LIBRAEY 
 
 (Theological Jkminavjj, 
 
 \CETON, N. J. 
 
 BX 7233 .C5 1836 v. 3 
 Clark, Daniel A. 1779-1840 
 Sermons 
 
 ' 
 
 Vhe John M. !irel>* Dnuntion. V 
 
 , 
 
CLARK'S W O II K S 
 
 IN THREE VOLUMES. 
 
SERMONS. 
 
 By Rev. DANIEL A/CLARK, 
 
 Author of " Conference Sermons," " Church Safe, 1 ' cjc. <frc. 
 
 IN THREE VOLUMES. 
 
 VOL. Ill 
 
 ; Preach the preaching that Ibid thee." 
 
 NEW-YORK: 
 
 PUBLISHED BY JOHN S. TAYLOR, 
 
 Brick Church Chape). 
 »•• 
 
 1837. 
 
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1836, 
 
 BY DANIEL A. CLARK, A.M. 
 
 In the Clerk's Office for the Southern District of New-York. 
 
 HENRY LUDVVIG, PRINTER. 
 
OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. 
 
 From the New-York Observer of November 19, 1836. 
 Rev. D. Jl. Clark's Works. — I was truly happy to see the notice of 
 the publication of " Clark's Works," or three volumes of Sermons, by 
 Rev. Daniel A. Clark. No one, I presume, whose conscience has ever 
 been probed by his searching appeals, or whose heart lias ever been 
 warmed by his fervid and glowing piety, or whose spirit has ever been 
 overwhelmed by his melting eloquence, or whose sense of duty has ever 
 been quickened by his forcible and practical illustrations, but must re- 
 joice in the privilege of reading at his leisure, and praying ever in se- 
 cret, such productions of such a man. 
 
 Mr. Clark is so well and so extensively known to the American 
 churches, that nothing need be said to recommend him or his writings. 
 He has been justly styled one of the best practical writers of the age, 
 and I do hope that every minister will procure his sermons as a model, 
 and every Christian for his own benefit, to help him on to heaven. 
 
 EVANGELICUS. 
 
 From the New York Mirror of October 29, 1836. 
 Mr. John S. Taylor, of the Brick church chapel, has issued the se- 
 cond volume of Sermons of the Reverend Daniel A. Clark's; they are 
 written with all the elegance of Blair, with the depth and energy of 
 Sherlock and Horsley ; and are an eloquent appeal to Christians of 
 every denomination, urging the great and fundamental truths of Chris- 
 tianity, and vividly impressing the moral and essential points of a be- 
 liever's actions and doctrines. 
 
 From the New-York Evangelist. 
 Clark's Works. — There are some books which will be read by every 
 body in a few weeks after they leave the press, and then laid aside, 
 and three years afterward little or nothing is known or said about 
 them. There are others that more gradual y attract the public atten- 
 tion, and when this is once secured the hold is permanent ; they are 
 transmitted from father to son, and from the venerable grandsire to 
 
VI OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. 
 
 children's children, and one edition after another is demanded, till their 
 record is indelible on the catalogue of our choicest standard works. — 
 Among this latter class we rank, without hesitation, the writings of the 
 Reverend Daniel A. Clark. Of his three volumes of sermons, the 
 
 writer of this article has had opportunity of examining only the first ; 
 
 and of this he is prepared to speak in strong terms of approbation. It 
 is well known that Father Clark never permits any work in which he 
 engages to decrease in interest ; therefore we may have the utmost con- 
 fidence respecting the worth of the other two volumes. But his ser- 
 mons must be studied that they may be duly appreciated. You will bo 
 far from doing them justice if you simply take them up hastily, glance 
 at the texts, the plans, and the concluding sentences, and then pass 
 your judgment. 
 
 You must take them to your retired room, read them deliberately 
 and prayerfully, and they will instruct you ; you will love them, and 
 will feel gratified to find leisure to reperuse them. In the writings of 
 D. A.Clark, you will seldom find any extraordinary things said, but 
 you will find common truths presented in such a manner that every 
 one must feel and remember them. Let me refer to one sentence to 
 illustrate this last remark, (vol. i. p. 123,) "The cause of temperance 
 moved on briskly till it was discovered that the church held in her fel- 
 lowship those who would drink the cup of devils, but has stayed in its 
 march till she can have lime to entomb her inebriates.'''' Here we have 
 nothing but the common-place idea, that the use of ardent spirits in the 
 church retards the temperance reformation ; but his mode of expressing 
 this makes the whole world pause, gazing on the church of Jesus Christ 
 as she bears to the sepulchre the besotted obstacles of reform. Once 
 have this figrue before us, and it is impossible to forget it. It is my 
 prayer that I may see these sermons in the house of each one of my 
 parishioners, and I trust that this is the desire of not a few ministers. 
 
 J. R. J. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 42. The sinner's desperate depravity, 9 
 
 43. The Christian's best friend aggrieved, 24 
 
 44. Terms of Divine acceptance, 41 
 
 45. Christ conducts to heaven a holy people, 59 
 
 46. Christ must have his own place in his gospel, 75 
 
 47. The law and the gospel conjointly sustained, 92 
 
 43. Impenitent men destitute of holiness, 106 
 
 49. Only one true God, 120 
 
 50. The Church with all her interests safe, 135 
 
 51. The Index Sure— No. 1, 157 
 
 52. The Index Sure— No. 2, 169 
 
 '53. The wise man wise for futurity, ISO 
 
 54. The desperate effort, 204 
 
 55. Concio ad Clerum, 219 
 
 56. The mercies of God not obediently reciprocated, 235 
 
 57. The industrious young prophets, 257 
 
 58. Sinners in the hands of an angry God, 283 
 
 59. An Address— The influence of a good taste upon the moral 
 
 affections, 301 
 
SERMON XLII. 
 
 THE SINNER'S DESPERATE DEPRAVITY. 
 
 Jeremiah iii. 5. 
 Behold, thou hast spoken and done evil things as thou couldest. 
 
 This passage evidently teaches the doctrine, that mew 
 are as depraved as they can be in present circum- 
 stances. The charge is made by the infinitely Holy 
 One, and can be fully substantiated against every mem- 
 ber of the unregenerate family. The justice of the 
 charge may appear from a consideration of the following 
 positions : 
 
 I. That God in his providence has surrounded the 
 sinner with many circumstances operating powerfully 
 to modify human character. 
 
 II. That by these circumstances every sinner is actu- 
 ally restrained in his wickedness, and held back in his 
 downward career. 
 
 III. That every sinner does make the attempt, and 
 succeeds as far as God will let him, to sunder these liga- 
 tures that would hold him fast to reason, hope, and 
 heaven. 
 
 Among the circumstances which illustrate the first po- 
 siton, I mention, 
 
 1. Education. This makes Christendom differ from 
 the dark places of the earth, which are full of the habi- 
 tations of cruelty. This makes the same land differ 
 from what it was while a land of idolatry. This makes 
 
 2 
 
10 DESPERATE DEPRAVITY. 
 
 us to differ from our forefathers when under the super- 
 stition and tyranny of the Druids. This occasions the 
 difference between us and the savage of the western 
 wilds. Education, then, operates greatly in modifying 
 character, and in preventing men from being as bad as 
 they would be. 
 
 2. Human law has a similar effect. How near right, 
 think you, would men be, if they were not controlled by 
 human laws 1 Look at some country while in a state 
 of anarchy. Look at some city or village where the in- 
 fluence of law is suspended. Look at France, while 
 under the reign of terror, when law was abrogated, and 
 see one company after another pass under the guillotine ; 
 and the executioners of to-day the victims of to-morrow ; 
 and, tell us, is not character greatly modified by muni- 
 cipal law 1 
 
 3. By the law of God. If men have no other belief 
 in it, but that which may be denominated the faith of 
 history, it still greatly modifies human character. Men 
 have been sorry a thousand times that God ever issued 
 his law. They have hated to read, " Thou shaft have 
 no other gods before me." They have been sorry to 
 read, "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy;" 
 '• Thou shalt not commit adultery ; " Thou shalt not 
 kill ;" " Thou shalt not steal ," &c. But men have been 
 in a measure restrained by these laws, while they have 
 hated the Lawgiver, and despised his statutes. 
 
 4. The troublesome supervision of conscience has 
 greatly modified human character. This everlasting 
 censorship, while it has held men back from sin, has been 
 hated, and warred against, and scowled upon, by the 
 whole human family. 
 
 5. The whole Gospel, — the law drawn out into offensive 
 interference with the sinful pleasures and follies of men, 
 
DESPERATE DEPRAVITY. 11 
 
 has modified human character beyond all calculation. 
 It so commends itself to their reason, and applies such 
 power to their consciences, that it becomes exceedingly 
 difficult to withstand it. It is so tender, majestic, com- 
 manding, and reasonable, that it for a time melts and 
 overawes many who ultimately reject all its provisions. 
 
 6. All the Gospel institutions — the Sabbath, the Sanc- 
 tuary, the church-going bell, the Lord's supper, the or- 
 dinance of baptism, every thing associated with Chris- 
 tian worship, operates in modifying human character, and 
 rendering it, in appearance, better than it is. 
 
 7. The desire of heaven has the same effect. None, 
 perhaps, are so abandoned as not to hope that they may, 
 after all, live and be happy after death. The bare pos- 
 sibility that they shall reach heaven, and wish to unite 
 in the song of redemption, prevents them from being as 
 wicked as they would be. This operates as a powerful 
 restraint, and helps greatly to modify character. 
 
 8. The fear of hell, also, holds back many from the 
 commission of crime. Men are afraid that what they 
 have heard respecting hell is true. Though the subject 
 often excites their unhallowed mirth, it is a mirth which 
 has its misgivings. Their very laughter betrays their 
 fears. And though they trifle with the thought of ever- 
 lasting burnings, it is with the manifest design of keeping 
 their courage up. The fear of hell thus operates in 
 modifying the character, perhaps even of the most 
 worldly. 
 
 9. The expectation of a judgment has the same effect 
 They have some apprehension that they may be called 
 to answer at the bar of God for their deeds on earth. 
 They have " a fearful looking for " of this dread reality. 
 They think it may be true that God will bring them into 
 judgment, for every work, whether it be good or evil ; and 
 
12 DESPERATE DEPRAVITY. 
 
 apportion his awards accordingly. And hence, this ap- 
 prehension serves as a wonderful restraint upon their 
 character. 
 
 10. Public sentiment is a great preventive of crime. 
 Men are so constituted as to be obliged to respect public 
 sentiment. They cannot endure the indignation of a 
 whole community ; and public sentiment in Christian 
 lands favours virtue, and frowns on vice. The assassin 
 is thus disarmed — the thief becomes honest — the swin- 
 dler pays his debts — because public sentiment compels 
 him. No one has daring enough to be utterly indifferent 
 to the good opinion of all his acquaintance ; and charac- 
 ter is thus greatly modified. 
 
 11. The domestic affections produce the same result. 
 The silken cords which entwine around the family cir- 
 cle, prevent the commission of many a crime. The 
 father, the husband, the mother, the wife, the son, ihe 
 brother, the daughter, the sister -all the endeared rela- 
 tions which the members of a family sustain to each 
 other, and which are strengthened every day, operate 
 greatly in the formation of character. How many a 
 son has been saved from ruin, through the affection 
 which he bore to his mother ? How often has a sister's 
 entreaties tamed the ferocious spirit of a brother, and ren- 
 dered it yielding and lovely. 
 
 Thus we see how curbed men often are, while in their 
 native state. This world, then, is in disguise. God, 
 who only knows the full influence of these modifying 
 circumstances, knows what is in man. Therefore, when 
 he looks down from heaven, he still pronounces " the 
 whole head sick, and the whole heart faint," " every 
 imagination of the thoughts evil," specious appearances 
 to the contrary notwithstanding. 
 
 Thus we have recounted some of the circumstances 
 
DESPERATE DEPRAVITY. 13 
 
 which modify the human character. These are. indeed, 
 of vast importance. They result in what we term civi- 
 lity, good morals &c. — all bearing kindly upon the 
 present condition of man. They all speak the wisdom 
 and kindness of God, — they are so many golden chains 
 let down to earth, to modify its moral corruptions. God 
 is good in every such ligature, by which he holds men 
 within the reach of that blessed influence, which can 
 sanctify and make them meet to be partakers of the in- 
 heritance of the saints in light. We ought, then, to 
 thank God for these modifying circumstances, and pray 
 that he would put these chains all on, and keep them 
 on, till even the vilest and most obdurate shall yield to 
 his infinite love. We ought to view men in more hope- 
 ful circumstances, in proportion as God shall hold them 
 by these moral bonds. For, while a young man respects 
 the Sabbath, and is obedient to his parents, there is more 
 hope of him than afterwards. While he is afraid to 
 swear, we may hope that he will begin to pray. While 
 he dare not avow open infidelity, we may hope, if we 
 do our duty, that he will yet believe revealed truth, to 
 the saving of his soul. 
 
 II. By these circumstances every sinner is actually 
 restrained in his wickedness, and held back in his down- 
 ward career. In proof of which we observe, 
 
 1. Men are uneasy under these circumstances ; which 
 shows them to be restraints. Let men be unrestrained, 
 and they will be easy. It is only pain of some kind 
 that renders them uneasy, and willing to change' their 
 position. Hence they will not come to the light, lest their 
 deeds should be reproved. 
 
 2. Men are constantly trying to alter their circumstan- 
 ces. But they are too indolent by nature to try to alter 
 
 2* 
 
14 DESPERATE DEPRAVITY. 
 
 their circumstances, unless they are circumstances of 
 restraint. 
 
 So when a raging fever burns, 
 They shift from side to side by turns; 
 And 'tis a poor relief they gain, 
 To change the place, but keep the pain. 
 
 3. When men at length alter their circumstances 
 in any of these respects, they often show out a worse 
 character ; manifesting what they would have been 
 before, if they might, if these restraints had been sun- 
 dered, and they let loose upon the world. 
 
 4. When these restraints are all removed, men are 
 uniformly far more wicked than if they had not been 
 imposed. All will admit this. It is therefore manifest 
 that these circumstances operate powerfully in restrain- 
 ing men from a career of sin and ruin. Even in the 
 church itself there are vast multitudes who become apos- 
 tates, because their apparent goodness was made up by 
 such restraints : they had really no concern for the glory 
 of God, and were not religious because they loved reli- 
 gion. Beware, then, lest you be left to fall away from 
 your supposed faith, and hurry on to destruction. Not 
 only should professors fear, but the impenitent also should 
 fear and tremble ; because God holds them as account- 
 able beings, completely in his power, and in kindness, 
 for a time, lets down ten thousand restraints upon them. 
 God now controls the madness of his enemies. He puts 
 his hook in their nose, and his bridle in their lips ; binds 
 them with his restraints ; and holds them, perhaps, in 
 apparent subjection In this the character of hypocrites 
 and unbelievers is distinguished from the truly religious. 
 Their wickedness is merely suppressed, not subdued : 
 their amiable appearances are produced by restraining 
 providence, not by converting grace. The heart of the 
 
DESPERATE DEPRAVITY. 15 
 
 real Christian is not suppressed, but radically changed. 
 The grace of God has transformed the tiger into a lamb, 
 and the wolf into a kid. The Christian abandons sin 
 because he hates it, and follows after holiness because he 
 loves it. This constitutes the beauty of the Christian 
 character, and this the distinguishing glory of heaven. 
 There will be there no restraint but love. The whole popu- 
 lation will love to do right ; and impelled by love alone, 
 will employ, in doing right, their energies forever. On 
 the other hand, as the character of the wicked is here va- 
 ried and modified by restraints, God will only need to 
 take off these moral ligatures, and substitute the ever- 
 lasting chains of darkness, to surround them with the 
 horrors of hell. The exceeding baseness of the wicked 
 appears in this — that all these powerful restraints are re- 
 quired to hold them fast in mercy, and prevent them from 
 doing worse ; and the horror of hell in this — that all its 
 population will love to do wrong, and in wrath be let 
 loose to do it, so far as they can amidst fetters which will 
 hold fast only to gall, and chains which will confine only 
 to burn. How amazing, in view of all these considera- 
 tions, is the operation of these providential circumstances 
 in restraining the career of the wicked ! We are thus 
 prepared to consider the remaining position : viz : 
 
 III. That every sinner does make the attempt, and 
 succeeds as far as God will let him, to sunder these liga- 
 tures that would hold him fast to reason, hope, and. 
 heaven. 
 
 One would think that a sinner would not wish to have 
 these kindly ligatures sundered. Where may he wander, 
 or rather where may he not wander, and against what 
 rock may he not dash, and into what bottomless vortex 
 may he not plunge with all his interests, and perish with 
 his all, when he shall have thrown off the fastenings 
 
16 DESPERATE DEPRAVITY. 
 
 that hold him to the throne of the Eternal ? While we 
 go the ground over, and see how he raves, and rages 3 
 and flounces like a bull in the net, and would break loose 
 from God, if he might, whatever be the probable result 
 upon himself, and his hopes, and his family, and his 
 character, and whatever the relationship he must sunder, 
 we are amazed at every step of the experiment, and we 
 are amazed at the result, and at the blindness of the im- 
 mortal being that is in a measure let loose to try his skill 
 in the awful experiment, till God gives him up to hard- 
 ness of heart and blindness of mind, and leaves him a prey 
 to himself, and he is destroyed in his own waywardness. 
 Let us, then, trace his steps, and see his ravings : 
 
 1. See how he breaks over and breaks through the 
 restraints of education. He tries to throw off what he 
 knew of God, and all he had learned of the Saviour, 
 and of the operations of the Holy Spirit ; all he had 
 learned of the operations of the Godhead, in the history 
 of the church. And when he cannot forget, he raves at 
 his own recollections, and madly reproaches the mind 
 that cannot forget, and will not retrace and throw off what 
 it is now to him a burden and curse to recollect. But 
 the Bible rushes upon his unholy mind with the vividness 
 of a new, and fresh, and hated story. O, that he had 
 never read that book ! he cries ; that his mother had not 
 furnished him a Bible when he left his home, or had 
 not made him promise to read it every day ! But if in 
 his senses he may not forget, perhaps he may induce 
 God to put out his mind, and destroy the powers of recol- 
 lection. And this is now the only prayer he makes, 
 and the only thing he cares for. In the mean time he 
 hates the very lessons that he learned in school, and 
 would tread them all down as one does the worthless 
 weeds that are overgrowing his path in a garden. But, 
 
DESPERATE DEPRAVITY. 17 
 
 2. When he has tried for a time, but has tried in 
 vain, to retrace the process of education, he finds himself 
 reined in by human laws. If he cannot forget God, per- 
 haps he can snap asunder the power of human control. 
 Man cannot be omniscient. He can evade all human 
 ties. He can rise above the law, and tread it down like 
 the mire of the street. Or he can violate its precepts and 
 despise its regulations, and hold on and hold out in de- 
 spite of all its sanctions, presuming in his heart that God 
 will not know, neither will the Almighty consider it. 
 If the law does say, " Thou shaft not violate the rest 
 of the Sabbath," he can drink and carouse, or lounge 
 and loiter and the world will only esteem him the better, 
 especially if he add generosity and liberality to his infi- 
 delity and to his deeds of daring and outrage. He may 
 violate any law that lays its restraints on this side of the 
 judgment. Perhaps there may come no day of hated 
 and holy retribution, and then he can have the infernal 
 satisfaction of laughing at the Christians. If the failure 
 of the divine promise of such a day should ruin the world, 
 it will not, as he conceives, ruin him. He would be 
 willing that no such appointment should be fulfilled, 
 even though the failure should tarnish forever the charac- 
 ter of Jehovah. If the law does say, " Thou shalt not 
 commit adultery," if he can violate it, and the crime be 
 hid, and no human tribunal take cognizance of the deed, 
 he cares not for the law. He cares not what misery his ini- 
 quities occasion, if his deeds do not break into open day- 
 light. If it break the heart of a mother, and if a 
 father writhe under the agony of a ruined son, he does 
 not care for the tears of thatmother, nor the agonies of that 
 father. The deed he has done he does not intend shall 
 come to light, in the present life, and he can easily bring 
 himself to care for nothing beyond. Thus he throws off 
 
J 8 DESPERATE DEPRAVITY. 
 
 nearly all the restraints of human law, and contents 
 himself with the purpose never to commit murder, or 
 theft, or any crime that would draw him out to the light. 
 Thus he blesses himself in his own delusion, and trusts 
 for safety in his own righteousness. But he meets with 
 more disturbance yet. 
 
 3. From the law of God. Impenitent and unbeliev- 
 ing, he has read in that law what if he cannot put down, 
 he is a ruined man : " Thou shalt have no other gods 
 before me/' Thus is dashed, at the first stroke, the 
 whole fabric of a dark and fatal idolatry. If man wor- 
 ships his money, or his merchandise, or his farm, or his 
 friend, or any thing but God, or gives any thing else 
 his supreme affection, even if he does not professedly 
 worship it, he is condemned of God. And he adds, 
 " Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God 
 in vain." But how unfashionable it would be to care 
 about this commandment, and let the apprehension that 
 God " will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name 
 in vain," produce a serious moment, or a pang of distress ! 
 It is so noble not to care about God, or what God can 
 say, or do, and it would be so cowardly, so ungentleman- 
 ly, to be afraid to sin, that the offender justs breaks 
 this grand and controlling ligature easier than many 
 that would seem to have no such power to bind and to 
 restrain. An effort not so mighty as that which sun- 
 dered Samson's green withes, puts them all aside. But, 
 
 4. Not quite so easily does he dispose of the trouble- 
 some supervision of conscience. This vicegerent of 
 Heaven stays often many a month after open war is de- 
 clared. It sometimes will hold close conference with the 
 heart, although the heart may wish to be alone. It is 
 that power that will not die, nor see corruption. It will 
 not go to sleep in the grave : it will watch, even while 
 
DESPERATE DEPRAVITY. 19 
 
 the wretch is dying, to secure the honour of God, and 
 gather courage for a fresh attack just by the dying pillow. 
 And the agony of its first onset in the unseen world, hard 
 by the place of dying, devils cannot know. For they 
 have never spurned a dying Saviour, and they have 
 never died. 
 
 But all the embrasures that can be opened upon the 
 soul by this moral avenger must be closed, or its eternal 
 thunders will be heard and felt. Yes, even here the 
 heart sometimes says to conscience, as Satan to the Savi- 
 our, " Art thou come to torment me before the time 1 " 
 But it is the conflict of desperation, and, like the mur- 
 derer who came into close and terrible embrace with the 
 men whose blood he would spill, and was heard to say, 
 " You must die," and with that saying put forth a thrust 
 that forced the dagger to his heart ; so in assailing con- 
 science, to put down its spirit of admonition, it must be 
 assailed desperately, and if the victory cannot be other- 
 wise secured, it must be drawn to the crater, where the 
 wretch stands to torment himself, and to be hardened by 
 a view of its fires ; and here may perhaps end the con- 
 flict, till it is renewed again on the other side of time. 
 Now there is but little left for the sinner to do. Con- 
 science has ceased its admonitions. But still he has a 
 slight conflict. 
 
 5. With the institutions of the Gospel. We noticed 
 in his conflict with the law, which spreads abroad its 
 troublesome interference with his lusts and his pleasures, 
 how readily he could contrive to evade its claims. But 
 the Gospel, like some faithful party in the field of blood, 
 still keeps up the chase, and deeply wounds at every shot. 
 It proves not so easy as was apprehended to still this 
 avenger of justice. It pursues the sinner close through 
 all the narrow lane of life, and even down to the gate of 
 
20 DESPERATE DEPRAVITY. 
 
 hell, unless sovereign grace effectually interpose, or long 
 injured mercy say, " Let him alone." But see the un- 
 grateful struggle of the sinner to cast off this fastness of 
 heaven — this Gospel of salvation. Every church-going 
 bell fills his conscience with guilt, and each return of the 
 day of rest reminds him of the quiet of his paternal roof, 
 where a mother's prayers used to be joined with the Sab- 
 bath day, in rendering the time of rest too holy to be 
 endured. He must pervert its holy design, or writhe and 
 bleed under the lashes of a guilty conscience. If he can 
 get some scene of iniquity open, to prevent his soul from 
 thinking ; if the theatre may be opened, or any other 
 house of death, or he may sport himself with the plea- 
 sures of the turf, and thus kill time, and throw off this 
 one additional fastness of heaven, and put himself afloat 
 upon the sea of life, then he can be comparatively happy, 
 boasting like the school boy's kite, — 
 
 See how yon crowd of gazing people 
 Admire my height above the steeple ; 
 How woidd you wonder, did you know, 
 But what a kite like I can do ? 
 
 It tugged and pulled, while thus it spoke, 
 
 To break the string ; at last it broke ; 
 
 Deprived at once of all its stay, 
 
 In vain it tried to soar away ; 
 
 Unable its own weight to bear, 
 
 It fluttered downward through the air; 
 
 Unable its own course to guide, 
 
 The wind soon plunged it in the tide. 
 
 Thus it will not fail to happen to the immortal being 
 who shall try to do without the Gospel. He may go off 
 from God, and despise the power that would pull him 
 back, but he will go to wander amid the blackness of 
 darkness forever ! 
 
DESPERATE DEPRAVITY. 21 
 
 Had I time, I would go on through the whole catalogue 
 of restraints, and show how, one by one, the sinner 
 wantonly throws them off. But I can notice only one 
 or two more particulars. 
 
 6. The hardened sinner would dislodge himself from 
 all thought of heaven or fear of hell. And yet these are 
 very powerful ligatures, and often the last to be sundered. 
 When men think of relinquishing heaven, they some- 
 times forget that awakening previous question, "If I 
 abandon the thought of heaven, where shall I then be 1 
 What means that worm which never dies ? What mean 
 
 those chains of darkness — and that gnashing of teeth 
 
 and that quenchless fire ? " Ah ! when the sinner is 
 arrested by such questions, and must answer them, and 
 answer them, too, under the operations of the Holy Spirit 
 he will find it hard work to answer them and sin on. The 
 throes produced will be like those of the second death ; and 
 whoever has tried, will not need again to ask what is 
 meant by the undying worm. That eternal separation 
 from the society of the good, and that imprisonment with 
 the devil and his angels, if it bites like a serpent and 
 stings like an adder, when only anticipated,— what will 
 the reality be 1 I am scared at my own question. It will 
 be a death that never dies — a living death ! But, 
 
 7. There is still another thought. The signer must 
 have broken through all the restraints of public senti- 
 ment, before we can know how bad he would be ; and 
 this ligature he tries to snap asunder. But he will find 
 that public very populous, before he gets through. After 
 he has gone his round with mortals, and has learned not 
 to care what men think of his conduct, he must cease 
 too, to care what is thought of his deeds, in heaven. 
 Those beings that have kept watch over his pillow by 
 night, that have warded off fire and pestilence, or waked 
 3 
 
22 DESPERATE DEPRAVITY. 
 
 him in time to flee, that have loved his father and mother, 
 and love them still in heaven, — what will they think of 
 the puny worm who has brought himself to despise them, 
 and sport with their opinion ? But even this is not all 5 
 for devils, too, have their opinion. And he must cease 
 to care what they think of him in hell. And their judg- 
 ment, remember, is not depraved like their hearts. One 
 might almost as well attempt to silence the opinion of 
 heaven as of hell. The murmurs of that dark world 
 against the man who casts its burning sentiments behind 
 his back, will be like the distant roar of a thousand ca- 
 taracts, or like the dashing of as many icebergs conflicting 
 with each other in some boundless polar sea. And, 
 
 Finally : there yet remains to be noticed one of the 
 most powerful motives of restraint, the domestic affec- 
 tions. It is impossible to guess what men would be, till 
 they throw off the hold, for instance, that a mother has 
 upon a profligate son. We must recollect how John New- 
 ton managed, and how miserable he was while a mother 
 lived, to hold the cord entwined about his heart. When 
 every other tie had been sundered, the mother kept hold 
 of him by this, — when his character was gone, when he 
 had descended to the meanness of serving a black mistress, 
 and of eating his morsel from her leavings — when her 
 favour was life to him, and her frown filled him with 
 despair, and he had no other friend— then he remem- 
 bered a mother's counsels and a mother's prayers ; and 
 then and there gave his heart to the Saviour. There, 
 from Africa's dark soil, and from a condition and character 
 darker still, he first lifted his eyes to heaven, and began 
 to breathe eternal life : and he lives now, and sings 
 redeeming grace in heaven, and tells in every song how 
 hard it is for a sinner to conflict with the restraints of 
 infinite love. 
 
DESPERATE DEPRAVITY. 23 
 
 But all these are a part only of the circumstances, the 
 restraints, that go to modify human character ; all of 
 which the sinner deliberately strives to neutralize. And 
 if in nothing else he has shown a character bad as lan- 
 guage can describe, or actions prove, he has given a cli- 
 max of the whole in his attempts to sunder all such ties 
 and cut himself loose from God, and from the whole 
 family of kindly influences that would save his soul 
 from death. 
 
 Such is the obstinacy, the rebelliousness, the ingrati- 
 tude of the sinner. Must he not, then, be born again — 
 have a new heart and a new spirit — or never enter 
 into the kingdom of God. 
 
SERMON XLIII. 
 THE CHRISTIAN'S EEST FRIEND AGGRIEVED. 
 
 Ephesians iv.' 30. 
 Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God. 
 
 If I must doubt whether there be a trinity of persons 
 in the Godhead, I should question the inspiration of the 
 Scriptures. The distinct personality of the three that 
 bear record in heaven, seems to me as plain a truth as 
 any other in the whole Bible, and cannot be rejected 
 without the danger of going into infidelity. In the 
 mysterious division of the work of redemption, it became 
 the business of the Holy Ghost to make the sinner wil- 
 ling, in the day of God's power, to renew and sanctify 
 the heart, and quicken to spiritual life and action, the 
 dead in sin. And after he has begun eternal life in his 
 people, he dwells in their hearts, and is there a well of 
 water springing up to everlasting life. 
 
 The Holy Spirit was promised to the apostles under 
 the title of the Comforter, and has exerted his agency in 
 every conversion since there was a church, and been the 
 guide to heaven of every child of the apostac)'", who 
 has gone and took his seat at the marriage supper of the 
 Lamb. If there is in any mind a heavenly thought, or 
 in any heart a holy volition, it is all the work of that di- 
 vine agent. Hence his favour is life. One had better 
 grieve every friend he has, and wander homeless, and 
 
THE CHRISTIAN'S BEST FRIEND AGGRIEVED. 25 
 
 die deserted, with none to watch him or pray for him, or 
 bury him, than to grieve the holy Spirit of God, and be 
 abandoned of him. 
 
 I have supposed that grieving the Spirit of God, was 
 a deed that none but Christians can do. The enemies 
 of God may resist his Spirit, and may quench his Spirit, 
 but his people only can grieve him. So it is, you know, 
 in human affairs ; an enemy may insult us and offend 
 us, a. friend it is that grieves us. 
 
 It will be my object to show how the people of God 
 may grieve his Spirit, and what the consequences that 
 must follow. 
 
 I. How may the people of God grieve his /Spirit ? 
 
 1. When they limit his ability or his willingness 
 to bless them. The Spirit of God has done so much for 
 them already, that all cause of fear, as to what he can 
 do, and will do, if they are ready, is out of place. It was 
 a great sin in Israel, after they had witnessed the won- 
 ders done in Egypt, and had seen the water of the Red 
 Sea divide, to make them a passage, to have any doubt 
 whether he could enable them to subdue the Anakims, 
 and whether he would give them water to drink and 
 flesh to eat. 
 
 But that people, when they limited the Holy One of 
 Israel, had not seen more illustrious displays of the might 
 and the mercy of their Deliverer, than have the people 
 of God in these days, of the amazing power and grace 
 of the Holy Ghost. He who could subdue your hearts, 
 ye disciples of the Lord Jesus, what can he not do for 
 youl He who could awaken you, when you was pur- 
 posed in your heart that you would never see the danger 
 you was in ; who could uncover to you the destruction 
 that way-laid you ; who could convict you of sin. of 
 
 3* 
 
26 the christian's best friend aggrieved. 
 
 righteousness, and of judgment to come, when you had 
 carefully barred every avenue that would admit the light ; 
 could bring you to a Saviour's feet, and make you his 
 willing captives ; what is there now that he cannot do 
 for you ? What lust can he not conquer, and what foe 
 of yours can he not bring to the ground and lay low at 
 your feet ? How can you doubt a moment of his ability 
 and his mercy, to guide you, and keep you unto ever- 
 lasting life ? 
 
 And after the precious instances of revival that you 
 have witnessed, and the power displayed by the Holy 
 Ghost, in subduing to love and obedience the basest of 
 men, and bringing scores of the ungodly to yield to the 
 force of truth, and become willing in the day of God's 
 power ; how can you doubt but he can give you other 
 precious revivals, and renew to you the scenes you have 
 witnessed, and more yet 7 What other proofs can he 
 give but that which he has given, that you have only to 
 be ready and he will do his wonders before your eyes, 
 till you are satisfied ? And there is no sinner you pray 
 for but he can be melted and subdued, and moulded over 
 into a humble and devoted and heavenly-minded Chris- 
 tian 1 And his willingness to operate is commensurate 
 with his ability. If he would help you when you felt 
 that you could not do without him, and give those tokens 
 of his mercy that you felt that you must have or die, 
 why will he not do the same again ? If you have sinned, 
 and do not deserve his interposing mercy, so you had 
 when he did interpose the last time. When you prayed 
 for that child that he did save, you went to him as a 
 poor sinner, not deserving at all the mercy you asked, 
 and why not expect that the Spirit of God will as readily 
 operate now as then? Why then should we limit, and 
 thus grieve the holy one ? If such has been the power 
 
THE CHRISTIAN S BEST FRIEND AGGRIEVED. 27 
 
 and the mercy of the divine operations in days past, that 
 the highest faith is due, and there is the broadest founda- 
 tion for confidence that the Spirit will operate as soon as 
 we are ready, why should Christians grieve him by limit- 
 ing his power and his mercy. 
 
 2. They grieve him when they expect their comforts 
 from any other source. The people of God often try 
 to be happy without him. There are so many channels 
 through which joy is communicated to the heart, that 
 we are prone to forget its source. We may, by this 
 means, be guilty of an idolatry, though not as gross, yet 
 as offensive to the Spirit of God as the temporary worship 
 of Mammon or Moloch. This is the case when even 
 means of grace are trusted in as sure to communicate com- 
 fort. We may idolize the ministry of reconciliation, the 
 Sabbath, the ordinances, the place of prayer, and even the 
 closet. In young converts nothing is more common 
 than the deep assurance, that the same place, the same 
 practice, and the same pew, will produce the same bless- 
 edness. And often it is not till after many a sore dis- 
 appointment, that they are taught to repair immediately 
 to him whose influence is life and peace. God would have 
 us estimate the means, and set a price as high as he has 
 upon every medium of holy joy. But when we forget, 
 as we are prone to forget, that, we must go a little beyond 
 the watchman, before we shall find him whom our soul 
 loveth ; must pass through the means and there is joy, 
 and there is God, then is the Spirit grieved. His divine 
 agency is undervalued, and the joy he would communi- 
 nicate is withheld, till we are made to feel that the Spirit 
 of God must operate, or every means must lose its in- 
 fluence. 
 
 3. It is equally true that we grieve the Spirit of God, 
 when we neglect the means of grace. There is an es- 
 
23 the christian's best friend aggrieved. 
 
 tablished process, by which the Holy Spirit of God ordi- 
 narily comforts his people. Almost all his joys, and 
 probably, did we know more fully the way of the Spirit, 
 we should say all his joys are bestowed as a blessing 
 on the means of grace. Here he exerts his divine in- 
 fluence. He lifts the soul toward heaven, when the soul 
 makes an effort to rise in prayer. He pours in truth 
 upon the mind, when the mind is labouring to know 
 the truth. He generates holy affections, when he dis- 
 covers in his people grief for sin, and ardent desires to 
 be more holy. Hence the house of God, rather than 
 any other place, has been the scene of his most freq i nt 
 and his mightiest operations. Here he has fed his people, 
 has cheered their despondencies, has raised their hopes, 
 has strengthened their faith, has enabled them to mount 
 on wings as eagles, to run and not be weary, to walk and 
 not faint. Here, with a preached gospel, the word of his 
 grace, that truth through which it was the prayer of the 
 Saviour that the Father would sanctify his people, he 
 has, in every age, since there was a Christian church, 
 shed forth his richest, sweetest comforts. Here, too, he 
 has awakened and renewed the sinner ; has begun in the 
 heart that eternal life which it is his promise, and his 
 oath, shall be carried on till the day of complete redemp- 
 tion. Here all our precious revivals have begun, and 
 have been carried on, by what has been termed the fool- 
 ishness of preaching. 
 
 And God has greatly blessed the place oi prayer and 
 conference. These unnoticed retreats have been, in 
 thousands of instances, the scenes of such divine display 
 as have made angels glad, and have multiplied the num- 
 ber of the saved. Christians have dated their very best 
 comforts in some of these consecrated retreats. In an- 
 swer to prayer, every comfort has dropped from heaven. 
 
THE CHRISTIAN S BEST FRIEND AGGRIEVE!?. 29 
 
 The heart has been warmed in the concert of prayer, 
 beyond almost any other place. Those hours nearest 
 akin to heaven, and the most deeply engraved upon the 
 memory and the heart, to be the subject of everlasting 
 recollection, and of delightful mention in the anthems 
 of heaven, have been those where pious hearts met, and 
 were melted together at the foot of the cross — unless it 
 be those seasons when the soul was alone with God, 
 while there were none to disturb and none to share the 
 sacred joy. Perhaps no comforts can outweigh these. 
 Hence the closet is that most sacred and most lovely place 
 which the believer is the last to quit, where he would live 
 and die. There the heart discloses its most secret con- 
 cerns, delivers its most confidential message, and waits 
 for forgiveness and for peace, with a hope that takes hold 
 of the horns of the altar with the iron grasp of death. 
 
 If, then, God has thus blessed the means of grace, and 
 they are rendered by his appointment so essential to the 
 soul's transformation into the image of God, the Spirit 
 must be grieved when they are neglected. Their neg- 
 lect develops unbelief, and, what is more, contempt. If 
 the Spirit operate, he must choose his own way. We 
 must throw ourselves within the probable reach of his 
 influence, where he has blest others, and where he has 
 promised to bless us. And not only be there occasion- 
 ally, but as often as we feel our need of his special 
 influences. David resolved to pray seven times a day, 
 and Daniel three times in the day, even when he knew 
 that it would be likely 1o cost him his life. Christians 
 cannot lightly dispense with any means of grace and 
 not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, whereby they are 
 sealed unto the day of redemption. 
 
 4. Christians grieve the Spirit of God when they neg- 
 lect to make use of the promises. These were given 
 
30 THE CHRISTIAN'S BEST FRIEND AGGRIEVED. 
 
 for the comfort of God's covenant people, were indited by 
 the Holy Ghost, and are the principal medium through 
 which he communicates to the heart the richest bless- 
 ings of his agency. Here the Christian must apply when 
 he needs support, and he will find the promises wonder- 
 fully adapted to his circumstances. If he feels himself 
 to be a great sinner, here is a promise of forgiveness ; "I 
 will blot out thine iniquities, and remember thy sins no 
 more." If he feels himself to be weak and defenceless, the 
 promise reads, " Fear not thou worm, Jacob, and ye men 
 of Israel ; I will help thee, saith the Lord, and thy Re- 
 deemer, the holy one of Israel. Behold, I will make 
 thee a new sharp threshing instrument, having teeth : 
 and thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them 
 small, and shalt make the hills as chaff. One shall slay 
 a thousand, and two shall put ten thousand to flight." If 
 darkness come over his mind, and it ever becomes at 
 length tangible, like the night of Egypt, still the promise 
 reads, " He that walketh in darkness and hath no light, 
 let him trust in the Lord, and stay himself upon his God." 
 If he fears that he may perish amid the dangers that 
 surround him, he may read and be comforted, " When 
 thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee ; 
 and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee : 
 when thou walkest through the fire / thou shalt not be 
 burned, neither shall the flames kindle upon thee." If 
 there come an hour when temptations seem too sharp and 
 frequent for his strength, he can read and feel safe. No 
 temptation has happened to you, but such as is common 
 to men. And God will, with the temptation, make also 
 a way of escape. Now the child of God offends the di- 
 vine Comforter when he does not thus apply in the hour 
 of distress to the promises he inspired. 
 
THE CHRISTIAN S BEST FRIEND AGGRIEVED. 31 
 
 5. The Spirit of God is grieved when the promises 
 are misapplied. When the promise of forgiveness, for 
 instance, is used before we have repented ; when the 
 promise of perseverance is made to comfort a backsliding 
 believer, when any thing that God has said engenders a 
 hope of heaven, while the affections are earthly, sensual 
 and grovelling. When the unbeliever takes sanctuary 
 in the mercy of God ; and when the Christian hopes to 
 be comforted any where but on the way of life, there is 
 offered equally an insult to the Spirit of grace. The 
 gracious things said in the book of God are all appro- 
 priated in their promulgation. The meek only will he 
 guide in the way and cause to inherit the earth. To the 
 poor in spirit belong the kingdom of heaven. They that 
 mourn shall be comforted. To those only who keep his 
 covenant and his testimonies, are all the ways of the 
 Lord, righteousness and peace. Those only who trust 
 in the Lord and do good shall inherit the land, and shall 
 verily be fed. Those shall know the Lord who follow 
 on to know him. Those shall find him, who seek him 
 with all their heart. 
 
 After the same manner are all the promises appropria- 
 ted, and may neither be neglected nor misapplied. Hence 
 every man who would not grieve the Spirit of God, 
 should make it his first question, What is my character? 
 and his second, What kind thing has God said to me ? or 
 his first question, What is my condition ? and his second, 
 What promise reaches such a condition ? Then, to use 
 the emphatical language of Scripture, the dogs do not eat 
 the children's bread. There are times, I apprehend, 
 when the real believer may not apply to the refreshment 
 of his soul a single promise, but must let the Bible lie by 
 him, as the offending child, faint and hungry, may take 
 no refreshment from his father's table. He must suffer 
 
32 the christian's best friend aggrieved. 
 
 and fast till he is humbled. The promise is ready for 
 him, and God will refresh him with it, when he has 
 brought him to feel that he must die without it. To 
 this spot God delights to bring his people, when they 
 sin. His kindness is thus the more timely and the more 
 welcome. 
 
 II. I am next to notice the consequences of grieving 
 the Spirit. These will appear, 
 
 1. In the absence of Christian consolations. When 
 we have grieved the Comforter, how can we hope that 
 he will bestow his comforts ? When he has brought his 
 blessings to our doors, and we treat him with contempt 
 or neglect, he will leave us to pore over our miseries, and 
 perhaps, to howl upon our beds. How striking a feature 
 is this in the history of God's people, recorded in his word ! 
 David grieved the holy Spirit of God, and we hear him 
 complain at the noise of the water-spouts. Deep calleth 
 unto deep. All thy waves and thy billows are gone over 
 my soul. He wet his couch with tears. All his bones 
 were out of joint. God broke him with his tempest. 
 He was made to bear the iniquities of his youth. 
 
 And how well has all this accorded with the experience 
 of God's people in all the ages since, when they have 
 grieved the Spirit. He withdrew his consolation. They 
 fasted, and prayed, and wept, and God hid, as it were, 
 his face from them. Wearisome nights were appointed 
 unto them. They looked toward death with gloominess. 
 Toward heaven they cast the fearful glance of abandon- 
 ment. They dinged to the covenant as a drowning man 
 to the plank floating by him. 
 
 2. When the Spirit has been grieved, it appears in the 
 withering of the Christian graces. The Spirit of 
 God is the grand agent, by whose influence every holy 
 
THE CHRISTIAN'S BEST FRIEND AGGRIEVED. 33 
 
 affection is nourished. Hence his influence upon the 
 heart is compared to the rain, on which nature is depend- 
 ant for all its beauty, and all its fertility. Let the showers 
 be withholden, and how soon will every field and every 
 garden wither ! How soon will the sterility of death 
 cover the face of creation, and the veriest Eden be con- 
 verted into a desert ! How will the plant wither, and the 
 landscape fade, and culture become useless when there 
 no longer falls the timely and refreshing shower ! So 
 faith, and love, and hope, all fail, when the Spirit of God 
 has been grieved. There can neither be seen the hu- 
 mility, nor the heavenly-mindedness, nor the spirit of 
 prayer, nor the watchfulness, nor the meekness, nor any 
 of the other graces which stand out to view, when the 
 Spirit of God is operating. The life-giving breeze does 
 not blow upon the garden, causing the spices to flow out. 
 The Christian, when he has grieved away the Spirit of 
 God, becomes, for the time being, merely a decent world- 
 ling, rising but one small degree above the man who 
 was never born of God. His lamp, if it may not be said 
 to have gone out, dies away till it casts hardly a ray of 
 light into the darkness of this revolted world. 
 
 3. When the Spirit is grieved, one of the effects is 
 the loosening of the bonds of Christian affection. 
 This affection originates in love to Christ ; hence, if that 
 love decays, all the affections that depend upon it, suffer 
 a correspondent decay. Christ is the head by which 
 all the limbs are united, and live and act in unison. He 
 is the vine. Amputate the branch from the vine, and 
 it immediately loses its connection with all the other 
 branches. What is the believer to me, when I have no 
 longer any interest in him who is the believer's life 'I 
 Now if there be not, and this is not pretended, a final 
 abandonment of the covenant, still if covenant engage- 
 4 
 
34 the christian's best friend aggrieved. 
 
 ments are disregarded, and he whose agency it is to see 
 the covenant ratified, withholds his influence, why expect 
 any union among those whom it was intended to bind ? 
 Sink the believer down into the man he once was, and 
 why expect of him that he will wish any other than un- 
 godly men for his associates ? The union of God's peo- 
 ple to each other will ever bear an exact proportion to the 
 growth and vigour of their piety. Hence, in the absence 
 of the Spirit's sanctifying influence, there decays, with 
 the other graces, love to the brethren, and the ligature is 
 sundered that holds together the family of the faithful. 
 Hence all the discords, the divisions, and the broils ; the 
 hard names and the angry feelings, that have sundered 
 believers. 
 
 4. When the Spirit is grieved the Christian be- 
 comes a worldling. Losing his heavenly hopes and 
 his celestial comforts, there remain none but earthly 
 hopes and creature comforts. The Christian is not only 
 made to differ from the man of the world at the first, by 
 the agency of the Spirit, but this difference is continued 
 by the same agency. Just like a weight suspended in 
 the air, he sinks the moment he is not supported. The 
 graces which the Spirit generates makes the difference ; 
 these suspended and the resemblance returns. Clip the 
 wings of the dove, and what is she but a reptile ? She 
 must tread upon earth, and gather her food in the dust. 
 The man is not willing to be destitute of comforts. If 
 he may not eat the bread of heaven, he hankers after the 
 leeks and onions of Egypt. When the first king of Is- 
 rael found that the Lord did not answer him as afore- 
 time, he sought to the witch of Endor for the guidance he 
 needed. The Lord's people are a miserable set of beings, 
 when the Spirit has departed from them. They will 
 need, to make them happy, all the worldly prosperity 
 
THE CHRISTIAN'S BEST FRIEND AGGRIEVED. 35 
 
 they had before, and more yet, and will covet it as eagerly 
 as the man who has never risen with Christ, nor has 
 ever learned to seek those things that are above. 
 
 5. When God's people have grieved the Spirit, he 
 ceases to multiply their numbers by the conversion of 
 sinners. He has so honoured them as to operate in an- 
 swer to their prayers. I will be inquired of by the house 
 of Israel to bless them. When Zion travails she brings 
 forth children. God works by means ; and when the 
 people of God become backsliders, the means cease, and 
 the work of God is stayed. He thus puts honour upon 
 his people ; makes them the instruments of doing him 
 service, and has himself the pleasure of rewarding them. 
 They would be less happy if God had given them no 
 opportunity to labour in his service. Hence, when they 
 have grieved the holy Spirit of God, and he has with- 
 drawn his influence, and as a sure result, they have lost 
 their relish for his service, he suffers sinners to sleep on 
 and perish. It is considered an established matter of fact, 
 that God does not, and the presumption is that he ivill 
 not, revive his work, till his jjeople are revived, and are 
 ready to be workers together with God. Believers then 
 are urged not to grieve away the divine influence, by all 
 that a soul is worth, and by all that a multitude of souls 
 are worth. And if, in an evil hour, the Spirit has been 
 grieved, they are urged to repent, and humble themselves 
 at his feet, by all the importance that could possibly attach 
 itself to a precious and extensive work of God, among 
 the ungodly around them. 
 
 REMARKS. 
 
 1. Believers can do nothing that is at the same time 
 so great a calamity and so great a crime as to grieve 
 the holy Spirit, They feel the injury first themselves, 
 
3G the christian's best friend aggrieved. 
 
 in their languishing graces, and their loss of comforts ; 
 in their beclouded prospects, and their diminished hopes. 
 Nor would it be a conjecture wholly groundless, that 
 they may be affected in their interests forever, by every 
 season of relapse. They may be thus rendered lesser 
 stars in the firmament of God forever. And how many 
 souls may perish by the deed, we cannot know, till the 
 season of action is past, and the character of all around 
 us formed and finished, and their destiny about to be 
 fixed. 
 
 2. Let me say that God's people may easily know 
 when they have grieved away the divine Spirit. He 
 will carry away all his comforts with him. They will 
 be happy in none of those things that once contributed 
 to their joy. There will be no communion kept up with 
 the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. All inter- 
 course with the throne of grace will be interrupted, and 
 darkness will come upon the believer as soon as be begins 
 to pray. No matter when he attempts the duty, the place 
 will be dark. There will fall neither rain nor dew. The 
 heavens will be brass, and the earth iron under his feet. 
 And the circulation of a heavenly influence between him 
 and the family of believers will be interrupted, and there 
 will be a suspension of Christian fellowship. And there 
 will be no visions of heaven. There will cover the sun 
 of righteousness a cloud, dark and black as midnight. 
 The believer will now grope his way as the blind do, and 
 stumble at noonday as in the night. Those horrid falls, 
 that have crippled and half destroyed the children of God 
 in all ages, have happened when the Spirit had been 
 grieved away. David and Peter had grieved the Spirit 
 when lie left them to stand in that critical hour alone. 
 The spouse in the song had grieved him away,whens he 
 
THE CHRISTIAN'S BEST FKIEND AGGRIEVED. 37 
 
 went about the streets inquiring, " Saw ye him whom 
 my soul loveth ? " 
 
 There is but one source whence come all the believer's 
 comforts, from the influence of the divine Spirit. Hence, 
 if he is grieved, the spring of his consolations is dried up, 
 and he must as assuredly famish, if this fountain is not 
 again opened, as the word of God is true. Hence it 
 would seem that the believer can easily know if he has 
 done this disastrous work ; can know by the poverty 
 and misery, and desolation of his soul ; by the total ab- 
 sence of all those consolations that used to be brought 
 to him by the operations of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 3. On the conduct of believers depends the welfare 
 of the world. If on them it depends under God, whe- 
 ther the multitudes of the ungodly continue to throng 
 the way of death, then it cannot be denied that they can 
 withhold, or can put forth an agency that affects the 
 weal or the wo of a world. While then you sleep — ye 
 redeemed of the Lord — while you sleep, and your graces 
 droop, and your character suffers, and your lamp goes 
 out, there lies around you a depraved and prayerless 
 multitude, who are forming a character for the pit, and 
 pursuing their way down to the prison of hell, to the 
 blackness of darkness forever. 
 
 4. It should then be the wish of the men of the world, 
 that Godi's people live near to him. They sometimes 
 imagine that it is better with them when believers let down 
 their watch and become like themslves. Then their con- 
 sciences do not reproach them, and they have not such 
 fearful alarms, as when the people of God come out from 
 them, and are separate. Still they never make a more 
 fearful mistake, than when slumbering on the brink of 
 ruin themselves, they wish all around them to sleep also. 
 If it is their horrid purpose to keep their stand on the brink 
 
 4* 
 
38 the christian's best friend aggrieved. 
 
 of death eternal, they should be as wise as the Macedo- 
 nian, and appoint one at least to stand at the door of 
 their dormitory, and cry, day by day, Wake, O sleeper ! 
 5. Hence the -propriety that Christians should often 
 inquire of themselves, whether they are acting a kind 
 part toward the ungodly. What was said in Israel, in 
 a time of national calamity, may apply, in a time of the 
 withdrawment of the divine influence. "If my people, 
 which are called by my name, shall humble themselves 
 and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked 
 ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their 
 sin, and will heal their land." I have frequently thought 
 of this text with pleasure, and have styled it a recipe for 
 a revival. I have thought it a pity that any Christian 
 should live without a knowledge of this precious part of 
 the word of God, it is found in 2d Chronicles, vii chap- 
 ter and 14 verse. Not only is the Minister of Christ set 
 to watch for souls, but, in a very important sense, every 
 believer is a watchman, and cannot sleep, but he en- 
 dangers the souls of men. Instead of this, it should be 
 his object to keep every conscience around him alarmed, 
 till the lost are all seen flying for refuge, to lay hold on 
 the hope set before them in the gospel. They may not 
 sleep while there is one lost sinner within the sound of 
 their voice. If believers would not bring blood-guiltiness 
 upon themselves, and calculate by and by to complain 
 to God, " All thy waves and thy billows are gone over 
 my soul," then they should not sleep as do others, but 
 watch and be sober. There hangs in the vigilance of 
 God's people, an amount of interest that outweighs the 
 wealth of a city, and the wealth of a world. Their re- 
 sponsibility is greater than the out-guards of a camp of 
 soldiery, when, if one sentinel should fall to sleep, it might 
 cause a whole army to perish. 
 
THE CHRISTIAN'S BEST FRIEND AGGRIEVED. 39 
 
 6. But in these circumstances, what can the Chris- 
 tian do to recover his former condition ? Why, just 
 what de did when he first found himself a lost sinner — 
 repent. " But," says the poor benighted and comfortless 
 soul, " How can I repent without the influences of the 
 Holy Ghost ? and I have grieved him away." Then 
 here you are my brother, at the mercy of God. Lie 
 down and determine to die, if you must, full in this con- 
 viction. The churches' hope of you is wholly in the 
 provisions of the covenant. I will turn you to a leaf or 
 two of that covenant : " Behold, the days come, saith 
 the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the 
 house of Israel, and with the house of Judah." Here it 
 reads, you see, " 1 will be their God and they shall be 
 my people." He does not intend to let his people go. 
 They would, if he would let them, and perish every soul 
 of them, even after he has forgiven them, and they have 
 been permitted to gaze upon the glories of the Lamb. 
 Let me turn you to another leaf of that compact. " I 
 will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will 
 not turn away from them, to do them good ; but I will 
 put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart 
 from me" On another page of this covenant, it reads, 
 " My salvation shall be forever, and my righteousness 
 shall not be abolished." And there is one other page, if 
 possible, still more precious, " And they shall be my peo- 
 ple, and I will be their God : for they shall return unto 
 me with their whole heart." I will read you one other 
 line of that wondrous compact, which God has made 
 with his people, and leave you to read and ponder on the 
 residue: " If they break my statutes, and keep not my 
 commandments; then I will visit their transgressions 
 with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. Neverthe- 
 less, my loving-kindness will I not utterly take from him. 
 
40 THE CHRISTIAN'S BEST FRIEND AGGRIEVED. 
 
 nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. My covenant will I 
 not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips." 
 Thus are you shut up to the covenant mercy of God, 
 and here is the safest place to leave you. If you have 
 been his children, and have grieved away his Spirit, still 
 his unbounded mercy can reach you. He can restore to 
 you the joy of his salvation, and then uphold you with 
 his free spirit. 
 
SERMON XLIV. 
 TERMS OF DIVINE ACCEPTANCE. 
 
 Acts xvi. 30. 
 Sirs, what must I do to be saved ? 
 
 Paul and Silas, in the faithful discharge of their 
 duty, found themselves at length immured in the dun- 
 geons of Philippi. There they lifted up their voices in 
 prayer and praise ; and the prisoners heard them ; and 
 what was to them of far higher importance, God heard 
 them, and sent his angels to deliver them. The bars of 
 their prison were sundered, their doors flew open, and 
 their bands were loosed. The result was, a deep alarm 
 fastened "upon the mind of the prison-keeper, venting 
 itself in the language of the text, "Sirs, what must I 
 do to be saved?" 
 
 Now the gospel aims to bring every man to the very 
 spot where that man was brought, and then direct him 
 to a Saviour and to heaven. There must be alarm, be- 
 cause there is danger, unless in those, perhaps very rare 
 cases, when a Saviour is embraced, or rather the heart 
 prepared to receive him, before the danger is fully dis- 
 covered. Unless we see our danger we shall make no 
 effort to escape from the wrath to come. And men will 
 have so soon slept the sleep of death, and alarm be of 
 no avail, that humanity requires every possible effort to 
 wake them. 
 
42 TERMS OF DIVINE ACCEPTANCE. 
 
 Hence no curse can be greater, than a ministry cal- 
 culated to keep men secure in their sins. At no other 
 point does there await you so much danger. Your ser- 
 vant may be idle, and your steward defraud you, and 
 your best friend betray you, and still you may suffer 
 but a temporary loss ; but if he who is the mouth of 
 God to you, deceive you, put darkness for light and light 
 for darkness, your loss may be irreparable. 
 
 In the report of that gospel which the Lord Jesus 
 Christ will approve at his coming, the text must be fully 
 and correctly answered. The sinner must know exact- 
 ly the terms on which God will accept him. One may 
 have some general notion that he is a sinner, that a 
 Saviour is provided, and that possibly he may have life 
 through that Saviour ; and still be so much in the dark 
 relative to the terms of acceptance, as to miss of eternal 
 life. The mere fact that a Saviour died, if fully known, 
 is not sufficient to secure salvation. The bare atone- 
 ment, if there be no application of it to the soul, will 
 avail nothing. Christ fulfilled the demands of the law 
 in behalf of all who, in the appointed way, shall become 
 interested in his blood. But if this atonement be neg- 
 lected ; if we listen to a gospel that on this point misdi- 
 rects us ; and we do notbecome qualified to enjoy salva- 
 tion, it will no otherwise affect us, than as an aggrava- 
 tion of our condemnation. My plan will be, to show 
 what is not adequate instruction on this subject, and 
 what is. 
 
 I. I am to show what is not adequate instruction 
 on this subject. 
 
 1. When men are urged to a reformation, as what 
 will put them into the way of life, the instruction is 
 inadequate. If men quit their grosser iniquities, and 
 become decent and civil, still no promise of heaven 
 
TERMS OF DIVINE ACCEPTANCE. 43 
 
 reaches them on this condition merely. Where in the 
 gospel are any such terms stated ? I know that men 
 are obligated to break off their sins by righteousness,, 
 forthwith. John directed some bad men who came 
 to him, to cease from violence and become honest, and 
 contented : but John did not mean to leave them here : 
 hence did not say, that on these terms Christ would re- 
 ceive them. These were rather the conditions, on which 
 they could be prepared to receive his instruction to ad- 
 vantage. If I should meet with a drunkard, or a thief, 
 and they should ask me about the gospel, the first lessons 
 I should give them, would be on the subjects of sobriety 
 and honesty. Men are sometimes too far gone in the 
 by-paths of death, to give the gospel a candid hearing, 
 and learn what the terms of salvation are ; and then 
 the first lesson given them may have respect to their 
 waywardness ; and when the gospel has gained this 
 footing, then you may tell them of salvation to advan- 
 tage. 
 
 But there may be this external reformation, and there 
 often has been, while yet there was no preparation of 
 heart to receive the Saviour, but sin was loved, and 
 rolled as a sweet morsel under the tongue. Men may 
 quit their sins from motives of interest or ambition. 
 Gross iniquities are scandalous and expensive, and may 
 be abandoned from the supreme love of something else 
 beside Christ. 
 
 The fear of the wrath to come, while yet there is a 
 prompt and a total ahenation of the heart from God, 
 may induce men to break off some habit, that threatens 
 their sure and speedy perdition. But there is not a text 
 in one of the pages of inspiration, that exhibits this su- 
 perficial reformation, as the condition of pardon and 
 accceptance through a Saviour. The young man that 
 
44 TERMS OF DIVINE ACCEPTANCE j 
 
 would know what good thing he must do to inherit 
 eternal life, was civil and decent, and still was unfit for 
 the kingdom of God, and was sent away very sorrow- 
 ful. It will not be denied but that he had become a 
 moral man, but he still loved supremely the good things 
 of this life. 
 
 2. When men are directed, not merely to break off 
 some of the grosser iniquities, but to perform some of 
 the mere external duties of piety, the instruction given 
 them is still inadequate. The very same motives that 
 led tc the one, will often lead to the other. The very 
 same man, who would cease his profaneness, and his 
 Sabbath-breaking, and his lewd song-singing, and his 
 drunkenness, and his midnight revellings, because he 
 had become ashamed of their vulgarity ; will have prayer 
 sometimes in his family, and will attend upon a preached 
 gospel, and have a Bible in his house, and read it occa- 
 sionally, because all this is civil and decent. 
 
 And sometimes this cheap and superficial religion, is 
 the high way to preferment. Men will be to some ex- 
 tent religious, if they can obtain character by it, and can 
 make it a stairway to office, and influence and wealth 
 too. They will bow and cringe to men, and God too, 
 if they may obtain suffrages by it. Men will consent to 
 be any thing, if it will make them great in the life that 
 now is. 
 
 And they will perform duties, in hopes to gain heaven 
 by this means. If God will excuse them for hating his 
 law, and character, and government, they will attend 
 upon his ordinances, and pay an outward respect to his 
 Sabbaths, and repeat their creed, and rehearse their pray- 
 ers ; and account it a cheap salvation. And this it will 
 be found is not an unusual resort of ungodly men. In 
 every period of alarm, away they fly to Christian ordi- 
 
TEEMS OF DIVINE ACCEPTANCE. 45 
 
 nances. So in the darker times of Israel, they would 
 steal, murder, and committ adultery, and swear falsely, 
 and burn incense unto Baal, and then come and stand 
 before God in his house. And it is declared in that 
 case, that they trusted in lying words that could not 
 profit. 
 
 God has never spoken of this external attention to 
 religious things, as the terms of acceptance with him : 
 for there may be still an evil heart of unbelief. The 
 prayers uttered by the lips, may neither have their source 
 in the heart, nor throw back upon it the least impulse to 
 piety. They may not even engross the thinking pow- 
 ers, but may be in the ears of Jehovah like the prating 
 of the parrot. Men have no doubt uttered prayers, while 
 the hostility of their hearts, could they have been con- 
 scious of it, to the God invoked, and the Saviour whose 
 name was used, would have driven them from their 
 knees, and sealed up their lips in the sullenness of perdi- 
 tion. And the Scriptures have been read, while the 
 heart quarrelled with every doctrine and duty they en- 
 forced. And ordinanceshave been attended, and Sabbaths 
 kept and charities given, and confessions made, while 
 there was the deadliest hostility to all that is holy in God, 
 or purifying in truth. 
 
