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 1789-1843. 
 Sermons of the late Rev. 
 
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SERMONS 
 
 OF THE LATE 
 
 REV. BENJAMIN F. STANTON. 
 
 " And he commanded us to preach unto the people, and 
 to testify that it is he which was ordained of God to be 
 the judge of quick and dead. To him give all the prophets 
 witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in 
 him shall receive remission of sins." — Acts, 10 : 42, 43, 
 
 NEW-YORK : 
 
 PRINTED AND PUBLISHED FOR THE PROPRIETOR, 
 
 By D. Fanshaw, 575 Broadway. 
 
 1848. 
 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year of our Lord one 
 thousand eight hundred and forty-eight, by Mrs. Charlotte F. Stanton, in 
 the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the 
 Southern District of New-York. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 ~^ Page. 
 
 Sermon I. — Cast not away, therefore, your confidence 
 which hath great recompense of reward. — Heb. 
 10:35 9 
 
 Sermon II. — Therefore, glorify God in your body, and in 
 
 your spirit, which are God's. — 1 Cor. 6 : 20. . .44 
 
 Sermon III. — The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfuhiess 
 hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall 
 dwell with devouring fire? Who among us shall 
 dwell with everlasting burnings? — Isaiah, 33 : 14. . 62^ 
 
 Sermon IV. — Wherefore he is able also to save them to the 
 
 uttermost that come unto God by him. — Heb. 7 : 25. 90 
 
 Sermon V. — Then Agrippa said unto Paul, almost thou per- 
 
 suadest me to be a Christian. — Acts, 26 : 28. . .113. 
 
 Sermon VI. — Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's. 
 
 good pleasure to give you the kingdom. — Luke, 12 : 32. 136 
 
 Sermon VII. — Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, 
 whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are 
 just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things^ 
 are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report ; if 
 there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think 
 on these things. — Phil. 4:8 1531 
 
 Sermon VIII. — Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are 
 true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things 
 are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever 
 
4 CONTENTS. 
 
 things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good 
 report ; if there be any virtue, and if there be any 
 praise, think on these things. — Phil. 4:8. . .170 
 
 Sermon IX. — He is altogether lovely. — Song of Solomon, 
 
 5 : 16 182 
 
 Sermon X. — Of vi^hom the whole family in heaven and earth 
 
 is named. — Eph. 3 : 15 . 199 
 
 Sermon XI. — The secret things belong unto the Lord our 
 God : but those things which are revealed belong unto 
 us and to our children for ever, that we may do all 
 the words of this law.— Deut. 29 : 29. . . . 218 
 
 Sermon XII. — Thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Zion : 
 for the time to favor her, yea, the set time is come. — 
 Psalm 102 : 13 248 
 
 Sermon XIII. — For God shall bring every work into judg- 
 ment, with every secret thing, whether it be good or 
 whether it be evil. — Eccles. 12 : 14 2V2 
 
 Sermon XIV. — For I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourn- 
 er, as all my fathers were. — Psalm 39 : 12. . . 290 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 At the request of Mrs. Stanton I have 
 perused and selected for pubHcation the following 
 Sermons of her late husband, the Rev. Benj. F. 
 Stanton. Mr. Stanton graduated from Union 
 College about 1810 ; studied Divinity at Princeton, 
 New- Jersey, and preached in the Presbyterian 
 Church at Hudson, New- York, nine years. His 
 health failing, he accepted a call from a smaller 
 congregation in Connecticut. Declining health in- 
 duced him to seek a milder climate. He accepted 
 the pastoral charge of the Hanover Presbyterian 
 Church, in Prince Edward county, Virginia, 
 where he labored in the Gospel thirteen years. 
 Though compelled by the ravages of disease to 
 desist from his labors, yet after a short interval of 
 rest, anxious, as long as possible, to preach Christ, 
 
6 PREFACE. 
 
 he took charge of the Presbyterian Church in 
 Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Here his devotion and 
 zeal produced complete prostration of his physical 
 system, and after bidding adieu to a beloved and 
 attached people, he sought a sister's residence at 
 the North, where, after blessing his family, he 
 sweetly breathed his last, in the faith of the Gos- 
 pel and hope of a blessed immortality, Dec. 18, 
 1843, aged 53 years. 
 
 "Mr. Stanton," (says one who knew him,) 
 " possessed eloquent pulpit powers ; a mind richly 
 stored with theological learning, and a heart 
 deeply imbued with the spirit of his Master." 
 His piety was always consistent, because it was 
 the piety oi principle ; his preaching was popular, 
 because instructive; and he died, because he 
 lived — a Christian. 
 
 Two reasons have induced the publication of 
 these Sermons. A desire to gratify the repeated 
 request of friends, who long sat under his minis- 
 try, and a hope to benefit those to whom, though 
 dead, he may yet speak. This, we trust, will dis- 
 
PREFACE. 7 
 
 arm criticism and claim indulgence. If the au- 
 thor's reputation alone had been consulted, these 
 Sermons would never have seen the light. They 
 were prepared for the pulpit without the remotest 
 idea of publishing, and consequently were never 
 subjected to a revision. I have preferred to let 
 the author speak in his own words, not venturing 
 an alteration, except where there were evident 
 mistakes or inadvertencies. Piety may here find 
 that which she needs— food ; that which igno- 
 rance seeks — knowledge ; and that which weak- 
 ness wants — strength. They who read for good, 
 will obtain it ; they who read from opposite mo- 
 tives do not expect to be benefitted. These Ser- 
 mons indicate that their author understood the art 
 of " preaching doctrine practically, and practice 
 doctrinally." To all who love solid thoughts, 
 expressed in solid words, they commend them- 
 selves. The reader will find in them a richness 
 of evangelical sentiment, vigor of thought, terse- 
 ness of style, and force of illustration, that will 
 invite and compensate a perusal. In their doctri- 
 
8 PREFACE. 
 
 nal subjects and practical bearings they are " for 
 the times." May they who cherished the aiUhor's 
 instructions while living, be still blessed by them, 
 though his voice is heard no more. 
 
 'o' 
 
 p. D. OAKEY, 
 
 Pastor of the Ref\l Dutch Church, 
 
 Couri-st., Brooklyn, Long Island. 
 
SERMON I. 
 
 Cast not away, therefore, your confidence, which hath great 
 recompense of reward. — Hebrews, 10 : 35. 
 
 Christians in the present age have not 
 the same trials which fell to the lot of the 
 primitive disciples of Jesus : and, therefore, 
 they have neither the same opportunities 
 for the growth of their graces nor the mani- 
 festation of their sincerity. The church has 
 now more of external prosj)erity, but less of 
 internal purity. For the privilege of sitting 
 in an undisturbed repose beneath the shade 
 of our own vines and fig-trees, we pay the 
 forfeiture of that vigorous faith which van- 
 quishes the world and gives glory to the 
 Redeemer ; and in return for a tranquillit}^ 
 that enfeebles and benumbs, we yield up 
 the foretastes of heaven, which otherwise we 
 might have, and exchange for the light and 
 fading enjoyments of earth all the fulness 
 •of God. 
 
 2 
 
10 SERMON FIRST. 
 
 It is in the school of adversity that a 
 character for hardy Christian heroism is 
 formed, and that eminent attainments in 
 piety are made. 
 
 The primitive disciples of Jesus had 
 trials of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, 
 moreover, of bonds and imprisonments. For 
 their Lord and Master's sake they w^ere 
 hated of all men. Their property, their 
 reputation, and even their life, were alike 
 insecure. They were set forth, as it were, 
 appointed to death — were made a spectacle 
 unto the world, and to angels, and to men ; 
 and were counted as the fihh of the world, 
 and the offscouring of all things — the very 
 refuse and dregs of the creation of God. 
 Even the ties of country and consanguinity 
 afforded them no protection from the ven- 
 geance of them that hated them. In their 
 own household, and from their own domestic 
 circle, often sprung up their most vindictive 
 persecutors. The father was seen at vari- 
 ance with the son, and the son with the 
 father ; the mother arrayed herself against 
 
SERMON li'IRST. 11 
 
 the daughter, and the daughter against the 
 mother ; and sundering, at a stroke, the 
 chords of humanity and kindred, with the 
 ferocity of tigers they were seen thirsting 
 for human blood, and eager in causing each 
 other to be put to death. 
 
 In this furnace of affliction the Apostle 
 beheld his Hebrew brethren who had em- 
 braced the Christian faith, and aware that 
 to some, the fury of the flame might be dis- 
 heartening, and that possibly the impression 
 might arise in their minds, that it would be 
 preferable for them to withdraw their alle- 
 oriance from a master whose service was ac- 
 
 o 
 
 companied by so many and such painful 
 sacrifices, he determined on addressing to 
 them the epistle from which the text is ta- 
 ken, and which, no attentive reader of the 
 Bible can hardly have failed to notice, 
 abounds with more powerful and pathetic 
 exhortations than any of the epistles of the 
 New Testament. Having therefore, says 
 he, brethren, boldness to enter into the 
 holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and 
 
12 SERMON FIRST. 
 
 livino- way, which he hath consecrated for 
 lis through the vail, that is to say, his flesh ; 
 and having an High Priest over the house 
 of Gocl ; let us draw near with a true heart, 
 in full assurance cf faith ; let us hold fast the 
 profession of our faith without Vvavering ; 
 for he is faithful that promised. If we sin 
 wilfully after we have received the know- 
 led oe of the truth, there remaineth no more 
 sacrifice for sins. It is a fearfal thing to 
 fall into the hands of the living God. But 
 call to remembrance the former days, in 
 which, after je were illuminated, ye endur- 
 ed a great fight of afflictions ; partly while 
 ye w^ere made a gazing-stock both by re- 
 proaches and afflictions, and partly while 
 ye became companions of them that were 
 so used. For ye had compassion of me in 
 my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of 
 vour goods, knowing in yourselves that ye 
 have in heaven a better and an enduring 
 substance. Cast not away, therefore, your 
 confidence, which hath great recompense of 
 reward ; for ye have need of patience, 
 
SERMON FIRST. 13 
 
 that after ^^e have done the will of God, ye 
 might receive the promise. For yet a little 
 while, and he that shall come, will come, 
 and wall not tarry. Now the just shall live 
 by faith ; but if any man draw back, my 
 soul shall have no pleasure in him. 
 
 Our text, it is perceived, consists of an 
 exhortation and a promise. The exhorta- 
 tion is to constancy in the Christian course. 
 x\nd the promise relates to the glorious re- 
 ward with which it will be crowned. These 
 are the topics on which we design to dwell 
 in this discourse. 
 
 I. The exhortation supposes that the 
 constancy of the Christian is liable to be as- 
 sailed by temptations, and the possibility of 
 his yielding to them is also intimated. We 
 cannot subscribe to the sentiment which 
 isome entertain, of believers falling from 
 grace. The idea of being exalted to sit 
 together with Christ Jesus in heavenly 
 places to-day, and to-morrow of becoming 
 a wandering star to whom is reserved the 
 blackness of darkness for ever, is appalling to 
 
14 SERMON FIRST. 
 
 the pious and reflecting mind. The indi- 
 vidual who cherishes it, must necessarily be 
 a stranger to that consolatory and abiding 
 hope which was the possession of the pri- 
 mitive disciples of Jesus, and is described 
 as an anchor to the soul, sure and steadfast, 
 entering into that within the vail. Theirs 
 was a hope that kept the bark in which the 
 believer had adventured his immortal spirit, 
 firm and steady, amid the war of conflicting 
 elements that so often lash into un governed 
 phrenzy this troublous ocean of life. Nor 
 is it to be forgotten that the sentiment on 
 which we are remarking, is in direct oppo- 
 sition to the express declaration of our 
 blessed Lord. " My sheep hear my voice, 
 and I know them, and they follow me, and 
 I give unto them eternal life, and they sliall 
 never perish, neither shall any pluck them 
 out of my hand." Objections, it is true, may 
 be made to this doctrine. It may be, and 
 often is said, that it is liable to abuse. But 
 it ought to be recollected that when abused^ 
 as it often undoubtedly is , the abuse is com- 
 
SERMON FIRST. 15 
 
 mitted not by the real and genuine subjects 
 of grace, who are dead to sin, and therefore 
 have no disposition to hve any longer there- 
 in, but by the children of disobedience, who 
 are always prepared and may be expected 
 to abuse every thing that is good, and con- 
 sequently to make Christ the minister of 
 sin, by turning the grace of God into lasci- 
 viousness. But though we are full in the 
 belief of the final and certain perseverance 
 of the saints, we shall at the same time 
 without hesitation admit, that for a season 
 they may fall away, and, as sad experience 
 too often evinces, make direful shipwreck 
 of the faith. 
 
 There is enough of corruption remain- 
 ing in every renewed soul, if suffered to 
 gain the ascendancy, to carry it back again 
 to its former state of utter alienation from 
 God. The believer in Jesus, at every stage 
 of his progress on earth, is after all but a 
 feeble infant. He has numerous and pow- 
 erful foes to combat within and without : 
 and sometimes it happens that the longer 
 
16 SERMON FIRST. 
 
 the conflict lasts, the severer it becomes. 
 Some persons think that were they only 
 converted, and had once buckled on the 
 Christian armor, the victory would be won, 
 and the fioht of faith finished at a single en- 
 counter. But the veteran soldier of the 
 cross who has been in many campaigns with 
 the great captain of his salvation, has found 
 that conversion is only the commencement 
 of a warfare that is to grow harder and hot- 
 ter at every advance, and from which there 
 is no discharge but by death. 
 
 Temptation may not accost believers 
 now in the same form and with the same 
 force that it did the first followers of Christ : 
 but its attacks, though less formidable, are 
 not the less real or fearful. It is the sly in- 
 sidious foe that lurks in the dark, and whose 
 approaches are imperceptible, that is most 
 to be dreaded. And such are the foes with 
 which Christians are now constantly sur- 
 rounded. It is not to be disguised, and it 
 cannot be denied, that the world in which 
 we live exerts upon the followers of Christ 
 
SERMON FIRST. 17 
 
 a most baneful influence ; and if it come not 
 forth at present, as it once did, with swords 
 and staves to bruise and shed blood, it 
 comes forth with an intent that is not less 
 hostile, and with weapons that are not less 
 deadly. It is a world that loves not the 
 God who made, and that obeys not the gos- 
 pel of Him who came down to redeem it. 
 But it scoffs at every thing sacred, and 
 tramples on every thing divine. It pleads 
 for a morality that is lax, and apologises for 
 practices that are profligate and profane. 
 It aims to represent the sobriety, the meek- 
 ness, the humility, the self-denial, and the 
 penitence of the gospel, as the qualities of 
 weak and pusillanimous souls; and applauds, 
 under specious disguises, their opposites as 
 the characteristics of lofty and magnanimous 
 minds. It talks of the f'^Hy of being righte- 
 ous overmuch, as thouoh it were in danorer 
 of falling into an excess of devotion ; and 
 tells of the innocency and the delights of its 
 thousanJ pleasures. Like the arch seducer 
 in Eden, it spreads out before the mind of 
 
 2* 
 
18 SERMON FIRST. 
 
 the Christian a tree that is pleasant to the 
 eyes, whose fruit seems fair and good for 
 food, and a tree desired to make one wise ; 
 and then sneers at the scrupulousness of 
 those who, intimidated by the Divine prohi- 
 bition, are apprehensive that if they put 
 forth their hand and touch it, they shall die. 
 The multitude are against us. They are 
 running to evil. They imagine that rebel- 
 lion against God is a trifling misdemeanor, 
 and if we run not along with them, they 
 think it passing stranoe that we do not. 
 Where, they inquire of us, is the harm in 
 the induloences we are takino^: or in this 
 pleasure or that amusement we are seek- 
 ing ] Where is the harm ? Where is the 
 use ? It is not enough to satisfy the scru- 
 ples of a conscientious and thinking disciple 
 of Jesus, to tell him of any practice, that 
 there is no harm in it. And it is not enough 
 to tell him this, because he knows it is not 
 true. He indignantly turns upon the tempt- 
 er, who says to him, where is the harm? and 
 while he bids him, get thee behind me Sa- 
 
SERMON FIRST. 19 
 
 tan, with the puzzling retort replies to him, 
 where is the good I Believers were not re- 
 deemed with the precious blood of Christ, 
 as of a lamb without blemish and without 
 spot, and sent into the world simply to do 
 no harm ; and inasmuch as they were 
 bought with a price, they are no longer 
 their own, or to live unto themselves, but are 
 to glorify God in their bodies and in their 
 spirits, which are his. 
 
 If any here have cast away their con- 
 fidence, we come to them with a message. 
 Of your religious experience and of the 
 unchangeable truth of Jehovah, we know 
 enough to be assured that you are not happy. 
 You are spending your money for that which 
 is not bread, and your labor for that which 
 satisfieth not. You are embarked in the 
 hazardous and hopeless enterprise of at- 
 tempting to reconcile the service of God 
 and Mammon : but you derive no real en- 
 joyment from either. You have just religion 
 enough to spoil your enjoyment of the world, 
 but not a sufficiency to afford you enjoy- 
 
20 SERMON FIRST. 
 
 ment in God. No, you are not happy, con- 
 science often loads you with upbraidings, 
 and visits you with its scorpion vituperations. 
 Tell us, my friends, is it not so ? And are 
 there not times when your senses are locked 
 in the slumbers of night, and deep sleep 
 falleth on you, that you see, or fancy you 
 see, the slighted Savior, whose omniscient 
 eye pursues you in all your dark and devious 
 way, casting upon you an expressive look 
 of indignation and pity that pierces your 
 inmost soul I Are there not times when he 
 disturbs your imagination by placing before 
 it the scenes of Gethsemane and of Calvary, 
 where his soul was exceeding sorrowful, 
 even unto death, and where he cried, O 
 my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass 
 from me. My God, my God, why hast thou 
 forsaken me 1 And do you not sometimes 
 hear him speaking to you in a tone of affec- 
 tionate entreaty that would soften a heart 
 of adamant I O inconsistent follower, and is 
 it thus you requite the love which many 
 waters could not auench, nor the floods 
 
SERMON FIRST. 21 
 
 drown ! Can you forget the anguish that 
 filled my soul, when from the bursting veins 
 of my burning forehead were seen the great 
 drops of blood falling down to the ground ? 
 Can you forget the wrath of my fellow that 
 pressed upon my burdened spirit when I 
 bore thy sins in my own body on the tree ? 
 Can you forget this bleeding side, these 
 mangled hands and feet that were pierced 
 with nails and torn with thongs ? And will 
 you, can you, by casting away your con- 
 fidence in me, thus crucify the Son of God 
 afresh, and put him to an open shame I 
 
 Ah, inconsistent follower of Christ, when 
 expostulations so touching as these are ap- 
 plicable to thy case, and pressed home, as 
 they sometimes will be, upon thy guilty con- 
 science, by the resistless energies of the 
 spirit of conviction and truth, thou art far 
 from being happy, thou art completely 
 wretched. And what shall be done? Poor, 
 forsaken outcast from thy God, who hast 
 wandered from thy Father's house in heaven, 
 where there is bread enough and to spare, 
 
22 SERMON FIPvST. 
 
 and art despoiled alike of thy innocence and 
 peace, and perishing with hunger, dost thou 
 put the question ? And what canst thou do 
 but bethink thyself of turning thy steps 
 again to thy paternal thresh hold ? Come 
 then to thvself, and with a relenting heart 
 say, "I will arise and go to my father, and 
 will say unto him, father, I have sinned 
 against heaven and before thee, and am no 
 more worthy to be called thy son — make 
 me as one of thy hired servants." If this be 
 the purpose of thy soul, when thou art yet 
 a great way off the kind father whom thou 
 hast abused will see thee, and will have 
 compassion, and run and fall on thy neck, 
 and kiss thee. And instead of loading thee, 
 as he justly might, with upbraidings, when he 
 takes the tattered wanderer to his embrace, 
 he will say to his servants, "Bring forth the 
 best robe and put it on him, and put a ring 
 on his hand, and shoes on his feet, and bring 
 hither the fatted calf and kill it, and let us 
 eat and be merry; for this my son was 
 dead and is alive again, he was lost and is 
 
SERMON FIRST. 23 
 
 found." Conceive then, if thou canst, of the 
 music and dancing with which heaven will 
 be regaled, and thy soul, once more returned 
 home and safely lodged in its paternal man- 
 sion, shall be delighted. 
 
 A life supremely devoted to God, it be- 
 comes us, my brethren, to remember, is our 
 highest honor and our truest felicity ; and it 
 is then only that we live up to the dignity 
 and enjoy the happiness of our Christian 
 profession, when having the courage to be 
 sinoular, we divorce ourselves from the 
 pleasures of sin, and breaking loose from 
 the enchantments of earth and the thral- 
 dom of Satan, with our affections crucified 
 to the world, and our eye fixed on the re- 
 compense of reward, we endure as seeing 
 him who is invisible; and taking to ourselves 
 the wings of the morning, mount up, or with 
 souls dilated by the conscious privilege of 
 being denizens of the heavenly city, we 
 walk abroad in the liberty and in the ma- 
 jesty of the sons of God. 
 
 Many and powerful, we are never to 
 
24 SERMON FIRST. 
 
 forget, are tlie temptations and conflicts of 
 a life of faith. We wrestle not against flesh 
 and blood, but against principalities, against 
 powers, against the rulers of the darkness 
 of this world, and against spiritual wicked- 
 ness in high places. Wherefore take unto 
 you the whole armor of God, that ye may 
 be able to withstand in the evil day, and 
 having done all, to stand. For a day in thy 
 courts is better than a thousand. I had rather 
 he a doorkeeper iii the house of my God, than 
 to dwell in the tents of wichdiiess. Whom 
 have I in heaven, hut thee I and there is none 
 upon earth that I desire heside thee. Although 
 the fig-tree shall not hlossom, neither shall 
 fruit he in the vi?ies ; the lahor of the olive 
 shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat ; 
 the flock shall he cut off from the fold, and 
 there shall he no herd in the stalls ; yet will I 
 rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of 
 my salvation. 
 
 The religion of Jesus in the breast of 
 any of Adam's degenerate race, has always 
 a preternatural and forced existence, is sub- 
 
SERMON FIRST. 25 
 
 ject to ten thousand hurtful influences, and 
 is kept ahve only by unwearied assiduity 
 and vigilance. Piety is not a plant of sub- 
 lunary growth. It is not indigenous to earth. 
 It is an exotic. It springs not up nor flou- 
 rishes in this cold and barren clime. The 
 chillinor blasts and the bitinor frost retard its 
 progress and prevent its luxuriance. But 
 thanks to Him who has undertaken its cul- 
 ture, it is destined to a more hospitable and 
 happy sphere. It came down from the up- 
 per world, and when the purposes of it& 
 allotment in this probationary state, this little 
 nursery of time, shall have been completed, 
 it shall be transplanted back again to its 
 native soil, where, under the genial warmth 
 of a brighter sun, in a healthier atmosphere, 
 and beneath a serener sky, it shall expand 
 its opening beauties, diffuse its grateful fra- 
 grance, and bloom with unfading verdure 
 in the Paradise above. 
 
 II. We pass to a consideration of the 
 promise contained in the text, and which 
 relates to the glorious reward w4th which 
 
26 SERMON FIRST. 
 
 the constancy of the Christian shall be 
 crowned. 
 
 " Cast not away, therefore, your confi- 
 dence, which hath great recompense of 
 reward." 
 
 The reward which is alluded to by the 
 Apostle in this passage, must be the reward 
 of grace, and not of debt. For poor, and 
 wretched, and miserable, and blind, and 
 naked sinners, who have made themselves 
 enemies to God by their wicked w^orks, to 
 talk, as some do, of endeavoring to render 
 themselves deservino; of the favors of hea- 
 ven, is not only to talk without meaning, 
 but betrays an unhumbled and self-righteous 
 spirit, which being grossly and criminally 
 ignorant of the righteousness of God, goes 
 about to establish its own righteousness, and 
 will not submit to the righteousness of God. 
 Who that is acquainted with the rudiments 
 of Christianity, knows not, that w^ere we to 
 receive at the hand of our offended God 
 the reward that is our due, he would render 
 to us indignation and wrath, tribulation and 
 
SERMON FIRST; 27 
 
 anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth 
 evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gen- 
 tile ; and instead of satisfying our mouth 
 v\^ith good things, v^ould make the heavens 
 over our heads as brass, and the earth un- 
 der our feet as iron, and command the 
 blasting and the mildew, the worm and the 
 caterpillar to light upon and consume us? 
 But all glory to Him in whom grace reigns, 
 through righteousness, unto eternal life, by 
 Jesus Christ our Lord. God Imth so loved 
 the world, that lie gave his only -hegot ten Son, 
 that iDhosoever helieveth in him should not 
 perish, hut have everlasting life; so that now, 
 on account of his invaluable sacrifice, in 
 which believers become interested by the 
 exercise of faith, the grace which is wrought 
 in their hearts, and which results in obedi- 
 ence to his commands, though it be the 
 gratuitous production of his own blessed 
 spirit, will be rewarded as though it were 
 the native and inherent property of their 
 own souls, and the fruits to which it led the 
 unassisted operation of their own hands. And 
 
28 SERMON FIRST. 
 
 / heard a voice from Iwaven, saying unto me, 
 Write, blessed are the dead which die in the 
 Lord from henceforth : yea, saith the Spirit, 
 that they may rest from their labors : and 
 their works do follow them. 
 
 Truly, herein is displayed the matchless 
 grace of our descending God. He has 
 stooped so low, to raise believers so high. 
 He has not only loved them and washed 
 them from their sins in his own blood, but 
 he has made them Kings and Priests unto 
 God and his Father. And he that spared 
 not his own son, but delivered him up for 
 us all, how shall he not with him also freely 
 mve us all thinos \ Great indeed is this 
 gracious recompense of reward. So great, 
 that eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither 
 hath it entered into the heart of man to con- 
 ceive the things which God hath prepared for 
 them that love him. The saints who in this 
 militant condition have found that a day in 
 his courts is better than a thousand, have 
 been led by these foretastes to have some 
 perception of the riches, of the glory of 
 
SERMON FIRST. 29 
 
 their inheritance in Christ, and have been 
 taught to expect that it will prove to them 
 the source of pure and imperishable de- 
 lights. But after all, as is related of the 
 Queen of the South, who came from the 
 uttermost parts of the earth to hear the 
 wisdom of Solomon, and to witness the glo- 
 ry and splendor of his realm, that on the 
 eve of her departure she affirmed that so 
 far had her exjoectations been exceeded, 
 that the half had not been told her : so it 
 may be said of the anticipations (however 
 sanguine and lofty) which believers have 
 formed of their future felicity, the half has 
 not been told them, so far will the reality 
 surpass all the powers of either description 
 or conception. 
 
 This recompense of reward is elsewhere 
 called in the scriptures an inheritance that 
 is incorruptible and undefiled, and that fad- 
 eth not away : a far more exceeding and 
 an eternal weight of glory : a building of 
 God, an house not made with hands, eternal 
 
30 SERMON FIRST. 
 
 in the heavens, and a city that hath founda- 
 tions, whose builder and maker is God. 
 
 The dwelhng place of the righteous, we 
 are told, will be decorated with every object 
 of brilliancy that can delight the eye, and 
 furnished with every entertainment that can 
 charm the ear or ravish the sense. From 
 it will be excluded every thing that can of- 
 fend, and in it will be every thing that can 
 fascinate or please. Its enjoyments will be 
 exquisite in kind, infinite in degree, and 
 endless in duration. From none of its in- 
 habitants will be heard the complaint, I am 
 sick. God shall wipe away all tears from 
 their eyes ; and there shall be no more 
 death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither 
 shall there be any more pain ; for the for- 
 mer things are passed away. Of palms, and 
 crowns, and thrones, they shall be the 
 wealthy and joyous possessors ; and O how 
 rich and how condescending the grace ! He 
 who is the light and the sun of this heavenly 
 city, will himself stoop down from his exal- 
 tation, and gird himself, and step forth and 
 serve them. 
 
SERMON FIRST. 31 
 
 The society will consist of a multitude 
 which no man can number, who shall have 
 been redeemed out of every kindred, and 
 tongue, and people, and nation ; clothed in 
 habiliments of immortal purity and bright- 
 ness, of kindred aims and congenial souls, 
 who having one Lord, one faith, one bap- 
 tism, one God and Father of all, who is 
 above all, and in them all, will present to 
 an admiring universe a spectacle of harmo- 
 nious concord which no jarring collisions 
 shall ever destroy or disturb. O blessed 
 society ! These are they who have right to 
 the tree of life, and shall enter in through 
 the gates into the city. There is the 
 Bride, the Lamb's wife. She shall be 
 brought unto the King in raiment of needle- 
 work, and her clothing shall be of wrought 
 gold. But my brethren, an object of still 
 higher attractiveness, and that gives to hea- 
 ven all its animation and all its delight, is 
 Jesus, the Mediator of the new covenant, 
 who is constituted the Head over all things 
 to the church, which is his body, the fulness 
 
32 SERMON FIRST. 
 
 of him that filleth all in all. The redeemed 
 that are round about him shall shine as the 
 brightness of the firmament and as the stars 
 
 o 
 
 for ever and ever; but the light and the 
 splendor of these, v^^hich are only borrov\^ed, 
 like "the stars that twinkle on the mantle 
 of night," shall fade aw^ay and become dim 
 before the brighter effulgence that shall 
 beam from the Son of God. It doth not yet 
 appear, says the Apostle, w^hat we shall be : 
 but we know that when He who is in hea- 
 ven shall appear, we shall be like him ; for 
 we shall see him as he is : which is an ex- 
 pression, implying that here, where we see 
 through a glass darkly, and know but in 
 part, we catch only a faint glimpse of the 
 glories of the risen Savior. Yes, my breth- 
 ren, it is the open and unclouded vision of 
 Jesus, in whose face shines the light of the 
 knowledge of the glory of God, that will 
 impart to the recompense of reward its high- 
 est zest : and it was for a sight of this en- 
 rapturing vision that the longing spirit of 
 the Apostle panted to break loose from its 
 
SERMON FIRST. 33 
 
 prison-house of clay, when he said, I have a 
 desire to depart and be with Christ. 
 
 How elevating, how transporting is the 
 hope of the Christian ! And how sublime 
 and worthy of the eternal mind is the de- 
 sign of the gospel dispensation ! It is not 
 the repairing up of an old and tattered sys- 
 tem, but it is the mighty result of a new 
 and wondrous creation ; and in the enter- 
 prise of man's redemption, a higher revenue 
 of glory will redound to God, than from all 
 the other works of his hand combined. In 
 this enterprise he has determined to put 
 forth, and, if I may so express it, to exhaust 
 the energies of his omnipotence, to com- 
 plete the felicity of his saints ; and since he 
 has already developed so much of the depth 
 of the riches, both of the wisdom and know- 
 ledge of the undertaking, as to draw forth 
 the astonishment of the angelic hosts who 
 desire to look into these things, he has 
 thereby furnished ample ground for the as- 
 surance, that in its advancement, and till 
 brought to its destined consummation, he 
 
34 SERMON FIRST. 
 
 will continue to sustain the honor of his 
 name, and to increase the admiration of the 
 various orders of created intelligences : and 
 when the winding up of the mysterious 
 scheme shall have been accomplished, and 
 all the attributes of Deity shall have been 
 fully and illustriously unfolded — when the 
 trump of God shall have sounded, when the 
 dead shall have been raised incorruptible, 
 and this mortal shall have put on immor- 
 tality, when the ransomed throng shall have 
 been caught up to meet the Lord in the 
 air, and when the innumerable company of 
 angels, with the general assembly and 
 church of the first born which are written 
 in heaven, shall have come together to the 
 general and joyous jubilee of the blessed — 
 then shall the four beasts and the four and 
 twenty elders that are before the throne, 
 bow with a deeper reverence to Him that 
 sitteth thereon ; and passing with the rapidi- 
 ty of thought, the electric impulse shall 
 spread from rank to rank, and from breast 
 to breast, till every harp in heaven shall be 
 
SERMON FIRST. 35 
 
 Strung to its highest and its sweetest notes 
 of praise ; and from every melodious lyre 
 shall go forth the sound long and loud, 
 which shall fill the wide expanse of heaven 
 with the music of wonder and of love. O 
 blessed society O glorious state ! Eye hath 
 not seen, nor ear heard, neither have enter- 
 ed into the heart of man, the things which 
 God hath prepared for them that love him. 
 Seeing then, beloved Christians, that ye 
 look for such things, what manner of per- 
 sons ought ye to be in all holy conversation 
 and godliness ? Looking for and hasting 
 unto the coming of the day of God. Where- 
 fore be diligent, that ye may be found of 
 him ia peace, without spot, and blameless. 
 And who among us so profane that, like 
 Esau, for the short-lived gratifications of 
 sense, would barter away his birthright to 
 all this bliss ? Father forgive them, for they 
 know not what they do. No, you know- 
 not the preciousness of that Savior you are 
 slighting. If you did, with the elders you 
 would instantly prostrate yourselves at his 
 
SERMON FIRST. 
 
 footstool ; or with Thomas ciy out, My Lord 
 and my God! Who, in this assembly, that 
 would not have for his own this friend, that 
 sticketh closer than a brother 1 This friend 
 of sinners, who came the broken heart to 
 bind, the bleeding soul to cure ; and who, 
 when trouble and anguish come upon ^-ou, 
 wall be your counsellor and stay — to wdiom, 
 in the confidence of aftection, you can resort; 
 on whose sympathizing breast you can re- 
 cline your aching head, and to whom you 
 can unburden all the griefs of your bursting 
 heart 1 This friend, who, when your heart 
 and flesh are failing, can extract from the 
 king of terrors his sting, can soften your 
 dying pillow, and put underneath and 
 around you the arms of his everlasting 
 mercy, and can make your bed of death 
 the bed of glory. 
 
 I find myself in danger, my friends, of 
 trespassing on your patience by exceeding 
 the limits which are usually assigned to the 
 public exercises of religion ; but standing, 
 as I do, once more in a place and in the 
 
SERMON FIRST. 37 
 
 presence of a people, endeared to me by so 
 many tender and affecting associations, and 
 indulged with a privilege which, when I last 
 appeared before you, it is probable that 
 neither you nor m^^self supposed would so 
 soon, if ever, again be permitted me to en- 
 joy. I cannot repress the desire which I 
 feel to invite you to unite in magnifying the 
 Lord with me, and in exalting his name 
 together. He has been good, and his mer- 
 cies have been great He has been with us, 
 and has protected us both at home and 
 abroad, in dangers both seen and unseen 
 innumerable. He has been wdth us in 
 six troubles, and in seven ; in sicknesses, in 
 infirmities, and in perils, and has brought 
 us together to-day in his temple to offer to 
 him our thanksgiving : Bless thou the Lord, 
 O our souls, and all that is within us, bless 
 his holy name. Bless the Lord, O our souls, 
 and forget not all his benefits. Who forgiv- 
 eth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy 
 diseases, who redeemeth thy life from de- 
 struction, who crowneth thee with loving 
 
38 SERMON FIRST.. 
 
 kindness and tender mercies. Who satis- 
 fieth thy mouth with good things, so that thy 
 strength is renewed Hke the eagle's. 
 
 At this interview, my thoughts involun- 
 tarily recur to the scenes of former times, 
 through which with some of you I have 
 passed — scenes which in retrospect now 
 seem as the visions of the night, and the 
 recollection of which, as it rushes on my 
 mind, fills me with emotions that are unut- 
 terable. I recollect, (and the scene presents 
 itself to my imaghiation as if it were but 
 yesterday,) when over the assembly con- 
 vened in this sanctuary, the windows of 
 heaven seemed to be opened, and the Holy 
 Spirit descending seemed to fasten on the 
 mind of every worshipper the impression, 
 and to prompt the exclamation — How 
 dreadful is this place ! Surely, this is none 
 other than the house of God, and the gate 
 of heaven ! I recollect, and some of you 
 will doubtless recollect the same, those 
 crowded aisles, those rejoicing converts that 
 thronged them, whose countenances lighted 
 
SERMON FIRST. 39 
 
 up by the hope of the gospel ; and those 
 still and solemn spectators who witnessed 
 their making a good profession before many 
 witnesses, Happy season of grace ! The 
 remembrance of it is still refreshing to the 
 soul. I would address the exhortation, 
 Count not yourselves to have apprehended 
 — but forgetting the things that are behind, 
 reach forth unto those that are before. Cast 
 not away, therefore, 3^our confidence, which 
 hath great recompense of reward. But be 
 ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding 
 in the work of the Lord, knowing that your 
 labor is not in vain in the Lord. On this 
 occasion, too, I am forcibly and affectingly 
 reminded that all are not here to-day who 
 once came to worship with us in this house 
 of prayer. Some of them are dispersed in 
 different and distant places, and others are 
 fallen asleep. How mutable and transitory 
 is everything below ! How changing and 
 fleeting are all the scenes and objects of 
 human life ! But a few years have gone by, 
 and this pulpit has thrice changed its 
 
40 SERMON FIRST. 
 
 preachers, these seats have new occupants^ 
 and this temple of grace has other worship- 
 pers. I cast my eyes around this assembly, 
 and am met with the look of strangers — - 
 with most of these countenances I am not 
 familiar. I extend my view a little forward^ 
 and perceive that soon all who are in this 
 assembly to-day will leave these seats and 
 this dwelling to another generation, and sink 
 in that wide and whelming vortex that is 
 fast engulphing the busy, short-lived tribes 
 of men. One generation follows another in 
 rapid succession, like shadows that flit 
 across the plain, which come, are quickly 
 gone, and seen no more. To changes and 
 dissolution everything visible is liable and 
 tending, and as a vesture when worn out is 
 folded up and laid aside, it shall be changed. 
 The material universe is waxing old, as doth 
 a garment. The sun itself is burning out 
 its fires, and is to be darkened — the moon 
 is to be turned into blood — the stars are to 
 withdraw their shining, and to fall from 
 their places — the planets are to be thrown 
 
SERMON FIRST. *^ 
 
 from their orbits, and to reel as a drunken 
 nian-the heavens being on fire, are to be 
 rolled to^rether as a scroll, and to pass away 
 with a great noise-the elements are to melt 
 with fervent heat, and this globe of earth 
 which is kept in store, reserved unto fire 
 with all it inherits, is to be dissolved, and 
 like the baseless fabric of a vision, leave not 
 a wreck behind. Nothing, nothing on which 
 we can fasten our eyes or fix our hearts is 
 enduring but the Eternal, and the recoiB- 
 
 pense of reward. The grass wxthereth, the 
 
 flower fadeth, but the word of our God shall 
 
 stand for ever. 
 
