UC-NRLF . 
 
LIBRARY 
 
 \ OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 GIFT OF 
 
 a.. .. QHAS, R. GRE^L^AF* 
 
 Class 
 
/ 
 
 
POSTHUMOUS SERMONS. 
 
 BY THE 
 
 EEV. HENRY BLUNT, A.M., 
 
 
 LATE RECTOR OF STRE ATHAM ; 
 
 KB FORMERLY FELLOW OF PEMBROKE COLLEGE. CAMBH1DOK 
 
 THIRD AMERICAN EDITION. 
 
 
 PHILADELPHIA ! 
 
 PUBLISHED BY H. HOOKER, 
 
 S. W. CORNER CHESNUT & EIGHTH STa 
 1854. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 IT is in compliance with the wish of the loved and 
 lamented author of these Sermons, that they have been sub- 
 mitted to me for my inspection ; and that the oversight of 
 them, as they passed through the press, was intrusted to my 
 care. It is hardly necessary to say, that, with the exception 
 of one or two trifling verbal alterations, they are printed just 
 as they were preached. This statement is made at the desire 
 of his family and friends ; otherwise, greatly as I value the 
 privilege of being associated with one so dear to myself, and 
 so universally esteemed, I should have refrained from the 
 intrusion of my name. It may appear superfluous, and even 
 presumptuous in me, to add any observations of my own on 
 the character of these Sermons ; but I cannot resist saying, 
 that the perusal of them has confirmed the opinion formed 
 from his preceding volume ; namely, that, eminently useful, 
 and singularly attractive, as are the series of his well-known 
 Historical Lectures, and his practical Commentary on the 
 
 Pentateuch, they are even surpassed by his Sermons. The 
 
 iii 
 
 4 7 * Q o 1 Q 
 
 ^ JL O O ~*. O 
 
PREFACE.. 
 
 value of these had been so long and so fully attested by the 
 effect of his ministry, that it always seemed a matter of regret 
 that a larger proportion of them was not presented to the 
 public during his lifetime ; though, perhaps, they may now 
 come to many invested with a deeper interest, as the echo of 
 that loved voice, whose impressive sounds will long live in 
 their remembrance. In all the sterling and more important 
 qualities of addresses from the pulpit in the full exhibition 
 of the whole of Divine truth in its various bearings and pro- 
 portions in the intimate connexion maintained between 
 Christian privilege and Christian practice in the unfolding 
 of the secret workings -of the human heart, and in the deep 
 searching of the conscience, they are unrivalled ; while they 
 are equally distinguished for the rich but simple eloquence, 
 the brilliant but chastened imagination which pervades them ; 
 combined with a plain perspicuity of language that com- 
 mends them to persons of all ranks and of all ages. I would 
 only add, that the Sermons are a transcript of the man 
 eminent for his clear and accurate discrimination, his sound 
 and solid and comprehensive judgment whose life exempli- 
 fied the sanctifying influence of the truths which he enforced, 
 while his death sealed the sufficiency of those promises 
 which he delighted to proclaim. Though his bodily weak- 
 ness was great to the utmost limit of endurance, his mind 
 remained in full vigour to the last, and his faith and hope 
 continued bright and unclouded even to the end. In the few 
 last days he frequently repeated, in the full perception of 
 their preciousness, those blessed words, "This is a faithful 
 saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came 
 into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief." And 
 during the last day and night of suffering, this was his testi- 
 
PREFACE. v 
 
 mony, that the dependence which he had realized in life, did 
 not fail him in the hour of death : " Much bodily suffering, 
 but no doubt, and perfect peace; and I know I shall enjoy it 
 throughout eternity for the alone merits of my Saviour." 
 
 JOHN BROWNE, 
 
 TRINITY CHURCH, CHELTENHAM. 
 January 13, 1844. 
 
 1 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 SERMON I. 
 
 THE MUTABILITY OP MAN, THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD. 
 
 ZECHARIAH i. 5, 6. Your fathers, where are they ? And the pro- 
 phets, do they live for ever ? But my words and my statutes 
 which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not 
 take hold of your fathers? And they returned and said, Like 
 as the Lord of Hosts thought to do unto us, according to our 
 ways, and according to our doings, so hath he dealt with us. 
 
 Page 11 
 
 SERMON II. 
 
 CHRIST THE BELIEVER ? S REFUGE. 
 
 ISAIAH xxxii. 2. A man shall be as an hiding-place from the 
 wind, and a covert from the tempest ; as rivers of water in a 
 dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. 22 
 
 SERMON III. 
 
 CHRIST THE FULNESS OF THE BELIEVER. 
 
 EPHESIANS i. 22, 23. The Head over all things to the Church, 
 which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all. 33 
 
 SERMON IV. 
 
 THE ALMOST CHRISTIAN. 
 
 ACTS xxvi. 28. Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. 
 
 45 
 
 (7) 
 
v ]]j CONTENTS. 
 
 SERMON V. 
 THE BELIEVER'S ASSURED INHERITANCE. 
 
 1 PETER I. 4, 5. An inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and 
 that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you who are kept 
 by the power of God through faith unto salvation. 58 
 
 SERMON VT. 
 
 THE DEVICES OF SATAN. 
 
 2 COR. 11. 11 . We are not ignorant of his devices. 71 
 
 SERMON VII. 
 
 THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED. 84 
 
 SERMON VIII. 
 
 THE SAME SUBJECT CONCLUDED. 96 
 
 SERMON IX. 
 
 THE SOLEMN SEARCH. 
 
 ZEPHANIAH i. 12. And it shall come to pass at that time, that 1 
 will search Jerusalem with candles, and punish the men that 
 are settled on their lees : that say in their heart, The Lord will 
 not do good, neither will he do evil. ] 08 
 
 SERMON X. 
 
 THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. 
 
 JEREMIAH xxiii. 6. This is his name by which he shall be called, 
 The Lord our Righteousness. 121 
 
CONTENTS j x 
 
 SERMON XL 
 
 CONFESSING CHRIST. 
 
 MATTHEW x. 32, 33. Whosoever, therefore, shall confess me 
 before men, him will I confess before my Father which is in 
 heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will 
 I also deny before my Father which is in heaven. 131 
 
 SERMON XII. 
 
 GO FORWARD. 
 
 EXODUS xiv. 15.* Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go 
 forward. 144 
 
 SERMON XIII. 
 
 SANCTIFIED AFFLICTIONS. 
 
 2 COR. iv. 17, 18. For our light affliction, which is but for a 
 moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal 
 weight of glory ; while we look not at the things w^ich are 
 seen, but at the things which are not seen, for the things 
 which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not 
 seen are eternal. 157 
 
 SERMON XIV. 
 
 REDEEMING THE TIME. 
 
 EPHESIANS v. 16. Redeeming the time, because the days are 
 evil. 169 
 
 SERMON XV. 
 
 THE JUDGMENT. 
 
 ACTS xvii. 31. He hath appointed a day, in the which he will 
 judge the world in righteousness, by that man whom he hath 
 ordained ; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in 
 that he hath raised him from the dead. 178 
 
SERMONS. 
 
 SERMON I. 
 
 THE MUTABILITY OF MAN, THE IMMU- 
 TABILITY OF GOD. 
 
 ZECHARIAH i. 5, 6. 
 
 Your fathers, where are they 1 and the prophets, do they live for 
 ever! but my words and my statutes, which I commanded my ser- 
 vants the prophets, did they not take hold of your fathers 1 and 
 they returned and said, like as the Lord of hosts thought to do 
 unto us, according to our ways, and according to our doings, so 
 hath he dealt with us. 
 
 THE mutability of man, and the immutability of God ! 
 How awful a subject, how solemnly impressed upon us 
 by every revolving year, yet how little inclined are we 
 to dwell upon it, how much indisposed to suffer the con- 
 sideration of it to interfere with any of our plans of 
 worldly enjoyment, or to quicken us, as it ought to do, 
 in the immediate, the earnest, anxious pursuit of spiritual 
 good. May our God, even Jehovah, who spake these 
 words in time past unto his people by the prophets, in this 
 latter day speak them unto our hearts by the Spirit of 
 his Son ; that if they have never yet, in the language of 
 the text, u taken hold" of us, they may this day so take 
 11 
 
|2 THE MUTABILITY OF MAN, 
 
 hold of our attention, of our memory, and of our hearts, 
 as to sanctify to us this first sabbath of the opening 
 year, and to fix upon our souls the warning, the precepts, 
 the promises and the threatenings of our God, that they 
 may not merely influence us for a passing hour, but 
 abide with us for ever. 
 
 We shall commence by stating briefly the original in- 
 tention of the passage, as it occurs in the prophecy from 
 which it is taken. 
 
 The Almighty had sent his prophet Zechariah, as we 
 find by the beginning of the chapter, to call his people to 
 repentance, with the promise that their repentance should 
 be accepted. To urge them the more strongly to this, 
 the Lord reminds them that Jie had " been sore dis- 
 pleased with their fathers, 3 ' and cautions them very 
 expressly not to imitate their obduracy and sin, but to 
 turn at the voice of the Lord. He then condescends 
 to reason with them in the words of the text, upon 
 the obvious wisdom and advantage of so doing, 
 grounding this appeal upon the following affecting 
 considerations ; that their fathers, who in old time had 
 been warned, as they were now, and had rejected the 
 warning, had been cut off by the predicted judgments 
 which they despised, and were, as the Psalmist expresses 
 it, " clean gone for ever ;" that the prophets who had 
 carried these warnings, and urged them upon the atten- 
 tion of their fathers, could no longer benefit them, for 
 that they also were removed ; that the teachers and the 
 taught, the disciples and the masters, in fact the whole 
 generation, had been swept away ; thus reminding them, 
 in a very convincing manner, of the mutability of man. 
 The Almighty then proceeds to remind them as strikingly 
 of the immutability of God. He says, in effect, Did the 
 Almighty change because your fathers would not hear 
 
THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD. [3 
 
 and would not turn? Did God alter his message be jiwse 
 they refused to receive it? Is not the warning which 
 you hear at this hour, the identical warning which your 
 fathers heard and scoffed at, and were destroyed ; and 
 though generation after generation has passed away, has 
 one jot or one tittle of God's Word ever passed away? 
 So far from it that I leave you to pronounce whether one 
 syllable was changed, whether one syllable ever fell to 
 the ground of all that the Lord had spoken. Did not 
 the judgments which he long had threatened, at the last 
 overtake your fathers? Were they not themselves com- 
 pelled to declare that God never thought to bring one 
 judgment upon them, and brought it not? How con- 
 vincing an argument, how striking a conclusion to the 
 present message of the Almighty, thus to refer to the 
 neglect and to the fulfilment of all that had preceded it. 
 
 My intention then, brethren, this morning, is to en- 
 deavour to impress upon you the importance and the ne- 
 cessity of your laying earnestly to heart all those messages 
 from God, all the warnings, all the precepts, all the pro- 
 mises, which you have heard from this place during the 
 last twelvemonth, by the same considerations, the immu- 
 tability of God, and the mutability of his people, the im- 
 changeableness of God and of his Word, and the transito- 
 riness of you who hear, and of us who proclaim it. 
 
 First, from the immutability of God, and the un- 
 changeableness of his Word. If we who are the minis- 
 ters of the Most High, were commissioned to bring you 
 message after message from the great God of heaven and 
 earth, and if these messages all were different the one from 
 the other ; if the warning of to-day were less solemn and 
 less awakening than the warning of yesterday, or the pro- 
 mises of to-morrow more abundant than those of to-day, 
 we can easily imagine you waiting in suspense, Sabbath 
 
 2 
 
J4 THE MUTABILITY OF MAN, 
 
 after Sabbath, and year after year, watching for the mosi 
 favourable opportunity, carefully preparing for the hour 
 when you could make the most profitable terms with 
 God, and turn to him in penitence and faith. But, 
 orethren, you well know that this is not the fact, that 
 there is one message, and but one, which the ministers 
 of God have for more than eighteen centuries been com- 
 missioned to sound in the ears of his "people : that this 
 message no man, no angel can ever alter; for did not the 
 chief apostle to the Gentiles distinctly say, " There be 
 some that would pervert the Gospel of Christ. But 
 though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any othe 
 Gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto 
 you, let him be accursed I" The counsel and the word 
 of the Most High are therefore as immutable as his 
 person; for does he not again expressly say by the pro- 
 phet Ezekiel, "I am the Lord : I will speak, and the 
 word that I shall speak shall come to pass." "I am the 
 Lord, I change not." Can you then, brethren, justify 
 yourselves in this, that knowing as you well know, and as 
 we all know, that this is the truth ; that the word which 
 has once passed from the lips of the Almighty, can never 
 alter; that the straight way will not be made broader, or 
 the narrow gate wider, even though a world of sinners 
 were struggling for admittance ; can you justify your- 
 selves in this, that after the way of salvation has been 
 once fairly proposed to you, after the Lamb of God, who 
 alone taketh away the sins of the world, has been plainly 
 presented to you, and the value of your soul, and the 
 heinousness of sin, and the necessity of repentance, and 
 the unutterable import of eternity, have been all distinctly 
 se> before you, you should yet be found slumbering at 
 your post, deaf to warning, and callous to entreaties? 
 Did you ever seriously think for one quarter of an hour, 
 
THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD. J 
 
 of the value of your soul? Did you ever reflect that 
 after these little periods of time, year after year, have run 
 away, that you possess what cannot die, that you carry 
 within you that which, when unnumbered ages shall 
 have run their course, will not be one day nearer to the 
 termination of its existence than it is this morning? and 
 that the fate of this immortal portion of you depends 
 upon these few, brief, unthought of periods, another of 
 which has, since yesterday, joined its brethren beyond 
 the flood ? O how earnestly would we desire to plead 
 with you, if any are now present, careless and indifferent, 
 at this commencement of another year, upon your blind- 
 ness and infatuation. 
 
 Look only at the words of the text, and observe from 
 <hem, what has been the confession of the thoughtless 
 sinner ; the man who lives and dies inattentive to the 
 voice of warning, and of mercy, in every age that has 
 passed over us; and be assured that his experience must 
 one day be your own. You may for a time escape the 
 danger of which God has warned you; you may find 
 pleasure, even though it be a transitory pleasure, in the 
 follies and the sins of the world ; still a day must come 
 when God will seal the truth of every warning and 
 every threatening you have heard in characters of fire 
 upon your souls: a day must arrive, when the heartfelt 
 confession will be wrung from you, which was there 
 wrung from the impenitent Jews, "Like as the Lord of 
 hosts thought to do unto us, according to our ways, and 
 according to our doings, so hath he dealt with us." 
 Yes, brethren, depend upon it, what God thinks he 
 shall do, that he will do, although earth and hell en- 
 deavour to arrest his progress. Has it not been always 
 thus from the very foundation of the world? What 
 would be the testimony of our first parents? God 
 
|^g THE MUTABILITY OF MAN, 
 
 thought to punish their disobedience, and they hid 
 themselves from God among the trees of the garden ; 
 did they escape? What would be the testimony of the 
 antediluvian world ? God thought to destroy them with 
 a flood, which should overwhelm both man and beast, 
 young and old; did they escape? No; though a whole 
 world was in arms against God, their numbers found no 
 protection, " like as he thought to do unto them, ac- 
 cording to their ways, and according to their doings, so 
 did he deal with them." So was it amidst the fires of 
 Sodom ; so was it at the destruction of Jerusalem ; so 
 shall it be on that day, when time gives place to eternity. 
 Not an individual ever passes out of this world in that 
 enmity to God in which he was born, and in which he 
 lived, who, if he were obliged to confess the truth, would 
 not be compelled to speak as these have spoken. Many, 
 no doubt, depart in stupid ignorance of all that shall 
 come after, as the ox goeth to the slaughter ; but this is 
 only postponing the confession, not denying it. Of the 
 great majority, we scruple not to say, that the feelings 
 of their closing hours are of this nature, " What God 
 has threatened he will perform; would that I might re- 
 trace my steps; would that I might live over again t'he 
 wasted hours, the mispent days, the sinning years, that 
 are now gone and gone for ever." Then it is that the 
 words of God, neglected in health, forgotten in prosperity, 
 <l take hold," or as the marginal reading still more em- 
 phatically expresses it, "overtake" the sinner's soul, and 
 extort from him the humiliating confession. 
 
 But the expression of the text is peculiarly striking, 
 "They returned and said." It is as if they \vere on the 
 very brink of destruction, as if with one foot in the grave; 
 miy more, as if the hand of God already pressed upon 
 them in his wrath, when they turned back, and acknow 
 
THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD 
 
 iedged ? God has indeed been too strong for us, we have 
 sown to the wind, and we must reap the whirlwind. 
 Brethren, how fearful would be the testimony if all who 
 have experienced, who are experiencing, this immutable 
 truth, could return but for one hour, and bear their evi- 
 dence to its fulfilment. What a scene, of anguish and of 
 misery would be laid bare before our eyes, if every im- 
 penitent sinner, every individual who commenced the 
 last year in health and carelessness and defiance of God, 
 and heard unmoved these threatenings and these warn- 
 ings, and has since been called away in the same state 
 of impenitency and sin, could now rise up before us and 
 return to say, "Like as the Lord of hosts thought to do 
 unto me, according to my ways, and according to my 
 doings, so hath he dealt/ 5 so is he dealing, so shall he 
 deal with me throughout eternity ! 
 
 Who could hear unmoved such an attestation to the 
 unchangeableness of God ? Who can bear to think that 
 there is a living soul who could make it? Yet, can we 
 question, can we for a moment doubt, if God and his 
 Word be thus immutable, that if the prison-house of 
 eternity were unbarred, and its guilty inhabitants driven, 
 forth, if the floor of this church were for a moment 
 occupied by the "spirits now in prison," enveloped in 
 their chains of fire, they would all all as with one voice, 
 one yell of self-condemnation and despair, proclaim the 
 dreadful truth. " For 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?" O, be assured, brethren 
 that as every promise to the believer is, " Yea, and 
 amen, in Christ Jesus;" so every threatening to the im- 
 penitent sinner's soul is fixed as immovably as tho 
 foundations of the throne of God 
 
Jg THE MUTABILITY OV MAN, 
 
 But we must pass from these strong motives offered 
 you for immediate repentance, by this view of the im- 
 mutability of God and of his Word, to the no less strik- 
 ing, no less affecting motive we may derive from the 
 mutability of you who hear, and of us who present them. 
 
 " Your fathers, where are they ?" 
 
 What a touching inquiry, when made by God him- 
 self, as in the text, to his poor, perishing, wandering 
 people. If you examine the preceding verses, you will 
 see that it was spoken more in sorrow than in anger. It 
 was not the language of scorn, or of insult, for he who 
 asked the question has just before said, " Be ye not as 
 your fathers." " Turn ye unto me, and I will turn unto 
 you, saith the Lord of hosts." There were love and 
 mercy, therefore, still in store for them ; but nevertheless, 
 for all this " God would be inquired of by them." And 
 it was therefore to excite this feeling in their breast, by 
 awakening again the sorrows which were slumbering 
 there, that the Almighty thus referred to those who 
 were gone. 
 
 Surely he who made the human heart, well knew 
 how best to touch the springs by which its sympathies 
 are opened, when he asked the affecting question, " Your 
 fathers, where are they?" Has not the grave even now 
 closed over them? Are they so early called away, and 
 have you no desire, when God shall take you hence, to 
 follow them? If the Word of God can awaken no 
 spiritual feeling within your breast, can it also touch no 
 natural chord that lies responsive there? Have you 
 never so loved one earthly being, whom God has taken 
 to himself before you, that you would rejoice in the 
 thought of seeing that object of your affection at God's 
 right hand ? Here, then, is a motive, and comparatively 
 low and selfish though it be, we would leave untried no 
 
THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD. [Q 
 
 motive which may win you to your own eternal happi- 
 ness, which may plant you as a jewel in your Redeemer's 
 crown. If there be those to whom you would desire to 
 be reunited, in the realms of bliss, O delay not, trifle 
 not, with this great salvation. " The time past of your 
 life may suffice to have wrought the will of the Gentiles;" 
 now, even to-day, " put off the works of darkness, and 
 put upon you the armour of light; come, all sinful 
 though you be ; come, but in penitence and faith, to the 
 Saviour of your soul; he invites you, he urges you, he 
 intreats you, by every hope of present pardon and of 
 future blessedness, to come unto him, that your soul 
 may live. 
 
 But the mutability of "man is impressed upon you by 
 another example, in the words of the text, " The pro- 
 phets, do they live for ever?" Do not they who bear 
 my messages to you pass away like a shadow that de- 
 parteth? And ought not this reflection to induce you to 
 improve the opportunity while it lasts; to hear them 
 while they are permitted to speak unto you? There 
 are few of us, perhaps, who have not at this moment 
 within our veins the seeds of those diseases which in 
 God's good time (always the best time) will finish our 
 work, and carry us before his judgment-seat, who shall 
 " try every man's work, of what sort it is." This cannot 
 but remind us that our opportunities of warning, inviting, 
 urging you, may be but few; that another opening year 
 may find our labours finished, our lips for ever closed. 
 As one, then, who is not ignorant that he may shortly 
 put off this tabernacle, we would always desire to speak 
 as dying unto dying men, and urge you, if you have 
 never yet " taken hold of the word of life," if you have 
 never yet realized its tremendous truths, that you would 
 this day cease from trifling with God and with your souls; 
 for it is trifling, trifling of the most alarming kind, year 
 
20 THE MUTABILITY OF MAN, 
 
 after year to listen to the fullest revelations of the Gospe A 
 of peace, and year after year to live as if convinced of 
 their utter fallacy. We urge you, then, beloved brethren, 
 by the certainty that the time is short, and that the 
 fashion of this world passeth away; by the memory of 
 those who have gone before, and to whom you wish to 
 be re-united ; by the probability that our opportunities 
 of setting these things home upon your conscience may 
 be but few; by the blessedness of heaven; by the ter- 
 rors of hell that you fly to the great propitiation, to the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, and give yourselves up to him from 
 this day even for ever. 
 
 Referring once more, for the last time, to the words of 
 the text, suppose for a moment that they to whom they 
 were addressed had been compelled to answer those 
 solemn queries, how fearful would have been the reply' 
 " Your fathers, where are they?" Gone, gone for ever, 
 to give an account of their stubbornness, their disobe- 
 dience, their ingratitude, and their sins, and to suffer the 
 due reward of their deeds. "The prophets," where are 
 they ? Gone also ; gone to stand face to face, to con- 
 front our fathers at the judgment-seat of God ; gone to 
 stand face to face with them at that bar, and to pro- 
 nounce, " We did not shun to declare unto you the 
 whole counsel of God;" we warned you, we threatened 
 you, we invited you, whether you would hear, or whe- 
 ther you would forbear ; we altered not the message of 
 our God ; and all of which we have forewarned you has 
 this day come to pass. And think you, brethren, that it 
 will be a less fearful thing when Christian ministers and 
 Christian congregations shall meet before that dread 
 tribunal, than thus for Jewish hearers and Jewish pro- 
 phets? How, then, are we, as ministers, prepared for 
 that approaching scene? Can we, your ministers, de- 
 clare that we have left no effort untried, no means ne- 
 
THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD. 21 
 
 gleet ed, no entreaties unemployed, which might have 
 won you from your worldliness and forgetfulness of God. 
 and awakened you from your sleep of death? Alas. 
 God knows that we cannot, that we have not only, as 
 the apostle declared of his own ministry, been " with 
 you in weakness and. in fear, and in much trembling," 
 but in coldness, and in inefficiency, and in much un- 
 faithfulness ; but thanks be to God for his unspeakable 
 gift; thanks be to God that the blood of Jesus Christ 
 cleanses from all sin, ministerial as well as personal; 
 lor looKing back upon the cross, we do find peace and 
 comfort there, or fearfully should we dread that corning 
 hour. And you, brethren, how are you prepared to 
 meet us, "your servants for Christ's sake," in the pre- 
 sence and before the throne of our Master? Remember, 
 " if our Gospel be hid,' it is hid to them that are lost." 
 Has our Gospel, then, been unto you " the savour of 
 life unto life, or of death unto death ?" Recollect that 
 the same sun which softens the wax hardens the clay. 
 Has the preaching of the Gospel, with all its precious 
 promises, its unbounded offers, its overwhelming great 
 and glorious anticipations, softened or hardened you? 
 And shall we on that day rejoice in the presence of our 
 Lord over your complete and full salvation, hailing your 
 entrance into everlasting blessedness; or shall we weep, 
 " if souls can weep in bliss," that those who have once 
 united with us in the prayers and praises of these earthly 
 temples, shall unite with us again no more for ever? 
 May these inquiries be fixed upon your consciences ; 
 may they return to you in the silence of your chambers, 
 in hours of thoughtfulness, and hours of sleeplessness; 
 and may they never leave you until they have led you 
 from reflection to prayer, and from prayer to Christ, and 
 from Christ to God, and from God to heaven! 
 
SERMON II. 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN'S REFUGE. * 
 
 ISAIAH xxxn. 2. ' 
 
 A man shall be a hiding place from the wind, and a covert from 
 the tempest ; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of 
 , a great rock in a weary land. 
 
 THIS is a very remarkable prophecy and promise, and 
 at first sight most strikingly at variance with almost every 
 other. declaration of the Word of God. For let us dwell 
 for a moment upon some of the statements of that in- 
 spired volume. Hear the declaration of this same prophet 
 Isaiah in his second chapter, " Cease ye from man, 
 whose breath is in his nostrils." Listen again to the 
 words of David, " Trust in the Lord at all times, ye 
 people." Hear also the words of Jeremiah, " Cursed be 
 the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm." 
 These and many other testimonies might be adduced, to 
 prove that the whole tenor of Divine writ runs counter 
 to the passage of the text, " A man shall be as a hiding 
 place from the wind." A poor, weak, helpless mortal, 
 unable to protect himself from the wind and tempest, 
 and shall he be our refuge? Shall God's own word com- 
 mand us to leave the living fountain, and betake our- 
 selves, in our necessities, to the broken cisterns of earth ? 
 Strange inconsistency, strange contradiction to every other 
 portion of God's Word ! But, perhaps, there is a meaning 
 22 
 
THE CHRISTIAN'S REFUGE. 23 
 
 in the passage which does not appear upon the surface ; 
 perhaps there is some peculiarity in the man there men- 
 tioned, different from all the other children of men that 
 ever lived; and so different, so widely different, that 
 while they are all the creatures of a day, of whom the 
 unerring Word of God has said, " Put not your trust in 
 princes, nor in any child of man, for there is no help in 
 them." Of this Man it shall be declared that, " At his 
 name every knee shall bow, of things in heaven, and 
 things in earth, and things under the earth; and every 
 tongue shall confess that he is Lord, to the glory of God 
 the Father;'-' that "all power is given unto him in 
 heaven and in earth," that " he upholdeth all things by 
 the word of his power," and that " whoso trusteth in him 
 shall never be confounded." 
 
 Blessed be God, his own Word assures us that it is so; 
 he who has declared in the text that, " a man shall be as 
 a hiding-place from the wind," has declared by the 
 mouth of the prophet Zechariah, who that man is, when 
 he says, " Awake, O sword, against the man that is my 
 fellow, saith the Lord of hosts." My equal, not merely 
 near to God, but one who should "think it no robbery 
 to be equal with God," even " the Man Christ Jesus;" 
 equal to the Father as touching his Godhead, though 
 inferior to the Father as touching his manhood; who, 
 although born of a woman, and made after the likeness 
 of sinful flesh, is yet declared to have been throughout 
 ail eternity in the bosom of the Father, " GW, of the 
 substance of the Father, begotten before the worlds;" 
 and who is thus spoken of by the Spirit of God himself, 
 when predicting the event of this day, " Unto us a child 
 is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall 
 be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called 
 Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the everlasting 
 
24 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN'S REFUGE. 
 
 Father, the Prince of peace." It is then of this Man, 
 David's son, according to the flesh, but David's Lord, by 
 an eternal generation; "perfect God, and perfect man, 
 of a reasonable soul, and human flesh subsisting," that 
 we are to speak, taking the words of the text as a remark- 
 able and beautiful metaphor of what he is able and will- 
 ing to be and to do for his people. 
 
 The Lord Jesus Christ, then, reveals himself in the 
 words before us under two striking similitudes ; the first 
 of which regards his people's safety, and the second their 
 consolations, 
 
 I. As regards their safety. 
 
 " A man shall be as a hiding-place from the wind, 
 and a covert from the tempest." If you desire to under- 
 stand the full force of the image, picture to yourself one 
 of those scenes which eastern travellers paint, when they 
 describe the passage of a caravan across some dreary and 
 uninhabited desert, where, throughout the long day's 
 journey, there is no house, no rock, no tree, to offer a 
 moment's shade or a moment's shelter. In the midst of 
 such a scene the wind suddenly rises, and the lightning 
 glares around, and in the distance are beheld gigantic 
 columns of sand, raised and kept together in such vast 
 masses by the whirlwind as to exclude even the rays of 
 the sun from passing through them, and as these fearful 
 phenomena approach, every thing is overwhelmed before 
 them ; the poor bewildered travellers behold in them at 
 once their destruction and their grave. In vain do they 
 attempt to fly ; their gigantic enemies are coming upon 
 the wings of the wind, and nothing mortal can outstrip 
 them; in vain do they attempt to face them; for who 
 can wage equal war against the elements? all hope is at 
 an end, all efforts vain; the wind slackens not, the tem- 
 pest does not cease, and before the shortest prayer is 
 
THE CHRISTIAN'S REFUGE. 25 
 
 finished, that multitude, that was but now replete with 
 life and animation, is hushed in silence; every mouth is 
 stopped, every heart has ceased to beat; the simoon of 
 the desert has passed over them, and the place they 
 occupied is scarcely to be distinguished from the sur- 
 rounding plain. 
 
 Now imagine in such a scene, and at such a season 
 (and this is no flight of imagination, but a simple though 
 appalling fact) the feelings with which these alarmed 
 and flying travellers would greet a " hiding-place," and 
 " a covert." Imagine that while they were looking with 
 an apprehension which we can scarcely conceive at those 
 advancing pillars of sand in which they were so shortly 
 to be entombed, they should on a sudden behold a rock 
 of adamant spring up before them, a barrier which neither 
 sand, nor wind, nor tempest, could overleap. What would 
 be their feelings of joy, their thoughts of gratitude, their 
 language of praise ! Oh ! who can imagine the heartfelt 
 cry of thanksgiving to God which would arise from that 
 vast multitude at so complete, so merciful, so unhoped-for 
 a deliverance. Then, brethren, such are the feelings 
 with which we would encourage you to " behold the 
 Man" of whom we this day speak. Our sins had raised 
 a tempest of the wrath of God, against which the whole 
 created host of heaven would in vain have attempted to 
 erect a barrier. Therefore said the Lord, " I have laid 
 help upon one that is mighty." " I looked, and there was 
 none to help; and I wondered that there was none to 
 uphold : therefore mine own arm brought salvation." He 
 has on this day, taking upon himself our nature, placed 
 himself between us and his Father's wrath ; he stood 
 alone as that wall of adamant, between us and the 
 coming tempest. All that would have driven us from 
 the presence of God for ever, or have overwhelmed our 
 
 3 
 
2(5 THE CHRISTIAN'S REFUGE. 
 
 souls with remediless destruction, fell upon Him, and 
 upon Him alone, and by his life of suffering and hu- 
 miliation and obedience, and by his death of agony, and 
 by his resurrection of power, we were secured. The 
 tempest, which would have scattered us as chaff before 
 the whirlwind, has lost its power; and now, if we have 
 fled into the " hiding-place," if we are seated beneath 
 " his shadow," passes harmlessly above our head, or is 
 heard by us, as many of you this evening, when seated 
 comfortably in your warm and peaceful dwellings, sur- 
 rounded by the quiet circle of your own happy families, 
 will listen to the winds or rain of winter, blessing God 
 that you enjoy a refuge and a home. 
 
 Such are the sentiments which the present season 
 ought more especially to awaken in our bosoms. 
 
 Yes, brethren, such are the feelings which you ought 
 to possess this day, such are the feelings which you will 
 possess, if you have been led by the Spirit of God to 
 him, who has thus been made of God, "a hiding-place," 
 and "a covert" feelings of security and joy and peace 
 and safety. But then, you, and you alone, can ascer- 
 tain whether these feelings are your own. I need not 
 tell you that an unapplied Saviour, is no Saviour to 
 your souls. I need not tell you that the hiding-place, is 
 a hiding-place to him who is within it, not to him who 
 stands without : that f he covert, is no covert to him who re- 
 mains uncovered; that a Christian baptism, a Christian 
 sanctuary and Christan ministry, yea, and even a Christ 
 himself, are necessarily no safeguard to you. If you stand 
 without, justice must have its course ; the law which you 
 have broken must be avenged ; the Saviour whom you 
 have rejected must be glorified, if not by you, in your sal- 
 vation, then upon you, in your punishment. If the safety, 
 which every redeemed and ransomed child of God may 
 
THE CHRISTIAN'S REFUGE. 
 
 27 
 
 possess, is not yours, it is only because you accept it not ; 
 if the Spirit is not yours, it is only because you seek him 
 not ; if the Lord Jesus Christ is not yours, it is only be- 
 cause you love him not. O fearful state for any indivi- 
 dual possessing within him a never-dying soul, and 
 looking forward to a never-ending existence ; but most 
 fearful to you, if such there be, who, although the bap- 
 tized members of the outward church of Christ, have 
 never sought, are not now seeking, a real interest in his 
 blood, a conformity to his will, a place in his kingdom. 
 
 II. But let us proceed from the consideration of the 
 similitude which regards his people's safety, to that which 
 regards his people's comfort. 
 
 A man shall be as " rivers of water in a dry place, as the 
 shadow of a great rock in a weary land." While the 
 " rock," in climates and countries, such as we have 
 alluded to, shadows forth the strength and protection 
 which the Lord Jesus Christ offers to his people, "rivers 
 of water," beneath a burning sun, and on a burning soil, 
 equally shadow forth comfort and consolation. 
 
 In passing through the world, however, the people of 
 the world, surrounded by its joys, courted by its friends, 
 backed by its good opinions, may be enabled to delight in 
 it, to the children of God it is ofttimes, "a dry and barren 
 place." There are many causes, externally and inter- 
 nally, to make it so. There are times when trials and 
 afflictions and anxieties press closely upon us; when 
 those we love are laid upon beds of sickness, or followed 
 to an early grave ; when our prospects are darkened by 
 disappointment, or marred by adversity ; when the world, 
 at all times destitute of the real consolations of the Chris- 
 tian, becomes more barren, and more desolate than the 
 wide and waste-howling wilderness itself. At times like 
 these, whither can the child of God betake himself? You 
 
2Q THE CHRISTIAN'S REFUGE. 
 
 look not for earthly succour ; it is vain to look ? for alt 
 those whom you love are perhaps plunged in the same 
 calamity, borne down by the same trial as yourself. How 
 blessed, then, to feel that there is one who visited this 
 world of ours, and lived as you are now living ; who 
 carried about with him a body of infirmity and death ; 
 who grieved for the same losses, and wept over the same 
 afflictions from which you are weeping; and is presented 
 to you, in the Word of God, as man, that you may feel 
 assured of his sympathy, while he is also presented to 
 you as God, that you may feel certain of his power. 
 Does your soul, then, in these dry places, thirst for con- 
 solation and succour? That Man is proclaimed in the 
 text to be as " rivers of water in a dry place ;" that Man, 
 in the days of his flesh, " stood and cried, If any man 
 thirst, let him come unto me and drink," and " the water 
 that I shall give him, shall be in him a well of w r ater 
 springing up into everlasting life." 
 
 Here then is your consolation ; as your safety is to be 
 found in Christ, so also is your comfort. He shall be to 
 you not only a covert from God's wrath, but a river; 
 nay more, rivers, to show the abundance of his consola- 
 tions, "rivers of water," when you are fainting under 
 the trials, or anxieties, or distresses of the world. Now, 
 brethren, do you know any thing of the blessedness of 
 this source of consolation? It is not enough that the 
 river is running at your feet, but you must know that it 
 is there, you must drink of its waters, or they will not 
 assuage your thirst. Recollect a beautiful illustration of 
 this in the history of Hagar, when driven from the tent 
 of Abraham. You will remember that when she was 
 cast out into the wilderness with her child, and had 
 looked in vain for a supply of water ; when all that was 
 in the bottle was spent, when the streamlets were dry, 
 
THE CHRISTIAN'S REFUGE. 29 
 
 arid the clouds promised no rain, she sat down in utter 
 hopelessness and helplessness, having cast the child 
 under one of the shrubs that she might not see it die. 
 And we are told, that as she lifted up her voice and wept, 
 the Angel of the Lord called to her out of heaven, and 
 said, "What aileth thee, Hagar? fear not: and God 
 opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water," suf- 
 ficient, amply sufficient, for the need both of the mother 
 and the child, during their whole sojourn in the wilder- 
 ness. How beautiful an instance of the mercy and the 
 power of God ! How apt a type of the Christian's situa- 
 tion here below. You may at this moment be sitting 
 by " the river of water," of which I am speaking, and 
 yet be as ignorant as practically ignorant of its exist- 
 ence, as Hagar was; as little benefitted, and as little 
 blessed, as if its healing waters were still a sealed foun- 
 tain, which had never been opened, or a river locked in 
 everlasting ice, and whose streams never poured forth 
 rich abundance at your feet. What aileth thee, that 
 thou seest it not? Pray to Him who alone can open 
 your eyes. Pray to God for his dear Son's sake, to 
 show you the well which stands beside you, whose 
 living waters are for ever full, for ever flowing, and of 
 which, if any man drink, he shall never thirst. Beseech 
 him to reveal to you the Son of his love, as a full and 
 sufficient Saviour; one who will not only bear all your 
 sins, but all your sorrows, and not only be your strength 
 and your salvation, but your joy, your peace, your strong 
 consolation. 
 
 Lastly, are there none among you, even of the child- 
 ren of God, who find this world to be a " weary land," 
 on account of the spiritual disquietudes of your pil- 
 grimage, not merely those you behold around you, but 
 those which you continually experience within you ; 
 
3Q THE CHRISTIAN'S REFUGE. 
 
 none, who, although reconciled, as we hope, to the God 
 of your salvation, still find constant oppositio x n, and toil, 
 and conflict, from the troubles of the journey, and like 
 the Israelites of old, are often "much discouraged be- 
 cause of the way ?" Yes, doubtless, there are some of 
 you who can say with the Psalmist, " I had fainted, 
 unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord, in 
 the land of the living." Doubtless, there are many who 
 even with this source of consolation, are still continually 
 distressed by the little spirituality of heart and life to 
 which you have attained. Your daily feeling is that 
 you are still so worldly, so cold, so indifferent to the God 
 and Saviour of your soul, that amid the upbraidings of 
 your own conscience, and the unceasing attacks of your 
 spiritual enemies, this is to you, indeed, a " w r eary world," 
 and a toilsome journey, and ofttimes do you wish its 
 labours over, and yourself at home. Yet, weary as is 
 the way, beloved brethren, every mile of it must be trod- 
 den, and your anxiety must be rather to quit you like 
 men, and be strong; to "endure hardness as a good 
 soldier of Jesus Christ," than to be in haste for the rest 
 which remaineth for you at that journey's end. 
 
 Do you ask how you shall be enabled to achieve this? 
 Let the words of the text point out your remedy. There 
 is not only a hiding-place and a covert, but a rock, and 
 a great rock, in this weary land. You have already 
 found it a hiding-place, but perhaps you have contented 
 yourselves with coming just within the range of its 
 shadow ; you have been satisfied with escaping from the 
 burning beams of God's wrath, and the fiery darts of the 
 wicked one ; but you are still only within the extremest 
 limit of this overshadowing rock. Be persuaded, then, 
 no longer to rest and settle there ; pray and strive and 
 labour to advance. You may be partially sheltered 
 
THE CHRISTIAN'S REFUGE. 3]^ 
 
 where you are, jou may even be safe where you are ; 
 but as you draw further and further within the Rock of 
 your salvation, you will find an increase of its sheltering 
 peace and comfort, which you now but little know. 
 There are recesses in that Rock into which you are 
 specially invited; and the closer you draw, the more 
 boldly you advance, the more welcome, the more happy, 
 the more blessed shall you be. There are veins of ore 
 in that Rock sufficient to enrich ten thousand worlds, for 
 the Word of the living God has called them " the un- 
 searchable riches of Christ;" but they will not enrich 
 you if you keep at a distance from them ; you must 
 work the mine, you must dig the ore, you must, by 
 prayer and faith, appropriate it, make it your own, use 
 it, enjoy it, live by it and upon it, or you derive not 
 half the comforts and consolations which are treasured 
 up for you in the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 Seek these more constantly, more prayerfully, more 
 earnestly ; they will amply repay the search ; you shall 
 find in them wealth which neither Satan nor conscience 
 can disturb, joy which shall gladden every stage of the 
 journey, and yet, throughout it all, shall be only in the 
 bud, but shall break forth into an everlasting fruit-bearing 
 at the journey's end. 
 
 Come then, this day, and commemorate the blessings 
 of which we have now spoken ; draw near with thankful 
 and rejoicing hearts to the table of him who loved you 
 and gave himself for you. Do not reject his invitation ; 
 remember it was purchased by the life's blood of him 
 who offers it. Do not refuse to meet him here, whom 
 you hope to meet and live with in heaven. Do not turn 
 your back upon a blessing, which love, boundless as 
 eternity itself, has purchased for you ; but draw near with 
 
6 
 22 THE CHRISTIAN'S REFUGE. 
 
 faith, and take this holy Sacrament to your comfort, and 
 like the beloved apostle, sit down this day under the 
 shadow of the tree of life, and eat and live for ever. 
 And may God grant that we all, who are partakers of the 
 symbols here, may together partake of the marriage 
 supper of the Lamb in the kingdom of our Father ! 
 
SERMON III. 
 
 CHRIST THE FULNESS OF THE BE- 
 LIEVER. 
 
 EPHESIANS i. 22, 23. (PART.) 
 
 The head over all things to the Church, which is his hody, the 
 fulness of him that filleth all in all. 
 
 THE great and blessed truth revealed to us in the text 
 is not confined to this single passage of the Divine word: 
 it is to be found propounded again and again ; in the 
 Epistle from which the text is taken ; in the First Epistle 
 to the Corinthians; and in the Epistle to the Colossians 
 sufficient evidence of its great and remarkable promi- 
 nency in the teaching of the Spirit, and of its deep im- 
 portance to the people of God. But then, brethren, it is 
 to the people of God alone that it speaks. It contains 
 nothing for the world ; the nominal Christian, the mere 
 outward member of our truly scriptural Church, the man 
 attached to it by birth, or by accident, will find nothing 
 in this high subject to gratify his curiosity, or to delight 
 his taste, or even, I fear, to enlarge his knowledge; ex- 
 cept it is by showing him that there are great and im- 
 portant truths in the religion he professes, of which he 
 is at present utterly ignorant ; for the blessed declarations 
 before us will be to him a sealed treasure, while to the 
 spiritually enlightened mind they are as plain, and as 
 influential, as any to be found in the revelation of God. 
 
 33 
 
34 
 
 CHRIST THE FULNESS 
 
 The truth in the text is conveyed by a very simple 
 metaphor, which represents the Church of God, i. e., 
 not merely our own national Church, which forms, 
 however, we trust, one of its most beauteous members, 
 but the whole family of believers throughout all time; 
 those now in heaven, and those now on earth, and those 
 who shall follow us, and fill up our places in the battle 
 when we are enjoying the repose of the victory. It re- 
 presents, I say, the whole Church of God so composed, 
 under the similitude of one human body, of which the 
 Lord Jesus Christ is the one and only spiritual Head. 
 It then declares that this body, the Church, forms the 
 fulness, or the glory of Christ, who "filleth all in all." 
 
 My intention is, with God's help, to consider these 
 great truths as developed in the text, under two distinct 
 jeads. 
 
 I. The nature of Christ's relationship to the Church, 
 and his employment. 
 
 II. The nature of the Church's relationship to Christ, 
 and her exceeding great and precious privileges. 
 
 I. Then, Christ is the "Head over all things to the 
 Church," and " filleth all in all." 
 
 When the apostle declares that Christ is the Head of 
 the Church, doubtless, his first and most obvious inten- 
 tion is to mark his pre-eminence, to demonstrate, as he 
 has elsewhere declared, that " God hath highly exalted 
 him, and given him a name which is above every name; 
 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of 
 things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under 
 the earth ; and that every tongue should confess that 
 Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." 
 (Phil. ii. 9 11.) But this is far from being all that is 
 involved in the relationship. And this the same apostle 
 distinctly illustrates when speaking of Christ as the Head, 
 
OF THE BELIEVER. 
 
 35 
 
 in the Epistle to the Colossians, he immediately adds, 
 " From which all the body by joints and bands having 
 nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth 
 with the increase of God.' 5 
 
 It is clear, then, from this passage, " having nourish- 
 ment ministered," that it refers to Christ as our Head, 
 not only in point of pre-eminence, but in point of in- 
 fluence. For as in the human body all the nerves spring 
 from the brain, and yet communicate life and feeling to 
 every part of the body, down even to the smallest and 
 remotest member, so all spiritual life, and all spiritual 
 feeling in the Church of God, take their rise from one 
 great and glorified Head; and spread downward from 
 that source of influence into the heart of every individual 
 member. 
 
 Observe, not only the doctrinal truth, but the practical 
 lesson, which immediately flows from this important fact. 
 Until you are spiritually united by a true and living faith 
 to the Lord Jesus Christ, you must inevitably be as desti- 
 tute of spiritual life and feeling, as a human body, from 
 which the head has been separated, would be destitute 
 of all sense and of all motion. While, on the other hand, 
 when by a living and obeying faith (for none other is a 
 living faith) you are united to our adorable Redeemer; 
 when you have been led to choose him for your portion, 
 to accept him in all his offices for your full and sufficient 
 Saviour, casting your soul unreservedly upon the promises 
 of God in Christ Jesus; you become spiritually members 
 of his body, bone of his bone, flesh of his flesh. Your 
 " life is hid with Christ in God." All that you need of 
 strength, of light, of grace, of guidance, are treasured up 
 for you in him, and are to be daily drawn out by you 
 from him, according to your daily wants, your daily sor- 
 rows, and your daily temptations, and trials. 
 
36 
 
 CHRIST THE FULNESS 
 
 We have said that this is the practical lesson to be de- 
 duced from the scriptural relationship of the Redeemer to 
 the Church which he has purchased with his own blood. 
 Now let us mark the great encouragement to this lesson 
 which may be drawn from the employment of the Re- 
 deemer, adverted to in the text. He " filleth all in all." 
 
 The true and sincere followers of God among you 
 well know your own emptiness. You are making larger 
 discoveries of it every day and every hour. When you 
 would do good, evil is present with you. When you 
 should enter into good resolutions, you are deficient in 
 the will to do so, and when you have entered into them, 
 you are destitute of the power of accomplishing them ; 
 and all this is matter of personal and individual expe- 
 rience, just as certainly as of the Divine declaration, 
 " Without me, ye can do nothing." 
 
 Under this feeling then, of utter incapacity, look up- 
 ward to your great and glorified Head, and as you have 
 already heard the nature of his relationship to his Church, 
 hear also for your encouragement and consolation, the 
 nature of his employment, that " he filleth all in all." 
 
 What a delightful view does this present to the Chris- 
 tian of the Christian's Lord ! He is for ever employed in 
 filling up all graces, all wants, all imperfections, in all his 
 members, by the prevailing power of his intercession, by 
 the continual outpourings of his Spirit, by the constant 
 impartings of himself. To make this still more plain; 
 you possess an understanding, a will, an imagination, a 
 memory, and a heart; all these, then, the Lord Jesus 
 Christ has undertaken, from the character in which the 
 text portrays him, to fill even to overflowing; your un- 
 derstanding with spiritual thoughts, your will with hea- 
 venly desires, your memory with holy recollections, your 
 
OF THE BELIEVER. 
 
 37 
 
 imagination with glorious anticipations, your heait with 
 himself. 
 
 It is true, that to effect this great work in every indi- 
 vidual member of his blessed body, much time, much 
 teaching, and, in many instances, much affliction, much 
 trial, will be needed, but it is not the less true that it shall 
 be done. 
 
 It may be, that some whom I am now addressing, are 
 thinking, while they hear these great and important 
 truths, Would that I might indeed hope that this could 
 be verified in my own case ! But I have been long seek- 
 ing the truth, long desiring to know more and more of 
 God, and of my duty; and yet I feel as if with me the 
 great work were for ever to be recommenced; there is 
 scarcely any perceptible advance ; there is almost as little 
 of spiritual life now within my heart as there ever was, 
 and yet, I greatly fear, as much as there ever will be. 
 
 Upon this point, Christian brethren, you are not always 
 the most unprejudiced judges; while the many are apt 
 to determine far too favourably in their own cause, there 
 will always be a few of the real children of God, who 
 will write bitter things against themselves, which the 
 Lord hath not written, and look gloomily and despond- 
 ingly upon their own case, while the Spirit of God is 
 speaking peace and offering strong consolation. 
 
 Now as Christian ministers, there are few duties more 
 delightful than to offer the encouragements with which 
 our Master has intrusted us for the comfort of such souls 
 as these ; to send them, by God's help, forward on their 
 Christian course contented and rejoicing. We would say 
 then to you, and such as you, and we would not be 
 deterred from saying it, by the knowledge of that fatal 
 chemistry by which the devil can distil the strongest 
 poison from the sweetest flowers that grow in the garden 
 
 4 
 
33 CHRIST THE FULNESS 
 
 of God, we would say to you, the Saviour whom you 
 serve, and who has reconciled you to your Heavenly 
 Father, is engaged to "fill all in all;" to fill up all wants 
 in all his members, to support every broken reed, to kin- 
 dle into a flame every smoking flax; therefore you, al- 
 though the feeblest, have no cause to despond; or you, 
 although the youngest, the weakest, the most empty, 
 have no cause to despair. As long as there is on your 
 part, humble and holy walking, sincere and faithful seek- 
 ing, earnest and conscientious acting according to the 
 light and grace which God has given you, so long will 
 there be, on his part, a fulfilment of this most blessed of 
 his offices, the strengthening and refreshing of your souls, 
 the guiding and the guarding of your steps, the filling up 
 of your manifold deficiencies. 
 
 How encouraging is the thought, how blessed the 
 .view w 7 hich this consideration presents us with. "To 
 you who believe," says an apostle, "Christ is precious;" 
 but how precious even an apostle could not say. You 
 love him now, because he calls you, justifies you, sancti- 
 fies you. You will love him more as time wears on, 
 and as you advance in your Christian life and character; 
 for as a Saviour you will know him more; and to know 
 him is to love him. You will love him still better at 
 the last great day, when time shall be no longer, because 
 you will hear from his own lips the sentence which shall 
 pronounce you blessed. But when all these are over, 
 when there are no more sins to pardon, no more pollu- 
 tions to cleanse, no more sentences to pass, what will 
 there be for ever and for ever to draw forth your feelings, 
 your gratitude, your love? There will still be this 
 blessed relationship in which we are permitted to view 
 him even here, "Head over all things to his Church." 
 The same relationship of which you have now begun 
 
OF THE BELIEVER. 39 
 
 to taste the blessedness and the joy, but then grown np, 
 matured, and perfected; leaving him amidst the fulness 
 of your perfections, nothing to fill up in you; and leav- 
 ing you amidst the fulness of your fruition, nothing to 
 desire from him. For he who is now employed in fill- 
 ing up all in all, shall then have filled up all in all. 
 The work will be for ever over, but the relationship will 
 for ever remain. Oh, most perfect and blessed accom- 
 plishment of our Lord's dying petition, " That they all 
 may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, 
 that they also may be one in us." 
 
 We proceed, Secondly, To consider the relationship 
 in which the Church stands to Christ, and her exceed- 
 ing great and precious privileges. 
 
 The Church is, as we have seen, described in the text, 
 in the very remarkable character of Christ's body and of 
 Christ's fulness; "the fulness of him who filleth all 
 in ail." 
 
 How little does the world, how little does even the 
 Church of God, think of its own privileges and honour! 
 After all the great and glorious things spoken of the 
 Saviour, that this little flock, this poor despised company, 
 composed of many of the weakest men, and the feeblest 
 women, and the most helpless children ; and treated as 
 the offscouring of all things, the very scorn and ridicule 
 of a self-sufficient and ignorant world ; should be de- 
 clared by the immutable Word of God to be the Saviour's 
 body and the Saviour's fulness, his honour, and his glory, 
 and his bride ! So completely his purchased possession, 
 the prize for which he was content to pour forth his life's 
 blood like water from the cross, that if it were possible 
 that the gates of hell could prevail against her, so that 
 she could perish, he would be robbed of his reward. If 
 David could say of the mere type of the spiritual Church, 
 
4() CHRIST THE FULNESS 
 
 " Very excellent things are spoken of thee, thou city of 
 God," what ought the Christian to feel when consider- 
 ing the language in which that Church is itself described ? 
 But this we conceive to be one of the great faults of 
 Christians at the present day ; they look at the Word of 
 God, and at the promises of God, as applying to them- 
 selves as individuals, and do not endeavour to take de- 
 light in them as applicable to the Church as a body, 
 and to themselves as members of that body. What a 
 powerful incentive to Christian concord and Christian 
 unity is thus destroyed ! What an additional bond of 
 love would it be, how much more would exist of that 
 Christian sympathy which rejoices with those who re- 
 joice, and which weeps with those who weep, and which 
 delights, in bearing one another's burdens, and so fulfil- 
 ling the law of Christ, if we more prayerfully and more 
 constantly cultivated the habit of looking upon ourselves 
 and all our fellow-worshippers as members of one re- 
 deemed family, one mystical body, whose head is Christ! 
 
 But even this important lesson is not all that we might 
 derive from keeping the scriptural view of the subject 
 continually in our sight. There are two peculiarly en- 
 couraging deductions which may be drawn from it for 
 the encouragement of that class which I have already 
 addressed ; you who fear, that notwithstanding every 
 effort of watchfulness and prayer, you shall never arrive, 
 in Christian graces, at the stature of the fulness of Christ; 
 and you, who have equal doubts and fears, lest you 
 should never be admitted into the presence of Christ. 
 
 You, then, who fear that you shall never attain to the 
 full developement of the Christian character if the view 
 which we have already taken of the employment of the 
 Redeemer, in filling up the measure of his people, be 
 not sufficient to assure you consider this, that the ful- 
 
OF THE BELIEVER. 
 
 ness of Christ, his very glory itself, is actually made to 
 consist of every member grown up to that fulness of 
 stature which God has appointed him. 
 
 In passing through the world, we are constantly led 
 to observe the great disparity, not only between the 
 natural endowments and the adventitious advantages, 
 but between the spiritual gifts and graces of those, who 
 we cannot doubt are equally sincere, and equally among 
 the true people of God : some, for instance7 possessing 
 high, very high degrees of knowledge, which are not 
 vouchsafed to others ; and we are sometimes tempted to 
 wonder how it is possible that Christians, differing so 
 widely in their spiritual stature now, shall all be equally 
 happy, and all be united in the same heaven hereafter. 
 The view, then, which we derive from this portion of 
 our text clears up the mystery. If the Church be indeed 
 the body of Christ, all these differences and disparities 
 of growth have evidently been foreseen and provided 
 for ; and on the last great day, when the body shall have 
 grown up to its perfection, and all the members of that 
 body shall be gathered to their glorified Head, we shall 
 no longer wonder at the disproportions. Every, even 
 the weakest and smallest of the company of true believers, 
 will find his place in that perfect body, though each will 
 differ from the other ; and it will then be seen that each 
 has attained just those proportions which were necessary 
 to the perfect symmetry of the body of Christ, and to 
 that place in the body which each was appointed to fill. 
 But let not these considerations, which are intended to 
 encourage the desponding, be perverted to the content- 
 ment of the indolent, or the self-satisfied Christian. It 
 is only when you have used, and are using, all " diligence 
 to make your calling and election sure," that you can 
 take the slightest encouragement from declarations such 
 
 4* 
 
42 CHRIST THE FULNESS 
 
 as these. The very fact that you are ceasing to labour, 
 to strive, or to pray, would be among the most con- 
 vincing proofs that you have neither part nor lot in the 
 matter; for that grace of God which is never withheld 
 from the faithful prayer of the weakest believer, will never 
 be extended to the self-satisfied, the careless, or the sloth- 
 ful professor. 
 
 Lastly, to show that if you are living a life of holy 
 and devoted obedience to God, springing from a simple 
 reliance upon all that Christ has done, and is now doing, 
 for your salvation, your fears of not being finally admitted 
 into his presence are utterly vain. 
 
 If the Church be the body of Christ, then must every 
 one of its true members, whether great or small, be 
 present on that day, when the Lord Jesus Christ " shall 
 see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied ;" on that 
 day, when " he shall present it to himself, a glorious 
 church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, 
 but holy and without blemish." If in the natural body, 
 the head cannot say even to the feet, I have no need of 
 you; then neither in the spiritual body will Christ say 
 to the weakest of his children, I have no need of thee. 
 Every soul that is here converted to himself, every 
 individual engaged by a life of holiness, in living to him, 
 is viewed by him as one stone more placed in the spiri- 
 tual temple, as one member more added to its body. 
 And until all the members be added, and unless all 
 the members be preserved, the glory of Christ would be 
 imperfect, his body incomplete. If, then, you are the 
 very lowest and most inconsiderable of all the spiritual 
 members of the Church of Christ on earth, the salvation 
 of your single soul is as necessary to the perfect glorifica- 
 tion of the Saviour as the salvation of the most advanced 
 apostle or prophet who ever lived; yea, even as the re- 
 
OF THE BELIEVER. 
 
 43 
 
 clemption of a world. For, if one infant child of God 
 were wanting, Jesus Christ could not be full, since he 
 has declared that the Church is his fulness, and as a 
 true and living member of that Church, even that child 
 must help to make up that fulness. The glory of heaven 
 would not content the Saviour if the humblest member 
 of his body were not there. Therefore, even during the 
 days of his flesh, we find him praying, "Father, I will 
 that they also whom thou hast given me, be with me 
 where I am." And again, "This is the Father's will, 
 that of all which he hath given me, I should lose nothing, 
 but should raise it up again at the last day." And again, 
 " It is not the will of your heavenly Father, that one of 
 these litlle ones should perish." As soon would a mortal 
 man submit willingly to be torn limb from limb, as that 
 the Lord Jesus Christ would consent to lose one inmate 
 of his blessed family, one member of his body, one jewel 
 of his crown. 
 
 May the Spirit of our God bestow abundantly upon all 
 of us the comfort of these soul-encouraging views, of 
 which the Word of our God so frequently and so largely 
 predicates. That he may do so, beloved Christian breth- 
 ren, accustom yourselves often to dwell prayerfully and 
 gratefully upon those blessed truths of which we have 
 now spoken : and let the eye of faith be daily looking 
 forward to that glorious day when they shall all be 
 realized : when all the component parts of that colossal 
 body of which Christ is the head, shall be gathered from 
 the four winds, and from one end of heaven to the other, 
 and shall all meet together once and for ever, in his 
 blessed and glorious presence. When, at the voice of 
 the archangel, which is the trump of God, all those who 
 have departed this life in his faith and fear many whom 
 we have known, and some whom we have dearly and 
 
44 
 
 CHRIST THE FULNESS OF THE BELIEVER. 
 
 tenderly loved, all true believers of every age and country 
 and kindred and tongue, the profoundest sages of Chris- 
 tian antiquity, the helpless and ignorant bahe who died 
 yesterday shall alike constitute the parts of but one 
 beautiful and perfect body; as the stones of one vast 
 temple, which, however different in their dimensions, 
 each fills the niche appropriated to itself, and each, 
 whether small or great, ajdds in equal proportion to the 
 beauty and the grandeur of the whole : on that great and 
 coming day, may it be found that of all who now wor- 
 ship with us in the earthly temples of our God none may 
 be absent, none may be excluded from that spiritual 
 edifice, which has been more than five thousand years in 
 building, and which, when completed, shall endure 
 through all the ages of eternity! 
 
SERMON IV. 
 
 THE ALMOST CHRISTIAN. 
 
 ACTS xxvi. 28. 
 Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. 
 
 IN speaking to you upon these words, it is not my in- 
 tention to refer at all to the narrative in which they occur, 
 but to consider them simply as the declaration of a worldly 
 man, that he was almost persuaded to be a Christian, and 
 to deduce from it this important fact, that what was the 
 case with Agrippa, must be the case with others, may be 
 the case with us. It is therefore deeply important, as St. 
 Paul says, "to examine ourselves, whether we be in the 
 faith," lest, after years of profession, of church-going, of 
 sermons, and of sacraments, any of us may be found to 
 have come short of it, any of us may be discovered, at 
 the last great day of account, when ministers and people 
 shall again be assembled, to have been only almost, 
 while we believed ourselves to have been altogether 
 Christians. 
 
 The great difficulties in the subject before us are these; 
 on the one hand, to speak with sufficient plainness to 
 penetrate the disguises and the deceits of the proverbially 
 deceitful natural heart; and on the other, to avoid dis- 
 tressing the tender consciences of those real children of 
 God, who are the most likely to take to themselves the 
 45 
 
45 THE ALMOST CHRISTIAN. 
 
 very warnings and cautions which least of all apply to 
 them. 
 
 May the Holy Spirit of God be present with us, help- 
 ing us to unveil the mere professor of religion, and to lay 
 open his heart to his own sight and his own knowledge; 
 arid at the same time to prevent those who are really in 
 earnest in this great and blessed work from being cast 
 clown by the sight of its difficulties., or dismayed by the 
 awful thought, that many who appear to have set their 
 foot on the threshold of heaven, shall never enter within 
 its everlasting gates. 
 
 I shall begin by endeavouring to distinguish the class 
 whom I would address as almost Christians. First, it is 
 evident that I do not refer to those who are living in a 
 course of habitual and notorious sin; they are so far from 
 being almost Christians, that despite their baptism and 
 their name, they are much nearer altogether Heathen, 
 "aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, without hope 
 and without God." 
 
 It is evident, again, I do not speak of those who, with" 
 out any gross delinquencies, are living lives of careless 
 thoughtlessness, to whom religion is at best but a Sunday 
 occupation, and who, if they have never had a doubt 
 upon the subject, have never had either a scriptural hope, 
 or a holy fear. These clearly cannot even be almost 
 such persons as Agrippa spake of being, and as St. Paul, 
 through Divine grace, really was. 
 
 When, therefore, I speak of you who are almost per- 
 suaded to be Christians, I speak of you who have ad- 
 vanced as far beyond the two classes to whom I have 
 already alluded, as you have fallen short of that into 
 which I trust the free and sovereign grace of God will 
 one day bring you. It is to you I speak, and that you 
 may be led to know, each for himself, whether you be- 
 
THE ALMOST CHRISTIAN. ^ 
 
 long to the class to which I refer, I shall endeavour to 
 point out to you, with all plainness and sincerity, those 
 delicate and yet important shades of distinction which 
 exist between the almost Christian and the wholly and 
 entirely Christian; earnestly beseeching you not to apply 
 the description to your neighbours, but to yourself, to ask 
 upon each point that passes in review before you, " Lord, 
 is it I?" 
 
 The almost Christian, then, is one who has advanced 
 to a certain length upon all the great and leading charac- 
 teristics which distinguish the real people of God from the 
 people of the world. These characteristics are 
 
 I. The enlightening of the understanding and the 
 conscience. 
 
 II. The converting of the will and the affections. 
 
 III. The reforming of the life and conversation. 
 
 First, then, the almost Christian is one who has ad- 
 vanced very far in the enlightening of the understanding 
 and the conscience. With regard to the understanding, 
 it is difficult to say how far we may not advance upon 
 this great characteristic of the children of God, and yet 
 have no portion with them of his Spirit. From frequently 
 hearing the truths of the Gospel plainly stated, you may 
 Jearn to understand them, to talk of them, to enter into 
 all the shades of doctrine, to know to the most minute 
 article of a creed, all that is orthodox, and all that is hete- 
 rodox ; you may be enabled to unfold the mysteries of 
 redemption to others, and to dwell upon the beauties of 
 its wondrous scheme, and the excellencies of its salvation, 
 till those who hear you are astonished at the clearness of 
 your views, and the depth of your Christian experience. 
 You may go further than this; you maybe perfectly 
 convinced of the truth of all that you advance; of the 
 certaintv that none con be saved but those who cordially 
 
48 THE ALMOST CHRISTIAN. 
 
 and entirely embrace the doctrines of eternal life which 
 you so well understand ; and yet, with all this illumina- 
 tion of the understanding, you may never actually em- 
 brace these truths yourself. 
 