 3. If you add to all this a profession of godliness, 
 the instruction given is still inadequate. In professing 
 godliness, men often add perjury to their other deeds of 
 wrong. A profession is not unfrequently the very climax 
 of their impudence, and their daring. Ah, how mis- 
 taken have ministers and churches been, in supposing 
 that when they had persuaded the ungodly to enter pro- 
 fessedly into covenant with God, they had secured to 
 some extent the object of the gospel institutions. They 
 have not unfrequently lived to see their convert a more 
 
 5 
 
46 TERMS OF DIVINE ACCEPTANCE. 
 
 daring sinner than previously, to his hypocritical adop- 
 tion of the covenant ; and have been grieved that they 
 had not left him without the enclosures of the fold. 
 They brought him up to sealing ordinances, sprinkled 
 clean water upon him, and made his lips touch the con- 
 secrated symbols of a dying Christ, but the heart remain- 
 ed a mass of moral putrefaction ; and the sacrifice offered 
 was but a smoke and a stench in the nostrils of an 
 insulted Saviour. They painted and varnished the 
 sepulchre, while within it was full of dead men's bones 
 and all uncleanness. It is many a time obvious, that so 
 far from there having been any thing gained, by thrust- 
 ing the worldling into this religious atmosphere, you 
 have but the more effectually blocked up the last avenue 
 to his conscience, and thus placed him perhaps beyond 
 the reach of hope and of heaven. 
 
 But suppose if you please the very best case, and tell 
 me if in this visible transformation, the Lord Jesus Christ 
 will see any thing that he will consider a compliance 
 with the terms of life and salvation which he offers? 
 And I have left out of view the question whether it be 
 right to do so 1 Whether without the bidding of Jesus 
 Christ, we may thus administer his holy ordinances to 
 unsanctified men? Are we in such a procedure, honest 
 to souls? is now the question. May we encourage 
 them thus to compass themselves about with sparks 
 of their own kindling, and walk in the light of 
 their own fires ? Are they safe or we honest, while we 
 watch no better the gates of the sheepfold ? The press 
 that men make toward sealing ordinances, is a proof 
 that they are uneasy and unhappy, and if we grant 
 their wish, do we answer honestly and fairly the questi- 
 on thus silently put to us, " Sirs, what must I do to be 
 saved ? " Do we not rather seal them up to a perpetual 
 
TERMS OF DIVINE ACCEPTANCE. 47 
 
 stupidity, and shall we not have to answer for their 
 blood, in the clay that inquisition shall be made for it ? 
 
 II. Having thus endeavoured to show, what is not 
 adequate instruction on this subject, I proceed to inquire, 
 what is ? In stating the terms on which the sinner can 
 become interested in the Lord Jesus Christ, I should 
 choose to say ; 
 
 1. He must explicitly avow his approbation oj the 
 law he has broken. Here begins, under every govern- 
 ment, where there has been revolt, the exercise of a right 
 temper. Christ came not to destroy the law but to fulfil 
 it. This declaration is found on the very title page of 
 his gospel. Repent, sa id he, for the kingdom of heaven 
 is at hand. And what is repentance, more or less, than 
 a cordial approbation of the precept that has been vio- 
 lated ? 
 
 Hence the language of penitence in all ages has been 
 the same. " The law is good, its penalties just, and its 
 whole design benevolent. God had not been kind, had 
 he given us any other law, or been willing that it should 
 be broken with impunity, or had affixed any lower pe- 
 nalty, or accepted any meaner sacrifice than his own 
 Son, as the atoning Lamb. O, I am a wretch for hav- 
 ing broken this law, and can offer no possible plea that 
 shall excuse or palliate the smallest deviation from its 
 precepts. If God should cast me off forever, he would 
 but treat me as I deserve to be treated, and expect to 
 be." Thus the sinner takes to himself the punishment 
 of his sins, and thus places himself in an attitude, where 
 Christ can begin to notice him, and still be the friend and 
 patron of the divine law. 
 
 With this principle we are all familiar. The child 
 sees you pouring your frowns upon his disobedience, and 
 would be glad if you would agree with him in repro- 
 
48 TERMS OF DIVINE ACCEPTANCE. 
 
 bating the precept he has violated. But your authority 
 is lost, and your child ruined, if you cease to frown, till 
 he confesses that he has broken a good law. Then, and 
 not till then, can you relax the sternness of that counte- 
 nance, which frowns upon his disobedience. The teach- 
 er places the rebellious child at his feet, and he must be 
 there, till he confesses the precept just, that he violated. 
 And the same principle is acted upon in all governments 
 that, admit of pardon. 
 
 So the Lord Jesus Christ, if he would not do a re- 
 bellious world incalculable mischief, must suffer the 
 sinner to make no approach to him, till he is grieved for 
 his transgressions, or has avowed his full approbation of 
 the law he has broken. Then he can be saved, and 
 the law of God be sustained. 
 
 Now the whole of repentance may be summed up, as 
 I suppose, in this retrospect of a humbled sinner, upon his 
 guilty and inexcusable violations of a good law ; inclu- 
 ding however his abandonment of the transgressions 
 which he disapproves. Thus is performed one of the 
 conditions, on which the Lord Jesus Christ, will receive 
 us to his favour, and wash away our sins in his blood. 
 
 2. The sinner must become willing to owe his 
 escape from the curse of the law to Jesus Christ. 
 One may know that he has broken the law of God, and 
 that the law he has broken is a good law, and still 
 be too 'proud to receive pardon on the terms of the gos- 
 pel. We have known cases when men have starved 
 and perished rather than receive alms. The pride of 
 their hearts would not suffer them to eat the bread they 
 had not purchased. And men have gone down to hell> 
 because they would not cast themselves upon that Savi- 
 our, whose help was seen to be necessary, in order to 
 their escape from the wrath to come. Not merely must 
 the sinner see that he is perishing, and that there is no 
 
TERMS OF DIVIVE ACCEPTANCE. 49 
 
 help out of Christ, but he must become pleased with 
 Christ, else he will not feel himself secure in his hands, 
 nor apply to him for life. 
 
 It is believed that many a soul has perished, hesita- 
 ting whether it would be prudent or safe to cast himself 
 upon the Saviour. To do this is faith, and implies that 
 already the temper of the heart is changed : but all men 
 have not faith It is by no means certain that awa- 
 kened sinners have faith. Some may have ; for none 
 can say how early in the process of alarm God may re- 
 new the heart. But of. this we are sure, that when 
 renewed, it is prepared to believe, soon after the charac- 
 ter of Jesus Christ is presented. 
 
 Sinners often wonder, and sometimes quarrel, that on 
 making the inquiry of the text, the answer we give them 
 implies a new heart ; whereas the inquiry they intended 
 to make was, how they should obtain a new heart. 
 They wish to know how they must operate, with their 
 evil hearts of unbelief, so as to have them renewed. Now 
 to this question we can give no answer. We know of 
 no process by which an ungodly man may work himself 
 into the kingdom of God, but by believing on the Lord 
 Jesus Christ. We can tell them to do nothing, that does 
 not imply holiness ; and if we should, they might do as 
 we direct them, and still be lost ; whereas they ask us, 
 what they must do to be saved. If to this question they 
 wish an honest answer that will do them any good, we 
 must assure them, that having been brought to approve 
 of the law they have broken, they must also approve of 
 the remedy provided, must commit their souls to Jesus 
 Christ. These conditions can never be altered. 
 
 3. When faith has accepted the atonement, and sin is 
 forgiven, there must be a life of obedietiee, as that 
 which can alone express the soul's continued approbation 
 
 5* 
 
50 TERMS OF DIVINE ACCEPTANCE. 
 
 of the law that has been violated, and the remedy that 
 has been provided. Repentance for sin, and faith in 
 Jesus Christ, are not exercises belonging merely to the 
 first stages of piety, and to be then done with forever. 
 The man who is born of God continues to hate sin, and 
 trust in the Lord Jesus Christ till he dies. He docs not 
 give the law one approving look, and the Saviour one 
 welcome to his heart, and then relapse into his former 
 impenitence and unbelief. He renews his repentance 
 day by day, and as often makes fresh application to the 
 blood of sprinkling, for pardon and acceptance. His 
 whole life, if he honour the religion he professes to em- 
 brace, is filled up with obedience to the law, with sorrow 
 and tears for having broken it, and with the testimonials 
 of a cordial approbation of the atonement made upon 
 the cross. 
 
 We know nothing of that religion, which, after taking 
 root in the heart, can lie dormant for years, and produce 
 no transforming influence upon the man, conforming 
 him to the truth, or moulding him into the image of 
 Jesus Christ. God will not forgive sin, and take away 
 the curse, and enter into an everlasting covenant with 
 the transgressor ; and then permit him to go into exile 
 from his presence, and be again an alien from the com- 
 monwealth of Israel, and a stranger from the covenants 
 of promise ; and live without hope and without God 
 in the world. 
 
 He calls in his elect, only in time, however early, to fit 
 them for his presence in glory. And the work of grace 
 goes on from that time till death. They aim at a perfect 
 obedience to the divine law, and go from strength to 
 strength, till every one of them appeareth in Zion before 
 God. They forget the things that are behind, and reach 
 forth to those things which are before, and press toward 
 
TERMS OF DIVINE ACCEPTANCE. 51 
 
 the mark, for the prize of the high calling of God in 
 Christ Jesus. Hence there cannot be any very long sus- 
 pension of those exercises, which are essential at the 
 beginning of a course of piety. The heart continues to 
 be penitent, and believing and obedient, till all sin is re- 
 moved, and grace is perfected in glory. I close with 
 
 REMARKS. 
 
 1. Let lis compare all this with what is some- 
 times termed the gospel. How wrong and how ruin- 
 ous is the advice, that not unfrequently is given to the 
 unregenerate. 
 
 We have known when pains was taken to prevent 
 men from becoming alarmed, so as to put the question of 
 the text with earnestness. They must not hear that the 
 heart is desperately wicked, lest they should fear that 
 in all their deeds they have broken the law of God. 
 They must have no suspicion that their prayers are de- 
 ficient, lest they should see their need of a Saviour. They 
 must be told nothing of hell, lest they should be afraid of 
 its torments ; nor hear of election, lest they learn that men 
 will not accept of mercy, till they are made willing in 
 the day of God's power. 
 
 And thus every doctrine, calculated to pour honour 
 upon the divine law, and reflect correspondent shame 
 and reproach upon the transgressor, must be disproved, 
 or concealed, or neutralized ; and that perhaps by the 
 very men who have been sent as the heralds of salvation 
 to a lost world. We have seen them afraid, lest with- 
 out design, they should effect some alarm among the 
 foes of God. Hence the monstrous abuse of that text, 
 when any hard truth had leaked out ; " But, beloved, 
 we are persuaded better things of you, and things that 
 
52 TERMS OF DIVINE ACCEPTANCE 
 
 accompany salvation, though we thus speak." Ten 
 thousand consciences, that had been pierced with truth, 
 have thus been healed slightly, by a text which God in- 
 spired for far other purposes. But when no soothing 
 opiate would answer, and the sinner could not be pre- 
 vented from alarm, we have known advice to be given 
 that was the most ruinous possible. 
 
 We have known when awakened sinners have had 
 suggested to them a train of thought calculated to chase 
 away all alarm, by lessening their respect for the vio- 
 lated law. It is pleaded that they have misapprehended 
 their guilt ; that the law is not so severe as they imagine, 
 and moreover, that the mercy of God will not allow him 
 to punish sinners forever. What parent, say these ten- 
 der hearted instructors, would cast his child into a 
 quenchless fire? Will God punish eternally the errors 
 of a few years ? God will be moved by their tears, and 
 will pardon them, if indeed their grief has not alrea ly 
 done away their guilt. Thus their anguish of heart is 
 all soothed, while yet there is no repentance! 
 
 We have known when the awakened were told, that 
 they were in a fair way to obtain religion, that they must 
 persevere, and hold out, and they would do well. But 
 unhappily their way was the way to death, and they 
 did persevere perhaps, and their alarms were soon gone, 
 and they are seen in the broad way, or are gone to know 
 the full weight of that curse of the law which once hung 
 over them. Had they been told that there was nothing 
 holy in their terrors, and that they were still insecure, 
 till they applied by faith to the Lord Jesus Christ, they 
 might have obtained eternal life. They should have 
 known, that they had not overrated their danger, nor 
 half estimated their guilt, that God was angry as they 
 supposed, that there was a perdition, as deep, and dark, 
 
TEKMS OF DIVINE ACCEPTANCE. 53 
 
 and hopeless as they feared. Then there might have 
 been a prospect that they would flee for refuge, to lay 
 hold on the hope set before them in the gospel. 
 
 The case is said to have happened when they have 
 been directed to a novel, or a party, to chase away their 
 glooms. A journey in the country, or a visit to their 
 friends, the song and the dance, have been considered a 
 better specific for their pains, than the atoning Lamb of 
 God. Let it be, that these are extreme cases, still means 
 like these have often been resorted to, in order to do 
 away alarm, and soothe the waking conscience. But it 
 will wake again in the day of death, and gnaw with a 
 still keener appetite from the day of judgment onward. 
 
 Finally, any instruction given awakened sinners, that 
 they may comply with and still perish, is cruel and 
 treacherous. Say to them as Paul did, and you are 
 safe, and they too, if they follow your advice. And they 
 will be as likely to do their whole duty, as any part of 
 it. Christ will bless only that intruction, which comes 
 up to the standard he has given us. O, let not the lips, 
 that should pour out only truth that should help the sin- 
 ner to a full acquaintance with his sins, and press his 
 conscience, till he shall feel that he cannot do an hour 
 without Christ ; be employed to stop the progress of con- 
 viction, and through a mistaken tenderness, bind up the 
 rankling wound, ere the probe has reached its centre, or 
 it has disgorged its putrescence. When the sinner, un- 
 der the management of the Holy Ghost, is in a fair way 
 to become thoroughly convinced of his misery and his 
 ruin, let not the work be arrested in its progress, and the 
 ear be assailed with the sound of peace, till heaven is 
 once made sure. 
 
 The prodigal is alarmed for his life, and grieved al- 
 most to distraction for his baseness of conduct, and has 
 
54 
 
 TERMS OF DIVINE ACCEPTANCE. 
 
 his face turned homeward, but a being meets him, pre- 
 tending to be his father's friend, and sent to guide him in 
 the way to his house, and bears him into a hopeless and 
 returnlesa exile ! He casts a veil over the filth and rags 
 of the vagabond, tells him of his native virtues, admonish- 
 es him to make one more effort to live without his father, 
 and the wretch believes, and turns his face from home, 
 and perishes in his profligacy. So many a sinner, just 
 at the moment when he began to think on his ways, 
 when his sins were staring him in the face, when there 
 was seen distinctly the countenance of an offended God, 
 and when there began to be some thought of repairing to 
 a Saviour, has been misdirected and destroyed. 
 
 Instead of saying as St. Paul did, " Believe on the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved," we set 
 about making him happy in some other way. He must 
 mend his life, and send up some prayer, and wait at 
 the pool, and hold on his way : — Yes, all this would be 
 well, were he now a believer. But the misery of the 
 case is, he is yet unsanctified, his heart is set in him to 
 do evil, and the controversy between him and God, is 
 yet at its height. He must stop and turn back, or lose 
 heaven. He yet knows not enough about his sins to 
 render a Saviour welcome. He still dares to stand on 
 the margin of perdition, and has a disgust for holiness 
 and heaven so implacable, that he will risk all the dan- 
 ger he is in a little longer, rather than give his heart to 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 Tell him now of waiting God's time, and attending 
 on the means ; when God s time has gone by these 
 thirty, forty, sixty years, and means have had no effect 
 all that time ! Ah, I am afraid you will amuse him till 
 his day of mercy has gone by, and he perishes in his 
 bondage. The manslayer is fleeing from the avenger 
 
TERMS OF DIVINE ACCEPTANCE. 55 
 
 of blood, the road before him parts, a post is erected, and 
 a board on it, on which is written in large capitals, 
 
 REFUGE^ 
 while the finger of a man's hand points to his course. 
 He can only read a single word, and must run while he 
 reads. If he stops to breathe he perishes. 
 
 Now such is the office of the gospel ministry, when it 
 comes in contact with a sinner anxious to flee from the 
 wrath to come. It can lose no time in directing him to 
 the Lamb.that was slain. It must urge him to a place of 
 safety, and when the danger is over, then tell him of 
 means, and urge him to prayer, and press a reform, and 
 build him up for heaven. I proceed to a 
 
 2. Remark. We may gather from this subject a 
 reason, why revivals of religion in some instances, 
 add so little to the strength of the churches. Ihe 
 lax instruction sometimes given to awakened sinners at 
 such a time, even by well meaning men. who aim to be 
 faithful, tends to nourish a growth of piety, that is sickly 
 and effeminate, and will finally add but little to the 
 vigour and beauty of Zion. I know that if souls are 
 converted they will get to heaven, and blessed be God 
 if he will convert them, but their usefulness in this life, 
 much depends on their early instruction. 
 
 Let the doctrines be kept hid from those who are 
 coming into the kingdom, and let there be detailed only 
 that soothing, indistinct, and sickly instruction, which 
 has been noticed, and the converts, when made, will 
 go halting along to heaven, and the church and its 
 ministry have very little comfort in them, or help from 
 them. 
 
 They will scarcely know what converted them, whe- 
 ther truth or error. It was truth, I know, for God 
 sanctifies through the truth; but there was so much 
 
56 TERMS OF DIVINE ACCEPTANCE. 
 
 mingled with it as to render it, in their own view, 
 doubtful which produced the effect. And having asso- 
 ciated the kindness of their youth, the love of their 
 espousals, with so much indistinctness of doctrine, they 
 will be likely ever after, to court this same darkened ex- 
 hibition of the gospel, and finally die before they shall 
 have learned what truth is. And while they live, they 
 will be liable to be driven about with every wind of doc- 
 trine, and vex the church, and embarrass the ministry, 
 and pass perhaps from one denomination to another, and 
 finally be saved though as by fire. 
 
 They will be doubtful who converted them. They 
 w T ere told when under alarm, to do many things toward 
 their own conversion, and they did them, and they 
 were finally converted ; but whether they did it them- 
 selves, or whether God did it, they find it hard to tell. 
 And they will give others the same darkened counsel 
 that was given them. Thus God is robbed of the glory 
 due to his name, and the churches filled up with mem- 
 bers, who will hang a dead weight upon every revival 
 that shall happen in the church, till they are taken 
 up to heaven, and taught there what ihey should have 
 learned that same week in which they were born of 
 God. 
 
 And they may never find out in this world, what they 
 were converted for. Men will be active in duty, only 
 as they are rooted and grounded in the truth. In all 
 men, truth, or what they think is truth, is the spring of 
 action. Hence some whole churches, in this day of 
 Christian enterprise, can be brought to do nothing ; and 
 the reason is, because they know nothing distinctly. If 
 you could enlighten them, they would act, but they will 
 not be enlightened. The secret is, they were born in a 
 dark, misty, and debilitating atmosphere, and they 
 
TERMS OF DIVINE ACCEPTANCE. 57 
 
 choose to live and die in the same. Let some good man 
 who knows and loves the truth, go into one corner of 
 such a society, and there be active and faithful a few 
 years, till the Christians know what they were born 
 again for, and that corner of the church shall be, from 
 that time, worth all the rest, in any labours to which 
 God shall call his people. 
 
 I know not but that we have here one, and that not 
 a very inefficient cause, why so many ministers have 
 been quarrelled away from their people, immediately 
 after some great revival. The faithful and laborious 
 servant of God had gathered into the church a multitude 
 of converts, and expected much from them, but had not 
 prepared them to be useful ; and when at length he 
 urged them to bring forth fruits meet for repentance, they 
 contended with him. If any should consider this a 
 bold suggestion, then I hope they will make a happier 
 one, and take away this reproach from the churches. I 
 cannot believe, that a revival of religion, effected by the 
 Spirit of God, under a distinguishing gospel, will tend to 
 unsettle its ministry. But I can easily believe, that one 
 who knows and loves the truth, may hold it back in a 
 time of awakening, to the incalculable injury of those 
 who are born again, and at the risk of his own sudden 
 removal from his flock. He is afraid to give them 
 strong meat, and feeds them with what he terms milk 
 but which proves to be poison, and they wither under it, 
 and he is punished for administering it. Thus is fulfill- 
 ed that inspired adage, " He that will save his life 
 shall lose it ; but he that will lose his life, for my sake, 
 and the gospel, the same shall save it." 
 
 Finally, let me say to lost men, haste your escape to 
 Jesus Christ. You stand in imminent danger of perdi- 
 tion every moment. Your ruin is nearer, and your guilt, 
 
 6 
 
58 TERMS OF DIVINE ACCEPTANCE. 
 
 far greater, than you ever conceived. That sinner that 
 has been the most afraid, has never been half enough 
 afraid, of the wrath of God. It burns to the lowest 
 hell, and when you fall beneath it, your courage will all 
 be gone in a moment. " Can thine heart endure, or 
 can thine hands be strong, in the days that I shall deal 
 with thee?" 
 
 You see what the terms are, and God will never alter 
 them, on which you can be accepted of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ. They are the best, and the only terms that 
 could be offered. They secure the honour of the divine 
 law, the glory of Christ, and the eternal life of the 
 sinner. They are humbling terms, and to reach the 
 case they must be. 
 
 Now will you stand quarrelling with the truth till you 
 perish ? Is this the right course for a sinner ? You 
 thus harden your heart, and sear your conscience, and 
 provoke your doom. " Now is the accepted time, now is 
 the day of salvation." May God bless his own truth, 
 and make it a fire and hammer to break in pieces the 
 flinty rock. Amen. 
 
SERMON XLV. 
 
 CHRIST CONDUCTS TO HEAVEN A HOLY PEOPLE. 
 
 Titus ii. 14. 
 
 Who gave himself for us, that lie might redeem us from all iniquity, and 
 purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. 
 
 More than eighteen hundred years since, we were 
 visited by a stranger from a foreign world. Two ques- 
 tions were immediately agitated. Who is he ? and 
 What his errand ? He settled them both ; but they 
 have come up, again and again, to the present day. 
 A previous discourse had a bearing upon the first 
 of these questions, and the text now before us will 
 require us to attend to the second. It is selected, you 
 will remember, from that very book which he left with 
 us, on purpose to answer every inquiry that men would 
 need to make respecting himself and his mission. We 
 learn in the context, who it was that thus gave himself 
 for us, '-The great God, even our Saviour Jesus Christ.'' 
 
 My readers are aware, that the same men, who deny 
 that our Saviour Jesus Christ, is the great God, differ 
 as widely from the apostle, relative to the part he 
 acted for us. They would allow that he was com- 
 missioned to make known to us the will of God, espe- 
 cially the fact of a resurrection, which nature did not 
 reveal, and establish Christian ordinances, and set us an 
 example of virtue. That his death was vicarious, or a 
 
60 CHEIST CONDUCTS TO HEAVEN 
 
 substitute for our condemnation, they would generally, 
 and I presume universally deny. 
 
 Now, if we need a Saviour to do more for us than this, 
 then we need, not the one they offer, but whom the 
 apostle exhibits to our view in the text. If my sins 
 must be atoned for, if an evil heart of unbelief must be 
 removed, and when sanctified, I must still be accepted 
 through the merits and the righteousness of another ; 
 then I need a Saviour to do more for me than teach me 
 truth, and give me ordinances, and be my pattern in 
 virtue. 
 
 Had my ruin consisted merely in having lost a know- 
 ledge of God and duty, an angel might have become my 
 instructer, and his example would have answered me 
 the same purpose, as that of the Son of God. It would 
 have seemed in that case wholly unnecessary, that God 
 should be manifest in the flesh. But if the whole heart 
 was faint, as well as the whole head sick ; if there hung 
 over us the curse of a broken law, and we were so alien- 
 ated from God as to b3 content in perpetual exile from 
 his service and his fellowship ; then both instruction and 
 example, if nothing more were done, would be wholly 
 lost upon me. 
 
 What can it avail to present truth or exhibit purity, 
 before a mind that disrelishes moral beauty, unless pro- 
 vision is made to subdue the aversion of the heart 1 
 And even then, how could I be happy with the curse 
 of a broken commandment pendent over my head ? O, 
 give me such a Saviour as Paul describes, or when all 
 is done, there is left undone the main thing requisite, to 
 my obedience and my blessedness. If the Lord Jesus 
 Christ came merely to instruct me, so did the prophets 
 and the apostles ; and their example, had their hearts 
 been perfectly holy, would have been all I needed on 
 
A HOLY PEOPLE. 61 
 
 this point ; and thus either of them might have been my 
 Saviour as really as he who is now frequently exhibited 
 as the only Redeemer. 
 
 If I must be content with a Saviour, who is merely 
 my schoolmaster ; I am led to ask, Why so much said 
 of him previously to his advent >. Did prophets anticipate 
 his approach many thousand years ; and martyrs hang 
 their hopes on him so long ; and angels announce his 
 ingress, soon as the time was out ; and spent the night 
 by his manger ; and a voice from heaven name him the 
 Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world ; 
 and was this mighty personage, who so long held a 
 world ill agonized suspense, merely some teacher com- 
 ing to do for us what any man, if commissioned, could 
 have done as well? Is Jehovah accustomed thus to 
 pour honour upon a creature, sent on an errand no more 
 grand than this ? 
 
 " Is ocean into tempest wrought, 
 
 To waft a feather, o'r to drown a fly?" 
 
 No man can have a very deep sense of sin, and not 
 feel his need of having done for him more than all this. 
 He who owes ten thousand talents, and has nothing to 
 pay, will need a Saviour who can take that debt upon 
 him. He who has drawn upon himself the denuncia- 
 tions of his Maker's law, will need a Saviour to bear 
 that burden for him. He who has a carnal mind, that 
 is enmity against God, is not subject to his law nor can 
 be, will wish a Saviour who can subdue that heart to 
 loyalty and duty. And he who. after all this is done, 
 dare not hope for heaven, unless taken by the hand, by 
 some mighty Prince, and led every inch of the way till 
 he is within its threshold, will inquire if no such Captain 
 of his salvation is provided 1 And he will open his Bible, 
 6* 
 
62 CHRIST CONDUCTS TO HEAVEN 
 
 and read a single sentence, and there, the great God, 
 even our Saviour Jesus Christ, for whose appearing to 
 judge the world his people are looking, is the very pro- 
 tector and friend he needs ; " Who gave himself for us, 
 that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify 
 unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." 
 The text furnishes a natural division of thought, and 
 will need the aid of no numerical distinctions. 
 
 Who gave himself for us. His presentation at the 
 altar of justice, as our victim, was his own act. He is 
 not seized and bound, as the barbarous nations secure 
 their victims, willing or unwilling ; nor comes to the 
 altar as Isaac did, not knowing where the lamb was 
 for a burnt offering. He had power to lay down his 
 life, and power to take it up again. Not merely was 
 he given, although this was true, but he gave himself. 
 And it was not merely his time, and strength, and 
 patience, that he gave, as instructers do, but his life. 
 How easily could he have blighted all our hopes in that 
 dark hour. Had he sent Judas to his own place, or 
 rendered him an honest man, when he came to steal 
 the be'traying kiss ; or had he struck lifeless that mid- 
 night band, that came to apprehend him ; or had he let 
 down into hell that senate chamber, with its mass of 
 hypocrisy ; and paralized the sinews of that soldiery 
 that crucified him ; ihen had there been none to betray, 
 arrest, or murder the Lamb of God. And he had all 
 this power in himself, else he did not give himself 
 He who goes to death without his choice, by a power, 
 human or divine, that he cannot control, cannot be said 
 to lay down his life : his life is taken from him. 
 
 But the Sufferer of Calvary, when he left the bosom 
 of the Father, had his eye fixed, and through his whole 
 life kept it fixed upon the scene of the cross, as the 
 
A HOLY PEOPLE. 63 
 
 finishing act of his humiliation, and felt not that his 
 work was done till he yielded his life. Hence, while 
 it is true that the Father gave his Son, it is equally 
 true that the Son gave himself. He was as voluntary 
 in redeeming the world, as in the act that built it. 
 
 Who gave himself for us. Here each word has 
 meaning. Who are we to understand by us ? Not 
 Paul himself and the good brother in the gospel to 
 whom he wrote, merely. If another apostle may de- 
 cide, the Lord Jesus Cnrist was " the propitiation for 
 our sins ; and not for ours only, but also for the sins of 
 the whole world." I have no wish now to enter the 
 list in that controversy, which never should have been 
 among brethren who hold the Head, whether the atone- 
 ment, as distinguished from redemption, is general or 
 limited. Those who do not distinguish atonement from 
 redemption, must limit it, or avow the salvation of all 
 men ; and those who do thus distinguish, may with 
 propriety make atonement general, and still are not 
 accountable for a consequence, which is made to follow, 
 not on their principles, but that of their opponents. 
 
 Is there not a common ground, where those who 
 love the truth can and must meet ? Neither of the 
 parties, to whom I now refer, assert, that God has 
 purposed or will accomplish the salvation of all men, 
 through the atonement of Christ ; nor on the other 
 hand, will deny, that the atonement places the human 
 family at large, in circumstances happily differing from 
 that of devils. To men there go out overtures of mercy, 
 to devils none. But does it not follow, that if mercy is 
 offered, and the offer sincere, salvation is possible ; that 
 is, the obstructions are removed on the part of God, that 
 would have kept men from heaven, even had they 
 repented ? and this is precisely what I understand 
 
64 CHRIST CONDUCTS TO HEaVEN 
 
 those to mean, who make the atonement general. 
 The death of Christ rendered it possible for God to save, 
 without dishonouring his law, or weakening his govern-' 
 ment, as many as it should please him to sanctify. 
 
 And what is the force of the preposition, for us .' Can 
 it mean less or more, than that the death of Christ was 
 a substitute for our condemnation ? this idea is certainly 
 consonant with the whole drift of revelation. " He 
 hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows ; he was 
 wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our 
 iniquities ; the chastisement of our peace was upon 
 him ; and with his stripes we are healed : — the Lord 
 hath laid on him the iniquity of us all:— for the trans- 
 gressions of my people was he stricken/' Thus the griefs, 
 and the sorrows, and the wounds, and the bruises, the 
 chastisements, and the stripes, all fell on him by substi- 
 tution, and were borne instead of the everlasting miseries 
 of hell, which we must have borne, had he not offered 
 himself as our ransom. 
 
 The apostle proceeds to make known to us the design 
 with which the Saviour gave himself for us, " That he 
 might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify ms." 
 There are here included pardon, and sanctification. 
 
 First, pardon. The sinner can neither be consider- 
 ed as redeemed from iniquity, or purified, while his 
 conscience is polluted with unpardoned sin. He is still 
 under the curse of the law, has the brand of infamy 
 upon him, and the badges of death around him. Hence, 
 when he believes, and pardon can be administered, 
 without injury to the divine government, his cleansing 
 from the defilement of sin is begun. There is a text in 
 one of the minor prophets, which though spoken with 
 reference to the church, is beautifully expressive of this 
 first act of God's mercy to sinners. " Who is a God like 
 
A HOLY PEOPLE. 65 
 
 unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the 
 transgressions of the remnant of his heritage 7 He re- 
 taineth not his anger forever, because he delighted in 
 mercy. He will turn again ; he will have compassion 
 upon us ; he will subdue our iniquities ; and thou wilt 
 cast all their sins into the depths of the sea " And in 
 another text it reads, " Their sins and their iniquities 
 will I remember no more." And we have the delight- 
 ful idea of forgiveness in this text, < : That thou may est 
 remember, and be confounded, and never open thy 
 mouth any more, because of thy shame, when I am 
 pacified toward thee for all that thou hast done, saith 
 the Lord God." The very first act of faith in the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, secures this blessing, and we stand, though 
 not on the same footing as if we had never sinned, yet 
 the same as relates to our exposedness to the penalties 
 of the law. The transgressions of the law, that had 
 been minuted against us in the record of the divine 
 mind, are blotted out. God even speaks as if he would 
 forget them, and never suffer them to come into his 
 mind again. 
 
 But pardon, as rich a blessing as it is, to a sinner 
 made sensible of his gross and dreadful departure from 
 God, holds a place second in importance to that of 
 sanctification. Hence to purify us, was an important 
 part of the work which the Lord Jesus Christ came to 
 do for us ; by which I understand, delivering us from 
 the power of sinful affections. This is done through 
 the immediate agency of the Holy Spirit, and is ascribed 
 to the Lord Jesus Christ, inasmuch as the Spirit acts a 
 part in the economy of redemption, subordinate to that 
 of the Mediator, and is spoken of as sent by him. He 
 takes away the heart of stone and gives a heart of flesh, 
 and creates us anew in Christ Jesus unto good works. 
 
66 CHRIST CONDUCTS TO HEAVEN 
 
 Christ is formed in his people the hope of glory ; his 
 image is impressed on the heart ; and the lineaments 
 of that image are drawn out to view in deeds of loyalty 
 and duty. 
 
 Thus the Lord Jesus Christ brings his people to feel 
 like him, to love his character, his law. his government, 
 and kingdom, and all the duties of piety, and bene- 
 volence. And his purpose and promise is, that where 
 he has begun a good work he will carry it on, till all 
 moral pollution is eradicated. Thus the character of 
 man, under the transforming influence spoken of in the 
 text, is changed, till, in a moral point of view, he is no 
 longer the same man. From being a child of wrath 
 fitting for destruction, he becomes an heir of God, and 
 a candidate for glory, honour, immortality and eternal 
 life. The desire to be holy, and so like his Master, 
 becomes his ruling passion. In his estimation conformi- 
 ty to God. in the whole temper of his mind, is the 
 greatest good ; and no hope gives him such a joy, as 
 when he can say with confidence, •' Then shall I be 
 satisfied when I wake with thy likeness." 
 
 While the followers of the Lord Jesus are thus under 
 a process of sanctification, they become, as a matter of 
 course in a world like this, a 'peculiar people. They 
 have desires, and hopes, and enjoyments, and fears, and 
 aversions, such as are found in no other people. They 
 have another employment, and form other habits, and 
 sustain new relationships, and enter new society, and 
 in their speech and demeanour, embracing a thousand 
 nameless things, become a peculiar people. Whatever 
 pains they may take to conceal their peculiarities, they 
 become and continue like no other people on the face of 
 the whole earth. And the more they act in character ; 
 the nearer they live to their Master, the more sure are 
 
A HOLY PEOPLE. 67 
 
 they to widen the contrast between themselves, and the 
 world of the ungodly. Hence the world will soon know 
 them, and break from their fellowship, and cast out 
 their names as evil ; and Christ will receive them, and 
 be a God unto them, and they shall be his people. 
 
 They are zealous of good works. Here perhaps more 
 than at any other point is seen their peculiarity. The 
 promptness, the pains, and the sacrifices manifested in 
 doing good, render them the perfect contrast of any 
 thing seen in the habits of unsanctified men, Hence 
 the fact is not to be disputed, that the personal efforts, 
 and charities that have been expended upon human 
 misery, degradation, and contempt have been the efforts 
 and the charities of this peculiar people. On the list 
 of this world's benefactors their names are arranged 
 alone, and the catalogue will tell 1 to their advantage 
 in that day when the Saviour shall be heard to say, 
 " I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat : I was 
 thirsty, and ye gave me drink : I was a stranger, and 
 ye took me in : naked, and ye clothed me : I was 
 sick, and ye visited me : I was in prison, and ye came 
 unto me." 
 
 The ungodly may have fits of charitable feeling, when 
 provision is to be made exclusively for the life that now 
 is ; but their charities do not usually extend in their ef- 
 fects beyond the grave. When urged to enlighten those 
 that know not God, or snatch from death those that have 
 not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ ; they lack the 
 faith that can give importance, to these religious and 
 spiritual realities. And yet here, where the tender mer- 
 cies of the wicked are cruel, is the very spot where the 
 godly display their warmest zeal, and make their best, 
 their mightiest efforts. The zeal of God's people is uni- 
 form and extensive, and does not, like " crackling thorns 
 
68 CHRIST CONDUCTS TO HEAVEN 
 
 and burning coals, make a great blaze and die." It 
 grows out of the combined influence of the Christian 
 affections, or rather is the Christian affections concen 
 trated, and pouring out their energies upon the object 
 of their commisseration or praise. 
 
 Christian zeal aims to render this world what God 
 would have it ; to draw it back, from alienation and mi- 
 sery, to subjection and enjoyment. It would cure every 
 species of plague and suffering, and render holy, respect- 
 ed, and happy every child of the fall. And when men 
 need not its aid, would compassionate the animal crea- 
 tion, till not a worm should suffer. Thus will operate 
 the zeal that piety begets, and thus the redeemed of Jesus 
 Christ, will be rendered, in a world cold and friendless 
 like this, a peculiar people. 
 
 There is still another thought in this text, which though 
 last is not least. These redeemed, and peculiar, and 
 zealous beings, Jesus Christ issaid to purify unto himself. 
 I see a very precious thought here ; they belong finally 
 to him. They were given him in the covenant of re- 
 demption. Hence we hear him say, in that remarkable 
 prayer just before he suffered, " I have manifested thy 
 name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the 
 world." And lest any should draw a wrong inference, 
 from the fact that as Mediator he was a recipient, he 
 addresses the Father again, and says, "All mine are thine, 
 and thine are mine." His people are to be his associates 
 forever ; his family ; his friends ; his admirers, and his 
 worshippers. " I will that they also whom thou hast 
 given me be with me where I am ; that they may behold 
 my glory." 
 
 There is something in this thought which to me be- 
 speaks the Saviour divine. Were he a mere servant, 
 were he less than the very builder and proprietor of thia 
 
A HOLY PEOPLE. 
 
 world, he could not have been given a commission of 
 such a nature, as to entitle him to possess, and call his 
 own, the beings he should save : else it would not be true, 
 that the Eternal cannot give his glory to another. Thus 
 the Lord Jesus Christ, came to redeem to himself, by his 
 death, a peculiar people, zealous of good works. I close 
 with a few paragraphs of 
 
 EXPOSTULATION 
 
 With such as cannot relish this mortifying gospel. 1 
 am fully aware, and lament it, that every position taken 
 in this discourse is controverted ; and my apology for the 
 view I have given, is, that I could in honesty give no other. 
 
 Man's lost and desperate condition, requiring an atone- 
 ment, is found, in one shape, and another, on almost every 
 page of the Bible, and his safety depends on knowing it, 
 and the gospel was sent to acquaint him with it ; hence 
 this must be a radical truth in every message which we 
 carry from God to man. Moreover, we see men exhibit 
 that temper, and form those habits, which would teach 
 us their ruin, if we had not been taught it from heaven. 
 Now a truth that comes to us so confirmed, we musl 
 receive, and must proclaim ; and if men will not believe 
 it, or if they do not choose to lay it to heart, we can only 
 say with the prophet, ; ' If ye will not hear, my soul shall 
 weep in secret places for your pride." If you can keep 
 your apostacy a secret from your fellow-men, or from 
 angels, or from devils, do; and if you can hide the 
 shame of it, do ; and if by such a course you can 
 escape the dire consequences of that apostacy, do. 
 We wish you safe, and wish you happy, and if you know 
 of a safer or happier course than this gospel presents, 
 you have but to make the experiment. But then re- 
 member, if your experiment fails, and you do not find 
 
 7 
 
70 CHRIST CONDUCTS TO HEAVEN. 
 
 out your ruin till death, you must not calculate, that 
 your mistake can then be corrected. 
 
 If you are conscious of some depravity, and still can- 
 not makeup your mind to owe your redemption to the 
 death of Christ, then you must reject the Bible or explain 
 it as you can. The text says he gave himself for us- 
 And we hear him say, " I lay down my life for the sheep.' 
 And many scriptures that have been quoted, and more 
 that might be, seem evidently to put his blood in the place 
 of ours, and heal us, if we are ever healed by his stripes- 
 
 Why object to the idea that he died for us. Docs it 
 too much degrade and blacken the human character, 
 that we must thus come as it were to the place of execu- 
 tion, and have the halter about our nec's, and there stand 
 and see another take our place, and hang upon the tree 
 in our stead ? I know it will be the everlasting disgrace 
 of our world, that we should have so conducted as to 
 render it necessary that Christ should die lor us. But it 
 will deepen our disgrace, if we deny the fact, and assign 
 some other reason, not the true one, why the Lord of 
 glory was hanged on a tree. We shall then crucify him 
 afresh, and put him to open shame. 
 
 If his was not a vicarious death, why did he die ? 
 Do you answer, " Death hath passed upon all men 
 for that all have sinned. " Then it seems you make 
 him a sinner 1 But the good Book assures me, that 
 there was no guile found in his mouth. Satan came 
 and found nothing in him. He was a Lamb without 
 spot. Do you say that he died to finish out his obe- 
 dience 1 Obedience to what law ? Does the law of 
 God require that his perfectly obedient subjects should 
 die ? or is death there made the wages of sin ? I see 
 no demand for his death, unless he died for us, or was 
 a sinner. If you are not driven to the same alternative, 
 
A HOLY PEOPLE. 71 
 
 and can invent a third reason, more satisfactory, you must 
 adopt it, and make the Bible bear you out in it if you can. 
 
 Do you object to this gospel because it requires that 
 you be purified ? Then it seems you doubt whether sin 
 has polluted you ? And if so why have any gospel 1 or 
 you choose to carry all your moral deformity with you 
 into the grave, and into eternity ? and if so, then we un- 
 derstand you. You have only to let the gospel alone 
 then, and let others ; who would not choose to die in 
 their sins, have the benefit of its overtures. 
 
 A gospel that shall not render men holy, can be worth 
 nothing. It may gather, and baptize, and cast the 
 senclosures of a covenant, about a congregation of word- 
 lings, but if it have no purifying effect, it will leave them 
 still the children of their father the devil. They will be 
 as fair candidates for perdition, when such a gospel shall 
 have exerted upon them its mightiest influence, as when 
 its first accent broke upon their ear. But a gospel like 
 that which Paid preached, must urge the claims of the 
 divine law, and press men to break off their sins by 
 righteousness, and turn their feet to God's testimonies. 
 It will gather motives to holiness from all worlds, from 
 the fear of hell, from the hope of heaven, from the com- 
 fort of the present life, and especially from the love of 
 Christ ; for it will " thus judge, that if one died for all, 
 then were all dead : and that he died for all, that they 
 which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, 
 but unto him which died for them, and rose again." 
 Now let us be prudent enough to have this very gospel, 
 or none. If we wish merely to be amused, let us not 
 employ a gospel to do it, but the pipe, the timbrel, and 
 the dance. If we care not how much pollution adheres 
 to us w T hen we are judged, then let us cast the gospel 
 and the whole Bible from us, and enter into a covenant 
 
72 CHRIST CONDUCTS TO HEAVEN 
 
 with death, and make an agreement with hell, and eat 
 and drink, for to-morrow we die. 
 
 But you dislike the peculiarity urged upon believers 
 in the gospel. You wish not to be singular, and be 
 cast out of the world while you remain in it. Well, we 
 simply say, that there can be no go-pel gathered from 
 the Bible, that does not urge it, nor Christian character 
 without it. If the truth must render men holy, it 
 must, in a world like ours, render them peculiar. In 
 two respects the good man, from the moment he is born 
 of God. becomes unlike the men of this world. All the 
 features of depravity that are cast from his character, 
 and the features of holiness ingrafted on it, will tend to 
 render him peculiar. Thus in two directions will the 
 difference widen, and will go on extending through 
 time and through eternity. To produce this peculiarity 
 is the very design of the gospel ; for men by nature 
 are unlike God, and the gospel, when it produces its 
 legitimate effect, renders men like God. Hence, unless 
 it sanctify all men, or the regenerate are taken imme- 
 diately to heaven, it must introduce into society a peculiar 
 people. If you are offended with this peculiarity, then 
 you need not put it on. You can live in this world 
 without it, and you can die without it, but you cannot 
 live in heaven without it. 
 
 That zeal begotten in his people by the grace of 
 God, constitutes I know the most offensive feature of 
 their peculiarity. But God's people cannot be without 
 it, and please him. And he has never promised to 
 render his people what the world can admire. " If ye 
 were of the world, the world would love his own, but 
 because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen 
 you out of the world, therefore shall the world hate 
 
A HOLY PEOPLE. 73 
 
 you." You need have nothing to do with this people, 
 or imbibe their zeal if it offends you. There is current 
 a gospel, and you can attend upon it, that pours out 
 against this zeal the whole torrent of its invective. It 
 would nourish a cold philosophical religion, that shall 
 never reach or warm the heart, that will have but 
 little to do with prayer, or praise, or holy feeling, or 
 heavenly aspiration, or effort to save souls ; or take 
 away, in any shape, the curse that has lighted upon 
 this dark world. You can take your pew under such 
 a gospel and never be urged to zeal and engagedness. 
 But where it will conduct you, may demand a doubt. 
 Not to heaven surely, where they cease not day nor 
 night saying, " Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts ; 
 the whole earth is full of his glory." There must be 
 great zeal where there is such perpetual worship. Day 
 and night ! O, how such zeal as this would be lashed 
 and scouted in this cold and cheerless world ! 
 
 But the gospel of Jesus Christ aims to make this 
 world as much like heaven as possible ; would beget 
 all the zeal they have there, and all the industry, and 
 all the celestial fire. We hide not our wish, to render 
 men in this world as much in earnest in serving God, 
 and blessing his creatures, as they are in heaven. And, 
 sure as you breathe, you have never seen a zeal like 
 that in heaven. It was not in Paul, nor Peter, nor 
 Brainard, nor Whitefield, nor Martin. And if you 
 have ever once seen enough any where to offend you, 
 depend upon it you could not stay in heaven an hour. 
 
 Finally, it offends you, that the Saviour should be 
 the proprietor of the church he purchased with his blood. 
 You would have him an agent, a prophet, a messenger ; 
 you would not allow him to own his sheep ; you would 
 make him an insignificant subject of that kingdom he 
 
 7* 
 
74 CHRIST CONLXTCTS TO HEAVEN, ETC. 
 
 purchased with his blood. And why this zeal to de- 
 grade him ? Did he not earn the kingdom with his 
 stripes, and his wounds, and his sweat, and his dying 
 agonies ? And did he not build the very world in which 
 he has set up this kingdom ? The apostle thought proper 
 to speak of his purifying to himself a peculiar people. 
 
 And why not let them be his ? Are you afraid to be 
 his? Would it grieve you to be a member of his family, 
 and have a seat at the supper of the Lamb ? Well, 
 dear friend, there will come a day when you will be 
 afraid, if you are not his. When he shall come in the 
 clouds of heaven, and all his holy angels with him, and 
 the last trumpet shall have waked you from the sleep of 
 the grave, then ' he that believeth shall not make 
 haste/' but all others, — oh, with what hurry and con- 
 fusion will they quit their sepulchres ! and with what 
 untold anguish will they call upon the rocks and 
 mountains, to fall on them and hide them from the face 
 of him that sitteth upon the throne, and from the wrath 
 of the Lamb ! Will you not then wish that you were his ? 
 Ye disciples of the Lord Jesus, did it ever occur to you 
 how precious a thought this is. You belong to this very 
 Lord Jesus. " Ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's." 
 How safe and how happy, if he can make you so ! and 
 you have no fear but he can. Cast all your care upon 
 him, for he careth for you. You will see him come 
 directly to gather you, and you will hail him as he 
 comes, " My Lord, and my God." My soul casts in 
 her lot with you. We glory in belonging to Christ, and 
 look wishfully toward that hour, when we shall see him 
 as he is and be like him. Then, almighty Redeemer, 
 then shall I be satisfied when I wake with thy likeness. 
 Amen. 
 
SERMON XLVI. 
 
 CHRIST MUST HAVE HIS OWN PLACE IN 
 HIS GOSPEL. 
 
 Lukf. \x. 20. 
 Whom say ye that I am ? 
 
 Admitting the fact, that men may speculate cor- 
 rectly, while their hearts are unsanctified ; or to some 
 extent incorrectly, after they are born of God ; still it is 
 a general truth, that men will be, in their moral, and in 
 their religious character, corrupt or correct, in the same 
 proportion with their creed. If on any important sub- 
 ject they believe a lie, their false faith will present to their 
 hearts wrong motives of action, and lead to those affec- 
 tions, and that course of conduct, that is in opposition to 
 the law of God, and the precepts of the gospel. But if 
 men believe the truth, though it be not with the heart 
 unto righteousness, still that truth may exert, at some 
 future day, a sanctifying effect upon them, and the creed 
 adopted, through the Spirit's influence, mould them into 
 the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. And if there is one 
 subject, rather than any other, on which a serious man 
 would guard the correctness of his faith, it must be rela- 
 tive to the character of the Saviour he trusts in for eter- 
 nal life. It must be essential, that we put our trust in 
 the very Redeemer that God has revealed ; else how can 
 we hope that he will acknowledge us, when he shall 
 come in the glory of his Father, with the holy angels. 
 
76 CHRIST MUST HAVE HIS OWN PLACE 
 
 Can it be otherwise, than a very important thing, to 
 the human family, to understand distinctly, his nature 
 and character, in whom they are invited to take sanctu- 
 ary from the wrath to come ? Hence, to know that the 
 gospel proclaimed to us, presents the very Lord Jesus, 
 through whose stripes we must be healed, will be a ques- 
 tion of minor importance to none, who calculate first or 
 last, to turn their eye toward heaven. 
 
 In Christ's little family, this subject was early and 
 earnestly agitated. Our Lord would not suffer his disci- 
 ples to be ignorant on this point. " He asked them 
 saying, Whom say the people that I am ? They an- 
 swering, said, John the Baptist ; but some say, Elias ; and 
 others say, that one of the old prophets is risen again." 
 He then brought the question home to their own bosom, 
 "Whom say ye that 1 am?" Said the prompt and 
 affectionate Peter, « The Christ of God." 
 
 This subject is of high and increasing importance, at a 
 period, when it is becoming so fashionable, to consider 
 it of no consequence what we think of Christ. It will 
 not be so much my object to exhibit proofs of his divinity, 
 as to show, that whatever his character may be, it is im- 
 portant that we have correct views of him. I shall 
 arrange my thoughts under three general remarks : 
 The Lord Jesus Christ has a fixed and definite charac- 
 ter : This character is plainly revealed : If we trust in a 
 Saviour, having any other character than that revealed 
 in the Scriptures, the Lord Jesus Christ will not consider 
 this trust as reposed in him, and we shall be in danger of 
 perishing in unbelief. 
 
 1. The Lord Jesus Christ has a fixed and definite 
 character. It would hardly seem necessary to state a 
 proposition like this, much less to attempt to establish it 
 by argument, as it contains in itself its own confirma- 
 
IN HIS GOSPEL. 
 
 77 
 
 tion. The scriptures have given this name to the prom- 
 ised Messiah, who, in the very nature of things, must 
 have a character so definite, that he can be known by 
 his name. But if the name may apply, with equal pro- 
 priety, to one who is divine, angelic, or human, here it 
 seems to me is the end of all knowledge on this subject. 
 Place other subjects of revelation on the same footing, 
 and we can only guess at any thing. 
 
 The very idea of a revelation implies, that there are 
 truths revealed, but nothing is revealed, if revealed so 
 indefinitely that we"cannot arrive at knowledge on the 
 subject. As well might the Bible have merely named 
 the Saviour, if after all it has said of him, we can know 
 only his name ; especially if it be an equal chance, whe- 
 ther we shall conceive of him as one of the Three that 
 bear record in heaven, or a worm of the dust like our- 
 selves. If God has told me only the name of the Re- 
 deemer, and this is all the definite knowledge I can have 
 of him, I may be so infatuated as to apply this name to 
 a comet or a star, and affirm that God intended I should 
 trust in this for salvation. If he has left it to my discre- 
 tion to adorn the name, with attributes, such as I would 
 choose my Saviour should possess, then is it manifest 
 that no two might trust in the same Redeemer. 
 
 But there is an absurdity in the very supposition. 
 Every thing that has being, has properties that are 
 essential to its being, of which if you disrobe it, you 
 take away its very essence. Thus it must be with the 
 Lord Jesus Christ. You may call by that name a being, 
 so divested of the attributes that belong to the Saviour, 
 that he shall cease to be the Saviour God has revealedj 
 and be as entirely another as if he had had another 
 name. The identity of being is not in the name but in 
 the nature or attributes that belong to it. I remark, 
 
78 CHRIST MUST HAVE HIS OWN PLACE 
 
 II. The character of the Lord Jesus Christ is 
 plainly revealed in the word of God. We might infer 
 this from the fact, that the Bible is a revelation from 
 God ; and that the principal subject of development in 
 that Book is the Saviour. The Bible was given us to 
 make Christ known, that we might take sanctuary in 
 him from the wrath to come. Hence, to suppose that his 
 character is left so indefinitely developed that we can 
 know nothing with certainty respecting him, is to sup- 
 pose God to trifle. There is an impudence and a 
 daring in the very supposition that causes the mind to 
 shrink from naming it. 
 
 Moreover on opening the Bible I do see the character 
 of the Saviour, as definitively developed as any other of 
 the subjects of revelation. I see distinctly his humanity, 
 in that he had a body and a soul as men have. He 
 hungered, thirsted, slept, was weary ; could suffer, could 
 rejoice ; he spoke, and walked, and rode, and bled, and 
 died. And I see as distinctly his divinity. He created 
 all things, could make the bread and the wine that sus- 
 tained him, could know the hearts of men, could heal 
 the sick, and raise the dead, and give sight to the blind, 
 and still the waves of the sea. And 1 will name one 
 text, among many, in which he is predicted with all 
 these characteristics : " Unto us a child is born, unto us 
 a son is given : and the government shall be upon his 
 shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, 
 Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, 
 the Prince of Peace." Here the same personage, who 
 was a child and a son, is also the Wonderful, Counsellor, 
 the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of 
 Peace. 
 
 But on this point I will only stop to say, that on no 
 particular is the Bible more full and plain than on this. 
 
IN HIS GOSPEL. 79 
 
 On none of the doctrines or duties of religion have we 
 instruction more definite. I may as well doubt what 
 repentance is, and what faith is, and what love is, and 
 what prayer is, as who Christ is. I can explain away 
 the truth on any point as readily as relative to the 
 Character of the Saviour. And moreover on every point 
 the truth has been doubted, and mistakes as essential 
 made, as on this point. Men who are not willing that 
 the Bible should govern their faith, have missed the 
 mark infinitely on every doctrine of revelation. 
 
 III. If we trust in a Saviour having any other 
 character than that given in the Bible to the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, he will not accept this trust, as reposed 
 in himself ; and we shall be in danger of perishing 
 If Christ has a definite character, and he must have, or 
 he can neither be known or trusted in ; and if his char- 
 acter is revealed plainly, and this must be, or it is no 
 harm not to know him, or to have erroneous views of 
 him ; then it must be essential that we trust in the very 
 Christ revealed. If in these circumstances w r e believe 
 him to be possessed of a character that he has not, if we 
 invest him with attributes that he will not own, or de- 
 tract from him the essential and eternal properties of his 
 nature ; will he pity our weakness, and own, as confi- 
 dence in him, the trust we place in a Saviour created by 
 our imaginations 1 This, it seems to me, is the fatal 
 error which multitudes in the present day are persuaded 
 to adopt. It has in its favour the plea of Catholicism. 
 We can thus fellowship the whole mass of nominal 
 Christianity ; and on the same principles can even go 
 farther, and place the image of the Saviour in the tem- 
 ples of the gods, and embrace in one universal brother- 
 hood, the whole multitude of idolaters that have ever 
 bowed the knee at the shrine of devils. 
 
80 CHRIST MUST HAVE niS OWN PLACE 
 
 On the same principle, that no harm comes to our 
 piety from erroneous views of the Lord Jesus Christ, we 
 can prove that God has been pleased with, and has ac- 
 cepted, every act of worship that has ever been paid to 
 an idol. What is an idol, but the supreme so degraded that 
 he ceases to be divine ? and still not more degraded than 
 is the character of the Saviour in many a modern creed. 
 What was Jupiter, but Jehovah disrobed of his essential 
 attributes. His worshippers did not reduce him down to 
 a mere man. They gave him supremacy over the 
 whole family of gods — allowed him to wield the thun- 
 ders of heaven, and decree the destiny of nations. True 
 they did not give him a very pure moral character, but 
 the best they knew how to give him. They invested 
 him with some of the very worst of the human passions, 
 and made him commit the foulest deeds of wrong and of 
 outrage. But still, who can say, on the piriciple that it 
 matters not what we think of Christ, that the worship- 
 pers of Jupiter were not accepted of the Lord as his own 
 worshippers. If they called their great spirit by names 
 that God has never appropriated to himself, this it will 
 be acknowledged is a verbal mistake, a small matter, 
 that God will not regard, in those who had not the means 
 of knowing the names, by which he would choose to be 
 invoked. But shall we go on and say, that as they 
 gave their supreme deity the highest character they 
 knew how to give him, although they did not invest him 
 with the attributes essential to the true God, and made 
 him finally a creature, in moral character base and de- 
 formed: — Shall we still say, that Jehovah was pleased 
 with the spirit of their worship, approved their rites, and 
 accepted their homage ? I see not why, on the princi- 
 ples of modern Catholicism, this reasoning is not correct, 
 and why the whole herd of idolaters, in all ages, have 
 
IN HIS GOSPEL. 8l 
 
 not been accepted of the Lord, as having intended to pay 
 their supreme homage to mi 
 
 If what an apostle says of the Lord Jesus Christ be 
 true, and " By him were all things created that are in 
 heaven, an that are in earth, visible and invisible, whe- 
 ther hey be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or 
 powers ; all things were created by him and for him ; 
 and he is before all things, and by him all things con- 
 sist :" — if all this be true, 1 see not but those who give 
 him a derived and dependant existence, al er the charac- 
 ter as essentiall;', from that which the apostle gives him, 
 as was th< v character of Jupiter distinct from that of Je- 
 hovah. What two things can be more unlike, than a 
 Saviour who had no beginning of days, is self-existent, 
 and almighty, could create men and build worlds ; and 
 one who himself began to be, is dependant, and has none 
 but borrowed attributes. I do not see that the heathen 
 Jove, and the God of heaven, differ any more. 
 
 If then the Lord Jesus Christ possesses one of these 
 characters, and we trust in a Saviour who possesses the 
 other, and the Bible has plainly revealed him in 
 whom we are to trust, it hardly admits of a question 
 whether we do not trust in another than the Christ of the 
 gospel. It is not merely in the name of the Saviour 
 that we trust, but in his attributes, in his qualifications to 
 atone for us, in his power to sanctify us, in the credit he 
 has in heaven to intercede for us, in his ability to sub- 
 due our enemies, and cover us with his righteousness in 
 the day of retribution ; but if he be not God as well as 
 man, he has no such qualifications to atone, no such 
 power to sanctify, no such influence to intercede, no such 
 ability to defend, or righteousness to cover us ; hence there 
 is no such Saviour as him in whom we trust. 
 
82 CHRIST MUST HAVE HIS OWN PLACE 
 
 Agreed, if you please, that the en or will be equally 
 fatal on either side. Be it so that the Lord Jesus Christ 
 is a mere attribute, an emanation, an angel, or a man ; 
 then do those who give him a divine native make 
 a mistake as great, as is made by their opponents, if he 
 be, as the prophet aserts, the mighty God, the everlasting 
 Father, the Prince of Peace. If he be a mere creature, 
 in whom God has directed us to put our trust for ever- 
 lasting life ; and that creature has power delegated to 
 him, to pay the price of our redemption, and purify us 
 unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works ; 
 and we resolve to trust in a Saviour, who possesses divine 
 attributes ; we then rely upon one who is not revealed as 
 the Saviour, and may have no more hope of acceptance, 
 than those have if the opposite creed be true, who in their 
 faith depress his character, as much as in this case we 
 elevate it. 
 
 If the Lord Jesus has a fixed and definite character, 
 has properties or attributes, of which if we disrobe him, 
 we alter essentially his nature, and make him another 
 Saviour ; then the question is, whether those who trust 
 in him, under these essentially altered characters, may 
 all be said to trust in the same Redeemer ? May a mistake 
 like this be considered venial ? If, too, God has given us 
 in his word a plain and intelligible record of his will, and 
 may not, as it seems to me, be considered as having 
 described the character of the Saviour so indefinitely, aa 
 to render it about an equal chance, whether we shall 
 conceive of him as human or divine ; then must it admit, 
 of a serious doubt, whether any radical mistake can b« 
 made, without placing the soul at hazard. 
 
 God must have intended that we should have definite 
 views of Christ ; and if he has given us opportunity to 
 
IN HIS GOSPEL. 
 
 83 
 
 be correct, it argues positive wickedness, not to receive 
 the truth of God in all its naked simplicity. If he has 
 revealed a divine Saviour, we perish if we trust in one 
 that is a creature ; or if, contrary to the light, we be- 
 lieve him divine, then do we rely on some other, than 
 that only name given under heaven among men, where- 
 by we can be saved. No trust can possibly avail us, but 
 that which is placed in the very Saviour whom God 
 has revealed. Let me place the two Saviours in oppo- 
 site columns, and see if an honest mind can make them 
 one. 
 
 The one Saviour, was before all 
 things, and all things were created 
 by him and for him. He has the 
 titles, possesses the attributes, does 
 the works, and accepts the wor- 
 ship, that belong only to the true 
 God. He invites sinners to him, 
 as having in his own arm the 
 power to save them, and promises 
 them blessings, as having them of 
 his own to give. " He that be- 
 lieveth in me shall never die." He 
 " bare our sins in his own body 
 on the tree." " With his stripes 
 we are healed." "The Lord 
 hath laid on him the iniquity of 
 us all." The redeemed in heaven 
 will forever ascribe to him, under 
 the appellation of the Lamb, king- 
 dom, and power, and glory. The 
 dying believers may with Stephen 
 commend to him their departing 
 spirits. In the last day he will 
 come in the clouds of heaven, with 
 his holy angels, and will judge the 
 world, and fix the destinies of all 
 men ; and be forever afterward 
 adored, by the myriads of the 
 redeemed, as the Lamb that was 
 slain. 
 
 The other saviour, had a begin- 
 ning of days, and either emanated 
 from God or was created by him. 
 He has divine titles only as men 
 have, who are called gods ; has 
 only borrowed attributes, and a 
 delegated power, and is worship- 
 ped only as kings and emperors 
 are. We may not pray to him, 
 lest we be guilty of idolatry ; he 
 promises nothing but as the Lord's 
 prophet, and has no blessings of 
 his own to give. We are not re- 
 quired to believe in him, but as 
 we believe in Moses and John. 
 He makes no atonement, but 
 merely teaches truth, and is a pat- 
 tern of virtue. He dies, not that 
 we might live, and meets us again 
 in the last day, not to judge the 
 world, unless as a subaltern, but 
 to be judged. He will wear no 
 crown, and fill no throne in hea- 
 ven, other than such as are prom- 
 ised the apostles ; and will receive 
 no worship but the inspect due to 
 an eminent servant of God. And 
 if the dying commend their spirit 
 to him they assuredly perish. 
 
