t- 
 
 A BRIEF c/2^ 'z«^/z?zJt~ 
 
 HISTORY OF THE SOUL: 
 
 A COURSE OF SIX SERMONS, 
 
 PREACHED DURING LENT, 1833. 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN HAMBLETON, M. A. 
 
 Of St. Edmund Hall, Oxford, 
 
 MINISTER OF THE CHAPEL OF EASE, ISLINGTON. 
 
 SECOND EDITION. 
 
 Hontron: 
 
 HAT CHARD AND SON, PICCADILLY; SEELEY AND 
 SONS, FLEET- STREET ; 
 
 FORD ; STARLING ; AND HUGHES ; ISLINGTON. 
 1833. 
 

 WILLIAM TYLER, 
 
 PRINTER, 
 
 4. ivy lane, st. Paul's. 
 
tf 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 These Sermons formed, as trie title-page 
 states, a Lent Course of Lectures, and were 
 consequently restricted as to number. After 
 preaching them, the Author had laid them 
 1 % with no intention of sending them to 
 le press. In consequence, however, of 
 urgent applications from those, for whose 
 motives he entertains a sincere respect, he 
 has been induced to re-consider the series, 
 in order to discover why his friends solicited 
 their publication. He could honestly say 
 much, respecting his own sense of the de- 
 ficiencies of the work, both as to its plan 
 and execution. He could also say some- 
 thing, which might plead in extenuation of 
 its failings. But now that he has consented 
 to send it forth, such language might savour 
 of feigned humility. If, then, this little book, 
 such as it is, be only found to accord with 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 the spirit of the Gospel of Christ, and to 
 have been written with a single eye to his 
 glory ; may He but deign to honour it with 
 his approving smile, and make it the instru- 
 ment of encouraging or converting but one 
 soul ; and the author is more than con- 
 tent, he is truly thankful. 
 
 There is, however, one form in which 
 the author did desire that these and all his 
 sermons might re-appear, in a clear type, 
 easy to be " known and read of all men ;" 
 namely, in the Christian lives and tempers 
 of all to whom he ministers. He therefore 
 entreats his readers to join him in the 
 prayer, that he and they may increasingly 
 become the living " epistles of Christ, writ- 
 ten not with ink, but with the Spirit of the 
 living God." 1 
 
 1 2 Cor. iii. 3. 
 
 Islington, 
 September 5, 1833. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 SERMON I. 
 
 THE SOUL IN DANGER. 
 
 EZEKIEL XVIII. 20. 
 
 Pa^e 
 
 The soul that sinneth, it shall die 1 
 
 SERMON II. 
 
 THE SOUL REPENTING. 
 
 JOB XLII 5, 6. 
 
 I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear : 
 but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I 
 abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes 34 
 
VI 
 
 SERMON III. 
 
 THE SOUL BELIEVING. 
 
 ROMANS X. 10. 
 
 Page 
 
 With the heart man believeth unto righteousness . 63 
 
 SERMON IV. 
 
 THE SOUL IN CONFLICT. 
 
 ROMANS VII. 22—25. 
 
 For I delight in the law of God after the inward 
 man : But I see another law in my members, 
 warring against the law of my mind, and bring- 
 ing me into captivity to the law of sin which is 
 in my members. wretched man that I am ! 
 who shall deliver me from the body of this death? 
 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord . 96 
 
SERMON V. 
 
 THE SOUL DEVOTED. 
 PHILIPPIANS IV. 13. 
 
 Page 
 
 1 can do all things through Christ which strength- 
 ened me 128 
 
 SERMON VI. 
 
 THE SOUL DEPARTING. 
 
 ACTS VII. 59, 60. 
 
 And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and 
 saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he 
 kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, 
 lay not this sin to their charge. And when he 
 had said this, he fell asleep 161 
 
SERMON I. 
 
 THE SOUL IN DANGER. 
 
 EZEKIEL XVIII. 20. 
 
 The soul that sinneth, it shall die. 
 
 The soul is the nobler part of man. Its 
 spiritual nature connects him with angels 
 and with God. Its capacities, whether of 
 improvement and of happiness on the one 
 hand, or of debasement and of misery on 
 the other, far exceed those of any other 
 creature upon earth. The soul also is to 
 exist for ever. If the soul be saved, the 
 body will be glorified, and the whole man 
 will be made unutterably happy for eternity ! 
 How solemn, how responsible a charge, to 
 possess such a soul ! 
 
2 THE SOUL 
 
 Yet that charge is yours and mine. Does 
 the thought never thrill across your bosom, 
 What is to become of my soul ? in what 
 state did I receive it ? what has been its past 
 history ? through what vicissitudes must it 
 yet pass, if, which may God grant, it be at 
 length found safe for eternity among the 
 spirits of the just made perfect ? My friends, 
 it is my earnest desire to assist you in those 
 inquiries. Hence, during this present sea- 
 son of Lent, I propose that we attempt to 
 sketch together the History of a Saved Soul. 
 I would describe certain points of experi- 
 ence, with which every soul, eventually to 
 be saved, must, I believe, become familiarly 
 acquainted. 
 
 You see then our subject. It is however 
 obviously impossible, in a course of six 
 sermons, to give the full history of any 
 soul. I can but present certain leading out- 
 lines, which Scripture and experience will 
 enable you to fill up. And in this I shall 
 endeavour to avoid all matters of doubtful 
 speculation and mere contingency, and 
 would confine myself to things which must 
 
IN DANGER. 6 
 
 be understood by every soul that would be 
 saved. 
 
 We are to endeavour then to trace a soul 
 from its state of danger to its admission into 
 heavenly glory. Those are the two extreme 
 points, the starting-place and the goal, of 
 the course before us. The soul in danger 
 will accordingly be the subject of this our 
 first lecture. The next point will introduce 
 to us the soul repenting. Another step, and 
 we come to the soul believing. At the suc- 
 ceeding stage, we shall witness the soul in 
 conflict. We shall then rejoice to consider 
 the soul denoted. And, lastly, our course 
 will end, where the eventful history ends as 
 to this world, for we shall trace the soul 
 departing home to God. 
 
 Such, if God permit, is to be the course 
 and order of our six lectures. Not that 
 these points are all to be experimentally 
 understood by every individual in the pre- 
 cise order now laid down. On the contrary, 
 repentance, faith, conflict, will often be the 
 mingled exercises of a single day. But it 
 is meant that the points to be considered 
 
THE SOUL 
 
 are all of primary importance, all necessary 
 to be experimentally understood. Let me 
 claim then your best attention and your 
 most earnest prayers. Dismiss all curious 
 and censorious thoughts. Listen, for your 
 soul is concerned. Listen, as to what ought 
 to be, and pray God that it may be, the 
 history and experience of your own soul. 
 Try, with God's help, to follow me, step by 
 step, and stage by stage, that your soul 
 may at last be the soul in glory. May no- 
 thing short of that happy consummation 
 satisfy you for yourselves, or me for myself 
 or you ! When a soul is lost, we may 
 acquiesce in the righteous dealings of God : 
 but, if you would be our joy and rejoicing, 
 or yourselves know full satisfaction, let 
 Messiah see in you of the travail of his soul 
 and be satisfied ! 
 
 The soul in danger : — this, then, is our 
 present subject : the true state of every soul 
 by nature and by practice. 
 
 Every soul is even by nature in a state of 
 danger. This is plainly declared in Scrip- 
 ture : " Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, 
 
IN DANGER. 5 
 
 and in" sin did my mother conceive me." 1 
 "And we were by nature the children of 
 wrath, even as others." Our church also 
 in her Catechism teaches us to think of our- 
 selves as " being by nature born in sin, and 
 the children of wrath." Her ninth Article 
 also testifies, that " original sin is the fault 
 and corruption of every man, that naturally 
 is engendered of the offspring of Adam ; 
 whereby man is very far gone from original 
 righteousness, and is of his own nature 
 inclined to evil, so that the flesh lusteth 
 always contrary to the spirit, and therefore 
 in every person born into this world, it 
 deserveth God's wrath and damnation." 
 Thus Scripture and our church unite in pro- 
 nouncing the soul's natural state a condition 
 full of danger. 
 
 The soul is the spiritual part of man, 
 that which thinks, judges, wills ; that which 
 influences and rules the body, whether for 
 good or evil ; that which distinguishes man 
 from the brutes, makes him a moral and 
 accountable agent, and connects him with 
 
 l Psalm li. 5. 2 Eph. ii. £. 
 
 B 3 
 
6 THE SOUL 
 
 the world of spirits, and the God of the 
 spirits of all flesh. Such is the soul of man. 
 In its origin, it came immediately from God. 
 The first man could no more have created 
 his own soul, than he could have made the 
 world. We are expressly told, that " God 
 created man in his own image." l " The Lord 
 God formed man of the dust of the ground, 
 and breathed into his nostrils the breath of 
 life ; and man became a living soul." 2 
 
 All other souls also are the creation and 
 gift of God : — not that he is the author of 
 their corruption ; God forbid ! but to him 
 they owe their existence, faculties, capaci- 
 ties, without their sinfulness ; all, in short, 
 that they might have been but for sin, all 
 that they are, distinct from sin and its con- 
 sequences, all that through grace they may 
 yet become. This consideration is very im- 
 portant. He who made the soul has a right 
 to its service. God has an older and a bet- 
 ter claim upon every soul than any other 
 lord can have. " It is he that hath made 
 us, and not we ourselves." 3 
 
 iGen.i. 27. 2Gen.ii.7. 3p sa lmc. 3. 
 
IN DANGER. / 
 
 Observe, also, that as God made the soul, 
 its duty and happiness were inseparably 
 connected with obedience to the divine will. 
 God knew that sin would make man both 
 miserable and guilty, and therefore he 
 kindly forbade it. He knew that to love 
 holiness and God, would make man happy, 
 and therefore he commanded it. And thus 
 his own glory, and man's obedience and 
 welfare, were all closely interwoven. You 
 see God's rightful claims on the soul of 
 man. 
 
 " But my soul," you may think, u as I 
 received it, was not in that pure and holy 
 state." It is true ; but the fault is not with 
 God. I know that some dare to think it, 
 but God cannot act contrary to his own 
 nature, or become the author of sin. The 
 young man often talks, as though there 
 were no harm in indulging the passions 
 which God has given him. But God gave 
 not his passions that corrupt propensity. 
 " God made man upright, but they have 
 
 [sought out many inventions." * The soul 
 l Eccles. vii. 29. 
 
8 THE SOUL 
 
 which God created as the pattern and type 
 of all human souls, was upright, pure, and 
 holy. With that soul, he made a covenant 
 of life and death ; of life for obedience, of 
 death for transgression. And that covenant 
 included Adam, together with Eve, and all 
 naturally descended from them to the end 
 of time. If he stood, they would stand ; 
 if he fell, they would fall with him. How 
 fearful then was his responsibility ! what a 
 motive for obedience in that responsibility ! 
 For Adam to sin was not only for him to 
 act ungratefully to God, and against his 
 own duty, interest, and happiness ; it was 
 to involve his latest posterity in guilt and 
 shame, in sorrow, misery, and death. 
 
 But Adam fell. You have the sad history 
 in Genesis iii. Consequently, his fall was 
 ours, it was the fall of the human race, it 
 for ever annulled to man the covenant of 
 life by works. " By one man sin entered 
 into the world, and death by sin ; and so 
 death passed upon all men, for that all have 
 sinned." 1 "Through the offence of one 
 
 l Rom. v. 12. 
 
IN DANGER. 9 
 
 many are dead." * " The judgment was by 
 one to condemnation." 2 "By one man's 
 offence death reigned by one/' 3 "By the 
 offence of one judgment came upon all men 
 to condemnation." 4 "By one man's dis- 
 obedience many were made sinners." 5 " In 
 Adam all die." 6 My friends, vain are all 
 our cavils, the fact of our being involved in 
 Adam's guilt is plainly stated in those scrip- 
 tures. No other doctrine will explain the 
 suffering, the misery, the death, which fill 
 the world. Even in common life, we con- 
 tinually see a similar principle established. 
 Children are every day involved in the 
 moral consequences of their parent's con- 
 duct. How often do states make covenants, 
 which bind the next generation ! How 
 often do fathers sign deeds, which will 
 affect their children's children ! How 
 many an ungodly man, who would scoff at 
 the doctrine of original sin, yet acts on the 
 same principle, and does all he can, by 
 
 1 Rom. v. 15 2 Rom. v. 16. 3 Rom. v. 17. 
 
 4 Rom. v. 18. 5 Rom. v. 19. 
 
 6 1 Cor. xv. 22, 
 
10 THE SOUL 
 
 intemperance, extravagance, and folly, to 
 ruin his children in body and in soul ! 
 
 Thus is the soul in danger even from 
 man's birth, by being involved in the guilt 
 of Adam's fall. Nor is this all. The com- 
 mission of sin wrought a moral change in 
 the character and temper of Adam's soul. 
 It introduced pride, lust, perverseness, sen- 
 suality, rebellion, where before all was 
 humility, purity, docility, spirituality, and 
 obedience. The Holy Spirit withdrew his 
 sanctifying presence from such an abode as 
 the heart of man was now become. Man, 
 thus left to himself, proceeded to add sin 
 to sin, and to stray farther and farther from 
 God. Was Adam satisfied with committing 
 but one sin ? Do his children, with the his- 
 tory of his sin before them, naturally 
 show no inclination to follow his example ? 
 Rather, is not sin the in-born temper of 
 man, his native element, his favourite pur- 
 suit? 
 
 The simple truth is, by sin the moral 
 character of Adam's soul was completely 
 changed. All we are descended from him 
 
IN DANGER. 11 
 
 in his fallen state, and inherit his disposi- 
 tion. "Adam begat a son/' we are told, 
 " in his own likeness, after his image." 1 
 How different Ms image, then, from the 
 image of God in which he himself was ori- 
 ginally created ! And thus sharing his guilt, 
 inheriting his disposition, and out of cove- 
 nant with God, our souls have by nature 
 no holy influence within, no good spirit 
 from above presides, no heavenly principles 
 bear sway ; the very thoughts and desires 
 are corrupt, the judgment is perverse, the 
 affections are sensual, the imaginations of 
 the heart are only evil continually. 2 Our 
 souls now are but the wreck of a noble 
 vessel, the ruins of a beauteous temple. 
 Who shall rebuild this house ? Who shall 
 of these stones raise up children to Abra- 
 ham ? " How is the gold become dim ! 
 how is the most fine gold changed \" 3 
 
 We see, then, that k every human soul, 
 —Jesus Christ's alone excepted, for he was 
 conceived by the supernatural operation of 
 the Holy Ghost, — but that every other soul 
 
 1 Gen. v. iii. 2 Gen. vi. 5 : viii. 21. 3 Lam. iv. 1. 
 
12 THE SOUL 
 
 of man is, from the birth, not only involved 
 in the guilt of Adam's transgression, but 
 also in a corrupt state, prone to sin, in- 
 clined to go astray from holiness and God. 
 Do any doubt or dispute ? Let them go 
 and learn of the little child. Give him the 
 best of examples, the best of nurses, and 
 the best of teachers : let a pious mother 
 train him for God with all the mild arts of 
 affectionate persuasion : let a pious father 
 co-operate with her, and bring manly wis- 
 dom, firmness, and discretion, tempered 
 with love, and sanctioned by authority, to 
 unite in the good effort ; and although such 
 training, accompanied with prayer, would, 
 doubtless, be wonderfully blessed, yet would 
 the child never go wrong ? Would no bad 
 temper show itself ? Yet, whence or how, 
 if he be not naturally prone to sin ? Or 
 take an opposite case. Leave a child to him- 
 self with no religious culture : — will he go 
 right ? among the thousand paths which he 
 may take, will he ever, of himself, stumble 
 on the straight and narrow way of holiness % 
 Then, I infer, holiness is not man's natural 
 
IN DANGER. 13 
 
 delight. " As soon as they are born, men 
 go astray." l 
 
 You grant then the fact, that man natu- 
 rally has corrupt inclinations. Then this 
 fact proves, confirms, and increases the 
 soul's danger. For corrupt propensities in 
 man must be known to God, who sees every 
 thing that is in the human heart ; and, being 
 known, they must be evil in his sight. Why, 
 if you saw in another a rooted enmity, a 
 bitter malice, a murderous animosity against 
 yourself, you could not be pleased with 
 that discovered feeling. You might pity 
 the man ; if yourself a Christian, you 
 might go and pray for him, and then come 
 back and try and soften him by kindness. 
 But the feeling itself must be offensive. 
 So, when God saw in your soul seeds of sin, 
 a root of bitterness against himself, a deter- 
 mined animosity against his holy character, 
 it must have been hateful in his sight. He 
 might pity you ; he might try and soften 
 you ; but in that state of mind, I mean 
 your natural state, your soul must have 
 
 1 Psalm lviii. 3. 
 
14 THE SOUL 
 
 been an object of just abhorrence to Him, 
 who is of purer eyes than to behold evil, 
 and cannot look on iniquity. 1 And will 
 God have such souls as his companions, the 
 objects of his complacency, in heaven ? 
 Would a king take a rebel in his rebellious- 
 ness to dwell with him in his palace ? 
 Would you select that bitter enemy, with 
 his enmity unchanged, to be your bosom 
 friend ? Surely we already see the neces- 
 sity of having guilt removed, and a new 
 moral character given to the soul, before 
 man can be at peace with God. Already 
 we may cry out for the Gospel of good 
 tidings to fallen man. Would that as we 
 first sinned by one common representative, 
 we might find another representative, in 
 whose righteousness we might be made righ- 
 teous ! How evident the necessity, that 
 since we were all born in sin, " Except a 
 man be born again, he cannot see the king- 
 dom of God!" 2 
 
 How affecting, my brethren, is the sum 
 of what has been said ! How humbling to 
 
 1 Hab. i. 13. 2 John in. 3. 
 
IN DANGER. 15 
 
 reflect, that each of our souls was, by 
 nature, fallen, sinful, dead, even before the 
 commission of personal transgression. It 
 was fallen from God's favour, out of cove- 
 nant with him, very far gone from righte- 
 ousness, destitute of the Holy Spirit's grace. 
 It was sinful, being involved in Adam's sin, 
 and having sinful propensities of its own. 
 It was dead, — under a sentence of death, 
 and under the power of death. Your body 
 and soul, even in infancy, contained within 
 themselves the principle of dissolution from 
 each other : this is natural death ; hence, 
 even infants die. Your soul was already sepa- 
 rate from God ; this is spiritual death. And 
 unless God deliver you in some gracious 
 way, you could never, of yourself, return 
 to God ; you and he must be separate for 
 ever : and what is that but eternal death ? 
 " The soul that sinneth, it shall die !" 
 
 And here I could gladly pause, to preach 
 to you the glad tidings of salvation through 
 Christ. Who of you does not already wish 
 to escape from that state of danger, and to 
 flee from the wrath to come ? But our 
 

 16 THE SOUL 
 
 subject is yet only half considered. We 
 have seen the soul in danger by nature : we 
 have yet to see it so also by practice. Come 
 with me to this our Second point. The view, 
 I am aware, is deeply humbling. But we 
 shall come to fairer scenes and brighter pros- 
 pects in due time. Would we ascend the 
 lofty mountain, whence we may gaze with 
 rapture on heaven in its glory and earth in 
 its beauty, while, ever and anon, clouds roll, 
 lightnings play, and thunders roar harmless 
 beneath our feet, we must be content to 
 descend, first, into the gloomy valley, and 
 climb by that narrow path. No one, I 
 believe, ever goes on solidly and safely in 
 religion, who has not, through God's grace, 
 a deep foundation-work laid in his soul, irv 
 a thorough heartfelt conviction of his fal- 
 len and guilty state both by nature and 
 practice. 
 
 To this latter point we now turn. You 
 have heard what Adam did with his soul, 
 and for the souls of his posterity, in the 
 responsible situation in which he stood. 
 The question now arises, what have you 
 
IN DANGER. 17 
 
 been doing for yourself with your own soul ? 
 You received it, I admitted, in a fallen 
 state. But what efforts did you make to 
 escape from that state ? Even in early 
 infancy, Christ encouraged your being 
 brought to him. Even in infancy, prayers 
 were offered for you by his church, that 
 your soul might be regenerated by his Spirit, 
 be washed in his blood, and receive the ful- 
 ness of his Father's grace. 1 At the same 
 time solemn promises were made for you, 
 that you should repent, believe, obey, 
 God's grace helping you. For that grace 
 you were to pray. Parents, sponsors, friends, 
 and ministers, were all to labour and pray 
 for your Christian instruction. Whether 
 they did their duty, is a solemn question 
 for them. But your concern is with your 
 own duty. You might have early sought 
 life and grace for your poor soul. Our God 
 will listen as kindly to the lisping child, as 
 to the grey-headed old man, crying to him 
 in the name of Christ. " Out of the mouth 
 of babes and sucklings he can perfect 
 
 l See the Baptismal Service. 
 c3 
 
 
18 " THE SOUL 
 
 praise." l But was it so with you ? How 
 very few resemble the Baptist, who was 
 sanctified from his birth ! How few, like 
 Timothy, have from their childhood known 
 the Holy Scriptures ! Even at that tender 
 age, there was, with most of us, a wilful 
 neglect of God, a perverseness of temper, 
 a disobedience to parents, a love of false- 
 hood, a selfishness of spirit. In all that 
 there were the beginnings of actual sin. 
 
 Youth came ; and with it came the 
 growth of reason, the expansion of affec- 
 tion, the increase of opportunities, the 
 training of the mind, the formation of cha- 
 racter. But, with many of us, how sad to 
 reflect, that at that season also, God had no 
 place in our hearts ! We began to under- 
 stand other things, but not the things of 
 God, We could love a parent, a brother, 
 a friend, but not God. We grew in human 
 wisdom, we cared nothing for the wisdom 
 that coineth from above. We were trained 
 for business, for society, for science, but 
 not for heaven. Other principles were im- 
 
 1 Psalm "viii. 2. 
 
IN DANGER. 19 
 
 planted and cultivated, but those which 
 God offers in his word, as principles which 
 would make us blessed in ourselves and a 
 true blessing to others, and which would 
 pass with us into eternity, were all utterly 
 despised. And then, in how many cases, 
 how various, how corrupt, how daring 
 were the sins of youth ! Are not public 
 schools too commonly notorious for vice ? 
 Are not private schools often .almost as bad ? 
 Who, that has passed through either, does 
 not remember how prayer was ridiculed, 
 God's name insulted, the Sabbath profaned ? 
 Who has not there seen and heard other 
 things, calculated to pollute the heart? 
 And was there no sin in such things ? Read, 
 young people, how David, Job, and Jere- 
 miah speak of youthful sins. " Remember 
 not the sins of my youth, nor my trans- 
 gressions." 1 " Thou writest bitter things 
 against me, and makest me to possess the 
 iniquities of my youth." 2 " I was ashamed, 
 yea, even confounded, because I did bear 
 the reproach of my youth." 3 Oh think, 
 
 1 Psalm xxv. 7. 2 J b xiii. 26. 3 Jer. xxxi. 19. 
 
 
20 THE SOUL 
 
 I intreat you, with shame and sorrow, of 
 many actual sins committed in your youth ! 
 Are riper years come ? And yet how 
 often have some still thought and acted, as 
 though there were no God. How many 
 have cause to confess with the poet Cow- 
 per, who thus wrote to a friend, "You 
 think I always believed, and I thought so 
 too ; but you were deceived, and so was I. 
 I called myself indeed a Christian, but He 
 who knows my heart knows that I never 
 did a right thing, nor abstained from a 
 wrong one, because I was so. But if I did 
 either, it was under the influence of some 
 other motive." * How important that obser- 
 vation ! How true in our own case ! What 
 we did that seemed right, was not done 
 from love to God, and to please him. The 
 bad things, from which we abstained, were 
 not shunned because he forbade them. But 
 some worldly motive, a regard to worldly 
 interest, a dread of worldly consequences, 
 this was our principle. Then, that principle, 
 in God's sight, was defective : it was not the 
 
 1 See Cowper's Letters. 
 
IN DANGER. 21 
 
 motive proposed by him : it usurped the 
 place of better motives : it could not please 
 him. Then, neither could the actions 
 which flowed from that principle. And 
 thus our best actions were utterly defective ; 
 our most splendid virtues were nothing but 
 splendid sins ! "All our righteousnesses are 
 as filthy rags." 1 
 
 And if so with our best deeds, what is to 
 be thought of our worst ? Did you ever 
 try to make a catalogue of your sins ? God 
 has one in the book of his remembrance. 
 Can you venture to attempt to form one for 
 yourself? Make the trial, I intreat you, 
 although it may bring sorrow into the heart, 
 and tears into the eyes. Take in private a 
 blank paper. Write at the top of it the 
 law of God : " Thou shalt love the Lord 
 thy God, with all thy heart, mind, soul, 
 and strength, and thy neighbour as thy- 
 self." Or, draw out the Saviour's example 
 under distinct heads. Or, add the ten com- 
 mandments, and subdivide them into your 
 duty toward God, and your duty toward your 
 
 1 Isaiah lxiv. C .- 
 
22 THE SOUL 
 
 neighbour. Then, under each command- 
 ment draw two lines, one for things you 
 have done, which, according to that law, 
 you ought not to have done ; the other, for 
 things you have left undone, which, accord- 
 ing to that law, you ought to have done. 
 
 Then, with prayer to God for his Holy 
 Spirit, that you may not wish to omit any 
 sin, begin to put down a memorandum of 
 your sins, of word, thought, and deed 
 against that law. 
 
