SCS 4tl3'73 r Digitized by the internet Archive in 2018 with funding from Princeton Theoiogicai Seminary Library https://archive.org/detaiis/sermons00scot_0 4i'l373 .U ® M M g CG ©ITTo B. ID) SERMONS by the late REV, JOHN SCOTT, D.D. MINISTER or THE NEW CHURCH, GREENOCK ; WITH AN APPENDIX, CONTAINING CONSOLATORY LETTERS, &c. TO WHICH 13 PREFIXED, A MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR, JAMES BARR, D.D., PORT-GLASGOW. EDINBURGH: PUBLISHED BY OLIVER & BOYD, TWEEDD ALE COURT ; AND SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, & CO., I.ONDON. 1839. [entered in stationers’ hall.] Printed by Oliver & Boj’d, Tweeddale Court, High Street, Edinburgh. F RE FACE. I CONSIDER it a privilege to be instrumental in bringing this volume of Discourses before the public. Their Author was long known and very highly esteemed in the west of Scotland, as a most faithful and successful minister of the Gospel of Christ. He committed nothing to the press except two or three Addresses to the young, which were printed for local distribution. The Sermons which compose this volume were all pre¬ pared in the ordinary course of ministerial duty, without any view whatever to publication, and of course exhibit, in some degree, the imperfections that attach to all posthumous publications which the author himself has not prepared for the press. A very general desire was expressed, not only by the members of the flock over which he had long watched, but by many others who had been edified by his pulpit ministrations, to have some permanent memorial of one to whom they had often listened with interest and with profit ; and it was to gratify this desire that the present volume has been prepared. ^ IV I'UKFACli. Dr Scott was possessed in an eminent degree of almost all those qualifications which render a minister of the Gospel a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, — excellent talents, — extensive information, — very high attainments in personal holiness, — a thorough knowledge of the Word of God, — sound and comprehensive views of Christian doc¬ trine, — great practical acquaintance with the effects of the truth on the minds of men of different characters and in dif¬ ferent circumstances, and much Christian wisdom in rightly dividing the word of truth, so as to make it bear most directly and successfully upon the minds of those whom he addressed. I had not the happiness of knowing him until after he had been laid aside from the discharge of public duty, but it was my privilege for several years to act as his assistant, and to minister among his flock ; and I can truly say of him, as Burnet did of Leighton, that “ I have the greatest veneration for his memory, and that I reckon my knowledge of him among the greatest blessings of my life, and for which I know I must give an account to God in the great day.” I had an opportunity of witnessing, and think it proper to bear testimony to, his singular freedom from those feelings, which, even among good men, sometimes disturb the cordial and affectionate harmony that ought to subsist be¬ tween an aged pastor and his assistant and successor, his pro¬ found and lively interest in the spiritual welfare of his flock, manifested in every way that was practicable, and especially in habitual prayer that the blessing of God might rest upon rilEl'ACE. V them, and his holy and magnanimous disregard of every thing but what might tend most to promote the glory of God in the salvation of their souls. From peculiar circum¬ stances, he was placed in a situation in which he was called upon, after he had been laid aside from public duty, to choose between securing what he reckoned a pure dispensa¬ tion of Christian truth to his flock, and the accomplishment of an object which must have been dear to his strongest natural affections, and he never hesitated which side to choose. He continued, while he lived, to act firmly and conscientiously, under the conviction that he was bound to have for his first object the spiritual welfare of the flock over which the Holy Ghost had made him overseer, whatever sacrifices this might require at his hand. He had been subjected in the holy providence of God to a series of severe and painful afflictions, but these were cer¬ tainly sanctified both to him and to his flock. He endured much hardship, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus, and in this way was eminently qualified for doing the whole work of an Evangelist, and making full proof of his ministry, and especially for binding up the broken hearted, and comforting the mourners in Zion. In the very close of his life he was subjected, in consequence of divisions in his congregation, to a species of trial from which he had been previously exempted, as if his heavenly Master saw that he still needed something to wean him wholly from the world, to make him cease entirely from man whose breath is in his nostrils, and to commit himself and all his concerns unreservedly to Him VI PREFACE. whojudgeth righteously. This painful trial he herewith his usual resignation and magnanimity, and no doubt ex- perieneed its sanetifying influence in preparing him fully for the rest which remaineth for the people of God. From my ministerial connexion with those among whom he had long laboured, I can bear ample testimony to the success of his exertions in converting sinners, and in edify¬ ing the body of Christ ; and especially in impressing the minds of the young, and in guiding the views and comforting the hearts of those who were labouring under the pressure of temporal or spiritual distress. The Discourses contained in this volume are, I think, eminently fitted to be useful, especially to those who have been awakened to some sense of the importance of religion, but who have not yet formed clear and distinct views of the leading doctrines of the Gospel, and are involved in difficul¬ ties and anxiety about their spiritual condition ; and to those more advanced in the Christian life, who, amid the temptations and perplexities of the world, are desirous to walk circumspectly and in wisdom, and to adorn the doc¬ trine of their God and Saviour in all things by a life and conversation becoming the Gospel. The Rev Dr Barr of Port-Glasgow has kindly furnished a Memoir of Dr Scott’s life and professional character ; while his son has given a short sketch of his father as he appeared in his private and domestic relations. It may be added to the facts recorded in the Memoir, that in 1803 the University of Glasgow unanimously conferred PIlKFACi:. Til upon him the degree of Doctor in Divinity ; that he died upon the 26th March 1836 ; and that an excellent sermon, preached in the New Church of Greenock, on the Sabbath after his funeral, by the Rev. ]\Ir Smith of Lochwinnoch, a friend whom Dr Scott greatly valued, was soon after pub¬ lished. In an Appendix will be found a biographical notice of Dr Love of Anderston, with whom Dr Scott lived many years in terms of intimate friendship, originally intended for newspapers, and several letters addressed to Christian friends who had been visited with painful bereavements. Wm. CUNNINGHAM. Edinburgh, March 1839. ■ . .Jt ' ' i Ifi .-M^f CfO'i,;r U-) .-lO J : Vd ‘ •■' ;•■* ■’ ^Siui ,y.L ,; nr - f I'l ' - • ’ ‘ "'■^' C"' I'j o’j’t' . t f.-oiilffrA;^'.* > ^ S.u;->1; >*f : ^ vti n.i ijriC' ttl it< '•' ^O' .'>'... -iv to ifOi\ i'Xl >•'1 J;u' !;>i ylfr(‘|. f-. . -MfrtmJHn'' -^f^' v f ■ ' ' . ;if i • . i».h{ -^'y .M Ilf !• ''• I- • •l-w I . ..'/. H 1 I • “ % thr i.* ■) ; .Mk M > ■ i ••tl V •it ' "'Jt ■I IMemoir, X V SERMONS. SERMON I. Job xxxii. 7. — I said, Days should speak, and multitude of years sho Id teach wisdom . . . . 1 SERMON II. Job xlii. 5, 6. — I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear : but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore, I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes . 16 SERMON III. Genesis iii. 12. — And the man said. The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat . ,...35 SERMON IV. Isaiah xlv. 22. — Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth ; for I am God, and there is none else . . . . . 52 X CONTKNTS. SERMON V. 1 Peter ii. 7* — Unto you therefore which believe he is precious.... Page 69 SERMON VI. John xiv. I — 3. — Let not your heart be troubled ; ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions ; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself ; that where I am, there ye may be also . 88 SERMON VII. Revelation vii. 13 — 17 And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes ? and whence came they ? And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me. These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple : and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more ; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb, which is in the midst of the throne, shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters : and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes . 113 SERMON VIII. Romans xiv. 1.-— — Weak in the faith . 140 SERMON IX. John vii. 37- — In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying. If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink . 159 SERMON X. Genesis xxxii. 24 — 32. — And Jacob was left alone ; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. And, when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh ; and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was out of joint as he wrestled with him. And he said. Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let CONTENTS. XI thee go, except thou bless me. And he said unto him. What is thy name ? And he said, Jacob. And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed. And Jacob asked him, and said, TeUme, I pray thee, thy name. And he said. Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name ? And he blessed him there. And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel : for I have seen God face to face, and my life is pre¬ served. And as he passed over Penuel the sun rose upon him, and he halted upon his thigh. Therefore the children of Israel eat not of the sinew which shrank, which is upon the hoUow of the thigh, unto this day : because he touched the hollow of Jacob’s thigh in the sinew that shrank . Page 182 SERMON XI. Luke xvii. 32. — Remember Lot’s wife . 211 SERMON XII. Ephesians v. 25 — 27. — Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it ; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word ; that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing ; but that it should be holy, and without blemish . 240 SERMON XIIL Psalm Ixii. 8.— Trust in him at all times, ye people . 266 SERMON XIV. Psalm cxix. 63. — I am a companion of all them that fear thee, and of them that keep thy precepts . 291 SERMON XV. Romans xii. 11. — Fervent in spirit, serving the Lord . 310 SERMON XVI. Zechariah xii. 10. — And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications ; and XU CONTENTS. tliey shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born . Page 32U SEP MON XVII, 2 Corinthians iv. 10 _ Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body . . . 350 SERMON XVIII. Ecclesiastes vii. 1. — And the day of death than the day of one’s birth . 369 SERMON XIX. Isaiah Ixi. 1. — The Lord hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted... 386 SERMON XX. COLOSSIANS iii. 17- — And whatsoever ye do in word or in deed, do all in the name of the liord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him . . . 404 SERMON XXL John xvi. 15, — He shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you . 421 SERMON XXII. Proverbs iv. 18. — The path of the just is as the shining light, that shin- eth more and more unto the perfect day . . . 448 SERMON XXIII. Revelation i. 17, 18. — And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, F ear not ; I am the first and the last : I am he that liveth, and was dead ; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen ; and have the keys of hell and of death . 463 CONTENTS. Xlll APPENDIX. No. 1. ^Memoir oe Dr John Love . Page 405 No. ir. LETTER — Dr Scott to Mrs John Reid, Paisley . 490 No. III. LETTER — Dr Scott to the Rev. Dr Burns, Paisley . 492 No. IV. LETTER — Dr Scott to IMiss Balfour, Glasgow . 495 No. V. LETTER— Dr Scott to . 502 No. VI. LETTER — Dr Scott to Mrs Douglas, Stewarton . 505 No. VII. LETTER — Dr Scott to the Rev. Mr Smitli, Lochwinnoch . 509 • i* ^ i*>) <.V * *»> • lifij tit^-.J^ . ^ ' ■'^^K! fcf '£:. '*• ■ ^fC” *'*■• » -. ..» /i* I . . f,* ■- ^**1' ii) ^ fe-' • ?» ..' ’R y vit. V : V n- .1 .❖yi .1 , .M *. >.*14/* «>; : tv ’^^|.* ' \ v: •Mui ■ £i^tl '>) '»'• 4-\# »»' -■-*^ ^* V. <-• '^' ■ ’ 5^ -k-*' • ti * ^ f' v< ■-’ . -y-j m 4irs wu «4 wofi a^TTsa >. ^^. 7Vv I- : f:''^ -y.>>»>V<^»Cii . = ^ R,' b,..~.-U...'v.'--.-,-' . •vsw™.'"’*-' «->J“ ”' t»^i8-ra^t , ■ ■ ■ ^ , . ' - ^ X.' r f\ it\ f y t^~- 'A ■ ■’it- ’*«»*■ *1 ti>r-vt ■ -tf. i-jjv ■•.•7<'-t^ i' •• ■‘' * - ■ nT ' VVi- . * '3t .;^J xT». , ^ **“ \ 'JC-^ « . v"! , . Wt . » V ,' •* \ ' • < '* I ../ ’*»' , ,%-V- . .- . -i A *4 K» f. - t. . 1C4 , r/. ; . Am* !>.«■->«* •■ 5 * ."Ijafe,. fr-«* -I L-I* a/,’ ■•' 4 -; "i' W"' *i^’j 4. r. ' ■ * ^ J' ijL* '■■ MEMOIR OF THE REV. DR SCOTT. Few characters could more honourably bear, or would more profitably reward, a minute inspection than that of the late Dr Scott of Greenock, His extensive correspondence and the record of his every-day experience and observa¬ tion would supply ample materials for a separate volume. The writer of this notice has not had access to either of these sources of information; nor would it be consistent with his prescribed limits to give the detailed history of a long and active life, which embraced a wide sphere, and ex¬ tended over an eventful period. But even a brief outline cannot fail to be useful, and seems to be called for as an appropriate introduction to the following Discourses. The Rev. Dr John Scott was born in the year 1765 in the parish of Logierait, Perthshire. Soon afterwards his father’s family removed to the parish of Kippen, in the neighbourhood of which he received the rudiments of his education first at the school of Port of Menteith, and subse¬ quently at that of Aberfoyle. At an early age he com- XVI MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR. iiienced his academical studies in the University of Glasgow, where he pursued, if not a brilliant yet an honourable career, discovering that ardent desire of knowledge, and exercising that patient industry in the cultivation of it which characterized his maturer years. By an unwearied applica¬ tion to the various departments of biblical literature, he laid the foundation of those attainments in theology which eminently fitted for the sacred profession he had chosen. When at college, he contracted habits of affectionate inti¬ macy with a number of young men, whose principles and views coincided with his own, and who were destined to occupy important stations as fellow-labourers in the same vineyard with himself. Among his early and most valued friends may be mentioned the venerated names of Dr Bal¬ four of Glasgow, Dr Campbell of Edinburgh, Dr Davidson of Dundee, and Dr Love of Anderston, a short memoir of whom, prefixed to his published Sermons, was written by Dr Scott. In 17^7 licensed to preach the gospel at the early age of twenty-two years. It does not appear that during the period which intervened between the dates of his license and ordination he held any stated engagement as a preacher. For some time he taught in the family of Colonel Graham of Rednock, father of the present General Graham Stir¬ ling ; and also in that of Mr Wallace of Kelly, father to the present Member of Parliament for Greenock, which lat¬ ter situation placed him in immediate contact with the scene of his future labours. The fact of his having been the means of saving the life of a boy whilst bathing was often mentioned by him as a circumstance which providentially brought him under the notice and recommended him to the good wishes of the inhabitants of Greenock, who enjoyed otherwise the most favourable opportunities of becoming acquainted with his character, and of appreciating his qualifications for the minis- 6 MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR. XVll terial office. Accordingly, a vacancy having occurred in the New Church and parish of that town, he was, in com¬ pliance with the choice of the people, presented by the Magistrates and Council to that important charge, as suc¬ cessor to the Rev. Dr Adam. His ordination took place on the 14th of May 1793. The connexion thus formed, and which terminated only with his life, was always viewed by him with feelings of peculiar sacredness and solemnity ; and these feelings were reciprocated by the members of his numerous flock. No other individual, perhaps, could have beenfound whose talents and character were so admirably adapted to the place and the people. The same expressions of popular attachment which welcomed him at the commencement of his work attended him to its close ; and the experience of every suc¬ cessive year, by presenting to the subjects of his ministry additional evidence of his zeal and ability, his faithfulness and success, served only to give him a higher place in their affections, and a firmer hold of their confidence and esteem. In the year 1796, he married Susan Fisher, daughter of Alexander Fisher, Esq. Dychmont, East Kilbride, a lady well fitted to be his associate by the vigour of a well-cultivated understanding, and the fervour of an enlightened and ele¬ vated piety. Their family consisted of seven children, two of whom died in infancy ; other two were prematurely car¬ ried off at the ages of eight and fourteen years respectively, both of them endeared to their parents, not so much by the amiable dispositions which they discovered, as by the strong and decided marks of early piety which they exhibited. A very painful trial befell them in the person of their eldest son, a youth of great promise, who, after a season of acute and protracted suffering, in which it was found necessary to amputate the diseased limb, died in 1811, at the age of (I think) eighteen years. Mrs Scott herself was long in very h XVlll MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR, delicate health ; and for several years before her death in 1829 had to sustain a heavy complication of trouble, which she bore with the most exemplary meekness and resignation. Two of the children, a son and daughter, still survive. The public life of Dr Scott furnishes few memorable in¬ cidents. He occupied a conspicuous and important sphere, and exercised a powerful and extensive influence ; but he confined himself to his appropriate work, and laboured from year to year in the zealous yet unobtrusive discharge of his spiritual duties. He was a regular attendant on the church courts, felt a deep and conscientious interest in all their proceedings, and made himself thoroughly master of every question of importance that came before them ; but he did not in general take a very prominent part in their debates, although he never spoke on any subject without being listened to with the most profound respect and attention. Neither did he come before the public in the capacity of an author, with the exception of two excellent and affectionate addresses which he permitted to be printed for the benefit of the young in his congregation. The scene of his parochial labours, however, afforded ample scope for the exercise of all his energies, and there he was enabled to exhibit a display of talent and character which secured for him a high place in public estimation, and associates his name with those of the most able and useful ministers of whom our church can boast. The high and well-merited reputation of Dr Scott was built chiefly on the solid basis of personal religion. The doctrines of evangelical truth, which he faithfully preached, eloquently illustrated, and powerfully enforced, were the daily food of his own soul. The work of the Holy Spirit, on which he loved to expatiate, was with him a mat¬ ter of actual experience. He scrupulously adhered to the same lofty standard of morality which he laid down for the MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR. XIX guidance of his people. His character embodied a fine ex¬ emplification of the power of godliness in the exercise of a piety at once humble and elevated, pure and practical, cheerful and charitable. He habitually lived, and moved, and breathed in the element of God’s awful and gracious presence. Yet his religion had nothing morose or repulsive in it. He mingled much with society. No man was hap¬ pier or could be more agreeable than he in the company of his friends. He possessed a large fund of humour ; and his conversation was not more instructive by its wisdom than amusing by its pungency and its playfulness. But his intercourse with men was uniformily such as to indi¬ cate that he spent much of his time in communion with God. In him were happily blended the grave divine with the delightful companion ; and his presence never failed to inspire love for the man, and reverence for the minister. The piety of Dr Scott was rational as well as fervent. It was the piety of an enlightened, well-balanced, and highly-cultivated mind. His natural talents, which were of a superior order, had been improved by the most assiduous application. He possessed a minute and accurate acquaint¬ ance with the literature of his profession, acquired by a careful examination of the Sacred Writings in the original tongues, and by an attentive perusal of the most esteemed theological works, both ancient and modern. He was, be¬ sides, more or less conversant with almost every department of general literature ; and his stores of knowledge, extensive and varied as they were, had been so carefully digested, and so judiciously arranged, and were so distinctly remembered, as to be always at his command, and always available for materials of interesting conversation and subjects of useful instruction. Nowhere did he appear to greater advantage, or employ his talents with happier effect, than in the intercourse of XX MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR. private life. Endued with a retentive memory and a lively imagination, possessing a large fund of information and anecdote, uniting an acute and delicate sense of propriety, with great affability of manner, cheerfulness of temper, and warmth of affection, his conversation was at once attrac¬ tive and useful to every variety of company and character. As a preacher, Dr Scott stood very high in public esteem. He possessed a rare combination of many of those qualities which are most essential to a popular preacher. To a com¬ manding figure, a clear and melodious voice, a distinct and animated utterance, he added a plain and pointed style of composition, a simple and natural arrangement of his sub¬ ject, close and pertinent illustration, a fervent and impres¬ sive delivery. His discourses were both instructive and argumentative, full and faithful in the exhibition of divine truth, searching and powerful in their appeals to the heart and conscience ; above all they were experimental and practical. The charms of his address, backed by the weight of his character, never failed to arrest attention ; and he found a reward of his laborious preparations for the pulpit, not so much in the expression of popular acceptance, which were constantly presented to him, as in the instances of deep and serious impression which came under his observation, and by which he was encouraged to entertain the hope of having many seals of his ministry for a crown of rejoicing to him in the day of the Lord. His mind was habitually impressed with a deep sense of pastoral responsibility. The ministrations of the sanctuary formed a part only, and the least considerable part, of the work to which he was devoted. By the intercourse of pri¬ vate visitation, which brought him into contact with the families and individuals of his charge, by the exercise of a minute and vigilant superintendence over them, by the expression of a tender and conscientious solicitude for their MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR. XXI welfare, he both acquired an intimate knowledge of their characters, and established a firm hold on their affections. He evinced a strong partiality for young people, and felt great pleasure in contributing to their improvement and gra¬ tification. The youth of his own flock, in particular, found in him not only the kindness of a faithful friend, but the care of an anxious father, who travailed in birth until Christ should be formed in them. The spiritual interests of his people lay very near his heart ; he bore all classes of them constantly in his remem¬ brance at a throne of grace, making mention of them daily in his prayers. In him they possessed both a counsellor to advise, and an intercessor to plead for them ; the meanest of his flock had easy access to his person for direction or con¬ solation ; and they ever found with him an attentive ear, a sympathizing heart, and, when circumstances required it, a bountiful hand. As he rejoiced in their joys, so also he wept in their sorrows. The house of mourning was the ob¬ ject of his tenderest care, and the scene of his most welcome and successful ministrations. He had a word in season for every description of mourners ; and in dispensing comfort, he combined the tenderness of a brother with the fidelity of a Christian minister. He had been taught by severe and sanctified experience to commiserate the distresses of others. Affliction was long an inmate in his dwelling ; and the furnace had been made seven times hotter to him than it is to the generality of men. But trials overwhelming to the feelings of nature were made supportable by the special influences of divine grace. To these painful trials the church is indebted for an example of patient and cheerful resignation, which is eminently worthy of being recorded as alike honouring to the God whom he served, and calculated to recommend the Saviour in whom he trusted. Their effect was not more beneficial on his per- XXll MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR. sonal character than on his public ministrations ; and there is good reason to believe that the afflictions with which his heavenly Father thought fit to visit him, proved the means of working out not only for him, but through him for many of his people, “ a far more exceeding, even an eternal weight of glory.” [For some additional remarks on this subject, the reader is referred to the subjoined letter from the pen of his son, who enjoyed the most favourable opportunities of ob¬ servation, and whose testimony possesses very peculiar claims to attention.] The ministry of Dr Scott, productive of so much good to others, necessarily secured a large share of influence for him¬ self; but it was a legitimate and well-earned influence, re¬ sulting from a sense of his personal worth, a conviction of his ministerial fidelity, and gratitude for his invaluable ser¬ vices ; and it was an influence from which he derived no other advantage than the pleasure of being more extensively useful. He was honoured in being the instrument of good to an extent far beyond his allotted sphere of congregational or parochial labour. The community at large reaped the fruit of his active and influential exertions in advocating the cause of public charity, and in promoting the success of every religious and beneficent institution. His occasional services to the church, and especially to those congregations among whom he was called to assist in the dispensation of the Lord’s Supper, greatly enhanced his reputation, and were often attended with manifest tokens of the divine bless¬ ing in affording both to ministers and people seasons of sweet and profitable communion, “ times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord.” To those who enjoyed the privilege of his correspondence, his letters conveyed an aecurate and edifying impression of his charaeteristic prudence and discernment, his tenderness and spirituality. They were remarkable for neatness of MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR. XXIU execution ; they breathed a spirit of kind and faithful friend¬ ship ; they were highly valuable for the lessons of truth, the counsels of wisdom, and the subjects of consolation with which they abounded ; and proved instrumental in many cases of trying emergency as the means of encouraging the fearful and confirming the doubtful, of quieting the troubled con¬ science and binding up the bleeding heart. Though a zealous churchman, he was highly esteemed by Christians of all denominations, and cheerfully co-operated with them in every effort to advance the cause of our com¬ mon Redeemer. He had a very extensive acquaintance among the ministers of the Establishment, and he lived with some of the most distinguished of them on terms of close and affectionate intimacy. He took a lively interest in the welfare of his younger brethren, to many of whom he ren¬ dered important services by his kind countenance and judi¬ cious counsels, and all of whom looked up to him with grateful confidence and profound veneration. In the year 1829, the active ministry of Hr Scott was suddenly interrupted during his attendance on the General Assembly, by an attack of paralysis, from the effects of which he never recovered. For some years afterwards he was able occasionally to attend the church, and joined with his people in the celebration of our Lord’s Supper ; but he could take no part in the public services of the sanctuary. Still, however, he continued to address them in the impres¬ sive eloquence of a pure and pious conversation. Whilst the outward man was rapidly sinking into decay, the inward man was renewed day by day. He now in a remarkable degree experienced the comfort and exemplified the power of those precious truths which he had been honoured to preach. The cheerful confidence which he had maintained through life became firmer and more tranquillizing as he realized the approach of death. His last testimony was just XXIV MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR. the expression of that humble resignation, and joyful hope, and ardent desire, which had been familiar to him in every previous stage of his religious history. But he now had a nearer and brighter view of the glory which awaited him. He now breathed more freely and sensibly the atmosphere of heaven, whilst he spake the language and anticipated the joy of its blessed inhabitants. He bore his last illness with a patient serenity, altogether worthy of his character ; and at length, in the 71st year of his age, and the 41st of his ministry, he entered into rest, and obtained the consumma¬ tion of his faith and hope in having administered to him “ an abundant entrance into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” JAMES BARR. It is but a very narrow province that can belong to me in contributing to a complete view of my father’s character. From all critical estimate of what he was, such as would be expected from one less closely connected with him, I am of course precluded. The readers of the Memoir will expect rather to learn from me what sort of impression his life as head of a family left on those nearest to him ; but here again I am limited by the unsuitableness for public expression of the most natural and the deepest feelings belonging to that relation, which alone entitles me to be heard on the subject. In that relation, the father is necessarily contemplated more than the individual ; but it is with the distinguishing features of the individual that the public have to do. MEMOIR or THE AUTHOR. XXV The loss of three children within eight months, by illness gradual and protracted enough to afford scope for every ffuctuation of hope and fear, left deep marks on his charac¬ ter as a man and as a father. An unreadiness to be moved by sources of slight and transient emotion, a sadness whose very consolations were solemn and deep, the sword still sus¬ pended in the lingering illness of her who had shared most largely in his bereavements, formed, in a man naturally grave and reserved, a habit which might seem like sternness to his surviving children, missing in him the cheerful parent of a little merry family. It was not gloom. He sorrowed not as those who have no hope. Towards us, as towards his ffock and humanity in general, his feelings had gained in depth and tenderness, but not so as to promote facility of access ; a sort of religious awe was at that early period the feeling which he most inspired at home. This did not of course continue at the same height. In addition to the usual effects of time, a strenuous regularity in discharging his official duty, through a struggle which few indeed can appreciate, and a peculiar susceptibility of enjoyment from the society of his friends and from the objects of nature, contributed much to the restoration of the tone of his mind ; while this progress into the capacity of sympathy diminished to his children the sense of distance from him, and incited him to greater openness of communi¬ cation. A certain mellowed cheerfulness and recovered mental freedom characterized the last fifteen years of his public life. He had left, in 1815, the house haunted with associations not the less depressing because they were so dear to him, and removed to a new one, in the building and preparation of which he took the pleasurable interest which pure and quiet-minded people take in the little revolutions of domestic life. The education of his children afforded, as it ad- c XXVI MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR. vanced, more exercise to his mind, and began to be a whole¬ some revival of the intellectual interests of his own youth. He now resorted, though very sparingly, to some literary relaxations. I may mention, as one instance, that he ac¬ quired at this time enough of Italian to read some of the best works in that language with perception and enjoyment of their merits. But still his house was not unvisited by affliction. Acute and threatening disease in one or another member of his family, was no unfrequent inmate. This probably tended to preserve and to send inward those influences of his former sorrows which God saw too precious to be lost. In nothing were they more apparent than in the discharge of his pas¬ toral duties. All who knew him in that capacity were aware of his special acceptance and usefulness in attending the beds of the sick, and in the instruction of the young of his congregation. His fitness for these offices was not cheaply purchased. I am thoroughly persuaded that the depth of paternal concern for the lambs of his flock which prompted his efforts on their behalf, and the tender sympathy with which he entered the chamber of mourning, belonged to him, not merely as a man, or a Christian, or a minister, but emphatically as the sorely bereaved father of children who died in the Lord. This period from the recovery of his active vigour after his bereavements, to the attack of illness which set him aside from public duty, is the portion of his life of which I ought to be best able to speak, and to record whatever it pre¬ sented that was striking or memorable. But, in truth, it was not in parts, in single acts, or single sayings that he was memorable or striking. A remarkable balance of mind, with the added influence of a caution and prudence, in which, if any where, the balance was exceeded, unfitted him to exhibit salient points of brilliancy either in thought or in MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR. XXVll action. Indolent and restless observers were not to be ex¬ pected to discern either the strength or the excellence of his character. He did not rouse their languid attention by occasional and disproportionate displays of any prominent faculty ; he conscientiously strove to exercise all which, even naturally, existed in a harmony much more admirable than dazzling. But, perhaps, I am straying into the biographer‘’s pro¬ vince. The closing period of his life was ushered in by two events which gave it a eolouring peculiar to itself. A para¬ lytic stroke, which, although it had not the effect on the mental powers so often attending that disease, cut off from the first every expectation of returning to public life, was soon followed by the removal of the partaker in his parental affections and his parental sorrows. Of her I may less trust myself to speak than even of him. Few could know what he had found, and what he lost in her. The dissolving for earth of this union of thirty -four years was needful to give its intended weight to that desolation of the “ outward man,” in which it was judged fit that his closing days should be spent. He continued to reap the advantage of his esta¬ blished habits in a quiet regularity of employment, most conducive to mental health in such a bodily state. He experienced kindness from many friends, peculiar devoted¬ ness of affection from some, whom it would be pleasant here to name, if such were the fitting expression of his sense of their love. But, benumbed in his limbs, depressed in animal spirits, having but one member of his own family a constant resident under his roof, and that one suffering and en¬ feebled by illness like himself ; he evidently felt the season to be given for humbling and melting, for settling his desires and his faith more exclusively on the treasure that is in heaven. He grew in gentleness, and meekness, and po¬ verty of spirit. Among his last words, when he w'as aware XXVlll MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR. of no mortal auditor, were difficult but earnest utterances of his desires before God for his people, and their children, and for himself, of faith in the blood of Christ; and his last breath went forth in prayer. A. J. SCOTT. SERMONS. SEKMON I. Job xxxii. 7. — “ I said, Days should speak, and multitude of years should teach wisdom.” Wisdom is the right application of useful know¬ ledge. In this discourse, it signifies true religion ; which is the practical and saving knowledge of God revealed in the Scriptures. To know the living and true God, and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent, is the most useful knowledge, is life eternal. This, too, is “ the wisdom that cometh from above, and is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and of good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.” And it is the word of God only which is able to make men thus “ wise unto salvation.” This wisdom, including the sublimest knowledge, united with a corresponding temper and behaviour, must, according to the ordi¬ nary dispensation of grace, be acquired gradually by men, naturally alienated from God through the A 2 SERMON I. ignorance that is in them, and cannot be acquired in the same degree by men who differ in opportu¬ nities, and in original capacity, as much as in stature and in features. But it is expected that the religi¬ ous improvement of every man should be propor¬ tionate to his abilities, years, and opportunities. To the aged are we referred, as to sage commenta¬ tors on the word and providence of God. And the laws and the customs of all nations enjoin re¬ verence to those advanced in life, more particularly when they are persons of rank in the community. Hence, our grievous disappointment when age and distinction are not accompanied by a suitable mea¬ sure of true wisdom. Hence, too, a painful altera¬ tion in our behaviour to those above us, in these respects, as soon as their deficiencies are discovered. If, on important occasions, we wait for solid instruc¬ tion and exemplary conduct from them, and if they justly offend by many ill-founded assertions, equally at variance with true godliness and brotherly love, and by much unseemly behaviour, duty obligeth us to withdraw, in a respectful manner, not that out¬ ward deference we ever owe to age and station, but that confidence in their judgment, that homage of the heart, which belong to rank and years adorned with true wisdom. We pass by the aged but blasted thorn with an emotion compounded of re¬ spect and pity ; we take shelter under the shady branches of the venerable oak, when we seek pro¬ tection from the sun or the shower. SERMON I. 3 Of this expectation and disappointment, the pas¬ sage containing the text furnishes a striking illus¬ tration. Long had Elihu waited for that display of true wisdom, in its most perfect form, for which the character, and years, and condition, of Job and his friends, taught him to look, — for which the interesting occasion of their meeting, and the im¬ portant subject of their conversation, made a loud demand. His reasonable expectations were not answered. These respectable persons displayed much wisdom, it is true ; but they also discovered very deplorable defects both of knowledge and of temper. This emboldened Elihu, notwithstanding his youth, to become the advocate of the integrity of Job, and of the rectitude of God. In the begin¬ ning of his discourse, he apologizeth for his attempt with modest intrepidity ; and in the text, which forms part of his apology, he expresseth his grievous disappointment : “ I said, days should speak, and multitude of years should teach wisdom.” This expectation extendeth to every one of us ; and if it be founded in reason and revelation, as it seems to be, our answering of it involves our hap¬ piness, as our disappointing of it does our misery. Are not we, therefore, deeply interested in this inquiry, what are the grounds of the expectation in the text, viz. that the religious improvement of every man should correspond to his abilities, years, and opportunities ? The result of this inquiry will lead us to examine our own attainments, and should 4 SERMON I. excite us, either to redeem the time that is lost, or to double our diligence to ‘‘ make our calling and election sure.” What are the grounds of the expectation expressed in the text, that the religious improvement of every man should correspond to his abilities, years, and opportunities ? The will of God is the most solid foundation of any hope, and gives the hope thus founded the practical influence of a divine command. From the universality of this expectation, we may presume that it is authorized by the Sovereign of the universe. Of this we ought to have no doubt, as we find it sanctioned by the will of God mani¬ fested in our rational nature, — in the progress of our faculties and opportunities of improvement, — in the increase of our duties in number and diffi¬ culty, — and, especially, in the revealed scheme of salvation. I. This expectation is founded in the intention of God manifested in our rational nature. The character of a creature discovers the end of its creation. What, then, is that property which clearly distinguisheth man from all the other inhabitants of the earth ? Undeniably, his capacity of knowing and loving, of serving and enjoying God. And does not this angelic faculty point to the glory of God, and to our own happiness, to be promoted by the exercise of it, as our chief end ? It does this so forcibly, that the serious consideration of the chief SERMON I. 5 end of man has disentangled the heart from the snares of the world, and constrained to devote it unto God. And as perfection in religion is not attained at once, it is self-evident that the glory of God, and our own happiness, oblige us equally to begin, and to make suitable progress in a religious course. Let us ask ourselves, therefore, “ Are we renouncing or promoting the end of our creation ? Are we prizing or contemning both the glory of God and our own interests ? Are we humbly seconding, or perversely thwarting, the wise and gracious intentions of our Maker ? Created erect, with a countenance elevated towards heaven, have we degraded ourselves to the level of the grovelling brute, or the crawling reptile, by looking continually downwards, by confining our views to earthly ob¬ jects ? Or, having obeyed the intimation of our Creator, are we habitually regarding the heavenly mansions as our home, and the favour of God as our true happiness ? And are we pursuing every other object in subserviency to this our chief end and chief good ?” II. This expectation is founded on the intention of God, manifest in the progress of our rational faculties, and our opportunities of improvement. We have seen that God hath formed us for religion ; I now remark, that he hath bestowed on us those two things which are indispensable to our improve¬ ment in it, growing abilities and increasing opportu- 6 SEllMON I. nities. Our capacity for religion is the greatest glory of our nature. It gradually enlarges with the ex¬ pansion of reason and the affections, in our progress from childhood to youth, and from manhood to old age. Nor are our opportunities of improving left behind by our advancing abilities. We are advanced from the nursery to the school, to the church, to the conversation of the experienced, to the mature instructions of them who being dead yet speak in their writings, and above all, to “ the Scriptures, that are able to make us wise unto salvation.” By the same good providence which invigorates our mental powers and multiplies their opportunities of improvement, we rise from the narrow vale of lowly condition which confined our views, to the diversified eminences of wealth and rank, which widely extend our prospects of God and his ways. On these emi¬ nences we may search out his works in the sunshine of prosperity, or with solemn admiration contem¬ plate the night of adversity, spangled and cheered by the innumerable consolations of the Most High. Such is our growing capacity, and such our increas¬ ing opportunities of religious improvement, evidently conferred for the same purpose by our wise Creator, and gracious Preserver. Let us carefully and im¬ partially inquire how we have used them. To us the lines have fallen in pleasant places. What part of our favoured land is not visited by the Sun of Righteousness, is not watered by the spiritual dews of heaven ? A few there are among SEllMON I. 7 us, planted on the bleak side of the mountain, with¬ out the culture of early instruction, and chilled by the unkindly winds and rains of laborious penury. The glistening eye of divine compassion is on them. Charity, glowing with an active benevolence, strains every nerve to ameliorate