 Now the mighty question is, are these two the same ? 
 Are they so the same that the trust reposed in the one* 
 
84 CHRIST MUST HAVE HIS OWN PLACE 
 
 will be accepted and answered to, if needs be, by the other. 
 If but one of these Saviours is revealed, and but one 
 exist-, and we have put our trust in the other, are we 
 still safe 1 Say we have cast our souls upon a created 
 Saviour, shall we find at last, that we have an interest in 
 that self-existent Redeemer, who comes travelling in the 
 greatness of his strength, and is, independently on any 
 extraneous help, mighty to save 'I If of the one it may 
 be said, this is the only name given under heaven among 
 men whereby we can be saved, will this be equally true 
 of the other ? I repeat the question, for it is to me a 
 mighty one, Can it be of no consequence, to which of the 
 two I look, and in which I trust for eternal life ? Will 
 the blood of either cleanse me from all sin ? If the Sa- 
 viour appointed me and distinctly revealed in the Bible, 
 has life in himself, and the power of conferring eternal 
 life on as many as the Father has given him ; and I 
 have trusted in man, and made flesh my arm, I fear it 
 will not answer me the same purpose in the day of retri- 
 bution, as if I had made application to the true, the 
 appointed, the eternal Redeemer. 
 
 It is agreed, that if there be no Trinity of persons in 
 the Godhead, and the Saviour proffered is a mere crea- 
 ture, and we refuse to lean upon the appointed arm of 
 flesh, and obstinately insist on having an almighty Sa- 
 viour or none, our condition is deplorable. We shall then 
 be without a hiding place in the day of our distress. If 
 the Saviour be God, those perish who esteem him a 
 creature ; and if a creature, those perish who believe 
 him God. One of the parties in this controversy is to lie 
 down in everlasting sorrow, one only will be in heaven. 
 Else two beings, the one finite, and the other infinite, 
 are the same, and Jupiter and Moloch, and Baal, and 
 Jehovah are the same 3 and the worshippers of idols, in 
 
IN HIS GOSPEL. 85 
 
 every dark place of the earth, may claim at last a seat in 
 heaven, with Abraham, and Moses, and the prophets and 
 apostles. 
 
 Can this be true '' I see no radical error in the rea- 
 soning that has brought me to this result, and am led to 
 ask, with all the seriousness with which a question ever 
 dropped from my lips, am I safe in either case ? Has the 
 gracious Jehovah given me a revelation, in which he has 
 so indefinitely described my Redeemer, that with all my 
 anxiety to know, I cannot, whether he built the worlds, 
 or was himself a part of the creat on ? whether the govern- 
 ment is upon his shoulder, or he is himself subjected to 
 the authnrity of his superior ? whether he can bestow 
 eternal life, or need to have his own life sustained by the 
 power that breathed it? whether he will judge the world, 
 or will stand to be judged, by a greater than himself, who 
 shall then fill the throne '} I shall be anxious for my soul 
 till I know the truth. 
 
 O, will the blessed God give to a world like ours, 
 already desperately ruined, a revelation of his will, and 
 mock our helplessn ss, by asserting it to be so plain, that 
 the wayfaring man though a fool shall not err, and still 
 when I labour to know the truth with all my soul, I can- 
 not find it! ! But must either take this ground, or 
 believe myself lost, or believe those lost, who* I perceive 
 trust in quite another saviour, than him on whom I rely. 
 There is one thought that gives me relief, " Let God be 
 true, though every man a liar." The Bible is a plain 
 and intelligible volume ; the Saviour's character is there 
 definitely revealed; and we can learn who he is, and 
 what he is, unless we choose to be deceived. May the 
 exalted Jesus smile on this weak attempt to vindicate his 
 character, and may he sanctify the men who would tear 
 the crown from his head, and worlds from his rule ; and 
 
 8* 
 
86 CHRIST MUST HAVE HIS OWN TLACE 
 
 make his way known upon the earth, and his saving 
 health among all nations. May a great multitude, that 
 no man can number, be redeemed to God by his blood, 
 out of every kindred and tongue, and people, and nation. 
 If asked the reasons why I consider this subject so im- 
 portant ? and press it so vehemently ? I answer, 
 
 1. With the vieivs I have of the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 1 consider him shamefully traduced by the error I 
 have meant to expose. It cannot seem to me a light 
 thing, if the safety of souls were not affected, what men 
 think of Christ ; whether they give him the honour he 
 had with the Father before the world was, or make him 
 a weak and dependant mortal ; whether they esteem him 
 such that he thought it not robbery to be equal with God, 
 or the mere wandering Gallilean, who gathered his ho- 
 nours from the success he had in teaching truth and in 
 making disciples. If we have given him our hearts, we 
 shall not be willing to see him degraded. We shall wish 
 him to retain all the titles that belong to him, and be 
 owned in all the high and holy offices he fills, and wear 
 in the view of men, all the glories that cluster round him 
 in the view of angels. We shall feel ourselves so honoured, 
 in being permitted to call him Lord, as to be greatly 
 grieved when the tongue of slander, or the pen, dipped 
 in the gall of depravity, shall attempt to degrade his nature 
 or mar his honours. A Christian needs offer no other 
 reason for vindicating his Lord, but that he loves him. 
 But, 
 
 2. I offer another : 1 consider souls endangered by 
 a denial of the Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. I 
 cannot believe that when the Saviour has become a man 
 or an angel, he will attract sinners to him, as when he 
 has the glories on, that I suppose the angels see about him. 
 Let him have the same character that he has in heaven, 
 
IN HIS GOSPEL. 87 
 
 and he will attract men to him, as there he attracts an gels 
 to him. If he be God, they will hope that he can save 
 them ; if he built the worlds, they will be the more wil- 
 ling to believe, that he built some happy world for them ; 
 and if he is at last to be their judge, they will feel it to be 
 the more important, that they be washed from sin in his 
 blood. I should not hope to win a single soul to him in a 
 century, in the low, and mean, and dependant attitude, in 
 which some professed ministers of the gospel, in consist- 
 ence with their faith, must present him. I should expect 
 them to sneer at the Nazarene, more than did Voltaire, or 
 Hume, or Bolingbroke. And I do not believe, that under 
 such a ministry, Christ is often embraced, or loved, or be- 
 lieved in. He may have some place in their creed, and 
 may become a topic of speculation, and controversy, but 
 in their religion, and in their hearts, I fear they learn to 
 do without him : surely he is not formed in them the 
 hope of glory. 
 
 3. I would take a dying hold of the doctrine of 
 Christ's divinity, because on the same principles by 
 which the faith of so many have been unsettled on 
 this point, every truth of God's word can be cast 
 away. Only suffer the enemy to have the ground, and 
 hold it in peace, which he would take to drive you from 
 this doctrine, and he will leave you nothing to credit, in 
 the whole of divine revelation. He will tear you from 
 the very horns of the altar, and sacrifice you, along with 
 your Redeemer, on the threshold of the sanctuary of God. 
 
 When I must believe nothing that is above my reason, 
 and that I cannot fully comprehend, I may not believe 
 the simplest testimony of revelation. When, from the 
 urgency of this principle, I can know nothing definite 
 respecting the Lord Jesus Christ, I despair of gaining 
 from the Book of God any definite knowledge on any 
 
68 CHRIST MUST HAVE HIS OWN PLACE 
 
 subject. Not the being of a God. or his government 
 over the world, or the fact of a future judgment, or an 
 eternal state of retribution, is revealed with any more de- 
 finiteness, than the underived deity of Jesus Christ. I 
 could reason them all away, and every doctrine and pre- 
 cept along with them, by the same sophistry, by which 
 men would forbid me to offer my prayers to the risen and 
 exalted Redeemer. I would then hold to the doctrine, 
 because if I give it up, I must give all up. and throw my 
 whole creed afloat, and myself afloat, to be drifted, I know 
 not where, and shipwrecked, I know not upon what inhos- 
 pitable shore, where await me, death, or life, I know not. 
 
 4. If you still ask me, why my zeal, in defence of 
 the higher nature of the Lord Jesus Christ ? I answer 
 yet again, " If it be possible" and " the very elect" 
 should be cajoled into a doubt on this subject, it would 
 do them incalculable injury. 
 
 That doubt would mar their creed ; for they must 
 yield other doctrines, when their Redeemer has become 
 a creature. That atonement, which he only could 
 make ; that ruin of our nature, which he only can re- 
 pair ; that ever-enduring hell, from which he only can 
 rescue us ; that Sabbath which his rising made ; that 
 Comforter, which he kindly sent ; and that plenary in- 
 spiration of the scriptures, which establishes his divinity ; 
 must be all plucked from their creed, and it would stand 
 then, like a pine, lightning-smitten, scorched in its every 
 leaf, and rived to its deepest roots, to be the haunt of the 
 owl, and the curse of the forest. When you shall blast 
 my creed like this, you may have, for a farthing, the 
 residue of my poor mutilated Bible, and I will sit down 
 and weep life away, over this benighted world, to which 
 is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. 
 
 It would diminish their comforts : for the same truth 
 
IN HIS GOSPEL. 
 
 89 
 
 that has sanctified them, has made them happy ; and 
 no truth more than the high character of their Redeemer. 
 Take away this foundation, and what will the righteous 
 do ? Their hopes have been high, and their joy elevated, 
 and their songs heard in the night, because they had, or 
 thought they had, a mighty Redeemer. From this fact, 
 they calculated to live out the assaults of temptation, and 
 conquer their lusts, and hold on by some pin of the cove- 
 nant, till they should plant their feet on the golden pave- 
 ments of the New Jerusalem. Tell the church, that she 
 has no such almighty Redeemer as she has dreamed 
 of, and there will be tears in all her tabernacles, and I 
 fear if there will be silence through half the choir of 
 heaven, and the angels of God be afraid any longer to 
 worship him. 
 
 It would hurt their usefulness. They have had high 
 hopes, because they had a mighty Redeemer, and were 
 active in duty, because they had elevated hopes. Sap 
 these hopes, and you sunder the very sinew of action. 
 Will they care to be sanctified, when they shall have 
 learned that their Lord was peccable? Will they press 
 on, to see him as he is, and be like him, when they shall 
 doubt whether he will be known in heaven but by the 
 nail-prints? will they care to invite others to him, when he 
 is robbed of all the charms that attracted them in the 
 days of their espousals ? Will they pray with the fervency 
 they have done, that the heathen may be given him for 
 his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for 
 a possession, when they shall know that he is to rule by 
 delegation, and does not come into the government but 
 by heirship ? Will they spend their perishable wealth to 
 honour him, when they shall feel assured, that he has no 
 incorruptible treasures with which to repay them ? 
 
 How is it with those who have made the experiment, 
 
90 CHRIST MUST HAVE HIS OWN PLACE 
 
 and have delivered over their creed to be blotted and in- 
 terlined, till the Deity of their master is gone, and every 
 other truth that hung on it. Are they active for God? 
 do they bless the heathen with the gospel ? do they dis- 
 seminate the Bible ? do they press the consciences of 
 sinners, in their daily walk, and in their evening visits, 
 and give an ungodly world no rest, till they love their 
 eclipsed and darkened and degraded Redeemer? 
 
 O, hide then this error from God's elect, and let them 
 have the Saviour they are disposed to serve, till he take 
 them up, and show himself to them in all the glory that 
 he had with the Father before the world was. 
 
 I naturally close with the question, " What think ye 
 of Christ ? " This question faithfully answered by the 
 minister of the gospel, will give you very much the char- 
 acter of his ministry ; as it will define the Saviour he 
 proclaims, and of course the success he has ; and answered 
 by the private Christian will give the character of his 
 religion. I do not now mean to say that orthodoxy is 
 piety, but simply, that the heart that has been sanctified 
 through the truth, will apprehend and love the truth. 
 In other words, faith will credit the divine testimony. 
 Does the Lord Jesus hold in our ministry, and our creed, 
 the high place that God has given him in the gospel? 
 If we make him merely a teacher and a pattern, so was 
 Moses and Paul. And if we feel that we need no higher 
 Saviour, then is it doubtful, whether we have discovered 
 more than half our ruin. If we have sunk no lower 
 than that a finite arm can reach us, we have yet I fear 
 to learn that we are sinking still, and that the pit is bot- 
 tomless. A gospel that is the contrivance of men, will 
 suit only those who have never felt the plague of their 
 own hearts. When we shall have felt the full pressure 
 of the curse that rests upon us, we shall feel the need of 
 
IN HIS GOSPEL. 91 
 
 one to save, strong as him that created us. The hor- 
 rors of our condition will scare from u \ every deliverer 
 but him who can quench with his own blood, the fires 
 that have been kindled to consume us. When we have 
 looked once upon the incensed throne, we shall hail one 
 as our high priest, who can go in and sprinkle the mercy 
 seat; who can neutralize that consuming ire which 
 issues from the countenance of a provoked Jehovah ; one 
 who has that influence in the court of heaven, that he 
 can procure our acquittal, andean place himself in the van 
 of the redeemed multitude, and conduct us up to heaven, 
 and there plead his own merits as the ground of our 
 acceptance, and the foundation of our everlasting bless- 
 edness. "Amen, even so come, Lord Jesus, come quickly." 
 
SERMON XLVII. 
 
 THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL CONJOINTLY 
 SUSTAINED. 
 
 Matthew v. 17. 
 
 Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets : I am not come 
 to destroy, but to fulfil. 
 
 It is then only that the gospel appears in all its 
 glory ; when it infringes not upon the sacred rights 
 of the law. One of God's institutions must not eclipse 
 the glory of another. God did not make provision for 
 the salvation of men, because he had become convinced 
 that he had issued a bad law, and would thwart its de- 
 sign. The law stood in his eye as glorious, after men 
 had drawn its curse upon the i. as when it dropt fresh 
 from his lips amid the smoke of Sinai. When he insti- 
 tuted the law, he knew that men would break it ; and 
 he affixed his sanctions, sure that all our race would 
 incur them, and many endure them. It was not an 
 experiment, made without a knowledge of the result, 
 but with the result provided for. 
 
 Hence the legal and the gospel dispensations, are but 
 different parts of the same benevolent system ; by which 
 a good Jehovah, would bind to himself, and when the 
 bond should be broken, would recover and restore to his 
 love and favour, beings he had eternally designed should 
 be happy. And hence our Lord thus early announced 
 it as his design, not to abrogate but establish the law. 
 
THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL, ETC. 93 
 
 Fixed and stable as were the ordinances of the heavenly 
 bodies, and firm the earth he had come to plant his 
 feet upon, these should all pass away, while not a jot 
 or tittle of the law should fail. 
 
 Accordingly, as the Lord Jesus gathered disciples, and 
 freed them of course from the curse of the law, he still 
 subjected them to it, as a rule of duty. He transferred, 
 from the Jewish church to his own family, the very 
 commandments which Moses wrote on the tables of 
 stone. Not an item did he repeal, not a precept alter, 
 not a sanction soften. And the whole gospel is a broad 
 and lucid exposition of the law. Hence it is now as 
 much the fact as ever, that "Cursed is every one, that 
 continueth not in the things written in the book of the 
 law, to do them." I shall state, in a few words, the 
 error I would oppose, and which, as it seems to me, is 
 in direct opposition to sound reason, and the whole 
 Bible ; and then proceed to illustrate the doctrine of the 
 text, that The gospel was not intended to supplant, 
 but does sustain the law. 
 
 I. State the error'. The scheme is, that men by the 
 fall, if not disabled, have become so averse to the law, 
 that a perfect obedience is impossible ; and that God will 
 now accept of an obedience that is sincere. If men will 
 obey the law, as well as they are able with their carnal 
 mind, the temper which, without their fault, they in- 
 herited from their first parents, God will accept them ; 
 and wherein their obedience fails, the merits of Christ 
 will be substituted. By this scheme, the death of Christ 
 removes the curse of the law, from all men, soon as it 
 lights upon them : for all do renter to the law, the best 
 obedience they are disposed to, and of course are safe, 
 if they should live and die without repentance. It must 
 be seen in a moment, that, if to whatever extent men 
 
94 THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL 
 
 are unwilling to obey, they are unable, then all obe- 
 dience, but that which is rendered, is dispensed with. 
 And none is rendered ; for a kind of sincerity, consistent 
 with the most confirmed hatred of God, and his law, 
 and which, for aught 1 sec. devils may have as well as 
 men, becomes a substitute for right affections, and has 
 all the merit of a perfect obedience. The whole amounts 
 to this ; God relinquishes his right, to any farther obe- 
 dience, than men, totally depraved, are disposed to pay 
 him. In this scheme an atonement is made necessary, 
 in order to finish out and render accepted the obedience 
 of the sinner. 
 
 This scheme, as altered to accommodate it to modern 
 taste, relinquishes the atonement, and substitutes re- 
 pentance. At whatever time in this life, (and why not 
 in the life to come ?) the sinner shall be sorry that he 
 has broken the law, and shall practise some reform, 
 God will promptly forgive him, without any reference 
 at all to the scenes of Calvary. He has in his heart 
 so much compassion, and cares so little,— it amounts to 
 this,— whether the law is respected or reprobated, that the 
 very first tear of the offender, washes away all his sins. 
 
 These schemes are substantially the same, and are 
 alike subversive of the law of God. They agree in 
 casting off this poor world from all allegiance to its 
 Maker, and virtually render him a God, not worthy 
 either of the fear of devils, or the esteem and confidence 
 of angels. 
 
 I have thus stated the error, and have meant to 
 do it candidly, which seems to me to pour its con- 
 taminating influence, through all the false systems of 
 theology, which are at present employed to injure the 
 church of Christ, and destroy the souls of men. I 
 proceed, 
 
CONJOINTLY SUSTAINED. 
 
 95 
 
 II. To illustrate the doctrine of the text. I shall 
 arrange my thoughts under six general remarks ; The 
 first great commandment of the law, from its very- 
 nature, cannot be repealed ; Nor can the second ; The 
 spirit of the law and the gospel is the same ; The gospel 
 is a useless device but on the supposition that the law 
 is good, and must be supported ; The gospel, that shall 
 set aside the law, will defeat its own design ; The gospel 
 is most glorious when the law is fully sustained. 
 
 1. The first great commandment of the law can- 
 not be repealed . " Thou shaft love the Lord thy God 
 with all thy heart." The very nature of this law de- 
 cides, that a gospel which would neutralize it, would be 
 a curse and not a blessing. The Creator must require 
 his creatures to consider him the object of their supreme 
 regard ; he can ask no less of devils. This precept is 
 founded on the divine excellence, and must abide in 
 force while God shall continue to be good. And as 
 God is unchangeably good, this precept must abide for 
 ever. He would sanction injustice, if he should repeal 
 a law which requires that men render unto God the 
 things that are God's. An act like this would create 
 alarm in heaven, and send a premonition of ruin into 
 every world that has continued loyal. 
 
 Moreover an act that should release intelligent crea- 
 tures from loving supremely their Creator, would ruin 
 the very beings thus released. Hence sang the Christian 
 Poet: 
 
 "From thee departing, they are lost and rove 
 At random, without honour, hope, or peace." 
 
 This has ever been, and must continue to be, the 
 law of hell, of earth, of heaven, and of all other 
 worlds. Nothing that God has made has sufficient 
 
96 
 
 THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL 
 
 greatness and grandeur, to become our supreme object 
 of regard. 
 
 "Give what thou canst, without thee we are poor ; 
 And with thee rich, take what thou wilt away." 
 
 The capacity that God has given us, must be grati- 
 fied, or we are miserable ; and if it be gratified, God 
 is loved according to the commandment. 
 
 Now a gospel that should set aside a law like this, 
 would prove a miserable expedient for a revolted world, 
 as it would rob God of his deserved honours, and man 
 of his highest happiness. How impossible that God 
 should have given us such a gospel ! He never has, 
 and never will, unless he could wish to see us all 
 miserable. To be restored, from inordinate attachment 
 to ihe creature, to supreme love to God, is salvation 
 itself; and how can this be effected by annulling the 
 precept that enjoins this very change ? And we assert, 
 
 2. That the second great commandment of the 
 law cannot be repealed. " Thou shalt love thy neigh- 
 bour, as thyself." This, like the other, carries on the 
 very face of it, its claim to perpetuity. The first com- 
 mandment was intended to bind the creation to its 
 Maker, the second to bind creatures to each other. 
 Neither of these ligatures can be sundered, and crea- 
 tures be happy. To love our fellow men, is to make 
 them subservient to our enjoyment : for to love is usually 
 a delightful exercise. If God had commanded us to 
 hate our neighbour, he had subjected us to the necessi- 
 ty of disobeying him, or of being lastingly unhappy. In 
 proof of this position I have only to refer you to facts. 
 Ask the man of passion, who daily goes home enraged 
 at some one of his fellow men, there to study revenge, 
 whether to hate makes him happy. Or let my readers 
 call to mind some of those seasons, when they were 
 
CONJOINTLY SUSTAINED. 97 
 
 enlisted in some obstinate quarrel, and when for 
 whole days, and perhaps for weeks, passion rested in 
 their bosom, and tell me if you were not unhappy? 
 Then in commanding men to love one another, God 
 has simply forbidden them to be ?mhappy ; has given 
 them leave to be happy. 
 
 And the measure of our love, as here given, what 
 could be more equitable. My neighbour is a sensitive 
 being like myself; is capable of equal happiness ; and 
 that happiness worth as much to him, as mine to 
 me. Hence God must value his blessedness, as much 
 as mine : and it is my duty to feel as God does. Hence, 
 if God should repeal this law, it would be consenting 
 that men should do wrong, have feelings at variance 
 with his, and love happiness simply because it is theirs. 
 
 To repeal this law would be to license selfishness ; the 
 very passion which has filled this unhappy world, and 
 kept it full, of misery. If men are not obligated to love 
 each other as themselves, then is there no standard by 
 which their affection can be measured, and they are at 
 liberty to hate and devour one another. If the gospel 
 has set aside this law, then all the outrages which men 
 have committed, one upon another, have been licensed 
 depredations : for God has disapproved only of what was 
 a violation of his law. If he has annulled the precept 
 that required men to love, he has virtually given them 
 liberty to hate, and has sanctioned a total disregard of 
 the second great commandment of the law. But nothing 
 like this is true. The law still makes on fallen creatures a 
 demand as large as upon the first pair in their innocence, 
 and continiues to press its obligations after they are 
 lost. The miseries of hell would be mitigated, if this 
 law could cease to be binding. The lost might then 
 hate and torment each other, without increasing theirguilt, 
 
98 THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL 
 
 3. The spirit of the law and the gospel is the 
 same. The spirit of the law, as we have seen, is love 5 
 and the same is true of the gospel. In the inventory 
 given us of the fruits of the Spirit, the first named is 
 love. This is the bond of union in heaven, and all who 
 are verging toward heaven, cultivate love, as the fun- 
 damental principle of their piety. When we read, " If 
 any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in 
 him," we have in other language, the whole spirit of the 
 first commandment, 'Thou shalt have no other gods 
 before me." And when we read, 'Whatsoever ye would 
 that men should do to you, do ye even so to them : " do 
 we not also read, "For this is the law and the prophets." 
 Here the Lord Jesus Christ himself identifies the two, as 
 if to settle the point forever, that he came to expound 
 and enforce the very precepts of the law of Sinai. And 
 the man must be grossly ignorant of the New Testament, 
 who does not recognize it, as the very law of the ten 
 commandments, broken down to the relationships, and 
 the exigencies of human life. In both Testaments we 
 have the same divine character, the same code of doc- 
 trines, the same Christian graces, the same social duties, 
 and the same pure and holy religion. 
 
 When the gospel offers a pardon, to those who have 
 violated the law, care is taken that the law be fulfilled 
 and honoured. The law is not censured, nor the sinner 
 violently wrested from its curse. A substitute is furnished, 
 on which the curse may light ; a substitute who had 
 himself perfectly obeyed the law, who loved it, held it in 
 high and holy respect, and died because he would not 
 see it dishonoured. Had it been a bad law, hastily con- 
 ceived, and imprudently promulgated, Christ would not 
 have borne its curse. If too severe, he would have re- 
 called its edicts, and would have mitigated its sanctions, 
 
CONJOINTLY SUSTAINED. 99 
 
 if cruel. It was his first concern to secure the honours 
 of the Godhead, and to do this he must sustain the law ; 
 his second to redeem the wretch who had broken it, and 
 was condemned. 
 
 The Saviour had no more compassion than the Fa- 
 ther ; loved justice, truth, and holiness no less ; hated 
 sin as much, and hated the sinner as much, and 
 was as unwilling as the Father, that a jot or a 
 tittle of the law should fail. He did not engross in 
 himself all the benevolence of the Godhead ; and was 
 not a partisan with the sinner against the law. He did 
 not come to make war with the Law-giver, but with sin ; 
 not to vindicate the rights of the condemned, and wrest 
 them from the punishment to which some ancient and 
 cruel decree had exposed them ; but to cover them with 
 his body and his life, from the miseries they deserved to 
 endure. Thus the law and the gospel have both the 
 same spirit, and press the same design ; to honour God, 
 and make his creatures happy. 
 
 4. The gospel was a useless device, but on /he sup- 
 position that the law is good, and must be supported. 
 Nothing can be more absurd than a gospel designed to 
 free men from the curse of the law, while that law is 
 already repealed, and has ceased to be binding. Hence 
 the Lord Jesus Christ, lest men should make a mistake 
 on this subject, declared very early in his ministry, that 
 he came not to destroy the law, but to fulfil it. Indeed 
 the very hypothesis on which the gospel is built, is, that 
 the law is good, its precepts right, and its penalties bind- 
 ing. If otherwise, the law should have been repealed 
 without a Saviour. As soon as it was discovered that the 
 law was not adapted to our circumstances, was too strict 
 or too severe, instead of subjecting Christ to the pains 
 of the cross, to relieve the culprit, he should have been 
 
100 THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL 
 
 pardoned without an atonement. Probably those who 
 deny an atonement, are brought to this erroneous result, 
 by some indefinite conception, that the law is repealed, to 
 provide the way for man's recovery. 
 
 Our reason tells us, that there should have been no 
 substitution, for those who had broken a bad law, or a 
 law which for any reasons whatever it was not wise to 
 sustain. If not wise to execute it, in the last extremity, 
 upon the offender himself, then assuredly, not merely un- 
 wise, but monstrous, to punish the substitute. There 
 should have been proclaimed immediately a free and full 
 pardon. There was the greatest possible cruelty in the 
 transactions of the cross, but on the supposition that the 
 law is too good to be set aside, even if the population of 
 a world must perish to do it honour. 
 
 5. A gospel that shall set aside the law will defeat 
 its own design. Tell the sinner, in the same message 
 in which you offer him a Saviour, that the law he has 
 broken, is repealed ; or has come into disrepute, and its 
 curse less to be feared than formerly, and he will answer, 
 Then I have no need of a Saviour. If my Sovereign is 
 convinced, as I long have been, that the law is too rigid, 
 he will not punish its violations ; if its penalties are un- 
 just, he will not execute them. I re ect your offered Re- 
 deemer, and approach boldly to the throne, to demand 
 my acquittal. It is mocking me, to talk of an atonement, 
 while I have done only right, in opposing a cruel and 
 oppressive legislation. 
 
 Thus the advocates of a gospel, built on the ruins of 
 the law, soon as they make the secret known, that the 
 law has perished, furnish the sinner a motive for reject- 
 ing the gospel they offer. Thus they labour in vain 
 and spend their strength for nought. They may urge 
 the overtures of their gospel, till they have become gray 
 
CONJOINTLY SUSTAINED. 
 
 101 
 
 in the service, and their hearers will remain unchanged 
 and unreformed. The only consistentcourse is, to justify 
 wholly the law, or offer no Redeemer. We must make 
 man the diseased, and suffering, and dying creature, that 
 the Book of God describes him to be, or we need offer 
 him no physician ; must make him blind, or offer him 
 no eye-salve ; make him guilty and condemned, or offer 
 him no pardon ; make him polluted, or offer him no 
 cleansing ; make him an exile, a captive, and a slave, 
 or offer him no redemption. The estimation in which 
 we hold the law, will decide, whether we have any suc- 
 cess in offering sinners the gospel. 
 
 6, The gospel is most glorious when the law is 
 fully sustained. The glory and the grace of the gos- 
 pel, must, in the very nature of the case, be exactly 
 commensurate, to the claims and the curses of the law. 
 The one must contain a wo as broad as the blessedness 
 implied in the other ; must present a ruin as wide and 
 desperate, as the cure presented in the other ; must frown 
 as implacably, as the other smiles complacently. When 
 we can thus honour the law, and justify the Law-giver, 
 and defend, without misgiving, the most punctilious exe- 
 cution of every threatening that has issued from the lips 
 of the Eternal ; then it is that we can equally elevate the 
 glorious gospel of the blessed God : which else becomes 
 as worthless as the Sbaster or the Koran. The deeper 
 and the darker the pit into w 7 hich I had sunk, the 
 mightier that arm that could lift me out. The full glo- 
 ries of Calvary, have never been seen, but by the same 
 eye, that has descried ineffable beauty in the divine le- 
 gislation. The gospel will be shorn of its last beam, 
 when it shall be made to eclipse the splendour of thelaw. 
 It is only the dead in sin that need the offer of life, the. 
 condemned that need a pardon. Christ is the Repairer 
 
102 THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL 
 
 of the breach ; make the breach wide, and you make the 
 Repairer illustrious. Carry not the fertilizing influence 
 of the gospel, but into the very territory; where the curse 
 of a good law violated has spread a boundless desolation. 
 There its healing waters will be welcome, an Eden will 
 blossom under your feet, and the harvest of many years, 
 repay your toil and make glad your heart. May the 
 blessed God put honour upon his own institutions. 
 
 In bringing my remarks to a close, let me say, that 
 the law cannot go into disuse. It expresses exactly 
 the mind of God, and must be the rule of duty to his 
 obedient subjects forever. And when broken, as it lias 
 been in this unhappy world, its curse must fall, and re- 
 main upon the head of the transgressor, till he flies for 
 refuge to lay hold on the hope set before him in the 
 gospel. Till then he lies condemned, just as if a Saviour 
 had not died ; with this difference, that his condemnation 
 if he perish will be aggravated by his having been 
 offered redemption, He might have had life but would 
 not, unless on such condition, that his transgressions 
 might be justified. I close with 
 
 REMARKS. 
 
 1. How tremendous the ruin of sinners, who after all 
 this, shall fall under the condemning sentence of the 
 divine law. God we see will not set his law aside. He 
 would give his own well-beloved Son, to expire on the 
 ragged nails, to save those who had broken the law, and 
 incurred its penalty, rather than give his foes occasion to 
 say, that he had repealed it. " If these things were done 
 in the green tree, what shall be done in the dry ? " If 
 God appeared so inflexibly holy, on Calvary, where he 
 drew his sword upon the sinner's substitute, how terrible 
 the indignation that he will display in hell. O, is there 
 a man, so hardened and so daring, that he would venture 
 
CONJOINTLY SUSTAINED. 103 
 
 to pass through life, and go on to the judgment, with the 
 curse of the violatedlaw resting on him ! When he shall 
 see that Redeemer, who saved others, but in whose blood 
 he would not take sanctuary, coming in the clouds of 
 heaven, with power and great glory, will be not regret, 
 that he had not been interested in his atonement? And 
 when his destiny shall issue from that Saviour's lips, and 
 he goes to make his bed in hell, will he not learn, what 
 now he is so unwilling to know, that "The law is holy, 
 and the commandment holy, and just, and good?" 
 ■ The torments of the lost, will be an abiding testimony 
 of God's regard to his law. And those who shall have 
 escaped to heaven, when they shall "look upon the 
 carcasses of the men that have transgressed," will be feel- 
 ing more and more strongly forever, how great are their 
 obligations to the Saviour, for redeeming them from the 
 curse of a law, so fearfully holy. And who, that places 
 any value upon his soul, and believes that God will thus 
 jealously guard the honour of his law, and has not 
 already made him incorrigibly angry, will delay an hour 
 in securing an interest in that Saviour, who bore the 
 curse for us. O, my friend, haste your escape, as you 
 would at midnight from your burning house, as you 
 would from the jaws of a ravening lion, as you would 
 from the terrors of a volcanic eruption, as you would 
 from the fire that can never be quenched, and the worm 
 that shall not die. 
 
 2. The subject will, I hope, prepare us to contemplate 
 with horror, the condition of those congregations, who 
 have selected for themselves a ministry, that builds its 
 instructions on the ruins of the divine law. Would to 
 God that 1 were mistaken, in supposing such a case to 
 exist. But when I hear, from lips that profess to have 
 been touched with a coal from off the altar, that man is 
 
104 THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL 
 
 quite an upright being, has committed a few errors only, 
 and these all venial, not sufficient to condemn him ; that 
 he needs no atonement, nor Saviour but to teach him, 
 and be his pattern, and this Saviour not divine : — When 
 I hear of sentiments like these from the pulpit, I fear there 
 is a controversy with the law of God, and that it is meant 
 to be understood, that he has relinquished his demand 
 upon the shiner, of a stricter obedience, than he isdisposed 
 to yield. 
 
 Thus by putting aside the law, as we suppose is done 
 in the outset, and hewing down the whole system to 
 accommodate it to this fatal error, the whole, though 
 somewhat consistent with itself, is rotten and deceptive. 
 Thus the sinner is lulled, and soothed, and when asleep, 
 is kept slumbering till he is lost. He never has any pro- 
 per sense of his sins, nor respect for the violated law, nor 
 regard for the holiness, and justice, and truth of God. 
 He never becomes humble, nor fears God, nor embraces 
 the Saviour, nor quits his sins. The gospel he hears is 
 like the Siren's song, that lures but to destroy. It keeps 
 men stupid till it is too late to be anxious to any profit. 
 
 O, ye lost and ruined congregations ! if my voice might 
 reach you, I would tell you to look well to the ministry 
 you attend. While it pretends to offer you life, it may 
 destrov you. If you find it aiming to lessen the number, 
 and diminish the aggravations of your sins, you ought 
 to suspect it. You never will betake yourself to the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, as your precious and only Saviour, 
 till the commandment come home to your bosom, high 
 and imperious in its claims ; holy, and just, and good, 
 in all it requires, and in all it threatens. In the sense of 
 the apostle, sin must revive and we die, else there can be 
 no hope that we shall be made alive in Christ Jesus. 
 The multitudes who have gone to heaven, and the whole 
 
CONJOINTLY SUSTAINED. 105 
 
 army of believers who are bound thither, know the period 
 when they felt themselves justly exposed to eternal 
 death. The gospel that pretends to find you quite whole 
 and happy, needing only a little instruction, and perhaps 
 some reformation, and aims not to alarm and distress 
 you, you may rest assured is a lie, and not the truth ; it 
 comes from hell, and not from heaven ; and if embraced, 
 will conduct you back with it to the recesses of perdition 
 
 10 
 
SERMON XL VIII. 
 
 IMPENITENT MEN DESTITUTE OF HOLINESS. 
 
 Romans iii. 18. 
 There is no fear of God before their eyes. 
 
 The text gives us man's native character. Such he 
 is till the Spirit of God has sanctified him. The criti- 
 cism that would apply this whole passage to the people 
 only who lived before the flood, or to a very few of the 
 baser sort of sinners, is a contrivance of infidelity, and is 
 extensively employed, in the present day, to betray and 
 ruin souls. The man who is willing to shape his creed 
 by the divine record, is entirely satisfied, when he reads 
 the passages in the Old Testament which are here quot- 
 ed ; but when he finds them referred to by an inspired 
 apostle, and by him applied to the whole human family, 
 Jews and Gentiles, no shadow of doubt remains. He is 
 now content to lie down under the humiliating charge 
 they bring, and is ashamed and confounded before the 
 great Searcher of hearts. He who has become a new 
 creature will consent that "God be true, though every 
 man a liar." 
 
 The fear of the Lord is a gracious affection, belonging 
 not to the slave but to the son, and is the genuine fruit 
 of a new heart, the beginning of wisdom. Hence where 
 this affection is not, there are no gracious affections. 
 And if this be true, and the text applies to all men in 
 
IMrENITENT MEN DESTITUTE OF HOLINESS. 107 
 
 their unsanctified state, then it plainly teaches fus, that 
 In unregenerate men there is no moral excellence. 
 
 My object at this time will be, not so much to prove 
 the doctrine, as to account for its having been contro- 
 verted, and offer some reasons for esteeming it a highly 
 important doctrine. 
 
 T. Many have mistaken the native character of man, 
 from having seen him capable of affections and deeds 
 that are praiseworthy. It is not man's prerogative to 
 judge the heart ; hence, if the tendency of an action is 
 to that which is good, it is imputed to the very motive 
 that ought to have produced it. If the deed has a fair 
 exterior, it is considered ungenerous not to impute it to 
 correct principle. Men judge, however, on the maxim, 
 that what is highly esteemed among men, cannot be 
 abomination in the sight of God. Hence they dress 
 up human nature in garbs of innocence; and conceive 
 it impossible that there should be, under so much that is 
 fair and good in conduct, an evil heart of unbelief. 
 
 They find men capable of kind, and generous, and 
 honourable sentiments. They can be true, and trusty, 
 and faithful, and affectionate ; and they triumphantly 
 ask, How can all this be when there is no love of God 
 in the heart! They see discharged, and sometimes 
 quite honourably, the offices of parent, husband, brother 
 and child, and all the other domestic and social rela- 
 tions, and impute it all, though to be accounted for on 
 other principles, to native moral excellence. Hence they 
 are precipitated into a controversy with that plain and 
 humbling testimony of heaven, that " The carnal mind 
 is enmity against God, is not subject to his law, nor in- 
 deed can be." 
 
 Why will not men believe, what the scriptures so 
 plainly teach, that the heart is deceitful above all things 
 
108 IMPENITENT MEN DESTITUTE OF HOLINESS. 
 
 and desperately wicked ; and from this truth infer, that 
 very different motives may lead to the same deeds. We 
 often see that an amiable disposition, a tameness and 
 mildness, such as distinguish the lamb from the wolf, 
 and the vulture from the dove ; and that results in the 
 exercise of many an amiable affection, and the doing of 
 many a kind action ; may consist with the practice of 
 sin, the habit of a daily violation of the divine law, a 
 prompt rejection of all the overtures of the gospel, and 
 an inveterate disgust for the duties of a cordial atid se- 
 cret piety. We have recognized, where there was all 
 the instinctive amiableness that is ever claimed, the 
 existence of a polished and fashionable infidelity ; have 
 marked offence taken, at the distinguishing doctrines of 
 revelation, at the scruples of a well disciplined consciencej 
 at the frequency and fervency of devotional exercises, 
 and the elevated views and affections of the revived and 
 happy believers. Still there were high pretensions to 
 kindness, rectitude, generosity, and even piety : There 
 was not a consciousness of the deep-rooted enmity of 
 the heart to whatever is holy and heavenly. Men have 
 wept under the sound of the gospel, and seemed the 
 veriest converts to the truths under discussion, the af- 
 fections enforced, and the duties urged, and ere they have 
 passed the threshold of the sanctuary, have vented their 
 spleen against the man, who reached their sensibilities, 
 and drew from them, in an unguarded hour, their reluc- 
 tant testimony to the gospel he announced. 
 
 We do not deny, that there has been seen in men, not 
 sanctified, much that it would be disgraceful not to ad- 
 mire, and envious not to praise, and evil not to imitate ; 
 and still we may have had indubitable evidence, that in 
 the very same bosom there beat a heart hostile to God, 
 and holinessj and heaven. Not certainly will Godj whx> 
 
IMPENITENT MEN DESTITUTE OF HOLINESS. 109 
 
 compares the temper of the heart with his law, approve 
 always the very deeds that men have praised, or the 
 men who may have stood immeasurably high in human 
 estimation. 
 
 On this point the truth must not be concealed. We 
 cannot say to sinners, that if they please man, God 
 will assuredly be pleased ; that if they speak kindly to 
 man, and do deeds of mercy to him, the Eternal will 
 say, " Ye have done it unto me." There is no such 
 assurance given in the record. And the time, or rather 
 the eternity, will be here so soon, when their whole char 
 acter must be known, when they must stand before the 
 omniscient God, and all their heart be opened, and their 
 whole life be read ; that to deceive them, and cry peace, 
 peace, when there is no peace, would be as cruel as death. 
 
 There is neither the necessity nor the wish to deny, 
 that unsanctified men have exhibited many natural 
 excellencies of character. On this point I know not that 
 there will be at last any controversy between God and 
 them. Our Saviour looked at the young man in the 
 gospel, and loved him, while yet he was unquestionably 
 in the gall of bitterness and under (he bonds of iniquity. 
 We yield to men traits of character that are amiable, 
 and useful, and endearing, and wish most sincerely that 
 there need be no reserve in our praise. But while they 
 have been kind, and neighbourly, and pitiful, and even 
 generous to their fellows, they have robbed God. They 
 have wept at the tale of distress and hastened to succour 
 the perishing, and bled in sympathy over the diseased 
 and the dying, but have never shed a tear at the cross. 
 They have believed man, and confided in him, and 
 spoken truth to him, and have well earned his confidence 
 and affection, but they have practically made God a liar. 
 They have neyer fully credited either his threatenings or 
 
 10* 
 
110 IMPENITENT MEN DESTITUTE OF HOLINESS. 
 
 his promises, nor thought it necessary to take sanctuary 
 in his Son. There has not been a moment in their 
 whole life, take the time when their conscience was the 
 most tender, and their sensibilities the most awakened, 
 and their deportment the most religious, and their hopes 
 of heaven the most profound ; when some other object 
 beside God, had not tbe high and distinct ascendancy 
 m their affections. While they could treat men mildly, 
 and be rebuked without wrath, and even endure divine 
 judgments without the appearance of rebellion ; they 
 could still brow -beat all the anathemas of the law, and 
 parry every thrust of the gospel, and live on, without 
 reflection, and without prayer, and without repentance, 
 and without God in the world. They still cared not for 
 all the melting entreaties of divine mercy. God was not 
 in all their thoughts, nor his religion in their lips, nor 
 his throne in their hearts, nor his will controlled them ; 
 while as the friends of the poor, the patrons of moral vir- 
 tue, and the benefactors of the world, they were illustri- 
 ous, and w^ere promised in human eulogy a luminous 
 and happy immortality. 
 
 Thus has the human character, all deformity as God 
 views it, been exhibited as sound and good. Distinc- 
 tions have not always been made, between what is 
 nature, and what is grace; what is mere i?istinct, 
 and what is holiness. The multitudes of the ungodly 
 have been blessed and dismissed, doubting whether their 
 character was at all deficient, or they needed to be born 
 again ; and high in the hope that a slight reform, and 
 a little care, w r ould soon prepare them to stand accepted 
 of God. Even men who have worn noted marks of 
 the apostacy, the covetous, the proud, the vain, and 
 the w r orldIy, have retired with a smile, to enjoy their 
 good opinion of themselves and feed quietly, and sleep 
 
IMPENITENT MEN DESTITUTE OF HOLINESS. 112 
 
 sweetly, while the wrath of God abode upon them. 
 They have gone to their farms and their merchandise, 
 to love and pursue supremely the cares of the life that 
 now is, or bury themselves in scenes of dissipation and 
 folly, not suspecting but that all was well, and all safe 7 
 till either the Spirit of God awakened them, or they sunk 
 to a hopeless perdition : or they live still, and are filling 
 up the measure of their iniquity, and are preparing for 
 a deeper despair, than if they had perished far sooner. 
 And they must thus perish, it seems, because they are 
 amiable, while publicans and harlots, who have no such 
 virtues to screen them from conviction, believe in the 
 Saviour, and live forever ! 
 
 II. Men have been led to controvert this doctrine 
 because they are not conscious of the wrong motives 
 by which they are actuated. Through the workings 
 of a deceitful heart, ignorance of the scriptures, and 
 sometimes by the aid of a heterodox ministry, men have 
 totally mistaken their whole moral character. They 
 are rich and increased in goods, and have need of no- 
 thing ; and know not that they are wretched, and 
 miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. What the 
 prophet says of the idol-maker, is more or less true of 
 all unregenerate men in all ages, " A deceived heart 
 hath turned him aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, 
 nor say, Is there not a lie in my right hand ? " Hazael 
 could not believe that he deserved the character which 
 the prophet gave him, " Is thy servant a dog that he 
 should do this great thing?" And Jehu, when he cut 
 off the house of Ahab, and destroyed the worshippers of 
 Baal, would have felt himself abused, to be told that he 
 was actuated by the love of praise. When the rulers 
 of the Jews were charged with murdering the Lord of 
 life and glory, though they had done this very deed, 
 
112 IMPENITENT MEN DESTITUTE OP HOLINESS. 
 
 thought Peter a slanderer, in his attempt to bring thi3 
 blood upon them. So Saul of Tarsus supposed he was 
 doing God service, while persecuting to death the disci- 
 ples of the Lord Jesus. Thus may men act from the 
 very worst of motives, and yet suppose them the very 
 best. They do not consider it important to know what 
 their designs are, and have not that familiarity with their 
 hearts that would render it easy to discover. And thus 
 they are led to controvert the truth, and quarrel with 
 God, his word, and his ministers, who all give them the 
 very character they have. 
 
 III. The doctrine of the text is often converted to 
 support schemes with which this sentiment would not 
 compare. The sinner's entire depravity, is a fundamen- 
 tal doctrine, on which there can be built only one, and 
 that the gospel system. Make this doctrine true, and 
 it sweeps away, as with the besom of destruction, every 
 creed but one from the face of the world. It settles the 
 question, that God may righteously execute his law upon 
 all unregenerate men ; that "by the deeds of the law 
 there shall no flesh be justified ; " that the doings of un- 
 regenerate men are unholy ; that even repentance will 
 not take away the curse that has lit, and must rest, upon 
 the man who has not continued in all the things written 
 in the bode of the law to do them ; that an atonement, 
 such as God has provided, through the offering of the 
 body of Jesus Christ once for all, is the only medium 
 through which we can purge our consciences from dead 
 works to serve the living God. It further decides the 
 question, that men will not seek after God ; that he 
 must be found of them that sought him not, must give 
 repentance unto life, must take away the heart of stone 
 and give a heart of flesh ; that in the regenerate he must 
 work, to will and to do of his own good pleasure ; and 
 
IMPENITENT MEN DESTITUTE OF HOLINESS. 113 
 
 finally, that he must be an Almighty Saviour, who 
 could redeem beings so lost, and put them back again 
 into the favour of a justly offended God. 
 
 Thus it is only one scheme of truths that this doctrine 
 will support ; the faith once delivered to the saints. If 
 men depart from the truth, as we are told they shall in 
 these last days, giving heed to seducing spirits and doc- 
 trines of devils, they must thus come into close and com- 
 fortless contact with a doctrine, which, if true, gives 
 the lie to all their false and delusive schemes- Hence 
 we wonder not that " the foe of God and man, issuing 
 from his dark den," has here displayed, in every age 
 of Zion's conflict, his mightiest chieftainship. Here must 
 be the edge of battle, in every conflict between the gospel, 
 and the systems invented by men ; between the friends 
 and the foes of truth. This is the fortress that has 
 been taken and retaken ten thousand times, where has 
 been tried the prowess of God's people, and his ene- 
 mies ; where has been displayed the power of God, and 
 been put to the test the endurance of his elect, in all 
 the ages that have gone by. 
 
 IV. This doctrine has been controverted through the 
 pride of the human heart. Depravity is a most de- 
 grading doctrine, and entire depravity intolerable, till 
 the heart has been humbled by the grace of God. There 
 is in apostate men great pride of character. We 
 would all be considered friendly to what is good and 
 great, and such is God, even in the profession of the 
 most depraved ; such is his law, and such is his govern- 
 ment. With the promptness, with which we fly the 
 touch of fire, does pride resist imputation. Hence 
 inquires the unregenerate man, Would you deny me 
 the credit of loving my Creator, Preserver, and Bene- 
 factor? Do I never obey his law, or do a deed from 
 
lit IMPENITENT MEN DESTITUTE OF HOLINESS. 
 
 motives that please him? And is there, among my 
 noblest actions of kindness to men, nothing that amounts 
 to love? In my gladness for the good things that God 
 bestows, is there not a shred of gratitude ? in my ad- 
 miration of his perfections and his works, no love? in 
 my belief of his word, no faith? in my expectation of 
 heaven, no hope ? in my sorrow for sin. no repentance ? 
 in my endurance of adverse events, no submission? 
 and in my gentleness and cjndescension, no humility? 
 are my prayers sin, and my sacrifices abomination? 
 do I thus, on all occasions, break the first and great 
 commandment of the law? and on all occasions the 
 second also? in all my noble generosity, is there no 
 benevolence? in my soft deportment, no meekness] and 
 in my tears for the miserable, no pious sympathy ? must 
 every deed I do have the same moral deformity ? and 
 God hate me, and his law condemn me, when I follow 
 the kindest dictates of that nature he has given me ? 
 
 Thus men feel, that if this doctrine be true, it 
 goes to defame and ruin their character. It makes 
 them go astray soon as they are born, speaking lies. 
 It makes their righteousness as filthy rags. When 
 they have washed themselves in snow-water, and made 
 their hands never so clean, this doctrine, with ruthless 
 hand, plunges them into the ditch, and their own clothes 
 abhor them. When they industriously provide for their 
 household, they are accused of loving the world, 
 while the love of the Father is not in them. When 
 they would go to the sanctuary, and pay their vows, 
 there they hear from heaven, " What hast thou to do 
 to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my 
 covenant in thy mouth ? " 
 
 Thus, at every point, this doctrine comes to mar 
 their reputation, and make them hypocrites, and cover 
 
IMPENITENT MEN DESTITUTE OF HOLINESS. 115 
 
 them with shame and blushing. Hence the Jehovah, 
 who will give men this character, may reign in other 
 hearts ; and the Bible, that will teach this doctrine, may- 
 lie neglected ; and the ministry that will publish it, may 
 starve : and the cringing multitude, who will believe it, 
 may herd together, and together sink into the contempt 
 they covet. Thus God is treated, and thus his word, 
 and thus his ministers, and thus his people, because 
 they maintain a doctrine, the sinner's disgust at which, 
 establishes beyond the possibility of doubt, or the dan- 
 ger of mistake. It so degrades the character of men. 
 that they will not believe it, if they perish contradict- 
 ing it. 
 
 I could offer other reasons, why this doctrine has 
 been so frequently assailed, but shall proceed to offer 
 some reasons for esteeming it a very important 
 doctrine. 
 
 1. The fact, that it is plainly revealed, testifies to 
 its importance. God would not have cumbered his 
 word with a doctrine of no value. If we find it there 
 who will venture to deny its importance ? and if not 
 there, how does it happen, that those are its warmest 
 advocates, who are most familiar with the Bible, and 
 most ready to regard its dictates ? The context contains 
 a very dark review of man's native character : and 
 it would be infidelity to suppose it too highly coloured. 
 '• There is none righteous, no not one : There is none 
 that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after 
 God. They are all gone out of the way, they are to- 
 gether become unprofitable ;. there is none that doeth 
 good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre ; 
 with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of 
 asps is under their lips : Whose mouth is full of cursing 
 and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. 
 
116 IMPENITENT MEN DESTITUTE OF HOLINESS, 
 
 Destruction and misery are in their ways : And the 
 way of peace have they not known. There is no fear 
 of God before their eyes." Now we fearlessly assert, 
 that this is given as the native character of Jews and 
 Gentiles ; by one whom the Holy Ghost inspired, and 
 who could not mistake the truth. Believe the last clause 
 only, and tell me if in men, who have " no fear of God 
 before their eyes," there is any holiness? "The carnal 
 mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the 
 law of God, neither indeed can be." Here again Chris- 
 tian honesty will read the same doctrine. And the same 
 in this text, '-The heart of the sons of men is full of evil." 
 And in this. < : The heart is deceitful above all things, 
 and desperately wicked." And that none may escape, it 
 reads; "As in water face answereth to face, so the heart 
 of man to man:" And thus the uniform testimony of 
 Scripture. There would be no end in quoting the Scrip- 
 tures on this important point, till I had referred you to 
 almost the whole Bible. And a doctrine about which 
 God will say so much, must be, in his estimation, and 
 should be in ours, of high importance. 
 
 2. The doctrine of the text is esteemed important, 
 as it is one of the first truths, used by the Spirit of 
 God, in awakening and sanctifying sinners. Till 
 men see their depravity, they will not approve of the law 
 that condemns them. They will be wondering, if, in- 
 deed, they think at all, why God threatens them, and 
 be blaming the law as too rigid in its requirements, and 
 cruel in its penalties. Now there is no hope of a sinner, 
 while he stands in this posture ; and nothing will move 
 him from it, but a conviction of his lost and ruined state. 
 Hide from him the character of his heart, and you seal 
 him up to everlasting stupidity, You can arouse him to 
 no apprehensions of danger, for under the government 
 
IMPENITENT MEN DESTITUTE OF HOLINESS. 117 
 
 of a good God none are in danger but sinners. And 
 there will of course be no repentance. A thoughtless 
 sinner sees nothing to repent of, nor any reason why he 
 should repent, and the man who knows nothing of his 
 heart will not be thoughtful. The commandment 
 never comes home to his conscience. If he has hopes 
 of heaven, it will be on the ground of his own self-righte- 
 ousness. Thus the Saviour will be to him as a root out 
 of a dry ground, without form or comeliness, and the 
 work of grace can never be begun. Thus is the sinner, 
 who is kept ignorant of his heart, sealed up to the judg- 
 ment, and goes on as the ox to the slaughter, and the 
 fool to the correction of the stocks. The Spirit of God 
 will sanctify only through the truth, and the entire de- 
 pravity of the heart is a first truth, without a knowledge 
 of which no sinner was ever yet fitted for the kingdom 
 of God. 
 
 A gospel, then, if we must so call it, that hides from 
 men the deformity of their moral character, betrays and 
 ruins them. It says to the wicked, that it shall be well 
 with them, and thus cradles their fears to sleep, till their 
 period of mercy is past; and proves, ultimately, the 
 greatest calamity that can befall them. It closes upon 
 them the portals of eternal life, and keeps them dream- 
 ing, and fearless, till they open their eyes in hell. But 
 when they at last make the discovery, perhaps on the 
 bed of death, or it may be not till life has gone out, how 
 will they execrate the recollection of such a gospel. It 
 will come up to mind as does the tempest, that wrecked 
 all their hopes upon the relentless reef; or the fire that 
 forced them to make a midnight retreat from the place 
 that had been long their safe and happy home. 
 
 The ministers of Christ would love to preach a 
 smoother gospel, if men could only be safe under it. It 
 
 11 
 
118 IMPENITENT MEN DESTITUTE OF HOLINESS. 
 
 would be pleasant to have to do only with the invita- 
 tions, and the promises, and the hopes of the gospel. 
 They had far rather remind the believer of the joys to 
 come, than to admonish the unbeliever of the judgment, 
 the outer darkness, and the gnawing worm. They 
 could have far more pleasure in describing the graces of 
 the Spirit, than in portraying the deformities of the un- 
 sanctified heart. 
 
 But the grand object of the gospel ministry is to save 
 souls, and thisobject is not gained, unless men are taught, 
 as the very first lesson of that ministry, that they are 
 lost. Hence to suppress this truth, would be to neu- 
 tralize at once the whole effect of this ministry. What- 
 ever we may wish, we can be the ministers of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ to a ruined world, but on this one condition, 
 that the alienation of our world from God, hold the place 
 of; a first truth in every effort of our ministry. The gos- 
 pel has absolutely no meaning, and can be of no use, 
 but to the lost and the condemned. 
 
 3. The doctrine of the text is esteemed important, as 
 it lies at the foundation of the whole gospel scheme. 
 The Lord Jesus Christ came into our world, to seek and 
 to save them that are lost, and the whole plan of salva- 
 tion is so interwoven with this fact, as to be unintelligible 
 without it. What means the covenant of redemption, 
 but in connexion with the fact that we are captives and 
 slaves, and need to be redeemed l what is there intelli- 
 gible in the atonement, but that we owe ten thousand 
 talents, and have nothing to pay ? why urged to repent, 
 but that we are in love with sin, and must otherwise 
 perish ? why believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, but that 
 we need a better righteousness than our own to shelter us 
 from the wrath to come ? why make to ourselves a new 
 
IMPENITENT MEN DESTITUTE OF HOLINESS. 119 
 
 heart, but that we have by nature evil hearts of unbelief, 
 inclining us to depart from the living God ? 
 
 And let me ask, why all the threatenings of the gospel, 
 but that it was written for the use of a disobedient and 
 gainsaying people? why on every page does there meet 
 us some anathema, but that it was intended for those 
 who love not our Lord Jesus Christ? why has death 
 passed upon all men, but that all have sinned ? why a 
 judgment and a place of torment, but that tho.-e who 
 have carried their entire depravity with them into the 
 coming world, may be distinguished, and may go to their 
 own place. 
 
 Finally, it is matter of doubt whether an honest man, 
 acquainted with the Bible, and willing to collect his 
 creed from it, will find it possible to exclude the doctrine 
 of the text from a fundamental place in its structure. 
 What doctrine can he preach, if he denies it? what 
 precept enforce? what threatening announce? what 
 promise apply ? We need no gospel if this doctrine is not 
 true, and we have none. " Let us eat and drink, for 
 to-morrow we die." 
 
 Will the great God defend his own truth, and bless 
 every effort for its vindication, and sanctify his people 
 through its influence, and speedily let it cover the earth 
 as the waters cover the sea. Will he bring the multi- 
 tudes of the ungodly to know, that they are in the gall of 
 bitterness, and in the bonds of iniquity, and persuade 
 them to fly for refuge, to lay hold on the hope set before 
 them in the gospel. 
 
SERMON XLIX. 
 
 ONLY ONE TRUE GOD. 
 
 John xvii. 3. 
 This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God. 
 
 In the report of that gospel, that shall deal honestly 
 with dying men, it is of the first importance, that there 
 be exhibited the true character of God. As men are to 
 be sanctified through the truth, it will be confessed, that 
 no truth can be of higher importance, than that which 
 relates to the being and attributes of Jehovah. Unless 
 on this point there is made a full and clear exposure of 
 the truth, our religion may be so defective, as to neither 
 profit us in this life, nor save us in the life to come. 
 Under the very names that belong to the true God, we 
 may worship an idol, and thus give our depravity the 
 shape of the grossest insult. 
 
 We have sometimes listened to a loud and earnest ad- 
 dress on the subject of religion, and it professed itself the 
 gospel, in which the character of the true God was indus- 
 triously concealed. Men may speak of God, and with 
 much engaged ness ; his adorable names may swell 
 every clause, and round every period, and the whole be 
 uttered with a decent and well-bred softness ; and one 
 may suppose himself religiously employed, in hearing 
 the true gospel, and be charmed with the changes rung 
 upon the names he has been accustomed to adore ; and 
 
ONLY ONE TRUE GOD. 121 
 
 still the god proclaimed may not be the blessed Jehovah. 
 There may be a view exhibited that does not belong to 
 the Creator, but to some imaginary god created for the 
 occasion. 
 
 The text would furnish several topics of remark, but 
 I intend to confine myself to one, To expose some of 
 the false views of God, which are not unfrequently 
 presented us under the appellation of the gospel ; and 
 thus illustrate the character of that only true God whom 
 to know is eternal life. 
 
 I. There is sometimes an extolling of all the more 
 clement attributes of God, as some have presumptuously 
 distinguished, while the severer attributes are unnoticed. 
 The design of these declaimers seems to be, that our 
 attention be fixed exclusively upon what, in their esti- 
 mation, is soft and mild and lovely in God, while his 
 holiness, his justice and his truth ; — all in him that can 
 go to make a sinner afraid, or beget conviction and re- 
 pentance, is industriously concealed. God's compassion 
 for our lost and miserable world, his patience, his endu- 
 rance, his long-suffering, his promptness to pardon, and 
 total aversion to destroy ; — all those features of the divine 
 mind, that can soothe alarm, are early and industriously 
 developed, as if embracing the whole of God that he him- 
 self loves, or man is required to worship and adore ; 
 while the other parts of the divine image are obscured, as 
 one would hide the scars and excrescences that have for- 
 tuitously covered more than half his visage. Thus the 
 great luminary of the moral world must be cast into a 
 deep and dark eclipse, that the naked eye of sense may 
 gaze upon his few remaining glories. It is feared, we 
 presume, that were the whole character of God exhibited, 
 sinners would be filled with disgust, and be driven from 
 the bosom of their Sovereign. He must not adhere to 
 
 11* 
 
122 ONLY ONE TRUE GOD. 
 
 the principles of that law he has promulgated, nor care 
 to vindicate himself from the aspersions that sinners have 
 cast upon his character and his government. He must 
 not resolve that mercy and truth meet together ; and that 
 righteousness and peace kiss each other. He must cast 
 a smile upon the prodigal, ere he shall turn his face or 
 his feet toward his father's house. Thus must the holy 
 and righteous God, before whom devils tremble, melt 
 down into the weak and pitiful parent, or not one of his 
 apostate family shall come back to his bosom and his ser- 
 vice. So men would judge. 
 
 But God seems to have had other views, and has 
 revealed his whole character, fearless of the predicted 
 consequences. If there was any danger from a full 
 exposure of his character, why did he not hold himself 
 concealed, or throw into the shade, as men would do for 
 him, those parts of his character that must give offence. If 
 that be good policy which I am venturing to expose, 
 God could have directed that neither the works of crea- 
 tion, nor the Bible, should have told us the whole truth re- 
 specting himself. He might have suppressed the history 
 of that revolt in heaven, and its results, and told us 
 nothing of hell and the judgment, nor named in his 
 Book those attributes that throw around him such an 
 atmosphere of darkness and terror. He need not have 
 given us, if he had so pleased, the stories of the deluge, 
 and of Sodom, and of Korah and his company. But 
 God has exposed the whole truth, and that in the very 
 Book which he has directed should be our daily compa- 
 nion. 
 
 If the scheme I oppose be true, I know not how to ac- 
 count for such a Bible as God has put into our hands, 
 just calculated to betray a secret that should not have 
 been divulged for worlds. If there belong to God any 
 
ONLY ONE TRUE GOD. 123 
 
 attributes that were not intended to be made known to 
 sinners till they are reconciled to him ; if they cannot 
 safely be told that he is angry with the wicked every 
 day, has appointed a time and place of judgment, and 
 prepared a deep and dark perdition for the condemned ; 
 if they are to be urged to come to him, expecting to find 
 him all mercy ; then by what alarming oversight have we 
 resolved to put the Bible into the hands of sinners ? 
 Must the parental character of God so dazzle and fill the 
 eye, as to eclipse the Sovereign, and the Judge, the 
 Abettor of truth, and the Avenger of wrong and of out- 
 rage? And must we never know the whole character 
 of God, till we have to deal with him in the judgment? 
 Can we be sure that the prodigal, after he has been thus 
 decoyed home to his father's house, will be pleased with 
 his father ? Had he not better know, while away in his 
 land of exile, exactly the father he must meet, and the 
 father he must love, and stay there till this character is 
 approved ? 
 
