."BMTI LECTURES PREACHING OF CHRIST. A SUPPLEMENT LECTURES ON THE HISTORY OF CHRIST. By JAMES BENNETT, D.D. " Never man spake like this man." — John vii. 40. LONDON HAMILTON, ADAMS, & CO. 33, PATERNOSTER ROW. SOLD ALSO BY WESTLEY & DAVIS, STATIONERS' COURT. MDCCCXXXVI. STEVENS AND PAKDON, PRINTERS, BELL VARD, TEMPLE BAR. PREFACE. This volume is the result of the author's attempt to preserve unbroken the narrative contained in his Lectures on the History of Christ. As that object required the omission of the discourses of our Re- deemer, an intimation was given that these might, at some future time, be published so as to form a con- cluding volume ; and as this semblance of a promise has been pleaded by those w^hose judgment and piety command affectionate deference, especially w^hen they urge that the discourses of Christ are too important to be omitted by those vt^ho write of his life, an attempt to supply what may be deemed a desidera- tum, is now presented to the public, and especially to those who have perused the work of which the following pages are the sequel. Taken by itself, indeed, the theme of this volume must be deeply interesting, even to those who may have so studied the facts of Christ's history as scarcely to need farther information ; but as the sermons of our Lord derive additional value from their admirable adapta- tion to the occasions on which they were delivered. IV PREFACE. directions are given for reading them in due order, as a part of the evangelical narrative. The whole work will thus form a harmony of the Gospels, as far as this is important and interesting to Christians in general, and will furnish on those four inspired histories, a commentary which will be found to have many advantages beyond the ordinary form. If such a portion of favour and blessing as God has deigned to grant to the Lectures on the History of Christ, should be indulged to this volume, it will sometimes place the Redeemer in a new, and inter- esting, and more glorious light ; it will be the com- panion and comforter of some who are detained by affliction from the preaching of the Gospel ; it will be found on the pillow of the dying, to cheer the passage through the dark valley ; and thus, will not only add to the pleasures which have already beguiled the author's toils, but will also immensely increase his obligations to the grace which has permitted him to bring to a close his inadequate attempts to illus- trate what has been justly termed, the first of all theological themes. 'r< rr r, -k ^ ^ E J^ u CONTENTS. After Lecture x. on the History of Christ, should be read — ■ PAGE Lecture i. — Introductory. — Hebrews i. 12 . . .1 Lecture ii. — Sermon to Nicodemus. — John iii. 1 — 21 . 17 After Lecture xi. Lecture hi. — Conversation with the Woman of Sama- ria.— John iv. 1 — 26 . ..... 40 After Lecture xiv. Lecture iv. — Sermon on the Mount ; on True Ha'p'pi- we6-s.— Matt. V. 1—16 58 Lecture v. — Sermon on the Mount; the True Inter- pretation of the Law. — Matt. V. 17 — 48 . . 77 Lecture vi. — Sermon on the Mount ; on Religious Sincerity. — Matt. vi. 1 — 16 . . . .93 Lecture vii. — Sermon on the Mount ; its Practical Application. — Matt. vii. . . . . .112 After Lecture xx. Lecture viii. — Sermon at the Pool of Bethesda. — John V. 17—47 127 VI CON TEN IS. After Lecture xxvii. PAGE Lecture ix. — Christ upbraids the Cities uf Galilee, arid rejoices over the Elect. — Matt. xi. 20 — 30. Lukex. 13— 15 142 After Lecture xxx. Lecture x. — On the Parable of the Sower. — Matt. xiii. 1—9. Mark iv. 1—9. Luke viii. 4—8 . . 157 Lecture xi. — The Parable of the Tares and Wheat. — Matt. xiii. 24—30, 37—43 . . . .170 Lecture xii. — On the Shorter Parables. — Matt. xiii. 10—17, 31—35. Mark iv. 26—29 . . 184 After Lecture xxxvii. Lecture xiii. — Christ the Bread of Life. — John vi. 35 —39 198 Lecture xiv. — On Traditions and Ritual Observances. Matt. XV. 1—20. Mark vii. 1—23 . . .213 After Lecture xlviii. Lecture xv. — The Doctrine and Discipline of Offences. Matt, xviii. 15—31 229 Lecture xvi. — Christ's Prediction of his Departure. — John viii. 21—30 243 Lecture XVII. — True Liberty. — John viii. 31 — 44 . 257 Lecture xviii. — Christ the Light of the World. — John viii. 12—19; ix. 5 272 Lecture xix.— The Good Shepherd. — John x. 1—18 . 286 CONTENTS. VH After Lecture liii. PAGE Lecture xx. — The Good Samaritan. — Luke x. 25 — 37 301 Lecture xxi. — Scribes and Pharisees, and Lawyers, denounced. — Matt, xxiii. Mark xx. 45 — 47. Luke xi. 37— 54 ; XX. 45— 47 317 Lecture xxii. — Against Hypocrisy and Covetousness. — Luke xii. ........ 332 Lecture xxiii. — Censoriousness condemned ; the Barren Fig- Tree.— Luke xiii. 1—9 . . . .347 Lecture xxi v. — The Great Supper. — Luke xiv. 15 — 24 362 Lecture xxv. — The Parable of the Prodigal Son. — Luke XV. ....... . 374 Lecture xxvi. — The Unjust Steward. — Luke xvi. 1 . 389 Lecture xxvii. — The Rich Man and Lazarus.— Luke XVI. 19—31 406 Lecture xxviii. — The Importunate Widow. — Luke xviii. 1—8 422 Lecture xxix. — The Pharisee and Publican. — Luke xviii. 9—14 . 436 Lecture xxx. — On Marriage and Divorce. — Matt. xix. 3— 12. Markx. 2— 12. Luke xvi. 18 . .449 Lecture xxxi. — The Labourers in the Viiieyard. — Matt. XX. 1—16 464 Lecture xxxii. — The Parable of the Ten Pounds. — Luke xix. 11—27 476 After Lecture lxxiii. Lecture xxxiii. — The Father and his Two Sons. — Matt. xxi. 28—33 491 Vlll CONTENTS. PAGE Lecture xxxiv. — The Wicked Husbandmen. — Matt. xxi. 33—46. Mark xii. 1—12. Luke xx. 9—19. 505 Lecture XXXV. — The Wedding Rohe. — Matt. xxii. 1 — 14 518 Lecture xxxvi. — The Destruction of Jerusalem. — Matt. xxiv. Mark xiii. Luke xxi. .... 534 Lecture xxxvii. — The Wise and Foolish Virgins. — Matt. XXV. 1—13 556 Lecture xxxviii. — The Parable of the Talents. — Matt. XXV. 14—30 572 Lecture xxxix. — The Last Judgment. — Matt. xxv. 31 —46 ... 585 Lecture XL. — Consolations under Chi'isi's Departure. — John xiv. ........ 604 Lecture xli. — Christ the True Vine. — John xv. . 623 Lecture xlii. — Christ's Farewell. — John xvi. . . 637 Lecture xliii. — Christ's Intercessory Prayer. — John xvii. .... ..... 654 ^^^^uopertT^ ■i-ij lectureIsthsl.. •t-vv PREACHING OF CHRIST. LECTURE I. INTRODUCTORY. Hebrews i. 1, 2. God hath, in these last days, spoken to us by his Son. Vt HOEVER is animated with the true spirit of the ministry of the Gospel mourns over his own feebleness and inefficiency, and would, if he were to utter all his heart, say, " Oh, that my hearers had a better preacher, one who could pour upon their minds the light of eternal truth ; lay naked the gulf beneath their feet ; or transport them to heaven's gate, to catch a glimpse of the 'joys unspeakable;' or throw around their hearts the cords of persuasion, to draw them beyond the reach of these seductions that threaten their everlasting ruin ! How gladly would I introduce to them one more suited to the exigencies of their case, more skilled and blessed to ' save a soul from death ! ' Could I obtain for them such a one, it would be the height of my ambition to intro- duce him to their notice ; and happy should I think myself, if any thing that I could say should procure for him that regard and those triumphs that were never indulged to me." To-day, I may say, I have found him — the preacher equal to my highest conceptions and my most ardent wishes ; for " never man spake like this man." All my solicitudes, therefore, terminate in seeking for him that attention which \ 2 LECTURE I. he demands. Moses and Elijah vanished from the mount; but the Father said of Jesus, " This is my beloved Son, hear ye him." From glorified spirits, and from angels; from pro- phets and apostles, and all mere human teachers, may you, my dear hearers, turn to the Lord himself, and say, " Now w^e believe, not because of thy word ; for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is the Christ, the Saviour of the world. '^ Consider then, I. The claims of Christ as a preacher. Too many despise this office, in which the Son of God spent his life and the most important personages of antiquity were his forerunners ; for Enoch, the first who was exempted from the necessity of dying ; Noah, the second father of our race ; and the prophets, who were the honoured organs by which Deity spake to men, were all preachers of righteous- ness. Among the numerous predictions of Messiah, which raised the loftiest expectations in the minds of men, we find these words ascribed to him, " I have preached righteousness in the great congregation ; I have not refrained my lips, O Lord, thou knowest." He is, therefore, entitled to all the consideration that can be conferred by divine authority — infallible wisdom — spotless purity — abounding grace — and effective energy. L Divine authority. Jehovah himself was the first preacher of his own Gospel, and the whole human race were the auditors, when, in Para- dise, the original promise of mercy was proclaimed. That " God preached the Gospel to Abraham," the inspired Apostle asserts; and it has been thought, not without reason, that, in both cases, the Son was that person of the Deity who first broke the seals of the eternal counsels, and announced the " grace that was to be brought to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ." Peter commenced the first evangelical ser- mon to the Gentiles, by saying, " The word which God sent to the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ, he is Lord of all, that word, I say, ye know." He spake as universal Lord, with the tone of deity, which is that of supreme authority. On the mount, he thus addressed men : INTRODUCTORY. " Ye have heard that it was said to the ancients, thou shalt love thy neighbour and hate thine enemy ; but I say unto you, love your enemies." He bids them regard the whole frame of nature as frail and evanescent, compared with one of his words : " I say unto you, that heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away;" just as he had said, that " one iota, or one tittle, shall not pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." To every discerning mind and devout heart, the Ten Commandments derive their force from the lips that spake them, amidst the thunders that shook creation. " But if the ministration of condemnation be glorious, the ministration of righteousness exceeds in glory ;" and it is to us most consoling to know, that the same God who spake the law laid aside his terrors and came down in mercy to preach the Gospel. It has, indeed, been said by those who reject Christ's divinity, that if the disciples had considered him to be God, they would have been too much terrified to listen calmly to his instructions. Yet Moses, who knew he was conversing with God, on Sinai, brought down all the law to Israel ; for God can enable us to say, with Daniel, smitten to the earth with terror, " Let my Lord speak; for thou hast strengthened me." Not, however, that the Apostles knew all the glory of Jesus ; for though Thomas said to him, after his resurrection, " My Lord, and my God ;" while he was with them upon earth, much darkness struggled with the light. It was not till the " Spirit came to glorify Christ," that his Apostles knew all his glory ; and then, they learned, that the words which were spoken in their hearing were to be by them reported to all nations, for the use of all ages, when the divine authority of the speaker should be made known by evidences which, at first, could neither be given nor received. The Apostles, however, always came to Christ as the highest authority, the very fountain of truth, and in all their diffi- culties consulted him as the infallible oracle. When they asked him, how it was that the supreme judicature of the Jewish church decided, " that Elijah must first come," before Messiah should appear ; he answered, " I say unto you, that b2 4 LECTURE I. Elijah has already come." From the preparatory mission on which he sent them, they returned, exclaiming, " Lord, even the devils are subject to us at thy word ;" and he gave them a still loftier theme for exultation, "your names are written in heaven." They asked him to allow them to call fire from heaven, as did Elijah, and were informed that the Son of man came for a purpose more divine, "not to destroy men's lives, but to save them." They learned, from each day's ex- perience, that they could " do all things, through Christ strengthening them," and that no secret was hidden from his eyes, and no work beyond the power of his arm. His words, therefore, are the texts of our sermons, the divine authority on which they rest. Who does not feel, that, whatever may be the character or station of the preacher, whatever his powers of argument or of eloquence, the au- thority of Christ, to which we appeal, falls on the conscience with a weight which nothing else can equal ? Modern audiences, as well as the ancient, are " astonished at his doc- trine;" " for bespeaks as one having authority, and not as the scribes." The most determined enemies of religion hesitate to contradict the sayings of Jesus Christ. If we assume a dictatorial tone, you say, and justly, that we are " men of like passions with yourselves;" if we reason, you can dispute either our premises or our conclusion; if we promise, you ask, is he able to perform? if we persuade, you choose whether you will consent or refuse. But when Christ com- mands, you feel that " thus saith the Lord ;" when he de- termines an affair, you silence all your presumptuous reason- ings ; if he promises, you know the grace is sure ; if he in- vites, you feel it is guilty to refuse. Our office is that of a witness, not of a judge ; but when Christ is the preacher, you hear him say, " the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge you, at the last day." Authority supreme, infinite, overwhelming, throws around his pulpit the awful glories of Sinai, but (thanks to his name) softened by the milder splen- dours of Zion's mount. 2. Infallible wisdom distinguishes Christ's preaching. This is so necessarily involved in the former, that it might INTRODUCTORY. 5 be doubted whether we ought to give it a separate consider- ation ; but, since preaching is teaching, of which wisdom is an essential element, we should injure our theme, if we did not enter distinctly, and rather largely, into this quality of Christ's ministry. With what j oy should we hail a prophet " in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and know- ledge !" The wisest of mere men betray a tinge of ignorance, or of folly, that shakes our confidence in their instructions ; but what did Christ ever utter that lowers the tone of our admiration, or subdues the force of our deference ? Of God, that first object of human knowledge, of whom men know so little, Jesus says to his enemies, " I know him; and if I should say I know him not, I should be a liar like unto you." He spake of Deity, with the freedom of familiarity, and with the confidence of certainty ; while the most enlightened con- science echoes to all he says, as equal " to the height of his great argument." When we have been hearing Christ, we feel that we have become better acquainted with him whom to know is life, and we say with the disciples, " now we are sure that thou knowest all things." That he knew us well, " and needed not that any should tes- tify of man," he clearly proved ; for he laid open the heart, and showed what proceedeth from it. Before men ventured to speak, he answered the thoughts that were lurking in their hearts ; and, at the first interview, compelled one to confess, " he told me all things that ever I did." The enemies who thought to "entangle him in his talk," he so confounded, that ** they durst ask him no more questions." All ranks are le- velled before him ; beggars he elevates by his condescension ; and princes he brings down from their pride, by his superior dignity ; to the lawyers he teaches the law ; to the priests, religion ; " he taketh the wise in their own craftiness," and " carrieth the counsel of the froward headlong ;" while " the meek he guides in the paths of knowledge," and makes all men say, " who teacheth like him ?" With all worlds he shews himself alike familiar. Standing upon earth, as one that had just alighted on it, he glances from heaven to hell, from hell to heaven • shows one reposing 6 LECTURE I. on the bosom of Abraham, and another " tormented in the flame ;" and while he speaks of the abyss of woe, as one that has its key, he talks of heaven as his native place, his " father's house." Of that profound mystery, the past eter- nity, he discourses in the style of him that knew what was " before the world was," and tells of the glory that he then had ; nor with less familiarity does he inform us of what shall exist, when, after the consummation of all things, the seal of immutability shall be set upon the universe. There is no- thing to be found in the Epistles, or Revelation, of which the germ may not be seen in the Saviour's preaching ; for no one is able to loose the seals, or look into the book of the divine counsels, but " the lamb who is in the midst of the throne." Of his wisdom as a teacher, the unrivalled simplicity of his style is an indubitable proof. In that volume of his sermons which we have from the pen of John, words, that some so highly value, disappear, amidst the glory of the thoughts. Made vocal by him, all nature becomes our teacher. The lilies of the field, the tares and the wheat, the shepherd and his flock, the husbandman, and his vine, and his labourers, assume a new aspect, and physical things become moral ; the business of this life takes a sacred character, while he leads us to God and eternity, by the marriage and its feast, the celebration of a royal birth- day, the housewife leaven- ing her meal, or seeking her lost piece of money. Illus- trations so familiar that all can understand them, are by him made so striking that none can forget them. Here is no play of imagination, that sheds a meteor-light across our path, to bewilder, rather than illuminate ; nor any involved sentence that is disentangled, only by such an effort as makes us lose our hold of the truth. So perfectly were men entranced by his preaching, that they answered his questions as if they thought his parables were real history ; and the officers who were sent to take him could give no other reason, " why they had not brought him," but that " never man spake like this man." The dignity of his wisdom produced an admirable com- bination of variety and repetition, which serves to keep alive INTRODUCTORY. 7 attention, and fasten tlie most impoi'tant things on the me- mory. He had no morbid dread of being charged with sameness ; and therefore spake as one who knew that we more frequently fail by inattention than by absolute igno- rance, and need a teacher who would say, " to write the same things to you, to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe." As " a good steward," however, he '' brought out of his treasure things new as well as old;" so that we feel per- suaded that he who said all that we have heard, was entitled still to declare, " I have many things to say to you, but ye cannot bear them now." 3. Spotless purity is another attribute of Christ's ministry. A teacher can never do justice to his subject unless he is imbued with its spirit. Severe reason must distinguish the professors of mathematics, or logick ; and to the lecturer on poetry, or the fine arts, a delicate taste and elegant imagina- tion are indispensable. In religion, above all things, the teacher must be inspired with the very soul of his theme. The sins of preachers are the preachers of sin, and none but a holy man can be fit to " preach righteousness in the great congregation," But the very enemies of Christ confessed, *' Master, we know that thou teachest the way of God in truth ;" and even devils exclaimed, " we know thee who thou art, the holy one of God," " All that heard him bare wit- ness," that he had no sinister aim, no love of popular ap- plause, that mildew which so frequently spreads a blight on all we say. When he declares, " I seek not my own glory ; but these things I say that ye may be saved," our conscience testifies to the truth. While some seek to commend them- selves to what they call the judicious few, and others flatter the multitude; he looks on all distinctions, as from the height of the eternal throne, where differences vanish, as mountains are levelled when we ascend into the aerial regions. " The common people heard him gladly ;" for the poor found in him a friend ; but the rich learned from him the duty, and therefore the possibility, of " making to themselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness." Tried by the extremes, of mistaken friendship, and envenomed 8 LECTURE I, enmity ; when the crowd would have made him a king, he retired from their applause to the solitude of secret devotion ; and when they reviled him as a Samaritan, possessed with a devil, he never ceased to teach or to work miracles of mercy, but endured, with meekness, " the contradiction of sinners against himself." His unruffled mind pursues the even tenor of his discourse, amidst hosannas or hisses ; even when his disciples were elated with ambitious hopes, or would have called down revengeful fires. Whether he is " surrounded by Pharisees and doctors of the law, come down from Jerusa- lem, to hear him," or by crowds of impotent folk, laid at his feet for cures, we can discern no, difference in his spirit ; for it is always calm, meek, dignified, heavenly, and bene- ficent. He so overwhelms us with the majesty of God, that we begin to think death itself a minor affair, when he says, " fear not them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do ; but I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear, fear him, who, after he has killed, has power to cast into hell ; yea, I say to you, fear him." Standing with the law of God in his hand, he so expounds and maintains its claims, that the false glosses of the most favoured sects and the most authoritative teachers, vanish like smoke from the surface of the diamond, and a lawyer exclaims, " Master, thou hast well said." Though a Boanerges, a Son of Thunder, he is without asperity. The morality of Christ is not that of the monks of La Trappe, who spend their lives in voluntary silence, and digging their own graves ; for he wrought a miracle at a wed- ding, accepted the invitation of a Pharisee to dine with him, and spent his life in familiar intercourse with men. Far from pushing a good principle to extravagant lengths, he shews the harmonies of virtue, and renders truth and righteousness the handmaids of benevolence and usefulness. Yet he never lowers the standard of morals, to suit the tastes of men; but stoops, only to raise us ; for we feel ourselves encouraged and elevated by the condescension of such a teacher, who, by shewing the loftiest holiness to be possible, renders it prac- ticable. Such is our instructor that we cannot but feel that INTRODUCTORY. 