 As with the understanding, so with the conscience ; 
 your conscience may enjoy perfect peace, the last best 
 gift of God's good Spirit, when built upon a right founda- 
 tion (even the simple reliance upon the blood of Christ); 
 but you may enjoy a counterfeit of this peace, which 
 may only be the gift of the spirit of carnal security, or 
 the spirit of deadly slumber. And as you may easily 
 attain to peace of conscience in an unrenewed state of 
 heart, so may you in the same state attain to trouble and 
 distress of conscience, which are perhaps even less am- 
 biguous evidences of a work of the Spirit than peace 
 itself. You may suffer under the strongest convictions 
 of sin without these convictions being ever followed by 
 conversion. After the commission of some sins more 
 disgraceful, or more subversive of your worldly happi- 
 ness, your character, your reputation, or your health, 
 than many others, you may be visited with the strongest 
 compunctions and the deepest sorrow; you may lament 
 your iniquity and your folly, and possess many of the 
 true signs of a genuine repentance, and yet never attain 
 to genuine repentance. 
 
 There is a remarkable testimony to the truth of this in 
 the example of Cain ; he groaned beneath the weight of 
 his sin arid of God's disapprobation;- he cried out, " My 
 punishment is greater than I can bear." Judas, again, is 
 another example; he could find no respite from the 
 honors of an accusing conscience but in a self-inflicted 
 death. Yet these were merely the natural feelings of 
 natural men, who were not even almost Christians; 
 there can therefore be no doubt, that he who deserves 
 
THE ALMOST CHRISTIAN. 
 
 49 
 
 that appellation may have advanced quite as far as these, 
 and be as utterly destitute as they were of any portion of 
 saving grace. But perhaps some among you will very 
 naturally inquire, If this be so, how am I to discriminate? 
 How am I, in my own case, to ascertain whether the en- 
 lightening of my understanding and of my conscience 
 may not be equally fallacious with those of whom I 
 have just heard; whether, after all, that which I have 
 imagined to be the light of the Sun of Righteousness, 
 the rays which beam from the cross of the Redeemer, 
 and have guided my feet into the way of peace, may not 
 be an ignis fatuus, that is merely seducing me to my 
 destruction. Be assured that God has not left himself 
 without a witness, or his people without a guide, upon 
 such important points as these. The enlightening of the 
 understanding and conscience of the true Christian differs 
 from that of which I have spoken in these important 
 particulars; while it lights it guides; it is no barren light, 
 it makes the soul grow in grace, and bring forth the fruits 
 of holiness unto the praise of God. It is not only thus 
 an influential knowledge, but it is a transforming know- 
 ledge, as St. Paul says, "We all, as in a glass, behold 
 the glory of the Lord, and are changed into the sam-e 
 image.'' This is the invariable effect upon the heart of 
 the altogether Christian ; he is changed into some blessed, 
 .'i I though imperfect resemblance, of his divine Master. 
 But if, with an increase of knowledge, you are sensible 
 of no increase of holiness, of humility, of self-distrust, of 
 close-walking with God; if, with peace of conscience, 
 you are aware of no increase of dependence upon the 
 finished salvation of your Lord and Saviour; if, with 
 trouble of conscience, you are sensible of no increased 
 hatred of sin, no earnest strivings against it, even in its 
 most secret and least suspected advances; then, indeed, 
 
 5 
 
50 
 
 THE ALMOST CHRISTIAN. 
 
 you have (he greatest possible cause of apprehension and 
 doubt, lest your foundation be on the sand, and your 
 superstruction " the wood, hay, stubble," which shall be 
 scattered as dust before the whirlwind in the great day 
 of the Lord. 
 
 The second characteristic which I have mentioned, as 
 invariably found in the true people of God, and the 
 counterfeit of w r hich is not uncommonly seen in the 
 almost Christian, is the conversion of the will and the 
 affections. 
 
 In the true people of God the conversion of the will is 
 thorough and entire. It is changed by God's grace, 
 drawn by the sweet but gentle influence of such natural 
 arguments as persuade without compulsion ; for though 
 God uses infinite power, he uses no violence; he sub- 
 dues the will, he does not compel it. He overcomes a 
 sinner's prejudices as completely as he does his resistance. 
 He does not force him to an obedience painful and odious, 
 like the obedience of a slave, but wins him to an obe- 
 dience agreeable and delightful, like the obedience of a 
 son. He does not bring him to submit to God without, 
 at the same time, teaching him that it is his choicest hap- 
 piness and his truest welfare to do so, enabling him to 
 love the will of God, and to say from his heart, " Thy 
 commandments are not grievous." This, again, marks 
 another striking distinction between the real people of 
 God, and the almost Christian. For you may be led to 
 give up many a sinful gratification, to attend to many a 
 spiritual duty, so that to the eye of man there may be no 
 distinction whatever between the almost and altogether 
 Christian. But how is it to Him who sees the heart? 
 The distinction to the eye of God is as visible as if no 
 outward act had ever been influenced, no outward ser- 
 vice performed. He sees that the very sin which you 
 
THE ALMOST CHRISTIAN. 
 
 51 
 
 relinquish is dearer to you than the duties you profess to 
 practise. That, while spiritual services are tedious and 
 burdensome to you, sinful pleasures and delights really 
 engage your hearts, and are as sweet and fascinating to 
 you as they ever were. And yet with all this, your 
 affections even, as well as your wills, may be in some 
 degree influenced by religious exercises and feelings; 
 you may often exclaim, "Would to God that I were 
 what I ought to be! Would that I were more con- 
 sistent, and more devout, and more holy !" You may 
 often sigh to think how much there is in religion which 
 you cannot but admire, though to which you have never 
 attained; you may almost envy those who are more in 
 earnest than yourself, and offer a few faint and languid 
 aspirations that you may die the death of the righteous, 
 and that your last end may be like his ; you may, in 
 fact, however paradoxical it may appear, wish yourself 
 holy, and yet remain willingly sinful ; you may wish 
 that you were better, and yet never take one step to- 
 wards amendment. Oh ! if heaven could be gained by 
 wishing for it, how few would be excluded from its 
 blessed abodes. When you hear an awakening or a 
 convincing sermon, you may be perfectly unable to 
 resist its appeals, or to answer its arguments; when 
 eternity is set before you with its certainty and its near- 
 ness, its delights or its terrors, you may be so powerfully 
 affected by it, that it may remain upon your memory, 
 and influence your thoughts and feelings for days after- 
 wards; when the love of Christ, and the atonement of 
 Christ, and the sufferings and the agonies of Christ are 
 dwelt upon, you may feel them to the very ground of 
 your heart ; they may even draw tears from your eyes, 
 but they may be such feelings as have been excited, or 
 such tears as you have shed at many an affecting tragedy, 
 
52 
 
 THE ALMOST CHRISTIAN. 
 
 or over many a foolish novel, the merely natural emo- 
 tions of the merely natural man, and evidence neither a 
 converted heart nor spiritual affections. Again, then, 
 mark the contrast ; to be altogether a Christian does not 
 depend in any manner upon these transitory excitements; 
 the true conversion of will and affections, is a holy, a 
 constant, a calm and prayerful striving to render our will 
 conformable in every point to the Divine will, and to 
 bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of 
 Christ. The almost Christian never desires or intends 
 to do this; if he even prays that his affections may be 
 drawn off from some favourite sin, he does it as St. 
 Augustine tells us he did while only almost a Christian, 
 with the mental reservation that God should not do it 
 now ; that the sin is too dear to be given up at present, 
 but that at some more convenient season, or some to- 
 morrow which will never come, his whole will shall be 
 conformed and whole affections given to God. 
 
 The third point upon which 1 have proposed to con- 
 sider the almost Christian is, the reformation of his life 
 and conversation. 
 
 That both these may be to a certain and very great 
 extent effected by one who is still in an unregenerate 
 state, and therefore not among the true people of God, is 
 evident, not only from common observation, but from 
 the Word of God. Observe, for instance, this declara- 
 tion of St.. Peter, " If after they have escaped the pollu- 
 tions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord 
 and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled 
 therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them 
 than the beginning." It is clear that the apostle does 
 not here speak of the true children of God, for we know 
 that the latter end with them will not be worse than the 
 beginning, since he who is the author is also the finisher 
 
THE ALMOST CHRISTIAN. 
 
 53 
 
 of their faith, and has promised "to keep that which 
 they have committed to him against that day." St. 
 Peter must therefore he delineating the precise class 
 whom we are now considering, for he speaks of them as 
 people who have had a head knowledge of Christ Jesus 
 the Lord ; and even more than this, as people who have 
 escaped for a time the pollutions of the world. Now 
 this is just the case with the almost Christian; he may 
 have advanced even far in outward reformation, as well 
 as in knowledge, may have escaped the pollutions of the 
 world, and yet his latter end may be worse than his 
 beginning. You will observe, the apostle does not say 
 they have escaped the pollutions of the heart, but of the 
 world ; it is only an outward work that he is speaking 
 of, but this outward work of reformation and amendment, 
 may have been a very striking and obvious one, and yet 
 may have never passed the boundary which divides the 
 almost from the altogether Christian. The motives 
 which influence the two classes, and the spirits which 
 guide them, are wholly different; and thus, though the 
 converted man must be a reformed man, the reformed 
 man may be as wholly distinct from the converted man 
 in the sight of God, as darkness from light. For in- 
 stance, even when the most completely reformed, you 
 may have only exchanged one sin for another, a public 
 sin which would disgrace you before men, for a private 
 sin, known only to God; or you may have put away 
 many of your sins, only to retain some that are the 
 dearest, and most indispensable; or you may change 
 from a life of dishonesty and deceitfulness towards men, 
 to a life of honesty and probity; while God, his honour 
 and his glory, are as completely blotted from your 
 memory and your heart in the latter slate^ as in the 
 former. Do not deceive yourselves by imagining, even 
 
54 THE ALMOST CHRISTIAN. 
 
 (his must necessarily be the work of the Spirit of God. 
 Be assured, he has no hand in any thing so unscriptural 
 and unholy. I believe that the great assistant of this 
 kind of partial reformation is the devil. That it is he 
 who helps men to relinquish some sins, only that he 
 may satisfy their souls with this miserable compromise, 
 and bind their remaining sins upon their hearts, with 
 chains of iron. 
 
 I do not scruple to say, because the whole tenor of 
 God's Word compels me, that you are not in reality 
 nearer God in this state of outward reformation, when it 
 extends no farther, which does not influence the secret 
 conduct, or purify the thoughts, or convert the soul, than 
 you were while in the most reckless course of open pro- 
 fligacy : you may imagine that you are daily ascending 
 higher and higher towards heaven, that the walls of the 
 celestial city are within your view; but, be assured, upon 
 the authority of God himself, that in attempting to reach 
 them thus, it is w r ith the miserable certainty of finally 
 and irrevocably falling; and that at the very moment 
 when you think that you have risen the highest, and 
 attained the most nearly to the heavenly mansions, you 
 are only the more certain of tumbling headlong from the 
 dizzy height, and of plunging the deeper into the very 
 lowest depths of hell beneath. 
 
 My brethren, in concluding this important subject, I 
 would desire to impress its importance upon you, by en- 
 forcing a single consideration! You have an eternity 
 before you, of which you must shortly be partakers; an 
 eternity which you cannot avoid, and out of which there 
 will be no escape. Is it not, then, of unutterable conse- 
 quence that you should ascertain where you are to spend 
 it ? Can any thing which can engage your thoughts and 
 your reflections possess a thousandth part the same de- 
 
THE ALMOST CHRISTIAN. 55 
 
 gree of interest? Then attend to me while I remind 
 you of this unquestionable fact, that, whoever you are, 
 whatever you are, whatever be your rank, whatever be 
 your station, you must be either in a state of grace, or in 
 a state of nature ; and according to this, when you come 
 to die, you must find yourself either in a state of salva- 
 tion or a state of condemnation. It is the altogether 
 Christian who can alone be saved, the almost Christian 
 will as certainly be condemned as the altogether sinful. 
 You may, as it were, be suspended between heaven and 
 earth while you live; to-day, living for one world, and 
 to-morrow vibrating towards another; but you cannot be 
 suspended between heaven and hell when you die : to 
 one or other, you must assuredly be carried ; in one or 
 other, your eternity must be spent. 
 
 Think you that it is any satisfaction to Judas, amidst 
 his present agonies, to know that he was once as near the 
 Saviour as the beloved John ; that he as often heard the 
 same voice, sat at the same table, partook of the same 
 instructions, and to the eye of all, but his Divine Master, 
 appeared as entirely a disciple ? Will it be any satisfac- 
 tion to you, if you finally perish out of Christ, to reflect 
 that there were hours in your life, when you sat among 
 the followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, partook of their 
 instructions and their sacraments, and to the eye of even 
 the holiest of men were ranked among them ; that there 
 were moments in your life when you were almost per- 
 suaded to cast in your lot with the people of God ? Alas! 
 so far from satisfaction, will it not add tenfold to your 
 misery and remorse, to think how near you were then, to 
 that blessedness from which you are now for ever shut 
 out. O my brethren, there is not a soul among you who 
 will be content on that day to be almost saved ; be not 
 then, I beseech you, content to-day with being almost 
 
5(3 THE ALMOST CHRISTIAN. 
 
 Christians. Take, then, the subject before you, as afford- 
 ing materials for thinking (for I only offer it in that light), 
 to the retirement of your own chambers; try yourselves 
 honestly upon each of the heads which have been brought 
 before you. Ask yourself whether the enlightening of 
 your understanding in Divine things, has been accom- 
 panied by a corresponding influence upon your actions. 
 Whether your peace of conscience flow from an undi- 
 vided trust in the great atonement of our Divine Re- 
 deemer, and a simple dependence upon his righteous- 
 ness. Whether you desire to give up all your own will, 
 even its most secret waywardnesses, to the will of God, 
 to be governed by him, and by him alone ; to yield all 
 your affections to him, loving nothing in opposition to 
 him, nothing more than him, nothing in comparison of 
 him. Whether, lastly, your reformation of life and con 
 duct flow from the one great principle of love to God, in 
 Christ Jesus our Lord, even a grateful love flowing from 
 a heart penetrated, subdued, and softened by a deep sense 
 of all that our adorable Saviour has done and suffered 
 far your soul. And now, beloved brethren, if there be 
 one here present who has been led by the remarks which 
 have been made, to say secretly, but from his heart, 
 " Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian;" almost 
 I resolve to part from that dear sin, to give up that 
 cherished lust, to avoid that evil companion, to renounce 
 those things which I know are separating between me 
 and my God ; almost I determine this day to devote my- 
 self, body and soul, to my Redeemer; how earnestly, 
 how affectionately would I entreat you, by the mercies 
 of God, by the blood of Christ, by the salvation of your 
 never-dying spirit, by the duration of eternity, to rest not 
 here : to cast yourself in secret, fervent prayer before the 
 mercy-seat, and, like him of old, not to leave it without 
 
THE ALMOST CHRISTIAN. 
 
 57 
 
 a blessing; not to suffer those blessed resolutions to 
 escape, as probably many before have done, from your 
 mind, until you have, by God's grace, closed with the 
 offers of redeeming love, and become, not only almost, 
 but altogether such us he was who spake the words of 
 the text, Christ's here ; and Christ's for ever. 
 
SEKMON V. 
 
 THE BELIEVER'S ASSURED INHERITANCE. 
 
 1 PETER i. 35. 
 
 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which ac- 
 cording to his abundant mercy, hath begotten us again unto a 
 lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to 
 an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not 
 away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of 
 God through faith unto salvation. 
 
 THE Christian's duties of thanksgiving and praise for 
 all the temporal blessings, by which he is surrounded, 
 were set before you from this place, upon the last Sab- 
 bath. In these he can unite with all creation; for, by a 
 strong and beautiful figure of speech, we find the Psalm- 
 ist calling upon the sun and moon, the fire and hail, the 
 snow and vapours, the creeping things, and flying fowls, 
 to praise the Lord. But there are also subjects upon 
 which, if the Christian, as is his bounden duty, offers 
 thanksgivings to his God, he must offer them alone; 
 upon which the sun and moon, the mountains and the 
 hills, are silent ; for which the cattle and creeping things 
 have no voice; in which even his fellow-men, if they 
 have never turned their thoughts to the great and holy 
 subjects which engage his mind, if they are not in fact 
 also his fellow Christians, cannot unite with him ; in 
 
 58 
 
BELIEVER'S ASSURED INHERITANCE. /jjfj 
 
 which none can unite, but those who have experienced 
 the blessings, and partaken of the benefits of which he is 
 a partaker, and are looking forward to the joys which he 
 reasonably and unhesitatingly anticipates. 
 
 A remarkable instance of the truth of this observation 
 is afforded us in the words of the text. We there find 
 the apostle rendering blessings to God for mercies, which 
 none but the true Christian, the man who is really living 
 not to time, but to eternity, who has really passed from 
 a state of indifference to the things of God, in which all 
 are created, to a state of real and earnest participation 
 in them, can experience. 
 
 It will not therefore, by God's grace, be unprofitable to 
 analyze this instance of the apostle's thanksgiving. And 
 there are two ways in which, while I am so employed, 
 you may render the consideration useful to yourselves ; 
 first, by considering how far you can individually join 
 in the thanksgiving of the text. And, secondly, by re- 
 flecting what is the position in which you individually 
 stand, with regard to God and to eternity, with regard 
 to your own souls and their salvation, if you cannot 
 join at all in these praises; which, though, in the 
 case before us, indicted by an apostle, have unques- 
 tionably been, and shall unquestionably be, the lan- 
 guage of the people of God in every age, and in every 
 clime, till time shall be no more. I merely throw out 
 these reflections for the personal consideration of you who' 
 hear me; it is not my intention to dwell upon them, 
 even for a moment; my business is simply to explain 
 the text ; it is yours, if you desire to profit by it, thus lo 
 apply it to your own consciences and hearts : and may 
 the Almighty God direct you, that you hear not the 
 Word of God in vain ! 
 
 We proceed then, to offer a simple analysis of ihe 
 
60 
 
 THE BELIEVER'S 
 
 words before us. " Blessed be the God and Father of 
 our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 I. That he has " begotten us again unto a lively hope 
 by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." 
 
 II. That he has prepared an inheritance for us. 
 
 III. That he has promised to keep us for the inherit- 
 ance so prepared. 
 
 The first object, then, of the apostle's thanksgiving is, 
 that God has begotten us again unto a lively hope by 
 the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. 
 
 It is natural that the first step in the Christian life 
 should be the first subject of the Christian's thanksgiving. 
 God has begotten us again. Yes, my brethren, as 
 surely as that you were once born of flesh and blood, 
 so surety, if you are now on the straight and narrow path, 
 now preparing for a heavenly inheritance, have you been 
 born again of the Spirit, made new creatures in Christ 
 Jesus, taught to put off the old man with his lusts, the 
 world with its unholy pleasures, self with its sins. It is 
 for this new creation in the soul, that the apostle first 
 praises God. 
 
 Observe how remarkably strong are the expressions of 
 his thanksgiving. He does not say, " Blessed be God 
 that he has reformed us, or improved us ; that he has 
 made us better than we were in the days of our igno- 
 rance and sin," but that he has " begotten us again." 
 How striking must be the alteration ; how entire must be 
 the change of motives and feelings, of inclination and 
 practice, to justify such a term as this ! Could such a 
 phrase be ever applicable if the work were only a partial 
 work? If we had left off some sins while we cleaved to 
 others, if we neglected some duties while we practised 
 others, we would ask any n h prejudiced person among 
 you, if you had met with such a phrase in any 
 
ASSURED INHERITANCE. gj 
 
 other book than the Bible, would you have had a mo- 
 ment's doubt as to the meaning of the author? Would 
 you not yourself have said, Surely the change here 
 alluded to must be total and entire to justify such an ex- 
 pression? There must be the implantation of a new 
 principle in the heart to give the full meaning to such 
 language. And if the phrase, " begotten again," could 
 lead you to this result, would not the declaration, " God 
 has begotten us/' lead you to another result, viz., that 
 the work here spoken of cannot be your own. If, by 
 the unaided efforts of your own resolutions, you could 
 turn from a death in sin " to a life unto righteousness," 
 would it not be a total misapplication of language to say, 
 that by such a change God had begotten you again ? 
 Most assuredly it would. The apostle in such a case 
 might have said, " Blessed be God that we have be- 
 gotten ourselves again ;" but he could never have said, 
 " Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath be- 
 'gotten us," unless, as it most certainly is, the work of 
 this change in heart and life were wholly and entirely, 
 from first to last, the work of God himself. Be assured, 
 therefore, that if you trust to yourself, you will never be 
 influenced by any thing in yourself, to turn from the follies 
 and pleasures of sin to holiness and to God, but that you 
 must prayerfully, faithfully, constantly, seek a power 
 far greater than your own ; in fact, that you must un- 
 ceasingly desire, and as unceasingly ask for, the sweet 
 and gentle, but still powerful and prevailing, influence 
 of God's quickening Spirit. It is he who finds you, as 
 the Scripture describes you, and as you feel yourselves 
 to be, " dead in trespasses and sins." It is he who 
 breathes into your soul the spiritual life of the children 
 of God. It is he who sees you fast bound by the thou- 
 
 6 
 
62 
 
 THE BELIEVER'S 
 
 sand chains which the corruptions of your own natuie, 
 and the fascinations of this world, have wound around 
 you; and who, by his all-powerful influence, dissolves 
 these chains, and frees you from your captivity ; and 
 having given you the spirit of light and life, gives you 
 also the desire and the will to walk worthy of your high 
 calling, and to devote your newly-created powers to the 
 service of your Redeemer and your God. It is for this 
 that the apostle blesses the "God and Father of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ," and rightly blesses him; for it is 
 the act of God's own free and sovereign grace, utterly 
 undeserved, and equally undeserved, by every individual 
 object of it. If I then address any who have attained 
 to one scriptural thought of God ; to one heartfelt desire 
 to know and to serve him ; to one prayerful aspiration to 
 be what he would have you to be, and what he 
 alone can make you, you will most readily and most 
 heartily join in the thanksgiving of the text; and while 
 others, even the possessors of immortal souls, the heirs 
 of immortality, are like the mountains and the hills, 
 sunk, in a silence which their hearts cannot enable them 
 to break, you will join in saying, " Blessed be the God 
 and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ" for this undeserved 
 mark of his compassion and love. To him be all the 
 praise and all the glory. To you then, we would only 
 add, earnestly beseech him to carry forward the work of 
 mercy, which he alone could have commenced; and be 
 assured, that he who has begun the good work will con- 
 tinue it until the day of Jesus Christ ; but that neverthe- 
 less, according to his own gracious declaration, even for 
 this, he will be inquired of by you. But we must turn 
 to the second great and blessed subject of the apostle's 
 praises, the " lively hope," which next excites his thanks- 
 givings. 
 
ASSURED INHERITANCE. g 
 
 There are those, my brethren, strange as it may seem 
 to you, who, when they think of spiritual religion, the 
 religion of our blessed Lord Jesus Christ, think of it as 
 some gloomy and forbidden mysticism; something of 
 which they feel themselves to be ignorant, and are rather 
 inclined to thank God that they are so, believing that the 
 reception of it would deprive them of the harmless joys 
 and innocent pleasures of life, and that all religion is a 
 morose and melancholy thing. This is an argument 
 against the reception of the truths of the Gospel, so uni- 
 versal, that it is impossible to avoid alluding to it ; and 
 yet so unscriptural, that the most simple reader of God's 
 Word can overthrow it. Look at the manner in which 
 the apostle expresses himself in the very words we are 
 considering. He blesses God that he has begotten us 
 to what ? To a lively hope, a cheerful expectation, a 
 soul-delighting and heart-elevating joy, by the resurrec- 
 tion from the dead ; to an " inheritance incorruptible, 
 undefiled, and that fadeth not away." Does this*appear 
 to be the language of a man who saw any thing in reli- 
 gion of privation or restraint, of gloom or despondency ? 
 Is it not rather the expression of one who felt that his 
 greatest present happiness, quite as much as his future 
 welfare, depended entirely on those views of eternity 
 upon which the eye of faith had now opened ? He says, 
 in other words, " Blessed be God that by the resurrection 
 of Jesus Christ (which was the seal and sign that his 
 atonement had been accepted for the remission of our 
 sins), blessed be God that I have now been created anew 
 in heart and affections, in motives and desires ; that I am 
 filled with a lively hope of a future inheritance, which 
 no sorrow can quench, and which death itself shall not 
 be able to destroy." How elevating such a subject ought 
 to be ! How cheering such a hope must be, where it is 
 
THE BELIEVER'S 
 
 rightly received into the heart! There is nothing gloomy, 
 nothing desponding here. Has the world, and I address 
 myself to you who know the world, yes, to you who 
 know it best, and have tried it the most eagerly, and en- 
 joyed it the most unscrupulously, has it, with all its 
 immunities and rewards, its wealth for the covetous, its 
 rewards for the ambitious, its luxuries for the indolent, 
 its gratifications for the sensual, has it any thing to offei 
 which can stand a moment's competition with the Chris- 
 tian's lively hope of a future but yet a certain inheritance? 
 No, brethren, you know that it has not. You know that 
 there is this, if there were nothing else, which blasts every 
 sinful pleasure of the world, and is as the never-dying 
 worm at its heart's core, even the revealed declaration of 
 our God, " Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth ; and let 
 (hy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth ; but know 
 thou ? that for all these things God will bring thee into 
 judgment." Nay, more than this, were there no judg- 
 ment to come, there is something in the" very transitod- 
 ness of these enjoyments, the very feeling that they are 
 gone, never to return ; that twenty, thirty, forty years of 
 enjoyment have all passed away, of which you cannot 
 purchase back one hour, if you would give a thousand 
 worlds for it; that must make the worldly man, in his 
 moments of reflection, a melancholy man. Can they be 
 otherwise than melancholy, whose pleasures are merely 
 for the passing day, who have no comforts laid up for 
 old age and weakness, no consolation ready for a day of 
 sickness, no hope, no certain hope, in their death ? No ! 
 be assured that the end of that mirth, as the wise man 
 says, " is heaviness." What would they give, who scoff 
 at the Christian's hope, who call religion a melancholy 
 thing; what would the happiest, the most thoughtless, 
 the most successful of the sons of earth or rather what 
 
ASSURED INHERITANCE. g- 
 
 would they not give, when on a bed of sickness, and 
 about to enter the valley of the shadow of death for a 
 single hour of that peace and joy and strong consolation 
 which the true believer can alone experience; which is 
 his settled portion now, and which shall be his portion 
 throughout eternity ? 
 
 But we must pass from the apostle's thanksgiving for 
 the " lively hope" of the Christian, to the consideration 
 of that inheritance for which he hopes, and the blessed 
 and invaluable nature of it. 
 
 It is called, in the text, an " inheritance incorruptible, 
 undefiled, and that fadeth not away." Consider, then, 
 for a moment, the nature and the blessedness of such a 
 prospect; and see whether it is not likely to be an in- 
 fluential motive, not merely to present peace and happi- 
 ness, but to present holiness and gratitude towards God. 
 You are placed here upon earth but for a short and 
 uncertain period; for the longest life that ever yet was 
 lived, could, at the end of it, only enable its possessor to 
 say with Jacob, " Few and evil have been the days of 
 the years of my pilgrimage." We will suppose that, 
 while here, your lot is the happiest ever enjoyed by mor- 
 tals, still all that you possess is transitory, all you do is 
 defiled, all that you love and enjoy is perpetually fading 
 from you. The most durable of your possessions cannot 
 be secured to you, even for the day that passeth over you. 
 The morning sun sees you rejoicing in your abundance, 
 the evening sun may behold you destitute and impo- 
 verished. The year opens upon you surrounded by an 
 affectionate family, closely united to some beloved rela- 
 tive or friend; how will you venture to assure yourself 
 that it shall not, before its close, see you bereft of every 
 joy that gladdens life ; separated from the friend that 
 cheers, or the child that endears it. 
 
66 THE BELIEVER'S 
 
 Now turn your eyes from what you are to what you 
 shall be, from what you now possess, to what is promised 
 you hereafter. An inheritance is placed before you, in 
 which every thing is in its nature entirely the reverse of 
 all that you are now possessing, of which the enjoyment 
 is declared, by the unerring Word of God, to be eternal, 
 for it is an inheritance indestructible : in which rw> taint 
 of sin shall ever pass upon it, for it is an inheritance un- 
 defiled : in which no change shall ever interrupt or 
 diminish the happiness of it, for it is an "inheritance 
 that fadeth not away." No sound of sorrow shall ever 
 be heard within those blissful abodes. The wealth laid 
 up in store for you in those imperishable garners shall 
 never be exhausted. The friends you knew on earth 
 who have entered there, shall go no more out for ever; 
 they are in their Father's house, rejoicing in their Re- 
 deemer's presence, and beholding his glory. 
 
 How delightful is the thought, how blessed the antici- 
 pation, that not a person whom we have loved on earth, 
 if a real child of God, shall be absent from our future in- 
 heritance, not a joy in which, as Christians, we have 
 delighted, that we shall not find awaiting us, but per- 
 fectly purified, and unspeakably magnified, in our Re- 
 deemer's kingdom ! That, indeed, is well worthy the 
 name of an inheritance, where all are heirs, and yet 
 where nothing is divided, but where each shall enjoy an 
 abundance of which no mortal tongue can tell the extent ; 
 where all that is seen and heard, and made in any man- 
 ner the subject of our senses, shall minister delight to 
 them, to an extent now utterly inconceivable; where 
 our communion with God shall not be momentary, but 
 perpetual ; where our perfect union with our Redeemer, 
 and with all the inhabitants of his kingdom, shall be of 
 such a nature that it shall form the one great subject of 
 
ASSURED INHERITANCE. ffl 
 
 our thanksgiving, the one great crowning joy of all our 
 joys throughout eternity. 
 
 Such is a faint and imperfect outline alas! how faint 
 and imperfect! of that blissful inheritance, for which 
 the apostle blesseth God, the Father of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, that he has bestowed it upon his people. 
 
 But there is yet one peculiar feature, which to every 
 true and obedient believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 must yield, while in this world, the highest encourage- 
 ment, the greatest satisfaction. It is, says the apostle, an 
 inheritance "reserved for you, who are kept by the 
 power of God through faith unto salvation ;" that is, in 
 other words, This glorious inheritance is kept for you, 
 and you are kept for it. Here is a boundless motive for 
 gratitude, the one substantial ground for the present 
 peace of the Christian : not that there is in some far 
 distant clime an inheritance which, by some possibility, 
 may one day be attained, but of which you can possess 
 nothing like an assurance here below. Would this be 
 comfort? There might arise in your minds a certain 
 undefinable longing for something which appeared de- 
 sirable, when opposed to the comparative worthlessness 
 of all in which your hands are engaged, or for which 
 your hearts are striving; but it would not yield that 
 peace to which we have already alluded, which can defy 
 the world and its impositions, the flesh and its tempta- 
 tions, the devil and his threats. It is then this peculiai 
 feature of the Christian's inheritance, which can, and 
 will, and, blessed be God, daily and hourly, to the hum 
 ble follower of our Lord and Saviour, does bestow a 
 peace of mind, and a consolation which can defy all 
 worldly troubles and afflictions, and place its possessor 
 in a state where they shall never reach him, the fact, 
 
58 THE BELIEVER'S 
 
 and the assurance of that fact, that heaven is reserved for 
 him, and he, by God's grace, preserved for heaven. 
 
 There are times when you, I speak now to you and 
 to you alone, who are enabled to thank God that he has 
 begotten you again unto this lively hope by the resurrec- 
 tion of Jesus Christ from the dead, who have reason to 
 hope that you are the unworthy partakers of this change 
 of heart, and of this change of life, of which we have 
 been speaking, there are times when you may feel 
 doubtful whether you shall ever arrive at the one great 
 object of your anticipation and of your prayers; an 
 entrance into the kingdom and joy of our Lord. 
 
 Now, my brethren, at such moments call to mind the 
 declarations of the text, and see whether this will not 
 turn your silence into thanksgiving, your heaviness into 
 joy. The revealed Word of God declares that the in- 
 heritance is reserved for you, and that you are reserved 
 for it. The word that expresses this is in the original a 
 very peculiar word ; it is that which is used for those 
 who are kept by a constant guard; so that it implies 
 that the Christian is never left alone or unguarded on 
 the road to his inheritance ; that you have a defence per- 
 petually before you in all time of your trouble, and in 
 all time of your temptations and trials, through which 
 your spiritual enemies can never break, from which they 
 shall never force you. Your strength and your security 
 do not depend upon yourselves; they depend upon your 
 position. The weakest woman, the youngest child, 
 when placed in a well -garrisoned fortress, may smile at 
 the hostile army without, though thousands and tens of 
 thousands were encamped against them. And ought 
 not the Christian to know something of this security 
 when he has realized the truth of the declaration of the 
 
ASSURED INHERITANCE. 59 
 
 Spirit of God, "the name of the Lord is a strong tower; 
 the righteous runneth into it and is safe?" Most un- 
 doubtedly he ought, for God is honoured most when his 
 people are comforted most, and when his promises are 
 the most unhesitatingly received. Believe, then, if you 
 are endeavouring to live to God, with simple reliance 
 upon the all-sufficiency of your Redeemer, that you are 
 going to an inheritance which shall never fail; that you 
 are placed m a fortress which can never be taken; that 
 you are kept by a guard which cannot be overcome. 
 
 1 need not urge you to be careful lest such a declara- 
 tion as this should make you careless, indifferent, disobe- 
 dient, or unholy. Surely, the very words of the text 
 themselves ought to prevent this. You are " kept by 
 the power of God through faith unto salvation." It is, 
 then, by God's power that you are kept, but it is through 
 your own faith. If this be absent the promise is void. 
 You are not told that you are kept by God's power, 
 without a lively influential faith. Man may tell you so; 
 but be assured God has never told you so. He who has 
 appointed the end has also appointed the means; and 
 those means are a true, living, active, and obeying faith ; 
 a faith which worketh by love ; a faith which knows, 
 and which honours, and delights to honour, even the 
 very least of God's commandments; a faith which, by 
 uniting you to your Redeemer, brings you within the 
 citadel ; and by causing you to cleave to your Redeemer, 
 keeps you within it. 
 
 Rejoice, therefore, in the Lord, my Christian brethren, 
 and glorify him in your bodies and your spirits, which 
 are his; for his unerring Word has declared, " the Lord 
 is thy keeper, the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand. 
 The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by 
 night. The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil : he 
 
TO 
 
 BELIEVER'S ASSURED INHERITANCE. 
 
 shall preserve thy soul. The Lord shall preserve thy 
 going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and 
 even for evermore." How astonishing a promise ! Three 
 times within two verses does the Almighty pledge him- 
 self to preserve every obedient and believing servant 
 " from this time forth even for evermore." As, there- 
 fore, you have been forgiven much, and as you have 
 been promised much, so will you love much, obey much, 
 practise much, of all that your Lord requires of you ; but 
 still you will cast all these duties away from you as the 
 ground either of your merits or your stability, and will 
 let your morning and evening song for ever be on earth, 
 as it will ever be your song in heaven, " Blessed be the 
 God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, accord- 
 ing to his abundant mercy, hath begotten us to a lively* 
 hope by the resurrection from the dead, to an inheritance 
 incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away, re- 
 served in heaven for you who are kept by the power of 
 God through faith unto salvation." 
 
SERMON VI. 
 
 THE DEVICES OF SATAN. 
 
 2 COR. ii. 11. 
 We are not ignorant of his devices. 
 
 THE devices of Satan, our great spiritual enemy, are 
 among the most fearful dangers of the Christian. It is 
 not merely that we are " very far gone from original 
 righteousness," as our Article expresses it ; that we are 
 conceived and born in sin, as the Bible reveals to us ; 
 that we carry about us a body of sin and death, and 
 within us " a heart deceitful above all things and despe- 
 rately wicked," as our own experience fully establishes ; 
 but there is yet more, far more than this, to impede our 
 heavenward progress, and ruin our souls. There is in 
 every one's path, and at every one's heart, a cunning 
 and powerful, a busy and indefatigable evil spirit, seeking 
 to devour. 
 
 It is the fashion of the so-called philosophers of the 
 present day to disbelieve, or affect to disbelieve, the very 
 existence of this evil spirit, and by this means most effec- 
 tually to forward his endeavours. It is the theory of an- 
 other class to represent Satan to be a mere name, to 
 express an evil quality, or a collection of evil principles, 
 but to deny him all personality and existence as a spirit 
 of power and darkness. While there are few, even of 
 
 71 
 
72 THE DEVICES OF SATAN. 
 
 the most established and enlightened Christians, who 
 have any just conceptions of the extent of Satan's power, 
 the immensity of his wisdom, the depth of his cunning, 
 the infinity of his resources. 
 
 Ii shall be my endeavour, then, to awaken the minds 
 of my hearers to this great and important subject, feeling 
 convinced that as our contempt of an enemy often leads 
 to our own defeat, so nothing, under God's grace, will 
 tend more to promote in us all holy circumspection and 
 watchfulness of conduct, than just and scriptural views 
 of those devices by which the great enemy of our souls is 
 for ever carrying on his exterminating warfare. Before, 
 however, I enter upon the devices of Satan, it is neces 
 sary that I should prepare the way by speaking of this 
 fallen spirit himself. And here, without referring to the 
 different passages of Scripture which demonstrate the 
 truth of what I advance, I shall confine myself simply to 
 the descriptions contained in them, adding nothing of 
 speculation or of human fancy to the plain historical 
 statements of the Divine Word. We find, then, from 
 that Word which cannot lie, that before time began, the 
 devil, who is called also in holy writ, Abaddon, Apollyon, 
 Beelzebub, Belial, and by many other appellations, " fell 
 from heaven/' with a large assemblage of evil spirits, 
 who " kept not their first estate," but were " cast down by 
 God into hell," and are " reserved in everlasting chains, 
 under darkness, unto the judgment of the great day." 
 During the time that he is thus reserved for judgment, 
 we further find that he exercises, by God's permission, a 
 species of government, in the realms of darkness, over 
 those evil spirits who fell with him ; that he is represented 
 by our Lord as possessing a kingdom, and one never 
 divided against itself, but thoroughly united in implaca- 
 ble and boundless hatred against God and his Christ, 
 
THE DEVICES OF SATAN. J-g 
 
 against the Lord and his people, and indeed against the 
 whole human race, in whose everlasting destruction he 
 is perpetually engaged. He is called, also, the "god of 
 this world," "the ruler of the darkness of this world," 
 "the spirit that now worketh in the children* of disobe- 
 dience," because he directs and co-operates with evil 
 men to their ruin, being a lying spirit in the mouth of 
 false prophets, and false teachers ; a spirit of dishonesty 
 in the thief, of lust in the adulterer, of revenge in the 
 murderer, of enmity and disobedience to God in every 
 heart which has not been renewed and purified, which is 
 not directed and governed by the Spirit of God. We 
 are thus, for instance, told distinctly in God's Word, that 
 it was Satan who prevailed on David to number the peo- 
 ple ; that it was Satan who tempted Peter to deny, and 
 Judas to betray, his Master; and Ananias and Sapphira 
 to lie to the Holy Ghost. 
 
 We are assured also that he resists men in their efforts 
 to do good, as well as aids and assists and tempts them to 
 do evil ; thus we are told by the prophet Zechariah (third 
 chapter), "that when Joshua, the high priest, and the 
 Jews, assembled to rebuild the temple of the Lord, Satan 
 stood at Joshua's right hand to resist him ;" and when 
 Job was pronounced by the Almighty himself to be one 
 who "feared God and eschewed evil," Satan, in the ac 
 cursed jealousy of his heart, rested not until he had ex- 
 hausted the whole quiver of his fiery darts to induce the 
 patient sufferer to " curse God to the face." 
 
 Having said thus much to establish from holy writ the 
 personality, and to give some faint idea of the occupations 
 and employments of this ruler of the powers of darkness, 
 I shall proceed to speak a little more in detail of some of 
 those numerous and subtle devices by which he carries 
 forward the great counter-scheme at which he has been 
 
 7 
 
74 THE DEVICES OF SATAN. 
 
 woiking since time began, to rob God of his glory in this 
 lower world, the Lord Jesus of his purchased people, and 
 us of our souls. 
 
 It is evident, that if we were to attempt to enumerate 
 the devices by which Satan beguiles the people of the 
 world, and leads captive whom he will, every occupation, 
 every amusement, every person, every object which en- 
 gages them must be made' the subject of our considera- 
 tion. This is impossible, and, therefore, for the purpose 
 of contracting the subject within something like reason- 
 able limits, I shall confine myself to those devices where- 
 with he beguiles the souls of men in reference to spiritual 
 things ; considering them under two heads, and dividing 
 my subject into three discourses, limiting myself on t|ie 
 present occasion to, 1st, The devices with which Satan 
 beguiles men before their conversion to God ; and in the 
 two next discourses, to the devices of Satan after men's 
 conversion. 
 
 We proceed, then, this morning, to consider some of 
 the devices of Satan, by which he retains possession of 
 the souls of men during their unconverted state. 
 
 The first device which I shall bring before you, be- 
 cause amongst the most obvious and most successful, is 
 his retaining men in bondage to himself through the 
 agency of their friends and companions. " A threefold 
 cord," said the wise man, "is not quickly broken." 
 Union is strength, " for evil as well as for good, for sin as 
 well as for holiness." One of Satan's great objects, there- 
 fore, is to keep you in the companionship and friendship 
 of those who acknowledge and serve the devil's three 
 great representatives here on earth, " the lust of the flesh, 
 the lust of the eye, and the pride of life." As long as 
 you are contented to live upon terms of friendship with 
 these enemies of your soul, and with those who follow 
 
THE DEVICES OF SATAN. 75 
 
 them, Satan is content ; he will neither distrust nor 
 harass you. The nearer in friendship and relationship 
 these evil companions are to you, the more completely 
 does it answer the purpose of your wily adversary. 
 Thus, in the case of holy Job, the friend of whom Satan 
 made the greatest use in endeavouring to draw him from 
 God, was his wife. She it was, who, in the most trying 
 hour of his mental and bodily suffering, came to him 
 with the taunting inquiry, " Dost thou still retain thine 
 integrity?" following it by the dreadful advice, " Curse 
 God, and die !" Can we doubt in whose service she was 
 employed, or at whose instigation she acted so iniquitous 
 a part? Thus, again, in the case of our Lord, when 
 Satan had been so effectually foiled in his own person, 
 and defeated in his most powerful assault by the Lord 
 Jesus, whom did he employ to tempt the all-perfect 
 Saviour ? Was it not one of the best beloved of the 
 apostles? to whose well-intended but insidious advice 
 our Lord was compelled to reply, " Get thee behind me, 
 Satan." So, brethren, will you find it in your own ex- 
 perience, that of all the devices by which Satan leads 
 you captive at his will, the first, the most frequent, and 
 the most successful, is through the instrumentality of 
 your relatives and friends. What an argument is this 
 against forming intimacies, and still more, permanent 
 connexions with those who fear not God. If you are in 
 earnest in your soul's salvation, you will, above all things, 
 and before all things, form your friendships, and en- 
 deavour to unite yourself only to those who appear to 
 possess more of God's Spirit than you have ; you will 
 seek their company, their friendship, their love. The 
 last day only can determine how many a brand has been 
 plucked from the burning by the instrumentality of 
 Christian friendship. On the other hand, how many 
 
7Q THE DEVICES OF SATAN. 
 
 are there among you at this moment, who, if you spake 
 the truth, would be obliged to confess, that one of the 
 strongest and most influential motives which detain you 
 from giving yourselves to God with a whole heart, and 
 " following the Lord fully," is to be found in the entice- 
 ments and allurements, the love or the fear of your rela- 
 tives, your friends, or your companions. 
 
 The second device by which the devil tempts the un- 
 converted is, the inconsistencies of the converted, that 
 is, of real Christians. This forms one of the most dan- 
 gerous stumbling-blocks in the path of the unconverted. 
 
 Satan is continually disseminating, exaggerating, and 
 inventing instances of the inconsistence of religious peo- 
 ple. " Observe," he says, " the pride, or the worldli- 
 ness, or the vanity, or the covetousness of one who pro- 
 fesses more godliness than those around him. Observe 
 his hastiness or moroseness, his unkind ness and un- 
 charitableness, his melancholy and gloominess : will you 
 seek for a deeper feeling, and a more entire reception of 
 a religion which produces such fruits as these?" is the 
 language of the tempter. These are, doubtless, in many 
 instances the invention of him, who, as the Word of God 
 assures us, was "a liar from the beginning;" in too 
 many instances, however, we acknowledge that they are 
 founded in truth ; but then, brethren, to be aware of this 
 device of Satan, you must recollect that these sins and 
 short-comings of religious people are not because they 
 are religious, but notwithstanding they are religious. 
 They are not the effect of their religion ; they would 
 have existed, and in all probability with tenfold acrimony, 
 if they had never been religious at all. The morose 
 man would have been morose ; the covetous man, 
 covetous; the proud man, proud ; if he had never 
 heard of religion. And, without doubt, he would have 
 
THE DEVICES OF SATAN. 77 
 
 been ten times more morose, or covetous, or proud, than 
 he now is. The device of Satan consists in teaching 
 .you to view these things as the fruits of his religion, that 
 thus the doctrines of grace, and the practice of ungodli- 
 ness, may become associated in your mind as inseparable 
 companions. While Satan takes a peculiar pleasure in 
 blazoning these failings of God's people forth, and in 
 making them the subject of your thoughts and conversa- 
 tion; he takes peculiar pains also, that you should never 
 know how poignant is the regret, how deep the repent- 
 ance, how free and full the acknowledgment of these 
 infirmities and sins, before a throne of grace, by those 
 who commit them. Satan shows you the children of 
 God in their hours of weakness; it would defeat his 
 guilty purpose, were he able to tell you of their penitence 
 and contrition, of their bitter tears and heartfelt prayers, 
 and free and full forgiveness, when they have drawn 
 near to the blood of sprinkling, and again found peace 
 for their souls. His purpose is fully answered if he can 
 thus induce you to hate and despise and calumniate holy 
 persons arid holy things. Such a state of mind, on your 
 part, will widen the breach already existing between you 
 and your God, and will stand as a wall of adamant in 
 the way of your soul's approach to the Saviour. You 
 will naturally be too proud to imitate the example, to 
 seek the counsel, to desire the intimacy, or to love the 
 religion of men, whom the devil teaches you to despise ; 
 and by thus keeping you from the servants of Christ, he 
 will often too fatally succeed in keeping you from their 
 Master. 
 
 The third device of Satan, and closely following upon 
 the steps of the former, indeed necessarily connected 
 with it, is by misrepresenting religion itself. To the 
 young, Satan takes particular care to portray all true 
 
 7* 
 
78 THE DEVICES OF SAT AS?. 
 
 and vital religion as a gloomy and melancholy subject, 
 which will rob you of your cheerfulness and joy. To 
 the weak and timid, as a difficult and dangerous enter- 
 prise, upon which you had better not embark, but " sit 
 down first and count the cost;" not as our Lord gave the 
 same advice, that you may rise up with resolution and 
 strength to begin to build, and to be enabled to finish, 
 but that you may never enter upon a course which 
 would free you from Satan's captivity, and number you 
 among the Lord's freemen. It is for this purpose that 
 he often shows you, while in an unconverted state, the 
 cross and its dangers, but hides from you the crown and 
 its glories. 
 
 If you value your own souls you will never rest con- 
 tentedly with the views of religion which are given you 
 by its enemies. Search the Word of God for yourselves, 
 there only can you find the religion of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ in its purity and its perfections. Attend carefully, 
 while under a scriptural ministry; " Faith," the apostle 
 expressly assures us, " faith cometh by hearing." Com- 
 pare what you hear, not with what those around you 
 tell you, or with what Satan through the instrumentality 
 of your own evil heart suggests, but compare what you 
 hear with what you read in God's own word ; arid you 
 will, by God's grace, soon be made sensible of the truth, 
 and the value of all the peculiar doctrines of the Gospel, 
 and will find the service of the Lord Jesus Christ to be 
 perfect freedom, and all his paths peace. 
 
 The devices which I have hitherto enumerated, are 
 such as the devil practises with effect against all the un- 
 converted. But he is obliged to have recourse to other, 
 and less palpable engines, when, either from the direct 
 operations of the Spirit of God, or the temporary effect 
 of some awakening discourse, or some afflicting provi- 
 
THE DEVICES OF SATAN. 7Q 
 
 dence, the unconverted man is in a measure awakened 
 from his stupor, and led to begin to inquire after Divine 
 things. 
 
 The fourth device, then, which I shall mention, is 
 usually applied by Satan to persons in the state of 
 mind to which I have just referred, as beginning 
 to inquire; and may be denominated, inspiring hard 
 thoughts of God, and discouraging thoughts of the 
 way of salvation. When the devil perceives that 
 you are becoming desirous to turn to God, he often 
 begins by representing our heavenly Father to you, as a 
 hard task-master; a harsh and severe judge: as one 
 who loves to take vengeance upon the ungodly, and re- 
 joices in the destruction of the sinner. O how different 
 from the truth, how widely different from the character in 
 which God himself reveals himself to the hearts of his child- 
 ren, when he speaks peace to the troubled soul. and pardon 
 to the penitent through the blood of Jesus; when he 
 says', u I, even I, am he who blotteth out your iniqui- 
 ties for my own sake, and will not remember your sin ;" 
 when he declares that he." willeth not the death of a 
 sinner," but that all should come to repentance. Even 
 Satan, for he once experienced God's tenderness, even 
 that condemned spirit knows that " God is love," though 
 he knows it only to the increase of his misery and 
 wretchedness and pain; and he therefore knows that his 
 only hope of retaining the sinner in his cruel bondage, 
 is by misrepresenting and defaming God ; for let the 
 sinner possess but one view, one true and scriptural view 
 of the forgiving tenderness of God in Christ Jesus, let 
 him see but one ray of that redeeming love which is con- 
 tinually shining from the cross of the Redeemer, and 
 Satan's power in his heart is for ever broken, Satan's 
 reign there for ever at an end. As soon, therefore, as 
 you are begic ning to turn to God, Satan uses his every 
 
gQ THE DEVICES OF SATAN. 
 
 effort to malign him. He assures you that God is a 
 jealous God, a severe God, a God taking pleasure in the 
 death of a sinner, and, therefore, God will not pardon 
 you ; that God is your enemy, that he views you as a 
 task-master views his slave, and rejoices over your bur- 
 den, and your inability to bear it; that your heart is so 
 hard that you cannot repent, and that God would not 
 accept you even if you could ; that your sins are so great 
 and yourself so vile, that it is vain, utterly vain, for you 
 to approach a holy God. When you hear the freest in- 
 , vitations to come to the Saviour for pardon and accept- 
 ance, Satan suggests that, whatever others may have 
 done, you have sinned beyond the reach of such invita- 
 tions as these, and therefore that it is vain for you to seek 
 a Saviour. But if he finds that all these devices are 
 fruitless in repressing your desire, and that you are still 
 anxious, increasingly anxious, to accept the invitation, 
 then he changes his plan, advises you by all means to 
 fly for help and deliverance to the Lord, but first to 
 mortify and to forsake your sins, to be humbled and 
 sanctified, holy and just and good, and then to go to the 
 Saviour. These are, indeed, most dangerous delusions; 
 but, blessed be God, they will disperse at the touch of the 
 spear of the Divine Word. 
 
 Does Satan suggest to you that you are too vile and 
 too sinful to go to the Lord Jesus Christ? He might with 
 equal truth have kept Naaman, the leper, from the 
 cleansing waters. It was because he had a leprosy, that 
 he was sent to wash in Jordan ; it is because you are 
 thus guilty and thus polluted, that you must fly to the 
 cleansing blood of Christ. 
 
 Does Satan again urge you to be humbled, and to 
 labour after holiness, to fit you to come to Christ? This, 
 again, is merely to keep you for ever from him. 
 
 No ! When you have received Christ, when you have 
 
THE DEVICES OF SATAN. gj 
 
 cast yourself upon him who is alone mighty to save for 
 salvation, and upon the strong for strength, then you 
 shall be enabled to perform all your duties, and fulfil, 
 however imperfectly, all God's requirements; but you 
 may exercise all self-denial, and partake of all ordinances, 
 and dig for ever in the mines of humiliation and contri- 
 tion and holiness, and never find there the precious gems 
 of pardon and peace. Cast your soul with confidence 
 upon the Lord Jesus for free pardon and justification in 
 your present state, be it what it may, and he will give you 
 all these things, which Satan prompts you to seek for 
 yourself; a softened heart to feel and to forsake your sins, 
 a godly sorrow to work repentance unto salvation not to 
 be repented of, a spirit of holy, consistent obedience, to 
 run the way of God's commandments. 
 
 To conclude : in bringing these different devices of 
 Satan before you, and in attributing them to their right 
 author, I feel that I am performing a great and impera- 
 tive duty, as the minister of God, and one which, by 
 God's grace, may be made useful to some souls, in tearing 
 away the mask from the face of this deceiver. There 
 is, however, one danger attending this subject, against 
 which I could desire to guard you, and which naturally 
 flows from the considerations which have been brought 
 before you to-day. It is this: you may, perhaps, be 
 tempted to reason thus: If all these different hindrances 
 in the way of my salvation, if all these suggestions which 
 have often arisen in my heart, be indeed devices of the 
 devil, then surely I am guiltless ; the fault is Satan's, 
 and the condemnation must be Satan's, that I am not 
 yet converted to God. Brethren, be assured that this is 
 only an additional delusion from the tempter; all revela- 
 tion contradicts it. 
 
 For behold the sin of our first parents ; the Word of 
 God assures us that there, in a most marked and peculiar 
 
2 THE DEVICES OF SATAN. 
 
 manner, Satan was the tempter; that it was a device 
 which sprang immediately from himself, and yet, alas! 
 how tremendous is the curse which Adam's disobedience 
 entailed upon himself and his posterity. 
 
 So, again, with David, the Word of God as expressly 
 declares, " Satan stood up against Israel and provoked 
 David to number Israel" (i Chron. xxi. 1) ; yet I need 
 not remind you that the punishment fell upon the 
 guilty David. 
 
 This is not only true, but, like all the dealings of our 
 heavenly Father, it is just. If Satan could compel you 
 to the sin to which he tempts you, then, indeed, it would 
 be most cruel, most unjust, that you should suffer for it: 
 but it is impossible; Satan has no power beyond the 
 mere power of alluring and enticing; if he had, our 
 Lord would have been obliged to throw himself from the 
 pinnacle of the temple, and not merely tempted to do so; 
 and Job would as assuredly have been compelled to have 
 cursed God. Therefore St. James most, truly says, 
 " Every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his 
 own lust and enticed :" he does not say, " When he is 
 drawn away by the invincible power of the devil." The 
 devil has no such power; he never has drawn, and never 
 can draw away, any single individual, unless in complete 
 accordance with that individual's own inclination, and 
 perfectly in union with that individual's lusts. 
 
 It is, therefore, vain to endeavour to throw upon Satan 
 the guilt of your distance from God, your non-conversion 
 to the Lord Jesus; were this the truth, our Lord never 
 could have said, " Ye will not come unto me that ye 
 might have life." There is no natural inability in any 
 man to seek the salvation of Jesus; that there is unques- 
 tionably a moral inability, a dislike, a disinclination, a 
 violent Dpposition of the will, only enhances our guilt, 
 and will increase our punishment. But do not deceive 
 
THE DEVICES OF SATAN. gg 
 
 yourselves by attributing your alienation from God to a 
 power which you cannot, by God's grace, successfully 
 oppose. No ; you can resist the devil, or you would not 
 have been commanded to do so ; you can, by God's 
 grace, vanquish him, or you would never be condemned 
 for your failure. In obeying the temptations of Satan, 
 you simply perform your own will ; you follow your own 
 inclination; no man can profess to say when he sins, 
 that he does so simply to please the devil. No ; Satan 
 and the sinner invariably agree upon this point; you are 
 perfectly well aware that you sin simply to please your- 
 selves, and it would therefore be too much to expect that 
 Satan should bear the burden and the condemnation. 
 
 Keep in mind, thea, brethren, that this is a solemn 
 declaration of God, " Resist the devil, and he will flee 
 from you;" none ever acted upon it, in humble depend- 
 ence upon the Holy One of Israel for strength, and was 
 disappointed. However evil men or evil spirits may 
 misrepresent the Gospel or its followers, be sure of this, 
 for it is the Word of the living God, that " If our Gospel 
 be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the god 
 of this world hath blinded the minds of them which 
 believe not, lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ, 
 who is the image of God, should shine unto them." But 
 be ye equally sure of this, that that gracious Saviour who 
 has said, " Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise 
 cast out," now invites, nay, beseeches the most hardened 
 and the most guilty, the youngest, and the most weak and 
 feeble among you to be " reconciled to God," through 
 his precious blood; and that neither man nor Satan can 
 keep you from him, if you be willing to accept the 
 blessed invitation : may God of his infinite mercy grant 
 that you may this day receive it to the salvation of your 
 souls! 
 
SERMON VIL 
 
 THE DEVICES OF SATAN. 
 
 2 Cor. ii. 11. 
 We are not ignorant of his devices. 
 
 IN addressing you in my last discourse upon the very 
 important and deeply instructive subject of the devices 
 of Satan, I intentionally confined my observations to 
 those devices with which he particularly besets the path 
 of the unconverted. We, on that occasion, reviewed the 
 danger from our own families and friends; from worldly 
 and infidel and ungodly companions ; from the incon- 
 sistencies and sins of real Christians; from Satan's mis- 
 representation of religious persons and of religion itself; 
 from his suggesting hard thoughts of God, and discou- 
 raging views of the way of salvation; and, lastly, where 
 all other devices fail to keep you from the Saviour, the 
 continual efforts which Satan makes to tempt you to be- 
 come a Saviour to yourself, and to strive after holiness, 
 humility, and sanctification through your own efforts, 
 instead of coming at once to that Redeemer, who can 
 alone enable you to fulfil these duties, and who must 
 himself be made unto you, " wisdom and righteousness 
 and sanctification and redemption." 
 
 We are, on the present occasion, to endeavour to set 
 before you some of those devices, wherewith this iride- 
 84 
 
THE DEVICES OF SATAN. 5 
 
 fatigable enemy of all godliness besets the path of the 
 real children of God, seeking to drive you out of that 
 stronghold into which the Word and the power of God 
 have called you; or failing in this, to injure your peace, 
 to destroy your happiness, and to change " the ways of 
 pleasantness" into paths of painfulness, and the " light 
 burden" which a Saviour's love would lay upon his 
 people, into a galling yoke and a heavy bondage. 
 
 May the Spirit of wisdom and of love and of a sound 
 mind direct us in the investigation ! 
 
 As in the last discourse, I endeavoured to follow some 
 little degree of order in arranging the devices of Satan, 
 from the most plain and obvious and common-place, 
 with which he attempts the hearts of all, to those with 
 which he more immediately assailed the heart, when be- 
 ginning to feel desirous to turn unto the living God; so 
 would I, on the present occasion, endeavour, in a similar 
 manner, to follow the steps of the destroyer, only premis- 
 ing, that there can be no certain rule in these things, but 
 that since God's Word has declared that, "as in water 
 face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man ;"* 
 the experience of one may probably be the experience 
 of many, and the dangers and difficulties of others, may 
 lead you to foresee and forearm against your own. 
 
 The first device, then, with which Satan often be- 
 wilders the mind and endangers the peace of the new 
 convert, is by perplexing him with the difficult and in- 
 comprehensible subject of the secret decrees of God, pre- 
 destination, election, and reprobation. 
 
 No sooner have you begun to feel the comfort of those 
 declarations of the revealed Word that, " God would have 
 all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of 
 
 * See Proverbs xxix. 19. 
 8 
 
g@ THE DEVICES OF SATAN. 
 
 the truth," and that u whosoever will, may take of the 
 water of life freely ;" no sooner, in obedience to the many 
 commands and invitations to come unto the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, and find peace for your soul, have you in much 
 weakness and trembling drawn near with faith to this 
 blessed and adorable Redeemer, trusting that poor and 
 miserable and sinful as you feel yourself to be, he will 
 neither despise nor reject you, than Satan, if you possess 
 an inquiring mind, often produces this temptation : He 
 will say, Is it not true, that "God hath constantly de- 
 creed by his counsel secret to us," I quote the words of 
 the Seventeenth Article of our Church, " to deliver from 
 curse and damnation those whom he hath chosen in 
 Christ out of mankind, and to bring them, by Christ, to 
 everlasting salvation ?" Yes, this is a solemn truth of 
 God, built upon all Scripture, and recognized in all the 
 formularies of our truly scriptural Church. But then 
 observe the deduction which Satan draws from it. He 
 suggests, If this be true, that God hath appointed to 
 eternal felicity those whom he hath chosen out of the 
 world, as "vessels before prepared for glory" to manifest 
 his mercy and love; then is it also true that God has in 
 like manner appointed to damnation, those whom he 
 hath chosen out of the world, for the purpose of mani- 
 festing his severity and wrath. Then follow in the train 
 of this device of the evil one, doubts and fears, and per- 
 plexing considerations which destroy the peace of the 
 new convert, and sometimes almost lead him to absolute 
 despair. He is led to reason with himself; "If I am 
 appointed by God to condemnation, what matter to me 
 the love of Jesus Christ, and the offers of his mercy ; the 
 decree has gone forth, the Word of God is immutable, 
 and one jot or one tittle shall never pass away till all be 
 fulfilled in the condemnation of those whom God has, 
 
THE DEVICES OF SATAN. gj 
 
 before the foundation of the world, appointed to destruc- 
 tion." 
 
 Brethren, whenever you are thus tempted by the evil 
 one, bear this in mind ; we know nothing of God's de- 
 crees except as he has seen fit to reveal them. Now we 
 do not scruple to say, that there is no single passage in 
 Scripture, and no combination of passages which reveal 
 to us any thing so derogatory to the character of God, 
 and so entirely contradictory to every attribute of God, as 
 that he should decree any single individual (irrespectively 
 of that individual's character and conduct) to everlasting 
 condemnation. When, therefore, Satan would harass 
 and distress your mind by such a delusion, your answer 
 is this, Of God's secret decrees I know nothing, for 
 God's own Word has said, " The secret things belong to 
 the Lord our God ;" but there is one decree which God 
 has seen fit to publish before men and angels by the 
 mouth of his Incarnate Son, which, blessed be God, I 
 do know, and which so entirely contradicts the falsehood 
 which Satan calls a decree of the living God, that I am 
 satisfied at once that it is a mere device of the tempter ; 
 God's decree is this, that " Whosoever (without a single 
 exception) believeth in the Son shall not perish, but 
 have everlasting life." Upon this decree, proclaimed 
 and ratified and sealed on Calvary, I am content to rest 
 my soul for time and for eternity ; Satan himself cannot 
 impugn it ; " Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable 
 gift." 
 
 But with the young convert Satan has yet far other 
 more successful, because more hidden snares, than this; 
 and when he cannot prevail with you upon doctrines, he 
 will endeavour to discourage you from duties. For in- 
 stance, are you desirous of attending the table of the 
 Lord ; he will endeavour to demonstrate, by every sub- 
 
g3 THE DEVICES OF SATAN. 
 
 tilty and fallacy in his power, that you are unfit, that if 
 you go in your present state of mind, you will draw down 
 a curse rather than a blessing ; that you will " eat and 
 drink your own damnation, not considering the Lord's 
 body." How many an humble contrite believer has been 
 kept for years in succession from this blessed means of 
 grace, and this " most comfortable" ordinance, by such 
 delusions as these. But here, again, from the Word of 
 God, is your answer ; " They that be whole need not a 
 physician, but they that are sick;" the very argument 
 which Satan advances to keep you away from your 
 Lord's table, is urged by your Lord as a motive for going 
 thither ; and may fairly be pleaded by yourself as a rea- 
 son for his accepting you. 
 
 Again, Satan will discourage you from other duties by 
 such considerations as these. He will tempt you to 
 perform them in a cold, dead, heartless manner; for 
 instance, while at prayer he will tempt you to vain 
 thoughts, to impious thoughts, to profane and wicked 
 thoughts ; for he knows that a prayer which is not from 
 the heart of the child will never reach the heart of the 
 Father, and when he has succeeded in doing this, he 
 will plead these very distractions, which were occasioned 
 by himself, as reasons why you should forego prayer and 
 every holy duty ; because to you they have thus become 
 not only unprofitable, but even sinful and unholy. 
 
