE OF SPEAKING ON THIS SUBJECT. 
 
 by taking thought can add to his stature one 
 cubit r How little can we see of the course of 
 Providence ! how little can we be sure that what 
 we judged for the best in public affairs may not 
 lead to mischief! But these things are in God's 
 hand ; our business is to keep ourselves and our 
 neighbours from sin, and not to do or encourage 
 in others any thing that is evil, however great the 
 advantages which we may fancy likely to flow from 
 that evil to the cause even of the highest good. 
 There is no immediate prospect, indeed, that 
 we in this particular congregation shall be called 
 upon to practice the duty of which I have been 
 now speaking ; and, indeed, it is for that very 
 reason that I could dwell on the subject more 
 freely. But what is going on all around us, what 
 we hear of, read of, and talk of so much as we 
 are many of us likely to do in the next week or 
 two about political matters, that we should be 
 accustomed to look upon as Christians ; we 
 should by that standard try our common views 
 and language about it, and, if it may be, correct 
 them ; that so hereafter, if we be called upon to 
 act, we may act, according to the Apostle's teach- 
 ing, in the name of our Lord Jesus. And I am 
 quite sure if we did so think and so act, although 
 our differences of opinion might remain just the 
 same, yet the change in ourselves, and I verily 
 believe in the blessings which God would give 
 
USE OF SPEAKING ON THIS SUBJECT. 437 
 
 US, would be more than we can well believe ; and 
 a general election, instead of calling forth, as it 
 now does, a host of unchristian passions and 
 practices, would be rather an exercise of Chris- 
 tian judgment, and forbearance, and faith, and 
 charity ; promoting, whatever was the mere 
 political result, the glory of God, advancing 
 Christ's kingdom, and the good of this, as it 
 would then be truly called. Christian nation. 
 
 Written July 1837. — Not preached. 
 
SEEMON XL. 
 
 PREACHED ON THE DAY OF HER MAJESTY's CORO- 
 NATION, IN THE CHAPEL OF AMBLESIDE. 
 
 John xviii. 36. 
 Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world. 
 
 Revelations xi. 15. 
 
 The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our 
 
 Lord, and of his Christ. 
 
 Of these two verses, the first describes the 
 Christian church in its infancy, the second in 
 its perfection. Yet it is strange that the first 
 should be* so much more famihar to men's ears 
 than the second; and that it should be con- 
 tinually quoted in such a sense as to make it 
 contradictory to the declaration contained in the 
 second. True it is, that the perfection of the 
 Christian church is as yet far distant : true it is, 
 that the kingdoms of the world are not become 
 
MEANING OF A CORONATION. 439 
 
 wholly and in spirit the kingdoms of our Lord 
 and of his Christ. Yet, it is no less true, that 
 some steps have been made towards this perfec- 
 tion ; that the kingdoms of this world are become, 
 not wholly and really, but in name and profes- 
 sion at any rate, the kingdoms of Christ. And 
 what can be the wisdom of undoing the work 
 already accomplished, instead of endeavouring to 
 complete it ; to be so dissatisfied that the fabric 
 is not finished, as to wish to pull down the 
 courses of stone which are already built up, that 
 so we may have the whole work, from the very 
 foundation, to begin over again ? 
 
 Now, if you ask what has this to do with the 
 occasion of our being met together this day, 
 I answer, that it has every thing to do with it. 
 We are met here to celebrate the coronation of 
 our sovereign. Now, let us remember where the 
 coronation takes place, and with what rites it is 
 accompanied. It takes place not in the Queen's 
 palace, not in one of the great squares of the 
 capital, not in the supreme court of justice, not 
 even in the house of the great council of the 
 nation — the parliament. Our sovereigns receive 
 their crown in •that place where all the most 
 solemn acts of our individual life are commonly 
 solemnized — in the church of God and of Christ. 
 And with what rites is the coronation accom- 
 panied ? Immediately, and as an essential part 
 
440 IT IS A NATIONAL CONFESSION OF CHRIST. 
 
 of the ceremony, it is followed by the Commu- 
 nion, the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper — the 
 most solemn bond which binds Christians to one 
 another and to Christ. Thus, on the very face 
 of it, our sovereign's coronation is essentially a 
 Christian act; it declares in language not to 
 be mistaken, that this kingdom is no longer a 
 kingdom of the world, but in profession, at least, 
 a kingdom of Christ ; just as we all, with all the 
 sins and irregularities of our lives, still hold that 
 profession of Christian faith to which we were 
 pledged in our baptism. 
 
 But, again, although the fact may be so, 
 although it may be true that the coronation is an 
 outward confession, at least, that this kingdom is 
 a kingdom of Christ ; yet another question may 
 not unreasonably present itself, — the question, 
 namely, in what manner this truth concerns us. 
 We private persons, following our own private 
 concerns in a remote part of the kingdom, what 
 is it to us, it may be said, whether the coro- 
 nation represents one thing or another ; what 
 have we to do with the Christian profession of 
 the nation at large, when we are so much more 
 nearly concerned with making ^ur own profes- 
 sion a reality ? 
 
 Let me answer this question by another, and 
 ask — Why, if the coronation does concern us 
 nothing, why then are we met here to-day ? For, 
 
VALUE OF THIS TO PRIVATE PERSONS. 441 
 
 unless I am greatly mistaken, our meeting has 
 grown out of some deeper and nobler feelings 
 than the mere desire of having a holiday and a 
 festivity. We are met because we feel that the 
 coronation does concern us ; that, although we 
 are private persons, engaged in our own busi- 
 ness, and living at a distance from the great 
 seats of government or of commerce, we are 
 still Englishmen, that we are citizens of one of 
 the greatest nations upon earth, heirs of the 
 glory of some of the greatest names and deeds 
 which earth has ever known ; members of one 
 of the most wonderful societies — wonderful both 
 for good and for evil, for its weakness and for its 
 power — which earth has ever witnessed in life 
 and activity. It ill becomes us, certainly, to be 
 so set upon our pubhc relations as to neglect 
 our private duties, and let our private aiFections 
 grow cold ; no state of things can be less whole- 
 some than that in which a whole people is mainly 
 engrossed with political questions, and living in 
 a perpetual fever of petitions, elections, and 
 public meetings. But, on the other hand, it 
 does become us all to remember, that we are 
 members of a greater society than our township, 
 or our parish, or our county : it is very good for 
 us to be raised at times out of the narrow and 
 somewhat selfish circle of our private concerns ; to 
 have thoughts presented to our minds not directly 
 
/ 
 
 442 EXPLANATION OF ITS MEANING. 
 
 connected with what we see and hear daily, — 
 thoughts which may raise us, as it were, above 
 ourselves, to make us in our ordinary life the 
 wiser and the nobler. 
 
 It seems to me, therefore, that it does concern 
 us very much to know and to remember that 
 the great ceremony of this day, our Queen's 
 coronation, is a declaration that this kingdom of 
 England professes itself to be a kingdom of 
 Christ. There is a great deal in these words to 
 those who consider their full meaning : I will try 
 to explain this by a comparison taken from one 
 of the relations of private life. Marriage, under 
 one form or another, must have existed every- 
 where from the beginning of the world; and, 
 even amidst its greatest corruptions, it must 
 have still been the source of some of the best 
 and purest affections of our nature — the love 
 between husband and wife, parent and child, 
 brother and sister. All these relations grow out 
 of marriage ; and thus, even in the rudest or 
 most corrupt state of society, marriage is, by the 
 very necessity of nature, a good and a sacred 
 relation. But ascend from this mere natural 
 connexion to the state of Christian wedlock, and 
 how wonderfully is it changed and purified. Not 
 that Nature loses any thing of her own ; all the 
 force of blood and of instinct, if I may so speak, 
 remains as it was; we have still the power of 
 
NATURAL AND CHRISTIAN MARRAGE. 443 
 
 that dear love which waits not for a reason, — 
 which separates the friends of our own choice 
 from those whom nature gives us. 
 
 Nature loses nothing, but how much does she 
 gain? Is it a small thing that now to the 
 natural tie the Christian tie is added ; that hus- 
 band and wife, parent and child, brother and 
 sister, are now connected, not only by what 
 nature has done for them, but by what grace is 
 doing for them and will do ; that they have not 
 only a common work to do, as far as respects 
 their welfare for a few years here, but that it is 
 their part so to keep up their union here as to 
 make it last for ever ; so that each may be able 
 to say at the judgment-seat of Christ, — Of those 
 whom thou gavest me I have lost none. Thus 
 it is, when Christian hopes, and principles, and 
 affections are united with the relations of nature 
 not to destroy but to fulfil. 
 
 Now, such as is the difference between natural 
 marriage and Christian marriage, such is also the 
 difference between a kingdom of this world and 
 a kingdom of Christ. For as marriage has been 
 everywhere from the beginning, so also has law 
 and government. As marriage has been cor- 
 rupted by polygamy and the licence of divorce, 
 so has government been coiTupted by tyranny 
 or by lawlessness ; but yet, like marriage, it has 
 been still the source of some of the greatest 
 
444 HUMAN LAW PERFECTED 
 
 blessings of humanity. Law is more or less the 
 expression of man's reason, as opposed to his 
 interest and his passion. I do not say that it has 
 ever been the expression of pure reason ; it has 
 not been so, for man's best reason is not pure. 
 Nor has it been often free from the influence of 
 interest, nor always from that of passion ; there 
 have been unjust laws in abundance ; cruel and 
 vindictive laws have not been wanting. Law, in 
 short, like every thing human, has been greatly 
 corrupted, but still it has never lost its character 
 of good altogether : there never, I suppose, has 
 been an age or country in which the laws, how- 
 ever bad, were not better than no law at all ; 
 they have ever preserved something of their 
 essential excellence — that they acknowledge the 
 authority of right, and not of might. Again, 
 law has, and must have, along with this inherent 
 respect for right and justice, an immense power ; 
 it is that which, in the last resort, controls 
 human life. It is, on the one hand, the source 
 of the highest honours and advantages which 
 men can bestow on men ; it awards, on the other 
 hand, the extremity of outward evil — poverty, 
 dishonour, and death. Here, then, we have a 
 mighty power, necessary by the very condition 
 of our nature ; clearly good in its tendency, how- 
 ever corrupted, and therefore assuredly coming 
 from God, and swaying the whole frame of 
 
BY BECOMING CHRISTIAN LAW. 445 
 
 human society with supreme dominion. Such is 
 law in itself; such is a kingdom of this world. 
 Now, then, conceive this law, as we have seen in 
 the case of marriage, to become instinct and 
 inspired, as it were, by the spirit of Christ's 
 gospel ; and it retains all its sovereign power, 
 all its necessity, all its original and inherent 
 virtue ; it does but lose its corruptions ; it is not 
 only the pure expression of human reason, 
 cleansed from interest and passion, but the 
 expression of a purer reason than man's. Law 
 in a Christian country, so far as that country is 
 really Christian, has, indeed, to use the magni- 
 ficent language of Hooker, her seat in the bosom 
 of God ; and her voice, inasmuch as it breathes 
 the spirit of divine truth, is indeed the harmony 
 of the world. 
 