 Would you omit the bad thought ? I 
 dare not advise it. God does not. " The 
 thought of foolishness is sin." l God's law 
 Is spiritual, 2 reaching to the spirit. The 
 tenth commandment, which forbids to covet, 
 gives a spiritual character to all the preced- 
 ing commandments. Our Lord also, in his 
 Sermon on the Mount, plainly declares, that 
 an angry thought breaks the sixth com- 
 mandment, and an impure desire breaks the 
 seventh. And no wonder, for thoughts are 
 the seeds of actions, and if the action is 
 sinful, its root and principle must be sinful 
 
 1 Prov. xxiv. 9. 2 Rom. vii. 14. 
 
IN DANGER. 23 
 
 also. Bad thoughts, then, together with 
 idle words, foolish speeches, corrupt com- 
 munications, and all sinful actions, must be 
 faithfully put down in your catalogue of 
 sins. 
 
 Though I advise this attempt, it is not 
 because I think you can complete it. You 
 will soon find the memory lost and over- 
 whelmed in the effort. You will find more 
 sins to be recorded, than you once thought 
 could have been crowded into so short a 
 space of time. You will sigh over the sad 
 picture of yourself. You will be obliged 
 to give up the attempt, and to write at the 
 foot of the list: "My iniquities have taken 
 hold upon me, so that I am not able to 
 look up ; they are more than the hairs of 
 my head : therefore my heart faileth me." l 
 I would advise you to try, though it be with 
 tremulous hand, to close the catalogue, 
 with signing your name, as a solemn con- 
 fession of its truth. Then, in a distinct 
 line, add my text, " The soul that sinneth, 
 it shall die'' And leave a space for yet 
 
 l Psalm xl. 12. 
 
 
24 THE SOUL 
 
 another sentence, which you perhaps can 
 guess already, and, if not, I will tell it you 
 hereafter. 
 
 What a picture^ is that before us of the 
 state of danger, in which your soul has 
 been, both by nature and practice ! It 
 seemed as bad as it could be by nature, it 
 appears yet worse by practice. For if 
 Adam's one sin incurred death, what is to 
 be thought of the guilt of your innumera- 
 ble sins ? Surely, without the least exag- 
 geration or over-statement, your guilt was 
 infinite, for your sins were committed against 
 Him who is infinite in goodness, and their 
 number is beyond enumeration. What a 
 state then was yours ! Your soul was, from 
 the first, dead in trespasses and sins, under 
 guilt, and with unholy propensities : and 
 then, every period of your life has added 
 sins of omission and of commission, without 
 number, against every commandment of the 
 law ; and every sin has deserved death ! 
 
 We shall come in due time, as I pro- 
 mised, to brighter scenes. In the new state, 
 which I shall have to describe, there is 
 
IN DANGER. 25 
 
 change, motion, feeling, life. There will 
 be a pleasing and delightful prospect. We 
 shall behold mountains and valleys, rills of 
 comfort, rivers of joy, trees of righteous- 
 ness laden with golden fruits, fountains 
 sparkling with living water, pastures ever 
 verdant, and, above all, the Sun of Righ- 
 teousness shining down health, warmth, 
 and animation over the whole scene. But 
 in your old, unconverted state, all was one 
 dull course of cheerless uniformity ; dark- 
 ness brooded over the whole scene, it was 
 the very region of the shadow of death. 
 As you advanced in years, all became more 
 and more gloomy : — the night thickened 
 its horrors : — your treacherous guide led 
 you on at a quicker step : — before you 
 was a tremendous pit, which, ever and 
 anon, sent up a lurid glare and a dismal 
 shriek, though, it may be, you saw and 
 heard it not. 
 
 Let me hope that you now see the fitness 
 of the title of this discourse, The soul in 
 danger. If you still doubt it, my appeal is 
 to your Bible and your conscience. Even 
 
26 THE SOUL 
 
 if you have still doubts about my first part, 
 and think that you have nothing to do with 
 Adam's sin, can you escape from my second 
 part ? Can you satisfy God and your con- 
 science, that you have never personally 
 sinned ? Then, yours undoubtedly has been 
 the soul in danger. But I rather hope that 
 you admit both parts, and that your anxi- 
 ous thought now is, How can I escape from 
 that state of danger ? 
 
 How indeed ! Perhaps you will think 
 with some, " God is too merciful to punish 
 with eternal death." Be not deceived. 
 God is as just, holy, and true, as he is 
 merciful. " God is not a man, that he should 
 lie ; neither the son of man, that he should 
 repent : hath he said, and shall he not do 
 it ? or hath he spoken, and shall he not 
 make it good ?" 1 Was God too merciful to 
 drown the old world? or to burn Sodom 
 and Gomorrah ? or to destroy Tyre, Baby- 
 lon, Nineveh, and even his beloved city 
 Jerusalem ? Are not the Jews, scattered 
 and peeled as they are, living monuments 
 
 1 Numb, xxiii. 19. 
 
IN DANGER. 27 
 
 in all nations, that God is just and righte- 
 ous in fulfilling his threatenings on the dis- 
 obedient? Is he too merciful to allow 
 temporal death to continue its ravages 
 among men ? Is not generation after gene- 
 ration regularly swept off, according to the 
 sentence passed six thousand years ago, 
 " Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou 
 return ?" l Then, who art thou, who, hav- 
 ing dared to sin against God times without 
 number, now expectest the law of his king- 
 dom to be set aside, to the dishonour of 
 his name, authority, and word, under the 
 plea that he is too merciful to punish? 
 True, he is merciful ! But such mercy as 
 many hope for, would be but another name 
 for weakness. What think you of a king 
 too good-natured ever to punish an offen- 
 der? Would he not be a royal promoter 
 of offences, a patron of thieves and mur- 
 derers ? Oh, rest not on that idle plea of 
 a weak mercy in God, too soft to punish. 
 It will not serve. 
 
 Then, what will you do ? "I will make 
 
 1 Gen. Ui. 19. 
 
 
28 THE SOUL 
 
 up for my offences: I will reform myself: 
 so will I blot out my sins." Poor soul, thou 
 art talking of impossibilities. There is not 
 one of those things which thou canst do. 
 Go, move a mountain, fill up the ocean, 
 pull down the stars from their spheres : — 
 all will be as easy as what thou proposest 
 for thyself. Thou canst not make up for 
 thy offences. Thou canst not form thyself 
 anew. Neither thy tears nor thy blood 
 could blot out thy sins. Even if thou never 
 sinnest again, in word, thought, or deed, 
 it is thy duty that thou doest, and no more. 
 It cannot make up for thy past sins. To 
 pay the debt of to-day, does not pay the 
 debt contracted yesterday. Would your 
 debtor satisfy you, if he came and said, 
 " I am sorry that I contracted that debt, I 
 will add to it no more ?" And is not the jus- 
 tice of God as high and sacred a thing, as 
 equity between man and man ? 
 
 Have you yet other pleas ? Let me per- 
 suade you to drop all, and look to the one 
 only plea proposed by God himself. For 
 
IN DANGER. 29 
 
 while you are looking to vain confidences, 
 your soul's danger continues unabated, yea, 
 it increases every moment. Every breath 
 you draw brings temporal death nearer. 
 And as death finds, so will judgment and 
 eternity. 
 
 Brethren, I have hesitated whether I 
 ought not to leave the matter there. Hav- 
 ing shown yours to be the soul which has 
 been, or now is, the soul in danger, I have 
 doubted whether I ought, in this sermon, to 
 show you the way of escape. But I can- 
 not, I must not omit it. It is true, we shall 
 come in the next lecture to consider the 
 soul repenting, and then the soul believing ; 
 but you need not be bound by the order of 
 this course of sermons. You cannot safely 
 delay the matter a $£ngle week. I must 
 not be fettered with the law of critics, who 
 would tell me that the gospel is not in my 
 text. Then it ought to be in the sermon. 
 If not in my text, it is in my Bible, and it 
 ought to be sounded in your ears, and 
 received into your hearts. That gospel you 
 d3 
 
30 THE SOUL 
 
 shall find more at large in the subsequent 
 lectures. But at present I declare thus 
 much. My text says, " The soul that sin- 
 neth it shall die" Jesus Christ said, "Who- 
 soever liveth and believeth in me shall 
 never die." ! He was the eternal Son of 
 God, and yet from pity to lost sinners,, 
 he took on him a human soul and body. 
 He kept that soul, as he received it, with- 
 out spot or taint of sin, original or actual. 
 He preserved that body a holy temple, ever 
 undefiled. He was pure in heart, holy in 
 life, a lamb without blemish and without 
 spot. And yet he was crucified : on the 
 ignominious cross he endured agony of 
 body and of mind, and made his soul an 
 offering for sin. 2 His divine origin gave 
 a divine and infinite worth to such a life 
 crowned with such a death. All was " for 
 us men and for our salvation." 3 And now, 
 for his sake, through faith in his name, 
 without works, yea, notwithstanding all 
 your evil works, your soul may be freely 
 forgiven, graciously accepted, fully justified 
 
 1 John xi. 26. 2 Isaiah liii. 10. 3 Nicene Creed. 
 
IN DANGER. 31 
 
 before God. And thus yours may cease to 
 be the soul in danger. 
 
 But there must be that faith, in simple, 
 lively exercise. It is not the Christian 
 name, baptism, or profession ; it is not a 
 notion of doctrine or a lip-service ; it is only 
 Jesus Christ, believed on with the heart, 
 that can save your soul from that tremen- 
 dous danger. To neglect Christ will be to 
 neglect salvation. To refuse to believe in 
 Christ will be to add to all your other sins 
 the terrible sin of rejecting God's only 
 method for saving thee ; it is to dash away 
 the cup, which contains the only balm that 
 can heal the soul. Have ye not read, " He 
 that believeth and is baptized shall be 
 saved; but he that believeth not shall be 
 
 damned?" 1 
 
 And do you find believing in Christ diffi- 
 cult ? Ask God, and he will make it easy. 
 Is the heart too hard and stubborn to yield ? 
 Put it into God's hand, and entreat him to 
 make it soft and pliant. But do not trifle 
 with this solemn subject. Do not sport on 
 
 l Mark xvi. 16. 
 
32 THE SOUL 
 
 the margin of a precipice, at the foot of 
 which a lake of fire rolls waves of fury. 
 Think not the preacher severe, who has 
 faithfully pointed out your danger. He 
 would be well content to bear your momen- 
 tary displeasure, if he may but be an in- 
 strument to save your soul. Oh, let not 
 the impression of this sermon die from 
 your memory, before you have gone hum- 
 bly on your knees before God, and con- 
 fessed the sin and guilt with which your 
 conscience now stands charged. Then hum- 
 bly seek reconciliation with God, through 
 the atoning blood and righteousness of his 
 Son, Jesus Christ. Have you so gone long 
 ago ? Then go again ; renew your humi- 
 liation, again express faith, realize new joy 
 and peace in believing. 
 
 Does one still cavil and object ? Let 
 others exhort and pray for that soul in dan- 
 ger. Does that soul still linger ? Oh, be 
 as the good angels to Lot, to lay hold upon 
 his hand, and hasten him out of Sodom. 
 Flee, sinner, for thy life ! Holy Spirit, 
 convince that soul of sin ! Redeemer of 
 
IN DANGER. 33 
 
 the world, have mercy upon that misera- 
 ble sinner! Father of mercies, have pity 
 upon every one of us, thy once prodigal 
 and rebellious children ! Save thou the 
 soul in danger ! 
 
SERMON II. 
 
 THE SOUL REPENTING 
 
 JOB XLII. 5, 6. 
 
 / have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear : but now 
 mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself and 
 repent in dust and ashes. 
 
 Such was of old the language of a soul 
 repenting. And this, you remember, was 
 proposed as the second point of observa- 
 tion in which we would contemplate the 
 soul. In the Introductory Lecture I had 
 to show the soul in danger, both by na- 
 ture and practice. You have now had a 
 brief interval for reflection, self-examina- 
 tion, prayer, and the study of your Bible. 
 Have you mastered the former subject, 
 learned well the humbling lesson, become 
 
THE SOUL REPENTING. 35 
 
 thoroughly convinced that yours has been 
 the soul in danger ? 
 
 Then, be not discouraged. To take one 
 step well in religion paves the way for a 
 second, and that for a third ; and every 
 advancing step is a step farther from dan- 
 ger, and nearer to heaven. Be not afraid 
 of our present topic. Its title, The soul 
 repenting, may wear a forbidding aspect ; 
 but, enter cordially and experimentally into 
 its meaning, and, I think, you will find that 
 there is a sweetness in true repentance, a 
 pleasure in godly sorrow, a far purer satis- 
 faction in weeping for sin, than ever was 
 found in committing it. 
 
 But, in order to enter aright into such 
 a subject, we must have the grace of God 
 the Holy Spirit in our hearts. It was easy 
 enough, without him, to have the soul in 
 danger. It is impossible, without him, to 
 have the soul repenting. Pray, then, for 
 his grace. I pause, that every one may waft 
 an ejaculation to the throne of grace, for 
 the effectual blessing and inward presence 
 of the Lord and Giver of spiritual life. 
 
36 THE SOUL 
 
 In describing the soul repenting, I would 
 follow the order suggested by our text. 
 " I have heard of thee by the hearing of 
 the ear : " — that describes many a soul which 
 has not yet exercised a repenting spirit. 
 " But now mine eye seeth thee : " — there is 
 the humbling view which alone produces 
 true repentance. " Wherefore I abhor my- 
 self, and repent in dust and ashes : " — there 
 is the soul in the full exercise of repent- 
 ance, loathing itself with the deepest self- 
 abasement. 
 
 " I have heard of thee by the hearing of 
 the ear : " — that describes many a soul while 
 a stranger to true repentance. Job had 
 heard of God long before. We know in- 
 deed but little of his early history. The 
 very time at which he lived is matter of 
 uncertainty. There is every reason to 
 think that he lived before Moses, in the 
 patriarchal times. His own history and 
 character furnish abundant proofs, that he 
 must have heard much and often of God 
 by the hearing of the ear. We find that 
 he feared God, and eschewed evil ; that 
 
REPENTING. 37 
 
 he offered burnt-offerings ; that he acknow- 
 ledged God as the sovereign Lord, who 
 gives and takes away at his pleasure. We 
 find him knowing that his Redeemer liveth, 
 and expressing a firm belief in his glorious 
 advent, and in the resurrection of the body. 
 We observe him tracing the dealings of 
 Divine Providence, and attempting, though 
 the subject was too wonderful for him, to 
 fathom the counsels of the Most High. In 
 order to all this, he must have heard much 
 of God by the hearing of the ear. Possibly, 
 from parents in early life he heard the 
 sacred traditions respecting God, which were 
 religiously handed down among the old 
 fathers of mankind. Certainly, in confer- 
 ence with friends, from Eliphaz the Teman- 
 ite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the 
 Naamathite, he had again heard much. 
 Whatever were the means of hearing of 
 God by the ear, as at that time possessed 
 by the church of God, Job, there is reason 
 to think, had enjoyed and used them all. 
 And yet all this had been insufficient. 
 Though eminent for patience, he had fallen 
 
 £ 
 
38 THE SOUL 
 
 into impatience. Though a believer in the 
 Redeemer, he had given way to unbelief. 
 Though one that feared God, and eschewed 
 evil, yet, unable to bear up against strong 
 temptation, he had cursed the day of his 
 birth, complained of life, refused to confess 
 sin, made a vain-glorious boast of his in- 
 tegrity, and impeached the goodness and 
 justice of God in allowing him to suffer. 
 This was his state ; and then his soul, what- 
 ever it had once been, was anew the soul 
 in danger. 
 
 Brethren, there is no encouragement for 
 us to continue in sin, because of the falls 
 of good men. If David falls, he must begin 
 afresh, repent anew, cry, like a poor sinner 
 who had never repented before, " Have 
 mercy upon me, O God, according to thy 
 lovingkindness ; according unto the mul- 
 titude of thy tender mercies, blot out my 
 transgressions." l " Create in me a clean 
 heart, O God, and renew a right spirit 
 within me." 2 If Peter falls, he is not to 
 presume, " Oh, I have been a believer, I can- 
 
 lPsa.lL!, 2p sa . H. 10. 
 
REPENTING. 39 
 
 not finally fall away :" — he must go out and 
 weep bitterly. If Job falls, his former hear- 
 ing, profession, knowledge, are as nothing ; 
 he must begin again, he must learn to 
 abhor himself, and repent in dust and ashes. 
 1 urge this with earnestness. The doc- 
 trines of grace, which are the very glory 
 of the gospel, must not be perverted into 
 encouragements to licentiousness. Mis- 
 takes on this point are not uncommon. 
 There are some who say to themselves, 
 " Oh, I have heard of God, I know the 
 plan of salvation, I have correct views of 
 divine truth, I have heard the most eminent 
 ministers : surely I am not a babe in Christ : 
 no need for me to be laying again the foun- 
 dation of repentance from dead works." 
 But if your knowledge and hearing, with 
 your profession and attainments, have not 
 kept you from returning to sin, you have 
 heed to repent, quite as much as, perhaps 
 more than, that poor sinner, who, for the first 
 time, is smiting upon his breast and crying, 
 " God, be merciful to me a sinner !" l 
 
 1 Luke xviii. 13. 
 
'40 THE SOUL 
 
 To all who would repent aright, I must 
 say, It is not enough to have heard of God 
 by the hearing of the ear. It is good, I 
 grant, to have heard of him at all. We 
 know that " faith cometh by hearing, and 
 hearing by the Word of God." l We know 
 that what the ear hears, may, through 
 God's blessing, enlighten the mind, affect 
 the conscience, penetrate the heart. Yet 
 the mere hearing with the ear, in a vague, 
 general way, is utterly insufficient. Yet 
 how much is this the hearing given to the 
 truth of God by many professed Christians ! 
 How long it was the case with some of us ! 
 You heard something of God in early life. 
 Much as religious education was neglected 
 in our youth, much as it is still neglected 
 by many parents, you all, I suppose, heard 
 something of God by education in child- 
 hood. Yet how slight was the impression 
 upon many of our minds ! What we heard 
 with one ear escaped as at the other. Re- 
 ligion was an irksome subject. The Bible 
 was thought a task-book. Prayer was 
 
 l Rom. x. 17. 
 
REPENTING. 41 
 
 either hurried oveT as a form, or, through 
 sloth, indifference, or false shame, frequently 
 omitted. We went to church, but paid no 
 attention : we trifled, we gazed, we slept, 
 we roved in imagination to the ends of the 
 earth. We never seriously attempted to 
 reduce to practice one thing that we heard 
 from the Word of God. It might not be so 
 with all. I am sure it was so with many. 
 Does not many a conscience whisper, It was 
 so with me ! 
 
 You heard also of God in other ways, 
 in the days of your impenitence and igno- 
 rance. I am not supposing you to have 
 lived among heathens, although, even there, 
 God has not left himself without witness. 1 
 You lived among nominal Christians, you 
 had access to Christian books, you had the 
 outward means of grace ; in many ways, in 
 public and in private, you may have heard 
 much of God by the hearing of the ear. 
 Grievously as God is forgotten in the world, 
 much as many called Christians are ashamed 
 of Jesus Christ, especially of his cross and 
 
 l Acts xiv. 17. 
 e 3 
 
42 THE SOUL 
 
 of all the peculiar doctrines of his gospel, 
 yet I am not obliged to suppose, that 
 worldly-minded persons never hear any 
 thing of God by the hearing of the ear. 
 On the contrary, they may hear much. 
 They may come to our churches, and hear 
 lesson after lesson out of God's Word ; l 
 they may hear ministers set forth the cha- 
 racter of God as revealed in Scripture : 
 they may go farther ; they may gain a cor- 
 rect theoretic knowledge of the only plan 
 of salvation, so as to be able to talk of it 
 fluently, and to argue for it vehemently : 
 — and yet, they may have never felt the 
 power of the divine word, been humbled by 
 it in heart, been brought to repent truly 
 before God. Religion may be with them 
 the business of the ear which hears, and of 
 the tongue which talks, — not yet of the 
 
 1 It is worthy of remark, how much of Scripture is circulated 
 by our church every Sunday to the hearing of the ear, throughout 
 our land, and in distant parts of the world. In the Morning 
 Service alone, the introductory sentences, the Lord's Prayer, 
 Psalm xcv., the two or three psalms of the day, the two Lessons, 
 Psalm c, or the Benedictus, the Epistle and Gospel, the Ten 
 Commandments, and the preacher's text, are all pure Scripture! 
 How great the responsibility of those who hear ! 
 
REPENTING. 43 
 
 heart which feels, and of the soul which 
 falls prostrate in self-abasement before the 
 God who gave it. 
 
 My brethren, examine your own selves. 
 Let each think, Has all my religion and my 
 knowledge of God been but the hearing of 
 the ear ? Have I, like the Samaritans, been 
 worshipping I know not what ? like the 
 Athenians, been building an altar to the 
 unknown God? Have I talked of re- 
 pentance, yet never repented ? of faith, 
 yet never believed ? of good works, yet 
 never performed one work from the only 
 motives which God approves as good ? If 
 so, surely something, yea, much more is 
 still needful to my soul ! 
 
 May God show us this, while we con- 
 sider, Secondly, the view of God which 
 produces true repentance. "But now mine 
 eye seeth thee.' 9 Job cannot here mean 
 that his bodily eye saw God. " No man 
 hath seen God at any time." l He must 
 then mean, that, with the eye of his sou], 
 he had now gained such a view of God and 
 
 1 John i. 18. 
 
44 THE SOUL 
 
 his perfections, as had humbled his soul 
 into genuine repentance. 
 
 After Job had been hearing of God 
 with the ear from his three friends, God 
 himself, we are told, answered Job out 
 of the whirlwind, and charged him with 
 ignorance and imbecility. God tells him 
 of the wonders of creation, and the mys- 
 teries of providence, leaving him to infer 
 his greater ignorance of the system of 
 God's moral government, and the mys- 
 teries of grace. God plainly charged him 
 with pride of intellect, and with an attempt 
 to intrude his petty reason into the peculiar 
 province of the Deity. " Shall he that 
 contendeth with the Almighty instruct him ? 
 he that reproveth God, let him answer it." \ 
 Job felt the Divine rebuke, and answered 
 in that memorable confession, " Behold, I 
 am vile !" 2 
 
 Then, as if the humbling impression were 
 not yet deep enough, God follows up his 
 expostulation, and, with close appeals to 
 Job's conscience, sets before him the Divine 
 
 IJobxl. 2. 2j bxl. 4. 
 
REPENTING. 45 
 
 righteousness, power, majesty, and wisdom. 
 He charges him with inability to justify or 
 save himself: which if he thinks that he 
 can do, God bids him to undertake the 
 moral government of the world. 1 He sends 
 him at last to learn the power and wisdom 
 of his Maker, from the hippopotamus and 
 the crocodile. 2 But here, it seems, Job 
 could contain himself no longer. Such a 
 view of the Divine majesty and glory filled 
 his mind, that he was ashamed of the bab- 
 blings of his ignorance, and confounded at 
 his presumption : he confesses the pride of 
 his objections ; he acknowledges guilt ; he 
 owns the omnipotence and omniscience of 
 God. " I know that thou canst do every 
 thing, and that no thought can be with- 
 holden from thee. Who is he that hideth 
 counsel without knowledge ? therefore have 
 I uttered that I understood not ; things too 
 wonderful for me, which I knew not." 3 
 Then mark how he supplicates : " Hear, 
 I beseech thee, and I will speak : I will 
 demand of thee, and declare thou unto me." 
 
 » Job xl. 6—14. 2 Job x i. 15, to end of xli. 3 J b xlii. 2, 3. 
 
46 THE SOUL 
 
 And then follows the penitential confession 
 of our text : " I have heard of thee by the 
 hearing of the ear; but now mine eye seetl' 
 thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repem 
 in dust and ashes." 
 
 It was thus, my brethren, that Job's sou 
 was led to repent. And so only can your 
 or mine be led. It is God speaking to u 
 by his Word and Spirit ; it is God revealing 
 himself in his glorious perfections ; it is, 
 under our dispensation, the souPs view of 
 God, as seen and known in Jesus Christ : — 
 this is what produces true repentance. How 
 striking our Lord's words," He that seeth me, 
 seeth him that sent me." 1 And Oh, my Chris- 
 tian hearers, if the view of God, as seen in 
 creation, so humbled Job; if the view of God, 
 as binding the sweet influences of Pleiades, 
 loosing the bands of Orion, bringing forth 
 Mazzaroth in his season, and guiding Arc- 
 turus with his sons, so amazed Job ; if he 
 learned the wisdom, goodness, and power of 
 God, from the wild beast of the field and the 
 fowl of the air : if the war-horse, pawing 
 
 1 John xii. 45. 
 
REPENTING. 47 
 
 the ground and smelling the battle afar off; 
 if behemoth and leviathan served to teach 
 him such humbling lessons ; — what say we 
 to the view of God, presented to ourselves, 
 amid the full blaze of the gospel dispen- 
 sation ? 
 
 Mark his omniscience. God knew the 
 secrets of all hearts, the wants of every 
 soul, the full requirements of the law, the 
 utter insufficiency of man to save himself, 
 when he gave Jesus Christ to be the Savi- 
 our of as many as, through grace, will be 
 saved through Him. Infinite wisdom is 
 displayed in every provision of the gospel, 
 which is evidently designed for a creature 
 fallen, sinful, guilty, helpless, and lost. It 
 provides fully for the glory of every attri- 
 bute of God, and also for every want of the 
 soul of man. 
 
 Next mark the holiness of God as seen 
 in Jesus Christ. It beams forth in many 
 rays from that Sun of Righteousness. How 
 infinitely holy was God, that no other way 
 of access could be righteously opened for 
 sinners to himself, but through his only- 
 
48 THE SOUL 
 
 begotten and well-beloved Son becoming 
 a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief; 
 and, at length, as man, suffering, wounded, 
 bruised, and even dying upon the cross for 
 our transgressions and iniquities ! Surely, 
 on that cross, the holiness of God is stamped 
 in characters of blood. Often in spirit 
 approach that cross, my fellow-sinners. 
 When disposed to treat sin with levity, 
 draw near by faith to that cross, reeking 
 with sacred blood, and read there, and 
 reflect, how evil a thing is sin ! how holy is 
 God! 
 