9 he has done every thing, when he has rendered us hke him- self. This leads to observe, that 4. Transcendent grace characterised the ministry of Christ. If we should always seek to gain the good-will of those we teach, that they may be willing auditors, and aid our efforts by their own struggles to learn; in religion this is most essen- tial ; for we seek to reconcile the hostile mind, and we have done nothing, if we have not gained the heart. That he who came to die for us would thus teach us, we might naturally expect. From the first^ he preached as if arrived at Calvary. The sermon to Nicodemus was full of the love of God in giv- ing his Son to die for us, and of the grace of him that should " be lifted up ;" as the brazen serpent, by Moses, in the wil- derness. Every tender and touching figure he employed to assure us of the grace he preached. In the parable of the prodigal son, he unveiled the love of the father's heart towards a returning penitent. He exhibited himself as a shepherd, come to give his life a ransom for the flock. When he saw men wearied with their labours and their researches after bliss> he cried, " Come unto me, and I will give you rest; for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest to your souls : for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." While their sense of his miraculous works on the body was yet fresh and strong, he employed it as a means of unfolding the richer grace he designed for their souls, and doubled his miracles by this more exalted use. He brought down religion from the awful severity of the law, to the familiarity of affection ; and though he was God manifest in the flesh, he spake to us as to sons. If ever he seemed austere, it was towards those " who trusted in them- selves that they were righteous, and despised others." If he denounced woes, they were against those who " took away the key of knowledge, not entering in themselves, and hinder- ing those who would enter." His very wrath was grace. He brandished the flaming sword, not to keep men from the tree of life, but from the pit of death, saying, " Repent, and believe the glad tidings ; for except ye repent, ye shall all perish." Destruction he exhibited as springing, not so 10 LECTURE 1. much from our sins, as from our rejection of the Saviour: " this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light." " He that be- lieveth not, is condemned ; because he believed not in the name of the only begotten Son of God." Wherever there was ignorance to be instructed, or misery to be relieved, he appeared as an angel of light, and blessings attended his steps. Amidst the storm that shook the souls of sailors accustomed to perils, he rose and said, " Peace, be still ; why are ye so fearful ?" But he that threatened storms to calm, took up babes into his arms, and said, " Suffer the little children to come to me." If the Paralytick trembled at the presumption of his friends, who let him down in the midst of Christ's audience, he said, " Courage, son ; thy sins are forgiven thee." To the last, he sustained the triumphs of his grace, calmed the hearts that were troubled at the prospect of his departure ; and, shewing " the ruling passion strong in death," while his enemies were crucifying him, he said, " Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Dying, he gave away a paradise, a kingdom, to one who had forfeited life itself, not only to the law of God, but to that of his country. Thus he taught upon the cross, as upon the mount ; that " all manner of sin and transgression shall be forgiven to those who believe on his name." 5. Effective energy crowned the preaching of Christ. Far removed is the simple clearness of Christ's preaching from that tameness and inanity into which we sink, when we attempt to become plain ; for he presents, in an astonishing degree, that combination of energy with simplicity, which is the highest quality of a teacher. His preaching was all full of important things, and all alive with animated scenes. He compelled the most careless to listen, and the most insensible to feel. We start at his charge, " to pluck out a right eye, and cut off a right hand ;" and we tremble at" the worm that never dieth, and the fire that shall not be quenched." Ten- derness and force seem to us incompatible ; and when we put on strength, ,we become fierce ; or mildness, we grow feeble ; not knowing how to unite the eagle with the dove. INTROnUCTORY. 11 But he who was announced, from the first, as the Lamb, come to take away sin, was also proclaimed as the Lord that should suddenly come to his temple. " But who," says the Prophet, " shall abide his coming? For he is like the refiner's fire, and the fuller's soap." What tremendous energy he dis- played, when he cleansed the Temple ! All saw and felt " how awful goodness is." His enemies slunk away, like the wave that dashed against the rock and sank into foam. The shameless harlot, abashed before him, melted into tears that washed his feet. Amidst hosts of proud foes, he speaks, and we recall the words of the Psalmist, " The stout-hearted are spoiled, and none of the men of might have found their hands." Before his judge, he exhibits the array of the judg- ment, when " the Son of man shall come in the clouds of heaven." Now, devils cry out, " We beseech thee torment us not;" and now, struck dumb, they are not suffered even " to say that they know him." Death, that hearkens not to our voice, obeys his; and Lazarus *' comes forth." All this he does, without effort. In his preaching there were no " great swelling words of vanity," which often betray the weakness they were intended to conceal; but all is simple, yet mighty, like the laws of nature, which are always silently working wonders; or that word that said, " Be light, and light was." He marches in the greatness of his strength, and says, " I, that speak in righteousness, am mighty to save." He that could have dazzled us with rare discoveries, or entranced us with the splendour of eloquence, surprises us, as if, " out of weakness, he had waxed strong ;" and makes us feel, that he has the knowledge which is power, the autho- rity that is omnipotent. If we see not all the saving effects that we might have expected, in the salvation of man ; we should not forget, that hundreds believed on him, under all his concealment ; and that it was a part of his humiliation to say, " Who has be- lieved our report ?" He himself has taught us, that " the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not glorified." From these claims of Christ as a preacher, we are con- ducted to the consideration of 12 LECTURE I. II. The duties of those \Vho are his hearers. At these I shall but glance ; for they belong more properly to the concluding Lecture^ as the practical application is the proper close to a sermon. That we may, however, listen to the whole course of his sermons on which we are entering, with due attention,'some notice should be taken of the dispositions that become such as are privileged to hear Christ preach. I ask, then, that you would hearken as to the voice of the God of your salvation — with the spirit that becomes those whom he came to rescue from sin — with humble dependence on the grace of the Holy Spirit, and with a design to practise what we learn. L Let lis hearken to Christ as the God of Our salvation. It is very possible to listen to his preaching with a con- siderable degree of attention, and even with high admi- ration, and yet in a spirit that is an insult to such a teacher. A profane poet was once surprised reading the prophecies of Isaiah, and when his friend expressed his wonder, the other rephed, " I read this book for the bold eastern ima- gery with which I adorn my writings." Had Israel hstened to the voice of God on Sinai, only to learn how he pronounced Hebrew, would it not have been an insult to the Sovereign Legislator ? As, therefore, the Gospel " began to be spoken by the Lord himself," should we not hearken to him, as to the Sovereign of our souls, who brings upon his lips the voice, not merely of deity, but of mercy ? Was not this the design of the Father, when, on the banks of the Jordan, he said, " This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased?" The voice of incarnate Deity should awe the conscience and sway the heart, combining the force of supreme authority with the tenderness of ineffable grace. This is the " only lawgiver v/ho is able to save and to destroy." For we are not come to Mount Sinai, where the sound of dreadful words made Israel to say, " Let not the Lord speak to us any more, lest we die; for they could not endure that which was com- manded;" but "we are come to Mount Zion, and to Jesus, the Mediator of the New Covenant, and to the blood of sprink- ling that speaketh better things than that of Abel." He INTRODUCTORY. 13 began his ministry by saying, " The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because he has anointed me to preach glad tidings to the poor." If we were perishing on a rock at sea, with what emotions should we hearken to the voice of a friend, who had come out in a life-boat, to save us from death ! What willing deference should we pay to the in- structions by which his benevolent effort was to be made effectual to our rescue from the yawning deep ! In such a spirit ought we to hearken to the voice of our Lord Jesus Christ, who comes to publish salvation. Whenever he preaches, it should be said, " the eyes of all were fastened on him, and they all bare witness, and wondered at the gracious words that proceeded out of his mouth." The views and feelings of the auditors should be such as give reason to hope for the full benefit of his ministry. If, when we hear an oration, we consider the speaker beneath us, his words will have little weight; if we have no deference for his judg- ment, we shall not bow our opinions to his ; if we suspect him of sinister designs, we shall arm ourselves against his persuasions. Should we not, then, come to the preaching of the Lord of glory, the Prince of grace, the God of salva- tion, with a deep sense of his supreme dignity and authority, regarding his words as divine oracles ; and with a heartfelt conviction of his benevolent compassion, that comes to draw us, by cords of love, to mercy, holiness, and heaven ? How should we listen to him, if we saw him now descend from the skies ? And do we not believe that these are the words of that " second Adam, who is the Lord from heaven?" Should we not, therefore, hear him as if we saw him just lighting upon our earth, and about to say to the Father, " I have given them the words which thou gavest me, and they have re- ceived them ; and they have believed that thou didst send me?" Beware, lest the heathen rise up in judgment against us ; and we be condemned by those who cried out in extacies, "Surely the gods have come down to us in the likeness of men." 2. We should attend to the preaching of Christ, with the dispositions which become those whom he came to rescue from sin. 14 LECTURE I. With what meekness, and holy and grateful deference, should the condemned prisoners in their cell hearken to the voice of him who came to bring them news of pardon ! Shall he again say, as in days of old, " Oh ! earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord ;" for thine inhabitants will not. Let us rather say, " Speak, Lord ; for thy servant heareth." To all the charges that he brings against us, let us frankly plead guilty ; aware that he not only knoweth our hearts, but comes to convince, not to condemn; to show us our ruin, that we may avail ourselves of the remedy. When his word proves " sharper than any two-edged sword, be- cause it is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart," we should own that " he is justified when he speaks, and clear when he judges." His words of mercy we should receive, as the parched earth drinks in the latter rain. For what confidence he deserves who comes to seal, with the blood of his heart, the grace he proclaims with the breath of his lips ! But he demands the obedience of faith, claiming to be our Lord, as well as our Saviour -, and saying, " One is your Master, even Christ." Duty enforced by him should have irresistible persuasion; because he illustrates the beauty of holiness by his own example, and makes our sanctification a part of that salvation for which he gave his life. Far from quarrelling with the lofty standard of evangelical morality, or exclaiming, " these are hard sayings," we should remember that he never " bound heavy burdens on men's shoulders, which he refused to touch with one of his fingers ;" but that he was himself all, and more than all, that he has taught us to be. If our admiration of his cha^ racter is sincere, how welcome should be his words, " I have given you an example that you should do as I have done." Amidst his precepts, high and holy as they are, he has scattered promises, as faithful as they are kind ; that we may say, " we are saved by hope." Often he cried, " fear not ;" for he knew our feebleness of soul, and designed to rouse us to noble daring and inflexible decision. To him, therefore, we should listen as to the " Captain of our salva- INTRODUCTORY. 15 tion ;" and while he goes before us, we should press through hostile ranks, assured that we are invulnerable, under his broad shield. As his instructions were designed to guide us, not only through life, but across " the valley of the shadow of death," we should view him as holding the keys of the iron gate ; and, when we say with the Apostle, " I am ready to be offered up," add, with him, "nevertheless I am not ashamed ; for I know whom I have believed." 3. We should, while hearing the instructions of Christ, seek the attendant influences of his Holy Spirit. Taught by him, we rise to lofty hopes of this inestimable blessing, which is pledged to accompany his Gospel and give it full effect. We cannot hearken to his words, espe- cially his last solemn parting charge, without finding our minds directed towards another teacher, advocate, and friend, who should succeed to the Saviour's place on earth ; and, by a powerful witness to Christ, secure to him the glory of success. The Saviour associated with his own doctrine the influences of the Spirit, as the electric fluid encircles the drops of dew, and gives them a fertilizing effect. We should, therefore, watch his lips, as expecting to see him breathe upon us, and hear him say, " Receive the Holy Ghost." To forget our dependence on his Spirit, and yet expect to derive saving benefits from his word, is to contra- dict that word, and, under pretence of exalting, to pervert it. Those from whose testimony we receive the preaching of Christ, were themselves charged to tarry at Jerusalem, in significant silence, and not to venture to open their com- mission, "till they were endued with power from on high." Penetrated with this vital part of Christ's doctrine, we shall, in the spirit of prayer, hear him preach ; and while his words fall upon our ears, ours will ascend to his, saying, " Give what thou commandest, and command what thou wilt." To the teachers of human science we may give a mere intellectual attention, and be satisfied with the efforts of our own mind to receive the workings of theirs ; but we profane Christ's teaching, if we hear him in any other temper than that of a Christian ; for if we should listen to the poet, 16 LECTURE I. in the spirit of poetry, and to the mere reasoner, in the soul of logic ; to Christ we must yield a mind filled with sacred associations, a heart throbbing with divine emotions, Every word from his lips should be accompanied with an impulse from that Spirit, the fulness of which is deposited with him, to bestow upon his disciples, and " lead them into all the truth." Do not our own hearts tell us, that, deep as was the condescension of our divine Teacher, in stooping to our condition ; our grovelling spirits still need to be brought up to that state on which he felicitates Peter, " Blessed art thou ; for flesh and blood has not revealed these things to thee, but my Father who is in heaven ?" Finally. " If we know these things, happy are we if we do them." As some men make preaching a mere exhibi- tion of talent, we cannot wonder that their hearers make it a barren amusement. " But you have not so learned Christ." He himself, deeply serious and practical, says, " Hear, that your souls may live." " If any man will do my Father's will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself." Despising mere theories, he taught a doctrine that leads to immediate effects, by which we become assured of the truth of his word, and of our own interest in it. Going before us, he points with the finger, and says, " Behold the way to God." He that follows the directions, finds them unfolded, as he pursues the road, and discovers their truth and value, with more clearness and certainty, every step he takes. The most practical, therefore, are the most intelligent hearers of this preacher ; while the barren speculators become be- wildered in their way. When we have practised one lesson, he imparts another, for he designs to conform us to his own character ; and " though he were a son, yet learned he obedience by the things that he suffered, and being made perfect, became the author of salvation to all that obey him." 17 LECTURE II. Christ's sermon to nicodemus. John iii. 1 — 21. If conjecture had been our guide, we should have conr- eluded that such a preacher as Jesus Christ would deliver his first sermon in a splendid edifice, to an immense audience, in the blaze of day ; but, conducted by the Sacred History, we find him in an obscure lodging, amidst the darkness of night, visited by a single inquirer, to whom he delivers the divine discourse which forms the commencement of that volume of Christ's sermons contained in the Gospel according to John. The prophet who " saw his glory" said, " we hid, as it were, our faces from him," and it was a necessary part of the hu- miliation of him before whom angels veil their faces, that a ruler of the sacred nation, among whom Christ appeared, ashamed to be seen coming "to him,"* stole into his pre- sence under the cover of night. We blush, indeed, yet not for our Lord, to whom shame, being endured for our sakes, was glory ; but for his timid hearer, who virtually confesses that the disgrace was all his own ; for why durst he not venture to consult in the face of day one whom he declares to be a teacher come from God ? Since this was not merely his own solitary conviction ; for he speaks in the name of others — " We know that no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him." Mere theorists may pronounce miracles impossible ; but they planted in the breasts of witnesses convictions, which it was not in their power to eradicate ; and as we profess to adopt this good * The testimony of manuscripts, as adduced by Griesbach, is con- clusive in behalf of reading, avrhv, him; which must have been early exchanged, (probably to suit the Lectionaria,) for rhw 'Iriaow, since the Syriac has this reading. 18 LECTUKE il. confession of Nicodemus, let us, with him, sit clown at the feet of Jesus, to hear a discourse which has been sealed by signs from heaven. It extends, indeed, through many verses; but as the philosopher at one time examines, by a micro- scope, the wing of a fly, and at another sweeps, with a tele- scope, the vast arch of heaven, we, who often investigate a single verse with microscopic minuteness, may now take a more comprehensive glance at this copious discourse of our Lord. It includes the doctrines of regeneration, atonement, and salvation by faith. I. Regeneration, or the new birth, is taught in the first twelve verses. Far from lingering, to scent the incense of praise offered by a rabbi, who owns Christ his rabbi, or to return compliment for compliment ; our Redeemer changes the whole current of thought by plunging at once into another theme. But " grace and truth came by Jesus Christ," and he displays all the au- thority of truth, tempered by condescending grace. 1 . He enforces the doctrine of regeneration with high au- thority: ''Verily, verily," says the Majesty of eternal truth, " except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." " Descended from Abraham, the friend of God ; ini- tiated into his church, by the seal of the Covenant ; rich in sacred lore, and aware that the prophet Daniel predicted that the God of heaven would set up a kingdom upon earth, thou comest to inquire what news I bring concerning it : this is my first information, that ' except a man be born again, he cannot even see that kingdom' when it is erected. Thou ownest me a teacher from God ; but though I am, I must have a hearer born of God, or he can no more behold what I come to exhibit, than he could see the light of day before he was born." Of this, the hearer gave instant proof, by an an- swer so ridiculously gross, that we almost suspect it to be in- tentionally rude : " How can a man be born when he is old ? can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?"