Rom. 15:1–3.

Rom. 15:1–3.

  1.      Its aspect on the Jews—

[How melancholy their present state of “blindness!” — — — and how glorious the prospects held out to them! — — —]

  2.      Its proper effect upon your own minds—

[It is lamentable to observe how “wise” the generality of Christians are “in their own conceits,” in reference to this matter: how contemptuously they speak of the Jews, as if they were by nature worse than ourselves; and as if they were never again to be restored to the favour of their God. But, if we bear in mind what they once were, and what they are yet destined to become, we shall regard them with veneration, for their fathers’ sakes, and seek their welfare with earnestness for their own sakes — — —]

MDCCCC

THE JEWS STILL BELOVED OF GOD, FOR THEIR FATHERS’ SAKE

  Rom. 11:28, 29.

As concerning the Gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers sakes. For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.

IT is strange, that, when so much is spoken in the Holy Scriptures respecting the Jews, they should occupy so little the attention of the Christian world. We see them as monuments of God’s indignation; but never inquire, or but superficially inquire, either into the reasons of his conduct towards them, or into his ulterior designs respecting them. Were we to say that they were enemies to God for our sakes, we should be told that it was impossible: and were we to speak of them as yet objects of God’s love, we should so astonish our hearers, as to make them cry out, in the language of Ezekiel’s auditors, “Ah, Lord God, doth he not speak parables?” But the whole of their present state is a “mysteryb,” a great and stupendous mystery, into which we shall do well to search. For the assisting of you in this inquiry, I have selected the words which we have just read; wherein are declared,

  I.      The mystery of God in relation to his ancient people—

  1.      “As concerning the Gospel, they are enemies for our sakes”—

[That they are enemies to God and his Christ, has been abundantly manifested, by their conduct towards all who prophesied of Christ; by their crucifying of the Lord of Glory, when he had put himself in their power; and by their determined rejection of his Gospel, when, with such abundant evidence of its divine origin, it was preached unto them. Unhappily, we have still but too plain proofs that this enmity continues unabated. They hate the Gospel precisely as they did in the apostolic age, and reject its gracious overtures with disdain.

Now, whence is it that God has suffered their enmity to rise to such an height, and to rankle in their bosoms with such inveterate malignity? The Apostle tells us, He has suffered it “for our sakes.” But how “for our sakes?” What interest can we have in it? This we will endeavour to explain.

God originally chose the Jews for his peculiar people, and vouchsafed to reveal himself exclusively to them. When, by their abuse of his blessings, they had “provoked him to become their enemy,” he determined to make himself known to the Gentiles, and to transfer to them the blessings which had been so wantonly despised. Therefore he cast off the Jews, and adopted the Gentiles in their place.

But it may he asked, Why should he cast off the Jews, in order to make room for the Gentiles? Was not the heart of the infinitely gracious Jehovah capable of embracing both? And might not the blessings of salvation, like the light and warmth of the sun, be enjoyed by both at once, without any loss or injury to either? I answer, God, no doubt, could have admitted both to enjoy his favour at the same time: but, for reasons best known to himself, he did not see fit to do so. He had displayed his sovereignty in the choice of the Jews: and now he would glorify the same perfection in the choice of the Gentiles also. His grace is his own; and he will dispense it to whom he will, and at what time he will, and in what measure he will; “nor will he give account to us of any of his matters.” It is not for us to say to him, “What doest thou?” It is our part to acquiesce, with all humility and gratitude, in his sovereign dispensations; and, in reference to them all, to say, with our blessed Lord, “I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes: even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight.” Having, then, determined to introduce us to the blessings of salvation, he suffered them to reject these blessings, that so a way might be made for us, to occupy their place, and to possess their inheritance.

This does, I confess, appear a strange and almost incredible statement: and, if it were founded on one particular expression of the Scriptures, we might well doubt the justness of it. But this truth is so often repeated, that we cannot possibly entertain a doubt respecting it. The Apostle tells us, that, “through their fall, salvation is come unto the Gentiles:” that their fall was the riches of the world; that the diminishing of them was the riches of the Gentiles; and that the casting away of them was the reconciling of the world. Thus is it unequivocally declared, that the communication of salvation to us was the effect and consequence of their rejection. Shall I go farther than this, and say, that the communication of salvation to us was also the end of their rejection? Yes; mysterious as this is, it is unquestionably true: for the Apostle acquiesces in this very position as undeniable: “Thou wilt say, then, the branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in. Well: because of unbelief they were broken off:” that is, I acknowledge the truth of your position; though, for the vindication of God’s character, I must say, that his breaking of them off from the stock was not a mere act of sovereignty on God’s part: they deserved it richly; and brought it on themselves by their own obstinacy in unbelief: nevertheless, you are right in what you say respecting God’s intentions towards you: he did break them off, that you may be graffed in upon their stock: and the whole of this mysterious dispensation towards them has been permitted “FOR YOUR SAKE.”

But think not that they are cast off for ever: for,]

  2.      “As concerning the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sakes”—

[The Jews were chosen in Abraham their father; and all his posterity were comprehended in the promises made to him: not indeed in their individual capacity, (for then no one of them, not even Judas himself, could have ever perished,) but nationally, and in their collective capacity; and to them, sooner or later, shall all the promises be fulfilled. The rejection of the great body of the nation had taken place when the Apostle wrote this epistle: but yet he said, that “even at that present time there was among them a remnant according to the election of grace.” And so may we say at this time; “There is a remnant,” whom God, from time to time, is gathering in from among them, and especially through the instrumentality of the Hebrew New Testament, which to a great extent, is now circulating among them in different quarters of the globe: and, as in the covenant made with Abraham, not all his descendants were comprehended, but only those who should proceed from Isaac and from Jacob; so in the loins of those who are yet alive are millions of millions comprehended; and of them also an elect remnant. And who shall say how many of them “are ordained to eternal life?” Sure we are, that they will be numerous as the stars of heaven; or rather, “as the sands upon the sea-shore, innumerable.” At whatever period these shall come into the world, God will call them to the knowledge of himself; and give them, if not the possession of the land of Canaan, yet the possession of that better inheritance, which Canaan typified, and which was assured to them in the promises that were made to Abraham. Those promises were not made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, for themselves only, but for their seed: and “not a jot or tittle of those promises shall ever fail;” all shall be fulfilled in their season: and from respect to the fathers to whom they were made, are the present generation of their descendants yet loved; and to the latest generations shall the elect among them be loved, even as the fathers themselves were loved. Thus, “as touching the election, are that people,” notwithstanding all their enmity, “yet beloved for their fathers’ sakes;” as God has said: “I know the thoughts that I think towards you; thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.”]

All this is secured by,

  II.      The determined purpose of his mind towards them—

Exceeding strong is the assertion with which the Apostle confirms the foregoing declarations. The general and unqualified manner in which the assertion is made, will lead us to notice it,

  I.      As a general truth—

[Certain it is, that “God’s gifts and calling are without repentance.” Whatever God has given, of spiritual and eternal blessings, he has given in consequence of “his own eternal purpose, which he purposed in Christ Jesus before the world began. The favoured persons were not originally chosen on account of any superior goodness that was, or would be, in theml; but they were “predestinated to the enjoyment of those blessings, according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.” These are strong expressions, I confess: but they are the declarations of God himself; and they reflect the strongest light on the subject we are now considering. For God is an unchangeable Being; as he has said: “I the Lord change notn.”

That there have been occasions on which he has been said to “repent,” I acknowledge: for we are told that he “repented he had made man:” as also, “that he had raised Eli to the priestly office;” and, that he had made Saul king over Israelq. On one occasion, God himself says, to those whom, after having brought them out from Egypt, he had determined to exclude from the promised land, “Ye shall know my breach of promise.” But we must distinguish between his purposes and his dispensations. His dispensations he may, and does, change: but he changes them agreeably to his eternal purpose, which was, to continue his favour to his people, whilst they should walk worthy of it; and to withdraw it from them, when they should have so abused it, as to render any longer forbearance on his part injurious to the honour of his moral government. But in himself “there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning:” “nor will he ever forsake his people, for his great name’s sake; because it hath pleased him to make them his peoplet.” “Whom he loveth, he will love unto the end:” and of those whom he hath given to his Son, he will suffer “not so much as one to be lost, or ever to be plucked out of his handx.”

But let us more particularly mark this truth,]

  2.      As bearing upon the point immediately before us—

[The Prophet Micah marks with very peculiar accuracy the distinction between God’s favour as promised to Abraham, and as conferred on Jacob. To Abraham it was altogether “mercy;” because it was promised by God to him and his seed freely: but to Jacob it was “truth;” because it was an accomplishment of the promise previously made: “Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old.”

Now the promises made to Abraham, and his believing seed, were all ratified with an oath, and confirmed with an everlasting covenant: and God gave this double assurance for the more abundant consolation of his people; as the Apostle informs us: “God willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it with an oath; that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before us. On this, then, we rely, even on the immutability of God’s covenant; and from this we infer the certainty that God’s ancient people will be restored to him in due season. Notwithstanding their present disconsolate condition, God’s “eye is yet over them for good;” and, notwithstanding their inveterate hostility to the very name of Christ, he still “loves them;” and never will repent of the gifts he has bestowed upon them, or of the calling wherewith he has called them: for “He is not a man, that he should lie; nor the son of man, that he should repent.” We may say therefore with the Apostle, in the preceding context, “ALL Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Zion, the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: for this is God’s covenant with them, when he shall take away their sins.”]

  I now confidently make my APPEAL to you; and ask,

  1.      Do we not find here a just occasion for gratitude?

[We admire, as well we may, the blessedness of God’s chosen people in the days of David and Solomon, especially when compared with the blindness and ignorance of the heathen nations around them. But far more elevated is our state at this day, inasmuch as the effusion of the Holy Spirit upon us is more abundant, and our advantages for fruitfulness are proportionably increased. Do but reflect on your situation as graffed on the good olive-tree; and look upon the stock, the wretched, worthless stock, from which you have been taken: shall not this mercy fill you with unutterable joy? Verily, if you do not bless, and magnify, and adore the goodness of your God, “the very stones will cry out against you.”]

  2.      Have we not here, also, a loud call for our compassion?

[Come, and survey the ground on which the olive-tree is growing: see how it is strewed with branches, with dead and withered branches, that have been broken off from the stem: and then consider that they have been reduced to this state “for your sakes,” and “broken off on purpose that you might be graffed in.” Look on them, I say, and tell me whether your bowels should not yearn over them; and whether you ought not to exert yourselves to the utmost in their behalf? Did we but bear in mind this mysterious truth, methinks it would be impossible for us to view a Jew and not weep over him, and pour out our souls in fervent intercession for him, and labour to the uttermost to effect his restoration to the Divine favour.]

  3.      Is there not also abundant encouragement for our exertions?

[That “God is able to graff in again” the natural branches, we can have no doubt. And is he not engaged to do so, by promise and by oath? Why, then, do we not seek to be instrumental in this blessed work? If we believe that they are yet “beloved of God,” should we not make them objects of our love? Come, let us do this: let us say with ourselves, ‘God helping me, I will never cease to work, till I have been instrumental in graffing in again some one branch. I see that there is nothing but unbelief that separates them from God; and I will, by every means in my power, endeavour to convince one, that Jesus is the Christ, the Saviour of the world.’ Would we but all adopt this resolution, and implore help from God to carry it into effect, what might we not hope for in the space of a few years? Surely God would hear the united prayers of his people, and favour their united efforts with success. If only we would “give him no rest,” and “take no rest ourselves,” till we had succeeded in our efforts, we should soon prevail, and behold Jerusalem once more a praise in the earth.”]g

MDCCCCI

THE GOSPEL GIVEN TO US AS A DEPOSIT FOR THE JEWS

  Rom. 11:30, 31.

As ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief: even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.

ONE can scarcely conceive how such a chapter as that before us should be in the hands of Christians, and be read by them from time to time, and yet the great subject of the restoration of the Jews, and of their union with the Christian Church, be as little known as if no information whatever had been given respecting it in the Bible. Till of late, it should seem as if there had been as thick a veil upon the hearts of Christians, in relation to it, as there has been upon the hearts of the Jewish people in relation to Christianity itself. Methinks the words which I have just read to you, if there had been no other, were sufficient to unfold to us the whole plan of Divine Providence in relation to this matter. For in them we see,

  I.      The mysterious way in which God has dispensed his blessings to mankind—

Mark the plan, as it is here developed—

[The whole world having departed from God, they were, with the exception of one family, overwhelmed by an universal deluge. The surviving family soon followed the footsteps of their ancestors; and the whole world, in the space of less than five hundred years, was again involved in darkness and idolatry. It pleased God then to give a new revelation of himself to one single individual, and to confine the knowledge of himself, not to his descendants generally, but to his descendants in the line of one particular son. But that revelation being merely oral, it was preserved only by tradition. Then, after about four hundred and thirty years more, God, for the first time, vouchsafed to man a written revelation. Yet was this written word confined to that single people. The rest of the world, for the space of four thousand years, were left without any written instruction from on high, and were given up to the delusions of their own hearts. Our Lord himself said he was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel; and he forbad his Disciples to enter into any city of the Samaritans, to instruct them. But at last, when this nation had so abused the light afforded them, as to reject and crucify their Messiah, God took it away from them, and imparted it to the Gentile world, who hitherto had lain in darkness and the shadow of death. Yet, alas! it is to but a small part of the Gentile world that this light is come, notwithstanding it has shined these eighteen hundred years. But it is God’s purpose that, in due season, it shall spread over the face of the whole globe; and that they, to whom the knowledge of his will has been now committed, shall be his instruments for communicating it to all the rest of mankind, both Jews and Gentiles.]

Now I call the whole of this mysterious—

[St. Paul calls it so, in the chapter before us: and so great a mystery did he consider it, that, in the contemplation of it, he exclaimed, “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!”

But consider these four things: the long delay; the partial bestowment; the subsequent transfer; the final restoration: and every part of it will appear an inscrutable mystery.

That God should leave the world in ignorance for two thousand years—that he should then make himself known to one man only, and confine the knowledge of himself for two thousand more years in one particular branch of that man’s family—that then he should cause the candlestick to be removed from that people; and be set up amongst the idolatrous Gentiles, who had been left to themselves for four thousand years—that eighteen hundred years more should elapse, and the light be not yet spread amongst the Gentiles generally, or restored to the Jews—who does not see, in this whole dispensation, the sovereignty, the uncontrollable sovereignty, of the Most High, who imparts to every one so much only as he himself sees fit, and that too in the time and manner which seems best to his unerring wisdom? The Apostle illustrates this by an olive-tree, the branches of which were broken off, that others might be engrafted on it, and that, at a future period, they might be engrafted again on their own olive-tree. And, truly, in the whole of this mysterious appointment we must acquiesce, saying, “Even so, Father; for so it hath seemed good in thy sightd.”]

But, though we cannot comprehend this mystery, we know, for certain,

  II.      The design of God in it—

This is two-fold;

  1.      To provoke the Jews to jealousy—

[Moses himself, who gave to the Jews God’s written word, told them, that they would, by their obstinate unbelief, provoke God to withdraw his mercy from them, and to transfer it to the Gentile world: “They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God: they have provoked me to anger with their vanities: and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.” This passage St. Paul expressly cites in the preceding context; and informs the Jews, that God, having in vain dealt with them in the way of mercy and of judgment, was now anxious to try another way, and to influence them through the operation of another principle, the principle of envy; if by any means he might prevail upon them to turn unto him. And, doubtless, this was well calculated to impress their minds with penitential sorrow for their past sins, and with an ardent desire to be restored to his favour. They saw all that their most favoured saints had ever enjoyed now transferred to the Gentile world, whom they had been accustomed to despise as dogs; and pardon, and peace, and holiness, and glory, now imparted to a people whom they had deemed incapable of such blessings; whilst they themselves were given up to judicial blindness and obduracy. True, indeed, this operated rather to increase their anger, than to produce humility: but God’s end was mercy; though they, through their incorrigible perverseness, made it only an occasion of bringing down upon themselves yet heavier judgments. This is a point which we are too apt to overlook. God never intended finally to cast them off, but only to reject them for a season; until, by beholding his mercy vouchsafed to the idolatrous Gentiles, they shall be prevailed upon to humble themselves before him, and to implore a restoration of their forfeited inheritance:—”I say, then, have they stumbled, that they should fall (for ever)? God forbid: but rather, through their fall, salvation is come unto the Gentiles, to provoke them to jealousy.”]

  2.      To provoke the Christian world to love—

[Mark with care the expression in my text: “They, the Jews, have now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.” God might, if he had seen fit, have admitted the Gentiles to a participation of his blessings in conjunction with the Jews. But this was not the plan which he, in his unerring wisdom, had ordained. He determined to manifest his displeasure towards the Jews, on account of their rejection of the Messiah; but at the same time to shew mercy to them through the instrumentality of the despised Gentiles. To the Gentiles he gave a yet clearer and fuller revelation than that which he had given to the Jews: and he gave it, not for their benefit only, but as a sacred deposit for the Jews, and as a talent to be improved for their especial use. In bestowing the Gospel on the Gentiles, he said, in fact, ‘Here is salvation for you: but, remember, you must not confine it to yourselves. You must make use of it for the instruction and salvation of the Jews. From you I withheld the light which I bestowed on the Jews: but I do not intend that the light which I am now bestowing upon you should be withheld from them: on the contrary, I purpose that it shall be imparted to them: and I intend to make you my channel of communication to them. See to it, therefore, that you improve this mercy aright, and that you labour incessantly for their good; for I grant this mercy to you, not for your own benefit only, (though, doubtless, it is for yourselves in the first instance,) but for them also, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.’

Thus, in the whole of this dispensation, God has acted in a sovereign way, yet also in a way of mercy;—of mercy to the Jews, whom he would provoke to jealousy; and of mercy to the Gentiles, whom he would provoke to love.]

  Permit me now to ASK,

  1.      What use have you made of this Gospel for yourselves?—

[Have you “believed it?” Have you, by faith in it, been brought to God? Have you been led to admire and adore the goodness of God, in that, when he withheld his blessings from his own highly-favoured and peculiar people, he conferred them upon you, who were alike unworthy of them, and might well have been left to perish, on account of your abuse of the light with which he had favoured you, and which, small as it was, was sufficient to acquit or to condemn you, according as you conducted yourselves in reference to it? In a word, have you seen the “mercy” of God, as revealed in the Gospel? and are you transported with it, as offering “mercy” to your souls? Does that “mercy,” as bought for you by the precious blood of Christ, form the one ground of all your hopes, and the one spring of all your joys? Remember, if the feebler light vouchsafed to Abraham, and Moses, and David, wrought so powerfully on them, as to guide their feet into the paths they trod, much more should your superior light elevate your souls, and transform you into the very image of your God — — —]

  2.      What use have you made of the Gospel for your Jewish brethren?—

[Alas! how little have any of us answered the end for which the Gospel has been committed to us, or ever considered the design of God in bestowing it upon us! It is perfectly surprising, that for so many centuries we should have altogether overlooked our Jewish brethren: as if God himself had never given us any charge respecting them; or rather, as if his charge had been, “Into any city of the Jews enter ye NOT:” when, in fact, the command has never been repealed, “Preach my Gospel, to the Jews first, and also to the Gentiles.” Indeed, my brethren, great guilt attaches to us on this account. “What would you yourselves say to your steward, if, when you had committed to him a sum of money for the relief of your distressed neighbours, he had withheld from them your bounty, and had expended it altogether on himself? Yet that were no crime, in comparison of that of which you have been guilty; because the loss occasioned by his dishonesty could, at the worst, only issue in the temporal death of those whom he defrauded; whereas the negligence of the Christian world has issued in the death of men’s souls, yea, of millions of immortal souls, who, if the means which God has put into our hands for their good had been duly improved, might have been saved with an everlasting salvation. Let there be an end of this neglect, my beloved brethren; and now begin, with all assiduity and diligence, to redeem the time that you have lost. Truly, you owe much to your Jewish brethren: and I call upon you to pay your arrears; (“for their debtors ye are “to a vast amount;) and now, by your personal efforts, or through the instrumentality of others, impart to them the mercy which you yourselves have received. Nor do I suggest this as a matter of advice merely, but as an absolute command from God himself. It is not a thing left to your option. You have a trust; and you must discharge it. I call upon you, then, if you have any sense of the mercy vouchsafed to your own souls, to act as faithful stewards to your God, in dispensing mercy to his “beloved,” though suffering and out-cast people.]

MDCCCCII

THE UNSEARCHABLENESS OF GOD’S WAYS

  Rom. 11:33.

O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!

ON whatever side we look, we are surrounded with mysteries; yea, we are a mystery to ourselves. The works of creation, and providence, and redemption, are all mysterious; and the more we know of them, the more we shall be disposed to exclaim, “O the depths!” Perhaps no one of the children of men ever had so deep an insight into the great mysteries of the Gospel as the Apostle Paul: yet, when he had unravelled them in a way that no other man ever did, he was constrained to acknowledge, that there were in the Gospel, treasures unexplored, and mines unsearchable, and riches of wisdom that far surpassed the conceptions of any finite intelligence. This is a truth which we ought to be well acquainted with: for, till we are made sensible of it, we shall never regard the Gospel with that reverence and admiration which ought ever to exist in our minds towards it. Let us then contemplate the unsearchableness of God’s “judgments,” that is, of the means he has appointed for our salvation, and the incomprehensibility of his “ways,” by which he dispenses that salvation to fallen man.