 So, again, with regard to the great duty of self-exami- 
 nation ; no sooner do you endeavour to engage in earnest 
 in this difficult work, than Satan is at your right hand 
 to oppose you. He will first suggest that the inquiry is 
 needless, that however it may be with the hypocrite, or 
 the immoral, or the profane, there can be no doubt that 
 your heart is right with God, and that to you it is un- 
 necessary to examine yourselves " whether ye be in the 
 
THE DEVICES OF SATAN. gg 
 
 faith." If this will not succeed, he will endeavour, the 
 moment you have tried to fix your thoughts and atten- 
 tion steadily upon this one great object, to interrupt and 
 distract them by every imagination foreign to the subject 
 which he can introduce ; until the time is spent, and you 
 are obliged to confess, that instead of services and self- 
 examination, it has been consumed in little better than 
 the most trifling idleness. If this device, however, should 
 not succeed, but you are enabled to persevere steadfastly 
 in your intended occupation, and are resolved to ascer- 
 tain the true state of your affections and heart, and the 
 true value of your religious dudes, then Satan will even 
 help you to see their worthlessness and wretchedness, if 
 he may but build upon it the temptation that after all you 
 are yourself only a hypocrite ; that you have increased 
 your sin by your very prayers ; that duties so full of 
 coldness and carelessness are only adding to your ac- 
 count; until at length he brings you to so bewildered a 
 state of mind that you know not whether you would not 
 sin the less by actually abstaining from duties altogether. 
 Many there are, even in the more advanced stages of the 
 Christian life, who suffer from these devices, and some 
 from still more palpable temptations than these. Some- 
 times, even to the confirmed Christian, Satan will present 
 the strongest suggestions of positive infidelity. There are 
 moments when he will lead them to question the reality 
 of every doctrine and every truth upon which their hearts 
 are fixed for eternity. Even the very being of a God, 
 the Divinity of the Saviour, the existence of a Divine 
 Revelation, the improbability that one among ten thou- 
 sand spheres should have called the eternal Son from the 
 bosom of the Father to agonize and die for its redemp- 
 tion ; each and all of these will at times be present to the 
 mind even of the most established believer. In all such 
 
90 THE DEVICES OF SATAN. 
 
 cases, prayer, humble, faithful prayer, is the child of 
 God's best and only refuge. Thus, " resist the devil, 
 and he will flee from you." Thus unite yourself still 
 more closely to the God of all strength and all consola- 
 tion, and he will "bruise Satan under your feet shortly," 
 and again anchor your soul upon the Rock of Ages, 
 from which, for a moment, the Prince of the power of 
 the air may have driven you. 
 
 The next device which I shall notice is of a very dif- 
 ferent nature from these, and one from which we might 
 have hoped that the children of God would in a great 
 measure be free ; and yet, alas ! so deeply is sin imbed- 
 ded in the heart, that I believe the experienced Chris- 
 tian will not accuse me of exaggeration even here. 
 
 The device to which I allude is this, that Satan some- 
 times tempts the people of God into sin, by suggesting to 
 them the facility of returning again to God by repentance. 
 This is a fearful and most dangerous fallacy. You are, 
 perhaps, conscious that you are about to enter upon some 
 forbidden path, to partake of some unholy gratification, 
 to perform some doubtful act, and instead of starting 
 back from it with abhorrence, and asking, " How can I 
 do this great wickedness and sin against God," you,are 
 tempted to go forward by the very recollection of God's 
 former mercies and past forgivenesses ; you reason within 
 yourself, " This may possibly be wrong; but if it be, I 
 will repent and forsake it, as I have done before, and I 
 know I have an affectionate Father, a merciful and 
 tender High Priest, who is not " extreme to mark what 
 is done amiss," and who will again bestow upon me re- 
 pentance and pardon." My Christian brethren, this is a 
 most fearful and desperate delusion ; so fearful, that, if 
 you yield to it, it ought to make you question the very 
 fact of your conversion and your adoption altogether 
 
THE DEVICES OF SATAN. Q| 
 
 It is sad to fall into sin blindly and inconsiderately : it is 
 worse, far worse, to sin with a knowledge that you are 
 sinning, and against the convictions fastened upon your 
 consciences by the Spirit of God ; but to sin with the 
 secret determination that, when you are satisfied, you 
 will return ; to sin because you know you have a God 
 who willeth not the death of a sinner, but had " rather 
 he should turn from his wickedness and live;" this is 
 guilt of such black ingratitude, that we should indeed 
 tremble for the soul that contracted it. Beware, above 
 all things, of such presumptuous guilt as this, lest you 
 too late discover, that though the downward passage has 
 been easy, the upward path is impracticable, and that 
 there is no return, no place for repentance, though you 
 seek it bitterly and with tears. Few but those who have 
 experienced it can tell, how much more difficult is the 
 return to God than the departure from him. The heart 
 of man may not unaptly be compared to a spring lock, 
 which any individual may close, but he who holds the 
 key alone can open. Thus you may, indeed, easily 
 turn from God of yourself; you may shut out God of 
 yourself; but you cannot turn to him, you cannot open 
 your heart to the admission of him, except by the aid of 
 that Being of whom the Word of God has declared, 
 " He hath the key of David, he openeth, and no man 
 shutteth; he shutteth, and no man openeth." How 
 strong, upon this subject, is the language of God himself; 
 "It is impossible for those who were once enlightened, 
 and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made 
 partakers of the Holy Ghost, if they shall fall away, to 
 renew them again unto repentance." Be careful, then, 
 how you suffer your great enemy to shut to the door, 
 lest He who says, " Behold, I stand ai the door, and 
 
92 THE DEVICES OF SATAN. 
 
 knock," shall depart from you excluded and neglected, 
 never to return until he comes in judgment. 
 
 The two next devices of Satan to which 1 shall advert 
 are spiritual pride and spiritual confidence. 
 
 Spiritual pride is one of the most successful tempta- 
 tions with which Satan assails a new convert. We are 
 not surprised, in worldly matters, that the newly rich 
 should be proverbially proud of their wealth. So in 
 spiritual graces, the man who possessed more yesterday, 
 will readily be tempted to vaunt himself of the little he 
 possesses to-day. He who has newly put on Christ, is 
 often as vain of the garments of salvation, as a child is 
 of his new clothes; and is not satisfied, unless all see 
 and admire and talk of him. Young Christians, there- 
 fore, are usually the most forward in all companies to 
 boast of their achievements, and their acquirements. It 
 is not astonishing, therefore, that this device is often suc- 
 cessful against them ; especially, when we bear in mind, 
 that the new convert knows but little, and sees but little, 
 either of the unsearchable riches of Christ, or of the 
 hitherto unattained advances in spiritual things which 
 lie before him. He is, therefore, no judge of the vast 
 extent, the infinite dimensions of -Divine grace, and is 
 perfectly ignorant even of what his own necessities and 
 temptations will require. He thinks, naturally, that the 
 little he has is great, because he knows no more, and 
 this peculiarly lays him open to the temptation we are 
 considering. Every little act of self-denial appears to 
 him a wonderful effort, and every labour of love, a great 
 achievement. Even the apostles themselves, in the early 
 part of their Christian career, were not free from this, or 
 we should never have heard St. Peter exclaiming, 
 " Lord, we have left all and followed thee," or have 
 been told that they had disputed among themselves by 
 the way, who should be " the greatest." 
 
THE DEVICES OF SATAN. 93 
 
 One of the worst effects of this temptation is, that it 
 does not stand alone, it usually begets self-confidence. 
 You have, for instance, by Divine grace, overcome some 
 trying temptation ; the devil's device is to make you 
 vain of your success, and the consequence is, that the 
 next time the same or a similar temptation occurs, you 
 are tempted to trust to your own power, and your own 
 strength, and your own former experience, and the grace 
 you have before received ; and the invariable effect is, 
 that you fall before the temptation. 
 
 Here, again, we may find an example even among 
 the most loved disciples of our Lord, "Be ye able to 
 drink of the cup which I drink of, and to be baptized 
 with the baptism that I am baptized with ?" said Jesus 
 to James and John ; the answer, strongly savouring 
 of self-confidence, was, " We are able:?" yet we do 
 not find that they were exceptions when " all the disciples 
 forsook him and fled." 
 
 Learn, therefore, never to trust to any thing in the 
 hour of trial, but to the strength to be derived immedi- 
 ately from God. He would not have proclaimed him- 
 self a " very present God in time of trouble/ 5 if his im- 
 mediate presence had not been indispensable at such 
 times to the stability of his people. The largest degree 
 of grace ever vouchsafed, will be insufficient to stand 
 against the smallest device of Satan, if it induce you to 
 trust to what you are, or to what you have, instead of 
 sending you to the ever-flowing fountain. Never are 
 you so secure as when you lie the lowest ; or so safe, as 
 when you are content to go out of yourself for all you 
 desire or need. 
 
 Lastly, this state of spiritual pride and self-confidence 
 is one which lays the believer especially open to all the 
 devices of Satan connected with heresy and error. 1 do 
 not mean to say that other Christians are never misled 
 
94 
 
 THE DEVICES OF SATAN. 
 
 by these things, but unquestionably the young, the 
 ardent, the spiritually proud, self-confident Christian is 
 infinitely more exposed to them ; and such characters 
 will, I believe, be found upon examination to have 
 formed, in all ages of the Church, and especially in the 
 newly-revived errors now afloat among us, nine-tenths 
 of those who have swelled their ranks. There is some- 
 thing so gratifying to our fallen nature in being more 
 learned than those around us, in receiving truths which 
 they cannot comprehend, in partaking of discoveries 
 which are not revealed to them ; that many, very many, 
 even of God's own people, especially when their beset- 
 ting sins are of the nature just alluded to, are for a time 
 misled by errors which, in after years, they look back upon 
 with shame, grief and penitence. To guard you against 
 this device, I would particularly caution you not to trifle 
 with error. Remember that when God's Word declares, 
 that there shall be " certain who shall privily bring in 
 damnable heresies," it distinctly establishes this solemn 
 truth, of which people are too little aware, that error can 
 damn as w r ell as vice. It is not for us to say what errors 
 are thus dangerous; but neither is it for us to conceal a 
 truth so little believed, so seldom acted upon, and yet so 
 certain and so appalling. 
 
 Do not trifle with error, by which I mean, do not will- 
 ingly read, or hear, or place yourself in contact with error. 
 Pray to be u kept by the power of God" from every thing 
 which shall injure your singleness of eye, and singleness 
 of heart, and simplicity of view of Divine truth. These are 
 peculiarly trying times for such characters as those to 
 which I am now referring; if you know youselves, your 
 own peculiar temptations, your own besetting sins/you 
 will be most watchful agairtst this device of the tempter, 
 and will keep at a distance from every thing which will 
 
THE DEVICES OF SATAN. g% 
 
 tend to favour or to foster it. Remember that by the 
 law of God, as delivered to Moses, the Nazarite who was 
 forbidden to drink wine, was also forbidden to eat grapes. 
 There was clearly no fear lest the grapes should intoxi- 
 cate him, but there was much fear lest the taste of the 
 harmless fruit might beget in him the love and desire for 
 the forbidden and dangerous spirit. Do not, therefore, 
 willingly trust yourself upon the remotest confines of 
 error; if you would avoid the danger, do not be misled by 
 the specious device of the tempter, that you must read the 
 productions of those who dirTer, that you may judge 
 for yourself. No ; thank God that you are not called to 
 pass through this ordeal to enable you to judge for 
 yourself. If we know what truth is, we know what 
 error is, without studying error : just as by knowing what 
 harmony is, we know what is discord, without having 
 our ears set on edge to learn it. Thank God that you 
 have his Word and his Spirit, and that they are all- 
 sufficient to teach you to discern error, without wading 
 through its mischievous and destructive volumes. 
 
 But the time warns me to conclude. 
 
 The subject we have now been considering would still 
 be left in a very imperfect state, were we to conclude our 
 remarks upon it thus. I shall therefore hope in the next 
 discourse to bring before you some considerations which 
 will naturally grow out of this important subject. In 
 the mean time may we be led, by what we have already 
 seen, to think far more scripturall} 7 of the spiritual dan- 
 gers to which we are exposed, that we may guard more 
 circumspectly, and pray more earnestly for the abiding 
 presence and aid of Him who has crushed the serpent's 
 head, and who will, by his Divine power and grace, en- 
 able you, the weakest and feeblest of his followers, to be 
 come more than conquerors through him that loveth you 
 
SERMON VIII. 
 
 THE DEVICES OF SATAN. 
 
 EPHESIANS vi. 11. 
 That ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 
 
 IT has been the object of the two last discourses to lay 
 before you a few of the most common and most danger- 
 ous devices of our great spiritual enemy, in the hope, 
 and with the prayer, that some minds may be enlighten- 
 ed, some hearts encouraged, some souls comforted, amid 
 the trials and the dangers of the Christian life. My in- 
 tention at present is to offer, by the help of God's good 
 Spirit, such further suggestions upon this important sub- 
 ject, as may tend to carry the remarks which have been 
 already made to a more definite and practical result. 
 
 The arrangements I shall adopt this morning will be, 
 first, to speak of some of the reasons for which it pleases 
 God to permit his people to be tempted; then, to review 
 some of the assistances which God bestows under tempta- 
 tion ; and lastly, to offer some encouragements to those 
 who are tempted. 
 
 Before commencing upon this, however, I must en- 
 deavour to remove one difficulty which may not unna- 
 turally suggest itself to the mind of every reflecting 
 Christian, while striving to profit by the considerations 
 already brought before you. It is of this nature. If, as 
 
 96 
 
THE DEVICES OF SATAN. 
 
 97 
 
 the Word of God assures me, " the heart is deceitful above 
 all things, and desperately wicked," how shall I be en- 
 abled to ascertain, of any particular temptation which 
 assails me, whether it be the offspring of my own evil 
 imagination, and therefore has its rise and origin within 
 my own breast, or whether it come from without, and is 
 the inspiration of the spirit of wickedness and sin? 
 
 This is an extremely difficult point to determine, and 
 in offering a few very brief remarks upon it, I would not 
 be understood to speak with the same degree of con- 
 fidence as upon those things which are the subjects of 
 express revelation, for here we can only give the opinion 
 and experience of men, not the word of God ; of eminent 
 Christians, indeed, but still merely of uninspired mortali- 
 ty. Following, then, the guide of Christian experience, 
 we should say that one of the most decisive points of 
 distinction is this; that when sin is the natural birth of 
 our hearts, it grows up leisurely, and by degrees ; it does 
 not rush upon us at once in an overwhelming flood, but 
 is thought of and ruminated upon, and viewed, perhaps, 
 at first, with reluctance, but soon with complacency, in 
 all its different bearings ; and then entered upon gradually 
 from its lighter to its deeper shades of criminality and 
 guilt. For even a Heathen writer has handed down to 
 us the observation, that no man becomes in an instant 
 deeply abandoned. But when sin comes immediately 
 from the devil, there are none of these gradations, and 
 it is remarkable for its suddenness and abruptness. It 
 rushes in at once upon the thoughts, and we are hurried 
 away^ without time, or reflection, or consideration, into 
 transgression. It is, perhaps, on this account that the 
 devices of Satan are compared, in the passage of Scrip- 
 ture from which the text is taken, to " fiery darts," which 
 can be cast in a moment, and carrying sudden destruc- 
 
 9 
 
98 
 
 THE DEVICES OF SATAN. 
 
 tion to the soul. Two other methods of deternJning 
 this difficult point are, by the nature of the sins to which 
 we are tempted, and the effect they have on our minds 
 and on our hearts. 
 
 The nature of the sin. Some of the most horrible 
 and dreadful sins that can be conceived are referred in 
 the Scriptures of truth to the direct agency of Satan; 
 profane and blasphemous thoughts of God, murder, and 
 especially self-murder. To this sin, through the instru- 
 mentality of Job's wife, Satan tempted that holy patri- 
 arch ; to this sin the devil, in his own person, tempted 
 the Saviour of the world, when, having placed him upon 
 a pinnacle of the temple, he said, " Cast thyself down." 
 To this, again, he tempted successfully the miserable 
 Judas, for we are expressly told that Satan entered into 
 him before he engaged in his last dreadful deed of blood. 
 If the nature of the temptation is thus in some degree a 
 proof of the source from which it flows, so also is its 
 effect upon our own minds and hearts. For instance, 
 suppose that the moment an evil suggestion arises in 
 your soul, you feel an unspeakable degree of loathing 
 and abhorrence; this is a strong presumptive evidence 
 that it is the work of an enemy from without ; the heart 
 does not usually feel such violent dislike and hatred for 
 sins which it has itself engendered. This then is a 
 favourable sign to the tempted believer, and one which, 
 if followed up by fervent, faithful, persevering prayer, 
 will usually be succeeded by victory over temptation and 
 the tempter. 
 
 But enough has been said upon this portion of our 
 subject. We proceed now to the consideration of some 
 of the reasons for which our heavenly Father of his 
 mercy and goodness permits many, nay, all his children 
 
THE DEVICES OF SATAN. 
 
 99 
 
 nuring their pilgrimage state, to suffer from the wiles of 
 the devil. 
 
 How essential a portion of our subject this is, may be 
 gathered from the fact, that we so often feel inclined to 
 wonder, and even to murmur, that when once brought 
 among the number of God's people, we do not experience 
 more freedom from these attacks. " If I were indeed a 
 child of God, I should not be thus continually harassed 
 and disturbed by temptation," is often the language of 
 of our hearts. " I was told that religious ways were 
 ways of pleasantness and peace, but I am incessantly 
 suffering from both internal and external disquietudes." 
 This mistake arises from our not fully understanding the 
 nature of the life to which we are called. When you 
 become, not merely in name, but in heart and in soul, a 
 Christian, you must remember that you become a sol- 
 dier, not a conqueror ; that you are called to " fight," and 
 to "run," and to "wrestle," (all these are terms which 
 are applied to the Christian life,) to enter upon a course 
 of difficulty and trial, not upon a season of enjoyment 
 and rest. The Christian life, compared with the happi- 
 est worldly life, is unquestionably pleasantness and 
 peace; but compared with "the rest which remaineth 
 for the people of God," it ever has been, and ever will be, 
 full of disquietudes and trouble; or why should our 
 Lord himself have told us first to sit down and count 
 the cost? You ought, therefore, to expect to meet with 
 these spiritual assailants and spiritual difficulties; and 
 the following are among the many reasons we might 
 offer, for which our heavenly Father sees good that it 
 should be so. 
 
 Temptation or trials are most effectual tests of our 
 Christian graces. Thus the full extent of Abraham's 
 faith would never have been known to the Church of 
 
100 
 
 THE DEVICES OF SATAN. 
 
 God, had it not been tried by God himself; and the 
 reality and depth of Job's sincerity and patience would 
 have been equally unknown, had they not been subjected 
 to the temptations of Satan. Our heavenly Father, 
 therefore, permits you to be tempted, to bring out your 
 Christian graces and your holy obedience into far more 
 abundant fruit-bearing to the honour of his name, thus 
 in the end working for you a far more exceeding and 
 eternal weight of glory. 
 
 While the temptations of Satan are producing this 
 good and valuable effect upon your Christian graces, 
 they are often producing equally salutary effects upon 
 the darker and more unholy portion of your Christian 
 character. For instance, you are perhaps beginning to 
 feel the risings of spiritual pride, for ever springing up 
 out of the remains of natural corruption even in the re- 
 newed heart ; then does God permit your spiritual enemy 
 to tempt you, that so the very feeling of your liability to 
 sins, which you, perhaps, with some degree of self-com- 
 placency, hoped you had for ever cast beneath your feet, 
 may tend to humble you and lower you in your own 
 opinion, to show you what is in your heart, and to de- 
 stroy these first buddings of pride. It was thus that God 
 permitted St. Paul to suffer from a thorn in the flesh, 
 which he expressly says, " was a messenger of Satan 
 to buffet him," not because he had actually become 
 proud and self-sufficient, but lest he should be lifted up ; 
 lest he should grow proud, through the abundance of the 
 revelations which was vouchsafed him. 
 
 In this case, therefore, the temptation was permitted 
 by God as a preventive to feelings which, if suffered 
 to grow up, might have endangered the spiritual life and 
 peace of the apostle. 
 
 There are yet other and minor motives from which it 
 
 1 
 
THE DEVICES OF SATAN. 
 
 101 
 
 probably pleases our heavenly Father to subject us to 
 the fiery trial of temptation. For instance, to enable us 
 wisely to counsel and thoroughly to sympathize with 
 those who are tempted. It was a frequent saying of 
 the great Martin Luther, that " temptation, meditation, 
 and prayer can alone make a minister." He who has 
 never been deeply tried and exercised in his own heart, 
 will never be able to say with St. Paul, " We are not 
 ignorant of Satan's devices," and therefore will never be 
 able wisely and feelingly to counsel those who are in 
 " danger through manifold temptations." It is when we 
 have often ourselves smarted from the fiery darts of the 
 enemy, that we know best the method of his attacks, and 
 the quarters from which they are to be expected, and 
 that we can instrumen tally assist the suffering and tempted 
 believer so to hold up the shield of faith as effectually to 
 quench these weapons of the evil one. 
 
 It is on this account also, that aged and experienced 
 Christians are usually far more tolerant, and far more 
 lenient and kind in their judgment of their sinning bre- 
 thren, than the young and untempted believer. They 
 best know the power of Satan and the weakness of their 
 own hearts ; they best know that if they have stood 
 where others have fallen, the strength and the courage 
 and the merit are not their own ; and therefore while 
 they say, " Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but to thy 
 name be the praise," they can truly and feelingly sym- 
 pathize with every fellow Christian who is suffering from 
 those devices which they have, through the undeserved 
 mercy of their Redeemer, overcome or escaped. 
 
 But, probably, above all other reasons, the Almighty 
 permits us to be thus tried and tempted that we may not 
 fix ourselves too strongly and root our ourselves too 
 firmly here below, but may, in the midst both of worldly 
 
 THE __ r 
 
THE DEVICES OF SATAN. 
 
 and spiritual prosperity, know something experimentally 
 of the Psalmist's feeling, " O that I had wings like a 
 dove, for (hen would I flee away and be at rest." Blessed 
 is that trial, be it what it may, if it in any degree strengthen 
 this desire (so wholly unknown to the ungodly) to be for 
 ever with the Lord, and to behold his glory. 
 
 Without dwelling at greater length upon the reasons 
 for which a merciful God frequently permits even his 
 dearest children to be exposed for a time to the devices 
 of the wicked one, enough has, I trust, been said to de- 
 monstrate (for this is my chief object) that it is perfectly 
 compatible with the wisdom and power, and even with 
 the love and mercy of God, that such things are permit- 
 ted ; and I shall therefore proceed to consider some of 
 those assistances and supports which God in mercy 
 bestows upon his tempted children, that they may be 
 able to "stand against the wiles of the devil." 
 
 The first of these is the " sword of the Spirit, which 
 is the Word of God." 
 
 This is the only offensive weapon which you can suc- 
 cessfully use against our powerful adversary. Even the 
 Lord Jesus Christ condescended to wield this weapon. 
 When Satan tempted him, he replied to every one of 
 the three temptations by a quotation from the written 
 Word, probably to encourage us by the thought that 
 even the eternal Son of the Father, with all the infinity 
 of weapons in heaven's own armoury at his command, 
 chose to select his arrows from the same quiver which is 
 open to you and to myself, to the very weakest and the 
 most helpless of his followers. 
 
 When Satan therefore approaches, go to the quiver of 
 God's Word, and draw your arrows thence, and Satan 
 shall as certainly fly from you as he fled from the sword 
 of your Leader. 
 
THE DEVICES OF SATAN. ] Q3 
 
 But, brethren, before you can do this, it is not enough 
 that the Bible is in your houses, it must often be in your 
 hands, and its truths treasured up in your memories, and 
 in your hearts. It is because men know so little of God's 
 Word, that they are so utterly helpless under tempta- 
 tion. Were you in the habit of daily attentive reading, 
 and searching that Word of God, it would be impossible, 
 with all his cunning and all his resources, for the devil 
 to bring any single temptation, from the grossest and 
 most insulting, to the highest and most refined, for which 
 you would not be able immediately to find an appro- 
 priate and successful reply. Let us take some common 
 instances : were he to tempt you to theft, or to drunken- 
 ness, or to covetousness, you might say in reply, "It is 
 written," " Be not deceived: neither thieves, nor covetous, 
 nor drunkards, shall inherit the kingdom of God." Were 
 he to tempt you to gross licentiousness, " It is written," 
 "Whoremongers and adulterers God shall judge." To 
 Sabbath-breaking, " It is written," " Remember the Sab- 
 bath-day to keep it holy." To fear man rather than 
 God, " It is written," " Fear not them which can kill 
 the body, and after that have no more that they can do." 
 Were he to tempt you to doubt of your Lord's power or 
 willingness to save your soul from hell, " It is written," 
 " All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth ;" 
 and again, " Him that cometh unto me, I will in no 
 wise cast out." Thus, in the treasury of God's Word, 
 you will find " It is written," an answer, and an effectual 
 one, to every temptation which Satan can present. It is 
 the only certain method of resisting this powerful enemy ; 
 the method which your Lord himself adopted, and which 
 your heavenly Father has from the beginning most 
 abundantly blessed. 
 
 As the written Word is the one great offensive weapon, 
 
[Q4 THE DEVICES OF SATAN. 
 
 so is constant, faithful, fervent prayer, the one great de- 
 fensive weapon, in resisting " the wiles and devices of 
 the devil." 
 
 When you feel a temptation injected into your thoughts, 
 or your affections, betake yourself at once, to secret, 
 silent, prayer. You cannot be in any company, in 
 which a Christian ought to be, you cannot be engaged 
 in any occupation in which a Christian ought to engage, 
 or be partaking of any amusement of which a Christian 
 ought to partake, which would render the aid of silent, 
 ejaculatory prayer misplaced, or impossible. By thio 
 you may, in a moment, remove yourself from the neigh, 
 bourhood of the tempter, to the footstool of a throne ol 
 grace. By this you may hide yourself, as it were, under 
 the very wings of Omnipotence, through which no 
 weapons of Satan's armoury, no dart from Satan's bow, 
 can ever penetrate. The tempted believer, taking re 
 fuge, by faithful, heartfelt prayer, beneath the shadow of 
 the everlasting wings, is, as regards the wiles of Satan, 
 as secure, as Noah was, while in the ark of God's love, 
 from all the storms and tempests of the flood which 
 drowned the world. For it is this which realizes your 
 union with your Lord, and, by close and intimate com- 
 munion, brings you at once to him, who, while Satan is 
 engaged in tempting you, is himself engaged in praying 
 for you ; yes, in unceasing intercession, that though 
 "Satan has desired to have you, your faith fail not;" 
 and therefore, like his of old, it shall not fail, but " shall 
 be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appear- 
 ing of Jesus Christ." 
 
 In conclusion, I would offer a few words of encourage- 
 ment to you who " suffer, being tempted." 
 
 There are, we believe, few, if any, of the real people 
 of God who do not suffer from the wiles and devices of 
 
9 THE DEVICES OF SATAN. 
 
 . 
 
 Satan, and this to a far greater degree than the people of 
 the world. Of those who are living without God, we 
 have the authority of God's own Word for saying, at 
 least as a general rule, that, " they come in no misfor- 
 tune like other folk," they are exempt from many of the 
 most trying mental exercises of which the mind of man 
 is susceptible. They are, as the same Word assures us, 
 already in " snare of the devil, taken captive by him at 
 his will;" and therefore his end is gained, he has no 
 need of wiles and devices to effect what is already 
 effected; his only effort with regard to them, is to lull 
 and to soothe and to satisfy and to keep them, that they 
 may neither perceive their thraldom, nor feel their chains, 
 until the iron has entered into their soul, and is for ever 
 riveted in the fires of eternity. But with you, who are 
 really endeavouring to follow Christ, the case, thank 
 God, is widely different, and Satan knows and feels it to 
 be so. He knows that an all-powerful Saviour has 
 engaged for your protection and salvation; that however 
 he may rage and foam and struggle, he is himself as 
 completely in the Saviour's power, as you are, and that 
 the time is short in which he will be permitted to disturb 
 and harass the people of God, before he is consigned to 
 " the blackness of darkness for ever." Therefore are 
 his efforts great and terrible and unceasing, but the very 
 cause from which they spring ought to form one of your 
 strongest grounds of encouragement. 
 
 You have the assurance of your God, that Satan can 
 do nothing without his permission. If not a " sparrow 
 fall to the ground without your Father," then most cer- 
 tainly shall not his children stumble or fall without his 
 providential permission. While you seek him, he has 
 declared that " your footsteps shall not slide." While 
 
THE DEVICES OF SATAN. % 
 
 you serve him, his Word is pledged to you, " I will 
 never leave thee, nor forsake thee." 
 
 Whatever, therefore, be the efforts of Satan against the 
 welfare of your soul, you are secure of these two most 
 blessed facts; that your God, who has pledged himself 
 not to " suffer you to be tempted above what you are 
 able, but with the temptation to make a way to escape," 
 is aware of your trial, and that he is present during your 
 trial; what more can you desire or need ? 
 
 It is true that you may not feel sensible of these most 
 comforting truths at the moment you need them most, 
 but then you must not blame God for this, you must say 
 with David, " this is mine infirmity;" they are equally 
 the immutable truths of God, and if you forget them, or 
 derive no consolation from them, it neither alters their 
 truth nor their stability, for the " foundation of the Lord 
 standeth" equally " sure," and his promises shall not 
 fail. You may, indeed, " lose sight of him by the way," 
 this depends upon yourself; but you shall assuredly find 
 him at the journey's end, for that depends upon God, 
 whose covenant is an everlasting covenant, ordered in all 
 things, and sure. Therefore, brethren, " be strong in 
 the Lord, and in the power of his might; take unto you 
 the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to with- 
 stand, in the evil day, and having done all, to stand." 
 
 Let every tried and tempted soul among us throw 
 aside all other dependencies, and rest calmly and con- 
 tentedly upon these two, the strongest and the best, God's 
 promises and God's omnipotence, pledged as they are to 
 us, through Jesus Christ, for every hour of trial or of 
 suffering. In this blessed and comforting and soul-satis- 
 fying assurance we shall obtain fresh grace, fresh strength, 
 fresh resolution, to " run with patience the race that is 
 
THE DEVICES OF SATAN. 
 
 * 
 
 set before us, looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher 
 of our faith ;" who has not only placed his own foot upon 
 that serpent's head, but will, in his good time, place there 
 in triumph the foot of the weakest and the tenderest of 
 his redeemed and purchased people ; to him, with the 
 Father and the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory for 
 ever and ever 
 
 
SERMON IX. 
 
 THE SOLEMN SEARCH, 
 
 ZEPHANIAH i. 12. 
 
 And it shall come to pass at that time, that I will search , Jerusa- 
 lem with candles, and punish the men that are settled on their 
 lees : that say in their heart, the Lord will not do good, neither 
 will he do evil. 
 
 IN every congregation, there are many different classes 
 of hearers; among them, perhaps, one of the most im- 
 portant, and most prominent, is that to which such re- 
 markable allusion is made in the words I have just read 
 to you. Men who have become accustomed to the sound 
 of the Gospel; men to whom its threatenings and its 
 promises are so well known, that its threatenings excite 
 little apprehension, and its promises, little delight ; men 
 upon whose ear the strongest appeals to their consciences, 
 the most blessed invitations of a Saviour's love, fall un- 
 heeded ; men who live in a state of quiet without safety, 
 of repose without security, and of peace without one 
 well-grounded hope of peace. Their state has been 
 described in several passages of Holy Writ, under the 
 very expressive metaphor of " settling on their lees," or 
 on their dregs; a simile very natural from the lips of 
 those who lived in a land of vineyards, and to whom the 
 sight of casks of the wine of their country, which had 
 108 
 
THE SOLEMN SEARCH. 
 
 109 
 
 remained unmoved and unagitated for years together, 
 must have been of daily occurrence. 
 
 We find, therefore, the prophet Jeremiah adopting it 
 in one of the most striking of his predictions, when he 
 says, " Moab hath been at ease from his youth, and he 
 hath settled on his lees, and hath not been emptied from 
 vessel to vessel, neither hath been into captivity; there- 
 fore his taste remaineth in him, and his heart is not 
 changed. Therefore, behold the days come, saith the 
 Lord, that I will send unto him wanderers, that shall 
 cause him to wander, and shall empty his vessels and 
 break their bottles." 
 
 There appears, indeed, to be no state of mind which 
 the Almighty views with more displeasure, and which 
 he exerts himself (if we may so say) more constantly to 
 overcome or to punish, than this cold, dead, phlegmatic 
 state of the affections and the heart, which God himself 
 has denominated a " settling on our lees." Against this 
 it is, that the warning of the text is most peculiarly 
 pointed, and against this it is, that I feel called by the 
 present season more especially to exhort and to warn and 
 to counsel you this day. 
 
 May the Spirit of God make his own Word " quick 
 and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, 
 piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, 
 and of the joints and marrow, as a discerner of the 
 thoughts and intents of the heart." 
 
 The first portion of the text describes, under a very 
 familiar figure, the exceeding carefulness and accuracy 
 with which the Almighty will carry on his search after 
 these men of whom we have been speaking, " I will 
 search Jerusalem with candles." Intending to imply, 
 " No house, however obscure, throughout the whole city, 
 no recess or closet in that house capable of containing one 
 
 10 
 \ 
 
I ] THE SOLEMN SEARCH. 
 
 of these delinquents for whom I look, shall escape my 
 search. For if the light of day be insufficient, I will 
 bring even lamps and torches to the search, rather than 
 omit a single individual who is thus slighting and dis- 
 honouring me." It is not improbable that the expression 
 is here used by God to meet the infidelity and the atheism 
 of those who, according to this same prophet, exclaimed, 
 "The Lord sees not, neither doth he regard." Why 
 doth he not? because he wants light? " Well then," 
 says God, "I will supply the deficiency; I will search 
 Jerusalem with candles, and you shall learn whether I 
 can neither see nor regard." 
 
 The second portion of the text marks out, with a pe- 
 culiar degree of distinctness, the character and the fate 
 of those for whom this search was undertaken. " I will 
 punish the men who are settled on their lees ; that say 
 in their heart, The Lord will not do good, neither will 
 he do evil." 
 
 It appears at first sight strange to us, that if God be 
 about to utter warnings, and to foretell punishments upon 
 Jerusalem, this-sbould be the class of persons whom he 
 should especially visit; that if about to institute so 
 accurate a search, these should be the only persons 
 mentioned. 
 
 The reason, brethren, is this, the open sinner, the 
 thief, the adulterer, the drunkard, the murderer, is known 
 and read of all men; there is no need of fresh warnings 
 of condemnation upon him, and no necessity for candles 
 to search him out ; the very strictness of the search marks 
 not only the determination of God to discover all for 
 whom he seeks, but at the same time that he is looking 
 for delinquents whose crimes are not written upon their 
 foreheads, and their characters blazoned forth as the 
 noonday. Now this is precisely the case at all times, 
 
THE SOLEMN SEARCH. 
 
 Ill 
 
 and in all places, with the class of persons of whom we 
 speak. There may be nothing in the outward life and 
 conversation of any individual among us this day, which 
 shall distinctly pronounce this man to be " settled down 
 upon his lees," to be living in an unholy and false se- 
 curity; and yet who will venture to assert that there may 
 not be many among us at this moment, who, in the sight 
 of God, are precisely the characters described, and warn- 
 ed and threatened, in the text. 
 
 May the Lord reveal these persons to themselves, and 
 show them the difference between the true and settled 
 peace of the children of God, and the false and de- 
 structive peace of those who are dwelling in this ruinous 
 security. 
 
 To aid in this important work shall be my first en- 
 deavour, and to advise and counsel those who may stand 
 self-convicted, shall be my second endeavour this morn- 
 ing. 
 
 The first class of persons, which falls the most ob- 
 viously and undeniably under the description of the text, 
 is formed of those, if such there are, who live in that 
 state of practical forgetfulness of God, so significantly 
 expressed by those who say in their heart, " The Lord 
 will not do good, neither will he do evil." Who have 
 no care whatever for the God who made, and the Sa- 
 viour who redeemed them ; who scarcely ever bestow a 
 thought upon him. Yet these are not the avowed ene- 
 mies of God ; they do not profane his name as the com- 
 mon swearer does; nor deny it as the Atheist does; nor 
 dishonour it in their daily conversation as the loose or 
 profane talker does. No ; the text says expressly, 
 " They say in their hearts," and probably never hint at 
 it with their lips; but their heart is full of practical in- 
 fidelity, they believe that, neither good nor evil comes 
 
H2 THE SOLEMN SEARCH. 
 
 from God ; they attribute it to chance, fortune, accident, 
 any thing but God, to whom they would be ashamed to 
 refer it. The truth is, that God is not at all in their 
 thoughts ; they do not openly array themselves against 
 him, they content themselves with utterly forgetting him. 
 Against these, and such as these, although they may 
 pass well in society, as honest and honourable, and 
 amiable and upright, God has denounced his vengeance 
 when he said, " The wicked shall be turned into hell, 
 and all the people who forget God." Yes, uncharitable 
 as mar^might esteem it in his fellow-man, God himself 
 has declared that he will know no difference on the great 
 day of account, between the man who openly sins against 
 God, and the man who contents himself with forgetting 
 him. 
 
 Are there any among you to whom this distinguishing 
 mark is not experimentally unknown ? Who, when you 
 rise in the morning, begin the day by forgetting God? 
 When you go forth to your daily avocations, seek not his 
 blessing? When you return to your comforts and your 
 pleasures, acknowledge not his hand? When you retire 
 to rest, close the day with the same forgetfulness of God 
 with which you opened it? You will at least need no 
 tongue to tell you that you have altogether "settled upon 
 your lees," and are in a peculiar manner the objects of 
 the threatening of the text. Your efforts are all for the 
 world ; its business or its pleasures occupy your every 
 thought and desire and feeling. You, then, have need 
 to tremble at the warning of the text, for the God who 
 dictated it speaks expressly to yourselves, and says, " Re- 
 joice, O young man, in thy youth, and let thy heart 
 cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the 
 ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes : but 
 
THE SOLEMN SEARCH. 
 
 113 
 
 know, that for all these things, God will bring thee into 
 judgment." 
 
 But yet again, and another class presents itself; you 
 who have not profited by the chastenings and the judg- 
 ments of God upon others, or upon yourselves during the 
 last twelvemonth. There is no stronger mark than this 
 of a soul sunk in carnal and deadly security. What do 
 we think of the thief who robs even beneath the gallows ? 
 What does God think of that man who, when God's 
 judgments have been around him, and perhaps even 
 entered his own house, and struck down his worldly 
 prosperity, or blighted his affections, or disappointed his 
 hopes, is still the same unthinking, careless, God-forget- 
 ing being that he ever was? Alas! how many among 
 us will this convict? How many, for instance, who, 
 when the fears of the approaching pestilence* had driven 
 them to their knees, no sooner found it had pleased a 
 merciful Father so to temper it, in our visitation, that it 
 bore little resemblance to the pest which had depopulated 
 less favoured regions, than they at once settled down 
 again, and from that hour to the present, perhaps, have 
 hardly felt a single earnest hearty desire for near com- 
 munion with God, or devotedness to his will and to his 
 ways. How many more who, while the chastening 
 hand of God was upon themselves, or those they love, 
 became at once among the most humble of his followers, 
 but no sooner felt it was withdrawn than they sank into 
 the same security from which they had been so forcibly 
 drawn and so painfully aroused. 
 
 Brethren, there is nothing so provoking to a God who 
 chastens only that he may awaken and save, as this 
 neglect of judgments. If he beholds in any one instance 
 
 * The cholera in 1833. 
 
THE SOLEMN SEARCH. 
 
 among you such conduct, be assured that if he have 
 purposes of mercy for that soul, he will increase his 
 judgments, and repeat his visitations, and multiply his 
 chastenings until he pour you out from off your dregs, 
 whereon you are settled, and empty you from vessel to 
 vessel, and leave untouched none, no, not one of those 
 things on which your hearts have dwelt and your souls 
 are fixing. It is God's invariable method! It is in- 
 scribed, though we see it not, upon half the tombstones 
 which fill our burying-grounds ; it is written in every 
 page of God's revealed Word. Listen only to the fourth 
 chapter of the prophet Amos, where you find this method 
 of God's dealing detailed at considerable length. " I 
 have given you cleanness of teeth (or famine) in all your 
 cities : yet ye have not returned unto me, saith the Lord." 
 What comes next? "I have smitten you with blasting 
 and mildew : yet ye have not returned unto me, saith 
 the Lord." What then? " I have sent among you the 
 pestilence after the manner of Egypt: yet have ye not 
 returned unto me, saith the Lord." What further? "I 
 have overthrown some of you, as God overthrew Sodom 
 and Gomorrah : yet have ye not returned unto me, saith 
 the Lord." And how does all this conclude? " There- 
 fore thus will I do unto thee : Prepare to meet thy God, 
 O Israel." Wave follows wave in thick and rapid suc- 
 cession, judgment follows judgment, yet all without 
 avail ; they were as deaf to the voice of vengeance as 
 they have long been to the voice of mercy, so " settled 
 on their lees'* that nothing can shake them : then does 
 God draw the remaining arrow from his quiver, and 
 verify the words of the Psalmist, " Thine arrows are 
 sharp in the hearts of thine enemies," by calling them 
 to immediate and inevitable judgment. 
 
THE SOLEMN SEARCH. 
 
 U5 
 
 But we have still another class to whom to address a 
 word of warning and of exhortation. 
 
 You who neglect to benefit by ordinances, and though 
 the Word of God be in your ears, do not hear it, that 
 is, do not cherish it in your hearts and practise it in your 
 lives, listen to the manner in which God has described 
 conduct precisely such as this by the mouth of his 
 prophet Zechariah, " They made their hearts as an 
 adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the 
 words which the Lord of hosts hath sent ; therefore came 
 a great wrath from the Lord of hosts." And the manner 
 in which this wrath was manifested is told us in the fol- 
 lowing verse : " Therefore it is come to pass, that as he 
 cried and they would not hear ; so they cried and I 
 would not hear, saith the Lord of hosts." 
 
 The hearing, of the want of which the Lord here 
 accuses his people, is not the mere hearing of the ear, 
 but the hearing of the heart. " They made their hearts 
 as adamant, that they should not hear." Brethren, are 
 you all free from this sign of carnal security ? Perhaps 
 there never was a time when more outward attention to 
 the Word of God was manifested, than during the past 
 twelvemonth ; but has there been the hearing heart? has 
 the Word, whether read or preached, or expounded, 
 brought forth fruit ? Is there a deeper and stronger con- 
 viction of sin ? Is there less of worldliness and vanity 
 and folly ? " What do ye more than others ?" was our 
 Lord's inquiry of his own disciples, and is, at the present 
 moment, of ourselves. It is vain to say, We hear more ; 
 we attend ordinances more ; or even we know more. In 
 the passage that I have read to you, you will observe, 
 that it was the state of the heart of which God com- 
 plained, and by which alone he calculates the value of 
 the hearing ear, or the talking tongue. Is your heart 
 
U6 THE SOLEMN SEARCH. 
 
 penetrated with a holy abhorrence of sin, of all sin, even 
 your most favourite, and is it filled with the love of the 
 Lord Jesus Christ? Is there more of the practical influ- 
 ence of God's truth in your lives? More real, heartfelt 
 respect to his hallowed day, and his revealed wilt ; more 
 of its amiable and blessed features in your tempers? 
 More of charity, more of humility, more of sincerity? 
 " By their fruits ye shall know them," saith the Lord. 
 If not, although you never may have omitted a single 
 opportunity when this house of prayer has been opened, 
 or the Lord's table has been spread, you may yet be un- 
 moved upon the dregs, and therefore yet among the 
 number of those of whom the Lord has said, "These 
 will I punish." Still one other class must be briefly 
 alluded to. You who are really born again of the Spirit, 
 who have well -grounded hopes of your pardon and 
 acceptance, who look to Christ for a free and full salva- 
 tion, and have settled down, 1 will not say, into an 
 Antinomian state of lethargy, but stiji into far too near 
 an approach to it ; who have lost your first love, and 
 your first zeal, and your first earnestness, and have grown 
 remiss in secret duties, and slothful in your more public 
 duties, and feeling a fancied security as to the safety of 
 your own souls, take far too little thought for the souls 
 of those around you, and make far too few, or shrink 
 altogether from, self-denying exertions for the comfort 
 and happiness and welfare of those with whom you live. 
 Perhaps you scarcely know yourselves under this descrip- 
 tion. The Lord enlighten and awaken, that he may 
 not be compelled also to trouble and to punish you. 
 
 But it is time that I should offer a few hints, though 
 they must, be brief, by which we may all awaken from 
 a state of false and dangerous security. And in these I 
 especially address myself to you who are not theoretically 
 
THE SOLEMN SEARCH. 
 
 ignorant of the great truths of the Gospel; but who 
 know, and who hold them in a cold, dull, inoperative, 
 and uninfluential manner. 
 
 If you would be free then from this spiritual drowsi- 
 ness, keep yourself in spiritual exercise. We have all 
 heard of cases when a man must be roused, and shaken, 
 and walked about, to keep him from a sleep, from which 
 he would no more awaken, and from which nothing but 
 the constant motion of the body preserves him. So it is 
 with you. Nothing will, under God's grace, tend so 
 much to rouse you from the state we have been describ- 
 ing, as constant spiritual exercise. Be frequent then, 
 especially in secret religious duties, in prayer, reading, 
 meditation, self-examination, and converse ; but do not 
 confine yourselves to them ; you must exercise more 
 publicly your Christian graces, as well as perform these 
 private and necessary duties. Exercise your faith in 
 difficulties, your meekness under provocation, your pa- 
 tience in affliction, your charity and kindness in relieving 
 the wants, or adding to the comfort and happiness of 
 those around you. If these opportunities do not readily 
 occur, seek for them. Be always doing something, how- 
 ever small, for the honour and glory of God. Work for 
 the poor, visit the poor, minister to the poor ; teach in 
 our schools, assist missionary societies, unite your exer- 
 tions for the better observance of the Lord's day ; do 
 something, do any thing, if your time and circumstances 
 will allow, rather than be spiritually idle. It is only by 
 constant activity that you can keep your souls awake. 
 For all have found, and you will assuredly find, that 
 whenever you give up spiritual exercises you will fall 
 into carnal security of some kind or other. 
 
 Again, as another remedy for this spiritual drowsiness, 
 
THE SOLEMN SEARCH. 
 
 this " settling upon the lees," keep God always in your 
 sight, live much with Jesus, have close communion with 
 the Holy Ghost. Even the most heedless child pays 
 some attention when he is beside his father ; even the 
 worst servant, who yields but an eye-service, does not 
 sleep while the master's eye is upon him. Realize more, 
 then, of the presence of God every hour of every day ; 
 see him in your chamber, in your office, in your shop, 
 in your rides, in your walks, in society, in the church ; 
 never leave his side, never forget that he is close at hand, 
 seeing, hearing, knowing every thing. While conscious 
 of the nearness of such a witness, you will up and be 
 doing, and like the apostle, whatever you do, even to 
 eating and drinking, you will " do all to the glory of 
 God." 
 
 Lastly, to guard against this dangerous security, look 
 often at the lapse of time, the nearness of death, the cer- 
 tainty of approaching judgment. If any thing will pre- 
 vent you from settling on your lees, if any thing will 
 rouse you from your slumbers, by God's help this will 
 do so. 
 
 Think you that there is one here present, who, if he 
 heard at this hour the awful summons, " Thou fool, this 
 night thy soul shall be required of thee," would close 
 his eyes one moment in sleep before that summons was 
 fulfilled ? There would be no slumber, no lethargy, no 
 drowsiness there ! How would he watch each hour of 
 the departing day! With what feelings would he behold, 
 for the last time, the sun sinking down into the west! 
 How attentively would he listen as each hour of dark- 
 ness passed away, and how zealously would he pray, how 
 carefully would he converse, or how silently and thought- 
 fully would he meditate while the last few hours of life 
 
THE SOLEMN SEARCH. 
 
 119 
 
 were running out ! Where would vanity, woildliness, 
 covetousness, folly, be at such a time ? What would the 
 world and all its possessions be worth at such a season ? 
 Not one hour's purchase. And who will dare venture 
 to say that they are certainly worth more to him to-day? 
 Who, when he looks around upon this congregation, and 
 feels the positive certainty, that ere this season again re- 
 turns some, nay many, will have heard and obeyed that 
 solemn summons; who can retire from this house to 
 dream away the coming twelvemonth, as he has dreamt 
 away the last ? Surely it is the worst of madness not 
 to be aroused and to bestir ourselves when death and 
 judgment, heaven and hell, are at the door. May the 
 Spirit of God make us all more in earnest than we have 
 ever been in the great work which lies before us. Reli- 
 gion must be every thing, or it is nothing. Therefore, 
 " Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy 
 might, for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge 
 in the grave, whither thou art hastening." Were you 
 ever, are you now, conscious that you have sins to be 
 given up, unholy practices to be discontinued, ungodly 
 company or pleasures to be forsaken, do it at once, do 
 it to-day. You have long enough experienced the folly 
 and the falsehood of doing it to-morrow, therefore do it 
 to-day. Leave not this house of prayer until you have 
 solemnly, earnestly, and from your inmost soul, besought 
 God to give you both the will and the power, to strengthen 
 the holy resolution which you now find rising in your 
 mind, and to carry it out into full and permanent effect. 
 O, it is fearful to think that there should be one soul 
 among us, lost to all eternity, by neglecting the counsel 
 of God, and by settling down again upon the dregs of 
 carelessness, formality, selfishness, and sin! 
 
}2Q THE SOLEMN SEARCH. 
 
 LET US PRAY. 
 
 Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the hearts and wills 
 of thy people, that while many are sleeping around us 
 the deep sleep of death, we may have grace to devote 
 ourselves, our souls and bodies, to thy holy and happy 
 service ; that we may follow the Lord fully, without 
 hesitation and without reserve, thinking nothing too dear 
 to sacrifice at thy bidding, and nothing too hard to under- 
 take at thy command ; that when thou comest we may 
 be among the blessed number of those who are waiting 
 and watching, with their loins girt and their lamps burn- 
 ing, to go in with thee and for ever be partakers at the 
 marriage supper of the Lamb. 
 
SERMON X. 
 
 THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. 
 
 JEREMIAH xxxin. 6. 
 
 This is the name by which he shall be called, the Lord our 
 Righteousness. 
 
 OP all the blessed titles of the Redeemer, most blessed, 
 most consolatory, most delightful to the heart of every 
 true child of God, is this. " The Lord our Righteous- 
 ness ;" conveying, as it does, to the believer, in the very 
 name by which his Lord and his Redeemer was an- 
 nounced, his own undoubted charter to an inheritance 
 beyond the skies. But even while we record this great 
 and blessed truth, it is impossible not to fear that there 
 may be some, and some who bear the name of Christian, 
 to whom this glorious appellation conveys no such dis- 
 tinct and definite impression. Some who hear it as a 
 mere distinctive title, as they would hear the Saviour 
 called, " The Root and Offspring of Jesse," or " The 
 bright and morning Star," or by any other of those names 
 of glory, with which the Word of God delights to de- 
 signate the Saviour of the world. 
 
 It shall be our object, then, to endeavour to give such 
 a simple exposition of this, the highest and the best of all 
 
 11 121 
 
122 TIIE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. 
 
 those terms of honour with which the name of Jesus has 
 been crowned, that no individual may leave this house 
 to-day unable would to God that we might hope that 
 no individual should leave it unwilling to realize all 
 the meaning and all the comfort of the name, and to 
 exclaim, with a deep and grateful sense of self-appro- 
 priation, " The Lord my Righteousness." 
 
 The great and blessed doctrine, then, which we con- 
 ceive to be proclaimed to the Church of God by the 
 words before us, is this: that when the promised Re- 
 deemer should come, who is plainly predicted in the 
 verse which precedes the text, he should, as the Prophet 
 Daniel expresses it, " make an end of sins, and make a 
 reconciliation for iniquity, and bring in everlasting right- 
 eousness." It is with the last clause of this verse more 
 particularly that we have now to do. Jesus was to be 
 called " The Lord our Righteousness," because by the 
 perfect obedience of his life, by the entire submission of 
 his death, by the infinite value of his ransom, he wrought 
 out and brought in such a perfect and everlasting righteous- 
 ness, as man could not even conceive, as angels and arch- 
 angels could not emulate, and as God himself could not 
 refuse. 
 
 Now, brethren, and I address you as those who have 
 joined this morning not in word only, but in heart and 
 in soul, in the scriptural services of our Church; and 
 when you prayed, a Have mercy upon us, miserable sin- 
 ners," felt convinced that you had many sins which had 
 need of pardon, and many painful short-comings, even 
 in your purest actions and in your holiest duties, both to 
 God and to your neighbours ; and I would ask you if 
 the choice were your own, freely offered you at this 
 moment by our heavenly Father, of all that would, ac- 
 cording to your own ideas of your own sinfulness and 
 
THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. 
 
 123 
 
 infirmity, most forward the spiritual welfare of your souls, 
 what would you require? Feeling, as we have supposed 
 you do, your own utter incapacity to escape from the 
 condemning power of the law ; feeling that it ever has 
 and ever must convict you of sin, even when desiring 
 and striving and praying and labouring to be the most 
 righteous before God; what should you desire in a 
 Saviour, if God were to give you your own choice, and 
 put into your hands a blank to fill it up in that manner 
 which, according to your finite comprehension, would 
 make the way of salvation the plainest, and the road to 
 heaven the easiest, and a perfect righteousness the most 
 accessible, to such poor, sinful creatures as ourselves? I 
 conceive that the reply of every one who is in earnest in 
 this great matter; of every one who has ever striven and 
 stumbled, and again, by God's grace, risen and striven, 
 and then by his own waywardness and infirmity stumbled 
 and fallen again ; would be something of a nature simi- 
 lar to this ; It is much to have a perfect model set before 
 me ; but then, alas ! I cannot imitate it ; it is still more 
 to have guiding and strengthening grace so freely offered 
 me (and how unspeakably do I value it) ; but still, when 
 I have done all, I am but an unprofitable servant, and 
 how can I be fit to appear before a perfect God? Would, 
 therefore, that there might be such an infinite perfection, 
 such an infinite supply of righteousness treasured up in 
 Christ Jesus, that there should be enough for all, enough 
 for me ; that when I stand before the bar of God, and 
 feel overwhelmed with the consciousness of my past 
 transgressions, and upon looking at my righteousness, 
 see even the best of them to be as an unclean thing, as a 
 polluted garment, I might be enabled to look at him 
 who stands at God's right hand, and claim his righteous- 
 ness as mine own, and plead his merits for mine, and be 
 
 
 
124 THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. 
 
 allowed his obedience to stand for mine ; and that all the 
 wonderful perfections of his life, all the matchless merits 
 of his death, might be as much my own as if I had 
 walked in perfectness from my cradle to my grave, and 
 had been one, in whose every most secret thought and 
 word and feeling and action, a God of perfect purity 
 had been " well-pleased." 
 
 What would be the feeling with which you would 
 hear, in reply, from the lips of the living God, if as a true 
 and humble penitent you have closed with the offers of 
 the Saviour, and fled to his great atonement for accept- 
 ance, " Son, it is done as thou hast said. The Saviour 
 whom I have sent is called, or appointed to be c the Lord 
 thy Righteousness; 5 not only all that thou hast ever 
 owed has he abundantly and fully paid ; not only all 
 thy sins have been once and for ever laid on him, but all 
 his righteousness is once and for ever laid on thee ; hence- 
 forth, throughout eternity thou art to me as one clad in 
 those garments of righteousness and salvation, which be- 
 long to the only-begotten Son." Can we receive 'any 
 thing more blissful to the soul of the poor trembling, yet 
 deeply penitent and believing sinner, than an assurance 
 such as this. Pardon and grace and strength and perse- 
 verance are indeed most blessed boons, but here is one 
 which outweighs them all, which restores to the human 
 soul that image of God which Adam defaced and ruined, 
 and which clothes it in a righteousness infinitely more 
 perfect, infinitely more valuable in the sight of God, than 
 Adam's could have ever been, had he remained to this 
 hour the spotless tenant of his earthly paradise. 
 
 But delightful as is the belief that such are really the 
 promises of God with reference to this great subject, 
 there are some, perhaps, who would most willingly and 
 gratefully apply them to themselves, if only they could 
 
THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. 
 
 believe that they were indeed contained in God's own 
 Word, and not a mere portion of the divinity system of 
 some human teacher. 
 
 I shall proceed then to demonstrate what. I have now 
 asserted, that you may examine the Word of God for 
 yourselves, and see whether these things be so. 
 
 In doing this, I shall pass by the strikingly corrobora- 
 tive declarations of the prophet, " in the Lord have I 
 righteousness and strength ; and of the apostle, the 
 righteousness of God is " unto all, and upon all them 
 that believe," with many similar, confining myself to the 
 application of a single passage *, for if the mouth of Him 
 who cannot lie hath spoken it, it will be as convincing 
 to his people, and as certain and unquestionable to their 
 hearts, if it be but in a single word, as if it were blazoned 
 upon every page and written in every chapter of the Bible. 
 
 The passage then which I should select as one among 
 the many foundation-stones of this great doctrine, is at 
 the close of the fifth chapter of Romans, " For as by one 
 man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the 
 obedience of one shall many be made righteous." 
 
 The apostle here distinctly draws the parallel between 
 the disobedience of the first Adam and the obedience of 
 the second ; and he says, u As" by the first, many have 
 been made sinners, " So," or in the same manner, by 
 the second, " shall many be made righteous." It is evi- 
 dent, then, that there is no force whatever in the assertion 
 of the apostle, unless the method by which the righteous- 
 ness of Christ is said to make us righteous, be precisely 
 analogous to the method by which the sin of Adam is 
 said to make us sinners. Now, no true Christian, how- 
 ever he may feel upon the point immediately before us, 
 will hesitate for a moment as to the scriptural view of 
 the effects of Adam's sin. No true Christian denies that 
 
 n* 
 
12(5 THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. 
 
 all mankind fell when Adam fell ; that as our federal 
 head, what he did, we are considered to have done ; and 
 that in consequence, as God's Word repeatedly declares, 
 we come into the world with a load of unpardoned guilt 
 upon our souls. Born in sin, for in sin did our mothers 
 conceive us, the most innocent infant in the world, until 
 cleansed by the application of the blood of Christ, is a 
 child of wrath, even as others. This was the manner, 
 then, in which, by the disobedience of one, all have been 
 made sinners ; not by a mere following the example of 
 Adam, as the Pelagians do vainly talk, and as our Ninth 
 Article expressly contradicts, but by the inherent taint of 
 a corrupt and fallen nature, stamped with the deadly im- 
 press of its great progenitor's primeval sin. 
 
 This, then, is the manner also in which many, nay 
 every child of God, is made righteous. The moment 
 you are born into the family of earth, the sin of Adam is 
 laid upon you, and cleaves to you, and becomes your 
 sin ; the moment you are born into the family of God, 
 the righteousness of Christ is laid upon you, and remains 
 upon you, and becomes your righteousness. From that 
 hour you are, as the apostle expresses it, " complete in 
 Christ," and being so complete, you plead, with rever- 
 ence and deep humility be it spoken, you plead your 
 acceptance at the hands of God's justice, according to the 
 terms of the covenant with the Eternal Son ; and that 
 covenant having been published, God is, as St. John de- 
 clares, " Righteous and just to forgive you your sins, 
 and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness." For it is 
 thus arid thus only that the words of the Holy Ghost can 
 be fulfilled, that, "as by one man's disobedience many 
 were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall 
 many be made righteous." It is thus that " Christ is the 
 end of the law for righteousness to every one that be- 
 
THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. 
 
 127 
 
 lieveth ;" and that it pleases God to admit, and to reward, 
 as if it were the personal righteousness of every one of 
 his believing people, this perfect obedience to the Incar- 
 nate Son. In the clay, then, that by the act of sove- 
 reign grace you close with the offers of your Redeemer, 
 he becomes " the Lord your righteousness ;" in his 
 "obedience even unto death," i. e., from the cradle to 
 the cross, you are by God's mercy clothed ; a wedding 
 garment, well worthy of that wedding feast to which he 
 has purchased your admittance. Arrayed in this, the 
 poorest, weakest, most ignorant sinner among ourselves 
 shall not be ashamed, when invited to sit down with 
 Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the saints of God, at 
 the marriage supper of the Lamb. For the highest and 
 most glorious guest in that assembly shall have no better, 
 I may say, shall have no other garment than yourself. 
 " We overcame by the blood of the Lamb," shall be the 
 only watchword which shall enable you to pass through 
 the gate of the heavenly citadel ; " We are clothed in 
 the righteousness of the Lamb," the only declaration 
 which shall admit you to the table of the heavenly 
 banquet. 
 
 Brethren, I trust I do not state this great and glorious 
 truth in language stronger than Scripture warrants, or 
 than the true people of God, in every age, have adopted. 
 Hear only the words of that great luminary of our Church, 
 the judicious Hooker, " The righteousness wherein we 
 must be found," he says, " if we will be justified, is not 
 our own ; therefore we cannot be justified by any in- 
 herent quality Although, then, in ourselves 
 
 we be altogether sinful and unrighteous, yet even the 
 man who is impious in himself, full of iniquity, full of 
 
 sin, him being found in Christ, through faith, 
 
 him God beholdeth with a gracious eye, puttelh awav 
 
128 THE LOKD OUI1 RIGHTEOUSNESS. 
 
 his sin by not imputing it, taketh away the punishment 
 due thereto by pardoning it, and accepteth him in Christ 
 Jesus, as perfectly righteous as if he had fulfilled all that 
 was commanded of him in the law shall 1 say, more 
 perfectly righteous than if himself had fulfilled the whole 
 law ? I must take heed what I say ; but the apostle 
 saith, ' God made him to be sin for us, who knew no 
 sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in 
 him.' Such we are in the sight of God the Father, as 
 is the very Son of God himself. Let it be counted folly, 
 or phrensy, or fury, or whatsoever, it is our comfort and 
 our wisdom; we care for no knowledge in the world but 
 this, that man hath sinned, and God hath suffered, that 
 God hath made himself the Son of man, and that men 
 are made the righteousness of God." Surely, then, we 
 may well add, in the glowing language of a dignitary of 
 our Church of a former day, " Had I all the faith of the 
 patriarchs, all the zeal of the prophets, all the good works 
 of the apostles, all the sufferings of the martyrs, I would 
 renounce the whole, in point of dependence, and glory 
 only in the atoning blood, and justifying righteousness 
 of Jesus Christ, my Lord." 
 
 In conclusion, brethren, the practical inquiry which 
 arises out of this high subject, is simply the question 
 which each man's heart alone can answer. " Is the 
 Saviour of whom I have this day heard, the Lord my 
 Righteousness?" Do you ask, how is this to be deter- 
 mined ? What is the act of faith which is to make him 
 mine? We reply, the first great point is that to which 
 we have already referred, the deep, heartfelt, uncompro- 
 mising conviction and abhorrence and renunciation of 
 sin. This once wrought in you by that Holy Spirit, 
 whose alone prerogative it is to convince the world of sin, 
 and we advance one step farther, we come to the act of 
 
LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. 
 
 
 
 justifying faith, for which you inquire ; that of which 
 all Scripture, all experience, all living believers, all dying 
 saints, all blessed martyrs, all pardoned sinners tell. Now 
 this act is not comprised in a single thought, a single de- 
 sire, a single word, but it consists in a state of mind, of 
 affections, of heart. That state which the Holy Spirit 
 alone can work, and which, where his Divine influences 
 are sincerely sought, he will work in any fallen, corrupt, 
 polluted child of fallen Adam; that state which enables 
 you to leave all for Christ, to seek all from Christ, and to 
 find all, and more than all, in Christ. 
 