 "The seas shall waste, the skies in smoke decay, 
 
 "Rocks fall to dust, and mountains melt away. 
 
 .. But fixed his word, his saving power remains, 
 
 . Z ^t O God, for ever lasts, thy own Messiah re.gns. 
 
 For this Church we cherish the hope 
 that there are still blessings in reserve Over 
 it we believe the Holy Spirit is stil hover- 
 ing; and on it, we trust, is silently distilling 
 
 the dew of his blessing. I am happy, my 
 brethren, and can rejoice in the prospect ot 
 
42 SERMON FIRST. 
 
 your prosperity ; and though I am absent 
 from you in body, yet am I present with 
 you in the spirit, joying and beholding your 
 order and steadfastness in the faith of the 
 gospel. Distinguished, as I hope you ever 
 will be, by the prevalence of harmony, and 
 a sincere devotion to the cause of the Re- 
 deemer ; and blessed with the ministrations 
 of a pastor who deserves, and who, I doubt 
 not, enjoys your affections, we bid you God 
 speed. And the prayer for you, which go- 
 eth not out of feigned lips, is that you may 
 go and prosper. May the peace of God, 
 which passeth all understanding, rule in 
 your minds. May the Holy Comforter be 
 the guide of your steps and the joy of your 
 hearts. And at last, when you shall have 
 finished a long and useful life, and you shall 
 arrive at the confines of the dark Valley of 
 the Shadow of Death, in the exercise of an 
 assured hope, with the rod and the staff of 
 the Good Shepherd to comfort you, and 
 with the song of exultation upon your 
 tongues, as you are passing it, may the bright 
 
SERMON FIRST. 43 
 
 visions of the heavenly world burst upon 
 your enraptured sight, and your happy 
 spirits mingle with those that are around 
 the throne, and who raise to Him that sitteth 
 thereon their ceaseless anthems of praise, 
 " Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to re- 
 ceive power, and riches, and wisdom, and 
 strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing." 
 
SERRION II. 
 
 Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit; 
 which are God's.— 1 Cor. 6 : 20. 
 
 The expression " to glorify God," is one 
 that is very frequently used ; but to which, 
 perhaps, after all, there are not many per- 
 sons who attach any distinct and definite 
 ideas. It is unquestionably a phrase of ex- 
 tensive import, extending to the whole com- 
 pass of those duties which devolve on us as 
 intelligent and accountable creatures, and, 
 therefore, should be rightly, and if possible, 
 thoroughly understood. 
 
 I. What, then, is the meaning of the 
 expression " to glorify God ?" This shall be 
 our first subject of inquiry. 
 
 God is said to glorify himself by the ex- 
 hibition which he gives to his intelligent 
 creatures of his perfections in the works of 
 Creation, of Providence and of Grace. But 
 our present inquiry respects the conduct by 
 
^ SERMON SECOND. 45 
 
 which his intelligent creatures are said to 
 glorify him. And how can creatures glorify 
 God 1 It is certainly not in the power of 
 any, especially of short-sighted and sinful 
 beings of yesterday, to add any thing to the 
 essential glory of the Divine character. 
 Nothing which we can do, or omit to do, 
 can either increase or diminish the honor 
 and enjoyment of the eternal God. He is 
 entirely and necessarily independent, and 
 whether his creatures should adore or blas- 
 pheme, he would still remain the all-glorious 
 and happy God. Glorious in the posses- 
 sion, and happy in the contemplation of his 
 exhaustless and unchangeable perfections. 
 But his creatures may, and do add to the 
 declarative glory of God. They can glorify 
 him in their humble way in the manifesta- 
 tions which they give of his perfections, or, 
 in other words, in the reflections which they 
 exhibit of the moral attributes of the Deity, 
 such as his holiness, his justice, his good- 
 ness, his mercy, and his truth. And this is 
 the sense in which Christians are exhorted 
 
4:€ SERMON SECOND. 
 
 in the text to glorify God in their bodies, 
 and in their spirits, which are God's. The 
 consecration of themselves, with all that 
 they are, and all that they possess, to the 
 service of the Creator, is to be entire. It 
 includes the whole powers of the body, and 
 all the faculties of the soul, with whatever 
 other talents they may be entrusted. 
 
 II. But how, and in what ways, can in- 
 telligent creatures glorify God 1 To answer 
 this inquiry, and point out some of the 
 principal of these ways, shall be our next 
 subject of attention. 
 
 1. In the first place, then, we observe 
 that intelligent creatures may glorify God, 
 and are bound to do so, by cordially em- 
 bracing that system of truth which is re- 
 vealed in the Holy Scriptures, and by con- 
 tending, with resolution, and in a spirit of 
 meekness, on all suitable occasions, for the 
 faith once delivered to the saints. 
 
 It is in the revelation which God has 
 given of himself in the scriptures, that his 
 glory is more especially manifested to his 
 
SERMON SECOND. 47 
 
 creatures. Here his character is made 
 known, and his purposes, as far as necessary 
 and proper, explained in their true light. 
 Here man s condition, his duty, and his des- 
 tiny are also exhibited ; and, therefore, a 
 cordial submission of the understanding to 
 the instructions and dictates of this revela- 
 tion, must necessarily be the course that is 
 suited to glorify God. No other religious 
 system than that which is contained in the 
 Bible, gives any true representation of God. 
 All other religious systems are false. But 
 false systems of religion must necessarily 
 cast dishonor upon God ; and a hearty be- 
 lief and concurrence in the true one only, 
 can either please or glorify him. 
 
 By rejecting this testimony which God 
 has given of himself, according to the repre- 
 sentations of the inspired writers them- 
 selves, we make him a liar ; and in doing 
 this, there can be no doubt that we do all 
 in our power to dishonor him. 
 
 False systems of religion represent the 
 character of God differently from what it 
 
48 SERMON SECOND. 
 
 really is, and surely it cannot be possible 
 that he can be glorified by any imaginary 
 or mistaken exhibitions of himself. The 
 exhibition that honors him must be con- 
 formable to truth. 
 
 Some persons think, or say they think, 
 that God may be represented and worship- 
 ped under the form of sensible images, in a 
 manner as acceptable to him as any other. 
 But the scriptures have otherwise decided 
 on this point. I ain the Lord, says the Holy 
 One : that is my name, and my glory ivill I 
 not give to anotlier, neither my f raise to grav- 
 en images. It was the sin of the heathen, 
 that when they knew God, they glorified 
 him not as God, neither were thankful ; but 
 became vain in their imaginations, and their 
 foolish heart was darkened. Professing 
 themselves to be wise, they became fools ; 
 and changed the glory of the incorruptible 
 God unto an image made like to corrupti- 
 ble man, and to birds, and four-footed 
 beasts, and creeping things, images of him- 
 self w^hich God abhors. All false concep- 
 
SERMON SECOND. 49 
 
 tlons of good, and all denials and perversions 
 of his truth, lead to corruptions in practice, 
 as naturally and unavoidably as all material 
 substances tend to one common centre of 
 gravitation ; corruptions in practice which 
 offend and dishonor the Hidi and Holv 
 One ; and, consequently, the belief of the 
 truth, which only can free man from the 
 dominion of iniquity, is that which can 
 please and glorify God. 
 
 All persons of deistical principles would 
 do well to remember this fact ; their creed 
 is a denial of the truth of God, as far as 
 their practice is influenced by it ; that prac- 
 tice is corrupt, and as far as they proclaim 
 it, their example is calculated to affront and 
 dishonor God : while his people, in just so 
 far as they are brought under the dominion 
 of the truth, are the epistles o£ the living 
 God, known and read of all men, to whose 
 inspection their conduct is submitted, and 
 which redound to the praise and glory of 
 Divine grace. To embrace this truth, and 
 earnestly to contend for it, therefore, is the 
 
50 SERMON SECOND. 
 
 duty of all Christians ; and one, from the 
 performance of which they must not and 
 cannot shrink. 
 
 2. In the second place, we observe, 
 that men glorify God by resisting their 
 evil propensities and passions. Whenever 
 the truth as it is in Jesus, takes a deep and 
 effectual hold of any individual, a warfare 
 immediately commences in his bosom, and 
 is carried on from that moment forward, 
 against all that is forbidden and unholy 
 within him. Between the law of his mind 
 and the law of his members, there is a vio- 
 lent and ceaseless struggle. Two opposing 
 principles are contending for the mastery. 
 The flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the 
 spirit against the flesh ; and though the one 
 may sometimes seem to obtain the victory, 
 the other, after an apparent discomfiture, 
 will rise refreshed, and renew the combat. 
 Faint, yet pursuing, will be the believer's 
 motto, and though often compelled to ex- 
 claim, O, ivr etched man that I am, who shall 
 deliver me from the body of this death ! he 
 
SERMON SECOND. 51 
 
 will be enabled to add, I thank God, the 
 victory will ultimately be secured to me, 
 through Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
 The evil passions w^hich we are requir- 
 ed to resist, are anger, wrath, malice, and 
 the like ; and those dispositions which we 
 are required to cultivate in their stead, are 
 bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of 
 mind, meekness, long-sufFering, forbearance 
 and forgiveness. The former, which in the 
 sacred scriptures are denominated the 
 works of the flesh, evince their subject to be 
 under the dominion of the grand adversa- 
 ry ; and the latter, which are styled the 
 works of the Spirit, are evidences of a heart 
 chastened and sanctified by the grace of 
 God. If the Christian is ever angry, he is 
 careful not to let the sun go down upon 
 his wrath. If others discover a contentious 
 temper, he aims by soft words to allay their 
 resentments, and strives, if possible, to be at 
 peace. A spirit of revenge is at the far- 
 thest possible remove from the Spirit of 
 Christ, Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves-^ 
 
52 SERMON SECOND. 
 
 but rather give place unto wrath. For, it is 
 written, vengeance helongeth unto me, I will 
 repay, saith the Lord. Recompense to no man 
 evil for evil. Therefore, if thine enemy hun- 
 ger, feed him ; if he thirst, give him drink ; 
 for in so doing, thou shalt heap coals of fire 
 on his liead. Be not overcome of evil, hut 
 overcome evil with good. This is the way in 
 which Christians are to revenge the injuries 
 that are done to them, by rendering good for 
 evil; and there are few minds so hardened, 
 which this course will not prove effectual in 
 softening. It is heaping coals of fire on 
 their heads ; and who can desire a greater 
 triumph over his bitterest enemy, than to 
 see him melted into ingenuous contrition \ 
 This is the conduct that glorifies God. But 
 the reverse, which is to bite and devour one 
 another, is the course which is taken by the 
 children of disobedience ; who, by their re- 
 vengeful deeds, dishonor their Creator. 
 
 3. Again, God is glorified by a cheerful 
 submission to the allotments of his Provi- 
 dence. 
 
SERMON SECOND. 53 
 
 Over all events we are to consider him 
 as exercising a controlling agency, which is 
 the result of perfect wisdom and perfect 
 righteousness. That he numbers the very 
 hairs of our head, and that not a sparrow 
 falleth to the ground without his notice, is a 
 reflection that should excite both our confi- 
 dence and our rejoicing. We should be 
 happy in the thought, that we are under 
 the government of so great and so good a 
 God. And if we are so, our impressions will 
 manifest themselves in practical results, that 
 will reflect honor upon the Infinite Ruler of 
 the Universe. Considering that he clothes 
 the grass of the field, which to-day is, and 
 to-morrow is cast into the oven, and that 
 he arrays in glory, surpassing that of Solo- 
 mon, the lilies of the valley, we shall dis- 
 miss all distressing apprehensions about 
 what we shall eat, and what we shall drink, 
 and wherewith we shall be clothed, seeking 
 first his kingdom and its righteousness, and 
 satisfied that all necessary temporal things/ 
 will be bestowed on the children of his 
 
54 SERMON SECOND. 
 
 grace. If prosperity be the lot which he 
 assigns us, it will be our study to render to 
 him the thanks which are his due, taking 
 care continually to supplicate his favor that 
 we be not unduly exalted. Or, if, on the 
 other hand, a condition less desirable to 
 flesh and blood shall be meted out as our 
 portion, still far will it be from us to call in 
 question the wisdom and rectitude of the 
 Divine dispensations. 
 
 If he shall send to us poverty and sick- 
 ness, or any other calamity, instead of repin- 
 ing, we shall exercise the comforting and 
 sustaining assurance, that he knows infi- 
 nitely better than we do, what will eventu- 
 ally conduce most effectually to our good ; 
 that he will order all things in wisdom, and 
 cause them to work together for good to 
 them that love him. It is this thought that 
 supports and satisfies his children in this 
 imperfect and disordered state, where they 
 see through a glass darkly, and know but in 
 part, while clouds of darkness are often 
 round about the Eternal in his dispensations 
 
SERMON" SECOND. 55 
 
 towards them. They hope for better and 
 brighter days. They look for the period 
 to arrive when these mists shall be dissipat- 
 ed, when every thing obscure in the Divine 
 conduct shall be cleared up, and when they 
 shall know, even as also they are known. 
 4. Another way in which we may glo- 
 rify God, is a faithful and conscientious dis- 
 charge of the duties which belong to the 
 particular station we occupy in life. He is 
 the individual who glorifies God most, that 
 fills the station which Providence has as- 
 signed him the best, whether that station be 
 an exalted or an humble one. Under an 
 administration so extensive and diversified 
 in its bearings as that of the Almighty, it is 
 wholly impossible for short-sighted and err- 
 ing mortals to tell the particular capacity or 
 condition in which it will contribute most to 
 the glory of God, for any to act. Well has 
 the poet said 
 
 " Honor and shame from no condition rise ; 
 " Act well your part, there all the honor lies." 
 
 The obscure and ilHterate cottager, 
 
56 SERMON SECOND. 
 
 whose single aim is to fulfil the grand end 
 of his being, which is to glorify God, when 
 the councils of eternity shall be disclosed, 
 may be found to have occupied a place, and 
 to have accomplished an object vastly more 
 important than many who have sat on a 
 throne and swayed the sceptre of empire. 
 It is not necessary to be a king, or to be 
 ranked among those that the world calls the 
 wise, the mighty and the noble, in order to 
 be in a situation to glorify God. Every one 
 is in this situation who has a regard to this 
 sublime and magnificent object. Are you 
 aged, and do you think that because visited 
 by the infirmities of years, and secluded 
 from taking a part in the active concerns of 
 life, it is no longer in your power to do any 
 thing for the glory of God ] Venerable 
 friend, let me tell you, you are mistaken. 
 It is yet in your power to glorify God, by 
 the exhibition which you can give to those 
 around you, of your patience. Yours is the 
 privilege of speaking to the rising generation 
 of the oroodness of God, who has hitherto led 
 
SERMON SECOND. 57 
 
 you, and preserved you ; of declaring to oth- 
 ers the supporting influence of reHgion when 
 heart and flesh are faihno- and when the 
 objects of sense can afford but httle or no 
 enjoyment : and especially when you come 
 to die, you may glorify God by manifesting 
 a cheerful resignation to his will, and by 
 discovering a hope which is an anchor of 
 the soul, sure and steadfast, entering into 
 that within the vail. 
 
 In the various relations and occupations 
 of life, my brethren, we may all glorify God, 
 if our dispositions and actions are influenced 
 by the motives presented in the gospel. 
 Parents may glorify God by watching over 
 the morals of their children, by setting be- 
 fore them a pious example, and bringing 
 them up in the nurture and admonition of 
 the Lord ; children, by obeying their pa- 
 rents, and imitating their holy example ; 
 husbands, by loving and cherishing their 
 wives; and wives, by submitting themselves 
 to their husbands, as it is fit in the Lord ; 
 masters, by a kind and condescending treat- 
 
58 SERMON SECOND. 
 
 ment of their servants, remembering that 
 they have also a Master in Heaven ; and 
 servants, by fideHty, and a ready submission 
 to the reasonable requirements of their 
 masters. 
 
 Our several occupations in life (if hon- 
 est) and we should engage in no others, are 
 to be pursued with industry and diligence. 
 If husbandmen, we should labor that our 
 grounds may bring forth as plentifully as 
 possible ; no matter if our crops are so 
 abundant that we are under the necessity 
 of pulling down our barns and building 
 greater. It was not the sin of the rich man 
 that his grounds brought forth plentifully, 
 but his sin consisted in the abuse he was 
 about to commit in appropriating their pro- 
 ductions to his own selfish and sensual gra- 
 tification. But when the husbandman is 
 blessed in his basket and in his store, when 
 his barns are filled with plenty, and his 
 presses burst out with new wine, let him 
 remember tliat God who has thus prosper- 
 ed the work of his hands, and devote to him 
 the first fruits of his increase. 
 
SERMON SECOND. 59 
 
 The mechanic, too, may assiduously ap- 
 ply himself to the business of his craft, may 
 manufacture as many articles that are use- 
 ful in society as possible, and dispose of 
 them upon as advantageous terms as honesty 
 and justice will permit. By industry in his 
 calHng he may glorify God, if it be pursued 
 with integrity, if his articles shall be well 
 manufactured, shall answer to the recom- 
 mendation which he gives of them, and shall 
 be disposed of at a fair price. But when 
 prospered in his lawful pursuits, let him also 
 remember that God has claims upon him to 
 which he must not be inattentive. We have 
 no objections to persons acting upon the 
 principles of a rigid economy, and saving as 
 much of their earnings as possible, provid- 
 ed a portion of their savings be devoted to 
 objects of charity and benevolence, that God 
 in all things may be glorified. 
 
 5. Finally, once more, men may glorify 
 God by rendering obedience to the com- 
 mandments of Christ, and by exhibiting in 
 their conduct the active and benevolent 
 
60 SERMON SECOND. 
 
 spirit of the gospel. The commandments 
 of Christ require of his disciples the exer- 
 cise of every gracious disposition, repent- 
 ance, faith, meekness, humility, self-denial, 
 love to God and love to man. They re- 
 quire that these dispositions go out in acts, 
 and exhibit in the conduct, the active and 
 benevolent spirit of the gospel. The great 
 design of the gospel is to make men benevo- 
 lent, and simply for this reason, that be- 
 nevolence in men is the disposition that glo- 
 rifies God. The very essence and soul of 
 Christianity are expressed in this one word, 
 hejievolence, which means good mill; and 
 just in proportion to the degree of our be- 
 nevolence will be the nearness of our re- 
 semblance to Jesus Christ, and an approxi- 
 mation to the perfection of our Father in 
 Heaven, who causes his sun to shine on the 
 evil and on the good, and sends his rain 
 alike upon the just and the unjust. 
 
 Hence, at the nativity of our Lord, the 
 angels who announced his advent to the 
 shepherds that " watched their flocks by 
 
SERMON SECOND. 61 
 
 night," sang glory to God in the highest, on 
 earth peace, and good will to man. From 
 good will, or what is the same thing, be- 
 nevolence to man, the Savior left the bosom 
 of the Father, and to produce a correspond- 
 ing emotion in them, he came down to 
 earth. We repeat it, it is a good will, or 
 benevolence that discovers itself in acts that 
 the gospel requires. 
 
 It is not an empty and inoperative prin- 
 ciple. It does not content itself with say- 
 ing, " Be ye warmed, and be ye filled," but 
 it stretches forth the hand for the relief of 
 human suffering; it exercises self-denial ; it 
 submits to privations ; it toils to promote the 
 happiness of others ; it is liberal ; it parts 
 with its possessions ; it gives. This is be- 
 nevolence. Therefore glorify God in your 
 body, and in your spirit, which are God's. 
 
8ERM0N III. 
 
 The sinners in Zion are afraid ; fearfulness hath surprised 
 the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the 
 devouring fire ? Who among us shall dwell with ever- 
 lasting burnings? — Isaiah, 33 : 14. 
 
 The received opinion of the most able 
 expositors of Scripture respecting this pas- 
 sage has been, that it expresses the alarm 
 that was experienced by the impenitent part 
 of the Israelitish nation in consequence of 
 judgments of heaven w^hich the prophet re- 
 presented as impending over them on ac- 
 count of their manifold and aggravated ini- 
 quities. These denunciations of the prophet, 
 though primarily intended to refer to judg- 
 ments of a temporal nature, were by no 
 means designed to be understood as re- 
 stricted to the present life, but were meant 
 to be extended to the calamities that shall 
 come upon the wicked in the future world. 
 In this sense the sinners and hypocrites in 
 Israel understood them; and conscious that 
 
SERMON THIRD. 63 
 
 the desolations and miseries to which God, 
 in his anger, was about to give them up, 
 though severe, were only the beginning of 
 a more intolerable punishment in which 
 they were likely to terminate in another 
 state of existence, they are represented as 
 agitated with fearful forebodings, and as ask- 
 ing with deep solicitude : Who among us 
 shall dwell with the devouring fire I Who 
 among us shall dwell with everlasting burn- 
 inors ? If God's indio-nation is so terrible, as 
 the prophet has described it in the present, 
 life, (and we believe the denunciations of the 
 man of God,) what will it be in the world 
 that is to come 1 and who that can endure 
 it \ It was the thought of future misejy, 
 therefore, that bore with a weight so insup- 
 portable upon the spirits of the individuals 
 who gave vent to their apprehensions in the 
 language of the text ; the same thought that 
 disturbed the minds of those three thou- 
 sand of whom we read in the book of Acts, 
 and that said to Peter and the rest of the 
 Apostles, men and brethren, what shall we 
 
64 SERMON THIRD. 
 
 do] and the same thought, too, that occupied 
 the mind of the trembhng jailor when he 
 fell down before Paul and Silas, and said 
 to them, Sirs, what must I do to be saved l 
 to be saved from the punishment of hell I 
 There is a strong and instructive principle 
 in the heart of man that teaches him that 
 there is a hell, a place of future punishment 
 for the wicked. But there are many in 
 whom this principle has been blunted, if 
 not entirely eradicated, and who openly 
 profess, or secretly entertain, doubts on this 
 subject. If there is such a thing as future 
 punishment, some pretend not to know what 
 it is. Others have difficulties about the pe- 
 riod of its continuance. A third class ques- 
 tion its reality, and a fourth are at a loss to 
 determine the characteristic indications of 
 a state of reprobation. 
 
 To meet the difficulties and objections of 
 these several classes of persons on the points 
 that have just been specified, it is proposed 
 in what remains to be advanced from the 
 passage before us, to consider, 1st, the nature 
 and 2nd, the duration of future punishment. 
 
SERMON THIRD. 65 
 
 I. The nature of future punishment 
 In the text it is said to consist of fire and of 
 burnings. The former is called the de- 
 vouring fire. Who among us shall dwell with 
 the devouring fire. Analogous to these are 
 many other expressions of the Scriptures. 
 Take, for example, the following : Tophet is 
 ordained of old, yea, for the king it is pre- 
 pared ; he hath made it deep and large ; 
 the pile thereof is fire and much wood, the 
 breath of the Lord, like a stream of brim- 
 stone, doth kindle it. Then shall the king- 
 say unto them on his left hand — Depart ye 
 cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the 
 devil and his angels. It is better for thee 
 that one of thy m^embers should perish than 
 that thy whole body should be cast into hell 
 fire. Where their worm dieth not, and where 
 their fire is not quenched. But the fearful, 
 and unbelieving, and the abominable, and 
 murderers, and whoremongers, and sorce- 
 rers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have 
 their part in the lake which burneth with fire 
 and brimstone ; which is the second death. 
 
 4* 
 
66 SERMON THIRD. 
 
 Whether these expressions, which re- 
 present the punishment of hell as consisting 
 of fire, are to be interpreted literally or 
 figuratively, has been made a question even 
 by those who believe in a state of future 
 misery. Those who contend for a figurative 
 interpretation, profess themselves to be at 
 a loss to comprehend how material fire can 
 act upon the spirit in its disembodied state, 
 and when freed from those corporeal organs 
 which are the medium of our perception in 
 the present life. But in answer to this, it 
 may be replied, that the element of fire, 
 which may be employed as the instrument 
 or means of accomplishing the purposes of 
 Divine vengeance, may have different pro- 
 perties imparted to it from those which be- 
 long to the same element with which we 
 are acquainted, and that shall be possessed 
 of the power of producing in the immaterial 
 or spiritual part of man the most exquisite 
 sensations of anguish. It is by no means 
 unreasonable to suppose that God, in the 
 exercise of his omniootence, can compose 
 
SERMON THIRD. 67 
 
 an element, resembling in most of its pro- 
 perties the material fire with which we are 
 acquainted, that shall ojDerate as a fit agent 
 in the execution of his wrath upon the souls 
 of the wicked. If he choose he might com- 
 municate to the wind or the water an 
 adaptedness to the accomplishment of his 
 designs, and make them the swift ministers 
 of his wrath. 
 
 It is folly to imagine that God has so 
 constructed the soul of man as to put it, if 
 I may so express it, beyond the reach of his 
 justice, and so as to render it impossible for 
 him to bring any material agents to act upon 
 it. Beyond all question, material fire can 
 act upon our immaterial nature through the 
 medium of the bodily organs in the present 
 state ; and who will pretend to affirm that 
 God cannot act by the same agent directly, 
 as well as indirectly upon the soul of man, 
 even without the intervention of a corporeal 
 nature 1 
 
 Whether, therefore, we consider that 
 the expressions under consideration are to 
 
68 SERMON THIRD. 
 
 be interpreted literally or figuratively^ 
 makes but little if any difference. If we 
 understood them figuratively, the language 
 is drawn from objects the most terrible of 
 any with which we are acquainted in na- 
 ture ; and unless the punishment of hell 
 were in reality intolerable, beyond any thing 
 of what we can form a conception, the Al- 
 mighty, in speaking of them, would not 
 have selected those terms which convey to 
 our minds the most lively and forcible ideas 
 that we can possibly form of them. What 
 can produce more excruciating sufferings 
 than fire when applied to the human body? 
 Or what can be more dreadful when added 
 to this, than the gnawings of a worm that 
 never dies ? 
 
 It is no matter, therefore, whether the 
 punishments of the wicked literally consist 
 of fire or not; this much is certain, that 
 whatever they may be, they will be indes- 
 cribably and inconceivably awful. And as 
 of the happiness of the righteous, it is said, 
 that eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nei- 
 
SERMON THIRD. 69 
 
 ther hath it entered into the heart of man to 
 conceive the things which God hath pre- 
 pared for them that love him, so it may be 
 said of the miseries of them that disobey 
 him. No imagination, in either case, can 
 come up to the reality. God's anger, when 
 once it is kindled, is itself a fire that shall 
 burn to the lowest hell. Banishment from 
 his presence and from the glory of his pow- 
 er, is alone a hell that will be hot enough. 
 To see the blessed angels, and Abraham 
 and Isaac and Jacob, and all the redeemed 
 in the kingdom of God, while themselves 
 are thrust out, will be anguish enough for 
 the wicked; yes, it will be the exclusion 
 from the society and joys of heaven, that 
 will form one of the bitterest ingredients in 
 the cup of their wo. This, without any 
 thing else, will be enough to produce the 
 weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, 
 which are represented as the attendants on 
 their hopeless condition in the regions of 
 despair. Leave men, too, as they will be 
 left in the place of future punishment, to the 
 
70 SERMON THIRD. 
 
 unbridled dominion of their own evil pas- 
 sions, to give vent to their resentments 
 against one another, to utter their horrid 
 blasphemies against the God of heaven, 
 while they gnaw their tongues with rage, to 
 be visited with the ceaseless lascerations of 
 an accusing conscience, to become the prey 
 of remorse and to reproach themselves for 
 their folly in losing a seat in the mansions 
 of the blessed, and procuring for themselves 
 their own outcast and wretched condition ; 
 to leave men to an experience of all this, 
 will be a hell that will be dreadful enough 
 without the addition of material fire. Yes, 
 my friends, the impenitent may think but 
 lightly of the happiness of heaven now, but 
 they will think more of it at a future day, 
 when, looking across the great and impass- 
 able gulph that separates them from the re- 
 deemed, they shall descry Abraham, and 
 Lazarus in his bosom ; when they shall be- 
 hold the saints arrayed in robes of white, 
 with crowns of gold upon their heads, and 
 palms of victory in their hands, and see 
 
SERMON THIRD. 71 
 
 them smile, and hear them sing ; envy and 
 raofe will then fill their hearts, and imavail- 
 ing curses will employ their tongues. At a 
 distance from them will be happiness and 
 joy ; around and in them will be wretched- 
 ness and grief. 
 
 The feelings of envy and revenge will 
 make a hell in any breast. And as it is 
 said of the righteous, that " the kingdom of 
 God is within them," so it may be said of the 
 wicked, that the torments of hell are within 
 them. This is true of wicked men in the 
 present life, and just in proportion to the 
 dominion of these and other evil passions 
 will be the extent of their miseries both 
 here and hereafter. A revengeful man was 
 never yet a happy man, and remaining so, 
 he never can be. But if these malignant 
 passions are subversive of enjoyment now, 
 while they are kept in some degree under 
 restraint, what, may we reasonably con- 
 clude, will be their operation when they 
 shall be permitted to rage without control^? 
 
72 SERMON THIRD. 
 
 If these things be done in the green tree, 
 what shall be clone in the dry 1 
 
 We see then, my brethren, if these ob- 
 servations are correct, the propriety of that 
 doctrine on which the Savior so particularly 
 insisted : a doctrine, the experience of which 
 is absolutely necessary, in order that sinful 
 men may be fitted to relish the enjoyments 
 of the heavenly world. "Verily, verily I say 
 unto you, except a man be born again he 
 cannot see the kingdom of God. Marvel 
 not that I said unto thee, ye must be born 
 again." The evil propensities of depraved 
 men must be subdued before they can be- 
 come meet to be partakers of the heavenly 
 inheritance. To go to heaven in the unre- 
 newed estate, would be to carry with them 
 a hell in their own bosoms. I mean not by 
 these remarks, to insinuate that the only 
 punishment which bad men will experience 
 in the future world, will grow out of the 
 state and exercises of their own feelings. In 
 addition to these there can be no doubt 
 that the power of the Almighty will be ex- 
 
SERMON THIRD. IS 
 
 erted in the infliction of an outward and 
 positive chastisement. God, it is said in 
 the Scriptures, shall rain upon the wicked 
 fire and brimstone^ and an horrible tem- 
 pest. This, it is statedy shall be the portion 
 of their cup. Other passages might be ad- 
 duced in abundance, of a similar import. 
 But it is unnecessary to dwell any longer 
 on this topic. Do we, my friends, believe 
 that there is a place of awful punishment for 
 the wicked I That there is a hell of de- 
 vouring fire and everlasting burnings? A 
 hell where God shows himself a consuming 
 fire to the wicked, and where he will ren- 
 der to each of them that obey not the truth, 
 but obey unrighteousness, indignation and 
 wrath, tribulation and anguish, upon every 
 soul of man that doeth evil. And do we 
 believe that by nature we are deserving of 
 this punishment that has been so freely re- 
 presented in this discourse, and that unless 
 we repent we must perish and experience 
 it ] May God, then, help us to cry earnestly 
 to him for mercy 1 May the sinners in Zion 
 
V4 SERMON tHiiRDi 
 
 be afraid. May fearfulness surprise the 
 hypocrite ; and may each of them ask, 
 " Who among us shall dwell with the de- 
 vourinor fire'? Who amonor us shall dwell 
 with everlasting burnino^s V 
 
 Thanks be to God that a Deliverer has 
 been provided, and that salvation through 
 him is now freely offered to the very chief 
 of sinners. He can now be just, and the 
 justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. 
 He willeth not the death of the sinner. He 
 says to all, " Ho ! every one that thirsteth, 
 come ve 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. Look unto me, and be ye 
 saved all the ends of the earth, for I am 
 God, and there is none else." 
 
 n. In the second place, it was proposed 
 to consider the duration of future jmiiisli- 
 ment. This is represented in the Scriptures 
 as absolutely endless, in language as plain 
 and express as could possibly be used. 
 Who among us, it is asked in the text, shall 
 
SERMON THIRD. 70 
 
 dwell with the devouring fire ? Who among 
 us shall dwell with everlasting burnings'! 
 Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire ; and 
 these shall go away into everlasting punish- 
 ment. - Some shall awake to everlasting life, 
 and some to shame and everlasting con- 
 tempt. It is better for thee to enter into 
 life halt or maimed, than having two hands 
 or two feet, to be cast into everlastinor firer 
 They shall be punished with everlasting- 
 destruction from the presence of the Lord, 
 and from the glory of his power. The in- 
 habitants of Gomorrah are set forth for an 
 example, suffering the vengeance of eternal 
 fire. These are w^andering stars, to whom 
 is reserved the blackness of darkness for 
 ever. And the smoke of their torment 
 ascendeth up for ever and ever. 
 
 To evade the force of these passages, 
 the opposers of the doctrine of endless pun- 
 ishment affirm, that the terms evei'lasting 
 and for ever, as they occur in the Scrip- 
 tures, are sometimes applied to objects 
 which are known to have only a limited 
 
76 SERMON THIRD. 
 
 duration, as the hills and the legal covenant 
 which God established with his people, the 
 former of which are to be burned up, and 
 the latter of which was abolished by the in- 
 troduction of the Christian dispensation. 
 But in answer to this objection it is suffi- 
 cient to reply, that the words in question, in 
 one case are used in an improper sense, and 
 are known to be limited in their siornifica- 
 tion by the very nature of the subjects to 
 which they are applied ; while in the other 
 case they are used in their legitimate and 
 proper sense, and are to be understood 
 without limitation, because the subjects to 
 which they are applied are capable of an 
 endless duration. When we speak of the 
 everlasting hills, every one acquainted with 
 the truths of revelation, can readily com- 
 prehend the import of the declaration. The 
 hills are to continue for a long season, but 
 not, strictly speaking, for ever. And when 
 we speak too of the everlasting God, the 
 import of the expression is no less intelligi- 
 ble. The term is applied to a Being whose 
 
SERMOX THIRD. 77 
 
 nature is capable of an endless existence, 
 and therefore, is to be understood in its 
 true and proper sense without any limi- 
 tation. 
 
 It is not denied that the soul of man is 
 capable of an endless existence, and that a 
 promise is made in the Scriptures of ever- 
 lasting happiness to the righteous. But if 
 the soul of man is capable of everlasting 
 happiness, it is in like manner capable of 
 everlasting punishment. And accordingly, 
 as the same term is employed in the Scrip- 
 tures to express the one, that is used to ex- 
 press the other, it must follow that the du- 
 ration of misery threatened to the wicked 
 must be commensurate with the happiness 
 that is promised to the righteous. There is 
 just as good reason for limiting the expres- 
 sions everlasting, eternal, and for ever, when 
 applied to the one as when applied to the 
 other. 
 
 There are two ideas that are entertain- 
 ed by the opposers of the doctrine of end- 
 less punishment, which it may be well in 
 
78 SERMON THIRD. 
 
 this place to notice, and afterwards we will 
 attend to some other objections which are 
 commonly made by the same individuals to 
 the sentiment which we are endeavorincr to 
 establish. 
 
 The first of these ideas is, that the pun- 
 ishments of the wicked' are limited to the 
 present life. Individuals who adopt this 
 opinion will tell us that they believe in fu- 
 ture punishment, but by future punishment 
 they mean only that which is subsequent to 
 the commission of the offence which occa- 
 sioned it, and which is confined to the pre- 
 sent world. Press them with the diflficul- 
 ties that lie in the way of this absurd and 
 singular belief, and remind them how dis- 
 proportionate appear to us to be the re- 
 wards that are meted out to offenders here 
 — the more flagrant of them being some- 
 times permitted to live in prosperity, and to 
 be exempted from the pressure of heavy 
 calamities, while others, comparatively in- 
 nocent, are doomed to experience a much 
 larger amount of suffering, and they will 
 
SERMON THIRD. 79 
 
 reply to you, it is impossible to judge of the 
 feelings of men from their outward condr- 
 tion. For aught we can tell, those that ap- 
 pear to be happy, may be tortured with an 
 internal anguish, and at last, at the moment 
 of giving up the ghost, their sufferings may 
 be so intense as in an instant to exceed the 
 whole amount of misery that we supposed 
 had been undergone by the individuals that 
 were heard to complain during the course 
 of a long life. To demolish, however, a 
 theory so obviously in the face of reason 
 and of facts, it is only necessary to recur to 
 the declarations of holy men who have 
 spoken as they were moved by the Holy 
 Ghost. " I was emious," says Asa2:>h, " at 
 the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the 
 wicked. For there are no bands in their 
 death ; but their strength is firm. They 
 are not in trouble as other men ; neither 
 are they plagued like other men. Their 
 eyes stand out with fatness, and they have 
 more than heart could wish." Therefore, 
 his people return hither ; and waters of a 
 
80 SERMON THIRD. 
 
 full cup are wrung out to them. Behold 
 these are the ungodly who prosper in the 
 world. They increase in riches. " Verily, 
 I have cleansed my heart in vain and wash- 
 ed my hands in innocency. For all the 
 day long have I been plagued, and chasten- 
 ed every morning." And to the same pur- 
 pose is the language of Job. "Wherefore," 
 says he, " do the wicked live, become old, 
 yea, are mighty in power ? They send 
 forth their little ones like a flock, and their 
 children dance. They take the timbrel 
 and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the 
 organ. They spend their days in wealth, 
 and in a moment go down to the grave. 
 