 I know not where in the whole Bible we are authorised, 
 to elevate one attribute of God above another, and term 
 the one mild and the other severe. I know not where 
 men have learned, that there are principles in the divine 
 nature and government, that to be fully known would 
 subvert the benevolent design of the gospel. If God has 
 thus instructed any of his ministers, and they act by his 
 authority in deciding what may and what may not be 
 developed to the world of the ungodly, I have only to 
 say, " To their own master they stand or fall " 
 
 II. There is perhaps some occasion to fear, that some 
 have gone into the opposite extreme, and have presented 
 exclusively the more forbidding attributes of God, while 
 his grace and mercy have been in this case too much 
 concealed. When Jehovah is exhibited as constituted of 
 
124 
 
 ONLY ONE TRUE GOD. 
 
 entire sovereignty ; as doing his pleasure in the armies 
 of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth, with- 
 out the least regard to the happiness and the salvation of 
 his creatures ; as casting after the wayward and the lost, 
 no look of compassionate tenderness ; — can this be a faith- 
 ful exhibition of the character of God 1 Should it be 
 said, That God is willing to show his wrath, and that he 
 has created intelligent beings on purpose that they might 
 be the vessels of his wrath ; and has communicated 
 positive hardness to their hearts, because they did not 
 render themselves depraved enough for his purpose ; and 
 pushed them on to a character, that would be sufficiently 
 desperate for some deed of darkness, which he had re- 
 solved they should perpetrate ; — would one gather from 
 all this the true character of God ? I know that I have 
 now presented an extreme case, and sincerely hope that 
 not often, perhaps never, is sovereignty presented quite 
 so bare and forbidding, and the truth pushed to an ex- 
 tremity so cold and cheerless. The objection to such 
 presentations is, that they do not exhibit the whole cha- 
 racter of God. He is willing to show his wrath, only 
 where his mercy in Jesus Christ has been long and 
 obstinately rejected. He created intelligent beings for 
 his own glory, and will honour himself in their perdition, 
 if by rejecting the Saviour, they count themselves un- 
 worthy of eternal life. He has hardened their hearts by 
 the very dispensations that should have won them to 
 duty and to God ; has sent them strong delusions that 
 they might believe a lie and be damned, when they did 
 not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. 
 We must pour into these strong exhibitions of truth, in 
 order to render them the gospel, and make them useful, 
 the whole character of God. 
 
 How can you hope to persuade rebels to submit them- 
 
ONE ONLY TRUE GOD. 125 
 
 selves to this bare and appalling sovereignty? Why 
 must they become reconciled to their Creator, before they 
 may even know, that he is a God of mercy, or has it in 
 his heart to bestow pardons 1 An apostle has said, " If we 
 confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our 
 sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." I 
 am not without my fears, that on this side of the line of 
 orthodoxy there has sometimes been presented a charac- 
 ter of God, as imperfect, not to say as unsafe, as when 
 only his clemency is seen. And who can say that God 
 would not be as unwilling, that one set of his attributes 
 should be exclusively presented, as another ? Under 
 neither have we a full and honest portrait of the only true 
 God, whom to know is eternal life. While the one error 
 will lead unregenerate men to presume, that they love 
 their Maker, so under the other it is feared, that many 
 true believers may be kept all their life- time subject to 
 bondage through fear of perdition. The one will make 
 a multitude of happy hypocrites, while the other will 
 conduct to heaven whole churches of trembling, doubting 
 believers. The one will widen the fold, till the sheep 
 and the goats can herd together ; the other will contract 
 it till many of the lambs must lie without, and be exposed 
 to storms and beasts of prey ; and finally neither presents 
 correctly the character of God. 
 
 III. We have sometimes presented us a picture of 
 warring attributes. Mercy triumphs over justice, and 
 grace is made victorious over truth and righteousness. 
 Under this system, God disapproves the properties of his 
 own nature, and the principles of his own government ; 
 and contrives to defeat and nullify his own decrees. He 
 issued his law, and pronounced it good, and made in it 
 no provision for pardon ; none he could make ; and when 
 the sinner broke that law, he passed sentence, and threat- 
 
126 ONLY ONE T8UE GOD. 
 
 ened its execution. But he is now made to repent of the 
 sternness, and integrity, and purity, that dictated that 
 law, and uttered that sentence, and threatened its execu- 
 tion : and is reresolved, that, come what will of reproach 
 upon his name, and injury to his government and king- 
 dom, the sinner shall not suffer. He built a place of tor- 
 ment, and separated it from heaven by a bottomless gulf, 
 and made it a dark, and dreary, and desolate abode ; but 
 he has since had better and milder views ; has decreed 
 that ultimately the gulf shall become passable, the fires 
 shall go out, and the worm shall die. 
 
 And all this is contrived to save the divine honour. 
 To let God be what he is, and do what he has said, and 
 carry into execution his own purpose, would, it is believed, 
 so hurt his reputation with the population of the apostacy 
 that any thing, that can be, must be done to save it. 
 There must rather be suspicion cast over the whole record 
 that would exhibit God as so inflexibly holy, and re- 
 proach poured in upon the bigotted multitude that would 
 so rigidly explain the word. The Book of God, plain as 
 it is, may rather mean nothing, and John record falsely, 
 and Paul reason inconclusively, than to blot so foully and 
 fatally the divine reputation. 
 
 To complete the picture, the Son of God is despatched 
 from heaven to take the part of sinners, and shield them 
 from the sword of a devouring justice. He saw, it seems, 
 that the execution of the law would ruin the credit of the 
 court of heaven which gave sentence, and hasted down 
 to counteract the decree. What was stern, and unbend- 
 ing, and cruel in the Father, has been softened down in 
 the Son. He covers the rebel with his hand, smiles on 
 him, wipes away his tears, and prays him to forgive a 
 father's unjust severity. His errand was to stay the rod 
 of justice. He makes no atonement, none is necessary, 
 
ONLY ONE TRUE GOD. 127 
 
 asks no change of heart in the culprit, but a mere reform, 
 as the condition of pardon and life. 
 
 Thus has the character of God been so exhibited, as to 
 involve heaven in a quarrel, and place the persons of the 
 Godhead at issue, on the question, whether the honours 
 of the broken law deserve to be repaired, or its Author 
 shall sink into universal disrespect ? What in the mean 
 time shall happen to the divine government in heaven, and 
 in all the worlds that have continued loyal, and have had 
 hitherto the utmost confidence in the unchangeably wise 
 and holy God ? O, I feel that the ground on which I 
 stand is holy ! Will God forgive me, if in attempting to 
 vindicate his honour, 1 have drawn near to him without 
 being duly sanctified. 
 
 I know that men who have resolved to go on in sin, 
 who have long been offended at the purity and extent of 
 the law, and would not care if all the rights of the God- 
 head were trampled upon, find it very convenient to have 
 the character of God thus brought down to their taste 
 and their temper. They will support and will love a 
 gospel, that will thus make God altogether such an one 
 as themselves. Give them a gospel like this, and in half 
 a century there will not be an avowed infidel on the whole 
 face of the earth. Gladly would they be rid of the re- 
 proach of infidelity, could they have a gospel that would 
 promise them a salvation equally cheap and convenient. 
 
 If God will give out his word, and then break it ; will 
 make a law, and when men have fallen under its curse, 
 repeal it ; will join the rebel in hating his own attributes ; 
 will issue an edict, and then a counter edict by which the 
 first is neutralized ; this is all exactly as they would have 
 it. God is invested with all the human weaknesses. 
 So Ahasuerus would make a decree, assigning to death 
 ail his Jewish subjects, and then enact another, directing 
 
128 ONLY ONE TRUE GOD. 
 
 them to arm themselves for their own defence, and thus 
 his decree comes to the ground. But how will God be 
 affected by these inroads made upon his name and his 
 glory ? Will he suffer his character to be tampered with, 
 and finally to be thus frittered down to the taste and the 
 convenience of a polished, and proud, and worldly, and 
 time-serving generation ? Will it still be eternal life to 
 know him, altered thus, till not an angel in heaven 
 would know him ? altered till all that devils disapproved, 
 and that believers loved, is gone? 
 
 Let me now ask the advocates of all these schemes, 
 what they gain ? Why not be willing, that the blessed 
 God be exhibited to the minds of men, in the very cha- 
 racter that he gives himself. Let him be what he de- 
 clared himself to be, on that occasion when it was his 
 special object to make himself known : i: The Lord, the 
 Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and 
 abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for 
 thousands, forgiving iniquity, and transgression, and sin, 
 and that will by no means clear the guilty ! visiting the 
 iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the 
 children's children, unto the third and to the fourth gene- 
 rations." Here we have, (if I may still use terms which 
 it grieves me to use,) the milder and the severer attri- 
 butes of God. In this very character we must deal with 
 him at last, the same that he was when he spoke to 
 Moses from the cloud. Let there be a perfect balance 
 among his attributes. Let him be neither too merciful 
 to be just, nor too "just to forgive us our sins, and cleanse 
 us from all unrighteousness ;" not too compassionate to 
 be holy, nor too holy to smile again upon the rebel, who 
 has fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before him 
 in the gospel; not too gracious to be true, nor so the 
 friend of truth as not to reverse the sentence of death, 
 
ONLY ONE TRUE GOD. 129 
 
 when the condemned have repented and believed. God 
 can have no darling attribute that shall eclipse the other 
 portions of his character ; can issue no clashing edicts ; 
 and did not send his Son to soothe, and flatter, and defend 
 the rebel, whom his justice condemned, leaving him still 
 in all his stubbornness and his pride. 
 
 Why this zeal to create confusion in the counsels of 
 the Godhead, and sunder the attributes that cluster in 
 Jehovah ? Simply to gratify men who cannot be pleased 
 with God as he is. But would they be pleased with God 
 were his character altered ? They could not love an 
 unjust God, unless indeed he would pledge himself never 
 to treat them unjustly. Arid on ceasing to be a God of 
 truth, he could not give that pledge. The sinner will 
 reason, When God shall cease to be offended with me 
 for wronging my neighbour, he will not be offended 
 with my neighbour for injuring me. If 1 may hurt an- 
 other, and escape with impunity, my oppressor escapes 
 also. If / may prey upon the contents of his purse, 
 and trample upon his rights, and sport with his enjoy- 
 ments; then is there a world let loose, to trifle with my 
 interest, and make inroads upon my rights, and blast 
 my comforts. 
 
 Thus is there spread a ruin as wide as the whole crea- 
 tion of God. Angels lose their confidence in him, and 
 all heaven is made unhappy, while the despair of the 
 pit is changed for the hope of impunity. We assert then, 
 that not the grossest infidelity, nor even atheism, holds 
 out a prospect more dreary, than a gospel, that thus 
 libels the character of Jehovah, and. by one grand mis- 
 take, sunders the whole of this alienated world forever, 
 from the authority, and the rule, and the inspection, of 
 an intrusive and disgustful divinity. 
 
 And when the error is on the opposite extreme, and the 
 12 
 
130 ONLY ONE TRUE GOD. 
 
 mercy of God is obscured, though a different motive may 
 have led to this exhibition, and a different result may 
 follow, still is that motive a mistaken one, and that re- 
 sult unhappy. God has not directed his ministers to 
 keep the minds of his people filled with one or two se- 
 lected attributes of bis nature, but would have his whole 
 character developed. Some may be deterred from em- 
 bracing religion, from the impression that they must 
 love a God whose character is cold, calculating, severe, 
 and vindictive. And if sanctified under such a gospel, 
 it is doubtful whether their religion will not be either 
 gloomy and desponding, or coldly doctrinal and polemic. 
 The character of God will not be found at last to have 
 shaped itself to our mistaken views of him ; but will be, 
 when we come to deal with him in the judgment, what 
 it always was. The attributes and the glories that may 
 now be obscured, eclipsed or neutralized, will all be there 
 to cluster and harmonize in the burning glories of the 
 Godhead, on the day of retribution. A God will then 
 meet us as holy, and just, and true, as the law, and the 
 lightnings of Sinai would make him ; and still as merci- 
 ful, and gracious, and long-suffering, as Pisgah, and 
 Tabor, and Calvary have declared him. He will con- 
 fess himself in that day the Author of all the anathemas 
 and all the promises of inspiration. Time will not 
 have altered his character, nor the exigencies of betrayed 
 and ruined souls moved him from a single purpose. 
 There will gather in his brow all the majesty that makes 
 devils afraid, and all the sweetness that makes angels 
 glad ; the one will look the lost into despair, and the 
 combined glories of the whole look the saved into ecs- 
 tasy. Then will be felt the full import of the text ; the 
 only true God will be known, and to know him will be 
 eternal life. 
 
ONLY ONE TRUE GOD. 131 
 
 REMARKS. 
 
 I have three reasons to offer for thinking this subject 
 of great importance. 
 
 1. Men will have a moral character according 
 with their vieios of God. As the truth sanctifies, just 
 so surely does error contaminate, and no truths or errors 
 so assuredly as those that relate to God. They invaria- 
 bly pour their influence through our whole creed, and 
 touch every spring of action. Hence, if men think 
 rightly of God, I cannot but hope that the truth will one 
 day sanctify them ; but if otherwise I have fearful ap- 
 prehensions of their ruin. The basest of men act from 
 principle, though from bad principle. They are profane, 
 and false, and lewd, and dishonest, because some false 
 views of God have begotten in them the hope of impu- 
 nity. From a loose ministry, or vicious parentage, or 
 vile associate, they have imbibed the principles that go 
 to mould their deeds and their habits into the image of 
 death. You may pass down, if you please, through all 
 the ranks of immorality, from the young man in the 
 gospel, who loved the world more than Christ, to the 
 abandoned outlaw, and you will find as many different 
 shades in their faith, as in the turpitude of their deeds. 
 And every unregenerate man stands prepared to have 
 his faith corrupted. He loves darkness rather than 
 light, because his deeds are evil. He is on the watch to 
 hear something said of God, that may assist him in 
 loosening the bonds of moral obligation. Hence many 
 a youth has issued from the house of prayer, modest, 
 civil, and decent, fearing an oath, respecting the Sab- 
 bath, doing homage to religion, and giving high promise 
 of future worth and usefulness ; but some wretch cor- 
 rupted his views of God, ana* immediately he cast off 
 
132 ONLY ONE TRUE GOD. 
 
 restraint, and went out to scatter through society fire- 
 brands, arrows and death. Hence, if we regard the 
 eternal life of our children, and the youth in our streets, 
 we shall furnish them a gospel, and a library, and give 
 them that instruction which will lead them to a correct 
 knowledge of God. 
 
 2. Believers will have a religious character ac- 
 cording with their views of God. Nothing has been 
 more obvious in the history of man, than the conformity 
 of his religious character to that of the God he believed in 
 and worshipped. Pass through the territories of pagan- 
 ism, and, such as you find their gods, such are their 
 worshippers. Are they fierce, and jealous, and lewd, 
 and bloody, or mild and placable, such invariably are 
 their devotees. And as you come up through the lower 
 grades of nominal Christians, ask them their views of 
 God, and their answer will give you substantially the 
 purity of their religious character. God is our highest 
 object of respect and of imitation, and to be like him, the 
 highest object of holy aspiration. Hence, if in our esteem, 
 his character is more or less pure and lovely, such we 
 shall wish our own to be. He who sees in God no at- 
 tribute but mercy, and never thinks of him but as a fa- 
 ther, will be less likely to hate sin, and less careful to be 
 holy, than the man who thinks of God as a sovereign, 
 and a judge, as well as a father. 
 
 And the case will be similar as to enjoyment. No 
 false views of God will render us as happy as correct 
 views. If we see only the mild and merciful traits of 
 the divine character, we may have joy, but it will not be 
 solid and lasting. And if we look at God merely in the 
 attitude of sovereignty, and may never call him our 
 Father, or see his mercy commingled with his terrors, 
 we shall be forever in bondage. There are no doubt 
 
ONLY ONE TRUE GOD. 133 
 
 many on their way to heaven, who are so injured by their 
 creed, as seldom to pray any other but the prayer of the 
 condemned and the lost. They are serious and watchful 
 Christians, but never hopeful, and never happy : joint 
 heirs with Christ, yet never venturing to say, Abba 
 Father ! 
 
 Nor will Christians who have partial views of God be 
 useful. It is when he appears in all his glories, attract- 
 ing sinners to himself by the full view of his attributes, 
 and mingling mercy with judgment, reigns to make his 
 creatures happy, that we feel our souls inspired to be 
 workers together with him in extending his dominions. 
 It is then that it seems to us a grief and a pity, that 
 there should be any heart alienated from him, any 
 hands that do not labour in his service, or tongue that 
 does not speak his praise. Not the sovereignty of God 
 alone, nor his mercy alone, can make the most useful 
 man. The one holds back the inspiring influence of 
 joy and hope, the other begets a religion that will all 
 evaporate in songs and hosannas. Angels are inspired, 
 by seeing the whole of God ; and men will be more or 
 less like angels, as " The God of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 the Father of glory, shall give unto them the spirit of 
 wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of himself." 
 Then it is that we feel it to be a reasonable service, that 
 we present our bodies and our souls to him, a living sacri- 
 fice, holy and acceptable. 
 
 3. Society at large will shape its moral aspect from 
 the prevailing views of God. As fraud, and falsehood 
 and blood, invariably follow the track of idolatry, and 
 the dark places of the earth are thus filled with the habi- 
 tations of cruelty ; so in the different parts of Christen- 
 dom, you may gather the prevailing notions of God 
 from the morals of the community. Survey the darker 
 12* 
 
134 ONLY ONE TRUE GOD 
 
 territories of the Catholic communion, and tell me if in 
 rapine and murder, their population is removed more 
 than a single shade from the dreariness and desolati ns 
 of paganism. Where in Christendom is life and pro- 
 perty least secure ; where are daily assassinations, 
 where the whole population prepared for any deed of 
 darkness and cruelty, but where there is least prevalent 
 a correct knowledge of God. And let any one of the 
 better territories of Christendom become apostate in their 
 views of God, and how soon will vice spring up, the pub- 
 lic morals be changed, the Sabbath be lost, the theatre 
 thronged, and dress and vanity fill the place of sobriety 
 and prayer ! How soon will the true followers of Christ 
 be persecuted, and family devotion, and Christian watch- 
 fulness, and all the retiring virtues of holier times disap- 
 pear ! 
 
 Thus you have my reasons for thinking this subject 
 important. For these, and others that could be offered, I 
 would watch the public creed relative to the character of 
 God, more tenaciously than at any other point. It is 
 the fortress I would starve in defending, the strong-hold 
 into which I would fly with my children, and feel myself, 
 and teach them to feel, that it is the only safe place to 
 die. 
 
 Will the blessed God make me far better acquainted 
 with his character, and never subject me to the awful 
 temptation, of thinking it a light thing to either overlook, 
 or give paramount importance, to any one of the glorious 
 attributes of his nature. Will he cause his name to be 
 known in all lands, and make his praise glorious, wher- 
 ever there are beings capable of doing him honour. 
 
SERMON L . 
 
 THE CHURCH WITH ALL HER INTERESTS SAFE. 
 
 Isaiah xlix. 1 6. 
 
 I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands ; thy walls are continually 
 before me. 
 
 The Jewish church, during her captivity, would be 
 led to conceive that God had forsaken, and forgotten 
 her. To effectually remove this impression ; God by his 
 prophet appeals to one of the tenderest relationships of 
 life. " Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she 
 should not have compassion on the son of her womb 'I 
 yea they may forget, yet will 1 not forget thee." Thus 
 would he give to Zion, assurance of his unchangeable 
 love. His people should multiply, till the land, where 
 their foes destroyed them, should be too limited for then- 
 increased population. Kings and nations should serve 
 them, and do them honour. Zion was dear to him as 
 the apple of his eye. He would engrave her upon the 
 palms of his hands ; her walls should be continually 
 before him. 
 
 In those days, it. was the custom to paint upon the 
 palms of the hands such objects as men wished to re- 
 member, in allusion to which custom God assures his 
 people, that he had graven Zion upon the palms of his 
 hands. Thus should her walls be continually before 
 him ; he would not forget her a moment, nor suffer any 
 
136 THE CHURCH WITH ALL HER INTERESTS SAFE. 
 
 foe to injure her. We have here a broad and sacred 
 pledge, to be kept in mind by the people of God in all 
 ages, and plead in their prayers, that he will foster and 
 bless his church, and will employ his vigilance and his 
 power to secure her safety, and advance her honours. 
 
 Thus is the church safe, and the people of God need 
 have no apprehensions, nor weep a tear, but over their 
 own transgressions, and the miseries of that multitude, 
 who will not be pursuaded to take sanctuary in her 
 bosom. I shall argue the safety of the church, from the 
 firmness and stability of the divine operations, from 
 what God has already done for his church, what he is 
 now doing, and what he has promised to do. 
 
 I. We assure ourselves, that the church is safe, from 
 the firmness and stability of the divine operations. I 
 now refer, not merely to the unchangeableness of God, 
 which will lead him to pursue for ever that plan which 
 his infinite wisdom devised ; for that plan lies concealed 
 from us ; but to that uniform and steady course with 
 which he has pursued every enterprise which his hands 
 have begun. That he is of the same mind, and that 
 none can turn him, is a thought full of comfort ; but 
 that he has finished every work which he took in hand 
 is a fact, which intelligences have witnessed, and one 
 on which we may found our richest expectations. 
 
 The worlds which he began to build he finished. Not 
 one was left half formed and motionless. Each he 
 placed in its orbit, gave it light, and laws, and impulse. 
 And ever since this first development of the divine sta- 
 bility, the wheels of Providence have rolled on with 
 steady and settled course. What Omnipotence began, 
 whether to create or to destroy, he rested not till he had 
 accomplished. 
 
 When he had become incensed with our world, and 
 
THE CHURCH WITH ALL HER INTERESTS SAFE. 137 
 
 purposed its desolation, with what a firm and steady step 
 did he go on to achieve his purpose. Noah builds the 
 ark, and God prepares the fountains, which, at his word, 
 burst from their entrenchments to drown an impious 
 generation. 
 
 How have suns kept their stations, and planets rolled 
 in their orbits, by the steady pressure of the hand of God ; 
 by their revolutions measuring out the years of their own 
 duration, and by their velocity urging on the amazing 
 moment when they shall meet in dread concussion, and 
 perish in the contact. How fixed their periods, their 
 risings, their eclipses, their changes, and their transits. 
 And while they roll, how uniform is the return of spring, 
 summer, autumn, and winter. How certain every law 
 of matter, gravitation ; attraction, reflection, &c. The 
 very comet, so long considered lawless, how is it curbed 
 and reined in its eccentric orbit, and never yet had power 
 or permission to burn a single world. 
 
 How sure is the fulfilment of prophecy. Ages inter- 
 vening cannot shake the certainty of its accomplishment. 
 Jesus bleeds on Calvary four thousand years subse- 
 quently to the promise which that event accomplishes. 
 Cyrus is named in the page of prophecy more than two 
 hundred years before his birth, and at the destined mo- 
 ment becomes the Lord's shepherd, collects the lost sheep 
 of the house of Israel, and builds Jerusalem. The Jews, 
 as prophets three thousand years ago foretold, are yet in 
 exile. The weeping prophet, now at rest, still sees the 
 family he loved peeled and scattered, and the soil that 
 drank his tears, cursed for their sins ; and confident that 
 God is true, waits impatient the certain, but distant year 
 of their redemption. 
 
 Wretches that dare his power, God will not disturb 
 his plan to punish. The old world flourished one hun- 
 
138 THE CHURCH WITH ALL HER INTERESTS SAFE. 
 
 dred and twenty years after heaven had cursed that 
 guilty race. Sodom was a fertile valley long after the 
 cry of its enormities had entered into the ears of the Lord 
 of Sabbaoth. The Amorites were allowed five hundred 
 years to till up the measure of their iniquity after God 
 had pledged their land to Abram, although Israel w r ore 
 away the intervening years in bondage. Many a mur- 
 derer has been overtaken by the hand of justice, half a 
 century past the time of the bloody deed. God will 
 punish all the workers of iniquity, but he waits till the 
 appointed moment. Like the monarch of the forest, he 
 comes upon his enemies, conscious of his strength, with 
 steady but dreadful steps. In his movements there is 
 neither frenzy, passion, nor haste. While his judgments 
 linger, his enemies ask, " Where is the promise of his 
 coming V] but let them know, that he has appeared, and 
 discomfited many a foe ; and the inference is that they 
 must perish too. Whatever God begins, he finishes •' 
 no unseen embarrassment can turn his eye from his ori- 
 ginal purpose. 
 
 Now the argument is, that as God has begun to erect 
 a church, lie will act in this matter as in all others. If 
 one of light character, a man given to change, had laid 
 the foundation of some mansion, there would still be 
 doubt whether it would ever receive its top-stone. But 
 suppose his character exactly the reverse, and the mo- 
 ment he breaks the ground imagination sees the mansion 
 finished : now only make God the builder and the argu- 
 ment is perfect. Whether we can trace his footsteps or 
 not, he moves on to the accomplishment of his purpose 
 with undeviating course. Every event, in aspect bright 
 or dark, promotes the ultimate increase and establishment 
 of his church. Or shall this be the only enterprise to 
 which his wisdom, his power, or his grace, is inadequate? 
 
THE CHURCH WITH ALL HER INTERESTS SAFE. 139 
 
 In this solitary instance shall he begin to build and not 
 be able to finish ? What would be thought of him in 
 hell, if the mystical temple should never receive its top- 
 stone? Its fires may go out, the worm may die, or 
 some infernal genius bridge the gulph. Heaven too 
 would lose all confidence in its King, and every harp be 
 silent. 
 
 Thus before we examine the history of the church, or 
 read the promises, if we believe that God ever had a 
 church, we have the strongest possible 'presumptive 
 evidence, that he will watch her interests, will feed the 
 fires upon her altars, will bring her suns from far, and 
 her daughters from the ends of the earth, and will never 
 leave her, nor forsake her. "I have graven thee upon 
 the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before 
 me." 
 
 II. Our expectations brighten when we see what God 
 has done for his church. My first argument went to 
 show, that if God had only laid the corner-stone of this 
 heavenly building, it would rise and be finished. We 
 are now to view the building half erected, and from what 
 has been done argue the certainty of its completion. 
 The church has been under the fostering care of heaven 
 too long to be abandoned now. 
 
 Let us retrace for a moment a few pages of her his- 
 tory, and we shall see that when the church was low, 
 he raised her ; when she was in danger, he saved her. 
 Amid all the moral desolations of the old world, the 
 church never became extinct. And he at length held 
 the winds in his fist, and barred the fountains of the 
 deep, till Noah could build the ark, and the church be 
 housed from the storm. 
 
 How wonderful were his interpositions when the 
 church was embodied in the family of Abraham ! In 
 
140 THE CHURCH WITH ALL HER INTERESTS SAFE. 
 
 redeeming her from Egyptian bondage, how did he 
 open upon that guilty land all the embrasures of heaven, 
 till they thrust out his people. And lie conducted them 
 to Canaan by the same masterly hand. The sea divid- 
 ed, and Jordan rolled back its waters ; the rock became 
 a pool, and the heavens rained them bread, till they 
 drank at the fountains, and ate the fruits of the land of 
 promise. Their garments lasted forty years, and the 
 angel Jehovah, in a cloud of light, led them through the 
 labyrinths and dangers of the desert. 
 
 When the church diminished, and her prospects 
 clouded over, he raised up reformers. Such were Samu- 
 el, and David, and Hezekiah, and Josiah, and Daniel, 
 and Ezra, and Nehemiah : such were all the prophets. 
 Each in his turn became a master-builder, and the tem- 
 ple rose, opposition notwithstanding. 
 
 Again, under the apostles, how did her prospects 
 brighten. In three thousand hearts, under a single 
 sermon, commenced the process of sanctification. The 
 very cross proved an engine to erect her pillars ; the 
 flames lighted her apartments, and the blood of the 
 martyrs cemented the walls of her temple, and contribut- 
 ed to its strength and beauty. Every dying groan 
 alarmed the prince of hell, and shook the pillars of his 
 dreary domain 
 
 But the church again sunk, and hell presumed that 
 her ruin would be soon achieved, when the sixteenth 
 century lifted upon her the dawn of hope. In Luther, 
 Calvin, Melancthon, and Zuinglius, her interests found 
 able advocates. They appeared at the very juncture 
 when the sinking church needed their courage and their 
 prayers. Like some mighty constellation, which bursts 
 from the east at the hour of midnight, they rose when 
 moral darkness was almost total, and like that of Egypt 
 
THE CHURCH WITH ALL HER INTERESTS SAFE. 141 
 
 could seem to be felt. By their aid the church emerged 
 from the wilderness. By their courage her grand ene- 
 my was made to tremble on his ghostly tribunal. The 
 power of the Pope had then outgrown the strength of 
 every civil arm. Every monarch in Europe was at his 
 feet. Till Luther rose no power could cope with him. 
 There was a true church, but she had no champion. 
 The followers of Jesus paid for the privilege of disciple- 
 ship with their blood. He who dared to be guided by 
 his own conscience, committed an offence that could not 
 be pardoned. The heavenly-minded saw no relief but 
 in death, and thirsted for the honour of a martyrdom 
 that would place them in a world where conscience 
 might be free. But God appeared and redeemed his 
 people. The theme is pleasant, but time would fail me 
 to rehearse what God has done for his church. Every 
 age has recorded the interpositions of his mercy ; and 
 every land where there is a remnant of his church, bears 
 some monument that tells to his honour, and which will 
 endure till the funeral of the world. 
 
 Now the argument is, that he who has done so much 
 for his church will never abandon her. If he would 
 float her above a drowning world, would redeem her 
 from bondage, would escort her through the desert, 
 would rain her bread from heaven, would reprove kings 
 for her sake, would stop the sun to aid her victories ; — 
 with his smiles, light the glooms of her dungeon, and by 
 his presence cool the fires of the stake, there can be no 
 fear for her safety. 
 
 God will do just such things for Zion as he has done, 
 " The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be." 
 His arm is not shortened, nor his ear heavy. The 
 church was never nearer his heart than now. And he 
 now hates her enemies as really as did he Pharaoh, Sen- 
 
 13 
 
142 THE CHURCH WITH ALL HER INTERESTS SAFE. 
 
 nacherib, Nero, or Julian. He then governed the world 
 for the sake of his church ; and for her sake he governs 
 it still, " The Lord's portion is his people." We know 
 not that he ever had but one object in view in the events 
 that have transpired in our world ; and that one the 
 honour of his name in the redemption of his people: 
 and this object sways his heart still. The destruction of 
 the enemy is a part of the same plan. Still may the 
 church invoke the Lord God of Elijah, may rest under 
 the protection of lhe God of Bethel, and wrestle with the 
 Angel of Penuel. If she should be in bondage there 
 will rise another Moses, another cloud will conduct her 
 out of Egypt, and the same heavens will rain her 
 manna. If darkness should overshadow her, there 
 will be found among the sons she hath brought up, an- 
 other Luther, Calvin, or Knox, to take her by the hand, 
 to protect her honours, and recruit her strength. Shame 
 on the Christian who knows her history, and yet is 
 afraid. Afraid of what? That God will cease to de- 
 fend the apple of his eye ? Afraid that the city graven 
 upon the palms of his hands may be captured and de- 
 stroyed ? If God continue to do such things as he has 
 done, the church with all her retinue is safe. " God is 
 known in her palaces for a refuge." 
 
 III. God is doing now just such things as he has 
 done. We saw laid the corner-stone, and drew thence 
 our first argument. Then we saw the building half 
 erected, and were furnished with a second. We are 
 now to view the edifice covered with builders, and from 
 their exertions derive our third. We may now reason 
 from things that our eyes can see. We may appeal for 
 testimony to the very saw and hammer, and make the 
 scaffold speak. 
 
 It may be that some who are present are not sensible 
 
THE CHURCH WITH ALL HER INTERESTS SAFE. 143 
 
 in what a day of heavenly exploit they live. Do you 
 know what amazing events are transpiring ? Have you 
 learned that Bible societies are forming in every part of 
 Christendom ? and that the Scriptures are now read in 
 perhaps a hundred languages, in which, till lately, not a 
 text of inspired truth was ever written? Do you know 
 that the late editions of God's word have commenced 
 their circulation, are traversing the desert, taming the 
 savage, and pouring celestial light on eyes that never 
 met its beams before 1 
 
 Do you know the prevalence of a missionary spirit ? 
 Have you learned, that youth of the first character, of 
 the fairest prospects, and of both sexes, aspire to be mis- 
 sionaries of the cross 1 Some have gone, and others 
 wait impatiently till your charity shall send them. 
 
 Many a mother has devoted her daughter to the 
 work, and waits for opportunity to give her the parting 
 kiss ; and many a daughter, on whom has fallen 
 Harriet's mantle, aches to visit her tomb, and rest um 
 der the same turf till Jesus bids them rise. And what 
 daughter of Zion is not ambitious of a martyrdom like 
 hers? 
 
 How numerous and extensive the revivals, which at 
 present we witness in our land ! Even where there is 
 no stated ministry, the showers of grace descend, and the 
 waste places are made fertile. What other page of the 
 Church's history, but the present, could record an almost 
 universal concert of prayer ? Christians of every conti- 
 nent employing the same hour in the same supplica- 
 tions. How unparalleled the success of every Chris- 
 tian enterprise ! No plan of mercy ever fails. The 
 active Christian is amazed at the result of his own 
 exertions. 
 
 Much that God is now doing is evidently preparatory 
 
144 THE CHURCH WITH ALL HER INTERESTS SAFE. 
 
 to future operations. Bible and missionary societies 
 may be viewed as the accumulated energies of the 
 Church. Hitherto our exertions have been insulated 
 and feeble. The little streams fructified the plains 
 through which they flowed, but could easily be dammed 
 or evaporated ; but their junction has formed a mighty 
 river, destined to penetrate every moral desert, and carry 
 civilization to every province of our desolated world : fed 
 with the showers of heaven, and every day flowing on 
 with deeper and [broader channel ; the wilds of Arabia, 
 the heaths of Africa, and the plains of Siberia, can op- 
 pose no effectual barrier to its influence. 
 
 What age but ours was ever blessed with Theological 
 Seminaries, where might be reared, at the expense of 
 charity, young evangelists, to go out and carry the bread 
 of life to a starving world ? Fortunes, collected for other 
 purposes, are poured into the treasury of the Lord, and 
 thus are erected batteries to demolish the strong-holds 
 of the prince of hell. Jehovah bless their founders ! 
 
 Churches and congregations, who, in seasons of cold- 
 ness, grudged to support the gospel at home, are now 
 equipping young men for the missionary field, and for 
 their own edification. And it has at length become so 
 disreputable to stand idle in these matters, that the man 
 who would save his money, feels himself in danger of 
 losing his character. 
 
 Not long since, young men of piety and talents, who 
 Jonged to fight the battles of the Lord, must equip them- 
 selves, and then find poor support in the service. But 
 the scale is turned. Where there is no fortune but piety, 
 a thirst for knowledge, and a talent to improve, the way 
 is now open to all the honours of the camp of Israel- 
 The pious mother, who can only drop her two mites into 
 the treasury of the Lord, but whose example and whose 
 
THE CHURCH WITH ALL HER INTERESTS SAFE. 145 
 
 prayers have saved her son, may bring her Samuel to the 
 altar, to be fed from its offerings, and reared to all 
 the honours of the prophetic office. While I am yet 
 speaking, hope springs up, and a joy not felt in ages past, 
 thrills through all the habitations of pious poverty. 
 
 The late revivals possess one peculiar characteristic. 
 There have been among their fruits an unusual number 
 of males. When there was little else that could be done 
 for Zion, but pray and weep, and love her doctrines, and 
 glow with heavenly affections, the feebler sex could fur- 
 nish the Christian world with soldiers. But now, when 
 the kingdom of darkness must be stormed, Zion needs 
 the aid of her sons, and God, it would seem, accommo- 
 dates the operations of his Spirit to the interests of his 
 Church. Paul was not converted till his help was need- 
 ed, and it was not needed till the gospel was to be carried 
 to the Gentiles. Every revival of late contradicts that 
 libel long legible on the records of infidelity. That reli- 
 gion evinces its emptiness by its exclusive operation 
 upon the feebler part of our race. Recently the 
 strong and muscular, the very champions of the host of 
 hell, have fallen before the power of truth, and are har- 
 nessed for its defence. Moreover, men of science, and of 
 strong mind, have in their own esteem become fools, 
 and have sat down to learn truth at a Saviour's feet. 
 Our late revivals have penetrated schools and colleges. 
 Satan's cause has been well pleaded, and God now in- 
 tends to plead his own : and palsied will be the tongue 
 that is silent. 
 
 Does God without design raise up these instruments ? 
 Would one pass through a whole kingdom, and employ 
 every skilful mechanic, unless he intended to erect some 
 mighty edifice ? If, then, we see God enlisting men in 
 his service, men of strength and science, does he not 
 
 13* 
 
146 THE CHURCH WITH ALL HER INTERESTS SAFE. 
 
 intend to achieve some wondrous design ? Assuredly 
 the heavenly building- will rise. These talents will be, 
 and they are already employed in extending Emanuel's 
 empire. India, with other benighted lands, has already 
 received our missionaries, and her Moloch, with all his 
 cursed family of gods, sicken at their prospect. The 
 dark places of his empire have been explored, and the 
 sceptre begins to tremble in his palsied hand. And poor 
 Africa, more debased still, has found a tongue to plead 
 her cause. Conscience, long asleep, and deaf to her 
 rights has waked, and now, her sons, fed at the table of 
 charity, are preparing to carry her the bread of life. My 
 country, deeper in her debt than all other lands, has be- 
 gun to pay its long arrears. 
 
 Who could have hoped, a few years since, that he 
 should ever see a day like this 1 If, twenty years since, 
 one had told me that sixty years would so electrify the 
 Christian world, I should have believed him visionary, 
 and, like the unbelieving Samaritan, should have pro- 
 nounced it impossible, unless God should make windows 
 in heaven, and rain Bible and Missionary Societies from 
 above : but God has done it all without a miracle. And 
 blessed be his name — will those present join me in the 
 thank-offering ? — blessed be his name, that he cast us 
 upon such an age as this. Blessed be his name, that 
 we were not born a century sooner. Then we had 
 never seen the dawn of this millennial morning, nor 
 heard the glad tidings which now reach us by every 
 mail, nor had an opportunity, as now, to purchase for 
 our offspring, an interest in the Lord's fund. Charity 
 was then in a deep sleep. India bowed to her idols, and 
 Africa wore her chains, unpitied and unrelieved. Bu- 
 chanan and Wilberforce. angels of mercy, were then 
 unborn. Infidelity then desolated the fairest provinces 
 
THE CHURCH WITH ALL HER INTERESTS SA FE. 147 
 
 of Christendom, and wars were the applauded achieve- 
 ments of states and empires. 
 
 But the age of infidelity has gone by, and the bloody 
 clarion has breathed out, I hope, its last accursed blast. 
 Events are transpiring which bid fair to bind all nations 
 in the bonds of love. I had read of such a period, but 
 how could I hope to see it ? The present repose of na- 
 tions augurs well for the Church. Christendom can 
 now unite her efforts to evangelize the world, while the 
 sailor and the soldier have leisure and opportunity to 
 read the precious Scriptures. And must not all this put 
 our unbelief to the blush, and cover us with shame ? 
 
 The past twenty years have so outdone our highest 
 hopes, as to render it impossible to predict what twenty 
 more may do. God has begun to work on a scale new 
 and grand; and the inference is that he will go on. 
 After what we have seen, we could hardly be surprised 
 if twenty years to come should put the Bible into every 
 language under heaven, and should send missionaries, 
 more or less, to every benighted district of earth. Let 
 benevolent exertion increase in the ratio of the past seven 
 years, and God add his blessing, and half a century will 
 evangelize the world, tame the lion and the asp, and set 
 every desert with temples, devoted to the God of heaven. 
 When the bosom of charity shall beat a little stronger, if 
 there should be the necessity, men will sell houses or farms 
 to save the heathen from hell, and the child will sit down 
 and weep, who may not say, that his father and mother 
 were the friends of missions. And what parent would 
 entail such a curse upon his children, and prevent them 
 from lifting up their heads in the millennium. I had 
 rather leave mine toiling in the ditch, there to enjoy the 
 luxury of reflecting, that a father's charity made them 
 poor. Poor ! They are poor who cannot feel for the 
 
148 THE CHURCH WITH ALL HER INTERESTS SAFE. 
 
 miseries of a perishing world ; whom God has given 
 abundance, but who grudge to use it for his honour. 
 Teach your children charity, and they can never be 
 poor. " The liberal soul shall be made fat, and he that 
 watereth, shall be watered also himself." Can this prom- 
 ise fail J Then we can all leave our children rich, and 
 the heirs too of a fortune they can never squander. We 
 can purchase for them the privilege of drawing upon the 
 exhaustless resources of heaven. What a privilege now 
 to be a parent ! 
 
 But I must return to the argument. God is doing so 
 much for his church, as to warrant the inference that he 
 will do still more. The hopes he raises he will gratify. 
 The prayer he indites, he will answer. To see what 
 God is doing, I find it impossible to doubt his inten- 
 tions. The present is a prelude to brighter scenes. God 
 would not have done so much for his people had he in- 
 tended to abandon them. The church will live and 
 prosper. Instead of trembling for the ark, let us weep 
 that we ever thought it in danger. 
 
 IV. We build the same expectations on the promises 
 and prophecies. The building which we see rising 
 God has promised to finish. He has all the materials; 
 the silver and the gold are his. He has enlisted the 
 builders, and prepared the necessary instruments. The 
 decree has gone forth that Jerusalem must be built, and 
 God will redeem his own gratuitous pledge : he will do 
 as he has said. 
 
 Early in the reign of Emanuel there will be univer- 
 sal peace. The nations are to ' beat their swords into 
 plough-shares, and their spears into pruning hooks." 
 « The wolf also shall dwell with the Lamb, and the 
 leopard shall lie down with the kid." « They shall not 
 hurt nor destroy in all " God's " holy mountain." « They 
 
THE CHURCH WITH ALL HER INTERESTS SAFE. 149 
 
 shall sit, every man under his vine, and under his fig- 
 tree ; and none shall make them afraid." 
 
 But " the gospel must first be published among all na~ 
 tions." On this promise there pours at present a stream 
 of heavenly light. The angel " having the everlasting 
 gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth," is 
 beginning to publish it li to every nation, and kindred? 
 and tongue, and people." Kings are to be to the church 
 nursing fathers, and queens nursing mothers ; and they 
 have already taken hold of the work with interest. 
 Their charity, their influence, and their prayers, have al- 
 ready contributed to deepen and widen the channel of 
 that river which is making glad the city of God. In the 
 progress of this work a nation shall'be born in a day. The 
 instance of Eimeo may be considered as embraced in this 
 promise. " Thy watchmen shall see eye to eye." This 
 promise has commenced its accomplishment in the harmo- 
 ny manifested in the formation and support of Sabbath 
 schools, and Bible and Missionary societies. The Jews are 
 to return to their land, and to the God of their fathers. 
 There shines some light upon this promise. Many are 
 at present migrating to Palestine from the north of Eu- 
 rope, some have been converted to the faith of Jesus, 
 many not converted are members of Bible societies, and 
 exertions unparalleled are making to bring them to the 
 light, while individuals of their number are proclaiming 
 to their deluded brethren, the unsearchable riches of 
 Christ. Soon the Bible will supplant the Talmud. 
 
 " Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto 
 God.'' Who does not see this promise fast accomplish- 
 ing ? Her chains are falling, and her mind expanding. 
 There have commenced a train of operations that prom- 
 ise the richest blessings to the children of Ham. Soon 
 the Gambia, the Niger, and the Nile, will grace their 
 
150 THE CHURCH WITH ALL HER INTERESTS SAFE. 
 
 shores with Christian temples, will lend their waters 
 to fertilize a gospel land, and bear to his station the 
 zealous missionary. In the mean time the wretched 
 Arab, exchanging his Koran for the Bible, and tamed 
 by its influence to honest industry, will settle the quarrel 
 with the family of Jacob, and worship in the sairfe 
 temple. 
 
 If we turn to the threatenings against the enemies of 
 the Church, there open before us large fields of promise. 
 Like the cloud that severed Pharaoh's hosts from Israel, 
 they pour impenetrable darkness into the camp of the 
 enemy, while they light the tents of Jacob. " The day 
 of the Lord shall burn as an oven, and all the proud, yea, 
 and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble, and the day 
 that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord ; that it 
 shall leave them neither root nor branch." Perhaps the 
 complicated miseries which began in the French revolu- 
 tion, and were finished at Waterloo, might commence 
 the accomplishment of this threatening. But doubt- 
 less other storms will yet beat upon the camp of the 
 enemy, more tremendous than any thing which they 
 have yet experienced. Some believe tin. t the fifth vial 
 has not yet been poured out upon the seat of the beast ; 
 and all agree that the forty and two months, during 
 which the holy city must be trodden under foot, are not 
 yet expired. It is acknowledged that the period is twelve 
 hundred and sixty years, and that it commenced with 
 the reign of the beast, and will probably terminate in 
 the present century. Possibly our dear chidren may live 
 to aee the precious moment that shall close the period. 
 Then the messenger of the covenant shall make his 
 glorious ingress, shall destroy his enemies, shall purify 
 the sons of Levi, and cleanse the offering of Judah. 
 Then the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth 
 
THE CHURCH WITH ALL HER INTERESTS SAFE. 151 
 
 as the waters cover the sea. Jesus shall take possession 
 of the inheritance promised, " and his dominion shall 
 be from sea, even to sea, and from the river even to the 
 ends of the earth." 
 
 Can the dejected Christian read all this, and believe 
 it all, and despondingly weep still? And for what does 
 he weep? God has begun to erect a heavenly temple ; 
 the work has never stopped, and he promises that it never 
 shall. He never did abandon any work which he be- 
 gan, nor did there ever drop from his lips a promise that 
 was not, or will not be fulfilled And what more can he 
 do 1 Christian, you may weep on, but let your tears be 
 tears of penitence or joy. Every harp should be snatch- 
 ed from the willows, new joys should be felt, and new 
 anthems sung in all the assemblies of the saints. He 
 that shall come, will come, and will not tarry ; and 
 every bosom should respond, " Even so, come Lord Jesus, 
 come quickly." 
 
 APPLICATION. 
 
 1. If to any it is a burden to join in the general con- 
 cert of prayer for Zion's increase, they can excuse them- 
 selves, and the glorious work will still go on. There are 
 those who consider the duty a privilege. If the Church 
 could live without them, and duty did not prompt them 
 to pray, they would weep to be denied the privilege of 
 bearing her interests to the throne, and of waiting for 
 the redemption of Israel. Such may wait still upon the 
 Lord, and may wait with confidence, that every prayer 
 will be answered, every tear preserved, and every hooe 
 accomplished. But are there those who would wish to 
 be excused from this service ? who have no pleasure in 
 the duty, and no faith in the promises ? Well, they can 
 
152 THE CHURCH WITH ALL HER INTERESTS SAFE. 
 
 act their pleasure, and the church will live. But, 
 whether such will have any share in the glories of 
 that kingdom, whose approach they dread, " demands a 
 doubt." 
 
 2. If any grudge to contribute of their wealth, for 
 the advancement of the Church, they can withhold. If 
 they have a better use for their money, or dare not trust 
 the Lord, there is no compulsion. Some happy beings 
 will have the honour of the work. It is to be accom- 
 plished by the instrumentality of men, and if any are 
 willing to be excused, and insist on doing nothing, they 
 can use their pleasure. And if such would ruin their 
 children, by holding them back, they can. They can 
 form them to such habits that the world will never be 
 disturbed by their munificence. They can prejudice 
 them against all the operations of Christian charity ; can 
 make them deaf to the cry of the six hundred millions ; 
 can keep them ignorant of what the Christian world is 
 doing, and what God has commanded them to do. And 
 there can then be very little doubt but they will have 
 children in their own likeness. But whether God will 
 not finally lay claim to their wealth, and cause it to be 
 expended in beautifying his holy empire, we dare not 
 assert. The silver and the gold are his. 
 
 But the work will go on. Once our fears on the sub- 
 ject were great. We doubted whether the Christian 
 world would ever give the heathen the gospel. But our 
 fears are removed. We have now no apprehension as 
 to the issue, and can only pity those who are blind to 
 their duty, their interest, their honour, and their hap- 
 piness. 
 
 3. If any are willing to remain out of the kingdom of 
 Christ, they can act their pleasure in this matter too, and 
 yet the marriage supper will be full. The kingdom of 
 
THE CHURCH "WITH ALL HER INTERESTS SAFE. 153 
 
 Christ will be large enough ; large as he expected, large 
 as he desired, large as the Father promised ; large enough 
 to gratify the infinite benevolence of his heart. If any 
 do not wish to live in heaven, the mansions they might 
 have filled will be occupied by others. The celestial 
 choir will be full, and the name of Jesus will receive its 
 deserved applauses from myriads who shall he redeemed 
 from every nation, kindred, tongue, and people. 
 
 If sinners can do without God, he can do without 
 them. They will not be forced, reluctantly, to the mar- 
 riage supper of the Lamb. There will be enough who 
 will come willingly. Heaven will be as happy as it 
 would be if more were saved. And the prison of de- 
 spair will contain exactly that number, whose ruin will 
 exhibit to the best advantage the character of Jehovah : 
 and the smoke of their torment, which shall ascend up 
 forever and ever, will form a stupendous column on 
 which will be written, legible to all heaven, holiness, 
 
 JUSTICE, TRUTH. 
 
 The vast accession made to the church in the late re- 
 vivals, and the still greater increase in the future years of 
 millennial glory, will swell the number of the saved be_ 
 yond all calculation. Sinners who now join the multi. 
 titude, and are thus secured from present reproach, will 
 soon find themselves attached to an insignificant and 
 despicable minority. It would seem at present that the 
 number of the lost will be great, but you may multiply 
 them beyond the power of human enumeration, and still 
 there is no fear but the number of the saved will be 
 greater. 
 
 If any, then, would prefer to remain out of the king- 
 dom, they have their choice, and the shame and ruin will 
 be their own. God intends to let them do as they please, 
 and those who love his kingdom most, anxious as they 
 
 14 
 
154 THE CHURCH WITH ALL HER INTERESTS SAFE. 
 
 now are for the salvation of their fellow-men, will at last 
 be satisfied with the number of the saved. We invite 
 none to become the subjects of Christ's kingdom, but 
 those who will esteem his yoke easy and his burden 
 light. 
 
 4. If any should be disposed to enter into league with 
 the lost angels, and oppose the Church, they can do so, 
 and still the Church will live. Earth and hell united, 
 can make no effectual opposition to her interests. God 
 is in the midst of his people, and will help them, and 
 that right early. In these circumstances, one shall chase 
 a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight. 
 
 Some opposition is necessary to awaken her energies. 
 Solomon was seven years building the first temple, when 
 all was peace ; but Ezra, with the trowel in one hand, 
 and the sword in the other, could build the second in 
 four. The enemy has always promoted the interest he 
 wished to destroy. God will make the wrath of man to 
 praise him, and the remainder of wrath he will restrain. 
 If any would make opposition to the growing interests of 
 Emanuel, they can ; but they w r ill accomplish their own 
 ruin, and perhaps the ruin of their children. It never 
 was so dangerous as now to be the enemy of Christ's 
 kingdom. All such must be crushed under the wheels 
 of that car, in which the Son of God is riding in triumph 
 through a conquered empire. To make opposition is as 
 unavailing as if a fly should make an effort to stop the 
 sun. There await the enemies of the cross, certain de- 
 feat, shame, and ruin. " He made a pit, and digged it, 
 and is fallen into the ditch which he made. His mischief 
 shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealings 
 shall come down upon his own pate." In the mean time 
 the Church is safe. " Fear not. little flock ; for it is your 
 Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." 
 
THE CHURCH WITH ALL HER INTERESTS SAFE. 155 
 
 5. Fathers and brethren in the ministry, this subject 
 will raise your hopes. Are you stationed where it is all 
 darkness around you, and have the hosts of hell alarmed 
 you I cheer up your hearts. Try to penetrate the sur- 
 rounding darkness, and you will soon be convinced that 
 your fears are ill-timed. Speak to the children of Israel) 
 that they go forward. If night does seem to hover about 
 us, still is it manifest that the day has dawned upon the 
 hills. The Church has never been in danger, and we 
 ought to be ashamed of our fears. Be at your watch- 
 tower, dear brethren ; turn your eye to the east, and you 
 will soon descry the light. If there is any truth in the 
 promise, and if a thousand transpiring events can speak, 
 we shall soon have opportunity to hail Emanuel at his 
 second coming. If our courage fails us in a day like 
 this, we have only to lie down and die with shame. 
 While the victory was doubtful, you might be afraid, 
 and yet save your character, but none are afraid now but 
 the coward. Shall we hesitate to die, if necessary, in 
 securing a victory already gained ; and to gain which 
 the Captain of our salvation, and many of his soldiers 
 have spilt their blood? Our missionary brethren have 
 carried the standard of the cross, and planted it within 
 the entrenchments of the enemy, and their courage has 
 not failed ; and shall we tremble in the camp 1 We shall 
 then have no share in the spoil. Dear brethren, I will 
 not insult you ; you are not afraid ; you will die at your 
 post, and the victory will be secured. 
 
 6. Dear Christian brethren, you see the royal cano- 
 py which your Lord casts over your heads ; or rather the 
 shield he spreads before you. If you are not officers in 
 the camp of Israel, you are soldiers ; if you may not 
 command, you may fight, but not with carnal weapons. 
 Let the subject raise your courage. A few more conflicts 
 
156 THE CHURCH WITH ALL HER INTERESTS SAFE. 
 
 and your toils are ended ; the church is safe, and you are 
 safe. Only believe, and soon you will see the salvation of 
 God. And as the Saviour approaches, and you see him, 
 you may say with the prophet, " Lo, this is our God ; we 
 have waited for him, and he will save us : this is the 
 Lord ; we have waited for him, we will be glad and re- 
 joice in his salvation." 
 
SERMON LI. 
 
 THE INDEX SURE .—No. I. 
 
 Gen. xlix. 10. 
 
 The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a law-giver from between his 
 feet, until Shiloh come : and unto him shall the gathering of the people be. 
 
 Jacob was now very near to the close of life, and had 
 strong apprehensions that his end might be at hand, 
 But he had yet to deliver to his children his dying 
 benediction. He accordingly called them about him, 
 and rehearsed to them the future history of their re- 
 spective families, for ages to come. Of Judah he pre- 
 dicted, that he should stand high in the esteem and 
 respect of his brethren, should overthrow his enemies, 
 and should bear rule over his father's children. He 
 should come upon his enemies with all the strength 
 and the daring with which a lion comes down from the 
 mountains, seizes and bears up his prey, while no one 
 dares to interrupt his course, or rouse him when he has 
 betaken himself to rest. His land should be so abundant 
 in vines, that he might fasten his beast to their branch- 
 es, and wash his vestments in the blood of the grape. 
 He should have a dominion so permanent, that nothing 
 should interrupt it till the advent of Messiah, who should 
 gather the nations about him, and hold the sceptre 
 for ever. 
 
 That part of this famous prediction, on which I pur- 
 pose to enlarge, has attracted the attention and confirm- 
 
 14* 
 
158 THE INDEX SUBE. 
 
 ed the faith of believers in every age since. We see here 
 selected a single family, who for ages should constitute 
 his church, to the exclusion of all others ; with whom 
 he would deposit his law, and all that was divulged 
 of his purpose. One branch of this family should be 
 honoured above the others, should give birth to the 
 Messiah and hold the authority till he come. Thus 
 the world shall expect their Redeemer, shall know where 
 and when to look for him, and if prepared to receive 
 him, shall be in no danger of imposition. The text is 
 one of those scriptures that marked out the time when 
 the Messiah should appear. 
 
 By the word sceptre we are no doubt to understand 
 the ensign or badge of authority. The word signifies 
 a rod or staff, and hence came to mean a sceptre ; as 
 kings, when they sat upon their thrones, used to hold in 
 their hand a rod as a token of their authority. Hence, 
 when Esther presented herself to the king, he reached 
 out to her the golden sceptre. 
 
 The text gives us no intimation when Judah should 
 rise to dominion, but when he should take the sceptre into 
 his hand it should not depart till the coming of Shiloh. 
 We know that for a long time after the delivery of this 
 inspired benediction the government of Israel was not 
 in the tribe of Judah Moses, their first ruler, was of the 
 tribe of Levi. The judges were of several different tribes. 
 Saul, the first king, was of the tribe of Benjamin. But 
 David, his successor, was of the tribe of Judah ; and in 
 him six hundred years after the prediction, the authority 
 commenced which is noticed in the text, and which con- 
 tinued till the coming of the promised Shiloh. 
 
 The Jews, to evade the force of this prophecy, would 
 have the word translated sceptre, to mean the rod of 
 correction, which, they say, shall not depart from Judah 
 
THE INDEX SURE. 159 
 
 till Shiloh come and liberate them. But this exposition 
 is contrary, in the first place, to the whole tenor of the 
 context, which assigns to Judah power, glory, and 
 victory. It would be very singular if one clause of 
 the benediction would give him the pride, the strength, 
 and the independence of a lion, and another clause 
 make him the subject of perpetual oppression. In the 
 second place, this exposition would be contrary to mat- 
 ters of historical fact, which the Jews themselves would 
 not have the folly to contradict. Judah was at no one 
 period signalized as a sufferer. The rod of oppression 
 came earlier, and 'fell heavier, and continued longer 
 on the other tribes than on Judah. And as Judah is 
 the only tribe that returned entire after the captivity, 
 it would seem the only one from which the rod of 
 oppression did depart. But it is only hatred to the 
 light, that has led that unbelieving people to this inter- 
 pretation. The ancient Jews, and all who have un- 
 derstood the language of the Old Testament in its origi- 
 nal, and have had no particular inducement to pervert 
 the text, have rendered the word sceptre. 
 
 And the next clause still farther explains this, " Nor a 
 law-giver from between his feet." It is natural that a 
 sceptre be in the hands of a law-giver. But some have 
 chosen to render the word scribe instead of law-giver, 
 and would have us understand by it one who is employ- 
 ed in writing laws, either civil or ecclesiastical. If this 
 rendering could be justified it would not much vary the 
 sense. But it is believed that this rendering cannot be 
 justified, as the Hebrews use for scribe another word. 
 Hence the passage means, that there shall be in Judah 
 till the coming of Shiloh, a law-giver as well as the en- 
 sign of authority. The kind of government is not speci- 
 fied, nor is it important, as the truth of the prophecy will 
 
100 THE INDEX SURE. 
 
 be evident, if it shall appear that there was in the tribe 
 of Judah any species of authority down to the advent 
 of the Redeemer. 
 
 That by Shiloh we are to understand the Messiah 
 there will be little doubt. The word thus rendered is 
 used only in this place, yet is allowed by all classes of 
 commentators to refer to the Redeemer. Some interpret 
 it a peace-maker, a Saviour; others a preserver, a de- 
 liverer ; and others still, with greater probability, the 
 sent, or one to be sent. This idea exactly comports 
 with the attitude in which the Saviour is presented to 
 us in the Old Testament, as the angel of the covenant, 
 the angel Jehovah. Hence, in the New Testament, he 
 is spoken of as him that was to come. The woman of 
 Samaria said to our Lord, "I know that Messiah cometh, 
 which is called Christ : when he is come he will tell us 
 all things. Jesus saith unto her, I that speak to thee 
 am he." The Jewish expositors are generally agreed 
 that the text has reference to the* Saviour. 
 
 Their quibble about the word which we render until, 
 but discovers their weakness and their obstinacy. It is 
 compounded of two particles, one they render forever 
 and the other because, and read the text thus : " The 
 sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a law-giver 
 from between his feet forever, because Shiloh shall come." 
 But beside that this construction is forced, it would not 
 comport whith facts, which they must all acknowledge. 
 For while they generally deny that the Messiah has 
 come, they will not deny that now the sceptre has de 
 parted from Judah. Some of them have been so cramp- 
 ed on this subject as to adopt the absurdity that the 
 Messiah has come, but keeps himself hidden because of 
 their wickedness. Thus men will make the word of 
 God to mean any thing rather than not support their 
 
THE INDEX SURE. 161 
 
 favourite scheme ; and when the text proves too ob- 
 stinate to be resisted, will adopt the most improbable 
 conjectures to prop the fabric of falsehood. But error 
 is forever thus changeable and uncertain. Like the 
 fabled isle of Delos it forever fluctuates, nor can men or 
 devils give it permanent location. If one would be 
 entirely certain that modern Unitarianism has no foun- 
 dation in truth, he has only to compare the shifts of its 
 advocates, with the endlessly varying conjectures of the 
 Jews since the death of Christ, to rid themselves of the 
 conviction that he has already come and set up his 
 kingdom. In either community they hold you in sus- 
 pense forever. When they should inform what the text 
 does mean, they only bewilder you with illusions, and brow 
 beat you with assertions of what it cannot mean, and must 
 not mean, and finally, if they would be honest, what it 
 shall not mean. Nothing but truth is plain and consistent : 
 error is inconsistent, not only with truth but w T ith itself. 
 
 I. Is it then a fact that there continued to be a sceptre 
 and a law-giver in the tribe of Judah down to the time 
 of the Saviour? On this point a little inquiry will 
 give, it is presumed, entire satisfaction. Down to the 
 captivity there will be no doubt. And if during that period 
 there should seem to have been a suspension of Judah's 
 authority, still it is a fact that there was no transfer of 
 authority to any other tribe. And if for that short space 
 we could see no remains of authority, it should not be 
 considered as nullifying the prediction. Seventy years, 
 in a period so long as that which intervened between 
 the delivery of this prediction and the coming of Christ, 
 would be too insignificant to be excepted in a general 
 prophecy. But the fact seems to be, that the tribe of 
 Judah did hold its ascendency even during the period 
 of their dispersion. We are assured that the king of 
 
162 THE INDEX SURE. 
 
 Babylon took from prison, and treated with marked kind- 
 ness, Jehoiachin, king of Judah, thirty-seven years after 
 his captivity ; and it is said that he set his throne above 
 the throne of the kings that were in Babylon : and 
 Jehoiachin we know was of the tribe of Judah. Thus 
 the sceptre did not depart, even when that tribe had its 
 residence in a strange land. Daniel too, we know, was 
 of the tribe of Judah, and was made governor over the 
 whole province of Babylon, and of course over the 
 children of the captivity. And we have no reason to doubt 
 but that the Jewisii writers assert the truth when they 
 assure us that the successive governors of the exiled Jews, 
 continued to be selected from the tribe of Judah and the 
 house of David. So Zorobabel and Nehemiah are both 
 said to have been of the tribe of Judah. 
 
 And when afterward the civil power was vested prin- 
 cipally in the Sanhedrim, still the sceptre must doubtless 
 be considered as remaining in the tribe of Judah. That 
 the Sanhedrim had very great power there will be no 
 question. That council was instituted by the Lord him- 
 self, an account of which we have in the eleventh chap- 
 ter of Numbers. And they were not dispersed nor wholly 
 disrobed of power up to the time when they sat in judg- 
 ment on the Son of God. From the close of the captivity 
 to the destruction of the temple, this body continued to 
 be the great council of the nation. At first they were to 
 be chosen from all the tribes, but after their return from 
 Babylon, they were principally of the house of Judah, 
 though occasionally of Levi and of Benjamin. But these two 
 tribes were amalgamated with, and as it were, lost in the 
 tribes of Judah, and whatever they might do was done 
 by virtue of authority derived from the tribe with which 
 they had become incorporated. Hence the sceptre did 
 not depart. 
 