 Brethren, is this your state at the present moment ? 
 Can you say, from your heart, There is no sin, no 
 pleasure, no profit, no feeling which I would not willingly 
 sacrifice, and desire to sacrifice, for Christ's sake, if God 
 require it? There is no act, no thought, no word, no 
 righteousness of mine, with which, in the way of merit, 
 I would desire to approach God; "my best is nothing 
 worth," all are vile, all are polluted, all are deserving 
 rather of punishment for their short-coming, than of re- 
 ward for their merits. I, therefore, give up all, I renounce 
 all, I abhor all, if put in competition with what my Sa- 
 viour and Redeemer has done and suffered for me ; to 
 that and to that alone I look ; my only hope, my only 
 solace, my only and all-sufficient Saviour, is Jesus Christ, 
 the Rock of Ages. 
 
 Then, brethren, this, as regards each individual among 
 you, so thinking and so acting, is the name whereby God 
 at this moment calls the Divine, the Eternal Son, " the 
 Lord your Righteousness." This is that justifying faith 
 which makes you one with God, and God with you; 
 this is that state of heart and affections, which all preach- 
 ing, all reading, all meditation, all sacraments, all prayer, 
 are intended instrumentally to produce, or to build up, or 
 
THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. 
 
 I 
 
 to establish. We ask nothing more for you and for our- 
 selves, than that this may be, not a momentary impulse 
 strongly affecting the mind, not like a cloud across the 
 sun, changing its appearance for a moment, and then 
 passing away for ever, but the abiding, settled, habitual 
 posture of our affections and thoughts; enabling us to 
 say, not once, but for ever, " The life which I now live 
 in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who 
 loved me and gave himself for me," " not having mine 
 own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which 
 is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is 
 of God by faith." 
 
 With these feelings, to you " to live will be Christ, 
 and to die will be gain," your life will be holy, your 
 death peaceful, your end glorious. He whom you have 
 loved and worshipped and obeyed, will be " the Lord 
 your Righteousness" now, the Lord your everlasting joy, 
 and your infinite happiness, in the kingdom of his 
 Father. 
 
SERMON XL 
 
 CONFESSING CHRIST. 
 
 MATTHEW x. 32, 33. 
 
 Whosoever shall confess me before men, him will I confess also 
 before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall 
 deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father 
 which is in heaven. 
 
 THERE is something peculiarly great and ennobling 
 in true Christianity. It refines the feelings, elevates the 
 heart, dignifies the manners, while it converts and saves 
 the soul. So strikingly is this the case, that it is a com- 
 mon observation of those who have enjoyed the largest 
 intercourse with the religious poor, that they could in 
 almost all cases rightly pronounce, merely from externals, 
 whether the inmates of a cottage have been really brought 
 into the household and family of Christ Jesus our Lord. 
 No doubt the first great cause of this is, that the moment 
 the heart comes under the influence of Divine grace, it 
 is opened to the action of a multitude of thoughts and 
 impressions of a far higher nature than have ever yet 
 been brought to bear upon it ; and while exercised in 
 these, it necessarily escapes from much of the dross and 
 dust and pollution of that lower world in which it has 
 been, hitherto, wholly occupied ; it becomes conversant 
 
 131 
 
132 CONFESSING CHRIST. 
 
 with subjects as entirely above the comprehension of the 
 hjghest created intelligence, as they are above its own ; 
 it lives much in the contemplation of the eternal; it 
 unites daily, not only with the wisest and noblest and 
 best of men in their thoughts and prayers and medita- 
 tions, but it goes higher still ; it has one subject and one 
 feeling and one song with angels arid archangels, and 
 with all the host of heaven, while they laud and magnify 
 God's glorious name. These things must inevitably 
 elevate and adorn while they correct and sanctify ; and 
 the widest and longest experience fully proves that they 
 do so. But there is yet another, and though a lower, 
 still unquestionably a very influential promoter of the 
 same great effects. This is to be found even in the 
 manner in which, in the revealed Word, the religion of 
 Jesus is proposed to us. There is nothing low, nothing 
 mean, nothing pitiful, nothing clandestine, to be met 
 with throughout the whole of the revelation of Christ. 
 All is grand and open and noble ; the motives of the 
 Gospel are all as honest and sincere as they are pure and 
 uncontaminated ; the precepts of the Gospel are all as 
 distinct and unambiguous as they are lovely and of good 
 report; the policy of the Gospel is all as straightforward, 
 bold, and transparent, as it is holy, good, and wise. 
 Perhaps there is nothing which so completely charac- 
 terizes, and at the same time identifies the religion of 
 Jesus Christ as this ; nothing which draws so decisive a 
 line between it arid every false religion; and, more than 
 this, between it and every adulterated religion, every 
 human modification of the true. 
 
 It would not be difficult to find a thousand examples 
 to illustrate these observations, but we will, content our- 
 selves with the corroboration they receive from the single 
 injunction of the text! Consider for a moment the cir- 
 
CONFESSING CHRIST. ] 33 
 
 cumstances under which it was delivered, the time when 
 it was first so strongly enforced, and you cannot but 
 acknowledge, that if it stood alone, it is so entirely ad- 
 verse to the dictates of a carnal policy, so completely 
 contrary to what man would term the interest of the 
 faith to which it refers, that to every unprejudiced mind, 
 while it powerfully corroborates the truths to which I 
 have just adverted of the ennobling character of the Gos- 
 pel, it cannot but form a strong additional proof of the 
 Divine origin of a religion which would voluntarily sub- 
 ject itself to such a test. The Jews had just before 
 passed a law that whosoever should confess Christ to be 
 the Messiah, should be " put out of the synagogue ;" in 
 other words, should be excommunicated, the heaviest 
 punishment they were, at that period of their history, 
 empowered legally to inflict. The Gentiles would, as 
 the omniscient Saviour perfectly foreknew, soon establish 
 an ordinance, that he who should dare to confess Christ 
 should be thrown to the wild beasts, or carried to the 
 Btake. All human probability, therefore, of the spread 
 of Christianity, would seem to rest upon the fact, during 
 its infancy, of its quiet, silent, unobtrusive progress, and 
 this to depend upon the great tact and management in 
 the mode in which it was promulgated, to rely almost 
 for its existence on the judicious reserve which its fol- 
 lowers should evince in preaching the peculiar truths of 
 the Gospel ; and that therefore not merely its prosperity, 
 but, as I have said before, its very existence, would de- 
 pend upon the concealment and secrecy of its few and 
 timid and powerless followers. It was in the very face 
 of all these opposing circumstances, in contradiction to 
 every dictate of human policy and worldly expediency, 
 that our Lord delivered the declaration of the text, 
 "Whosoever shall confess me before men, him will I 
 
 12 
 
CONFESSING CHRIST. 
 
 confess before my Father which is in heaven. But 
 whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also 
 deny before my Father which is in heaven." It is 
 hardly possible to conceive a declaration which, to the 
 worldly wise and worldly prudent, must have sounded 
 so ill-timed, so injudicious, so insane, so suicidal. Never- 
 theless, upon this command, the Saviour was content to 
 take his stand, and in the face of a world's hatred, and a 
 world's opposition, to require his followers boldly and 
 plainly to confess their allegiance to him ; and in spite 
 of the obvious dangers thus (not indeed counted, but 
 certainly not in any degree evaded), to plant triumphantly 
 the religion of the cross upon the ruins of every false 
 religion in the world. 
 
 If, then, our Divine Master could, under circumstances 
 so extremely adverse, still think it right to declare and to 
 enforce the command of the text, it must be in all ages 
 the bounden duty of his ministers to carry forward the 
 selfsame message, and to urge it upon his people ; as 
 much in Christian England, as it was in Antichristian 
 Jerusalem, or in Heathen Rome. No change of time, 
 no alteration of circumstances, effecting any the least 
 change or the least modification in the dictates of Him 
 who is "the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever," and 
 " with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of 
 turning." 
 
 We shall proceed, then, to apply this subject to our- 
 selves, and herein, with peculiar reference to that large 
 portion of our younger hearers, who, since the last Sab- 
 bath, have openly confessed the Saviour of the world. 
 We will consider 
 
 First, the necessity of obeying the injunction of the 
 text. 
 
 Secondly, The prominency given to this duty in the 
 
CONFESSING CHRIST. 
 
 Word of God, and some few of those common incidents 
 in daily life in which all classes of Christians are called 
 upon, from time to time, by the providence of God, to 
 yield obedience to it. 
 
 First, with regard to the constant and perpetual ne- 
 cessity of our obedience ; if we look to the dictates of 
 self-interest, at least as interpreted by worldly wisdom, 
 or carnal policy, no doubt this might be made a very 
 prominent feature in the discourse. We might point 
 out the danger, the impolicy, the unadvisableness of con- 
 fessing Christ, at all times, and oh all occasions, even before 
 the ungodly great, before the sneering infidel, before the in- 
 credulous man of science, or the scoffing man of wit ; and 
 we might show the advantage of a judicious selection of 
 times and seasons in which, and persons before whom, 
 Christ should be confessed. But, if we treat this portion 
 of the subject by a simple reference to the revealed Word 
 of God, as we would desire to treat every subject from this 
 place, nothing can be shorter, or more plain, or more 
 simple. Our Lord disposes of the inquiry in a single 
 word, " Whosoever." There is no distinction as to time, 
 or place or person. It is " Whosoever shall confess," 
 and " whosoever shall deny." It is just one of those 
 injunctions, upon hearing which even the apostle ex- 
 claimed, " This is a hard saying, who can hear it?" 
 But this ought not to take you by surprise. When, my 
 younger brethren, you lately entered upon the profession 
 of Christianity, you were plainly and distinctly told that 
 it was no flowery mead that you were invited to walk 
 in, but a narrow path and a straight gate, through which 
 you were to strive and to press, and, as the inspired 
 writer says, to u agonize," if you hope to enter the king- 
 dom of heaven. You were told that you were no longer 
 to travel with the crowd, upon the broad road which 
 
CONFESSING CHRIST, 
 
 leadeth to destruction; that the flock of Christ was in- 
 variably called by himself a " little flock ;" that you were 
 not to expect to discover the road with ease, and to keep 
 it without effort, for that Christ himself again had said, 
 " Pew there be that find it ;" that the religion you profess 
 is never spoken of in Scripture under any other meta- 
 phors than those of a race, a journey, a wrestling-match, 
 or a battle: that it is vain, utterly 'vain, to imagine that 
 you shall escape from the difficulties which patriarchs^ 
 prophets, and saints, in all ages, and in all countries, 
 have encountered ; that he who turns aside from the steep 
 and rugged and difficult path which has ever been trod- 
 den by the people of Christ, to the heavenly Zion, and 
 hopes to find some shorter road across the fields, will 
 not only lose his labour, but unless he return to what 
 the prophet Isaiah denominates, the " king's highway," 
 will also lose his soul. 
 
 We proceed, secondly, to offer a few remarks upon 
 the prominenc}^ given to this subject, in the Word of 
 God, and to point out a few of those instances in daily 
 life, which arise, from time to time, to elicit our obedi- 
 ence to it. 
 
 Confession of the Lord Jesus Christ is made, from the 
 very beginning, in God's W'ord, one of the first and 
 strongest tests of discipleship. When the Gospel day* 
 were foretold by the prophets under the old dispensation, 
 we find the- confession of the lips bears as distinct a part 
 in the promises of what God would do for his people, as 
 the conversion of their hearts; thus, while we hear Jere- 
 miah, speaking of Gospel times, in that well-known pas- 
 sage, "After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my 
 law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts," 
 we hear Isaiah describing the self-same times, he says, 
 " This is my covenant with them ;" " My words, which 
 
CONFESSING CHRIST. 
 
 I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy 
 mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the 
 mouth of thy seed's seed, from henceforth and for ever." 
 And that we may not suppose that the mouth and the heart 
 are merely convertible terms, we find David, in the very 
 same Psalm, pray ing, first, that his heart might be inclined 
 to God's testimonies, and then that the Word of truth 
 might not be taken out of his mouth, but that he might 
 have courage to confess publicly, what he had received 
 and rejoiced in privately. In accordance with the same 
 fact, we find the Apostle to the Philippians, declaring 
 not only that, " at the name of Jesus, every knee should 
 bow," (this might be done privily,) but adding, " and 
 every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord." 
 While, again, St. John says, " Whosoever shall confess" 
 (not merely whosoever shall believe) " that Jesus is the 
 Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God." 
 And, perhaps, still more strongly in the well-known 
 passage ip Romans, " With the heart man believeth unto 
 righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made 
 unto salvation." 
 
 We may then, without in any degree straining the 
 sense of Scripture, derive from these passages this un- 
 questionable fact : that as there cannot be true confession 
 of Christ without faith, so can there never be true and 
 lively faith in Jesus Christ without confession of it ; i. e. 
 without a readiness, when time and opportunity appear 
 to require it of us, to speak plainly, honestly, unambigu- 
 ously, of our feelings with regard to Christ and his reli- 
 gion, before the people of the world, before those who 
 differ from us, yea, if called to do so, as David says, be- 
 fore even kings, and not be ashamed. We are perfectly 
 aware that confession of Christ is at the present hour by 
 no means the same painful and arduous thing that it 
 12* 
 
138 CONFESSING CHRIST. 
 
 once was ; that in some sense the whole tide of the world 
 may be said to have set in in favour of Christianity; that 
 religion, to a certain extent, at least in this country, in- 
 deed has become even fashionable ! so that to confess 
 the Lord Jesus Christ before men is altogether a totally 
 different undertaking, in point of danger, from what it 
 was in the days when such a confession led the way to 
 the Roman amphitheatre, or the fires of Smithfield ; or 
 even, we may say, to what it was some fifteen or twenty 
 years ago. Still will it always be, when fully, truly, 
 scripturally performed, a difficult, and a trying, and a 
 painful thing to flesh and blood. It is enough that God 
 has commanded it as a perpetual duty of the Christian, 
 to ensure the fact that Satan will take care that it shall 
 never be easy of performance, shall never want the thorns 
 and briers with which he has been so well enabled to 
 entwine every positive command of God. Take, for in- 
 stance, the case of an individual in the lower ranks of 
 life, You are, speaking after the fashion of men, de- 
 pendent for your livelihood upon the will, perhaps, of an 
 ungodly master or mistress, and they require from you 
 some act of obedience which strikes directly at your prior 
 obligation to your God ; perhaps some open violation of 
 the Lord's-day; perhaps some act of secret dishonesty or 
 overreaching, which they may profess to think compatible 
 with their duty as tradesmen or dealers. 
 
 This, then, is a case in which, even at the present day, 
 it is no easy thing to confess the Lord Jesus Christ ; to 
 say with Joseph, " How can I do this great wickedness, 
 and sin against God ?" or with the apostles, to refuse the 
 command with the simple declaration, u We ought to 
 obey God rather than man;" and yet this is precisely one 
 of those instances to which our Lord himself referred, and 
 
CONB'ESSING CHRIST. 
 
 139 
 
 for which, as he has given a difficult command, so will 
 he certainly give grace to obey it. 
 
 Or again, in the case of domestic servants ; you are 
 about to engage yourself in a family where you will be 
 unable to fulfil God's command of hallowing his day by 
 an attendance at his house of prayer. Here, then, you 
 are bound to confess Christ before men, to reject such a 
 situation whatever be its temporal advantages, because 
 in a very important sense it would compel you to deny 
 your Saviour. 
 
 But perhaps your trial may proceed, not from your 
 masters, but from your companions, and is on that ac- 
 count even yet more difficult. You are requested to 
 accompany them upon some Sabbath-breaking party, to 
 forget the vows you have so lately taken upon you, and 
 to join them in some act of immorality, or of sinful 
 pleasure, or of gross intemperance; how hard is it, not 
 merely to refuse, but to refuse upon the right and Chris- 
 tian principle, to confess Christ before men ; to say at 
 once, " I cannot thus disobey my Lord, I cannot thus 
 dishonour him who died for me, and to whom I have 
 pledged myself in a perpetual covenant never to be for- 
 gotten." But here again, ask, and you shall have, seek, 
 and you shall find ; grace and wisdom and strength equal 
 to your day are invariably bestowed, under all such cir- 
 cumstances, to those who seek them. 
 
 But the difficulty of confessing the Lord Jesus Christ 
 before men, is by no means confined to the lower classes 
 in society, it affects, and powerfully affects, all, without 
 exception and without reserve, from the king upon the 
 throne, to the prisoner in the dungeon. There is not an 
 individual who is not, unless secured by the power of 
 Divine grace, on these subjects, afraid of his fellow-men, 
 and, therefore, oftentimes ashamed of Christ, of his Word, 
 
140 CONFESSING CHRIST. 
 
 of his will, of his people. O, it is pitiful to think of the 
 meanness and the paltriness of the natural heart of man, 
 whatever be his station, nothing too low for it to sloop to, 
 nothing too contemptible for it to practise : and this not 
 alone in the poor and the needy and the uneducated, but 
 in the highest and the noblest and the proudest. 
 
 How many are there, for example, in this great metro- 
 polis at this season, who are seen crowding into the 
 nocturnal retreats of fashionable folly, not because they 
 have any real pleasure in them, but because they are 
 ashamed to be missed there ; afraid of losing caste, if 
 they are not seen with the great and noble ; afraid of 
 being thought more religious than those around them; 
 afraid must I say so of confessing Christ. How many 
 are there at this moment, whose hearts are convinced of 
 the necessity, the propriety, yea, even the comfort, of a 
 more open, decided, uncompromising avowal of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, a casting-in of their lot with the lot of his 
 people, and yet who dare not do it; who dare not con- 
 fess him, because they fear the face of man, because 
 they dread the opinion of man more than of his Maker. 
 They are, therefore, bold where they should be ashamed, 
 and ashamed where they should be bold. They are bold 
 in speaking of their sins, of their follies, of their vices; 
 but they are ashamed of speaking, even before their own 
 friends and acquaintances, of God, of Christ, and of 
 heaven. They are ashamed of the stricter observances 
 of a religious life, even while they partially practise them ; 
 ashamed of a religious book, yea, even of the Bible itself, 
 and would hide it from the eyes of an ungodly compa- 
 nion, even though they read it: and they would be 
 ashamed if, in such a state of mind, they could enter 
 heaven they would be ashamed of heaven itself, until 
 they had well looked around them, and fully ascertained 
 
CONFESSING CHRIST. 
 
 that none of a different opinion from themselves, whose 
 scoff, or sneer, or ridicule they dread, had been admitted 
 there. May God have mercy upon them, and give them 
 grace, before it be too late, to see the misery of such a 
 time-serving waiting upon him, to know that a secret 
 belief which shuns an open avowal of Christ, is removed 
 but one step, and that a very short one, from an absolute 
 and positive unbelief and open denial. 
 
 Still we do not speak of a conscientious confession of 
 Christ as an easy duty, or one which, even under the 
 mildest circumstances, can be performed by your own 
 unaided resolution, however powerful. 
 
 A holy boldness in the confession of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, is always spoken of in his Word as undoubtedly 
 the gift of God. " The Lord God will help me, there- 
 fore shall I not be confounded, therefore have I set my 
 face like a flint; and I know that I shall not be ashamed, 
 I shall not be confounded, for God is at my right hand." 
 And, again, Behold, I have made thy face strong against 
 their faces, and thy forehead strong against their fore- 
 heads." And acting upon these and many other pro- 
 mises, we find the apostles distinctly asking this as a 
 gift from God, " Grant unto thy servants, that, with all 
 boldness, we may speak thy Word." We believe, then, 
 that there is no situation, whether social and domestic, 
 or public and official, in which, if we really seek God's 
 grace for this important and difficult duty, it will be with- 
 held. The cause of our repeated failures is, that we 
 either attempt the confession of Christ in our own strength, 
 or we do not attempt it with a single eye to God's 
 glory. Wherever either of these is the case, we must 
 expect defeat and disgrace and disappointment, and we 
 shall most certainly fall. Peter is an example of the 
 former (the failure in confessing Christ, when trusting to 
 
CONFESSING CHRIST. 
 
 our own strength,) and the many grievous instances of 
 the lapsed, during the times of Heathen persecution, 
 form the abundant examples of the latter. 
 
 But it is not merely to encouragement that we must 
 look to enable us to fulfil this most difficult duty; our 
 Lord himself has seen fit to add to this the painful alli- 
 ance of his threatenings : " Whosoever shall deny me be- 
 fore men, him will I also deny before my Father which 
 is in heaven." Whenever, then, you are tempted (and 
 who is not at times so tempted) to deny, either by word 
 or action, the Lord who bought you with his precious 
 blood ; to be ashamed of the doctrines, the precepts, or 
 the ordinances of his religion (and how many are kept 
 from the Lord's table by this very feeling,) bring strongly 
 before your mind the short duration of this world's opi- 
 nion and this world's censure. Realize the great assem- 
 blage to which our Lord so briefly alludes in the words, 
 " him will I deny before the angels of God." O think 
 how rapidly all is passing which has yet to be between 
 that hour and the present ; of what profit will all which 
 now most influences your soul be to you upon that 
 coming day ! To stand J)efore the Saviour's throne dis- 
 owned, discarded, disgraced for ever; a convicted time- 
 server, a detected hypocrite ; to go up to that presence, 
 that awful, that unspeakably awful presence, full of the 
 unholy, the groundless confidence of those who shall say, 
 "Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name?" 
 was I not baptized in thy name? did I not attend in 
 thine house? did I not eat at thy table? did I not ac- 
 knowledge thee when in the presence of thy people? 
 And to hear in reply, " I never knew you ;" you denied 
 me with your lips, you denied me by your life, and the 
 immutable word has long since gone forth, " He that 
 
CONFESSING CHRIST. 
 
 denieth me before men, I will deny before the angels 
 of God." 
 
 While, on the other hand, my Christian brethren, (and 
 especially you, my younger Christian friends, that have 
 lately entered upon the Christian course of voluntary 
 allegiance), Who can worthily estimate, who can think 
 or conceive aright of the unspeakable peace and comfort 
 of that hour, if it bring with it, amidst the wreck and 
 ruin of a perishing world, the blessed confession from 
 the lips of Him to whom all judgment is committed, that 
 He is yours, and that you are his? How blessed to be 
 confessed by Christ, when heaven and arth shall pass 
 away ; to be acknowledged then, as a sheep of his own 
 flock, a lamb of his fold, a soul of his own redeeming: 
 to hear him say, "This man, this woman, this child, 
 (and doubtless many such shall be there,) bore the scoff 
 and the ridicule and the opprobrium of an ungodly world, 
 for my sake ; and them that honour me, 1 wilt honour : 
 this young disciple was not ashamed of the Gospel of 
 Christ, he knew it, loved it, practised it ; he confessed 
 me by his life, and he confessed me with his lips, and 
 now, before assembled worlds, I fulfil my promise, I 
 confess him before my Father which is in heaven, and 
 before the angels of God; I have justified him, I have 
 sanctified him, and will for ever glorify him ; "That 
 where I am, there ye may be also." " Well done, good 
 and faithful servant: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." 
 
 Brethren, let us all dwell much upon that day, think 
 often upon that promise, and by God's grace we shall 
 not be ashamed of him whose name we bear, whose 
 servants we are, whose cross we have professed to carry, 
 and "who of God" will then be made " unto us wisdom 
 and righteousness and sanctification and redemption." 
 
SERMON XII. 
 
 GO FORWARD. 
 
 EXODUS xiv. 15. 
 Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward. 
 
 IN every portion of the history of the Israelites there is 
 so much to interest, so much to edify, so much to en- 
 courage the Christian, that there are few parts of Scrip- 
 ture more " profitable for reproof, for correction, for 
 instruction in righteousness," than those which refer to 
 the perils and the preservations of God's chosen people. 
 
 It is my intention this morning to bring before you 
 one of the most remarkable passages in their astonishing 
 history ; one in which the power of God and his faithful- 
 ness to his people are so gloriously developed, that no 
 Christian, be his age or experience what they may, can 
 review it without the deepest feelings of gratitude, that 
 he has himself been brought to the knowledge of such a 
 God, and reconciled by the blood of Christ to such a 
 Father. 
 
 The incident in the history of the Israelites which led 
 to the command of the text is as follows. Their long 
 and grievous captivity under Pharaoh, king of Egypt, 
 had just been brought to a conclusion by the miraculous 
 
 144 
 
GO FORWARD. 
 
 interference of the Almighty. But their difficulties, 
 which they no doubt had imagined would have been at 
 an end, appeared to be rather increased than diminished 
 by the change. While they were in bondage they were 
 not indeed happy, for they were the slaves of tyrannical 
 masters, and they received from those they served neither 
 remuneration nor pity. But what was the change of 
 state which they had now experienced ? They had been 
 marched out into "the wild and waste-howling wilder- 
 ness," where there was not shade to shelter them from 
 the burning heat of the sun, no plentiful supply of water 
 to slake their thirst, no rest for the sole of their weary feet. 
 
 These were difficulties sufficient, and more than suffi- 
 cient to have appalled the stoutest heart ; but even these 
 were by no means the most severe with which the 
 Israelites had to contend. The inexorable Pharaoh, 
 from whom his sufferings had at last wrung only a con- 
 strained permission to depart, no sooner found that they 
 were really gone, than his heart was again hardened, and 
 he resolved once more to bring them back to the scene 
 of their captivity. He therefore collects all his chariots 
 of war, his horsemen, and his armies, and follows the 
 unarmed and unprotected multitudes of Israel into the 
 very depths of the wilderness. 
 
 Behold then, brethren, the awful and critical situation 
 of the people of God ! Behind them was this enraged 
 monarch, who had now overtaken them, and drawn 
 around them the armies of his mighty ones, and en- 
 camped so closely upon them, that nothing but his com- 
 mand appears to be wanting to put them to instant and 
 remediless slaughter. Before them were the waters of 
 the Red Sea, which no human being had ever forded. 
 Can we conceive a more terrifying or a more hopeless 
 
 13 
 
146 
 
 GO FORWARD. 
 
 situation V Who can be surprised at reading, " When 
 Pharaoh drew nigh, the children of Israel lifted up their 
 eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched after them, 
 and they were sore afraid ." Then was demonstrated 
 their want of faith, of confidence, of reliance in the 
 power of their Almighty Leader : " Because there were 
 no graves in Egypt," said the Israelites, "hast thou 
 taken us away to die in the wilderness? It had been 
 better for us to serve the Egyptians, than that we should 
 die in the wilderness," 
 
 This ; then, was the remarkable moment that the words 
 of the text were spoken., In answer to the desponding 
 and faithless declaration which 1 have just read to you, 
 Moses himself, alarmed and uncertain, had replied, 
 " Stand still ; the Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall 
 hold your peace." But here even Moses appears to have 
 decided wrong. Great as is the duty oftentimes of stand- 
 ing still and waiting for the Lord, (and a veiy important 
 and trying duty it is, and many are the promises attached 
 to its fulfilment,) there is also the still more necessary 
 duty of striving in the strength of the Lord, and acting 
 fearlessly and unhesitatingly under his guidance, and at 
 his command. This was the exercise of faith to which 
 God saw fit, on the present occasion, to command the 
 Israelites; and his answer to the ejaculations, or it may 
 be, the mental prayer of Moses, foi no prayer is re- 
 corded, was the commandment of the text: "Where- 
 fore criest thou unto me?" saith the Lord, "speak unto 
 the children of Israel, that they go forward." 
 
 Never was there a period since time began, when such 
 a command, if uttered by man, would have been so 
 futile ; when such a command, even though proceeding 
 from the mouth of the Almighty God himself, must have 
 
GO FORWARD. 
 
 147 
 
 appeared so absolutely impracticable; and yet there 
 never was a time when God permitted it to be more 
 triumphantly obeyed. 
 
 The Israelites went forward, and the waters of the sea 
 were immediately divided by the word of God ; those 
 remote recesses of the ocean into which the light of day 
 had never penetrated, were all made visible to their 
 astonished sight ; the very element through which they 
 passed appeared to change its nature ; to open up from 
 its extremest depths, and to stand as "a wall," says the 
 Word of God, on their right hand and on their left, 
 while the people of God passed through the depths of 
 the sea without even wetting the soles of their feet. 
 
 The Egyptians also went forward, and the path looked 
 safe and dry before them, and the waters stood as a wall 
 on their right hand and on their left. Both the friends and 
 the enemies of God, therefore, were together in this awful 
 and astonishing passage. Both had with equal fearless- 
 ness advanced together, but there was still an important 
 difference: the Israelites had gone forward at the com- 
 mand, and therefore in the strength of the Almighty ; 
 while the Egyptians had advanced in the plenitude of 
 their own pride, and in the might of their own strength. 
 Do you not, then, already anticipate the difference of 
 their fates? 
 
 All that fearful night the two hostile armies were to- 
 gether traversing that road of miracle ; but we read that 
 the angel of God, who usually went before the Israelites, 
 removed and went behind them ; and the pillar of the 
 cloud also moved and went behind them, standing be- 
 tween them and the Egyptians, shedding light and com- 
 fort and assurance of protection upon the people of God, 
 but hanging in portentous darkness upon their enemies; 
 s-j that, as the Word of God declares, "The one army 
 
GO FORWARD. 
 
 came not near the other all night." " And it came to 
 pass, in the morning watch, that the Lord looked," such 
 is the emphatic language of holy writ, " unto the host of 
 the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and cloud, and 
 troubled the host of the Egyptians," and made them to 
 go heavily. Then Moses, at the command of the Most 
 High, " stretched forth his hand over the sea, and tl^e sea 
 returned to his strength, when the morning appeared ; 
 and the Egyptians fled against it ; and the Lord over- 
 threw them in the midst of the sea. And the waters re- 
 turned, and covered the chariots, and the horsemen, and 
 all the host of Pharaoh ;..... there remained not so 
 much as one of them." 
 
 Interesting as is the narrative, brethren, I will not en- 
 large upon it, but will rather leave you to read it and re- 
 flect upon it for yourselves; for the time usually allotted 
 to spiritual instruction is so brief, that I am anxious to 
 hasten to the personal application of the subject be- 
 fore us. 
 
 Let us, then, proceed, first, to trace the likeness exist- 
 ing between the Israelites, recently delivered from the 
 land of their captivity, and those among you who are but 
 newly awakened to your own position as sinners, and 
 desirous of being indeed delivered from worse than 
 Egyptian bondage, and forwarded on the road to the 
 everlasting mansions. 
 
 One of the earliest feelings by which you are likely to 
 be influenced is of this nature. We will suppose, and 
 we trust, with regard to some among you, rightly sup- 
 pose, that you are tired of the servitude of sin, or of the 
 world, wearied with the bondage of Satan, in which we 
 all, by nature, are enthralled, and in which many, alas! 
 how many, continue at the present moment entangled ; 
 but you have seen, by God's grace, your misery and your 
 
GO FORWARD. 
 
 149 
 
 danger, and you imagine, and properly imagine, that a 
 great and effectual step has been taken in bringing you to 
 this state of feeling, for it is the work of God's Spirit, even 
 of Him alone ; but you are led, naturally, though erro- 
 neously, to expect that your present comfort and happi- 
 ness and security will be as certain as your more distant 
 and undoubted prospect: i. e. (taking the Israelites as 
 the type of the Christian), you expect to enjoy the hap- 
 piness of Canaan, while traversing the wilderness which 
 lies before it. You are enabled, with the apostle, in some 
 degree to rejoice in the hope of the glory of God, and of 
 the rest which remaineth for his people, but you expect 
 and want even more than this, you love not the wearisome 
 travel, the hard-fought conflicts, " the great fight of afflic- 
 tions," which will render that rest so doubly dear to all 
 who are permitted to obtain it. You would like, even 
 while on earth, at once to place your foot upon the 
 threshold of heaven, before it has been soiled and pierced 
 and bruised by the ruggedness of the way which leads to 
 it. This would doubtless be the course of nature, but it 
 is not the course of grace. Just as it was to have been 
 expected that Pharaoh, who had so long and so uninter- 
 ruptedly enjoyed the services of the Israelites, should 
 make many an effort to regain them for his servants, so 
 the Word of God, and the daily experience of Christians, 
 teach us to expect that the powers of darkness will league 
 together, in close and active alliance, to endeavour to re- 
 gain their victim, and to snatch the prey from the hand 
 of the great Deliverer. It is not only most natural that 
 Satan should do so, but it is most certain that he does do 
 so. And if there be a time in your Christian life which 
 calls most loudly for your own efforts and caution and 
 .circumspection, and the prayers and counsel and encour- 
 agement of your Christian friends, and the especial aid 
 13* 
 
150 
 
 GO FORWARD. 
 
 and assistance of God's good Spirit, it is the period which 
 succeeds that when you experience the first effectual 
 struggling of the Spirit of grace against the spirit of dark- 
 ness in your heart; the time when the stubborn will is 
 bending, and the hard heart softening, and the affections 
 (hitherto captivated by the world) are loosening its bonds, 
 and the whole man is beginning to return to the God and 
 Father of all his mercies; for then it is that the first ten- 
 der upspringing of the spiritual plant is in the greatest 
 danger, that the faint flame, as yet scarcely kindled, ap- 
 pears liable to be most easily blown out. Then it is that 
 the devil rages most violently, and goes to the full length 
 of his chain, and leaves no effort untried, no nerve un- 
 strained, if he may but reach and devour the escaping 
 captive. Then it is, that he revives within your breast 
 passions and desires which you had hoped were utterly 
 extinguished ; that you are at times almost tempted to 
 exclaim in the sadness of a desponding spirit, to the God 
 and Saviour of your soul. " Let us alone, that we may 
 serve the Egyptians, for it had been better for us to serve 
 the Egyptians, than that we should die in the wilderness." 
 But, brethren, you who experimentally know these things, 
 take courage, you shall neither u serve the Egyptians," 
 nor 4< die in the wilderness." The powers of darkness 
 are indeed in league against you, as they have been 
 against every child of God since time began, as they 
 were against your Divine and perfect Master ; they may 
 endeavour to magnify to your apprehension the perils 
 which are before you, the seas of danger and of opposi- 
 tion through which you may be called to pass; they 
 may strive to convince you that what is painful, is in- 
 sufferable, that what is difficult is insurmountable ; they 
 may have the power of knowing much of the real diffi- 
 culties with which the path of every believer is encom- 
 
GO FORWARD. 
 
 151 
 
 passed, but be assured, they do not know, they never can 
 know, for nothing but happy and blessed experience can 
 teach the strength of the arm which will guide, the light 
 of the countenance which will cheer, the love of the 
 Spirit of Christ which will protect you. The uncreated 
 Angel of the covenant has pitched his tent and unfurled 
 his standard between you and your spiritual enemies ; it 
 is light and peace to you, but darkness and dismay to 
 them. In the desert through which you are to pass, 
 you shall find the highway of the Lord ; in the deepest 
 waters of trial and affliction and temptation which await 
 you, there is a dry path and a safe path prepared for you, 
 upon which they cannot follow you far, in which your 
 footsteps shall neither stumble, nor slide. 
 
 If then you have, any among you, begun to feel that 
 the course is more arduous, and the prospect less en- 
 couraging, than you once thought them, how earnestly 
 would I desire to impress upon you the instructive lesson 
 which has this day been set before you. You perceive 
 what God has done for those who obeyed and trusted 
 him ; you hear from the words of his never-broken 
 promises what he will do for every penitent who comes 
 to him through the blood of his dear Son ; and do you 
 now ask, what shall you do? our reply shall be made to 
 you in the words of the text, "Go forward." In the 
 case of the Israelites, it would have been death to have 
 retreated, or to have remained stationary. In your case, 
 to remain stationary is impossible ; you must advance or 
 recede. To retreat, would be as certain destruction to 
 you, as to the bands of Israel; there is, therefore, no 
 alternative of safety but in advancing. 
 
 We would say then to each and to all among you, for 
 none have advanced so far as to be beyond the reach of 
 this counsel, rest not in present attainments, let those 
 
152 G0 FORWARD. 
 
 attainments be what they may; there is still much to be 
 learnt, which you have not learnt; much to be practised, 
 which you have not practised ; much in your spiritual 
 life to be experienced, which you have not experienced; 
 therefore, let your great aim and object be to advance. 
 We say, " Go forward," faithfully and prayerfully, cir- 
 cumspectly and boldly. Remember, for your encourage- 
 ment, under what peculiar circumstances of danger and 
 of difficulty this command in the text was first given. A 
 deep and mighty ocean crossed their path, and yet the 
 Israelites were ordered to advance. The moment they 
 boldly and faithfully obeyed, every danger vanished, 
 every difficulty was overcome. The waters fell back 
 before them, not a hair of their head was touched, not a 
 sole of their foot was wetted ; while, had they attempted 
 to return, they must have perished with the Egyptians. 
 Such, also, will be your safety if you advance ; your 
 ruin if you recede. Let your prayer be, "Lord, in- 
 crease my faith." According unto " thy faith," said 
 our Lord in the days of his flesh, and thus says he now, 
 " According to thy faith be it done unto thee." So will 
 you be enabled to fulfil this most important, most diffi- 
 cult command. The most timid child is not afraid to 
 walk in the dark, from the moment that he touches his 
 father's hand, or hears his father's voice. Why is this ? 
 Because he has a perfect trust in his father's power and 
 love ; therefore the danger is no danger to him. Only 
 trust God, with half the confidence which you expect 
 from your own children, and your life will be the Chris- 
 tian's life of faith, and your walk the Christian's walk 
 of decision and boldness. 
 
 I have said before, that this injunction is needful to us 
 ull. Who then is that faithful and wise servant, who is 
 never found sleeping at his post, when he ought (like 
 
GO FORWARD. 
 
 153 
 
 the wise virgins) to be watching; or standing still, when 
 he ought (like the advancing Israelites) to be " going 
 forward?" But, if needful to us all, is it not pre- 
 eminently needful to those among you, who have been 
 privileged for years to hear and to believe the word of 
 truth, and yet whose spiritual advancement bears no pro- 
 portion to your spiritual knowledge ? Who, when you 
 look backward for a year, or it may be, for many years, 
 appear to be standing identically in the same spot, in the 
 spiritual life, which you then occupied. No warmer 
 interest in these things now than then ; no greater fre- 
 quency in your applications to the book of God, or to 
 the blood of Christ ; no greater fervency in your prayers; 
 no stronger and more successful restraint over your pas- 
 sions, your worldliness, your temper, or your tongue ; no 
 more self-denying or persevering efforts to bring every 
 thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, or to 
 labour, and delight to labour, in good works for his 
 honour and glory. Surely, brethren, if you are conscious 
 that these, or any of these allegations, apply to you, you 
 will not deny that the injunction of the text also applies 
 to you, with peculiar force. You will feel ashamed, 
 that, after all God has done for you, temporally and 
 spiritually, you have made such slow, such inadequate 
 progress in the Christian life, such little advancement in 
 the way to heaven. But you will not, as too many do, 
 rest satisfied with the mere acknowledgment of your 
 short-comings ; you will not content yourself even with 
 your feeling of them, and regret for them, however heart- 
 felt or sincere. If you are in earnest, if you are truly 
 sensible of this deficiency, you will set yourself to con- 
 sider seriously, earnestly, prayerfully, the cause of your 
 non-advancement. Is it your natural indolence, the dis- 
 inclination to the things of God, we all have, flowing 
 
154 
 
 QO FORWARD. 
 
 from a corrupt nature and a perverted heart? Is it the 
 too powerful attractions of a world in which you are 
 daily immersed, and whose fascinations you cannot 
 resist? Is it the difficulty of your peculiar situation 
 which hedges you around with impediments always op- 
 posing, and weights continually pressing upon you? 
 Well, be it what it may, your remedy is the same, for 
 you will remember that, when we spoke of the Israelites 
 and the Egyptians passing through the Red Sea, the 
 only difference between them was, that the former walked 
 with God, and the latter without him. Therefore the 
 former made the passage and went forward, while the 
 latter perished in the attempt. So with yourselves. You 
 must look for strength unto Jesus, the author and finisher 
 of your faith, whose grace is sufficient for you, and you 
 will persevere. You must seek a counterpoise for all 
 these things in the promised influences of his Holy Spirit, 
 to be your pillar of cloud by day, and of fire by night. 
 Neither must you seek this coldly and languidly. You 
 must say, " My life, my soul, my eternity, depend upon 
 my going forward ; for what I have long called standing 
 still, has, I find, been in reality going backward. My 
 prayers, my zeal, my love, my obedience, are not only 
 not improved, but they are not what they were ; I cared 
 more and felt more for all these things once than I now 
 do ; and it is evident that, unless checked by the strong 
 hand of my God, and again drawn forward and brought 
 into closer union with my Redeemer, I shall continue to 
 recede, I shall ultimately sink, I shall perish everlast- 
 ingly." Once be led, by God's grace, to feel, acknow- 
 ledge, and act thus, and we have no fear for the result. 
 The promise, and the Saviour who made that promise, 
 are both your own. " They shall never perish, neither 
 shall any man pluck them out of my hand." 
 
GO FORWARD. 
 
 But I must add, in conclusion, a few words to you, 
 who, by God's grace, do not require to be thus urged for- 
 ward by the recollection that you are falling back. 
 
 We trust that many of you are endeavouring to fulfil 
 the command upon which we have this day spoken. 
 Striving to advance, not as though you had already 
 attained, either were already perfect, but forgetting those 
 things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those 
 things which are before, you daily press, or strive to 
 press, towards the mark of your high calling. 
 
 You, also, have a duty to perform, and we say to you, 
 " Go forward," gratefully, cheerfully, joyfully. Prove 
 to those around you, that religion is not the dull and 
 stagnant and cheerless service which the worldling thinks 
 it. Demonstrate that, while all your motives and all 
 your aims and all your hopes are higher, infinitely higher, 
 than his can ever be, your comforts, also, and your peace, 
 your cheerfulness and your resignation and your happi- 
 ness, are all of them equally above and superior to any 
 which he can dream of. That as you advance in years, 
 that period when the hope of the hypocrite fails, when 
 the temper of the mere worldling becomes too often 
 irritable and querulous, your enjoyments are but heighten- 
 ing, your prospects becoming less clouded and more 
 serene ; that the glorious anticipation before you is throw- 
 ing many a beam of light into nature's darkest hour and 
 over her most wintry day ; and that you are able, humbly, 
 yet confidently, seriously, yet cheerfully, to go forward 
 from strength to strength, assured that there is one, who, 
 when your heart and your flesh fail, will be (because 
 he has promised to be) " the strength of your heart and 
 your portion for ever." 
 
 This ought to be, my beloved Christian brethren, this 
 will be, if you seek it from him to whose Holy Spirit we 
 
|56 G0 FORWARD. 
 
 are taught to trace every good and perfect gift, (" love, 
 joy, and peace" among the number), this will be the 
 frame of mind in which you will be enabled to live, and 
 to glorify God, and to recommend, by your example, the 
 religion which you love. 
 
 Thus advancing in the strength and in the footsteps 
 of your Divine Leader, you shall be enabled to " go for- 
 ward" boldly, consistently, joyfully, and, at the last, 
 triumphantly, through Him who loved you, and gave 
 himself for you. 
 
 
SERMON XIII. 
 
 SANCTIFIED AFFLICTIONS. 
 
 2 COR. iv. 17, 18. 
 
 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us 
 a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory ; while we look 
 not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not 
 seen : for the things which are seen are temporal ; but the things 
 which are not seen are eternal. 
 
 THERE are few things of which men form so false 
 an estimate as of the calamities and trials of this 
 mortal life. The merely thoughtless man, when sud- 
 denly overtaken in his career of sin by any of the multi- 
 plied afflictions which beset our path, plunges deeper 
 into the ocean of folly in which he lives ; and while he 
 carries the barbed arrow in his side from scene to scene, 
 and from place to place, and from pleasure to pleasure, 
 considers his affliction only as one of the unlucky acci- 
 dents of the world in which he lives, and consoles him- 
 self with the aphorism of the poet, " The longest day, 
 live till to-morrow, shall have passed away." The more 
 reflecting man of the world views these same afflictions 
 only as miseries which he is compelled to endure be- 
 cause there is no escape ; but he repines while he suffers, 
 and while he writhes beneath the hand of a chastening 
 
 14 157 
 
158 SANCTIFIED AFFLICTIONS. 
 
 God, refuses to humble himself and to "hear the rod or 
 him who appointeth it." How strikingly different is the 
 case with the Christian when he is subjected to the 
 afflicting visitations of his God. Although he feels as 
 deeply, as acutely as the men of the world, he has within 
 him a settled and never-failing principle that moderates 
 his sorrow, sanctifies his affliction, and bestows a peace 
 and comfort and strong consolation, which none but a 
 real child of God can ever know. He neither looks at 
 his calamity as an unlucky accident, nor as a grievous 
 and unavoidable misery ; he knows that nothing, either 
 of good or evil, comes to him, which is unintended for 
 him, or unappointed for him by Him whose highest attri- 
 bute is love. He sees the trial as written against his 
 name in the Lamb's book of life, as a clause in the ever- 
 lasting covenant, as one link in that eternal chain of 
 providences and mercies which is wound around himself 
 and all who are dear to him on earth, and which is 
 fastened to the throne of God's immutability and love in 
 heaven. If you are a child of God, therefore, you will 
 remember that God has engaged to keep you from the 
 evils, the snares, the temptation, of the world. In the 
 covenant of grace God has engaged himself to purge 
 away your sins, to brighten your graces, to crucify your 
 hearts to the world, and to prepare you and to preserve 
 you for his heavenly kingdom. Afflictions form one of 
 the methods by which he usually effects this ; and it is 
 agreeable to his covenant, even to that portion of it 
 which he has seen fit to reveal to us, that they should do 
 so, for has he not said, " If my children forsake my law, 
 and walk not in my judgments; if they break my 
 statutes, and keep not my commandments; then will I 
 visit their transgressions with the rod, and their iniquity 
 with stripes ; nevertheless, my loving-kindness will I not 
 
SANCTIFIED AFFLICTIONS. J 51) 
 
 utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail." 
 Afflictions, therefore, are the very fruits of God's faithful- 
 ness, to which the covenant binds him. God would be 
 unfaithful if, first or last, more or less, he did not afflict 
 his people. It is this persuasion, therefore, that enables 
 every real child of God to exclaim, even from a sorrowing 
 or a broken heart, " I know that this affliction comes to 
 me directly from the hand of a Father who loves me, 
 who does not willingly grieve even the most wayward of 
 his children, who would not willingly afflict me. He 
 knows that I need it, he knows that if his chastening 
 hand were not often upon me, I should be continually 
 c starting aside like a broken bow;' I bow before his 
 justice, I acknowledge his mercy, I bless him for this 
 tribulation, and my daily prayer is, that it may work 
 that holy and sanctifying effect upon my heart, without 
 which I fear I shall never be rendered ' meet to be a 
 partaker of the inheritance of the saints in light.' ' : ' How 
 completely, my brethren, do these blessed feelings, com- 
 mon to all the children in our Father's redeemed family, 
 draw the sting from every trial, and sweeten the bitterest 
 visitation ; how entirely do they enable us to enter into 
 the mind of him who wrote the words of the text, and 
 who spake of some of the heaviest trials which ever 
 weighed down mortality, as " our light affliction, which 
 is but for a moment." 
 
 But these considerations do not stand alone in the 
 heart of the Christian ; there are others equally availing, 
 and all flowing from the same source, tending to make 
 the afflictions of earth both light and momentary. The 
 most influential of these is the certainty which the Chris- 
 tian enjoys, that in all his losses he still possesses some- 
 thing which he cannot lose ; that in being enabled to say 
 with the Church of old, " My beloved is mine, and I am 
 
160 SANCTIFIED AFFLICTIONS. 
 
 his;" or with the apostle, "Nothing shall separate me 
 from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord ;" 
 he has that of which neither affliction, nor death, nor 
 time, nor eternity can deprive him, and in comparison of 
 which all that he has lost, or can lose, are utterly insigni- 
 ficant. The strength of this principle, in producing the 
 effect of which I speak, has often in all ages of the 
 Church been demonstrated. During the persecutions of 
 the martyrs it seems to have been more powerfully and 
 sweetly operative than any other. Among many similar 
 instances recorded by Fox, there is one of a pious woman 
 who, when taken before the cruel Bishop Bonner, and 
 threatened that her husband should be put to death, un- 
 dauntedly replied, " Christ is my husband." When told 
 that her children should be taken away, answered again, 
 " Christ is better to me than ten sons." When threat- 
 ened that she should be robbed of every outward comfort, 
 and stripped even of her raiment, still had faith to reply, 
 " Yea, but Christ is mine, and you cannot strip me of 
 him." The assurance that she had a saving interest in 
 her Redeemer, that the Beloved was hers, and she was 
 his, made every sorrow light, and every trial momentary. 
 
 The apostle does not, however, content himself in the 
 text with asserting the lightness and the transitoriness of 
 the Christian's sorrow, he goes further than this, he de- 
 clares that in its effects it is a positive blessing ; he says, 
 " Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh 
 for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." 
 Blessed words ! may the Lord fulfil them to every soul 
 among us in our hour of need. But let us be careful 
 that while we thus seek their fulfilment we first duly ap- 
 preciate their intention. 
 
 It involves a point upon which the natural heart is too 
 often widely mistaken, viz. 3 that great sufferings can- 
 
SANCTII IED AFFLICTIONS. IQl 
 
 not but deserve and obtain for us great rewards. Be 
 assured, my brethren, that nothing could be farther from 
 the intention of the apostle in the text than to counte- 
 nance such an error. When he says that our affliction 
 " worketh for us," nothing could be farther from his 
 thoughts than that the affliction should, in a meritorious 
 manner, purchase or procure for us " the eternal weight 
 of glory ;" this would at once contradict a large portion 
 of the declarations of Holy Writ, which invariably pro- 
 nounce eternal life to be the unmerited " gift of God." 
 Our title to that blessed inheritance, thanks be to God, is 
 a very different and a far more certain one ; it is a title 
 written in the blood of the everlasting covenant, and 
 made over to us when we are adopted into the family of 
 God ; for the Word of God declares, If children," 
 whether suffering children or rejoicing children matters 
 not, but if children, "then heirs, heirs of God, and joint 
 heirs with Christ." Assuredly, therefore, never could 
 the heaviest sufferings merit the slightest reward, much 
 less could the trials of a passing moment merit the joys 
 of a never-ending eternity. 
 
 In what sense, then, can the words of the apostle be 
 fairly taken ? doubtless in this, that these afflictions work 
 for us a far more exceeding w r eight of glory, by working 
 in us a far more fit and holy frame of mind, and therefore 
 a far greater capacity for the enjoyment of it. 
 
 Do I, then, speak to any of you this day, who have 
 been visited with trials from the hand of your heavenly 
 Father and at some period or other of their course who 
 has not? Any of you who have suffered in your fami- 
 lies, in your property, in your health ; any who have 
 come, it may be even this day, from scenes of sorrow to 
 the house of God ! While the portion of Scripture before 
 you is well calculated, by God's blessing, to minister to 
 14* 
 
J[ 2 SANCTIFIED AFFLICTIONS. 
 
 your peace, be assured it can only do so, by ministering 
 to your holiness. It indeed tells you that your afflictions 
 shall work for your happiness and glory; but is this an 
 unqualified assertion? Do all afflictions minister Urns 
 mercifully to the soul which suffers them ? Far, very 
 far from it. Many a man leaves a bed of sickness with 
 a heart more hardened against God, a life more totally at 
 variance with his will, than he entered it. Many a mo- 
 ther commits her child to the grave, but does not, alas ! 
 bury with it her own hostility and indifference to the 
 things of God. Many a one loses his health, his pro- 
 perty, all that he possesses in this world, without obtain- 
 ing the smallest portion in that better part which shall 
 not be taken from him. Does the experience of none 
 among you, my brethren, justify this? Have none 
 among you suffered frequently, suffered deeply, from 
 the hand of an afflicting God, and yet are little conscious 
 of having ever derived any real spiritual benefit? Are 
 there to none among you events in your past life, that 
 weigh heavily upon your spirit, which you can never 
 eradicate from your memory, and never dwell upon with- 
 out the most painful and distressing feelings, and yet 
 have no reason, no scriptural reason, for supposing, that 
 these, or any of these, have worked, or are working, for 
 good? Then let us examine a little into the cause ; this 
 is so contrary to God's intention, that there must be some 
 fault, some failure in yourselves. It is not improbable 
 that we shall find the cause of this failure, if we look at 
 the limitation of the apostle in the text; he assures you 
 that your afflictions shall work for good, while you " look 
 not at the things which are seen, but at the things which 
 are not seen." 
 
 Here, then, is at once the key to the mystery ; here is 
 the reason, if it be so, plainly set before you, why no 
 
SANCTIFIED AFFLICTIONS. 
 
 trial, no sorrow, no affliction of yours, has ever really- 
 worked for your future glory. You have contented 
 yourself, while under it, at looking at the things which 
 are seen. You have dwelt solely or chiefly upon your 
 trouble, or your disappointment, and never raised your 
 eyes beyond it ; you have viewed it in all its distressing 
 bearings, have pondered upon every secondary cause 
 which led to it, have dwelt upon all its sorrowful effects, 
 have thought how greatly such an event, if it had occur- 
 red, would have mitigated it, how surely such a line of 
 conduct would have prevented it, how much less you 
 should have suffered, if there had been but one little 
 circumstance in your calamity different from what it was. 
 In fact you have kept your eye fixed upon i4 the things 
 which are seen," and you have, in consequence, missed 
 the blessing which you might otherwise have reaped. 
 You have just adopted the precise line of conduct depre- 
 cated in the text, and which never has, and never shall 
 (so God's Word declares), bring either peace, or comfort, 
 or profit to the afflicted soul. My beloved brethren, much 
 of the choicest portion of Christianity consists in this, in 
 closing the eye of sense, and opening the eye of faith. 
 Adopt now then for the first time this new line of con- 
 duct; you have gained neither present comfort, nor 
 future hope, by all that you have hitherto attempted ; 
 surely, then, if it be but an experiment, it is worth the 
 trial. Endeavour, therefore, to follow the injunction of 
 the apostle ; cease to dwell upon your troubles and your 
 sorrows, to look only at the things which are seen ; close 
 this eye of sense, and begin by opening the eye of faith, 
 to look at " the things which are not seen." Instead of 
 the poor perishing creature which has been the sole cause 
 of your sorrows, the sole object of your regards, look at 
 the eternal God who is " All in All." Instead of poring 
 
SANCTIFIED AFFLICTIONS. 
 
 upon the trials and miseries of time, look at once with 
 the steady gaze of faith, which will penetrate the veil ; 
 look at once upon (he glories of eternity. Instead of 
 looking after those who have been taken from you, those 
 in whose love and friendship you delighted, look at him, 
 " whom having not seen," his people " love," even at 
 that Saviour who to every believing soul is " precious." 
 
 How astonishing would be the influence upon all our 
 minds if we could fully realize this ; if we could dwell 
 with a constant meditation upon these unseen realities. 
 I know how difficult it is to lift up the sorrowing head 
 and to raise the weeping eyes to heaven; but there is 
 one who is able and willing to aid you in this blessed 
 work, even the Holy Ghost the Comforter. Pray for his 
 light and power, and he will take your eyes off the 
 " things which are seen," however endeared, and how- 
 ever precious, and fix them upon the unseen things which 
 lie before you. The effect of such a change is incalcula- 
 ble, it will influence the events of every day, the feelings 
 of every hour. From the moment you thus begin, under 
 the teaching of God's good Spirit, to make "the things 
 which are not seen" the object of your thoughts, you 
 will find a new temper of heart, a new bias to the soul ; 
 there will be an eternal principle within you carrying all 
 your feelings forth to eternal ends. As it is in a far 
 smaller degree in worldly matters, so will it be in an in- 
 conceivably great and glorious degree in spiritual things. 
 Every worldly object appears large in proportion to its 
 nearness. While, therefore, all the petty business and in- 
 terests of earth appear of a most absorbing greatness to 
 those who are for ever walking up and down among 
 them, without a thought or a glance beyond them; to 
 you, who have thus, as it were, got upon the mount of 
 eternity, they will be as mere specks in the distant pros- 
 
SANCTIFIED AFFLICTIONS. 
 
 165 
 
 pect, all will be contracted within their true and proper 
 limits. You will learn to look upon the weightiest busi- 
 ness of earth as children's pastime, compared with the 
 enjoyment of God, and the living for ever in the presence 
 of a loved and loving Saviour. " The things which are 
 seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are 
 eternal." Yes, this is the great distinguishing character- 
 istic ; this it is which gives them their influence and their 
 power; you look at the poor drooping blessings of earth, 
 and you feel that in a few years even, at the best, they 
 must inevitably wither within your grasp ; you turn to 
 the glories of heaven, and you see them in all their native 
 freshness and youth and beauty, when ten thousand 
 centuries shall have run their unwearied course. You 
 look at the bitterest cup of sorrow which God has ever, 
 or shall ever put into your hands, and you will drink it 
 almost without a sigh, if you will but turn your eyes 
 from its contents, and fix them upon those rivers of joy 
 which are running for ever at God's right hand ; and 
 which, through the blood of Jesus, may all be made 
 your own. These will be among the first and most ob- 
 vious effects of dwelling upon the unseen realities of 
 God. But there will be far greater and more blessed ef- 
 fects than these. As you become more and more inte- 
 rested in them, more entirely devoted to them, and occu- 
 pied among them, your thoughts and your tempers and 
 affections and pursuits will all be led to harmonize with 
 them in a manner which you can now scarcely antici- 
 pate ; and you will daily be obtaining a stronger assur- 
 ance that you are indeed accepted of God ; that Christ is 
 yours, that the pardon of sin is yours, that Divine favour 
 is yours, and that heaven is your own. Surely, then, 
 you will not hesitate to call the heaviest affliction light, 
 the longest trial momentary, if it can be thus made in- 
 
166 
 
 SANCTIFIED AFFLICTIONS. 
 
 strumental in working for you a " far more exceeding 
 and eternal weight of glory." What that glory is, we 
 are unable either to know, or to describe, for an apostle 
 was obliged to exclaim, " It doth not yet appear what we 
 shall be." Sufficient is, however, told us in the Word 
 of God, to satisfy the largest imagination, to fulfil the 
 most ample desires. All evil shall there be removed, 
 all good shall there be enjoyed, and both throughout 
 eternity. 
 
 All evil shall be removed. There are but three things 
 which greatly trouble the people of God on earth, and 
 not one of them shall be found in heaven. 
 
 The first is, sin, the continual backsliding of our cor- 
 rupt hearts; but there, there will be neither sin nor 
 temptation, neither devils to tempt, nor a corrupt heart to 
 be tempted. We shall be all pure, as well as all glo- 
 rious, for the Word of God has declared that his people 
 shall be presented "a glorious Church, not having spot 
 or wrinkle, or any such thing, but holy and without 
 blemish." 
 
 The second is, the frequent interruption of the sense 
 of God's favour. We are here in a perpetual state of cloud 
 and sunshine ; now, God lifts up the light of his counte- 
 nance upon us, and we are cheered ; and again, he hides 
 his face from us, and we are troubled ; but there, the 
 communion will be constant, a day without night, an 
 everlasting sunshine without a cloud. Perpetual service 
 and perpetual enjoyment. " They are before the throne 
 of God, and serve him day and night in his temple." 
 
 The third thing which troubles us here is, the frequent 
 recurrence of anxiety and difficulty and disappointment 
 and sorrow. This also shall be at an end. There is no 
 sighing, no sorrowing, no anxiety there. Affliction gives 
 
SANCTIFIED AFFLICTIONS. 
 
 place to glory the light affliction which is but for a mo- 
 ment, to the exceeding and eternal weight of glory. 
 
 While all evil shall thus be removed, all good shall 
 as certainly be enjoyed. The great object of our eternal 
 blessedness is God himself. We now enjoy something 
 of him, but it is through a medium of a most imperfect 
 nature, viz., through a weak and wavering faith, and a 
 frail and feeble love : there it shall be through the me- 
 dium of the clearest vision and of the most perfect love. 
 If it be declared in the word of truth that even here, 
 " he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit," though the 
 union be of that most imperfect nature to which I have 
 just alluded, what will it be in that blessed place where 
 the union shall be complete ; when " we shall see the 
 King in his beauty," and when our souls shall be 
 "filled with all the fulness of God?" My brethren, it 
 is hard for me to speak of heaven, it is impossible for any 
 one to speak correctly of it, until the great voice call 
 upon us to come up and see what God has prepared for 
 those who love him. It is enough to know that perfect 
 vision shall produce perfect assimilation ; " We shall be 
 like him," says St. John, "for we shall see him as he 
 is." As iron, by lying in the fire, becomes as it were all 
 fire, so shall the presence and sight of God our Saviour 
 transform us into the perfect resemblance of God our Sa- 
 viour. While perfect assimilation shall produce perfect 
 happiness and perfect satisfaction, for the Psalmist de- 
 clares, " When I wake up after thy likeness, I shall be 
 satisfied with it ;" the soul, with all its infinite capacities 
 and all its infinite desires, shall be completely, fully, and 
 for ever satisfied. This is all that God has revealed, all 
 I desire to know ; in having God we shall have enough, 
 and in seeing, loving, and being made like him, we shall 
 at once enter upon a state of happiness as infinite in 
 
168 SANCTIFIED AFFLICTIONS. 
 
 extent as it will be eternal in duration. That this may 
 one day be experimentally known and enjoyed by every 
 soul who now hears me and by myself, may God of his 
 infinite mercy grant, through our Lord Jesus Christ, to 
 whom, &c. 
 
SERMON XIV. 
 
 REDEEM THE TIME. 
 
 EPHESIANS v. 16. 
 Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. 
 
 OP all the talents with which the Almighty here on 
 earth intrusts his creatures, time is the most important, 
 and we fear we must add the most frequently abused. 
 Our infancy is spent in idleness, our youth in thought- 
 lessness, our age in business; but which of them, as re- 
 gards the great mass of mankind, can be said to be 
 employed for God, or for the important purpose for which 
 it is bestowed? All complain of the shortness of time, 
 and yet most possess more than they know what to do 
 with, and every one more than he employs well. Still 
 it is of this much- wasted and misapplied talent that we 
 shall one day be called upon to render a strict account. 
 Consider, then, how you would yourselves act under 
 similar circumstances, and you may learn to know what 
 you have reason to expect at the hands of God. 
 
 If you were to hire a labourer for a day's work, and he 
 were to come to you in the evening, and upon your asking 
 him, " How have you spent your day? what have you 
 done for me?" he were to reply, "I have spent four 
 
 15 169 
 
170 
 
 REDEEM THE TIME. 
 
 hours in loitering 1 or talking with my fellow-labourers, 
 and four at my meals, and three more in working for 
 myself, and the remaining hour I have dedicated to your 
 service;" would you be satisfied with such a reply? 
 would you pay that man his wages? I trow not. And 
 yet let me ask you what better account, when you retire 
 to rest at night, can you give to your Heavenly Master 
 of many a day which passes over you? After you have 
 deducted all that has been spent with your fellow- 
 labourers, at your meals, and in labouring for your bread 
 which perisheth, what remains for God? And is not 
 God a God of recompense ? and has he not declared that 
 as a man soweth so shall he also reap? Truly, then, 
 unless we can render some better account than this, our 
 day of reckoning will be a fearful day, and our sentence 
 the sentence of the unprofitable and idle servant. Let 
 us then seek for the aid of the Divine Spirit, to enable 
 us to receive and to apply the valuable injunction of the 
 text ; that we may be taught so to employ our time, that 
 when summoned to render an account, we may do it 
 with joy. 
 
 I shall consider, then, 
 
 I. What it is to redeem time. 
 
 II. From what we should redeem it. 
 
 III. For what we should redeem it. 
 
 In explaining what is meant by redeeming time, I 
 shall take the most simple illustration possible ; the word 
 is in the original to buy out, and the English word 
 redeem expresses this as closely as possible. 
 
 If an estate be mortgaged, if an article be pledged, the 
 owner cannot repossess himself of them, unless he be 
 able to buy them out, or redeem them. By the use of 
 this term, therefore, the apostle not merely urges us to 
 future diligence, but most strongly implies our former 
 
REDEEM THE TIME. J^ 
 
 improvidence and misuse of time ; the very fact that it 
 is necessary to redeem it, implies that we have, as it were, 
 mortgaged it to Satan, pledged it to vanity and sin. 
 Now, strictly speaking, time misapplied is irrevocable; 
 the hours and days and years that have been so improvi- 
 dently disposed of, are among those unredeemed pledges 
 which must remain, as evidences of our folly and our 
 guilt, to all eternity. The sin may, blessed be God, be 
 removed by a penitent application to the blood of our 
 great Redeemer; the guilt may be washed away, the 
 iniquity be blotted out for ever ; but the years so spent 
 can never be recalled, redeemed, or brought back again; 
 the hours which we have sacrificed before the shrine of 
 foolish or of guilty pleasure, can never now (as they 
 might once have been) be laid upon the altar of the 
 living God. That blessed privilege, as regards those 
 hours, is for ever lost to us; that opportunity for ever 
 passed away. Once gone, they are gone for ever; and 
 hours which might have been adding to the happiness 
 of our fellow-creatures, to the increase, of our own joy, 
 to the glory of God, to the extension of our Redeemer's 
 kingdom, to the jewels in our Redeemer's crown, have 
 perhaps (how fearful is the thought) been employed in 
 aiding others, by our countenance and example, in their 
 progress to that gulf from which we ourselves, by the 
 undeserved goodness of our God, may have so mercifully 
 escaped. 
 