 It is, then, no slight thing of which the 
 solemnity of our sovereign's coronation, per- 
 formed as it is in the church of God, and 
 combined with the highest act of Christian com- 
 munion — the partaking in the Lord's Supper, is 
 our pledge and assurance. It is our pledge, that 
 the law and government of our country shall be 
 Christian : shall be conducted, that is, on Chris- 
 tian principles and to Christian objects ; putting 
 down all injustice, evil ambition, ignorance, 
 and ungodhness, and advancing all things just, 
 true, good, and holy. It is our pledge, that this 
 
446 EFFECTS OF CHRISTIANITY 
 
 nation shall be guided, in short, on those prin- 
 ciples to which each one of us was pledged at 
 his baptism ; the principles being one and the 
 same which should direct a Christian man and a 
 Christian people. And if we say, that this pledge 
 is often broken, that our government and laws 
 have left good undone, and have done evil, is it 
 not even in this same way that we each of us 
 have often broken our pledges made in baptism ? 
 and yet, is it not true, that whatever of good we 
 have done in the whole course of our lives, has 
 been done when we did not break those pledges, 
 but fulfil them ? and should we act the more 
 wisely, by renouncing those pledges altogether, 
 because we many times break them ? or by 
 amending our lives with all dihgence, that so we 
 may break them less, and fulfil them more ? 
 Even so should we cherish every pledge of our 
 national Christianity ; not foolishly and wickedly 
 renouncing it, to make our principles as bad 
 as our practice, but clinging to it, and using 
 it to reprove and shame our evil practice, if it 
 may be that our practice may itself become 
 better. 
 
 And now let me notice two or three things, 
 by way of instance, in which the spirit of Chris- 
 tianity has breathed, and will, we may hope, 
 continue to breathe more fully, through our 
 system of law and government. First, let us 
 
ON OUR CRIMINAL LAW. 447 
 
 notice our criminal law. Now, in unchristian 
 countries, criminal law has mostly been either 
 too lax or too bloody : too lax in a rude state 
 of society, because the inconvenience of crimes 
 was less felt, and their guilt was little regarded ; 
 too bloody in a more refined state, strange as it 
 may at first appear, because the inconvenience 
 of crimes, and particularly of those against 
 property, is felt excessively ; and the sacredness 
 of human life, and the moral evil done to a 
 people, by making them famihar with bloody 
 punishments, are not apt to be regarded by the 
 mere spirit of worldly selfishness. Now, our 
 laws for many years were, in these points, quite 
 unchristian ; they were passed in utter disregard 
 of our national pledges to follow Christ's law : 
 but latterly, a better spirit has been awakened ; 
 and men have felt that it is no light thing to 
 take away the life of a brother, that it is more 
 Christian to amend an offender, if possible, than 
 to destroy him. Only, let us remember, that 
 there is an error on the other side, into which a 
 mere feeling of compassion, if unmixed with a 
 true Christian sense of the evil of sin, might 
 possibly lead us. There is a danger, lest men 
 should think punishment more to be avoided 
 than crime ; lest they should exclaim only 
 against the severity of the one, without a due 
 abhorrence of the guilt of the other. This, 
 
448 ON THE LAW CONCERNING OATHS. 
 
 however, is not the spirit of Christianity, but of 
 its utter opposite — lawlessness. 
 
 Again, how earnestly does Christ enforce the 
 duty of speaking the truth, not on solemn occa- 
 sions only, but constantly and habitually. But 
 human law, not christianized, caring less for the 
 moral good of the people, than for the conve- 
 nience of having the truth told on certain occa- 
 sions where the public interest was concerned, 
 would not content itself with men's simple 
 affirmation, but on many (and those, too, very 
 trifling) occasions called upon them to give their 
 oath. And men, being thus required to swear 
 whenever the law wanted them to tell the truth, 
 were led to think, that when they were not 
 called upon to swear the truth was of little im- 
 portance : the more superstitiously men dreaded 
 perjury, the less did they scruple at common 
 falsehood. But here again, in later years, our 
 law has been possessed with a more Christian 
 spirit: a great multitude of those oaths which 
 were formerly required have now been done 
 away with, and the law has begun to speak the 
 Christian language — that a Christian man's word 
 should be as true, and as much to be rehed on, 
 as his oath. 
 
 I will not dwell further on instances of this 
 kind; for the time admonishes me to be brief. 
 We should remember, however, for ourselves. 
 
OUR DUTIES AS THE SUBJECTS 449 
 
 that if our laws and government are, and should 
 be. Christian ; if this nation is indeed pledged to 
 Christ's service, then, in whatever degree we any 
 of us are ever called upon to perform any public 
 duty, that also should be performed as in the 
 sight of God, and for the furtherance of Christ's 
 kingdom. We should look well, then, to the 
 spirit and principles with which we either sign, 
 or ask others to sign, any political petition ; with 
 which we either vote, or ask others to vote, at 
 any election. If this kingdom be, — as it is in 
 name, at any rate, — a kingdom of our Lord and 
 of his Christ, every political act becomes essen- 
 tially sacred ; its great object should be to 
 make us a kingdom of God more and more per- 
 fectly. But every Christian knows farther, that 
 God's kingdom consists in the increase of all 
 goodness and holiness ; that he, therefore, who 
 thinks to advance it by evil means is, in fact, 
 destroying it. Ends as lofty as that heaven 
 where Christ sits at the right hand of God ; 
 means as pure as that Holy Spirit whose temple 
 is within us ; — such are the principles, and such 
 the conduct, of a true Christian. What becomes, 
 then, of all those evil passions which are ordi- 
 narily let loose at every election — oppression, 
 bribery, brute ignorance, trickery of every sort 
 and kind, or open violence? Worthy means, 
 indeed, for Christian men to use to advance 
 
 GG 
 
450 OF A KINGDOM OF GOD. 
 
 Christ's kingdom ! Or shall we not rather say. 
 Worthy means for those to use who, forgetting 
 the pledges of their own baptism, are seeking to 
 advance, not Christ's kingdom, but the cause of 
 their own interest, or their own passions. 
 
 Such, I think, are some of the thoughts which 
 this day's solemnity ought to awaken, or to 
 strengthen within us. They may be all summed 
 up in this : that we apply the words of the 
 Apostle to every act of the laws and government 
 towards us, and to every act of ours with regard 
 to them ; that every thing, both in word and 
 deed, should be done in the name of the Lord 
 Jesus, with whom our sovereign, as a part of the 
 ceremony of her coronation, enters into the 
 most solemn communion, partaking in the signs 
 of his body and blood. Her coronation pledges 
 her to her people, and her people to her; but 
 both in Christ, and to Christ. 
 
 But if, from these general thoughts, we pass 
 in conclusion for a few moments to something 
 more individual ; if we remember that our sove- 
 reign does not merely represent to us our country, 
 and the inestimable blessings of law and govern- 
 ment, but that she is also a living individual per- 
 son, standing before God as we do all, with all 
 the thoughts, and affections, and temptations, and 
 responsibilities of a human being, with all the 
 privileges, and hopes, and responsibihties, too, of 
 
CONCLUSION. 451 
 
 a Christian ; then some loyal and earnest feelings 
 and wishes for our Queen, personally, may and 
 ought to rise in our minds on this great solem- 
 nity. This is no fit place for the language of 
 flattery or compliment, even if such language 
 were ever consistent with Christian simplicity. 
 And if we think of our own sons and daughters, 
 at the same age as that of our sovereign, we 
 must feel that where in the course of nature so 
 little of life has past, and so much yet remains, 
 the character must be one of promise rather than 
 of performance; it is a fit ground rather for 
 hope than for thankfulness. But hope, earnest 
 hope, the hope of loyal affection, may well shape 
 itself into the language of devout prayer this 
 day, that God's Spirit may be with our Queen all 
 her life long — the spirit of wisdom, and the 
 spirit of power, and the spirit of righteousness 
 and true holiness; that it may be given her 
 through a reign of many years, to set forward 
 the cause of Christ among us ; that no ambition 
 and pride, on our part or on our neighbours', 
 disturb that blessed peace, which has now for 
 three-and-twenty years reigned in Europe ; that 
 with peace abroad, there may be peace and good 
 will at home ; not the peace of selfish indolence 
 and indifference, but that of Christian meekness 
 and mutual charity ; that all useful and ennobhng 
 arts and sciences may flourish and abound ; that 
 
 GG 2 
 
452 CONCLUSION. 
 
 nature may be made according to God's will 
 to minister more and more to the purposes of 
 man ; that great works may go on and prosper, 
 and that men being enabled to see more than 
 they could in times past, of the earth and 
 of one another, may from their wider experience 
 gain a greater wisdom. But that with all this, 
 our Queen may value yet more the more excel- 
 lent way ; that she may rejoice in the greatness 
 of her kingdom, but still more if it shall have 
 grown in goodness ; that she may never be 
 ashamed of Christ crucified, but confess him in 
 her household, and in her court, and in her 
 government, no less than in her secret prayers ; 
 that she may love the poor and the distressed, 
 and strive that the advance of society shall 
 include the humblest of its members ; that while 
 some are starting forwards with increased speed, 
 others may not fall behind, and so the order of 
 the whole be broken. Finally, that she may be 
 strengthened under the cares and against the 
 temptations of her high office ; that she may be 
 encouraged and rewarded by the love of her 
 people, but much more by the witness of her 
 own conscience ; and most of all, by that which 
 is far greater than our conscience, by the judg- 
 ment of Christ our Lord, when he comes to 
 establish his perfect kingdom. : 
 
 June 2Sth, 1838. 
 
NOTES. 
 
NOTES 
 
 Note A. P. 5. 
 
 " But our path is not backwards but onwards." — This 
 thought is expressed very beautifully in lines as wise and 
 true as they are poetical : 
 
 " Grieve not for these : nor dare lament 
 
 That thus from childhood's thoughts we roam : 
 Not backward are our glances bent, 
 
 But forward to our Father's home. 
 Eternal growth has no such fears, 
 
 But freshening still with seasons past, 
 The old man clogs its earlier years, 
 And simple childhood comes the last." 
 
 Burbidge's Poems, p. 309. 
 
 Note B. P. 61. 
 
 " So7ne may know the story of that German nobleman" 
 &c. — The Baron von Canitz. He lived in the latter half of 
 the seventeenth century, and was engaged in the service of 
 
456 NOTES. 
 
 the electors of Brandenburg, both of the great elector and his 
 successor. He was the author of several hymns, one of 
 which is of remarkable beauty, as may be seen in the fol- 
 lowing translation, for the greatest part of which I am 
 indebted to the kindness of a friend ; but the language of 
 the original, in several places, cannot be adequately trans- 
 lated in English. 
 
 " Come, my soul, thou must be waking— 
 Now is breaking 
 
 O'er the earth another day. 
 Come, to Him who made this splendour 
 See thou render 
 
 All thy feeble powers can pay. 
 
 From the stars thy course be learning ; 
 Dimly burning 
 
 'Neath the sun their light grows pale : 
 So let all that sense delighted 
 While benighted 
 
 From God's presence fade and fail. 
 
 Lo ! how all of breath partaking, 
 Gladly waking, 
 
 Hail the sun's enlivening light ! 
 Plants, whose life mere sap doth nourish. 
 Rise and flourish. 
 
 When he breaks the shades of night. 
 
 Thou too hail the light returning, — 
 Ready burning 
 
 Be the incense of thy powers ; — 
 For the night is safely ended ; 
 God hath tended 
 
 With His care thy helpless hours. 
 
 Pray that He may prosper ever 
 Each endeavour. 
 
 When thine aim is good and true : 
 But that He may ever thwart thee. 
 And convert thee, 
 
 When thou evil Avouldst pursue. 
 
NOTES. 457 
 
 Think that He thy ways beholdeth — 
 He unfoldeth 
 
 Every fault that lurks within ; 
 Every stain of shame gloss'd over 
 Can discover, 
 
 And discern each deed of sin. 
 
 Fetter'd to the fleeting hours 
 All our powers, 
 
 Vain and brief, are borne away ; 
 Time, my soul, thy ship is steering, 
 Onward veering. 
 
 To the gulph of death a prey. 
 
 May'st thou then on life's last morrow. 
 Free from sorrow. 
 