 You see again the holiness of God in the 
 personal character of Jesus Christ. He is 
 the model of human perfection. He knew 
 no sin. He was pure in heart and life. It 
 was his meat and drink to do his Father's 
 will. He loved God with all his heart and 
 soul, and his neighbour as himself. Attempts 
 have, at various times, been made to fix on 
 him some charge of sin; but all have failed, 
 and have only served to manifest more 
 clearly his sinless holiness. Although more 
 than eighteen centuries have passed since 
 
REPENTING. 49 
 
 his birth, and although his character has 
 been sifted and scrutinized, as that of no 
 other man ever was, by Pharisees and Sad- 
 ducees, by philosophers and sages, by infi- 
 dels and atheists, by sects and parties, by 
 friends and foes, yet, unto this day, no 
 charge of sin was ever yet proved against 
 him. His character stands alone among men. 
 There is none equal or second thereto. All 
 other men must stand afar off, and gaze 
 with admiration, yea, rather, they must 
 abase themselves at the contrast, and cry, 
 How glorious is God ! how vile is man ! 
 
 And do you not see the holiness of God 
 in this also, that while the gospel of Christ 
 offers you a full and free pardon, and an 
 entire justification, yet it tells every soul 
 among you, This is not, that you may con- 
 tinue in sin ? God forbid ! In order to this, 
 you must be born again. You must have 
 a new heart, a new spirit, a new life. " With- 
 out holiness no man shall see the Lord." l 
 But in acquiring this, God offers you through 
 Christ the grace and strength of the Holy 
 
 1 Heb. xii. 14. 
 F 
 
50 THE SOUL 
 
 Spirit,, to encourage, sustain, and effectually 
 enable. 
 
 Thus no man can gain a right view of 
 God, as he proposes himself in the gospel, 
 without having the thought continually 
 pressed upon his soul, " God is infinitely 
 holy, but I am altogether unholy." 
 
 Further, the omnipotence of God, which 
 Job was instructed to discover in natural 
 creation, we may see yet more distinctly in 
 the manifestations of the gospel. What but 
 omnipotence can break the hard heart, and 
 turn the lion into a lamb ? What but that 
 can lead you, so weak a creature, through 
 hosts of spiritual foes, conquering and to 
 conquer ? What inferior power could have 
 originally established the church of Christ 
 amid such fierce opposition ? What else 
 has preserved it till this day, so that the 
 gates of hell have never yet prevailed against 
 it ? In every accession to that church, by 
 the true conversion to God of another sin- 
 ner, there is a fresh manifestation of the 
 almighty power of God. Man loves sin so 
 dearly, hates holiness so heartily, and is so 
 
REPENTING. 5 1 
 
 4 
 
 chained down to the world and vanity, that 
 Omnipotence alone can effectually turn 
 him to God, and holiness, and truth. " We 
 are his workmanship, created in Christ 
 Jesus, unto good works." * 
 
 What a delightful view, also, of the good- 
 ness, mercy, and compassion of God have we 
 exhibited in the gospel of Jesus Christ ! 
 Job was sent to learn something of the 
 beauty and glory of God, from the peacock 
 spreading his rainbow wings to the sun. 
 You may learn the same lesson far better, 
 in the mild lustre, the holy beauty, the 
 lovely harmony of the divine perfections, 
 as seen in Him, who is the brightness of. 
 his Father's glory, and the express image 
 of his person. 2 I said indeed, and I retract 
 not the assertion, that the eye of faith may 
 read, "God is infinitely holy /" in the cross 
 of Christ ; yet sure I am, that the eye of 
 gratitude may read, if tears permit, " God is 
 love!" as that sentiment shines forth, in 
 characters of grace, from the same cross. 
 Was it not love, — Christians, let me appeal 
 
 1 Eph. ii. 10. 2 Heb. i. 3. 
 
52 THE SOUL 
 
 to your best feelings, — was it not pity, 
 mercy, love unparalleled, for God, against 
 whom you had so sinned, to give his well- 
 beloved Son to suffer, bleed, and die, for 
 such as you, the just for the unjust, the sin- 
 less for the sinful, the pure, holy, obedient 
 child Jesus, for the impure, polluted, dis- 
 obedient rebel ? 
 
 And now reflect, my brethren, on even 
 the poor view of God now presented, — a 
 view so poor, that I am ashamed of it, and 
 fear lest I may have depreciated what I 
 honestly wisja to magnify : — but my comfort 
 is, that it is God himself, blessing my feeble 
 words, and so magnifying himself in the 
 weakness of the instrument employed, who 
 is to give you right views of himself. Think 
 then, and pray while you think, of God 
 in Christ Jesus, as omniscient, most holy, 
 almighty, and all-gracious. Be«not satisfied 
 to hear this with the hearing of the ear, but 
 let the soul's eye see it. Then reflect, This, 
 mv soul, is the God with whom thou hast 
 to do ! This is He, against whom thou hast 
 sinned ! This is He, whose wisdom thou 
 
REPENTING. 53 
 
 hast impeached by thy proud reasonings ; 
 whose holiness thou hast insulted by impure 
 thoughts, corrupt desires, filthy conversa- 
 tion ; this is He, whose power thou hast 
 defied by daring his vengeance ; this is He, 
 — and Oh, my brethren, this to my mind is 
 the most affecting of all considerations — 
 whose love and goodness thou hast grieved, 
 by refusing his grace, and disobeying his 
 paternal will ! 
 
 Brethren, do you see the God, with 
 whom every one of your souls must have a 
 solemn meeting ? Oh, do not hide your- 
 selves from him ! It will not do. Every 
 soul amongst you must go before the Being, 
 whom I have imperfectly described; and 
 then and there every soul must answer for 
 all the sin and rebellion of this present life. 
 And now, God's eye is fixed upon your soul : 
 — not, I believe, in anger ; though it well 
 might be ; — but rather, with a father's pity 
 and anxiety : — that look pleads, O sinner, 
 with thy soul : God speaks to thy heart by 
 that penetrating glance : — " Is my charac- 
 ter such as to deserve thy unkind thoughts 
 
 F 3 
 
54 THE SOUL 
 
 and rebellious treatment ? what have I done 
 unto thee, and wherein have I wearied 
 thee ? testify against me. 1 Is there nothing 
 in me to attract thy admiration, and pro- 
 duce compunction ? Is the heart too hard 
 to yield to the call of such a Father ? Why 
 wilt thou die ? why not repent ? why not 
 believe in Christ and be saved ? must I and 
 thou be separated for eternity through thy 
 folly and perverseness ?" 
 
 My friends, ye ought now to be ready 
 for our Third part. " Wherefore I abhor 
 myself, and repent in dust and ashes" There 
 is the soul brought, in the full exercise of 
 genuine repentance, to loathe itself before 
 God. I know, brethren, how very hum- 
 bling is that language. I am aware that 
 young Christians sometimes honestly con- 
 fess, that they cannot use such language 
 regarding themselves. I am sensible that 
 worldly people would think the man a 
 fanatic, who should say that he abhorred 
 himself. But when I consider who God is, 
 against whom you and I have dared to sim 
 
 1 Mic. vi. 3. 
 
REPENTING. 55 
 
 times without number ; I am sure that no 
 language can be too strong, to describe how 
 we ought to look upon ourselves before 
 him. Job said once, " Behold, I am vile ! " 
 and here again, " I abhor myself." Isaiah 
 used similar language, " Woe is me, for I 
 am undone ; because I am a man of unclean 
 lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of 
 unclean lips ; for mine eyes have seen the 
 King, the Lord of hosts ;" '—where you 
 observe a like cause, the soul's vision of 
 God in his glory, produce a like effect, the 
 deepest humiliation. Again, mark God's 
 own description, in Ezekiel, of the effects of 
 true repentance : " Then shall ye remem- 
 ber your own evil ways, and your doings 
 that were not good, and shall loathe your- 
 selves in your own sight for your iniquities 
 and for your abominations." 2 The Psalms 
 also, as you remember, abound with the 
 most humiliating expressions of self-abhor- 
 rence for sin. Daniel's language corres- 
 ponds, "O Lord, righteousness belongeth 
 
 1 Isaiah vi. 5. 2 Ezek. xxxvi. 31. See also xx. 43, 
 and vi. 9. 
 
 
56 THE SOUL 
 
 unto thee, but unto us confusion of face, 
 because we have sinned against thee.'' 1 
 St. Paul likewise calls himself " the chief of 
 sinners." 2 
 
 Such, brethren, were the expressions of 
 humiliation, made by men, some of whom 
 we often speak of as among the holiest 
 and best of men. They spake of them- 
 selves as the worst. And they really meant 
 what they said : such was their view of 
 God, such their knowledge of themselves. 
 What then are we 9 Have we no cause to 
 abhor ourselves, to marvel at our pride, to 
 stand amazed at our own image, as reflected 
 in the faithful mirror of God's Word ? 
 There ! — God says to us, having first shown 
 his own glorious character to our souls, — 
 There ! turn and see that creature-spirit, 
 full of pride, perverseness, enmity, unclean- 
 ness ! mark, how deeply it has revolted 
 from its proper Lord, how thoroughly it is 
 polluted, how presumptuous, how deceitful, 
 how desperately wicked is that soul ! what 
 a sinful creature, how laden with iniquity, 
 
 1 Dan. ix. 7,8. 2 1 Tim. i. 15. 
 
REPENTING. 57 
 
 liow prone to corrupt others ! — and whose 
 is that soul ? Thy own, as God found it ! 
 that was thy true character ! See thyself, 
 as God sees thee, and learn to say with Job, 
 " I abhor myself." 
 
 Is that language still too humbling ? 
 Why ! you abhor ingratitude : — your own 
 soul has been very ungrateful to God. You 
 abhor treachery : — you have betrayed the 
 charge intrusted to your care, you have 
 betrayed the interests of God, you have 
 acted un unfaithful part. You abhor false- 
 hood : — yet, have you never professed to 
 know God, yet in works denied him ? You 
 abhor a viper, and would start with horror 
 if you saw one in your path : — yet you have 
 cherished the viper, sin, in your own bosom. 
 You abhor the sight, and almost the very 
 mention of death : — and yet you seem to 
 have loved death rather than life by indulg- 
 ing sin. Oh, what is there which is ab- 
 horred among men, which we may not 
 individually find in what has been the 
 temper, spirit, character of our own sinful 
 soul? 
 
 
58 . THE SOUL 
 
 " And I repent" said Job, "" in dust and 
 ashes" This was at that time the mode of 
 expressing the deepest penitence. Outward 
 forms and modes of expression change ; — 
 the inward principle is universally the same. 
 It is not to the sackcloth on the loins, or 
 the dust and ashes on the head, that God 
 so looks, as to the broken and contrite 
 heart. Having this, you will be neither 
 proud in manner nor arrogant in speech. 
 And if you have it not, then, no outward 
 signs, no sorrowing looks, no tears, no 
 mourning weeds, no dust and ashes, no 
 humble speeches can prove you penitents 
 indeed. How anxiously do I now ask, 
 Have you the broken heart ? is yours the 
 contrite spirit ? Yours was the soul in 
 danger : is yours the soul repenting ? 
 
 Does some soul inwardly answer, " Mine 
 is not ! my soul does not repent : I abhor 
 not myself : this discourse has carried the 
 matter too far ? " Sinner, go, search the 
 Word of God, and see whether these things 
 are so. Find out for thyself the character 
 of God as revealed by himself in the Bible. 
 
REPENTING. 59 
 
 Search also into thyself. Ask conscience 
 to tell thee thy own character. Pray for 
 the Holy Spirit to show thee God as He 
 is in himself, and man as he is in thyself. 
 Compare and contrast these two beings 
 together, and ask, Are they at all alike ? 
 have they any moral resemblance to each 
 other ? how then can they have communion 
 together throughout eternity ? Sinner, when 
 thou hast thus discovered something of 
 the opposite characters of God and man, 
 and art humbled at the discovery, I tell 
 thee of Him, who was both God and 
 man; who had all the perfections of Deity, 
 and took on him all those of humanitv, 
 and came on earth, and lived and died as 
 man, to reconcile thee to God. For his 
 sake, and through faith in his name, thou 
 mayst be freely justified. Then, love to 
 him will sway thy heart. Thou wilt then 
 long to be like him. His Spirit, who has 
 created thee anew, will be thy gracious 
 guide, comforter, and sanctifier. Sinner, 
 wilt thou now repent and abhor thyself? 
 Will not that be better than to reproach 
 
60 
 
 THE SOUL 
 
 thyself with wailing and gnashing of teeth 
 in hell ? Sinner, many of us mean to pray 
 for thee this evening. May God soften thy 
 hard heart, and give thee repentance unto 
 life ! 
 
 Penitents, humbled and abased in heart, 
 let me speak to you a word of comfort 
 What I said in my former lecture I repeat 
 now. You are not bound by the order of 
 this course of sermons. You need not wait 
 for the next lecture, before you allow the 
 soul repenting to become the soul believing. 
 Faith in Jesus Christ as your Saviour will 
 improve and deepen, and not spoil or lessen 
 your repentance. Take then that sorrow- 
 ing soul to him, all pierced and broken, all 
 bruised and bleeding as it is. He will not 
 cast it out. He never did, he never will 
 cast out any soul that would come unto 
 God by him. "A bruised reed shall he 
 not break, and smoking flax shall he not 
 quench." * Let the same Holy Spirit, who 
 has so convinced you of sin, fulfil his 
 other offices of leading you to Jesus, 
 
 1 Matt. xii. 20. 
 
REPENTING. 61 
 
 making you truly his, comforting the heart, 
 which his grace has broken. Say not, 
 Shall I go back to God ? but, " I will arise, 
 and go to my father!" 1 With a soul in 
 such danger, with such a God and Father, 
 such a Saviour, so great a salvation offered, 
 I cannot hesitate, I must, I will go : I will 
 take with me words : I will say in secret 
 to him who seeth in secret, Great and 
 glorious God, pity a vile sinner ! Lo ! I 
 bring thee a perverse heart, I lay before 
 thee a gift which I myself abhor : yet look 
 upon this loathsome thing ; have compas- 
 sion upon this guilty soul! Father, take 
 it : Jesus, present it : cleanse it first in thy 
 own blood, create it anew by thy Spirit, 
 transform it, chasten it, do with it what thou 
 wilt, only pity, pardon, save my poor soul ! 
 
 Godly mourners, who have sorrowed for 
 sin long ago, you hardly need to be re- 
 minded, that your repentance should be- 
 come more deep and solid, more affectionate 
 and hearty, as you grow in grace, and gain 
 better views of God. Repentance begins 
 
 l Luke xv. 18. 
 G 
 
62 THE SOUL REPENTING. 
 
 before saving faith, yet is improved and 
 
 deepened after it, and by it. Let us go, 
 
 and in secret humble ourselves before God, 
 
 thankfully acknowledging repentance as a 
 
 gift, and earnestly praying for grace that we 
 
 may bring forth fruits meet for repentance. 
 
 Brethren, there is joy in heaven over 
 
 one sinner that repenteth. Has there 
 
 been, shall there be, joy over you ? When 
 
 angels pause upon their golden harps, to 
 
 make silence for music sweeter than their 
 
 own, it is when the sorrowful sighing of 
 
 a soul repenting ascends to the ear of 
 
 God, through the mediation of Christ. 
 
 Have you given them that joy ? When 
 
 Jesus, surrounded as he is with praises, 
 
 and glorious in happiness, feels a new 
 
 satisfaction thrill his sacred bosom, it is 
 
 when he again sees of the travail of his 
 
 soul, in another sinful soul repenting at 
 
 the view of God, presented in his cross. 
 
 Has he that satisfaction in you ? Is yours, 
 
 is mine, is every soul I am addressing, the 
 
 soul repenting F I leave that question on 
 
 your conscience. 
 
SERMON III. 
 
 THE SOUL BELIEVING 
 
 ROMANS X. 10. 
 
 With the heart man believeth unto righteousness. 
 
 We come this evening to a most im- 
 portant point in our brief history of a saved 
 soul : — to a point so important, that I ap- 
 proach it with trembling, on account of 
 the responsibility in which it will involve 
 both preacher and hearers. We have 
 traced how the soul in danger becomes the 
 soul repenting. We have now to consider 
 the soul believing. And this is the cardinal 
 point of the whole series. Without an 
 experimental understanding of our present 
 
64 THE SOUL 
 
 subject, no soul amongst you can be saved. 
 Need I, then, claim your attention ? May 
 I not beg your prayers ? May the God of 
 all grace be pleased to make his word, how- 
 ever feebly spoken at this time, the instru- 
 ment of giving and confirming the faith 
 which saves the soul ! Let us consider, 
 
 I. The righteousness required. 
 
 II. The heart receiving and appropriating 
 that righteousness by faith. Consider, 
 
 I. The righteousness required. And 
 here observe carefully, that the point of 
 inquiry is not what is the righteousness 
 required by the decencies of society, the 
 opinion of the world, or the self-compla- 
 cency of a man's own heart ; but the question 
 is, What will satisfy God ? What righteous- 
 ness is absolutely necessary in order to 
 justification before God ? 
 
 You have heard, in our first lecture, that 
 man is very far gone from original righteous- 
 ness, and that your actual sins of word, 
 thought, and deed, have been personal 
 transgressions of God's holy will. You have 
 also heard that the " wages of sin is death ;'' 
 
BELIEVING. 65 
 
 " the soul that sinneth it shall die." The 
 soul, thus separated from God by original 
 and actual sin, is already dead in trespasses 
 and sins. Every day also brings natural 
 death nearer. And then, the soul, so long 
 and so far separate from God, approaches 
 him but for judgment, and after judgment 
 to be driven from his presence into per- 
 petual exile. This is eternal death. But 
 how shall we escape ? what is requisite in 
 order to our acquittal in that day 1 Righte- 
 ousness is needed ! and that, not a partial 
 or imperfect thing, but a righteousness com- 
 plete in all its parts, full, perfect, and en- 
 tire, without a particle of obedience wanting, 
 without one spot, taint, or blemish, to mar 
 its beauty. The righteousness, which is to 
 procure your soul's justification with God, 
 must fully answer to all the demands of 
 his law, understood in its spiritual mean- 
 ing as well as in the letter. That law says, 
 " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with 
 all thy heart, and with all thy soul, mmd, 
 and strength, and thy neighbour as thy- 
 self." A righteousness which fully agrees 
 
 G 3 
 
66 THE SOUL 
 
 with that law, is what every soul must 
 have to produce and plead, if ever justified. 
 And in this no one can deceive God. " All 
 things are naked and opened unto the eyes 
 of him with whom we have to do." 1 The 
 righteousness, which we must have to plead, 
 must be such as will bear the strictest 
 scrutiny which the eye of the Omniscient 
 can give. Our title to it must be sound 
 and valid. No merely nominal claim, no 
 hypocritical pretence, no arrogant profes- 
 sion, will deceive God. 
 
 Now consider : have you such a righte- 
 ousness in yourself and of your own ? Is 
 there one present self-righteous enough to 
 imagine that he really has the righteousness 
 described, all his own, consisting of his own 
 merits, produced by his own strength ? 
 Have you never sinned, even in thought ? 
 never loved in heart what God disapproves ? 
 Yet this alone were enough to vitiate your 
 whole goodness. For God's holy law re- 
 quires entire conformity of heart to his will : 
 it forbids even to covet with the heart. 
 
 1 Heb. iv. 13. 
 
BELIEVING. 67 
 
 And his truth is immutable. He will not 
 set aside his law, falsify his word, and dis- 
 honour his perfections, in order to gratify 
 human pride. 
 
 Not only would one corrupt thought be 
 sufficient to prove that you have not the 
 righteousness which God requires, but also 
 one single omission of a commanded duty 
 would produce the same result. To omit 
 a plain duty is to commit a sin : it is the 
 refusing to do what God commands. Then, 
 if you have ever left undone the thing which 
 you ought to have done, you are not per- 
 sonally righteous before God. 
 
 But, one sin of heart, or one sin of omis- 
 sion, has not sufficed. Sin has been seen by 
 God breaking out in the actual life. He 
 has heard sin in every idle, profane, false 
 word : he has seen it in the wanton eye : 
 he has traced it in the foot swift to do evil : 
 he has observed the hand doing what it 
 ought not ; your sins, in God's sight, are 
 more in number than the hairs upon your 
 head. Where then is your pretended righ- 
 teousness ? 
 
68 THE SOUL 
 
 Perhaps you think that I forget your 
 good deeds, your alms-giving, church-going, 
 honesty, and other virtues. Those things 
 are good and right in their place. But they 
 are miserably out of place, if set up as a 
 righteousness sufficient for your justifica- 
 tion with God ; as well might you make a 
 bridge of spiders' webs, in order to cross a 
 foaming torrent, or a rope of sand where- 
 with to bind a strong man armed. If this 
 is your policy, the men of Babel were as 
 wise as you, when they tried to make a 
 tower which should reach heaven. These 
 good deeds do not set aside that one bad 
 thought, nor make up for that one omitted 
 duty. Nay, they are themselves defective, 
 and require forgiveness. Are you startled 
 at this ? Then only try them by God's 
 Word. For instance, one of your good 
 deeds, so called, is this : " I pay every one 
 his due." And what does this mean ? Why, 
 that, if a master, you defraud not your ser- 
 vant; if a servant, you defraud not your 
 master ; if a tradesman, you impose not on 
 customers ; if you contract a debt, you duly 
 
BELIEVING. 69 
 
 discharge it ; though poor, it may be, yet 
 you manage to pay your way. All this is 
 good. Would that all professing Christians 
 were as honest! The man is not a true 
 Christian, who neglects all this. But here 
 is your danger ; lest this should be substi- 
 tuted for that righteousness, which alone 
 answers the requirement of the law of God. 
 Have you paid God his due ? has he re- 
 ceived from you his proper tribute of love, 
 obedience, service ? If not, believe me, 
 you cannot be justified by having, as you 
 say, paid every one his due. That plea, so 
 defective as regards God, will also be found 
 wanting as regards man, when weighed in 
 the balances of the sanctuary. Thou owest 
 to man a great debt of love. Thou shouldest 
 have taught him in his ignorance, helped 
 him in his distress, visited him in his afflic- 
 tion, loved him as thyself. Has it been so ? 
 Ask conscience : then, never open thy mouth 
 again to plead before God, "Not guilty" 
 when he charges thee with sin. 
 
 And so with all other pleas wherewith 
 men attempt to justify themselves. They 
 
70 THE SOUL 
 
 are all leaky vessels, broken cisterns, and 
 mere refuges of lies. To lean on them is to 
 rest on the staff of a bruised reed. 
 
 Thus we have not found the righteous- 
 ness required for your soul's justification 
 with God. Will you borrow one from men ? 
 Alas ! where will you find it ? " There is 
 none righteous, no, not one." 1 None can 
 redeem his brother, or himself. The fall 
 affected all mankind. Every individual, 
 capable of actual sin, has personally trans- 
 gressed against God. 
 
 Shall we seek a righteousness for our souls 
 in the superabundant merit of departed 
 saints ? Seek it by all means, I would say, 
 if there were such a thing to be found. 
 But they were all sinners. Their best obe- 
 dience was defective. Whatever Papists 
 may fondly think, no saint in heaven has 
 one atom of superabundant righteousness 
 to spare, that it may be transferred to your 
 account. 
 
 Then, will you try the angels? They 
 are righteous, pure, and holy : — a gleam of 
 
 1 Rom. iii. 10. 
 
BELIEVING. 71 
 
 hope appears ; — lo ! it is no sooner seen 
 than gone. Their righteousness, though 
 sufficient to keep them in heaven, is not 
 sufficient for any beside themselves. They 
 do their duty, they cannot do more. Theirs 
 also is angelic righteousness, which is dis- 
 tinct from that of man, which must be per- 
 formed in man's nature, and according to 
 what God requires of man. The Scripture 
 is silent as death, when men call on angels 
 to help them with their righteousness. It 
 is as when the prophets of Baal called on 
 their idol god, " there was neither voice, 
 nor any to answer, nor any that re- 
 garded." * 
 
 My friends, the question is become very 
 serious ; the case is truly urgent. You 
 must have a righteousness for your soul's 
 justification. You have none of your own. 
 We have looked around us among living 
 men, and could find none. We have tried 
 departed saints and angels in heaven, but 
 in vain. And yet you must have such a 
 righteousness. Meanwhile, time speeds on ; 
 
 1 1 Kings xviii. 29. 
 
72 THE SOUL 
 
 life hangs but by a thread ; death is ap- 
 proaching ; and as death finds you, so will 
 judgment. "■ Where the tree falleth, there 
 it shall be." l 
 
 Must then my guilty soul go before God, 
 without a righteousness to offer, unjustified, 
 and without hope ? Is there no way of 
 escape ? what must I do ? to whom must I 
 look to be saved ? 
 
 My fellow-sinner, the righteousness which 
 your soul requires, God has himself pro- 
 vided, and offers for your acceptance in 
 Jesus Christ, his own well-beloved and only- 
 begotten Son. The fact is truly wonderful. 
 He, whom we are taught to call Jesus 
 Christ, was the eternal Son of God, one 
 with the Father and the Holy Spirit. He 
 was loved by the Father, and had glory 
 with him before the foundation of the 
 world. 2 He was with the Father when the 
 world was made, and by him all things 
 were made. 3 Such, then, was his original 
 and proper dignity, as the Son of God, — 
 a dignity, observe, infinitely glorious, alto- 
 
 l Eccles. xi. 3. 2 John xvii. 5, 24. 3 j hn i. 3. 
 
BELIEVING. 73 
 
 gether perfect, eternal, and divine, — a dig- 
 nity, which could not be destroyed or mar- 
 red by any humiliation which the same 
 divine person, in another form, might sub- 
 mit to undergo, while it would throw around 
 that humiliation the radiance of its own 
 glory, and the infinitude of its own merit. 
 