 Since, then, the advice of the apostle, in its literal and 
 strictest sense, cannot be applied to the time which is 
 passed, we must endeavour to render it applicable in our 
 own case to that which may remain to us. My breth- 
 ren, who shall say what this maybe? It is easy to 
 number the days that have fled, but who can calculate 
 what is to come? Can the youngest or the strongest 
 
REDEEM THE, TIME. 
 
 here present say, that he assuredly shall hail the opening 
 even of another month in the same health, under the 
 same circumstances, or even in the same state of exist- 
 ence, in which he has beheld the present? You know 
 that he cannot. You know that your sentence may 
 have gone forth, that your hours may even now be num- 
 bered. When, then, I say to you, " Redeem the time," 
 I urge it both upon your conscience and upon my own 
 to delay no longer, but to begin in good earnest to live 
 to God, to seek, if you have not yet sought and found, 
 a Saviour ; to devote not merely this Sabbath-hour, or 
 the Sabbath-day, to his honour and glory, and the soul's 
 great work for eternity, but every day and every hour, 
 (so far as the absolutely necessary business and relaxa- 
 tion of life will admit,) to the same blessed and all-im- 
 portant occupation. 
 
 I proceed, then, to consider from what you are to 
 redeem the time which yet remains to you. 
 
 First, then, I charge you to redeem it from sloth and 
 procrastination. An idle Christian is a disgrace to the 
 very name he bears. 
 
 Did our Divine Master, while on earth, so occupy his 
 time about his Father's business, that he often, as the 
 Evangelist declares, had not time to eat and to drink, 
 and can you imagine that you are among the number of 
 his followers, when you find time, perhaps, for little else? 
 When every duty that is urged upon you, is too toilsome 
 or too troublesome; and when you would rather sit for 
 days in perfect inactivity, or in the most trifling occupa- 
 tions of this poor, miserable, transitory life, than stir one 
 hand, or engage in one labour, for the glory of God or 
 the eternal existence which is approaching? How totally 
 different would be the whole aspect of society, of our 
 country, of the world, if every Christian, the moment he 
 
REDEEM THE TIME. 
 
 ITS 
 
 begins to be awakened to the things of God, were in 
 good earnest to set himself to labour for God, and what- 
 ever his hand found to do, to do it with his might. 
 
 It is fearful to think how often, when Satan cannot 
 storm the citadel by open violence, he thus possesses 
 himself of it by secret intrigue, and prevails to the ruin 
 of a soul through idleness alone. You who would start 
 with abhorrence if the great tempter were to bring to you 
 a gross temptation, yet fall willingly into his snares of 
 indolence and procrastination. For instance, in the 
 morning you say there will be time to read the Word of 
 God, to pray, to meditate, to examine into your heart, in 
 the evening; but in the evening some more pressing 
 occupation presents itself, and when this is over it is too 
 late, and these great duties are again postponed. To- 
 day there is little opportunity of doing good, of fulfilling, 
 or even of commencing some work of kindness, or labour 
 of love, which you propose, for promoting the comforts 
 of your fellow-creatures, or the glory of God, but to- 
 morrow you are assured that there will be time, and to 
 spare ; I need not say, that that to-morrow never comes. 
 O how many immortal souls are thus slumbered and 
 trifled and procrastinated away, until the chamber of 
 sickness hears the ten-thousand-times repeated fallacy, 
 " When I recover, every day shall be spent for God ;" 
 and the bed of death alone demonstrates the emptiness 
 and the delusion of it. 
 
 Secondly, I would urge you to redeem your time from 
 vain and foolish company, and idle and unprofitable 
 pleasures. There is nothing which tends more to rob 
 the heart of every spiritual affection, to deaden the love 
 to God, to make all religious exercises dull and unprofit- 
 able, than these great time-destroyers. Thus the Prophet 
 Isaiah, describing persons who so occupy themselves, 
 15* 
 
174 
 
 REDEEM THE TIME. 
 
 says, " The harp and the viol, the tabret and pipe and 
 wine, are in their feasts; but they regard not the work 
 of the Lord, neither consider the operation of his hands." 
 Will you ask in reply, is then the spiritual life of the 
 Christian, as portrayed by the example of his Divine 
 Master, and urged upon him by his commands, at variance 
 with all the innocent intercourse of life? If we become 
 really in earnest in the great work of salvation, must we 
 give up our friends, our social meetings, and many of 
 the greatest enjoyments of our present lot? This is by 
 no means implied in the command to redeem your time 
 from foolish company, and idle and unprofitable pleasures. 
 When you become distinctly and decidedly the friends of 
 the Lord Jesus Christ, they who are not his friends will 
 (such is the fashion of the world) very shortly cease to 
 be your friends ; while they who love him, will infallibly 
 love you. And so far from your being required to give 
 up your social meetings, and the innocent intercourse of 
 life, none really taste their pleasure in its least imperfect 
 state, but those who meet in social intercourse, as they 
 ought to meet, the Spirit of whose God has told them, 
 " Whether ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to 
 the glory of God." 
 
 Lastly, I would urge you to redeem your time from 
 worldly cares and worldly business. Our Lord himself 
 has declared that " a man's life consisteth not in the 
 abundance of the things which he possesseth," and he 
 exemplifies this truth by the story of the foolish rich man, 
 who " laid up treasure for himself, but was not rich to- 
 wards God." If you will act faith upon the promises of 
 God, and " seek first his kingdom and his righteousness," 
 his Word (that Word, which, although heaven and earth 
 pass away, he has declared shall never pass away,) his 
 Word, I say, is pledged to you, that " all these things 
 
REDEEM THE TIME. 
 
 175 
 
 shall be added unto you." Let me then intreat you 
 while you are labouring, as you ought to labour, care- 
 fully, sedulously, for the things of this world, still to re- 
 deem some portion of your precious time from their 
 engrossing grasp. Give some portion, however small, of 
 every day to God, to private prayer and quiet meditation 
 upon the things which belong to your peace ; to reading, 
 carefully and prayerfully, his blessed Word. O, re- 
 member that your soul may perish in the very midst of 
 the highest respectability and the most unimpeachable 
 moral conduct ; that you may destroy it as certainly and 
 as irrevocably by sins of omission as of commission. 
 Think you that the rich man of whom our Lord has 
 told us, would not have bartered all these recollections, 
 and all the miserable comfort he* could extract from them 
 for one drop of water to cool his tongue. 
 
 Yes! it does not require to have passed into the unseen 
 world to tell you this. We behold too many, far too 
 many instances, even on this side the grave, when the 
 worn-out spirit, leaving a world for which alone it has 
 hitherto lived and striven and laboured ; whose applause 
 was its very breath, and whose riches its reward, for a 
 world of which it has heard but little and cared less; 
 would at that moment gladly, O how gladly, exchange 
 the richest inheritance which mortal ever squandered 
 upon earth, to redeem one little hour for prayer and 
 penitence and pardon and preparation for heaven. Alas ! 
 how vain a wish, and yet how natural to experience, 
 how agonizing to behold ! Would you avoid it, then, 
 " redeem the time;" be earnest, be instant in your re- 
 solution ; " rejoice as though you rejoiced not, weep as 
 though you wept not, buy as though you possessed not, 
 and use this world as not abusing it; for the time is 
 short, and the fashion of this world passeth away." 
 "* 
 
REDEEM THE TIME. 
 
 A very few words, in conclusion, upon the objects for 
 which you are to "redeem the time/' and I have done. 
 
 The first great object is for the glorifying of God. 
 This was one of our dying Lord's last declarations : " I 
 have glorified thee on earth, I have finished the work 
 which thou gavest me to do." If you are a follower of 
 the Lord Jesus, you must strive by his grace to be ena- 
 bled to say the same. He had his work, and you have 
 yours. His was the work of redemption, yours is the 
 work of constant service and continued thankfulness. 
 You must employ every hour you can redeem from the 
 idleness, the pleasure, the labours of life, for this great 
 end. You must passively glorify him by the meek and 
 patient and thankful endurance of every trial, every sorrow, 
 every affliction, which he-lays upon you. You must ac- 
 tively glorify him by your untiring efforts in every labour of 
 love which he calls you to perform for his name's sake. 
 You were created for this end, " The Lord hath made 
 all things for himself," says the inspired word. You 
 were redeemed for this end, " That we should be to the 
 praise of his glory," says the apostle. And will you fail 
 of the one great end for which you were created and re- 
 deemed? No! If you have indeed been born again of 
 the Spirit, your increasing inquiry will be, " Lord, what 
 wouldst thou have me to do?" And if there be an 
 object proposed to you, by which, through your exer- 
 tions, your labours, your efforts, however self-denying or 
 unpleasant to the natural man, you may hope to glorify 
 God, the cheerful unsolicited language of your heart 
 will be the language of the prophet Isaiah of old, " Here 
 am I, send me." 
 
 Above all, far, infinitely above all, you will " redeem 
 the time," that you " may win Christ, and be found in 
 him." Every hour you can redeem will be made in 
 
REDEEM THE TIME. 
 
 177 
 
 some manner or other to contribute to this important and 
 blessed end. This is the one great object of the be- 
 liever's search on earth ; to know more, to obey more, to 
 love more, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Alpha and 
 Omega, the Author and Finisher, the beginning and the 
 end, the first and the last. To adopt the words of one 
 of the most beautiful of the Homilies of o-ur Church, 
 " Christ is the light, let us receive the light ; Christ is the 
 truth, let us believe the truth; Christ is the way, let us 
 follow the wa} r ." And since time is passing, and eternity 
 approaching, let us " Redeem the time, because the days 
 are evil." " Let us receive Christ, not for a time, but 
 for ever ; let us believe his Word, not for a time, but for 
 ever; let us become his servants, not for a time, but for 
 ever; in consideration, that he hath redeemed and 
 saved us, not for a time, but for ever ; and will receive 
 us into his heavenly kingdom, there to reign with him, 
 not for a time, but for ever. To him, therefore, with the 
 Father, and the Holy Ghost, be all honour, praise, and 
 glory, for ever and ever."* 
 
 * Homily for the Nativity. 
 
SERMON XV. 
 
 THE JUDGMENT. 
 
 ACTS xvii. 31. 
 
 He hath appointed a day, in which he will judge the world in 
 righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained ; whereof he 
 hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him 
 from the dead. 
 
 " IF Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, 
 and your faith is vain also. If Christ be not risen, then 
 they which have fallen asleep in Christ are perished." 
 Such are the declarations of God's unerring word upon 
 the subject of to-day's high festival. 
 
 The resurrection of Christ, then, is the great, the vital 
 fact of his religion, by which God publicly announced 
 that the ransom had not only been paid for fallen man, 
 but accepted by his Maker ; that the Saviour who had 
 entered into the prison-house of the grave as man's 
 surety, had been liberated ; that man's debt was can- 
 celled, that God was reconciled, that man was free. It 
 has pleased God, therefore, that this great and blessed 
 truth should be established by every species of evidence 
 of which such a fact is capable ; by the testimony of 
 friends ; by the confession of enemies ; by the announce- 
 ITS 
 
THE JUDGMENT. 
 
 ment of angels : by the declaration of God himself. So 
 overpowering, indeed, is the mass of evidence, that it is 
 not too much to say, that no single fact in the history of 
 the world has come down to us with such an array of 
 witnesses as the resurrection of Jesus. To dwell, how- 
 ever, either upon the details of such a history, with 
 which you have been familiar from your childhood, or 
 upon the minute and conclusive evidence of a fact of 
 which probably no individual before me possesses a 
 single doubt, would appear a sad misuse of such precious 
 opportunities as the present. Taking, therefore, these 
 things for granted, as in a Christian congregation I feel 
 fully authorized to do, I shall rather employ myself, in 
 the endeavour to set before you some great and important 
 deduction from the event which we commemorate this 
 day, than to dilate upon that event itself. 
 
 The one great truth, then, to which, looking simply 
 for help to the Holy Spirit of God, I would this morning 
 direct your attention, as developed in the text, is this ; 
 the universal judgment of the last day : and I shall en- 
 deavour to show, from the words before us, first, the cer- 
 tainty that this universal judgment will take place; 
 secondly, the manner in which (including one marked 
 peculiarity) it will be conducted; and, lastly, the person 
 who shall come to be our Judge. 
 
 And first, as to its certainty. Had the bare possibility 
 been revealed to us, that after this life ended, there might 
 be some account to be rendered of all that had been trans- 
 acted here ; had the probability been suggested, that some 
 who had once lived here below should stand at some 
 given clay before an unerring tribunal, and that each and 
 all of us might possibly be among their number, is there 
 a thoughtful man, is there a prudent man living upon 
 earth, whose mind would not occasionally have looked 
 
THE JUDGMENT. 
 
 forward to such a season, and backward to the events of 
 his own life, that he might see in what manner he was 
 prepare^ to meet it? But, brethren, how very far does 
 the reality exceed the conjecture ; possibility and pro- 
 bability are out of the question ; it has been made the 
 subject of a distinct revelation and assurance of the living 
 God ; and this assurance comes to us not founded upon 
 an argument, but upon a fact, upon that very fact which 
 we this day commemorate : " Whereof," namely, of the 
 great doctrine of a universal judgment, says the apostle, 
 " God hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath 
 raised Christ from the dead." Observe the strength of 
 the apostle's argument. Our Lord, in the days of his 
 flesh, made two assertions, both equally improbable to 
 mortal eye, equally impossible to mortal agency. He 
 asserted, first, that if the Jews destroyed his human body, 
 in three days he would raise it up again ; and, secondly, 
 that as surely as he should do this, so certainly would he 
 do the same with every human body which ever had ex- 
 isted, or ever should exist, and on some great and coming 
 day would summon all to his own judgment-seat. Now 
 the first of these two assertions was, as on this day, ful- 
 filled, for " Christ is risen ;" the certainty of the second, 
 therefore, is placed beyond a doubt, rendered absolutely 
 unquestionable; and our Church does not hesitate to 
 profess it an article of her creed : " He sitteth on the 
 right hand of God the Father Almighty, from thence he 
 shall come to judge the quick and the dead." " We 
 believe that thou shalt come to be our Judge." Not 
 only is this certain, but more than this ; the very day 
 upon which the great assize shall be held is itself immu- 
 tably fixed. " God hath appointed a day in which he 
 will judge the world," says my text; it is not left to 
 chance or circumstance to determine that day, but it is 
 
THE JUDGMENT. J g 
 
 even now as irrevocably appointed as that day of which 
 you have this morning heard, which was foretold four 
 hundred and thirty years before, and yet on the " self- 
 same day all the hosts of the Lord went out from the 
 land of Egypt." So is it with us, our great day is ap- 
 pointed. Every month that passes over us, every sun 
 that rises, but hastens on that day of doom. It is one 
 week nearer to every individual among us, than when 
 he last listened to our Sabbath bells. And yet, with all 
 this certainty, nothing is so sure to us as its uncertainty : 
 " Of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not 
 the angels that are in heaven," for " the day of the Lord 
 so cometh as a thief in the night." 
 
 All things will continue as they were from the creation, 
 until the very moment when that last coming of the Son 
 of man shall burst upon an astonished world. The sun 
 will rise that morning as bright as he has ever risen, not 
 knowing that his work is done, his labours over ; " re- 
 joicing as a giant to run his course," but ignorant that 
 that course is finished, his agency no longer necessary, 
 his light no longer needed ; that he will, ere that day's 
 lengthened shadows have gone down, be stopped in mid 
 career, and laid aside for ever; the moon and stars, with 
 their ten thousand splendours, will each quietly and 
 calmly die out upon the morning of that solemn day, as 
 they have done to-day, but never again to be rekindled. 
 "Man will go forth to his work and to his labour until 
 the evening," expecting to return again at that evening 
 hour as usual to his assembled family, but that evening 
 hour will never come; it will be a day which no evening 
 and no night shall terminate ; a day which shall never 
 end ; a day begun in time and not to be concluded in 
 eternity. Myriads of mortal eyes shall see its opening 
 not one shall look upon its close. For on that day the 
 
 16 
 
182 THE JUDGMENT. 
 
 bright advancing sign of the Son of man shall be seen in 
 the heavens ; that splendour before which the light of 
 the mid-day sun shall fade away, and all its glories be 
 eclipsed. Then shall the trumpet of the archangel call 
 forth the dead from the sleep in which they have so long 
 been buried; and earth and sea will give up their in- 
 habitants, and every grave will open, and living forms 
 shall be seen rising from those dark chambers which are 
 now beneath us and around us, and the teeming earth 
 repeopled, as in a moment, by ail the generations who 
 have lived and died upon its surface, with their progeni- 
 tor Adam at their head. The vast population of the se- 
 pulchre, even now outnumbering all who live, shall then 
 present themselves ; for the great white throne shall de- 
 scend, and the voice of Him who sits upon that throne 
 shall be heard throughout all space, and they who hear 
 shall live. Nothing shall hasten, nothing shall hinder, 
 nothing shall procrastinate that day one hour beyond the 
 time which God has fixed, for it is he who has appointed 
 it before the foundations of the world were laid. Brethren, 
 do you doubt that such a day as this is thus immutably 
 fixed ? I own I have no excuse ; I believe it as firmly, 
 I am convinced of it as surely as of my own existence at 
 this hour. But if you have one doubt upon this subject, 
 did you never sit down quietly and take up your Bible 
 and say, ( I will carefully examine this messenger from 
 God ; I will see whether the coming of this great day be 
 so certain as priests and preachers would fain make it ; 
 and if I find it so, I will never rest again until I am at 
 least in earnest in my preparation for its approach?" 
 Have you never acted thus with even common wisdom 
 and common prudence? then may God grant that you 
 may begin to-day, that you may ascertain this great point 
 to your own conviction, and having found, as you will 
 
THE JUDGMENT. 183 
 
 i 
 
 find it written as with a sunbeam throughout the revealed 
 Word of God, may it by God's grace lead you to the 
 next inquiry, What part shall I bear in those great so- 
 lemnities? 
 
 There is a day coming for which I am utterly unpre- 
 pared ; I have sins to confess on that day for which I 
 know no remedy ; they are past, they are recorded in the 
 book of God's remembrance ; I cannot reach that book 
 to tear from thence the pages which record my shame ; 
 repentance itself cannot avail for this. How shall I meet 
 that coming day? If there be one soul among you 
 brought to this point at this moment, how gladly would 
 we reply, and how earnestly would we pray that the 
 Spirit of God might impress the reply upon your heart, 
 " The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin." 
 Yes ! will avail, to blot out every sin that God hath writ- 
 ten against you, if only you seek it with a true and living 
 faith. It is a little sentence, but O the mysteries in that 
 little sentence ! Of all the myriads who will stand be- 
 fore the judgment-seat, there will be peace in no single 
 heart in which that little sentence has not brought it ! 
 " The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin." 
 
 We proceed, secondly, to consider the manner in which, 
 including one marked peculiarity, the judgment of that 
 day will be conducted. 
 
 " The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a 
 shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trump 
 of God ;" " before him shall be gathered all nations, and 
 all that are in the graves shall hear his voice and shall 
 come forth. And the dead, both small and great, shall 
 stand before God, and the books shall be opened, and 
 the dead shall be judged out of those things which are 
 written in the books, according to their works." 
 
 But, brethren, let us not satisfy ourselves with this 
 
THE JUDGMENT. 
 
 I 
 
 merely general view of a scene in which each shall bear 
 his own immediate and individual part. It will, by 
 God's grace, be profitable to endeavour to realize, as far 
 as flesh and blood can realize, our own doings and our 
 own feelings on that coming day. 
 
 Conceive the prison-house of the grave shattered to its 
 very foundation by the piercing cry of the archangel ; 
 personal identity again restored, the long-lost body re- 
 united to its imperishable inmate ; all this the act, the 
 miracle of a moment, and ere that moment has elapsed, 
 finding yourself traversing the unbounded fields of space, 
 and standing alone, as regards human help, or coun- 
 tenance, or support, standing, even in the midst of that 
 countless multitude, quite alone in the presence of the 
 Judge. A memory at that hour supernaturally bestowed 
 upon you, from which no single act, or word, or thought 
 of the longest life will be excluded ; for our Lord has 
 said, even " every idle word that men shall speak, they 
 shall give account thereof in the day of judgment;" 
 therefore all shall be remembered, all rehearsed, all pro- 
 claimed! Actions which you would not have performed 
 in the presence of a child, thoughts for which you would 
 have blushed to have found utterance before your dearest 
 friends, all published then ; no mysteries and no secrets 
 shall outlive that day. 
 
 But the great and marked peculiarity of the judgment 
 to which I have referred, because it is so strongly pre- 
 dicated in the text, remains yet untold, God shall "judge 
 in righteousness." How solemn a thought! It will be 
 pre-eminently a day of righteous judgment, not a day of 
 forbearing mercy ! It will be a day of strict and unerring 
 justice, in which, wonderful as it may appear, mercy 
 will form no ingredient. Nay ! be not surprised at this, 
 do not misunderstand me, it cannot be otherwise ; for, 
 
THE JUDGMENT. 
 
 you will acknowledge, God will condemn every impeni- 
 tent sinner, this will be strict justice; God will pardon 
 every penitent believer who has fled for refuge to the 
 blood of Jesus, and this also will be strict justice, as strict 
 and as undeviating as the former. Our Church declares 
 the same truth when she says, in the words of St. John, 
 " God is righteous and just to forgive us our sins, and to 
 cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Only one attri- 
 bute of God, therefore, is recorded in the text, as to be 
 exercised at this great tribunal ; it is simply, " He will 
 judge in righteousness." Let, then, those among you 
 who believe in the coming of this great day, and yet are 
 content to trust to some undefined notions of God's 
 mercy out of Christ for your safety and your pardon, 
 think well of the assurance before you. You shall stand 
 before a perfectly righteous Judge. There shall be no 
 favour, as there shall be no injustice there. You shall 
 state your own cause and be your own accuser. You 
 shall give an account, not of the merely exterior history 
 of your life, but of the most secret recesses of your heart, 
 a heart, the hidden iniquities and deep deceits of which 
 we shall never, ourselves, thoroughly know till then. 
 You shall proclaim before enemies who have hated you, 
 and the friends who have loved you, those acts, if such 
 there are, which you have here, by every artifice, con- 
 cealed from their eyes. Nor will these form a thousandth 
 part of the confessions of that day. To all outward 
 actions will be added the untold and unnumbered ini- 
 quities which burn within : the defiled and vicious inten- 
 tion ; the unkind, uncharitable temper; the overreaching 
 and avaricious desire ; the mean and secret jealousy ; the 
 dark and malignant insinuation ; the sensual and carnal 
 inclination, all fondly cherished, though deeply veiled at 
 16* 
 
THE JUDGMENT. 
 
 present, all then to be proclaimed aloud before assembled 
 worlds. 
 
 But the fearful catalogue is not yet closed, sins of 
 omission, in thick and terrible array, are crowding on upon 
 the newly-awakened, the supernaturally strengthened 
 memory. Duties left undone through years and years 
 of warnings, carelessly forgotten, and when recollected 
 brushed hastily aside, or angrily discarded will all be 
 most vividly remembered then. Opportunities of good, 
 of usefulness or kindness to others, occurring every day, 
 and every day postponed or evaded. Prayer to God, 
 absolutely neglected, or, throughout a whole life, coldly, 
 formally, perfunctorily performed. The Word of God ! 
 an unknown, unread, uncared-for history, left to moulder 
 on the dusty shelf with other books, whose day and 
 fashion have long since passed away. The Sabbaths of 
 God ! O how will the voice of broken Sabbaths cry on 
 that day against those who are now paying only a con- 
 strained and half obedience to them, or with a still higher 
 hand and a more rebel heart, openly violating them by 
 their week-day occupations, or profaning them by their 
 pleasures. The Sacraments of God ! to which all are so 
 constantly summoned, where all may "find grace to 
 help in time of need," and from which, I grieve to say, 
 so very many still turn neglectfully away. The Son 
 of God ! O if there were no sins of omission here, all 
 might yet be well, for he has a balm for every wound, 
 a remedy for every guiltiness of the sinner's soul; he 
 who deserves all, and more than all, that you can render 
 of love and gratitude and unqualified obedience, robbed 
 of his honour, shorn of his glory, the merit due to him 
 and him alone, attributed to yourselves and your per- 
 formances, while in your affections and hearts, the Son 
 
THE JUDGMENT. 
 
 of God is subordinated to every trifling but engrossing 
 pleasure, to every worldly business, and, in some in- 
 stances we fear, to every debasing lust. 
 
 But we are, lastly, to consider the person by whom 
 this righteous judgment shall be conducted. " God hath 
 appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in 
 righteousness, by that man whom he hath ordained." 
 With such a context, how cheering to the penitent sin- 
 ner's heart is this appellation; the apostle does not say, 
 by that Lord ; by that Almighty Ruler, by that everlast- 
 ing Father, by that omnipotent God, but by " that 
 man ;" to remind us that he who shall come to be our 
 Judge, was once a man, a feeble, weak, and suffering 
 mortal like ourselves, that he died upon the cross, that 
 he lay within the sepulchre, that he experienced once 
 all our infirmities, and has not forgotten them to this 
 hour; nay, will not have forgotten them on that day 
 when you and I shall stand before his judgment-seat. 
 He then, who now beseeches you, by us, week after 
 week, and Sunday after Sunday, to come to him for 
 faith and repentance and pardon, to take his yoke upon 
 you, and learn of him, that you may find rest for your 
 souls; this is "that man," who is coming to be your 
 Judge. My brethren, you who are Christians in heart 
 as well as name, you will feel at this moment the full 
 meaning of that declaration of the apostle, when, after 
 giving one of the most appalling accounts of the coming 
 of our Lord to judgment which the book of God con- 
 tains, he concludes with " Wherefore, comfort ye one 
 another with these words." Yes, the declaration that 
 Christ shall be our Judge, is one to the Christian, ex- 
 clusively of comfort, of the most soul -satisfy ing, the most 
 unbounded comfort; for were we told that such a day 
 must be, that such a tribunal must be erected, but that 
 
THE JUDGMENT. 
 
 we might select, from all the children of Eve, our own 
 judge, who should try us individually^ and compelled 
 to judge in righteousness, should proclaim our everlast- 
 ing sentence; I believe were this choice given to every 
 soul among us at this moment, that but one cry would 
 ascend to God from the lips of every true believer in the 
 congregation, and that cry would be, Let me be judged 
 by none but the Lord Jesus Christ. So certain does 
 every Christian feel that there is no love, no compassion, 
 no mercy equal to the love and compassion and mercy 
 of the Saviour. " Wherefore comfort ye one another 
 with these words." 
 
 But while I thus speak, I dare not think that all can 
 thus derive comfort; that all can be pleased to hear that, 
 "that man" shall be their Judge, whom some are openly 
 neglecting and disobeying; "that man," whose Gospel 
 is now preaching to them, but they hear it not; whose 
 atoning merits are now freely offered them, but they 
 accept them not; whose righteousness might now be 
 made their own, but they desire it not. It can be no 
 comfort to those, brethren, that the day is fixed, that the 
 judgment shall be righteous, and that Christ shall be 
 the Judge. No, I see no comfort for you in the re- 
 flection, except it be this; that although the day is ap- 
 pointed, it has not yet arrived; that although the Judge 
 is determined, he has not yet ascended the tribunal, that 
 he is still waiting to be gracious, still employed in 
 interceding for those whom he must shortly try, still 
 willing, at the prayer of faith, to bestow every Christian 
 grace, which on that day he will expect to find. But, 
 "the time is short, the fashion of this world passeth 
 away," and that which I now revert to as a source of 
 comfort, may ere to-morrow's dawn be the bitterest in- 
 gredient in your cup of recollection, for it may only rank 
 
THE JUDGMENT. 
 
 among those blessed opportunities in which faith and re- 
 pentance, and Christ and happiness, might all have been 
 your own, but which have passed away for ever. For 
 how impressive is the thought, that even while we yet 
 speak, the Judge is waiting for the appointed hour; 
 watching the dial as the shadow is creeping slowly round 
 it ; listening till the last chime on earth has struck, that 
 he may issue the command to the angel of the Revela- 
 tion who shall swear, " There shall be time no longer." 
 Then shall all, and infinitely more than all, that we at 
 present know be realized. Then shall " that man," 
 who this day* " broke the bands of death," going down 
 into death's own dominions, and rifling his very strong- 
 hold in the grave, then shall he set his foot for ever on 
 that serpent's head, and take unto himself the everlasting 
 victory. Beloved brethren, what a comfort will it be at 
 that hour for us poor worms of earth to claim kindred 
 with the Conqueror, affinity with the Judge, to call to 
 mind the day when he was made " One with us, and we 
 with him ;" to remember those blessed seasons when his 
 written Word, his sanctifying Spirit, his felt presence, 
 were among our happiest hours on earth, to recollect the 
 days when we met together in his house of prayer, and 
 united together in his praises, and assembled together 
 round his table, and were partakers of the blessed sym- 
 bols, and fed by faith on him, who appointed them, and 
 shed the tear of penitence, or rejoiced in the concious- 
 ness of hrs pardoning love. O what a host of blessed 
 recollections shall on that day fill the souls of God's 
 people ! But will there be no alloy ? Our sins ! The 
 Judge himself has said, " Their sins and their iniquities, 
 will I remember no more ;" and we, at that hour, may 
 
 * Preached on Easter-Sunday. 
 
THE JUDGMENT. 
 
 well forget what Christ refuses to rememoer. Will there 
 then be no drawback to our joy, while standing before 
 the tribunal of God, our Saviour, Judge, and Friend? 
 Yes, surely, there will be one recollection, which 
 nothing but an entrance within the everlasting mansions 
 shall be able entirely to overcome ; the thought that we 
 served the Lord Jesus so little, preached him so imper- 
 fectly, obeyed him so reluctantly, and loved him so 
 coldly, while on earth. 
 
 The Lord pardon us for this our sin, and accept us in 
 this our duty, and remove from us, by his cleansing blood 
 and sanctifying Spirit, before we go hence, and are no 
 more seen, all that is unholy, ungrateful, and unforgiven, 
 for his dear Name's sake. 
 
 PRAYER. 
 
 O holy and eternal Jesus, who hast overcome death, 
 and triumphed over all the powers of hell, darkness, and 
 the grave ; manifesting the truth of thy divinity, the 
 majesty of thy person, and the rewards of thy glory, pre- 
 serve our souls from eternal death ; make us to rise from 
 the death of sin, and to live the life of grace established 
 in faith, joyful through hope, and rooted in charity, that 
 when thou shalt reveal thyself on thy great and coming 
 day, we may be enabled to say, I am thine, O Lord 
 Jesus, and thou art" mine. O dwell with us, and let us 
 dwell with thee, adoring and praising the eternal glories 
 of God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, for ever. 
 
 THE END. 
 
DISCOURSES 
 
 ON SOME OF THE 
 
 DOCTRINAL ARTICLES 
 
 OP THE 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 REV. HENRY BLUNT, A. M., 
 
 RECTOR OF STREATHAM, SURREY; 
 
 X.APE FELLOW OF PEMBROKE COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE; AND CHAPLAIN TO 
 HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF RICHMOND. 
 
 THIRD AMERICAN, FROM THE LAST LONDON EDITION. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA : 
 
 PUBLISHED BY II. IIO.'OKER, 
 
 S. W. CORNER CIIESNUT & EIGHTH STS. 
 
 1854. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 IT was long since observed by an eminent author, that 
 he lived in an age in which it was " criminal to be mo- 
 derate." The writer of the following pages would fain 
 believe that his lot has been cast in an age when the 
 virtue of moderation is beginning to be more justly ap- 
 preciated ; when there is, among the members of the 
 church of England at least, an increasing desire to merge 
 their common differences, and to draw more closely to- 
 gether, in the defense, and in the practice, of their com- 
 mon Christianity. While, therefore, he feels the greatest 
 diffidence, in venturing to publish upon such a subject 
 as that of the present work, he feels also the greatest 
 confidence, that the attempt will be received in the same 
 spirit of candour and moderation with which he trusts 
 it was undertaken. It is impossible, in treating upon 
 subjects so diverse, and so difficult, as those embraced 
 by the Articles of our church, not, in some instances at 
 least, to cross the prejudices, and to contravene the opi- 
 nions, probably of all his readers. When this is the case, 
 the author hopes that he shall be found speaking with the 
 modesty which becomes him, and never expecting the 
 acquiescence of the reader, one syllable beyond the 
 point, to which he is accompanied, by the plain and 
 undeniable statements of the Word of God. 
 
 So far as the author knows himself, he believes, that 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 he is not entrammelled by any human system, but that 
 he has endeavoured to bear in mind continually that in- 
 junction of our church, that, " No man shall either print 
 or preach to draw the Article aside any way, but shall 
 submit to it in the plain, and full meaning thereof, and 
 shall not put his own sense, or comment, to be the mean- 
 ing of the Article, but shall take it in the literal and gram- 
 matical sense."* That this has been his constant endea- 
 vour he is certain ; that he has never failed in fulfilling it, 
 he will not say ; but of this he is sure, that, should it 
 appear to others, that he has been mistaken, he will care- 
 fully reconsider any disputable point, and without hesi- 
 tation retract what he has here advanced, if convinced 
 that he has, however undesignedly, put a false gloss upon 
 the Article, or substituted " his own sense or comment," 
 for the opinion of the church. 
 
 After having for years most cordially and unreservedly 
 received the Articles of the church of England as entirely 
 agreeable to the inspired Word of God, the author has 
 risen from his deliberate review of them, with his mind 
 more deeply than ever impressed by the piety and saga- 
 city of the holy men who compiled them, and with his 
 heart more than ever filled with gratitude to God that 
 his lot has been cast in the church to which he belongs. 
 Of this church, he feels convinced that the highest orna- 
 ment and the strongest bulwark are to be found, not in 
 the rank, and learning, and holiness of her prelates, not 
 in the activity and piety of her clergy, not in the devot- 
 edness of the great body of her true disciples to her best 
 and spiritual interests, but in the fact, that every great 
 and vital truth of the Word of God, is embodied in her 
 
 * Rubric prefixed to the Articles, 
 
PREFACE. V 
 
 unequalled Liturgy, and her invaluable Articles, which 
 continue from generation to generation, instrumentally, 
 to lead her children into the paths of peace, and to educate 
 them for the many mansions of their Father's house. 
 
 While these remain essentially unaltered, we need en- 
 tertain no fears for the safety of our church; there is a 
 vitality in them which, in times gone by, has enabled 
 her to survive when oppressed by the heaviest of all 
 burdens, even the deadness of her own nominal follow- 
 ers ; and there is a buoyancy in them, which, in times 
 to come, will cause her ark to float upon the waters of 
 that moral deluge, that may even now be gathering 
 round her, but which will only lift her the higher above 
 the rocks and quicksands of earth, and raise her the 
 nearer to the heaven to which she points. 
 
 In the arrangement of the work the writer has at- 
 tempted to unite the most simple explanatory statements 
 with the most direct appeals to the conscience, and to 
 the heart. Where he has differed from the acknow- 
 ledged authorities, upon any of the subjects of which he 
 treats, he has generally contented himself with giving 
 the scriptural arguments for the difference. It would 
 not have been difficult to have corroborated most of his 
 statements by the declarations of the early Reformers, 
 especially Luther and Melancthon, and that truly great, 
 and much misrepresented man, Archbishop Cranmer; 
 but this would have been to have changed the character 
 of the work, and to have thrown an air of pretension 
 over that which the writer only desired to make plain, 
 perspicuous and useful. It will be seen, that the author 
 does not consider that the Articles are grounded upon 
 the doctrines which are strictly Calvinistic; i. e., such 
 doctrines as were held by Calvin, but rejected by the 
 
PRE FACE. 
 
 other great lights of the blessed Reformation. Rather 
 he is of opinion that they are chiefly founded upon the 
 views which the immortal Luther, guided by the Spirit 
 of God, was led to take of all the most important doc- 
 trines of the Divine Word ; although, at the same time, 
 he fully agrees with Bishop Tomline, that the Articles 
 of the church of England, are neither Lutheran, nor 
 Calvinistic, nor Arminian, but Scriptural. . 9 
 
 It was to the younger members of this congregation that 
 the author particularly addressed these discourses ; and 
 it is to the young that he more especially reverts' while 
 committing them to the press. His earnest prayer is, 
 that his feeble effort may be blessed to the benefit of that 
 class of his readers by proving effectual, through Divine 
 grace, to " strengthen, establish, settle" them, in all those 
 great and vital points, which concern the well-being of 
 their souls in time and in eternity, and by making them 
 such " lively members" of the church here below, that 
 they shall finally, not be excluded from " the Church of 
 the First-born, whose names are written in heaven." 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 DOCTRINAL ARTICLES. 
 
 DISCOURSE I. 
 
 On Article IX. Original, or Birth Sin" 9 
 
 DISCOURSE II. 
 
 On Article X. Of Free Will" 21 
 
 DISCOURSE III. 
 
 On " Article XI Of the Justification of Man" 34 
 
 DISCOURSE IV. 
 
 On Article XII. Of Good Works."" Article XIII. Of Works 
 before Justification." " Article XIV. Of Works of Supereroga- 
 tion" 48 
 
 DISCOURSE V. 
 
 On Article XV. Of Christ alone without Sin." Article XVI. 
 Of Sin after Baptism." Article XVIII. Of obtaining Eternal 
 Salvation only by the name of Christ" 60 
 
 DISCOURSE VI. 
 
 On Article XVII. Of Predestination and Election" . . '. . .73 
 
 (vii.) 
 
Vlll CONTENTS. 
 
 DISCOURSE VII. 
 
 On < Article XXVII. Of Baptism. . 89 
 
 DISCOURSE VIII 
 
 On "Article XXVIII. Of the Lord's Supper" 101 
 
 DISCOURSE IX. 
 
 On the duty of every Christian government to provide Christian 
 Instruction, and to maintain Christian Worship" 114 
 
DISCOURSES. 
 
 DISCOURSE I. 
 
 PSALM li. 5. 
 Behold I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. 
 
 AT the present moment, when the prospects of the church 
 of England form the subject of conversation among many, 
 . and of deep and earnest thoughtfulness and prayer with not a 
 few, everything belonging to her acquires an additional inte- 
 rest, and comes home to the hearts of her true members with 
 peculiar force. 
 
 It would seem, therefore, to be the duty of her ministers 
 to improve this opportunity, and to endeavour, while men are 
 contending for her externals which, important though they 
 be, will bear no comparison with her inward and spiritual 
 well-being to lead their people to a better acquaintance with, 
 and a deeper interest in, her truly apostolical constitution and 
 her accurately scriptural formularies. It is indeed painful to 
 think how few, comparatively, even among the members of 
 our church, are intimately acquainted with those invaluable 
 documents, those bulwarks of our faith, the Articles and Ho- 
 milies. So unquestionable is this ignorance, that nothing is 
 more common than to hear men who are nominally her 
 members, actually deny in conversation some of those great 
 truths which the holiest of her confessors and martyrs sealed 
 with their blood; which she has herself distinctly asserted, 
 and even laid as the foundation upon which all her superstruc- 
 ture of services and offices is built; and, moreover, which 
 
 (9) 
 
10 DISCOURSE I. 
 
 are among the most prominent, most influential, most essen- 
 tial to the salvation of the soul of the sinner, of any that are 
 to be found in the revelation of God. 
 
 Having, then, an earnest desire that none should content 
 themselves with a nominal or an ignorant adherence to a 
 church, of which it may be truly said, that the better it is 
 understood, the more deeply does it intrench itself in the 
 judgment and in the hearts of its members; and having a 
 still stronger anxiety, that of the souls committed to our 
 charge none should be " destroyed for lack of knowledge,"* 
 I purpose bringing before you in succession some of the most 
 important doctrinal Articles of our church ; believing that, 
 although to many these discourses may, and I fear must be, 
 extremely deficient in the interest which other subjects might 
 supply, and that to some they will be a mere recapitulation 
 of well-known truths, they may be made, especially to the 
 younger and inquiring members of our congregation, the 
 means, under God, of informing, strengthening, establishing, 
 settling them in " the things belonging to their peace," and 
 of enabling them to be " ready always to give an answer 
 to every man that asketh them a reason of the hope that is in 
 them."t 
 
 Before we speak upon the subject of that particular Article 
 which we have selected for this morning's consideration, it 
 may be well, very shortly, to mention the origin of this por- 
 tion of the formularies of our church. 
 
 At the time of the blessed reformation, the different 
 churches which separated themselves from qommunion with 
 the church of Rome, deemed it advisable to publish confes- 
 sions of their faith. Accordingly, Edward the Sixth pub- 
 lished, by his royal authority, forty-two Articles, " agreed 
 upon," as it is stated, " By the Bishops and other learned 
 and good men in the Convocation held at London, in the 
 year 1552, to root out the discord of opinions, and establish 
 
 * Hosea iv. 6. t 1 Peter iii. 15. 
 
A R T I C L E 1 X. 11 
 
 the agreement of true religion." These Articles were repealed 
 by Queen Mary, hut Queen Elizabeth, in the beginning of her 
 reign, established the present Thirty-nine Articles, which 
 were founded upon the original forty-two Articles, from which 
 they do not greatly or essentially differ. Cranmer and Rid- 
 ley* are believed to have been the chief framers of the original 
 Articles, and it is certainly not too much to assert, that, for a 
 deep and thorough knowledge of Scripture, an intimate ac- 
 quaintance with the opinions and tenets of the early Chris- 
 tians, and, above all, for the moderation and caution, the 
 charity and perspicuity which pervade them, they will bear 
 comparison with any uninspired writings which have ever 
 yet been given to the world. 
 
 Having been led by the services of the two preceding Sun- 
 days, to consider those great truths, the personality of the 
 Holy Ghost, and the existence and offices of the ever-blessed 
 Trinity, it does not appear necessary to recapitulate what has 
 been already brought before you ; we shall, therefore, com- 
 mence our observations by an examination of the Ninth 
 Article of our church, which treats expressly upon 
 
 " Original or Birth Sin." 
 
 " Original sin," says the Article, "standeth not in the fol- 
 lowing of Adam, (as the Pelagians do vainly talk,) but it is 
 the fault and corruption of the nature of every man that natu- 
 rally is engendered of the offspring of Adam." By the 
 phrase, " naturally engendered of the offspring of Adam," the 
 Article intends to make an implied exception with regard to 
 our blessed Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, he being super- 
 naturally engendered ; and, as all Scripture clearly shows, 
 being " holy, harmless, underiled," and therefore as entirely 
 
 * " Ridley. I grant that I saw the book, but I deny that I wrote it. I 
 perused it after it was made, and I noted many things for it. So I con- 
 sented to the book . I was not the author of it. These Articles were set 
 out, I both willing and consenting to them." Ridley's Examination in, 
 
 fox's Martyrs, p. 1317. 
 
12 DISCOURSE!. 
 
 free from original corruption, as he was from all taint of, and 
 liability to, actual sin. 
 
 The Pelagians were the followers of Pelagius, who lived 
 at the end of the fourth, and the former part of the fifth cen- ' 
 tury, and was a native of Wales. " His real name was 
 Morgan, which in the Welsh language signifies the same as 
 Pelagius in Greek." " He denied original sin, and the ne- 
 cessity of grace, and asserted that men might arrive at a state 
 of impeccability in this life." Our Article then states, in 
 opposition to the opinion of this man and his followers, that 
 we are not merely guilty before God, because we imitate the 
 example of Adam, but because, as the offspring of Adam, we 
 are actually born into the world, the inheritors of a fallen and 
 corrupt nature. That there is corruption in us before any 
 outward circumstances could have tended to make us corrupt. 
 So that, were we exposed to no evil example, were there 
 nothing of external temptation to lead us astray, we should 
 still possess this innate " fault and corruption." This assertion 
 is grounded especially upon this passage of Holy Writ, among 
 many others, "Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to 
 Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the simili- 
 tude of Adam's transgression." When the Apostle speaks 
 of death reigning over them that had not so sinned, he evi- 
 dently speaks of infants, those who died at too early an age 
 to have had any opportunity of imitating their first parent, 
 and therefore whose sin could not stand in the following of 
 Adam. And his argument is this, " Death passed upon all 
 men, for that all have sinned,"* or because all have sinned ; 
 sin, therefore, is the cause of death ; but death has also passed 
 upon infants, who are unable actually to commit sin, the^- 
 fore, even in infants, there is this original fault " and corrup- 
 tion," or they would not fall victims to that which is declared 
 in Scripture to be the punishment of sin. 
 
 This, then, sufficiently establishes the assertion of the 
 
 * Rom. v. 12. 
 
ARTICLE IX. 13 
 
 Article, without dwelling upon those well-known texts, " Who 
 can bring a clean thing out of an unclean."* " Behold, I was 
 shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me."t 
 " We were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. "J 
 
 Nothing, then, can be more distinctly demonstrated from 
 Scripture, than the existence of this " Original or Birth Sin," 
 a doctrine which has met with more opposition than almost 
 any other of the vital truths of the religion of Jesus Christ. 
 
 We proceed to the next clause of the Article before us, 
 which states the effects of this original malady of our fallen 
 nature, " Whereby man is very far gone from original right- 
 eousness, 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." We will not, in a discourse which is in- 
 tended simply to instruct those who are seeking scriptural 
 instruction for the purpose of its great and blessed practical 
 results, viz., that it may be a " light to their feet, and a lantern 
 to their paths," occupy your time by adverting to the inter- 
 minable controversies which have arisen upon the first phrase 
 of this paragraph, " Very far gone from original righteous- 
 ness;" it is enough merely to mention that, while some di- 
 vines contend that all which is intended to be implied by 
 these words is, that there is a natural tendency to evil," or a 
 strong " evil bias 11 in our nature ; others, taking the terms 
 of the Latin Article,|| to explain the English, interpret it, 
 " altogether removed from original righteousness," and as re- 
 gards the things of God, entirely alienated from them. Hap- 
 pily, however, neither the Word of God, nor the word of the 
 
 * Job xiv. 4. t Psalm ii. 5. 
 
 t Eph. ii. 3. Upon this last passage, Melancthon says, " Children of 
 wrath is a Hebrew phrase ; it signifies guilty or condemned, not only for 
 their actual offences, but for that corruption of nature which we bring with 
 us into the world, not contract from example." Mela?icthon J s Common 
 Places, quoted by Scott, Contin. Milner, vol. ii. p. 223.* 
 
 $ Psalm cxix. 105. I! Quam longissime distet. 
 
 2 
 
14 DISCOURSE I. 
 
 church, has left so important a doctrine to be determined by 
 a single phrase. This is the language of the Bible : 
 
 " Every imagination of the thoughts of his heart is only 
 evil continually."* " The heart is deceitful above all things, 
 and desperately wicked; who can know it?"t "There is 
 none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after 
 God."f " They are all gone out of the way ; they are to- 
 gether become unprofitable ; there is none that doeth good, 
 no, not one." 
 
 The language of our church is, as might reasonably have 
 been expected, most fully and entirely in accordance with the 
 revealed word of our God. 
 
 Hear, for instance, the following extract from tbe Homily 
 for Whit-sunday : " Man, of his own nature, is fleshly and 
 carnal, corrupt and naughty, sinful and disobedient to God, 
 without any spark of goodness in him, without any virtuous 
 or godly motion, only given to evil thoughts and wicked 
 deeds. "|| Again, from the second Homily on " the misery 
 of man," after quoting those passages of Scripture which re- 
 cord our fallen and corrupt state, it adds, " Thus we have 
 heard how evil we be of ourselves, how of ourselves, and by 
 ourselves, we have no goodness, help, or salvation, but contra- 
 riwise, sin, damnation, and death everlasting."** " We have 
 heard how that of ourselves, and by ourselves, we are not 
 able either to think a good thought, or work a good deed, so 
 that we find in ourselves no hope of salvation, but rather 
 whatsoever maketh unto our destruction. "tt Again, from the 
 Homily, " on the nativity of our Saviour Jesus Christ."JJ By 
 the fall of Adam, " it came to pass, that as before he was 
 blessed, so now he was accursed ; as before he was loved, so 
 now he was abhorred ; as before he was most beautiful and 
 precious, so now he was most vile and wretched in the sight 
 
 * Gen. vi. 5. t Jer. xvii. 9. t Rom. iii. 11. 
 
 $ Rom. iii. 12. II Page 390, edit. 1802. ** Page 14. 
 
 tt Page 15. \\ Page 338. 
 
A R T I C L E I X. 15 
 
 of his Lord and his Maker; instead of the image of God, 
 he was now become the image of the devil ; instead of the 
 citizen of heaven, he was become the bond-slave of hell, 
 having in himself no one part of his former purity and clean- 
 ness, but being altogether spotted and defiled ; insomuch that 
 now lie seemed to be nothing else but a lump of sin, and 
 therefore by the just judgment of God was condemned to 
 everlasting death." It is unnecessary, after these extracts 
 from our accredited formularies, to say which of the two in- 
 terpretations of " very far gone from original righteousness," 
 appears to possess the authority of the church. But we have 
 not yet concluded the Article. It continues thus, " and this 
 infection of nature doth remain, yea, in them that are regene- 
 rated, whereby the lust of the flesh, called in Greek, <j>o^a 
 fia^xos, which some do expound the wisdom, some sensuality, 
 some the affection, some the desire of the flesh, is not subject 
 to the law of God. And though there is no condemnation for 
 them that believe and are baptized, yet the Apostle doth con- 
 fess, that concupiscence and lust hath of itself the nature of 
 sin." 
 
 Here the article distinctly marks the fact, that even in the 
 regenerate, notwithstanding their change of heart, and a re- 
 newal of nature, and pardon of transgression, there is still 
 " this infection" remaining, so that they are never, while in 
 this world, perfectly subjected to the law of God, but are 
 continually exposed, throughout the whole of their Christian 
 course, to the attacks of sensuality, and the desires of the 
 flesh. How entirely the view taken, in the clause we are 
 considering, of this infection of our nature remaining in the 
 regenerate, is conformable to the Word of God, will imme- 
 diately appear from the Epistle to the Romans, where St. 
 Paul declares, speaking, as we most fully believe, of his own 
 Christian experience after he had become regenerate, "The 
 good that I would, I do not ; but the evil which I would not, 
 that I do." " For I delight in the law of God after the in- 
 ward man ; but I see another law in my members, warring 
 
16 DISCOURSE I. 
 
 against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity 
 to the law of sin which is in my members."* 
 
 Surely nothing can more clearly illustrate the " infection 
 of our nature," which the Article says, " doth remain in them 
 that are regenerated," than these admissions of St. Paul. If, 
 however, there be any who do not believe that the Apostle, 
 in these verses, really spoke of himself, after his conversion, 
 we would refer them to the fifth chapter of Galations, where 
 they will find the same truths as unequivocally stated in a 
 passage which no commentator has ever doubted was applied 
 to the regenerate. " This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and 
 ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth 
 against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh ; and these 
 are contrary the one to the other, so that ye cannot" (although 
 true converts, and therefore undoubtedly regenerated) "do 
 the things that ye would. "t But let us turn to the most 
 blessed conclusion of this humiliating Article, viz., that al- 
 though all partake of this original sin, although all retain " the 
 infection" of it throughout life, and are in a greater or less 
 degree, from time to time, drawn aside by it from the laws of 
 God, and from the paths of holiness, and though these very 
 desires which thus draw them have " the nature of sin," yet 
 that " there is no condemnation for them that believe and are 
 baptized." 
 
 This is the healing that came upon the wings of the second 
 Adam, for the great and deadly wound inflicted upon all his 
 posterity by the first. In vain did Satan hope that by the 
 ruin of our great federal Head, and the consequent degrada- 
 tion of the whole species, he should insure the destruction of 
 the whole ; " God so loved the world that he gave His only- 
 begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not 
 perish, but have everlasting life.";): Here then was a remedy, 
 quite coextensive with the disease, nay, more than coexten- 
 sive, for has not the unerring Word declared, " Where sin 
 
 * Rom. vii. 19, 22, 23. t Gal. v. 16, 17. t John iii. 16. 
 
ARTICLE IX. 17 
 
 abounded, grace did much more abound : that as sin hath 
 reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through right- 
 eousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord."* 
 
 The result then of the whole Article is this, that as by 
 the sin of the first Adam all men fell, and the nature of all 
 men became corrupt, " so that the flesh lusteth always con- 
 trary to the Spirit ; and therefore in every person born into 
 this world, it deserveth God's wrath and damnation ;" so 
 through the atoning sacrifice of the second Adam, all " that 
 believe and are baptized," are freed from condemnation, and 
 are made particulars of everlasting life. 
 
 And now, brethren, were we to conclude here, although 
 perhaps we might hope that we had explained the Article 
 before us, and shown its perfect accordance with the declara- 
 tions of Omnipotence ; nay, more, though we might venture 
 to trust that most of our hearers would acquiesce in the con- 
 clusions at which we have arrived, still not a single individual 
 might carry away from this house of prayer a deeper convic- 
 tion of his own lost and ruined state by nature, and of his 
 own actual sinfulness and unprofitableness. Yet this is the 
 point, which, if it be not effected, would leave all our decla- 
 rations of general sinfulness merely " as sounding brass or a 
 tinkling cymbal." 
 
 How difficult, how utterly impossible is it for any human 
 teacher to produce this conviction of sin : we may convince 
 the mind, but it is God alone who can convince the con- 
 science and really reach the heart. May that blessed Being, 
 even God the Holy Ghost, whose peculiar prerogative it is 
 thus to convince of sin, send home this day the arrow of 
 conviction to the hearts of some who have hitherto, from 
 very carelessness and thoughtlessness, escaped all personal 
 application of this most humbling doctrine. 
 
 We will not occupy your time by supposing that we ad- 
 dress gross and outward sinners, persons living in the corn- 
 Rom, v. 19, 20, 21. 
 2* 
 
18 DISCOURSE I. 
 
 mission of profaneness, of impiety, of adultery, of fornica- 
 tion, or of any of those works of darkness, which, though 
 hidden from the eye of man, are, as the Word of God assures 
 us, all written "in the light of God's countenance," all pre- 
 pared against that great and coming day, when men shall need 
 no other accusers than these, and no other witnesses, to strike 
 them speechless, and to testify to the justice of their con- 
 demnation. To such it is unnecessary to speak : we would 
 rather address ourselves to the moral, and the upright, and 
 the amiable ; you who have filled, and are filling, the differ- 
 ent relationships of life in the most irreproachable and unex- 
 ceptionable manner, and its duties with so much honour and 
 equity, that even your enemies, if you have any, are com- 
 pelled, like Pilate of old, to say, " I find no fault in this 
 man." 
 
 It is to you especially that we speak, when we declare, that 
 all which we have this day advanced of the sinfulness and 
 corruption of our nature, and of the entire absence of original 
 righteousness, applies as distinctly and as completely to your- 
 self, be your rank and station what they may, as to the 
 guiltiest and the most abandoned of your fellow-sinners. All 
 the virtues upon which you pride yourself will not, in any, 
 the slightest degree, avail you, as proving that you are an 
 exception to the general rule of a fallen nature, a corrupt and 
 sinful heart, a mind alienated from God and His righteous- 
 ness, which is the lot of every child of Adam. Your virtues 
 may exist; we do not in the least desire to deny it, we do 
 not wish even to underrate them ; the fall of Adam did not 
 destroy them, it left much, very much of amiability, and 
 kindness, and honour, and integrity, in the corrupt and guilty 
 heart; there they lie, like the beautiful fragments of some 
 fair column, each fair and lovely in itself, yet each a ruin, 
 and were all collected, forming but a ruin still. The column 
 which was shattered to atoms by the fall of Adam, was the 
 holiness of our nature, its purity, and piety, its love to God, 
 and likeness to His image, and conformity to His will. 
 
ARTICLE IX. 19 
 
 These in the natural heart, have all disappeared, and those 
 moral virtues, of kindness to your friends, and affection to 
 your family, and honour and integrity to all, in which you 
 are rejoicing, are merely like the leaves of the capital of the 
 column, which are here and there scattered amidst the ruin 
 of the mass, undestroyed indeed, but, as regards the column 
 in its present state, utterly useless. Put them all together, 
 and you could not re-erect the shattered pillar, no not one 
 single foot of it ; all that you could gather up would be but 
 these mere ornamental appendages, which, detached from the 
 shaft on which they grew, are as worthless as they are fair 
 and frail. To convince you of sin, therefore, we would not 
 inquire into the duties of the second table of God's com- 
 mands, easy as it might, perhaps, be to convict you even 
 there, of unworthy motives, amidst your proudest virtues ; 
 but we would urge you to try yourself by the duties of the 
 first table, your allegiance to God. 
 
 God demands your whole heart ; He requires truth in the 
 inward parts ; purity in the imagination and thoughts. How 
 will you answer when tried by such a standard ? Are there 
 no thoughts admitted into your hearts, and entertained there, 
 which are dishonourable to God, injurious to your neighbour, 
 disgraceful to yourself? Have you no thought there which 
 you would scruple to declare, even before this assembly of 
 sinners like yourself? Would you have no objection to 
 repeat aloud before all here present, every vain and foolish 
 and wicked imagination which has occupied your mind since 
 you arose this morning, or even since you entered these 
 doors ? How much more need you then to be ashamed 
 before a perfectly pure and holy God. Not to speak of 
 proud, covetous, vain, ambitious, wanton thoughts, how 
 many thoughts of unthankfulness for the mercies of God, of 
 impatience under His trials, of repinings under His Provi- 
 dences, of disregard and forgetfulness of Himself. Are you 
 free from these things ? Does a single day ever pass over 
 you without, we will not say one such sinful imagination!,, 
 
20 DISCOURSE I. 
 
 but without many such, breaking in upon you, and carrying 
 you away captive almost before you are sensible of their 
 attack. If this be the case, and if you have lived twenty, 
 thirty, or forty years in this world of sin, who can tell the 
 length of that dark scroll written within and without, with 
 guilty thoughts, unprofitable words, and unholy actions, 
 which no eye but God's has seen, and no hand but His has- 
 registered ? 
 
 Again, God commands that " all men should honour the 
 Son even as they honour the Father.''* Have you through 
 life fulfilled this great and obvious duty ? Have you loved 
 the Lord Jesus Christ with all your heart, and mind, and 
 soul, and strength ? Have you dwelt upon the great things 
 He has done and suffered for you, till your soul has been 
 filled with the deepest gratitude, and your heart with the most 
 obedient, self-denying love? Have you hated, and endea- 
 voured to renounce, all sin, remembering what it cost this 
 adorable Saviour to redeem your souls ? Alas ! who can come 
 forth acquitted who can pass unscathed through such an 
 ordeal ? Who will not, if he know his heart, be obliged to 
 eonfess, " Here, O my God, I stand utterly condemned ; I 
 have no word to speak, no cause to show why judgment 
 should not be passed on me." What is the result, then, at 
 which we arrive ? Is it not this, that were there no scriptural 
 foundation for the truths of which we have this day spoken ; 
 were the whole doctrine of " original, or birth sin," blotted 
 from the Bible, our case at least, as sinners before God, would 
 not be in any, the slightest degree, improved or altered by it ; 
 there would still remain sufficient, fully sufficient in the lives 
 and in the hearts, even of the best among us, to sink us to 
 perdition. How strange then is it, that men deny this doc- 
 trine, and dispute, and cavil, and contest it, as if, could they 
 once get rid of this, they should stand acquitted before God ; 
 while, if they knew their own hearts, they would admit that 
 
 John v. 23. 
 
ARTICLE X. 21 
 
 of all those wretched beings who have now commenced an 
 eternity of wo, there is not an individual who has not merited 
 and obtained his sad pre-eminence in misery, by his own 
 neglect of the Saviour, his own continuance in sin, his own 
 apostasy from God. 
 
 May the review of these great truths send each of us to his 
 own heart in serious, earnest self-examination : Am I a sin- 
 ner by nature and by practice ? Am I convinced, with the 
 Apostle of old, that " in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no 
 good thing ;"* and do I in consequence " abhor myself, and 
 repent in dust and ashes ?"t 
 
 Be assured, brethren, there is not one soul among us who 
 can answer these inquiries as the Word of God would have 
 us answer them, who shall not, in God's good time, if he ap- 
 proach Him through the blood of His dear Son, if he seek 
 repentance and pardon, as His gifts, through the atoning 
 merits and everliving intercession of the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 shortly hear those blessed words, " I, even I, am he that 
 blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will 
 not remember thy sins. "if 
 
 DISCOURSE II. 
 
 JOHN vi. 44. 
 
 No man can come (o me, except the Father which hath sent me draw 
 him. 
 
 THE tenth Article of our church, to which we are to apply 
 ourselves this morning, is, perhaps, among the most difficult 
 that we shall meet with throughout the whole of the inquiry 
 in which we are engaged. Let us then approach it in a spirit 
 of true humility, not expecting to find that subject plain and 
 
 Rom. vii. 13. t Job xlii. 6. t tsa. xliii. 25. 
 
22 DISCOURSE 1 1. 
 
 simple which godly men in all ages have found obscure and 
 difficult, but contented if we can discern the language of our 
 God in the words of our church, and if we can, by the aid 
 of the Spirit of wisdom and truth, deduce some useful practi- 
 cal lessons from a subject, upon which too many are satisfied 
 to reason, and to speculate, and to dogmatize, until all spiritual 
 benefit is frittered away, and the mind itself, fatigued and 
 harassed, " in wandering mazes lost," finds no rest for the 
 sole of its weary foot. This is the language of the tenth 
 Article 
 
 Of Free Will 
 
 1 The condition of man after the fall of Adam is such, that 
 he cannon turn and prepare himself, by his own natural 
 strength and good works, to faith and calling upon God." 
 
 You will observe how naturally and incontrovertibly this 
 declaration grows out of the preceding Article. In that 
 Article, our church has pronounced her opinion in favour of 
 the corruption and alienation from God of " the nature of 
 every man that naturally is engendered of the offspring of 
 Adam." Believing, then, his corruption to be thus complete, 
 it follows, as a matter of undisputable truth that he can have 
 no inclination or will, and consequently no power to turn 
 and prepare himself to faith and calling upon God : for, if 
 he naturally possessed this will, if he had by nature any, the 
 smallest desire after God, any, the smallest inclination to be- 
 lieve, to obey, and to call upon God, then by so much his 
 corruption would not be entire ; as regarded at least, these 
 duties of the Christian life, he would not be at all " gone from 
 original righteousness." 
 
 And this appears to be nearly all that our church intended 
 to assert in the Article before us, that in consequence of the 
 fall of Adam, his corrupt and fallen posterity will never natu- 
 rally choose, and therefore can never naturally perform that 
 which is spiritually good before God. 
 
 There is, therefore, the most perfect consistency between 
 
ARTICLE X. 23 
 
 the statements of the preceding Article and of the present. 
 The former represents man as shapen in iniquity, and con^ 
 ceived in sin ; the latter represents him as unable, in conse- 
 quence of the fall of Adam, " by his own natural strength," 
 to emerge from this state of guilt and pollution. 
 
 That the church maintains the same opinion in all her formu- 
 laries, may be seen by a very brief reference to her Homi- 
 lies and Liturgy, which are entirely pervaded by the doctrine 
 of the Article before us. Take for example the following 
 extract from the first Homily on Repentance : " So must 
 we beware and take heed, that we do in no wise think in 
 our hearts, imagine, or believe, that we are able to repent 
 aright, or to turn effectually unto the Lord, by our own might 
 and strength. For this must be verified in all, without me 
 ye can do nothing.'* Again, * Of ourselves we are not able 
 so much as to think a good thought.' And in another place, 
 * It is God that worketh in us both the will and the deed.'t 
 For this cause, although Jeremiah had said before, * If thou 
 return, O Israel, return unto rne, saith the Lord :' yet after- 
 wards he saith, Turn thou me, O Lord, and I shall be 
 turned.' "f The same truth will be found, expressed with 
 equal clearness, in the Homily on " The Misery of all Man- 
 kind." In the second Homily on " The Passion," in the 
 third part of the " Homily for Rogation Week," to all of 
 which I would rather refer you than quote from them, in the 
 hope that such a reference may induce some among you, not 
 only to read but attentively to search those valuable docu- 
 ments, which, however obsolete in their phraseology, well 
 deserve to occupy the next place to the Word of God itself 
 in the heart of every inquiring member of the church of 
 England. 
 