=^ * Thougli the Greek &vaieev may be rendered above; Nicodemus under- stood the Stjrioc, -which Christ employed, as conveying the meaning of Christ's sermon to nicodemus, 19 The Pharisee had, indeed, betrayed a tendency to retract his admission of Christ's divine authority ; but our heavenly Teacher maintains his dignity, and, instead of abandoning his doctrine, merely presents it in a new point of light: "ex- cept a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God." As Jesus was known by the Pharisees to baptise, he probably saw the mind of Nicode- mus turn towards the external sign, and therefore warned him that this must be accompanied with tlie regenerating grace of the Spirit, which was the grand blessing signified, or a man could not really, though he might apparently, enter into the kingdom which Christ came to set up. We are " saved by the washing of regeneration, and the renewing of the Holy Ghost." With this Spirit, a teacher of Israel ought to have been acquainted ; for Moses had said, " the Spirit of God moved on the face of the waters" at creation. David had prayed, " take not thy Holy Spirit from me ;" and Isaiah had complained of God's people, that "they rebelled, and vexed his Holy Spirit." To be born of this Spirit, who im- parts a new nature, which consists in holy sentiments and affections, must be essential to our entering into that spiritual empire which is called the reign of righteousness. Beino- born of water, or baptism, though merely the sign and seal of regeneration, was fitly introduced, to warn the man who stole into the school of Christ by night, that it was necessary to take upon him the profession of the Christian religion in the face of day. But, aware of the propensity of men to dote on outward rites, our heavenly Instructor drops all further mention of water, and dwells on the Spirit alone. O that Christians had been wise enough to take this valuable hint ! They had not then substituted the water that washes the body for the influences of the Spirit that regenerate the soul. But our divine prophet — 2. Illustrates his doctrine with condescending grace. Though sovereigns assert and command, leaving it to sub- our translation; for, entering a second time into the mother's womb, would not lead to a^birth from above. Again would be the proper trans- lation of the Syriac «_a_J»» ^iO See 1 Peter, i. 3. C2 20 LECTURi; II. jects to prove and persuade ; the Lord of glory disdains not to show that he had not employed a mere rhetorical flourish, a high sounding phrase, to involve in unnecessary obscurity the simple idea of reformation, or proselytism. By an appeal to our natural birth, he al once explains the nature and proves the necessity of being born again. " That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." Flesh sometimes means human nature, as when it is said, " the word was made flesh and dwelt among us ;" but it also signifies our nature as fallen and depraved, where the Apostle says, " the flesh lusteth against the spirit ; and in me, that is, in ray flesh, dwelleth no good thing." As, therefore, like begets like, and " a generation of vipers" will be " a seed of evil doers," David, mourning over his sins, says, " I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me." " We are by nature children of wrath ;" for " who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean ? And how can he be clean that is born of a woman?" As mere children of men, born after the flesh, we inherit from our natural parents, not holiness, but sinfulness : it was therefore a say- ing in the primitive church, " Christians are not born, but made such." * But the mystery ! the mystery ! exclaims Nicodemus ; and the mystery ! the mystery ! re-echoes many a living voice. Where then does the offensive mystery lie ? In the language of our Lord, the figure he employs ? Is it asked, why use the strangely bold metaphor, being born again ? Our ideas, even of spiritual things, being derived through the senses, figurative language is not necessarily obscure ; but the most luminous instructors of the simplest minds often find figures contribute as much to perspicuity as to energy. But this bold phrase has forced attention to the truth, the doctrine of regeneration, which, I fear, is the real source of offence. Yet, if we are born in a depraved state (and who can look around the world, and deny that there is something radically wrong in human nature ?), then is it not necessary to be born * Fiunt non nasciintur Christian!. — TertuUiani Opera, Vol. I. Apolo- ^eticus, sive 1. ii. c. 18. CHRIST'S SERMON TO NICODEMUS. 21 again, in the sense of commencing a new kind of existence, •which will remedy the evils of that nature we brought with us into the world ? To show that the mystery which may hang over it should not cause us to reject the doctrine, we are reminded of mys- teries in nature. " The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth ; so is every one that is born of the Spirit." This has been thought to allude to a text in which Solomon speaks of the mystery of the winds, and of our birth. " He that watcheth the winds will not sow, and he that eyeth the clouds will not reap. As thou knowest not what is the way of the wind, nor how bones grow in the womb of her that is pregnant, so thou canst not tell the works of God who performeth all things." Xenophon introduces Socrates, saying, " the winds themselves, indeed, are invi- sible, but their effects are manifest to us ; and we perceive them when we go against the wind. Reflecting on this, therefore, we should learn not to despise invisible things, but, aware of their power, should be taught by them to honour the Deity," Both the Old Testament and the New employ, for the Spirit,*' a word derived from wind, or breath ; so that the same word is, in this very passage, translated both ways. The influences of the Holy Spirit are, indeed, invisible, as the wind ; the mode of their operation is as inscrutable ; and their order as inca- pable of being reduced to any known law : but why should we doubt that they are in religion mighty as the wind is in * But there is no small difficulty in deciding on the sense of rh ■Kvevfj.a here. Cyril of Jerusalem, in his Catechism, takes it, not for the wind, but for the Holy Spirit, " whose voice they who are worthy shall hear ;" and it would be natural to take the word here in the same sense in which it is employed in all the rest of the Saviour's discourse. Where the wind is mentioned in Acts ii. 2, -^vot} is employed. But it is thought that the words, "so is every one that is born of the Spirit," intimate a comparison between the Spirit and something else ; though nothing more may be intended, than that every one who is regenerated experiences a secret mysterious change, correspondent with the invisible, but mighty operation of the Spirit, who works as he pleases. 22 LECTURE II, nature, and their effects as perceptible and as useful in the system to which they belong ? If the unhappy resemblance of each generation of men to the preceding, too clearly proves that we inherit a fallen nature from our parents according to the flesh, the resem- blance of Christians to the Holy Spirit affords evidence that they are born of that Spirit. While the brood of the vulture snufFs up blood, the young dove is gentle like the parent bird ; so he who had given melancholy proofs that he descended from sinners, has proved as clearly, that he had been born again of the Holy Spirit, by becoming spiritual and holy. If it were not supported by facts, the doctrine of re- generation might be doubtful ; but if the change and its author are invisible as the wind, the effects are as visible and as mighty. " Art thou a master in Israel," then, says our Lord, " and knowest not these things ?" Is it asked, how should he have known ? The essence of religion is the same in all ages. The baptism of proselytes, and the custom of speaking of them as newly born, are disputed points ; but we have the plain testimony of inspired writers, which a Jewish rabbi ought to have known. David prays, " Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me." And is not this imagery as bold as that which Christ employs, and equally significant of a change of nature ? By Ezekiel, God promises, '* a new heart will I give you, a new spirit will I put within you. I will take away the heart of stone out of your flesh, and give you a heart of flesh." This is virtually promising that they shall be born again. Moses taught the same doctrine, when he said, " The Lord thy God shall cir- cumcise thy heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, that thou mayest live." For circumcision, like baptism, taught that we are born in such a state as makes it necessary that we should experience a great change. The apostle Paul, therefore, says, " He is not a Jew who is one outwardly; neither is circumcision that of the flesh, but of the heart." A master of Israel ought to have known these things. That regeneration was not taught Christ's si^rmon to nicouemus. 23 so clearly as in this discourse of Christ, must be granted ; yet, instead of the stare of ignorant wonder, or the objections of unbelief, Nicodemus should have exhibited the grateful surprise, the joyful welcome, that might have been expressed by such language as this : — " Now I see clearly what was before shrouded in mystery; ' the veil upon the face of Moses' is done away by Christ." The Rabbi is, therefore, justly reproached for not receiving the testimony, which Christ ascribes, not merely to himself^ but also to the Father and the Spirit, who had taught the same truth by the prophets, and had actually produced the very change inculcated, wherever men had risen from the ruins of the fall to the possession- of the Divine image. But though " we speak what we know to be true, and testify what we have seen effected, you receive not our witness." The evi- dence of fact is so convincing, that they are without excuse who reject a doctrine attested by the change manifestly wrought on thousands of ancient, and myriads of living, witnesses. May we not hope that this last reproof touched Nicodemus to the quick ? For after this, we hear no more of his objections; he sits listening in silence ; and his future history reminds us of " the path of the j ust, which shines more and more to the perfect day." Let us, then, beware, lest he rise up in judgment against us. For why should we resist a truth so manifestly essential to our dearest hopes ? The necessity for such a change as regeneration, is a mere matter of fact. The possibility of it, is a part of the Gospel — tidings so joyous, that we should spring- forward with rapturous eagerness to embrace the truth. Far from repining that we must, we should exult, that we may be born again. Had we but the same evidence of having ex- perienced the new birth, as we all have of being born at first of fallen, sinful parents, happy were we. The second class of truths taught in this discourse, is that which concerns II. Atonement by the death of Christ: v. 12 — 17. The greater the necessity of regeneration, the greater its previous improbability ; for the more depraved man is, the 24 LECTURE II. less likely is it that a righteous governor will bestow such a favour. Fallen spirits need a new nature ; but who expects that they will obtain one ? How then can men hope for a transformation so blissful. Christ here proceeds to answer this question, by unfolding the love of God and the method by which he reconciles his grace to sinners, with a just op- position to sin. Our Saviour shows that he had not ex- hausted all the wonders of the divine councils, but had yet to Announce something more mysterious. " If I have told you earthly things and you believe not, how shall you believe if I tell you of heavenly things ? What I am about to say tran- scends that which has excited your wonder, as far as heaven rises above the earth. For regeneration is wrought upon living men, and is capable of being proved by facts ; but now behold a mystery that stands alone. If you ask where ? I answer, in the person of the speaker ; for " without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness : the living God was manifested in the flesh." The Rabbi was thus prepared for something strange ; but what follows must have surpassed his expectation, for the words are so difficult, that I have found it hard to make up my own mind concerning their sense, and may perhaps find it still more so to satisfy yours. " No man has ascended up into heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man who is in heaven." Christ here apprizes us of the mystery of his own person. Some apply the ascent into heaven, to Christ's knowledge of divine and celestial things : but the connection between the ascent and the descent seems to require that we should in- terpret the words thus : " No man ever ascended up into heaven to be exalted to divine honours ; but he that came down from heaven, to be humbled unto death, shall thus ascend. Though he is the Son of man, he has also a divine nature, in which he is even now filling heaven as well as earth." Thus the prophet Daniel exhibited the Messiah to the ancient church : *' I saw in the night visions, and behold one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the ancient of days, and they brought him near before him; and there was given him dominion, and glory, Christ's sermon to nicodemus. 25 and a kingdom; and his dominion is an everlasting do- minion."* Christ here presents himself to Nicodemus as a complete Saviour, that has lived and died, risen and ascended to hea- ven, for he speaks of things to come as if already past. If I were to propose another version and exposition of this diffi- cult passage, I should adopt the opinion of those who think that, " ascending up to heaven," means penetrating into the Divine counsels ; and that the paraphrase should run thus : *' No man has entered into the secrets of heaven, but he who, being in heaven, came down to bring to men the information he possessed." This assertion of the personal glory of the Redeemer is made, as it often is by the Apostles, introductory to the doctrine of the sacrifice of the Son and the love of the Father. See then 1. The Sacrifice of the Son. " As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up." The history of the mur- murings of Israel, the judgment of the fiery serpents, and the remedy provided by suspending a brass serpent on a pole, you well know. The phrase " lifted up," is equivocal, and might mean elevation to honour ; but being associated with the type, it is fixed to signify hung up, as the brazen serpent was, on a pole like the cross. Our Redeemer, on another occasion said, " When you have lifted up the Son of man, ye shall know that I am he ; and I, if I be lifted up from the earth will draw all men to me. This spake he, signify- ing by what death he should die." If now the Rabbi entered, with any tolerable attention, intelligence, and perspicacity, into what he heard, astonish- ment must have seized his mind. First, wrapped to the skies, in contemplation of the wondrous visitor that came down from heaven, and yet was ever in heaven, Nicodemus was afterwards plunged into terror at the prospect of the execution of this glorious personage, as a criminal upon a gibbet. If the remembrance of the words of Daniel, " Mes- siah the prince shall be cut off, but not for himself," could * Daniel vii. 13. 26 LECTURE II. reconcile to this astounding annunciation, the Rabbi must still have said, " This teacher from God has not spoken of himself as divine, from the impulse of vain glory ; for here he exhibits himself, hanged as a criminal: this he said must be — it is heaven's mode of saving man, as the suspension of the brazen serpent w^as the appointed remedy for Israel." What an evidence of his sincerity ! He waits not till the tide of popularity shall turn, then to make a virtue of necessity by submitting to die, and displaying the fortitude of a martyr ; but even now, in the very commencement of his career, while I hail him as a teacher come from God, he is not afraid to risk all his popularity, by predicting his own violent death. From this hour his fate is sealed ; he must either die, publicly executed; or live, convicted of falsehood. He must then, be sincere ; for no impostor would, in the bright dawn of popularity, exhibit himself as ultimately rejected. I will, therefore, watch for the event, and see how it will confirm or refute his words." You, my dear friends, now turn towards the cross. You exclaim, " No wonder that we see Nicodemus there, with his costly spices, to form a fragrant bed for the sacred corpse of Jesus. What was more natural than that this sermon should rush upon the mind of the hearer, when the lips of the preacher uttered the dying words, * It is finished?' How powerfully was a comparison of the event with the prediction, calculated to induce the Rabbi to look at Jesus whom we pierced by our sins, and to derive healing from his wounds !" This doctrine of the sacrifice of the Son, was followed by a display of 2. The love of the Father. The Saviour spoke, only of his humiliation and death, saying nothing of his love, which fastened him to the cross ; for he committed to that Spirit, whose regenerating influence he had taught, the care of glorifying Christ and his redeem- ing love ; but the beloved Son, who had become a faithful servant, applied himself with ardour to teach our obligation to the Father. For this purpose, he who had hitherto Christ's sermon to nicodemus. 27 called himself merely the Son of man, now takes a higher title, that we may be penetrated with the assurance that " God so loved the world as to give his only begotten Son." Here, again, the misery and danger to which we are ex- posed by sin, are exhibited, as they were in the allusion to Israel dying by the serpent's poisonous bite, the just punishment of their murmurings. The transcendent love of the Father cannot be duly appreciated, or even understood, except by means of our ruin. If it be said of a mother, she so loved her babe, that she gave her fortune, or her life, that it might not perish ; every one must suppose that the child was in danger of being seized by murderers, or of falling- down a precipice, or was exposed to some other equally tremendous ruin. " With God is terrible majesty." It, therefore, infinitely concerns us, to know that there is such a property as love, in that Almighty Being in whose hands we lie, and that there is benevolence enough in Him to entertain kind designs towards us, who have merited anything but his love. Conscience tells us that he hates our sins, and he has re- vealed himself, armed with justice to punish them; but in our earliest moments we learn to take refuge from hostile power, in the bosom of parental affection. Where, however, can we fly from the wrath of a God, except to the love of that God ? To learn, then, that this property exists in the Universal Being, to all the infinite extent of his own nature, and with all the omnipotence of his irresistible arm, was worth any price. To bring out this to the view of the whole universe, with infinite advantage, sin was suffered to enter. For though this is of all things the most dreadful, the love of God is, to a still more intense degree, glorious and ami- able. Sin is all evils in one; but it finds its sufficient counterpoise in the love of God. If, therefore, it was in- finitely desirable to know, that God, the first essence, the creative power, can love; it also deeply concerns us, who have to draw largely on that quality, to know to what degree he can love. Christ has, therefore, given us a mighty, undefinable impression of the grand exercise of this attri- 28 LECTURE II. bute, by saying, " God so loved the world." Ever since these words fell upon the ear of the Church, they have made our spirits rise and swell and stretch, taxing all their powers, to know what this " So loved" can mean. Shall we say we have the explanation in the following words, " So loved, as to give his only begotten Son?" This heightens, rather than explains the difficulty; makes it not easier, but harder to be understood. For if our love to a son, especially an only one, is tender and strong, what shall we say of the love of a God towards his own, or, as an Apostle's expression might be rendered, his proper Son. A new mystery is thus introduced, that peculiarity in the Divine nature, which is developed by redemption, that in the one living and true God there is the distinction of the Father and of the Son, as well as of the Holy Spirit. It is only in this peculiar and exalted sense of the phrase, " Son of God," that the language of Christ is intelligible, or even natural. For to suppose that he means to speak of himself as the Son of God, in no higher sense than as a good man, is to make Christ's words senseless. What meaning can there be in that expression, " So loved the world as to give his only begotten Son," unless the Son of God is more than a counterpoise for a whole world of men ? Yet the Saviour does not attempt to explain this mystery; he makes no apology for it, but introduces it, to be implicitly believed, just as a teacher, proved to be from heaven, had a right to do. If, however, sin is such an evil as to require this vast sacri- fice, how could God, who has no pleasure in iniquity, love us who were identified with sin? We must distinguish be- tween the love of complacence, approbation, or delight, and that of benevolence or good- will. It is in this latter sense that God loved us as his creatures, who might again bear his image, and return his love ; as a father may love the persons of children, whose characters and conduct virtue compels him to hate. In this sense, Christ speaks of God's love to the whole world; for we reject, with Calvin, the unnatural, un- scriptural phrase — the elect world ; since the elect are distin- Christ's sermon to nicodemus. 29 guished from the world out of which they are elected. Uni- versal benevolence, however, includes rather than excludes a special love to some who shall become actual partakers of the benefits of Christ's death. Election is any thing but a diminution of benevolence. The love which a judicious Calvinist ascribes to God, is just so much above and beyond what Arminianism admits ; " God has so loved the world, that he has not only given his Son a sacrifice, sufficient for it, so that whosoever believeth shall not perish," but he has also " in love predestinated" some to believe and to be saved. But Christ still further displays the love of God in the mis- sion of his Son. We seem to hear Nicodemus exclaiminsf, " If such was our guilt that nothing but the death of the Son of God could save us, we might rather have expected that God would send his Son to destroy us." To this thought, so natural and so true, our Saviour seems to reply, by declaring that what we might have expected we have escaped. " For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world." That he might have done this, we must own and feel ; or despise Christ's words as spiritless, and even false. Were the king's son to visit you, and were you to hear him say, " My father has not sent me to condemn you ;" would you not, more than surprised or embarrassed, ask. What have I done for which I should be condemned? Would you not at last resent the implication as an insult ? Is it possible, then, that we should receive, with admiring gratitude, Christ's gracious words, unless we feel that such is our guilt that we may well wonder at the mercy which saved us from condem- nation ? In fact, nothing but the very wickedness which might have brought down vengeance on us, can prevent us from owning, that if we had merely been told that God was about to send his Son into the world, we had reason to ex- claim, " Surely it is to condemn us." For who can deny that the world has furnished sufficient reason for a visitation of vengeance from heaven ? Has not God, the first of beings, the parent of our existence, the sovereign of our souls, the benefactor of our race, been set at nought and despised, as not worth thinking of, or caring for ? 