 Now, mark the w r ord of God : This 
 " Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of 
 God, thought it not robbery to be equal 
 with God, made himself of no reputation," 
 — literally, emptied himself, — u and took 
 upon him the form of a servant, and was 
 made in the likeness of men : and being 
 found in fashion as a man, he humbled him- 
 self, and became obedient unto death, even 
 the death of the cross/' 1 There is his 
 humiliation ! He who was " equal with 
 God," "the Fellow of the Lord of hosts," 2 
 became man, took upon him the form of a 
 servant, obeyed and served God in human 
 nature, and at length died upon the cross. 
 Is there mystery in all this ? Yea, " great 
 is the mystery of godliness, God was mani- 
 
 l Phil. ii. j6— 8. 2 Zech. xiii. 7. 
 
/4 THE SOUL 
 
 fest in the flesh." * Wonderful and beyond 
 all finite comprehension was the fact ; infi- 
 nite was the condescension of the Son of 
 God becoming the son of man ! But, re- 
 member, his humiliation as man does not 
 take from his glory as God ; yea, his glory 
 as God gives an infinite value to his humilia- 
 tion as man. 
 
 For this humiliation was also quite volun- 
 tary on his part. No other ever had it put 
 to his choice, whether he would become 
 man. " Then said he, Lo, I come to do 
 thy will, O God." 2 Accordingly, " when the 
 fulness of the time was come, God sent 
 forth his Son, made of a woman, made 
 under the law, to redeem them that were 
 under the law, that we might receive the 
 adoption of sons." 3 Thus his incarnation 
 was voluntary for man, full of condescen- 
 sion, infinite in merit. " For us men, and for 
 our salvation, he came down from heaven." 
 
 This Saviour was perfectly righteous and 
 holy, as man, from first to last. Being con- 
 
 1 1 Tim. iii. 16. 2 Heb, x. 9 ; Psalm xl. 7. 
 
 3 Gal. iv. 4, 5. 
 
BELIEVING. 75 
 
 ceived by the Holy Ghost, he was exempt 
 from all taint and infection of original sin. 
 Surely the Holy Ghost could not be the 
 author of an unholy nature ! And did not 
 the angel say expressly to Mary, "■ That 
 holy thing which shall be born of thee shall 
 be called the Son of God ?" x How differ- 
 ent that language from David's ! how differ- 
 ent from what we ought to confess, " Be- 
 hold, I was shapen in iniquity ; and in sin 
 did my mother conceive me." 2 Christ 
 knew no sin. 3 He was, from the very first, 
 in heart as well as in life, a lamb without 
 blemish and without spot. 4 
 
 And so, throughout life, righteousness 
 marked his character and conduct. He 
 did love God with all his heart, mind, soul, 
 and strength. It was his meat and drink to 
 do his Father's will. His Father's glory 
 was his ruling object ; his Father's work his 
 loved employ ; his Father's house the place 
 which his feet delighted to tread. Repeat- 
 edly did the Father give his express appro 
 
 1 Luke i. 35. 2 Psalm n # 5> 3 2 Cor. v. 21. 
 
 4 1 Peter i. 19. 
 
76 THE SOUL 
 
 bation from heaven, to certify to men how 
 well pleased he was with this his well-be- 
 loved Son. Christ loved too his neighbour as 
 himself; and that with a love so disinter- 
 ested, self-denying, and beneficent, as the 
 world never saw before or since. Many 
 injuries could not destroy, much coldness 
 could not damp, cruel insults could not ex- 
 tinguish that love to man, which filled his 
 sacred bosom. " He went about doing 
 good" 1 to the world which treated him un- 
 kindly. Even when persecuted to the very 
 death, and nailed to the cross, while his 
 body was excruciated with pain, his ears 
 wounded with taunts, and his eyes, looking 
 around for sympathy, saw heads mocking 
 with scorn ; — even then, he felt no ill-will, 
 he harboured no vengeance, he prayed for 
 his murderers, " Father, forgive them ; for 
 they know not what they do." 2 Thus 
 was he righteous, full of love to God and 
 man, in life and in death. His very enemies 
 could prove no charge against him. His 
 judge confessed that he could find no harm 
 
 1 Acts x. 38. 2 Luke xxiii. 34. 
 
BELIEVING, 77 
 
 in him. The Roman centurion, who 
 watched his cross, was forced to exclaim, 
 " Certainly this was a righteous man ! " \ 
 
 And as his life, so also his death, was 
 altogether voluntary, and for the sake of 
 men. Observe his own language on this 
 point : " Therefore doth my Father love 
 me, because I lay down my life, that I 
 might take it again. No man taketh it from 
 me, but I lay it down of myself. I have 
 power to lay it down, and I have power to 
 take it again." 2 Thus he died voluntarily ; 
 — his Father's counsels, his own consent, 
 the malicious motives of his enemies, and 
 the necessities of our souls, were causes 
 which worked together to produce the same 
 end, namely, that he should die the death 
 of the cross. And thus he died, not for 
 himself. Death is the wages of sin ; but 
 he had done no sin. Death is the conse- 
 quence of Adam's transgression, in which 
 he had no share. "He suffered," we are 
 expressly told, "the just for the unjust, that 
 he might bring us to God." 3 
 
 l Lukexxiii. 47. 2 J hn x. 17, 18. 3 i p e ter iii. 18. 
 H3 
 
73 THE SOUL 
 
 His death has, in fact, the character of 
 an atoning sacrifice. His original dignity 
 as the Son of God gave infinite merit to 
 this his voluntary death for men, as the Son 
 of man. What other sacrifices could only 
 do typically, his death did actually. It was 
 the oblation of the Lamb of God, without 
 blemish and without spot, as a sacrifice for 
 sins. It at once honoured the justice, holi- 
 ness, and love of God ; it magnified the 
 divine perfections, it vindicated the rights 
 of Deity, it conferred invaluable benefits on 
 guilty men. 
 
 And thus, brethren, our inquiry is an- 
 swered. We have found the pearl of great 
 price. Here, in Christ Jesus, is the righte- 
 ousness which your soul needs. All is pre- 
 pared and made ready for your acceptance. 
 Your joy in this discovery should be greater 
 than that of Archimedes, when, on making 
 a philosophical discovery, he ran through 
 the streets of Syracuse, crying, ev^m, evpritca, 
 " I have found it ! I have found it ! " 
 
 Yet, pause a little and think. You have 
 found the pearl : — have you made it yours ? 
 
BELIEVING. 79 
 
 You have heard of a righteousness fully 
 sufficient for your justification : — have you 
 accepted it, as it is proposed, without doubt- 
 ing, wavering, or mental reservation ? You 
 once thought much of your own righteous- 
 ness : — are you convinced that you have 
 none like Christ's ? It were a shame to 
 compare them together : — yours, mere filthy 
 rags, tattered, patched, stained ; His, a seam- 
 less robe, an entire garment, a mantle of sal- 
 vation : your righteousness worse than worth- 
 less, His infinitely precious ; yours a leaky 
 bark, in which if you attempt to sail, you 
 must soon sink to rise no more; His a 
 gallant, noble vessel, in which you may 
 safely ride over the waves of this trouble- 
 some world, and however tempest-tossed at 
 times, yet at length reach joyfully the 
 wished-for haven. 
 
 And this righteousness of Christ may be 
 yours ! What an animating thought ! How 
 ought it to stir up every sluggish soul ! If 
 I offered you gold and silver, you would all 
 
 k awake to earnestness. If I read to you a 
 will, which bequeathed to you an estate, 
 
80 THE SOUL 
 
 your eyes would sparkle with delight. If I 
 pretended to tell your future fortunes for 
 this world, you would be anxious to hear. 
 If I came to you in prison, and offered the 
 king's pardon, I should be a welcome mes- 
 senger. But now, when I am commissioned 
 to offer, in God's name, what is better for 
 your soul than gold and silver, houses and 
 lands, worldly good fortune, and the king's 
 pardon ; when I come to offer you the 
 righteousness of Christ for your justifica- 
 tion, and his unsearchable riches for your 
 eternal portion, now, it may be, some soul 
 heeds me not. Ah ! that is still the soul in 
 danger. And is it content to remain in 
 that fearful state ? Then, brethren, let that 
 soul have no companion in perverseness. 
 Let all others pity that soul, and pray for 
 its conversion. But walk not with it in that 
 dangerous road. " My friend/' let me say 
 to each of you, " your soul is too precious 
 to be so thrown away." 
 
 We proceed to our Second part, which is 
 to tell how the righteousness, shown you in 
 our first part, may be appropriated, or made 
 
BELIEVING. 81 
 
 yours : — by your soul's faith. " With the 
 heart man believeth unto righteousness" The 
 Scripture is very clear on this point. I 
 beg your serious attention to the follow- 
 ing texts in proof. Rom. iii. 20, 22 : " By 
 the deeds of the law there shall no flesh 
 be justified in his sight : for by the law is 
 the knowledge of sin. But now the righte- 
 ousness of God without the law is mani- 
 fested, being witnessed by the law and the 
 prophets ; even the righteousness of God, 
 which is by faith of Jesus Christ, unto all 
 and upon all them that believe." Faith, 
 you perceive, is the principle, which appro- 
 priates the righteousness which justifies. So 
 again, Gal. ii. 16 : <( Knowing that a man is 
 not justified by the works of the law, but 
 by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have 
 believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be 
 justified by the faith of Christ, and not by 
 the works of the law : for by the works of 
 the law shall no flesh be justified/' Nothing 
 surely can be more express to prove, that it 
 is only by faith that men can be justified. 
 So, also, when the gaoler at Philippi put 
 
82 THE SOUL 
 
 the great question, "What must I do to 
 be saved ?" the answer was, " Believe on 
 the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be 
 saved." l 
 
 These scriptures are so very clear, that I 
 add but one more to prove that the righte- 
 ousness of Christ is to be appropriated, or 
 made yours, by faith : Phil. iii. 3, 9 : " That 
 I may win Christ, and be found in him, not 
 having my own righteousness, which is of 
 the law, but that which is through the faith 
 of Christ, the righteousness which is of God 
 by faith." 
 
 All these scriptures agree with one voice 
 in declaring, that faith is the divinely ap- 
 pointed principle, by which your soul is to 
 become savingly interested in the meritorious 
 righteousness of Christ. This faith is a lively 
 persuasion of the heart of the truth of 
 God's word of promise made to us by Jesus 
 Christ. It is simply the believing and acting 
 upon what God says to us respecting the 
 person, work, character, and office of Jesus 
 Christ. In yet more simple terms, it is to 
 
 1 Acts xvi. 31. 
 
BELIEVING, 83 
 
 take God at his word. God says : Your 
 soul is in danger ; but I have provided a 
 way for your soul's escape. I have given 
 my dear and only-begotten Son to become 
 a child of suffering and a man of sorrows. 
 I allowed him to be crucified for sinners. 
 I could have sent legions of angels to his 
 rescue, have rained down fire from heaven 
 upon his foes, have made the earth open her 
 mouth and swallow up his murderers, yea, 
 I could have transformed his cross into a 
 throne, and his crown of thorns into a royal 
 diadem : — but he did not ask it : though I 
 loved him so tenderly, I left him to suffer. 
 And it was for you, sinners, that he might 
 make an atonement sufficient to cover all 
 your guilt, that his righteousness might be 
 made available for your acceptance and justi- 
 fication. And now all I ask is, Believe this 
 my love, accept this my Son as your Saviour ! 
 Consent to be made righteous through faith 
 in his name. And, is not this a method 
 easy and pleasant for you ? why will ye not 
 believe ? why will ye die ? 
 
 But, my friends, this faith must be the 
 
84 THE SOUL 
 
 lively persuasion of the heart. It is not 
 the head which understands, the mind 
 which assents, "the tongue which says, " / 
 believe" which will suffice to make you a 
 true believer, personally interested in the 
 righteousness of Christ. " With the heart 
 man believeth unto righteousness.'' It is 
 when the heart, humbled by God's grace, 
 pierced with godly sorrow, and broken with 
 deep contrition, yields to the recorded testi- 
 mony of God as to the sufficiency of Jesus 
 Christ, consents also to be saved entirely 
 through him, and rejoices to rest upon his 
 faithful promise ; then it is that you have 
 the faith which justifies and saves. 
 
 And this faith is the only principle, which 
 can receive and appropriate the justifying 
 righteousness of Christ. For this, though 
 matter of solid fact, is warranted to us on 
 testimony ; and testimony is to be received 
 on credit or by faith. That Christ was the 
 Son of God, was miraculously born, lived 
 righteously, died on the cross, rose again 
 from the dead; — these are solid facts, sub- 
 stantiated by convincing testimony. So 
 
BELIEVING. 85 
 
 the doctrines connected with those facts 
 have the testimony of God to their truth, 
 and are sealed and sanctioned by the tes- 
 timony of many faithful witnesses. And to 
 this testimony of God and his servants, 
 conscience echoes from within. The offers 
 of God in Christ Jesus appeal to your own 
 conscience, even to your internal sense of 
 guilt, which makes you shrink from God ; 
 they appeal to the moral wants and cravings 
 of your nature ; they propose a balm for 
 that wounded spirit, a healing balsam for 
 that bruised soul, a full and free pardon, 
 yea, a complete justification for that guilty 
 creature. And thus, these various tes- 
 timonies all appeal to faith: — receive us, 
 yield to our persuasion, act by our sugges- 
 tion, Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and 
 be saved. 
 
 This only method, though so simple, yet 
 also exceedingly honours God. We can 
 devise no other method which would not 
 sully his glory. Would you still have him 
 forgive and justify sinners without a sacrifice 
 for sin ? Then his law would have been 
 
86 THE SOUL 
 
 broken by you times without number, its 
 threatenings would be made a dead letter, and 
 his truth Justice, holiness, would be trampled 
 under foot with impunity. Surely that can- 
 not be. Would you have him give you sal- 
 vation for your own goodness ? And have 
 you yet to learn, that you have none — 
 nothing of your own which at all comes 
 up to God's standard of moral goodness ? 
 Would you have that standard lowered to 
 your level ? That would be to ask God to 
 call good evil, and evil good — to call dark- 
 ness light, and light darkness ! Would 
 you have repentance made a passport for 
 heaven ? I ask, in reply, Can human jus- 
 tice suffer that ? If a man commit murder, 
 is the law satisfied with his repentance ? If 
 tears of contrition would efface the stain of 
 blood, we should soon have abundance of 
 murders, followed by abundance of repent- 
 ance. Surely the justice of God is as full of 
 majesty as that of man ! 
 
 Have you yet other objections against 
 the blessed doctrine of justification by faith 
 only ? Would you prefer to be rather jus- 
 
BELIEVING. 87 
 
 titled, partly by yourselves,, and partly by 
 Christ ? Oh when will you cease to flatter 
 that proud thing called self? I entreat you 
 to beware of that mistake of mingling your 
 own works with Christ's in the matter of 
 justification. That mistake has been for 
 ages the millstone about the neck of the 
 Romish Church. Again and again has that 
 fond notion attempted to corrupt the Pro- 
 testant churches from the simplicity that is 
 in Christ. In our Church of England, 
 though our articles, homilies,, liturgy, and 
 scriptures all testify against it, yet that mis- 
 taken notion, — the expression is too soft, — 
 that fatal error, that we are to be justified, 
 partly by Christ, and partly by ourselves, 
 by our own works, merits, sufferings, re- 
 pentance, has been, and still is frequently 
 held, to the dishonour of Christ, and the 
 ruin of souls. And what is its harm ? say 
 some. It is this : God offers you a full 
 justification freely, through the alone merits 
 of Christ, and invites you to receive it by 
 faith, and be saved. Then you come to 
 him and say, " Not so ; I will not be jus- 
 
88 THE SOUL 
 
 titled in that way ; I have a way and a will 
 of my own. I will be saved partly by my 
 own merits, and will leave it to Christ to 
 supply the deficiency. 
 
 Now that is presumption in its very 
 essence. It impeaches the Divine wisdom, 
 as though God did not know the best way 
 of saving you ; it throws contempt on the 
 Son of God, as if his Divine merits required 
 something of yours to make them perfect or 
 sufficient ; yea, it claims a worth for your 
 works, which no works of yours can have. 
 If that has been your trust, you have been 
 under a most dangerous delusion. Search 
 the Scriptures and see. Examine the texts 
 which I have already brought forward. Find, 
 if you can, those which set them aside. 
 Believe me, nay, believe God who testifies 
 to this weighty truth, that Jesus Christ will 
 be every thing to you in regard to justification, 
 or he will be nothing. 
 
 My friends, I have done, and let me 
 hope that you have done with cavils and 
 objections. Rather admire with me how 
 the method of our being justified by faith 
 
BELIEVING. S9 
 
 honours every attribute of God. How it 
 manifests his holiness ! See, it says, the 
 evil and malignity of sin ! Look, sinner, at 
 that bleeding Lamb ! mark his agonies ! 
 listen to his dying cries ! Your sin did that. 
 Christ, the sinless and righteous Lord, must 
 thus suffer, bleed, and die, or you could 
 not have been saved. So holy is God ! 
 
 Then, mark God's justice. His law said, 
 " The soul that sinneth, it shall die." Your 
 soul has sinned. If you escape the second 
 death, it is only because Christ, whom God, 
 who is himself the Lawgiver, allows to be 
 your substitute and surety, undertook your 
 cause. Lie tasted death for you ; he bowed 
 the head and gave up the ghost, that your 
 soul might live. Is not the justice of God 
 as fully vindicated, when a sinner's soul 
 believes in Christ, and is forgiven for his 
 sake, as when a sinner's soul, refusing to 
 believe, is punished with everlasting de- 
 struction ? 
 
 And, further, is not the love of God glo- 
 riously proved by this Divine method of 
 saving souls ? I more than doubt whether 
 
90 THE SOUL 
 
 any, who do not believe in Christ for their 
 justification, have any right idea of the love 
 of God. It is seen, indeed, in creation ; 
 it beams forth in providence ; but it shines 
 with a mild glory in the incarnation, suffer- 
 ings, and death of God's own dear Son. 
 
 Lastly, this method of justification by 
 faith is admirable, because it gives all the 
 glory of salvation entirely to God through 
 Christ. It excludes all boasting. If you 
 are justified, it is entirely through God's 
 mercy, Christ's merits, and the Holy Spirit's 
 operation. Not a particle or atom of the 
 praise belongs properly and strictly to your- 
 self. It you are saved, it is only because 
 of what Jesus Christ did and suffered for 
 sinners. 
 
 " Yes," say some ; " but is it no merit in 
 me to be a believer ? All men have not faith. 
 If I have brought myself to believe, surely 
 that is a good work." Ah ! there is self 
 once again. Oh, how many forms has that 
 Proteus, how many colours has that cha- 
 meleon, how many heads has that hydra, 
 self! You brought yourself to believe ! I 
 
BELIEVING. 91 
 
 must doubt whether you know what it is 
 to believe. God only can have brought you. 
 " Unto you it is given to believe." l " By 
 grace ye are saved through faith ; and that 
 not of yourselves : it is the gift of God." 2 
 
 The truth is, to believe in Christ is both 
 a duty and a privilege. Men are to be in- 
 vited, exhorted, and entreated to believe. 
 They are guilty for not believing, when 
 God invites ; they then become inexcusable ; 
 yea, the Saviour plainly declares, " He that 
 believeth not shall be damned." 3 Yet, when 
 any do believe, they are to ascribe their 
 faith not to themselves, but to the grace of 
 God, the Holy Spirit, working faith into 
 their hearts. It is he who blesses the word 
 of truth, which men hear, and makes them 
 willing to be saved in the day of Christ's 
 power : he strengthens the weak hand of 
 the trembling penitent, and enables him to 
 take hold of the extended hand of the Sa- 
 viour of the lost. Do you now believe ? 
 And was it not your duty to believe long 
 ago ? But you had then no heart to be- 
 
 1 Phil. i. 29. 2 Eph. ii. 8. 3 Mark xvi. 16. 
 
92 THE SOUL 
 
 lieve ; you had only that evil heart of un- 
 belief. Is that now quite gone, and have 
 you, in its stead, the heart which simply, 
 singly, affectionately believes on Jesus Christ 
 for salvation ? Then I am sure you will 
 not refuse to glorify God and say, " Not 
 unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy 
 name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy 
 truth's sake." 1 
 
 Brethren, before we part, I have to pro- 
 pose so serious a question, that I tremble in 
 putting it. Ask then yourselves individually, 
 Is mine tlie soul believing unto righteousness $ 
 
 If riot, yours is still the soul in danger. 
 Excuse it how you will, make light of it if 
 you can, your soul, if not truly believing in 
 Jesus Christ, is still the soul in danger. This 
 is not matter of mere opinion, or doubtful 
 disputation. You will find your Bible con- 
 firm my assertion, that, if not believing in 
 Jesus Christ for righteousness, your soul is 
 in imminent danger of eternal death. You 
 must allow me to feel pity for your poor 
 soul. Words cannot express what I ought 
 
 1 Psalm cxv. 1. 
 
BELIEVING. 93 
 
 to feel :— -such a danger impends,, such a 
 salvation is proposed, such an eternity is 
 balancing ! 
 
 Methinks, I hear a whisper, " Then what 
 am I to do ? " "Believe in the Lord Jesus 
 Christ ! " " And how can I do this ? " Try : 
 make the effort ! " I have tried, but in vain." 
 I fear you were not then in right earnest. 
 But try again : make a new effort : lose not 
 the golden opportunity ! Dost thou still 
 feel inability ? Ah, thou art learning a grand 
 secret. Then, fall on thy knees, cry with 
 tears to Jesus Christ ; ask him to give, 
 nourish, and increase faith : say, Lord, I 
 do, I would believe ; " help thou mine un- 
 belief!" 1 
 
 But another does believe. Surely I am 
 addressing some who are true believers. 
 Happy are ye ! Blessed is that mother's 
 child, who truly believes unto righteous- 
 ness. From such I call for praise to God. 
 I call thee, my fellow-believer, to know and 
 own thy happy state : — no harsh exhorta- 
 tion that., Thou belie vest in Jesus Christ for 
 
 l Mark ix. 24. 
 
94 
 
 THE SOUL 
 
 righteousness ; — then, for his sake, thy sins 
 and iniquities, though many and great, are 
 freely forgiven, thou art accounted righte- 
 ous, God has fully acquitted thee from ail 
 charges of the law, and adopted thee into 
 the family of his dear children : thou mayest 
 have peace in thine own conscience : angels 
 have rejoiced over thee : all the faithful on 
 earth hail thee as a brother in the Lord : 
 Jesus himself sees in thee of the travail of 
 his soul, and is satisfied : the Holy Spirit 
 has chosen thy heart for his holy temple, 
 his peaceful abode, his place of manifesting 
 more and more of the glory of God, and 
 the beauty of holiness. O thou believing 
 penitent, thrice happy is thy portion ! Whe- 
 ther thou art rich or poor in this world, 
 matters little; — whether thou art going 
 home to a splendid mansion, or a lowly cot- 
 tage ; — whether about to repose this night 
 on a bed of down, or on a heap of straw ; 
 — whether young or old, healthy or sickly, 
 infirm or strong ; — all this is of slight im- 
 portance. I see in thee a true believer in 
 Christ : — that is thy grand distinction ; — 
 
BELIEVING. 95 
 
 then I see in thee a child of God, and an 
 heir of glory ! 
 
 I was about to add, Go and be thankful ! 
 But it is needless. Thy heart, if I under- 
 stand a believer's heart, is full of thank- 
 fulness. I have no fears that a true believer 
 will go hence to abuse this blessed doctrine. 
 The hypocrite may ; the false professor per- 
 haps will : but thou, the true believer, wilt 
 say with abhorrence, " God forbid ! how 
 shall we that are dead to sin, live any 
 longer therein V l All I am and all I have, 
 I owe to Christ. I am not my own. I am 
 bought with a price. I must glorify God 
 with my body and my spirit, which are his. 
 " Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable 
 gift ! " 2 
 
 1 Rom. vi. 2. 2 2 Cor. ix. 15, 
 
SERMON IV. 
 
 THE SOUL IN CONFLICT. 
 
 ROMANS VII. 22—25. 
 
 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man : 
 But I see another law in my members, warring against 
 the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to 
 the law of sin which is in my members. wretched 
 man that I am ! who shall deliver me from the body of 
 this death ? I thank God through Jesus Christ our 
 Lord. 
 
 How wonderful a thing, my brethren, is 
 the soul of man ; — by first creation, of kin- 
 dred with the holy angels and with God ; 
 by the fall, debased in fleshly lusts and vile 
 affections ! In what danger once, through 
 original and actual sin ; and yet, for a long 
 time, as insensible of danger, as the child 
 sleeping on the edge of the precipice ! 
 
IN CONFLICT. 97 
 
 Brought at length, in a mysterious way, to 
 repent and to acquiesce in the wondrous plan 
 of salvation ; made, through grace, a true 
 believer in the meritorious righteousness and 
 death of Jesus Christ, and a real partaker- 
 of the glorious privileges procured for sin- 
 ners by his mediation ; — there, arrived at 
 that point, the soul, we might have thought, 
 will know no more such strange vicissitudes; 
 all henceforth will be uniform joy and peace ; 
 the vessel, having weathered such a storm, 
 will sail on in smooth waters, till she reaches 
 the wished-for haven. 
 
 But, my brethren, the case is not so. If 
 you have indeed entered, by actual experi- 
 ence, on the former stages of the soul's 
 history ; if yours, which once was the soul 
 in danger, has also been the soul repent- 
 ing, and the soul believing ; then, you 
 must not shrink from our present subject, 
 for, either now or hereafter, you must meet 
 it in experience, and grapple with it in the 
 Christian warfare ; — yours must be the soul 
 in conflict. And that is our present sub- 
 ject ; and a difficult subject it is. It will 
 
98 THE SOUL 
 
 require all your attention, and all your 
 prayers, to enable you to understand a sub- 
 ject, which so enters into the interior of 
 the spiritual life. I confess I should despair 
 of making it plain to any mind, did I not 
 hope that the God of all grace will give us 
 his kind, effectual aid, and enable us to 
 understand spiritual things. 
 