 According, then, to the declarations of 
 the Psalmist and Job, the wicked do not 
 suffer in proportion to their offences in the 
 present life. Nor are we deceived b}^ the 
 appearances of prosperity by which their 
 condition seems to be distinguished. They 
 have no secret or internal anguish that is so 
 much more intense than that of other men. 
 In life their eyes stand out with fatness. 
 
SERMON THIRD. 81 
 
 They have more than heart could wish, and 
 spend their days in merriment and wealth; 
 and in their death, at the moment of their 
 dissolution, thev have no bands. In a mo- 
 ment they go down to the grave, and expire 
 as quietly and pleasantly as the lamp dies 
 away in its socket. If they have more pangs 
 than other men, they must consequently ex- 
 perience them in another world. 
 
 The other idea which is entertained by 
 the o^iposers of the doctrine of endless pun- 
 ishment, and which was to be noticed, is, that 
 the wricked will undergo a season of purifi- 
 cation in the future world, and after suffer- 
 ing a longer or shorter period, on account 
 of their sins, w^ill be liberated from their 
 torments and restored to the image and fa- 
 vor of God. The opinion of these persons 
 is, that by the influence of the flames of hell 
 upon the souls of the wicked, they will 
 undergo a purifying process, and that their 
 corruptions will escape in some such way 
 as the dross is separated from the precious 
 metal by passing through the refiner's fire. 
 
,82 SERMON THIRD. 
 
 Now, that the Scriptures afford no coun- 
 tenance whatever to this singular opinion is 
 manifest. They give no intimations that the " 
 miseries of the wicked will ever be termi- 
 nated. They tell us that their worm dieth 
 not, and their hre is not quenched, that 
 they have their portion in this life, and that 
 their end is to be burned, that they shall be 
 destroyed and that without remedy ; and 
 that they shall be cast into prison, from 
 v/hence they shall by no means come out 
 till they have paid the uttermost farthing. 
 
 To suppose that the flames of hell can 
 purify the soul from its pollution is to attri- 
 bute to them an efficacy superior to the 
 blood of Christ and the operations of the 
 Holy Spirit, which are the means or agents 
 that God has appointed to cleanse sinful men 
 from their impurities, and prepare them for 
 his presence. And therefore, if any of the 
 human race are fitted for heaven in con- 
 sequence of their enduring the flames of 
 hell, another song must be put into their 
 mouth than that which is said to be sung by 
 
SERMON THIRD. 83 
 
 the redeemed. Instead of saying, ''unto Him 
 that 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. 
 Amen." The only language that would be 
 more appropriate in their lips w^ould be, 
 Not unto Jesus that loved sinners, but unto 
 the flames of hell, are w^e indebted for our 
 salvation, and therefore unto them be all 
 the glory. This would make strange dis- 
 cord in heaven, for some to be ascribing 
 their salvation to Jesus, and some to the 
 torments of hell. Nothing, it seems to me, 
 can be more unreasonable or unscriptural 
 than to imagine that the experience of 
 hell's torments will have a softening and 
 renovating influence upon the dispositions 
 iand character of men. The reverse is un- 
 doubtedly the fact, and how is the guilty 
 wretch by receiving in his suflerings only 
 the recompense that is meet, and who, under 
 every stroke that God lays upon him, is con- 
 tinually adding to his former amount of 
 
84 SERMOX THIRD. 
 
 transgression by disobeying and blasphem- 
 ing his maker, how is this gnilty wretch to 
 become possessed of a fund of merit that 
 shall entitle him to the happiness of heaven ? 
 He was guilty before he went to the place 
 of despair, and while there his guilt is con- 
 stantly accumulating : and consequently the 
 longer he remains in hell the more richly 
 he will deserve the chastisements that are 
 bestowed in that dark abode. 
 
 One or two objections that are made by 
 the opposers of the doctrine of endless pun- 
 ishment, and w^hich ^ve engaged to notice, 
 will now be attended to. It is said that a 
 punishment which is endless is dispropor- 
 tionate, when inflicted for an offence that 
 is finite, a sin that is committed in time, and 
 in a moment, is threatened with an eternity 
 of suffering. And how does this comport 
 with the justice of God 1 This inquiry may 
 be answered by proposing another? The 
 murderer in the heat of his passion sheds 
 the blood of a fellow creature. The crime 
 occupies but a moment in the commission, 
 
.SERMON THIRD. 8J 
 
 but is punished by a long season of impri- 
 sonment, and eventually terminates in his 
 execution. And how does this punishment 
 comport with the justice of the civil law ? 
 Another is oi.iiltv of the crime of treason. 
 A short time only is taken ujj in the com- 
 mission of the offence. But the confiscation 
 of property, the attainder of connexions, to 
 gether with banishment, or the loss of life, 
 are the consequences which follow, and 
 which are deeply felt through a succession 
 of years and ages. Behold, how great a 
 matter a little fire kindleth ! A sin is soon 
 committed which will require an eternity 
 to expiate. This brings us to consider an- 
 other objection which is sometimes made 
 by the opposers of the doctrine of endless 
 punishment. They will tell us that there 
 is nothing in sin that merits such an awful 
 display of Divine justice, and that obedience 
 to the government of God might be as effec- 
 tually secured by proposing sanctions of a 
 less tremendous character. This sentiment, 
 it will be perceived, is the verdict of a party 
 
86 SERMON THIRD. 
 
 concerned in its own favor, and consequent- 
 ly is entitled to no weight. Self-interested 
 sinners have no right to sit in j udgment on 
 their own conduct, and pronounce their 
 own acquittal. Sin has prejudiced and 
 blinded them : and therefore they are 
 wholly incapable of telling what are its 
 deserts. God is both wiser and more imx- 
 partial than themselves. His decisions are 
 according to righteousness, and they will 
 stand. His views of sin are verv different 
 from those of short-sighted and depraved 
 mortals. He sees it in its true light, and 
 stripped of all its false coverings, and has 
 told us that it is that abominable thing which 
 his soul hateth, and which if not forsaken 
 and deplored by a timely repentance, he is 
 determined to visit with his everlasting 
 displeasure. Let God be true and every 
 man a liar. 
 
 Respecting the pretended sufficiency of 
 sanctions less tremendous in their character 
 than those he has seen fit to impose in order 
 to secure the obedience of his creatures, it 
 
SERMON THIRD. ST 
 
 is enough to reply, that he has thought dif- 
 ferently. But more than this can be said 
 in vindication of the course which he has 
 taken on this subject. The fact is notorious 
 and undeniable, that many who profess to 
 believe in the reality of endless punishment, 
 are not deterred by their belief from the 
 wilful and habitual commission of sin. And 
 if a belief in the tremendous sanctions of 
 eternal death, with wdiich the law of God 
 is invested, is too faint to secure the desired 
 obedience, with what propriety then can it 
 be affirmed, that sanctions less tremendous 
 would answer the purpose 1 If the greater 
 fail of the desired eilect, it is certainly ab- 
 surd to suppose that the less will produce it. 
 What an invincible propensity there is 
 to sin, in the human heart, my brethren, 
 when all the terrors of the second death will 
 not deter men from its commission. And 
 what a dreadful evil must sin be which 
 draws down the wrath of the Almighty so 
 heavily upon those who are the subjects of 
 it ! It is sin that has kindled the anger of 
 
88 SERMON THIRD. 
 
 God, and lighted up the flames of hell. It 
 was sin that drove the angels from heaven, 
 and man from Paradise. It was sin that 
 opened the windows of heaven, that broke 
 up the fountains of the great deep, and de- 
 luged the old world. It was sin that pro- 
 duced the gusting of that terrible tempest 
 of fire and brimstone that was rained u^^on 
 Sodom and Gomorrah. It is sin that now 
 fills the earth with so many marks of the 
 Divine displeasure. It was sin that occasioned 
 the agony of the Son of God when he sweat 
 as it were great drops of blood falling down 
 to the ground, and it is sin that produces, 
 and that through eternity will continue to 
 fan the flames that consume those miserable 
 rebels against God, the smoke of whose tor- 
 ment ascendeth up for eve?' and ever. 
 
 How blessed, then, is the portion of the 
 saints to whom the Lord imputeth not ini- 
 quity, but whose transgression is forgiven, 
 and whose sin is covered ! Happy are they 
 who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon 
 the hope set before us : who are washed 
 
SERMON THIRD. S9 
 
 and justified and sanctified in the name of 
 the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. 
 May this, my brethren, be onr happy lot ; and 
 while it is an accepted time and a day of 
 salvation, may we look to Jesus with gra- 
 titude and joyfuhiess as our only Deliverer. 
 If any among us shall turn away from him 
 that now speaketh from earth, much more 
 shall they not escape if they turn away from 
 him that speaketh from heaven; if by our 
 rejection of him his wrath shall once be 
 kindled but a little aoainst us, and He that 
 hath the key of David, and openeth and no 
 man shutteth, and shutteth and no man 
 openeth, shall turn it upon us, we are lost 
 and undone for ever. They that trust in 
 their wealth, and boast themselves in the 
 multitude of their riches ; none of tliem can 
 by any means redeem his brother, nor give 
 to God a ransom for him. 
 
 5* 
 
SERMON IV. 
 
 Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost 
 that come unto God by him. — Heh. 7 : 25. 
 
 The qualifications of Jesus Christ, as the 
 Savior of lost men, is a theme on which the 
 writers of the New Testament, and espe- 
 cially the Apostle Paul, delight to expa- 
 tiate. 
 
 The main object of this Apostle in the 
 Epistle before us, is to exhibit the perfec- 
 tions of the Savior, which he does by show- 
 ing his superiority to the angels, and also to 
 the Jewish High Priests, who were of the 
 order of Aaron. The former, he observes, 
 w^hen his first begotten of the Father was 
 brought into the w^orld, were commanded 
 to worship him ; and the latter, the venera- 
 ted individuals who were invested with 
 sacerdotal honors under the Levitical econo- 
 my (an economy which the Israelites sup- 
 posed was to be of perpetual duration) he 
 
SERMON FOURTH. 91 
 
 teaches, were mortal and sinful men. But 
 Jesus Christ, on the other hand, he observes, 
 hath an wicliangedble priestliood; a priest- 
 hood which is not to be affected, as was 
 the Levitical, by the ravages of death, or 
 that is subject to succession, or liable to pass 
 into other hands ; for, says he, he ever liveth, 
 and therefore can have no successor — is 
 Jwly, harmless, undejiled, separate from sinners, 
 and made higher than the heavens ; and need- 
 eth not daily, as those High Priests, (tlmt 
 constituted the order of Aaron,) to offer up 
 sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for 
 the peoples : for this he did once, when he 
 offered up himself 
 
 The Lord Jesus Christ had no personal 
 sin for which to atone. The offering that 
 he made by the one sacrifice of himself was 
 complete ; and inasmuch as he was possess- 
 ed of a nature so exalted, his atonement 
 was infinite in value, and needed nothing 
 additional to contribute to its efficacy. 
 
 Indeed it could admit of nothing of this 
 nature, and therefore, the Apostle proposes 
 
92 SERMON FOURTH. 
 
 him to the acceptance of guilty men, in his 
 freeness, in his fulness, and in his all-suffi- 
 ciency. Wherefore he is able also to save them 
 to the uttermost that come unto God hy him. 
 In this passage three things present 
 themselves particularly to our notice. 
 
 I. In the first place, what is meant by 
 coming to God by Jesus Christ ? 
 
 II. Secondly, in what does his ability 
 consist ] And 
 
 III. Thirdly, in what respects is he 
 able to save to the uttermost. 
 
 I. When men are exhorted to come to 
 Christ it is obvious that a bodily approach 
 to him is not the thing that is intended. 
 His body is no longer on earth, but, in its 
 glorified state, is far above all heavens ; so 
 that an approach to him in this world is im- 
 possible ; and indeed, could it be made, it 
 would be of no use, for thousands, at the 
 period of his manifestation in the flesh, 
 were favored with an approach to his per- 
 son, who derived from the circumstance no 
 saving benefit. Judas, the traitor, was ad- 
 
SERMON FOURTH. 93 
 
 mitted to a familiarity with the person of 
 our Lord as intimate, perhaps, as was en- 
 joyed by any of the other Apostles; but 
 Judas, who betrayed the Son of Man with 
 a kiss, Hved and died "the son of perdi- 
 tion." 
 
 Were Jesus Christ again to appear 
 among men in a bodily form, so that our 
 eyes could see, and our hands handle him, 
 there is no approach which we could make 
 to him in these circumstances that would 
 be -any more easy or more advantageous 
 than that which we can now make, and 
 which all are exhorted and commanded to 
 make to him. Say not in thine heart, who 
 shall ascend into heaven ? (that is, to hiding 
 Christ down from above ;J Or, who shall de- 
 scend into the deep ? (that is, to hi'ing up 
 Christ again from the dead;) But what 
 saith it 1 The ivord is nigh thee, even in thy 
 mouth, and in thy heart ; that is, the word of 
 faith which we preach ; that if thou shalt 
 confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and 
 shalt believe in thine heart that God hath 
 
94 SERMON FOURTH. 
 
 raised him from the dead, thou shalt he saved. 
 For with the heart man helieveth unto righte- 
 ousness; and with the mouth confession, is 
 made unto salvation. 
 
 The approach that was made to Jesus 
 Christ, and that was accompanied with 
 salvation in the days of his flesh, was a 
 spiritual approach, an approach that was 
 made by faith — no other approach was 
 then, is 7ioiv, or ever will he of any avail ; and 
 this may as easily be made at this moment 
 as at the period of Christ's actual manifesta- 
 tion among men. 
 
 In his spiritual presence he pervades 
 immensity. He knows all hearts; and where 
 two or three are met together in his name, 
 he is there in the midst of them. It is with 
 the heart that man helieveth unto righteous- 
 Tiess, and it is simply and solely with the 
 heart that men come to Christ. They 
 come to him by placing their affections on 
 him. The exhortation which we meet 
 with in the Scriptures, to come to Christ, 
 implies that by nature we are at a distance 
 
SERMON FOURTH. 95 
 
 from him, and that exertion and activity 
 are to be used in getting to him. We are 
 at a distance, and a great distance from him 
 in the affections of our hearts. At a dis- 
 tance as great as the east is from the west — 
 as heaven is from earth — as Hght is from 
 darkness — as hatred is from love. We are 
 by nature enemies to God by our wicked 
 works. We have no true love to him. 
 
 Wherefore he saith, awake thou that sleep- 
 eth, and arise from the dead^ and Christ shall 
 give thee light. We are by nature dead in 
 trespasses and sins ; incapable of any moral 
 exercise which is acceptable to God. But 
 still we are addressed as intelligent and ac- 
 countable beings; and are commanded to 
 awahe, to arise from the dead^ and to come to 
 Christ, who will give us light. An end so 
 important as eternal salvation, is not to be 
 obtained by continuing in a state of inert- 
 ness ; and so far are men from being the in- 
 active and passive recipients of Divine influ- 
 ences, that there is nothing else with which 
 they have any thing to do, that so complete* 
 
96 SERMON FOURTH. 
 
 > ly enlists the entire energies of the soul 
 
 as the momentous concern of salvation. 
 Whenever any true anxiety is experienced 
 on this subject, the question is immediately 
 put, with an interest that is overwhelming, 
 Men and brethren what shall we do ? In 
 this condition there is literally a crying af- 
 ter knowledge, a seeJdng her as silver, and a 
 searching for her as for hid treasure. There 
 is a striving to enter in at the strait gate, 
 and a working out of salvation with fear 
 and trembling. A conviction of sin, there- 
 fore, is an important idea that is implied in 
 coming to Christ. The special errand on 
 which he came to our world, was to seek 
 and to save that which was lost; and till 
 we deeply feel that we are placed in this 
 deplorable condition, that we are lost to the 
 image and favor of God, we shall have no 
 disposition to resort to Jesus Christ as our 
 Deliverer. 
 
 The whole need not a Physician, hut they 
 that are sick; and Jesus Christ came not to 
 call the righteous^ hut sinners to rej^entance. 
 
SERMON rOURTH. 97 
 
 His is not only a salvation for sinners, but is 
 exclusively confined to those that feel them- 
 selves to be such ; to those who have had a 
 discovery of the holiness of the Divine 
 character, the spirituality and strictness of 
 the Divine law, and the deceitfulness and 
 desperate wickedness of the human heart. 
 With such a view of God, and such a view 
 of ourselves, we shall cease to think of ap- 
 proaching him in our own name. We shall 
 see the necessity of a Mediator between 
 him and us, and shall be prepared to receive 
 it as a faithful saying, and worthy of all ac- 
 ceptation, that Jesus Christ came into the 
 world to save sinners. If we shall not think 
 ourselves to be the chief we shall have no 
 hesitancy in admitting that we are great 
 sinners, — that the whole head is sick, and 
 the whole heart faint, that w^e are already 
 under sentence of condemnation, have car- 
 nal minds that are enmity against God, 
 and, that left to ourselves, we shall press our 
 downw^ard course to certain, to swift, and 
 to remediless destruction. 
 
98 SERMON FOURTH. 
 
 In coming to God by Jesus Christ there 
 is also impHed a persuasion tluit he is the 
 only Deliverer — the only way in which sal- 
 vation can be obtained for guilty men. 
 Other methods of justification than that 
 which God has provided are invented by 
 guilty men. They are not pleased with 
 his, but would prefer some other, of their 
 own selectioi). Being unwilling to submit 
 to his righteousness, they go about to estab- 
 lish their own, and will not submit to the 
 righteousness of God. But will he yield to 
 them the point in controversy between them I 
 No, for he is of one mind, and none can turn 
 him. He has seen fit to exhibit Christ as 
 the end of the law for righteousness, and 
 along with this exhibition to publish, in the 
 hearing of the universe, that other foundation 
 can no man lay than tlmt is laid, which is 
 Jesus Christ ; and that there is no other name 
 under heaven given among men ivherehy tee 
 must he saved hut the name of Jesus. Of this 
 truth, he that comes to Christ has the full- 
 est possible persuasion ; and, therefore, he 
 
SERMON FOURTH. 99 
 
 renounces his own righteousness, renounces 
 it as fihhy rags, and cUngs to the righteous- 
 ness of the cross. In this he glories, and 
 counts all things but loss for the excellency 
 of the knowledge of Christ Jesus his Lord. 
 He would not alter the plan of salvation if 
 he could. He thinks it a glorious plan, and 
 he wishes for no better, and no other. He 
 is willing that God should have his own 
 way, and accepts with humility and thank- 
 fulness the salvation which he has seen fit 
 to proffer. 
 
 An additional idea, therefore, which is 
 included in coming to Christ, is a cordial 
 attachment to his person, a thorough appro- 
 bation of his mediatorial work, and an affec- 
 tionate and exclusive reliance on him for 
 justification before God. The attachment 
 that is felt to him is supreme, and surpasses 
 every other. Those who are the subjects 
 of it, when called to such a sacrifice, can 
 pluck out a right eye, or cut off a right hand, 
 can forsake fathers and mothers, and breth- 
 ren and sisters, and wife and children, and 
 
100 SElliMOX FOURTH. 
 
 houses and lands, for the sake of tlie king- 
 dom of God. They perceive a suitableness 
 and an excellency in the offices which he 
 sustains, and in the atonement which he has 
 made. As dependant beings, they confide 
 in him for protection, as guilty; they look to 
 him for pardon and jjurification ; and while 
 they implicitly trust to him for all needed 
 blessings, the spirit of adoption, that ban- 
 ishes the spirit of bondage, dwells within 
 them; so that hy faith they have access to this 
 grace iclierein they stand, and rejoice in hope 
 of the glory of God. In short, they have 
 fellowship with the Father, and with his son 
 Jesus Christ, and their study is to walk in 
 obedience to his commands. 
 
 II. Our second inquiry respects the abili- 
 ty of Jesus Christ as a Savior. 
 
 In what does it consist I The text 
 is a deduction from principles which had 
 previously been laid down and discussed. 
 Wherefore, says the Apostle, he is able to 
 save them to the uttermost that come unto God 
 hy him. And what were the principles on 
 
SERMON FOURTH. 101 
 
 which the Apostle had been insisting, and 
 from which he deduces the fact of the Sa- 
 vior's abihty ? These principles respected 
 the adaptation of the nature and character 
 of the Redeemer to the work he had under- 
 taken. In his person, he represents him as 
 possessed of a Divine and human nature, and 
 endowed with the attributes of infinite per- 
 fection. He styles him the Son of God, 
 whom he hath appointed heir of all thinos, 
 by whom also he made the worlds ; who is 
 the brightness of his glory, and the express 
 image of his person, who upholdeth all 
 things by the word of his power, and who, 
 when he had by himself purged our sins, 
 sat down on the right hand of the Majestv 
 on High ; being made so much better than 
 the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtain- 
 ed a more excellent name than they. This 
 same Jesus, who in his Divine nature was 
 higher than the angels, he says in another 
 place, was made a ]itde lower than them, 
 for the suffering of death. For it became 
 him, for whom are all things, and by whom 
 
102 SERMON FOURTH. 
 
 are all things, in bringing many sons unto 
 glory, to make the Captain of their salvation 
 perfect through sufferings. " For," saith he, 
 " he that sanctifieth and they who are sanc- 
 tified, are all of one ;" for which cause he is 
 not ashamed to call them brethren. Foras- 
 much, then, as the children are partakers of 
 flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took 
 part of the same ; that through death he 
 might destroy him that had the power of 
 death ; that is, the devil ; and deliver them 
 who, through fear of death, were all their 
 lifetime subject to bondage. For verily he 
 took not on him the nature of angels ; but 
 he took on him the seed of Abraham. 
 Wherefore in all things it behooved him to 
 be made like unto his brethren, that he 
 might be a merciful and faithful High Priest 
 in things pertaining to God, to make recon- 
 ciliation for the sins of the people : for in 
 that he himself hath suffered, being tempted, 
 he is able to succor them that are tempted. 
 It is plain, from these passages, that in 
 the person of Jesus Christ there is the 
 
SERMON FOURTH. 103 
 
 union of two natures, the Divine and the 
 human. In other words, that he is both tlie 
 Son of God and the Son of Man : and from 
 this union results his ability as the Savior 
 of lost men. The assumption of human na- 
 ture was necessary, because it was that na- 
 ture that had oflended, and for which his 
 satisfaction was to be made ; and it was 
 necessary that this nature be united with 
 the Divine, that value and efficacy might be 
 given to his sufferings. Had his character 
 been merely human, his interposition could 
 not have been availing ; and so on the other 
 hand, had it been simply Divine, he would 
 have been incapable of suffering, and could 
 not have been that sympathizing High 
 Priest, who is touched with the feeling of 
 our infirmities, and who, having been tempt- 
 ed himself, is therefore able to succor them 
 that are tempted. As it is, his character is 
 just the one that our circumstances require, 
 for he has both the ability of power and of 
 inclination to help us. He is God, and can 
 do all things. He is our Elder Brother, 
 
104 SERMON FOUHTH. 
 
 and can feel for us in our distresses. He is 
 able to succor us, because he has the dispo- 
 sition as well as the power to do it ; and 
 therefore, as the Apostle exhorts, we may 
 come boldly unto the throne of grace, that 
 we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help 
 in time of need. He is able to save them to 
 the uttermost that come unto God by him. 
 
 III. In what respects is he able to do 
 this? 
 
 This is our third topic of inquiry. When 
 it is said that Jesus Christ is able to save to 
 the uttermost^ the meaning is, that he is able 
 to save in extreme cases ; in cases that seem 
 to bid defiance to human hope. He can go 
 beyond our most sanguine expectations, and 
 come up to our most enlarged and ardent 
 wishes. He can do this in several particu- 
 lars. 
 
 1. In the first place, he can save to the 
 uttermost in point o^ time. This atonement 
 has a retrospective as well as a prospective 
 influence. It goes back to the commence- 
 ment, and will extend forward to the end of 
 
SERMON FOURTH. 105 
 
 time. It reached to Adam, if he was saved, 
 to the pious before the flood, and subse- 
 quently to the giving of the law ; till the 
 advent of the Messiah, in the fulness of time, 
 the period that was designated in the coun- 
 sels of Eternity, for his manifestation in the 
 flesh. These, says the Apostle, referring to 
 the saints who had lived previously to the 
 incarnation of the Son of God, all died in 
 faith, not having received the promises, not 
 having witnessed their actual fulfilment, hut 
 having seen them afar off, having seen them 
 through the comparatively dark and dis- 
 tant medium of types and prophecies, and 
 were persuaded of them, and confessed that 
 they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. 
 To these believers the benefits of the 
 Savior's redemption, as the Lamb slain he- 
 fore the foundation of the wo7'ld in the purpo- 
 ses of the Divine mind, were applied, as it 
 were, by anticipation, and before he had 
 actually suffered. They, by faith, looked 
 forward to the Savior to come, as others have 
 subsequently looked backward to the Sa- 
 
106 SERMON FOURTH. 
 
 vior, that has actually appeared to put away 
 sin by the sacrifice of himself. They look- 
 ed to the Savior to be slain ; we look to the 
 8avior evidently set forth crucified hefore ns. 
 Abraliam, says Christ himself, saw his day, 
 (the day when the Son of God was to be 
 manifested in the flesh,) and was glad. The 
 soul of that pious patriarch rejoiced in this 
 prospective vision of the sacrifice of Christ; 
 and thousands, in the exercise of a similar 
 hope, and animated by a similar view, like 
 holy Job, could say, I know that my Redeem- 
 er liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter 
 day on the earth. 
 
 To this efficacious sacrifice, therefore, is 
 to be referred the salvation of all that ever 
 liave been, or that ever will he redeemed, out 
 of every kindred, and tongue, and people, 
 and nation ; who, composing an assemblage 
 which no man can number, with one heart 
 and with one voice, will swell the anthem 
 of praise to Him that loved them, and that 
 uiashed them from their sins in his own blood. 
 
 2. The Lord Jesus Christ is able to save 
 
SERMON FOURTH. 107 
 
 to the uttermost also in point of space. His 
 presence is every where, and his power ex- 
 tends to every corner of the Universe. En- 
 tire continents are under his inspection, and 
 the thoughts of all hearts are naked and 
 open to his view. If in Asia, or Africa, or 
 Europe, or America, there is one sinner that 
 repenteth, he knows it ; and when he cries 
 to Him, he hears it. He numbers the very 
 hairs of our head ; and though his govern- 
 ment extends to worlds innumerable, and to 
 beings the most exalted, he is not so en- 
 grossed by the magnitude of his concerns 
 as to be unmindful of objects the most mi- 
 nute, and events the most inconsiderable. 
 The sparrow has its place in his boundless 
 care, as well as the loftiest angel that stands 
 in his immediate presence. Such is the 
 enlarged conception of the Apostle, when 
 he exhorts us to cast all our care upon Him, 
 for, says he, lie carethfor you. 
 
 3. Again, the Lord Jesus Christ is able 
 to save to the uttermost in point of guilt. 
 Though our sins be as scarlet, he can make 
 
108 SERMON FOURTH. 
 
 them as white as snow ; and though they be 
 red Hke crimson, he can make them as 
 s^ool. His blood cleanseth from all sin. 
 Neither the number nor the enormity of 
 offences can present a barrier to intercept 
 the communications of his forofivingj love. 
 His invitation is to every one tliat thirsteth, 
 to all who sincerely desire the salvation 
 which he has provided ; for whosoever will, 
 may come, and take of the water of life 
 freely. It flows forth from the full and 
 overflowing fountain of Infinite compassion, 
 and in ten thousand instances has proved 
 efficacious in softening, subduing, and saving 
 the blasphemer, the persecutor, and the in- 
 jurious. 
 
 4. Finally, the Lord Jesus Christ is able 
 to save to the uttermost, as respects the late- 
 ness of the period at which application is 
 made to him for assistance. I am aware of 
 the fact, that this sentiment is peculiarl}^ 
 liable to abuse ; and if any shall choose to 
 continue in sin that grace may abound, the 
 fault is not attributable to the riches of Di- 
 
SERMON FOURTH. 109 
 
 vine mercy, but to the perversity of the 
 human heart. Our apprehensions that be- 
 cause we exhibit God as good, the rebel- 
 Hous v^ill exalt themselves and sin against 
 him, must not deter us from giving of him 
 the representations w^hich he has seen fit to 
 give of himself He is the Lord, merciful 
 and gracious, and let the licentious pervert 
 it as much as they may, it is still a faithful 
 saying, and worthy of all acceptation ; a saying 
 which we are not at liberty to conceal, that 
 Christ Jesus came into the ivorld to save sin- 
 ners, even the chief! and he can, and does 
 save them, even at the eleventh hour. To 
 prove it : when crucified, he said to the ex- 
 piring and penitent thief who hung on the 
 cross at his side, " This day shalt thou be 
 with me in Paradise!' 
 
 It is to be remembered, however, that 
 this is the only instance of the kind on re- 
 cord in the whole compass of the Bible. If 
 we look for another, we shall not find it. 
 And why was this instance recorded 1 
 Doubtless that none, in like circumstances, 
 
110 SERMON FOURTH. 
 
 might despair. And why were not others 
 recorded ? Obviously, that none might pre- 
 smne, and be emboldened to put off their 
 repentance to the closing scene of life. 
 
 The design of the Holy Ghost, in giving 
 but one example of this kind, seems to have 
 been, to teach us, that a death-bed is no 
 place, and a dying hour is no time, to com- 
 mence a preparation for the Judgment Seat. 
 To one that is saved at the eleventh hour, 
 I have no doubt there are thousands who 
 are self- deceived and lost. And when I 
 speak of Jesus Christ being able to save in 
 such an extremity, I wish to be understood 
 as intending to speak of what he can, rather 
 than of what he imll do — of what is possible, 
 rather than of what is probable. It is true 
 he has power to touch the heart of a sinner, 
 and to transform him by his grace in the 
 twinkling of an eye. And it is this consider- 
 ation that forms the ground of our encour- 
 agement, when called, as we sometimes are, 
 in the Providence of God, to spread out be- 
 fore men in their dying moments (who have 
 
SERMON FOURTH. Ill 
 
 hitherto lived in impenitence) the promises 
 of the Gospel. Regeneration, we can tell 
 them, is not a gradual and progressive work, 
 which requires years or months to accom- 
 plish ; but may be effected in a moment, at 
 any moment that the sinner will yield up 
 his heart in sinceritv to God. And we see 
 not how, on any other plan, there can be 
 the least glimmering of hope for a sinner in 
 the agonies of dissolution, who, when in 
 health, and when God called him, refused. 
 To tell him that regeneration, as some say 
 it is, is a gradual and progressive work, that 
 requires time to accomplish, is to cut him 
 off at a stroke, from all hope, and to consign 
 him over to the blackness of despair. 
 
 At the same time, we know, that the 
 conversion of the sinner, in these circum- 
 stances, is an event that is barely possible, 
 rather than probable. Jesus Christ, it is 
 true, has ability to save him; but after all it 
 is highly probable that at the eleventh hour 
 the sinner, as at other times, will deceive 
 himself, and will not be saved by him. 
 
112 SERMON FOURTH. 
 
 There is a sense in which God has the abili- 
 ty to utter a falsehood. But, says the Apos- 
 tle, it is impossible for God to lie. He means 
 it is morally impossible. And so, in like 
 manner, we know that Jesus Christ has 
 ability to do ten thousand things that he 
 never will do, for he is God and can do all 
 things. If he choose, for example, he could 
 form another world, or could save the sin- 
 ner that does not, and will not, come to God 
 by him. But to expect this, would be the 
 height of presumption. For he has said — 
 and sooner shall the heavens and the earth 
 pass away than his declarations shall fail — 
 that there is none otliei' name under heaven 
 given among men whereby ive 7iiust be saved, 
 but the name of Jesus. Let us not, then, de- 
 duce from our subject the unwarrantable 
 conclusion, that because Jesus Christ is able 
 to save to the uttermost, he will, therefore, 
 certainly save us. But being confidently 
 assured that he will save none who do not 
 come to God by him, let us see that we re- 
 fuse not him that speaketh; for if they es- 
 
SERMON FOURTH. 11^ 
 
 caped not who refused him that spake on 
 earth, much more shall not we escape if we 
 turn away from him that speaketh from 
 heaven. For to those who are out of Christ, 
 our God is a consumino- fire. 
 
 o 
 
 To Christians our subject is fraught with 
 consolation. The lano-uao^e which it holds 
 to them is, If any man sin, we have an advo- 
 cate loith the Father, Jesus Christ the righte- 
 ous. He is ever living to make intercession, 
 and able to save them to th.e uttermost that 
 come unto God by him. 
 
 To those too, who are sincerely engaged 
 in seekino- Christ, it is replete with encour- 
 agement. It says to them, Come unto me, all 
 ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will 
 give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and 
 learn of me; for I am meek and lowlv in 
 heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls. 
 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. 
 Him that comet h to me, I will in no ivise cast 
 out. But those that are determined to live 
 in impenitence it forewarns of their awful 
 danger. No man cometh unto tJie Father hut 
 
114 SERMON FOURTH. 
 
 hy the Son. If ye helieve not that I am he, 
 ye shall die in your sins. He that helieveth 
 on the Son hath everlasting life ; and he that 
 helieveth not the Son, shall not see life ; but 
 the wrath of God ahideth on him. 
 
SERMON V. 
 
 Then Agrippa said unto Paul, almost thou persuadest me to 
 be a Christian.— Ac/s, 26 : 28. 
 
 King Agrippa, who is spoken of in the 
 text, it appears from the account which his- 
 tory gives of him, was the great-grandson 
 of the celebrated Herod, by whose orders 
 Jo]i7i tlie Baptist was beheaded, and the in- 
 fants of Bethlehem destroyed. The district 
 of country over which the authority he had 
 derived from the Roman Emperor extended, 
 was very considerable, and lay adjacent to 
 the land of Judea, which at this time was 
 also a province of the Roman empire, and 
 governed by Festus, his wife's brother. Fes- 
 tus was the immediate successor of Felix, 
 who, when the Apostle reasoned before him 
 of righteousness, temperance and judgment to 
 come, it is said, trembled. Having recently 
 arrived in Judea, and entered upon his go- 
 vernment, Agrippa and his wife, Bernice, 
 
116 SERMON FIFTH. 
 
 came to Caesarea for the purpose of congrat- 
 ulating their royal relative upon the occa- 
 sion, and while performing this visit, Festus 
 took occasion to mention to him the case of 
 the Apostle, who was then confined at 
 Csesarea, in consequence of some accusations 
 which had been made against him by the 
 Jews. 
 