30 LECTURE II. Has he not been blotted out of remembrance, and treated as if he were annihilated ? Or, when he has been thought of and mentioned, has it not been with insulting levity, or malignant sneers, or fierce hostility ; so that he who would give him the reverence and affection which are his due, must, for being the friend of God, endure the hostility of the world ? Is not the sacred and adorable name uttered more frequently in oaths than in prayers, employed as a poison in which to dip the arrows of execration, to make them more deadly ? He has commanded us to love each other as a second self. And does he not behold us, " filled with envy and malice, hate- ful and hating one another?" Has not selfishness supplanted the law of benevolence ? Is not each one struggling to raise himself on another's ruins ? Instead of honouring all men, are not the failings or misfortunes of one man made the sport of another ? What murders have polluted the earth, and cried to heaven for the vengeance it has denounced against the shedders of human blood ! What has been the grand trade of nations, but war? And what is war, but wholesale murder, accompanied by the suspension of all the laws of morality? Yet who have been so honoured and rewarded as warriors ? Nay, the very religion of man has been his foulest crime, and the greatest insult on his God. The first command of heaven has been most universally, most outrageously vio- lated. Millions of false gods have been invented and manu- factured, till the true one was scarcely known ; and, for the only Deity, the first fair, the first good, what has been sub- stituted? All that was contemptible in meanness, all that was horrible in ugliness, and all that was loathsome in filthiness; as if any thing, however vile, blocks, or monkeys, or reptiles, rags, or rotten wood, were good enough to represent God ; so that you would suppose the design were to degrade the idea of Deity, and poison the springs of devotion in the heart. But where the knowledge of the true God has been pre- served, and his worship maintained, this has degenerated into Christ's sermon to nicodemus, 31 heartless form. Hypocrisy has added to the guilt of con- cealed enmity. Even among the professed friends of God, the few who have worshipped him in spirit and in truth, have been "as speckled birds,"* aliens among their nominal breth- ren, strangers in their Father's house, which has been made a house of merchandise, or a den of thieves. " Those who cast them out as evil, said. Let God be magnified ; " and " those who killed them, thought they did God service ;" so that the best blood that ever flowed in human veins has been shed by those who called themselves the church and people of God. Can any thing be wanting to prove the malus animus, the evil mind of man towards God ? Might we not well have expected, that he would say, " Shall I not visit for these things ? Shall not my soul be avenged on such a people as this ?" If, then, we heard of God's sending his Son into the world, was there not reason for alarm — for the cry, " He is coming to condemn us !'" Had we not just cause to dread, lest he should "come in flaming fire, to take vengeance on those who know not God ?" God has, indeed, sent his Son into the world, of which he has given us such proofs, that we may say with the Apostle, " We know that the Son of God is come." That we might know him, when he came, such predictions were given as formed, not only a picture of his person, but an anticipative history of his life. When he was just coming, Providence exhibited the signs foretold. " 1 will shake the heavens and the earth : I will shake all nations ; and the desire of all nations shall come." A heathen historian owns that, about this time, the rumour was abroad, that "one, who should come from the east, was about to possess universal empire." Every thing prepared us to hail him, saying, " Unto us a child is born ; unto us a son is given ; and the government shall be upon his shoulders ; and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end." In the temple of God, aged saints, * Jer. xii. 9- 32 LECTURE II, who were in the secret of heaven's counsels, lingered, in the delightful assurance that they should not see death, till they had seen death's conqueror. They saw, and expired in dehght, exclaiming, " Now, Lord, lettest thou thy servant depart in peace." Angels darted from the skies, as arrows of light, shot before, to announce the rising of the Sun of Righteousness, with healing in his wings. He came forth to view, and " we beheld his glory, as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." What conscious dignity ! yet how remote from arrogance ! He acted as one to whom difficulties were unknown, and to whom power was no novelty. Life, that most mysterious product of power altogether divine, was subject to his control ; for the diseases that threatened it, he banished; the food that supported it, he created ; and the death that has trampled upon it, he van- quished ; showing that he was " God, the Lord, to whom be- long the issues from death." But death came upon himself, and shook the faith of those who had said, " Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." Yet even the centurion, who watched the execution, seeing the might and majesty of that death, which shook cre- ation, and proved that no one took this precious life from him, but that he laid it down of himself, exclaimed, " Surely this was, not only a righteous man, but the Son of God." The very thing that threw suspicion over his claims, at last triumphantly established them ; for he was " declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holi- ness, by the resurrection from the dead." All things, however, proved that he was not sent to con- demn the world. He came not with the crash of the thun- derbolt. Soft and silent as the flakes of falling snow, or refreshing and lovely as the dew-drops of the morning, his words fall on our ear. If the cannon's roar fitly announces the mighty ones, the warriors of earth ; notes of peace pro- claimed the entrance of the Son of God into this world. He came, not as one angry with us, and about to condemn us ; but as if he loved us, and would become one of us. In- Christ's sermon to nicodemus. 33 stead of the giant-forai of vengeance, he threw himself upon our confidence, or even our compassion, in all the gentleness and loveliness of infantile weakness. That the authority and power he possessed were not for condemnation, he showed by many infallible proofs. For, whom did he hurt by his might? What storms did he raise ? What vengeance inflict ? What insults avenge ? The sinner that lay trembling at his feet, heard him say, " I do not condemn thee. Go, sin no more." But, must we confine ourselves to this negative praise ? Is this all that we can say : " Our Judge has been here and did not condemn us ?" No : our Lord declares that the salvation that we could not have expected, he came to bring. *' God sent his Son into the world, that the world, through him, might be saved." Well he remembered, and faithfully accomplished, the godlike errand on which he came. Far from erecting a flam- ing tribunal, and citing sinners to hear their deserved doom, he went after them, as the good shepherd in the wilderness, " seeking that which was lost." To show that he came to save us from sin, the just cause of condemnation, he began by removing the various miseries which are its bitter effects. Blindness, deafness, dropsy, palsy, distortion, leprosy, fever, demoniac possession, and even death itself, that incurable disease, he cured, with a word, a touch, a look, a thought. But why ? To show that it was he, of whom Isaiah said, " he himself took away our sins and bore away our sorrows." Knocking off a criminal's chains and opening the prison doors, announce the royal par- don that saves the forfeited life ; and Jesus said, " that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to for- give sins, rise. Paralytic, take up thy bed and walk." But it may be justly said, if he proved that he came to save us from the guilt of sin, and exhibited himself as the Lamb slain for a sin-offering, is there not another and more fata! part of our ruin ? Has not sin depraved us, corrupted us, debauched us, alienated us from God and goodness, and rendered us unfit for bliss, incapable of being blessed? D 34 LECTURE II. Doubtless. This is the core of the evil ; and has not Christ met this giant mischief with an adequate salvation? This wrill be farther unfolded by the remaining class of truths contained in this discourse. III. Salvation by faith, v. 17 — 21. Our Saviour proceeds to show by what means we appro- priate to ourselves the inestimable blessing. Here we learn that a new and peculiar dispensation of moral government is introduced, containing two important principles. 1 . Reliance on Divine mercy must be inspired by the Gos- pel, ere we can enjoy its saving benefits. Men naturally expect that some great work must be per- formed by themselves, in order to obtain the Divine favour. But when they hear of simply believing, they are confounded, and exclaim, " Can that be all ! We expected to be called to do some great thing." But may I not say, with Naaman's servant, " If you had, would you not have done it ?" How much more then, if Christ says, believe and be saved ? For all this stupendous work that has preceded, was designed to bring salvation nigh to the guilty ; that you may no more say, *' Who shall ascend up into heaven ; or who shall descend into the depth ? For the word is nigh thee, even the word of faith that we preach ; that if thou shalt believe on the Lord Jesus, thou shalt be saved : Therefore it is by faith, that it may be by grace." Guilt makes us fearful and suspicious ; so that when angels have appeared, men have trembled, as at the sight of ministers of vengeance. How naturally, then, might they have started, at the entrance of the Son of God into this world ! Welcome therefore should be the declaration, that he came " not to condemn, but to save !" How powerfully is this calculated to inspire the faith on which hangs our salvation ! For as the dying Jew was healed by looking to the brazen serpent, so the perishing transgressor is saved by casting the eye of faith, to him whom we have pierced by our sins. This is the constant testimony of Christ; and what fitter mode of putting us in possession of the benefit of his mission could have been Christ's sermon to nicodemus. 35 adopted ? What is more appropriate ? What more in har- mony with the love of the Father, or the compassion of his atoning Son? What more natural, than that we should be required, to cast ourselves into a bosom so tender, and repose our faith in one who has done so much to inspire our confi- dence ? The proper object of faith being a testimony, or as- surance given us by one that is worthy of credit, the love of God in Christ is made the theme of the Gospel, or the glad tidings that form the testimony of the inspired witnesses. We are assured, that on believing we are made partakers of the complete salvation ; or, in other words, " we are justified by faith." And what can have created the prevailing preju- dice against this doctrrine, which is so positively taught, so frequently urged ? The object exhibited was admirably cal- culated to inspire this faith ; this confiding mind is exactly what we need, to calm the terrors of an agitated conscience, and to acquire the confidence of a pardoned criminal. To bring back an alienated child to trust itself in the bosom of a transcendently benevolent, forgiving parent, must be most grateful to one so kind, and most accordant with the designs of his heart, in making such a sacrifice for our deliverance. To him who feels his guilt and looks eagerly round for re- lief, who sees the loveliness of the Divine character, but re- members how justly it is opposed to our sin, who feels the desirableness of aflliance in God, but the difficulty of inspiring it in a guilty breast, nothing can be so dear, as an assurance that we are in no danger of presumption, when trusting our souls to the compassionate bosom that is thrown open to receive them. We are told, that when a little bird, pursued by a hawk, took refuge in the bosom of a Greek, and he stifled the trembling creature, his countrymen exclaimed, that he was worthy to die, for such a man was fit to make a tyrant. Never will the soul, that flies on the wings of faith to the bosom of Christ, perish there. 2. The mercy of God rejected by unbelief, will aggravate our condemnation. We should carefully distinguish between cause and occa- sion, between direct design and accidental effect. Creation d2 36 LECTURE II. is the cause of much good, and the occasion of some evil ; the cause of the existence of a universe pronounced " very good," and the occasion of the entrance of sin, the evil of evils. " God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world;" yet, " he that believeth not is condemned already." For whosoever comes in view of Christ crucified, and turns again without believing and being reconciled, carries in his own breast the sentence of condemnation ; his blood is upon his own head, and the day of doom will do nothing more than confirm the sentence already passed. His condemnation now assumes a new character, being founded, not so much on his original rebellion, for all that might have been for- given, as on his refusing the reconciliation, which, once re- jected, leaves nothing henceforth but a " fearful looking for of judgment ; for there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin." To have seen such a Saviour, attended with his satisfactory cre- dentials, and to have treated him as an impostor, is regarded as such a crime that all others are passed by, to fasten upon this one; just as human tribunals would not indict a man for theft if he were known to be guilty of murder. When we shall stand before the Saviour of the world, as its judge, let us beware lest the sin of not believing on his name should be found to have thrown into the back-ground all our other crimes. The design of the sun is to give light ; yet the brightest sun produces the strongest shadow, which dies away again as twilight terminates in night. It is impossible that such a display of Divine benevolence, as we have in Christ, should, having been exhibited and rejected, leave us exactly where we were before. If we are not melted, and reconciled, and saved by believing, we must be hardened and loaded with additional guilt ; so that it will be more tolerable for Sodom and Goraorra in the day of judgment than for us. Our future punishment arising in a great degree from the opera- tion of our own minds, and the recollection of our past his- tory, such a dispensation as that of the Gospel must leave stings in the unbelieving mind. Nothing, therefore, can be more pernicious to man than that deceitful candour, that chribt's sermon to nicodemus. 37 cruel benevolence, which is so commonly exhibited in the flippant denial of Christ's words, that salvation is by faith, and that the most certain and most aggravated cause of con- demnation is unbelief. I know it is asserted, that we have no command over our belief, which being perfectly involuntary, can be no test of character. But I know also that this assertion is made in the teeth of the Scriptures and of this most solemn discourse of Christ. For here we are assured that the same Gospel, which is the sovereign remedy for the moral disease of man, is also a test of character, and against some is fatally con- clusive. The medicines that are adapted to the cure of a certain malady may ascertain whether the person is afflicted with it or not, and sometimes prove the fact in an alarming way. Christ is the touchstone of hearts : " This child was set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed." " Light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil." Imagine to yourselves the whole creation just as it now is, except in this one particular, that it has no light, either natural or artificial, sun or moon, or stars, or lamps, or torches, or candles. By the want of this one blessing, light, how would all others be diminished, and the whole world thrown into gloom ! But the Creator says, " Let there be light." What a transformation from dreariness to joyous splendour ! Such a blessing is Christ to the moral world, and such a change does he create. But, when the sun rises in the morning, he is not welcomed by all. The larks, indeed, mount up to the skies, merrily carolling, and " man goes forth to his work and to his labour till the evening;" but the bats fly off screaming at the light; owls wink, and, offended with the blaze, retire to holes ; wild beasts creep to their dens ; while thieves, murderers, and adulterers, hurry away from the light that detects their crimes. Nor was the moral light which Christ brought into the world less offensive to the wicked. See how he flashes conviction into their souls, and how they wink, and struggle and " rebel against the light." 38 LECTURE II. By their treatment of the Gospel, therefore, men betray their characters; for "he that doeth evil, hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be re- proved ; but he that doeth truth, cometh to the light, that his deeds may be manifest that they are wrought in God." Here I suspect that our Lord gave to Nicodemus a reproof delicately, yet faithfully kind. For, coming by night, he was reproved, as one afraid of the light ; yet, for coming at all, and opening now his heart to the truth, he was taken by the hand as a sincere disciple, who would eventually " follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth." Wherever the Gospel is rejected, the fault lies in what the Scriptures call " the evil heart of unbelief;" and wher- ever it is believed, the regenerating operation of the Holy Spirit is illustrated; for he is the Spirit of faith. And who is not aware that men of one character will receive a truth, which those of an opposite disposition will reject, not only with incredulity, but with aversion and scorn ? Who is not conscious that the reception he gives to moral truth de- pends, in a great degree, not only on his own radical cha- racter, but even on his present frame of mind, as more or less spiritual and faithful to his own convictions ? We have now taken a hasty glance at this first and most solemn specimen of Christ's preaching. And what has it exhibited ? Regeneration by the Holy Spirit — re- demption by the sacrifice of Christ — and salvation by faith in his name. These, then, must be the most prominent features, the most decisive characteristics of the preaching of the Gospel. How vain should it be to prescribe to us another course ! Why does one say to us, " Preach moral duties;" another, "Unfold the eternal decrees;" a third, " Describe the Christian's experience ;" and a fourth, " Unfold the roll of prophecy ?" These things, indeed, should have their turns; but the standing themes of our ministry are here marked out, and all others will have their best effects, in proportion as these enjoy their due precedence. Here we are warned, that though you should applaud us as teachers come from God, we must instantly remind you, Christ's sermon to nicodemus. 39 that you must also be hearers born of God ; that though you were to admire us as angels from heaven, we must not take this as a proof of your salvation ; but must, in all fidelity to your souls, warn you, again and again, that you must be born again. And how consoling is it to see the first solemn annunciation of this truth prove "a savour of life," and the preaching of regeneration, become the means of producing the happy change ! The man who began with loud objections, closes with silent submission; and he who stole into the audience of Christ, under cover of night, goes away to own him before an opposing world. But as the first effect of regenerating grace is a deep sense of ruin, he that detects our danger discovers our remedy, and cries, " Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world." Then, the same renovating influence that humbled us, restores us to peace ; and never is it certain that our alarms are the effect of a saving change, till repentance towards God has been followed by faith to- wards our Lord Jesus Christ. To this, then, we urge you, with all the eagerness of solicitude that is demanded by an aflair that forms the test of your character, the hinge on which your salvation turns. Prove, then, that your fuith is of that genuine kind, which works by love ; and " Walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, giving himself an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling- savour." Havinsr learned at the feet of Christ, with this Rabbi, the words of eternal life, let us, like him, show our faith by our works, bringing our choicest spices, our most costly sacrifices, to the foot of the cross, and saying, "Of thine own we give thee, for ourselves, our all, are thine." 40 LECTURE III. Christ's conversation with the woman of samaria, John iv. 1 — 26. Our Lord was now showing himself, for the first time, to the Samaritans, who, standing in an equivocal position, between Jew and Gentile, were favoured with some share of the ministry of him, who was not sent to the heathen, but " to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." But who would not have expected, and wished, that he should show himself to advantage ? Though he might not have gone among them, as the Jews fondly hoped their Messiah would come, in worldly pomp and military array, he might, at least, have made his appearance amidst these strangers, surrounded by a vast crowd of attentive disciples, and followed by a train of suppliants, whose diseases vanished at his word or touch. Instead of this, the first time he is seen by a Samaritan, he is sitting alone, upon the ground, by a well, as a weary, way-worn, thirsting, solitary traveller, who, instead of bestow- ing the favours of a God, is begging for a drop of water. We declaim against the false and worldly expectations of the Jews, and yet we imitate them ; for when we hear of Christ's preaching, we think of a numerous audience, of a lofty pulpit, and a sublime oration. But here, all is humble; the audience, a single person, a poor woman, of doubtful character ; the pulpit is the ground, and the sermon, a simple, though invaluable conversation. For, as many a stream of fine water, which is a treasure to an empire, issues from a low crevice in a rock ; from this lowly site flowed a discourse that was like a " pure river of water of life, clear as crystal ;" and while a sermon delivered in a splendid edifice to admiring crowds, is often afterwards found to have died away in empty sounds, this was followed by effects more splendid than the most eloquently recorded victories, CIIUIST AND THE WOMAN OF SAMARIA. 