 Pass away in slumber sweet ; 
 And releas'd from death's dark sadness. 
 Rise in gladness, 
 
 That far brighter sun to greet. 
 
 Only God's free gifts abuse not, 
 His light refuse not, 
 
 But still His Spirit's voice obey ; 
 Soon shall joy thy brow be wreathing, 
 Splendour breathing 
 
 Fairer than the fairest day. 
 
 If aught of care this morn oppress thee. 
 To Him address thee. 
 
 Who, like the sun, is good to all : 
 He gilds the mountain tops, the while 
 His gracious smile 
 
 Will on the humblest valley fall. 
 
 Round the gifts his bounty show'rs, 
 Walls and tow'rs 
 
 Girt with flames thy God shall rear : 
 Angel legions to defend thee 
 Shall attend thee. 
 
 Hosts whom Satan's self shall fear." 
 
458 NOTES. 
 
 Note C. P. 90. 
 
 " But J once admit a single exceptionj and the infallible 
 virtue of the rule ceases" — Thus the famous Canon of Vin- 
 cent! us Lirinensis is like tradition itself, always either super- 
 fluous or insufficient. Taken literally, it is true and worthless ; 
 — because what all have asserted, always, and in all places, 
 supposing of course that the means of judging were in their 
 power, may be assumed to be some indisputable axiom, such 
 as never will be disputed any more than it has been disputed 
 hitherto. But take it with any allowance, and then it is of no use 
 in settling a question : for what most men have asserted, most 
 commonly, and in most places, has a certain a priori proba- 
 bility, it is true, but by no means such as may not be out- 
 weighed by probabilities on the other side ; for the extreme 
 improbability consists not in the prevalence of error amongst 
 millions, or for centuries, or over whole continents, — but in 
 its being absolutely universal, so universal that truth could 
 not find a single witness at any time or in any country. 
 But the single witness is enough to " justify the ways of 
 God," and reduces what otherwise would have been a 
 monstrous triumph of evil to the character of a severe trial 
 of our faith, severe indeed as the trials of an evil world will 
 be, but no more than a trial such as, with God's grace, 
 may be overcome. 
 
 Note D. P. 183. 
 
 " It was an admirable definition of that which excites 
 laughter," &C. — To yEkoiov afxdpTYHxd TL Kal alcr'xoQ dv<oBvvoy 
 Kai oh (pdapTLKoV otov evdvg to yeXoloy irpoawKOv ala^pov tl koX 
 ^LEffTpafXfiivoy avev ohvyrfg. — Aristotle^ Poetic, ii. 
 
NOTES. 459 
 
 Note E. P. 260. 
 
 " / would endeavour just to touch upon some of the pur- 
 poses for which the Scripture tells us that Christ died." — 
 The Collects for Easter Sunday and the Sundays just 
 before it and after it, illustrate the enumeration here given. 
 The Collect for the Sunday next before Easter speaks of 
 Christ's death only as an " example of his great humility." 
 The Collect for Easter-day speaks of the resurrection, and 
 connects it with our spiritual resurrection, as does also the 
 Collect for the First Sunday after Easter. But the Collect 
 for the Second Sunday after Easter speaks of Christ as being 
 at once our sacrifice for sin and our example of godly life, — 
 a sacrifice to be regarded with entire thankfulness, and an 
 example to be daily followed. 
 
 Note F. P. 314. 
 
 *' Such also was to he the state of the Christian church 
 after our Lord's ascension.'' — And therefore, as I think, 
 St. Peter applies to the Christians of Asia Minor the very 
 terms that were applied to the Jews living in Assyria or 
 in Egypt; he addresses them as TrapsTn^rJinoie ^laaTropdcj 
 (l Peter i. 1,) that is, as strangers and sojourners, scattered 
 up and down in a country that was not properly their own, 
 and living in a sort of banishment from their true home. 
 That the words are not addressed to Jewish Christians, and 
 therefore are not to be understood in their simple historical 
 sense, seems evident from the second chapter of the Epistle, 
 verses 9, 10, and iv. 2, 3. 
 
 Note G. P. 360. 
 
 *^ J^^ot only an outward miracle, hut the changed circum- 
 stances of the times may speah God's will no less clearly 
 than a miracle/' &c. — What I have here said does not 
 
460 NOTES. 
 
 at all go beyond what has been said on the same subject by 
 Hooker: ^* Laws, though both ordained of God himself, 
 and the end for which they were ordained continuing, may, 
 notwithstanding, cease, if by alteration of persons or times 
 they be found insufficient to attain unto that end. In which 
 respect why may we not presume that God doth even call 
 for such change or alteration as the very condition of 
 things themselves doth make necessary. ... In this case, 
 therefore, men do not presume to change God's ordinance, 
 but they yield thereunto, requiring itself to be changed." — 
 Ecclesiastical Polity , b. iii. § 10. 
 
 Note H. P. 367. 
 
 " iVbr is it less strange, that any should ever have been 
 afraid of their understandings, and should have sought 
 goodness through prejudice, and blindness, and folly."" — 
 For some time past the words " Rationalism " and 
 " rationalistic" have been freely used as terms of reproach 
 by writers on religious subjects; the 73d No. of the 
 " Tracts for the Times " is entitled, " On the Introduction of 
 Rationalistic Principles into Religion;" and a whole chapter 
 in Mr. Gladstone's late work on Church Principles is 
 headed " Rationalism." Yet we still want a clear definition 
 of the thing signified by this name. The Tract for the 
 Times says, " To rationalize, is to ask for reasons out of 
 place ; to ask improperly how we are to account for certain 
 things ; to be unwilling to believe them unless they can be 
 accounted for, i. e. referred to something else as a cause, to 
 some existing system as harmonizing with them, or taking 
 them up into itself. ... It is characterised by two pecu- 
 liarities ; — its love of systematizing, and its basing its system 
 upon personal experience, on the evidence of sense." — P. 2. 
 Mr. Gladstone says more generally, " Rationalism is com- 
 monly, at least in this country, taken to be the reduction of 
 
NOTES. 461 
 
 Christian doctrine to the standard and measure of the human 
 understanding." — P. 37. But neither of these definitions 
 will include all the arguments and statements which have 
 been called by various writers " rationalistic ;" and while 
 the terms used are thus vague, they are often applied very 
 indiscriminately, and the tendency of this use of them is to 
 depreciate the exercise of the intellectual faculties generally. 
 The subject seems to deserve fuller consideration than it has 
 yet received : there is a real evil which the term rationalism 
 is meant to denounce ; but it has not been clearly appre- 
 hended, and what is good has sometimes been confounded 
 with it, and denounced under the same name. 
 
 I cannot pretend to discuss the subject fully in a mere 
 note, even if I were otherwise competent to do it. But one 
 or two points may be noticed, as likely to assist the inquiry, 
 wherever it is worthily entered on. 
 
 1st. It is important to bear in mind the distinction which 
 Coleridge enforces so earnestly between the understanding 
 and the reason. I do not know whether Mr. Gladstone, in 
 the passage quoted above, uses the word " understanding " 
 as synonymous with reason, or in that stricter sense in which 
 Coleridge employs it. But the writer of the Tract seems to 
 allude to the stricter sense, when he calls it a characteristic 
 of rationalism ^' to base its system upon personal experience77 
 on the evidence of sense." If this be the case, then it would'^i 
 seem that rationalism is the appealing to the decision of the 
 understanding in points where the decision properly belongs, 
 not to the understanding, but to the reason. This is a- 
 great fault, and one to which all persons who belong to the 
 sensualist school in philosophy, as opposed to the idealist 
 school, would be more or less addicted. But then, this faults 
 consists not in an over-estimating of man's intellectual nature I 
 generally, but in the exalting one part of it unduly, to the 
 injury of another part; in deferring to the understanding,/ 
 rather than to the reason. 
 
 2d. Faith and reason are often invidiously contrasted with 
 each other, as if they were commonly described in Scripture 
 as antagonists ; whereas faith is more properly opposed to 
 
462 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 sight, or to lust, being, in fact, a very higli exercise of the 
 pure reason ; inasmuch as we believe truths which our senses 
 do not teach us, and which our passions would have us, 
 therefore, reject, because those truths are taught by him in 
 whom reason recognises its own author, and the infallible 
 source of all truth. 
 
 3d. It were better to oppose reason to passion than to 
 faith ; for it may be safely said, that he who neglects, his 
 reason, and so far as he does neglect it, does not lead a life 
 of faith afterwards, but a life of passion. He does not draw 
 nearer to God, but to the brutes, or rather to the devils ; for 
 his passions cannot be the mere instinctive appetites of the 
 brute, but derive from the wreck of his intellectual powers, 
 which he cannot utterly destroy, just so much of a higher 
 nature that they are sins, and not instincts, belonging to the 
 malignity of diabolic nature, rather than to the mere negative 
 evil of the nature of brutes. 
 
 4th. Faith may be described as reason leaning upon God. 
 Without God, reason is either overpowered by sense and 
 understanding, and, in a manner, overgrown, so that it can- 
 not apprehend its proper truths ; or, being finite, it cannot 
 discover all the truths which concern it, and therefore needs 
 i a farther revelation to enlighten it. But with God's grace 
 I strengthening it to assert its - supremacy over sense and 
 understanding, and communicating to it what of itself it 
 / could not have discovered, it then having gained strength 
 and light not its own, and doing and seeing consciously by 
 God's help, becomes properly faith. 
 -5th. Faith without reason, is not properly faith, but mere 
 ower worship ; and power worship may be devil worship ; 
 or it is reason which entertains the idea of God — an idea 
 ssentially made up of truth and goodness, no less than of 
 power. A sign of power exhibited to the senses might, 
 through them, dispose the whole man to acknowledge it as 
 divine ; yet power in itself is not divine, it may be devilish. 
 But when reason recognises that, along with this power, 
 there exist also wisdom and goodness, then it perceives 
 that here is God ; and the worship which, without reason. 
 
NOTES. 463 
 
 might have been idolatry, being now according to reason, 
 is faith, 
 
 6th. If this were considered, men would be more careful 
 of speaking disparagingly of reason, seeing that it is the 
 necessary condition of the existence of faith. It is quite 
 true, that when we have attained to faith, it supersedes 
 reason; we walk by sunlight, rather than by moonlight; 
 following the guidance of infinite reason, instead of finite. 
 But how are we to attain to faith ? in other words, how can 
 we distinguish God's voice from the voice of evil ? for we 
 must distinguish it to be God's voice, before we can have 
 faith in it. We distinguish it, and can distinguish it no 
 otherwise, by comparing it with that idea of God which 
 reason intuitively enjoys, the gift of reason being God's 
 original revelation of himself to man. Now, if the voice 
 which comes to us from the unseen world agree not with 
 this idea, we have no choice but to pronounce it not to be 
 God's voice ; for no signs of power, in confirmation of it, 
 can alone prove it to be God. God is not power only, but 
 power, and truth, and holiness ; and the existence of even 
 infinite power, does not necessarily involve in it truth and 
 holiness also ; else the notion of the world being governed 
 by an evil being would be no more than a contradiction in 
 terms ; and the horrible strife of the two principles of 
 Manicheism would be a mere matter of indifference ; for if 
 power alone constitutes God, whichever principle triumphed 
 over the other, would become God by the very fact of its 
 victory ; and thus triumphant evil would be good. 
 