 If from the Homilies we pass to the Liturgy, we shall find 
 the same doctrine equally prevalent. At one time we de- 
 clare our solemn conviction to Almighty God that,"" Through 
 
 * John xv. 5. t Phil. ii. 13. \ 8 vo. Oxford, p. 455. 
 
24 DISCOURSE 1 1. 
 
 the weakness of our mortal nature, we can do no good thing 
 without"* Him. At another, we beseech him, that as by his 
 "special grace preventing us, He does put into our minds 
 good desires, so by his continual help we may bring the same 
 to good effect."! And at all times, and in all our services, 
 we speak the language of those who feel in their hearts that 
 they " have no power of themselves to help themselves,";): 
 and therefore continually beseech of God to " incline" their 
 hearts to serve Him, and to keep his law. 
 
 It would, however, be saying little to assert that the church 
 were consistent with herself, if we could not also show that 
 she were equally consistent with the revealed Word of God. 
 
 Perhaps the language of my text alone would sufficiently 
 bear us out in the assertion, " No man can come to me, ex- 
 cept the Father who hath sent me draw him," but the Old 
 Testament and the New are equally full and unambiguous 
 upon this important point. If, for instance, in the Prophets, 
 Ephraim bemoan himself, this is his language, " Surely after 
 that I was turned, I repented ;" and again, " Turn thou me, 
 and I shall be turned. "|| If David ask for help, it is with a 
 consciousness of weakness which seems scarcely able to find 
 expressions sufficiently strong ; thtts he prays that God 
 would " open his eyes," and " quicken," and " strengthen," 
 and "enlarge"^ his heart, "create in him a clean heart, 
 and renew a right spirit within him."** If the apostles speak 
 of the natural man, they hesitate not to describe him as a 
 corps, from which all will, all power, all strength, with respect 
 to spiritual things, yea, even life itself has departed. 
 
 Enough then has, we trust, been said, to show, that in the 
 Article before us, our church is consistent with truth, with 
 herself, and with the revealed Word of her God, when she 
 
 * Collect for the First Sunday after Trinity. 
 
 t Collect for Easter-day. 
 
 t Collect for the Second Sunday in Lent. 
 
 $ Jer. xxxi. 19. II JCT. xxxi. 18. 
 
 1 Ps. cxix. 18, 25, 28, 32. ** Ps. li. 10, il 
 
ARTICLE X. 25 
 
 says that " after the fall of Adam " man " cannot turn and 
 prepare himself, by his own natural strength and good works, 
 to faith and calling upon God."* 
 
 We proceed to the second portion of the Article. "Where- 
 fore we have no power to do good works, pleasant and 
 acceptable to God, without the grace of God by Christ pre- 
 venting" (or going before) "us, that we may have a good 
 will, and working with us when we have that good will." 
 
 In the ninth Article, as you will recollect, there is a direct 
 reference made to the Pelagians, whose opinion it was espe- 
 cially intended to controvert. That fact forms a key to the 
 intention of the Articles generally, for almost all of them 
 were constructed to correct some error which had at one 
 period or another crept into the church. Thus in the pas- 
 sage of the tenth Article which we have just read, there are 
 allusions to the false opinions of two classes of heretics, the 
 Pelagians and the semi-Pelagians. 
 
 " The Pelagian thought that man was so entire in his 
 liberty that there was no need of any other grace but that of 
 pardon, and of proposing the truths of religion to men's 
 knowledge, but that the use of these was in* every man's 
 power. "t In opposition to this, the Article distinctly declares, 
 that of ourselves "we have no power" to avail ourselves of 
 these things, even if they were proposed to us. Again the 
 semi-Pelagians asserted, that " an assisting inward grace was 
 necessary to enable a man to go through all the harder steps 
 of religion ; but with that they thought that the first turn, or 
 
 * It may also be worthy of remark, that on this subject our church 
 agrees entirely with the opinion of all the reformers, as expressed in the 
 celebrated " Confession of Augsburgh," drawn up by Luther and Me- 
 lancthon in 1530, in the eighteenth article of which we read, that " The 
 human will possesses liberty for the performance of civil duties," or the 
 duties between man and man in civil life, and to choose things subject 
 "or submitted to reason ; but it has not power without the Holy Spirit to 
 perform spiritual righteousness." Scott 1 s Continuation of Milner, p. 35. 
 
 t Bishop Burnett on the Articles, p. 162, 8vo. Oxford. 
 3 
 
2(5 DISCOURSE 1 1. 
 
 conversion of the will of God, was the effect of a man's own 
 free choice."* In opposition to this unscriptural statement, 
 the Article not only declares that the "grace of God, by 
 Christ" must work with us when we have a good will, but 
 that it must go before us, that " we may have this good will." 
 
 Towards the middle of the last century, if we may judge 
 by many of the printed discourses which we meet with, there 
 was much actual Pelagianism in the religion of the Christian 
 world, but, blessed be God, since the return to the doctrines 
 of the Reformation has, by His grace, been rapidly extending, 
 this error has almost entirely disappeared. It became, in fact, 
 too flagrant for the improved degree of Scriptural light abroad 
 in the world, and Satan's efforts, therefore, have long been, 
 and now are, employed in deluding men with the less flagrant, 
 but scarcely less dangerous, error of those to whom the con- 
 clusions of the Article so incontrovertibly replies, viz., those 
 who think they need assisting, but not " preventing" grace. 
 
 It is astonishing to find how many there are, even among 
 the members of the church of England, who, perhaps uncon- 
 sciously, but nevertheless unquestionably, hold these semi- 
 Pelagian doctrines. Consider for a moment, whether there 
 may not be some, even among yourselves, who are not wholly 
 freed from them. You have no hesitation in allowing that 
 the grace of God must assist a man's own endeavours, but 
 you would not as readily confess, that the same grace must 
 originate them. You would hesitate to avow that the good 
 work must be begun in your heart by some external power, 
 that God must first change, or turn, or incline the heart, be- 
 fore it can believe, or love, or obey. This is the important 
 link in the chain which is so often wanting, and without 
 which the whole chain falls broken and powerless to the 
 ground. For remark only the absolute inconsistency to which 
 it drives you. You acknowledge the truth of those affecting 
 views of human depravity and corruption of heart, which the 
 
 * Bishop Burnett on the Articles, p. 162, 8vo. Oxford. 
 
ARTICLE X. 27 
 
 ninth Article asserts, and which all Scripture has affirmed. 
 You acknowledge that man must use his best efforts, and his 
 most sincere endeavours, and that the grace of God must 
 assist him in carrying them on to perfection. But do you 
 see no chasm, no hiatus here ? Where are these best en- 
 deavours to spring from, where all is bad ? In what are 
 these holy resolutions to take their rise, where all is unholy 
 and polluted ? Can it be in the soil of the natural heart, 
 which the Word of God has declared to be " only evil and 
 that continually," that these seedling graces are indigenous ? 
 Can it be amid the fruits of the natural heart, the whole of 
 which our Lord has emptied out before us, and shown them 
 to be only " evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, 
 thefts, false witness, blasphemies," that we are to find the 
 blessed fruits of righteousness, and godliness, and true holi- 
 ness, thickly intermingled ? Can they grow spontaneously 
 in such a worse than barren soil, or thrive amidst such noxious 
 and poisonous companions ? Is it not then an obvious ab- 
 surdity to assert that if the grace of God merely co-operate 
 with our honest endeavours, all will be well. Surely far 
 more than this is absolutely indispensable to the production 
 of a single fruit of holiness and true righteousness. And 
 this the Article distinctly provides for, when it says that the 
 work must begin from God ; when it asserts that the grace 
 of God must first give us the " good will" and then work 
 with us, in carrying the good intentions which He has given 
 us into effect. So perfectly consistent with that declaration 
 of Holy Writ, " For it is God that worketh in you both to 
 will and to do, of his good pleasure. 
 
 It is most important that you should, by earnest self-ex- 
 amination, discover, and by the assistance of God's good 
 Spirit abjure this error, if you are still entangled in it. Until 
 this has been effected, you can never participate in those 
 lowly views of yourself, and those exalted views of the sove- 
 reignty of God, without which true spirituality of mind can- 
 not exist : for it is not until the heart is fully persuaded of 
 
28 DISCOURSE 1 1. 
 
 its own ruined state by nature, and of its consequent inability 
 of itself to repair the ruin, that, " With the heart man be- 
 lieveth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is 
 made unto salvation."* 
 
 There is no doubt that the great and general opposition to 
 the vital truth of which we are speaking is to be traced, in 
 the first instance, to the pride and self-sufficiency of our cor- 
 rupt nature. But when these are in some degree diminished, 
 there is often to be found a strong hostility to the doctrine, 
 in many minds, arising from a total misapprehension of it. 
 Let us then endeavour for a few moments to apply the re- 
 medy, of at least a clear statement of the difficulty, which 
 may, by God's grace, remove any mistaken notions upon the 
 subject, and prepare the mind for the sincere and cordial 
 reception of this great scriptural truth. 
 
 Yon, then, who conscientiously differ from your church 
 in this particular, perhaps are led to do so by the following 
 misapprehension of the subject under consideration. You con- 
 sider that if the work of turning and " preparing ourselves to 
 faith and calling upon God" must thus so entirely originate 
 in God, then man becomes a mere machine, and ceases to be 
 either a free agent or a responsible being. This arises, per- 
 haps, in a great measure, from confounding free agency with 
 free will. If, as we believe, all men are by nature in a state 
 of alienation from God, and if the power of escaping from this 
 state were actually denied to any, then there would be to some 
 a natural impossibility of turning to God $ they would not be 
 free agents, which they unquestionably are, or they could not 
 be responsible : but if the means of so turning to God are 
 offered to all, and if the stubbornness and the corruption of 
 the will alone prevent them from accepting the means, then 
 there is not a natural but only a moral impossibility, and this 
 moral impossibility, instead of extenuating, only enhances 
 their guilt. The man is a free agent, but he will not avail 
 
 * Romans x. 10. 
 
ARTICLE X. 29 
 
 himself of the power which is offered him ; as our Lord said 
 of the Jews, " Ye will not come to me that ye might have 
 life."* Most earnestly would we desire that every one among 
 you, who has ever felt the difficulty of this great truth, would 
 view it thus ; for we cannot but believe that much of the op- 
 position now manifested towards the doctrine would be at an 
 end, if it were seen thus to leave the free agency of man, 
 and consequently his responsibility, so entirely untouched. 
 The example of the patriarch Jacob has been considered as 
 well illustrating this difficult subject. What led him at the 
 close of his life, to go down into Egypt ? Was he com- 
 pelled to go thither ? Was he not a perfectly free agent ? Was 
 he not as free to remain in Canaan after the famine com- 
 menced, as before I How was it, then, that at his advanced 
 age, he should have undertaken so improbable a task, so toil- 
 some a journey ? Was there any restraint, any compul- 
 sion ? Was it not that he knew that his beloved son Joseph 
 was there ? that as soon as he heard of the wagons which 
 his son had sent for him, his heart fainted within him for 
 joy ? Surely this was no restraint, no compulsion, nothing 
 was done against his will ; his will itself was changed, and 
 instead of desiring any longer to remain where he was, all 
 his desire, all his anxiety now was to go to his beloved and 
 long-lost son. So it is with ourselves. From the beginning 
 to the end, our free agency is left untbuched, our responsibi- 
 lity unimpaired. When God bestows the will to turn to 
 him, we being willing in the day of his power,t are as anx- 
 ous to turn to him, as we have ever been in the days of our 
 stubbornness and darkness to turn away.J 
 
 * John v. 40. t See Psalm ex. 3. 
 
 t Perhaps Luther, in his celebrated treatise " the bondage of the will," 
 has stated this most difficult subject as clearly as it can be stated. He 
 says, "In fact there is no restraint either on the Divine or the human 
 will ; in both cases the will does what it does, whether good or bad, 
 
 simply, and as at liberty, in the exercise of its own faculty A man 
 
 who has not the Spirit of God, does evil willingly, and spontaneously. 
 He is not violently impelled against his will, as a thief is to the gallows. 
 
 3* 
 
30 DISCOURSE II. 
 
 In conclusion, we would briefly endeavour to establish the 
 truth of this great doctrine by your own personal experience. 
 We would say, then, to those among you who are the most 
 disinclined to receive the important fact, that man cannot, by 
 his own natural strength, turn to God ; what testimony does 
 your own heart bear to its truth, or to its falsehood ? 
 
 You have, from time to time, heard the blessed truths of 
 the Gospel freely and fully proposed to you ; you have been 
 told that " its ways are ways of pleasantness, and all its paths 
 are peace;"* you have been directed to the Lord Jesus 
 Christ as an all-sufficient Saviour, and at the same time as 
 one whose " yoke is easy, and his burden light ;"t you have 
 been convinced that your mortal life, when weighed in the 
 balance against the eternity which is awaiting you, is com- 
 paratively less than the lightest particle of dust which you 
 can cast into the scale : less in duration, less in importance, 
 less in every thing by which men usually value the objects 
 of their desires. We say you are perfectly convinced of this, 
 we will not insult your understanding, by supposing, even 
 for a moment, that you doubt it. Now then, let us inquire 
 whether these acknowledged truths have produced that in- 
 fluence upon your hearts and lives, which, if you believe them 
 to be true, every individual would most unhesitatingly assume 
 them to have produced. Are you at this moment, living to 
 that little speck of time, of which you cannot conceal from 
 yourself your utter contempt, or to that eternity, the gran- 
 deur and the dignity, and the unutterable importance of 
 which, overpowers your contemplations ? in other words, 
 are you making God, and his Christ, and his heaven, and his 
 " great salvation," the first objects of your thoughts, your 
 
 .... Again, when the Holy Spirit is pleased to change the will of a bad 
 man, the new man still acts voluntarily ; he is not compelled by the 
 Spirit to determine contrary to his will, but his will itself is changed ; 
 and he cannot now do otherwise than love the good, as before he loved 
 the evil."- Milner, vol. ix. p. 280, j!81. 
 
 * Prov. iii. 17. t Matt. xi. 30. 
 
ARTICLE X. 31 
 
 motives, your actions, your life, or this world, and its con- 
 temptible littleness ? 
 
 If you are honest, you may possibly be compelled to con- 
 fess that, notwithstanding all your convictions, your hearts, 
 your thoughts, your life, are the world's, and the world's 
 alone. If so, can you, after this, attempt to impugn the doc- 
 trine which has this day been set before you, that man " can- 
 not turn and prepare himself by his own natural strength, to 
 faith, and calling upon God?" You are yourself, yes, every 
 ungodly man is, a living testimony to its truth. Upon every 
 other subject so entirely affecting self, your own peace, your 
 own welfare, your own happiness, a thousandth part of the 
 reasoning, the exhortation, the conviction which you possess 
 on this, would have been sufficient, and more than sufficient, 
 to have produced a distinct and striking practical result. 
 Half this degree of conviction, for instance, that you were 
 heir to an estate, and would you never yet have sought it? 
 Half this degree of assurance, that your house was in flames, 
 and would you never yet have stirred one step to escape them ? 
 It would be trifling to make such inquiries seriously. You 
 know that you would. Then why has no real result been 
 produced by your convictions with regard to time and eter- 
 nity ? You will perhaps attempt to evade the full force of 
 the reply by saying, because you have not deemed it neces- 
 sary ; because you do not consider that such a change of 
 heart and life are really needed ; because you have always 
 intended to effect this change, at some future time, but it has 
 not been your pleasure to effect now. It is in vain to answer 
 thus ; the only answer which would on any other subject 
 satisfy a man of common consideration, is that with which 
 the Word of God has furnished us, and which is equally irre- 
 fragable upon this, viz., because the " natural man receiveth not 
 the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto 
 jiim, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually 
 discerned,"* because, therefore, you " cannot turn and prepare 
 
 * 1 Cor. ii. 14. 
 
32 DISCOURSE 1 1. 
 
 yourself by your own natural strength and good works to 
 faith and calling upon God," and you have never either de- 
 sired or sought a better strength than your own. Here is the 
 reason that in spite of your convictions, you are at this mo- 
 ment, all that you have ever been; a believer in an eternity, 
 and yet devoted to the follies and trifles of time ; a professed 
 follower of God, and yet living six-sevenths of your days in 
 an almost total forgetfulness of Him ; the possessor of a 
 jewel of unutterable value, and yet your thoughts, and desires 
 all centred, and settled, upon the care of the worthless casket, 
 in which, for a few short years, it is contained. 
 
 Do not imagine, that if this solution be the true one, then 
 may you sit down contentedly, and say, " I am not turned 
 to God, and I cannot turn myself to him ; therefore at least 
 I am guiltless, and if I perish, I perish at an unjust tribunal." 
 No, brethren, we must not leave you with a feeling so false, 
 and so derogatory to the character of Him with whom you 
 have to do. We grant that you are not turned to God, and 
 that you cannot turn yourself that you cannot be turned, as 
 the Article says, " by your own natural strength." Here, 
 then, is the solution of the whole matter. You have con- 
 tented yourself with striving, if you have striven at all, in 
 your own natural " strength," while a giant's arm is upon 
 you, and unseen by you, holds you down to earth, with a 
 power which laughs your feebleness to scorn. You have 
 struggled to arise from your thraldom, and shake off your 
 enemy, while in fact you are utterly unable, even to turn 
 yourself beneath his grasp. Let us then suppose that now, 
 for the first time, your eyes are open to your real state, 
 and what are you to do ? Be not dismayed ; look fairly at this 
 enemy who is standing over you, and under whose bondage 
 you have so long lingered ; it is your own corrupt will. 
 Struggle no longer then, in your natural strength, in the un- 
 equal conflict ; it is enough to see your enemy to know that 
 by you he must for ever be invincible : it would be a contra- 
 diction in terms, to say, even that you ever willingly or 
 
ARTICLE X. 33 
 
 heartily opposed him ; every faculty of the mind, every affec- 
 tion of the heart, is a disguised traitor, and in reality in league 
 with him. If you are in earnest in your opposition, your 
 course is plain, and the victory is insured to you. Gall on 
 the strong for strength, cease from your own unaided efforts, 
 cry with " an exceeding great and bitter cry," for help from 
 the sanctuary and strength from out of Zion ; cry with the 
 heart-broken consciousness of utter helplessness which the 
 Apostle felt when he cried, " O wretched man that I am, who 
 shall deliver me from the body of this death !"* And " if 
 the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free in- 
 deed."! Be assured, this is no doubtful declaration, for has 
 he not himself declared, " If ye then, being evil, know how 
 to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall 
 your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask 
 him !"J Is it not then a certainty, as much as the existence 
 or the love of God himself is a certainty, that there never 
 \vas, and that there shall never be, an instance of one human 
 being who shall cry in sincerity, " Turn thou us, O good 
 Lord, and so shall we be turned," who shall not experience 
 the power of his God exerted in his behalf, and who by that 
 invincible power shall not be brought into the glorious liberty 
 wherewith Christ makes his people free.|| Yes, brethren, 
 be but earnest, persevering in your entreaties, and you shall 
 be relieved from the bondage from which no human power 
 can liberate you ; your will shall still be free, but then, free 
 not as at present, to serve and follow sin, but free to love 
 and to obey God, and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent; free 
 " to run the way of God's commandments ;" free to choose 
 those commands as among your greatest blessings ; free to " de- 
 light in the law of God after the inward man,"^ and to exclaim 
 with him of old, respecting all that now appears to you irksome 
 and burdensome, and even hateful, " O how I love thy law !"** 
 
 * Rom. vii. 24. t John viii. 36. t Luke xi. 13. 
 
 Service for Ash- Wednesday. II See Gal. v. 1. 
 
 IT Rom vii 22. ** Ps. cxix. 37. 
 
34 DISCOURSE II I. 
 
 To the people of God among you, time will only allow 
 me to speak a single word ; to you this doctrine is a blessed 
 and a soul-encouraging doctrine. You delight in referring all 
 to God ; you love to acknowledge that he alone has made 
 you to differ from others, and to return all the praise and all 
 the glory to his holy name. Bear in mind only, more and 
 more continually, the purpose for which he first worked in 
 you, that you might have a good will, and now works with 
 you, since you have this good will ; it was that you might be 
 " a chosen generation,* a royal priesthood, a holy nation," 
 " a peculiar people zealous of good works. "t Fulfil, then, 
 by God's grace, the great end of your being ; devote all you 
 are, and all you have, to his holy and happy service, " Being 
 confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a 
 good work in you, will perform it until the day of Jesus 
 Christ."J 
 
 DISCOURSE III. 
 
 GALATIANS ii. part of ver. 16. 
 
 We have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faiih 
 of Christ, and not by the works of the law : for by the works of the 
 law shall no flesh be justified. 
 
 As in commencing the consideration of that Article of our 
 church which we brought before you on Sunday last, we 
 were constrained to say that it was the most difficult that 
 would come under our notice, so we must say of that which 
 is to form our subject to-day, that it is the most important, 
 and the most comfortable of all the Articles propounded by 
 our church. It is the most important ! for what question 
 can for a moment be put in competition with the inquiry, 
 " What shall I do to be saved ?" It is the most comfortable ! for 
 
 *Pet. ii. 9 t Titus ii. 14. t Phil. i. 6. 
 
ARTICLE XI. 35 
 
 what answer can stand an instant's comparison with the reply, 
 " Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." 
 We need not inform you that this inquiry and this reply, 
 are embodied in the Article now before us. 
 
 XL Of the Justification of Man. 
 
 Before we read the Article, let us come to a clear and dis- 
 tinct understanding of the subject upon which it treats. What 
 then is meant by " the justification of man ?" It is certainly 
 not merely his pardon, for the idea of pardon is very distinct 
 from and very inferior to the idea of justification. Conceive, 
 for an instance, a prisoner charged with some crime, and 
 brought before the tribunal of his country. He is found 
 guilty of the crime laid to his charge, but he is afterwards 
 pardoned. He escapes the punishment of his guilt, but he 
 does not escape the imputation of guilt ; he is not justified. 
 The judge looks upon that man as a guilty man, and he must 
 for ever look upon himself in the same light. Nothing can 
 replace the pardoned criminal precisely in the same position 
 in society, which he occupied before he committed, or was 
 convicted of a crime. Now suppose a prisoner charged with 
 some delinquency, of which it appears upon his trial that 
 another man is the perpetrator, and that he is wholly inno- 
 cent. In this case he leaves the bar with a very different 
 character from the former ; he departs an innocent man, 
 without the shadow of an imputation resting upon his cha- 
 racter ; he is, in fact, completely justified in the eyes of the 
 judge, of the jury, of himself, and of all the world. The 
 question then before us is this. How can a man stand before 
 the tribunal of God and come away from that tribunal, not 
 merely pardoned, but, as in the case we have been imagining, 
 actually innocent, perfectly justified, no stigma left upon his 
 character, no stain upon his conscience, no spot of sin upon 
 his soul ? It is clear that it cannot be, as in the case we have 
 imagined, by his never having transgressed, because as the 
 
36 DISCOURSE III. 
 
 law of God now stands, and as we have already demonstrated 
 (while considering the ninth Article,) " there is no man that 
 sinneth not."* It must therefore be either by a total change 
 in the law which he has broken, so that when tried accord- 
 ing to its provisions it may appear that he never has trans- 
 gressed ; or by some other method which although it cannot 
 find an exact parallel in human judicature, has been originated 
 and acted upon by the King of kings, and Lord of lords. 
 
 By the first of these, the change or abrogation of the law 
 of God, this justification can certainly never be effected ; for 
 our Lord has said respecting that moral law, to which we 
 refer, and which we all have broken, '* One jot or one tittle 
 shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled."! 
 Therefore there can be no hope of a change in the verdict, from 
 any change in the law. It is then to some other method that 
 man must look to be accounted innocent, nay more than in- 
 nocent, to be actually righteous before God. And the inten- 
 tion of the eleventh Article is simply to propound this method. 
 These are the words of the Article, " We are accounted 
 righteous before God, only for the merit of our Lord and 
 Saviour Jesus Christ, by faith, and not for our own works 
 or deservings." 
 
 The method then appears to be this, that in our Lord and 
 Saviour Jesus Christ, God of his infinite mercy has provided 
 for us a surety or a substitute, who shall do for us what we 
 could never do for ourselves, viz., offer to God a most per- 
 fect and unexceptionable obedience, and that for the sake of 
 this obedience even unto death, involving therefore all the 
 unspeakable merits of the atonement, we, who believe, should 
 be " accounted righteous before God." Or, as expressed in 
 the language of Scripture, " He hath made Him to be sin 
 for us who knew no sin; that we might be made the right- 
 eousness of God in Him."J 
 
 * 1 Kings viii. 46. t Matt. v. 18. t 2 Cor. v. 21. 
 
ARTICLE XI. 37 
 
 The Article then continues, " Wherefore, that we are justi- 
 fied by faith only, is a most wholesome doctrine, and very 
 full of comfort : as is more largely expressed in the Homily 
 of Justification."* 
 
 Strictly speaking, as you will have seen from the former 
 part of the Article, we are justified by the merits of Christ 
 only ; when the Article therefore, says, " we are justified by 
 faith only," it merely refers the effect, from the cause, to 
 the instrument. The merits of Christ are the casual means, 
 but faith, or a simple reliance upon those merits, is the instru- 
 mental means, and it is quite clear that it is as correct to state, 
 that we are justified by the one, as by the other. 
 
 But while we are thus exalting faith, we must be careful 
 to remember that -it is but an instrument. It connects the 
 sinner with the Saviour, but that is all; as to its own merit, 
 faith is as worthless as hope, or joy, or love, or any other 
 grace, in causing or deserving the justification of its possessor. 
 This is very strikingly asserted at the close of the second 
 part of " The Homily on Salvation," where it is said that 
 " John the Baptist, although a virtuous and godly man, re- 
 ferred all the people from himself to Christ, for the forgiveness 
 of their sins, saying, Behold, yonder is the Lamb of God 
 which taketh away the sins of the world,' (John i. 29.) So 
 our faith in Christ saith unto us thus: It is not I that take 
 away your sins, but it is Christ only ; and to him only I send 
 you for that purpose, forsaking therein all your good virtues, 
 words, thoughts, and works, and only putting your trust in 
 God."t 
 
 To demonstrate that this great doctrine of justification by 
 faith only, is " wholesome," as our Article calls it, or sound, 
 it would be necessary and it would be perfectly easy to show 
 
 * It is singular that there should be no homily with this title. There 
 can, however, be little doubt that the homily entitled, " Of the Salvation 
 of all Mankind," is here referred to. 
 
 t Homilies, 8vo. Oxford, p. 23. 
 
 4 
 
88 DISCOURSE II I. 
 
 that it is, in fact, the one great leading doctrine from Genesis 
 to Revelation. As our time will not admit of this, we can 
 only assert that, every portion of the book of inspiration 
 preaches the truth, which the Apostle preaches when he says, 
 " That no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it 
 is evident: for, the just shall live by faith."* "Therefore, 
 we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds 
 of the law."t And still more distinctly in the text, " 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 man be justified." Indeed 
 these quotations are of themselves amply sufficient ; for if it 
 be the unerring Word of God, one assertion of that word is 
 as convincing as one thousand. If it be objected to this state- 
 ment, that when the Apostles so clearly assert that no man is 
 justified by works, they generally add, by the " works of the 
 law," and always intend the ceremonial law, it may not be 
 useless to mention, that precisely the same thing is said of 
 Abraham, " If Abraham were justified by works, he hath 
 whereof to glory,"J while we need not remind you that 
 Abraham was justified more than four hundred years before 
 the ceremonial law was given. It is then too obvious to ad- 
 mit of argument, that the declarations of the Apostles include 
 all laws and all works, and distinctly assert that in the manner 
 of justifying a sinner before God, all ceremonies, all obedience, 
 all virtues, all graces, all Christian duties, all Christian ordi- 
 nances are utterly and entirely fruitless, and that " the merits 
 of Christ Jesus alone," applied to each heart by a true and 
 living faith, must form the plea of each individual, of all that 
 countless multitude who shall be acknowledged as the ac- 
 cepted people of God, and shall dwell around the throne of 
 God. and of the Lamb, throughout eternity. 
 
 We shall not occupy your time by quotations from the 
 Homilies, because the particular homily referred to in the 
 
 * Gal. iii. 11. t Rom. iii. 28. \ Rom. iv. 2 
 
ART1CLEXI. 39 
 
 Article (viz., tlie Three Parts of " the Homily on the Salva- 
 tion of Man,"*) is so replete with this doctrine, that none 
 who will take the trouble to refer to it, can fail of conviction. 
 We shall content ourselves in corroboration of the doctrine, 
 with a passage from the celebrated sermon of the judicious 
 Hooker on Justification, which deserves your attention not 
 more from the great name of its author, than from its own 
 distinctness and beauty. " The righteousness wherein we 
 must be found," says this admirable writer, " if we will be 
 justified, is not our own ; therefore, we cannot be justified 
 by any inherent quality. Christ hath merited righteousness 
 for as many as are found in Him. In Him God findeth us, 
 if we be faithful ; for by faith we are incorporated into Christ. 
 Then, although in ourselves, we be altogether sinful and un- 
 righteous, yet even the man who is impious in himself, full 
 of iniquity, full of sin, him being found in Christ through 
 faith, and having his sin remitted through repentance ; him 
 God beholdeth with a gracicas eye, putteth away his sin by 
 not imputing it, taketh away the punishment due thereto by 
 pardoning it, and accepteth him in Christ Jesus, as perfectly 
 righteous, as if he had fulfilled all that was commanded him 
 in the law shall I say more perfectly righteous than if him- 
 self had fulfilled the whole law. I must take heed what I 
 say ; but the Apostle saith, ' God made Him to be sin for us, 
 who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness 
 of God in Him.' Such we are in the sight of God the Fa- 
 ther, as is the very Son of God himself. Let it be counted 
 folly, or frenzy, or fury, or whatsoever, it is our comfort and 
 our wisdom ; we care for no knowledge in the world but this, 
 that man hath sinned and God hath suffered, that God hath 
 made himself the Son of Man, and that men are made the 
 righteousness of God." 
 
 We shall, therefore, consider the wholesomeness or sound- 
 
 * This homily is from the pen of Archbishop Cranmer himself. See 
 Cranmer's Works, Oxford, 1833. 
 
40 DISCOURSE II I. 
 
 ness of the great doctrine in question, abundantly established, 
 and proceed to consider the comfort of it. The Article as- 
 serts that this truth, " we are justified by faith only," is " very 
 full of comfort." To prove this to those among you, who, 
 by divine grace, have been led to the full reception of its 
 peace-giving declarations, will be sufficiently easy, but to 
 convince those to whom it is at present experimentally un- 
 known, is indeed a most difficult, and, of ourselves, a hope- 
 less task. One thing, however, we may attempt: we may 
 show you that your present doctrine is an uncomfortable one, 
 so uncomfortable, that as long as you retain it, you can never 
 know that " peace of God which passeth all understanding,"* 
 the last, best legacy which the Prince of Peace bequeathed to 
 his faithful followers. 
 
 We need not particularize all those- different methods which 
 the pride, or the ignorance, or the wisdom of man has in- 
 vented to occupy the place of this great doctrine of the Bible. 
 We may class them together, and address all those among 
 you who have been deceived by any one of them in the 
 same language. We address you, then, who are hoping at 
 the last great day, that you shall be " accounted righteous" 
 because God is merciful, and you have endeavoured to do 
 your duty honesty, and uprightly, and virtuously in your 
 different vocations : You, also, who in addition to this plea 
 of the correctness of your moral duties, have provided your- 
 self with another, and hope, that having in the different rela- 
 tions of life performed your own part well, the merits of the 
 Lord Jesus Christ will avail to fill up your deficiencies : 
 You, again, who have gone beyond the two preceding classes, 
 and hope, that correct moral duties, and assiduous attention 
 to spiritual duties, to prayer, to sacraments, to reading the 
 Scripture, will fully supply your portion, and, the merits of 
 the Saviour being freely added to them, cannot fail to satisfy 
 God. We address you, one and all, and say upon the autho- 
 
 * Phil. iv. 7. 
 
ARTICLE XI. 41 
 
 rity of the Word of God and of our church, thai your views 
 are not only as we have proved them to be, unwholesome, 
 but most uncomfortable. They are all founded upon this 
 one great error, that God will accept an imperfect obedience 
 if it be sincere, in the place of that perfect obedience which 
 He has a right to claim, and which he unquestionably does 
 claim, at the hand of every individual sent into the world. 
 
 We ask you then from what portion of the revealed Word 
 you derive this opinion ? We can show you the first great 
 declaration respecting obedience ; it is this, " Do this and 
 live," or as amplified and explained by Moses, " Cursed is 
 every one that continueth not in^//jhings that are written in 
 the book of the law to do them."* You will observe, there 
 is not a single exception ; you must do all the things that God 
 commands ; and more, you must " continue," yes, from the 
 hour of your birth, to the moment of your death, you must 
 continue to do them all, or there is no hope from this Cove- 
 nant. Now we ask you in return to show us from the Word 
 of God, any single passage, or any correct combination of 
 passages, to prove that God has, under the gospel dispensa- 
 tion, ever modified this command first given to Adam, and 
 reiterated to Moses ; that God has ever promised to accept 
 those who endeavour conscientiously to " continue in all 
 things that are written in the book of the law," to do them, 
 although they only imperfectly succeed in the endeavour. It 
 is impossible. There is no such passage to be found. It 
 would be an insult to the purity, and holiness, and justice of 
 God, to expect to find it. God can accept nothing but a 
 perfect obedience, or he would cease to be a perfect God. 
 You are standing then altogether upon a wrong, a false, an 
 unwholesome imagination, a mere imagination, no shadow 
 of foundation for which is to be found in the Scripture of 
 truth. The only difference that God has ever made in this first 
 great law of perfect and unerring obedience, is, that when it 
 
 * Gal. iii. 10. 
 
 4* 
 
42 DISCOURSE III. 
 
 became manifest that no perfect law could be given which 
 man would keep, a perfect God who would neither offer an 
 imperfect law, nor accept an imperfect obedience to a perfect 
 law, sent His only-begotten Son into the world to render this 
 perfect obedience, which no created being had ever rendered. 
 Therefore we find in the language of prophecy the Saviour 
 saying, " A body hast thou prepared me, Lo ! I come to do 
 thy will, O my God."* I come to do what has never yet 
 been done, to work out and " to bring in everlasting right- 
 eousness." God therefore obtained from the Surety that 
 which he could never have received from us, and God still 
 exacts this perfect righteousness from every individual who 
 approaches Him ; but now, as the righteousness of Christ, 
 or, as it is called in Scripture, "the righteousness of God," 
 it is ready for every believing penitent who is willing to re- 
 ceive it and to come before God, clothed in that, and in that 
 alone, and desiring with the Apostle to be found in Him, 
 (i. e., in Christ,) " not having mine own righteousness which 
 is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, 
 the righteousness which is of God by faith." 
 
 But grant for a moment that the scheme which we have 
 been contending against were really true and " wholesome," 
 and would it not be still most uncomfortable ? For sup- 
 pose that your views were correct ; that together with the 
 righteousness of Christ there must be, in the way of merit, 
 something of your own to offer, before you can feel that you 
 are " accounted righteous before God !" that like the Israel- 
 ites of old, you have a certain " tale of bricks" to render ; 
 then, we would ask, who is to count them off at the end of 
 each day's work, and give you your discharge, and suffer 
 you to lie down in quiet? Who is to tell you when the tale 
 is complete, and when you are really justified before God? 
 In the true scheme of the Gospel this is so easily ascertained, 
 that the veriest babe in Christ could answer you. He 
 
 * Heb. x. 5 ; Psalm xl. 7 ; Heb. x. 7. 
 
ARTICLE XI. 43 
 
 would tell you that when, by God's grace, you close with 
 the offers of a crucified, and all-sufficient Saviour, and cast 
 your soul upon Him in a holy and scriptural confidence, that 
 he has power enough, and grace enough, to receive you, to 
 pardon you fully, and to love you freely that even then, we 
 may say to you, as St. John to the young converts in his 
 days, " I write unto you, little children, because your sins 
 are forgiven you for his name's sake," that you are then ac- 
 counted righteous before God, that you then begin to " run 
 with patience the race that is set before you, looking unto 
 Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith. This is God's 
 method of justifying the sinner. How different is your own ! 
 you can never feel assured that you are really justified before 
 God. The " full assurance of faith," as the Apostle to the 
 Hebrews calls it, must ever be unknown to you ; there must 
 always be, even to the most scrupulous, and most careful, 
 and most pains-taking among you, a strong degree of uncer- 
 tainty and doubt. You will always be subject to some such 
 corroding and distressing feelings as these " That act of 
 charity was miserably imperfect, such a mingling of motives, 
 such a deficiency of love !" " That prayer could never reach 
 the mercy-seat, such wandering thoughts, such unholy ima- 
 ginations !" " That duty can never be well-pleasing to my 
 heavenly Father, such reluctance and unwillingness, and 
 almost dislike, even during the performance !" " Can I have 
 done, shall I ever do, my part in this great work?" Such, 
 if really conscientious, will be the feelings even of the best of 
 those among you who are looking to any thing, however 
 trifling, however minute, to fill up the measure of the meri- 
 torious offering of the Lord Jesus Christ, as the procuring 
 cause of your justification. And such, although they know 
 it not, is one of the most frequent causes of the dispiriting 
 and gloomy feelings which religion imparts to nine-tenths of 
 those who make a kind of outward profession of it, without 
 really obtaining the full and genuine feeling of the great truth 
 of the text within their souls. We have often, in the course 
 
44 DISCOURSE II I. 
 
 of our ministry, seen those whose days and nights have been 
 occupied upon this important subject, reading, praying, think- 
 ing, striving, wearied in duties until they become irksome and 
 almost hateful, and yet never knowing the feeling of a settled 
 peace of soul. And why ? simply because they have never been 
 rightly instructed in the great work have never been taught 
 to look altogether from themselves, and their own perform- 
 ances, to obtain peace have never been led to cast them- 
 selves fully, entirely, and undeservedly, upon the " full, per- 
 fect, and sufficient sacrifice" of the Lord Jesus Christ. Until 
 this be done, there can be no justification, no pardon, and 
 therefore no abiding scriptural peace. 
 
 If we speak to any such at present, we would entreat you 
 to listen while we address a few words to the true people 
 of God, and may you learn by hearing what they possess, 
 to discover what you stand in need of. 
 
 To you, then, Christian brethren, we apply the words of 
 the text, and say, " You have believed in Jesus Christ that 
 you might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the 
 works of the law." But whence was this ? Were you born 
 thus ? Was there never a period when you also were stand- 
 ing aside, without any feelings of religion which could be 
 pronounced, " very full of comfort ?" Was there never a 
 time when any among you felt it difficult even to thank God 
 for your creation, (as our church teaches you to do,) because 
 you were so uncertain as to the coming eternity, that you 
 felt your creation rather a grievance than a blessing to you ? 
 And what has made you thus different from your former 
 selves ? How are you now enabled to say, even from the 
 ground of your hearts, " Lord, it is good for us to be here ;" 
 with all the trials and the troubles of life, I bless thee for 
 my creation ; I bless thee for calling me to pass over this little 
 isthmus between two eternities, because I have, through thy 
 grace, obtained the promise of the life which now is, and of 
 that which is to come. I ask you, Christian brethren, how 
 did you obtain this comfortable, peaceful, blessed feeling ? 
 
ARTICLE XI. 45 
 
 Did you acquire it from the proud consciousness of what is 
 called a well-spent life ? Did you obtain it by looking back 
 upon a perfect obedience to a perfect law, which was fully 
 sufficient to satisfy the strictest demands of God ? Surely 
 not thus did you acquire your present peace and your hope 
 of future glory, or the inspired Word of our God would not 
 have declared, " If there had been a law given which could 
 have given life, verily righteousness would have been of the 
 law." No, the law did for you that for which it was given- 
 not to insure a perfect obedience, but to convict you of your 
 imperfect obedience : thus it became your schoolmaster to 
 bring you to Christ. You have so frequently broken its 
 precepts, and deserved its punishments, that although you 
 have .retained it, and ever will retain it, as a rule of life, you 
 have long since given up the idea of a meritorious obedience 
 to it as utterly hopeless, and you have fled from the terrors 
 of a broken law to the love, and compassion, and righteous- 
 ness of a crucified Saviour. You discovered, by the teaching 
 of the Spirit of God, that you must go to Christ, and to 
 Christ alone, for the means of justification before God, and 
 by the aid of that Spirit you approached the Saviour, and 
 fell at his feet, and cried, " God be merciful to me a sinner." 
 You went for pardon and for justification ; you carried no- 
 thing with you but your sins, and a most earnest, heartfelt 
 desire, to repent of them and forsake them ; you went simply 
 to receive, not to pay ; you went as a beggar for an alms, as 
 a culprit for your reprieve, as a condemned prisoner for your 
 life ; you believed that He whom you sought, not only could, 
 but would give what you sought. And what was the conse- 
 quence ? You received all that you had asked all that God 
 had promised ; you feceived pardon and acceptance, forgive- 
 ness of all that had gone before, grace and strength promised 
 and pledged to you, for all that is to come. " Therefore," 
 as the Apostle says, " therefore being justified by faith you 
 have pea 36 with God." You Jiave no corroding fears for 
 the past, no desponding anxieties for the future : you cannot 
 
46 DISCOURSE III. 
 
 have, or at least, you need not have ; you have been " ac- 
 counted righteous through the merits of Christ," you have 
 been made partaker of " the righteousness of God, which is 
 by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that be- 
 lieve ;" yes, " unto all and upon all," therefore, " unto and 
 upon" the weakest, feeblest, youngest believer, who ever 
 with the hand of an infant faith, touched the hem of the 
 Saviour's garment, and with His kind and merciful permission, 
 drew that garment as a covering over his own pollution, and 
 nakedness, and sin. 
 
 There is with you no question now, whether you have 
 done enough to co-operate with your Saviour in this great 
 work ; therefore there is no doubt with yon, whether enough 
 be done ; no uncertainty whether you are, or are not, justified 
 before God : you feel the full force and consolation of the 
 Apostle's words, " Therefore it is of faith, that it might be 
 by grace ; to the end the promise might be sure to all the 
 seed."* That it might not be a matter of doubt, but of as- 
 surance to all the seed, to every member in Christ's redeemed 
 family, who has thus approached him in a true and living 
 faith, to receive that as an act of free favour, which others, 
 in vain, are toiling to deserve. 
 
 From this point then, you commence your Christian life ; 
 being justified freely, you now " run the way of God's com- 
 mandments," " obeying from the heart that form of doctrine 
 which has been delivered to you ;" delighting in the service 
 of Him who loved you, and gave himself for you ; deploring 
 your many short-comings, repenting of your many sins, but 
 still holding on your way, through good and ill, through weal 
 and wo, the hand of your Lord guiding and supporting you 
 in "all holiness and godliness of living," and you yourselves 
 bringing forth the fruits of faith, and resting in a simple, child- 
 like reliance upon the declaration of our God, that " whom he 
 
 ' Rom. iv. 16. 
 
ARTICLEXI. 47 
 
 called, them he also justified, and whom he justified,"* them 
 also he shall one day glorify for ever and ever. 
 
 And now brethren, we once more, and only for a few 
 moments, return to you whom we before addressed. Do you 
 clearly perceive the difference between these persons and 
 yourselves, as regards the Lord Jesus Christ? 
 
 You are willing to take the Saviour with you when you 
 go up for justification to the tribunal of God ; they depended 
 upon his taking them. You would not expect to be accounted 
 righteous for your own merits alone; they would not for a 
 moment imagine that they had ever done a single deed which 
 deserved the name of merit ; if reminded of them, they would 
 ask with unfeigned astonishment, " Lord, when saw we thee 
 a hungered, or athirst, or naked, or in prison, and ministered 
 unto thee ?"t To you, the Lord Jesus Christ is a valuable 
 coadjutor; to them, he is "all in all ;"f for he is "made 
 unto them, wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and 
 redemption."!! You are " working for salvation," as an 
 object at which you shall one day arrive ; they are " working 
 from salvation," as the object at which they started. All 
 that you are doing is intended in some degree to propitiate 
 God ; all that they are doing is flowing from a sense of holy 
 obedience, and from a grateful love to God, who first loved, 
 and pardoned, and justified them. We leave it to yourselves 
 to determine which of these two views must tend the most to 
 promote the glory of God our Father, the honour of Christ 
 Jesus our Lord, and the comfort and happiness of his people. 
 But we must not leave it to you to imagine that the difference 
 is slight, or immaterial, that it is a mere difference in the 
 amount of comfort, or of wholesomeness of doctrine. It is an 
 absolute and irreconcilable difference. It is the difference 
 between light and darkness, between life and death. The 
 one view of justification is a mere figment from the brain of 
 man, the other is the great truth of God which will determine 
 
 * Rom. viii. 30. t Matt. xxv. t 1 Cor. xv. 28. II 1 Cor. i 30. 
 
48 DISCOURSE IV. 
 
 our eternity ; for upon it will hang the decisions of the day 
 of judgment ! All religion is therefore utterly vain which 
 does not centre and settle here. The unrighteous cannot 
 enter heaven, for thus has the unerring Word of God pro- 
 nounced, " Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit 
 the Kingdom of God ?"* but then all are unrighteous until 
 they have been justified by the merits of the Lord Jesus ap- 
 plied by a living faith. Can you resist the inference That 
 they who are not thus justified, can never, by any possibility, 
 be admitted there ? 
 
 May God of his infinite mercy grant that these words may 
 sink deep into our hearts, giving us no peace, no rest, until 
 we have ascertained that this great and blessed work has been 
 effected in our souls, and are thus enabled to experience the 
 full comfort of the declaration of the Spirit of our God, 
 "There is now no condemnation to them which are in Christ 
 Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit."! 
 
 DISCOURSE IV. 
 
 COL. i. part of verse '10. 
 
 That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful 
 in every good work. 
 
 IT is a remarkable assertion of the Apostle to the Corin- 
 thians, but not more remarkable than true, " Now abideth 
 faith, hope, charity, these three ; but the greatest of these is 
 charity. "J And who can doubt it ? Without any reference 
 to the obvious fact, that while the two former are transitory, 
 the last is perpetual, is it not evident that after all, faith and 
 hope are but as the scaffolding of the spiritual house, while 
 the house itself, the glorious superstructure, is love. Love to 
 
 * 1 Cor. vi. 9. t Rom. viii. 1. t 1 Cor. xiii. 13. 
 
ARTICLES XI I. XIII. XIV. 49 
 
 God and love to man ; love to every created being through- 
 out all time, love to the blessed inmates of the heavenly man- 
 sions throughout eternity. The object then of all religion is 
 to give to fallen man the power and the will, which as we 
 have seen he has not by nature, to live this life of love on 
 earth, that he may be fitted and educated for the eternity of 
 love in heaven. Every thing connected with this high feeling 
 is regards our fellow-men, is comprehended in Scripture in 
 the expressive term, " Good works." And it is to this im- 
 portant subject, that the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth 
 Articles will at present direct our attention. 
 
 There are four great errors continually springing up in the 
 natural heart of man with respect to this deeply important 
 topic. These have been corrected by our church in the three 
 Articles to which I have referred, and which therefore shall 
 be taken together for the subject of our consideration. The 
 first of these errors, viz., that a man can be justified before 
 God for his work's sake, was sufficiently considered under 
 the eleventh Article, and therefore, will not now require our 
 attention. The second is of this nature, That all works of 
 honesty, and charity, and uprightness, must necessarily be so 
 pleasing in the sight of God, that let them be performed by 
 who they may, they cannot fail to draw down upon the per- 
 former the love and the grace or favour of God ; that, in fact, 
 they at least render men Jit to receive this favour, even if they 
 do not actually purchase it. Against this error, an error 
 indeed expressly of the Pelagians and Papists, but not less 
 expressly an error of every natural and unconverted heart, 
 the thirteenth Article protests in the following decisive 
 manner 
 
 XIII. Of Works before Justification 
 
 " Works done before the grace of Christ " 
 You will observe our church takes especial care not to 
 recognize them as good works, although she is evidently re- 
 ferring to those which would be called so in the world. She 
 
 5 
 
50 DISCOURSE IV. 
 
 contents herself with saying, " Works done before the grace 
 of Christ and the inspiration of his Spirit, are not pleasant to 
 God, for as much as they spring not of faith in Jesus Christ : 
 neither do they make men meet to receive grace, or (as the 
 school authors say) deserve ' grace of congruity :' yea, rather, 
 for that they are not done as God hath willed and commanded 
 them to be done, we doubt not but they have the nature of sin." 
 
 There are few Articles of the church which are more stag- 
 gering to the heart of " the natural man" than this, and yet 
 few that more immediately approve themselves to the heart of 
 the " spiritual man." 
 
 The Article simply asserts that no works performed before 
 justification, i. e. as we demonstrated in the last discourse, 
 before we have been led to close with the offers of reconcilia- 
 tion to God through Christ, and have been thus " accounted 
 righteous" through his merits, are "pleasant to God." Con- 
 sider only for a moment the declarations of the Articles which 
 have preceded this, and you will see that it is utterly impos- 
 sible to come to any other conclusion. The ninth Article has 
 declared that we are " very far gone from original righteous- 
 ness," that " the flesh is always lusting against the Spirit," 
 and " deserving . God's wrath and damnation." The tenth 
 Article has shown that from this condition man " cannot turn 
 and prepare himself," i. e. without the grace of Christ, and 
 therefore has no power to do good works " pleasant and ac- 
 ceptable to God." It is, then, the following consequence of 
 these great, and solemn, and humiliating truths, that every 
 " work done before the grace of "Christ," must be unpleasant 
 to God, and even as the close of the Article strongly, but not 
 more strongly than scripturally, asserts, must " have the 
 nature of sin." We say, not more strongly than scripturally; 
 for the Apostle to the Romans has asserted the same thing, 
 almost in the same words, when he says, " whatsoever is not 
 of faith is sin."* 
 
 * Rom. xiv. 23. 
 
ARTICLES XII. XIII. XIV. 51 
 
 This is the portion of the Article which is a stumbling- 
 block to many readers ; the feelings of their minds with re- 
 spect to it are of his nature. Can it be possible that all the 
 amiable, honest, just, and honourable actions of a man's life, 
 performed before he has received " the grace of Christ," can 
 possess the nature of sin, in the sight of our merciful Father ? 
 Is he so severe a judge that he will not look with an eye of 
 satisfaction upon those many virtuous deeds of virtuous men, 
 which gladden the countenance and cheer the souls of all 
 around them, and which deserve and receive " the blessing 
 of him that was ready to perish," and cause " the widow's 
 heart to sing for joy ?"* 
 
 This is perhaps stating the objection as fairly and as 
 strongly as can be stated, and yet we doubt not that to the 
 reflecting people among you, a very little consideration will 
 induce you to agree to the justice of the verdict which our 
 church pronounces even upon such acts as these. Indeed 
 the very reason which our church gives for her decision, will 
 go far towards removing the objection from every unpre- 
 judiced mind. She says that these works " have the nature 
 of sin," simply, because " they are not done as God hath 
 willed and commanded them to be done." God has com- 
 manded, not that they should be left undone, but that they 
 should be done from love to his name, that they should be 
 the fruits of a true and living faith ; if, then, they are per- 
 formed, but performed from any other motive, for it is un- 
 necessary to refer to their inherent imperfection and corrup- 
 tion, but if they are performed from any other motive than 
 God has commanded, it is clear that as regards God and the 
 actor of those works, they " have the nature of sin," they 
 are the breach of a command, instead of the fulfilment of one, 
 and however estimable in the sight of our fellow men, can- 
 not be pleasant to him whose will they are opposing. For 
 instance, if we are charitable to obtain the praise of men ; if 
 
 * Job xxix. 13 
 
52 DISCOURSE IV. 
 
 we are benevolent to gratify the feelings of a heart bleeding 
 at the sight of others' woes ; if we are liberal, because it 
 fosters our vanity ; if we are just, because it satisfies our high- 
 mindedness ; if we are kind and condescending, because it 
 ministers to our pride ; can we affect surprise that, however 
 pleasing to God may be the actions taken abstractedly, and 
 without reference to the actor, they have " the nature of sin" 
 when taken with reference to the actor, and are really sinful 
 as regards his motives, principles, and objects. 
 
 There is an incident in ancient history, which may, per- 
 haps, tend to illustrate this. You will recollect in Roman 
 story, that at a time when the discipline of the army pecu- 
 liarly required the most entire and positive obedience to the 
 orders of the commander, that commander forbade that any 
 individual should leave the ranks, upon any pretence, under 
 pain of immediate death. The order was, as you will re- 
 member, violated by his own son, who, indignant at the in- 
 sults, and menaces, and scorn, of some champion of the enemy, 
 spurred forth to meet him, and having slain him in single 
 combat, brought back the trophies to his father's feet. 
 
 We need riot remind you, that the conqueror was ordered 
 to immediate execution. The act of heroism, which, if per- 
 formed in obedience to command, would have deserved and 
 received the crown, performed as it was, in direct opposition 
 to command, conducted its perpetrator, and with perfect jus- 
 tice to the scaffold. We are not defending the feeling, or the 
 morality of the act, but its justice, which is the only part of 
 the incident which forms any parallel to the subject before us. 
 
 It was just that the commander should order the delinquent 
 to execution ; it is just that God should view with displeasure, 
 and treat as sins, those acts which, however grateful to the 
 natural feeling, are destitute of all that can give them value 
 in his eyes, because they are done with no single reference 
 to himself, because they are performed neither in obedience 
 to his will, nor in love and honour to his name, nor with any 
 desire for his glory. 
 
ARTICLES XII. XIII. XIV. 53 
 
 The third error into which men have fallen respecting good 
 works, is, that it is possible to present so large an abundance 
 of them to God in the life of a truly converted man of God, 
 that he may render far more of them, out of his great zeal, 
 and love to God, than God ever required at his hands. This, 
 I need scarcely tell you, is the Romish doctrine of *' works 
 of supererogation." Upon this it is unnecessary to dwell ; 
 if there be a Protestant inclined to maintain so unscriptural a 
 dogma, it is enough for him to consider what God really re- 
 quires, before he presumes to pronounce that more can be 
 rendered. Almost a single extract from the Divine Word 
 will set this at rest for ever. Our Lord himself has said, 
 "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and 
 with all thy soul, and with all thy mind," and, " thy neigh- 
 bour as thyself."* It is perfectly evident that before works 
 of supererogation can commence, works positively enjoined, 
 and commanded, must have been completed. We do not 
 ask, where then is the man who has thus perfectly loved 
 both God and his neighbour ; we might allow for a moment, 
 that such a one could be found, but granting this, what pos- 
 sibility could exist of giving more love than could be given 
 when he gave the whole heart ; or doing more duties than 
 could be done, when he is already engaged to the utmost 
 efforts of his whole soul, and mind, and strength, in perform- 
 ing what is absolutely required of him ? The inquiry in- 
 volves a contradiction even in terms ; the point is too obvious 
 to reason upon ; and our Article therefore wisely shuts it up 
 with the single observation, " CHRIST SAITH PLAINLY, When 
 ye have done all that are commanded to you, say, We are 
 unprofitable servants." 
 
 But there is yet a fourth error with respect to this same 
 subject, the very contrary to these which we have already 
 considered, but still not less an error than those which have 
 preceded it. This is the error of the Antinomians, who con- 
 
 * Matt. xxii. 37 and 39. 
 
 5* 
 
54 DISCOURSE IV. 
 
 tend that in the persons of the justified, neither evil works 
 nor good works are of any account : that sin in them will 
 not oflend God, and that works of piety, or holiness, 01 
 charity, are not necessary to please him : in fact, that every 
 thing beyond the one great doctrine and the one great privi- 
 lege of the justified, the "being in Christ" is utterly value- 
 less and immaterial. It is for the purpose of counteracting 
 this most licentious doctrine, as well as for establishing that 
 truth which we considered in the last discourse, that we 
 are not "accounted righteous" "for our own works or de- 
 servings," that the twelfth Article was appointed. These 
 are the words of the Article. 
 
 XII. Of good Works. 
 
 "Albeit that good works, which are the fruits of faith, and 
 follow after justification, cannot put away our sins and endure 
 the severity of God's judgment, yet are they pleasing and 
 acceptable to God in Christ, and do spring out necessarily 
 of a true and lively faith ; insomuch that by them a lively 
 faith may be as evidently known, as a tree discerned by the 
 fruit." 
 
 Upon the former part of this Article, which refers to the 
 first error that we have enumerated, and plainly declares that 
 " good works cannot put away our sins," we need not dwell, 
 having shown this most distinctly from the Word of God and 
 the authority of our church, while explaining the doctrine of 
 justification. Neither need we corroborate it by the Homi- 
 lies ; it is sufficient to refer you to the Homily,* in three 
 parts, dedicated to this express subject. We will, therefore, 
 on this portion of the Article, only add a single testimony, 
 too valuable to be omitted, from the admirable sermon of 
 Hooker, from which we quoted in the last discourse, and 
 which is as clear upon the necessity of good works in their 
 
 * See Homily on " Good Works." 
 
ART 1C LES XII. XIII. IV. 55 
 
 place, and the utter fruitlessness of them when taken out of 
 their place, as the last passage which we cited from him, was 
 upon the nature of the sinner's justification. These are his 
 W ords " The best things we do have somewhat in them to 
 be pardoned ; how then can we do any thing meritorious or 
 worthy to be rewarded ? Wherefore we acknowledge a duti- 
 ful necessity of doing well ; but the meritorious dignity of 
 doing well, we utterly renounce. We see how far we are 
 from the perfect righteousness of the law. The little fruit 
 we have in holiness, is, God knoweth, corrupt and unsound ; 
 we have no confidence in it ; we challenge nothing in the 
 world for it. We dare riot call God to reckoning, as if we 
 had him in our debt-books. Our continual suit to him is, 
 and must be, to bear with our infirmities, and pardon our 
 offences."* 
 
 The Article before us having decided this point, continues 
 most justly and scripturally to observe, though "good 
 works cannot put away our sins," which the mere legalist 
 believes that they can ; or " endure the severity of God's 
 judgment," which the Council of Trent expressly decreed 
 that they could ; " yet are they pleasing, and acceptable to 
 God in Christ, and do spring out necessarily of a true and 
 lively faith."t 
 
 Nothing can be more scripturally correct, or more scrip- 
 turally guarded, than these expressions of our church ; they 
 give that weight and prominency to good works which the 
 Word of God gives, but nothing further. They do not even 
 distinctly assert that no man can enter heaven without good 
 works, because, though unquestionably such is the rule, yet 
 the compilers of our Articles, well knew that there might be, 
 and that indeed there must be, many exceptions. For, as 
 the first part of the Homily on good works, quaintly, but 
 truly says, " I can show a man that by faith, without works, 
 lived and came to heaven ; but without faith never man had 
 
 * Disc. Just. sec. 7. t See Burnet on Art. 12. 
 
56 DISCOURSEIV. 
 
 life. The thief that was hanged when Christ suffered, did 
 believe only ; and the most merciful God justified and saved 
 him. And because no man shall say again that he lacked 
 time to do good works, for else he would have done them ; 
 truth it is, and I will not contend therein: but this I will 
 truly affirm, that faith only saved him."* 
 
 As long as we believe in the possibility of what is called 
 * 4 a deathbed repentance" however rare; as long as we 
 would not exclude from heaven even those who are called 
 to God at the eleventh hour, and in the last closing scene of 
 life are led by the grace of God to lay hold of that salvation 
 which Christ has purchased for them ; so long we must also 
 believe that it is possible for the truly penitent and converted 
 sinner to enter into the kingdom of God, with heart and 
 affections fully prepared to bring forth a harvest of good 
 fruits to the glory of God, though time and opportunity have 
 been on earth denied him. 
 
 It is, however, of the rule, and not of its exceptions, that 
 we would speak ; and all scripture demonstrates that the rule 
 is, " He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth 
 forth much fruit."t We say that all Scripture is full of this 
 important doctrine ; asserting at one time,- that " In Christ 
 Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircum- 
 cision, but faith which worketh by love."J At another, 
 showing that good works are " pleasing and acceptable unto 
 God," when it declares, " God is not unrighteous to forget 
 your work and labour of love." And again, "I heard a 
 voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the 
 dead which die in the Lord from henceforth ; yea, saith the 
 Spirit, that they may rest from their labours, and their works 
 do follow them. "|| 
 
 But, brethren, it is not enough that we acknowledge this, 
 as a matter of orthodox and spiritual truth ; the question is, 
 
 * P. 40, 8vo. ed. Oxford, 1802. t John xv. 5. 
 
 t Gal. v. 6. $ Heb. vi. 10. II Rev. xiv. 13. 
 
ARTICLES XII. XIII. XIV. 57 
 
 do we steadily, perseveringly, and consistently act upon it as 
 the rule of our lives? Are we thus engaged in "bringing 
 forth much fruit" to the glory of God? What a libel upon 
 Christianity are the unfruitful lives of its professors ! The 
 worldly followers of a religion, one of whose first injunctions 
 is that the world should be crucified to us, and we unto the 
 world.* The self-pleasing followers of a Saviour, who dis- 
 tinctly declared, " Whosoever doth not bear his cross and 
 come after me, cannot be my disciple. "t The unkind and 
 unamiable, and unlovely followers of Him whose example 
 and whose Word have said, " This is my commandment, That 
 ye love one another as I have loved you."J 
 
 Let us, then, in conclusion, shortly apply the great lesson 
 before us. And here it is obvious, that I can address myself 
 only to the converted and the renewed people of God, and for 
 this simple reason that, as we have seen both from the twelfth 
 and thirteenth articles, none other but they who are really 
 justified before God, can perform what holy Scripture and 
 our church denominate " good works." To you, then, we 
 would not be content to say, you must be just, and honour- 
 able, and charitable, and amiable, and condescending, and 
 humble, and meek, and affectionate, and true, but we would 
 say with the Apostle, " Whatsoever things are true, whatso- 
 ever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever 
 things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report ; if 
 there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think on" and 
 practise " these things. " Yea, we would go farther still, 
 and say with our divine Master, " What do ye more than 
 others ?"|| implying in the strongest possible manner that the 
 true followers of God must not only believe more, but " do 
 more than others." So far from the free salvation, of which 
 you are the blessed subjects, exonerating you in any, the 
 smallest degree, from those moral duties which it is the 
 
 * See Gal. vi 14. t Lukexiv. 27. t John xv. 12. 
 
 $ Phil. iv. 8. || Matt. y. 47. 
 
58 DISCOURSE IV. 
 
 boast of the world, though God knows it is an empty boast, 
 that they perform ; more, infinitely more, is expected from 
 the man of God, than is even aimed at by the man of the 
 world. Is the worldly man, for instance, punctual in all his 
 engagements, upright and honourable in every thing which 
 he undertakes ; you must be more scrupulously so, you must 
 excel him in the measure of your good works, as much as 
 you undoubtedly already excel him in the motives of them. 
 He performs all these duties, because they are expected of 
 him by his fellow-men, because they are part and parcel of 
 that code of honour to which every highminded man of the 
 world considers himself amenable, and without a scrupulous 
 attention to which he could not for a single day maintain his 
 footing in society. You are expected to perform them, and 
 if you are a sincere follower of God, you will perform them, 
 as the fruits of a true and lively faith. Knowing how much 
 God has done for you, utterly undeserving, you will endeavour 
 to act in such a manner towards your fellow-men, though 
 equally undeserving, not, as shall best serve your interest in 
 a selfish world, but as shall be most acceptable to a God of 
 purity, a God of justice, a God of love.* Gratitude alone 
 would insure this at your hands, for knowing what you have 
 received, you will be always asking, " What shall I render ?"* 
 but more than gratitude demands it. Your good works must 
 be the evidence of your gratitude, but they must also be the 
 fruits of " a true and lively faith." " Without holiness no 
 man shall see the Lord ;"t and has not the Word of God 
 itself declared that the Lord Jesus Christ " became the author 
 of eternal salvation unto all them that OBEY him."f We do 
 not scruple therefore to tell you that " faith without works is 
 dead, being alone," that you may boast of the highest 
 spiritual attainments, of the most exalted faith, of the deepest 
 experience, and yet, wanting those Christian virtues, which 
 
 * Psalm cxvi. 12. t Heb. xii. 14. 
 
 t Heb. r. 9. $ James ii. 17. 
 