 He states to Agrippa the nature of these 
 accusations, and tells him that having found 
 them to relate entirely to what he calls, 
 certain questions of their oivn superstitio7i, 
 (about which he honestly confesses his igno- 
 rance,) he had determined, inasmuch as the 
 Apostle had appealed to the hearing of Augus- 
 tus, to keep him until he should meet with 
 a favorable opportunity to send him to 
 Rome. The curiosity of Agrippa, who was 
 a Jew, and had probably heard of the fame 
 of the Apostle, upon receiving this informa- 
 tion is strongly excited. / also, says he, 
 would hear the man myself. Festus readily 
 complies with his request, and promises that 
 on the succeeding day his wishes shall be 
 
SERMON FIFTH. 117 
 
 gratified. Accordingly, the time appointed 
 having arrived, Agrippa and Bernice, ivith 
 great pomp^ enter the hall of audience, to- 
 gether with the chief captains and principal 
 men of the city. At the command of Festus 
 the prisoner is introduced, and after briefly 
 stating to the assembly his desire that king 
 Agrippa should examine the accused, in or- 
 der to enable him to communicate to the 
 emperor at Rome more fully the particulars 
 of his case, the Apostle is informed that he 
 is permitted to speak in his defence. Upon 
 this, as the sacred historian relates, Paul 
 stretched forth the hand and an^sivered for 
 himself. His speech w^as really an admira- 
 ble one, and may challenge a comparison 
 with the most renowned oratorical produc- 
 tions of antiquity. With a peculiar felicity 
 of address, he congratulates himself on being 
 allowed to vindicate his character from the 
 charges that had been alleged against him, 
 before one of such competent skill as Agri23- 
 pa possessed for the investigation of his 
 cause. He then proceeds to inform him of 
 
118 SERMON FIFTH. 
 
 the zealous attachment for which the early 
 part of his Ufe had been distinguished, to 
 the peculiar customs of his countrymen, and 
 especially the rigid principles of the Phari- 
 sees, to which sect he had belonged. He 
 also speaks of the envenomed and deadly 
 hatred he had contracted against Jesus of 
 Nazareth and his followers ; of the virulent 
 manner in which he had opposed and per- 
 secuted them; of his journey to Damascus; 
 of the light which he saw at 7nid-day from 
 heaven, that was above the brightness of the 
 sun, while on his way; of the voice which 
 said to him, while stricken to the earth, Saul, 
 Saul, why persecutest thou me 1 of the com- 
 mission he received from the Lord, at that 
 time, to publish the truths of the Gospel 
 among the Gentiles; of the manner in which 
 he had executed his commission, and of the 
 animosity which his conduct had excited 
 against him among the Jews, who now ac- 
 cused him, and who had endeavored to kill 
 him, for simply teaching that men should re- 
 cent, and turn to God, and do works meet for 
 
SERMOX FIFTH. 119 
 
 repe7itance. Having, therefore, obtained help 
 of God, says he, / continued unto this day, 
 witnessing both to small and great, saying 
 nx)ne other things than those which the pro- 
 phets, and Moses did say should come; that 
 Christ should suffer, and that he should be the 
 first that should rise from the dead, and should 
 shmo light unto the people, and to the Gentiles. 
 Festus, who was an heathen, and to whom 
 it seemed an incredible thing that God should 
 raise the dead, upon hearing this last expres- 
 sion of the Apostle respecting the resurrec- 
 tion of Jesus, became enraged. He con- 
 sidered the event as impossible; and sup- 
 posing the speaker to be delirious in ad- 
 vancing such an idea, he interrupted him, 
 and said with a loud voice, Paul thou art beside 
 thyself, much learning doth make thee mad. 
 He thought that by too intense an applica- 
 tion of his mind to the study of those ques- 
 tions which w^ere connected with what he 
 had before termed a superstition, the Apos- 
 tle's brain had become disordered. But 
 Paul, in the most respectful and dispassion- 
 
120 !S;ermon fifth. 
 
 ate manner, replied to him, / am not mad^ 
 most noble Festus, hut speak forth the woi'ds 
 of truth and soherness. For the king knoweth 
 of these things, before ivhoni also I speak free- 
 ly ; for I am persuaded that none of these 
 things are hidden from him, for this thing 
 was not done iii a corner. King Agrippa he- 
 lievest thou the prophets 1 I know that thou 
 helievest. Then Agrippa said unto Paul, al- 
 rnost thou persuadest me to he a Christian. 
 And Paul, (unwilling to let the conversation 
 break off here,) said, I would to God, that 
 not only thou, hut also all that hear me this 
 day, were hoth almost, and altogether such as 
 I am, except these hands. How dignified, 
 how judicious, how benevolent, how noble 
 the reply ! He did not wish his royal audi- 
 tors to be chained as he was, but he wished 
 them to have hearts like his own, filled with 
 the love of God. 
 
 In our text we have the following par- 
 ticulars that will claim our attention: 
 
 I. We have a striking proof of the abili- 
 ties of the Apostle as a preacher. 
 
SERMON FIFTH. 121 
 
 II. We have an expression of approba- 
 tion in favor of the conduct of Christians, 
 extorted by the force of truth, from an 
 enemy. 
 
 III. We have an instance of v^^hat fre- 
 quently occurs among the hearers of the 
 Gospel, the fatal predominancy of v7orldly 
 affections over the dictates of reason and the 
 honest convictions of conscience. 
 
 We will briefly attend to each of these 
 particulars ; and 
 
 I. In our text we have a striking proof of 
 the abilities of the Apostle as a preacher. 
 
 It v^as an expression of one of the ancient 
 fathers that there w^ere three things which 
 he was principally desirous of beholding : 
 Solomon in all his glory; Jesus Christ in the 
 flesh; and the Apostle Paul in the pulpit. 
 Christians, both in ancient and in modern 
 times, have agreed in extolling the uncom- 
 mon endowments of this noted herald of 
 the cross. He was undoubtedly the most 
 finished preacher the world has ever known. 
 Art had done much for him. Nature had 
 
122 SERMON FIFTH, 
 
 done more, and the grace of God had out- 
 vied them both. His talents were always 
 adequate to the exigencies of the condition 
 in which he was placed. At Damascus we 
 read of his confounding the Jews, ^.nd proving 
 that Jesus is the very Christ. At Athens 
 we hear of his silencing, in the most master- 
 ly manner, the conceited and disputatious 
 Greeks. At Caesarea, we behold Felix, 
 while sitting as his judge, trembling before 
 him like a guilty culprit; and in the same 
 place we find Agrippa almost persuaded, by 
 his eloquence, to become a Christian. This 
 effect upon the mind of Agrippa, when we 
 consider the circumstances in which himself 
 and the speaker were placed, was certainly 
 a compliment to the latter, which, had he 
 been inclined to be elated by language of 
 this nature, must have been extremely grate- 
 ful to his feelings. Almost thou persuxidest 
 me to he a Christian. And who is meant by 
 thou? a poor, despised, and persecuted fol- 
 lower of the hated Nazarene ; a preacher of 
 that unpopular sect which it was every 
 
SERMON >IFTH. ' 123 
 
 where fashionable to speak against, to defame^ 
 to scourge, to buffet, to spoil of their goods, 
 and to treat as the filth of the world and 
 the offscouring of all things; a preacher who 
 was a prisoner in chains at the feet of his 
 judge. Almost thou, (a man in such an hu- 
 miliating condition,) almost thou persuadest 
 me to be a Christian. And who is meant 
 by me? Agrippa, the great-grandson of the 
 mighty Herod; Agrippa, illustrious for his 
 descent from a race of kings; Agrippa, a 
 monarch whose brow was encircled with a 
 crown, and whose person was decorated 
 with the rich attire of royalty ; Agrippa, a 
 prince who swayed the sceptre of dominion 
 over no less than eight provinces. It is no 
 trifling matter, my brethren, to persuade a 
 personage of this description to be only al- 
 most a Christian. Not many wise, not many 
 mighty, not many noble, are made subjects 
 oi* Divine grace. We seldom see kings, like 
 the four and twenty elders described in 
 Revelations, casting their crowns before the 
 cross, and saying to him that sits upon the 
 
124 SERMON FIFTH. 
 
 throne, Thou art worthy, O Lord! to receive 
 glory, and honor, and power. Coronets are 
 not often set in with a crown of thorns. 
 The cross is too humbhng an instrument to 
 be borne upon the backs of the nobihty, or 
 those in high life. Agrippa had been in 
 the habit of receiving homage himself, and 
 he could not render the same to another. 
 Those before whom suppliants are accus- 
 tomed to bend, are not easily brought them- 
 selves to how the knee to Jesus Christ, and 
 acknowledge him to be their superior. Ma- 
 ny persons (and it is a great evidence of 
 the infirmity of our nature) suppose that the 
 Almighty will hardly dare to thrust out 
 emperors, and the great ones of the earth 
 from his kingdom. They put them upon 
 a kind of par with God himself, and appear 
 to consider their society as essential to his 
 happiness and dignity. They suppose that 
 their Maker would be at a loss for enter- 
 tainment without them; and indeed the 
 great seem to fall in with this supposition. 
 They fancy that they are composed of more 
 
SERMON FIFTH. 125 
 
 choice materials, a finer sort of clay, than 
 others, and that God will be a respecter of 
 their persons^ in opposition to what he has 
 expressly declared. Witness the rodomon- 
 tade of Nebuchadnezzar while walking in 
 his palace: Is not this great Babylon that I 
 have built for the house of the kingdom, by the 
 might of my power, and for the honor of my 
 majesty 1 It is no trifling matter, we say, to 
 persuade persons whose heads are filled 
 with such blustering ideas of self importance, 
 to become meek and humble Christians. It 
 is diflftcult to impress them in the least with 
 a sense of their impotence as creatures, and 
 their vileness as sinners. They look upon 
 themselves as a species of Gods, and im- 
 agine that when their reign on earth shall 
 cease, their departing spirits will be wel- 
 comed amidst the loud acclaim of the ce- 
 lestial hosts, to sumptuous palaces prepared 
 for them in the skies. JLift up your heads, 
 is the language of their hearts, 'O ye gates! 
 and be ye lift up ye everlasting doors, and 
 let us mighty nobles of the earth come in! 
 
126 SERMON FIFTH. 
 
 God, however, will most assuredly disap- 
 point these lofty hopes and bring down these 
 high looks, though Apostles and preachers 
 cannot do it. 
 
 i II. In our text we have an expression of 
 approbation in favor of the conduct of Chi'is- 
 tians, extorted by the force of truth from an 
 enemy. 
 
 ' Almost thou persuadest me to be a Chris- 
 tian. Agrippa was doubtless struck with 
 the animation ■ and zeal which the Apostle 
 manifested for the cause of Christ. He de- 
 livered his sentiments with an impassioned 
 ardor, that carried to the soul of the king a 
 conviction of their truth and their awful im- 
 portance. Agrippa had probably no doubt 
 of the Divine authority of Christianity after 
 hearing the address of the Apostle, for he 
 spoke in demonstration of the spirit, and like 
 one who had indeed been delegated from 
 heaven to turn men from darkness to light, 
 and from the power of Satan unto God. The 
 conscience of Agrippa assured him that the 
 Apostle was no impostor. He felt while 
 
SERMON riFTtf. 127 
 
 listening to him, that there is truly a jvdg- 
 ment to come; and was convinced that the 
 preacher must have chosen that good part 
 ^vhich could not he taken from him. For the 
 moment the monarch could almost have 
 consented to exchange conditions with the 
 prisoner, and renounce his provinces for an 
 humble, steadfast hope in Jesus Christ. God 
 often compels the wicked to pay a reluctant 
 tribute of respect to the superior discern- 
 ment of those who make choice of the hea- 
 venly inheritance. We find that he did it 
 in the case of unrighteous Balaam, who, 
 while surveying the tribes of Israel from 
 the top of Peor, exclaimed, How goodly are 
 thy tents, O Jacob ! and thy tabernacles, O 
 Israel! As tlie vallies are they sp'ead forth, 
 as gardens by the river'' s side, as the trees oj 
 lign-aloes which the Lord hath planted, and as 
 cedar trees beside the waters. From the top 
 of the rocks 1 see him, and from the hills I be- 
 hold him ; lo, the people shall divell alone, and 
 shall not be reckoned among the nations. 
 Who can count the dust of Jacob, and the 
 
128 SERMON FIFTH. 
 
 number' of tlie fourth part of Israel? Let me 
 die the death of the righteous, and let my last 
 end he like his. There is something in piety 
 which commands the veneration even of 
 the profligate and profane, they approve 
 even while they despise, and envy the pos- 
 session while they hate the possessor. They 
 know that as for the righteous it shall he well 
 with them, but feel that the wicked, as God 
 has declared, shall surely he destroyed, 
 
 III. In our text ive have an instance of 
 what frequently occurs among the hearers of 
 the Gospel, tlie fatal predominancy of worldly 
 affections over the dictates of reaso7i, and the 
 honest convictions of conscience. 
 
 Agrippa was almost persuaded to be a 
 Christian, not quite. He was just poising 
 between God and Mammon, between the 
 world and religion, balancing, as it were, 
 upon a point between Heaven and Hell. 
 His understanding was convinced of the 
 truth and importance of Christianity, but his 
 heart was not sufficiently affected to become 
 one of its active and open adherents. Such 
 
SERMON FIFTH. 129 
 
 a course, (for we should remember that it 
 was a very different thing to make a pro- 
 fession of Christianity in those days from 
 what it is at present,) such a course would 
 have immediately stripped him of his crown; 
 and if it had not robbed him of his life, it 
 would most certainly have deprived him of 
 the friendship and confidence of his princely 
 fraternity. This was too great a sacrifice 
 for Agrippa. He preferred ruling and be- 
 ing respected a little longer on earth, to be- 
 in o- made a king and a priest unto God. Nor 
 was Agrippa alone in the disposition he dis- 
 covered. It is no unusual occurrence to 
 see persons in our own times who are almost 
 persuaded to be Christians, but who suffer 
 their convictions to be stifled by their devo- 
 tion to the world. Perhaps there is scarcely 
 an individual to be found who has been a 
 regular attendant upon the faithful preach- 
 in o- of the Gospel, who has not experienced 
 a greater or less degree of serious concern 
 about the salvation of his soul. All men 
 have some "compmictious visitings of con- 
 
 7 
 
130 SERMON FIFTH. 
 
 science" while listening to the rigorous de- 
 mands of God's holy law, which requires 
 truth in the imvard parts, which denounces 
 eternal death for the most inconsiderable 
 departure from moral purity ; and declares, 
 in the most plain and unequivocal terms, 
 the total insufficiency of any obedience 
 which mortals can render to justify them in 
 the sight of heaven. These convictions, 
 however, are not uncommonly of short con- 
 tinuance. Like the morning cloud and the 
 early dew, they soon go away without pro- 
 ducing any permanent good. The subjects 
 of them, as our Savior said of one with 
 whom he conversed, are frequently not far 
 from the Tiingdom of heaven. Another step 
 might place them on the rock, and secure 
 to them an eternity of delight. And why 
 do they not take it? Can any of my hear- 
 ers inform us? Do those of us who are 
 almost religious, know why they are not 
 entirely sol Can those of us who believe 
 that there is a power in godliness, tell us 
 why they do not yield to it? Can those 
 
SERMON FIFTH. 131 
 
 who do not absolutely detest the people of 
 God, but who can summon patience enough 
 to converse with them, and who experience 
 a degree of pleasure in attending to some 
 of the exercises of public worship, can those 
 tell us why they do not enlist themselves 
 by an open profession among those who ai'e 
 on the Lord's side, and engaged in fighting 
 his battles? The answer to these questions 
 is easy. It is the fear and the love of the 
 world which prevent them from embracing 
 the religion of Jesus, and making their sal- 
 vation the one thing needful. Tell us, ye 
 timorous, ye dastardly, ye chicken-hearted 
 souls, (we appeal to you,) is it not so? Tell 
 us the honest truth, are you not ashamed of 
 the Gospel of Jesus Christ? Do you not 
 shudder at the thought of encountering the 
 ridicule of a licentious woi'ld ? Do you not 
 dread its reproaches more than you do the 
 tortures of the damned ? You starde when 
 we talk to you of taking up your cross and 
 following Christ. You esteem this a hard 
 saying. You cannot receive it. It will cost 
 
132 SERMON FIFTH, 
 
 you too many trials. You cannot break off 
 from your companions in gaiety and folly. 
 You cannot renounce your frothy amuse- 
 ments, and habituate your minds to what 
 you conceive to be the gloomy exercises of 
 devotion. Perhaps (your heart secretly 
 whispers to 3^ou) so much attention to re- 
 ligion is not necessary. Perhaps God is 
 more merciful than some represent him. 
 Perhaps we shall be saved without subject- 
 ing ourselves to reproaches, and exchanging 
 our pleasures for the pains of self-deniaL 
 Perhaps you will, and perhaps you icill not. 
 It is astonishing that men can rest satisfied 
 about their eternal salvation, when it de- 
 pends upon a perhaps. Pei'haps these per- 
 sons will find that they are mistaken. Per- 
 haps they will find that God is in very deed 
 a consuming fire. Perhaps they will find 
 that his justice is commensurate with his 
 mercy. Perhaps they will find that of those 
 who are ashamed of Christ and of his imrds 
 before men, of them also icill he he ashamedy 
 when he cometh in the glory of his Father 
 
S1ERM0N FIFTH. 133 
 
 with the holy angels. Perhaps they will find 
 that there is a heaven, into which none shall 
 enter but those that overcome by the blood 
 of the Lamb, and have his mark written in 
 their foreheads; and perhaps, too, they will 
 find that there is a hideous hell, and that 
 they will be of the number of those who shall 
 take up their eternal abode in it 
 
 Leave not, sinners, O leave not your 
 salvation to depend upon a perliaps. En- 
 deavor to arrive at certainty respecting it, 
 by giving all diligence to make you?' calling 
 and election sure, and to be established upon 
 the rock. Be convinced that to be ahnost 
 a Christian will avail you nothing in the 
 <lay of judgment. An almost Christian is 
 the most pitiable object in existence. He 
 neither enjoys the world nor religion. His 
 convictions are just deep enough to rob him 
 of the pleasures of the former, but too su- 
 perficial to afford him the consolations of 
 the latter. He lives the slave of perpetual 
 terrors, and when he dies, his anguish is 
 embittered by the recollection that he w^as 
 
134 SERMON FIFTH. 
 
 snatched as it were from the very threshold 
 of heaven, and plunged in the pit of de- 
 spair. Let us then be persuaded, my hear- 
 ers, to apply ourselves to the business of our 
 salvation with earnestness. Rest assured 
 that it requires the utmost activity. The 
 soul of the sluggard desireth, and hath no- 
 thing, hut the sold of the diligent sliall he 
 Ttiadefat, Whatsoever thy handfindeth to do, 
 do it ivith all thy might. None can enter 
 the strait gate but those that strive. The 
 kingdom of heaven suffereth violence now as 
 well as in the days of the Baptist and apos- 
 tles, and the violent still take it hy force. Ask, 
 and it shall he given ; seek, and ye shall find ; 
 knock, and it shall he ojyened unto you. Yea, 
 says the wise man, if thou criest after know- 
 ledge, and liftest up thy voice for understand- 
 ing ; if thou seekest her as silver, and search- 
 est for her as for hid treasures, then shalt tJiou 
 understand the fear of the Lord, and find the 
 knowledge of God. Think not that to be- 
 come Christians will degrade you ; it is the 
 
SERMON FIFTH. 135 
 
 noblest elevation of which oar sinful race 
 are capable. 
 
 " A Chi-istian is the highest state of man, 
 
 " And is there, who the blessed cross wipes off, 
 
 *' As a foul blot, from his dishonored brow ? 
 
 " If angels tremble, 'tis at such a sight : 
 
 " The wretch they quit, desponding of their charge, 
 
 •'' More struck with irrief or wonder, who can tell ?" 
 
SERMON VI. 
 
 Fear not, little flock ; for it is your Father's good pleasure to 
 give you the kingdom. — Lulte, 12 : 32. 
 
 Great pains were taken by the Savior 
 to suppress that timidity in his disciples 
 which is natural to the heart of man in cir- 
 cumstances of peculiar exigency and peril. 
 He knew full well, and distinctly foretold, 
 that the world, which had hated him, would 
 hate them. He knew the trials that were 
 before them ; that they should be brought 
 before governors and kings for his name's 
 sake ; that they should be turned out of the 
 synagogue, their rights disregarded, their 
 property confiscated, their persons impris- 
 oned, and that many would think that who- 
 soever should kill them would do God ser- 
 vice. To fortify them for the endurance of 
 these evils, he placed before them in bright 
 array, the retributions of the eternal world. 
 He reminded them of the universal Provi- 
 
SERMON SIXTH. 137 
 
 dence which God exercises over all crea- 
 tures and all events ; of his promise to take 
 care of his people, and that he certainly 
 will fulfil his promise : that distrust and 
 perplexity about the supply of their earthly 
 wants would be altogether inexcusable : that 
 heavenly treasures are infinitely preferable 
 to earthly : that the violence of man was 
 not to be dreaded : that though they should 
 have killed the body, there was no more 
 that they could do : that whosoever, through 
 pusillanimity and a desertion of his cause, 
 should save his life, should lose it; and 
 whosoever would lose his life for his sake 
 and the Gospel's, should find it ; and that 
 He only is the rightful object of fear, who, 
 when he hath killed, hath power to cast into 
 hell. Fear not, little jhck, what man, whose 
 breath is in his nostrils, can do unto you. 
 Fear not the occurrence of worldly disas- 
 ters. Fear not the combined powers of 
 earth, and of hell, that may be leagued for 
 your destruction ; for, though your numbers 
 are diminutive, and your persons are de- 
 
 '7* 
 
138 SERMON SIXTH. 
 
 spised, none of these considerations shall 
 deprive you of the rich inheritance that is 
 in store for you ; for it is you?' Fathers good 
 pleasure to give you the kingdom. 
 
 In the text, as we understand it, the fol- 
 lowing truths are either expressly or im- 
 pliedly taught. 
 
 I. In the first place, that the disciples 
 of Christ are a little Jlock, 
 
 II. Secondly ; that they are greatly be- 
 loved of God the Father, who, in the wise 
 and righteous exercise of his sovereign 
 pleasure, has engaged to bestow on them 
 the blessedness of Heaven. And 
 
 III. Thirdly ; that the guaranty of 
 the Divine favor which is made to them, 
 should fortify and sustain them under all 
 the ills which can happen to them in the 
 present life. 
 
 These ideas deserve, and will receive, 
 a separate consideration. 
 
 1. In the first place, the disciples of 
 Christ are a little flock. 
 
 All that profess to be the disciples of 
 
SERMON SIXTH, 139 
 
 Christ throughout the world, compose but a 
 small number in comparison with the rest 
 of mankind. Heathens, Mahommedans, 
 and Jews, every one knows, are not Chris- 
 tians. In Catholic countries, which are 
 extensive and populous, there are but very 
 few who give evidence that they embrace 
 enough of the Christian system to save 
 them. And even in lands denominated 
 Protestant, the great r^ass of the inhabitants 
 do not profess to have any saving interest in 
 Christ. They acknowledge themselves to 
 be worldly people. And among those who, 
 in the common acceptation of the term, are 
 called Christians, a very slender portion 
 only can lay any just claims to the appella- 
 tion of Christ's disciples. Who does not 
 know that the Protestant world is split into 
 different denominations, many of whom em- 
 brace and propagate damnable and soul- 
 destroying heresies? And in branches of 
 the Church which are purest, it would 
 manifest a culpable amount of ignorance 
 and presumption to denv that there is a 
 
140 SERMON SIXTH. 
 
 large proportion of chafF mingled with the 
 wheat : false and hypocritical professors of 
 religion. All are not Israel that are of Israel. 
 All are not really the disciples of Christ 
 that .profess to be so. 
 
 The genuine disciples of Christ, who 
 compose the little flock of which he speaks, 
 are called, and chosen of God, and precious. 
 They have imbibed his spirit. They obey 
 his instructions, and follow in his footsteps. 
 The gate that leadeth unto life is straight, 
 and few there be that find it. Many, I say 
 unto you, will seek to enter in, hut shall not 
 he ahle. 
 
 None will enter into the kingdom of 
 heaven who do not follow Christ in the re- 
 generation : who do not repent of sin, and 
 forsake it ; who do not deny themselves 
 and take up their cross. The largeness of 
 the multitude who disobey God will have 
 no effect in changing his requisitions or de- 
 terminations. The angels that sinned, no 
 doubt, were a multitude ; but he cast them 
 down to hell. 
 
SERMON SIXTH. 141 
 
 The world of the ungodly were nume- 
 rous when he brought in the flood upon it, 
 and spared none but Noah and his family. 
 The cities of the plain were thickly inhab- 
 ited when he condemned them with an 
 overthrow. God says to us, Thou sluilt not 
 follow a midtitude to do evil. If you do, you 
 must expect to take the consequences that 
 are threatened to evil doers. God's justice 
 must not be sacrificed that your damnation 
 may slumber. He knows how to reserve 
 the unjust unto the day of judgment to be 
 punished, (as well as to deliver the godly in 
 times of disaster,) and if they continue to 
 disobey him, he means to punish them how- 
 ever many there may be of them. Num- 
 bers weigh nothing in his estimation when 
 put over in the scales against his express 
 and solemn declarations. Heaven and earth 
 may pass away, but his word will not pass 
 away till every jot and tittle of it shall be 
 fulfilled. Though the real disciples of 
 Christ are ever so little a flock, they are 
 all that will, or can be saved. 
 
142 SERMON SIXTHr 
 
 2. Secondly, our text teaches that the 
 disciples of Christ are greatly beloved of 
 God the Father, who, in the wise and right- 
 eous exercise of his sovereign pleasure, has 
 engaged to bestow upon them the blessed- 
 ness of heaven. It is your Father s good 
 pleasure to give you the kingdo7n. God is 
 their Father. They are told, when they 
 pray, to call Him Our Father. The king- 
 dom is the property of the Father, and He 
 will bestow it on them for whom it is pre- 
 pared; or, in other words, for whom it was 
 intended. He will bestow it gratuitously y 
 or in such a way that the reward shall be 
 reckoned to be of grace, and not of debt.. 
 The kingdom is, in the strictest sense of the 
 term, a donation. It is your Father's good 
 pleasure to give you the kingdom. No 
 child of Adam has a title to it, except it 
 comes to him through Christ, and in the 
 channel of the new and everlasting covenant. 
 Merit, on the part of the believer, is out of 
 the question.. He has done and can do 
 nothing to deserve the Divine favor. If saved, 
 
SERMON SIX.TH. 143 
 
 n is altogetlier of grace, free, unmerited and 
 sovereign grace. 
 
 Salvation flows entirely from the bound- 
 less munificence and mercy of God. It is 
 \i\s pleasure to give the kingdom to his poor 
 and despised people. He experiences a 
 delight in doing it. And if it is pleasing to 
 him, it must, in the very necessity of the 
 case, be wise and proper for him to do it 
 God can do nothing that is wrong, or rash 
 and arbitrary. If it be his pleasure to give 
 the kingdom to the little flock, it is his good 
 pleasure. As we said, it is in the imse and 
 righteous exercise of his sovereign pleasure 
 that he does it. He does it because in his 
 view he sees it to be best to be done. To 
 his creatures it mav seem different; but his 
 creatures are incapable of fathoming his 
 designs, or of prescribing his course. Some 
 would say that he ought to give the king- 
 dom to all men, instead of restricting it to 
 the little Jbck. But it is not his pleasure to 
 do so; and his pleasure to do otherwise 
 must be good. Because we are unable to 
 
144 SERMON SIXTH. 
 
 perceive the reasons of the Divine conduct, 
 we are not to infer that it is ivithout reasons. 
 What are ice, that we should undertake the 
 task of giving counsel to the Most High, or 
 that we should attempt to sit in judgment 
 on his proceedings, and decide for him what 
 he ought to do \ Were we born any longer 
 than yesterday ? Is our foundation any 
 thing else than in the dust? Without con- 
 troversy, says the Apostle, great is the myste- 
 ry of godliness. None can form an adequate 
 conception of the blessedness of heaven. It 
 is "a kingdom of immense delights." Its 
 happiness consists in the absence of every 
 thing that is evil, and in the presence of 
 every thing that is truly good and desirable. 
 Its happiness will for ever be complete and 
 without any interruption or alloy. Heaven 
 is a holy, and therefore, it is a hapjpy place. 
 Its inhabitants never sin, and therefore they 
 are never sick. In it will be heard no voice 
 of sorrow, or crying, nor will there be the 
 endurance of any pai7i or death; for the 
 former things are passed away. The King 
 
SERMON SIXTH. 145 
 
 that sits upon the throne has said, Behold I 
 make all things new, lam Alpha and Omega,, 
 the beginning and the end. 1 will give unto 
 him that is athirst of the fountain of the 
 imter of life freely. He that overcometh shall 
 inherit all things; and 1 will he his God, and 
 he shall he my son, 
 
 3. In the third place, our text teache* 
 that the guaranty of the Divine favor which 
 is made to the disciples of Christ, should 
 fortify and sustain them under all the ills 
 that can happen to them in this hfe. 
 
 Fear not, little flock, for it is your Fa- 
 ther's good pleasure to give you the king- 
 dom. God is for you, and ivho and luhat 
 can be against youl The covenant that 
 has been confirmed by the oath of him wha 
 cannot lie, and ratified by the blood that 
 has been shed for your redemption, secures 
 to you the purchased inheritance with as 
 much certainty as if you already had it in 
 possession. Outward calamities may befall 
 you; the clouds of adversity may gather 
 around you; tribulation, and distress, and 
 
146 SERMON SIXTff. 
 
 persecution, and famine, and nakedness, and 
 peril, and sword may assail you; the world 
 in which you are may be agitated and con- 
 vulsed; you may hear of tears and rumors of 
 wars ; mens hearts may he failing them for 
 fear, and for looking after those things ivhich 
 are coming on the earth ; every thing around 
 you may wear the aspect of gloom; great 
 distress and perplexity may prevail among 
 the people of the world ; but when these are 
 called to girding on of sackcloth, the little 
 flock of Christ may possess their souls in 
 patience and lift up their heads, for their 
 redemption draweth nigh. The disasters 
 that overwhelm others need not trouble or 
 terrify them. The minds of those who are 
 stayed on God, he will keep in perfect 
 peace. They who covet not the smiles, need 
 not be cast down by the poicers of the world. 
 Their chief interests lie lodged within the 
 veil, and the agitations of earth need not 
 disturb them. 
 
 When the turmoils which oar Lord pre- 
 dicted, and to which we have just alluded. 
 
SERMON SIXTH. 147 
 
 took place among the nations, and Jerusa- 
 lem was literally trodden down of the Gen- 
 tiles, when upwards of two millions of Jews 
 perished in the siege of that devoted city, 
 or- were carried away captives, historians 
 of unquestionable veracity inform us that 
 not a single Christian was destroyed. The 
 little band of Christ's disciples, unmoved 
 and unharmed, proceeded in the prosecu- 
 tion of the task that was assigned them, and 
 propagated the Gospel in a season of unex- 
 ampled commotion and violence. 
 
 The Church of God has always been 
 built up with most success in troublous times. 
 The good will of Him that divelt in the hush 
 is with her in the fires, and keeps her from 
 being consumed. In times of peculiar ex- 
 igency he arms his people for the conflict, 
 gives them strength proportionate to their 
 day, and clothes them with an energy that 
 is from above. Through the supernatural 
 assistance that is vouchsafed to them, they 
 become zealous and bold in the defence and 
 support of their Master s cause.. The testi- 
 
148 SERMON SIXTH. ^ 
 
 mony which they give for him i& open, de- 
 cided, fearless and effective. It has ceased 
 with them to be a question whether they 
 shall please men, or obey God. They are 
 for him though the universe besides should 
 be against him. Over all the evils which 
 flesh is heir to, they are more than conquer- 
 ors, and they know and are persuaded that 
 neither height, nor depth, nor any other crea- 
 ture can separate them from the love of God 
 which is in Christ Jesus their Lord, 
 
 Should the present sunshine of outward 
 peace and prosperity which we enjoy, pass 
 away from our churches, and instead of it 
 should a ti?ne of tribulation or persecution 
 arise, we would then know better than we 
 now do who are and who are not Christians. 
 Such a period, my brethren, may soon 
 come. We are a sinful nation,^ and God is 
 giving us indications that he is angry with 
 us; profanity, sabbath-breaking, and other 
 crying vices prevail to an unprecedented 
 and alarming extent. 
 
 I shall canclude this discourse, my breth- 
 
SERMON SIXTH. 149 
 
 ren, by directing your thoughts for a mo- 
 ment to the importance which in the Divine 
 mind is attached to the instrumentality of 
 Christ's litde flock, in the accomplishment 
 of some of his most illustrious designs. It is 
 the province of Infinite Wisdom to make 
 little causes produce great effects. Christ- 
 ians are a little flock when compared with 
 the rest of the world ; but their influence is 
 prodigious, and they are of more value than 
 many sparroivs, or than all the sinners on 
 earth or in hell. And when they shall all 
 be gathered together, they will form a com- 
 pany which no man can numher. 
 
 Their influence is strongly felt on earth, 
 and their redemption will be the ceaseless 
 theme of admiration and praise to the whole 
 universe of holy and happy beings. The 
 design of God, as the Apostle teaches, is to 
 make all men see what is the fellowship of 
 the mystery, which from the beginning of 
 the world hath been hid in God, who cre- 
 ated all things by Jesus Christ, to the intent 
 that now unto the principalities and powers 
 
150 SERMON SIXTH. 
 
 in heavenly places might be known, by or 
 through the Churchy the manifold wisdom of 
 God according to the eternal purpose which 
 he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. The 
 Church, which is the little flock of Christ, 
 are the salt of the earth, and through them, 
 tmder God, are dispensed to our world all 
 the blessings of real value that it ever en- 
 joyed. But for them it had long ago become 
 as Sodom and been made like unto Go- 
 morrah. 
 
 It is a grievous and most hurtful mistake 
 
 o 
 
 to suppose, as many do, that the strength 
 and efficacy of the Church consists in the 
 numher of her communicants, or in the 
 pomp and splendor of her outward worship 
 and the extent and magnificence of her 
 worldly resources; as though the cause of 
 Jesus Christ were dependant for its support 
 upon the wise, the mighty, and the noble, 
 the gorgeous array of titles and the tinsel 
 trappings of this vain world ; as though 
 Jesus Christ needed something; and if rich 
 and honorable individuals, as generals, and 
 
SERMON SIXTH. 151 
 
 judges, and governors, would come to his 
 communion, his interests would be wonder- 
 fully subserved. Now the reverse of all this 
 we affirm to be true. The Church is most 
 prosperous and most powerful, and always 
 has been, and always will be, when most 
 pure. 
 
 Worldly possessions, with their honors 
 and their wealth, hang upon her as a dead 
 weight that wholly encumbers and corrupts. 
 The meanest disciple of Christ, however 
 obscure his condition, or lowly his preten- 
 sions, if found to be walking in the fear of 
 God's commandments, exerts an influence a 
 thousand fold more controlling and saluta- 
 ry; an influence that speaks to the hearts 
 and the consciences of the ungodly in tones 
 that make them tremble. No matter thougrh 
 he be bond or free, black or white. If he is 
 a devoted servant of Jesus Christ his instru- 
 mentality will be owned, and will prove 
 efficient in the promotion of the Divine 
 glory. 
 
 The strength and efficiency of the Church, 
 
152 SERMON SIXTH. 
 
 then, be it ever remembered, are with the 
 poor and afflicted people whom God will 
 save, while his eyes are upon the haughty, 
 that he may bring them down. May he 
 add to this Church such, and such only, as 
 shall let their light shine. Then, though 
 the flock shall be ever so little, it will be 
 their Father's good pleasure to give them 
 the kingdom. They shall serve him faitli- 
 fuUy in their generation, and enjoy him in a 
 world of glory, and without end. 
 
SERMON VII. 
 
 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever 
 things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever 
 things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever 
 things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if 
 there be any praise, think on these things. — Philippians, 
 4: 8. 
 
 Christianity is a practical concern, and 
 the duties which it enjoins consist of an al- 
 most endless variety. Sometimes it gives 
 general rules for the direction of human 
 conduct, and at others it descends to parti- 
 culars and goes into minute details, so that 
 in fact we have line upon line, p?'ecepf upon 
 Ijrecept. The Scriptures are so full and en- 
 tire that none who have access to them 
 have any apology to offer for ignorance of 
 any thing whatever that relates to faith and 
 practice. For purposes of this nature they 
 are "a sufficient and infalhble directory." 
 He that runneth may read, and the most 
 
154 SERMON SEVENTH. 
 
 ordinary capacities may understand all that 
 is really desirable. 
 
 The text contains a general summary of 
 Christian duties and graces, which are re- 
 commended to our observance with peculiar 
 and characteristic earnestness by the Apos- 
 tle. Not one of the duties which he has en- 
 joined is unimportant; not one of them but 
 is of universal obligation; and I add, there 
 is not one of them which, if duly heeded, 
 would not essentially change and meliorate 
 the condition of mankind. 
 
 I. It is proposed, as we proceed in this 
 discussion, in the first place, to say something 
 on the point to which the Apostle has given 
 peculiar prominence in his enumeration of 
 the things that are true, or according to truth. 
 Finally, hrethreiiy ivhatsoever things are true ; 
 if there he any virtue, and if there he any 
 praise, think of these things. A strict and 
 solemn regard to truth is the thing here in- 
 culcated, and the Apostle gives it di peculiar 
 prominence by placing it foremost in his 
 enumeration. It is the thing that is to claim 
 
SERMON SEVENTH. 155 
 
 our primary attention, and for a deficiency 
 in which nothing else can atone. Truth is 
 a representation of things that accords with 
 the reaUty, or that agrees with existing facts 
 and circumstances. Its opposite is false- 
 hood, and consists in a wilful endeavor or 
 desire to represent things as existing which 
 do not exist, or as existing in a manner and 
 form different from the reality. The crime 
 of falsehood, therefore, may be committed 
 in other ways than by the utterance of 
 ivords. It may be done by signs and looks, 
 by motions and gestures. Actions speak as 
 well as ivords, and he who wilfully misrepre- 
 sents, or makes a wrong impression on the 
 mind of another is, to all intents and pur- 
 poses, guilty of the sin of lying, which is a 
 violation of an express commandment of the 
 decalogue. 
 