THE INDEX SURE. 163 
 
 Even when the Romans appointed them a king - , still 
 the Sanhedrim had large powers. Even Herod the Great 
 was tried for his life before that court. If it should be 
 said that their authority was in a great measure neutra- 
 lized, when Judea became a Roman province, and an 
 Idumeean was constituted their Sovereign, still it was 
 not wholly destroyed. They long contended with Herod 
 about the supreme authority, nor could they be prevail- 
 ed upon to take the oath of loyalty till after the birth of 
 the Saviour. At the time of his arrest we find them still 
 embodied, and sitting - to hear evidence and pass judg- 
 ment upon him who had come to be their king. True, 
 they had lost the power, as we term it, of life and death, 
 and might not proceed to the crucifixion till they had ob- 
 tained the assent of Pilate. But although their power was 
 evidently languishing it did not expire till Titus demo- 
 lished the sanctuary. 
 
 II. Our next inquiry is, whether from that period all 
 authority did cease from the tribe of Judah. If this shall 
 appear, then are we certain that the promised Shiloh has 
 come. And whether in that case he be the Messiah, or 
 some other personage, there can be but little doubt. That 
 the tribe of Judah did actually lose all authority at that 
 time, and has never recovered it, there cannot be a 
 question. That tribe has never had since then any 
 distinct existence. No descendant of Abraham will now 
 pretend to tell you to which tribe he belongs. He may 
 assure you that when the Messiah comes he will restore 
 them to their respective tribes, but till then they remain 
 by their own confession an undistinguished mass of 
 Israelites. And there is no sceptre or law-giver among 
 them. This will be acknowledged by every man who 
 has any common acquaintance with history. 
 
164 THE INDEX SURE. 
 
 Their condition is exactly the opposite of all that can 
 be termed rule or authority. They are scattered among 
 the nations of the earth ; have scarcely any of them a 
 fixed habitation, and none of them the least shade of 
 authority. There is hardly a kingdom in the world, 
 where they have not been excluded, not merely from 
 any share in the national government, but even from 
 the common rights of citizenship. 
 
 The woes that Moses predicted, have fallen upon 
 them, and they are cursed in the city and cursed in 
 the field ; cursed in their basket and in their store ; 
 cursed in their children and in the fruit of their land ; 
 cursed when they go out and when they come in ; and 
 in all that they set their hand unto for to do. 
 
 They have planted vineyards, and another has gathered 
 the grapes. They have become an astonishment, a proverb, 
 and a by- word. They have served their enemies in hunger, 
 and thirst, and nakedness, and have worn upon their 
 neck a yoke of iron. They have sodden and subsisted 
 upon their own children. Their plagues and their sick- 
 nesses have been sore and wonderful. The Lord has 
 seemed to rejoice over them to destroy them, and bring 
 them to nought, and scatter them among all nations. 
 They have found no rest to the sole of their foot ; have 
 had a trembling heart, and failing eyes, and sorrow of 
 mind. They have been in fear day and night, and 
 have been sold to their enemies for bondmen and 
 bondwomen, till none would buy them. Precisely this 
 has been their condition more than two thousand years. 
 If Moses had written their history yesterday, instead of 
 two and thirty hundred years ago, it had hardly been 
 possible to pen it more correctly. Hence we need offer 
 no arguments to prove that the law-giver and the sceptre 
 departed from Judah at the time predicted. 
 
THE INDEX SURE. 156 
 
 Whatever pretence that wretched people may make, 
 that somewhere, no one knows where, there is yet in 
 that tribe the badge of power, and the right of legis- 
 lation ; no man of common understanding, and not 
 blinded to the last degree, will listen for a moment to 
 such desperate arguments in support of their obstinacy 
 and their unbelief. 
 
 III. It remains that we inquire whether he who came, 
 at the time when the Jews expected their Shiloh, has ex- 
 hibited the sign given of him in the text : " Unto him 
 shall the gathering of the people be." By some this clause 
 is made to mean, him shall the people obey, or to him 
 shall the people hearken, and again, to him shall all the 
 kingdoms of the earth be subject. Hence Christ is styled 
 in Haggai, the desire of all nations. Now you remember 
 that in the original promise made to Abraham, it was 
 said, that in his seed, by which is meant the Redeemer, 
 shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. Hence the 
 Shiloh mentioned in the text, is he to whom the Gentiles 
 shall seek, whose instruction they shall receive, whose 
 precepts they shall obey, to whom they shall be subject, in 
 whom they shall be blessed, and to whom they shall 
 be gathered. All this must appear in him who shall 
 answer the description given in the text of Shiloh. 
 
 We remember that very early in the gospel history, 
 while yet salvation was scarcely offered to any but the 
 Jews, the Gentiles seemed more ready than they to be- 
 come his disciples. It is true that a few churches were 
 very early gathered among the Jews, but the principal 
 success of the gospel was among the Gentiles. The 
 dispersion that took place on the death of Stephen, 
 seconded by the conversion of Cornelius, soon showed 
 the world that the Jews had ceased to be God's people 
 and that in every nation he that feareth God and 
 
 15 
 
166 THE INDEX SURE. 
 
 worketh righteousness is accepted of him. Soon churches 
 were established in many places among the Gentiles, and 
 from that day to this the gospel has been making its way 
 through the nations, and the people have been gathered 
 to the Lord Jesus. 
 
 Now here lies the proof of his Messiahship, that the 
 religion he taught, and the means he used to propagate 
 it, should gather him disciples so rapidly and so exten- 
 rively. And had there been no other proof that he was 
 the predicted Shiloh, this one should have been sufficient 
 long since to convince the Jews that he whom they still 
 expect, has come. On the supposition that the Lord 
 Jesus Christ was not the promised Messiah, and of 
 course that no divine power gives efficacy to his gos- 
 pel, nothing can be more surprising than the promptness 
 with which he gathers disciples. And this was the very 
 sign given, " to him shall the gathering of the people be." 
 Now if any Jews or Gentiles are not prepared to 
 receive him in the character of their Redeemer, they 
 must account for the success of his gospel. It was never 
 propagated with the sword ; it asks no support from 
 human power and human law, but has made its silent 
 way in direct opposition to the powers of earth and 
 hell. 
 
 The very nature of the religion of Christ renders its 
 propagation a proof of his Messiahship. It can adopt 
 no system of compromise with any other religion. It 
 must be either rejected, or adopted as the only one that 
 can bring men to happiness and God. The Saviour is 
 not to be worshipped in conjunction with Jupiter, and 
 Moloch, and Diana. He must have the supreme regard, 
 and every idol must be abandoned. Hence his religion, 
 when it began its course, was at war with every other, in 
 every town or city where it was attempted to be propaga- 
 
THE INDEX SURE. 167 
 
 ted, and the smallest success in these circumstances must 
 have been a demonstration that its author was divine. 
 
 And what is more, the religion of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ found the bitterest enmity in every heart it at- 
 tempted to subdue. It demanded on its first presenta- 
 tion at the door of him it would redeem, that he be 
 radically changed, that he love what he hated and hate 
 what he loved. Hence our Lord would not deceive his 
 disciples, but told them that he came not to send peace 
 but a sword. Still with just such a religion as this, the 
 Lord Jesus gathered disciples, and continues to gather 
 them, while every native passion of the soul is at war 
 with the Saviour, and the doctrines it is invited to em- 
 brace. 
 
 The character of the Saviour, when presented to the 
 people that were to be gathered to him, was awfully for- 
 bidding. Aside from the consideration that he was the 
 enemy of all sin and they totally depraved ; his humble 
 ingress, the meanness of his parentage and his birth, 
 and the ignominy of his crucifixion, all tended to render it 
 wholly improbable that he should ever gain adherents, 
 and still men of the most towering views became his 
 disciples, even some of the members of the Sanhedrim. 
 
 And what seemed an insurmountable barrier, he 
 chose as the instruments who should propagate his gospel, 
 men from the lowest walks of life, fishermen and tent- 
 makers. These were to go and plead his name before 
 kings and emperors. Still under all these embarrassments 
 the people were gathered to him, and his religion spread 
 throughout the civilized world. How then could the 
 Jews, or how can the unbelievers in the present day, 
 doubt that Jesus was the promised Shiloh, and that his 
 own almighty power gave efficacy to his gospel. 
 
 And when we consider again the state of the world, 
 
*6° THE INDEX SURE. 
 
 how exactly the opposite of that religion, unbelief is put 
 to still deeper confusion. We can hardly read without 
 a blush, the account that Paul gives us of the state of 
 morals anterior to the gospel, among the very men to 
 whom it was published. I will read you a part of that 
 description. He says, « Men were filled with all unright- 
 eousness." (Rom. i. 29-32.) Now it was among just such 
 beings as these that the gospel had to make its way. 
 Such were the people that the Lord Jesus would gather 
 to him, or if he failed, did not claim to be owned as the 
 promised Shiloh. We are all ready to say that the Jews 
 had no excuse for rejecting their Messiah. But let us 
 not forget that the light which thus poured upon the 
 page of prophecy, and pointed out to the Jews their Shi- 
 loh so distinctly that we wonder at their unbelief, is still 
 increasing. The council that condemned him, and the 
 man who betrayed him, and the multitude who exulted 
 in his agonies, had less evidence that he was the Son of 
 God than we have, and had a better excuse for their un- 
 belief than we. They had sufficient light to condemn 
 them, but we have still more. They saw his gospel 
 have some success, and weie under obligation to believe; 
 we see it operating on almost all nations, and are under 
 still increased obligation to embrace and love him. We all 
 join to condemn the Jews for their unbelief, but it would 
 not be wonderful if we perish under a more aggravated 
 condemnation. 
 
SERMON LI I. 
 
 THE INDEX SURE.— No. II. 
 
 Genesis xlix. 10. 
 
 The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a law-giver from between his 
 
 feet, until Shiloh come ; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be. 
 
 We can conceive of few things in the creation in which 
 there is more of the sublime, than in a prediction like 
 this, given several thousand years since, and recorded for 
 the successive generations to read, while they witness its 
 fulfilment. There is seen in such an object, concentrated 
 all that wisdom and power that built the universe. He 
 who can predict what shall be, must know, as is said of 
 God " the end from the beginning, and from ancient 
 times the things that are not." And to foretell with cer- 
 tainty he must have power to bring to pass. It involves, 
 too, a divine purpose, by which all the events that are 
 future are made certain. Under a government where 
 things were left to the control of chance, or accident, there 
 could be no such certainty, even if we suppose the exist- 
 ence of a mind that can foresee the most distant tracts 
 of time. Hence, to contemplate a subject like this, 
 gives to the mind a sublimity of elevation, and tends to 
 fill it with adoring thoughts of the Creator. And still it 
 feels its own littleness ; for where there is so much of 
 God, all beside is insignificant and worthless. And 
 there are no contemplations more calculated to soothe and 
 comfort the believing mind. He who can know and 
 
 15* 
 
170 THE INDEX SURE. 
 
 predict all the events that will happen, can provide for 
 his people in all the emergencies into which they may 
 be brought. 
 
 In illustrating the text, in the former discourse, it was 
 my design, first, to explain the terms ; secondly, to show 
 that there did continue a sceptre and a law-giver in the 
 tribe of Judah down to the advent of the Redeemer ; 
 thirdly, to show that from and after that time there did 
 cease all authority and power in that branch of the 
 house of Israel ; and. finally, that to the Lord Jesus the 
 people have been gathered, as it was predicted they 
 should be, to the promised Shiloh. What remains now 
 is, that we make some practical use of the whole. I 
 would then 
 
 REMARK, 
 
 1. The subject will lead us to admire the divine 
 conduct. Where he requires faith, there he accumulates 
 evidence in such profusion, that every mind not decided- 
 ly hostile to truth, must yield its assent. He had prom- 
 ised the world that he would send them a Redeemer ; 
 hence, when that Redeemer should come, he would re- 
 quire all to receive him, and that their faith might not 
 want for evidence, he poured in upon the man Christ 
 Jesus, the concentrated light of a thousand ages. And 
 it ought to cover the unbeliever with shame, to know 
 that such was the precision with which he was designat- 
 ed, that even devils know him. The first promise was, 
 that he should be the seed of the woman. And at that 
 time it would have been of no use to have made the 
 promise more definite. At the time of the deluge it was 
 rendered certain, without any specific promise, that the 
 Saviour must be of the family of Noah. But his family 
 soon became so numerous, that the believer could not 
 know where to look for the promised seed. He might 
 
THE INDEX SURE. 171 
 
 be bom near the spot where the ark rested, or in some 
 far-distant isle of the ocean. Hence, God made choice 
 of Abraham, and gave him the promise that in his seed 
 all the nations of the earth should be blessed ; and di- 
 rected him to go to that land, where he would still farther 
 limit the line of descent, and where the Saviour should 
 himself be born. When Ishmael was born, Abraham 
 doubtless supposed that he was the promised heir, and 
 he and the world might have looked for the Saviour in 
 his family, had not God given him another son, and 
 promised that in Isaac should his seed be called. In his 
 family again the promise was confirmed to Jacob, and in 
 his to Judah, and in his to David. This was the last 
 limitation as to the line of descent, and the time of the 
 promise was now so nigh that no farther designation 
 was necessary. Here, then, we see pointed out very dis- 
 tinctly the family in which the Messiah should be 
 born. 
 
 As to the time, it was to be, according to the prediction 
 recorded in Daniel, four hundred and ninety years from 
 the going forth of the commandment to restore and 
 build Jerusalem. It was to be while yet there was a 
 sceptre and a law-giver in Judah.* 
 
 As to the land of his nativity, this was marked out 
 
 * The time of his coming was still farther designated by the appear- 
 ance of John the Baptist: "Behold," said the last but one of the pro- 
 phets, in the very last words he uttered, " Behold, I send you Elijah 
 the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the 
 Lord. And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to their children, and 
 the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth 
 with a curse." And God himself assures us, that this promise of 
 Elias met its fulfilment in John. Thus, lest the precise time should 
 not be recollected, one was sent before him, crying in the wilderness, 
 «' Prepare ye the way of the Lord ; make his paths straight." From 
 the multitudes that came to hear him, it becomes certain that John 
 must have given a very extended notice that the Messiah was at hand. 
 
172 
 
 THE INDEX SURE. 
 
 and consecrated to the Lord ages beforehand, in the 
 communications made to Abraham. But lest the extent 
 of Canaan should still cast a cloud upon the promise, the 
 very town was named in which he should be born : — 
 " Thou Bethlehem, Ephratah. though thou be little 
 among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he 
 come forth unto us that is to rule in Israel ; whose goings 
 forth have been from of old, from everlasting." 
 
 That still there might be no room for mistake, the an- 
 gels came from heaven to tell the shepherds that he was 
 born, and to guide them to his humble lodgement. To 
 the wise men of the east there appeared a star that 
 moved before them, and came and stood over the 
 place where the young child lay. Even the Roman 
 emperor must be induced at that juncture to make a 
 decree that all the world should be taxed, that that de- 
 cree might operate to bring the blessed Mary from Naza- 
 reth to Bethlehem, previously to the birth of the Saviour. 
 Thus wonderfully minute were the pointings of heaven 
 to the infant Redeemer. 
 
 And those who had not opportunity to visit his man- 
 ger, might open the pages of prophecy and read there his 
 character and his history, and rest assured that he who 
 was reported to have been born in Bethlehem was in- 
 deed the promised Shiloh. He was to be peculiarly a 
 man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: despised 
 and rejected of men. He was to bear our griefs, and 
 carry our sorrows ; was to be wounded for our trans- 
 gressions, and bruised for our iniquities. When oppress- 
 ed and afflicted he was not to open his mouth. Men 
 were to cast lots for his vesture. He was to hang on a 
 tree, but not a bone of him was to be broken. He was 
 to make his grave with the wicked and with the rich in 
 his death. It was even predicted, that men should buy 
 
THE INDEX SURE. 173>, 
 
 the potter's field with the thirty pieces of silver, the price 
 at which he was valued. After all this minuteness of 
 prediction, how impossible does it seem that any one 
 should doubt whether he were the promised Messiah. 
 And how must we admire the divine conduct and good- 
 ness in thus giving us many signs, when, if he had 
 given us but one, he might have condemned us if we 
 had not believed. It would seem that it must have been 
 the purpose of God, that no nation or individual then or 
 since, should be able to resist the flood of light that then 
 poured in upon the Saviour of the world, in every inch 
 of his way from the manger to the tomb. Had his name 
 been written the instant he appeared, on the disk of 
 every star ; had the finger of a man's hand appeared in- 
 stantly in every quarter of the heavens, pointing to the 
 immortalized manger ; or had a voice said in every ear 
 all that was told the watchful shepherds, the evidence 
 of the ingress of the Son of God would hardly have been 
 more complete. 
 
 It must not be forgotten that all these intimations re- 
 specting the coming Redeemer, had been written in a 
 book, and lodged in the temple of God, and read in the 
 synagogues throughout all the holy land, every Sabbath 
 day for many hundred years ; and we can hardly be- 
 lieve that the report had not penetrated into every section 
 of the globe, where there was a sinner to need an interest 
 in the Redeemer's blood. 
 
 2. How provoking must it be to God, when, after all 
 this, men reject his Son. To all who lived in Palestine, 
 all will agree that the sin of unbelief was enormous. 
 They were in the very spot where all this light concen- 
 trated. They had read the prophecies — had seen the 
 signs — had beheld the events of Providence shaping 
 themselves to his approach, and probably found it im- 
 
174 
 
 THE INDEX SURE. 
 
 possible not to know that the set time was come. Hence 
 on them we should expect that there would fall a peculiar 
 condemnation. And on them it did fall, and has rested 
 on their children's children down to this very hour. The 
 land itself has been given to desolation, and has withered 
 under the curse ever since. It has become a hissing, a 
 by-word, and a proverb. Its hills have lost their fertility, 
 its fountains have been polluted, and its vines have with- 
 ered. 
 
 But if we suppose that none are guilty for rejecting 
 the Saviour but the Jews, we are as blind as they. 
 There did shine, it is true, upon that generation who re- 
 jected him, a peculiar light, but the present generation of 
 that people have far less light than the impenitent of this 
 age, and are less guilty. When they contemptuously 
 spit upon the ground at the mention of the name of Jesus, 
 they despise an unknown Redeemer, in imitation of the 
 impiety of their ancestors. They are virtually heathen, 
 and many of them have no more idea of God, or a futu- 
 rity, than the idolaters of interior India. But the Bible 
 and a preached gospel have poured upon every Christian 
 land all the light that shone upon Judea, and more still. 
 We have more convincing light than Herod had, that 
 the Saviour was born in Bethlehem during his reign ; 
 and more than Judas had that he whom Judas betrayed 
 was the Son of God ; and more than Pilate had, that 
 he whom Pilate condemned will one day be Pilate's 
 judge. In addition to the light they had, we have seen 
 the gospel conquering the world in his name. We have 
 seen the sturdiest ruffians bowed and tamed at his feet. 
 We have seen accomplished many a prediction that he 
 uttered, many a wo that he issued, many a curse that 
 he threatened, and many a promise that dropped from 
 his lips. Luminous as was the light that gathered about 
 
THE INDEX SURE. 175 
 
 the Babe of Bethlehem, there have been pouring in ten 
 thousand other streams ever since. Hence let no sinner 
 conceive, that although it be nineteen centuries since the 
 Saviour died, there can be for him any escape from 
 death, unless he be washed in that Saviour's blood. If 
 he who drove the nails was cursed if he did not believe, 
 he who now crucifies him afresh, and puts him to open 
 shame, will meet a curse no lighter. No, it remains still 
 a crime black as perdition to bar the avenues of the heart 
 against the faith of the Lord Jesus. There is not a man 
 to-day in Christendom, nor a lad, nor a child, that has 
 learned who the Redeemer is, if he reject him to-day, 
 who will not carry home with him guilt enough, if he 
 dies unpardoned, to make him gnash his teeth forever. 
 Had no Saviour been offered, you would only have had 
 to answer for a broken law, but as many of you as are 
 unsanctified have upon you the guilt and the curse of 
 having slighted ten thousand overtures of forgiveness. 
 And if you dare to die in this condition, you can make 
 the sad experiment, but your grave will prove an avenue 
 to the bottomless pit. 
 
 3. In view of this subject it seems no light matter to 
 deny the deity of the Son of God. How fearfully were 
 the Jews destroyed because they would not recognize 
 him as the promised Shiloh. When once the edict had 
 gone out, " Let all the angels of God worship him," and 
 God will not give his glory to another, the being that 
 will not obey must perish. He is either God or a crea- 
 ture. But have we credulity enough to believe that there 
 would have been all this display of prophecy and mira- 
 cle, pointing to the birth of a worm ? Must he be prom- 
 ised and proclaimed many thousand years ; must there 
 be a record made of his character while yet he has none ? 
 Must he make his ingress in the centre of the world, and 
 
176 THE INDEX SURE. 
 
 in the most luminous spot among the nations ? Must a 
 long train of prophets vie with each other in doing hon- 
 our to the mysterious personage ; and when he is born, 
 be but the being of a day ? We have heard of 
 
 " Ocean into tempest wrought, 
 
 To waft a feather — or to drown a fly," 
 
 But there are few who will impute to God such folly. 
 But how like this must appear, to him who believes the 
 Messiah was a mere creature — all that train of prophe- 
 cies, that hyperbole of language, and that pomp of figure 
 that centred in the Babe of Bethlehem ? Judas, it seems, 
 had he been appointed to the work, would have been as 
 good and as glorious a Redeemer as Jesus ; and still his 
 advent must be predicted it seems four thousand years be- 
 fore his birth, and heaven must tell all the generations 
 between that he is coming, and they must think of him 
 in their loftiest thoughts, and speak of him as heaven 
 does in their sublimest language ; must calculate to owe 
 to him their whole redemption, and still he has not power 
 when he has laid down his life to take it up again. He in- 
 debted to another for his own existence, but we must 
 trust in him for eternal life ; he our shield, and still he 
 has no power of his own to protect; he our guide, but 
 another must enlighten and guide him ; he our inter- 
 cessor, and still he cannot know when we pray ; he our 
 king, and still he himself the subject of a higher and a 
 mightier power; he pledged to be with his people 
 always, even unto the ends of the world, while yet he 
 could not know that he should be permitted to see them 
 when they suffer, or be present to save. 
 
 If there is a scheme, which, rather than any other 
 charges God foolishly, makes the plainest truth a mys- 
 tery, and the whole Bible a bundle of absurdities, and 
 
the index' sure. 177 
 
 proudly conducts all its votaries to death, it is that which 
 thus quenches the light of Israel. Must I choose be- 
 tween it and open infidelity, I would be an infidel. By 
 the same dash with which I blot the name of the Re- 
 deemer, I would obliterate the Father, and believe the 
 grave the end of me. I would not waste my time and 
 strength, and torture my conscience, to mutilate the Book 
 of God, but would believe the whole a lie, and warm 
 myself in its blaze, and wish I were a brute. Then I 
 would calmly expect one day to be a supper for the 
 worms, free from the dread of the worm that shall never 
 die Men must be desperately the foes of truth, and in- 
 veterately hostile to the Lord Jesus, before they can thus 
 rudely confront the plainest truths of God ; and the 
 crime, where there is not gross ignorance, must come 
 very near to that w r hich cannot be forgiven. To avoid 
 one mystery which they cannot comprehend, they would 
 throw afloat the faith of the gospel, make us doubt whe- 
 ther any part of it has come to us uncorrupted, and 
 finally must adopt mysteries greater than the one they 
 discard, must believe that God has indited us a revela- 
 tion which it is almost impossible to understand, and that 
 he has suffered almost his whole Church to live in the 
 belief of a lie these eighteen hundred years. 
 
 4. This subject should lead us to pray earnestly for 
 the unhappy descendants of Abraham. We are indebt- 
 ed to them, under God, for the privileges we enjoy, but 
 which they have forfeited. The Lord Jesus, in his 
 human nature, belonged to that family. The apostles 
 through whom we have the Scriptures, and the know- 
 ledge of eternal life, were Jewish converts. But how dis- 
 tressing to us, that that whole community should still 
 reject their promised Shiloh, and be seen writhing these 
 two thousand years under the lashes of a vindictive 
 
 16 
 
178 THE INDEX SURE. 
 
 Providence ! It should excite our pity to know that they 
 are a standing testimony of the truth of prophecy. They 
 are placed as a beacon on the shore of death to warn us 
 not to approach the strand where they were so awfully 
 shipwrecked. Their unbelief has confirmed us in the 
 faith, and it should be our grief that they should perish. 
 When the time has come, and it seems now at hand, 
 when they shall own him that has come, their conversion 
 shall be as life from the dead to the Gentiles. 
 
 Hence gratitude for the blessings we have received 
 through their hands, and love to the kingdom of Christ, 
 which will be greatly advanced by their in-gathering, 
 and pity for the suffering posterity of him who was the 
 father of the faithful, should all join their influence to 
 induce us to pray for a people so interesting and so un- 
 done. Every endearing view we have of Christ should 
 lead us to pray for his brethren and kinsmen according 
 to the flesh ; and whenever we see by faith the scenes 
 of Calvary, there should go up some petition for the de- 
 scendants of those who were active in the crucifixion, and 
 coveted that the blood of the Saviour should be on them 
 and their children. On that propitiatory sacrifice we 
 hang our hopes of heaven, and should rejoice can we be 
 the means of bringing down upon thejdescendants of his 
 betrayers and murderers, any heavenly blessings, or of 
 removing the curse under which they have so long pined 
 and perished. 
 
 And if their case should demand something more 
 than prayers — should require sacrifices — can we better 
 expend the talents that God has loaned us than in the 
 purchase of their redemption ? It is high time that we 
 placed in their hands the Hebrew Testament, that they 
 may know the character of the Saviour they have re- 
 jected, and may see and lament the cause of their long 
 
THE INDEX SURE. 179 
 
 continued dispersion. Gratitude for the gift of a Saviour 
 through the line of Abraham, and for the Holy Scriptures 
 through Jewish Apostles, should urge us to make exer- 
 tions for their rescue from the thraldom of unbelief* 
 They would join us in adoring the Saviour, and rejoice 
 with us in the covenants of promise, and we could feel 
 pleasure forever, in having contributed to rescue them 
 from the dominions of death. 
 
 Happily the time has come, when they begin to doubt 
 whether they may not look for their Shiloh till their eyes 
 consume away in their holes, unless they build their 
 hopes of eternal life on him who has come. Numbers 
 of them have made their escape from death, and others 
 are inquiring with a candour and a docility, as new as 
 it is interesting, " Where is the angel of the covenant V 
 
 Finally, may we not fear, that if we reject the 
 Saviour, there may be found in our families a race of 
 unbelievers, that may go. generation after generation, 
 down to the blackness of darkness forever. How can 
 we know that some families that we can name, in whom 
 we see not a believer from age to age, have inherited 
 from some ungodly ancestor, a ruin like that which fell 
 upon the family of Israel. Poverty, and crime, and de- 
 gradation, are the prominent features of their condition. 
 Ah, let us beware, lest our children's children shall be 
 telling the world some hundred years hence, the tale of 
 our unbelief and impenitence. 
 
SERMON LI 1 1. 
 
 THE WISE MAN WISE FOR FUTURITY. 
 
 Deuteronomy, xxxii. 29. 
 
 O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider 
 their latter end. 
 
 Moses had been speaking of the kindness of God to 
 his people. He found them in a desert land, and in a 
 waste howling wilderness. He led them about, he in- 
 structed them, he kept them as the apple of his eye. By 
 a spirit of prophecy he looked forward, and saw them en- 
 ter in triumph the land of promise, there to eat of the 
 increase of the field, to suck honey out of the rock, and 
 drink the pure blood of the grape. And here he would 
 gladly have limited his prophetic view, and would have 
 died believing that the people he loved, would remain the 
 heirs of that goodly land till the consummation of all 
 things, and be to the latest ages the chosen inheritance 
 of heaven. But the same prophetic Spirit which had 
 made him acquainted with one future page of their his- 
 tory, penetrated the tracts of time, that stretched still 
 beyond, and unfolded to his inspired vision, a page still 
 beyond, darkened and dismal with crimes and punish- 
 ments. Here he paused to lament, that they would so 
 sin against their own souls, that they would not feel in 
 time that they had to deal with a jealous God, who 
 
THE WISE MAN WISE FOR FUTURITY. 181 
 
 would not give his glory to another, and in the language 
 of the text pours out the honest and tender feelings of his 
 heart, " O that they were wise, that they understood 
 this, that they would consider their latter end." This 
 would avert the doom I foresee, and secure them a per- 
 petual title to the fields of promise. 
 
 But the text will bear a more extended application. It 
 is as true of us all as it was of Israel, that we contemplate 
 too little the scenes of futurity, and fasten the eye too 
 exclusively on the life that now is. This world is too 
 much our home ; its cares occupy too exclusively our 
 attention ; and its treasures claim too high a place 
 among the instruments of our joy. We are pilgrims at 
 the best, who have here no abiding city, but seek one to 
 come, whose builder and maker is God. That man is 
 a beggar and a wretch, who extends not his views to 
 another life, and has no prospects of enjoyment in a 
 better world. The concerns of this life are too small to 
 engross the energies of an immortal mind. When I feel 
 myself allured by its charms, and when I see so many of 
 my poor dying neighbours engrossed exclusively in these 
 sublunary scenes, 1 feel that we have a mean and poor 
 employment. And I have chosen this text, rather than 
 many a one, which, on some accounts, would have been 
 more appropriate, because I wish to warn myself, and 
 the neighbourhood in which 1 live, and the people to 
 whom I minister, and every stranger who may be pre- 
 sent, that this world is not our home, nor our rest, that 
 there awaits us a dying bed, and a lonely grave, and 
 perhaps a sudden transit into the presence of the holy 
 and heart-searching God. We are forming a character 
 for another state, and have forgotten our only errand 
 into life, if any other cares crowd us so closely, or en- 
 gross us so exclusively, as the one care of adorning the 
 
 16* 
 
182 THE "WISE MAN WISE FOR FUTURITY. 
 
 soul for its speedy appearance at the banquet of the 
 Lamb. This is the concern that should direct our 
 dreams, wake our slumbers, bring us early to our knees, 
 and go with us and keep its hold upon our thoughts, our 
 affections, and our lips, through all the hours of light, 
 through the social converse of our evenings, and the sa- 
 cred worship of our Sabbaths. Why can we not move 
 about among the cares of this life, and still keep firmly 
 our hold upon a better. 
 
 If we think often of death we shall die no sooner, 
 and if we often talk of the life to come, we shall be 
 called none the sooner to part with the life that now 
 is. If we mingle the cares of another world with those 
 of the present, we need not neglect to make all necessary 
 provision for the body. Nor need these thoughts and 
 cares embitter our present enjoyments. Who has heav- 
 en's permission to be happy but the believer, the man 
 whose heavenly mind can see a substance, and taste a 
 sweetness in the things unseen, who can even here in- 
 hale a fragrance from the flowers of paradise, and realize 
 a treasure deposited where moth and rust cannot corrupt) 
 and where thieves cannot break through and steal ! 
 Tell me not of men being happy whose all is in the 
 present life, and who are tormented if they chance to 
 think of death ; it is all false. They may be stupid, 
 and so is a worm, but who ever dreamed that a thought- 
 less man was happy ? He may be free from sensible 
 misery, snd so is the ox, but one who claims that he is 
 a man, and glories in being capable of thought, is not 
 happy when he does not think. Cast forward the eye 
 of faith and read the future pages of your history, and if 
 you cannot read them and still be happy, then I would bid 
 joy adieu for ever. Think of a death-bed, of the shroud 
 you shall wear, the coffin that shall house you, the grave 
 
THE WISE MAN WISE FOR FUTURITY. 183 
 
 you shall occupy, the procession that shall escort you to 
 the bleak and cheerless cemetery, the vacuum that shall 
 be seen in your dwelling, the widow that shall weep for 
 you, and the children that shall bury their best hopes in 
 your sepulchre, and return to weep over their untimely 
 orphanage:— think, too, where you shall then be, in 
 what world, in what society, how employed — and if you 
 cannot think it all over and be happy, your condition is 
 most pitiable. What ! do you boast of having the pow- 
 ers of thought, and dare not think ! Glad that you are 
 not a thoughtless beast, and yet must become thoughtless 
 as a beast, or be miserable ! Then your fancied distinc- 
 tions are all a dream, and can do you no honour. My 
 intention is to turn your minds upon the scene of death, 
 and by this means to try your religion, and my own. If 
 we can converse with the scenes of death and be happy, 
 it will be one small evidence in our favour. True wis- 
 dom will lead us to consider our latter end. / shall 
 notice some circumstances of our latter end which it 
 becomes us to consider, and then show that to consider 
 these things is to act wisely. 
 
 I am to notice some circumstances of our latter end, 
 which it becomes us to consider. 
 
 I. Death will part asunder the body and the soul. 
 They are dear and affectionate companions, and are to 
 each other a source of pleasure and of pain. There is 
 between them an indescribable power of endearing sym- 
 pathy. But in death they part. The body, cold and 
 inanimate, is thrown upon the care of men, while the 
 spirit returns to God who gave it. What remains with 
 us is the merest clay, while that which we loved and 
 caressed is gone. That lifeless body is not the son, the 
 husband, the father, the neighbour, and the friend, we 
 loved. But it is all that we could ever see or touch, w r hile 
 
184 THE WISE MAN WISE FOR FUTURITY. 
 
 that essential and immortal part which has fled, was 
 untangible and invisible. This change you and I must 
 soon pass. This body must moulder, and this spirit be 
 summoned away, to appear in the presence of its judge. 
 
 To properly consider this matter is to see to it that the 
 body and the soul while they continue associates, be mu- 
 tual helpmates to each other. The indulgence of the 
 appetites and passions must not be permitted to ruin the 
 soul, nor the mind be employed to destroy the body. 
 They are to to be reunited in the resurrection, and must 
 be forever happy or wretched together. Hence let the 
 soul, while the present union continues, be purified by 
 the blood of sprinkling, and the body rendered a meet 
 temple for the Holy Ghost, that thus the kindred parts 
 may exert upon each other, a mutually kind and purify- 
 ing influence. Then after the sleep of the grave, there 
 may be a union more happy than the first, more indisso- 
 luble and eternal. 
 
 2. Death will dissolve all our earthly ties. The vari- 
 ous and endearing relationships of life are all temporary. 
 The husband and the wife, whose union is the most 
 endearing of all others, are obligated to love and cherish 
 each other only till death. Then the tie is broken, and 
 the obligation discharged. The lifeless corpse is no 
 longer a husband, a father, a neighbour, a friend. That 
 essential part, on whose account the relationship was 
 formed, has fled. And " in the resurrection, they neither 
 marry nor are given in marriage, but are" in this re- 
 spect, "as the angels of God in heaven." 
 
 To give this subject its proper consideration, requires 
 that we so discharge the various obligations that result 
 from these relationships, as to meet their grand and 
 heavenly design. The husband and the wife should 
 endeavour to promote each other's sanctification, should 
 
THE WISE MAN WISE FOR FUTURITY. 185 
 
 exert all the influence that the endearing relationship 
 generates, to produce in each other an entire conformity 
 to God, and thus prepare each other to be happy in the 
 circle of the blessed. The few days that we can do each 
 other good, urges to the utmost despatch in every benevo- 
 lent design. Parents should admonish and pray for their 
 poor dying children, from whom, in a few days, they 
 must be torn forever, and children be a blessing to their 
 parents while they are within reach of their kindness. 
 The brother and sister sustain that relationship but for a 
 few days, and must do each other all the good they ever 
 do, very soon. The source then that genuine love will 
 pursue is very plain. While my friends are within my 
 reach, I should be their enemy did I not endeavour to 
 promote their salvation, and thus do them everlasting 
 good. 
 
 Alas, how many pursue a course precisely the opposite, 
 and are doing all in their power to carry their friends with 
 them down to perdition. How many husbands exert 
 their influence to prevent the piety, and hinder the pray- 
 ers, and retard the spiritual improvement of their bosom 
 friend ! And how many wives with the same treacherous 
 kindness allure their husbands to the ways of death ! 
 Many a parent, a son, a brother, deaf themselves to 
 the voice of mercy, are staining their hands and their 
 garment in the blood of their kindred. And beyond a 
 doubt the great day will hear many a curse proceed from 
 the lips of the lost, upon their now, nearest, dearest, kin- 
 dred ! — On this dreadful subject I can only say, do good, 
 and avoid doing evil, to those who are now related to you, 
 as all their kindred ties will soon be dissolved, and these 
 opportunities pass away forever. We shall doubtless wit- 
 ness against each other in the great day, and it must 
 grieve us, if we feel tenderly, to apprehend that our own 
 
186 THE WISE MAN WISE FOR FUTURITY. 
 
 lips may bear against beloved friends that testimony on 
 which their condemnation may be founded. 
 
 3. Death will strip us of all our titles, and of that 
 office, power, and influence which they imply. The 
 magistrate, the judge, the general, and the juror, will 
 yield his office with his life, and with it his power and 
 his influence. The minister of the gospel, and every 
 officer in the Christian church, or teacher in our seats of 
 science, or the Sabbath school, must yield his place to 
 some successor. 
 
 To properly consider this matter is to fill the office we 
 sustain with purity and activity. If it gives us influence, 
 there is nothing for which we are more accountable ; no 
 talent which we can use now to better advantage. If 
 there is a soul brought by such means within our reach, 
 and we can bless that soul, our duty is plain ; and our 
 fearful responsibility incalculable. When by any means 
 the providence of God enlarges our sphere of action, 
 widens the field of our labour, or strengthens the arms of 
 our hands, his creatures are to receive the benefit, and his 
 name is to have the praise. 
 
 What a fearful account will many have to give, when 
 they shall be put out of their stewardship ! How have 
 they filled offices, that they might create misery, and ex- 
 erted an influence in widening and vexing the horrors of 
 the apostacy. You might almost track them by the 
 blood they spilt, or, to drop the figure, by the vices to 
 which they gave an impulse, by the characters they pol- 
 luted, by the poverty and the tears they generated, and 
 by a long train of untold miseries that still line their track. 
 " Who then is that faithful and wise servant, whom his 
 lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them 
 meat in due season 1 Blessed is that servant, whom his 
 lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing, Verily I 
 
THE WISE MAN WISE FOR FUTURITY. 1&7 
 
 say unto you, that he shall make him ruler over all his 
 goods. But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, 
 My lord delayeth his coming ; and shall begin to smite 
 his fellow-servants, and to eat and drink with the drunk- 
 en ; the lord of that servant shall come in a day when 
 he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not 
 aware of ; and shall cut him asunder, and appoint him 
 his portion with the hypocrites : there shall be weeping 
 and gnashing of teeth/' Thus the office we fill may be 
 suddenly vacated, and the account rendered cover us 
 with everlasting shame. 
 
 4. Death will level all distinctions. The king and 
 the peasant will sleep together in the grave, the master 
 and the servant, the man of science and distinction with 
 the untaught and the vulgar. The family who can 
 hardly speak with patience of their unpolished neigh- 
 bours, and look with contempt upon their rude and illite- 
 rate servants, must become a supper for the worm, and 
 must scent as odiously, and rot as rapidly, and perhaps be 
 forgotten about as soon as the innocent objects of their 
 affected disgust. There may be a more splendid funeral. 
 We may hear at the mouth of the tomb a more laboured 
 and lying panegyric ; and there may be erected a more 
 splendid and perhaps a more lasting monument. But a 
 few years will dissolve that monument, will deface its 
 pompous inscription, and the bones it covers will appear 
 as unsightly as any skeleton within the enclosures of the 
 cemetery. 
 
 To properly consider this fact, is to remember that it 
 was God who elevated us, and that views us as none the 
 more worthy because of the distinction he has assigned 
 us. It is our wisdom to be humble and mindful of death. 
 Let us show the world that in our own eyes we are small ; 
 that we can enter the cottage of the peasant familiarly ; 
 
188 THE WISE MAN WISE FOR FUTURITY. 
 
 can join him, if occasion require, in his coarse and 
 homely meal ; can cheerfully bow with him at the 
 throne of grace ; mingle our counsels and our tears, in- 
 sensible of any distinction for which we deserve respect, 
 that we are not willing to bestow. We are forbidden to 
 be wise in our own conceits, and are exhorted to conde- 
 scend to men of low estate. One distinction only will 
 outlive the ravages of death — that distinction is holi- 
 ness. In the sight of God all others are temporary and 
 worthless ; and if not counteracted by the humility of the 
 gospel, will cover us with a deeper contempt, and subject 
 us to a more degraded infamy in the bottomless pit. 
 
 5. Death will strip us of our earthly possessions. The 
 lifeless corpse is not the owner of a farm, or the proprietor 
 of a bond. He cannot even defend from the attack of 
 the ruffian the little spot of earth that contains his ashes, 
 and his bones. The hour that strips him of life ren- 
 ders him as poor as at the hour of his birth, and as 
 dependent for the shroud, as, originally, for the swa thing- 
 band. 
 
 To properly consider this matter is, to use our wealth 
 for the honour of God, and in lessening the miseries of 
 the apostacy. We may employ it to support and spread 
 his gospel, to disseminate his word, to feed his poor. 
 Some object of benevolent regard is forever at our door, 
 some good devised that we may execute, some cause 
 labouring that we may lend our aid. We may have 
 high ideas of our own rights, but we are all the Lord's 
 stewards. He has commanded us to occupy till he 
 come. We must very soon go out of office, and must 
 then give an account of our stewardship, and happy for 
 us if we have made friends of the mammon of unrighte- 
 ousness, that they may receive us into everlasting habita- 
 tions. But how many, when they shall be called to 
 
THE WISE MAN WISE FOR FUTURITY. 189 
 
 yield their interest will find that their gold and silver is 
 corrupted, and their garments moth eaten. If they have 
 done any good with their wealth, it was by the merest 
 accident : they meant not so, neither did their hearts 
 think so, and they are seen to repent of all the good they 
 have done, and of nothing else. They have fixed a 
 dying hold upon their farms and their merchandises, 
 and the day that breaks that hold will be of all other 
 days the most wretched. They have forgotten their lat- 
 ter end, and can be waked from the charm only by that 
 stroke that sunders them from life. 
 
 6. As a distinct thought, I would suggest that death 
 must bring all our schemes to a close. There is in some 
 men a pronenessto cast their thoughts ahead, and so in- 
 terweave their projects, that it would seem they can never 
 find leisure to lie down and sleep in the grave. They never 
 calculate upon closing their concerns. There is scarce- 
 a moment, from the beginning of the year till it ends, 
 that finds them sufficiently at leisure to worship God 
 without distraction. Some scheme is in its embryo, and 
 some other unfinished. And, finally, many a one is but 
 partially executed, when death throws in its arbitrary 
 and fearful arrest. Then there must be a pause : the 
 jaded spirit must rest, and the body retires with it. 
 Cheerful or reluctant the world must quit its hold, and 
 the stream of thought chill in its channel. 
 
 And this event expected should teach us to limit our 
 views, and to moderate our hopes and wishes. It would 
 be wise to calculate that somewhere not very distant from 
 us, there is opened a grave athwart our track, where we 
 must stop and rest, and beyond which, if we extend cur 
 schemes, they but die on our hands, or remain for others 
 to finish. " There is no work, nor device, nor know- 
 ledge, nor wisdom, in the grave whither we hasten,' 
 
 17 
 
190 THE WISE MAN WISE FOR FUTURITl'. 
 
 And perhaps nothing would so tend to make us lower 
 our hopes, and limit our worldly calculation, as to place 
 the solemnities of our own funeral at but a few months 
 remove from us. If we place it too near no evil could 
 follow; while, if too remotely, a train of disappoint- 
 ments and miseries follow, the weight of which it will 
 take a whole eternity to calculate. 
 
 7. Death will finish our period of usefulness. " It 
 is that night when no man can work." All the good we 
 ever do must be soon done, or is left undone forever. All 
 the good counsel we ever give, all the prayers we ever 
 make, all the miseries we ever relieve ; all the progress 
 we shall ever make in the pursuit of truth, and all the 
 honour we shall ever do to God, must be done soon. And 
 it seems to me that no thought is so calculated to wake 
 us to industry. " Whatsoever thy hands find to do, do 
 it with thy might," is the very inference to be drawn from 
 the shortness of time. If any man is a knave, it is he 
 who is willing to die before he has been useful, who is 
 willing to feed upon the bounties of heaven, to gather 
 about him the fruits of the earth, and lavish them upon 
 his own indolence, and leave God to publish his own 
 praise by other instruments. Our obligation to do good 
 is as unalienable as the authority of God is binding, or 
 the fear of misery appalling, or the hope of glory invit- 
 ing. Have we then done all the good we have purposed 
 to do ? Have we no dying friends to whom we would 
 communicate instruction or comfort before they leave us ? 
 Is there no object of charity to which conscience may 
 have given some pledge not yet redeemed 1 By the sure 
 and speedy approach of death, we are admonished to 
 haste and finish our work, lest we should leave it for 
 others to neglect as we have. 
 8. Death will finish our character, and close our ac- 
 
THE WISE MAN WISE FOR FTJTURITN. 191 
 
 counts for the judgment. We are probationers for an- 
 other state, and our character here will decide our condi- 
 tion there. It is believed that life will furnish the mate- 
 rials on which the judgment will proceed, the varied tests 
 of our character, and the reasons of our acquittal or our 
 condemnation. The thoughts and volitions of the dying 
 bed will constitute the closing items of that fearful ac- 
 count which we must render to the judge of all. 
 
 To give this thought its due importance, we should 
 often examine our state, and inquire if we are ready to 
 be judged. Is the Lord Jesus Christ formed in us the 
 hope of glory ? Shall we appear, if we quit the world 
 this evening, clothed in his righteousness ? Else no 
 works of ours will avail to procure our acceptance, and 
 ruin is as certain as the judgment. 
 
 Haste, then, if you would be esteemed wise, and set 
 your house in order, against the hour of your dissolution. 
 Mortify the deeds of the body, wake the mind to indus- 
 try, and rouse the heart and the conscience to energy of 
 feeling and action in the work of grace. Collect your 
 friends about you, and make one more effort to do them 
 good before every tie that binds them to you is sundered. 
 Fill the office assigned you with fidelity, and use your 
 influence to promote the honour of your Redeemer. 
 Cultivate a meek and lowly mind, be familiar with your 
 own worthlessness ; use your wealth for the honour of 
 God, and in doing good to a miserable world. Limit 
 your prospects by the grave : have your work done ; your 
 character formed for heaven ; your sins forgiven ; and 
 your pollution covered with a Saviour's blood. Then 
 death will not surprise you, and the grave will become 
 your refuge and your friend. 
 
 II. To properly consider the circumstances of our 
 Latter end is to act wisely. If while we proceed, worldly 
 
192 THE WISE MAN WISE FOR FUTURITY. 
 
 men, whose every interest is in this world, should draw 
 the inference that they are acting unwisely, and play- 
 ing - the fool with their own hest good ; this is precisely 
 the effect we always wish to produce, and shall re- 
 joice to find that they can reason so well on a subject 
 of such amazing importance. Under every sermon 
 men ought to be convinced that they are acting a mad 
 and desperate part, while they neglect all the hopes of 
 the life to come, and deposit all their treasures on the 
 surface of this perishing world. The man who should 
 place all his fortune in a burning building, or embark 
 with his whole interest in a sinking ship, would not act 
 more unwisely. I remark, 
 
 1. That God has pronounced it wise to consider our 
 latter end, and act with constant and careful reference to 
 the life to come. This is precisely the sentiment of the 
 text, and of many other scriptures which pour their 
 light upon the same truth. " If a man live many 
 years, and rejoice in them all, yet let him remember 
 the days of darkness." Said the Lord to Israel, " Oh 
 that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments ! then 
 had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as 
 the waves of the sea." How often is it said of the wick- 
 ed, that although they were warned they would not be 
 wise. " I have called, and ye refused ; I have stretched 
 out my hand, and no man regarded ; but ye have set at 
 nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof; I 
 also will laugh at your calamity ; I will mock when your 
 fear cometh. When your fear cometh as desolation, 
 and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind ; when dis- 
 tress and anguish cometh upon you : then shall they 
 call upon me, but I will not answer ; they shall seek me 
 early, but they shall not find me : For that they hated 
 knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord : they 
 
THK WISE MAN WISE FOR FUTURITY. 193 
 
 would none of my counsel ; they despised all my re- 
 proof: therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own 
 way, and be filled with their own devices. For the 
 turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the 
 prosperity of fools shall destroy them. But whoso 
 hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet 
 from fear of evil." 
 
 I know that we are forbidden to be anxious for the 
 things of to-morrow, but this text, instead of teaching the 
 contrary, teaches the same doctrine. We are not to be 
 anxious for the things of this life, which we may need 
 for our support to-morrow. We are to be " anxious, not 
 for the meat that perisheth, but for that meat which 
 endure! h to everlasting life." We are so to use the 
 mammon of unrighteousness, that when we are put out 
 of our stewardship, we may have a friend who may re. 
 ceive us into everlasting habitations. 
 
 Thus God himself, who cannot be mistaken, has de- 
 clared it wise to look well to our future prospects, and 
 11 lay up in store against the time to come, that we 
 may lay hold on eternal life." 
 
 2. The wisdom of such a course is inferred from the 
 fact, that in all other things we consider it indispensa- 
 ble. If we have in view any worldly enterprise, we, as 
 far as possible, anticipate the concern in all its bearings, 
 and weigh, before we meet them, every embarrassment 
 and every obstacle, that may be at war with our purpose, 
 We bring before us the darker side of the picture, as well 
 as the brighter, contemplate every passion, and every 
 interest with which we may come in contact, and press 
 the eye of the mind forward to meet every feature of the 
 probable result. Is one about to leave the place of his 
 nativity, he does not move, if he is wise, till he has care- 
 fully surveyed the country toward which he bends his 
 
 17* 
 
194 THE WISE MAN WISE FOR FUTURITY. 
 
 wishes and his hopes, counts the cost of his intended 
 enterprise, weighs the probable advantages of the re- 
 moval, and is prepared to meet, without surprise, every 
 failure that can lie within the reach of probability. 
 Thus worldly men constantly manage the concerns of 
 this life, and the Scriptures assure us, that they are 
 wiser in their generation than the children of light. 
 Would we pursue the same measures relative to the life 
 to come, God would approve. It would be a source of 
 conduct becoming a wise and thinking man. We 
 should then look forward and survey all the circum- 
 stances of our departure from this world, the state of our 
 hearts, the probability of ourcomposure,and our acceptance 
 in the hour of death, the ties that must then be broken, 
 the titles that must then be lost, the office that must then be 
 resigned, the distinctions that must then be levelled, the 
 possessions that must be relinquished, the exenions that 
 must terminate, and the pause that must ensue to all 
 our schemes. We should live with the whole scene be- 
 fore us, and often summon the mind to bear, with all its 
 native energies, upon that most interesting epoch of our 
 history. I knew a man, who, for years, kept his coffin 
 in his chamber, often placed himself in the narrow 
 house, and often contemplated the scenes of his inter- 
 ment, and thus kept himself familiar with the hour of 
 his dissolution. Now should we not, without resorting 
 to such means, practice the same forethought, and thus, 
 if possible, have the terror of death broken, before we are 
 called to the last and desperate contest. What argument 
 can be offered why this concern should not be the subject 
 of meditation, rather, far rather, than the erection of 
 a dwelling, or a removal to some distant country. The 
 wise, who go out to meet the bridegroom, will be careful } 
 
THE WISE MAN WISE FOR FUTURITY. 195 
 
 not only that their lamps are burning, but that there is 
 oil in their vessels with their lamps. 
 
 3. To make death a matter of previous calculation, is 
 necessary to the promotion of our temporal interest, and 
 that of our heirs. If one may die before his plans are 
 executed, and is strongly impressed with this truth, he 
 will conceive none but such as another can carry into 
 operation. This would be the dictate of wisdom. He 
 will hold his concerns in such a state of order and ar- 
 rangement, that he can, at a moment's warning, hand 
 over his records and his wealth, to be managed and en- 
 joyed with the smallest possible embarrassment. And 
 such a state of things has always been considered fa- 
 vourable to present interest. And can any thought be 
 so calculated to further this arrangement as the strong 
 impression of a speedy and sudden departure. Let a 
 man keep his concerns in such a state that if death arrest 
 his course, nothing is deranged, nothing obscure, nothing 
 neglected, and he will be the man whom no minor event 
 can distract or destroy. If, then, we would make our 
 calculations merely for the present life, to often contem- 
 plate the scenes of death, would further, unspeakably 
 this one interest. But some may feel that this is an en- 
 gagement too sordid to have weight on a point so mo- 
 mentous. 
 
 I observe, then, 
 
 4. That to well consider our latter end will tend to 
 forward our preparation for the scenes of death. We 
 all, in a sense, know that we must die ; but this 
 truth makes so little impression, ordinarily, that we 
 may be said to doubt it. Young says, " All men think 
 all men mortal but themselves." Should a stranger 
 from some world where they never die, glance his eye 
 upon this, he would not have the most distant concep- 
 
196 THE WISE MAN "WISE FOR FUTURITY. 
 
 tion, that we had any fear of such a change. He would 
 see us so managing our concerns, as if we calculated to 
 be the perpetual proprietors of the soil we cultivate, the 
 merchandise we handle, and the dwellings we occupy. 
 
 In this state of things the thoughts of death are ex- 
 cluded, and consequently all preparation for that hour 
 is deferred. We have too many cares to give death, and 
 hell, and heaven, and the judgment, any permanent 
 lodgement in the mind, and too many sublunary affec- 
 tions to leave room in the heart for more sublime attach- 
 ments. The course, then, that wisdom would dictate is 
 plain. Let the mind be emptied of its cares, and let the 
 heart dismiss some of its beloved objects ; that they may 
 be better employed in pondering the scenes, and fixing a 
 grasp upon the objects of a better life. Thus we should 
 be drawn nearer to the scenes of eternity, should feel that 
 its interests demanded our care, and should be led to 
 speed our preparation for a dying hour. We are thus 
 urged to the subject, by all that heaven is worth, by all 
 that is shocking in a hopeless death-bed, and by all that 
 is black, and dark, and dreadful, in the untold horrors of 
 the second death. If we hold an unbroken grasp 
 upon the present life, and the present world, till we have 
 come to the precincts of another, it must not surprise us, 
 if our dying lips are heard to utter this melancholy out- 
 cry, " The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and I 
 am not saved." We may have our heaven here if we 
 can stumble upon such a wretched choice, but then, all 
 beyond is hell ; or we may deposit our treasure in heav- 
 en, and in that case gather many of its comforts on our 
 way thither. 
 
 5. Wise men have always thought much on the sub- 
 ject of death. Read the history of the patriarchs, and 
 prophets, and apostles, and how often do we see them ; 
 
THE WISE MAN WISE FOR FUTURITY. 197 
 
 as it were, wandering amid the scenes of the tomb. 
 They contemplated the event of death, as worthy to 
 occupy a prominent place in every scheme of life, pre- 
 pared themselves *a sepulchre, and gave commandment 
 concerning their bones, with the same calmness as when 
 they thought of other events. Solomon and David 
 seemed to feel themselves nobly employed in describing 
 the scenes of the dying hour. Locke and Newton, men 
 of the noblest genius, esteemed the present world as 
 but their temporary residence. And if the frequent con- 
 templation of a great subject is evidence of a great mind, 
 men may not hope to evince their wisdom by dismissing 
 the subject of death, and the grave. Compared with 
 these, all other subjects are small and mean. Am I to 
 drop this body, and enter an unknown world, and find 
 a far different state and different employ ; these are 
 great and grand ideas, that deserve all the strength of 
 the mind, and all the energy of the heart in their slow 
 and prayerful contemplation. Does death finish my 
 character, and fix my destiny, and place me unalterably 
 in paradise or perdition ; I have not a care so worthy to 
 occupy my intellect, nor a scene in contemplation on 
 which I so much hang my hopes, and about which clus- 
 ter affections so worthy the dignity of my immortal na- 
 ture. li O that they were wise." You have known 
 cases, when men, occupying the same prison, were un r 
 der the same sentence of death. You entered their 
 apartment on the morning of their execution. One waa 
 sporting in his chains, as indifferent to the scene before 
 him as if no crime had been committed, and no judg- 
 ment had been given. You was ready to presume, that 
 he did not know that his last day had come, and, when 
 undeceived on this point, did you not, instinctively, pro- 
 nounce hiqr a fool? His fellow sat solitary in the corner 
 
198 THE WISE MAN WISE FOR FUTURITY. 
 
 of his cell, casting his eye along the page of inspiration, 
 and when he saw you he fixed upon you a look of wish- 
 fulness and of agony, and exclaimed, " This is my last 
 day ! " Did he not then exhibit a dignity that com- 
 manded your tearful respect ? The one intended to 
 postpone the cares of death till he perished, the other 
 pondered the scene as it approached, and when the last 
 day had come, could think of nothing else. From the 
 one you turned with disgust, the other you honoured. 
 Yes, and we have the same impression, when we meet 
 with men of these opposite characters in the streets, that 
 you had when you entered the precints of that dungeon. 
 The one will not speak nor permit us to speak of any 
 world but this ; the other gladly accompanies us to the 
 death-bed and the judgment. The one we honour, and 
 the other we pity. We know that both are condemned 
 by the law of God, and that both must die, and be 
 judged, and have their state unalterably fixed, and live 
 in glory forever, or lie down in " shame and everlasting 
 contempt." We feel that it would be wise in them to 
 lay these things to heart, and speak of them as amazing 
 realities, and they sink in our estimation if we see them 
 reluctant to cast a look beyond the sepulchre. 
 
 REMARKS. 
 
 1. Men are sometimes afraid to think of death, pre- 
 suming that such thoughts are a prelude to its approach. 
 I believe it is often impressed upon their minds, that to 
 converse with the scene would absolutely urge on their 
 dissolution. But we shall die none the sooner, if we oft- 
 en contemplate the solemnities of our departure. Nor 
 will death stay his progress if we push from us all thoughts 
 of his advance. In the counsels of heaven there is an 
 
THE WISE MAN WISE FOR FUTURITY. 199 
 
 appointed time when we shall receive our arrest, and 
 the places that know us shall know us no more. 
 Why then be afraid to meet the thoughts of futurity, 
 and to converse with the grave. We have a preparation 
 to make. If nothing is yet done, then no other subject 
 should engross the mind till something is. Will a wise 
 man cultivate his fields, till he has made some effort to 
 have his heart fruitful in the affections of the gospel ? 
 Will he be careful for an estate, till he has laid up his 
 treasure in heaven ? Will he adjust his accounts with 
 men, and feel no concern to settle the quarrel, and have 
 the debt cancelled, that stands against him on the records 
 of his Maker ? Will he regard the esteem of men, and 
 make no effort to wipe from his character the almost in- 
 delible stigma which sin has stamped upon his moral 
 reputation ? There is no other concern worth your care 
 if God is your enemy. Be this the first, and be this the 
 only care, till that tremendous controversy is happily ad- 
 justed. 
 
 2. Sometimes men are afraid to think of death, be- 
 cause they know that they are not prepared. They are 
 scared at their own condition. I recollect to have seen it 
 stated, that much of the city of Paris is undermined 
 by a quarry, now improved as a cemetery, where mould- 
 er the ashes and the bones of its former gay and thought- 
 less population. Fears have been entertained that it 
 might one day sink into that deep and fearful sepulchre. 
 A slight shock of an earthquake might be sufficient to 
 break the deceitful incrustation tipon which they revel, 
 and under which they are destined to rot. Lest any 
 should take alarm at their frightful situation, I am told, 
 there is a law of the city forbidding its inhabitants to 
 explore the vault that yawns beneath them. Thus sin- 
 
200 THE WISE MAN WISE FOR FUTURITY. 
 
 ners covet the calm that arises from ignorance of their 
 true condition. But blinded as they may keep themselves 
 to their real danger, their condition remains the same, 
 and the pit which they may industriously cover still waits 
 to receive them. One would think it more wise to en- 
 deavour to know the worst of their case, and if on an 
 impartial survey it shall appear desperate, aim to secure, 
 while it is possible, their future safety and blessedness. 
 But be the danger of delay more or less imminent, they 
 still covet a little more sleep, a little more slumber, a little 
 more folding of the hands to sleep. If the result of their 
 delay is perdition, all this danger they intend to risk. 
 
 3. Others perhaps refuse to consider their latter end 
 because conscience would then urge them to fly from 
 the wrath to come, and render them, unhappy, if they 
 still urged their way to death. Having by some means 
 or other come to the monstrous conclusion, that religion 
 would render them miserable, they have barred their 
 minds and their hearts against all its claims. Hence 
 every argument, and every thought that may suggest an 
 argument, and every object that may awaken such a 
 thought, are barred from every possible approach to the 
 mind. In this condition no meditations are so painful, 
 as those by which the mind approaches the unseen 
 w T orld, and gently lifts the curtain that hides futurity. If 
 men should act so madly in their worldly concerns, they 
 would merit a cage, a chain, or a guardian. They fly 
 from their best friends, abandon their highest interests, 
 and linger on the shores of death from the impression 
 that to live forever would render them wretched. 
 
 4. To all but those who reject a Saviour, the medita- 
 tions of death and the grave are pleasant. Here is a period 
 to all their pains, their toils, their fears, and their doubts. 
 
THE WISE MAN WISE FOR FUTURITY. 201 
 
 In death they drop this dying body, and leave in the grave 
 the last relics of corruption. AH beyond is life, and joy, 
 and immortality. There, for the first time, the good man 
 will have that view of Christ which he has always long- 
 ed to enjoy, and be himself what he has always wished to 
 be. j^Hence the good man often finds the pulse of his joy 
 quickened by conversing with the grave. To him it ap- 
 pears closely connected with the life and the joys to come. 
 Where the sinner finds nothing but corruption and mi- 
 sery, he gathers hope, and joy, and life. To him, to 
 live is Christ, but to die is gain. How delightful when 
 we can thus think of death, divested of its sting, and of 
 the grave as a kind covert from the storm, a shelter and 
 a home for the way-worn pilgrim. 
 
 APPLICATION. 
 