 The words of the apostle, in our text, 
 strikingly describe to us the soul in conflict. 
 Consider, 
 
 I. The conflict itself. 1 
 
 II. The anxious cry for deliverance. 2 
 
 III. The deliverance found. 3 
 
 I. The conflict itself is thus described by 
 the apostle, ver. 22, 23 : " For I delight in 
 the law of God after the inward man : But 
 I see another law in my members, warring 
 against the law of my mind, and bringing 
 me into captivity to the law of sin which is 
 in my members." 
 
 The true believer is a new creature. It 
 is through the Holy Spirit deeply convinc- 
 ing of sin, leading the burdened soul to 
 Jesus Christ for pardon, and so first im- 
 
 1 Rom. vii. 22, 23. 2 R om . v ii. 24. 3 Rom. vii. 25. 
 
IN CONFLICT. 99 
 
 planting and then nourishing true faith ;— 
 it is only thus that any man with the heart 
 believeth unto righteousness. And in this 
 process, the Holy Spirit infuses a cordial 
 hatred of sin. and a genuine desire after 
 holiness, so that faith worketh by love, 1 the 
 love of Christ constraineth 2 all who believe 
 in him for justification. 
 
 And now, the believer has new views, 
 new pleasures, and new pursuits. He has 
 far other thoughts of God than once ; the 
 world's vanities have lost their charm ; he 
 lives to a new object, even to the glory of 
 his God and Saviour, an object which once 
 had no place in his concern. And whence 
 this change ? Is it through his own wis- 
 dom and strength, or through man's per- 
 suasion and influence ? It is, brethren, 
 only through the power and grace of the 
 Holy Spirit. He only can have softened 
 the heart once hard as adamant, subdued 
 the spirit once so proud and self-willed, 
 turned the current of the affections once 
 following the course of this world, and have 
 
 1 Gal. v. 6. 2 2 Cor. v. 14. 
 
100 THE SOUL 
 
 produced this grand change in the whole 
 character and life. The Scripture calls it 
 a regeneration, and so it is, for there is a new 
 nature, a new heart, a new spirit, and a new 
 life. The Scripture calls it an awakening 
 from sleep, 1 a spiritual resurrection, 2 the 
 being quickened when dead in trespasses and 
 sins ; 3 and although these expressions are 
 the strongest which language can supply, 
 they are not too strong to describe the grand 
 reality of what takes place, when any of 
 your souls are brought out of ignorance, 
 worldliness, vanity, and a sinful course, into 
 penitence, faith, love to God, adoption into 
 his family, and the animating desire to live 
 to his glory. If any of you understand it 
 not, it is high time ye did, " Ye must be born 
 again" 4 
 
 Thus, the true believer is a regenerate 
 person. The apostle describes the new cha- 
 racter of a child of God, when he says of 
 himself, " I delight in the law of God after 
 the inward man." That description suits 
 
 , 1 Cor. sv. 34. 2 Eph. v. 14. 3 Eph.ii. 1 ; Col. ii. 13. 
 
 -* John iii. 7. 
 
IN CONFLICT. 101 
 
 no unregenerate person. The law of God 
 is so holy, spiritual, and good, and so 
 opposed to the bias of fallen man's corrup- 
 tions, that the natural man cannot look up 
 to the heart-searching God, and say, with 
 sincerity and truth, " I delight in thy law, 
 O God, after the inward man." On the 
 contrary, he heartily hates that law, wishes 
 it were less holy, or even that there were 
 no law of God at all. Is it not so ? When 
 in your ungodly state, was there not a de- 
 sire that the law of God did not thwart 
 you, that there were no account to be given 
 hereafter, that you might be left to live as 
 you list ? But, if there were no law, there 
 were no God. For the law is the copy of 
 God's will : if God is, he must have a will ; 
 if he is holy^ his will, and therefore his law, 
 must be holy. Perhaps, you thought it not, 
 but in fact you used to wish, either that 
 there were no God, or that he were an un- 
 holy being. Oh, what an atheist's wish in 
 the former case ! What a heathen's wish 
 in the latter ! In either case, how full of 
 ignorance, presumption, and guilt ! May 
 
 K 3 
 
102 THE SOUL 
 
 God, who knew it, forgive thee, for Christ's 
 sake, that thought of thy heart ! 
 
 This then, I maintain, that although 
 there is in all men a natural conscience, 
 which confesses a distinction between good 
 and evil ; although there is in virtue a ma- 
 jesty, which often commands the respect 
 even of the vicious ; yet there is nothing in 
 an unregenerate soul, which corresponds 
 with this principle of delighting in the law 
 of God after the inward man. No, brethren, 
 no : the charmer may charm never so 
 wisely, but in vain ; the minstrel may exert 
 his utmost skill, and pour forth strains sweet 
 as the melodies of heaven, but there is no 
 chord which vibrates to his touch, when he 
 appeals to sinners, dead in trespesses and 
 sins, in praise of the beauty of holiness and 
 the loveliness of spiritual religion. Listen, 
 for instance, to the sweet singer of Israel, 
 and see whether any carnal heart rejoices 
 to echo his sentiments : " I will delight my- 
 self in thy statutes." L " Thy testimonies 
 are my delight and my counsellors." 2 "I 
 
 1 Psalm cxix. 16. 2 Psalm cxix. 24. 
 
IN CONFLICT. 103 
 
 will delight myself in thy commandments, 
 which I have loved." l " The law of thy 
 mouth is better unto me than thousands of 
 gold and silver." 2 " O how I love thy law ! 
 it is my meditation all the day." 3 "I hate 
 vain thoughts : but thy law do I love." 4 
 " Thy word is very pure : therefore thy ser- 
 vant loveth it." 5 The whole, in fact, of 
 the 119th Psalm will furnish an invaluable 
 test for self-examination on the question, 
 Am I a true believer ? am I a child of God ? 
 Job also speaks of his delight in the law of 
 God : " I have esteemed the words of his 
 mouth more than my necessary food." 6 In 
 Isaiah, God himself thus characterizes his 
 believing people : " Hearken unto me, ye 
 that know righteousness, the people in whose 
 heart is my law." 7 
 
 The truth is, in working into the heart a 
 godly sorrow for sin, and a lively faith in 
 Christ, as the only atonement for sin, and 
 the Lord our righteousness, the Holy Spirit 
 gives such a sense of the evil and malignity 
 
 1 Psalm cxix. 47. 2 Psalm cxix. 72. 3 Psalm cxix. 97. 
 4 Psalm cxix. 113. 3 Psalm cxix. 140. 6 Job xxiii. 12. 
 7 Isaiah li. 7. 
 
104 THE SOUL 
 
 of sin, and such a perception of the good- 
 ness, holiness, and love of God, with such 
 a constraining love to Christ, for having 
 loved us even unto death, that, henceforth, 
 a hatred of all sin, with a love to all holi- 
 ness, springs up in every believing soul. 
 And now, the light of holiness and truth is 
 found to suit the renewed mind, just as the 
 light of day suits the natural eye. Now, 
 also, mere outward decency of conduct does 
 not satisfy ; a partial reformation is felt to 
 be insufficient ; the inward man longs after 
 holiness, the hidden man of the heart de- 
 lights itself in the law of God, the main- 
 spring within of all that is lovely and of good 
 report, is touched by a divine hand. 
 
 If there were no other principle left, and 
 if none of the old leaven continued to work, 
 the whole man would be entirely sanctified ; 
 men on earth would be as the angels in 
 heaven ; every individual believer would be 
 completely, what he now is but partially, 
 a living temple to the living God, filled with 
 his glory, ever fervent with praise, radiant 
 with the beauty of holiness. 
 
IN CONFLICT. 105 
 
 "But/* says the apostle — and his expe- 
 rience was that of a true believer, if there 
 ever was one on earth, — " i" see another 
 law in my members, warring against the law 
 of my mind, and bringing me into captivity 
 to the law of sin which is in my members" 
 Here, you perceive, are some remains 
 of the old, corrupt nature, lingering in 
 the believer, and fearfully harassing his 
 soul. 
 
 The apostle calls it " another law" for 
 indeed it is another, as contrary to the law 
 of God, written in the believer's heart, as 
 darkness is to light, hell to heaven. It has 
 another author, and comes from another 
 source. The principle of delighting in 
 holiness comes from God the Father, 
 through Christ's mediation, by the opera- 
 tion of his new-creating Spirit. The law 
 of sin comes from our connexion with 
 fallen Adam, and is worked upon by the 
 evil spirit. It is also another law in its 
 effects. The new principle produces peace, 
 satisfaction, cheerfulness, delight ; the ten- 
 dency of the old principle is to produce 
 discomfort, remorse, shame, and death. 
 
106 THE SOUL 
 
 The apostle also calls it "a law in my 
 members? because the law of sin employs 
 the bodily members as its instruments, and 
 through them peculiarly tempts. Thus, 
 in chapter vi. 13 : " Neither yield ye your 
 members as instruments of unrighteousness 
 unto sin : but yield yourselves unto God, as 
 those that are alive from the dead, and your 
 members as instruments of righteousness 
 unto God." So in verse 19 of the same 
 chapter : " I speak after the manner of men 
 because of the infirmity of your flesh : for 
 as ye have yielded your members servants 
 to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity ; 
 even so now yield your members servants 
 to righteousness unto holiness." These ex- 
 hortations every true believer desires to 
 obey ; otherwise, he would not delight in 
 the law of God after the inward man. And 
 yet he finds another law in his m ambers, 
 warring against the law of his mind. The 
 old, corrupt, carnal nature, which once 
 ruled the whole man, body, soul, and spirit, 
 and led him its willing slave, still lingers in 
 the bodily members, works on the animal 
 nature, and has influence with the appetites 
 
IN CONFLICT. 107 
 
 and passions, and thus tempts the soul, 
 which, being as yet only partially renewed, 
 is too ready to listen to the tempter. And 
 yet this must not be : the soul's better prin- 
 ciples forbid: — then there must be strife 
 and conflict. 
 
 And this the apostle calls a war. The 
 term is most expressive. It is the old 
 nature at war with the new,— the flesh with 
 the spirit, the law in the members with the 
 law in the mind. As in other wars, so in 
 this, there is a declaration of war. When 
 you become a true believer, and yield your- 
 self unto God, in so doing, you formally 
 declare war against sin in all its forms ; and 
 sin, at the same time, declares war against 
 you. Just as the Roman ambassador at 
 Carthage, before the second Punic war, told 
 the senate, " We bring you war and peace ; 
 take which you please." l So we are ambas- 
 sadors for God, and have to offer you war 
 or peace, — war ^ith sin, and peace with 
 God ; or war with God, and peace, if so it 
 may be called, with sin. Take which you 
 please ! 
 
 1 Liv. 1. 21, c. 18. 
 
 
108 THE SOUL 
 
 War then against sin is declared by every 
 faithful Christian among you. And lo ! 
 as in other wars, allies hasten to range 
 themselves on either side. On the side of 
 the law in the members, are the world, the 
 flesh, and the devil. The world says, " I 
 will bring pomps and vanities to allure, 
 hosts of dangers to deter, honours to dazzle ; 
 I will command multitudes to countenance 
 the law of sin by their example. " Come on, 
 comrades," says the world, "let us fight 
 merrily against saintliness ; I will furnish 
 the gold and the silver, which are the very 
 sinews of war : pleasure and gaiety are with 
 us ; while the world standeth, I will never 
 forsake thee, with whom I have been in 
 alliance ever since the days of Adam." 
 
 The flesh also says to the law of sin, 
 " Why, surely you and I are old friends ; 
 you, the members, are my own by birth- 
 right ever since original sin was introduced. 
 I will join the fray. I will supply lusts, 
 feed appetite, nourish sensuality, and so 
 keep the struggle alive ! we will fight des- 
 perately ; if you, the law of sin, are van- 
 
IN CONFLICT. 109 
 
 quished, I shall be mortified indeed ; if you 
 conquer, I triumph." 
 
 The devil needs no invitation to bring 
 him to take part in the contest. "I shall 
 lose my prey !" he says ; and presently he 
 comes with all the wiles and stratagems of 
 a crafty general. Sometimes he bids the 
 law in the members feign defeat, only to 
 have time to rally forces. Now and then, 
 he patches up a hollow peace, only to 
 throw the inward man off his guard. When 
 forced to open fight, which he does not 
 love, — for with all his might and all his 
 blustering, he is a coward, 1 — then, he aids 
 with fiery darts and panic fears ; if he can 
 reach the soul in an unguarded point, he 
 would gladly slay it. Oh, what a confe- 
 deracy, brethren, is formed against every 
 faithful soul ! We are called to wrestle not 
 merely against flesh and blood, but against 
 principalities, against powers, against the 
 rulers of the darkness of this world, against 
 spiritual wickedness in high places. 2 
 
 1 James iv. 7. " Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." 
 
 2 Eph. vi. 12. 
 
 L 
 
110 THE SOUL 
 
 But are there no allies for the inward 
 man ? Yes : all true believers on earth are 
 with your soul in this holy conflict. Their 
 prayers, examples, sympathies, are all with 
 you. The redeemed spirits in glory hear 
 with joy of your repentance, and with re- 
 newed joy of your perseverance amid many 
 a great fight of afflictions. The holy an- 
 gels look on with affectionate interest ; they 
 love, in ways unseen by mortal eye, to 
 come at their Lord's bidding, and minister 
 to them who shall be heirs of salvation. 1 
 Jesus himself, the Captain of our salvation, 
 leads you on in this glorious warfare. His 
 example speaks, his voice animates ; his 
 Spirit enters your hearts to sustain, revive, 
 encourage ; he points to the blood-stained 
 banner of his cross ; he shows its motto, in 
 effect the same with that, seen — whether 
 with the bodily or mental eye, I say not — 
 by Constantine of old : fS Through this cross 
 thou shalt conquer;" 2 yea, he promises, 
 that you shall be more than conquerors 
 through himself who has loved you. His 
 
 1 Heb. i. 14. 2 "In hoc si«rno yinces." 
 
IN CONFLICT. Ill 
 
 Divine Father and the Holy Spirit are also 
 your soul's allies ; the Father, to smile en- 
 couragement upon his agitated child; the 
 Holy Spirit, to strengthen with might in 
 the inner man. Believers, were you alarmed 
 at the array of foes confederated against 
 your souls ? Were you ready to say with 
 the servant of Elisha, " Alas ! my master, 
 how shall we do ? " Open now the eyes of 
 faith : behold the mountain full of horses 
 and chariots of fire round about you. " Fear 
 not ; for they that be with us are more than 
 they that be with them." * p 
 
 Do you want armour ? It is amply sup- 
 plied by the Lord of Hosts. You have it 
 all ready for use, on the right hand and on 
 the left, armour both for offensive and de- 
 fensive warfare. You have the girdle of 
 truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the 
 greaves of the preparation of the gospel of 
 peace : you have the shield of faith, the 
 helmet of salvation, and the sword of the 
 Spirit, which is the word of God. 2 
 
 Such, then, are the allies on both sides, 
 
 1 2 Kings vi. 16. 2 Eph. vi. 14, 1/. 
 
112 THE SOUL 
 
 such the foes arranged against each other. 
 And thus the strife begins. The battle- 
 field is the world. The day of battle is 
 every day in which you live up to your 
 Christian principles. The war you wage 
 against sin is to terminate only with this 
 life ; when you draw the sword, you are to 
 fling away the scabbard. What conflicts 
 ensue! Both sides fight desperately, for 
 existence, for liberty, for mastery. Which 
 shall reign over you? — there is the question. 
 The apostle says that he had sometimes 
 to see the worse cause partially triumphant. 
 I see it, he says, "bringing me into cap- 
 tivity to the law of sin which is in my mem- 
 bers." This will invariably be the case, if 
 your inward man faints, desponds, or at all 
 yields, so that you begin to give way to vain 
 confidence, worldliness, or lust. Then you 
 will be, so far, again brought into captivity 
 to the law of sin, which is in your members. 
 And then, expect no clemency from your 
 victor, sin ; it will bind you as a slave, and 
 drag you at its chariot wheels ; it will ex- 
 pose you to the scoff of enemies, and the 
 
IN CONFLICT. 113 
 
 pity of friends ; it will hurry you on toward 
 death. 
 
 Brethren, you see the conflict. You be- 
 hold the scales of victory inclining in favour 
 of the law of sin. The case is one of real 
 danger. The inward man is yielding ; your 
 soul, which had tasted that the Lord is 
 gracious, is returning to folly ; some fleshly 
 lust is revived ; some sinful temper is again 
 indulged ; — and, although God's promises 
 are true, faithful, immutable ; yet, in that 
 position of things, your interest in them is 
 obscured : your soul is, to all human ap- 
 pearances, becoming once again the soul 
 in danger. If I could tell you that there 
 is then no danger, I should be unfaithful 
 to your soul. No danger, when a believer 
 is returning to sin ! It was not thus that 
 Nathan comforted David. This was not 
 the meaning of Christ looking upon Peter. 
 Such was not the language of God by 
 Ezekiel : u When a righteous man turneth 
 away from his righteousness, and committeth 
 iniquity, and dieth in them ; for his iniquity 
 
 L 3 
 
114 THE SOUL 
 
 that he hath done shall he die." 1 No dan- 
 ger in backsliding from God ! Oh, where 
 do men pick up this Antinomian notion ? 
 Not surely from our text. 
 
 For, come to our Second part, and hear the 
 anxious cry for deliverance. "0 wretched 
 man that I am ! who shall deliver me from 
 the body of this death?" I hardly know a 
 more sorrowful cry than that. The Saviour's 
 cry seems indeed more sorrowful ; " My 
 God, my God, why hast thou forsaken 
 me?" 2 And yet I hardly know. "My God, 
 my God," expresses some sense of sonship, 
 some confidence of filial love, even in that 
 hour of darkness and desertion. But the 
 apostle's words seem all sorrow, the language 
 of a heart quite full of lamentation, and 
 mourning, and woe. Only hear them again, 
 and judge ; " O wretched man that I am ! 
 who shall deliver me from the body of this 
 death ? " This last expression is most re- 
 markable. The allusion is almost too pain- 
 ful for explanation. Yet, if its explanation 
 may lead us to loathe and abhor sin, we 
 
 1 Ezek. xviii. 26. 2 Matt, xxvii. 46. 
 
IN CONFLICT. 115 
 
 must not yield to a false delicacy. It is 
 said that ancient tyrants, in their inhuman 
 cruelty, sometimes condemned offenders to 
 have a dead body tied to them, and to 
 carry this loathsome object about with 
 them, Can any thing more horrible be 
 imagined ? Yet such is sin working in our 
 members ! It is a vile and disgusting thing 
 to us ; if we are believers, it has received 
 its death-blow : " knowing this, that our 
 old man is crucified with Christ, that the 
 body of sin might be destroyed, that hence- 
 forth we should not serve sin." 1 Thus the 
 body of sin, mortified by the Spirit of God 
 and the cross of Christ, is henceforth a 
 body of death, vile, loathsome, abominable ; 
 and yet it cleaves to us, hangs about us, 
 impedes our progress, mars our comfort, 
 torments, harasses, and grieves. Again 
 and again we are forced to cry out, " O 
 wretched man that I am ! who shall deViver 
 me from the body of this death ? " 
 
 Yes : who indeed shall deliver us ? we 
 cannot deliver ourselves ; for the enemy is 
 part and portion of ourselves. Anselm, 
 
 1 Rom. vi. 6. 
 
116 THE SOUL 
 
 one of the Fathers of the church, frames 
 this excellent petition on this very text : 
 (C Lord, deliver me from this wretched man, 
 myself!" 1 Neither can our fellow-men 
 deliver us ; the ungodly are all serving the 
 law of sin, the very foe with whom we have 
 to fight. Every one of the faithful has a 
 similar body of death, wherewith to struggle 
 for himself. He must first be the physician 
 to heal himself. 
 
 But, my fellow-soldiers in this warfare, 
 you must find a deliverer or perish. Your 
 former believing will not serve, unless you 
 still have one to believe in, whose power 
 and love are equal to this emergency. Your 
 former victories are lost, if you are van- 
 quished now. That body of sin will revive 
 to strength, and will rise and slay you, un- 
 less a deliverer can be found for you. Oh, 
 is there one ? who and where is he ? who 
 shall deliver me ? It is the cry of one pant- 
 ing for breath, in the midst of conflict, 
 almost overcome, looking this way and that 
 for a deliverer. 
 
 Brethren, I know of no human philoso- 
 
 1 Domine, libera me a misero isto homine meipso. 
 
IN CONFLICT. ] 1 7 
 
 phy, which can give effectual aid at such a 
 crisis. Philosophers never uuderstood this 
 conflict. They talk indeed of a strife and 
 opposition within the breast of man. A 
 heathen poet could say, " I see and approve 
 of what is better, I follow what is worse." l 
 And many have confounded this with the 
 Christian conflict. But it is not the same. 
 The inward opposition, which the unrege- 
 nerate feel, is between worldly prudence 
 and appetite, between one lust and another, 
 between ambition and sensuality, between 
 the judgment and the inclination. Hence 
 even Herod felt a struggle between his fear 
 of men bidding him observe his rash oath 
 and behead John, and his natural sense of 
 justice bidding him forbear the murderous 
 deed. Hence Pilate had a struggle between 
 his wish to release Jesus, and his cowardice 
 prompting him to give him up to the Jews. 
 Hence Felix trembled, and yet delayed 
 repentance. All this is not the Christian's 
 conflict. It wants this important mark — 
 In the believer, the conflict is between grace 
 
 1 Video meliora proboque, 
 Deteriora sequor. 
 
118 THE SOUL 
 
 and sin, between the regenerate and the 
 unregenerate nature, between the new and 
 the old man. In him the inward man sides 
 with God and holiness. In the unregene- 
 rate, the inward man sides with the old 
 man, and the conflict is between different 
 natural principles which jar and quarrel with 
 each other ; just as bad men, living in the 
 same house or neighbourhood, all agree in 
 hating God and persecuting righteousness, 
 and yet continually fall out and fight with 
 each other. The regenerate, in short, fears 
 above all things to return to sin : the unre- 
 generate secretly means it, and soon con- 
 trives it. 
 
 This distinction, brethren, is most impor- 
 tant. The unconverted often abuse our 
 present subject, and mistake the compunc- 
 tions, which they feel in the morning, on 
 account of the follies, I mean, the sins of 
 the last night, for the conflict which St. 
 Paul describes between the flesh and the 
 spirit. But St. Paul meant no such thing. 
 St. Paul would have plainly told them, in 
 his faithful way, " You are all flesh, altoge- 
 
IN CONFLICT. 119 
 
 ther carnal, quite destitute of the Spirit. 
 The works of the flesh are manifest ; l - — 
 and those are your works. Your conflict, 
 at best, is only between natural conscience 
 and sensual appetite. You are sorry, but 
 not with a godly sorrow. You are afraid 
 of the world knowing it, or of its ruining 
 your health, character, property : you do 
 not loathe your sin as a vile thing before 
 God, nor yourself for having committed it. 
 You, the drunkard, will be at your cups 
 before night. You, the unclean person, will 
 return again to your old practices. You, 
 the slanderer, will set out again on your 
 old round with some new tale of malice. 
 You, the bad child, so very sorry when 
 detected, and so full of promises of never 
 doing so again, have no real intention of 
 becoming the dutiful, obedient, good child. 
 None among you, all ye unregenerate peo- 
 ple, really desire to be delivered from your 
 sin." 
 
 But thou, truly wretched man, thou be- 
 liever, with thy soul in' conflict, thy contest 
 
 l Gal. r. 19. 
 
120 THE SOUL 
 
 is between that new heart which loves God, 
 and that old nature which would have thee 
 return to sin, between indwelling grace and 
 indwelling corruption. Thou hast seen the 
 abominable nature of sin, and therefore thou 
 loathest it. And to find it still with thee, 
 working to regain dominion ; — this makes 
 thee cry with a bitter, piercing, sorrowful 
 cry, " O wretched man that I am ! z&ho shall 
 deliver me from the body of this death ? " 
 
 III. But see, a deliverer appears ! — 
 " Wretched man," he cries, " I bring thee 
 good tidings." Tempted believer, thy own 
 heart will recognize his voice. " / thank 
 God? cries the apostle, " through Jesus 
 Christ our Lord." 
 
 Jesus Christ is indeed a deliverer at such 
 a time. He left you to yourself for a little, 
 to show you your own weakness, to humble 
 all spiritual pride, to make you feel that if 
 the best of saints without him is liable to 
 relapse into the worst of sins, how much 
 more one who is less than the least of all 
 saints. And then, when your treadings had 
 well nigh slipped, he comes, in answer to 
 
IN CONFLICT. 121 
 
 your earnest cry, and brings his fulness of 
 grace and strength to bear upon your case 
 of weakness and distress. Oh, it is delight- 
 ful to realize his help at such an hour. 
 You cried, " Who shall deliver me V Your 
 question is answered. " I will deliver thee. 
 Am I not Jesus, the Saviour and deliverer, 
 by office and choice, by promise and profes- 
 sion? Am I not Christ, the anointed of 
 God to guide, save, and defend ? am I not 
 the Lord, your Lord and your God ? is any 
 thing too hard, any case too difficult, any 
 foe too mighty for the Lord ?" 
 