 The disposition to impugn the truth, to 
 deceive, or, (which is the same thing,) to give 
 false representations of things, is natural to 
 depraved men. It enters into the very tex- 
 ture of the human constitution, is closely 
 
156 SERMON SEVENTH. 
 
 interwoven with every fibre, discovers itself 
 in our earliest acts, and reigns with an un- 
 controlled dominion until checked by Divine 
 grace, or restrained by the force of custom, 
 or the laws and institutions of civil society. 
 In this respect it is manifest from a survey 
 of the conduct of mankind, that the soul 
 loves evil more than good, and cannot be 
 brought to acquiescence in the latter with- 
 out the constraining influence of some pow- 
 erful external agency. The iDicked, (says 
 God,) by which he means all men in theil' 
 natural estate, are estranged from the ivomlj. 
 They go astray as soon as they he horn, speak- 
 ing lies. It has been said by those who 
 deny original sin, that this is a figurative 
 expression; evidently figurative, because it 
 cannot be literally true that men speak lies 
 as soon as they are born, inasmuch as child- 
 ren must be some time in the world before 
 they can acquire the faculty of speech. A 
 puerile attempt this to evade the force of a 
 Divine declaration which it would seem 
 that no one, who was not himself greatly 
 
SERMON SEVEXTH. 157 
 
 estranged, could for a moment misunder- 
 stand. When God says that men go astray 
 as soon as they he horn, what else can he 
 mean but they have the disjjosition to do so, 
 which shows itself as soon as the organic 
 ability will allow, that they speak lies in 
 their purposes, in their interests and actions, 
 and that they will employ their tongues in 
 giving utterance to falsehood as soon as they 
 shall acquire by experience the use and 
 management of them ? Who has ever had 
 an acquaintance' with the infant that did 
 not perceive, as soon as it discovered a ca- 
 pacity for any mental exercise, a disposition 
 to deceive t 
 
 Idolatry, and all other systems of false 
 worship, have their foundation in falsehood, 
 and spring from a desire to deceive and to 
 be deceived. False systems of religion are 
 misrepresentations of the character and 
 purposes of God. They grow out of a dis- 
 belief of his declarations, or a v/ilful and 
 wicked perversion of them; and from a se- 
 cret wish that is cherished to have it so, the 
 
158 SERMON SEVENTH. 
 
 deceiver comes at length to believe a false- 
 hood as firmly and fully as if it were the 
 truth. He feedeth, says God, on ashes. A 
 deceived heart hath turned him aside that 
 he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, "is there 
 not a lie in my right hand 1" 
 
 The deceiver clings to his refuge of lies 
 with a pertinacity that nothing can destroy 
 but the Spirit of God. He reveres not the 
 love of the truth, but has pleasure in un- 
 righteousness and falsehood ; and for this 
 reason God sends him strong delusions that 
 he should believe a lie, and he really does 
 believe it, as much as if it were the truth. 
 Because the heathen nations did not like to 
 retain God in their knowledge, he gave them 
 up to the folly and the guilt of changing the 
 truth of God into a lie, and w^orsbipping and 
 serving the creature more tlian the Creator, 
 who is blessed for ever. Hence the homage 
 which they rendered to birds and four footed 
 beasts and creeping things. Hence the trans- 
 formation of the incorruptible and uncre- 
 ated God into the similitude of an ox that 
 
SERMON SEVENTH. 159 
 
 eMeth grass, and all the countless absurdities 
 into which perverse men have run in their 
 conceptions of Him. The Scriptures de- 
 nominate these inventions o^ men lying van- 
 ities. The gods of the heathen, says David, 
 are a lie. 
 
 Hypocrites, and formalists too, whose 
 business is to make pretensions to goodness 
 which does not belong to them, arc engaged 
 in efforts to deceive, first their fellow men, 
 sometimes themselves, and at others the 
 great and heart-searching God. Ephraim, 
 says Jehovah, compasseth me about ivlth lies. 
 They make pretensions to a zeal in my ser- 
 vice which is false, and they imagine that 
 they will succeed in palming their imposi- 
 tions upon me. This people draweth nigh to 
 me icith their mouth, and honoreth me ivith 
 their lips, hut t^ieir heart is far from me. 
 They sit before me as my people sit, but they 
 do not my words. They are a smoke in my 
 nose, their incense and their offerincys are 
 an abomination to me. I cannot, away with 
 them. Thev call -me Lord, Lord, and think 
 
160 SERMON SEVENTH. 
 
 to deceive me with their endearing appella- 
 tions and sanctimonious pretensions, but I 
 know them, that they have not the love of 
 God in them. 
 
 The narrative of Ananias and Sapphira 
 administers a lesson of awful warning to all 
 who are inclined to make religious preten- 
 sions that are not founded in truth and sin- 
 cerity. Such persons lie, not unto men, but 
 unto God. If any say we have fellowship 
 with him, (God,) and walk in darkness, we 
 lie, and do not the truth; all insincere pro- 
 fessors of religion are compared to liars. It 
 is evident, then, that in their intercourse with 
 one another there is a vast amount of the 
 sin of falsehood committed among mankind. 
 False teachers aim to deceive by giving 
 erroneous representations of God, and by 
 denying or perverting his i^lain declara- 
 tions. / have not written unto you, little 
 children, says the Apostle, because ye know 
 not the truth, hut because ye know it, and that 
 no lie is of the truth. Who is a liar, but he 
 that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is 
 
SERMON SEVENTH. 161 
 
 Antichrist that denietli the Father and the 
 Son. If ive receive the loitness of men, the 
 ivitness of God is greater, for this is the wit- 
 ness of God which he hath testified of his 
 Bon, He that helieveth on the Son of God 
 hath the ivitness in hinisef; he that helieveth 
 not God, hath made him a liar, because he 
 helieveth not the record that God gave of his 
 Son. 
 
 A rejection or perversion of the Divine 
 testimony is regarded, in the estimation of 
 the Holy One, as an attempt to make him 
 the fabricator of falsehood, in other words, 
 an accomphce with the Har and deceiver 
 himself, than which, it is conceived, a Preat- 
 er affront cannot be offered to the Al- 
 mighty. 
 
 False teachers of religion are, therefore, 
 in the most em2:)hatic sense, accomplices of 
 the grand adversary in his nefarious designs, 
 which he is carrying on by transformino- 
 hmiself into an angel of light, to defame the 
 Most High and to delude and destroy the. 
 souls of men. The Savior says of the devil 
 8* 
 
162 SERMON SEVENTH. 
 
 that he is a liar and the father of it, that he 
 abode not in the truths hut was a liar from 
 the heginning. He was the first liar, and 
 all that follow his example partake of his 
 spirit, and at last will receive his doom. 
 His rebellious career commenced with mis- 
 apprehension of himself and of God, and 
 the final act which he performed on earth, 
 of which we have any account, and the last 
 which we are told he will perform, consists 
 in a malignant attempt to seduce the human 
 family and draw them off from their alle- 
 giance to their Maker, by giving them re- 
 presentations that are unfounded and false. 
 He exerted himself to make the woman 
 believe that God was unreasonable in his 
 prohibition; that the effect of eating of the 
 fruit of the forbidden tree would not be as 
 he had said it would, and in the end most 
 roundly aflSrmed that God himself had told a 
 falsehood. You say he has said. Ye shall not 
 eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. 
 But I say, ye shall not surely die; for God 
 doth know that in the day ye eat thereof then 
 
SERMON SEVENTH. 163 
 
 your eyes shall he opened, and ye sludl he as 
 gods, knowing good and evil. God v/ishes 
 to debar you from the enjoyment of a most 
 precious privilege, and to keep you in a state 
 of degradinor ionorance and vassallao^e. 
 
 Truth is of various kinds, as historical, 
 philosophical, mathematical and moral. The 
 revelation wliich God has given in the Holy 
 Scriptures is emphatically the truth. This 
 is truth of the most momentous kind, pure, 
 unadulterated, unsophisticated truth; truth 
 that is enlightening, that is elevating, that is 
 sanctifvino- and savins in its tendencies and ' 
 results. 
 
 Truth that bears upon the relations of 
 social intercourse, and the ordinary affairs 
 and business of human life, is important, and 
 ought to be sacredly and inviolably observ- 
 ed. In reference to this species of truth, 
 the Apostle says. Wherefore, putting away 
 lying, speak every man truth with his neigh- 
 bor: for we are members one of another. 
 Let no man who has been addicted to false- 
 hood, since he has professed to become a 
 
164 SERMON SEVENTH. 
 
 Christian, indulge any longer in the shame- 
 ful vice. There is a way which some peo- 
 ple have of dealing in tales of the marvel- 
 lous, when they give glowing and exagge- 
 rated descriptions, for the purpose of exciting 
 the gaze of astonishment, that is not in ac- 
 cordance with Christian simplicity and sin- 
 cerity, that should be avoided. 
 
 There are others that make statements 
 affecting the reputation and interests of their 
 fellow men, which are sheer fabrications, 
 base slanders and libels, which enrich not 
 those that utter them, but filch from those 
 at whom they are levelled the jewel that is 
 dearer than life. 
 
 We admit the idea, in taking up and 
 spreading an evil report, will frequently 
 pave the way for a more deadly stab, by 
 asking those whom he accosts. " Have you 
 heard such and such a report of A. or B. or 
 C. ? For my own part, I am inclined to be- 
 lieve it can hardly be true ;" then out comes 
 the report, and though the slanderer can 
 hardly credit it, and probably does not at 
 
SERMON SEVENTH. 165 
 
 all, yet significantly adds, ** there are a great 
 many who are said to believe it, and re- 
 spectable people too." 
 
 A peculiar and culpable species of de- 
 ception is practiced almost unconsciously 
 among mankind, and to an almost unlimited 
 extent, by the usages and customs of what 
 is termed polished society. Kindness, affa- 
 bility, good will, and a scrupulous attention 
 to the wants and feelings of others, are 
 the spontaneous fruits of a gracious dis- 
 position. The pious exercise these virtues 
 without effort ; but worldly people who 
 cannot very comfortably get along without 
 the reality or appearance, are constantly 
 employed in assuming the latter. Hence 
 the costly sacrifices of etiquette, and the 
 empty, unmeaning, heartless and affected 
 observance of the rules of politeness. Neigh- 
 bors meet, appear friendly in their saluta- 
 tions, and inquire about each others' health 
 and happiness with a seeming interest, when 
 in truth they are wholly indifferent, if not 
 absolutely hostile. The politeness of the 
 
166 SERMON SEVENTH. 
 
 people of the world is base hypocrisy. 
 Like Absalom, they would make all whom 
 they approach believe that they love them, 
 when their only aim is to make them para- 
 sites and sycophants for their own personal 
 aggrandizement. In their conversation they 
 would persuade you to think that your hap- 
 piness is theirs, that they would make any 
 sacrifice to oblige you, and in their epistles 
 will subscribe themselves your " humble 
 and obedient servants/' while, perhaps, they 
 care for you as little as the clods on which 
 they tread. 
 
 Probably none of the Divine command- 
 ments are transgressed with more frequency 
 or less compunctions than that which says, 
 thou slmlt not hea?- false witness. In some 
 nations it is next to impossible to get at the 
 truth, even in courts of judicature, and 
 while the witnesses are under the solemni- 
 ties of an oath. In the time of our Savior 
 suborned witnesses were easily procured to 
 testify that he was guilty, and bring about 
 the sentence of his condemnation; and in 
 
SERMON SEVENTH. 167 
 
 the most improved states of society ever 
 since, the exceeding difficulty of getting at 
 the truth is well known to all who are 
 versed in judicial transactions. Witnesses 
 must be cross-examined, and scarcely any 
 cause is issued in a civil court, from which 
 it does not appear in the investigation, that 
 those who have given testimony have con- 
 tradicted others, or themselves, or both to- 
 gether. Perjury is an abounding iniquity 
 even in Christian lands ; and such is the 
 deep-rooted propensity of mankind to false- 
 hood, that it is hardly to be wondered at 
 that David in his haste should have said, 
 that all men are liars. 
 
 In our intercourse with mankind it is 
 admitted that the truth is not always to be 
 spoken. On particular occasions, and under 
 certain circumstances, it may be concealed. 
 It may on no occasion, and under no pre- 
 tence, however, be denied or perverted. 
 If we speak at all we must put away lying, 
 and speak the truth. Truth is always pre- 
 ferable to falsehood. Lying is never neces- 
 
168 SERMON SEVENTH. 
 
 sary. It is a libel upon the government of 
 God, and an impeachment of the Divine 
 veracity and faithfulness to take the contrary 
 position. We say to every man, as Joshua 
 said to Achan, Mij son, give, 1 pray thee, 
 glory to the Lord God of Israel. Let the 
 truth, if you must speak, come out. Hide 
 it not. God is the God of truth. He speaks 
 truth himself, and he would have all others 
 speak it. 
 
 It is much to be regretted that any pro- 
 fessing to be pious should ever think of 
 serving God, and advancing the cause of 
 religion, by descending, as they sometimes 
 have done, to misreiiresentation and false- 
 hood. I have already deprecated the false 
 spirit that is so universally manifested by 
 the conductors of political journals. I wish 
 I could exempt from a like charge all who 
 are engaged in conducting religious periodi- 
 cals. But the leprosy that has infected the 
 land, has got in and infected the Church. 
 
 How many exaggerated accounts of re- 
 vivals of religion have spread through the 
 
SERMON SEVENTH. 169 
 
 country, from Georgia to Maine. Accounts 
 not wholly false, perhaps, but mingled with 
 misrepresentations that are a disgrace to 
 the Christian name '? Shall a man lie for 
 God I Does his cause need to be propped 
 up and propagated by falsehood I Is it for 
 his glory to say that he has done things 
 which he has not done ? O shame, where 
 is thy blush ! O God, where are those that 
 love thy truth, and w^ho mean and know the 
 things they speak ! The time was when 
 accounts of revivals of religion in this land 
 were guarded, and they were credited. 
 But those days of sincerity have gone by ; 
 and a reflecting man who now believes in a 
 statement of a revival of religion that circu- 
 lates through the country, must know some- 
 thing about it himself, or must get the state- 
 ment from an individual whom he knows, 
 and in whom he has good reason to repose 
 confidence. 
 
SERMON VIII. 
 
 Fimilly, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever 
 things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever 
 things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever 
 things are of good report ; if there be any virtue, and if 
 there be any praise, think on these things. — PhilippianSy 
 4:8. 
 
 The things ivhich are honest and just 
 present the next claim to our consideration, 
 which we shall at present couple together. 
 Honesty and justice are terms of very ex- 
 tensive import. They relate to our duty 
 both to God and our fellov/ men. The for- 
 mer is used only in reference to the con- 
 duct and dispositions of human beings ; 
 most generally the ordinarj^ intercourse and 
 dealings of mankind. The latter applies to 
 God, to princes, magistrates, and all in au- 
 thority. They both mean sincerity, faith- 
 fulness, veracity, virtue, integrity, righteous- 
 ness, purity, and a principle which disposes 
 those who are under its influence to render 
 
SERMON EIGHTH. 171 
 
 to all their dues. The dispositions and ac- 
 tions to which they give rise, or bring into 
 exercise, are substantially the same that are 
 enjoined in the royal law, which requires us 
 to lorn our neighbor as ourselves. He that 
 is honest and just does to others that which 
 he would have them do to him. 
 
 Sentence against an evil work niay not he 
 executed speedily ; but the retributive justice 
 of God will eventually overtake every evil 
 doer. No creatures have any claims upon 
 the Infinite Jehovah for benefits at his hand, 
 other than those which his good pleasure, 
 and his gratuitous declarations give them. 
 And no sinners have a right to look for any 
 other recompense from him than that of 
 indignation and wrath, which he has said 
 that he will render to every one that doeth 
 evil. And doubtless he will do what he has 
 said, in every instance of final perseverance 
 in impenitence and rebellion. For every 
 infraction of his holy law he will have an 
 adequate satisfaction. And even the un- 
 godly that he justifies, can be regarded as 
 
172 SERMON EIGHTH. 
 
 just only in consequence of the finished 
 atonement that has been made by the Re- 
 deemer on the cross, for the offences which 
 they have committed, and which, for his 
 sake, are freely blotted out w^hen they re- 
 pent and believe. Thus, in the sacrifice of 
 Calvary, mercy and truth are met together, 
 righteousness and ]?eace have kissed each other. 
 These are the things into which the angels 
 desire to look. They disclose a desire of the 
 eternal mind whereby He can he just and 
 justify the sinner that helieveth, which will 
 for ever excite the wonder and call forth the 
 gratitude of the heavenly hosts. But our 
 business at present is to consider the things 
 that are honest and just, more particularly 
 as they relate to men. 
 
 Among men, those are honest and just 
 whose study and aim are to fulfil the vari- 
 ous duties wdiich devolve upon them, and 
 which they owe to God and to one another, 
 adopting his written word as the rule, and 
 making his glory the ultimate end of all their 
 actions. 
 
SERMON EIGHTH. 173 
 
 The individual who makes the law of 
 the land, or the customs of society, or the 
 dictates of a conscience that is uncontrolled 
 by the Spirit of God, the rule and measure 
 of his actions, without advancing any far- 
 ther, can have no well founded claims to a 
 character for honesty and justice. Men 
 frame in their minds erroneous and im- 
 aginary conceptions of the nature and ex- 
 tent of honesty and justice; and comparing 
 themselves with the false standard which 
 they set up, they become elated with a con- 
 ceit of their virtues, as the Pharisees of 
 old did, For they, heing ignorant of God's 
 righteousness, and going about to establish 
 their own righteousness, have not submitted 
 themselves unto the righteousness of God. 
 Shall a man be just with God? How can 
 he I How can he that is born of a woman 
 he righteous! — righteous with his Maker? 
 By the kindnesses and civilities which he 
 shows to his fellows \ By paying to another 
 what he owes, and by omitting, when he 
 has opportunity to steal, to cheat and de- 
 
174 SERMON EIGHTH. 
 
 fraud? Is this the morahty that is suffi- 
 cient? No. This is the morality that de- 
 pends on the caprices of human society, that 
 changes when laws and customs change. 
 This is the honesty and justice that robs 
 God, that robs him of the worship and 
 obedience that are his due, and which he 
 has a right to claim at the hand of every 
 accountable being that he has created. And 
 is it an heinous offence to deprive men of 
 their just due, and a small misdemeanor to 
 rob the great God? Will a redundancy of 
 'duties to the former atone for a deficiency 
 in the latter ? The self righteous man, then, 
 is dishonest and unjust. Let him carry out 
 his principles before he plumes himself on 
 his virtues. Let him be honest and just in 
 his intercourse with his Maker. Let him 
 become a man of prayer. Let him read 
 God's holy word. Let him bow down at 
 the foot of the cross, and pay to him who 
 hung upon it the debt which redeemed sin- 
 ners owe. 
 
 In a general sense the duties of honesty 
 
SERMON EIGHTH, 175 
 
 and justice are violated by setting up our 
 own selfish interests in opposition to those 
 of others, or in a way that shows us to be 
 regardless of the rights and happiness of 
 our neighbor. If w-e improperly interfere 
 with the reputation or property of our fel- 
 low men, we are guilty of dishonesty and 
 injustice. 
 
 In the ordinary intercourse and deal- 
 ings which take place among men, the prin- 
 ciples of honesty and justice are violated 
 by vending commodities for more than they 
 are known to the seller to be worth, by 
 concealing their defects, and by taking ad- 
 vantage of another's necessity or ignorance 
 to obtain his property at a price which is 
 known to be less than its real value, or 
 what it ought to command. The prevail- 
 ing maxims that regulate the conduct of the 
 world in these respects, that "a man's eyes 
 must be his own chap, and that every one 
 must look out for himself," are criminally 
 lax, and are obviously at utter variance with 
 the morality of the Gospel. 
 
176 SERMON EIGHTH. 
 
 By indulging in indolence and sloth men 
 are guilty of dishonesty and injustice. They 
 do nothing for their own subsistence, but live 
 on the productions which are the fruit of 
 other's toils. 
 
 In the affairs of this world the Apostolic 
 direction is a good one, and by those who 
 are in circumstances to follow it should be 
 scrupulously observed. Oive no man any 
 thing. 
 
 It is grievous and offensive to the right- 
 eous to see with what insensibility men will 
 run into debt, which at the time of assuming 
 them, they have not the most distant pros- 
 pect of ever being able to liquidate. In- 
 deed, when it is almost certain that they 
 never can do it. Honesty requires a man 
 in his purchases to examine into the state of 
 his purse, to sit down deliberately and count 
 the cost, and see, as a reasonable being, 
 whether he have a sufficiency to meet the 
 day of payment, which will certainly come 
 and will not tarry. 
 
 It hardly needs to be insisted on that a 
 
SERMON EIGHTH. 177 
 
 traffic in useless, or hurtful and poisonous 
 articles, as, for example, the common prac- 
 tice of vending ardent spirits for purposes 
 of gain, is inconsistent with honesty and jus- 
 tice; and that the practices of swindhng, 
 usury, shaving, gambling and the like, which 
 extensively prevail, are vices of the same 
 stamp, in open opposition to the "golden 
 rule," and completely destructive in their 
 tendency of the peace and happiness of so- 
 ciety. If a living cannot be obtained by 
 occupations more congenial with the spirit 
 of the Gospel, we had better die than sub- 
 sist on the gains of ungodliness, and after 
 multiplying the miseries of our fellows, to 
 go down at length ourselves to mingle our 
 cries with the groans of the damned. 
 
 We live, my brethren, in a world of 
 dishonesty and injustice, of extortion and 
 oppression. The enormities of our race are 
 perpetually sending up to heaven a voice 
 of thrilling accent, and the day of Divine 
 retribution is rapidly drawing on, (James, 5:) 
 Go to now, ye rich men, loeep and howl for 
 
 9 
 
178 SERMON EIGHTH. 
 
 your miseries that shall come upon you : your 
 riches are cori'upted, and your garments are 
 moth-eaten : your gold and silver is cankered, 
 and the mist of them shall he a witness 
 against you, and shall eat your jiesh as it 
 were fire ; ye have heaped treasures together 
 for the last days. Behold the hire of the la- 
 borers who Jiave reaped down your fields, which 
 is of you kept hack hy fraud, ciieth ; and the 
 cries of them which have reaped are entered 
 into the ears of the Lord of Sahaoth. 
 
 Severe strictures have been passed upon 
 the celebrated couplet of the poet, 
 
 " A wit 's a feather, and a chief 's a rod, 
 
 " An honest man's the noblest work of God." 
 
 If by "an honest man" he meant one who 
 is made so by the operations of the Divine 
 Spirit, and who is so in the Scriptural sig- 
 nification of that term, we accord with his 
 declaration, and cheerfully coincide with 
 him in saying that "An honest man's the 
 noblest work of God." Nothing but a pow- 
 erful Divine agency exerted in the soul ever 
 
SERMON EIGHTH. 179 
 
 made an individual of Adam's race honest, 
 in the true and extensive sense of that 
 term. A proud, self-righteous, self-justify- 
 ing, outward obedience to the requirements 
 of morality or religion, is not evangelical 
 honesty, but may, and indeed does, consist 
 w^ith a heart of rancorous enmity against 
 God. 
 
 Rare, in truth, is the possession of that 
 honesty which is without guile, which recog- 
 nises the various relations we sustain to our 
 fellow men and to the Being who made us; 
 which inclines us to do unto others as we 
 would that they should do unto us, and to 
 render to all, to the utmost of our ability, 
 their dues. 
 
 ^ There are many persons who talk about 
 honesty. We know what the word means, 
 but where shall we find the thing that it 
 signifies 1 My brethren, let us not love in 
 word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in 
 truth. Let us strive to comply with the 
 direction of the Apostle: We beseech you, 
 brethren, that ye study to be quiet, and to do 
 
180 SERMON EIGHTH. 
 
 your own business, and to work with your oiim 
 hands, as we commanded you, that ye may walk 
 honestly toward them that are without, and 
 that ye may have lack of nothing. Let us 
 walk honestly as in the day, not in rioting and 
 drunkenness; not in chambering and wanton- 
 ness; not in strife and envying; but jput ye on 
 the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not jyrovision 
 for tliejiesh to fulfil the lusts thereof Let no 
 man seek his own, but every man another's 
 wealth. Whether, therefore, ye eat, or drink, 
 or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of 
 God. Give none offence, neither to the 
 Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the Church 
 of God. Even as I please all men in all 
 things, not seeking mine own profit, but the 
 profit of many, that they may be saved. 
 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, 
 whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things 
 are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatso- 
 ever things are lovely, whatsoever things are 
 of good report ; if there be any virtue, and 
 if there be any praise, think on these things. 
 If we would make advances in the graces 
 
SERMON EIGHTH. 181 
 
 which the Apostle recommends, we must 
 make them the subject of our careful and 
 constant meditation. We must think of 
 them ourselves, and endeavor to have others 
 think of them also. In order that this desira- 
 ble end may be accomplished, we must set 
 an example of honesty and justice ourselves 
 and indignantly frown on those whom we 
 know to be addicted to the opposite vices. 
 We must neither be ashamed nor afraid to 
 express our abhorrence of fraud and oppres- 
 sion, however high in other respects may be 
 the standing of the individuals who indulge 
 in them- And if God in his providence has 
 clothed any of us with magisterial authority, 
 our prayer and our effort should be that we 
 bear not the sword in vain, but may prove 
 a terror to evil doers and a praise to them 
 that do well, that we may lead a quiet and 
 peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. 
 
SERMON IX. 
 
 He is altogether lovely. — Song of Solomon, 6 : 16. 
 
 The Book of Canticles, from which our 
 text is taken, is a nuptial song, which was 
 originally composed with a design to cele- 
 brate the marriage of Solomon with the 
 daughter of Pharaoh ; and like most of the 
 productions of the Orientals, is highly figu- 
 rative. The language of this book is un- 
 questionably typical, and was ultimately de- 
 signed to refer to the espousals of Christ and 
 his Church. A Bridegroom more glorious 
 than Solomon, and a Bride more beautiful 
 than the Princess of Egypt, are, therefore, 
 the objects, which under typical language, 
 are introduced to our notice in this sacred 
 song. It is the Church, the Lamb's wife, 
 that is here represented as all fail', and as 
 having no spot in her. And it is the Re- 
 deemer, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Bride- 
 groom and the Husband of the Church, who 
 
SERMON NINTH. 183 
 
 IS said to be the chief est among ten thousand, 
 and altogether hvely. To exhibit a few of 
 the principal traits in which the loveliness 
 of the Savior consists, is the object of this 
 discourse. It is a remarkable circumstance 
 in the writings of the inspired penmen, that 
 none of them have attempted to give a de- 
 scription of the personal appearance of our 
 Lord. That it was interesting, in an un- 
 common degree, there can scarcely be any 
 room to doubt. It would, indeed, be un- 
 reasonable to suppose that God, in coming 
 down to dwell in human shape, should as- 
 sume a form of unsightly mould. There 
 was probably a majesty that shone in the 
 person of the Redeemer that was suited to 
 command the admiration of the beholder; 
 a countenance beaming with intelligence, 
 and sweetened with an expression of inde- 
 scribable benignity, which gave intimations 
 of the Divinity that resided within. I do 
 not suppose that the countenance of the 
 Savior was beautiful in the sense which men 
 usually attach to this term, especially after 
 
184 SERMON NINTH. 
 
 his visage, as the prophet expresses it, had 
 become marred by the hfe of humiUation 
 and suffering which he led. It had proba- 
 bly less of effeminacy and smoothness of 
 features than most would be apt to admire. 
 But I apprehend that in it there was some- 
 thing that was heavenly; something that 
 no language can describe, which no pencil 
 can paint. But whatever may have been 
 tlie Personal appearance of our Lord, it is 
 obvious, as before intimated, that the inspir- 
 ed writers considered it as too unimportant 
 to occupy their own or the reader's atten- 
 tion in composing the history of his life. 
 Their object was rather to exhibit the attri- 
 butes of his mind, than to communicate an 
 idea of the tenement in which it was lodged 
 — those natural and moral attributes, which 
 render him an object of admiration and 
 love to all holy intelligences, and on ac- 
 count of which it is especially said that he 
 is altogether lovely. 
 
 His natural attributes, of which he is 
 represented in the Scriptures as being pos- 
 
SERMON NINTH. 1S5 
 
 sessecl, are his self-existence, his omnipo- 
 tence, his omnipresence, his omniscience, 
 his immutabihty, and his eternity. And his 
 moral attributes are, his holiness, his justice, 
 his goodness, his veracity, his faithfulness, 
 and his compassion. Divest him of either 
 of these attributes, and he would cease to 
 be altogether lovehj ; for the possession of 
 each of them is essential to the character 
 of perfection which he sustains, and which 
 endears him to the hearts of his people, as 
 well as to all the Holy in the universe. If 
 the Lord Jesus Christ is not Immanuel, God 
 tvith us, we are then guilty of idolatry m 
 adoring him: and if he is not Im7nanuel, 
 God vjith us, he is not the Savior that we 
 need. Our burden is too heavy to be borne 
 by an arm of flesh ; and our guilt is of too 
 deep a stain to be washed away by a crea- 
 ture's blood. But though each of the attri- 
 butes that have been mentioned is essential 
 to the character of the Redeemer, there 
 are none in the contemplation of which, as 
 sinnerSf we are more particularly interested, 
 
 9* 
 
186 SERMON NINTH. 
 
 and therefore, perhaps, more apt to be de- 
 lighted than others. It is peculiarly plea- 
 sant, for example, to those who indulge a 
 hope of redemption through his blood, to 
 contemplate the unparalleled mercy of the 
 Savior, who, in his love and in his pity, 
 hath redeemed them. To behold Him, who 
 thought it not robbery to be equal with 
 God, divesting himself of the glory which 
 he had with the Father before the world 
 was, and making himself of no reputation — 
 to behold him assuming the form of a ser- 
 vant, and patiently and cheerfully submitting 
 to a life of humiliation and suffering — to be- 
 hold him mocked, and scourged, and buffet- 
 ed, and spit upon, and at length inhumanly 
 and ignominiously crucified ; to behold the 
 Savior, I say, enduring this accumulation of 
 evils, and enduring them not for his friends, 
 but for his enemies, it would seem must ne- 
 cessarily exalt him in the estimation, and 
 endear him to the affections of those who 
 are looking to him for redemption. It 
 is the contemplation of this love, which has 
 
SERMON NINTH. 187 
 
 a height and a depth, a length and a breadth, 
 that passeth understanding which, in the 
 language of the Apostle, constraineth us, and 
 which disposes those who are the happy 
 subjects of its renewing and sanctifying in- 
 fluence, thus to judge, that if one died for 
 all, then vxre all dead ; and that he died for 
 all, that they who live should not lienceforth 
 live unto themselves, hut unto him that died 
 for them, and rose again. 
 
 Another particular in which the Savior 
 is altogether lovely, consists in the offices. 
 which he sustains, and the acts which he 
 performs as the Prophet, the Priest, and the 
 King of his people. As their Pi'ophet he in- 
 structs them ; instructs them by his Word, 
 by his Providence, and by his Spirit. He 
 is sensible of the darkness in which their 
 minds by nature are enveloped, and he 
 knows how to have compassion on the igno- 
 rant and them that are out of the way. He 
 sympathizes with them in all their trials, 
 and guides them in all their straits. If per- 
 plexed with difficulties, he sends them light. 
 
188 SERMON NINTH. 
 
 If harrassed with doubts, he cheers them 
 with his promise ; and when they wander 
 from him, he brings them back by the 
 secret and powerful communications of his 
 grace. As their Priest, he proposes himself 
 as an atoning sacrifice for their sins. To 
 the justice of God, by the one offering of 
 himself, he has rendered a satisfaction that 
 is complete. The Father asks for nothing 
 more, and he abundantly testified that with 
 it he is well pleased. On the cross the 
 work of redemption was finished, and all 
 that the Savior has now to do, is to solicit 
 the application to the souls of believers of 
 the pardon which he has already procured 
 for them by his death. As their King, who 
 has all power in heaven and on earth com- 
 mitted to him, and who sways the sceptre 
 of universal dominion, he regards his people 
 in their weak and defenceless condition ; 
 protects them from the violence of their 
 enemies that beset them on every side, and 
 procures for them in the end a triumph 
 over every foe within and without. On the 
 
SERMON NINTH. 189 
 
 neck of the enemies of the Christian the 
 Lion of the tribe of Judah will at length 
 tread. Satan himself shall be bruised be- 
 neath his feet, and all that now rise up 
 against them shall be forced to lick the dust. 
 I observe, once more, that the Savior is 
 altogether lovely in his works — I mean his 
 works of nature and of grace. He formed 
 the heavens, which declare his glory, and 
 the firmament, which showeth forth his han- 
 diwork. For hy Min^ says the Apostle, were 
 all things created that are in heaven, and that 
 are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they 
 be thrones, or dominions y or p'incipalities, or 
 powers ; all things ivere created by him, and 
 for him, and he is before all things, and by 
 him all things consist. The Universe owns 
 him as her God. He controls the winds 
 and the waves. He is the Creator, the 
 Preserver, and Governor of this vast system 
 of worlds, of angels and of men, of things 
 animate and inanimate. Nor is this all ; for, 
 continues the Apostle, he is the Head of the 
 body, the Church : ivho is the beginning, the 
 
190 SERMON NINTH. 
 
 first horn from the dead; that in all things he 
 might have the pre-eminence : for it pleased 
 the Father that in him should all fulness 
 dxmll: and having made peace through the 
 blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things 
 unto himself; by him, I say, ivhether they he 
 things in earth, or things in heaven. He is 
 not only the Creator of the heaven and the 
 earth, but he is the Contriver of the won- 
 derful scheme of man's redemption — a 
 scheme which contributes more to the illus- 
 trations of the Divine perfections than every 
 thing else that God has done. It is by the 
 Church, as the Apostle teaches, that the 
 manifold wisdom of God is exhibited, not 
 only to men, but to the principalities and 
 powers that are in heavenly places. It is 
 here, by the Church, that the wisdom and 
 grace of the Redeemer are seen, in baffling 
 the devices of the Adversary, in rescuing 
 the souls of men, which he had made his 
 prey, fromx his iron grasp; in delivering them 
 from the curse and dominion of sin, and re- 
 storing them to the image and favor of God. 
 
SERMON NINTH. 191 
 
 In the doctrines and precepts, in the ordi- 
 nances, the institution and the worship of 
 the Church, is seen the surpassing loveUness 
 of the Savior. The holy on earth, and all the 
 holy in heaven, admire, and even the devils 
 that tremble, perceive, the beauty and the 
 glory of the Redeemer that shone through 
 these works of his hand. He is altogether 
 lovely; lovely in his person; lovely in his 
 office ; lovely in his attributes ; lovely in his 
 ivorks*; lovely in the doctrines, the preceps, 
 the ordinances, the institutions, and the icor- 
 ship of his house. He is lovely when view- 
 ed as leaving the bosom of the Father; 
 lovely as the Babe of Bethlehem; lovely 
 when going about doing good ; lovely in the 
 miracles which he wrought, and in the in- 
 struction which he gave ; lovely as the man 
 of sorrows and acquainted with grief; lovely 
 as he appeared on the mount of transfigura- 
 tion, when his raiment became white and 
 glistening, and his face shone as the sun ; 
 lovely in the garden, and lovely on the 
 cross. In a word,, he was lovely in his hu- 
 
192 SERMON NINTH. 
 
 miliation, and is lovely in his exaltation. In 
 heaven his worth is known, and the homage 
 is rendered to him that is his due. There 
 are around him an innumerable company 
 of angels, and the General Assembly and 
 Church of the first born which are written 
 in heaven. There are the redeemed out of 
 every kindred, and tongue, and people, and 
 nation; the Cherubim and Seraphim that 
 veil their faces in his presence and cast 
 their crowns at his feet. But all this could 
 not be if the Savior were not altogether 
 lovely — altogether I There is more in this 
 expression than the careless and superficial 
 observer will be apt to notice. It implies 
 the absence of every imperfection, and the 
 possession of every possible excellence. Of 
 course, to be altogether lovely, the Savior 
 must be endued with a nature that is Divine. 
 He must be Immanuel, God with us. Were 
 not this the case, his presence in heaven 
 could never have occasioned such a thrill 
 of joy, nor have drawn from the ranks of 
 the redeemed such a burst of applause ; nor, 
 
SERMON NINTH. 193 
 
 least of all, when the Father brought his 
 First-begotten into the world, would he have 
 given commandment to all the angels to 
 worship him. A distinction so peculiar im- 
 plies a nature that is Divine^ and if Jesus be 
 not equal with God, all heaven is wholly 
 given to idolatry. But since the Lord Je- 
 sus thus receives the ascriptions of " honor 
 and majesty" from all that dwell above, and 
 from all the holy that dwell on earth, how 
 vitiated and perverted must be the taste of 
 those who can perceive in him no beauty. 
 It is a vitiated taste that can despise or that 
 can lightly esteem the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 To hold him in low estimation is to be 
 blind to the perception of moral excellence. 
 It is to have eyes, and see not. It augurs a 
 criminal defect in the organs of spiritual 
 vision ; a disordered state of the soul ; a 
 sensual and grovelling mind ; a deep-rooted 
 dislike of holiness, and a rancorous enmity 
 against God. He, says the Savior, that de- 
 spiseth 7116, despiseth him that sent me. To 
 think meanly of Christ, therefore — to think 
 
194 SERMON NINTH. 
 
 meanly of one who is altogether bvely-^'din 
 object the most attractive which the Uni- 
 verse contains — is to think meanly of vir- 
 tue in its embodied form ; the very con- 
 centration and perfection of moral excel- 
 lence itself It is, in one word, to think 
 meanly of God himself The Lord Jesus 
 Christ, therefore, if I may so speak, is the 
 moral touchstone by which we may test the 
 dispositions and characters of men. If they 
 love him, they love the moral excellence 
 and virtue which God approves. And if 
 they dislike him, it is because their deeds 
 are evil, and devoid of the principles of true 
 virtue; they love darkness rather than light, 
 and vice rather than virtue. If, my dear 
 brethren, the Savior is altogether lovely, he 
 is then altogether, and at all times, deserving 
 of the confidence and affection of his people. 
 There are, however, seasons when he 
 appears to them more lovely and precious 
 than at others. He appears so to them, for 
 example, at the period of their espousals. It 
 is then that the beauties of his character 
 
&ERMON NINTH*. 195 
 
 appear to them in their freshness. There 
 is an interesting novelty in the objects that 
 are presented to their view on being sud- 
 denly translated from the kingdom of dark- 
 ness into the kingdom of God's dear Son; a 
 novelty which excites their surprise, and 
 enkindles within them a glow and a fervor 
 of feeling to which they had previously 
 been strangers. Old things have passed away, 
 and behold all things have hecoyne new. Ex- 
 ercises of this nature, in the language of the 
 Scriptures, have been aptly denominated 
 the first love of Christians ; and an experi- 
 ence of this kind is no more and no less than 
 might reasonably be expected from the new 
 born soul on being ushered, as it were, into 
 a new world, and becoming acquainted with 
 a new and glorious set of objects; a new 
 Bible, a new heaven, a new Savior, and a 
 new God. Happy would it be for Christians 
 could they always retain this lively percep- 
 tion of the loveliness of the Redeemer, and 
 never lose the relish of his beauties. An»- 
 other season when he appears more espe-r 
 
196 SERMON NINTH. 
 
 cially lovely and precious to his people, is 
 when, in obedience to his command, this do 
 in remeiribrance of me, they are seated at the 
 sacramental table, and engaged in com- 
 memorating his dying love. It is then that 
 they have entered the banqueting house of 
 the king, and that his banner over them is 
 love. They find that the entertainment that 
 he has provided for them is a feast of fat 
 things, that he is present to bid them w^ho 
 have on the wedding garment a cordial 
 welcome to his board, and to say to them all, 
 eat, O friends ; drink, yea, drink abundantly, 
 O beloved. Happy would it be for Christians 
 did they carry with them when they go 
 from the table of the Lord the impressions 
 of the loveliness of the Redeemer which 
 they have had while there. Their conver- 
 sation would then oftener be such as be- 
 cometh the Gospel, and the world would 
 take knowledge of them that they had been 
 with Jesus. I shall mention but one other 
 season when the Savior appears to his peo- 
 ple to be invested with peculiar loveliness, 
 
SERMON NINTH. 197 
 
 and that is the season which is before us all, 
 the season when heart and flesh are failino-, 
 O, then, how indescribable the privilege of 
 those who, leaning on the arm of their Be- 
 loved, can say, Fo7' me to live is Christ, and 
 to die is gain. The Lord is nnj she])herd. I 
 shall not imnt. He leadeth me in the paths 
 of righteousness for his names sake. Yea, 
 though I walk through the valley of the shadoic 
 of d£ath Iivill fear no evil, for thou art xmth 
 me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me, 
 O death, where is thy sting! O grave, where 
 is thy victory! The sting of death is sin, 
 and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks 
 he to God who giveth us the victory through 
 our Lord Jesus Christ. If, my dear breth- 
 ren, the Lord Jesus Christ is altogether lovely, 
 then let us love him. But how shall we 
 know that we love him? He has himself 
 told us, if ye love me ye will keep my com- 
 mandments. If we love him we shall strive 
 to honor and obey him; and one thing is 
 certain, we shall not consider his command- 
 ments to be grievous. With cheerfulness 
 
198 SERMON NINTH. 
 
 we shall take his yoke upon us, and we 
 shall find it to be easy and his burden to 
 be light. The daily and hourly concern of 
 our life will be to take up our cross, and 
 denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, to live 
 soberly, righteously, and godly in this present 
 world. If others choose to run into riotous 
 excess, and to trample on the authority of 
 the Son of God, we shall not imitate their 
 example or go with them. At the miscon- 
 duct of the wicked our hearts will be 
 pained within us, and in secret places we 
 shall mourn over the follies of our fellow 
 men, who will not come to Jesus Christ 
 that they may have life. Thus living, ^ve 
 shall endure as seeing him ivho is invisible, 
 whom, having not seen, ye love; in whom, 
 though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye 
 rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. 
 And when he, who is our life, shall appear, then 
 shall ye also appear with him in glory. Be- 
 hold the night is far spent, and the day is at 
 hand. Ijet us, therefore, not sleep as do others, 
 but let us watch and be sober. 
 