 7th. Reason, then, is the mean whereby we attain to faith, 
 and escape the devil worship of idolatry ; but the understand- 
 ing is not a necessary condition of faith, and very often 
 impedes it ; for the understanding having for its basis the 
 reports of sense and experience, has no direct way of arriving 
 at things invisible, and rather shrinks back from that world •, 
 with which it is in no way familiar. It has a work to do in"^ 
 regard to revelation, and an important work; but divine 
 things not being its proper matter, its work concerning them 
 must be subordinate, and its tendency is always to fall back 
 
464 NOTES. 
 
 from the invisible to the visible, — from matters of faith to 
 matters of experience. Its work, with respect to revelation, 
 is this — that it should inquire into the truth of the outward 
 signs of it; which outward signs being necessarily things 
 visible and sensible, fall within its province for judgment. 
 Thus understanding judges the external witnesses of a reve- 
 lation : if miracles be alleged, it is the business of under- 
 standing to ascertain the fact of their occurrence; if a book 
 j claim to be the record of a revelation, it belongs to the 
 / imderstanding to make out the origin of this book, the time 
 '] when it was written, who were its authors, and what is the 
 ' iirst and grammatical meaning of its language. Or, again, 
 if any men profess to be the depositaries of divine truth, by 
 an extraordinary commission from God, the understanding, 
 being familiar with man's nature and motives, can judge of 
 their credibility — can see whether there are any marks of 
 folly in them, or of dishonesty, or whether they are at once 
 sensible and honest. And in all such matters, the preroga- 
 tive of the understanding to judge is not to be questioned ; 
 for all such points are strictly within its dominion ; and our 
 Lord's words are of universal application, that we should 
 render to Caesar the things which are Caesar's, no less than 
 we should render to God the things that are God's. 
 
 Faith may exist, as I said, without the action of the 
 \^ understanding, but never without that of the reason. It may 
 exist independent of the understanding, because faith in God 
 is the natural result of the idea of God ; and that idea 
 belongs to the reason, and the understanding is not concerned 
 with it. But when a special revelation has been given us, 
 through human instruments, then the understanding is called 
 in to certify the particular fact, that in such and such par- 
 ticular persons, writings, or events, God has made himself 
 manifest in an extraordinary manner. It is the human 
 instrumentality which requires the judgment of the under- 
 standing ; the bringing in of human characters, and sensible 
 facts, which are matters of sense and experience ; and, there- 
 fore, it is mere ignorance when Christians speak slightingly 
 of the outward and historical evidences of Christianity, and 
 
NOTES. 465 
 
 indulge in very misplaced contempt for Paley and otheT s 
 who have worked out the historical proof of it. Such pei- 
 sons may observe, if they will, that where the historical 
 evidence has not been listened to, there a belief in Chris- 
 tianity, properly so called, is wanting. Living examples 
 might, I think, be named of men whose reason entirely 
 acknowledges the internal proofs of a divine origin which 
 are contained in the Christian doctrines, but whose under- 
 standings are not satisfied as to the facts of the Christian 
 history, and particularly as to the fact of our Lord's resur-, 
 rection. Such men are a remarkable contrast to those whose -^ 
 understandings are fully satisfied of the historical truth of 
 our Lord's resurrection, but who are indifferent to, or actually 
 deny, those doctrinal truths of which another power than the 
 understanding must be the warrant. It is important to 
 observe, therefore, that in a revelation involving, as an 
 essential part of it, certain historical facts, there is necessarily 
 a call for the judgment of the understanding, although in 
 religious faith simply the understanding may have no place. 
 8th. Now, then, the clearest notion which can be given 
 of rationalism would, I think, be this ; that^ it is^the a,buse 
 of the understanding in subjficts^.where.thet divine and the 
 human, so to speak, are intermingled. Of human things the-^ 
 understanding can judge, of divine things it cannot; — and | 
 thus, where the two are mixed together, its inability to judge ; 
 of the one part makes it derange the proportions of both, 1 
 and the judgment of the whole is vitiated. For example,' 
 the understanding examines a miraculous history : it judgesn 
 truly of what I may call the human part of the case ; that is i 
 to say, of the rarity of miracles, — of the fallibility of human 
 testimony, — of the proneness of most minds to exagge- 
 ration, — and of the critical arguments affecting the genu- 1 
 ineness or the date of the narrative itself. But it forgets the 
 divine part, namely, the power and providence of God, that 
 He is really ever present amongst us, and that the spiritual 
 world, which exists invisibly all around us, may conceivably 
 and by no means impossibly, exist, at some times and to, 
 some persons, even visibly. These considerations, which 
 
 H H 
 
466 NOTES. 
 
 the understanding is ignorant of, would often modify our 
 judgment as to the human parts of the case. Things not 
 impossible in themselves are believed upon sufficient testi- 
 mony ; and with all the carelessness and exaggeration of 
 historians, the mass of history is notwithstanding generally 
 credible. Again, with regard to the history of the Old 
 Testament, our judgment of the human part in it requires to 
 be constantly modified by our consciousness of the divine 
 part, or otherwise it cannot fail to be rationalistic ; that is, 
 it will be the judgment of the understanding only, imchecked 
 by the reason. Gesenius' Commentary on Isaiah is rational- 
 istic, for it regards Isaiah merely as a Jewish writer, zealously 
 attached to the religion of his country, and lamenting the 
 decay of his nation, and anxiously looking for its future 
 restoration. No doubt Isaiah was all this, and therefore 
 Gesenius' Commentary is critically and historically very 
 valuable ; the human part of Isaiah is nowhere better illus- 
 trated ; but the divine part of the prophecy of Isaiah is 
 no less real, and the consciousness of its existence should 
 actually qualify our feelings and language even with refer- 
 ence to the human part. 
 
 9th. The fault, then, of rationalism appears to me to 
 consist not so much in what it has as in what it has not. 
 The understanding has its proper work to do with respect 
 to the Bible, because the Bible consists of human writings 
 and contains a human history. Critical and historical inquiries 
 respecting it are, therefore, perfectly legitimate ; it contains 
 matter which is within the province of the understanding, 
 and the understanding has God's warrant for doing that 
 work which he appointed it to do ; only, let us remember, 
 that the understanding cannot ascend to things divine ; that 
 for these another faculty is necessary, — reason or faith. If 
 this faculty be living in us, then there can be no rationalism ; 
 and what is called so is then no other than the voice of 
 Christian truth. Where a man's writings show that he is 
 keenly alive to the divine part of Scripture, that he sees God 
 ever in it, and regards it truly as his word, his judgments 
 of the human part in it are not likely to be rationalistic ; 
 
NOTES. 467 
 
 and if his understanding decides according to its own laws, 
 upon points within its own province, while his faith duly 
 tempers it, and restrains it from venturing upon another's 
 dominion, the result will, in all probability, be such as com- 
 monly attends the use of God's manifold gifts in their just 
 proportions, — it will image, after our imperfect measure, 
 the holiness of God and the truth of God. 
 
 It is very true, and should be acknowledged in the fullest, 
 manner, that for the study of the highest moral and spiritual, 
 questions another faculty than the understanding is wanting ;| 
 and that without this faculty the understanding alone cannot 
 arrive at truth. But it is no less true, that while there is, on 
 the one side, a faculty higher than the understanding, which 
 is entitled to pronounce upon its defects ; (" for he that is 
 spiritual judgeth all things," avaKpivEi-,) so there is a 
 clamour often raised against it, not from above, but from 
 below, — the clamour of mere shallowness, and ignorance, 
 and passion. Of this sort is some of the outcry which is 
 raised against rationalism. Men do not leap, pe?^ saltum 
 mortalem, from ordinary folly to divine wisdom ; and the 
 foolish have no right to think that they are angels, because 
 they are not humanly wise. There is a deep and universal 
 truth in St. Paul's words, where he says, that Christians 
 wish " not to be unclothed but clothed upon, that mortality 
 may be swallowed up of life."^ Wisdom is gained, not by 
 renouncing or despising the understanding, but by adding 
 to its perfect work the perfect work of reason, and of reason'sj 
 perfection, faith. 
 
 Note I. P. 381. 
 
 '' A famoiLS example of this may he seen in the sixth 
 chapter of St. Johriy' &c. — The interpretation of this chapter, 
 and particularly of the part alluded to in the text, is of no 
 SQiall importance; for it is remarkable, that the highest 
 notions with respect to the presence of our Lord in the 
 Holy Communion are often grounded upon this passage in 
 hh2 
 
468 NOTES. 
 
 St. John's Gospel, which yet, in the judgment of others, 
 most decisively repels them. 
 
 The whole question resolves itself into this — Are our 
 Lord's words in this place co-ordinate with the Holy Com- 
 munion, or subordinate to it? That is, do they and the 
 communion alike point to some great truth superior to them 
 both; or do our Lord's words, in St. John, point to the 
 communion itself as their highest meaning ? 
 
 The communion itself expresses a truth above itself by a 
 symbolical action ; the words of our Lord, in St. John, are 
 exactly the same with that symbolical action ; it is natural, 
 therefore, to understand them not as referring to it, but to 
 the same* higher truth to which it refers also: and the 
 more so as the communion is not once mentioned by 
 St. John either in his Gospel or in his Epistles ; but the 
 idea which the communion expresses appears to have been 
 familiar to his mind ; at least, if we suppose that his mention 
 of the blood and water flowing from our Lord's side in his 
 
 * The common tendency to make the Christian sacraments an 
 ultimate end rather than a mean, is exhibited in the heading of 
 the tenth chapter of the 1st Epistle to the Corinthians, in our 
 authorized version, where we find the first verses described as 
 stating, that " the Jews' sacraments were types of ours." 
 Whereas, so far is it from the apostle's argument to represent 
 our sacraments as the reality of which the Jews' sacraments were 
 the type, that he is describing theirs and ours as co-ordinate with 
 each other, and both alike subordinate to the same truth; and 
 he argues, that if the Jews, with their sacraments, did notwith- 
 standing lose the reality which those sacraments typified, so we 
 should take heed lest we, with our sacraments, should lose it 
 also. This erroneous heading is not given in the Geneva Bible, 
 where we have, on the contrary, the true observation ; " the 
 sacraments of the old fathers were aU one with ours, for they 
 respected Christ only." It is true that if no more were meant 
 than that " the Jews' sacraments were like ours," there would 
 be no reason to object to the expression ; but apparently more is 
 meant, as the word type seems to imply that what it is compared 
 with is the reality, of which it is itself only the image ; and one 
 
NOTES. 4C9 
 
 Gospel, and his allusion again to the same fact in his 
 Epistle, have reference in any degree to it, which seems to 
 me most probable. 
 
 Our Lord repels the notion of a literal acceptation of his 
 words, where he says, — " It is the Spirit which profiteth, 
 the flesh profiteth nothing ; the words which I speak unto 
 you, they are Spirit and they are life." It seems impossible, 
 therefore, to refer these words, which he tells us expressly 
 are Spirit and life, to any outward act of eating and drinking 
 as their highest truth and object. 
 
 But the words in the sixth chapter of St. John do highly 
 illustrate the institution and purpose of the communion, and 
 especially the remarkable words which our Lord used in 
 instituting it. They show what infinite importance he 
 attached to that truth, which he expressed both in symbo- 
 lical words and action under the same figure, of eating His 
 body and drinking His blood. But to suppose that that 
 truth can only be realized by one particular ritual action, so 
 
 thing cannot properly be called the type of another, when both 
 are but types of the same third thing. But the divines of James 
 the First's reign and of his son's were to the reformers exactly 
 what the so-called fathers were to the apostles : the very same 
 tendencies, growing up even in Elizabeth's reign, becoming 
 strengthened under the Stuart kings, and fully developed in the 
 nonjurors, which distinguish the divines of the seventeenth cen- 
 tury from those of the sixteenth, distinguish also the church 
 system from the gospel. There are many who readily acknow- 
 ledge this difference in the Enghsh church, while they would 
 deny it in the case of the ancient church. Indeed, it is not yet 
 deemed prudent to avow openly that they prefer the so-called 
 fathers to the apostles, and therefore they try to persuade them- 
 selves that both speak the same language. And doubtless, if the 
 Scriptures are to be interpreted according to the rule of the 
 writers of the third, and fourth, and fifth centuries, the thing can 
 easily be effected ; as, by a similar process, the Articles of the 
 Church of England, if interpreted according to the rule of the 
 nonjurors and their successors, might be made to speak the very 
 sentiments which their authors designed to condemn. 
 