41 and more lasting than the benefits of the mightiest revolu- tion of empires. The most inauspicious appearance termi- nates triumphantly ; and, without pomp or noise, the word of the Redeemer's lips wins the Samaritan to the God, the Messiah, the worship of the Jews. Let us, then, so listen, that we also may share in the blessings which the discourse was designed to confer — elevation of mind — conviction of sin — and instruction in righteousness. I. Elevation of mind: v. 7 — 15. Against the bad taste of what is called allegorising, the world loudly declaims. But while we own, that both good taste and good sense have been offended by those who hunt after the spiritual, to the neglect of the literal sense of Scripture, we must never forget, that such is the constitution of the human mind, such the mode in which we derive our ideas, and such the nature of true eloquence, that a judi- cious use of the relation between physical and intellectual things, is an essential element of the most efficient instruc- tion. With this view, rather than for the sake of slaking his thirst, our Lord said to the woman of Samaria, who came to draw water at Jacob's well, " Give me to drink." She, perceiving from his dress, or speech, or manner, that he was a Jew, said, " How is it that tliou askest drink of me ; since the Jews avoid all kind intercourse with the Samaritans :" for which alienation from other people, they were re- proached by the ancient classics, as a morose nation, the enemies of all the rest of the human race. If the early conduct of the Samaritans, recorded in the book of Nehe- miah, rendered them odious to the Jews, it was still a gross violation of all religion to keep up the national hatred,* and shun that intercourse by which they might have instructed the ignorant, and recovered those " who were out of the way." Our Lord, therefore, taught this woman, that he was so far from partaking of this spirit, that " if she knew the gift of God, and who it was that asked water, she would have asked of him, and he would have given her living water." * Wolf, in loc. quotes Raschi, saying, " It is unlawful to eat the bread of a Samaritan, and drink his wine : 1:1" ninu?^"i IMS b3«!j 'IIDH 'ni3 42 LECTURE III. The Redeemer seems to mention two things which she needed to know ; but Beza, and others, think that they both mean Christ himself, who, in the first instance, is called the gift of God, which, in the second, is explained to mean, him that was asking for drink. But, though the Saviour is the son given, it is not probable that he would, on this occasion, call himself the gift, when he, through the whole discourse, exhi- bited himself as the giver. Nor can I think that the mean- ing, for which Campbell, with his usual good sense, pleads, is the true one; for it is not clear, that the Greek word, ^wpeh, ever means the bounty, or beneficence, of a person's cha- racter ; and, if it did, the correspondent Syriac word, em- ployed probably by our Lord, had not that latitude. But, if she had known the gift and the giver, the Holy Spirit, and the Saviour, who came to impart it to us, she would have seized this opportunity to obtain that first of bles- sings. In a subsequent passage of this Gospel, we find our Lord promising living water, in similar terms ; and we are expressly informed, " This spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive." For water, and the grace of the Holy Spirit, stand together in Scripture, as the sign and the thing signified ; the word of God sometimes employing the external application to exhibit the purifying influences of the Spirit; and sometimes the internal use of water to set forth the power of the Holy Spirit, to impart and maintain spiritual life, and satisfy our thirst after the chief good. In the last sense, the figure is employed here, as it is by the Prophet Isaiah, when he says, " With joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation." But this knowledge was too wonderful for the woman of Samaria, and therefore she asked no favour of him who was able and willing to bestow the greatest. Such are the melan- choly consequences of ignorance. Yet what consolations are veiled under the delicate manner in which our Saviour told her what she needed to know ! For we not only see the power and glory of him that can give the Holy Spirit to whom he pleases, but also learn that such is his grace, that we need only to know him, in order to put our trust in him, and CHRIST AND THE WOMAN OF SAMARIA. 43 ask and receive the living water. There is the golden chain of life ; if thou knowest Christ, thou wilt ask his Spirit ; and if thou wilt ask, he will give. Our ignorance prevents our asking, and " we have not, because we ask not." How much this woman needed the influences of the Divine Spirit, to raise her mind from earthly to heavenly things, is manifest by her reply : " Sir, thou hast no bucket, and the well is deep; from whence, then, hast thou that living water?" She took that phrase in the sense in which it is often employed, not only in Scripture and by the Jewish writers in general, but also by the Greek and Latin classics, as sig- nifying running water, in distinction from that which is called dead, because it is stagnant. But, as it was observed on another occasion, that Peter " knew not what he said," this was manifestly the case with the woman before us ; so that we must not wonder that we can make no consistent sense, either of these words or of those which follow-^ — " Art thou greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle ?" She seems to have been chiefly ambitious of bringing in Jacob, to claim him as her father, aware that the Jews despised her nation as a spurious race. If she had any other definite meaning, she may have asked whether Jesus professed to be greater than Jacob; because he seemed to promise better v/ater, and she knew not whence he could procure it. Our Lord virtually replies, that he is greater than Jacob, who, dying, declared that he had " waited for Christ's salva- tion." All patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and even angels, yield to Christ " the pre-eminence." None can give the Spirit of life, but that Saviour in whom " all fulness dwells." For the blessing of water we should be grateful to the God of provi- dence; but we know that the virtue of the refreshing draught is soon exhausted, and we are left in the same wretched, perishing state as before we drank. Not so, says our Lord, is it with him " that drinketh of the water that I shall give, for he shall never thirst ; but the water that I give, shall be in him a well of water, springing up to everlasting life." Thirst is employed to signify both a want and a desire ; and the two 44 LECTURE III. are combined in the sense of need. The first working of faith in Christ assumes the form of longing after him, " as the hart panteth after the water brook;" but as faith becomes strong, and rises to assurance, we cease to feel as if dying for want of him, and enjoy the satisfaction that is compared to the influence of" cold water on a thirsty stomach." Never again shall the believer be destitute of that Saviour who is the foun- tain of life. In this world, we shall always derive from him what is necessary to sustain our religion ; and, in the next, all that will afford perfect bliss. But the grace of the Holy Spirit shall be in the believer, as a fountain, springing up, always active, energetic, diffusive, and affording blessings to others, until the bliss of heaven shall crown the religion of earth. In this way our Lord is accustomed to recommend religion, on account of its perpetuity ; and if we could sup- pose that the divine life imparted by the Holy Spirit, could be entirely extinct, the opposition which our Lord here ex- presses between the streams of nature and of grace would be lost. Might we not have expected that the eyes of this woman would have been opened to see that no literal spring was intended ? But she still farther shows, that " the carnal mind understandeth not the things of the Spirit ;" for she says, *' Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw." She must have had some strange undefinable notion of the importance of Christ and his gifts, that he could save her for ever from thirst and from the want of water. It is, however, to be feared, that some irony was mingled with this speech ; and that, together with a very faint portion of that faith that produced obedience to the hint that she should ask, and he would give living water, there was also the struggling of unbehef that tempts God, by asking, in order to see what will follow. Our heart-searching High Priest, therefore, checked the dangerous workings of unbelief, and gave the conversation that turn which would bring down the proud rebellious spirit at his feet. For the next verses show how he produced II. Conviction of sin : v, 16 — 19- CHRIST AND THE WOMAN OF SAMARIA. 45 Having sought to elevate the woman's mind from earthly to heavenly blessings, the Saviour now designs to create a thirst for the waters of life, which is most effectually accom- plished, by disclosing to us our state as sinners. This, God often effects in the mode adopted here. 1 , Discovering one particular sin. By saying to her, " Go, call thy husband, and come hither," he elicited the confession, " I have no husband." At first sight, Jesus seems to betray, either ignorance, or misapplication of terms ; for if he knew she had no husband, why did he speak as if he thought she had? But the Greek uses the general word, man, for husband, which is known to be the meaning by the addition of the possessive pronoun. To a certain ex- tent, the Latin has the same idiom, and the French uses the same term, with regard to woman and wife. The Syriac word for husband is equally equivocal, signifying also, Lord, or master. While, therefore, Christ's language did not ne- cessarily mean more than the man with whom she lived, she chose to take it in the stricter sense, that gave her an oppor- tunity of contradiction. This turned to her shame ; for he replied, " Thou hast well said, I have no husband ; for thou hast had five husbands, and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband ; in that saidst thou truly." It has been sup- posed, that her having had so many husbands was the effect of her lewdness, causing her to be divorced ; but of this there is no evidence, as she might have lost them by death. But the man with whom she was now living, is pronounced not her husband ; not because one of her former husbands was living, for then she would have had a husband, and would have been reproved as an adultress ; nor because the man had another wife, since polygamy was then lawful ; but, doubtless, because no solemn matrimonial engagement of fidelity to this man had been entered into by her. For, while neither the Old Testament, nor the New, makes marriage a religious sacrament, the sanctity of the bond, and the good of society require, that the parties should enter into a solemn engagement, before witnesses, to be faithful to each other. But, by telling her to call her husband and come to him. 46 LECTURE III. that he might speak to them both together, Christ, in effect, told her, that she should not live with any man whom she could not present before him, that, " as heirs together of the grace of life," they might listen together to the words of life ; and she, by her answer, confessed that she was living in an unlawful connexion with a man who was not her husband. " Be sure your sin will find you out," says the Prophet ; and often it is by our own lips that we ai-e, not only finally con- victed, but at first accused. Such is the combination of deli- cacy and force in the moral government of God. Who can mark the turn which the conversation now takes, and not admire the operation of Christ's omniscience, who detects, not only the past life of this woman, but the present sin in which she was living? See the clearness and decision with which he lays naked the fact which she chose to hint, but did not wish to confess and forsake. How meek and mild is this reprover, who, without bitterness and reproaches, brings to bear upon her heart and conscience the sins of a life ! What mercy is mingled with justice, that they may both operate to make her long for the waters of life which he waited to bestow ! " Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet," she exclamied, convinced that he knew, as she afterwards said, " all that ever she had done." The light let in by a single crevice may show the impurity of a whole room; and Paul was led to know his sinfulness by that one commandment, " Thou shalt not covet." This woman was touched on the point of chas- tity, that the wounded nerve might make the whole frame vibrate with pangs of contrition. For chastity is the test of female character, and she who fails here has lost the guard of all the virtues ; though the love of God gives no counte- nance to the partiality of the laws of society, which exempt men from censures that are poured on females, without mercy. But who would not be convicted of guilt, if the living word, that is " quick and powerful," should bring to bear upon us the beams of that purity and omniscience, to which we are all " naked and open ?" When he convinces us of one sin, we should consider this as a specimen, both of our character CHRIST AND THE WOMAN OF SAMARIA. 47 and of his knowledge of it ; that he can tell us all that ever we did. Our Lord proceeds in his work of conviction by 2. Showing the irreligion of her whole state : v. 20 — 24. I imagine that the woman was actuated by mixed motives in saying what follows. She felt uneasy, and wished to turn from a painful subject ; but, glad to find that she had the privilege of conversing with a prophet who could tell her all that she wished to know, she seized this opportunity of seeking in- formation on a question fiercely debated between her nation and the Jews : " Our fathers worshipped on this mountain; but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship." Here, again, she shows the conflict between good and evil in her breast; not resenting the discovery of her sin, nor attempting to dispute its truth, but showing that she considered a prophet sent by the omniscient God to be able to detect, as Samuel did, what was in the heart,* she sought from Christ information concerning the acceptable way of worshipping God. Yet, instead of opening her whole soul to the conviction of sin, and seeking mercy to pardon, and grace to put away iniquity, she turns to a question of rites and places, as if these were more important than the worship of the heart. Manasseh had built a temple on Mount Gerizim, which was near to Shechera, for Jotham went and stood on the top of Mount Gerizim, and cried, " Hearken to me, ye men of Shechem."-f But though that temple was destroyed by Hyrcanus, one of the Maccabean heroes, the Samaritans still worshipped towards that spot, as they are said to do to this day. For, by " the fathers," she meant the holy Patriarchs, claiming the privileges of Jews of pure blood, and alluding to the worship which the ancients oftered on mountains. The Samaritans thought Gerizim was the mount on which Abraham built an altar, and that God commanded Israel to pronounce the blessings there, :f: and to erect an altar. § The Hebrew says, Mount Ebal, but the Samaritan Pentateuch * 1 Sam. ix. 19; 2 Kings, v. 25; vi. 12. f Judges, ix. 7. X Deut. xxvii. 12. § Deut. xxvii. 2 — 7- 48 LECTURE III. and version have changed this into Gerizim. Other fables also they " received by tradition from their fathers," which it would be a waste of time to repeat. Against all that was said for this mount, as a place sacred to God's worship, the Jews opposed the command to have but one place of sacrifice, which God should choose. This, at first, was Shilo, but the sins committed there caused it to be rejected, and Jerusalem was finally consecrated as the holy place.* But the Samari- tans, by rejecting every part of the Old Testament, except the five books of Moses, treated all the evidence in favour of Jerusalem with contempt. Yet it was of importance that they should be set right on this point ; for Christ was pro- mised as the Lord who should suddenly come to his temple at Jerusalem, and the Samaritans had, by rejecting the in- spired Scriptures, involved themselves in great darkness con- cerning the promised Messiah. Our Lord, however, instead of acting as a mere Jew, by exalting the temple of Jerusalem above Mount Gerizim, turned the whole current of her thoughts to more spiritual views of religion : " Woman, believe me." For the word preached does not profit, except it be mixed with faith in them that hear it ; and " faith cometh by hearing." But Jesus proposed hirnself q.s the object of faith, calling her off from the traditions of her fathers and her own false reasonings, to believe him, who was not a mere man that might lie, but the God of truth, and the great prophet, whom even those Scrip- tures which the Samaritans retained had promised, saying, " It shall come to pass, that every soul that will not hear that prophet shall be cut off." " Whosoever receiveth his testimony has set to his seal that God is true." Other pro- phets said, " Hear the word of the Lord ;" — Jesus, " / say to you :" — others claimed credence to the word which the Lord spake by them — Jesus said, " Believe me." To this woman such a charge gave a test of the sincerity of her confession that he was a prophet; and he, regarding her as a chosen sheep, in whose heart grace was beginning to operate, em- * Josh, xviii. I ; Jer. vii. 11 ; 1 Kings, viii. IG. CHRIST AND THE WOMAN OP SAMARIA. 49 ploys the grand means of bringing her into possession of all the blessings of the new covenant, by inspiring her with a full confidence in himself. When accompanied with the Holy Spirit, the word that demands, inspires, faith. This word, " believe me," was a comment on those of David, " Hearken, O daughter, and consider; forget thine own people and thy father's house." "The hour cometh, when ye shall, neither on this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father." For Jerusalem, with its temple, was about to be laid in ruins, and the Jews, who doated on it, would be no lonaer able to worship there ; while the Samaritans, converted to the Chris- tian faith, would no more hearken to the tradition of their fathers concerning Mount Gerizim. But the grand error was, not so much the place, as the object of worship. All genuine worshippers would, in the hour that was coming, adore God as a father, reconciling the world to himself by Jesus Christ. " Ye worship ye know not what." Many strange things are said of the superstition and idolatry of the Samaritans, which, however, cannot all be proved ; but our Saviour shows, that by rejecting the inspired Prophets, and the appointed wor- ship of God's temple, and by " mingling with the heathen, and learning their works," the Samaritans had fallen into gross ignorance of God. This was a terrible blow to her fancied religion, and brands with just reprobation the pro- fane maxim, that ignorance is the mother of devotion. The Saviour of men here " smites the earth with the rod of his mouth," when it adopts the latitudinarian notion, that all religions are equally capable of conferring salvation on those who sincerely follow them. The conviction of this sinner was now rendered complete, when she was informed, that she was not only living in an illicit connexion, but that her very religion, about which she seemed so zealous, was all vain. Nothing so truly humbles us as to hear the voice of God say of those devotions in which we had trusted for righteousness, "Who hath required this at your hands ?" But as it is not enough to know wherein we are wrono", our Saviour proceeds to give ni. Instruction in righteousness : v. 22 — 26. 50 LECTUKE III. If the word and Spirit of God merely tore from us our false hopes, without inspiring- us with what is called " a good hope through grace," we might well shrink from their search- ing operation. The Spirit, however, convinceth, not only of sin, but of righteousness too. The Saviour now proceeds to show his hearer 1. The nature of true religion : v, 22 — 24. It is an axiom, that the worshipper and the worship will always belike the Deity adored. Our Lord says, " we know what we worship, including himself in the genuine church of God ; for he, as a man, worshipped " his Father, and our Father, his God and our God." The Prophets foretold, and the Evangelists record, his prayers and praises. He had fel- lowship with us in worship, and we should, in ours, hold fel- lowship with him. He knew what he worshipped ; for on him rested " the Spirit of wisdom, that made him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord." With himself, he joins the spiritual worshippers among the Jews, who had the oracles of God, those who feared the Lord, on whom the sun of righteousness rose, some of whom " departed not from the temple, instantly serving God, night and day." For salvation is of the Jews, or from the Jews rather,* be- cause Christ, who is called salvation^, as being its author, came forth from the nation of the Jews. This was the crown of their numerous and lofty privileges, that " of them, as con- cerning the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever." They said, indeed, that the world could no more subsist without Israel, than without the air and tlie four winds ; yet they knew not him from whom all their glory proceeded. But Christ, having lived and died among them, sent forth his word from Jerusalem, where he first formed the beginning of his kingdom, the church that "is the mother of us all." " Ten men, out of all languages of the nations," says Zecha- riah, " shall take hold of the skirts of him that is a Jew, saying, * 'E/c Twy'lovbaiooy. f Acts xiii. 47, " that thou shouldst be for salvation, or a Saviour, to the ends of the earth." CHRIST AND THE WOMAN OF SAMARIA. 51 we will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you ;" alluding to the meaning of the name Iraraanuel, God with us.