SERMON X. 
 
 Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named. 
 Ephesiaiis, 3: 15. 
 
 The original term, which in this passage 
 is rendered family , a distinguished expositor 
 informs us signifies a number of people 
 sprung from one father, and living together 
 in one place. But here it signifies all ra- 
 tional creatures, called the family of God, 
 because they derive their being from him, 
 and are supported by him. In. the verse 
 immediately preceding the text, the Apostle 
 speaks of bowing his knees unto the Father 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ; and some doubts 
 have arisen whether the family spoken of in 
 the text were intended to be represented 
 as named or denominated after the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, or the Father himself Proba- 
 bly the Apostle here meant to be under- 
 stood as speaking of the family of God the 
 Father, inasmuch as the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 
200 SERMON TENTH. 
 
 in the language of the Scripture, is but sel- 
 dom, if ever, exhibited as sustaining to his 
 people the relation of a parent, unless we 
 except that passage in which it is said that 
 he shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, 
 the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the 
 Prince of Peace. God is spoken of in the 
 Scriptures as the Father of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, and Jesus Christ himself as the Son 
 of the Father, and the elder brother of be- 
 lievers, who are denominated the children 
 of the Most High. 
 
 Believers in. the Lord Jesus Christ, both 
 those that are in heaven and those that are 
 now on earth, as well as all others to whom 
 a spiritual existence is yet to be imparted, 
 together, as some have supposed, with the 
 angels, compose that assemblage of blessed 
 intelHgences that are denominated the fa- 
 mily of God ; and of whom, or from whom, it 
 is said in the text that they are all named. 
 We cannot subscribe to the opinion of the 
 writer whose expression was just now quo- 
 ted, and who considers all rational creatures 
 
SERMON TENTH. 201 
 
 as making up the family of God who are 
 alluded to in the text. The spirits of dark- 
 ness that are reserved in everlasting chains 
 unto the judgment of the great day, and all 
 wricked men who have died, or are still 
 living, are rational creatures, but they con- 
 stitute, as we conceive, no part of the fami- 
 ly of God which the Apostle had intended 
 to describe. And, indeed, it is somewhat 
 doubtful whether any other beings than the 
 redeemed of mankind are alluded to in the 
 expression under consideration. At any rate 
 these are unquestionably the beings that are 
 principally intended by the whole family of 
 God in heaven and earth. 
 
 Of these God is the Father, inasmuch as 
 he is the author of their natural and spiritu- 
 al existence. He has breathed into them 
 the breath of life, so that in him they live, 
 and move, and have their being. In this 
 sense he is the Father of all spirits, for from 
 him, even the devils that tremble, derive 
 their being, and on him they are dependent 
 for their continuance in existence. But in 
 
 10 
 
202 SERMON TENTH. 
 
 a higher and more peculiar sense he is the 
 Father of the spirits of the righteous. Bless- 
 ed, says the Apostle, be the God and Father 
 of our Lord Jesus Christy who, according to 
 his abundant mercy^ hath begotten us again 
 to a lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus 
 Christ from the dead. And, says another 
 Apostle, every good gift, and every perfect 
 gift is from above, and cometh down from 
 the Father of lights, with whom is no varia- 
 bleness, neither shadow of turning. Of his 
 own will begat he us with the word of truth, 
 that we should be a kind of first fruits of his 
 creatures, God then is the author of spiri- 
 tual existence to the righteous. And as he 
 originally commanded the light to shine out 
 of darkness, so he hath shined into their 
 hearts, to give them the light of the know- 
 ledge of the glory of himself in the face of 
 Jesus Christ. He hath fashioned their spirits, 
 and impressed upon them his own image, 
 which consists in righteousness and true 
 holiness. 
 
 Between God and the children of his 
 
SERMON TENTH. 203 
 
 grace, therefore, there is a striking resem- 
 blance. They are said to be partakers of 
 the Divine nature. Not that they partake 
 of the Divine essence, or form an integral 
 part of the Godhead; but the meaning is, 
 that in their renovated condition they are 
 possessed of dispositions that are similar to 
 those that belong to the Divine character; 
 dispositions that are produced by the Father 
 of lights, from whom corneth down every 
 good and every perfect gift. Now this hap- 
 py result is brought about agreeably to an 
 established and well known principle which 
 pervades the Divine administration, that 
 every thing that is produced resembles that 
 which produced it. In other words, that 
 like produces like, and whatever is begot- 
 ten resembles that by which it is beo-ot. 
 Hence it is said of the first man, when he 
 had sinned, that he begat a son in his own 
 likeness. He was a sinner himself, and his 
 offspring, as a matter of course, was the 
 same, nothing but a sinner could proceed 
 from him. 
 
204 SERMON TENTH, 
 
 The children of God's grace resemble 
 him in the moral featm-es of their mind. I& 
 he holy, compassionate, and benevolent? so 
 are they. He causes his sun to shine upon 
 the evil and the good, and sends his rain 
 upon the just and the unjust; and so in like 
 manner are they merciful, even as their 
 Father who is in heaven is merciful, forgiv- 
 ing men their trespasses, praying for those 
 that despitefully use them and persecute 
 them; and doing good to the evil and un- 
 thankful without the hope, or the prospect 
 of an earthly remuneration. And as they 
 resemble their Father in heaven, so also 
 they resemble one another. They are re- 
 markable for a family likeness; and are 
 universally distinguished by a strong attach- 
 ment to their Father, and to each other, 
 
 Whosoever, says the Apostle, believeth 
 that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God ; and 
 every one that loveth him that begat, loveth 
 him also that is begotten of him. ' In this 
 expression the Apostle takes it for granted, 
 that every one that is born of God, loves 
 
S.ERMON TENTH. 205 
 
 God. And in addition to this, he assures us 
 that a genuine affection for the Father is 
 always accompanied by a sincere and cor- 
 dial attachment to the children of his grace 
 that are begotten of him. By this, he con- 
 tinues, we know that w^e love the children 
 of God, when we love God and keep his 
 commandments. Love to God then is an 
 evidence of love* to Christians, and love to 
 Christians is also an evidence of love to 
 God ; or, in other words, if we love one we 
 shall love both. By this we know that we 
 love the children of God. And by this too, 
 we know that we have passed from death 
 unto life, and consequendy that we love 
 God, because we love the brethren. Here, 
 my brethren, you perceive are all the in- 
 gredients that are necessary to constitute a 
 most delightful and blessed society. God 
 the Father loves his children. All the 
 children love their Father, and love one 
 another. 
 
 The children of God's grace, moreover, 
 universally reverence and obey their Fa- 
 
206 SERMON TENTH. 
 
 ther. An indignity offered to him is re- 
 sented as if offered to themselves. They 
 feel a tender solicitude for the honor of his 
 name, and are grieved whenever they per- 
 ceive that that respect is withheld from him 
 which they devoutly render themselves, and 
 which they know to be his due. Listen to 
 the language of one of these affectionate 
 children of the Most Hiorh., Do not I hate 
 them, O Lord, that hate thee; and am not I 
 grieved with those that rise up against thee. 
 I hate them with perfect hatred. I count 
 them mine enemies. Nor was David alone 
 in the honest indignation which he express- 
 ed against those that rise up against God. 
 Others of his children feel as he did when 
 God their Father is dishonored. Rivers of 
 waters run down their eyes because men 
 keep not his law. It grieves them to wit- 
 ness the profanation of his name, of his Sab- 
 bath, and his sanctuary. The prayer which 
 they incessantly and fervently oflfer up is, 
 Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed 
 be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will 
 
SERMON TENTH. 207 
 
 be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Send 
 out thy light and thy truth, and take to 
 thyself thy great power, and visit all na- 
 tions with thy salvation. Let the people 
 praise thee, O God, let all the people praise 
 thee. 
 
 These children of God's grace resemble 
 each other, and evince their reverence for 
 their Father by paying the most scrupulous 
 attention to all the law^s which he has 
 enacted for the government of his house- 
 hold. His commandments are not grievous 
 to them, but pleasant; and the obedience 
 which they render to them is neither par- 
 tial nor constrained, but cheerful and im- 
 plicit. I love thy commandments, says one 
 of them, (and he expresses the sentiment 
 of all the rest,) I love thy commandments 
 above gold, yea, above fine gold. There- 
 fore I esteem all thy precepts concerning 
 all things to be right, and I hate every false 
 w^ay. I have sworn, and I will perform it, 
 that I will keep thy righteous judgments. 
 O, how love I thy law! It is my meditation 
 
208 SERMON TENTH. 
 
 all the day. How sweet are thy words 
 unto my taste; yea, sweeter than honey to 
 my mouth. This is the language of filial 
 affection and obedience — an obedience you 
 will observe, that is universal in its charac- 
 ter and that extends to all the precepts of 
 the Divine word. 
 
 If we had time, we might point out and 
 expatiate on a variety of other interesting 
 traits in which the children of God resem- 
 ble each other. We might speak of their 
 humility, their meekness, their self-denial, 
 their repentance, their faith, their docility, 
 their love of truth and justice, their spiritu- 
 ality, their zeal, their devotion, their satis- 
 faction with the allotments of Providence, 
 and their entire and unconditional submis- 
 sion to the will of their heavenly Father. 
 But at present we can only advert to these 
 topics, and leave them for our hearers to 
 pursue in their reflections. 
 
 Enough, however, we imagine has alrea- 
 dy been said to lead us, if we are properly 
 disposed, to admire the wonderful love 
 
SERMOX TENTH. 209 
 
 W 
 
 •hich God the Father has displayed in 
 rearing up to himself a spiritual family that 
 shall be for ever to the praise and glory of 
 his grace. It was when filled with this 
 transporting thought that the Apostle ex- 
 claimed, Behold what manner of love the 
 Father hath bestowed upon us, that tee 
 should be called the sons of God. We, who 
 were once buried in sin and laid at hell's 
 dark door. We, whose father was an Amo- 
 rite, and whose mother was a Hittite. We, 
 who were aliens from the commonwealth of 
 Israel, and strangers from the covenants of 
 promise, enemies to God by wicked works, 
 rebels against his government, and fighting 
 in opposition to him under the banner of 
 the prince of the power of the air, actively 
 and to the utmost engaged in advancing the 
 old serpent's cause. That ive should have 
 been rescued from our degraded and guilty 
 condition, adopted into the family of heaven, 
 and called the sons of God, may well excite 
 both our admiration and our gratitude. 
 Eehold what manner of love is this. Truely 
 
 10* 
 
210 SERMON TENTH. 
 
 herein is love, not that we loved God, but 
 that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the 
 propitiation for our sins, and not for ours 
 only, but also for the sins of the whole 
 world. For the ivhole ivorld, that is, for all 
 the nations of mankind, for Gentiles as well 
 as for Jews. This expression of the Apos- 
 tle naturally leads us to remark that the 
 family of the redeemed will be a nume- 
 rous one. 
 
 They are said to be redeemed out of 
 every kindred, and tongue, and people, and 
 nation ; and when ultimately gathered to- 
 gether they will constitute a multitude which 
 no man can number. They shall come 
 from the east, and from the west, from the 
 north, and from the south, and shall sit down 
 with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the 
 kingdom of God. There will be seen the 
 worthies who lived before the flood. The 
 patriarchs and their descendants who died 
 previously to the advent of Christ. The 
 Apostles, together with the immense con- 
 course that were converted through their 
 
SERMOX TENTH. 211 
 
 instrumentality daring the first age of Chris- 
 tianity. The witnesses of the truth that 
 have been slain for the word of God daring 
 the reign of Antichrist. The blessed re- 
 formers, and the thousands that were brought 
 by their labors from darkness to light, and 
 from the power of satan unto God, The 
 millions that in later times have experienced 
 the efficacy of Divine truth, and the still 
 greater company that will probably be gath- 
 ered into the fold of Christ during the thou- 
 sand years in which satan is to be bound, 
 and the knowledge of God shall cover the 
 earth as the waters do the sea. All these 
 must of necessity compose a numerous 
 family. 
 
 It will also be an united and harmonious 
 family. Though collected from different 
 quarters of the earth, and selected from na- 
 tions of different manners and habits, their 
 peculiarities in the heavenly world will be 
 thrown aside, and there will be neither 
 Greek nor Jew, Barbarian, Scythian, bond, 
 nor free, but all will be one in Christ; they 
 
212 SERMON TENTH. 
 
 will have one Lord, one faith, one spirit, 
 and one aim. Sectarian animosities will 
 cease. The Albion and the Ethiopian will 
 sit down together at the marriage supper of 
 the Lamb, and the virtuous and sincere of all 
 nations and denominations will see eye to 
 eye, and walk hand in hand. 
 
 We remark still farther, that that fa- 
 mily will be an honorable and respecta- 
 ble one. 
 
 " Not all the nobles of the earth, 
 
 " Who boast the honors of their birth, 
 
 "Such real dignity can claim, 
 
 "As those that bear the Christian name," 
 
 Theirs is the dignity of the sons of God. 
 No matter how despised they may have 
 been on the earth. If with the heart they 
 have believed unto righteousness, they are 
 heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus 
 Christ. For them a kingdom and crowns 
 of glory are prepared. They are the sons 
 and daughters of the Lord Almighty; and 
 though it doth not yet appear what they 
 shall be, yet we know that w^hen he who is 
 
SERMON TENTH. 213 
 
 their life shall appear, they also shall appear 
 with him in glory. Great honor awaits the 
 children of God ; an honor compared with 
 which the glory of earthly kings will fade 
 into insignificance and nothmg. 
 
 How many, think you, my brethren, are 
 there in this assembly who belong to the 
 family of God? Certainly not all. There 
 is another family than that which we have 
 been speaking of, to which many of man- 
 kind belong. A family of which God is 
 not the Father. And what family is thisl 
 The family of the wicked. And who is its 
 father] The father of Hes. These two 
 families are diametrically, inveterately, and 
 will be eternally opposed to each other. 
 They are as different from each other as 
 light and darkness, as sin and holiness, as 
 heaven and hell. 
 
 The Aposde calls this family of the 
 wicked the children of disobedience, and 
 their father the prince of the power of the 
 air; the spirit that worketh in these diso- 
 bedient children, who walk according to 
 
214 SERMON TENTH. 
 
 the course of this world. To the same 
 family the Savior had reference when he 
 said to the unbelieving Jews who were 
 members of it, while they fancied that God 
 was their Father, Ye are of your father the 
 devil, and the lusts of your father ye will 
 do; he was a murderer from the beginning, 
 and abode not in the truth, because there 
 is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, 
 he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar, and 
 the father of it. This is the father of all 
 wricked men. They are his children, and 
 they make up his family. 
 
 Now are there any among us who are 
 desirous of knowing with which of these 
 families they are connected ? The point is 
 important, and is one that it is by no means 
 impossible to determine. If we belong to 
 the family of the wicked, we may know it 
 by our walking according to the course of 
 this world ; by our disobedience to the 
 commandments of heaven, by our dislike of 
 Christians, and by our hatred of God and 
 holiness, which is manifested by our prayer- 
 
SERMON TENTH. 215 
 
 lessness, and our contempt of things sacred. 
 If these marks are upon us, we belong to 
 the father of lies. And so on the other 
 hand, if we belong to the family of God, we 
 love and keep his commandments. We 
 love him and love the brethren, and .our 
 hearts' desire and prayer is, that his name 
 may be hallowed, that his kingdom may 
 come, and his will be done on earth as it is 
 in heaven. We are meek, humble, peni- 
 tent, self-denied, docile, just, patient and 
 submissive. We are aware, my brethren, 
 how difficult it is to persuade men to be- 
 lieve that they are the children of the wick- 
 ed one. Their feelings revolt from the idea 
 of such a connection. It, therefore, be- 
 hoves us on this point to beware of self-de- 
 ception. The devil is the father of a more 
 numerous family than we are apt to ima- 
 gine. And not a few, we have reason to 
 think, claim a relationship with God, and 
 say to him, Our Father who art in heaven, 
 who with much greater propriety might say, 
 Our father who art in helL Not every one 
 
216 SERMON TENTH. 
 
 that saith unto me Lord, Lord, shall enter 
 into the kingdom of heaven ; hut he that do- 
 eth the will of my Father lohich is in heaven. 
 Many icill say to me in that day, Lord, 
 Lord, have ive not propliesied in thy name ? 
 and in thy name have cast out devils ? and in 
 thy name done many iwnderful ivorks 1 And 
 then will I pj'ofess unto them, I never knew 
 you : depart from me, ye that work iniquity ! 
 Ye are of your father the devil, and the 
 lusts of your father ye will do. He was a 
 murderer from the beginning, and abode 
 not in the truth, because there is no truth in 
 him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh 
 of his own ; for he is a liar and the father 
 of it. Children of disobedience, and chil- 
 dren of the wicked one, we exhort and in- 
 treat you to abandon the service of Satan, 
 whose wages are death. Your case though 
 deplorable, is not entirely hopeless. Others 
 have belonged to the family of the wicked 
 one, who have left it and united with the 
 family of God. Indeed, among the children 
 of the wicked one, all who are now the 
 
SERMON TENTH. 217 
 
 children of God once had their conversa- 
 tion, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and 
 of the mind ; and were by nature the chil- 
 dren of wrath, even as others. Once they 
 were not a people, but are now the people 
 of God. But they have been washed, they 
 have been sanctified, they are justified m 
 the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the 
 spirit of our God. And so you may be. 
 Let, then, the ivicked forsake his iimj, and the 
 unrighteous inan his thoughts : and let him 
 return unto the Lord, and he ivill have mercy 
 upon him ; and to our God, for he will ahun- 
 dantly pardon. 
 
SERMON XL 
 
 The secret things belong- unto the Lord our God : but those 
 things which are revealed belong unto us and to our chil- 
 dren for ever, that we may do all the words of this law. 
 —Deut. 29 : 29, 
 
 It is an attainment of no inconsiderable 
 importance, to be able to determine the ex- 
 act limits by which our inquiries on religi- 
 ous subjects should be bounded, to tell to 
 what extent they may lawfully and properly 
 be carried, and beyond which it is folly and 
 presumption to attempt to go. 
 
 There are some things relating to the 
 character and purposes of God, which finite 
 minds are wholly unable to fathom ; and 
 resjiecting which, he has seen fit to observe 
 a profound silence. He alone, who was in 
 the bosom of the Father, is, or ought to be, 
 acquainted with them. The more they are 
 contemplated by short-sighted mortals, the 
 more obscure their conceptions of them will 
 
SERMON ELEVENTH. 219 
 
 become, and in the same proportion that 
 their researches are increased, their per- 
 plexities will be multiplied. 
 
 A large proportion of the controversies 
 that have distracted and disgraced the 
 Christian church, and which have minister- 
 ed questions rather than godly edifying 
 which is in faith, have arisen from a dispo- 
 sition in men to exercise themselves in mat- 
 ters that are too high for them. They have 
 vainly attempted to be wise above what is 
 written ; to pry into things which God in- 
 tended should be hid ; and which, if he had 
 revealed, their stinted capacities could not 
 comprehend. The things which they can 
 understand, and which they ought to know, 
 they often leave for things into which it is 
 worse than useless for them to endeavor to 
 pry. Worse than useless, in the first place, 
 because it is affronting to God, and in the 
 next, it tends both to darken their own 
 minds, and to puff" them up with a ground- 
 less conceit of their fancied abilities. 
 
 It is designed in this discourse to notice 
 
220 SERMON ELEVENTH. 
 
 some of those secret things which belong 
 unto God, and into which men, in the in- 
 dulgence of an idle and presumptuous curi- 
 osity often attempt to pry ; and also to en- 
 force an attention to those thinos which are 
 plainly revealed in the word of God, and 
 which we are specially concerned in en- 
 deavoring to study and understand. 
 
 I. Some of those secret things which 
 belong unto God, and into which it is wrong 
 to pry. 
 
 1. The first j^articular I shall mention, 
 in which men are inclined to transoress, is 
 the purpose of God respecting their destiny 
 in the present and future world. I here 
 speak of a knowledge of their destiny, 
 which they are desirous of acquiring inde- 
 pendantly of Divine revelation, and which 
 is a matter of direct communication, instead 
 of implication ; a deduction, which results 
 from a comparison of their experience and 
 conduct with the law and the testimony. 
 
 This latter method, when adopted, of 
 coming to a conclusion respecting our pros- 
 
SERMON ELEVENTH. 221 
 
 pects for the present and future world, as 
 far as it is necessary and proper for us to 
 have any acquaintance with them, is both 
 safe and allowable ; but with this, the per- 
 sons of whom I am speaking are not satis- 
 fied ; and in their anxiety to know what is 
 to befal them, like Saul, they resort to di- 
 vinations p.nd enchantments, and yield them- 
 selves up to the delusions of soothsayers and 
 pretended fortune-tellers, who claim to have 
 intercourse with invisible or familiar spirits, 
 and to be endued with the faculty of fore- 
 telling events. 
 
 The period of superstition, when prac- 
 tices of this nature were common with the 
 inhabitants of this now enlightened land, has 
 not long since gone by ; and, indeed, at the 
 present moment, there are to be found in 
 many places the relics of this absurd and 
 unscriptural belief in witchcraft and its kin- 
 dred illusions. There are not a few now, 
 who, in even this highly favored land, which, 
 perhaps, is surpassed in its light and privi- 
 leges by no other portion of the Christian 
 
222 SERMON ELEVENTH. 
 
 world or of tlie globe ; not a few, even now, 
 who occasionally see, or fancy they see, 
 something like S|)ectres and apparitions ; 
 who hear warning voices, and have wonder- 
 ful revelations, as they pretend or imagine, 
 in dreams and visions of the night, or in some 
 other more frightful method of communica- 
 tions. With these persons the rustling of 
 a leaf, the mewing of a cat, or the howling 
 of a dog, are oftentimes taken for unfailing- 
 omens of the near approach of some dread- 
 ful disaster. 
 
 There is a strong and powerful tenden- 
 cy in the human mind to vain forebodings 
 and superstitious practices. Some wish to 
 know how long they are to live, and how 
 rich, and prosperous, and happy they shall 
 be ; and others, in their ungovernable de- 
 sires, if it w^ere possible, would unrol the 
 book of life, to ascertain whether their 
 names are written in it or not. But these 
 are all secret things which belong unto God, 
 and which we sin in attempting to know in 
 any other way than we can come at the 
 
SERMOX ELEVENTH. 
 
 223 
 
 knowledge of tliem by the developement of 
 the Divine purposes in the dispensations of 
 Providence; or, as was before stated, by a 
 comparison of our experience and conduct 
 with the declarations of the written word. 
 We have no ability, and no right to see a 
 single inch into futurity ; and God gives us 
 no certain knowledge of futurity except 
 through the medium of his vrritten word, 
 
 2. Another of the secret things which 
 belong unto God, and into which men pre- 
 sumptuously attempt to pry, is the free 
 agency of man in connection with the de- 
 crees and purposes of God. 
 
 If he, from eternity, had a knowledge of 
 every being that exists, and every event 
 that takes place, and has foreordained what- 
 soever comes to pass; how, it is asked, can 
 this foreknowledge and foreordination con- 
 sist with the freedom of the human will ; or 
 in other words, how can men be free agents I 
 We answer very easily, here let it be ob- 
 served that a perfect reconcilement of the 
 difficulties that grow out of this subject, lays 
 
224 SERMON ELEVENTH. 
 
 beyond the reach of human abiHty, and is a 
 secret which God alone can fully explain or 
 understand. The two proj)ositions, how- 
 ever, that God's purposes extend to all events, 
 and that men are free agents, when consi- 
 dered distinctly and a part from each other, 
 are not only comprehensible, but susceptible 
 of proof the most demonstrative and unde- 
 niable. 
 
 The first, viz. that God's purposes ex- 
 tend to all events, must be true, or it will 
 necessarily follow, if false, that God is far 
 from being infinite in perfection ; things 
 may and do take place under his adminis- 
 tration of which he had no foresight, and 
 wdiich must consequently both surprise and 
 disappoint him. But disappointment in the 
 counsels of the Eternal would produce un- 
 happiness, unhappiness would imply imper- 
 fection. Either, then, the Deity has fixed 
 purposes, or he is an imperfect Being ; but 
 this is derogatory to the character of the 
 Deity, and is manifestly absurd. And so 
 also, the other proposition that men are free 
 
SERMON ELEVENTH. 225 
 
 agents, is not only capable of ample support 
 on the ground of reason, but includes difacf^ 
 which all believe, and which they cannot 
 disbelieve if they try ; for it is a matter of 
 •sensation and feeling, as well as of logical 
 deduction. 
 
 Every man in his senses feels, and is fully 
 conscious, that he is free, and it is in vain 
 for any one to attempt to divest him of this 
 consciousness by telling him that all his 
 mental and corporeal exercises are merely 
 mechanical, and that he has no power to act, 
 or to choose and refuse. This all men know, 
 and this is enough for them to know respect- 
 ing the purposes of God, and the free agen- 
 cy of his intelligent creatures. Separately 
 considered then, the two propositions we 
 have mentioned are undeniable ; but w^hen 
 w^e attempt to connect them together, there 
 is a link in the chain which is out of mortal 
 sight; something of which our limited ca- 
 pacities cannot grasp. But things which 
 are true when apart, are true when put 
 
 together ; and if we cannot reconcile them, 
 11 
 
J226 SERMON ELEVENTH. 
 
 that is no proof that they are irreconcil- 
 able. 
 
 God worketh all things after the counsel 
 of his own will ; works in his people that 
 which is well pleasing in his sight, and yet 
 they themselves work out their own salva- 
 tion with fear and trembling, and agreeably 
 to his own determination are free, perfectly 
 free ; free, because it is a part of the Divine 
 purpose itself, that they shall be free ; free, 
 because, if they were not, they would nei- 
 ther be moral agents, nor accountable beings, 
 nor could the Almighty in consistency and 
 propriety judge them for their conduct at 
 the last day. God then has fixed purposes ; 
 men are free agents ; but how and where- 
 fore it is so, is a secret which to finite minds 
 is unfathomable. 
 
 3. Another of the secret things which 
 belong unto God, and into which men pre- 
 sumptuously attempt to pry, is the Divine 
 determination in relation to the salvation of 
 the heathen world, and the future condition 
 of those who die in infancy. The question 
 
SERMON ELEVENTH. 227 
 
 is often asked, will all the heathen nations 
 who have lived and died without the Gos- 
 pel perish 1 That most of them will, seems 
 impliedly, at least, to be taught in the Bible. 
 The Bible, after descanting the practices 
 of the heathen world, says, that they who 
 commit such things are worthy of death. 
 It also declares that he that believeth not, 
 shall be damned ; and asks, how shall they 
 call on him in whom they have not believ- 
 ed, and how shall they believe in him of 
 whom they have not heard, and how shall 
 they hear without a preacher 1 So, then, 
 faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the 
 word of God. But most of the heathens 
 neither believe nor hear the word of God ; 
 consequently, if he that believeth not shall 
 be damned, they must and will perish. In- 
 deed, if most of the heathens do not perish, 
 the gospel is a disadvantage and a curse to 
 those who have it ; for here in Christian 
 lands it is notorious and palpable, that a 
 vast majority are thronging the broad way. 
 Indeed, if most of the heathens do not perish, 
 
228 SERMON ELEVENTH. 
 
 all efforts to send the gospel to them, it 
 would seem, might better cease at once. 
 
 Most of the heathens, then, we think 
 that the Scriptures authorize in concluding, 
 will be lost. But whether they will all 
 perish — whether in the boundless wisdom 
 and compassion of God, some hidden com- 
 munication of his grace may not be made to 
 a portion of them, is a point which we leave 
 among the secret things which belong unto 
 God. The Judge of all the earth will do 
 with them as he pleases, and in so doing 
 will do right: nor are we to perplex our- 
 selves, and to be over curious with specula- 
 tions about their salvation. It would be 
 wiser for us to be attempting to save our 
 own souls, than to be curiously and vainly 
 employed in inquiring whether all of them 
 will be lost. 
 
 Concerning the future condition of those 
 who die in infancy, too, it is not unfrequently 
 asked, will all or any of them be lost ? Will 
 all or any who die at that tender age be 
 lost? If this be the interrogatory which 
 
SERMON ELEVENTH. 229 
 
 any are disposed to put to us, we have only 
 to reply to them, we cannot telL Your 
 inquiry respects the secret things which be- 
 long unto God, and of which we have no 
 right to be informed. The revelation which 
 God has given, he has designed specially for 
 adults, who have arrived at years of discre- 
 tion, and who are, therefore, to be treated 
 and addressed as moral agents. God has 
 told us what he will do with them ; but he 
 has not explicitly informed us what he will 
 do wnth infants. For the consolation of 
 pious parents, he has, however, given us to 
 understand, as we think, that to their infant 
 seed the seal of the everlasting covenant is 
 to be applied ; and has kindly and gracious- 
 ly said. Suffer little children to come unto 
 me and forbid them not, for of such is the 
 kingdom of heaven; that is, such are to 
 compose a part of the visible church, and if 
 fit subjects for the visible church on earth, it 
 is presumable that som£, at least, of them 
 will be admitted to the kingdom of heaven 
 above. Possibly this may be the des- 
 
230 SERMON ELEVENTH. 
 
 tiny of most (especially of those) who are 
 descended from believing parents, and are 
 early given to God in baptism ; and possibly 
 this may be the destiny of all who die in 
 infancy. 
 
 The Scriptures are mostly, if not alto- 
 gether silent on this subject, and in this dis- 
 tinguishing feature of Divine revelation we 
 can hardly fail, if we reflect, to descry and 
 admire the wisdom, as well as the goodness 
 of God. For, suppose it were revealed that 
 all who die in infancy will be lost, with what 
 anguish would the parental bosom be torn, 
 when afflictions of this nature occurred 1 
 Well then might all bereaved fathers and 
 mothers, like Rachel, be seen weeping for 
 their children, and refusing to be comforted, 
 not only because they were not, but because 
 they were consigned over to remediless des- 
 truction ; and on the other hand, suppose it 
 were revealed that all who die in infancy will 
 be saved — the wish of paternal bosoms would 
 then be that their offspring might experience 
 a premature dissolution, and thus be released 
 
SERMON ELEVENTH. 231 
 
 from the hazard of at last dying in im- 
 penitency, if suffered to reach the years of 
 maturity. In their anxiety to secure the 
 future happiness of their children, they might 
 be tempted to neglect the means that are 
 necessary for the prolongation of their lives, 
 and thus interfere with the designs of Pro- 
 vidence in the continuance of the human 
 species. 
 
 We distinctly perceive then, that God 
 has left this subject precisely v^'here it is 
 wisest and best it should be ; and with this 
 arrangement it is our duty to be satisfied. 
 On this article I have but one idea more to 
 express, and it is this. If infants are lost, 
 no doubt their condemnation will be a con- 
 sequence of their defilement by reason of 
 sin, with which, it is well known, they are 
 all infected, in as much as they have pro- 
 ceeded from an unholy stock; or if they are 
 saved, their salvation will be owing entirely to 
 the atonement of Christ, for there is no other 
 name, nor any other way, by which any of the 
 guilty descendants of Adam, young or old, 
 
232 SERMON ELEVENTH. 
 
 can be admitted to the mansions of bliss* 
 Our belief is, that as infants are, ivithout tJieir 
 hnoivledge, partakers of the condemnation in 
 Adam; so are they again received unto grace 
 in Christ: as God speaketh mito Abraham, 
 the father of all the faithful, and therefore 
 unto us and our children, Gen. 17:7, saying, 
 "I w^ill establish my convenant between me 
 and thee, and thy seed after thee, in their 
 generations, for an everlastiug covenant; to 
 be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after 
 thee." 
 
 4. A fourth particular, which we include, 
 of the secret things which belong unto God, 
 and into which men presumptuously attempt 
 to pry, respects the introduction of moral 
 evil into our world : the inquiry often springs 
 up in the human mind. Why did God per- 
 mit sin to enter our world, when he might 
 have prevented it? And how could he per- 
 mit it, and have a fixed purpose concerning 
 its existence, and yet consider the perpetra- 
 tors of it as guilty, and deserving of punish- 
 ment? Now it is easy to see that these in- 
 
SERMON ELEVENTH. 233 
 
 quiries extend to the secret things which 
 belong unto God. Why sin has been suffered, 
 by a God who is infinitely wise and good, 
 to deluge and desolate our earth, is an in- 
 quiry, to which folly alone will attempt to 
 render a full and explicit reply, and he, 
 who, when it is put to him, lays his hand 
 upon his mouth, and humbly prostrates him- 
 self in the dust, takes the position, and dis- 
 covers the disposition, which of all others 
 is the most becoming in a short-sighted 
 sinner. 
 
 Of the fact, that sin has entered our 
 world, none in the enjoyment of his reason 
 can be ignorant. But with the how and the 
 wherefore, it is not our concern to be made 
 acquainted, since to arrest the progress of 
 this dreadful disorder, that has seized on our 
 souls with such violence, and to make an 
 escape from the wrathful storm and tempest 
 to which it has exposed us, is the subject 
 that should now absorb our whole attentioru 
 Each one of Adam's race then, for himself 
 should exclaim, my soul is all over defiled 
 
234 SERMON ELEVENTH. 
 
 with the leprosy of sin. O Lord, if thou 
 wilt, thou canst make me clean. 
 
 But while it is true, that there are many 
 things connected with the introduction of sin 
 into the world, which we cannot explain or 
 understand, it is remembered, at the same 
 time, that there are others which we can, 
 and on which we are at liberty both to think 
 and to speak. By means of the evil of sin, 
 which has entered our world, we know, and 
 are permitted to say, that an opportunity 
 has been furnished for the most illustrious 
 display of some of the perfections of the Di- 
 vine character, in the restoration of fallen 
 man, and in creating all things anew by Je- 
 sus Christ, of which his intelligent creatures 
 would not otherwise have had so vivid a per- 
 ception. With this knowledge it behoves us 
 at present to be content, and to cherish the 
 assurance, that the plan of redemption will 
 finally be found to have brought glory to God 
 in the highest, and to have resulted in the 
 greatest possible amount of happiness to his 
 intelligent universe. 
 