He is altogether incomprehensible,

  I.      In the way he has provided for the salvation of men—

Consider,

  1.      His sending his only dear Son to he the surety and substitute of fallen man—

[From having been early instructed in that great mystery, the incarnation of the Son of God, we hear of it without emotion: but when we contemplate, that the Creator of heaven and earth became a creature, in the likeness of sinful flesh; that in order to his being formed immaculate, he was born of a pure Virgin through the operation of the Holy Ghost; and that, being so born, he did actually become a curse for us, and “bear our iniquities in his own body on the tree;” we are lost in wonder. We are not only at a loss to comprehend it, but seem as if we could not believe it; so strange, so almost impossible, does it appear: and if it were not confirmed in such a way that it is impossible to withhold our belief, we should be ready to account it blasphemy to assert such a fact, and madness to believe it. But the fact is so: and as, at the first revelation of it, it filled all heaven with wonder, so will it do to all eternity: “the height and depth and length and breadth of the love” displayed in it, will never be explored.]

  2.      His saving men by a righteousness not their own—

[This seems no less unsearchable than the former. Supposing that God had sent his Son to expiate our guilt, we should at least expect that he would require man to work out a righteousness for himself, and to obtain salvation by his obedience to the law. But, blessed be his name! he has not required any such thing. He requires men indeed to be righteous, and to obey his law: nor will he save any man who does not in these respects endeavour to fulful his will. But he does not require man to fulfil his law, in order to work out a righteousness whereby he may be justified: on the contrary, he requires men to renounce all dependence on their own righteousness, and to seek for acceptance solely through the righteousness of Christ. A perfect righteousness of our own we could not have: and therefore God sent his own Son to obey the precepts of the law, as well as to suffer its penalties, and by his own obedience unto death, to “bring in an everlasting righteousness,” “which should be unto all, and upon all, them that believe.” Thus the vilest sinner in the universe, the very instant he truly believes in Christ, becomes possessed of a righteousness commensurate with the utmost demands of God’s perfect law, a righteousness in which he stands before God without spot or blemish. How wonderful is this! how inconceivable to any finite capacity, that God should, I had almost said that God could, appoint such a way for the restoration and salvation of fallen man!]

  3.      His bringing out of man’s fall more glory to himself, and more good to man, than if man had never fallen—

[The dishonour done to God by the fall of man was beyond all conception great: yet is the honour done to him by man’s recovery infinitely greater. True it is, God would have been equally glorious in himself, if man had never been restored: but his perfections would never have been so displayed in the sight of his creatures. It would never have been known that mercy constituted any part of his character; whilst it is, in reality, that perfection in which he most delights. Nor would his justice have appeared so awful in the destruction of the whole human race, as it appears in inflicting death upon his only dear Son, when standing in the place of sinners. But suppose that mercy might have been exercised towards sinners in some other way; how could justice have borne any part in their salvation? But now justice is as much engaged on the side of a believing penitent as mercy itself; and the penitent, whilst he entreats God to be merciful to himself, may entreat him also to be just to his Beloved Son, who paid the full price for his redemption: yes, he may hope in the very justice of God, who is “a just God and a Saviour,” and can be “just, and yet the justifier of all them that believe.” What an inscrutable mystery is here!

But we must notice also the good that accrues to man. Suppose man had never fallen, he would have had but a creature’s righteousness, and consequently a reward only proportioned to it: but now the believer has the righteousness of the Creator himself, even the Lord Jesus Christ, who is “made righteousness unto us,” and is therefore “called, The Lord our Righteousness.” I may add too, that the believer is actually more safe than Adam was in Paradise. Adam had his own safety, and that of all his posterity, committed into his hands: and what the event was, we know by bitter experience. But God has now committed his chosen people to the hands of his own Son, that HE may redeem them by his blood, sanctify them by his Spirit, and “preserve them blameless unto his heavenly kingdom.” Now Jesus himself tells us, that “of those who were given him, he lost none,” nor ever would lose one; for that “none ever could, or ever should, pluck them out of his hands.” The Father has no longer trusted us, so to speak, with our own destinies: he has treasured up our life and strength in Christ Jesus: “our life is hid with Christ in God:” and because Christ himself is our life, we, at his appearing, shall appear with him in glory.”

Say, now, brethren, whether “these judgments be not indeed unsearchable, and these ways past finding out?” — — —]

Glorious as that part of our subject is, we leave it, in order to mark the mysteriousness of God’s dealings with men,

  II.      In the way in which he imparts that salvation to them—

And here we would notice his conduct,

  1.      Towards the world at large—

[This is the point to which St. Paul in our text more especially refers: he has throughout the whole chapter expatiated upon the rejection of the Jews, the calling of the Gentiles, and the final restoration of the Jews themselves: and from the view of those mysterious dispensations he is led to make the exclamation before us. Consider then these points. Consider his first separating to himself a people in the person of Abraham, who was an idolater, like all the rest of the world. Yet he took not all of his seed; but only the seed of Isaac, excluding Ishmael from all participation of the promised blessings. Yet neither did he take all of Isaac’s seed; but rejected Esau, the elder, and took Jacob, the younger; and that too by a special order, “whilst they were yet in their mother’s womb, and consequently could have done neither good nor evil.” Is there nothing wonderful in this? Who could have conceived that God should vouchsafe such mercy to any; or that, vouchsafing it, he should dispense it in so sovereign a way? Yet so he did; and the fact is undeniable. In due time he multiplied the posterity of Jacob, and brought them out of Egypt, and led them through the wilderness, and put them into possession of the promised land, and communicated to that family exclusively the means of salvation for the space of two thousand years. Here we might ask, If God was not merciful, why did he choose any? and if he was merciful, why for so long a period did he exclude any? But “God’s ways are in the great deep.” “He giveth not account to us of any of his matters.”

At last, for their iniquities he cast off his chosen people; and made the rejection of them the occasion and the means of calling in the Gentiles. Who shall explain this mystery? Who shall tell us the reasons why God acted thus? Who shall tell us why the Gentiles were not called before; or why they were called then; and especially why God made the fall of the Jews to be the riches of the Gentiles, and the salvation of the world? Will any one undertake to account for these things?

But the deepest part of this mystery yet remains to be noticed. God has still purposes of love towards his rejected people, though he has cast them off almost eighteen hundred years; and intends to make the more general awakening of the Gentiles the means of bringing back again to him the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and of engrafting them again upon their own stock, from which they have been so long broken off, and on which the Gentiles have been so long graffed in their stead: and then he will make that very restoration of the Jews the means of converting the whole world; so that it shall be as if there were a general resurrection of all the saints to live again upon the earth, all mankind being united under one head, the Lord Jesus Christ, and all constituting one fold under one Shepherd. What shall we say to these things? Was there not reason for Paul, in the prospect of them, to exclaim, “O the depths!” Truly “God’s judgments are a great deep:” “He doeth great things and unsearchable, and marvellous things without numberb.”]

  2.      Towards individual believers—

[In reference to these also we must say, that “God’s ways are not as our ways, nor his thoughts as our thoughts; but as high as the heavens are above the earth, so are his ways high above our ways and his thoughts above our thoughts.” Observe the objects of his choice: Who arc they? Are they such as human reason would select? He takes a Manasseh, who had filled Jerusalem with the blood of innocents; a Mary Magdalen, who had been possessed by seven devils; a Saul, that was a proud, blaspheming, cruel, blood-thirsty persecutor; and he leaves the young man, who, in his own opinion at least, had kept all God’s commandments from his youth up: yes, publicans and harlots were admitted into his kingdom freely and in vast multitudes, whilst the Scribes and Pharisees were given over to final obduracy. What shall we say to this? The fact is unquestionable; and we can only say, as our Lord did in the contemplation of this great mystery, “Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight.”

Mark farther the manner in which he calls them to himself. Some he calls with terror, as the jailor; and others with the gentle drawings of his love, as Nathanael: some by the instrumentality of his ministers; and others by the secret operations of his Spirit, without the intervention of any outward means: some suddenly, as Matthew; others gradually, as Apollos: some in early life, at the third or fourth hour; and others on a dying bed, at the eleventh hour.

His mode of completing in them the good work must also be noticed. Some he leads through deep waters, as David; whilst others have comparatively a smooth and easy passage: some, like Peter, are suffered to fall into grievous sins; whilst others, like Paul, persevere in an unblemished course even to the end.

In all these things the sovereignty of God is most conspicuously displayed: and St. Paul has a peculiar reference to that in the exclamation before us. He asks, “Who hath first given to the Lord?” Who has laid him under any obligation to confer his blessings upon him? If any such person can be found, let him come and prefer his claim; and I pledge myself, says he, that “it shall be recompensed unto him again.” And then he goes on to declare, that God, as a mighty Sovereign, does every thing purely of his own will, and for his own glory: for that “of him, (as the Author,) and through him, (as the Disposer,) and to him, (as the End,) are all things: and that to him must all the glory be given for ever and ever.”

Such are God’s judgments, and such his ways: but “how little a portion of him is known!” This however we must say, that though “clouds and darkness are round about him, righteousness and judgment are the basis of his throne.”]

  SEE then from hence,

  1.      What is the proper posture of a sinner’s mind—

[We should not presume to sit in judgment upon God, arraigning either the declarations of his word, or the dispensations of his providence. What know we either of the one or of the other? “We were but of yesterday and know nothing:” and “if any man think that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know.” We are not to imagine, that, because there are many things in God’s word above our ability to comprehend, they are therefore not true; or that, because in his providence there are many things which we cannot account for, they are therefore not good. We should remember, that the wisdom of man is foolishness with God: and that “though vain man would be wise, he is born like a wild ass’s colt.” Let a sense of our extreme ignorance then lead us to a meek submission to our God; and let us, whenever difficulties occur, satisfy ourselves with this reflection, that, “what we know not now, we shall know hereafter.”]

  2.      What is the truest felicity, both of saints and angels—

[To search into the great mystery of godliness is right, provided we do it with humility and godly fear. And, if we look to God to teach us, “he will by his Spirit shew us, what no unassisted eye ever saw, or ear heard, or heart conceived.” Yes, He will teach us “the deep things of God:” he will exhibit to our view “the unsearchable riches of Christ,” and give us an insight into that mystery of a crucified Saviour, “in which are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” What do we suppose were the feelings of the Apostle, when, from a view of the unsearchableness of God’s judgments, he cried out “O the depths!” Can we conceive a sublimer joy than he at that time experienced? The angels are constantly employed just as he was at that time. We are expressly told, that they are “always desiring to look into” the great mysteries of redemption; and, no doubt, from every discovery they make, their joy is exceedingly enhanced. We cannot doubt but that the felicity of the saints in glory will very principally consist in this, in admiring and adoring those dispensations of grace and mercy, which here they so superficially beheld, but which then will he more fully unfolded to their view. Let this then, brethren, be your employment now: it will be a heaven upon earth: and the more enlarged are your discoveries of your Redeemer’s glory here, the more will you be prepared and fitted for the enjoyment of it in a better world.]

MDCCCCIII

GOD ALL IN ALL

  Rom. 11:34–36.

Who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor? Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.

GOD is represented in the Scriptures as “a jealous God.” And well he may be so: for it is not fit that any portion of “his glory should be given to another.” But man is ready, on all occasions, to arrogate something to himself. Hence it becomes the servants of God to exercise extreme vigilance in relation to this matter; and to claim for God the honour due unto his name.

In the chapter before us, the Apostle has been setting forth the mysterious designs of God in relation both to Jews and Gentiles. It had pleased God, for two thousand years, to confine the knowledge of himself to Abraham and his descendants: but at length he saw fit to cast off them, and to transfer his blessings to the Gentiles. In due season, however, it is his purpose to restore to his favour his ancient people, and, through their instrumentality, to diffuse the knowledge of himself over the face of the whole earth. Now, in the whole of this work, it is obvious that God has acted “according to the counsel of his own will;” and that to no creature in the universe is there left any room to boast. Hence St. Paul, in the words which we have read, ascribes all the glory to God alone.

Let me call your attention to the component parts of this sublime passage:

  I.      His unrestricted challenge—

Who will venture to claim any merit to himself in reference to redemption at large?—

[Of whom did God take counsel, when he determined to save a ruined world? Who suggested to him a hint respecting the substitution of his own Son in the place of sinful man? Who proposed to him so strange a way of reconciling all his own glorious perfections, and of making all the rights of justice, and truth, and holiness, to consist with the exercise of mercy? — — — Or who ever did any thing to merit at his hands such an interposition in his favour? If there be any one so vain as to arrogate any thing to himself in this respect, let him bring forward his claim, and substantiate it before God, “that he may be recompensed” according to it. But we have no fear that this challenge will be accepted by any upon earth, or any one in heaven itself. The whole work of salvation is God’s, and God’s alone—the result of his wisdom, and the gift of his grace — — —]

Who will venture to claim any merit to himself, in reference to the application of this redemption to his own soul?—

[Who can ascribe any thing to his own wisdom? or who to his own goodness? Who will venture to reverse the saying of our Lord; and, in direct opposition to him, to assert, that “he first chose the Lord, and not the Lord him?” What disposition or ability had any one of you to turn unto the Lord, till “He, of his own good pleasure, gave you both to will and to dob?” Or what had you done for him, that merited this favour at his hands? The salvation itself, and the faith by which you have embraced it, have been both, and equally, the gift of God; and, whatever you may have attained, “by the grace of God you are what you ared.”]

In connexion with this, let us consider,

  II.      His unqualified assertion—

Every good thing the Apostle refers to God, distinctly asserting him to be,

  1.      The Source of all—

[God is the one fountain of all good. The fallen angels could as easily have devised a way of salvation as we. We must, of necessity, go back to the period when God proposed to his Son to become our substitute and surety, and promised to him a seed, who should, if I may so speak, remunerate all the sufferings he should endure for us: from that covenant must all our blessings be traced; and in accordance with it shall they all be vouchsafed — — —]

  2.      The Author of all—

[Not only did every thing spring from God, as the fruit of his sovereign love; but every thing was wrought in us by. his power and grace. We could as easily form a new world, as we could form the new creature in our own bosoms: “He that must work us to this self-same thing, is God.” In its rise, its progress, and its consummation, no other hand can be seen but His. Nor is good alone to be traced to him; for he is, so far as permission goes, the author of evil also. Moral evil indeed cannot be ascribed to him, any further than as permitting it for wise and gracious ends: but penal evil, in whatever way it comes, and from whatever hand it proceeds, may be referred to him, as its proper author. The Sabeans and Chaldeans destroyed the property of Job; yet Job regarded them only as instruments in God’s hands, and received the visitation precisely as if it had proceeded from God himself, without the intervention of any secondary cause Thus must we also do: for “there is not either good or evil in the city, but the Lord hath done ith.”]

  3.      The End of all—

[God in every thing seeks his own glory, and from every thing will assuredly bring glory to himself. From the fall of man, from the very crucifixion of Christ himself, has his glory been educed: but never has he designed that man should glory. Be it so, then, that you are enjoying salvation in all its fulness: you must, to the latest hour of your life, say, “Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name, be the praise” — — —]

A just view of the two former points will prepare us for,

  III.      His appropriate acknowledgment—

To God he gives the glory. And who amongst us will not cordially add his “Amen?”

We must do it upon earth—

[Our hearts should be duly sensible of our obligations to him, whether for temporal or spiritual blessings. To whom can we ascribe it, that we were brought into the world in a Christian land, where the light of revelation shines; and not in the midst of heathen darkness? To whom do we owe it, that we were made to hear the glad tidings of salvation, which are so faintly proclaimed even by the established messengers of Christ; and that we were enabled to receive them into our hearts, when so many pour contempt upon them, as of no value? Surely, “it is God who has made you to differ;” and to him must you ascribe all the praise.]

You will do it in heaven—

[Do you hear amongst the heavenly hosts one who is taking honour to himself? No: there is but one sound amongst all the celestial choir: all are singing praises to God and to the Lamb. And doubtless the saints in glory now see how much they are indebted to God “for events which once they deemed calamitous and adverse.” Anticipate, then, that time; and now begin to acknowledge, in every thing, whether painful or pleasing, the wisdom, and goodness, and power, and faithfulness, of your God. And remember, that the more you have been enabled to do for God, the more you are indebted to God, by whose grace alone you have been empowered even to think a good thought.]

  Now, from this subject you may surely LEARN,

  1.      Submission—

[“The ways of God are a great deep,” and “his paths past finding out.” But when you reflect that neither men nor devils can exceed the commission they have received from him, surely you should say in all things, “It is the Lord: let him do what seemeth him good” — — —]

  2.      Gratitude—

[View your mercies, which are more in number than the sands upon the sea-shore; and see if you can trace them to any source but God. And are they all the fruits of his love, and the effects of his power, and do they not call for gratitude at your hands? Methinks your every word should be thanksgiving, and your every breath be praise.]

  3.      Affiance—

[Doubtless there will be many circumstances that will be dark, and at present inexplicable: but you must never forget, that “though clouds and darkness be round about him, righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne.” You have seen already, that, in numberless instances, he has brought good out of evil; and that you have had reason to bless him as much for things which have been contrary to your desires, as for things which have been gratifying to flesh and blood. Learn, then, to trust him for the future; and, under the darkest dispensations, learn to say with Job, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.”]

MDCCCCIV

DEVOTEDNESS TO GOD RECOMMENDED

  Rom. 12:1.

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

THE end of all true religion is, to bring men to God. From him they have fallen, and to him must they be restored. Whatever instructions have not this object in view, are of small value. The Gospel itself would be an empty speculation, if it did not teach us to hope for some practical effects. There are some who would separate principle from practice: but not so the Apostle Paul: he expected not fruit indeed without a root; nor hoped to raise an edifice, without laying a foundation: but, when his foundation was firmly laid, he deferred not to build upon it. In all the preceding part of this epistle he has shewn how sinners are to find acceptance with God; and has proved the sovereignty of God in the disposal of his blessings. But, having finished his argument, he does not leave us there; he goes on to shew the practical effects of his principles; and urges us, from the consideration of all God’s mercies, to devote ourselves unreservedly to his service.

That we may enter fully into the exhortation before us, we shall consider,

  I.      The duty to which we are exhorted—

There is in the words before us an evident allusion to the sacrifices that were offered under the law. The victims were brought to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and were there slain; and their bodies were disposed of according to the particular directions given in the law, as suited to the occasions on which the offerings were made; some being wholly burnt upon the altar, and others partly burnt, and partly eaten by those who ministered before the Lord. In reference to these, we are required to “present our bodies (which is here put for our whole selves) a living sacrifice unto the Lord;” that is, we should, with the full concurrence of our inmost souls, devote ourselves to God,

  1.      To fulfil his will—

[We must not strain a metaphor too far. The sacrifices under the law were intended to make atonement for sin: but this is no part of our office; Christ, our great sacrifice, having, by his own body once offered, made a full, perfect, and sufficient satisfaction for the sins of the whole world. It is only as far as the victim was surrendered entirely to God, that the metaphor is applicable to us: and in this view it is frequently used; the whole body of believers being themselves an offering to the Lord, and “a spiritual priesthood also, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christb.”

Hear then to what an extent we are to be given up to God: May “the very God of peace,” says the Apostle, “sanctify you wholly: and I pray God, your whole spirit, and soul, and body, may be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” No part of us should be under the dominion of any other lord: but “as we have formerly yielded both the members of our bodies and the faculties of our souls, as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, we must henceforth yield them wholly unto God, as those that are alive unto God.” Every sin, of whatever kind, must be mortified; and every grace, however difficult and self-denying, be brought into habitual exercise — — —]

  2.      To be disposed of for his glory—

[If God call for our whole persons, as it were, to be consumed by fire upon his altar, we must not draw back; but must say with the Apostle, “I am ready, not only to be bound, but also to die, for the Lord’s sake.” So far from regarding such an event with dread, we should rather consider it as our highest honour. Thus it was that Paul viewed it: “If,” says he, “I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy and rejoice with you all: do ye also joy and rejoice with me;” for, so far am I from regarding such an event as a matter of condolence, that I look upon it as a fit subject for mutual congratulations. I mean not that such an end is to be sought for by us; but it is cheerfully to be submitted to, if God in his providence should call us to it. We should regard sufferings for Christ’s sake with a holy indifference, “desiring only that Christ should be magnified in our bodies, whether by life or death.” Of course, all minor sacrifices of property, or reputation, or liberty, are to be welcomed by us, and gloried in, as means of honouring and glorifying our incarnate God. In a word, “we should neither live unto ourselves, nor die unto ourselves; but live and die unto God only; so that, both living and dying, we may be the Lord’sh.”]

But let us mark more particularly the beauty and emphasis of,

  II.      The exhortation itself—

St. Paul presses upon us the performance of this duty,

  1.      From the obligations we owe to God—

[In all the preceding part of this epistle, St. Paul has been unfolding the great mystery of redemption as wrought out for us by the Lord Jesus Christ, and as applied to us by the Spirit, according to the eternal counsels of the Father. By the consideration of these “mercies” he urges us to give up ourselves to God. It was for this very end that these mercies were vouchsafed to us. Wherefore did our blessed Saviour “give himself for us?” Was it not “to redeem us from all iniquity, and to purify unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works?” And to what did the Father predestinate us, but to be conformed to the image of his Son?” Let these ends then be answered in us: and let us remember, that, “having been bought with a price, we are not our own; but are bound to glorify God with our bodies and our spirits, which are his.”]

  2.      From the nature of the service itself—

[It is good in itself.—“God calls us not unto uncleanness, but to holiness.” He says, “Be ye holy; for I am holy.” The sacrifices under the law were to be without spot or blemish: and such also are we to be: “We should present ourselves a living sacrifice, holy.” True it is, that till we are renewed by the Holy Spirit we cannot be holy: but it is equally true, that, when we come to the Lord Jesus Christ aright, he will give us his Holy Spirit, by whom we shall be “created after God in righteousness and true holiness,” and “be changed into Christ’s image, from glory to glory.”