* Thus Japheth, or the God of Japheth, dwells in the tents of Shem, and Abraham becomes " the father of many nations ;" and thus the Samaritan was taught to seek salva- tion from him that was a Jew. Still farther, to cure her of her false notions, the Saviour teaches the woman, that the hour was coming, or rather was already come, when the true worshippers should worship the Father in spirit and in truth. By the mention of true wor- shippers, he taught her that all others were considered false; for what they valued themselves upon was, in the sight of God, no worship at all ; so that, by his Prophet, he compares their several rites to so many crimes, or odious acts ; " he that killeth an ox is as if he slew a man, and he that sacri- ficeth a lamb, as if he cut off a dog's neck."t But the true worshippers are those who view him as a Spirit, and pay to him the homage of that spiritual and immortal principle, the soul, by which we are made after his image. They do this " in truth," having true views of God's character, as revealed in Christ, and presenting themselves before him, not in mere appearance, but in heartfelt sincerity, according to the true way of access to him through the Mediator. J Not, however, that we are to suppose God was not formerly thus worshipped, since true religion is identical in all ages ; but the larger effusions of the Spirit under the Gospel, and the more spiritual nature of this religion, would render the worshippers more eminently spiritual and sincere. With the rejection of false worship, it was consoling to the hearer of Christ, to be informed that the Father was, not as some of the heathen taught, indifferent to the services of men, but that he sought for true worship- * Zech. viii. 23. t Isaiah Ixvi. 3. J If I thought that any thing farther was intended by our Lord, I should prefer that paraphrase which Wolf has quoted from Olearius ; " for the carnal ministry, both of Zion and Gerizim, being abohshed, men shall approach no more by such carnal priesthood ; but by that trae High Priest, who, not after the shadow, but in truth, not by a carnal oblation, but by his own eternal spirit, shall offer himself to God." E 2 52 i.KCTrnE iir. pers. We may, indeed, justly wonder, that the Infinite One should seek our services. For what can he need, or we give ? Yet the Son of his love has assured us, that he seeks true wor- shippers among men ; his eye searching them out, and his heart graciously regarding their persons and devotions. If, then, it is to his pleasure and glory to receive, it is immensely to our interest that he should find such in us. For God is a spirit. This is the glorious peculiarity of the Sacred Scriptures ; that, while the whole world, even the most cultivated and philosophical nations, were devoted to material deities, the inspired writings imparted the only ra- tional and philosophical, the only true doctrine — the spiritu- ality of God. For matter essentially implies properties that are inconsistent with eternity, infinity, and rationality, which are included in the idea of deity. He is the Father of spirits, and therefore it is necessary to pay to him the homage of the spirits, that he has imparted to us. Let these sayings sink down into our ears, and be fresh in our minds, whenever we approach to worship. Our Divine Teacher now both gives and takes occasion to teach 2. The only acceptable medium of worship, which is Christ. This woman, struck with the truth and importance of the Redeemer's words, seems anxious to show that she was not so entirely ignorant of religion as might be supposed, and therefore tells him, that she knew Messiah was coming; and, as to what she knew not, she hoped he would teach her all things ; at the same time, perhaps, designing to hint, that the light which Jesus had poured on her mind led her to suspect he was the very person. This was, however, probably ac- companied with a latent wish to excuse her own darkness, saying, " how should we know any better, till that great Teacher for whom we are waiting shall come?" She seems to have been in the dubious state of those who said, " Art thou he that shall come, or do we look for another?" Our Lord, therefore, graciously relieved her, by saying, " I that speak unto thee, am He." " Though I stand here, speaking to a sinful woman, and have asked of her a draught of water, I CHRIST AND THE WOMAN OF SAMARIA. 53 am that great promised Teacher, that can tell you every thing, and give you the living water that will save you from eternal thirst." How mysterious are the ways of God ! Who would have expected that this woman would be chosen to be the honoured recipient of the first clear and open declaration of Christ's Messiahship ? Now, she saw him by whom she be- came a true worshipper, such as the Father seeks ; she be- held the Lamb of God, the great propitiation for all the sins, which he had exposed to her terrified conscience. That he told her more than is here recorded, we may well suppose. In this discovery, made blessed herself, she sought to become a blessing to others ; for, leaving her water pot, and disre- garding all temporal affairs, she ran to the city, saying, " Come, see a man that told me all things that ever I did ; is not this the Christ?" The restof the narrative has been illus- trated in the Lecture on this part of the hfe of Christ. Let us close our meditations on this discourse by two re- flections. L On the spirituality of God and his worship. When Christ came, the world was sunken in idolatry and superstition. The heathen were " mad upon their idols," be- sotted with the adoration of " graven images, the work of their own hands ;" and the Jews were, as a nation, doating upon rites and ceremonies, losing, amidst the splendour of the signs, all sight of the very thing signified. See, then, a world, whose remedy was turned into a fatal disease, whose religion was its ruin. How welcome should be the sight of that sovereign, infallible Physician, who alone can restore health to the universally disordered frame ! With what sim- plicity, what energy, what authority, he announces the grand truth, " God is a spirit !" Taught by such a voice, how clear is our conviction of this vital doctrine, how powerful our sense of its importance ! With what indignant zeal should we repel every thing that would obscure its evidence, or enfeeble its influence ! Away, then, with pictures and images of him, who says, " What likeness will ye make of me?" For as all other existence springs from thatof God, all reli- gion arises out of just views of God. The world has been, for 54 LECTURE III. ages, suffering under the consequences of the sin denounced by the Apostle who wrote to the head of the heathen world. " For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead ; so that they are without excuse. Because that> when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but be- came vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened : Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. And changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four- footed beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves : Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator ; who is blessed for ever. Amen."* For, when " the truth of God is changed into a lie," the wholesome effect of the knowledge of God is exchanged for the direst disease. Who can read what the Greeks and Ro- mans say of the amours and crimes of their gods, and not perceive how fearfully society must have been poisoned by such theology ? Who that thinks of the obscene displays attendant on the car of Juggernaut, can wonder at the lewd- ness of the inhabitants of India ? But, if we turn from thence to console ourselves with the sublime doctrine of Christianity, that God is a pure spirit, we must remember that the efficacy of that truth depends upon the authority with which it is promulgated. Various and profound were the speculations of the ancient philosophers on the nature of God and of morals; and much important truth was elicited by the master minds of Greece and Rome, and of the eastern world : but all was inefficacious, because all was mere speculation. We admire the copious and various knowledge displayed by Cicero in his book on the nature of the gods ; but we lay it down, saying, " No wonder that such philosophy did nothing; for the people saw that their teachers were groping in the * Romans i. 20 — 25. CHRIST AND THE WOMAN OP SAMARIA. o5 dark, and were themselves uncertain whether their finest theories were not mere golden dreams." This, then, stamps value on the truth which the Gospel reveals concerning God, that it is delivered with the absolute certainty of in- fallible authority, which compels us to bow as to the lively oracles of Deity. What gratitude should we feel when we say, " We know that the Son of God is come, and has given us an understanding of him that is true !" That our worship should be conformed to the God to whom it is paid, is manifestly proper. They who made gods of wood and stone, silver and gold, honoured them with temples of such materials ; and the heathen often defend their criminal and abominable worship by the examples of their gods. Shall, then, such deities be more powerful for evil than the living and true God for good? Since our God is a spirit, should we not speak of him, as the Apostle did; " Whom I serve with my spirit in the Gospel of his Son?" With what spirituality, what sincerity, what purity, should we adore him! Whenever we bow our bodies before him, we should " take heed to our spirits;" for we are all tainted with the disease of insincerity and carnality, which has so universally corrupted religion into rites and ceremonies, injurious to our- selves and dishonourable to God. Nothing is harder than to avoid sinking into formality in our worship. It requires the constant exercise of the most vigilant jealousy ; though our previous reasonings would have led us to conclude, that we should either not pretend to worship God at all, or do it in the only way in which it can be agreeable to him and use- ful to us. But as we all have inherited that fallen nature which contains within itself the seeds of the disease that has perverted religion, in all ages and nations; we never rise supe- rior to the wide wasting evil, but by the mighty " power of the Spirit of God." Let us, then, enter upon the second reflection. 2. On the vital influence which inspires the religion that God approves. To her who came to draw water, to satisfy her bodily appetites, our divine Teacher makes known another want 56 LECTURE III. under which she had always suffered, but which she had never yet felt — the living water, that saves us from eternal thirst. So marked is this doctrine of an influence from the Holy Spirit on our minds, so high is its rank in the religion of Jesus, that if we know not the Spirit, we are ignorant of Christ. When some professed disciples said, " we have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost, Paul asked, Unto what, then, were ye baptised? And they said^ unto John's baptism."* By the baptism of Christ we are dedicated equally " to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost." In vain would the Redeemer have enjoined spiritual worship, if he had not given the spirit of worship, the vital principle of all genuine religion. But when we hear him say, " If you had asked, I would have given," we should reply, "Then, Lord, I ask; give me that living water." If we are ignorant of its value and our need ; if we are so in- different to the blessing as not to pant for it, we are destitute of it ; and " if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his;" he is not among the true worshippers wdiom the Father seeks ; but worships, he knows not what, nor why, nor how. But as our gracious Redeemer came to procure for us this blessing with the blood of his heart, and has -ascended to shed the Spirit from his royal throne, assuring us that, if we ask, we shall receive it; we ought to make this the object of our incessant and most fervent prayer. No traveller in desert lands Should pant for water more. For such is the blessing, that we should pray for it, not as if it were one among the favours we need, but the blessing, by emphasis. Since Christ, who previously held that rank, * It is, however, probable that we should here, as in many other instances, repeat the previous verb, and read, " We have not heard that the Holy Spirit is received ;" for we cannot suppose that even John's disciples knew nothing about the Holy Spirit, since he prophesied of Christ as he that should come and baptise with the Holy Ghost. But these men may not have heard that the Spirit was gi\Tn at Pentecost. CHRIST AND THE WOMAN OF SAMARIA. 57 is now come, what we at present need to ask, is, that Spirit which makes him known, applies his redemption to our hearts, and enables to come in his name to the Father, in spirit and in truth ; " for through Christ," says the Apostle, *' we have ac- cess by one Spirit to the Father. To have a fountain of divine and saving influences opened to us, and to be invited to come and draw thence with joy, is such a privilege, that we should tremble at the thought, not merely of rendering it all abor- tive by absolute neglect, but of receiving only a scanty sup- ply, through the faintness of our desires and the weakness of our faith. How welcome should be this assurance of our Lord, " That he will give us what shall be in us, a well of water springing up to everlasting life !" We must know that we have not, without this divine gift, any living spring of grace. For how soon we lose our finest views, our best impressions, our most delightful frames, our holiest resolutions ! Mere chameleons, we change with every alteration of our position, or our cir- cumstances. Our first father soon lost the glory of his ori- ginal creation ; and angels equally proved, that they had not in themselves the living spring of endless holy life ; so that we maybe assured, that perpetuity in good is not the native possession of any creature. No language, then, can do jus- tice to the value of this gift of Christ — " the Holy Spirit to abide with us for ever.'' This alone can assure us of the per- petuity of holiness and bliss, in heaven itself. But, with this spring, we shall at last thirst no more, nor need to come to draw water from ordinances, as wells of salvation ; but may for ever sing to the Eternal Spirit of grace, as Israel once did, to a far inferior source, — " Spring up, O well." 58 LECTURE IV. THE FIRST ON CHRISt's SERMON ON THE MOUNT. Matt. v. 1 — 16. on true happiness. When the preacher is Jesus Christ, all would say that the pulpit should be, like that at Sinai, the lofty mountain; and the audience, not merely a whole nation, like Israel, but a world. He had now roused attention, and given such proofs of a divine mission, that it was naturally asked, " what new doctrine is this? For with authority, he commandeth the unclean spirits, and they obey him ;" so that the high tone of supremacy which marks this discourse is supported by adequate deeds. What v/as so well timed, has been, from the place where it was delivered, called the Sermon on the Mount. The hill denominated the Mount of the Beatitudes, is on the south of Tabor, which, however, may itself have been the spot honoured by this discourse. The canopy of heaven stretched over the preacher's head; the thousands of immortal beings spread out before him ; and the scenes of nature, including mountain, plain, and lake, suggested to him many of those beautiful and striking illustrations which impress the sermon on the memory and heart. As his dis- ciples came up, closer perhaps than the rest of the audience, to them he directs his first attention, teaching them their own happiness, which was crowned with the honour of usefulness. Here we are taught, I. The happiness of holiness, the description of which extends to v. 12. ON TRUE HAPPINESS. 59 This is the first grand thing for man to know, his chief end, which is " to glorify God, and enjoy him for ever." But though we naturally ask, " Who will shew us any good ?" we are so misled by false pretences, that we fall into misery and ruin by putting evil for good. He that knows who are the truly happy men, has taken an important step to- wards being ranked among them. Our Redeemer seizes the opportunity afforded by the position in which he was placed, to correct the fatal errors of man on the important science of bliss ; for we may here, as on most other occa- sions, find a clue to the meaning of the words, by adverting to the circumstances of the time. The several ingredients in our happiness are generally called, from a Latin word, the beatitudes ; and as they are eight in number, we shall pur- sue them in their order. The first beatitude, or ingredient in real bliss, is poverty of spirit. " Blessed are the poor in spirit." Mark, my friends, how the first sentence which the preacher utters convinces us that he " is from heaven, and not of men ;" for his doctrine is not " earthly and sensual," but heavenly and spiritual. He contradicts the world, and as- serts that a man's happiness does not depend on what he has, but on what he is. Seeing the multitudes, and observ- ing that the poor were half ashamed to be seen in their mean attire, which they attempted to conceal by little arts, or to set off by vain airs, envying those whose more respectable appearance emboldened them to come near, and thus showing, that though poor in appearance, they were proud in spirit, Jesus said, " Happy those who are poor, not merely in circumstances, but in spirit." To understand this expression, think what you v^ould feel, if you were poor in the temporal and literal sense ; then transfer all the shame arising from the meanness of your condition and appearance, all your sense of the misery of want and of dependence on the bounty of others, and of obligation for the relief you might obtain, to the state of your soul, as exposed to shame in consequence of your depravity ; to danger on account of 60 LECTURE IV. your guilt ; to dependence on the mercy of God for your relief, by pardon ; and on his grace for your recovery, by re- generation and sanctification, and then think of the obliga- tion you must feel to the grace that saved you — and you will have entered into the very spirit of poverty. If this is not mere imagination, but genuine conviction and heartfelt sen- sation, you are " poor in spirit."* Happy are they who are thus poor, in the very syjirit of their minds ; for they are rich, even to the possession of a kingdom ; that heavenly empire, the reign of grace, which Christ came to set up in the heart,-]- and which will end in * Tills view of the import of the phrase is commended, as well as illustrated, by an anecdote that is related of the celebrated Dr. Johnson. It is said that he was giving his interpretation of this passage to a pious friend, who objected to it, as implying self-gratulation. Johnson replied, " Well, how can a man possess this quality, without knowing it, and thinking the better of himself for it ?" Then said the friend, " ITiis poverty of spirit commits a felo de se, and becomes pride of spirit." The interpretation given above was then proposed, and Johnson, after a solemn pause, exclaimed, " You are right, sir ; nothing but that can be called poverty of spirit." This interpretation does not differ essentially from that of Campbell, though I cannot approve of his paraphrastic translation — " The poor who do not repine." I should rather say, " Poor in their own estimation, or have a poor opinion of themselves ;" for I take the word spirit here, to mean conscience, or consciousness ; as when it is said, " The spirit of a man is the candle of the Lord, searching all the inward parts." The correspondent passage in Luke vi. 16 — 49, omits the words " in spirit ;" so that we are left to think of poverty alone, but evidently in aU its emphasis, which I have endeavovired to describe in the text. Grostete, whom we may call the Protestant bishop of Lincoln, though he died in 1253, says, on these words, " Poverty of spirit disposes a man to feel that he has nothing but what he receives from above. But Adam in innocence might have felt this. The humility of a sinner goes deeper ; to own that, self-condemned and corrupt before God, he finds life, and health, and strength, in Christ alone." f That the phrase, kingdom of heaven, means here, and in most other passages of the New Testament, the reign of grace, rather than that of glory ; or the dominion of religion in the heart, not the state of glory in lieaven, may be inferred, from the way in which Daniel foretells the ON TRUE HAPPINESS. 61 the kingdom of glory. For they, and they alone, are ad- mitted into the heavenly empire, who are brought to feel their obligation to divine charity, sovereign grace ; and they are saved from the vexing and chafing of the proud spirits, who scorn to be saved by mere mercy; from the miseries of spiritual pride ; which is often betrayed by those who profess great zeal for the doctrines of grace, but prove themselves to have missed true bliss, by the conceit and bitterness, which make them wretched themselves, and a source of misery to others. If the happiness of poverty should seem to any a para- dox, let them remember that the reign of heaven established in the heart, will freely supply the need which we are brought to feel, and will at length conduct us to the heaven where we shall find ourselves rich in the consciousness of beins: made priests and kings, and in the assurance of the eternity of our bliss. For this, like all the other discourses of Christ, proceeds upon the true principle that our happiness lies, not in the circumstances and feelings of the present moment, but in the whole state of our being, when eternity is taken into the account ; for they only are happy men, who will be so for ever. I own that our proud hearts abhor poverty, and revolt at it, as misery, rather than bliss. Yet no more of the spirit of poverty is enjoined in religion than is required in order to accord with the truth of our state ; and what does it avail to expose ourselves to the reproach, " Thou sayest, I am rich and increased in goods, and have need of nothing ; and knovvest not that thou art poor, and miserable, and blind, and naked, and hast need of everything?" And is it not to our advantage to enter into the spirit of our poverty, in order to be enriched with a kingdom, and that a heavenly setting up of Christ's kingdom. Chap. ii. 44. " In the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed." In Matt. iii. 2, John the Baptist announces the appearance of Christ, saying, " The reign of heaven has come near." For ^aaiMia. should be rendered reign, rather than kingdom ; since it is scarcely sense to speak of a kingdom coming ; and the reign of a prince is that which is intended. 