their condition. God forbid that her pious endeavours should be defeated by the worldly spirit which hath gone forth, and is sowing the tares of ignorance and vice more pro¬ fusely than even the seeds of promising lucrative enterprise ! With regard to the majority, hath God so dealt with any people ? But what return have we made for all our privileges ? Have we acquired as much divine knowledge, and become as expert in the application of it, as we well might in our cir¬ cumstances ? Is our spiritual wisdom suitable to the pious care of parents and teachers, to the leisure for religious improvement, to the opportunities of Christian conversation, which we have enjoyed? Thus planted and watered, are we as the sandy and barren desert, or as the pleasant and fruitful garden of the Lord ? Have our prospects of God and his ways become more extensive as we have risen in years, experience, and condition ; and do we shut our eyes on them, or do we examine them merely for selfish ends ? Is our strength augmented, and do we waste it in buffeting the blast or pur¬ suing the rainbow ? Does the Sun of Righteousness shine on us, and are we more ungrateful than the flower favourably situated, which daily discloseth 8 SEllMON I. fairer beauties, which daily diflfuseth a richer perfume ? III. This expectation is founded on the intention of God, manifest in the increasing number and dif¬ ficulty of relative duties. The duties of man result from his relation to God and to his fellow men. By the appointment of God they are inces¬ santly undergoing some change, and every alteration increaseth the difficulty, number, and complexity of his duties. The right discharge of them dependeth on the increasing knowledge of the will of God, on a corresponding conformity of temper, and on that ease in performing them, which is acquired by use, and perfected by habit. That portion of divine wisdom which is fit for the child or servant, will be very insufficient for the master, the spouse, or the parent. That degree of religious improvement, which is proportionate to the duties of the hearer of the gospel and the subject, will be very unequal to those of the magistrate and minister. And when our religion and duty do not advance hand in hand, we are men in stature, but children in science and beha¬ viour ; we are mariners without navigation ; we are husbandmen without the knowledge of soil or season. What a melancholy prospect has that family or community where this is the case ! What have they to expect but a famine of the bread of life, — but the shipwreck of the most valuable of their eternal interests ? SEEMON I. 9 And what may our connexions reasonably ex¬ pect from us ? Is our advancement to situations of higher trust and responsibility accompanied by a suitable progress in religion ? As we rise from one period of life to another, and from one station to another, has our knowledge of what those changes require, has our sense of duty, has our pleasure in answering the growing demands of God, and has our usefulness in society, steadily kept pace with our outward advancement ? Does our progress in them bear a just proportion to our attainments in what relates to time ? Are we as well acquainted with the Bible, the word of God, as with books of human composition, — as experienced in the business of a religious as of a worldly life,— as well provided with the bread that endureth for ever, as with that which perisheth,— as capable of training up a family in the way they should go, as of furnishing them with the necessaries of their condition, — or as rich in treasures which cannot be taken away, as in those which cannot satisfy, and may soon forsake us ? Ye, who plead the slenderness of your abilities as an excuse for your ignorance of religion, or for your low attainments in it ; your worldly prudence, your invincible perseverance, perhaps your conse¬ quent success, strip you of this apology, and point to the true reason of your want of success in the divine life, namely, your love, not of God, but of Mammon. How inexcusable are ye, especially if at the head of a family ? Every man cannot earn 10 SERMON I. a subsistence for himself ; but what man may not acquire treasures in heaven, to enrich both himself and his family ? If he who is able, and neglects to provide the necessaries of this life for them of his own house, is worse than an infidel ; surely he who labours not to make provision for their immortal souls is no better than the murderer of both his family and himself. And what if some of us are such monsters ? IV. This expectation is grounded on the inten¬ tion of God, peculiarly manifest in the revealed scheme of salvation. The divine origin of the Gospel is evidenced by its perfect suitableness to the nature and condition of man. He is a fallen creature, and it is fitted to reinstate him in the favour of God. He is capable of endless improve¬ ment, and it is fitted to promote his immeasurable progress. The end of the Gospel with respect to man is, to restore to him the friendship and image of God, forfeited by the apostasy of our first parents, and grossly contemned by our multiplied actual transgressions. To the accomplishment of this end, three means are indispensable ; I^^, A vindication of the honour of God, while he pardons penitent sinners, who can make no adequate atone¬ ment for their transgressions ; A revelation of this method of dispensing forgiveness, containing a complete rule of faith and manners ; and, 3^7, A divine power to interest men in the deliverance. SERMON I. 11 through faith in this revelation, producing holy obedience. The propitiation in Christ’s blood is the first of these means ; for “ God hath set it forth, that he might be just, and the justifier of him who believeth in Jesus.” The Bible is the second ; for it was written principally that we might believe that Jesus is the Christ, and that, believing in him, we might be sanctified through the truths therein contained. And the third is, the Holy Spirit freely offered to all, and by the Word working in many, “ to know, and to will, and to do the good pleasure of God.” All these imply the necessity of continued im¬ provement in religion. Christ died to redeem us from the curse of the law ; he also died to redeem us, not from some, but from all iniquity. This love of Christ constraineth all who are truly ac¬ quainted with it, to imitate and live to him, who is the express image of the infinitely perfect God. And, by the Spirit, we are renewed in the spirit of our mind according to the will of God, and thus rendered capable of knowing, and valuing, and feeling this love if we are true Christians. But when thus renewed we are infants ; we must pass through a spiritual childhood and manhood, in order to arrive at the fulness of the measure of the stature of perfect persons in Christ Jesus. Born of the Spirit, we are also trained up by him, according to that divine system of education contained in the Scriptures, and which is admirably calculated to 12 SERMON I. promote the required progress. Revelation con¬ tains truths suited to different capacities and to different periods of life, — “ milk for babes, and strong meat for them who are of full age.” Its practical demands rise with the privileges of the Christian ; “ unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall much be required.” And the rewards, as well as the means of salvation set forth in the Gospel, exact from all the candidates for the crown of glory unwearied endeavours “ to perfect holiness in the fear of the Lord.” And though the future reward will be of grace, and not of works, yet will it be jjroportioned to the use and improvement of talents. He who surpassetli his fellow-labourers in the work of faith and love, shall reap a richer harvest of glory and honour. He who is foremost in the Christian race, shall receive the most distinguished wreath of victory. He whose light shines brighter than that of others, enjoying equal privileges, and excites greater numbers to glorify God, will here¬ after shine as the sun in the firmament, while they twinkle as stars of inferior lustre and magnitude. This is the end and substance of the Gospel. How do our attainments correspond to them ? By whatever other rules we may be assisted in judging ourselves, it is by the Word of God we shall be tried at last ; and by it the best estimate of charac¬ ter should be formed at present. It is a glass in which every man may see his face. By it let us endeavour to ascertain our state and habit of mind SERMON I. 13 in a dependence on the Spirit of God, who dictated it, and who by it still savingly illuminates. Hath God set us apart, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience ? If he has separated us from the world lying in wickedness, what are our present apprehensions of the divine Being, compared with our first practically affecting discoveries of him, as the infinitely perfect Creator, and Governor, and J udge of the universe ? Do we now so see God as with the eye that we habitually abhor ourselves,” because of our imperfect resemblance to him ; and habitually “ repent in dust and in ashes,” because of sin mingling with our most conscientious endea¬ vours to imitate the beauties of his holiness. The stains of a white garment, which are invisible at midnight, which are scarcely perceptible at twilight, become offensive deformities in presence of the sun. What is the strength and liveliness of our faith in God, and our love to him as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, on comparing them with the first operations of these divine principles, and after mak¬ ing suitable allowances for the adventitious warmth of youth and novelty ? And in comparison with their first influences, what is now their power to mortify sin and perfect holiness, to subdue slavish fear, and to fill with peace and joy in believing? Children, are ye more humble and harmless, more meek and ready to learn ? Ye who are still in your youth, do ye more devoutly and practically remem¬ ber your Creator ? do ye flee youthful unholy af- 14 SERMON I. fections, and cultivate sobermindedness ? Ye, who have arrived at the middle of your course, doth the word of God abide in you ? are ye strong in the Lord ? have ye overcome the evil one ? and, while diligent in business, are ye fervent in spirit, serving the Lord ? Aged persons, have ye known him who was from the beginning ? are ye sober, grave, tem¬ perate, sound in the faith, in charity, and in patience, and teachers of good things ? Ye rich in this world, are ye neither high-minded, nor are ye trusting in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us all things richly to enjoy ; are ye doing good, that ye may be rich in good works, ready to distri¬ bute, willing to communicate ? And ye poor, are ye poor in spirit, rich in faith, and daily learning to be more contented with your state ? In a word, is the degree of your progress, as clearly ascertained by the moral brightness and usefulness of your life, as the height of the sun is generally to be ascertained by the increasing splendour and warmth of his beams ? And if your path is like the morning light, which shineth more and more unto the perfect day, is not this your rejoicing, that, in simplicity and godly sincerity, not by fleshly wisdom, but the grace of God, you have your conversation in the world ? Being made meet for the inheritance of the saints in light, doth not the Spirit bear witness ? How reasonable appears the expectation of the text, that the religious improvement of every man will correspond to his talents, years, and opportu- 6 SERMON I. 15 nities, since it is evidently grounded on the inten¬ tion of God, manifest in our rational nature ; the progress of our faculties and opportunities of reli¬ gious improvement, the increase of our duties in number and difficulty, and in the scheme of salva¬ tion revealed in the Scriptures ? And O how pow¬ erful the motives to a life of progressive holiness, included in these reasons of it ! Grovelling indeed must that man he who pants not to enter on this career of -the noblest ambition, — a career in which the gieatest men glory to run, with holy rivalship, a career which infallibly leads to the prize of the high calling of God in Christ ! Dead must that man be to every generous emotion, who springs not with grateful alacrity into this course, which divine mercy and grace open up, and render a way “ of pleasantness and peace !” SERMON II. Job xlii. 5, 6. — “ I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore, I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” All of us have “ heard of God with the hearing of the ear;” but who among us have heard as Job heard of him ? If not, our hearing may aggravate our guilt and condemnation. Some of us may flatter ourselves that “ our eyes have seen God but have these lively apprehensions of him been the visions of a heated imagination, the delusions of Satan, or the spiritual manifestations of the Most High, to sanctified souls ? Have they produced in us the same fruits they produced in Job ? In con¬ sequence of our enlarged discoveries of God, have we “ abhorred ourselves, and repented in dust and ashes ?” Should we say, “ this is language becoming notorious sinners only when first returning to God,” we would prove ourselves to be ignorant of God, when “ he manifesteth himself to his people in that other way than he does to the world.” And should we imagine that affliction is not a season for inti¬ mate intercourse with God, and of high self-im¬ provement, the experience of Job, described in these verses, is fitted to set us right. For these reasons, the text deserves the serious attention of us all. SERMON II. 17 Tlie substance of it may be comprehended under these two beads, — The degrees of the saving knowledge of God possessed by Job at different times ; The effect of the higher degrees on his heart. I. The degrees of the saving knowledge of God pos¬ sessed by Job at different times. The first of these is described by him in these words, — “ I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear.” This, however, is not the unavailing hearsay knowledge of God, alas, too common in the visible church. There are few or none among you, who has not often heard of God, from your parents, your teachers, your friends, and your ministers. Many of you can speculate, and talk plausibly, concerning his attributes and works. But what correspondence is there betwixt this knowledge and the state of your heart, and the state of your life ? None, none at all. Your understand- ing enjoys a cold and sickly light ; but your heart and your life are wrapped in the darkness of the world, or in religious form destitute of power. Not so the hearing of Job. It savingly determined his will to choose God for his portion, and regulate his practice by the law of God : “ he was a perfect and upright man, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.” — Chap. i. 1. It included that knowledge of the living and true God, and of the promised Re¬ deemer, which our Lord tells us is connected with eternal life, and is an essential component part of — John xvii. 3. It was faith founded on the tes- B 18 SERMON II. timony of God concerning himself ; “ faith that cometh by the hearing of the word faith that is of the operation of the Holy Spirit.” This faith, ye know, is assured of the being and rights of God ; and it substantiates something of his excellencies, as the object of divine hope. — Heb. xi. 1. Hence faith inspires the mingled fear and love of God ; hence it cherisheth good will to mankind, and temperance in all things ; hence it calls forth the exercise of religious affections, suited to the worship and the commandments of God, and his painful ap¬ pointments ; hence it cultivates patience with hope, and submission with humble trust. Such were the effects of Job’s hearing by the ear of God, on his practical judgment, temjier, and conduct ; and such will ever be the effects of saving faith, which this was, in proportion to its strength. 2d, The higher degree of saving knowledge of God possessed by Job, he thus describes, — “ now, mine eye seeth thee.” This was a privilege enjoyed by Abraham, “ to whom God appeared,” Gen. xvii. 1 ; by Moses, with whom “ the Lord spake mouth to mouth, and who beheld the similitude of the Lord,” Num. xii. 8 ; by the elders of Israel, “ who saw the God of Israel,” Ex. xxiv. 10 ; and here, by Job, who “ heard the Lord speak out of the whirl¬ wind,” Jobxxxviii. 1. We are not to interpret this as if these persons had beheld the person of God ; for “ no man hath seen God at any time in this sense he is invisible : they saw some symbol of his SERMON II. 19 gracious presence, while he communicated his will by articulate sounds. This is a more perfect de¬ gree of knowledge of God than what is received by report. The symbol represents that perfection of the character of God, which he intends to unfold to the mind and commend forcibly to the heart of the believing spectator ; and the words which accompany the representation form a commentary on it that leaves nothing unexplained . Thus, God is not heard of, but seen ; is not believed in, but felt ; and is not this knowledge of him more distinct and complete, more interesting and impressive, than that derived from testimony ? Undoubtedly it is ; and, therefore, it was the knowledge of God enjoyed by our first parents in Paradise, and will be the knowledge of him which the blest in heaven shall enjoy. — Matt. v. 8. It may be said, this sight of God is miraculous, and belongs not to the New Testament times, when revelation is completed. True, God creates no new symbol of himself, and no longer converses with an audible voice with those to whom he draws near ; but he continues to do what is equivalent to this, what is the same in essence. It was not the symbol and the accompanying words that alone enabled Job to say to God, “ mine eye seeth thee.” All Israel beheld the flame, and heard the thunder and the words of Jehovah on Mount Sinai; but they did not all see him as Job saw him. It was the Holy Spirit that drew aside the veil which concealed the glory of the Lord in the symbol, that strengthened 20 SERMON II. the mind’s eye to contemplate the manifested excel¬ lency, and that disposed and enabled the heart to receive the communications of his grace. Now, to all this the spiritual manifestations of God to his people, under the New Testament, very closely correspond. The promise of our Lord, on this important head, demands our serious attention. — John xiv. 21 — 23. From this we are encouraged to expect, that God will make peculiar, and power¬ ful, and sweet manifestations of himself to his people, in all ages of the last and most perfect dispensation. Nor is the manner of making these spiritual dis¬ coveries of himself so widely different from the manner of those in ancient times. If he employed fire, or a cloud, or a whirlwind, or the human form in the patriarchal and Mosaic ages, as symbols of himself ; he still employs the cloud of affliction, the splendour of prosperity, and sacred elements in the sacraments, as symbols of himself; and he still employs his Holy Spirit to enable his people, *•' with open face, to behold his glory” in them ; and he still employs his written word as the infallible com¬ mentary on the manifestation. And do not Chris¬ tians still see God with the mind’s eye, when they contemplate the glories of Jehovah, bursting in upon their souls, like the beauteous splendour of the sun rising on the earth, sprinkled with gems, breathing a thousand sweets, and sending forth ten thousand notes of varied melody ; when they dwell on them with intense regard, with growing admiration, or re- SERMON II. 21 verence, or love, or humility ; when they drink in streams of delight and bliss, that fill, and occupy, and satisfy every capacity of the immortal spirit. Was not this, or something like this, your expe¬ rience, favoured believers, when ye contemplated the glory of the Lord declared in the heavens, — when he made himself known to you in the breaking of bread, — when your hearts burned within you as he spake with you, — when ye beheld his power and glory in the sanctuary, — and when he drew near unto you, in answer to your prayers, in the day of trouble, and wrought out a gracious deliverance for you ? May not this be called seeing him with the eye, who cannot be otherwise seen ; and is it not as much superior to the act of believing on testimony, as seeing is to hearing, as experience is to simple faith ? And how delightful to think, that this blessed anticipation of heaven is a privilege of the dispensa¬ tion under which we live ! II. What are the elfects of this sight upon the heart ? We cannot be mistaken in this matter. Job informs us, and the Spirit of God records the answer : “ Now mine eye seeth thee, and I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” We have seen, and we must remember, that Job’s hearing of the ear produced fear, and eschewing evil, and doing good, and patience. Still this sincere and upright man was far from the measure of the stature of a perfect person in Christ Jesus. Something of pride. SERMON II. and impatience, and self-righteousness, mingled with and stained his many graces, of which he remained, in a great measure, insensible. On various occasions, his complaints were indecent, his expostulations vehement, his desire of death or deliverance far too eager, and his justifications of himself far from jus¬ tifiable. Thus, light is mingled with much dark¬ ness, grace with much sin ; thus, the flesh wars with the spirit, and thus imperfect is the work of sancti¬ fication, in even good and great men. And, how should this revive the spirit of the contrite one ready to faint, because of the force of remaining corruption, because of the sharpness of the spiritual conflict ! In all this there hath nothing overtaken you, but what is common to the most eminent saints in all ages. Out of this state of imperfection have they been brought to the perfection of holiness, to their own astonishment, and to the illustration of the glory of divine grace. Nay, your mourning and trembling over the strength of sin and the weakness of divine grace is more promising than Job’s insensibility to the defects of his own character, from which God roused him in an effectual manner. Job justified himself, and ye are condemning yourselves ; Job was rich in his own estimation, and ye are poor towards God in your judgment. And are not these inti¬ mations in you, that God is drawing near to mani¬ fest himself unto you, as your God and Deliverer ? With regard to Job, he enjoyed the saving light of the Lord before this time ; but it was only the SERMON 11. 9,‘i twilight in which he saw Gotl and divine things, neither with clearness, nor distinctness, nor in a way commensurate with their majestic grandeur, purity, and loveliness. Now the shades of the twilight have vanished ; the day of divine grace, which he considered as the night of adversity, has advanced ; and the glory of the Lord shines around him as in mid-day splendour, “ and in this light he clearly sees light.” And what wonders are unfolded to his astonished sight ! These effects are two, and being produced by the glorious perfections of God, they must correspond to them. This is a salutary law of our nature ; the perception of excellence in others is intended to produce in our minds a sense of corresponding in¬ feriority and unworthiness in ourselves, that we may be humbled and amended. And this is the effect of excellence on every well-regulated mind, — on every mind under the teaching of the Spirit of God. As this law operates in the natural, so it operates in the spiritual manifestations of excellence. Greatness excites a lively sense of our littleness ; sound health, of the loathsomeness of our ulcerated sores; cleanliness, of our filthiness; knowledge, of our ignorance ; rectitude, of our dishonesty ; and gene¬ rosity, of our selfishness and ingratitude. There¬ fore, by examining the effects here described, we shall ascend to their causes — to the manifested perfec¬ tions of God, that produced them in the mind of Job. Ist, Job “ abhorred himself,” — that is, according 24 SERMON II. to the Scriptural acceptations of the original word, he despised, he hated, and he loathed himself. A counterfeit of this self-abasement, self-displeasure, and self-detestation, sometimes passeth current for the genuine spiritual affections of the text, to the delusion of many souls. But you may easily, and ye ought carefully, to distinguish them. The counterfeit ends in a return to sin, or ends in despair ; the genuine, in repentance unto life, as we shall see very soon. The counterfeit springs from a sense of the disgrace and the sufferings occasioned by sin ; the genuine is produced by a lively and affectionate regard to the perfections of God, as we shall now show you. Formerly Job had high thoughts of himself, xxxi. 6 ; now he sees and apprehends more fully and strongly the glorious grandeur of God, which causeth angels to veil their faces before him, and glorified spirits to prostrate themselves in his presence ; and he looks down with self-contempt on his own littleness and nothingness as a creature of the dust, as an intelligent creature of limited and perverted faculties, as a renewed creature, in whom the chaos of imperfection and sin struggles against and retards the new creating work of God. Formerly Job thought himself en¬ titled to sit in judgment on the government of God, and to question the equity and wisdom of his pro¬ cedure, xix. 7 ; now he sees the glory of wisdom, that cannot err ; of righteousness, that can do no iniquity ; and of goodness, that doth not afflict SEIIMON II. 25 willingly, neither grieve the children of men ; and he looks down on his perverse folly, his impious in¬ justice to God, and his daring presumption, with indignation, and resentment, and unalterable hatred. Formerly Job pled the integrity of his life, and the purity of his heart and conduct, xxiii. 10 ; now, he sees the glory ot God’s holiness — which is light, in which there is no darkness at all ; beauty, in which there is no blemish ; loveliness, that engageth every affection of the renewed heart ; and he looketh down on sin, on his own sin, as the thing, in the whole universe of God, the most opposite to his nature, that abominable thing which the soul of God hateth, — pervading every power of his soul, every action of his life, and rendering him and his services, as a thing altogether unclean in the eyes of divine holiness, — he looketh down on it with loathing that sickens his soul. When a man thus despiseth, and hates, and loathes himself for sin that he hath done, for sin that dwelleth in him, his life is a living death, — a state of wretchedness altogether intolera¬ ble; he is ready, he is desirous to go out of himself, to take refuge in the revealed mercy of God, and thank¬ fully to avail himself of the manifestations of his sove¬ reign grace. This was precisely what Job did when brought to this mortifying knowledge of himself. 2(1, Job “ repented in dust and ashes.” Job had already turned from sin unto God, in the change of his mind and the tenor of his life. Indeed, the life of the godly man is nothing else than a continued 26 SERMON II. repentance, — a continued departing farther from sin, and a continued approach to God in affection and practice. And there are circumstances which render the steps of his progress remarkably greater and more quick at one time than at another, — that carry him so fast and so far forward, that all which was formerly done is forgotten, and seems as no¬ thing. Peculiar manifestations of God’s mercy, connected with his righteousness, are among the most powerful means of quickening the repentance of believers, as in the experience of Job. His awful views of the grandeur, and holiness, and justice, and wisdom of God, and his deep and agonizing views of his own guilt and vileness, would have plunged him into the abyss of despair, had not God mani¬ fested the glory of his mercy, that hath no pleasure in the death of sinners, that rather wills that all should come to the knowledge of the truth and live. Even the manifestation of mercy would not have encouraged him to repent ; a view of God’s mercy alone would have left room to apprehend the demands of inviolable justice, and the execution of those threatenings denounced by unchangeable truth. Therefore God must have appeared to him, as he did symbolically afterwards under the law, as seated on a throne of grace, whereon he had received the atonement that satisfies the demands of his justice, and exhausts the curse denounced against sin, and renders him just when he justifies believers in this method of reconciliation. It is when Job sees that SEllMON II. 27 tlie exercise of mercy to returning sinners in this way actually magnifies the justice and truth of God, actually brings an accession of glory to his per¬ fections and government, that he is drawn to repent by the cords of love and the bands of a man. He renews the confession of his sins, with a heart-rend¬ ing sense of their evil, as committed against God. “ Against thee, O Lord, thee only have I sinned, and in thy sight done this evil.” He hath already renounced sin, all sin ; but he renews his renuncia¬ tion with increasing solemnity and self-abhorrence, and with increasing purpose of heart, especially against his own sin, and all the temptations to it. He hath already turned to God ; but he repeats his dedication to him with a devotedness more enlight¬ ened and grateful, — more entire and fervent. This is the repentance brought forth, when a man is turned by the Spirit of God, in answer to the prayer, “ Turn me and I shall be turned this is the repentance which includes in it actual amendment, “ a dying to sin, and a living nnto righteousness,” — this is the “ repentance unto life, not to be re¬ pented of without which all anguish and remorse for sin is insignificant, or a gross and dangerous delusion. When Job thus repented, it was “ in dust and ashes.” The ancients of the patriarchal and Mosaic ages clothed themselves in sackcloth, put ashes on their heads, and sat down on a heap of ashes, to denote the depth of their humiliation and of their 28 SERMON II. sorrow for sin before God, Isaiah Iviii. 5, 6. By this they intimated that the vilest situation was not too low for their unworthiness, nor could it sufficiently express their indifference to earthly com¬ fort and joy. All humiliation and sorrow for sin ought to be deep. To sin against the bounties of Providence, the long-suffering patience of God, the free offers of mercy and grace, the plain demands of his law, the conflicts of natural conscience, and the strivings of the Holy Spirit, calls for great self- abasement and profound godly grief. But oh ! what abasement so low, what grief so profound, as be¬ comes the confessed iniquities, transgressions, and sins of a favoured servant, an honoured friend of God ? He sins against regenerating grace, redeem¬ ing love experienced, against pardon received, friend¬ ship bestowed, the honours of sonship conferred, against the image of God in being renewed on his heart, against the hope of the foretaste of heaven, against prayers, and promises, and vows sacrament¬ ally offered, against all the anguish of an awakened and all the heavenly peace of an approving conscience. Let God appear in the glory of his love and right¬ eousness, as the object of holiest awe and supreme love, and set these sins in array before the astonish¬ ed conscience of the renewed offender, in all their baseness of ingratitude, in all the criminality of aggravations, and how feebly will shame and con¬ fusion of face, and bones that are broken and out of joint, convey the humiliation and sorrow of heart SERMON II. 29 which he experienceth ! Could blushes that burn, or tears of blood express the anguish of his heart, broken for having wounded God, who is love, in the house of his friends ? Profound and bitter as this grief is, there is a sweetness in it which the mourner would not exchange for the liveliest tran¬ sient joys of the world. There is a peculiar plea¬ sure in perceiving that God hath in faithfulness taken away the heart of stone ; in paying a boun- den duty to an offended God, not as an atonement, but acknowledgment due for sin ; in weeping bit¬ terly, with Peter, who received a complete pardon, and was received into peculiar favour ; and in sow¬ ing in tears, that a harvest of joy may be reaped in due season. For this reason, the word employed to signify the saving grace, repentance, is also em¬ ployed to signify consolation ; repentance includes consolation in itself, and is followed by strong con¬ solation. Thus it was that this man of God “ re¬ pented in dust and ashes and speedily was his pardon of all his sins and acceptance with God testified, so that his mourning was turned into re¬ joicings. 1^^, How inexcusable are those among us who have not heard of God “ by the hearing of the ear,” as this patriarch did. Ye have all heard of God, ye could not but hear of God,, in this place. But after all, are there not some among you who are ignorant of his perfections, his law, his gospel ? What have those parents to answer for who have allowed you fi 30 SERMON II. to grow up in ignorance, and how will they answer to God and to you before the throne of judgment ? O, parents, remember your vows at baptism, re¬ corded in heaven, to be produced on the great day of accounts ; and labour to instruct your children, and to have them instructed by others, in the know¬ ledge of God, that ye and your children may not come under this fearful condemnation ! What can ye say for yourselves whose hearts convict you of ignorance, — whom I know to be ignorant ? Had your parents brought you up to no trade, no labour, would this have been an excuse for your doing nothing to support yourselves honestly ? And can it be an excuse for your continuing in ignorance of God, that your parents neglected your education, seeing the knowledge of God is the great business for which ye have been sent into the world, — seeing without this there is a curse on all you possess, — seeing there are so many means of instruction all around you ? It is never too late to learn, and ye cannot begin now too soon ; for “ the Judge stand- eth at the door.” Many of you know God, so as to be able to think and speak of him with something of Scriptural correctness, and to pay him the out¬ ward acts of public worship with some regularity ; but can ye say, that the knowledge of God is the rule of your hearts and your lives, that your great¬ est grief is coming short of its requirements, and your greatest joy walking conscientiously in the light of the Lord ? Can ye say that you search the Scrip- SERMON II. 31 tures daily, that you may know the evils of your hearts and lives more thoroughly, and that ye may strive against them more successfully, — that ye may improve in truth, and love, and holiness ? Though ye should say ye do all this, I cannot believe you, while your hearts accuse you of continued acts of dishonesty, of drunkenness, of profaning the Lord’s name, of doing your own work, seeking your own pleasure, and speaking your own words, on the Lord’s day, or of behaving undutifully in any of the relations of life, or of allowing children and ser¬ vants to commit any of these sins unrestrained. And whence comes it that your knowledge and your religious forms even are unavailing? Plainly, they are unsanctified, they are not under the influences of the Spirit of God. Without the grace of God, your knowledge will only aggravate sin, and your services be a lifeless sacrifice, — a solemn abomina¬ tion. It is melancholy to think how little the offices of the Holy Spirit are known, or considered, or improved. How can reading, or hearing, or catechising, or praying even, be profitable, while this is the case ? Can ye expect him to honour you with his presence or blessing, while ye rob him of his honour by undervaluing his influences ? And are there not some of you who believe in God in truth, but whose faith is weak, and shaken, and accompanied by inconstancy in the work of God, and its consequent fearfulness of heart ? Behold J ob, without a written instruction from God, taught 32 SERMON II. only by tradition, “ sincere and upright, fearing God and eschewing evil, sacrificing in the day of prosperity, and blessing God when he taketh away as well as when he giveth.” And do not his attain¬ ments in faith reproach your feeble and wavering faith, amid the clear, and full, and written records of God’s will, amid his many and significant ordinances, and all the gracious promises of the gospel ? 2d, Why are we not all aspiring after more inti¬ mate and affecting knowledge of God than that which consisteth in hearing of him by the hearing of the ear ? God has been, and is, and will continue to be, seen with the spiritually enlightened eye of the mind. Are not the perfections of God, impressed on the material world, more clearly and pleasur¬ ably seen, when he removes the shades of night, and shines on them with the cheering beams of the sun? And will not his perfections, impressed on the great work of salvation, be more clearly and pleasurably seen, when the Holy Spirit disperses those clouds of ignorance, and prejudice, and sin, that obscure them, and shines •on them with all the interesting light of a morning sun ? Assuredly God is near to every one of his people in his word and in his ordinances ; and if we draw near to him in them, “ in spirit and in truth,” he will draw near unto us. We shall not see him with the bo¬ dily eye, save in the sacred symbols, but we shall see with the mind’s eye his power and glory, and ex¬ perience the salutary influences of this manifestation. SERMON II. 33 Let us seek deliverance from the mists and fogs of vanity, and earthly-mindedness, and indifference to the excellencies of God ; and we shall behold them disperse, and enjoy the light, and life, and love, and purity, and strength, imjiarted by the unveiled glories of the Father of Lights, and the Giver of every good and perfect gift. Many dreams of the imagination are taken for the special manifestations of God 5 and many un¬ sanctified emotions and affections for the spiritual effects of them. Caution against the extravagancies of enthusiasm is necessary, as well as against the meagre and lifeless religion of mere human and perverted reason. Of the manifestations of God’s special and gracious presence we may judge, as our Lord hath taught us to judge of the teachers of religion, “ by their fruits shall ye know them.” That Job saw God in a real, and spiritual, and edifying manner, there can be no manner of doubt. Now, what were the fruits of his powerful appre¬ hension of God ? When Job said tb God, ‘‘ now mine eye seeth thee,” he also could say to the Searcher of hearts, who could not be imposed on, who would have instantly detected, and exposed, and punished hy¬ pocrisy so daring in such circumstances, ‘‘ and I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” On this case I have only one remark to make, and it is this : Several manifestations of God to his favoured servants are recorded in the Scriptures, and the c 34 seumon II. effects of them all are the same in substance, namely, a more awfully deepened godly fear, and humility, and repentance, and that all these increase in pro¬ portion to the brightness of the manifestation. Ye have never seen God, who abhor the idea of abhor¬ ring yourselves, and of repenting in dust and ashes. What Scripture evidence is there of your intimate communion with God, O ye who have become vain and self-conceited, and despisers of others, in propor¬ tion to the increase of your knowledge of God ? In¬ stead of concluding that ye have fallen off, or even fallen away, because ye see more of sin and distance from God in yourselves, and suffer more anguish of heart for sin, than when ye first turned unto God, be¬ lievers, ye may conclude, that all this is owing to a greater nearness to God. And as this manifestation, and the benefits of it, are enjoyed often in affliction, how should this reconcile believers to affliction : how should it enable them to distinguish sanctified from unprofitable affliction, and to hope that deli¬ verance is at hand when it works in this manner ! Amen. SERMON III. Gen. iii. 12. — And the man said. The woman whom thou gayest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.” We love to trace mighty rivers to their source. What stream so mighty, what source so far distant, yet of such consequence to ourselves, as that of the human race, coeval with the beginning of time itself? Here the condition and the behaviour of our first parents arrest our peculiar regard ; particularly in violating the law of their Maker, and in answering for that violation. Their actions in these circum¬ stances interest more deeply than the most import¬ ant transactions of the most distinguished indi¬ viduals or nations. These actions of Adam and Eve develop the true character of man ; they are the deeds of our first ancestors, the first of human kind, who were our representatives with the Sove¬ reign of the universe ; who communicated that nature in which they offended to us and to all their posterity ; and who exhibited a lively picture of what we shall be and do in similar circumstances. Like them, we come into the world under the law of God, sanctioned with the penalty of death, and the reward of life. Like them, we are tempted. 36 SERMON III. and, destitute of their purity of nature as it came from 'the hand of God, we yield to temptation. Like them, under a consciousness of guilt, we en¬ deavour to hide ourselves from God, by shutting our eyes in his immediate presence. Like them, we shall be summoned before the righteous Judge of all the earth, to receive the deeds done in the body ; though not until our whole course of discipline be ended, and our state be unchangeably fixed. And then, if we remain in a state of opposition to God, like them we shall feel and behave ourselves before the judgment-seat. How, then, did our first parents feel and acquit themselves in this situation, in which, if we con¬ tinue in sin, we also must be placed, and placed un¬ der greater disadvantages ? A picture of the end of a course, now dear to us, perhaps, or at least not sufficiently terrible in our eyes, may awaken us “ to strive to enter in at the strait gate or, if we have entered, may excite to use our utmost endeavours in fleeing farther from the broad path of destruc¬ tion. To promote these ends, observe, I. That Adam, summoned to answer for his con¬ duct, saw God, i. e. the symbol of God, with the bodily eye. The sight of the symbol of God’s presence was not unfamiliar to him ; but how different its former from its present appearance ! Soon after our first parents discovered that their celestial robe of inno- SERMON III. 37 cence was gone, they heard the sound of the Lord growing louder and louder in the garden, in the west wind of the day. While the breeze whispered through the fragrant foliage of Eden, a noise is heard, which indicated an approaching storm, — which indicated the approach of the divine symbol ; a noise like the fearfully swelling notes of the trumpet on the mount of Sinai, Exod. xix. 19 ; or the sound of the Shechinah in the vision of Eze¬ kiel, i. 24 ; which was as the noise ‘‘ of great waters, of a mighty host, of the voice of God,” when he thundered in the heavens. As guilt makes man fearful, so it bereaves him of consideration. Our criminal ancestors vainly strove to hide themselves from the Lord among the trees of the garden. From this lurking-place the command of God drags them, trembling, into his presence. The Shechinah had no longer its mild and en¬ couraging lustre. As the Lord appeared to Moses in a flame which consumed not the bush, and which attracted his inquisitive, unterrified regard, Exod. iii. 2, so he was wont to ajqiear to Adam and Eve in innocence ; but as he descended on Horeb, ‘‘ in a fire,” Exod. xix. 18, which flamed into the midst of heaven, with “ clouds and darkness,” Dent. iv. 11, in some such manner came he to try and sentence this rebellious pair. Fain would they flee from his dreadful presence ; fain would they avert their countenances from this tremendous sight. Irresistible respect for the Judge, 38 SERMON III. and unaccountable yet humiliating terror, rivetted their eyes on God, “ a consuming fire.” From this spectacle, the rending heavens, the earth yawning under their feet, could not for a moment have turned their eyes aside. Observe, II. That, when questioned, Adam confessed the crime of which he was before painfully conscious. In the hour of temptation the forbidden fruit seemed at once the feast of honest appetite, of taste refined, and of intellectual ambition, Gen. iii. 6 ; a feast which the goodness of God could not, in reality, refuse ; the sin which, if sin there could be in such enjoyment, the mercy of God would surely pardon. At that moment, the voice of Eve, inviting him to eat of it, seemed the voice of wis¬ dom attuned by love ; and the hand of Eve, pre¬ senting it, the hand of benignity, unenvious of his prerogatives, and generously imparting her own experienced felicity. In the moment of sober re¬ flection the illusion vanisheth ; both see themselves despoiled of innocence, and honour, and glory ; and, in place of these, covered with the filthy rags of guilt, disappointment, and shame, v. 7. Then the voice of God fills them with fear, v. 8 ; and the inquiries of God, answering their only end, awaken them to the confession of their crime, v. 9 — 12. The inquiry, it deserves to be remarked, is limited to the fact and the law. Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not SERMON III. 39 eat ? Tliis interrogation excludes from the view all that inflamed appetite and passion, all that seduced or bewildered reason, all that soothed con¬ science into a criminal acquiescence ; it exposeth the pitiful sophistry of the tempter, the folly and desperate wickedness of the offender’s heart, and the naked and shameful deformity of the undeniable transgression. Adam feels the vanity of subterfuge as to the fact ; he feels, with horror, the unerring intelligence of a present God, scrutinizing his whole being, and rendering it transparent as the thin cloud through which the meridian sun pours his fervid rays ; and the dread confession is wrung from his reluctant soul, “ I did eat.” Observe, III. That Adam, before God his Judge, was filled with fear. If the sound of God’s approach made him afraid, drove him into an unavailing retreat, how must the presence of God, clothed in the terrible majesty of supreme Judge, have affected him ? Had not the secret power of God upheld him, for the purposes of justice and mercy, his soul must have failed ; he must have become, in this situation, “as a dead man.” While the language of his confession hung trem- blingon his lips, the precise terms of the divine law, as originally promulgated, as now repeated by God in his inquiry, must have rung in his ears, — must 40 SERMON III. have thrilled horribly through his heart : “ In the day thou eatest thereof, thou slialt surely die.” The penalty of the divine law presented itself to his view, — a penalty to be executed immediately on himself and on the partner of his guilt, — a penalty to be executed by Him whose word called the world into existence, whose goodness crowned the rebels with glory and honour, whose generosity exacted but this one and light test of his loyalty, whose favours were fresh as transcendent, whose command was new as it was easy to him, formed in the image of God ; and whose grace abused, exasperated the divine wrath, as it aggravated the crime. Before this be experienced the horrors of the spiritual, now he anticipates the pangs of the tem¬ poral and the agonies of the eternal death denounced against him. What was said of an imiDious prince, who saw the hand of God record his approaching destruction, may be applied to this first lord of the lower world, when he saw the lips of God opening to pronounce his awful doom, as Dan. v. 6 : “ Then the king’s countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him ; so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another.” Observe, IV. That here ignoble self-love obtains an im¬ potent triumph over generosity and natural affec¬ tion. Ilis Creator was supreme in the estimation, in SEIIMON III. 41 the heart, of innocent Adam : self is the god of Adam sinning. To self he sacrificed his allegiance to his rightful Sovereign, and his own immortal in¬ terests ; to self he now sacrificed the most amiable being of the species, and the finest affections of the heart which terminate on a creature. Could he diminish the criminality of his own offence, and the weight of his own imnishment, he is regardless wdio shall suffer a severer censure, a heavier vengeance than himself. Hence, he crimi¬ nates Eve to God : “ The woman gave me, and I did eat.” He criminates the wmman, the less robust person, whom he is bound to treat with delicate tenderness ; whom, in error, he is bound to set right, but not to obey ; to excuse, but not to accuse, — the woman, bone of his bone, whom he should cherish as his own flesh ; and the partner of his heart, whom he should love as his own soul. Thus, in the very morning of their affection, which possessed all the excellencies, and was free from all the defects, of all the most exalted conjugal affections which have since existed, he could contemjflate, he could con¬ tribute to exhibit her, sunk deeper than himself in guilt, in infamy, and wretchedness ! Nay, he stops not short here ; he obliquely criminates God himself, with a view to alleviate his own guilt and wo ; that God, whom he has scarcely ceased to celebrate as the infinitely wise and righteous Lord ; the source of all his own advan- 42 SERMON III. tages, es2)ecially as the Giver of his most precious comfort — “ an helii meet for him.” That God, thus admired, and adored, and blessed, he thus obliquely criminates : “ The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the fruit of the tree, and I did eat.” How dreadful is sin ! But lately, Adam was no faint representative of God’s moral glory ; he con¬ versed with his Maker as a man with his friend ; and his felicity was crowned with a sweet and dig¬ nified conjugal affection. By sin, the likeness of God on his soul is effaced, and the image of the arch foe of God and goodness imprinted ; he now shrinks from the presence of God, who is love, but arrayed in terrors ; doing violence to the strongest and best affections of his bosom, he stands forth to arraign at once his consort and his Maker ; and, while his vision of glory, honour, and. immortality, now melts into air, death eternal, and his region of wo, rajiidly rise into view. But what concern in all this have we, beyond that which is excited by an event, however distant, yet deejily interesting to one or more of our kind ? ^Ve have the deejiest concern, even that of their children, who bear their image as we come into the world ; and who, if we continue to tread in their footsteps, must finally transact with the same im^iartial Judge, and must transact with him under the influence of similar and terrible affections. SERMON III. 43 I. Like them, if we continue in sin, we must appear before the same Judge, clothed with similar or greater terrors. It was He, “ who, being in the form of God, and thinking it not robbery to be equal with God,” Phil, ii. 6, and who appeared to our first parents as “ a con¬ suming fire,” Heb. xii. 29, who shall, on the last day, “ be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ : who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power,” 2 Thess. i. 7 — 9- Here, we may flee from his presence in the sanc¬ tuary, and in his ordinances ; we may go a great way in shunning to appear at the bar of conscience, God’s vicegerent ; we may go far towards banishing the idea of the true God out of all our thoughts ; we may come to flatter ourselves, that, because we do not behold the great Author and Proprietor of the universe with the bodily eye, because we do not necessarily think of him, there either is no God, or that he troubles himself as little with us as we do with him. Of such fools we read. Psalm liii. The coming of the Lord in judgment shall fear¬ fully undeceive us. By that time, sin may have entombed us in the bowels of the earth or in the caverns of the great deep, may have strewed our dust on the winds ; but where t^er we are, we shall hear the voice of the Son of man, and come forth 41 SERMON HI. into his immediate jiresence. Shall we, then, deny the righteousness of God, or the omnipotence of his Christ ? Will we indulge the heart in its unbelief, or the eye with its vanities, or the mouth in its foolish or hard speeches ? No. The universe con¬ tains no object so interesting by its terrors or its allurements as to avert the steadfast gaze from that eye of flame, which is the index of the mind of God towards us, — from those lips which are about to seal our everlasting misery, — from that fire which is issuing from the throne of the eternal, to enwrap the earth and the material heavens in one dread con¬ flagration. II. There, if we die in our sins, we must, like Adam, acknowledge our guilt. The eye of him, before whom we must stand, will be as a flame of fire ; the light of that flame will pervade our whole man, will exhibit the most secret deformities of our nature and character, to the astonishment and loathing of neighbours and friends and of ourselves. The veil of hypocrisy will be torn asunder, the vajioury delusions of self- love will flee before the stream of light, the deeds of retirement and darkness will be set forth in the glare of noonday, the thoughts of folly, and even the words of idleness scattered over the tide of time and to all the winds of heaven, will be col¬ lected, and the overwhelming catalogue recited in the hearing of an assembled universe. SERMON III. 45 Denial would be vain, confession will be no vir¬ tue, and yet is indispensable. What now we conceal from the friends of our bosom, what our tongues have not dared to pronounce, what we blushed or shuddered to think of, even in the thickest shades of night, that must we openly acknowledge, and out of our own mouths shall we be condemned, — if we die in our sins. III. Like Adam, if we live and die in sin, we shall make this confession, with all the horror of criminals, in the view of immediate and eternal death. In vain have we persuaded ourselves that the mercy of God might be relied on, even when we de¬ parted from the paths in which mercy is promised ; for now we perceive that God will not suffer the sinner to go unpunished, and his own majesty un¬ vindicated. In vain have we persuaded ourselves that the terrors of the Lord consist in threats of awful sound, but of little real danger ; in figures of formidable aspect, but of little real significance ; for now God is seen to be a consuming fire to his ad¬ versaries, — a fire which shall never be quenched. Then, “ the sinners in Zion shall be afraid ; fearful¬ ness shall surprise the hypocrites ; for who among us shall dwell with devouring fire ? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?” Is. xxxiii. 14. IV. As in Adam, so in us too, shall guilt extin- 46 SEl^MON III. guisli benevolent afTection, and convert ns into bitter accusers of our dearest friends, if we live and die in our sins. If our first father, endowed with original right¬ eousness, whose conscience was not seared by the habit of sinning, who was in the body, and possess¬ ing a capacity of being restored to the exercise of the benevolent affections ; if he accused his beloved Eve and his Maker, of what will not we, born, liv¬ ing, dying, and sealed in sin, be capable in the pa¬ roxysm of inflamed terrified self-love ? In a state of reigning sin, self-love is jiredomi- nant. Howsoever a mild or indolent temper, the restraints of civil society, or the strength of merely human affection or of imagined piety, may control its movements ; in that state self-love is supreme, and secretly genders envy, and malice, and revenge. This doctrine, against which ignorance and self-love vociferously exclaim, is verified by him who keepeth his heart with diligence, and is confessed by an in¬ spired writer of high moral reputation, Titus iii. 3 : “ For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, diso¬ bedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.” Thus it is, in reality, with every man retaining the image of the first Adam, how¬ ever suppressed, and concealed, and varnished over his self-love may be ; and no sooner are the exter¬ nal and accidental restraints removed, no sooner is the mind racked with the apprehension of personal SERMON III. 47 punishment, than the airy semblance of jiiety and friendship, yea, than natural affection itself, dis¬ solves, and self-love endeavours to vindicate or to revenge itself at the expense of whomsoever. In the last day, we shall accuse God of being a hard master, Matth. xxv. 24, and Christ of the want of veracity, v. 44 ; and what wonder that we should accuse our dearest relatives and friends ? Of what crimes stand foremost in our arraignment, and to the commission of which our best beloved among the children of men led the way, by their invita¬ tion, their example, their negligence, of these shall we accuse them, and God who gave them. Of these the neighbour will accuse his now courteous and obliging neighbour ; the servant, the master who heaped temporal favours upon him ; the hearer, the minister who won affection by his humanity, but lost souls by his unfaithful distribution of the word of life, or by an example conformed to the world ; the friend, his friend whose heart was his own ; the child, the parent who reared him with tenderness, and plentifully provided for his earthly comfort ; and of these sins will the consort accuse his consort, whom he cherished as his own flesh, for whose worldly benefit he hath smiled at toil, and braved death.^ Of these affections nothing remains save the exasperating recollection of what a snare they formed to inveigle and entangle the soul in sin, and involve in ruin inevitable. The countenances which now beam benignity on us will then become hideous with 48 SERMON III. rage, and distorted with revenge against us, — the lips on which we now hang with delight, will then pour forth execrations on our devoted head. Thus will our dearest, most exquisite enjoyments, if not used for the purposes for which they were bestowed, if employed to oppose the purpose of grace, be con¬ verted, most justly, most awfully, into empoisoned, inexhaustible sources of torment. Aware of this, aware of the excruciating augmentation of his tor¬ tures by the arrival in the abode of wretchedness of his younger brethren, seduced or confirmed by his example in wickedness. Dives earnestly requests Abraham to send some one from the dead, to pre¬ vent their sharing and increasing his misery now, as they had done his luxury, hard-heartedness, and impiety on earth. Of what comparative importance is it that we now live harmoniously in our neighbourhood, in our families, or in our congregational relations ; if all these affections are tainted by our com¬ mon sins, are to be converted into mutual hatred and revenge, mutual accusations and curses, — are to become ingredients in the cup of gall, the cup of trembling, the inexhaustible cup of wrath ? Of what comjiarative importance is it that we now bear the name, enjoy the outward privileges, and perform many of the outward duties of the chil¬ dren of God ; if we still bear on our souls the image of Adam in sin, and if with him we must, in this SERMON III. 49 state, appear bsfore God arrayed in terror and seat¬ ed on the throne of judgment ? Our state will then be infinitely more dreadful than his, after all his guilt and confession, trem¬ bling and bitterness of accusation, nay, after all the miseries denounced against him. For even then, God opened up to him a reserved store of mercy and grace, marked out to him a new course of hopeful discipline, and reconciled him to offending Eve, by the promise that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent’s head, — should destroy the works of the devil, and people paradise with her offspring. This promise, believed and acted upon, restored to the penitent pair the image of God, to¬ gether with much of the sweetness of conjugal affec¬ tion, and the solid hope of a better than the forfeited immortality. But if we, in the likeness of sinful Adam, are sisted before the Judge of the world, we shall come more guilty, and in more desjierate cir¬ cumstances than he, — we shall come guilty of having trampled not only on the commandments, but also on the Son of God, not promised but actually set forth a propitiation for sin, — we shall come having done despite unto the Spirit of grace, and “ there shall remain for us no more sacrifice for sins, but a cer¬ tain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indig¬ nation, which shall devour the adversaries.” Heb. X. 26, 27. Let us then, having been born of the flesh, be concerned that we be born again of the Spirit ; D 50 SERMON III. otherwise we cannot enter into the kingdom of God. Let us, having violated the law, and incurred its curse, seek the peace of God through that faith in Jesus Christ which is of the operation of the Spirit. Let all who are actually children of God through the adoption of Christ, make his law the inviolable rule of their duty, whoever may entice, how great soever the temptation to depart from it. “ Let them have no fellowship with the works of darkness, but rather reprove them,” Eph. v. 11. “ Let them ex¬ hort one another daily, lest they should be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin,” Heb. iii. 13. Let them consider how negligent they have been in time past, how little of time now remains at the longest, and how precarious even that little is. Let them con¬ sider how many among usare hurried away, without a day’s or an hour’s warning, how many are sum¬ moned away in their sleep, at their ordinary employ¬ ments, or in the midst of their follies and sins ; and ‘‘ let them give all diligence to make their calling and election sure,” — “ let them watch and pray, that they enter not into temptation,” — “ that they may be always ready” to welcome the approach of the Lord. What a blessed change would this produce in individuals, in social circles, in worshipping assem¬ blies, while they remain on the earth, and especially when they appear before the throne of judgment ! On earth not a little of the purity and love of the honour and felicity of paradise would be enjoyed ; and the throne of the Judge would be encircled as SERMON HI. 51 the mercy-seat of our Saviour, dispensing the rewards of grace. Having received Christ here as « the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world,” we shall not fear to meet him clothed with the flaming glories of his judicial office. “ Having put off the old man with his deeds, and put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holi¬ ness,” we shall have the witness in ourselves, that we shall see God and be satisfied with his likeness. Having lived with our relatives and friends, with our ministers or hearers, “ as heirs of the grace of eternal life ;” with exceeding joy shall the father present his children, the master his servants, the husband his wife, and the pastor his people, saying, “ Behold I, and the connexions whom God hath given me !” And for these ends “ may God fulfil in us all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power,” through Jesus Christ. Amen ! SERMON IV. IsAiAu xlv. 22. — “ Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth ; for I am God, and there is none else." In discoursing on these words, I purpose to con¬ sider, The method of salvation, as represented in them ; and to show that this method is safe and infallible : “ Be ye saved ; for I am God, and there is none else and, 2i’o- fessedly fled from Sodom — from the world lying in wickedness, daily and hourly exjiosed to the eternal judgments of God ; and who are still in danger of looking back to the region of sensual *214 SERMON XI. delights with unholy affections, provoking God to confound us with the wicked in their condemnation. Well, then, may we suppose our Lord addresseth us also in these words, “ Remember Lot’s wife.” To remember, is to consider with suitable practical regard. It is thus, my young friends, that Solomon enjoins you, — “ Remember your Creator in the days of your youth.” It is thus God commands his people, — “ Remember the Sabbath, to keep it holy.” It is thus Christ requires professing Christians, — Remember Lot’s wife and it is thus I invite you to remember her religious profession — her sin — and her punishment. I. “ Remember” the religious profession of “ Lot’s wife.” She had been the wife of Lot for twenty years before her death, and probably was a native of Sodom, as there is no notice taken of Lot’s marriage at the time he chose to fix his residence in the city. That city, proverbial for its gross wickedness at the time it was destroyed, must have been rapidly ex¬ hausting the patience of God, who is slow to anger, long before this awful judgment. That she was educated with some regard to God, even in these circumstances, is probable, — that she seemed to be of another spirit than the generality of her fellow- citizens, the character of Lot obliges us to believe. Is it at all likely that this righteous man, who, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds, would choose. SERMON XI. 215 for the partner of his heart and fortune, for the mother and guide of his children, one who gave no evidence of the practical fear of the Lord? By- marrying Lot, she separated herself from her people and their unhallowed practices ; she became the com¬ panion of her husband in the duties of religion, and the instructor of their offspring in the great leading truths of it, which distinguished their family from the citizens of Sodom. No doubt Lot entertained an undue, though not predominating, love of the world, else he would never have been a citizen of that place ; at least, he would not have long remained in such a sink of shameless iniquity ; and, no doubt, his familiarity with vice, so long contemplated willingly, must have weakened his abhorrence of it. Still, the exist¬ ence of true righteousness in him, and his soul vexed with the deeds of his neighbours, must have pro¬ duced as much of the formal regard to religion in his family as we have represented. However coldly in truth, his wife must have seemingly sympathized with Lot, and maintained something of a suitable conduct in the discharge of her duties. Affection for him, and the great reverence paid to the head of a family in these days, rendered this natural and necessary. How she received the command to leave Sodom, about to be destroyed, and how far she contributed to that delay which caused the angel to drag the family away, as it were, we pre¬ sume not to conjecture ; but certain it is, she 21G SERMON XI. abandoned her native city, the scene of infancy and youth, her friends, the companions of her early joys and sorrows, her domestics and ample for¬ tune, and fled with her family from the wrath to be poured out on these dear objects, towards the moun¬ tains of refuge. Who, that contemplates the conduct of this woman with an eye of charity, will not say her profession is good, for it is the faith of Lot and Abraham ; her behaviour is consistent with her profession, and affords no ordinary proofs of sin¬ cerity and self-denial ? With such an eye must we observe the conduct of others, but with a very different eye must we scrutinize our own. Have we received and retained the religious profession of our parents, in the midst of relations, and companions, and friends, who look down with contempt, and pour out torrents of ridi¬ cule and abuse, on such a profession ? Have we entered into the most sacred connexions with reli¬ gious persons, knowing them to be so, and carefully conformed to their views and practice for many years ? Have we forsaken friends, and abandoned prospects of fortune, for the society of the truly good, and for the protection of God, that could not be elsewhere so surely enjoyed ? Have not some reason to accuse themselves, here, of falling far short of the profession of Lot’s wife ? Have not some resisted the impressions of early education, or soon effaced them, for the sake of engaging society SEimON XI. 217 that could not endure them ? Have none entered into the marriage state, without inquiring whether the consort feared or despised God ; or satisfied with a slight investigation, or very dubious evidences ; or knowing assuredly that the partner for life was no friend to the Lord Almighty, but trusting that they could effect a conversion, which belongs to that God who says, “ Be not unequally yoked to¬ gether with unbelievers ; for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness ? and what com¬ munion hath light with darkness ? and what concord hath Christ with Belial ? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?” 2 Cor. vii. 14, 15. Have none married to a religious consort, adhered to irre¬ ligious principles and unholy practices, though these are in opposition to example, and evidently vexatious to a righteous spirit? Though we cannot accuse ourselves of any of these evil practices, though we can justify ourselves in regard to them all, we must go much deeper ; we must try to penetrate the motives of this blameless profession. Are we sure that merely human affections have not produced all this ? Are we sure that love and reverence for persons are not the sources of our regard to religious views and duties ? Are we sure that mere dread of the divine wrath, and desire of the divine protection, are not the only affections of a religious kind which mingle with our relative affections, and give rise to our greatest exertions and sacrifices, apparently in the service of God? 218 SERMON XI. Are we sure, in other words, that it is not self — self-gratification, or self-preservation, which is the sole spring of our religious profession ? It is not slight reflections, or inquiries, or reasonings, that should determine a matter of so much difficulty, deli¬ cacy, and importance. You must search and try yourselves, with seriousness and impartiality, in the light of God’s word, and in the exercise of much fervent prayer. Unless you discover that you are truly striving to please God, in the habitual actings of all your affections, and performance of all your duties ; unless you are truly striving to do all this, in a dependence on the meritorious obedience and death of Christ for pardon and acceptance, and on the word and Spirit of Christ for the right and spiritual conduct of all, your profession rests on a sandy foundation, and some great trial is likely to overturn and sweep it away. When God and self are distinctly separated ; when you can no longer divide your heart between God and mammon in appearance ; when you can no longer halt betwixt Jehovah and Baal ; when you must finally forsake the one or the other, then will ye discover the hitherto lurking, but actually governing, principles of your heart ; then will ye surrender yourselves to their empire, and abandon your professed submis¬ sion to God, as did the no less miserable than sinful wife of Lot. Gen. xix. 26. “ His wife looked back from behind him.” SERMON XI. S19 II. Therefore, “ remember” the sin of Lot’s wife.” The angel had said to Lot and his family, when he brought them out of the city, “ Escape for thy life ; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain but, it is afterwards said, “ his wife looked back from behind him.” Istf This is an act of disobedience to the express command of God. Were we to consider the deed by itself, we would say it was natural and humane. To part from a city, in which she was probably born; from acquaintances and friends, on many accounts dear to her ; and to part from them at the very moment of their destruction, without cast¬ ing behind one longing, lingering look of heartfelt sorrow, would, in this view, have betrayed a cen¬ surable and savage insensibility. These reasonings, suggested by the heart, seem very plausible, very persuasive ; but in this, as in many other instances, if we allow the heart to go before the understand¬ ing, and if we pronounce a decision according to the suggestions of it, we shall call “ good evil, and evil good.” There are actions which are indifferent in their own nature ; but when God expressly com¬ mands or forbids them, obedience to the divine will is virtue or righteousness, and disobedience is vice or unrighteousness. Arbitrary as positive injunc¬ tions may seem at first sight, they are not more solidly founded in divine sovereignty, than in divine wisdom, and goodness, and holiness. We infer this from the perfect character of the author, and we 220 SERMON XI. discover this by the faint light he is pleased to shed on these precepts. Was it more sovereign than gra¬ cious, and wise, and holy, to forbid Lot and his family to look back on Sodom in flames — to exact this homage of submission, well calculated to try their faith, to hasten their escape, to save them from the horrors of the sight — from the overwhelming anguish of commiseration, and which tended to detach their heart from a place rendered odious by so many crimes ? When we consider these things, in connexion with the deliverance God was effect¬ ing for the family of Lot, what can we see in his wife’s lingering and looking back, in the face of a command, and in the reception of great mercies, but high contempt of the divine authority, and base ingratitude for miraculous preservation, amid de¬ struction so dreadful, so extensive ? Professing Christians, “ remember” the disobe¬ dience of “ Lot’s wife” to the positive precejit of God, and especially while distinguished by the divine favour. It is most heinous to violate those commands which God hath “written, not only with his finger on tables of stone,” but by his creating Spirit also on the hearts of all men. Both divine and human enactments, supported by the abhorrence of mankind against the transgressor, protect these statutes. To the temptation to commit these uni¬ versally esteemed gross vices, professing Christians seldom yield. But it is also very heinous to violate the positive precepts of God, — this, no less than im- SERMON XI. 221 morality, sets at defiance and subverts the authority of the Lawgiver. Because men are less abhorrent of this species of disobedience, God has, from the beginning, set upon it the terrible marks of his signal displeasure. Observe the actions, indifferent in themselves, which God hath constituted virtuous or vicious by his declared will ; and with udiat jealousy he hath guarded these commands, and avenged the violation of them. For eating of the forbidden fruit, God subjected Adam and all his pos¬ terity to labour, and sorrow, and death. For gather¬ ing a few sticks on the Sabbath, he commanded the delinquent to be stoned to death. For profaning the Lord’s table, he punished the transgressors with weakness, and sickness, and death. And, for look¬ ing back to Sodom on fire, he turned Lot’s wife into a pillar of salt. Let those conscious of the inclination, and even of the practice of trifling with and profaning God’s positive institutions, lay these things to heart ; let them tremble, seeing this is connected with the re¬ nunciation of allegiance to God, and the suffering of his indignation and wrath ; let them be horribly afraid, because their sin is unspeakably more aggra¬ vated by the gospel deliverance which they profess to accept, than the sin of Lot’s wife was aggravated by the temporal deliverance which God was, at the time of it, bestowing on her. 2r/, Lot’s wife was guilty of an impious curiosity. Painful and extraordinary objects, however unne- 222 SERMON XI. cessary and improper to be looked on, excite a curiosity often culpable in the indulgence. Hence, the bloodless representations of the theatre, and the execution of criminals, are attended by crowds of spectators, not excluding delicate females. That this propensity, so singularly called into action, com¬ bined with other sinful motives, had prompted Lot’s wife to cast an unduly inquisitive eye towards the scene of God’s great and terrible execution of justice on guilty Sodom, is highly probable. There are manifestations of himself, on which God will not permit the eye of prying curiosity to be cast with impunity. If the Bethshemites thus look into the ark of the covenant, God instantly punishes a multitude of the impious gazers with death. If Lot’s wife thus look back on the fiery judgment of the Lord, on the place of her late abode, she is ren¬ dered an immovable statue. Remember the sin of immoderate unbridled curio¬ sity. God has given you this active principle for the most useful purpose, — for the more easy acqui¬ sition of useful, ornamental, and pleasing know¬ ledge ; but, like all your other principles, it is vitiated and tending to some sinful excess even in the sanctified heart. Guard against the extinction of it by untoward circumstances, lest you remain in a state of childish ignorance and incapacity. Beware of indulging it, especially at the instigation of vanity and pride, lest you fastidiously neglect the lawful and the useful, and busy yourselves in prying into SERMON XI. 223 the darkness “ visible” of conjecture — nay, into “ the hidden things of God.” Is not that a “ vain philo¬ sophy” which would fathom the infinite under¬ standing of Deity with a finite line, which would explain these operations that he hath avow’edly veiled from man ? And how severely is it punished in the indulgence of its unwise desires — engrossed by useless, led away by impious, speculations, re¬ jecting the truth and believing a lie in matters of the last moment ! How fearful the condemnation that awaits them ! Remember ye, that “ secret things belong unto the Lord, but those which are revealed, unto us and our children.” Carefully col¬ lect the facts which God hath placed within the reach of the diligent student of nature, and provi¬ dence, and grace, and skilfully apply them to the purposes for which they are made known to us, — of revering, and loving, and serving God, in humi¬ lity and in the way'which he hath appointed ; and leave the “ how can these things be” in the mouth of those whose impious and senseless curiosity is as inconsistent with sound philosophy as with sound Christianity. If ever, in the vanity of your heart, you have, with Job, pryed into and pretended to penetrate “ the ways of God which are in the deep waters,” say with him better instructed, “ Who is he thathideth counsel without knowledge? there¬ fore have I uttered things which I understood not, things too wonderful, which I knew not.” Then will ye, without sinful perturbation, receive the 224 SERMON XI. mysteries of the unity and Deity of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost — of God’s sovereignty and man’s accountability — of the fall and universal depravity of man’s nature — of the incarnation of the Son of God and the atonement in his blood — and of the regeneration by the Holy Ghost consistent with our nature and state. John iii. 7. Receiving these on the testimony of God who cannot lie, and knows the fittest time for letting us into a deeper insight of them, you may adopt the language of a truly wise man, since “ he was a man according to God’s own heart,” “ Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty ; neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me — I will hear what God the Lord will speak, for he will speak peace unto his people.” 3f/, Lot’s wife was guilty of unbelief. She was not distant from Sodom. The troubled sky, the fearful sound of the falling storm, the horrid glare of reflected fire amid the gloom, might fill her with dread, lead her to suspect her danger, and to think of other means of safety than that contained in the divine promise — fleeing to the mountains. Perhaps she took that part of the promise which suited her inclination, the assurance of safety, and presumed this would be fulfilled though she should neglect the specified condition, and look behind her. In either case she was guilty of unbelief, and of unbelief of great criminal magnitude. By distrust she denied the wisdom of God to contrive suitable methods of SERMON XI. S2S accomplishing the promise of safety, his power to fulfil, with his faithfulness to execute ; and arro¬ gated to herself perfections more worthy of trust than those of Deity. By presumption she separated what God hath joined, faith and obedience ; she made Gods promise the encouragement of sin in defiance of his own declaration, and in contempt of his holiness and majesty. This insulting unbelief, whether of distrust or presumption, was short-lived as it was daring. She denied the power of God to save her in the way of obedience, or his inclination to destroy in a course of disobedience ; and he vindi¬ cated his perfections, by erecting her a monument of power and justice, avenging abused goodness. Remember ye the sin of unbelief. It denies God, is the paient of sin, and the cause of divine judg¬ ments. Every act of unbelief is a limiting of the perfections of God, is sajn'ng that infinite is finite, that God is such a one as ourselves, that God is not God. Unbelief is the parent of all sin, of a de¬ grading distrust of God’s promise, which leads to trust in the creature, to use unlaArful means, and to admit sinful troubles, — and of presumption, that lays hold of the covenant, that pleads gifts and piivileges, that neglects obedience to the holy com¬ mandments, and after this expects salvation. The first cannot rise to God’s excellence from criminal fear¬ fulness ; the second dares to look down upon and to vilify God’s righteousness. Pray ye that the Spirit would fulfil in you the work of faith with power. 226 SERMON Xr. When assailed by fears, and sufferings, and dangers, sore and great, meditate on the truth and grace, might and wisdom of God, made sure to his people in the covenant, and exercised in all ages in behalf of those trusting in him, in behalf of Noah and Lot, David and Daniel ; and for the punishment of those calling them in question — of the Israelites, who limited the Holy One and fell in the wilderness — and of Moses himself, who in one instance distrusted God, and was deprived of the honour of conducting his nation into the promised land. When tempted to indulge sin and presume on the mercy of God against his own declaration, meditate on the fate of the inhabitants of the old world, of the sons-in-law of Lot, who disobeyed God, hoped to find safety, and were involved in destruction amid their perni¬ cious expectations. Wait for the fulfilment of the promise in the time and way of God’s appointment, and ye shall not be ashamed. “ Commit your way unto the Lord, trust in him, and he will bring it to pass.” Lot’s wife was guilty of immoderate attach¬ ment to the world. This appears from the charge our Lord gave to his disciples concerning their con¬ duct at the destruction of Jerusalem. He exhorted them to beware of such an attachment to their pro¬ perty as would induce them to delay their flight, or to return after they had begun to flee, that they might carry it with them ; because there would be both sin and danger in their action, a loving of the SERMON XI. 227 world more than of Christ’s commandment, and the certainty of falling by the hand of the enemy ; and this exhortation he illustrates and enforces by the example of Lot s wife, who perished in looking back, with undue affection, on that city from which she had just escaped. Had she thought of her property lost, with grief moderated by the appointment of God, and of her companions and friends with an¬ guish, allayed by gratitude that she and her family had been mercifully separated from their sins and their fate, she would have doubled her speed with downcast eye and supplicating heart, and would have survived the terrible calamity. But she looked back on the place where her treasures and her heart were, where were her earthly goods and pleasures, and the companions of her earthly joys, with unlawful desire and regret, and she perished, placing her life in things in which life consisteth not. Remember, that if any man love the world, the lo\e of God is not in that man. His body is indeed a temple, but not of God ; for the world is the idol to which it is consecrated, and where it reigns with tyiannical sway. The love of the world sets the commands of God at defiance, extinguishes conjugal and maternal love, and blinds to the greatest and most imminent dangers. Remember, it bereaved our fiist parents of innocence, Dinah of chastity, and Achan of life ; that it prevents multitudes from accepting the honour that cometh of God, and turned the wife of Lot into a pillar of salt. As professing SERMON Xi. 228 Christians, you have renounced the world, as to sin¬ ful pursuit and enjoyment ; but so had Lot’s wife. Does the world prevail on you to remain in situa¬ tions in which ve cannot serve God according to your consciences ? Does the world tempt you, by its gains, or pleasures, or honours, to neglect the serious study of the Scriptures, the cultivation of family religion, or regular attendance on public worship, — to pursue business, amusements, or sen¬ sual gratifications with avidity, and to involve your¬ selves in strifes and heart-burnino’s with vour neig-h- hours or relations ? And when religion sets accurate bounds to the gratification of appetite and passion, does the world dispose you to reason and excuse, to dispute and contest, and to follow that course which taste, character, and society prescribe ? Do ye con¬ form to the practice of Christians, hold their lan¬ guage, and experience something like their senti¬ ments, on some occasions ; and after all, is the world, it matters not in what shape, uppermost in your practical judgment, in your affections, in your thoughts ; and is your religion always regulated by the world, and not the world by your religion ? In either of tliese cases, be sure that the world reigns over you, that the love of God is not in you, that you are not far from the fate of him “ who will be rich” or great, or sensual, and who is at last drowned in destruction and perdition.” 5fli and lastly. Lot’s wife was guilty of total apostasy from God. She looked back,” actually SERMON XI. 229 attempted to return as some think ; and this suppo¬ sition is countenanced by our Lord’s words and their connexion with this act, “ let him not return,” says he, “ to fetch his goods, — remember Lot’s wife,” who attempted to return, and perished in the at¬ tempt. Be this as it may, “ looking back,” in scrip¬ ture language, is equivalent to turning back ; because it is an expression of the choice made, which God considers as a commission of the deed. Luke ix. 62. “ No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” This act of Lot’s wife was not the effect of surprise, or fear, or any other powerful temporary temptation on a renewed heart ; it did not resemble Peter’s de¬ nial of his Lord ; it was a consummating of the triumph of unholy principle, a full and entire re¬ nunciation of God, a determination to take her part with the world, even in misery, rather than with the children of God, if his favour is not to be en¬ joyed with the supreme love of the world. To this frightful frame of mind did the spirit of disobe¬ dience, impious curiosity, unbelief, and love of the world, indulged at this crisis, bring this unhappy woman. It now appears that worldly affections and consi- deiations had been the source of her religious pro¬ fession. Well might Lot say, “ she went out from us, but she was not of us ; for if she had been of us, she would, no doubt, have continued with us.” Love for her husband had persuaded her that she 230 SERMON XI. loved his God. Reverence for him, too, as a right¬ eous man, might lead her to “ hear him gladly, and do many things” which he recommended. Fear of being destroyed, affection for her family, dragged her from Sodom, and in company with righteous Lot. Her heart had never been right with God. Long had he witnessed this, long had he borne with her hypocrisy, resisting the persuasions of his grace, and the terrors of his wrath. But now one decisive act discovers her real state — by it she throws off all professed regard to God, takes part with his enemies, and suffers along with them, yea, suffers more dreadfully than they. They grossly and openly sinned ; they were utterly consumed, and their memory perished. She had professed to re¬ verence God, to be of his jieople, while she was of his enemies ; now she avows her enmity when God was demonstrating his jealousy for his honour, and he erects her a monument of his wrath. Remember, then, the apostasy of Lot’s wife. The seed of this crowning sin may lurk long in the heart, nursed by one or more indulged lusts not openly or generally offensive, may remain long concealed from the individual as from society, till some great heat of temptation summon forth its whole vigour, and 23roduce it a full-grown tree, covered with its poisonous fruits. It is all one what the affection is that nourisheth it, if it only predominate. Persons j)rofessing godliness are too seldom afraid of apos¬ tasy, till they perceive gross vice and flagrant out- SERMON XI. rage. Those who are guilty of such offences are persons who cannot apostatize ; they are already without and unconnected with Christ even by name. “ He that thus openly worketh sin is of the devil” in the judgment of the church. Apostasy often originates in the love of the world, which shows itself at first in little things, which puts on a change of veils, clothes itself with so many seemly apologies, assumes so many virtuous titles, till it acquires strength to exercise the most absolute tyranny, to compel to throw off disguise, and to commit actions once the most hateful to the wretched apostate. What was the apostasy of Judas in its beginnings, save a seeming prudent care of the world ? By and by, it became theft, murder of the Son of God, murder of himself in despair. And what has been the apostasy of all who have turned back and followed no more after Christ ? at first but a little prudent concern about a competency, about character, about the cheerful enjoyment of the bounties of providence, or about decent consequence in society. By degrees this prudent concern about the world steals time, religious services, and ordi¬ nary duties of our station from God : at last, when great trials occur, this prudent concern openly sacri¬ fices Christ to these idols, and delivers the apostate to their absolute sway. Remember, then, the sin of Lot’s wife, her con¬ tempt of the divine authority, her impious curiosity, her great unbelief, her love of the world, and her SERMON XI. apostasy from God. Remember these sins with abhorrence and holy fear : Remember how one act can express such complicated iniquity as the habit of the soul, and draw down the most signal judg¬ ments .of God on the transgressor. III. — “ Remember” the punishment of “ Lot’s wife.” Extraordinary punishments are now seldom inflicted on earth, because a future state of retribution is most clearly revealed. Still extraordinary punish¬ ments are inflicted on some extraordinary sinners, for purposes many of wliicli are very obvious. To con¬ vince a guilty unthinking race that there is a God who rules and will judge in righteousness to check the headlong career of vice, and to support his op¬ pressed or desponding people, God sees meet to hold up to the amazed world the dreadful fate of a Lot’s wife, a Nebuchadnezzar, or a Herod : and he gene¬ rally chooseth these examples from among those who have attracted notice by their prosperity, their mercies, their continued abuse of them, or by some single notorious outrage. Ps. xcii. Though cut off by no unusual means, though not erected into fearful monuments of divine vengeance, yet are formal and apostate ]>ersons punished by death arresting them in their sin, in a way that bears no slight resemblance to the iiunishment of Lot’s wife. She was cut off on the road leadintj to safety. The path of duty is the path to safety ; but the way must be in the heart while the feet are SERMON XI. 23.