 1. Jesus Christ succours at such times 
 commonly by his word and Spirit. He thus 
 revives faith, strengthens hope, reanimates 
 the inward man, emboldens the faint heart 
 anew, and nerves the weary hand with fresh 
 courage. It is thus he enables you in con- 
 flict to put forth new vigour, and to gain 
 victories over your corruptions. Christ does 
 not comfort by telling you to become care- 
 less and presumptuous. He never delivers 
 by bidding you to think, It is all of no use. 
 But he comforts by his word of forgiveness 
 
122 THE SOUL 
 
 for what is past, even for all your short- 
 comings, faintness, unbelieving doubts, or 
 even actual falls. He raises with tender- 
 ness and grace : " See, I forgive all ! Behold 
 the wounds of thy Captain ; they were 
 caused by the blow which would have slain 
 thee. My blood has flowed in this warfare. 
 For my sake, because I fainted not, the 
 King pardons thee. And now, rise with 
 new energy; be moved by my example, 
 aroused by my voice, animated by my Spirit. 
 Go, renew the fight! I will be with thee. 
 Victory shall be thine !" 
 
 2. Christ specially delivers by giving such 
 a view of his cross as serves again to mor- 
 tify sin, Dear brethren, nothing but that 
 will slay corruption. But, if believers indeed, 
 he will give you such nearer and more 
 affecting views of his cross and passion, of 
 his precious death and burial, of his glori- 
 ous resurrection and ascension, as shall mor- 
 tify the law of sin in your members, enable 
 you to die daily unto sin, to be buried with 
 Christ by baptism, to rise to righteousness 
 and holiness, and to ascend in heart to hea- 
 
IN CONFLICT, 123 
 
 venly things. Oh, keep but near to Christ 
 crucified. Make his cross your trust, your 
 plea, your pattern, your glory, and " sin 
 shall not have dominion over you !" - 
 
 Lastly, Jesus Christ helps and delivers 
 his people in conflict by the nearer prospect 
 of the rest of heaven. How often have 
 generals animated their soldiers with the 
 hope of soon seeing their peaceful homes, 
 their fathers, brothers, sisters, friends, all 
 anxiously waiting to congratulate them on 
 their victory. Think, O tried believers, of 
 your eternal home, to which Jesus, your 
 Captain, will soon conduct your souls, and 
 in due time your bodies also. You have 
 a Father there, the most gentle, gracious, 
 and affectionate, that ever bore that name 
 of love. You have brothers there and sis- 
 ters also, even all that ever lived who, 
 through grace, repented of sin, believed in 
 Christ, and fought the good fight. You 
 have friends there, whom you have never 
 seen in the flesh, but who long to see you 
 with them in that pleasant land. And there, 
 
 1 Rom. vi. 14o 
 
124 THE SOUL 
 
 they are all so loving, so pure, so gentle, 
 and so gracious ; they are all of such kin- 
 dred minds and congenial spirits ; they will 
 all welcome you so gladly, telling you their 
 gracious history, and listening to yours, and 
 adoring with you your common Saviour ;— 
 that the very thought of that happy meet- 
 ing, in that land of peace, should reanimate 
 the most fainting among you, to go on pray- 
 ing, believing, wrestling, with holy persever- 
 ance, till his or her turn to enter into rest 
 shall in due order come. 
 
 And then, no more conflict ! Ye angels, 
 write that upon the jasper walls ! Spirits 
 of the just made perfect, chaunt that with 
 your golden harps! Ye that are to wear 
 garments made white in the blood of the 
 Lamb, and to carry palm-branches in your 
 hand, anticipate that song now. There 
 shall be no more conflict ! There is no war 
 in heaven now ! Flesh and blood, in their 
 present state, shall not enter there ! No 
 law in the members shall militate against 
 the law of the mind there ! No evil world, 
 no crafty tempter there ! Blessed, my bre- 
 
IN CONFLICT. 125 
 
 thren, whatever our selfish, ignorant minds 
 may sometimes object, thrice "blessed are 
 the dead, which die in the Lord." l 
 
 My friends, before we separate, I should 
 have liked to have asked of every one of 
 you one question ; but I feel that God only 
 can put that question aright : — Have you 
 understood our subject? Has yours ever 
 been the soul in conflict F 
 
 I have endeavoured to show the unrege- 
 nerate the great distinction between their 
 inward struggles with different natural prin- 
 ciples, and the conflict in the believer be- 
 twixt grace and sin. Have ye understood 
 these things ? Sinner, careless hearer, thou 
 hast not. It may be, that natural feeling 
 prompted thee to pity the apostle forced to 
 cry out, " wretched man that I am ! " yet 
 if he was wretched in understanding, thou 
 art much more wretched in not understand- 
 ing this spiritual warfare. The apostle is 
 now the happy man. His cry would now 
 be, O blessed man that I am! how glori- 
 ously has Christ delivered me ! But thou, 
 
 1 Rev. xiv. 13, 
 M 3 
 
126 THE SOUL 
 
 sinner, — nay, stop not thine ears, — thou 
 wilt be a wretched man for eternity, except 
 thou repentest. Sinner, go and begin. 
 Repent with godly sorrow. Go with a peni- 
 tent heart to Jesus Christ. Believe with 
 the heart unto righteousness. If you would 
 not last week, oh, do it now. Next week, 
 you may be gone. Seek a new heart and 
 a right spirit : act up to your convictions : 
 forsake bad companions : give up known 
 sin : pray, as you never did before, against 
 temptation. Sinner, thus begin ; and I doubt 
 not but you will soon have occasion to un- 
 derstand what is meant by the soul in 
 conflict. 
 
 Believers, you have all understood me. 
 You are veterans, or, at least, tiros, in this 
 warfare. Will ye not, after this, persevere 
 and press forward in the strength of Christ, 
 the tiro to become a veteran, the veteran to 
 become a conqueror resting in his glory ? 
 Oh, be ye thankful. I feel that I have not 
 said enough on that word of the apostle's, 
 " I thank God ;" — and I cannot. Let your 
 gratitude to Christ supply my omissions 
 
IN CONFLICT. 127 
 
 Were I to speak for hours, I could not 
 fully show your cause for thankfulness. Be 
 thankful through life for every deliverance 
 in conflict and temptation. Be thankful 
 in death for such a deliverer from the last 
 enemy. Be thankful, throughout eternity, 
 to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord ! 
 
SERMON V. 
 
 THE SOUL DEVOTED. 
 
 PHILIPPIANS IV. 13. 
 
 / can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. 
 
 This seems a great speech for him whom 
 we recently heard exclaim, "O wretched 
 man that I am ! who shall deliver me from 
 the body of this death ? " Yet this our text 
 contains a true saying, and has a close con- 
 nexion with that distressing cry. For though 
 we saw the believer's soul weak, and in 
 conflict, we also saw him finding and re- 
 joicing in a deliverer, mighty to save, even 
 our Lord Jesus Christ. Behold, then, the 
 deliverer found ! Behold him come with 
 
THE SOUL DEVOTED. 129 
 
 his very present help ! Now, O believer, 
 what canst thou do ? "I can do all things,'' 
 meekly answers the apostle, " through Christ 
 which strengthened me." 
 
 Let us, dear brethren, in pursuance of the 
 plan of this little course of sermons, hence 
 consider, 
 
 I. The soul devoted to all holy service. 
 
 II. The soul's strength for that devot- 
 edness. 
 
 For this appears, on the whole, the most 
 appropriate of the many topics in relation 
 to the soul's history, which still invite our 
 consideration. It is, after all, only a general 
 sketch, and a mere specimen of that history, 
 which can be given within the limits of six 
 discourses. At each point, I have endea- 
 voured to keep to things essential to be 
 understood by every saved soul. Of this 
 character is the subject before us. If, 
 through God's grace, you are practically ac- 
 quainted with our former topics ; if yours, 
 which was the soul in danger, has expe- 
 rimentally understood repentance, faith, 
 conflict, you will proceed, without reluc- 
 tance, to understand the devoted service, 
 
130 THE SOUL 
 
 the full and prompt obedience, the cheerful 
 consecration of all your energies to God, to 
 which your Saviour calls you! — and this, 
 not in your own strength, which is perfect 
 weakness, but in and through the supply of 
 his own enabling grace. 
 
 And may He, without whom we can do 
 nothing, and who, I humbly hope, has been 
 with us in considering our former topics, 
 mercifully grant that we may both perceive 
 and know what things we ought to do, and 
 also may have grace and power faithfully to 
 fulfil the same ! 
 
 Every true believer in Christ cheerfully 
 yields himself unto God, as Christ's pur- 
 chased possession, to be henceforth em- 
 ployed by God in holy services for his own 
 glory. The Scripture often declares this. 
 " Ye are not your own. For ye are bought 
 with a price : therefore glorify God in your 
 body, and in your spirit, which are God's ;" * 
 "Whose I am, and whom I serve." 2 "I 
 beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the 
 mercies of God, that ye present your bodies 
 
 i 1 Cor. vi. 19, 20. 2 Acts xxvii. 23. 
 
DEVOTED. 131 
 
 a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, 
 which is your reasonable service." 1 "Ye 
 are Christ's." 2 " Yield yourselves unto 
 God." 3 
 
 And this surrender of ourselves to God 
 is our bounden duty. If by serving sin, 
 vanity, and the world, we had incurred 
 great guilt, and were in imminent danger of 
 eternal death ; and if Christ voluntarily 
 delivered us, at the expense of his own 
 sacred blood ; if the Father has manifested 
 such wondrous love toward us miserable 
 sinners ; if the Holy Spirit] has deigned to 
 enter our hearts and apply this great grace; 
 then, the least return we can make is to give 
 ourselves up to Christ, and cheerfully to 
 say, Here I am ! Behold, Lord, the soul 
 which thou claimest for thyself. It is in- 
 deed utterly unworthy of thy acceptance : 
 in itself it is full of guilt, misery, and pollu- 
 tion. But thou who didst die for sinners, 
 hast called, and I have come to thee to be 
 justified through thy merits, and now to 
 give myself to thee. Lord, I am thine, for 
 
 1 Rom. xii. 1. 2 i Cor. iii. 23. 3 Rom. vi. 13. 
 
132 THE SOUL 
 
 thou art mine. Fit and prepare my soul 
 for thy service : make me all thou wouldst 
 have me to be : use me in what way thou 
 wilt : command me to what services thou 
 pleasest : do with me, that is, with thy own, 
 whatever seemeth thee good ! 
 
 And this our duty is also our privilege. 
 For, if we give not ourselves thus to God, 
 we still serve sin, Satan, and the world; 
 we are still in bondage through fear of 
 death ; we are employed in vile work, and 
 occupied with mean pursuits. Hence it is 
 a privilege to come out from the world, and 
 to taste the liberty wherewith the Son of 
 God emancipates the soul. It is a joy for 
 the heart, after being so long enthralled, to 
 find its proper master, "whose service is 
 perfect freedom." It is an honour, which 
 humbles while it exalts, to be allowed to 
 serve the glorious and ever blessed God. 
 That he will deign to employ such weak 
 and worthless instruments ; that he, who 
 could do so well without us, will give us 
 work to do for him ; and that he makes us, 
 who were once so ill disposed for serving 
 
DEVOTED. 133 
 
 .him, now quite glad to obey his will : — this 
 is a privilege indeed ! For his command- 
 ments, brethren, are not grievous when we 
 love God. 1 Christ's yoke is easy, for it is 
 lined with his own love. " Blessed are they 
 that keep his testimonies, and that seek him 
 with the whole heart." 2 
 
 Brethren, if believers, you have thus 
 given yourself, body, soul, and spirit, to 
 Jesus Christ. For with the soul the body 
 is to go also. The law in your members 
 will oppose, as we saw in our last lecture, 
 but the soul, we also saw, is not to yield, 
 but to endure conflict, and to cry out for 
 deliverance, rather than yield to sin. With 
 bad men the body rules the soul : when 
 Christ makes any free, the soul regains its 
 proper superiority and rules the body. Thus, 
 if true believers, you have given the whole 
 man to Christ. There has then been a time 
 in your history, when you solemnly devoted 
 yourself to God. You have often renewed 
 that serious act. Young people, if you un- 
 derstood what you were about, you did this 
 
 1 1 John v. 3. 2 Psalm cxix. 2. 
 
134 THE SOUL 
 
 at your Confirmation. Communicants, if 
 ye mean what ye say, ye do this anew every 
 time ye receive the Lord's Supper. Else, 
 what mean our words, " Here we offer and 
 present unto thee, O Lord, ourselves, our 
 souls and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, 
 and lively sacrifice unto thee ?" Churchmen, 
 if such indeed, ye do this every time you 
 join in the General Thanksgiving. For do 
 we not pray, " that we may show forth thy 
 praise," O our God, " by giving up our- 
 selves to thy service ? " Christians, if ye 
 have any scriptural right to that honoured 
 name, your daily prayers and lives are my 
 witnesses, that ye have given yourselves to 
 God. 
 
 And now, what are the things to which 
 you, thus given to Christ, are or may be 
 called ? Look first at the context, verses 
 11, 12: "I have learned, in whatsoever 
 state I am, therewith to be content. I 
 know both how to be abased, and I know 
 how to abound : every where, and in all 
 things, I am instructed both to be full and 
 to be hungry ; both to abound and to suffer 
 
DEVOTED. 135 
 
 need. I can do all things through Christ 
 which strengtheneth me !" 
 
 This,, then, is a primary duty of every 
 one who belongs to Christ, to be content 
 with the allotments of God's providence, to 
 exercise the graces suitable for prosperity 
 or adversity. 
 
 It is not superfluous to speak a word on 
 this duty. For ours is a discontented world. 
 Even professing Christians are too often a 
 murmuring, fretful, dissatisfied people. I 
 speak not of their complaints of indwelling 
 sin, nor of their dissatisfaction with their 
 slow progress in divine things. I speak of 
 their being too much like the children of 
 this world, over anxious for the things of 
 time and sense, careful and troubled about 
 many things, too often peevish, restless, 
 covetous, even as others. 
 
 But, brethren, if genuine believers, it must 
 not be so with you. In giving yourselves 
 up to Christ, you leave all your outward 
 circumstances to his divine will. You then 
 seek first the kingdom of God and his 
 righteousness, and you depend on him to 
 
136 THE SOUL 
 
 fulfil his own promise, that all these things^ 
 food, raiment, necessaries for this life, shall 
 be added unto you. * You will still use dili- 
 gence, prudence, activity, in worldly duties ; 
 but you will cheerfully leave the measure of 
 your worldly prosperity with God. Does 
 he prosper you in worldly things ? You 
 will know how to abound ; — which is no 
 easy thing ; — how to use abundance with 
 holy moderation, to be temperate in all 
 things, to employ wealth, influence, station, 
 not to gratify pride and ostentation, but as 
 faithful stewards for Jesus Christ. There 
 is, according to the Bible, much cause to 
 fear for rich and prosperous Christians/ 
 There is such danger, lest riches should be 
 turned into golden chains to fetter down 
 the soul to earth ; lest they should pamper 
 pride, nourish sensuality, and minister to 
 the natural selfishness of the heart, that 
 it is perhaps a merciful dispensation, that 
 the majority of God's people, in every age, 
 have been comparatively poor. Yet the 
 
 1 Matt. vi. 33. 2 See Matt. xix. 23, 24 ; Luke xii. 16 ; 
 xvi. 19 ; James v. 1 ; Rev. vi. 15 — 17. 
 
DEVOTED. 137 
 
 rich may learn — Christ can teach them 
 — how to abound and to be full, not only 
 without sin, but in such a manner as to 
 glorify God. The way is simply this. They 
 are to consider all they have as belonging 
 to Jesus Christ, and therefore to be em- 
 ployed, wisely and discreetly, yet cheerfully 
 and liberally, in his service. They will still 
 provide for themselves and for their families ; 
 for Christ tells them to clo so : "If any one 
 provide not for his own, and specially for 
 those of his own house, he hath denied the 
 faith, and is worse than an infidel." 1 But 
 they will not make prudence a cloak for 
 covetousness : they will be content with a 
 moderate provision for themselves and theirs, 
 and the remainder will be lent to the Lord, 
 to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, teach 
 the ignorant, relieve distress, and send the 
 gospel of Christ throughout a perishing 
 world. So also with influence ; prosperity 
 commonly gives a man a wider sphere of 
 usefulness, and a more commanding position 
 for doing good. "Where much is given., 
 
 l 1 Tim. v. 8. 
 N 3 
 
138 THE SOUL 
 
 much will be required. A city set on a hill 
 cannot be hid. 1 Prosperous Christians, re- 
 ceive the word of exhortation. Your ex- 
 ample, words, actions, have a continual bear- 
 ing on society. Let them all give a consis- 
 tent, grateful testimony for Christ. "Let 
 your light so shine before men, that they 
 may see your good works, and glorify your 
 Father which is in heaven." 2 
 
 But is adversity or poverty your lot ? 
 Then, with the apostle, you will know " how 
 to be abased, how to be hungry, and suffer 
 need," in a manner becoming a Christian. 
 You will then resort to no unlawful means 
 of supplying your wants. A Christian had 
 rather dig than beg, rather beg than defraud, 
 rather starve than steal. But more than 
 this : no hard thought of God will fill your 
 mind ; no pining anxieties will fret your 
 spirit. You will think with yourself thus : — 
 I certainly have given myself to Christ : it 
 seems his will, that I should be poor as to 
 this world's goods. Well : be it so ! He 
 gives me no worse condition than what he 
 
 1 Matt. v. 14. 2 Matt. v. 16. 
 
DEVOTED. 139 
 
 took himself. He had not where to lay his 
 head, yet he gives me a ]owly cottage, and 
 deigns to hallow it with his gracious pre- 
 sence. If I know hunger and thirst, so did 
 he and his apostles. If I have not the 
 benefit of great riches, I, at least, have not 
 their responsibility. Though I get on but 
 roughly, God helps me forward ; and then, 
 the riches of Christ, the bread of life, the 
 new wine of consolation, the hope of glory, 
 — these are mine for every day's use. The 
 poor Christian passes a fine mansion ; he 
 need not covet. I have a better mansion 
 than that, he may say, " even a house not 
 made with hands, eternal in the heavens." ' 
 Does a splendid equipage roll by ? He need 
 not envy. The Lord, who walked with the 
 disciples to Emmaus, honours him with his 
 converse. He can pray for the rich and 
 great, that they also may have fellowship 
 with Christ. At another time, trains of ser- 
 vants sweep along : — I have more glorious 
 attendants ; are not the angels all minister- 
 ing spirits, sent forth to minister to them 
 
 1 2 Cor. 7. 1. 
 
140 THE SOUL 
 
 who shall be heirs of salvation ? l Does one 
 pass, clad in gay attire ? My soul, thou 
 needest not envy. Hast thou not robes 
 made white in the blood of the Lamb, gar- 
 ments of praise, a mantle of salvation ? 
 
 And then, if your means be ever so 
 scanty, and if you have ever so little of this 
 world's goods, you may yet do something 
 for Christ with that little. Remember the 
 widow's mite. Let not the one talent be 
 wrapped in a napkin. Imitate her, of whom 
 the Lord said, " She hath done what she 
 could." 2 
 
 Brethren, let none of you say or think, 
 that, because in lowly condition, you can- 
 not serve Christ. It grieves us when the poor 
 make their poverty an excuse for irreligion, 
 and plead, for instance, the want of clothes, 
 as a reason for absence from the house of 
 God. It grieves us, because we know that 
 they, who so excuse themselves, must be 
 strangers in heart to the blessedness of true 
 religion. The gospel is meant for all. Its 
 influence would make the rich man poor in 
 
 1 Heb. i. 14. 2 Mark xiv. 8. 
 
DEVOTED. 141 
 
 spirit, and the poor man rich in grace. It 
 would come down with you to your lowest 
 estate, cheer you in every trouble, walk 
 with you all through the valley of humilia- 
 tion, and talk so pleasantly with you by 
 the way, of Christ, and heaven, and glory, 
 as would make you feel " as having nothing, 
 and yet possessing all things." 1 
 
 " I can do all things :" — this expression 
 thus includes all the virtues and graces suit- 
 able for a Christian in prosperity and adver- 
 sity. But it includes yet more. The apos- 
 tle does not say, I can do these things, but 
 I can do all things. 
 
 Christian devotedness surely includes the 
 entire renunciation of all sin. Be not de- 
 ceived on this point. In giving yourself 
 to Christ, you give up every thing which he 
 forbids. And you know that he forbids all 
 sin. If you had some sin dear to you as a 
 right hand, that right hand must be cut off, 
 were it your bosom friend, it must be for- 
 saken. On this point I would speak with 
 all plainness. You cannot retain your sin 
 
 1 2 Cor. vi. 10. 
 
142 THE SOUL 
 
 and your Saviour. I speak not of sins of 
 infirmity: I know that "in many things 
 we all offend:" 1 but this I do mean, if a 
 believer, in giving yourself to Christ, you 
 honestly give up your sins, you renounce 
 every false way, a grand change is seen by 
 man in your outward life, and God sees in 
 your heart a growing abhorrence of all sin. 
 Again I say, Be not deceived. Profess what 
 he may, no man, still going on in any known 
 sin, is a true believer in Christ : no one liv- 
 ing in habits of malice, profaneness, false- 
 hood, intemperance, uncleanness, fraud, un- 
 godliness, is as yet out of danger for his 
 soul. " How shall we, that are dead to sin, 
 live any longer therein ? " 2 
 
 And with sin, you must give up, what the 
 Scripture calls, the love of the world, which 
 is closely connected with sin, and cannot be 
 cherished without sin. Again I would speak 
 with all plainness. Perhaps the greatest 
 danger for professing Christians, in the pre- 
 sent day, is from the love of the world. 
 Yet how express is Scripture ! I marvel at 
 
 1 James iii. 2. 2 Rom. vi. 2. 
 
DEVOTED. 1 43 
 
 the Christian who can despise its warning, 
 or jest with such words as these : " Love not 
 the world, neither the things that are in the 
 world. If any man love the world, the love 
 of the Father is not in him." 1 Do any ask 
 what is meant ? The same Scripture ex- 
 plains : " For all that is in the world, the 
 lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, 
 and the pride of life, is not of the Father, 
 but is of the world." 2 If, then, any of you 
 are chiefly engrossed with the things of 
 time and sense ; if sensuality, ambition, 
 pride, are your ruling principles ; if your 
 thoughts turn, as on a pivot, round the 
 desire of worldly pleasure, profit, fame ; 
 then I dare not speak to you as to true 
 believers in Christ ; you are not acting on 
 the instructions of your childhood, that you 
 " should renounce the pomps and vanities 
 of this wicked world." What mean ye, O 
 worldly-minded professors ? how r long halt 
 ye between two opinions ? When mean ye 
 to obey the exhortation, " Come out from 
 among them, and be ye separate, saith the 
 
 1 John ii. 15. 2 i John ii. 16. 
 
144 THE SOUL 
 
 Lord ?" ' How do ye interpret the apostle's 
 meaning, where he says, " God forbid that I 
 should glory, save in the cross of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified 
 unto me, and I unto the world ? " 2 
 
 Supposing then sin and the world to be 
 cheerfully given up, as they will be by every 
 true believer amongst us, much still remains 
 to make up the devoted Christian. It is 
 not enough to be a negative sort of a cha- 
 racter, to have done no one any great 
 harm, to be not as other men are, in gross 
 sin ; you are to " do good unto all men, 
 especially unto them of the household of 
 faith." 3 Your walk through life is to be 
 that of a benefactor scattering blessings. 
 Your footsteps are to follow Him " who went 
 about doing good." 4 All your talents, ener- 
 gies, influence, efforts, are to tend to one 
 object, and to be consecrated to one cause* 
 
 If really devoted to Christ, we shall refuse 
 no service, however difficult and self-deny- 
 ing, to which he plainly calls. When he 
 
 I 2 Cor. vi. 17. 2 Gal vi. 14. 3 Gal. vi. 10. 
 
 4 Acts x. 38. 
 
DEVOTED. 145 
 
 says, "Who will go for us ? " l Every faithful 
 soul will spring forward and say, " Here am 
 I, send me." ] I am aware, brethren, of the 
 low state of many professing Christians in 
 regard to self-denial. But our standard is 
 the Bible. When Christ says, Do this ; you, 
 if a true believer, will go and do it. If he 
 calls for your testimony, in any way ; if he 
 asks you to go a journey, to pay a visit, to 
 labour in a society, to endure hardship, 
 scorn, imprisonment, for his sake, you will 
 not, you cannot find it in your heart to 
 refuse him anything. 
 
 Brethren, I know not whether ye are 
 rising with our subject. If ye are, I cannot 
 but look on you with intense interest. 
 Christ may call some of you to no common 
 services. Who can tell, but this congrega- 
 tion may be honoured to furnish a devoted 
 missionary, a faithful minister, or, if need 
 should arise, a confessor, or a martyr ? At 
 all events, who of you is not called to 
 become the faithful, consistent Christian ? 
 Then, what trials, temptations, afflictions may 
 
 1 Isaiah vi. 8. 
 o 
 
146 THE SOUL 
 
 await some ! what a world for us all to over- 
 come ! what an enemy to resist ! what cor- 
 ruptions to mortify ! Already, brethren, I 
 feel anxious to ask, Can ye do all these 
 things ? 
 
 And yet, these are not all the things to 
 which every devoted Christian is called. I 
 feel my inability to do justice to my subject. 
 I have not described the spiritual mind, the 
 heavenly affections, the fervent zeal, the 
 holy courage, the gentleness, the meekness, 
 the humility, which Christ looks for in each 
 of you. I am ashamed of my poor account 
 of the work of faith, and the labour of 
 love, to which you are called. How little 
 have I said to explain that " holiness, with- 
 out which no man shall see the Lord!" 1 
 Brethren, the devoted Christian is aiming 
 to become like God. He is ". born of God," 2 
 " transformed by the renewing of his mind," 3 
 " made a partaker of the divine nature." 4 — 
 He daily tries to obey the precept, " Be ye 
 perfect, even as your Father which is in 
 
 1 Heb. xii. 14. 2 i j hn iii. 9. 3 R om . xii. 2. 
 
 4 2 Pet. i. 4. 
 