62 LECTURE IV. one, rather than, by a false conceit of our merit, and of our claim to wealth and indulgence, to be shut out of that kingdom, and left eternally poor? The second beatitude is still more paradoxical, " Happy are they who are mourning ; for they shall be comforted :" V. 4. As Christ's preaching is " like the hammer that breaks the rock," he, perhaps, saw some mournful countenances, whose falling tears told of a broken heart. But to say, " happy are they that mourn," seems like affirming that they are happy who are miserable. Yet our real condition may be happy, when our present frame is sorrov/ful ; for if we were mourning over the ruin of our fortunes, while a friend had pitied our distress and settled on us a liberal income, might it not be justly said, " happy are you that mourn." A broken heart is a phrase expressive of the excess of grief; but since " The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit ; a broken and a contrite heart he will not despise;" "there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth." The tears of godly sorrow, which are the attendants of repentance, appear to the angels as the dew drops of the morning, the forerunners of the rising of " the sun of righteousness on the soul, with healing in his wings." However bitter is the grief of the mourner for sin, and no tongue can adequately describe it, he will infallibly taste God's pardoning love; and David describeth " the blessedness of the man whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered." For, " Thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is holy: I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit ; to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones."* All that are now truly happy, date their bliss from the moment when the heart of stone, being turned to flesh, began to feel, and ache, and bleed for sin ; and wherever they see one begin to mourn at the foot of the cross, they * Isa. Ivii. 15. ON TRUE HAPPINESS. 63 wait not till he shall taste the consolation of forgiveness, but pronounce him, even now^, happier than when commit- ting sin, in the road to ruin. The consolation of forgiveness as richly repays the sorrows of repentance, as the joys of heaven will counterpoise the afflictions of earth. The third beatitude is that of the meek : v. 5. " Happy are they ; for they shall inherit the earth." In a crowd, we see men of forward, proud spirits, push their way, and jostle out of their place the meek, and gentle, and yielding. Some there were, perhaps, mourning that they were thus thrown into the rear, where they could not so well see or hear the heavenly Teacher. But he casts his eye upon them, and calls the meek happy, as he had in his ancient word reproached " those who call the proud happy." Meekness may be best expressed by its opposite, irritability and passion ; and by what a pious man once said to a pas- sionate father, " Sir, if you don't learn meekness from Jesus Christ, your children will learn madness from you." No wonder that Christ pronounces the meek blessed ; for they are like himself, who said, " Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest to your souls." Who thinks of the blessed in heaven, without conceiving of them as meek and gentle spirits ? For who could hope to be happy among them, if they were not so ? Who can reflect on his own temper, and not feel conscious that he is happy in proportion as he obeys the voice that says, " seek meekness ;" and that whenever he is betrayed into a con- trary spirit, he is punished by perturbation within, and by the shame with which he looks back on his wrath ? I know that to some it appears misery, to be obliged to sub- mit meekly to injuries, and not be allowed to indulge our pas- sions and our pride in the stiff" maintenance of our rights, and the lofty assertion of our own honours. But look in the face of one who is gentle as the Lamb of God, and compare it with the countenance of the fierce and revengeful, and say, which of these is the index of bliss ? Our Lord shows us, that though we may seem by our meekness to be pushed out of our place, and trampled upon by the proud, we shall 64 LECTURE IV. eventually find that every thing shall give way to us, for we " shall inherit the earth." This is a quotation from the Psalmist,* who charges us " not to fret ourselves ; for that is only to do evil." Even now the meek find that all things, even the whole earth, is theirs, inasmuch as it is their Father's, who has taught them to approve of his allotments, and who has promised that " all things shall work together for their good." When, by the triumph of Christian princi- ples, wars and violence shall cease, the whole earth will be literally the inheritance of the meek. If you ask, how could this make those happy who were then hearing Christ? I answer, that Christians in every age enjoy the thought that God will finally make such persons heirs of the paradisaic earth. When the proud, fierce, and ambitious, who have attempted to seize dominion by the sword, have perished by the sword, the world shall be swayed and possessed by those who have calmly deferred their inheritance to their Father's time, and sought it in his holy way. The fourth beatitude is that of " those who hunger and thirst, but it is after righteousness ; and they shall be filled :" V. 6. Many followed Christ so eagerly, that, exhausted for want of food, they were in danger of fainting by the way. If our Lord now saw in the countenances of some the signs of that anguish which hunger creates, and of that earnest and in- tense pursuit of religion which made Job prefer the divine word to his necessary food ; here was consolation for them. The pains of hunger and thirst are not so severe as those which they feel who long to be holy ; and it is to this Christ refers ; for he is describing the spirit of his own disciples, who have already obtained righteousness by faith ; but who, hav- ing only the commencement of sanctification, are urged to go on to perfection with an eagerness which, like hunger, is a sign of health. Consciousness that they have not attained the fulness of the Divine image, " in knowledge, righteous- * Psalm xxxvii. 8, in which, as well as in the sermon of our Lord, we might read, " inherit the land," i. e. of Canaan ; but considered as a type of a better. ON TRUE HAPPINESS. 65 ness, and true holiness, creates a painful sense of emptiness ; while admiration of the beauty of holiness, exhibited in our Lord, and promised to all that believe on him, makes them long for it, as the hungry man for food ; and thirst for it, as the panting " hart, for the water brooks." To say that those who are hungry and thirsty are happy, is to utter another paradox. But happy they are ; for they shall be filled. Assure him that is thirsting after riches, that he shall be filled with them, and he will even now feel happy in his way; make him that is hungry after learning, sure that he shall be as full of knowledge as he could wish, and will he not be happy in the certainty of future stores? But it is only when righteousness is the object and aim, that hunger and thirst bring assurance of being filled. " Delight thyself in the Lord, and he shall give thee the desire of thy heart ; for he will fulfil the desire of them that fear him," If he has given us a craving after his image, we have in this a pledge, that " Jesus loved us and gave himself for us, to sanctify and cleanse us, and present us before the presence of his glory, without spot, or blemish, or any such thing." How happy they are who believe this assurance, no tongue can tell. For in proportion as their present sense of unlike- ness to God, creates the gnawings of hunger, their expecta- tion of being one day filled with Christ's image, gives an an- tepast of heaven. David exclaims, " as for me, I shall behold thy face in righteousness ; I shall be satisfied when I awake in thy likeness." If God has made us long to be as holy as angels, he will at length make us as holy as we long to be. Then, from the summit of unspotted purity, we shall look down to the time when we first felt the pains of hunger after this state, and date from that day our bliss. From the mo- ment any one longs for God's righteous image, you may pro- nounce him blessed. For though there may be dread of hell and desire of future happiness, where there is no religion ; the love of holiness is the effect of grace, and as " the mercy of the Lord enduretli for ever, he will not forsake the v/ork of his own hands, but perfect that which concevneth us." 66 LECTURE IV. The fifth beatitude is that of the merciful. " Blessed are they for they shall receive mercy : v. 7. Perhaps our Lord now saw what he afterwards described, a self-righteous Pharisee, consigning to condemnation some poor self-condemned publican, whom Incarnate Mercy took this opportunity of consoling, by showing how different is the spirit of the truly happy man. He, seeing the penitent sinner heave the sigh of conscious guilt, glories not over him, but says, " The Lord lay not his sins to his charge ! grant him that mercy that I seek for myself!" The bitterness of pride, and the implacability of revenge, are as opposite to the Chris- tian temper, as drunkenness, or theft, or the grosser vices, can be to the Christian conduct. When mercy marks us out for her triumphs, she sets up her throne in our breasts. " 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 as Christ forgave you, so also do ye." " Vengeance is mine," saith God, " therefore, if thine enemy hunger, feed him ;" for he that attempts to right himself, wrongs God. But whoever feels the yearnings of the bowels of mercy, where others would have glutted their revenge, has even now the elements of happiness ; for mercy is but a modification of love, and love is not only the essence of holiness, but of bliss. If our dispo- sition to show mercy arises from feeling how much we need it, and how unfit it is for one who lives on the mercy of God to revenge himself on a fellow-sinner, this is an evidence that we shall " find mercy at that day that shall burn as an oven, when all the proud and hard-hearted shall be as stubble." Happy the child and champion of mercy, if he knows his bliss. For what makes us miserable, but sin, with its attend- ant, guilt ? What casts the dark shade over life, and, amidst its comforts and joys, sends back our blood cold to our hearts, but this appalling thought — What if, after all my pre- sent enjoyments, God should at last deal with me according ON TRUE HAPPINESS. 67 to my sins ?" What, then, can make us so blessed, as the assurance that God will " be merciful to us and bless us, and cause his face to shine upon us ?" How blissful the feeling of mercy towards the guilty, when we reflect that this is but the effect of grace ? It is the finger of mercy touching our hearts of stone, and turning them to flesh ; that, when we stand at God's awful bar, we shall not hear him say, " They shall have judgment without mercy who showed no mercy." The sixth beatitude is that of " the pure in heart :* they shall see God :" v. 8. See that Jew, studious of ceremonial purity, offended with the touch of the promiscuous crowd, and exclaiming, with equal anger and pride, " What defilement have I contracted, in order to see this teacher ! After this, what ablution will be necessary before I eat bread, or enter the synagogue !" Ah ! happy thou, says our Lord ; if thou wert pure in heart ; for " out of it proceed the evil thoughts which defile the man." But they who make conscience of their thoughts, and cultivate purity of motive and affection, shall be admitted to see God in the assembly of "the spirits of the just made perfect, where nothing that defileth shall ever enter." But God is a spirit, you say, whom no man can see, with the bodily eye, any more than it can see thoughts. True; but the pure in heart shall see " God manifest in the flesh," in the person of the Lamb in the midst of the throne of heaven; for " the Lamb is the light thereof." And they shall have a mental view of God, in what is called the beatific vision, far more satisfactory than any sight which eyes of flesh can enjoy. Even in the present world, the mind's eye shows its superiority over that of the^body. Who that knows God, as he now shines in the face of Christ, does not pant to know him more, to tear the veil of concealment, " that we may know even as we are known." Well ; the assurance of this * This is parallel to the phrase, poor in spirit, and shows, that in both, we must add the internal disposition to the external condition. f2 68 LECTURE TV. felicity may shed bliss over the present state of obscurity, while "we see through a glass darkly;" for he that cannot look upon iniquity will unveil himself to those whom he has taught to admire the beauty of holiness ; and they who have blushed and sighed over the impurity they have seen without and felt within, shall see in God all that which shall satisfy their utmost longings after him. Who can look forward with confidence, and not feel that it makes us even now blessed, to be able to say, " I shall see God face to face ?" The seventh beatitude is this, " Happy are the peace- makers, for they shall be called the sons of God:" v. 9. In a crowd, where all are eager to hear, disputes will arise, and our Lord may have seen some of his disciples kindly quieting the contentious, by " soft words, which turn away wrath," reminding them how indecent it was to quarrel in the presence of one so kind to them all. Happy, then, said the Saviour, are you that make peace and extinguish strife. " Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon you, that you should be called the sons of God !" For God has predestinated all who are his sons by regeneration, to be conformed to the image of his only begotten Son, who " came preaching peace," and quenching the flames of the fiercest war in his own blood. " If you are children, then heirs ; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Jesus Christ." Who that ever saw a Christian imitating his Lord by striving to compose differences, to reconcile enemies, and restore harmony and love, where strife and enmity had reigned, did not see in him the very image of his heavenly Father, and the unequivocal signs of a happy mind? And who can doubt that God will make his own children blessed? For, if we, who are evil, study the happiness of our offspring, how much more will the God of love and peace make them blessed whom he has begotten by his grace, after his own image, and owned before the world, by saying, " These are my sons and daughters !" If the children of poverty would feel themselves most happy were a rich man, or a king to own them as his children, what language can do justice to ON TRUE HAPPINESS. 69 their bliss who are called, by the voice of Heaven, the chil- dren of the living God ?* The eighth beatitude is that of the men who are persecuted and reviled for the Saviour's sake: v. 10, 11, 12. As Christ's fame was now waking up the enmity of the Pharisees, they were probably marking out for their ven- geance the poor, whom they called " cursed and ignorant of the law," and who were now beginning to tremble lest they should be deprived of the alms of the synagogue, and be crushed by the storm that was about to burst on the followers of the Lamb. But he bids them triumph under the banner of the Cross, in the assurance, that what they lost on earth, should be repaid in heaven. Let us only be sure, that the persecutions we endure are for our righteousness, and not for our sins ; that the evil that is said against us is false, and is the result of enmity to the Saviour, whose image we bear, and whose cause we defend ; then, instead of grieving, blush- ing, or trembling, we may indulge in high exultation and heavenly gladness; for we are not only sufi'ering in a good cause, but in good company. Prophets and apostles, saints and martyrs, all that shine brightest in glory, and drink deepest of bliss, have ascended to their thrones by the same steps. But they " took joyfully the spoiling of their goods, knowing in themselves that they had in heaven a better and more enduring substance." Happy were Paul and Silas, when scourged and put into the dungeon, with their feet fast in the stocks ; for they, at midnight, basked in the sunshine of heaven, and made the gaol echo with their songs of praise, till " the prisoners heard them." Nothing cheers the heart with pleasures so exquisite as the consciousness that we are suffering for religion and for God. To die in this cause is more blissful than to reign in any other. The Apostles, when * Here I cannot but feel myself called to commend to the patronage of the children of God, the Society for the Promotion of Universal Peace. The wars waged under the Christian name have blasted its fair fame, which will never be restored to the original purity and lustre, till " swords are beaten into ploughshares and spears into priming hooks, and men learn war no more." 70 LECTURE IV. beaten, " returned from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for Christ's sake." The greatest sufferer for righteousness, the man of sorrows, Jesus Christ, " for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross and despised the shame, and is now set down at the right hand of the throne of God." Look at the glorious army of martyrs, with Jesus the king of martyrs at their head, and see whether they repent of what they have endured, when they not only lost their liberty in gaols, but their fair fame, by vilest calumnies, and finally, their lives, by martyrdom ; and say, whether it was not with high propriety, that to those who are on the road to this bliss, joy was enjoined as a dutyj so that, to them, happiness was holiness. Our Lord now gives a turn to his discourse, in order to show IL The honour of usefulness : from v. 13 — 16. To all those who are blessed in the tempers here de- scribed, it is not enough that they are themselves happy, for they aspire to be useful, in making others blessed. Christ has graciously met the disposition which he himself has implanted, and which he so much approves, with an assurance that the honour of promoting the salvation of others shall crown the joy of their own. Under figures, he shows them, that they shall act as salt to save the world from corruption, and as light to rescue it from ignorance ; both which were probably sug- gested to our Lord by the salt heaps mentioned by travellers in the East, and by the lights in the city of Capernaum on the opposite hill. Christians shall be, 1. As salt, to save the world from corruption. The depravity of our fallen nature is fearfully proved, by the constant tendency of man to a moral dissolution, which is like that physical decay in animal matter which salt is de- signed to counteract and prevent. The sentence of our Creator was once pronounced thus, " all flesh has corrupted its way : I will destroy man whom I have made." But the terrible judgment of the Flood was so soon lost upon mankind, that the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah was necessary to give a second warning to the corrupt race. And, when the ON TRUE HAPPINESS. 71 rest of the world was given up, that one nation which was selected for God and religion, was not long preserved from the general depravity. Even the example and teaching of an incarnate God, and the force of his holy religion, did not prevent the tendency to corruption ; but Christianity itself was transformed into what was diametrically its opposite. For though Christians are the antagonist force which heaven's mercy has provided, to arrest the march of corrup- tion, the salt is in danger of" losing its savour." Wisely and kindly, therefore, did our Lord warn his disciples, in order that they might guard against the event so fatal to the world. For, if other substances are exposed to corruption, salt is pro- vided to preserve them. But, if salt could change, and lose its saline properties, what could restore them? There is nothing that can act as salt to salt, which, therefore, if ren- dered insipid, is hopeless and worthless, and must be thrown out, as mere dirt, to be trodden under foot. Are you, then, chosen to the high honour of being sepa- rated and distinguished from the world, to resist its ten- dencies and correct its morals ; what infatuation must have seized you, Christians, if you study to be like the world, when the very end of your distinction demands opposite qualities? It is the voice of God that says, " Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds." Is the flesh designed to give its properties to the salt, or the salt to the flesh ? Your sentiments must therefore be, not those of the world, but those of God revealed in his word; your spirit must savour, not of earth, but of heaven ; your conduct must be, not according to the laws of this world, but after the example of Christ ; your conversation must be directed to arrest the current of ordinary talk ; and your in- tercession must be addressed to heaven, that, by calling in almighty aids, you may do what you otherwise could not hope to effect. For, if you take an opposite course, you not only fall from your high vocation to save a world from ruin, but you curse that world with the insipidity on which it will trample, where you should have blessed it with a savour of life, to rescue it from moral and eternal death. For what 72 LECTURE IV. has hitherto preserved this earth from that universal pro- fligacy which would have made it the antechamber of hell, but the pungency of Christian sentiment, the savour of heaven in the conversion of believers, the force of example exhibited by holy men, and the evangelical spirit of Chris- tian worship ? To this salt we owe all reformation of manners and religion, and all return to soundness of morals and pre- valence of piety. But, if this salt become insipid, what shall restore it to its proper virtue and active force ? The world will not recover the Church, and therefore the Church must restore the world, or be dispersed and trampled upon as one pretending to a distinction where there is no difference, and degraded, like Lucifer, to the apostacy and perversion of an archangel fallen. Salt of the earth, beware of losing your savour ; maintain your difference ; counteract your op- ponents ; exert your principles; prize your high calling: for, in doing this, you shall save yourselves and the world around you. But Christians are exhibited by their Lord, 2. As light to rescue the world from the darkness of ignorance. For, when you are said to be lights, it is supposed that those around you are in darkness ; as the sun is the light of our system, because this earth and the other planets, and their moons, are dark bodies. " Darkness has covered the earth, and gross darkness the people;" and " you shine," says the Apostle, " among them, as lights in a dark place." All nations were left to walk in their own way, that it might be demonstrated that "the world by wisdom knew not God." Men boast of the native light of reason; but what did it teach Athens, the eye of Greece, itself the eye of the world ? It left her to manufacture a rabble of deities; so that it was said, you may more easily find a god there than a man; and, after all, to erect an altar " to the unknown God." What has it taught China, the most enlightened of heathen em- pires ? Nothing concerning God, or the way to holiness, happiness and heaven. What has Christianity herself done, without the light of living Christians? Scarcely afforded even grey twilight. ON TRUE HAPPINESS. 