‘j ill the way. When this is not the case with pro¬ fessing Christians, and they begin to stand still, or begin to turn back, judgment overtakes them even in that path that leads others to safety. And what an aggravation to the misery of many, that had they been what they seemed, had they laboured as hard in sincerity as they did in formality, had they loved the ways wherein they walked, they would have been distinguished not by the wrath but the favour of God ! What an aggravation to the misery of many, that they came so “ near the king¬ dom of heaven,” and would not enter in, after all the means employed to prevail with them ! Lot’s wife was cut off from her righteous husband, and from her children, who actually escaped the im¬ pending storm of indignation. And, how full of anguish is this circumstance, common to Lot’s wife and many insincere professing Christians ! They are outwardly joined with the righteous in privi¬ leges and natural affections ; and they are joined with the wicked in the wrath executed on them. Though removed from Sodom, the fire that con¬ sumes Sodom overtakes them. Though separated from the wicked in respect to their gross outward offences, they are included in their condemnation. Though united to the righteous by ties the dearest, by blood, by employments, by social worship, “ they are taken away” to the place of torment, and “ the others are left” to ripen for glory, or to be immedi¬ ately conveyed into it. Lot’s wife was cut off in 234 SERMON XI. the very act of sin, and without a moment’s respite, — “ she looked back, and was turned into a pillar of salt.” There was no interval betwixt the sin and the punishment. The treasures of divine goodness had been poured out and abused. The patience of God was exhausted ; justice demanded its lawful victim, and obtained it. With what horror of sin, especially “ of the sin that easily besetteth us,” should this inspire ! Ah, it is a fearful thing to die after a short confinement on the bed of languishing that follows a long course of sin, carelessness, and mere formality in religion ! Though these circum¬ stances are far from hojjeful, God is able, and God may work a saving change on the heart during this respite. Luke xxiii. 43. But to be cut off with the heart raging, with the hand lifted up against God, to be fixed, eternally fixed, in that frame and posture, and under all the woes con¬ nected with them — how tremendous beyond con¬ ception ! And shall we, by wilful sin, expose our¬ selves to such a fate — subject ourselves to be en¬ rolled with Nadab and Abehii, with Ananias and Sapphira, with Lot’s wife, clinging to the world, and turned into a pillar of salt ! Almighty Grace forbid ! She perished with the wicked, and was distinguished by the severity of her punishment. “ She looked back, and was turned into a pillar of salt.” Whether she was converted into a rock of salt, or encrusted all over with that substance ; whether this was effected by the immediate hand of God, or SEllMOX xr. 235 by the shower of nitro-sulphnreous matter that de¬ stroyed Sodom falling on her, we stay not to in¬ quire. What is of importance for us to remember is, that Lot’s wife was in the very act of complicated transgression arrested by the hand of God, and raised up a monument of the divine displeasure. In the same place, in the same attitude, she is said to have remained for ages, testifying that God vindicates the holiness and justice of his govern¬ ment. Modern apostates may not be exhibited for ages as a visible sign of God’s wrath against abused mercy, but this does not destroy the resemblance between their punishment and that of Lot’s wife. If they are not converted into pillars of salt, if they are not overwhelmed with showers of fire and brim¬ stone here, they will hereafter be plunged into a lake of fire and brimstone, “ the smoke whereof ascendeth up for ever and ever.” Rev. xiv. 11. The sura of what has been said is this, — there is no safety in Sodom, which is a state of nature, a state of sin, and necessarily of misery ; for what “ is born of the flesh is flesh” — “ is carnally minded, which is death.” All in this state should incessantly cry for the renewing influences of that Spirit, of which if they are not born again, they cannot enter into the kingdom of God. Rut there is no more safety in an empty profession of religion, how strict soever the sect to which it is conformed : if persevered in, it inevitably involves in the condemnation of the SEIIMON XI. 2f3() hypocrites ; and it often leads to a full separation from the people of God, with whom they never had any spiritual, however close communion of another kind — it often leads to an awful apostasy, visited by the temporal and terrible judgments of God. 2 Peter ii. 20, 21. How mournful the present state of our visible church ! How does a spirit of unconcern about the life to come, and of avidity about the life that now is ; how do dissoluteness and hardness of heart towards God prevail ! Were not these the vices that prevailed before the old world was de¬ stroyed by the flood — before the cities of the plain were consumed by fire from heaven — before the country of Judea was laid waste by the Romans ? And have not these vices been indulged amid the calamities of war, the downfal of empires, and our own singular merciful exemption from sur¬ rounding miseries ? What reason have we to tremble and mourn before the Lord ! What is your duty, your interest, who are living thus to yourselves, to the world, and not to God ? Are ye about to be overtaken with a deluge of eternal wrath, and should ye not flee into the ark prepared for those ready to be thus overwhelmed ? Is fire from heaven about to consume you while ye remain in the sinful society of those offending against God ; and should ye not, without delay, escape to the city of refuge that God is pointing out, and earnestly SEUMON XI. 2.S7 I’ecornmending ? Should ye not submit yourselves to Jesus, who is able and willing to save you in the day of wrath ? And is there a day or an hour to be lost? O for some friendly, some mighty angel, to take you by the hand, and to drag you, with holy violence, from the state of condemnation, and place you in a state of perfect security— place you under the guardianship of Emmanuel ! In com¬ pliance with our commission, in dependence on the indispensable and promised grace of the Spirit, we attempt the discharge of our awful and important office, “ we would snatch you as brands from the burning.” Even of such fuel, seemingly prepared for fire eternal, God hath formed trees of right¬ eousness, abounding in all the fruits of holiness. Not a few, I trust, are fleeing for Zoar ; but, alas ! have not the swiftest, the steadiest in this flight, great reason for fear, and none for high-mindedness ? What deeds of disobedience, of sinful curiosity, of unbelief and distrust, and of unlawful attachment to the world, still lurk in your hearts, — are still tempting you to linger in your course, to look back with a desire to retain what God removes, or to return back to the immoderate pursuit or enjoyment of the world ? Great need have ye to repeat, “ what shall it profit a man, if he should gain the whole world, and lose his own soul ?” Great need have you to strengthen your faith, by saying, “ God for¬ bid that I should glory, save in the cross of Christ.” SERMON XI. 238 Great need have you to pray, with David, dreading the sinful influence of the world, “ Incline my heart unto thy testimonies, and not unto covetousness ; turn away mine eyes from beholding vanities, and quicken thou me in thy way !” Ah, my brethren, can we contemplate the fate of Lot’s family with unmoved heart — with unmoistened eye? Is there no sympathy for a husband bereaved of his wife, for daughters bereaved of their mother, in this tremendous manner? Well might they, gazing on this newly-formed pillar, exclaim, as David exclaimed, contemjdating the signal punish¬ ment of transgressors, “ Our flesh trembleth for fear of thee; and we are afraid of thy judgments.” A1 as, God did not allow them even this melancholy pleasure of looking back on the pillar ! And, while we sympathize with them, does no fearful appre¬ hension rise, that some one of those dear to us — of those who have seemingly escaped from the pollu¬ tions of the world, should turn back into perdition ? Intolerable thought ! may it produce the most salu¬ tary effects on us and on our families ! Let a holy concern for each other occupy our bosom ! Let us watch for opportunities of promoting the eternal welfare of each other. Let us “ exhort one another daily, lest we should be misled, and hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.” And, if circum¬ stances forbid these means, as they sometimes do, let us, by our example of piety and charity — of SERMON XL 239 meekness, and hatred of sin ; let us, especially, by our secret, and frequent, and fervent prayer, seek the salvation of our beloved relatives. “ For what knowest thou, O wife, whether thou shalt save thy husband ; or how knowest thou, O man, whether thou shalt save thy wife ?” / SERMON NIL Ephesians v. 25 — 27. — “ Husbands^ love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it ; that he might sanc¬ tify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word ; that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing ; but that it should be holy, and without blemish.” The ends of Christ’s mediation are, to reconcile God to sinners, and sinners to God, by his atoning blood ; and to restore to the reconciled the image of their Maker, lost by the fall. Christ is not more earnest in inculcating faith in the first on sinners, than in inculcating compliance with the last on be¬ lievers. He purchased the first at the dearest price, and he exhibits himself as the living pattern of the last in human nature. Rom. viii. 29- In this pass¬ age, by his inspired ambassador, he enjoins husbands to love their wives, and presents his own love to his people as their consummate model. “ Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word ; that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing ; but that it should be holy, and without blemish.” SERMON XII. 241 In attempting to illustrate the example of Christ, I consider, 1.?^, The love of Christ to his church ; and, 2^4 The effectual exertions of his love for the object of it. And, if ever we have felt the value of Christ’s promise, to the right understanding and due impression of divine truth on our hearts, on this subject, we will earnestly plead the fulfilment of it : Lord, may thy Holy Spirit take of the things per¬ taining to thee, and show them to us in their reality, nearness, and heart-affecting beauty ! I. Under the first head, the person who loves — Christ ; the object of his affection — the Church ; and the nature of his peculiar love for her, demand our attention in their order. 1^4 The person who loves is Christ. We should always, in speaking of him, remember, with holy awe, that, in his divine nature, he is the Son of God, and one with the Father. Without this deep sense of his infinite glory and excellence, his doings and sufferings in our nature are not considered or treated with the respect due to their incalculable value. Christ, the Son of God, is mediator between God and man, and the surety of the sinners com¬ mitted to him by the Father ; and, consequently, he is the servant of the Father, in whom his soul delighteth ; and, in the fulness of time, he took on himself a true body and a reasonable soul, prepared for him by the Holy Ghost in the womb of the Vir¬ gin Mary, and was born of her, yet without sin : Q 242 SERMON XII. thus, he is God and man “ in two distinct natures, and one person, for ever.” In the text he is called Christ, to remind us that he is appointed by the Father to his office, and anointed with the Spirit above measure as to his human nature, to enable him to fulfil the duties of the Redeemer, and accom¬ plish the salvation of all those for whom he became surety, by pouring on them his gracious influences. This is the glorious, and wonderful, and gracious person who loves ; and, 2c/, The church is the highly favoured object of his love. The object of Christ’s love is not the whole world, or every individual in the world, for multitudes never were of the church formed on earth ; it is not the visible church, by whatever name called, for even in it “ all men have not faith.” It is the assembly of true believers throughout the world, and in all ages of the world ; and hence, and because the most valuable part of it, they are in Scripture called the world, and the whole world, on whom alone the love of Christ is permanently fixed. Here we must remember that Christ first loved them, not as believers, but as sinners, scattered throughout the world, to be called into the church, through faith in him, according to the terms of the covenant of grace between the Father and him¬ self. Hence, Christ is styled, “ the head of his body, the church.” As Adam was the head and representative of all his natural posterity in the first, so Christ is the head and representative of ail SERMON XII. 243 Ills spiritual posterity, even of all whom, of his own will, he shall beget by the word, of all who shall be¬ lieve in his name in the second covenant \ and, in a higher sense, he is the head of authority, and spiritual life and influence ‘-'to his body, the church.” Though the members of the invisible church were united to Christ in the eternal purpose of God, this makes no actual change in their condition, till the time then fixed has arrived for putting forth divine power to separate them from the world lying in wickedness, and unite them to Christ, by faith of the operation of the Spirit, given on behalf of Christ ; for before that time they remain under the curse of the first covenant, and the penalty of the broken law, being “ children of wrath, even as others,” and “ the wrath of God abiding on them.” Ah ! what objects for the love of Christ were these ! Conceived in sin, and brought forth in iniquity — without original righteousness, and corrupt in their whole nature — rebels against God, and captives of Satan — part of the punishment of their apostasy, cast out of their Father’s house and inheritance, and under his wrath and curse — hateful, and hating one another — groaning under sin and misery, and without help or desire of deli¬ verance ! And yet, these sinful, miserable, and helpless creatures were the objects of Christ’s love, — the highest, the holiest, and most fervent love ! and, Sdly, What manner of love was this ? Such a love as can exist in God alone ; such a love as never 244 SERMON XII. entered into the heart of man to conceive of ; such a love as passeth all knowledge. It must be the same as the love of the Father for sinful men in extent in design and effect ; for “ the Son is one with the Father, in substance, power, and glory.” It must have something peculiar to him as the second per¬ son of the Godhead, become surety for the salvation of those given by the Father, and yet according to the will of the Father. Pure love in a rational creature is a passionate desire of the happiness of its object, which is liable to change, and unable to secure that end of its desire. In the divine mind there can be no such thing as agitating affection, though we give it this name, because the effects of this mental act in God resemble those of human love. What the Holy Ghost calls love in Deity, out of condescension to our apprehension of spiritual things, is simply a will or purpose to promote the blessedness of those whom it respects ; and of this end it cannot be disappointed, for God can have no will save what is worthy of himself, no will that originates from any thing out of himself ; and, therefore, God can have no will, no love, liable to change ; and no will, no love, that any creature, or any occurrence, can defeat or disappoint. “ If God doth purpose, who can disannul ? if he stretch forth his hand, who can turn it back ?” If the infinitely wise, and holy, and almighty God, loves or wills the happiness of sinful creatures, what can prevent their enjoyment of it at his appointed time, and in his SERMON XII. 245 appointed way, of bestowing the grace intended ? These are some of the more general characters of Christ’s love to his church ; other matchless features of it will become manifest as we trace its wonderful expression and beneficent effects. II. “ Christ loved his church, and,” as the first manifest effect of his love, “ gave himself for it.” The apostle, speaking of himself and of believers, gives the best explanation of this mysterious expres¬ sion ; « walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God, for a sweet-smelling savour.” How many important truths do these words present to our minds ! By faith we realize Christ, at once the priest and the sacrifice ; and consequently appointed of God in both respects. God having ordained him, voluntarily consenting, to be the surety of his chosen in the new covenant, “ laid upon him the iniquities of us all,” saith Isaiah, not of us, all men, but of us all who shall be « healed by his stripes,” being « many, who are the objects of the travail of his soul, and whom he shall justify by the saving knowledge of himself, even of us all who constitute his body, the church. « Christ gave himself,” his soul and his body, in union with his divine nature, — “ gave himself,” bearing all her iniquities, laid on him, or imputed to him, by God, — “gave himself” for, i. e. instead of, her, under the curse of the law, —gave himself “ for her,” a willing subject to the 246 SERMON XII. precept of the law, and a willing sacrifice under the penalty of the law, — and he thus gave himself for her “ unto God,” who, as Judge, held her the con¬ demned prisoner of his justice, — and gave himself unto God for her, as the stipulated “ ransom” for her complete deliverance from her state of sin and misery, and that she might enjoy the purchased in¬ heritance of eternal life and bliss. Hence, by his blood, which stands for both his perfect obedience and his atoning death, offered to God “ as a sacri¬ fice of a sweet-smelling savour,” Christ hath re¬ deemed his church from the curse of the law. Gal. iii. 1 3 ; wrought for her an everlasting righteous¬ ness, 2 Cor. V. 21 ; and obtained for her the fulfil¬ ment of the promise of the Spirit, Gal. iii. 14 ; together with eternal redemption, Heb. ix. 12. Thus, Christ hath, by his blood, purchased a com¬ plete, an eternal salvation for his church. And can it be supposed that he hath purchased salvation for her, and has not purchased all the influences of the Spirit necessary to her enjoyment of this ? It would be blasphemy against his love, against his wisdom, against the parties in the covenant of grace, to say that Christ secured the end, according to the will of the Father, but not the means of attaining it, — that he brought her in sight of the heavenly Canaan, but left her on the banks of Jordan, without the means of crossing the flood. Among these means faith is indispensable : without it, the love, the death, of the Son of God avail the sinner nothing : SERMON XIT. 247 without it, they would aggravate his guilt and his wretchedness. But it is secured in the purpose of God the Father, and, consequently, in the inten¬ tion of Christ in giving himself for the church ; for why did God make Christ to be sin for the church, but that the church might be the righteousness of God in him ? And how can she be in him, in time, but by faith ? And how could she have a right to the grace of faith, save by the sin-offering he made for her? You know it is only by virtue of his sacri¬ fice that Christ acquires an actual right of property as mediator and surety of his church, or offers up prayers in her behalf. This sacrifice God considers as being offered from the foundation of the world, according to the terms of the everlasting covenant ; in consequence of which, Christ tells us, that « he hath other sheep,” which are his property, being given him of the Father, in consideration of his death, from eternity, but not yet of his fold on earth, and which he will bring in at the appointed time ; and we know he has prayed for all who shall believe in his gospel to the end of the world, un¬ doubtedly that the Father might teach and draw them to him by faith, in terms of the covenant. The apostle puts the soundness of this reasoninp* o beyond a doubt, when he says to believers at Phi¬ lippi, “ to you it is giVen on behalf of Christ,”— on behalf of his sacrifice and his intercession, in virtue of it, “ to believe in his name.” Hath Christ pur¬ chased salvation, and the means of it, for his church. 248 SERMON XII. and rested satisfied with that, and with laying claim to the character of a lovino; Redeemer, while the objects of his love perish for ever? It cannot be. It is inconsistent with the nature of divine love. Whom Christ loves, he loves unto the end ; he loves in truth and in deed, and not in word only, and. makes them partakers of all the blessings he hath purchased for them by his blood ; for he gave him¬ self for the church. 2<:/, “ That he might sanctify and cleanse it, by the washing with water, by the word.” Christ gave himself for the church, that he might possess the covenant right and qualification to apply the bene¬ fits of his purchase to her effectually, and to their fullest extent, — namely, that he might first cleanse it from guilt, and then sanctify or save from the pollution of sin. This is the obvious meaning of the sentence literally translated, — “ that after having cleansed it, by the washing of water by the word, he might sanctify it.” This cleansing is effected by the water of baptism, in which Ananias enjoined Paul to “ wash away his sins.” It is not to be forgotten, that Paul, and persons turning from heathen idola¬ try, or from the Jewish religion, to Christianity, were of mature years. Now, to all such, w'ho, in receiving this ordinance, gave “ the answer of a good conscience toward God,” — in other words, made a sincere profession of faith in and obedience to Christ, baptism was the outward sign of their being cleansed from their guilt, and the outward SERMON XII. 249 seal of the pardon of all their sins, and of their being accepted of God as righteous, only for the righteousness of Christ reckoned to their account ; or, what is the same thing, bajjtism was the seal of being justified by God. Let it not be imagined, however, that either the water, or the words of in¬ stitution, or the intention of him who administered the ordinance, or any thing but Christ accompany¬ ing the act, according to his good pleasure, by the inward operation of his Spirit, rendered it effectual. In this sense, then, Christ cleansed his church by water ; i. e. he sealed the justification of those by baptism, whom, in another sense, he had previously cleansed, as the apostle says, “ by the word.” By the word, Christ taught them, that “ his blood cleanseth from all sin,” — by the word, he commanded them, say¬ ing, « believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved,” — by the word, accompanied by his Spirit, he persuaded and enabled them to believe in him with the heart, — by the word, he applied to them his blood, which “ purged their consciences from dead works to serve the living God ;” and on pro¬ fessing this their faith to the church, he sealed their justification by the water of baptism. In these times of receiving adults into the church, not a few made a credible profession of faith which could not be re¬ fused by the church, though it was hypocritical, and were admitted to the privilege of baptism ; but being unaccompanied by the Spirit of faith, it was to them no seal of being cleansed from guilt, or jus- 250 SERMON XII. tified ; just as many children of professing Christian parents receive baptism, without receiving the thing signified, “ the renewing of the Holy Ghost, shed abroad on them through Jesus Christ,” as becomes manifest in their after-lives of unbelief and disobe¬ dience. 2d, Christ gave himself for his church, not only that he might cleanse or justify her, but that “ he might also sanctify her.” She is born in the image of the first Adam, which is earthy, unfit for as un¬ worthy of glorifying and enjoying God. By his death Christ acquired the right and the power of accomplishing her salvation, and therefore of re¬ newing her in the whole of her nature, after the image of God, exhibited in himself ; and^this right he begins to exercise in “ cleansing her with the wash¬ ing of water by the word,” i, e. in uniting her to himself, by faith wrought in her by the Holy Spirit through “ the word,” and so cleansing her from all guilt by his blood, and then sealing'her justification by the water of baptism administered to adult be¬ lievers. For the sake of distinct ideas, Ave are ob¬ liged to speak of justification and sanctification as blessings separate in the time of their existence ; when in reality they begin to exist at the same mo¬ ment, and cannot exist but together, though differ¬ ing in their nature, because they exist through the same principle. If believers are justified by faith, they also at the same time obtain an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith ; and if SERMON XII. 251 Christ completes the justification of his church by one act, he also carries forward to its completion the work of sanctification, by the same means that the Spirit rendered effectual to justification, namely, the word and sacrament ; and by them thus blessed in the diligent use of them, he enables her to die daily to sin, and to live unto righteousness ; by them he enables her to purify herself from every filthiness of flesh and Spirit, and to perfect holiness in the fearof God. 4)1/1, Christ loved the church, and gave himself for her, not only that he might reconcile her to God, and qualify her for the service and fellowship of God, but that he might accomplish in her the end of his love to her, namely, her glory and bliss in all eternity, “ that he might present her to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blame.” 1st, Christ gave himself for the church, “ that he might present her to himself or, as the aj3ostle Jude expresses the same idea more expanded, “ that he might present her faultless before the presence of his glory.” The presence of Christ must be for ever glorious, but especially when the universe of men and angels shall be assembled before him as their judge. On that day shall he come in the glory of the Father — in the glory he had with the Father before the world began — in the glory of Emmanuel, who hath all power in heaven and in earth, because 252 SERMON XII. he humbled himself unto the death of the cross^ — and in the glory of the shining and countless myriads of his attending angels. Then will he “ present to himself,” or bring into his near and favourable jiresence, his beloved church, that ‘‘ he may be glorified in her,” in his own glory in which she shall shine — that “ he may be admired in her” for his wonderful love and mercy, grace and faith¬ fulness, wisdom and power, manifested in one ori¬ ginally so mean, so defiled, and so deformed, 2 Cor. i. 10. Christ died to purchase this glory for the church. Col. i. 22 ; while on earth he prayed his Father that she might enjoy it, John xvii. 24 ; in her journey heavenward, he actually began to clothe her with it, 22 ; and when he shall appear in judgment, then “ shall she also appear with him in glory,” Col. iii. 4. 26?, Christ loved and gave himself for his church, that he might present it to himself in a state perfect and glorious, — “ without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that she might be holy and without blemish, a glorious church.” Whether these figures be borrowed from an acceptable sacrifice, or from the most holy and lovely of brides, it is needless to inquire ; for they signify the same qualities and perfections in the church. But as the apostle is furnishing husbands with an incomparable model for their love to their wives ; as Christ styles him¬ self the bridegroom, and the church his bride ; and as we are told, “ she shall be ready for the mar- SERMON XII. 253 riage-supper of the Lamb,” I am inclined to think these figures are descriptive of the church in the character of a bride. At the marriage-supper of the Lamb his wife shall have made herself ready, and to her shall be granted that she shall be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white ; for the fine linen is the righteousnesses of the saints. Rev. xix. 7, 8 ; and the bridegroom will address her in the language of love and complacency in her perfections, saying, “ Thou art all fair, my love ; there is no spot in thee.” Well may the apostle say, that in giving himself in love for his church Christ determined, according to his covenant with the Father on her behalf, that he would make her “ a glorious church.” How can she be but a glorious church, when her outward person, how frail and deformed soever on earth, “ shall be fashioned like unto Christ’s glorious body” — when “ she shall be all glorious within” through the Spirit of Christ en¬ lightening, and purifying, and gladdening her, in the gracious and powerful presence of him whom her soul loveth — when she shall be arrayed with all the glories of Christ’s own righteousness, which is the righteousness of God, and reflect the splendours of Christ’s own image, into which she shall be changed, from glory to glory by the Spirit of the Lord ? Thus I have endeavoured to illustrate the apos¬ tle s short but admirable account of the love of Christ to sinners. He who loves is the Son of God, 2 254 SERMON XII. appointed “ surety” of God’s elect, considered as in a state of sin and misery, known on earth as the church, and characterized by faith in Messias, anointed Saviour, as either to come, or as already come in the flesh. Christ loved the church under sin and under the curse of the law, being under the wrath of God on her entrance into the world ; and he gave himself in her stead a sacrifice aj)pointed and accepted by the offended Judge of all the earth, for her redemption from this state of sin and wretchedness, and to purchase for her a right to all the means and grace necessary to prepare her for the eternal life to which she was chosen in him before the foundation of the world. “ He loved her and gave himself for her.” He gave himself for her in love, that he might furnish her with all the outward means and with all the inward grace he purchased for her, — in other words, that he might effectually apply to her the purchased com¬ plete and “ eternal redemption.” He loved her, and gave himself for her, that he might, by the word producing and by the sacrament strengthen¬ ing faith, through the inward efficacy of his Spirit, unite her and seal her union to himself, and so in¬ vest her with her right to justification, and all his purchased benefits in their appointed order. He loved her and gave himself for her, that he might not only constitute her his mystical body, but that he might sanctify her by renewing her after the image of God, in knowledge, righteousness, and SERMON XII. 255 true holiness. He loved her, and gave himself for her, not only that he might make her one with himself, and conform her to his own image, but that he might perfect her in holiness at death, ad¬ mit her immediately into paradise, raise her up in glory, openly acknowledge her as the object of his everlasting love at the last day, and grant her an abundant entrance into the eternal enjoyment of his incomparable bliss, and into the eternal fellow¬ ship of his own glory. What do we learn from this view concerning the love of Christ to his church ? Is it not an active determination in his mind to secure the complete happiness of its sinful and miserable objects ? If you ask, what is its specific end ? The apostle tells you, it is to present her to himself on the last day a glorious church. If you ask, what are the means his love has chosen as indispensable to this great end ? Ye learn, they include first his death in the nature of man, and in the stead of the church, as necessary to her eternal redemption and the appli¬ cation of it. If ye ask, what are the means Christ has selected to make her a partaker of himself and his great salvation ? It is faith in the efficacy of his death given in behalf of Christ, through, the Spirit, rendering the word and sacraments effectual to that end. If ye ask, what are the means of making her meet for her destined inheritance ? It is his spirit, sanctifying wholly soul, body, and spirit, and pre¬ serving blameless unto the day of the Lord. 256 SERMON XII. Now, would this arrangement have been made had it not been indispensable to eternal life in the estimation of divine wisdom and love ? Is it not a golden chain, which originates in Christ’s* love and ends in the eternal glory of the church — a chain, every link of which depends on another, and hath its proper place and office, to connect the one before with the one after, which ordained connexion con¬ stitutes its unfrangible strength and dazzling beauty ? Who will presume to say, Christ could present the church in glory to himself, unless he had first sanctified her — that he could have sancti¬ fied unless he had first justified her — that he could have justified unless he had first given himself a sacrifice for her — or that he could have given him¬ self for her, unless he had first loved her with an inconceivable love? Who, then, can limit the merits of Christ’s death to the mere pardon of sin ? Who can deny, that Christ’s death is the procuring cause of salvation, and all the means of it, for the church for which he gave himself? Who can say the death of Christ sets aside the necessity of holiness of heart and life in them who trust in it for pardon, since it hath purchased for them the sanctification of soul, body, and spirit, which Christ hath engaged to be¬ stow ? Who can do any of these things, and not give the lie to the Holy Spirit, the author of this passage — and not blaspheme the wisdom and efficacy of the love of Christ — and not slander the design, and nature, and end of Christ’s sacrifice SERMON XII. 257 of a sweet smelling savour, which hath obtained “ eternal redemption” for his church ? This, then, is divine love to sinners, that gives Christ to death as the adequate and accepted price of the complete salvation of each one of those in whose room and stead he suffered. Since this is divine love to perishing sinners, every thing else more indefinitely called divine love to apostate guilty men must be interpreted in conformity to this full and explicit statement. I have said this is divine love to perishing sinners, for it is the love of Christ to the church originally sinners ; but is it not also the love of the Father and of the Spirit to them? In entertaining and acting on his love, did not the Son purpose with the Father, and, as mediator, un¬ dertake and proceed according to “ the Father’s will ?” Entertaining and acting on his plan of love, was he not sent and upheld by the Father, and approved of, and commended to all who hear the gospel, as the object of their faith and obedience, because revealing his will for salvation ? Say, then, is not the love of Christ the love of the Father and the Spirit, since the Father and he are one in essence ? In what sense, then, is it said God loved the world, and Christ died for its sins ? Have we not seen that divine love wills the happiness of its objects, and wills Christ’s death as the procuring’ cause of that and all the means indispensable to the enjoyment of it? How, then, can the world be pro¬ perly called the objects of God’s love and of Christ’s R 258 SERMON XII. death, seeing God leaves the greater part of the world in ignorance of both his love and Christ’s death, and leaves the greater part of those who do hear the gospel to live and die in enmity to Christ and unbelief of his love in him ? In what sense, I beseech you, can God be said to love or Christ to die for “ the seed of the serpent,” “ between whom and the seed of the woman,” Christ himself, God hath put “ enmity,” or for “ those of old ordained to this condemnation,” which include the whole race of Adam, not included in the church, the only ob¬ ject among them of God’s love and Christ’s death ? It is then not true, and cannot be rightly said, that God loved and Christ died for the world, in the same sense as it is said that “ Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it ; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word ; that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing ; but that it should be holy, and without blemish.” To this it is objected that we read in Scripture, “ God loved the world,” John iii. 16 ; Christ gave himself a ransom for all,” 1 Tim. ii. 6 ; “ and tasted death for every man,” Heb. ii. 9* An accurate knowledge of the divine scheme of salvation and of scripture language will do away this objection, founded on a few indefinite words, opposed by facts, and lengthened expositions of the divine mind, strangely foi’ced into accordance with the sound but SEllMON XII. 259 not the sense of these words in their places. “ The world” by no means signifies every man in the woild, even when it is employed to sig’nify its ra¬ tional inhabitants. It signifies the wicked, John xv. 18 ; the Gentiles, Rom. xi. 12 ; and the Roman em¬ pire, Luke ii. 1. Most frequently it signifies “ many,” John xii. 19 ; both of Jews and Gentiles, xv. 18 ; vi. 33, 51. “ All and every man” signify men of all sorts, Luke xviii. 12 ; Rom. xiv^ 2 ; 1 Cor. 1, 5 ; Col. i. 28. 1 his proves that these words are not always to be understood in a literal sense, but are to be limited by the nature of the subject with which they are connected. When God is said to love, and Christ to die for, “ the whole world, and for every man,” these terms must be limited by the clearly defined boundaries of God’s love and Christ’s death, distinctly limited to “ the church,” as we hav^e seen ; and then the plain and consistent mean¬ ing is, God loved and Christ died for “ the world” constituting the church, many of the world of Jews and Gentiles, “ all and every man” of the elect of God, of the many sons of God whom he biingeth into glory, of Christ’s sheep whom he gave him, of those who believe in Christ. This is the world whom the Spirit convinceth of sin, John xvi. 8 ; whom Christ feeds with his flesh, vi. 33, 51 ; who fear God, and work righteousness in ev^eiy nation. Acts x. 34, 35 ; and who shall in heaven thus celebrate effectual redeeming love. Rev. V. 9. And what would the friends of literal inter- 260 SEKMON XII. pretation gain by rejecting the scheme now pro¬ posed ? They would believe in a love that leaves multitudes of its objects to perish eternally, — a love that wastes the precious blood of Christ on myriads who never hear of it, or hear of it only to aggravate their condemnation, — nay, a love that detracts from the glory of the almighty and all-wise God, from the infinite merit and efficacy of Christ’s redeeming sacrifice. Adhering to literal interpretation, they must advance farther, far as they have gone, — they must in consistency believe and teach universal sal¬ vation, as many Socinians and others do ; for is it not written, “ Christ is the Saviour of the world,” John iv. 42 ; and hath not Christ himself said, “ and I, if I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto me,” John xii. 32. Whatever others may believe, let us believe with the apostle, “ that Christ loved the church and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify having cleansed it with water, by the word, that he might present it to himself, a glori¬ ous church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing ; but that it should be holy and without blame.” 1^^, How great and marvellous the nature of Christ’s love to the church ! It is the love of the Creator to creatures of the dust ; of the holy Lord God to unclean, rebellious subjects ; of the Al¬ mighty, who had no need of their services, to those who are unprofitable servants at best ; of the sove¬ reign of the universe saving them and leaving mul- SERMON XII. 261 titudes to perish ; of God manifest in the flesh subjecting himself to the sinless infirmities of our nature, to the authority of his own law, to the hatred and persecution of men and devils, to the wrath and curse of God endured on the cross, in the room and stead of those sinners on whom he had set his love. In this love there is a splendour on which we cannot look ; a mystery which we cannot penetrate. Angels desire to look into the manifestations of it. Saints have but a limited and obscure view of it, even after the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to the riches of his glory, hath strengthened them with might in the inner man, to comprehend “the height and depth, the breadth and length of the love of Christ that passeth all knowledge.” No wonder. It is the love of the infinite mind of God from all eternity ; it in¬ cludes the greatest and most marvellous work of God in time ; and is to be the object of the study and the theme of the praise of holy angels and re¬ deemed sinners in all eternity. 2c/, Remark the inseparable connexion between Christ’s gift of himself for the church, and the church’s enjoyment of all the blessings of salvation, purchased by this invaluable price. Christ gave himself for the church, that through faith in his blood he might justify, sanctify, and glorify her. This was his purpose in dying for her ; and is he not almighty and able to accomplish it ? This is the will of the F ather, and who can resist it ? This 262 SERMON XII. is a prime article in the new covenant, and God is not man that he should lie ; and are not the love of the Father, and the grace of the Son, and the good¬ ness of the Spirit, solemnly pledged to render it effectual? God must deny himself ere the com¬ plete salvation of those for whom Christ gave him¬ self can be separated from his death, the accepted price of their eternal redemption. 3^/, What is your duty, O ye who are habitually depending on and applying to Christ for salvation from sin and misery in the faith of these glorious truths ? Should ye be, are ye not, giving to Christ the glory due to God manifest in the flesh ? How glorious his majesty ! how beauteous his grace I When Isaiah saw his glory, he thought himself un¬ done, because he had seen the King, the Lord of Hosts. When he came into the world, not only the wise men of the East, but the angels of heaven worshipped him, a babe laid in a manger. His fa¬ voured followers on Mount Tabor beheld his face shining as the sun, with delight and astonishment ; and the beloved disciple, contemplating his glory and his beauty, fell at his feet, as dead. Never, never, believers, can ye unite with those “ who see no beauty in him, that they should desire him,” much less with those who despise and esteem him not.” While you humble yourselves before God, because ye are so insensible to his beauty, and give him so little of your esteem, are ye not accustomed to exclaim with Thomas, ashamed of his unbelief, SERMON XII. 263 ‘‘ my Lord, and my God,” and to convert the expe¬ rience of the apostle into a prayer, “ do thou who at first commanded the light to shine out of dark¬ ness, shine into our hearts, to give us the light of the knowledge of thy glory in the face of thy Son ?” Are ye not habitually exclaiming, “ what manner of love is this my Lord hath bestowed on me ?” and habitually pressing forward to the honour and hap¬ piness he hath purchased for you, and undertaken to bestow on you, in the path of faith and holiness he hath marked out for you ? Hath he called you to believe in his atoning death, and are ye not exercis¬ ing faith in it for your justification ? Hath he called you to be holy and harmless, and promised to sanc¬ tify you ; and are ye not laying aside every weight, and the sin that doth more easily beset you ? Hath he called you to glory, and promised to bring you unto it ; and are ye not “ keeping yourselves in the love of God, and looking for the mercy of the Lord Je¬ sus Christ unto eternal life ?” Are ye not admiring and studying to maintain the sacred union to him¬ self, into which Christ hath taken you ? Ye are united to him as the members of the body to the head ; ye are one spirit with the Lord. Is not this the most inconceivable honour, the most intimate and indissoluble union? Should it not be won¬ drous in your eyes, be valued as most precious, and cherished and preserved with the most lively grati¬ tude, and the most watchful care ? Should ye not re¬ verence his loving authority over you, and yield 264 SERMON XII. him the most heartfelt obedience ? By love passing knowledge, and by a price of infinite value, Christ hath acquired an absolute property in you, and tells you that he is the author of salvation to them only who obey him. And is not this authoritative love constraining you to live to him who died for you ? 