470 NOTES. 
 
 that the one great work of a Christian is to receive the 
 Lord's Supper, — which it must be, if our Lord's words in 
 the sixth chapter of St. John refer to the communion, — is 
 so contrary to the whole character of our Lord's teaching, 
 and not least so in the very words so misinterpreted, that to 
 maintain such a doctrine, leading, as it does, to such mani- 
 fold superstitions, is actually to preach another Gospel than 
 Christ's, — to bring in a mystical religion instead of a spiritual 
 one, — to do worse than to Judaize. 
 
 Note K. P. 399. 
 
 ^^ A set of personSj who wish to magnify the uncertaintiex 
 of the Scripture in order to recommend more plausibly the 
 guidance of some supposed authoritative interpreter of it.'' 
 — " The high church party," we have been lately told, 
 " take holy Scripture for their guide, and, in the interpreta- 
 tion of it, defer to the authority of primitive antiquity : the 
 low church party contend for the sufficiency of private judg- 
 ment." It is become of the greatest importance to see 
 clearly, not what one party, or another, may contend for, 
 but what is the real truth, and what, accordingly, is the duty 
 of every Christian man to do in this matter. The sermon to 
 which this note refers, is an attempt to show that Scripture 
 is not hopelessly obscure or ambiguous ; but it may not be 
 inexpedient here to consider a little, what are the objections 
 to the principle of the high church party ; to clear away 
 certain difficulties which are supposed to beset the opposite 
 principle ; and to state, if possible, what the truth of the 
 whole question is. 
 
 I. The objections to the principle of the high church 
 party are these: — 1st. Its extreme vagueness. What is 
 primitive antiquity ? and where is its authority to be found ? 
 Does " primitive antiquity " mean the first three centuries ? 
 pr the first two ? or the first five ? or the first seven ? Does 
 it include any of the general councils ? or one of them ? or 
 four ? or six ? Are Irenaeus and Tertullian the latest writers 
 
NOTES. 471 
 
 of " primitive antiquity ?'' or does it end with Augustine ? 
 or does it comprehend the venerable Bede ? One writer has 
 lately told us, that our Reformers wished the people to be 
 taught, "that, for almost seven hundred years, the church was 
 most pure." Are we, then, to hold that " primitive antiquity " 
 embraces a period of nearly seven centuries ? Seven cen- 
 turies are considerably more than a third part of the whole 
 duration of the church, from its foundation to this hour : can 
 the third part of a nation's history be called its primitive 
 antiquity ? Is a tenet, or a practice taught when Christianity 
 had been more than six hundred years in the world, to be 
 called primitive ? We know not, then, in the first place, 
 what length of time is signified by " primitive antiquity." 
 
 But let it signify any length of time we chose, I ask, 
 next, where is its authority to be found ? In the decisions 
 of the general councils ? But if we call the first four cen- 
 turies " primitive antiquity," we find in this period only two 
 general councils ; if we include the fifth century, we get 
 four J if we take in the sixth and seventh centuries, we have 
 then, in all, six general councils. Will the decisions of any, 
 or all, of these six councils furnish us with an authoritative 
 interpretation of Scripture ? They give us the Nicene and 
 the Constantinopolitan creeds ; they condemn various notions 
 with respect to the person of our Lord, and to some otlier 
 points of belief; and they contain a variety of regulations for 
 the discipline and order of the church : but, with the excep- 
 tion of some particular passages, there is no authority in the 
 creeds, or canons, or anathemas of these councils, for the 
 interpretation of Scripture ; they leave its difficulties just 
 where they were before. It is but little, then, which the first 
 six general councils will do towards providing the student 
 of Scripture with an infallible standard of interpretation. 
 
 Where, however, except in the councils, can we find any 
 thing claiming to be the voice of the church ? Neither 
 individual writers, nor yet all the writers of the first seven 
 centuries together, can properly be called the church. They 
 form, even all together, but a limited number of individuals 
 who, in different countries, and at differp,nt periods, expressed. 
 
472 NOTES. 
 
 in writing, their own sentiments, but without any public 
 authority. Origen, one of the ablest and most learned of 
 them all, was anathematized by the second council of Con- 
 stantinople; Tertullian was heretical during a part of his 
 life ; Lactantius was taxed with heterodoxy. How are we 
 to know who were sound ? And if sound generally, that is 
 to say, if they stand charged with no heretical error, yet it 
 does not follow that a man is infallible because he is not 
 heretical ; and none of these writers have been distinguished 
 like the five great Roman lawyers whom the edict of Theo- 
 dosius* selected from the mass, and gave to their decisions a 
 legal authority. Or, again, if it be said that the agreement 
 of the great majority of them is to be regarded as decisive, 
 we answer, that as no individual amongst them is in himself 
 an authority legally, so neither can any number of them be 
 so ; and if a moral authority only be meant, such as we 
 naturally ascribe to the concurring judgment of many eminent 
 men, then this is a totally different question, and is open to 
 inquiry in every separate case; for as, on the one hand, no 
 one denies that such a concurring judgment is an authority, 
 yet, on the other hand, it may be outweighed, either by the 
 worth of the few who differ from the judgment, or by the 
 reason of the case itself; and the concurring judgment of 
 the majority may show no more than the force of a general 
 prejudice, which only a very few individuals were sensible 
 enough to resist. 
 
 In fact, it would greatly help to clear this question if we 
 understand what we mean by allowing, or denying, the 
 authority of the so-called fathers. The term authority is 
 ambiguous, and, according to the sense in which I use it, I 
 should either acknowledge it or den}' it. — The writers of the 
 first four, or of the first seven centuries, have an authority, 
 just as the scholiasts and ancient commentators have : some 
 of them, and in some points, are of weight singly ; the agree- 
 
 * Cod. Theodos. lib. i. tit. iv. The edict is issued in the name 
 of the emperors Theodosius (the younger) and Valentinian (the 
 younger), in the year a.d. 426. 
 
NOTES. 473 
 
 ment of many of them has much weight; the agreement of 
 almost all of them would have great weight/- In this sense, 
 I acknowledge their authority ; and it w^ould be against all 
 sound principles of criticism to deny it. But if, by authority, 
 is meant a decisive authority, a judgment which may not be 
 questioned, then the claim of authority in such a sense, for 
 any man, or set of men, is either a folly or a revelation. 
 Such an authority is not human, but divine : if any man 
 pretends to possess it, let him show God's clear warrant for 
 his pretension, or he must be regarded as a deceiver or a 
 madman. 
 
 But it may be said, that an authority not to be questioned 
 was conferred, by the Roman law, on the opinions of a cer- 
 tain number of great lawyers : if a judge believed that their 
 interpretation of the law was erroneous, he yet was not 
 at liberty to follow his own private judgment in departing 
 from it. Why may not the same tiling be allowed in the 
 church ? and why may not the interpretations of Cyprian, or 
 Athanasius, or Augustine, or Chrvsostom, be as decisive, 
 with respect to the true sense of the Scripture, as those of 
 Gaius, Paulus, Modestinus, Ulpian, and Papinian, were 
 acknowledged to be with respect to the sense of the Roman 
 law? 
 
 The answer is, that the emperor's edict could absolve the 
 judge from following his own convictions about the sense of 
 the law, because it gave to the authorized interpretation the 
 force of law. The text, as the judge interpreted it, was a 
 law repealed ; the comment of the great lawyers was now 
 the law in its room. As a mere literary composition, he 
 might interpret it rightly, and Gaius, or Papinian, might be 
 wrong; but if his interpretation was ever so right gram- 
 matically or critically, yet, legally, it was nothing to the 
 purpose; — Gaius's interpretation had superseded it, and was 
 now the la,w which he was bound to obey. But, in the 
 church, the only point to be aimed at is the discovery of the 
 true meaning of the text of the divine law : no human 
 power can invest the comment with equal authority. The 
 emperor said, and might say to his judges, " You need not 
 
474 NOTES. 
 
 consider what was the meaning of the decemvirs, when they 
 wrote the twelve tables, or of Aquilliiis, when he drew up 
 the Aquillian law. The law for you is not what the decem- 
 virs may have meant, but what their interpreters meant : the 
 decemvirs' meaning, if it was their meaning, is no longer the 
 law of Rome." But who can dare to say to a Christian, 
 " You need not consider what was the meaning of our Lord 
 and his apostles ; the law for you now is the meaning of 
 Cyprian, or Ambrose, or Chrysostom ; — that meaning has 
 superseded the meaning of Christ." A Christian must find 
 out Christ's meaning, and believe that he has found it, or 
 else he must still seek for it. It is a matter, not of outward 
 submission, but of inward faith ; and if in our inward mind 
 we are persuaded that the interpreter has mistaken our 
 Lord's meaning, how can we by possibility adopt that inter- 
 pretation in faith ? 
 
 Here we come to a grave consideration — that this doctrine 
 of an infallible rule of interpretation may suit ignorance or 
 scepticism : it is death to a sincere and reasonable and 
 earnest faith. It is not hard for a sceptical mind to deceive 
 itself by saying, that it receives whatever the church declares 
 to be true : it may receive any number of doctrines, but it 
 will not really believe them. We may restrain our tongues 
 from disputing them, we may watch every restless thought 
 that would question them, and instantly, by main force, as 
 it were, put it down ; but all this time our minds do not 
 assimilate to them ; they do not take them up into their own 
 nature, so as to make them a part of themselves, freshening 
 and supplying the life-blood of their very being. Truth 
 must be believed by the mind's own act ; our souls must be 
 drawn towards it with a reasonable love : some affinity there 
 must be between it and them, or else they can never really 
 comprehend it. The sceptic may desperately become a 
 fanatic also, but he is not become, therefore, a believer. 
 
 Authority cannot compel belief: the sceptic who knows 
 not what it is to grasp any thing with the firm grasp of 
 faith, may mistake his acquiescence in a doctrine for belief 
 in it; the ignorant and careless, who believe only what 
 
NOTES. 475 
 
 their senses tell them, may lay up the words of divine truth 
 in their memory, may repeat them loudly, and be vehement 
 against all who question them. But minds to which faith is 
 a necessity, which cannot be contented to stand by the side 
 of truth, but must become altogether one wuth it, — minds 
 which know full well the difference between opinion and 
 conviction, between not questioning and believing, — they, 
 when their own action is superseded by an authority foreign 
 to themselves, are in a condition which they find intolerable. 
 Told to believe what they cannot believe j told that they 
 ought not to believe what they feel most disposed to believe ; 
 they retire altogether from the region of divine truth, as from 
 a spot tainted with moral death, and devote themselves to 
 other subjects ; to physical science, it may be, or to political ; 
 where the inherent craving of their nature may yet be grati- 
 fied, where, however insignificant the truth may be, they 
 may yet find some truth to believe. This has been the con- 
 dition of too many great men in the church of Rome ; and 
 it accounts for that bitterness of feeling with which Machia- 
 velli, and others like him, appear to have regarded the 
 whole subject of Christianity. 
 