SERMON ELEVENTH. 235 
 
 5. The last particular we shall notice, 
 that is included amonoj the secret things 
 that belong unto God, and into which men 
 presumptuously attempt to pry, relates to 
 the mode of the Divine subsistence, or the 
 doctrine of the Trinity. 
 
 The Scriptures inform us, that there 
 are three that bear record in heaven ; the 
 Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and 
 that these three are one. In other words, 
 the Sacred Scriptures distinctly teach us 
 the doctrine of the Trinity, or that there 
 are three persons in one God, all of whom 
 are equal in power, wasdom and glory ; not 
 that they are three different and indepen- 
 dant beings, but three different and distinct 
 persons, of the same nature and perfections, 
 and ineffably united, as theologians express 
 it, in one undivided essence. Such is the 
 mode of Divine subsistence under which 
 God has seen fit to reveal himself to his 
 creatures, now while it is abundantly mani- 
 fest, that in this doctrine of a Trinity in 
 Unity, there is nothing that is contranj ta 
 
236 SERMON ELEVENTH. 
 
 reason, there is much that is infinitely 
 above it. Human reason can neither dis- 
 cover it, nor fathom the discovery when 
 made. All explanations and illustrations 
 which have ever been attempted, have 
 proved too feeble and insufficient to bring 
 the immeasurable theme within the scope 
 of created comprehension ; and probably it 
 is not saying too much to assert, that no be* 
 ing but God himself is capable of compre- 
 hending the nature and mode of the Divine 
 subsistence. Hence sung the immortal- 
 Christian bard, 
 
 " The more of wonderful is heard in him, 
 " The more we should assent. 
 " Could we but comprehend him, 
 " God he could not be : 
 " Or he could not be God, 
 " Or we could not be men r 
 ' " A God alone can comprehend a God." 
 
 That mystery should be involved in the 
 revelation which the Infinite mind gives of 
 himself, it might be presumed beforehand, 
 would be necessary and absolutely unavoid- 
 able. Mystery pervades the whole of the 
 
SERMON ELEVENTH. 237 
 
 innumerable works of his wonder-working 
 hand. In every spear of grass, in every 
 plant, and in every animal and insect which 
 he has formed, and especially in man, who 
 is possessed of a body and a soul which are 
 closely united, and who is wonderfully and 
 fearfully made, there are mysteries which 
 no finite intelligencies can fully solve. Let 
 us cease, then, to w^onder that by searching 
 we are unable to find out the Almighty unto 
 perfection. It is as high as heaven ; what 
 canst thou do? deeper than hell; what canst 
 thou know ? The measure thereof is longer 
 than the earth, and broader than the sea. 
 
 II. In the second place, we are to notice 
 some of those things which are plainly re- 
 vealed in the word of God, and which we 
 are specially concerned in endeavoring to 
 study and understand. 
 
 The revelation which God has been 
 pleased to give us in the holy Scriptures 
 consists of two parts of doctrines and pre- 
 cepts. The former relates more particu- 
 
238 SERMON ELEVENTH. 
 
 larly to what we are to believe, and the lat- 
 ter to what we are to practice. 
 
 1. The doctrines of Divine revelation, 
 though beyond the reach of human foresight 
 to discern, are made known with so much 
 clearness in the Bible, that every thing ne- 
 cessary to be understood concerning them, 
 may easily be comprehended by persons of 
 the most ordinary capacities ; and most of 
 them admit of so thorough an establishment 
 on the principles of reason, and are so en- 
 tirely in accordance with experience, obser- 
 vation, and facts, that ignorance of them 
 must be wholly wilful and utterly without 
 excuse. 
 
 Take for example the doctrine of hu- 
 man depravity, which is a fundamental 
 article of Divine revelation, and lays at the 
 very foundation of all that is correct in reli- 
 gious sentiment or practice ; a doctrine 
 which is implied or expressed on every 
 page of the sacred volume, and where is the 
 child or wayfaring man whose capacity is 
 not adequate to its comprehension ? Who 
 
SERMON ELEVENTH. 239 
 
 that from his own experience may not feel, 
 and from his own observation, does not j)er' 
 ceive its truth \ 
 
 On the nature, necessity, and evidences 
 of regeneration, which is a fundamental 
 doctrine of Divine revelation, the scriptures 
 speak with the utmost precision, and with 
 great frequency. They tell us that it con- 
 sists in the renewing of the Holy Ghost — 
 the putting off the old man, which is corrupt, 
 according to the deceitful lusts, and putting 
 on the new, which, after God, is created in 
 righteousness and true holiness. They tell 
 us that with those that are born of God, old 
 things pass away, and all things become 
 new; that he that is born of God loveth 
 God, and loveth his brother man, and abid- 
 eth in the commandments of Christ ; and to 
 enforce the instructions which they com- 
 municate on these points, they solemnly de- 
 clare that except a man be born again he 
 cannot see the kingdom of God. Now this 
 is all perfectly intelligible. The same, too, 
 may be said of the doctrines of repentance,. 
 
240 SERMON ELEVENTH. 
 
 of faith and a future judgment. Repentance 
 means simply a godly sorrow for sin, such a 
 sorrow as an imperious child feels when 
 made sensible of its guilt in transgressing 
 the commands of a kind and indulgent 
 earthly parent. A sorrow that gives vent 
 to self-reproaches and self-loathing — that is 
 accompanied with a real and heartfelt ha- 
 tred of sin, and a fixed determination in 
 future to forsake it. 
 
 Nor is faith less intelligible. It is a cor- 
 dial and implicit belief in the truth of all 
 that God has spoken ? Abraham believed 
 God, and it was counted to him for righ- 
 teousness. He believed every thing that God 
 said to him. This is faith ; believing every 
 thing that God says to us in the Scriptures. 
 Nor is it a dead, but a vital, an operative, 
 and a transforming principle. It is a faith 
 that acts, that produces fruits that gives real- 
 ity, consistency, nearness and beauty to the 
 objects of the heavenly world. It is the sub- 
 stance of things hoped for, and the evidence 
 of things not seen. 
 
SERMON ELEVENTH. 241' 
 
 Far into distant worlds it pries, 
 And brings eternal glories near. 
 
 It works by love, it purifies the heart, it over- 
 comes the world; for, says the Apostle, this 
 is the victory that overcometh the world, 
 even our faith. 
 
 Nor less intelligible and interesting to 
 us is the doctrine of a future judgment. It 
 is appointed, say the Scriptures, unto all men 
 once to die, but after this the judgment. God 
 will bring every work into judgment, with 
 every secret thing, whether it be good, or 
 whether it be evil. To the declarations of 
 Divine inspiration on this subject conscience 
 adds its decided testimony. We feel an 
 accountableness, and are powerfully con- 
 vinced by the suggestions of this monitor 
 within, that we shall at last have to give an 
 account of our conduct to God. 
 
 2. But again, we have said that the re- 
 velation which God has given us in the sa- 
 cred Scriptures consists of precepts as well 
 as doctrines. Line upon line, and precept 
 upon precept, God has givea us: that is, in 
 
242 SERMON ELEVENTH. 
 
 preceptive instructions the sacred Scriptures 
 are abundant. They furnish a full, a suffi- 
 cient, and infallible directory for faith and 
 practice. Every question relating to our 
 duty, under any imaginable circumstances 
 in which we may be placed, is settled 
 either by express and positive declaration, or 
 by instructions easily and naturally implied. 
 Nor are the precepts of Divine revelation 
 less plain than abundant. A child may 
 comprehend the decalogue or ten com- 
 mandments, which require us to love the 
 Lord our God with all the heart, and mind, 
 and soul and strength, and our neighbor as 
 ourselves. 
 
 Do we not see, then, my brethren, how 
 admirably the wisdom and goodness of God 
 are displayed in adapting the revelation he 
 has given to Jiis creatures, to their condition 
 and capacity ; and how frivolous and un- 
 founded are the objections which some 
 make to it, on the ground of its alleged mys- 
 teriousness. There is nothing in the doc- 
 trines and precepts of the Bible that is 
 
SERMON ELEVENTH. 243 
 
 necessary to be understood, but what may 
 be easily comprehended ; nothing but what 
 is reasonable, and that might naturally be 
 expected, in a communication from the 
 high and lofty One. Nothing at which 
 the knowledge of the wayfaring man may 
 not arrive. 
 
 That in the Bible which is incompre* 
 hensible, is not incredible ; and the distinc- 
 tion between secret things which belong 
 unto God, and with which we are not to 
 intermeddle, and those things which are 
 revealed, and which it particularly concerns 
 us to study and understand, is obvious and 
 palpable. Any one who is desirous of ob- 
 serving the distinction, can make it without 
 difficulty ; and, therefore, if he chooses to 
 wander in the mazes of uncertain and per- 
 plexing conjecture, the fault is his own. 
 
 There are those who are frequently 
 heard to complain, that they cannot under- 
 stand the doctrine of Divine decrees, of 
 election, of predestination, and others of the 
 like nature. Be it so. There is no neces- 
 
244 SERMON ELEVENTH. 
 
 sity for understanding them. With the 
 practical duties of rehgion, the understand- 
 inor of them has nothinp: to do. We can un- 
 derstand the doctrine of regeneration, of 
 repentance towards God, and faith in the 
 Lord Jesus Christ; doctrines which are 
 plainly revealed, which are perfectly intel- 
 ligible, and which it is of infinite importance 
 for us ta beheve and embrace. We can 
 understand the precepts of the Bible, which 
 are given for the regulation of our con- 
 duct; those precepts which require us to 
 love God supremely, and our neighbor as 
 ourselves. We do know what is meant by 
 putting off the old man, and putting on the 
 new; what it is to give God our hearts — to 
 deny ourselves; to take up our cross and 
 to live soberly, and righteously, and godly 
 in this present evil world. 
 
 Let it never be forgotten, my brethren, 
 that, in leading a life of religion, we are to 
 walk by faith and not by sight ; that in the 
 declaration of God's word, we are called on 
 to exercise an implicit confidence, and that 
 
SERMON ELEVENTH. 245 
 
 to this sure word of prophecy we shall do 
 well to take heed, as unto a hght that shin- 
 eth in a dark place, till the day dawn and 
 the day star arise in our own hearts. 
 
 Now we see through a glass darkly, and 
 know but in part ; and could we compre- 
 hend every truth of religion, and look with 
 the eye of sense into the unseen world, it is 
 easy to perceive that no room would be left 
 far the exercise of the faith and patience of 
 the saints, and that the whole design of this 
 probationary state would be completely 
 frustrated. 
 
 Our merciful Creator, it is to be remem- 
 bered, has afforded us all the light w^hich 
 he, in his infinite wisdom, conceived to be 
 for our good, and for his own glory. In- 
 stead, then, of complaining that he has given 
 us no more, let us be thankful that he has 
 given us so rniich. Let us be contented with 
 his allotments. Let us leave him to pursue 
 his own plans, and ceasing to look at those 
 things that are seen and are temjDoral, let 
 us look at those things that are unseen and 
 
246 SERMON ELEVENTH. 
 
 that are eternal. Let us walk by faith, and 
 not by sight ; assured that, under the ad- 
 ministration of the all-wise Disposer of 
 events, the present system of things is tend- 
 ing to a most glorious and blessed result ; 
 and although his path is oftentimes in the 
 great deep, and his footsteps are not seen, 
 let us not give way to despondency or dis- 
 trust. But when perturbed in our spirits 
 by the working of unbelief, let us silence 
 its suggestions by the reflection, that the 
 Judge of all the earth will do right; and 
 laying our hand upon our mouth, and hum- 
 bled in the dust before him, let us be still, 
 and know that he is God ; remembering 
 that secret things belong unto him, but 
 those things which are revealed belong unto 
 us and to our children. 
 
 Leave those abstruse subjects that you 
 cannot understand, for those that you can 
 and do ; and concentrate upon them all 
 the energies of your minds. Seek ye the 
 Lord while he may be found, and call ye 
 upon him while he is near. The door of 
 
SERMON ELEVENTH. 217 
 
 hope is yet open to you. The voice of 
 mercy still calls to you to turn, to consider, 
 to repent, and to live. 
 
SERMON XII. 
 
 / Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion : for the time to 
 
 favor her, yea, the set time is come. — Psalm 102 : 13. 
 
 Every well informed Christian knows 
 that by Zion is meant the Church of God. 
 The prediction which this passage contains 
 of blessings on Zion, it is probable, had re- 
 ference primariUj to her deliverance from 
 the oppressions and desolations of the Baby- 
 lonish captivity, which lasted for seventy 
 years, and itltimately, to the more extended 
 triumphs which were in reserve for her, 
 when the fulness of time should come that 
 was to usher in the Desire of all nations, 
 and the larger blessings of the New Testa- 
 tament dispensation should be bestowed on 
 all mankind. The period when the cap- 
 tive daughter of Zion should loose her 
 neck from her chains, was fixed in the Di- 
 vine decree : so fixed that it could be nei- 
 ther curtailed nor extended. It was to 
 
SERMOX TWELFTH. 249 
 
 happen just at the moment that had been 
 assigned for it ; and every species of instru- 
 mentahty that had a bearing upon the event, 
 or was in any vray connected with it, was 
 regulated and controled in perfect accord- 
 ance with the predetermination of heaven, 
 and therefore could neither accelerate nor 
 retard its accomplishment. 
 
 There are special apj^ointed seasons 
 when God dispenses blessings to his Church. 
 And when Zion shakes herself from the 
 dust, when she wipes off her disgrace, when 
 her enlargement takes place, then it is that 
 God arises and does the work for her. No 
 other does or can do it. All instrumentality, 
 without his agency, is utterly inefficient and 
 useless. Zion would never be built, but 
 would for ever remain a desolation, or be 
 covered with contempt, if he did not inter- 
 fere on her behalf. Except the Lord build 
 the house, they labor in vain that build it : 
 except the Lord keep the city, the watchmen 
 waJwth but in vain. If it liad not been the 
 Lord who was on our side now, may Israel say y 
 
 12 
 
250 SERMON TWELFTH. 
 
 If it had not heen the Lord tvho tvas on our 
 side, when men rose up against us ; when 
 they Imd swallowed us up quick, when their 
 wrath was kindled against us ; then the 
 waters had overwhelmed us, the stream had 
 gone over our soul. Blessed he the Lord ivho 
 hath not given us a prey to their teeth. Our 
 help is in the Lord, who made heaven and 
 earth. 
 
 The sovereignty of God, in the distri- 
 bution of his spiritual favors, is one of the 
 simplest and plainest truths of Revelation. 
 But one, at the same time, which is not so 
 frequently and fully recognized as it should 
 be by those who profess to be guided in 
 their views by the declarations of Divine 
 inspiration. The sovereignty of God is ab- 
 solute, eve»ry where, and in all things. He 
 is the Father of lights, from whom cometh 
 down evei'y good and every perfect gift. He 
 is the origin and source from whence all 
 good counsels and just works do proceed. 
 There is no thought, word, or action, that is 
 really meritorious in his intelligent creatures 
 
SERMON TWELFTH. 251 
 
 which does not take its rise and spring from 
 him as the Fountain. We may go to an 
 extreme, and often do, in ascribing an effi- 
 cacy to instrumentality in the production of 
 good ; but it is impossible for us to go too 
 far in ascribing an efficacy of this sort to the 
 Sovereign and ever blessed God. What- 
 ever, then, may become of human agency, 
 in attempting to account for the production 
 of spiritual blessings, by assigning an unlim- 
 ited influence to the everlasting Jehovah, is 
 the point v^diich we must maintain at all 
 hazards, and of which no surrender what- 
 ever must be made. Paul matj plant, and 
 Apollos water: hut God (and God only) 
 giveth the increase. So, then, neither is he 
 thxit planteth, any thing, neither lie that wa- 
 tereth ; hut God that giveth the increase. 
 
 In the estimation of the Apostle, it is 
 beyond a question, that in the work of dis- 
 seminating the blessings of the Gospel, all 
 human instrumentality was considered of so 
 little account as not to be worthy of being 
 named. Neither is he that planteth, any 
 
252 SERMON TWELFTH. 
 
 thing, neither is he that ivatereth, any thing. 
 But so great was the agency of the infinite 
 Jehovah, that all the work and all the honor 
 were to be attributed to him. He is the 
 Autho?' and Finisher of faith. He inspires 
 holy principles; cherishes them when in- 
 spired, and carries them on to their destin- 
 ed consummation. 
 
 My object, at this time, is more particu- 
 larly to evince the sovereignty of God as it 
 is displayed in the appointment of special 
 seasons, for the communication of blessings 
 to his Church; and also, to deduce from 
 the subject some lessons of practical instruc- 
 tion which appear to grow out of it. 
 
 The text affords unequivocal evidence 
 that there are set times when the Lord fa- 
 vors Zion ; or in other words, has mercy upon 
 her. 
 
 The history of the Church gives abun- 
 dant confirmation of the same truth, in the 
 numerous instances recorded in the Scrip- 
 tures of a Divine interposition, in conformity 
 with previous predictions and promises ; 
 
SERMON TWELFTH. 253 
 
 predictions and promises which gave inti- 
 mation of the existence of a set and Jlxed 
 purpose of the Ahnight^^ from all eternity, 
 to bestow the blessings alluded to at the 
 specified period. 
 
 A set time was appointed by him for 
 the deliverauce of his people from the bond- 
 age of Egypt. The event had been pre- 
 dicted hundreds of years before it took 
 place ; and the very year when their op- 
 pressions should cease, and the time of their 
 redemption come, were foretold with the 
 utmost precision. 
 
 The time too was set with a similar ex- 
 actness for the continuance and termination 
 of the Babylonish captivity. Jeremiah had 
 foretold the commencement and d uration of 
 this period of affliction to the Chui'ch, and 
 had also given an exhibition of the promi- 
 nent circumstances that should accompany 
 it, and which were accurately understood 
 and applied by Daniel, as the seventy years 
 were drawing to a close. The time was in 
 like manner set and predicted for rebuild- 
 
254 SERMON TWELFTH. 
 
 ing the temple, and for the coming to it of 
 the promised Messenger of the Lord of Hosts, 
 at the expiration of the seventy prophetic 
 weeks of Daniel, and whose presence should 
 give to it a glory surpassing any thing that 
 had distinguished the costly and beautiful 
 temple that had been erected by Solomon. 
 
 The Scriptures are remarkably full and 
 explicit in regard to the coming of the Mes- 
 siah ; which, inasmuch as it was an event 
 more replete with blessings than any other 
 that has ever happened, is predicted with 
 the most minute and striking particularity. 
 All the attending circumstances of this ex- 
 traordinary event were the subjects of a 
 fixed and special arrangement in the annals 
 of eternity : as the Savior's birth; his man- 
 ner of life ; the character of his instructions ; 
 his miracles ; his conduct ; his treatment ; 
 his death ; his resurrection and ascension ; 
 the descent of the Holy Spirit, and the con- 
 sequent establishment and triumph of his 
 cause throughout the habitable earth. 
 
 In addition to these remarkable appoint- 
 
SERMON TWELFTH. 255 
 
 ments that God has made and already ful- 
 filled on behalf of his Church, there are 
 other seasons of special interest which he 
 has in like manner fixed, and which are 
 spoken of in the Scriptures as matters of fu- 
 ture occurrence. Of these the restoration 
 of his ancient covenant people, the destruc- 
 tion and overthrow of the Mahomedan and 
 Papal powers, and the universal spread of 
 the light and influence of the Gospel among 
 mankind, during what has usually been call- 
 ed the Millenium, are the principal. 
 
 All these that have been mentioned are 
 set seasons for blessings to he, or that have 
 already been, bestowed on Zion. The one, 
 however, which, perhaps, will be most in- 
 structive for us at present to contemplate, 
 is the season that was set for the introduc- 
 tion of the Gospel dispensation. The prin- 
 ciples which distinguished the Divine ad- 
 ministration in that event, are substantially 
 the same that obtain and govern in all the 
 concerns of that spiritual kingdom which 
 Jesus Christ has established in the world ; 
 
256 SERMON TWELFTH. 
 
 and, therefore, if we understood what those 
 principles were in that case, we shall be at 
 no loss in applying them in all other cases 
 that may come under our consideration. 
 
 It is worthy of notice, that of all the 
 peculiar circumstances that distinguished the 
 introduction and establishment of the Gos- 
 pel dispensation, the effusion of the Holy 
 Spirit was the most obvious and striking. 
 My meaning is not that the operations of the 
 Holy Spirit were not experienced in the 
 Church previously to this period ; but that 
 his operations were comparatively partial 
 and confined. So much so, as not to be 
 very distinctly and fully recognized by the 
 inspired writers under the former dispensa- 
 tion. In confirmation of this representation, 
 we have only to refer to the language of the 
 Apostle, in which he institutes a comparison 
 which clearly exhibits his view of the supe- 
 riority, in this respect, of the New over the 
 Old Testament dispensation. A^ot, says he, 
 that ice are sufficient of ourselves to think any 
 thing as of ourselves ; hut our sufficiency is of 
 
SERMON TWELFTH. 257 
 
 God ; who aho hath made us able ininistei's 
 of the Neic Testament ; not of the letter, hut 
 of the spirit, for the letter Mlleth, hut the spi- 
 rit giveth life. But if the ministration of 
 death, icritten and engraven in stones, was 
 glorious, so that the children of Israel could 
 not steadfastly behold tlie face of Moses for 
 the glory of his countenance ; which glory 
 was to he done away ; Jioio shall not the mi~ 
 nisti'ation of the Spirit he ratJier glorious f 
 For if the ministration of condemnation he 
 glory, much more doth the ministration of 
 righteousness exceed in glory. For even that 
 which ivas made glorious Juid no glory in this 
 respect, hy reason of the glory tJiat excelleth. 
 For if that which is done atcay was glorious, 
 much more that ichich remaineth is glorious. 
 From these declarations of the Apostle 
 we see that the Gospel dispensation is styled 
 by him, by way of emphasis, the ministration 
 of the Spirit. His meaning is, that under 
 this dispensation the ministration of the Spi- 
 rit is peculiarly pre-eminent. Just as in 
 another respect, he has ascribed to it an 
 
 12* 
 
258 SERMON TWELFTH. 
 
 excellence that is peculiar, in that it has 
 hrought life and immortality to light ; not 
 that the notion of a future and eternal state 
 of existence had previously been altogether 
 unknown to the Church, but that a fuller 
 and brighter manifestation of it was given 
 by the introduction of the Gospel, a mani- 
 festation in comparison with which every 
 thing that had preceded it was compara- 
 tively dark and enigmatical. 
 
 In entire correspondence with this view 
 is the declaration of the Evangelist, in his 
 comment upon an expression which fell 
 from the lips of the Savior, who had pro- 
 mised that out of him that should believe, 
 should flow rivers of living water. But this^ 
 says the Evangelist, spake he of the Spirit, 
 which they that believe on Hi??i should receive. 
 For the Holy Ghost was not yet given ; be- 
 cause that Jesus ivas not yet glorified. 
 
 The set time to favor Zion by the effu- 
 sion of the Spirit, or the gift of the Holy 
 Ghost, was not to take place until the me- 
 diatorial undertaking of the Savior was 
 
SERMON TWELFTH. 259 
 
 completed by his resurrection from the 
 dead, and his subsequent ascension to hea- 
 ven : or, as it is expressed in the passage 
 just quoted, until he ivas glorified. To the 
 same purpose is his own declaration, And 7, 
 if I he lifted up, will draw all men unto me. 
 And again, as he said to his disciples after 
 he had risen from the dead, and was about 
 to leave them to go to his Father : And be- 
 hold, I send the promise of my Father upon 
 you ; hut tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem 
 until ye he endued with power from on high. 
 The promise here referred to, was unques- 
 tionably the effusion of the Hol}^ Spirit on 
 the day of Pentecost. So, it is evident, the 
 disciples understood it, w^hen they were 
 together with one accord, in one place. So 
 the Apostle Peter interpreted the marvel- 
 lous effects which followed his descent on 
 that occasion. These men are not drunken, 
 said he, as ye suppose, seeing it is hut the 
 third hour of tlie day. But this is that which 
 teas spoken by tJie prophet Joel : And it shall 
 come to pass in the last days, (saith God,) I 
 
260 SERMON TWELFTH. 
 
 will pour out of my Spirit upon aUJiesh; aiid 
 
 your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, 
 
 and your young men shall see visions, and 
 
 your old men shall dream dreams ; and on my 
 
 servants, and on my liand-maidens I will pour 
 
 out in those days, of my Spirit, and they shall 
 
 prophesy : and I will show wonders in heaven 
 
 above, and sig7is in the earth heneath : blood, 
 
 and fire, and vapor of smoke : The sun shall 
 
 be turned into darkness, and the moon into 
 
 blood, before tliat great and notable day of the 
 
 Lo?'d co??ie. This Jesus hath God raised up, 
 
 whereof we are all witnesses. Therefore, being 
 
 by the right liand of God exalted, and having 
 
 received of the Father the proinise of the Holy 
 
 Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now 
 
 see and hear. 
 
 Pricked in their hearts by the pungent 
 application of prophecy which the Apostle 
 made to his hearers, it is added, Then Peter 
 said unto them, Repent and be baptised every 
 one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for 
 the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the 
 gift of the Holy Ghost. For this promise is 
 
SERMON TWELFTH. 261 
 
 unto you, and to your children, and to all tlmt 
 are afar off, even as many as the Lord our 
 God shall call. This was but the beginnincr 
 of a series of wonders that were w^rouaht in 
 
 o 
 
 the conversion of sinners, by the sovereicrn 
 agency of the Holy Spirit, agreeably to the 
 fixed purposes of Him who orders the sea- 
 sons for the visitations of his mercy, confers 
 favors on Zion, and sends times of refreshing 
 from his irresence, when he pleases. 
 
 Now from what has been submitted to 
 our consideration, whatever else may be 
 obscure, one thing appeai-s to be clear ; that 
 all spiritual blessings which flow to man- 
 kind, proceed wholly from the sovereio-n 
 and merciful interposition of the Almighty ; 
 and come to them in entire and exact ac- 
 cordance with the period which he had 
 before set and determined for them to be 
 bestowed. 
 
 If, then, the inquiry be made, why was 
 the Gospel so remarkably efficacious at its 
 introduction X The answer is easy ; (and 
 it would be presumptuous to gainsay it.) It 
 
262 SERMOX TWELFTH. 
 
 was the set time for God to arise and to have 
 mercy on Zion. It was the period appoint- 
 ed for the special ministration of the Spirit. 
 It is idle to say, as it is sometimes said, that 
 the effect which is inquired after, was owing 
 to the peculiar devoted ness of the Apostles 
 and other primitive Christians ; and that 
 like devotedness will at all times produce 
 like effects. 
 
 Are those who maintain these positions 
 aware of the imputation which by so doing 
 they cast upon the ministry of Jesus Christ 
 himself? The immediate success that at- 
 tended his labors was comparatively small. 
 That of the Apostles greatly surpassed it : 
 the conversions that took place under his 
 preaching were few, and often after laboring 
 apparently for naughty and spending his 
 strength in vain, he had occasion for taking 
 up the lamentation. All day long I have 
 stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient 
 and gainsaying people. 
 
 The Apostles were doubtless laborious 
 and devoted men; but they neither idolized 
 
SERMON TWELFTH. 263 
 
 themselves, nor wished others to do it. The 
 reverse was their disposition and their habit. 
 They speak of themselves as nothing, as 
 totally inefficient ; as the weak and base 
 things of the world. And why, then, should 
 others be solicitous to put them in the place 
 of God I Admitting that their labors and 
 devotedness were as great as any suppose 
 them to have been, this admission will not 
 account for their success independently of 
 the special and sovereign interposition of 
 the Holy Spirit. It would be nothing else 
 but putting the effect for the cause. For 
 what was it that made the Apostles more 
 laborious and devoted than other men, but 
 the communication of special and sovereign 
 grace to them that qualified them so emi- 
 nently for their work ? The miraculous 
 powers imparted to the Apostles, it has 
 been asserted by some, gave them no ad- 
 vantage over other and ordinary ministers 
 in extending the saving blessings of the Gos- 
 pel. And, pray how can that be l Did the 
 Savior mean nothing when he said unto- 
 
2C4 SERMON TWELFTH. 
 
 them, Behold, I give unto you power to tread 
 on serpents and scorpions, and over all the 
 power of the enemy ; and nothing shall hy 
 any means hurt you. Go heal the sick, 
 cleanse the lepers, raise tlie dead, cast out 
 devils. Freely ye have received, freely give. 
 Was it nothing to be furnished with the 
 <yift of tongues, and not to have the necessi- 
 ty of premeditating beforehand what they 
 should say in their own vindication when 
 accused, precluded by the assurance that it 
 should be given them in that same hour what 
 they should say? But the miracles, it is re- 
 plied, which they wrought did not convert 
 men. This is a mere quibble, neither did 
 their preaching convert men. The word of 
 God in itself is a dead letter, and perfectly 
 impotent as respects the work of regenera- 
 tion, without the accompanying agency of 
 the Holy Spirit — -just as impotent and ineffi- 
 cient as miracles themselves. But preaching 
 is the appointed instrument by which the 
 conversion of sinners is effected ; and so in 
 like manner were miracles appointed for 
 
SERMON TWELFTH. ^5 
 
 this purpose in the apostolic age. To affirm 
 that they were intended for the confirmation 
 of the truth of the Gospel, as far as it goes, is 
 to give a true representation of their design : 
 But how could they confirm the truth of the 
 Gospel, except by having an influence in 
 bringing the souls of men under its saving 
 and sanctifying power I If to this end they 
 were not subservient, they were without use, 
 and may be regarded as idle expenditures 
 of omnipotent power ; or, what is no better, 
 as designed to produce an empty unmeaning 
 gaze of astonishment in all who beheld them. 
 The reason assigned by some for being 
 so fearful of carrying the sovereignty of God 
 to an extreme is, that it will paralyze human 
 activity. But the apprehension, as we deem 
 it, is without foundation ; and w^hether we 
 can detect it or not, we may assume it as 
 certain, that it rests on a fallacy. The sove- 
 reignty of God is a doctrine clearly and fully 
 set forth in the Scriptures. Nor is it less a 
 doctrine of reason than revelation. The 
 Apostles, it is plain, most unequivocally and 
 
266 SERMON TWELFTH. 
 
 fully believed it. And what was the effect of 
 its reception on them I Did it lead to inac- 
 tivity ? No men ever labored w^ith more 
 unremitting diligence and zeal. The objec- 
 tion against the absolute sovereignty of God, 
 which we are considering, is like another 
 which the Apostle has obviated, that was op- 
 posed to his notion of free grace. What shall 
 ive say then, if grace is free, and the exercise 
 of it confers honor on God, shall ice continue 
 in sin, that grace may dboundl do evil that 
 good may come I Is this the use that we shall 
 make of the doctrine? God forbid. Howsliall 
 loe that are dead to sin, live any longer therein ? 
 It is impossible for those who cordially em- 
 brace the belief that has been mentioned, to 
 deduce from it a consequence so monstrous. 
 Equally impossible is it for those who fully 
 admit the sovereignty of God, to make it an 
 excuse for inactivity and sloth in the service 
 of Jesus Christ. 
 
 We do not believe in the necessity or 
 propriety of suppressing, perverting, or de- 
 nying one truth of Divine revelation, in or- 
 
SERMON TWELFTH. 267 
 
 der to maintain or defend anotbei*. It is both 
 unwise and criminal to suppose that truth 
 can be aided by its concealment, or that it 
 depends for its propagation on error. Will 
 a man lie for God 1 His cause needs no such 
 prop for its support. Should any inquire, if 
 the sovereignty of God is thus absolute, and 
 the time is thus sel in his everlasting decrees, 
 for the communication of his blessings, What 
 have mortals to do I They can affect no 
 change by their exertions or prayers in the 
 Divine purposes. We answer they are to do 
 what God tells them to do. They are to be 
 at their posts, they are to put on the whole 
 armor of God, to he strong in the Lordy and 
 to quit themselves like ineUy 'praying ahvays 
 with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, 
 and watching thereunto with all perseverance 
 and supplication for all saints ; and remaining 
 steadfast, unmoveahle, always abounding in the 
 work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know tliat 
 your labor is not in vain in the Lord. 
 
 It is true they can produce no change in 
 the Divine purposes. It would be sad indeed 
 
268 SERMON TWELFTH. 
 
 for them and for all God's universe if they 
 could. But the secret 'purposes of God are not 
 their rule o f d u ty. Times are his : faithful ness 
 is theirs. But if ti?7ies are his, and are fixed, 
 what use is there in praying that these fixed 
 seasons may immediately be brought about \ 
 I verily believe that there is no use or pro- 
 priety at all in such prayers, and that when 
 we offer them unconditionally, that is, with- 
 out a condition being either expressed or 
 implied, we do wrong. For instance, when 
 we pray that the kingdom of God may come, 
 and that the earth may he full of the knowledge 
 of his glory, our petition should be restricted 
 by the condition either expressed or implied, 
 that the favor which is supplicated may be 
 granted, \iin accordance with the Divine will, 
 or in other words, with the purposes of God. 
 God has ^ fixed time for the conversion 
 of the world ; for it is exclusively his work. 
 He will hasten it in his oicn time, and that 
 time is not ours. The day of millenial glory 
 will certainly dawn upon the world. We 
 should pray and labor that it may come. 
 
SERMOX TWELFTH. 269 
 
 But when it is desirable that it should come, 
 we are incompetent to decide. It is best that 
 this subject should be left to the disposal of 
 infinite wisdom. If we knew when the mil- 
 lenium would come, we might know with 
 tolerable exactness when the dayof judo'- 
 ment will come ; and it may be made a ques- 
 tion, whether it is proper for Christians to 
 pray that either of these events may come 
 immediately. But of that day andoftliat hour, 
 knoweth no man, no, not even the angels in hea- 
 ven. With regard to the times when these 
 great events that are predicted shall happen, 
 all curiosity is scrupulously suj^pressed by 
 the language of Divine inspiration. What 1 
 do thou knowest not now ; but thou slialt know 
 hereafter. And should we pray that these 
 events may be brought about with a sud- 
 denness that would do violence to the deter- 
 minations of the Almighty, there can be no 
 devout mind that would not be shocked by 
 the impiety of our petition. 
 
 The world will certainly be converted. 
 But when the Lord shall build up Zion in 
 
270 SERMON TWELFTH. 
 
 the latter days, he will appear, as the context 
 informs us, in his glory. A different order of 
 men, with different endowments from any 
 which have been witnessed, at least since 
 the days of the Apostles, it seems to us pro- 
 bable, will be raised up as the instruments 
 for accomplishing his purpose and spread- 
 ing the knowledge of his truth: instruments 
 that will cost the Church less, and that will 
 labor vastly more — instruments who, if not 
 miraculously endowed, will have something 
 which, it is likely, will prove an ample equi- 
 valent. Nor is it to be supposed that the 
 work to be done will be meted out to them 
 in portions according to the rules of arith- 
 metical calculations ; then, as before, there 
 will doubtless be diversities of gifts, and 
 varieties in the attainments possessed and 
 the operations produced. To the occupancy 
 of one will be committed the single talent, 
 to another two, to another five, and to ano- 
 ther ten; and each, who shall be faithful to 
 the trust reposed in him, shall secure the 
 approbation which his fidelity shall deserve. 
 
SERMON TWELFTH. 271 
 
 Who, then, is that faithful and wise steward, 
 whom his Lord shall make ruler over his 
 household, to give them their portion of meat 
 in due season] Blessed is that servant whom 
 his Lord when he cometh shall find so doing. 
 
SERMON XIII. 
 
 For God shall bring every work into judgment, with eveiy 
 secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil. 
 , Eccles. 12 : 14, 
 
 There is scarcely any truth that admits 
 of more satisfactory demonstration than, that 
 man is an accountable being, and hastening 
 to a judgment seat It has been taught and 
 believed by the barbarous, as well as the 
 civilized in every age and portion of the 
 vi^orld ; and however opposed men may have 
 been in other articles of religious faith; in 
 this primary and fundamental doctrine of re- 
 ligion, all appear to have been united. The 
 reasonings of philosophy, falsely so called, 
 and the writings of skeptics and atheists 
 have not been able to eradicate it from the 
 human mind. Jews, and Mabomedans, and 
 Pagans, and Christians, have given to it their 
 undivided assent. The fact to which we re- 
 fer is unquestionable ; and that a truth so 
 
SERMON THIRTEENTH. 273 
 
 solemn and so universally admitted should 
 have been attended with no greater practi- 
 cal effect, is not a Htde surprising. Indeed 
 the indifference w^hich men manifest on this 
 subject w^ould seem to authorize an opinion 
 that the doctrine of a future judgment was 
 almost entirely discredited by them, or if 
 credited, that they had imbibed notions re- 
 specting its nature entirely different from 
 those which Christianity inculcates. 
 
 One part of my design, therefore, at this 
 time, shall be to show, in few words, the cer- 
 tainty of a future judgment. We shall then 
 submit to you some remarks upon the cha- 
 racteristic circuinstances that will attend this 
 judgment. 
 