It is also “acceptable to God.”—Nothing in the universe is so pleasing to him as a broken and contrite heart. As for all the legal sacrifices, he had no delight in them, any farther than they typified the Lord Jesus, and were offered with a reference to him. They were even odious to him, when presented by ungodly worshippers, who relied on them for acceptance, whilst they lived in wilful sin. A heart filled with gratitude to him, and devoted to his service, was “more than thousands of rams or ten thousands of rivers of oill: and every act of obedience proceeding from faith and love, is in his sight the most acceptable tribute that can possibly be offered.”

It is also most worthy of a rational being. Any service short of an entire surrender of the soul to God is irrational and absurd. How can it possibly be, that the heart-searching God should approve of formal and hypocritical services! If he had no delight in the blood of bulls and of goats, how can we suppose that he should have pleasure in lying words, and hypocritical professions? But in the surrender of the soul to him, there is something that commends itself to the judgment of every considerate mind. True, we cannot add to his glory or happiness by any thing that we can do: but still we may employ for him the bodies he has created, and the souls he has redeemed: and in so doing, we render him the best service of which our nature is capable; and shall asuredly receive from him at last that token of his approbation, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”]

  APPLICATION—

[Let me now, brethren, after the Apostle’s example, address you in the language of entreaty. We might, as standing in the place of Almighty God, command you: but for love sake we rather “beseech you.” O consider what mercies you have received at God’s hand, and are yet hoping to receive, through the sacrifice of his only dear Son — — — Think too how reasonable is the service to which we call you; how profitable to you, and how pleasing to God — — — We entreat you not to withhold it: we entreat you not to defer it another hour. If indeed you can prove it unreasonable, or unprofitable, or unacceptable to God, we are content that you shall reject it as folly, and decry it as enthusiasm: but if you cannot find one substantial objection against it, or one reasonable excuse for declining it, then, we beseech you, act as becomes persons already on the brink and precipice of eternity, and speedily to stand at the judgment-seat of Christ. Give yourselves up to Him who bought you with his blood: give yourselves to him, to be saved in his appointed way, and to glorify him in every situation which you may be called to fill. If he calls you to act for him, “whatsoever your hand findeth to do, do it with all your might:” and if to suffer for him, “rejoice that you are counted worthy to suffer for his sake.” Thus shall the end of all God’s mercies to you be duly answered, and his glory be advanced in your everlasting salvation.]

MDCCCCV

AGAINST CONFORMITY TO THE WORLD

  Rom. 12:2.

Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

THE morality, no less than the doctrines, of the Gospel far excels the boasted inventions of philosophy. There is not one principle in the human heart, or one action of our lives, which is not depraved by sin. The whole system of man’s conduct is deranged: and to rectify it in all its parts, is the scope of that revelation which God has given us. The inspired writers are not satisfied with lopping off a few branches; they strike at the root of all sin; and labour to bring us back to that state of allegiance to our Maker from which we are fallen. This is peculiarly observable in the exhortation before us, in explaining which we shall shew,

  I.      What is that conformity to the world which we are to avoid—

Doubtless there is a degree of conformity to the world which is necessary, if we would not render ourselves perfectly ridiculous and absurd: but there are limits, beyond which we ought not to go. To mark out those limits we may observe, that we should not be conformed to,

  1.      Its company and conduct—

[We cannot wholly avoid worldly company; for “then we must needs go out of the world:” but we surely should not choose such for our companions; and much less form an indissoluble alliance with them. If we ourselves be spiritual, it is not possible that we should enjoy the society of a carnal person, because his views, desires, and pursuits must of necessity be as opposite to ours as darkness is to light. By forming a connexion with such persons, what can be expected but that we should be enticed to imitate their conduct? And though we commit no flagrant evil, we are assured, that while we are walking according to the course of this world, we walk after the will of Satan and not of God.]

  2.      Its maxims and principles—

[According to the established maxims of the world, we should seek above all things the favour and esteem of men; we should avoid every thing that may make us appear singular; and on no account testify our disapprobation of any practice that is sanctioned by general custom. But how do such principles accord with the Holy Scriptures? In them we are told that, if we make it our grand aim to please men, we cannot be the servants of Jesus Christ: and, if we have attained that object, instead of congratulating ourselves upon our success, we have reason to tremble on account of the woe denounced against use. Instead of dreading a necessary singularity, we are required to shine as lights in a dark world, and not only to have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but faithfully to reprove themg. We are to be armed with a steady determination to live the rest of our time, not to the lusts of men, but to the will of God.]

  3.      Its spirit and temper—

[In what does the spirit of the world consist? It consists altogether in self-seeking, self-pleasing, self-confidence, and self-complacency. Now can any thing be more abhorrent from a Christian state than such a disposition as this? We are not to be resting satisfied with present attainments, or studying how much we can please the flesh without forfeiting the favour of God; but are rather to be pressing forwards towards perfection, without at all regarding the loss or pain we may be called to undergo in the prosecution of our duty. How hateful a want of such a holy resolution is, may be seen in the reply which our Lord made to Peter, who would have dissuaded him from exposing himself to the trials he had predicted: “Get thee behind me Satan; for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.”]

Further light will be reflected on this subject by considering,

  II.      Wherein consists that transformation of soul that is opposed to it—

The Christian is “a new creature; old things are passed away; and all things are become new:” according to the proficiency he has made, he conforms himself to,

  1.      Other principles—

[The worldly man knows no higher principle than self-love: whatever be his subordinate motive of action, all may be traced up to this. But they who are partakers of the Gospel salvation, are under the influence of a far nobler principle, the love of Christ: the thought of Christ having died for them, fills their hearts with admiration and gratitude: it inspires them with an ardent desire to testify their sense of his kindness: and forms a powerful incentive to holy actions. This is attested by St. Paul; and it constitutes a most essential part of that transformation of soul, which characterizes the true Christian. Subordinate motives indeed a believer may feel; but a desire of pleasing and honouring God, and a fear of dishonouring or displeasing him, will operate with the greatest force; and that too, in opposition to carnal considerations, no less than in aid of them.]

  2.      Other rules—

[The fashion of the world is the standard by which men in general regulate their conduct: but the Christian takes the word of God for his guide, and the example of Christ for his pattern; and, instead of reducing the rule to his practice, he endeavours to elevate his practice to the rule. He brings every thing “to the law and to the testimony:” and a plain declaration, or command, of God will be more to him than any precepts of men, or than the example of the whole universe. It is his ambition to “walk as Christ walked:” and though he knows that he can never attain the measure of his perfection, yet he strives incessantly to follow the pattern of it, that so he may be perfect even as his Father that is in heaven is perfect.]

  3.      Other ends—

[A Christian would not be content with ordering his actions aright, even if he could arrive at the highest degrees of holiness, unless he had also the testimony of his conscience that he sought, not his own glory, but the glory of God: having been “bought with a price,” he is conscious that he is “not his own,” and that consequently he “ought not to live unto himself, but unto him that died for him.” He feels that, if in any thing he consult merely his own honour or interest, he so far withholds from God the honour due unto his name; and therefore he labours to comply with that divine injunction, “Whether ye eat or drink, or whatever ye do, do all to the glory of God.”]

Thus is the Christian transformed, not in respect of his life only, but in the spirit of his mind; and therefore can declare from experience,

  III.      What effects this progressive renovation will produce—

There are many objections raised by the world against the sanctity that has been before described; and there is much opposition to it in the heart of every unrenewed person: but the experience of it will most effectually discover it to be,

  1.      Good in itself—

[Piety is too generally considered as needless preciseness: nor need we have any thing more than a separation from the world, and a transformation of soul after the Divine image, in order to become objects of reproach and contempt. Even the more sober and discreet part of mankind regard the precepts before us as “hard sayings,” unsuitable to modern times, and unfit for general practice. But as our Lord said of his doctrines, that whosoever would do his will, should know whether they were of God, so we may say of his precepts. While we are blinded by carnal desires, the commands of God will appear rigorous; and we shall labour more to explain them away, than to obey them: but if once we adopt them as the rule of our conduct, their beauty and excellence will manifestly appear; and we shall be convinced that, to obey them is, to be truly happy.]

  2.      Acceptable to God—

[While religion is accounted superstition, it is no wonder that the sublimer duties of Christianity are declined as unnecessary, and that they who practise them are deemed “righteous over-much.” But a renovation of soul will soon dispel this error, and shew us that, the more entire our devotedness to God be, the more highly shall we be raised in God’s esteem. If only we make the word of God the standard of our actions, we cannot possibly be too earnest in improving the talents committed to us: nor can we doubt but that the tokens of God’s approbation that we shall receive, shall be proportioned to the sacrifices we have made, and the exertions we have used in his service.]

  3.      Beneficial to man—

[It is usually supposed that a compliance with the directions in the text would weaken our faculties, and so distract our minds as to render us unfit for the common offices of life. But the very reverse of this is known to be true by all those who make the experiment. Heavenly-mindedness tends to “perfect” the man of God in all his faculties, and “thoroughly to furnish him unto all good works.” Till this takes possession of the soul, a man is the sport of every temptation, and liable to be led captive by every lust: but grace will establish his heart; it will bring a consistency into his whole conduct; it will change him into the very image of God; and will render him “meet for the inheritance of the saints in light.”]

  ADDRESS—

  1.      Those who are yet conformed to the world—

[If you are free from gross vices, you do not apprehend your conformity to the world to be any reason for questioning the safety of your state. But it is scarcely possible for God to declare in more express terms your guilt and danger, than he has done in various parts of Holy Writ. You are therefore reduced to this alternative, either to come out of Sodom, or to perish in it; either to enter in at the strait gate, and walk in the narrow way, or to fall into that destruction that awaits you at the end of the broad and frequented path. O that God may enable you to choose the good part; and to adhere to it in spite of all the odium your singularity may bring upon you!]

  2.      Those who profess to have experienced a transformation of soul—

[You need to be much upon your guard lest “after you have escaped the pollutions of the world, you should be again entangled therein and overcome.” It is your wisdom to avoid temptation, and to guard against the snares that are laid for your feet. However circumspectly you may walk, you will find reason enough to lament your manifold defects. Lay not then any stumbling-blocks in your own way; but seek rather to experience the transforming efficacy of the Gospel: let the world be crucified unto you, and be ye crucified unto the world. As obedient children, “fashion yourselves in no respect according to your former lusts in your ignorance, but as he who hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversationu.”]

MDCCCCVI

SOBRIETY OF MIND ENJOINED

  Rom. 12:3.

For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.

IN order to obtain just views of any passage of Scripture, we must pay the strictest attention to the context. It is by the context that the precise import of the words before us must be determined. It sometimes happens, however, that the misconstruction of a single word—by which I mean, the taking of a word in its more common acceptation, when it is used by the inspired writer in a more peculiar sense—will involve the whole passage in the greatest obscurity. The word translated “for” is generally used to introduce a reason for something immediately preceding: but in my text, as in many other parts of the Apostle’s writings, I apprehend it means “moreover;” for the Apostle is passing on to a subject unconnected with that which he had spoken of in the preceding words, except merely as he descends from a general exhortation to the mention of some particulars. Having recommended, in the two preceding verses, the cultivation of general piety, as the proper improvement to he made of all the doctrines which he had before established, he descends to some particulars, which, in the state of the Roman Church at that time, he deemed of peculiar importance. There were at Rome, as well as at Corinth, many who were possessed of miraculous gifts: and some were ready to value themselves too highly on account of those gifts; forgetting that they had received them from God, and that, not for their own aggrandizement, but for the benefit of the Church to which they belonged. It should seem that these gifts were put forth by a special exercise of faith; and that persons were enabled to exercise them at those seasons, and in those degrees to which they were prompted by a special communication of faith to their souls. The meaning therefore of our text is, ‘Pride not yourselves on any gifts which you possess; but thankfully acknowledge God as the author of them, and improve them humbly for his glory.’ In this view, the words before us are precisely similar to that more enlarged statement which the Apostle gives in his First Epistle to the Corinthians; and the word ‘faith,’ in our text, is equivalent to that expression in the Epistle to the Ephesians: “To every one of us is grace given, according to the measure of the gift of Christ.”

But, as miraculous gifts have long since ceased, and as the caution in my text is equally applicable to gifts of every kind, I shall take this more enlarged view of the words, and consider,

  I.      The caution here given—

It is well known that gifts, of whatever kind they be, are too commonly made an occasion of pride—

[It is difficult for any one to possess any particular quality, whether of mind or body, and not feel a measure of self-admiration and self-preference on account of it. How great a snare to a person’s own mind superior beauty is, is well known: and so is every other bodily endowment, in proportion as it is admired by the world at large. Talent, too, will puff up the possessor of it with a conceit of his importance, and cause him to arrogate to himself a more than ordinary homage from those around him. And glad should we be if the same kind of conceit were never founded on attainments of a moral or religious nature: but it is a fact, that morality itself is made, by almost all who possess it, a ground for self-preference, and that, too, even before God himself; insomuch, that persons who have been preserved from great and flagrant transgressions, treat almost with contempt the provisions of the Gospel, from a conceit, that they need not to humble themselves like a poor publican, but that they may justly expect from God some peculiar favour on account of their own inherent righteousness. This was the habit of the Apostle’s mind, previous to his conversion; and it is that which is at this day the greatest obstacle to the conversion of thousands. Even spiritual gifts, too, are often, through the suggestions of our great adversary, made occasions of self-preference and self-complacency; when every sentiment which the Gospel contains has a direct tendency to humble us in the dust.]

But modesty and sobriety should, under all circumstances, regulate our self-esteem—

[We are all members of one body: and, whatever gifts we possess, they are bestowed by God for the good of the whole. The kind and measure of them are determined by the Donor himself; and the person possessing them has no more right to pride himself upon them, than the eye or ear has to arrogate to itself any merit above the hand or foot. All that any man has to do, is, to improve his talents for the good of the whole, precisely as the various members of our body do. The eye sees not for itself; nor does the ear hear for itself; nor does the hand or foot consult its own exclusive welfare in its motions and acts. So we, “having gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us,” must employ them all for the ends for which they have been bestowed. Whether our gift be of a higher or lower order, we are not to concern ourselves about that, either in a way of self-elevation or of self-depression; but we must diligently, according to our ability, improve it, to the glory of God, and the edification of his Church and people.]

To every one of you, therefore, I address the caution in our text—

[There is no one who does not need it: there is no one who has not occasion for it: there is no one who has not, in his own conceit at least, something whereof to glory, and something which gives him an ideal superiority over others of his own rank, and age, and circumstances. But, in all, pride is alike hateful, and alike unreasonable: for, granting that we do differ from others, “what have we that we have not received? And, if we have received it, how absurd is it to glory as if we had not received it!”]

But that this caution may be laid to heart, I will proceed to point out,

  II.      The importance of it—

This is marked with very peculiar force in the passage before us. In the preceding verses, where the Apostle had exhorted the Roman converts to piety in a general view, he had addressed them as “Brethren,” and used the language of entreaty; but in the text, where he particularizes the duty of humility, he assumes the authority of an Apostle, and in a most solemn way lays the strictest injunctions upon every individual amongst them. And the very terms he uses are so strong, so MARKED, so peculiar, as scarcely to be capable of being translated into any other language, and such as were admirably calculated to make the deepest impression on their minds.

Attend, then, carefully to this injunction,

  1.      For your own honour—

[Nothing renders a man more contemptible than vanity: it invariably defeats its own ends, and sinks us in the estimation of all whose applause we covet. But, independent of that, the more we arrogate to ourselves, the less will people be disposed to concede to us: and, if they cannot refuse us some degree of credit on those points wherein we excel, they will be sure to search out some faults to put into the balance against it; so that, on the whole, we shall be gainers to as small an amount as possible. On the other hand, modesty gives effect to all our other excellencies: and the more meekly we bear our honours, the more liberal will even the most envious of our rivals be in the bestowment of them. To “prefer others in honour before ourselves,” is the way to disarm their hostility, to allay their jealousies, to conciliate their regard; so that, even if we had no better object in view than the advancement of ourselves in the estimation of man, we should seek it, not by self-conceit and self-preference, but by sobriety in self-estimation, and by modesty in our whole deportment. To this effect, the wisest of men has taught us, “To seek our own glory, is not glory:” on the contrary, “when pride cometh, then cometh shame: but with the lowly is wisdomi.”]

  2.      For the honour of God—

[It is an insult to God to make his gifts a pedestal for the exaltation of self. You will remember, that he complains of his people of old, because they appropriated his corn, and his wine, and his oil,” to the honouring of others who were his rivals in their esteem. And this is the very thing which every man does, who takes to himself the honour of those gifts which have been conferred upon him by God. And how indignant Jehovah is at such treatment, we may see in his expostulations with Sennacherib: “I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks. For he saith, By the strength of my hands I have done it, and by my wisdom; for I am prudent; and I have removed the bounds of the people, and have robbed their treasures; and I have put down their inhabitants, like a valiant man: and my hand hath found, as a nest, the riches of the people; and, as one gathereth eggs that are left, have I gathered all the earth: and there was none that moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or peeped.” Now, hear Jehovah’s reply to this soliloquy: “Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith? or shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it? as if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it up, or as if the staff should lift up itself, as if it were no wood.” Tell me, I pray you, what would you have been above the beasts, if God had not endowed you with reason? or, what had you differed from the meanest of the human race, if God had not made you to differ? Your distinctive powers afford you ground enough for gratitude; but none for self-applause: and if, like Herod, you take to yourselves the credit which your ignorant or partial friends may accord to you, like Herod you shall become monuments of God’s just and fiery indignation. You may not be eaten up with worms in this life: but you shall surely bear his displeasure in the world to come. “God is a jealous God:” and “his glory will he not give to another.” “From him does every good and perfect gift proceedn;” and to him must all the glory of it be ascribed: “He that glorieth, must glory only in the Lord.”]

  3.      For the benefit of your own souls—

[“Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit? there is more hope of a fool than of him.” To what purpose will you possess gifts, if they prove only a curse unto you? But such they really are, to all who pride themselves in them: for “God scorneth the scorners; but giveth grace unto the lowlyq.” If your talents be improved for God, they will bring from him a recompence proportioned to the increase. Thus, both here and in the eternal world, will you be gainers, if with meekness and modesty you employ for God the blessings he has imparted to you. To every one, then, that is among you, I say,]

  1.      Consider your gifts as conferred on you by God—

[Never, for a moment, lose sight of this truth. Let Him be acknowledged, in every bounty of his providence, and in every blessing of his grace. There is no need that you should be blind to what God has done for you, or wrought in you: but, if at any time you are constrained to say, “I laboured more abundantly than they all,” be sure to add immediately, “Yet not I; but the grace of God that was with me.”]

  2.      Improve them diligently, for the glory of his name—

[Forget yourselves altogether. Moses saw not his own glory, when it shone; though it was so resplendent, that none of his brethren could sustain the sight. O that you also might be so intent on the work assigned you, as to have your attention wholly taken from yourselves! Consider only what talent you possess, and what improvement can be made of it: and if you find that God has given you a capacity for great and arduous services, be willing to undertake them, whatever difficulties they may be attended with, and whatever self-denial may be required for the performance of them. On the contrary, if you have but one talent, “wrap it not in a napkin,” but improve it for your God. Let it be said of every one amongst you, “He hath done what he could.” Then, whether your powers be great or small, you shall be approved of your God, and hear him at last say unto you, “Well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.”]

MDCCCCVII

CHRISTIANS ARE ALL MEMBERS OF ONE BODY

  Rom. 12:4–8.

As we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office: so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith; or ministry, let us wait on our ministering: or he that teacheth, on teaching; or he that exhorteth, on exhortation: he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness.

TO have the mind well instructed in religious principles is good: but we must never forget that the end of principle is practice; and that all the knowledge, whether of men or angels, will be of no service, if it do not operate to the renovation of our souls after the Divine image. Hence St. Paul, having established with irresistible force all the fundamental doctrines of the Gospel, proceeds to urge upon the Church at Rome a practical improvement of them. The first improvement of them is, to surrender up ourselves unfeignedly and unreservedly to God in a way of devout affection. The next is, to employ ourselves diligently for him in every office whereby we can benefit his Church and people. To the former of these the Apostle calls us in the first verse of this chapter: and to the latter, in the words which we have just read. But to this latter we are yet further called by the relation which we bear to the Church of God, whereof we are members: and in this view it is inculcated by the Apostle in our text.

Let us then consider,

  I.      The relation which we bear to one another—

As descendants of Adam, we are all members of one family, of which God is the universal Parent: but, as the redeemed of the Lord, we are brought into the nearest union with Christ, so as to be members of his body, and consequently to be “members also one of another.” To elucidate more fully this important truth, we will distinctly notice,

  1.      Our general connexion—

[All true Christians are parts of one great whole, even as the different members of our corporeal body are. All have their appropriate sphere of action, and ought to fulfil the peculiar duties for which they are fitted. Those who have a higher office in this mystical body have no ground for pride, seeing that “they have nothing which they have not received:” their place in the body, and their faculties, having been foreordained and given by Him “who divideth to every man severally as he will.” On the other hand, they who have the lowest office have no reason for discontent: for they, in their place, are as necessary to the perfection of the whole, as any other member whatever. If they have a lower office than others, they have comparatively less responsibility: and, if they discharge their office conscientiously for the good of the whole and the glory of God, their improvement of their one talent will as certainly be acknowledged and rewarded by God, as the improvement which others may make of their ten talents.]