 The system, then, of deferring to the authority of what is 
 called the ancient church in the interpretation of Scripture, 
 is impracticable, inasmuch as, with regard to the greatest 
 part of the Scripture, the church, properly speaking, has 
 said nothing at all ; and if it were practicable, it would be 
 untenable, because neither the old councils, nor individual 
 writers, could give any sign that they had a divine gift of 
 interpretation ; and if such a gift had been given to them, 
 it would have been equivalent to a new revelation, the sense 
 of the comment being thus preferred to what we could not 
 but believe to be the sense of the text. Above all, the 
 system is destructive of faith, having a tendency to substi- 
 tute passive acquiescence for real conviction ; and therefore 
 I should not say that the excess of it was popery, but that 
 it has at once and actually those characters of evil which we 
 sometimes express by the term popery, but which may be 
 better signified by the term idolatry ; a reverence for that 
 
476 NOTES. 
 
 which ought not to be reverenced, leading to a want of faith 
 in that which is really deserving of all adoration and love. 
 
 II. But it is said that the system of relying on private 
 judgment is beset by no less evils ; that it is in itself incon- 
 sistent, and leads to Socinianism and Rationalism, and, in 
 the end, to utter unbelief; so that, the choice being only 
 between two evils, men may choose the system of church 
 authority as being the less evil of the two. If this were so, I 
 see not how faith could be attained at all, or what place 
 would be left for Christian truth. But the system of the 
 Church of England* is, I am persuaded, fully consistent. 
 
 * Much has been lately written to show that the Church of Eng- 
 and alloAvs the authority of the ancient councils and writers, and 
 does not allow the right of private judgment. But it is perfectly 
 clear, from the 21st Article, that it does not allow the authority 
 of councils ; that is to say, it holds that a council's exposition of 
 doctrine may be false, and that such an exposition is of no force 
 " unless it may be declared that it be taken out of Holy 
 Scripture." Who, then, is to declare this? for to suppose that 
 the declaration of the council itself is meant is absurd: the 
 answer, I imagine, would be, according to the mind of the 
 Reformers, " Every particular or national church," and especially 
 the king as the head of the church. They would not have 
 allowed private judgment, because they conceived that a private 
 person had nothing to do but to obey the government ; and it 
 was for the government to determine what the truth of Scripture 
 was. The Church of England, then, expressly disclaims the 
 authority of councils, and, in its official instruments, it neither 
 allows nor condemns private judgment ; but the opinions of the 
 Reformers, and the constitution of the church in the 16th 
 century, were certainly against private judgment : their authority 
 for the interpretation of Scripture was undoubtedly the supreme 
 government of the church, i. e. not the bishops, but the king and 
 parliament. But then this had respect not to the power of dis- 
 cerning truth, but to the right of publishing it, which is an 
 wholly diiferent question. That an individual was not bound in 
 foro conscientifB to admit the truth of any interpretation of 
 Scripture which did not approve itself to his own mind, was no 
 less the judgment of the Church of England than that if he 
 
.NOTES. 477 
 
 and has no tendency either to Socinianism or Rationalism. 
 Let us see first what that system is. 
 
 It is invidiously described as maintaining " the sufficiency 
 of private judgment." Now we maintain the sufficiency of 
 private judgment in interpreting the Scriptures in no other 
 sense than that in which every sane man maintains its suffi- 
 ciency in interpreting Thucydides or Aristotle ; we mean, 
 that, instead of deferring always to some one interpreter, as 
 an idle boy follows implicitly the Latin version of his Greek 
 
 publicly disputed the interpretation of the church, he might be 
 punished as unruly and a despiser of government. But then it 
 should ever be remembered that the church, with the Reformers, 
 Avas not the clergy. And now that the right of publication is 
 conceded by the church, it is quite just to say that the Church of 
 England allows private judgment ; and if that judgment differ 
 from her own, she condemns not the act of judging at all, but 
 the having come to a false conclusion. 
 
 It is urged that the act of 1 Elizabeth, c. 1, allows that to be 
 heresy which the four first councils determined to be so. This is 
 true; but it also adjudges to be heresy whatever shall be here- 
 after declared to be so by " the high court of parliament, Avith 
 the assent of the clergy in their convocation." The Church of 
 England undoubtedly allowed the decisions of the first four 
 councils, in matters of doctrine, to be valid, as it allowed the 
 three creeds, because it decided that they were agreeable to 
 Scripture ; but the binding authority was that of the English 
 parliament, not of the councils of Nicasa or Constantinople. 
 
 As to the canon of 1571, which allows preachers to teach 
 nothing as religious truth but what is agreeable to the Scriptures, 
 " and which the catholic fathers and ancient bishops have col- 
 lected from that very doctrine of Scripture," it will be observed 
 that it is merely negative, and does not sanction the teaching of 
 the " catholic fathers and ancient bishops " generally, or say that 
 men shall teach what they taught ; but that they shall not teach 
 as matter of religious faith, a new deduction from Scripture of 
 their own making, but such truths as had been actually deduced 
 from Scripture before, namely, the great articles of the Christian 
 faith. Farther, the canons of 1571 are of no authority, not 
 having received the royal assent. — See Strypes Life of ParTcer, 
 p. 322, ed. 1711. 
 
478 NOTES. 
 
 lesson, the true method is to consult all* accessible author- 
 ities, and to avail ourselves of the assistance of all. And 
 we contend, that, by this process, as we discover, for the 
 most part, the true meaning of Thucydides and Aristotle 
 with undoubted certainty, so we may also discover, not, 
 indeed, in every particular part or passage, but generally, 
 the true meaning of the Holy Scriptures with no less 
 certainty. 
 
 But if another man maintains that a different meaningr is 
 the true one, how are we to silence him, and how are we 
 justified in calling him a heretic ? If by the term heretic we 
 are to imply moral guilt, I am not justified in applying it to 
 any Christian, unless his doctrines are positively sinful, or 
 there is something wicked, either in the way of dishonesty 
 or of bitterness, in his manner of maintaining them. The 
 guilt of any given religious error, in any particular case, 
 belongs only to the judgment of Him who reads the heart. 
 But if we mean by heresy " a grave error in matters of the 
 Christian faith, overthrowing or corrupting some funda- 
 mental article of it,'' then we are as fully justified in calling 
 a gross misinterpretation of Scripture " heresy," as we should 
 be justified in calling a gross misinterpretation of a profane 
 Greek or Latin author, ignorance or want of scholarship. 
 There is no infallible authority in points of grammar and 
 criticism, yet men do speak confidently, notwithstanding, as 
 to learning and ignorance ; Porson and Herman are known 
 to have understood their business, and a writer who were to 
 set their decisions at defiance, and to indulge in mere extra- 
 vagances of interpretation, would be set down as one who 
 knew nothing about the matter. So we judge daily in all 
 points of literature and science ; nay, we in the same manner 
 
 * Of course no reasonable man can doubt the importance of 
 studying the early Christian writers, as illustrating, not only the 
 history of their own times, but the New Testament also. For 
 the Old Testament, indeed, they do little or nothing, and for the 
 New they are of much less assistance than might have been 
 expected ; but still there is no doubt that they are often useful. 
 
NOTES. 479 
 
 venture to call some persons mad, and on the strength of 
 our conviction we deprive them of their property, and shut 
 them up in a madhouse : yet if madmen were to insist that 
 they were sane, and that we were mad, I know not to what 
 infallible authority we could appeal ; and, after all, what are 
 we to do with those who deny that authority to be infallible ? 
 we must then go to another infallible authority to guarantee 
 the infallibility of the first, and this process will run on for 
 ever. 
 
 But, in truth, there is more in the matter than the being 
 justified or not justified in calling our neighbour a heretic. 
 The real point of anxiety, I imagine, with many good and 
 thinking men is this; whether a reasonable belief can be 
 fairly carried through ; whether the notion of the all-suffi- 
 ciency of Scripture is not liable to objections no less than the 
 system of clmrch authority ; whether, in short, our Christian 
 faith can be consistently maintained without a mortal leap at 
 some part or other of the process ; nay, whether, in fact, if 
 it were otherwise, our faith would not seem to stand rather 
 on the wisdom of man than on the power of God. 
 
 I use these words, because these and other such passages 
 of the Scripture are often quoted as I have now quoted 
 them, and produce a great effect on those who do not 
 observe that they are quoted inapplicably ; for the question 
 is not between man's wisdom and God's power, but simply 
 whether we have reason to believe that God's power has 
 been here manifested ; or rather, to see whether we cannot 
 give a reason for the faith which is in us, such faith resting 
 upon God's power and wisdom as manifested in Christ 
 Jesus ; for if no reason can be rendered for our faith, then 
 our minds, so far as they are concerned, are believing a lie ; 
 they are believing in spite of those laws by which God has 
 determined their nature and condition. 
 
 Yet, however we believe, blindly or reasonably, (for 
 some men, by God's mercy, are accidentally, as it were, in 
 possession of the truth, the falsehood of their own minds in 
 holding it not being, it is to be hoped, imputed to them as a 
 sin ;) however we believe, I never mean to say that our 
 
480 NOTES. 
 
 faith is not God's gift, to be sought for and retained by 
 constant prayer and watchfulness, and to be forfeited by 
 carelessness or sin. That is no true faith in which reason 
 does not accord ; yet neither can reason alone and without 
 God ever become perfected into faith. For although intellec- 
 tually, the grounds of belief may be made out satisfactorily, 
 yet we are not able to follow our pure reason by ourselves ; 
 and no work on the evidences of Christianity can by itself 
 give us faith; and much less can amid the manifold conflicts 
 of life maintain it. That faith is thus the gift of God, and 
 not our own work, I would desire to feel as keenly and con- 
 tinually, as with the fullest conviction I acknowledge it. 
 
 Now, to resume the consideration of that which, as I 
 said, is the real point of anxiety with many. They doubt 
 whether the course of a reasonable belief can be held to the 
 end without interruptions : they say that the received notions 
 of the inspiration, and consequently of the complete truth, 
 of the Scriptures cannot reasonably be maintained ; that he 
 who does maintain them does so by a happy inconsistency ; — 
 he is to be congratulated for not following up his own 
 principles ; but why should he then find fault with others 
 who do that avowedly and consistently to which he is driven 
 against his professions by the clear necessity of the case? 
 
 This argument was pressed by Mr. Newman, some time 
 since, in one of tiie Tracts for the Times ; and it was con- 
 ducted, as may be supposed, with great ingenuity, but with 
 a recklessness of consequences, or an ignorance of mankind, 
 truly astonishing ; for he brought forward all the difticulties 
 and differences which can be found in the Scripture narra- 
 tives, displayed them in their most glaring form, and 
 merely observed, that as those with whom he was arguing 
 could not solve these difficulties, but yet believed the Scrip- 
 tures no less in spite of them, so the apparent unreasonable- 
 ness of his doctrine about the priesthood was no ground 
 why it should be rejected — a method of argument most 
 blamable in any Christian to adopt towards bis brethren ; 
 for what if their faith, being thus vehemently strained, were 
 to give way under the experiment ? and if, being convinced 
 
NOTES. 481 
 
 that the Scriptures were not more reasonable than Mr. New- 
 man's system, they were to end with believing, not both, but 
 neither ? 
 
 Therefore the question is one of no small anxiety and 
 interest ; and it is not idly nor wantonly that we must speak 
 the truth upon it, even if that truth may to some seem 
 startling; for by God's blessing, if we do g*(5 boldly forward 
 wherever truth shall lead us, our course needs not to be in- 
 terrupted, neither shall a single hair of our faith perish. 
 