4M, How unspeakable your comfort in Christ’s love, O believers, while your heart and ways habit¬ ually correspond with the holy designs of it towards you ! These are the ways of wisdom, and in them alone is 2)eace to be enjoyed ; “ this is our rejoic¬ ing, even the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity we have had our con¬ versation in the world.” Leave these, and the Lord will one day break your bones, and cause you to water your couch every night with tears, as he has treated his most eminent servants. It is only when you have respect to all your Lord’s commandments that ye will enjoy unmixed comfort in his love. Then will ye rejoice in it, as originating in himself, and therefore unchangeable in itself, though changeable in its manifestations ; as infinitely wise and j)ower- ful, and therefore able to accomplish its end in you, even your complete salvation. You will draw com¬ fort from the infinite merit of Christ’s death, as purchasing and securing the application, not of some, but of all the blessings contributing to and constituting your eternal happiness. Ye will re¬ joice in the iireciougness of “ the word, setting forth these blessings, and, under the secured influence of SERMON XII. 265 the Spirit, enabling you to accept them, in accepting Christ ; and it will be your meditation part of each day and of each night. And how desirable, how delightful will be to you the sacraments of the New Testament, especially of the Lord’s Supper ! It signifies to your senses, that they may assist your faith, Christ, his love, and all his benefits ; it seals to you Christ, his love, his death, and all his bene¬ fits, your justification, your sanctification, and eter¬ nal glory ; and will be to you the communion of the body and blood of Christ, to your spiritual nourish¬ ment and growth in grace.” SERMON XIII. Psalm Ixii. 8. — “ Trust in him at all times, ye people.” Man, conscious of his weakness like many of the feebler plants, lays hold of some support to bear him up amid the storms of life. Alas, he is often¬ times as blind and unhappy in his choice as the un¬ discerning shrub ! He often trusts to what cannot sustain him. He often trusts to what is consumed by his misplaced confidence. Both he and his stay are often seen leafless and decaying as they over¬ hang the rocky precipice, and murmur in the blast of adversity that regards not their falling state. Wisdom from on high and an improved experience have taught many to place their confidence aright, to avoid this miserable end. Among the number of the heaven-directed was David. God was the rock of his salvation. On this immovable sup¬ port he fixed himself, spread out his tender branches, and, sheltered from the driving storm, he enjoyed a perpetual and increasing verdure. Animated by that divine love which rendered himself secure and prosperous, peaceful and blest, he publishes his ex¬ perience and not a theory, he earnestly exhorts SERMON XIII. 267 others to forsake the false and feeble projis of indo¬ lence, ignorance, and vice, and to imitate his example so productive of permanent security — “ Trust in the Lord at all times.” Let us consider the several parts of this exhorta¬ tion : “ Trust” here is the tranquil expectation of all things essential to happiness. “ If we hope for that we see not,” saith Paul, “ then do we with patience wait for it.” A man cannot be called happy without a competent portion of the good things of this life, unless his portion of spiritual good compensate for this want. A wise man seeks peace and holiness in the first place, and in the second place he seeks health and a moderate share of earthly enjoyment. The prophet David sees men in want of these blessings — sees them apt to mistake both the nature and means of happiness, and he adviseth them to “ trust in God.” I. It is in vain to expect even temporal comfort and security from any creature. What is man in any situation that we should trust in him ? Are not the multitude generally vain, giddy, and inconstant ? Are not the great too often false, deceitful, treacher¬ ous ? When laid in the balance to ascertain their title to our confidence, will not the light dust there¬ of outweigh them both ? And are not the righteous of both these ranks, how affectionate soever, feeble, frail, and mortal ? “ Their breath is in their nos¬ trils. They die, and in that day their thoughts 268 SERMON XIII. perish.” What is gold, and all its earthly ad¬ vantages, that we should make it our confidence ? If it be acquired by fraud or oppression, will it not bring along with it remorse, the curses of the injured, and the vengeance of God ? If it is the inheritance of our fathers, or the fruit of honest industry, doth it not multiply the cares of life and the occasions of sin, doth it not inflame un¬ hallowed appetite and passion ? Though wealth could ward off sorrow, and suffering, and death, which assuredly it cannot, what security have we that it will not “ make to itself wings and fly away ?” The elements are not under the control of the rich man. May not a spark of fire, a tor¬ rent of water, a gust of wind, or an earthquake, in a moment almost, level the most affluent with the poorest ? And should we think of trusting in nothing sublunary, but expect all our temporal comforts from angels, would not this also be vanity ? True it is, their power, their wisdom, and their benevolence far surpass those of other creatures ; but are not all their faculties and affections devoted to God ? Are they not his ministering servants, and can any thing be expected from them save what is agreeable to his will ? Nay, would they not with horror reject that confidence offered to them which belongs to God their Lord ? And would not this impious misplacing of it provoke God to employ even their ministry in punishing the daring idola¬ ters ? Created beings can contribute to our health SERMON XIIU 269 and moderate earthly enjoyment only in a limited degree ; and that too entirely under the appoint¬ ment and control of God. God, then, is the only proper object of confidence for temporal good. He is the first cause and last end of all things, — He is God over all — “ in Him we live, and move, and have our being,” — He is the “ Father of lights, with whom there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” Hence, the propriety of these repeated commands, “ Trust not in oppression ; put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help ; and trust not in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth all things richly to enjoy.” And David enforceth these precepts by his own example, — “ Some trust in chariots, and some in horses : but I will remember the name of the Lord our God.” H. From these observations I proceed to remark, that we ought to intrust all our concerns to God, our spiritual as well as our corporeal, our eternal as well as our temporal. We have seen that created beings are unequal to the care of our earthly con¬ cerns : how much more unequal must they be to that of our immortal interests ! The influence of created beings either extends not to our souls, or it is very limited, and for the most part very hurtful to them. By nature and evil works we are remov¬ ed far from God, the fountain of happiness — we are under a sentence of condemnation ; and in creation 270 SERMON XIII. there is not a price of sufficient value to redeem a soul from death, nor a virtue of sufficient efficacy to turn us and bring us back to God. Our wills are averse from return, being “ enmity to God our repentance stands in need of atonement, bow much more our wilful sins ; our worldly advantages often lead us farther from God, and subject us to heavier judgments ; and our most affectionate friends are naturally involved in the same wretched and help¬ less circumstances. None but God, our offended sovereign, can forgive us ; none but the Father of our spirits, and the Disposer of all events, can com¬ municate efficient spiritual aids to us. We must trust in God, therefore, for things temporal and spiritual necessary to our happiness ; and his nature and word define those things we may expect from him They must be things agreeable to his perfections, for he will not dishonour himself by his gifts ; they must be things he hath promised, and be expected in the way of his appointment — for he is the best judge of good, and the method of obtaining it, and his wisdom and sovereignty are not to be insulted by our folly and arrogance. Do we expect good from God, and neglect the duty of prayer ? we pre¬ sume to treat him as if he were in jest when he said, “ Ye have not because ye ask not.” Are the things we incline to commit to him, whether ends or means, evil in themselves, or improper and unpro¬ fitable for us ? Can God grant in kindness to us what his word and our own consciences condemn ? SERMON XIII. 271 Have they the appearance of good, such as worldly and convenient good things, or speedy spiritual con¬ solations ? we may ask them ; but, as we are not certain that the grant of these things is more con¬ ducive to God’s glory and our good than the refusal of them, we must ask them in submission to his un¬ erring wisdom and sovereign pleasure. “ Give us this day our daily bread,” — “ If thou be willing, re¬ move this cup from me, nevertheless not my will but thine be done !” Did men regulate their expec¬ tations from God by his own revealed will, their prayers would not remain so often unanswered ; and though they should complain of supplications so often presented without success, God would no longer thus severely reproach them, “ Ye ask and receive not, because ye ask amiss.” III. Here an inquiry of great importance pre¬ sents itself, — What foundation have we for this trust in God, for all “ things pertaining to life and godliness ?” Sinful creatures can have no natural right to entertain it any more than rebellious sub¬ jects have a right to expect grace at the hands of their insulted earthly prince, who hath taken them prisoners in arms and fighting against him; and therefore, granting that God is all-sufficient to the happiness of his creatures, as his presiding over all things and their entire dependence on him evidently impl}^, still it ought to be asked, “ what authority or ground have I for expecting all temporal and 272 SERMON XIII. spiritual blessings from him whom I have so griev¬ ously offended ?” We have the perfections of God, which qualify him for this confidence ; we have the promise of God to hear all who ask in the name of Christ ; and these form the foundation of our trust in him. No one who thinks seriously can doubt his wisdom. He who made all things will assuredly superintend them ; for it is as worthy of him to preserve and govern them, as to have created them at first ; and these imply infinite, unerring wisdom. Without doubt, he who made and presides over all things must know what is best for us, in all respects and in every situation. “ Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world. — All things are naked and open to the eyes of him with whom we have to do. — O Lord, how manifold are thy works, in wisdom hast thou made them all.’’ His works no less clearly demonstrate his power. His eye penetrates the most hidden recesses, and his power can execute the orders of that wisdom which it every where accompanies. Great is our Lord, and of great power, his understanding is infinite. What God is there in heaven, or in earth, that can do according to thy works ? Thou spakest and it was done, thou commandedst and it stood fast, — even the glorious fabric of the world. With God nothing shall be impossible. I form light and I create dark¬ ness, I make peace, and I create evil ; I, the Lord, do all these things. The Lord of hosts hath pur¬ posed, and who shall disannul ? and liis hand is SERMON XIII. 273 stretched out, and who shall turn it back ? He doth according- to his will in the armies of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth ; and none can stay his hand, or say unto him. What doest thou ? It is no less evident that God is good. If we sur¬ vey the whole of God’s works, and penetrate below the surface of seeming evil, are we not obliged to say, “ his tender mercies are over all his works.” Every period is an instructor in the goodness of God, every sense a channel through which it flows in upon us ; the heart is filled with admiration of its own experience of the continual, rich, and varied goodness of the Lord, and excited to exclaim, “ Day unto day uttereth speech, night unto night teacheth knowledge concerning thee, — taste and see that the Lord is gracious, — thou art good, O Lord, and that my soul knoweth right well.” And when we reflect that all the happiness enjoyed by myriads of beings in time and in eternity flows from the dis¬ interested benignity of God over all, and blessed for ever, must we not say with our Lord, “ there is none good but one, that is God.” And this good God is immortal, an everlasting source of felicity to those who trust in him. He who was before all things must be without beginning of days, and he who has no beginning can have no end ; he must live for ever by the same necessity by which he hath existed from eternal ages. This is one of the properties of God which the apostle teacheth is so fully established by the material world, that it may 274 SERMON XIII. be seen in it, and that even the heathens are inex¬ cusable for not discerning it ; the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen by things which are made even his eternal power and Godhead. This is the perfection of the Most High, which forms at once the ground of the Psalmist’s consolation when deeply afflicted by the frail and perishing nature of himself and the world he inhabits, and the theme of his song of praise to God on that occasion ; “ of old hast thou laid the foundations of the earth ; and the heavens are the work of thy hand. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure ; yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment ; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed. But thou art the same, and of thy years there is no end.” Who, then, will not join the apostle in ascribing glory to God for his im¬ mortality, and saying, “ Now, unto the king eter¬ nal, immortal, the only wise God, be honour and glory, for ever and ever. Amen.” But, though these perfections incontrovertibly establish that God is the only proper object of our confidence, do they not rather forbid than encourage sinful men to trust in him ? If God be good, hath not man abused his goodness, and turned his grace into wantonness ? If God be a wise ruler, con¬ cerned for the honour of his government, which alone can render it the permanent source of happi¬ ness to reasonable creatures, will he not see this abuse, and must he not discourage and punish this SERMON XIII. 275 infectious ingratitude and wickedness ? If his power be almighty and eternal, have we not reason to dread, that, when the period of discipline misiiri- proved is at an end, this power will be for ever em¬ ployed in vindicating his majesty, and justice, and wisdom, by inflicting signal but righteous judgments on such signal transgressors ? But, is it not pro¬ bable God hath, in his purpose and execution of it, reconciled justice and mercy, — hath asserted the in¬ violable majesty of his government, by appointing some suitable substitute, — some adequate atonement for the sins of all who shall suitably improve this ordinance of grace ? After all, how shall we place our trust in him who is justly angry with us, and whose honour renders necessary a propitiation, which we know not where, or in what manner, to procure or present ? Wherewithal shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the most high God ? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil ? Shall I give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul ? These are questions every mind deeply awakened to a sense of sin and danger has in all ages and under all dispensations anxiously put ; these are questions human reason could never have satisfac¬ torily answered ; here are difficulties we neither could have removed nor surmounted. But, hath God proposed an atonement for sin, whereon he may rest the vindication of his own glory in par- 276 SERMON XIII. doning sinners, and I may rest my expectation of pardon, of grace, and of eternal life ? and how shall I obtain an interest in this atonement, and effectually improve it for all the ends of its appointment ? To all who put these questions in good earnest, we have “ glad tidings of great joy.” We have broken and dishonoured the law of God, but the Son of God in our nature, and as our surety, magnified the law by a perfect obedience ; we deserved to perish under the wrath of God, but Christ endured our curse in his own body on the accursed tree ; and thus, by the appointment of God, he accomj)lished a righteousness sufficient to take away the guilt of transgressors, and to secure their acceptance with God. What else can be the meaning of these words, “ he hath made him to be sin,” or rather a sin-of¬ fering, “ for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him ?” If this atonement is of such wonderful virtue as to assert the righteousness of God when he receives his once rebellious subjects into his favour, what shall I do that I may enjoy the benefits of its efficacy ? He who “ is a jealous God,” who is the best judge of what is honourable to himself, hesitates not to declare him righteous, though formerly the chief of sinners, who is united with Christ by faith, — a faith that consti¬ tutes him one body and one spirit with his righteous mediator. Is not this the interpretation which a plain and unprejudiced understanding will give to these assertions of the apostle ; Jesus Christ hath God set SERMON XIII. 277 forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past ; to declare, I say, his righteous¬ ness, that he might be just, and the justifier of him who believeth in Jesus ? Is not this a foundation on which the faithful in Christ Jesus may rest their confidence towards God ? How undeniable the be¬ nevolence of God to perishing sinners ; seeing he hath “ so loved the world, that he gave his only be¬ gotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” What now can obstruct the mercy of God to those who believe in Christ ; seeing he hath made reconciliation for them ? Will the gracious God withhold from them any suitable blessing, seeing he hath not withheld from them his only begotten, — his well-beloved Son, the most precious of all gifts ? Nay, will not the just God now confer on them all the blessings of salvation ; seeing he hath received the precious and appointed price of them, — seeing he who cannot lie hath promised to bestow them, — seeing the commu¬ nication of them is continually solicited by him who paid the stipulated ransom, and whom the Father heareth always ? Surely, all who have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ with the heart, may reason conclusively in this manner, “ he that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things ? How are those who have faith in Christ to improve his atonement, that they may expect necessary bless- 278 SERMON XIII. ings from God ? They must in frequent prayer hold it up to their righteous judge, as the grand and pre¬ valent plea, in arrest of merited judgment, and for the mercies essential to their happiness. In this way the apostle encourages himself and all true Chris¬ tians to cherish and express entire confidence in God, “ we have not an High Priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us, therefore, come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” The father of the faithful and all his spiritual offspring before the coming of Christ believed in Messiah promised, as do all his spiritual descendants since that period in Messiah already come ; both professing this ground of con¬ fidence towards God, have poured out their heart before him ; and which of them all hath thus trust¬ ed in him in vain ? The testimony of the apostles, founded on their experience, may be quoted as the substance of the evidence of all the faithful on this subject ; “ we had the sentences of death within ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead ; who delivered us, in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us.” IV. The prophet David exhorts, with propriety, to trust in God “ at all times,” in the morning as well as in the evening of life, in the meridian of prosperity, as well as in the midnight of adversity. SERMON XIII. 279 At what age have we no need of the divine aid and protection ? Could we join the vigour of youth with the experience of old age, would not the guidance and support of the almighty ruler and judge of the universe be awanting ? How much more necessary must they be when the strength of youth is en¬ slaved by passion, and the wisdom of age borne down by accumulating infirmities ! In what situa¬ tion can the man, the Christian be placed, in which he hath no need of trust in God, or in which he ought not to exercise it ? Is there exaltation so solidly great as not to require the hand of God to give it stability ? Is there depression so low as to escape his notice, as to make no impression on the tender heart of our gracious advocate, or to exceed the efforts of divine wisdom and power for deliver¬ ance from it ? What more exalted than the throne of Nebuchadnezzar ; and yet was he not hurled from this lofty pre-eminence over men to the lowly level of the beasts of the field, by the hand of the Almighty which he had set at nought? What more established than the throne of David, till he became self-confident and disobedient ; and did not God then shake it to its very foundation ? Who more distinguished than Peter for faith and zeal, for love and boldness in his master’s cause ; and yet when he provoked God by his self-sufficiency to withhold his actual grace, did he not meanly and repeatedly deny the knowledge of his Lord, with oaths and imprecations ? In what situation can 280 SERMON XIII. man be placed in which trust in God is not neces¬ sary, and would not be beneficial ; I now add, in what situation can the Christian be placed in which he is not encouraged to look to God with sweet ex¬ pectation of what is truly good, — of what is abso¬ lutely best for him ? The faith of his people is^ “ the Lord is a sun and shield ; the Lord will give grace and glory ; and no good thing will he with¬ hold from them that walk uprightly and does not their experience, in the most trying circumstances, equal and often exceed their expectation ? Who has been more afflicted than Job ; and did not the in¬ timate acquaintance with God, which he acquired in the course of his troubles, surpass his former know¬ ledge of him, clear and extensive as this was, as far as seeing doth hearing ; nay, was he not caused “ to rejoice as the days of his sorrow had been,” because, in this case it was most honourable to God and be¬ neficial to him ? What more severe than the buf- fetings of Satan ? Under this persecution did not Paul receive this comfortable assurance, “ my grace is sufficient for thee, my strength shall be made per¬ fect in your weakness and, under the influence of this promise, did not the apostle say, “ most gladly, therefore, will I glory in my infirmities ; that the power of Christ may rest upon me ?” What more awful than the valley and shadow of death ? but, the Spirit of inspiration hath said, “ precious in the sight of the Lord is his saints’ death and is not their testimony, “ though I walk through the val- SERMON XIII. 281 ley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil ; for thou art with me, thy staff and thy rod comfort me ?” Beware of suspecting that this happy expe¬ rience is limited to any age of the church, that, whatever it once was, it is now far otlierwise. Alas ! that the witnesses of it are less numerous, less decided ! but this is not because trust in God is not a duty, or a duty without promise. While the world lasts, man will be dependent, and God able and will¬ ing to fulfil the unchangeable promises of his grace to those who confide in him ; “ his mercy endureth for ever,” his faithfulness to all generations; “he is the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” “ Trust in him, there¬ fore, at all times,” — in the morning as well as the evening of life, in the day of prosperity as well as the night of adversity, in the last as well as in the first ages of the church. V. We are not to imagine that trusting in God alone excludes the use of lawful means. We may use the faculties he hath bestowed on us agreeably to his directions, for the attainment of temporal or spiritual good, suited to our character and circum¬ stances ; in the same way we may employ the good offices of our fellow-men ; especially for the accomplishment of our salvation we may employ all these, in the due improvement of the word, sacra¬ ment, and prayer. Reason draws this inference con¬ cerning our Christian liberty from the subordination 282 SERMON XIII. of these instruments to beneficial ends, — from their being placed within our reach, — and from their being the gift of God. To neglect them, to sit still and be idle under the pretext of trusting in God, would be to reduce ourselves to the level of things inanimate, would be to reject the counsel of God against ourselves, and to offer an affront to him, the giver of all good. Into this crime we seldom fall in pursuit of worldly goods ; then we seldom omit any probable means of success ; and why should we be less reasonable, less active, or obedient to God, as Christians in pursuit of spiritual blessings, than as merchants, or mariners, or husbandmen in search of temporal gain ? This plain inference of reason is confirmed by the express precepts of the Scripture. While we are there commanded to trust in God alone, we are also commanded “ to do good, — to commit our ways to God, — to commit our souls to him in well-doing, — and to work out our salvation with fear and trembling ; for it is God who work- eth in us, both to will and to do of his good plea¬ sure.” These expressions enjoin well-doing along with trust in God ; which implies, that a prudent, and diligent, and persevering use of lawful means is our indispensable duty, and that the use of means sinful in themselves or in the manner of employing them, is utterly inconsistent with trust in God. He who employs no means and expecteth his favours disobeyeth God ; he who employs unlawful means both disobeys and distrusts him. When we have SERMON XIII. 283 “ committed our ways,” that is, our honest and best endeavours, “ to God,” then we are patiently to wait for the issue which the Almighty in wisdom and mercy sees to be best. Fretfulness or ajiprehension, vexation and impatience, are irreconcilable with the nature of trust in God. A faithful friend of like pas¬ sions with ourselves would have reason to be of¬ fended with such evidences of want of confidence in him ; how much more reason will the most perfect of beings, and the friend that sticketh closer than a brother, “ have to be offended with such iniurious o suspicions ?” He who knows him best, and whose heart corresponds to his excellencies, will entertain no affections so dishonourable to God ; “ the right¬ eous is not troubled ; his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord.” “ Fret not yourselves, — let patience have its perfect work, — trust in the Lord, and do good ; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt he fed, — he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.” It may please God, that trust in him, accompanied by a diligent use of means, shall be ineffectual for a time, shall not prevent or at once put an end to troubles of a temporal or spiritual kind ; but perseverance in this course leads to a glorious deliverance, and qualifies to adopt the hymn of David, “ I waited patiently for the Lord, and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, and out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And he hath put a new song 284 SERMON XIII. in my mouth, even praise unto our God : many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the Lord.” VI. To whom doth the prophet David address his exhortation when he saith, “ Trust in him at all times, ye people ?” God alone is the suitable and inexhaustible source of human happiness, and therefore ought to be the confidence of all the ends of the earth : but it is no less clear, that the exer¬ cise of his goodness towards mankind must be regu¬ lated by his wisdom and holiness. His providence preserveth and bountifully supplies the wants of the unjust and unthankful, — yet he is angry with their wickedness every day. While they remain in this state, as we have already seen, infinite power, or wisdom,*oreven goodness itself, which aggravates the guilt of their ingratitude, cannot reasonably be the object of their confidence; they must be objects of ter¬ ror to them. Whatever their professions are, their conduct proves they do not believe God to be what in reality he is ; hence, it is impossible they can rationally trust in him whom they neither esteem, love, nor obey, though their sovereign ; it is impos¬ sible they can truly trust in him who distinctly and repeatedly declares that their offerings are an abo¬ mination, and their persons liable to his dreadful judgments. It follows, that if the prophet David intend this exhortation for all men, he exhorts the ungodly to the end in order to the means — he ex¬ horts them to trust in God that they may strive to SERMON XIII. 285 put themselves into the condition of expecting all good from him, just as the apostle exhorts to “ be filled with the Spirit,” that we may emjjloy those means with the diligent use of which God hath con¬ nected the reception of this “ unspeakable gift.” The import of the exhortation in the text in this view is, “ Let sinners acquaint themselves with God ; let them renounce all confidence in created good ; let them come to him by faith in Jesus Christ which purifieth the heart and life, as well as justifieth the person before God, and then place un¬ limited confidence in God for all things pertaining to this life — truly good for them — and to the life to come. ’ Without these, acts of filial dependence on God are not required, are presumptuous, are acts of solemn derision, which God will not pass with im¬ punity. Unto the wicked God saith, “ what hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or to take my covenant in thy mouth ; seeing thou hatest instruc¬ tion, and casteth my word behind thy back ?” This call, in its proper acceptation, is addressed to those whom God styles, in the full import of the title, “ my people ;” but how shall we distinguish the people of God from those who rest in the name given them on account of their place in the visible church ? Let us attend to the description he gives of their mind and conduct, influenced by his discriminating operations in them. They habitually regard God as the object of the profoundest reverence and love ; 286 SERMON XIII. they delight in his good and holy law, extending to the heart as well as the life, while they tremble at the sentence of condemnation it pronounceth on them ; they lay their hand as it were on Jesus, their sacri¬ fice for sin, and importunately plead his merits and intercession in arrest of judgment, and for pardon, and for grace, and for every blessing here, with eternal life hereafter ; they are constrained by the love of God in Christ to live devoted to his service, in all manner of holy obedience and meek submis¬ sion ; they are continually deploring sin that dwell- eth in them, and stirring themselves up to seek a more lively resemblance of God in holiness, that they may more nearly resemble him in happiness ; and whilethey distrust themselves more and more, they learn to recline on the arm of omnipotence and love with growing confidence. Their trust in God is not a superficial notion, the offspring of care¬ lessness and insensibility ; it is a distinct and de¬ vout act. of an enlightened understanding and an affectionate heart ; it is not one act only, it is rather a habit of mind constantly inclining to rest in God all-sufficient. Under particular trials and at stated times, the pious man seeks to testify his trust in God to others, or to strengthen both the grace itself and the comfort of it by solemn expressions of prayer and praise. These expressions naturally and necessarily flow from habitual reliance on God, and experience of the comfort of it ; they are the indispensable duty of the righteous ; they SERMON XIII. 287 have been and ever shall be their delight. With them the song of David is ever new, “ My soul, wait thou only upon God : for my expectation is ■ from him. He only is my rock and my salvation ; he is my defence ; I shall not be moved. In God is my salvation and my glory; the rock of my strength, and my refuge is in God. Trust in him at all times, ye people.” Let me ask you, have ye a right to trust in God as your friend ? All mankind are by nature enemies to God in their heart and by wicked works ; and God cannot be the confidence of his enemies. Have ye evidence that you are reconciled to him through faith in Christ which sanctifieth the whole man ? for, if ye have not the Son, ye have not the Father — nay, “ his wrath abideth on you.” If you imagine yon are in a state of reconciliation with God, because ye imagine ye have faith in the mercy of God, through the merits of Christ, while ye live in any known sin, ye cruelly and absurdly deceive yourselves. The Scriptures, not the notions of men, or your supposi¬ tions, are the only rule of your faith and manners ; ye must show the foundation of your confidence in the Scriptures, or ye must renounce it as unsafe, as ruinous ; ye must show by the Scriptures that faith in Christ doth not work by love, doth not purify the heart, or keep the commandments of God, — ye must show by the Scriptures that he who worketh sin is the friend of the God of holiness who forbids itj — ye must do all this, or ye must lay your account 288 SERMON XIII. with vengeance instead of the divine favour ye now expect. And if ye will not do this, if ye will obsti¬ nately measure God’s attributes by your folly, and not by his own revealed will, ye must in consist¬ ency, if you would not renounce all pretensions to reason, throw away the Bible as utterly superfluous and unworthy of God. But, who among you is prepared to do this, is not startled at the idea of forfeiting the sure benefits of revelation for the dreams of the human imagination, is not desirous of escaping from sin and wrath by Jesus Christ, and obtaining solid and lasting peace in God, the confi¬ dence of those who thus repose in him ? Alas, ye have heard of the terrors of the law and the grace of the gospel in vain, ye are asleep, ye are dead in trespasses and sins, if these are not your desires, your prayers, your unwearied endeavours ! “ Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.” Christians, let me entreat you to examine the na¬ ture of your trust in God. Ye have a right to con¬ fide in God ; ye are exercising this grace in a more or less perfect manner, and it is of importance for you to ascertain the purity or impurity, the strength or the weakness, of your trust in God. Without this ye cannot be duly grateful to God for a holy and firm reliance on him ; without this ye cannot be duly humbled for a mixed, a weak, and waver¬ ing hope in him — ye cannot be excited to the ef¬ forts necessary to the purifying and strengthening SERMON XIII. 289 of this divine principle. Is your trust in God a rational act, founded on God’s testimony carefully searched ; does it lead to the diligent use of the means appointed for the attainment of temporal or spiritual good ; does it habitually exert an influence in composing and sweetening the temper ; and is it frequently venting itself in devout prayers and praise? We have seen that this is the character of that trust in God, which is produced by his word and Spirit ; and it must be the character more or less evident of your trust : but are you aware of the many imperfections and sins which pollute and shake it ? Do you remark with grief how prone you are to mingle trust in means with trust in God, to become conceited and presumptuously to entertain high and unwarranted expectations ; at another time to be discontented, and fretful, and anxious to be lifted up with wealth, and to neglect humble prayer and fervent praise ? The night of sharp and long-continued afflictions will make you sensible of the existence and extent of these evils in your heart, the suspicion of which in the day of prosperity would have startled you. What careful and constant watching over your hearts will be necessary to detect the lurking treason ; what re¬ solution, and exertion, and prayers, will be necessary to prevent it from gaining ground and betraying you into idolatry to produce and maintain a simple reliance on God in all circumstances ! In propor¬ tion as the Spirit of God enables you to approach T 290 SERMON XIII. him, and contemplate his glorious excellencies in the face of Jesus Christ, will you discover the defects and sins of your manner of trusting in God, will you aspire after and attain to “ the holy confidence of children to a father, able and ready to help SERMON XIV. Psalm cxix. 63. — “ I am a companion of all them that fear thee, and of them that keep thy precepts.” These are the words of David ; they describe his conduct towards the people of God, which himself approved of, and hath recorded for the direction of religious men in all ages. That we may be follow¬ ers of “ the man according to God’s own heart” in this important point, let us consider first what is im¬ plied in the example here set before us ; and, second, some of the motives to imitate it. I. The example of David implies, that he es¬ teemed and loved those who feared God and kept his precepts. A wise and good man does not choose for his companions those whom he cannot love ; and he cannot love those whom he does not esteem. Tl’lie persons described in the text were objects of esteem and love to David ; as persons of their cha- lacter will be to all in the Christian church who resemble David. What can be more estimable than their ruling principle— the fear of God ? The truly wise, those who choose the best ends which a ra¬ tional and immortal creature can choose, and the 292 SERMON XIV. fittest means of these ends, must command our es¬ teem, if we are capable of estimating sound practi¬ cal knowledge. Does not the fear of God terminate on the best end, God, whose favour is life eternal, and whose displeasure is everlasting death ; and is it not the best means of avoiding the one and gain¬ ing the other, seeing “ the fear of the Lord is to depart from all evil,” — is to become what God will- eth his friends to become ? This is a solid founda¬ tion on which all that is good and amiable in character and conduct may be built, and the excel¬ lence of it is manifested by the inseparable connexion betwixt it and the conscientious observance of the commandments of God : they who truly fear God, as truly “ keep his precepts.” This demonstrates the perfection of their wisdom ; first in the choice of a suitable principle of life, and then in continuing to apply it vigorously in the right direction, — to promote the glory of God in the holiness and happi¬ ness of themselves and others. Well may the Psalmist say of them, “ the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom ; a good understanding have all they that do his commandments.” And it deserves to be re¬ marked, that the fear which prodiiceth spiritual obedience to God must be amiable as well as wise ; it must be a fear corresponding to the love as well as the awful greatness of God ; it is the fear of children to their Father in heaven ; and it must in¬ clude in it goodwill, together with active beneficence, to the objects of his benevolence. If they are called SERMON XIV. 293 fools who despise wisdom and instruction,” what can they be called who do not esteem and love the pre-eminently wise, namely, the pious and benevo¬ lent ? It is not folly to admire or seek the acquaint¬ ance of those who eminently improve the arts that contribute to render this life more comfortable or agreeable ; but it is folly of an injurious kind to court the acquaintance of them and to shun or ne¬ glect or despise the society of those who “ fear God and keep his precepts,” whose wisdom is conversant in eternal objects, and conducive to eternal happi¬ ness. Indeed, to undervalue their wisdom, is to un¬ dervalue “ the wisdom which cometh from above ;” for it is God who putteth this fear in their hearts : to undervalue those who are animated by it, is to undervalue those whom God hath admitted into the covenant of friendship with himself, with whom he dwells, and in whom he walketh. Because, “ they are more excellent than their neighbours,” and be¬ cause they derive their excellency from God, who delights to honour, and bless, and walk with them, David, and every one of David’s spirit, saith, “ I am a companion of all them that fear God, and keep his precepts.” II. The example of David shows that he asso¬ ciated with them in their spiritual exercises. Men of David’s spirit will associate with those who fear ‘ God in the exercise of their devotional feelings and affections. Those who fear God “ think much on 294 SERMON XIV. his name,” and consequently “ they speak often together and he who is their companion mingles in their edifying conversation the secret of the Lord is with them, and he taketh sweet counsel with them, that, when the Lord showeth them his covenant, he may enjoy the precious discoveries. Though holy reverence of God is the habit of their minds, sometimes it is more feeble, or less active than it ought to be : he goes to share with them in their mourning over their proud insensibility of heart, or to awaken them to a just perception of their deadness ; and he calls on them to exercise, by the most encouraging consideration, their great principle of action, their secretly awful religious af¬ fections, “ O, fear the Lord, ye his saints : for there is no want to them that fear him.” Those who fear God are the objects of God’s special regard, in whose favour he hath uttered and recorded many gracious promises ; and the lively exercise of this fear is to those who perceive it in themselves, a sure and pleas¬ ing pledge of their interest in these promises, — of their receiving, in due season, every thing truly good for them. He associates with those who fear the Lord, not merely to enter into their feelings, and to exhort them to their duty, when fearing, or actually sinking into security ; he goes to lay with them their case before God, and implore those influ¬ ences of his Holy Spirit, which alone can mould the untoward heart into a suitable frame, and animate with holy powerful affections. In the becoming SERMON XIV. 295 posture of supplication, he fervently prays, “ O, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God accept¬ ably, with reverence, and holy fear.” And, has it not happened on many such occasions, that the “ place was,” as it were, “ shaken, and great fear,” of a truly filial kind, “ came upon them all ?” Sometimes the fear of God, whether from an overwhelming sense of sin, or from the power of temptation, or from great tenderness of heart, or from afflictions sinffu- o lar in their severity or continuance, tends towards slavishness, and the tremblings of unbelief: on such an occasion he will not withhold his spiritual skill, or the result of his own greater experience. He will remind them of the Lord’s dealings with others in circumstances like their own ; and though he may surprise them, he will not fail to suggest that the very depths of distress is a fit situation, and loudly calls for a spirited attempt to honour God with a song of admiring gratitude. “ Ye that fear the Lord, praise him ; all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him ; and fear him, all ye the seed of Israel. For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted ; neither hath he hid his face from him, but, when he cried unto him, he heard him.” Their surprise will subside into belief and thankful won¬ der when they are brought to perceive the consist¬ ency, the union, and mutual dependence of fearing and glorifying God in deeply afflicting circum¬ stances. When he can add to the examples which his knowledge draws from the history of God’s spe- 296 SERMON XIV. cial providence, and to the argument derived from his own faith in God’s faithfulness, .the weight of his own experience, he will, with all humility, make it known to them, — he will make it known with a view to the glory of God, and their good, together with the exercise of his own gratitude, and the con¬ firmation of his own holy confidence in the Lord. He will say to them, “ come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my soul.” I cried unto him with my mouth, and he was extolled with my tongue. • If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. But, verily, God hath heard me ; he hath attended to the voice of my prayer. Blessed be God, who hath not turned away my prayer, nor his mercy from me.” Having done this, he waits for that suc¬ cess which the Spirit of God taught him to expect from the illustration of the grace and power of God in his own experience ; “ the humble shall see this, and be glad ; and your heart shall live that seek the Lord.” When he says unto God, “ I will worship in thy fear towards thy holy temple,” he describes the habit of his mind, and his manner of performing public worship. This tribute to God he pays the more cheerfully that it is rendered in the society of those who delight in the same spiritual service, and perform it in the same reverential temper. In glo¬ rifying God with them in the sanctuary, he aims at their and his own improvement, and also at inducing the ignorant, the careless, the formal, to worship SERMON XIV. 297 with them in spirit and in truth, with holy fear : hence, he adclresseth God in these terras, “ my praise shall be of thee in the great congregation. — I will pay my vows before them that fear thee. They shall praise the Lord that seek him. — The meek shall eat and be satisfied.