  2.      Our mutual dependence—

[No man is independent: no man is sufficient for his own welfare: no man can say to any other, I have no need of you. Every one is in want of many things that must be sub-plied by others: the eye needs the foot, as much as the foot needs the eye. No member possesses any thing for itself alone: the eye sees not for itself, nor does the ear hear for itself: it is for the whole that every member’s faculties are given; and for the whole must they be employed. If any member be afflicted, all the rest must sympathize with it, and administer to it: and if any member be particularly benefited, all the others must be partakers of its joy. Every one must consider the concerns of others as its own: nor must any one draw back from the most self-denying offices for the good of others. Is a hand bruised? the feet, the eye, the tongue, the ear, must all exert their respective talents to procure relief. No one must refuse to do what in him lies for the good of the others. The same members that now put forth their powers for the relief of one that is afflicted, may soon need from it a return of the same kind offices: and if any should say, I will give myself no trouble about this afflicted member, he will soon be made to see, that, by producing a schism in the body, he does the greatest injury to himself; it being impossible either to impart, or to withhold, the required assistance, without participating in the effects of its own conduct.]

  3.      Our individual interest—

[The interest of every individual member is, to get its own powers invigorated and enlarged. The more penetrating the eye, or the more expert the hand, the more it will be able to advance the good of the whole. Now every member of the Church being united unto Christ as his living Head, he should seek from Christ such gracious communications as may fit him more for the discharge of every office to which he is called. Whatever situation the member may hold in the body, its duty, and its interest also, is the same. It will not be advanced by-intruding into the offices of another, but by fulfilling its own, and getting a greater measure of activity and vigour in the discharge of them. In truth, each is advanced only in proportion as it contributes to the welfare of others. The feet, whilst keeping the whole body in health, enjoy health themselves: the hands, whilst they procure sustenance for the whole body, are themselves strengthened: and in seeking the good of the whole, each advances most the glory of that blessed Saviour, whose members they are. The Saviour’s glory and the welfare of the Church are so identified, that they cannot be separated from each othere.

Thus we see the truth and propriety of the comparison in our text: for as all the members of our body are united to the head, and to each other by the head; as they also receive life and nourishment from the head, and act in subserviency to it and by its direction; and finally, as they all have precisely the same interests, and have a perfect communion with each other in all that relates to their welfare; so it is with the Church of God: all are united to Christ by faith: all, by virtue of their union with him, are united to each other in him: all have their separate endowments for the good of the whole: all should look upon each other as members of their own body, as much as his hands or feet are: and all should feel with, and act for, every other member, precisely as for himself. O that this our relation to Christ and to each other were felt and realized among the saints of every communion under heaven!]

But our view of this relation will answer no good end, unless we attend to,

  II.      The duties arising from it—

The offices mentioned in our text, were, if not wholly, yet in a measure distinct, in the apostolic age. There were two great leading offices; the “prophesying,” or preaching of the word of God; and “ministering” to the temporal necessities of the Church, as the deacons didg. Under these two classes all the remainder may be arranged. Connected with those who prophesied were those also who “taught” and “exhorted:” and connected with the deacon’s office were those who “ruled,” or superintended the temporal concerns of the Church, “giving,” and dispensing its alms, and “shewing mercy” to those whose afflictions called for more than ordinary tenderness and compassion. But it is obvious that these various offices, even admitting that some of them were in the first instance associated with miraculous powers, are, in substance, of perpetual use and authority in the Church of Christ: there must still be persons to administer both spiritual instruction and temporal relief; and in many instances, the offices are most advantageously united. Without entering into any minute distinctions of this kind, we will content ourselves with saying in general, that, whatever station any of us hold in the Church of Christ, or whatever office we be called to execute, we should execute it,

  1.      With care and diligence—

[Certainly “prophesying,” or preaching the word of God, ought to be prosecuted with all imaginable care and diligence. We should, as “stewards of the mysteries of God,” administer to every one his portion in due season. We should “give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine,” “that so we may save both ourselves and them that hear us.” We should “take heed to our ministry that we fulfil it.” In like manner, if we perform any other office, visiting the sick, instructing the ignorant, relieving the necessitous, we should bestow much attention on the work, to execute it most for the benefit of the Church and the glory of God. It requires no small care to act so as most to counteract the effect of prejudice, and to render our efforts most beneficial to those for whom they are used. We must take care “not to let our good be evil spoken of,” and not to defeat by imprudence what, by a due attention to times and circumstances, might have been advantageously accomplished.]

  2.      With patience and perseverance—

[We must expect to meet with difficulties in every service which we are called to perform. But we must not be discouraged by them. We must go forward, like St. Paul, “not moved by any trials,” “nor counting our lives dear to us,” if we be called to sacrifice them in the way of duty. Whatever we may meet with, we must “not faint or be weary in well doing,” but, “by patient continuance in it,” approve ourselves faithful unto death. Sometimes the difficulties will arise from one quarter, and sometimes from another: sometimes they will assume the garb of humility, and make us pretend unfitness for the work we have undertaken. But we must guard against this delusion: it may be true enough, that we are unfit; but that unfitness may proceed from our own sloth and want of spirituality; in which case it is not an excuse for us, but an aggravation of our guilt. We should rise to the occasion: “If the axe be blunt, we should put to the more strength:” and if we feel ourselves beginning to faint, we must entreat of God to “strengthen us with might in our inward man,” and to “give us always all-sufficiency in all things.” We do not mean by this to encourage any to undertake offices for which they are altogether unfit; but to guard you against “putting your hand to the plough, and looking back again:” for “if any man draw back, my soul, says God, shall have no pleasure in him.” Possibly a want of success may be pleaded by us as an excuse: but that is no excuse. If, like Hosea, we were to labour for seventy years with little apparent benefit, it would be no reason for abandoning the Lord’s work. “To plant and water,” is our part; “to give the increase,” is God’s: and whether we have any success or not, our duty is the same, both to Christ our Head, and to all the members of his body. It should be sufficient for us to know, that we have laboured to do the will of God. If we see the fruit of our labours, well; we have reason to be thankful for it: but, if not, then we must be satisfied with the assurance, that, “though Israel be not gathered, yet shall God be glorious,” yea, and our reward also shall be equally great: for “every man shall receive,” not according to his success, but “according to his own labour.”]

  3.      With love and cheerfulness—

[We must do “nothing grudgingly or of necessity; for God loveth in all things a cheerful giver.” It may be that the conduct of those whose benefit we seek, may be less amiable than might be wished. In every department, whether the more public one of preachers, or the more private one of visiting the sick, we may find much perverseness and ingratitude. But our delight must be in our work: we must enter upon it readily, and perform it cheerfully; and heap coals of fire on the heads of those who render evil for good. By kindness we may remove prejudice and conciliate regard: and by a want of it we may defeat our own most benevolent purposes. Study then a suavity of manner: if called to “speak the truth,” speak it “in love;” and, as the Apostle says, “Let all your things be done with charity.”

If it he said, that to practise this is difficult; true, it is so; yea, and impossible to those who know not their relation to Christ, and to one another: but to those who look to Christ as their living Head, and who receive out of his fulness, nothing is impossible: “Through Christ strengthening us we can do all things.” Nor, if we regard our brother as a member of our own body, shall we find this so difficult: for who ever was backward to assuage his own pains, or relieve his own necessities? If, moreover, we consider the Lord Jesus Christ himself as relieved in the relief conferred on his distressed members, shall we then need any stimulus to exertion? No: it will be our joy to perform towards him every office of love. Thus think ye then, and thus act; and know, that “not even a cup of cold water shall lose its reward.”]

MDCCCCVIII

CHRISTIAN DUTIES TO GOD AND MAN EXPLAINED

  Rom. 12:9–12.

Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good. Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another; not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer.

THAT men, who wallow in all manner of uncleanness, should not like to hear the precepts of religion, is easy to be accounted for: but that persons professing godliness should be averse to them, is surprising. Yet it is a fact, that many, whose lives, as far as we can see, are moral, pour contempt upon moral instructions, as having no part in evangelical religion. But these persons are directly at issue with that Apostle, whom they most exalt, and whom, in other respects, they affect to follow. Who is more diffuse, who more minute, than the Apostle Paul, in the instructions which he gives respecting Christian duties? Let us attend to those which are here inculcated. If we took them singly, every one of them would furnish matter for a separate discourse: but, as the Apostle has united them so closely together, we prefer taking them in their accumulated state; because, if by means of it we lose somewhat in point of distinctness, that loss will be more than supplied by the light which they will mutually reflect on each other, and the force that will be derived from a combination of them all.

The Apostle here states the Christian’s duties,

  I.      In general—

[We must “abhor that which is evil, and cleave to that which is good.” The strength of these expressions deserves particular attention. Had we been told to avoid what was evil, and to practise what was good, it would have been sufficient for the regulation of our outward conduct. But religion is to engage the heart; and is to rectify, not merely our acts, but our habits, our dispositions, our taste. Sin must be hateful to us: and not gross sin only, but all sin without exception. It is not merely to be formidable to us on account of its penal consequences, but hateful on account of its odious qualities. As “God is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity,” so are we to be of purer hearts than to regard it with any other feeling than that of utter “abhorrence.” God calls it “that abominable thing which his soul hateth:” and in precisely the same light should we view it. The circumstance of its being common, or fashionable, or profitable, or pleasant, should make no difference in our feelings towards it; nor should we be at all more reconciled to it, because the world choose to call it venial. Every deviation from God’s holy law, every opposition to his revealed will, we should consider as debasing, defiling, damning; and every temptation to depart so much as an hair’s breadth from the perfect line of rectitude, we should resist even unto blood: “We should resist unto blood, striving against sin.”

In like manner, and to a like extent, we must “cleave unto that which is good,” or, as the word imports, be glued unto it. The effect of glue is to unite things together with such a degree of tenacity, that they cannot afterwards be separated. Now in this way should our souls, when once brought into contact with good, adhere to it, and form with it an indissoluble union. Whether it be good principles or good practice that we are called to embrace, we must never afterwards let them go: “We must buy the truth and sell it not.” Whatever force be used to separate us from the thing which is really good, we must be firm and unmoved. If, like the Hebrew Youths, we be menaced with a fiery furnace, we must be steadfast to our purpose, “not counting our lives dear to us, so that we may but fulfil the will of God, and finish our course with joy.” To every one who would draw us from the path of duty, we must make this reply, “Whether it be right to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye: for we cannot but do what we know to be his wille.”]

The Apostle, having thus briefly declared our duty in general terms, proceeds to speak of it,

  II.      In a more specific manner—

  Of those which he particularizes we shall be called to notice three; namely, the duties,

  1.      Of kindness—

[Here again the language is such as God alone could inspire. Such a sentiment as is here expressed, we are well persuaded, never entered into the mind of an uninspired man: nor do we conceive that it can be expressed with equal brevity and elegance in any other language under heaven. Parents instinctively feel a most tender affection for their offspring. Even the brute creation are penetrated with it perhaps as strongly as the human kind. It arises out of the relation in which they stand to the object of their regards. Now such an attachment we should feel towards all the members of Christ’s mystical body: yea, we should not merely feel it, as from instinct, but cultivate it from principle. But, inasmuch as this may be only, as it were, an animal feeling, we must have it tempered and refined “with brotherly love.” In brotherly love there is an union proceeding from a correspondence of mind, and a reciprocation of good offices and kind returns: and this feeling united with the former, knits together the hearts of men in a way that cannot be expressed, nor indeed conceived by any, who are not themselves the subjects of it. It exists not in nature: it is produced only by grace: but wherever it does exist, it raises the object so high in our estimation, that we seem to ourselves low in comparison of him; and, consequently, it makes us “prefer him in honour before ourselves.” This sentiment is always mutual: each party casts a veil over the defects of the other, and views only his excellencies; whilst, on the other hand, he is slow to admire his own virtues, and intent rather on humbling himself for his faults. This disposition, I say, believers cultivate towards all who are of the household of faith; and all of them thus meeting together upon the same ground, “each esteems the other better than himself.”

Now then we call upon you, brethren, to shew forth this fruit of the grace ye have received. This is the kind of love, and this the measure, which you are to manifest towards all the children of God: and in proportion only as you manifest it, have you any evidence that you belong to Christ. “If you love him that begat, you cannot but love those who are begotten of him.”]

  2.      Of diligence—

[Religion is not a sentimental feeling only, but a practical and influential power. It produces energy and activity in every soul in which it resides. It regards sloth as one of its most destructive adversaries; and maintains against it an incessant warfare. Believer, hear your duty in relation to this important matter: you must “not be slothful in business, but fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.” Whatever be the office which you have to perform, it is assigned you by the Lord Jesus Christ, whose servant you are: and you must address yourself to it with an energy of mind, putting forth all your vigour, to execute it as speedily and as completely as you can. You must shake off sloth and listlessness; ever remembering, that “he who is slothful in his work is brother to him that is a great waster.” It is wisely ordained of God that “the idle soul shall suffer hunger, but that the diligent hand shall make rich.” “Whatever therefore your hand findeth to do, do it with all your might.” The consideration, that in all that you are called to do you serve the Lord Christ, should be a constant stimulus to your mind. This is particularly and strongly set forth by the Apostle in relation to servants — — — and it applies equally to every person under heaven. O, contemplate that passage in reference to yourselves, and to all the duties of your place and station: and, whether you have received more or less to trade with, labour to improve it to the utmost before the day of reckoning shall arrive. But bear in mind, that your diligence will then only be regarded as a service done to Christ, when you act from an immediate regard to his authority, and with a special view to his glory.]

  3.      Of constancy—

[In your endeavours to serve the Lord, you will doubtless have to encounter many difficulties. There will be “fightings without, and fears within.” But, whatever tribulation you may be called to suffer for the Lord’s sake, you must look to the end for a sure and ample recompence of all your labours, and patiently endure whatever God may see fit to lay upon you, calling upon him continually for mercy, and for grace to help you in the time of need. This is the direction given you in our text; you are to be “rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing instant in prayer.” You are “never to faint or be weary in well-doing;” but to take the promises of God as your support; and in humble confidence that not one jot or tittle of them shall ever fail, you are to “hold fast the rejoicing of your hope firm unto the end.” The husbandman plows in hope and sows in hope, and waits patiently for the harvest: and thus must you do. There may be many a storm, and many a blighting wind; but you must commit your every care to God, and expect from him a full, a rich, a sure reward: for Iris unchanging promise is, that “in due season you shall reap, if you faint not.” At times you will find prayer a most arduous task: there is in the heart of man a continual proneness to draw back from God, and to restrain prayer before him. But you must not yield to this sad propensity: you must “continue instant in prayer;” knowing that, “if you ask not, you cannot have;” but if you persevere in earnest and importunate supplications, you must, you cannot but, prevail; yea, you shall be “more than conqueror over all” that can oppose your spiritual progress.]

  SEE then from hence what true religion is;

  1.      How extensive in its offices!

[It comprehends the whole circle of good and evil; it prescribes a line of conduct for us in every thing that relates either to God or man: it occupies, and calls forth into action, every faculty of the soul. Its energies are universal, and without intermission. As reason sits at the helm, and directs the course of the natural man, being so incorporated with him, as it were, as to regulate him unsolicited and unperceived, so does religion preside in the soul of the spiritual man, and direct him in whatever relates either to time or eternity. There is nothing, either great or small, on which it does not exert an influence. O brethren, seek to have religion enthroned in your hearts, and performing in your minds the same offices as reason executes in the minds of unconverted men. Let it be a living principle within you, regulating your every action, word, and thought.]

  2.      How lovely in its operations!

[See religion putting Christ’s yoke upon rebellious man, and “bringing his every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ:” see it giving to man the very mind of Christ; making him love what Christ loves, and hate what Christ hates, and walking in all things as Christ walked: see it uniting in the bonds of tenderest love the whole family of Christ: see it stirring up every member of that family to activity in all the duties of his place and station, that none shall have any fault to find against him, or any negligence to lay to his charge: and lastly, see it bringing him into a state of habitual fellowship with his God, and a blessed foretaste of the glory that shall be revealed. Is not this good? is not this lovely? Yes, inexpressibly lovely is it: and if men “see not a beauty and a comeliness in it for which it is to be desired,” it is because “they are blinded by the god of this world.” O beloved, seek to recommend the Gospel, by thus imbibing its spirit, and exhibiting its efficacy in your lives. Let not your hatred of sin, or your love of holiness, be questioned for one moment: but press forward in the habitual exercise of humble love, of unremitting diligence, and of unshaken constancy; “that men, seeing your good works, may glorify your Father who is in heaven.”]

MDCCCCIX

SYMPATHY RECOMMENDED

             Rom. 12:15.

Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.

AS creatures, we have many duties to perform towards our Creator: and, as members of one universal family, we have duties also towards each other. We all participate one common lot. The present state is subject to great varieties of good and evil; and all in their tarn experience occasional alternations of joy and sorrow, of elevation and depression. In these successive changes, we naturally look for some to sympathize with us. We expect, that they who are partakers of humanity, should feel some interest in our affairs: and, if we find no one that has a heart in unison with our own, we seem to ourselves as outcasts from the human race. Now the dispositions which we expect to find exercised towards us, we are called to exercise towards others. The joys and sorrows of others should, as it were by sympathy, be made our own: we should “rejoice with them that rejoice, and weep with them that weep.”

That this grace may be more cultivated amongst us, we will endeavour to shew,

  I.      The nature and extent of Christian sympathy—

Sympathy is that feeling of the mind whereby we enter into the concerns of others as if they were our own. Not that we are to interfere with others as “busy-bodies in other men’s matters;” but we should have such a friendly disposition towards them, as to participate both in their joys and sorrows, and to have corresponding emotions excited by them in our own minds. This is a duty incumbent on every child of man: “Let no man seek his own, but every man another’s wealth:” And again, “Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of othersb.”

Now,

  1.      There is scope for the exercise of this grace in reference to men’s temporal concerns—

[Are any afflicted in mind, or body, or estate? We should be ready to act towards them as Job’s friends did under his afflictions: “they met by appointment, to mourn with him and to comfort him; and they were so overwhelmed with his sorrows, that they were incapacitated for any active exertions in his behalf for the space of seven days and seven nights.” This silence of theirs has been misconstrued by many, as if the time so spent had been occupied in uncharitable reflections, to which they dared not give vent. But those who have been conversant with scenes of woe, and have been suitably impressed by them, will be at no loss to account for the effect produced: lighter sorrows would soon have called forth observations of some kind, either from the sufferer or his friends: but such overwhelming griefs as his, astonished, stupified, and silenced all: and in proportion as our sympathy is deep, will be the reverential awe with which we shall approach the sufferer, and the tender caution with which we shall address him.

It may be said, that such feelings well became them, as friends of the afflicted saint; but that it is unreasonable to look for any such emotions towards a stranger, and still more towards an enemy. To this we answer, that, though friendship will of course heighten our feelings, and more exquisite sensations will be excited in us by the sight of a suffering saint, who is as a member of Christ’s body, than would be called forth towards one who stood in no such relation to Christ, yet our compassion should be deep and tender towards all. The good Samaritan has shewn us how we should act towards any one, even though he should be of a nation that is hostile to us: and David has shewn us how we should conduct ourselves towards him, even though he were our bitterest enemy: “When they were sick,” says he, “my clothing was sackcloth; and I humbled my soul with fasting: I behaved myself as though he had been my friend or brother: I bowed down heavily, as one that mourneth for his mother.”

In like manner we should be prepared to rejoice with those who are brought into circumstances of a more pleasing nature. We see an example of this in the friends of Elizabeth. It was reckoned a great affliction to a woman to be barren: and such had Elizabeth been, till she was arrived at an age when she had no reasonable expectation of ever seeing her shame removed. But it pleased God in his mercy to visit her, and to give her a son in her old age: and when she was delivered of the child, her friends and relations came from every quarter to congratulate her on the happy event. This was a fruit and evidence of their love: and wherever love is, it will be sure to operate in this manner: we shall not be indifferent to the happiness of others, but shall find our own augmented by every accession of happiness to our neighbour: and, if “a man who has recovered his straying sheep,” or “a woman who has found her lost piece of money,” call upon us for our congratulations, we shall feel real delight in the exercise and expression of our most benevolent affections.

Such is the disposition which we should cultivate towards all the sons and daughters of affliction; for in the exercise of it we perform a most important duty towards them, as members of one common family; and at the same time we resemble our common Parent, of whom it is said, that “his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel,” and, that “he delighteth also in the prosperity of his servants.”]

  2.      But the most urgent calls for it are in reference to men’s spiritual concerns—

[The joys or sorrows which arise from the things of time and sense are comparatively of little consequence: but those that are connected with the eternal world are of infinite importance. Are any of our fellow-creatures mourning by reason of their sins, which have grown up unto heaven, and are a load upon their conscience too heavy for them to bear? How should we pant after an opportunity to make known to them the glad tidings of salvation through a crucified Redeemer; that so we may “give unto them the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness!” Are any in danger of being “turned away from their steadfastness?” How should we burn with holy impatience to ascertain their state, and to “establish their hearts!” In a word, we should so feel with all the members of Christ’s mystical body, as to be able to say with the Apostle, “Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn notk?”

Nor should our compassion be withheld from those who are insensible of their guilt and danger: on the contrary, they on this very account require it so much the more. Like Paul, we should “have continual heaviness and sorrow in our hearts for our brethren’s sake;” and, like our blessed Lord, we should weep over them, though we knew that they were just ready to imbrue their hands in our bloodm.

If, on the other hand, any return to their Father’s house, how should we rejoice over them, and join in the pious festivities of prayer and praise! If afterwards they advance in the divine life, our joy and exultation should be proportionably increasedo. The angels in heaven are not indifferent spectators of such events; and should we? No: next to the salvation of our own souls, we should pant after, and delight in, the spiritual welfare of all around us.]