DEVOTED. 147 
 
 heaven is perfect." l He is daily " giving all 
 diligence to add to his faith virtue ; and to 
 virtue knowledge ; and to knowledge tem- 
 perance ; and to temperance patience ; and 
 to patience godliness ; and to godliness bro- 
 therly kindness ; and to brotherly kindness 
 charity/' 2 "Finally, brethren, whatsoever 
 things are true, whatsoever things are hon- 
 est, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever 
 things are pure, whatsoever things are 
 lovely, whatsoever things are of good report ; 
 if there be any virtue, and if there be any 
 praise," you, if the devoted Christian, will 
 " think on these things/' 3 
 
 But, brethren, I must leave this sketch 
 of Christian devotedness imperfect and in- 
 complete. It would require the tongue of 
 an angel, or the pen of a ready writer, to do 
 it justice. Your own life must furnish a 
 better explanation. But now the thought 
 presses, Is all this practicable ? how can I 
 do all these and other like things ? 
 
 II. "/ can do all things through Christ 
 which strengthened me :" — here is the se- 
 cret of the believer's strength.- By nature 
 
 1 Matt. v. 48. 2 2 Pet. i. 5, 7. 3 Phil. iv. 8. 
 
148 THE SOUL 
 
 he is quite like other men ; — as depraved in 
 heart, as corrupt in spirit, as earthly in 
 mind, as sinful, feeble, impotent to what is 
 good, as they are. He repents, he believes, 
 he is justified; but all this is brought to 
 pass, not by his own wisdom or power, but 
 by the grace of God blessing the instru- 
 ments and means employed. Christ is " ex- 
 alted as a Prince and a Saviour, to give 
 repentance." 1 "By grace are ye saved, 
 through faith ; and that not of yourselves : 
 it is the gift of God." 2 It is through the 
 same grace making the soul willing in the 
 day of Christ's power, that the believer so 
 cheerfully yields himself to God, and be- 
 comes devoted to his service. But even 
 then, his strength for the greatest and also 
 for the least spiritual or acceptable service 
 is in Jesus Christ, not in himself, lest any 
 man should boast. "Without me," says 
 Christ, " ye can do nothing" 3 "I can do 
 all things" responds the Christion, " through 
 Christ which strengthened me /" 
 
 And how does Christ strengthen his peo- 
 ple for devoted service ? 
 
 l Acts v. 31. 2 Eph. ii. 8. 3 John xv. 5. 
 
DEVOTED. 1 49 
 
 1. By the energetic motive of his cross: 
 (S The love of Christ constraineth us ; be- 
 cause we thus judge, that if one died for 
 all, then were all dead : and that he died 
 for all, that they which live should not 
 henceforth live unto themselves, but unto 
 him which died for them, and rose again." l 
 What strength, brethren, and force in that 
 motive ! What heart can resist it ? You 
 were dead ; Christ died for you : — read 
 there, with close application to yourselves, 
 the guilt of sin, the value of the soul, the 
 love of God, the grace of Christ. In that 
 fact, study the doctrines of the fall, of ori- 
 ginal and personal sin, of redemption through 
 the blood of Christ, of justification through 
 faith in him, of sanctification through his 
 Spirit. In those doctrines, read your obli- 
 gations to God, and your daily duties. And 
 then, think much of the need to others of 
 the same Saviour ; — all have sinned, all were 
 dead, all must come to Christ or perish. Will 
 ye not tell them all ye can of the worth of the 
 cross of Christ ? will ye not let that motive 
 
 * 2 Cor. v. 14, 15. 
 O 3 
 
150 THE SOUL 
 
 have its due and proper influence on your 
 hearts ? Then I ask no more. That motive, 
 rightly applied, will make every one of you 
 the devoted Christian. 
 
 2. For it is not by a motive alone, how- 
 ever mighty, that the Saviour endues the 
 soul with much strength. The lever must 
 be moved by a mighty power. Christ also 
 strengthened, through the Holy Spirit ap- 
 plying the motive of his cross to the be- 
 liever's soul. Others can hear of that cross, 
 and go away and live as much to them- 
 selves, the world, and sin, as before. But 
 when God the Holy Spirit touches the 
 heart and conscience with Divine power, 
 deeply convinces of sin, beats down every 
 high thought, shows the man to himself a 
 poor, lost, guilty sinner : and then takes of 
 the things of Jesus, and shows them unto 
 him, opening the eyes of his mind to see, 
 and inclining his heart to receive the truth 
 as it is in Jesus : when he makes known to 
 the sinner, now a penitent believer, the free- 
 ness and fulness of the salvation, in which 
 he is now personally interested : then it is 
 
DEVOTED. 151 
 
 that the heart owns the Saviour's claims, 
 and the man springs forward to holy- 
 duties, quite glad to be allowed to do or 
 to suffer for his sake. Thus the strength, 
 which the Holy Spirit applies, is that of 
 Christ, the crucified, risen, glorified Re- 
 deemer : it is exercised with infinite wis- 
 dom, tenderness, and love, agreeably to the 
 sympathy of Christ, the Head, with his 
 suffering members on earth ; it is increased 
 at seasons of peculiar need, so that " out of 
 weakness we are made strong ; " 1 " As is thy 
 day, so shall thy strength be." 2 
 
 And thus the strength first given, is con- 
 tinually renewed. The apostle says, "lean 
 do all things through Christ who strength- 
 ened me:" not merely, who strengthened 
 me once, at first conversion ; who has 
 strengthened me in many former trials ; 
 but who strengthened me from day to day, 
 and from hour to hour. So, brethren, with 
 yourselves. Christ does not give, at first 
 conversion, a store of grace for after use, 
 but he keeps an infinite supply in his own 
 
 l Heb. xi. 34. 2 Deut. xxxiii. 25. 
 
152 THE SOUL 
 
 hand, and imparts to you here a little and 
 there a little, rather, here a sufficiency and 
 there a sufficiency, according to your need. 
 This is a goodly method. Our grace for 
 daily use is far better in his keeping than 
 in ours. Beside which, what a sweetness it 
 gives in every duty, to realize his very 
 present help and strength ; what a refresh- 
 ment in trouble, to find that he has not 
 left nor forsaken us ; what a kind memorial 
 have we that his arm is not shortened that 
 it cannot save, nor his heart hardened that 
 he cannot feel, when we find him sending 
 grace, so suitable and sufficient, at the very 
 season of our need ! 
 
 Brethren, what an inward witness for 
 Christ has every strengthened and com- 
 forted believer ! Infidels doubt whether 
 Jesus rose from the dead ; Socinians dispute 
 against his deity : the true believer knows 
 and is sure, that Christ, who died for sinners, 
 is risen, ascended, and reigning gloriously ; 
 he is certain that Jesus is both God and 
 man, by the more than human might, 
 applied with such gracious sympathy to his 
 
DEVOTED. 153 
 
 own soul in weakness and affliction. Such 
 strength cannot come from man, for man, 
 untaught of God, does not even comprehend 
 it ; it cannot come from himself, for he has 
 had proof enough that in himself he has no 
 might ; it cannot come from the evil spirit, 
 for it promotes holiness, and glorifies God, 
 — effects which Satan hates to see : it does 
 come from Christ ; for whence it came, 
 thither it tends ; it testifies of Christ, it 
 leads to Christ, it enables for every service 
 to which Christ calls. 
 
 3. Thus Christ strengthens by the motive 
 of his cross, and the grace of his Spirit. 
 I mention but one method more. He also 
 strengthens by the glorious hope set before 
 the devoted Christian. The cross makes 
 him set out, the crown before him attracts 
 his eye, and animates him to persevere. In 
 worldly pursuits, we all know the force of 
 hope, and the withering effect of despair. 
 But the true believer is a stranger to despair. 
 He cannot find that word spoken to him 
 in his Bible, except in a negative connexion. 1 
 
 1 2 Cor. iv. 8. " Perplexed, but not in despair." 
 
154 THE SOUL 
 
 On the contrary, the more simple his faith 
 in Christ, and the more devoted his spirit, 
 the more does his hope of glory increase, 
 improve, and become confirmed. He knows 
 full well that he is to receive that glory, 
 not through his own poor works, but for 
 the Saviour's sake, — the purchase of his 
 dying sorrows, the gift of his free grace ; 
 yet he also knows, that the more he loves 
 Christ, becomes sanctified in heart, is trans- 
 formed into the image of Christ, and labours 
 and suffers for his sake ; the greater will be 
 his meetness for heaven, the brighter will 
 be his crown, the richer his reward of grace. 
 In this hope there is a mighty force to give 
 a continually increasing strength to the 
 believer's soul. For every year brings glory 
 nearer ; every trial endured, leaves one trial 
 less to come ; every victory gained, pre- 
 pares for another; every spiritual blessing 
 received, is an earnest of better things in 
 reserve. Hence, as bodies move faster the 
 nearer they are to their centre of attraction, 
 as the racer quickens his pace the nearer he 
 approaches the goal, so with the believer, 
 
DEVOTED. 155 
 
 the nearer to Christ and glory, the more 
 does his faith grow, and his devotedness 
 increase. 
 
 But we must conclude. What says the 
 unconverted man to this subject ? I suppose 
 he will soberly pronounce it all enthusiasm. 
 I would thank him to write down, seriously 
 and honestly, his own idea of the meaning 
 of our text, and of what manner of person 
 a Christian ought to be. Let him compare 
 his account with the Scriptures, and let 
 conscience judge between us. He would 
 say, " The matter has been over-stated :" — 
 my serious impression, after studying the 
 subject, is, that it has been under-stated. 
 Does he still think that I have carried 
 things too far ? do you mean, I would ask, 
 farther than the Bible carries them ? If 
 you do not mean that, then what is your 
 standard ? Perhaps he would add, " But it is 
 impracticable." I answer, " I grant that it 
 is, except through Christ, that strength- 
 ened. Now have you sought grace and 
 strength from him ? Will you go and seek 
 it now ? Will you daily ask of him strength 
 to repent, believe, obey ? " 
 
156 
 
 THE SOUL 
 
 Sinner, does thy heart refuse ? Is this 
 its language, " I love my sins : I hate God : 
 I will not have Christ to reign over me, his 
 ministers shall not persuade me ?" Must I 
 then tell thee of the terrors of the Lord ? 
 What I have been tracing in these dis- 
 courses is the history of a saved soul : who 
 could endure, what ear would not tingle, to 
 hear the history of a lost soul ? Yet, sinner, 
 unless thou repentest, and believest the 
 gospel, thou wilt have to hear sermons 
 eloquent with the sighs of anguish, and 
 pathetic with the groanings of remorse, 
 throughout eternity. Poor, wretched soul ! 
 I would fain see thee the saved soul. If 
 entreaties could move, I would beg and pray 
 of thee not to despise so great salvation. 
 With Christ, thou mayest yet do all things ; 
 without him thou canst do nothing but go 
 on adding sin to sin, till ripe for destruction. 
 Sinner, our next lecture will bring us to the 
 last, the closing scene for the soul as to 
 this world. Try even yet to overtake our 
 course. Thou wilt not be ready for that 
 topic, unless thou understandest this and 
 the foregoing subjects. Begin, then, for 
 
DEVOTED. 157 
 
 Christ's sake, and thy soul's sake, talk not 
 of moral inability to what is good as an 
 excuse, but use it as an argument for going 
 instantly to Christ for the grace which can 
 enable. 
 
 Let this subject speak encouragement 
 to the young and timid Christian. You 
 have already felt weakness and insufficiency ; 
 you have tried this duty and that, but have 
 sadly failed ; behold now how you may be 
 able to do all things. It is true, you will 
 still have to mourn over short-comings 
 and imperfections. The reason is, because 
 faith is often so weak, prayer so cold, and 
 our own corruptions so mix themselves 
 with all we do. Hence, you are to be 
 ever humble, ever depending solely on the 
 merits of Christ, ever desiring more grace. 
 Go then, young Christians, and try your 
 hand at holy duties. It is quite true that 
 you are very weak ; it is equally true that 
 Christ is very strong, and that his strength 
 is made perfect in weakness. 1 Have ye not 
 read, and is it not a sweet and gracious 
 
 1 2 Cor. xii. 9. 
 P 
 
158 THE SOUL 
 
 assurance, " He giveth power to the faint ; 
 and to them that have no might he in- 
 creaseth strength. Even the youths shall 
 faint and be weary, and the young men 
 shall utterly fall ; but they that wait upon 
 the Lord shall renew their strength ; they 
 shall mount up with wings as eagles ; they 
 shall run, and not be weary ; and they shall 
 walk, and not faint." 1 
 
 Lastly, I shall be truly thankful, should 
 this subject stir up any devoted soul to 
 greater diligence in serving our gracious Lord. 
 There is in such topics, however feebly 
 treated, much to make us hang down our 
 heads with shame and humiliation. So much 
 time lost ! such gracious opportunities gone 
 by ! such privileges so slightly improved ! 
 Oh, how little have we done, compared with 
 what we could have done, and ought to 
 have done for Christ ! Then, think of your 
 unconverted days, worse than lost ! Re- 
 member, when the soul was devoted, in a 
 bad sense, wholly given to vanities, follies, 
 vile affections! And yet, for all that sin- 
 
 l Isaiah xl. 29—31. 
 
DEVOTED. 159 
 
 fulness Christ gives you a full pardon : — I 
 speak to true believers : — he answers,, he 
 undertakes for you. You are " justified 
 freely by God's grace, through the redemp- 
 tion that is in Christ Jesus." l 
 
 And now, will ye not speed to serve, 
 praise, and glorify him all you can ? And 
 what is there which you cannot do, through 
 him that strengthened you ? I speak not 
 of things miraculous in nature. I bid you 
 not go and miraculously heal the sick, 
 cleanse the leper, raise the dead, remove 
 mountains, or walk upon the sea. I do bid 
 you, in Christ's name, to do things as con- 
 trary to flesh and blood. Be instruments, 
 in his hand, to heal those who are sick in 
 heart, leprous with moral pollution, dead in 
 sins. Go, and serve Christ in levelling the 
 mountains of difficulty, which oppose the 
 progress of his gospel. Go and walk, his 
 hand sustaining, over the waves of this trou- 
 blesome world. 
 
 Christians, I call you, in Christ's name, 
 and I am sure that, through his grace, you 
 
 1 Rom. iii, 24. 
 
160 
 
 THE SOUL DEVOTED. 
 
 will obey the calling, to go and do all holy 
 duties to which he invites. Go, and exer- 
 cise Christian graces amid trials. Go, and 
 be humble, pure, gentle, peaceable. Go, 
 and labour for Christ, as opportunity is given. 
 Do what you know you can do, through 
 Christ that strengtheneth you. Rise at his 
 bidding, superior to sloth, selfishness, and the 
 fear of man. Cheerfully consent to be often 
 wearied in his service, but never wearied of 
 it ! Gladly spend and be spent for him who 
 died for you ! There is much to be done 
 for Christ in this wretched world :— to 
 whom, but to you, should he look to do it ? 
 Oh, do what you can, and do it while you 
 can ! "Brethren, the time is short /" * 
 
 l 1 Cor. vii. 29. 
 
SERMON VI. 
 
 THE SOUL DEPARTING. 
 
 ACTS VII. 59, 60. 
 
 And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, 
 Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he kneeled down, 
 and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to 
 their charge. And when he had said this, he fell 
 asleep. 
 
 Such was the happy death of Stephen, 
 the first martyr of the Christian church. 
 It may, at first sight, appear strange, to look, 
 in the narrative of his death, for instruction 
 how, and in what spirit, a Christian ought 
 to die. His case, it may be thought, was 
 so singular, and the circumstances of his 
 death so extraordinary, that here can be no 
 pattern for ourselves. But, on examina- 
 
 p3 
 
162 THE SOUL 
 
 tion, I think it will be found, that, after 
 allowing largely for all that was extraordi- 
 nary, there will remain certain grand cha- 
 racteristics, in which the death of Stephen 
 illustrates the state of mind in which every 
 faithful disciple of Jesus Christ should pre- 
 pare to die. It is also possible, that, as to 
 see a Christian die is more striking than to 
 hear of it from others, so, a scriptural ex- 
 ample, like this, may bring the grand fea- 
 tures of a truly Christian death more vividly 
 before us, than any text could do, which 
 speaks of death under circumstances less 
 present to the eye 
 
 It is, however, remarkable, how very few 
 examples of the deaths of the faithful are 
 given us in the New Testament. We have 
 this of Stephen ; another, of the penitent 
 thief; we have few, if any, beside. We 
 read that Lazarus was sick and died ; we 
 have no particulars of his death. We read 
 of the deaths of John the Baptist and James, 
 but nothing of what they said or did when 
 dying. There is no scriptural account of 
 the deaths of Paul, or Peter, or John. We 
 
DEPARTING. 163 
 
 are told how they lived, how they thought 
 and spake of death ; but the last scene of 
 their lives is not described to us by any 
 inspired pen. This circumstance renders 
 the account of Stephen's death the more 
 valuable. At the same time, it seems to say, 
 that, after all, the important thing is to live 
 the Christian's life, to be truly found abid- 
 ing in Christ, to learn in spirit to die daily ; 
 and then, it matters comparatively little 
 whether, in our last moments, we have the 
 leisure, the faculties, and the opportunity 
 for glorifying God, with which some are 
 favoured. Whatever be the circumstantials, 
 to the true believer, u to live is Christ, and 
 to die is gain." * 
 
 Hence, brethren, I come to you, not now 
 on your death-beds, but here, in health and 
 strength, to bid you prepare to die the 
 Christian's death, by living his life, and being 
 found in that frame of mind in which a 
 Christian would wish to die. Then, when 
 death actually approaches, you will have no 
 new lesson to learn ; you will have but to 
 
 1 Phil. i. 21. 
 
164 THE SOUL 
 
 trim your replenished lamps, and go forth 
 to meet the bridegroom. 
 
 This subject, you are aware, is to con- 
 clude this little Series of Lectures. When 
 you have long had familiar acquaintance 
 with our former topics, you will yet have to 
 die. Even if you neglect all those things, 
 you cannot escape death. " It is appointed 
 unto men once to die." ! Therefore, it is 
 better now to face the subject, which, 
 though of gloomy and forbidding aspect, the 
 grace of God can yet make truly pleasant. 
 Jesus Christ, " who hath abolished death, 
 and hath brought life and immortality to 
 light/' 2 can enable us to meditate, with 
 cheerful interest, on our present topic, the 
 soul departing home to God. 
 
 The characteristics of a truly Christian 
 death as seen in the case of Stephen ; — 
 this, brethren, is our subject. 
 
 Observe, First, his faithful confession of 
 the Saviour before men. This you find in 
 the speech given in the former part of this 
 chapter ; the object of which is sometimes 
 
 1 Heb. ix. 27. 2 2 Tim. i. 10. 
 
DEPARTING. 1 65 
 
 overlooked. Its design was, 1. To move 
 the conscience of his hearers with a sense 
 of sin ; and, 2. To answer the charges which 
 had been maliciously brought against him. 
 Withal he confesses Jesus Christ and him 
 crucified, as the prophet promised by God 
 through Moses, 1 and as the Just One fore- 
 shown by the prophets, betrayed and slain 
 by the Jews. 2 Now, this is what every 
 Christian should be desirous to do before 
 he dies. Stephen, we see, confessed Christ 
 before the high priest and the council, 
 although he must have known that the con- 
 fession might cost him his life. And he, 
 my brethren, was but one of the noble 
 army of martyrs who have died most ago- 
 nizing deaths, rather than deny the Lord 
 who bought them. Surely they who live 
 in milder times, and who, when death 
 approaches, find themselves surrounded by 
 professed Christians and kind friends, should 
 not be ashamed to give their faithful testi- 
 mony to Jesus Christ. The Saviour claims, 
 and his church expects, that, if you do look 
 
 1 Acts vii. 37. 2 Acts vii. 52. 
 
166 THE SOUL 
 
 to him for salvation, as a gift procured for 
 you by his dying sorrows, you should hum- 
 bly and ingenuously confess your obligation. 
 Are you afraid of hypocrisy ? The fear 
 may be good : but it is no hypocrisy to con- 
 fess with the tongue the genuine feelings of 
 the heart. 
 
 Confess, then, Jesus Christ before men, 
 while you can ; do it faithfully from time to 
 time ; do it very distinctly when you feel 
 that you cannot have long to continue here. 
 Imitate Jacob, Moses, David, and Simeon, 
 who, toward the close of life, all gave very 
 plain testimonies of their hope in Christ. 
 Confess, with Paul "the aged," that you 
 know in whom you have trusted, and are 
 persuaded of his faithfulness : l testify with 
 Peter, when about to put off this your 
 tabernacle, that you have not followed cun- 
 ningly devised fables : 2 unite with John, 
 who, in extreme old age, bore faithful wit- 
 ness to the divinity, the grace, and the aton- 
 ing love of Christ. 3 And who can tell but 
 it may please God to bless your testimony to 
 
 l 2 Tim. i. 12. 2 2 Peter i. 14—16. 3 See his Epistles. 
 
DEPARTING. 167 
 
 those who survive ? Among those about 
 you when death is drawing near, there may 
 be some, Christians in name, infidels in 
 heart ; others, too careless and flippant ever 
 to have given to religion a serious thought ; 
 there may be self-righteous persons present, 
 quite ignorant that they can only be saved 
 by the righteousness of Christ ; there may be 
 unsound professors, holding the truth in un- 
 righteousness ; there may be many younger 
 Christians, needing to be encouraged ; many 
 also of your own or longer standing, to 
 whom it may afterwards prove no small 
 comfort, to know that you had found grace 
 to be faithful, and had not died without 
 hope toward God, Who, I say, can tell 
 but your testimony, given at such a time, 
 with a close appeal, like Stephen's, to con- 
 science and to Scripture, may be greatly 
 blessed? Do not some of you remember, 
 with peculiar interest, similar instructions 
 given to yourselves ? Who can forget the 
 last exhortations of a departed father, mo- 
 ther, brother, husband, wife, child, friend ? 
 At all events, you will do your duty : — and 
 
168 
 
 THE SOUL 
 
 that is your part. If they heed not, the 
 responsibility is theirs. If they regard, what 
 cause for thankfulness to God ! 
 
 May I not, then, affectionately leave this 
 duty on your memory and conscience, that 
 as a slight return for Christ's love in wit- 
 nessing a good confession for you before 
 Pontius Pilate, you will faithfully confess 
 him before men ? that you will do it now ; 
 renew it faithfully from time to time ; per- 
 severe in a consistent profession of his 
 gospel ; and at length, when the time that 
 you must die visibly approaches, then, 
 gather up your strength, or, rather, seek 
 strength of God, once again to declare 
 faithfully your simple testimony to Jesus 
 Christ, as the true Messiah, the only, but 
 all-sufficient Saviour, your hope and confi- 
 dence in going before God ! 
 
 The fifty-fifth verse will furnish us with a 
 Second characteristic of a faithful Christian, 
 at the approach of death. " But he being 
 full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stead- 
 fastly into heaven, and saw the glory of 
 God, and Jesus standing on the right hand 
 
DEPARTING. 169 
 
 of God." There was doubtless something 
 extraordinary in this. We before heard of 
 Stephen as " a man full of faith and of the 
 Holy Ghost;" 1 and again, as " full of faith 
 and power, doing great wonders and mira- 
 cles among the people." 2 Hence, it is pro- 
 bable, that now also, before death, he 
 had the Holy Spirit in a more extraor- 
 dinary measure and manner, than is the 
 lot of Christians in general. So also, the 
 view which he had of the glory of God, 
 and of Jesus standing at his right hand, 
 was probably more sensible, immediate, and 
 august, ^han what we are to expect. But, 
 separate what was extraordinary, and there 
 will remain what is the privilege of every 
 faithful Christian at such a time. 
 
 If true believers, ye are not ignorant 
 even now of the power and grace of the 
 Holy Ghost. It is he who made your soul 
 sensible of danger : he touched you with 
 godly sorrow ; he led you to believe in 
 Jesus Christ ; he has strengthened you 
 for much conflict ; his might and influence 
 
 1 Acts vi. 5. 2 Acts vi. 8. 
 
170 THE SOUL 
 
 make you the devoted Christian. Thus 
 you know him now. When you come to 
 die, ask, and you shall still have that holy 
 Comforter with you in that hour of trial. 
 It is not his custom to desert humble souls 
 in that emergency. Frequently they are 
 then permitted to have a fuller measure of 
 his grace ; that being often the season of 
 their deepest need. He will bring you 
 sweet promises from the divine word, he 
 will humble anew for sin, he will again take 
 of the things of Jesus and show them unto 
 you, and so he will comfort with solid com- 
 fort. He will specially give you larger and 
 nobler views of the glory of God, as it shines 
 forth in the covenant of grace. We, I 
 believe, have but a feeble idea of the grand 
 and sublime conception of the glory of God 
 in Christ Jesus, often given by the Holy 
 Spirit, as a soul-reviving cordial to the 
 dying Christian. Then, the faithful disciple 
 often sees more clearly than ever the glory 
 of the moral attributes of God; the divine 
 justice, holiness, mercy, truth, and love, 
 beautifully combined in the plan of that 
 
DEPARTING. 171 
 
 redemption, of which, the same good Spirit 
 witnesses to his spirit, that he is through 
 grace a true partaker. Brethren, in a dying 
 hour, human glory appears a falling star, an 
 ignis fatuus, a bubble ready to burst : the 
 Divine glory appears, what it is, a grand 
 reality * 
 
 In connexion with the glory of God, 
 Stephen saw Jesus standing on the right 
 hand of God ; and so may you with the eye 
 of faith. The Word of God declares that 
 he is there ; your faith, if you have faith, 
 readily believes it. You then no more doubt 
 that Jesus is personally at the right hand of 
 God at this moment, than you doubt that 
 you are here. That thought will also often 
 comfort you in trial, and animate you in 
 conflict. And especially in your last trial, 
 and when called to conflict with the " king 
 of terrors," * this your view of Jesus may be 
 peculiarly lively and impressive. By faith 
 you may see him there at the right hand of 
 God, the place^ of power, dignity, and joint 
 sovereignty with the Father, standing as an 
 advocate to plead, as a friend to beckon 
 
 ) Job xviii. 14. 
 