73 But when the surrounding country was in Egyptian dark- ness, it was said of Israel, " they had hght in all their dwel- lings." And to you it is given to know the kingdom of God, while, to others, all is parable. You know yourselves, for he that searches the heart and tries the reins has given a por- tion of that knowledge to you; so that, like the glow-worm, that has a luminous phosphoric drop within itself, while all other creatures are merely opaque; you have that acquaintance with the depravity, and guilt, and helplessness of man, that renders you awake to the general necessities and dangers of our race. From heaven descended the maxim, " Man, know thyself," and from the highest heavens descended the know- ledge of God, for he " who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has given you the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." This was not intended for yourselves merely, but for others. You are placed as lights in the world. You are, therefore to be conspicuous, and not only luminous, but illuminating, as a city, like Capernaum set on a hill, that cannot be hidden. This was then in the viev/ of our Lord; and of this city he said, " Thou, Capernaum, art exalted to heaven." Are we not lighted and set up for this purpose, that we may be seen, and givelight to others ; as we light a lamp, not to put it under a cover like a corn measure, but in a lump-stand, that all in the house may see ? We are charged, therefore, to " let our light shine abroad." If our modesty would make us silent, our mercy must make us speak ; if our humility would induce us to retire, our zeal should push us forward ; if we fear to act, lest we should do wrong, we should still more dread to forbear, lest we should do nothing. For light must diffuse itself, and dart its rays abroad, and the darkness of the world requires that we carry the blazing torch into its recesses, lest men should rise in judgment against us, and say to us at last, " You knew our dangers and did not tell us ; you had found the way to heaven, and never apprized us, whom you saw rushing down to perdition." We do not say, for Christ does not, " Let men hear of your good works from you:" no, let them be seen rather; for you may "do 74 LECTURE IV. good by stealth, but you will " blush to find it fame." For, if you labour to enlighten the world, the effects will proclaim it, and men will see, and bless the sight, and " glorify your Father which is in heaven." Then, what will be your triumph ! You will have attained the end of your being, which is the glory of God ; you will have saved a soul from death. For he who glorifies your Father becomes, with you, a child of his grace. You will exult in having seized the two greatest prizes in the universe, by having brought out a wandering soul fi'om darkness into marvellous light, and promoted the glory of the First of Beings, who is well pleased to be known, for which end he created all things, and who will smile on the light which has reflected back its rays on its glorious author. Strange as it may seem, I yet ask, can any subject more need application than this which we have now considered? I know that nothing is more common than to praise our Lord's excellent sermon on the mount ; but then men turn away, satisfied to have praised, and gravely argue that it is too sublime to be practised. If I make any thing like a faithful application, I must divide my audience into three classes : — those who openly seek a happiness contrary to that which is here displayed — those who attempt a com- promise between this and what is opposite — and those who seek their happiness in the way our Lord prescribes. Many who profess to admire, as dutiful Christians, this divine discourse, yet glory in the character of high spirited men, endued with a noble pride and a just sense of their own importance, having good hearts, which never give way to grief, but esteem life as made for laughter and jokes. They know how to resent an inj ury, and make every one be- have to them as he ought. Far from hungering and thirsting after righteousness, they are quite full of their own good- ness, and, instead of suffering persecution for religion, they take care to have no more than is consistent with their credit among those who are in power. Ah ! surely such persons have reason to exclaim, as one of old did, " Blessed Jesus, either this is not the true Gospel, ON TRUE HAPPINESS. 75 or we are not true Christians." Though I would abhor to give such men one pang of unnecessary pain, I would endure any thing to terrify them out of their assumption of the name of Christians. I know how this would diminish the ranks of the supposed disciples of Christ ; but, then, he would lose nothing, and they migjit gain much, by taking their proper place. For thus they might open their eyes to the fact, that theirs is a character made up of the opposites to that which Christ pronounced blessed. And does not con- science testify, that, when your bosom has swollen with pride and wrath, you have looked with secret envy at those who have shown " the meekness and gentleness of Christ ?" Can you look at the Son of God, and not see that his charac- ter contained the true elements of bliss ? And how can you hope to share that felicity on earth, or in heaven, unless you possess that character ? Why plead your natural temper as an apology for all that is contrary to Christ and to bliss ? Has not our Redeemer come to create a moral revolution in our nature? Does he not "sit on the throne, saying, Behold I create all things new?" Believe on his name and you shall find, that " If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature ; old things are passed away, and all things are be- come new." But, in this assembly, the second is likely to be the larger class — those who attempt a compromise between the ele- ments of the bliss which Christ describes, and tempers of an opposite character. These would not go all lengths with the proud, the passionate, and the profanely merry ; for they know that meekness, and lowliness, and gentleness, and penitence, are essential to the Christian character. But though you do not, with " fools, make a mock at sin," you are far from mourning over it ; if you would not draw a sword to avenge yourselves, you, without scruple, take other me- thods to make an enemy feel your resentments ; if you do not despise the strictness of religion, you do not " hunger and thirst after" its highest attainments ; if you suffer any reproaches, or other inconveniences, for the little religion you have, you are so far from rejoicing at it, that it sits un- 76 LECTURK IV. easily on you. Instead of going thoroughly into the spirit of the beatitudes, you seek to supply your lack of bliss by a large admixture of other and opposite ingredients. But what is the consequence ? You know not how happy are those whom Christ describes. If a physician prescribes a certain remedy, and you, afraid of. its operation, should mingle it with opposite substances, could you expect to experience the effect which he intended to produce ? If a friend, finding you in a wrong direction, should inform you that you must turn back, and go in an opposite course, and you, trusting to your own reasonings, should take a middle way between the two, would you not, in proportion as he was right, find that you had gone wrong, and had wandered out of the way? We do not profess to doubt the infallible judgment of Christ concerning true bliss. Then what can we gain by our middle course, but so much deviation from happiness ? And are we not aware that we actually miss the mark of true felicity, in exact proportion to our departure from the very spirit of Christ's directions, so that we cannot enjoy earth for heaven's sake, nor heaven for earth's sake ? You are too well aware of the nature of happiness to expect it in the way of the world, and too little aware of it to seek bliss in the only way of God. " How long halt ye between two opinions ?" What can be more wretched and disgrace- ful than this perpetual vacillation? Oh, quit the large class to which you now belong, and turn to The third and last class, which consists of those who enter thoroughly into the Saviour's sentiments on the charac- teristics of genuine bliss. You know, Christians, that in proportion as you walk in all lowliness and meekness, and share with the man of sorrows in his endurance of opposition from the world, you share with him in his bliss. For the happy temper is the same every where, in heaven, or in earth ; every Christian knows that the blessed above are of a disposition totally opposite to that in which men of the world seek enjoyment. Wisely, then, did an ancient saint lay down this as a rule for self examination, " Try myself by the beatitudes." " Go thou," says our Lord, "and do likewise." LECTURE V. THE SECOND ON CHRISt's SERMON ON THE MOUNT. Matt. v. 17 — 48. the true interpretation of the law. As no accuracy or felicity of description can give an ade- quate idea of a person we never saw, but, after all our fancied knowledge of him, the first glance of the eye convinces us that we had been utterly mistaken ; so it is, perhaps, equally impossible to convey, by words, any just, or at least perfect, conception of future events. The various and dissimilar no- tions that have been formed of that approaching season, that is called the Millennium, prove that some must have misunder- stood the prophetic word. When it arrives, we shall, per- haps, find that we were all greatly mistaken. Is it surpris- ing, then, that before the Messiah came, the Jews should have formed many erroneous expectations, and should have cherished pernicious hopes of the design of his advent? Had they expected that he would abolish the ceremonial law, they would have been justified by many declarations of the Prophets, by the consideration that the Levitical ritual was adapted to a single nation, inhabiting a country so small as Palestine, and by many signs which indicated that these carnal ordinances were " waxing old, and were ready to vanish away." But this, unhappily, does not seem to have entered their minds, as they made it a grave charge against the first disciples of Christ, that they affirmed that their Master " would change the customs wliich Moses delivered to them, and destroy the holy place." Thus, " Their table became a snare, and that which should have been for their welfare became a trap." But our Lord here intimates that so^ne thought, or at best 78 LECTURE V. were in danger of thinking, he came to destroy the moral law. Against this notion he solemnly warns us. For the commandments given on Mount Sinai, and deposited in the ark, the centre of the holy place, were engraven on tablets of stone, and would live, though all the rest of the Levitical apparatus were consumed to ashes. The moral law was the expression of the Divine Mind con- cerning our relation to God and our fellow-creatures. He that gave us our moral nature, by this fitted us for moral government; and when he presented his own excellence to our understanding and our conscience, he could do no other than demand all the powers he had given us, for he is the being who deserves them all. And what other law could be prescribed for our duty to our fellow-creatures, than to command us to love them as ourselves ? This was a rule so manifestly equitable, so constantly at hand, so adapted to promote our happiness, and the honour of the common Father of us all, that it is difficult to conceive of any other measure of duty. As, therefore, the law was not arbitrary, but founded on the nature and reason of things, it was immutable. The law being thus holy, just, and good, heaven and earth shall pass away sooner than one iota or tittle of it shall be abolished. To diminish, therefore, in the least degree, the authority and force of the law, by our teaching or by our example, is to sink ourselves to the lowest rank of those who belong to that celestial reign, which Messiah came to establish ; but to enforce the law, by our instructions and our actions, is to rise to the loftiest eminence in that empire which maintains the rights of God, and the true interests of man. Let none say that this is to symbolize with the Pharisees, who sought righteousness by works of law. We shall soon see that if we maintain the true honour of the law, we must feel compelled to seek a far nobler righteousness than that of the Scribes and Pharisees. No other than that of Christ can meet the demands of the law, as it is here expounded. After this general introduction, our Saviour proceeds to enter into an explanation, not of all the Ten Commandments, THE TKUE UNTERTRETATION OF THE LAW. 79 but of several of the most prominent, which serve as speci- mens by which we may interpret the rest. I. The law concerning murder he explains from v. 21 to 26. Our translators have not conveyed the true meaning of the Redeemer, when they say, " Ye have heard that it has been said by them of old time, thou shalt not kill." It is not in- tended to represent the ancients as speaking thus, but to show that the modern Rabbis had misrepresented what God said to them of old time, i. e. to the ancestors of Israel, who heard the law delivered on Mount Sinai. Nor does our Sa- viour exhibit himself as altering the law, to make it more strict, which would be destroying* it, to give a new one ; but he merely confutes the false glosses of the modern Jewish lawyers, or divines, and restores the law to its pristine purity and vigour. His words may be paraphrased thus : " You have been told that God commanded your forefathers, merely to abstain from the actual commission of murder ; but I say to you that the law is spiritual, and extends to the tempers of the heart, forbidding all anger and bitter passions, and all contemptuous, provoking speeches, such as raca, empty fel- low, or fool."t For as love is the fulfilling of the law, every thing contrary to benevolence is a transgression ,• and murder is but the consummation of the malice which the law con- demns. Cain, the murderer, is therefore, branded by the Apostle as being " of the wicked one," because he hated his brother. For if a person kill another without malice pre- pense, as our law expresses it, neither God nor man condemns it as murder. If then the essence of this crime lies in the malice, the God who sees the heart, charges the guilt on him who has the disposition, though want of opportunity, or * The original word here employed is seen, by the usage of the Greek writers, to mean an authoritative alteration. f Here we see how we are to reconcile this prohibition of saying "Thou fool," with the conduct of Paul, in saying (1 Cor. xv.), "Thou fool." To say this, to provoke another to anger, is virtual murder ; the Apostle spake in a benevolent spirit, having no individual in view, but wishing to show the folly of a supposed objection to the doctrine of the resurrection. 80 LECTURE V. dread of punishment, may restrain from the last act, the shedding: of our brother's blood. For is not God the sovereign of the heart ? Is it not the special prerogative of him who searches the heart and tries the reins, to j udge the secrets of all hearts ? What but the indulgence of malicious tempers and provoking speeches has led to all the murders that have ever stained the earth with human blood ? To press this just interpretation of the law on the hearts of his professed disciples, our Redeemer charges them to re- flect that God regards their tempers towards each other, in all their approaches to him. Alluding to the ancient offer- ings, he says, " If thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there remember that thy brother has some cause of complaint against thee, proceed not a step farther in the worship of God till thou hast settled thy diiference with thy fellow- man. Nor let the pride of thy heart indulge in sullen de- lays, but leave the gift at the altar, as intending to come back immediately to offer it. As thou wouldest, if on the way to court, settle thy dispute with one at law with thee, in order to escape the consequence of being cast in thy suit, so re- member that thou art also on thy way to God's tribunal, and shouldest, therefore, instantly lay aside all this malice which exposes thee to his condemnation, and cultivate all that bene- volence which his law enjoins. For if thou canst not escape from the imprisomiient inflicted by human justice, till com- plete satisfaction be made, how canst thou hope to find deliverance from future punishment, when fallen under the justice of heaven?" Can we hear this interpretation of the law of murder, so wise, so just, so holy, so benevolent^ and yet so authorita- tive, without exclaiming, " Who can tell his errors ? Cleanse thou me from secret faults." " I have seen an end of all perfection, thy commandment is exceeding broad." Can we hear Christ's exposition of the law, without remembering that it is the design of the New Covenant to confer this prime blessing upon us, the writing of the law in our hearts ; " that the righteousness of the law may be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit" ? " He that hateth his THE TRUE INTERPRETATION OF THE LAW. 81 brother abicieth in death;" for he is a murderer, and "■ no mur- derer hath eternal life abiding in him." " What man, there- fore, is there that loves life, and desires many days, that he may see good ? Let him keep his tongue from evil," and beware of committing murder with his lips. And, above all, guard his heart, that the malice of the murderer have no entrance there. Let not any one imagine that he can bribe heaven by his gifts, to tolerate his evil temper toward his brother ; for Jehovah says, " When ye stretch out your hands, I will not see you ; for your hands are full of blood." IL The law of adultery is next vindicated from the per- versions of the Jewish school : v. 27 — 32. " You have heard that God said, Thou shalt not commit adultery." In this command is included our duty with re- gard to the intercourse of the two sexes, for in the beginning God made them male and female. The Pharisees, who boasted so much of their own righteousness, confined this precept to the grosser acts by which the violation of chastity is committed, or to what our law calls criminal conversation. But the great expositor and fulfiUer of the law shows that God designed to forbid every thing unchaste, even a look expressive of an adulterous wish, which is condemned as adultery in heart. The sexes were created for each other's society and solace in a state of innocence, and were made fellow-heirs of the grace of immortal life, that they might promote each other's devotion here, and happiness hereafter. Every thing contrary to this is the unchastity which the legis- lator designed to prevent ; and unless the law thus rule our heart, what, but want of opportunity, or dread of punish- ment, prevents the actual commission of adultery, forni- cation and all uncleanness ? If God is not to judge us adulterers, but when we commit that crime, of which human tribunals take cognizance, wherein is his dominion superior to that of man ? Has he not, in other parts of his word, asserted the same claim to the jurisdiction of the heart? Has he not said of some, "they have eyes full of adultery, that cannot cease from sin ?" Did not Job say, " I have made a covenant with G 82 LECTURE V. my eyes, that I should not look on a maid !" Was it not the neglect of this rule that plunged David, not merely into actual adultery, but into murder too ? For lasciviousness and blood go hand in hand, as the murder of the greatest of the ancient Prophets, John, committed, at the instigation of an adulteress, can testify. Since, then, the eye affects the heart ; by this inlet, if not carefully guarded, the foul crimes of murder and adultery enter and seize the citadel of the soul. If, therefore, thine eye offend thee, i. e. cause thee to stumble in the path of holiness, pluck it out and cast it from thee as an abhorred thing; or if thy hand offend, cut it off and cast it from thee. These bold orientalisms, though foreign from the coldness of our northern speech, are adapted to our common nature, and admirably calculated to startle us, and impress on the me- mory and heart lessons, which, if delivered in more didactic phrase, would slide off from the mind, as the wave from the feathers of the sea-fowl. Act, then, with as much decision, and be as severe upon thyself as he who should pluck out his own eye, and fling it away with abhorrence; or should with the one hand cut off the other, and cast it on the ground. Tear thyself away from an object that, by exposing thee to temptation, would defile thy heart and betray thee into sin. At any cost, escape from the commission of sin. For no severity can be unreasonable where eternity is at stake. If thou dally with the temptation, thou art a ruined man. It is better to enter into life under any disadvantage, though thou wert to live there as a one-eyed or a one-handed man, than by shrinking from these sacrifices, to give both thine eyes and both thy hands, and thy whole body and soul to torment. Heaven shall richly repay the sacrifices of virtue, and hell severely avenge the pleasures of sin; for eternity sets upon the pains or pleasures of futurity, the stamp of infinity.* * It is worthy of notice that even the wiser heathens condemn the Jews and justify our Lord. Arrian, in his Dissertation on Epictetus, says, Sei — aol /caArjv yvva7Ka (pali/fcrdai fxijSfi^dav ^ t^v