 The same laws of criticism which teach us to distinguish 
 between various degrees of testimony, authorize us to assign 
 the very highest rank to the e\ndence of the writings of St. 
 John and St. Paul. If belief is to be given to any human 
 compositions, it is due to these ; yet if we believe these 
 merely as human compositions, and without assuming any- 
 thing as to their divine inspiration, our Christian faith, as it 
 seems to me, is reasonable ; — not merely the facts of our 
 Lord's miracles and resurrection ; but Christian faith in all 
 its fulness — the whole dispensation of the Spirit, the reve- 
 lation of the redemption of man and of the Divine Persons 
 who are its authors — of all that Christian faith, and hope, 
 and love can need. And this is so true, that even without 
 reckoning the Epistle to the Hebrews amongst St. Paul's 
 writings, — nay, even if we choose to reject the three pastoral 
 epistles* — yet taking only what neither has been nor can be 
 doubted — the epistles to the Romans, Corinthians, Gala- 
 tians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalo- 
 nians, we have in these, together with St. John's Gospel 
 and First Epistle, — giving up, if we choose, the other two, — 
 a ground on M^hich our faith may stand for ever, according 
 to the strictest rules of the understanding, according to the 
 clearest intuitions of reason. 
 
 I talte the works of St. John and St. Paul as our foun- 
 dation, because, in the first place, we find in them the his- 
 
 * I say this, not as having the slightest doubt myself of the 
 genuineness of any one of the three, but merely to show how 
 much is left that has not been questioned at all, even un- 
 reasonablv. 
 
482 NOTES. 
 
 torical basis of Christianity; that is to say, we find the 
 facts of our Lord's miracles, and especially of his resurrection, 
 and the miraculous powers afterwards continued to the 
 church, established by the highest possible evidence. How- 
 ever pure and truly divine the principles taught in the gospel 
 may be, yet we crave to know not only that we were in need 
 of redemption, but that a Redeemer has actually appeared ; 
 not only that a resurrection to eternal life is probable, but 
 that such a resurrection has actually taken place. This basis 
 of historical fact, which is one of the great peculiarities of 
 Christianity, is strictly within the cognizance of the under- 
 standing ; and in the writings of St. John and St. Paul we 
 have that full and perfect evidence of it which the strictest 
 laws of the understanding require. 
 
 But the historical truth being once warranted by the 
 understanding, other faculties of our nature now come in to 
 enjoy it, and develop it j the highest reason and the moral 
 and spiritual affections find respectively their proper field 
 and objects, which, whenever presented to them in vision or 
 in theory, they must instinctively cling to, but to which 
 they now abandon themselves without fear of disappointment, 
 because the understanding has assured them of their reality. 
 We must suppose, on any system, the existence of reason and 
 spiritual affections as indispensable to the understanding of 
 the Scriptures; external authority can do nothing for us 
 without these, any more than the mere faculties of the 
 common understanding. But with these we apprehend the 
 view which St. John and St. Paul afford to us ; it opens 
 before us one truth after another, one glory after another. 
 St. John evidently supposes that his readers were familiar 
 with another account of our Lord's life and teaching ; and 
 we find accordingly another account existing in the Avritings 
 of the three other evangelists. One and the same account is 
 manifestly the substance of their three narratives, to which 
 they thus bear a triple testimony, because none of the three 
 has merely transcribed the others, and none of them appa- 
 rently was the original author of it. Thus having now the 
 full record of our Lord's teaching, we find that he every- 
 
NOTES. 483 
 
 where refers to the Old Testament as to the word of God, 
 and the record of God's earlier manifestations of himself to 
 man. He has cleared up those especial points in it which 
 might have most perplexed us, as I shall notice more fully 
 hereafter, and he represents himself as the perpetual subject 
 of its prophecies. We thus receive the Old Testament, as it 
 were, from his hand, and learn while sitting at his feet to 
 understand the lessons of the law and the prophets. 
 
 Thus we make Christ the centre of both Testaments, and 
 by so doing, we cannot be blind to the divinity pervading 
 both. For the amazing fact that God should come into the 
 world and be in the world cannot by possibility stand alone ; 
 it hallows, as it were, the whole period of the world's exist- 
 ence, from the beginning to the end, placing all time and 
 every place in relation to God ; it disposes us at once to 
 receive the fact of the special call of the people of Israel ; 
 — it gives, I had almost said, an a jjriori reason why there 
 must have been in earlier times some shadows, at least, or 
 images to represent dimly to former generations that great 
 thing which they were not actually to witness ; it leads us to 
 believe that there must have been some prophetic voices to 
 announce the future coming of the Lord, or else " the very 
 stones must have cried out." 
 
 But those writings of St. John and St. Paul which were 
 our first lessons in Christianity, and those other accounts of 
 our Lord^s life and teaching to which they introduced us, — 
 can we conceive it possible that the real meaning of all these 
 shall be hopelessly obscure or uncertain ; that if we seek it 
 ever so diligently, we shall not find it? With an humble 
 mind ready to learn, with a heart fully impressed with the 
 sense of God*s presence, so as to be morally and spiritually 
 in a condition to receive God's truth, can we believe, then, 
 that the use of those intellectual means which open to us 
 certainly the sense of human writers, shall be applied in vain 
 to those writers who were commissioned to be the very 
 heralds of a divine message, whose especial business it was 
 to make known what they had themselves heard ? Surely if 
 a sufficient certainty of interpretation be attainable in common 
 I I 2 
 
484 NOTES. 
 
 literature, the revelation of God cannot be the solitary 
 exception. 
 
 But we may be mistaken : we may believe that we inter- 
 pret truly, but we cannot be infallibly sure of it ; we want an 
 authority which shall give us this assurance. This is no 
 doubt the natural craving of our weakness ; but it is no wiser 
 a craving than if we were to long for the heaven to be 
 opened, and for a daily sight of our Lord standing at the 
 right hand of God. To live by faith is our appointed con- 
 dition, and faith excludes an infallible assurance. We must 
 earnestly believe that we have the truth, and die for our 
 belief, if necessary, but we cannot know it. No device 
 which the human mind can practise can exclude the pos- 
 sibility of doubt. If we would find an armour which should 
 cover us at every point from this subtle enemy, it would be 
 an armour that would close up the pores of the skin, and stop 
 our breath ; our fancied security would kill us. Is it really 
 possible that, with our knowledge of man's nature, our belief 
 in any human authority can really be more free from doubt 
 than our belief in the conclusions of our own reason ? There 
 must ever be the liability to uncertainty ; we can put no 
 moral truth so surely as that our minds shall always feel it 
 to be absolutely certain. Where is the infallible authority 
 that can assure us even of the existence of God ? And will 
 the scepticism that can believe its own conclusions in nothing 
 else rest satisfied vnth one conclusion only — that the writers 
 of the first four centuries cannot err ? Surely to regard this 
 as the most certain proposition that can be submitted to the 
 human mind, is no better than insanity. 
 
 But we will consent to trust, it may be said, with God's 
 help, to our own deliberate convictions that we have inter- 
 preted Scripture truly; but you tell us that the Scripture 
 itself is not inspired in every part ; you tell us that there are 
 in it chronological and historical difficulties, if not errors ; 
 that there are possibly some interpolations ; that even the 
 apostles may have been in some things mistaken, as in their 
 belief that the end of the world was at hand. Where shall 
 We find a rest for our feet, if you first take away from us our 
 
NOTES. 485 
 
 infallible interpreter, and now tell us, that even if we can 
 ourselves interpret it aright, yet that we cannot be sure that 
 the very Scripture itself is infallibly true. 
 
 It is very true that our position with respect to the Scrip- 
 tures is not in all points the same as our fathers. For 
 sixteen hundred years nearly, while physical science, and 
 history, and chronology, and criticism, were all in a state of 
 torpor, the questions which now present themselves to our 
 minds could not from the nature of the case arise. When 
 they did arise, they came forward into notice gradually : first 
 the discoveries in astronomy excited uneasiness ; then as 
 men began to read more critically, differences in the several 
 Scripture narratives of the same thing awakened attention ; 
 more lately, the greater knowledge which has been gained of 
 history, and of language, and in all respects the more careful 
 inquiry to which all ancient records have been submitted, 
 have brought other difficulties to light, and some sort of 
 answer must be given to them. Mr. Newman, as we have 
 seen, has made use of these difficulties much as the Romanists 
 have used the doctrine of the Trinity when arguing with 
 Trinitarians * in defence of transubstantiation. The Roman- 
 ists said, — " Here are all these inexplicable difficulties in 
 the doctrine of the Trinity, and yet you believe it." So 
 
 * On this proceeding of the Romanists, Stillingfleet observes, 
 " Methinks for the sake of our common Christianity you should no 
 more venture upon such bold and imreasonable comparisons. Do 
 you in earnest think it is all one whether men do believe a God, 
 or providence, or heaven, or hell, or the Trinity, and incarnation of 
 Christ, if they do not believe transubstantiation ? We have heard 
 much of late about old and new popery ; but if this be the way of 
 representing new popery, by exposing the common articles of 
 faith, it wiU set the minds of all good Christians farther from it 
 than ever. For upon the very same grounds we may expect 
 another parallel between the belief of a God and transubstantiation, 
 the eflfect of which wiU be the exposing of all religion. This is a 
 very destructive and mischievous method of proceeding ; but our 
 comfort is that it is very unreasonable, as I hope hath fully ap- 
 peared by this discourse." — Doctrine of the Trinity and Transub- 
 stantiation compared, at the end. 
 
 ii3 
 
486 NOTES. 
 
 Mr. Newman argues with those who hold the plenary inspira- 
 tion of Scripture, that if they believe that, in spite of all the 
 difficulties which beset it, they may as well believe his doc- 
 trine of the priesthood ; and many, if I mistake not, alarmed 
 by this representation, have actually embraced his opinions. 
 
 It has unfortunately happened that the difficulties of the 
 Scripture have been generally treated as objections to the 
 truth of Christianity; as such they have been pressed by 
 adversaries, and as such Christian writers have replied to 
 them. But then they become of such tremendous interest, 
 that it is scarcely possible to examine them fairly. If my 
 faith in God and my hope of eternal life is to depend on the 
 accuracy of a date or of some minute historical particular, 
 who can wonder that I should listen to any sophistry that 
 may be used in defence of them, or that I should force my 
 mind to do any sort of violence to itself, when life and 
 death seem to hang on the issue of its decision ? 
 
 Yet what conceivable connexion is there between the date 
 of Cyrenius's government, or the question whether our Lord 
 healed a blind man as he was going into Jericho or as he 
 was leaving it; or whether Judas bought himself the field of 
 blood, or it was bought by the high priests : what connexion 
 can there be between such questions, and the truth of God's 
 love to man in the redemption, and of the resurrection of our 
 Lord ? Do we give to any narrative in the world, to any 
 statement, verbal or written, no other alternative than that it 
 must be either infallible or unworthy of belief ? Is not such 
 an alternative so extravagant as to be a complete reductio ad 
 absurdum ? And yet such is the alternative which men 
 seem generally to have admitted in considering the Scripture 
 narratives : if a single error can be discovered, it is supposed 
 to be fatal to the credibility of the whole. 
 
 This has arisen from an unwarranted interpretation of the 
 word " inspiration," and by a still more unwarranted 
 inference. An inspired work is supposed to mean a work to 
 which God has communicated his own perfections ; so that 
 the slightest error or defect of any kind in it is inconceivable, 
 and that which is other than perfect in all points cannot be 
 
NOTES. 487 
 
 inspired. This is the unwarranted interpretation of the 
 word " inspiration." But then follows the still more un- 
 warranted inference, — " If all the Scripture is not inspired, 
 Christianity cannot be true," an inference which is absolutely- 
 entitled to no other consideration than what it may seem to 
 derive from the number of those who have either openly or 
 tacitly maintained it. 
 