— ^All the ends of the world shall remember, and turn unto the Lord : and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee.” He associates with those who fear God, not only in expressing and exercising this filial veneration in worship, but in the active service of a holy life. This is the proper fruit of this religious affection cherished by these religious exercises, in the produc¬ tion of which those who fear God stand greatly in need of mutual countenance and co-operation ; and this the Psalmist and the man of his spirit willingly give. They consult together about the most effec¬ tual means of promoting the honour of their Judge and Father in the advancement of the faith, and holiness, and happiness of themselves and of their fellow-men ; and they encourage each other to per¬ severe in their common or respective works of righteousness. Guarding against the temptation to strife and envy even in the service of God, they cherish a holy emulation in each other by their exemplary zeal and activity, — “ They provoke one another to love and to good works.” When the influence of sloth, or of worldly mindedness, cools fervour or relaxeth diligence, “ they exhort one an¬ other daily, lest they should be hardened by sin.” 29S SERMON XIV. When temptation prevaileth against one who fear- eth God, and he continues under its influence, or repeatedly yields to it, a man of David’s spirit, with all the caution of wisdom, with all the tender¬ ness of love, ventures on the language of reproof. His aversion to the office is overcome, his troubled spirit composed, his timidity converted into holy courage, by the command of God, so persuasively worded : “ Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart : thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him.” It may be, his own experience of singular mercy in a time of backsliding has rendered him no less wise than willing “ to teach transgressors of this kind the law of God” — “ to restore a man overtaken in a fault,” and penitent for it, “ in the spirit of meek¬ ness” — and “ to strengthen his brethren when re¬ stored.” In this manner he seeks the society of those who serve the Lord, and he strengthens their hand and encourages their heart for every good work. III. These words imply that David and the man of his spirit associate with those who fear God and keep his commandments, to “ rejoice with them when they rejoice, and to weep with them when they weep.” There is a foundation for this laid in the new nature and principles of the people of God ; when they are “ made partakers of the divine na¬ ture,” the power of malevolence is broken in their hearts, and the good-will of their heavenly Father, SERMON XIV. 299 whose spirit they breathe, whose image they bear, is implanted and cherished in its place. They are all members of that body of which Christ is the head : “ and whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it, or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it.” Hence the man of David’s spirit seeks the company of those who fear God, that he may rejoice with them rejoicing. Godly men must acknowledge with Paul and the early converts, “ we wax,” in our unconverted state, “ foolish, living in malice and envy and even after they have made no inconsiderable progress in the Christian life, their experience obligeth them to sub¬ scribe to the testimony of God in the Scriptures, “ the spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth unto envy.” Against this “ work of the flesh,” — this malignant affection, — this rottenness of the bones, “ which slayeth the silly one,” he wages a continual war, with various success in single conflicts, but with decided advantage on the whole. He studies to guard against the desire of vain glory, to be clothed with humility, and to walk honestly, not in strife or envying. The sight of the worldly prosperity of others calls him to bless God for them ; excites glad¬ ness of heart, and draws him to their cheerful dwell¬ ings, that he may take part in their gratification, and add to their gladness of heart by his kind par¬ ticipation of it. The world will suppress her envy, and feed her mirth with their prosperity ; but it is because “ the Lord hath showed great mercy upon 300 SERMON XIV. them that he rejoiceth with them and thus he contribiiteth to sanctify the pleasure accompanying temporal good things. One would be inclined to think, that however envy may be excited by the abundance of the things of this life possessed by others, the spiritual prosperity of the favourites of heaven could not provoke this vile affection in the breast of those who fear God ; and yet the apostle says unto those whom he styles “ babes in Christ,” “ there is among you envying,” and that on account of religious matters and apprehended superiority in their neighbours. To this wretched emotion, as it riseth, the man of whom we are speaking opposeth the glory of the sovereign Dispenser, and the honour and happiness of those who are the objects of his distinguishing liberality, and the exceeding and un¬ merited favour of God to himself. When these have obtained their due influence in his bosom, he resolves to take the nearest view of the munificence of their common Father to his brethren beloved ; he resolves to testify to them the happiness he derives from their happiness, and to strive to render it permanent, fie goes and joins them in the spirit of Barnabas visiting the infant and flourishing church of An¬ tioch, “ who was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost, and of faith ; and who, when he came and had seen the grace of God, was glad, and exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord.” The man of David’s spirit joins himself to’ those SERMON XIV. 801 who fear God, that he may weep with them when they weep. How beautifully is this part of the Christian temper illustrated and converted into an incumbent duty in the epistle to the Hebrews ? “ Remember them that are in bonds as bound with them ; and them that suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body.” The object of sym¬ pathy is either temporal or spiritual affliction ; in both the “ companion of those who fear God” in¬ terests himself, with tenderness and without pride. Nehemiah is a lively picture of all of this character, even when they hear of the sorrows and hardships of God’s people, how distant soever from the scene of suffering. They of whom he asked concerning the Jews left in Judea, when the rest were carried to Babylon, toldhim that they were in great affliction and reproach. “ And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned cer¬ tain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven.” As soon as an opportunity of visiting the afflicted offers, this man hastens to visit him, that “ he may mourn with him, and comfort him ; and when he lifteth up his eyes and knoweth him not, because of the wretchedness of his appearance, he lifteth up his voice and weepeth.” The man who feareth God, and is almost overwhelmed with his afflictions, pathetically implores the commiseration of his friends, for both his temporal and spiritual sufferings, but especially for the last ; “ have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends ; for 302 SEKMON XrV. the hand of God hath touched me.” And he can appeal to all who know his manner of behaviour to the afflicted, whether it has not been marked by the tenderness of sincere sympathy ; “ did I not weep for him that was in trouble ? was not my soul grieved for the poor ?” They fulfil not the law of Christ who bear the burden of his people’s sorrows, but will not put their finger to the burden of their wants. But this man administers to their wants, as God hath pros¬ pered him,” without arrogance or ostentation. With the apostle he frequently stirs himself up to relieve the necessities of those who fear God, — saying, “ as we have opportunity let us do good to all men, but especially to the household of faith.” His gratitude to God, who stands in no need of any of his services, fixeth on the indigent and amiable offspring of his heavenly Father as the proper objects of its benefi¬ cence, — and he lays before God his purpose, with the reasons of it : “ O, my soul, thou hast said unto the Lord, thou art my Lord, my goodness ex- tendeth not to thee, but to the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is all my delight.” As free from arrogance as from ostenta¬ tion, he conforms to the purifying precept of the Lord : “ let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doth.” And when he has nothing to give but his sympathy, his counsels, his prayers, he hum¬ bly and frankly says, “ silver and gold have I none, but such as I have give I thee.” SERMON XIV. 303 IV. When David, and the man of David’s spirit, saith, “ I am a companion of all them that fear thee, and of them that keep thy precepts,” they in¬ timate that they adhere to them in good and in un¬ deserved evil report, and in good and in evil condi¬ tion. “ A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity and is not he who is born of God a friend and a brother to all who trace their spiritual existence to the same heavenly Father ? Were those, who have the character of fearing God, to forfeit this character “ by spots which are not of the children of God,” he could not be a companion to them ; while his soul would weep for them in secret, “ and he would not cease to pray for them so long as he is not convinced that they have not sinned unto death.” Were those who fear God to move in a station widely removed in its mental habits, in its pursuits, in its manners and condition, from his own, he could not be supposed to associate with them as equals, as his familiar acquaintances, in any other respect than as subjects of the king¬ dom of grace, the laws of which command those of the highest rank to “ condescend to men of low degree.” Though those who fear God avoid all ‘gross offences, and allow themselves in no known sin, they are not free from infirmity, they are not clean from all sin ; and they sometimes are the objects of malevolent reports, which are either without foundation, or have none adequate to support the fabric built on it. The world is too 304 SERMON XIV. busy, too idle, and too ill-natured to search out 'the truth ; and indeed they would be sorry to find that their injurious story originated in falsehood or shameful misrepresentation. This would deprive them of some spiteful amusement ; and would wrest from them a very convenient instrument of reveng¬ ing' themselves on those whose principles and habits of life they have felt to be a reproach to tbeir own. Innocence, much less penitence and increasing cir¬ cumspection, will not disarm them ; but they are of another spirit than David, and the man of David’s temper. He knows that they must have sinful in¬ firmities, whether he discover them or not ; and when he perceives them, he treats them with a prudent and affectionate discrimination. If thev are mere weaknesses, he charitably bears with him ; if they prove to be openly offensive, he charitably feels, and even expresses indignation if necessary ; with Paul he says,. “ who is weak, and I am not weak ? who is offended, and I burn not ?” If they offend himself through infirmity, or on testifying a due sense of the wrong done him, he forgives them. When their character is injured, he defends it against ignorance, the love of talking, and malignity. And he will not give up his opinion of them, formed deliberately, and on sure grounds ; he will not cease to be their companion on the footing of religious connexion and brotherly love, for poverty, or the neglect, or the contempt, or the persecution of the world. They may, in their days of trial, have to SERMON XIV. 305 say of other men what Paul said concerning his first examination before the Emperor of Rome, “ no man stood with me ; but all men forsook me but of the man of David s spirit thev will have to sav, what Paul at the same time said of David’s Lord, “ notwithstanding, the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me.” II. I hasten to set before you some motives to imitate David’s example, and be “ companions of all those who fear God, and keep his precepts.” They who imitate this example, truly love their brethren in the Lord. The brethren are amiable, for the pleasure and profit of their society and con¬ vex sation 5 and many love them for these reasons only ; in loving them thus they love self supremely, and the brethren so far as they flatter and gratify self, and no farther. The man of David’s spirit loves them for God’s sake, and for the image of God in them ; and he knows this to be the case, because, while he experienceth peculiar pleasure in yielding obedience to this part of the divine law, he makes conscience of keeping all its precepts, 1 John v. 2, 3. Now, it is fellowship with the saints from love to God so proved that is to be understood, whenever I speak of being companions of those who fear God and keep his commandments. l8 the mediatorial empire into the hand of the Father, is among the things of Christ demanding attention. “ God hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained ; whereof he hath given assurance to all men in that he hath raised him from the dead,” Acts xvii. 31. At the last day, “ the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him ; then shall he sit on the throne of his glory,” Matt. xxv. 31, 32. “ We must all ap¬ pear before the judgment-seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in his body, ac¬ cording to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad,” 2 Cor. v. 10. According to his righteous sen¬ tence, “ the wicked shall go away into everlasting punishment, and the righteous into life eternal,” Matt. xxv. 46. And, when he hath completed the great scheme of saving his people, and punishing his enemies, then “ shall he deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father,” 1 Cor. xv. 24, — then shall he resign that empire over all worlds, which he held as Mediator, while he for ever retains a peculiar empire over the redeemed, and as one with the Father and the Spirit will preside over the uni¬ verse with imperial sway. 6^//, Of the things of Christ, the last I shall mention is, the free and full offer which he makes of all the blessings of salvation to all who will cor¬ dially apply to him for them. Pardon of sin, re- * storation to the favour and image of God, and an SERMON XXT. 429 inheritance in heaven, with the Holy Spirit to in¬ terest the sinner in the author and finisher of them, are the chief blessings of the gospel. These bless¬ ings are often signified by water in the Scriptures, on account of the painful and perishing state of mankind, and their enlivening, and refreshing, and invigorating nature ; and Christ who hath pur¬ chased them, and is intrusted by the covenant with the distribution of them, is made known to us as the dispenser of them. And what can be more full and free than the offers of them which Christ makes to all who will cordially apply to him for them ? “ Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money ; come ye, buy and eat, yea, come, buy wine and milk, without money, and without price,” Is. Iv. 1. This invitation includes all, of eveiy kind, of every degree, who are sinful, wretched, and helpless ; so that to what jDerson soever who will not apply to him for salvation, he may well say, “ ye will not come to me, that ye might have life,” John v. 40. Perish they must who will not comply with the invitation ; but their blood is on their own head. What saith the natural man seriously consider¬ ing these truths. Must I believe these things of Christ, and apply to him for salvation, or perish for ever ? What obscurity wraps them round ! How can I reconcile them ? What a mortification of the understanding, and of the heart, is inseparable from the reception of them ! But, if they are the truths 430 SERMON XXI. of God’s word, believe them I ought, and believe them I must, or I must perish. If these be the truths of God’s word, there must he a beauty, an excellency to which I am insensible. O, wretch¬ ed man that I am, who will free me from the darkness that surrounds me, who will unveil the glory that belongs to them ? This is the work of God alone, who framed this scheme of truths, and the soul which is to receive them ; but will he con¬ descend to undertake and complete this labour of wisdom and love ? II. Yes, our Lord promises that “ the Spirit of truth, the comforter,” will perform this gracious office for the people of God, — “ he will receive of mine, and will show it unto you.” How shall we speak of the manner of the Spirit instructing in “ the things of Christ,” without degrading the sub¬ ject, even while we limit our views by the scripture account of it? Yet the following observations, I hope, are fitted to increase our reverence and grati¬ tude to the Holy Spirit, while they communicate a lively impression of the nature and importance of his work. This office of the Spirit implies, \st^ That he takes the most suitable of the things of Christ when about to show them. His eye ever follows the steps of the objects of sove¬ reign love, he is well acquainted with their character and heart. When the season fit for this operation arrives, he selects that truth from among the things SERMON XXI. 431 of Christ intrusted to him by the council of peace, which is suited to their character, frame of mind, and circumstances. To this the experience of every believer in every step of his conversion, and in every step of his progress in faith, and holiness, and comfort, bears a decisive testimony, — exciting an admiring gratitude. Ignorance of this is the fruit of insensibility and carelessness. The Holy Spirit brings near the things of Christ, which he hath taken from the divine trea¬ sury as fit for his occasion. Sometimes he brings it near, unexpectedly, perhaps in a sermon, or in a conversation, or a prayer, or a psalm, or a hymn. Sometimes he makes idleness, a want of amusement, or the duties of the Sabbath, or the afflictions of life, more frequently a cause of opening and con¬ sulting the word of God. Sometimes he placeth the Scriptures within the reach of some needy soul, destitute of them, by the hand of a friend of Jesus and of souls. Sometimes he recalls to the mind of one who has not improved an early religious educa¬ tion, the chosen truth, and fixes it like a nail in a sure place, by means of some striking circumstance or event. 3c?, The Holy Spirit parts the clouds, and re¬ moves the veil that surrounds the things of Christ. All professing Christians know, that the veil of Moses — the veil of types, and figures, and carnal ordinances, remaineth on the heart of the Jewish nation, even until now ; and that the Spirit of the 432 SERMON XXI. Lord shall, at the appointed time, which we trust is fast approaching, finally take it away, 2 Cor. iii. 14 — 18. Professing Christians know, that there is a veil on the hearts of the heathen, of Mohamme¬ dans, of infidels, and of antichrist ; and that the Holy Spirit will take it away from many of them. But it is of far more consequence to us, that we should remember there is a no less ruinous and far more criminal veil on the hearts of multitudes of professing Christians, even the veil of pride and pre¬ judice, of formality and lust ; and that, as the Lord is pleased to continue with us the means of grace, so the Spirit will take them away from not a few, as he hath done in times past. 4M, The Holy Spirit will shine on the things of Christ. A picture in darkness, however near, can¬ not be seen at all, and in an unfavourable light can¬ not be justly estimated. From these disadvantages, destructive of their influence, will the Spirit of truth free these precious portraits of the divine wis¬ dom and mercy to perishing sinners. Having brought them near, and placed them in the most advantageous position in respect of us, he shines on them in the order and in the degree that he choos- eth, and which always is the best. In his enlight¬ ening beams, they at last stand forth in the clearness of substantial forms, in the distinctness of individu¬ ality, in the harmony of intimate union, sweet con¬ sistency, and mutual co-operation, and in the glory of a scheme effectual to promote the honour of God SERMON XXI. 433 and the salvation of his people. This often is the consequence of time, of varied and painful experi¬ ence. The Holy Spirit will effectually cure the eye of the understanding, naturally blind to the things of Christ. Man “ is blind” in this respect ; “ he is alienated from the life of God, because of the blindness of his heart,” Eph. iv. 18. In vain are the things of Christ brought near us, in vain are the mists that conceal them dispersed, in vain does the Spirit of God shine upon them placed in the most favourable position, if we stand oppo¬ site and direct towards them our sightless eyeballs. All their glory and excellency are lost upon us ; to us they are as if they were not. And, alas, how many members of every Christian congregation ex¬ hibit a spectacle ten thousand times more moving, more heart-rending than blind persons standing be¬ fore the most interesting pictures ! And if the ope¬ rator, who removes the cataract from the blind eyes and lets in all the glories of the visible world, is precious, — Oh, how inestimable the Holy Spirit, “ who opens the eyes” of the spiritually blind, that “ they may know what is the hope of the Father of glory’s calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints !” Eph. i. 18. 6//^, The Spirit fixes the eye of the mind sted- fastly on the things of Christ which he sets before them. Spiritual sight would avail a man nothing if his eyes were only glancing at divine things, and 2 E 434 SERMON XXI. habitually roving on things seen and temporal, or dwelling on any one of that class of objects. Alas, how many and strong are the temptations to this abuse, and how frequently and mournfully success¬ ful are they ! No sooner are the eyes beginning to open on spiritual things, and the strength of their peculiar impressions to be manifested in the life and conversation, than pride, and vanity, and worldly interest, and Satan, and friends, the emissaries of Satan, present objects of sense, to weaken the im¬ pression, to distract the attention, and to bring back spiritual blindness. And we have seen them pre¬ vail, — we have seen their unhappy object hurried into the heated pursuit of something earthly, or in¬ volved in a round of mere worldly, not to say sen¬ sual enjoyments, to such a degree, and for such a length of time, that spiritual feeling and spiritual sight began to decay, and spiritual friends to sigh and pray in sorrow for them. Occasionally, too, an impatience' under the gradual illumination of the Spirit, an am¬ bitious aspiring after knowledge not attainable, have riveted the attention of the inquirers on things that lead them to neglect and undervalue the very lesson the Spirit would teach. Against these and similar temptations the Spirit warns them under his tuition, and, if they have unhappily yielded to them, he by degrees delivers them, under ‘a course of salutary discipline. Weary of all other objects of pursuit, their language is, “ We would see Jesus conscious of their inability to guard against this distraction SERMON XXI. 435 of mind, their prayer is, “ Unite my heart that I may fear the Lord ; and, having attained the object of their wish by the grace of the Spirit, their grateful acknowledgment is, “ O Lord, my heart is fixed.” 7^^, The Holy Spirit opens the hearts of his pupils to receive the things of Christ with admiring gratitude. “ The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God,” 1 Cor. ii. 14 ; because he hafh gone to take his rest with the objects of his earthly affections, he will not rise to open and re¬ ceive the heavenly message, Luke xi. 7. Though treated once and again in this unworthy manner, Jesus still saith, “ Behold, I stand at the door and knock ; if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me,” Rev. iii. 20. When the set time is come, the Spirit openeth the heart, as he did that of Lydia, not only to attend to, but to comply with the things spoken. Acts xvi. 14, 15. Then the lan¬ guage of the soul, “ persuaded and enabled by the Holy Ghost” to embrace Jesus, “ is. Lift up your heads ye gates, be lifted up ye everlasting doors” of my heart, “ and the King of glory shall come in” — “ come. Lord Jesus, come quickly;” and when he hath embraced him in the arms of faith, his lan¬ guage is, “ Lord, mine eyes have seen thy salva¬ tion, which thou hast prepared before the face of all people,” Luke ii. 29 — 31. “ How mysterious soever the things of Christ, how inveterate soever the objections of the corrupt heart 436 SERMON XXI. to them, this manner of teaching them must be ef¬ fectual. The teacher is almighty, his manner of instruction is rational and powerful, and the result must be the great end proposed by the cordial re¬ ception of Jesus and the things pertaining to salva¬ tion. The things of Jesus have been long before me ; often have I heard them by the hearing of the ear. My heart is not insensible to their excellency. My life hath certainly felt something of their power. O, that I knew whether they have been shown me of the Spirit !” III. When I shall have stated some of the decisive evidences and benefits of this promised office of the Holy Spirit, you will be somewhat assisted in judging whether he hath shown you the things of Christ. 1^^, Those to whom the Spirit of truth hath shown the things of Christ have a clear apprehen¬ sion of their reality, an irresistible conviction of their excellency, and an interesting persuasion of their importance to themselves. “ Do ye, then, with open face, behold the glory of the Lord as in a glass?” 2 Cor. iii. 18. “ Hath God shined into your hearts to give the light of the knowledge of his glory, as it shineth in the face of Jesus ?” 2 Cor. iv. 6. And can ye say in truth, “ there is no other name given under heaven whereby we must be saved ?” Acts iv. 12. 2rf, Those to whom the Holy Spirit hath shown SEIIMON XXI. 437 the things of Christ have experienced a deep pro¬ stration of soul, upheld by a secret hope and a lively desire of profiting by the gracious discovery. Have ye received the Spirit of grace and supplication, and seen Emmanuel pierced by your sins, and mourned with a peculiar depth and bitterness of grief? Zech. xii. 10. Beholding the majesty and grace of God, in the face of Jesus crucified, have ye abhorred your¬ selves, and repented in dust and ashes ? Job xlii. 5, 6. And are ye, “ through the Spirit, waiting for the hope of righteousness through faith ?” Gal. V. 5. 3d, Those to whom the Holy Spirit hath shown the things of Christ have such an impression of their fitness and beauty, as produceth a frame of heart that correspondeth with these qualities. “ All we, with open face, beholding the glory of the Lord as ill a glass, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, by the Lord, the Spirit,” saith Paul, in the name of himself and fellow Christians, in whom the Spirit beareth witness with their Spirit, 2 Cor. iii. 18. Have ye such an impression of the fitness of the things of Christ to secure your happiness, that it produceth in you heartfelt gratitude to God their author ? Have you such an impression of their fit¬ ness to illustrate the glory of God, as to produce in you high esteem of them ? Have you such an im¬ pression of the gracious design of them to change you into the image of the Lord, as to produce in you a desire of this change, and a belief that it is 438 SERMON XXI. attainable? Rom. viii. 29, 13, 14 ; 1 Cor. xv. 49. Have you been struggling to put off the old man with his deeds, and to put on the new man, which is created after the image of God, in knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness ? Eph. iv. 22 — 24, Col. iii. 10. And are you adding to your faith, knowledge, and virtue, and temperance, and pa¬ tience, and godliness, and brotherly-kindness, and charity ? for if these things be in you, and abound,” they shall make you that ye “ shall neither be bar¬ ren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.” 4^/^, Those to whom the Lord the Spirit hath shown the things of Christ experience a sensible in¬ crease of spiritual life, of spiritual strength, and of needful comfort. In contemplating the things of Christ, have your hearts felt a quickening power, O ye who complained of their deadness ? In con¬ templating the things of Christ, has your strength for duty, for temptation, for trial been renewed, O ye who mourned over your weakness in all these re¬ spects? Is. xl. 31. In contemplating the things of Christ, have ye received strong consolation for the sorrows’ of guilt, or sin, or loss, or death, O ye who were bowed down all the day long, and water¬ ed your couch every night with tears, because of these things ? 5^/^, Those to whom the Spirit hath shown the things of Christ, enjoy an increasing delight in at¬ tending on religious ordinances, and in performing SERMON XXI. 439 the prescribed duties of life in which the Spirit most commonly exerciseth this gracious office. Have your views of the things of Christ led you to say of them as contained in the Scriptures, ‘‘ more to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold : sweeter also than honey, and the honey¬ comb,” Ps. xix. 10, — to say of your devotions in a secret place, “ surely the Lord is in this place, — this is none other but the house of God, and the gate of heaven,” Gen. xxviii. 16, 17, — to say of worship, when a family or two or three Christians meet together in the name of the Lord, of a truth “ Jesus hath been in the midst of us,” — to say of the house of prayer, there have we seen the power and the glory of God, and exclaimed, “ how amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of Hosts !” — to say of the bread and the wine in the Lord’s Supper, “ this is the communion of the body, this is the commu¬ nion of the blood of Christ,” — and to say, when in Providence deprived of public ordinances, “ my soul longeth, yea, even fainteth, for the courts of the Lord ?” In a word, have your views of the things of Christ led you to say of the most common, the most humble, the most painful duties of your sta¬ tions, because required by your Lord, “ it is my meat and my drink to do the will of my Father in heaven ?” 6^/«, Those to whom the Spirit hath shown the things of Christ, entertain a growing desire to par¬ take more fully of their benefits when the glory of 440 SERMON XXI. them shall be fully revealed, and their own capa¬ cities be enlarged and perfected. Have ye tasted in the ordinances that the Lord is gracious ; and do ye not long to drink of the rivers of pleasure that are in his immediate presence, and impart a fulness of joy ? Ps. xvi. 11. In them have ye enjoyed the communion of saints on earth ; and do ye not de¬ sire to “ come to the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, and to the general assembly and church of the first-born that are writ¬ ten in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus, the Mediator of the new covenant ?” Heb. xii. 22, 24. In them have ye seen Jesus darkly, as through a glass ; and is it not your prayer that ye may see him as he is, that ye may be like him, and be satis¬ fied with his likeness, — nay, may not some of you be saying, “ I would rather depart, and be with Christ, which is far better?” Ps. xvii. 15; Phil, i. 23. Have ye joined fellow Christians here below in celebrating the praises of your Redeemer, whose power and grace ye have experienced ; and do ye not often realize the period when ye shall asso¬ ciate with the redeemed around the throne, and without a doubt or a fear with the fulness of confi¬ dence and joy shout aloud with them, “ Unto him who loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father ; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever?” Rev. i. 5, 6. SERMON XXI. 441 I have not pretended to enumerate all the effects of the Spirit showing the things of Christ ; I have mentioned those only that are essential to salvation ; I have not described the highest measures of these effects. Some have been transported, as into the third heavens, in the enjoyment of them. This forms an exception to the ordinary procedure of the Spirit ; this does not meet the experience of the generality of Christians ; and, incautiously exhi¬ bited, afflicts the most tender hearts in an injurious manner. And it is to be remembered, that the im¬ pression made by the discoveries of the Spirit will be, in general, according to the capacity and dili¬ gence of the observer, — and according to the sove¬ reign pleasure of the Lord the Spirit. Sometimes the impression will be more, sometimes less ; some¬ times very effectual, when scarcely or not at all per¬ ceived, as when afflicting humiliation is not acknow¬ ledged to be an evidence of spiritual manifestation. All the effects mentioned may not be produced at the same time, though something of all accompanies each saving impression. Sometimes one of these effects, sometimes another, is more remarkable. And this variety is not capricious and arbitrary ; it is owing to the wisdom and grace of .the Holy Spirit, affectionately accommodating his lesson to the present state and circumstances of his disciples, or to their approaching duties and temptations. 1^?^, As those who have walked in light, and are 442 SERMON XXI. now walking in darkness in regard to “ the things of Christ,” are the objects of our Lord’s peculiar and compassionate regard, I address myself to them first of all.- Your views of Christ and his work which were once bright are now faint, which were once distinct are now confused, and you no longer experience their cheering influences. You begin to suspect that your past enjoyments in contemplating the things of Christ were a delusion. “ Beloved, think it not strange concerning this fiery trial as though some strange thing happened unto you,” 1 Pet. iv. 12. “ There hath no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man,” in a state of reconcilia¬ tion ; “ but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able, but will with the temptation also make a way for you to escape, that ye may be able to bear it,” 1 Cor. x. 13. “ Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.” “ Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God,” Is. 1. 10. Expostulate with your unbeliev.- ing hearts, “ Why art thou cast down, O my soul ? and why art thou disquieted within me ? hope thou in God ; for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God,” Ps. xlii. 11. In answer to all your temptations, say, “ I will wait upon the Lord, that hideth his face from the SERMON XXI. 443 house of Jacob, and I will look for him,” Is. viii. 17- Thus, ancient believers in darkness “ looked unto him, and were lightened,” Ps. xxxiv. 5. 2^/, You who have obtained some saving practi¬ cal discoveries of the things of Christ, demand our attention in the next place. It may be, that by means of a religious education, you have known something about them, and never questioned the statements made concerning them, — from your in¬ fancy it may be that they have produced some occa¬ sional emotions of joy or sorrow, but without any permanent or sanctifying influence. Now you perceive something more of reality, of excellency, and of suitableness, to a felt need of a powerful divine remedy. Your case resembles that of the blind man in the gospel, whom Christ enabled to see with a perfect eyesight, by the power of the Holy Ghost. After our Lord had put his hands upon him the first time, he asked him, “ if he saw aught,” and he looked up, and said, “ I see men as trees walking ;” and it was not until he had put his hands upon him a second time that “ he saw every man clearly.” “ Despise not the day of small things.” Trust in him, with thankfulness for hav¬ ing done so much for you, that he will perform the good work he hath begun ; wait patiently in the use of means, till he put his hands upon you a second and a third time if your case require it, and you will see every thing of Christ clearly. “ Unto you that fear my name,” is the Lord saying unto you. 444 SERMON XXI. “ shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings,” Mai. iv. 2. 3d, Are there not some of you, my friends, who can say to the ever-blessed Spirit, concerning the things of Christ, “ in thy light do we -see light.” “ AVho hath made you to differ from others,” — who are involved in a second darkness, — who see imper¬ fectly and unsatisfactorily, — or who are absolutely blind ? O, how precious this gift of sovereign grace ! By it ye are continuing to be changed more and more into the image of God ; by it ye perceive the work of the Spirit in your heart and life ; by it ye are enabled to say to God, “ thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time the corn and wine of the men of the world in¬ creased.” Consider what ye were, and what ye may become through pride, and security, and sloth, and wilful sin ; and are not humility, and watchfulness, and holy diligence your incumbent duties, as well as present thankfulness ? Carry about with you the word of God, that light of your feet, and that lamp to your path. In the sacrament of the Supper, feed on that flesh which is meat indeed, and that blood which is drink indeed, that your strength may be renewed for the walk of faith, in the light of the Lord. And with the unwearied importunity of children under the pressure of hunger, apply to your Father in heaven for grace suited to your time of need. “ Ask, and it shall be given you ; seek, and 3'e shall find ; knock, and unto you it shall be SERMON XXI. 445 opened, — for if ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him,” Matt. vii. 7, 11. Mh, I cannot conclude without a parting word to those who are careless of Christ, and the office of the Spirit, described in the text. Ye are careless of Christ ; ye seldom think of him, but perhaps to blaspheme his name ; ye imagine his favour, if ne¬ cessary, may be had at any price, and at any time you please to ask it ; you live as if Christ never had existed. And is this treatment worthy of the Son of God in our nature, who died and descended into the grave, and is now exalted to the government of the world, to save you from sin and hell ? Ye may neglect learning, and pleasure, and riches, and power, and life itself, and be saved ; but if ye ne¬ glect Christ, ye must perish miserably and for ever. “ How shall we escape if we neglect so great salva¬ tion ?” And why are ye careless of Christ ? Chiefly because ye are careless of the Holy Spirit. ' None but the Holy Spirit can make saving discoveries of the things of Christ to the soul of corrupt, apostate man. None but He who created the soul of man can renew him in the spirit of his mind. None but He who hath received the things of Christ, from the Father and the Son, can show them unto the re¬ newed soul with saving and comforting power. One man may discover the invention of another, and reap all the advantages of it, without the assistance of the 446 SERMON XXI. first inventor ; but no man can discover the coun¬ sels of heaven, the knowledge of which is essential to eternal life, save he who is appointed in the un¬ changeable purposes of the Godhead to reveal them in the soul of man, — even the Holy Ghost. This is the method of communicating saving knowledge fixed by the unalterable decree of heaven. And who are ye, O men, that ye should be careless of it ? If ye are careless of the inward effectual teaching of the Holy Ghost, is it not because ye are ignorant of his office ? All of you know something about the love of the Father, and the atoning death of the Son ; but it is lamentable, it is dreadful, that with the Bible, the catechism in their hands, with instruc¬ tion in public and private, so many are ignorant, not only of the work of the Spirit in their own hearts, where it must be if they shall not perish, where they must perceive it if ever they shall enjoy the assurr ance of faith, but ignorant of it as taught by him¬ self in the Scriptures. If ye are careless of the in¬ ward effectual teaching of the Holy Spirit, is it not because ye are self-confident, — confident of your penetration and unassisted efforts ? Many are the books that contain the principles of every trade, art, or science, and yet ye uniformly learn the know¬ ledge of these by the help of a proper teacher ; and have ye the strange presumption to think that ye can learn “ the things of Christ” essential to the art of living by faith on the Son of God, in order to a rneetness for the exercises and enjoyments of heaven. SERMON XXI. 447 .without the assistance of the only sufficient and appointed teacher of things pertaining to salvation? What is this wilful ignorance of the office of the Spirit — what is this contempt of his assistance, but a contempt of the unchangeable plan of heaven, a contempt of the love of the Father originating it, a ‘ contempt of the mediation of the Son maturing it, and a contempt of the person and office of the Holy Ghost executing it ? And will this horrible audacity, at which the heavens and earth are aston¬ ished, at which angels weep, at which devils rejoice ■ as far exceeding their own horrible audacity, escape an adequate and tremendous punishment ? Impos¬ sible. Ruin, perdition, destruction inevitable, must follow the contempt of the Spirit’s instruction. If you have a hope, is not that hope founded on the love of the Father and the sacrifice of the Son ? But what will the love of the Father, what will the sacrifice of the Son avail you, unless you are in¬ structed and interested in it by the Holy Spirit ? Alas ! the blood of Christ will cry not for your pardon but your condemnation ; the love of the Father will be changed into fury, and his power, that would have been exerted to save, will be put forth to destroy you. Would ye escape this com¬ ing storm of indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, instantly flee to Christ, and go to school to the Holy Spirit ; and may the good Spirit lead you into the land of uprightness ! SERMON XXII. Prov. iv. 18. — “ The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.” “ Who are the just, and what is their path, of which glorious things are spoken by Solomon?” are questions very becoming us, when we reflect that there are but two ways in which mankind can travel, the one of which leads to eternal misery, and the other to everlasting happiness, — that we are travelling in one of these ways, that we are now an¬ other year’s journey on our way, and that our path becomes interesting in proportion as we approach its awful termination. “ Who are the just ?” He is just who renders to every one what is due. A just man does unto all men as he would reasonably have them do unto him in like circumstances. As we do not call him just, who, withholding nothing due to his equals and in¬ feriors, is disloyal or traitorous to his sovereign ; so he is not just who renders not to God, his supreme Lord, the glory that is due. Hence, a just man is de¬ voted to the glory of God, he walks in his ordinances and commandments blameless, and performeth all his SERMON XXII. 449 duties to himself and to his fellow-men as unto God. A just man, in the largest scripture accep¬ tation, is a righteous man in his dealings with God and men. But though his fellow-men pro¬ nounce him just, though he is governed by a prin¬ ciple of rectitude, — still what has become of his past injustice, and what becomes of the defect of absolute righteousness in all the operations of his faculties, in the influence of unjust principles, and in all his actions ; how is he pronounced just before God, before whom no flesh living can be justified on the footing of personal righteousness ? The Scriptures inform us, that he is justified by faith in Christ, whose obedience unto death atones for all his sin, and secures his acceptance with God ; and that this faith is not only the means of justification, but of the love and practice of righteousness or uni¬ versal holiness. Hence, a just man is just in his principles and conduct to God and man, and is ac¬ cepted and treated by God as if he were perfectly just, on account of the perfect righteousness of Christ reckoned unto him. In vain do men look for righteousness from any other quarter, or in any other way. “ Jesus is the way, and the truth, and the life ; no man cometh to the Father but by him and they come to God through him, who walk in the way of faith in him and of true holiness. The practice of faith and true holiness is^ ‘‘ the path of the just.” It is fitly compared to a path or orbit, and he to the luminary that moves in it ; it is 2 F 450 SERMON XXII. marked out for the just as the track in which they are to move without deviation ; the direction is wisely chosen, and carried through regions not the nearest or most pleasant it may be, but the best for the traveller, and for those on whom his influence falls, and the best for illustrating the excellencies of “ the Author and Finisher of his faith and it infallibly conducts to the desired, the greatest, and most glo¬ rious end — the glory of God, and the salvation of the soul. Concerning “ the path of the just” — i. e. the principles of those justified by faith in Christ re¬ duced to practice, — Solomon elegantly affirms by the inspiration of God, that “ it is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day and this affirmation is the subject of discourse. Here it is affirmed that the life of the just brightly reflects the perfections of its divine author, — that the morning of this life possesseth peculiar sweet¬ ness and interest ; and that it acquires strength and splendour in its progress, and is eminently glorious in its perfect state. I. The life of the just brightly reflects the per¬ fections of its divine author — “ it is as the shining o light.” The life of the just is bright with the lus¬ tre of saving knowledge. When Daniel would re¬ present God as the source of knowledge, he says, “ and the light dwelleth with him,” Dan. ii. 22. Concerning those who are ignorant of the will of SERMON XXII. 451 God revealed for the salvation of men, Isaiah de¬ clares, “ if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them,” viii. 20. The Ephesians, you know, “ were saved by grace through faith” — they were just ; in warning them against the insidious attempt of those who endea¬ voured to vindicate vice, the apostle reminds them of their great attainments in divine knowledge, as qua¬ lifying them to detect and expose the fallacy and avoid the snare of such sophistry, and leaving them without an excuse in yielding to it, saying, “ Ye are light in the Lord.” Thus the just shine with the knowledge of God and of his Christ, a knowledge which pervades and influences their whole nature, which constitutes a portion of their divinely-com¬ municated essence, which renders them ‘‘ children of the light.” The life of the just is bright with the lustre of true holiness. Light is most pure, it is not liable to be polluted when shining on the filthiest objects ; and hence it is the finest emblem of holiness, and of God who is most holy. ‘‘ God is light,” or purity itself, saith John, “ and in him is no darkness at all.” Unholy creatures, most dis¬ similar to God, are called darkness ; evil spirits are “ the powers of darkness,” and wicked men “ the children of darkness.” On the other hand, creatures who resemble God in purity are invested with light as their attribute, the holy ministers before God’s throne are “ the angels of light,” and the redeemed around the throne are ‘‘ the saints in light.” And 452 SERMON XXII. the just on earth are not only “ called to be holy as God is holy,” but “ they are partakers of his divine nature,” and their light so shineth before men, that the world, seeing their good works, glorify their Father who is in heaven.” The life of the. just is bright with the lustre of divine joy. “ Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness of heart for the upi’ight.” Here the Psalmist useth light and gladness of heart as terms of the same import, and represents them with great beauty, as prepared of God for his justified people. Light is the well- known cause of a sweet and lively pleasure, and may fitly signify its effect, — which effect, joy, emi¬ nently belongs to the just, and to none but them. Well may the guilty and condemned, even all the unrighteous, be said “ to dwell in darkness, and to sit in the region and shadow of death,” as “ God is angry with them every day,” — “ the wrath of God abideth on them,” “ as there remaineth nothing for them,” in that state “ but a fearful looking for of j udg- ment and of fiery indignation,” as there is no solid peace to the wicked, and they are all their lifetime in “ bondage through fear of death.” Well may it be said of the just, that “ upon them the light hath shined,” since “ they rejoice in Christ Jesus” as an all-sufficient Saviour, since “ they rejoice before God as they who joy in harvest,” since they are filled with peace and joy in believing, and clothed with the garment of praise. The life of the just is bright with the lustre of divine love. God is love. SERMON XXII. 453 and the sun, which is the source of light, and life, and joy in the material world, is the splendid em¬ blem of his benignity ; and, in testifying his pecu¬ liar regard to his people, he lifteth on them “ the light of his countenance.” Animated, they are also clothed, with the benignity of God ; they do good to them that hate them ; they love, with a pure heart fervently, those who love the Lord ; accord¬ ing to their measure, they diffuse light, and life, and joy around them ; “ they walk in love,” and “ they shine as lights in the world.” The life of the just is bright with the lustre of divine glory. A taper gives light, a star shines, but both are unseen in the blaze of the sun’s light. J ust so, the sweet beams of a happy temper and the agreeable polish of a good education are little lovely compared with the light of the just. In the life of the just there is none ot the graces awanting ; there is an inimitable per¬ fection in each taken separately ; and how different soever they are, they, like the several colours that constitute light, so sweetly and beautifully mingle as to produce a splendour, a glory unrivalled among men, which even unholy men feel and acknowledge while they vilify the subject. How can it be other¬ wise ? “ God dwells in light, full of glory,” and in contemplating him they are changed into the same image of his glory. And this shining light of the life of the just is created. The mind of man, as he enters the world, is dark as the confused mass of the chaos in respect of this spiritual light ; a similar motion of 454) SERMON XXII. the Spirit on it, a divine call to that which is not similar to that which said, “ Let there be light,” is necessary to its saving illumination. This is what the apostle most distinctly and unequivocally as¬ serts. “ God, who commanded light to shine out of darkness, hath shined into our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, as it is in the face of Jesus.” The will and exertions of man are not idle, while God is calling forth this heavenly light; but they no more produce it than they produce the light of the sun ; they who de¬ pend on their own power, only “ kindle a fire, and compass themselves about with sparks ; for a time they walk in the light of their fire and in the sparks they have kindled,” by and by “ they sink down in the darkness of sorrow,” Is. 1. 