 That the scriptures assert the doctrine of 
 2, future judgment is evident from the followr 
 ing passages. We must all appear before the 
 judgment seat of Christ : that every one may 
 receive the things done in his body, according 
 to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. 
 For God shall bring every work into judg- 
 ment, with every secret thing, whether it be 
 
 13 
 
274 SERMON THIRTEENTH. 
 
 good, or whether it he evil. And again, When 
 the Son of Man shall come in his glory, and 
 all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit 
 upon the throne of his glory. And hefore him 
 shall he gathered all nations: and he shall 
 separate them one from another, as a shepherd 
 divideth his sheep from the goats: and he shall 
 set the sheep on his right hand, hut the goats 
 on the left. Then shall the King say unto 
 them on his right hand. Come, ye hlessed of my 
 Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you 
 from the foundation of the world. Then shall 
 he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart 
 from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, pre- 
 pared for the devil and his ayigels : And these 
 shall go away into everlasting punishment: 
 hut the righteous into life eternal. These are 
 but a few of many passages that might be 
 adduced to estabhsh the doctrine under con- 
 sideration. 
 
 Again, we observe, that tlie honor of the 
 Divine government requires that there should 
 he a future judgment. That this hfe is not a 
 state of retribution, is obvious to every think- 
 
SERMON THIRTEENTH. 275 
 
 ing individual. The sentiment is impressed 
 upon the mind by a thousand occurrences 
 that come within the sphere of every man's 
 observation. Who that has not seen honesty 
 defrauded, the upright in affliction, virtue in 
 distress, and industry and integrity subjected 
 to wretchedness and want? And who that 
 has not seen the ])rosperity of the imckedl 
 For, says the Psalmist, there are no hands in 
 their death; hut their strength is firm. They 
 are not in trouble as other men ; neither are 
 they ])lagued like other 7nen. Therefore pride 
 compasseth them about as a chain ; violence 
 cover eth them as a garment. Their eyes stand 
 out ivith fatness : they have more than heart 
 could wish. They are corrupt, and speak wick- 
 edly concerning oppression : they speak loftily. 
 They set their 7nouth against the heavens, and 
 their tongue walketh through the earth. And 
 they say, How doth God know ? and is there 
 knowledge in the Most High ? Behold these 
 are the ungodly who prosper in the world; they 
 increase in riches. And shall a Being who is 
 infinite in wisdom, and whose throne is estab- 
 
276 SERMON THIRTEENTH. 
 
 Uslied in equity, permit these disorders to re- 
 main for ever without being rectified, the in- 
 sults that are offered to his authority to pass 
 with impunity, and his character for justice 
 to remain for ever without a vindication 1 
 Shall Dives receive his good things here, and 
 Lazarus receive none hereafter ? 
 
 Once more : That there imll he a future 
 judgment is evident from the testimony of con- 
 science. It is believed that there are none who 
 do not occasionally experience a dread of 
 something after death. The Apostle declares 
 this principle to be common to the Gentiles 
 as well as Jews, who, having not the laiv, are 
 a law unto themselves : which show the ivorh of 
 the law written in their hearts^ their conscience 
 also hearing witness, and their thoughts the 
 meanwhile accusing, or else excusing, one ano- 
 ther. The sensibilities of men in this re- 
 spect we know may be blunted, and a long 
 tide of health and prosperity may seem to 
 erase the fear of death, and the apprehen- 
 sion of a judgment ; in the hour of anguish 
 and adversity, this impression of the Al- 
 
SERMON THIRTEENTH. 277 
 
 mighty hand re-appears, instamped upon the 
 soul with a striking visibility. Those who 
 have witnessed the remorse that frequently 
 attends the last moments of an awakened 
 profligate, who have heard the upbraidings 
 which he has lavished upon his associates in 
 guilt, who have heard his importunate cries 
 for mercy, and who have beheld his coun- 
 tenance, distorted by despair, and his whole 
 frame shivering with terror, need no other 
 arguments to convince them that after death 
 comes a judgment. Nor have those of us 
 been inclined to question this solemn truth 
 when standing, as we supposed, upon the 
 verge of the eternal world. Our consciences, 
 at such times, have been active and dutiful, 
 accustomed torpor was shaken off Our 
 spiritual vision was lively and penetrating, 
 and we could almost see the Judge upon his 
 burning throne, and anticipate from his lips 
 the sentence which was to consign us to 
 merited misery. We were then in a situa- 
 tion which brought this matter home to our 
 feelings, and prepared our minds for the ad- 
 
278 SERMON THIRTEENTH. 
 
 mission of the truth ; and would it not be well 
 for us were convictions of this kind as per- 
 manent as they are just. 
 
 Let us now briefly notice a few of the 
 characteristic circumstances that will attend 
 this judgment. And, in the first place, it will 
 he conducted upon the 'principle of distributive 
 justice, God shall bring every work into judg- 
 ment^ with every secret thing, whether it be 
 GOOD, OR WHETHER IT BE EVIL. That is, by dis- 
 tributive justicc we here mean a disposition 
 in the Almighty to give to every act its ap- 
 propriate place in the scale of virtues and 
 vices. If the act be virtuous, and one that 
 evinced an unusual share of purity and dis- 
 interestedness in the motive that prompted it, 
 the reward will be proportionably great; and, 
 on the other hand, if the act be uncommonly 
 vicious, its punishment in like manner will 
 be proportionably severe. 
 
 We are not however to imagine, with 
 the followers of Mahomet, that the good and 
 evil actions of an individual are to be put in 
 opposition to each other, and his fate be de- 
 
SERMON THIRTEENTH. 279 
 
 termlned according as the one or the other 
 of these shall be found to preponderate. 
 The sins of every ransomed soul shall be 
 covered with the righteousness of Christ, and 
 its good deeds (which are the fruits of the 
 Spirit, and the purchase of Christ's death) 
 only will be brought into judgment, and 
 these will be rewarded in the saint as though 
 they were performed by himself, while the 
 soul that shall not be united to Christ and 
 renewed by his Spirit, being incapable of 
 performing any action from a right motive, 
 shall consequently be judged only for deeds 
 of an entirely sinful character; and these 
 shall be punished in proportion to their 
 enormity. 
 
 In the second place, we remark, that the 
 judgment will he uni\^rsal in its character. 
 That is, it shall have respect to the entire 
 conduct of the individual. God will bring 
 every work into judgment, with every secret 
 thing. The sins of early youth, as well as 
 those of riper years will be remembered. 
 Sins long since forgotten by us, but regis- 
 
280 SERMON THIRTEENTH. 
 
 tered in heaven, will then be presented to our 
 astonished sight, and actions which we had 
 once, perhaps, esteemed meritorious, will 
 then appear in their native deformity ; while 
 others, which at the time of their commission 
 were considered as indifferent, or at least as 
 only slightly tinctured with immorality, will 
 then assume an aspect of guilt that shall fill 
 the soul with terror. We must answer, too, 
 for every idle word, and for every vain and 
 wdcked thought, for every illicit desire, for 
 every impure emotion, for every unrigh- 
 teous intention ; for deeds that we have 
 purposed to do, as well as for those which 
 we have actually performed. We must 
 answer for sins of omission as well as those 
 of commission ; for deeds of darkness as well 
 as for those of the day ; and for secret sins 
 which no eye but that of Omniscience has 
 seen, as well as for offences which our fel- 
 low men have witnessed. The sins of our 
 closets and of our retirements ; our medita- 
 tions by the way, and our midnight reflec- 
 tions when alone upon our beds, will all be 
 
SERMON THIRTEENTH. 2S1 
 
 remembered by Him who knoweth our down- 
 sittings and our uprisings, and who under- 
 standeth our thouahts. 
 
 Again we remark, that the judgment of 
 icliich ice speak will he a righteous judgment. 
 The character of the Judge is a sufficient 
 pledge for the equity of his proceedings. He 
 is omniscient, and therefore incapable of be- 
 ing deceived. He loves justice, and therefore 
 cannot but do rightly. Artifice and subter- 
 fuge with him will be unavaiUng. At a single 
 glance He surveys the secrets of every heart. 
 Guilt will stand appalled in his sight, hypo- 
 crisy will be unmasked, and impiety shroud- 
 ed in contempt. Before a human tribunal 
 intrigue and bribery may effect an acquittal 
 of the culprit ; and wealth and worldly dis- 
 tinctions may serve to pervert the order of 
 justice; but He who is styled tJie God of 
 gods and tlie Lord of lords, regardeth not 
 persons nor taketh reward. He accepteth 
 not even the persons of princes, nor regard- 
 eth the rich more than the poor. He is 
 unawed by the pompous titles and trap- 
 is* 
 
282 SERMON THIRTEENTH. 
 
 pings of earthly nobility, and he will as soon 
 sentence the king as the beggar to per- 
 dition. 
 
 In the fourth place, we remark, that the 
 judgment will he decisive. No appeal will 
 lie from the court of the King of kings. 
 The sentence when once passed is irrever- 
 sibly fixed. There is no arrest of judgment 
 here ; no reprieve for the criminal con- 
 demned to the second death ; no revocation 
 of the kingly edict, which says, hind them 
 hand and foot and take them away, and cast 
 them, into outer darkness. If the Judge shall 
 once say to the soul, depart, he will never 
 say to it, come : for he is the Almighty, and 
 he changeth not. The weeping and wailing 
 of those in torment will not excite his com- 
 miseration, or obtain the reversal of his de- 
 cree. There is a great and impassahle 
 gulf fixed hetween the abodes of despair and 
 the mansions of bliss, and all intercommu- 
 nity among their respective inhabitants is 
 eternally prohibited. These things, saith he 
 that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the 
 
SERMON THIRTEENTH. 283 
 
 key of David, he that openeth, and no man 
 shutteth, and shutteth, and no man openeth. 
 
 We wish not to be tedious in enumerat- 
 ing too great a variety of particulars ; more, 
 much more might be said, but we shall con- 
 tent ourselves with a few reflections upon 
 what has already been advanced. That 
 there is to be a future judgment, we have 
 seen, is certain. Its characteristic circum- 
 stances, upon which we have briefly com- 
 mented, are that it icill he conducted upon the 
 principle of distributive justice ; that it will 
 be universal, having respect to the entire 
 conduct of the individual ; that it will be a 
 righteous judgment, and finally that it will 
 be decisive. 
 
 If, then, this judgment be certain, we 
 must take a part in it ; it is appointed to us 
 once to die, and after that we must be ar- 
 raigned at the judgment seat of Christ. 
 The event is inevitable; be judged we 
 must; and not only must we he judged, but 
 we must be judged soon. The thought is 
 solemn, but it is doubtless correct, that the 
 
284 SERMON THIRTEENTH. 
 
 short space of half a century will fix the 
 eternal destiny of nearly every soul in this 
 assembly. It is a serious matter to die, but 
 it is a still more serious one to be judged. 
 And could this subject be brought before 
 our imaginations in all its awful realities, the 
 most thoughtless would not fail to be alarm- 
 ed. The unhappiness, however, of our con- 
 dition is, that from long inattention to the 
 warnings we have received on the subject 
 of a future judgment, it has ceased to pro- 
 duce any effect upon our minds. We read 
 treatises and listen to discourses, in which 
 we are reminded of our accountability, wath 
 as little concern as we would peruse an 
 Arabian tale, or be told the awards of the 
 fabled Radamanthus. 
 
 Is it then so, that in a few days we 7nust 
 be judged, and that in a few hours we 77iai/ 
 be judged, and that the solemn truth has 
 scarcely ever had a place in our thoughts 1 
 Perhaps we may have sedulously studied to 
 drive the idea from our minds. Instances 
 of this kind frequently occur; and by a 
 
SERMON THIRTEENTH. 285 
 
 strange infatuation men seem to suppose 
 that by putting far off the evil day in their 
 imaginations, they will thus escape the ter- 
 rors of the luord. They are averse to hav- 
 ing any thing said respecting that day when 
 those ivlio obey not the gospel of Christ shall 
 he punished loith everlasting destruction from 
 the presence of the Lord, and from the glory 
 of his power. The exhibition of these truths, 
 they will tell us, is only calculated to give 
 unnecessary pain. We are now in the pos- 
 session of health, and surrounded with plen- 
 ty ; let not the anticipation of ills prevent 
 our enjoyment of present delights. Let us 
 eat, drink, and be vciervy ; and let us think 
 of judgment after we have received our 
 summons to attend it. Is this a resolution 
 that is uncommon \ It is not. It is the 
 practical determination of more than three- 
 fourths of mankind. And is it a wise de- 
 termination I Do we manifest the same 
 disposition in our management of our tem- 
 poral concerns that we do in our manage- 
 ment of our eternal concerns I If a trial 
 
286 SERMON THIRTEENTH. 
 
 before an earthly tribunal is pending, in 
 which we have important interests at stake, 
 do we discover a spirit of indifference and 
 delay in our preparations for the event 1 If 
 the trial be one that is likely to affect our 
 reputation, do we appear unconcerned about 
 it ? and do we at last present ourselves at 
 court without a witness to rebut the tongue 
 of slander, or bear testimony to the integ- 
 rity and fairness of our character, and with- 
 out an advocate upon whose abilities we can 
 rely to plead our cause ? None of us, cer- 
 tainly, can be ignorant of the activity, the 
 prudence, and the engagedness which mark 
 the conduct of men on occasions of this 
 kind ; and happy would it be for them 
 were they influenced by feelings equally 
 anxious and ardent about the result of that 
 trial which awaits them before the Almighty 
 Judge. When summoned to his bar, they 
 will perceive the necessity of being possess- 
 of a character of unspotted purity ; for lie 
 cannot look ujwn iniquity; they will feel 
 their need of a righteousness not their oiimy 
 
SERMON THIRTEENTH. 287 
 
 and their want of an advocate with the Fa- 
 ther whose intercessions are all prevalent, 
 and whose merits can procure a pardon 
 for every offence. Happy will it be for 
 us, my hearers, if this illustrious Advocate 
 shall finally appear on our behalf But 
 wretched beyond conception will be our 
 condition if at last he shall be found enlisted 
 against us. Let us then agree with him 
 quickly, lest he become our adversary, and 
 deliver us over to the Judge, and we be 
 cast into prison, from whence we can by no 
 means come until we have paid the utter- 
 most farthing. We may conceal our sins 
 from the world, but the concealment will 
 avail us but for a moment. An assembled 
 universe shall soon see them in the clear 
 light of eternity, where everlasting shame 
 and contempt shall cover the wicked. God 
 sees our sins at this moment ; and is it not a 
 little surprising that his knowledge of them 
 should occasion us so little uneasiness, when 
 to have them known to our fellow creatures 
 would fill us with sadness and confusion ? 
 
288 SERMON THIRTEENTH. 
 
 Perhaps, among our present auditors, there 
 are but few who have been notorious for 
 their excesses in wickedness. We ask 
 none to reveal their offences — a compliance 
 with such a demand might put to shame 
 the most barefaced among us ; and the most 
 spotless spirit here might shudder at the 
 exposure of those sins which it has commit- 
 ted in secret. Keep, then, the knowledge 
 of thy impure thoughts and hidden acts of 
 vice within thine own bosom ; but forget 
 not that God knoweth them, and that j^r all 
 these things he ivill bring thee into judgment. 
 This night thy soul may he required of thee. 
 To-morrow you may be in eternity. Are 
 you ready for these things ? And if the 
 bridegroom cometh will you be prepared to 
 meet him ? His eyes are upon the icays of 
 man, and he seeth all his goings ; and there is 
 no darkness nor shadow of death where the 
 workers of iniquity may hide themselves. 
 A word to mourners who tremble at the 
 word, and are contrite and of a broken 
 spirit. You are terrified at the thought of 
 
SERMON THIRTEENTH. 289 
 
 judgment. It is no wonder ; it is a wonder 
 that all are not terrified ; a wonder you 
 have not been terrified sooner; but take 
 courage, it is God who has opened your 
 eyes ; thank him that you see at all ; per- 
 severe ; seek his grace and his Spirit. The 
 bruised reed shall he not break, and smok- 
 ing flax shall he not quench, till he send 
 forth judgment unto victory. Jesus is all 
 compassion ; flee to him ; be humble before 
 him ; and despair not of his mercy. He will 
 save you with an everlasting salvation ; your 
 doubts and trials at length will end, and the 
 neio song will be your only and your end- 
 less employment 
 
SERMOiN XIV. 
 
 For I am a stranger with thee, and a sojorner, as all my 
 fathers were, — Psalm 39 : 12, 
 
 Various metaphors are employed in the 
 sacred writings to describe the life of faith, 
 the Hfe that is led by the children of God. 
 Sometimes it is compared to a warfai^e^ and 
 at others to a race, when Christians are ex- 
 horted to put on the whole armor of God, 
 and to run with patience the race that is set 
 before them. But perhaps there is no em- 
 blem which more a|}tly and strikingly 
 illustrates the circumstances which distin- 
 guish the condition of the righteous in this 
 world, than the passage before us, which 
 represent it as a pilgrimage or journey. 
 For I am a stranger ivith thee; that is, in the 
 intercourse which I study to maintain with 
 God, I am regarded by others, and regard 
 myself, as a stranger, who feels compara- 
 tively but little interest in the objects and 
 
SERMON FOURTEENTH. 291 
 
 concerns around him, while on his passage 
 through the wilderness of this world ; I a7?i 
 a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as my 
 fathers ivere. The difference between the 
 terms stranger and sojourner is but trifling. 
 There is, however, a difference. By the 
 term stranger is to be understood a person 
 who is always moving, and who has no fixed 
 or settled place of abode : but by the term 
 sojourner is meant one who takes up his 
 residence in a place for a short season, al- 
 though without experiencing a participation 
 in the rights, duties, and privileges of the 
 place in which he happens to be. The 
 fathers of the Psalmist had been strange rs 
 and sojourners in the literal sense of these 
 terms, as they have just been explained. 
 Abraham, the friend of God, and the Father 
 of the Faithful, was the natural progenitor of 
 David ; and he, as the sacred oracles in- 
 form us, went out of Ur of the Chaldees, 
 which was his native country, and sojourned 
 in the land of promise, that is, the land of 
 Canaan, as in a strange country, dwelling in 
 
^92 SERMON FOURTEENTH. 
 
 tahernacles imth Isaac and Jacoh^ the heirs 
 with him of the same promise. But it was 
 for relio^ious, reasons that these iUustrious 
 progenitors of the Psalmist separated them- 
 selves from their kindred and wandered 
 from their native home ; and, therefore, it is 
 especially in a spiritual sense that they are 
 alluded to as strangers and sojourners by the 
 Psalmist. That he had no intention of ap- 
 plying the terms in question to himself, in 
 their literal acceptation, is plain from the 
 circumstances in which he was placed when 
 the passage before us was penned. It is a 
 well known fact, (and a fact which furnishes 
 an instructive lesson to persons in a condi- 
 tion of worldly prosperity,) that at the 
 period when the psalm from which the text 
 is selected, was composed, the author of it 
 was in the full enjoyment of every thing 
 that is usually considered as desirable in 
 this world. He had not only a settled abode, 
 with all the rights and immunities of an 
 acknowledged citizen, but he sat on the 
 throne of Israel, and was the most powerful 
 
SERMON FOURTEENTH. 293 
 
 and conspicuous monarch of his age : and 
 yet surrounded, as he was, with the posses- 
 sions and splendors of royalty, he says, 1 
 am a stranger icith thee, and a sojourner, as 
 all my fathers were. There are some points 
 of resemblance between the condition of 
 the Christian in this world, and that of the 
 stranger or sojourner, which it shall now be 
 our object to notice. 
 
 I. In the first place, their condition is 
 similar as it respects the interest that is felt 
 in the ohjects and concerns that are around 
 them. 
 
 Men that are unrenewed are of the 
 earth, and they are earthy. Their views, 
 their feelings, their opinions, their affections, 
 their interests, and their aims, are all earth- 
 ly. They that are of the earth, think of the 
 earth, speak of the earth, and think and 
 speak but seldom, if at all, of any thing else. 
 Here the energies of the whole man are 
 concentrated and employed. Here he is 
 engrossed, and here, if ever, he is delighted. 
 Heaven is kept out of sight, and the realities 
 
294 SERMON FOURTEENTH. 
 
 of the unseen and eternal world receive, at 
 most, but a superficial and cursory attention. 
 God, says the Psalmist, is not in all his 
 thoughts : that is, he is not in any of them. 
 He has as many thoughts as other people 
 have, but none of them are about God. 
 Nothing is more painful to a wicked man 
 than the thoughts of God: I mean the holy 
 and sin-avenging God, the wicked have no 
 special aversion to the contemplation of the 
 Being whom they call Deity. They have 
 no aversion to the contemplation of God as 
 the Creator, Preserver, and Benefactor of 
 our world. But they hate with the most 
 perfect hatred all exhibitions of God which 
 represent him as making no allowance for 
 iniquity, as being a consuming fire, and al- 
 together determined hi/ no means to dear 
 the guilty. The pursuits of worldly minded 
 transgressors, are engaged in with as much 
 eagerness, and followed with as much con- 
 stancy, as though the present state were to 
 be an unchanging and eternal one. Their 
 inivard thought is, that their houses shall 
 
SERMON FOURTEENTH. 295 
 
 continue for ever, and their divelling places to 
 all generations. They call their lands after 
 their own names. This, their way, is their 
 folly, yet their posterity approve their say- 
 ings. Their course evinces the most con- 
 summate bUndness and sottishness, but no 
 sooner has one generation gone, and left be- 
 hind it the monument of its folly, than* an- 
 other comes in its stead, and treads in the 
 same steps, approving, by indulging in the 
 same practices, of every thing that was done 
 by its predecessors. From Adam to the 
 present day, death has reigned over the 
 human family w^lth a rigor which nothing 
 has been able to mitigate or control. The 
 living are constantly burying the dead; and 
 the few that survive the period of three 
 score years and ten, admonish those who 
 remain that the time of their departure is 
 at hand. And yet these numerous and so- 
 lemn warnings appear to have little or no 
 effect in loosening the ties that bind men to 
 earth, or in directing their thoughts to a 
 future and an eternal state of retribution. 
 
296 SERMON FOURTEENTH. 
 
 This world is the home of most men. They 
 regard it as their abiding place and their' 
 continuing city. Here, it seems, they not 
 only loish, but expect to tarry. And herein 
 consists the difference between them and 
 the righteous. The latter, like the former, 
 use the world, but unlike them, they do not 
 abuse it. The righteous remember that the 
 fashion of this world passeth away, and that 
 they must soon leave it. They recollect 
 that the places that know them, will shortly 
 know them no more for ever. Hence their 
 affections are set on them at least, only 
 loosely and subordinately. Hence, they look 
 not at the things that are seen and that are 
 temporal ; and here it is said that they are 
 crucified to the world, and the imrld is cruci- 
 jied to them. In their estimation it has lost 
 its bewitching attractions; and for all its 
 alluring and empty vanities they have lost 
 their relish. By these observations, how- 
 ever, I would not be understood to mean 
 that it will be either the habit or the desire 
 of the righteous to neglect to provide for 
 
SERMOX FOURTEENTH. 297 
 
 their own, nor will they be so superstitiously 
 abstemious as to refuse to partake of an 
 agreeable repast that may be offered to 
 them on their journey. 
 
 The beauties of a munificent Providence, 
 they believe, are designed to be used, and if 
 to be used, that none have a better right to 
 them than his own children. It is their 
 creed, that every creature of God is good, 
 and nothing to he refused^ if it he received 
 icith thanksgiving. The prohibition to 
 touch not, taste not, handle not, is not a pro- 
 hibition of Christianity ; which, as is com- 
 monly supposed, refers to the ordinary 
 bounties of Providence, but is the unautho- 
 rized interdict of a false philosophy, which 
 requires a monastic abstinence that is totally 
 unlike the self-denial enjoined in the word 
 of God, and which the Apostle says has a 
 show of wisdom in will ivorship, and humility, 
 and neglecting of the hody, hut not in any 
 honor to the satisfying of the flesh. There 
 is no religion in monastic abstinence and 
 mortifications. The self-denial enjoined in 
 
 14 
 
298 SERMON FOURTEENTH. 
 
 the word of God, consists not so much in 
 abstaining at any time from things lawful, 
 as it does in avoiding things always forbid- 
 den, and in themselves invariably sinful. 
 The characteristic difference between the 
 worldling and the Christian, therefore, is, 
 that the latter does not, like the former, suf- 
 fer his sensual appetite to have the domi- 
 nion, but he keeps under his body, and 
 brings it into subjection. In v/hatever state 
 he is, which is clearly the ordination of Infi- 
 nite Wisdom, he has learned therewith to 
 be content. If he happens to meet with an 
 individual more favored than himself with 
 the good things of this life, he neither envies 
 him the variety nor splendor of his posses- 
 sions. For him it is enough that he has a 
 part in that inheritance which fadeth not 
 away, and that he can appropriate to him- 
 self the gladdening assurance that all things, 
 in a sense, are the property of those that are 
 united to Christ. For all things are yours, 
 and ye are Christ's ; and Christ is God's, 
 The believer, in short, is a denizen of the 
 
SERMON FOURTEENTH. 299 
 
 skies. His birth is celestial. His inheri- 
 tance, his immunities, his privileges, and his 
 honors are celestial. This world is merely 
 the way to them. Its blandishments, there- 
 fore, are too insignificant to divert him from 
 his high destination. Like the pilgrim, he 
 stops only a moment at the caravansary 
 to obtain the refreshment which nature re- 
 quires, and then pursues with accelerated 
 step the road that conducts to the city of 
 his God. 
 
 n. Another point of resemblance be- 
 tween the condition of the Christian in this 
 world, and that of the stranger or sojourner, 
 respects the difficulties and trials tliat are to 
 he encountered hij the way. Though God 
 has created of one blood all nations that 
 dwell on the face of the globe, and though 
 all should regard each other as brethren of 
 one great family, yet all nations are notori- 
 ous for their sectional antipathies and pre- 
 possessions. They love those, if they love 
 any, who were born on the same continent, 
 or in the same country, or neighborhood 
 
300 SERMON FOURTEENTH. 
 
 with themselves ; while those whose birth- 
 place is separated from theirs by an ocean, 
 or river, or mountain, are the objects either 
 of their scorn, or their indifference, or their 
 deep-rooted dislike. The education, and 
 habits, and customs of men, inhabiting diffe- 
 rent portions of the globe, are various and 
 opposite. We like that to which we have 
 been most accustomed, whether it be most 
 wise, or otherwise. A stranger or a so- 
 journer, therefore, in passing through a 
 foreign land, exhibits to those with whom 
 he comes in contact, things that are dis- 
 pleasing to them, and, on the contrary, 
 meets with things in others that are offen- 
 sive to him. His speech, or his dress, or his 
 manners, bewray the Gallilean, whom all, 
 by common consent, have agreed to despise. 
 This was the " front of our Savior's offend- 
 ing" with the narrow-minded bigots of Ju- 
 dea, that he came out of Gallilee ; from 
 whence, it was a received opinion of that 
 generation, that no prophet was to arise, or 
 that any good thing could proceed. Now 
 
SERMON FOURTEENTH. 301 
 
 the Christian pilgrim in this world, like the 
 stranger or sojourner among men, has to 
 pass through unfriendly and inhospitable 
 regions. It is frequently his lot to fall in 
 with those who understand not the lan- 
 guage in which he loves most to speak. If 
 he talk in the language of Canaali about 
 God and the glory of his kingdom, his dia- 
 lect is strange, his accent is foreign, and the 
 things which he praises are the things 
 which excite the abhorrence of those that 
 hear him. They had rather hear him talk 
 about any thing else, than about religion. 
 It is so unfashionable and so unsavory. I 
 know it is sometimes unreasonable to intro- 
 duce religion, and make it the subject of 
 conversation in promiscuous assemblages of 
 men. This is what the Savior means when 
 he speaks o^ casting pearls before swine ; they 
 will turn again and rend you. There is no 
 decency to be expected from some mon- 
 sters in depravity, any more than from the 
 bristling inhabitants of the sty; and it is 
 best, if we know such persons, to leave them 
 
302 SERMON FOURTEENTH. 
 
 to themselves, or wait till the Providence of 
 God, by some special interposition prepares 
 the way for assisting them. A good man, 
 however, out of the good treasures of his 
 heart, when a favorable opportunity is pre- 
 sented, will be ready and anxious to im- 
 prove it, in bringing forth good things; 
 things whereby one may edify another. 
 Nor will he be afraid to speak of God's tes- 
 timonies even before kings. If any impious 
 blasphemer, in his hearing, shall give vent 
 to his railings against God, he will be ex- 
 ceedingly apt to reprove him. In what 
 others regard as eccentricities, or weakness- 
 es, and prejudices, he glories ; and sooner 
 than relinquish them, he would part with 
 his life. If he have any pride, it is the 
 pride of belonging to another and a better 
 country than that in which he is sojourning, 
 or is only a passing stranger. His is the 
 honor of being a citizen of the New Jerusa- 
 lem, a native of an heavenly country, and a 
 subject of the Great King. To appear in 
 the costume of his royal Master, is at once 
 
SERMON FOURTEENTH. 303 
 
 his privilege and his pleasure. It ought not 
 to surprise us, my brethren, if, in our jour- 
 ney to heaven, we meet with conflicts on the 
 way. Is it not written, that all who ivill live 
 godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer perseeution l 
 On what ground, then, can ice look for a 
 warrant to expect exemption? We may 
 profess to live godly in Christ Jesus, and 
 escape persecutions and trials. We may 
 appear to be religious outwardly, and swim 
 along with the current without molestation, 
 from the w^orld that lieth in v/ickedness ;. 
 but all this is a totally different thing from 
 living godly in Christ Jesus ; and may con- 
 sist with a mind wholly adverse to the spirit 
 and practice of that religion which is pure 
 and undefiled before God arid the. Father. It 
 is stemming the tideof ungodhness that is set- 
 ting in for the world, whether in the visible 
 church or out of it ; whether what is oppos- 
 ed be popular or unpopular, that constitutes 
 the living godly in Christ Jesus ; which, the 
 Apostle asserts, is the infallible precursor, as 
 it is the certain occasion, of persecution. Let 
 
304 SERMON FOURTEENTH. 
 
 none who are yet novices in Christianity, 
 and who have experienced no bufFettings 
 from living godly in Christ Jesus, be hasty 
 in concluding that theirs will be a peaceful 
 pilgrimage to the end of their journey. 
 The wilderness lies before you, and in it 
 are savage beasts of prey. The Psalmist 
 heard their prowlings, and said, my soul is 
 among lions ; and I lie ever among them that 
 are set on fire^ even the sons of men, whose 
 teeth are shears and arrows, and their tongue 
 a sharp sword. Every day they ivrest my 
 ivords ; (put upon them a wrong estimation,) 
 all their tlwughts are against meforeviL They 
 gather themselves together, they hide them- 
 selves, (carry on their mischievous purposes 
 in secret,) they mark my steps when they wait 
 for my soul. Sliall they escape hy iniquity ? 
 In thine anger cast down the people, O God. 
 Was this a suitable petition for a servant 
 of the Most High ? The man, my brethren, 
 who has been converted, must look out for 
 enemies. He has them within him and with- 
 out him. He has them in great numbers, and 
 
SERMON FOURTEENTH. 305 
 
 they are enemies of great power. Some- 
 times it happens that a man's foes are they 
 of his own household. His irrehgious con- 
 nections are not pleased with the pilgrim- 
 age that he has undertaken. His setting 
 out upon it is a reflection on them. It seems 
 to them to savor of insanity and obstinacy, 
 and they do all in their power to dissuade 
 him from his purpose. Parents are some- 
 times distressed at perceiving the marks of 
 piety in their children, and would rather 
 see them dead, or performing a pilgrimage 
 to Mecca, than walking with God, and fol- 
 lowing Christ. They are afraid religion 
 will make their children gloomy and un- 
 sociable, or superstitious, or fanatical. It is 
 such a serious thing to make a public pro- 
 fession of religion, that they think it not best 
 for them to do it. They are afraid, they 
 pretend, that they will not be able to hold 
 out. True, as those persons suggest, it is a 
 serious thing to make a public profession of 
 religion. But it is no less serious to neglect 
 to do it. And deep and dreadful will be 
 
 14* 
 
306 SERMON FOURTEENTH. 
 
 the condemnation of those, who, by ilhcit 
 means, shall endeavor to prevent any from 
 doing it. There is an awful denunciation 
 against such as interfere in cases of this sort. 
 Wo unto tlie imrld because of offences ! for it 
 must needs he that offences come : hut ivo to 
 that man hy whom the offence cometh ! Whoso 
 shall offend one of these little ones lohich 
 helieve in ine, it ivere hetter for him that a 
 millstone ivere hanged about his neck, and that 
 he were drowned in the depth of the sea, 
 
 III. An additional point of resemblance 
 between the Christian in this world, and 
 that of the stranger or sojourner, respects 
 the solitariness of the way. The true follow- 
 ers of Jesus Christ are but a little Jlock in 
 every age. Strait i^ the gate, and narrow 
 is the ivay lohich leadeth unto life, and few 
 there he who find it. 
 
 " ' Broad is the road that leads to death,' 
 " And thousands walk together there ; 
 
 " But wisdom shows a narrow path, 
 " With here and there a traveller." 
 
 He who is resolutely bent on escaping 
 from the City of Destruction, is frequently 
 
SERMON FOURTEENTH. 307 
 
 compelled to set out alone ; and sometimes 
 to encounter severe conflicts in his rupture 
 with his former associates in sin. In obeying 
 the voice of the Almighty to come out from 
 among them, he is subjected to a violent 
 opposition, and the efforts that are made to 
 impede him, at every step of his progress, 
 are neither few nor small. But the com- 
 mand is decided and peremptory, and the 
 course to be taken is but one. If his kin- 
 dred and acquaintances would go with him, 
 it would be the rejoicing of his heart ; but 
 if they will not, their continuance in a con- 
 dition of guilt and danger would be no apo- 
 logy for him, and it is the fixed purpose of 
 his soul to leave them, and march on alone. 
 In the name of the w^hole company of his 
 companions in pilgrimage, he addresses to 
 them, in substance, the exhortation of Moses 
 to Hobab — We are journeying unto the place 
 of ichich the Lord said, I ivill give it you : 
 come thou with us, and ive ivill do thee good : 
 for the Lord hath spoken good concerning 
 Israel. To obtain the approbation of heaven. 
 
308 SERMON FOURTEENTH. 
 
 the Christian pilgrim must be willing to for- 
 sake father and mother, and brethren and 
 sisters, and wife and children, and houses 
 and lands, and not to count even his own life 
 dear to him when the voice of God's Pro- 
 vidence calls to such sacrifices. At the bid- 
 ding of his Master he must rise up and go 
 forward, and letting others do what seems 
 to them good, his choice must be the friend- 
 ship of God, and his unwavering determi- 
 nation must be to serve him. The city of 
 Sodom, in which the wicked choose to 
 dwell, he knows is devoted to destruction, 
 and that all who tarry in it will soon be 
 overtaken by the storms of Divine ven- 
 geance, which God has determined to pour 
 down upon the ungodly. And will not sin- 
 ners betimes take " the friendly warning," 
 Up, get thee out of this place — Escape for thy 
 life : Tarry not in all the plain ; escap)e to 
 the mountain, lest thou he consumed. 
 
 IV. The last point of resemblance, 
 which w^e shall notice at present, between 
 the condition of the Christian in this world, 
 
SERMON FOURTEENTH. 309 
 
 and that of the stranger or sojourner, re- 
 spects the happiness ivhich is anticipated ivhen 
 the journey is over. Who that, for a season, 
 has ever been separated from the endear- 
 ments of home, has not experienced a sen- 
 sation of pleasure, which no language can 
 adequately describe, as worn down, per- 
 haps, by the fatigue of the journey, he drew 
 near the spot " where his best friends, his 
 kindred dwell," and which was endeared to 
 him by a thousand recollections of former 
 scenes and former joys ? The individual 
 deserves not the name of man, whose breast 
 is not a dwelling-place for emotions of ten- 
 derness on occasions like this. To be at 
 the domestic fireside, and to see the well 
 known faces that are lighted up with smiles, 
 or suffused with tears of joy, at the safe re- 
 turn of an absent member of the family 
 circle, to be where intercourse is free and 
 thought unfettered, to be where the fond- 
 ness of the father and the mother, the hus- 
 band and the wife, may be indulged with- 
 out the obtrusion of cold and unconcerned 
 
310 SERMON FOURTEENTH. 
 
 spectators, to listen to the voice of childish 
 prattle, and to find that all around are of 
 congenial mould, and happy in the thought 
 of being once more together, is the zest of 
 human life, and forms the sweetest earthly 
 cup that mortals taste below. But sweeter 
 far than these, or any thing that eye hath 
 seen, or ear hath heard, or mind conceived, 
 are the anticipations of the Christian pilgrim, 
 when he thinks on arriving at the end of 
 his course, and experiencing the sweets of 
 his heavenly home. There is the rest that 
 remaineth to tlie people of God — " a rest for 
 weary pilgrims found," — There is laid up 
 the inheritance reserved against that day 
 for all them that love God. There are 
 thrones, and crowns, and songs, and joys 
 that in profusion spring from every sound- 
 ing harp, and thrilling heart, and beating 
 breast. 
 
 "O, could we die with those that die, 
 
 And place us in their stead, 
 Then would our spirits learn to fly, 
 
 And converse with the dead : 
 
SERMOX FOURTEENTH. 311 
 
 "Tlien should wo see tlie saints aLove, 
 
 In their own glorious forms, 
 And wonder why our souls should love 
 
 To dwell with mortal worms. 
 
 " How we should scorn these clothes of flesh,. 
 
 These fetters and this load; 
 And long for evening to undress, 
 
 That we may rest with God. 
 
 "We should almost forsake our clay. 
 
 Before the summons come, 
 And pray, and wish our souls away. 
 
 To their eternal home." 
 
 FINIS.