  Such is the nature, and such the extent, of Christian sympathy: the value of which, however, will be better seen, if we consider,

  II.      The benefits resulting from it—

It is of incalculable use,

  1.      To him by whom it is exercised—

[The heart of man by nature is selfish: but grace expands it; and, by interesting it in the behalf of others, gives scope for the exercise of better feelings. The man whose cares and pleasures centre all in self, has his happiness extremely contracted, at the same time that it is also of a low and sordid character. But the man who has learned to sympathize with others, derives pleasure from all around him, and makes all the happiness he beholds his own. The smiles of universal nature, the shining of the sun, the verdure of the fields, the cheerful aspect of the different tribes and orders of the animal creation, all diffuse a peace and serenity through his mind, and draw forth into exercise the principles of benevolence within him. The comforts also with which the various classes of his fellow-creatures are favoured, inspire him with a sense of gratitude to the great Source of all. The accounts which from time to time he hears of the wider spread of religion, and the consequent augmentation of happiness in the world, fill him with joy, and stir him up to the delightful employment of prayer and praise. Thus his sources of happiness are greatly multiplied, whilst the sensations of it are purified and refined.

If it be said, that by sympathy with the afflicted his pains are also multiplied; we answer, that in appearance they are so, but that in reality they are not. True it is, that many things which others behold without emotion, create within him a sensation of grief: but it must be remembered, that the grief of sympathy does not corrode, like other grief: on the contrary, it induces what, if it did not sound too paradoxical, we would call, a pleasurable pain. The sigh of pity and the tear of love may, in this respect, be compared with the sighs and tears of penitential sorrow: they diffuse a sweetness over the mind, as being evidences of the operation of a gracious principle, which God approves: whilst at the same time they reconcile a man to all his own personal trials, which always appear the lighter, in proportion as he is conversant with the trials of those around him.

Thus the very exercise of sympathy has its own reward.]

  2.      To those towards whom it is exercised—

[The sympathy of a friend does not at all affect the causes of sorrow; but it most materially affects its pressure upon the mind. It is as if a person took hold of a load which almost crushed us with its weight, and bore a part of it together with us. The very opening of our griefs is itself somewhat of a relief to a burthened soul: and the beholding of another, under the influence of love, participating with us our sorrows, and making them his own, wonderfully assuages the pain we feel. The sense we have of his kindness operates as a balm to heal our wounds. By the love we experience, our thoughts are diverted from the troubles we endure; and are turned for a season into the more pleasing channel of reciprocal affection, and of gratitude to a gracious God. Thus, by means of sympathy, the sorrows of the afflicted are greatly lightened.

On the other hand, the joys of any person are by the same means greatly increased. By every fresh congratulation, they are revived in the mind from time to time: the fire, which, for want of such stirrings, would have languished, is resuscitated; and oil is poured, as it were, upon the flame.]

But these things are rather matters of experience than of abstract discussion: to be known and understood, they must be felt.]

  3.      To the Church at large—

[Where these amiable feelings are displayed in full force and activity, the cause of Christ is greatly promoted. The beauty and excellence of Christianity is seen. Men cannot, or will not, judge of it from its principles; but they cannot help judging of it from the effects which they behold. The persons who beheld our blessed Lord at the tomb of Lazarus, were struck with his sympathy in this particular view: “When Jesus saw Mary weeping, and the Jews also weeping who came with her, he groaned in his spirit, and was troubled: and, on his coming to the grave, Jesus wept. Then said the Jews, Behold, how he loved him!” So, when persons behold Christians participating with others freely in their joys and sorrows, they are constrained to say, Behold how these Christians love one another; yea, and not one another only, but all around them, strangers and enemies, as well as friends! The prevalence of such dispositions goes further to silence gainsayers, and to win souls, than all the most laboured arguments of learned theories: religion speaks to them here in a language which they cannot but understand and feel.]

  Here, in conclusion, we are constrained to OBSERVE,

  1.      How poor and inefficacious is the religion of the world!

[The world’s religion consists almost entirely of forms, of forms without either life or power. Certainly Christianity, even as professed by the world, has advanced the cause of general benevolence: but that benevolence extends not to the concerns of the soul. A worldly Christian can see thousands perishing in their sins, and not stretch out a hand to their relief, nor utter one sigh on their account: and, as for all experimental religion, whether of joy or sorrow, he derides it as the fruit of a weak or distempered imagination. The character of such persons may be seen in the elder brother in the parable, who, when solicited to join in the festivities occasioned by his brother’s return, vented his spleen in unkind reflections, both on the prodigal who had returned, and on his father who had received him to his arms. The most benevolent of worldly men has not a string in his heart that is in unison with one who is cast down with penitential sorrow, or that is exalted with the joys of faith. No: his principles rise not so high: his convictions are only intellectual; and they can never be productive of what is spiritual. Even in their moral effects they operate to but a small extent: but, in respect of spiritual sympathy, they bear no fruit at all. O, brethren, see from hence how poor and defective that religion is which generally passes under the name of Christianity: it is Christianity without Christ, in its principles; it is Christianity without love, in its effects. It boasts itself to have proceeded from the Sun of Righteousness; but it has neither the light nor heat that proceed from his glorious rays: it is a shadow without a substance; a name without a reality. If it proceeded really from Christ, it would make us to resemble him in our spirit and our conduct.]

  2.      How lovely and operative is the religion of Christ!

[Sympathy is of the very essence of Christ’s religion: “Bear ye one another’s burthens,” says the Apostle, “and so fulfil the law of Christ.” Yes: he has taught us this both by precept and example: he bids us “love one another, as he has loved us.” And how has he loved us? He pitied us in our fallen state, and came down from the bosom of his Father to seek and save us. And during the whole of his abode upon earth, but more especially in his last hours, “he bare our infirmities, and carried our sorrows.” And at this present moment we are authorized to say, that “he is touched with the feeling of our infirmitiesu,” and that there is neither a benefit nor an injury that we receive, but he feels it as done immediately to himself. Such is the effect which the Gospel produces upon all who receive it in spirit and in truth. Let a sense of Christ’s love to us be duly impressed on our hearts; and it will immediately excite in us a love to all mankind, though in a more especial manner to the household of faith. See, with your own eyes, brethren; What is it that has given birth to Bible Societies, and Mission Societies, and to numberless other institutions that respect the welfare of men’s souls? It is the Gospel: the Gospel, faithfully administered, and affectionately received. Such ever was, and ever will be, the fruit of faith; for “faith worketh by love.” Seek ye then to become possessed of a true and living faith: and know, that the more entirely you live by faith on the Son of God, as having loved you, and given himself for you, the more you will drink into his spirit, and be transformed into his blessed image: nor will you fix any other bounds to your sympathies, than he has affixed to his.]

MDCCCCX

OVERCOMING EVIL WITH GOOD

             Rom. 12:21.

Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.

THE writings of the Old Testament exhibit a system of morals incomparably superior to any that was ever promulgated by the wisest philosophers. In extent it equals the New Testament. It is quite a mistake to say that our Lord inculcated sublimer morals than ever had been revealed before: he only removed the false glosses by which the commands of God had been obscured, and enforced the observance of those commands by motives of a higher nature. Still however it must be confessed, that the New Testament brings the sublimer precepts more clearly into view, and expatiates upon them in a more authoritative and convincing manner. This appears in the injunction before us, which is as concise, as comprehensive, as forcible, as words could express it.

In discoursing upon this precept we shall endeavour to mark,

  I.      Its import—

The “evil” here spoken of does not relate to sin, but to suffering; and comprehends all those injuries, whether real or imaginary, which we are called to endure. In reference to this, two questions arise:

  1.      When may we be said to be overcome by it?

[We are not overcome by evil merely because we are crushed by it; for St. Paul, when “pressed out of measure by his troubles in Asia,” “thanks God for enabling him always to triumph in Christ:” and declares that while “we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter, we may be more than conquerorsb.” But we are then vanquished by it, when we are diverted by it from the path of duty.

Suppose on account of the trial being exceeding heavy, we are tempted to doubt whether it can, or will, be overruled for our good: then we are vanquished; because we question the truth of God, who has said, that “all things should work together for his people’s good:” our faith has failed, and we are overcome.

Suppose the injury done to us has irritated and inflamed our minds, so that we give way to anger and impatience: then also we are overcome; because we ought to “possess out souls in patience,” and to “let patience have its perfect work, that we may be perfect and entire, lacking nothingd.”

Suppose, though no particular vehemence shew itself at the time, we yet are induced to harbour secret resentment in our minds against our enemy: then we are overcome; because we should love our enemies, and be more concerned for the evil which they do to their own souls, than for any thing which they do, or can do, to us.

Suppose, either through the fear of evil, or through actual distress, we are induced to relax our zeal in the Lord’s service, or to make any sinful concessions, then also we are vanquished: for we submit to sin rather than to suffering; we have failed in our integrity; we are overcome. We should value a good conscience more than life itself; and when we make shipwreck of it, we shew that our enemy has gained the victory over us.

If we hold fast our faith, our patience, our love, our integrity, then are we conquerors, even though we die in the conflict: but if in any of these respects we fail, then are we overcome, even though we crush our adversary, and defeat his more immediate projects.]

  2.      How are we to overcome it—

[We gain a victory over it in part, when we do not suffer it to injure our souls. But we must not be contented with such a negative triumph; we should endeavour to overcome the hostility of our enemy; and this can be effected only by returns of good. “If he curse, we must bless; if he despitefully use us and persecute us, we must pity him and pray for him.” “If he hunger, we must feed him; if he thirst, we must give him drink;” with all the tenderness and compassion that we would to a querulous and untoward infanth. We shall in this way “heap coals of fire upon his head,” to melt him into love. It is true, many are so obdurate, that no returns of good can ever dissolve their hearts: yet the effect of such persevering kindness, is inconceivably great, and will sometimes extort confessions of our innocence, even from the most infuriated enemies. We can scarcely find in the annals of the world a more cruel or inverate enemy than Saul; yet David’s repeated exercises of forbearance and kindness towards him constrained him to confess his own wickedness, and the distinguished excellence of the person whom he persecuted. Such a victory as that is greater than the most successful warrior could ever boast: and we should aim at similar conquests: we should strive, not to crush our enemy by force, but to overcome his enmity by love.]

We cannot dismiss such an important precept as this without endeavouring more distinctly to set before you,

  II.      Its excellence—

The moment that the precept is presented to the mind we cannot fail of admiring its simplicity, and, at the same time, its depth. But that our views of it may be more distinct, we observe,

  1.      It counteracts all our evil propensities—

[When we are injured or insulted, what a tumult of passion is apt to arise in our breast; and how ready are we to render evil for evil! If we forbear avenging ourselves at the time either by word or deed, we still feel a disposition to retaliate, and are ready to wreak our vengeance upon our adversary by private complaints of his conduct, though from prudence or timidity we do not maintain a contest with him to his face. Long and bitter are the resentments of many, even while they appear to be reconciled, and perhaps delude themselves with the confidence that they have forgiven their enemy. But this precept lays the axe to the root of all secret animosity as well as open hostility. It goes not to the act merely, but to the principle; it requires that all the enmity that is in our hearts should be slain; and that love alone should reign there. Were this once effected, there is not an evil in the soul which would not have received its death wound: for “love is the fulfilling of the law.”]

  2.      It assimilates us to Jesus Christ—

[To what an extent has our blessed Lord carried this principle! When we were his enemies, yea, when the whole universe were up in arms against him, he did not execute upon us the vengeance we deserved, but came down from heaven to convert and save us. And by what means did he propose to save us? Was it by a mere act of power? No: it was by bearing our sins, and dying in our stead. What astonishing love was this! But further, when he had come into the world, and his people with one voice had put him to death, still, so far from bearing resentment against them in his heart, he, after he had risen from the dead, commanded that his Gospel should he preached first of all in that city where he had been crucified, and that the offers of salvation should be first made to the very people who had imbrued their hands in his blood. And how glorious were the triumphs of his love! By the very first sermon that was preached in his name, three thousand of his enemies were convinced of their wickedness, and brought to repentance. Similar to this was the mercy he vouchsafed to the persecuting, blaspheming Saul: he appeared to him in the midst of his mad career, and, by this transcendent act of love, changed a bitter and cruel enemy into a holy and active Apostle. Thus he overcame evil with good; and in proportion as we imitate his conduct we shall be transformed into his likeness.]

  3.      It would make a very heaven upon earth—

[What a very hell is this world, where the passions are let loose, and men are left to perpetrate all that is in their hearts! Even under the restraint of wholesome laws there are so many quarrels generated, and so many resentments harboured, that there is scarcely a society or a family in which real harmony prevails. But if this precept were universally obeyed, how different a world would this appear? From the combating of evil with love, there would soon be no evil to contend with: for certainly they who rendered nothing but good unto their enemies, would never render evil to their friends; or if any unintentional evil were done, the very remembrance of it would be quickly lost in returns of love. O blessed state! When shall the happy time arrive, when “the wolf and the lamb shall thus dwell together, and the child shall have no ill to fear when playing on the hole of the asp, or of the cockatrice den?” Surely this may well be called, “The reign of Christ upon earth;” for it will be the brightest image of heaven, or rather heaven itself come down on earth.]

  As a further IMPROVEMENT of this precept, we shall.

  1.      Guard it—

[We are not to imagine that this precept requires us to renounce our civil rights; for St. Paul, on proper occasions, asserted his rights as a Roman citizen: nor does an obedience to it preclude the exercise of legitimate authority; for the magistrate would have been invested with power to no purpose, if he were not allowed to exercise it in the support of virtue and the punishment of vice. Parents, masters, ministers, must exercise the authority committed to them. It is the vindictive disposition that is forbidden, and the unwearied exercise of love that is inculcated — — —]

  2.      Enforce it—

[Many arguments will arise in our corrupt minds against the discharge of this sublime and self-denying duty. ‘The persons who have used us ill, do not deserve kind treatment; and the exercise of continued kindness to them will only encourage them to proceed in their injurious conduct; whereas a proper display of spirit on our part will tend to intimidate and restrain them.’ This may appear to be just reasoning; but it is directly contrary to God’s command. We are not to consider what others deserve to suffer, but what we are required to do. As to the use that others will make of our kindness, that is no concern of ours; we have only to obey God, and leave all events to him. To yield, to turn the left cheek to him that smites us on the right, and to return good for evil, may sound to us as “hard sayings;” but they are the path of duty, of honour, and of happiness — — —]

  3.      Give directions for the performance of it—

[Get a deep sense of your own vileness.—When you are thoroughly sensible how many talents you owe to your Heavenly Master, you will not very readily take your fellow-servant by the throat for the few pence that he may owe to you.

Contemplate frequently the mercy which Christ has vouchsafed, and is daily vouchsafing, to you.—How will this put you to shame, when you feel the risings of anger or revenge against even your bitterest enemy! Surely you will fall upon your knees before God, and pray for grace to “forgive others even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you:” and that not thrice, or “seven times, but seventy times seven.”

Be much in prayer to God for the assistance of his Holy Spirit.—Without his aid you can do nothing: but there is nothing so great, which you shall not be able to do through Christ strengthening you.]

MDCCCCXI

DUTY TO CIVIL GOVERNORS

  Rom. 13:1–7.

Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: for he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake. For this cause pay ye tribute also: for they are God’s ministers, attending continually upon this very thing. Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour.

THE office of ministers is, to preach the Gospel of Christ. But whilst they preach the doctrines of the Gospel, they must not overlook its duties; nor, in stating its duties, must they pass by those which pertain to us as members of a civil community, any more than those which concern us in any other station or relation of life. On the contrary, St. Paul gave to Titus, and in him to all other ministers, this express injunction: “Put them (the professors of Christianity) in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, and to obey magistrates. In this also St. Paul himself has set us an example; and that too with a fulness and minuteness far beyond what he had resorted to on any other branch of Christian morals. There was perhaps a reason for his doing this in his Epistle to the Romans, rather than in any other of his epistles. Rome was the seat of the imperial government; and there, for a very long period, the Jews had been in bad repute, as a rebellious people. Nor was this without reason: for the Jews had an idea that they ought not to submit to any other governor than one raised up from among their own brethren: and from hence they were frequently led to resist the civil magistrates; especially at those seasons when the revenue was collected. In these sentiments the Christians also were supposed to participate. It was desirable therefore that the Apostle should put them on their guard; because, if they should indeed be found enemies to the government under which they lived, they would furnish the heathen with an unanswerable argument against them, and would, in fact, arm all the civil powers for their destruction. On the other hand, if the Christians at Rome should shew themselves peaceable and obedient subjects, they would conciliate the regard of their governors, and recommend a similar conduct in all other places.

In the passage before us, the Apostle shews us,

  I.      In what light civil magistrates should be viewed—

By whatever name the ruling powers are designated among men, they are to be regarded as,

  1.      Governors for God—

[God is the Governor of all the earth: and, as all power is derived from him, so all power is delegated by him; the possessor of it being his representative and vicegerent. Even in heaven he has established different ranks and orders among the angels: and on earth also he has seen fit that a similar order should be maintained. Nay, when there were yet but two people upon the earth, he ordained that one should rule the other. From that time the parents were the natural governors of their children: and, as successive families were formed, the rising generations continued under the same head, as branches from the same root. When these families became a tribe, the original parent was still the head of that tribe. Thus as mankind were multiplied upon the face of the earth, the different nations, too numerous and widely spread to be governed by one man, had their respective governors, some in one way, and some in another. Whatever shape the different governments assumed, monarchical, aristocratical, or democratical, still the power was God’s, in whomsoever it was vested: and, as his representatives, they possessed and exercised a portion of his authority: “There is no power, but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God:” “the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s; and he hath set the world upon them.”]

  2.      Benefactors from God—

[The office of magistrates is to do all in their power for the suppression of iniquity, and for the promotion of universal happiness. It is for these ends alone that power is put into their hands. They are to be “a terror to the workers of iniquity,” and “not to bear the sword in vain:” but to all others they are “ministers for good,” protecting them in the peaceful enjoyment of every earthly blessing. Would we conceive aright of the benefits we derive from our government, let us imagine such a state of things existing amongst us as occasionally existed in the land of Israel, when “there was no king in Israel, and every one did what was right in his own eyes:” what enormities would be committed in every quarter of the land! If for the space of three days only all the functions of government were suspended, and all were left at liberty to perpetrate whatever came into their hearts, we should soon see how much we have been indebted to the legislature for enacting wholesome laws, and to the magistracy for enforcing them. To the government we owe it, that our persons are safe from injury, and our property from the depredation of lawless violence: and whilst “we sit, each under his own vine and fig-tree, none making us afraid,” we should feel our obligations to those, who, by God’s ordinance, have been, and continue day by day to be, the means and instruments of all our comfort. What Tertullus said in a way of flattery to Felix, we may, with the strictest truth, say respecting our governors, that “by them we enjoy great quietness, and by their providence very worthy deeds are done to our whole nation.”]

From this view of their character, we are prepared to hear,

  II.      What regard should be paid to them—

The relation of ruler and subject necessarily brings with it corresponding duties. Whilst they are caring and labouring for us, it is our duty,

  1.      To honour their persons—

[God says, respecting himself, “If I be a Father, where is my honour? if I be a master, where is my fear?” A portion of the same regard is due to magistrates also, as his representatives and vicegerents upon earth. Hence, in reference to them, it is said in our text, “Render unto all their dues; fear, to whom fear is due; and honour to whom honour.” To speak harshly or contemptuously of them is highly unbecoming. To “despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities,” are among the leading features of many who are a scandal to the Christian name. We should consider, that they are necessitated to see with other eyes, and to hear with other ears, than their own: that, for what they do they may have many reasons, which we are not acquainted with: that, if in any thing they err, it may be with the best intentions. In a word, we should form the most favourable judgment of all that they do, and give them credit for their motives, where we cannot altogether approve their actions. If we cannot praise, we should at least abstain from uttering against them any complaints and murmurs, or from speaking of them in disrespectful terms. What shame did Paul take to himself for uttering a reproachful word against his unjust and persecuting judge! he confesses that in so doing he had violated an express command, which says, “Thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people.”

We should guard against an acrimonious sentiment arising in our hearts: and even when we are constrained to disapprove their conduct, instead of reviling them, we should cast a veil over their faults, as a duteous child would do over the faults of his parent.]

  2.      To submit to their authority—

[If a ruler enjoin any thing that is manifestly contrary to an express command of God, or forbid any thing which God has clearly enjoined, we are then to “obey God rather than man.” The Hebrew Youths did right in refusing to fall down before the golden idol; as did Daniel also in continuing to offer supplications before his God. The commands of Nebuchadnezzar and Darius, though the greatest potentates on earth, were of no weight against the paramount authority of God. But where the laws that are enacted by human authority are not contrary to the revealed will of God, they must be obeyed; and that too, whether the authority that enforces them be subordinate or supreme: for thus says the Apostle Peter; “Submit to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake; whether it be to the king, as supreme; or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evil-doers, and for the praise of them that do well: for so is the will of God.” And this allegiance is due from all persons, whatever he their rank, or age, or occupation; “Let every soul be subject to the higher powers:” and, if any take upon themselves to “resist the power, they shall receive to themselves damnation;” they shall be condemned before an earthly tribunal for violating the established laws; and they shall be yet further visited with God’s indignation in another world, for having set at nought “his ordinances,” and opposed themselves to his authority. We must therefore “be subject to the magistrate, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake.”]