 I have called your attention, my dear friends, to this 
 subject, because I know not how soon you or I may 
 yield this transitory life. A few past weeks have made, 
 in many of your families, deep and fearful ravages. 
 God is speaking to us by these events, and the text is the 
 very language they utter. " O that they were wise, that 
 they understood this, that they would consider their lat- 
 ter end." If God is heard when he speaks, it is well ; 
 and if not, he will speak again and again. Have we 
 resolved to turn our feet to his testimonies ] Will pro- 
 fessors of piety closely examine their hearts and their 
 lives, and inquire whether they have been born of God 
 and are bringing forth fruit meet for repentance ? May 
 we see prayer in all their families, and piety in their daily 
 conversations ? Will those who have no hope that their 
 state has been altered relax a little their care of the life 
 that now is, and give themselves leisure to attend to the 
 things that belong to their peace, before it be hidden 
 
 18 
 
202 THE WISE MAN WISE FOR FUTURITY. 
 
 from their eyes ? Will parents determine to go home, 
 and set their house in order, and prepare to leave their 
 families and their estates forever ? May we hope that 
 the close contemplation of the grave, to which we are 
 invited, may urge us all to cleanse our consciences from 
 guilt, to application to God for pardon, and make con- 
 fession and restitution wherein we have wronged or 
 abused our fellow-men. It will be dreadful to come to 
 the death-bed with a conscience burdened with sin, and 
 feel in that painful hour the miseries of self-condemna- 
 tion We all have a conscience, and never is it so like- 
 ly to gnaw and devour as when some sudden attack of 
 disease shuts us out from all intercourse with the world- 
 Then, if our miseries do not forbid, the busy mind will 
 retrace our past life, and perhaps bring upon that hour 
 the compunction which it should now be our wish to 
 feel, and the anguish which then we shall not know how 
 to endure. 
 
 Is our peace made with God ? Are we making that 
 use of the gospel which was heaven's design in its pub- 
 lishment? Are we becoming sanctified through the 
 truth? Or is the gospel more likely to be a savor of 
 death unto death to us, than of life unto life? Are 
 there any of our youth who are beginning to inquire 
 after a Saviour and a pardon? May we hope that be- 
 lievers are feeling as they should do relative to those who 
 are perishing around them ? Are they staying the 
 hands of their pastor, and pouring into the ears of their 
 Redeemer that effectual, fervent prayer of the righteous, 
 which availeth much. I have hoped, and so have 
 others, that God was about to pour us out a blessing. 
 True, there stand some frightful apprehension in the 
 way of such a blessing. But God, if he ever returns 
 and leaves a blessing behind him, must receive us before 
 
THE WISE MAN WISE FOR FUTURITY. 203 
 
 we are worthy. There never will be that moment when 
 he will not see enough in us to provoke him rather to 
 destroy us than to save us. Hence our only hope is 
 that he will have mercy upon us, according to his loving 
 kindness, and according unto the multitude of his tender 
 mercies. 
 
SERMON LIV. 
 
 THE DESPERATE EFFORT. 
 
 Matthew, xi. 12. 
 The kingdom of heaven suffered) violence, and the violent take it by force. 
 
 I remember to have been very much affected with 
 a scrap of civil story which I met with in the history of 
 the Greeks' escape from the iron bondage of their Turk- 
 ish oppressors. After being robbed and plundered some 
 hundreds of years, they at length attempted to escape. 
 The enemy had, for some months, closely besieged 
 Missolonghi, and the Grecian band had concluded to 
 surrender ; but as there was nothing for them but servi- 
 tude, or death, they finally concluded not to be taken, 
 but to rush into the fort at the desperate moment, and 
 blow themselves up. Their purpose fixed, and the light 
 of Greece about to be extinguished forever, there was 
 one young man who, with his sister, concluded to watch 
 the favoured moment, and rush out of the fort, and sell 
 their lives as dear as possible, and make their attack 
 where the ranks of the foe were the thinnest. They 
 did so ; and the sister being mounted upon a mule, 
 fought side by side with her brother, and both were so 
 inspired by their desperation that they hewed themselves 
 a passage, and made their escape, and lived to tell the 
 
THE DESPERATE EFFORT. 205 
 
 story. Their settled purpose was to die, sword in hand, 
 or spill all the Turkish blood they might, and live. 
 
 Thus men must determine to put forth, in the 
 effort to reach heaven, all the energy they can muster, 
 and if they do this, they shall live. I suppose this to be 
 the very spirit of the text, which reads in the original, 
 " Agonize to enter in at the strait gate." 
 
 I was similarly affected by a narrative of the escape 
 of a post-man, who, for a very large reward, attempted 
 to carry a letter across one of the deep glens of Scotland, 
 through an overwhelming north-east storm. He had 
 been, if I remember right, a shepherd, and fearlessly set 
 out on the enterprise, while many were filled with appre- 
 hension for his life, if the storm did not subside. The 
 weather was excessively cold, and the violence of the 
 storm rendered it impossible to see any track of man or 
 beast, through the whole glen. The only chance of a 
 safe arrival consisted of some knowledge he had of the 
 ground, where he had many a time driven his flocks in 
 summer. But, as he afterward assured us, one may 
 have a very accurate knowledge of the way in summer, 
 while, in a winter storm of snow, at night, the whole 
 way seems like a trackless ocean. It is said that some 
 of those glens in Scotland are so full of snow in winter 
 as not to thaw out in midsummer. 
 
 His courage, as the storm thickened, and the cold in- 
 creased, would have failed, but at length it became as 
 doubtful whether he could find the way back, as whe- 
 ther he should succeed in crossing the mountain ridge 
 in safety. As he had to cross many a small stream, 
 now filled with snow, he not unfrequently sunk, and 
 wet his feet in the stream, and on bringing them up 
 again to the cold air, they froze, and at length became 
 
 18* 
 
206 
 
 THE DESPERATE EFFORT. 
 
 so disabled that he could rise on his feet no more, and he 
 had to press forward on his knees, as well as he could. 
 From some indications, he concluded, that he had 
 well nigh crossed the glen, and might, by lifting up his 
 voice, be heard. He cried aloud for help — a lost 
 traveller! — but cried in vain. At length he became 
 frozen to his knees, and he could only worm himself on- 
 ward with his hands, for he knew that when he should 
 cease all exertion, he must immediately die, and there 
 was a possibility that his cry might be heard, and he 
 should live. Hence he raised again and again his cry, 
 a lost traveller ! But at length, a little opening of the 
 storm showed a shepherd's cot at hand. He had not 
 missed his way to the cottage of a shepherd which he 
 sought, and easily wormed himself to his very door, and 
 gave the signal that saved his life. His friend opened to 
 him and built a fire, and warmed him into recollection 
 and recovery. 
 
 But if that man had not persevered after he had frozen 
 his feet, and even after he could no longer travel on his 
 lower limbs, but had to worm his way on his elbows, he 
 must have died. Although he was near the shepherd's 
 cot, yet as he did not know his position, if his resolution 
 had failed for a moment, and exertion had ceased, he 
 must have died. He agonized to live, and his agoni- 
 zing saved him. And if we will only thus agonize to 
 live forever, we shall live forever. 
 
 There is not an enterprise we undertake that requires 
 so much exertion as to reach heaven. Those who con- 
 clude that they know enough of the subject already, and 
 that heaven will come as a thing of course', and fold 
 their arms and slumber on, will die in their sins, and 
 never see the King in his beauty. The few years of 
 their probation will slip by before they are aware, and 
 
THE DESPERATE EFFORT. 207 
 
 they will just begin to feel the importance of doing some- 
 thing, when they shall find themselves upon a dying 
 bed, the harvest past, the summer ended, and they un- 
 sanctified. The divine direction is, "Strive to enter in 
 at the strait gate," agonize to enter in. There is here 
 no tameness, nor waiting, nor listlessness, nor indiffer- 
 ence. We are to put on the whole armor of God, and 
 force our way to heaven, as men cut themselves a path 
 by dint of prowess, through the ranks of the enemy, and 
 make their escape, when there seems nothing before them 
 but death. Who can you expect to be concerned for 
 your salvation, if you care not for it yourself? Who 
 will agonize for your cleansing, and your pardon, and 
 your acceptance, if you care for none of these things ? 
 If God ever interpose in your behalf, the first thing he 
 will do will be to awaken you to the concerns of your 
 own soul. If you are not now awakened, it is certain 
 you are still in the broad way to destruction. Let me 
 offer a few reasons why you should try to be saved. 
 
 1. You cannot expect to be saved loithout trying. 
 <' The kingdom of heaven," says Christ, " suffereth vio- 
 lence, and the violent take it by force :" implying, as all 
 agree, that if we would be saved, we must make great 
 exertion. 
 
 If we would get to heaven there is a great deal of 
 truth that we must know and believe. We must be 
 acquainted with the character of God that we may love 
 him ; with the character, offices, and work of Jesus 
 Christ, that we may trust in him ; with the nature and 
 operations of the Holy Ghost, that we may feel his sanc- 
 tifying influence. We must be acquainted with our 
 hearts, or we shall never see the need of their being pu- 
 rified ; and with all the great doctrines of the gospel, or 
 there will be no medium of our cleansing. " Sanctify 
 
208 THE DESPERATE EFFORT. 
 
 them through thy truth." We must know the Scripture 
 account of heaven, or we cannot wish to be there ; and 
 to learn all this truth will require great exertion. 
 
 We have a great many si?is to subdue, and must cal- 
 culate to wrestle hard for the mastery. Neither pride, 
 nor envy, nor anger, nor vanity, nor ambition, nor lust, 
 nor selfishness, can enter heaven. We must put off all 
 these : " anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy commu- 
 nication out of our mouth." These vile affections must 
 all have been subdued when we reach heaven. The war- 
 fare is no mean one. A.nd more yet : " we wrestle not 
 againt flesh and blood, but against principalities, against 
 powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, 
 against spiritual wickedness in high places." We must 
 fight the good fight of faith, and lay hold on eternal life. 
 
 Nor can we enter heaven unless we have all the fea- 
 tures of the divine image : we must " add to our faith, 
 virtue ; and to virtue, knowledge ; and to knowledge, 
 temperance ; and to temperance, patience ; and to pa- 
 tience, godliness ; and to godliness, brotherly-kindness ; 
 and to brotherly-kindness, charity." We must be fa- 
 miliar with the exercises of " love, joy, peace, long-suf- 
 fering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temper- 
 ance." We must " forget those things which are behind, 
 and reaching forth unto the things which are before, and 
 press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling 
 of God in Christ Jesus." Now, all this implies great 
 exertion, which, if we do not make, we cannot reach the 
 kingdom of God. 
 
 2. Striving to be saved, you have the most kind as- 
 surance of success. The obstructions to your salvation 
 are all removed, on God's part, by the death of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ. God can now be "just, and the justifier of 
 him that believeth." " Mercy and truth are met together, 
 
THE DESPERATE EFFORT. 209 
 
 righteousness and peace embrace each other." If you 
 seek wisdom " as silver, and search for her as for hid 
 treasure," you shall " understand the fear of the Lord, 
 and find the knowledge of God." " He that seeketh 
 findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened." 
 And hence the kind invitation, " Seek ye the Lord 
 while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is 
 near." " Let the wicked forsake his way, and the un- 
 righteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the 
 Lord and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God 
 for he will abundantly pardon." 
 
 Sinner, as God is true, who has given all these assu- 
 rances and promises, it will be your own fault if you are 
 not saved ; and you will have, to torment you in the fu- 
 ture world, the consciousness that you chose darkness 
 rather than light, because your deeds were evil. You 
 might have lived in heaven, had you not despised the 
 mercy offered you, and counted yourself unworthy of 
 everlasting life. When was it ever known that a sinner 
 made any suitable exertions to be saved, and still was 
 lost 1 Among all their unreasonable complaints of per- 
 dition, none ever had occasion to say, " I went to the Sa- 
 viour, at his invitation, and believed the promises, and 
 had assurances of pardon, and hope of heaven, and yet 
 am lost ! " No ! not one of the spirits in prison can have 
 any such alleviation of his torment as the thought that 
 he perished through the failure of a Saviour's promise. 
 Why then will you not be saved ? God will glorify him- 
 self by you, either in your destruction or salvation, and 
 he commands you to choose life. But you must choose 
 now — " now is the accepted time, now is the day of sal- 
 vation." If you will not believe, the sin and the ruin will 
 your own. 
 
 3. You should try to be saved, because, with a heav' 
 
210 THE DESPERATE EFFORT. 
 
 enly temper, you can be more useful in life. How 
 much can you do to induce men to respect the name of 
 God, and obey his law, and honour his government, and 
 keep his Sabbaths, and revere his sanctuary, and obey 
 his gospel. You can set an example to men of all the 
 duties of piety, and induce others, by your godly conver- 
 sation, to glorify your Father in heaven, and thus be- 
 come a light of the world. You can help to strengthen 
 Christian affection, and bind into a still closer and love- 
 lier union the members of the body of Christ. You 
 can aid their joy, and promote their sanctification and 
 their usefulness. You can set an example of the moral 
 virtues, and by your conduct and precepts, elevate pub- 
 lic sentiment, till a great amount of the misery that falls 
 to the lot of sinners around you shall be cured or allevi- 
 ated. And when saved yourself, you can, by God's 
 blessing, induce other sinners to fly for refuge, and lay 
 hold on the hope set before them in the gospel. But 
 none of this can it be hoped you will do, till you are 
 saved yourself. 
 
 4. You should try to be saved, because you could be 
 so useful in heaven. God has given you a mind, and 
 if not now the most brilliant, it might perhaps be such in 
 heaven. The rough block of marble may embosom the 
 most beautiful specimens of polished and useful work- 
 manship. Your mind, could it once be placed in the 
 school of Christ, and afterward in heaven, might claim, 
 for aught you know, a blessed elevation among its ran- 
 somed choirs. Unclog it, and none can say but it may yet 
 vie with angelic powers. And God might then employ it, 
 we know not how, in the loftiest enterprise. We do not 
 believe that heaven will be a place of idleness. Some new 
 anthem may perpetually elicit more delight through all 
 the heavenly courts. Some new means of doing good 
 
THE DESPERATE EFFORT. 211 
 
 to that world, or this, or some other, may from time to 
 time arrest the attention of angels, and secure the co-ope- 
 ration of all the holy assembly. Such, we may suppose, 
 was the visit of Gabriel to Daniel ; and such the song of 
 angels, heard by the watchful shepherds, at the birth 
 of Christ. None can say that the Redeemer may not 
 employ in administering the government of this world, 
 the very beings he has redeemed from it with his blood. 
 O sinner ! we regret that you should be lost, for we know 
 not how useful you might be in heaven. 
 
 5. You should try to be saved also, because you could 
 be 50 happy in heaven. Even in this poor world there 
 is enjoyment. How much greater will be our bliss in 
 heaven, where all obstructions to our happiness will be 
 removed. There will be no unhallowed passions to be 
 excited. No pain will there arise from anger, wrath, 
 malice, envy, ambition, covetousness, pride, vanity, lust, 
 jealousy, or revenge. There will be no natural body to 
 hunger, thirst, faint, and tire ; to suffer pain from frost, 
 or heat, or famine, or pestilence, or wound, or bruise, or 
 mutilation, or death. There will be no foe to hurt your 
 character, your interest, your feelings, or your person ; no 
 rival to hate, or inferior to despise. There will be in 
 heaven no sun to scorch, or storm to destroy, or moon or 
 sun to be eclipsed, or sky to be clouded. Suppose all this, 
 and how much of life's misery is gone. 
 
 Add now to the removal of these obstructions every 
 positive good that an Almighty God can bestow ; a 
 mind fully illuminated, a heart the seat of every kind and 
 holy affection, a conscience exonerated from guilt, an 
 imagination unlimited in its power of conception, a judg- 
 ment that can never err. Let there be presented to the 
 admiring view all that is lovely, all that can be included 
 
212 THE DESPERATE EFFORT. 
 
 in the golden city, the rivers, and the tree of life, the 
 banquet of the Lamb, " the far more exceeding and 
 eternal weight of glory," the everlasting song, the unin- 
 terrupted rest, and the society forever of holy men and 
 holy angels. All this would render you so happy, that 
 we cannot endure the thought of your being lost. Try 
 then to be saved, that you may be happy in heaven. 
 
 6. What others have done for your salvation should 
 induce you to try to be saved. The plan for your re- 
 demption was laid in heaven. To accomplish it, the 
 Son of God became incarnate, lived a life of sorrow, 
 and died on the cross, and now ever lives to make inter- 
 cession for you. How much he must have cared for 
 your soul ! In the achievement of the same plan of mer- 
 cy, the Holy Spirit was sent from heaven to awaken and 
 sanctify you. He has often strove with you, has pro- 
 duced alarm in your conscience, and perhaps deep con- 
 viction ; has given the truth sometimes a fixed lodge- 
 ment by the side of your heart. Thus has he evinced 
 his readiness to save you. And his ministers, too, have 
 long and earnestly pleaded with you. In many a ser- 
 mon, unless you have absented yourself from the house 
 of God, they have pleaded with you to " flee from the 
 wrath to come, and lay hold on everlasting life." And 
 they have sometimes felt an agony for your soul, that, 
 it would seem, could not be denied. They have prayed 
 for you many a time in the midnight hour, and then 
 have come from their closets and wept over you — and 
 all, it seems, to no purpose. 
 
 It may be that a pious parent has long cared for your 
 soul. Through the fear that you would be lost, that 
 faithful friend may have wished many a time that you 
 had never been born. O ! could you have known the 
 
THE DESPERATE EFFORT. 213 
 
 anxiety and the agony of that parent, while watching 
 over the slumbers of your cradle, then you would try to 
 be saved. 
 
 And it may be that a pious brother, or sister, or wife, 
 is at this moment pleading at the throne of grace for your 
 salvation. And will you not then care for yourself, and 
 try to be saved ? All this care for you — and you none 
 for yourself ! 
 
 7. You should try to be saved, because you must be 
 infinitely degraded in hell You are to remember, 
 that you were made a little lower than the angels ; that 
 you have a nature capable of being elevated to a close 
 companionship with them, and of pouring forth a praise 
 as noble, and glowing with a love as ardent as theirs. 
 And now to think of sinking with such a nature down 
 to hell, of being the companion of devils, and of employ- 
 ing your lips in unceasing blasphemy, — how gloomy 
 the conception ! There will be, in your case, the shame 
 of being convicted, and that before assembled worlds, and 
 of being banished into outer darkness, where is weeping 
 and gnashing of teeth. And your fall from the hope of 
 heaven must be known. You must be forever congre- 
 gated with the meanest of your race, the thief, the robber, 
 the murderer, the swindler, the liar, the drunkard, and 
 the whole mass of convicts. And your employment will 
 be suited to the temper of your heart, and all restraint 
 removed. Hence despair, and blasphemy, and malice, 
 and revenge, will be the habitual and the degraded exer- 
 cise of the damned. 
 
 Hell will be the grand prison of the universe, where 
 will be collected the incorrigibly wicked, the smoke of 
 whose torment will ascend up forever and ever, marking 
 out the place as the most accursed spot in all the dominion 
 of God. The ignominy of such an imprisonment, and 
 
 19 
 
214 THE DESPERATE EFFORT. 
 
 such a damnation, if there were no positive punishment 
 inflicted, no quenchless fire, nor never-dying worm, 
 would be more than can be endured. " Can thine heart 
 endure, or can thine hands be strong in the day that I 
 shall deal with thee ? " 
 
 8. You should try to be saved, because the most bitter 
 reflections await you if you are not saved. You will 
 reflect how much was done to save you ; how much the 
 Saviour did ; how much the Father did ; how much the 
 Spirit did ; how much your Christian friends did — all to 
 no purpose. You will reflect how many sermons, and 
 prayers, and tears, and entreaties, and Sabbaths, and 
 sacraments, and admonitions of conscience, and revival 
 seasons, and alarming events of Providence, have spent 
 their force upon you to no purpose, hardening you, when 
 perhaps they might have saved you. 
 
 You will reflect how easy were the terms of salvation ; 
 that you were offered life if you would only believe ; that 
 no truth was required to be believed but that of which you 
 had evidence , and no duty to be done but that which 
 would have been pleasant ; that your life, if you had 
 believed, would have been more happy, your death tran- 
 quil, and your eternity glorious. You will reflect how 
 nigh you came to the kingdom of God, and was lost. 
 Born in a Christian land, of Christian parents, the 
 Bible early in your hand, and you as early taught to 
 read it, given up to God from your birth, instructed 
 carefully in the truth, and furnished with the Sabbath, 
 and all its holy appendages — it will seem to you, forever, 
 that you sunk down to perdition from the very threshold 
 of heaven. 
 
 You will reflect how many, with no more, and perhaps 
 fewer advantages than you, have escaped to heaven. 
 Your brother or sister, it may be, was saved, while you 
 
THE DESPERATE EFFORT. 215 
 
 were lost. Some, perhaps, your immediate friends, of 
 wicked families, and having nothing like the advantages 
 that you had, have reached heaven, while you have been 
 lost. Shall these bitter reflections prey upon you like a 
 famine, or a pestilence, forever? Will you not try to 
 be saved ? " Strive to enter in at the strait gate ; for 
 many, I say unto you, shall seek to enter in, and shall 
 not be able." 
 
 9. You should attempt now to be saved, because the 
 longer you postpone, the less is the probability that 
 the attempt will ever be made. Whatever are the 
 reasons of the postponement, they are reasons furnished 
 by depravity, and will, of course, increase with the 
 growth of sin. If it be enmity to the kind and lovely 
 Saviour, it will multiply with your years, and ripen with 
 your age. If his eternal excellencies have never yet won 
 your heart — if the glories that have attracted the gaze, 
 and waked the song of angels, and been echoed in notes 
 of victory through the caverns of death, have produced 
 no thrill of joy in your soul, how can you hope that, as 
 his glories shall become more brilliant, and the notes of 
 his conquest shall wax louder and louder, your spirit will 
 become subdued ? Will it not rise in its wrath, and en- 
 venomed at length like the serpent that has plunged its 
 fangs into its own life-stream, seal its own damnation, 
 and lie down in fire ? Wait not till heaven has raised 
 another shout of victory ; stay not till Christ has con- 
 quered the gods of China, or quelled the demons of Ham's 
 dark empire, lest his glories should pierce your soul 
 through with the poisoned arrows of everlasting chagrin. 
 O wait not to have the Hero of Calvary put forth any 
 hidden glory of his name ! Devils will taunt the sinner 
 that waits for this, and is damned. His laurels wave al- 
 ready over their dark empire, and their king quaila at 
 
216 THE DESPERATE EFFORT. 
 
 His power, and dies anew, whenever another, and still 
 another victory is sung. 
 
 10. Or do you postpone embracing the Saviour, because 
 you have not yet had your fill of sin ? Surely it has 
 made you miserable enough. Your satiety, after a scene 
 of pleasure, has sometimes been almost insupportable. 
 When it threatened your health, or yom character, or your 
 business, to continue any longer in sin, how indescribable 
 have been your sensations of regret ! You wished you 
 had never loved sin, or learned to sin ; you wished that 
 your parents had early restrained you ; you regretted 
 that you had ever formed an acquaintance with that 
 man who tempted you to sin ; that you had ever been 
 in that circle whose bewitching snares have caught you 
 and held you ; that ever you visited that scene of dissipa- 
 tion, or went to that house of death. How horrid, to be fill- 
 ing up life with these regrets, and to pore unavailingly over 
 what should be at once repented of and abandoned ! How 
 grovelling, to be howling upon your bed, when, if you 
 would only be ingenuous enough to repent, you might be 
 lifting up your voice in praise, and be singing on your 
 way to the grave, songs sweet as angels use. The 
 meanness of sin will render it impossible that the lost 
 should have any respect for themselves, or for each other, 
 in the world of death ! How utterly vain the expecta- 
 tion, that there shall be in that world any thing worthy 
 to be called society, or kindness, or friendship ! O, it 
 will be all a mass of despair, and chagrin, and hatred, 
 and shame ; when, if men would only be wise now, 
 and accept the offered Saviour, all this might be exchan- 
 ged for heaven, where kindred spirits might bask in ever- 
 lasting sunshine through all the years of the existence of 
 the unchanging God. 
 
 1. Remark. — But why does God make it so difficult 
 
THE DESPERATE EFFORT. 217 
 
 to get to heaven 1 Does he delight to put poor human 
 nature upon such a painful effort with no specific de- 
 sign ? We suppose that God has a wise and good de- 
 sign, and that his design may be obvious. To make 
 such a mighty effort to reach heaven will greatly en- 
 hance the joy of being saved. O, when the effort is 
 made, is over, and the object won, with how much joy 
 may believers look back on all the way that God led 
 them to his kingdom. When they shall see the wilder- 
 ness all trodden over, every sin and every foe subdued, 
 and every snare escaped, and look upon the heavenly 
 route from the heights of Zion, they will sing the more 
 joyfully to the honour of him who led them by a right 
 way, that they might go to a city of habitation. How 
 joyfully would that Grecian pair raise among their coun- 
 trymen, the long and loud Te Deam to the God of 
 armies ! when there had so few escaped and yet they 
 had escaped, and when they found themselves the only 
 two who had sold their lives at any price, and they had 
 brought life away with them in all its vigour and in all 
 its youth, life to them would seem more lovely. 
 
 2. If we have taken joyfully the spoiling of our goods ; 
 knowing in ourselves that we have in heaven a better 
 and an enduring substance, and through much tribula- 
 tion have come where that treasure is, and find it ample 
 and abiding, heaven will always seem worth more for 
 the cost of it. We always value most what cost us 
 most ; and if heaven cost us more than every thing be- 
 side, we shall proportionally esteem it. When the whole 
 family of the redeemed shall have vied with each other 
 through ten thousand ages, in the effort to see which can 
 s et the highest price upon the exceeding weight of glory 
 that shall have been poured in upon their glorified spirits, 
 they will not have reached the price or told the value. 
 
 19* 
 
218 THE DESPERATE EFFORT. 
 
 Its price is far above rubies. One will value that world 
 highly, because, in competitorship with a million of his 
 generation he out-did them all in the effort to keep fanned 
 up the flame of holy love in his heart, which held him 
 ready for a renewed conflict on the bed of death with 
 that enemy who goes about as a roaring lion, seeking 
 whom he may devour. Another and another will throw 
 into their song of victory the joy of an exemplary youth, 
 made so by the constant application of the Holy Ghost, 
 which raised them above the lusts of the flesh, the 
 lusts of the eye, and the pride of life. 
 
 One lovely mother will sing of a reviving season, 
 in the evening-time of life, which threw by, and 
 passed over, the storms that had gathered about the place 
 of her setting sun, and gave her joy in death. Thus 
 one, and another, and another, when they shall have 
 fought the good fight, and finished their course, and kept 
 the faith, and have found laid up for them in heaven, a 
 crown of life, will unite to say in one eternal chorus, 
 God is the King ! The one hundred and forty and four 
 thousand that have washed their robes and made them 
 white in the blood of the Lamb, will grace the marriage 
 supper, and utter in a long and loud response, " This is 
 the Lord, we have waited for him and he will save us ; 
 this is our God ! we have waited for him and we will 
 be glad and rejoice in his salvation." 
 
SERMON LV. 
 CONCIO AD CLERUM. 
 
 II. Timothy, i. 8. 
 Be thou a partaker of the afflictions of the gospel. 
 
 Most other parts of Paul's instructions to Timothy, 
 have been, at times, the foundation of address to God's 
 ministers ; but this, to my knowledge, never. The 
 opinion is, that Paul wrote this epistle some twelve or 
 fifteen years after the date of the first, near the close of 
 life, and while a prisoner at Rome. It contains his dy- 
 ing advice, given in view of the assurance that his de- 
 parture was at hand. Timothy was his own son in the 
 gospel, and he expresses for him a peculiar affection, and 
 deals out paternal advice, in a dress the most kind and 
 amiable. 
 
 The exhortation in the text is somewhat singular. 
 Did Timothy need to be exhorted to become a partaker 
 in the afflictions of the gospel? Did it depend on his 
 choice, whether he would, or would not, be a partaker in 
 those afflictions ? Was it desirable that he stand ready 
 and willing to suffer 1 Was it honourable or necessary 
 to be afflicted in the discharge of his duty, if he might 
 escape ? To all these questions the text implies an an- 
 swer in the affirmative. 
 
 It is more than possible that he saw Timothy tempted 
 to deny his father in Christ, now that he was in bonds. 
 The enemy would tauntingly say, This is the proselyte, 
 
220 CONCIO AD CLERUM. 
 
 and the pupil of that Paul who has gone to Rome in 
 bonds. Hence Timothy, as Peter on a former occasion, 
 would be in danger of saying, I know not the man- 
 He might thus hope to escape the cross, and might fear 
 that otherwise chains might be fastened on himself, as a 
 man equally dangerous with his master. Hence he ex- 
 horts him as in the text. 
 
 But the exhortation is not of private interpretation, 
 and will apply to the people of God, and especially his 
 ministers, in this age, as readily as in any one that 
 has gone by. In what follows I shall notice some of the 
 afflictions of the gospel, explain the import of the exhort- 
 ation, and urge upon the ministers of Jesus Christ the 
 duty of becoming voluntary partakers in these afflictions. 
 
 I. I am to notice some of the afflictions of the gos- 
 pel. In doing this, however, I shall rather dwell on the 
 causes of these afflictions. 
 
 1. The ministers of Jesus Christ must form and de- 
 fend an unpopular character. I am aware that efforts 
 have been made to show that the ministers of the gospel, 
 and the people of God generally, need have nothing about 
 them peculiar, and I am aware, too, that many, pro- 
 fessing godliness, have made the experiment of being, in 
 their whole deportment, what the world are. And it 
 cannot be denied, that they have been, in that case, 
 greatly caressed by the world. " If ye were of the 
 world the world would love his own." Can we but 
 flatter as adroitly, and dress as gaily, and joke as famili- 
 arly, and laugh as loudly, as the most thoughtless of the 
 multitude, they will cease their complaints. With the 
 minister of the gospel who can shine in the party, and 
 advocate the dance, and make the game innocent, and 
 the theatre chaste, and every other vain amusement 
 harmless, the world will have no quarrel. Not the most 
 
CONCIO AD CLERUM. 221 
 
 profane, or proud, or gay, or voluptuous, will have any 
 fault to find with him, when he ceases to reproach them. 
 Let him in company keep back the subject that would 
 give offence, and suppress the dissent that would be un- 
 welcome, and bless whom the world blesses, and rebuke 
 whom they abominate, and the world will pronounce 
 him a fine, a charming fellow. Let him associate with 
 the gluttonous man, and the wine-bibber, 'and not carry 
 to their house and their table, the hard doctrine, and the 
 pointed rebuke, and the distinct condemnation, and the 
 zeal for his heavenly Father's honour, which character- 
 ized the sociality of Jesus Christ, and they will agree to 
 love him. 
 
 And I have not my eye now fixed on the ministry 
 in its grossest aspect ; a ministry whose whole piety 
 is a kind of charity that was not born in heaven, and 
 has neither creed nor conscience. I do not associate such 
 men with the ministers of Jesus Christ. But in that 
 better school, where truth is held in high estimation, and 
 charity is not sightless, and fellowship has gospel bound- 
 aries, it is feared that men may be found who are at 
 great pains to avoid the afflictions of the gospel. If they 
 speak of hell it is with an apology ; if they describe a 
 bad heart, they " hope better things of their audience,'' 
 and if they are driven to rebuke a vice, they do it so 
 tamely as to make no impression. Hence the world love 
 them, and feed them, and rally round them, and admire 
 their prayers, and their oratory, and enter into close 
 leagues of friendship with them. But whether such was 
 the character of It is ministry, who came from heaven to 
 publish salvation, demands a doubt. 
 
 The ministers of Jesus Christ must form an unpopu- 
 lar character. They must be more serious, more holy, 
 more circumspect, more watchful, and prayerful, and 
 
222 CONCIO AD CLERUM. 
 
 heavenly-minded, than the world would choose to have 
 them. They must adhere more tenaciously to the truth, 
 to sound maxims and correct principles, than other men ; 
 must be emphatically " a chosen generation, a royal 
 priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people." The traits 
 of character which the world are prepared to eulogize, 
 they are obligated to lash, and equally obligated to have 
 on the very traits that give the world offence. They 
 must be in character and conduct like their Master, hav- 
 ing a conscience that will not bend to the exigencies of 
 the moment ; a sternness of virtue that cannot allow 
 iniquity a smile, a fixedness of sentiment that looks 
 every unhallowed maxim into shame, a regard to the 
 divine glory that can sometimes wield the surge of re- 
 buke, and drive iniquity from its presence. They must 
 have on a holiness of character that can move on 
 through the ranks of sin with unbending course ; and 
 command, by its self-respect, the reverence of the very 
 men who would exterminate so stern an integrity. 
 
 And the character they cultivate in themselves they 
 must sustain in others. The members of their churches 
 must know that living as Christ would have them, they 
 shall receive no reproach from their pastors, for not be- 
 coming, in the perverted meaning of the apostle, all things 
 to all men. 
 
 They may still put on all the amiableness of the gospel, 
 and show out the benevolence, the meekness, the kind- 
 ness, the hospitality, and the ardency of friendship, that 
 piety requires ; and, finally, leave nothing to give of- 
 fence, but the sternness of virtue. But in conjunction 
 with these, there must be, in the ministers of Jesus 
 Christ, traits of character, that the men of the world will 
 not admire. Hence none of the prophets, nor apostles, 
 nor Jesus Christ himself, could show kindness enough 
 o atone to the world for their holy singularity. They 
 
CONCIO AD CLERUM. 223 
 
 partook largely in the afflictions of piety, and went 
 most of them to heaven from the cross, the sword, or the 
 flames. 
 
 2. The ministers of Jesus Christ must teach unpopu- 
 lar doctrines. They must show the very men who 
 feel themselves to be whole, and in no need of a physi- 
 cian, that they are poor, and wretched, and miserable, 
 and blind, and naked. They must exhibit the atone- 
 ment of Christ to the very men who would perish rather 
 than trust in him, as the only foundation of their ever- 
 lasting hopes. The men who are prepared to say, What 
 lack I yet ? must be pressed with the necessity of being 
 born again. The very men who can see little or nothing 
 wrong in their whole life must be assured, that except 
 they repent they must all likewise perish. And the de- 
 crees, and the sovereignty of God, that so exalt Jehovah, 
 and so debase the rebel, must be urged upon the very men 
 who have so little confidence in ther Creator, that they 
 would not place the smallest temporal interest at his 
 disposal. And how can such doctrines be popular with 
 such men ? 
 
 I know you will refer me to facts, and inquire, Why 
 are there so many congregations who have an orthodox 
 ministry, and still all has been harmony for half a cen- 
 tury, while yet there have been few or no conversions ? 
 In this case I have an answer that perfectly satisfies 
 me. The truth has never reached the conscience. It 
 has been so tamely exhibited, that men have slept under 
 it. Now it is the duty of Christ's ministers to cure this 
 insensibility, and in doing it, just as sure as God is true, 
 there must be given a new heart, or the unwelcome in- 
 truder will be made a partaker in the afflictions of the 
 gospel. Compel a stupid man to feel the force of his own 
 creed, and he will be as much offended as when you 
 
224 CONCIO AD CLERUM. 
 
 press upon his conscience doctrines which he has long 
 hated, and long since discarded. 
 
 I know there is a ministry which I dare not term here- 
 tical, but which gives no offence by its doctrines. The fact 
 is, that the doctrines, though not denied, are never distinct- 
 ly exhibited. Men care not what they hear, nor what 
 believe, if they may be permitted not to feel nor act. 
 Only suffer them to sleep on, and you may lecture 
 from the Shaster, the Koran, or the Bible. Let it suffice 
 that they be quiet and orthodox, and they care not if it 
 be the quiet of death, or the cold orthodoxy of the grave. 
 But let the truth drop from the lips of an honest ministry, 
 and be pressed home with energy, upon " consciences 
 that have not been sprinkled from dead works to serve 
 the living God," and that ministry will soon become con. 
 versant with the afflictions of the gospel. 
 
 3. The minister of Jesus Christ must urge upon the 
 world unpopular duties. It is a great mistake that 
 men are any less displeased with the duties than with 
 the doctrines of the gospel. Let duty be fully explained, 
 and pressed home upon the conscience with energy, till 
 men shall see no retreat from its obligations, and no press 
 of doctrine, the most offensive, can give any keener pain, 
 or be more sure, where God does not seal the word by 
 his Spirit, to awaken the keenest displeasure. Make the 
 man who never prays see the impiety of his neglect, and 
 repeat to him that note of alarm, " Pour out thy fury 
 upon the heathen, and upon the families that call not 
 upon thy name ;" and you will soon discover that he 
 feels himself as uncomfortably urged, whenever this duty 
 is named, as when a doctrine which he does not believe, 
 or does not love, is pressed upon his faith. Urge upon 
 the covetous man the duty of giving liberally, no matter 
 what the object, and he will writhe more under the press 
 
CONCIO AD CLERUM. 225 
 
 of this duty, than when urged to believe the most odious 
 doctrine. Urge home upon the conscience, no matter 
 what duty, that men. are unwilling to perform, and you 
 offend them equally, as when you teach a doctrine they 
 are reluctant to believe, and in either case draw upon 
 yourself the afflictions of the gospel. 
 
 But the duty, as well as the doctrine, may be so tame- 
 ly and so prudently named, as to produce no sensa- 
 tions. If men are asleep, and you do not so lift up your 
 voice as to wake them, they care not whether the babbler 
 utters a duty or a doctrine. But this would not have 
 satisfied Paul. If he might have preached in Athens 
 the true gospel, unmolested, but must have seen that 
 people continue their idolatries, he would have felt that 
 he was doing nothing. It is doubted whether doctrine 
 or duty was ever urged home with gospel energy, but 
 the result was, the believing of the doctrines, and the 
 doing of the duty, or the great offence of the man upon 
 whose irritated conscience they had been urged with 
 unwelcome vehemency. . Hence, again, the afflictions of 
 the gospel. 
 
 4. The minister of Jesus Christ must advocate in his 
 Church an unpopular discipline. Here let us stop to 
 solve one problem. The men of the world are perpetually 
 reproaching professors of godliness for their sin. Urge 
 religion upon them, and they will reply, " I am in as fair 
 a way for heaven as your Christians." And often we 
 find it no easy matter to repel the charge. We lie down 
 under it, and reply, " Truly there are men. without the 
 pale of the Church, as generous, as pitiful, as public 
 spirited, as hospitable, as quiet, as peaceable, as kind, as 
 neighbourly, as some within." " We know," they will 
 say, <; that we do not pray as often, as loud, and as long, 
 
 %\ 
 
226 CONCIO AD CLERUM. 
 
 as some of your hypocritical professors, but all this we 
 more than balance by our other virtues." 
 
 Now from all this it would seem their wish, that the 
 Church were more pure. Surely they would have re- 
 formed the very thing they complain of. But the very 
 moment the Church commences a course of discipline, 
 with any wayward brother, the world arms itself against 
 all their efforts. And often is there raised without the 
 Church, an opposition that would deter the Church from 
 attempting to purify her fellowship. And the minister 
 of Jesus Christ is understood to be on the side of the 
 Church's purity. Hence he becomes the butt of rebuke, 
 with all those who would shield the offender ; and should 
 he be passive, even to a fault, still he must bear the 
 whole blame of the process, and become often the scape- 
 goat that bears away into the wilderness the sins of the 
 whole brotherhood. Thus he becomes a large partaker 
 in the afflictions of the gospel. 
 
 We are now prepared, 
 
 II. To say that the exhortation of the text implies 
 two things. 
 
 1. That we so minister in our holy office, as to make 
 sure to ourselves all the trials that fa it /if nines in a 
 world like ours must incur. We must form the very 
 character the ungodly disapprove, nor be willing to lack 
 its most odious ingredient. We may not lay aside for an 
 hour, that sobriety, that spirit of dissent from error, that 
 honesty which holds the tongue the sure index of the 
 mind, that elevation of the affections which shrinks from 
 a supreme engrossment in the conversation and the cares 
 of the life that now is. 
 
 We may not conceal the features of the new man, and 
 be religious in secret only, or when in the company of 
 God's people. The world would agree to this. Can 
 
CONCIO AD CLERTTM. 227 
 
 we but act the mere gentleman in their society, and fawn 
 and flatter as they do, and ever smile and be happy? 
 whatever the conversation, or sentiments, or temper, or 
 men with whom we come in contact, this would satisfy 
 them, and we might be as religious as we please in our 
 bed-chamber. But such was not the course of Jesus 
 Christ, nor yet of Paul, even when he became all things 
 to all men. There must go with the man of God, visible 
 as the features of his face, the strong outlines of his 
 heavenly character. After all the allowance has been 
 made that can be, for the difference of character and con- 
 duct that may exist between the disciple and his Lord, 
 still, in a world like ours, all gay, and thoughtless, and 
 dissipated, we are obligated to put on so much of the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, and wear the lineaments of his image 
 so prominent as to ensure us a share in the reproach 
 that fell on him, and must help others to do the same ; 
 and must pour the whole mass of our influence into a 
 mighty effort to make the whole Church of God as un- 
 like the world as possible. 
 
 We must feel obligated to draw upon ourselves the re- 
 putation of sustaining an unpopular creed. We are obli- 
 gated, I know, to give offensive truth the most ?moffending 
 aspect, and may exercise all the wisdom we can summon 
 in descrying the Tempora molia fandl ; but when all 
 this is done, still the whole truth, first or last, must come 
 out, fully and plainly, and, when distinctly seen, will not 
 be approved by ungodly men. And the odium felt toward 
 the truth, will be promptly transferred to the man who 
 enforces it upon the irritated conscience. 
 
 Now the faithful minister of Jesus Christ may not 
 attempt to shun the trials that will thus ensue. It must 
 be his wish, as soon as possible, to give the truth all that 
 
228 CONCIO AD CLKRTTM. 
 
 plainness of exposition, and point of application, which 
 will ensure the trials that follow. He may not keep the 
 offensive doctrines out of view, nor exhibit his creed ob- 
 scurely, nor throw in any salvo to prevent the truth from 
 taking a rank hold, or so conduct that his daily lightness 
 shall neutralize his Sabbath-day efforts ; else he wick- 
 edly shuns the afflictions of the gospel. And with the 
 same decision must he urge the unpopular duties of the 
 gospel. He may not keep them out of view, nor present 
 them obscurely, nor invent excuses for neglecting them, 
 nor lavish his smiles upon the man who uniformly 
 stands aloof from them. The precepts of Jesus Christ 
 in all their self-denying, and expensive, and laborious, 
 and holy, and unpopular attitude, must be promptly ex- 
 hibited, as claiming the obedience of a world. And the 
 duties of the Bible thus fearlessly exhibited, will as surely 
 convert men, or offend them, as the doctrines. The 
 matter of fact is, that the precepts imply the doctrines, 
 as well as the doctrines the precepts, and the man who 
 urges home upon the conscience the hated duty, no less 
 than he who exhibits the odious creed, must calculate, 
 unless the disciple be above his Lord, to be a partaker of 
 the afflictions of the gospel. 
 
 And he must be known to be the advocate of a watch- 
 ful discipline in the Church of Christ. He may be as 
 adroit as possible in dividing the odium with the mem- 
 bers of his Church, it should be their wish to be partakers 
 with him, but when he has lain hid, and others have 
 operated, as long as possible, the hour will at length 
 come, in every bad case of discipline, when he must 
 have an opinion of his own, and express that opinion 
 and make proselytes to that opinion, and it will be 
 against the conduct of the offender, and will draw upon 
 him the odium of one who needed the rod of discipline 
 
CONCIO AD CLEKUM. 229 
 
 to make him decent. And the offender has friends who 
 will enlist with him, and feel with him, and hate with 
 him, the minister of Christ, who led on his Church to the 
 act which covers the Christian character of the offender 
 with a cloud. Indeed it would be wrong, if it might be 
 so, that a Church of Christ should bear, without the 
 countenance of their pastor, the reproach of having ad- 
 ministered a cruel censure upon a professed follower of 
 Jesus Christ : Hence no escape from the afflictions of the 
 gospel. 
 
 2. The injunction of the text implies, that when our 
 brethren in the ministry have taken the course now de- 
 scribed, and have diuwn upon themselves the afflictions 
 of the gospel, westcmd by them, and defend them, and 
 encourage them, and take, as far as may be, a part of 
 their trials upon ourselves. I have suspected this to be the 
 burden of the exhortation. The aged apostle exhorts 
 Timothy not to be ashamed of the testimony of the 
 Lord, or Paul his prisoner, but to be a partaker of the 
 afflictions of the gospel, according to the power of God, 
 He must participate in the trials endured by his Father 
 in Christ for his faithfulness in the dispensations of the 
 gospel. 
 
 Let it not be said that the offence of the cross has 
 ceased. I know that Christ's ministers are not now in 
 danger of the same kind of persecutions as in the days of 
 Paul. They do not fear dungeons, or fagots, or chains, 
 or wild beasts, or the bloody cross. They may appre- 
 hend other woes however, as the lash of slander, the want 
 of bread, the permanent enjoyment of a peaceful home, 
 and the means of educating their offspring. And who 
 would not avoid these by a more desperate effort than 
 would be made to escape death itself. 1 know, too, that 
 faith can lift the mind above a host of trials, and render 
 
 20* 
 
230 nONClO AO CLtfttTM. 
 
 the hour of desperate onset a time of triumph, and make 
 these light afflictions, which are but for a moment, issue 
 in a more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. I 
 know, too, that many ministers, not reputed unfaithful, 
 escape the trials I speak of. There are no pointed ex- 
 hibitions of truth, no extra efforts to save men from 
 death, no energy of discipline, nothing to break in upon 
 the dead calm by which a multitude of souls are cradled 
 into the profoundest slumbers. And the result is, no re- 
 vivals, not much growth in grace, and, of course, no 
 disorder. And men, under such a ministry, often sleep 
 so sweetly, that any voice which shall wake them, even 
 the voice of the Spirit of God, is unwelcome. Now such 
 a ministry, I know, will escape trials, and will need 
 none of our sympathy. Pastor and people will plod on, 
 till he is snatched to heaven, and they scattered upon the 
 mountains, or gathered and saved at length under a bet- 
 ter ministry that will need our sympathies. 
 
 III. I shall now offer some reasons why the ministers 
 of Jesus Christ should participate with their brethren, 
 in the afflictions that arise from a faithful discharge 
 of their duty. 
 
 1. To sustain our brethren when they are in bonds 
 for the gospel, is a duty we owe to Jesus Christ. He 
 sent them to preach his gospel, assuring them that they 
 went out as lambs among wolves, and promised to be 
 with them even to the end of the world. And he makes 
 good his promise, and is with them, and is a partaker in 
 all the afflictions they suffer for his sake. Would we 
 then do him honour, we must sustain whom he sustains, 
 and sympathize with those who cannot compromise the 
 honours of their Master to escape the cross. Permit me 
 to say, as a minister of Jesus Christ, that I ask of the 
 world no greater honour, than to be considered a prompt 
 
CONCIO AD CLERUM. * 231 
 
 partaker in the afflictions of every ambassador of his 
 who suffers for his name's sake. 
 
 2. It is a duty we owe to our brethren. If we are 
 the faithful ministers of Jesus Christ we all belong to the 
 same embassy, and are obligated to kindness, not merely 
 from Christian affection, but from that endeared brother- 
 hood begotten by the additional relationship of office. 
 Hence, with regard to every minister of Jesus Christ, I 
 am bound, cither to dispute his commission, or prove him 
 a traitor to his Master, or stay his hands when they 
 hang down. It was a law in Israel that if a beast had 
 fallen under his burden, one that was passing by must 
 lift him up ; what then are we not obligated to do for our 
 brethren in the gospel, when they faint under its afflic- 
 tions. 
 
 3. Unless the ambassadors of Jesus Christ sustain 
 each other, the influence of the gospel ministry, and of 
 course its usefulness, are greatly diminished. Common 
 sense declares that unity is strength. And each minister 
 of the Lord Jesus Christ knows how his soul is waked 
 to energy by a knowledge of the fact that he is sustained 
 by his brethren in the same office. And the men we 
 are sent to save are the more prepared to yield their 
 hearts and their deportment to the influence of truth, 
 when they see it brought to them by a united band ; 
 having all one commission, and one Master, and one 
 creed, and one heart. It then comes like the overtures of 
 peace, brought not by a single ambassador, but by the 
 general of an army. Then the commission is respected, 
 and the overtures receive prompt and serious attention. 
 
 4. Not a few of God's ministers have quit the work 
 and others in the hour of conflict have looked about them 
 for some other employment, because they conceived that 
 they were not 'promptly siistained by their brethren. 
 
232 CONCIO AD CLERTJM. 
 
 They had been given a stubborn field to cultivate, all 
 grown over with thorns and briars, and they laboured 
 till they had richly earned the confidence of those who 
 had occupied a less stubborn and more fruitful section of 
 the vineyard ; but at length they became wearied with 
 perpetual effort, and finally quit the field. And it is 
 a query worth our attention, whether a little timely 
 help, w T ould not have kept them in the work, and render- 
 ed them immensely useful, while now they are at some 
 other service, and must die out of the vineyard. And 
 there are probably many at this very moment look- 
 ing about them for a school, secretaryship, or professor- 
 ship, or a clerkship, by which they may earn a piece of 
 bread for their children. And this at the very moment 
 when we are making every possible effort to send forth 
 more labourers into the vineyard. Now, why not make 
 some effort to sustain those already at the work, and by 
 partaking in their afflictions wake them to renewed en- 
 terprise, and a far more extended usefulness ? 
 
 If any who have been commissioned are unworthy, 
 then publish their character, and send them back to the 
 plough, and the residue sustain. Shall those who are 
 happily located fear injury to themselves, if they speak 
 a kind word in behalf of some afflicted brother. I will 
 not allow myself to believe that the legate of the skies can 
 act from a motive so contracted. I will rather believe 
 that depression of mind, under long protracted trials, has 
 begotten in the minds of some good men the false im- 
 pression that they were not duly sustained in their con- 
 flicts. And I will, in the mean time, place high in hon- 
 our those noble men who have earned and obtained the 
 reputation of strengthening the weak hands, and con- 
 firming the feeble knees, and who have ventured to say 
 to the fearful heart, Be strong, fear not. They have 
 
CONCIO AD CLERUM. 
 
 233 
 
 kept many a good man in the field, and thus have virtu- 
 ally made more ministers than many who have pleaded 
 eloquently the cause of charitable education. "These 
 ought ye to have done, but not to have left the others 
 undone." Said the apostle of the circumcision, after 
 giving us a catalogue of his afflictions, " Who is weak, 
 and I am not weak 1 who is offended, and I burn not ? " 
 This, it seems, was the lesson which his own trials had 
 taught him. 
 
 Finally, brethren, feel not that the subject was an 
 unnecessary exposure of ministerial weakness. We 
 shall not give the churches confidence in us, by showing 
 them that we have little confidence in one another. We 
 shall not bless them, by neglecting and despising those in 
 the ministry who suffer till they abandon the brother- 
 hood, and go back into the world to get their bread. 
 The desperate enemies of God, who are quarrelling with 
 their minister because he has ventured to tell them the 
 whole truth, may be glad if we will leave him unsus- 
 tained, till they can devour him. But the good sense of 
 God's people, and of all generous, noble-minded men, 
 will love and honour us the more, the stronger is that li- 
 gature that binds together the hearts of God's ministers. 
 
A SERMON, 
 
 DELIVERED IN 
 
 NEW-JERSEY, AT THE RISING OF THE SUN, 
 
 FOURTH OF JULY, 1814; 
 
 IN A TIME OF GREAT AND GENERAL INTEREST ON 
 THE SUBJECT OF RELIGION. 
 
 Intended to prevent the usual desecration of the day. 
 
SERMON LVI. 
 
 THE MERCIES OF GOD NOT OBEDIENTLY 
 RECIPROCATED. 
 
 Isaiah i. 2. 
 
 Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth ; for the Lord hath spoken ; I have 
 
 nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. 
 
 How provoking is the sin of ingratitude! Among 
 men it is considered unpardonable, while every other 
 crime is forgiven. To be ungrateful argues a want of 
 ingenuousness, of which even the most ungrateful are 
 not willing to be accused. And can we wonder that 
 pride takes the alarm, when a charge is brought that 
 argues baseness, not to be found in the herd of the stall. 
 
 The descendants of Abraham, to whom the prophet 
 refers, furnish us a long history of ingratitude. God had 
 so distinguished them as to render them eternal debtors 
 to his mercy, but they rebelled against him. He called 
 Abraham from Ur of the Chaldees, a land of dark idola- 
 try, gave him a large posterity, and made them the ob- 
 jects of his peculiar care. When oppressed with famine, 
 the king of Egypt must feed them. When enslaved, 
 God raised them up a deliverer, who brought them out 
 with triumph. He bade the waves of the sea roll back 
 and leave them a passage, and return to discomfit their 
 foes. He miraculously clothed, fed, and guided them 
 forty years. He then divided Jordan, and introduced 
 them into a beautiful country, which, being watered 
 
 21 
 
238 THE MERCIES OF GOD 
 
 with enriching clews and timely showers, furnished 
 them all that heart could wish. To give them room 
 he " drove out the heathen with his hand." They had 
 riches, honours, pleasures, and health. God delivered 
 to them his word, called them his children, and placed 
 in their magnificent temple the symbol of his presence. 
 
 When the ten tribes revolted from the house of David, 
 and were abandoned to dispersion and slavery, he still 
 kept his eye on Judah. He gave them wise kings, 
 faithful prophets, and a mild and happy government. 
 Still had they the means of knowing the mind of God. 
 They had their temple, their high priest, their holy 
 altar, and their daily sacrifice. For many years they 
 sat under their vines and fig-trees, and none made them 
 afraid. 
 
 Thus God nourished and brought them up as chil- 
 dren. Had he not a right to expect their obedience? 
 Was it not enough to astonish heaven and earth, to see 
 it withheld 1 Can we, without amazement, be told, 
 that in contempt of all this succession of mercies, that 
 people made them other gods, and bowed to images 
 which themselves had carved? They imprisoned their 
 prophets, profaned their temple, hardened their hearts, 
 and generated a posterity prepared to embrue their hands 
 in the blood of Christ. All this mischief achieved by 
 that people, God resolved to destroy ; but first com- 
 mands heaven and earth to listen to the story of their 
 apostacy : " Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth ; 
 for the Lord hath spoken ; I have nourished and brought 
 up children, and they have rebelled against me." 
 
 How aptly does this whole history apply to us ! If 
 JudalVs ingratitude has ever been mir passed — if it has 
 ever been equalled, it has been in America. While 
 attending to this short history, you have been making 
 
NOT OBEDIENTLY RECIPROCATED. 239 
 
 the comparison between that nation and ours. We 
 have been nurtured with the same fatherly care, and 
 have been equally rebellious. 
 
 In pursuing the subject, I shall follow the natural 
 division of the text, and show, first, that God has 
 nourished and brought us up as children, and se- 
 condly, that we have rebelled against him. 
 
 I. I am to show that God has nourished and brought 
 us up as children. A kind parent aims to promote the 
 best good of his children, and to this point bends every 
 effort. So the dealings of God with us have been cal- 
 culated to promote our best good. " He hath not dealt 
 so with any" other " nation." In proof of this assertion 
 we have only to look at facts. Is it asked, Wherein has 
 God given us proof of paternal affection ? I answer, 
 
 1. In preparing us such a goodly land. It is believed 
 that no portion of the globe is to the same extent, so 
 fertile, healthful, and pleasant as the United States 
 of America. 
 
 Our soil is fertile. Hardly does any land furnish its 
 inhabitants comfort or luxury that ours does not yield 
 for us. Our vallies wave with corn, our hills are white 
 with harvests, and our very mountains, to their highest 
 cliffs, feed our flocks. Till God shall become angry, 
 and shall forbid the showers to enrich our fields, we 
 never need be dependant for our bread or clothing on 
 any other nation. What one region of our country does 
 not produce, grows abundantly in some other. 
 
 And we draw sustenance from our bays and rivers. 
 Thus were " the fields to yield no meat, and should the 
 herd be cut off from the stall," we should be stili sup- 
 plied. On this point every reasonable desire is satisfied, 
 and every ground of fear removed. 
 
 To fertility God has added beauty. Ours is all 
 
240 THE MERCIES OF GOD 
 
 that rich variety of scenery which can please the eye or 
 charm the heart. Our extensive plains, encircled with 
 cultivated hills, watered with meandering streams, and 
 opening upon the traveller as he reaches the eminence, 
 afford prospects the most enchanting. If any douht 
 whether our land is beautiful, ask the Christian, who, 
 in some favoured hour, ascended the mountain, and felt 
 his soul rise from the broad-spread landscape to the God 
 who planned and built the scene ; — ask him if " our 
 lines have" not "fallen to us in pleasant places." Ask 
 he mariner, who has been shipwrecked upon the coast 
 of Africa, and has seen the sable tribes making a deli- 
 cious meal on reptiles — ask him if we have not a goodly 
 heritage. Ask the traveller who has scorched his feet in 
 Arabian deserts, and has climbed the Ararat, if the ten- 
 der mercies of the Lord to us are not great. Ask one, 
 if you please, who has seen the lawns and parks of po- 
 lished Europe, if nature has not furnished our America 
 with richer lawns and nobler parks. Will it not excite 
 gratitude to compare our country in point of beauty^ 
 with any region of the globe ? What was once said of 
 England is more true of America. " It is a paradise of 
 pleasure, the garden of God. Our vales are like Eden, 
 our hills as Lebanon, our springs as Pisgah, our rivers 
 as Jordan, our walls the ocean, and our defence the 
 Lord Jehovah." 
 
 Nor is any portion of the globe, to the same extent, 
 more healthful. From the eternal snows of the north, 
 and from the sultry heats and deadly blasts of the south, 
 we are well removed. The longevity of our grand pa- 
 rents, recorded on yonder tomb-stones ; the many in our 
 assembly to-day, on whom is seen the blossom of the 
 almond-tree, bear witness that God has blessed with 
 health and long life, his American Israel. The num- 
 
NOT OBEDIENTLY RECIPROCATED. 241 
 
 bers who can be spared from the sick and dying bed, to 
 wait on God this morning in this house, bear testimony 
 to the salubritry of our clime. Yes, God has fraught 
 every gale with life, and has wafted health to us in every 
 breeze. The effects of his bounty are seen in every 
 countenance, and felt in every nerve. 
 
 In all this God has acted the part of a kind Father ; 
 has nourished and brought us up as children. The land 
 of Canaan, although described as flowing with mik and 
 honey, was not a better land. Nor will God demand 
 less of us, than of Israel. He charges us with every 
 field, every spring, and every river. He notes against 
 us every shower that falls upon our hills, and every dew 
 drop that moistens the vales. 
 
 2. There was a display of God's parental affection in 
 giving us existence in this favoured land. Long had it 
 been the lonely haunt of savages. Our forefathers were 
 natives of other realms, realms now perhaps in ruins. If 
 God had not intended to be a father to us, we might theie 
 have been born, and there have lived, in the midst of 
 oppression, tears, and blood. We might have been forced 
 into those armies, which have perished on the plains of 
 Europe, stiffened with December's frosts, or fattening 
 the soils with their blood. But God had kindnesses 
 in store for us, and bid our fathers fly to some other 
 land. 
 
 But whither could they fly? When they first began 
 to feel oppression, America was unknown in Europe. It 
 had lain hid beyond a vast expanse of trackless ocean, 
 ever since it sprang from chaos. True, it had been 
 visited, but from its dreary bourne, no one had returned 
 to bear tidings. Driven before the eastern tornado, the 
 wretched had known its rocky shores as the place of their 
 .midnight shipwreck ; else unknown. But Divine GoodV 
 
 21* 
 
242 THE MERCIES Of GOO 
 
 ness, which had long kept it in reserve for us, raised it 
 into view, just at the moment when oppression was pre- 
 paring our fathers to wish and pray for some asylum 
 where they and their children might be free. The im- 
 mortal Columbus sought our shores. Our ancestors 
 followed him, under the same Divine escort. And here 
 we are this morning in a land of plenty, health, and 
 freedom. 
 
 My hearers, do you not feel that God was kind in 
 all this ? Think then of the millions, who are this day 
 miserably poor, on that ground where we might have 
 been wretched paupers, if our forefathers had remained 
 at home. Think of Europe's precious youth who have 
 been lately torn from home in their tender years, to man 
 the navy and fill the armies. Think of the fathers, who 
 now need sons to prop their age, but have lost them in 
 battle. Ah ! and mothers, more helpless still, without a 
 child remaining to solace their widowhood. See that band 
 of females ! they have been to the shore to salute their hus- 
 bands but they return in despair ; their husbands have 
 fallen in the field.* Think of the pleasant cottages 
 wrapped in flames by the torches of a desolating army. 
 Recollect the sufferings of that little Swiss Republic, to 
 whom liberty was so dear, that mothers left their infants 
 under the oak, and fought and fell by the side of their 
 husbands. While humanity bleeds over these scenes of 
 distress, let piety raise to heaven a tearful eye, and say, 
 " Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me 
 bless his holy name.'' 
 
 3. As a parent his children, the Lord has instructed 
 us. We were from infancy taught to read the Scrip- 
 
 * A scene actually witnessed Dot lone; since in England, on the re- 
 turn from Spain of a remnant of Lord Wellington's army. 
 
NOT OBEDIENTLY RECIPROCATED. 243 
 
 tures, and were early placed under the droppings of the. 
 sanctuary. Many of us have been devoted to God 
 in baptism, and have thus been made members of the 
 school of Christ. Pious parents have whispered truth in 
 our ears. Ever have we had, line upon line, and pre- 
 cept upon precept. In no other quarter of the globe 
 have all classes the means of instruction. And in this 
 matter has not the Lord been a kind Father ? If a 
 doubt remains, think of those crowds of Papists, who, 
 through ignorance of the Scriptures, pray to departed 
 saints, and tender gold for the pardon of sin ! See 
 those hordes of Mahometans, stupid as the beast, till 
 their infuriated passions arouse them to spill a brother's 
 blood. Think of the millions of Pagan tribes, who to 
 this day worship a block of wood. Yes, think of the 
 hundreds of millions, who never saw a Bible, who 
 never enjoyed a Sabbath, and to whom no kind angel of 
 mercy ever carried proffers of pardon. Think of these 
 things, and you cannot doubt the fatherly kindness of 
 God in providing for our instruction. 
 
 4. God has exercised parental love in defending our 
 country in times of d tnger. Our whole history, from 
 the first landing of our forefathers, is but one continued, 
 affecting account of God's care of them and us. When 
 that first ship brought that little band of persecuted 
 Christians, and landed them, in the midst of winter, on 
 Plymouth's bleak, inhospitable coast, — when they there 
 kindled their first fire, amidst howlinj beasts and yelling 
 savages, — when they there fell on their knees, and to 
 heaven raised their eyes, streaming with tears, — when 
 they covered their little babes with the leaves blown from 
 the trees of autumn, and stationed a sentinel to watch the 
 foe ; how could it be doubted but they would be driven 
 from the land they had reached 1 Who could have pre- 
 
244 THE MERCIES OF GOD 
 
 dieted, or would have dared to hope, that God would 
 soon give them peaceable possession of all this extensive 
 country ? 
 
 And afterward, when the savage band conspired to de- 
 stroy that little company of strangers,— when the scalp- 
 ing knife w r as raised over the slumbers of the cradle, — 
 when the savage yell disturbed the midnight dream, and 
 the angry flames were consuming the little thatched 
 hovels where our mothers slept, who could have thought 
 that God intended so soon to give the word, and bid 
 those savages retire to the western forests? — who could 
 have believed, or dreamed, that those miserable hovels 
 would in a few years be exchanged for these beautiful 
 mansions which now adorn our land ? 
 