11. II. The morning of this life possesseth peculiar sweetness and interest. “ The path of the just is as the shining light, which shineth more and more.” This is the description of the morning light, of the gentler beauties of which the commencement of the spiritual light remarkably partakes. Both are faint in their first appearance. The first light of the morning is a little speck, scarcely discernible from the surrounding darkness, seeming to sink into it again ; just so, for the most part, appears the light of the just, filling his own heart as well as the heart of Christian friends with painful uncertainty, with trembling hope. But though weak, it is light, and SERMON XXII. 455 the light of (lay. Let not the spectator undervalue but hail its emerging beam, and wait with the pa¬ tience of hope. And who art thou in whom this change is in progress, that thou “shouldst despise the day of small things ?” Is it not of sovereign grace that light is beginning to shine, and that the dark¬ ness of everlasting night hath not enclosed you for ever ? The light of both the natural and spiritual morning is peculiarly sweet. By degrees “ the morning cloud passeth away,” the fragrance of opening flowers ariseth, the melody of morning song falleth on the ear, and her dewy light sheds beauty over the landscape ; and is not this a pic¬ ture of the prime of the spiritual day ? How mildly cheering this light, succeeding a gloomy, tempes¬ tuous night, and gradually dawning over the whole soul ; how tenderly interesting this light, still soft¬ ened by the tears of pleasing grief, and beginning to assume the warm glow of animating hope ! The light of both the natural and spiritual morning shines afterwards with the freshness and vigour of animated youth. The sun rises above the horizon in youthful majesty, and from' a serene sky he pours his flood of golden light over the earth’s remotest surface. And do we not here see the untroubled mind, the fresh affections, the glowing zeal of the young Christian, “ as a bridegroom going forth from his chamber, and as a strong man rejoicing to run a race ?” O, that his knowledge kept pace with his zeal, and his stedfastness with his fervour ; 456 SERMON XXII. then would he not have reason to mourn his falling from his first love, nor the world, who should pity and love him, have room to scolf at his errors of head, and not of heart ! And O, that the prime of religion were joined with the prime of life ! My young friends, does God offer to invest you with his heavenly light as with a robe? and will ye refuse the celestial gift, will ye withhold from God what he requires, — your youth; will ye not seize the fittest season for beginning, for rendering your work easier, for avoiding a thousand snares, that you may look back and rejoice that almost your whole lives were devoted to God ; will ye grudge that the graces of your early years should be doubly sweet and interesting, doubly vigorous and promis- ing, through the grace of God poured on you as the light of the morning ? Wait for it, more than they who watch for the morning; yea, let your souls thus wait on God for it. III. The life of the just acquires strength and splendour in its progress, and becomes eminently glorious in its perfect state, — “ it shineth more and more unto the perfect day.” Like the sun, it is progressive. The just have become as little chil¬ dren, they are first babes in Christ, who are to be¬ come young men, who are to « come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.” This implies growth SERMON XXII. 457 in knowledge and faith, in love, and holiness, and comfort ; growth promoted by feeding daily on the bread of life. Sometimes this progress is repre¬ sented by moving forward in a course of increasing excellence ; “ they go from strength to strength,” saith David. Temptation sometimes retards their progress, or obscures their lustre ; sometimes they become weary and faint in their mind ; but this is commonly when they relax in the diligent use of means ; and this loss is repaired by more diligent waiting on God, by which they renew their strength, run and are not weary, walk and are not faint ; yea, mount up on wings as eagles.” There are times when they seem to themselves, and per¬ haps to others, to diminish in splendour, and to stand still in their course, when in reality they are making the most certain progress in humility, meek¬ ness, resignation, and other graces that rather strike deep roots than send forth lofty branches. All of them habitually aspire to their portion of the Spirit, and emulate the example of Paul, saying, “ forget¬ ting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,” and they are habitually “ adding to their faith, virtue, and knowledge, and temperance, and patience, and god¬ liness, and brotherly kindness, and charity.” To do otherwise would be to counteract the purpose, ne¬ glect the promise, and abuse the supplies of God, _ would be to contradict the profession of godliness, and renounce the hopes of the new covenant. Per- 458 SERMON XXII. fection in kind but not in degree is attained on being justified. Let not him who thinks that he shineth, glory as if he were already perfect ; rather let him question the lawfulness of this boasting, and fear lest it should be the presage of disappointment and shame. Let all true Christians guard against the want of comfort, and the reproachful inquiry of others, “ what do ye more than others ?” Let them evidence their new creation in Christ Jesus, com¬ ply with their heavenly vocation, and avail them¬ selves of their Lord’s example and intercession by “ growing in grace, and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.” The life of the just, how luminous soever, is liable to be obscured. The sun is continually advancing to his meridian splendour, and yet he is sometimes covered with clouds, or even eclipsed. Something like this occurs in the Christian life. It is liable to be obscured by the superior splendour of others, to be invidiously darkened, to be enveloped in the thick clouds of sorrow, temporal or spiritual, and even of sin itself. Such is the day foretold by Zechariah awaiting the people of God ; “ and it shall come to pass in that day that the light shall not be clear or dark, but it shall be one day which shall be known to the Lord, not day nor night ; but it shall come to pass that at evening time it shall be'light.” “ The light of the just may be much obscured, yet shall not be wholly extinguished ; their state may be much deformed, yet some holiness and consola- SERMON XXII. 459 tion shall be found.” “ Let him, therefore, who thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall ; see that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise ; give all diligence to make your calling and election sure ; and if you are now enveloped in a sorrowful cloud, which increases your cries for the supply of heavenly light as well as the dispersion of this darkness, be not utterly cast down ; there hath no temptation overtaken you but what is common to men.” The life of the just shall terminate in heavenly glory. Consider how the faint speck of morning lio’ht terminates in the blaze of the meridian sun, in perfect day even so shall ye shine, faithful followers of Jesus. So Jesus proceeded through his mortal course, marking out the track in which ye should tread, and entered into his glory, that he might prepare a place for you, and in due time say unto you, “ well done, good and faithful servants, enter ye into the joy of your Lord.” Like the sun shall ye descend into the darkness of death, with enlarged orbit, only like him to rise with renovated splendour, that in heaven ye may shine “ as suns in the firmament.” This is “ the perfect day” in which perfection is attained, and no cloud obscures the scene, which was prepared from eternal ages, and shall be followed by no night. Fear not, ye who are just through faith in Christ, that this height of glory is unattainable by you ; “ ye shall proceed like the splendour of the sun, which no- 460 SERMON XXII. thing can extinguish, nothing can hinder in its course, till ye come to the highest pitch of holiness, joy, and glory.” Before this can fail, the purpose of God must be reversed, the promise of God re¬ called, the blood of Christ enforcing his intercession set at nought, the work of the Spirit overturned, and the everlasting covenant be abolished. Are ye illuminated and luminous with the light of that divine knowledge which constitutes you children of the day, — with the light of holiness in all manner of conversation, — with the light of di¬ vine love, diffusing temporal and spiritual good ac¬ cording to your measure throughout your sphere, — with the light of sacred joy, all of which compose a glory that encircles you and manifesteth your hea¬ venly origin and end ; are ye illuminated and lumi¬ nous with this light ? though but in its beginnings, “ arise, shine, for your light is come.” That you may so shine, let this be the chief object of your wishes when you lie down and when you rise up ; beware of contentment with any attainments you may make ; continually study to mortify sin, to strengthen what is weak, and to exercise what is strong in grace ; cease not to implore an increase of grace suited to your need ; and frequently inquire if your improvements keep pace with your privi¬ leges ; in a word, “ lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset you, and run with patience the race that is set before you.” It is God who calls you and placeth you on this glorious SERMON XXII. 461 course ; how then can ye fail ? Will not wisdom’s ways be ways of pleasantness ; and are they not con¬ tinually and for ever conducting you nearer God, the great model of excellence, and the inexhaustible fountain of glory and bliss? Be continually actu¬ ated by these motives, and “ your light shall shine progressively, not wasting as that of a taper,” nor declining as that of the setting sun, but increasing as that of the morning, until perfected in the know¬ ledge, holiness, and felicity of heaven.” And well may this prospect enable you to review the sorrows of the past year, of your past life, with the sweetest consolation, enable you to conduct your present con¬ flicts with courage, to support your present trials with patience, and to look forward into inscrutable time with holy confidence that all shall terminate in glory, and honour, and praise. Is there none among you sensible that he has no title to these prospects ; none trembling that he moves in another path ; none in trouble of soul that one year after another finds him in the same road, only nearer its dreadful termination ; none exclaim¬ ing, “ how shall I become just, that my last end may be like his ?” I hope the Spirit is moving some one to put this question, and that he will carry home the answer to his heart with power, — “ Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ,” and thou shalt be justified, thou shalt obtain an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith,'and thy path shall be “as the shining lightthat shineth more and more unto 7 462 SERMON XXII. the perfect day.” It is Jesus who lightens every man that cometh into this course ; he is the Sun of right¬ eousness, and he is the pattern and source of divine light to all who affectionately contemplate and apply to him as such ; therefore, cry mightily, that ye may with open face behold the glory of the Lord, and be changed into the same image, from glory to glory, by the Lord the Spirit. SERMON XXIII. Rev. i. 17, 18. — “ And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me. Fear not ; I am the first and the last : I am he that hveth, and was dead; and, hehold, I am alive for evermore. Amen'; and have the keys of hell and of death.” John was one of the two sons of Zebedee, the fisher¬ man. Christ chose him in early life to be his dis¬ ciple, and afterwards commissioned him to be one of his apostles ; and he attached himself, with pecu¬ liar affection, to his Lord. John was a man of sublime genius and ardent temperament, which, af¬ ter he was made clean by the truth, were consecrated to the service of his Master, not only in all the fer¬ vour of zeal, but in all the meekness of wisdom. He was admitted to the honourable familiarities of the beloved disciple, during the lifetime of Christ, and intrusted with the care of his mother at his death. To his pen are we indebted for that gospel which specially vindicates the divine glory of his Lord, and for those epistles that so eminently breathe the spirit of his Master, which is love. On account of his activity in promoting the kingdom of Christ, he, John, was banished to the Isle of Patmos, and com¬ pelled, it is said, to work in the mines. While the 464 SERMON XXIII. Emperor of Rome made him descend into the bowels of the earth as a wretched criminal, the Lord of hea¬ ven and earth admits him to a glorious manifestation of himself, and honours him with the highest privi¬ leges of his favourites. On the Lord’s day, the apostle “ was in the Spirit,” — was under his ordinary sanc¬ tifying and extraordinary prophetical influences. In these circumstances he was favoured with the follow¬ ing awful and transporting vision of his Lord, as he exerciseth “all power in heaven and earth,” ver. 12 — 16. So great was the change in his Lord, since he leaned on his bosom at the feast of love ; nay, since he beheld him transfigured on Mount Tabor, that “ he fell as dead” at his feet, overwhelmed by rever¬ ence for his majesty and holiness, swelling into dis¬ tressful fear, through a painful sense of his own littleness and sinfulness. This fear is a most humi¬ liating and distressful passion, swallowing up hum¬ ble faith and trust, filling with trouble and torment, and suspending the rational faculties, so that the person becomes not only unfit for duty or enjoy¬ ment, but “ as dead.” This fear could have no room in a state of innocence ; our first parents in Para¬ dise, before the fall, were strangers to it ; it belongs to a state of sin. Even a state of reconciliation is not wholly exempted from it, because not wholly exempted from sin. But the revelation of God’s grace, of himself as the God of all grace and conso¬ lation, is calculated to deliver from its distressful and sinful attacks, which would drive away from si:rmon xxiii. 4(io God, drive into desperate enmity to God, if it did not lay the sufferer at his feet “ as dead.” It is the peculiar office of the Lord to calm this tumult in the bosom of his people ; and he delights in doing this by his commands, by reasons which he assigns, chiefly derived from his own person, offices, and love ; and by his tender treatment of the afflicted, accompanied by the inward influences of his Spirit, which disjDose and enable the heart to entertain them, and to profit by them. His treatment of the apostle “ fallen at his feet as dead,” will illustrate these observations ; “ and he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me. Fear not; I am the first and the last : I am he that liveth, and was dead ; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen ; and have the keys of hell and of death.” These words direct our attention to the means which our Lord employs to remove the painful and overwhelming fears of the beloved disciple. 1^/, The Lord employs condescension and kind¬ ness to remove the fear which afflicteth his disci¬ ples. “And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me. Fear not.” This act, and these words of Christ, are well fitted to banish the sudden dread excited in weak human nature by the manifestation of the awful divine majesty. The memory of them is sweet to the apostle ; and he records them in the renewed complacency which he felt when he first received them. “ And he laid his right hand upon me.” “ He laid his hand on” the apostle to calm 466 SERMON XXIII. his extreme terror by an act expressive of fami¬ liarkindness ; and he laid liis right hand upon him, to convince him of his esteem, and to impart inward strength to him. Whenever Jesus toucheth his peo¬ ple, they derive virtue from him exactly suited to “ the time of need.” Daniel beareth witness to this pleasing truth. Favoured with a glorious vision of the Son of God before his incarnation, he too sunk under the weight of this glory, and thus describes the manner of his recovery ; “ I was in a deep sleej), on my face toward the ground : but he touched me, and set me upright.” For the same purpose and with the same effect he laid his right hand of friendly power upon John at this time. With his reviving senses and renewed strength he must have experienced a delight to which the recovering pro¬ phet was a stranger, a delight peculiar to the be¬ loved disciple. He must, in this act, have recognised the right hand of his beloved Lord, whose touch had often diffused peace and joy through his bosom, and whose touch once before recalled his fainting spirit, overcome by the glories of Tabor. And how does all this help our conceptions of our Lord’s manner of dealing with his people under the ordinary dispen¬ sations of his grace ! We have no prophetical visions of our Lord and his glory ; he reveals not hiinself to our senses, as in the days of his flesh ; but he sometimes manifesteth himself to our faith in his w'ord, in his providence, or in his ordinances, in a manner that prostrates us at the feet of his ma- SERMON XXIII. 467 jestic holiness. We see no image, we perceive no corporeal hand, we feel no sensible touch ; but we are favoured with a returning tranquillity of soul, with a returning humble confidence in him, with a returning inclination and strength to listen to his sacred commands, which could flow from nothing but his condescending, his affectionate, and effica¬ cious but imperceptible touch. When he brings the minds of his humble follow¬ ers into this posture, as he did that of John, he says unto them, as he said unto him, “ Fear not.” The touch speaks powerfully to the heart, but the language of it is undefined, is not quite precise : it may be interpreted to signify too much, or too little, and it is the testimony of one sense only. But, when Christ says “ Fear not,” he presents two wit¬ nesses to the same thing, he makes his meaning unequivocal ; and what he encourages to by his touch, he commands by his words. Grace was im¬ parted by his touch, and now he warrants, he authoritatively enjoins the exercise of it in dispel¬ ling fear. This is an injunction which the believer will not disobey in these circumstances. He may be lying motionless on the ground even after the gracious “ touch ;” he may not see the reasons of laying aside his fear; he may not have power to banish it ; but he will attempt to stand up, and be courageous, by virtue of the .Lord’s command, like the poor paralytic person. 2f/, To the mind thus prepared, the Lord pre- 468 SEllMON XXIII. senteth, as he did to John, a view of his own eternal supremacy. Then saith he, “ I am the first and the last.” These words imply that he to whom they belong as a title, is “ before all things, and the end of all things,” for which they are and were created, and by consequence the Creator, and Dis¬ poser, and Judge of all things. This title belongs to Him who is the sole and undisputed Lord of the universe ; it belongs to supreme Deity alone. And we find God appropriating it to himself, arid found¬ ing on his right to it his unrivalled supremacy and unlimited dominion. “ Thus saith the Lord, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, the Lord of Hosts ;” by the prophet Isaiah, “ I am the first, and I am the last ; and besides me there is no god.” And in terms more precise and energetic, God saith by the same prophet, “ before me there was no god formed, neither shall there be after me. I, even I, am the Lord ; and besides me there is no saviour. — Yea, before the day was, I am he ; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand : I will work, and who shall let it?” If Jesus Christ had spoken these words to John, how could any, who acknowledge that he is “ the faithful and true,” deny him the honours of supreme Deity, and therefore of unity with the Father and Spirit? But Jesus Christ, speaking to John, has thrice solemnly assumed this title ; and in this chapter, lest it should be perverted, he has connected it with explanations of its import so clear, so full, as to place his claim to supreme SERMON XXTII. 469 Deity beyond a doubt, on any fair interpretation of bis words. At the 8th verse you will find it thus written, “ I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.” Lest there should be any mistake about the person who uttered these words, the Son of man, arrayed in divine ma¬ jesty, repeats the sum and substance of them at the 11th verse with a voice as a trumpet, to pierce the most obdurate ears, “ I am the first and the last, the beginning and the ending,” not of the church, not of any one thing, but of all things, without limitation. And a third time, in this chap¬ ter, the royal High Priest of his church inculcates his right to this title in its fullest extent, saying, “ Fear not ; I am the first, and the last.” The belief of the supreme Deity is the foundation of all religion ; for he that cometh to God must be¬ lieve that he is “ God over all, and blessed for ever and ever.” It is, too, the cause of awful reverence, and of holy fear ; “ Lord God Almighty, who would not fear thee ?” But the divine supremacy is also the only solid foundation of holy peace ; “ acquaint now yourself with God, and be at peace.” Who but Almighty God can sustain creatures whose tendency is to sink into their original dust, can supply crea¬ tures who are composed of wants, can defend crea¬ tures who are not more feeble than improvident ; who can satisfy creatures who have capacious and . immortal souls, thirsting for corporeal and spiritual 470 SERMON XXIII. happiness in time and in eternity ? And if this almighty God be for us, who can be against us.? If this God all-sufficient be our God, what' can we want? If this everlasting God hath in sovereignty united us to himself, who can separate us ? Surely, though heart and .flesh should faint and fail, there can be no room for distressing' fears, when God is the strength of the heart, and the portion for ever. Well, therefore, may our Lord command John and all his trembling followers to build their peace and tranquillity on the supremacy of God; saying, “ Fear not ; I am the first, and the last.” Though this be the foundation of peace, it must be confessed that the first views of it tend to aggravate the fears of those not reconciled to God, conscious of their con¬ dition, and indeed of all whose consciences are bur¬ dened with guilt. Therefore, the Lord leads on to those considerations which are suited to allay ter¬ rors of this kind. Having presented a view of his own eternal supremacy, Sc/, He fixeth the attention on the union of the divine nature, to which this belongs, with his human nature : “ I am he that iiveth, and was dead.” The first of these affirmations belongs to the preceding verse, and may be read thus, “ I am the first, and the last, and the living one.” In this connexion Christ asserts, that ‘he hath life in himself, and never ceaseth to have it, and that he giveth life to others. In this sense he elsewhere styles the Father “ the living Father and here he declareth his own unity SERMON XXIII. 471 with the Father in this essential property of the Godhead. This declaration he makes for the pur¬ pose of inculcating the no less mysterious and glad¬ dening truth implied in the connexion betwixt this and the following clause — “ I am the living One, and I was dead.” How could the ever-living One die ? Certainly not in respect of that existence of his which cannot suffer, and much less die. For this ever-living existence God prepared a body, which he assumed into union with itself, so that “ the word which was God, and was with God, became flesh” without sin. It was this flesh, this human nature, which suffered and endured a separation of soul and body, while the ever-living remained united to both, and could say, “ I was dead.” The clear revelation of “ the living one who was dead” is of great importance to the returning peace of John, and of every trembling follower of Jesus. John had an interest peculiar to himself, and another common to himself and all the faithful. The change his Lord had undergone since he beheld him on earth was so great, as probably to occasion anxious fears arising from doubts of his identity; but now the assertion that he is the same who died, together with the prints of the nails, honourable amid the splendours of his glory, convinced him that this is the same whom he so loved in the days of his flesh. John had proclaimed to the world, that his Lord is the word dwelling in flesh ; and now he must 472 sEimox xxiii. have rejoiced in his Lord’s oral testimony to the inspiration of his spirit in him. Besides these, John had an interest common to all the faithful. The ever-living one in Christ, clearly apprehended, is to them a sure and delightful refuge from all the fears of natural religion, flowing from indistinct views of the perfections of God, from utter uncer¬ tainty as to the manner of worshipping and serving him, and from the inefficacy of the notions of God collected by reason, as well as from all the horrors of superstition that will represent God to herself, and no less dishonour him than degrade, and de¬ moralize, and render miserable, her stupified vota¬ ries. God in Christ Jesus is the true representative of the Father to mankind ; “ He is the brightness of his Father’s glory, and the express image of his person in his face is seen the glory of God, and that glory clearly seen changes the beholder into the same image. And as “ he is bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh,” he is well entitled to the confi¬ dence due to our common nature and similar expe¬ rience. In this union of deity with humanity, there are a condescension and a love which should com¬ mand the boldness of humility, and engage the affiance of admiring gratitude. How can the be¬ liever express those sentiments excited in him by a lively perception of “ the living one in him who was dead,” in language more affectionate and forci¬ ble than that of Thomas proclaiming the triumphs SERMON XXIII. 473 of faith over his late unbelief, “ My Lord and my God ?” The next ingredient in the Lord’s remedy for the fears of his people consisteth in the ^th place, Of the reasons and evidence of his death being effectual to all the ends for which it was endured. « I am he that liveth and was dead, and behold I am alive !” I, the living one, was dead as to my human nature ; in dying I receiv¬ ed the punishment of sin, — not of mine, for I am without sin, as my bitterest enemies are forced to confess, but of yours, O my disciple, for which I have atoned to divine justice, and which I have thus taken away, so that they shall never be charged to your account, as my present life and glory must convince you; therefore, banish the dread of wrath, which I have exhausted so far as my faithful followers are concerned ; enjoy the peace of God which I purchased for you by dying, which I have bequeathed unto you in my testament duly sealed, and of which I now assure you, encompassed as I am with the glories of heavenly majesty. How admirably is this fitted to allay and remove the most dreadful of all fears — narnelj^, those con¬ nected with “ a true sense of sin,” as committed against the God of righteousness, as well as of good¬ ness ! « A wounded spirit, who can bear ?” Who can bear the anguish and shame of unreasonable and ungrateful transgression, the apprehensions of eter¬ nal separation from God, and goodness, and bliss, unto excruciating never-ending wretchedness in the 474 SERMON XXIII. society of the accursed, and the intolerable convic¬ tion of utter inability to deliver ourselves out of the hands of the Almighty, who seems already to manifest himself as a consuming fire! Let the Saviour say to the heart as he doth to the ear, “ I am he that liveth, and was dead, and behold I am alive and this great tempest of thy soul will be turned into a great and blissful calm, O thou who art ready to be swallowed up of despair I Christ laid down his life a ransom for many, even for as many as will be persuaded to trust in its availableness to their re¬ demption. And with what show of reason can you distrust its efficacy ? Is not the ransom of infinite value, being the death of “ the living one ?” and hath it not “ glorified” the authority and honoured the justice of God more than it was possible for your sins to have affronted them ? And is he who laid down his life a ransom for his people “ alive from the dead,” set free on the fulfilling of his en¬ gagement ? then the price has been offered legally and legally accepted — then a discharge is ready and will be granted, with the liberty of the sons of God, to all who will sue for them in due form by faith in Christ before God seated on his throne of grace. “ For Christ being come an high- priest of good things to come, by his own blood, hath entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemp¬ tion for us. For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh ; how much SERMON XXIII. 475 more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God ?” The preciousness of this remedy against the fears of guilt is experienced by the be¬ liever not only at conversion, but as often as sin in hiniself is attended to, more especially as often as sin prevaileth against him, and at the hour of death when the sins of the whole life are reviewed. The beloved disciple himself saith, “ If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” And he adds, for the encourage¬ ment of those penitently confessing their sins, in the language of deep personal interest, “ If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he is the propitia¬ tion for our sins.” At this time John could not be¬ hold the glory of his Lord without self-abhorrence ; and he could not hear these reasons and evidences of his death being effectual to all the ends for which it was endured from his own mouth, without “ his spirit being revived.” And the spirit of the hum¬ ble and afflicted because of sin is revived by a re¬ freshing persuasion of these truths ; and will it not attempt the language of another apostle, who knew their power and sweetness incomparably, “ Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect ? It is God that jus tifieth, who is he that condemneth ? It is Christ that died — yea, rather that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also 476 SERMON XXIII. inaketh intercession for us ?” Closely connected with this is The remedy against fear, prescribed by the Lord, namely, his own eternal priesthood solemnly affirmed. “ Behold, I am alive for evermore. Amen !” “ Behold, I am alive,” a thing most won¬ derful in itself, seeing I was crucified, and dead, and buried ; and “ behold, I am alive for ever¬ more,” a thing no less certain than beneficial to thee and all my people. Christ engaged to redeem the people of God by making his soul an offering for sin ; and God engaged that he should triumph over death and the grave, should see his seed, should prolong his days, and that the pleasure of the Lord should prosper in his hand. Instructed in the covenant, believers in general, and especially John, who had witnessed the proofs of his resurrection while he was on earth, who saw him taken up into heaven, and who now sees him invested with badges of his royal priesthood as discharged in heaven, will “ know that Christ, being raised from the dead, dieth no more ; that death hath no more dominion over him.” “ Christ is alive for evermore,” to enjoy the reward of his humiliation unto death, at the right hand of the majesty on high. “ Christ is alive for evermore,” to accomplish all the purposes of his death and resurrection unto glory, relating to his church and people : “ he is able to save to the utter¬ most all those who come to God through him ; seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.” SERMON XXIII. 477 “ Behold, then, Christ is alive for evermore,” to communicate life to his people, and to preserve it ; to maintain peace between them and God, once re¬ conciled ; to save them in the uttermost extremities of danger ; to come and receive them to himself at death ; to raise them up, and fashion their vile bo¬ dies like unto his own glorious body at the last day ; and, finally, to introduce them into bliss, per¬ fect and never-ending as his own. His own faith¬ ful word is the sure foundation of these hopes ; his own life the inviolable pledge of their fulfilment ; because I live, ye shall live also. And here, “ be¬ hold, I am alive for evermore. Amen !” The simple meaning of amen is, so it surely is, — so it surely shall be, — so I surely desire it may be for ever. In the mouth of Christ, and spoken in reference to the consolatory truths which he had just uttered, amen is of high importance to the fearful disciple. Here, amen expresseth our Lord’s own firm belief that his human nature shall live in personal union with Deity for evermore, in reference to the covenant in all things well ordered and sure ; here, amen is a solemn affirmation of the nature of an oath in the mouth of God, that “ he is Alpha and Omega, the living, who was dead, and is alive for evermore and here, amen is an expression of the strong and stedfast desire of the sincere and lively joy of his heart, relative to the certainty of all these glorious and gladdening truths. And what can be better adapted to subdue all the anxious and distressful • 478 SERMON XXIII. fears about spiritual life in those who sincerely covet this gift and blessing? Is Christ alive for evermore for the express purpose of communicating spiritual life ; and why should any of you, apply¬ ing to him with all the earnestness of perishing sin¬ ners, despair of obtaining what he himself teacheth to seek, that he may bestow it more abundantly ? “ Is Christ alive for evermore’ for the express pur- jiose of preserving, and cherishing, and perfecting the divine life which he has communicated ; and should not the firm persuasion of this truth more than counterbalance all your fears of spiritual death threatened by inward corruption, by the designs of Satan, and by the temptations of the world ? What doubts should outweigh the oath of the faithful and true witness, — of the Lord of glory ? What fears of yours should outweigh the Lord’s joy in his ever¬ lasting life for your benefit, — the joy which enabled him to endure the cross, and to despise the shame? Believers, “ your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.” Qt/i, and lastly. Our Lord proposeth to the faith of his disciples his own absolute and peculiar autho¬ rity over the visible and the invisible world, as an effectual remedy for their afflicting tears : “ and I have the keys of hell and of death.” The word translated hell does frequently signify in Scripture the place of future punishment. Matt. xvi. 18 ; but the literal interpretation of it is “ the unseen and SERMON XXIII. 479 in this sense it includes the region of separate spirits after death, whether inhabiting heaven or hell. In this sense the Greeks, from whom the sacred writers borrowed the word, most frequently employed it ; and in this sense it is certainly employed by them. When Peter, quoting the l6th Psalm, says, in the name of Christ, “ thou wilt not leave my soul in hell,” we know that this means in paradise, where he promised that the penitent thief should be with him. Hades, therefore, means heaven, with all its mansions, and hell with all its dungeons. Death is the passage into hades ; and Christ says he has the keys of both. Keys are the badges of delegated but absolute authority. This was promised to Christ, Is. xxii. 21, 22. Before ascending into heaven, he declared that it was then bestowed on him : “ All power in heaven and in earth is given unto me.” The descent of the Spirit, the fulfilment of several remarkable predictions, and the present declaration in these circumstances, substantiate his authority over the visible and the invisible worlds. Of a truth, “ he hath the key of David ; he openeth, and no man shutteth ; and shutteth, and no man openeth,” in these his widely extended do¬ minions. And is there a remaining fear in the bosom of those who look to him for salvation, which this unlimited authority of their Saviour is not fitted to subdue ? He has the “ keys of death,” therefore he must have the supreme disposal of all things that affect life, and he must equally com- 480 SKKMOX XXIII. iiiand the entrance into the grave, and the issues from it. Let your eyes be fixed on these keys, which are never turned to open or to shut here be¬ low, but for the good “ of them that obey him and would not every anxious fear about any of the events of life, about the time, the circumstances, the man¬ ner of death, or about the resurrection of the body, be an indignity offered to your Lord, and inconsis¬ tent with your profession of faith in his gracious sovereignty? He holdeth the keys of hades, of the unseen world, of heaven and hell ; let your eyes be fixed on these keys, and would not every distress¬ ful and distracting fear of hell, or concerning being admitted into paradise at death, or concerning the final admission of soul and body into heaven after the resurrection, be an impeachment of his veracity, and goodness, and power ? Are you afflicted at the personal sufferings of Christ in the flesh, are you trembling when you behold the daring insults of¬ fered to him now ; realize this his universal and irre¬ sistible dominion, and remember that he shall retain it “ till all his enemies are made his footstool.” Should Satan and subtle men, availing themselves of the remaining pride of prejudiced reason, trouble you through an apprehension that you are disho¬ nouring God by this view of the salvation of sinners, and of the exaltation of the Saviour, remember that the Spirit hath said, “ because he, who was in the form of God, and thought it no robbery to be equal with God, humbled himself and became obedient to SERMON XXIIT. 481 the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name ; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth ; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Have you gone along with me, O my hearers ? I fear that some of you must say, “ This subject is not suited to allay but to awaken fear in us.” Hitherto we have not considered this awful and gracious person with deep seriousness, much less with practical hope or fear. His name is familiar to us ; but what strangers, what despisers have we been of his personal glories, of his atoning death, of his intercession for sinners, and of his absolute authority over all things in earth, in heaven, and in hell ! O, why has he not shut us out of this world, and shut us into the prison-house of the negligent, the unbelieving, the disobedient, which no one could ever again open ? Is he not giving us “ space to repent ?” Will we delay to fall down at his feet in admiration of his power, and righteousness, and grace, not unmixed with terror lest he should but turn the key of death before our work be done ? Have you gone along with me, O my friends ? I hope that many intending communicants, who have been trembling at the overpowering splendour of the united glories of their Lord, to whom they are about to make so solemn an approach, are now 482 SERMON XXIII. convinced and sweetly persuaded that each of these glories, considered by itself in the light of the Spirit, is fitted to meet and calm some distressful fear ; and that the whole, after this survey, constitutes the most solid foundation of the peace of God that passeth knowledge, and of holy boldness before the throne of grace. “ How fearful, and yet how sweet, my condition at the feet of my Lord and Saviour ! I tremble at his immense grandeur ; I am ashamed and confounded at his grace ! In him I find the all- sufficiency of God to stay my soul upon, and the infi¬ nite and wondrous loveliness of Emmanuel to satiate every affection of my heart ; in him I find a redemp¬ tion complete as my guilty conscience could desire; a life that rnaketh the dead in trespasses and sins to live unto God for ever ; a faithfulness immovable as the rock of ages, and sure as the oath of God who cannot lie and a power that ruleth over earth, and heaven, and hell, as over the several chambers of his immense abode, of which he holdeth the keys. And in the sacrament of the supper he admitteth me to the feast of love, at which himself presides, — here he treated me as a beloved disciple, and imparted to me a portion of the blessings of the favoured apostle ; here “ He laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me. Fear not ; I am the first and the last : I am he that liveth, and was dead ; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen ! and have the keys of hell and of death !” And I am what is still more inte¬ resting, — I am yours, and you are mine. Here he SERMON XXIII. 483 sealed this faithful declaration with the sensible signs of this ordinance, bearing his own image in that attitude which is most precious to believers ; and here he conveyed some of the fruits of this won¬ drous union into myinmostsoul, bymeans “ of eating this bread, and drinking this wine, blessed by him.” “ The Lord is ray light and my salvation, whom shall I fear ? The Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid ?” Yet will I fear the name of God in him, and trust that, as the Sun of righteousness, he will shine on me with healing in his beams. V $fl> rf*hr fy'lir''nV , ; iiv/o >ii\ p_ft!t:'7 ^n() ; of fU r^^ tbitlv^ rif'^tUth fr'ft -iii>v/ fiii'J -Mf'n’t jfij io jnfi'a 'jil Ti**/! tiff: *' -iiji .it{ 7j,( uj w! t'r; rr** ;T'r fiffoio ".iiiiil (if itnr, t.b/rv<(l ;ihfJ imjtiy/’ .noi^nvli-.i vni *• (‘jirl,;(nj '1«» r* JyarUj-i sul) «( mIX I U i iitii tr.'ii I iijwJoY . "‘■: f)i;.iU--.(i ;t Ibib nufjb/ Ho io »f|^ ^<{1. J(.(f} hna ,iM;i if? uJURti u't ^irCi.Vld lijivi ‘Jfjt Jliv/ >;! ^ t V ^ 'V ' . -IP*’ ■ 1. .Hiif;;*’;,! thi O I , I’W 11 v: •; • 1 . . * 1 . *^4» r'l’ ..-v ^ « ivt ,1 •o 1. it j v-» ' r* > ■»;; ■I • / I .« ■ A L , .'