  3.      To support his office—

[Where power is vested for the public good, there must also expense be, to defray the charges of the dignity attached to it. All the functions of government also must of necessity be attended with expense, which the public of course must support. Hence there must be taxes of different kinds, some stated, as “tribute,” and some occasional, as “custom,” upon articles of commerce. These are “due” to the civil magistrate, and must be paid with cheerfulness and punctuality. There must be no endeavour, no wish, to evade any tax whatever. To defraud the revenue, is to defraud not the government only, but every person that contributes to the support of government; since, if the imposts that are laid on, prove inadequate to the necessities of the state, other taxes must be levied to supply the deficiency; and thus the honest must be burthened to pay what has been withheld by the dishonest. This is thought by many to be a light matter: and persons who are well able to pay their quota to the public purse, are not ashamed to defraud the revenue; yea, they will even boast of it, when they might with as much propriety boast of the most disgraceful actions they could possibly commit. Our blessed Lord, when, strictly speaking, he was not bound to pay a tax that was levied, chose to pay it, and even wrought a miracle in order to pay it; because he would not offend the collectors, who would have been unable to appreciate the grounds whereon he might have claimed an exemption. Thus should we do: we should rather exceed on the side of liberality, than fall short through a want of integrity, or of zeal for the public service. To grudge such payments is most unreasonable and wicked. What would be thought of a man who should employ a watchman to protect his property, and then rob the watchman of his hire? Yet this is what we do, when by any means whatever we defraud the revenue: for rulers and magistrates are “ministers of God, attending continually upon this very thing:” their time is occupied in the discharge of their high office; and they have a claim upon us for whatever is necessary for the maintenance of their dignity, and the execution of their trust. We must therefore “render to all their dues; tribute, to whom tribute is due; and custom, to whom custom;” and, if in any respect or degree we withhold it from them, we differ but little from him who plunders their house, or robs them on the highway.]

  We conclude with adding such ADVICE as the occasion requires—

  1.      Be thankful for the constitution under which you live—

[It is generally agreed by those who have studied the constitution of Britain, that it is the most perfect of any upon earth. In no other state under heaven is there a greater measure of liberty combined with the same measure of security and strength. The extent of our civil and religious liberties is justly the boast of all who have the happiness to live in our favoured land. How different is our condition from that of the Roman empire in the time of Nero, the time when St. Paul wrote this epistle! How different also we may add from the situation of our own country in the days of Mary, when so many of the excellent of the earth were burnt to death, for worshipping God according to their conscience! In our happy land, the poorest man amongst us is as much protected in his person and property as the richest; nor can the king himself oppress him contrary to law. Let us then be thankful for these mercies; and Jet us rally round the Constitution, to support it against all the devices of the disaffected, and the conspiracies of wicked men. If Christians under such a government as that of Nero were so strictly enjoined to approve themselves loyal and faithful, much more it is our duty to be so under such a government as ours.]

  2.      Walk worthy of that better kingdom of which you profess to be subjects—

[This improvement of our subject is suggested by our Lord himself; who, on a question being put to him respecting the payment of tribute to the Roman governor, answered, “Render unto Cæsar the things that are Cæar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s.” God, as we have before said, is the great Governor of all the earth; and he has established a kingdom, even the kingdom of his dear Son, who is “King of kings, and Lord of lords.” Now, as Christians, you profess to be the subjects of Christ; and you owe an unreserved obedience to all his commands. Under him you enjoy the most perfect liberty and protection, from sin and Satan, death and hell. For every act of fidelity towards him, you shall have an appropriate measure of “praise;” nor have you the smallest reason to fear his wrath, if you yield a prompt obedience to his commands. The approbation of earthly princes, and the rewards conferred by them, pertain to this life only; but those which our blessed Lord will confer, extend also to the life to come. “Be strong, therefore, and very courageous to observe and do all that he commands.” Honour him in your hearts: labour to advance also his interests in the world: account no sacrifice painful that he requires at your hands: but “be ready, if need be, to lay down your lives for his sake.” “Be faithful unto death, and he will give you a crown of life.”]

MDCCCCXII

THE NEARNESS OF SALVATION A MOTIVE TO DILIGENCE

             Rom. 13:11.

Now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.

SO contracted are the views which many have of the Gospel, that they account nothing worthy of that name, except what relates primarily and expressly to the great subject of redemption. But the Gospel comprehends duties as well as privileges: nor can any minister preach it aright, if he do not guard his audience against every species of sin, and inculcate the performance of every kind of duty. Nor are any persons to be excepted from such pastoral charges. The Apostles themselves needed to be warned against hypocrisy and a recurrence to corrupt habitsb: and they also in their turn have transmitted similar warnings to the Christian world in all ages. It was to “believers” that St. Paul addressed the words before us: and I conceive myself to be discharging a most solemn duty whilst I call your attention to,

  I.      His injunction—

Every believer is prone to relapse into a state of stupor—

[The “wise virgins slumbered and slept,” no less than the foolish. The Church of Ephesus, too, amidst their many exalted virtues, needed to be reproved for having “left their first loved.” And who does not feel that the caution given to “the children of light” in the Thessalonian Church, is applicable to himself? — — — In truth, there are seasons, even with the best of men, when the divine life comparatively languishes within them, and when “the things which remain in them are in appearance at least ready to die — — —

This may arise from different causes: sometimes from “the cares of this world” pressing upon the mind; sometimes from “the deceitfulness of riches,” or the gratifications of sense beguiling the soul; and sometimes from “the abounding of iniquity in those around ush.” But from whatever it proceeds,]

“It is high time that we awake out of sleep”—

[With all of us much time has been lost: and how little remains, who can tell? At all events we have a great work to do; and no man should relax his labours, till he can say, “Father, I have glorified thee on earth; I have finished the work which thou hast given me to do.”

I call you then, my brethren, to arise, and “do your first works,” lest God abandon you to the power of your great adversary, and to the evils of your own hearts. If St. Paul felt the need of “keeping his body under and bringing it into subjection, lest by any means, after having preached to others he himself should become a cast-away,” think not that such care and such fear are unsuitable to you. To the most stable amongst you I would say, “Beware, lest being led away with the error of the wicked, ye fall from your own steadfastnessl; and to the most confident amongst you all, “Be not high-minded, but fear.” Let every one of you look to himself, that he lose not the things which he has wrought, but that he receive a full rewardn.”]

To impress on your minds this admonition, let me call your attention to,

  II.      The consideration with which it is enforced—

“Salvation” is the prize held forth to all who believe in Christ: and who shall adequately express or conceive what is comprehended under this term? — — — Yet this, with all the blessedness attached to it, is daily hastening towards you.

You are daily “nearer” to,

  1.      The termination of all your conflicts—

[Whilst you are in this life, you must of necessity have trials of some kind to sustain. A corruptible crown is not gained without much exertion, much less is a heavenly crown: “the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence; and the violent take it by force.” But “there is a rest remaining for youp;” and that rest is now very near at hand. Look then at the racer in his course: does not the thought of his having nearly finished his labours animate him to increased exertions? So then should you “forget the things that are behind, and press on to the goal for the prize of your high calling;” and never think that you have attained any thing as long as any thing remains to be attained.]

  2.      The completion of all your hopes—

[Soon will God’s work of grace be perfected within you, and “a crown of glory be awarded to you as having been faithful unto death.” And will you by listlessness and indifference endanger the loss of all the glory and felicity of heaven? Awake, I say, and “run with patience the race that is set before you, looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of your faith.” Make more use of the great principles of the Gospel than ever you have yet done. “Look more to Christt:” “live more entirely by faith upon him.” Get his image more formed upon your hearts. Live only for him, and “to himx:” and speedily shall you be “seated with him upon his throne,” and be a joint-heir with him of his inheritancez.]

  But let me not CLOSE without a few words to unbelievers—

[If believers need such an admonition as this, what, think ye, do ye need? What words can ever be too strong for you, who have never fled to Christ for refuge, or believed in him for the saving of your souls? Truly your end also is near: but “who can tell what that end shall be?” Alas! an inspired Apostle declares to you, that “your judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and your damnation slumbereth notb.” Surely then “it is high time for you to awake out of sleep;” for, if death find you unprepared to meet your God, your condition will be such, that it would be “better for you that you had never been born.”]

MDCCCCXIII

VIGILANCE PRESCRIBED

  Rom. 13:12.

The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.

IT is the distinguished privilege of man that he is able to bring to his recollection things that are past, and to anticipate future events, so as to give them a kind of present existence in his mind. This power is of infinite use to him in the concerns of his soul. By means of it he can ascertain his state before God: he has only to compare the records of conscience with the declarations of God’s word, and he can foresee the issue of the final judgment; and derive to himself the strongest arguments for vigilance and zeal. In this view the exhortation before us deserves our deepest attention: and to impress it on our minds, we shall,

  I.      Confirm the truth of the Apostle’s assertion—

[Our Lord, in reference to the season afforded him for accomplishing his Father’s work, calls this present life, day, and the future, night. The Apostle here uses the same metaphors, only reversing the application of them: the present life he designates by the name of “night;” and the future, by the appellation of “day”

The present life is called “night,” because it is a state of intellectual and moral darkness. The ungodly “world are altogether lying in wickedness,” and ignorant of all that it concerns them most to know. The regenerate themselves “see but as in a glass darkly;” and, though they be light as day in comparison of carnal men, yet have they but, as it were, the twinkling of the stars, just sufficient to direct their course, or at most but as the early dawn, in comparison of the meridian light which they will hereafter enjoy. Much of sin also yet remains within them: much they do, which they would not; and leave undone, which they would do: by means of which they too often walk in darkness, instead of enjoying the light of God’s countenance.

Our future state of existence is called “day,” because all, whether godly or ungodly, will behold every thing in its true light; and because the empire of sin will be eternally destroyed.

Now this “night is far spent, and the day is at hand.” Considering how short the time is that is allotted us on earth, this may be spoken in reference to those who are even in the bloom of life. Twenty or thirty years cut off from the short span of life, may well be thought a great portion of it: and if those years be doubled, we must say indeed, “The night is far spent.” But whatever be our age, we are equally liable to be called away, and to have our time of probation cut short by death. We ourselves may recollect many, who but a year or two since, appeared as strong and healthy as ourselves, who are now no more. And though we know not whose summons may arrive next, we are sure that, in a year or two more, many (perhaps one in twenty) of us will be fixed in our eternal state.]

But this truth being so clear, we may proceed to,

  II.      Enforce the exhortation grounded upon it—

[The idea which the Apostle’s language first suggests to the mind, is, that we are attacked in our camp, and summoned instantly to arise and fight.

The generality are at ease, involved in “works of darkness;” in works that proceed from the prince of darkness; in works that affect concealment; in works that lead to everlasting darkness and despair. From this state they have no desire to come forth. Even the godly have their “sins which most easily beset them,” and in which they are but too apt to indulge security. The wise virgins, as well as the foolish, were defective in vigilance. But, whatever be the works of darkness with which we are encompassed, we should “cast them off,” with a determination never more to sleep upon the post of danger.

In opposition to these, we are required to clothe ourselves with righteousness, which, as “light,” is heaven-born, and approves its own excellence to all who behold it. This, as “armour” to the soul, protects it from the fiery darts of Satan, and aids it in all its conquests. In this we are to be ever clad, that we may be ready for the battle, and not have to look for our armour, when the enemy is at the door. Thus only shall we be “good soldiers of Jesus Christ;” but thus armed, we shall be “more than conquerors through him that loved us.”

Now the urgency of this duty appears strongly as it is connected with the foregoing assertion. For what is the work we have to do? it is no less than “putting off the works of darkness, and putting on the armour of light;” a work which none can perform, except he be strengthened by almighty power. Besides, much of the time allotted for the performing of it, is spent already; and that which remains must be short, and may be terminated in an hour. Is it not “high time then that we should awake out of sleep?” Should we not begin without an hour’s delay, and “work with all our might?” Yes; let us all “gird on our armour, and fight the good fight of faith.”]

  APPLICATION—

[Have we neglected our spiritual concerns? What have we gained that can compensate for the loss of our precious time? And who is there amongst us that, if his day were now come, would not wish that he had watched and laboured for the good of his soul? Ah! remember that present things, however pleasing, will soon have passed away “as a dream when one awaketh,” and nothing remain to you but the painful recollection, that you have lost the time which you should have improved for eternity.

Are we, on the contrary, attending to our spiritual concerns? Let us expect the present state to be a “night” of trial and affliction: but let us remember that the longest night has an end; and that “if sorrow endureth for a night, joy cometh in the morning.”]

MDCCCCXIV

PUTTING ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST

             Rom. 13:14.

Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ; and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.

IF too many reduce the whole of Christianity to a mere system of morals, it must be confessed, on the other hand, that there are not wanting many who almost exclude morals from the Christian code. That faith, provided it be pure and genuine, will have a sanctifying effect, is true: but it is not therefore true, that we should be satisfied with merely inculcating the necessity of faith, or encouraging its exercise. Its operations need to be strengthened by direct and vigorous calls to duty: and, if we imagine that there is any duty which we need not to enforce, or any iniquity against which we need not to guard the most exalted Christian, we greatly err. Our blessed Lord, when surrounded by an immense multitude of people who pressed upon him for instruction, began his discourse with a solemn warning to his more immediate Disciples, to “beware of hypocrisy.” And on another occasion he said to them, “Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkennessb.” Such an exhortation, now addressed to a believer, would be deemed superfluous and legal: but experience too sadly proves, that such warnings are yet necessary in the Church of Christ: and, if the teachers of religion, from an idea of taking a sublimer course, omit to warn their people against intemperance, impurity, or any other sin, they must consider themselves as accountable to God for those enormities in the Church, which they have neglected to hold up to public reprobation. If it be thought that this, though suited to the infant state of the Church, was needless when Christianity was more fully revealed, and more completely established; what, I would ask, shall we say to that address of St. Paul to the Colossian Church? “Mortify your members which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:” and again, “Lie not one to another.” If, indeed no such things as these ever occurred amongst the professors of Christianity, we might, in our addresses to them at least, wave all notice of them: but, as this is not the case, we must still say to all without exception, “Let us walk honestly, as in the day, not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying:” and, as the only sure preventive of such excesses, we must add, “Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof.”

In these words we have a most important admonition conveyed,

  I.      In a way of plain direction—

Some have understood the Apostle’s expression as inculcating faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; whose righteousness we ought to put on daily, as that robe wherein alone a sinner can stand in the presence of his God. But, though this is our duty, yet it is not the duty that is here inculcated. The meaning of the Apostle is, that we should put on the graces of the Lord Jesus Christ, so as in all respects to attain his character, and resemble him. His words are of the same import with what he elsewhere says, “Put off the old man with his deeds; and put on the new man.”

Put ye on then, beloved,

  1.      His humility and self-denial—

[In these respects he is particularly proposed as an example to us: “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus; who, being in the form of God, and thinking it not robbery to be equal with God, yet made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant.” Having assumed our nature, he submitted to all the privations of which our nature is capable; being more destitute than even the beasts of the field or the fowls of the air, and “not having so much as a place where he might lay his head.” When the people would have taken him to make him a king, he withdrew himself from them; and chose rather the office of the meanest servant; condescending even to gird himself with a towel, and to wash his Disciples’ feetg. And this he did on purpose to shew us, that no office of love, however humiliating or self-denying, should be neglected by us.

Let us, then, address ourselves to our duty in this respect. Let us abound in every possible exercise of love; accounting nothing too great either to do or suffer, if by any means we may promote the welfare of man, and the honour of our God — — —]

  2.      His meekness and patience—

St. Paul, exhorting the Corinthians to an obediential respect for him, says, “I beseech you, by the meekness and gentleness of Christ.” And St. Peter informs us, that, in all that our blessed Lord endured, “he suffered for us; leaving us an example, that we should follow his steps; who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth; who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, threatened not; but committed himself to Him that judgeth righteously.” Beloved brethren, set the Lord Jesus Christ before you in these respects. See what lamentable evils prevail, both in the Church and in the world, through the want of these heavenly dispositions. Verily, the different Churches of Christendom, yea, and almost every individual Church in Christendom, present us rather with one continued scene of “strife and envying,” whereby infidels are hardened in their prejudices against the Gospel, and the very name of God is blasphemed in the world. Surely the contentions of Christians are a scandal to Christianity itself. “Put on, therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even is Christ forgave you, so also do ye.”]

  3.      His entire devotedness to the service of his God—

[“His ear was bored;” and from his engagement he never receded, no, not for a moment. It was at all times “his meat and his drink to do the will of Him that sent him;” and never did he relax his exertions, till he could say, “It is finished.” Thus let your hearts “be steadfast, immoveable, and always abounding in the work of the Lord:” and never cease to prosecute your heavenly calling, till you can say, with him, “Father, I have glorified thee on earth; I have finished the work which thou hast given me to do.” Account nothing done, whilst any thing remains to be done: but “forget what is behind, and reach forward to that which is before; and press on for the prize of your high calling,” till you are acknowledged by God himself as having gained the victory, and are called to sit down with your victorious Lord upon his throne of glory.]

The Apostle yet further urges his admonition,

  II.      In a way of salutary caution—

We must guard against every thing which may impede our progress—

[Every man has some “besetting sin,” which he ought most carefully to put away. He should mark what his constitutional or acquired propensities are, and exert himself to the uttermost to mortify and subdue them. Instead of providing for the gratification of them, he should abstain from every thing which tends to foster his corruption, or to give scope for its exercise. When the priests went into the tabernacle of the congregation to minister before the Lord, they were to “drink no wine nor strong drink,” lest they should be in any respect unfitted for the holy service in which they were engaged. In like manner, we, who are “a holy priesthood,” should abstain even from lawful things, if by an unrestrained indulgence we are likely to be ensnared. Our blessed Lord has taught us to “watch and pray, that we enter not into temptation;” and this he has done, because in an hour of temptation it is so difficult to stand. We should be on our guard, not only against evil itself, but against, the means and occasions of evil: the places and the company that are ensnaring to our souls, we should avoid; as Solomon has well admonished us: “Enter not into the path of the wicked; and go not in the path of evil men: avoid it; pass not by it; turn from it, and pass away.” Joseph found his safety in flightt: and we, in like manner, must “keep our heart with all diligence;” and “make a covenant with all our sensesx,” which may by any means prove inlets to temptation, and instruments for our destruction.]

It is in this way only that we can hope to be kept from the foulest sins—

[What is said of contention, may be said of sin in general, that “the beginnings of it are like the letting out of water.” In the first instance, the danger seems small: but soon the breach is widened, and defies all the efforts that may be made to stop it. Of this we have an awful instance in David, who little thought, when first his eye glanced upon Bathsheba, what evils would ensue. The Apostle’s primary object in our text was, to guard the Church against gross enormous evils. But how does he teach us to avoid them? He bids us to aspire after the highest possible attainments, even the “putting on of our Lord Jesus Christ;” and to be on our guard against the very smallest occasions of sin, and in no respect to make provision for the indulgence of it. And these two things must occupy our attention from day to day. O! “let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall:” and let him “keep under his body, and bring it into subjection, lest by any means, after having preached to others, he himself should be a cast-away. If, for the obtaining of a prize in earthly contests, a long habit of laborious and self-denying discipline is necessary, much more is it in order to the ensuring of final success in our heavenly conflicts. To all, then, would I say, If you would not fall and perish by your indwelling corruptions, you must “crucify the flesh with its affections and lusts,” and must “perfect holiness in the fear of Goda.”]

  ADDRESS—

  1.      Those who are satisfied with their attainments—

[What! Have you, then, attained the perfection that was in Christ? Are you so “clothed with humility,” and all other graces, that the world may see in you the very image of Christ? Are you such “lights in a dark world,” that all who behold you may “know how they are to walk and to please God?” Never be satisfied with any thing short of this: but press forward to your dying hour, that you may, through the mighty working of the power of God upon your souls, “stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.”]

  2.      Those who are striving after a more perfect conformity to their Lord and Saviour—

[It is well that you are endeavouring to “walk even as Christ walked.” But attempt it not in your own strength. You must be “strengthened with all might in your inward man, by the Spirit of the living God.” To your latest hour, as well as in the commencement of the Divine life, “your sufficiency must be of God” alone. But “He is able to make all grace abound towards you, that you, having always all-sufficiency in all things, may abound unto every good work.” And “faithful is He that hath called you, who also will do it.”

“Now, to Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen”.]

MDCCCCXV

THE EXTENT AND GROUNDS OF CHRISTIAN OBEDIENCE

  Rom. 14:7–9.

None of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living.

TO exercise Christian forbearance is no small attainment. There is continual need of it in the Christian world: there are many things of an indifferent nature, which we are at liberty either to do or forbear; but all do not see their Christian liberty with equal clearness: hence the weak are apt to judge the strong, and the strong to despise the weak. Thus the Jews and Gentiles at Rome disputed respecting the use of certain meats, and the observance of certain days. The Apostle shews, that, though the two parties differed in their conduct, they were equally accepted of God. He grounds his assertion on the idea that both of them acted from a conscientious desire to please and honour God.

  I.      The extent of Christian obedience—

If we were to judge from the practice of mankind, we should think that very little was required of us; but we must judge by the unerring standard of God’s word. Both the Law and the Gospel require the obedience of the heart, and in this the Christian labours to approve himself to God—

  1.      He renounces self—

[Self is the idol of the unregenerate world; they study only to please and exalt self in every part of their life; they have no higher view in courting or shunning death. But the Christian sees the sinfulness of thus idolizing self. He therefore endeavours to suppress its workings, and mortify its desires; he determines never to make the indulgence of self his chief aim.]

  2.      He devotes himself to the Lord—

[He studies to do his will, and gain his approbation: he seeks to glorify his name in every action of life: he considers that he is the Lord’s property, both by creation and redemption: he strives therefore to honour him with every faculty of body and soul.]

This is not a mere theory, but a living picture of Christianity—

[The Apostle lays down an universal rule to this effect: he himself conformed to it in an eminent degreeb: every true Christian, according to his measure, conforms to it; “none of us,” &c.]

Such obedience, however, will not spring from any but evangelical principles—

  II.      The grounds of it—

All possible obedience is due from us to God by creation; but God has acquired a new right over us by redemption.

Christ has died, risen, and revived—

[He died to make atonement for our guilt: he rose for our justification before God: he revived, and lives to carry on the work.]