172 THE SOUL 
 
 you, Come up hither! as the Lord of 
 heaven, ready to welcome your departing 
 spirit entering into his kingdom. 
 
 Brethren, nothing can so comfort and 
 cheer in a dying hour as a believing view 
 of Jesus in his mediatorial exercise of power 
 and love. Other friends cannot help then. 
 Though a father were standing at your bed- 
 side, he can do little for you then. The 
 kindest of mothers can but wipe your fore- 
 head, smooth your pillow, grasp your hand, 
 and moisten it with a tear. Worldly friends 
 will prove miserable comforters then. But 
 Jesus, if by faith you can but see him stand- 
 ing to befriend you, will chase away all your 
 fears, uphold your sinking spirit, and revive 
 your fainting soul with the manifestation of 
 his grace. 
 
 We come to a Third characteristic of a 
 faithful death. We find it in verse 59 : — 
 " And they stoned Stephen, calling upon 
 God, and saying. Lord Jesus, receive my 
 spirit" Here is a prayer to Jesus Christ to 
 receive the departing soul : and this, without 
 making any deduction for what was extraor- 
 dinary in the case before us, I at once put 
 
DEPARTING. 173 
 
 down among the characteristics of every 
 faithful death. 
 
 He called upon God. The word " God" 
 is not in the original ; but it is clearly implied. 
 To whom but God is prayer permitted ? 
 Who but God can take charge of the soul of 
 man ? They who deny the Divinity of Jesus 
 Christ are much perplexed with this prayer 
 of Stephen addressed to him. The explana- 
 tion, which some of them have given, is, to 
 my mind, such an awful attempt to explain 
 away Divine truth, that I will not state it : — 
 it is so impious. But I leave them. Breth- 
 ren, I think you will feel in a dying hour, 
 that your departing soul needs a Divine 
 Saviour. You have one in Jesus Christ. 
 You may call upon him then, even as now. 
 His ear will not be heavy, though yours 
 may, when death is sealing up your faculties. 
 His eye will not have lost its power of gazing 
 affectionately on you, when yours is becom- 
 ing dim and closed. His hand will not be 
 shortened, in the hour when yours will have 
 become tremulous and feeble. But lift up 
 the hand, the heart, the eye, the soul, in 
 
 Q 3 
 
174 THE SOUL 
 
 prayer to him then, and you will find him a 
 very near and present help in that your time 
 of trouble. 
 
 Brethren, a Christian should die praying. 
 Other men die in different ways, according 
 to their character and temper. Julius Caesar 
 died adjusting his robes, that he might fall 
 gracefully. Augustus died in a compliment 
 to Livia his wife ;* Tiberius in dissimulation ; 2 
 Vespasian in a jest. 3 The infidel Hume 
 died, with pitiful jokes about Charon and 
 his boat ; Rousseau, with language of pre- 
 sumptuous boasting; Voltaire, with min- 
 gled imprecations and supplications ; Paine, 
 with shrieks of agonizing remorse. Multi- 
 tudes die with sullenness, some with blas- 
 phemies faltering on their tongue. But, 
 brethren, the humble Christian would die 
 praying. Well says the poet : — 
 
 " Prayer is the Christian's vital breath. 
 The Christian's native air ; 
 His watch-word at the gates of death, 
 He enters heaven with prayer !" 4 
 
 1 " Livia, conjugii nostri memor, vive et vale." 
 
 2 "Jam Tiberium vires et corpus, non dissimulatio desere- 
 bant." Tac. 
 
 3 " Utputo, Dens no." See Lord Bacon's Essay on Death. 
 
 4 Montgomery. 
 
DEPARTING. 175 
 
 But it is not a prayer to an unknown God, 
 or the God of a Deist, which will serve 
 then. It should be to God the Father, and 
 to Jesus the Son of God, the only Saviour 
 and Mediator. 
 
 But, observe for what Stephen prayed. 
 "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!" This is 
 the prayer of faith, commending the immor- 
 tal spirit to the covenant care of Jesus. The 
 spirit does not die with the body. None 
 but God, who gave, can take away the soul's 
 existence, and he has declared that he never 
 will. Would that bad men would think on 
 that ! You cannot get rid of your souPs 
 existence : you cannot cease to be : you may 
 wish it ; though the wish is monstrous and 
 unnatural But there is no annihilation for 
 any soul of man. Oh, come to our Saviour ! 
 give him your guilty soul, to be justified 
 through his atonement, washed in his blood, 
 regenerated by his Spirit. Make to him 
 now that surrender of your soul, for which 
 he calls. Renew this happy self-dedication 
 every day, very specially every Sabbath, 
 and most solemnly from time to time at the 
 
176 THE SOUL 
 
 Lord's Supper. And then, when you come 
 to die, it will only be, to do once more what 
 you have so often done in former days, — 
 again to commend your soul very humbly, 
 believingly, and affectionately, into the faith- 
 ful care of Jesus Christ. 
 
 Believers, behold here the secret of dying ! 
 " These all died in faith." 1 Bad men die 
 reluctantly : life is extorted from them as if 
 by main force. The believer dies willingly ; 
 his will is sweetly submitted to his Fathers 
 will : he makes it a religious act to die. 
 Just as Jesus himself commended his human 
 soul to his Father, saying, " Father, into thy 
 hands I commend my spirit ;" 2 so his believ- 
 ing disciple commends his soul to Jesus, and 
 through him to the Father. Here, I repeat, 
 is the secret how to die happily. To those 
 who know not that secret, it is a fearful 
 thing to die. It is a serious matter for any. 
 But to the worldly-minded and ungodly, if 
 not past feeling, to die must be as one of the 
 heathen philosophers confessed it, " of all 
 formidable things the most formidable." 3 
 
 1 Heb. xi. 13. 2 Laike xxiii. 46. 3 Aristotle. 
 
DEPARTING. 177 
 
 Only mention a neighbour's death in a gay- 
 circle : — lo ! you have thrown a gloom over 
 the whole assembly ; all are evidently sorry 
 that the topic was introduced. The ancient 
 Romans would not mention death in plain 
 words, if they could avoid it, but only by 
 circumlocution and implication. The hea- 
 thens, at this day, in like manner, " shun all 
 conversation on death, as most repugnant to 
 their feelings;" — I quote the words of an 
 eye-witness, 1 — "and account it the height 
 of cruelty to speak of the probability of a 
 sick friend's death, even to his relatives." 
 Even serious Christians are often in bond- 
 age through fear of death. It is such a 
 venture ; a mistake may be so fatal ; to 
 go before God is so awful ; judgment will 
 bring to light such secrets ; that many think, 
 How can I die? Yet you all must. Be 
 
 1 Mr. E. Baker, of the London Missionary Society, in Mada- 
 gascar. He gives this affecting testimony. "The stoutest- 
 hearted men will, as I have had occasion to observe in Ma- 
 dagascar, when stretched on a death-bed, exclaim, with all the 
 feebleness of children and anguish of despair, "I die! I die! 
 O mother! O father! I die!" while the big tears will trickle 
 down their olive cheeks in abundance." 
 
.178 THE SOUL 
 
 persuaded, give your soul to Jesus now ; do 
 it again from day to day ; and then, when 
 your dying day is come, again approach the 
 Saviour, and say, " Lord, I hear thee calling 
 for my spirit ; I see the wagons sent to 
 fetch me home to thee ; in the hand of death 
 I recognize thy hand of love : thou askest 
 for my soul, take it, for it is thine. Do with 
 it what thou wilt, I have given it to thee to 
 be washed in thy blood, and sanctified by 
 thy Spirit ; I am sure thou wilt do it no 
 harm ! " 
 
 Does a thought here arise, And what shall 
 become of my poor body ? Why, even if, 
 like Stephen's, it were battered and bruised 
 with stones murderously hurled, even though 
 it were burning at a stake, or tortured on a 
 rack, you need not mind; look but that the 
 soul be safe ; and then, whatever may be- 
 come of the body, Jesus will take care of 
 thy dust and ashes. The remains of his 
 faithful servants are to him the most precious 
 parts of this material earth. They form a 
 pledge of his final coming. For if your 
 souls are truly his, he will hereafter raise up 
 
DEPARTING. 179 
 
 your bodies glorious, incorruptible, immor- 
 tal, like unto his own. l 
 
 Thus, soul and body shall be safe for 
 eternity. Brethren, will you not remember 
 this when you come to die ? I may not be 
 near you ; if I were, I could but tell you of 
 these things, and pray with you. But my 
 own dying hour will have come before that 
 of some of you. But, do remember, for the 
 love of Christ, that it is your duty, your 
 privilege, and safety, then again to commit 
 your soul into his hands. Oh, trust to no 
 false hope ; call not on saint or angel ; lean 
 on no broken reed in that hour of trial. 
 But lean on Jesus, stay the heart on his faith- 
 ful promise : do it heartily, humbly, as poor 
 miserable sinners, as unprofitable servants, 
 even at the best ; plead again his righteous 
 obedience unto death for sinners, fix the eye 
 of faith on his cross, make that your only 
 glorying. And then, I dare promise, he will 
 receive your soul. He will carry it peace- 
 fully, if not joyfully, through the dark valley. 
 He will comfort by the way. And presently, 
 
 1 Phil. iii. 21. 
 
180 THE SOUL 
 
 like the shepherd carrying home his once 
 lost sheep, and calling his neighbours around 
 him to rejoice, he will introduce your happy 
 soul into the midst of the gratulations of 
 angels, and the thanksgivings of the re- 
 deemed, for the grace which brought you 
 into fellowship with them in the presence of 
 the Father. 
 
 There is, however, yet another, even a 
 Fourth characteristic of a faithful death, as 
 seen in the case of Stephen, at verse 60 : 
 "And he kneeled down, and cried with a 
 loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their 
 charge" There you see the charity toward 
 man, with which a Christian dies. Here 
 again Stephen followed his Lord. When 
 Jesus was dying on the cross, he prayed ; — 
 and the prayer ought to have softened the 
 hearts of his murderers : — " Father, forgive 
 them, for they know not what they do." 
 Now, if Jesus could forgive and pray for 
 those who crucified him ; if Stephen could 
 find it in his heart to pray for those who 
 were crushing him with stones, and con- 
 
 1 Luke xxiii. 34. 
 
DEPARTING. 181 
 
 senting to his death ; if God, for Christ's 
 sake, forgives his bitter enemies, and by his 
 grace converted some of the murderers of 
 Jesus into faithful disciples ; l then, surely 
 it is your duty, before you die, to forgive 
 your enemies, if you have any, however 
 they may have offended or injured you. 
 Would you do it aright then 9 Try, and 
 do it now. To die is altogether so great 
 a thing, that we should not then be learn- 
 ing things which we ought to have learned 
 years before. 
 
 O that I might persuade you, if at vari- 
 ance with any, as some of you very probably 
 are, to forgive them freely, to go and pray 
 for them, to return good for evil, to put 
 away from you " all bitterness, and wrath, 
 and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, 
 with all malice ; and be ye kind one to 
 another, tender-hearted, forgiving one ano- 
 ther, even as God for Christ's sake hath 
 forgiven you." 2 May I hope that you will 
 obey this exhortation ? My soul sighs within 
 me to think of the unforgiving tempers of 
 
 1 Compare Actsii. 23, with verse 41, &c. 2 Ephes. iv. 31, 32. 
 R 
 
182 THE SOUL 
 
 some professing Christians. Yet there is no 
 duty which Christ more earnestly pressed 
 on his disciples than this of mutual forgive- 
 ness. He wonderfully wrapped it up in our 
 daily prayer for pardon; so that if unfor- 
 giving, we must be unforgiven, and our very 
 prayers will be witnesses against us, and 
 even invoke curses on our heads ! May we 
 all think of this as often as we say, " Forgive 
 us our trespasses, as we forgive them that 
 trespass against us !" 
 
 My friends, we are told that when an 
 eminent American divine * once preached on 
 this duty of forgiving injuries, after the ser- 
 vice, two families, which had been for years 
 at variance, remained behind, as if unable 
 to leave the place till they had sought a 
 mutual reconciliation. Would that every 
 one of you might feel a similar constraint, 
 and drop, from this moment, every feeling 
 of animosity toward every one who may in 
 any way have offended you ! You will lose 
 nothing by following this advice. What- 
 ever be the sweetness of revenge, forgive- 
 
 1 Jonathan Edwards. 
 
DEPARTING. 183 
 
 ness is a sweeter and a purer feeling. Your 
 bosom will be more calm and peaceful, 
 when it has lost that resentful temper. Your 
 new spirit of kindness may also soften whom 
 enmity did but exasperate. And above all, 
 you will obey and imitate Christ, and have 
 begun to prepare aright for a dying hour. 
 
 Surely none of you would wish to die in 
 
 malice. You would not carry the petty 
 
 quarrels of this life into the other world. 
 
 You hardly can be hoping to retain enmity 
 
 in heaven. There is no such thing there ! 
 
 Oh, cherish now those principles which you 
 
 may hope to retain there. That is a golden 
 
 rule for holy living, as well as a preparative 
 
 for faithful dying. Cultivate the principles, 
 
 which will not die when you die. Get seeds 
 
 sown in your hearts now, which may not 
 
 wither when your body withers, but may 
 
 expand and bloom in the paradise of God. 
 
 Forgiving charity is one, being a part of the 
 
 love which never faileth. Ask God to sow, 
 
 to water, and to nourish it in your hearts. 
 
 It is no common plant in this unforgiving 
 
 world. Look at the world's men of honour ; 
 
184 THE SOUL 
 
 — offend them, and they will kill you, if 
 you are weak and wicked enough to let 
 them. What a thought, that numbers, high 
 in station, and of polished manners, and 
 calling themselves Christians, live with a 
 settled determination to break the sixth 
 commandment, whenever an imputation 
 shall be cast on their honour ! Then, look 
 into worldly families, and mark the ran- 
 corous divisions. Enter into the history of 
 churches, and see, with sorrow, how in- 
 fidels have found cause to laugh, where 
 angels might find cause to weep, in the 
 bitter animosities of the followers of the 
 Lamb. Nay, look into your own hearts, 
 and see if there have not been there also the 
 seeds of " envy, hatred, and malice, and all 
 uncharitableness." For Christ's sake, try 
 and root them out. If others injure you, 
 never injure yourself again by harbouring 
 malice toward them. As you would live 
 peaceably, and die joyfully, see that you 
 freely forgive, even as you hope to be for- 
 given. 
 
 Thus, brethren, you have heard, from 
 
DEPARTING. 185 
 
 Stephen's example, of Four characteristics 
 of the Christian's soul when departing home 
 to God. The First was in the faithful con- 
 fession of Christ before men : the Second, in 
 a believing view of the Divine glory, and of 
 Jesus at the right hand of God; and this 
 through the power and grace of the Holy 
 Spirit : the Third, in a spirit of prayer, with 
 a faithful committal of the soul to Jesus 
 Christ : and the Fourth, in a lively exercise 
 of forgiving charity toward men. 
 
 And what, you may ask, comes after this ? 
 You will then have nothing to do but to 
 die ! Mark how pleasantly this is told us 
 in Stephen's case, verse 60 : " And when he 
 had said this, he fell asleep" What a peace- 
 ful expression! What weary man dreads 
 sleep ? Yet to a true believer this is death, 
 to fall asleep in Jesus ! Not that the soul 
 sleeps : — that is but a dreamy thought. To 
 be "absent from the body," is to be "present 
 with the Lord." l But the body itself, when 
 the soul is fled, is very much as in a sleep, 
 waiting for the morning of the resurrection: 
 
 1 2 Cor. v. 8. 
 r3 
 
186 THE SOUL 
 
 it is so insensible to sorrow and alarm ; it 
 lies so still and motionless ; it looks so calm ! 
 The soul also reposes, but not in torpid in- 
 sensibility ; it rests, if it belonged to Jesus, 
 from cares, troubles, conflicts ; it is carried 
 through brighter regions than fancy ever 
 wafted us in dreams and visions of the 
 night ; it mingles with congenial spirits, it 
 hears melodious voices, it sees what eye 
 hath not seen ; it enjoys pleasures so pure, 
 so exquisite, so full of blessedness and God, 
 as to exceed our comprehension. And yet 
 this is all no dream, no idle talk, none of 
 fancy's fictions. All is real, solid, perma- 
 nent. Whatever be wanting, the resurrec- 
 tion will supply. Then, the sleep which 
 enchained the body will be burst ; the en- 
 chanter's spell will be broken ; the body 
 will awake up, after the Saviour's image ; 
 and the soul and body will re-unite to part 
 no more, but to walk together, in holy com- 
 panionship, through the ages of eternity. 
 
 But at this point we must stop. It falls 
 not within the plan of this course of Ser- 
 mons, to attempt to describe the bliss of 
 
DEPARTING. 187 
 
 the redeemed in glory. My anxiety for 
 you is, that, through the grace of Christ, 
 you may but safely reach that happy land, 
 and then I have no fear but you will find its 
 blessedness beyond all that tongue could 
 tell, or heart conceive here on earth. Hav- 
 ing traced the departing soul home to God, 
 there I can cheerfully leave it, safe for eter- 
 nity. But remember, that soul is the very 
 same which we so lately saw to be the soul 
 in danger. The same soul has been spoken 
 of throughout, but now, oh, how changed ! 
 Shall yours be that happy soul? Yours 
 was the soul in danger. Shall it also be 
 the soul in glory ? What a question ! May 
 God rightly impress it on every conscience ! 
 Allow me a parting word of application 
 with every soul. 
 
 I once again appeal to the unconverted 
 sinner, whom I have so often addressed in 
 these discourses. I have had his case much 
 upon my heart, God is witness. And now, 
 sinner, I am to speak a last word to thee, 
 so far as concerns the opportunity afforded 
 by this course of Sermons. I do it with 
 
1 88 THE SOUL 
 
 affection for thy soul, yet, if thou art hitherto 
 unmoved, I do it also with much of sorrow 
 and concern. My fellow-sinner, you and I 
 have to die ! I have told you how the Chris- 
 tian hopes to die. Now, I would ask, How 
 do you mean to die ? Is it, as you are liv- 
 ing, careless, foolish, impenitent, scoffing I 
 Would you die in a stupor of insensibility ? 
 or blaspheming ? or in a state of intoxica- 
 tion ? or " as a fool dieth ? " l Would you 
 die what you are, an impenitent, unpar- 
 doned, unregenerate sinner ? Now, do not 
 tell me that you mean to die like a true 
 Christian, if you will not begin to live like 
 one. It will be a terrible thing to have to 
 learn repentance, faith, conflict, devoted- 
 ness, regeneration, sanctiflcation, all within 
 the space of a few short hours, amid weak- 
 ness, faintness, pain, agony, and, it may be, 
 delirium and stupor. 
 
 I will not say that there never is such a 
 thing as a death-bed repentance or conver- 
 sion, which may issue in salvation. But I 
 believe that it is no common thing, espe- 
 
 1 2 Sam. iii. 33. 
 
DEPARTING. 189 
 
 cially in cases where men have been secretly 
 putting the whole matter off to that hour. 
 For God knows that secret intention, and it 
 grievously insults his mercy. It presents 
 his creature, saying, " I know very well that 
 I ought to repent, but I will not do it yet. 
 I will take my fill of sin. I will give to 
 God the last dregs of life." Now, what 
 must God think of that language? Yet 
 thus your heart speaks, when you put off 
 repentance to your death-bed. Oh, it is 
 with a heavy heart that ministers visit the 
 death-beds of the ungodly ; they are so 
 afraid of deceiving or giving false comfort ; 
 their only satisfaction is to do what they 
 can, to warn, exhort, invite the dying sin- 
 ner to come, ere too late, to Christ; then 
 to pray with him and for him : and then, to 
 leave the issue with the all-wise God ! 
 
 But, sinner, am I to leave thee as I found 
 thee, with the soul in danger ? There are 
 some here, who are on their way to glory. 
 Are they and you presently to part, as by 
 two opposite paths ? Oh, what shall I say 
 
190 THE SOUL 
 
 to arouse thee ? what can I say more, if the 
 prospect of the soul lost, heaven lost, Christ 
 rejected, cannot move thee ? Has thy soul 
 no feeling ? Is it incapable of hope and 
 fear, of love and gratitude, of desire and 
 expectation ? Oh, what a thing is sin, 
 which has hardened, blinded, sensualized 
 that heart, which, if given to God through 
 Christ, might have been soft, tender, sen- 
 sible, affectionate, and gentle! Sinner, I 
 must leave thee. I suppose that I ought 
 to threaten thee with hell. But thou hast 
 hell begun. There is no heaven in thy 
 heart. There is no foretaste of heaven's 
 peace, and joy, and blessedness, in that 
 wretched soul. Is there any ? I will 
 add no threat: thou art miserable enough 
 already : my last word with thee, in this 
 course of Sermons, shall not be a threat, 
 but an invitation and a prayer. Sinner, I 
 invite thee for the last time. Come yet, 
 come now, as a guilty sinner, to Jesus Christ. 
 Tell him how nearly thou hadst rejected 
 him and salvation : ask for pardon through 
 
DEPARTING. 191 
 
 his name : accept the mercy which he so 
 freely offers. And here is my heart's desire 
 and prayer for thee, " Lord, look on that 
 hitherto impenitent sinner! He has been 
 invited once again to come to thee and 
 be saved : and will he come ? Lord, thou 
 knowest ! Persuade him, Lord, by thy own 
 grace ; touch thou his conscience ; turn 
 thou his heart! Oh, give him repentance 
 unto life ; lay not his sin to his charge ! 
 Lord, thou heardest Stephen praying for thy 
 enemies. Thou didst turn one of his per- 
 secutors into one of thy vessels of mercy. 
 Thou madest Saul, the persecutor of Ste- 
 phen and of thy church, to become Paul, 
 the apostle, the martyr, the glorified saint ! 
 Lord, make that hitherto impenitent sinner 
 even yet a monument of thy grace ! " 
 
 I turn to you, my believing brethren, 
 who have gone with me through each stage 
 of our course, and did not shrink from 
 entering experimentally into what seemed 
 such painful topics as repentance and con- 
 flict. See whither I have been leading you 
 this evening, even to the last stage of the 
 
192 THE SOUL 
 
 journey of life, to the verge of glory, to the 
 top of Pisgah, whence you may survey the 
 heavenly Canaan. 
 
 Let young Christians, whose benefit also 
 I have much consulted in these Lectures, be 
 encouraged, — not to carelessness or pre- 
 sumption ; I hope I have said nothing to 
 lead to that ; I did not mean it, if I have ; 
 — but to a simple, affectionate reliance on 
 Jesus Christ in life and in death. Be not 
 ashamed of such a Saviour. Count it your 
 privilege to belong to him. Give him your 
 hearts, and then your lives will also be 
 given to him. Shun no conflict, refuse no 
 service, to which he is pleased to call. 
 Allow me the hope, that you will faithfully 
 follow him, when some of us are gone 
 hence. Allow me the expectation of meet- 
 ing you in heaven, and of there hearing, 
 from each of you, a fuller and a better 
 account of the history of a saved soul ! 
 
 Elder Christians, who have known these 
 things for years, whose souls, by long expe- 
 rience, are intimate with all my topics, 
 except that of this discourse, and whom 
 
DEPARTING. 193 
 
 meditation has made familiar with that also ; 
 let this little course of sermons serve, with 
 God's blessing, to revive your recollections, 
 renew your gratitude, quicken your dili- 
 gence, and reanimate your hopes. They 
 have not been meant to teach novelties, but 
 to promote holy repenting, holy believing, 
 holy fighting against sin, holy obeying, and 
 holy dying. I beg your prayers for a bless- 
 ing on this effort to do good to souls. 
 Forget not to intercede for younger Chris- 
 tians, and for impenitent sinners. Refuse 
 me not, when I once again entreat your 
 prayers for myself, that after having preached 
 to others, I may not be a cast-away. And 
 may God help and keep you, my dear 
 brethren, and carry you through every trial, 
 even to the end of your earthly pilgrimage ! 
 May the divine arm strengthen you for 
 dying ! May the good Shepherd be with 
 each of you, in passing through the dark 
 valley ! May the " very God of peace sanc- 
 tify you wholly ; and I pray God your whole 
 spirit, and soul, and body, be preserved 
 blameless unto the coming of our Lord 
 
194 THE SOUL DEPARTING. 
 
 Jesus Christ." l And then, may we all meet 
 in the happy land, to praise, through eter- 
 nity, the Triune God, the Father who chose, 
 the Son who redeemed, the Holy Spirit who 
 led souls, once in danger, to become, for 
 ever, souls in glory ! 
 
 1 1 Thess. v. 23. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 W. Tyler, Printer, Ivy Lane, St. Paul's. 
 
BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 
 I. 
 
 CHRIST THE GOOD PHYSICIAN. 
 
 A Sermon on Matt. viii. 17. 
 
 Fifth Edition, 18mo. stitched, price 6d., or 1*. watered 
 cloth. 
 
 II. 
 
 SERMONS 
 
 ON THE FIFTY-THIRD CHAPTER OF ISAIAH, THE 
 BEATITUDES, AND OTHER SUBJECTS. 
 
 Second Edition, 8vo., price 10s. 6d., cloth hoards. 
 
 III. 
 
 SABBATH PROFANATION; 
 
 A Sermon, Second Edition, price 6d. 
 
 IV. 
 
 SABBATH SANCTIFICATION; 
 
 A Sermon, price 6d. 
 
Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
 Neutralizing agent: Magnes.um Ox.de 
 Treatment Date: Oct. 2005 
 
 111 Thomson PaikOrwe 
 Cranberry Township. PA 16066 
 (724)779-2111