> • APPENDIX. No. I. MEMOIR OF DR JOHN LOVE. Died at Anderston, December I7, 1825, in the 69th year of his age, the Rev. Dr John Love, Minister of the Paro¬ chial Chapel there. He was a man of uncommon talents and acquirements. At ten years old, he was sent from the Grammar School of Paisley, his native place, to the Univer¬ sity of Glasgow, where, notwithstanding his youth, he dis¬ tinguished himself in every department of the regular course, particularly in those of classical literature and mathematics. The influence of these studies was apparent in the accuracy of his reasoning, in the richness of his imagination, and copiousness of his diction, marked by the peculiarities of his own original and vigorous powers. At the time when he acquired reputation in the university, it was the fashion for theological students of eminence to enlist themselves under the banners of clergymen, distinguished by their abilities and literary attainments, who held and taught doctrines very inconsistent with those of the Confession of Faith ; by sign¬ ing which, they had been admitted first probationers, and afterwards ministers of the Church of Scotland. Of some of these ministers, men in other matters highly respectable. 486 APPENDIX. he continued to be a follower ; till, alarmed about the foundation of tenets on which his salvation depended, he en¬ tered on a painful and lengthened study of the Scriptures with prayer ; and, after a severe conflict of mind, was brought to embrace, in faith and love, the truths essential to eternal life, as stated in the standards of our church. His knowledge of theology, theoretical and practical, was profound ; his acquaintance with the Word of God minute ; his experience of divine truth, on a heart which talent and acquirement had been used to fortify against it, from the commencement of a thorough spiritual change, through all its varied conflicts, up to “ meetness for the inheritance of the saints in light,” was uncommon amongst eminent Chris¬ tians. If, in the outset of his public life, he pushed some truths beyond scriptural bounds, as has been alleged, his youth and inexperience, his abhorrence of his former creed, and the zeal for newly discovered truth, with warm feelings and a lively imagination, will apologize for it, in the estima¬ tion of liberal and enlightened minds. Whether this report, too widely circulated among those least acquainted with Dr Love, and those disappointed by his change of views, to be passed over in silence, be well or ill founded, the author of this paper cannot say : but he can assert, that during about thirty years of frequent and familiar intercourse, he has found the sentiments of his venerable friend on faith and practice, characterized by the “ wisdom that cometh from above.” Thus God prepared him to be singularly useful in public and in private, to deep thinkers and serious inquirers, especially to those whose imagination resembled his own in solemnity and power, whether involved in the difficulties and distresses of an awakened conscience, or of the Christian life. The reputation of Mr Love for talents and learning, for having in no common way been brought by God to the APPENDIX. 487 saving acknowledgment of “ the mystery of godliness,” and for being a preacher’of eminence and originality, procured him employment soon after he was licensed. He was assist¬ ant first to the Rev. Mr Maxwell of Rutherglen, and after¬ wards to the Rev. David Turner, of the Old Parish of Greenock ; where he attracted much attention, and obtained not a few seals of his ministry, and where he was greatly beloved through the remainder of his life. After Mr Turner’s death, he was called to be minister of a Presbyte¬ rian chapel in London ; and in that situation he remained several years. During his residence there he took an active share in forming the London Missionary Society, and for some years discharged the duties of secretary to it with much acceptance. His zeal for the success of this moment¬ ous undertaking, which he bore on his heart to his dying hour, was not exhausted by the many labours of his official situation, difficult and delicate as they were, in the infancy of this splendid enterprise. For the assistance of the first missionaries sent to the South Sea Islands, he published a small volume of addresses to the inhabitants of Otaheite, containing a system of Christian Theology, and character¬ ized by the striking and seemingly opposite peculiarities of his devout and original mind. In the year 1800, he was chosen minister of the Chapel of Ease at Anderston, in the suburbs of Glasgow ; where he continued to fulfil his pastoral duties, public and private, to a select congregation of much attached people, till near the time of his death. Greatly as he was occupied with his official duties, many as were the calls on him for ministerial assistance from the neighbouring city, and numerous as were his engagements with Christian friends, he found time to cherish and manifest his affectionate regard for the gene¬ ral interests of the gospel. Besides being a leading member of a district society for religious purposes, he was secretary, 488 APPENDIX. SO long as he was able, to the Glasgow Missionary Society, and the great instrument in the hand of God, of reviving and raising it to its present state of active exertion and prosperity. Those who knew Dr Love in the pulpit only could not conceive of him as he appeared in the social circle, modestly conspicuous for Christian cheerfulness and Christian courte¬ ousness ; and, when he chose, contributing in a singularly engaging manner to rational and profitable enjoyment. Much as his society was sought by eminent ministers and Christians of almost every denomination, and much as his ministerial labours were increased with his advancing years, he continued to secure leisure to cultivate the favourite classical studies of his youth, and also to read with delight some of the most celebrated works of the Greek fathers ; and though, about the same time, he was not chosen to fill the theological chair of a northern university, when he submitted to a com¬ parative trial, the electors declared him to be worthy of the highest literary honours and a sister university, not long after, conferred on him the highest degree in divinity. Thus distinguished for talents and literary acquirements, in ministerial duties and in social life. Dr Love was still more distinguished in secret and in private, as a man who lived to God, and “ walked with God.” Frequently as he worshipped the Supreme Being, he habitually guarded against “ drawing nigh to him with his mouth, and honour¬ ing him with his lip, while his heart was far from him he anxiously sought a sense of the divine presence in his devo¬ tions, how short soever ; and diligently watched for the tokens of it : he gratefully acknowledged them when per¬ ceived, and the least diminution of them he as tenderly la¬ mented: nor, for near thirty years, was he either frequently or long deprived of this his richest enjoyment, even amid sharp trials and depressing infirmities. appendix. 489 Of his outward troubles, and of the faithfulness of God his Saviour in fulfilling to him his gracious promises, in which he had taught him to hope with a confidence not to be shaken by unpromising appearances, not a little might be said. God had blessed him with “ a helpmeet for him,” whom he esteemed and loved. She has more than once been wounded with “ arrows that are sticking fast in her,” and threaten to “ drink up her spirit.” Instead of being borne down by this trial, as there was room to fear he might have been, he was, by the grace and power of the Lord, his strength and righteousness, to whom he clave with purpose of heart, so sustained and exercised by it, that he continued to reap from it many peaceable fruits of righteous¬ ness. In addition to this sharp trial of love and sympathy, he was attacked by a disease that, from its commencement, commonly both weakens the body and impairs the powers of the mind. His outward man was weakened, but his mental faculties remained almost entire, till near the end of his days. When he was approaching the generally assigned boundaries of human life, his disease gained ground, and God did not see meet to counteract its natural tendencies. His faculties lost much of their vigour as his bodily strength decayed ; so that he was wholly suspended from pulpit duty for about six months before his death : and yet his inward man was so renewed as to retain faith, cheerfulness, the love of friends, and heavenly hope, and to express them in an affecting look and language of peculiar tenderness. And even when his powers so far declined that his recollection failed him, and the capacity of retaining one idea, or pur¬ suing connected ideas, was lost, his mental wanderings were those of a man long accustomed to walk with God, and wan¬ dering on the borders of that heavenly Canaan, into which Jesus was about so soon to conduct him. 490 APl'ENDIX. No. 11. LETTER — Dr Scott to Mrs John Reid, Paisley. Greenock, Nov. 12, 1810. My dear Madam, — The note from your house on Saturday surprised and afflicted me deeply. When we parted, not three weeks ago, I inwardly congratulated myself on the pro¬ mising vigour of Mr Reid. I have not derived more plea¬ sure from the matter and manner of his public labours, nor from the ease and energy of his private conversation, than I did during my last visit to you. I came away promising myself, and the church, and his friends, prolonged comfort in his improving state of health. How severely do I feel the disappointment ! I have wept for my own loss. Mr R. was one whom I valued and loved as a man, a Christian, and a minister. His good sense and gentle manners, his unaffected simplicity and manly integrity, his deep sense of divine things, and profound regard for Jesus, Emmanuel, our Redeemer, and the kindness of his heart, with the warmth of his friendship, rendered him very dear to me. I have wept for your loss. It is the loss of a Christian com¬ panion, brother, friend, minister, and husband. Long will the endearing image of himself, and his virtues, and affec¬ tions, break in upon your most common, your most sacred employments, and bedew them with tears of affectionate recollection. But while we weep for ourselves, it is what we owe to God, the author of this afflicting event, it is what we owe to our departed friend, that should principally engage our minds. The sovereignty of God will lead to say, “ thou hast done this, and I have kept silence.” His wisdom that cannot err, his goodness and mercy in Christ Jesus, which I trust we APPENDIX. 491 all have experienced, will teach us to attempt to think and say, “ blessed be the name of the Lord.” That the gra¬ cious Disposer of all events has in this consulted the good, the comfort, the happiness of his servant called away from his earthly labours, we can have no doubt. ere the veil drawn aside, and we permitted to witness the state of our beloved friend, our judgment would tell us, “ it is surely far better for him to be with Christ,” than in the body, and sub¬ ject to its frailties, sufferings, and apprehensions. My dear Madam, hard as the saying may seem, it will be our own fault if this separation is not also for our good as well as his. The Lord withholdeth nothing truly good from them that walk uprightly. If we are walking uprightly, this stroke which smarts so severely, this wound which makes the heart bleed, which extinguishes some of the dearest affections, even it is truly good for us, — nay, is the best thing for us, or else our heavenly Father would never have given it. Let us strive to believe this precious yet awful truth, strive to understand it, and strive that the purpose of grace in it may be accomplished in our souls. Let us seek the Spirit of God to lead us to know what sins this event is suited to mortify, _ what holy affections to awaken, — what zealous activity should be exercised. Sure it is, when we arrive in the hea¬ venly habitations, when we review all the steps of our pilgrim¬ age, and this very painful passage in it, we will say of the whole way, we will say of this very part of it, “ Ihe Lord hath led us forth by the right way.” If the spirit of wisdom ' and revelation be given in measures suited to our time of need (and who can doubt of this when we persevere in the prayer of faith for it), the time will come even in this life, when we shall be enabled to say, in reference to this very event, “ It is good for me that I was afflicted.” Plain it is, this separation should quicken our preparations for that blessed world into which our lamented friend has entered 492 APPENDIX. before us. This is a great blessing, and contains in it strong consolation. We weep, but “ we press forward to the prize of the high calling of God in Christ,” and as we press nearer this mark, we press nearer the enjoyment of the society of him who already has obtained possession of it, and waits by the throne of the great Judge to hail the victorious ar¬ rival of his friends and consort with his affectionate accla¬ mation. Mrs Scott, Mary, and our suffering Johnny lament your loss, and with me join in affectionate prayers for your support and divine consolation. I ever am. My dear Madam, Your affectionate friend, JOHN SCOTT. No. III. LETTER — Dll Scott to the Rev. Mr Burns, Paisley. My dear Sir, — As I am no stranger to what is in the heart of a parent bereaved of dear children, I can think of your deeply afflicting situation, I can dwell on its painful nature and aggravating circumstances, with tender sympathy, and I can present them before Him who is touched with the feeling of your infirmities, with earnest intercession, that he may grant the support, direction, and consolation which are need¬ ful ; but I cannot speak to you and dear Mrs Burns with¬ out difficulty, without the consciousness of inability to address you with all the wisdom, sympathy, and love which your circumstances require. I would weep with you, and feel much relief in thinking that while some of the sweetest and strongest affections of the heart, deeply wounded, call for the indulgence of their sorrows, the Spirit of God, who APPENDIX. 493 says “ no chastening seemeth to be joyous, but grievous,” authorizes their sorrows. When God who gave your lovely babes, and by them cherished the affections of Christian consorts and parents, called them to his heavenly mansions, he called you to “ mourn for an only-begotten son, and to be in bitterness for a first-born.” What more indulgence would ye crave than that which your merciful Father freely grants you ? Ease your full, your overcharged hearts by your sighs and your groans ; embalm the memory of your beloved children with your tears ; and allow me to join in your lamentations, sacred to the memory of these flowers that lately smelt so sweet, and looked so gay, whose mortal part hath mingled with their kindred dust. Bitter as this sorrow is, there is a pleasure, an intoxicating pleasure in it that imperceptibly allures to excess. This is the besetting sin of the bereaved Christian parent ; and it is the more powerful and the more plausible in proportion as the heart is affectionate towards the objects of grief, and tender to¬ wards God. “ Can we ever sufficiently lament the death of children so amiable, or the stroke of that hand which cut them off.P” If your lamentations interrupt the duties of the season, or render them lifeless by absorbing the affections, or impair health, they are more than sufficient; and there is no little danger of your heart fainting at the rebuke of the Lord. Against this tendency to excess of meek, submissive sorrow, you may live long to struggle, to watch, and to pray. Long after the first violent bursts of nature, which in cases like yours succeed a stupor that suspends emotion for a time, images will flit before the mind’s eye of dear in¬ terest, a thousand nameless associations will open the sluices of the melting heart. But you will endeavour to sorrow as those who are afflicted in righteousness and mercy as well as severity, as those who sorrow not without hope. Of the severity the once dear sufferers do not complain. What 494 APPENDIX. were their sufferings compared with the pangs of sympathy, torments of disease in prolonged life, the anguish occasioned by sense of guilt, which they must have experienced in their continued sojourning in this land of shadows and death ? And though they had equalled the lengthened excruciating tortures of the martyrs, one moment of the bliss of heaven would have converted them into a theme of thanksgiving. It is the bereaved parents recollecting their emotions as they bend over the bed of languishing and death, thinking on their loss, and feeling the extent of their bereavement, as their eyes follow a shadow that deludes them in all the apartments of their lonely house, — it is they who complain under the severity of the stroke that sometimes threatens to crush them. One of the most effectual remedies in such a case is the sovereignty of God. How afflicted by death in his family, and still more bitterly by the monstrous guilt of several of its members, was David, when he experienced the calming influence of this remedy, and said, “ I was dumb, I opened not my mouth, because thou didst it.” The absolute property of God in us and ours, made known to us when he gave them, acknowledged by us when we devoted them to him in baptism, and exercised in order to try our sincerity when he calls them away, prepares to contemplate the other sovereign perfections of God manifested in our afflictions. When the sovereignty of God is rightly appre¬ hended, he says to the tempest of our grief, “ Peace, be still and there “ is a great calm.” Then, in the sunshine of his own light, we see that righteousness and mercy have presided over this wintry storm, have directed and moder¬ ated its force, so that, if a pair of gentle lambkins have perished by its fury, it hath destroyed some noxious weeds, it hath watered the roots of virtues yet under the surface, it hath strengthened the extending grasp of the roots of strongly agitated graces, and prepared the field of wo for APPENDIX. 495 yielding an abundant crop of the fruits of righteousness under the culture of those exercised as God would have them. Whether I consider you as young Christian parents, I must think it is good for you that you bear the yoke in your youth ; or whether I consider you, my dear sir, as a minister of the gospel, bearing the cross, and in due time receiving its consolations, I must think you are “ afflicted and comforted for the consolation and salvation” of the church of Christ. How astonishing the wisdom, and riches, and grace of God in Christ Jesus, converting the very fruits of sin into a salutary medicine to our own soul, — and ren¬ dering our sufferings and restoration the means of promoting the edification of others. You may not be able to relish these things for a time, but I hope and pray that the time may soon arrive when you shall gradually and fully experience both their sanctifying and comforting power. I shall attend to your request with regard to Miss W. and Mrs M‘D. Meanwhile, Mrs S. unites with me in Christian love and sympathy to Mrs B. and yourself ; and that you may soon find the Lord is in place of a son and daughter to you, is the fervent prayer of My dear Sir, Your affectionate and sympathising friend. JOHN SCOTT. Greenock, Feb. 1, 1820. No. IV. LETTER — Dr Scott TO Miss Balfour, Glasgow. November 3, 1818. My dear Madam, — As yet you can admit none but your friends to converse with you ; and I deeply feel the value 6 496 APPENDIX. and the responsibility of this privilege. Fain would I speak comfortably to you ; but I am ready to retire before I come in sight, well knowing that my presence will renew your grief, and my hesitating attempt will poorly answer my intention. But to grieve is your duty, and it is your delight : I have been entering into your sorrows, I have been bearing your burden almost constantly, and before God ; I have been mingling my griefs and prayers with yours ; and why should I be so much afraid of expressing my sympathy to your¬ self.? Were your heart less tender and affectionate than I know it is, I could not wonder at the depth of your distress. Were you not in bitterness of soul, the lamentations of multitudes would be a reproach to you. Were you not to dwell on each particular of your bereavement, and to expe¬ rience the pang it is fitted to produce, you could not so well know what God had given you, what he has taken away from you, or what he intends to do for you by this loss. You would fail in duty to your Father in heaven, and to your father whom he hath been pleased to call into the presence of his glory. Sovereign and glorious as this call has been, it hath occasioned a loss to you, such as falls to the lot of few children to suffer. This is now your grief ; this ought to be, and in God’s time will be, your consolation, and the theme of your song of praise. I am sure you will not deny me the right (for I am not ignorant of the object of your grief), or grudge me the mournful pleasure of review¬ ing with you, who allow me a place in your affectionate re¬ gard, the various sums which constituted that rich treasure which you lately possessed on earth, where moth and rust do corrupt. I say with you, and with a portion of your feel¬ ings, you have sustained the greatest earthly loss. You have lost a father who was most respectable, and dutiful, affectionate, and kind, — who was your honour and orna¬ ment, your guardian and friend ; who was your only APPENDIX. . 497 remaining parent, the object of a departed mother’s dearest affections, and the object of the reverence and love you once entertained for both father and mother. In losing him, you have lost the most precious of God’s earthly gifts, — there is a vacancy in your heart which occasions the loss of strength, — which brings on faintness of spirit. Who but God could sustain you in this situation He hath in righteousness occasioned this void in your heart, and, alas ! he sees meet to aggravate the distress of it in many ways. Just when your former wound had become less liable to bleed,— had begun to heal, — when you were becoming more capable of the enjoyment of paternal tenderness, — when the hope of prolonged enjoyment was springing from his improved health, — while his labours of love were such a source of profit and pleasure in the church, and of gratification to himself, he was snatched away in a moment. These cir¬ cumstances add sickness of heart to the fainting sense of emptiness you experience. You see the arm of the Al- mighty which hath inflicted the awful stroke, and you have been silent, you have vindicated his righteousness. Round every bed of death, round every tomb is thrown the fearful cloud of divine displeasure against the apostasy of man. The heart is not right with God which is not alive to the evil of sin, — of its own sins in these circumstances. The more tender it is, the more alive to these it will be. What wonder if the child of God, thus situated and affected, should have very obscure and interrupted perceptions of the glory of God in the midst of the cloud What wonder if the sense of the divine displeasure against sin is more lively than the sense of the divine love to the chastened believer ? Whether you are afflicted in this particular way or not, you are deeply afflicted ; perhaps you have been so stunned at first that you could not weep. 1 hope you have wept, and I know you will often weep. At present a secret, in 2 I i<)8 Ari’EXDlX. time a sensible joy, will with your sense of loss send forth sweet and bitter waters. You are too well acquainted with the Author of your affliction, you are too sincerely the friend of your lamented parent, not to endeavour to esti¬ mate the mercies as well as the griefs of this stroke. Surely you are not insensible of the singular privilege of having and so long enjoying such a father. Instead of alleviating, this may aggravate your sorrows for a little. You may re¬ proach yourself for an unsuitable return for this privilege. This is no more than what the most grateful of the children of God have reason to do, for the least, and still more for the greatest, of the mercies of God. But, the blood of Christ having purged their conscience from dead works to serve the living God, they have daily and hourly recourse to it, that, amid the sorrows of manifold infirmities, they may maintain their peace with God, and go on “ to perfect holiness in the fear of the Lord.” I am persuaded this is your state and temper. While you humble yourself before God, because you have not been and are not all you desire to be, in re¬ ference to your privilege, should you not give thanks for that unspeakable grace which authorized your affectionate father to rejoice over you as his child in the Lord ? How gracious is God, who spared him until you were indebted to him for your spiritual as well as your natural birth ! Viewed in the light of this grace, this separation appears a correc¬ tion indeed, but a correction originating from unerring and compassionate love. If it did not originate from love, if it were not administered by love, it would not incessantly in¬ culcate on your willing mind the lessons of heavenly wisdom you are now receiving with more or less immediate profit, i\re you not more than ever convinced of the necessity, and more than ever desirous of resting simply on God in Christ Jesus, of conversing with your Father in a heavenly man¬ ner, of your affections being less human, less concentrated Al'I’ENUlX. 499 on one object, of your former grief being purified, and the graces exercised in it being strengthened, and of your learn¬ ing to endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ ? Thus, Grod is promoting your more perfect conformity to himself, in order to your more perfect communion with him and with his saints. You cannot but attribute the end in view to love, and to what else can you ascribe the means, how painful soever ? Had they not been the meetest, his love would have rejected them. Love requires of you as a sacrifice what justice might have demanded as a debt; what was originally a punishment, love converts into the means of the greatest blessings, not to you alone, but to him who en¬ dured the stroke of the king of terrors. It was love that spared him till you could sorrow, not as those who have no hope, but as those who are ‘‘ followers of them, who through faith and patience do now inherit the promises.” It was love that spared him for threescore and ten years, when he was in the height of his reputation, usefulness, and acceptableness ; and when his lively enjoyment of earthly and spiritual good was singularly seasoned and improved by a holy, feeling recollection of the past, and a sweet, and humble, and elevated hope of the future. It was love that spared him the sharp and humiliating trials of increasing infirmities, of painful distemper or deadening disease, of in¬ terrupted enjoyment, and suspended ministerial labours. And it was love that translated him from his labours of love, his good fight of faith, to his crown of righteousness. When shall he be more sensibly missed in an assembly on earth than he was last Lord’s day, where for thirty-nine years he had dispensed the word and bread of life, where his face shone with the lustre of communion with God, and his words burned as sacred fire in the hearts of many hearers ? But was it not love that produced even there a more awful solemnity, a more affecting sense of responsibility, a more 600 Al’PENDlX, awakened concern to improve opportunities of communion which may soon close, a more immediate dependence on the High Priest of salvation than on his ministering servants so liable to be removed, a more lively and affecting anticipation of the marriage- supper of the Lamb, at which their lamented pastor, amid the happy circle of his spiritual children in heaven, sits under the immediate smiles of unveiled glory ; and a more spiritual communion with their pastor than when they enjoyed his bodily presence and favoured ministra¬ tions ? And what but divine love fixes the affectionate re¬ gard of many Christians on you, and mingles yours with their dearest interests before the throne of grace, — renders you a peculiar object of Christ’s fraternal sympathy, and of God’s paternal care and tenderness ? Such is the cup put into your hands by your heavenly Father. It has many bitter ingredients, but it also contains not a few of heavenly sweetness. It is graciously intended, it is skilfully compounded, it is tenderly administered, and the great Physician will visit you every morning, and try you every moment, with a view to ensure its success. How delicious are the sweetnesses of it, and its most pun¬ gent bitters shall work together for good. Is not your eye on your Saviour, who drank off the cup of wrath, that he might put into your hand this salutary sweetened cup ? Are you not imbibing more of his believing and submissive Spirit, and desirous of adopting his language, “ the cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it I have still much to say to yourself and to your fellow- mourners in the family, who share in my affectionate sym¬ pathy and prayers. I have much to say of my private sor¬ rows, and joys, and mortifications connected with the cause of your afflictions ; but I have been so long deterred from beginning to write, I have been so often interrupted since I began, and I have written so much, considering your state APPENDIX. 501 of health and mind, that I tliink it right to commit you to the consolation of Israel. He needeth not that any one should tell him what is in your heart, he is touched with the feeling of your infirmities, and he will comfort you with his strong consolations. I ever am. My dear Madam, Your obliged and affectionate friend and servant. JOHN SCOTJ’. Greenock, Nov. 5, 1818. May the time soon come when the following extract will afford you more pleasure and profit than it yields me. “ It may be, we have got their pictures drawn by some skil¬ ful hand, and their images hang around us in their best likeness, as tender memorials of what we once enjoyed, to give us now and then a melancholy delight, and awaken in us the pleasing sadness of love. These we call our most precious pieces of furniture, and our hearts rate them at an uncommon price. But it would be much richer furniture for our souls to have the best likenesses of our pious predeces¬ sors and kindred copied out there. Let us now and then reffect what were their peculiar virtues, and the remarkable graces that adorned them ; and if we could imagine the spirit of each of them to look down upon us through those eyes which the pencil has so well imitated, and to speak through those lips, each of them would say in the language of the softest and most sacred affection, “ Be ye followers of me, as dear children, so far as I was a follower of Christ."” — Watfs Sermon, “ The death of kindred improved."” 50:^ Al'PENDIX. No. V. LETTP]R — Rev. Dr Scott to Greenock, April 22, 1826. I HAVE wept with and for my dear mourner, and I have often prayed for her and those who most deeply share her sorrows ; but till now I wanted resolution to write to her on a subject so afflicting. — But the sight of your letter to Mrs S - as I was just going to begin to write, and your account of God’s goodness in the state of your health and of your mind, together with that of your fellow- mourners, while they brought tears into my eyes, and filled my mouth with thanksgivings, encouraged me to attempt to write. This afflicting loss you must lament to the end of life, and occasionally with bitterness of heart ; but never I hope and pray to excess, or with hard thoughts of him who hath caused it. What would your experience have been had God thus afflicted you before you knew him in Christ Jesus as your covenant God, “ the God of all grace and consolation,” and who maketh “ all things work together for ffood” to them who love him, who are the called accord- ing to his purpose In contemplating the Author of your sorrows, you behold the awful splendour of his absolute sove¬ reignty blended with the sweet softening rays of his righte¬ ousness and love. You know with what unwillingness be hath afflicted and grieved you, even when consulting the interests of his own glory, and executing the everlasting purpose of his wisdom, and grace, and rectitude. With regard to your¬ self and your dear relatives who have laid hold on Jesus for “ strength and righteousness,” ye are striving to glorify the fiiithfulness of your gracious God by believing in opposition APPEXBIX. 503 to the natural movements of your affections, and the occa¬ sional suggestions of unbelief, that even this afflicting event is “ mercy and truth to yourselves.” Who hath in sove¬ reignty taken away this amiable and hopeful brother but he who in sovereignty gave him and all the pleasures in¬ cluded in the precious gift, and warned that he was lent but for a day, and to be resumed when he saw it meet ? Who hath cut him off in the time, and place, and manner in which he hath been removed but He “ who spared not his own son, but delivered him up to the accursed death of th^ cross” in the time, and place, and manner, and by the hands appointed, “ for you all” then viewed by him as his enemies ? Who is he that sits over this fiery furnace, superintending the important process of refining you as gold, and will bring you forth as fine gold unto glory, and honour, and praise in the day of the Lord Is it not he who redeemed you by his blood, and created you anew by his spirit, who sympa¬ thizes with every pang that rends your hearts, and who will not subject you to one pain more than the “ need be” re¬ quires ? What then is all this for but a trial of your faith, which is much more precious than that of “ gold that per- isheth” — of that faith you professed when you first in truth committed yourself to Christ — that faith you repeated in every prayer — that faith you have delighted to profess over the symbols of Christ’s body broken and his blood shed ? Though this faith be of the operation of the Holy Spirit, though the Lord hath increased it in strength, still it may, by sharp trials, be weakened and shaken. Should such a time arrive, remember your Lord’s promise, believe it, apply for the fulfilment of it in your own experience, — “ I have prayed for you, that your faith fail not.” It has always given me pleasure that God, from the time he condescended to become your spiritual instructor, taught you the con¬ nexion between privilege and duty, promise fulfilled and 504 APPENDIX. the use of means — for want of which knowledge much in¬ justice and dishonour are done to the gospel, and much in¬ jury to immortal souls. I am, therefore, confident that you will seek to prevent the failure of your faith, and to promote the right and vigorous exercise of it, by endeavouring to en¬ lighten, and strengthen^ and quicken it by prayer, medita¬ tion, searching the Scriptures, and reading scriptural works suited to your circumstances, while you rely simply on the promised grace of Christ both for the due use of these means .and for a never-failing faith, the end of them. As I think Flavel’s Token, &c. meets almost all the varied movements of the afflicted mind and heart with uncommon tenderness and scriptural power, you can easily conceive the satisfac¬ tion I feel in thinking of you and your afflicted relatives engaged in the agreeable perusal of it ; that you will now better understand it and feel its truth and consolatory power, while you acquire a more intimate acquaintance with your own hearts, and the riches of divine grace in furnishing suitable and effectual remedies for their infinitely varied distempers, is my firm belief. — But think not, I beseech you, that all this, or even much of this is to be experienced at once ; “ for after you have done the will of God” in the use of means, “ ye have need of patience” to wait like the husband¬ man for the harvest of promise fulfilled — “ the peaceable fruits of righteousness.” Mrs Scott begs to thank you for your letter, particularly as she did not expect you to write. All unite in continued prayer and sympathy with you and all your mourners. I ever am. With affectionate regard and tenderest sympathy, very truly yours, JOHN SCOTT APPENDIX. 505 No. VI. LETTER — Dr Scott to Mrs Douglas, Stewarton. Greenock, April 21, 1825. IVIy dear Madam, — The report of the death of your affec¬ tionate husband, and my long-approved friend and brother, which reached me at Glasgow, did not surprise me, as I had been hearing from time to time of his declining state of health ; but it did afflict me. His death is no common loss to any of his friends ; to me it is an uncommon one, and not to be supplied. Ordained within a few weeks of each other, mutual assistants from the commencement of our ministry, united in principle and friendship that suffered no interrup¬ tion, and increased with experience for near thirty-two years, we could not be separated without the survivor feeling as if no small part of himself were cut off. I shall miss him, and mourn my loss in the study, the parlour, and the pulpit, especially on these endearing occasions when we met to enjoy the pleasures of Christian society and friendship, and unite in celebrating the wonders of redeeming love. Never did I meet with him but with kindness, never part with him but with grateful recollections, never was he forgotten in my daily prayers for my friends in the ministry, and of late was he always remembered among the useful pastors whose lives I desired might be spared. His removal occasions a sorrow¬ ful blank in my affections, in my devotions, and among my assistants. The Lord hath done it ; I bless his name for the sweetness shed abroad in this sorrow, by the full and delightful persuasion that he is now in a state which more than compensates all his toils, and sufferings, and sorrow of parting with his beloved family, and his endeared flock APPENDIX. o()() and friends. While I and my people remember with mourn¬ ful pleasure labours no more to be renewed, we cannot but realize him as reaping the fruits of these and all his other acceptable works of faith, and hope that many yet unan¬ swered prayers of his for us will receive the answer of peace in our time of need ; and though separated, as to the body, we still have communion in the Spirit. Indeed, I desire to receive this removal, in which I have so deep an interest, as a loud call to me, “ Be thou also ready, for the Son of man cometh at an hour thou thinkest not.” And I earnestly desire and pray that, by the grace of God, I may be “ a follower of him who now, through faith and patience, in- heriteth the promises.” Much as I have reason to lament my loss, yet mine is not to be compared with that which you and your dear family have sustained. I desire to sympathize with you, lamenting the removal of an affectionate husband, endeared by the sweet and trying experience of many years, of a dutiful father, a faithful and zealous pastor, and to all a Christian friend, exemplary in doing, in enjoying, and in suffering. His excellent character in all these relations, produced by the grace of God through faith in his beloved Master, must just now embitter his loss; in God’s time, if not at present, it will sweeten and purify your sorrows, and mingle lively thanksgivings with your lively lamentations. The more excellent he was, the more will you miss him ; but the more excellent he was, the more “ meet was he for the inheritance of the saints in light,” and the more fitted to live in the affectionate remembrance of his beloved family. It will be impossible for you to escape those melt¬ ings of heart, which a thousand recollections of one whose image is interwoven with all your thoughts, with the very being of your mind, and is impressed on every object around you, will from time to time produce. But this image had on it the image of the living God, qualifying to enjoy communion APPENDIX. 50/ with God while here, and prepared to enter into his glory hereafter. If he is not here, he is with his Lord, who came and received him to himself, and conducted him into the mansions of his Father’s house, that where the Master is, there the servant may be also. Whatever may be the feel¬ ings of your affectionate heart, I am sure your enlightened practical judgment would not recall him for a mere earthly and imperfect gratification of your own, to the state of weak¬ ness, and suspension of his official duties, and suffering, from which his gracious Lord saw meet to release him. I am sure your love for him, gradually rising above all selfishness, will not grudge him the sight and enjoyment of the unveiled glory of him, whom his soul loveth above all in heaven and in earth — the equality with angels. Joy must mingle with your sorrow, and praise with your lamentations. What higher gratification to sanctified affection or sacred ambition than to be with him in glory ? What path will lead you all more certainly thither than the one so well known to you — the one he was enabled to enter on, and to the last to per¬ severe in — even “ the way, the truth, and the life And will not your affectionate recollection of what he was, how he prayed and laboured to lead you all into the land of up¬ rightness, and of where he now is, and how employed, draw you towards Jesus in glory by the cords of love ? All hu¬ man unions are liable to be dissolved, as you have painfully experienced in one of the most intimate and endearing ; but there was a union you, my dear Madam, enjoy which shall never be dissolved, which shall sanctify all other connexions while they subsist and when they are dissolved. Your union with Christ, and, through him, with God, will con¬ sole you in your present and heaviest of earthly losses — and in all your future sorrows, and in death itself, which puts an end to the connexions of time, it will bring you into an 508 APPENDIX. heavenly intimacy with your Lord, and with him whom you loved tenderly and now weep for bitterly. Your earthly and spiritual charge of your family becomes heavier far, and cannot but occasion parental anxiety. Instead of weaken¬ ing your heart or your hands, I trust that God, on whom you cast all your cares, will render this the means of rousing to salutary watchfulness, exertion, and prayer ; and that, in the experience of yourself and them, you will know him to be “ the Judge of the widow, and the Father of the father¬ less.” In my daily prayers for those “ mourning over pain¬ ful bereavements” you and your family find a daily place. I w'ould have written Mr James did I not think that he must have left you, and that you would convey my apology to him. I was detained in Glasgow from Saturday the 9th to Saturday afternoon the 16th. When I came home that evening I found his melancholy kind letter. An engage¬ ment of some weeks’ standing obliged me to cross the water on Monday, and remain till Tuesday evening; and I had public worship yesterday. You will perceive, I hope, that it was out of my power to have been with you on Monday, which I certainly would have been had circumstances per¬ mitted ; and so hurried have I been ever since I came home, that I could not find leisure to write you till now', which I have done amid a press of business, and amid many interruptions. Offer my kindest acknowledgments to Mr James for his letter, so affectionate and dutiful to the me¬ mory of his dear father, and so obliging and friendly to myself. Mrs Scott has been confined for the most part through the winter, but is better. The young people are well. Alexander and Margaret are at Glasgow. When convenient a note from you would oblige us greatly. Mrs Scott unites with me in affectionate sympathy and regards to you and all the members of your family absent or present, APPENDIX. 501) and in earnest intercessions for all that light, support, and consolation suited to promote your true happiness and the glory of God’s grace in Christ Jesus. I am, and ever am, My dear Madam, your affectionate friend, JOHN SCOTT. No. VII. LETTER — Dr Scott to the Rev. Mr Smith, Lochwinnoch. Ardrossan, Oct. 3, 1829. My dear Sir, — Your affectionate letters are always a cor¬ dial to me. Fain would I trace the love shown me by the friends of Jesus up to the incomprehensible and inexhaust¬ ible and sovereign love of Jesus flowing over on them, and through them on me, to revive me in this time of humilia¬ tion for privileges withdrawn, and labours suspended, it may be, terminated. Yet I trust, while I pray, my affliction, mingled with many undeserved mercies, may be overruled for perfecting what is lacking in my faith and holiness, for rousing those of my people whom I was not enabled to awaken, doubling the diligence of those whom the Lord hath called, and quickening the affections and labours of my dear friends in the ministry. These hopes diminish the weight of my burden, and sweeten the cup my heavenly Father hath given me to drink. It always was a pleasure, and should have been more of a benefit to me to enjoy the privileges, public and private, of the communion season at Lochwinnoch. I loved the society, the ordinances, and the 5 510 Al’l’ENDIX. spirit in which they were administered, and the grace which accompanied them. The remembrance calls for thanksgiv¬ ings for God’s goodness, for mercy to pardon sins and short¬ comings, and for grace to help in time of need ; in all which I beg you will unite with me. The kindness of Mrs Smith and you will miss me ; but in power and suitableness of the ministration of word and sacrament, I cannot be missed with your assistants able and fervent in spirit, to whom I beg to be remembered in brotherly love. To Dr Barr I am under many obligations which I have not an opportunity of yet acknowledging. All the aid I can yield the church is that of my poor prayers, which though feeble are frequent, almost continual. That they will be more particular for your portion of the vineyard, and for yourself and fellow- labourers during this solemnity, you will believe ; on all the days of it may the glory of the Lord fill, and make you all joyful in, his house of prayer. That you may feel the power and sweetness of divine truth, and declare it with much comfort and power from on high, is my prayer and hope. Mrs Scott and Margaret have been much worse, but through the mercy of God are much better. I continue as you saw me, weak, but remembered of God in compassion. Mrs Scott and Margaret unite with me in love to Mrs Smith and you, and in best wishes for the children. This is a long letter for me, but short for all the kind things I am inclined to say. I ever am, JNIy dear sir, very affectionately yours, JOHN SCOTT. THE END. Trintod by Oliver & Boyd, Twecddale Court, High Street, Edinburgh. f ' . "rs ^ $)■ '.v.CC: i ..tsj rt. ,. , y .. K r ' '‘ ''.' t^': % '' - . 'j ^ c y ..• • • '- t . '.'ir' • 1 VJfe I •' f •; •A. . - ’.4 , ■ *■*«■ f