He has done this with an express view to reduce us to allegiance—

[He undertook to save men from their sins, and not in them. Paul repeatedly declares this to have been the end of our Lord’s death; Peter speaks to the same effectd, and our Lord himself also confirms this truth. The same was also the end of his resurrection and ascension; and in all that he is now doing, he keeps the same object in view.]

What he has done is therefore the proper ground of our obedience—

[We are still as much as ever bound by the laws of our creation; but we should be particularly affected with redeeming love: this should stir us up to the most unreserved obedience. The Apostle requires such obedience, on this very ground. We shall surely render it, if we have any interest in redemptionh.]

  INFER—

  1.      How few real Christians are there in the world!—

[If living to ourselves were Christianity, there would be Christians without number: but nothing less than an entire devotedness to God can entitle us to the name. How few then are there to be found! The text might be reversed in almost every assembly of professing Christians. Let us judge ourselves by this criterion: let us rest in no partial or hypocritical services: let us cry to God for his Spirit to renew us in our inward man.]

  2.      How reasonable is the Christian life!—

[Christian obedience is often ridiculed as preciseness, and needless scrupulosity: it is deemed a mark of a weak and enthusiastic mind. But it is justly called a reasonable service. Who can ever estimate the obligation arising from the death of Christ? Who can sufficiently praise him for what he is now doing for us in heaven? Is it reasonable that we should defeat the ends of all his love? Ought we not rather to requite it to the utmost of our power? Should we account any thing too much to do for him? Let all then confess the reasonableness of being devoted to Christ. Let every Christian exert himself more and more, disregarding ridicule and contempt.]

MDCCCCXVI

THE FUTURE JUDGMENT

  Rom. 14:10–12.

We shall all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ. For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.

THERE is in the morality of the Gospel a sublimity of which even the godly themselves have a very indistinct perception. We are apt to lay down broad principles of action, without taking into consideration other principles which should influence us in the application of them. For instance; where the calls of duty seem to interfere with each other, we are apt to lean to one side or the other with an exclusive preference, instead of studying how the two may be made to harmonize, in just order and mutual subordination. To most persons it would appear an unquestionable truth, that if one thing be right, its opposite must be wrong; whereas, if an action be in itself indifferent, the doing or forbearing of it may be equally right, and equally acceptable to God. This was the case with regard to the eating of meats forbidden by the Jewish law, and the observance of particular days which had been held sacred under the Mosaic dispensation. There was nothing morally good or evil in these enactments: they depended on the will of Him who had imposed them: and, when they were abrogated, they remained as purely matters of indifference, as if nothing had ever been enjoined respecting them. But the contending parties in the Church at Rome could not see this: those who had been educated in Jewish habits, not only maintained their own forms, but judged and condemned the Gentiles who rejected them: those, on the contrary, who knew that those ordinances were abrogated by the Christian dispensation, not only asserted their own liberty, but held in contempt the persons who were yet in bondage to their forms. Now, both of these parties acted right in complying with the dictates of their own conscience; but wrong, in presuming to sit in judgment upon each other. To mark the true line of duty in this matter, was the Apostle’s object in this part of his epistle. He shews, that, provided a man endeavoured in such matters to approve himself to God, doing only what he really judged to be right, God accepted him; and that, whilst we commend ourselves to the judgment of our God, we should also leave to his judgment those who differ from us; assured, that in the last day he will dispense to all, not according to our narrow views, but according to what he knew to be the real disposition of their minds.

Leaving, for the present, the primary subject of the chapter, namely, candour in judging one another, I shall draw your attention to that which is here incidentally introduced; namely, the certainty and awfulness of the future judgment.

  I.      Its certainty—

There shall be a day of future retribution—

[Reason itself might tell us this: for how else are the inequalities of the present state of things ever to be rectified? At present, “all things come alike to all;” or rather, the ungodly triumph, and the godly are oppressed. But can we suppose, that God will never recompense to his servants the troubles they sustain for his sake, or to their enemies the injuries they inflict? No: there shall be a time when God will deal with men in a way of perfect equity; and he has fixed a day for “the revelation of his righteous judgment.” To this the Scriptures bear ample testimony. They even declare, with great precision, the very mode in which the judgment shall be administered. They declare that Jesus Christ shall be the Judge; (for “the Father hath committed all judgment to the Son:”) that, at a period fixed in the Divine counsels, “he will come in his own glory, and in the glory of his Father, with myriads of his holy angels,” and will sit upon the throne of his glory; and that “before him shall be gathered all nations:” that “the books,” in which the transactions of the whole human race are recorded, “shall be opened,” and “every one be judged according to his works:” that, for this end, “all who were in their graves shall come forth” in their own proper bodies; “some to a resurrection of life, others to a resurrection of damnationd.”]

Of this God has assured us, with a most solemn oath—

[The Apostle quotes a passage from the prophecies of Isaiah. This passage speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ, as the Apostle tells us, and as the whole context in the prophet clearly shews. The person spoken of in that passage is He to whom we are to “look for salvation;” He “in whom alone a sinner can have either righteousness or strength;” and “in whom all the seed of Israel must be justified, and shall glory.” To HIM shall all submit, either voluntarily in this present life, or involuntarily at that great and awful day. His dominion shall extend over all. But many resist it now: and therefore there must be a day when they shall be able to resist it no longer; and when those who would not bow to the sceptre of his grace “shall be broken in pieces by him, as a potter’s vessel, with a rod of iron.” This has God declared with an oath. And here I cannot but notice how clearly and indisputably this passage declares the Godhead of Christ. Again and again does the prophet proclaim the proper Deity of the person of whom he is speaking:— “Look unto ME, and be ye saved! for I am GOD; and there is none else. I have sworn by myself, the word is gone forth in righteousness, and shall not return, that unto ME every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear. Surely shall one say, In THE LORD (Jehovah) have I righteousness and strength; unto HIM shall men come; and all that are incensed against him shall be ashamed. In THE LORD shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory.” Let these expressions be compared with the application made of them in my text, and it is impossible to avoid the conclusion, that Christ is God; and no subordinate kind of Deity, but “God over all, blessed for evermore.” Hear then Almighty God pledging his own life and immortal perfections, that such a day shall arrive, and that such shall be the issue of it; every creature that has ever existed being summoned before the Lord Jesus; and being constrained, whether willing or not, to acknowledge Christ as his rightful Lord, and as the only Saviour of the world.]

Such is the certainty of that day. Let us next consider,

  II.      Its awfulness—

In that day, “every one of us shall give account of himself to God.” Not one shall be absent; not one be able to resist, or elude, the summons. The most formidable monarchs will then be on a footing with the meanest beggar: and every one shall, not merely be reminded of the things which he has done, but shall confess them, and “give an account of” them,

  1.      Generally, as to his demeanour on the whole—

[Then shall we give an account of our time. It ought to have been dedicated altogether to the Lord, and not consumed in sloth or vanity. The use we have made of it will form a subject of most serious inquiry: not a day or an hour passes, but it shall be then reviewed. Our talents, too, our property, our station, our intellectual powers, our influence of every kind, must then be accounted for. They were the Lord’s; and ought neither to have been wasted, nor hid in a napkin, but to have been augmented by a diligent application of them. And what shall I say of our advantages, particularly the unspeakable advantage of a preached Gospel? Must not those also be accounted for? Yes, verily, they are most signally noted by Almighty God, and will form a very important ground of approbation or displeasure, according as they have been neglected or improved. Our habits altogether will then come under the strictest scrutiny; whether we have abounded in the exercises of prayer and praise; or whether we have passed over in a formal way the duties of the closet, finding no delight in communion with God: whether we have put away all our besetting sins; or have “retained iniquity in our hearts” unmortified and unsubdued. Every thing, even every idle word, will come under review, to receive its appropriate reward: nor shall so much as a secret thought escape the sentence of our Godh; for “he will bring every secret thing into judgment, and make manifest the counsels of the heart,” as subjects of praise or dispraise, according to their intrinsic quality.]

  2.      Particularly, as to his conduct towards the Lord Jesus Christ—

[It will be remembered, that the passage cited by the Apostle refers, in the first instance, to the dominion of Christ, which shall be established over every child of man: but, forasmuch as that is not accomplished now, it shall be accomplished hereafter, when all “his enemies shall become his footstool.” Hence the Apostle justly quotes them, as declarative of a future judgment: and hence we conclude that our submission to him will be a subject of special inquiry. Then shall it be clearly seen whether we have “looked unto Christ for salvation;” whether we have sought “in him our righteousness and strength;” and whether we have “gloried in him” as “all our salvation and all our desire.” These things are disregarded by us now, as of small moment; and we make little account of any thing, except of our conduct towards our fellow-men. But we may be perfectly assured that our conduct towards the Lord Jesus Christ will not be found a point of secondary importance then. It is not so light a matter to “trample under foot the Son of God, and to do despite to the Spirit of his grace,” that it should be overlooked in that day. Let me therefore most affectionately remind you all, that every one of us, without one single exception, shall give account of himself to God, and especially respecting his treatment of the Saviour, whom to disregard is death, and “whom to know is life eternal.”]

  St. Paul, speaking of the day of judgment, says, “Knowing, therefore, the terrors of the Lord, we persuade men.” Permit me then to IMPROVE the subject, and to persuade you,

  1.      In reference to the main subject of the context—

[We have before observed, that the Apostle is speaking respecting candour in judging; and, of moral subjects, there is scarcely any that is of greater importance than that. Our blessed Lord enjoins us strictly in relation to it: “Judge not, that ye be not judged; for with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged; and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.” Think for yourselves, and act for yourselves; and regard not the uncharitable judgment of others, when you are “fully persuaded in your own mind.” But concede to others the liberty which you claim for yourselves. Leave others to exercise their own discretion: and, instead of sitting in judgment upon them, leave them to the infallible judgment of their God. Believe that they may be right, as well as you; and that they may be right, though they differ from you. You yourselves, as well as those whom you judge, will shortly appear before the judgment-seat of Christ: there will every man receive according to his works. On the side of charity you may safely err: but if you indulge uncharitableness towards others, you can expect nothing but what God has expressly declared; that they “who have shewed no mercy shall themselves have judgment without mercy.”]

  2.      In reference to the passage we have been insisting on—

[You have seen that Christ will surely triumph at the last. Respecting those who pertinaciously reject him, he will say, “Bring hither those mine enemies who would not that I should reign over them, and slay them before me.” Lay down, then, the weapons of your rebellion, and humble yourselves before him. Think not that he will forget his oath: for he will surely fulfil it. He is able so to do; and he “will not repent” of any word that he hath spoken. “Hath he said, and shall he not do it? Has he spoken, and shall he not make it good?” Seek then, without delay, to have his whole work accomplished in you; and be assured, that, if you serve him faithfully, according to his word, the time is not far distant when he will address you from his throne of glory, “Well done, good and faithful servants; enter ye into the joy of your Lord.”]

MDCCCCXVII

PRACTICAL CHRISTIANITY ILLUSTRATED

  Rom. 14:17–19.

The kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God, and approved of men. Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another.

TO have a clear view of Christian doctrines is necessary; but to have a just apprehension of the Christian spirit and temper is no less necessary: and it is much to be regretted, that where the doctrines are well understood, the Christian temper is often grievously overlooked: nay, the very importance of the doctrines is often made a pretext for exercising tempers most repugnant to vital Christianity. People are not willing to distinguish between the essentials, and the non-essentials, of religion. There is in every man a disposition to exalt some favourite sentiment of his own, and to press it upon others beyond what its relative importance requires; whereas the spirit of Christianity calls rather for mutual forbearance in relation to things indifferent, and mutual concessions, in order to the preservation of peace and harmony.

The scope of the chapter before us is to mark out a line of conduct for Christians in relation to this matter: and in this view it deserves the most attentive consideration. To present the subject before you in all its most important bearings, we shall,

  I.      Shew wherein practical Christianity consists—

[The Jewish religion consisted much in the observance of rites and ceremonies, which were marked with great precision, and enjoined under the severest penalties. The forbearing the use of certain kinds of food, the keeping as sacred certain times and seasons, and the complying with certain ordinances, were commanded with all the same authority as the decalogue itself. But those things were to cease with that dispensation: they were appointed only “till the times of reformation:” and now they are to be observed no longerb. “The kingdom of God,” that is, the kingdom of Christ established in the heart, does not consist in them; “it is not in meat and drink,” but in something more substantial, more excellent, more spiritual; namely, “in righteousness and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.”

Many interpret these words as importing faith in the “righteousness” of the Lord Jesus Christ, and “peace” through the blood of his cross, and “joy in the Holy Ghost” as the fruit of our acceptance with God. But we apprehend that these words relate rather to holy and heavenly dispositions, as contrasted with the spirit that is generated by an undue attachment to rites and ceremonies. We understand by them an universal love of righteousness, as opposed to a zeal for forms; a peaceful state of mind, as opposed to the irritation that is cherished, and the dissensions that are occasioned, by a contentious spirit; and a joy in God, as opposed to the self-complacency which is fostered by a self-righteous compliance with prescribed forms. The scope of the whole context seems to point to this interpretation, and to direct our thoughts into the channel marked out for us by the words of Balaam to Balak; or by those of our Lord to the self-righteous Pharisees, “who paid tithe of mint, and anise, and cummin, but neglected the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith.”

In these things vital Christianity consists. The turning of the whole heart to the observance of God’s laws, is the great promise of the Gospel, and the certain effect of it, wherever it is received in truth: “A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments to do them.” And again, “I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their heartsf” — — — Nor is a peaceful disposition less certainly imparted by the Gospel: for love is the necessary fruit of faith, and forms the most striking feature in the character of every true believerh — — — Joy also in the Holy Ghost will invariably accompany these holy dispositions: for the Holy Ghost delights to dwell where God is honoured, and man is loved for God’s sake. In the hearts of such believers “he will glorify the Lord Jesus, and will shed abroad the Father’s love: he will fill them with joy unspeakable and glorified” — — — Such righteousness, such peace, and such joy, are the fruits and evidences of the reign of Christ in the soul: and in them, rather than in forms of any kind, does his kingdom consist.]

Having thus marked the nature of practical Christianity, we shall,

  II.      Point out its peculiar excellence—

The ordinances relative to meats and drinks were mere “beggarly elements:” they had no value at all, except as “shadows of good things to come.” But these holy dispositions are truly valuable: and every man who cultivates them,

  1.      Is accepted of God—

[The observers of forms and ceremonies were not at all accepted, unless their services were accompanied with a suitable and corresponding frame of mind; yea rather, they were hateful, even as the offering of swine’s blood, or as murder itselfk. But not so the services of which we have been speaking: they are truly pleasing in the sight of God; and the dispositions exercised are in his sight “an ornament of great price.” Yes, “the righteous Lord loveth righteousness,” and “will meet him who rejoiceth in working it.” There is no token of his love which he will not vouchsafe to those who cultivate a loving spirit, and seek all their happiness in him. “He will set his love upon them; and will hear and answer all their petitions: he will be with them in trouble: he will deliver them and honour them: with long life also will he satisfy them, and will shew them his full and complete salvation,”]

  2.      Is approved of men—

[Those who spend their zeal on the externals of religion may be commended by partisans, but they will never be respected by those who differ from them, nor indeed by their own party. The dispositions exercised by such persons are unamiable, and therefore they can never generate love in the breasts of any. But the holy man of God, who labours to fulfil all righteousness, and to promote the happiness of all around him, and to live in the constant enjoyment of his God, he, I say, has a testimony in the breasts of all, even of those who differ from him in things of less importance: and though from circumstances they may keep at a distance from him, they honour him in their hearts, and have an inward persuasion “that God is with him of a truth.” The ungodly world indeed may hate him, just as they hated the Apostles and our Lord himself: but yet even they will feel an awe in his presence, and, at the very time that they revile and persecute him, have oftentimes the secret thought in their hearts, “If I were dying, I should be glad to be found in your state.”]

We must not however overlook that which gives to these services their chief excellence—

[It is supposed that the person who performs these services is already Christ’s subject, and servant, having through Divine grace been converted to God, and “translated out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God’s dear Son:” and that, in performing them, he is not attempting to establish a righteousness of his own, but to “serve and glorify the Lord Jesus Christ.” It is necessary that he keep this end in view; and that all that he does be done for Christ, that is, from a regard to his authority, and with a view to his glory. Indeed faith in Christ, and love to his name, are the only principles that will operate to the production of the dispositions before mentioned. A man may have the semblance of them without faith in Christ; but the reality he cannot have. In the mind of the unbeliever, the circumstantials of religion will have an undue weight: in the believer only will the essentials have their full scope and paramount ascendency. When therefore we speak of these dispositions as accepted of God and approved of men, it is supposed that in them “we serve Christ,” by whose grace alone we can do them, and through whom alone they can ever be accepted.]

Having now shewn the nature and excellence of practical Christianity, we shall, in conclusion,

  III.      Give some directions for the exercise of it—

The general direction in our text is, to “follow after the things that make for peace, and things whereby one may edify another.” But that the whole scope of the chapter may be brought more fully into view, we will descend somewhat more to particulars.

  1.      Lay not an undue stress on things indifferent—

[As amongst the Jews there were many who laid more stress on the washing of pots and cups than on obedience to God’s commandments, so now there are many whose zeal has respect to little else than the circumstantials of religion. The Papists are ready to confine salvation to those who are within the pale of their Church: and almost every distinct sect of Protestants is ready to arrogate to itself the same exclusive privilege. It is grievous to think what mutual aversion has been created among Christians, by the circumstance of worshipping with, or without, a form of prayer, or by differences still less important. But things ought not so to be. We should lay no more stress on any thing than we find laid on it in the Scriptures of truth. The fundamental doctrines of religion must be held fast, and sacrificed to none. The plain duties also of religion must be executed with a firmness that is immoveable: but whatever interferes not with these, should be left to the judgment and the conscience of every individual; neither being imposed on him as of necessity, nor exacted of him with rigour, nor made a ground of alienation from him. We should concede to others the liberty we claim for ourselves; and be more anxious to preserve an union of heart, than by dictation to produce an uniformity of sentiment. “One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike.” And what says St. Paul to this? Let the more powerful of the two compel the other to adopt his views? No: but, “Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.”]

  2.      Be tender in judging those who differ from you—

[Those who saw their Christian liberty, despised their weaker brethren, for scrupling to eat what had been offered to an idol; whilst, on the other hand, they who doubted the lawfulness of eating such things, condemned their stronger brethren, as presumptuously disregarding the commands of God. A similar disposition to despise or condemn each other exists among the advocates for certain doctrines which have for ages divided the Church of God. Those who think they have a deeper insight into the Divine decrees, look down with pity and contempt on their less enlightened brethren; whilst these, on the other hand, feel embittered against the others, and load them with all manner of obloquy. Alas! alas! when shall the professed members of Christ’s body cease to exercise such dispositions towards each other, and agree to cultivate a spirit of mutual forbearance? When shall men cease to dogmatize, as if they were infallible? The probability is, that the truth lies not exclusively with either of these parties, but is found rather with those who receive with meekness, and interpret with diffidence, the apparently opposite declarations of God, and wait his time for the fuller explication of them. No man is in the exclusive possession of all truth; nay, persons may in some things pursue an opposite conduct, and yet both be right, because the things wherein they disagree may be matters of pure indifference: therefore, whilst every man should seek to acquire the most correct sentiments, every man should leave others to “stand or fall to their own masterq.”]

  3.      Be cautious in the exercise of your liberty—

[An action may be good in itself, yet it may become bad by being done in the presence of another who doubts its lawfulness, and may by means of it be induced to violate the dictates of his own conscience in following the example. This is a point well worthy of our attention. We should have respect to the consciences of others, and be careful “not to lay a stumbling-block or an occasion to fall in our brother’s way.” As we should not presume to force him to act contrary to his conscience, so neither should we tempt him to do so, lest we lead him into sin, and thereby destroy his soul. Our blessed Lord laid down his life to save such persons; and shall we not forego a trifling gratification for their welfare? Yea, shall we, for the sake of some small indulgence, risk the plunging them into everlasting ruin? Shocking impiety! In so acting, we sin against Christ, and greatly endanger the salvation of our own souls. And rather than be guilty of such wickedness, we should deny ourselves the most innocent gratification in the world: “If meat make our brother to offend, we should eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest we make our brother to offend.”]

  4.      Be anxious, not to proselyte to a party, but to edify your brother in love—

[Here almost all classes of the Christian world are greatly to blame. If a brother begin to have his conscience awakened, the first object of the generality is to bring him over to their own particular party. For this end they set before him those particular points which may lead his mind into the particular channel which they wish. But St. Paul expressly forbids such hateful conduct: “Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations.” How many hopeful blossoms have come to nought in consequence of their being thus blighted by the breath of vain dispute! How many, instead of coming fully to Christ, and devoting themselves entirely to him, have been led to rest in the adoption of some particular creed, an union with some particular party, or a submission to one particular rite! Verily, they who, by such an use of their influence, keep back an inquiring soul, have much to answer for. To build up a brother in faith and love should be our only object; and, whether he belong to our particular party or not, it should satisfy us to see that he “grows in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Instead of labouring to proselyte him to our party, we should forget that we ourselves are of any party: or, if of a party we must be, let it be of that which Moses approved, and which comprehends the universal Church,—“the Lord’s sideu.” To unite each other unto him, and build up each other in his faith and fear, is the only proper exercise of Christian love, and Christian influence.]

MDCCCCXVIII

REGARD TO CONSCIENCE RECOMMENDED

             Rom. 14:22.

Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth.