 Most truly do I believe the Scriptures to be inspired ; the 
 proofs of their inspiration rise continually with the study of 
 them. The scriptural narratives are not only about divine 
 things, but are themselves divinely framed and superin- 
 tended. I cannot conceive my conviction of this truth being 
 otherwise than sure. Yet I must acknowledge that the 
 scriptural narratives do not claim this inspiration for 
 themselves ; so that if I should be obliged to resign my 
 belief in it, which seems to me impossible, I yet should have 
 no right to tax the Scriptures with having advanced a pre- 
 tension proved to be unfounded ; their whole credibility as a 
 most authentic history of the most important facts would 
 remain untouched ; the gospel of St. John would still be a 
 narrative as unimpeachable as that of Thucydides, which no 
 sane man has ever disbelieved. 
 
 So much for the unwarranted inference, that if the Scrip- 
 ture histories are not inspired, the great facts of the Christian 
 revelation cannot be maintained. But it is no less an un- 
 warranted interpretation of the term " inspiration," to sup- 
 pose that it is equivalent to a communication of the Divine 
 perfections. Surely, many of our words and many of our 
 actions are spoken and done by the inspiration of God's 
 Spirit, without whom we can do nothing acceptable to God. 
 Yet does the Holy Spirit so inspire us as to communicate 
 to us His own perfections ? Are our best words or works 
 utterly free from error or from sin ? All inspiration does not 
 then destroy the human and fallible part in the nature which 
 it inspires ; it does not change man into God. 
 
 In one man, indeed, it was otherwise ; but He was both 
 God and man. To Him the Spirit was given without 
 measure ; and as his life was without sin, so his words were 
 
488 NOTES. 
 
 without error. But to all others the Spirit has been given 
 by measure; in almost infinitely different measure it is true : 
 the difference between the inspiration of the common and 
 perhaps unworthy Christian who merely said that " Jesus 
 was the Lord," and that of Moses, or St. Paul and St. John, 
 is almost to our eyes beyond measuring. Still the position 
 remains, that the highest degree of inspiration given to man 
 has still suffered to exist along with it a portion of human 
 fallibility and corruption. 
 
 Now, then, consider the epistles of the blessed Apostle 
 St. Paul, who had the Spirit of God so abundantly, that 
 never we may suppose did any merely human being enjoy a 
 larger share of it. Endowed with the Spirit as a Christian, 
 and daily receiving grace more largely, as he became more 
 and more ripe for glory ; — endowed with the Spirit's extra- 
 ordinary gifls most eminently ; favoured also with an abun- 
 dance of revelations, disclosing to him things ineffable and 
 inconceivable, — are not his writings to be most truly called 
 inspired? Can we doubt that, in what he has told us of 
 things not seen, or not seen as yet, — of Him who preexisted 
 in the form of God before he was manifested in the form of 
 man, — of that great day, when we shall arise incorruptible, 
 and meet our Lord in the air, and be joined to him for ever, — 
 can any reasonable mind doubt, that in speaking of these 
 things he spoke what he had heard from God ; that to 
 refuse to believe his testimony is really to disbelieve God ? 
 
 Yet this great Apostle expected that the world would come 
 to an end in the generation then existing. When he wrote 
 to the Thessalonians some years before his first imprison- 
 ment at Rome, he warned them, no doubt, against expecting 
 the end immediately : but he appears still to have supposed 
 that it would come in the lifetime of men then living. At a 
 later period, when writing to the Corinthians, his dissuasion 
 of marriage seems to rest mainly upon this impression ; it 
 is good not to marry, " on account of the distress which 
 is close at hand;" (^la rr/v evearojaav avay ktjv }, compare 
 2 Thess. ii. 2, cag on. ivearriKev // rifxipa rov Kvpiov.) " The 
 time is short," he adds ; " the fashion of this world is passing 
 
NOTES. 489 
 
 away.'' And again, when speaking of the resurrection, 
 he says emphatically, ^* the dead shall rise incorruptible, 
 and we shall be changed ;" where the pronoun being ex- 
 pressed in the original, koI ri^ieiQ dk\ayr}a6fxtQa, shows that 
 by the term " we," he does not mean the dead, but those 
 who were to be alive at Christ's coming. So again still 
 later, when writing from Rome to the Philippians, he tells 
 them that " the Lord is at hand ;" and later still, even in 
 his first Epistle to Timothy, he charges Timothy " to keep 
 his commandment without spot, unrebukable, until the 
 appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ." These and other 
 passages cannot without violence be interpreted even singly 
 in any other sense ; but taking them together, their meaning 
 seems absolutely certain. Shall we say, then, that St. Paul 
 entertained and expressed a belief which the event did not 
 verify ? We may say so, safely and reverently, in this in- 
 stance ; for here he was most certainly speaking as a man^and 
 not by revelation ; as it has been providentially ordered that 
 our Lord's express words on this point have been recorded — 
 " Of that day and hour knoweth no man ; no, not the angels 
 in heaven." Or again, shall we say, that St. Paul advised 
 the Corinthians not to marry, chiefly on this ground ; and 
 that this throws a suspicion over his directions in other 
 points ? But again it has been ordered, that in this very 
 place, and no where else in all his writings, St. Paul has 
 expressly said that he was only giving his judgment as a 
 Christian, and not speaking with divine authority; — the 
 concluding words of the chapter, Ioku) Ie fcdyw Tri^eu/xa 
 Beov txEiv, do not signify, as our Version renders them, 
 " And I think also that I have the Spirit of God," as if he 
 were confirming his own judgment by an assertion of his 
 inspiration in a sense beyond that of common Christians ; 
 but the words say, " And I think that I too have the Spirit 
 of God," — " I too, as well as others whom you might con- 
 sult, so that my judgment is no less worthy of attention than 
 theirs." But it is his Christian judgment only that he is 
 giving, as he expressly declares, and not his apostolical 
 command or revelation ; a distinction which he never makes 
 elsewhere, and which is in itself so striking, that we seem to 
 
490 NOTES. 
 
 recognise in it God's especial mercy to us, that our faith in 
 St. Paul's general declarations of divine truth might not be 
 shaken, because in one particular point he was permitted to 
 speak as a man, giving express notice at the same time that 
 he was doing so. 
 
 Now it is at least remarkable, that in the only two in- 
 stances in which the existence of any absence of divine 
 authority is to be discerned in St. Paul's epistles, provision 
 is actually made by God's goodness to prevent them from 
 prejudicing our faith in St. Paul's divine authority generally. 
 And so in whatever points any error may be discoverable in 
 Scripture, we shall find either that the errors are of a kind 
 wholly unconnected with the revelation of what God has 
 done to us, and of what we are to do towards Plim ; and 
 therefore are perfectly consistent with the inspiration of the 
 writer, unless we take that imwarranted notion of inspiration 
 which considers it as equivalent to a communication of 
 God's attri])utes perfectly ; (and of this kind are any errors 
 that may exist either in points of physical science, or of 
 chronology, or of history;) or if there be any thing else 
 which appears inconsistent with inspiration, in the sense in 
 which we really may and do apply it to the Scriptures, 
 namely, that they are a perfect guide and rule in all matters 
 concerning our relations with God, then we shall find that 
 God has made some special provision for the case, to 
 remove what it otherwise might have had of real difficulty. 
 
 This merciful care is above all to be recognised with 
 regard to one point, which otherwise w^ould, I think, have 
 been a difficulty actually insuperable : I mean the manifestly 
 imperfect moral standard, which in some cases is displayed 
 in the characters of good men in the Old Testament. Put 
 the gospel by the side of the law and history of the Israelites ; 
 observe what the law permitted, and public opinion under 
 the law did not condemn ; observe the actions recorded of 
 persons who are declared to have been eminently good, and 
 to have received God's especial blessing ; and it is manifest 
 that had not our Lord himself vouchsafed his help, one of 
 two things must have happened— either that we must have 
 followed the old heresy of rejecting the Old Testament alto- 
 
NOTES. 491 
 
 gether, or else that our respect for the Old Testament must 
 have impeded the growth of the more perfect law of Christ. 
 The true solution I do not think that we could have disco- 
 vered, or ventured to admit on less authority than our 
 Lord's. But his express declaration, that some things in the 
 law itself were permitted, because nothing higher could then 
 have been borne, and his stating in detail that in several 
 points what was accounted good or allowable in the former 
 dispensation was not so really, while at the same time he 
 constantly refers to the Old Testament as divine, and con- 
 firms its language of blessing with respect to its most eminent 
 characters, has completely cleared to us the whole question, 
 and enables us to recognise the divinity of the Old Testa- 
 ment and the holiness of its characters, without lying against 
 our consciences and our more perfect revelation, by justify- 
 ing the actions of those characters as right, essentially and 
 abstractedly, although they were excusable, or in some cases 
 actually virtuous, according to the standard of right and 
 wrong which prevailed under the law. 
 
 After observing God's gracious care for us in this instance, 
 as well as in those which I have noticed before, I cannot but 
 feel that we may safely trust Him for every other similar 
 case, if any such there be, and that he will not permit our 
 faith either in Him or in his holy word to be shaken, because 
 we do not attempt to close our eyes against truth, nor seek 
 to support our faith by sophistry and falsehood. Feeling 
 what the Scriptures are, I would not give unnecessary pain 
 to any one by an enumeration of those points in which the 
 literal historical statement of an inspired writer has been 
 vainly defended. Some instances will probably occur to 
 most readers ; others are perhaps not known, and never will 
 be known to many, nor is it at all needful or desirable that 
 they should know them. But if ever they are brought be- 
 fore them, let them not try to put them aside unfairly, from 
 a fear that they will injure our faith. Let us not do evil that 
 evil may be escaped from ; and it is an evil, and the fruitful 
 parent of evils innumerable, to do violence to our under- 
 standing or to our reason in their own appointed fields ; to 
 maintain falsehood in their despite, and reject the truth 
 
492 NOTES. 
 
 which they sanction. If writers of Mr. Newman's school 
 will persist in displaying the difficulties of the Scripture 
 before the eyes of those who had not been before aware of 
 them, let those who are so cruelly tempted be conjured not 
 to be dismayed ; to refuse utterly to surrender up their sense 
 of truth,— to persist in rejecting the unchristian falsehoods 
 which they are called upon to worship ; sure that after all 
 that can be said, that system will remain false to the end ; 
 and their Christian faith, if they do not faithlessly attempt to 
 strengthen it by unlawful means, will stand no less unshaken. 
 In conclusion. Christian faith rests upon Scripture ; and 
 as it is in itself agreeable to the highest reason, so the 
 authenticity of the Scriptures on which it rests is assured to 
 us by the deliberate conclusions of the understanding ; nor 
 is any " mortal leap" necessary at any part of the process; 
 nor any rejection of one truth, in order to retain our hold on 
 another. And if it should happen, as in all probability it 
 will, that we shall be called upon to correct in some respects 
 our notions as to the Scriptures, and so far to hold views 
 different from those of our fathers, we should consider that our 
 fathers did not, and could not stand in our circumstances ; 
 that the knowledge which may call upon us to relinquish 
 some of their opinions, was a knowledge which they had not. 
 Till this knowledge comes to us, let us hold our fathers' 
 opinions as they held them ; but when it does come, it will 
 come by God's will, and to do his work : and that work 
 will, assuredly, not be our separation from our fathers' 
 faith ; but if we follow God's guidance humbly and cheer- 
 fully, clinging to God the while in personal devotion and 
 obedience, we may be made aware of what to them would 
 have been an inexplicable difficulty, and which was, there- 
 fore, hidden from their knowledge ; and yet, " through the 
 grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, we believe that we shall be 
 saved even as they." 
 
 K. CLAY, PRINTER, BREAD STREET HILL. 
 

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