 And when, afterward, the merciless Frenchmen bore 
 down upon us from the north, and in the west hired 
 against us the bloody tomahawk, — when their ships of 
 war covered our lakes, and spread destruction along our 
 Atlantic shores, and the savage band broke in upon our 
 frontiers, each pressed on by infernal fury ; who could 
 have thought that heaven designed, by this war, to pre- 
 pare us for future conflicts, and raise us up an immortal 
 Washington to be the future saviour of our country. 
 
 And when, at length, the very land that gave us birth 
 became hostile ; — when her floating purgatories thun- 
 dered on our coast, and burned our cities, and her hard 
 hearted veterans were ravaging our country, stripping 
 our fathers of their flocks and herds, and our mothers of 
 their well-earned food, and of the couch on which they 
 dared not rest, and could not sleep : — when at length 
 we were forced to make an appeal to the sword, and our 
 little companies of undisciplined troops were rallying 
 round their General ; — when our fathers began to fall in 
 •the high places of the field, and our mothers, with some 
 
NOT OBEDIENTLY RECIPROCATED. 245 
 
 of us infants in their arms, fled from the foe, and saw 
 him burn their dwellings ; — when at length the temples 
 of the living God were converted into barracks, profaned 
 with the soldier's oath, and dissipated night with their 
 blazing spires ; — when the meek ambassador of the 
 cross* must die for loving his country, and for wishing to 
 be free ; and when all hearts began to ache and to bleed, 
 and Heaven had not yet begun to give us the victory, — 
 in this trying hour, who would have thought that God 
 intended so soon to deliver us from the oppressive yoke 
 of our parent country, and make us an independent and 
 happy republic. 
 
 While we look round us, and see some present, who 
 still wear the scars they received in that perilous hour, 
 we feel emotions of gratitude which we cannot suppress. 
 Yes, fathers ! while we bless God for being our rock 
 of defence in the desperate hour, we thank you for the 
 efforts you made to earn and deliver to us the fair inherit- 
 ance of freedom. We never will, no never ! forget your 
 toils and dangers. We will cherish you in your decli- 
 ning years, and when you are dead, we will lead our 
 infant children to your graves, and tell them the history 
 of your sufferings in the cause of freedom. But, fathers, 
 while we thank you that you fought in Israel's hosts, we 
 entreat you to love Israel's God. And ye aged mothers, 
 you fled with us from the malice of the foe : O ! flee with 
 us from the wrath to come ! 
 
 Here I could stay and mention other mercies till the 
 sun had gone down. God has given us a happier form 
 of government than is now enjoyed in any other portion 
 of the globe. Life, property, and the rights of conscience 
 are secure. Parents are not constrained to send their 
 children, at the call of a tyrant, to be trained up to the 
 
 Mr. Caldwell, of Elizabeth-Town. 
 
246 
 
 THE MERCIES OF GOD 
 
 art of murder. As yet we have suffered but little by the 
 present distressing- war. The foe has destroyed others ; 
 fellow-citizens have spilt their blood in the field, and 
 others have lost their all, while we are unmolested. Nor 
 have we felt the distresses of famine. The poorest 
 among us have bread, while, in our world, and doubtless 
 in some parts of our land, there are those who are desti- 
 tute. God has kept us too from those plagues and 
 pestilences which have desolated other countries. Our 
 breezes are yet laden with health. O how good is the 
 Lord ! 
 
 And we could tell of individual blessings. God has 
 guarded our lives. In the midst of a thousand snares 
 we have been safely kept. Who can say why we have- 
 not been numbered among the millions dead, or the 
 thousands now in the agonies of dissolution. Every day 
 and every hour have our lives been forfeited. If God 
 had bidden us die any morning or any evening, he had 
 still been just and good. But he yet allows our blood to 
 flow warm in our veins, and the heart to beat high with 
 life in our bosoms. In all this how strong a testimony of 
 the divine goodness ! 
 
 Bat our wonder must increase. God has not only 
 spared us. and defended us from harm, but has with his 
 bounty rendered our lives comfortable and happy. We 
 have been surrounded with every thing that could sweet- 
 en life. Our friends have smiled upon us and loved 
 us. " God has fed us with the finest of wheat, and with 
 the honey out of the rock has he satisfied us." We have 
 sat peaceably in our dwellings, and have seen the rich 
 harvests ripening in our fields, while other dwellings have 
 resounded with dying groans, and other fields have been 
 fattened with human gore. Thus God has employed 
 his wisdom and power in making rebels happy. If all 
 
NOT OBEDIENTLY RECIPROCATED. 247 
 
 this does not excite our gratitude, the beasts of the stall 
 will find a tongue to reproach us : for " the ox knoweth 
 his owner, and the ass his. master's crib." 
 
 But, to crown our other mercies, to blacken our in- 
 gratitude, and raise our wonder to its climax, God offers 
 us eternal life through his Son. We are pressed with 
 the obligations of dying love. The Holy Spirit, with 
 kind intent, has come down among us. Through all 
 the past year he has been knocking at the door of some 
 of our hearts. And perhaps many present have contin- 
 ued to reject his kindest entreaties. And still divine 
 compassion waits to save. 
 
 Thus after our cup has run over with earthly bless- 
 ings, God has opened to us all the treasures of heaven. 
 First he fills our table with his fruits, and his wines, and 
 then invites us to the marriage supper of the Lamb. 
 Here is unparalleled benevolence. No world has known 
 the like. The angels have seen nothing like it in heav- 
 en, devils have heard of nothing like it in hell. That 
 God should be kind to the good is to be expected ; but 
 that infinite wisdom and love should exhaust their skill 
 to make a rebel happy, is enough to excite wonder in the 
 breast of Gabriel. 
 
 Having thus nourished and brought us up as children, 
 had not the Lord a right to expect obedience ? Are we 
 not the basest of creatures if we do not love and serve 
 him ? I appeal to conscience, which God has placed as 
 his witness, in your bosom. What demand does that 
 messenger of heaven make upon you to-day ? Should 
 not the passing hours be spent in God's praise ? If 
 otherwise employed, will not the God of Israel be angry ? 
 And yet we know that none will give him praise but 
 those who love him. All others will profane this day, 
 
248 THE MERCIES OF GOD 
 
 and thus provoke his wrath. I proceed to the other part 
 of my subject. 
 
 II. While God has been exhibiting all this parental 
 affection, we have rebelled against him. Every breach 
 of God's law, every departure from duty, every unholy 
 affection and improper action is rebellion. In our case, 
 as in that of Judah, when God complained by the pro- 
 phet, we exhibit degeneracy as well as rebellion. We 
 have departed from the piety and rectitude of our fore- 
 fathers. I shall at present mention some of the prevail- 
 ing sins of our land, by which it is manifest that we are 
 both a degenerate and rebellions people. And while I 
 proceed, every one must allow his conscience to do its 
 office. It is to no purpose that the gospel is preached, 
 unless the truth is felt. 
 
 The first sin 1 mention as proving our degeneracy 
 and rebellion, is the want of family religion in our 
 land : instance family prayer. While we are com- 
 manded to pray with all manner of prayer, lifting up 
 holy hands to God, many families entirely neglect the 
 duty. From no domestic altar ascends their morning 
 and evening sacrifice. They rise with the sun, and ad- 
 dress themselves to the business of the day, without 
 asking God to watch or guide them. I fear some of my 
 hearers did not pray in their families this morning. God 
 only knows. And no doubt as many will retire this 
 evening, without thanking God for preserving goodness, 
 or engaging any heavenly guard to watch the sleeping 
 pillow. Now if parents do not pray in their furni lies, 
 we cannot hope that they do it in their closets. That 
 parent who finds secret prayer delightful, will endeavour 
 by example to teach his children prayer. It is reported 
 that some professors of religion have no prayer in their 
 
NOT OBEDIENTLY RECIPROCATED. 249 
 
 families, and ask no blessing over their food. Some are 
 said to pray only on the Sabbath, and ask a blessing 
 ov T er one meal in the day. Why not, with the same 
 propriety, pray once in the year, and ask only an an- 
 nual blessing over the ingathered harvest? This would 
 cut the business short. 
 
 In this point we have degenerated. It is said that 
 among our forefathers there was no family without a 
 domestic altar, no little helpless immortals without a 
 father's prayers. They partook not of the Divine boun- 
 ty till they had blessed the Giver. Could they return 
 they would blush to own their offspring. 
 
 How can the Chistian neglect duties so plain ? How 
 can the father, whose title implies the warmest affection, 
 let his children retire at night, till he has committed them 
 to the care of God ? If neglected by the father, how 
 can the mother, a name yet more tender, lay her little 
 ones upon their pillows, till she has put them under the 
 care of the watchman of Israel. How do careless pa- 
 rents know that their children will live till the morning? 
 And should they die on that night, when they were not 
 the subjects of parental prayer, how must those parents 
 feel ? With what heart-rending anguish must they con- 
 vey their bodies to the grave. The neglect of this duty 
 in particular, and of family religion in general, is doubt- 
 less a crying sin, which proves our apostacy and rebel- 
 lion, and must draw down Divine judgments. 
 
 2. Another common sin, equally manifesting degene- 
 racij and rebellion, is the neglect of discipline in families 
 and churches. Many families have no government. 
 The children never feel restraint, and so never learn obe- 
 dience. The consequence is, they often despise their 
 parents, and prove scourges to society. The world is the 
 loser by their existence. They live only to cumber the 
 
 22 
 
250 THE MERCIES OF GOD 
 
 ground, and reproach their parents. How ashamed 
 ought parents to be of such children! and how afraid 
 should society be of such parents ! 
 
 In Churches the same neglect of discipline prevails. 
 Some, who have no pretensions to heart religion, are 
 admitted to the communion. Many are seen there who 
 are not moral. Yes ! the lips of profaneness touch the 
 symbols of a dying Christ ! Hands polluted with the 
 intoxicating bowl, and trembling under its dire effects, are 
 moved to the sacred cup ! The scorner, in many places, 
 takes his seat among the followers of the Lamb ! The 
 very disciples of Iscariot, who envy Jesus a throne with 
 the Father, and would pluck every gem from his crown ; 
 who trample upon truth ; and would gladly extirpate 
 the Church, or at least kindle a hell in her bosom — these 
 come forward, with a brazen front, and commemorate the 
 dying love of Christ ! Were He to come and put himself 
 again in the power of sinners, would not many of our com- 
 municants leave the sacrament and go to crucify him? In 
 the days of our forefathers, there was not this want of 
 discipline. Every family was a little Church, in which 
 pious parents bent every effort to make their children 
 like themselves. Departure from duty met reproof. The 
 child who would disobey a parent, disrespect superiors, 
 disturb devotion, or profane the Name of God, would 
 meet the frowns of his play-fellows. 
 
 The church-member who walked disorderly was re- 
 proved, and at once either reclaimed or cut off. None 
 came to the Lord's table, who were not strictly moral and 
 hopefully pious. They had no idea, in those days, that 
 unrenewed men had any right to the children's bread. If 
 they were correct, we are degenerate. It would be hap- 
 py for the Church and the world, if that golden age 
 could return. And return it must ; discipline must be 
 
NOT OBEDIENTLY RECIPROCATED. 251 
 
 administered, before there will be a reformation of morals, 
 or. any extensive revival of religion in our land. And 
 have we not reason to believe that a reformation in this 
 matter must precede the removal of those judgments 
 which we begin to feel. If God frowned because he 
 disapproved, why smile till he approve ? 
 
 3. The profanation of the Sabbath is another general 
 sin, proving us degenerate and rebellious. Once that 
 day was respected in America. The man who did not 
 regard the Sabbath was not esteemed. The person who 
 walked the streets on that day, unless to or from the 
 house of God, was considered a disturber of the public 
 peace.* Then the waterman anchored his vessel in the 
 harbour, till the hours of Sabbath were by ; the travel- 
 ler delayed his journey, and the young laid aside their 
 pastimes. Now the sailor begins his voyage, the traveller 
 pursues his journey, young men their pleasures, and 
 children their sports on that sacred day. On many 
 public streets the way to the temple is obstructed with 
 teams, and as you enter the very doors of the sanctuary, 
 your ears are assailed with the oaths of the heaven- 
 abandoned teamsters. The inn-keeper and his family 
 can never hear the gospel ; they might as well live in 
 India : they must be at home to serve the Sabbath- 
 breaker. In many parts of our land the evening of the 
 Sabbath is not regarded. 
 
 And there are none who dare oppose this flood of cor- 
 ruption. One plea is, there are no laws. If we have 
 no laws sufficient to enforce the observance of the Sab- 
 bath, and our Legislators refuse to enact any, we must 
 be a very corrupt people ; if we have, and dare not en- 
 
 * In one of the largest States in the Union, a public officer stopped 
 the Lieutenant-Governor, as he was walking out on the Sabbath, and 
 obliged him to return. 
 
252 THE MERCIES OF GOD 
 
 force them, then our corruption is incurable. In either 
 case, we have a striking demonstiation that we are a re- 
 bellious and degenerate people. 
 
 4. " Because of swearing the land mourneth." This 
 sin proves us degenerate and rebellions:. The pro- 
 fane oath used to be the subject of public prosecu- 
 tion. Men dared not take in vain the name of the Lord 
 their God. When respect for the great Jehovah did not 
 restrain, the fear of man did. But the gold has become 
 dim. In many awful instances, the child who has just 
 begun to speak, is taught to swear. The evening streets 
 profanely echo with the names of the eternal God. The 
 inn, formerly the peaceable asylum of the pious travel- 
 ler, is now often rendered intolerable by resounding 
 oaths and curses. What sin can be more daring ? It is 
 a direct attack upon a holy God. It evinces a heart 
 desperately rebellious. Its prevalence evinces a slate of 
 society monstrously degenerate. 
 
 5 Another sin, equally proving us rebellions and 
 degenerate, is intemperance.* This is a growing sin, 
 which should alarm every friend to human happiness. 
 It prevails among both sexes,! and in all classes of soci- 
 ety. Numberless families in our country are rendered 
 miserable by this unnatural iniquity. To-day they are 
 happy and useful, to-morrow lost. Intemperate creatures 
 are now found in every place. They come to our holy 
 communion, they are entrusted with public offices, they 
 officiate in our Churches, and have, in some distressing 
 instances, made their way into the sacred desk, and have 
 there stood in the place of God's ambassador. 
 
 *It is credibly reported} that in the first settlement of this country, 
 SpirituoUs liquor was kepi only by the apothecaries as a medicine. 
 
 | It is ascertained to be fact, that under the pretence of the sick head- 
 ache, many ladies of fashion ietiie to sleep off the fumes of excessive 
 drinking. 
 
NOT OBEDIENTLY RECIPROCATED. 253 
 
 6. Another sin which proves us degenerate and re- 
 bellious, is the existence of two hostile political parties. 
 The manner in which these parties treat each other, 
 prove us a vicious race. Each accuses the other of der 
 signing the ruin of his country, of being vile, and false, 
 and under foreign influence. Now if both divisions 
 speak truth, in bringing this charge, then we are all an 
 abandoned people ; if one party only speak truth, still 
 about half of us are irrecoverably lost ; and if neither 
 keep the truth, then " all men are liars." Take either 
 ground and we are a wicked race. An unhappy result of 
 this political division is, that we have corrupted the press. 
 It is almost impossible to learn truth from the public 
 gazettes. By party prejudice and rage, facts are discol- 
 oured. The honest man dares not confide in what he 
 reads. On either side the plainest facts are sometimes 
 obstinately and perseveringly denied : — I do not charge 
 it all to the editors, nor dare I attempt to exonerate 
 them. 
 
 Once things were not so. Our fathers knew but one 
 party : they were Americans. They contended only for 
 the interests of their own country. Every public paper 
 was the vehicle of truth. If one said, a I saw it written 
 thus in the newspaper" there were none to contradict. 
 Nothing was written there that was not believed to be 
 truth. But that golden age is gone. Truth, unable to 
 breathe our polluted atmosphere, has taken its flight. As 
 if the tongue, that " world of iniquity," could not suffi- 
 ciently disperse falsehood, men have taught the paper 
 and ink to lie ; and yet there is not a shadow of evi- 
 dence, that there may not be on both sides of the ques- 
 tion, the firmest friends and vilest enemies of their 
 country. 
 
 22* 
 
254 THE MERCIES OF GOD 
 
 Here I could enumerate many other sins ; among 
 which are conspicuous a disposition in professors of reli- 
 gion to conform to the world, the littie regard paid to an 
 oath, a proneness in ministers to seek 'popularity rather 
 than usefulness, to consult the taste rather than the 
 good of their hearers, and the prevailing propensity to 
 asperse character : — I am ashamed to name any more. 
 
 These sins have offended Go , and he has come out 
 of his holy place to punish u- Ii we do not repent, 
 how can we hope that God will not treat us as he has 
 other wicked nations, and discharge upon us, ultimately, 
 the full vials of his wrath. Is there not occasion why this 
 day should be devoted to God ? If he be for us, none can 
 be against us ; but if God forsake us, we are as stubble, 
 and can be trodden down by any foe that he may com- 
 mission. And can we hope that he will continue to 
 protect us, when discipline and prayer are neglected : 
 when the name, th - worship, the Sabbath, and the sa- 
 cred honour of God are disregarded ; and when every 
 sin that can be named prevails? Will he continue to 
 shield us by his power, when no longer his people? Will 
 he be " a wall of fire round about us," when no longer 
 "the glory in the midst of us?" As the Lord liveth our 
 sins have placed us in danger. 
 
 Is it not then a time when all classes of men should 
 fear before the Lord ? Ought not the ministers of the 
 Gospel to take their stand between the porch and the 
 altar, and cry, with incessant tears, u Lord, spare thy 
 people, and give not thy heritage to reproach." Have 
 they not reason to fear that the ark of God may be taken 
 from us, and carried to the heathen? Alas ! if we look 
 round us must we not fear that the divine glory is now 
 hovering over the threshold, in the attitude of departing. 
 
NOT OBEDIENTLY RECIPROCATED 255 
 
 Since our iniquities put us in danger, may every watch- 
 man be awake upon his watch-tower, and be ready to 
 give the alarm, that if he cannot save others, he may at 
 least free his own skirts from the blood of souls. 
 
 And shall not parents, who look forward to the desti- 
 nies of a rising offspring, which they are about to leave 
 in the midst of dangers like these ; parents to whom 
 God has committed in charge souls more precious than 
 material worlds, — shall they not this day mourn over 
 their own sins and the sins of their children ? Shall 
 they not bring them in faith and prayer to the arms of a 
 compassionate God. My dear fathers and mothers, soon 
 opportunity to pray for your children will be gone. Your 
 withering locks will soon lie in the dust. We do hope 
 that before your dissolution arrives, we shall be the sub- 
 jects of your earnest prayers. We entreat you to pray 
 for us to-day. 
 
 My Christian friends, it will become us to lie low in 
 the dust to-day, and to review all our sins, by which 
 perhaps we have stumbled the impenitent, and provoked 
 our kind Redeemer. Think, brethren, of the impending 
 dangers. Every thing dear to the pious heart is at stake ; 
 the country bought with the blood of our fathers ; yes, 
 and the American churches bought with richer blood. 
 As we inquire now respecting the seven churches of Asia, 
 others may, another day, inquire, " Where are now the 
 once flourishing churches of America ? " O, is this 
 ground, made sacred by the impress of a Saviour's feel, 
 to be trodden down by a savage band ? Is this temple 
 of God to become, ever, a Mahometan mosque. After 
 God has baptized it with his Spirit, will he suffer it to 
 become a heathen temple '!■ "O! tell it not in Gath ! 
 Publish it not in the streets of Askelon ! " The enemies 
 of truth will triumph. Christians, pray this day for 
 
256 THE MERCIES OF GOD. 
 
 Zion. Go to your closets, while others are abusing the 
 day, and deplore prevailing iniquities, and weep over a 
 people, who, by their sins, are destroying themselves. If 
 God will not forgive us, and still be for us, we die. And 
 the prayers of the saints must bring the blessing down. 
 One word to the impenitent. This is an important 
 day for you, but I fear that some of you may this day do 
 your souls much injury. The saints consider your dan- 
 ger very great, and many a prayer has ascended this 
 morning from the " dwellings of Jacob " in your behalf. 
 If ruin comes upon our land, you have no place of re- 
 fuge. The Christian has a strong tower, into which he 
 can run and be safe ; but destruction will overtake you 
 if out of Christ. O ! what need have you to be afflicted j 
 and mourn, and weep ! All your sins are still written 
 against you. Not one of all the myriads is pardoned. 
 See to it that you do not act to-day so as to provoke God 
 to anger, and perhaps induce him to abandon you for- 
 ever. May we all so spend the day as to do our country 
 good, and promote our future eternal blessedness. 
 
A SERMON, 
 
 DELIVERED AT 
 
 THE LAYING OF THE CORNER-STONE 
 
 AMHERST COLLEGE, 
 
 AUGUST 9, 1820. 
 
SERMON LVII. 
 
 THE INDUSTRIOUS YOUNG PROPHETS'. 
 
 II. Isaiah, vi. 1-3. 
 And the sons of the prophets said unto Elisha, Behold now, the place 
 where we dwell with thee is too strait for us. Let us go, we pray thee, unto 
 Jordan, and take there every man a beam, and let us make us a place there, 
 where we may dwell. And he answered, Go ye. And one said, Be con- 
 tent, I pray thee, and go with thy seivants, and he answered, I will go. 
 
 About nine hundred years before Christ, there was at 
 Jericho or Gilgal. some place near to Jordan, a school of 
 the prophets, at the head of which was the worthy and 
 venerable Elisha. The government of Israel was in the 
 hands of Jehoram, a degenerate son of the impious 
 Ahab. It was a time of general corruption ; the prophets 
 were treated with neglect ; and the honours due to God 
 were given to an idol. Still the prophets were employed 
 in promoting the worship of God, and their number in- 
 creased till they had occasion to enlarge the place of their 
 tent. In the simple and interesting history of this enter- 
 prise, we learn, that the prophets, though poor, and not 
 held in very high estimation in that degenerate age, 
 were pious, honest, and industrious. 
 
 They seem to have dwelt together, that under the tui- 
 tion of their honoured father, they might become prepar- 
 ed to teach and prophecy in Israel and the neighbouring 
 countries. They were, no doubt, at this time, frequently 
 consulted by the leaders of Israel, notwithstanding their 
 degeneracy and corruption. 
 
260 THE INDUSTIOUS YOUNG PROPIIETS. 
 
 I presume it can need no apology, if I glance from 
 this school of the prophets to the education of a gospel 
 ministry. O could I, in the transition, bring with me 
 into gospel times the faith of Elisha, and transfer into 
 my audience the zeal of his associates ! Then the 
 building we propose to erect would soon rise, and the 
 church, down to the latest ages, feel and rejoice in the 
 benevolent enterprise. I shall take occasion to remark 
 in the 
 
 First Place, That, up to this moment, very inade- 
 quate provision is made for replenishing the gospel 
 ministry. This treasure is committed to earthen ves- 
 sels ; ministers are dying men. When we have served 
 the church a few days, we go the way of all the earth, 
 and the places that knew us know us no more forever. 
 But the churches must still have a ministry ; and that 
 ministry be composed of men, not angels ; men educat- 
 ed by human means, not inspired with miraculous gifts. 
 Hence there must be made a perpetual effort to create 
 this supply of pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of 
 the saints, and for the edifying of the body of Christ. 
 But the present ratio of supply is entirely inadequate to 
 the exigencies of the church. On this subject there 
 needs no other argument but a statement of facts, of 
 which there could be presented a list that would move 
 any but a heart of iron. A very few of these facts, 
 drawn from the very best authorities, I will take the 
 liberty to mention. 
 
 The nine millions of souls in these United States, 
 have the service, it is believed, of only about two thou- 
 sand five hundred ministers who are competent to preach 
 the gopsel. But if instead of this number we had nine 
 thousand, each must then have the care of one thousand 
 souls. But in a large proportion of our country, owing 
 
THE INDUSTRIOUS YOUNG PROPHETS. 261 
 
 to the scattered state of its population, five hundred souls 
 would be an extensive charge. Hence, nine thousand 
 ministers, in addition to all we have, would be but a 
 bare supply for this district of the church of Christ. 
 But this number would equal that of the ministers edu- 
 cated in times past in all the colleges in the United States 
 in nearly twenty years. While, then, we might be pre- 
 paring this supply, many ministers will go to their 
 graves, and others be disabled, and our population will 
 have almost doubled. 
 
 We are assured, that in the three southernmost of the 
 Atlantic States, containing perhaps a million and a half 
 of souls, there are but one hundred and ten competent 
 ministers ; while in one district of South Carolina, con- 
 taining nine hundred square miles, there is but one place 
 of worship, and that not used, and not one Christian 
 church or minister of any denomination. In the whole 
 of Indiana, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Illinois, 
 Michigan and Missouri, a district of country large enough 
 for a continent, and containing at least three hundred 
 and fifty thousand souls, there are not twenty competent 
 ministers ; of course, but one to more than twenty thou- 
 sand. In East Tennessee, there are in seventeen coun- 
 ties more than one hundred thousand, while fourteen of 
 these counties are without one regular minister of the 
 gospel. In the west of Virginia, in eight counties, are 
 forty-seven thousand souls connected with no religious 
 society ; and four whole counties without any religious 
 instituf ions whatever. In another district there are fifty- 
 three thousand souls, in another twenty thousand, and in 
 another still sixty tbousand, all in about the same deplor- 
 able condition. In Pennsylvania there are extensive dis- 
 tricts in which there never was a school, where more 
 than half the adults can neither read nor write, many 
 
 23 
 
262 THE INDUSTRIOUS YOUNG PROPHETS. 
 
 never saw a Bible nor any book, nor ever heard a sermon. 
 One district of forty thousand souls, has but one fixed 
 pastor. In the state of New- York there could be settled 
 immediately, were they to be found, two hundred minis- 
 ters. And if we should survey the limits of New-Eng- 
 land, we should see some dreary moral deserts. In the 
 two oldest counties of New-Hampshire, there are about 
 forty-five towns without a ministry. But 1 have not time 
 to enlarge. Allowing that these statements may be in 
 many respects not exactly correct, still they are evidence 
 of a wide and fearful desolation. If but the one half is 
 true, it presents to the eye of charity a moral landscape 
 of wide and fearful dimensions.* 
 
 If you could read the epistles that pour these com- 
 plaints into our ears, you would weep if you ever did, or 
 would die with shame, or would rise to a tone of charity 
 that many have not reached. Now these desolate places 
 must be cultivated, these wastes of death must be fertiliz- 
 ed. But where are they to find a ministry ? The com- 
 mon resources are utterly inadequate to this home sup- 
 ply. But in the mean time we need missionaries to send 
 to the heathen. Of these there are six hundred millions 
 who pay their supreme homage to stocks and stones. 
 The United States, it is computed, ought to despatch to 
 their help at least two thousand missionaries, and roill 
 do it, if the time has come, as we presume it has, when 
 the Christian community, with the charter of eternal life 
 in their hands, can sleep no longer. 
 
 And still the ministry must be replenished at home. 
 If the probability is, that we shall feel it our duty soon to 
 support among the heathen, a number of missionaries 
 
 * We are happy to say that the state of things, in all these cases, are 
 greatly altered for the better, and that this institution, notwithstanding 
 its youth, has had its full share in producing these happy results. 
 
THE INDUSTRIOUS YOUNG PROPHETS. 263 
 
 greater than that of the ministers now within our limits, 
 pray from what resource can we obtain that enormous 
 supply? To ex [tort the whole of our ministry, would 
 render our own country the valley of death. It is im- 
 possible not to see that the Christian churches have neg- 
 lected their duty too long. We must be more thoroughly 
 awake soon, or nothing but a boundless desolation stares 
 us in the face. The wastes of death are already so wide 
 that they almost outmeasure the hope of cultivation, and 
 they are daily augmenting their horrid circumference. 
 Our children, when we shall have done all that we can, 
 are very likely to be among those who shall cry for the 
 bread of life, and perish before their cry is heard. When 
 they shall have attended our funeral, they may retire to 
 the west, and there pine away in their sins, while there 
 falls upon their ears no sound of mercy, and their eyes 
 see not upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth 
 glad tidings, that publisheth peace, that saith to Zion, 
 Thy God reigneth. We may miss our children in heav- 
 en, and know then, but know too late, that they have 
 perished through our negligence. While we thus weep 
 over the fearful delinquencies in the ministry of recon- 
 ciliation, it is cheering to know, 
 
 II. That we have the materials and the means of an 
 abundant supply. When I speak of the materials, my 
 eye is searching among the churches for the happy sub- 
 jects of our late revivals. Many of them I perceive are 
 in the vale of poverty, and would rejoice to be useful, if 
 they might presume to hope, that they could be equipped 
 for the work, and that God would employ them in his 
 service. They are waiting, it is presumed, till this in- 
 stitution rise, and some kind voice invite them to come 
 and take sanctuary under its covert. If they could equip 
 themselves they would ; or if they dared to hope that 
 
264 THE INDUSTRIOUS YOUNG PROPHETS. 
 
 they were worthy, they would pour their cry into our 
 ears, and give us no rest till we had made them the re- 
 cipients of our charity. A few years since, if we had 
 been awake to this interest, it would not have been easy 
 to find materials. God had suffered our youth to grow 
 up in unbelief, and thus had chastised us for our neg- 
 ligence. But, anticipating the close of our portentous 
 blumber, his mercy has waked, and prepared the rising 
 generation to be educated, and employed to lead to con- 
 quest and to glory the sacramental hosts of God's elect. 
 If we were prepared and would enter to-morrow one hun- 
 dred upon our opening list of beneficiaries, it is presumed 
 they could readily be found, and their hearts would leap 
 for joy to know that they might be furnished to the good 
 work of pointing sinners to tiie Saviour. 
 
 And we have abundantly the means. If each person 
 in the United States would give one cent a year for this 
 purpose, it would amount to ninety thousand dollars an- 
 nually, a sum the interest of which would discharge an- 
 nually and forever the expenses of more than fifty bene- 
 ficiaries, or if the principal should be expended, it would 
 support for one year nine hundred. If each church 
 member in the United States should contribute to this ob- 
 ject annually one dollar, it would probably raise the sum 
 of four hundred thousand dollars, and support four thou- 
 sand students. Most congregations beside supporting the 
 ministry, could defray the expenses of one student an- 
 nually, and thus furnish every seven years one minister. 
 In one timely shower of rain, God could restore all we 
 had expended for years; or by warding off one storm > 
 could save for us a far greater amount. The man who 
 could lose an ox every year, and not be poor, or could 
 bear the expense of one fit of sickness, could pour the 
 price of that ox, or the expenses of that visitation, into the 
 
THE INDUSTRIOUS YOUNG PROPHETS. 265 
 
 treasury of the Lord, and not be poor. But if half the 
 number who could make this sacrifice, would do it, and 
 devote the avails to this object, we could very soon ten- 
 fold the number of our ministers, and make the desert 
 and the solitary place glad. If one can spend idly, in the 
 course of the year, ten days, and not be poor, he could 
 employ those days, and not be poor, in earning something 
 for this benevolent purpose. But if half who actually 
 make this sacrifice should thus employ their time, the 
 treasury of the Lord would soon be full. If the youth 
 who annually spend ten dollars in mere extravagancies, 
 would give the one half of this expenditure to educate 
 pious and worthy young men for the gospel ministry, 
 there would be made no farther calls upon the Christian 
 public. If farmers would cultivate each a quarter acre 
 of their waste lands in the best manner, and give the pro- 
 ceeds to the Lord, it would probably tenfold the sum that 
 has usually been given for all the benevolent purposes 
 for which contributions have been made. If the extra 
 crops of the present year, were devoted to the Lord, and 
 expended in thrusting forth labourers into his harvest, the 
 fields that are white would soon be gathered in. Were 
 that sum saved, which is annually lost by mere neglig- 
 ence, it would forever supply the churches with a well- 
 educated ministry, would furnish an army of evangelists, 
 and would fertilize the wastes of a moral world. Instead 
 .of its being the fact, as the covetous daily plead, that our 
 resources are exhausted, they are really yet untouched, 
 The man can hardly be found, who has denied himself 
 a comfort to revive a famishing world. And, as it will 
 always happen, those who complain the most have done 
 the leas', and most of those who complain, have done 
 nothing. The man who loves to do good with his wealth 
 is attentive to every call of charity, and has made eyery 
 
 23* 
 
266 THE INDUSTRIOUS YuUNG PROPHETS. 
 
 benevolent institution feel the effects of his liberality and 
 his prayers, is grieved that he does so little, and has 
 never been heard to say, that the calls upon his charity 
 have become so frequent as to be oppressive. That we 
 have the means abundantly, of making exertions that 
 we have never made, none can doubt. 
 
 III. It is our duty to use these means, and supply 
 ourselves and others with a well educated ministry. 
 The duty of preparing ourselves a ministry admits of no 
 controversy. If a congregation in each thirty or forty 
 years wears out a minister in their service, it is but hon- 
 est to calculate, that such a congregation should, in every 
 such period, in addition to supporting the ministry al- 
 ready in their employ, educate one, that the list may be 
 kept full. The only question is, Shall we provide a sur- 
 plus, for those who are destitute of a ministry, and can- 
 not be expected to supply themselves ? A very little re- 
 flection, it would seem, must render this matter plain. 
 If we look about us upon the waste places, we shall feel 
 that we are imperiously urged to provide them a supply 
 of pastors. There are churches very near us, which 
 have been so unhappy as to lose the blessing they once 
 enjoyed. Perhaps the surviving members had no part- 
 nership in the sin that stripped them of the ministry. 
 They are begging for help, would do all in their power 
 to provide themselves the gospel and its ordinances ; but 
 when they have done all they can do, they still hunger 
 for the bread of life. The Domestic Missionary Society, 
 instituted for their relief, have assured us, that, although 
 their funds have been low, much of the time since their 
 organization they have done nothing, because men 
 could not be found suitable for the service. When I 
 read of this fact, it had on my ear the effect of a dying- 
 groan, and stole through the heart like the cold stream 
 
THE INDUSTRIOUS YOUNG PROPHETS. 267 
 
 of death. Said I to myself, Are the churches that our 
 fathers planted, which they watered with their tears, in 
 whose bosom they expired, and in whose prosperity, 
 though now in heaven, they have still a deep and unali- 
 enable interest — are they to become extinct ? Is that 
 covenant broken, which it was promised should be per- 
 petual I Had their Redeemer said, "I have graven thee 
 upon the palms of my hands, thy walls are continually 
 before me," and has that city been demolished, and have 
 those walls been thrown down ? Have the children who 
 there received the seal of the covenant, no promise left 
 on which to hang their hopes I If we are to do good to 
 all men, but especially to those who are of the household 
 of faith, to help them to re-establish in their temples the 
 ministry of reconciliation is the first duty of piety, and the 
 first dictate of humanity. They hunger and thirst after 
 the bread of life, have received a pledge that God will 
 sanctify them through his truth, and cannot be denied 
 the blessing requisite to the fulfilment of this promise. 
 
 Or if we turn our eye to those who have gone to the 
 western woods, we shall see opened before us a field 
 which we dare not refuse to cultivate. They have been 
 used to the blessings of a Christian land, have heard and 
 loved the church-going bell, have enjoyed schools, acade- 
 mies and libraries, and been revived by the ordinance?, 
 and must they now be excluded forever from these privi- 
 leges 1 They cannot educate for themselves a ministrv, 
 nor build in the wilderness the unnumbered conveniences 
 they left behind. They have tinned their eye to us, and 
 if we refuse them help we cover them with unmingled 
 despair. They have thus before them none but the com- 
 fortless prospect of seeing their children become wild men 
 their hand against every man, and every man's hand 
 against them ; nor this the least ; for, without the gospel, 
 
268 THE INDUSTRIOUS YOUNG PROPHETS. 
 
 there is nothing before their dear devoted offspring but 
 the blackness of darkness forever. The mother, that 
 had devoted her children to God, and has gone with 
 them into the western wilds, must now die crushed with 
 the tremendous thought, that she became a mother, 
 merely that she might people the realms of death. Al- 
 ready she has hung her harp upon the willows, and 
 there it must hang, till some kind missionary enters the 
 door of her cabin, and wipes away her tears ; and this 
 missionary ?/;e must educate. Ten long years must 
 still roll away before he arrives, and she in the mean 
 time, bleached by the frosts of age, trembles on the brink 
 of the grave, but dare not die till her hopes are accom- 
 plished, and her children saved. 
 
 And who are these inhabitants of the forest ? They 
 are our fathers and mothers, our brethren and sisters, 
 our children, our friends and neighbours. They were 
 born in the houses we occupy, have gone from our fami- 
 lies and our bosom, were the companions of our child- 
 hood and our youth. We took sweet counsel together, 
 and went to the house of God in company. Hence the 
 cry they utter sounds in our ears loud and eloquent as 
 the shrieks of death. ■ If we do not hear nor help them, 
 then the mother has forgot her sucking child, and feels 
 no compassion for the son of her womb. Do you say, 
 They shall have a gospel ministry ? My heart responds, 
 They shall. 
 
 But I hear too the voice of the savage, sounding from 
 the bosom of that trackless forest still beyond. And 
 there is in that cry a wild and native eloquence. 
 
 " You have stripped us of our hunting ground ; all in 
 life that we held dear ; you have corrupted our morals ; 
 our tribes, already incalculably diminished, have on- 
 thin g before them but the dreary idea of being swal- 
 
THE INDUSTRIOUS i'OUNG PROPHETS 269 
 
 lowed up, unless it be the more fearful apprehension of 
 perishing forever in our sins. Once we were the heirs 
 of your soil, we now only ask to die the heirs of that 
 salvation, which is revealed to you in your Bibles." 
 A cry like this has been uttered and is heard. Already 
 the heralds of salvation have gone to look up the rem- 
 nants of their depopulated tribes, and point them to a 
 Saviour. Their sun is setting in the west, and we should 
 give evidence that we had their unpitying nature as well 
 as their soil, were we willing to see it go down in total 
 darkness. If the few that remain may live forever, it 
 alleviates the retrospect of their wrongs, and creates one 
 luminous spot in the Egyptian cloud that hangs over 
 the place of their fathers' sepulchres. I would give any 
 price for their forgiveness and (heir blessing ; and it 
 cheers my heart that my country is beginning to pay 
 the long arrears whieh are due to that injured people. 
 
 Now suppose, that not merely from the west, but 
 from other heathen lands, we hear a cry for the gospel. 
 If the millions of India ask us to send them back in Bi- 
 bles and missionaries the wealth we have imported from 
 their shores, can we say to them, " Be ye warmed and 
 be ye fed ? " If Palestine, and the shores of the Medi- 
 terranean, are seen pining with spiritual famine, and 
 should beg us to send them that bread of heaven which 
 their forefathers sent to ours, would there be no elo- 
 quence in that prayer l Or if Africa, poor ill-fated Af- 
 rica, should beg us to make them a Sabbath, and build 
 them a sanctuary, and send them a Bible and a missiona- 
 ry ; would they deserve no answer 1 Or if they should 
 be too much oppressed to utter any cry, and we should 
 only know that their highest deity is a serpent, and their 
 richest hope the repose of the grave, can we pass by on 
 the other side 'I Their sons have served our fathers and 
 
270 THE INDUSTRIOUS YOUNG PROPHETS. 
 
 us ; we have taught them nothing but our vices ; and 
 if now, when the promise is about to be fulfilled, and 
 Ethiopia is stretching out her hands unto God, we should 
 refuse them the gospel, how can we answer for the stripes, 
 and chains, and servitude, and famine, with which we 
 have taxed them ? What defence can we make when 
 their compassionate Redeemer shall advocate their cause. 
 
 Poor Africa must share, though late, the blessings of 
 the gospel ; it must be sent to the shores of Palestine, 
 must be propagated in India, must sound through every 
 isle of the ocean, and must go, with its stores of blessings, 
 to every section of this dark and desolate world. But 
 it cannot be sent ; the miseries that it would alleviate 
 must remain without a cure, till there is a great augmen- 
 tation of the army of evangelists. Hence we must use 
 the materials and employ the means in our power to 
 equip young men for this service. And every year's de- 
 lay will bury millions who have never heard of Christ, 
 and have no faith in his blood. Hence we are urged to 
 the work, by all that is fleeting in time, by all that is 
 valuable in the soul, by all that is bright and rich in the 
 thought of heaven, and by all that is dark and dreary in 
 the idea of hopeless perdition. 
 
 IV. Union in the Christian world will insure success. 
 Said the young men to the aged and venerable Elisha, 
 "Be content, we pray thee, and go with thy servants." 
 There was union ; and very soon the trees of Jordan fell, 
 and the school of the prophets was builded. How sim- 
 ple, how interesting, and how full of instruction is this 
 page of sacred story ! How the venerable prophet, as he 
 bore up a beam from the wood, evinced his faith in the 
 covenant, nerved the young men to exertion, and mag- 
 nified his office ! Let the Christian world unite, and the 
 work we propose will be easy. When all shall do a little, 
 
THE INDUSTRIOUS YOUNG PROPHETS. 271 
 
 none will be burdened. We can educate teachers for 
 ourselves, and furnish a surplus for the outcasts of Israel. 
 And to do it all we hardly need deny ourselves a single 
 comfort. We have only to gather up the fragments and 
 let nothing be lost, and they will feed millions of the hun- 
 gry. When we can unite in the effort, it will be easy 
 to do all that duty and that bmevolence require. The 
 waste places will be repaired, the destitute will be fur- 
 nished with the bread of heaven, the heathen will be 
 tamed to civility, and will burn their temples and their 
 idols, Ethiopia will stretch out her hands unto God, the 
 posterity of Abraham will own their allegiance to their 
 Saviour, and be again grafted into their own olive tree, 
 the Turk and the Arab will exchange the mosque and 
 the Koran for the sanctuary and the Bible, the Tartar 
 will pitch permanently his tent about the house of the 
 missionary, and Jesus, the long neglected Redeemer, 
 will receive the kingdom, the power and the glory for- 
 ever. 
 
 And there is nothing visionary in all this. It is all 
 promised, it is all expected, it will soon transpire ; and 
 the man who will not believe, like the infidel of Samaria, 
 may die in the gate, while the peris! ring inhabitants of 
 a world are rushing to the banquet of the Lamb. The 
 angel, flying through the midst of heaven, and having 
 the everlasting gospel to preach to them that dwell on 
 the earth, will publish it to every kindred and nation and 
 tongue and people. This any el is the gospel ministry, 
 and this prediction is fast accomplishing. 
 
 Will any ask, What has all this to do with the present 
 occasion ? The answer is obvious. You have met to 
 lay the foundation of an institution, designed to recruit 
 the ranks of the gospel ministry. There are many who 
 would become soldiers of the cross, if any would equip 
 
272 THE INDUSTRIOUS YOUNG PROPHETS. 
 
 them. The subscribers to this generous fund, and the 
 founders of this noble edifice, have in view this single ob- 
 ject. It is an institution, in some respects, like no other 
 that ever rose ; designed to bestow gratis a liberal educa- 
 tion upon tbose who will enter the gospel ministry, but 
 who are too indigent to defray the expense of their own 
 induction. It has been founded and must rise by char- 
 ity. And every man who shall bring a beam or a rock, 
 who shall lay a stone or drive a nail, from love to the 
 kingdom of Christ, shall not fail of his reward. I believe 
 this institution will collect about it the friends of the 
 Lord Jesus, who will be fed by their philantbropy and 
 watered by their prayers, and will yet become a fountain 
 pouring forth its streams to fertilize the boundless wastes 
 of a miserable world. In vision I see it among the 
 first institutions of our land, the younger sister and the 
 best friend of our theological seminaries, the centre of 
 our education societies, the solace of poverty, the joy of 
 the destitute, and the hope and the salvation of perish- 
 ing millions.* 
 
 Connected as it is with the recruit of the ministry, 
 the salvation of souls, and the glory of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, it will rise, and will soon have a claim upon the 
 charity, the prayers, and the tears of the whole Christian 
 community. If some who may aid in the work have 
 other motives than the glory of God, still I will hope, 
 and I do believe, that the great mass of the donors, have 
 their eye upon the future glories of Emmanuel, and are 
 erecting this institution as a monument to his honour. 
 And having put their hand to the plough, they will not 
 look back. They will still enlarge their charities, and 
 increase their hopes, till this sacred spot, where they are 
 
 * We arc happy ;o say tl atthispred'ction has been fulfilled long be- 
 fore this time. 
 
THE INDUSTRIOUS YOUNG PROPHETS. 273 
 
 erecting the school, has attracted the gaze, and gladden- 
 ed the aching hearts of believers in every destitute sec- 
 tion of our land. 
 
 The subject now makes its appeal to all classes of men, 
 to all the tender relationships of life, and to all the sym- 
 pathies of human nature. Its first appeal is to the 
 churches of our Lord Jesus Christ. They are the sa- 
 cred depositaries of divine truth, and are obligated to per- 
 petuate the ministry of reconciliation. Here you may 
 educate your children, born in your late revivals, and 
 committed to your care to train up for the Lord. Here 
 you see revived the hope and the promise of your future 
 prosperity. " Thy children shall all be taught of the 
 Lord, and great shall be the peace of thy children." Here 
 we hope will be educated many of your future pastors. 
 You have here an additional pledge, that God has not 
 forsaken you, and that he will never leave the vine he 
 has planted in this western world, to be trodden down 
 by the boar of the wood, or wasted by the lapse of time 
 or the ravages of death. " Thy teachers shall not be re- 
 moved into a corner any more, but thine eyes shall see thy 
 teachers." 
 
 And congregations have a singular interest. You 
 have had just occasion to fear that you might one day 
 become waste places, through a lack of pastors. But 
 the thought must be dreadful, whether you regard a 
 future life, or only the present. When the lips which 
 now dddreas you in your respective sanctuaries, are cold 
 in death, and you are met to pay the last offices of affec- 
 tion to your deceased pastors, how it would darken the 
 gloo.ns of that evening, and lessen your hopes of salva- 
 tion, to apprehend a famine of the word. But the most 
 judicious, till the church waked to the duty of educating 
 herself a ministry, feared all this. The increase of our 
 
 24 
 
274 THE INDUSTRIOUS YOUNG PROPHETS. 
 
 population, and the urgent claims of the heathen and the 
 destitute, seemed to leave us, till we discovered this 
 remedy, nothing to look for but ultimate desertion and 
 ruin. For with the gospel, it was known there would 
 desert us the Sabbath and all those institutions which 
 are the glory of our land. Hn the very infidel, who 
 has no hope for himself and his chil 'ren beyond the 
 grave, but would have them civil, and decent, and 
 wealthy, and happy in the present life, has a deep inter- 
 est in this institution. 
 
 But the subject addresses itself specially (o believers. 
 You love the Lord Je us Christ, and love his church, 
 and have a deep interest in whatever has respect to 
 his honour. And the eternal life of souls is near your 
 heart. If this institution then promises to promote ei- 
 ther of these objects, it will be dear to your hearts. And 
 you know the ministry is appointed for the perfecting 
 of the saints and for the edifying of the body of Christ. 
 Of course an institution designed to enlarge this minis- 
 try, is connected intimately with your best interests, 
 your highest pleasures, and your richest hopes. And as 
 you shall see its walls rise, we shall presume on your co- 
 operation and your prayers. 
 
 The inhabitants of this whole vicinity have a deep 
 interest in this institution. It will not confine its bles- 
 sings to you, but it will offer you its benefits with the 
 fewest inconveniences. If God has given your children 
 his grace, you have here an opportunity to educate them 
 at your own threshold. And if you are too poor to pur- 
 chase the privilege, still this institution opens to you its 
 doors. Nor is the thought to be despised, that here there 
 will be collected those who have an interest at the throne 
 of grace, and whose daily supplications must bring a 
 blessing upon the whole vicinity. 
 
THE INDUSTRIOUS YOUNG PROPHETS. 275 
 
 To parents this subject cannot want interest. If there 
 should be no prospect that our own children be here pre- 
 pared for usefulness, still the institution will stand, we 
 trust, when our bodies have mouldered in the grave, and 
 be a nursery for our children's children down through 
 many generations. In an age like this, pregnant with 
 such high and holy promise to the rising generation, it 
 is a blessing to be a parent. We may have higher 
 hopes than any age that has gone by, that God will pour 
 out his Spirit upon our seed, and his blessing upon our 
 offspring. 
 
 The friends of correct s<jntime?it will rejoice to see a 
 school of the prophets opened among a people who be- 
 lieve the truth, and in a neighbourhood where there is 
 a pious and orthodox ministry, where prevail the doc- 
 trines of our forefathers, and where the assurance is so 
 strong, that these same funds shall never be perverted 
 from their original design. We have seen error at- 
 tempting to roll its desolating flood through our church- 
 es. We have seen prostituted to the vile purpose of dis- 
 seminating false doctrines, funds that were consecrated 
 to the interests of truth. We have seen the Redeemer 
 degraded to a mere attribute, an angel, a man and even 
 a sinner, by the very charities that were intended to 
 give him a throne in every heart, and an altar in every 
 house. We have seen fountains, opened by the liberality 
 of a pious ancestry, so poisoned, that every stream they 
 issued carried sterility and death through the provinces 
 they were designed to fertilize. Next to the grace of 
 God, and relying on his blessing, the best means of 
 cleansing those waters, or damming these streams, is to 
 prepare for the churches a full supply of scribes well in- 
 structed in the kingdom of God. And the hope could 
 lurdly be stronger, that the funds here deposited for that 
 
276 
 
 THE INDUSTRIOUS YOUNG PROPHETS. 
 
 purpose, will be forever held sacred to the design for 
 which they were consecrated. 
 
 The poor will feel a special interest in every transac- 
 tion relative to this institution. The fund subscribed is 
 exclusively for them, and can never be diverted from 
 their use. Here then is one institution where envy can 
 have no employ. The rich would not be willing that 
 the Christian public should educate their children, they 
 would prefer to purchase the benefit. Once it was said, 
 i: To the poor the gospel is preached? now the poor may 
 become qualified to preach the gospel. They may dis- 
 pense the blessings which it has been their province to 
 receive, may teach where it was their privilege to learn, 
 may become beneficiaries to an extent that shall qualify 
 them to become benefactors. Here, if you cannot edu- 
 cate your own children, and God has given them his 
 grace, and they are otherwise qualified, you may send 
 them to live by the temple and feed upon its offerings, 
 till they are prepared to be prophets in Israel. O it must 
 ■carry hope and joy into the habitations of poverty to day, 
 to know that there is laid the foundation of an institu- 
 tion, destined to pour its blessings exclusively upon the 
 indigent ! This is a blessing that has lain so beyond 
 their hopes as to have hardly been an object of their 
 prayers. Before they have called God has answered. 
 Hence, to the full extent of their power they will pour 
 into this fund the little streams of their charity, and will 
 watch the progress of its rising honours and its growing 
 interests with paternal fondness and solicitude. 
 
 Nor will the rich have any feelings but those of plea- 
 sure. All other institutions have opened their doors to 
 them, while this one, which promises promotion to the 
 children of their poorer neighbours, will receive their pa- 
 tronage and their prayers. Nor can they know but 
 
THE INDUSTRIOUS YOUNG PROPHETS. 277 
 
 their posterity may be poor, and one day hang their 
 last hope on the promised aid of this kind and benevolent 
 institution. 
 
 I cannot suppress my wish to recommend this institu- 
 tion to the patronage of females. They have recently 
 signalized themselves as the friends of religion and of 
 the gospel ministry. Many an ambassador of the cross 
 owes his courage and his success, to their charities and 
 their prayers. Here they will have opportunity, I hope, 
 to see some of their noblest wishes gratified. Here they 
 may consecrate their charities, and toward this place may 
 turn their eye when they pray, arid find their spirits 
 cheered, their prayers answered, and their hopes accom- 
 plished. In the zeal they show for these objects, they 
 evince that they know how to appreciate their own com- 
 forts. The gospel, in addition to the promise of eternal 
 life, renders them free, respected, and happy, in the life 
 that now is. 
 
 This institution has a claim upon the patriot. No 
 country is so blessed as when science and religion blend 
 their influences, and shower upon society their united 
 blessing. But this school, more than any other, will 
 tend to that balance of influence, and approximate us 
 toward that equality, which is ever the basis of a gov- 
 ernment like ours. It will raise the poor, widen the 
 bonds of affection, and vastly increase the amount of hap- 
 piness. We hope to enlist in this benevolent design the 
 whole aggregate of patriotism within the compass of its 
 influence. 
 
 The 'ministers of Christ will say, God speed, to an 
 enterprise calculated to increase the labourers in the vine- 
 yard. We shall thus give evidence to the world, that 
 all we say respecting the scarcity of ministers we fully 
 believe ; for if things were otherwise, we could not act 
 24* 
 
2/8 THE IN'DUSTRIOUS YOUNG PROPHETS. 
 
 more unwisely for our own interest than to thus raise up 
 rivals, who might rob us of our parishes and our bread. 
 How it must gladden our aged fathers, to see an institu- 
 tion rise, designed to prolong the cry of glad tidings, 
 which begins to die away upon their palsied lips. When 
 they can address sinners no more, and can only cast an 
 eye over the valley of vision, and survey the vast fields 
 of the slain,' it will rejoice their hearts to see other pro- 
 phets taking their stand by the side of that valley, intend- 
 ing to prolong the prophecy till the dry bones have be- 
 come living men. When the aged Elisha went with the 
 young prophets to the banks of Jordan, to cheer them in 
 their toils, and aid them with his counsels and his prayers, 
 he showed a strong regard to the future welfare of Isra- 
 el, and deeply engraved his memory upon the hearts of 
 the young prophets. Unless I greatly mistake the feel- 
 ings of my aged fathers, their eyes will be bright with 
 joy while they see these walls go up. They will fall on 
 their knees, and spread their hands toward heaven, and 
 give us their dying blessing ; and may their prayer return 
 into their own bosom. 
 
 If now, in my concluding remarks, I should address 
 you as Christians, 1 would say. This institution, if per- 
 mitted to rse , (and we look to God for this permission.) 
 and if not grossly perverted from its original design, is 
 connected intimately with the dispersion of that Egyptian 
 darkness which has so long brooded over an apostate 
 world ; with all that is interesting in the rescue of the 
 idolater from his gods, the Papist from his relics and his 
 saints, the Jew from his Talmud, the Mahometan from 
 his Koran, the African from his chains, and the assassin 
 from his pistol and his knife. You have enlightened 
 views of your Maker, have a Bible, a sabbath, and a sanc- 
 tuary, can feast at the table of the Lord, and entertain 
 
THE INDUSTRIOUS YOUNG PKOPHKTS. 279 
 
 hopes of a rich and happy immortality. I plead for those 
 who are immortal like you. and like you must die, and 
 be judged, but have never learned the true character of 
 God, nor heard the story of a Saviour, nor have discov- 
 ered any escape from the glooms of the sepulchre : who 
 look to that home as the seat of perpetual darkness, for- 
 getfulness and silence ; who have never kept a day of 
 rest, and can hope to remit their toils their cares and 
 their miseries, ouly when their heads shall slumber on 
 the turf. Religion would make them as happy as you, 
 and heaven as blessed. 
 
 But I do not appeal exclusively to piety, but to all the 
 tender/, elings of humanity. When you cast your eye 
 over the dark places of the earth, which are full of the 
 habitations of cruelty, every aspect of wretchedness 
 which you descry gives importance to the transactions 
 of this day. We plead for the unhappy, for the lost, and 
 the miserable. I think I see, without the aid of inspira- 
 tion, a band of missionaries, educated in this school, is- 
 suing forth to chaso misery from this polluted world. 
 
 You are a father, are loved by your children, and cher- 
 ished with that tenderness which your infirmities and 
 your age require ; we plead for fathers, who in their de- 
 clining years are deserted by their children, and left to 
 perish by the frosts of age, who are borne to the bed of 
 some river, that they may be swept away by the tide, 
 and become the food of the shark or the alligator. 
 
 You are a mother, and perhaps a widow, and your 
 children would shrink from no sacrifice that might pro- 
 long your life, or soothe your pains or your cares ; I 
 plead for mothers whose offspring are monsters, and can 
 force them at the point of the spear upon the flames that 
 are consuming the corpse of a husband, and can drown 
 their dying shrieks in acclamations of infernal joy. 
 
280 THE INDUSTRIOUS YOUNG PROPHT.TS. 
 
 You was left in your infancy an orphan, and have 
 found in this inhospitable world a guardian and a 
 friend, who has nursed your childhood, and watched 
 your youth, and reared you to respectable and promis- 
 ing manhood ; I plead for orphans, who have no home 
 but in the pkce of sculls, no house but the house of silence 
 where sleep the ashes of a merciless mother, no friend 
 but death, who stops the rage of hunger, blunts the edge 
 of care, extinguishes the fire of affection and hope, and 
 finds the wretched a covert and a calm amid the clods of 
 the valley. 
 
 If the relief of miseries like these has the least connec- 
 tion with the events of this day, these events will have 
 some claim upon the sympathy of every feeling heart. 
 If we might only hope, that by means of tins institution, 
 one more missionary, than would otherwise be educated, 
 will enter the fields of labor, and go to some one prov- 
 ince of this dark world, and there create a light that shall 
 guide home to heaven one benighted soul, it would be 
 worth all the pains and the wealth that shall be expend- 
 ed in founding this school. *' The redemption of the 
 soul is precious and it ceaseth forever." You might 
 cover that field with silver and gold, and if the whole 
 would buy off one soul from perdition it would be well 
 expended. And I must believe that more than one mis- 
 sionary will be sent, and more than one sinner be re- 
 deemed, by the means that are here providing ; and in 
 the boundless joys thus generated, shall find all the reward 
 I w r ish. for any plea 1 can offer, or any exertions I can 
 make, to advance this interest. 
 
 If we are utterly mistaken, and any feel otherwise, we 
 rejoice that the field of labour is large. They may glo- 
 rify God in some other way, may feed the poor, dis- 
 perse the Scriptures, support the missionaries already 
 
THE INDUSTRIOUS YOUNG PROPHETS. 281 
 
 educated, or educate others in some other school. Or if 
 any will neither aid this charity nor any other, and their 
 consciences will approve of their neutrality, they shall re- 
 ceive no reproach from us if they do nothing. If we are 
 disposed to do good, and our motive is the glory of God, 
 it will ill become us to reproach others. To their own 
 master they stand or fall. 
 
 In the mean time, I hope that those who cannot con- 
 scientiously labour with us, will utter no reproaches, nor 
 make any effort to dam the streams of charity that might 
 flow to this centre, and issue hence to carry their fertiliz- 
 ing influence through the wastes of this miserable world. 
 If once the object was good, it is so still. If unhappily 
 some may not have had in view the divine glory in their 
 most zealous efforts, still the character of the institution 
 is not changed, nor its importance diminished, nor its 
 claims cancelled. I close with one remark to the friends 
 of this institution. 
 
 How important is it, that we suitably prize and im- 
 prove the ministry established among us. What will it 
 avail us that we have pitied the destitute, and the hea- 
 then, if at last we die impenitent, and sink below them 
 in perdition. We may send them the Bible and the am- 
 bassador of peace, and still neglect that book and that 
 ministry, and die unsanctined. The ministry can be a 
 blessing to the heathen, only as it may become the 
 means of their conversion ; hence to feel anxious for 
 them, and found an institution with a view to furnish 
 them a ministry, and yet under the full advantages of 
 that ministry live without God and without Christ in the 
 world, is to act with unpardonable disregard of our first, 
 best duty. It would be a fearful event, if finally we should 
 lift up our voice and weep, and say, "My mother's 
 children made me the keeper of the vineyards, but mine 
 
2S2 THE INDUSTRIOUS YOUNG PROPHETS. 
 
 own vineyard have I not kept.*' Each of us has a soul 
 that must live forever, that must be washed in a Savior's 
 blood, or must endure the terrors of his wrath ; to save 
 this soul is our first concern, and we may wake to its in- 
 terests too late. If we should give all our goods to feed 
 the poor, and our bodies to be burned, and yet lack that 
 charity to which salvation is promised, we should die 
 fools at the last. It is true that the religion of the gospel 
 is benevolent ; it is true that the covetous man is an idol- 
 ater, and has not eternal life abiding in him, but there is 
 also a religion which all evaporates in care for the safety 
 of others, which has little to do with the closet, or the 
 heart, or the Bible, or heaven. O let this day bring us 
 all to our knees. Let the walls of this edifice be bedewed 
 with the tears of repentance, and may we all be pillars or 
 polished stones in the mystical temple, which Christ is 
 erecting, that when the top-stone is laid we may be there 
 to aid the shout, Grace, grace unto it. "Amen, even so 
 come, Lord Jesus, come quickly." 
 
[It is the opinion and the grief of many, that the excellent sermons, 
 and other writings, of President Edwards, are too much neglected by 
 the churches of the present day, and that the principal cause of that 
 neglect is to be attributed to the style in which his pungency of thought 
 is communicated. Hence the attempt to put this sermon in other lan- 
 guage as an experiment. The difficulty of the task none will doubt* 
 who shall undertake a single page. If the attempt should fail, still no- 
 thing is lost, and much may be gained if it should induce some other 
 person to do, more successfully, what the author conceives practicable 
 and important.] 
 
SERMON LVIII. 
 
 SINNERS IN THE HANDS OF AN ANGRY GOD. 
 
 Deut. xxxii. 35. 
 Their foot shall slide in due time. 
 
 God here threatens the unbelieving Israelites, who en- 
 joyed abundantly the means of grace, and saw the won- 
 derful works of God, yet remained void of counsel, and 
 brought forth bitter and poisonous fruit. 
 
 The threatening implies, in the first place, that they 
 were always exposed to destruction. One who stands 
 on a slippery place, may fall at any moment. He whose 
 foot may slide, has placed it where his standing is per- 
 petually insecure. The Psalmist uses a like figure, 
 " Surely thou didst set them in slippery places ; thou 
 castedst them down into destruction." 
 
 The threatening implies, again, that they were always 
 exposed to sudden and unexpected destruction. He 
 who walks in slippery places has no warning when he 
 must fall, but feels as perfectly secure the instant before 
 he falls as at any previous moment. So the Psalmist, 
 after exhibiting the sinner as standing in slippery places, 
 adds, " How are they brought into desolation as in a 
 moment." 
 
 It is also implied that they fall of themselves. Their 
 own weight will cast them down, if no power extraneous 
 be applied to aid their fall. 
 
 It is further implied, that the reason why they have 
 25 
 
SINNERS IN THB HANDS OF AN ANGR7 GOD. 
 
 not fallen, is that God's appointed time is not come. 
 In due time their foot shall slide. God will then em- 
 ploy his power no longer to sustain them, and their own 
 weight will bring them down. At that very juncture 
 when God shall resolve no longer to hold them up, they 
 go down into destruction. 
 
 Let these remarks be applied to sinners in every age, 
 and they tvill thus apply, and we have this doctrine, 
 It is the mere pleasure of God that keeps wicked men 
 out of hell a moment. The sovereign will of God, 
 restrained by no obligation, hindered by no difficulty, 
 prevents them from going to their own place. The 
 truth of this observation will appear from the following 
 considerations. 
 