IT is well known that there is a great diversity of opinion amongst good men respecting the principles of religion. Nor are they altogether agreed upon the subject of moral duty. Some have a clearer insight into the nature and extent of Christian liberty, whilst others are in bondage to superstitious rites; and some are ready to plead for a degree of latitudinarian indulgence, which others feel themselves by no means authorized to admit. There is, however, one point in which all are agreed; and that is, the necessity of following the dictates of our own conscience. The man who violates his own principles, whether he be right or wrong in his judgment, stands condemned in his own mind: whilst, on the other hand, as the Apostle tells us in our text, “he is happy, who condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth.”

The subject of conscience needs to be treated with extreme delicacy and care; lest we wound a weak brother, and make the heart of the righteous sad.” It is however a subject of such vital importance, that we must of necessity enter upon it, and prosecute it, with all fidelity. Let me, then, state to you,

  I.      The office of conscience—

The proper office of conscience is admonition. It is not given to instruct us in any thing new, but to regulate us according to some fixed principles in the mind. It is given us,

  1.      As a secret monitor—

[In every man there is something which has within him the force of a law. Those who possess not the knowledge of God’s revealed will have yet some principles of action, which they regard as binding, and in accordance with which the voice of conscience speaks. Having no other law, “they are a law unto themselves:” and the office of conscience is, to testify, when they fulfil, and when they violate, this law. Nor does this testimony refer to their actions merely, but to their motives also: respecting which, none but themselves can form any correct judgment. This is the view which the Scripture gives of conscience: “The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord, searching all the inward parts of the belly.” Not that it waits for the execution of an act: it testifies beforehand respecting the quality of the act proposed; and operates as a stimulus, if the act be good; or as a check, if it be evil. Its influence indeed is, for the most part, proportioned to the desire which a man feels to be governed by it: if a man disregard its motions, it may be reduced to utter silence: but if he desire to act agreeably to its dictates, it will be a most kind and faithful monitor on all occasions. It will say to us what no fellow-creature could venture to say; and it will take the same freedom in the bosom of a king as in the meanest of his subjects. It is rarely very clamorous, except after some enormous transgression: its testimony is, for the most part, delivered in a still small voice, which none but the person himself can hear. Yet, on some occasions, it will betray its operation in the mind, especially when it reproves for something amiss, and for something which the man himself would be ashamed to have known: it will then suffuse his cheek with a blush, or perhaps cast over his countenance a pallid hue, which a wise observer cannot easily misinterpret.]

  2.      As an authoritative judge—

[But it is not as a monitor only that conscience acts, but as a judge also: and in this respect it is God’s vicegerent in the soul. It erects a tribunal there! and summons a man to appear before it, and to give an account of his conduct: and then it passes judgment, “either excusing or accusing him,” as the occasion warrants; and acquitting or condemning him, as God himself will do at the future judgment. Sometimes it exercises its authority immediately; as when it declared to Adam, in Paradise, that he was despoiled of the divine image in which he had been created: or, as when it caused David’s heart to smite him for numbering the peoplee: or, as when it caused the acccusers of an adulteress to go out from the presence of our Lord. At other times, it delays till some occasion arise to draw forth its judgment: thus it did in the case of Joseph’s brethren, whom it made to feel the injustice and the cruelty which, some years before, they had exercised towards him. Sometimes it delivers its sentence in a way to produce becoming humiliation, as in the case of Peter: and sometimes in a way to drive to utter despondency, as in the case of Judas; whom it impelled to suicide, as the only refuge from its poignant reproaches.]

Let us now contemplate,

  II.      Our duty in reference to it—

Men have a duty towards their minds generally, to cultivate them and improve them in knowledge, and to fit them for the better discharge of all the functions of life. But towards their conscience they have obligations of the highest order, on account of the pre-eminent authority with which it is invested, and the influence which it exercises over our whole man. We ought, then,

  1.      To get it well informed—

[We have before observed, that conscience prescribes no rule to us, but only gives its testimony according to a rule which has previously existed in the mind. Nor does any man ever commit sin by following its dictates. St. Paul, when he persecuted the saints, supposed that in so doing he was discharging a duty to God; for “he thought that he ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus.” Doubtless in this he sinned: but his sin consisted, not in following the dictates of his own conscience, but in having his conscience so ill-informed. Had he studied the Scriptures with more humility of mind, and sought instruction from God, he would have been kept from the fatal errors into which he fell. Indeed, he himself assigns as an extenuation of his guilt, that he had contracted it “ignorantly, and in unbelief:” for had he known what evil he was committing, and yet persisted in it, there was reason to fear he would never have obtained mercy at the Lord’s hands. If we would have conscience perform its office aright, we must take the law of God for the standard whereby it shall judge. We must not go to men to instruct us in the principles of the world, which are altogether founded in error; but must look to God, to “guide us into all truth,” according to his unerring word, and through the influences of his good Spirit. Nor must we hastily imagine that our views are correct: for there is a film upon our eyes, and we are far from seeing things so distinctly as we ought. We should maintain a godly jealousy over ourselves, lest “Satan beguile us,” or our own heart deceive us. We should take care that “the light which is in us be not darkness:” for if it be, how great must that darkness be! But, “if our eye be single, then will our whole body be full of light,” and the testimony of conscience be in perfect accordance with the mind of God.]

  2.      To consult it on all occasions—

[We should not go on blindfold, but should endeavour to see our way clear before we enter upon any course of action. To act first, and afterwards make inquiries, is almost a certain way to involve ourselves in guilt. To make conscience a pretext for doing a thing to which we are previously inclined, is indeed a horrible delusion; and not less common than it is hateful. But, on the other hand, to do any thing without a careful inquiry into the quality of the action proposed, is presumptuous in the extreme, and shews that we have not really the fear of God before our eyes. Nor is the testimony of conscience easily obtained. Sometimes, indeed, it speaks instantly, and without much previous consultation: and in that case its testimony is almost always according to truth; and a man will do well in paying especial respect to such spontaneous motions of the monitor within him. But, for the most part, it requires time to make a fair statement of the circumstances of which the conscience is to judge: and in such cases, if they have respect to God only, we should consider attentively the conduct of our blessed Lord and his Apostles on similar occasions: or, if they have respect to man, then should we in all cases change places, as it were, with the person concerned; that so we may judge with more candour than we are likely to exercise, if we stand altogether on our own ground; because our judgment is but too likely to be warped by self-love and sinful partiality. We should never forget, that, “if we doubt of the lawfulness of any thing, we are self-condemned if we do it; since whatsoever is not of faith, is sin.” We should pause therefore, and deliberate, till we see our way clear; and determine, if possible, not to do any thing till “we are fully persuaded in our own mindsm.”]

  3.      To keep it upright and tender—

[Conscience may easily be warped, yea, and silenced too; so that it shall give no testimony whatever, till it is awaked by some flagrant enormity, or by some peculiar occurrence. If we go and consult worldly advisers, they will of course justify the ways which they wish us to follow: and if we listen to the voice of interest or inclination within us, we may soon be furnished with reasons enough for prosecuting the line which they would prescribe. They will tell us, that the object for which they plead is commonly approved by all in our circumstances: that we need not give way, except on this or that particular occasion: that to hold out against the wishes and solicitations of our friends can be ascribed to nothing but spiritual pride, and will give just offence to those whom we are bound to please; and that, in fact, our preciseness will only offend those whom we ought rather to conciliate, and make religion hateful to those whose eternal welfare we wish rather to promote. A thousand arguments of this kind will be presented to our minds, either by our worldly friends, or by our own carnal hearts; and by them we may persuade conscience to alter its sentence, and to sanction our ways: and, after a time, we may so blind and sear our conscience, that it shall no longer perform its proper office. But to effect this, is to inflict an irreparable injury on our own souls, and to seal, I had almost said, our eternal condemnation. The utmost possible caution, therefore, should be used on this head. No standard should be referred to, but that which God himself will approve; and according to his written word should every sentiment and every act be tried. “Whoever speaks not according to this word, there is no light in him;” and his advice, if followed, will only cause our feet to stumble to our ruin. Taking that for our guide on all occasions, and under all circumstances, we should say with holy Job, “My heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.”]

  ADDRESS—

  1.      Those who consult not their conscience, nor are troubled by it—

[Though there is no man without a conscience, yet the greater part of the world live as if they had no such faculty to controul them. Whatever be the life which they have chosen for themselves, they walk in it without much thought, or any remorse. The lovers of pleasure, the votaries of gain, the formal religionist, all conceive their respective lines to be, on the whole, such as they are at liberty to follow, and such as shall issue well in the end. As for trying themselves by the test of Scripture, they think not of it: they stand self-approved; and they conceive that God will confirm the testimony of their own minds. But I must remind all such persons, that there is a future judgment; and that God will judge, not by the laws which men establish for themselves, but by the law which he himself has given in his written word. By that shall the whole universe be judged, and according to that shall every man’s eternal doom be fixed — — —]

  2.      Those whose consciences are weak and troubled—

[If your minds be troubled, see whether there be not just occasion for them so to be: and when you have found out the accursed thing, put it away from you with abhorrence, and implore mercy at the hands of God for your sin in having ever indulged it. And if it be but a mote in the eye, let conscience never cease to weep, till it has wept it out. There are, it is true, circumstances which may well admit of doubt: and, under such circumstances, you will do well to consult some one of known piety and deep experience; and at the same time to seek direction from God, through the influence of his Holy Spirit. Whilst your doubts remain, it will be well to pause: for, “if a man esteem any thing unclean, to him it is unclean.” Yet it is by no means advisable to rest without obtaining satisfaction to your mind. It is a painful state in which to be; and you should use all proper means to obtain deliverance from itr: but, till that deliverance come, take my text for your guide: “Happy is he who condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth.” “If once you make sacrifice of a good conscience, you are in the way to make an utter shipwreck of your faith.”

Yet I must say, Do not judge those who see not with your eyes, and walk not in your path. Another person may have a fuller insight into the nature of Christian liberty than you: and “to his own Master must every man stand or fall.” Be you contented with approving your own selves to God; and leave to others the latitude which you claim for yourselves.]

  3.      Those who enjoy the testimony of a good conscience—

[This is a most exalted privilege, and, whether in life or deathx, a source of unutterable joy. Be thankful for it: and, at the same time, be washing your very best actions, no less than those which are more faulty, in the fountain of your Redeemer’s blood: for, if He “bear not the iniquity of your holy things,” your most righteous acts will condemn you. Take care, at the same time, that your liberty be never so used as to become a stumbling-block to your weaker brethren. It were better to forbear any gratification whatever, than, by indulging yourselves in it, to make it an occasion of offence to any. Let your whole conduct shew the excellence of the principles by which you are governed: and let it be “the one labour of your lives to maintain a good conscience both towards God and towards man.”]

MDCCCCXIX

SELF-DENYING LOVE INCULCATED

  Rom. 15:1–3.

We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification. For even Christ pleased not himself; but, as it is written, The reproaches of them that reproached thee, fell on me.

WHILST many scarcely ever dwell upon the atonement of Christ, and on that righteousness which he has wrought out for the redemption of a ruined world, others insist on these, almost to the utter exclusion of all other topics. But the Apostle Paul, who certainly was inferior to none in his regard for that fundamental doctrine of the Gospel,—salvation by faith in the Lord Jesus, was yet delighted to exhibit his Divine Master as a pattern and example of universal holiness. In respect to love in particular, he constantly urges us “to love one another, as Christ loved us.” In the words before us, he seems almost to go out of his way (if we may so speak) to introduce Christ to our notice in this view. He brings forward, as illustrative of it, a passage of Scripture, in which a person less conversant with the spiritual import of Scripture, or less alive to this important point, would scarcely have found any thing bearing upon his subject. Indeed he almost appears to apologize for this particular quotation, by observing, that “Whatsoever things were written aforetime, were written for our learning;” and that, consequently, this prophecy, even though it should not be thought to bear so directly and obviously upon his subject as some others, may properly be adduced in illustration of it. But this very circumstance tends so much the more to shew the importance of the subject in the precise view in which he has placed it. Let us consider then,

  I.      The example here propounded to us—

Two things are said of our blessed Lord,

  1.      He pleased not himself—

[And how true is this! View him in his incarnation: Was it to please himself that he left “the bosom of the Father,” and divested himself of all “the glory that he had with the Father from all eternity?” Was it to please himself, that, “when he was in the form of God, and thought it no robbery to be equal with God, he made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant?” Was it to please himself that he was “made in the likeness of sinful flesh,” partaking of all our infirmities, and being “made like unto us in all things, sin only excepted?” View him in his life: Was it to please himself that till the age of thirty he worked as a common carpenter: and that, from the time he took upon him his ministerial office, he was subjected to evils and distresses of every kind; being from first to last “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief,” as his daily and hourly companion? So poor was he, that he had not a place where to lay his head: and so hated, that he was “a sign spoken against,” a butt of contradiction to all the people of Israel. There was not any thing he either said or did, that did not subject him to fresh reproaches, and prove an occasion of offence to all around him. Incessantly was he represented as a deceiver, a blasphemer, and a devil, yea, as one who should not be suffered to live. His very first sermon would have been his last, if he had not miraculously withdrawn himself from his persecutors. Was all this undertaken and submitted to, to please himself? View him in his death. Was it to please himself that he consented to drink the cup of bitterness which his Father put into his hands; or that he was bathed in a bloody sweat in the garden of Gethsemane; or that he endured the hidings of his Father’s face, and expired under all the shame and agonies of crucifixion? No: at no one moment of his life do we find him consulting his own pleasure: his only object, his very meat and drink, was to do the will of Him that sent him.]

  2.      He submitted to all manner of indignities purely for our sake—

[It had been foretold by David that he should do so. The passage cited by the Apostle undoubtedly refers to Christ. Whatever reference in a subordinate way it had to David, its main import is that affixed to it in our text. Every one that was an enemy to God the Father, was an enemy to him: and every shaft directed against the Majesty of heaven, pierced his breast. Nor did he withdraw himself from this inconceivably distressing situation, till he had accomplished all that his sufferings were intended to effect. Such was his stupendous love to God, whose glory he sought; and to men, whose souls he had undertaken to redeem! This was the end which he proposed to himself in all: and “this was the joy that was set before him, as his only inducement to endure the cross, and to despise the shame.” Consult all the sacred records, the types and prophecies of the Old Testament, or the uniform declarations of the New Testament, and the salvation of man will be found to have been the one end of all that he either did or suffered: “He who knew no sin was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” — — —]

Let us now proceed to consider,

  II.      The instruction founded upon it—

This is two-fold:

  1.      That we also should not please ourselves—

[There is a proneness in men to follow their own inclinations, without considering what may be the effect of their conduct on the minds of others. But in no case whatever should we be guilty of this: it is directly contrary to love, the invariable character of which is, that it “seeketh not her own.” We have perhaps a clearer insight into the nature and extent of Christian liberty than others: but shall we therefore use that liberty in a way that may ensnare them, or wound their feelings? No: “the strong ought to bear with the infirmities of the weak, and not to please themselves.” The sacrifice must be made on the part of the strong; and the stronger any profess themselves to be, the more should this self-denial be exercised by them. This is a subject peculiarly worthy the attention of all who “profess godliness.” It is much to be lamented, that many carry their zeal for religious liberty to a very undue extent: the mere circumstance of a thing being required by law or custom, is sufficient to make them violent against it: and they would rend the Church into a thousand parties, rather than comply with a prescribed rite or ceremony, even of the most innocent kind. We mean not by this observation to justify the imposing of any thing which is wrong, or that admits of any serious doubt: but there must be, and there are in every Church under heaven, some rules and orders of human appointment; and, where there is no moral evil in them, they should be observed “for the Lord’s sake:” and to be rigid and fierce in our opposition to them, merely because they are established by law, whilst we conform to others that are established only by this or that particular society of Christians, is unreasonable, inconsistent, and highly unbecoming. Such was not the conduct of our blessed Lord, who, though he had no sin to wash away, submitted to John’s baptism, notwithstanding it had never been enjoined by the Mosaic law; and wrought a miracle to pay a tax, from which he might have justly pleaded his right of exemption. St. Paul also has in this respect set us a beautiful example, “making himself the servant of all,” and “becoming all things to all men, for the Gospel’s sake.” This was a truly Christian spirit, which we should ever study to imitate; submitting cheerfully to an abridgment of our liberty in matters of indifference, instead of acrimoniously vindicating our rights, and “using our liberty for a cloak of maliciousness.”]

  2.      That we should seek rather the edification of others—

[To “please our neighbour” is an object well worthy our pursuit: for it is by pleasing him that we shall gain the more easy access to him, for the benefit of his soul. Not that we should attempt to please him by any sinful compliance: for “if in that sense we please men, we cannot be the servants of Jesus Christ.” The proper limit to our compliance is here assigned: we must go so far only as will be “for his good to edification.” Do we think him too much leaning to the side of needless scrupulosity or superstitious fear? let us not despise his weakness, but act towards him with all imaginable tenderness and forbearance. Do we behold in him a readiness to be offended or grieved at any liberty in which we indulge ourselves? let us cheerfully condescend to his infirmity in a way of conciliation and concession. To “win his soul” should be in our estimation a rich recompence for all the kindness we can manifest, and all the self-denial we can exercise. This was the line of conduct which St. Paul both enjoined to us, and himself practised: “Let no man seek his own, but every man another’s wealth — — — even as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved.”

But to recur to the example of our blessed Lord, to which our attention is more especially directed. We see to what an extent he carried these virtues, even to a relinquishment of all the glory of heaven, and to a suffering of all “the pains of of hell,” for the welfare, not of his friends and brethren, but of his most inveterate enemies: yes, “even CHRIST” (whose pleasure the whole universe ought incessantly to consult) “pleased not himself.” Shall we then be backward to deny ourselves? we, whose only hope is founded on the self-denial that Christ has exercised for us; and who are bound even to “lay down our lives for the brethren?” No: “Let the same mind be in us as was in Christ Jesus; and let us look, not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.”]

  The subject thus viewed may well suggest to us the following REFLECTIONS:

  1.      How extensive and amiable is true religion!

[Religion consists not in notions, nor even in outward actions; but in the habits and dispositions of the mind: it consists in a subjugation of self in all its bearings, and in a conformity of heart to the mind that was in Christ Jesus. And O! what a world would this be, if true religion universally prevailed! Some have thought that piety thus exercised would excite admiration in all who beheld it: but unhappily we know the contrary: for our blessed Lord exhibited it in its utmost possible perfection; and was the more hated on account of the brightness of his example. But still there is something in this conduct that carries its own evidence along with it; and we cannot but feel, that the more it prevails, the more happiness must be diffused all around us. Only conceive, for a moment, every professor of Christianity “walking precisely as Christ walked,” “not pleasing himself” in any thing, but studying in all things to please, and benefit, mankind! Conceive him to be so intent on this blessed work, as readily to bear all manner of reproaches and distresses for the furtherance of it! Could this fail of diffusing happiness wherever he went? Let it then be our endeavour to foster, both in ourselves and others, this heavenly disposition: and “whatever is true, honest, just, pure, lovely, and of good report, if there be any virtue, if there be any praise, let us think of these things,” and practise these things; that so all men may “see that we are Christ’s, by the Spirit which he has given us.”]

  2.      How little is there of true religion in the world!

[In polished society we behold some semblance of this: the very essence of good breeding is, so to demean ourselves as to give no offence to any, but pleasure and satisfaction to all. And it is happy for the world, that, where higher principles are wanting, there is a substitute for piety in the established usages of mankind. But however this substitute may answer many valuable purposes in society, it is of no value in the sight of God, since it is almost always laid aside in the domestic circle, and never exercised from any principle of love to God. In truth, we cannot conceive any thing more contrary to the deportment of the Lord Jesus Christ, than the insincere professions, which pass for politeness among men: so that it is in vain to look for any conformity to Christ in the world. Nor shall we find much even in the Church itself. There is a deplorable want of a Christian spirit amongst the generality of those who profess the Gospel. Every party, instead of endeavouring by kindness and concessions to conciliate others, is ready to erect a barrier against others, on purpose to prevent that harmony which should subsist amongst all the members of Christ’s mystical body. “Brethren, these things ought not so to be:” they are most offensive to God, and most injurious to yourselves: and yet persons who live in the indulgence of these hateful tempers, will call themselves followers of Christ; as if “a fountain could at the same place send forth sweet water and bitter.” But woe be to those in whom “this earthly, sensual, devilish, wisdom” is foundg: they cannot on earth, nor will they in heaven, be found acceptable worshippers before God. Pray then, brethren, to our common Father, that your souls may be filled with more holy dispositions; and that, “being made like-minded one towards another, according to Christ Jesus, ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”]

  3.      How conducive to piety is an intimate acquaintance with the Holy Scriptures!

[In reading the Holy Scriptures, we should aim particularly at our own spiritual improvement: and, in that view, we should notice with peculiar care the spirit that is inculcated in the precepts, and the disposition that is exercised by the saints of God. If we are not principally attentive to this object, we shall lose more than half the benefit that would result to us from the perusal of them. It is probable, that, in the many hundred times that we may have read the 69th Psalm, we never noticed the very point mentioned by St. Paul, notwithstanding he has taken such care to direct our attention to it! Alas! it is to little purpose to read the Scriptures, if we do not read them with a practical application of them to our own souls. But if we read them in this way, behold, what unspeakable benefit we may derive from them! Brethren, let not a day pass without treasuring up in your minds some passage that shall lead you into a fuller knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, and a more entire conformity to his image. We are told, that “whatsoever things were written aforetime, were written for our learning:” and we see in the application of the prophecy before us, what valuable instruction is to be drawn from that sacred source. Treat every passage then in this way. Treasure it up in your minds: consider all that it either expresses or implies: and apply it to your souls for your more abundant edification in faith and love. So shall you grow up into Christ as your living Head, and progressively “be changed into his image, from glory to glory, by the Spirit of the Lord.”]

MDCCCCXX

PREFERRING THE GOOD OF OTHERS

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