ARTICLES XII. XIII. XIV. 59 
 
 endear man to his fellows, and which liken him to the meek, 
 and lowly, and forgiving, and compassionate Redeemer, you 
 are in reality destitute of that saving faith from which they 
 necessarily spring, and you have therefore neither part nor 
 lot in the salvation which it secures. 
 
 My Christian brethren, we own we do at all times feel it 
 necessary to speak strongly upon these practical subjects, 
 because we firmly believe that one unholy and inconsistent, 
 or even worldly and fruitless professor of religion, does more 
 injury to the true cause of the Redeemer, than many open 
 reprobates. And yet, alas ! are there none such among us ? 
 Are there none who, holding all the great and saving truths 
 of the Gospel with the most perfect accuracy, may yet de- 
 rive many a lesson of amiability, and disinterestedness, and 
 humility, and brotherly kindness, and affectionate forbearance, 
 from some who are not yet known to be partakers of the 
 " grace of Christ ?" Are there none who would find it diffi- 
 cult, in looking back upon the week which has just closed 
 upon us, to distinguish a single " good work" a single fruit 
 of faith, laid as a thank-offering upon the altar of their God ? 
 Surely these things ought not so to be ; for is it not thus, 
 that we cause the way of truth to be evil spoken of, " the 
 name of God to be blasphemed,"* the Saviour to be " wounded 
 in the house of his friends,"! and the preaching of the ever- 
 lasting Gospel, with its one great truth, "justification by 
 faith only" to be treated by the ignorant, or the malevolent, 
 as an unholy and licentious fable ? 
 
 If therefore you love " the truth as it is in Jesus ;"J if you 
 love the Saviour who proclaimed it; if you love your own 
 souls, and your own eternity, be constant in well-doing ; 
 whether it be to spiritual duties, or to temporal duties, that 
 the occasion calls you, be first and foremost in them all, 
 " doing whatsoever your hand findeth to do with your might," 
 
 * Rom. ii. 24 ; Titus ii. 5, t Zech. xiii. 6. 
 
 t Eph. iv. 21. $ Eccles. ix. 10. 
 
60 DISCOURSE V. 
 
 " letting your light so shine before men, that they may see 
 your good works, and glorify your Father which Is in hea- 
 ven"* " being filled with the fruits of righteousness which 
 are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God."t 
 
 DISCOURSE V. 
 
 ACTS iv. part of verse 12. 
 
 There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we 
 must be saved. 
 
 HAVING on the last occasion of addressing you, considered 
 the three Articles, viz., twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth, 
 which treat of " Good Works," it is my intention to-day, to 
 bring before you the three Articles, viz., fifteenth, sixteenth, 
 and eighteenth, which treat upon the important subjects of the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, and of Sin. The two of these, which 
 will form the first subjects of our observations this morning, 
 are the fifteenth and the eighteenth. 
 
 XV. Of Christ alone without sin. 
 
 " Christ, in the truth of our nature, was made like unto 
 us in all things, sin only excepted, from which He was 
 clearly void, both in his flesh and in his spirit," 
 
 That this commencement of the Article is founded entirely 
 upon the declarations of God's Word, will be immediately 
 apparent from these well-known passages of Scripture : 
 " Forasmuch as the children are partakers of the flesh and 
 blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same/' 
 Therefore was our Lord certainly made like us "in the truth" 
 or the reality " of our nature. "J That he was void of sin, 
 
 * Matt. v. 16. t Phil. i. 11. t Heb. ii. 14. 
 
ARTICLES XV. XVI. XVIII. 61 
 
 " both in his flesh and in his spirit," is equally apparent from 
 these declarations, " In all points tempted like as we are, 
 not without sin."* " The prince of this world," Satan, 
 " cometh, and hath nothing in me,"t " He did no sin, neither 
 was guile found in his mouth ;"J and many other passages 
 which are familiar to us all. 
 
 It is impossible to read these valuable documents of our 
 church without being continually struck with that providen- 
 tial direction, by which their compilers were led to controvert 
 ancient heresies, by asserting the true and scriptural views of 
 all these important subjects, and thus to correct by anticipa- 
 tion, those errors which should in after ages spring up, to 
 delude and deceive the people of God. We have in this first 
 sentence, the distinct opinion of the holy men of our church, 
 not only upon one of the errors of Socinus, that Christ was 
 peccable, but also upon that modern revival of the heresy of 
 Nestorius, which, by asserting that the nature of our blessed 
 Lord was a " fallen nature," and his flesh "sinful flesh," ap- 
 plies language to the flesh of Christ, which even they would 
 not apply to Christ himself, thus making two persons in 
 Christ, which was the very essence of Nestorianism, opening 
 at once the floodgates to those low and unworthy views of 
 the Saviour of the world, which are as much at variance with 
 the express declarations of his eternal Godhead, as they are 
 opposed to the leading doctrines of Christianity, his " perfect 
 sacrifice," and perfect manhood. 
 
 For as the Article before us truly adds, " He came to be 
 the Lamb without spot, 'who by sacrifice of himself once 
 made, should take away the sins of the world, and sin, as 
 St. John saith, was not in him." If, therefore, our Lord 
 had had only a fallen nature to offer, instead of being " the 
 Lamb without spot,"[] his would have been a blemished sacri- 
 fice, and he would himself have needed that with which no 
 
 * Heb. iv. 15. t John xiv. 30. t 1 Pet. ii. 22. 
 
 $ 1 John iii. 5. || 1 Pet. i. 19. 
 
62 D I S C O U R S E V. 
 
 other being throughout the universe could have supplied him, 
 a perfect offering to satisfy the justice of God. 
 
 "But all we the rest," continues the Article, "although 
 baptized, and born again in Christ, yet offend in many things, 
 and if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the 
 truth is not in us."* 
 
 What has been already remarked respecting the former 
 clause of the Article, is equally true with regard to this. It 
 was originally levelled against the Pelagians, who maintained 
 that " persons after baptism might live without sjn," and in 
 this they were countenanced by some of the Anabaptists of 
 former days, and are, we fear, even now followed by some 
 sectaries at the present day. 
 
 It is perhaps vain to have recourse to argument to convince 
 those, whom the daily experience of their own hearts and 
 lives leaves unconvinced ; or else we might remind them of 
 the irresistible testimony afforded by that form of daily prayer 
 which probably none among them habitually neglect, " For- 
 give us our trespasses." Whence can come the daily need 
 of such a petition, directed by our Lord himself, and adopted 
 in every age by the holiest people of God, if there can be a 
 state in which the believer while on earth lives free from daily 
 sin ? Surely the more devoted, the more consistent, the more 
 closely we are enabled by God's grace to walk in the command- 
 ments and laws of our heavenly Father, the more sensible 
 will the heart become, of every, the slightest, deviation from 
 those laws. While the indifferent or the formalist will pass 
 through days, and weeks, and months, without experiencing, 
 perhaps, one reproachful feeling, one distressful consciousness 
 lhat he has deviated from the strait and narrow path, the 
 renewed child of God will never lay his head in peace upon 
 his pillow, until he has sought and found forgiveness through 
 the blood of Christ, for the numberless sins of omission and 
 of commission which if unforgiven, each day, as it passes away 
 
 * 1 John i. 8. 
 
ARTICLES XV. XVI. XVIII. 63 
 
 for ever, carries up with it to the throne of the Eternal, and 
 registers in the book of God's remembrance. 
 
 Having thus borne its true and scriptural testimony to the 
 sinlessness of Christ and the sinfulness of man, the church 
 in the eighteenth Article continues thus : 
 
 XVIII. Of obtaining eternal salvation only by the name of 
 Christ. 
 
 " They also are to be had accursed that presume to say, 
 that every man shall be saved by the law or sect which he 
 professeth, so that he be diligent to frame his life according 
 to that law, and the light of nature. For Holy Scripture 
 doth set out unto us only the name of Jesus Christ, whereby 
 men must be saved." 
 
 In these days of spurious liberality, it is not surprising 
 that this Article, misunderstood as it so frequently is, should 
 have been so widely reprobated. It has been publicly as- 
 serted, and upon the authority of the Article before us, that 
 the church of England is as intolerant as the church of Rome, 
 and condemns all to perdition who do not hold the truths of 
 God's word precisely as she herself holds them. Nothing, 
 as we shall see in the sequel, can be more unjust, or more 
 untrue ; still we are well aware, that, explain it as we may, 
 there will always be much in the great truth contained in the 
 Article, which will be hostile to the feelings of the natural 
 heart. So long as the sentiment of the well-known distich 
 retains its popularity in the world, 
 
 " For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight. 
 His can't be wrong whose life is in the right.' 
 
 the multitude will always be opposed to the great Scriptural 
 doctrine, of the Article before us. This, however, will in no 
 degree influence the true Christian ; his inquiry will never be, 
 what is the opinion of the world, upon any point connected 
 with his duty to God : it will be simply this, " What saith 
 
64 DISCOURSE V. 
 
 the Lord ? Is the voice of my church, upon this subject, in 
 accordance with the voice of my God? If it be, let those 
 reject the voice who have already rejected the speaker, but 
 let the language of my heart always be, ' Speak, Lord, for 
 thy servant heareth.' "* Thus, then, saith the Lord, " This 
 is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which 
 is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation 
 in any other ; for there is none other name under heaven 
 given among men whereby we must be saved. "t And again, 
 " He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the 
 Son of God hath not life. "if " He that believeth not, is con- 
 demned already, because he hath not believed in the name of 
 the only-begotten Son of God." 
 
 This, then, at once strikes at the root of all that false, and 
 hollow affectation of liberality, which would encourage the 
 natural heart of man in its pride, and obstinacy, by teaching 
 that whatever be " the law" which we follow, or " the sect" 
 to which we belong, if we but " be diligent to frame our lives 
 according to that law," all will be well. This assures us 
 upon the authority of God himself, that so far from man not 
 being accountable for his religious creed, and consequently 
 not punishable for its defect, so far from that man's faith being 
 necessarily right, whose life is not pronounced to be wrong, 
 by the world around him, that every man to whom the Gos 
 pel has ever been proposed, or who, from providential cir- 
 cumstances, might, had he so pleased, have become acquainted 
 with it, shall most assuredly, if he have not found pardon, 
 and peace with God, through the name of Jesus, and through 
 that alone, be in the end a cast-away, We well know how 
 unpalatable such a truth as this must be, to every individual 
 who is endeavouring to build himself up in the false and futile 
 expectation, that what he considers a good life, or sincerity 
 in the creed which he professes, although that creed exclude 
 
 * 1 Sam, iii. 9. t Acts iv. 11, 12. 
 
 t 1 John v.l 2. * John iii. 18. 
 
ARTICLES XV. XVI. XVIII. 65 
 
 all the peculiar doctrines of the Gospel, even to the divinity 
 or atonement of the Lord Jesus, shall at the last great day 
 be found sufficient. But we dare not conceal, we dare not 
 modify even the terms in which God himself, in the person 
 of the only begotten Son, has pronounced this affecting, this 
 vital truth. He has said it, and one jot, or one tittle of His 
 Word, shall by no means pass away till all be fulfilled ; " He 
 that believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved; but he that 
 believeth not shall be damned,"* This is the sentence of 
 Him who was love itself, and shall man affect to be more 
 charitable than his Maker ? Shall man, for the sake of not 
 inflicting a moment's pain, or of not giving lasting offence to 
 his fellow-sinners, presume to alter the terms of such a mes- 
 sage, and say, that any thing short of a full and entire recog- 
 nition of the great truths, of the Gospel, a full and complete 
 dependence upon the Lord Jesus Christ, and upon him alone, 
 will be sufficient for the salvation of a soul ? No, brethren, 
 we dare not do it ; better to plant a sting in every heart be- 
 fore us at this moment, which has not yet made its peace with 
 God through the only Saviour; better to be convicted by a 
 world's unanimous sentence, of bigotry, of superstition, of 
 uncharitableness, of illiberality, and an utter ignorance of all 
 that man, in the vain pride of his intellect, thinks worthy of 
 his attainments ; yes, better far to be treated, as the Apostles 
 before us were, as " the offscouring of all things,"! than by 
 concealing, or modifying this awful truth, to leave you un- 
 disturbed in your error, and your self-complacency, until the 
 last great day shall undeceive you. We repeat, then, and we 
 pray, that while repeating it, the Spirit of God may so stamp 
 it upon your souls, that the ceaseless flow of time taay have 
 no power to efface, and to obliberate it ; that they " are to 
 be had accursed," who presume to tell you that your sincerity, 
 or your ignorance, or your wisdom, or your imaginary holi- 
 ness (for real holiness out of Christ there can be none,) will 
 
 * Mark xvi. 16. t 1 Cor. iv. 13. 
 
66 DISCOURSE V. 
 
 avail to save you, so that you "be but diligent to frame your 
 life," according to what you imagine to be God's law, and 
 the light of nature ; Christ, and Christ alone, " is the way, 
 the truth, and the life ; no man cometh unto the Father but 
 by Him."* In Him, you are, as we have already seen, 
 "justified by faith," and at " peace with God ;"t out of Him, 
 and all virtues, all obedience, all rectitude of moral conduct, 
 are, as regards your soul's salvation, literally nothing worth ; 
 you are exposed, helpless, destitute, and forlorn, to the 
 avenging tempest of the wrath of God, " a fiery deluge and 
 without an ark." 
 
 Here then would we, as Christian ministers, take our stand. 
 All other points are comparatively trifling, but this, this indeed 
 is vital. Upon this, we would urge you, we would pray for 
 you, we would entreat you, we would run every risk, even 
 to the offending you, and wearying you, and driving you from 
 us, rather than at the great day you should be enabled to say, 
 the Lord Jesus Christ was never clearly proposed to me as 
 the only Saviour of my soul : I heard of Him as the world 
 hears of Him, but never as my only hope and my only safety. 
 Are there then, any of you, in a single person among you 
 destitute of this hope, this safety, this refuge ? Is there one 
 who is experimentally ignorant, that " there is none other 
 name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be 
 saved ?" To that one we would say, this day the Lord 
 waiteth to be gracious, this day He freely offers to you pardon 
 and peace. He "stretches forth His hands'^ (it is God's 
 own metaphor) to receive you to Himself, only cast your- 
 self fully and unreservedly upon Him, commit your soul to 
 Him as unto a gracious Creator, and His blood shall cleanse, 
 His righteousness justify, and His promised Spirit renew, 
 and sanctify your soul. Yours shall be on earth, the privi- 
 leges of the children of God, and in heaven, an abundant en- 
 trance into their Father's mansion. 
 
 * John xiv. 6. t Rom. v. 1. t Rom. x. 21; Isa. v. 25, &c. 
 
ARTICLES XV. XVI. XVIII. 67 
 
 There is yet one other subject, but purely a speculative 
 one, connected with this Article, upon which, perhaps it may 
 be expected that we should touch. If the words of our 
 church be literally true, that it is an accursed thing to say, 
 that any man shall be saved " by the law or sect which he 
 professeth," then what opinion must be given upon the state 
 of the heathen world ? There are, as it is supposed, upwards 
 of six hundred millions of immortal souls at the present mo- 
 ment, living upon the earth in utter ignorance of that holy 
 name, " whereby men must be saved." Every century, 
 therefore, more, probably, than eighteen hundred millions of 
 persons, are passing to their long and last account, having no 
 hope, and without God in the world."* What opinion are 
 we to give respecting their final state ? It might be sufficient 
 to repeat our Lord's own answer when subjected to a very 
 similar inquiry, " Lord, are there few that shall be saved ?" 
 And Jesus answered, " strive to enter in at the strait gate."t 
 But as our church has been supposed by some to have over- 
 stepped her accustomed prudence, and to speak plainly, 
 where God has intended to speak obscurely, a few moments 
 will not be missapplied, in the consideration of the passage 
 in question. And here, although in so saying we shall differ 
 from many with whom we usually agree, we cannot but con- 
 fess that Bishop Burnet's interpretation of that portion of the 
 Article which refers to those to whom the Christian religion 
 has never been revealed, appears to us a very sound and cor- 
 rect one, viz., that there is a great difference to be observed 
 between the words, * saved by the law,' and saved ' in the 
 law :'f the one condemned, but not the other. To be saved 
 by a law or sect, signifies that by the virtue of that law or 
 
 * Ephes. ii. 12. t Luke xiii. 23, 24. 
 
 T "We are aware that in the Latin copy of the Article it is expressed, 
 " in lege aut secta;" but as the English and Latin Articles are of equal 
 authority, it is clear that the compilers never intended by the Latin phrase 
 to express " in the law or sect ;" for had they done so, they would most 
 certainly so have rendered it in the English copy. Author. 
 
68 DISCOURSE V. 
 
 sect such men who follow it may be saved ; whereas to be 
 saved in a law or sect, imports only that God may extend his 
 compassions to men that are engaged in false religions. The 
 former only is condemned by this Article, which affirms 
 nothing concerning the other."* Of this we are quite certain, 
 because God himself has pronounced it, that " there is none 
 other name," but the name of Christ, by which men can be 
 saved ;" therefore we must be most careful, that while we do 
 not draw a single inference which shall increase the severity 
 of God beyond what Scripture has distinctly revealed con- 
 cerning it, so neither must we increase the mercy of God, so 
 that it shall interfere with his justice or his truth : we can 
 therefore only say, that all who shall be saved must be saved 
 by Christ; but whether his atoning blood may not be effica- 
 cious, for the remission of the sins of those, who have never 
 had the opportunity of acquiring a knowledge of his sacrifice, 
 whether his name may not be " a savour of life unto life,"t 
 to some who, having never heard it, can never have called 
 upon that blessed name, it is not for man to determine, al- 
 though it is nowhere forbidden man to hope and to believe it. 
 Our church has wisely expressed no opinion upon this most 
 difficult point, and we would imitate her prudence, resting 
 our hopes of the salvation of these benighted souls, upon our 
 knowledge of the character of that God with whom we have 
 to do, and the infinite love and " unsearchable riches of 
 Christ ;"J and resting our certainty, that they shall receive 
 justice at the hand of God, upon that express declaration of 
 his own unerring word, " There is no respect of persons with 
 God. For as many as have sinned without law, shall also 
 perish without law : and as many as have sinned in the law, 
 shall be judged by the law ; (for not the hearers of the law 
 are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. 
 For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature, 
 
 * Bishop Burnet, p. 240, 8vo. Oxford, 1814. 
 
 t 2 Cor. ii. 16. t Ephes. iii. 8. 
 
ARTICLES XV. XVI. XVIII. 69 
 
 the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, 
 are a law unto themselves : which show the work of the law 
 written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, 
 and their thoughts the mean while accusing, or else excusing 
 one another ;) in the day when God shall judge the secrets 
 of men by Jesus Christ according to my Gospel."* That the 
 heathen, then, can be saved, may, we think, be believed, 
 without impugning a single word of the written testimony of 
 our God that they shall be saved, the last day only can de- 
 termine. 
 
 There yet remains the third of those Articles, which we 
 proposed to consider this morning, upon which to offer a few 
 brief observations : it is the sixteenth and entitled, - 
 
 XVI. Of sin after Baptism. 
 
 " Not every deadly sin, willingly committed after baptism, 
 is sin against the Holy Ghost and unpardonable. Wherefore 
 the grant of repentance is not to be denied to such as fall into 
 sin after baptism." 
 
 Having, on a former occasion, spoken at length, upon the 
 " sin against the Holy Ghost,"t it will here be only necessary 
 to remark, that the object of this portion of the Article is to 
 show, in opposition to those schismatics who were called 
 Novatians, that repentance may be sought, and found, even 
 by those who, after having been united by baptism to the 
 church of the Redeemer, and renewed in the Spirit of their 
 mind, have fallen into wilful sin. The error in the ancient 
 church upon this point, was, that no sin committed after bap- 
 tism could obtain pardon; and the consequence was, as is 
 invariably the case, that error in theory, led to error in prac- 
 tice ; that many, and among them was the Emperor Constan- 
 tine, delayed their baptism until the hour of death, probably 
 
 * Rom. ii. 1116. 
 
 t In (he lectures on the History of Christ, part 2, Lecture IV. 
 
70 DISCOURSE V. 
 
 that they might escape the possibility of falling away. All 
 Scripture, however, controverts this error ; vain would be 
 that petition of the Lord's prayer to which we have before 
 alluded if forgiveness were withheld from persons sinning 
 after baptism. While the opinion of the Apostolical church 
 on this subject, may be very conclusively gathered, from this 
 declaration of St. Paul to the Galations, " If any one is over- 
 taken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such a one in 
 the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be 
 tempted." Showing at once, that throughout the whole 
 church of Christ, even they who " are spiritual" and there- 
 fore certainly, all may be tempted, and all may fall into sin, 
 and all may be renewed again unto repentance. 
 
 The Article continues, " After we have received the Holy 
 Ghost, we may depart from grace given, and fall into sin, and 
 by the grace of God we may arise again and amend our 
 lives. And therefore they are to be condemned, which say, 
 they can no more sin as long as they live here, or deny the 
 place of forgiveness to such as truly repent." 
 
 With what remarkable prudence, does our church here 
 speak, upon one of those weighty and mysterious subjects, 
 which have so long divided the body of Christ. She does not 
 say, as doubtless many of her followers would have desired 
 her to say, " We may depart from grace given and fall into 
 sin, but, by the grace of God, we must arise again and amend 
 our lives ;" she contents herself with affirming, " we may 
 arise again and amend our lives," thus leaving the contested 
 subject of "final perseverance" untouched neither contra- 
 dicted, nor affirmed. Of all the high, and mysterious doctrines 
 of salvation, there appears to be none, upon which the Word 
 of God has spoken so little authoritatively as upon this sub- 
 ject. Well, therefore, would it be for us all to imitate the 
 wisdom of holy Scripture, and the modesty of our church, 
 upon points of such extreme, and inscrutable difficulty. The 
 practical view is the only view, which is essential to the well- 
 being of our souls, and therefore the only one which we 
 
ARTICLES XV. XVI. XVIII. 71 
 
 should be anxious that all should receive, as the undoubted 
 truth of God ; and the practical view is this, that the grace 
 of God is continually extended over us, that it \vill never be 
 withdrawn by God from any one of His believing and obey- 
 ing people; but, that "we may depart from grace given," 
 and that if by the prevalence of powerful temptation, we are 
 led to deviate from the strait and narrow path, God's grace 
 is still within our reach, and will, if sought, enable us to 
 " arise again and amend our lives," and regain our footing 
 on the heavenward path. More than this, brethren, we do 
 not feel it necessary to say. It is unquestionably true, that 
 " He which hath begun a good work in you, will perform it 
 until the day of Jesus Christ;"* but it is equally true that, 
 as Hooker well expresses it, " To our own safety, our own 
 sedulity is required." To our own ultimate perseverance 
 in grace, therefore, our own constant endeavours, after holi- 
 ness must be most closely allied ; and wretched indeed will be 
 the fate of those, who are driven to seek for comfort on a 
 dying bed, as he, of old, who asked his chaplain, " Can they 
 who have been once elect fall from grace ?" and upon being 
 answered in the negative, then took courage, from the con- 
 viction that he had once been among that happy number. 
 Building up their spiritual house, not on the only true foun- 
 dation, not upon a present dependence upon the love, and 
 sacrifice, and righteousness of a crucified Redeemer, but upon 
 some mysterious, or imaginary transaction, between God, and 
 their souls, the sanctifying effects of which have long since 
 passed away for ever. No, my beloved brethren, while you 
 remember for your comfort and encouragement, that " the 
 foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord 
 knoweth them that are His ;"t never forget that this seal of 
 your Christian character has two sides, and that if that be 
 engraven on the one, we have the same Divine authority for 
 
 Phil. i. 6. t 2 Tim. ii. 19. 
 
72 DISCOURSE VI. 
 
 knowing that this is inscribed upon the other, " Let every one 
 that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity." 
 
 Let me then urge you, brethren, " by the mercies of God,"* 
 to fear sin, all sin, even the least sin, as a " deadly" evil,t as 
 that which alone can cast both soul and body into hell. 
 " Watch and pray lest ye enter into temptation,";]: knowing 
 that as the smallest aperture is sufficient to sink the largest 
 vessel, so also the smallest sin allowed in the soul, will make 
 an opening, through which every wave of corruption will 
 flow in, until, unless the grace of God be miraculously exerted 
 in your behalf, all will be lost. While therefore you live in 
 the fullest reliance upon the promises of God, the fullest en- 
 joyment of your privileges, live also in the daily, hourly 
 waiting upon a throne of grace, for strength to serve God 
 acceptably, with reverence, and godly fear ; knowing that 
 He who is a sun and shield to His people, is, to every evil- 
 doer, whatever his profession of service, " a consuming 
 fire." 
 
 DISCOURSE VI. 
 
 2 PETER i. part ver. 10 
 Give diligence to make your calling and election sure. 
 
 WE arrive this morning at the seventeenth Article of our 
 church ; an Article upon which the compilers appear to have 
 bestowed more minute attention, and to have exercised, if 
 possible, a greater degree of thoughtful ness and care, and to 
 have been assisted with wisdom from on high, even in a more 
 signal manner, than in any other, which they have handed 
 down to us. Well have they said, that " the godly considera- 
 
 * Rom. xii. 1. t Matt. x. 28. 
 
 t Matt. xxvi. 41. $ Deut. iv. 24, and Heb. xii. 29. 
 
ARTICLE XVI I. 73 
 
 tion" of the sublime subjects it contains, " is full of sweet, 
 pleasant, and unspeakable comfort ;" but wisely have they 
 added, that it is so only, " to godly persons, and such as feel 
 in themselves the working of the Spirit of Christ, mortifying 
 the works of the flesh, and their earthly members, and draw- 
 ing up their minds to high, and heavenly things." May the 
 spirit of God render our consideration of these high mysteries, 
 " a godly consideration ;" not suffering us to intrude into 
 " the secret things, which belong to the Lord our God," or to 
 attempt to explain what God has hidden, or to presume to 
 speak dogmatically, or confidently, upon subjects which shall 
 never be made clear to us here below ; but may He bestow 
 upon us the wisdom, to take a simple, and scriptural, a chari- 
 table, and practical view of a question, upon which it is in 
 vain to hope, that even true Christians shall perfectly agree, 
 until they arrive at that blessed place, into which neither mis- 
 conception, nor controversy shall enter, but where all shall be 
 union, and harmony, and peace. 
 
 I shall, as on former occasions, confine myself simply to 
 the declarations of the Article before us, which are of them- 
 selves, fully sufficient to occupy our attention, without enter- 
 ing into the immeasurable fields of this vast subject that lie 
 beyond. 
 
 XVII. Of Predestination and Election. 
 
 " Predestination to life is the everlasting purpose of God, 
 whereby (before the foundations of the world were laid) he 
 hath constantly decreed by His counsel, secret to us, to de- 
 liver from curse and damnation those whom he hath chosen 
 in Christ out of mankind, and to bring them by Christ to 
 everlasting salvation, as vessels made to honour." 
 
 It is impossible for any person of common attention to read 
 the Word of God, without discovering that throughout the 
 pages both of the Old and New Testament, the Almighty is 
 represented as taking a more immediate, and intimate interest 
 
 7 
 
74 x DISCOURSE VI. 
 
 in the affairs of men, than merely foreknowing, and superin- 
 tending them. God is spoken of, in fact, as interfering from 
 time to time in the appointment and choice of human instru- 
 ments, as well as in ruling, and overruling all. This Divine 
 appointment or choice occurs, indeed, so frequently in Holy 
 Writ, that it cannot be overlooked, and it may tend to the 
 better understanding of the declaration of our, church, if we 
 shortly examine the different senses in which the term is em- 
 ployed, that we may discover with what intention our church 
 has applied it in the Article before us. 
 
 First, then, we find the term choosing adopted in various 
 portions of the Divine word, with reference to certain offices, 
 or employments, to which individuals were in some especial 
 manner, chosen or elected of God. Such, for instance, was 
 the case of Saul, the first king of Israel, of whom we find the 
 prophet Samuel asserting in the presence of all the people, 
 '* See ye him whom the Lord hath chosen."* So again with 
 reference to the twelve Apostles, " Jesus answered them, 
 Have not I chosen you twelve ?" 
 
 Again, we find choice, or election, spoken of with reference 
 to national advantages, and national privileges, of which many 
 examples might be adduced. For instance, with regard to the 
 children of Israel, we read in Deut. vii. 6, '* The Lord thy 
 God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself;" 
 and again in Isaiah Ixv. 9, speaking of the same people, we 
 find the Almighty saying, " Mine elect shall inherit it ;" and 
 again, verse 22, " Mine elect shall long enjoy the work of 
 their hands." While Su Peter adopts the same method of 
 speaking of the Christian church, as a body, the visible church 
 of Christ, as having been elected into the same place of spi 
 ritual privileges, and spiritual advantages, from which the 
 Jews had by transgression fallen, when he says, " Ye are a 
 chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a pecu- 
 liar people." 
 
 * 1 Sam. x. 24. 
 
ARTICLE XVI I. 75 
 
 Thus far, probably, no one will demur to the explanation, 
 which has been offered ; but there is still a third sense, in 
 which the same phrases of electing or choosing appear to be 
 employed in Holy Writ ; and this is election, not of nations, 
 but of persons, and not merely to the external means of sal- 
 vation, or to church privileges, but to everlasting life. 
 
 The great difficulty is, among the number of passages which 
 immediately present themselves to the mind of every attentive 
 reader of Holy Writ, to select such only as offer the least 
 temptation to those endless discussions, and verbal differences, 
 which have always perplexed this mysterious subject. For 
 this purpose, we are disposed to omit all reference, to the 
 many testimonies borne throughout the epistles, to the doc- 
 trine upon which we are commenting, and by which it is 
 usual to establish its truth ; we will not even detain you, by 
 considering that unanswerable passage, "We are bound to 
 give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the 
 Lord, because God hath from the beginning CHOSEN YOU TO 
 SALVATION, through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of 
 the truth, whereunto He called you by our Gospel to the ob- 
 taining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ;"* but we will 
 go at once to the Gospel itself, and to the words of Him who 
 spake as never man before, or since, has spoken ; leaving it 
 to yourselves to search for the corroboration, or refutation of 
 these high doctrines, in those inspired writings of the Apostles, 
 which have ever been considered by the church, as the best 
 commentary upon the words of their master. 
 
 We shall first, then, refer to our Lord's declaration respect- 
 ing his Apostles. 
 
 We have already quoted a passage, in which he says, 
 " Have I not chosen you twelve ?" where the word is evi- 
 dently used in reference to the discipleship ; is it not, then, a 
 little remarkable that our Lord uses again the same word, and 
 infers that He has not chosen the twelve, when he says ex- 
 
 * 2 Thess. ii. 13, 14. 
 
76 DISCOURSE VI. 
 
 pressly, " I speak not of you all ; I know whom I have 
 chosen." It is not easy to reconcile these two declarations, 
 wiihout allowing that, in the former, our Lord spoke only of 
 an election to the apostleship, while, in the latter, he spoke 
 of an election to eternal life ; in the first of which Judas was 
 included, although not in the second. 
 
 Add only to this, the other clear and explicit statements of 
 our Divine Master himself, as recorded by St. John, " All 
 that the Father giveth me, shall come to me." " And this is 
 the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he 
 hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up 
 again at the last day." " I have manifested thy name unto 
 the men which thou gavest me out of the world : thine they 
 were, and thou gavest them me, and they have kept thy 
 Word." " I pray for them, I pray not for the world, but for 
 them which thou hast given me, for they are thine." " And 
 I give unto them eternal life ; and they shall never perish, 
 neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Fa- 
 ther who gave them me is greater than all ; and no man is 
 able to pluck them out of my Father's hand." 
 
 The distinction in these passages, between those who are 
 given to Christ, and those who are not given, is so obvious, 
 that we do not fear to rest the whole question, of the doctrine 
 which we are considering, upon these declarations of our 
 Lord, and to say with a celebrated Reformer,* that " if in the 
 whole Scripture there were no more places to prove it, . . . 
 this alone were sufficient." 
 
 If, however, the nature of this discourse would admit of it, 
 we should be willing to refer this important subject of " pre- 
 destination unto life," and our " election in Christ," to your 
 own experience, and to your own hearts, and permit them to 
 determine the question. We would take aside every indi- 
 vidual child of God among you at this moment, and suffer the 
 truth of the doctrine to stand, or fall, according to his reply 
 
 * John Knox's Treatise on Predestination, p. 57. 
 
ARTIC LE XVII. 77 
 
 to this inquiry, Did you, in your own case, first choose God y 
 or did God choose you ? 
 
 When you were in the thoughtlessness, and carelessness 
 of childhood, what led you to the knowledge of your Maker, 
 and your Redeemer ? When you were forgetting him in 
 your youth, and beginning, or perhaps more than beginning, 
 to tread the downward path, who arrested your steps ? Who 
 held you back, when on the very brink of everlasting ruin ? 
 Who, when you were resolutely bent upon disregarding 
 him, and dishonouring him, when you have indeed wandered 
 far from him, reasoned with you, strove with you, and draw- 
 ing you " with the bands of love," at the last overcame you, 
 and carried you home " on his shoulders rejoicing ?" 
 
 And were you alone in sin, had you no companions in 
 iniquity, and where are they ? Have they also returned to 
 God? Are they now among his people? What, then, you 
 were not alone in sin, but you have been alone in your re- 
 pentance, alone in your present state of acceptance with God 1 
 Who then has made you to differ ? Who has snatched you, 
 as a brand from the burning ? Who has saved you, where 
 others, in the midst of equal privileges, and equal opportu- 
 nities, have been cut off in their career of impenitence and 
 sin, and, as we fear, for ever perished ? We are convinced 
 that each would answer, It was God, even my God : thanks 
 be to God for exercising his grace, according to his sovereign 
 will,*and not according to my deservings. " So then it is not 
 of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that 
 showeth mercy."* 
 
 Yes, brethren, this is one of those subjects which derive 
 their most unanswerable arguments from the testimony of 
 our own consciences, from what we feel within us, and from 
 what we see around us. I would not stir one hair's breadth 
 to induce any human being to receive these opinions, until 
 his own experience has preached them to him, or his own 
 
 * Rom. ix. 16, 
 
 7* 
 
78 DISCOURSE VI. 
 
 heart has anxiously sought them, as the channel through 
 which to pour the full flood of its gratitude to the Giver of 
 all its blessings. 
 
 We have seen, in the course of our inquiry, that there are 
 three methods, in which the terms of electing, or choosing^ 
 are applied in Holy Writ ; the election to an office, the elec- 
 tion of nations or communities to external privileges, and the 
 election of persons to eternal salvation. We have next to 
 investigate which of the three is adopted by our church in 
 the Article before us. The very first words of the Article 
 appear to us to decide the question, " Predestination to life." 
 Not, therefore, predestination to office, or employment ; not, 
 as some explain it, predestination to any national advantages, 
 or outward means of grace, but " predestination to life," to 
 spiritual life here, and to eternal life heaeafter. 
 
 Should there be any, however, who do not consider these 
 opening words to be so decisive upon this point as we are 
 led to believe, it may perhaps assist them in coming to a right 
 conclusion, if they will only take an unprejudiced view of the 
 remainder of the passage, which we have already quoted. In 
 this, the church distinctly declares, that the predestination of 
 which she is speaking is " the everlasting purpose of God, to 
 deliver from curse, and damnation, those whom he hath 
 chosen in Christ, out of mankind." Now it is evident, that if 
 the compilers of our Article had intended to refer only to 
 national election, they would scarcely have employed such 
 terms as these, for they must too well have known, that many 
 who were in the fullest enjoyment of all the outward ordi- 
 nances of religion, might eventually not be delivered from 
 44 curse and damnation," but after all their external advan- 
 tages, make shipwreck of their faith, to the eternal ruin of 
 their souls. When therefore the compilers say that the pre- 
 destination of which they speak, is a 44 predestination to life," 
 and the election of which they speak, is the choice out " of 
 mankind," of those whom God will " deliver from curse and 
 damnation," and will bring by Christ to everlasting salva- 
 
** ARTICLE XVI I. 79 
 
 tion," it certainly does appear, that however wise men, and 
 good men, may differ as to their interpretation of Scripture, 
 upon this point, they cannot easily differ, as to their interpre- 
 tation of the views of our church, respecting this great sub- 
 ject. We do not hesitate to say, that we believe the opinion 
 of our church, upon the question of particular election to 
 eternal life, to be as decisive as any opinion she has ever ex- 
 pressed in her accredited formularies. 
 
 Although we thus clearly state our own conviction of the 
 sentiments of our church upon this point, we would desire to 
 exercise the greatest moderation, while maintaining them. 
 We believe that many holy men, who are ranged among her 
 true, and attached followers, do not view this subject in the 
 same light. We are unable to agree with them ; but this 
 difference of sentiment neither diminishes our respect for their 
 piety, nor our opinion of their sincerity or their judgment. 
 We are willing to concede to them the point, that these doc- 
 trines are not to be brought forward in the ordinary course 
 of Christian instruction, in any other, or more prominent po- 
 sitions than they occupy in the revealed Word of our God. 
 We are willing to consider them, not as topics of discussion 
 for the young Christian, but as consolations for the established 
 believer, as the solace of the depressed, the sustenance of the 
 fainting, the support of the departing servants of the Lord ; 
 and surely they who differ from us should, on their part, be 
 willing to concede to us, that if we believe we find such doc- 
 trines in the word of God, and if we feel them to be neces- 
 sary to our own stability, and to our own comfort, we should 
 be left in the peaceful enjoyment of them, without having 
 deductions, which we never draw, and conclusions, which 
 we never arrive at, forced upon us as our own, and the hor- 
 rible consequences of these imaginary deductions, and con- 
 clusions, visited upon our heads. However, then, we may 
 differ upon these high subjects, which, after all, must ever be 
 more speculative than practical, let us, my brethren, resolva 
 
80 DISCOURSE VI. 
 
 that, as regards ourselves, they shall never, under any degree 
 of provocation, lead us to the adoption of bitterness of lan- 
 guage, or acerbity of feeling ; or even to the diminution of 
 Christian love, towards those of whom, whatever be the dif- 
 ferences between us upon these mysterious points, we be- 
 lieve, and rejoice to believe, that they are the followers of the 
 same Master, with a love as fervent, and a service as accept- 
 able, as the best among ourselves. 
 
 All that, as your minister, I would require of you is, to 
 " search the Scriptures daily and see whether these things be 
 so." Search them, not in a controversial spirit, a spirit in 
 which do religious question, and still less one so deeply mys- 
 terious as that before us, ought ever to be approached ; but 
 search them, with a prayerful desire to be led into all truth, 
 that you may be the belter able to glorify the God of truth. 
 The days, we trust, shall arrive, when the differences of 
 opinion to which we have just adverted, shall make no dimi- 
 nution in the regard with which each member of the body of 
 Christ shall behold every other member ; when the terms 
 Arminian and Calvinist, Orthodox, and Evangelical, shall be 
 forgotten, and when the only distinction known within our 
 church, shall be, that which must always arise from the ever- 
 varying degrees of love to God, and conformity to his will, 
 and holiness of life, and charity of thought, and word, and 
 action, manifested in the progressive sanctification of all his 
 children." 
 
 The Article before us, having then, as we believe, clearly 
 propounded the doctrine of election unto everlasting life, of 
 " those who are chosen in Christ out of mankind," continues 
 thus to speak of its practical results : " Wherefore they which 
 be endued with so excellent a benefit of God, be called accord- 
 ing to God's purpose by his Spirit working in due season ; 
 they through grace obey the calling ; they be justified freely ; 
 they be made sons of God by adoption ; they be made like 
 the image of his only-begotten Son Jesus Christ ; they walk 
 
ARTICLE XVI I. 81 
 
 religiously in good works, and at length, by God's mercy, they 
 attain to everlasting felicity."* 
 
 This plain and beautiful passage seems written expressly 
 with a view to that declaration of the Spirit of God which we 
 meet with in Romans viii. 30, " Whom he did predestinate, 
 them he also called ; and whom he called, them he also jus- 
 tified ; and whom he justified, them he also glorified." It 
 distinctly marks the progress of the true> people of God, 
 from their first effectual calling by the Spirit of Grace, 
 through their justification, their adoption, their sanctification, 
 up to their everlasting felicity ; and asserts that all is of grace, 
 of free, boundless, undeserved grace, from their first election 
 of God before all time, throughout their holy obedience to 
 God in time, and to their final glorification with God, when 
 time shall be no longer. 
 
 While upon this portion of the Article, it is important to 
 remark, as we have before had occasion to do, the extreme 
 caution and watchfulness of our church, not to admit a single 
 questionable statement into these valuable documents. You 
 will observe that the subject of reprobation, or the Calvinistic 
 doctrine, that as certain persons are elected to eternal life, so 
 certain persons are elected to eternal condemnation, is left 
 entirely untouched. The compilers of our Articles were 
 never tempted to enter upon those unhallowed deductions, 
 with which men are so apt to delight themselves on this high 
 subject, saying, If it please God to elect certain persons in 
 Christ, to " bring to everlasting salvation, as vessels made to 
 honour," then must he, by this act, condemn, or, at the very 
 least, pass by all others, and seal them up under final con- 
 demnation. Not a word of this kind is to be found in our 
 Articles, in our Homilies, or in our Liturgy ; no, not although 
 
 * It is, perhaps, scarcely necessary to remark that, throughout this pas- 
 sage, every clause, " They through grace," &c.," They be justified," &c., 
 is a predicate true only if the election spoken of by our church be admitted 
 to be a personal election ; but absolutely false, if it be considered a national 
 election 
 
82 DISCOURSE VI. 
 
 you search the accredited formularies of our church from end 
 to end, will you find a single sentence breathing such a doc- 
 trine. The fact is, that, upon this point, it has, at least so it 
 appears to us, pleased God to reveal nothing, and, therefore, 
 most wisely and most discreetly it has pleased our church 
 also to assert nothing.* 
 
 Far be it then, from me to speak dogmatically, where our 
 church is silent, but, as regards my own opinion, as theee 
 may be those among you who might desire to know the sen- 
 timents of your minister upon so weighty, so tremendous a 
 point, I feel no hesitation in declaring that I believe the doc- 
 trine of reprobation, to be as utterly at variance with all that 
 is revealed to us of the character of God, as with those many 
 unequivocal declarations of his Divine Word, that " He will- 
 eth not that any should perish, but that all should come to 
 repentance." That he has " No pleasure in the death of a 
 sinner, but rather that he should turn from his wickedness 
 and live." While it appears to me that the inspired writers, 
 and even our Lord himself, speaking, as they often do, very 
 distinctly upon the doctrine of election, always take especial 
 care to except the doctrine of reprobation.t Thus, in the 
 
 * There are indeed some excellent cautions towards the latter part of the 
 Article ; but we do not think that these invalidate what we have just as- 
 serted, or refer in any degree to the doctrine of reprobation, but simply to 
 an unhallowed, and licentious view of the great doctrine propounded in 
 the former part. Thus after declaring that the godly consideration of pre- 
 destination, is full of sweet, pleasant, and unspeakable comfort to godly 
 persons, " as well because it doth greatly establish and confirm their faith 
 of eternal salvation, to be enjoyed through Christ, as because it doth fer- 
 vently kindle their love to God." the Article proceeds to show that the 
 consideration of the same subject by curious and carnal persons, lacking 
 the Spirit of God, " is a most dangerous downfall, whereby the devil doth 
 thrust them either into desperation or into recklessness of most unclean 
 living ;" plainly referring to those who argue, that if they are elected, no 
 ein can hinder them, and if they are not elected, no holiness can help 
 them. 
 
 t That this is the view of all the best authorities in our church might 
 easily be shown, but a single passage from Hooker must suffice: "For 
 if God's electing do, in order, (as needs it must,) presuppose the foresight 
 
ARTICLE XVII. 83 
 
 description of the final judgment in the twenty-fifth chapter 
 of St. Matthew, our Lord appears to take for granted the 
 former of these doctrines as a well established truth, when he 
 says, " Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, 
 Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom pre- 
 pared for you from the foundation of the world ;" while at 
 the same time he appears as distinctly to exclude the latter 
 doctrine when he adds, " Then shall he say also to them on 
 his left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, 
 prepared" (not for you, but) " for the devil and his angels." 
 If then, " We receive God's promises as they be generally 
 set forth to us in Holy Scripture," and not as they be limited 
 or restricted by the results of human reasoning, we shall, on 
 the one hand, neither desire to reject, nor to explain away, 
 nor to render futile, such mysterious doctrines as those which 
 we have been considering ; nor shall we, on the other hand, 
 be afraid to give their full and literal meaning to such pro- 
 mises as these : " Whosoever will, let him take of the water 
 of life freely." " Come unto me, all ye that labour and are 
 heavy laden, and I will give you rest." While in fact, we 
 shall hold the doctrine of this Article, viz., particular election, 
 as it is most plainly propounded by our Lord, when he said, 
 " All that the Father giveth me shall come to me," we shall 
 hold the great doctrine of universal redemption,* which ap- 
 
 of their being that are elected, though they be elected before they be ; nor 
 only tjie positive foresight of their being, but also the permissive of their 
 being miserable, because election is through mercy, and mercy doth 
 always presuppose misery ; it followeth, that the very chosen of God 
 acknowledge to the praise of the riches of his exceeding free compassion, 
 that when he in his secret determination set it down * Those shall live and 
 not die, 1 they lay as ugly spectacles before him, as lepers .... miserable, 
 worthy to be had in detestation ; and shall any forsaken creature be able 
 to say unto God, ' Thou didst plunge me into the depth, and assign me 
 unto endless torments, only to satisfy thine own will, finding nothing in 
 me for which I could seem in thy sight so well worthy to feel everlasting 
 flames?' " Hooker's Answer to Tr'avers, page 482, Edit. 1622. 
 
 * The doctrine of universal redemption (very different from the figment 
 of universal pardon) is most emphatically stated in the thirty-first Article 
 
84 DISCOURSE VI. 
 
 pears to be with equal plainness involved in the concluding 
 passage, " Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." 
 Whether we are able or unable to reconcile these apparently 
 conflicting statements is of little moment ; both are to be 
 found in the unerring word of God, and therefore each is of 
 equal importance and of equal truth ; and receiving both in 
 humility and in love, we shall raise our heartfelt acknowledg- 
 ments upon every review of those blessed and life-giving 
 truths, to " God the Father, who hath made us and all the 
 world ; to God the Son, who hath redeemed us and all man- 
 kind ; and to God the Holy Ghost, who sanctifieth us and 
 all the elect people of God." (Catechism of the Church of 
 England.) 
 
 We have seen, then, that the end to which we are elected 
 by God, is everlasting life; but we must never forget that 
 faith and holiness are the means through which we must pass 
 to it ; that there is no instance in sacred writ in which this 
 end and these means are disunited. All tend to this point, 
 that " we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto 
 good works, which God hath before ordained that we should 
 walk in them." " For whom He did foreknow, he also did 
 predestinate," says the Apostle, " to be conformed to the 
 image of his son." It is then perfectly clear, that none are 
 among the elect people of God, who do not obey the call 
 to that faith in a crucified Redeemer, " without which no 
 man living shall be justified," and to that " holiness, without 
 which no man shall see the Lord :" that none are predestinated 
 
 of our church, which says, "The offering of Christ once made is that 
 perfect redemption, propitiation, and satisfaction for all the sins of the whole 
 world, both original and actual." That this was the opinion of the chief 
 compiler of our Articles, may be seen from many parts of his works : e. g t 
 11 This is the honour and glory of our High Priest, wherein he admitteth 
 neither partner nor successor. For by his one oblation Tie satisfied the 
 Father of all men's sins." Cranmer's Answer to Gardiner, p. 372. 
 ' Mark here, he saith, ' Come all ye:' wherefore then should any man 
 despair to shut out himself from these promises of Christ, which be gene- 
 ral and pertain to the whole world." Sermons, p. 182, Edit. 1584. 
 
ARTICLE XVII. 85 
 
 to everlasting life, who are not " conformed to the image of 
 the Saviour," i. e., imitating him in their life and conversa- 
 tion : that none are " chosen in Christ out of the world," who 
 are not also " created in Christ Jesus unto good works." 
 Bear then continually in mind, brethren, that if you are elect 
 to the enjoyment of everlasting life, it can only be "through 
 sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of 
 the blood of Jesys Christ;"* that if, as the Article expresses 
 it, " Predestination to life is the everlasting purpose of God," 
 concerning you " whom he hath chosen in Christ out of man- 
 kind," it is equally his everlasting purpose " that you should 
 be holy and without blarne before Him in love."t No man 
 ever was or ever can be elected to the end, who was not 
 elected in the way which leads to it. Be assured, therefore, 
 that unless you are united by a living faith to the Saviour 
 unless you are continually striving after conformity to His 
 will, obedience to His laws, love to His person, hatred to, 
 and abstinence from all sin, you have no evidence, you can 
 have no evidence, that your names are written in the Lamb's 
 book of life ; for be ye sure of this, that no man who is not 
 found cleansed and purified by the Spirit of Christ, and 
 walking while on earth in the strait and narrow way which 
 alone leads to heaven, can ever hope to be ultimately found 
 in that heaven the gate of which, though " wide enough to 
 admit the greatest sinner, is too narrow to admit the smallest 
 sin." " Give, therefore, diligence, to make your calling and 
 election sure ;" not simply to obtain an assurance of it, as 
 some would explain away the meaning of the passage, but to 
 make it sure, firm, secure, steadfast. Recollect, an Apostle 
 could declare, u I keep under my body, and bring it into sub- 
 jection, lest that by any means when I have preached to 
 others, I myself should be a cast-away ;" and let the recol- 
 lection urge you to greater zeal, greater prayerfulness, greater 
 holiness, " Giving all diligence to add to your faith virtue, and 
 
 * 1 Pet i. 2. t Ephes. i. 4. 
 
86 
 
 DISCOURSE VI 
 
 to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to 
 temperance patience, and to patience godliness, and to god- 
 liness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness charity ;" 
 "for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall." 
 
 In conclusion, if I address any of you who are unable to 
 receive the truths, of which we have this day spoken, as the 
 truths of God, " Let not your hearts be troubled, neither be 
 afraid." " Then shall ye know, if ye follow on to know the 
 Lord," is his own most gracious promise, and in due time 
 will assuredly be fulfilled to all who seek it. If you need the 
 consolation or encouragement which this blessed doctrine is 
 so well calculated to bestow, we doubt not that it will be given 
 you : if you need it not, and do not, and cannot receive it, 
 be careful not to be tempted to scorn those who hold it, lest 
 haply you be found even to fight against God. Be content 
 to rest upon that Rock of Ages on which we are all resting ; 
 to dwell on those things on which all the children of God 
 agree, and to leave those on which they differ, till a day of 
 brighter light, and more unclouded sunshine. It is an un- 
 speakable blessing to know that there is not any difficulty, 
 and, blessed be God, there has never been, among real Chris- 
 tians, any controversy respecting the one great truth which 
 is the basis of our hope, the foundation of our eternity, viz., 
 " The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin;" and he 
 is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by 
 Him. If your souls are ever tempest-tossed upon that ocean 
 of the mysteries of God which man can never fathom, here 
 they may find an anchorage, whence neither wind nor wave 
 can drive them. It is a declara'tion so plain " that he may run 
 that readeth it ;"* and yet so powerful, the guiltiest sinner 
 upon earth, needs no plea more availing to enable him to 
 stand before the bar of God, in garments of as unspotted 
 whiteness as ever graced the angels and archangels who sur- 
 round his throne. "The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth 
 
 * Hab. ii. 2. 
 
ARTICLE XVII. 87 
 
 from all sin." None can be saved who fly not to that cleans- 
 ing blood, none can be lost who go as penitent believers 
 there. On this vital point, you who deny the doctrine of 
 election believe no less ; and we who hold the doctrine be- 
 lieve no more. Here upon this keystone of the arch of our 
 salvation, all true believers, of every kindred, and nation, and 
 people, and tongue, have taken their fixed and final stand. 
 Heaven and earth may pass away, must pass away, but 
 amidst the ruin of a falling world, this keystone of the arch 
 shall remain unshaken, and not an individual, from our great 
 forefather Adam, to his last and youngest son, who has firmly 
 set his foot upon that arch, but shall be pronounced a con- 
 queror, and " more than conqueror, through Him that loveth 
 us." May we, brethren, be found, upon that great and coming 
 day, thus planted upon the Rock of Ages ; may we even now 
 taste something of the stability and comfort which this can 
 alone impart, and on that day when all else shall for ever 
 pass away from beneath our feet, may we, firmly fixed on 
 this immovable foundation, take up the Conqueror's song 
 and exclaim, " Thanks be to God who hath given us the 
 victory through our Lord Jesus Christ !"* 
 
 * In chapters ix. x., &c., of the Epistle to the Romans, St. Paul treats 
 the sentence of Predestination. For from that alone depend all things ; 
 that is, who will or not receive the Word, who will or not believe, who 
 are to be delivered from sin, who blinded, who condemned, and who jus- 
 tified And assuredly this firm sentence and immovable necessity 
 
 of predestination is most necessary. For so weak are we, that were it 
 placed in our hands, very few or none would be saved. For the devil 
 would overcome all. But now since this firm and most certain sentence 
 of God cannot be changed or reversed by any creature, there is a hope 
 surely left us of conquering sin at length, how much soever it now rage in 
 the flesh. But here those inquisitive persons are to be checked, who, be- 
 fore they have learned Christ and the virtue of the cross, pry into the abyss 
 of predestination, and vainly seek to know whether they are predestinated 
 or not. For these will doubtless lead and precipitate themselves by their 
 own foolish curiosity into the snares of conscience or desperation. But do 
 thou in the process of learning sacred truth, follow the train and order de- 
 livered by the Apostle. First, learn to know Christ, that thou mayest 
 
88 DISCOURSE VI. 
 
 confess thine own powers of no avail but to sin. Then wrestle diligently 
 with the flesh by faith, as he teaches in chap. vii. Presently, when thou 
 have come to the eighth chapter, that is, when thou hast had trial of tribu- 
 lation and the cross, then, for the first time, this necessity of pre- 
 destination will grow sweet, then, for the first time, thou wilt perceive in 
 chapters x. xi. how full of comfort is predestination. For unless thou hast 
 experienced tribulation ; unless thou hast felt thyself brought, as we see 
 in David and other saints sometimes to the gates of hell, thou canst not 
 handle the sentence of predestination without danger, and, as it were, a 
 blasphemous murmuring of nature against God. It is necessary, there- 
 fore, that the old Adam should be mortified and the senses of the flesh 
 bruised, and that the babes in Christ should grow to riper age before they 
 drink this strong wine" Luther 1 s Preface to Ep. to the Romans. Works, 
 vol. v. 100. Witeb. 1554. 
 
 Trie above passage (for calling his attention to which the author is in- 
 debted to a note in the Rev. V. Short's History of the Church of England) 
 seems entirely the groundwork of the seventeenth Article of our church, 
 and fully justifies us in saying that the Article is more Lutheran than 
 Calvinistic. At the same time, it differs as widely from the views of those 
 who imagine election to be confined to national privileges (for where would 
 be the " strong wine," " meracum," in the doctrine of national election ?) 
 as it does from those who, with Calvin, considered personal election to be 
 a doctrine lying at the foundation of our faith, and upon which " the babes 
 in Christ" are to be built, instead of reserving it for the topstone of the 
 arch, the crowning truth of our religion, revealed for the comfort and en- 
 couragement of those who have already learnt " to know Christ" and 
 have found by experience, that if jheir salvation were placed in their own 
 hands, "the devil would overcome all." In truth, it is a doctrine which 
 the head must condescend to learn from the heart. 
 
 As an example of the spirit in which such truths should be maintained, 
 see an affecting letter of the martyr, John Bradford,," To certain men not 
 rightly persuaded in the most true, comfortable, and necessary doctrine 
 of God's holy election and predestination." Letter Ixvii. 
 
ARTICLE XXVI I. 89 
 
 DISCOURSE VII. 
 
 TITUS iii. 4, 5, 6. 
 
 But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour towards man ap- 
 peared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but accord- 
 ing to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration and the 
 renewing of the Holy Ghost ; which he shed on us abundantly, through 
 Jesus Christ our Saviour. 
 
 THE only two doctrinal Articles which now remain to be 
 brought under review, are the twenty-seventh and twenty- 
 eighth, which contain the opinions of our Reformers upon the 
 two sacraments which " Christ ordained in his church," 
 " Baptism, and the Supper of the Lord." 
 
 The twenty-seventh Article, which is confined to the very 
 important subject of Christian baptism, will afford, under the 
 divine blessing, profitable matter for our present consideration. 
 
 It is almost unnecessary to remind you, that baptism is that 
 initiatory rite established by the great founder of our holy re- 
 ligion, the Lord Jesus Christ himself, when he said, " Go ye 
 therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name 
 of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." 
 Through this Divine ordinance, as through a portal, it is not 
 too much to say, speaking generally,* that all true converts 
 are required to pass before they can be considered members 
 of the visible church of the Redeemer upon earth, or inheritors 
 of its blessings in eternity, " He that believeth, and is bap- 
 tized, shall be saved." 
 
 Rightly to understand the important post occupied by this 
 Christian sacrament at the very threshold of the religion we 
 profess, it is well to bear in mind the nature of that initiatory 
 ceremony which stood equally at the threshold of the religion 
 
 * " Q. How many sacraments hath Christ ordained in his church ? 
 A. Two only, as generally necessary to salvation." Catechism of the 
 Church of England. 
 
 8* 
 
PO DISCOURSE VI I. 
 
 which Christianity superseded. We find, then, that at eight 
 days only every male of the children of Israel was solemnly 
 dedicated to the God of Israel by the rite of circumcision. In 
 this rite the infant entered into covenant with God, and be- 
 came one of that visible church of God on earth, of which the 
 Apostle predicates such illustrious things, when he says, " To 
 whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the cove- 
 nants." To every child then, who was circumcised according 
 to the letter of God's law, a free access was opened to all 
 the abundant spiritual blessings which the chosen people of 
 God enjoyed, since, all infant as he was, he was included in 
 the covenant which God had made with Israel ; and, unless 
 from his own subsequent misconduct he forfeited these bless- 
 ings, he was numbered among the true Israelites,* the pos- 
 sessors of the land of promise here, the inheritors of the land 
 of promise hereafter. 
 
 It was natural, then, that in the Christian dispensation, 
 which is called in Scripture " the better covenant," and with 
 reference to which it was declared that Christ should, " in all 
 things have the pre-eminence" over Moses, there should be 
 some initiatory rite by which the infant children of believers 
 should be brought into covenant with God, and be permitted, 
 at as early an age, to enjoy at least all the spiritual advan- 
 tages which had been enjoyed in the Jewish church, and 
 with as large an addition to those advantages as the freeness 
 and the fulness of the Gospel dispensation exceeded those of 
 the Jewish. 
 
 What might so reasonably have been anticipated from the 
 mercy and tender compassion of our God, his own word, as 
 we shall see, assures us is come to pass ; and it is in depend- 
 ence upon the authority of that word, that our Reformers de- 
 clared such great and glorious things respecting Christian 
 baptism, as we find throughout all the offices of our church. 
 
 To demonstrate this, I shall commence by referring you to 
 
 * " They are not all Israel, which are of Israel." Rom. ix, 6. 
 
ARTICLE XXVII. 91 
 
 the first answer in the church catechism, in which the child 
 is taught to declare, respecting his baptism, that therein he 
 " was made a member of Christ, a child of God, and an in- 
 heritor of the kingdom of heaven." While, in an answer to 
 " What is the inward and spiritual grace of baptism ?" he is 
 taught to reply, " A death unto sin, and a new birth unto 
 righteousness ; for, being by nature born in sin, and the child- 
 ren of wrath, we are hereby made the children of grace." 
 And this is in perfect accordance with the baptismal service, 
 in which the church teaches us to pray that the infant then 
 brought to God " may receive remission of his sins by spi- 
 ritual regeneration ;" and, having so asked, she again, in " the 
 full assurance of faith," that " whatsoever we ask in prayer 
 believing, we shall receive," if it be according to the will* of 
 God, and the mind of the Spirit, directs us to return our 
 humble and hearty thanks to Almighty God, " that it hath 
 pleased him to regenerate this infant mind with his Holy 
 Spirit, to receive him for his own child by adoption, and to 
 incorporate him into his holy church."! 
 
 The doctrine which our Reformers propounded so plainly 
 in the Catechism, and in the Baptismal service, will be found 
 stated with equal clearness and truth in the Article now be- 
 fore us. 
 
 XXVII. Of Baptism. 
 
 " Baptism is not only a sign of profession and mark of 
 difference, whereby Christian men are discerned from others 
 that be not christened, but it is also a sign of regeneration, or 
 new birth, whereby, as by an instrument, they that receive 
 baptism rightly are grafted into the church ; the promises of 
 forgiveness of sin, and of our adoption to be the sons of 
 God, by the Holy Ghost, are visibly signed and sealed ; faith 
 is confirmed, and grace increased by virtue of prayer unto 
 
 * 1 John v. 14. t Baptismal Service. 
 
y^6 DISCOURSE VI I. 
 
 God."* Our church declares then, in these words, that by 
 "regeneration or new birth," they that "receive baptism 
 rightly are grafted into the church," and have " the promises 
 of forgiveness of sin, and of their adoption to be the sons of 
 God, by the Holy Ghost, visibly signed and sealed." Now 
 let us endeavour to disencumber ourselves of all human sys- 
 tems, and forgetting the long, and angry, and bitter contro- 
 versies which have arisen upon these points, refer simply to 
 the Word of God, and discover how far the church is borne 
 out, in these her declarations, by the authority of that Word, 
 from which, as Christians, and especially as Protestant Chris- 
 tians, we can desire no appeal. 
 
 We commence then, as the most striking and remarkable of 
 all the declarations of Scripture upon this head, with the words 
 of the text, " Not by works of righteousness which we have 
 done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing 
 of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he 
 shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour." 
 
 Here, then, is a case in which the Spirit of God, speaking 
 of baptism, uses the phrase, " The washing of regeneration," 
 as synonymous with it, meaning therefore, unquestionably, 
 that the washing of baptism is the sign and seal of the washing 
 of regeneration ; and therefore fully authorizing our church to 
 use the language which we have seen that she adopts respect- 
 ing this important sacrament. 
 
 That this is no isolated passage, but that the general tenor 
 
 * I did not notice the concluding passage of the Article, viz., " The bap- 
 tism of young children is in any wise to be retained in the church, as most 
 agreeable with the institution of Christ," because it appeared needless to 
 enter upon the arguments by which infant baptism is proved to be accord- 
 ing to the will of God, while addressing a congregation who entertain no 
 doubts upon the subject. The fact that baptism supplies the place of cir- 
 cumcision, and the certainty that, unless it did so, it would be difficult to 
 show that the dispensation under which we live is in all things that " better 
 covenant" which the Spirit of God pronounces it ; this, added to the uni- 
 form practice of ths Christian church for nearly one thousand years, ap- 
 pears fully sufficient to satisfy the mind of every unprejudiced inquirer. 
 
ARTICLE XXVI I. 93 
 
 of Scripture bears us out in expecting these great things from 
 Christian baptism, when " rightly received," may easily be 
 demonstrated. We find St. Peter replying to the inquiry 
 of the three thousand converts on the day of Pentecost, 
 44 What shall we do ?" " Repent and be baptized, every one 
 of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of 
 sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For 
 the promise is unto you and to your children, and to all that 
 are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call." 
 And again, " Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, 
 calling upon the name of the Lord." Acts xxii. 16. So, 
 also, in Eph. v. 26, " That he might sanctify and cleanse it 
 with the washing of water, by the Word." And, no doubt, 
 grounded upon this, and similar statements in Holy Writ, is 
 that declaration of the Nicene creed, which has been in use 
 in the church of Christ since the year 339,* " I acknowledge 
 one baptism for the remission of sins." While in perfect 
 agreement and consistency with this belief, we are informed 
 that it was the practice of the Christian church in the East 
 to sing after baptism the thirty-second Psalm, " Blessed is he 
 whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered,"&c., 
 and, according to St. Ambrose, that " the Priest spoke to the 
 person baptized in this manner, God the Father Almighty, 
 who hath regenerated thee by water and the Holy Ghost, and 
 forgiven thee thy sins,"t &c., clearly showing that the primi- 
 tive church took for granted that the spiritual effects, the 
 " inward and spiritual grace" of the sacrament were its ac- 
 companiments in every case in which it was " rightly re- 
 ceived." Indeed St. Paul himself assumes, with the same 
 feeling of Christian charity, the same truth with regard to his 
 Galatian converts, when he says, " As many of you as have 
 been baptized into Christ have put on Christ."J And to show 
 that in this passage the Apostle does not intend by the phrase 
 
 * Bishop Sparrow. t Dean Comber, 
 
 t See the very striking observations upon this text in Luther's Com- 
 mentary on Galatiaiis iii. 17. 
 