 I. There is no want of power in God to destroy 
 %oicked men at any moment. No arm has any power 
 of resistance when God rises up. None can deliver out 
 of his hands. He can not only destroy, but he can do it 
 most easily. An earthly prince may find it difficult to 
 subdue a rebel. He may fortify himself, and gather 
 round his standard a multitude of daring adherents. 
 But no fortress can make any resistance to the power of 
 God. The enemies of God may combine and associate, 
 but they are easily broken to pieces. " Though hand 
 join in hand, the wicked shall not go unpunished." 
 They are but as the chaff before the whirlwind, or the 
 stubble before devouring flames. 
 
 It is easy to tread upon and crush a worm, or sunder 
 a thread, and just so easily can God cast dow r n into a 
 hopeless perdition a multitude of his enemies. At his re- 
 buke the earth trembles, and rocks are rent ; what then 
 can man do when he would resist God 'I 
 
 II. Sinners every moment deserve destruction. Di- 
 vine justice will make no resistance whenever God shall 
 
SINNERS IN THE HANDS OF AN ANGRY GOD. 287 
 
 please to show his wrath. Indeed justice perpetually 
 demands their blood. Of the vine that brings forth 
 the grapes of Sodom, justice says, " Cut it down, why 
 cumbereth it the ground." The sword of justice is per- 
 petually brandished over the heads of the ungodly, and 
 only arbitrary mercy prevents it from being bathed in 
 their blood. 
 
 III. Shiners are under sentence of condemnation 
 to everlasting misery. They not only justly deserve 
 to be cast down to hell, but the sentence of the divine 
 law, the immutable rule of righteousness, has gone out 
 against them, and stands against them. They are ev- 
 ermore bound over to perdition. " He that believeth 
 not is condemned already. " Hence every unconverted 
 man belongs to hell, it is his own place. " Ye aroUA)m 
 beneath." Thither the broken law has sentenced sin- 
 ners and the law is unchangeable. 
 
 IV. Sinners are even now the objects of that very 
 same wrath of God, that is expressed in the torments 
 of hell. The reason why they do not perish at each 
 moment, is not because God, in whose power they are, 
 is not even as angry with them, as he is with those who 
 are now feeling the fierceness of his wrath. Yes, God 
 is more angry with many who are yet spared, yea, doubt- 
 less, with many in this assembly, who are quite at ease, 
 than with some who are lost. 
 
 It is not then that God is unmindful of their wicked- 
 ness, and does not resent it, that he does not let loose 
 his hand upon them and cut them off. He is not as 
 they imagine altogether such a one as themselves. The 
 wrath of God burns against them ; their damnation slum- 
 bers not ; the pit is prepared ; the fire is made ready ; the 
 flames even now rage, ready to receive them. The glit- 
 
288 SINNERS IN THE HANDS OF AN ANGRY GOD. 
 
 tering sword is whetted and held over them. Mercy cries 
 spare them ; justice is ready to destroy them. 
 
 V. The grand adversary stands ready to torment 
 them, soon as God shall permit. They belong to him, 
 he has them in his possession, and under his dominion. 
 u Ye are of your father the devil." He ever watches 
 wicked men, has tliem at his right hand, is waiting to de- 
 vour them, as a lion hungry for his prey. Let God only 
 withdraw restraint from the spirit that now worketh in 
 the children of disobedience, and he would become the 
 executioner of divine wrath in a moment. Hell opens 
 its mouth wide to receive sinners, and if God only permit, 
 they are all swallowed up and lost in a moment. 
 
 VI. There are reigning in wicked men those infer* 
 nil. p&nciples, that would immediately create a hell 
 in their bosoms, but for the restraints that God im- 
 poses. In the very nature of the carnal mind, there is 
 laid a foundation for the torments of hell. Its miseries 
 are indeed begun already in the hearts of the unsanctified. 
 The principles of depravity are active and powerful, and 
 would from their violence, were it not for God's restraints, 
 break out into an immediate and open perdition, as the 
 same corruptions do in the hearts of the damned. The 
 soids of the wicked are like the troubled sea, but God 
 restrains them as he does the foaming billows, " Hitherto 
 shalt thou come, and no farther. " And whenever that 
 Strong barrier is removed, there will ensue a fearful and 
 a wide-spread destruction. Sin produces the misery, 
 and is the destroyer of the soul. To effect the ruin of its 
 possessor is its very nature, and needs no helper in order 
 to produce complete destruction. The corruption of the 
 heart is immoderate and boundless in its fury. It is a 
 fire pent up by divine restraint, and will kindle into con- 
 flagration the whole course of nature, when God shall 
 
SINNERS IN THE HANDS OF AN ANGRY GOD. 289 
 
 permit. The heart is a dark sink of sin, a fiery oven, 
 where are all the materials of torment, whenever they 
 shall be once kindled. 
 
 VII. It is no security to wicked 'men one moment \ 
 that there are no visible means of death at hand. Pres- 
 ent good health is no security. One may go out of the 
 world by accident, and that even when danger may seem 
 the most remote. The manifold and continual experi- 
 ence of the world in all ages, shows that the best health, 
 and the fairest prospects of life, are no evidence that men 
 are not on the very brink of eternity, ready to launch the 
 next step into the perdition they deserve. The innu- 
 merable, and inconceivable ways and means of terminat- 
 ing life, should forever impress the fact of its uncertainty. 
 Impenitent men walk over the burning pit, on a rotten 
 covering, a covering in many places too weak to sustain 
 them, but that God holds them back from the danger 
 that awaits them. The arrows of death fly unseen at 
 noon day, and the sharpest human sight cannot descry 
 them. God has an infinite variety of means by which 
 to accomplish the purposes of his wrath, whenever he is 
 ready to execute them. He need be at no expense, need 
 work no miracle, nor go out of his ordinary course of pro- 
 vidence, to send the wicked to hell at any moment, 
 And the means of their ruin are all in the hands of God, 
 and so absolutely subject to his power and his will, that 
 sinners are as much exposed as if God uniformly destroy^ 
 ed without means. 
 
 VIII. Sinners can exercise no care or prudence that 
 can secure their lives a moment. To this fact, univer- 
 sal experience, and the passing events of divine provi^ 
 dence, bear their united and irresistable testimony. 
 Were it otherwise we should see the wise and discerning 
 Laying their plans for long life, and they would so con„ 
 
 35* 
 
290 SINNERS IN THE HANDS OF AN ANGRY GOD. 
 
 trive, if wealth and wisdom united could do it, as to 
 prolong their stay in this world beyond all their fel- 
 lows. But these men often die the first, and usually 
 with their plans so laid that death greatly surprises 
 them, and often fatally destroys their interest as well 
 as their souls. " How dieth the wise man ? As the 
 fool." 
 
 IX. All the efforts of wicked men to escape hell, 
 while they reject Christ, are of not the least avail 
 to keep them out of perdition a moment. Every 
 man who has heard of hell, flatters himself on making 
 his escape from its torments. But he depends on him- 
 self, on what he has done, is doing, or intends to do, as 
 the medium of his escape from the wrath to come. Every 
 man so lays his plau, as to secure himself, and is flat- 
 tered with the belief that his plan is good. They hear 
 that there are but few saved, and know the probability 
 that the greater part of the present generations go to per- 
 dition. But each sinner intends to be among the few 
 that are saved. He does not mean to go to the place of 
 torment. He purposes that his care for the soul shall be 
 effectual, and heaven shall be secured. 
 
 But men miserably delude themselves in their own 
 schemes, and trust finally in a mere shadow. The great- 
 er part who have lived under the same means of grace 
 have undoubtedly gone to perdition. And they did not 
 perish because they were not as wise as sinners now are, 
 not because they did not think of an escape, and contrive 
 for it, as men now do. Could we speak with them, and 
 inquire of them, one by one, whether they expected when 
 alive, and used to hear of hell, to be one day the subjects 
 of that misery, we should doubtless hear them reply one 
 by one, No, No, I never intended to come here. I had 
 calculated far otherwise in my own mind. I thought I 
 
SINNEIIS IN THE HANDS OF AN ANGRY GOD. 291 
 
 had contrived well for myself. I thought my scheme 
 good, but death came upon me, and hell, unexpectedly. 
 I was not looking for destruction at that time, and in that 
 manner. It came like a thief in the night. Death out- 
 witted me. The wrath of God was too quick for me. 
 O my accursed foolishness ! I was flattering myself, 
 and pleasing myself, with vain dreams, of what I would 
 do to save my soul. And while I was saying, peace and 
 safety, sudden destruction came upon me. 
 
 X. God has not laid himself under obligation, 
 by promise or otherwise, to keep wicked men out 
 of misery a moment. No promise of God gives them 
 eternal life, or secures them from eternal death, but what 
 is contained in the covenant of grace. It is in Jesus 
 Christ that the promises are all yea and amen. But un- 
 sanctified men have no interests in the promises of the 
 covenant. They are not children of the covenant, do 
 not believe the promises of the covenant, and have no 
 interest in the Media'or of the covenant. 
 
 Hence whatever some may have imagined or pretend- 
 ed respecting the promises, as made to the seekings and 
 knockings of the un regenerate, it is plain that whatever 
 pains they may take in religion, or whatever prayers 
 they may offer, till Christ is believed in, God is under no 
 manner of obligation to keep them a moment from eter- 
 nal destruction. 
 
 Thus men who do not love God are suspended upon 
 uncovenanted mercy. They have deserved perdition 
 and are sentenced to it, and God is provoked enough 
 with them to destroy them, even as much as toward 
 many who have perished, and they have done nothino- 
 to appease or abate that anger, nor is God in the least 
 obligated to them by promise or otherwise. The grand 
 foe is waiting for them, and hell moving from beneath to 
 
292 SINNERS IN THE HANDS OF AN ANGRY GOD 
 
 meet them at their coming, and its fires already kindled 
 in their bosom, and ready to burst out into a consuming 
 and quenchless conflagration ; and no interest in a 
 Mediator, and no means within their reach that can be 
 any security against a speedy and hopeless perdition. 
 Sinners have no refuge, nothing to stand on, and nothing 
 to take hold of. They are kept out of endless torment 
 by the nncovenanted, unobliged forbearance of a holy 
 God, who has been long incensed with their multiplied 
 iniquities, and is unchangeably at enmity with their 
 polluted characters. 
 
 APPLICATION. 
 
 The very nature of this subject shows to whom it is 
 especially applicable. It belongs to the whole mass of 
 unregenerate men. You see the forlorn condition in 
 which the gospel finds you. The world of misery isex- 
 tenJed broad under you. The glowing flames of the 
 wrath of God are all ready to kindle upon you. Thus 
 a deep and wide perdition yawns beneath you, and you 
 have nothing to stand upon or take hold of. The thin 
 air only separates you from the fire that shall never be 
 quenched, and the worm that shall never die. The 
 power of God holds you up, and his uncovenanted 
 pleasure sustains you. 
 
 But of all this you may have no proper sense. You 
 find you are held up, and do not see the hand that holds 
 you. You rely on your good constitution, on the care 
 that you take of your life, and the means used to render 
 it prolonged and happy. But all these things are nothing, 
 if God should withdraw his hand, and would avail no 
 more to hold you back from the place of torment, than 
 mere air to stop a falling rock. 
 
 Your wickedness makes you tend downward, with a 
 
SINNERS IN THE HAND3 OF AN ANGRY GOD. 293 
 
 weight and a pressure like solid lead. God has only to 
 let you go, and quick as thought, you descend to the bot- 
 tomless gulf, your good health, and sound constitution, 
 and care, and prudence notwithstanding. Your wisdom 
 and your righteousness would have no more influence 
 to hold you back from the doom you deserve, than the 
 spider's web. Were it not that such is the sovereign 
 pleasure of God, the earth would not sustain you a 
 moment, you are a burden to it, the creation groans with 
 you. We are assured, that the creature was made sub- 
 ject to the bondage of your corruptions, not willingly. 
 The sun does not cheerfully light you in the broad way, 
 nor the earth willingly yield you her increase, to satisfy 
 your lusts, or become willingly the theatre of your crimes, 
 nor does the air willingly serve you for breath, to main- 
 tain the flame of life, while that life is not devoted to 
 God. All the creatures of God are good, and were made 
 to be the instruments of his praise, and while they are 
 used for any other purpose, are forced out of their ele- 
 ment, and groan being burdened. The world is ready 
 to vomit forth you and your sins, and be no longer pol- 
 luted with your base affections, and your misdeeds. 
 The tempests of divine wrath, hang over your heads, 
 full of relentless fire, and thunder, and tornado, all ready 
 to break forth upon you at God's bidding. It is the 
 sovereign pleasure of God that stays his rough wind, or 
 it would bear down upon you with fury, and your des- 
 truction would come as a whirlwind, and you would be 
 like the chaff of the summer threshing floor. 
 
 As waters dammed up, increase more and more, and 
 rise higher and higher, till an outlet is given, and the lon- 
 ger stopped, the more rapid and overwhelming its course, 
 so is the anger of God. He has not speedily executed 
 jugdment upon your evil work ; the floods of his ven^ 
 
291 SINNERS IN THE HANDS OF AN ANGRY GOD. 
 
 geance have been withheld, but your guilt in the mean 
 time has perpetually increased, you are every day treas- 
 uring up wrath against the day of wrath ; but when at 
 length this accumulated mischief shall burst upon your 
 head, there is none can tell the doleful tale of your ruin. 
 Let God only withdraw his hand from the flood-gate that 
 stays the terrors of your destruction, and there pours forth, 
 with inconceivable power, a stream of wrath, which the 
 stoutest man, with his strength doubled a hundred times, 
 or the sturdiest devil, could do nothing to withstand or 
 endure. 
 
 And how comfortless then to the sinner all this delay ! 
 It augers nothing to his ultimate advantage. The bow 
 of God's wrath is bent, and the arrow made ready on the 
 string, and aimed at his heart ; and but the mere pleas- 
 ure of God, an offended, insulted, long abused God ; a 
 God, whom no promise or obligation has bound, holds 
 back the arrow from being drunk with his blood. 
 
 Thus is it with all in this assembly who have not pass- 
 ed a great change wrought by the Spirit of God, all 
 that have not been born again, been made new crea- 
 tures, been raised from darkness and death to light and 
 life in Jesus Christ, you are all in the hands of an angry 
 God ; your reformed life, and your religious affections, 
 your family and closet prayers, and hypocritical sanc- 
 tuary devotions, all notwithstanding. The sovereign 
 pleasure of a God angry with you keeps you from per- 
 dition. And if not convinced of this truth now, you 
 will be fully convinced not long first. Those who were 
 once in your circumstances remember how it was with 
 them, that they would not believe till destruction came 
 suddenly upon them. Now they see that they leaned 
 upon a straw, upon mere air, upon a shadow. 
 
 And what is a truth of awful import, the God that 
 
SINNERS IN THE HANDS OF AN ANGRY GOD. 295 
 
 holds sinners up from perdition, as one holds a loathsome 
 insect over the glowing embers, is angry with them, is 
 fearfully provoked, his anger burns like fire. He views 
 you as fit for nothing else but to suffer in honour of his 
 law. He is of purer eyes than to bear you long in his 
 sight. He sees no such deformity elsewhere as he sees 
 in you, not even in the most loathsome serpent. No 
 rebel ever offended his prince as you have offended God, 
 and still his own kind hand holds you back from the 
 doom you deserve. To nothing else can it be ascribed 
 that you went not to the place of torment the last night, 
 that you waked from sleep this morning, that you have 
 not perished since you waked, and that you do not this 
 moment quit us to go to the world of misery. The 
 iniquities of your hearts, while you sit here under the 
 sound of the gospel rejecting a Saviour, constantly tempt 
 him to abandon you forever. 
 
 O sinner ! consider the danger you are in. The per- 
 dition that yawns beneath you is wide and bottomless, 
 and the God who holds you up from it is fearfully in- 
 censed against you, even as he is against those who have 
 gone to suffer their doom. The moment will come, and 
 may while I am speaking, that shall see the thread sun- 
 dered that sustains you. And you no interest in a Medi- 
 ator, no hiding place, nothing to lay hold of to prevent 
 your fall, nothing to appease the divine indignation 
 nothing that you have done, nothing that you are doing- 
 nothing that you can do. Your whole interest is at 
 hazard, and your soul at hazard. 
 
 Let me suggest four thoughts respecting the wrath you 
 are in danger of, and I have done. 
 
 1. Whose wrath it is. It is the wrath of the infinite 
 God. Were it merely the wrath of man, though of the 
 most powerful prince, it would be comparatively nothing. 
 
296 SINNERS IN THE HANDS OF AN ANGRY GOD. 
 
 The wrath of a king is dreadful, especially of an absolute 
 monarch, who has the possessions and the lives of his 
 subjects wholly in his power. " The fear of a king is as 
 the roaring of a lion : whoso provoketh him to anger, 
 sinneth against his own soul/' He who very much en- 
 rages an arbitrary prince may suffer the greatest torments 
 that human art can invent, or human power inflict. But 
 the greatest potentate, in his greatest strength, and clothed 
 in his fiercest terrors, is a feeble despicable worm compar- 
 ed with the King of kings. A mere man can do but 
 little, when most enraged, and when he puts forth all 
 his might. But the wrath of God is as much more ter- 
 rible as his majesty is greater. " And I say unto you, 
 my friends, be not afraid of them that kill the body, and 
 after that have no more that they can do, But I will 
 forwarn you whom you shall fear : fear him, which after 
 he hath killed, hath power to cast into hell : yea, I say 
 unto you, fear him." 
 
 2. Not only is it the wrath of God, but the fierceness 
 of his wrath to which you are exposed. We read you 
 know of the fury of God. li \ According to their deeds, ac- 
 cordingly he will repay fury to his adversaries." And 
 again we read, : ' Behold the Lord will come with fire, 
 and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his an- 
 ger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire." 
 
 So we read of his fierceness. We are told of " the 
 winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God." 
 What an awful climax is here. Not merely have we 
 the wrath of God, though this would have been in- 
 finitely dreadful, but the fierceness and wrath of God, 
 and it adds again, the fierceness and wrath of Al- 
 mighty God. How dreadful must that be ! Who can 
 utter, or even conceive what such expressions carry with 
 them. It would seem as though there will be a very 
 
SINNERS IN THE HANDS OF AN ANGRY GOD. 2i)7 
 
 great manifestation of the power of the great God in the 
 overthrow of sinners, as though Omnipotence should be 
 enraged and exerted, as men are wont to put forth their 
 strength when infuriated. O then what will be the con- 
 sequence ! What will become of the poor worm that 
 shall suffer it ! Whose hands can be strong, and whose 
 heart endure ! To what inconceivay^cfepths of misery 
 must the poor creature be sunk who shall be the subject 
 of this inexpressible torment ! 
 
 Consider this all ye that are unregenerate, when God 
 shall execute the fierceness of his anger, there will be 
 wrath without pity. When God shall behold the ex- 
 tremity of your case, and see that your torment is wholly 
 disproportioned to your strength, and see your poor soul 
 crushed and sinking into incurable gloom and despair ; 
 he will have no compassion upon you, nor forbear the 
 execution of his wrath, nor lighten his hand. There 
 will be no moderation or mercy, nor will God stay his 
 rough wind. He can then have no regard to your wel- 
 fare, nor care how much you suffer, so that you do not 
 endure more than you deserve, and will withhold nothing, 
 merely because it is hard for you to bear. " Therefore 
 will I also deal in fury ; mine eye shall not spare, neither 
 will I have pity ; and though they cry in mine ears with 
 a loud voice, yet will I not hear them." God now stands 
 ready to pity, this is a day of mercy, you may cry with 
 the hope of being heard. But let the day of grace pass, 
 and all your lamentations, your cries, and shrieks will be 
 in vain. You will then be lost, and thrown away, and 
 God have nothing to do with you, but to make you a per- 
 petual sufferer. You will be continued in being for no 
 other purpose, will be a vessel of wrath fitted for des- 
 truction, and the vessel will be of no other use but to be 
 filled with wrath. God will be so far from pitying yoiu 
 
 20 
 
298 SINNERS IN THE HANDS OF AN ANGRY GOD. 
 
 that he will laugh at your calamity, and mock when 
 your fear cometh. 
 
 How awful are those words of the great God, " I will 
 tread them in my anger, and trample them in my fury, 
 and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, 
 and I will stain all my raiment." What words can more 
 plainly declare contempt, hatred, and fierceness of indig- 
 nation. If you cry to God, he will but tread you under 
 his feet, and although he will know that you cannot en- 
 dure the awful weight, he will tread upon you without 
 mercy, till your blood shall gush out and stain his raiment. 
 He will not only hate you, but will have you in the ut- 
 most contempt. He will think no place fit for you but 
 under his feet, to be trodden down like the mire of the 
 streets. 
 
 3. God will thus afflict you that he may show his 
 wrath. God has it in his heart to show to angels and 
 to men, both how excellent his love is, and how terrible 
 his wrath is. Earthly kings have sometimes a mind to 
 show the terrors of their wrath, by the punishments they 
 inflict upon their foes. The Chaldean monarch was 
 willing to show his wrath in the punishment of Shadrach 
 Meshach, and Abednego, and he gave orders to heat 
 the burning fiery furnace seven times hotter than it was 
 wont to be heated. It was raised to the utmost degree 
 of fierceness, so that it slew the men who cast them in. 
 So the great God is willing to show his wrath, and mag- 
 nify his awful majesty in the extreme suffering of his 
 enemies. " What if God willing to show his wrath, and 
 to make his power known, endured with much long- 
 suffering, the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction ?" It 
 being his design to show how terrible his unmixed wrath 
 is, he will do it to effect. The accomplishment of what 
 God has said against the wicked will be dreadful. When 
 
SINNERS IN THE HANDS OF AN ANGRY GOD. 299 
 
 he has risen up, and done his will on the poor lost being 1 , 
 and the wretch is actually suffering the weight of his in- 
 dignation, then will he summon the universe to come, 
 and see how awful is his majesty, and how mighty his 
 power. "And the people shall be as the burnings of 
 lime, as thorns cut up shall they be burned in the fire. 
 Hear, ye that are afar off, what I have done ; and ye that 
 are near, acknowledge my might. 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 everlasting burnings." 
 
 Thus shall it be with you who shall remain unconver- 
 ted. In the ineffable terrors of your ruin, there will be 
 displayed the might, and the majesty, and the terrible- 
 ness of the Omnipotent God. You will be tormented in 
 the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of 
 the Lamb ; and when you shall be in all your sufferings, 
 the glorious inhabitants of heaven shall come and look 
 upon the awful spectacle, and learn what is the wrath 
 and fierceness of Almighty God, and when they have 
 looked they will fall down and adore his power and 
 majesty, "And it shall come to pass, that from one new 
 moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall 
 all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord. 
 And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcasses of 
 the men that have transgressed against me ; for their 
 worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched ; 
 and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh." 
 
 4. It is everlasting wrath. It would be dreadful to 
 suffer the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God one 
 moment, but sinners must suffer it forever. There 
 will be no end to your plagues. When you look for- 
 ward you will see before you a long forever, and will des- 
 pair of having deliverance, mitigation, or rest through 
 
300 SINNERS IN THE HANDS OF AN ANGRY GOD. 
 
 this whole amazing futurity. You will know certainly 
 that you must wear out millions of ages, in wrestling 
 and conflicting with matchless vengeance. And when 
 these ages are gone, you will see them to be but a point 
 of time to what remains. Endless misery! Oh, who 
 can describe the horrid circumstances of a ruined soul ? 
 What one can say on such a subject, is all feebleness 
 compared with the reality. "Who knows the power of 
 his anger 7 " 
 
 How inconceivably dreadful is the state of those who 
 are daily and hourly in danger of this wrath and misery ! 
 But this is the dismal case of every soul in this congre- 
 gation who is not born of God, be his morals ever so strict, 
 and sober, and religious. O that you would consider it 
 whether you be old or young ! Many who are present 
 will probably be the subjects of this very misery through 
 eternity. We know not who they are, or in what seats 
 they sit, or what thoughts they have. They are perhaps 
 at their ease, and hear all this without being in the least 
 disturbed. They are saying to themselves, It is not I, I 
 shall escape. Did we know that there was one person, 
 and but one in this wdiole congregation, who is to be the 
 subject of all this misery, how should we all gaze with an- 
 guish upon him ! how should we raise over him our loud 
 and bitter cry ! Ah one ! no doubt there are many pres- 
 ent who will think of this sermon in hell, and some per- 
 haps in a very few days, or months at farthest. Ah 
 calculate not on months, for notwithstanding your health 
 and quiet, and security, hell may have become your 
 home ere the sun shall rise once more. 
 
AN ADDRESS. 
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF A GOOD TASTE UPON THE 
 MORAL AFFECTIONS. 
 
 The question has been often asked, whether this 
 is a deformed or a beautiful world ; whether it came 
 from the hand of its Maker in its present aspect, or has 
 been marred and defaced by some mighty disaster. Men 
 have had on this subject widely different opinions. One 
 has seen nothing in which this world is defective ; no 
 mountain he would have levelled, no valley he would 
 raise, no rock he would bury, no marsh he would drain, 
 no heath he would fertilize, no morass he would redeem, 
 Another has seen, or thought he saw deformity every 
 where, and has in many a gloomy hour responded to 
 that moan of the poet, uttered in view of the first trans-- 
 gression : 
 
 " Earth felt the wound, and Nature, from her seat 
 Sighing through all her works, gave signs of wo, 
 That all was lost." 
 
 To him it has seemed, that in every hill and vale and 
 ocean and lake and heath and river there is some curse 
 to be deplored. Others again have discovered on the 
 face of this world many beauties, which must have been 
 designed as such by its Creator ; while yet they see de- 
 formities, which indicate, that when Jehovah rested 
 from his work he left this world not as it now is, and 
 which bespeak some convulsion, by which its distortions 
 
304 THE INFLUENCE OF A GOOD TASTE 
 
 have been generated, and much of its original beauty 
 lost. Some of its most elevated ridges wear the marks 
 of having risen from the ocean, while the presumption is, 
 that what were once its mountains are now buried in the 
 depths of the sea. 
 
 That the earth has been swept over by some deluge 
 passing from north to south, is too obvious to admit of a 
 doubt. But whether the event, happen when or how it 
 might, finally left the surface of the world deformed or 
 beau if ul, may still be a question to be decided, very dif- 
 ferently perhaps, by our different tastes. One man will 
 see deformity in some cases where another sees only 
 beauty. It may even be questioned, whether men of 
 equally improved tastes will invariably agree in what is 
 beautiful, and what deformed in the sceneries of nature. 
 One may have a taste only for what is plain, and another 
 for what is splendid. One may be most gratified when 
 in his landscape there are seen the barren rock, and the 
 broken cliff; while another, who can be pleased only 
 with what is useful, must see every spot fertile, have 
 every rock concealed, and every eminence accessible. 
 Which of these have the best taste, is a question on 
 which ingenuity might employ itself most elegantly, 
 and not without profit. 
 
 Whether taste should be denominated an internal 
 sense, or juJgment operating without any perceptible 
 process of reasoning, is of small moment; for whatever 
 difficulties there may be in defining, there is none in 
 understanding it. " Taste," says an elegant writer, " is 
 of all nature's gifts the most easily felt, and the most 
 difficult to explain ; it would not be what it is, if it could 
 be defined ; for it judges of objects beyond the reach of 
 jugdment, and serves in a manner as a magnifying glass 
 to reason." I have supposed it not wide from the truth 
 
AN ADDRESS, 
 
 DELIVERED BEFORE THE 
 
 ALEXANDRIAN SOCIETY 
 
 AMHERST COLLEGE, 
 
 AUGUST 21, 1S27. 
 
 2G 4 
 
UPON THE MORAL AFFECTIONS. 305 
 
 to say, that taste is a sense of the understanding, holding 
 much the same relation to objects of nature and art, that 
 conscience, another sense, holds to moral objects. As one 
 has been defined, " The power of receiving pleasure or 
 pain from the beauties or deformities of nature and of 
 art ;" so the other, may be termed, the power of receiv- 
 ing pleasure or pain from moral beauty or deformity. 
 Hence, to trace the resemblance a little farther, as there 
 may be a vitiated conscience that shall approve of the 
 most abominable deeds, so there may be a vitiated taste 
 that is pleased with what is beyond doubt a deformity. 
 I am aware that this remark however involves the ques- 
 tion, whether there is any standard of taste founded in 
 the principles of the human constitution, or whether 
 casual association is to account for all our notions in 
 matters of taste. 
 
 But leaving all these questions to men of more leisure, 
 I propose to enquire, whether a cultivated taste exerts 
 a favourable influence upon the moral affections. I 
 have supposed the affirmative of this question capable of 
 the fullest proof, and that the discussion of it would lead 
 to a great variety of practical and important remarks suit- 
 ed to this occasion. I would say then, in the 
 
 First place, That a cultivated taste tends to soothe 
 and restrain the unruly and turbulent passiotis. I 
 venture to assert, that, the religion of Jesus Christ except- 
 ed, there is no power that can operate upon the passions 
 more effectually than such a taste. The mind that is 
 under its plastic influence will naturally be led to dwell on 
 objects that excite the better emotions, the soft and tender, 
 or the grand and sublime ; is withdrawn from vexatious 
 care, and led to retirement and reflection ; and the result 
 of all this is tranquillity. And the mind thus occupied 
 will not so readily seek enjoyments that are forbidden. 
 
306 THE INFLUENCE OF A GOOD TASTE 
 
 In all parts of the creation there are beauties or subli- 
 mities by which a good taste is gratified. Above are the 
 hosts of heaven, the sun going forth in his strength, the 
 moon walking in brightness, and the uncounted stars 
 decorating the whole expanse. As we descend to earth, 
 we find it clothed in beauties too permanent to suffer any 
 power but that which spake them into being to erase 
 them. Hence to a cultivated taste there are every where 
 sources of enjoyment, calculated to supplant the rougher 
 affections, and generate and mature those that are kind 
 and lovely : and the mind that is innocently happy is not 
 so easily disturbed by temptations. 
 
 What, evil passion can rage uncontrolled at a moment 
 when the mind is happy in enjoyments which God has 
 not forbidden : happy in the works of his own hands. 
 The mind thus occupied will be urged to the reflection of 
 the poet, 
 
 " These are thy glorious works, Parent of good, 
 
 Almighty, thine this universal frame, 
 
 Thus wondrous fuir ; thyself how wondrous then ! " 
 
 And what power has any forbidden object to attract or 
 control a mind so employed? Envy, for instance, what 
 place can it have ? A good taste enjoys what is another's. 
 It cares not whose is the landscape, or the palace, or the 
 tastefully cultivated garden. It waits not to ask what 
 interest accrues to self from the fertility, the order, the 
 convenience, the harmony, or variety which it sees and 
 admires. It covets not to call the stars its own, nor the 
 brook that winds down the valley, nor the fruits and foli- 
 age that cover the hills. The stranger no less than 
 the propietor, may inhale the fragance, and hear the 
 music, and feel the harmony that breathes about him, 
 
UPON THE MORAL AFFECTIONS. 307 
 
 The man of taste realizes to some extent the rich experi- 
 ence of the child of God ; 
 
 " He looks abroad into the varied field 
 Of nature, and, though poor perhaps compared 
 With those whose mansions glitter in his sight, 
 Calls the delightful scenery all his own. 
 His are the mountains, and the valleys his, 
 And the resplendent rivers." 
 
 ****** 
 Yes, ye may fill your garners, ye that reap 
 The loaded soil, and ye may waste much good, 
 In senseless riot." 
 
 But there are men that have " a richer use of yours than 
 you." The man of cultivated taste owns all he sees. 
 The cottage on the hill, and the flocks that feed about it, 
 and the woodbine that creeps it over, and the house-birds 
 that build their nests there, are all the instruments of his 
 gratification. Nature, with all its original scenery, and 
 art with all its varied improvements, are so much the pro- 
 perty and inheritance of a good taste, that envy can hard- 
 ly find entrance. 
 
 Covetousness a kindred passion will be restrained by 
 the same means. A good taste can leave others in pos- 
 session of what is theirs, satisfied with the power of en- 
 joying what is not as well as what is its own. It is like 
 the lark, which can soar amid the heavens, and may light 
 and drink at auy brook, and gather its food on any field, 
 and cares not to call the territory its own. 
 
 I even venture to say, that the angry passions are 
 restrained by the same means. These are more likely to 
 have their abode in minds that have never travelled from 
 home, nor been expanded by cultivation ; and are produ- 
 ced by a contractedness and a jealousy as mean as mis- 
 chievous; deformities which a good taste, as well as a right 
 temper, reprobates as coarse, unsightly and repulsive. 
 
308 THE INFLUENCE OF A GOOD TASTE 
 
 The harsh language, and the coarse rebuke, and the dis- 
 torted countenance, and the whole apparatus of malevo- 
 lence are, to a good taste, grating beyond endurance. 
 
 I have not meant to say, nor have I said, that an im- 
 proved taste will wholly subdue these passions ; but that 
 it may be the ally of piety. We have always seen the 
 rougher passions, and an uncultivated taste in the same 
 household, and associated by the same fireside. Can you 
 not know something of the family by the avenue to their 
 habitation? When you see it all deformity without; un- 
 sightliness, and disproportion, and inconvenience ; can 
 you not trace, many times, a similar roughness of moral 
 aspect, in its uncultivated tenants? While the mind acts 
 upon every thing about it, there is, from every thing about 
 it, a reaction upon the mind. I know there are cases 
 when we discover what is kind in the midst of unsight- 
 liness and deformity. We have sometimes found true 
 religion where there is little else. It is not denied that 
 the grace of God may achieve, what a cultivated taste 
 could not, and still the latter may be very far from power- 
 less. Go to the tasteful but lowly dwelling, which is ap- 
 proached by a neatly adorned avenue, set with many a 
 flower, and stripped of all that is coarse and uncouth, and 
 there will be many chances that its door will be hospita- 
 bly thrown open, and the stranger welcomed, and his in- 
 quiries civilly and kindly answered. The very child that 
 meets you and welcomes you, will exhibit a mind mel- 
 lowed down by the transforming influence of the scenery 
 around him. 
 
 I know that the passions may be tame, through defi- 
 ciency of intellect, or may be on the other hand too refrac- 
 tory for a good taste to restrain ; and when the latter has 
 operated, even powerfully, it may not have produced the 
 whole effect that piety would. 
 
UPON THE MORAL AFFECTIONS. 309 
 
 " None but a power divinely strong 
 Can turn the current of the soul." 
 
 We have seen men of polished manners, and improved 
 tastes under a paroxism of passion, degraded into all that 
 is coarse and forbidding in the savage. Hence the bar- 
 barous habit of duelling, even among our most accom- 
 plished men, and hence the coarse and uncourteous style 
 with which eloquent lips, and the pen well disciplined, 
 can sometimes attack a perhaps perfectly innocent rival. 
 How ashamed have we sometimes been, to see, issuing 
 from the halls of legislation, a ribaldry that would raise 
 a blush in Newgate. These were instances when a cul- 
 tivated taste had not power enough to imprison the ma- 
 lignant passions, and showed its infinite inferiority to that 
 grace of God, which can bind the strong man, and even 
 cast out devils. So the ferocious animal that is charmed 
 by music, retains still his claws and his fangs, does but 
 temporarily forget his habits of prey, and is mild only 
 tili the harmony that held him has ceased. The power 
 which cannot convert the lion into a lamb, may lay his 
 fury ; what cannot render the vulture a dove, may turn 
 away his eye from the prey. A cultivated taste may, in 
 the hour of assault, open the mind to conviction, and lay 
 the tumult of passion, till reason and conscience can do 
 their office, and thus the man may be saved through its 
 influence from a headlong plunge into misery and ruin. 
 We ascribe to a good taste a similar influence over the 
 deformities of surfeiting, inebriation, and lust. In the 
 hall of gluttony, in the haunts of intemperance, and in 
 the dark retreats of pollution, it sees what offends it as 
 certainly as piety is offended. That the appetites should 
 govern reason is a disgusting perversion of all order and 
 decorum. That the fancy, the imagination, the memo- 
 ry, and the whole apparatus of intellect, with the organs 
 
 27 
 
310 
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF A GOOD TASTE 
 
 of sense, and the whole family of kind and useful in- 
 stincts, should be subjected to the dominion of lust, is as 
 unseemly and incongruous, as it is impious. To see the 
 angel mind suspend its nobler occupations, and descend 
 from the high elevation of reflection and reason, to be- 
 come conversant with the premises, and the conclusions, 
 and the outlandish dialect of the gaming table or the 
 vulgarities of the midnight carouse, is to an improved 
 taste pitiable, and disgusting. I would have every man 
 SiChristian, that I mightbe sure that he will not descend 
 so low, but, if this may not be, I would have him a man 
 of taste and refinement, that he may not so debase him- 
 self. When we have seen the man, who might have 
 been a philosopher, a poet, a siatesman or a philanthro- 
 pist ; who might have vied with Locke and Boyle and 
 Newton and Burke ; might have been classed with How- 
 ard and Sharp and Clarkson and Wilberforce ; might 
 have risen in holiness of design and energy of purpose, 
 to an enrolment with Brainard and Svvarts and Vander- 
 kemp and Martin and Mills ; might have made them- 
 selves greatly useful and very dear to their generations as 
 did Edwards and Dwight and Worcester and Moore ; — 
 to see one who might have thus exalted his nature, and 
 given the burliest value to his existence, reeling through 
 the streets, and pouring forth pollution from his impious 
 lips, as he returns from the rendezvous, to distract the or- 
 der, and break the peace, and extinguish the last linger- 
 ing hope of his family ; Oh! this is a sight, with which, 
 religion aside, and even humanity aside, a good taste is 
 disgusted to the last degree. 
 
 And when concupiscence, in its unhallowed vagrancy, 
 has murdered the peace of some other family, and begins 
 to react upon home, withering all the prospects that bud- 
 ded and blossomed there ; and the wife becomes ashamed 
 
UPON THE MORAL AFFECTIONS. 
 
 311 
 
 of her husband, and the children of their father, and the 
 happy circle is at length broken up, and cast out the prey 
 of a selfish and unfeeling world, then is a good taste no 
 less than piety itself outraged. As if the clown should 
 be permitted, with coarse untutored pencil, to besmear 
 and utterly ruin one of the finest paintings of Raphael, or 
 chisel into uncouthness, and distortion one of the noblest 
 statues of Angelo ; for no painting or statue, no achieve- 
 ment of art or genius, has ever more highly gratified a 
 refined taste, than the image of a harmonious family, 
 moving on in the sphere of domestic duty and enjoyment, 
 while 
 
 "Each fulfils his part, 
 
 With sympathizing heart, 
 
 In all the cares of life and love." 
 
 Let some cultivated mind compare to the life this draw- 
 ing, let some statuary lay in bold relief before the eye all 
 the smiling features of such a scene, and then let it be 
 all defaced by the debauched husband and father, and 
 tell me if a good taste would be more disgusted, should 
 a swine from the mire enter a palace, and tear and be- 
 smear and destroy every object it could reach. Thus a 
 good taste is at war with the unhallowed passions, and 
 becomes a powerful ally of virtue. 
 
 Let me say again, that a cultivated taste is the friend 
 of virtue, as it operates to remove the monuments of our 
 disgrace, and objects of our embarrassment and vexation, 
 that have marred the beauty of the exterior creation. 
 Give it the means, and it obliterates every physical dis- 
 order, and brings back the world to its primitive beauty 
 and loveliness, and causes to glow a boundless Eden in 
 the valley of death. It would terrace every hill to its 
 summit, or cast it into the deep ravine ; would wall and 
 restrain the wayward current ; would drain the morass } 
 
312 THE INFLUENCE OF A GOOD TASTE 
 
 would shape to proportion the deformities of the protrud- 
 ing rock ; would spread fertility over the heath, and paint 
 every cottage, and eradicate forever the noxious shrub and 
 plant and tree. Thus would there be destroyed the haunt 
 of the serpent, the lair of the wolf, the retreat of the rob- 
 ber, the pestiferous exhalations that generate disease and 
 death, and the world would become beautiful again as 
 when its Almighty Creator pronounced it all very good. 
 And then who can doubt but its tenants would become 
 more happy and more virtuous. Having fewer fears and 
 fewer vexations, they would indulge less frequently the 
 malignant passions. They might sit then under their 
 vine and their figtree, and there would be none to make 
 them afraid. 
 
 Let me say again, that a cultivated taste tends to bring 
 men under the influence of sacred truth, and thus holds 
 them within the reach of resistless reformation and vir- 
 tue. Reason and judgment confirm the decisions of a 
 good taste, and are employed though imperceptibly in 
 all its operations ; hence such a taste is friendly to correct 
 habits of thought ; and the man accustomed to think cor- 
 rectly on one subject, is, to say the least, the better pre- 
 pared to investigate another. Now there' is no other 
 system in which such a taste can find the harmony, and 
 the order, and the consistency, and the grandeur, which 
 prevail in the system of divine truth. There are posi- 
 tions that no genius can controvert, arguments that no 
 discernment can impeach, illustrations that strike with 
 the vividness of lightning, and conclusions that bear upon 
 an ingenuous mind with the weight of a world. Hence 
 we should decide, a priori, that a good taste could not 
 overlook the book of God. And what is there in the whole 
 apparatus of a practical religion to which such a taste 
 is not congenial. The Sabbath of the Lord, that stills 
 
UPON THE MORAL AFFECTIONS. 313 
 
 the tumult of labour, calls man from his drudgery, clothes 
 him in neatness, and wakes the peal of the church going 
 bell, and congregates the multitude, and seats them in 
 the sanctuary, and breaks down all adventitious distinc- 
 tions, and puts a thousand minds upon the track of the 
 same august truth ; and spreads a stillness and a com- 
 posure and a thoughtfulness over the whole region, how 
 beautiful ! how sublime ! If we look at fads, do they 
 not testify, that a cultivated taste sustains a close relation- 
 ship to all this ? Are the families that are represented in 
 the solemn assembly, the mean, and the uncultivated 1 
 And do we find, lounging away the hours of holy rest, 
 the neatly clad, and best improved portions of the com- 
 munity ? Or do we find this better part of society in the 
 sanctuary, joining in its prayers, and aiding in its praise, 
 and listening to the mysteries of heavenly truth, and 
 bringing to a higher elevation that taste, which aided in 
 assembling them ? Go to those districts of Christendom, 
 where no gospel is proclaimed, and no multitudes assem- 
 ble in the sanctuary, and no general survey of their harm 
 lets will remind you that it is the Lord's day ; and sure as 
 life, religion is wanting there, and about as sure is the 
 total absence of a cultivated taste. You will see patrol* 
 ing the streets, their untutored and beggarly offspring, 
 and in most of their habitations you will discover the 
 sure indication of minds as uncultivated, as their princi- 
 ples and conduct are immoral. A good taste would re- 
 move many of the obstacles to keeping a Sabbath, and 
 building a sanctuary, and supporting a ministry, and 
 sustaining a Sabbath school, and erecting a library fojr 
 the improvement of the public mind. 
 
 Do any ^k, How is all this consistent with thai 
 declaration, that, " Not many wise men after the flesh, 
 Bot many mighty, not many noble are called : but Go$ 
 
 ,27* 
 
314 THE INFLUENCE OF A GOOD TASTE 
 
 hath chosen the foolish things of this world to confound 
 the wise ; and God hath chosen the weak things of this 
 world to confound the things which are mighty ; and 
 base things of the world, and things which are despised, 
 hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring 
 to nought things that are : that no flesh should glory in 
 his presence ? " Now let me say, that men may be wise, 
 and mighty, and noble, in the sense of this passage, and 
 still be as destitute of a good taste as their postillion or 
 their footman. Mere wealth may procure the wisdom 
 and the nobility and the might here spoken of, but it 
 does not follow that there will be the delicate imagination, 
 and the keen sensibility, and the soundness of judgment, 
 and the wise course of reading and of thinking, which 
 indicate a cultivated taste. We have seen a profusion 
 of splendour and of equipage, and a disgusting routine 
 of ceremony, where there was the total absence of the 
 lovely attribute we eulogize. One is virtue's foe, the 
 other its ally. The whole of that display which wealth 
 can purchase and in which pride and vanity and lust 
 vegetate, is the opposite of virtue ; but not so that sense 
 of the mind which gives us an eye to see and a power to 
 enjoy the ten thousand beauties that God has spread over 
 the works of his hands. It is not that we can see love- 
 liness in the sceneries of nature or the productions of 
 art, that can offend the Lord, but that we can see it in 
 vice. It is not that we have the wisdom that waked 
 in Eden, that God will disapprove ; but that we are wise 
 in our own conceits, wise to do evil. It is not the nobili- 
 ty that is generated by thought and reflection and reason- 
 ing, and which is found in angels, that operates to shut 
 heaven's door against us ; but the nobility which origin- 
 ates in misapplied wealth and flattery and pride. 
 
 But it is asked whether a cultivated taste has not some- 
 
tTPON THE MORAL AFFECTIONS. 315 
 
 times rendered persons unlr ppy, as they must often be 
 constrained, in a world like this, to be conversant with 
 what is coarse and disgusting ? I will not deny that 
 there is some truth in this. We have seen a delicate 
 woman bred to the most refined enjoyments, and im- 
 proved in her taste till she deserved all that the world 
 could have done to make her happy, yoked unequally 
 to a savage ; in which case, 
 
 " Native rage and native fear rose and fotbid delight," 
 
 and we were ready to wish that, to make her condition 
 less unpleasant her mind had remained rude. And we 
 have seen another picture, a false taste connected with 
 no native endowments, or solid improvements of intellect ; 
 and it resulted, as we should expect, in pride and passion, 
 and fed its fantasy on ideal beauties, not seen in nature 
 nor known in art ; read of perhaps in the pages of a 
 novel, or seen in the reveries of an hysteric imagination ; 
 and the result was misery as it should be. It was a 
 sickly feverish taste, adapted only to an ideal world, and 
 not qualified to be conversant with sober realities. But 
 it was a vexation that such lunacy should be called taste. 
 
 A good taste must be connected with intellect and 
 must grow with the growth of mind. It is then sane 
 and sensible. If we do fear that in some few instances 
 a cultivated taste has diminished happiness, in most 
 cases where this has seemed the fact there was the total 
 absence of all that deserved the name. 
 
 It is said that taste is a costly attribute, and produces 
 poverty, and thus immorality and misery ? I promptly 
 assert that it costs far less than the appetites it restrains. 
 Would the sot and the epicure expend in the cultivation 
 of a good taste the fortunes lavished upon their appetites, 
 the latter expense would be saved and the amount would 
 
310 THE INFLUENCE OF A GOOD TASTE 
 
 surn und them with ten thousand beauties, convenien- 
 ces, and comforts. It will generally happen, in this 
 country at least, that if men will forego the pampering 
 of their lusts they will not lack the means of gratifying a 
 good taste, li makes not large demands where there 
 are small resources. The lowly cottage with its little 
 patch of shrubbery, fruits, and flowers, may be quite as 
 tasteful as the palace with its proud and' lofty architec- 
 ture. 
 
 If it be thought that taste consumes time, it may be 
 answered that it saves more than it consumes. It makes 
 all its drafts upon idleness and vice. Its bed of flowers it 
 cultivates, and has time left, while sloth claims another 
 nap, and wh i envy slanders a neighbour, and while ap- 
 petite is gorging its pernicious viands an fatal draughts, 
 and while covetousness is counting up its gains, and 
 while anger is rankling and wrath is burning and re- 
 venge is plotting in the bosom of fools. I even assert that 
 its tendency is to enrich. A good taste will seek the 
 means of its own gratification. It will aim first to ac- 
 quire the necessaries and conveniences of life, and this 
 will lead to enterprise that will nerve the man for duty. 
 Besides the exertions made for these purposes, he will 
 put forth another effort that he may gratify his taste, 
 and, other things equal ; will be the more industrious 
 and thriving man. He holds to the men about him 
 the high station of a benefactor, and would make any 
 effort within his power and endure any privation rather 
 than lean for subsistence upon their charity. Could 
 you by some magical process infuse a good taste in- 
 to that multitude of paupers which brood like the incu- 
 bus upon the bosom of community, you would extermin 
 ate pauperism. When did you ever know a man of 
 taste to become a pauper ? At least when, except in 
 
UPON THE MORAL AFFECTIONS. 
 
 317 
 
 some rare instances of prolonged disease, saw you a pau- 
 per who was not wholly wanting in this inestimable en- 
 dowment ? When I see the new married pair with no 
 object about them tasteful, by a kind of instinct I mark 
 them out for ultimate poverty. 
 
 Let it not be thought that a good taste tends to form 
 a fictitious and deceitful character. It is confessed that 
 rustic coarseness, associated with honesty, is preferable 
 to a Chesterfieldian system, founded less on the princi- 
 ples of a good taste than in falsehood and infidelity. A 
 good taste scorns the fellowship of principles so selfish 
 and contracted and cowardly. While it favours a polish 
 as fair and rich as Chesterfield's, it associates with it 
 the integrity of a Hale, the philanthropy of a Howard, 
 and the Christian patriotism of a Wilberlorce. 
 
 We have known the error to creep into colleges, that 
 taste and genius are not likely to be united ; and under 
 this impression many silly youths have feigned a careless- 
 ness in their personal appearance, and have accustomed 
 themselves to keep their study and their dormitory in a 
 state of disorder and filth, as the best evidence they could 
 give of mental vigour. And not unfrequently has this 
 error cast reproach upon our seats of science, while 
 parents have been grieved to see their sons return from 
 the seminary, having unlearned many a lesson of decen- 
 cy that had been for } T ears very industriously taught 
 them. The age had produced somewhere an eccentric 
 genius who was totally deficient in common sense and 
 common decency, and the opinion prevailed, that to 
 have his powers one must copy his insufferable negli- 
 gence. But show me the youth who has finished his edu- 
 cation a very clown, and I say possibly he may be a 
 genius, and yet a beggar and a bear too ; but rest assured 
 his clownishness is a prognostic only for the bear and 
 
318 THE INFLUENCE OF A GOOD TASTE 
 
 the beggar, not of the accomplished and successful scho- 
 lar ; and we always fear there will not be enough of the 
 better part to cover the worse. I know we sometimes 
 see the disgusting contrast of all this, the spruce and 
 booted and fantastical coxcomb ; lavishing, conscience 
 and economy not consulted, the earnings of another upon 
 his vanity ; the gallant, when he should be the student, 
 the curse of colleges, the stigma of his father's house, 
 and ultimately the scorn alike of both sexes ; — but I 
 turn from this disgusting image. 
 
 As early as possible then I would have the tas'.e im- 
 proved, and would urge its cultivation among the duties 
 of piety. I would have every man lay the world under 
 obligation to him, because he makes the little world about 
 him more fertile and more beautiful. I would have every 
 young man go away from the seat of science feeling 
 strongly, that every deformity of the natural world and 
 the moral, is to be cured as far as possible by his influ- 
 ence ; that he is to touch nothing, mind or matter, but it 
 must come out of his hands more lovely in the sight of 
 God or man. He must contribute to make the desert 
 bloom around him and the wilderness to become an Eden. 
 Let him feel that as wide as the ruins of the apostacy is 
 the field of his labour, the curse that fell on man, and 
 the mischief that through him fell on the territory that 
 lie occupies. 
 
 In every department of life a good taste gives high 
 promise of influence and usefulness. Does the youth 
 intend to excel as a classical writer ? a good taste will 
 furnish him with language more copious, and figures 
 more striking and appropriate, and a field of illustration 
 more wide and diversified. It will give him a power to 
 persuade and control that he would not have otherwise 
 attained. In Addison, what a powerful instrument of 
 
UPON THE MORAL AFFECTIONS. 319 
 
 good was his taste. It chastened his wit and enabled 
 him to shame into disuse many a mistaken maxim of his 
 times, and rendered him the scourge and the dread of 
 proud and polished profligacy. His finished style was 
 the grand means of carrying his strictures upon manners 
 and morals into the parlour and the palace, where they 
 operated in purifying the character of the nation and the 
 world. Not that a good taste should convert every writer 
 into an Addison : this would be neither possible nor de- 
 sirable. While his writings may be read with profit by 
 every man, they may not be safely imitated by any. 
 Let every man's style be his own. Let him go forth in 
 his own livery, and use his own weapons in whatever 
 cause he would sustain. Be the bent of his genius what 
 it may, a good taste will be one of its most powerful aids. 
 Every excrescence of his genius it will lop off. His wit 
 it will chasten, his rashness it will restrain, his boldness 
 and originality it will regulate, his patriotism it will pu- 
 rify. It will adapt his genius to more nations and ages 
 than one. Hence it is that works of genuine taste never 
 become obsolete. Homer and Virgil and Milton and 
 Cowper will continue to be read through all generations. 
 Does the youth aspire to emineut usefulness as a 
 preacher of righteousness ? he will need the guidance of 
 a good taste ; as there are polished sinners that must be 
 won and accomplished believers that must be guided 
 home to heaven. In each part of his work he will have 
 need of language soft and chaste as angels use. A 
 good taste need not enervate or secularize his style, but 
 will, if there be genius, invigorate it. It will qualify 
 him to handle profitably those subjects which are in 
 themselves disgusting, and from which delicacy might 
 otherwise shrink. He may descend, accompanied by a 
 good taste as his guardian angel, into the lowest cells of 
 
320 THE INFLUENCE OF A GOOD TASTE 
 
 iniquity, and make war with it in all its haunts of filth- 
 iness, without offending delicacy. It will give him that 
 address which will bring him into successful conflict with 
 a whole family of vices, that would otherwise lie without 
 his reach, operate beyond his control, and parry every 
 thrust he made. It will teach him how to characterize 
 foul iniquity, and to stamp its shame by an indignation 
 so full of soul, and by illustrations so elevated, as to hold 
 himself a whole atmosphere above the meanness and 
 the turpitude he depicts. Seated on a cloud, he may, 
 unharmed, dart his lightnings down into the dreariest 
 and filthiest abodes of moral putrifaction. As if an an- 
 gel, with sword pointed and burnished in heaven, and 
 himself shrouded in celestical glory, should be sent to 
 still the tumults and lay the blasphemies of the infernal 
 prison. The better the taste employed, and the more 
 elevated the language in which admonition and rebuke 
 is administered, the deeper may he descend till he has 
 seized iniquity in its profoundest caverns, and laid it 
 naked, and lashed it into agony and into shame. 
 
 Would the youth qualify himself to be a teacher 7 he 
 will have great need of a cultivated taste, and that what- 
 ever may be the age at which he is to take the rising 
 generation under his instruction. It is a grief and a 
 loss too when our common schools are committed to the 
 care of men void of taste ; for the hackneyed proverb is 
 still most true, 
 
 " Just as the twig is bent the tree's inclined." 
 
 The child of five years old may, through this deficiency 
 of his teacher, receive a bad impression of character that 
 will last till he dies. It is yet more lamentable when the 
 teacher of our youth is destitute of this endowment, and 
 cannot point out to his pupils the beauties that lie along 
 
UPON THE MORAL AFFECTIONS. 321 
 
 the track of improvement. This very failure in the 
 teacher has probably damped the ardour of many a 
 young man, and turned back to manual labour one who 
 might have reached eminence in literature. It is a loss 
 not easily estimated when the preceptors in our academies 
 and tutors in our colleges cannot point out to their class- 
 es the flowers that bloom and the sublimities that open 
 to view as they climb the hill of science. And through 
 all the ascending grades of literary instruction, a good 
 taste becomes increasingly important. There may be 
 much in the character of our public teachers to admire ; 
 there may be those talents and that good sense that are 
 indispensable, and that amiableness of temper which in 
 their station is above all price, and that piety which we 
 most of all revere, and still if a good taste be wanting the 
 evil will be long and distinctly seen in the deportment of 
 educated men, and be from them spread out and handed 
 down till it affect most unhappily the character of our 
 whole republic through many generations. On them too 
 it must depend to give American genius its polish and 
 elevation and influence in the literary world, and to de- 
 cide whether in letters, as in correct views of true liberty 
 and enlightened civil government, we are to stand ad- 
 mired and honoured as the first nation on the face of the 
 earth . 
 
 Would the youth gain distinguished eminence at the 
 bar ? his good taste must enable him to chastise fraud 
 and mischief without vulgarity. The ribaldry that has 
 sometimes disgraced the legal profession, must, as fociely 
 becomes more enlightened, fall into the contempt it merits, 
 and its place be filled with solid and dignified argument 
 and eloquence. The advocate should make himself rer 
 spected by the judge and the jury, on whose enlightened 
 decision rests the issue of his cause. And he will so often. 
 
322 THE INFLUENCE OF A GOOD TASTE 
 
 see fraud and crime in a smooth and varnished aspect, 
 concealed behind all that art can do to polish and baptise 
 it into honesty, and all that wealth and influence can do 
 to cover its deformities, and all that pride and impudence 
 can do to confound its opposer, that an improved taste 
 will be requisite to follow it into the parlour and the the- 
 atre and the billiard room, and hunt it down, and strip 
 it, and mark it, that no drapery may longer conceal its 
 hideous and accursed form. If his weapons be coarse 
 and blunt, he will give polished vice the vantage ground, 
 and furnish it an unanswerable argument why it should 
 not be willing to perish by his sword. In the hall of 
 legislation too, and on the bench, and through all the as- 
 cending grades of political elevation, a good taste is in- 
 creasingly necessary. 
 
 The physician too, to be respected and useful, must be 
 a man of taste. He is necessarily conversant with the 
 best families and the most delicate diseases, and cannot 
 be coarse without offence. One would not choose to in- 
 vite the rustic into his sick chamber or submit himself to 
 his surgical operations. Society is abused, ( and the 
 abuse should have been long since corrected,) when the 
 clown is pronounced capable of practising the healing art 
 and is sent out to learn his first lessons of decency from 
 the gentle manners, the subdued accents, and restrained 
 habits of the sick and dying bed. Chain him to the 
 plough ; put a spade into his hand, and not a lancet ; 
 keep him from touching the sacred casket of the materia 
 rnedica. 
 
 No matter into what department of life and action the 
 youth is entering from the walls of the seminary, he 
 must every where have a good taste or he will bring 
 literature into disrepute. 
 
 My motive then, young gentlemen, in addressing you 
 
UPON THE MORAL AFFECTIONS. 323 
 
 on this subject, is distinctly seen. God has given us a 
 world in which there are many beauties, but through the 
 apostacy many deformities. These beauties I would 
 have you qualified to see and relish, and these deformities 
 to obliterate. I would have you employ all your genius 
 to create other beauties, till every spot about you shall 
 smile, every eminence be comely, and every valley ver- 
 dant. I would there should be in your views an enlight- 
 ened graciousness, which, if not religion, is its handmaid ; 
 if not born in heaven, was early in Eden ; if hot posses- 
 sed of power to subdue the heart, may mould some of its 
 rougher affections into milder forms ; and though not a 
 radical cure for the calamities of life, has abundant power 
 to soothe. You would then be more useful and happy 
 while you live, and we should have higher hopes of 
 meeting you in heaven, and joining you in exploring the 
 wonders of that pure and tasteful city, whose walls are 
 jasper, whose gates are of pearl, and whose streets are 
 paved with gold. 
 
 Before I conclude I must be permitted to devote a few 
 words to friendship. I see many faces here that have 
 often lighted up my own with a smile. It is affecting to 
 meet you again in this world of change. It is probably 
 the last time I shall ever see you all until we meet in 
 that country " from whose bourn no traveller returns/' 
 I learn that death has made inroads among you. It is 
 a note of admonition to us all to be prepared to die. 
 The past year has been to us one of peculiar interest. 
 God has deigned to display the power of his grace under 
 my poor ministrations, and has given me often the pleas- 
 ure of sitting down by the conscience and the heart that 
 his truth and his Spirit had impressed. And I have re- 
 joiced to hear that he has been in very deed with you, 
 begetting everlasting consolation and good hope in many 
 
324 THE INFLUENCE OF A GOOD TASTE, 
 
 of your hearts. Thus it appears that he who is rich in 
 mercy was with me in the way that I went, and remain- 
 ed with you. May he still be with us and keep us by 
 his power and guide our wayward feet to his heavenly 
 rest. There may we another day meet, and with burst- 
 ing- hearts rehearse the mercies that bore with us and 
 brought us safely through, and sustained us in our trials, 
 and managed our spiritual enemies, and covered our heads 
 in the day of battle, and subdued our lusts, and planted 
 our feet at last on the hills of promise. You will let me 
 and my dear people have an interest in your prayers. 
 And may the Lord bless this people and its ministry, 
 and bless these rising schools of science, and all their 
 guardians and teachers, and all who come to seek wis- 
 dom at these gates. From age to age let heaven' s 
 richest influence come down on these hills, and flow out 
 in streams of salvation through the world, and down 
 through all generations, till all the curse shall be repealed, 
 and God be once more pleased with the world he made. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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 and others. 37^ cents. 
 
 From the Literary and Tiieological Review. 
 
 This neat little volume comprises the inaugural charge 
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 the Professor of Sacred Rhetoric and Pastoral 
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 friends of Dr. Cox will not be disappointed in his inaugu- 
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 would convey no adequate idea of its merits. His theme 
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 " Error scenting notoriety" may not altogether like the 
 
odor of this little book; and the "lynx-eyed defeciers of 
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 The Christian's Pocket Companion. — 
 
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 Bridgeport, Conn. 25 cents. 
 
 The following is from Mr. Blatchford's Letter to the Publisher; 
 
 I am happy to learn, through your letter of last evening, 
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 That little volume (which is the cnly copy that I have 
 ever met with) was, for many of the last years of his life, 
 the pocket-companion of my honored father, the late Sa- 
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 But in addition to this, who is there that loves the cause 
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 Lord Jesus in pur day, that has not often, amid the toils 
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tnnes of Christ their Savior " themselves, and in preach- 
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 Wishing you all success in your undertaking, I would 
 most fervently commend it to the blessing of God, believing 
 that in giving it to the public, you will greatly subserve the 
 best of causes, and in a very acceptable manner. 
 
 JOHN BLATCHFORD. 
 
 From the New-York Observer. 
 
 Christian's Pocket- Companion. — This very small but 
 neat manual, just published, is a compilation of some of 
 the purest sentiments and holiest aspirations of such men 
 as Owen, Rogers, Brainerd, and President Edwards. We 
 venture to say that no Christian can make it the familiar 
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 Practical Thoughts. By the late Dr. Nevins, 
 of Baltimore. SO cents. 
 
 Thoughts on Popery. By Dr. Nevins. 50 cts. 
 
 From the New-York Observer of April 9tb, 1836. 
 
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 the monthly concert, the conversion of the world, viola- 
 tions of the Sabbath, liberality, man's inconsistency, the 
 pity of the Lord, Christian duty, death, &e. ; the last of 
 which are " Heaven's Attractions " and " The Heavenly 
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 celestial confines — perhaps within heaven's limits." * * * 
 
 There the sainted author laid down his pen, leaving the 
 article unfinished, and went, none can doubt, to enjoy the 
 blessed reality of the scenes he had been so vividly de- 
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 These articles combine great simplicity, attractiveness, 
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 they reproved the inconsistent Christian, roused the slum- 
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