94 DISCOURSEVII. 
 
 " putting on Christ," merely to express that they had adopted 
 a Christian profession, he continues, " there is neither Jew 
 nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither 
 male nor female, for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if 
 ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed and heirs ac- 
 cording to the promise." In which passage the Apostle 
 evidently intends by" putting on Christ," the putting him on 
 spiritually, as well as professedly, the being " renewed in the 
 spirit of their mind," and the putting on " the new man which 
 after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." So 
 far is he from saying this in a merely general manner of the 
 Galatians as a church, that he adopts a form of speech when 
 he says, " As many of you," which clearly individualizes, as 
 much as our church does when she teaches us to thank God 
 for the bestowal of the blessing in every particular case. And 
 yet it would indeed be difficult to imagine that of all these 
 Galatian converts, not one was ever found who deserted the 
 faith to which he had been brought, or forfeited the spiritual 
 blessings of which he had at baptism been made partaker, or, 
 as our church expresses it, " fell from grace given." 
 
 The great duty then of every Christian parent in bringing 
 his child to the water of baptism, which we should deduce 
 from the encouraging, and, as we trust, scriptural view of this 
 holy sacrament, is to " draw near with a true heart in full 
 assurance of faith," asking great things of God, and expecting 
 great things from Him, and believing that He who instituted 
 this holy sacrament as a sign and seal of spiritual regenera- 
 tion, will, when it is " rightly received," be present by his 
 Divine Spirit, to accompany it then and there by the bless- 
 ing of which it is the seal and sign, that the child so offered 
 to God may be then filled with the Spirit of God, may be 
 made a new creature in Christ Jesus, and may by God's 
 grace " continue Christ's faithful soldier and servant unto his 
 life's end." 
 
 " Would to God," my brethren, to adopt the language. of 
 an eminent prelate who has occasionally addressed you from 
 
ARTICLE XXVI I. 95 
 
 this place, " that this truth were better understood, and this 
 primitive, this reasonable baptism more generally practised ! 
 Then we should not find so many who, though born of water 
 as far as concerns the baptismal rite, are evidently not made 
 new creatures by the Spirit who renews and sanctifies the 
 soul."* We say then, and we could wish that the view 
 which we have been endeavouring to take of this important 
 spiritual ordinance, might be deeply impressed upon the mind 
 of every Christian parent, for we believe that it would tend 
 greatly, not only to improve the feelings with which all would 
 bring their children to the baptismal font, but to improve 
 also the manner in which all would educate their children 
 from their very earliest years, in the heartfelt love of that God 
 and Saviour who had already done such great things for 
 them. We say Christian parents, look well to your privileges, 
 rejoice in them, plead them in prayer before God, and act 
 upon them in all your intercourse with your children. Tell 
 them they have a God who loves them, a Saviour who died 
 for them, a Holy Spirit who sanctifies them ; be instant with 
 them in season and out of season, that they in return may 
 love, and serve, and imitate their Divine and blessed Master. 
 We dare not assert that in every such case, the event will be, 
 that your children shall really inherit the kingdom of heaven, 
 because we know that "sons of Belial" were found both in 
 Eli's and in Samuel's family, but we doubt not that it will be 
 so in an incalculably greater number of cases than most Chris- 
 tians have faith enough to believe ; and we know not that 
 there is a single instance either in Scripture, or in the record 
 of Christian experience, where such means have been faith- 
 fully and perseveringly employed, and any reason has been 
 left us to fear that the event has been otherwise. 
 
 We have now, however, what may appear to some a diffi- 
 cult task, to reconcile the language of our church in her 
 Catechism, in her Baptismal service, and in the Article before 
 
 * Bishop of Chester's Lectures on St. John, p. 83. 
 
96 DISCOURSEV1I. 
 
 us, with the lives, alas ! of too many of her professed mem- 
 bers. It has often been, and it no doubt in justice fairly may 
 be asked, Whence comes it if every individual member of 
 the church of England be thus spoken of as regenerated, or 
 born anew of the Spirit, so many in after life, evidence no 
 signs of any such change having ever taken place at all ? To 
 this we reply that although we believe that our church speaks 
 in the language of Scripture and of truth, when she thus iden- 
 tifies baptism with the " washing of regeneration," we believe 
 also, that she speaks only in the language of charity and of 
 hope, when she afterwards trusts that every baptized member 
 of the communion has fulfilled the terms of his baptismal 
 covenant, has nurtured the seed of Divine grace, and as she 
 originally asked for him, has " ever remained in the number 
 of God's faithful and elect children." Precisely as in her 
 other sacrament, of the Lord's Supper, she, in the same judg- 
 ment of charity, assumes that her members " have duly re- 
 ceived those holy mysteries,"* and in consequence assures 
 them, that they " are very members in the mystical body 
 of the Son of God, and heirs through hope of his everlasting 
 kingdom." 
 
 Now it is perfectly true, that although in the service of 
 this solemn sacrament of the Lord's Supper we speak thus, 
 and assume thus without the least hesitation, that " all we" 
 who approach the table of the Lord " have duly received these 
 holy mysteries," yet that, with the utmost stretch of Christian 
 charity, we must still fear that there are many at all times 
 in the Christian church, who, in the language of the twenty- 
 ninth Article, " do carnally and visibly press with their teeth 
 the sacrament of the body and blood of Christ, yet in no wise 
 are they partakers of Christ.'' No enlightened Christian, 
 however, is offended at the discrepancy between the language 
 and the fact, simply because we know that the church is not 
 now gifted with the power of " discerning spirits,"" or of 
 
 * Communion Service. 
 
ARTICLE XXVII. 97 
 
 reading the heart; and therefore is not only fully justified, 
 but is bound in Christian charity to hope the best of all, and 
 of each of her members. 
 
 This, indeed, appears to be the key to the right understand- 
 ing of the motive and intention of our church in all her ser- 
 vices.* It is obvious that if the church have but one set of 
 services for her members, she must so construct those services 
 as to apply to the case of her real and spiritual, and not her 
 nominal members. Bearing this in view, it is not remarkable 
 that she should act in faith upon the declaration of her God, 
 that his " promises are to us and to our seed," and conclud- 
 ing that the parents and the sponsors of the children presented 
 at the baptismal font are themselves among the" faithful, de- 
 voted, prayerful servants of the most High, she is bound to 
 expect that the infant will " rightly receive" Christian bap- 
 tism, that God will hear and answer petitions so scriptural, 
 so reasonable, so entirely for the honour and glory of his own 
 great and holy name, and that the child will *' lead the rest 
 of his life according to this beginning." 
 
 That she is often disappointed, that in after years we are 
 compelled to mourn over the alienation from God, of those 
 over whom as infants, we have united in the prayers and 
 thanksgivings of the church, only proves that while our church 
 is true to her God, and to his revealed word, by suppressing 
 nothing of all the blessings which he has promised to his 
 people, we parents are in too many cases untrue to the best 
 interests of our children, and to our own souls, by not coming 
 up to the baptismal font with more enlarged and scriptural 
 views of these blessings, and that our children have not im- 
 proved the gift of God which is in them, but have permitted 
 
 * E. g. In the much controverted portion of her Burial Service, where, 
 "in sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life," firmly fixed 
 in the hearts of her members, they are taught to offer their hearty thanfeS 
 to God for delivering their brethren out of tho misery of this sinful world, 
 a thanksgiving which can only be consistently offered in the spirit of 
 charity and of hope. 
 
 9 
 
98 DISCOURSE VI 1. 
 
 the holy seed to remain unwatered by the dews of the Spirit, 
 for which they have neglected to ask ; and uncultured by the 
 aid of the great Husbandman, whom they have forborne to 
 seek. 
 
 We must now pass on to the important and individual ap- 
 plication of this high subject. This, then, brings us to the 
 great practical question in which all are interested, not merely 
 \ve who are parents in the welfare of our children, but all in 
 the welfare of their own souls. I address myself then to you, 
 my brethren, as baptized members of the church of England, 
 and say to each individual among you, your church once be- 
 held you brought as one, " by nature born in sin, and the 
 child of wrath," to the water of baptism, and there having 
 offered her prayers that you might undergo that spiritual 
 change, without which, as Christ himself hath said, you 
 "cannot enter into the kingdom of God," she returned her 
 thanksgivings that you had undergone this change, had been 
 born anew of water and of the Holy Ghost, made a child of 
 God by the Spirit of adoption, and incorporated into the 
 church of the Redeemer. Now, brethren, we require you to 
 ask yourselves, honestly and conscientiously, and as in the 
 presence of Him who seeth the heart, whether in your own 
 case, this reasonable belief of your church has been fulfilled ; 
 and that you may be enabled to answer the inquiry, remem- 
 ber the words of our Lord Jesus Christ himself, " That which 
 is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the 
 Spirit is Spirit." Have you, then, like Samuel and like 
 Timothy, been so born of the Spirit, from your earliest in- 
 fancy, that the unholy and sinful pleasures of the flesh have 
 possessed no hold upon you, that you have not indulged 
 them, have not tolerated them, have not allowed them, even 
 for a moment, to gather strength by your supineness or in- 
 difference, but have been led to seek a power greater than 
 your own to repel and to vanquish them ? And, further than 
 this, have you reason to hope that spiritual things have ever 
 been your delight, the real element in which your souls would 
 
A RT I CLE XXVII. 99 
 
 live, and in which alone they can breathe freely and unre- 
 strainedly ? If these things be so, " happy are ye ; for the 
 Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you ;" for then you 
 may indeed indulge the hope that you have from your earliest 
 infancy been brought among the spiritual children of the 
 family of God, and educated for your Father's kingdom. 
 
 But, perhaps, such evidences as these are wanting. Then 
 would we ask, have you the distinct, yet equally satisfactory 
 and encouraging feelings, that whereas you once were blind, 
 now you see ; that you have been renewed by the Spirit of 
 God : that old things have passed away, that all things have 
 become new ; and that by God's own free and sovereign 
 grace you have been brought out of darkness, and misery, and 
 sin, into the glorious light, and liberty, and holiness, of his re- 
 deemed people ? That you, through grace, have been taught 
 to deplore and to forsake the sins and follies of your youth, 
 your once cherished lusts and unholy passions, and are now 
 endeavouring, even now, though it be at the eleventh hour, to 
 serve the Lord Jesus Christ in all holiness and godliness of 
 living. 
 
 Or, again, are you conscious that this testimony also is 
 absent, that spiritual feelings, the faith and penitence, the joy 
 and hope, of the believer, are still to you as unknown and 
 disregarded things ; that the world, and the things of the 
 world, form your home and enjoyment : that pride and vanity, 
 sensuality and uncharitableness, or even some of the darker 
 children of the natural heart, are still, as they have ever been, 
 the welcomed inmates of your bosom ? Upon what then do 
 you ground your assurance that you are, at the present mo- 
 ment, " a member of Christ, a child of God, and an inheritor 
 of the kingdom of heaven ?" Upon your baptism ? Surely 
 you have not the hardihood to avow such a conviction. As 
 well might Simon Magus, who was baptized by an Apostle, 
 have contravened the decision of St. Peter, "I perceive that 
 thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity," 
 by pointing to the waters of baptism, as that any baptized 
 
100 DISCOURSE VII. 
 
 member of the Christian church should take comfort to him- 
 self while in a state of alienation from God, and disobedience 
 to his commands, and indifference to the Saviour of the world, 
 from having once been made the subject of the prayers and 
 thanksgivings of his church. No, brethren, "by their fruits 
 ye shall know them ;" there is no other test here, there will 
 be none other on the great day of account Living thus, and 
 dying thus, it is vain, utterly vain, for you to hope, when 
 standing before the bar of God, that it will avail you to plead 
 baptismal regeneration. Where are its fruits ? what have 
 been its effects ? where is the renewed heart ? ** the death unto 
 sin," the " new birth unto righteousness," the love to the Sa- 
 viour, which must ever be features in the character of " a 
 member of Christ ?" where the love to God, which must 
 ever be the feeling of " a child of God ?" where the meetness 
 to be partaker of the worship, and the joys, and the services 
 of the heavenly temple, which must ever mark " an inheritor 
 of the kingdom of heaven ?" Alas ! are all these absent, and 
 yet do you imagine that no total change of heart, and affections, 
 and mind, and life, in you can be required ? Banish for ever 
 such a delusion, or it will be your ruin. Be assured, if God 
 be true, that if you have lived, and are now living, in sin, if 
 you have entirely or partially forgotten God, and been content 
 to receive the wages, and to act as the servants of the " world, 
 the flesh, and the devil," his bitterest enemies, no slight im- 
 provement, no merely moral reformation, will avail you. You 
 may denominate the change which God requires of you, by 
 any term ; you may speak of it in any language you prefer ; 
 we will not contend for names, but things ; a change, an entire 
 change, must be wrought in you, or you will not see the 
 kingdom of God. *' The whole head is sick, and the whole 
 heart faint," even unto death, and unless the whole head be 
 enlightened by the Spirit of God, and the whole heart re- 
 newed by the Spirit of God, the spiritual death of the present 
 hour will be inevitably succeeded by the eternal death of 
 banishment from God, and from the presence of his glory. 
 
ARTICLE XXVIII. 101 
 
 We do then most earnestly exhort you, who have never yet 
 thought seriously of your baptismal covenant, to read over 
 carefully the service of your church which contains it, to 
 examine yourselves by it, to inquire, before you come to the 
 second sacrament of your church, whether you have ever 
 been lastingly benefited by the spiritual blessings of the first 
 sacrament whether your part of the baptismal covenant has 
 ever yet been performed whether the devil and his works, 
 the world and its vanities, the flesh and its lusts, have ever 
 yet been really and conscientiously renounced whether, in 
 fact, you have any sensible evidence that you have been born 
 anew of the Spirit ; and if not, to be most earnest in perse- 
 vering prayer to God, that you may be a partaker of that 
 spiritual renewal, without which the kingdom of heaven will 
 be as certainly, as effectually, closed against the baptized and 
 nominal worshipper of God, as against the most dark, and 
 obdurate, and guilty, of the unbaptized worshippers of wood 
 and stone. For never did the God of truth declare a more 
 solemn, a more awakening truth than this, " Except a man be 
 born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." 
 
 DISCOURSE VIII. 
 
 1 COR. x. 16. 
 
 The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood 
 of Christ ? The bread which we brake, is it not the communion of the 
 body of Christ ? 
 
 THE Article which comes under our present consideration, 
 and which will conclude the series, is the twenty-eighth 
 Article of our ehurch, and treats upon the important subject 
 of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. 
 
 It will perhaps tend to the better comprehension of the 
 subject before us, if, as while speaking of the other sacrament, 
 
 9* 
 
102 DISCOURSE VIII. 
 
 \ve shortly remind you of the origin and institution of this 
 solemn rite, before we proceed to comment upon our church's 
 exposition of it. 
 
 Nothing can be more simple, and to an awakened heart, to 
 one who has been taught to love God, and Jesus Christ whom 
 he hath sent, nothing can be more affecting, than the Gospel 
 narrative of the institution of the Lord's Supper. Hear it, 
 then, in the plain yet beautiful language of Holy Writ, and 
 may all our hearts be warmed and elevated by the views it 
 affords us, of the wisdom and loving kindness, the considera- 
 tion and tender compassion of our great High Priest, who 
 first appointed it ! " And when the even was come," say the 
 Evangelists,* "Jesus sat down and the twelve Apostles with 
 him. And he said unto them, With desire I have desired" 
 (or I have most heartily desired) " to eat this passover with 
 you before I suffer : For I say unto you, I will not any more 
 eat thereof, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God." This, 
 then, was the last passover of which the Lord Jesus Christ 
 was to be partaker; it was more than this, it was the last 
 passover which God would recognize in his church ; it was 
 the final rite of the old dispensation, the death song of Judaism. 
 All that the passover had ever typified, was that night to be 
 realized ; the true Paschal Lamb was to be delivered to the 
 slaughterers ; " the blood of sprinkling," which should, 
 throughout all ages, secure the people of God, by a spiritual 
 deliverance far more wonderful, and far more blessed, than 
 the temporal deliverance of the first-born in Egypt, was on 
 that coming morn to be poured forth ; when he, the Lamb of 
 God, the great propitiation, should close the series of fourteen 
 hundred passovers, by the sacrifice of himself. Our Lord 
 then " heartily desired" to partake, for the last time, of this 
 solemn rite with his beloved Apostles ; he " heartily desired" 
 that the shadow should pass away, and the great and glorious 
 reality, which should bring pardon and peace to a ruined 
 
 * Matt. xxvi. 20 ; Luke xxii. 14. 
 
ARTICLE XXVIII. 103 
 
 world, should be consummated : yes, strange as it may seem, 
 u he heartily desired" that coming meal, although a more 
 sorrowful one he had never been partaker of, or one more 
 calculated to arm with ten-fold anguish, the sufferings that 
 awaited him. 
 
 And now his desire had been fulfilled, that evening meal 
 was over, the final passover was concluded, and the Lord of 
 life, and his disciples, still lingered in the supper-room, de- 
 lighting in that spiritual converse which made their hearts 
 burn within them, and presented to them no feeble foretaste 
 of the communion of the saints in bliss. The bread and wine, 
 always accompaniments of the Jewish passover, still remained 
 upon the table ; when Jesus, no doubt during some solemn 
 pause in the coversation, when all minds were filled with the 
 thought of those approaching sorrows, of which our Lord had 
 on that evening, for the first time plainly spoken, took up 
 the bread, and breaking it, and pouring forth his blessing upon 
 it, delivered it to his disciples, with these few, but emphatic 
 works, " Take, eat ; this is my body which is given for you ; 
 this do in remembrance of me." Likewise also " he took the 
 cup," and blessing that in like manner, " he gave it to them, 
 saying, Drink ye all of it." And he said unto them, " This 
 cup is the new testament, in my blood, which is shed for 
 you,"* and " for many, for the remission of sins."t " Verily 
 I say unto you, I will drink no more henceforth of this fruit 
 of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in 
 my Father's kingdom." 
 
 How simple, how touchingly beautiful is the whole of this 
 Gospel narrative. Our Lord well knew, not only the corrup- 
 tion, but the coldness, and ingratitude of the human heart. 
 He knew that years, nay centuries must pass away, and that 
 the history of his dying love should fall upon men's ears, and 
 on men's hearts, like a tale of other times, in which they were 
 little interested ; while even to the few, the happy few, who 
 
 * Luke xxii. 20. t Malt. xxvi. 28. 
 
104 DISCOURSE VIII. 
 
 should in all ages adore and venerate that Saviour's name, 
 there would be still the strong temptation to suffer their hearts 
 to dwell upon " the things which are seen and are temporal," 
 to the frequent forgetfulness of those, which " are not seen 
 and are eternal." To meet, then, this never-ceasing, never- 
 slumbering tendency of our corrupt and fallen nature, was no 
 doubt the primary intention of the striking incident we are 
 considering. " This do in remembrance of me." And mark 
 how small a thing it was that the Saviour of the world re- 
 quested of his followers ; as though he had said, When in 
 times to come, you assemble together in my name and in my 
 worship, I ask of you no great, no costly sacrifice ; I only ask 
 to live in your memory and in your love. I only desire to 
 see, and to let an unbelieving world see, that in every gene- 
 ration, throughout all time, there shall still be some who will 
 remember the transactions of this awful night, who will adore 
 and love the despised Saviour, and acknowledge him in this, 
 the lowest point of his humiliation, as their Redeemer and 
 their God. Add, then, this little act, this slight memorial of 
 all the sorrow and the anguish you will this night witness, of 
 all the agonies of that scene, from which to-morrow's sun 
 will hide his face, add only this slight memorial from time to 
 time, to your accustomed sacrifice of prayer and praise ; eat 
 one piece of broken bread, and drink one drop of wine, in the 
 name of the Crucified. Do this in remembrance of me, at 
 those your solemn festivals, from this my hour of suffering, 
 until I come again in peace and receive you unto myself. 
 
 Who could resist such an appeal ? who disobey such a 
 command ? neglect so easy, so merciful a request ? It were 
 impossible. More than eighteen centuries have passed away 
 since in that upper chamber, in some obscure house in the 
 city of Jerusalem, the words which conveyed the request, 
 were spoken by that lowly sufferer to his broken-hearted fol- 
 lowers ; and is it too much to say, that " their sound is gone 
 out into all lands, and their words into the ends of the world ?" 
 From that night to the present hour, all ranks, all classes 
 
ARTICLE XXVIII. 105 
 
 of Christian believers, have united in fulfilling this last request 
 of their Redeemer. Kings have descended from their thrones, 
 and laid aside their crowns, and for a time forgotten all their 
 earthly pageantry, and knelt in reverence to the King of 
 kings, and been partakers of his humble feast. High and low, 
 rich and poor, all who name the name of Christ, have remem- 
 bered, and rejoiced to remember, his dying love, by accepting 
 this his dying invitation. Century after century has passed 
 away, the monuments of human greatness have mouldered 
 into dust, the laws inscribed upon tablets of brass have 
 perished, dynasties and empires have risen and fallen, and are 
 forgotten, and these few simple sentences this short, affect- 
 ing memorial, has outlived them all never obliterated, never 
 even suspended ; no single week, we might perhaps with 
 perfect truth assert, no single day, has ever yet passed by, 
 which did not witness some little assemblage of the followers 
 of the Redeemer " doing this in remembrance of him ;" and 
 thus, as the Apostle says, " showing forth the Lord's death 
 until he comes." 
 
 Can we then wonder, since such was the origin of this 
 holy service, that in the primitive church it was partaken of 
 every day ? While the person of the Redeemer was fresh 
 in men's recollections, while the transactions of that awful 
 night were vividly impressed upon their feelings, it is difficult 
 to conceive a single day passing over them without the last 
 accents of the Saviour's voice, " Do this in remembrance of 
 me," sounding in their ears. While the memory of that " man 
 of sorrows," toiling up the hill of Calvary, bearing his cross, 
 and soon after stretched in unutterable agonies upon it, showing 
 what he was content to " do in remembrance" of them, lived 
 strongly upon their hearts, it is difficult to imagine that a day 
 could have gone by, without their longing for the hour at 
 which they might commemorate such agonies, such love, by 
 complying with the last request of their departed Master. 
 Brethren, the wonder is, and if men's hearts were what 
 they should be, such could have never been, the wonder is, 
 
106 DISCOURSE VIII. 
 
 that from days, the celebration of this service should have been 
 transferred to weeks, and from weeks to months, and from 
 months to some few widely scattered days of festival, between 
 whose long and dreary intervals, the heart of the recipient has 
 ample time to grow cold, and hard, and careless, to the bless- 
 ings he so rarely commemorates. Until at last this service 
 of love is dropped aside, like some forgotten and unprofitable 
 ceremony, to be again no more remembered. Stay, did I say 
 no more remembered ? I greatly wronged the power, not of 
 memory, but of conscience. It is remembered : how awfully 
 and, alas ! usually how unprofitably remembered, let death- 
 beds tell. There, when the last sad hour is hastening on, 
 when all is doubt, and uncertainty, and terror when every 
 human aid has been sought, and yet all baffled, utterly b iffled, 
 and obliged to recede before the advancing step of man's great 
 enemy, there is it well remembered, while some such thoughts 
 as these pass solemnly before the mind : " There was one 
 who died for sinners, and in whose name, I also was baptized, 
 and to whose church I also nominally belonged. He was 
 once in circumstances such as I am now ; and as he stood 
 upon the brink of eternity, he left one last, one small request, 
 to every individual who should thereafter follow him ; that 
 request I have been well acquainted with even from my 
 earliest years, have, month after month, heard it reiterated by 
 his servants, and have, month after month, deliberately turned 
 my back upon the opportunity offered me of fulfilling it. Send, 
 send quickly for a minister of Christ ; let me in this last hour 
 compensate for thirty, forty, fifty years of gross neglect and 
 disobedience to Him, whom I shall soon see face to face !" 
 Most wretched and miserable substitute, to offer the obedience 
 of an hour, instead of the devotedness, the affection, the holy 
 acknowledgments of a life. 
 
 Brethren, from what you have this day seen of the institu- 
 tion of this blessed ordinance, I leave it to your own reflection 
 to answer -the inquiry Does this appear to you to be in any 
 degree the intention or the object of the ordinance to lull the 
 
ARTICLE XXVIII. 107 
 
 fears of a departing sinner, to give an anodyne to conscience, 
 when for the first time awakened to a sense of sin and danger ? 
 No two things were ever more at variance, than is the scrip- 
 tural, and profitable use of the holy sacrament, with this un- 
 scriptural abuse of it. It was intended to commemorate the 
 dying love of the Redeemer, by those whose hearts are filled 
 with the consciousness of its unutterable value ; not to pro- 
 pitiate his anger, by those who have never thought of him, or 
 cared for him, until they knew that shortly they were to be 
 dragged before his judgment-seat. It was intended to cheer, 
 and strengthen the living, while in the daily conflict, and race, 
 and struggle of this world's duties ; not to pacify the dying, 
 by speaking peace where peace is not. It was intended as 
 a feast of love, by which all Christians might enjoy spiritual 
 communion with Christ, their living Head, and with each 
 other as the members of the same body, and the children of 
 the same family, in anticipation of that far more glorious feast, 
 where the Lord shall be bodily present, and whence no child 
 of his shall be excluded ; but it was not intended, for the 
 selfish meal of the departing solitary, who knows not, who 
 cares not for Christian intercourse, or for the body of the 
 Lord's believing people, toiling and travailing upon earth ; 
 who has never held an hour's communion with them, but 
 who now asks a hasty viaticum for his last dread journey, 
 lest his " feet stumble upon the dark mountains,"* and he faint 
 by the way. 
 
 Let us now turn to the Article, that we may see the inten- 
 tions of this solemn ordinance, as they are there expressed, 
 upon the authority of our church. 
 
 XXVIII. Of the Lord's Supper. 
 
 " The Supper of the Lord is not only a sign of the love 
 that Christians ought to have among themselves, one to 
 
 * Jer. xiii. 16. 
 
108 DISCOURSE VIII. 
 
 another." Our church, therefore, acknowledges that it is the 
 sign of this "Communion of Saints," by which they hold 
 fellowship with each other, and with Christ, their living Head, 
 but that it is not only this, " but rather," she continues, " is a 
 sacrament of our redemption by Christ's death ; insomuch 
 that, to such as rightly, worthily, and with faith receive the 
 same, the bread which we break is a partaking of the body 
 of Christ, and likewise the cup of blessing a partaking of the 
 blood of Christ." 
 
 This declaration is evidently founded upon the words of 
 the text, " The cup of* blessing which we bless, is it not a 
 communion" (or " a communication* to us") " of the blood 
 of Christ ; the bread which we break, is it not the communion 
 of the body of Christ ?" By which is clearly intended that 
 great and mysterious truth, elsewhere asserted by our church, 
 that "The body and blood of Christ are verily and indeed 
 taken and received by the faithful in the Lord's Supper."! 
 
 It is not necessary in this congregation, to demonstrate the 
 difference between this view of the church of England, and 
 the transubstantiation of the Romish church, or the consub- 
 v stantiation of the Lutheran church ; that it should ever have 
 been confounded with them, as it has been with the latter, 
 even in the high places of the land, is only a proof, that men 
 of great talent, and of great acquirement, are, unhappily, often 
 ignorant of some of the very first truths of Christianity, and 
 of some of the plainest and most important doctrines of their 
 own church. All that our church asserts, is simply this, that 
 when " received by the faithful," and " rightly received," for 
 you will observe that she limits all the benefits in this case, 
 as in baptism, to the right reception of the Sacrament, there 
 is a strengthening and refreshing of our souls by the spiritual 
 communication to us of the body and the blood of Christ, as 
 there is in the common course of nature a strengthening and 
 refreshing of our bodies by partaking of "bread and wine." 
 
 * Archbishop Seeker. t Church Catechism. 
 
ARTICLE XXVIII. 1C9 
 
 When we come to the Lord's table, in that state of penitence 
 and faith, to which Christ has invited all his people, and to 
 which, by his good Spirit, he is daily and hourly bringing 
 them, then, and then only, do we reap the good of the ordi- 
 nance ; for then, and then only are we spiritually partakers 
 of the body and blood of our Redeemer. " Then we dwell 
 in Christ, and Christ in us; we are one with Christ, and 
 Christ with us ;" we are more than ever closely united to 
 the Saviour ; he is formed in us " the hope of glory,"* we 
 receive anew the pardon of our sins, the consolation and 
 strengthening of our souls, and find experimentally that our 
 Lord's own declaration is a blessed truth, " My flesh is meat 
 indeed, and my blood is drink indeed." Coming to the cele- 
 bration of this high festival, then, " rightly, worthily, and with 
 faith," our church assures us that these good things shall not 
 be withholden from any individual amongst us, but are the 
 heritage of us and of our children for ever. 
 
 Are there any among you who will feel that this one word 
 "worthily" strikes at the root of all the encouragement, and 
 destroys all the comfort, that has gone before. This is simply 
 from a misconception of the requirements of that word : this 
 is from affixing a meaning to the term " unworthily,"! which 
 the Apostle, who first made use of it, never did. Thus we 
 find some among you declaring, " so long as I am engaged in 
 my present occupations, I can never worthily approach the 
 table of the Lord !" Others, again, " So long as I am sur- 
 rounded by the cares of a large family, or by the domestic 
 troubles to which I am exposed, I should not be a welcome 
 guest !" Dear brethren, there never was any thing more false 
 and futile, than such objections as these. Was the Saviour, 
 when he spake the words, " This do in remembrance of me," 
 surrounded by men of leisure, by men unencumbered by 
 worldly cares, and earthly occupations ; or by men who had 
 no domestic troubles, no family anxieties ? Far from it. Is 
 
 * Col. i. 27. t 1 Cor. xi. 27, 29. 
 
 10 
 
110 DISCOURSE VII I. 
 
 not one of the first things which we hear respecting the dis- 
 ciples, after the resurrection of their Lord, that they returned 
 to their usual avocations, and were toiling all night long upon 
 the sea of Galilee ?* Are you more heavily hurdened wiih this 
 world's business now, than they were then ? Can you say as 
 they could say, " Even unto this present hour, we both hunger, 
 and thirst, and are naked, and buffeted, and have no certain 
 dwelling-place, and labour, working with our own hands ?" 
 Or, again, was the Lord of life himself so entirely free from all 
 domestic anxiety, when at the very hour of which we speak he 
 had a widowed mother, unprovided with a home, who was to 
 occupy his thoughts even upon the cross, and through whose 
 soul the sufferings of her only Son should on that coming morn- 
 ing pierce as with a sword ?t No ! never since the hour when 
 this high and holy solemnity was first imagined, have twelve 
 men with hearts more filled with sorrow, with anxiety, with 
 trouble, and with darkest apprehension of the gloomy future, 
 met around the table of the Lord, than they who then sat 
 down to its first and holiest celebration. If these, then, be 
 your excuses, brethren, learn that they form most excellent 
 reasons for your constant attendance upon this holy ordinance, 
 but not a shadow of an argument do they furnish for staying 
 away. If you are in trouble, here you may find a solace; if 
 in difficulty, guidance : if in anxiety, peace. How many a 
 full heart has gone up to the table of the Lord, overwhelmed 
 with a burden which it was totally incompetent to bear, and 
 at that table has been able to cast all, all without, exception 
 and without reserve, upon the Lord of the feast, and has gone 
 back again, comforted and rejoicing. 
 
 Much harm has been done, by good men, upon this subject, 
 by holding out a degree of worthiness, as essential to the due 
 reception of these holy mysteries, which neither the Scripture 
 nor the church has ever hinted at. All that the Word of God 
 says upon the necessary degree of preparation, is simply this : 
 
 * John xxi. 3. t See Luke ii. 35. 
 
ARTICLE XXVIII. Ill 
 
 " Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread 
 and drink of that cup." All that the church responds to this 
 is, let them "examine themselves, whether they repent them 
 truly of their former sins, steadfastly purpose to lead a new 
 life, have a lively faith in God's mercy through Christ, with 
 a thankful remembrance of his death, and be in charity with 
 all men."* Now we would ask, is there a single word in 
 this statement, which ought to act as a prohibition to any indi- 
 vidual who feels a real repentance for sin, a true faith in the 
 Saviour, and a grateful recollection, for all the blessings 
 treasured up for him in Christ Jesus ? In short, for any 
 penitent and believing sinner, who is desiring to live to God 
 here, and to live with God hereafter ? Is there a word which 
 speaks of high Christian attainment, or deep Christian ex- 
 perience ? No, the church evidently contemplated it could 
 contemplate no other that the invitation should embrace 
 every individual among her sincere members, from the youth 
 who yesterday completed his pupilage and was received-into 
 full communion with the church by " the laying on of hands ;" 
 to the aged soldier of Christ, the veteran in her ranks, who 
 can exclaim, " I have fought a good fight, I have finished my 
 course, I have kept the faith." All are equally invited, en- 
 joined, expected to be present. No individual can absent 
 himself without sin, nay, without a double sin, a sin of dis- 
 obedience, and a sin of ingratitude. 
 
 In this respect, there is not a shadow of distinction between 
 the two Sacraments of our church, both are equally considered 
 as " generally necessary to salvation ;" both therefore are 
 equally considered as binding, and equally binding upon all ; 
 and it would be extremely difficult to show that the man who 
 wilfully absents himself from the second Sacrament, stands in 
 any degree, in a holier relationship to God, than the man who 
 voluntarily neglects the first. Yet who is there among you 
 who would deny your children the blessing of Christian bap- 
 
 * Church Catechism. 
 
112 DISCOURSE VII I. 
 
 tism ? And will you be more cruel to your own souls, than 
 you are to your own flesh and blood ? Will you deny them 
 the opportunity of feeding by faith, upon that which alone is 
 " meat indeed, and drink indeed ? " Above all, will you deny 
 the Lord of life, the Saviour who died for you, his one last 
 request, ' Do this in remembrance of me." Brethren, is there 
 one among you, who to these inquiries would venture to reply, 
 44 1 will?" We cannot believe that there is an individual who 
 could thus harden himself against his own mercies. As there 
 is not one who would thus speak, we pray that there may 
 not be one who would thus act in open defiance of the com- 
 mand of his Redeemer. These considerations, however, we 
 leave with yourselves, as long as we are compelled to open 
 our doors at the close of the sermon, to give any of those 
 committed to our charge an opportunity to escape from a 
 service which is their highest privilege, and if they were wise, 
 would be their greatest pleasure ; so long shall we, God per- 
 mitting, never cease to sound in your ears, the duty, and the 
 privilege, you are neglecting. 
 
 While to you, and we thank God for the very large and 
 steadily increasing number of you, who delight in every re- 
 turn of this holy, and sanctifying, and strengthening ordi- 
 nance, and who are, we trust, renewed in the Spirit of your 
 minds, and reconciled to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord ; 
 we would only say, let nothing ever keep you voluntarily 
 from a mean of grace, of which past experience has so fully 
 proved to you the excellency and the power. Let every re- 
 turn of it, not only be a pledge to you of the Saviour's love to 
 your souls, but let it be also a pledge to him of your increasing 
 love to his service. Bear in mind, however, that his own 
 Word has said, " Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and 
 the cup of devils ;" and although this, doubtless, applied dis- 
 tinctly to idolatry, it goes far to prove, that by coming to his 
 table, you do in the most solemn manner avow your allegiance 
 to him, and proclaim open, irreconcileable hostility to his 
 enemies, the world, the flesh, and the devil ; that you by this 
 
ARTICLE XXVI1J. 113 
 
 act solemnly declare that you have given " yourselves, your 
 souls, and bodies," to be his, and his alone ; that you acknow- 
 ledge with the Apostle, that you are not your own, but his 
 who has bought you with his blood. 
 
 Beloved, think how much is implied in that acknowledg- 
 ment; what holiness, what purity, what love, what self-denial, 
 what heavenly-mindedness, what gratitude. And while the 
 acknowledgment of this gift involves, on your part, such high 
 and holy duties, hear what blessed privileges it involves, on 
 his part, who has vouchsafed to receive the gift, and to secure 
 these privileges to yourselves. " Holy Father, keep through 
 thine own name, those whom thou hast given me, that they 
 may be one, as we are," "Father, I will, that they also 
 whom thou hast given me, be with me, where I am, that they 
 may behold my glory." Your course then is plain, it is 
 through the alone merits of your Redeemer, from duties here, 
 to joys hereafter ; from the church militant, to the church 
 triumphant; from the imperfect communion of sinners like 
 yourselves, to the perfect communion of saints in glory ; 
 from the table of your Lord, and his spiritual presence, upon 
 earth, to the bridegroom's feast, the Supper of the Lamb, the 
 personal presence of your Redeemer, in the kingdom of your 
 Father. 
 
114 DISCOURSE IX. 
 
 DISCOURSE IX.* 
 
 ON THE DUTY OF EVERY CHRISTIAN GOVERNMENT TO PROVIDE 
 CHRISTIAN INSTRUCTION, AND TO MAINTAIN CHRISTIAN 
 WORSHIP. 
 
 ISAIAH xlix. 23. 
 Kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nuising mothers. 
 
 AND of whom spake the prophet these remarkable words ? 
 Of the church of the living God. Not of that church, in the 
 darkness, and helplessness of her infancy, when confined to 
 the chosen nation of the Jews, but of that same church, when, 
 as we learn from the context, God should have " lift up his 
 hand to the GENTILES, and set up His standard to the 
 PEOPLE ;"t when she should have broken forth on the right 
 hand, and on the left, and possessed the gate of her enemy ; 
 in fact, of the church of God, under the Christian dispensa- 
 tion. I have therefore selected the passage, not with the 
 intention of dwelling upon the words, but upon the principle, 
 the important principle, developed in them, viz., the duty of 
 a Christian government, to become the nursing father and 
 nursing mother of the church of the Redeemer. 
 
 During such times as the present, when unprecedented 
 efforts are making for the furtherance of some great attempt 
 to destroy the union that has so long and so happily sub- 
 sisted in this country, between the church and state, I feel it 
 compulsory upon me, to depart from my ordinary subjects 
 of ministration, to endeavour to furnish my hearers with a 
 few of those many arguments, which may legitimately and 
 scripturally be urged in defense of the church establishment 
 
 * This discourse was written without the slightest view to publication, 
 and is now only appended to the Discourses on the Articles, in deference 
 to the yish expressed by many members of the congregation. 
 
 t Isaiah xlix. 22. 
 
DISCOURSE IX. 115 
 
 of our country. You will not brethren, hear the observations 
 which I am about to offer yon, with the less attention, if I 
 tell you, that the arguments which sustain them, will have 
 little of novelty to recommend them, since I have preferred 
 selecting those, which after carefully considering the subject 
 for myself, and reading what others have written upon both 
 sides of the question, appear to be the most conclusive, and 
 the least assailable. Neither will you be inclined to listen to 
 me, with less than your usual candour, if I remind you that 
 in the disputes which have latterly agitated, and are at present 
 agitating, in so violent a manner, both Dissenters and Church- 
 men, I have taken no part. The subject has never been, 
 however distantly, alluded to from this place ; first, because 
 I have always felt that the plain and simple topics of scrip- 
 tural instruction afford sufficient, and far more than sufficient 
 occupation for these brief and hallowed opportunities ; and 
 that if, during the week, the minds of men are exercised, as 
 they must ever be, in this great metropolis, in the toils of 
 labour, or the vicissitudes of trade, or the anxieties of pro- 
 fessional duties, or the conflict of political opinions, the Sab- 
 bath ought to be a day of mental repose, as well as of bodily 
 rest, that no harassing, no irritating topics, should ever be 
 permitted to interrupt its hallowed hours ; and that, above all, 
 no subject, no word, no thought should cross the mind, while 
 in the house of God, which does not, as the word of God 
 expresses it, "make for peace;" and, secondly, Because my 
 hearty desire has always been, that every conscientious Dis- 
 senter should be exempted from ail that he can honestly, and 
 as in the sight of Him who knows the heart, really consider 
 a burden; because I respect a conscientious Dissenter as 
 much as a conscientious Churchman ; and because in justice 
 both to Dissenters and to Wesleyans, I am bound to add, 
 that during the whole period, now more than ten years of my 
 ministry in this parish, I have never in a single instance met 
 with opposition, or contumely, or unkindness from them ; 
 but, on the contrary, when occasionally brought into contact 
 
116 DISCOURSE IX. 
 
 with them, I have received from them that treatment which' 
 as fellow-labourers in the Lord's vineyard, we should expect 
 from men earnestly and faithfully engaged in the same work 
 as ourselves. 
 
 It is unnecessary, we hope, to add, that nothing which shall 
 be spoken on the present occasion, shall be in any degree at 
 variance with feelings such as these : that called upon, as I 
 conceive myself to be, by the passing events around us, to 
 endeavour to defend the church, of which I am a very humble, 
 but attached and devoted member, I obey the call, with the 
 fullest conviction, that " the weapons of our warfare are not 
 carnal ;" that unless we bring to the task, a really charitable 
 feeling towards those who differ from us, and an earnest de- 
 sire to avoid all fierce, and angry, and bitter controversy, the 
 God whom we serve will withhold his blessing, and we shall 
 run and labour in vain. A 
 
 We shall first, then, endeavour to show that a church esta- 
 blishment provided by the state, and in immediate connexion 
 with it, is according to the will of God, and the experience of 
 antiquity : and, secondly, That the blessings and advantages 
 of a church so constituted, are of a nature, and carried forth 
 to an extent, which no church, established on any other prin- 
 ciples, could hope to emulate. 
 
 It is frequently said, by those who are opposed to the ex- 
 istence of a church establishment, that it is unfair to derive 
 any arguments in favour of it, from any thing antecedent to 
 the Christian dispensation. This objection, if it be an honest 
 one, and such we are willing to suppose it, must, we think, 
 arise from a very limited and superficial view of the dipensa- 
 tions of God. For, however the framework may have been 
 changed, a true knowledge of those dispensations will lead 
 us to confess, that the principles, the all-important principles 
 involved, are in every case substantially the same. 
 
 We hesitate, not, then, to go back even to the days of 
 Abraham, to prove not merely the propriety, but the 
 bounden duty, the imperious obligation, of every government, 
 
DISCOURSE IX. 117 
 
 to provide the opportunities of religious worship for its 
 people. 
 
 I need scarcely remind you that the peculiar characteristic 
 of Abraham, which was selected by God himself, for the 
 marks of His especial approbation, was this, " Abraham shall 
 surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations 
 of the earth shall be blessed in him ; for, I know him, that 
 he will command his children and his household after him, 
 and they shall keep the way of the Lord to do justice and 
 judgment." v 
 
 We find, that, when Abraham first obeyed the call of God, 
 in coming out of the land of his nativity, accompanied only 
 by Sarai his wife, and Lot his nephew, and the children of 
 Lot's family, one of his first acts was to establish the family 
 altar, and as a family, to call on the name of the Lord. Again, 
 we find that when, as the inspired writer tells us, he became 
 " very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold ;" when his trained 
 servants, born in his own house, and capable of bearing arms, 
 amounted to three hundred and eighteen ; and therefore when 
 his whole retinue, including women and children, could not 
 have been less, at the very lowest computation, than one 
 thousand souls, that is, when he had become a prince, and a 
 potentate, he did that for the many which he had before done 
 for the few ; he erected the altar, and he commanded his 
 subjects, as he had before commanded his servants, that they 
 should keep the way of the Lord. Now can we for a moment 
 suppose, that if Abraham had counted his retinue by thou- 
 sands and by millions, instead of by tens and by hundreds ; 
 in fact, if he had become the head of some mighty monarchy, 
 he would have ceased to do that for which his Lord had so 
 graciously, and so remarkably commended him ? Or, can we 
 imagine that God, who applauded the act when confined to 
 Abraham's family, would have condemned it when extended 
 to his empire ? Surely it is not too much to assert, that, if 
 God can look with pleasure upon the family altar, erected by 
 him whom He has placed at the head of the family, He must 
 
118 
 
 DISCOURSE IX. 
 
 look with tenfold pleasure upon the national altar erected at 
 the command, and maintained by the authority of him whom 
 He has Himself placed at the head of the nation. 
 
 If we pass on from Abraham to the other patriarchs, and 
 especially to Jacob, we shall see the same principle distinctly 
 recognized. When he became great, and God had blessed 
 him abundantly, or, in his own language, when he became 
 " two bands,"* we find it recorded of him, that he provided 
 religious opportunities for his followers, that he erected the 
 altar of God in the midst of them, with the same regularity 
 as he had done for himself, when at the commencement of 
 his career, a poor and houseless wanderer, *' with his stafF't 
 alone, he passed over Jordan. 
 
 We maintain, then, that in all these cases there was the 
 principle established, of those in authority providing the op- 
 portunities of religious instruction and worship for the people 
 committed to their charge ; it matters not, upon how small a 
 scale it was exercised, but here was most distinctly the prin- 
 ciple recognized, and applauded by God, during the whole 
 of the patriarchal dipensation ; for what has been proved re- 
 specting Abraham and Jacob, may be proved of all the other 
 patriarchs. And if it be the acknowledged duty of the father 
 thus to provide religious instruction for his children, the master 
 for his household, the chief for his followers, where will you 
 pause in the series before you arrive at the summit the king 
 for his people ? 
 
 You cannot stop short of this conclusion, unless you are 
 prepared to say, that though as a father, or a master, you are 
 bound b^ certain responsibilities, as a magistrate, or a legisla- 
 tor, you are absolved from them : you cannot stop short, un- 
 less you are prepared to say, that in all our natural relations, 
 we are bound to think and act as believers, and in all our 
 political relations, we are bound to think and act as unbelievers. 
 
 If from the patriarchal, we turn to the Mosaic dispensation, 
 
 * Gen. xxxii. 10. t Gen. xxxii. 10. 
 
DISCOURSE IX. 119 
 
 we find tliis principle not merely recognized, but forming the 
 very marrow and essence of the whole, and distinctly ap- 
 pointed by God himself. Indeed the Jewish church esta- 
 blishes, so unanswerably, the subject in debate, that the only 
 method by which it has been ever attempted to be met, is, by 
 asserting that it was a temporary and typical dispensation, 
 and therefore cannot be fairly applied to ourselves. Now ac- 
 knowledging, as we most unfeignedly do, that it was both a 
 temporary and typical dispensation, we also acknowledge that 
 all that was strictly Jewish, and temporary, and typical, in 
 the church establishment of the Jews, was to be done away, 
 and most unquestionably these have been done away ; but 
 then we contend that its moral principles, and moral obli- 
 gations, neither are, nor can be abrogated. We believe, that 
 it is only by confounding two things, which are perfectly 
 separate and distinct, viz., the typical, with the moral portion 
 of the dispensation, that the false impression, conveyed by 
 the enemies of a national church, can possibly stand. 
 
 The result, then, at which we arrive, from this portion of 
 the subject before us, is the following. We would ask, is it 
 at all analogous with God's dealings with his people, that a 
 principle so clearly, and plainly developed, in the patriarchal, 
 and in the Jewish dispensations, as this that those in civil 
 authority should esteem it their bounden duty to provid-e re- 
 ligious instruction and worship for those committed to their 
 charge should be utterly unknown in the Christian dispen- 
 sation ? Is there any other principle, common to the two 
 former, which is excluded from the third ? And is it not, then, 
 contrary to all probability that the unchangeable Jehovah 
 should depart from his own positive arrangements, when 
 founded not upon the temporary circumstances of a peculiar 
 people, but, as in this case, on the immutable relationship 
 between God and man and between man and his fellows ? 
 If we pass from the Old Testament to the New, we shall 
 content ourselves with this most powerful negative argument 
 in our favour, that there is nothing against an establishment 
 
120 DISCOURSE IX. 
 
 in the Gospels or Epistles ; and to those among you, who 
 know best the method of instruction in the New Testament, 
 this negative argument will have great weight. To enter 
 fully into the force of this, you must remember, that it is not 
 * made use of to establish any new regulation, or its value might 
 be questionable; but that it is simply brought forward in 
 proof of the fact, that the Divine arrangement, which we have 
 seen pervading all the history of the church of God previously 
 to the Christian dispensation, was to continue untouched, as 
 to its principle, during the ages which were to succeed the 
 developement of that dispensation. It is, in fact, precisely 
 the same kind of argument, and equally strong, as that by 
 which we prove that the Christian Sabbath is a Divine insti- 
 tution. Nothing is actually declared in the New Testament 
 respecting the establishment of religion by government, or 
 the establishment of a Sabbath. Both were already in exist- 
 ence : both had been established long before : it is enough 
 that neither was abrogated. Our Lord found his hearers, 
 educated in the strongest possible prepossessions, in favour 
 of a national religion, there was no need therefore of enforcing 
 this duty. They, in fact, knew nothing of a religion sup- 
 ported in any other manner than by the state ; all, then, that 
 appears requisite for our Lord to have done upon this point 
 was, to leave his disciples as he found them. And is not this 
 precisely what He has done ? Did our Lord convey a single 
 hint, or did he commission his disciples who were to fill up 
 his outline, to convey a single hint of a contrary tendency ? 
 No ; with the exception of one solitary text, none have ever 
 ventured to assert that he did. And look only for a moment 
 at this exception, and you will see its total inapplicability to 
 the present question. The text to which I allude is, as you 
 are doubtless aware, our Lord's reply to Pilate, " My king- 
 dom is not of this world." When and where was it made ? 
 Was it at all in relation to the church ? Had it any reference 
 to the establishment of his religion ? Not the smallest. It was 
 the declaration of our Lord when standing at the bar of the 
 
DISCOURSE IX. 121 
 
 Roman governor. He was accused of forbidding his country- 
 men to pay tribute to Caesar, and of saying that he was Christ, 
 a king, and his reply is, " My kingdom is not of this world ; 
 if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants 
 fight that I should not be delivered to the Jews." However 
 possible, then, it may be, by taking half the sentence, to make 
 it appear to apply to church establishments, no unprejudiced 
 man, we apprehend, could read the whole, without seeing that 
 it applied simply, and entirely, to the accusation, that our 
 Lord was endeavouring to erect a temporal kingdom in oppo- 
 sition to the power of Caesar, and to establish this kingdom 
 by the sword. So important is it not to build an argument 
 upon half a passage of Scripture, but to weigh well the whole, 
 and to examine well the context, before we venture to claim 
 the support of God's Word. There is not indeed a single 
 sentence, from the beginning of St. Matthew, to the end of 
 Revelation, which, without the grossest perversion of Scripture, 
 or the most palpable neglect of the context, can be adduced, 
 as an argument against the interference of the civil power, in 
 the establishing and maintaining a national religion. Con- 
 sidering that, as we have seen, all our Lord's first disciples 
 were nurtured in the prejudices of a national religion, is it 
 probable, is it possible, that this should have been the case 
 that these prejudices should have been left untouched, if our 
 Lord had really been opposed to them ? Did he ever act in a 
 similar manner with regard to any other subject? Take, for 
 instance, the ceremonial law, established by God himself, as 
 undoubtedly as that the interference of the civil power with 
 religion was established by God himself. For the abolition 
 of the former, the most explicit declarations were vouchsafed 
 by God to man ; for the abolition of the latter, not one word, 
 as we have seen, has ever yet been communicated. What 
 then are we to believe ? What must every unprejudiced 
 mind conclude, when, of two duties, equally enforced, the 
 former is distinctly abrogated by the same voice which or- 
 dained it, and the latter is passed over in silence ? Surely we 
 
 11 
 
122 DISCOURSE IX. 
 
 must confess, that, the latter principle remains unaltered, un- 
 removed, unshaken. " The account then, of scriptural in- 
 junction," as an able writer of the present day has well 
 expressed it, " stands thus in favour of establishments, much ; 
 against establishments, nothing."* 
 
 Without attempting to found the fundamental principle for 
 which we are contending, upon any of the single and scattered 
 declarations of the divine Word, such as the prophecy of the 
 text and many others, powerful though they be : we would 
 leave it upon this simple, broad, and intelligible, and, as we 
 believe, irrefragable foundation That the principle of a na- 
 tional church was encouraged by God himself under the pa- 
 triarchal dispensation, established by God himself under the 
 Jewish dispensation, and left untouched by God himself when 
 remodelling that sacred establishment, under the Christian 
 dispensation. That it is, in fact, founded on those moral ob- 
 ligations, from which no possible change of circumstances can 
 set us free, and like the divine institution of the Sabbath, 
 though veiled for awhile under Jewish types and Jewish 
 ceremonies, has come down to us stripped of these, and yet 
 retaining all the force and obligation, the beauty and freshness 
 of its divine original ; equally binding upon man in his do- 
 mestic character, in his social character, in his political cha- 
 racter, equally imperative upon him as a father with his 
 children, as a master with his servants, as a king with his 
 subjects ; and never to be disregarded, without infringing the 
 laws, and contemning the authority of God our Maker. 
 
 With regard to the practice of antiquity, it is sufficient in a 
 single word to assert, what no one can deny, that with the 
 exception of the first three hundred years in the church's 
 history, when every emperor was an unbeliever, or a perse- 
 cutor, or both, and therefore when Christianity could not be 
 the religion of the state, there never was a period when the 
 religion of Christ was not fostered and protected by the 
 
 * Essay on the Church, p. 15. 
 
DISCOURSE IX. ~ 
 
 government.* And that during the whole, or the greater 
 part, of those first three hundred years, miraculous powers 
 remained in the church, as if to protect its infancy, until the 
 first Christian emperor, immediately upon his conversion, 
 should establish it as the religion of the country, and throw 
 over its institutions, the shield of the civil power : a duty 
 which was not more clearly seen by Constantine, than it was 
 gratefully and unhesitatingly accepted by the whole body of 
 the Christian church ; not a single dissentient voice having 
 ever been raised, not an individual Christian foretelling, or 
 foreseeing, that a day could arrive when the connexion be- 
 tween church and state should be called an unholy union, or 
 when good men of any persuasion would unite to dissolve and 
 to destroy it. Upon this point, we will only add a single 
 observation, that however conscientious Dissenters may at 
 the present moment view this question ; from the beginning, 
 even among themselves, it was not so; that in fact the great- 
 est, the holiest among their forefathers, are all found ranged 
 on the side of an establishment, and fighting its battles. It is 
 sufficient to mention the names of Owen, Baxter, Flavel, 
 Howe, Henry, and Doddridge, in support of the assertion ; 
 and to show that they were not lukewarm friends of that 
 cause, of which many of their descendants are the enemies, 
 we will quote a single passage of that most eminent non-con- 
 formist, the truly wise and pious Dr. Owen, who, when 
 preaching before the long parliament, thus expressed himself: 
 " Somef think if you (the parliament) were well settled, 
 you ought not, in any thing as rulers of the nation, to put 
 forth your power for the interest of Christ ; the good Lord 
 keep your hearts from that apprehension !" " If once it comes 
 to this, that you shall say you have nothing to do with re- 
 ligion, as rulers of the nation, God will quickly manifest, that 
 
 * See Sermons on this subject by the Bishop of London, and by the 
 Rev. Dr. Deahry. 
 t Owen's Works, vol. xiv. p. 415. Edit. 1826. 
 
124 DISCOURSE IX. 
 
 he hath nothing to do with you, as rulers of the nation. '* A 
 sentiment which we pray that the Spirit of God may keep 
 constantly before the eyes, and write upon the heart of every 
 legislator of a Christian nation, who expects to enjoy the 
 blessing and favour of the Most High upon his efforts for the 
 good of the nation. 
 
 II. But we must proceed to the second division of our 
 subject, the peculiar advantages of an established church. 
 
 Of the blessings and advantages of a church establishment, 
 every individual, whether Churchman or Dissenter, or Infidel, 
 is, however he may deny it, or however he may in truth be 
 ignorant of it, most unquestionably a partaker. Wherever a 
 church is built, and an active and godly minister is appointed, 
 every rank and class in the adjoining society, and every in- 
 dividual in that society, whether he enter the church, or 
 whether he do not, is in some degree improved and benefited. 
 To those who become partakers of its ordinances, the benefits 
 are sufficiently obvious. The higher classes, who, amidst the 
 refinements of luxury, or the allurements of intellectual pride, 
 might not be willing to go far out of their way, to hear the 
 self-denying doctrines of the Gospel, are met by them at their 
 very doors ; and are told the truth, the plain and life-giving 
 truth, from God's Word, with an authority which nothing but 
 the official character of a duly appointed minister, of God, and 
 we might also add, of a parochial minister, necessarily inde- 
 pendent both of their smile, and of their frown, can compe- 
 tently insure. In what is termed the "voluntary system," 
 the minister must be exposed to an interference from his con- 
 gregation, from which the parochial" minister alone is free. 
 The importance of this, in securing an unfettered ministra- 
 tion of the Word of God, is too obvious to require a single 
 
 * Vol. xv. p, 499. Perhaps Dr. Adam Clarke's well-known testimony 
 In favour of church establishments, ought also to be referred to. See his 
 note on 1 Kings xiii. 33, which concludes thus : " whatever the reader 
 ma)' do, the writer thanks God for the religious establishment of his coun- 
 try. For abuses in church and state he is the last to contend." 
 
DISCOURSE IX. 125 
 
 observation. Again the poorer and less-informed classes are 
 brought under the teaching, and hallowing, and comforting 
 influences of the Divine precepts and promises, both in public 
 ministration and private visiting, with a frequency, I may al- 
 most say, a constancy, with which no other institution can 
 supply them ; and let me add, at free cost, which, except in 
 a national church, is, and must be, almost unknown. We 
 speak it in no disparagement to other religious bodies, for we 
 love and revere every order of Christians, who " love the Lord 
 Jesus Christ in sincerity ;" but we state it merely as a fact 
 which the very constitution of their order requires, that even 
 the poor who attend their places of worship, are expected (we 
 do not say compelled, but expected) to contribute, and, as is 
 well known, do, in the aggregate, contribute largely to the 
 maintenance of their ministers. Now what is the case in the 
 establishment ? There, and there alone, can it be said, that 
 " The poor have the Gospel preached to them," " without 
 money and without price." Look at the ten thousand parish 
 churches scattered over the face of the country, and we refer 
 to the country, because, however the " voluntary system" of 
 dissent may thrive in the large and wealthy towns, it has, 
 even to the present hour, been literally unable to obtain the 
 smallest footing in many of our remote villages, from the 
 absolute incapacity of their poor inhabitants to contribute any 
 thing to its support we say then look at the numerous parish 
 churches scattered over the face of the country, scarcely a 
 village from among whose trees you do not behold that beau- 
 tiful and heart-cheering sight, the village spire. See these 
 churches, as many of you, no doubt, have rejoiced to see 
 them, filled on the Lord's day with agricultural labourers of 
 the poorest description ; who have been trained in the Sunday- 
 school, instructed privately, as well as publicly, and prepared 
 carefully by their resident minister, for confirmation and for 
 the sacrament of the Lord's Supper ; and who, during their 
 whole lives, remain under his plain, and affectionate instruc- 
 tion, seated on the same benches on which their fathers, and 
 
126 DISCOURSE IX. 
 
 their grandfathers have sat, and heard the word of life ; and 
 yet, with the exception of the trifling fees for the occasional 
 offices of the church, which occur but rarely, in the life of 
 aay individual, not one farthing have the occupants of those 
 benches, from generation to generation, ever contributed, or 
 been expected to contribute, towards the maintenance of the 
 church, or the support of the minister. What but a national 
 establishment could ever have the power, however it might 
 possess the will, to make such an abundant provision upon 
 such easy terms ? 
 
 We have said that those without, as well as those within 
 the pale, are benefited by our church establishment. Observe 
 only the effect of a single church thus planted in the midst 
 of a moral and a spiritual wilderness, and surely you will not 
 doubt it. Take, for instance, any of those churches which 
 have been lately built at the sole charge of the nation, and 
 which, although situated in the midst of a dense, and ignorant 
 population, would seldom, we may confidently assert, have 
 been erected, had they waited for the expression of their ne- 
 cessity, from those who stood the most in need of them. For, 
 as has been unanswerably demonstrated,* religious instruction 
 is the great exception to that general rule which regulates the 
 supply by the demand. In other cases it may be true ; in 
 religion it is unquestionably false ; there is no demand until 
 long after the supply has been brought : there is no feeling 
 of our need, until that feeling has been originated by the bless- 
 ing of God upon those very means by which it is afterwards 
 to be supplied. Take then, we say, for instance, any one of 
 the churches lately built by government, and look only at 
 the effect produced upon those who never enter it upon " them 
 that are without."t Do they derive nothing from its charities, 
 nothing from its influence, nothing of increased security to 
 their properties and their persons, from a more scripturally 
 enlightened, and therefore a belter conducted population 
 
 * By Dr. Chalmers. t Col. iv. 5. 
 
DISCOURSE IX. 127 
 
 growing up around them? Nothing of improvement among 
 their dependents, from the spread of that moral influence, or 
 that intellectual cultivation which thrives under its widely- 
 spreading branches ? Surely, taking it, and I have intention- 
 ally so taken it, upon the lowest grounds that the merest 
 \vorldling could desire, it is impossible not to concede the fact, 
 that every parish church, i. e., every church which insures the 
 Sunday and the week-day ministrations, of an appointed 
 minister, to an appointed people, is a blessing, a peculiar 
 blessing, both to those who are brought into immediate 
 contact with its ordinances, and to those who dwell in its 
 vicinity. 
 
 In conclusion, we would only add, that if our church esta- 
 blishment be thus, as we believe it is, a blessing to all, 
 whether they are indifferent to it, or dissent from it, or are 
 opposed to it, of how much greater blessing is it, under God, 
 to those who are " the lively members" of its blessed insti- 
 tutions, who partake of its scriptural services, and who profit 
 by its imperfect, but scriptural, and faithful ministrations. 
 
 Brethren, if you really love the great and glorified Head 
 of the church, you will love the church which He has pur- 
 chased with his blood ; and as one of the purest, and most 
 efficient branches of it, you will love, and venerate, and un- 
 ceasingly pray for the established church of your native 
 country. You will draw the closer to her in this, which, if 
 dark clouds foretell the tempest, may soon be her hour of 
 need. You will uphold her religious institutions, you will 
 maintain her union with the state, you will stand by her most 
 scriptural characteristics, her apostolical episcopacy, and her 
 episcopally ordained ministry you will support her best, her 
 truest, her spiritual interests. You will love her too well to 
 cling to her abuses, which it is the mark of a true affection 
 to be the first to deplore, and, as far as in you lies, the first 
 to remedy. You will, therefore, stand as far aloof from those 
 who would alter, and improve nothing, as from those who 
 would rush in, with bold and desperate foot, " where angels 
 
128 DISCOURSE IX. 
 
 fear to tread." You will love, her, not as a mere political 
 engine, but as the handmaid of the Lord, because sne has for 
 centuries honoured him, whom it is the dearest desire of 
 your heart to honour; finally you will love her, because, 
 within her walls, you have first learnt " the way to Zion ;" 
 because, from her pulpits, you have found guidance, and in- 
 struction, and encouragement, and peace. She has been your 
 spiritual parent, nurse, and counsellor ; and you will in re- 
 turn, be her faithful children, her uncompromising supporters, 
 her enlightened, and prayerful, and steady friends. You will 
 say of her, the church of God, as David said of old of the 
 city of God, " If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand 
 forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee,"* in thy 
 trouble to help thee, in thy dangers to assist thee, in thy dif- 
 ficulties to pray for thee, "let my tongue cleave to the roof 
 of my mouth ; yea, if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief 
 joy."t And you will, if you are the true, and consistent 
 members of such a church, pass from the worship of her 
 courts below to that blessed place, of which the Apostle de- 
 clared, "I saw no temple there, for God Almighty, and the 
 Lamb, are the temple of it: And the city had no need of 
 the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of 
 God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. "J 
 
 * Psalm cxxxvii. 5. t Psalm, cxxxvii. 6. t Rev. xxi. 22, 23. 
 
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